Teaching grandchildren to sew

I had been so blessed to have one of our sons and his family 

move close to us :)

We both just had new homes built and we are literally two blocks away from each other, along a trail and through the park.

My three little grand daughters can walk to our house!

I have been working with Neo for months now, but she wanted to finish this quilt during fall break.

I didn't let her cut any of the fabric with the rotary cutter, I cut the pieces for her courthouse blocks myself!

Neo's 8 years old, she will be 9 in 6 days!!!

 Neo came over to my house last week 

and spent the whole day sewing.

She worked really hard and got five rows sewn together.

She came over the next day with her sisters 

and sewed the next five rows together.

She knew what to do, so I left her in the sewing room and helped her sisters with their own projects.

 She finished sewing all 60 blocks together!!!

Now she just has to sew a 6" border, that will be easy :)

Neo has come to know how useful a seam ripper is too, lol!

A seam ripper is a seamstress' best friend.

While Neo was sewing, I got an embroidery project ready for Kylie, who is 6 years old.

I helped her choose the colors and showed her how to stitch.

To my amazement, she sewed perfect little stitches.

She is a natural!

I think it takes talent to be able to use your fine motor skills, especially at age 6!

Then there's Izzy, she's 4 years old!

She loves putting puzzles together and did that for a while when I was helping Kylie.

She quickly became bored so I let her watch a little TV,

When I finished showing Kylie how to take the little stitches and tie a knot in the thread ( which she's already an expert at), 

I helped Izzy make a batch of Snickerdoodle cookies.

The girls had never tasted them before!

It's become a tradition that when we make cookies, we get a scoop of cookie dough while we're waiting for the cookies to bake.

Yummy, yummy, yummy!!!

I am very blessed to have such cute little grand daughters 

who live so close!

Now I just wish the other 11 grandchildren could move closer!

Joniopolis

Joni Hilton is a renowned author and playwright.

She has written so many books, you can find them on Amazon and at Deseret Bookstore.

I haven't read all of her books, but the ones I have read, I absolutely love!

If there is something awkward, funny, hilarious or embarrassing, it always seems to happen to Joni!

Joni also writes articles for Meridian Magazine.

I could go on and on about her literary talents!

Here is a list of some of the plays Joni has written.

Joni posted on her blog Joniopolis yesterday, and again she made me laugh!

Remember when I posted about my grandchildren last week here and titled it "Better than Grand"?

Joni titled her post "Not Grand, Not Yet".

It's really fun, you have to read it :)

Better Than Grand!

This is a collage of all 9 of my grandchildren.

I began a tradition of making each of them their own heirloom blessing outfit.

I embroider the girls' initials on the back hem of their dress.

The idea is that each child will pass their gown (or outfit) down to their child, and their mother will embroider the baby's initials next to their own.  

Wouldn't it be incredible to see a row of five initials, all embroidered next to each other.

That would be a true heirloom :)

Top row, left to right:

Bridger Alan, May 25, 2005

Kennedy Grace, July 19, 2007

Charlotte Leigh, April 9, 2010

Lucy Jane, August 25, 2013

Bottom row, left to right:

Maisie Louise, July 7, 2010

Benjamin David, September 5, 2012

Neo Kimberley, October 14, 2010

Kylie Violet, January 5, 2013

Reagan Clara, November 17, 2010

I have my adorable little grandchildren on my mind all the time.

It sure is grand being a grandmother!

Each one has their own little personality, and I love each and every one of them more than they will ever know :)

As my friend Joni says, they are the "flowers in my garden".

Eight is Great!

"Just about the time a woman thinks her work is done, she becomes a grandmother."  Author:  Edward H. Dreschnack

Grandmothers are moms with lots of frosting!

"A grandchild fills a space in your heart that you never knew was empty."

These are my EIGHT precious grandchildren!

From left to right, their names are:

 Bridger (7 l/2), Neo (2), Reagan (2), Kylie (one week), Benjamin (4 months), Maisie (2 l/2), Charlotte (2 l/2) and Kennedy (5 l/2).

A New Grandchild

My son and daughter in law just had a new baby and I am staying with them to help with the transition.  I am helping look after 2 year old Neo and also helping with the household chores.

Neo has the most beautiful hair, little tight ringlets all over her head.

When it is wet, you can see that it's really long!

Neo's new sister was born this morning, so we went to the hospital so that they could meet each other for the first time :)

It's a beautiful thing when a child sees their new sibling for the first time!

Neo was happy to see her mom too..... I love this photo, because it shows the bond that Neo and her mom Mabulane have with each other.  In the forefront is Neo's new little sister who she will have to begin sharing her mom with.

Yes, mother and daughter missed each other after spending their first night apart from each other.

Mabulane had a wonderful birthing experience, I was so happy for her!  

My son Addison and his daughters, a magical moment.....

Kylie Violet

7 lbs. 4 oz.

21" long

A sleeping angel, and look at her hair!!!

Mandarin Oranges and Pomegranates and grandchildren

While our family was visiting, we went to a mandarin "satsuma" orange grove.

I had never seen mandarin orange trees until I moved to California.

We took some photos while we were in the orange grove.  Notice how Kennedy has her leg lifted?  That means she is very happy!  Whenever she gives her family a kiss, her leg goes up....lol!!!

Kennedy loves to pose for photos, she wants her arms around Bridger and Charlotte, but Charlotte is not cooperating and Bridger is trying to talk Charlotte into keeping still!  A rare occurence.....that little 2 year old is always on the go!

