Competition?

Today Enoch picked me up to babysit Emma Leigh. As soon as I walked in the door, the first thing she said to me was, "Where Set [Zach]?" He came later because he was taking a test.

I brought cookies to share with her, one for each of us. She made sure to set aside Zach's cookie on a special plate from her tea set. The whole time it was on the coffee table now, she kept reminding me that it was "For Set." lol.

A few minutes ago we had a little argument. It went like this:

"That's my Zach."

"Nooo, my Set!"

"Um, no. MY Zach."

"NO, MY Set!!!"

Needless to say, he has made a good impression. lol.

We love Emma. Babysitting is our favorite time of the week

No place like home

I'm right there with you, Dorothy. But there's also no place like Rexburg. I really miss my friends, the way of life, my friends, my new bike, my friends, everything within walking distances, my friends.... did I mention my friends? Shout out to all of them, who are moving onto bigger and more exciting things.

Someone asked me today what I'm doing with all my time now that I'm home. I had to think pretty hard before figuring it out. lol. Most of the time the day is over before I realize that I haven't done anything. Pretty much, I've just been acting like a kid on summer break. Filling my days with a whole lot of relaxing nothingness.

1. Playing with my nieces/nephews/sisters
2. Running errands and hanging out with my mom
3. Goofing off with Steph (see picture above)
   
4. Earning frequent flyer miles with Redbox. (Do you think they do that???)
   
5. Doing odd jobs for my grandma
6. Reading books (Just finished the 4th Fablehaven and the sequel to The Mysterious Benedict Society. I love young adult fiction!)
7. Jogging in the mornings with my friend Corinne from Institute. It's only the second day, and I'm sore.
8. I got to meet two Ukrainian kids! They came with a foster children's group a week ago and are staying with a family in my ward. They called my dad and asked him to help translate, so I went with him. It was pretty exciting, but Alyona was really hard to understand.
   

Even though I have been productive in some ways, I know I need to earn money for next semester. Luckily, I found an opportunity! My aunt (who lives about three hours away) is having her baby next week and needs someone to drive her around, so my Grandma hired me. I'm leaving for Snowflake in a few hours to hang with her and my four cousins for a week. We'll also try and crank out the birth announcement.

Wish me luck!

P.S. The Critical Language Scholarship (that sends students to RUSSIA to learn RUSSIAN for FREE) is opening up applications for next summer's program soon!! Eeeeep! Since I'm already planning on going, I can't wait to apply. lol.

I am a genius.

No, seriously. I am.

haha, today I was babysitting my cousins Isaac and Lily. They are... rather active, and aren't supposed to watch too much TV. I found a great idea online for this bean-bag toss box. Check it out.

 

It kept them entertained forever! Plus, I had them help me make some bean bags (one held the funnel and one poured the little cup of rice) to play with as well. They love it. Lily thinks it makes a good mask. =]


This next picture is of two projects I'm rather proud of. Firstly, I made a bag for all of my toiletries (hair, make-up, toothbrush, etc.) out of a pair of jeans that were too small for me. I used some cheap ribbon to make loops on the inside for my toothbrush, hair brush, etc. I left the pockets on the outside for the few make-up things I use all the time. It was a quick, hurried sewing job, but I like it just fine. Then I looped a ribbon through the belt loops to hide the random stitches I had to make around the top. lol. You'll notice I cut out the zipper area, because I thought it was a little awkward. Plus, the ideal size jeans to use would be children's. (Nobody wants to see just how big their waist actually is anyway.)

I also made a homemade block for my niece Anna. It has ribbon loops in the seams for her to grab onto once she's old enough, and a little felt bear that tucks into a pocket on one of the sides. There's a big jingle bell inside the stuffing, so it acts like a gentle rattle too. I'm hoping to be able to make a few more before I leave her. I made a set for my nephew, and he seemed to like it.

 

Happy Spring!

I'm an Aunt!

Again! The seventh little grandbaby was born yesterday afternoon!

Anna Noel Garner was born just shy of 8 lbs and is 20 inches long. She is toooo stinking cute. And of course, everyone is absolutely in love with her.







Kenny doesn't really get who she is yet, but was really sweet to her. "Pet the baby!"



Stephanie and I stayed the night with him over at their apartment so Gordon could stay at the hospital with Kristen. It was so fun.

I heard Anna's a little high maintenance right now, and refuses to sleep in her basinet at the hospital. She only sleeps when her Mommy holds her. But she has been through a lot, poor little thing.

A Thousand Words

Okay, here's a quick peek at what I've been up to, via lots of pictures. =]

Babysitting!
My cousins love to be photographed, so we got out the dress-up box.

The two youngest, Isaac and Lily:


Isaac and me:


Aaron and me:


The oldest, Andrew:


I also got to watch my nephew Kenny the other night, and he did very well! He sure loves his Papa and Aunt Jill.





Last night, my little sisters and I had a party while my parents were on their date. Feast your eyes on THIS!

[If you can't tell, it's Batman, Spiderman, Robin, and Wonder Woman.]

Today we had a hot dog roast, despite the heat, because my grandma had a bunch of old papers she wanted burned. Then we just hung out in the shade playing games and eating gummy bears. Yay for family fun!

Stephanie and her roasting skills:


Mom and Dad hard at work in more sunshine than should naturally be seen in January:


Jilly's s'more face.

Happy Sunday!

Well everybody, you've made your way over to my new blog. I suppose you want to hear about my weekend?

Well, I had a really good one! Friday was spent mostly relaxing, cleaning up my personal space, working on family history and the Holladay blog, making a scarf, talking with roomies, etc.

Saturday morning I go up at the crack of 5:45 and got ready to go babysitting! I went on over to my sister Isabelle's house to watch her 4 kids so she and Chris could go to the temple. It was really fun! The kids woke up one by one, and we just sat around with blankets and pillows, talking, eating breakfast, and watching Barbie movies. =D Once 2 month old Joshua woke up we were mostly employed with making him smile, which is actually not too hard to do!

Then Izzy took me grocery shopping (SO incredibly sweet of her) and let me borrow a big stack of fun movies. (The Court Jester, Here Comes the Groom, Singin' in the Rain, etc! Come watch them with me!) It started snowing these huge flakes on the way home! I've been bracing myself for the winter to come, but somehow it was still a surprise. Oh well. I've accepted it now. =D

Then later on that evening I went on a really fun date with Gary! We went to the Natalie MacMaster concert, and ohhhh man! Those YouTube clips in the right column don't really do it justice. My favorite was probably Volcanic Jig. It's too bad the same band we saw her perform with isn't on YouTube. I highly recommend seeing her live if you ever get the chance! She was clogging and dancing and fiddling at top speed, all while 5 months pregnant. Wow. So afterwards we went and got ice cream cones at DQ and drove around just talking. The snow was sooooo pretty! Anyway, when we got back to my apartment he offered to help me with my Russian homework, which he did! It was lots of fun, plus educational! (lol)

And now today it is fast sunday. We had excellent meetings, as usual! I learned a lot, and made a new goal! I want to write an essay about human trials; how we always ask "Why?" and how that compares with the Savior's response to the Atonement.

And to cap off this weekend's excitement, I found eleven new names on my maternal grandfather's side while working on my family history today! And discovered that one of my great-grandfathers that I was looking to prep for temple work has already had his ordinances done... several times over. =] So I guess he's covered, eh?

Anyways! Life is pretttttty great. Now I'm looking forward to this new week of school in the snow. *yay!*

-Stacy