Christmas Wreath

So far this year we (or Richard) have made a wreath for each holiday. I could just kick myself for not thinking to take pictures earlier.

At least we have one of our Christmas wreath. Richard used strips of paper, a cardboard circle and hung it with ribbon. Festive and budget friendly! I have such a cool husband.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

Temple Square and Gingerbread Houses!

Hello friends and family! It's the most wonderful time of year. Remembering our Savior's birth, sharing special moments with friends and family, trips to the mall, snow (hopefully soon), decorating, Temple Square lights and making gingerbread houses. This year Richard and I attended the lights with Gavin, Amy, and Schaara. It was really busy and cold, but we had a good time.

On Monday we had FHE with our same friends. Gavin made real gingerbread and we all had a blast decorating our houses. This is Richard's and mine. It features a light post, Snowman, sour skittle lights, peppermint kiss chimney with smoke, a Christmas tree with lights and much much more. We would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

The Scrapbook Warehouse Sale Continues!

I just received the following news from American Crafts:

"We had so many customers tell us they wished that the sale was longer than 3 days that we’ve decided to keep it going until Dec. 20. That’s great news for people looking for inexpensive Christmas gifts, wrapping paper and a maybe little something for themselves.

We keep finding new products as we dig around the warehouse, so it’s worth it to stop by if you’ve already been. And now everyone’s neighbors, family and friends that couldn’t make it last week will have plenty of time to do so.

Attached is a flyer with all the details. Please forward this email to everyone you think would be interested in the extended sale!"

Do you love to Scrapbook?

Hi friends and family. American Crafts is hosting its first ever Warehouse Sale to clear the warehouse of miscellaneous and overstocked items this Thursday, December 4 (for friends and family), and Friday – Saturday for the general public.

The exclusive pre-event is tomorrow (Thursday, Dec. 4) from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. You'll be the first to take advantage of big savings on Albums, Patterned Paper, Thickers, Ribbon, Embellishments and more.

Attached is a flyer with times, location and directions to the pre-event portion of our Warehouse Sale.

Hope to see friends and family members there tomorrow!

Kimmy was here!

We were lucky to have my sister Kim visit us for Thanksgiving. She is going to school at BYU Idaho studying Business. We had a good time playing games and eating lots of food. She helped to prepare the pies and rolls - her rolls turned out the best. We hope she had fun here. Love you Kimmy.

1st Photo Shoot!

Yesterday we had our ultrasound. Our little girl is growing up. She is measuring one day early. It was such a fun experience to see her and know that all is well. They made a DVD for us and took some pictures. I thought we would share a couple with you.

This is her profile shot! Cute button nose and all.

Here she has tucked her chin down on to her chest.

This is a shot of her legs. She is crossing them at the ankles. Such a lady.

I'm so grateful for this opportunity and modern technology. We were able to see so much. Some highlights of the DVD are her big plump lips, hearing and seeing her heartbeat and of course confirming that she is a she. I didn't post the "I'm a Girl!" because well let's be honest a little modesty isn't such a bad thing. ;)

Berry Agreeable

Richard the amazingly talented man that he is created a Thanksgiving centerpiece for our table. He just sniped a few berry branches from our yard and tada!

On Saturday we finally found a bed set we both agreed on. It only took us 7 months! We found two duvet covers at ikea. 

Nice Booties!

I've decided to crochet some baby booties for our little girl.

I love the brown and pink combo!

Thanksgiving Prep

This year Richard and I are hosting Thanksgiving at our house. I'm nervous and excited as it will be the first time I've attempted to make my own Thanksgiving dinner. Richard has promised to help of course and my Mom is going to be here too. I decided to get a head start on a few table decorations. Here are my Place Cards and Napkin rings. I figured I have so much fun craft stuff I should use it. It was a fun little project.

Connected

Hello Friends!

Good news... we now have our own internet connection. I can finally post again. I hope you are prepared for an update.

