Whether you care or not...

iphone Pix... so much fun

2011-07-13T11:07:00.000-08:00

OK, I seriously LOVE my new phone...
R said he'd buy me one for when we move down south, cuz my current carrier is not there, its just AT&T...
which was exciting cuz it meant I could get the new iphone
I think the best thing about it is all the pic apps...
Currently LOVING Instagram, Hipstamatic, & Pocketbooth

Here's a few pics since I've got my phone...
this is just after my surgery, R took a pic of me all drugged up... I hate waking up from anesthesia!
(Photoshop app)

Couldnt move but wanted to use my camera, so took pics of what was around me, haha
(Instagram app)

Good waste of time, especially when you're not mobile...
(Instagram)

(Instagram)

Last night while our house was being shown I finally got use my photo apps with the kids
(Instagram)

Our house looks so good!
(Hipstamatic App)

My Dahlia's are blooming
(hipstamatic)

(Hipstamatic)

My FAVE app of all...
(Pocketbooth)

4th of July Family Fun Day!!!

2011-07-11T20:01:00.001-08:00

As you all know I'm totally into kids right now... I guess thats all I have to say as to why most of pics from the 4th of July are of cute children.

This is my niece Charlotte!
She's really happy to be with me in this pic, even tho it looks like she's staring at a dog that's about to eat her...

Our Pioneer Peak Ward has a party every year to celebrate the 4th.

It was pretty fun, some things fell through but they still had a fishing pond for the kids, the tug-a-war, LOTS of food, games, etc.

The Chef's Br. Collins & Br. Morris (goofballs)

Oh look, a BABY!!!
This is the closest baby to me! Literally, she lives next door!
She's gonna be a hot redhead! And I think she's gonna be completely toned down as Elizabeth & Henry's sister.
Lydia! Man, I need to get some pics of this girl dont I!

Speak of the little warrior, here's Henry dressed in his red, white, & blue!
He totally reminded me of 'Terminator' with this headband.
Doesnt the main character in Terminator wear something like this in the end, or am I thinking of something else?
Others said he looked like something else but I cant remember.

Spence, Yol, Marky & I went frisbee golfing, also known as frolfing according to Spencer.
I just go with it!

And Yol thought it'd be fun to get a jumping pic...
I dont think she'd ever had one before, cuz when I showed it to her on the camera she started laughing so hard she fell on the ground and couldnt get up, just kept laughing like it was the funniest thing ever!

I have a bunch more pics to post as I got a new iphone 4 and have been having lots of fun with cool camera apps. Also, I lost my old cell phone with all the numbers on it so you all should text me and give me your #'s again (still have the same #, I had it switched through carriers). I've been down for a bit since my surgery last week but hopefully will be recovered soon to get my butt in gear and post more often.

Adventures with Dave!!!

2011-07-03T14:07:00.000-08:00

So Dave is our brother... by law, or something like that. He's been a good friend of mine since before I met R. Anyways, I dont feel like writing a whole lot so I'm just gonna say that every time I hang out with Dave, its an adventure... meaning things take a turn. I'm not gonna say for the worse because I know things could go a LOT worse, but you get the point. We LOVE Dave!!!

We took him out camping, and went the glacier...crossed metal creek in June, I know crazy!

We had ammo, so naturally we had to shoot it.

The boys took turns setting up a fun little "lets kill some bad guys" scenario with real cardboard cutouts.

Great day! We took turns going through.

You cant see very well in the pic but we shot the bad guy lots and didnt even hit the hostage.

Then about a mile or two after crossing the river on our way home, it happened. Dave thinks he's cursed or something, because even the next day he refused to ride with us to church thinking something would probably happen, so he just followed us all the way there and then all the way home in his car.
Do you see smoke coming out of that red thingy? I'd love to be able to tell you exactly what it is or what its doing but all I can say is that the thing got warped and ruined the other thing and it destroyed some other thingy which caused the tire (I know that one) to come off. Luckily we stopped a few yards before the tire actually came off.
So, this is why I asked R to write this trip up... because I have no clue what any of that junk is called. He said he would, but then the pics have been sitting here on the blog waiting for him and now that's its work time... I'm just gonna write it. He's busy!

After a couple failed attempts of fixing stuff and trying to call out with no service and dying phones we resorted to walking out!
This is up all perky and excited to go walking for miles & miles & miles...
Goodbye poor truck, hopefully nobody finds you and steals your tires or breaks a window and steals all our valuable stuff.

Can you see the disappointment in his eye as he walks away from his baby??

I'd love to tell you I have more pics of the rest of the adventure... because OH YES, there's much to this story. We saw many people on our way out who werent very willing to help us out, they preferred to know where the truck was, what was wrong with it, and if we left anybody behind... once they had their curiosity peaked they'd leave us by the wayside.

We finally got picked up 10 miles out by a 3 seater jeep carrying 4 people and a dog. We sat on the hood and in the tire carrier. They offered me all kinds of the valley's finest substances... I didnt care... my feet hurt, so I politely said "No, but thanks for asking"

We then got another ride out from a drunk 19 year old who asked R to hold his beer, at that point we were just grateful to get out. At which point the young man lit up some other substance before getting his beer back.
We were just happy to get back to the parking lot and drive home.

Seward FUN!!!

2011-06-15T12:17:00.001-08:00

We needed some time out of the house together so to celebrate our 7th Anniversary (late) we went to Seward for a couple days. Got a hotel & rode our bikes around, its was LOTS of fun.

Trying to get the pics all side by side but its always a fight with Blogger, never does what I want, then it ends up deleting pics, so you'll just have to scroll a lot for pics. Sorry! Fine, I'm just gonna blow the pics up so you can see them bigger, it'll take the same amount of space. If anybody has easy tips for Blogger please let me know, or a better blog Co.

OK, now its not letting me add text between pics, so here's a re-cap.

Stopped through Beluga Point...
Checked out a bunch of sailboats & talked to live-aboard folks...
Found a skinny long sailboat...
Ate LOTS of junk food...
Hiked to Exit Glacier...
Biked all over Seward...
Ate GELATO (a Seward tradition)...

Remember when some babies were UGLY???

2011-05-21T19:59:00.000-08:00

I remember when I was younger and I'd see a new mom all proud of her new little baby and she's be showing her off and I'd be thinking "she should cover that thing up and just say she has a cute baby" ...
Of coarse I never said that their face... I dont think... well, you'd have to ask my parents cuz I know I use to say a lot of random, nobody cares what I say cuz I'm a kid, kinda things. Well, that's different now that I'm an adult. Its actually rude to tell someone that their baby is ugly... and not worth it!

You go try to tell someone "umm, excuse me, you might want to make your baby stop smiling because she's scaring the elderly" or such.

Well, I've must've moved past that... quite recently.

Right now, every baby I see makes me wanna cry (and not in the scary way), but because they're so cute and cuddly and most of them are happy!

Today I was at Freddy's and moving quickly when a cart jumped out of the isle and would've hit me, I was glaring at the person before I could even see them, then I see this super cute little girl (~12 months) and as soon as she saw me she just gave this huge smile and started giggling really loud, then I saw the dad pushing the cart who didnt even seem to notice me, or that his daughter was doing something and kept on going.

My first thought's "Dang that's such a cute little girl"
2nd: Wow, I didnt judge scream and run away from that little girl who was still bald and had a huge forhead... in fact, to me she was quite adorable. I know if I'd seen her in my (not so distant) past I probably would have made a course correction and ran the other way.

What's wrong with me?

Featuring ME... ok, its my room!

2011-05-11T05:06:00.000-08:00

I woke up way too early this morning (3AM) and couldnt go back to sleep so I thought I'd come downstairs and check out my fave sites and low & behold I found some ladies raving about my scrapbook room being featured from my favorite SB magazine. I was asked to be featured but they never told me when, so it was kinda surprising to see. Anyways, here's the link. My room is the 2nd pic from the bottom. I know you've all seen it before but I had to share. I'm not actually in the magazine, but someday...

They just put out this special magazine featuring cool organization tips and such so if you're interested you can purchase it HERE! If you buy it be sure to enter SPACESBB at checkout for free shipping.

Whittier Dive 2011

2011-04-21T09:01:00.001-08:00

This past weekend we went to Whittier with the Water Rescue Dive Team as R is in training and this was his first ocean dive. I have to say he did really well for having his suit tear and freezing his hands real bad.

I was very proud of him! He was also the fastest to suit up every time!
I threw in a few scenery pics as I had lots of time to play with my camera.

Neil was his dive partner & did just as good. Ken & Cindy brought the boat down so we were able to stay on the boat and watch them dive.

I learned that when you wave to a diver that means you're in distress and need help, so if you want to say hi or acknowledge eachother you touch the top of your head with your arm in an arch, like below.

Living/Coping with Children

2011-04-06T10:16:00.001-08:00

You know you have children in your house if/ when:
You constantly hear "I didnt do it"

You go to the bathroom to get away & sit on a wet toilet

my nicely hung pj's end up in different places every time I go to the closet
(just suprised they're still on a hanger actually)

your trying to type a blog while they eat breakfast but you contstantly hear "I spilled, I spilled..."

the cat is found up high in places I never knew she could get

juice is always spilled on the floor

my cell phone has turned into a radio that can call Japan for hours at a time
(yet somehow they're just talking to a dog)

I can find my flashlight every 30 min in random places around the house... ON

my scrapbook room has turned into a princess dungeon & is now "clean" meaning I cant find a darn thing anymore

movies only seem to last 20 min long

there's a peeping tom staring at me all night long but it turns out to be just a creepy toy left on the window

even a teddy bear can cause lots of pain

"dont touch my box" means please jump on the box till its broken and everything inside sounds like broken glass

my table can jump out & hit people now

items I'm selling on eBay disappear just as I'm suppose to ship them

pictures are like trampolines (so much fun to jump on)

Henry gets candy when he goes potty on the toilet...
& he only has to go potty when he's in the room w/ the candy jar, about every 15 min. STRANGE!!!

my yoga mat is a magic carpet ride, & magically appears EVERYWHERE

'Who can be the quietest' is now my FAVORITE game

hanging upside down on the stairs and falling onto your head doesnt actually break your neck

hours spent cooking yummy food is not edible, but anything thrown together in 2 minutes is amazing

my bag of hair clips have ALWAYS been broken

apparently my parents taught me the wrong song, its D-I-S-C-O
& disco was the game-o

my blush brush is stacked nicely with the DVD's

it takes 2 hours to finish this blog post...

