Moving!!!

I hate moving! I am so grateful to the men who came to help out... and Ethan of course! We got the keys on Friday and on Saturday morning we moved all our stuff in. We like our little duplex. It's a cozy little space... I've been worried about the boys being in a smaller house after living with Luis' parents and them my parents. They are used to being able to run in circles around the whole house. This will be different for them. There is someone here working on my dishwasher right now so hopefully that will be fixed soon. The other BIG thing is that after we got all our stuff moved in and took off our shoes and relaxed, we realized the carpet is FILTHY!!! We knew it is cheap carpet, it looks like office carpet. I am ok with that, but I'm not ok with carpet that turns our socks and feet black... yes, black, no exaggeration. When the property manager opened up on Tuesday morning I brought Jackson's socks and showed them how disgusting the carpet is!!! The looks on their faces were priceless! So this morning a man came and cleaner our carpet, but he did not look very optimistic... he pretty much said that this type of carpet doesn't clean well... all I have to say is if it isn't better tomorrow, the owner better be replacing the carpet or I am out!!! I have no interest in getting our clothes and couch cushions and blankets turned black. No thank you. There is part of the lease that says if the owner doesn't fix major repairs it is grounds to terminate the lease... I consider this incredibly dirty carpet a pretty big deal. Am I making a big deal out of nothing??? I mean... seriously black!!! I would attach a picture but the cable is at Mom's house. Anyway, please let me know if I have unrealistic expectations by wanting a clean carpet... I had a great birthday and will do a post on it soon. Still getting things organized over here.

Transformation!

I am so excited that I actually did it! I have been talking for a long time about getting my hair cut and colored. (Btw, my last haircut in McAllen was horrible and uneven, as you can see in the picture but I never bothered to go get it fixed.) I have always hated that people think I am so young. Almost every client I have at the Y ends up telling me in some way that they thought I was a teenager... I will actually be 26 next week. So, I did it. I was going for an older, professional look and I am completely in love with the results! I went to the salon that Mom recommended and had a great stylist. I was unsure about the highlights because I've never done it, but she gave me exactly what I wanted... subtle but noticeable in good lighting. I also went shopping for some clothes to update my wardrobe and make it more professional... and combined with what Liz gave me I think I have some great outfits! Here are some pictures from my little photoshoot! Please keep in mind that I am a horrible model :)

The Before Pictures... awful!

The after pictures!

This is my favorite outfit... probably not for work but just for fun. I didn't like this shirt on the manequin but Luis made me try it on and it was adorable! I also bought some dressy jeans which are hard to see... I might be in love with NY&Co.

I love these grey plaid pants! They have blue lines in them which work great with this sweater Liz gave me. (Luis hated the pants til he saw me in them :)

Just a cute work outfit

Liz gave me this black shirt also, very cute!

A close up... my new sephora makeup... with the eyeliner that doesn't move! The most waterproof thing I have ever seen! And notice... I am actually wearing lipstick! See, it really is a transformation! I also got some khaki slacks and Luis got me a pretty black dress for mothers day. May is a good month for me. Anniversary, Mother's Day, and my birthday!

A year in quilts!

I am going to post my quilting goals so that I will hopefully stick to them! There are pretty much 4 steps to a quilt. The piecing the top quilt, the backing, doing the actual quilting (sewing the 3 layers together) and binding it. When I say completely finished I mean all of these are done and trust me, it always takes longer than I expect... so I am giving myself deadlines :) I want to finish the top quilt for Becky by Memorial Day, so less than a week... I think it's doable! I want to finish the entire quilt by mid-June. This has been an awesome experience because it is my first scrap quilt and it was a bit stressful but it was also fun because it required a little bit more creativity on my part. Next I will begin the quilt for Liz and Alan, I want it finished in July so I can give it to them at her graduation in Sept. I'm very excited about this quilt! Next I will begin either Jacob's quilt or Lew's quilt. I was planning this quilt to be "Silvia and Lew's" but I have since realized that Silvia has very different taste so this will just be for Lew and I have a different pattern in mind for Silvia, but it will take a long time, so sorry... don't expect it anytime soon! Anyway, one of those quilts I hope to finish in August/September! I also have a quilt in mind for Nana which I would love to have done by Christmas. I am pretty much anticipating 1-2 months per quilt! A woman in the ward offered to quilt one of mine for free on her longarm machine! I am definitely going to take her up on that offer and have her quilt the throw that I have just sitting in the corner. I have the top quilt and backing and batting all ready to be quilted! I am searching for a sewing machine and the search is almost over. I have one last dealer to visit today and hopefully I can make a decision after that. I can't wait to be able to do free-motion quilting on my machine. That means the beautiful quilting that I did on Aubry's quilt, on the longarm machine, I will be able to do on my own home sewing machine! Can't wait!!!!

Fun on Saturday

This past Saturday we had a lot of great family time. It started bright and early at 6am with a garage sale! It was pretty successful... there were some clothes and books and the really old TV that mom took to Goodwill afterwards. We found out that this coming Saturday is a neighborhood garage sale... so Mom is going to put out her leftovers. After the garage sale Luis and I went swimming with the boys at the Y. It was so much fun! They loved it. It was their first time being in a big pool instead of a baby pool. I bought them arm floaties and the inflatable tube to wear. It was a blast. They loved the Cars2 swim trunks from Grandma Weger. I had to role up Jake's at the waist because he is just too skinny, even for the 2T! We were swimming for over an hour and those poor boys didn't want to leave. But we went home and then we went with Mom and Ethan to Red Robin to spend some of our garage sale money! It was delicious! Luis and Ethan took the boys home so Mom and I could run to Walmart to get last minute items for Mother's Day dinner and dessert. After the boys were in bed I continued my Star Wars education with Episode 5... Next week... #6 and I can finally say I have seen Star Wars! I fell asleep during all the Yoda business, but I got the gist of it! Overall a great day and can't wait to go swimming with those boys again! Here are some pictures of the boys in their new trunks. Also, Jacob decided to be Mr. Potato Head :)

