Aimie’s Aprons

So I am starting a new venture! I am making kids aprons!
My kids LOVE to help in the kitchen. They LOVE to be my my "sous-chef" and help me make dinner, dessert, or any sort of thing that requires using kitchen utensils. This usually entails getting messy. I have over the years spent various amounts of money purchasing aprons for the girls, and we have received various aprons as gifts. None have lived up to the task of protecting the girls clothing from spills and looked cute at the same time.

Last year, my mom bought the girls some VERY cute aprons and I was very hopeful that we had finally found a winner. I was very perplexed when she brought them home and I found that the neck strap was not the standard round 'over the head' strap you usually see, but two straps that I had to tie. When I asked why, I was told that it was because kids heads are so out of proportion to their body, that when you buy a regular apron, the neck strap has to be large enough to go over their head. This results in making the chest part reach down to the kids belly button. Aha! Now I understand what was wrong with the many other aprons I had purchased in the past! Unfortunately for this set of cute aprons, tying the neck straps IS NOT the answer - this just makes it more difficult for the parent to put the apron on the child AND to make matters worse, the neck straps were too short! :(

This put me on a quest to find a perfect apron! Well several months later and several aprons later (no I didn't buy any more - just kept a mental tally) I have come up with what in my mind is the PERFECT kids apron!!

I will be selling them for $15 each or 2 for $25.  Let me know if you would like one!  I have the following ones available now, or I can custom make one for any color you like!

 

Some of my cute aprons so far!

Each apron waist band has a button closure - you can adjust the placement of the button to make the waist fit smaller if you need to.

These neck straps have elastic in them - this means that the neck strap will fit over the child's head and the apron part will still cover the child's chest!

The kids can put the aprons on ALL BY THEMSELVES!

All of the aprons are reversible!

       Allison & Chloe’s aprons are size L (fit ages 7 – 10)

  Catie & Mary’s aprons are size M (fit ages 4 – 6)

Proclamation to the Family Scrapbook

Injuries, Surgery & Holly Homemaker!!

Ok, since I have been ‘out of commission’ for a few weeks due to cutting the top of my finger off and then having hip surgery – it is time to update the blog and get busy!!

I have been off my crutches around the house for 3 days now!  I am so excited to walk around ALL BY MYSELF!!  It is really liberating to leave them in the other room while I do something.  I have learned that when I walk too far, or a lot at once, it causes pain and I probably should have used the crutches.  Soon (hopefully next week) I will really be able to go everywhere without them!

Since the weather has turned, we decided to go pick our ripe tomatoes.  I haven’t been out to my garden for a while (due to not being able to walk!) so I was very surprised when I went out there and the girls and I picked 30lbs of tomatoes in one shot!!  I am THRILLED!!  We still have a TON of green tomatoes, so we will be picking those tonight and let them ripen inside.  The girls and I bottled 13 quarts of tomatoes today.  They look so yummy!!  I am excited to start stocking up our food storage again, since we have eaten all the ones in there so far.  We also picked our zucchini last week and mom grated all of it and put in in the freezer to use later on. 

All of the girls peeling tomatoes

The tomatoes…

 

BEAUTIFUL!!

Canning Double Time

All done and waiting to seal

So in my freezer I have several bags of grated zucchini and some black bananas.  Yesterday, I decided it was time to make some bread!!  The girls helped and we made 12 mini loaves of Banana Bread and 8 loaves of Zucchini Bread!  I couldn’t stop there… I made 10 mini loaves of White Bread w/ cracked 9 grain in it.  YUMMY!!  Of course the girls wanted to help make bread, so today I decided that for school, the girls would learn how to make bread by hand!  They got into partners and each team made the bread dough together.  I also made a double batch.  It was so much fun watching the girls get into kneading the bread and mixing in all the ingredients.  In the end, we made 12 regulars size loaves of bread.  I am SO happy to have it all done.  I need a nap now! :)

Girls mixing the dough in the first stages

Catie & Chloe were a team

Allison & Mary were a team

Look how fun that looks! 

Don’t you want to just stick your hands in it??

 

Mary is not too impressed with having to get her hands dirty

 

Catie and Chloe are thoroughly enjoying it!

Mary feels much better now that she has clean hands, but she is eyeing Allison to make sure that none of that mess gets on her.

Our finished dough!

Our beautifully baked bread.

YUMMY!!!

Some of our Zucchini and Banana Breads

Father’s Day Pictures!

