My attempt at Sunday before Christmas photos.

My plan was to take pictures of the kids when we came home from church on Sunday and when I remembered, Jillian was already in her casual clothes, Bradley shoes were untied, and Baden was ready to run around.
So below is my attempt at, "after the Sunday before Christmas pictures."

Family Photo time!

What do you think? Is this the best shot or what?

Turkey Trot 2009!

Today we ran the Turkey Trot! It was fun, warm, and tiring.
I ran the race with:
Christy (sister), Mom (Jennifer), Dad (Larry), Clint (brother), Nathan and Kalyn (cousins).
My goal was to run fast and not get injured. The jury is still out on the injury part because you don't usually notice it right away but my time was pretty good. I ran 49:09 for a 6.2 mile run. Last year I did it in 53:12 so I am working my way down.
My legs were beat by mile 3 but I didn't let that stop me.
It was fun!!!

The whole clan minus my cousins

The girls with our matching shirts (different color, same style). Aren't we buff.?

Me finishing the race. I look like and I felt like I wanted to pass out. Once I saw the clock at 49:00 I started sprinting.

My Dad. Isn't he awesome?! He is 61 and still moving strong. I want to be like my Dad and Mom when I grow up.

"New Moon" Midnight Madness!

Okay so we had so much fun!!! It was worth the 5.5 hour wait in line and 2.5 hour wait in the theater. We had great seats! I loooooved the movie but I also loved hanging out with my friends and family. I would have had more pictures but my camera stinks. So for those of you who were there but not in the pictures I am sorry.

During the movie there was of course the oohing and aahing and I loved it. I thought the acting was great and the effects were awesome. Jacob was great but I am still

TEAM EDWARD!

Me, Christy (my sis), Jessie, and kara (Christy Sister in laws.) We also had Randee ( my sis. in law, Randee sister Triny, Sydney (neice), Whitney ( Sydney cousin), Dallin (Sydney's friend), Nadia and Dawn (my friends)

Me and my Sister Christy. She introduced me to the Twilight Saga. Thank you!!!!

My awful camera took this awful picture but here we are hanging out in line.

Me showing off my Team Edward shirty and my Twilight colored jewelry.

Me in Line. I was there at 4:20pm and waited alone in line until about 6:00pm. I had to take one for the team but it was worth it. We had awesome seats!

Sole Time

For Young Women in Excellence this year we are doing a shoe theme, and every girl has to come up with a shoe that represents them and say why it does. Below is my description of my shoe and a picture similar to the shoe I talked about but mine also had a bracelet tied to it for the glam part. This is my shoe
so what does it mean to you?
Maybe not much
but to me it is such.... a representation of who I am.
In everything I do I try to say yes I can.
I like to be different and shine like the swoosh
Sometimes I need that extra push
This shoe keeps me on my toes
Which helps me aim high above my worldly foes.
The shoe's light weight makes it easy to fly.
When my burdens are lifted it feels like I can try.
I am rough around the edges more often then not
But also I like to be glam. that hits the spot.
When its time to hit the track and the race is near
My all time motto is have no fear.
And just like this shoe guarantees speed
It helps me remember to be quick to repentance, fast to forgiveness, and swift to succeed.
Sister Graves is my name, trying hard and moving fast is my game.


What shoe represents you?

Halloween!

Here are some Halloween pictures. We had so much fun this year. We had a trunk or treat on the 24th of October with our ward, Jillian and Bradley had birthday and school Halloween parties, and on Halloween we had a fun get together with our neighbors before we went out trick or treating. We had pizza and the kids bounced around on a bouncer. They had so much fun.

Jillian and Bradley before the Halloween day party.

Bradley, Dylan, Jillian, and Karalynn right before they went trick or treating.

Baden looking as cute as ever wondering what in the world is going on. He stayed in the stroller the whole time but he also got a little bit of candy.

Now on to the next holiday.....

Crazy!

