Paul - Aryn - Rosalie

Baby #2

2012-02-02T04:55:00.000-08:00

Rosalie is going to be a big sister in July and we are super excited! Rosalie loves to give the baby kisses by kissing my belly, several times she has tried to feed the baby things by putting them up to my belly. Haha she cracks me up! She's going to be a great big sister! She is convinced and almost has me convinced that this baby is going to be a baby girl, she keeps telling me randomly that she has a baby sister, so I guess we'll see. I find out in a month so I'll keep you posted:)

Pintrest gone bad

2011-11-22T13:31:00.000-08:00

I loved this wreath from Pintrest

so I decided to make it, It turned out so cute.... I put it on my front door and the next morning this is what I found....

Yes I am a genius and didn't follow all the instructions, like when she said that she highly recommends shellacking the candy if you are going to hang it up outside... yep, genius! Now I need to go scrub it off my front door and porch...

Fall Festivities

2011-11-17T17:20:00.000-08:00

We had a great Halloween and are getting ready for Thanksgiving and I'm trying to hold back my excitement for the Christmas season to be in full swing. I'll admit I have a red and green paper chain hanging in my dining room and I did spend my afternoon threading foam snowflakes on string to hang up outside... but before we get to the Christmas season I wanted to catch up on Halloween and the fall festivities, so here we go. At the beginning of October I wanted to get an early start on making Halloween costumes so I wouldn't be so pressed for time making them the week before, well my good intentions didn't go as planned and I ended up making our costumes a few days before halloween... maybe next year. This year I made a Snow White dress for my niece (which I didn't get a picture of :(), a princess Peach outfit for me, a Mario outfit for Paul and a toad outfit for Rosalie

.
(all our fun hats!)

(can you tell that Paul's pumpkin is Big boo from Mario? mine is the owl)

Rosalie went trick or treating for the first time this year and man did she catch on fast. She tried to open doors and would be the first one to get candy and then would wait at the door to until each child got some then go in for more, it worked at about 90% of the houses, we went with her cousins and she got double what they did. Needless to say she loved it and me and Paul got a big kick out of watching her be such a candy monster.

(Seriously she racked up the candy!)

(Rosalie was OUT after Trick or treating)

This year I decided to paint on my windows so I did 2 pictures for Halloween and I loved doing them and I decided I am going to do some for each holiday. The first one I used a window marker (I found at the dollar store) and some of my watercolor paints (undiluted) then I decided I didn't want to use up all of my professional paints so I went to joanns and got some water based craft paint that washes off with soap and water and did my Thanksgiving one. I can't wait to do Christmas ones, I have a few ideas in mind but I think for sure one will be of the Nativity and I'm super excited to try it.

(I had a witch on the other window but forgot to get a picture before I washed it off)

Here's a recipe I tried tonight, I found it on Pintest and gave it a try, here's a link to the recipe http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/2009/02/vegetable-tian.html

( I used the powdered Parmesan cheese because I didn't have the fresh, so it didn't turn out as pretty as the lady's did but it still tasted good)

I paired it with pan seared Tilapia and it made for a yummy and filling meal, not to mention pretty healthy. Here's the recipe I used for the Tilapia, http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pan-seared-tilapia/detail.aspx
I made some adjustments and didn't use the olive oil, I just used a little Pam spray, cut back the flour and just lightly dusted it and used about 1/2 teaspoon of butter for both fillets of fish and it was plenty, and I sprinkled a little Parmesan on top. (I know fish and cheese is a no no but it worked pretty good in this case)

The other day Rosalie woke up and I found her in her crib trying to put this jewel on her forehead but it wouldn't stick, so I put tape on it and she LOVED it! She wore it all morning until the tape wore off.

