why can't jen think of anything new and fun and exciting to say?

seriously, i feel like i am totally "here" with you guys in cyber-blog-space and then i realize it's been a while since i posted and then i think...shoot, well what do i say? and then i think...i don't really have anything new to say so i'll say nothing right now, then time gets away from me and then...here we are. not that it's been a huge long time since i posted but...anyway, i am rambling. i had almost no projects in the last couple of weeks and now i have 2 birthday presents for little nieces, two nursing covers, two car seat canopies, and one photography prop "experiment to see what i can come up with" project, all of which i am STOKED about but....i am wicked tired with this baby and need my afternoon rest time which i would normally use to sew in, so that leaves nights after kiddos go to sleep so i am...procrastinating but i am so happy to have these projects that waiting to do them seems silly...anyway, yeah, so that's what i'm doing. pictures of finished WIPs (Work In Progress) to come!!!!

birthday thoughts...

it is 10:45 on the night of my birthday as i write this. i am 27 today. have been all day since i woke up, because, as my mom tells me, i was born in the wee hours of the a.m. each time i have a birthday i think back on ones past and am so grateful for all the fun i've had and all the birthdays i have had. this is my third birthday being pregnant. kendall has been a part of 12 of my birthdays now. he made me some amazing waffles with strawberries and whip this morning along with yummy eggs. such a great guy. and mostly, even though she'll probably not ever read this (because she doesn't do the whole "blog" thing) i am so grateful to my mom, who did all she could 27 years ago to get me here. i was born at 30 weeks weighing 3 lbs and something and then lost down to 2lbs and 10oz. i didn't go home from the hospital for months and she came every day to see me. she was in the hospital on bed rest for a couple of months at least before i was born and she had 3 other children. my siblings were troopers and my sister erin likes to tell me that she remembers when they "paid me off" and went out to dinner:) the hospital bills must have been something to behold (jacks i am sure you can relate to that one). anyway, i am just really, every day but especially on my birthday, so filled with gratitude that i am here and am able to have children of my own and don't suffer many, if any, lasting repercussions from such an early birth, underdeveloped lungs, a bleed on my brain etc. (no funny jokes there please :)) we went out to dinner tonight, sans children (thank you kyle, kara and katie) and then went to see wolverine. liked it a lot. and a fun time was had by all:) thanks for letting me remember and be grateful.

give away day...

hey y'all...sew mama sew is hosting another giveaway day like we did in December and my other blog, All Sewn Up is going to be participating! yay! so check it out, also, i have been updating pictures of new fabrics and generally sprucing up on that blog.....it looks super nice now, i think:)

i have decided what will be given away but i won't say just yet...you'll just have to check and see on May 27th, which happens to be my birthday as well, so there is going to be a birthday present to anyone who orders anything that day and a few days after that and there will be multiple winners for the giveaway, wahoo!!!! lots of fun....

also coming soon to this blog... pictures from graduation i couldn't upload before and houseboat recap, it was a very fun trip:)

crazy busy...

last week my parents came to town for KENDALL'S GRADUATION FROM LAW SCHOOL! yes, it has finally happened, he has graduated! yahoo! it was such a flurry of activity, not least of which was cleaning getting ready for my parents to come. man, if my house was always that clean! and then i had to do the recovery cleaning and laundry today, after our days of fun...whew...i digress....
(this is us after our nasty hot walk in over 100 degrees...this is the week my stomach started to show itself, i think)

we went to the large university convocation on wed. where President Obama spoke. my goodness, it was quite a production!!! we parked at the park and ride in tempe, rode the train to campus and expected that there would be a shuttle there to take us to the stadium...but it was running late...40 minutes late and kendall needed to be there before that so we walked, and it was over 100 degrees and that was at about 3 pm. it didn't start until 7 but they had to get people there in shifts and kendall was supposed to check in between 3:30 and 4 and we got to go with him through a special "staff" entrance because he was being given an award, so we hoofed it to the stadium, my mom (who abhores heat) holding up better than i did...being pregnant and having to GO TO THE BATHROOM so bad! in an effort to keep myself hydrated i had just finished my second water bottle in one hour...it made for an uncomfortable walk to say the least...anyway, we got there, got in and waited a few more hours for things to start. bless my brother in law and sister in law for taking care of the kids, i think we all would have been in tears or running in the streets had they not volunteered to watch the small ones.

it was very cool to be there, and see all the festivities. the actual speech making-graduate recognizing hooplah lasted about 3 hours (complete with fireworks at the end) and then we had to connect with kendall again and by then we were all starving...so back to the light rail stop and through a little juggling of stops, back to the park and ride and then on to IHOP (it was about 11:30pm i think, by the time we got there) and eating at midnight and back home to sleep! whew!

