"We Care"

We recently received a check in the mail dealing with a business transaction - well, we received half of the check. It was amusing to find the 1/2 check and 1/2 of the original envelope inside a USPS envelope. On the back of the envelope the USPS told us that our mail got whacked and continued to explain that because they process so much mail, we shouldn't be surprised to see a letter here or there ripped in to shreds. Hey, it's not a big deal. It was only going to be used to pay a mortgage. No problem! =S

Christmas Report

We had a great Christmas at our house! Here are the highlights. We all got new jammies. Even mom and dad!

Kaylee and Kyler were both surprised to find a bike and a scooter, things they did not ask for, but thought Santa was very smart!

Tyson was awake over 2 hours (3 am to 5 am) before Christmas morning. He is teething. We have 3 molars through and only have 1 left. So, we didn't wake him up with the kids, he joined us about 45 minutes after we started. Luckily, he was way happier than he was during the night. The highlight of my Christmas was watching Tyson play in his new car. He thinks it is so fun! He has even taken some ownership to it by yelling at Kaylee or Kyler if they try to get in it. I didn't know he was old enough for that. He sat in his car most of the morning and was very happy.

Mom and Dad got in on the fun too. I was able to surprise Brian with a PSP (Play Station Portable) which he has enjoyed a lot the last few days. I got a very nice quilt rack and Brian bought me some snow boots, which are perfect! I was impressed.

Family Snowball Fight

Kaylee and Kyler were making a snowman but got interrupted by some troublemakers.

Tyson's Scrapbook

A week or so ago, I forced myself to put away the sewing machine and get out the scrapbook stuff. I made a goal to do 20 pages in Tyson's book before I could put it away and go back to sewing. As of 20 minutes ago, the 2o pages are done! Words and all! I still have a ton of scrapbooking to do, but that is a step in the right direction. Here are a few of my favorite pages.

Bags, bags, bags!

I found a cute pattern and decided to attempt to make a bag! I've never made one before, but my mom has been looking for a cute bag to take to church, so I took on the challenge. I made them a few weeks ago, but haven't been able to post pictures of them so that it would be a surprise for my mom. Well, I gave one to her yesterday and she was really excited about it. I didn't know exactly what she was looking for, but I think I came pretty close. I hope she enjoys it. I've made a total of 3 bags with plans to make another 1 or 2. They are easier to make than I thought and I really enjoyed trying something new.

Piano Recital

Last night was Kaylee's first piano recital! She has only been taking lessons since August, so I think that she is doing amazingly well! She played "The Perfect Christmas Tree" and "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas." When she was done she did a curtsy instead of a bow (she said that was the boy way) and it was really cute! Enjoy the video.

2007 Christmas Card Update

Here’s a quick update on the Cressall’s. We had a great start to the year 2007 by getting our baby boy on January 10th. We named him Tyson Brent Cressall, after Grandpa Cottle. He has grown so much in the last 11 months! He’s crawling all over and getting into everything. Kaylee and Kyler love to make him laugh. Lucky for mom, he’s a really happy baby.
Kyler is almost 5 years old! He is loving pre-school and is very smart. He loves to write and draw. He’s always asking me how to spell words. He loves riding his bike and playing with others. He is always saying “Mom, I want to do something fun with you.”
Kaylee is already 7! She loves 1st grade and is a great reader. She is a great big sister and a big help to mom. She loves all the girly stuff like dresses, princesses, anything pink, and jewelry.
Brian’s new challenge this year is learning all about Scouts for his new calling as Scout Master. This has been very time consuming, but Brian is perfect for the job. He’s made big improvements for the scouts in our ward. I think his favorite part of scouts is taking the boys in his new truck. They all want to ride with him. Brian has also had some changes at work. The company is growing so much they had to restructure a little and made Brian a manager over one of the programming teams. He does a great job and really enjoys the people that he works with.
These last couple months I have re-discovered how much I enjoy quilting/sewing. It’s been 3 years since I pieced a fun quilt (something besides squares) and I got back to it and haven’t stopped. I finally got a break from doing all the music in my ward and now get to do Sharing Time in Primary once a month. It has been a really good change for me.
I love this time of year that always helps to remind us to be thankful for all we’ve been blessed with. We have truly been blessed. We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my dad's birthday! My dad is the best example of being easy going and friendly to all! He has always been there to help whenever needed. He is the best horseman I know, this being his favorite hobby. I love this picture with dad in his element. I would say that the horses were dad's hobby, but looking back over the years I see the value that they created for all of us. We all got our one on one time with dad on the horses, along with a lot of family time too. I know my dad would do anything for me. I am lucky to have such a great dad. I love him a lot and hope he has a great birthday!

