Red Head Envy

Ever since I was a young child I have wished I had red hair. Recently I put this as the background on my laptop and every time I see it, I think how beautiful Ariana is with that red hair. Lucky girl!!!

Utah, Quilts, Kids and Cousins

Brielle has learned to text. She started texting me and asking me to come visit her. This picture text was an enticement to get me to come visit. She wanted me to see how much fun she and her friends were having so I would come join them. After a couple weeks of texting and phone calls, she called me and said, "I talked to my mom and she said that next weekend is a good time for you to come and visit." Well of course who can turn down and invitation like that. Brielle makes me feel so loved and needed. I  love it that she calls and texts me and is always excited to see me. My heart is just so overwhelmed with love for her. Dad and I headed to Salt Lake on Saturday and came back on Tuesday.

Brookie's birthday happened to be the Thursday after we left and so of course I had to get her a birthday present. Denisse said that Brooke doesn't like TV very much except for Elmo. She LOVES Elmo. Since she doesn't have any Elmo toys I decided an Elmo Doll is the perfect gift.

I also gave her an Elmo quilt and I embroidered a B on it for Brooke.

She thanked me many times for the next couple days for Elmo. I am just so thrilled she loved it. The Sunday after her Birthday one of Denisse's friends asked Brooke what the highlight of her birthday was and she said, "Lanie gave Elmo". So precious. 

Braden liked the Elmo as well and at one point asked her if he could have it and she said, "No! Mine!" and grabbed it out of his hands. It was funny.

While I was there I noticed a very cool painting on their wall, done by Brielle. That girl has some major artistic talent. Every now and then she does something special and impressive. She said I could have it next time I come visit. I think she just wants me to come visit again soon, haha. Smart girl, tempt me with art.

We all went to Temple Square. I spent a very long time looking at the hall of art in the north visitor center. Giant paintings depicting Christ's life starting at his birth and going through the resurrection. They were amazing. After I was done my family was ready to go but I still hadn't seen the large statue of Christ. Brielle and Braden came with me to see it while our family waited patiently for us.

 Here are the kids trying to pose for a picture. It was rather funny to see them squished together like that.

I made a quilt for my newest niece Ame. 

Tragically it didn't turn out as I expected. This was my first time working with micro fleece. Just a tip, don't stretch it at all! Once it was all done I noticed the micro fleece side bounced back and made bubbles on the flannel side... opps. 

It doesn't look horrible but it isn't perfect. At least she will have the coolest snuggly ever to make up for the quilts imperfections. I decided I don't like micro fleece. Its to bad I already bought more to use for two other quilts. I hope the next two turn out better. If not I am going back to Tricot and Flannel quilts. 

Ryan and Kara are going to have a new baby boy. Here is a picture of his snuggly. I think it is so super cute. Kara said Ryan LOVES it so I am happy about that.

Now to make the baby quilt for my new nephew's up coming arrival. The new baby's colors are going to be Orange and Dark Blue. I think the above fabric is perfect. I will pair it with either cream tricot or maybe... maybe yellow or brown bubble micro fleece, maybe. We will see how daring I feel.

I am going to be going to visit Ryan and Kara and the kids this winter. I am excited to see them. Aren't they just precious! Such cute little characters. How did I get so lucky to have such awesome nieces and nephews? Not a bad one in the bunch.

I also got lucky in the cousin department. My cousin Stefan cracks me up. He sends me snap chats, which are picture texts that only show up for a few seconds and then are gone forever. Well one day he sent me a text of a freshly covered grave. As you may know he is a funeral director. Well since I work in a cubicle I sent him a picture of where I work. See the below picture. 

I sure love him; he makes me laugh with all his funny texts. I am glad we are cousins. 

Welcome to the Family Ame.

I have a new niece Ameila born July 23rd. Isn't she pretty! I get to go meet her in person at the end of the month. I can't wait to hold her and give her the quilt and snuggly toy that I made her. I love her already.

Projects, Dates, Book, Boos & My Future

I have taken up a couple new hobbies,

Sewing and Quilting.

This is my first sewing project. A car seat cover for my friend Sarah. For my birthday she made me a hotpad/kitchen towel combo. That was her first sewing project. I was so touched that it inspired me to make her something in return.

It took a whole lot of time but I finished it just in time. She said she gets tons of compliments on it. I am so glad my hard work paid off.

For my Infant & Toddler class I had to make a toy. As many of you know my trademark baby gift is a snuggly. I decided to make one for the toy assignment.  

Soon I will have a new niece named Amelia, Ame for short. I decided to make this snuggly for her. As you can see I learned to embroider so that I could personalize her snuggly with her name. 

This was quite the frustrating and difficult project. Since I had no pattern or instructions, I had to make this from looking at a store bought snuggly. That made this all the more difficult. I had to redo it four times. It is a good thing I purchased a lot of extra material. The end result was well worth the effort I put in. It is such a higher quality snuggly then the store bought ones. I don't know if I will ever make another one though, haha.

I started making baby quilts. I haven't made any quilts since 1997, but I remembered the special stitch that I learned from a lady in my ward. I don't have a picture of the first baby quilt I made but it was a strawberry shortcake quilt and I gave it to my friend Kaitlynd.

