Avery's Special Day

Finally after 3 months we blessed our little Avery today.

We were a little worried that she would cry (scream) during her big moment but... She was a perfect angel. She was so happy and good all day.

My mother, the amazing seamstress made her beautiful blessing dress and she looked so pretty!

Thank you mom!! It truly is gorgeous and means a lot to us that you made it!

Afterward we did the traditional get together at our house and had a little brunch.

Thank you again to everyone that helped with food and to everyone for coming!

It was so fun to visit with everyone and we feel so blessed to have such great and supportive family and friends!

We thought this was such a tender picture. Avery's great grandpa was doing his bird whistling for her and she LOVED it! She was just smiling and cooing and it was so cute!!

It was a great day!! We love our baby girl and are SO glad that she is in our family!

A Tag, My Bargains, and A SNEAK PEEK!!

A TAG-
My talented sister craft tagged me along with some other ladies in efforts to get some cute and simple Christmas gift ideas or just for craft ideas... we are ALWAYS looking for those! The rule for the tag are as follows:

1. Post a project that you have been working on lately or some thing you want to start soon.
2. Include pictures, a few instructions on how to make your fun project/craft idea, or a link to where you found the idea.
3. Then tag a few people to do the same!!

I am generally TErriBle at getting back to tags (more on that later) and frankly I probably would have slacked on this one too had I not just had a craft day with my dear friends Ashley and Chantel (Chantel is my cousin and my dear friend:))
For some reason this craft has taken us a while but we started on our Vision Boards some time ago and finally got together to make the cute cork boards to hang our 'visions' on.

Here is how we made them:

#1- We purchased unpainted open back frames from Michael's Arts and Crafts (with our 40% off coupon of course) and then painted and sealed them with our desired colors.



#2- We cut out a piece of solid cardboard to fit in the back of the open frame and proceeded to hot glue the corks onto the cardboard in our desired patterns. (My mom donated some wine corks she found at a yard sale and the rest we purchased on eBay.)



Notice in the picture below that the frame is not painted... we used it as a guide while the others were drying but do not glue all your corks down until the frame is painted and ready to go because you will not be able to get the cardboard with the corks attached in or out after they are all glued on.



#3- Hang and enjoy with either photos or as a vision board.




MY BARGAINS-

For those of you who know me at all know that I am one of the cheapest (in a good way) people you will ever meet. I was thankfully (maybe not always so thankfully at the time) brought up bargain shopping. My mom and dad always worked hard to save money so that my mom could stay home to raise us, another blessing I am truly grateful for!!! And I am also grateful to have married a man that knows how to bargain shop!
Well on with it now right?!?!
I have clipped coupons for years but have just recently gotten VERY serious about it and I am so excited and happy every time I go to the store and save SO SO much money and come away with bags full of groceries for practically nothing.



My total bill for the items shown above was.... $7.16

YEP! that is right ONLY $7.16 for:
8 bags of Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers Veggies
5 Zone Perfect Nutrition Bars
6 Arrid XX Deodorant - Ultra Fresh Scent- (the absolute only deodorant Jeff will use)

Keep in mind none of these items are pull dated or even close! They are all fresh off the shelves at my local Alberston's Super Market!

My bargain from several weeks ago:



4 Boxes of Electrosol Dishwashing power tabs...$0.36.
Yes, Yes, I typed that right, I paid 36 cents for the above pictures items. Once again fresh off the shelves of my local Albies.
I LOVE A GOOD BARGAIN!


A SNEAK PEEK-

I have been working on Avery's nursery for months and months and months now!!! The plans changed I think 2 times and even after that it has taken me way to long to get it done and well it is not actually ALL done. So here is just a sneak peek with more pictures to come once I have finished the bumper and other finishing touches!

Productive Weekend

August has been a whirlwind and I have not had any time of my own! I cannot believe how behind I am on everything in my life! Jeff got invited on a guys golf getaway this past weekend and so I planned MY weekend and could not wait to finally get some things done!


THURSDAY
**I have been working on the babies nursery for weeks and weeks and weeks now (just ask Jeff) and finally made some decisions and so it was time to go fabric shopping. Luckily, my wonderful mother agreed to go with me because after the countless trips I had taken to fabric stores alone over the past weeks I somehow left empty handed every time. My mom is so good and picking fabric that looks good together and I am so happy to finally have my fabric in hand. I am ready to get sewing.


It will make more sense when you see it finished and in the room!

**Later that day (until about 3 in the morning in fact) I brought the sewing machine upstairs!!! We had our ward Super Saturday several weeks ago and as usual I didn't get all my projects completed during the allotted time. So I finished these cute nursing covers. They probably don't make sense unless you have seen them before in person. You can check out this link to a lady that makes and sales them. The photos on the right hand side show how the covers work.



**I also had to get one of these cute reversible capes. I don't know that Avery will want to use it necessarily;) but I am sure we will have a little boy eventually (I sure hope we do for Jeff's sake)!!





**I got the CUTEST little girl's tutu's but am holding off till I can make them with Kathryn when we go to Kentucky (in 2 weeks and 3 days:)).


FRIDAY
**After sleeping in till also 12 (after my above mentioned 3am sewing session) I headed off the the big sale going on at 'Babies R Us' to purchase some of our needed big ticket items.


This is just one of them! I also got a Pack n' Play, monitor and more!


SATURDAY
**I spent the day with a long time friend Savannah, helping her make a darling rag time quilt for the little boy she is expecting several weeks before we are due. She has yet to cut all the edges but she promised I could get more pictures when it is ALL the way done. It is cute and cuddly with warm flannels and super soft minke. This picture doesn't even do it justice.





Needless to say it has been a relaxing and productive weekend!! I am pretty sure September is going to be as busy and fast as August was. AHHHHH!

Utah Dental Convention

Last weekend was the annual dental convention, filled with lots of classes, friends, free samples and FOOD! A few of us that were available went to the Macaroni Grill on Friday for lunch, YUM! It was so great to run into some of the old class mates and catch up on life after school, and of course the faculty at WSU and hear how much they miss our perfect class;)

Ashley, Lindsey, and I got a hotel room right by the Salt Palace and partied it up (Jen and Ryker joined us for the party too) all night on Thursday. Well, by party I me we got pizza delivered and we sat and visited and played with Ryker and then went to bed at about 10. We are party ANImAlS!!

It was another succsesful year at the UDA Convention. I look forward to spending many more of them with my dear friends! Next year we want all the girls at the hotel with us!

Friend-Filled Weekend

Friday night we meet up with Danny and Darcie and then headed over and meet Jake, Amber and their cute kidos for dinner at Rumbi Grill!! After which we hung out at the Ericksons house and mostly just... chilled. FUN TIMES!

Jayma and Jake

Danny and Jayma

Amber, Darcie, and Me

Jayma and Jeff

My Jeffrey

Saturday after CRafT DaY with the girls, the BOYS came over for a night of fondue(cheese AND chocolate:)), games and a spiritual message from the world wide church training meeting!

Jeff, Chantel, Kip, Preston, and Ashley

Ashley and Preston

Kip and Chantel

Jeff and I (oh, and Preston)

the LOVE BIRDS

Our game gang:)

WE LOVE LOVE LOVE ALL OF OUR FRIENDS!!!!

We love our weekends and we love them even more when we get to share them with our friends! It was a GrEaT weekend!