Pray for Bronson

On Saturday our little nephew Bronson drowned in the bathtub. His mother kept his heart beating until the paramedics arrived. When he arrived at Utah Valley Hospital he had a heartbeat but showed no brain activity. He was life flighted to Primary Children's Hospital shortly after arriving at Utah Valley. The doctors have been doing everything they can to keep him alive. He is now in an induced coma state where they are keeping his body temperature down and keeping him heavily sedated hoping to let his body and brain become stronger. Today he showed promising signs of body twitching, his eyes moving and he was responding to pressure on his body. They put him back under sedation in hopes to keep him from moving too much and injuring himself. We have been praying nonstop for little Bronson, the doctors, his parents and brothers. Bronson is the sweetest little guy, always happy and smiling. He is such a sweet blessing in our family. Thank you for all the love and support so many have been giving them through this ordeal. Our hearts are with Matt, Sara and Bronson. We love them so much! We are hoping for more good news tomorrow. Please add your prayers to help this sweet little boy and his family.

The Best Books I Read in 2009

Well, it's almost February, but I wanted to do a post on my favorite books that I read last year. If you don't know me too well, then you don't know how much I like to read. When I was younger you would often find me back on my bed reading instead of playing with friends. I loved rainy days because it gave me an excuse to curl up with a good book. I still love rainy days just for this reason. :) People are always asking me what I've been reading lately so I thought I would just put out a little list.

I've been reading a lot of young adult fiction the last couple of years. I like the fact that they are usually clean and without a load of swearing. Mystery, romance (not the smutty kind), adventure, humor, fairy tales, sci fi, historical fiction,... I like it all! So here is my Top 10 List for 2009.

10. The Time Travelers by Linda Buckley Archer- A fun children's book about these two children who go back in time. They have to find a way to adapt as well as try to find a way home.

9. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak- A fictional book set during the holocaust narrated by death.

8. The Summer Kitchen by Lisa Wingate- Her books are very uplifting and inspirational.

7. Ink Death by Cornelia Funke- The final book in the Ink Heart series. Beautiful series!

6. The Frog Princess Series by E. D. Baker- Not your typical Princess in these books. She gets into some pretty funny situations. A joy to read.

5. Star Garden by Nancy E. Turner- The third book of the These is My Words series. Once again I was amazed at all this poor woman had to go through. She is one tough cookie though and this book was a great story.

4. The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester- I loved this children's book about accepting ourselves, tolerance and friendship. Piper McCloud is pure spunk and sunshine, with a little X-Men thrown in.

3. Graceling by Kristin Cashore- Lots of adventure, action and romance. Graceling is part Heroes, The Thief and Alias wrapped into one story.

2. The Hunger Games and Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins- I can't wait for the third book to come out in this gripping series. These books are serious page turners full of action, suspense and heart.

1. The Thief, The Queen of Attolia and the King of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner- I adored these books and read the three books in about a week! A new one is coming out in March, can't wait. I loved the characters, the humor, and the action. I especially loved that they weren't too predictable. Loved the twist and turns. Definitely my favorite books of the year.

Be Prepared

One of our family goals for this year is to get our 72 hour kits together. Last night for family home evening we got out or kits and took some inventory. The first thing was to make sure the kids had clothing that wasn't too small. Then we took out the food bags that Peggy gave us 4 years ago for Christmas. Yeah, I think it is time for some new food, don't you? We made lists of what we needed and I let the kids give some suggestions for food ideas. It was actually pretty successful. For the next few family home evenings we will be adding more things to our kits until we have them all ready to go. After that I think we will work on getting a car kit together. A really helpful blog that has some great lists or these kind of things is Safely gathered in .

So as we were finishing up our treat for the night and the kids were heading upstairs to get ready for bed when the power went out. Aria was so funny because she was still sitting at the counter eating the rest of her cake. After the initial shock was past I could hear her fork still clinking against the plate as she searched for the her last few bites. Of course I went straight to the cabinet to grab the flashlight and the batteries were dead. I went to the next place to look for a flashlight and the batteries were dead in that one too. Luckily Mike had one out in his truck and we lit a candle in the kitchen. Talk about a good object lesson! The kids were all excited that we had to get ready for bed with flashlights. Now we need to make sure all those flashlights go back where they belong so we can find them next time we need them. Unfortunately I laid there most of the night worrying about our food in the fridge and freezer. The lights went out around 8 o'clock and didn't come back on until around 2 :45 am. What a nice slap in the face when the hall lights flipped on and I had to go around switching off all of the lights that had been on when the power went out. Even the boys' room light came on, which they managed to sleep through, I don't know how. I still couldn't go back to sleep for a long time as I lay there thinking of all the things we need to do to be more prepared. Hopefully these weekly reminders for family night will help us get in gear and put my fears to rest.

