Jacob, 18 months

Brushing a goat at the Phoenix Zoo in April

Our little boy is 18 months old! He is trying so hard to be a big boy, doing everything his big sister does. He loves to be around her, playing with all her toys, which she finds annoying about half the time. The other time, they play together really well and I love it! He just started saying her name, Buh-buh, and it's so cute! He also says "buh" (bird), "uh-oh," "ah-duh" (all done), "gog" (dog), and occasionally "da-da."

Jake is happiest when he's eating, and saddest when he's hungry or tired. He loves to laugh, rough house, do silly things just for a laugh, be with his Daddy, and play with kitchen utensils. He loves birds, dogs and cats, and squeals like crazy whenever he sees one. He's good at climbing and opening doors, but he responds to "no" most of the time, so he's not a complete terror! He's still very mellow and calm, which we love; I'm so grateful he got Malcom's temperament and not mine!

That's not to say Jacob isn't busy, because he is a very active kid. I can rarely get a good picture of him because he's either having so much fun doing what he's doing to stop, or he immediately reaches for the phone/camera to push all the buttons on it. He's almost figured out how to open doors (yikes!), knows how to push a chair or stool over to something to reach it, and understands that keys unlock doors. I have run out of places to put things "up high" where he can't get them! I'm sure he'll continue to keep us on our toes for many more years!

Beauty and the Beast

It's been so long since I posted that Blogger has changed (again!) and I'm unfamiliar with it all. Weird.

I agreed to make a quilt for my dear friend Marianne in November. I told her I wouldn't get to it until after Christmas, she sent me the fabric (four yellow, king-sized sheets) in February, and I just delivered it to her last weekend. It was based on this one from Pottery Barn Teen:

 She wanted something similar for her 13-year-old daughter, but without the hefty price. 

I came up with the following:

I didn't realize how much work it work it would be, and began to understand the price tag. It's all about the labor! That's why it's named Beauty and the Beast: So beautiful in the end, but a total beast to work with.

I learned many new tricks when working with ruffles, how to deal with so much fabric, and that my machine's harp space will actually fit a queen-sized quilt--good to know!

For a friend that important, it was completely worth it. I hope her daughter loves the look and they get many years of using it. (Hopefully unusually cold years because that thing is heavy!!)

Dog Lovers

For people who don't have pets, we sure have a thing for dogs.

Today while I was working on a quilt for a friend, Bekah asked if I would make her something too. She brought me some purple fabric and we decided we'd make a quilt for White Doggy. She picked out some other fabrics and decided she wanted squares for the front. I got to work and made this:

It was a silly, quick little thing and the piecing of those blocks is not pretty, but it sure meant a lot to Bekah.

Jake also loves his little toy dog. This is his first official word--FINALLY!! He'll say "gog-gog-gog" when he picks it up.

He also loves the few stuffed kitties we have, but the dog gets the most attention. I hope he adds more useful words soon, like hungry, help, or ow instead of the "uuuhhhhh" he uses to mean everything!

Catching Up

I have no good excuses for not blogging (my life seems a little boring so who would want to read about it?!), so I'll just jump into the catching up part.

Malcom has the day shift now and it's wonderful! It's remarkable to go to sleep in the same bed at the same time! And when he does a few hours of overtime, he's still home in time for dinner. Simple pleasures of a stay-at-home-mom, I know. He took this semester off school because Fall nearly killed him, but he'll start again in August.

I'm still doing my same stuff: quilting, reading, running (training for a 10K in April!), managing our home, and planning meals. I'm hoping to convince Malcom to start trying for another baby soon, some time this year, but he's always a little slow to come around to such upheaval of our lives!

Bekah is loving preschool, of course. She has a good friend there, Kami, who we've had a few playdates with. She also has regular playdates with Ella, a girl from our ward. And we have a tumbling class on Thursdays, which she really loves. She wants to try ballet next! I am applying to four different kindergartens in the area, in addition to the neighborhood school that we technically belong to. I can't believe I'm putting her in school in LA after all those years of swearing I wouldn't send my kids to LA schools! But life happens!

Jacob is still his sweet, calm self. He still doesn't say a word, but he loves to sing the E-I-E-I part of Old MacDonald. He loves to climb, touch everything he shouldn't, and pester his big sister. He loves to play with balls, spoons, and measuring cups. He has become attached to a stuffed dog--I promise, I didn't force it on him just so he'd have the same lovey as his sister, it just happened that way! He absolutely ADORES his daddy and insists on being held by Malcom within 30 seconds of him walking in the door.

So that's us, for now. No big developments or changes, nothing earth-shattering, which is just the way I like it! There's something to be said for predictability and stability, even if it feels a little boring at times.

New Years in Dallas

After Christmas in Mesa we had the awesome opportunity to get together with ALL of Malcom's family in Texas. His youngest brother, Andrew, blessed his new baby girl on New Years' Day. We couldn't really afford the flights, so Malcom's dad gave us the money. We felt so blessed!

It was Jake's first time on a plane, and Bekah's second.  We rented a car and stayed at a hotel, just like real people do for vacations! We spent every night up late, chatting in one hotel room or another. On Friday we went to the Dallas zoo. On Saturday we had a whole day at Andrew's ward building, complete with games, family pictures, family history trivia, presents from Grandma, and great food.

And of course, the star of the show was Brooklyn. Her blessing day was fabulous--what a sweet little baby! We had a little luncheon at Staci's parents' house before saying goodbye and flying back to Mesa. All the others drove instead and thankfully got home safely the next day.

It was a great vacation, my favorite Sanders Family vacation by far.

Christmas 2011

I'm blogging from my phone because I don't know how to get my pictures off this new phone... I know, it's silly! But here are some photos from Christmas in Mesa. It was a surprisingly relaxing time, very peaceful and full of family time. Perfect!

Quilt #5

Here is the last quilt I made in 2011, for my sister-in-law, Lynaya. She sent me a bunch of fabric and I made a quilt. It was fun to practice a new block on someone else's dime ;)