Looking back

The other day, Trev needed a blanket to put Lainey on, and this is the one that he got out of the closet. This is a blanket with a story. It represents my first attempt at crochet. I started it when I was about 9 years old, under the watchful eye of my very talented mother. I finished it 3 years ago, 17 years after making those first few chain stitches. It spent several years (teenage years) hidden away, untouched.

Most of the yarns were leftovers from my mum's knitting projects, some were unravelled jumpers, and I think one or two were bought new, especially for my blanket.

It's funny because I clearly remember mum saying that it would one day be a lovely blanket for my children. And it is. Thanks for the lessons and encouragement, mum!

Look who's a big boy!

Luke has been in his toddler bed for two weeks now and he is doing great. The first week he fell out a couple of times (and stayed asleep on the floor- I would go and check on him and he'd be under the bed or by the side, still asleep!) This week he's doing much better with that.

Also, the kids are now sharing a room! Lainey grew too big for the bassinet in our room, so, after much discussion about sleeping arrangements, we just went for it and put them in together. I don't know why we waited this long, they are getting along fine (so far). We have this in there with them and I think it helps them sleep through the night without waking each other.

Sophie's bag

I finally made a buttercup bag. It was a birthday present for the lovely Sophie. I think I'm going to make some more as Christmas gifts.

Blessing dress

I've been seeing a lot about 'refashioning' online lately, in the crafty circles, so I decided to do a bit myself. Instead of buying new fabric for Lainey's blessing dress, I used a ladies white dress I bought at a thrift store for $5. I adapted a pattern I already had (some adaptations were by design, others were made in a late-night frenzy of desperation) The pattern was Simplicity 9784.

I like how it turned out, though I did cut a lot of corners, knowing that she would only wear it once.

RRRRRaaaaaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhh

We're really trying to make the most of Trev's free days off work. We decided to go to the dinosaur park in Ogden. It was geared towards kids a bit older than Luke (probably 3+ I'd say) There were a few things that caught his interest, though. We had a nice time and on the way home we stopped at Smith and Edwards (a big shop) and bought him his first dinosaur toy, which he loves.

Branding

We went to the ranch to help out with/watch the branding. Luke loved seeing the cows up close but didn't like the calves crying. I decided not to include the pictures of the actual branding. As well as using branding irons to burn the ranch brand into their skin, Trevor's dad also cuts a 5 inch 'waddle' into the calves' foreheads. It's basically a flap of skin, so as you can imagine, it involves quite a lot of blood. They also gouge the horns out, if the calf has them, and put rubber bands around the baby boy calves' testicles! Nobody ever said that ranching was a glamorous job!

Lainey and I spent quite a bit of time in the car, since it was a windy day.

Grandpa took Luke for his very first horseback ride.



What an exciting, and tiring day.