All that is Super Saturday

Alright, Juli has geniously set up a blog for all the crafts you can make on Oct. 18th under our direct care. There are pictures of all the things along with pricing. Feel free to ask questions galore and/or "quasi" sign up. We cannot guarantee product until payment has been made and that payment needs to be made out to Jeneece Westerns Family Vacation Fund...j/k. But make checks payable to me so I can pay down the credit card before my accountant husband has a coronary...
Thanks Ladies! It should be a blast. Please link this to anyone you know in the ward!
Jeneece & Juli

http://www.enrichmentpfun.blogspot.com/

Little boys & lace

Garrin has MANY blankets. It comes from having a family talented in the sewing department. However, one has been chosen as the bestest in little Garrin's world. This was not one that he came home from the hospital in. Not the one that mom, grandma, great-grandma or uncle made and gave to him. It is one that was given to him at an odd time. When Garrin was about 4 months old my grandmother Rasmussen died (on my mom's side). It still saddens me that my baby boy will never know that the reason that his family is how it is, is ALL HER FAULT. We love my grandma dearly, but really, if you knew her...you know of what I speak.

Anyway, at her funeral Garrin was bundled into his carseat sleeping the evening away when a great-uncle of mine (i think) came over and asked if the baby was a boy or a girl. I said it was the latest of grandma's grandsons. The last one she met. He sighed, smiled and turned to walk out the doors. I thought very little of it and went about speaking to other family members. I noticed this great uncle (i cannot remember his name) coming back in with a bag but was engaged in conversation so that was the last I saw of him. When I went back to check on Garrin the bag that was carried in by this uncle had been placed right above him and I saw that it was a beautiful baby quilt. A blue one with airplanes that had been tied and finished with a lace edge. I'm a great lover of blankets and was sad that I did not get to properly thank the generosity of this relative of mine. I have no idea if this gift was intended for Garrin or they just happen to have a baby boy quilt in the car. Either way we've been very happy to take care of it.

Since that time that blanket has been used on Garrin's changing table because it was so soft. Not long ago Garrin started to notice the pretty lace on the edges and became obssesed with feeling the lace on his face. He would pull it down to him when it was naptime and you could not get it out of his clutches when he wakes up. He carries it around for comfort and when he gets tired he rubs the lace across his face over and over. He will not sleep without this blanket now and I think it's adorable! Thank you great uncle for the comfort you have provided my baby boy.


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Back from beyond the heat

Well, we made it back from St. George all safe and sound. I've just been slacking on the blogging of it. We did enjoy some lovely times. We ate well, we shopped well, we enjoyed our theater time. Life was pretty good down there. It wasn't AS hot because they are entering their "fallish" weather so it stayed in the high 80's to mid-90's. I was terrified of this because my jeep is having some A.C. issues but riding with the windows down reminds me of being a kid, so it worked.

Above Average Joe and I decided that we MIGHT buy a vacation house down there if we had, like 5 million dollars. The home in Carmel, flat in NY and house in Tuscany come first though...

St. George

Typically I avoid this place. It's hot. And not just the "Oh, would you mind closing the door and maybe we should go swimming today" kinda hot...the "OH MY CHEESE! DO NOT GO LIGHTLY INTO THE OUTSIDE! MAKE SURE THE AC IS CRANKED TO THE HIGHEST!!!". That's right, 3 exclamation points hot. You heard me. Apparently, it's getting better since "fall" is starting it's treck to Utah, though. We decided to go down because my baby sister is part of the Lonely hearts club right now. She is down there studying her little heart out and is far far away from her family and loved ones. She's not loving that part so much so for various reasons we decided to take pity on her and go down to the land of hot. There will be other family down there as well this weekend so we get a few bonus visits.


There are a few selling points to St. George, I won't lie. Above Average Joe and my mom will enjoy a lovely little golfing game (along with Trevin), there is some fun shopping outlets down there (and close to Vegas shopping as well) for my sister and myself. There are specific eateries that are well liked such as In n' Out (for AAJ) and Nielson's (for me). But the best selling point to this weekend is the fact that St. George is home to the Tuacahn Outdoor Theater. Right now they are putting on Les Miserables. I LOVE this play. AAJ LOVES the music and has never seen it on stage so we figured this was a good time. The first time I saw it was in Chicago. I've also seen it in SLC. It's a fabulous story/book (which my pHd brother has read...in FRENCH ((SHOW OFF))). Since it is an outdoor theater, this hotness of the land may make the night show a very comfortable place to be, I'm hoping. I will report back about how our weekend went when we return.

The Craftiness Within

Alright, ALL of MY projects for super Saturday are done! This is the other memory board that is NOT a memory board. This board will be used to put Christmas cards that the family receives! The ones that will be made will be bigger than this one. The material is a green and red gingham and then I just alternated the red and green ribbon. Jingle bells are the diamond edges.

Here is the memory board that I posted earlier that is "girly" inspired with brown material and pink pock-a-dots and the diamond corners are little pink roses.

Here is the "scrapbook name frame" This was the one that gave me the most grief. 3 trips to Roberts and about 2 hours of sheer frustration just trying to get this to look "ok". I am NOT a scrapbooker but I know a lot of women are so I tried to make it somewhat inspiring.

This one I love for it's pure simplicity. People have been making comments about Joe and I being married since 1950. This one I made for my in laws who, as of TODAY have been married 58 years, raised 11 children and are still as much in love as ever. They are SUCH an example. Too bad I can't give this to them until Oct when super saturday is over...


