Lisa and John

I am trying to instill in my children a love of service.  Helping others is really what life is all about, right?  And, it feels so good.  At least, to me, it does.  My children are not quite so sure yet.  I think, though, as we go along my children will look forward to opportunities to help others.

Here are a few things we have been up to lately…..

***

***

Early in November, some home schooling friends and their families met up at Maple Dell and we did a service project.  We sanded the benches in the scout camp’s chapel.  It was a lot of fun.

******************************************

Calvin and I took one evening and went to the LDS Home Storage Center.  We canned some food for ourselves and for a sister in our ward.  Calvin had a blast!

Here is a picture of Brenna who is expecting her second child next month.

**********************************************

I don’t have any pictures, but we also spent an hour at the LDS Bishop’s storehouse.  We bagged oranges and grapefruit into 5lb. bags.  We got to go into the warehouse and see where they store all the food.  The boys weren’t so sure they wanted to be there, and Avy had a fit in the baby backpack, but I figure it will take time for them to get used to the idea.  I had a wonderful time.

*******************************************

We attempted to make some soft pretzels for some of our neighbors for Christmas.  The recipe wasn’t that great, so we didn’t give very many away.  We did something else instead.  But, it was fun to make these for others, even if they didn’t receive them.

This is the one Reed (5 years) made of Baby Jesus.  He did it all on his own.   Wow!  Doesn’t it look great?  We did give this one to our neighbor, Sister Nelson.  She is the only one who got one, though.

************************************

We also had the opportunity to “help others” by watching our neighbor’s children while they packed up their house to move.  Lulu, Bubba, and their new baby sister were a delight to watch.  We will miss them!

Avalon loved holding the baby and feeding the baby.  She can’t get enough!

She also enjoyed being the “baby” and getting into the baby’s car-seat.  Too funny!

***************************************************

We did a little cousin gift exchange for Christmas and the boys made some beaded necklaces for their girl cousins.  They turned out very cute!

***************************************

Well, that is all I have for now.  If you need service rendered or can think of good ideas for children’s service activities, please let me know!  Helping Others is fun!  Right?…..Boys?…… Right!

Here is a picture of the doll I made for Avalon for Christmas.

Isn’t she sweet?  I got the idea from a friend who makes dolls and sells them on Etsy.  (The pattern is actually on the Martha Stewart website.  Secelie makes the cutest dolls!

I think my doll turned out very nicely and Avy sleeps with her every night and calls her “baby” and loves her to pieces.  She kisses her, and wants a blanket around her, and feeds her, and nurses her, and puts shoes on her, and pushes her around in her new stroller.  She’s a perfect little mother to her “baby”.

I couldn’t find any normal felt for her hair, so I actually knitted some brown wool and felted it and then used it in the pattern.  And, since I had so much fun making this doll, I decided to make some more dolls for my nieces.  I raided Grandma’s felt stash and made some really cute dolls for my nieces.

There were eight dolls, total.  I had some more pics of them, but Ivan deleted them from his camera.  The nerve!!  Just kidding.

The girls just loved their new dolls and here is Rachel holding the one she chose.  I didn’t get very many good pics of them enjoying their dolls, but they seemed happy.

Now, lest my other nieces feel left out, I do plan on making some more dolls for my AZ, GA, and TX nieces.  Give me some time to acquire some more good felt and I’ll get to sewing again.

I just love making things by hand.  So fun.

Don’t you just love to make something out of nothing?  Here are a few thoughts from President Uchtdorf (from my church) that were put into a short video from the Relief Society broadcast last fall.  It is from the www.lds.org website.

Create Video

He expresses that because we are Heavenly Father’s children and He created us, that we have those same desires to create here on earth.  And, yes, we help create children, but we also have a desire to make the world around us a better place.  To create something out of nothing.

So, I wanted to post a few things that I have created this past year.  It has been so fun to try new things and CREATE stuff for my home and for others.

First, I discovered that refinishing furniture is a lot of fun.

Grandma Pratt had this old, beat up shelf thing on her back porch.  It had been painted brown and was in pretty bad shape due to the weather.  She said it was Jared’s that he had made in wood shop class in high school.  I painted it all up and had a great time.  I proudly showed the finished project to John and he said, “I made that!”  So, it was actually John’s creation!  So, it stays in the family.  I put a distressed finish on it.

And here is the king head board that Grandma gave us.  I thought it was a bit outdated.

I put a white finish on it first…

Then, I distressed it as well.

And, here is how my room looks now.  (I have a lamp for the “side table” but it is being used to hatch a robin egg right now.  Not that the egg will hatch, but Ivan had to try.)

I also did some sewing for Christmas.  I made these cool reversible aprons for some friends of mine.

And, here is what I’ve been up to most recently.

Yup.  I made these!  Elizabeth helped me choose the fabric and the bling.

Isn’t the trim so sweet?  I just love it.

And now, for my next project.  I am going to paint this table and probably the chairs, too.  The table is weathered badly.  The finish is very rough and snags everything.  It probably was left on someone’s porch as well.  Obviously, the leaf was not on the porch with it.

I love the cool lines of this table.  So, what color should I paint it?

And here is my sweet “hunk-o’ hunk-o’ burnin’ love” doing the dishes.  Not a project, but so fun to look at.  Thanks, hon for being such a wonderful help around the house!

So, what have YOU been up to?  I’d love to see some of your creations.  Post it on your blog and let me know!

Now, I’m off to CREATE dinner.  I wonder what I should fix tonight….  Always a dilemma for me….

Happy Valentine’s Day from the Pratts!  Here are a few of our little cupids.  Avalon is all dressed up for this special day and Calvin came up with this impromptu cupid costume on his own.  He made it a few days ago and put it together this morning as a “surprise”.  Too funny!

This morning we went and helped clean the church and this afternoon we are going to deliver a few valentines to some neighbors.  I have some more pictures, but I can’t upload them for some reason.  It keeps shutting my whole computer down.  Infact, I’m having a real hard time just writing this post.  So, I will have to wait for antoher day.  We love you all.  Have  a happy day of LOVE!!