(our view from our seats...waaaaaay up high!) (mr. president)

here is kendall being recognized for his good smartness:)

thursday we had a family party.

on friday we had the law school graduation, which i didn't get very good pictures of at all. we'll have to take a post-actual-commencement picture of kendall in his finery. here's one of him and the kids....

and now we are readying ourselves to go to lake powell on a houseboat for three days. we leave on wed. to drive up there and get the boat on thurs. there will be 8 adults and our two kids...should be a blast! i am really excited!


the kids LOVED having my parents here and it was a lot of fun for me too, seeing them interact together, since they don't get to do that a lot. avery, of course, had my dad feeding her oatmeal every morning and impressed them by giving them kisses at every opportunity:)

ethan loved it as well, but got sick on sat. with the same stomach nasty that avery just recently got over. yuck! i just cross my fingers that no one else gets it...meaning me:)

Happy Mother's Day!!!

happy day for moms! i love all the mothers in my life so much and am so grateful for them. hope you all have a great day and do some relaxing:)

if you haven't seen this hoops and yo yo card from hallmark, see it, it's hilarious...what mom hears when we talk to her and what we think we are saying, so funny!

yay for moms!

drumroll please...

so yesterday morning i woke up to avery having pooped her bed, which she NEVER has done before, and saying, (in a crying voice), "oh no! mama, oh no!" she was very concerned about this. did i mention it was 5:30 am? it was. so i cleaned her up in the tub, started laundry, gave her tylenol for her fever and held her. she threw up that morning as well and kendall and i decided that he would take her to the doc while i took ethan with me to the sister in law's house to get my hair cut! THANK YOU ELISE! she did a great job and i am very happy with it and just having it shorter in general. she asked me a couple of times if i was sad to be cutting it off, and honestly, i am not one bit sad. i think what helps me not be said is a) i've had it this short before b) i always knew i was donating this hair, i grew it out just for that purpose and c) it's darn hot with it that long and i was ready to be cooler:) i decided a couple of months after avery was born to grow my hair out and donate it to Pantene Beautiful Lengths, as discussed here, because of my mom. part of her mother's day present is going to be a little book of pictures of my "hair journey" ending with today. shhhhh...don't tell her. and if you read this mom, pretend you didn't read that:)

before front:

before back:

after with ethan:

and we put some color in it! yay!

ready to send off!!! (i think i had 10-11 inches total!)

thrifty fun....

i am once again going to extoll the virtues of the thrift store. this time, though, it isn't savers, although that is one of our favorites. we recently acquired a goodwill by our house, and when i say "by our house" i mean, right down the road, 2 minutes away. if that. awesome. so i went the first day it opened and it was a crush of people and we could hardly manage our cart. so i decided to go back today to check it out again. they had a sweet table and three chairs (for kids) for only $40 for all the pieces. it was cool. like kind of IKEA-ish, but i didn't get it, because for some weird reason, paying a lot at a thrift store ("a lot" is a relative term especially at thrift stores) goes against my grain. like i hardly ever buy anything that isn't under $5 each. i may buy a few things but they are usually not more than $5. we like books because we get only really good condition ones and they are very inexpensive. but saturday i found fabric. i actually really like buying fabric at thrift stores because they have, sometimes, crazy amounts of fabric for not much at all. you just have to hit it the "right" day. today was my day i guess. i got more than 9 yards of fabric (by my measurements, how my mom taught me when not using a tape measure...tip of your nose and arm extended...anyway...i'll measure for sure later) for about $5. i'm not joking. it was amazing.

i got this pink cheetah print, it was actually in two pieces but they were both on the same hanger and one said $.49 and the other said $.29, for real (but she only rang it up as .20 i don't know why) and they equal about 2.5-3 yards each.

i got this brown beauty (blue tag special, 1/2 off) for $2.00, there is about 3 yards.

i finally i got this white kind of twill (like denim weight) with pink and black stripes, also about 3 yards and a little more for $2.50 (it was also blue tag special, 1/2 off). it was amazing.

the brown is a knit, kind of stretchy and i am thinking maybe a skirt for my maternity self...i think skirts may be my modus operandus for getting through this nasty heat coming. the white with stripes, like i said, is kind of a heavier weight, not heavy, but not super light cotton either, and i'm not sure what it will be. the pink cheetah is just amazing and maybe something baby if baby is indeed a girl. what would you make with these thrifty fabrics?