Baby Blessing Dress Complete!

I am so excited to share with you the baby blessing gown I made. I am absolutely in love with it! I love the fabric a ton, and I love the small and simple, yet pretty embellishments.

Front View

Back View

Close up of the satin bow on the front

I just love how it turned out!

I plan on posting it in my Etsy shop BG Boutique within the next day or so (unless of course one of you out there decides you HAVE to have it before I list it). I will probably list it for $60.00. Also I plan on making matching booties similar to the white baby booties that are already in the shop. The price on those will probably by $6.00.

Now on to the next project that I've been neglecting for so long... A Halloween Costume for Dan.

A New Found Recipe that ROCKS!

Tonight was one of those nights where I had no idea what to make for dinner. NO CLUE AT ALL. I decided to go to Zumba tonight rather than grocery shopping. Seriously, there was no contest! Zumba always wins!

Anyway I was talking on the phone with my mom telling her my dilema and trying to get some idea. Then she said "Here ya go I just found this recipe on the computer" And the rest is history. This recipe is now in my KEEP FOREVER box. I absolutely love it and the kids do too. And the best part is that it's so easy!

Here's the recipe...

Easy Pumpkin Muffins
15 oz pumpkin puree
1 box cake mix
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves

and that's it! The batter is really thick but trust me you don't need anything else!

Bake in a greased cupcake tin (I was able to get 18 muffins out of it) in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 20-25 mins and whala! Or if you want to cook them in a mini muffin tin take the time down to 12-15 mins.
mmmmmm They are a new favorite!

Hello Sewing Machine, how have you been?

I've started sewing again! It feels so good to make friends with my sewing machine once more. It has been awhile. I've made a cute bag and have now started my next project of sewing a baby blessing gown for my Etsy shop. It is going to be sooo pretty! If any of you are in need of one, or will be in need of one and would like to purchase one from me, let me know and I can start a waiting list. I just finished cutting out the pattern pieces but can't wait to get it done so I can show you.

My Children Are Watching Me

Just wanted to write something down that happened today before I forget.

Today was Sunday and Dan and I went to church early to practice for choir since we were singing in sacrament meeting. We actually got a bench seat! That rarely ever happens.
Anyway the song went well. But what I wanted to remember from today is something that happened while we were sitting in sacrament meeting listening to the speakers. One of the Stake council men spoke President Rumsey I think, and in his talk he mention something about in our next Family Home Evening we should discuss how we can boost our temple attendance. He said we need to go to the temple.

All of a sudden Kiera beamed, looked up from the picture she had been busily coloring, and said, "You go to the temple!" It was so cute and it made me just burst inside. I never know when something is getting in that little head of hers but she IS paying attention. I am so grateful for a husband who does take me to the temple often and that my children can watch that.

Picnic Table is DONE!!!!

YEA! I can finally say that the picnic table and benches are finally finished! After about 3-4 coats of polyurethane we are calling it good. They look amazing. These pictures don't do it justice at all. I'll have to take some others when it gets put outside. We are now just waiting the 24 hours for the finish to cure all the way. So happy to have this project done. And am looking forward to parking the cars in the garage again!

So here's a quick before picture...

And now the After....

Kiera Starts Preschool!

Today was a big day at the Glenn home! Kiera attended her very first day of preschool! She has been talking about it for weeks now and has been sooo excited. I told her last night that tomorrow would be the day. She got the sweetest look of elation I have ever seen and RAN as fast as she could to tell Daddy that she'd be going to preschool in the morning.

This morning I woke her up and the first thing she asked me was if it was time to go to school now. I was so happy to see her excited for this new venture. After a morning bath, some breakfast, getting dressed (without any input from mom AT ALL), and putting on her backpack (which was actually my very first backpack when I went to kindergarten) we were ready to go.

We couldn't leave without some pictures right? Well, Kiera was not going to have it. "I don't want any pictures" she would say. Well, it took a little bit of coaxing, but she finally gave in and let me take some.

And of course I couldn't leave our little man out. This was the start of some good quality one on one time with him and mommy.

We were off! Everyone was in the car and happy. So far so good. And no tears from mommy, well at least not until we turned down the street where preschool was. Just a slight change in my train of thought and BAM.

We pulled up and all of a sudden my happy, anxious little girl was scared nervous, and hesitant. "I don't want to," she said. "I want to go to school" "This is not school." I am pretty sure she was under the impression that we'd be going to the big school just like her cousins Kaleb, and Florence. This being just one of her friends houses wasn't going to cut it.

I took her in and we showed her around the "new" surroundings and helped her find her name badge to stick on the board. I finally just had to let the teacher take her and sneek out. I was told later that it was a very short lived pout and she soon got into it just fine. Whew!

So it was now just me and my little man. We decided to go to the Dollar Tree and Ethan picked out a special car to take home and some ring pops to share with Kiera when she got back. I think he enjoyed the attention but he kept asking where Kiera was. This is all new to him. He is never anywhere without Kiera by his side.

The two hours flew by! Then came time for Kiera's school to get out. "KIERA!" And quick dash, and a big hug ...Do you think they missed each other?

I think we are going to have some fun this year.

Fall is definently here!

Goodbye summer! It seems as though your stay was cut short. We will miss you dearly! We now say hello to gray skies and rain. We'll probably be together for the next 9 months or so. So lets make the best of it shall we?

