FLOWER MAKING TUTORIAL

Some people have requested a tutorial on making the flowers (see the previous post) I used as a birthday gift. They're really easy to make....just kind of time consuming! First, you're going to need a couple of 12x12 scrapbook pages that are fun and cute. Right now there is a ton of fun Halloween paper, so I'm thinking I might have to make some more flowers as a centerpiece. Anyway, take the 12x12 paper and cute two strips out that are anywhere from an 1 - 1 1/2 inches wide. Honestly the smaller the width of the paper, the easier the flower is to make, so for the first time, you might want to make it just an inch wide.Once you have your paper cut, fold it like an accordion (each fold should be about 1/2 inch) (sorry - it's hard to take a picture one handed!)Once you have both slips of paper folded, hot glue one end togetherand then the other end to make a circleNow, for the fun part. Take the circle and fold it in on itself (it's kind of hard to explain)Once the circle has been folded in, it should just automatically make a flower shape for you! There will be a small hole in the middle of the flower, which you will want to hot glue on both sides (sometimes it's easier to hold the flower while the glue is drying!And that's it!You now have a dang cute flower to embellish and use however you want! I hot glued bbq skewers to the back of mine to use in my flower pot, but I'm thinking some cute flowers for the fridge might be my next project! Hope this helped and have fun! Oh and Megan? It's Harmon's in Roy right there on the corner of Riverdale and 1900....they have a really fun isle full of cute things! I browse every time I go in there!

A CRAFTIN' I WILL GO!

How much fun are these? A cute friend I work with has a surprise birthday party coming up and wanted to do something different for a gift. I've seen these
floating around the craft blog lands lately and it go me thinking. What do flowers normally come in? A flower pot. And what do I have a couple of downstairs just waiting to be used? Flower pots! I've been really wanting to try these, so I thought it was a win win for both of us. With a little paint, some fun ribbon and bright skittles, you get a cute and original birthday gift. We're going to be adding some gift certificates to the pot tomorrow to tie everything together. I'm just going to glue the gift certificates to skewers and then stagger them around the flowers. I thought the flowers were going to be a little more difficult, but once I finally figured out the first one, I was able to zoom through the rest. I've also seen these used as advent calendars (think Christmas gifts people!), magnets (just throw a magnet strip on the back!) and on gift boxes. How cute would it be to get a fun, color coordinated flower on top of your gift? I also had the majority of the supplies on hand (the pot, skewers, paper, paint & ribbon) so it was pretty easy to put together. Speaking of fun gifts to put together, how about this for a fun, quick gift? We have a local grocery store that has an isle that has the most adorable treasures. I had to stop one morning to grab a few things for work and found the cute popcorn tub. I simply filled it with microwave popcorn, some soda and candy and called it good! I'm still trying to play catch up from the wedding, so this is really a belated birthday gift. So, I just put on the card that I hoped they had a birthday "poppin" full of fun. Simple yet fun and creative! I also found these at the store while going down the isle of wonder: They're pumpkin holders! How freakin' adorable is that? There was no way I could pass them up! I'm going to use one of them inside to hold my Halloween candy bowl and then the others outside to hold pumpkins. Once I finally get my porch decorated for Halloween I'll have to post a pic! I had so much fun tonight trying a new craft out. I haven't actually been able to sit down and just craft for the fun of it in a while. I'm helping a friend out in November with a Super Saturday and am thinking of making the advent calendars using the flower designs. Fun fun!

AND......SHE'S A MRS!

We'll, the wedding drama is over! My baby sister is now a Mrs. Too. Weird. I felt the same way when the bubs little sister got married and even more so when she had a baby. My baby sis has lived with us for a while now. So, I thought it would be so nice when she finally left....more privacy, not having to worry about dinners (she is probably one of the pickiest eaters I know), just less expense overall. However, this part week I've found that I've been missing her! It's weird....the privacy is nice, but I don't like the quiet. I'm so used to people coming and going all the time (one of my friends jokingly referred to our home as a halfway house because of everyone being around all the time!) that's it's been a hard adjustment to have it just be the bubs and me. Little brother still lives with us, but he's downstairs and is often gone studying or working. So, although it will be a big adjustment for everyone, I can say I am SOOO happy for my baby sis and even MORE happy that the wedding is over! Yeah for a little downtime before the holidays start up!

GOIN' TO THE TEMPLE....