Blast from the past, old art work

2011-08-21T14:27:00.000-07:00

Here are some old painting and drawings that I have laying around my house, they are from high school, college, one from 4 years ago and one from a year ago. I always have ideas for new artwork but never put the effort into finding the time to produce them, I keep thinking, "I will show people my artwork when I have some good ones to show, ones that I have had sufficient time to put into, that turn out like I envision in my head". (isn't that why they call artist tortured because they can never reach the perfection they envision in their head, haha) Anyways, I figured these pictures I've posted are just laying around my house so I might as well share them. For a while I was embarrassed to show people because Paul thought some were creepy ( I admit some are) and I just didn't think they were my best or good enough to share. My style has shifted a little since these, so I will work on some more and post them when they are done. I love Photo Realism (chuck close is awesome!) and Surrealism (I adore Salvador Dali). I have so many ideas of paintings I want to produce it keeps me up at night! I think my mind learns through pictures I create in my head that teach a certain principle and I want to turn those into something everyone else can see. The pictures I uploaded are mostly abstract art and random stuff. :) I hope you enjoy!

Here is a pencil sketch from my sketch pad of Rosalie when she was 3 months old, I didn't take very good care of it and it got torn out of my book and has been trampled on and thrown around my house for the past year, (as you can tell) I also never finished it completely, the hands are just lightly sketched.

I started this picture when I was in college as puzzle pieces out of chalk and charcoal to experiment with shading variations and then Paul gave me some acrylic paints for our first Christmas of marriage and I played around with them on here, then I would randomly pull it out every time I needed an artistic release that wasn't super time consuming. I used marker on some parts of it and eventually finished it with some watercolor.

Here is a Acrylic painting that I did in High School. This picture means a lot to me and represents a life and the journey of faith it is.. I know... so deep :) If you want more explanation, ask me about it.

No I didn't just decide to draw a skull on a log with a rope coming out, this was a drawing drill that was set up in one of my college art classes, it's done in charcoal.

I started this picture after about a year of marriage and intended to incorporate a picture of the Savior into it to celebrate the Easter season but I never got around to it, someday I'll finish it. It's done with colored pencil.

I took a picture of my pen sketch and when I took the picture the lighting was off so I went to edit it and ended up lowering the levels on the picture and loved what it looked like so I decided to save a picture of it and share. The actual drawing is done on white paper.

Here is another picture from high school that I did in pen, I must say I love this form of art and secretly think I could make a good living being a tattoo artist, haha.

Here is a picture I did in high school, It's one of my first watercolor pictures.

I think this might have been my first experiment with Acrylic from high school. :)

Update

2011-06-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

Paul graduated at the beginning of May with his Bachelors degree in Computer Science and an IT Emphasis. I am so proud of him! We have been in transition mode, as i'm sure alot of you have been through. we've been looking for new jobs since January and 2 weeks ago Paul got one for a local company doing their IT stuff. We feel very blessed to have found a job here in town. Life is crazy! isn't it? You seriously never know where it's going to take you or how things will turn out but they always seem to turn out for the best, even if they are hard and no direct plan is in sight. Letting go of the control can be hard and I am realizing more and more that faith really does sustain me.

Oh yeah, we also celebrated our 4 year anniversary! I love Paul more now then I did when we first tied the knot, we have grown up together in these past four years and I love the memories we have made. :) I am excited to embark on another year with my best friend and continue creating our lifetime (and beyond) of memories.

This weekend we went up north to see my Brother Jamin who just got home from his mission to Oaxaca, Mexico. He has a thick Mexican accent! He is such a sweet guy and still "guy smiley" like we used to call him, I'm happy he's my brother. We had a fiesta for him, complete with roasted pork, chile verde, goat, sausage, burrito's, salsa, horchata, pina colata, and more. There was soccer and I made a pinata that looked like "Elder Seegrist". It's great to have Jamin home!

Birthday

2011-02-27T13:29:00.000-08:00

So a few weeks ago we celebrated Rosalie's 1st birthday! We had a party with family, cake, icecream, a pinata and presents. I made strawberry and chocolate yogurt cakes, and they were so yummy! I ate WAY too much cake for about a week after her birthday. I had these cute napkins that had a carebare on them that said "happy 1st birthday" so I used them as an inspiration for her cake, I made it into a bear.

