Come sew with Grammy!

Saturday was the day we got together to make the little girls some fun spring dresses. The first picture is the dress Krista bought for Hailey from Old Navy, for $20. She hated spending that much on a little summer dress, and they didn't have a matching one in Aida's size, so she wondered if she could make one for less. We went shopping and found very similar fabric, for $10 a yard. Luckily, I had a coupon for 50% off that started the next week, so we waited until then and went to buy fabric. When Merijane and Emily saw the Old Navy dress, they really liked it too, so I came up with the great idea to buy enough fabric to make all 6 granddaughters dresses. (4 yards to make 6 dresses at $5 (with coupon) = $20. With the fabric for the slip/lining and the band/straps/flowers, I think it was about $30 for 6 dresses. NOT TOO BAD!!! Luckily, Krista already had a pattern. I planned a sewing day and invited them all to come.


We wanted a little wider strap, and a little closer together so they wouldn't fall of their shoulders like the original one did. Walah!!!!

We started our project at about 11:00, and sewed until we ate lunch at about 1:30. We had the 3 big girls dresses almost done by then. We had rigatoni for lunch, cleaned up our mess, then went back to work. I had the big girls dresses all cut out, but didn't know what size to make the 3 little ones. Krista and Merijane measured the little girls, and we were amazed, that they were almost the same size as the big girls. (a few inches shorter, but not much difference around) They got their dresses all cut out, and began sewing. At 4:00, everyone was tired, and we had just hems and bands to finish, but we decided to clean up, since I have the Big Birks birthday party here tomorrow. Josh and Merijane, stayed and helped me get all set up for that. Here are a few pictures of our fun day! Everyone did such a great job of sewing, and the little girls were WONDERFUL!

Katie and Aida played for just a few minutes, then went down for their morning naps so their moms could sew like crazy!!!

Katie loves rocking in my rocker. I was so excited to see she has enough hair to do tiny pigtails!!!

The big girls had a fun time playing games with Opi. We felt bad that Molly had a cough, so she missed out on all the fun.

Abbie played on the floor with toys, and when she got tired of that.......

she liked helping her mom sew.

The little 1 year olds had fun playing in our play house. It is just the perfect size for them!

Krista took her girls dresses home to finish, but here are the other 4. We just have to hem the babies and add the polka dot band to them.

Here is a close up of Molly's dress almost done! All we need to do is make the flower to go on it. We were really tired, but happy with how they turned out
 

A trip to the Dinosaur Museum

Just as I was walking out the door of school today, Jamie called to invite us to go to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point with them. Josh and Merijane had been wanting to take their girls too, and were also available, so off we went. Unfortunately, he had not been able to get ahold of Krista, so she'll have to take her girls with them the next time they go. We had a great time! That place is amazing.

There was so much to see.

Everyone enjoyed trying to uncover dinosaur bones in the large sandpile

Playing in the wet sand was even more fun than the dry sand

"I wonder what this button does?"

Katie had fun looking at all the things and watching the girl play

Abbie was a nice girl to take to the museum.

Abbie and Emily

We found a room that had a HUGE stuffed dinosaur body and all kinds of heads and body parts to build a dinosaur. It needed a nice big tail!

Jamie helped add some legs to the dinosaur.

All Done! It was quite the creation, with lots of legs, so we named it Legasaurus.

A fun sewing project.

Krista was at Old Navy this week and found some dresses that she LOVED for Hailey and Aida for Easter. They didn't have matching ones in both girls sizes and they were actually more money than she wanted to spend, but she bought a few of them anyway. This is one of the ones she bought, that she really liked. After she got home and looked at the dresses, she thought maybe she could save some money by making them, since they were pretty simple.

Krista came over this afternoon and before we tried the pattern out on real fabric, we decided to go to my closet and try it on some scrap fabric I had.

All finished! It turned out pretty cute, we were really happy with our practice dress. It really was pretty simple, it has ribbon for straps, and she made a darling flower like the original one had. She is amazing!!!

Here's Hailey in her new dress! It fit her so cute, we were really excited and can't wait to go get the fabric to make an Easter one for her and Aida. (From the look on her face, I'm not so sure she thinks it is as cute as we think it is)
 

Baptisms for the dead

I have several Young Women in my Beehive class who come from inactive homes. Mally, on the right, just got baptized over the Christmas break. I invited her and Tara, to go with me to do baptisms for the dead and they were so excited to go for their first time. After they finished, they asked me how often you can go and do baptisms. When I told them as often as they wanted, they spent the whole ride home, talking about getting a group of their friends from school together to go with them next time. They really loved being in the temple and can't wait to go again!!!!
 

Look who's going to retire!!!!!

It is almost official! Mike heard from the Utah Retirement System today, and it looks like he is going to be able to retire at the end of this school year!!! We are so excited we can hardly stop smiling. One of my good friends at school, told me about 2 weeks ago, that she had been in and spoken to the district about retirement. They had an incentive package, that made it possible for her to retire a couple of years early. I knew she started teaching the same year that Mike did, so as soon as I got home, I told him all about it, and he made an appointment with his district retirement guy. He found out similar information, and contacted the Utah Retirement System and we got the letter today, that makes it look like it is going to happen. What a blessing this is going to be!!!!!
 

Happy 75th birthday mom!

It's hard to believe she is 3/4 of a century!!! We had a fun family dinner tonight at our house to celebrate. Jordan was still stranded in Washington DC, so he and Jamie didn't make it, and Krista and her family had another birthday party to go to. Jeffrey was invited to a Super Bowl party, (Who plans the super bowl on the same night as mom's birthday party???) Stacy wasn't feeling well, so they weren't able to come. We were lucky to have Jerry here to celebrate with us, as well as all the rest of our family.
Doesn't Mom make 75 look good!!!!

Dad, relaxing, waiting for dinner

Tasty Chinese Sundays are great for a birthday dinner

Quite a few people at one big table

Libbie and Molly at their own table

Ric and Kathy

Jamie, Emily and Abbie

Two very cute girls! (Cierra and Abbie)

Katie in the hat her aunt Andrea made for her for her 1st birthday, and the Valentine sweater Robynn gave Libbie a couple of years ago

Chip and Josh, hanging out in the play room

Lani and Morgan
 

On the road to recovery!

I just got home from visiting Colleen at the hospital. Her surgery went well and she was looking great! She said she wasn't feeling too bad either. They had her up and walking the halls earlier, and are going to let her go home tomorrow. Paula is going to take her home and they are going to watch movies and eat homemade chicken soup. It doesn't get better than that! We are so thankful that everything went well!