Fabric, Fabric, and MORE Fabric

So, this is one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me! I have long wanted to learn to sew better. Jason got me a sewing machine for Christmas which I was super excited about. However, I have not even used it once yet due to lack of fabric. When times are tight, you just don't feel like you can go blow money on fabric unless you have a specific project to tackle. Well, my dear, sweet Grandma calls me often just to chat. You all know we just bought a house and she was asking me about window treatments and my plans for decorating it. I said I would like to sometime, but wasn't sure when I'd get to it. Well, she has a cousin who lives in Alabama. Myrna Fletcher is her name. Myrna is an avid seamstress who never had a daughter nor a granddaughter and so wanted one. Well, my grandma told her about me and asked if she had some white fabric I could have to put curtains in my girls' room. I guess she wanted to share one of her granddaughters who had all girls with one of her favorite cousins. Myrna contacted me and offered me a bunch of fabric. She sent a CD with pictures of over 75 pieces and asked me to choose whatever I wanted. I looked through them and told her that I honestly wanted it all. She said she was more than thrilled because she wanted to find a good home for it where it would get used. So she packed it up and shipped it to me. Plus, she wouldn't allow me to help with the shipping costs, which I'm sure was a small fortune! Yesterday, the first shipment came: it was 7 boxes and this is what was in it:

Lots and lots of lace! Believe me, I am NOT sad to have this with all my girls!
Fun fabric that I plan to make a few skirts out of for me. And perhaps a lava lava or two.

Black and white lacey fabric that would be really pretty as an overlay or window treatment.

Decorator fabric for windows or pillows or whatever.

More fun "baby" type fabrics

Some silky types. All that white eyelet fabric is how this whole thing got started!

Fancy stuff

Elena wanted to take my picture unloading and sorting all the boxes. Not too bad photography!

Then Becca wanted a turn. Not bad either! In the background is my sewing table and machine that is going to be put to work!

I'm really excited about these pretty silky fabrics. I hope a couple skirts/dresses will come out of these as well!

Pretty pink just for my girls!

Fun cute gingham that I hope turns into some darling dresses. (Rachel, I'm going to need that pattern from you!)

Some courdoroy fabric

Velvet that will make some gorgeous dresses!

All packed away in the cupboards

So, I spent a couple hours getting it all sorted and then the UPS truck came again with 8 more packages. This is what was in them:

More decorator fabric. The one Elena is holding is cross stitch fabric so if anybody would like some, I have a whole bolt of it!

So, I am super excited for this AMAZING gift! The thing is Myrna told me not to think for one second that I was completely cleaning out her fabric supply! She said it is her weakness in life to buy fabric. Oh, and I think there is one more box coming with patterns, yarn, some sewing tools, etc. This is almost better than Christmas! I hope to spend my free time working at the sewing machine to develop that talent!

Yard and Garden

We have busy working in the yard between rain storms. The rain has actually been really great yard-wise since we have to water our new grass coming in every day and Mother Nature is doing that for us. Takes less time and costs less money! Here are some pictures of our emerging yard:

I have 7-8 rose bushes in the front yard that are about ready to bloom. These are the first. Aren't they gorgeous?!?! I'm very excited for the others to emerge.

Here is one angle of our new grass coming in. Plus you can see all the bricks we've removed.
The back fence that Jason fixed. And to the left, the large pile of cut down tree limbs that need to be cut up. It seems to get bigger each day (there are a lot of quakie trees coming down!). Plus my garden is that brown square in the corner.

Close up of the tomato plants and corn coming up.

Pumpkins

And cucumbers

Another shot of the grass. Notice the big circle cement pad is gone from the middle of the yard.

Mckenzie smiling for the camera

We still have alot of work to do but that is what Jason has been doing since he got done with school. I've been out there too a little bit, but the work credit is mostly his. It is so fun having our own house!

Mesquite, Nevada Vacation

We are back from our first real family vacation! We were lucky enough to have someone offer us three free nights at their condo in Mesquite, Nevada. So, we loaded up the van and kiddos and took off for a few days in the sun. The weather was perfect: 80's without rain (while back home it rained most every day). Here are some things we did:

The girls were SO excited to go on vacation! Our van loaded to the hilt.

We left on Monday about lunchtime and went to Orem, Utah where we stayed with my cousin Rachel and her hubby Will and daughter Emily for the night. We were grateful because Rachel was scheduled to have her baby the next day! We had fun going to dinner and talking and playing Monopoly until 2 AM. These are some pictures I took of the AWESOME playhouse built into the other half of the basement where their apartment is.

Becca and Emily playing with "money" inside the playhouse.
Elena showing me the "beautiful light" and ladder inside.

A slide used for exiting the house.

We got up on Tuesday morning and headed south to Mesquite. We arrived about 1:00 PM and checked into the condo and headed right for the pool. This was where we spent a lot of our time because it was what the girls wanted to do. We went to Walmart and bought some groceries since our room had a full kitchen and we figured it would be a lot cheaper than eating out. We also rented "Taken" and Jason and I watched that before going to bed.

Mckenzie playing on the floor

The girls snuggled in their bed watching a movie.

Wednesday was our busy day. I went and got an hour massage that felt just awesome! We spent a couple hours at the pool. Jason's old mission companion came up from Las Vegas and they went golfing on a really tough course. I took the girls to see "Up" and thought it was really cute. They were excited to watch a movie on such a huge "TV" until it started and they complained that it was too loud. Mckenzie fell asleep 10 minutes into it and slept the whole time. Too bad she didn't do that at night! After the movie, we bought some ice cream bars at the store and headed home to wait for Jason. When he got back, we went out to dinner and the Virgin River Buffet. We definitely ate too much!

Jason chillin' watching TV

Mckenzie being silly. Love this picture!

Becca drinking her Caprisun out of a "fancy glass." The girls thought that was so cool!

Thursday was a leisure day. Me, Mckenzie, and Becca fell asleep about 11 am and took a 2 hour nap. We then headed down to the pool since it was the hottest day and Elena couldn't wait any longer to get there!

Elena and "Duckey"

Me and Mckenzie. She was the one everyone was cooing over saying she was SOO cute! By Thursday she was used to the whole water thing and thought it was great!

Becca and "Horsey" We tried the lifejacket but she didn't like it very much.

Jason holding Mckenzie so I could lay out for a few minutes.

Elena and Becca by the hot tub

After swimming we went upstairs to eat something for lunch. Elena fell asleep for a couple hours and the rest of us just relaxed until she woke up. We wanted to go miniature golfing but we got there and it was closed. Bummer! So we went bowling instead. The girls did really well...I'm sure the bumpers helped! =)

Elena excited for her turn. She bowled a 74 (I think) the first game with Jason helping here and an 80-something her second game with me.

Becca beat Elena by 1 the first game and bowled 60-something the second game

Jason did really well both of his games.

I didn't do so hot my first game, but got a 115 the second.

Jason celebrating after getting another strike!

Proof that Jason rolled FOUR strikes in a row! Go, babe!

After bowling, we grabbed a Hot-N-Ready Little Ceasar's pizza and went home.

The girls enjoying their ice cream bars after pizza

Friday we got up early and hit the road. The girls traveled really well! Mckenzie cried the last half hour, but I figured she deserved it since she'd been so good! It took us about 8.5 hours to get home but we did stop and Will and Rachel's for 45 minutes to see new Baby Sydney.

Becca sleeping on the way home. I guess she didn't want the light or the noise!

Elena sure enjoyed having lots of snacks and drinks in the car. I have a feeling she'll be asking for some every time we get in the car for awhile.

We had a lot of fun on our first family vacation together!