Sleepover

Last week I had Sheri's kids so she could have a break, and it was a treat for all of us! Kielan & Anelise came home from gospel meeting with us, and were delighted to share homemade pizza for dinner. Kielan said he wanted the spicey kind, and no mushrooms. Ha ha, kids are so honest! Breanna & Levi loved the extra kids around, and Breanna was most impressed by the extra help when it was time to clean up the toys! It was much faster, and more of a game; when there were more to help.

It was 11:30 by the time they were all asleep, and I was relieved at thinking they would be sleeping in. But oh no..... up well before 8am! I made dutch-babies, and they cleaned them up lickety split. Kielan wanted his topped with syrup, homemade jam, AND whipped cream.... it looked like quite the combo- but I figured why not for a treat!

It was quite a chore getting 4 little people fed, cleaned up, dressed, hair done.... and then Breanna asked me why I wasn't dressed yet....?!? It was a miserably cold and windy day out, and they agreed when seeing all the trees whipping around like toothpicks that they probably didn't want to play outside. So I promised to take them to Bouncing Bears, which is an indoor playpark with lots of blow-up slides and playareas. Kielan & Anelise had never been before, and were quite excited. I guess I didn't do things "up to speed", though, finally Anelise said "you sure are taking a long time to get us out of the house!" She was right, but 4 kids 4yrs. and under was quite the challenge for me! =) Our beloved minivan is still in the shop getting engine work done, so we are driving the F350, meaning Kielan was in the middle in the front, and it's difficult to reach to get them all buckled in. When we finally reached B.B., they took off and I got a bit of a break! Levi wasn't too sure about doing things himself at first, so I did a lot of climbing and sliding too. I was completely exhausted after the 2 hours were up, it was a great workout!

Everything went great and it really was fun for us all, but I was so tired once I was back home with only 2 kids. Then I found out the next day that we are expecting in August, so that would explain the exhaustion! I was really hoping that with Breanna & Levi I'd gotten my share of "morning sickness", but it's started again..... only the kind like Levi's that is more "throughout the day sickness".

I did really appreciate how well Kielan & Anelise just sat down to meals and ate up! My kids seem to drag the meals out forever..... any advise on fixing that? Sheri says she doesn't know how it happened, they've always been that way.

I also give a thumbs-up to whomever came up with Bouncing Bears, it's a great place for those of us who live in places where winter lasts over half the year- after a 2hr. session the kids are asking to go home because they are exhausted! Makes for wonderful naptimes..... often they are both asleep by the time I drive the 15mins. home. =)

Long-Arm Quilting Machine on the way!

As of Thanksgiving, we now have a 4-year-old at our house!

I did something very exciting on Saturday, I ordered my first long-arm quilting machine! It will take about a week to get here, and I have a feeling this is going to be one of the longest weeks of my life..... =) I've thought long and hard about this purchase, as it is a good business venture, but also a very expensive one. I want to be able to stay home and raise my children, and also help pay the bills. After talking with various people, I decided to at least try it out, and many have said they are easy to resale if I decide this isn't my thing. I love the quilting part of the process, though, so don't think that will be an issue!

What started me thinking more seriously about this, is when I tried to machine-quilt a queen-size quilt for my good friend, Marlene. By the time I was done, I was very frustrated at having to push & pull and fight all that fabric with my regular sewing machine, and vowed never to do a quilt that size again without an actual long-arm machine! The resulting quilt was fine, but not all that it could have been, had I the right equipment. I had similar experiences with Jared's graduation quilt, and the baby-clothes quilt.

The stand for this machine is about 12feet long and 4feet wide, so it is no small thing to fit into the corner of my sewing area! =) For now I think we're going to leave it in the living room (Tyler's idea, and many have agreed it makes sense- Sheri said just make a pretty quilt to put over it when company comes!) Anyway, Tyler is now drawing house plans again, and as soon as we get the trim finished and a few other things, we're thinking of selling and building another house. Nothing big or extravagant, but this place is getting a bit cramped for us. We have 2 bedrooms and one bath (which has obvious complications), and Tyler is tired of not having a shop or garage to work in. We don't really look forward to the building process again, but it doesn't make much sense to either of us to just buy, when we can get about twice the house by building. We'll see what happens! I also joined the Alaska Club fitness center last month to try and loose a bunch of "baby-weight", so with all this going on I should be a little busy the next bit!

