Overheard

Molly: (while cleaning up) The gunny-man is exactly like Santa, except he takes toys away. (at breakfast) Hey mom, is this breast-milk or cow-milk? (while playing with Jill) All you need is one more finger and you will have 12 ... all you need is one more finger on each hand! Jill: (to Elliot) You can't be SWORD! You can only be rock, paper, or scissors! Today in Primary I learned about Joseph Smith. He didn't know which Church to join so he went to the grave to pray. Elliot: Mom, do I have a forehead? Yes. No, I don't! (When asked a question) Uh-huh-uh. (Not sure if that means yes or no...) Anna can't say very much yet, but all the sounds she makes are adorable. I hope you enjoyed that small snippet of the kind of humor I am exposed to daily. I keep a little notebook in which I write kid-isms. I highly recommend this for everyone. You'll be glad you did! p.s. Just for the record, I have never put breast-milk on their cereal!

Tomatoes??

So I sent Dave to the store. On the list I wrote "2 roma tomatoes". He bought 2 pounds of roma tomatoes. That is a lot of tomatoes.



I hate to let them go to waste, so if you have any good recipes for tomatoes, please tell them to me!

Attaboy Dave

Dave finished the final (and most complex) of our house fixes on Saturday.

He turned this funky, cement-y column:

into this beautiful piece of woodworking:

How'd I get so lucky anyway!?!

I love you, Dear!
XXXOOO

p.s. Here is a joke Dave made up himself:

Q. Why do I eat ranch with my mashed potatoes?

A. Because it would be weird to eat the ranch all alone.

Sir Elliot

I finally saved up enough empty milk cartons to make Elliot a suit of armor. (In case you were wondering, it took 3; 2 gallon jugs and 1 half-gallon.)I was really happy with how it turned out. So was Elliot. He has really been needing some boy dressups! And he loves being a knight. He knows that he should fight bad guys and be chivalrous. We have been studying chivalry this week in school. You might be interested to know the origins of chivalry:

You see, it seems that great lords amassed many knights to help them fight battles, but during the times of peace, the knights got bored and/or greedy. They began to misuse their power. They roamed around the countryside, fighting the serfs for sport and stealing from the wealthy for treasure. This was obviously a problem.

So the kings and great lords and bishops put their heads together and came up with the ideals of chivalry. In the feudalistic system, a knight swore fealty to a lord whom he served. Well, chivalry says that he must swear to serve God as well. He must only use his great strength to help the weak, never to hurt them. The weak included monks, women, the poor, and especially widows and orphans. Chivalry also dictated that a knight must always treat noble ladies with the respect they deserved. He must court her if he loved her and wanted to win her affection. And that meant writing her poetry, singing her songs, etc. Also, about the same time, tournaments began to be organized, to give the knights an opportunity to practice the art of warfare in the time of peace. So there you have it. Chivalry came about because of the standing armies that were required to be maintained by all lord and kings under a feudal system, which I'll have to get into more...later!

Niece

My sister had a baby girl, my first niece.

I was so excited that I had to make her an all pink baby quilt.

I love to make quilts. I also love to finish projects. With the current demands placed upon me by my life, I feel that baby quilts are the best way to go. All the fun and creativity of planning and designing, and all the satisfaction of completing the project. Plus it's a nice handmade gift. Fortunately for me, so many of my friends and (finally) family are having babies that I am always supplied with an excuse to make one.

Molly has caught the fever and I am encouraging her to love fabric as much as I do.
I owe a lot of people thank yous for my quilting skills (which even if they are not much, have improved alot over the years!).
Andrea keeps me on track, even when I feel like I have no time to sew.
Susie gave me my first quilting lessons in a BYU ward Enrichment.
Bethany showed me her cute baby quilt which gave me the idea for this one.
And Georgette has given me loads of fabric (some of which is in this quilt).
Thanks ladies.

Oh yeah, and thanks Coco for producing the niece!
Here is one more picture just cause I think she's cute.