I honestly dont know how you all do it! I think I need therapy!
Whoops, gotta go, heard something break!

Happy Birthday Babe!!!

2011-03-14T21:48:00.001-08:00

Today is R's bday! Yesterday we went to his parents house where his mother has been excited to give him his present for about a month now. You can see why:

Isnt that the coolest sign ever? She had it made for him, and actually it was her brother that made it. He's pretty amazing. He's made some other stuff that we are just in AWE over.

So here's some typical R shots:

Then we made him cut his own cake... I know sweet of us, right?!

I have so much other stuff to post also. Maybe I'll post some tomorrow night..

or maybe I'll post a few right now!

OK, so I just edited these today, so they're doubled up so I could get smaller prints than just 4x6, you'll just have to look at them that way cuz I wanna go bed.
Here's my brother Spencer and his girlfriend who just got here from the Philippines, Yolanda!
Her first time fishing... she's getting a lot of firsts right now!

We went ice fishing last weekend with a bunch of people in case you were wondering, brought a 6 man tent and shoved 4 couples, and 2 kids in there.

We werent fishing for anything big, we just wanted to catch a fish and go somewhere out of the wind, so we went to Mud Lake which isnt really known for fish.

Joel was pulling people around in the sled all over the lake.

R got to use his auger I got for his bday! He loves it by the way!

And here's some cute shots of Spencer and Yolanda in case some of you have never met her.

That was a really fun trip! I know I've got tons more pics to post but I'll have to go through them first.
Tomorrow I'm going scrapbooking with Cindy & my SIL, that's why I printed these pics today.
Dont forget St. Patrick's Day is on Thursday. We have some friends who are big party people and they throw a party every year and have a Blarney Stone that we all kiss and sign our names on.

Japan 8.9 Earthquake & Tsunami

2011-03-11T01:27:00.001-09:00

Here's the Warning areas as of 0125 this morning.
It looks like Hawaii will get hit first and the hardest according to everything else I saw.
I have a friend there that I'm chatting with right now and she said they're evacuating hotels and stuff right now in the middle of the night. Also they have a good setup with sirens and all that.

Lazy Days!!!

2011-02-18T21:03:00.001-09:00

This little girl LOVES movies, as I've said before. I figured I had to get a video of her singing one of the songs of the Disney "Mulan"!

Check this out! The grater came to plow our street and he backed all the way up in our driveway and plowed it out! WOOHOO!!! Love that guy! I seriously need to bake him some goodies or something.

Its been snowing like crazy out there, there's a LOT!!
And I have to say "THANKS" to Darrin for coming up here and plowing us the rest of the way out.

Darrin, you're the BEST!

And today I'm sick so for dinner R thought he'd roast some cheesy filled dogs in the woodstove.

I do have to mention that he's an AMAZING cook and he only ate hotdogs tonight cuz we thawed them out for our ice fishing adventure we had to cancel due to my illness!

Oh yeah, and R got an ice auger for Valentine's.

I just gave it to him last night cuz we were gonna go fishing today.
I wish I'd known I was gonna get sick and we weren't actually gonna go cuz now he's itch'in to go drill holes in every bit of ice he can think of.
Its a 10.5" auger! Only the best for my baby!
Here's a pic of the new sled he got filled with all our fishing gear and goodies, ready to go (fish shack not in pic).
So if any of you would like to go ice fishing come take him, we got everything and he would really love it!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

2011-02-15T01:51:00.001-09:00

So I made all kinds of yummy stuff today.

I made Chocolate Mint Truffles and...

Chocolate covered strawberries and...

Sea-Salt caramels dipped in chocolate!

My AMAZING neighbor made a great dinner for her hubby and us, I got some pics but they're on her camera so I'll have to post those later. It was really cute how she covered the table in paper and wrote cute sayings and let the kids draw pictures on it for Valentine's. I also had a cute Valentine on my plate made by Elizabeth with a cute sugar cookie covered in convo hearts. I love it! R had one from Henry too!

Double Date w/ Teens

2011-02-11T03:46:00.000-09:00

This last weekend we went on a double date with my little sister and her boyfriend.
Instead of doing something lame like going to a movie we decided on bowling and all-you-can-eat Chinese food. I'd made a bet with Ry that Julius would out eat him.
Ry eats a LOT, but I thought Julius is a big kid, I mean he wears size 16 shoe, and he's a teenager so I'm sure he'll eat a lot.
I lost the bet... by 2 plates!

Here's some video's of Lanisha's AWESOME form & Julius who pretty much kicked butt.

We tried different things all night. We werent really trying to bowl our best cuz what's the fun in that?
We tried the slow bowl, Lanisha won at like 3MPH
The penguin shuffle (shuffle it with your feet down to the alley)
The army crawl (on your stomach all the way down)
The Fast bowl (dont remember who won but it was in the 30 MPH range)
and a bunch more I cant think of.

It was LOTS of fun!
I definitely recommend going on a double date with teenagers!

When you give a child a camera...

2011-02-04T20:15:00.000-09:00

When E came over the other day I thought it'd be fun to teach her how to use the camera and just let her go have fun. It kept her pretty busy actually! I totally forgot about it till just now while I'm searching through all my recent pics. So I thought I'd post a few.
Here's my house in the eyes of a child!

I thought this one was pretty interesting!

My very own tool!!!

2011-02-03T00:12:00.003-09:00

Remember when I re-finished my dining room chairs? Well I've been searching for the perfect table to go with them for quite a while now and I found it the other day at a thrift store.

You gotta see this beauty, its got beautiful legs!

I wanted a round table with a leaf and legs that came down in the middle so I wont have a problem scooting my chairs in.

Oh, and look at the beautiful sander Cindy got me for Christmas!

I was very excited to have my VERY OWN tool! And YES, R knows its mine!

ITS A DEWALT!!!

I kept trying to get before pics but R was always welding and it was really smoky in the garage so this is the first pic that turned out. You can see it had some good burn stains on it!

And here they are...

Isnt it Gorgeous?

Just say YES!

So I'm thinking of doing it the same as the chairs, paint it all white and swipe the antique glaze in the cracks and on the edges? What do you think? Should I do that and paint the entire top black? or just leave the top all white? I dont really know at this point! Any advice would be helpful!

So if it were your table what would you do?

I dont mind if you say you'd stain it a wood color, or even paint the whole thing pink I really wanna know what you'd do!

Who loves Valentine packages???

2011-01-31T18:54:00.001-09:00

I DO I DO!!! OH ME!! PICK ME!!!

So the other day, Wednesday to be exact I was babysitting Elizabeth as her mom was in Seattle with Henry for the day and her daddy was busy. We went to go check the mail and this is what I see!

E & I were both so excited to get home and open it, we ripped it open so fast...

If you dont me very well, I have to tell you that Valentine's in my FAVORITE holiday!

My sister sent me this package full of Valentine goodies! It was great! And it couldnt have come at a better time. E found the card inside and asked to open it, she ripped it out, opened it and shoved it in my face all excited for me to read it. It read:
"Happy Valentine's Day! We hope you enjoy your favoritest holiday! We love you! V&M"
As soon as I read it E said "Wow, your sister is SOOOOO nice, we should send her something!"
Anyways you probably just wanna know what was inside it...

Apparently kids do the darndest things when you're trying to take a pic!

(sorry Lisa, I dont actually let her do that)

This is hanging on my wall in the dining room

Here's the contents of the mitt, also not pictured is a cool multi-colored whisk. Cuz I also have an infatuation with whisks, I dont even know if she knew that!

Thanks Valli & Baby!

There's NO Fish in Memory Lake!

2011-01-24T16:55:00.002-09:00

We decided we're gonna get into Ice Fishing as a cheap winter hobby so this last weekend we called up Mark to invite him with us (he's been ice fishing for years and knows all the stuff we want to know, and he has an auger), so we call him to find out he's already going out with Byron and some other people, then I find out JD's out there and he invited my aunt & uncle who flew into town from AZ. All the boys in my family ended up out there so we figured out where it was and headed on over to Sportsman's to buy our equipment and got over there. When we walked down to the lake there were about a dozen different fishermen and tents out there, we get down there to find out they're all with us, all but 1.

Even though we didnt catch any fish, or even get a nibble, it was still pretty fun.
A guy came down from his house cuz apparently Mapquest pointed out the parking for Memory Lake on (what he claimed) private property, so he told us how we shouldnt park there and then continued to tell everyone how he's never seen anyone catch a fish in that lake. Sorry Byron!
B picked the lake, but I guess the Russians live around there and have cleaned out that lake, so next time we'll just have to go further away from Russia... is that how it works?

And NO, that's not my Mt. Dew! Just had to clear that up!
AWFUL stuff!

What baby-sitters SHOULD do!

2011-01-19T23:08:00.002-09:00

OK, so Lisa called and asked us to watch the kids so they could go to the Temple. I'll never say no to that, they're like my own children and I actually wish they could just spend the night.

