Ana and the other Beehives

End of the summer party at Sis. Gillette's house.

Long time no post.

My computer died.  Then we got it fixed and now I have double the memory.  That's good, right?  Anyway, that's why I haven't posted in ages!  Lots of things happened though.  Do you want a run-down of August all in one post?  Well, here you go.

I spent the first weeks of August dying in 100 degree weather out in my garage repainting these two dressers.  They look good, eh?  They used to be pine, but now they're "promenade" white with freshly painted "oiled bronze" hardware.  I love the dressers, but my decorating skills are nil, and my attempts here are a complete fail.

I desperately need my sister Amy to come decorate my daughters' room.

Here's the unfinished embroidery.

It will be cute eventually.

 This is kind of the look I was going for.

 And remember I'll eventually make these quilts to go on their beds too.

 Here's another two rooms that I was kind of basing the look after.

 Any ideas of how to make it work, anyone?

 Nicolas turned 1 year old.

He got a bear cake with fudge icing that was impossible to ice the cake and not tear it to pieces so the sides aren't iced at all. Oh well.  But it was sure delicious!!!

 He got a djembe-a drum.

The kids love it.

 Leo broke our bedroom window.  Then two days later, Elena broke our living room window, with her bum.  I'm not sure what happened or how that was possible, but she ended up with four stitches in her rear.  We did not go to Austin that weekend as planned, since all extra monies went to fixing windows, but Leo's parents did come down to visit us after we cancelled.

 Leo turned 33.  And yes, there are 33 candles on the cake.  The kids were in awe.

 Sebastian has been dressing up like a pirate every day for two weeks now.  Arghh!

 Leo got a camping axe.

 I'm not so sure that was a good choice now.

 Nicolas fell asleep on Ana.

And Ana taped all the kids' noses up while she was babysitting.  And then she took pictures.

We also went swimming quite a bit.  Good times.  School starts next Monday and I have to say, I am excited.

Projects from this last week

 I repainted a little kitchen that some friends had given us.

I repainted a bed that I bought for the girls, it's a trundle bed, and had been white before.

I can't wait till next year sometime when I finish their quilts (exactly like this one--same fabric and everything.  Gosh, I can't believe what a copy cat I am.  But I adore this quilt.) 

And I stained a board to make a new growth chart. (This isn't mine, mine will be just like it though).  I made one before but I had bought a cheap board and it warped and bows out from the wall.  It really bugged me.  So a new one was in order.

I also canned 28 quarts or peaches and made 4 batches of peach jam.  This week was crazy busy.  I also ate a lot of chocolate.  This week I plan on painting the girls' dressers.  Wish me luck!

More Reunion Madness

My mother accomplished the amazing feat of getting us all in a photo despite much moaning and groaning and throwing up.  It wasn't the all matching shirts super cute photo that we wanted, but we're all there. Which is pretty good considering how many people were sick and throwing up.

Here's a few of the sickos.  And yes, my family is guilty of bringing the bug.  Nicolas was sick and throwing up on Sunday, but by Monday evening nobody else had got it and we thought we were safe.  And then Sebastian threw up around midnight, and then Isabel and then Sebastian again, and then 3 or 4 in other families started, and then Sebastian again, all before 4 in the morning.  By the next afternoon, people were down and out everywhere.  It wasn't pretty or pleasant and required a lot of trips to the laundromat because the amount of clothes and sleeping bags covered in gunk was overwhelming the reunion center's one washing machine.

 Katelyn, Danica, Ana and Megan the four oldest girls.

 And Myles, the oldest grandson.

 Here's the reunion center we were at in St. Anthony's near Rexburg, Idaho.  We loved it so much that we voted to always have our reunions there.

 We had a beautiful view of the back of the Tetons.

Here's all the crazy kids that are within 1 and 1/2 years of each other in age.  Ruth, Jack, Devaney, Sebastian, Orrin, Harriet and Karlee.  That's 7 out of 9 siblings who all had a baby that year and a little bit.  Crazy.  

 I think these games were the first day when everyone was still feeling okay.  I don't remember exactly.

 I love how my mom and dad joined in this race!

 And this was the night disaster struck, luckily most of the kids had been moved out of the fort before the any of them threw up.  That many kids together don't go to sleep, ever.

And here's just a shot of the bunkhouse room. I thought it was so cool.  I thought the whole reunion center was awesome.  We had a great time!

 There was a gym room too.  Kayli and Brett and Andrea and Tim had an awesome time in there,(apparently).

Meanwhile the rest of the adults (this was after most of the kids were asleep) were in an intense game of around the table ping pong match.  It is endlessly amusing watching people try to serve a pingpong to themselves and make it around the table to hit is back.  Hee. Hee.  Anyway, I'm going to try to post some of the karaoke contest this week.  We'll see.