My Latest Projects

I have been sewing my little behind off as of late, but I have enjoyed every second of it!  I thought I would post a few pictures of my latest projects.  

This is a purse I made for my friend Alyssa as a thank you gift.

This is an apron I made for my friend Sarah as a thank you gift.  I thought it turned out really cute.

This is another apron I made for my friend Sarah out of a men's dress shirt.  It is super fun!

This is an Angry Bird costume I helped my sister-in-law Kelli make for her son for Halloween this year

I love to sew and can't wait to do my next project what ever that might be.  :-]

Trip to Texas!

I had the opportunity to go and visit my sister Kaci in Dallas.  I had the best time!  I miss her being close.  It has been so many years I almost don't remember what it was like when she was here.  I do know that I didn't spend enough time with her that is for sure.  My parents were visiting and Troy was also there on business for a couple of days so we got to go out to dinner all together which doesn't ever happen.  We did miss the rest of the family though!  After my parents and Troy left Kaci and I went on a shopping spree.  She wanted to show me what shopping is Texas was like.

These are the belts!  Who needs that much bling?!

 This is a bracelet and ring combo that you really can only find in Texas!  I mean seriously!   

 I had to take a picture so that everyone can see what the store looked like.  It was wall to wall fun girly stuff.  Purses, jewelry, hair stuff, scarves, you name it.

This is my cute niece and nephew. 

 We had so much fun playing tag and I got to sit by them in the car whenever we went somewhere.  They were even sad to see me go!  Is it bad for me to say that makes me happy?

This is me and Kaci.  I am so glad I got to spend some time with her!  I love that girl!

This is the kids having fun in front of the camera.

Collective Soul Concert

Yet another Baxter family "tradition" (for lack of a better word) is to see Collective Soul in concert when they come to Wendover (Click to see post of Wendover show).  This year they came to Las Vegas, so we rounded up the usual suspects and drove on down.  This is Troy and his driving face.

This is Edda, Dave and Brandy and their Troy's driving faces.  ;-]

We saw the Lions at the MGM

Before the concert we went to the M&M store and watched their 3D movie (mostly because it was air conditioned).

We saw Bumblebee

And Batman

We walked miles and miles looking around in casino's and shopping centers.  Because I was with a couple of guys (Dave and Brandy came later that night) they didn't want to drive out to the outlets so I had to miss out on that (losers!)

These are the guitars donated to the Hard Rock by Collective Soul

Collective Soul played in a venue that is general admission only so it was harder to see but not too bad

Until everyone started to get really drunk and didn't realize where it was that they were standing or better yet whom it was they were standing on,near, or in front of.

It was a great show though! 

  

The End of an Era

Well I guess it's official. We have reached the end of an Era. I now officially have all my kids at some form of school for 2 hours 3 days a week. Thats right you guessed it! Sam has started preschool! He was so excited that morning. He picked this hat because he said it was his happy hat!He just goes to a preschool in a home in our neighborhood so it is nice and close and we can walk home and talk about what he did that day. He has had a little bit of trouble adjusting to a sit still and listen environment but he did really really great today so it looks like he is going to do really well. I am still not sure what to do with myself. Today I ate my breakfast and nobody asked me if they could have some or interrupted me to get something for them and then I watched something on TV that I picked and then I went for a walk. I am thinking that so far I am getting the better end of this deal! No seriously though I did miss him after the first hour and a half I wasn't sure what to do next. I think I might go stir crazy when he goes to first grade and I am home alone all day!

Congrats little buddy on starting preschool!!!
Mommy loves you!

Def Leppard Concert

What seems to be a yearly tradition we again went to the Def Leppard/ Heart concert. And yet again it was AWESOME! This year we went the Edda (Ryan) and Jenni Farmer. This is Troy and I getting ready to ROCK! This is our attempt to take a picture of all of us. Its Edda, Jenni, Me, and Troy. This is Heart, they went of first. They did pretty good. I love their songs! And for your viewing pleasure all the rest are of Def Leppard!

Back to School!

I always have Mixed emotions about this time of year. I am ready for the kids to go back to school because I have run out of ideas and they are bored. But I miss the sleeping in that comes with summer!!! Oh and I miss my kids too ;-] We decided to switch school for Morgan and Owen and put them back into public school. It seems to have been a good decision because they love it and have enjoyed every day. Owen even made a friend that lives just down the street that he can play with.
Mikayla has decided to take guitar and choir this year so her days are filled with music! She has also loved school and being back with her friends.
I am hoping that this whole loving school thing will last a very very long time!

Our Trip to California

Over the 4th of July we went and visited Troy's Dad at his beach house in a teeny tiny town called Cayucos, California. We had the best time. It is usually foggy and cold this time of year (well any time of year really!) But we had the most beautiful weather!

So because it costs a million dollars to fly anywhere we drove to California it took us 14 hours!!! Here are the kids smiling cause it is only a couple of hours into our drive. Here are some of the things we saw on the way. The Windmill Farm. The Airplane Graveyard.

On our second day we hiked up to the top of a hill where we saw the most amazing view. This is what we hiked to see. This is what Samuel was doing the whole time! He just jumped off rocks. Scared me so so much!!

The rest of the week we played at the beach,My kids are adorable right!!! My cute glitter toes!!

My sexy boogie boarder!!!

We built sand castles, We chillaxed (as Mikayla likes to say)

One night for dinner we built a fire on the beach and roasted hot dogs and made S'mores!!! We started our 4th of July by going down to the beach and seeing all the sand sculptures at the sand sculpture contest. Owen made his own sand sculpture. (its an alligator in case you were wondering)Next we watched the parade the town puts on. All the floats are made by residents and their families.After the parade we came back to Grandpa Mikes house and had dinner and the kids played in the hot tub. You would have thought it was a full sized pool by the tricks they were trying to pull in there!This is what we looked like watching the fireworks. It was so cold that I even put my hood up over my head and snuggled next to my cute hubby! This is our view of the fireworks. This is Mikayla and Grandpa Mike in the Kayak. I didn't want to take the camera with us just in case we tipped over so I don't have any pictures of us in the kayak but I did take a couple after I had gotten out and the kids went for a second ride. Owen and Grandpa Mike. This is Mikayla, Me, Cynthia, Morgan and Sam in our super cute life jackets! This is Troy and the kids at Elephant Seal beach. The boys love to watch them fight. The girls just think its weird! This is Troy and the kids by the City sign of Harmony, CA. If you look closely you can see that there are only 18 people in Harmony and they still have their own post office! (Don't get Troy started about this!!) But they have a little shop where they blow glass by hand and you can watch them. The kids thought it was really cool! This is a couple of the pieces they make.
But the best thing we did was spend an entire week with our little family with no interruptions. It was AWESOME. It has kind of been a tradition for us but I enjoyed it more this time then I have in the past so I will probably be better about making sure it is on our calendar quicker and more often.