The post that is Disneyland

Hooray!!! I'm finally posting about this almost exactly 6 months late. How's that for timing? Nice.

I'm sure this will be more pictures than words since, you know, we created these memories 6 months ago. But I'll give it my best go.

We left for Disneyland April 29th, 2012.

Spent the night in Vegas and then headed for California and a beach afternoon on Monday. Kevin and the older two kids LOVED the beach and boogie boarded for hours. The younger two kids tried to like the water until a wave knocked them down face first. That was the end of their water adventures. But they LOVED the sand.

Me? I don't do the ocean. I love looking at it and being on the beach, but the salt of the water and, frankly, the fact that BIG fish with lots of BIG teeth also live in that water keeps me safely on shore.

This was Sanders' first time ever at Disneyland. I'm pretty sure I was more excited about it than he was.

I made these next shirts with my silhouette my in-laws gave me for Christmas.

 

 I love that machine as if it were one of my children and use it often. The shirts are pretty cool and we were all super happy with them.

Sanders riding Casey Jr. he would have been happy to do that all day!

The super fun part about this trip was my sister, Annie, her cute family, and my mom and Dave came with us! My mom's legs aren't really known for the amount of walking she can do. They opted to rent a wheel chair and she HATED every minute of it. It was probably the right choice at least for the first day, but for the rest of the time, mom was sans wheels and did just fine. Hooray!

As you can see, these cousins adore each other and can't be bothered to stop moving and playing with each other for a lousy picture ;)

Does this not just CAPTURE the Disney magic? Look at those sparkle eyes!

I think Karaia was feeling nervous because those hands stayed up in all the pictures

waiting in line for Star Tours. Mr T was super excited to be tall enough to ride this!

Awwww, Sanders' first pair of Mickey Ears. SUCH a treat to give the kids their first pair.

The stinker wouldn't look at the camera. What can you do? He's still cute. And those mouse ear...I die of cuteness over load.

And now we come to the series of mom-really-REALLY-would-like-one-nice-picture-of-all-of-us-so-let's-be-as-crazy-as-possible

What is Sanders doing?

Still they are hilarious and so I include them.

Again, Sanders?

soooooo close

Clearly this is Beckham's favorite part

Good job, Beckham! Wait. Where did Sanders go? Tennyson has decided that slapping himself with the strap is a better option than looking in the camera. Nice.

Almost....

Wait, Sanders disappeared again.

3 out of the four are at least smiling. Let's take a few more just to see if we can get lucky.

And Sanders has disappeared yet again....sigh.

This is as good as it get! At least we can see everyone's eyes.

Waiting for It's a small world.

My four little Mousketeers

I think it's a rule that the youngest child must fall asleep at least once in the stroller. Thanks for keeping the rules cute Sanders.

The Second day of Disney. I made my shirt, the kid's shirts and Karaia's skirt. They loved them. Sanders did NOT like his picture taken.

Told you. He was NOT happy we were taking pictures.

Tennyson, however, wanted to make SURE you saw his great new shirt his mom made him.

Tennyson is making up for Sanders smiling by smiling even bigger.

Disney cuteness for sure!

Can't ask for a better backdrop.

Love this picture of Beckham.

These two are such good buddies.

I promise Kevin was having fun! I'm not even being sarcastic. He really was. He just looks kind of grumpy when pictures capture him relaxed. It's a running joke.

Great now Kevin is smiling, what's up with everyone else?!?!?!

We also went over to California Adventure on that second day to meet up with the Lawson's and mom and Dave. Annie and I collaborated to make similar  shirts for our kids. Fun times!


Now to try and get double the amount of children to look. at. the. camera!

L to R: Sanders (3), Beckham (7), Brenner (4), Mckinney (6), Davis (2), Tennyson (4), Karaia (9), Brightynn (8)

Clearly, it's time for a dance party!

These next ones are pictures Tennyson took. I think he did a good job!

See, they had these turkey legs that were nearly as big as your head. Kevin couldn't resist. I think he may have been more in love with that leg than with me for a few moments.

