Book of Mormon and Mad Men

For Christmas this year, I surprised Phil with tickets to see the Book of Mormon at the Pantages and I booked a room at the Redbury hotel.  I was excited to surprise him and he was thrilled with the gift.  We had stayed at the Redbury once before and loved it and were so excited to stay there again.  The rooms are all studio apartments and are well appointed.  

We had a great time leading up to the show.  We went to a coffee place in the afternoon, had sushi for dinner, then went to our show.  Our hotel was within walking distance to the theater so everything we did, we could walk to, which seems unheard of in L.A.  The show was super fun, even though it was really irreverent.  

The theater was gorgeous and the singing and dancing were great.  

After the show, we headed back to our hotel only to discover that there was a club adjacent to our room and a well known DJ was spinning records.  It was loud enough that we could hear the vibrations from the music in our room.  We thought that most clubs went till about 2am so we would tough it out.  Apparently we are old now and instead of going to check things out and see the DJ, we stayed in our room.  Anyway, as 2am neared, the music showed no signs of stopping.  We called the front desk and found out that the music would be going till at least 4am.  We finally decided to leave and drive home in the middle of the night.  To say that we were disappointed was an understatement.  This was such a big deal for me to plan and surprise Phil with so I was crestfallen.  We called the hotel the next day and the music had gone on till 7am so we were glad that we had gone home.  We were not given any sort of refund and were told that the noise is what we should expect if we stay where we did.  Apparently that hotel is not for people who sleep at night.  

In March, we decided to try our luck again and go down to L.A. to see the actors from Mad Men at the Paley Festival Panel.  We did not stay at the Redbury this time.  For me, I felt such a rush to see the actors in person (especially Jon Hamm) and hear them talk about the show.  

This trip was much better than the last one and I'm so glad we got to go.  

Sports

This year, we decided to have the boys try out some sports and see what they liked.  We also wanted them to get a basic understanding of how to play the games.  We joined Fun Sports soccer first in September/October.  Ryan was scared of it initially, but soon discovered that he liked it and displayed a good amount of aptitude while playing.  Jack was indifferent to the whole thing.  During the first game, he picked flowers and chased butterflies.  He also talked smack to the opposing team.  After the first few games, I gave him a talking to and reminded him that his job was to run with the ball and try and kick it in the net.  The next game, he ran off the field, grabbed an extra ball, and kicked it into the goal.  He wondered why I wasn't excited about that.  He let us know that he didn't like all the kids chasing after the same ball.  Next, we tried basketball.  Ryan was again scared to do it, but then immediately liked it and did well.  Jack again was indifferent and upset by all the kids chasing the ball.

At the first game, he spent his time running up and down the court as instructed, but when turning around to go to the other end of the court, he had to do a pole dance each time.  

We started T-ball for Jack last week and are hoping that he likes it better.  Ryan seemed to like softball.  We'll see how they do at the first game.  

Maggie

Rita was diagnosed with congestive heart failure this year and it broke my heart.  Rita has been my baby for the last 13 and half years and I can't imagine life without her.  Thankfully the meds she's been taking have been helping her quality of life but we know that we won't have her forever.  We decided it was time for a puppy.  I saw this cute little face on a Marley's Mutts post and fell in love.  Jack and my dad and I made a trek up near Glenville in January to see this little dog.  When we got there I was a little surprised at how big she was for a young pup and was also unsure of her large paws.  She was a doll though and Jack was instantly in love.  I couldn't say no so we loaded her up in the truck and headed home.  The lady that we adopted her told me that her breed was a Canardly.  I asked what a Canardly was.  She said, "You Canardly tell what she is."  All we do know is that her mom was some kind of wire haired terrier and cattle dog.  

 The boys were instantly in love.  They bought her a Chewbacca chew toy, which Maggie destroyed in about two days.

Ryan taught her how to crate train by sleeping in the crate with her.  It's unconventional, but it worked.

Maggie also has no fear of slides.  She regularly climbs the ladder on the boys' play set and slides down on her own.  

We love our Maggie girl and are enjoying having a puppy around.  Surprisingly, Rita tolerates her and even seems to like her.

Sewing Projects

My sewing time has been minimal over the past several months.  The only things that I've had time for are this shirt and a baby blanket.  

For the shirt, I cut apart a men's black t-shirt and then cut a yoke out of a half yard of fabric, based on the yoke of a preexisting Anthro t-shirt.  I was really pleased with how it came out.  