I didnt get pics of everything we did, which I kinda regret now!
So as soon as they got here we had coloring time while I made them omelettes with ham, bell peppers, onions, cheese and such, just to find out E wont touch it because she's scared of the tomato looking things (peppers) and Henry wont touch it cuz he doesnt like ham and has to follow his sister in not eating the red things. So round 2!
Then we built a SWEET fort upstairs by the couches which included the TV on the inside so I decided we needed to pop some corn and watch some Simpsons ('The Simpson's go to New York' very funny!)
Oh I also forgot to mention how they helped me organize my scrapbook stuff, we had a cool little system where Henry would grab a package of thickers and hold it while I put a clip on it, then he'd hand it to Elizabeth who would hang it on my clip it up... took 10 times longer than if I'd done it myself but I'm glad they were learning to work together!
Then R decided we should make stick ponies!
We let the kids pick out a sock (of coarse out of the "no pair" pile), they picked out their own buttons for eyes, and we went to town! R & E even braided the reigns! They turned out great! We'd just finished them when J & L pulled in the driveway! So now, according to those kids we are the BEST baby-sitters ever!
But honestly, we did all that fun stuff so they'd forget about all the bad stuff (us getting frustrated and getting mad at them, and us telling them that crying and whining noises only make us mad, and then some) but of coarse when mommy and daddy showed up they're all excited to show them what we did. Score!

Oh and as I was cooking my omelette I heard them both sitting at the computer ooh-ing and aw-ing (or just laughing) over my scrapbook pages. I thought it was cute so I had to capture it! But then they got more quiet once I pulled out the camera!

SUCCESS!!!

2011-01-15T22:19:00.000-09:00

So the Flea Market was officially successful! Not many people showed up but I wasnt expecting anyone to show up as it was 0º outside and super windy. But even if nobody came if was worth it to meet some really fun ladies and have a good time with them. Almost everything that I did sell was to one of the ladies that also had a booth there. They were AWESOME! Lots of good stories and info swapping. I had FUN!!!
I thought I'd made just under $100. but I made $350. Success!

Craft/Home Decor Flea Market

2011-01-15T00:02:00.002-09:00

Craft & Home Decor Flea Market

When: Saturday, January 15th

Time: Noon-6pm

Where: Boys and Girls Club – 3700 East Bogard Road in Wasilla

I know its kinda late but if you're not busy today come over to the Wasilla Boys & Girls club where they're having a Flea Market. I have a table, so come and buy my junk! I know you'll LOVE it. I have a few home-made items, LOTS of scrapbook supplies and embellishments, pre-packed scrapbook kits, my re-designed chairs, and just lots of stuff.

I'm really hoping a lot of people show up because it takes a long time to put price tags on everything and get it all together. I'm a little bummed cuz I havent seen any advertising from the people putting it on. I checked Craigslist, bulletin boards, radio ads, and so far havent heard anything about it. So I took the effort to put it on Craigslist and send out e-mails and such to all the crafty people I know.

But no worries, if I show up in the morning and they dont even have signs out and nobody comes, I'm getting my $ back. Anyways, enough rambling, if you're out and about come check it out. Hopefully the wind will stop for the day, or else I dont even wanna leave the house!

Dont cross a frozen creek when its not frozen!

2011-01-13T12:02:00.001-09:00

This last weekend Ryan got the truck all put back together, he rebuilt the transmission and has been wanting to go wheel'in so bad. So we headed out to Jim Creek after a little fiasco of dropping the trailer off in the ditch from a slick hill... but we made it to Jim Creek w/o breaking or hurting anything. We'd heard about the previous weekends when everyone who went out ended up sliding into trees or falling through the ice. Well, this is OUR STORY!

The first crossing was great, all ice!

The 2nd crossing however was lots of running water so we tried scouting different routes, this is how well it went for Jordan.

Get a good look at this spot, cuz this is where we stayed till WAY after dark!

Because of this!

And of coarse our air pump broke this last summer.
Bummer!
So one truck headed out to get it fixed while most of us just hung out around a HUGE campfire (thanks to Ryan's pyro mother) Thanks Cindy! And we got to see a few other people fall through the ice while waiting as well.

The TREE...

2010-12-17T22:57:00.002-09:00

Isnt it BEAUTIFUL???

Every time I walk by it I think of a cactus!
I'll never have a problem with little children or pets playing with the low branches!
Here's a few other favorite December sights in my home!

December Days

2010-12-17T12:24:00.001-09:00

I got to take family pics of some friends!

He makes a living by carving some pretty sweet stuff, so go check out his website HERE!
This is how their pics will look in my December Daily album!

And I have to post a cute video with the new baby and her daddy!
I know you've always wanted to know where babies come from, well did you know there's a BABY button at the hospital that you just push...

NEW BABY!!!

2010-12-16T23:21:00.001-09:00

I have a new niece! She is ADORABLE!!! She came out with lots of black hair, she's a day old in this picture. My mom said she looks exactly like I did when I was born, lots of black hair and all! I'll post more pics later but now I gotta go to bed.

December Moments!!

2010-12-16T02:50:00.002-09:00

I edited all these pics for my December Daily album, so this is how they will all look in there.
That's why they're all buttered up!
Day 5: Baking cookies with mom & E!

Day 6: R welded a new light bar for a friends' car!

Christmas Tree Shopping

2010-12-06T02:24:00.002-09:00

We drove out past the sea of goody goody gumdrops, through the candy cane forest till we found the Perfect tree! Which to you might seem like the most non-perfect tree. Beware of judging my friend! For I will show you the potential of the so called ugly tree.

We did our traditional voyage with our Awesome neighbors and a friend from Anchorage, we've done this together now for 3 years I believe.

We knew once we saw this tree that it would grace our living room for a season!
Let me remind you not to judge! You shall see how great this tree can be!

Notice the dog? hehe

And they slept... the WHOLE time!

Sunday Feature

2010-11-28T00:25:00.000-09:00

Today I'm being featured on Crop Chocolate! Go check it out! Every Sunday they close and feature a member of the CropChocolate family. I've been in the family for a few years now, and they just started doing this so I'm feeling really honored to be featured! I got to answer a whole bunch of questions and then Jon the owner wrote up a little thing about me based on what I said.

Halloween Party

2010-11-18T23:37:00.000-09:00

I'd have to say our Halloween Party was a hit! I have to apologize to Joel as I promised him a few times I was putting this on the blog and I'm just now getting to it.
My talented pumkin carving neighbor made this for the party.
Isnt it lovely?

Notice the shadow?

Valli & Madeline were here as well, which is one of the main reasons they came to visit, or so I'd like to think. I'll have to post Madeline's other costume later as Valli and mom made it and its so adorable!

Wow, did I really wear my pajama's all night. I remember thinking right when people got here 'I should go change' and I dont think I ever did. Oh boy! I should mention we had the BEST appetizers at the party. I made bread pretzels and nacho cheese, cute cupcakes, and lots more that I cant think of right now. Ryan spent all day and made Apple Cider from scratch, yeah, he's AMAZING!!!

And I should note that our good friend Lico is now on his mission, he will be missed by many for 2 years including all the Young Women in my ward. LOL, its so TRUE!! He got called to Lima, Peru!

Crop Chocolate Crop!!!

2010-11-04T23:40:00.000-08:00

Calling all scrapbookers! My awesome CC site that I've bragged about before is having a CROP this weekend and all are invited to participate. There are prizes including tickets on the CC cruise, YES they just set up a cruise for all of us CC fans to get together and actually meet. This is a community of ladies I've known for quite some time now and I cant wait to meet them! They are so AWESOME!!! Here is the website! The Crop is only going on this weekend, so if you have some time and feel like scrapbooking with some of the challenges, go check it out. When you get to this site you rest your mouse on Community and there will be a drop-down menu where you can click on SweetTalk, which is where the contests will be posted!!!!

How to Comment!! (just so you know)

2010-10-21T11:54:00.004-08:00

I dont wanna make anyone feel bad but I've had many people e-mail, text, or call me and tell me how they like certain things on my blog and they didnt comment because they dont know how or dont wanna create an account that they wont remember. I totally understand that!! Well, you're in luck! I'm going to tell you how to make a comment on a blog without needing an account so hopefully I can get more comments, as I like them very much. Dont worry, you're not the only one! There are lots of people who say this.
So, First of all, you DO NOT need a username and password to comment, here is the simplest way if you do not want to make or remember an account name.

1. Scroll to the bottom of the post that you want to comment on and click on "0 comments", sometimes it might already have some so it could say "2 comments".

2. That will bring you to the comments page, before even typing anything scroll down and click on the bullet "Anonymous" at the bottom of the page. This should take away the boxes that require a username and password.

3. Type your comment (be sure to leave your name or something so I know who you are as its an anonymous posting)

4. Type in the word verification provided

5. "PUBLISH YOUR COMMENT"

That's it! You wont see it right away because I have it set so I approve all comments before posting them, that way I can weed out any that are spam, or too personal.

My Kitchen Chairs!

2010-10-20T13:28:00.003-08:00

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I ripped the wicker out of 2 of them because they had holes in them, but I havent finished the 2 with wicker yet so I'm wondering if I should just rip it out of them too. What do you think? After painting them white I distressed them with an anitique glaze in the cracks, and I had to get some cute fabric to cover the chairs too. For 4 chairs it cost less than $17. but that doesnt include the nail gun I bought to re-upholter the cushions. Now I have one for the future. My next project is a coffee table I got on Craigslist!

NEW Project Ideas

2010-10-11T23:16:00.000-08:00

So I just recently found this AMAZING blog that features other peoples' refurnished furniture along with some of her own. I've decided I can take on this task and make me some beautiful furniture.

I spent all last night searching Craigslist for 'the perfect specimen' and out of thousands (literally 100's daily as it is PFD week) I found a few winners.

I'll go check them out probably tomorrow, but for now here is some of the work found on that blog.

All Things Thrifty blog

I plan on making something like this for our tv stand.

And I got everything today to Refinish my dining room chairs, REALLY wanted to start them today but the day went by too fast. But I cant wait to get started on them tomorrow.

My new FAVORITE Holiday

2010-10-09T20:47:00.002-08:00

Thought I'd show some more decor that I'm really excited about. I havent posted it yet cuz I wanted R to be the first to see it all. I even made the cupcakes for him. And I dont know if you can tell but those candles are actually black dipped in orange, so when they burn down they bleed black. I think its awesome!

Lanisha & I actually went out back to find this tree, then I spray painted it black, bought a cool vase at JoAnn's and cobwebbed it up! Its one of the coolest additions to the whole scene so far.