This is the one that I came up with myself while trying to be crafty and am pretty proud of it. The "name size frames" (like above) are tricky to find or really pricey so I got the idea to use a more widely available size. This is the 11x14 document floating frame that is pretty common. I just added some wedding pictures to really bring it together. Sorry about the flash/light spots. I'm not a photographer either...

...SO GLAD TO BE DONE!

Garrin's 1 Year Photo Shoot

I can't stand how cute these turned out. Tiffany Moody PhotographyROCKS!

Sept 11

I wish we had a flag to fly today, but sadly, we do not. So instead I fly one on my blog to remember all those who lost loved ones and in respect of those serving our nation (love you, Adam).

Just one more...

Tiffany Moody just finished her proofing and such of the pictures of Garrin!!!! Here is the link to her site again http://lensshot.blogspot.com/ and I get to pick up my cd tonight!!!
*Now we do the dance of joy!*

What Happens at Grandmas...

Let me tell you a little about my youngest son. He's a big help. Loves to lend a helping hand and help figure out how his world works. Like below...he loves helping with laundry. He helps mom sort it into all kinds of piles and adds his own flair of folding into the mix. He's so excited about laundry time that he just can't hardly wait to get into it and really help out.
These are 2 seperate occasions with the dryer (because the washer is too high to get into). His REAL infactuation is the fact that there is a light in the dryer...with a SWITCH. JUST LIKE THE ONE IN THE FRIDGE!!! (not pictured) So it stands to reason that they were put there to be played with! OBVIOUSLY.

Let me now tell you a little story about a boy named Garrin. Garrin LOVES the water. Anywhere he can find it he will play with it. Puddles, drains, pools, rain, anything. If he hears water he MUST be in it. There's a law. So while we were down visiting grandma and grandpa Western in Delta last weekend it came to the time of the bath. Garrin LOVES his baths. He even cuddles with the water during them (i need a picture of that). When he hears the water running he charges down the hall to partake in his fabulous bath time. Now, at home Garrin can get into the tubs rather easily now (little monkey) but down at G&G Westerns they have a really high tub so Garrin's foolish mommy thought he wouldn't be able to get in without help. OH, the foolish, silly mommy that he has! Garrin's mommy started the tub and then went into the other room to get his jammies. Before other mommies start gasping about leaving a child alone with running water (yes, I KNOW a child can drown in 1/2" of water!), it should be mentioned that Grandpa W was there. The man has had 13 kids. I trusted that he knew the drill. Well, a few moments after mommy went to get Garrin's jammies Grandpa W bellowed down the hall "WE HAVE AN ISSUE HERE". Mommy came back up the hallway with a pretty good idea of what our issue was...

Even though the tub sides are MUCH higher than the ones at Garrin's own house he would NOT let that detour him from attaining his tub time as fast as possible. Grandpa W is not quite as spry as he once was so he informed me that the splash was all he heard and he could do nothing about it.

Garrin was SO PLEASED with himself (don't you think the Superman outfit is just SO fitting here) that he SPLASHED with such triumph that all anyone could do was laugh and take pictures. THE END

This has no story to it but it needs to be mentioned. Garrin has this way of kneeling. He doesn't waste the time/energy of going down on both knees because that takes longer to get up from. He simply, "takes a knee" as we call it. Grandma W thought this was the cutest thing ever!
...and yes, he still uses a binki when it's time to go to sleep and the stove top that he is "taking a knee on" is off and locked.

Labor Day 08

We had a gaggle of kids out of school and a rainy day. We had to find something to do and the kids kept slipping out of the duct tape so we took them to the dinasour museum at Thanksgiving Point. I had never been there before this. Trevin has been a few times but without me. It was a great little time and the kids had a blast looking at all the different things and playing with the hands on areas. We spent time going through everything then had some lunch and went to a 3D movie of "Monsters of the Sea". I think we only had 2 crying jags through the whole trip so I call it a huge success!

Trevin, Garrin and my cute little sister Andra.


Tyler, Garrin, Trevin, Hunter and Jessi



Trevin playing in the sand/water pit.





Trevin and Garrin who may now carry the same shark fear as their mother...










Garrin and dad playing in the sand/water pit.

















Jessi, Trevin, Hunter and Tyler in
front of The Utah Velociraptor!















All of our cute little ones digging up dinasaur bones! After this we paid to let them do little plaster "fossils" that they all got to take home. All in all, a fun day.

NEW PHOTO!

Alright, Tiffany Moody (a superb photographer) agreed to do a shoot with Garrin for his one year pictures. We went to an adorable antique store that has a huge barn and such on the property and she took tons of shots all over. However, the last shot we were to take was with a giant lolipop. When she pulled out the lolipop and got the wrapper off the final tug of the plastic sent it FLYING and smashed into a dozen pieces. I have to tell you, I was dissapointed. I think Tiff felt bad as well so she asked me to come to her house the next morning to do some simple close ups and try to get the lolipop picture. Garrin was only so agreeable and with Tiff's son and doggy around it made for an interesting shoot but she tells me we got some good shots. I think in total she took around 250 pictures of my little guy that she is now editing and proofing. As a teaser she put THIS on her website!

And just as a side note, it is a great teether because in the next few hours I checked his gums and there were 2 new teeth up top!