So far so good. I have kept busy with harvest time preparations. I have canned 21 quarts of peaches, 14 quarts of pears, and am currently waiting on the food dehydrator to finish the last of the leftover pears. Soon we'll have apples to puree into sauce, and then the holidays will be here!

Kiera starts preschool this Tuesday! It's just about here and she is soo so excited. She just can't wait!

Our picnic tables are just about done. One set is ready to deliver and the other is waiting on a few more coats of poly. I am in love with ours! We decided to can the staining part and just go with the natural wood and just do polyurethane. It look fabulous so far! Even after just one coat. Pictures to come soon.

I really need to get going on Halloween costumes. I've had the stuff to make Dan's since last year and never got to it. It'd be nice for him to have a real costume this year. Kiera has decided she wants to be a princess, and Ethan says he's going to be a pumpkin! SCORE! I made that costume last year, so that's one less thing to worry about.

I also went to JoAnnes the other day. !Our store is closing (so sad, so sad) and moving to a bigger store. At least it won't be too far.) I bought some fabric pretty white floral fabric on clearance that I plan on making more baby blessing gowns to put up in my Etsy shop. Who knows, I may end up using one for this baby. Won't know until he or she comes though. We're keeping it a surprise.

I do so miss summer but I will definitely try hard to make the best of the rain and not get too tired of it, at least not until after Thanksgiving. Then I think I will just miss the Idaho snow. I know, I know never satisfied right?

Picnic Table Progress! Almost there!

 

This is what we did all Friday and Saturday this weekend. Cutting out the crescent shape in the benches, routering all the edges, and then sanding sanding sanding. Monday we spent four hours painting one of the two table sets with two coats. Just one more to go. I'll post finished pictures as soon as we're done.

 

This project has taken what seems like FOREVER! It was started back in May and is finally in the finishing stages. Just one more set to coat with poly and we're good to go!

 

It all began when my husband needed a project for his boy scouts to pass off the carpentry merit badges. He said come up with a project and if you can't find anything you can work on this...Well long story short, too many boys showed up without a project so we took on TWO tables. One for us, and one for another lady in our ward. We had no idea it was going to take this long, nor did we expect it to be sooo much work! I am secretly hoping that our efforts are rewarded with more than just a reimbursal for the materials. But then again it was meant to be a service project for the boys. But man oh man, Dan and I spent much more time and effort on these things than planned!

I do have to hand it to the boys though. They had to build their portion without power tools! And I will admit I am excited to have a picnic table in the back yard for BBQ's and picnics that we built. We'll have to wait til next year to use it but oh well.

I have been busy... I promise!

I have not been keeping up with the blog lately! Things have either been crazy around here or I have been lazy. Probably more of the later but I'll just play the pregnancy card on that one. Yep you heard it. We are expecting #3 sometime in March. I am not quite sure I am ready for this but I guess its a good thing I have 9 months to get used to the idea right? One and two were so close together that I didn't really have a chance to fully recover before #2 came along.

However, this time around my youngest will just be barely turning 3 and so I have had more time to adjust. But if there is one thing in my life that I've learned it is to not get too comfortable because as soon as I do Heavenly Father throws something new into the mix to keep me growing. I just didn't expect the growing part to be so literal.

I am happy to say that the nausea and extreme tiredness has lifted and I am starting to get my energy back. I even started going back to Zumba! I missed it so much. I was sooo expecting to be teaching a class of my own about now since I received my license to teach. But just after I got it, I found out about our soon to be. So for now I will stick with attending classes and try to enjoy this pregnancy.

I have been productive too. Don't get me wrong. I have accomplished quite a bit too. I've gone on two camping trips with the family, I've helped the hubby build two picnic tables with benches (more on that later), I've taught myself how to crochet, and I just finished canning 21 quarts of peaches!

I've been meaning to share some of my latest projects but haven't gotten around to it. Until now.....

This picture is a little confusing but what you are looking at are two separate table tops stacked on top of each other and two of the finished benches upside down on top of that. Each table will have 4 crescent shaped benches to seat at least 8 people. One set is for us and the other is for a lady in our ward who said she'd pay someone to build one for her. Dan is the scoutmaster in our ward and so he used this project for the boys to pass off their carpentry merit badge. It has taken forever! That may be due to the fact that the boys were only allowed to use hand tools. But we're happy to say the boy's parts of building the rough benches (minus the crescent shape) is done!

The plan is to paint one of the tables a sort of cedar red (per her request), and the table we are keeping will be stained. I just can't wait til we get to that point! I love staining furniture!

This is a quick shot I took of the crochet project that I taught myself on. It is a photo prop to be used to photograph newborns. It's called a kangaroo pouch/cocoon. I don't have a little one to use it on yet but I sent one to a friend of mine who is a professional photographer as a new baby gift for her. I am hoping to get a picture back from her soon so that I can show you what it is really supposed to look like. The one I sent her was purple. But since I don't know what I am having yet (I am thinking about not finding out and keeping it a surprise this time) I decided to keep the neutral colored one.

21 quarts, 1 pint, and 4 quart sized freezer bags (we use the frozen ones for smoothies and cobblers). I love canning peaches. They look so pretty in the jars!

Oh and before I forget. Another thing we are excited about is that Kiera starts preschool this month! I am doing a co-op preschool with 3 other moms in my stake. It is going to be a lot of fun! I can't believe my baby is old enough to start! She is way excited and tells everyone she sees that she's going to school.