P.S. I added 3 new albums in the Picasa photos. I have been slacking a bit on the photo-taking, There weren't nearly as many to post this time!

Venturing into the "selling" world

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, I tried my first Bazaar for selling quilts and purses. It turned out to be a "skunk", none of the vendors were very impressed with the turnout of buyers! I did sell a few purses, though, and after the day was over; traded for some other craft items! There was a girl who had nice felted-wool purses and I traded one of those for a small baby quilt. Another lady had fun handmade cards, so I traded her a small purse for 25 handmade cards! I also put out quite a few business cards, and got lots of interest for machine quilting and some interest in the baby-clothes quilts; so in all I think it was a success. I only made $25 over the cost of my booth, though, so won't be trying that one again! I am signed up for some here in Wasilla that should have better turnouts, and the tables are much cheaper so I'm hoping that will work better. I am also making more quilted tote/purses- they are very well liked, and also some quilted hotpads, as they are smaller dollar items and should sell better. Many thanks to Lindsey & Tyler for watching the kids for me, Lindsey & Trisha for helping me do pricing, and Trisha & Tyler for helping out at the booth! I love to quilt but have a tough time in the pricing area, or selling- and their encouragement and help was much appreciated! And of course the most thanks to Tyler- for building me a beautiful rack to display the quilts, and standing behind me in all my new ideas! =) Note: Some small doll quilts are missing from the top racks on both ends.... somehow we got down there and accidentally left them at Lindsey's! She has a place in Anchorage not too far away, though, so I drove back to get them and it was a nice break from the "nervous excitement" of waiting for the bazaar to begin.

All done!

Today I finally finished the baby clothes quilt for Laura! The finished measurements are 67 x 81 inches. I like the results, but a long-arm quilting machine would have done a better job at the quilting part, as it's difficult to machine-quilt this size of quilt on a regular sewing machine. Breanna and Levi were impressed with the results, too, there are lots of soft fabrics to feel! Eg: fuzzy bath robe, flannel blankets, soft bibs, corduroy overalls, burpcloths, well-worn cotton clothes, etc. Breanna & Levi both took 3 hour naps together today, which was a big help in the process, but they are still up and it's 11:30pm~

Memorial Baby Quilt

A few weeks ago I replied to a wanted add on craigslist.org, and started the newest challenge in my quilting. The lady had a 7-month old baby girl that died of SIDS over a year ago, and she wanted someone to make a quilt from her clothes. I had never tried this before but Mom & Aunty Clariss made quite a few from grandma Hilton's clothes, so I thought I'd give it a try!

It was a bit heart-wrenching at first, because of the emotional ties; and there were such beautiful little dresses that I didn't want to cut up! I soon got over it, though, treated it like business, and started really enjoying my new project. I had no clue how long it would take, but so far I've spent 22 1/2 hours total, and still have probably 5 left. It's very time-consuming because I have to disassemble the clothes and cut and iron them just to get little pieces of fabric to try and work with. She wanted it to be log-cabin style, which worked well and I found a simple scrappy pattern online. I finished the top on saturday, and like the results! I emailed her photos (she lives in Anchorage), and both her and her husband love it. I searched online and found that there are quite a few people who do these sorts of quilts! I was so pleased with the idea and results that now I want to make one for Breanna and Levi out of their clothes when they grow up, what a bunch of fun memories. Let me know if you're interested, I'm enjoying this and thinking of doing more! Here are a few photos of what I have done:

I made the block centers from special bibs, pockets from clothes, or 4-patches.

Then I laid the centers out, made coordinating piles of the outer strips, and sewed them together. I found it challenging to keep the like fabrics apart and keep it scrappy.

This is the quilt top, ironed and ready to be sandwiched with batting and backing, and quilted.

I'm really having fun at this, but I realized that Levi & Breanna were watching the whole "dismantling" process with the scissors and seam-ripper, and hope they don't get any ideas with their perfectly good clothes!

