More hand me downs, Rook's Time-Out, Another Blanket and videos

Now that my sister has moved to Albequerque, yeah, no idea how to spell that, and my other sister is moving to Germany with her family, I'm feeling the need to keep up on blogging. Of course, you'd think I'd feel that already since I live away from everyone else. But summer is hard to stay up to date, plus we saw our family so many times, it was easy to delay posting.

Well Alexa is so gorgeous I can hardly stand it. I just LOVE to look at her and think who does she look like? I hate to say...oh yeah, she looks just like me...isn't she gorgeous...But then can I really say...oh yeah, she looks just like Joe...isn't she gorgeous? Danielle S hooked us up again with some sweet clothes. Alexa keeps finding new looks. What am I going to do when you move?


Alexa loves to sit in this chair and just laugh. Notice anything different about our house? We painted the whole downstairs and the halls upstairs. Trust me, it's a huge improvement. No more white, on white, on white.

Alexa is starting to say some fun things. She loves to play ring around the rosies in the pool and swims up to me and says "Ash, Ash". At least that't what I'm going to think she says. She's starting to identify her body so well. She's obsessed with her belly button. In fact, I can't dress her in onesies anymore or she gets so mad. She knows hair, hands, teeth, toes, and my nose. She can't quite find her nose yet. She's just so much fun. She loves to get a book and back up to me and sit on my lap. We went over to some friends home for dinner and we couldn't find her after a little while. We searched everywhere in their house and found her in Jaylee's (3yo) closet trying on princess shoes...yep.

Here is our sweet Rook in time out. He had to go to his room for hurting Alexa. He has quiet time everyday already and I always say, "If you're tired, just go ahead and lie down." He says, okay mom, but never does it. Well this time, he took all of his blankets and tried to hide in the closet and fell asleep. Rook is starting to really understand what it means to hurt someone and why we shouldn't do it. He gets very sad when Alexa starts to cry and he immediately tells me what he did. If I'm not out of patience already, I say "What do you think we should do about Rook hurting Alexa?" HE usually says, I'll go to my Room mom and come out when I can be nice. That lasts for about 15 seconds and then he says, "I'm ready to be nice Mom." If only...

Rook is learning to ride bikes, swim, use glue, scissors and tape, play tennis, pour the milk, and he's wants to crack the eggs too. I hate to say "you're too little to do that", but I hate to clean up messes too. Rook will be three in October and wow he's a big boy. Hopefully we can zip down to Disney land on his birthday. He gets in free right?

Joe and I are hanging in there. Joe has finals this week for the first block. ALREADY. He doesn't sleep much but does prefer to study at home. So our 3rd bedroom is the office and I try to keep the kids downstairs as best I can. So we do get to see him everyday. I know that's better than a lot of wives, so I try to not complain too much. Rook is so excited for Friday...he gets to ride bikes with dad and play tennis at the tennis courts. He uses a racquetball racquet and tries so hard to hit it over the net. We hit back and forth and usually it's Rook hit it and we go get it. But he loves it. The US Open is on right now and so we've been watching some of that. I'd really like him to learn how to play.

So when I have time, of course I enjoy sewing. I did read a book last week Stone Tables, about Moses. Enjoyed it. Joe and I are reading the Kingdom and the Crown together too. It's hard to find time because we read out loud together, but we're half way through the second book.

Here's a blanket I made for my friend Megan in the ward. I took pictures so you could see how to do it.

I started with 2 1/2 inch strips of facric and sewed them all together.

Then I cut them perpendicularly 2 1/2 inches.

Then I started to make a pattern.

Then I filled in the middle and added on the corners and sewed all the strips together.

Here's the finished product. I really wish I had carried the yellow pattern all the way through, but I'm still learning, so next time. Click on the picture so you can see how I quilted it. Diagonals through the squares and then random curves in the borders.

The back is just a green polka dot and I think it turned out pretty well. I love to help people in the ward and just finished helping Quinne S with her baby blanket. She learned to do the binding today. So if anyone is getting the hankering to try it out...it's easier than you think.

Here's Rook on his Skuut bike. It doesn't have any pedals so he learns to balance and should be able to go straight to a bike without training wheels. We got it from our friends who helped manufacture them in America. They're European, I guess, but they sell them for a lot cheaper than the European brand. Let me know if you want one and I can put you in touch with them.

I'm running along behind him, while pushing a stroller...so sorry about that. Our neighborhood is really safe by the way and he's wearing knee pads and a helmet. Please don't think I'm horrible for just letting him go down the road...

Here is some of Alexa's cuteness on video. So I'm not the best at doing her hair yet...plus she wiggles alot. I hate that I got my "irritated at Rook voice" on there...but might as well have that for remembrance eh?