Thanksgiving Highlights

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a great Thanksgiving Weekend! These were the highlights:
- We met our new cousin, Liliana Cressall. Our first Cressall cousin!
- We made gingerbread houses, a tradition with Grandma Cottle.
- We had a wagon ride.
- Tyson got his first horse ride!
- We all rode horses (I even ran around the pasture a few times. I did pretty good for my rustiness. It's been a long time since I've been on, like before I was pregnant with Tyson.)
- We saw Mark and Natalie's new house.
- We saw Nate and Jana's new house.
- We celebrated my dad's birthday.
- Ashlee and I got to play our Sleigh Ride duet on the piano.
- I got my hair straightened and a pedicure!
- The girls had a jewlery party!
- We had our company dinner for Brian's small company www.onlineitools.com. Yum!
- Lots of visiting and laughing.

Glasses no more!

It all started when I had to get glasses in the 3rd grade, I was 8 years old. I have been through at least 5 pairs of frames since then. When I was in 8th grade I got HARD contacts. I had those same pair of hard contacts (13 years) until 2 years ago when I finally changed over to soft contacts. I have endured the pain, annoyance, and uncomfortableness long enough. I finally see the light at the end of this LONG tunnel. I have my LASIK surgery scheduled for January 9, 2008. I will see Dr. Wilcox at the Bountiful Hills Eye Center on December 17th for my consultation. Thanks for the recommendation Natalie!

I've had a lot of different emotions about doing this, but these are the big two. First one being excitement! The second one being guilty for spending that much on ME. Although, I have endured glasses/contacts for a LONG time! My eyes are bad enough that this is going to be a huge change in my life! I can't do hardly anything without glasses or contacts. The ONLY bad part about doing surgery is that I will have to endure the month of December in glasses! No contacts in preparation for surgery. YUCK! It will be worth it, I know.

I can definitely say that one of the things that I'm thankful for is modern technology. When I first got glasses I would have never dreamt of being able to have surgery to fix my eyes. How amazing it is! We are so blessed.

A Fun Visit

My cousin, Meranie, lived by us for 2 years, but this last summer she sold her house, got married, and moved to Texas! We had so much fun while she lived here that we all miss her a ton. On Monday she was able to stop by and say hi while she is in town for Thanksgiving. Kaylee even got to be checked out of school early (which she was really excited about), just to see Meranie. It was a fun visit, but look forward to a longer visit over Christmas time.

Weekend Accomplishments

We finally got a Saturday at home (no scouts!) and we got a lot done! Kaylee and Kyler were at the church for 2.5 hours for the Primary Program practice, so we used our time wisely with 2 less kids. Brian helped get me going by cleaning all 3 toilets!! I followed by washing rugs and mopping the floor. We also washed all 3 downstairs window (inside and out) that were stained with hard water! I guess Fall/Winter is better than never for our Spring cleaning. But, I couldn't have done it (or wouldn't have) without Brian's help. It's so much funner to clean when you have someone helping. It goes TONS faster, and we had a fun visit while we worked too. He made a big job do-able. A big THANKS to Brian!

Then, Kaylee and Brian headed to the store and got us some new lights. I've been wanting more light in my sewing room and in my front room for a long time. He got one for each room and came home and got both of them up!! I was totally impressed. I thought we were going to have to wait for Micah to come put them in for us! :-) So, in the "office" we have a 3 bulb fixture, instead of 1 light bulb. In the front room I have a 5 bulb fixture, instead of the 2 bulbs. It is an amazing difference what a little light will do!

After the kids went to bed, I got a really good start on my present wrapping! I'm off to a great start, but still more to do.

This week I also made a name doily for my sister to give as a Christmas gift. I haven't made one in years, but once I got going I couldn't stop. I had it all done within 3 days.

It was a great weekend! Wish we had more Saturday's like it.

Where's Kyler?

Last night as I was on my way to bed, I peeked in on the

kids and we found Kyler's bed empty! After looking around

and checking Kaylee's bed, we finally found him under the

bed! I'm not sure why he was under there, but we decided

to let him stay there the rest of the night.

