FHE in the summer

 Her new swimsuit I found at a consignment sale for an awesome deal!

 Brady picked out the pink rashguard to give her. I love them because it saves serious time and money on sunscreen.

 While at the park these two little ones ate like champs. They both had a cheese stick, 1/2 can of vienna sausages, 1/3 of a huge apple, popcorn, and chips. They NEVER eat that much at home, especially in one sitting. My heart was so happy because I knew they were both actually getting all the calories their active, growing bodies need.

 This is my favorite splash pad in Henderson.

 We went for FHE (without Brady since he was working as usual) with the Hedden's, the Wilsons, and the Dixons. Everyone had a blast. I only made them all go home when Ayla and Gideon started going is opposite directions of the park to play and I couldn't watch both of them at the same time anymore. They were all pretty sad....until I told them we were going to Winco to pick out some ice cream treats to eat at home. Food bribery always works in the Lindsay house :)

 She was showing Sam her apple

Filling up cups with water and dumping/throwing them on other people was really fun for the kids.

The longest, hardest project yet

 

Recovering this boring car seat...which is made up of 21 pieces,

 To this pile of random looking pieces and 2 yards of Monsters, Inc University fabric,

 To this fairly organized layout, ready to be cut and sewn,

 To the finished product. All it took was 1.5 hours of unpicking the seat, 1 hour of laying and cutting pieces, and roughly 5 to 6 hours to put it all back together. I had quite a tough time for a little while with my sewing machine locking up because a few parts were really thick when corners were meeting up. After smacking my machine, it still didn't work, and yelling at it didn't help either...go figure. I decided to call it a night and try again in the morning. I ended up trying to take apart the machine as much as I could and air blast the heck out of every nook and cranny...which I think helped quite a bit. I took a snail's pace after that, especially on those extra thick areas. In the end, I did end up hand sewing two corners together because I just couldn't get the presser foot to go through the 8 different pieces that needed to all meet at the same place. I can't even begin to say how relieved I am that this seat is finished. Tomorrow it is being picked up...and on to the next projects.

In my to-do pile I have scout badges to sew on Ammon's shirt, a camera strap to make for a friend, and finishing the neckline and waistline of Ayla's pajamas I made her for her birthday last week. No rest for the wicked :)

Birthday dress princess

 I couldn't resist taking a picture of her wearing the dress I got her for her birthday. I love it so much, and it was a REALLY good deal! I also love how cute she looks with freshly trimmed bangs.

 A view of how I did her hair.

Ammon asked her to do a silly face, and this is what she came up with.

Fresh off the press

The top two shirts I made for my friend's kids who are celebrating their birthdays at Disneyland in two weeks. The bottom shirt is for me...but it shrunk in the wash (and dummy me didn't try it on until after I put the vinyl on) so I have to try cutting out the seams and adding 1-2 inches of fabric. When it's all done I really hope it looks like it was supposed to be like that all along. I will say, even with that minor hiccup, the glitter heat transfer vinyl is SO AWESOME!!! It is so much easier to weed than regular smooth heat transfer. Thanks to Lilly for loving the "Frozen Blue" color :)

"Swimming"

For some reason, being able to turn on and use the hose by himself is extra fun. Ayla never misses a moment to play in the water, and I swear she can hear the hose running from across the house. One of the things they love to do is move the slide over to the sandbox and fill up the box with water then slide down and land on their bums in the water. Pouring, dumping, and splashing are also extremely fun. Thanks to the best mother in the world for letting the kids play in water with their regular clothes on. :)

Ammon the goof, and a school project

 I found these pictures when I uploaded the camera today. What a ham!

 This is his last school project for the year. He had to make a model of an island with at least 5 land forms. He wanted to do 10, so we compromised on 8. His theme is sports...as it is called Sports Island. He has Football Iceburg up in the left corner, Karate Mountain, Twin Kung Fu Falls, Fencing River, Marathon Pond, Archery Lake, Soccer Ocean, Water Polo Volcano, Bicycle Plateu, and Touchdown Harbor. He did it in the shape of a football field, complete with an endzone area at Touchdown Harbor. He did the painting of the ocean, forming the clay landforms, and putting the sticks on. I made the clay and put the label flags on the toothpicks. His island name is on a banner, similar to those you would see hanging above a city street to advertise a community event/sport coming up. I remember seeing them all the time in Rexburg about the Teton Dam Marathon.

Another pair of four eyes

He has had headaches quite frequently the last half of the school year, and he insisted he needed glasses. Last week he went in for an exam...and sure enough he sure does need them! I feel bad I didn't take him in sooner. This handsome dude is far-sighted. He has difficulty reading, and I think part of it is attributed to the strain his eyes and brain are under when he has to read things close up all the time. He was so thrilled to get to pick out glasses, and boy was it a tough decision! He ended up liking these the best because they look like Daddy's. I hope wearing glasses helps his headaches and his reading skills. Love this cute boy!

The birthday FUN!

Ayla's big day was so fun!

 I made her a Minnie Mouse cake with oreos. She picked out the frosting, and the sprinkles. The cake is chocolate, because we don't do any other kind in our house :) In between the layers I put some homemade srtawberry blueberry jam. 

 She was so happy to say HI and Cheese!

 Her nursery leader came to give her a surprise. She got a cute card, a crown that she LOVES, a mirror, a treat, and some chapstick. She loves to pucker her lips so I can put some on.

 Her birthday crown. Thank you so much Sister Rose!!

 Eating one of her favorite dishes: chicken cordon bleu casserole. She inhales the stuff every time I make it.

