We finished three of the memory quilts!!

Adah has been working on some memory quilts for a little under six years now. At first they were just an idea and then she started buying fabric. Then she started to cut the fabric and later they were sewn together, quilted (by a good friend) and finally bound by Adah, her sisters and mother. They are in memory of Adah's sister, Maude, who died just under six years ago. All the fabric reminds those who loved and knew Maude about her. There is a square with panda bears on it as that was her favorite animal, one with sunflowers (a flower she always grew) and then one of her birthstone and on and on. Chrissy also donated a bunch of her scrub tops Maude had made her and Adah picked out the stitches and cut the fabric to make quilt squares. It had taken a long time but they were pretty near complete before we left on our trip. Together Adah, her mom and two sisters finished hand sewing the bindings on in Vermont and Boston (these photos are taken before Chrissy's binding was sewn down completely but they did finish it). The owner of the quilts are holding them in the photos. Adah worked very hard on these she even did two applique squares of a bell tower and another of a mountain range with trees. They are fairly small quilts. Not big enough for a twin bed but still a good size for a lap quilt. Adah feels so good to have finished these quilts!

We love and miss Maude so much and hopefully these quilts will help us remember her and her life.

A sad post

Adah's aunt Shirley died while we were visiting Vermont. She was older and had been sick but not terribly sick. As far as the doctors could tell she got a bad infection and stopped eating and drinking. The antibiotics did not help much but the pain medicine helped her stay comfortable for the last few days of her life. She will be missed. We had a small grave side service in the small cemetery in Vermont near Adah's parents house. It was a nice service we prayed, sang, had a few readings and the pastor spoke.

On a side note the woman Adah and Elsie are named after is also buried there at that cemetery, Ada Elsie-Mae Cole. So we stopped by and took a few photos of her grave too.

Vermont 2014

We had such a great time in Vermont this year. We rented a house with Chrissy, Adah's sister and her family and we had a blast. We got to spend time with lots of cousins, relax in the hammock, play games, pick wild flowers, roast marshmallows in a fire pit, sew, play in the river by Auntie Teddy's house and pick lots and lots of blueberries. I guess I never got a picture of the blueberry picking which is sad and I never got down to the river when the kids where swimming and playing there either! Oh well next year I will try to do a better job. Will had to leave on a business trip half way through the week but we still had fun. We saw a few friends there and got to go to church and see more old friends there too. We love and miss our family so much but we will see them again next summer if not earlier.

July 2014

This was a busy month. We have had some fun hair dues and some games of peek-a-boo. Catherine also likes to put food in her hair sometimes, which is no good! Catherine is learning lots of new tricks. At the beginning of the month she stood up on her own and balanced there. She eventually took her first step in Vermont on July 29th. She learned how to say bye (bah) and wave and she also will kiss us if we ask for one. She likes to give us zerberts when ever she sees our tummies and sometimes just our backs. She can also say moo and dada and mama. 

Elsie loves to play spy at grandma and grandpas house too. Her classes on line went well this summer. Our sunflowers we planted by mistake are huge! Here they are in July and if you can imagine they have grown even more by now! One Saturday in July we took a long drive to the Golden Stake Monument and to see The Spiral Jetty in The Great Salt Lake. This was our first trip after getting our new car...which I will have to take a picture of soon. It was really fun and Tyler and Katie came with us. 

Wills sister from NYC came to visit and the girls got to play with their cousin. We celebrated 12 years of marriage this year. We forgot to get pictures of us but we did get one of the flowers Will got Adah. Then we went to Vermont for the last few days of the month. We will post about that later. 

The fourth of July

We had a great fourth of July. We got up and went to the local parade and saw lots of fun things. After that we just hung out with family. Will's mom came to the parade and spent the day with us after going home to get a few things. The girls played and swam in the kiddy pool we had in the back yard. Will's siblings came over too. Then we grilled some hot dogs for dinner and Flora made her cute dog buns as well. She also made a fun fruit salad with the fruit being cut out as stars!