Sewing Projects

Sewing and I are sort of fair-weather friends...I go in spurts and if I have a project that gets AT ALL stressful, I put the sewing machine away for a few months. Well, me and my Babylock are pretty much best friends these days and have been since the beginning of the summer. It got kicked off with that pink and brown spring dress I made for Jemma (I'm still in love with Portabellopixie Boutique Patterns.) In fact, the dress below is from the same set of patterns. I was a little intimidated by this particular dress at first because of the appliques...but after a little chat with my friend Rachel, I decided to give it a whirl. I love APPLIQUES! (As you will see in some of the projects below.)

Sorry the pic of Jemma is so blurry...I think Carter may have had his hands on the camera lense before I took the pic and Jemma would only pose once for me. Such is life. I was super pleased with the way it turned out. I wasn't sure about the apron at first...I thought it looked a little like she should just be in the kitchen...but now, I LOVE IT! It's very unique.
I have wanted to make a table runner for the kitchen table...mostly to distract the eye from our table. (Someday it WILL be replaced.) I saw a SUPER cute one my friend Alison made (click here to visit her AMAZING sewing blog and see her table runner that served as my inspiration! ps. scroll all the way down the page to see that table runner I'm talking about...SOOOO cute.) Thanks Alison for the tips and instructions. I would NEVER have attempted to quilt without it!
So, anyway, for a first timer, I was pretty pleased, but I definitely need some practice with the whole "free motion foot" quilting thing... YIKES. (don't look too close.)




These are a couple of shirts I put together for a friend and a sister who just had babies. I have to admit, coming up with girl stuff is MUCH easier. In fact, I think my favorite is the one with the orange flowers.

Anyway, sewing is fabulous...these days... it's a nice stress relief...at least until I work on something that makes me CRAZY!

Blogging delay...

So, our family has been out of town in Sunny, HOT (100 plus degree weather!!!) California for the last three weeks. We had so much fun seeing family...in fact, we were SOOO busy having SOOO much fun, that I didn't update the blog ONCE while we were there...that is not like me. But, now, to make up for my lack of bloggin', I have many, MANY posts coming to this blog in the near future. Stay tuned...

p.s. I'm going to be posting them in chronological order with the approximate date of their occurence... so you may have to scroll down to find them. :)

Five Wonderful Years

FIVE WHOLE YEARS!

We spent our 5th anniversary watching the 6th Harry Potter..."Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince". AWESOME SHOW! Boy am I lucky to have a husband that will watch Harry Potter...now if I could only get him to read the books! :)

Anyway, I really have a hard time believing that it's been five years! The time has gone by so quickly! Brandon and I will look back over all that has occurred since our marriage, and we really are awe-struck! Jemma was born in Dec. 2005, I finished school and received my license in dental hygiene in Jan. 2006, Carter was born in May 2008, Brandon received his Bachelors degree in May 2009, we've lived in three different states, (California, Idaho, and Oregon), we've made it through 1 year of Brandon's doctorate degree program/optometry school and the list goes on.

I am so thankful for this guy! He is such a wonderful husband, father and friend. Iam so thankful for our marriage. I am grateful to know that we have been sealed for eternity and that our family can be together forever.

Thanks for all the laughter, the support, understanding, strength and encouragement. I wouldn't want to share my life with anyone else! I'm looking forward to all of the years ahead of us!

I LOVE YOU BRANDON!

Visiting the Reeds

Boy! The last few days have been CrAzY 'round here! I am finally getting back to updating the blog.

We're so glad we got to spend time with the Reed's while we were in California. We had dinner with them a couple of times and got to catch up on all the business of life!

Thanks Grandma Debbie for all the pictures you took!

Jemma and Aunt Heather...hangin' on the flag pole. :)

Aunt Heather, Carter, Jemma and Grandma Carol staying cool by the pool.

Me (Jen) and Carter...I LOVE Carter in this shot...he's hard to get smiling!

Granddad and Carter.

I love this one of Carter too. Sweet boy!

It was so good to see all of you! Thanks for playing with the kids and making time to get together with us!

Nina & Papa's House

We spent the second week and a half of our Cali trip at Brandon's Mom and Dad's house. Our first night there, Jemma and Carter slept 13 hours!!! Jemma's hair that morning was AwEsOmE!!! Now that's volume. :)

We had tons of fun hanging out with the family and finally meeting TREY! I could kick myself for not getting a picture of him to put on here. He is such a CUTE boy and is such a good baby! Jade and Taylor are such lucky parents!

