Seffner Ward Relief Society: September's Relief Society Activity

Seffner Ward Relief Society: September's Relief Society Activity: "For a Hootin' Hollerin' Good TimeMoooove Yourself on Over to the RS Service Auction and Dinner Tuesday, September 7th at 6:30pIn the Cultura..."

Seffner Ward Relief Society: A Little Tutorial

Seffner Ward Relief Society: A Little Tutorial: "Some of you may have noticed that the Ensign has had a little remodel. The messages meant to be used by Home and Visiting Teachers have been..."

Seffner Ward Relief Society: Physically and Spiritually Prepared

Seffner Ward Relief Society: Physically and Spiritually Prepared: "Alright, I'll admit it. I was late. Twenty minutes late to be exact, to Tuesday night's activity. Therefore, I wasn't eligible for this mont..."

My, Oh My, July, July

We have made it to the end of July in one piece! Woo Hoo!

Here is a brief summary of this month's events:

We started the month off with Kaitlyn's 3rd Birthday Party. It was a ton of fun! (Thanks to all those who participated!) Due to the insane heat of Florida during the summer, a pool party was a must. Kaitlyn swam a total of 8 hours that day. That girl loves the water.

We had a "Cars meets Toy Story" theme. Kaitlyn loves those movies. She made off with quite the haul that day due to all of our uber generous family and friends. We had a cupcake tree for her to blow out candles, but apparently that doesn't count as a cake because she keeps reminding us that she didn't have a birthday cake. Never mind the hours Mommy spent making seventy something cupcakes. Sigh.

Kaitlyn has an unmatched love and adoration for Jesse and Bullseye.

In Baby News, Zachary started scooting like a mad man in June and has become a pro at sitting up. As of yesterday, he has started crawling on his hands and knees occasionally. Below is a picture of how I often find him after his naps. Look at that face!

Once we reached the middle of the month, it was time to celebrate Jake's 32nd Birthday with some apple cake and bowling!

As you can see, he could hardly contain himself.

This was Katie's second trip to a bowling alley. The first trip resulted in her attempting to bolt down the lane and slamming down, head first, onto the hardwood. This visit was much more successful. The only tears came when it was time to leave.

Katie's favorite hangout was at the ball return. I can imagine they work like magic to little kids.

She made sure to give everyone a high-five after each of their turns, no matter if it was a gutter ball or strike.

Katie loved when it was her turn, even though she almost always got a gutter. She would shout, "I win! I win!"

Since Zachary has become such a pro at sitting up, it was time to move from the kitchen sink, to the bathtub with his big sister!

Zack loves it! I often find him crawling to the bathroom.
He wants to spend all of his time in the tub!

Here are some shots of him scooting around. He is just so adorable and always smiling...

or drooling.

One night last week I went out to run an errand. This was the angelic face awaiting me when I returned home.

He was so out he didn't even flinch from the camera flashes.

But here are some more of the Pudgers, playing with his favorite toy, his sister's Mac truck.
He is such a stinker. But how can you fuss at that sweet face?!

Last week we went to Anna Maria to leech off of a friend and her beach rental. It was a beautiful beach day. I, of course, left my camera in the bag at the condo instead of taking it with me to the beach, so I have no pictures to share. Zack didn't love the noise and waves of the ocean, but he loved wading in the pool. I am guessing it reminded him of bath time. Kaitlyn also preferred the pool to the beach that day. She has become a pretty good swimmer and insisted on jumping in the pool and swimming from one side to the other with help from her Grammie.

Yesterday was my 27th birthday. Jake and I celebrated it Saturday by going to dinner and a movie. We saw "Despicable Me". Two thumbs way, WAY up! It was fantastic! Super funny and super sweet.



We then went to one of my favorite places that we don't get to go to often because it is on the other side of Tampa. It is called TooJay's Deli, and they have the best chocolate layer cake and brisket dip. Yum! Jake's mom spoiled me yesterday with a delicious flank steak, crashed hot potatoes, strawberry mandarin salad, and chocolate molten lava cakes.

