Baby Showers

I have been showered in love!!! I've had a baby shower the last two weeks in a row & have just been absolutely spoiled. I am embarassed to say this, but often I feel very alone because I feel like I always am trying to reach out & show my love to others, but don't always feel that love in return. Having these baby showers has definitely proved me wrong. Tons of people showed up, gave me their support, love, well wishes, & were so generous with gifts. Our baby will be the best dressed little guy due to all of the love! For everyone that reads this.... THANK YOU! My mom did a shower in IF last weekend & the theme was "A Star is Born". She did a great job with the invites (I should've taken a picture now I think of it!) Then I have seen these candy buffets for a thank you box to guests so she drove over to Twin & we worked on them together. It was a lot of fun creating such a fun table. Here are the pictures:



We also had a "diaper raffle" where if people wanted to they could bring a bag of diapers & try to guess when the baby will be born. Whoever guesses closest will win a scentsy/Christmas/Mary Kay gift basket. (I'm excited to see who wins!) Anyway, my mom gave me this diaper cake for my bag of diapers (she had my step-sister, Amber make it). Isn't it SO cute?!

On Friday the 13th we went to this super fancy dinner/raffle/dance at the Canyon Crest. The lady that decorated did an amazing job. Every table had an umbrella sitting on broken glass with salt sprinkled on it. Plus every table was labeled "table 13". Then it was all decorated in black & red & every place setting had a superstitous tale or saying. It was really fun & elegant. Plus the band was good which is always a plus. The only bad part was that here I am the prego one in 3 inch heals & sore feet & had to be the one to drag Vic out on the dance floor! I swear he used to love it, but he swears he never liked it. Hmmm.... one of those fake covers while we were dating?!

I couldn't decide what to wear & Vic told me I should wear this little black dress that is really sparkly & elegant. I almost didn't because I didn't want to be overdressed, but I'm glad I did because there was tons of ladies there with their hair all fancy & wearing cocktail dresses. I've wanted to go to a party like this FOREVER! I guess we were just too cheap to pay for a dinner like this, but Vic's company paid for it :) :) Even better right?!

As for a prego update: My ribs feel like they are bruised and breaking 24/7 & now when the baby moves it hurts cuz he's so big. I used to love feeling him roll around in there. Now I just want to cry & sit with my heat pad all of the time. My lower back just throbs & I have pinched nerve on the right side that the Doc said will stay there until I have him. Because of all of this terrible discomfort I'm praying this little guy decided to come a little early!

Fall Crafts

I went to my mom's house for the weekend and my sister, Katie, and I made these sparkle pumkins. They were so easy & add such a fun sparkle to my front room! We just brushed on Elmer's glue & then covered with Martha Stewart glitter. Here is my baby pumpkin set.

...and here is the bigger pumpkin set.

Also, I've been trying to figure out my camera. I still have lots to learn. Here are some pictures I took at the park.

And here are my step-sister's twin boys (about 3 months). They are just too cute & precious! ...and definitely an arm full!

Lots of Prego Pictures!!!

FINALLY! Here I am at 31 1/2 weeks (a little over 7 months)

Fall Hikes

My favorite time of year is fall. I love the crisp smell & feel in the air and the excitement of knowing that Christmas is around the corner. My absolute favorite thing though is fall hikes. I LOVE the different colors all over the place. This weekend we went down to Utah for a mission reunion for Vic & Saturday we went on a hike by my grandma's house. It was absolutely beautiful, I wish this season could last longer! EVEN BETTER is the fact that Vic finally let me get a NEW CAMERA! I got the Nikon D90 & boy do I have a lot to learn about it. I've never had a fancy camera before :) I'm so excited it's like Christmas times 10! Here are some of the pictures we took:

Leaf covored paths are my favorite.

I think this one is cool because it's fun to see the trees at this stage when their leaves are 3 different colors at once!

This part of the hike was fun because we just came out from a bunch of dark pine trees & then suddenly the trail opened up to these bright trees!

The yellow trees were my favorite.

