My Life for the Past Month

This project has been my extra-curricular life for the past month. It was the baby scrapbook for Monica's little boy she's having in September. Because her baby shower was on Friday, the 22nd, I had to have it finished then.

So based on an idea from a scrapbooking idea book, it is a calendar based baby book. Each month has 4 8"x8" pages associated with it. One has the calendar, the next has a place for pictures. Then the next 2 pages have a place for various stats and a spot for journaling, as well as more pictures. There are also several theme pages in the back, including the first birthday, places for pictures with family, pictures with mom & dad, and then some customizable pages too.

The binding of the book had a tag on it that said, "Jesse's First Year" so that it was identifiable while sitting on a bookshelf. I also included a journaling pen, adhesive for the pictures, and the ink pad I used to ink all the edges. Basically, everything Monica needs to finish the book. And she loved it!

Here are a few of the pages from the book:

 Below is the Title page and the Last page in the album:

There were almost 70 pages in the book and it was a lot of hard work, but I think it came together quite nicely and Monica loved it, so it was worth it. Hopefully she'll use it and Jesse will enjoy it when he gets older.

Now I just have to make one for Caitlin.... :)

Puzzle Wall Hanging

I made a wall hanging last night. And I love it! The great thing is that it only took me a few hours. And I even had time to work on the Christmas presents I'm doing this year (don't ask me about it. They are taking for-ev-ver. Oy.).

Okay. Here is what I did:

It was actually pretty easy. My local scrapbook store (which is dangerously close to my house) had these large puzzle pieces and had a sample decorated as a Christmas ornament (see I'm not the only one working on Christmas already!). I thought it would be a cute way to display some of my pictures from my recent trip to Monterey. The great thing is that is going to coordinate with the Mini-Album I am doing for the trip. Yeah!

I covered each of the puzzle pieces in scrapbook paper (using Mod Podge) and then printed out pictures that I wanted to use. I used a bright light to figure out how I wanted the picture to line up and then I traced the the puzzle piece on to the back of the picture. I attached the picture to the puzzle piece with Mod Podge and then sealed the picture with it to protect the picture. Then I used my Crop-a-dile to punch holes and set the eyelets in the chipboard. I accented each piece with various thingys (official term) that I already had on hand.

To hang it, I used some twine I had found at the dollar store for another project and just threaded it through each hole. I knotted the twine on both sides of each eyelet to hold the pieces in place.

For the pieces below, the top puzzle piece has two little starfish attached using glue dots. The paper and the pieces were inked using Tim Holtz Distressing Ink-Faded Jeans (love!!). On the second piece, I just attached some buttons I had lying around with glue dots.

These two pieces below basically got the same treatment as the ones above, but on the top piece I used stickles to make little swirls. The second piece got some ribbon I had in my stash tied to it, as well as had some random blue chipboard flowers I found glued to it.

The last two pieces were handled the same way. The first has rhinestones attached and the bottom piece is my favorite. :) It has Prima flowers and adhesive ribbon on it. For the dangly part, I punched a hole in the bottom and put in another eyelet. Then I made little charms (seashell, beads, pearls, and crystals) to hang from a round paperclip that I put through the eyelet. I think it looks pretty spiffy. 

And there it hangs next to my bedroom door. Pretty cool, eh?

Finally Finished!

So I've been working on an intense project for the baby shower I'm throwing for my BFF this next weekend. I've been so busy doing it that I haven't had a chance to blog. Let me just tell you, I can't believe that I actually finished it! I was worried that I wouldn't get it done before the shower. I only had an hour or two a few days a week for a month to do it and it is done! YEAH! Go me. :) But the lame thing is that I can't share what it is, just in case a certain someone (*cough-Monica-cough*) reads my blog. I took loads of pictures and I'm really excited to share them, but it will have to wait until next week.

But here is a preview...

I'm really excited about it, and gosh darn it, Monica BETTER love it! Love it, I say!! Actually, I'm pretty sure she will. And if she doesn't, I'll make her.  After all, it is non-refundable, non-returnable.  So anyway...More pictures to come next week. :)

Hangin' with the Fam

So best way to welcome new(ish) people to our family? Break out the legos. Apparently that works really well.

Aubrey, age 6; Nick, age 24; and Jim (Erin's new boyfriend), age 29. True Story.