First:

We are excited to announce that come next April we will be welcoming a very cute baby Girl! We found out last week. She was so cute in the ultrasound. We were able to see her little hand, feet and belly. I think she will have long legs and Richard's nose. 

Second:

We went to Idaho to visit with Richard's sister Kim and to meet up with Richard's parents and brother Sean who just returned for his mission. This was the first time I've met Sean. I'm happy to report that we hit it off quite well. I hope he agrees. He was able to come and visit us in Utah for a few days. We also had Richard's sister and her family staying with us too. It was a full house and we loved it.

Third:

Halloween! This year we had a Halloween BANG! party with our friends Gavin and Amy. It was so fun. I made homemade Chili, Chipotle Chicken Cornbread Cups and Taffy Apple Tartlets. Gavin and Amy made Butterbeer. It was a yummy dinner. We then made outlaw bandanas and played one of our favorite games BANG! Good times.

Tagged....grrr

To be perfectly honest I love my dear friends Catherine and Ginny, but I'm not a fan of the tagging thing. However I will be a good sport and play along.... for the most part.

The Rules:

Link the person that tagged you (check)

Mention the rules on your blog (check)

Tell 6 to 7 unspectacular quirks or facts about yourself (see below)

Tag 6 or 7 fellow bloggers (probably not going to happen sorry I'm a party Pooper)

1. When turning volume up or down on a TV or Radio if a number appears it has to end an increment of 5. Example: 5, 10, 15, 20. Weird I know. I have actually gotten better and now can leave it on either the 5's or an even number. 

2. I like to experiment with food and flavors. When I was a kid I use to make these horrible sandwiches. Things like PB, ranch, broken uncooked spaghetti noodles and cucumbers. I would then proceed to have my mom or dad try it. Now that I'm older and have learned a thing or two I eat things like Macaroni and Cheese with Ketchup. Trust me it's good.

3. Toilet paper has to come from the top. I can't stand it when it comes from below and yes I have been known to change it in other bathrooms that are not my own. I don't know why, but it just bugs me.

4. I sometimes snort when I laugh. 

5. When I was a kid we had all sorts of pets. Birds, lizards, gerbils, hamsters, cats, dogs, fish, chinchilla's, etc. You get the picture. Anyway, we once caught two Horny Toads. We named them Barney and Betty. Betty was having babies so we took Barney out of the tank and put him in a friends tank. I was watching over Barney one day and all of the sudden Barney started having babies! I started screaming "Barney's having babies!", "Barney's having babies!" it was crazy. After that I renamed Barney to Barnetta. 

6. My dimple is man made. I received it in the 8th grade when my brother accidently hit me in the face with a baseball bat. It left a hole in my cheek that took 25 stitches to close up and thus creating my dimple.

7. I was pigeon toed as a kid. One summer my brother and I went camping with my Grandparents and my Grandma drew a line in the dirt with a stick and made me walk it until I kept my feet straight. I thank her for curing me of my pigeon ways.

Well there you go. Hope I didn't bore you to death. Sorry I'm not tagging anyone else, but feel free to make your own tag line. Have a wonderful day.

Most of you know, but...

Most of you may already know, but here is an official announcement.
We are Pregnant!
We're due April 5, 2009 and are so excited. We have been able to see the baby once. He/She was bouncing all around and wiggling. It was so fun to watch. Finally he/she settled down, laid on it's side and we got to see the heartbeat. It was so amazing. We also had our first check up and heard the heartbeat. Only for a few seconds. The baby liked to hide. Everything is looking great. We are so happy and glad to share it with all our family and friends.

Duct Tape, Ribbon and Flowers!

Hello! Long time...I know I know

Many of you may know I have a calling in the Young Women's organization in my ward. I'm second counselor and have the wonderful opportunity to work with the Beehives. Today for our activity we are making Duct Tape Purses. I did some research online and found a couple of ideas. I then came up with a couple of my own. I proudly present my Fall inspired Duct Tape purse.

What do you think?

If you would like to create one of your own it is quite simple. 

