Eden Marie

So, these are the pictures of Eden when she was two days old and I was there holding her. That is heaven holding a little one who still has so much of heaven about her. She is a sweet little thing that doesn't fuss much and seems to like being held since she is held most of the time. Eventually we wont all visit so frequently and she will have to get put down occasionally.

She is much bigger than Joni's other babies but they weren't quite full term. She is 9 lbs. 6 oz. She is about the size of mine and Ronda's babies. Mine ranged from 8 lbs 8 oz to 10 lbs 9 oz. She feels very normal to me but Teia felt very tiny. I think she looks a lot like Risa did as a baby. I even took pictures of some baby photos on the web cam but can't figure out how to get them in my regular photo file but take my word for it. Risa had the same cheeks.

Teia is the photographer here. She was having fun taking pictures. Joni and Daren got a little rest while she was at school and I took Radley shopping. Mostly I just held the baby. It's such good therapy.

Speaking of therapy K's therapist that does neuro-feedback hooked me up and took a look at my brain waves. It was really interesting. It made me feel relaxed clear into my bones and then super sensitive to sound. By focusing on different areas in the brain he can train the brain to react in a different way. With K we are working on her impulsivety and restlessness (ADHD) It was pretty cool. D was jealous. He wants to try it.

Lifes Lessons

Yeah, it's time to update but I have little to say. I run and run and get nowhere but I did have an interesting thing happen recently. I have some really good employees right now but all in their 20's (for the most part) This is a turbulent time of life and as life changes so do feelings and opinions. I've had one girl that has started complaining and has a crappy attitude so she decided to go to another salon. It's a brand new salon with a very young owner/manager. She had a recent beauty school graduate telling her how to do her colors and a manager that wouldn't back her up when her color product didn't work as it should and several other stories she related to me. Of course if she was telling me this she was not happy where she was and was back asking for her job back. She is the reason I worked every day during the holidays. She only works Friday and Saturday but I usually take Friday's off and was unable to for a month. So the morals of the story are: The grass is not always greener on the other side. Look at your own life and decide if the feelings you are having are from your own choices. (In this case, spiritual and emotional) and No one is going to make you happy all the time. We have to put up with others personalities and quirks in any situation.
I also got another new employee that is busy most of the time. She's a very nice girl and works the schedule I need but she sure doesn't open up much. I hope she works out. It's a constant change mostly because we get young girls whose lives are in the changing mode. I have always known I need to be around people to be fulfilled and this is where I get the most interaction. I come home tired and happy after a busy day.
I'm looking forward to this week. I'm taking some time off and even going to play "Grandma" for a day. Next week Daren will be out of town so it will be a little tough but we've done it before (when I had to work late every day) and we'll do it again.

Laynie!!!

Doesn't love girl shoes. oh yeah, they got muddy but we found a frog!

These sisters love each other soooo much!

Yeah, that's her doing her thing!

Snakes name is Squish

That's her being launched forward.

She's in charge of this crew!

Can ya see her dangling like a spider?

her caption is "I love my life"

Thursday is Laynie's birthday! She hates it when I call her that in public so for you all, don't. She turns 20! L is definitely my "unexpected" child. She was the most surprise pregnancy, we had just moved to California and didn't even have a house to live in yet. Being a third child she just set out on her own from the beginning. Despite an extreme illness as a baby where she spent 19 days in the hospital, 14 on a respirator she has been extremely healthy. She has always had such extreme interests in views as compared to D and I. She is our "tree hugger", I have photo proof! She is super strong physically, spiritually and in her determination and values. She has a great set of friends and is fiercely loyal to them. Her group of high school friends were all guys and are all on missions. She writes to them regularly and visits and contacts their mothers. She's always loved "critters" and when the opportunity came to present reptiles shows she was ready. She already had so much knowledge that learning the fun facts and jokes was easy. She worked as a receptionist for me at the salon for a couple of years but didn't really like it but has been a lifeguard for three years and enjoys that. That and her music prepared her for her summer job as a river guide which she LOVES. She has more whit than any four people. Never a dull moment when Laynie is around.

Projects

I've had some requests to see my "shirt quilts".

I've made four now and two were in the last year. I have one that will be done in time for L's b-day next week. For the most part they are made out of old shirts of D's. They are 7" squares so finsished they come out to just over 6". I use sheets for the back and tie them with thick crochet string rather than yarn. I leave the pockets in and have filled them with love notes or money. It's amazing to me that even though I use the same kind of fabric by adding different shirts it really changes the basic look and color of the quilts. The next one has a lot of green and orange. I acutally had to buy some blue to throw more of that in.

Now here is D's project for the winter. He had lots of home improvement projects to do but he saw this idea on line and he was hooked.

