I did it!

Well, here is the quilt I made for Rebecca for Christmas. It is beautiful and when I look at it, I truly can not belive that I MADE IT. The last time I touched a sewing machine was in 7th grade to make the ugliest windsock ever. I saw this quilt pattern at the beginning of this year though, and I was in love. I HAD to make it! I guess this goes to show that you can learn to do anything! I'm really proud of it, and Rebecca loves it. She always pretended to smell the flowers whenever I'd work on it. THANK YOU to Seth's sisters and mom for helping me step by step. I could not have figured it out on my own!

Other than that, not too much is going on. I spend my days with these darlings.

I'm remembering how sweet little babies are...there is nothing better in the world than cuddling with a sleeping baby. I love it.

My days are a bit hectic and crazy at times, but it is good to be busy. It is exhausting some days, I'm always doing something for some little person.

Calista is Rebecca's best friend. She looks forward to her coming every single day. On the weekends she is so bummed because it's just me and her. She is such a social little girl. She loves to play and dance and talk. She and Calista have the funniest conversations.

I break up plenty of fights, but most of the time, they just love each other, it is so cute.

Seth started a new job installing garage doors at night. He registered for school, starting in January. I've been making all kinds of pumpkin desserts and hanging onto fall as long as I can. I'm not looking forward to the snowy cold winter. We're excited for next week when we'll be able to see our family and have fun together.

Happy Halloween!

We made spider hats for fun last week. Here are the girls saying, "AHHHH!! Scary Spider!!!" They are so funny. The best part of Halloween was that Grandma and Grandma came up to be with us! We had a fun weekend together. Here we are-the three Lynns, as my aunt calls us- (Lynn, Kristy Lynn and Rebecca Lynn) carving Rebecca's pumpkin.
She was very interested. Each year is just better than the last. This was such a fun Halloween with her!

She had been waiting and waiting for this day, to paint her face green and be a little witch. Everywhere we went the past week or so, she'd tell people, "I'm going to be a witch. Paint my face green!"

Here's Rebecca and Grandpa at the Trunk-or-Treat. Rebecca caught on to the Trick-or-Treat concept really quickly! She sure loved it. What a fun day, and we are so glad Grandma and Grandpa could spend it with us!

Fabulous FALL!!!

What a beautiful time of year! The leaves are just beautiful right now, I love the fall. We went to a pumpkin patch here in town last week. Rebecca loved wearing her cat shirt and looking at all the pumpkin pies, as she calls them.
They had this cute little train there.

And a maze.

The leaves on our street are stunning! I love it when I turn up our street and just look all the way up at all the colors. Rebecca loves to ride her little bus across the street over to the fire hydrant. She's very interested in the fire hydrant for some reason. She feels like such a big girl getting off the driveway to ride her bus, going somewhere farther away.

She loves to crunch and stomp on the leaves. Then she'll pick a few up, along with some sticks and rocks, throw them in the seat of the bus, hop on and ride off again. It's so funny, the things she wants to save. That bus is so full of junk. :)

And, she's off!

We went on a hike last week, it was a beautiful view from the top. Rebecca loves to throw rocks in water.

Our front yard is FULL of leaves. SO FUN!!!

Seth's raking leaves up into the air. Rebecca is not sure what to think!

My handsome scout! Seth gave a talk at our nephew's Eagle court of honor.

I get together with my college roommates from Utah State every year. We had such a good time this past weekend. We talked and laughed all night long. I have such great friends. It was so good to see all of you!!! Too bad we don't live closer and see each other more often.

FINISHED!

Well, here it is! Our finished bathroom. It is so nice, and it is wonderful to finally have a non-embarassing bathroom (it was terrible before) !!! So after 4 years this month of living in this house, our entire upstairs is completely remodeled. It's so nice to have it all done. I know in a few months Seth will get the remodeling itch again and it will be on to the basement.
Rebecca's enjoying bubble baths like a normal kid. No more quick showers for her!

We're enjoying any sunny days we can get!

We went to the fire station open house last night, Rebecca loves fire trucks!