Onto the 3rd day! The Lawson's had left by then and boy did we notice. The kids kept asking where their cousins where.

AND because I am a gluten for punishment, I tried to take pictures of the kids. When will I ever learn.

At least they were having fun. Doesn't Karaia look adorable?

At one point Karaia and Beckham thought it would be funny if I took pictures of them "fighting"

I'm so glad Beckham is choosing to fight like a girl because he is fighting with a girl. Classic.

Can you tell it's the third day by the look on Kevin's face? Happy but exhausted.

What's this?! A rare sighting of the mom! Hooray! I was actually there!

Back on Casey jr. He loved it so much.

This was the best! All Tennyson talked about before going to Disneyland was doing the Jedi Training. The first day we tried it was rained out. This was our very, very last chance and he got chosen!

I thought it was so cool how they came up from the ground.

The last night there we decided that ice cream for dinner was the thing to do when at Disneyland. It was perfect.

He makes a good pirate!

And then we went home. We closed the park out every night. It was a great vacation. Sanders talks about Disneyland nearly every day. We can't wait to go back!

PS looking back I remember more pictures with Nana and Pappa. I wonder where they are? Hmm...I'm going to have to go and find those.

Small success are big to the small ones

• 
  
  My morning was kind of grumpy because of some choices the older kids were making, me being classified as one of the older kids as well.
  
   BUT, amidst all of that I managed to remember that today, the 3 year old got to be Captain at preschool. He's been looking forward to it for a long time. Talking about it on every preschool day since the beginning of October. I even remembered in enough time this morning to help him make sucker ghosts for his treat to share. (Thank goodness I threw myself out of bed at 5:30am this morning to go work out. It's rough, but the extra time I seem to have in the mornings is good stuff.)
  
  When I dropped him off he giggled to his teacher that is was HIS turn to be captain and that he had brought sucker ghosts that he got to help make. Also, that the boots he was wearing because it snowed for the first time this season had a line pattern on the bottom. That's important information right there.
  
   He was so full of joy.
  
  I'm glad I had the presence of mind to think, "If nothing else goes right today, I am going to remember that for him, it was the best. day. ever!"
  
  Not a whole lot got done the rest of the day, but I feel like today mattered. I made it count. I did what was really important. The one single item I am able to cross of the list was worth more points that the rest of the list put together.
  
  To end the night on a high point, Beckham attended his first Pack meeting and earned his Bobcat. I got a Mother's pin for his hard work. Truth be told, the pin belongs to Kevin. They have been rock stars together as far as this scouting thing is concerned. Me? Well, I am just going to make darn sure this pin doesn't get lost!
  
  
  
  
  

  

  

  
  

  
  

  

  
  
  It's lovely to go to bed knowing the day was used well. 

Signing THE contract

It happened.

I am talking about IT !

Today, on this very normal day in October, I signed a contract agreeing to let some very nice people use my designs on fabric! I am officially a fabric designer!

PS don't you LOVE the desk I refinished?!?!! Sigh. It makes me super happy.

I seriously can't believed I just typed that and it's not even an exaggeration! Or an imagination. Or a dream! It's reality. My reality no less.

Wow.

It makes me tear up with joy.

I can't spill who it is with yet, but I promise you are going to want to start following me because things are going to start moving quickly!

OK, here's the back story:

I work for Pick Your Plum and a new sister company called Downtown Tape. DTT just launched at the beginning of August and hit the ground running. By the end of August I was drowning in my work load. We had been asked to be part of Scrapbook USA's expo when we were one week old and I had the great opportunity to plan the booth and get everything organized. With the expo came a couple of TV slots, that I was lucky enough to be part of, and all of the behind the scenes prep work you would imagine. Thankfully, my sister, Annie, was in on everything with me. She is one to have on your team if you want to get things done!

Me and Annie after putting together the booth all day. Don't judge. At the time, we were hilarious.  Promise.