I should have snapped a picture of me sideways for my 7 month mark, but I didn't so I will soon!

What is your PASSION?!

What is your Passion?! Well, for your sake, I hope you could answer this question quickly. I am reading a book right now & one of the characters loves to meet people with a passion & let them talk about it. She said that it didn't matter how boring the subject was because if a person is busy talking about their passion then the happiness rolls off of them & it is contagious and it is fun to see what people get excited about. WHY DID THIS STRIKE ME SO HARD?! I thought to myself, what is my passion? What would people see my face light up about when I talk about it? ...and more importantly...

WHAT makes me HAPPY?... and why am I not spending more time doing it?!

Well, I made a big long list & I got it sorted out into 2 categories.

Things I like to do: Hiking, skiing, friend time, family time, games, cooking, scrapbooking, & nightly walks

Then these are the things that I get excited about if I could go out & do them right now:

1-Decorating (mainly for any party or holiday)

2-Romantic gestures (notes, surprises, massages, etc.)

3-Taking pictures

4-Shopping for new clothes

BUT, which one is my passion?! I've decided that I have so many things I like to do that I spend too much time trying to do them all & they all seem to drown each other out. My goal now is to spend a lot of time doing the things I love & see if any of them can turn into a passion! NOW, what I really want to hear is... WHAT IS YOUR PASSION?

And then I want to make sure & put a prego update: The prego party is OVER! The first 6 months was a breeze, then I've been tired & so sick with indigestion that I can hardly get things done despite trying to repaint my entire house (still happening). Yuck! I'm almost done with month 7 so hopefully it starts to look uphill! Plus I've doubled in size, but I don't have a picture because Vic BROKE MY CAMERA :( So hopefully I'll get a new one soon!

Baby Bump, Shower, and ... a WEDDING!

Okay, I am finally starting to really show so here is my latest baby bump! Here I am a week ago at 22 1/2 weeks (5 months).


I decided to throw my brother-in-law's fiance a surprise baby shower. I figured she probably wasn't expecting one is why I decided to do it a surprise. I wanted to do a totally themed out one, but I decided that my audience wouldn't really appreciate all the time I put into it (that is half the fun when you decorate... hearing the oohs & aahs!) so I just went simple & pink. Here is the table I decorated.

Here is the close up of the wontons I made. This was my first time making them. They were simple enough with my mini muffin pan, but definitely different! I don't think I've even tried a wonton before this, I was just looking for something pink for dessert!

Here's up close of one of the vases of flowers. It was really fun to be able to just pull them out of my flower garden!....and as a DOUBLE surprise Roger decided to crash the baby shower (since all the family was gathered anyway)... and get married right after it was over! I was sure glad I pulled weeds the day before so their marriage setting could be as pretty as possible!

Jessica's best friend that was at the shower ran to the store as soon as they announced that they were getting married in 30 minutes & got a cake for them so we made them do the traditional feeding even though they wanted to be ultra casual!

All I can say is WOW, didn't think I'd ever have a wedding in my backyard! Although I'm flattered they thought it worthy enough! I love my new sister-in-law, but I can already say we have to be opposites in the party department cuz I have to decorate to the 9's for any little thing, especially my wedding!!!

3rd Year Anniversary

3 years with my sweetheart has FLOWN. I LOVE being married to Vic. If any of you know him very well, he is the biggest sweetheart, always thinking of others (especially me), and a true romantic at heart which is hard to find these days. We always give each other the traditional wedding gifts & this year was "LEATHER". I gave Vic a leather baseball book to remind him of the Braves baseball game I let him go to last weekend and he gave me this gorgeous leather purse :) I'm so glad he figured out that it was about the only thing I'd want that was leather!

