Quiet Book: Bumble Bee Counting

This page was one of my favorites to make because I just loved getting creative with the flowers and colors.  It is a counting page!

Each flower has a number 1-10 on it and you take the little bumble bee on a string and lace him through each flower until he gets to the bee hive. 

My only problem with this page is the string keeps falling out of the little 'leaf loop' holder I made.  I am hoping once it is all bound with the cover and the presser of the other pages it wont just fall out all the time.

The pattern and tutorial for this page can be found here.

Quiet Book: Apples!

Again, another classic from my mom's quiet book: an apple picking page!

I had a lot of fun with the different fabrics. :)

The apples are velcro on the back.

The page opposite is a weaving page.  I decided since there was an apple picking page, I might as well make a pie page for the weaving. 

I used a pattern for this page that can be found here.

I was excited because I used the same fabric for the apples as the 'apple pie filling'.  Weaving may be out of Elsy's skill zone for a while but it will be a fun one when she gets older.

Quiet Book: Treasure Map

This was one of the first quiet book pages I made for the book but I haven't gotten around to posting it until now.  Its a treasure map page!

The pattern for this page can be found here.

I wanted to put lots of sparkles inside the chest.  Elsy always finds this page and likes to look at the treasure.  She is working on the word 'sparkles'.

The treasure map was really fun to make but I had a hard time sewing the plastic over the bottle cap.  My lines weren't perfect but I couldn't exactly re-do it because the plastic shows the holes from the sewing needle, where fabric can hide those types of things.  It turned out alright though.

And if you are wondering when I do these pages, it usually is when Elsy is napping.  But since it is crunch time before baby #2 shows up she will sit next to my sewing table in the tent Logan made for her and play with her toys!  She loves it.  She also will stand on a stool next to me while I sew on the machine and bounce up and down with the needle... or change the settings on the tension when I am not looking and then we have all kinds of problems. ;)  Love my little helper!

Sweet Dreams

Only three weeks until the little guy gets here.  And I can't help but worry about how Elsy is going to take it all.  I am sad that I won't be able to give her all my time anymore.  I know I will still give her just as much love and him a healthy dose as well... but it's always sad to see the end of a chapter, no matter how much more wonderful the next one will be.

So until then I am trying to enjoy the little moments while they last. :)

Quiet Book: Sandcastles and Shapes

Almost done with this thing so there are going to be a few posts of the last of the pages for my quiet book up!

Here is the sandcastle page!

The pattern and tutorial can be found here.

I also did this shape page over the holidays:

I just printed this image and cut out the shapes to use as a pattern.  I cut out each shape twice and then stitched them together with a blanket stitch.

Then on the page itself I stitched the outline of each shape.  All the shapes are connected with velcro. 

I thought both pages turned out rather nice!  Elsy really loves the shape one and can already do the matching which I thought was pretty fun.

Deer Burger: The Brief How To

The Christmas season is not the Christmas season without a little grinding of some burger.  My dad and I do it every year and it always takes the better part of a whole vacation day.  But I enjoy it!  So it is still vacation.  

This year it actually took two days because we did more meat than we have ever done.  We ground up 8 deer!  Wowza!

Elsy learned to say the word "hambuga" very well and whenever she sees one of these pictures she says it and then says "mmmm da goood!"  She really likes to eat hamburger.

So here is how you grind burger in a quick nutshell.  First you have to let it thaw for way longer than you were planning (thus it took us two days this time).  Then you have your dad chop up the meat into hunks that will fit through the meat grinder while you shove the meat through the grinder.  In the end you get something that looks like the above.  We had so much this year we ran out of tubs and had to mix it all on the counter.  That is like 4 inches deep of deer burger people.  That is a LOT!

To take some of the game-y flavor out of the meat we make sure to cut out as much of the fat as possible.  Then we mix it with some pork meat from ye old Costco.

Then we topped the pork with some straight up beef fat.  We get the scraps from my brother in law's farm.  After that you get to mixing!  Logan helped mix for a while but after a bit our hands were frozen solid.  I can't believe my dad's stamina because he just kept right on kneading the meat like it was bread dough.

Once it is all mixed it has to go through the grinder again to even everything out.

Then it goes through the grinder a third time but not to be ground up, just to fill the tubes.  Riley helped out with this part.  (Look!  Dad and I are matching!)

We ended with quite a bit of burger!  It should feed us very well until next hunting season. :)

And of course we can't leave out a picture of the little peeper!  She would stand on a stool next to me and watch.  Love her and can't wait until she can help!

Quiet Book: The Zoo

The next quiet book page is done!  A finger puppet zoo!  

I am so excited that I am almost done with all the pages.  I have been stressing about getting this all done before the little guy comes.  I want it done so when Logan takes Elsy to church while I am home with the baby they will have something fun and new to do while sitting in the pew.

The pattern I used for the puppets can be found here.  I did the bear, lion, frog, peacock, monkey, and cheetah but the pattern has a dog and a pig too.

Walaa!  I personally think they are pretty cute. :P

New Years Resolution

ONew Years is here people!  And I have been thinking about goals and what I want to do this year.  I realize that I am not always the most positive person and complain more than I should.  Often I think of those general authorities who say "I never heard a negative word escape her lips" when talking about their wives.  Yikes, I am not like that at all.   I have been trying to look to them as an example to try and follow.