The Finished Product

I just finished putting on my border this morning. Isn't it so cute? I just love how it turned out. It is now done and ready for quilting. After I get my fabric pieced for the back of the quilt, I am forcing myself to put the sewing away so that I can catch up on the scrapbook. Poor Tyson only has 4 pages of him. There is a lot of work to be done. Making another quilt will be my reward for getting my scrapbook caught up! I think a the next quilt will be a denim quilt. I'm looking forward to it.

New Pictures

We got our new pictures back a week or so ago and I've been anxious to get them on the wall. I wanted to do something cute with them, a little more than just frames. My friend suggested doing this with the rod and I think it turned out so great! (Pretty good for a non-decorator.) I could look at them all day. I ran out of ribbon, that's why Kyler's picture doesn't have a bow yet. I'm excited to get my big picture back from getting framed in a week or so.

Watch out, here comes Trouble!

Tyson has just barely figured out how to keep his knees under him to do a real crawl (rather than an army crawl). Well, before we knew it, he figured out how to get up the stairs! Today he has gone all the way up both sets of stairs! Now that he's really moving fast I had to break out the old gates to keep him off the stairs. He didn't like that too much, but Kaylee and Kyler had a lot of fun being monkeys trying to get over the gate. Hopefully Tyson won't have too many crashes down the stairs before he learns how to go down as well as he goes up.

Halloween

Halloween is NOT my favorite holiday. Probably my least favorite (I think I get it from my dad!) The kids looked cute in their costumes, but I'm not sure it's worth all the hassle. From class parties, to the costume parade, trick or treating at Brian's work and doing the trunk or treat with the ward, it turned out to be a LONG day! Was it really worth it??? Kaylee cried on the way home because she broke her cheap bat ring that she got, we have tons of junk candy that I don't want, the kids got cold and cranky (although not as bad as last year), and I'm dead tired. I've already talked to the kids about doing a new thing for Halloween next year. We will buy the candy we WANT to eat and stay home to watch a movie with popcorn (while ingoring the doorbell). Sounds much better to me. We'll see if the kids still agree next year.

Project Updates

I always tend to have several things going at once. Here's the status on the things I've been working on.

This is my Bulls-eye quilt that I have been making with 3 other friends. We are all done trading our squares now and I already have 24 out of 48 squares sewn back together. It's so fun to see how it is going to turn out!

Tyson's stocking is done! I wanted to get it done before I wanted to hang it up. So, the other day I buckeled down and got it done! Emily, the red one behind Tyson's is actually for your baby! I'm on top of it, I know. It's always easier to make 2 than make 1 at a time. My mom will cross-stitch the names to put on the stockings, which will make them way cuter.

Here's more of the hexagon quilt. I'm making quite a bit of progress. 10.5 flowers put together, with 6 of them attached to each other. It will be a long time till this one is done, but fun to see some progress (even just within a week or so!) If you look in the top left hand corner you can see Tyson trying to get my stuff! He follows me around and gets anything I put in his reach!

Pumpkin Time

We had a fun time carving pumpkins for FHE on Monday. The funny part was that Kaylee and Kyler didn't want to get their hands dirty! So, Brian and I did most of the work. The kids still had fun picking what faces they wanted. I think they turned out pretty good. Tyson thought the pumpkin tasted pretty good! Emily, my kids wanted a picture like this because they saw your kids do it last year! Good idea!

My new favorite thing

This is my new favorite thing! It is a hexagon quilt! My friend showed me a website where this quilt was explained. I thought I would give it a try and I'm totally hooked! I wanted a project to work on while I wait for Kaylee to get out of school, and this is perfect since it is done all by hand! I love these fun fabrics (I copied the idea from the website I saw), they are perfect. I'm sure this will be an ongoing project for a long time, but I've really enjoyed learning something new. If you want to learn how, here is the website I learned from: http://web.mac.com/cjroskelley/iWeb/Thimble%20Blossoms/Hexagon%20Quilt%20Tutorial.html

Fun Weekend

We had our usual busy weekend, but this one was fun too. Friday night Brian and I got to go on a date, that's always good. Saturday morning we had our family pictures taken. We've never had professional pictures taken for our family, it's about time! We had them taken outdoors in Provo. Luckily, our appointment was at 9:00 in the morning so we good some good ones before the storm came. Then Brian made bread (yum!) and took the kids bowling! Fun alone time with dad! I was able to go to Super Saturday for a bit and hit a few fabric stores too. Once we got the kids to bed, Brian and I enjoyed watching a movie. I can't remember the last movie we watched together, it's been that long. Another busy, but fun weekend.