One of Rosalie's favorite youtube movies is "twinkle twinkle little star" so I made a Pinata that looked like a star. The kids had fun hitting it and it worked out perfect, all the kids got a chance to hit it and it broke open on the last kid.

(singing Happy Birthday)

(Eatting her cake)

(me and Rosalie after she finished her cake)

(opening presents)

(Rosalie wearing the cute headband my aunt made for her)

Some of the fun presents rosalie got were, a baby doll, hair bows, a princess piano, a squealing monkey, a cute outfit and a stuffed bunny. She carries around the baby doll and loves that it has a pacifier just like her, she loves to play the piano and wraps the monkey's arms around her neck and carries it around with her. We had a fun time celebrating!

(did I mention that the men were bouncing off the walls with excitement? lol)

Ok, now let me get nostalgic...

I can't believe she is 1, but yet she seems like she is getting so big, she definately has her own personality. She loves to flip the switches on the power cords behind our computer and when you craw underneath the table to get her she laughs and runs away. She is such a little rascal! It's so funny for me to see her just walking around the house with her own agenda and just doing her own thing, she is super independent! She won't let me feed her anything, she has to feed herself and if I look at her like i'm trying to get her to eat it, she won't even touch it. I thought the independent stage came along later but it has been a consistant characteristic of her since she was a few months old. I think it's just part of her personality and it can be frusturating but good all at the same time. She is a very nurturing little girl and loves to give daddy and mommy and all of her "dolly's" and "ducks" kisses. She likes to help me clean up, she throws things away in the garbage, helps me pick up the dirty laundry and puts away her toys. Granted, she really loves to make messes. She is so much fun to play with and loves it when we craw on the ground and chase her. We play hid and seek with her and she LOVES it. I feel so blessed to have her!

Family Pictures!

2010-12-09T15:04:00.000-08:00

Hooray for Anne! She did a fabulous job taking our family pictures! Here's a few of my favorites.

It was freezing outside, her little nose got so red.

I think she makes this face because of teething and I love it! I'm glad Anne captured it! :)

The ducks at the pond were so photogenic!

Doesn't she look like Paul in this picture!

Okay so that was a little more then a few, but I loved them all! Thanks again Anne!

Gingerbread!

2010-12-05T17:20:00.000-08:00

I have never made homemade Gingerbread houses... until now! It was super easy and the gingerbread is actually really yummy! I made five of them for a family party and ended up with 1 extra so I decorated 2. Here are the finished products! I wish I would have gotten pic's of everybody else's creations! They did awesome!
Here's the link to the recipe http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/gingerbread-house-recipe/index.html

Bad Luck?

2010-11-04T22:58:00.000-07:00

This might be TOO MUCH INFO but I seriously have horrible luck when it comes to public restrooms. Please don't think I'm trashy or gross for bringing this up but the last 4 times that I have REALLY had to use them I get there and see one of these...

Seriously! They probably clean the bathroom one time during the day and I have hit that time 4 times in a row lately. Is it just bad luck? Am I the only one who has this happen? Just a random thought but I figure we all do it so I might as well vent about something we all can relate to and what's more relate-able than restrooms? :)

While I'm bringing up random thoughts, don't you hate it when you are talking to someone and you kind of go out on a limb to say something borderline comical and they laugh but then you realize they weren't really paying that much attention to you and were laughing at something else. I hate that. It's awkward. It's even more awkward when they ask what you just said. Yeah, definitely awkward.

Halloween

2010-11-01T23:19:00.000-07:00

This Halloween I had the urge to make homemade costumes. I guess I like to work under a deadline when it comes to projects because then they actually get done and I was in a sewing mood so I had to strike while the iron was hot! I made four costumes, my Bee dress, Paul's bee keeper suit and hat, Hannah's barbie outfit (The pants, shirt and headband) and Amara's Geisha outfit. It was nice to just whip them out without major fitting adjustments because they were just Halloween costumes, why can't normal clothes be that carefree? I made all the outfits in about five hours, I was surprised how fast they went. Growing up we always had a costume basket with fun dress up clothes, I have wanted to start that for my family so I decided to start this year, hopefully it can continue to grow and will be fun for my kids in the future. We had a fun Halloween and enjoyed spending time with family and friends.

