OK.

We all survived! Slim Jim decided that this year that he wanted to start the tradition of a yearly family vacation. Since he and the kids had never been to Yellowstone he decided that it would be the perfect catalyst for this tradition. I agreed because Yellowstone is close to home that if something went terribly wrong we were only a couple hours from home, I knew the kids would enjoy being in the outdoors and Slim Jim would love the natural beauty the park has to offer.
I will be posting tips for visiting Yellowstone with Young Children in a couple of days when this migraine from lack of sleep goes away.Until then I will be keeping the lights down low and here are a few sneak peak pictures from our family adventure:

Love the Baby Bison.....so cute.

Norris Geyser Basin

Walking back from seeing the Artist Paint Pots

Love these trees paired with the wasteland of the geyser basin and the dark clouds in the sky.

You remember my Positive, Peaceful, Pregnancy? Well the wonderful news is that I had my baby (a month ago). Here's part 1/2 to my birth story, sorry to make you all wait.

This recipe came from a friend of mine.  She is consistent about using and replenishing her food storage.  After a week of vacation, I decided I better make something a little more nutritional/economical for dinner.  I loved this dish!

I made the lentils ahead of time(in the morning, and threw them in the fridge).  I made about 4 cups worth.  (I use the orange and green lentils-because they are prettier to look at on the shelf.

1 tbs butter,
1/4 c water
1 rough chopped(I like big chunks) onion
2 minced cloves of garlic
1 t salt
1 t turmeric
1 t cumin
1/4 t cardamon
1/4 t sugar
juice from one ripe lime

Add all of the ingredients in a fry pan (not the lentils).  (I added about a 1/4 of a t of curry- but I love curry, so I couldn't help myself :) - I liked it- but it wasn't in the original recipe)  Simmer until the onions are clear.  Then add the lentils and warm them.
This has about the consistency of re-fried beans.  We ate it on top of flour tortillas.  Yum!  I loved the lime flavor, and this new way to eat cheep food!

Yesterday when I was doing my laundry I ran into one of my favorite neighbors and a truly inspiring mom. I love reading her blog and being uplifted by her love for motherhood. I realized that I would love nothing more than to feature her thoughts on our blog.
McKenna graduated from BYU-Idaho with a Bachelors in Psychology, shortly after graduation she gave birth to her son and then 18 months later she had a beautiful little girl. She is super talented in cleaning, cooking, photography, and looking super beautiful. She is such a rock star mom and a blast to be around. And now for her inspiring words: 

Scars and love

I have always loved that Mothers day is celebrated on Sunday.

The crazed look on my kids faces are from extreme exhaustion. Church being right at naptime does that to those kiddos

Boston has recently entered the 3-6 month size and since most of the clothing that her cousin passed down to her is wintery it has given me a great excuse to make some fun spring and summery clothing.
Last night when Slim Jim was at work and the kiddos were asleep in their bed I whipped out this little number. I asked her how she liked her new shirt and this was her response.

I love those smiles.

For a 3-6 Month size you will need 1/2 yard of material (I used some scraps I had)
I started by measuring Boston's chest.
Boston's chest measurement is 17 inches. For Shirring I usually figure 1.5 times the fabric for the largest measurement (in this case the chest). Which would be 25.5", I was a little short of that but probably only by 3/4" so I went for it still. I cut the length at 8.5 inches because I wanted the ruffle to hit her at 8 inches and I knew I would be loosing 1/2" for seam allowance. I wanted my final ruffle to be an 1" in height and I would be finishing the edge with a rolled hem (if I would have been doing a traditional hem I would have made my cut at 2").  I cut my shirt on the selvage edge so I didn't have to worry about finishing the top.

Cut Chart, put the 25.5" edge on your printed selvage edge

I sewed the strips for the ruffles together with 1/2" seam allowance. Then I ran it through my ruffling foot, having it pleating every 6 stitches with a depth of 2, running my stitching at 1/4" from the edge (Don't have a Ruffling foot? Don't worry a slight gather will do the trick, I am just lazy and HATE gathering).

I then set it aside the ruffles sewed 5 rows of shirring with my elastic thread spacing them about 1/4" and starting it with 1/4" from the top of the salvage edge. (Need help with shirring? Ashley from Make It and Love it has a great tutorial for shirring)
After I had completed my shirring I folded the width in half so the right sides would be touching each other, I pinned the sides together so my shirring rows matched up. I sewed them together with my sewing machine and then finished the edges with my serger (if you don't have a serger, just finish your edges with a zig zag stitch).