Can you tell what it is? It's a Redwood Canoe. The plans call for Eastern Cedar but at the wood store they told him he could drive to Vermont and get it cheaper than they could get it so they suggested Redwood. Well, we had a whole deck of redwood that we wanted to replace with Trex. So we spent a little more and got the trex and he stacked all the redwood out behind the garage. He has cut the planks into 1x1/4" strips. He built the tooling first (forms) and that took a couple of weeks. Then he started laying up the strips. Each piece has to be routed to make the edges fit together and then glued down and clamped so usually he can only do one row a day. Now he is working on the bottom. It's pretty tricky to fit those pieces together but in the end he says it will be "tight like unto a dish"

After all the wood he will take a sheet of fiberglass and lay it over and cover it with epoxy resin so it will be sealed tight. After that is dry he will turn it over and ovelay the fiberglass coating on the inside so the wood should never come in contact with the water and the scratches should buff right out.

Now he wants me to go on a three day canoe trip on the green river. I'm trying to talk him into taking B. It looks like fun but three days?

It's projects that keep us sane and busy.

Here is our Christmas morning. The first picture is all of us after we opened our gifts from Braden. He got us all shirts or jerseys. D's and A's are from the countries where they served their missions. C with his DS (no games included. He's anxious to earn all the money he can to buy games) K with her i-pod (we'll see how long that lasts) She also got a flat iron of her own and is practicing with it. L got her printer so she can print her assignments at home and not have to come here in the middle of the night to use the printer and R&A got a "shirt quilt". The shirt quilts will be on posts in the next few days. D and I got a wheat grinder and bread maker. D is having a blast making bread and we plan to experiment with different grains and seeds.

Our visit with our missionary was great! He sounds so happy and confident. I'm excited to have everyone home for the holidays next year. I never did get Christmas cards out so this may be the extent of it. I love my friends and family and I love Christmas time and the music that helps me reflect on Christ and his life and my love for him. I hope yours was great!

Christmas Spirit

YAY! We are ready for Christmas!

Tuesday we had our salon party here. Since I've been working a lot Daren did the final cleaning. For all of you that come to my house you realize that a cleared off China hutch means there's a party! The amazing thing is that it has stayed clear all week! Our tree is OK not my favorite but I had a hard time getting to it this year. The wooden ornament is my souvenir from the Redwoods. I did a whole angel tree last year. I have LOTS of different angel ornaments. I should count them. I have baked Pumpkin cake roll, Special K Bars and today Pumpkin cookies with cream cheese icing. It's an easier version of cake roll without rolling it.

Today was our Christmas program in Sacrament Meeting. I LOVE it. I love to sing and our music selections were wonderful. I was sad when it was over. I realized I had no Messiah on my i-pod and I have the CD so I did that today along with some Mannheim Steamroller.

I think all the shopping is done. We have one major gift that ended up being a last minute decision. I has been shipped and should arrive on Dec. 24. How's that for cutting it close. I'm not to concerned even if it doesn't get here. I'd just as soon give the kid a lump of coal but of course when we decided to do that last gift I had to get something else for the other kid to even things up. Grrr.

I had a great plan for Primary music today and was left with less than 10 minutes so after wrapping a box 6 times with song titles on a card on every layer I brought the box home. Maybe a family home evening lesson. Hmm

I've tried not to get bogged down with the stuff. In fact for the first time I didn't get Christmas cards out. Christ was still born and lived and atoned for us with or without cards. In one of the talks given today the speaker asked instead of being ready for Christmas, are we ready for Christ. I like that. Whatever the case may be-I love Christmas and I'm ready!

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Week of Christmas

We had quite a fun weekend. Thursday we went to an Enrichment night dinner for all adults so Daren and I got to go alone and have a really nice dinner. I worked till 7 so we got there late but were in time for the food! Friday night we went to see Jon Schmidt! He is so entertaining. It was at Kingbury hall in Salt Lake. His 7-yr-old daughter sang Where are You Christmas. It was so sweet. He is really funny too. I tried to down-load a video and couldn't even get close to figuring out how so if you don't know who he is find him on Youtube. Little K went to respite so D and CJ had the day alone while I worked. Saturday we had an old Jerusalem Christmas party. The gym was decorated like an old market place with tents connected. Each tent had a different part of the meal and the water came from "well". The meal was pita sandwiches and fruit. It was good. Lots of work for that poor committee. That's why the ones I did were usually pretty easy. Sunday night we went to visit D's parents in Logan. We took them their Christmas goodies so they will have something to unwrap. Tuesday is my work party HERE. I actually suggested that. Now it seems dumb. Tomorrow will be spent cleaning and preparing. I have a lot to do. I love this part of Christmas I just don't want to work through it and I don't even have a day off this week. Eeeek! Wish me luck!