Some sewing!

It felt so good to get some sewing done before Christmas!!

Ooga Booga jammies for these three



Pictures courtesy of Tiff. She is such a good photographer!

Matching skirt and birdy top sets for Sarah and Elise


close-up of embroidered applique

Christmas and my dad

We had the most amazing Christmas. It was just SOOO good to be with family and all the people I love so much. Being with all the kids every day just fills me up like nothing else does, and my family members all bring something to our family equation that I love. Here are some of the fun pictures (thanks to Tiff for the best ones!):



Elise loved the big kids

The kids' favorite thing was to lie on the floor in a row and take turns having this gorgeous baby sit on their backs!


Jake climbing the pole

Sword fighting - all the kids against Pa - what a good sport!



All of this was made more exquisite because of some news we got in the last couple months. My dad has cancer. He has had immune system problems his whole life and things were getting so much worse with not being able to fight anything off and then keeping it colds/sinus infections for months, that he insisted on more immune system testing. I'm glad he did. They showed that his IgG was way too high, and the other immunoglobulins were all very low. That is indicative of a rare cancer called multiple myeloma. This was confirmed with test after test. He needs to start treatment right away, and the treatment for this is extremely aggressive. He will do a 96 hour full-time heavy duty chemo cocktail the first time and then they will give him six weeks to recover, and then do it all over again. He will have stem cell transplants of his own stem cells to start fresh and hopefully build a new immune system. Then he will be on chemo drugs for about 1-2 years after the initial 5 months of heavy chemo. He is in very strong health otherwise and is quite proud of his low cholesterol and 117% lung capacity! Because of this, the doctors have high hopes that he could live for years after this treatment, and this helps us to cope with the fear of what is coming with the chemo.

I love my dad so much. "Beyond amazing" doesn't even describe him. He has been the greatest second dad Jake could ever have. He has given us so much I could never list it all. Most of all, family and the gospel are first priorities for him, and he and my wonderful mom have built our family on these precepts which have made all the difference in my life.

Christmas Jammies

What Was I Thinking?

I made some jammies for my niece, nephews and Jake for Christmas. I was excited because I had all this super soft microchamois fleece fabric. Perfect for Christmas jammies. They were a big project to take on, not only right before Christmas, but they also had feet in them, and the fabric turned out to be very stretchy and hard to manage. I thought I could handle it and I wanted to tackle the challenge. Hmmm... maybe next time I will listen to the voice of reason and pick one challenge instead of a bunch at once!

I was going to write a 3 part saga but I decided not to bore you with the grim details about how I serged Sam's feet in inside out so the gripper fabric would be touching his feet instead of the ground. That's helpful isn't it? Ever try unpicking serging on jiffy grip fabric? Well, if you live your life and never have to, you will have lived a good life. (At least that was my thought that night at 3 am.) I had machine troubles, sewed Andrew's waistband in wrong, my hems were terrible and wavy, the list goes on. And guess what, Christmas is over, yes? Well, the saga doesn't end. Sarah's were way too big for her - I think I must have gone with Andrew's inseam on those accidentally because they are the same size otherwise. Oops.

So tonight, I am shortening them. Not even sure what I am doing because they have elastic at the bottom and then the feet. I should have just folded out the excess and serged that. But I wanted the seams to be straight (which is actually impossible on this fabric!!!)so I measured and cut, pinned and serged, thinking it was going to be OK. But guess what? Would these unruly beasts EVER be sewn right by this bewildered seamstress? NO. I sewed the foot on backwards. Yeah, I'm good. I think I better stick to some easy stuff for a while. And take my time when learning new things- I think it was just the Christmas frazzledness more than anything. I DID learn a lot and the kids are soooo soft and nummy in their jammies!! And they love them so that is all that matters.

If anyone that reads this uses a serger - this tip is really helpful for frogstitching (rip it, rip it) or unpicking serger stitching.

There's a picture in my last post but here are some more. They really did turn out cute and I'm still totally glad I gave them a shot. Did I mention how cute these kids are or how much I LOVE them? It has been such a fun Christmas being all together and having my sister and her family here.

KIDS!

Sam, Sarah and Andrew

What a fun August we had with Sam, Sarah and Jo in town! Andrew was up at Pa and Gram's (my parents) almost every day. They had swimming lessons, a trip to the zoo, Red Butte Gardens, Kangaroo Zoo and Boondocks. They loved jumping on the tramp every night and finding Orangejello (the turtle), having Pa mix them drinks (Talking Rain and Gatorade), picking tomatoes, playing in the sandpile, getting Slurpees or shaved ice...

There's something about kids and the way they view the world. They're eager to wake up in the morning and discover a new day. Their whole lives ahead of them - they are fresh and ready to take it on. This enthusiasm and fresh perspective is healing for me. I love these kids! I wish I had some more pictures of Jake with them but he just happened to not be around much when we were taking pictures!

Here are some more pictures of the fun times in August: