Thanksgiving Day "Gift from God"

We went to Albuquerque as usual, to spend Thanksgiving with Sarah and her family. We found Sarah running around getting things done for Thanksgiving dinner, and in labor. We convinced her to go to the Hospital at about 11pm and Nathan was born at 12:14 am on Thanksgiving Day. She wanted to name him Micah, but Jared promised the baby before he was born that he wouldn't let Mom call him that. Sarah decided that Nathan means "Gift from God" and he was definitely that, born on Thanksgiving. Very special.

We took pictures of the kids with Nathan as Baby Jesus. The one that I like, with the color desaturated, wouldn't download, but I'm sure you can see how cute this picture is.

We went to see the petroglyphs in New Mexico. It was an easy hike, then the kids stood on the edge of the mountain so we could take pictures. Hannah would not have been pleased.

I left NM and came home to the rat race of getting ready for Christmas.

Oh yeah, Cell phone update. Caleb's cell died, Abby's cell died, I washed mine, Val washed one of hers and dropped another in the tide. All of us have working cells now, thanks to ebay and friends. Jim's cell is starting to have issues. It's like swine flu for cell phones or something. Just in case anyone cares.

Cell phone tragedy

Not long ago, my Daughter-in-law, Val, washed her cell phone. It went through the wash cycle in the washing machine. Needless to say she had to get a new phone. I must have subconciously wanted to try that. I started a load of wash late at night, especially needing to wash the jeans I was wearing. About 15 minutes later I realized I didn't have my phone and had the chilling thought that it was in the wash. I ran to the machine, opened it, and as it stopped spinning, I saw the light of my cell phone whirling around. I took it apart and set the hair dryer on it. It is 2 days later now, the "Y" doesn't work and the right side menu button. Betsy said I sounded like I was talking under water when I spoke to her yesterday. The charger keeps saying that it is too hot to charge, but I still have hope. This is my second phone this year. It simply MUST recover. (Or I could get myself an iphone for Christmas) hmmmm.


I just realized that nobody read my last blog because it didn't update on peoples blogs. I wonder why?

New quilts.

I realize I have dropped out of blogging for awhile. I have been too busy. I actually spend tons of time on the computer but don't take the time to blog. I love to read everyone else's blogs though. I have finished a few major quilts. Sarah, you will be happy to know your wedding quilt is finished----only 10 years late!
This quilt is "Sarah's Roses". I even quilted circular feathers in the white blocks.

I finished the top of this unnamed quilt which will be my nieces wedding quilt. It is a collage of beautiful Asian fabrics.

This is a king size 30's quilt in a pattern called "Stepping Stones" Tons of sewing!

I finished my Dear Jane Quilt. I Finished it in time for it to hang at the Quilt Festival Quilt show with several other Dear Jane Quilts. I am so happy to have it done.

Truth #4 Don't believe everything you think.

Education week was very inspiring and uplifting and EDUCATIONAL! Fancy that. There is one thing though, that I can't get out of my mind. It is one of those true things that I wish I could share with everyone, because it can make their lives easier if they understand. Carrie Wrigley talked about it at education week. She is a licenced clinical social worker (Therapist) and a singer, so she was able to zing the truth of her words to our hearts through her music. Her message in part was "Don't believe everything you think. " People's thoughts are often twisted, in fact there are 10 forms of twisted thinking, but in our culture we typically employ 4 main ones.
1. All or Nothing: You see things in black and white, if a situation falls short of perfection, you see it as a total failure. If your program was great but one person suggested something you could do better, you feel like a total failure.

2. Self Blame: "It's all my fault" You think that everything that happens reverts back to you. If your child is having trouble at school, you think it is because you are a terrible mother.

3. Jumping to conclusions: Mary didn't say hi to me today she must be mad at me. or I'm going to blow my test, and flunk out of school. You interpret things negatively even though there are no facts.
4. Mental Filter: Focusing just on the things that are wrong. That program was great and you had 49 wonderful comments, but the only thing you remember is the one negative comment you heard. You obsess about this negative comment and ignore all the good.