You will need:

Duct Tape (comes in a large variety of colors)

2 - 12x12 sheets of card stock

Ribbon

Flowers

Brads

Instructions:

Cover the two pieces of card stock in Duct tape. Front and Back. Fold one piece about 8 inches down. Leaving a 4 inch flap. This will be the bottom of the purse. Then cut off a 4 inch flap from the other piece of card stock. This piece will be cut in half and used for the sides. Tape it all together (so it resembles a purse).

Add your own embellishments with ribbon, flowers, favorite pictures, etc.

The strap I took a strip of Duct tape and placed ribbon down the middle. Then covered the sticky edges with more Duct tape to reinforce.

This is a simple project, but my instructions maybe confusing. If so I apologize. 

Good Luck! And have a blast.

To Being a Quarter of a Century Old. Cheers!

Hi! Long time no post. Well turn those frowns upside down. I recently celebrate my 25th birthday. I'm officially half way to 50, in my mid-twenties and a quarter of a century old. It's odd really. I've never been to concerned with my age and to be honest I'm still not. This birthday was just weird to me, but my dear friend Amy celebrated her birthday the same day (she is a year older) and assured me that 25 was a great year. I'm certainly looking forward to it. Now for the sad news. Somehow I went the entire day without taking pictures. Shock! I will tell you that Richard made me breakfast. Yummy waffles. He gave me the movie Penelope and two paper racks for my craft room. We also went to see The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. He is truly wonderful. All in all it was a wonderful birthday. And thanks to all who sent birthday wishes my way. Love!

Homemade Goodness

So a couple of weeks ago I decided to try out a new recipe. Homemade Oreos. I even documented it for the masses to enjoy. Richard helped me with some of the pictures. The only thing I would change is the frosting. I didn't add enough powder sugar. Also I did two versions. One was the Weight Watchers friendlier made with applesauce instead of oil and the second with oil. The Applesauce made them very soft and fluffy.

Richard & Bre Go Camping

Scrapper at heart!

Most of you know that Richard is a graphic designer. He is working for a fantastic company called American Crafts. They create some of the most hip, stylish and creative scrapbooking supplies around. Now if you put two and two together you will see that I have fallen into the perfect place. I have a wonderful husband and a growing supply of scrapbook products. I'm in heaven!

Now as I mentioned before that my cousin Tracy is getting married. She had Richard and I take her engagement pictures. I am not really a photographer, but I thought that a couple of the pictures turned out sort of fun. Here is one that I decided to scrapbook (using of course American Crafts product).
What do you think?

A Blog in a Nut Shell or something like that....

I saw this on Jen and Somebody's blog and thought it was fun! Thanks Jen!
You can get your own Word cloud from Wordle too!

Happy Rock'in Fourth!

This 4th of July Richard, Rebecca and I enjoyed a neighborhood breakfast potluck. Yummy eggs, bacon, pancakes, dutch oven hash browns and sticky buns! We also had the chance to climb a rock wall. Up up and away was our mantra of the day.

Bre Gots Braces

Last Thursday Bre went to the orthodontist for braces. I told her it would hurt and she would be uncomfortable for a couple of days. She was not excited, especially because the next day was the 4th of July - a day full of good eating that would prove to be painful. I remember my first meal after I got my braces - I'll just say the sauce on the pizza was good and I washed that down with a bucket of crocodile tears. It was the worst day of my life. Bre on the other hand was a good sport. No tears at meal time, but her eating pace has sure slowed down.
Here are the before and after pictures of Bre with and without braces. She still looks beautiful, perhaps even a bit more youthful. What do you all think? Love you Bre.

The Dinner Party

My dear cousin Tracy was engaged recently. We are so excited for her and her fiance Abe. In order to celebrate and perhaps start a new tradition we had a little dinner party. Tracy taught me how to make Yakisoba! It is one of my favorite Japanese dishes. We also had the wonderful opportunity of meeting a friend of Tracy's. His name is Hiro (I apologize if that is spelled wrong). It was a great dinner and a yummy dessert too.

Do enjoy this peek into our fun night.