ANYWAY, back to the drowning feeling. There were just too many nights I would go to sleep realizing my children and I had been in the same house together ALL day and I had not really seen them. That was not OK. They weren't going to be little forever. I wasn't working because I have to. My jobs are hobbies. I enjoy them. I don't make much money, but that isn't why I'm doing it. One day I woke up and it was ALL I was doing. Not cool.

So I decided that DTT had to go. That was a hard, hard, HARD decision to walk away from something that is so successful that you've been with from the beginning. Hard! By the time the expo rolled around at the end of September, even though I knew I had made the right decision, I finally felt it. I was fine walking away. I was excited to put that energy toward my kids.

The first day of the expo, September 28th, we were busy! We had a small 10 x 10 space and for the first 4 hours had a minimum of 20 women in that space with us all buying our washi tape . It was a blast! I remember hearing my phone ring a couple of times, but we were so busy I did not have one second to even look at it.

It's cute right!

After the biggest rush ended I glanced at my phone. I saw one number I didn't recognize and then Kevin's.  I called Kevin and he asked if I'd gotten a call from a girl I knew of, but had never met. I told him I didn't know because I hadn't had much time to be with my phone. He went on to explain that someone I have many mutual friends with, but had yet to personally meet, had been following my blog. Not only had she been following my blog, but she was starting her own fabric manufacturing company and she wanted to talk....to me....about my designs.

Hold. the. phone!

I remember being in shock. I didn't have time to really process what I had just been told. The craziness of the booth demanded my attention. For the next two days I held it in my heart until I could really let it soak in.

From there we talked. New company. Not launched yet. New business model. LOVE your designs. We are so excited by them. We would like you to be a part of this. And my favorite quote from all of this

"Well, if people are ever critical of you being so open with your dreams and if they ever tell you not to be too public... you can ignore them. If you hadn't been so gushingly excited about your goal to design fabric, I would have never known you were interested or even trying. So I am anxious to see where this takes us."

Chills. For sure.

Until today. Less than one month, a mere 27 days, from the first call. The signing of a contract!!!!!!!!!! After I signed and they signed I squealed, "YAY!!! Can we hug?"

"Ummm....sure...if you want to...I guess..." ( It was a man. I'm pretty sure I terrified him)

"Oh GOOD! 'Cause I'm a hugger!"

That's right I sucked him right out of business world straight into Emilie-land. In my defense, we were in my home. There's a certain level of realness I like to maintain when I am home. My real self hugs people when she's happy. I told him to get used to it. Again....terrified him. ;)

Do I think that it's a coincidence that on the day that I had finally, truly made peace with letting go of something that was taking me away from my family I got THE call. The call I have been working towards for three years. A call that came out of the blue, unsolicited, and gifted to me.

No. I absolutely do not.

When I told Annie about the call she made a good observation that I could just be possibly taking one thing off my plate only to fill it with something else and thus my plate would be too full once again.

But it hasn't felt that way. Thankfully, it hasn't been that way either.

What it has felt like is a blessing for doing a hard thing. For walking away from something really good to make room for something even better. To allow my Heavenly Father to take me down the road HE needs me to go. So I can be in the places I can do the best good. Make the most difference. Be who He sent me to be.

And do you know what? I have made more time for my kids. I have stopped in the middle of MY agenda to just be with them in whatever adventure they have created from that day. I have not had one. single. sleepless. night because I felt regret from not spending the time with them they deserve. Not one. It feels really good.

That's HUGE for me. That used to be an every night event I took part in.

I haven't had a moment of mommy guilt because I am also chasing BIG dreams. I am being the mom I want to be. Of course I am not perfect. That just keeps it interesting ;) But I am better. I am more intentional. I am soaking in all their little soul's goodness and tucking it away in my heart so I can snuggle with it when they are too old to be snuggled.

So the phone call was a gift, in more ways than I even realized until now. Letting DTT go was a gift. Trusting that He knew more than me is always a gift. I am SO excited to start this new part of the journey. I still cannot believe the waiting is over!

It's a good day, my friends. An extraordinarily good day!

