My Latest Knits.

Been meaning to post my latest knit projects. I didn't take very good pictures of the first project before I gifted it to it's current owner, but I thought I would blog about it anyways because it was a fun project. 

I have surprisingly never used cotton on a project before because I generally have preferred the texture of wool, but this project called for cotton which I thought was appropriate because it is for a baby. I ended up loving the cotton so I think I have changed my mind, but I am still pretty picky about which skien of cotton I will use. My friend specifically requested some pinks and a forest green (and she's got great taste) so I put together these lovelies. As soon as I purchased these bad boys I was so itchy to start knitting, and I want to go back and get every color they have in this yarn and make a million more balls and eggs! (you'll see later.) Is that weird? 

Knitted Balls.

So this is really the only picture I think I got of these balls! I ended up doing a couple videos but I'm not sure if I am going to go through the effort of posting them because it's kind of a headache, but you can easily view them on my Facebook page or Instagram account SadieScrawners. The reason I did a video is because I filled them with different materials for the baby to play with, the big soft pink one has a squeaker, the small pink one is just soft cotton, the half pink half gray has little beads in it, the half light half dark green one has a rattle, and the light green one has plastic type material that makes a crunchy chip bag sound that babies (especially mine) love. I plan on making more of these when I have spare time because I think they are a great baby gift. I used a pattern from itty bitty toys, this has been one of my favorite knitting books for kids, but I think you could find a pattern for a ball online for free very easily. 

Knitted Eggs.

Anytime I can double down on a yarn purchase I am on cloud 9. I recently got asked to lead a group called activity days at my church for girls ages 10 to 11 where twice a month my partner and I do an activity with the girls. My partner is awesome, and at age 86 she can hang with these young girls like no big deal. It's impressive. We trade off so I only need to plan something once of a month. I wasn't sure what to expect but I am loving it! I didn't know it but this is the perfect age! They are so interested in learning new things and they just love everything! Not to mention they are the age where they love little kids, and Olive is like "see ya later mom, you can go now" when these girls show up. They are not old enough yet to have that little attitude thing, and I just want to teach these girls everything I know! I know I am getting ahead of myself, but I just can't help it. The reason I brought this up is because I decided to teach the girls to knit. Their projects are still in progress (knitted headbands), but it went better than I had expected. I knitted each girl an egg, which are the ones you see pictured above. I loved them so much I ended up making a set for myself later, with one dark green egg as well. They looked so beautiful. Now I want 50 more! I used this pattern. The pattern says it is for felted eggs, but of course you don't have to felt them, I love mine the way they are. I have made some felted ones, and they turned out really cute, so you can't lose either way! Felted ones are great for beginners too because when you wash it it will hide any mistakes you may have made in the process. They are SO easy and you can knit it in no time flat, so there was no excuse not to make more. I have been contemplating using this pattern to teach my knitting class because they are so easy, quick, and satisfying to finish (if I ever get my act together to do a class.)

Babar the Elephant.

I took these two pictures pre eyes, but look how cute Olive is modeling him for me, so I had to post them! She's at that stage where she loves to help me and will do what I ask when I say "hold it like this," and she loves that she is helping me do a job (and I wish you could see that she was so proud that she also had a cute elephant on her shirt as well.)

I made this Elephant for my co worker for her birthday. I have been wanting to make her something for a while, and with her birthday coming up and having no current projects in the works the timing was right. She has made a baby quilt for both my kids and she helps me with all my projects. I feel like when it comes to my knitting she is my sanity, she encourages my projects, she likes helping me, and she appreciates all my work. She sees the process from start to finish and I always ask for her advice, she always knows when to lie and when to tell the truth. Anyways her birthday was coming up and she showed me this Babar on ravelry that she loved. I didn't think I could pull it off in time, but I decided to enlist another co worker who also knits and is good friends with the recipient as well. She made the cape and crown and I made the elephant. I love how it turned out, I think it is one of my favorite things I have made (even though I didn't make the whole thing.) I was also able to make this entire project off yarn that I already had in my collection, I can't decide if this is awesome or pathetic haha but I am choosing to go with awesome. The elephant and crown are the same yarns I used in this project and the other two were skins I had bought for other projects but had never ended up using... which is embarrassing, but hey it has been put to good use now! And I am sure I will use them again sometime. 

And those are my recent projects! I have taken a tiny break from knitting but I am hoping to pick up something soon. I have been so busy trying to organize my life for summer, also I've been binge watching Sons of Anarchy and it's completely taken over my life ha! 

As always...

Happy Knitting!

Too Long

It's been way too long since I've done a post. I've wanted to so many times because we've been doing so much, at the same time life has been way too overwhelming lately! I think I will have break it up into incriments because I also have a few new knitting projects that I have completed that I would love to dedicate an entire post. For now I simply have to do an Olive, and now Elijah, Update! 