There are actually 10 forms of twisted thinking and there are ways to replace good thinking with bad. As you talk to your friends you will notice these patterns. It's all in a book, The Feeling Good Hand Book, by David D. Burns, MD.

Anyway, when I start to feel depressed, If I slow down, I can recognize some form of twisted thinking going on. It is really powerful.

Just sharing something I know strongly to be true. Love you all
Kathy

Lightsaber

Ben fixed this picture so it has REAL lightsabers!

California

We just came home from California where I met my new Grand Daughter Zoey Maeling

We attended her Blessing on Sunday.

We went to the beach where I discovered that some of the seagulls can catch a sandwich in midair. Actually, they can stop flying and remain in the same place in the air for several seconds while waiting for me to break off a piece and through it. How do they do that?

We went to Adventure Land where we built this addition to this fort. See my cute Grands in our little room?

The funnest thing we built was this giant On-OFF switch.

We also played with Ben's light sabers. It's funny what happens to a fully grown person when you put a light saber in their hands.

Brother against brother--no mercy!

Of course a trip to California is not complete without a trip to Fenton's. Afterwards we sat on the curb and watched the cars go by, or counted blue ones or something like that. (See "UP")

It's good to be home.

chicken pasta recipe

Here is a great chicken pasta recipe that we had in Knotts yesterday. YUM It makes enough for an army but the recipe can easily be reduced.

Pasta Salad

1 pkg. bow-tie pasta (12 oz.)
1 pkg. spiral pasta (12 oz.)
1 20 oz. can pineapple tidbits
2 cans sliced water chestnuts - chopped
2 c. chopped celery
4 green onions, chopped
1 cup red grapes, sliced
1 can cashews
1 pkg. or craisins
1 lg. can mandarin oranges (I used two small cans)
6 large chicken breasts, cooked and cubed. (I used 3 cans Costco chicken)

Dressing:
1 bottle Kraft coleslaw dressing mixed with
1 cup mayonnaise.

Cook the pasta, drain. Drain all of the canned items. Mix together in a giant Tupperware bowl with dressing. Chill, Serve.

Springville Quilt Show

I forgot to mention that my quilt, "In the Beginning" won a Teachers choice ribbon at the Home Machine Quilting Show last April. Encouraged, I entered it in the Springville Quilt show at the Springville Museum of Art.

See That Blue Ribbon? It's for MY QUILT!!!!!!!! I got a ribbon and $100.00 for Best Machine quilting and Embellishment. I of course will share that with Kim Peterson who machine quilted it for me.

I just had to take a picture of it hanging so beautifully at the museum, and remind you all of what it looks like. It will be hanging there until September 2, in case you want to go see it. There are some absolutely incredible quilts there.

I am also helping hand quilt a quilt for President Monson. His daughter asked Sharon Wright to make a quilt for her parents. Sharon is letting people help with the quilting. That is a really cool thing. Maybe I will get extra blessings for that.

Life is too fast!

This summer has been exhausting so far, quilt show, my dad's heart problems, cruise, New Mexico, Girls Camp.... I am ready to stay home the rest of the year! We do need to go to California after grandbaby number 19 is born. I probably will be recovered by then. Here we are at Kaitlyn's baptism in New Mexico.

Kaitlyn was so adorable. Here she is just before her baptism with her dad, Scott. It was so touching. I am so glad we got to be there. It was my favorite trip so far.

This was my favorite time of camp. It rained, snowed, hailed, sleeted, and at all the most important times.....The sun shone! The stake leaders heated up some water and put some good smelling stuff (by this time a GOOD smell was pure heaven) in the water and we soaked our feet for hours, well at least 15 minutes. The girls were, well, girls.....and I really learned to love them. I also learned a huge appreciation for heaters and soft beds and hot water and tubs and husbands that make a 2 hour trip to the wilderness to fix your flat tire and bring you rasberries.

I love you Jim.

