Sewing Lesson

Courtney asked if I would help her make a little bag. I found this one online that was fairly simple and really cute.

We took a trip to the fabric store and she decided on an animal print theme. The fabrics look really cute together. She saw some cute little embelishments she wanted to add to the outside.


It only took us 2 work sessions to finish it and she did all the work herself. The only thing I did was sew the stars on the side. I was very impressed with how well she did on her sewing. She picked it up very quickly. It was a great project to work on together.



The directions said to use one fabric for the outside and a second fabric for the inside. Of course Courtney likes doing things her own way. She wanted each side of the bag to be different, and the inside to have the same fabrics, only opposite. I warned her that it meant an extra step of sewing, but she was determined. It ended up even cuter.

Easter Morning

Okay, I'll actually start with the night before, when we dyed our Easter eggs. Kim had the genius idea to use wire whisks for the younger kids. You put the egg inside the whisk, then they can dunk and check to their hearts content without breaking the egg or spilling dye. The kids always love dying their eggs, and I love that it is over in about 10 minutes and I can clean up the mess.





We woke up to a beautiful warm sunny day, perfect for a backyard Easter egg hunt, (after checking out what the Easter bunny left and gorging on candy.)







We spent the rest of the day watching the LDS General Conference and eating a yummy ham dinner. It was a perfect weekend with our family.

Sarah P. Duke Gardens

Easter weekend, while my sister Kim's family was visiting, we drove up to Durham to visit the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. It's a 55-acre piece of land next to the college filled with gardens, ponds, walking paths, bridges, and wildlife. It was beautiful with all the spring flowers and it smelled heavenly!! I want to go back because we didn't even see half.

The kids beat us to these little wishing pools with the cute naked cherubs. When the adults came up, there were the kids, staring and giggling and whispering to each other. It was hilarious.

Dylan and Caleb, always best buds.



Courtney was my model today.



I love you Dylan!

Really, we have too much fun together.

This cutie is why I didn't get any pictures of Travis. Joshua will not let you take his picture. So I kept trying to surprise him. I have a million of them, mostly with him already turning away. As I was going through my pictures later, I realized I completely neglected my Travis. Good auntie day, bad mommy day.

1st Beach Trips

We were able to take our first 2 beach trips of the year this last week. We went twice and it was GREAT!!

The first day was with some friends who were on Spring Break. We are actually tracked out for 4 weeks right now. It was a gorgeous day, just hot enough to lay on the beach. The water was freezing, but that didn't stop the kids from playing in it. It did stop Mom though, so they couldn't venture out too far.











The next time was with Kim's family, who came for Easter weekend. Again the sun was shining, but it was also windy this day. So we were a little cold when trying to get our toes wet. But we still had fun and enjoyed the lazy day in the sand. We got to see 2 dolphins swim by very close to shore. That was exciting.