Cait and Aunt Liz looking for just the right peice. :)

Yes, the pictures prove that legos never get old. Everyone loves them (okay, everyone but moms). We played with them for over an hour. I think it was a hilarious way to introduce Jim to the family. Erin had warned us that Jim is really shy and quiet. Yeah, right! He wasn't all that shy and he was pretty chatty. I think it was the legos. :)

Water Fight!

So when we went up to Idaho to see my mom, we hung out with my cousins and aunt and uncle a lot (they live like a mile away from my mom). Saturday afternoon, we had a water fight. This is how it turned out: Wet. duh.

Somehow the waterfight ended up being boys against girls. It was supposed to be my sibilings vs. our cousins.

 Elise and Ben getting ready to strike.

 Ben and Nick dumped a cooler full of water onto poor unsuspecting Elise. So she returned the favor and dumped a cooler full of water on Ben and then "accidently" dropped the cooler on his head. They made up. Such wonderful siblings. Just like my family. It's like we're all family or sumthin'.

This was actually the first time that 10 of us (plus Beth, Ben's lady and Jim, Erin's boyfriend), (oh, wait, Just kidding. Jared wasn't there, he's on his mission. But close enough I guess...) were all together in like probably 10 years. Nick had never even met Ben. Our families were close growing up and we spent a lot of time with them and camped with them lots of times. It was really fun to be with them again. I love them.

 Even Aunt Liz got in on the action and totally pegged her son. Ha ha ha ha!!

Good times. Amen.

Happy Birthday America!

So when I came back into town, Bekah let me know that we had a ward party at a house in Penryn (Yeah! for hometowns, er villages?!). I was really tired and didn't get a nap, but I ended up going anyway. I mean, it was Independance Day afterall. I NEEDED to celebrate, party, and eat free food. So we went and ate and ate and ate and then when it got dark, we watched 10 different fireworks shows (you could see the entire valley!). I did discover one thing though, I like the fireworks better when they are in my face and the booms are so loud and deep that I can feel it! This was fun though. It reminded me of the years that we would sit at my house and watch the fireworks from our deck. Awesome!

Here are some pictures from our Ward BBQ for 4th of July yesterday:

Beautiful little pond. Bekah couldn't get over the cows that were by it.

You can't really see it because the picture quality is terrible, but from the house you can see my family's house! It was pretty cool.

Then the sun set, and it was a BEAUTIFUL long sunset. The house is on a high hill and so it had a fabulous view of the valley and sunset.

Lots of people, okay, girls, took pictures of the sunset and moon.

I think this picture was my favorite.

 And because no Independance Day is complete without fireworks, I took some pictures of the ones my neighbors set off on our street. I've never done fireworks myself (unless you count the one time we did it in Texas for New Years, but then SOMEBODY had to get "attacked" by stupid fire ants 5 minutes into it and so we HAD to leave and not finish them. Dumb. And no, I'm not bitter at all. ;) ). Something about a fire hazard and my safety engineer/farmer grandpa thinking it wasn't safe or something. Anyway my point is, doing fireworks yourself is soooo cool! The neighbors all around our house had set up several ladders and were blowing things up and shooting up fireworks. So awesome! :) Best part is that I sat in my cool (temperature wise, not looks wise) kitchen and got the show, without paying for them.

YEAH! Hope you had a fabulous and safe 4th of July!!

BEST NEWS EVER! Like totally!

I AM GOING TO BE AN AUNTIE!!!! Wahhoooooo!!!!! And, it's about freakin' time! :) and um, I'm really excited. Can you tell?

So my sister Caitlin is totally preggo! And I think I am more excited than she is. Okay, that's probably not true, BUT, I am showing my excitment more than she is. That's not a shocker.

Anywho, so Caitlin announced that she was pregnant on Saturday. And apparently she is due in 5 months. She is going to be four months along this next week. She and Nick decided to wait till after the first trimester before announcing the news. Which I GUESS is okay. But still, I feel like I got jipped out of 2 months of excitment and opportunities to buy adorable baby clothes and stuff. Guess that just means that I'll have to make up for it. :) Man, that kid is going to be soooo spoiled. :) Which only make sense, since it is the first grandchild.

Here's how we all found out. And mind you, Erin's new boyfriend had just met our family for the first time the night before and was hanging out with our family and cousins for the first time. Poor guy. I imagine we might have frightened him away with all of us (okay, basically just me) freaking out about it.