Cake Anyone???

2010-10-14T11:12:00.000-07:00

3 weeks ago I got asked to do a Wedding Cake for a young couple that are friends with my in-laws and I must admit that it was somewhat selfish of me to accept the challenge because I have NEVER done a wedding cake before. I have always wanted to do one but couldn't justify buying all the supplies and investing all the time into a practice cake. So when they asked me I thought "YES! this is my chance!" I didn't realize the weight I would have on me for the next 2 weeks. I watched hours of Youtube videos on ALL types of cake decorating and learned more then I thought I would learn about cake decorating. I loved learning this new skill and the deadline just made me stick to it when I got sick of baking and frosting.
So the day before it was due I was somewhat of a beast to be around because I was so stressed to get this done, luckily for me Paul was sick and home from work and watched Rosalie. The night before the cake was due I dropped the top layer of the cake after I had just spent a few hours decorating it, I originally had pillars and they collapsed. I managed to avoid a meltdown and keep working, I scratched the pillars in fear they would do the same thing on her wedding day. My sister in law was so sweet to come over and help me for a few hours, she stayed until 1 in the morning, I don't think I would have gotten any sleep or even be able to finish if she didn't come help me. I still stayed up until 5:30 decorating it. Here's the finished product. I loved how it turned out! and I want to do more! I think it will go much smoother next time since experience is invaluable!

(definately my favorite part was the gum paste flowers I made, I loved learning this skill and loved how it turned out, and yes they taste good :))

August, September, birthdays and of course Rosalie

2010-09-20T16:01:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in a while so here's a short overview of some past activities.

We went up to my Uncles Cabin for our Annual Friend Cabin Trip, We had such a fun time just relaxing in natures beauty and enjoying each others company. We went to some hot springs in Midway and they were so pretty, too bad they were super hot and we could only stick our feet in for a few seconds at a time. I guess they are perfect to swim in other times of the year but they heat up too hot in July and August. We also celebrated my birthday at the Cabin.

(on the deck of the cabin, beautiful view)

(the hot springs were crystal clear)

(everyone who came this year)

The end of August I went up to Salt Lake to see my Cousin who lives in Pennsylvania while she was out here for a visit. It was so fun to see her and her cute baby girl who is only 3 weeks younger then Rosalie. We crafted alot and made some cute matching tutu's for the girls and took pictures. I also got to see some friends from High school, it was fun to catch up.

(Me and Chelsa)

(chelsa's cute baby girl)

(Pretty much the same size)

This last weekend we celebrated Paul's Birthday and I decided to make a themed cake, I made a cake after the game Legends of Zelda, Windwaker. I got this book from the Library called "What's new Cupcake" and it has some really cute decorating ideas and they are easy. So I took a cue from that book and created Paul's Zelda cake. It turned out pretty fun and Paul liked it. I think it made him feel like a little boy again. Anyways we had a birthday party with some friends and it was a lot of fun.

(I made Zelda out of tootsie rolls so he was kind of melting into the cake in this picture)

(I got some Chocolate rocks and had fun decorating this with them)

Rosalie is now 7 Months! I can't believe how fast time goes by! She is crawling everywhere and has gotten pretty fast, especially when she knows she has something that she shouldn't have. She loves to chew on cords, wrappers, and all sorts of stuff she shouldn't. Her new favorite thing is to chase a rolling soda can across the house. She is learning to go to sleep by herself in her crib and that has been an adventure. We think she is teething too because she has been a lot fussier then usual. She has also been pulling herself up on things to stand up. Ahhh... me and Paul both think she will walk soon, probably within the next 2 months! She loves to eat rice cereal and butternut squash, she doesn't really care for sweet potatoes. She also likes to talk she says "hi" when someone comes in the room or to get there attention and she says Dada, I don't know if she has linked Dada to Paul yet but I think she is starting to get that. She also says mama but only when she is really upset. ha ha. Anyways, this is starting drag on so I'll end.
So there you have it, an update on August and September thus far, birthdays and our little monkey Rosalie.

