Better late than never.....

SO Did you miss me? I know I haven't posted anything on here for SOO long and I am way behind but I do have a good reason. Well ok I have several, the first being is that I have another blog-- yes I know its almost like cheating on you but I promise it's worth it. www.zaelitroots.blogspot.com has been taking up all of my blogging time for the last 8 months or so. Its a snapshot of all of the family history that we have on Andy's side of the family. Its almost to where I would call it stage 2 finished which is quite an accomplishment, just take a look at it and you will see why it has been consuming my time :)
The second reason is that my poor husband doesn't have a job any more and its amazing how it cuts down on my free time. Yes, Andy did work for Cabela's until July 24 (yes just 2 days before his birthday wasn't that nice), One day when he was the only manager on duty a guy came into buy a gun and the checkout people who do all of the back ground checks etc didn't do the background check on this guy (he was a CCP guy not some crook, so don't freak out)  However, Andy had looked at the paperwork a little while before they checked him out and had told them to make sure they ran the back ground check and signed that everything else was in place etc. Unfortunately, even though that is all he had to do with the transaction, because he was the manager on duty, and Cabela's has a one strike policy, he lost his job. So needless to say he has looked for alot of jobs, but hasn't found the right one yet apparently. We know that Heavenly Father is looking out for us, we have been so blessed its really been amazing.

Let me see what were the highlights of 2012.

We were evacuated from our home when the mountains to the south of us decided to catch on fire. We spent 3 fun filled days hanging out at Grandma's house and getting spoiled. Tony and Andree where evacuated to (they are on the other side of the valley from us with the mountain in between) so they came to it was a very interesting impromptu vacation.

We went on 3 camping trips during the summer and didn't get to finish any of them! The first one we went on at the very beginning of June and got snowed out, it was just to cold to stay in a tent. Thank heavens Andy's parents had come with us and we got to hang out in their trailer because it would have been much worse. The second camping trip we went on Cabela's insisted that Andy be back for an impromptu manager meeting so we had to come home early. The third camping trip we went to Jordanelle for a family reunion and someone decided to start a fire there too, so we where evacuated-- again. Our goal for 2013 is to finish just one vacation the way it was planned  :)

The kids all got bigger (Cole is now about 6'1 and was offically taller than his mother early in the year). Really its hard to believe how much they grew! Lexi skipped 2 sizes she grew so fast and the other girls officially made it out of little girl clothes and into teenager clothes (heaven help me).

In October we lost Andy's Grandpa Zaelit. It was a heart wrenching experience to see Grandma Zaelit mourn for him. The funeral was beautiful and it was amazing to see how may people came to it and the viewing, he was an amazing man who touched so many people. I am so grateful to have married into such a wonderful family.

As for 2013 its only a month in so I am not too far behind- YEA! Cole has been in drivers ed (yes its very scary!) but he is turning out to be a pretty careful driver, I just hope that he stays that way. He turned 16 on Feb 1st, but isn't quite to the point where he can get his license and I am ok with that.
 Mara turned 12 on Jan 28 (I am not sure that I am ok with that), she is growing up so fast and is definitely having a hard time trying to decide if she really wants to grow up or not. I am sure that she will figure it out in time, I just hope its soon.
Taylor is almost 14 and she is totally a social butterfly! I can hardly keep up with her. She definitely is going to put me through the wringer though. She has definite ideas about how she wants things to go and usually they are contrary to the way that I want things to go. Thank heavens her Dad and her have similar temperaments because he has an easier time dealing with her than I do.
Lexi has become very grown up, in fact at times I think she is trying to pass her older siblings. When Mara started going to YW on her birthday it really hit me that she is my baby and so we try to do something just the 2 of us while the rest of them are away on Wednesday nights. She does have a best friend that lives 2 houses down, every other weekend, during the weekend we see just about nothing of her at all as it becomes a Maddy and Lexi priority weekend. Its been good for her though to have such a good friend and they are so much alike that its pretty scarey!