I have been really struggling with trying to stay positive lately.  This pregnancy has really been taking it out of me as well as a sick and teething little girl.  Well, a few weeks ago I stumbled across a quote by President Hinkley that really hit me and that I just loved.  I took a screen shot of it and had it on the background of my iPad to try and help inspire me.

Well, Logan saw the quote and thought it needed some touching up (it was a white background with plain black lettering).  He made the below image for me. :D

He told me the night before he made it that he could really tell I had been trying hard lately and gave me a big hug.  Then he made this!  The background is of the Oregon coast, my favorite place to go.  I couldn't have been more excited about it.  It was just as good as a Christmas gift.  I am so grateful for such a supportive husband.

So, yes it is the new year and I am working toward my goals.  I have already made mistakes but I know that is okay.  I am going to keep trying!  Hopefully I can keep a positive attitude throughout 2015.  I know there are plenty of reasons, with one coming in just a few short weeks. Eeep!  

Happy New Year!

Christmas

Christmas and Thanksgiving are my two favorite holidays.  I am super sad they are both over and now I have to wait another year for them to come around again.  I just love sitting in the dark with the lights of the Christmas tree on, surrounded by famiy, and feeling the spirit of love fill the air so heavily.

This year we spent Christmas at my parents house.  Everyone was able to be there except for my sister Lenise who is on a mission for the LDS church.

I think my favorite part of Christmas is actually Christmas Eve.  I feel like Christmas Eve is the time our family focuses mostly on the Savior and the nativity and then Christmas morning is more about the gifts.  We were fortunate enough to be able to visit both my grandparents houses on Christmas Eve.  Therefore we got a LOT of yummy food and got to participate in two nativity reenactments.

Elsy was an angel at the Merkley nativity (she is 3rd from the left on the back row).  I wish I had gotten a picture of just her in her little white outfit and pig tails!

 

  

For the Volmer nativity, our part was to sing Silent Night with my siblings and their families.

Our family tradition is to get new pajamas right before bed and watch Mr. Krugar's Christmas.  This year we watched it during the Volmer nativity program so we ended up watching old Christmas home videos instead and getting some good laughs in.

On Christmas morning we all go into my parents room together and jump on them to wake them up.  This year just the grandkids did the jumping.

We then commenced in the kitchen where we got our stockings.  Riley was a bit annoyed that we slept in this year long enough for the sun to come up.  "Its my pet peeve to be opening presents in the light!"  Oh dear.

Santa was good to us this year and we had a blast opening gifts from our family.  It is always exciting when you have presents for family members you are anxious to give.  

Yes, my mom got socks but we were really taking a picture of Elsy sitting in a box hugging her new over sized Olaf.  I wish we got a better picture but she just carried him around all morning and sat in that box hugging him.

Grandma and Grandpa Bean sent the slide!  All the grand kids had a blast going down it.  And they loved having their toys go down it too!

Logan made Elsy this awesome tent out of some scrap wood and a sheet.  I thought he did an amazing job and Elsy loved it.

All three of the cousins were sick during the holidays but they still had a blast together.  I can't wait until they are a little older and really play with each other instead of just next to each other.  

Later on Christmas day we got to facetime Lenise!  It was so much fun to get to chat with her and let her see all the little cousins.  

What a wonderful season we had.  I am so grateful for the Savior and for this time of year to celebrate his birth.  I love love love my family and was so glad to spend it with them!  Yay for Christmas time!

Thanksgiving Catch Up

Yes, Thanksgiving was over a month ago.  But I can't just leave it out!  Especially when Logan's parents came to stay with us for a whole fun week!

Our Thanksgiving week started out a little crazy.  My Grandpa's funeral was being held the morning after Logan's parents flew in (at midnight the night before!).  We woke up early to drive to Tri Cities and made it just in time.

It was such a wonderful service.  Logan's parents watched Elsy for us too so that was helpful.

We came back to Redmond the next day to show David and Natalie all our fun stomping grounds.  We all got colds except for David so we moved a little slower than I think we had hoped but we still had fun.

One of our favorite places to walk around is the Bellevue Botanical Gardens.  There weren't many flowers at this time of year but the suspension bridge was still a hit.

And of course, loved it when Logan made it sway.

On another day we went into Seattle for some of the fun sights.  My favorite was the Seattle Aquarium.  It was fun to go because Logan and I hadn't been there since our honeymoon.  Its fun going places with Elsy that Logan and I went to before we knew her.

Elsy didn't want to touch the anemones, just splash in the water.

She loved all the fish but especially liked the otters.  Grandpa Bean got her a stuffed otter at the gift shop on the way out that she loves.

We also went to Pike Place market.

I love walking around there and seeing all the bright colors.

We found the BEST clam chowder place I have ever ever had.  So yummy but right now I can't think of the name.... maybe it was just Pike Place Chowder or something like that.

We couldn't leave out the gum wall!

On Thanksgiving day we made tons of food.  I got to make my first turkey with a ton of help from Logan's parents... in fact I don't know if I could really say it was MY first turkey.  It was probably Natalie's 15th turkey with the help of me? 

That evening we went on a walk around another of our favorite places, Juanita Bay in Kirkland.  It was very windy on the pier but it was still great to get out and stretch our legs.  I always feel lazy after Thanksgiving dinner and this was just the right amount of fresh air.

Before they left, Grandma Bean gave Elsy some of the cutest red moccasins.  We love them!

And you can't mention Thanksgiving weekend without a little Black Friday shopping.  Elsy looked through magazines and showed me what she wanted. :)