Well, it's a done deal! As of last night every sibling of mine has taken out their endowments and is temple worthy. We headed down to the Ogden Temple last night with my little sister and her fiancee so they could both receive their endowments. After a day of frantically trying to get a ton done in a very short amount of time, it was nice to be able to just sit in the temple for a couple of hours and enjoy the peace you get from going through a session. The bubs wasn't able to make it (due to miscommunication and not being able to get in on time to get his temple recommend done) which threw me off a little. I don't think I've ever gone through a session without him, so the entire time I felt like I was missing something or someone, which I was! So, now just two more days and little sister will be a Mrs. Man, I feel REALLY old right now! Congrats Lyss & Isaac, we love you guys and a are super proud of you!

CLINTON CITY DAY'S

Last month was Clinton City Day's for our little city. Normally we don't go to the fair part, but the bub's saw the Zipper ride and just HAD to go. So, we conned my little sis and her fiancee into going with us and headed up. Now, my family get's horrible motion sickness. I seriously can't jump on a tramp or swing because it make's me sick. Yeah, not so much fun. Amusement parks? Big fat no. However, the bub's LOVES amusement parks and rides of any kind. So it kinda sucks because while I can go, I get really sick after and it's no fun for me. Luckily, little sisters fiancee has a pretty solid stomach, so he was able to go on most of the rides with him!The only ride we went on that night. I think we screamed louder than the kids! We were also laughing so hard we were crying! Ahh....good times!

Waiting to get on the Zipper.....Isaac was a trooper to go with the bubs. We're pretty excited to have him join the family!The bub's...
Isaac...

Eating treats! It was sooo stinking hot that day!And the final ride of the night before the fireworks? The swings of course! I'm actually glad we went. We had a great night!

CATCHING UP.......

Life has been super busy lately. Of course, when is it not? Right now I'm trying to finish up wedding plans, help with the opening of a preschool (my mom and sis-in-law are starting up a preschool. I'm way excited for them! This has been my mom's dream for years and she's had oodles of years to get the experience needed. So, if you're in the Farr West/Plain City/Harrisville/North Ogden area, check her out!), catch up from work (I was gone most of last week on a business trip) and then also help with a Super Saturday (Nat, if you're reading this, I'm still looking for ideas and have not forgotten you! I'm still more than happy to come out and help!) I also have a goal of getting all my Christmas projects done by the first part of November, so yeah, life, right? Oh! We also finally got callings! We've been in our ward now for a year and just got callings as team teachers for the CTR A class. Our primary is huge! I'm happy to be back in primary, but had forgotten how much work goes in to keeping a bunch of 5-6 year olds busy for almost an hour! In our last ward the bubs and I were team teachers to the Sunbeams which I LOVED! I missed our kids, so it's really no surprise we're back in primary.

Anywhoo.....the bubs is currently training for the Top of Utah Marathon which is in Logan, Utah next month. His goal is to qualify for Boston which means he has to finish the marathon in a little over just three hours. He's been putting a LOT of time and effort into his training and I'm so proud of him. I'll also be really glad when it's over! On Memorial Day he participated in a half-marathon that's held in a neighboring city and had an AWESOME time! Of course, we almost missed him coming in because we thought he would be later, so this is the only pic I got!The first part of June our sis-in-law and her kiddos came out to visit from California. We love it when they come out as we don't get to see them enough! They came to hang out with us a couple of nights and one night we decided to do s'mores in the fire pit after dinner. At first Prest wasn't too sure about the whole s'more thing. He just wanted to eat the marshmallows. He also wanted to save some for Santa. He's such a funny kid! When the bubs was finally able to get him to finally try a s'more he LOVED them! He and the bubs were outside FOREVER making s'mores! Poor little J was a little sick this trip and ended up throwing up in the car, hence the nakee baby! Poor J and poor Bree! I think by this point everyone was ready to just turn around and head back home! Anyway, I forgot about these pics until I started looking through the camera! Oh, and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this picture of J!How can you not love that face? He's such a fun little boy! Next time we hope Kenton can come out too! Thanks for coming to play with us, guys!