New Ideas

Wow, I read that last post and it sounded pretty grumpy! I decided I'm going to blog as I get the time, but mostly about my quilting, and I will update photos of our life in the Picasa Photo Albums as frequently as possible. Many have expressed frustration with Blogger for photos, and that is the source of my change of heart. Picasa is very simple and fast, as I do have two small children and don't want to spend all my time uploading photos of them for the family who keeps asking! So check out what you wish, I'll try to stay current so I don't get so bogged down! =)

Although there is no room for excuses for grumpiness, I can say that I am starting to feel a lot better lately. For those of you who don' t know, Tyler has had type 1 Diabetes since age 13. His doctor put him on a new type of insulin to try and manage it better, along with helping him to loose the weight he's trying so hard for. By the way, kudos to Tyler; he goes lap-swimming at the pool from 6am-7:30am at least 4 mornings a week before work! Anway, Tyler's body didn't like the new insulin, and reacted very strangely; it wouldn't work all day, and then worked excellent at night. We had the ambulance here in the wee hours of the night 3 times in less than a month, because his blood sugar would go too low and he'd go into siezures. When he's awake he feels it going low and compensates with food, but at night when he's sleeping he didn't register that. So.... I was becoming a nervous wreck and getting no quality sleep till he got up to go to work. Then less than 2 hours later, the kids would wake me up.

To make a long story shorter, he's now back to his old insulin that works better, and so far we have had less trouble. I still wake up every time he rolls over or twitches, but I'm even starting to get a little better on that. Breanna is very brave about the whole thing, but I was starting to worry about her. She would hear us talking late at night, and ask if the ambulance was coming..... I have a feeling that at that age if I had any idea my Daddy could wake up like that I'd have been a nervous wreck. Some good news also, is that his Dr. is petitioning the insurance to help pay for a constant glucose monitoring system that checks your blood sugar every few seconds, I think, and sets off an alarm if it goes too low or too high. So if they approve that, I no longer have to keep waking up & waking him up to check it! The problem right now is that it hasn't been approved by the FDA, so insurance won't cover it, and it costs quite a few thousand dollars plus another thousand per month for the supplies to keep it working. Since he's had such trouble, though, it's possible they will approve it. His diabetes specialist, Dr. Tanner, is a tremendous help through all of this. Thanks for listening, and I'll try to get photos up soon. The kids are growing up so fast it's hard to believe, and they are such good friends it is awesome. They do have their occasional squables, but it's obvious how much they love each other and us. I am so lucky to be part of such a wonderful family! =)

Enough is enough!

I am having a terrible time trying to catch up on "blogging". We have a new computer that works completely different, and I am so far behind that it will literally take me weeks to catch up since this adds photos so slowly. Sooo.... back to Picasa I guess, I will be posting there as it is much simpler and more user-friendly. Yes I am a blonde, but this system is rediculous. You can see our photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/tylisavaughan I may try this again later, but I simply don't have this much time to spend on photos. Thanks for your patience! =)

Fun with Cousins

Disclaimer: I cannot seem to get the photos to line up correctly with the headings, so please excuse that, it looks different in Preview than it does in the actual post, and I can't seem to correct them. =(
We are back from our trip to N.Y. and ready to stay home and relax for awhile. I took so many pictures that it was hard to pick out just a few, so here is a fraction of them. As you can imagine, it was a bit difficult to get 7 children ranging from 3 1/2 mos. - 4 1/2 yrs. to cooperate for the group shots, but I think we did pretty good! I'll put Owen & Ashley's wedding photos in a separate post later, hope this finds you all well! ~Lisa



Cotten Girls












White Kids



Elliott patiently waiting for Levi to finish with his car

Breanna & Levi

Levi "moo-ing" like a cow- he loves them!

The Boys
Their shirts read "Farmer in Training" =)

The whole group

Owen giving motorcycle rides, what fun! Breanna and Levi were both "hooked".

Aunt Lindsey with a tired Elliott

Grandma Jill and Marilla

Kids having fun outside!

Bet and Lilly
Clover & Marilla

There were always quite a few kids at the table! David & Rachel came with Katherine & Nathan, what fun!

Levi with Daddy

The sandbox was grandma's idea, and it kept them all entertained for hours!
Breanna with Daddy

Levi & Olivia

Marilla with Tori
Matching girls, this wasn't planned!!







Another hit was the pool!

Cute bunch after playing all day. Bath-time!

Levie seemed quite attracted to the mud puddles

Tori rode with us to Syracuse and then Maine for the wedding, what a great helper!

Messy red licorice!

Early morning wake-up, the hotel had a fire alarm go off!

Relatives in Boston, Henry & Christine, they treated us to a lovely meeting and lunch before our flight home.

P.S. These are compressed to save time and space, hope they show up clearly.