Denim Placemats

I have been working on these for a while, and I finally finished some. I have only made four so far, but I plan to make more as time allows. (I have too many other projects to work on right now.) I made them because I have lots of scraps of fabric and I had some old jeans lying around, so, voila! Place mats! My sister told me I should do a little tutorial of some sort, so here I go:
I started with a #10 can (from my food storage), and I traced it several times on some old blue jeans. If you do this, remember to trace on the inside of the jeans, not the outside--unless you want black marks showing on your place mats. Then I whipped out all my scraps and started cutting lots of 4 1/2 inch squares. Once all your squares are cut, place one square (centered) on a circle, and sew an "X" from corner to corner on the square.
When you are done sewing lots of X's, decide on the pattern you want. I just put all of mine in random orders because I have lots of little random scraps. Once you have your pattern, sew the side of two squares together, leaving the raw edges of the circles out for later.
After all the squares are sewn together, I went through and ironed all the circular edges flat (for easy sewing).
Once you have everything ironed down, pick your favorite decorative stitch, and sew down all the scalloped edges. I used a zigzag stitch, because that was the quickest. . . The above picture is what it looks like when you are done sewing down the edges. I think these could be a reversible place mat, if you want, because the scalloped edges make a fun circle design on the back. You can also use this method for quilts, etc. So, if you get a hankering to try it, have fun sewing!

Hoover Dam

April has simply flown by! Several days went by slowly, but the month in general has passed a little too fast for me.
At the end of January my husband and I purchased a camping trailer/toy hauler. Upon completion of this, we made a goal to use it at least once a month from now on. We have done just that. We went to Sand Hollow Reservoir in February and March. In April, my sister and her family invited us to tag along on a camping trip to Lake Mead. We went and had a blast.
On the way, we passed over Hoover Dam. It was amazing! I have never seen that much concrete in one location. I thought the water level looked really low. Hopefully Lake Mead will be receiving a huge spring run-off this year (or something to that affect).
After September 11, 2001, they (The U. S. Department of the Interior, maybe), started a project to build a highway/freeway above Hoover Dam to eliminate unnecessary traffic. Looks like they are getting close to completion. I thought that bridge was amazing. I took several pictures, but I think this one is my favorite.
The drive was about three hours, so it was a little long for my munchkins, but they had a blast at Lake Mead. We went on a little hike, took pictures of flowers, and played in the water. As well as had a campfire and roasted hot dogs (one of my boys favorite things to do/eat).
Brycen and Grace on our hike--I think they had fun, but we didn't hike for very long. I guess it was a long time for little legs and short attention spans.
These flowers grew wild all over the place at our camp site. Aren't they gorgeous! I fell in love with our campsite the second we turned off the main road and started heading toward it, because these happy yellow flowers were everywhere!

14 Weeks

I have decided it is time to make an announcement. My husband and I are expecting our third child! If everything goes well we will be expecting another bundle of joy mid-October. The official due date is October 24th, but my doctor said he would definitely induce me at least a week early. (My other boys were 9 lb. 12 oz. and 9 lb. 13 oz.). Needless to say, I would love to experience having a smaller child, as long as (s)he is as healthy as my other two have been. :)
The picture above (at least my hair) is a picture of how I have been feeling during the first trimester.
Hooray, I am out of the first trimester! I have been feeling much better this last week! More energy, less nausea!

Seedlings

My goodness time flies. I need to try harder to find time to post more often, I have been really busy as of late. About a month ago I took my kids to a nursing home to plant some seed starts with some "grandmas and grandpas". I think everyone had fun. I only snapped a couple of pictures toward the end. I didn't get any of my kids, because I had already cleaned the mud off of them. These two darling ladies were most obliging to pose for me to take a picture.
She planted some Black-Eye Susan flowers.
And she planted some Columbine flowers. We also planted lots of bell peppers and tomato plants. The flowers are still really small starts, but my peppers and tomatoes are 4-6 inches now. I am hoping to have some beautiful flowers for the residents to come see on a van ride, as well as a little produce to share with them. We'll see if I have any luck this year. . . . It is almost time to plant the tomatoes and peppers.

Pretend Bad Guys!

Yesterday I had breakfast together with some of my family. Before we left my house, Brycen came up to me and said "Mom, I need to go in the front room for a minute and shoot some pretend bad guys with my shot gun." I said ". . . okay, then we need to go. . ." When we arrived at my sister's house Brycen announced "I need to build a gun so I can shoot some pretend bad guys." My family asked if I am writing these things down so I can remember the cute/silly things my three-year old says. . . Well, now I can remember I have a pretend bad guy hunter in my family. Hooray! We are all safe from the pretend bad guys! :)