Photo Catch Up!

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving this year.  

I made the Thanksgiving turkey that has been Maughan Family tradition!

Little Sister and her goofy self.  Notice the plate just to the right?  Sister didn't have pie, she had whipped cream, whipped cream, oh did I mention whipped cream?

My sister in law made this.  How cute is it?  I so want to make one now.

Festival of Trees 2012 - Sam's Jazz costume.  I'm afraid we are going to have to beat the boys away with a stick before I know it!

Caleb making a Santa with a curly beard in the Kids Korner at Festival of Trees.

I went in to check on the girls before bed several nights ago and found them like this.  I told Sam now she knows how I feel when they all jump in bed with me!

Little sister is going to make Caleb look like an angel!  I had her pjs on and the boys were in the tub.  I had told them both a few times to keep the dang door shut so B wouldn't go in there and play in the water or the toilet.  Nash got out of the tub, got dressed and came out - leaving the bathroom door open.  A few seconds later I hear Caleb scream "MOM!  Brookelyn is in the tub!"  I walked in there to find her like this:

I had to take a photo!  She was so stinkin' happy to be in there!  Sippy cup and all!

Fabric Doll House

So my sister found this link: http://uklassinus.blogspot.com/2008/08/fabric-dollhouse-tutorial.html  There's a tutorial on how to make a fabric doll house.  Cass told me she wanted to make Sunny one for Christmas and was wondering if I'd either help her do it or do it for her (I think do it for her ;)).  So, while B was napping today I made one.  I probably should have done my Thanksgiving baking, cleaned the house,done laundry, finished the 5 I Spy quilts that need to be done for Christmas, or any number of other things.  But, I didn't.  I made the doll house instead!  Now I'm trying to decide if I want to make another one and give one to each of my girls.


Step 1.  Cut three pattern pieces.  Before cutting fabric, see step 5.
--Cut one rectangle (top piece) 6" by 2 3/4" -- you will  need 2 pieces of this out of fabric.
--Cut one house piece (piece on the right) 4" (bottom of roof to ground) by 4" (across the bottom) by --2 3/4" (roof incline).  You will need to cut two pieces of this out of fabric.
--Cut one rectangle (piece on the left) 6" by 4".  You will need to cut 3 pieces of this out of fabric.
**When I did this a second time with my sister, we made the pieces a bit bigger.  The size for this is ok, but I think it would be good to have it a bit bigger.

Step 2. Cut pieces out of plastic canvas.
--2 house pieces
--3 of the 4" by 6" pieces
--2 of the 2 3/4" by 6" pieces

Step 3.  Cut pieces of batting to cover each piece of plastic canvas.  The way I did this was lay the piece of plastic canvas on the batting, cover the plastic with the batting and cut.  Once you cut your pieces of batting out, you have to tape the batting in place.  The original directions I had found said to use duct tape or electrical tape.  I tried using electrical tape (the black on the bottom left piece).  It didn't work too great.  I found that masking tape works quite well!  The only thing I was worried about was that you'd be able to feel the tape through the fabric.  Not so!

Step 4.  Once you have all your plastic canvas covered and taped, lay them out like this:

Step 5.  Here are the pieces of fabric I cut.The original directions I had said to cut 2 pieces that were 9" by 21".  The 21" wasn't long enough.  I had to go to 27 1/2".  It also said to cut 4 pieces of fabric that were 6" by 9" (pieces on the left).  The blue pieces are my exterior pieces and the purple is my interior.  After doing this once, I would NOT do the 6" by 9" pieces again.  I would cut the fabric slightly larger than the pattern pieces for the house shaped piece.

Step 6. Using the 6" by 9" piece of batting covered canvas & fabric, place fabric right sides together and sandwich the pieces of canvas between the fabric.  Using your fingers to guide you, place pins along the edges of the plastic canvas.  Make sure the pieces of plastic fit snuggly between the pieces of fabric.  **See why I'd suggest cutting the fabric to fit the house shaped pieces?

Step 7.  Remove plastic canvas from between fabric pieces and stitch where your pins were.  Make sure you stitch from the bottom of the fabric to the bottom of the fabric, otherwise you end up with a seam that isn't long enough.  Once you have finished stitching, cut excess fabric off and turn fabric right side out.  Replace plastic canvas between pieces of fabric.

Step 8.  Lay the 9" by 27 1/2" pieces of fabric out.  Place fabric right sides together.  Evenly space your other pieces of plastic canvas out on top of the fabric.  Your two smaller rectangles go at the very top and the very bottom.  The larger rectangles will be your wall, floor, and other wall.

 Step 9.  Remove the 3rd piece of plastic canvas and place the house shaped pieces in its place.  The pointed ends will point in opposite directions.  It is extremely bulky to sew through here.  Go slowly and double check to make sure that you catch all the edges when you sew over this area.

Step 10. Place the second fabric over the top of the plastic canvas pieces.  Pin along long edges and top.  Leave bottom open.  You need to cut 2-5 pieces of elastic (depends on if you want 2 latches or 5).  I used 1/4" wide elastic and made them about 4 inches long.  You also need something to create a handle.  The original directions I had said to use fabric pieces sewn into strips.  I ended up using ribbon instead and it worked very well.  I cut 2 pieces that were 9 1/4" long each.  Place your elastic and ribbon, pointing in to the inside of your fabric.  Notice you don't see them sticking out of the sides in the picture below.  Your handles will be separated, one on each of the short ends.  To place your elastic, you will put one between the handle ends, and two on either side of the last small rectangle.  I just guessed at their placement and they ended up being about one at the top and one at the bottom of the last small rectangle.  **After having done this once, I'd only put one piece of elastic on either side and I would omit the one at the top between the handle ends.  If I put only one piece of elastic on either side, I'd center it along the short edge of the last small rectangle.  Once all your elastic and one handle is in place, remove all the plastic canvas rectangles and then stitch along both long ends and the top short end.