The apple is actually from a Relief Society activity we had on Thursday. This carmeled apple I made for my mom and when I called her and she turned it down I had to eat some of it to find out it taste like HEAVEN, Cindy I'm so sorry I didnt put chocolate on yours, it was the best part!

Inspiring Woman

2010-10-05T23:16:00.000-08:00

I just found this blog who is a friend of a friend. She and her husband were in a plane crash Aug. 2008, and she has burns on 80% of her body. You can watch her video HERE!!

Its Time To Decorate... for HALLOWEEN!!!

2010-10-04T19:53:00.000-08:00

YAY!!! I dont know why I'm getting excited about Halloween this year, but I am! I've never decorated or done anything fun for the strange holiday. But this year I decided I'd decorate, and go all out. I just put this in my yard today! I was thinking of making one that said "This could be you... if you knock on my door before noon!" but then I saw this one for only $3.

My lil sister and I went shopping for Halloween stuff last week and I found some of the coolest things. I'm not into the cute or scary stuff, only the elegant Halloween stuff. And oh boy did I find just that! As soon as I got home I set up our kitchen table, which I really like (and R does too by the way)!!

You can also see my table cloth I got, its got skulls on it!

Lanisha found this awesome candy bar that I just had to display on my table!

And I have every intention on making Halloween cupcakes like this!

NEW BLOG!!

2010-10-01T00:06:00.000-08:00

What?? Another one you say? Well, yes! But for good reason. Now I can blog about my scrapbooking guilt free on my WHY sCrap blog. Check it out if you want.

Baby Madeline

2010-09-21T16:09:00.003-08:00

I tried another challenge, had to use the following:

Ledger paper
Kraft CS
3 pics
Spray mists
Frame

Quick Seward Trip

2010-09-19T23:44:00.002-08:00

This last week we made a quick trip down to Seward and back to help R's boss fix his boat trailer. I got to sit in the sun with a really fun Korean lady as we cheered on the boys. Before we drove home we went and checked out the boats, of coarse! Some nice guy even let us go down inside of his, there's a bunch of people living on their boats and they have all know eachother. It sounds like our little neighborhood. Anyways, heres a boat we really liked and will someday own something like it.

This guy was jumping in the gut pit and pulling out halibut carcasses, it was funny to watch him smack them around in the water, he got between these 2 boats and was just thrashing it against the side of them.
He'd jump up inside of here and even though it'd look like he was tangled up in this net he always managed to get through. He was BIG guy!

I'm also posting some pics over on my Photography blog, so if you wanna see them check it out HERE!!

Alaska State Fair

2010-09-19T23:30:00.002-08:00

We now have this tradition to go to the fair with our neighbors, which is the only way I can get R to go. But I have to say its a lot more fun when you have children with you. I'm not sure if this is Henry's first time or not but he had a blast. He stood amongst the crowd holding this hula hoop and spinning in circles. He's so easy to please sometimes! (Also, we will be referring to him as our own also, just like Elizabeth)

J has to one up everyone like always. EWWW, dont put that in your mouth. hehe
just to clarify... it was on his chin (pfft, and you actually thought he'd put it in his mouth)

Elizabeth wanted to go on the Ferris Wheel so there we are. When we were stopped at the high point she looked over at the mt. and said "I can see our house", atleast she was pointing in the right direction, coarse with her young eyes she probably could see our houses.

YAY!!! Horsies!!! Doesnt Lisa look super duper cute in her new hat?!

I'm guessing I ate about 5000 calories that day... OY!

My 1st Scrapbook Challenge

2010-09-19T00:32:00.006-08:00

OK, sorry for all the blog posts at once but I had to show these to Valli.

I decided to try my first challenge. If you're not really familiar with a SB challenge, its just a way to get you out of your comfort zone and try new things. The challenge is to create a monochromatic LO using all or semi-neutral tones.

Here's the link to it in case you feel like seeing what other people came up with. A lot of them use the challenge as a starting off point so they might have more color in them.

You may remember the story of my BIL that was written by The New York Times, well that's what my LO is about.

This LO is about Elizabeth sneaking over to my house and watering my garden. I was wondering why is wasnt dead yet. Oh, and that flower is actually from the decorations I made for her birthday.

I dont know if you noticed but I've been really into the spray mists lately. I spray every piece of cardstock (CS) before I even begin a LO. You might be able to notice where I sprayed it. I'm kinda curious to know if you actually think its worth using or if its not noticeable.

Jim Creek Camping

2010-09-19T00:23:00.002-08:00

When we just feel like getting out of the house and dont wanna plan something big we go to Jim Creek.

It was a beautiful night in August.
All the creatures were stirring because Joel cooked Hot wings over the open flame. We all laughed at him, as he just took it saying 'you're all gonna wish you hadnt laughed at me when I'm eating these delicious wings', then when they were done...
They were the most amazing wings we've ever had! So the moral of the story is... dont laugh at Joel!! Even if he does look ridiculous!

The next day we saw the military recover their crashed plane on the glacier. It was pretty lucky shot, they flew right over us.

Elizabeth's BDAY

2010-09-19T00:14:00.003-08:00

I know this was a while ago... like Aug. 22nd long ago, but I still wanted to post pics of our (I'm just gonna call her ours, but you what I mean) our little girl's bday party.
I made a few decorations so had to make her pose with one.

She actually got to request some things for her birthday, these were her wishes:
Chocolate Cupcakes
Decorations
Baby Doll for a present

Oh great, a bat! I wonder who got her that! (oops, I guess it was me)

Uncle Neil got her these, which I'm surprised arent dead by now by all of the OVER-feeding. They should be good and plump enough for Christmas dinner.

I also had to make her a birthday banner, I dont recommend making this on the actual day of the party.

Tough Like Chuck Norris

2010-09-02T20:06:00.000-08:00

Its your b-day, its your b-day, oh yeah, oh yeah!

2010-08-15T01:01:00.004-08:00

R made me this super sweet yummy breakfast with strawberries from the garden and the blueberries we picked at Eureka. Then he dropped me off at the salon which I've told you already but I went and got my hair done.

Can you believe Cindy make this cake? I spy an H from the shredded Hershey's bar, do you?
I really wish this photo turned out, cuz I dont have any with my bro.
OH NO!!! I just realized I forgot to make a wish. CRAP!!! CRAP!!! CRAP!!! So does that mean I can tell you what I was gonna wish for?? I'm sure you all know anyways.

This just happens to be my favorite shot of the day! And you can see my awesome ringlets in my hair.

This is our substitute daughter Elizabeth about to cut my cake up.

And this is our substitute son Henry who had a blast playing golf around Ken & Cindy's house.

And this is the BESTEST neighbor anyone could ever ask for... and also the real mother of the children above. Sampson (the dog) wouldnt leave her alone once she started petting him. And look at this look he's giving me?!? What's up with at?

He kept backing into her to get his back scratched... it was hilarious!

Then Cindy showed us her producing tomato trees. Cant believe I dont have red ones yet, after seeing these I went up to our greenhouse and chopped the crap out of our trees. Pretty much got rid of all the stalks and branches that werent producing fruit. Dont get me wrong, I have TONS of tomatoes growing and they're getting huge, but they're not turning red. Oh well, more on that later!

All in all, my B~Day was the BEST!! I have the greatest husband EVER! He took such good care of me, not only did he take the day off (which apparently is hard to do even if its your own bday, sorry Tim), but he even let me test drive a Land Rover. Oh and I have to say THANKS to Cindy and Lisa for the Delish food. I'm still eating leftovers. Gotta say, that's one of the best presents anyone can get.

EUREKA!!! EUREKA!!!

2010-08-13T21:58:00.007-08:00

I dont feel much like typing right now so I'm gonna have these awesome pics tell the story for me.

So we went to Eureka Mon & Tues with R's parents. Thought we were gonna get rained out but we had sun most of the time, and didnt get any rain till we were almost out on Tues.

LOADED blueberry bushes!

We're dragging what use to be our bogger. We lost it up there a few years back and it has taken a couple trips back there to get it out.

A fresh spring we found

MMM, SMORES!!! And check out my bulging muscles. hehe

Can you tell what color we just painted it? And no I'm not talking about the mudd Papa

HAPPY BIRTHDAY 2 ME!!!

2010-08-12T20:26:00.002-08:00

YEAH!!! Today is my birthday, and my B-DAY is AWESOME!!! Every time someone asked me how old I was I'd minus 1 year. I got down to 15 y.o. OH YEAH!!! So anyways! I have our wonderful neighbors over right now so I'm gonna go. I'll post pics of my BDay later for you all. R dropped me off at the salon and said "I already paid for it all, have fun" so I went in and had my hair dyed black and styled and got a manicure. But more on that later.
Also, on a scrapbooking note, HERE'S a website that's having a FREE online class e-mailed to you directly. I dont know much about it but I'm gonna check it out. Laci

Random bits of our summer

2010-08-09T01:12:00.004-08:00

This is the flower R got me for our Anniversary in April, it bloomed again! SO HAPPY!!

My tiny flower garden is blooming too.
Lately I've been eating salmon burgers for lunch and let me tell you how awesome it is to just go outside and grab some fresh lettuce out of the garden. LOVELY!!! Pretty soon it'll be tomatoes too.
My lettuce outside

The few peas that didnt get destroyed by the moose

This little guy just had his 1 year transplant anniversary, we made red cupcakes to celebrate and Lisa cooked tons of WONDERFUL food.

I made a blanket for Bocy and right away she knew it was hers, I was in the middle of tying the ends when she fell asleep on it here.

Just before I took this pic, Bocy was sleeping on the back of the tractor, but as soon as I came out to take her picture she jumped down.

Remember my wooden spools of thread, well I displayed them here on my cubes along with my wire dress form and R's first camera (he's a better photographer than I)

Some of you wanted to see the heart I made of wooden spools. Here you go!

This is my wall of LOVE!! I framed one of my love note from my husband (one of many), and hung up his award from the academy. Can you believe I found it in the garbage??!!