ARISE & SHINE

On Thursday I got a call from the Bubs at work asking me if I wanted to go to a "musical extravaganza." A what? He said he really didn't know too much more about it but we had some friends that had a couple of extra tickets and wanted to know if we wanted to double with them on Friday. Okay. Then, of course, I forgot! Friday rolls around and again the Bubs calls me at work asking if we were still on for the "musical extravaganza." No, he still didn't have any other further information on it, other than it was at Weber State and started at 7:30pm. So, I said sure, let's go. We get up to Weber State University (along with half the population of Utah) and I find out that this thing is being held outside in the football stadium. Um, okay? Keep in mind I'm still in my work clothes which consists of a gray blouse with a blank tank top underneath, a black pencil skirt with little mobiility (think stairs here people!) and 5 inch heels. Now, also keep in mind it's 100+ degree weather and we half to hike halfway across campus (all uphill) to get to the stadium. So, needless to say, by the time we join the Utah population in the stadium, I'm not super happy and pretty much want to go home and shower because I feel pretty nasty. But, once we got seated and found our friends, it's ended up being a really fun night. Every so many years the Church puts on a production of Arise and Shine Forth. The productions travels the globe and uses kids in the different stakes from the ages of 14-18. They practice for months before, provide all of their own costuming and I think create their own performances (but I'm not sure). When it came to our area, there were 33 stakes of youth involved. We went to the Friday night dress rehearsal but it would have been great to go on Saturday night because President Monson was there! Anyway, it was pretty amazing to watch these kids (and their leaders and supporters) pull everything together and do such a great job of it. We also happened to see a lot of friends walking around during the performances!
The kids getting ready to perform.....

They split the stakes into different councils.....this was the North council which would have been in our old wards. The Bubs said watching the kids made him miss being in Young Men's and the boys. He was in the Presidency in one of our old wards and LOVED it! Of course, it helps when you have such a great group of boys. I miss that ward. Actually, come to think of it, I bet a lot of my old primary kids were in the production. I was in the Primary Presidency in that ward which would put a lot of my kids in that age group. The Bubs being sexy! He wanted to make this the desktop background on our computer. Vain much? Thanks Bryon and Keri for inviting us. It was fun to hang out with you guys since we haven't seen you in forever!

HEY......I AM ALIVE!

I've been getting chastised lately because I haven't posted in a while. Actually, looking back on the last date, I haven't posted in months! Sorry! Life just seems to be getting busier and busier. I really don't have much to post about.....nothing too exciting has been happening lately. Just been busy with life, work and planning a wedding. But, I do have some pics that I've had on my phone forever that I keep forgetting to upload. They're random, but cute!
I don't really remember what the occasion was. I think Stevie's birthday which was months ago. But, I found them on my phone and thought the pic of Tagers was too cute not to post! He's such a cheeser! The bubs and Stevie were too busy playing with their phones to pay attention.


A month or so ago I took off a day from work to watch Reecers while Tara took Annie into the doctor. We had lot's of fun that day starting off with the Tree House Museum. Reecers did pretty good overall. She was okay until another kid would come up and want to play in the area she was in and then she was pretty much done. We also went to the candy store (which she LOVED), the craft store to get a mother's day gift (which we never ended up making), my work to pick up some things and then finally lunch. She was pretty tired by the end of the day but seemed to have a lot of fun. I love her glasses.....these pics were taken not too long after she first got them. I love hanging out with the girlies!

We went over to Seth & Misty's for a bbq the day after the 4th of July. Seth took the old trampoline frame from when we were growing up and put a new pad on it. Lyssy, Ike (as the kids call him), Alan and I all ended up outside jumping on the tramp. It was fun....until I got sick from jumping. Yep, that's how much of a pansy I am. I got motion sick from jumping. Sheesh, I'm pathetic!
Finally! Sorry, told you these were pretty random and REALLY sporadic! Last weekend we headed up to Bear Lake with some friends and stayed at their cabin. It was a lot of fun (as always!) and relaxing. I love hanging out together and just talking forever. It seems like that's the only time we're really able to do it anymore. The bubs and Ty decided they wanted to go to Merlin's (a fast food place in Raspberry Square) and eat the Merlinator so they could get their pics on the wall. It's a hamburger that's a pound (I think - it could be more) and if you finish it they'll take a picture of you and hang it on the wall with everyone else who has finished it. Both the guys said it wasn't bad at all and the hamburger really wasn't that big. I'll take your word on it...it looked pretty big and nasty to me! Sadly, this was the only picture I remembered to take on the trip. Guess we'll just have to go back up again to get more! Thanks Craven's for having us up! It was fun as usual!

Now, don't be too sad that I'm done as I even have enough to post for the next two days....you lucky people you!