To CELEBRATE I made Vic his favorite breakfast, banana cream pie and after work had his 1st professional massage booked for him. He loved it, I'm so glad I found someone good! After that we went down by the river then ate at Canyon Crest. It had a great view & the weather was perfect, but I forgot to take a picture! Then we went to LAS VEGAS for the weekend which ended up being twice as fun as I planned! I had looked up a lot of stuff online, but I figured we still have too much time to look around. Not so, there is NEVER ENDING things to do in Vegas! The first night we stayed on the strip & went to the "V ultimate variety show" which was so good. It had comedy, dancing, acrobatics, flying guys, and magic tricks. I haven't laughed that hard in awhile & loved hearing Vic laugh just as hard :) We wanted to see all of the night shows outside of the hotels & didn't end up getting back to our hotel until 2am!

The next day we slept in, had a yummy lunch & Vic unsuccessfully tried his luck at poker while I went shopping for our new BABY BOY! That's right we found out right before we left. Vic is beside himself with excitement! I was hoping for a girl, but a boy will be fun too :) The little guy wouldn't look at the camera, but here is a profile.

Vegas has never ending shopping & I wish I would have had 5 more hours to do more! After shopping we met back up & went to a magic show which was cool, but this guy was such a cheeser (not near as good as the night before). Anyway, we watched that then had just enough time to get down to our next show "The Mentalist". It's the true guy that they've made the show after because he can read people's minds. It is a totally crazy talent & he even had Vic stand up & told him his full name even though there is no way he could have known that! It was so good & I was so tempted to buy his DVD & book! After that show we went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner & I wish we had one of those near us. It was so yummy! I love their huge menu.

We then went & checked into the Ritz Carlton & it was so fancy. I'd stay there again every time if I could afford it. They definitely know how to pamper their guests, plus they have the nicest rooms too :) Here is a picture of their cute little shopping village. I felt like I was in the movie Beauty & the Beast.

Here is the Lagoona that we spent a ton of time in after a huge beautiful breakfast. It was so much fun & the sand was the perfect texture.

After that we spent more time playing in the pool. It was everything I love.... little cabana boys going around wiping off people's sweat for them, taking their orders, and hot sun. It was the next best thing to being on the beach!

Here is the view from our room. I planned on renting a boat & playing on the lake, but we ran out of time!

Overall, an AMAZING weekend with my AMAZING husband of three years.

Backyard Makeover

This spring I decided to do a major makeover to our backyard. It all started with the fact that Vic promised me a gazebo with outdoor couches, but I was trying to figure out how to have that, an area to BBQ, & a table in the shade... so this is what we wound up with!

Here is an upclose shot of our wall that took a million loads of dirts, bushes, & plants. You can hardly see the bushes because my flowers are growing so well!

Here is the BEFORE PICTURE taken from the existing deck.

And here is the AFTER PICTURE

Here is how ugly & plain the back of our house looked...
...and the much improved back of the house!
I couldn't play with the backyard & not touch the front so here is the BEFORE

...and here is the AFTER picture.

And last, but not least.... I am so proud to say that the only thing I did for this garden was cut up the grass & put in the retaining wall around the outside. Vic did all of the tilling, planting, & weeding. He loves vegetable gardens & I told him it was all his. I didn't think he'd really do it & he had a late planting start, but it's growing good & I'm so proud of him!

My Pride & Joy

I feel like I've been the busiest bee ever lately trying to finish up a zillion projects & here are a few of them. I started this blanket for Vic's anniversary gift last year & figured I'd better finish it before our next anniversary! It took so much time that I think it will be my first & last pieced together quilt, but Vic was DYING to have a huge levi quilt so I couldn't help but spoil him ;) It's huge & covers my entire front room floor!

This project took MUCH less time & was so much more gratifying! I hated the color of our fireplace so I dyed it the same color as the wood on our couches & it tied the room together nicely. Here is a before & after.

...and here are the little joys in my life. We went to Idaho Falls for the 4th so here I am holding baby Kiersten & Kara is sitting next to me. They were so much fun to be with! (Katie, Becky, & Mom in the background are joys too!)

Here we are doing sparklers. This picture would be perfect if you could see all of tiny Kiersten (on the left) holding a firework! It was so adorable until she set it on her head!