Behold the SEWING MACHINE

I grew up with the most talented woman I know! My mother was especially gifted (and still is) in the sewing department! I cannot even begin to recount the hours we spent in fabric stores growing up . Then Her and her sisters would get together to decide which of their craft items would be the biggest seller (oh my goodness Kathryn, we have turned into mom and the Auntie M's). We would go to every craft boutique within driving distance and they would figure out how they could make the cute things that they saw there. I don't know if my mom ever bought anything from a craft fair that didn't come home and get un-stitched to use as a pattern.

Why do I tell you about these quirky things that I love about my mother???

Because I have turned into her!!!

Lately, I LOVE Hancock fabric! And my mother will be glad to hear that the sewing machine I am quite sure she was inspired to give me for Christmas about 5 years ago, has been serving me well. I don't know if this is the baby factor that has me suddenly unable to purchase enough fabric, but whatever it is... bring it on!

I think sewing runs in our blood. My mother tried to teach my sister and I time and time again how to sew but I ALWAYS lost interest the second we had to cut out a pattern. I wanted to do the sewing part not the pattern part. Frankly, I am still scared of patterns! But I do feel like I have a gift for sewing (simple things right now!!) and crafts in general (thanks mom). We lack the creativity part (or at least I do) so lucky for us there are plenty of cute ideas out there to copy!

I am so so grateful for a mother that raised me to appreciate homemade!! It is so rewarding to me to make something with my own two hands. It has just been ingrained in me to see something I love (cute baby blankets lately) and go straight to the hem to see how they did that.

THANKS MOM, you taught me way more than you realize!!

Tagged

I am always a little slow on getting to these tags so here is me finally getting to the one my mother-in-law left me a while back.

*How to play this game of tag. Post these rules on your blog. List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

3 Joys
**My husband and family
**the gospel
**my days off

3 Fears
**having enough money for retirement
**lately... the economy (time to start heeding the years and years of counsel from our leaders to have food storage. and I have been begging Jeff to get a Hybrid that runs on natural gas, $.64 per gallon, need I say more?)
**Jeff dying young.

3 Goals
**to have a better food storage
**to read my scriptures more regularly
**to find great deals on all of the upcoming baby stuff we will need to be purchasing:)

3 Current obsessions and/or collections
**I love to collect scrapbook supplies (disclaimer: I am not a collector!! However, I have had to come to terms with the fact that I am really not a scrapbooker like I used to tell myself I was, I am just a collector of scrapbook supplies! so sad)
**sleep (I am both obsessed with and a collector of!)
**Before pregnancy... a clean house

3 Random surprising facts about yourself
**I absolutely LOVE to get rid of stuff! Be it old clothes, mine and Jeff's;), when I use up the last of the dish soap, or returning something I borrowed. I love to take a load to the DI as much as I love to empty the garbage! I just want it all out of my house!!
**I love to hear about where people work and what they do for a living, it is so fascinating to me all the different job and types of work that are out there!
**I love to fly!! Whenever I go see my sister I get so excited that I get to fly and hang out at the airport. When I am on the plane I try not to go to sleep because I just want to be awake and enjoy it... well sometimes I want to sleep.

A Little Pregnant

Well, the cat is out of the bag, the rumors are true, the milk has been spilt and the proof is in the puddin'! We are a little bit pregnant! What else can I say?
We are only 9 weeks along and due the end of November. That will make three November birthdays for our family.
Jeff and I are both anxiously awaiting me feeling better and capable of cleaning the house and cooking a meal once again. We are beyond excited to join the kid club but realize now more than ever that we need to enjoy every last minute we have pre-child.

Southern Cal with Danny and Darcie

Darcie and I decided to surprise Jeff and Danny with a trip to Los Angeles. It was a whirlwind but now we are home safe and back to the grind! It was a lot of fun and a trip we will not soon forget!
WE LOVE YOU DANNY AND DARCIE! Thanks for being such great friends!

