Luis was on the news!

This is random... Back in November Luis went to do early voting. He was interviewed by a news crew and it was kinda cool... but we don't have tv so we never saw anything. We were just talking about it and Alan did a search and found Luis on the news! I can't make the link work... of course! But copy and paste! Ahhh, Luis is so cute on TV! http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/345002/3/Early-voting-leads-to-long-lines-across-Illinois

A little vacation update

We arrived in Charlotte on Saturday morning around 7:30am. We left IL at 7 Friday night. Luis and I stayed up until about midnight together and then switched off driving for about 2 hours each. Jake was out of it the whole car ride, slept wonderfully, and only woke up when we got gas and fell right back to sleep. Jackson was uncomfortable... his car seat doesn't recline like Jake's. He was awake until almost 11. Both boys were so well behaved. No complaining. Thankful for portable dvd players! Since we got here it's been non-stop fun for our kiddos! Lots of people to entertain them! There was a lot of excitement for Christmas... especially Jackson. I think this is the first year it has actually made sense to him. On Christmas eve we opened some board games and the boys opened brand new quillows (quilt/pillow) from Grandma Weger so they could og to bed with them. We read the Christmas story from the book of mormon and then on Christmas day we read the story from the bible. It was great. Liz and Alan had a couple come over with their baby girl to play games with us on Christmas eve. The boys were so excited to see what Santa brought them! We had to keep them distracted in our room until everyone got downstairs to see the boys come down. So they just tackled daddy while they waited! I have a lot of video of Christmas morning... those will come at some point. Not too many pics, because I wanted the video. Here are some pics of Christmas eve and a few random ones!

Jackson finally found a comfortable spot in the car!

Pecan logs are a Weger tradition. I don't like them. They are cherry nougat covered with pecans. :P For the past few years no one has been able to find them... a dying tradition! So we ordered some online and surprised everyone.

The spoils... Luis and my piles!!! Jax and Jake got spoiled too! And we are going to have a mini Christmas once we get to Mom and Dave's!!!

And this is my lighter... getting slowly closer to blonde hair! I always like blonde highlights on other people but it scares me on my own hair!

Merry Christmas in Advance

Just a quick post to say I might not be blogging for a while! Tomorrow we leave for Charlotte for 10 days. Then Luis flies home and I drive up to DC area for 10 days. I don't know how much time I will have to blog, but I wanted to make sure I hopped on and said Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We are planning on driving straight through the night so I am frantically packing and finishing quilts! I am exhausted so say a little prayer that we will be wide awake tomorrow night... and that we can avoid this winter storm everyone is talking about! Can't wait to see everyone!

Jackson Funny

I was working at some health events this month and had a babysitter from the ward watching the boys during the day. I came home one day last week and she was in the living room with Jake and told me Jax was in the bathroom. It was really quite in there so I asked if he had been in there long. I went in there and Jackson was in front of the mirror using my MASCARA! It was hilarious but obviously dangerous so I tried to keep a straight face. I don't know how long he had been there, but this is what he looked like after...

Not too bad! He has such beautiful eyelashes anyways, he has no need for mascara ;)

Dentist Disaster!

So many disasters! :) Last week I noticed a black spot in between Jackson's molars. Not cool! I got him a dentist appt with my dentist. It is a great office. Jackson is terrified of doctors though. When I got him to the appt, he was screaming and crying so bad that the dentist said he couldn't see him. So they referred us to a pediatric dentist. We had our appt yesterday. Equal amount of freaking out, but they got the job done... with a wonderful and patient staff... and me holding him in my lap with all 4 limbs wrapped around him... as tightly as possible! He is one strong 5 year old! The result? A cavity. UGH! I feel so guilty! No more sugar for him! Poor thing. Now he has to endure another dentist appt. The good news is that Luis will be going with him. Luis controls him a lot better. They will be able to give him laughing gas so he will hold still enough for the filling. It was crazy and exhausting but we made it through it. So far Luis has only heard me tell of how scared and crazy Jackson get's at the doctors... now he will experience it for himself! Poor Jackson has just had some really rough experiences at the doctor... I would be scared too... but enough is enough! That's where daddy comes in. I will be chilling at home with Jake! :)