Step 11.  Trim excess fabric and turn right side out.  The spot where your house shaped pieces are are a bit difficult to turn, just go slowly.  Gently and carefully slide your plastic canvas pieces back into your long piece of fabric.  Fold the edges of the open end in to create a finished edge.  Place your second handle to line up with the handle you've already stitched into place.  Stitch closed.  Space out your rectangles so they are evenly spaced.  Stitch between each rectangle to create a defined fold.

Step 12. Fold the back and both sides up and pin in place.  Hand stitch along the seams so that your house will only have one side that opens.

Step 13.  Stitch on buttons.  If you close the side that opens you can place the buttons in the correct location.  I used buttons like you'd find on a shirt.  They were kind of a beast to sew on and they elastic doesn't go on too easily.  I'd suggest using a button that has a raised back to stitch on.  I think that this will make it easier to sew, easier to hook closed and look better.

You can see that my house doesn't close exactly perfect.  If I take the bottom elastic and hook it around the top button, it closes better.  That's why I'd only use one button next time.  I also don't need a button at the top because the top stays closed quite well on its own.

Christmas Tree Hunting & parties

This year is the first year since Travis started working at Halliburton that we've been able to swing going to Manti to "hunt" our Christmas Tree down and bring it home.

We were going to leave on Friday, but things got a little nutty (big surprise).  Friday morning Caleb threw up at preschool and couldn't even keep water down all day long.  Brookelyn had her well check so she had three shots.  She would have been fine but was napping Friday evening.  Samantha had a speaking part and Nash played the part of an angel in the ward Christmas party that was Friday night as well.  So, Friday night got moved to Saturday morning!  I was glad Travis was home.  I stayed home with Caleb and Brooke and he took the big kids to the Christmas party.  I figured I'd let him go because he'd been home with Caleb all day and it seems like it's always me that goes and him that stays.

We left home about 5:30 am Saturday and headed to Manti.  The weather and traffic were both fairly decent.  We got to Manti around 10 am - just in time for breakfast at the farm!  When we got there Nash noticed that Travis's brother had his dog with him.  The dog was in a kennel and Nash put his finger inside to put him.  Not a good idea.  Dog bit his finger a good one.  We now have to keep a close eye on that.  The dog isn't a mean dog - at least it never has been - and I totally didn't expect that.  I kind of wanted to drop kick the dog after that.

We headed up the mountain at about noon.  We had all our snow pants, etc. in the back of the truck because we didn't know how cold or muddy it would be.  Sam, Brooke, me, Travis and Prestin rode in Travis's truck until we got half way up the mountain.  We had four four wheelers and eighteen people so someone had to ride in the trucks!  When we got to the bridge, everyone got out and we made a few trips a little further up the mountain on the four wheelers so we could look for our trees.  The kids had a blast and loved that they were on four wheelers, in the mud, hunting Christmas Trees with their cousins.  Who could ask for anything more?  It took us a little while to find two we liked (one for us and one for my parents), but eventually we found them.  We had to make a few trips down the mountain back to the trucks on the four wheelers since we now had four four wheelers, eighteen people and five Christmas Trees!  Eventually we got it though.  Our truck got dubbed "The party truck" because Samantha had Big Time Rush cranked up super loud and we were getting our groove on inside with the heater going! Unfortunately, at around 5 Travis got a message from work telling him he needed to be at the shop in Rock Springs at 3:30 pm on Sunday.  He was not a happy camper.  He was suppose to have Sunday off.

After we got down off the mountain we had to get ready to go to Mayfield for the Christmas party out there.  We got there a little after six or so.  Almost all the cousins were there (missing one from back east).  We had a good dinner of pizza, wursten, salads, treats, etc.  We did our white elephant presents and no one ended up in tears (I think?) due to the present they got.  I think everyone pretty much buys stuff the kids will like so no one ends up crying.  We gave Grandma Whitlock the photo book I made and I think she liked it quite a bit.  Score one for me!  We finally headed back to the farm around ten pm.

Travis didn't sleep much all night because he was so mad.  Brooke, Travis and I slept downstairs.  The three other kids, Grandma/Grandpa Bown & Travis's brother's family all slept upstairs.  Boy was I glad to be downstairs and have a bit of space to myself!  Travis had kind of decided we'd get up at 7 and head out asap so he could get to work.  I talked to him when he woke up and convinced him to just meet his crew in Pinedale at 6 pm instead of in Rock Springs at 3:30 pm.  That way he could try and sleep a little more so it was safer for him to drive.  Travis, Brooke and I ended up leaving the farm around 9:30 am.  We were able to leave the other three kids with Grandpa Scott & Grandma Kris so they could go to the Christmas party and see the rest of their cousins.  I'm really thankful that they let them do that.  I would have felt really bad if the kids would have had to miss that.  They don't see those cousins too often.  The weather wasn't too awful on the way home and we made decent time.  We dropped my mom's Christmas Tree off to her and then came home.  Travis got all his stuff packed and our tree in the stand.  He didn't leave until about 3:30 pm so he didn't make it to Pinedale until about 7 pm (oh well).

It was a little weird to have just me and B at home from noon until 11 pm!  I was able to clean the house, do laundry, finish the fourth I Spy quilt top, lay out the fifth I Spy quilt top, eat dinner, bath B, and put away all our stuff we took with us.  I even put B to bed at 7:30 pm!  (She was being a bear!).  The kids were super excited when they got home.  They had a great time.  I wish we could have stayed with them so we could have seen everyone too.  Stupid Halliburton.  Next time!

Travis cutting down my Christmas Tree!