boxing up

sorry for the lack of posts...we have been doing a lot of this

and this

and a little bit of this

cause today is their actual birthday. happy bday ben and sass!

braid wednesday

when blair was here for the twins party, i braided her and ella's hair. how cute are they???

Dr. Barstad

so, guess who officially walked the stage and was called "Dr." for the first time???

i know, its pretty crazy.

and these kids too.

cele-brate good times, come on!

and we did.

and there is not a single photo from the party with my mouth closed. i get pretty excited.

and, unfortunately, i did not take any pictures at all.

so thats a bummer.

but the whole weekend was amazing.

jeff was hooded on friday and then we went to the partay. on saturday was the big event and they all walked the stage while the babies climbed all over the stairs, our families came and ate rosas with us and we sang "happy graduation" to jeff while he blew out candles for every year he has been in school...24. ya, un real. saturday night gage and ashley had their final night in lubbock and we all just sat around and listened to music and looked at pictures. it was one of my favorite nights of my life.

and sunday was the LOST finale. AMAZING. we loved it.

i know that there are probably mixed feelings about all of this, and i wont get into it all that much, except to say, that the speech that jack's dad gives to jack at the end was about how the people that you experience things in your life with are the most important things in life; that they help you become who you are and enable you to move on to be something better. and that felt like it was written for us. these med students became a family, since we were all kinda in the same boat (or they were in a boat together and ashley and i were watching them-either way...). we went through so much together, even though it was only a few years. and we all started watching LOST a couple of seasons into it, and then it became a regular event every week. then, after second year, the med school was split up between three campuses, and classmates had to move to either el paso or amarillo. a few got to stay and we (and gage and ashley) were part of that lucky few. but everyone else left. it was just so fitting that they got to come back, after a crazy (flash sideways if you will) few years, and graduate together and hang out for one last weekend at our house (where we spent SO many nights and days hanging out and bonding; they probably often felt very trapped here when i forced them to come over every day-very island like) before we all go our separate ways. it was very special to be able to end these last four years watching our favorite show (that so many have spent hours on blogs, magazines, websites, etc researching every possible detail of the show) and hear that speech that reiterated everything we have felt for each other. i know that its super insane and pretty weird to compare yourselves to LOST-dont get me wrong, i totally realize this. i realize that most of the world does not think that jacks dad is talking to them...what can we say? we are pretty dorky. but at least we know it? i dont know. but lets just say, we thought we were gonna be on jimmy kimmel afterwards, but apparently we werent invited.

didnt mean to get all emotional for the millionth time about moving and jeff graduating but LOST really gave me no choice.

so, thanks for the memories texas tech.

see you in another life, doctors.

popsicles & playclothes

Wednesdays have become one of Kristen and I's favorite day of the week. Every Wednesday we meet up with some other moms for play group. It started in February with about 7 of us moms and has grown each week. Sometimes we have up to 19 kids! It's so fun and has been so neat to grow closer to other moms and share stories that everyone can relate to. We switch houses to host at each week. We call our play group "popsicles & playclothes."

This last Wednesday we threw Kristen a surprise going away play group party. It was very bittersweet.

The theme was "tears & cheers." We had tears for Kristen leaving and cheers for the kids birthdays in play group. We celebrated with a bounce house, all of Kristen's fav snacks, cupcakes, capri suns and the best photo booth ever!!! Aric built the photo booth himself! He's a genius and it doesn't stop there. Aric and his sweet wife are awesome photographers too. The photo booth was the hit of the party and it made for some sweet memories for Kristen to take with her to Tyler.

Play group just isn't gonna be the same without Kristen, Aves, Ben and Sassy. You guys will be missed everyday, especially on Wednesdays:(

memory game

For Ben and Sawyer's birthday I made them a memory game. I made the game personalized with things that had to do with Lubbock.

I printed pictures on a photo fabric I found at wal-mart, then ironed double sided interfacing between the picture and fabric. Then sewed around the edges and trimmed with shearing scissors so it wouldn't fray.

I hope it helps them remember some of the good memories in Lubbock:)

gymnastics show off

Ella had her last gymnastics class last night and she got a chance to show off some of the things she learned. It was hilarious! She got a little shy and would just lay there and wait for her teacher to flip her over. She cracked me up!

She got a medal and everything! Yay Ella!