Also, we just bought a NEW book case. Isnt it beautiful, its in our bedroom and I just cleaned it yesterday so havent had a chance to put all our books on it yet. R will be happy to get the last boxes out of his garage.

Gotta get ready for camping, later this week I should have some fun camping pics. Hopefully sunny weather pics, but most likely wet ones. We havent really had a sun since MAY!!

Newest additions to craft room

2010-07-24T00:55:00.003-08:00

I really cant explain in words how excited I am to have an actual craft room. So that's why I keep posting stuff about it. Its taking a lot longer than I thought to organize everything, I got a LOT of stuff. One of my favorite scrapbooking go-to items is buttons. I love having them out in the open so I knew a kitchen scale was just the thing... and not just any kitchen scale an old fashion red one.

Last Sat. I was out and about kinda early with time to spare and on my way home I stopped in at a yard sale where I saw a big bag of thread on WOODEN SPOOLS, how cool is that. Bag was $4.00 but I didnt have any cash, so I walked away wondering why I even stopped. All morning I was thinking about them in the back of my mind cuz I've always wanted wooden spool, so about noon I stole $4. from Ryan's cash stash and went down there just in time to beat an old lady who was about to grab them. HAHA Ok, she wasnt that old, but she already had crafty stuff in her hands and I know she would've taken them. So here they are and I'll display them on my wall. There were a whole bunch that were just empty spools so I took some of them and strung them on wire and hung them up in my room in the shape of a heart... I know, I'm so clever!!

And remember my red? I decided to hang my ribbon from it. I was hesitant because I thought Bocy would see it as her personal playground but she doesnt even care unless she hasnt realized what it is yet.

I put the rest of my ribbon in jars by color on the lower shelves of my embellishment center. I also have my mists, some inks, and flowers in jars in here. As well as the ribbon, the red ribbon spools wouldnt fit inside so I had to hang them.

1st LO's from my new room

2010-07-18T23:01:00.003-08:00

Well my room isnt quite all put together just yet but its coming along. I got so sick of going through boxes of stuff trying to find homes for everything so I gave up and started scrapbooking. Which took twice as long because I need to find all my tools before I can really do much. Oh well!

So this is what I did. When I got all antsy I just grabbed the first picture album I could see and grabbed the first photos that were in the front and went to town.

This 1st one the pics of the beginning of our Girls trip to DisneyWorld last summer, pics are just in the airport b4 we even left, we met Valli down in FL at her time share.

These are pics from when JD, Caitlin and us went to Lava Hot Springs one weekend and stopped in at the Fairbanks Ice Festival.

That's all for now but OH there will be more. Just you wait till my room is all finished!

How Twilight Should Have Ended

2010-07-17T01:42:00.000-08:00

If you like Twilight, you'll LOVE this, if you hate Twilight... you'll still LOVE this!

Our recent adventure...

2010-07-07T14:03:00.005-08:00

Hiked up Hatcher's to one of the cabins with our awesome neighbors. Was super SUPER windy at the top, in fact I'm surprised everyone is smiling in this pic. Little Henry was not too happy, almost got blown away.

Didnt want Elizabeth to get blown away so J stowed her away in his pack.
She loved it!

We climbed to the top of that, you can kinda see the zigzag trail cut in on the left of the snow. That cabin is at the top. And below is the mine, or the ruins of the mine.

Then we hiked down to this other mine where the boys went exploring and brought out some mud for us to goldpan.

We were bored while waiting for the boys.

Cutest little thang you eva did see!!!

2010-07-03T15:03:00.004-08:00

This is pretty old, umm, like back in beginning of April old. My sister came to visit and brought the 1st baby of my family. Little baby Madeline, such a charmer that one! Sis told me that people tell her all the time how Madeline looks like a porcelain doll, and after looking through all the pictures I took during her visit I now know why. She would always do that pose that you see most dolls do. She had it down too! This is it!

She was so charming that R would drop anything and everything he was doing just to entertain her. (Notice her bib??)

We had a little 'come meet Madeline' party for all the family and friends who would give Valli crap for not letting them meet baby... nobody showed. Well, I take that back because my neighbors came and hung out with us. Thanks Lisa!
JD had a soft spot for her too. He'd hold her and say "you need to learn to sit still... she'll never learn unless you hold her here" I think he just wanted to hog her.
Being the camera person that I am, I had to take some poser shots as well!

Looking at these pics makes me miss her..... I miss you too Valli!

Here FISHY FISHY FISHY, I just wanna eat you!

2010-07-02T23:11:00.008-08:00

(I know I'm not so good at this blogging thing in the summer, and sometimes I post 2 different posts, or in this case 3. So feel free to read all of them)

R's parents were so awesome to take us out fishing last week. So here are a few pics of our fun journey.

Fishing out of Whittier
Kayaking and stuff
Someone caught a skate, cant remember if it was R or his dad...

Just as we were coming into a little cove we must have hit a rock. It was so loud and destroyed our prop, good thing Ken carries a spare.

No fish in Whittier so we pulled out and headed to Homer.

This is the glassy waters out of Seldovia.

2nd day we were surrounded by many whales, so we fished near them. Where there's whales, there's halibut... apparently. Cuz that's where Ken caught a halibut with his bare hands.

This is a lonely halibut that surfaced near the boat, he followed his buddy up who was on Jordan's line.

This is the fisherman who caught that halibut with his bare hands!

Jordan started with this piece of bait, and about 20 halibut later it dwindled down to this (a piece or pieces of halibut skin)... and he was still catching fish with it. Silly boy!!! But very effective!

My SEXY FisherMAN

2010-07-02T22:55:00.004-08:00

Isnt he just so photogenic while fishing. I just had to post some of his famous fishing pics from our halibut trip last week.

YEAH!!! WORK THOSE MUSCLES!!!
We're gonna have to work on your smile!

Now that's what I'm talk'in about.

The Good Samaritan

2010-07-02T22:06:00.004-08:00

So the other day I was out back taking pics of stuff and I heard the wooshing of water in my front yard, as I'm coming around the corner to investigate this is what I see.

She was so focused she didnt even notice me taking pics of her. What a good neighbor!

Then she proceeded to water my whole garden, which took her about an hour.
Refill the bucket, water garden... refill bucket (almost fall in), water garden, etc.

NEW & Improved Scrapbook Room

2010-07-01T16:31:00.003-08:00

All this made possible by 1 Adorable, Loving, Amazing, Hard Working, Sexy, Ambitious, (I could go on, but I'll refrain from making you puke) HUSBAND!

(Thanks babe, xoxo!!!)

When people ask about my room and we get to talking about cost and all that, I notice that the person's eyes usually wander over to R as if quietly asking him "why would you let her do this" or "how can you afford this woman" or whatever it is they mean to say... and R just looks at me and says "Only the best for my Laci!" The cool thing is he means it too.

So I know I've showed pics before, but its getting better everyday. I keep adding awesome-ness and I have to admit it's pretty freaking Amazing. Who wouldnt want to craft here? This is the over-all pic of my desk.

The far wall!

I dug out my awesome candle holder that's been in the basement for years and hung it by a chain that R so kindly gave to me and painted for me. Now my room will smell of 'Coconut Cove', my favorite Partylite scent.
Disregard the junk on the desk, its not quite organized yet, I dont know what I want to display on my cute stands yet.

I've always wanted to do this. Put my wood stamps on a shelf, but apparently I have too many to fit on it. (I still havent unpacked all my stuff yet, these are just the ones I found lying around in random places.)

I decided to display this one on my cute little red shelf.

Got this at a thrift store, painted it red and its perfect for holding my paints, and my pepe le pew ornament that my grandma gave me.

I've been coveting this shelf for years, finally got it thanks to a 50% off coupon and a gift card from Cindy. Still filling it up though, hence the emptiness.

My FAVE thrift store find is this long skinny shelf I got a few weeks ago for $1. I bought it hoping my Stampin Up ink pads would fit in it, and they do. Perfectly! I only have 2 sets of them and that's exactly how many it holds! A little bit of paint and its perfect!

A Viper’s Strike, a Dying Boy and a Choice for the Marines - Slide Show - NYTimes.com

2010-06-19T21:47:00.002-08:00

This is my awesome BIL Dave! He was in the paper!
A Viper’s Strike, a Dying Boy and a Choice for the Marines - Slide Show - NYTimes.com
Click HERE for the whole story!

Our home-made greenhouse of love

2010-06-18T20:45:00.006-08:00

This is the coolest greenhouse ever, why you ask? Because R built it!

My 8 ball zucchini, they're a lot bigger now, I took these pics 2 weeks ago. (I'm just really good at procrastinating)

Along this wall we have all the tomato plants that R started on the shelf and some more in the tires on the floor.

At first I thought "oh how cool, a moose track I'll take a pic" until that moose charged me and tried to kill me, if it hadnt gotten spooked I'd be the hospital right now. Now I dont go to the greenhouse without my gun.

R built this amazing dock, makes it so easy to water the plants, oh and this is one of the ponds on the upper property.

See all our little baby froggies in the other pond? I cant wait till their legs grow in and they lose their tale, they can eat all the mosquitos up there. This whole pond is covered in them!

We bought 2 of these trees at Lowe's on sale for $15. and their red haralson's semi-dwarf trees.

Have to show the pretty flowers R's mom gave me with the cute pot.
...And, MY SCRAPBOOK ROOM IS ALMOST FINISHED!!!
I'm just getting the finishing touches on the room, then I can start putting stuff away.

Check out my new countertop, its black slate and has the same texture too, I had it made from Kustom Kitchen's and had them cut it so I could stand up to it, so its not a 90* angle. Isnt it beautiful! I cant wait to get everything in its place.

And these are the black cubes I got on clearance to put some of my stuff in. They're the best for scrapbooking!

(Part 2) Mexico Cruise

2010-05-01T22:26:00.002-08:00

The only reason I knew what day it was on the ship is because they put it in the elevator. Swapped them out at midnight.

This pic cracks me up every time I look at it. Dont ask, I dont even know.