 For her birthday from Grandparents Deitz and Kalina she got a fun animal book. She loves that it has buttons and sounds

 Opening swim suits from us

 A dress from us

 Opening the shoes, seen below. They light up...even more fun!! This kid LOVES shoes!

 We Skyped with my mom and sister for the birthday song and opening presents. The whole time she kept looking over to the computer and waving HI to them. After the presents were all opened she climbed on the table to get a closer look at Grandma.

 Eating her birthday cake...she loved it :)

Bethany, Jason, and Sage came to celebrate with us. They gave her a cute homemade toy bucket and a box of diapers. She also got a swim floating thing and a pink rash guard picked out by Daddy....they are PINK! She also got a one piece outfit to wear when it gets a little colder outside. A few weeks ago she got a card with $2 in it from Brady's dad, Grandpa Ron. We love our baby girl. Happy birthday Ayla!!

Happy Birthday AYLA!

When I took her picture this morning, we were trying to get her to smile cute. She kept saying Yeah! And Hi! So here we have her waving to all our family and friends today. Happy birthday to my spunky, giggly little princess!!

Reading is cute!

 I love watching the kids read books! Ayla is hilarious and LOVES to look at animal books and tractor books. When she sees a picture of a dog she starts saying "woof, woof." Ohmyadorable! When we are driving in the car somewhere, she often points out the window, shouting for joy when she sees a big truck of any kind. I can't believe she's going to be 2 tomorrow!

Making a bench for cheap!

 We bought an old, pretty beat up table for $20 over a month ago. The plan all along was to take it apart and make a bench for our kitchen table. I forgot to take before pictures, but if you remember our old, small table from our house in Idaho, you already know what it looked like. It was only a 4 person table. Brady took all the stuff over to a guy in our ward so he could use his tutelage and tools. Together they came up with this bench style using two of the existing chairs and half of the table top is now the seat. They also took apart the skeleton of the old table to make it into either a backless bench or a sofa table, depending if we decided to cut off the legs or not. That one is currently in our garage, awaiting saran wrap so we can store it all together and not lose any pieces in the event that we move soon.
The boys love to sit all together on the bench for every meal, with Gideon insisting that Ammon sit right by him. It's so cute to watch the kids get along so well. In the picture below, Ayla was the first lucky kid to try out the bench. Yes, we are painting it...I just can't decide on a color yet. I'm thinking about lime green...or maybe just a boring brown seat with black back and legs, but I don't know for sure.

Aren't these boys cute sitting all smooshed together on the new bench?

Date #8: Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestra

For dinner we bought a half price Groupon for Tuscano Italian Grill. Although the food was delicious, the vegetable selection and portion left something to be desired. I'm not used to getting about 1/4 cup of mashed potatoes and one broccoli floret with 1/2 grilled roma tomato on the side. As an Idaho girl, 1/4 cup of potatoes is only one bite....so I was still wanting more after it was all gone. However, my grilled salmon was DELICIOUS! I forget what Brady's dish was called. It had musscles, clams, one jumbo shrimp, and a Mediterranian Sea Bass....with a few more tomatoes than me (one of his least favorite foods). His seafood was also really good...again, the veggies could have been triple the amount.

 After dinner we went to The Smith Center to see the Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestra perform their last event of the season. They had a guest conductor who is well known in the music world, Susan Hicks. She did a fabulous job! The theme was Pop in Paris, and I was sure I wouldn't recognize anything they played. It turns out, Brady and I knew everything they performed with the exception of two or three pieces. They even played a selection from Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables. George Gershwin is Brady's favorite composer, and they played his American In Paris. The whole night was so enjoyable. Going to a symphony has been something I have wanted to do since we got married...it only took us 10 years to do it!
The photo to the left here is directly opposite where we were sitting. We were on the top balcony, in the second door of box seats. Yes, it was definitely the nose bleed section, but the sound up there was totally amazing.
Below is what the stage looked like when I leaned over the rail.

Crafting for Teacher Appreciation

 First group sanded and stained. Ready for vinyl.

 Third group sanded and stained. I ran out of the dark stain, so I tried a lighter one called Butter Pecan...it was really blonde. At Brady's suggestion I added the last few drops of the dark stain into the new can and mixed it up really well. After two more coats, it looked really nice. See the lighter, finished product below.

 The first group laquered

 And done! I cut the loops on the bows for the male teachers so it looks like a bow tie. I love it!

 Some different colors and the final outcome of the lighter stain. iCreateArt is for my friend who teachers an art class during the summer. Bailey Rae was a baby shower gift for my friend.

This is a sign another friend asked me to make. It's from a recycled shelf board we found on the side of the road on trash day last year. Brady cut it to 8x24 for me and we added 13 clothes pins. My friend has 5 kids....and lots of missing socks. I hope this helps them be found :)

Now you need the full story.....I have been asked to make things for people quite a few times since the beginning of the year. Most recently I have made Disney shirts, vinyl signs, and costumes for an upcoming themed birthday party. Off and on over the last couple of years I have been thinking about doing some kind of etsy shop or ebay thing for all the things I like to make. Nothing really felt right until recently.  I love using my talents and skills to help others because some say crafting just isn't their thing. So I officially opened up a Facebook page where I can sell the things I love to make. It's called Ayla's Attic. It has been open for about a week, and I already have two orders for customized shirts. It's so nice to have projects to do, and it's a little more fun now that people pay me to make them. It has really been an answer to our prayers to have a way to make a little extra money without having to pay a babysitter. I still have time to volunteer at the Red Cross every week, and I can totally do my projects during nap time.