Eye Candy

So, I have to order all my cute fabric online, because none of the local quilt shops or fabric stores carry any of the popular designer fabric that I like. I went to a quilt show last week in Tucson and a couple of vendors brought in some of that fabric and I had to get a stash! Is this cute or what?! I am normally NOT a pink person, but it was packaged so well and the colors work so great together and it's never in any of the stores here...anyway, I can't wait to make this quilt!!

Oh! Awesome news, earlier this week I found a LOCAL fabric dealer that works from her home, HERE IN TUCSON!! She lives on my side of town and has ALL the fabric I've ever wanted! I'm SO excited...I'll have to start an allowance for myself :) I've got her website button linked here because she has a 1 yr celebration giveaway, so check it out! I just went over to her house to sew up a Sandi Henderson Cupcake pincushion and it was "sew" much fun! (sorry i can't seem to stop using that pun) I'll get a picture up here soon...

Birthday morning...

After taking approximately 50 pictures today, this is the only one where I managed to capture Ema smiling, first thing in the morning! Then only a moment later, I got quite the opposite reaction. I wanted to see if she would stand on her own (she does NOT like to stand) and was mad I propped her up :)

Yesterday was "de-ja-vu-esque" (like that word? i do :) I decided that Gabriela was finally ready to move to a toddler bed! (See last January's post for our previous try) We built it together and she was really excited. We role played what she would do in the night if she had to go potty, and things couldn't have gone better!! She's doing great and will actually STAY IN BED!
We've really been working on positive reinforcement with Gabriela, and since this day was going to be a lot about Emalyn, I tried to involve Gabs as much as possible. She helped me make the cupcakes and cake for the family party, so she got to lick the batter. She couldn't wait to try a cupcake (we made them at 11am) and it was probably the LONGEST day of her life waiting until 7pm tonight to eat one!!

Ta da!

Faces

Last night Emalyn was eating dinner and kept making funny faces. The kids would laugh and more faces were made. She totally got it and entertained the kids for a while. I had to get some pics...

Gabriela

Gabriela started dance today and she LOVED it! Isa already does tap/ballet, so Gabriela's been patiently waiting for her class to start the last couple months.
She did great in class and almost always listened to the teacher! She was so proud to show Danny what she learned when she got home.
Since we have been in our new place, Gabs spends almost all afternoon outside playing. She LOVES the outdoors! She wants to eat, play, draw, read, etc. and it's fine with me. Emalyn loves to watch from the sliding door.

New Years

New Years Day we spent playing games, lounging in our jammies, and drinking hot chocolate.

(cute matching pjs)

New Years night and the night after, we had movie night w/my sisters and we had a blast. We didn't get a picture of Tricia (I don't know where she went, so I cut & pasted her in), but we had 5/6 girls which doesn't happen often and was photo-worthy.

It's begun...

And so it begins...Emalyn turned 11 months and 2 weeks and it's like a light switch was turned on. She is so curious and gets into everything. Still quiet and sweet as ever (not as active as Gabs was at that age, thank goodness!).


The girls got a play kitchen for Christmas and Emalyn LOVES it! She opens and shuts the doors constantly, as well as putting things in and out of the shelves. She is also starting to sign, which alleviates a lot of frustrations. She can sign "milk", "more", and "done", and understands "sock", "shoe", and "blanket".



Danny stuck his beanie on her, and she thought it was pretty funny. She took it off and then tried desperately to get it back on.


Gabriela is beginning to be a big help w/Emalyn. She is understanding rules so much better (not that she always obeys, mind you), so she is constantly explaining to Emalyn what she can and can't do. It's too cute. While I was taking pictures, she said, "Em-a-LYN! You can't eat rocks, they are not FOOD! They are ewwwy."

After Emalyn's bath we were lotioning her up, and she reached over faster than I was able to stop her and she grabbed a huge fistfull of Aquaphor (basically clear Crisco). We transferred as much as we could back into the container, and then we rubbed her down again with her own hand. She was a greasy baby!

Emalyn finally found the tupperware cabinet at my mom's house and loves it! It keeps her busy for so long, it's great. Who needs babysitters??

Christmas

The kids had a fun filled Christmas Eve & Christmas Day visiting both of our families and enjoying food, games, and each other.


Gabriela really enjoyed the chocolate. Everytime we turned around she found more chocolate; I have no idea how much she ate, but I know it was a lot!! Also, I had to add in the cute picture of Tricia & her FABULOUS new pjs! :)


This is a typical hug that Gabriela gives Emalyn, unfortunately Ema doesn't appreciate yet how MUCH Gabs loves her!

Utah

Gabriela has never been in snow before (once in NC, but not that she can remember) so she was dressed and ready for snow the day we got to Cajsa & Brad's!

The snow came and everyone was excited and ready to play! Snowballs were thrown, snow angels created, and a little bitty snowman :)

Later, we all went to temple square to see the lights and it was beautiful. It was quite cold, but thankfully we still had our cold winter gear from our Utah days and we were ready for it.

The first picture is the house my grandma & her siblings were born & raised in, that her father built in the late 1800's. It's been in the family until just a few years ago! While we were in the Logan cemetary, Danny took the kids over to the "weeping woman" which they remembered. There's some ghost story to it and he used to take Bren & Isa over to it whenever we'd visit the cemetary and tell them each time. We miss the beautiful snow capped mountains of Cache Valley, but not enough to move back :)

California

We made it out to Coronado Beach in San Diego and the girls loved getting their feet wet. The boys were not so keen on shedding their socks & shoes for cold water and sandy feet! :)

Here are some funny pics: Gabriela wanted to help out "uncle tom" (really it's cousin Mike, whose dad is uncle tom, but she kept forgetting) clean grandpa's car. She had so much fun "cleaning" that Mike didn't mind cleaning her fingerprints later. In the next one, Danny, David, & Tricia all decided that the grandpa's house had too many people in it and slept outside each night in sleeping bags on the patio furniture! The last two are of my cute sister, Tricia.

My mom, Karen, and her brothers, Jim Patterson & Tom Patterson.

My Patterson cousins (above), and Montaño girls (below).

Our entire family! We haven't had a shot like this in a LONG time.

My cute, crazy family :)

Fun with the cousins...

The three musketeers. Playing w/my grandma's dog collection which kept them entertained for what seemed like hours. It was amazing considering these girls don't sit still very long! (you can tell we couldn't even get them to look at the camera at the same time)

Hugo Delin Patterson

On November 30th, my grandpa passed away and is now happily reunited with my grandma that passed away 6 years earlier. It was unexpected, but we take comfort in knowing that it was his time to go and that he's not lonely anymore.

We went to Escondido, CA for his funeral the first weekend in December, and then to Logan, UT for his burial the following weekend. I have several pictures to be posted soon of all of our adventures as well as the reunion with all of our aunts, uncles, cousins, & siblings.