YAY!!! The coolest town in Mexico was Zihuatanejo. If you ever move to Mexico, go THERE!!!
R bought a hammock from some guy on the street. Made him throw in some rope too so we could use it on the beach.

This is one of the many street vendors's shops. LOTS of pottery! I bought some! It is COOL!!!

YES!! I caught this.

OK, that's a lie!

But I did get permission to take a pic with it! Sunset from our room was AMAZING! I'm so glad we had a window, so worth it!

So every time someone asked us what part of ALASKA we were from I'd show them the hand Alaska symbol (as pictured) and point it out. The couple at dinner couldnt get enough of it, they kept asking us what part we were from just so we could show them. (they were pretty much drunk the entire time)

Our waitress Felicitas was from the Philippines and she was the greatest! She would call me "Maaa'aaam" with a voice inflection at the end.

Ok, our other waiter was also the greatest. Zakar was from India, and he was crazy!

The Curse (Part 1) OH, I mean Cruise

2010-04-28T09:40:00.004-08:00

The 2nd night was a formal night, after dinner we went out and played around a bit.

Where: Cabo San Lucas
What: Rent a glass bottom boat to take us out to Lover's Beach

Awesome thunder storm off in the distance where we like it

I'll have to tell the awesome story that goes along with the dessert later!

Where: Mazatlan

What: Rent a mini sailboat and sail around an island

Where: Puerto Vallarta

R wanted a pic with the military guys with guns. They were stationed at every port near the the ropes that tie the boat off.

What: Go snorkeling on a Large sailboat

and stop in on a cool island to eat some mahi mahi

Get back to our room where we find it perfectly made up with cute towel animals

Enabling Scrapbookers!!!

2010-04-19T21:35:00.006-08:00

Ok, I couldnt resist! Those of you who know me know how big I am into scrapbooking. I'm addicted... to the actual act of scrapbooking my precious pictures and memories or to the super cute products, I'm not quite sure. But I do know this, they make me all giddy inside.

Although I dont usually send forwards or try to get people to join clubs and such, I just have to tell all scrapbookers about this site that I've been watching for about a year now. Its called Crop Chocolate, and they are a Deal Of The Day website just for scrapbooking items. They get awesome products for super good deals, and sell them for way under what you'd pay at a LSS (local scrapbook store). They use to only have 1 deal a day but now they pretty much have up to 12 deals a day, just whenever stuff sells out.

Now if you want to go check it out and sign up I just request that you say I referred you, it'll ask for my e-mail address which is snow_chic83@hotmail (dot) com

Now here's a peak: I just got this Making Memories Passport (travel) kit for $15.99 which comes out to $1.45 per package (retails for right around $60.)

WAY AWESOME HUH??

If you want to check it out click HERE!!

And here is some really cute ribbon I got also:

Road Trip (Cali 2 AZ)

2010-04-06T11:57:00.012-08:00

So I know I suck at updating this blog, but I have good reasons. So much has happened in the last 2 months its crazy. Once we got home from vacation I had nose surgery, yeah like the movie stars... oh wait, except mine doesnt look any diferent on the outside. Its even better than looks, I CAN BREATHE!!! WooHOO! I've never been able to breathe through my nose, and I tell you it is something wonderful.

Anyways, since I was going to be having surgery by an ENT (ear, nose, throat doctor) I called a few days before surgery and said "hey, just remove my tonsils at the same time" and they did... and that's another story, to keep it short I pretty much dont remember the following 3 weeks after surgery.

Then we scurried like crazy to get the house finished for carpet for Valli's arrival, yeah that's another story also.

So, I'm gonna recap our trip since we havent shared any of it yet.

We flew into Cali and rented our car... not a JEEP. I was so mad they didnt have our jeep after I reserved and PAID for it. Dont ever use FOX rental car!!! Anyways after waiting around a day for our Jeep and realizing it wasnt gonna happen we took off to go see Ken and their awesome house in AZ.

But while awaiting the call from the rental company we hung out in La Jolla for and found this awesome sushi restaurant, oh and the biggest Victoria's Secret I've ever been too (and it wasn't in a mall).

OK, I'll shutup and show you some pics.

Yes, that's a flame of fire, cool huh?

So after dropping $80. we packed up our leftover scrumptious sushi, took pics with the masters and got out of that over-priced town, (only to have R bring me back to V.S. when they opened the next morning).

We took our discounted Chrysler 300 and headed for Casa Grande, AZ. We only made one stop along the way in Julian, CA cuz its known for its apples, and it was a super cute tiny town. The Julian nuthouse supplied us with some delish cider which tasted as good as it was worth, which I'm not going to tell you how much, but now I can say I had fresh cider from an apple town.
And they had a store just for me:
Once in AZ Ken brought us to his favorite hiking spot, its called something like Picacho Peak, he can climb it a couple time a day and its a good hike. Here's a little part of it. Sure was a nice day, loved being in the sun after no sunny days in back home.

The desert was fun too, its so weird to come from tundra and trees to the desert.

Check it out its B.O.B. from 'Monsters vs. Aliens', who needs a cardboard cutout, phht!

Ken's daughter Leah was visiting also, which I'm glad it evened us up a bit, 2 guys, 2 girls, and it was fun having her to go shopping with. She helped me shop for dresses for the cruise and we got like 6 dresses for under $100. Thank you ROSS, why wont you come to Alaska, I would visit you often.

This is another fun hike up to some pools, dont remember what they're called.

If my R see's anything dangerous, scary, or anything that screams 'climb me and I'll make sure you fall to your death' he's all over it. Oh, did I say if, I meant when... "Oh look a waterfall trickling over big smooth boulders on a cliff, we should crawl down the slippery rocks and take a look." Makes me glad to be the photographer so I can say "ok, you go, I'll stay here where its semi-safe and take pictures"

Ok, so the next post will be the cruise... and it shouldnt take another 2 months, hopefully!

I'm so SUPER excited!!!

2010-01-19T22:26:00.006-09:00

Check out our rental car for California!

You're probably wondering why I'd rent a car in CA when you thought we were going on a cruise... hmm, simple answer, BOTH! Our cruise doesnt leave till Feb. 1st but we bought our tickets to go down a week early to play. Thus, the rental Jeep.

OK, well I'm really excited about it. I spent an hour and a half searching for the best rental car deals from the San Diego Airport and before I did R and I decided to go with a convertible to just have fun, I mean why not? So I did my awesome searches and I found this deal for the same amount as a regular car, and it's unlimited mileage. And to think I almost rented a Chevy Malibu for the same price, ppffft. And how many times do you think "naw, I can rent a car when we get there..." then once there all the good cars are gone. Yeah, not this time, I'm planning everything to work out just right.

And more good news, we found out that R's parents house in AZ is only 5 hours drive from San Diego so we wanna go check out their vacation house and now we can do some awesome 4x-ing on the way.

The latest @ Jim Creek

2010-01-18T11:48:00.004-09:00

I took more video this time instead of pics so the photo coverage is a little sparse. We left the parking lot at about 1030 and it only took about 2 hours to the Glacier. At the Glacier the other two rigs dropped tires into a moraine pond. The small Ford blew a front axle. So we called the trip and hiked out across the lake to the face of the glacier and tolled around. The headed back out. The little Ford stuck it in a drift for about an hour. The big Ford stuck it trying to pull the little one out. I broke a few straps attempting to yank him out. Ripped off the little ones front bumper with a chain, Hee Hee Hee!!! We then got out a little after dark. Good trip all in all. I found that I need to rework my shock mounts and fix my door. It was an enjoyable trip and I will be going back this next Friday or Saturday.

Knik In January

2010-01-13T04:21:00.011-09:00

It seems that we are starting a yearly tradition. Around this time every year we make a pilgrimage to the Knik River drainage. Last year was less enjoyable due in part to the -30 degree temp and one frozen solid radiator. For those of you prone memory lapses look up that post and you'll find a video of Laci warming her hands with a blow torch........shudder. This year however was quite the mid-winter romp, still cold, but thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Gassing up before the play date is a must, snacks and forgotten necessities should be purchased at this time as stores at Jim Creek are hard to come by.

Once we got to the riverbed we partook in the obligatory donut fest in celebration of high octane fuel and being an American.

Lots of folks had been having trouble with this section of ice. It looked like a battle zone with the broken trees, holes in the ice from the frustrated drivers spinning tires, fire pits to warm the tired crews and the bullet casings.

As you can see the riverbed never really warms up during the winter months. But in cold there is beauty, something like how people say a wild fire is beautiful.....but then you realize that these are the same people that frequent hospitals because they like sick people..........Hmmmmmm......

Well thats all the time I have for now. Look for a continuing post soon.

And for the mean time here's a cute video of Alex shooting the .22

Our Merry Day

2010-01-05T16:47:00.009-09:00

Ok, I'm posting these for those family members who were not here and would like to see all the hubbub from our Christmas day.

Here's some of the goodies I got R. A zombie tee, awesome sailboat tie, and a ruger 10/22

(shirt says: In case of zombie apocalypse choose your weapon)

I got the coolest new pots and pans set from my awesome lover

Yeah, that's a lighter...

From R's brother

Papa got all the boys this awesome predator call, Byron and Spencer opened theirs at the same time and had a who-can-be-the-loudest contest. And the other boys convinced Spencer that his call wasnt as loud as the others... boys!
Marky & Lanisha got mom a new set of scriptures

Ok, so we got Marky batteries... I know what you're thinking, but when we asked him what he wanted for Christmas he'd say "oh, just some movies" so after getting some movie which I thought was a boring gift I asked him again telling him he cant say movies. He thought for a minute and said "ya know, there is something I could use. Batteries. I'm always looking for batteries". So we bought the big packs at costco, and told him he's not allowed to share. Also being the considerate sister that I am I made him one of those record bowls to keep them in.

This is what R made for his brother who's been making and giving them away. There's a dog in this one and a baby cuz they're due to have their first child in Feb.

These are not just any underwear, they are from Victoria's Secret and they have nutcrackers on them. Enough Said! Good think'in mom!