Olive

Oh my little miss Olive, she has grown SO MUCH! I think every little kid at some point or another has an obsession with some book, show, toy, superhero, princess, what have you. As of late Olive has manifested what will surely be her childhood obsession for quite some time. DINOSAURS. I think this is one for lots of kids, I know my little brother and nephew were both completely enthralled with dinosaurs, I mean they are really cool! I am learning so much about them from all the books, shows, and you tube videos we have been watching- it's so fun to learn together! I think kids are just going to like what they are going to like! For a bit I couldn't remember what got Olive hooked on dinosaurs, because it seemed that once she liked them I would take to her to any dinosaur thing that I saw, but a couple weeks ago I was at the library and one of the books I saw triggered my memory. Olive and I generally go to the library every week, check out tons of books, and then return them the next week. I would always just grab random piles in the bins in the children's section. One time I grabbed a little dinosaur board book, it really was't even that interesting, it just had some picture of dinosaurs and their names. I read her that book at night like I read all her books. I went through the pictures and told her the names, and I don't know but that was it! She just wanted me to read that book over and over. When we went to return it the next week (I let Olive return all the books herself in the bin because she loves it) I handed her that book to return, she looked at it and said no mom, ha.  This was the first time she wouldn't let me return a book. So we renewed that book as long as we could, and may have had a minor melt down when we had reached our limit on the checkouts! From then on it was Dinosaur this and dinosaur that! She never really cared to watch the same show over and over, kc and I would talk about how funny it was that she wasn't attached to any one show, until dinosaur train. Once we discovered dinosaur train it's been the only thing on in our house ever since! Good thing I love it too, otherwise I'd shoot myself haha. They really need to come out with soundtrack, we already know all the songs by heart and we all often walk around singing out "dinosaur train, dinosaur train, I'm gonna riiiiiiddddeee the dinosaur train." Besides that she is still Olive. Still gentle, loving, adventurous, fearless and very sweet and sensitive.  She is learning that  not everyone is nice all the time and I wish I could explain to her why but I don't know the answer myself, so I'm trying to teach her that it's ok and to be independent and strong and kind to others in spite of it because I won't always be right next to her to wrap her in my arms (even though I wish I could.)

Elijah

Little Elijah is all smiles and giggles and content to just sit on the couch or in his bumbo and just observe all the chaos around him. He just goes with the flow. He's been such a good baby, and it is so fun the second time around because I feel so much more relaxed about everything. He has the strongest little abs, and would sit in the crunch position for longer than I think I can! He is 6 months old in a week and he just started sitting yesterday! I love having a little boy and Olive couldn't be a better older sister for one. Can't wait to see his personality as he grows. 

Overall

I'm an on-the-go Mom. Being at home too much makes me so stir crazy! But lately things have slowed down around here. Working these early hours and getting up multiple times at night is really taking it's toll on me. Olive who never had so much as a runny nose til she was two has been sick with one thing after another, just like Elijah and I. Dealing with sick children, especially if you don't feel good yourself, is just something else. By far the hardest days of motherhood. So we've been laying low and staying home a lot, and it's been kind of nice, and my house has stayed pretty clean because of it so that's a plus ha. Olive is old enough now that if I need to lay down for a bit and rest with Elijah she is happy to play in her room with her animals or dinosaurs. I'm so grateful for her and the kindness she always shows to me. We started to get adventurous again. Yesterday Olive did her first canter on a horse! I love hearing and seeing her exhilaration with new things. Next week I am going to take her rock climbing at the quarry because she loves to try to climb the wall at Provo Rec, and she is pretty good! She will be so cute in little rock climbing shoes and a harness. In the morning I often ask Olive what she would like to do for that day, and if I am up for it, we do it. She most often says one out of three things, I want to go to the dinosaur museum. I want to go see some animals, or I want to play with Callie. And the zoo is going to have a bunch of dinosaurs for the summer which they are calling Zoorassic Park which we are going to visit with Callie on Friday, so basically we can set up camp and live there. If things keep feeling too hard I might need to reevaluate if working this shift is the right thing for me right now, I'm trying to hold out until Elijah is done nursing at night, hopefully only a few more months, but I'm also praying that when it's time to move on from it, I'll know it. So that's our life lately, hopefully I'll do a post sooner rather than later so that I can remember these small details of my life. It will all pass so quickly. 

Update Through Pictures

Out of the blue my cousin's wife called us up and asked us if we wanted Maybe, the dog that we watched for 6 months or so. I was really taken aback because I had kind of made up my mind that I didn't want a dog for a few years so that my kids could grow up with the dog through their teen years. I called kc and he said yes, of course we want her, and I knew he was right, we love her so much! The second she showed up Olive's heart grew 10 sizes, she just lived for Maybe to interact with her in any way. She has since calmed down a bit, but she still sometimes tries to lock Maybe in her room with her or locks her in a giant bear hug to the point where I think she is going to choke her to death. Mostly we just love having her around, when she lays behind the rocking chair when I nurse Elijah, sits by Olive's bed as I read to her at night, or gets up with me a 4 am in the morning when I go to work. She just makes our family complete. 