For Father's Day this year, I gave Brian pictures. It has been a tradition to give him new pictures of the girls every Father's Day, since Allison turned 1 because her birthday (and then Chloe's ) was right before the big day. This year, because of Allison's baptism, I made all the girls new dresses and I wanted to get some new pictures taken anyways. I had been envisioning a kind of timeless picture that I could take of my girls and have hanging on my wall forever. So, we got dressed up and went out to the middle of nowhere and got some great pictures! So here they are!

                                                                                                 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Allison’s Baptism

On June 6, 2009 Allison made the choice to get baptized.  It was a WONDERFUL experience and I cried most of the time.  She looked so beautiful and I am so proud of her.  It was a little hectic at times and we weren’t sure we were going to be able to pull it off on that day with Brian’s surgery being just 4 days previous, but everything worked out.  here are a few pictures from our wonderful day.

  

Brian’s Car Wreck

On Wednesday May 27th, Brian totaled his ‘87 Volkswagen Golf (lovingly named Chips) in an accident on Bangerter Hwy between Redwood Rd and I-15.  He drifted onto the shoulder, over corrected, spun out and slammed into the center barrier.  Luckily no one else was involved, but unfortunately Brian was hurt pretty badly.  He tore up his left shoulder pretty good.  He has had problems with this shoulder for years and this was the final straw.  He dislocated it in the accident and was taken to Jordan Valley Medical Center.  This all happened around 7:30am.  I got a call from my mom around 10:30 asking why I wasn’t answering any of Brian’s calls – and she sounded pretty panicked.  Apparently I had let my cell phone die and my home phone wasn’t working very well.  Either way – I hadn’t received any phone calls from Brian or the EMT’s letting me know that he had even been in an accident!  I immediately called the hospital and figured out what was going on.  I found a babysitter for the girls and headed to the hospital.  I figured I would get there just in time to take Brian home.  Wrong!  We ended up staying there until 4:30 that afternoon!  They could not get Brian’s shoulder to stay in socket.  It dislocated itself another 6 times after they put it back in place – the same thing over and over.  It looked VERY painful!  They had referred us to an orthopedic surgeon, so I had my mom call (since we were still in the ER) and tell them what was going on and find out how soon they could see us, since i usually takes a long time to get in to see a specialist.  They seemed so worried about Brian, that they told us to come over right away and they would see us immediately.  We were able to get in, and for a while, not even the orthopedist could get Brian’s shoulder in place.  After about 35 minutes of tugging, pulling, pushing, and Brian trying not to scream (but there was yelling involved) his shoulder was finally put back in place.  We were then told that Brian would be having surgery as soon as possible.  That we just needed to wait for the swelling to go down, and the blood to dissolve.  Brian went in for shoulder surgery (a Bankart Repair) on Tuesday June 2nd.  While we were at the hospital and Brian was in surgery, the power went out 4 times!  The Dr.. said later that every time the power went out, his cameras reset and the had to wait a few minutes for them to come back on so they could continue with the procedure!  While they were repairing his shoulder, they also found out that Brian had a torn rotator cuff!  So they fixed that as well.  He gets to have a ‘lovely’ sling for 6 weeks and then at least a month of therapy.  The Dr. thinks he will be ‘back to normal’ by Christmas!

Here are a few ‘fun’ pics:

Brian in bed right after the accident – the worst casualty of the accident was his favorite shirt!, Hannah in bed while daddy was getting x rays – isn’t she cute!

Brian and Chips for the last time :(

I WIN!!!

I can't believe it!! I won the give-a-way!!! No Way!! But, yup I did!! YEAH!!!! I am so excited!!! What a cool one to win!!! Check out the adorable dress and bow!! And check out http://www.allthingsribbon.com/ if you like it too! She has super cute stuff!!

http://hairbowsforgirls.blogspot.com (you can see here where she announces the winner!)

Give-a-way

Ok, time to post about another give-a-way, but this time I want to win it!!
www.allthingsribbon.com has just launched a new blog to go with her buisness - http://hairbowsforgirls.blogspot.com. (she sells fabulous bows and dresses for little girls) She is now giving away an adorable sun dress and a matching bow! You should totally go check out her store - they have the CUTEST stuff!! I am not kidding! (and I do know cute girl stuff :) )

Happy Mother's Day

I just wanted to wish all my mommy friends a Very Happy Mother's Day! You truly inspire me to be a better mom and I am grateful to have friends like you!!