Where am I?

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the planet.  I've been mad at Blogger.  I went to do a post about this cute fabric doll house I did for Brooke and when I tried to upload pictures I was told that my Picassa web album was full.  What?  I didn't even know I had one of those.  Around the same time my internet became so ridiculously slow it has become maddening (I'm not talking an "I'm just impatient" kind of slow.  I'm talking "It takes five minutes to load one stinking page!" kind of slow!).  I had a phone call from Comcast asking if we wanted to upgrade to 5 mbps blah, blah, blah.  I told them no, I wanted to leave things alone.  About a few days later...BAM...slow internet.  Bah humbug!

So, without pictures, here's what we've been up to.

1-I've been sewing my brains out.  I did a fabric doll house for Brooke.  My sister found a link with a doll and a link with this fabric doll house she wanted to do for my niece, Sunny.  She was asking me for help, etc. so I decided to "whip" one up.  I was able to do one of the fabric doll houses in about 2 hours or so while Brooke took a nap.  Since I've done one, I've helped my sister do one for Sunny.  I like how Sunny's turned out a lot better.  Isn't that what always happens?  Make one and then make second and end up liking the second one better.  I've also been working on the I Spy quilts I'm trying to do for Christmas.  I've managed to get 3 2/3 of the 5 I Spy quilts done.  I'm a bit worried because I went to Bernina on Saturday to get batting.  Unfortunately, they were out of three different kinds of batting - specifically, the one I needed for the quilts!  They put me on a call list and now I wait.  I don't think the nephews will appreciate just a quilt top for Christmas so if they don't call by Friday I'm going to have to figure something else out that will likely cost a bit more money.

2-Our Thanksgiving was pretty low key, but fun.  Travis came home Thanksgiving morning and got to stay until Sunday afternoon.  That was a nice surprise for the kids.  We had dinner at my mom's house and then a bit later went out to Travis's mom and dad's place.  Both of Travis's sets of grandparents were able to come up for the holiday.  It was fun to see them since we haven't seen them since August (well, the boys did when they were hunting).  Thanksgiving night I was looking through all the ads.  Travis saw a BB gun on sale for about $30.  I had told Travis that I don't want Nash to have one until he's eight.  I've been pretty adamant about the idea too.  I decided to tell Travis that if he braved "Gray Thursday" with me he could get the BB gun for Nash for Christmas.  Suddenly he was game!  I was shocked!  Travis hates shopping and he hates people.  Never in a million years would I have anticipated him agreeing to this idea!  We ended up going with his sister, Jamie & her husband, Robbie.  We hit Walmart for the 8 pm sale and then went to Kmart.  I was surprised that Walmart was an easy in and out.  We picked up a few things for the kids, but nothing major.  They had lots of registers open and it was a quick in and out.  We found a few things we wanted to get at Kmart but the lines were ridiculous and we wanted to hit the 9 pm sale at Shopko to get the BB gun.  So, we left Kmart and headed to Shopko.  We had to stand outside for about 15 minutes and then they let us in.  We were able to find the BB gun and Travis found a generator for the trailer.  The generator was normally $220 and we got it for $99.  That was a happy moment!  After Shopko we headed back to Kmart but there wasn't much we wanted at that point and the lines were still ridiculous so we just headed home.  I was able to go out shopping on Black Friday with a few friends while Travis kept the kids.  That was a lot of fun and I was able to get a bit more shopping for the kids done.

3-Sam danced at Festival of Trees on Nov. 30th.  Since it was a Friday (short school day)  and she had to be down there at 11:30, I just took all four kids with me.  They really were pretty well behaved.  Sam did a great job dancing and I let the kids do several activities in the Kids Korner.  After we left the Festival of Trees we stopped at Aunt Jamie's house on our way home.  The kids got to play with their cousins and Jamie was nice enough to keep all the kids while I ran over to Smith & Edwards to try and get a few more things for Christmas.  The kids were really bummed when it was time to go - even though they'd been there for several hours.

4-Sam has a speaking part in the ward Christmas program on Friday night.  We're going to go to that and then we'll head to Manti for our Christmas parties down there.  We're also going to "Go Christmas Tree hunting".  We haven't done that as a family for several years (Travis isn't ever home when it's been time to go).  The kids are pretty excited - for Christmas Tree hunting, presents, and cousins!  I'm just glad I got all four pairs of pj pants done and all eight white elephant presents bought!  Now to finish wrapping!

So, you can see we've been busy even though I haven't been posting.  Next week we have 2 piano recitals and a dance recital coming up.  Sam is also going to be doing a USU half time show on Dec. 21.  We're trying to finish getting ready for Christmas and stay on top of homework and all our other activities.  If you don't hear from us until after Christmas, I promise we haven't fallen off the face of the planet!