We watched a puppet show about "Stop, Drop and Roll" and then she practiced it and got a prize.

My wonderful sister-in-law Whitney and my niece Olivia helping me with my massive project...the quilt. I think I will actually reach my goal of having it done by Christmas! It's looking great and I can't wait to see it finished. It's been fun to work on and learn how to sew.

Rebecca has some great conversations with the cows. My favorite was, "I eat you!"

Rhino ride with Grandpa and Brent!

I've started doing "school" with Rebecca most days and it's been so fun. Here we are learning about clouds.

We had a Princess party at our house a few weeks ago and the girls had so much fun eating yummy treats...

RUNNING and DANCING....

And making Princess crowns! What cute girls!!!

AND-it was my favorite day a few weeks ago...Shelley Potato Day!! I lovk forward to the celebration of the spud every year. Here I am eating my lovely free potato and chocolate milk with Rebecca. YUM!

Rebecca loves fire trucks, but they were a little loud, so she sat there like this.

Of course she had to dance whenever there was music

I'll bet these missionaries will never forget being in this parade!

The theme was "Potatoes on Masqerade" What a crack up! I loved it! Hooray for Idaho and the lovely Potato!

The cutest little sailor!

Yesterday, I had dress-up day with Rebecca. It was so fun! I painted her fingernails and toenails and curled her hair. During all of that I told her that we would go see the ducks at the river and that I was going to take pictures of her in a special dress. She loves to wear dresses. And this one is special because my mom made it for me when I was Rebecca's age. I've wanted to take pictures of her in it for a while, but I've been waiting for her poor nose to heal a little.

I was so glad she was in a good mood! Usually when I get the camera out, she runs away or throws a fit. It is so hard to get good pictures lately! This time, she still ran and danced like crazy but in the 84 pictures I snapped, I managed to get a few good ones! Most of them were of the back of her head as she ran away from me, chasing ducks and singing. Anyway, here's the good ones-Enjoy!

After the river, I asked Rebecca if she'd like to go to the temple and look at the flowers and let me take some more pictures. She said, "Yeah!" So off we went. The flowers were so beautiful and it was so nice to be there with my little girl. She was so cute running from flower to flower, trying to smell them all.

She did slow down long enough to touch these letters and say, "L-A-T-T-E-R" and then she was off again. We sat on the grass and looked at the temple. Rebecca pointed to the top and said, "Jesus!" I told her that it is the Angel Moroni on top of the temple but she just shook her head and said, "No, Mommy! Jesus!"

I love my little dolly and am so proud of her. I'm so grateful for the gospel and our Heavenly Father's Plan. I love my little family so very much. I'm so blessed to live 2 minutes from a temple. I was able to go to the temple this week and I love the peace I feel there. I know all my problems are so small when you look at the big picture and what really matters. The temple helps me to see and remember that.

What a blessing it is to be a mother! I wrote the Primary Program last month that the kids will present in a few weeks, and it has been so neat this year in Primary to teach and learn about eternal families. How wonderful it is to know my family is eternal. I hope and pray that I can be the example and teacher that my children need to guide them back to where they came from. I hope Rebecca will always live worthy of the beautiful blessings of the temple. We sing, "I love to see the Temple" every night, and she knows all the words. What a sweet girl she is, I love to teach her the gospel.

We harvested our little garden last week and Rebecca helped me pop the leaves off all these carrots. She took a bite out of each one too. We're getting a few RED tomatoes, most of them are green still. I love havin a garden, and filling up my freezer with all these yummy veggies!

The bathroom is coming along, slowly but surely!!!

Daddy's little helper. Hopefully we'll be painting this weekend!!YIPPEE!!!

