Baby Ties

Some of my most favorite things are baby boy church clothes. Nothing like a little man all dressed up in his big boy church suit. So, of course I've set out to make sure my little Ammon is set in that department. Only problem is those tiny itty-bitty clothes are so dang expensive! So I've set out to find alternative routes to get what I want!

Luckily, I found a a great website that taught me how to make little boy ties! And for Christmas I made five for Ammon and five for my nephew soon to be born.

I am so impressed with these ties because, they take a small amount of fabric, are easy to make, allow room for sewing error, and are adorable. You also can tie them so they are longer or shorter and grow with your baby. I made them out of cotton, which is great because now when Ammon drools or spits up or spills on them I can just throw them in the wash. Score!

Thanks to this project I also discovered my sewing machine has a button-hole maker, which I never even knew existed! I was so impressed and that just shows you what a juvenile sewer I am. Apparently sewing machines usually always have a button-hole setting and I am just clueless to what half of the things on my machine mean. Too bad I lost the instruction manual somewhere.

You could always skip the buttons and just sew on Velcro instead, but I like how buttons look and my smart friend Brittany pointed out the baby boys wouldn't be able to pull off the tie if it were buttoned. Considering how Ammon loves to rip his bibs off, I figured it was the way to go.

He's already had a chance to wear three different colors of his five new ties and I love how they look! I don't know what it is about a boy in a tie, but I'm a fan of all ages :)

Surprise!

The day before we returned home to Utah, I decided to finally do something I've been meaning to do for a long time.

I took this:

And I made it this:

Yep I cut off over ten inches of hair. 

I was sick of my hair for so long and wanted something new. So I found a bunch of pictures and basically said, make me look like that. It was cut a bit shorter than I wanted but after a few days of adjusting to such a drastic change I've decided that I think I like it. I miss the ease of a ponytail, but I like how I can style it so my fine hair doesn't look so thin. It's different that's for sure, but I think it's working out and it was fun to surprise everyone back home.

The Year the World Ends

Now that we've been home a few days, I've had time to reflect on the past year and the new year ahead of me. I can't believe how fast this last year flew. I remember when it arrived I was relieved. 2010 was quite possibly the worst year of my life and I couldn't wait to start new in 2011. I have to say that, although it had a few ups and downs, 2011 was much better than the previous year. A few highlights:

• January- Ammon was born 1/12/11, four days overdue and one day later than planned. I still get mixed up and tell people he was born on the day I wanted him to be born rather than his actual birthday. I mean 1/11/11 would have been the coolest birthday ever!

• February- Not much happened besides adjusting to being a mom of two and dealing with Ammon's reflux problems. I was seriously at the doctors every week. Not fun.

• March- Lydia turned two and Ammon was blessed on the same day. My brother Scott also received his mission call to Brazil.

• April- Both my kids were hospitalized for almost a week with RSV, bronchiolitis, and pneumonia. Thankfully, they have both fully recovered. It was a horrible nightmare and I'm grateful for priesthood blessings, good insurance, prayer, and Primary Children's for helping us make it through.

• May- I quit work at Chase Bank and became a full-time stay at home mom. It was an adjustment at first, but a good one, and I love my current job.

• June- We pretty much relaxed at Taylorsville Dayzz and we threw my dad a surprise 50th birthday party when my parents came out to visit.

• July- I turned twenty-four, and then we traveled to Washington where we spent a month with my family for the summer (except for Brigham who only could stay part of the time because of work). While we were in Washington my brother Kyle got married on the same day that our niece Abbigale was born. Lots of new family all in one day!

• August- We finally made it back to Utah to resume our normal lives. 

• September-  The BYU football season started so it was a glorious time. 

• October- I ran my fastest 5k time ever at the BYU Alumni Run and we hosted our annual Halloween party. It is my favorite Halloween party yet. 

• November- I cooked a lot of new things, crafted some new things, and expanded this blog to tell you all about it. Brigham also turned twenty-seven, but don't tell Lydia because I convinced her that Brigham turned from three to four.

• December- My kids met Santa for the first time, Ammon got his first haircut, and we traveled back to Washington for more family Christmas adventures.

After review, this past year pretty much evened itself out. It was stressful with so many doctors visits and problems from Ammon with his reflux, supposed allergies, hospital stay, ER visits, and eczema. And yet, it was full of lots of extra time with family that I usually miss out on. I really have so much to be grateful for from 2011. A new son, lots of family, improved health, and much much more. 

Since last year was better than the year before, I'm thinking this year is just going to continue the trend of improvement. And speaking of improvement, I've set some goals to work on to improve myself and my home:

1. Faithful visit-teaching and help my husband become a faithful home-teacher.
2. Write in my personal journal more often. 
3. Keep excess weight off and start a healthier eating lifestyle.
4. Teach Lydia to read.
5. Teach Ammon all the basics that a one-year-old should know like animal sounds and such.

Those are a few of the goals I'm welcoming 2012 with. Brigham and I have many decisions to make this year and as I sense change on the horizon and adventures to come, I'm ready to begin.

Gingerbread Houses, Family Nativity, Christmas Morning, and A Bit Extra.

Wow, did we have fun during our two week Christmas vacation with my family in Washington. We basically played games and ate for two weeks straight. I'm happy to say there were no barfing episodes on the plane this time and our trip was generally smooth.

Due to a mass of photos, and the desire to spare everyone from mass posts, I broke our trip down to the main events. I'll pretty much let the pictures speak for themselves:

Gingerbread Houses

I'm always in charge of gingerbread house decoration with the kids during baking day and boy did we have fun this year! Lydia loved her "sparkly" walls. Usually we buy pre-made houses but this year Kyle did a great job building them from scratch with graham crackers.

Family Nativity

We always act out the Nativity on Christmas Eve. I'm the narrator and in charge of costumes while the rest of the kids fight over the other various rolls. This year Lydia was a shepherd with Sadie, Kyle and Katrina were Mary and Joseph, Kayleen was the angel, and Brigham, Kenny, and Ryan were wisemen. Ammon was supposed to be a sheep with our dog Shadow. After the Nativity Scene, my dad did a nice presentation about Christmas on the projector and then we watched all the new videos the church put out about the Savior online.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was wonderful. We all got ready for church, ate breakfast, and then opened presents. Lydia loved her Polly World doll house and Ammon liked crawling around trying to destroy things. I don't think he cared much about his new ties or clothes. There are few things that can beat Christmas morning with my family.

A Bit Extra

As for the bit extra, I couldn't leave out Ammon in his new church outfit and tie, Ryan playing his clarinet for our Christmas Eve program, Ammon passed out on the floor, baking day goods, and the kids playing at the airport waiting to board.

I'm sad it's over but happy that it happened so I can store this year away as yet another wonderful Christmas. I hope everyone had wonderful times celebrating the birth of our Savior!