Today was my crazy and interesting day. In fact it has been a crazy and interesting month. But today was just crazy or fun whatever you want to call it. I got up early to go Personal Train and came home got the kids ready, and walked Jillian to school. When we got there Jillian was limping because her shoe was bothering her (I told her not to wear them). Well I knew I couldn't let her go all day with a sore foot so I walked home picked up the flipflops and walked back. I would have driven, but our car was dead and has been for 2 weeks. I walked back home and when I got there I heard a loud high pitched noise. I figured it was the fire alarm. You think I would have felt the front door to see if it was hot but nah, I just went in. Of course the alarms were on the fritz. I started to take them all down and take the batteries out (while the boys hung out in the backyard) but that did not work. Anyway long story short, I found out it was Jillians room on the fritz so I pushed the button on hers and they all stopped. The funny thing is we just came up with a fire emergency plan for Jillians Homework the day before. Thank goodness Jillian was not home because she would have freaked out.
Thanks to everyone who helped me out, because I wasn't sure at first how I was going to go about turning them off.

Jillian having fun!

Jillian is at such a fun age.
The first 2 pictures below are pictures from Jillian's completion of her Hip Hop class. She did awesome! I have the dance on video but for some reason it would not load onto my blog. But I can say that she really got into the dance. This made me happy because I could see her confidence come out and I love it when my kids have confidence.

Jillian with her "Hard Worker" award.

The pictures below are pictures from Jillian's Movie night. There were a total of 9 girls and one friend for Bradley. We had to get the wiggles out before we watched the movie so we played freeze dance and music bump (similar to freeze dance). The girls than started the movie which was Nancy Drew (I think they all liked it). By the end of the movie there was popcorn all over the floor and the girls were having a pillow fight. My friend and next door neigbor said it looked like some type of sorority party. I think they all had a blast and there was no lasting damage to my house so all in all it was a very fun evening.

Ready To Go and Do!

I loved General Conference this weekend! I am always excited to hear the words of the Prophet and Apostles. I feel renewed and ready to go out and do better. I think it is so necessary to hear from them so often because it is so easy to become casual in our callings etc. The message I gathered from conference was Come Unto Christ, Repent, Be consistent, Keep the commandments Love more, Learn how to receive revelation, Read the Book of Mormon and gain a testimony of it (Go Elder Holland) and of course have HOPE the future is bright. I am not perfect and I have so many things to work on but I am grateful to have wonderful leaders to follow that share their imperfections and perfections with us and tell us that we too can become better by following the Prophet, keeping the commandments, and Coming unto Christ. I am ready to do better and I am ready to go and do!

If you want to watch any of the talks or sessions go to the link below and click on General Conference.

www.lds.org

Crazy Sock day and New shirt.

Yes I made another shirt for Jillian and yes I love it! Ever since I made the other shirt for her she has wanted more, so below is my latest. She is wearing it with some crazy socks because today was "crazy sock day" at school.
She also wanted curly hair today so I braided it last night to get the effect.

Can you tell below that she thought she looked cute?

(yes the skirt is a little short so next time she will have to wear leggings with it. There are shorts attached so I wasn't to worried about it)

Latest Project

Here is my latest venture. A member of my family is having a baby and today was her shower.
So a week ago I decided I wanted to make her a cute dress for her baby. Before I made the official dresses I decided to make one on my own without a pattern.
These dresses are called pillowcase dresses and the first one is the one I did without a pattern the next 2 is from a pattern I got from my friend.
I hope you enjoy the pictures below and please try not to laugh as much as I did at my baby model.

The dress above and below are the dresses I gave to my cousin.

Jillian tried on the baby dress and it ended up being so cute as a shirt that I told her she could keep it. I am now going to make more shirts for her from this pattern.

Poor Baden.

You know your child....

You know your child watches to much Spongebob when.....

-Every other sentence starts with " Do you know Spongebob likes..." or "Do you know Patrick...."

-Dinner is often called a Crabby Patty even if your eating spaghetti.

