Here's the picture of the fair blanket. In the picture the colors are more dull than the blanket actually is, but you can get a good idea. Let me know what you think!
Yes, I really am back. Life has been crazy hectic lately, but it's finally starting to settle down. Finally. And I am SO relieved. These last however many months have been a whirlwind, and it's hard to keep my head on straight sometimes. :)
Danielle is 11 weeks old now. It's amazing how big she is. Remember that picture I posted of when she was first born, when she was in her carseat, with that blue thing around her head to support it? Well, we use that blue thing in her seat that she sleeps in, and she barely fits in it anymore. :) She's such a sweet baby. She finally started smiling a couple weeks ago, which is so nice. It's awesome to walk up to her, and she just breaks out into this HUGE grin. You would think that her face was gonna explode or something if she smiled any bigger. :) Sometimes it looks like she's trying to laugh. It seems like sometimes she tries so hard to talk, but she just can't make any sound come out. It's adorable. There's this thing I do to make her smile, (kind of like blowing raspberries, but different) and she seriously tries to do it back to me. You can see her trying, but she just can't make any sound come out. A couple of times she's tried so hard she's just spit up in my face. :D She sleeps most of the night now. The only times she's awake is when she's eating, and then she goes right back to sleep. Mom still hasn't been able to sleep in her bed for more than a couple nights since Danielle was born, but she'll get there eventually.
Dad's taken this whole week off from work so we can get some projects around here done. The last time he took time off was when we went to California, (right after I started this blog) and I don't even know before that. It may have been when we went to Mexico for my aunt and uncle's wedding back in 2003? Or maybe it was 2004. I'm not really sure. So anyway, it's been awhile. We've spent the whole week working on 2 major projects: a chicken coop, and the garden. The chicken coop is massive. I mean like 10' x 30' massive. I told Dad that if we left the walls off we could have a really awesome ramada. :D The framing is all up, and the roof is almost done. Dad is putting shingles on the roof. I'm not really sure why we're giving the chickens such a special chicken coop that has shingles on the roof, but hey, that's what he's doing. Truthfully, I'm not too keen on having chickens. We used to have them a long time ago, and I really didn't like them too much. There's smelly, loud, and just kind of a pain in the neck. But they give us eggs, so that's fine. :) Mom says we're going to start with 75 chickens. 75. That's a whole lot of chickens. I'm not sure when we're going to get them though. We're in a rush to get the chicken coop done because it's supposed to rain on Tuesday, (YES!!!!!) but we're not in that big of a hurry to get the chickens.
Our other project is the garden. That's taken a whole lot of work. First we had to get all of the weeds out of the area and till it, (we didn't do that this week though, we did that before) and then we had to fertilize it. So we had to do soil tests to figure out what needed to be put into the soil, and then actually do it. That part didn't take too long actually. What probably took the longest was raking in the fertilizer once it was in the soil. The good thing was that it was dry, so it wasn't hard. :) Then we had to plow it. Mom decided that instead of doing our stuff in rows, like you would normally do, that we're going to do it in boxes, and put marigolds around the boxes. Apparently marigolds are supposed to detract some bugs or something. Or maybe it was rabbits. I'm not sure. :) So we had to plow the dirt, and then because our soil is so dry here (from lack of rain), we had to get down on our hands and knees and actually form the hills to put the seeds in. That wasn't bad, except for the fact that I had to wear jeans. Anyone who knows me knows I HATE wearing jeans. Like detest them. I don't know why, but I just don't like them. Maybe I just don't like drawing that much attention to my legs. Maybe that's it. I'm really not sure. But anyway, I don't like jeans. This might give you an indication of how often I wear them. So we have these friends who we've known for 10+ years. (Our pastor's family) Last year we went to some fireworks with them, and it was late fall, so it was cold. So Mom suggested that we wear pants. I wasn't too keen on the idea, but I was like 'Ok, yeah, it'll probably be cold. I can do jeans tonight.' So we all get in our jeans and we go. And you know what the first thing I hear out of Azlan's (the pastor's son) mouth is??? "KAYLA!!! YOU'RE IN PANTS!!!!!" Now remember, I've known him for over 10 years now, and he couldn't believe I was in pants. :) That should give you an indication of how often I wear them. But anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. So we have half of the garden plowed, and the other half still to do. We haven't planted anything yet, other than some vegetables you have to start inside. They're actually coming along pretty nicely. I took some pictures, and I'll have to post them soon. They're actually pretty cool. :) It's neat watching stuff grow before your eyes.
