Sewing Lesson #1

The phone rings at work, I pick it up to hear Carly on the other end, "Corrine, will you and Alisa teach me how to sew?" She and Anna asked this question when they were playing with the Clinton girls. Alisa and I decided we better put it on our calendar soon...so the date of Saturday, January 30th at 11am was set. When we arrived to pick the girls up Mac was set on going. Alisa had thought of it before we got there and his sisters were so gracious in letting him with us.

EXCITED CHILDREN

The children had SO much fun picking the fabric for their pillow cases. There were a lot of options so it took some time. They were each excited to show off their choices. Alisa captured Mac's excitment perfectly in his picture.

They watched the gal at JoAnn's Fabric very closely as she cut their fabric. She was so kind as she talked to each child and praised them for their choices.

Alisa taught the girls how to layout the fabric, cut the edges, iron the seams and pin all together.

I taught they girls how to sew. We used the serger for most of it to make it go faster for them.

Drum roll please....Here is the final product!

We had a great day! We even went to lunch together at Chick-fil-A in between shopping and sewing. We also dropped off Mac for a nap before we went home to sew. We finished the day at about 4pm when Rachel brought Mac by to see us and pick up the girls. We made Mac's pillowcase along with the other two. They truly love their brother and are so kind to him.

A Decade...Really?

My New Year's Eve and New Year's Day discussion with Alisa went something like this..."Can you believe it has been a decade since we were all worried about Y2K?" It is truly amazing how fast time goes by. The older I get the more I realize how important it is to enjoy those special moments in life. Another realization is the importance of looking at everyday routines as something more than something I am "just enduring" until the next fun event.

Happy New Year...May Each of Us Live in the Moment and Cherish are Loved Ones!

Gift from Heaven

Bradley Steven Barlow

August 20, 2009 at 11:17 pm

7lbs 11 oz. 20 inches

Parents: Garrett & Leanne Barlow

My heart if full of gratitude right now!

I am grateful to be an aunt times 11.

I am grateful to belong to such a wonderful family.

I am grateful for a sister-in-law who sacrificed personal needs, wants and comforts to bring Bradley to our family.

I am grateful to Garrett and Leanne for bringing a child into this world.

I am grateful for parents who raised us in the gospel.

God is good!!

July Birthday Celebration

Sunday evening, July 19th we had Alisa's favorite meal - Swiss Steak (thank you for spoiling us mother) for dinner as Michelle's family, McKay's family Alisa, myself and Dad and Mom gathered at Dad and Mom's home. Then we ate Zack's favorite ice cream - homemade ice cream prepared by Michelle and cake prepared by Rachel T. She went all out in the creative category and made us a chocolate cake in the shape of a Dodger baseball cap.

We now have five birthdays in July in our family. Alisa loves it! She was the original July birthday on July 16th. Zack, Leanne, Mac and Bryn also have July birthdays.

Isn't this cake great! In a family full of Dodger fans, Rachel scored big points!

Here comes the candle blowing...

WE MISSED YOU LEANNE!

"Out of My Way-I'm Lightning McQueen"

Mac turned two today! He grew up SO much on his two week trip to Utah. He came home a fan of Lightning McQueen. I had never even heard of McQueen before now. I had heard of the movie "Cars" I just didn't know the two went together.

It was a lot of fun to watch his excitement on his birthday. He understood it was his birthday so it was fun to watch him enjoy it.

This is Mac on his new bike. Man does he love it. There are several different buttons for sound effects which you can imagine a little boy loves. His favorite seemed to be the voice of McQueen saying, "Out of My Way-I'm Lightning McQueen". It is absolutely adorable when he says it.

He also learned how to smile with his teeth when he was out of town. I love this picture. He sure is growing up!

Kudos to Rachel - what a creative mom! Check out this cake she made Mac. A race track with real cars. Anna and Carly were quick to tell us that they helped too.

Mac was showing us his McQueen car on his cake. He thought it was SO cool!

I am sure this is one of many times in Mac's life that his big sisters will want to help him out. :) Being an older sister, I know how it feels when you want to be helpful, right Alisa. :)

Dodgers Win at Home

What a great experience at the Dodger game!

Brock and I attended the game with two of my friends, Kristina Ferrin and Sara Chambers. Kristina called Friday night letting me know she had two tickets if we were interested. Wow, she has great seats and total connections through her company. THANK YOU KRISTINA!

It was fun being with Brock because he was seeing the stadium and the updates for the first time. This is the first game he had been for 2 1/2 years. Kristina said it was like watching a child at Christmas.

We were so close to the action. We were only about 10 rows up on the third base line. I had the great camera with the zoom lens. I had so much fun taking pictures and seeing everything so close. I took about 200 pictures. It was really hard to decide on just a few for this entry. I will describe why I put each picture here.

This was taken at Brock's request. He got so excited to see it. I liked how it turned out. What a great zoom lens!

Yes, this is Manny. I was laughing at how his hair got in the way when he through the ball. Check out his hair. He is definitely is on the team for his bat, not his defensive skills.

I like this picture even though he struck out this at bat. I was impressed I snapped it perfectly.

We went to the top of the stadium for the purpose of shopping. Brock was in search of the Brooklyn Dodgers large "B" baseball cap. We didn't find it at this stop but we got a great picture of him here. By the way, we later found it at a kiosk about four rows away from our seats.

I like my picture too, but I like Brock's better. Guess the photographer does make a difference. :)

This is one of my favorite pictures I took last night. Check out the ball arriving in Loney's glove. You may have noticed I am no longer taking pictures from the third base side. At the seventh inning we moved seats. Kristina called in a favor and got us in the Dodger Dugout seats. HOLY COW, you are really close to the action there. We were so spoiled last night.

Another picture I like. Martin steals second here. Eckstein was airborne to catch the ball and tried to get him. I wish I had the airborne picture, but I am happy with this one - notice the umpire!

Check out how close we were. This was taken from our seats without the zoom lens on.

This is another one of my favorite pictures. I love "my" camera!

This is a picture of Either and the game winning hit. I was SO excited that we won. It capped off the amazing experience we had there. It was a special treat that my favorite Dodger player had the winning hit that drove in the winning run. By the way, I didn't mind the extra inning because of our great seats. I wanted to enjoy them for as long as possible.
OH YEAH BABY!
This was a great statistic/part of history to be a part of!
I love this picture. We took it after the game as we lingered checking everything out about the Dugout Seating. We even stood in line waiting for the players to come out of the club house. We didn't get any signatures but we saw...Matt Kemp, Jeff Weaver, Belisario, bull pen coaches, Juan Pierre, Broxton, and the new pitcher called up from Double A.

This was an evening for the memory books! I am grateful I went and thankful Brock was with me. It really was fun to watch his excitement about everything. Thanks Alisa for your sacrifice. By the way, Saturday McKay and Rachel received a call that they could have four tickets to the game so Alisa & McKay took Anna & Carly. This was them waving at us!

Happy Birthday Ty

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to Ty
Happy Birthday to YOU!!!

And many more on channel 10.
I sure love you Ty man. I hope you have a great day.