I spent a day in San Francisco with Tina, Jade and family friend Lori Boyle. I rode on BART for the first time...intersting experience...lots of "colorful" folks. We visited the three story Forever 21...LOVE IT, I finally got to try out the Cheesecake Factory...AmAzInG! I am a huge fan of their bread...especially the brown bread (I'm not sure what it's called...) We had tons of fun and came home EXHAUSTED! Thanks Brandon and Ben for watchin' the kids that day.

Brandon spent three days GOLFING with his Unlce Jerry...pretty sweet Bachelors Degree present! San Juan Oaks in Hollister, Oakdale Country Club in Oakdale, and Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach were the courses they played. Pretty sure he hasn't played that much golf, had that much fun, and had such a SwEeT farmers tan in a long time! :)

Jemma and Carter played hard with Nina and Papa's three dogs. In fact, Jemma took like 15 pictures of them...well, she actually only took pictures of two of them...the third, Skeeter, must have been hiding in the bushes.

This one is Maggie...She is super sweet, but poor Carter was a little nervous around her...probably cuz she's taller than he is!

This one is Ace...cute little weenie dog. (She actually belongs to Jade.)

And the third is Skeeter...Like I said, Jemma didn't take a picture of him... But she did take several of Lori Boyle's brand new chiwawa...I snapped the two below.

Jemma wanted to name her Lilian...hmmm that must be because her Aunt Jewel had a baby girl just a few days before and named her Lilian. :)

Jemma also made jewelry with Nina and a ladybug rock with Papa.

Carter spent A LOT of time playing with balls...Nina and Papa picked up a few bouncy balls for him to throw around, but that didn't mean we didn't spend some time keeping him out of all their decorative balls and anything else similarly shaped for that matter. (We're still sorry about the badly bruised apples and Ace's broken doggy dish.) We always love coming to see you guys.

Thank you so much for EVERYTHING.

Independence Day

So, I felt pretty lame, but I left our camera in the car on the 4th of July...we spent the day up in Pinecrest with Brandon's parents, sister Jade, brother-in-law Taylor, nephew Trey and extended family (Uncle Jerry, Aunt Jill, Uncle Steve and kids, Grandpa Vince, Grandma Donna and others). We enjoyed the sunshine at the lake in the morning and headed back to the cabin for the afternoon and evening for a DeLiCiOuS BBQ. Brandon's mom got some cute pics, so if I get a hold of those, I'll post a few.

I really love this holiday. I love this nation. I feel so blessed to live in a land where I am free. We watched the movie "1776" a day or two after the 4th and although it has it's humerous side, it really made me think about all the sacrifice that was involved in making this country independent. I am so thankful to our founding fathers, to those who made profound sacrifices so we could be free.

3rd of July

The 3rd of July was the first day we celebrated the 4th...this was the last day all of the siblings that had come out to Mom & Dad's would still be in Cali, so we decided to celebrate a day early. We spent most of the day in the sun, by the pool, eating BBQ chicken and homemade chocolate ice cream...it just wouldn't be an Independence Day celebration without that combination! :)

July 3rd Highlights Part I:

Carter chillin' in the crab...this thing was a big hit with him!

Jemma, definitely showing more confidence in the water now that she's had some swimming lessons!

Carter and Dad just dunkin' a few.



Jemma shootin' some hoops with her dad.

Carter, obsessed with this ball. Wait, he's pretty much obsessed with ALL balls!

Check out the physique!


Jemma, getting her homemade icecream from Nona and Papa! (Seriously, I've never had icecream that can compare. It is purely AwEsOmE!)

Jemma with her icecream.

Carter eating his...whatelse, icecream.

PINYATA!!! I loved pinyatas growing up...what kid doesn't? I'm pretty sure there was one (or more) at all the Packard reunions growing up, and I was STOKED to see that my parents were gonna have the same tradition in their family!

Carter was first up...he WAS the youngest of the grandkids...but not anymore! Congrats again Jewels and Eric! We Love You Lilian!

Jemma. She had a pretty good swing. That girl is definitely more athletic than her mother!

Collecting the candy.


Carter even got a little baggie! I had to hide it from him so he wouldn't mawl all the starbursts...wrapper and all!

July 3rd Highlights Part II:

Fireworks...I love to see the HUGE ones go off up in the sky, but I really think that sparklers and the ones you can set off in your own backyard are pretty darn entertaining! I took a few pics of the family doing sparklers with the flash on, and although their faces were a little easier to make out, the ones without the flash were much cooler. Check it out...

Jacob with half a "RING OF FIRE"! (Name the movie.)

Sharee and a CoMpLeTe "RING OF FIRE"! (Name the movie again.)

Brandon and Jemma. :)

Sean and Jacob.

Seriously, those sparklers look AwEsOmE!

The clan gathered on the trampoline to view the FiReWoRk ShOw!

We had a super fun 3rd of July! Family is Fabulous!