Choir Disaster

I really like to sing. If I am by myself. I used to want to be a singer, when I was younger... and then I realized that I have extreme, and I mean EXTREME stage fright. I don't even have to be on stage... just having someone around me freaks me out. Even Luis hasn't heard me REALLY sing. Only my children who ride in the car with me! I can sing at church, because there are tons of voices. I sang in church choir in San Antonio with Mom... and realized it is a very frustrating experience. Here is the thing... I have an alto range but I don't know how to read music and I can't sing alto if I am around supranos singing the melody! I just can't make my voice NOT sing what the supranos are singing! So since then I have avoided choirs. Our ward choir director is a little old lady and she called me up on Saturday night and guilt-tripped me into agreeing to sing in the choir for the Christmas song next sunday. UGH! I couldn't say no! Sure enough, it was a disaster. I started out with the supranos, because I knew even though I can't hit all the high notes at least I would know the part. Fail! So I moved down to the altos... Disaster again. I tried my best to listen to Lisa, who has a beautiful alto voice, and follow her. But I couldn't! How embarrassing! I just hummed and fake sang my way through 30 minutes of practice! Luis was kind enough to help me practice at home last night, and I think I will have to practice every night... but I still can't do it very well, because he is there! Isn't it sad that I can't sing in front of my own husband? The frustrating part is that if I am by myself I have a decent voice! As one of my young women in excellence projects I am trying to relearn piano and I think I am going to throw in there learning to sing in front of others. Wish me luck!

Random

Well, Luis was released as Assistant Scout Master and called as Scout Master and 1st Counselor in YMs. So he is going to be pretty busy. It's... interesting... having him in YM and me in YW... it makes Wed night activities very crazy, with the boys being handed off. We were just asked if Jacob would be Angel Gabriel in the ward Christmas party program. Not a speaking part, but I think it will be very cute. Mom and Dave gave Jackson a gift card for his birthday and he had a lot of fun picking out... MORE hotwheels cars! He got two and let Jacob get one. Then we went and he picked out some new shoes! He really wanted a hot wheels track, but we have so many already! So of course his second choice to get the cars. Luis put up Christmas lights last week. It looks so nice! We even have a remote control so we don't have to go outside to turn them on/off! Amazing! It hasn't snowed yet :( I am going to be working about 6 health events this month, so our boys are going to be spending a lot of time with their awesome babysitter, Kailey! We are excited to be going back east for Christmas! We will be in Charlotte for about 10 days and then Luis flies home and I will drive up to DC with the boys and will stay there for about 10 more days. I can't wait. We decided to drive my car, which has bad gas mileage but my heater actually works, unlike Luis', and I have all wheel drive... in case I end up driving through snow. So we chose the safer, more exensive route :) Ugh! Oh well, if Luis' math is right it is only $90 more expensive. I can handle that to avoid flipping my SUV in the snow :) Happy December!

Becky's Quilt

I made Becky a 9 and 25 patch scrap quilt for her birthday. I have had everything done except the quilting for about 6 months. I picked lime green as the main color of course! Beckys bedroom back home is lime green. All of the scraps for this quilt were from Mom's stash. It was fun to go through and pick out the fabrics I would use. I love the randomness of the quilt. It was a little stressful to make because there is no way to tell how it will look! There is no rhyme or reason! I cut out 930 2 inch squares for this quilt! Quilting it at Christine's was fun. I had set aside about 3 hours for the job but it only took me 1.5 hours! I was shocked! If I had known how quick it would have been I would have done more detail, like 5 wavy lines instead of 3 in each rectangle. I was having issues with the machine to. It kept jerking and freezing up on me. Not cool. At one point it completely ruined a heart! I had to go over the entire thing again. So I apologize becky for some of the shaky quilting... the machine was in a mood! :Then, there were a few scraps of fabric that bled in the wash. Even with a color catcher! I was so bummed about that! Thank goodness I didn't use more of it! I bound the quilt in a cute purple polka dot fabric. I wanted this quilt to be happy and bubbly, just like Becky and I think it turned out just the way I had in mind. Love you, Becky!

Jackson can read!

We started Hooked on Phonics kindergarten level this week. Jackson has done the lesson about 3 different days. He picked it right up! I was so happy because I was struggling with how to get him to understand it all... just reading on our own! Thanks heavens for hooked on phonics! They did it for me! He watches a little 2 minute video and then reads from the workbook and then a few other books. He loves it. I think he really feels smart! Here is proof! At one point I put my finger over the microphone... sorry, I eventually take it off :)

Black Friday Deals... already!