Update

Hello all my blogging friends and family! It has been a while since I posted and well, I don't want you all to quit checking on us! We are presently in the beautiful, warm and humid Southern Cal. I will post about that soon.
For those of you that were interested in instructions on the previously posted crafts, I will get to that too! But for now, I am off to the beach!

1 year and 3 months in the making

For Christmas 2006 my sister-in-law and brother-in-law gave me this nice 'plate' holder and shortly thereafter Jeff and I hung it. It has been hanging empty in our dinning room/kitchen area ever since. I have just not been able to decide what I wanted to put on it. I kept waiting for the perfect plates that I loved to come along and well that just wasn't happening. So then one day my sister told me about a friend of hers that put picture frames on hers and so it came to be that that is what I was going to do too! Thanks Melissa from Kentucky and Kathryn for the great idea.

BEFORE:



AFTER:

This picture does not do them justice, they really are so cute! (Not to toot my own horn because I am NOT creative just a good copy cat!)

Hair Clips:)

I saw my friend Savannah wearing a one of these darling hair clips the other day. I thought that it was so cute that I had to make some immediately!! I purchased the supplies right after and made a few with my friend Darcie over the weekend. And have decided that they will be the next craft for Chantel, Ashley and my monthly craft day!!

I don't know what it is about them but I think they are just so so cute! I will post more pics after craft day!

My Jeff, My Jeff Incarcerated (with a british accent)*

Jeff and I had a REALLY BIG miscommunication yesterday and therefore he missed out on a really fun night with some of our best friends. I was so sad that he wasn't there with us and I was so sad that sometimes we don't communicate like we should!

I am however, grateful that he has been trying hard latley to make sure our disagreements don't go on forever! Neither one of us deal very well with contentious feelings these days!

I am so grateful for my wonderful husband even though sometimes I want to ring his neck and he mine!!

I LOVE YOU HONEY!

*Jeff wanted me to explain where the title came from. When Amy Winehouse won album of the year or some other award, that is what she said (except she said Blake) and we thought it was so funny! We say it all the time (with her strong accent of course). She is crazy!

A Question For All My Hygiene Padres

Random but I am wondering if you guys do tissue checks following SRP? If so, when? 6 weeks? 8 weeks? at their 3 month? Just wanting to know what you all are doing out there!

Thanks for your feed back!!

Tag you're it!

A- Attached or single: Very Attached
B- Best Friend: Jeffrey and my sister Kathryn
C-Cake or Pie: Ice cream cake!
D- Day of Choice: Thursday night. Work is over for the week and the WEEKEND is a head.
E- Essential Item (s): Contacts, chapstick, and lotion. (I have nightmares all the time that I left the house without my contacts or glasses)
F- Favorite Color: lately... Brown
G- Gummy Bears or Worms: Gummy watermelon slices
H- Hometown: West Point, Utah but I also grew up in Indiana, Germany and Texas.
I- Indulgence(s): Ice cream from Cold Stone (but only if we have a coupon)
J- January or July: JULY!!!
K-Kids: 1 boy, Jeffrey:)
M- Marriage Date: October 20, 2004
N- Number of Siblings: 3 older brothers and 1 older sister
O- Oranges or Apples: Clementines
P- Phobias or Fears: Being the center of attention and speaking in church... only because I know I will cry and I HATE THAT!!!!
Q- Quote(s): "Take a deep breath" what I say to Jeff every day when he needs to CALM down! Oh, and "SSSSHHHHHHHH" he can also be kinda LOUD:) (I love you honey!)
R- Reason To Smile: My Jeffrey! He can be funny too! and At the realization of the many blessings I have!
S- Season: Spring
T- Tag Six: Darcie, Emily L., Emily P., Sivi, Amber, Jen B.
U- Unknown Fact About Me: I have NO self control when it comes to diet and excercise! And I LOVE to get rid of stuff!
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: I eat meat!
W- Worst Habit: Laying in bed while I say my prayers... I am currently trying to break this one! Please don't judge me! Oh yes, and I burp really loud in front of my husband and family!
X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: I would like to have an ultrasound someday but currently I take probably 40+ x-rays every day!
Y- Your Favorite Food: Mexican and anything sweet!
Z: Zodiac: Scorpio

Random Recipes

Ice Cream Cake

I made this for my mom's birthday. I kinda just made it up but it turned out pretty good. It went something like this...

