A Little bit of This and That

The kids had "Crazy Day" at school.  Rylee has crazy clothes you can't see, but also wanted crazy hair. So we busted out the hair chalks.

She went with purple and green and loved it. 

When I walk out my back door, I walk across a parking lot and see this.  And it makes me happy. 

You recall Joshua's lovely curly locks from his last photo?  He wanted it cut and gave them a photo of what he wanted.  Then was cranky he got what he asked for.  I think it looks great!

Joshua made some "Ultimate Nachos" for lunch.  They have awesome spicy chicken layered on them, and are smothered in cheese sauce.  They were AMAZING!

This is my new acquisition.  I bought myself a painting and I love it. 

We watched General Conference from home this year.  All 4 sessions.  The kids were kind of done by the last one.  This was 30 minutes before the final Sunday session ended.

Kimono Baby Blankets

 I  have acquired a sizable collection of kimonos.  I initially just wanted to make kimono scarfs (scarves?), but each scarf takes at least 10 different kimonos.  So I needed to do something else with the vast amount of kimono material I have. The kimonos have all been unpicked and washed; they just needed to be used.

I thought it would be super fun to make baby blankets out of the kimonos.  The Navy Marine Corps Relief Society gives handmade baby blankets to new moms, and they are always in need of donations.  And what could be more fun and appropriate than a kimono blanket!

Since the kimonos unpick into long strips, it was really easy to sew strip quilts.  They are really fast to put together.  It takes longer to pick my colors and come up with a backing than it does to actually sew them!

Delaney really wanted a blanket too.  I took her to the fabric store with me to pick out a backing and to buy batting.  She chose her colors and knew exactly what she wanted.  The first blanket is Delaney's.  The rest all went to NMCRS for babies born here in Iwakuni. The real struggle is in finding appropriate colors for boys.  Hard to find floral stuff manly!  I tried though.  Some of the blankets are cuter than others, but I think all are adorable!

Cherry Blossoms at Kintai

 It is Cherry Blossom Season!  And the blossoms only last up to two weeks, so they are pretty special and very fleeting.  The officially bloomed on Saturday, but I didn't have a chance to go out and see them. On Monday, I took all 4 sister missionaries out to Kintai to admire the blossoms.

Actually, we had a joking interior motive.  One of the darling sisters has received at least 4 wedding announcements in the last 4 months.  She was getting a little depressed about all her friends getting married while she's out on a mission. I suggested she go out to Kintai and take photos and make her own announcements: "Sister Friend is anxiously Engaged in the Lord's work..."

I'm not sure if she will actually make announcements, but she sure got some great photos. It was a lot of fun to go out there with the sisters, since most of them had not seen the Cherry Blossoms before and they spent the entire time oohing and ahhing over everything.  It really is incredible and no matter how awesome the pictures are, it really is even more splendid in real life.  Yes, I did just use the word splendid in an appropriate sentence!

I also got some lovely pictures.  Sakura season really is something to celebrate!

Who has cute kids? Me! (And my friend Sabrina.)

 We have the most amazing lady in our Branch.  She has 3 very little children and her husband is the Branch President.  Oh, and she's our sole pianist.  So, Sacrament meetings are a juggling act  for her sometimes.  We are lucky.  She lets us take her baby, and all the kids fight over who gets to hold adorable Andelynn.

Marian likes this baby more than the fake one.

And Joshua always wants to hold her. He does a great job and will be a great dad.

Callie got a turn at the baptism today.

Till Joshua stole her back.

 This one is all mine!  

Reasons 63 and 64 that Marian is Awesome!

 Marian cracks me up.  She is so much fun and so creative.  For Science, she had to make a 3-D model of a cell and it had to be edible.  For a very imaginative kid, she was very hung up on the things on her model being like what it represented.  She was very specific in what she wanted. (And I thought made it so much more difficult to do!) She did a great job and it came out nicely.

 I made a sugar cookie base and we frosted it, then she put her things on.

Nice, isn't it?!! 

She also got to have a fake-baby for 36 long, difficult hours.  She did not enjoy it. The 2 page paper she had to write about the experience was fabulous, and so Marian!