Two By Two

so, this weekend was the twins party and it was so much fun!! we had tons of people from outta town, the playgroup friends, as well as grandparents and aunts/uncles. it was just so fantastic.

i had wanted to do a noahs ark party when they turned one but i felt like two by two when they were two was prob more appropriate.

one of the first things i did was ask jeff to build an ark to go on the mantle. he went to lowes and just found some wood and put it together so fast. he had his own vision for everything and it turned out so great.

i found these animals at target on sale that were the perfect colors and i filled the ark with them.

then i made a banner like allison's with tissue paper that i put all over the house.

pretty early on i decided i wanted to have umbrellas as the party favor and i found some that were the perfect size from oriental trading company. they were design-your-own umbrellas, so they were white when they sent them and easy to screen print on. i made an ark design on powerpoint (we know i love powerpoint) and screen printed that on the umbrellas and then tied a raindrop (that i printed their initials and b-day on) with twine to the bottom.

celeste made up a rhyme to go with them that said "take an umbrella to keep the rain off of you, and help us remember the day we turned two!" so cute. loved it.

i cut out some raindrops from cardstock and sewed them together to hang above the umbrellas. i put them on the chandeliers too.

i just drew a rainbow on my shirt with a paintbrush (it was pretty ghetto) and i used the same screen printed ark design for the twins t shirts. i made sawyer an elephant hair clip out of felt and a little skirt that def showed off her tush a little too much...what can i say? the girl could make j lo jealous.

i also made this little cloud bunting that i hung in the kitchen and over the ark that you can kinda see behind the raindrops.

we had, you know, the usual-animal crackers, goldfish, gummy bears, zebra cakes, swedish fish (even though, who really knows if noah had to do anything with the fish??? did they just have to fend for themselves?? did the water affect them at all? sorry, side note) and then rice krispy treats and fiesta dip (that is truly a fiesta in your mouth). my cousin's wife, hayley, sent me the best surprise package a few days before party. she found these cupcake liners and toppers that had actually seen here and they are soooo cute. i was so excited. i had no idea it was coming and i couldnt stop smiling when i opened them and i saved the rest so i can use them again. they are so fun.

and the CAKE. the cake. it was amazing. then, even though i told him he did not have to, my amazing cousin, christopher, (who was in africa just the week before with my mom) and his wife, tiffany, and brother, david todd, made the most amazing cake i have ever seen!! it was just so perfect!! he used 11 (yes, 11) boxes of cake, 12 things of icing and it weighed 50 pounds!! it was incredible!! i mean, incredible! he used graham crackers all around it to look like wood and we put rubber animals on top. i mean, he should have a business. it was moist and delicious on the inside because the graham crackers sealed it and just melted in your mouth.

my dad held ben while they blew out the candles and they got super shy while everyone sang to them...hilarious.

so, i am not the best at thinking of party games and things of that nature, but luckily the bounce house place came through with a bounce house/water slide that was in the shape of a giant wave! i mean, we built an ark and there were waves all around us! it was so fun and even though it was kinda cold outside and we couldnt do the water with it, the kids loved it and went up and down it the whole party. love the wave. just wish we couldve done it with water!

it was also nice enough to swing and play outside so that turned out great.

thank you SO much to everyone who came to the party, stayed up late helping me get everything together, cleaned up afterwards, rode the wave, baked, cooked, brought kids, ate, drank, traveled, brought presents and just helped us celebrate!! (and im just so sad because i dont have any pics of anyone cause i was so bad at using my camera at the party!! thanks celeste for the pics i do have!!) it was such a fun party and we are so thankful to end our time in lubbock with a mini party with our friends. we cant tell you how much you all mean to us and how much we have enjoyed getting to know you all.

and happy birthday ben and sawyer!! these past two years have just flown by and could not be more thankful for you both. i feel like it was just yesterday when you guys were in the NICU and i thought how incredibly lucky i was to get to come visit TWO babies, instead of just one. thank you for making my life full, crazy, and just overall, pretty special. love you ben jam and sassarina.

here comes the flood

so, this is what we saw while driving home last night...the party is on sat and its def supposed to be thunderstorming...i dont know...all this ark talk, i guess there had to be rain.

totes

The first thing I ever sewed was from the book One-Yard Wonders. I was flipping through the book the other night and decided to make one of the totes. I made the grocery store tote first.

I was very happy with how the tote turned out. Ella seemed to like it too. She immediately filled it with toys and carried it all around the house.

I was of course on a tote kick now and couldn't just make one. (you know what happens when we get on kicks...) I had some oil clothe so I made a pool bag for the summer time. I used the same pattern for the grocery tote, I just didn't sew the folds on the sides. Maybe the next tote can have a zipper...