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!

Skyping

We had a lot of fun skyping with LizAlan last night. It was the first time we told the boys that we will be going to their house for Christmas. Well, they were VERY excited about that idea. That's all they have talked about! We put the boys to bed after our conversation and around 11pm Jackson woke up... probably to go potty, but he wandered out to where Luis was still doing homework at the computer and started asking us when we are going to Liz and Alan's house! As soon as he woke up this morning, he came out to find me and said, "Mom, we are going to Liz and Alan's house!" It was hilarious! He reminds me of this fact every few minutes and I try to get him to understand that it is still 2 months away! I just thought it was funny how even in his groggy sleepiness he remembers that he is going to Liz and Alan's house! Can't wait til Christmas.

Birthdays coming up!

I love holidays, and I love birthdays. Jackson's birthday is November and Jacob's is January. So both of them are coming up pretty quick. I asked Jackson last night what he wanted for his birthday dinner and he said quesadillas! OK! Then I asked him if he wanted cake or cupcakes. He wants cupcakes. So Jacob wanted to talk about his birthday of course, and told me that he wants a birthday cake and cupcakes for dinner! :) Wise guy! Would it be weird to get Jackson a bike for his birthday... in a cold Illinois winter? He is going to want to ride it all the time but it will be so cold! I really want him to have a bike but don't want to just randomly get him one next summer, it feels like it should be a present! Once it gets really cold playgroup moves to the church cultural hall... the kids bring their bikes and I think Jax really wants one. He did last year. But it is only once a week. What do you think? Then I could get Jake a little bike too for his birthday. Another thing... it was cute. We have been reading scriptures with the boys everynight using these books. They have the stories and tons of pictures.

Well, we were reading about Lehi's son, Jacob, and my Jacob was so excited to hear his name! Everytime we read the name Jacob he would smile so big and giggle at the sound of his own name in the scriptures! I liked that because this is the Jacob that inspired me to choose Jacob as his name!

Just some random stuff... Let's see, Jackson's soccer season ends this week. It seems short, but I'm kinda glad. It was very hectic on soccer nights, trying to make them rush dinner... I can only imagine what it will be like with more kids, and all of them doing soccer or some other activity. Luis had to go back to the dermatologist again to have his finger worked on again. He had a big blood blister, I forget what it's called, but they have to burn it off. Well, it came back, so he had to have it burned off again. I really hope it's gone for good. He has a bandage on his finger and yesterday Jackson got a nice big cut on his finger and he was comforted by the idea that now he has a bandaid like Daddy! :)

When Liz and Silvia were here we found these minion shirts and I bought them because I wanted the boys to be minions for halloween. But I can't find the overalls that would have fit Jake, so I kinda scrapped the idea. The boys love the shirts though. I think this year we are just going to recycle costumes. We have a penguin costume that Jax wore that now fits Jake and Jackson still fits in the skeleton costume from last year. What can I say, I'm cheap!