If I could be so bold to ask for even more awesomeness today, if you read this, would you leave me a little comment below. I print this blog off as a book and I want to document every piece of this part of the journey and remember everyone who celebrated with me!

Thank you!

A Boy's scripture bag

As you know I've made a few scripture bags for girls. Or maybe you don't since my blogging has been so sporadic this year. In any case, I have. I was looking forward to working with a different pattern in anticipation for Beckham's big day. As it turns out our cousin is an amazing seamstress and had a pattern that was perfect for Beckham's request for his bag. She sent the pattern right over.

The cool thing is she trusted me with half of a pattern. It wasn't quite finished, but she felt I just might have the skills to do it anyway. I would say that was mostly true. Except for the part where I misread a whole step and didn't add the lining at the top *blush* Oh well. As I told Skye, the white (that was supposed to also include the striped lining fabric as well) is a special one of a kind feature of Beckham's bag. An extra pop of color if you will.

Inside out view

Inside out view. There should be brown and blue striped fabric on top of the white duck cloth. It's cool. It's a new feature ;) The suit fabric is an inside pocket.

Right side out, looking in

The truth is, when it's right side out, no one even notices.

I constructed the bag from suiting material. It felt masculine and timeless to me. I wanted something that was cool now, but would still be fitting as he grew older.

I added the grommets because metal is the perfect accessory for anything you give a boy.

 It's akin to something sparkly for a girl.

I also added one additional pocket more than the pattern called for. The big front pocket the grommets are on. Beckham is a pocket kind of a boy :)

Here is the exterior pocket the pattern calls for

Karaia helped me choose the mustard yellow zipper and thread.

LOVE the zipper pull tabs!

 We really went back and forth between what color to chose. I'm glad she was there to help!

I am thrilled with how it turned out. Nice and sturdy, great lines to look at, fun features like the zipper tabs, and fun to sew. Good times.

Beckham gets baptized

 
Today Beckham chose to be baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He really made that choice almost two years ago when he watched his sister get baptized. Since then, he has commented at least once a month, and recently, every Sunday, that he cannot WAIT until he gets baptized.

It was extra special today because two of Beckham's best buddies in the whole world, Bradley Russon and Austin Dunn, happen to be in our ward. They were all born within 30 days of each other. They were all eligible and chose to be baptized today.

I expect great things will come from this group of  boys. How can it not when an already great friendship has been added upon with an incredible spiritual bonding?

I've mentioned before that Beckham is my most outwardly spiritual child. When I asked him tonight was his favorite part of the whole day was he said, "Coming out of the water. Because then I knew I would get confirmed, receive the Holy Ghost and I was totally clean." 8 going on 18 right there.

Because there were three boys, we took turns with the baptisms and the confirmations. Beckham was second for both. After watching Bradley be confirmed, he walked up to sit in his seat. He was already teary eyed as is his nature when he is feeling the spirit. I was so, so proud of those boys today.

I had a real life break down yesterday because I stressed myself out getting everything ready. But after a good lean-on-the-wall kind of  cry I felt much better. Seriously. I was a mess. It was embarrassing. I was a complete wackadoodle.

Thank you Mom and Annie for helping me getting everything perfect and talking me down off the ledge :)

The other neat thing was all of Beckham's grandparents went in on getting him his first set of nice scriptures. They each wrote their testimonies in the covers. So much love for this darling boy.

This is the scripture bag I made Beckham using Skye O's pattern. It is such a great pattern. Thank you Skye for letting me test run it for you!

I don't want to take away from the specialness of the day so I will leave more pictures of the scripture bag tomorrow.

I think he likes it though!

Beckham, I think you made a great choice today. I have found so much joy from my choice to become a member of this church. There will be times when your faith is so strong and times when it seems to you that you have no faith at all. I have proven in my life that if I remember to keep the promises I made to Heavenly Father the day I got baptized He keeps up his end of the bargain too. Never be afraid to question for yourself and to seek your own personal revelation in what is truth. I'm proud of you! I hope your choice brings you joy!

This is one of those Parental Payoff days for sure!