Progress

I'm making progress on my I Spy quilt. Kind of. With all the squares spread out (individually-not sewn together) the squares completely covered my dining room table. That is SO not the case anymore. But I'll get to that later. first I started out by sewing all the squares into doubles(two squares together). Then after sewing my doubles, I began making quadruples (two doubles together-you'll have to forgive me this is the only way I know how to describe the progression).
Added all these pics of my quadruples bc I think the fabric is just so cute.








After making my quadruples, I sewed my quadruples together-4 each-horizontally-into strips. (Dang, wish I took more pictures. Feel like I am totally not making any sense.)

Then I sewed the strips together. I off centered the strips onto each other, mainly because even though all the squares turned in were supposed to be 4x4 inch squares, some were still a little off and the seams weren't matching perfectly. Plus I wanted a little bit of a non traditional style/design. This is what I ended up with....




I still have about 60 individual squares left that I need to add, but as you can see this is definately NOT going to make as big as a quilt as I thought it would (I thought I'd at least have a twin size quilt when all was said and done). I know I can add more squares to make it bigger, but I don't think I will. I kind of like that it might just be a nice "throw" blanket. I also still have to add a border and the back side and so on and so on. And yes I am still going to turn it in to have machine quilted over the top. I think that will help it last longer. So yea, there you have it, my progress. Hopefully, after spending a few days in Phoenix with my Aunt, I'll be able to present a fully finished quilt-minus the machine quilting over the top.

It's Not Summer Without...

.....Warp Tour!
Warp tour is a big summer time favorite for me. It's where a bunch of alternative/punk/ska bands get together (at the state fair grounds) and hold a huge outdoor concert. There are multiple stages, and you move around from stage to stage depending on who you want to see. Normally there is only one or two bands there that I want to see, and because the tickets are $20-$30, it's totally worth it for me. This year there were quite a few bands I wanted to see. New Found Glory (my very favorite band), Senses Fail, Mayday Parade (missed them because we were late and they played way early), Yellowcard, Taking Back Sunday, The Used, and Rise Against (they were on the tour but they skipped out on Salt Lake). Chris and I went with all his brothers-Matt, Jerad, and Brian, Brian's girlfriend Sharlene, and Mindy (Carter's mom). We had a blast! I don't have very many pictures though. I took a bunch, but realized (when we got home) that I was much too short to get any real pictures. :) Oh well.
Senses Fail

So sad that this is the only "good" shot I got of NFG. :(

Brian and Sharlene

Come on babe, just ONE decent pic...! Nope.

Not quite....

Better.

Group shot

Resting in the shade. It was so friggin' hot!!!


It's also not summer without.....Cornhole!
Love this game! You know it's summer when volleyball and cornhole tournaments take over Mom and Dad's backyard. So. Much. Fun!








Jerad and I are currently undefeated.
Woot! Woot! Champs!


And it's definately not summer without nearly naked boys running through the sprinkler... (this is what they were doing at Grandma's while us BIG kids were at Warp Tour)








P.S. Cody LOVES his Beefaroni not matter WHAT the season may be. :)

Wedding Ring Refashion

Let me just say, before I get into this. I absolutely LOVED my original wedding ring. Chris picked it out for me and it was perfect-at the time. I'm a simple kind of girl-no bling needed. In fact, if I had my way, I wouldn't even have a diamond in my ring. Chris says "that's ridiculous" and that "every girl should have a diamond on her her wedding band". Anyways...

As you can see from the picture below, I had a smooth, thick band. The diamond was in it's own setting held by four prongs. Over the years those prongs loosened and I could hear my diamond rattling within the setting. NOT GOOD. I felt so paranoid that the diamond would fall out, so every couple of months I had to take it in to the jeweler to tighten the prongs. The downside of having the prongs tighten every couple months was that it weakens the metal and eventually the tightening would do no good. The prongs also snagged in my hair AND in my clients hair. It was a bit frustrating.



So for Mother's Day, Chris let me get my ring refashioned/redesigned-however you want to put it. I LOVE IT!! I had them put it in a semi suspended setting so I wasn't having to deal with prongs anymore. Didn't it turn out great?



Even though it took them almost 2 months to get it done, I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Fun with Visitors from Texas

I really don't know where the last few months have gone. I just can't believe how busy we've been. The day after I got back from Texas, my brother and his family flew out to Utah. The selfish part of my says E&J came out to visit me. But that's not the real reason. Jannelle has a sister that is deceased and buried in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. At the time of her funeral, a headstone could not be afforded. So after a few years of fundraisers and the family coming together, they finally saved enough money to buy her a headstone. So Evan and Jannelle came out for a memorial ceremony for her.

The day after they flew in was Ayden's birthday, but we had already given him his presents in Texas. Friday night, we took the kids to Chuck E' Cheese's for a little mini birthday for Ayden. It was Chris and I (with Cody) and then Brian and Jenni (with their twins). We ate some pizza and then let the kids loose. Ayden liked the skii(?) ball game.







Cody loved the mini carousel. He would ride it a couple times, get off for a second then head straight back to it. I think I have this exact same picture of Clay whhen he was Cody's age on this exact same carousel.



He also liked the Basketball game, but mainly because it had balls that he could throw.







I'm sure Ayden and Cody were excited to be out of the house and were having a blast, but I think the adults had more fun than the kids.

Saturday was quite busy... I know, shocker. I had a hair appointment in the morning and finished just in time to go to the zoo with E&J, B&J, and Chris. It was sooo crowded. The weather was a tiny bit overcast, and was pretty windy, but that didn't stop the whole state of Utah from going to the zoo. It took forever to park, forever to get in, and once we were in it took us forever to decide what we wanted to do first. We had to stop and touch the rotating ball on water.





Then we came upon the Monkeys. I'm not going to post any of those pictures because one of the monkeys wouldn't stop picking the other ones butt. I know it's a grooming thing, but seriously?!

Next was the Elephants. I think Cody was mesmerized at how big they were and that they were moving. There was a momma(Dara) and a baby(zuri)pal-ing around. So cute.





Tried getting all the kids to sit in the Eagle's nest. Got them in, but couldn't get them to look at the camera.



Eagles



They had alot of new exhibits at the zoo....at least since the last time I was there. One of them was the Otter exhibit. Can I just tell you, they are one of my favorite animals. They are so adorable. So I got a few pictures of them swimming around.









Cody trying out the Otter's log.



We saw Giraffes



And Tigers



Seems like all the animals were either sleeping or being super lazy.

Porcipines



Meer Kats



Some kind of desert cat...sleeping.



Weird looking bird. Kinda looks like a platypus.



Pretty Peacocks and a Camel.





And then there was the Gorilla. At first he was minding his own business, in the back of the cage, ignoring the crowds of people. He looks up and Chris is pounding his chest-so he charges the glass! He stayed up close to the glass for awhile-so Chris picked up Cody and brought him really close. Well it totally scared Cody, so he started screaming. So Chris put him on the ground and the gorilla just stood there and stared at Cody until he stopped crying. It was so funny. The look on the Gorilla's face was kind of like-"Dude, what is this kids' problem?" So wish I would have been faster at working the camera.



We saw lots more animals too, but obviously I'm not gonna post one of everything.

We shared some hotdogs and icecream cones.



And the kids took a ride on the big carousel. Cody was in heaven.





Jenni's little girls Amy and Lilly with Uncle Evan and Daddy.



We had so much fun with them. Wish they were staying awhile longer.