I went Black Friday Shopping for the first time ever tonight! By myself! And I loved it! I got everything I went for! Our boys love the Vreader we got them last year for Christmas, so they had them on sale at Walmart for $20. So I showed up about 45 minutes early tongiht and got my place right in front of the pallet with the vreaders. I had fun chatting with the other moms. About 5 minutes to 8 employees said go and I grabbed that vreader and slowly (but faster than some people with carts) made my way over to the jammies, where I got one pair for each of the boys. Then I saw hot wheels... not on my list but always a good idea... so I grabbed a pack of those. 9 cars for $5! Yeah. I had also wanted to get a bike for Jake's birthday in Jan but I had given up hope because the bikes were swarmed even before I got there! But I figured I would check just to be safe! I'm glad I did because I found one Jake's size! So I grabbed that! A nice man let me take his cart so I didn't have to carry all that. I made my way to check out and called Luis and asked if I got 2 hot wheels packs. I said no they can share and I checked out. But then I felt bad and asked if I could take my cart of paid for items with me to get one more pack. They said yes so I made my way through the mess of people to get one more hot wheels pack :) It was fun. So I paid for that and was out of there before 8:30! Amazing and really fun! I might have to do this again next year. Luis went over to Sports Authority to get in line. They give gift cards to the first 80 people in line, but apparently sports are bigger here than in the valley, because he has gone every year so far and never has much competition... when he got there tonight there were already more than 80 people! So he is on his way home now. Good, he needs his sleep! He has to work tomorrow! We enjoyed a nice dinner, just the four of us. I am stuffed! We didn't have turkey. We had pulled pork! Yum! But we had traditional sides! Funeral potatoes, stuffing, green beans, rolls, jello, cranberry! And I made apple crisp! I am thankful for so many things! My wonderful, hard-working husband! My beautiful and challenging children! Our health! My home and material blessings! My Savior and the gospel! Supportive and loving family! Too much to mention! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! ******It's officially the Christmas season! Yeah!!! Bring on the Christmas carols!!!****** Here are a couple of random pics.

This is Jackson very excited about a $5 bill from Liz for his bday! He spent it on... drumroll.... CARS!

And one more funny... A long time ago Kaylee gave me a book called "Crazy about my sister". Lately the boys have liked reading that book. Just now Jacob was walking to the bathroom and he tripped over the book. I asked if he was ok and he said in a pouty voice, "No, I tripped over my sister!" HAHAHHAHA

A few funnies

We decided to get out of the house today! (Luis gets home tomorrow! yay!) We went to Sams club and Schnucks... which was doubling coupons. I Was searching for Thanksgiving dinner because I don't like turkey and it is just going to be the four of us. I found it! For $1.99. I got the Lloyds bbq tub! It is normally $6.99 on sale for $3.99 and I had a $1 off coupon which they doubled! Yeah! So we will have bbq with all the normal thanksgiving sides! Funeral potatoes, green beans, rolls, jello, stuffing... and apple crisp for dessert. (Because I have gone off sweets... because I am an addict. No joke there! and I figured apple crisp is healthier than pie... not sure if it's true, but I like the sound of it!) A few funny things happened. The boys were riding in the front of one of the truck carts and when we got out to my car, Jackson was complaining about his bum. I looked and it was soaking wet! I was shocked that he would pee his pants! Then I realized it wasn't him! Jake had peed his pants and they were sitting on the same seat. Jackson kept saying "Jake peed on me!" and he was really freaked out by that! When we got home I wanted Jackson to try a golden tomato. They are like cherry tomatoes only golden :) And they are very sweet and delicious. They were selling packs for $1!!! Normally $4! So I bought some. I thought he might like them because they are sweet, but I think he was expecting something truly sweet! After finally convincing him to try it he rolled it around in his mouth for a while, having fun with a little ball sized food... then he bit into it and started bawling and spit it out! Poor kid... I guess he was expecting candy flavor and got tomato :) Jake loved them though, and can't get enough!

Presents

I love Christmas! And I love buying presents for people. I don't like the stress of wondering whether they will like it as much as I hope... (I have been wrong before... Just ask Luis... I got him a kitchenaid when he thought he was getting a PS3! Oops!) But I love the idea of giving someone something they will love. So, 'tis the season to start Christmas shopping and it's so much fun! But until then... It was Jackson's birthday on Tuesday. It was a busy day. We went to the Y in the morning and then went straight to a friends house so I could watch her son while she took a sister we visit teach to the doctor. Well, it lasted about 5 hours instead of the 2 I was anticipating... so we were kind of rushed getting home and getting cupcakes made. (Don't judge me Derek!) I wanted to do red and yellow cupcakes for Jax because we had bought Lightning McQueen candies to go on top of them. Well, like I expected, the red food coloring wasn't turning it red. So we actually had pink and yellow cupcakes... more like a baby shower than a Cars birthday. But Jax didn't care! He love them anyway! My big boy is 5! And the biggest 5 year old I know! No one believes he isn't in school! He wanted quesadillas and chips for dinner, so he got it! Then we opened presents. He and Jacob both opened robes we got them. It's so cold here we just didn't want to wait til Christmas! The boys feel so cool wearing them! He opened a soccer goal from Grandma Weger. I know that will get put to good use! :) Then Jackson opened his helmet. He was excited about that and we began questionning him "Why do you need a helmet?" And he said "to ride a bike". And we said "Do you have a bike?" "No" "Maybe if you look around you can find one!" So Luis led him around the house to look for a bike while I went into the garage to capture the video! It was funny because I could here them talking and Jax ended up sitting on the couch frustrated because he couldn't find it. Luis helped him with the idea to look inthe garage. By the end of the search he began wondering where is Mommy? He was so excited when he saw it. It is such a big bike! We got an 18" because the 16" was pretty much perfect size, almost too small... and we know he is growing fast. His knees were almost to his elbows. So although it's a little big, he can ride it, and he will grow into it fast. Luis was great and stayed up late to put on training wheels. I am going to try and see if I can get the video to upload later. Thanks to everyone who skyped. He had a great birthday!