This is the summer baby quilt I made for my friend Sarah. I used flannel and tricot.

This is the winter baby quilt that I made for baby Camri, Sarah and Jared's new baby girl.

  

Sarah loves cats and receive many cat baby items at the shower. I think Hello Kitty is appropriate, haha.

Scott's family came to visit at the end of June and beginning of July. I decided to take Braden and Brielle each on a date, doing activities they picked. 

 Brielle originally chose to go to McDonalds because she wanted the toy from the happy meal. I didn't think that was a good reason to go there, so I had her pick another place. She chose Olive Garden.

Brielle didn't want to order off the kids menu. Of course since she was with me I let her have whatever she wanted. What are aunts for if not to indulge their nieces and nephews. She chose one of my favorite dishes, Steak Gorgonzola Alfredo. However, after the Breadsticks, Soup and Salad, she was pretty full and only got a few bites down. She felt a little bad about it, but I told her it was ok and we would take it home for later. Which worked out good for me since I got to eat it, haha.

After a little rest she decide she had room for dessert. A dolcini with chocolate and caramel. 

Brielle also tried Squid. Of course I didn't tell her what it was until after she decided she didn't like it, haha. 

Brielle chose to go see Epic. It was a super cute movie and I highly recommend it.

Since I have started making quilts I decided it would be cool to make quilts for my nieces and nephews. Of course to make it special they need to pick the material. Originally Brielle picked a horrid black, white and orange leopard print. I was thrilled when she found the Rapunzel material and decided on it. 

For my date with Braden. We went to see The Croods. It was a cute movie. I really like Belt. I wouldn't mind having Belt for a pet. Braden was so cute, he sat there happily sucking down the tigers blood slushy I got him. I was glad to see him enjoying himself so much.

After the movie we went to Coldstone. Of course he could have whatever he wanted because he was with me, Lanie the ever indulging aunt. He got Oreo icecream with oreos, reeses peanut butter cup, white chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, rainbow sprinkles, gummy bears, coconut and hot fudge in a waffle bowl. It seemed like quite the disgusting combination, to me but he liked it. He brought his leftover icecream home and Denisse ate it. She said it was pretty good.

Braden loves blue. He chose blue for both sides of his quilt. The shades don't match and I urged him to get white on the Micro fleece side so it would match better, but he wanted the blue, so blue he got. I am going to sew the edges so that the sides meet exactly at the edge. This will make it so neither side can be seen from the other side. That way it won't matter that the blues don't match. It will be interesting since I haven't bound the edges like that before.

Brooke is still a little to young to go on a date without her mommy. So I bought her a cute new outfit, Pink Minnie Mouse shirt with a skirt/pants combo. It is so cute. As soon as she saw it she went over and grabbed it. I am so glad she liked it.

While they were here I helped get the kids to bed. A few times I gave Brooke a bath. Of course you can't have a bath without bubbles and toys. I put a lot of bubble bath in so the whole top of the tub was covered in bubbles. I got her a big cup to pour water, a rubber ducking to squirt water and a bunch of miniature my little ponies. I sat at the edge handed her toys and let her put bubbles on my arm. The morning they left the first thing she said when she woke up was "Lanie Bubble Bath, Lanie Bubble Bath." When I came out of my room she came over and grabbed my finger and led me to the bathroom. It was so dang cute!!! I love that little girl. I am glad she likes me so much. Maybe next time they come to visit she will be old enough to take on a little date. 

I treated all the kids to iJump. This is an awesome place with wall to wall trampolines. They also have foam pits to jump into. 

This is going to be a place we will have to go to every time they come to visit. 

While we were there I saw a little girl around 4 years old do a complete 360 jumping into the foam pit. I thought it was so cool that I told Braden and Brielle that if they could do a complete turn when they jumped into the foam pit that I would give them a prize. They spent the rest of the time trying to do a 360 turn. The below video was their last attempt. Brielle got so close. Maybe next trip she will be able to do it.

For my Infant and Toddler class I was assigned to make a book with everything we had done and with all the handouts we were given. Each section had to have a decorated divider. I used pictures to decorate my dividers. For the medical section I wanted a picture of kids with bandaids on them. So I asked Kara to help me out. I was thrilled to see the kids have large cute kids bandaids, each in a different spot. The kids even played it up with sad faces. This picture couldn't have been anymore perfect if I had taken it myself. I just love their little faces. They crack me up.

I have a new collection. I have Seventy Beanie Boos. These are the ones with the giant eyes. Aren't they cute!

My favorite one is Sherbet. He came all the way from England just to join my collection.

I have also decided not to be a teacher. There are so many of them out of work. It just isn't a stable profession. I have also decide I can't live in poverty. Since I am not going to get married in this life and have to be able to support myself in the lifestyle I am accustom being a teacher just isn't going to work. 

 I am still going to complete my degree in Early Childhood Special Education at BYUI, but after I graduate I will be getting my masters at Idaho State University.

I have decided to become a Speech Language Pathologist. This is a much better fit for me since I really prefer working one on one with children. Plus I can help children without living in poverty. My dream come true!