Stitches

Rebecca had her first bad accident last week. She fell out of her stroller at WalMart and got this cut. 6 stitches later, she is ok. She tells me so all the time. "I'm ok, Mommy. My nose is ok." I was not sure for a while though! It is soooo scary to have your child bleed and scream like that. I think I cried as much as she did. So I've learned my lesson and she will ALWAYS be strapped in from now on. I just feel so bad every time I look at this cut on her sweet little face. She gets the stitches out tomorrow and I'm a little nervous for how that will go. She had to be put to sleep to get them in and I'm thinking I'll be holding her down to get them out. Wish me luck!
On to happier topics...our bathroom is coming along! HOORAY!!! Maybe this week I'll be able to shower, I'm really tired of baths.

A friend invited us up to her cabin in Island Park and we had such a great time there.

We went on this paddle boat and on a beautiful hike. So nice to just be outside enjoying nature. We haven't done that enough this year.

Rebecca's little friend is back 3 days a week, and Rebecca is in heaven. EVERY night, she asks if Calista is coming tomorrow. It's part of the bedtime ritual.

They have a great time together and I'm glad that Seth finished "The Back Yard" last month. It's nice to have a place that is small and fenced for the kids to be. The sandbox is a hit with Rebecca. We played in it for almost 2 hours yesterday. Nice!

And I can't wait for next year when these garden boxes will be overflowing with veggies and flowers. It will be so pretty! It's so nice to have a husband who knows how to build and fix stuff. Our house and yard are looking better all the time!

We went to help with the wheat harvest last weekend. Rebecca liked riding on the combine for about 2 minutes and then...

She was out! Seth says he used to sleep in the combine all the time too when he was little.

I bought 70 ears of corn and husked and froze it all. YUM!! But now I'm thinking I need a bigger freezer...

And I was feeling ambitious a few months ago and bought this quilt pattern that I thought was so cute. I don't sew, but I thought I'd make it anyway. Good thing Seth has such a great mom and sisters who have helped me with this project. I got it cut out in July with one sister, and then Seth's mom gave me a quick sewing lesson and I got started sewing it last weekend. I'm so proud of myself and it is so fun! I can't wait to do some more! My goal is to have it done for Rebecca for Christmas. It is so cute, I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Summer fun

We have had such a busy and fun month! Here is the table Rebecca's grandparents gave her for her birthday. She's having a tea party with Elmo and Baby Kate. She LOVES her little table, it is so perfect!

Having a pillow fight with Daddy. Daddy won...Rebecca just sat there and laughed while he threw pillows on her over and over again. It was funny.

Here we are at the Youth Jam. Rebecca was so fun this year, doing all the little art projects.

They had some Mexican singers/dancers and Rebecca ran right up in front of the stage and danced around with these little girls. Rebecca just can't help herself - whenever she hears music, she has got to dance! It's too cute.

Daddy finished Rebecca's sandbox. Here is her first look.

She LOVES it!!! What a fun addition to our back yard.

We went to Utah and surprised my parents. It was fun to show up without them knowing. We had a good few days together. Here we are at the water fountain at the Gateway Mall.

Rebecca loves her Grandpa-when he had to leave to go ride the train at work, Rebecca said she wanted to go with him and sit on his lap. Here she is giving him lots of kisses!

With Grandma and Grandpa.

What cute Grandparents! They did all the things with Rebecca that she loves...went to the park, 2 pet stores, and out for ice cream. She was in heaven. It's so fun to visit Grandma and Grandpa!

After visiting my parents, we went and stayed with my friend Kathy who is living with her parents in Bear Lake until she moves to Oregon next week. What an awesome place her parents have!!! Check out this view from their house. It was beautiful.

Rebecca and her friend Elli. They were so happy to be together again. Such cute girls.

Goodbye Kathy and Elli! We'll miss you!

When we got home, Seth had a surprise for us! He started the BIG project . . . . THE BATHROOM!!! HALLELUJAH!!!! I've hated our bathroom since the day I first saw it. Our tub was a cast iron nasty thing that was one of a kind but not in a good way. Oh I hated it. IT IS GONE! And we have a normal tub now! I spent hours dusting and cleaning all the lathe and plaster dust, yuck. But we are on our way to finally having a normal bathroom, and then the entire upstairs will be DONE. Finally! So we are excited, however, having a bathroom under construction and potty training is not a good combination, just in case anyone was wondering :)