The baby blanket was for my friend Paula, and her baby boy.  She did a nautical theme for the nursery.  When I saw pictures of the nursery, I knew I had the perfect fabrics.  This blanket also gave me the opportunity to make a "paper boat" that I had pinned ages ago.  I love how it turned out.  

Christmas Vacation

During Christmas vacation, my parents took the boys to Nacimiento for a fishing trip.  The boys stayed in a cabin on the lake and got to see deer (reindeer, if you ask Jack) and other wildlife.  They loved it.  Phil and I were at home and since Phil had to work, I had some time to work on painting the house.  We gave the hall bathroom a facelift and repainted our hallway.  

Phil and I really enjoyed our time together but were really happy to see the boys when they got home.  

Jack also surprised me by drawing a self portrait and writing his name.  I was thrilled because Jack never shows much enthusiasm for anything with pencil and paper.

On that last day of Christmas break, I took the boys to ice cream and to see the movie Frozen.  We had seen the trailer months back when all it had shown was a funny snowman and a reindeer running around.  Little did we know that it had princesses and drama in it.  About five minutes into the movie, Jack started asking where the snowman and the reindeer were in the movie.  He was not pleased with all the princesses.  At the climax of the movie, Jack stood up and yelled, "This movie is PG, it's too scary, and I'm going home!"  I scooped him up into my lap and held him close and felt his hear beat going 90 miles an hour.  Poor kid.  He was not pleased with our last day of break celebration.  

December 2013

I realized that I hadn't blogged since December and decided it was time to catch up.  My boys say a lot of funny things all the time and I wanted to remember them.  Here's a little flashback to Christmas.  

We celebrated many different Christmases.  We had a Christmas at my parents, at my grandma's, and at our house with Phil's family.  I love this picture of my grandmas together with Ellie.

 

The boys were clearly excited for Christmas.

Normally, my dad has my sister or me wrap his gifts that he gives, but this year, he took on the task himself.  

During the month of December, Jack and I had a lot of interesting conversations:

Jack lost a blanket a preschool. A few days later, he came home with it. I asked him where he found it. He said, an elf had it and brought it back!

Jack: Ryan said the red Santa comes to visit little boys like me. The brown delivery truck Santa comes for big boys like him.

While at the park, this conversation happened.

Jack: Mom, I need m&m's. You go back to Grammy's and get some.

Me: I can't leave you by yourself.

Jack: But you're a big girl.

Me: But who would watch you if I left?

Jack: God. Or Santa.

Jack, upon seeing that Santa came and left him a note, jumped up and down and yelled, "Yay, yay, yay! I'm not on the naughty list!"

Ryan drew this on my gift bag of what he made for me from school.
Me: What did you draw on here?
Ryan: It's Jack getting in trouble. 

Lastly, Ryan performed in the Christmas musical at church this year.  Even though he was reluctant to do it, in the end he really enjoyed it and had fun with his friends.

Woodland Wonderland Quilt

My dear friend Anna is expecting her first baby, a boy, next April.  I am thrilled for her.  I thought a quilt was in order for her little one.  She is decorating the nursery with the theme of "Woodland Wonderland".  When she let us know that she would be in town this weekend and would be able to have her baby shower, I started planning what I would make.  I came up with this design.

I first purchased the animal fabric from Hawthorne Threads.  I then worked on finding the different patterns for the animals so I could paper piece them.  The fox, hedgehog, and mushroom are from a blog called Artesania.  The raccoon is from an Etsy shop called PieceByNumberQuilts.  The snail and tree are from another Etsy shop called ProtoQuilts.  The squirrel, bunny, and owl are from another Etsy seller called BubbleStitch.  Lastly, the feathers are from a tutorial from Anna Maria Horner. Each block measures 8" with a 3" sashing.  Each feather block measures 8"x17".  The fabrics used for the animals and feathers are from Strawberry Patches.  

All the animals were super tedious to make and there were moments when I wanted to give up.  Each one came out so cute so that I was able to persevere.  My mom was kind enough to appliqué the eyes for each animal.  

I really enjoyed making the feathers.  The process was a lot simpler than I thought it would be.  They were time consuming, but not difficult.  I went with a scrappy binding to show all the colors again.  

I am in love with this quilt, especially with all the long hours I spent piecing it together.  This one will be hard to give away.  Congratulations Anna!  I hope you love this quilt as much as I do.