-Half the day his voice is made to sound like Spongebob or Patrick.

- The kids say to each other "lets go upstairs and play spongebob! I'll be Spongebob you be Patrick."

- your child is told that Spongebob and Patrick aren't real and they try to convince you otherwise.

- he sits at the dinner table and quotes word for word a scene from the show.

Do you think I should consider a new show or activity?

Funny!

Last night I was cleaning the kids toy room while they were playing (I know they should have been cleaning it). Anyway, they were playing with pretend food and seemed to be getting along well. Jillian then decided she didn't want to share a toy with Bradley, so he said, " Fine, NO SOUP FOR YOU." It was exactly like that and in almost the same voice as Seinfeld's "Soup Nazi." He had never heard of the line before. I was laughing so hard.

I love it when kids say funny things without knowing it.

Birthday!

Yesterday was my Birthday! I had a great day!
Here's the break down:
1. Trained my friend, she made me cake (so cute/so nice).
2. After dropping Jillian off at school, my Sister, Mom, and Dad dropped by for a quick and fun surprise breakfast.
3. Gifts of plenty: a scarf, new glasses, boxes for my beading, mula (from my parents and my in laws), candy, and a running shirt.
4. Many Facebook birthday greetings.
5. A phone call from a good friend with a Birthday wish.
6. A friend dropped by at my front door with yummy smelling hand soap and a dish towel (how did my friend know I needed a dish towel?).
7. Went out on a date with my hubby where the wind would take us, and it took us to the movies.
8. Went home to find kids in bed and a good nights rest.
9. Today a second celebration with my kids. You can never go wrong with two birthday celebrations.

Thank you everybody for making my ???? Birthday a great one!

Stylin!

Check out the goods.

Thanks for the memorable morning.

Isn't this cake cute? What a great friend!

To share or not to share?

All 3 of my kids got an achy, stuffy nose, cough kind of sick with in hours of each other. I was trying to figure out how this could happen so fast, and than I had a flashback to Saturday when all three kids were at the table taking licks of Jillian's push pop. Although I thought it was cute that Baden would stand there and wait his turn for a little taste, I now realize it was not such a good idea. I am not a germaphobic but I do recognize that sharing a sucker of some sort is not always the best way to go. So what I am trying to say is teaching our kids to share is good but maybe not with things that can spread a virus like wildfire.

Thank goodness with 2 of the kids it has been short lived we will see what happens with the 3rd.

Have a happy, sick free day!

Quote of the day, with some sewing fun!

"What you create doesn’t have to be perfect. So what if the eggs are greasy or the toast is burned? Don’t let fear of failure discourage you. Don’t let the voice of critics paralyze you—whether that voice comes from the outside or the inside.
If you still feel incapable of creating, start small. Try to see how many smiles you can create, write a letter of appreciation, learn a new skill, identify a space and beautify it." President Dieter F. Uchtdorf Second Counselor in the First Presidency

I love the above quote! I loved this talk given at the November 2008 General Womens Conference. I love that an Apostle of God says it is a good thing to make our spaces beautiful. And to create or try new things.

Which leads me into my next thing....

So this summer I had the opportunity to make 3 baby blankets (only 2 pictured). I love creating new things and trying different things.
I am not a perfectionist, so the blankets I made had to be perfectionism free. They are so easy and fun to make.
Two of the three blankets are shown below. The 3rd blanket was made for a boy so it had the orange and yellow that you see below with a blue colorful fish print mixed in.

This blanket was for a girl. I loved the colors in this quilt.

This Blanket was for Jillian's kindergarten teacher. She didn't know what she was having, so I made it gender neutral.

I love to be creative. It makes me happy!

Jillians First day of school 2009!

Jillian started school today! She had a great day!
Jillian thought she looked like a rock star.
I think she just looked like a sweet little first grader.

Cute! Stylin! Happy!

Jillian riding her scooter to school.

Jillian looking a little unsure.

There she goes in to the school. Doesn't she look studious and stylish?