I have decided, I am going on a diet and starting an exercise regime.

Zachary's Quilt

I was cleaning up my room after watching the Hoarders marathon yesterday, and found my sketch pad still out in a stack of papers on top of our scanner. I had been meaning to post about my latest (and by latest, I mean last year's) quilting adventure and still hadn't done it.

The first "quilt" I ever made was for my baby girl. I was determined to sew each square by hand, and I did. Right now that quilt sits folded in my daughter's closet, shredding at multiple seams. So much for a cherished heirloom.
Dang it.

When I attempted Zachary's quilt, I planned on using my sewing machine. I was also determined not to do all squares. I had been saving this adorable dinosaur fabric since before Zack was even a twinkle in my eye. I wanted to incorporate more triangles in his quilt. Dinosaur scales, triangles, it makes sense to me. Anyway, I searched the internet for "dinosaur quilts" and "geometric quilt patterns" but never found anything I really thought would work for me and my novice sewing abilities. So, I pulled out a pad of graph paper and got sketching. This is what I ended up with:

I also ended up finding a second dinosaur flannel online. The fabric is actually titled, "Sporty Reptiles", but some of them look like dinosaurs. I paired it with my saved dino fabric, some textured greens, a polka dot orange flannel, and a yellow flannel. I cut all of the pieces with pinking shears and prayed that my sewing machine's stitches would hold up better than my own. A lot of the corners don't meet up, some of the fabric was more elastic than I had realized; and the over all "look" ended up being a little more colorful than I thought, but c'est la vive. I'm very new at this.

I have no idea what a professional quilter would think of this. I'm sure I don't adequately understand the idea of color theory in the world of quilting. But in the end, I'm happy with how it turned out. It now hangs over the back of Zack's crib and he chews on the satin binding quite frequently.

Hopefully, a year from now, it won't be shredding at the seams and stuck away in the closet like poor Katie's quilt.

Zachary,

my pudgy little angel?

Yes, Mama?

Do you know that you are 6 months old today?

I am? What does that mean?

That means you can stop growing now. You're sleeping better at night, you're eating yummy food, you are rolling everywhere... you are getting too big. You can slow it down now.

What if I don't want to? I want to get moving! I've got to follow my Sissy around!

She gets to do all of the fun stuff and has all of the fun toys.

She gets to eat all of those yummy deserts!

I want chocolate.

Your time will come Pudgers.

It will?!

Most excellent!

Stupid Silly Bands!

I find you everywhere!

Regression or Something Shiny?

I finally got a bumper for Zack's crib last week. We kept finding him with a leg or an arm hanging out between the bars.

Since the new addition, almost every night we go to put Zack down to sleep, we find Kaitlyn has crawled into Zack's crib and curled up with his quilt. She brings along her own pillow and stuffed animals. Apparently, she has decided his crib is cooler than her toddler bed. She is such a stinker.

Free Rice!

I was on the Pioneer Woman's website today and she posted a link to this website, FreeRice.com. FreeRice is a website where users play various educational, multiple-choice games in order to fight world hunger. For every answer the user answers correctly, 10 grains of rice are donated. The games include English vocabulary (the game the site began with), multiplication tables, pre-algebra, chemistry (basic and intermediate), English grammar, basic foreign language vocabulary for English speakers (French, German, Italian, and Spanish), geography (world capitals and country identification), and identification of famous artwork.

I've already been donating while relaxing.
It's a win-win situation.

Yummy, Yummy In My Tummy!

Excuse me, Seffner Publix? Why have you been holding out? Why was I not informed that you have gelato in your freezer before now? I have been a patron of your store since I was a small child. What do you have to say for yourself?


After all, you have been missing out on years of profit from my gelato addiction. And the Talenti Raspberry Sorbet had me flashing back to Chantilly, France. Sheesh. You should be ashamed of yourself.