Birthday Girls

Here we are, the two July birthday girls. First off is Katie. (age 4 in the top photo) I need to wish her a "Happy Belated Birthday" since I was in Arizona on her actual special day -- July 12th -- and didn't get around to posting about her. Katie is my "baby". I had decided that I wanted to have all my children before I turned 30 and I gave birth to Katie 9 days before my 30th birthday (it is also really helpful in remembering how old I am by just adding 30 years to Katie's age). She has been such a joy in my life ever since! Katie is a smart, savvy, talented, compassionate, considerate, patient, fun, adventurous, kind, loving, thoughtful, spiritual, beautiful daughter, sister, wife, mother, nurse and best friend to everyone. Our family has been truly blessed to have her as one of us.

And if you add those 9 days to July 12th, you will see that today is my birthday! So, Happy Birthday to me! Yup, that's me in the 2nd photo at one years old. I still have a few more years in the 50's category so I'm not freaking out about this birthday. I'm actually really grateful to be as happy, healthy and involved as I seem to be right now. Not too much exciting planned for today other than the wedding of a niece, lunch with some of the kids and RED VELVET CAKE! Here's to another year in the books!!

Quilt of the week

I thought I'd feature this quilt today. This quilt hangs in my family room. I made it specifically for this room. I started the quilt in August 2002 and finished it in July of 2003. I had wanted to make a quilt for my family room for quite some time but at the time I was past president of the Utah Quilt Guild and as such it was my responsibility to head up the guild's annual 4 day convention to be held the 3rd week of September. As an added challenge, I had chosen to hold the convention in St George, Utah for the first time ever. Since most of the quild members live in northern Utah, this was quite the hub bub. I was totally immersed in this endeavor and I felt like I had been doing nothing but difficult, not always pleasant, challenging, time consuming coordinating and planning and organizing things non-stop and one day I just had to do something for myself. So I walked into a quilt shop and found this pattern and found all the fabric and just immersed myself in a little creative release. Ahhhhh, I felt so much better!

The star portion of this quilt is totally machine pieced but the border design is all hand appliqued and I did hand quilt this one as well. The pattern came from a book titled "Civil War Women" by Barbara Brackman and the pattern is named "Tobacco Worm". The pattern was adapted from a quilt made some time between 1840 and 1865 and in the original quilt, portions of the quilt were made using a fabric that was the exact same green color as a tobacco worm, hence the name. That name doesn't really do a lot for me so I call this quilt "Saved by a Star" because I felt like my sanity was saved by tackling this project at such an intense time for me. By the way, the quilt convention was a huge success attended by over 450 participants and 2 years later the convention was held in St. George again because everyone enjoyed it so much. Whew, I lucked out with the quilt and the event!! Win -- Win!

Our own Tour de France 2006

July is a much anticapted month in our household for another reason entirely --- the Tour de France bicycle race. We have been watching and following this annual event for years. Even back as far as the Greg Lemond days. But in the last 7 or so years, Paul has become a serious bicyclist and it became his dream to go to France and ride some of those exact mountains and routes that the Tour de France covers. So 2004 was going to be the year... Paul was turning 60 and that was going to be his commemoration event. Unfortunately the ATV accident took that "honor" instead and the trip was postponed until last summer. Paul found a tour company that specialized in this exact kind of adventure so we jumped on board. It turned out to the one of the absolute highlights of our whole life!!! There were only seven people in our tour group so that was very enjoyable. Katherine, the head tour guide and van driver; Eric, the on-the-bicycle tour guide; Tom, from NYC and his girlfriend, Cynthia; Pascal, a native Frenchman but recently living in NYC; and Paul and myself. I did not do any bicycling -- French Alps are not for amateurs -- I just enjoyed the scenery from my chauffered van. Paul had worked very hard to be in good shape physically and he was glad he had prepared so well because those mountains are brutal to bicyclists but he was tough and accomplished all that he set out to.

Our trip started a little frustrating since Paul's bike and suitcase did not actually arrive in Lucern, Switzerland with us. Pascal's didn't either but he just went out and bought another bike. Paul tracked his bike down and determined that he would miss the first day of riding but that his bike would catch up to us so he tried to be patient while he rode in the van the first day. As annoying as it was, it turned out to be a good thing and he was more than ready to get riding when it finally arrived. Now as we watch each day's stage of this year's tour de France, Paul is watching the race and I'm watching the scenery and reliving that fabulous, once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Our LUCKY little Connor!

Just as scheduled, Connor arrived promptly at 2:25 pm on Sat. July 7, 2007! He is our "Lucky number 7" little boy: he was born on 7/7/07 and he is the 7th member of his family and he is our 7th grandchild and he is the 7th grandchild on his daddy's side of the family too. Those are just the quirky lucky things... the really important lucky things include being born into such a wonderful, loving, adoring family and arriving healthy and whole... such a blessing and a relief. I was truly the lucky one to be able to be present when he entered this life. Despite all the technology and advances in the medical world, child birth is still a "labor of love" and a very spiritual experience. It was so awesome to be there and witness his first breath and his introduction to this world and his loving parents and two grandmothers. It brought tears of joy and relief and gratitude to everyone.

He is adjusting well to his new surroundings outside his mother's tummy. He is such a delightful little spirit even though he mostly sleeps and eats and he does not cry at all... wow, I wonder how long that will last?!? His siblings are delighted beyond belief to have him here. It is always kind of disappointing though when they realize that he really doesn't acknowledge all of their attention and he's not ready to go skateboarding yet. His big sister, Capri (by 11 months exactly as she will be 1 on Aug. 7th) is not very impressed by this blue bundle that is stealing all her thunder. She is too young to understand "be soft" when she reaches out and tries to grab a chunk of his face. Things here are starting to settle into a routine. Paul came into town yesterday and even though Capri is quite leary of him, Connor loves to sleep in his Grandpa's arms ... so sweet. We are so happy to be allowed to participate in this momentous occassion; we'll never forget being here at this special time --- we are all so LUCKY!