Thread cabinet with 100 threads, now she can sew forever!

Mark's bear skin. Mom is mounting it for him, that's his present. Pretty cool huh?

Quilted Love

2010-01-03T22:03:00.003-09:00

Oh look how nice we can be to each other... after all it is Christmas!

JD got this monstrousity of a nail gun from his lovely wife, it looks like an alien.
Lahela's Quilt (they're all from mom by the way)
Caitlin's Quilt

And my quilt!

I love it!

B4 Christmas...

2010-01-02T22:44:00.003-09:00

R took me on a date to see our first 3D movie, by the way Avatar is alright only if you see it in 3D, but I wouldnt pay money to see it again. Dont know what all the hype was about!

We picked up this bum on the side of the street on our way to a Christmas party, he had some strange attachment to Cindy, wierd... Oh wait, that looks like Landon our lil brother, oh yup, my mistake. How could I have mistaken HIM for a bum, he looks legit, right?

This gift exchange was for $25. gift cards instead of gifts. We got the best ones: REI and Visa!
Wow, this is pretty much our only Christmas pic together

Busy FUN Weekend

2009-12-22T00:15:00.006-09:00

First off we got dumped on and this is how much, it seemed like 3 feet in one night

I got 6 package slips in the mail in one day, how amazing is that... so I went to the P.O. at 5pm expecting to stand in line for over an hour to find only 2 people in line, took 5 min. Apparently they asked everyone to stay home that day because of weather and all the snow, I didnt know... but roads were fine! Talk about luck, and that same day I got 2 FedEx packages also!
Christmas Ward Party! We wrote the 5 missionaries from our ward. These are my friends who got married this spring, they're fun.
JD had a party Sat. night and Dan disappeared with his chainsaw for about an hour and came walking out of the woods with this for JD.

He's really good at this stuff! He did this one in the dark and quickly!

Sunday we went to the parents house for dinner and afterwards we lazed around a bit, and I thought it was funny to look up as we're all talking and see this... Ken & Cindy bought eachother laptops for Christmas!

And today us girls made carmeled pretzels!

...with chocolate!

Then Lico from upstairs was bored and came over to help, he took over the whole kitchen and finished up for us, the funny thing was that he loved every bit of it!

Board Game Purse

2009-12-21T23:51:00.003-09:00

Lanisha and I decided to try making board game purses so we bought some games at Bishop's Attic.

Nativity LOVE!!!

2009-12-20T00:30:00.003-09:00

So after we had the Nativity Display last week in our chapel (if you're not familiar its where people all around town donate their nativities for the weekend and the entire building is decorated, there's a red room, white room, international room, this year they added a patriotic room and it was amazing, but there's thousands of nativities and they're so beautiful), anyways I didnt have to go to classes as all the rooms were closed off except the chapel, so I figured I'd go help and it was actually really cool. Two years ago we (Mom, Valli, and I) saw this amazing nativity and have coveted it ever since. Its the 2004 edition from some Home catalog and sold out so fast and is no where to be found. Well, after giving up looking for it I found it on eBay, and guess what?? It was a buy it now for $25.00 I snatched it up so fast and I just got it 2 days ago. So here I am showing it off to you!

I also bought this Pewter Nativity!
And this wood Nativity from Jerusalem

Next year I'll be able to actually donate some to the Nativity Display and I'm really excited about it, I've always wanted to support it. I've had nativities on my Christmas list for years now and decided I know what I want so I'll just buy them, and I did!

... more Christmas Decor

2009-12-20T00:23:00.004-09:00

For years now I've sat at mom's house on Christmas to watch all the girls around me open gifts from my mom to find these beautiful quilts, and every year I beg to have one and promise I'll be more proud of it than any of them... and last year my wish finally came true. Look at this amazing Christmas quilt. I have hung it up and put it on display this season! I trully LOVE it! Thanks MOM!!!

I bought this sleigh at Salvation Army for a $1.00 it had some mural on it that I didnt care for so I painted chalk paint on it and turned it into a countdown. Its fun!!!
And I got this at JoAnn's last year after Christmas for a few dollars also. Love after Christmas sales!

Santa Claus is in the house...

2009-12-19T23:40:00.003-09:00

Neighbors had an appearance from the big man himself and I captured a few pics... because Santa asked!

Christmas Decor and my AWESOME tree

2009-12-17T02:46:00.006-09:00

So I must tell the story of the tree.

When we went tree hunting we only had about an hour. We drove around a bit with some friends, one of them found a worthy tree after trekking through the woods a little ways and being short on time I looked over to this joke of a tree and I said "We should take that tree... it would be unique." as it was super skinny and scrawny compared to all the other trees.

Then Joel said "Cut it down quick before she changes her mind!" So that's how we got the tree.

When it came time to decorate it I decided it would be easier to wrap the trunk in lights as there arent many branches, then layering what branches I had left, and since there's no room for ornaments I went with ribbon this year, but I couldnt decided if I wanted to hang it from the top or if I should wrap the tree, so I did both really crappily to see which I'd like best, and when I did I saw that the crappy ribbon job totally went with the theme of the tree so I left it, spool and all.

We then had Joel put the star on top as he's the tallest, the springs dont make it very easy for it to stand up so the star is drooping to the floor and even though at first I thought we should fix it cuz I didnt want bad juju, but then it grew on me. This is the least amount of effort we've ever put into a tree and I have to say its my very favorite because it makes me laugh every time I look at it. Dont you just love it? It kind of reminds me of the grinch for some reason.

I went and bought a bunch of candy bars to decorate the gifts

Here's my home-made M&M bowl

And here's the advent calendar I made last year

Monthly Update...

2009-12-17T02:11:00.006-09:00

Black Friday 4:45 AM

Target

These are the people behind us in line, all the way to the light.

Found this nasty sludge in Joel's rear differential
Got the awesomest Charlie Brown tree

After dragging it out we had even less branches

The Christmas Tree Crew

And I attended an 'Ugly Sweater Party'... I bought an ugly sweater at Bishop's Attic that I was going to alter and pin this baby sweater onto, but after altering it, it fell apart so I barely got this toddler one over my head, pinned it to my shirt and called it good! Had lots of fun playing 'I never' and the game where you tell 2 truths and 1 lie about yourself, playing with a bunch of A.P.D. officers made it no fun... they were really good at picking out the lie.

Grandma's Tradition

2009-12-17T01:42:00.007-09:00

Every year on Thanksgiving it's tradition to open a present from our Grandma W. this gift will contain one Hallmark ornament, and we actually have a lot of fun seeing what we got each year.

Only problem is that sometimes when we go through the Christmas stuff each year we cant remember who's is who's and we fight over the one we think is ours. So this year I decided to take pics of everyone and their ornament. Valli I'm pretty much posting this for you since you didnt get the best descriptions over the phone. Here they are... wait till you see Spencer's, its hilarious!

It's a Mrs. Moose! LOL! Do you think Grandma gave him the right one? Or was she thinking hmmm, he'll really enjoy this???

Thanksgiving Chocolate Cake

2009-12-17T00:57:00.004-09:00

I made a double layer chocolate cake for Thanksgiving and when I asked R to ice it I had no idea he was gonna go all out using 3 cans of icing for it. I was completely amazed and way impressed... Good job babe!!!

So of coarse we had to take pics since I missed pics of all the other food.

Showing off our full bellies, you cant really see mine since my shirt is black, but trust me it was big! You would've thought I was pregnant!

Knock Knock...

2009-12-16T14:15:00.005-09:00

As we're laying lazily in our bed watching a movie...

L: It's probably UPS

R checks to see UPS guy walking away

Seconds later we hear tires spinning in the driveway

L: He's stuck

R gets up and starts putting on his cold weather gear

L goes to the door just as UPS guy with green fuzzy hat and elf ears is smiling

UPS guy: Hey, I'm stuck! This is the 1st time this has ever happened to me and I even have my chains on...

L: My husband's getting ready to come out

I do have to say he was pretty cheerful for the situation he was in. I should call UPS and tell them to give him a raise for staying positive.

But R was really bummed that the big truck is down a driveline cuz that would have been lots of fun for him pulling out the UPS guy with the bogger. Next time! Cuz I'm expecting a couple UPS packages and we're expecting 16 more inches of this crazy white fluff.

The Nativity Display

2009-12-15T19:20:00.005-09:00

This one just happens to be my favorite. It's carved from a tree and when its closed it looks just like a piece of tree trunk. I'll go ahead and post where their from if I can remember.

Brazil

I love that baby Jesus is wrapped in twine, that's my favorite part.
U.S. (hard resin)
Stained Glass

Jerusalem (wood)

Thailand

Philippines (corn husks)

Poland (wood)

Mexico

Set of 4 Stocking holders

Glass

Glass with gold stuff (cant remember what its called right now)

Coolest Recycled Item Ever...

2009-12-14T22:03:00.005-09:00

The Tire Purse! Complete with radiator hose handle. I'm totally going to make me one. This has got to be the hottest purse I've ever seen.

And for a close 2nd place would be this Elvis vinyl record purse!

For purchase on Etsy, if you wanna pay $50. for it go HERE!

My own blood...

2009-11-15T16:27:00.004-09:00

I am extremely ecstatic to introduce to you my very 1st niece, the 1st Grandchild of my parents, she's been in hiding for 9.5 months, and here she is, the EVER-SO-CUTE Madeline!!!

Dr. Daddy!!!

Halloween Costumes

2009-11-04T14:43:00.005-09:00

Kind of last minute I went to a Halloween Party thrown by friends.

These are the Hosts (caveman & woman) Jared & Lacey.

JD & Caitlin are themselves 100 years ago, she's wearing real head-dress.

I did bring a mustache cookie because I didnt have time to throw together a costume.
Lahela was Little Bo Peep with her sheep! Byron's cotton was hard to keep on so they used a spray on constuction adhesive that you're not even suppose to use without gloves on. He had one heck of a time getting it all off... lets just say he's completely hairless now thanks to Nair!
Doug & Deena (I think that's her name). Look at their costumes, it makes sense because she's pregnant.
Halloween just happens to be Lahela's B-Day also, so Caitlin made her a cake but we couldnt find any candles... so we used matches!