What life looks like around here most the time.

Olive insisted on doing dog duty/doody. I'm sure she won't want to do it when she is actually old enough to, but I appreciated the thought anyways. 

What we do when we are sick/bored at home. Put peanut butter on our bellies and let Maybe lick it off.

Kc and I met up with his sister and her family at Goblin Valley and went camping for one night. I had wanted to go last year but was never able to make it work. It was so fun and Olive went around and we pretended some of the rocks we found were dinosaur bones, but there really is a dinosaur quarry nearby so we need to take her! It was the first time we had taken Olive and Elijah camping and it was so fun! Olive slept through the whole night, which was a shock to us, but I think it was mostly because she was so sleep deprived. Can't wait to go again! 

You know I can't help myself. It's so fun! 

Messy haired morning sleepy eyed kids make me happy.

Sick blue-eyed babes drink healthy smoothies and watch dinosaur train.

One advantage of being stuck at home I had more time to tidy up my house, which isn't normally a big priority for me (why spend time cleaning when you could be out having fun with your cute two year old?) but while cleaning I turn the corner and catch this cute babe with her dinosaurs lined up to board the dinosaur train. She's too much.

Olive has started swim lessons. She doesn't love getting her head dunked in the water, but she does love it when I let her take her dinosaurs to throw them in the water so I can dive in a fetch them for her. The second picture is what happens when you still need naps you wont take, you fall asleep on your way to swim class mid egg.

This picture makes me think of child hood. Waiting til your mom is done so you can lick the spoon. Double fisting it.

Rock climbing wall at Provo Rec. Can't wait to take Olive this week to the quarry and put her in a little harness and shoes. She will love it!

Olive and her cousin Callie. Best friends these two.

Pi Day.

My sister moved here from Washington and so now all my sisters that have kids live here, it's going to be one big party!

That one random snow day in April.

Olive and I went up to my sister-in-law's and her sister was kind enough to saddle up and let us ride her horse. I was feeling bold so I took Olive for a little run on the horse in a small circle. It was so exhilarating and we both loved it.

Easter! I loved doing a basket for her this year. 

Elijah finally met his cousin Ezekiel, but he wasn't too sure about him being all up in his space :)

Baby Elijah sitting for the first time!

And you know, that's life lately!

My Dad and Baby Elijah

A week a half ago we had a party for my Dad's 60th birthday. As his birthday gift we had collected over 60 letters from his friends, family, and colleagues. It was so wonderful to read all these things people had written about my dad from all aspects of his life. It just reiterated what I already knew about my Dad; that he is crazy, intelligent, full of endless energy, spiritual, giving, and unlike anyone you will ever meet your life- I promise you that. Upon re-reading what I wrote for my Dad I felt like I left so much out! How wonderful he is to my Mom, how much time he gives to those around, that he will always help anyone he sees on the side of the road, that he is always trying to better himself. Oh man, I feel like I could go on forever, I just look up to him so much! He works harder than anyone I know and he has a good heart and a clean conscious. He is always honest. Here is what I wrote about my dad for the book.

"My Dad. I think one of my friends said best about my dad what I’ve always felt about him, that is he someone who you can never imagine aging or growing old in any way. Someone who seems like he will just live on forever. My Dad embodies a spirit that is larger than life, and as an adult I reflect often on the many things he did and still does and wonder, how? How does he do it? I also think often of my Mom dating and marrying this person and really not knowing what her life held for her. The memories I have of my Dad most often are filled with adventure, but also intellectual conversations and at times deep spiritual emotion. My dad has so many facets to him and most of all I learn from him to never be idle and live an honest, full, and balanced life. I’ve never really felt limited by anything because my Dad just believed that all of us would do great things.

            My Dad would read to us as children. I have vivid memories of laying on the top bunk, my sister Ellen on the bottom, and Dad narrating The Chronicles of Narnia with such excitement. We were completely enthralled by it. My Dad had 6 girls and since I am sure he would rather have had 6 sons, he decided to treat us like his sons anyways, and the little tomboy in me really appreciated that.  I remember he took us on a scouting trip with the some older boys. My sister Ellen and I wore some of his old wool camping shirts and pants and just like all the older scouts we hiked 7 miles in the sand to a lighthouse. As little girls we had so much fun jumping on driftwood, and it never occurred to me that we were doing something hard because my dad treated us like we could do everything those older boys were doing. Ive kept that faith in myself all throughout my life, and I credit that to my Dad.