Let's see if this video works! He doesn't actually find the bike until after 2:00.

Winter Hats

We realized we are unprepared for the cold weather. I think a lot of our gloves and scarves ended up in Virginia with mom... because I can't find them. So we went out and bought hats and gloves. We let the boys choose. Jackson of course chose Lightning McQueen and Jacob chose Scooby Doo!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Entry

As such a new quilter it is intimidating to even post with some of the bloggers I follow! They are so amazing! But it is inspirational! I have been quilting for a year now. I am submitting my favorite quilt in my short quilting career!

I made this throw for my own couch and am so pleased with how it turned out! It was quite a process. I started out with brown, navy, white and red fabrics but after cutting them all and laying it out... it just wasn't what I was going for! That's when I saw the gorgeous turqouis fabric at my neighbor's quilt shop. It fit perfectly! Just what I had in mind. This was also my first time quilting with half-square triangles and it was so fun! There are a lot of imprefections but I was really surprised by how many corners actually met up! I was running out of fabric for the back but I was able to fit every last scrap in to make it just the right size! I really enjoyed creating the back for this quilt. My friend, Carol Burkhalter, offered to quilt it on her computerized long arm and it turned out better than I could ever imagine! It is beautiful, thanks to her great quilting designs. So there you have it, my favorite quilt in 1 year of quilting! Hope you all like it! And I apologize for the poor photography :)

Quilt Details -Pieced by Me -Quilted by Carol Burkhalter -Quilt measures 58x58 -Best Category: Throw quilt, Professionally quilted

Hiding and Halloween

I just had to take a picture of this! Our garbage pick up was this morning and this is what I found after they left! They put our neighbors can inside ours! WHY??? Now I don't know whose responsibility this is! :) Do I have to take my neighbors can out and leave it in his yard, or does he have to come get it! Nasty!

My kids are in a hiding phase. That's Jackson under the quilt... and again under the blanket in the car.

And my little penguin and skeleton. They had so much fun at trunk or treat. We had hot chocolate and they got too much candy. It was fun to hand out candy, usually I walk around with the boys, so this was new for me. Luis and I didn't dress up. We are also planning on handing some out Wednesday night, but we don't have much left. Probably the equivalent of one bag. Hope you all have a great Halloween... with lots of treats and not so many tricks!

Misc...

First of all... did anyone know how damaging Purell is to finished wood? I found out. Remember the dresser I found the boys at a garage sale in great condition? Here is what it looks like now. After the boys pumped pretty much the whole bottle of purell on to it. Not cool.

And who ever thought I would be such a homemaker? The velcro came completely off of the top strap of Jacob's shoe, so I sewed it back on!!!

Jacob has seen Jackson do school time and decided he wants to join in. Look at how awesome his letters are! With no help at all! Not even 3 years old! What a smartie!

Last Saturday we had a lot of fun together. We all went to the park and played some soccer. Then we played at the playground. Jacob got sad very quickly because Jackson kept stealing the ball. But then when Luis would steal the ball from Jax, Jax would get mad. It was pretty funny. Here are some cute pics. Oh, and yesterday I took the boys to the park for a picnic. First picnic ever. It was 80 degrees and since it is mid October I figured it might be the last chance to enjoy warm weather. So we ate sandwiches and chips and played!

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Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I really wanted to feel the holiday spirit! It's never too early for Luis and me. We are already listening to Christmas music. I decided on Saturday to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I used a recipe I found online. I was expecting a lot of pumpkin flavor so when I tried one, I thought it was a little bland. I would have also liked it to be a little sweeter. A friend on facebook recommended a super easy recipe. (1 box of spice cake mix, 1 can of pumpkin, chocolate chips!) I am going to attempt that recipe this weekend. I am hoping it's a little sweeter since it uses a cake mix. This is the one I used. Ingredients: 1 cup canned pumpkin 1 cup white sugar 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1 egg 2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon milk 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional) Directions: 1.Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well. 2.Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts. 3.Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm. ---Even though I wasn't the biggest fan of my cookies... the boys are! Jackson and Jake devoured them! He asks me for one every 5 minutes! I am totally surprised! I thought he wouldn't go for them! It makes me really happy! Here's a pic of the boys enjoying their cookies... and Jake giving you a great view!