My man is so cool!

Yesterday, we went with Dave, Brian, Kim and girls to see
Monsters vs. Aliens.
It wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it'd be!
I even laughed!
B.O.B. was my favorite.
And "The Missing Link" totally reminded Chris and me of Mike W. :)

They even remembered to put Chris' name in the credits!!
He's under "Global Resources" on the right side.
There are only three names under it.
He said they should have put his name under
"surfacing" since that's what he did the most.
He's listed as "Chris Harvey" this time instead of
Christopher N. Harvey as not to be confused with his
Googleganger: Chris Harvey.
Oh well. We know who he is.
Chris and Chris actually met last year at Siggraph!
Thankfully, they are both good guys, and neither one is tainting the good name. :)

He worked on making the skin of the characters look awesome.
Check it out!!
That's my man's skin up there!!!
(unlike grandma's skin in Madagascar, or Shrek's which looks. . .
not as good)
He also worked on Dr. Cockroach and other surfaces.

Elle and I had the privilege of getting our picture taken with B.O.B.
last Halloween.
I'm pointing at the tiny kid trying to make off with B.O.B.
She was v cute.
Chris helped to make B.O.B. quit chattering.
"translation"= he made it so B.O.B's reflections would stay smooth and coherent.

So, go see how cool my man is and see
Monsters vs. Aliens.
(sorry the trailer is so lame, but at least you can see the skin up close) ;)

Quilt patterns

Chris spent about an hour one night making this nifty little program for us, so we could see all the different possibilities of quilt patterns.
(It's pretty handy having a talented programmer around :)
He's thinking about making a program for the G1 phone,
but he's not sure how many quilters out there own a G1.

The first is a randomly generated pattern.
Not so good.







Next, we have an interesting pattern, but as you can see, it doesn't quite match up there in the middle.
This can be reprogrammed to make a diamond shape or something like that.
He also suggested that we could make a big "E" with the purple floral pattern.
All too complicated.













Finally, we have a repeating abcde pattern.
This is the one we're going with.
Simple, yet appealing. :)
















In other news, I bought Elle a raincoat.
I thought it was high time she have one.
When she saw it, she hugged it and said,
"You didn't?!!!!"
It was v satisfying. :)

Quilt update and Elleisms

We decided to step back and practice sewing by making bean bags out of the extra fabric.
Elle pinned the squares then sewed then. . .

Had the fun of turning the darn thing

Inside out.
We stuffed it with rice. Then. . .

I taught her how to stitch up the side.
She did NOT like that part at ALL!
So, for the next bag, she just used the sewing machine.
Elleisms:
We were listening to music while we worked. I changed CD's and Elle noticed.
"You're very observant!" I told her.
"Aren't I my father's daughter?!"
She started to work on another bag right away.
I thought to myself, "If Chris were here, he'd say,
'Let's time her to see how long it takes to do one bag.' "
The next thing I knew, Elle said,
"Time me, Mom!"
I did.
20 min. per bag!
I had to go upstairs to do something, and when I came back down,
Elle had finished a whole bag by herself!
"You're amazing!" I told her.
"Of course I'm amazing." She told me, "I'm your daughter!"


She ended up making SEVEN bean bags!

Quilt update

We used Chris' template to trace. . .

And then cut squares. It turns out she's pretty good at cutting straight!

Ta Da!!
She (and I) cut out 80 squares!

Oh ya, and we made some freezer jam in the meantime. . .
More sewing fun to come!

Sunday Dress and hair and stuff

Today Elle wore her Easter dress from last year.
(It's about time to get a new Easter dress!!)
























She finally got to wear her new bow that our good friend Jeanne made!
(Thanks again, Jeanne!)

















In other news, Elle has a new removable expander for the bottom teeth!!
Whoo hoo! She is v.v. excited about it :)




























Here it is in action.
BTW, the quilt is coming along--
more pictures to come!

Elle's project

Elle has been asking me to teach her to sew with the sewing machine.
I finally decided to do it.
We are going to start with a big project--a quilt!
Elle wants to document each step.
So, here it goes:


Step 1: Go to the fabric store and pick out fabric.
(note to self--leave Chris at home next time)

Step 2: (not pictured) Wash the fabric.
We did this step as soon as we got home per Elle's request.

Step 3: Iron the fabric.
Elle was quite giddy at the thought of wielding an iron.
We split the job--she did three, I did three.
She thought it was great fun.
"I'm doing grown-up work!" she said.

Step 4: Use Chris to cut a template for the squares.
He was very handy that way!
He also helped us come up with a pattern sequence
AND
He started cut the squares, since we all know about my
cutting handicap :)
Stay tuned for more!

Musical Sunday Dress and Hair

I know you've seen this Sunday dress before, but now, you get to see it in action!
Elle's class (well, the girls, anyway--there are two boys in her class too) sang in church today!
The other girls had all sung it before, but Elle hadn't. She and I have been practicing for two weeks at home. I was so proud of her, I had to share. :)
Since it's not really appropriate to video in Sacrament meeting, I took video of them practicing before church in the primary room. People were setting up chairs for primary at the time, so excuse the background noise :) You'll get the idea.
Enjoy!