My Little Artist

Aria has been getting into the paints lately. So I decided that whenever I am in the craft room I would get the paints out and let her go at them. At least then I can keep an eye on her. Now if only I could get Michela to put away the paints after she uses them so they weren't out where Aria can get them.

Here is Aria happily painting.

I love how little kids love to use so many bright colors together. This piece of carboard was laying out so she wanted to paint on it. It actually worked out well because she likes to put layer upon layer of paint on her creations.

I love how big her smile is in this one. Thank goodness a smock came with the art easel we got Michela a couple of years ago. Aria enjoys getting messy just a little too much for my taste. Plus the smock will save me a lot of grief come laundry time.

My First Tutorial: Maternity Jeans

The rubberbanded jeans are not really cutting it anymore so I decided it was time to move on to some bigger pants. These are so saggy in the back that I hate wearing them. Maternity wear is calling my name. I got back a few pairs of pants from my friend but when I held them up I couldn't believe my eyes. They were huge! I thought to myself, does my butt really get that big? Well I tried them on and they were way too big. I didn't want to go and buy smaller maternity pants and shell out 40 - 50 bucks a pair so I decided some repurposing was in order.

I saw this tutorial for using some old pants to make maternity pants on megan nielsen's blog. I used it for reference but I had to change a few things. I'm not a big fan of the under the tummy panels for maternity pants. I must confess that I don't have much junk in my trunk so these kinds of pants tend to end up half way down my rear way too often.

I found some really cute jeans at D.I (a thrift store) for $8 which fit me great in the legs and behind. I could zip them part of the way up, which is important because you will need to have some of the fly on the pants.


1. First step is to take the waistband off the pants. I took a seam ripper to mine but you could probably cut it off too. I didn't want to lose any of the back length so I choose to unpick the stitches.

2. I then put them on, zipped them up as far as I could get them and marked where my tummy would start needing some room. Then I used a marking pencil and made a curved cutting line from the side seams to my front marking line. Remember that you want to make your line about 1/2" above where you want to sew so you have some seam allowance. I also pinned the pockets in place because I would be cutting off the part where they were stitched at the top.
3. I took out the zipper, sewed up the fly and then cut along my marked line.
4. Next I took an old fitted t-shirt and cut off the top portion. I placed the shirt over my pants and marked a cutting line that matched the curve of my new waistline on my jeans. Remember you need about a 1/2" seam allowance. Cut along this line. Luckily my t-shirt almost perfectly matched the width of the waist on the jeans. If it is too big you'll have to sew up new side seams to match the pants.
5. I then pinned the shirt and jeans together, right sides together, and stitched them up using a 1/2" seam allowance. I also serged the edges to finish them and keep the jeans from raveling.

6. Next I put the jeans on and played with the top, folding it over until I figured out where I wanted it to lay. I pinned it in place. I marked where I wanted to cut the fabric and then serged the edge. (Remember you need to take into account how much you are going to fold it over for your elastic.)

7. Next I folded it over 1 1/4" and stitched it in place, making a casing for my elastic. I only had 1" elastic, but I think next time I'll use a wider elastic.

Here are some different views of my new jeans. They look so much better than the saggy butt jeans I've been wearing lately. I actually feel very cute when I'm wearing these. These are just a regular length but I also bought some longer jeans to wear with boots and some skinny jeans just for fun. Hopefully these will last me until it is time to move into the BIG pants. :) Thanks for bearing with me for my first tutorial. Next time I'll remember to take more pictures!

Happy 90th Birthday Grandma Staker!

I forgot to post about Grandma Staker's 90th birthday party a couple of weeks back. The whole family went down to Mt. Pleasant to help her celebrate. Even some of Cathy's family from Idaho came down for the party. It was so much fun to give my "blogging buddy" Amy a hug. It's funny how much we've gotten to know each other through our blogs. She is such a cute girl and her little family is adorable. :)

Grandma is doing so well. She is still living by herself in her house. She is up and about and has such a twinkle in her eyes. She is the sweetest lady and made me feel so welcomed when I joined the family. She loves to give hugs and adores her grandchildren and great grandchildren. I think our new baby will be her 45th grandchild!