            My dad has endless energy, and a moment to help someone or teach is never lost on him. My friends and I wanted to go canoeing at Lake Washington. My dad told us 16-year-old girls, well why don’t you just tie this canoe to the suburban and drive in there yourselves. He took the time to teach us the proper knots to use (one is always required to display proper knot skills in front of my Dad) and sent us on our way. My friends and I still talk about the memory of how fun that was and how funny these young girls looked driving with this big canoe on the freeway and then having to figure out how to lift it off the car and get it to the ocean ourselves. It was great.

            My Dad would make up all kinds of games and play them with us for hours. Make a break for it was the most popular. We'd have to get our stuffed animals from one couch to another across the room and he’d try to catch us in the middle. If he caught us we had to return our animal and try again. Oh we loved that game so much. My dad had no problem rearranging anything to accommodate some idea we had, and I have no memory of how tidy our house looked because it didn’t matter to us kids, we just wanted to have fun, and Dad (and Mom) always let us. I think my Dad worked a lot growing up, but I can’t really remember because when he came home he was so involved in our lives that he always seemed to be present to me. We lived in an area where people didn't really have eight kids. Despite the fact that my dad was very proud it, I felt like we got judged a lot for being a little crazy and irresponsible. People didn't have eight kids, they had one or two, but from what I observed around me growing up I am confident in saying we got just as much interaction and attention from our parents (if not more) than my friends who only had one or two siblings.  He would often commit to coaching one of our soccer teams, and if he said he would do it he was always there which I’m sure was really hard for him commuting from Seattle and having so much work to do. He always made sure he had his priorities.

            My Dad has always been a spiritual beacon for me. He has said a lot of things that have really impacted my life, and the level of spiritual devotion I witnessed as I watched him throughout my childhood and into adulthood will never leave me. He has always been someone that practiced what he preached. He always had us say family prayers and kept the Sabbath day Holy. He was always honest with his fellow men and with God. He cares more about doing what is right than being right, this is one of the qualities I admire the very most in my Dad and made him someone that I look to for answers. I know that besides the fact that is brilliant, he has looked at all angles and tried to come to an honest conclusion of what he think is right. He has also never let intellectualism get in the way of spirituality, which is something you often witness in the world today and he isn’t afraid or embarrassed to admit when he was wrong. I remember not too long ago my Dad read me a story in a Science magazine that he subscribes to; it was written by a man who had been an atheist all his life. The story was about a spiritual experience that he had had that he could not deny. My dad was so stirred by this story that as he read it to me he started to cry, I have always been so moved when my dad shares his spiritual experiences and emotions with me.

            My Dad has helped to strengthen my testimony so much over the years. I have never been afraid to go to him with my thoughts because I know he will honestly discuss them with me instead of brushing them aside.  I never felt that if I left the church that is would be something that my Dad would socially be embarrassed about (which is often the case in the culture we live in,) but that I would be losing something that would bless me for all eternity. I had a conversation with he and my mother one summer on a break home for college. I remember it very well. We went out to the motorhome to have some privacy and I vocalized that I was struggling with the church because I felt that church members were sometimes hypocritical, often judgmental, and in my eyes not always true followers of God. Dad said that I was right, and there would always be people like that but you are not a member of the church because of the people in it and what they do, you are a member because of the doctrine and principles of the church and if you don’t believe in those then you can leave, but what the people in the church do should never determine your standing. From then on I have never been bothered by behavior of members and always felt it was more important to gain a strong understanding and testimony of the scriptures and doctrine of the church.

            My Dad is unlike anyone else in this world and he has taught me so much and shaped me into the person I am today. I’ve incorporated so many things  he did with me in my childhood into my home. Just this morning Olive and I were playing the game where I put her on my feet and have her try to grab the pillow from behind my head. Nothing makes her laugh harder. She also loves to try to stand on my feet. She thinks I am such a fun adventurous Mom and when she gets older I’ll have to tell her I learned it from my Dad. I love you so much Dad. No one could ever replace you."

So many memories. Such a wonderful Dad.

We also blessed our little baby Elijah that Sunday. It was wonderful to have most of our family there. Here are some of the things that Kc said in his blessing.

"He is surrounded by Family who loves him. Be studious. Seek after knowledge and be a hard worker. Know God and turn to him in time of Good and Bad. Be worthy of Church Callings and to serve a full time mission. Life is good. Know God, and be Happy."

I loved KC's blessing so much. It was so beautiful and positive. I loved that he said Life is good. Life IS good, and there is so much that can bring us joy and happiness if we seek for it and I love that it was important for KC to tell his son that. It also made me think that Kc thinks his life is good, and that makes me happy because it means he is happy in his life with us. The joy in Kc's eyes when he is holding or interacting with his children is something there will never be words to describe. I am so grateful for my family.