merry christmas!

love, us.

happy october!

thanks to my emilie for calling me and giving me this 'too funny' idea.  em, your's is in the mail. :)  it's just too funny to see this in the front yard, on our 'mound' just perfect for my burial plot!

happy halloween!  may we all survive it!

i'm too cheap

to buy real gallery wraps....so I made my own version.

Few lengths of 1x2's, cut in 1/2 length wise and cut to size...12x12 prints from costco of a few collages I made of each of the kids. It turned out really nice! And didn't cost much at all!

reap whatcha sow; rip whatcha sew

whichever ya wanna call it

This year we were pretty excited to garden. We have a farmer in our Stake that has given some land to the members so we could plant our own garden, work hard to maintain it, and harvest the bountiness which follows.

I went to a couple different stores and picked out some fun things to grow. We were a couple weeks late getting things planted since the staph infection kinda got in the way.

After a month of waiting for growth...we drove up to this heaven!

lets see, where are the tomatoes? hmmmm....are these the beans? The corn should be in the back, since it'll grow the tallest. We should anyway, group things in order of height...right? Oh, I think these are....no.....they're supposed to be arugula. hmm

hu? These are weed? All of them?

oh

most of them.

I kneel down and sit on a nice bumpy mound of dirt and slowly start picking at the weeks. David bends down and RIP...there goes a great big fitful of weeds. This'll be done in no time!

20 minutes

30 minutes

50 miuutes

crunchy weedy roots...um um ummy

my sewing project lately....sewing new hooded towels for the kiddos

Cade, Kaylee and Conner

another fun project

Thanks V for giving me a blog tutorial! I love my old green one that I was given when Kaylee was born...time to get some fresh ones! Easy, cute and warm!

easter bows

you'd think this would be a post for girlie bows for Easter, but in fact, these are for my boys! I made these cute bow ties for Cade, Conner and Kendall. They turned out so cute.

Something new....for You!

Mi amiga Monica posted this on her blog just now and I wanna try it out. This is going to be fun!

Here's how this works:

The first 3 people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees you will like what I make.

2. What I create will be just for you.

3. It will be done this year.

4. You have no clue what it's going to be.

5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 3 people who do the same on your blog. The first 3 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did, win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me!

Oh, and be sure to post of picture of what you win when you get it!

Who's in? hmmmmmm?

quiltin

I helped my good friend Christina make a rag quilt out of her little girl's crib bedding for her twin bed.

I LOVE how it turned out!

Recycling fabric to make fabulous quilts...talk about saving mucho dinero!

my version

of a hooter hider

(yes, that's what it's called!)

strawberry rhubarb

Sheena came over on Sunday night and wanted to make something for Kim, a friend who just got baptized and is in our ward. She was thinking something along the lines of brownies...but....I was thinking strawberry rhubarb pie would be better!

I was watching Oprah earlier in the year and they had Cindy Crawford show her favorite pie to make. I found the recipe and tried it out. Very yum. The crust wasn't too easy to work with, so next time I'll know to use my own recipe.

an introduction: John

John Sterling McDonald

I can't believe we got these shots! Silly John!

Precious Announcements

He's such a beautiful baby. Christina is going to have a hard time picking out her favorite!

snuggle bug

I was at Wal-Mart the other week and saw these slings. I have been wanting to get one for so long, they look so cute, but my are they expensive! It was 30 bucks for one! I had an idea. Buy it and copy the outline to make my own pattern, so that is what I did. I went to Joann's and picked up some fabric and made a few.

You can see Christina modeling one of the slings I made. She was just a few weeks from delivering her little boy, John. (actually, he was born TODAY!)

here's a boy pattern
a cute girl pattern
my first one I made, unisex
another boy pattern. I made this for Christina, and loved it so much I made another one for myself!

jammin time

In May I decided it'd be a great time to make strawberry freezer jam. I had David specifically go to Walmart to get Certo and sugar for my project. That week strawberries were 99 cents at Fry's. The next day they were 2 lbs for 5 dollars....I wasn't about to pay that much for strawberries. I waited a few more weeks and since June ended, I knew it was the end of the great strawberry season for the year...so I was content with just keeping the stuff until next year and get the berries when they were on sale.

On Monday I saw the advertisement for strawberries at the local store 'Bashas' and they were offering 2 lbs for 1.99....it was as if strawberry season was on again! Today I was able to venture out and got 14 lbs of strawberries. 10 of those pounds were my jam babies! I can't believe that I did all that today....shopping went about 2 hours with my ever so slow walk. It felt like it was one long contraction. I'm getting super slow. It took as long to make the jam as it did to just get groceries.

unodos tres

Growing up we would go to Sergeant's Berry Farm and spend hours picking strawberries. We'd be driven to different places of the fields by tractor and later be picked up when we were ready. We'd weigh the berries and pay. Thank goodness they didn't weigh us before and after....we would have had to dish out tons more money. We loved to eat while we picked the berries!

At home it was a huge assembly line. I remember spending so much time taking the stems off. Then we would help stir the sugar and berries together. My brother Richard would scare me into stirring the mixture the whole time saying "If you don't keep stirring, It'll blow up." That made me a great jam maker! I didn't want to blow up!I figured out a new way to take the stems off the strawberries...using the serrated end of a melon ball-er.that keeps the amount of waste to the strawberries at a minimumKaylee the swiper!Wallah! Yum-mo!

i am so smart

i am so smart. i am so smart. S M RT...i am so smart. Yesterday David and were working to get some new 8 foot florescent lighting installed in the garage. He went into the attic to find where the studs were to know where we needed to place the light, but before he could do anything, he tried to stand up from a squat in the attic and felt something bad in his knee. Doesn't look good.

I was so determined to get that stinking light up that while he was in the house icing his knee, I went ahead and figured out what I needed to do to put the light up, extend some wires and all that fun stuff. I worked into the dark and David kept me company during the last part while I connected the wires and tried the lights for thee first time. WHALAH! I was so proud of myself!

Shannon, homemaker, mommy, wife, sister, daughter, electrician. tee hee hee

new to the family

We got a new chest freezer! We're so excited! Now our freezer inside isn't so stuffed and we can store more food! Ice Cream Cakes will be a breeze to make now!!!!!

there's no buddy like a brother

I've been into vinyl signs. I went into a machine with my sisters and sisters-in-law. I've been busy doing projects for family, friends, businesses and church. here is one that I have on Cade's door. His nickname is 'buddy' and so it seems only natural to have this on his door!

Cade's Room

Emilie Gardner and I finished Cades room...Americana style. Top of the wall as red paint that looks like stitches, then a red, blue and white stripe with beige underneath. David was in LOVE with the room. I was proud of what I did. This was the first 'theme' that I've ever done. Gosh it's fun to have your own home!