Expanding her Empire

Okay, maybe empire is a little strong, but Kendra's enterprise is plugging along nicely. In three months, she has sold 25 bows online, plus a bunch more at the mall. Kendra's wish for a sewing machine has been granted and the creative juices continue to flow. This week Kendra posted her first sewing machine project to her Etsy store, a matching bib and washcloth set. I am very impressed with Kendra's ability, especially considering her only experience is a sewing class in Jr High. If anybody has any ideas, please pass them along.
Kendra's Etsy Store

Canada Day Pictures

I know it is a little late, but here are some photos of our mini-vacation to Canada for Canada Day.

Canada Day 2009

Elizabeth Goes to Nursery

Elizabeth is only 16 1/2 months old, but we decided to start taking her to nursery at church to get her used to it.
Elizabeth's first time in nursery was two weeks ago. There was a missionary homecoming and a lot of visitors were at church. As a result, the nursery, usually only one or two kids, had about 8 that day. We took Elizabeth in and she was immediately fixated on the rocking horse, pointing and making her "neigh, neigh, neigh" horse sound. Kendra and I snuck out like ninjas so Elizabeth wouldn't notice our absence and waited in the hall for Elizabeth to start wailing away. Sure enough, after a few minutes, Grizz figured out that we weren't in there and began her chorus. She cried for about 5 minutes and the nursery leader finally brought her out. She almost lasted 10 minutes!
Yesterday, we took Elizabeth to nursery and there was only one other kid... less to distract her. We took her in, but she wasn't too interested in the toys, which made it tough to sneak out. She was on to us. We stood in the hall all during Sunday School and listened to Elizabeth cry on and off the whole time. Despite all of her crying, the nursery leader kept Elizabeth in class. I was ecstatic, Kendra was in anguish.
Kendra and I split up after Sunday School to go to Priesthood/Relief Society. As soon as our class ended I headed to the nursery to see how Elizabeth held out. As soon as I turned the corner I saw that Kendra beat me to it. I walked past the Relief Society room and all of the other ladies were still in there, but Kendra didn't waste any time heading to nursery to rescue her daughter.
The nursery leader said Elizabeth seemed to enjoy walking around, so they just held hands and walked around the nursery while Elizabeth cried on and off for an hour and a half. She said that hopefully after a few rough Sundays Elizabeth will get used to it and settle down. I don't know if Kendra will be able to handle that!

Grizz Goes Vertical

Elizabeth summoned her inner grizzly bear and started climbing this week. It started with the couch, then chairs, and today she tried climbing onto our bed. She has bit the dust a few times, but nothing more than a mere flesh wound.
It is amazing how quickly kids advance from barely being able to climb the couch to prolific climbers.

Teaching myself to sew

Ever since I was little I have always loved to do crafts. I would learn something, get bored with it, then move on. Well, I'm in that stage right now. I taught myself how to make hair clips and have been for about 6 months now. I have had positive feedback with it and enjoy doing it. However, I felt like I needed a bigger challenge, since I have just about perfected my craft of hair clips. I'm moving onto SEWING! Lance was kind enough to buy me a computerized sewing machine. Which is AWESOME, I must admit. So I'm now teaching myself how to sew and it's quite challenging. Trying to read a sewing pattern feels like a foreign language to me. I have taken 1 class of sewing in junior high but that's about it. Today I finished my first sewing project and I'm very proud of it. It's a dress for Elizabeth, which is a little big, but it will fit soon enough! What do you think?

I forgot to mention there was a lot of blood, sweat and tears that went into making this dress. Even ask Lance. My finger is still healing.