Kyler's Field Trip

Today I got to go with Kyler and his Preschool class to the pumpkin patch. It's always a fun place. Lots of things for the kids to look at and play on. Kyler was a lucky boy being the only boy in our car! We took 3 cute girls with us! We even got to pick a pumpkin to bring home.

Family Time

We enjoyed a great Conference weekend at a fun cabin in Malad, ID. The whole Cottle clan was able to come. The weather was a little snowy, but we still had tons of fun staying inside. We were able to celebrate Kaylee's birthday, play games, eat good food, read books, watch ballgames, get haircuts and pedicures, and lots of good visiting. On Sunday afternoon we took everyone's family pictures by the fireplace, I thought ours turned out really good! I enjoyed all the conference talks, but Dallin H. Oaks on Sunday afternoon would have to be the favorite. What a good weekend!

A busy week

This has been a usual busy week, but with a few fun things too. We had a great start to the week with a birthday party for Brian in Mendon. We had a great time with his family and the kids had a blast. Brian got a BSA pin, a pocket knife, a journal, a book, a gumball machine that hangs on the wall, and some gift cards to go to dinner. Kaylee even got to open some presents since her birthday is next. She couldn't wait! Before we left Logan, we got in a fun visit at my mom's too. I went to a neighbors house and noticed how cute her house looked. I've been needing to do something different with my decorations. So, I decided to paint my family room downstairs. I have a lot of color in my kitchen and front room, so I didn't want a lot of color this time. I just got a basic beige color. I started painting on Thursday. I did some Friday and some today, but I still have a little bit to finish up next week. I wish it had a teeny bit more color, but it helped the room look a lot better, just to have a fresh coat of paint. It's a big project (to accomplish during nap times!) Now I want new things to put on my walls. I'm not very good at picking cute stuff, so any suggestions are appeciated.

This morning we did have a little fun by taking the kids to Hogle Zoo. We've been wanting to go for a long time and we finally made it! The weather was perfect, and even started to sprinkle when we were on our way out. Not too many people either. A perfect time of year for a trip to the zoo. Of course, Kyler's favorite part was riding the train! Tyson did so good, considering we skipped his morning nap. Wish we did fun things as a family more often. Don't we all?

Crazy for Quilts

I have enjoyed getting back to some quilting these last 2 months. It's been over 3 years since I pieced a fun quilt (something besides squares). The Flower quilt was my goal for this summer and it is now 100% completed. I had it machine quilted and I just finished the binding. I think it turned out so cute!

The Star quilt I pieced over 3 years ago and have never had it quilted. So, I finally got it quilted and now I need to finish the binding. It looks so much better all finished, I should have done it sooner! :-) It's crazy how much I have enjoyed this hobby. I have already started my next quilt. It is called a Bulls-eye quilt. I have 3 friends doing it with me and we will trade blocks so that we have a bigger variety of fabrics. So fun!!

Preschool Time for Kyler

Kyler has been looking forward to this day all summer!! Luckily, he had a quick recovery from the flu so that he could go to school for his first day. He loved Preschool and told me all about it. He is growing up way to fast! I ran to the store while he was at school (so I would only have to haul 1 kid!) and I was a little late getting back, so he was the last one to be picked up. He got in the car and said "What took you so long?" I will be sure to be more prompt on Thursday when he goes next. :-)

Kaylee's 1st Day of School

Kaylee is in 1st grade! School started on Tuesday, but today was her 1st day of school. She wasn't feeling very good the last 2 days. We are glad she is doing better today. She was a little nervous going to her class, but when she walked in there were 3 or 4 people that called her name to say hi. After that, she was just fine! I'm sure I will get all the details when she gets home. Kyler is ready for Preschool to start next week!

Brady and Meranie's Wedding

Friday, August 10th was Meranie (my cousin) and Brady's wedding. It was so fun for me to be apart of it. Although, I thought it was really funny to introduce myself to Brady for the first time at the wedding. We just never had the chance to meet before that. I was impressed at how friendly Brady was. He was handing out hugs right and left to a bunch of people that he hadn't ever met. Meranie looked soooo beautiful and happy! At the luncheon she said that she was beginning to think that all the good guys were taken, but that she found one better than she could have ever imagined! The only part of the day that I saw a lot of tears was when Meranie had a dance with her dad at the end of the reception. It was very cute. I thought the day was perfect. I will miss having Meranie around to play with, but I'm so happy for them both!