Well in the next couple of weeks our house is going up for sale. Kindof a scarey leap to take, but the bank (for some odd reason) likes to be paid and if we can sell this house before they foreclose it will be alot easier on our credit. We know that the Lord has a plan for us, he isn't showing much of his hand yet, but that's ok I think that I can handle living on faith just a little longer. I know that something good is coming I just wish I knew what it was and when it was going to get here. But that just isn't the way that it works.

Hopefully it wont be another year before I get on here but you never know ;)

Finally Finished!!

With all of my homemade projects that is! Pj's where the last to get done and they turned out so cute. My husband says that I am overcompensating for doing homemade Christmas. Which I probably am, I have alot of Christmas hangups from my childhood but still its not in me to only do 1/2 way either.

These are Taylor's its hard to not to go to cutesie with a 12 yr old but I think that its balanced for Pj's I got 2 1/2 yards for each kid and it gave me 2 pairs of Pj's pants for the girls! so I put a band of ribbon around the bottom of each pair so that they can tell them apart :)

These are for Lexi I just love the way that the flower turned out

Trying to do something on Cole's shirt and not have it look like it was not suiting a 14 almost 15 yr old was hard but this Avengers logo is appropriate as the movie is due to come out soon, and I think it turned out pretty darn good!

Ok So Mara's I might have gone a little bit overboard on. The applique on the shirt is the same bird that is on the fabric. i blew it up and then did it in 4 different fabrics. I love the way it turned out and she is going to be crazy for it! 

To make each of the Pj's I just took a pair of thier old Pj's and used them as a pattern. There is a really good tutorial here

Just a couple more things to get and I am finished!! Yea ME! Of course it is none to soon, the dreaded Stomach Flu bug bit Mara last night, here is praying that the rest of us get to miss it!

What I have been up to part 2

Oh My girls would die to see what I am going to show you! (because it's thier Christmas!) Again these turned out SO much better than I ever thought I am quite proud of myself

This is for Taylor, I got all of the shirts in the post from either Modbod Seconds racks (they have TINY holes under the armpit on one sleeve and I got them for $5!!) or Lexi's I got on clearance at Wmart for $2.25 (love it!)

So back to this picture the pleated skirts are all modified from this pattern I just modified the pleats (she discribed them funny and I couldn't figure them out so I made up my own way of doing it.) I also stiched down the back fold of each pleat. This makes them stay in better and easier to iron. I also added a button hole on the waistband for the tie that is wrapping around the body to come through so that it doesn't have to just come over the top.

The shirt embelishment is from here (I love her blog)

This is Taylors second outfit, I made all of these skirts up! So sorry there is no tutorial I wanted them to look similar to the Downeast ones but with an elastic waist (because I needed easy) so they all have a yoke with a slightly pleated skirt and you can't see it but there is ribbon trim around the bottom.

The T-shirt embelishment is just a ruffle that has been folded over and then topped with more of the ribbon roses like the one on her other shirt, just smaller.

This is the first of Lexi's outfits, same skirt as above and the t-shirt embelishment is just ribbon that I stiched with a gathering stitch on my machine and then wrapped around to create a rose and sewed it on. Its kindof like the embelishment here

This is Lexi's pleated skirt, its SO cute she is just going to love it. I made it the same as Taylors

This is Lexi's other shirt, that matches the skirt that I made for her for school. The flower is from a tutorial found here 

This is Mara's Downeast knockoff skirt (I just love this stripped fabric)

This is Mara's shirt that matches her school skirt I got the embelishment from here

Finally this is Mara's pleated skirt and I just took ribbon that I had that matched all of the colors in her skirt and put it into groups of 3 ribbons and then stiched them together so that they where all sticking up and then stitched all of the bunches together and onto her shirt. I just love the way that it turned out!

My girls are going to be so excited on Christmas morning!

So... you will never guess what i have been up to!