• I used 2 spring form pans (highly recommend).


• Crush up some Oreos and mix with a little melted butter kinda press into the bottom (I didn't use very much butter and my Oreos were kinda chunky they were actually just kinda spread across the bottom and not really pressed in).


• Layer on a carton of SOFTENED ice cream (I used cookies and cream in one of the spring form pans and chocolate chip cookie dough in the other. You can use what ever kinds you want!) Spread the ice cream out to fill the pan and try to make it mostly flat on top.


• Cover with plastic wrap and freeze (put your plastic wrap right on the ice cream).


• I made it the night before but I think about 5 hours would be good too.


• To put it all together: take apart one of your pans and put the 'cake' on your platter (Oreos down) spread a thick layer of Herseys Hot Fudge Topping (or some other brand of thick chocolate topping. Do not warm it up! Do not use chocolate syrup!) on the top of the ice cream and then take out the second 'cake' and put it on top of the chocolate topping (Oreos down) .


• Frost with Cool Whip and sprinkle with broken Oreos.


• Don't be scared by my crazy recipe, it really is SO SO easy to make! --and YUMMY!

Spinach Smoothie
(I got this recipe from a fellow blogger and thought it was pretty good)

1 1/2 frozen bananas

Several spoonfuls of frozen orange juice concentrate

A handful of fresh spinach leaves

Put in the blender and then EnJoY!

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!

Happy Birthday MOM

Where do I even begin to express my feelings for my dear sweet mother? It is her 60th Birthday today:) I am so blessed to have such a wonderful mother that I have always considered my friend! She has been an amazing example to me through out my life and she continues to be today. She is the most talented person I know! She has a contagious laugh! She would give you the shirt off her back! She is selfless and humble! She never shouts or puts you down! She always has great advise! She wants the very best for you! She never gossips! She is very knowledgable about the gospel and has a strong testimony! She is a GreaT cook! She loves her children and grandchildren unconditionally! She is a wonderful mother-in-law (so my husband says:))! She is sweet and kind and loving and lovable and generous and thoughtful and handy and creative and happy and and and and....

THANKS FOR BEING THE BEST MOM A GIRL COULD EVER ASK FOR!!! I LOVE YOU MORE THAN YOU WILL EVER KNOW!!!

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!

Superbowl Sunday

Since our first Superbowl together, we have been hosting the party! Jeff looks forward to it every year! This year we had Jeff's parents, older brother and his wife and their 3 children and his younger sister.

Andy and Kristin

Mike, Lesley, Caitlin and Jeff

William, Adam and Zach (doing what they do best)

Andy looking at the poster Jeff made for the party. At the end of each quarter depending on the score we had the chance of winning a gift card.

And the winners were... 1st quarter: Me, 2nd and 3rd quarter: Zach,

Grand Prize Winner: Adam

Jeff's party's are always a hit!! He did a great job!

Changing it UP!

Okay, lets be honest here, I am not sure about the new template. I generally have a strict rule with these kind of things... you have to LOVE it! This goes for home decorating, blogging templates and other such ventures:) You know what I mean right? When you see something and you just LOVE it!! Well I don't LOVE this yet, which could mean that it I will find LOVE in my heart for my new blog template soon (not usually something that I even would give a chance, but it is late and need to go to bed) or you will be seeing some changes soon. Only time will tell. LOL

Congrats to Matt and Kirsten!

Jeff has had a great group of 7 guy friend since Jr High and prior. They loved to play basketball together and infact still do every chance they get. Yesterday Matt (one of the friends) married Kirsten and none of us could be any happier for them! They are truly the perfect couple, an example to us all! (In the photo, they are on the far right)

Nick and Brittney flew up from Arizona for the special occasion! It was SO great to see them and their adorable kids!