After our murder mystery party ended, we were hanging out chatting and Cait asked my mom about this weird rash/spot thing on her arm. My mom then asked my uncle (a physical therapist) if he had any idea what it was. He suggested that she take benadryl. My aunt pipes up from the other room that Cait couldn't take benadryl, and that claritin was safe. Both my mom and uncle were all, "Benadryl is better, take that instead." My aunt kept saying that she needed claritin and emphizing that it was safe and that she CAN'T take benadryl. Of course, we were all confused at why.  My uncle said, "What? Is she pregnant?" My mom said, "I think my daughter would tell me if she was pregnant." Finally (after I walk out of the room-of course), Cait announced that she couldn't take the benadryl. When my mom asked why, Cait said, "Because of this" and held up her ultrasound pictures. (Turns out her doctor said it was okay to take benadryl.)

Suddenly I heard, "You're pregnant?" from the other room. I came flying around the corner and heard Cait say, "yep." My mom was in shock, Steven smiled, Erin cried, I screamed, and Nick walked in the room and asked, "What's going on?" We all turned and stared at him. Cait explained that she had just made their announcement. He looked at all of us and threw up his hands and yelled, "Surprise!" and then said to Cait, "You couldn't wait till I was in the room?!" Cait's response, "I thought you were!!" It was pretty funny.

It was even funnier when Cait told Nana. We walked in the house and Cait immediately went in and gave Nana the sonogram pictures. Nana stared at them very confused and asked Cait what they were. Cait waited for Nana to figure it out. She didn't. Mom started pointing out body parts slowly, waiting for Nana to get it. Then the light bulb went on. She was so excited and kept hugging Cait. Then Nick finally came in the house. He was all, "Seriously!? You didn't wait for me again?? Gosh!!" Cait looked at him sheepishly and said, "Really, I thought you were in here!" It was hilarious!

Okay, time for baby fetus pictures! Yay!!

Cait, her ultrasound pics, and her freakin' awesome boufaunt!

Yeah for baby!

Nick calling the Dads

Cait trying to suck in her baby belly. Yeah, that wasn't happening. :)

Nick is SOOOO excited!

Yeah!!!! I am so excited!!!! Can you tell? Cait said that she hasn't bought ANYTHING for the baby. So I had to fix that. As soon as we got home, I went and got this:

Cute little ducky pajamas.

 and this:

So freakin' adorable! I have this tradition of buying my closest friends (and now sister) a pair of baby shoes as soon as I find out they are pregnant. Here are the precious ones I got for Cait.

I may just have to start meandering to the clearance section of baby clothes at the Tarjay....

Muuuuuurder Mystery Party

My mom asked me to put together a little murder mystery party together for our family party yesterday. Mwhahahahahaaaa...

She insisted that I go simple. So I did--well my version of "simple" anyway. Super easy and super fun. And it was simple. I hardly did any prep for it!

I did make little passports (because everyone that had information for each character (there were 13, plus me). They turned out super cute, if I do say so myself! :) And the passports had all the information that each person would need during the game. I think that it made it easier to play.

Everyone was assigned a character and then everyone put together costumes. Considering that no one spent money on costumes (other than the leis I bought and Cait and I got fake eyelashes and got mom some hideous sticker nails--see pics below) I was very impressed with how they turned out.

Everyone had a great time and they are still talking about it, disecting it, and getting everything ironed out. I really liked the kit I bought online. It wasn't a script kind so we weren't just stuck reading--but everyone was given secret agendas and secret skills and such and so it was very interactive. I really, really liked the way the game was set up.

So here are some of my favorite pictures:

 Mom with her fabulous make-up and cheetah spots "nails"!

 Everyone getting aquainted with their characters.

Steven, Nick, and Aubrey reading their parts. Aubrey's goal was to find out who had her blue pen. It was cute.

Cait & Nick's characters were secretly in love with each other.

I did Cait's hair. Isn't it FABULOUS?? She hated it. :) P.E.R.F.E.C.T. :)

Uncle Dale and Aunt Liz's characters were newlyweds. They played their parts well. :)

Cait and Ben (Jack Slack--a n'er do well) secretly plotting...

Steven and Elise (both playing "weak" elderly people) trying to convince others of their inability to do anything. Yep. It worked. Steve was the murderer and nobody got it right. Everyone guessed either Uncle Dale or Nick, saying, "It's always the quiet ones!" They were all wrong! :)

The entire party was hilarious and everyone got quite into it. I was really happy with how it turned out. I'm sure we'll do this again next time we all get together. :)