I just have to say I am very proud of myself so far this Christmas season! Why, you ask- well its because we have decided to do a homemade Christmas this year (mostly because its alot cheaper) and our kids and extended family are really hard to buy for right now! I have gotten SO much done and thanks to Pintrest I have had alot of ideas at my finger tips. And as I am pretty sure that no one that I am gifting to looks at my blog (if I have you look away now!) I am going to share all my fun stuff now - mostly because it will help me to wait to give it away :)

OK So this one I made for me BUT I loved the way it turned out and I have to share!

This is a wreath made out of a book! So much fun I made it for my Dad and Stepmom. My Dad is a totally book freak (that may be where I got it from) and my Stepmom is super cute so I thought that this fit them extra well I got my inspiration here

This one is for my In-Laws it turned out so fabulous this picture really doesn't do it justice (but I am not the professional photographer in the family) It matches thier house and I think that they are just going to love it! I got my inspriation for it here

This one is for Andy's Grandma Gallagher it matches her bedroom and I think that she is going to love it! Just a note some inspiration as the wreath above but I will warn you it takes over 100 flowers to do this smaller wreath and almost 200 for the larger one - I am only going to make one more of these! (because well I need one for me!)

These are SO cute we found inspiration for these when we where looking for secret sisters gifts for Taylor to take to Girls Camp. The girls just love them! 2 of these are for Mara and Lexi's Friends and then I made one for each of them! I got my inspriation for them here

These personal progess book holders we also found for girls camp, but they also fit Faith in God books perfectly! Some of these are for Taylor to giver her friends but we have also been using these for birthday party gift ideas and the girls just love them! I found inspriation for them here. I didn't take a picture but I also like to put a spiritual directory assistance card found here in them it fits just perfect!

This is the Aftgan that I made for Grandma and Grandpa Z. I know that they will love it because when I gave a similar one to my MIL, Grandma Z wanted to know why she wasn't getting one too! Because it was just her colors and she loves aftgans -- Yep I got the hint :)

to keep all of the Grandma's and Grandpa's warm we have made each of them scarves and heating pads (see below) so that is a total of 10 scarves (yep I am nuts!)

Heating pads I lost count of how many I made because I did extras for presents and one for each of my kids etc... I have made these before but used flax seed in them this time as its supposed to help them retain heat better-- I hope so :) here

These shirts are for my cute nephews for Christmas. For my side of the family we decided that instead of the kids trying to buy each other some little thing that will be broken in 2 hours we would have them exchage

 t-shirts so that even if they didn't really "like" them they would still be good for PJ t-shirts so since my nephews are all in between the ages of 8 and 6 I thought that super hero appliques would be so much fun! I got my instructions here but the rest was all me

I will have to do another post with pictures of all the stuff I have done for my girls once I finish the last piece! But yea me! I have actually accomplished stuff!

Blessings come when you least expect them...

We got a huge blessing this month. After 3 years working for 1800 Contacts I have made it to the top of the work from home list! I had to provide my own desk and chair but they will pay for the Internet and provide all of the computer equipment. My Darling sister Heather had a desk that she wasn't using and let me have for free (thank you so much!) and Andy's brother Tony and his wife Andree provided a much needed office chair again for free (You guys are so amazing!). We figure that we are going to save quite a bit in gas alone not to mention I am sure that there are alot of other ways that it is going to help us save money which will really help us alot. Just as I started my second week at home last week the alternator went out on the truck. Normally this would cause me to go into extra panic mode but as I don't need to drive to work everyday Andy can just take our van to work until we can afford a new alternator which Andy is pretty sure he can install by himself (which will again save us a ton of money). This last Sunday they finally split our ward (it was very much needed as our Sacrament meeting filled the chapel and the entire gym all the way back!) With the split we lost SO many people that the bishop had to pretty much start over. The Bishop decided to wheel and deal with the Stake presidency again over us and they have released Andy from our Stake Calling and have put him in as the Assistant Deacons Quorum advisor and ----Scoutmaster! I know its not much of a surprise with all that he has been doing with scouts lately but he is really excited as scared at the same time. Andy also just finished another block of classes and after the end of the block that will start Monday he will have 3 more semesters left before graduation. However, we are just not sure how we are going to pay for the next semester we found out at the beginning of this semester that he is just about to hit the cap of financial aide and we only have enough room to make it to the end of the next semester. In some ways I can't wait to see what the lord has up his sleeves to help pay for school, as Andy is promised in his patriarchal blessing that he will be able to get the schooling he desires, so it will be interesting to see what happens. I have just started my 3rd week of working from home and am finally starting to settle in and not have it feel so weird. The kids are all doing fine and are getting excited for Halloween and trying to finalize their costumes. Me, I have already moved past Halloween and am starting to think about Christmas and trying not to stress about it.
We found out last week that Andy's Dad doesn't have Cancer but his Grandma Zaelit does. She has more than one kind of bone marrow cancer and starts Chemo on Wednesday. I hate for her to have to go through it but they say without the Chemo they say that its a good possibility that she wont make out the year, and the Chemo will give her 3-5 years. On top of all this Grandpa Zaelit isn't doing real well either and we are really starting to worry that we wont have either of them for much longer. Grandma and Grandpa Zaelit have been so kind to me and have loved me so much that I might as well have had them my whole life. When we don 't have them anymore they are going to leave a very big hole that isn't going to be easily filled. It's hard to think about, cancer seems to have taken so many people that are important to me.
Well here is to the next couple of weeks-- hope that they are good!

