Hole-y Jeans = New Shorts

Clarissa has worn through 4 pairs of jeans this past winter. (I had already made shorts out of the 4th pair when I took this picture) I was about to throw them out when I saw an idea on my Sister-in Law Janell's blog of how to make them into shorts. She got the idea from this blog that walks you through the entire process.

Clarissa now has four new pairs of shorts for this summer. They were really easy to make, and fast. The best part about it was that it didn't cost me anything to make. I used old jeans, and I just found fabric that I already had in my fabric stash. The pink polka dot material was from some fabric that I had made an outfit out of about 20 years ago. Obviously, not by myself, my mom is a great seamstress, and I am so grateful that she was patient enough with me to teach me. It's nice to be resourceful and turn something useless into something that is like brand new. Clarissa is very excited about having new shorts, she loves wearing them. So, if your daughter has worn through her pants, you now have a new project. Now, if it only worked for boys jeans, because Clayton's jeans look worse than Clarissa's.

Clayton's Manners

Clayton has decided that he does not need to sit in his high chair anymore to eat, which is rather annoying. His preferred method is standing on a chair. If I try to put him in his chair he will scream and push all of his food away. I usually don't give in, but one evening Quinn was not home, and I was not wanting to fight it. I thought he was at least sitting down and eating, but when I turned around, this is what I found, so I had to grab my camera. Even though he is only 18 months old, he is sure acting like a terrible two year old, but he still is a cutie most of the time.

Easter Outfits

Here are some pictures of Clarissa and Clayton on Easter Sunday. We decided to take some outside, however it was really windy, but the kids were happy and we got some good smiles.


This is my favorite one of Clayton, I just love his little hand on his chin.



Clarissa is always trying to control Clayton with her arm around his neck, but they have fun together.



Unfortunately all of the ones outside were so windy that Clarissa's hair was in her face the whole time.




We decided to go inside to get some, although by this time, the kids were not cooperative, especially Clayton, he did not want to sit still, and would not smile.

We did get a few individual ones of Clarissa, and this one is my favorite one.

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Bribes of jelly beans wouldn't even work.

Easter Fun

Here are a few pictures of Easter morning (actually Saturday morning, but the day the Easter Bunny came.) The kids were very excited to find jelly beans everywhere, especially Clayton, he thought he was in Heaven with jelly beans scattered within his reach. We had to quickly get him out of the room and started on breakfast, he didn't understand to put them in his basket, they all went straight in his mouth. Unfortunately I didn't get any good pictures of Clarissa that morning, but she still had fun finding her basket and the jelly beans.


Clayton has decided that any thing that has something in it has to be dumped out, no matter what it is...plate of foods, bowls of stuff, toy baskets, games, etc. True to form, his basket was no different, he didn't care what was in it, just that it had to be emptied. I wonder if my parents or siblings recognize Clayton's basket? It's mine from when I was a kid, that thing has been around at least 20 years, if not longer.

Saturday afternoon we went to a friends house for lunch, coloring easter eggs, and an easter egg hunt.

Clayton loved finding the eggs, and had to open them immediately because he knew there was stuff inside them. He is searching in the grass here for everything that fell out.

Here's the group of us. I think all of the kids had a great time, thanks to Joe and Ashley for planning it.

Food

I was trying to decide what to post tonight, and just thought I would combine a couple of things, and just post about a few food items we have made recently.



On April 1st, I was in charge of feeding 50 missionaries lunch for zone conference. My friend Jackie helped me plan it, even though she has been busy getting ready to move, thanks Jackie. We originally thought about doing a complete April Fool's dinner, but thought that would be too much work, so we just had fun with the dessert. We decided to make cupcakes that looked like mashed potatoes and peas & carrots. I'm not sure if the missionaries knew what they were supposed to be, or realized that it was for April Fools, but at least we had fun making them.

For our Easter dinner last Sunday we cooked a ham. As I was planning out our meal and the timing of everything, I realized that everything needed to cook in the oven. We were doing ham, potato casserole, rolls, and asparagus, and I wasn't sure how we were going to cook everything and have it all done and warm when we were ready to eat. So I suggested to Quinn that he cook the ham in the dutch oven, which I knew he would agree to since he loves to cook with dutch ovens. Since the ham was already cooked, it just needed to be heated up, and it worked great in the dutch oven, I would totally do this again. It saved so much headache in the kitchen and allowed me to get everything else cooked on time.

Clarissa is Daddy's little helper when he cooks outside. She just absolutely loves it when he cooks in the dutch oven, so hopefully we can do a lot more of it this summer.

Yesterday I went to the temple in St. Louis for our Stake Relief Society temple trip, and Quinn stayed home with the kids. I walked in the door at about 6 pm, and had been worrying about what I was going to cook for dinner, and Quinn had already started making lasagna; and to my surprise, the house was clean (I didn't leave with it very clean), Clarissa was happy, and Clayton was taking a good long nap, what a wonderful husband Quinn is. The only catch with dinner was that he was doing it in the dutch oven. He thought I wouldn't like that since it takes longer, but as long as he cleans up the mess, I'm happy, which he did. He made up a recipe that had alfredo sauce, spinach, ham, and lots of cheese. It was pretty tasty, and fun to try in the dutch oven. We both agreed that it needed a few improvements, but overall, it was pretty good, and it worked great to do it in the dutch oven. The Saturday before Easter he did try a dutch apple pancake, however, we forgot to take a picture of that one. That was yummy too, but again, the recipes needs a few minor adjustments. Quinn has been having fun trying new recipes in the dutch oven, and trying to figure out how he can improve them. It'll be interesting and fun to see what he wants to try next.

Clayton's Pictures

I finally got some professional pictures taken of Clayton. The last one we got taken was when he was 3 weeks old. It's amazing how busy you seem to get when you have more than one child, and how many fewer pictures you get taken of them. I had wanted to do one with his quilt that I made him. I finally finished it for his 1st birthday, but didn't get around to taking his picture until today. He didn't cooperate very well, he prefers to move around, but I still think we got some cute ones, even if half of them had drool hanging down from his lips!





He did not want to stand for any pictures. All he wanted to do was walk into the backdrop and fall on it! This was the only one we got of him standing, the rest of them had me in it trying to catch him and prevent him from pulling down the backdrop.




We sure love this little guy and have enjoyed the 17 wonderful months we have had with him!!!

Quinn's Birthday Pictures

Breakfast in bed as usual for the birthday boy. Clarissa really loves this tradition, and I think Clayton enjoyed it this time too. Quinn loves getting an apple cinnamon milkshake at a restaurant that we've gone to a couple times for breakfast. So, I decided to duplicate it, and it actually turned out pretty good. The milkshake was everyone's favorite part of this breakfast, but who doesn't love having ice cream for breakfast, especially when you get to eat it in bed!!!


I had different plans for Quinn's birthday cake, but Clarissa really wanted to make Quinn a St. Patrick's day cake, so we decided to do a pot of gold and rainbow cupcakes. The inside of the cupcakes looked like a rainbow with layers of six different colors. It was fun to have them, but they took a long time to make. I also made whipped cream icing which tasted a lot better than regular icing, and looked more like clouds with the rainbows.

We had a few friends over to celebrate Quinn's birthday. When I asked Clarissa who we should invite to Daddy's party, she named all of her friends. Luckily, Quinn's friends are their Daddy's, so it worked out perfectly. We were grateful we didn't have to eat all of this cake by ourselves. We had cake, ice cream sundaes, shakes, and the leftover jello from making the gold coins.