Cruise 2009

We arrived in Puerto Rico where our cruise began with damaged luggage. The wheel broke off. It was over 40 pounds and too heavy to carry so we were forced to find a piece of luggage within walking distance of the hotel to replace it. The airline basically said, "Too Bad".
Our friends missed their flight and for awhile we thought it would just be us, but we like each other so it wouldn't have been too bad. Here are a few of the things we did,

Played with snakes.


Saw a "drive in volcano".

Rode Segways. We LOVE them!


Learned to sail!

It was all very fun. We are completely exhausted and happy to be home to our wonderful bed, our boring food, our busy lives and our large loving family.

BYU Graduation #6

This is Abby, my sixth child and the sixth child to graduate from BYU! Go Cougars! I think she is the youngest also. Graduation was last week. Jim is the Associate Dean of the College of Life Sciences and his graduation was at the same time as Abby's, so she went to His! The best thing was that he gave her her diploma and got to have his picture taken with her and Dean Brown.

SO CUTE!!!

Caleb will be next.........a long time from now.......he's only 14. He's about as interested as a 14 year old can get.

Mira was much more interested! Maybe SHE will be next!

First "Show " Quilts

This quilt is titled "In the Beginning", Doodle #1. I took a bunch of my doodles and reproduced the shapes in bright fabrics made brighter by putting them on a black background. Kim Peterson did some fabulous quilting and then I put almost 1000 swarofsky crystals in the middle.

This quilt is titled "Love Multiplies" . It was made from another one of my doodles by the same name. This is the story that goes with the original drawing.

I was taking a Lamaze refresher course in preparation for the birth of my fourth child. The teacher was expecting her second. Her reaction upon hearing that I was expecting Number four was “We are only having two children. We don’t want to have to divide our love between more than two, it wouldn’t be fair to the children.”I was literally speechless. Didn’t she know love multiplies? It doesn’t divide or subtract, it adds and multiplies. The more you give it away the more you have to give. So this piece is dedicated to my mother and all those she has taken in and loved, and all her children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She taught me that ‘Love Multiplies.”
I have entered both of these in a quilt show. My first. I am nervous about having my stuff judged. I am hard enough on myself without voluntarily paying someone else to criticize me.

I went to a quilt retreat with my Bee. We made these table toppers called "crazy Eights" . It was fun and easy.

I turn in the show quilts on April 18. Then I will be powerless to change things and will have to just wait and see what happens. GLUGHHH!

I think I will take up knitting!

#18 Afton Elizabeth Anderson

Last Wednesday, March 4, Little Afton was finally born. My schedule had been "tentative" for a week, thinking she would make her appearance earlier. The hospital wanted Betsy to come in at 9 am to be induced so I went to AF to pick up the boys. Caleb had an orthodontist appointment at 10:15, so I picked him up at school and took him and the little boys to the dentist. Afterwards I left the little boys with Caleb and raced to the hospital to be with Betsy when Afton was born. Russell was texting me the whole time, keeping me informed. He asked me to pick up a hamburger for him on the way. As I was finally on the home stretch to the hospital, Russell texts, "She wants to push!". I text back "Tell her to stop!!"

I made it 5 minutes before Afton was born. If that hamburger had made me miss Afton's birth, I would have been mad at Russ forever.

I have spent a great deal of time since then watching Porter and Reid.

I know at first glance this looks like a suave young man with a pencil mustache and a smoking jacket, but it's just Reid wearing his pajama top for a coat, after having a meal of good garden dirt. Russ said his diaper the next day had enough dirt to plant daisies. Oh well, that's the way gramma's babysit.

mission call????

I have a friend who says the only way she is going on a mission is if she gets an email from the Lord. She told me last week her email came. That ran through my mind when I walked outside on Friday night and found this.

the poster says "Congrats Bro & Sis Porter. Siberian South Mission.

Then I thought, "Oh no, some sweet person put this at the wrong house! That has happened before. Then Jim said, "I don't think there is any such mission as the Siberian South Mission" How would he know that? He went inside to his computer and looked it up. Sure enough---no such thing. We then recalled that our pranking mischeivous daughter and son-in -law had been here earlier in the evening. After a call and poorly disguised pretense of innocence, Betsy admitted guilt. We have had several calls from neighbors wondering where the Siberian South mission is, and how come they didn't know we were thinking about a mission. Funny....