We had lots of fun chatting with all of the family and enjoying a video of pictures of Grandma. I love the ones of her back in the 30s and 40s the most. We even got a cute picture of our family with Grandma. What a fun lady she is. We sure love her!

The Princess of Destruction

So my sweet little angel has been turning to the dark side lately. She has been getting into everything and making major messes. It started with the makeup incident in California and it has just gotten worse since we got home. It usually happens while I am busy and she ends up wandering around the house trying to see what she can get into. When I notice it has been awfully quiet for a while I know it is too late. I will find her behind a closed door in the middle of some kind of disaster.

She is obsessed with "expensive creams and lotions". When I am putting lotion on her after her bath she always wants to "do it herself." (That has become a favorite phrase for her lately.) The other day I found her in Michela's bathroom rubbing soap and lotion all over the counter and all over her hands and up her sleeves. Nice... Then one night as we were going to bed we heard her crying in her room. Mike went to check on her and found her rubbing Desitin all over her chest, face and in her hair. I guess he had left the tube down where she could reach it after putting her diaper on. Classic Dad mistake. ;) Of course I didn't find out about it until the next morning when she came walking down the stairs reeking of Desitin and her hair was a matted mess. So I got to wash her, her clothes and her sheets as well. Thank you very much little one.

A lot of the messes occur in her sister's bathroom. One day I found her painting her nails all by herself. The problem was there wasn't much nail polish on her nails but there was a whole lot everywhere else!

Yesterday I heard a bunch of banging around in the office and found her stapling papers. There were staples all over the floor! Plus there were wads of scotch tape all over the place. You can't leave anything within her reach or you are just asking for trouble!

The craft room is another lethal place for her to be. One day I found her under my craft table with a pair of scissors snipping a bunch of fabric. Thank goodness it was some leftovers and not one of the curtains I had been working on. There have been beads strewn all over the floor and she has decided that she doesn't need supervision while painting as well.

The crowning moment was last week when she found a pen and proceeded to draw all over the dining room chair cushion. That's right, blue ink all over a tan fabric cushion. It makes me so sad to not have my vinyl covered seats that I redid on my old dining room set. Here is a lovely picture to showcase her artwork. That chair will be going in the closet and will be reserved for "special" occasions. Anyone know how to get ink out of a fabric seat?

The thing is it is so difficult to stay upset with her. "I'm sorry," she'll say with her big puppy dog eyes. And you tell her that she won't be doing that again, right? Then she says, "I said I was sorry!" And then there is her favorite intro to a bad situation, "Don't be sad Mom." She says it in her cute little high voice with a sad little face and it makes me want to just scoop her up and kiss her chubby little cheeks when I really should be swatting her little bum. Oh well, I guess this is what life is like with little kids, right? They have all gone through their destructive periods, some with just a little more gusto than others. At least she went on the potty this morning, I guess I have to give her that.

Chuckathon

No, this post is not about throwing up or anything like that. If it was it would have been titled"Up-Chuckathon". No, I am talking about the show "Chuck". I had heard about this show from various friends and family but my plate was full and I don't like to jump into a show midseason. It's kind of like starting a book from the middle. Not recommended. I finally Netflixed the first season this summer and I fell in love with the show. It is so funny! If you haven't seen it I highly recommend renting the first season. The premise of the show is that this guy, named Chuck, works as part of the Nerd Herd at the local Buy More Store. His best friend from college, who ended up betraying him, is a CIA agent and sends Chuck this computer file with all of the different secret service intelligence information that the U.S. has accumulated over the years. Chuck ends up "downloading" it into his brain, it's all in pictures, and now he has to be protected so that another country doesn't capture him and get all of that info.

This is a spy show, but Chuck is anything but a super spy. He is a lanky, kind of geeky, sweet guy who lives with his sister and doesn't know what he wants to do with his life. Bottom line, it is hilarious! There are so many funny and crazy characters that you'll fall in love with. His best friend Morgan has some of the best lines in the show.

So the third season starts on Sunday, but they didn't release the 2nd season on DVD until Tuesday. My sister and I started our Chuck marathon last night by watching the first DVD in the set. I needed a good laugh so badly and this had me cracking up. We are hoping to watch the rest of the season by Sunday, but we don't know if we'll find time to do it. Thank goodness for the DVR because I could record the new shows and save them until we are done. Isn't modern technology grand. And from the previews I've seen of the 3rd season, the show is only going to get better. Thanks "Chuck" for putting a little much needed happy silliness into my life.