I then had a tube with shirring at the top and to the bottom I pinned my ruffles. Since I did the pleating and not gathering then there was a little extra fabric that I kept on until I sewed the ruffles around and then I closed up the edges (similar process to the Home from the Hospital Outfit).
Once the ruffle was attached I top stitched the bottom of the shirt to keep the ruffle down and to give it a more finished look. I hemmed the bottom of the ruffle with a rolled hem on my serger.

I then cut 4- 5" straps and attached them with a tight zig zag stitch. 

The whole thing took me about 30 minutes, while I watched last night's episode of Glee.
And this morning I had one happy girl who was glad that her mom made the perfect comfortable top to go with her Ruffly pants (Target clearance $1.50).

I had so much fun with making the kids Valentine's outfits, I decided holiday/seasonal themed clothing would become a staple in our blog.

"What's that?" I told him it was a rock.

Then he turned to Boston and said, "Bubba, look a rock."

What was that mom... you want me to look and smile at the camera? Just way too hard.

Wonder who's in charge?

What have I learned about these photoshoots? Well that Ty will smile and look at the camera and Ryder will look confused and point out every rock, car and truck.

"Truck Mommy."

What is nearly as difficult as catching a Leprechaun? Trying to get a picture of a little boy in his Leprechaun outfit while he is playing at the park.

They were happy to be playing at the park, they didn't even realize they were the brightest thing out there.

We told them if they smiled they would get candy.

Price Tag of this Month's Sewing Adventure: $14 (this is for 3 complete outfits!)
$7 -  (6) 1/4 yrd of fabric (all the colors in the rainbow besides green)
$4 - 1 yard of Green remnant fabric
$1 - Tee Shirt
$2 - Bias Tape to finish the Dress
Want to know how we did it? Well here are some instructions, sorry there are no pictures but I don't have the time (reason why I have been up since 4:45 doing this post) to do picture tutorials but I tried to be as descriptive as possible in my instructions.
The Little Leprechaun Outfit
I used a pair of Ryder's sweatpants as a pattern. I folded them in half traced them and then added 5/8" to the sides for seam allowance. And then 1 1/4" inches to the top. To finish the top I folded the fabric over 1/4" and then another 1/2" and then ran my elastic through.
To make the rolled look on the shorts I made a very wide hem (something probably like 6-8 inches?), then I rolled the pant up to show part of the hem. Until the bottom of the shorts were just above the knee. Then I matched up my seams on the fold of the shorts with the seam on the upper part of the short and sewed on the seam ditch (this was done to keep the fold in place)
I used some heat bond to assist me in applique the bow tie on a white shirt. After I got it where I wanted it I just did a small zig zag stitch round and around, until I was satisfied with the results.
(I haven't written a tutorial for this technique because I am not really sure that I am doing this right and there are ton of great applique tutorials out there.)
Rainbow Dresses

Ty loves Boston so much good thing, there will be a baby coming to her house shortly. So that she has another baby to give attention to.

One day when I was sick with a cold, I decided to veg out on Nancy Zieman (aka Sewing with Nancy) sewing videos. One really caught my attention it was her pillow case dress made out of yardage.

After talking it through with Al, we decided this would make the perfect rainbow dress for Saint Patrick's day.

For the Dress for Ty (1 1/2yrs), we used (7) 5" strips of fabric and pieced them together with a 5/8" seam allowance. Using Nancy's Notions Pattern instructions we made a size 3 dress. The only adjustment to the her pattern I made was to only trim off 1/4" on the bottom with the serger and then did 1/2" hem. I serged all seams and each strip was top stitched at the top of the fabric strip. Our dress ended up a little longer than what was stated in the pattern but that is the way Al wanted it. Al has such a hard time finding dresses that are long enough so a long rainbow dress will be able to work for a couple of years.

I love those sweet little cheeks.

For the Dress for Boston (2 months), we used (7) 3" strips cut to a width of 30" and then pieced them together with a 5/8" seam allowance, with all edges finished with serger. I used the same 1/2" hem on her dress.
I loved Nancy's sewing trick to use bais tape and stitch in the ditch to create the ties on the dress (I think I am going to be using that trick from now on out).

I love Ryder's mischievous grin in this picture. That is totally my little man.

apparently we have had a serious lack of #2 pictures up lately, so here yah go. He really lives and loves at our house too. These are all from Jan or Feb.