New Quilts

It's been forever since I blogged or even read blogs. I have been busy with other things. I finished 3 quilts.

This is the "Swirl" Quilt that I started at Quilt Festival last September. I took a class from Louisa Smith. The Quilt is interesting, and I would make another swirl quilt, but I would not make my own fabric "strata" like Louisa does. It's not fun. It was beautifully quilted by Kim Peterson. (Kimberwood Quilting).
This little "Harvest" Quilt was a group effort. My Bee divided the tasks, I did the plums, somebody did the pears, someone else did peaches etc. We ended up with this cute thing. I embellished it with bug buttons.

I learned how to do this "Fractured Stained Glass" quilt last year at Bryce Canyon Winter retreat. I fimnally finished it because My Bee wants to learn how to do it. I didn't love it till I took this picture. It really looks like the sun is shing through a stained glass window. Cool.

The best thing Iam doing lately is taking care of Caleb Moody, a Darling little boy that I took care of when I was doing Pediatric Hospice. He surprised everyone and decided to live. He was expected to die shorly after his birth and he is now 4. He has a trach, a g-tube and is on a ventilator at night. He only has one eye. The other eye is closed and has eyelashes so he looks like he is winking. You can check out his blog winkfromheaven.blogspot.com, the link is on my blog. He is such an angel. It is very rewarding and uplifting to love him and help his family. It is just what I needed these last dreary days of Winter.

Quilt Studio!

Real quilters have quilt "studios". Untill 2009 my quilt room was in my closet next to my bedroom. I finally felt so claustrophobic that I couldn't sew. I tried moving my sewing machine to the kitchen but everybody complained, not to mention that food kept getting all over my projects. So I sold the airhockey table, got rid of the big TV and kitchen cupboards that were in the basement and turned it into a studio!

This is my giant design wall made of styrofoam insulation covered with flannel. Oh yeah, that is my Doodle quilt hanging there, awaiting borders.

Jim, my favorite (and only) husband, built these shelves for me. Oh how I love a man with talents! I wrapped my fabric on things so that it looks like a mini quilt store. The tupperware containers have the smaller pieces of fabric divided by color.

Just another view.

Another view that shows my New Joy "Magic" quilting frame. My talented husband and son moved it from my bedroom to here and made it 10 feet instead of 8 feet. The really wonderful thing is...I had them make it 12 feet and decided it was too big for the room, so they had to take it all apart and make it smaller. They are so awesome.

My sewing machine, allready with fabric piled on the table, and my cutting table in the corner. I nned more light there. My machine faces the TV so I can watch old movies while I sew. Ahhhhh, life is good for a REAL QUILTER!

Grand-pairs

My grandkids mostly come in pairs. Not Twins! They each have a cousin that was born within a few months of them, with one exception.

Cj. Cj is the oldest by a couple of years. She had to start the ball rolling all by herself.

Livy and Kaitlyn came next.

Then Brynn and Jeston

Mia and Addy are our Drama queens. Actually, I could say that about all the girls and half the boys.

Sam and Jared showed up, we were happy for more boys.

Then

Porter and India.

Then Luke and Xander

Then Reid and Ellie.

Finally, Mirabella and Brigg. They are a little farther apart than the other pairs, but I still count them.

I took most of these pictures during dinner at the cabin, and some of the kids were not willing to tear themselves away from the food for a pic. I'm not 100 percent sure I got the pairs right.

I have 1 more grand-pair coming this year, one in March and one in June. Which

reminds me....at the cabin, we have to be careful of the water, there just isn't enough when there are a lot of people there. The rule is "If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down" . Inspite of that, we ran out of water. Poor pregnant Val was morning sick and came out of the bathroom apologizing because she just threw up and could not flush it down. Russell asked what color it was, if it was yellow, there was no problem!