To Manti and Back....

Well there are somethings that happen when you where a kid that you want your kids to experience. This weekend I got to let my kids experience some things that I did as a kid-- I dragged them down to Manti!
 And then I dragged them around the entire town and showed them where they come from, and where their ancestors carved out a living.

They got to listen to all of the little old ladies talk about what it was like a long time ago, they got to hear about what it was like when the pioneers settled Manti and what they had to go through to survive and to build the temple. We also went through the cemetery looking for headstones, and finding those that belong to the people that are important in our families past. 

Then we went to the temple and talked about how their grandpa used to build go carts and race his cousins down temple hill (by the way the kids think that you where NUTS!!!!) Then they got to roll down temple hill just like I did when I was their age-- and find out what I meant when I told them that you cannot roll straight down you always turn sideways!

They also got to play on the school playground across the street from my Great Grandmothers house just like I used to as a kid- however they have updated the toys quite a bit and they are a far cry from the merry-go-round and tires that I played on!

We got rained on Friday night but it didn't dampen our spirits, we had a blast! Andy and I also got to do a session at the Manti Temple which I have seen my entire life but never been in, and it was so amazing! The entire session it kept hitting me that I could be sitting where my ancestors have sat, touching the same banister that they touched, seeing something that they helped to build, it was such a touching experience for me. And the Temple is so beautiful! and its live so you move 5 times! Also you sit on the same wooden benches that my ancestors help make and put there originally which was amazing! 

 The white dress on the far left is the wedding dress of my great great grandmother Mary Henrie the coolest part about it is that the museum had no idea who it belonged to, other than they had her picture, but they didn't know what her name was. However, I did! thanks to all of my mothers dragging, I had seen the dress right after it had been donated to the museum and I was even able to match a picture of Mary at her wedding to the dress and the picture that they had on the wall so that they where able to authenticate it and now it is labeled as her dress! The DUP (Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, who's museum it is) is going to see if they can restore it (as its not in great condition) but now they know that its authentic and worth saving!

It is something that I am definitely going to do again, but next time we are going to go with my grandmother and get it first hand. And the good thing is that the kids want to do it again too!

It just takes time---

Well it has been hard for me to think about writing this post. But in the end time does make things easier. Just in case you didn't already know I had a miscarriage about 2 weeks ago. While it has been really hard to wrap my head around the fact that the thing I had just gotten used to was gone, I think that I have finally come to terms with it. We have done a lot of praying and we still think that there is a spirit that the lord has for us, its just that right now was not the right time. But maybe we needed this time to get used to the idea. As my Dr says if lightning can strike once it can strike twice, and if that is what the Lord wants, that will be what happens. Until then we will just keep standing by :)