I've been having to do a lot of crocheting lately, as always. It seems like every time I finish a blanket, I have a new one to make. Which is fine with me. I don't mind too much. It's certainly helping me save up to go to Alaska this summer. At least I hope I'm going. My friend that I want to go see is in Seattle right now doing mission work, and she won't be back 'till June. She doesn't have time to email, and the phone that I would call her or text her on she left in Alaska for her other siblings to use. So right now I really can't talk to her to find out what's going on. We'll have to see what happens. And even if I don't end up going, I can certainly use the money. I've been wanting to get a laptop sometime in the next year or two. Maybe that could happen. That would really help both my business and my blogging. The only computer we have here (the one I'm on right now) I don't like at all, and so it's kind of a pain in the neck to use. So a laptop would really help. So maybe if I don't get to go to Alaska I can get one. That and a bike. That's something I've been wanting too.....
Oh! By the way, I just found this awesome blog through Etsy. It's called Broken Into Beautiful. I am totally in love with this blog. It's by this lady named Jess who posts really great pictures of her outfits every day. They're really great pictures, and really neat outfits. Some of them are not something I would wear, just because they show a little bit too much skin for my taste, but they've given me lots of great ideas. A bunch of them you look at, and go 'Oh wow. I would NOT have put those together, but that looks amazing!' I especially like the outfit she wore for Easter last week. It was really awesome. So, just thought I'd share for anyone who was interested. :)
We have a LOT of major events going on in the next couple months. 2 weeks from Sunday we have our annual picnic in the park that our church does. It's always amazing. We all go to the park and have our service right there. We barbecue, play baseball and football, do music stuff, and have a blast. I am so looking forward to it. We're going to be there at 8:30 because we're setting up, but the service won't start 'till 10. It'll be interesting to see what the weather will be like. The first year we did it it was freezing, and last year it was like 105*. So we'll have to see what happens this year. :D
We also have the fair coming up the end of this month. Well, actually I think it's the 18th through the 28th. We're going to go to celebrate Hannah's, Jonathan's and David's birthdays. We always go for Hannah's. It's kind of a tradition. And this year it'll be kind of special, since Hannah and I have both entered things into the fair. I entered my blanket, (I'm gonna HAVE to post pictures of it eventually) and Hannah entered a picture she took. We'll have to see what happens. If I don't win anything, I'm perfectly fine with it. It was just a neat experience.
PLUS, we have 2 recitals coming up next month. The homeschool recital that I sung in last year, and Hannah's and my violin recital. I'm still trying to decide whether I'm gonna sing again or not. I'm not sure. I have a song picked out, but I don't know if I'll do it. If I don't sing, then Hannah and I will probably play our violins. For our violin recital, I have no idea what we're doing yet. I won't know for awhile still. Last year we just picked the songs we were working on, and we didn't decide what we were going to do until 2 weeks before. But that worked out fine. It wasn't a big deal. We'll probably do the same this year. Although I have a feeling I know which song I'll be doing. Here's a video off of Youtube of the song.
It's super fast, and it would be a challenge, but I think I can do it. We'll have to see what my teacher says.
Oh! One last thing before I sign off. I got my driving permit about 2 weeks ago! :) I'm pretty excited about it. I only got to drive about 3 miles last week, but I've gotten to drive a lot this week. Both Mom and Dad have actually let me drive in town. That doesn't sound like anything special, since we're in a small town, but there's actually a lot of traffic mid-town. We're the only town for miles, so a lot of people stop here on their way through. So there's actually a LOT of traffic in town. I was actually surprised that they let me drive in town so soon. But so far I haven't hit anything. :) Although I did once mistake the gas for the brake. Hehehe. But at least I was coming up to the place that I'd pull out of the parking lot I was in, so I didn't come anywhere close to hitting anything. :D
And I'm realizing as I'm writing this that I REALLY need to change the pictures of all of us on the side of my blog. They're such old pictures. After I post this I'm going to try and find some new pictures to post. Last October we went and did a huge photo shoot at the park down here, and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get some pictures from there. If not, then I'll get Hannah to take some pictures tomorrow. I just got this really pretty outfit this week that I could wear. :)
Hm... I guess that's all for now. In the next couple days I'm going to try and post pictures of Danielle, the blanket for the fair, and the chicken coop and garden.