Wednesdays

The last few Wednesdays have been nice and we have been having lots of fun in Livermore. We made some Easter sugar cookies. Luckily Athen doesn't really like eating them so he didn't get too hyper.

Last week the weather was so nice that Athen played in the backyard for four hours straight while my mom and I enjoyed the patio swing, some chicken salad with croissants and the beautiful weather. Crew took a nice long nap and then enjoyed the backyard with us. After about 4 hours we tried heading in and Athen threw a fit. My mom bought the grandkids a water toy for the backyard which we got out but Athen started putting dirt into it so we decided to let him dig in the dirt this time around and use it for water next time. He also followed grandma around the yard and helped her water her plants. It was a great day. I can't wait to find a house with a nice yard so these poor little boys can get out and enjoy themselves everyday.

This is what I have been up to.

Remember when I first got my sewing machine a few years ago and I decided to try and make a quilt? Well, I decided to finally finish it. When I first got my sewing machine I went to Walmart and bought some cheap fabric and started sewing pieces together. I had no clue what I was doing so I didn't want to spend lots of money on designer fabric. I spent about $25 on fabric. After I sewed the square together I had no idea how to do the rest so it sat in my sewing drawer for a few years. A few weeks ago I decided to get it out and have my mom help me with the next steps. She just recently took some quilting classes and knows how to do it. I decided to use an old yellow flannel sheet as the back of my quilt. I didn't want to spend more money on it since it is my first one and isn't perfect, plus I like having flannel on the back it makes it more cozy. I bought some batting at the store at 50% off so it wasn't too expensive. One Monday afternoon I pinned it sewed it and was ready to bind it. I picked out a coraly polka dot Riley Blake fabric which I love for the binding (probably the most expensive part of the blanket) and I think it turned out pretty good for my first quilt.

I have also been working on putting our vacations into Shutterfly books. Each vacation gets its own book. I think they are turning out so cute. I still have a few more countries to do  before I am caught up.

This is our family book section on our bookshelves. Our birthday books, wedding book, family christmas book, family journal, blog books and all our vacation books. I love it.

This weekend we made an offer on a house so we didn't go house hunting (we got out bid by 100-150 thousand). Instead we headed over to Alameda so I could get my hair cut and then hit some estate sales. This area is great for garage and estate sales. There are so many old people around that you can find all these great things.

I bought 9 old vintage drinking glasses for 50 cents each. I love them. They will be perfect for out door entertaining in my new big beautiful backyard (when I get one soon). Can't you just see some nice strawberry basil mojitos (alcohol free of course)  with ice in these puppies.

I also got an old silver butter dish for $3. Of course it needs to be polished but it is lovely.

I bought an old red and white checkered table cloth which is in great condition and perfect for picnics at the park or in the back yard. It was only $1.

And last but not least we got an old RC Cola bottle. Of course we had to get this.

Easter

We had a fun Easter this year. On Saturday we headed down to San Jose to spend the day with my dad. We dyed Easter eggs and had an Easter egg hunt. We decided against a traditional Easter dinner and had a BBQ instead. We had steak, macaroni salad, fruit salad, green salad and some bread. It was all delicious.

Athen trying to cut his own steak with his Corene plate. This plate has been around for 32 years. On Sunday we headed to Livermore to my mom's house. We had an Easter egg hunt with the cousins and dinner with the family. Again we stayed away from the traditional dinner and had peach mango chicken tacos/burritos. It was delicious. The kids had a fun time finding Easter eggs.

Cuties!

Look at this one. He is so excited to get out of our little apartment and play in the puddles with his rain boots that he forgot his pants.



And look at this big one. He started standing and taking his first few steps this week. He just turned 10 months. What happened to my little baby?

Happy Hollow

I have so much to post that I have been avoiding the blog. A few weekends ago Rick took a Monday off work. On Sunday after conference we decided to head down to San Jose to my dad's house. On our way we decided to stop by Brigadoon park which is a park I went to growing up. It has huge cement slides and I thought the kids would love it.









We stayed the night and BBQed some steak for dinner. The next morning we woke up and headed over to Happy Hollow. I use to go to this park when I was a kid. This was our first time there with the kids. They loved it. It was a perfect day out and not too crowded. We went on all the rides and played on the big play ground. We brought some sandwiches from Togo's (my favorite sandwich place in the world)and picked up some treats from Walmart across the street and had a nice picnic lunch together. It was a great way to spend the day off and enjoy some family time. We loved it.

Green Waffles

For St. Patrick's day we dressed up in our green and headed downtown to our favorite Vietnamese place for some green coconut waffles. We thought this would be the start of a great new tradition. We love green vietnamese coconut waffles and we are lucky enough to be so close to one of our favorite places to get them - BC Deli.




Every Sunday evening we have our FHE. Growing up our family home evening was always on Sunday nights instead of Mondays, no other plans to get in the way. I decided we should have our FHE on Sunday nights instead of Mondays for a few reasons. First, Rick rarely gets home in time on a Monday night to have FHE, and secondly, there always seems to be something that comes up and gets in the way. Sunday afternoons we are all home and don't have other plans. We can have it early enough in the evening to spend time together. We say prayers, sing head, shoulder, knees and toes (our family song), have a quick little lesson and then Athen is in charge of the games. He always picks Cooties (every now and then he will chose Don't break the ice). After games we have our treat which usually consists of a few mini marshmallows which Athen is completely satisfied with. Here is a picture of us playing our weekly Cooties game.



This weekend we went to cousin Blake's 1st birthday party. We had tons of fun.






A few weeks ago we were invited to a party with some friends in the ward. I decided to make a hostess gift. I made little bags of confetti in celebration of the day they met.



Last week at my mom's house it was so beautiful outside (in the 70's). We took a bike ride and stroll with the kids on the walking path and we went for lunch downtown at the Ale House. This is one of my favorite places for lunch downtown. It is delicious. It was so beautiful outside that we decided to eat lunch outside. This was PERFECT. Athen was distracted by all the cars and trucks driving by on First st. He was good the whole time. We will have to remember this for next time.


LOVE this picture - my 3 boys sitting down on a Saturday afternoon to play trains,cars, farm etc. - so precious.