Baby Beckham as a Gummy Bear...

We went to the dinosaur museum on Friday. Doug and Shane came along as back-up adults, Doug brought little Beckham and they put him in the shark's mouth when I wasn't looking!

Grandkids!

Sorry to be such a bad blogger these days - the grandchildren that moved to Missouri have come to stay for a few weeks! (They brought their parents too). We went down to the condo for a few days, then picked them up in Las Vegas (cheap flight). Luckily Natalie didn't turn two until yesterday, so she flew for free!

Amanda came down and spent the night too - she hasn't seen Brooke and her family since they moved away last summer! Jeff flew up on Friday morning from California - so the gang's all here!

(That is brave Aunt Amanda getting the giant spider out of the jacuzzi)

Little Beckham came over to meet the cousins:

They were happy to see him, but they were really excited to see Doug & Tricia's dog, Bow, or as the kids call him "Bow-dizzle".

Tomorrow is Beckham's blessing, so a big party with lots of food and fun, speaking of which, Ben will be invited back for sure, he made delicious crepes for everyone this morning, including random family members who dropped in... (AND he wiped all of the counters - he is a keeper for sure)

And, as you can see, I did not get my quilt finished and I basted it and tossed it behind my chair until further notice...

We did have a big family quilt night on Thursday, but I was stricken with the flu!! I can't remember the last time I had the flu - maybe 10 years ago? It was miserable, but Brooke carried on with quilt night for me and the girls all had a good time. I am somewhat recovered today, but still a little tired, maybe I should consider getting a flu shot next year? Nah...

Finally a Friday...

Yippee, it's Friday, one of my favorite days. I LOVE that tomorrow I can sleep in, followed by Sunday, when I can sleep in AGAIN! What's not to love?

Had a nice visit to California over Easter and Debi's birthday weekend. It was wonderful to see my parents and my sisters and their families, as usual. I also got to spend some time with my sweet, Jeff. Enjoyed Debi singing in church, she has a truly beautiful voice. I was supposed to come back on Monday, but the flight was too full, so I called my dad from the airport and he ran right down and picked me up and everyone was so happy - that's the best part about family, they are always so glad to see you - even if you just left! I enjoyed my extra vacation day and the flights were fine the next day.

Back to work and quilting this week - my goal is to get my hand-quilting project about halfway completed so I can remove one set of the long side rails, so it won't take up so much room. Brooke and her family are coming, and I can just see a little grandchild taking out an eye with those rails sticking out so far!

Part of the problem of getting it done (besides sheer laziness) is that my "under finger" gets so sore from the needle poking into it, so I bought this little contraption and here's hoping it works...

I have also started designing a new quilt for Shaun, who has been in a twin-sized bunk bed since summer and needs a twin-sized quilt for it. By designing, I mean that I bought a quilt kit and I keep buying more & more matching fabric and am trying to figure out how to make it go from crib sized to twin sized. I have graph paper and everything, but it's tricksy - or maybe I'm just inherently not good at drafting! When I have pics, I'll post 'em...

Passing on the Art of Quilting...

Spring Has Sprung!

My wonderful sisters came up for a visit over the weekend. On Saturday, Debi and I went up to Salt Lake, she is a great genealogist! I got to see the quilt display at the museum next door - it was great and the tulips are looking great up there at temple square: At the museum, I found this absolutely FABULOUS book, called "The Quiltmaker's Gift" by Jeff Brumbeau, illustrated by Gail de Marcken. It is a children's book and it is soooo beautiful and the story is fantastic too! And of course, it is about a quilter! Win-Win-Win!! I can't wait to read it to the grandbabies when they come next month!I have gotten back down to the studio and I've got things moving along - the frustrating thing is when I haven't worked on something for a while, it takes me about an HOUR to figure out where I was and what to do next! Urgh. Happy Quilting!

Conference Weekend... (Again)

It was conference weekend and it's just my favorite! We sit around all weekend watching and listening to our church leaders (on TV!). We eat yummy food and work on quiet projects - quilting is perfect! Beckham is pretty quiet: Shane came, but Becca had to work: (Shane is practicing up for being a daddy)Doug is already a daddy:Tricia got lots of cards made:

Between sessions I made an amazing coconut cake - we're talking 5 (!!!) sticks of butter between the cake and the cream cheese frosting. Thank you, Ina Garten! We all had some and then passed the rest out to family and friends so I wouldn't be eating it for snack, breakfast, etc.I got some hand-quilting and applique done, but since I mostly had the camera, no one took my picture. I also whipped up two baby receiving blankets, so I felt pretty productive, and relaxed - a great weekend!

P.S. In case you were wondering - I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Back in the Saddle Again...

Well, I feel like I've been gone a LONG time. We were actually gone for 12 days, but it's taken me two days to catch up (partially) at work and at home with the laundry, grocery shopping, etc. It has also been hard for me to have to make my own meals, my own bed, etc. The trip was wonderful! The Caribbean was perfect - perfect beaches, perfect temperatures, etc. We got to Puerto Rico after traveling for 24 hours (But it was FREE). We got in early Friday morning and our check in time was at 3 p.m. We had a rental car, but we were basically homeless. Here are Shane and Becca, sleeping on the beach: (Okay, we were all dozing there in the shade for a couple of hours)

We had a couple of days in Puerto Rico where I got to practice my (very) rusty Spanish. It was beautiful - we went to the beach, a rainforest and slept a lot to recover from our travels.

Becca loved any biological creature she could spy: Did I mention we had a LOT of luggage?We were nice and rested when the ship took off on Sunday night. On St. Thomas, we took an open air taxi (a truck retrofitted with bench seats and a cover in the bed) across the island to a beautiful beach - the water was perfect for wading and floating around in. The trip over in the taxi was great too - beautiful views and a nice breeze. On Antigua we swam with the stingrays! This excursion was not my pick, but everyone else wanted to do it, and Heaven forbid I get left out! We took a nice little boat ride out to a sand bar and saw lots of sting rays, people were feeding them squid, holding them, etc. (NOT ME). One brushed up against me and it was pretty slimy. One swam towards Shane and he screamed like a girl. Becca was brave enough to hold one. We also snorkeled with sea turtles and near a sunken ship with lots of fish swimming around. Stacy and Shane bought a "drink card", which was $75 and included all the soda, milkshakes and 'mocktails' you could drink. They definitely got their money's worth. This is what all of the tables looked like after we left:

Did I mention the food was AMAZING? Well, it was. I gained 2.5 pounds and it would have been more if I hadn't taken the stairs everywhere and done a lot of walking and visited the gym a couple of times too.Shane put away 4 lobster tails:We met nice people from all over the world - lots of Canadians, escaping the cold weather. One thing I really enjoyed was with all of the other cultures, people were way less hung up on their bodies than we seem to be here in the US. There were lots of people of all different sizes, just enjoying life and the beauty around us.

Chocolates on the pillows every night. A great way to spend an anniversary,

now we just need to start saving our pennies for another trip...