The Purple Quilt

This is the purple quilt...

Mom pieced it years and years ago.  I had expressed how much I liked it then and she eventually gave it to me in flimsy form (just the pieced top) as a Christmas gift.  I was not yet much of a quilter myself and so it took many years before I pulled it out and attempted to finish it up.

I added the batik border to make it fit our bed better...

I did some free hand stuff in the center block...

...I guess everything was free hand except for the smaller blocks.  I used a stencil for those.

But all the borders and things were pretty random...and unmeasured so...yah, but if you don't look closely, you won't notice as much ;)

Overall, I am really thrilled with how it turned out.

It felt good to have it finished in a relatively short amount of time once I got going.

It now happily lays on our bed.

Merill and Nancy's 50th!

My In Laws 50th wedding anniversary was approaching and everyone was going to be in the vicinity so my two sisters in law planned a gathering.

They rented the basement of a restaurant in Ogden and had Andy's dad thinking it was a surprise birthday party for Andy's mom.

(Here are the kids patiently playing games while we waited for the guests of honor who were late :)

I kept Ben entertained on his iPad for a while...

The food was all ready and waiting...

our tree gift was looking lovely...

The tables were all decorated and memories were being written...

...and finally, Nancy arrived, but no Merill.  They had driven separately and Merill was being held up by something.  We went ahead and started eating and he eventually came and was super surprised to see the real reason for the gathering.

Crosswords are kind of a big deal in the Bryan family so Jenny put one together all about them.

The food was delicious

...and we played other games...

Andy had been asked by his sister to put together a slideshow.

He was able to sneakily find pictures stored in their home and on their computer and he did an amazing job!  It was a beautiful tribute and almost all of the adults were in tears.

They each wanted to express their love to their posterity afterward...

It was a lovely evening and so much fun!

Thanks to Lyndi and Jenny who put it all together...

and thanks to Todd who spent time with Ben afterward while we cleaned up :)

It always does my heart good to see things like this...people taking time and an interest in Ben.

Very Odd and Endish

At the beginning of the year I made a new tablecloth with the new Primary theme for the table on Sundays.

My Silhouette came in very handy creating the CTR emblem.

Once I got it on the table I had to bring it home and make some adjustments in length but it ended up working out okay.

Out to lunch with friends...

The first blooms of spring...

always very exciting in my book :)

The boys decided to come to Free Motion with me on a day they had off from school.

They both did great and are anxious to go back.

Speaking of Free Motion and working out...

my right achilles tendon has been bothering me for quite some time now (over a year) and I finally went to the doctor.  He put me in a soft cast and a walking boot.  I also got a stem cell injection, and was put on an anti-inflamatory.  After two weeks of the boot I started physical therapy.

Things have not improved significantly, as a matter of fact, they have been worse at times, however, I continue to do therapy and am hoping for the best.

(the day I got the boot, Andy brought home this beautiful bouquet of purple tulips for me) 

I try to attend one of Andy's Institute classes each semester.  Now that he is the Pre-Service trainer for the area, it is the same class every time, but I love meeting the different people that attend each semester.  A few weeks ago, he had me follow him outside to see the new semi-temporary sign on the front of the building.

Then he had me look extra close at the "E"... that's my guy :)

A Hedgehog Valentine's Day

Matt was the only one that needed to make a box for his class valentines.

We had decided to do a hedgehog valentine and so he wanted to make a box to match. 

Here's our cute inspiration...

This is my sweet Valentine...

 Isn't he cute ?

He is always making me feel very special :)