My cat works out!

2009-11-02T16:05:00.004-09:00

Hello Blackout Blinds... Hello sleep!!

2009-11-02T15:58:00.003-09:00

Since R has to sleep a lot during daylight hours and because of the never-dark Alaska summers I decided to invest in a Blackout blind. We sure have enjoyed it! I totally recommend them to anyone with a window in their bedroom, and if you're thinking of buying some do NOT go to Lowe's or Home Depot, you can get them a couple hundred dollars cheaper here!

We got the cordless just so children and Bocy cant mess with cords, and its just nicer. It closes up nice and small.

Recent Things

2009-10-31T13:41:00.004-08:00

My kitty Bocy always finds funny ways to fall asleep, and of coarse this isnt the most unique but I still had to take a pic and show her off... she is my only child after all.

R put up the cool shelves that I got and I think they add a little something something to the kitchen, dont you? Displayed are the ceramics that we finished at Color-Me-Mine. And of coarse I had to add a pumkin for the season.

This is the downstairs bedroom wall, I thought it was finished but then I decided I wanted to sand it a little more, but isnt that a cool color? The accent wall is a mint green.
R cut down a bunch of trees the other day since it still hasnt snowed and the next morning we heard a bunch of noise, at first I thought R was yawning a lot but apparently that's the sound they make. They were really vocal. I tried to take a video of it for you all but once we cracked the window they split!
There was a small bull, a cow and 2 babies. The perfect little moose family!

Mustache Anybody???

2009-10-31T02:13:00.003-08:00

I wanted to make these awesome cookies for my Seminary class so we started cutting them out by hand and they werent very pretty so R ducked out to the garage for a few minutes and came back with these totally amazing cookie cutters... my hubby is pure genius! They sped up the process incredibly!

Fresh out of the oven!
You can't tell me that JD doesnt look like the Monopoly guy!!!
And here's (not even) half my class with theirs.

Baby Shower 4 Shay

2009-10-31T01:42:00.004-08:00

I've never thrown a baby shower before until a month ago when we had one for Valli, and here I am throwing another one... so if I have throw a third one does that saying convert from 3rd time a bridesmaid never the bride. 3rd time the baby shower thrower, never a baby! CRAP!!! Nobody ask me to throw another baby shower till I'm mommy!

I made this cute little album for the cards, and I actually sat there as they were opening presents and punched a hole in each card to add to it.

OK, I lied! I didnt throw it on my own... Caitlin was my other half and I couldn't have done it without her! Its a good thing too cuz she brought the things I totally forgot about and vice versa!

Caitlin & I are visiting teachers together and when we visited Shay the week before we saw how little they had for their baby. They're living with a friend and have no income and a baby on the way. We saw the list of things they had for their baby, it was like 5 Newborn (NB) tops, 3NB bottoms, a few onesies, & a carseat... thus the Baby Shower!
I dont know why I like the M&M counting game but I just do, probably because its so colorful! Can you guess how many M&M's are in that jar? Lennis did, she was only off by one.
This is Shay & her husband Allen, he insisted on coming so we made him hold up all the gifts and show them off. Peggy made these two beautiful quilts.

Laci, Shay, Caitlin

Pre-Christmas Pondering

2009-10-26T22:05:00.005-08:00

This tree is made out of beer bottles! DARN, and to think I threw out all my hundreds of Henry Weinhard's bottles when the recycling center wouldnt accept them.

Mt. Dew cans are purty!

I was checking a blog that I frequent and they were having a contest, all you had to do to win was comment and say what your favorite Christmas tradition is.

I was interested in others' traditions so I read all of them. Here's what the bulk of them had:

~ Getting an orange in our stocking

~ Baking cookies together

~ Opening 1 gift of Christmas Eve which was PJ's

~ Visiting family

You know, the usual. Then I came across this gem:

Our favourite holiday tradition is to put out a glass of beer for Santa (hence his big round tummy) and oats for the Reindeer's along with our wish lists. We also sprinkle glitter over the grass so Santa will see it glisten from his sleigh. We then hang a key on some ribbon from the front door so Santa can let himself in as my children pointed out that we don't have a chimney that he can come down.

LOL ~ Beer!!! I bet they get awesome presents!

Hey, I know where their key is on Christmas EVE...

Honey Bees

2009-10-19T23:52:00.003-08:00

Dave & Valli's Bee's

Sully ~ Their crazy dog!

He REALLY loves his kong!

Good 'OL Tennessee

2009-10-19T23:18:00.006-08:00

We were all excited to go see the pumkin patch and after half an hour in the car we got there on some dirt road. Then as we walk up it states that its closed that day. We go in anyways because if Dave cant persuade them to let us in with his charm, then we'll use Valli's pregnant belly to get sympathy, and if that doesnt work, that's when I come in... but I'm not going to tell you how I would deal with things, cuz its not that pleasant.

Anyways, Dave's smooth talking worked, and the owners were super Awesome!

Wow, next to me Valli doesnt even look pregnant...
now looking at that pic, if I was that big... how miserable, unless it was sextuplets, AWESOME!!!

A pear pumkin

Corn stalks are so neat!

Purchased our tickets...

2009-10-12T21:07:00.003-08:00

12 Day Mexican Riviera

I'll be away from my desk...

2009-09-27T19:22:00.004-08:00

Yes, Yes, I'm leaving tonight! I'll be chill'in with my sister by Monday afternoon in Clarksville, TN. So, if there are going to be any posts while I'm gone it will be by my wonderful husband, but I wouldnt count on it if I were you because he's a very busy man and he has much better things to do. But, if you're going hiking or having some kind of adventure feel free to invite him along. The poor guy may be missing his wife like crazy so he'll need to get out! See you all when I get back, and hopefully I'll have some great pix of a beautiful little girl! (Better be a girl, Valli cuz that's what we bought... girl stuff!!!)

Baby Shower by Proxy

2009-09-26T22:49:00.006-08:00

So my sister lives in Tennessee as most of you know and she's due to have her baby in a week! We were debating for a while if we should have a baby shower for her anyways, and at first we werent going too, then last week we decided we might as well get together and show off all the stuff we got her. Which is kind of a bummer, cuz when I throw a party, shower, whatever, I like to go all out and make super cute invites and have awesome door prizes and gifts, and amazing treats that take 2 days to make, and some unique fun games that everyone is sure to enjoy, etc. etc. Well, I didnt get to do any of those!

My mom asked me to be in charge of games a couple days ago, so I was atleast really excited about being able to plan some fun unique games, but then she requested that we play Baby Pictionary... what baby shower hasn't played that game (she doesnt know that I actually hate that game).

So, I think what I'm trying to say is that I could have done a WAY better job at planning and preparing this and I hate how things go when there's no planning or prep, but none the less we still had fun even if the mother-to-be was 1000's of miles away. I do have to say that it was still pretty fun for what short of time we had.

This what we did: I'd always wanted to have a clothesline at a baby shower to hang up all the gifts, I thought that was soooo CUTE!! So we did!

Then, I filled a bottle full of M&M's and made everyone guess how many there were, which I know isnt a unique game but hey, the winner gets M&M's!!!

I did get to make it to Target before the shower and buy a couple of cute prizes for the winners, and since all the Halloween stuff is out, I bought lots of cute stuff, too bad I didnt take a pic of that stuff, cuz it was Awesome!!!

We did play this one game I thought of, and I had Lanisha take a video of it when it was my turn, so you'll see. You have to hold the baby (stuffed animal in our case) safely in one arm, talk on the phone while hanging up clothes on the line. And whoever can do it the fastest wins. Cindy was our winner with 18 seconds!

All in all, we had lots of fun just the 6 of us and I'm glad we were able to do it!

Oh, then I gave everyone a bottle with M&M's as a party favor, so we took a pic of us all and our bottles (on top).

Lets go Hiking...

2009-09-23T23:36:00.005-08:00

The Plan ~ Go hiking on Tuesday

The Thought ~ Oh, it wont be that hard, just hiking

Where ~ Byers Peak

Weather ~ Hard Rain!

Reality ~ Oh we went hiking, we started out in the rain and everyone's rain-proof clothes were drenched inside and out. We hit snow not very far up, then some how we lost trail with the snow covering so we thought we'd head on over to where we thought the trail was... what did we find? Some drop-offs, and a creek. So after slipping down the mt we followed the creek to the bottom. We were so wet!

Looks like fun, huh???

That's the creek we followed down!

I'm guessing our friend will probably never want to go hiking with us ever again.

80's Day

2009-09-20T19:36:00.005-08:00

80's Day was on Thursday and I'm glad I brought my camera because some of their outfits were hilarious.

Group Shot:

This one cracks me up, Sarah's on point and is totally rock'in the part!

Butt shot ~ Hey they requested it!

Nice pants, and is that a Transformer's shirt??

(Oh, and I changed the pics in the last post, they had too much glare from the weird lighting at the church, so now they're B&W with Blue!)

Who knew you could have this much FUN @ Seminary

2009-09-18T16:00:00.006-08:00

I LOVE SEMINARY!!!

I love my students, they are just so Awesome!!

This week was Spirit week at the school and today was 'Blue & White' day (school colors) so I had to get some pics of everyone who dressed the part.

Yesterday I went shopping and realized I didnt have a blue shirt so I bought one just for today, so I had to get a pic of my school spirit even though I never even went to Palmer. I never believed in school spirit, but probably because I didnt have a school I was proud of, and my colors were black and gold, ugh!!

Sarah and KaLene are so stink'in CUTE!!

I got Lanisha this tee yesterday too!

Got to give it to her today and it was a big hit as she's starting a petition against homework... it was my idea!

The only white shoes I have are these "hooker heels" as I call them, I bought on eBay for $2.00 they're 6" heels

I actually got to wear them for once!

My sister ROCKS!!!