Charlotte won't cooperate, but Bridger will!  Bridger is such a good sport with his sisters. By the way, that is Bridger's "smile" for the camera.  He isn't being impatient or anything, I think that he thinks that he is smiling naturally for the camera :)

Kennedy adores her big brother, he still has that fake smile!

Finally, a natural smile from Bridger :)

There were even some pomegranate bushes!  I have never seen one before!  Most of the pomegranates were cracked like this but we were told that they were still perfectly fine to eat.

The lady who worked at the grove told us to immerse the pomegranate in cold water and scoop out the seeds.  The juice won't stain your skin and the seeds float to the stop.  Good to know!

We have been eating a lot of mandarin oranges, they are sweet and juicy.

I Am Thankful

We had a wonderful time at Thanksgiving, I thought I would share....My daughter Lindsay and her husband Jeremy and their three sweet little children (our grandchildren) spent a week with us over the Thanksgiving holidays.

We went to a mandarin orange grove and tasted orange treats.

We played at the playground multiple times, playing tag and chasing and laughing!

We watched "Rise of the Guardians" and munched on popcorn.

We visited Grandpa's office and got treats from his assistant.

We had a tour of the local fire station, where Bridger and Kennedy dressed up in miniature fire suits!

We had pizza at our favorite pizza joint.

We played Dominoes and nibbled on treats.

We played hide and go seek in the house at night, with all the lights off.......

We made some crafts, visited, played, ate and laughed some more.

Kennedy loves playing with the Barbies I had when I was a little girl.  I have a big box of them along with lots of clothes, some of them were made by my mother.

There was some silky green moss growing under the fir trees in the backyard.  Kennedy thought that some fairies might live there so she built them a home.  I gave her an old shoe box and with the help of her mother, she cut a door and arranged some pretty red, orange and gold leaves along with some berries and little stones.  The next morning, there was shimmer in the box and she knew that the fairies had been there!

Lindsay and Kennedy found the fairy glitter.  It really does look like a magical fairy forest.

Bridger can hardly wait to play with Jordan, Addison and Sean's Lego.  He is constantly building things, Lego is his favorite toy.  For the Reflections contest at school, he reenacted a construction worker throwing him a tootsie roll from his backhoe, out of Lego!  He won first place and will be going on to the state competition.

Since Bridger is old enough to read chapter books, I introduced him to Tintin books, another childhood memory of mine.

Charlotte loves her panda pillow that she has taken all the stuffing out of.  She also loves her pink Ruff, a pink stuffed dog.  When she is around them, she can't do anything else but suck her thumb.

Charlotte is so busy!  Busy finding the gum in my sewing room desk drawer, busy finding treats in the pantry, busy trying to sneak Mom's iphone away from her, busy unrolling all of the toilet paper in the bathroom, busy taunting her older brother and sister,  busy keeping us laughing all the time!

This is our Thanksgiving feast.

Green beans with toasted almonds, homemade cranberry sauce with some orange zest, and the turkey of course!

Ruth Chris sweet potato recipe (it is dessert!!!), stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy.

We served almost everything that is pictured in my Thanksgiving Dinner Quilt.  It hung right beside us as we ate.  I don't have a Christmas quilt yet, so I keep the Thanksgiving one up through the Christmas holidays.

I can't forget the mushroom turnovers, it has become a family tradition.  I got the recipe from a Good Housekeeping magazine in the early 80's.  Jeremy said that when he and Lindsay were spending their first Thanksgiving together as a married couple, that Lindsay told him they had to have mushroom turnovers.  He thought that was a strange request until he tried them and then he understood!

I wrote the recipe on the Thanksgiving Dinner quilt.

Here we are at our Thanksgiving table with so much to be thankful for.  We gave thanks for the rest of our family who was not with us, and especially for our son Sean who is serving a two year mission in  Porto Alegre South, Brazil.  

Maisie and Benjamin

I have been staying with my daughter Rebecca, and son in law Dave, since September 6.  They go to the hospital to be with and feed Benjamin, and I am looking after Maisie and keeping the house clean.  Benjamin weighed 4 lbs. 15 oz. at birth, and is still in the NICU.  He is healthy, he just needs to do a few things developmentally, like nursing enough to gain enough weight and go home  ♥

Maisie is 2, and Benjamin was born on September 5, 8 weeks early.

Two kids with lots of personality, who still need to meet each other.

I made Benjamin a quilt, the fabric is really cute.  I bought the kit about 4 years ago and have been waiting for a grandson to make it for, all this time :)  Benjamin is our seventh grandchild, our second grandson.  

I fussy cut the little baby heads and they are surrounded with scrappy yellow and blue prints.  The border is a soft, soft, minkie, and so is the back.  Isn't the quilting beautiful?  I didn't do it, my friend Cindy did with her long arm machine.

I made little burp pads for little Benjamin and added some ribbon loops for him to play with when he gets bigger.

On the back of the burp pads, I put some really soft minkie.  The burp pads are 9"X14" and sometimes Rebecca covers up Benjamin with the burp pad because they are so soft and the perfect size :)

This is Rebecca with Benjamin on Sept. 8, 3 days after giving birth.

I made this little pendant banner for Benjamin's crib, so that there could be something homey and colorful in the room.

The pendants are 4"X6", and I put heavy pellon in the middle so they would have some body.

It is difficult for Rebecca when Benjamin's oxygen gets low after he nurses, and the buzzer goes off and the red light blinks.  The nurse runs into the room and tells little Benjamin to breathe.....It is a little disconcerting.....

This is Dave, holding his precious little Benjamin.  

Hopefully Benjamin will come home soon and Maisie will be able to meet her baby brother :)