Pictures

Happy Mother's Day everyone. I wanted to get pictures today. I feel like I have very few pictures of me and my family... because I am always the one taking pictures! So today I wanted to be in some! After tons of tries these are the best ones. I hate trying to get my kids to look good in pictures. It's very frustrating! Luis and Ethan made French toast for us for breakfast and Luis got me some Caramel candy. YUM! He is currently putting BOTH boys down for a nap so I can have some quiet time and quilt! Awesome present! (Oh, while I was in Chicago Liz gave me a bunch of her clothes... including a cute red peacoat! This green shirt is one of hers! I love it!)

Decluttering memories

Since Mom will be moving soon she has been going through a lot of old things. She decided it was about time to throw out a bunch of our old school work that she has kept. It was so fun to go through it with her. Some of it she just couldn't part with so she still has a little stash. Here are some of my favorites :)

I thought it was cute how Kaylee wrote her name... kind like how Jackson does his... on 2 lines.

This was Izzy's. I could not stop laughing when I read this. I love how her sentence just disintegrates into gibberish!

Lost Vagise = Las Vegas! Mom thinks this was Megan or Mel.

Ahhhh... we found Megan's old quiet book! It is the exact same pattern mom is using for her Grandkids!

A calender I made. Sweet huh?

Look at my crappy drawing! Why didn't I inherit any of Dad's art abilities???

The sweetest thing ever! Doesn't that just melt your heart Dad?

Jackson finally fits into some of the clothes Silvia brought from Guatemala a long time ago. I learned my lesson and will wash them with jeans and a color catcher. When I washed Mama Toni's skirt (trying to be nice...) it turned my whole load blue... they use some strong dye down there :)

Link up

Stop by Liz and Alan's blog for more pictures of the family in Chicago! Plus, she mentions Jackson funnies that I totally forgot! Let's see if the link works! www.abrstandards.blogspot.com

Chicago

We had a great time in Chicago with Liz and Alan. My camera was being really annoying and wasn't focusing right, so hopefully Liz got some good shots on her nice camera. We went up on Sunday morning after church. We had a relaxing day watching "Planet Earth"... which the boys LOVED... Jackson wanted to watch anything with fishes the entire trip. Liz made us a great dinner of salad and spaghetti and meatballs. YUM!!! We had a lot of fun catching up with them. On Monday morning we went with Alan to a bagel shop and had yummy bagel sandwiches. Alan liked it so much we went back on Tuesday morning :) After Liz got done with work around noon we all went to Portillo's which is famous for their Chicago style hot dogs. They were delicious. Jackson was a little thrown off by the poppy seeds on the bun, but Liz did her best to get them off... Jake's favorite part was the fries! Then we headed to Shedd's Aquarium in the city. It was the first time the boys have ever been to an aquarium and they loved it... more than the zoo I think. They just love fish! We didn't buy the bracelet which would have let us into the special exhibits, but we ended up going to some because they weren't marked and no one told us we couldn't go... so Luis did the math and said we saved about $90 by not buying those bracelets but seeing the stuff anyways! Oops. I think my favorite part, and the boys favorite were the beluga whales. They would swim right up to the glass and it would scare Jacob but then they would both get really excited. Luis' favorite was the penguins of course! There was this super cute penguin play place where they could put on costumes and the boys had so much fun. They didn't want to leave! The star fish were hiding so the boys couldn't reach them, but they got to play with the plastic ones :) After the aquarium we went to Gino's East for Chicago style pizza! SOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOD! Kaylee, tell Bryan that we ate dinner where Justin Bieber did... he signed a picture on the wall :) We went home and hung out all night! It was sad to say goodbye in the morning. The boys were pretty good on the ride there and back. Jacob had fun putting his snack, Wheat Thins, between his toes! I feel like I'm forgetting a bunch of stuff, but we really had a great time and can't wait to go back to the city again to do more touristy stuff... unfortunately Liz and Alan won't be there! They are moving to Charlotte and we will really miss them!

Update

Well we had a lot of fun the week since Daddy's been back. We went to Chicago to say goodbye to Liz and Alan, but that is a whole post on it's own... I will try to get to that tomorrow. We have been planning on making lots of fun trips to the Y pool this summer. Grandma Weger bought the boys matching Cars swim trunks. So we all went and bought flip flops and as soon as I find a swimsuit we will be ready to go! I want one from target and am just waiting to find it in my size! The boys were very excited about their new shoes and they want to wear them everywhere! We went to some garage sales on Saturday and got a great deal on a dresser for the boys. It was the whole reason we went. We got an 8 drawer dresser for $10 and the lady threw in the Big Rig for the boys for free! Sweet! I also got a 4 qt pressure cooker for $3 :) We move into our new place on May 25th and I can't wait to see if all our furniture fits!!!

Hail Storm

Last week Luis drove all our stuff from storage in Texas here to Illinois! I am so happy to have all my wonderful things! (I actually have to go through it all and see what I can garage sale this weekend!) We had a friend come over and help unload the truck... Right when we got everything packed into the garage a major storm started. We were lucky we were done. It was a pretty bad storm. Scary tornado sirens and all that, but the worst part was the hail. Both our cars and Mom's car got really bad hail damage. The insurance adjuster just called Luis and his car is totaled. My car will be repaired but the quotes are about $5000 in damages. It's a good thing we have insurance :) Here are some pictures of the hail and the leaves that were torn from the tree!