River's blankets+quilts

Lots of people have made blankets and quilts for River. With the love I have for such things I couldn't be happier. I appreciate them so much because I have crocheted and sewed blankets and I am in the process of making a quilt. I know how much time, hard work and love goes into them.
KG's mom made this one. I love the soft pastel colors. It's really beautiful.
River loves to put her fingers through the holes. I took this photo at Christmas! Can you believe how much she has thinned out since then? Check out those cheeks. Her face sure has taken on a whole new shape. I already miss that squishyness so much!

Debbie made this one! The ruffle around the edge is so sweet. It seems very vintage to me. Maybe because it reminds me of a blanket I had when I was young. I especially like the cute little ducks.
Brenda made this one and well, can't beat the tye-dye! She knows us well.
Rhonda made this one. Precious Moments is so sweet and I love the colors!
My Aunt Peggy quilted this one. I told her I wanted oranges and pinks and boy did she deliver! I'm also a fan of simple quilts with straight lines so I really liked this pattern! Everything about it is beautiful! It's the one we keep in River's crib. My aunt is an amazing quilter. She is by far the best I've ever seen and I am so grateful for the quilts I have received over the years and that she is still willing to make them for my children.
My mom crocheted around this one and the next one. My aunt Peggy sews them together and and then hem stitches around the edges so she can crochet them. It's a joint effort they've had for years!
I chose the fabric for these blankets the second year KG and I were married and mom's hung on to them all these years! I just love them, especially the jumping children above.KG's grandma Hunter just brought this one last week. It's so soft! I have to admit I've been cuddled in it more then River. :) It's huge and soft. The Precious Moments people are so cute.Thanks so much everyone! Each one is so special to us.

Lauren's Dance Festival

Saturday evening we went to the Taco Bell Arena for my nieces dance festival that she participated in for church. It involved 6 stakes. It was very fun and Flower loved it. She danced right along with them.
I believe there were about 1400 youth that were involved and on the dance floor below.
Each stake wore a different colored outfit. Lauren's stake wore pink and black. Here they are running onto the floor to perform their three dances.


I'm sure I'm stating the obvious but my cute niece, Lauren, can be found under the big blue arrow! :)



And now they're running off the floor.

All the youth running back onto the floor for another combined dance.



Pretty cool to see that many youth in one place having the time of their lives.
We really enjoyed it! That's Denny Roger's dad(Denzil) right above Flower's head!

Happy Birthday Erina.

We went to Hell, I mean Chucke E Cheese, on Saturday afternoon. We were celebrating my nieces 6th Birthday. The kids had a good time and that's all that matters and we also enjoyed and appreciated being treated.

I took the opportunity to get some 4 generation photos with Grandma Jensen. She is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet.

Happy Birthday weeks for Flower!

**Be forewarned, it's long because the last two weeks have been a PAR-TAY!

I am a firm believer in the birthday 'weeks' celebration and it's made so much easier and cheaper with all the restaurants that offer freebies! :) I want her birthday to last as long as possible. We started her celebrations on Saturday, April 11th with a family party. Then we went out several other times during the week before and the week after her birthday.
Tuesday evening the, 14th, we went to Chili's so she could get her free Molten Lava Cake.



Oh the yummy goodness of the molten lava!
Thursday the 16th, after I picked Flower up from preschool, we went to Baskin Robbins for her free ice cream cone!
While we were enjoying our ice cream she proclaimed, "Ice cream and noodles. My dream come true!" I asked her what kind and, with hand gestures and all, said "long noodles(spaghetti), curly noodles(Ramen), and shee shell noddles(sea shells-not sure where she's had these!). Those are the best!" I couldn't help but laugh and the girl behind the counter joined me. The girl loves noodles. She will eat any kind like pene, ziti, fetticini, macaroni and whatever we put in front of her and she'd eat them every meal if we let her. The ice cream of course had to be something pink.
Thursday evening, the 16th, we went to Red Robin with the Klein's. Flower got a free full meal, adult size! She and I shared her meal, each eating exactly half, leaving us stuffed! We only had to pay for KG's meal and tip. The grand total was $15! Not bad. They also sang to her and brought her free dessert and gave Ashton and Elle free dessert too! Awesome!








When they came to sing she started to hide under the table! She is not normally shy so it made sense when I asked her later why she did that, she replied she thought they were coming to take her away. Sad.





Friday the 17th, on our way to Tamarack, we stopped at Sonic for Flower's free kids meal. Lunch for the three of us? $7! Love all these great deals.

Sunday the 19th, on our way home from Tamarack, Flower requested noodles for dinner so we stopped at The Old Spaghetti Factory for her free meal and dessert. Unfortunately we didn't eat as cheap but it was still within our new budget so I can't complain. I've discovered it's really not my favorite place to go.



Monday the 20th we met our dinner group at Pier 49 Pizza to celebrate. Flower got a free sundae!
Think she's excited?!



Cindy is going to pop in two weeks with baby number two.





Tuesday the 21st, she got to take birthday treats to preschool. I wanted to make something fun and different so I made cakepops. I have wanted to make them for some time after seeing them here. She is very talented and I loved her Easter pops. I was just thrilled with my sprinkles job. :) I thought they were yummy although I will use a bit less frosting inside next time. All the mom's and kids at the school loved them! Nice little stroke for my ego. :)


After preschool we went downtown for a free Ben + Jerry's ice cream scoop and then to Oriental Express for her Birthday chicken and rice.

Thursday the 23rd, after the zoo, we went to Cold Stone to get her free ice cream...pink with sprinkles. So shocking. :)

Friday the 24th we went with the Sturgill's to Tepanyaki or Tepanyucki as bratty Kris calls it. Hopefully we changed her opinion. If not, too bad for her. :) We love it. It's my favorite place to get salmon and they have my favorite fried rice and I really like the salad. And come to think of it that is the only place that I will eat any type oriental soup. Yummy. Flower also got a free birthday cheesecake. Sturg's gave Flower a cute umbrella and she is thrilled. She's been wanting one ever since she last played with Ellektra and they fought over hers.
*Take note of Jer's hat*



Can you see the egg in the air? It's in between the cute, unsuspecting couple in red that we totally embarrassed pretty much the whole time we were there! It might have had something to do with two people, who's names begin with K, exchanging the middle finger and two people being accussed of being lesbians as part of the convo. They were from Idaho Falls and I'm pretty sure they were a sweet mormon couple. We scared them. Ha!









So the hat. Jer left it sitting on a chair so K grabbed it and brought it outside while J flirted, or or paid or something like that, with the cashier. We saw him come out just enough for him to realize his head was cold and go back in looking for the hat. We were cracking up. K put it on my head and we waited for him to come out. The whole place was looking for his hat.

I don't think he was nearly as amused as we were. Somehow I think that's normally the case. :) We had a great time!

This is now the last of the celebrations of Flower's birth.

Fun, fun times! We love you girl!