How To Do It:

* Unpick the hood where it crosses over itself in front, leaving about a 2" gap
* Turn the hoodie inside out and find the center of the front (from the neck to the bottom), then mark a line down the center
* Iron a 5/8" wide piece of fusable, lightweight interfacing from the neck to the bottom of the hoodie, along the line you drew

* Pin a separating zipper (with the zipper head on the inside) on top of the 5/8" interfacing you just ironed on the center line. Baste with big stitches down both sides.


* Use your sewing machine with a zipper foot to sew down both sides of the zipper, about 1/4" from the zipper itself.


* Turn hoodie right side out and very carefully slide your scissors between the zipper and the hoodie so you're only cutting the hoodie - not the zipper. Then cut all the way up between the two lines of stitching, unzip the zipper, and there you go!

Last Christmas, I Gave You My Heart . . .

I didn't know what to do for the kids for Christmas, but then came up with this idea: a yard of polar fleece, finish the edges, then stuff a pair of mini gloves with regular batting and sew one to each corner of the "blanket". It's a hug from Grandma when Grandma isn't around. Brayden ingeniously came up with the name "Huggies"! They were a big hit. Nineteen month old Ellie just rolled around on the floor in hers.

I Love Grandparents' Day!

Of course I had to stop and see my other two adorable grandkids (Ellie was asleep)

Brayden is learning to read and write!

Brayden was all about the scary faces pose. When his teacher asked him to introduce me, He crawled up on my lap and hid his face on my neck while giving me a big hug.

Victoria is such a talented writer!



Best reason to take time off work: Grandparents' Day! We had so much fun filling out a questionnaire about our likes and dislikes - and we have a lot of the same things. Victoria said, "You could check me and Brayden out and take us out to lunch if you want - just a suggestion" :) A few weeks later, Kim surprised them both by checking them out of school and taking them to lunch.

Halloween Festivities

After our dinner of "worms on a bun" (strips of hot dogs, boiled until they curled), we made spiders out of Oreos, etc. Note Audrey's extra long legs.

Ellie didn't bother making a spider - she just ate the ingredients.

Bear Lake on Labor Day Weekend

Kim and I spent the day at one of my most favorite places with some of our most favorite people :)

Ellie loved the water and marched around and then lifted her legs straight out.
We had such a great time that we decided to make this a yearly tradition!

Best Day Ever!

We stopped for lunch at the Scenic Overlook. It was crazy windy, so Audrey wore Mommy's hat so she could eat without her hair getting in her face and food :)

"She's a Dancin' Machine"

She can dance, sing AND walk!