The Alston Family: June 2013

Sunday, June 30, 2013

June - The Month Of...

Quilting!

This was an especially fun one for me and a project that I looked forward to for a long time. I have ALWAYS wanted to make a quilt, but I have been so intimidated.

The best part was that of all the fabrics we carry at Beverly's, there was a collection that I was particularly excited about and had my eyes on for years, so when it got pulled last month for an upcoming sale, I knew I was going to have to make something fabulous with it.

We decided it was best suited for a Family Home Evening blanket.

The idea to make an FHE blanket came from a talk in sacrament meeting a couple months back. A new family in our ward was speaking, and the mom had all these adorable and awesome family ideas, so I wrote them all down! One of my favorites was making an FHE blanket, so that on your weekly family night, the kids all sit on the special blanket, which gathers everyone together and makes it into a little game. Plus, how cool is that to have a special handmade blanket JUST for family night?? Sold.

First, Jon and I browsed Pinterest together to find quilts that we liked the looks of. I wanted to make sure our quilt was something we both loved to look at and work on.

Then I searched for Easy/Beginner Quilt Patterns. I especially loved this lady's links. I had more hope for the project to turn out well when she said:

"Your first quilt should be a project that you'll finish with ease -- something that will make you say "bring on the next quilt." All of these quilt patterns are a good choice for beginning quilters, but I write all patterns with detailed instructions, so be sure to browse the website for more -- you might be surprised how many quilt patterns look difficult, but are actually quite easy"

Bring it on, quilting!

***

Well, here we are. 11pm on June 30th. The last day of the month.

Our quilt pretty much looks like this:

On June 13th we had a pretty good run of cutting out strips and measuring... then Jon turned into a quilt ninja.

At least we did a lot of good prep work! I'm glad that we can keep working on it over this Summer. June turned out to be a lot more crazy than anticipated.

So, for the month of quilting - FAIL. But that doesn't mean that the project has died. We will follow up when we come back around to it :) Looks like we just needed a little more motivation on this one.

Saturday, June 15, 2013

NOT a Father's Day

This morning Katherine decided she was going to make waffles.

She opened up our cookbook and said, "Here mom, use this measuring cup!"

She helped me put all the ingredients in the bowl, and talked to me the whole time while waving her measuring cup around.

Then she said, "Look, mom. I think we need to appreciate dad and all he does. Cuz we love him a ton. Right??"

"He deserves a special breakfast! But NOT for Father's Day, because he said he doesn't want anything."

I said, "You're right!" and we cooked him bacon and hash browns too.

Katherine helped me color a "NOT a Father's Day card" earlier this week, so that Jon would know how much we love him on the day before Father's Day and ALL days of the year.

When I got home from work, Jon's "NOT a Father's Day present" had arrived! Katherine helped me pick it out. I told Jon he could open it today because it was NOT for Father's Day. He can wear it on Sundays and at his new teaching job (since he wears a dress shirt and tie everyday now). We wanted Jon to remember us and how much we appreciate him every time he sees it!

He is such a good dad and loves to make Katherine giggle. She lights up and smiles when he looks at her across the room. He works so hard to do good things for our family and brings the priesthood to our home, which we are so blessed by! We like to appreciate him every day of the year, of course, but this is the first year that he is officially a dad, so Kate really wanted to do something for him.We think it turned out pretty fun!

We love you, Jon! Happy NOT Father's Day :)

Monday, June 10, 2013

Bath Time

Sunday, June 9, 2013

June Delights

June has never been my favorite month, or one that I really gave a second thought to - but THIS June so far has been full of a lot of things I love!

It's already Summer here in Loomis and we've been enjoying friend's pools and barbecues to beat the heat. The strawberry stands are open, and we're on evening walks more often while the air is still warm. My favorite!

Kate has been moving and crawling more than ever. She even gets up on all fours instead of just army crawling! It is so much fun to watch :)

Jon and I FINALLY got to see the theatrical Les Miserables in Sacramento!

dolled up for the theatre

Jon's parents got us tickets for Christmas, so we've had the receipt posted on the fridge for months. We were excited last week when we realized it was finally here!

Seeing Les Mis on stage was wonderful. The music was breathtaking and the humor was so captivating. I love seeing a story unfold on stage. There is something so fun about a play that you just don't feel in a movie. Jon and I are huge fans of live music and entertainment always, so it was right up our alley. PLUS we looked amazing ;) That's our kind of date night!

Last week I read The Great Gatsby. I know what you're thinking - you just NOW read The Great Gatsby?? Well, it was one of the few books from high school that I just didn't care about at the time. I didn't really give it the chance it deserved. Jon has a really awesome old copy of it, so I pulled it off the shelf and read it in a week. It was totally not what I expected and was beautifully written. Some of my new favorite quotes are definitely in that book. I will admit that the movie encouraged me to finally buckle down and read it. I definitely hate seeing a movie/book adaptation before reading the original. Hopefully I'll go out with my friend Bay in a couple weeks to see Baz Luhrman's version. I've heard mixed reviews, so we'll see!

Most especially awesome in this month of June... Jon was offered a teaching job!!

He will be teaching composition 1 and 2 (basically first level writing courses) at an accredited tech college in Natomas (Sacramento). I am so happy for and proud of him! He's been so discouraged looking for work, but he has never given up. This is such a great starting point for him to finally gain college level teaching experience. I know he is going to learn a lot, and we're super grateful to his awesome friend, Tess and her recommendation!

So far, this June is turning out alright :)

Monday, June 3, 2013

Turtles in a Hole

For the month of May we made candy!

In post 1, Jon showed you how our turtles failed...

In our second attempt, we actually had our candy thermometer! So things worked out much better :)

Ingredients looking all measured and delicious:

mmmmm, swirly caramel:

Pecans, on the chopping block, all ready to go!

Bubbling deliciousness:

Once the caramel was mixed together and vanilla added, we dolloped spoonfuls of the sugary stuff onto a cookie sheet to cool. Some even had bacon added.

The caramels were hand rolled into soft balls and then dipped by the spoonful into smooth melted chocolate:

Rolled around for even coating...

and then placed on wax paper for hardening in the freezer:

At this point we took a break to go to church. I had made Kate a new dress, which she wore in adorable baby style :)

Success! It's the second (and I think best) dress I have made for her yet.

Buttons up in the back:

After church, it was time to make the doughnuts...

My handsome pastry maker:

Our friend Tim stopped by, and just in time!

The doughnut batter was wrapped around the chilled turtles

and then dropped into hot oil

after being fried and then rolled in powdered sugar, it was time for the official taste test of approval!

Success!

Turtles in a Hole

(created by Jon & Steph - inspired by a Roald Dahl book)

We also took a plate of them to our friends, the Barnetts.
They took big bites without us even telling them what was inside. What good sports :)

Woah! Delicious.

I really should have taken some pictures of people smiling after they ate our candy experiment. Everything was eaten, so I guess we can call this one a win :)

Icehouse

Over Memorial Day weekend, we went camping with our awesome friends at Icehouse!

(This link is us last year in Santa Cruz.)

We've since added 3 new little troopers to the group

Tristen (far left) is almost 5 months old, our Katherine (middle) is 10 months old, and Autumn (far right) is almost 5 months old. She and Tristen are only a week apart!

All the babies were fantastic campers and slept through the night. Autumn had a bit of a rough time. She seemed to have a sensitive tummy and even got slightly sunburnt cheeks the first day. Poor girl!

This year we brought Margo along too. She loves camping and sitting on our laps by the campfire.