Danny and Darcie

Us:)

After the luncheon the 6 of us went to Target and got all kinds of treats and stuff to make Matt and Kirsten a honeymoon basket. I must say Darcie and I did a good job of puting it all together, we were pretty proud of ourselves:)

After the reception that night we enjoyed a little dinner and shopping with Dan and Darc. There is always a good time when we are with friends!

CONGRATS MATT AND KIRSTEN!! WE LOVE YOU GUYS!

Dog Sitting

Is that not the cutest little boxer face you have ever seen?

This is my dog Annabelle that lives at my mom and dads house;)
She has come for an extented visit while they are gone to St. George.
J/K dad! I know she is yours! (I don't want backyard clean-up duty, besides what I am already going to have after her stay with us, that is!!)

She really is the BEST dog!!
For those of you who don't know Jeff at all, he is NOT an animal lover and for as long as we have been together it has been a 'discussion' about when we will/will not have a dog. --Sore subject, we are currently not discussing it because I KNOW that one day we will have a dog so why should we fight about it:)

I think my dad was feeling bad for Jeff and maybe alittle worried about leaving his baby here because he knows how Jeff feels about dogs. Well, I believe we have had a break through since she has been with us... All I have been hearing the whole time is "She really is SUCH a GOOD dog!", "I love that she just does what ever you tell her to do!", and my personal favorite "She is like a person, a MUTE.".
I think he also touched her for the first time EVER, since she has been staying with us.

We ARE making progress! He also said tonight about her leaving tomorrow... "We are going to miss you Annabelle" (of course it was in his cute little dog voice:))


Annabelle's thinking: 'Could you guys have more stairs in this house?'

Poor Annabelle is getting old and she is a little nervous and stays close by! She doesn't get up and down the stairs like she used to and gets winded easily!


And she like to sleep A LOT!!

If you can look past her Cataracts, Gray Beard, Gingival Hyperplasia, and Female Pattern Baldness you can't help but just love her and think that she is just the cutest BIG dog you have ever seen:)
Thanks for visiting ANNABELLE!

Life is Busy!

This is me blogging from work (on my lunch hour of course:)). It is pretty much where I live these days Mon. - Thur. I just recently picked up the other hygienist I work withs days since she had a baby. So I am up at 5:45am, at work by 6:45am, leave around 5:30pm and in bed again at as close to 9:00pm as I can possibly manage so I can start again bright and early. Needless to say there is not a lot of time for blogging (or anything else for that matter)! I come home and crash, try to get Jeff to give me a back massage and try to find something in our house to call dinner. It's the life!

No really though, I can't complain!! I have Fridays off and I sleep in and rest the whole day and it is my favorite day of the week:) I am truly grateful to have a good job and for all the thing our Heavenly Father has given us!! We really are so so blessed!!

Friends

There is almost nothing we love more than getting together with all of our dear friends! We probably drive them all crazy planning different get togethers (we have to do it or no one else will;))! This last Monday there was just such an occasion that gave us an excuse to put together a PaRTy! Some sort of football game I think it was:)

Jake, Amber, Jayma, and Hallie (1 1/2 wks old ahhhh)

Matt and Kirsten (Wedding in 3 1/2 wks ohhhh)

Danny and Darcie (our Park City friends:))

Saturday we got together with a different group of friends for my cousins 27th birthday!!! We had a delicious dinner at Tucci's and then games at their apartment.

Starting in the back with me and going clockwise: Me and Jeff, Ashley and Preston, Kip and Chantel.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHANTEL! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!

We are so blessed to have so many wonderful close friends! We love them all and can't imagine how boring our lives would be with out them!

**now for some random pictures**

After only 20 years of playing basketball on a fairly regular basis, Jeff had a first... He FINALLY refereed a game. Ya Gotta Love CHuRch BaLl!!

He did a great job, was an easy going ref and said it gave him some appreciation for all the ref's out there! He probably should have had this experience along time ago, I think it might have same a lot of ref's out there a lot of grief;)

Jeff and I the night of the football game! Aren't we cute;)