(enjoying some yummy squash)

(Rosalie's paradise, daddy's computer cords)

Five Months!

2010-07-15T12:11:00.000-07:00

This little Monkey is five months old! Yippee! She is a little ball of happy energy and is always smiling and wiggling. She is teething and chews on EVERYTHING!!! She is starting to figure out crawling and I think within the next month she will be mobile! Yikes! She is growing up way too fast! We love our little munchkin! Here's some cute pic's that Anne took that I love, she did an amazing job! Thank you Anne!

Fall in July

2010-07-12T19:40:00.000-07:00

Last night I experimented with dinner and it turned out really yummy! So of course I have to share my creation. This recipe is out of my comfort zone so it was fun to just think about how spices would taste together, take a risk and see how it worked. So here's what I did.
I'll call it Roasted Pumpkin Coconut Soup

*preheat oven to 350 degrees

2-3 pound roasted pumpkin (or a large can of pumpkin puree)

1 Red Bell pepper
1/4 can of coconut milk (low fat)
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon Oil (I used Olive oil)
1 can of Vegetable broth
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup Brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon Curry powder (to taste, more for a stronger taste, I liked the curry to be subtle)
Dash of Cayenne pepper (again you can add more for more of a kick)
Dash of Cinnamon
Dash of black pepper (to taste)
Dash of Salt (to taste)

(for garnish) Optional (it taste great without these too)

Sour cream
Green onion sliced
Parmesan cheese

Bread bowl (optional) (it taste good in a bowl too)

1- Separate roasted pumpkin from skin (discard skin), or open can of pumpkin puree.
2- Slice Red Bell Pepper into slices, chop onion into chunks and peel garlic, toss veggies in 1 tablespoon olive oil, spread out on a baking sheet, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and put into a 350 degree oven for 20 Min's.
3- Put pumpkin, butter, brown sugar, coconut milk and vegetable broth into blender, blend until smooth, add roasted veggies to blender and puree. (if it all doesn't fit at once that's fine, just do separate batches in the blender)
4- Pour pureed mixture into a pot and turn stove on medium heat, stir often so it doesn't "pop out" on you. Stir in the curry powder, cayenne, cinnamon, black pepper and salt to taste.
5- Cook until heated all the way through
6- Spoon into bread bowls and top with a little sour cream, green onion and Parmesan.
7-Enjoy!
* you could sub a butternut or acorn squash for the pumpkin if you wanted to.

Paul didn't think this would taste very good just by looking at it but when he tasted it he loved it! He ate seconds and deemed it restaurant worthy (haha nothing like giving a little positive reinforcement to keep the meals coming his way... smart man :)) Anyways I had fun experimenting, hopefully you'll give it a try.

projects

2010-06-24T21:34:00.000-07:00

Here are a few projects I've been up to in the last little while.

Homemade Boppy pillow with matching burp rags:
I made these for my sister-in-laws baby shower.

It was super easy and pretty inexpensive. I got the idea of the burp rags from Anne who made me some and I LOVE them! So this is my attempt to mimic her ridiculously good sewing skills. :)

Shirt dress:
Nicole posted a thing on her blog about how to turn an old men's dress shirt into a cute dress for little girls, I thought it was an awesome idea so I decided to take the idea and create something new. I had these two shirts that were a dollar at K-mart, and because of the price and because they looked like they might work for maternity shirts ( I was prego at the time) I didn't try them on and just bought them. So when I got home I tried them on and they didn't even come close to covering my belly, I set them aside for post pregnancy clothes. When I tried them on post prego, they made me look prego. So I thought they would be perfect to make into a little girls dress. I took the measurments of my niece and just scaled down the shirt to fit like a dress and Wa La, here is what it looks like:

I've been on a kick of turning some of the clothes I never wear into something wearable this last week but haven't completed any yet, but I will post when I do.
Other projects that I don't have pic's of are a bean stuffed snake for my nephew and a pink fuzzy stuffed butterfly for my niece.

I have also been doing a garden box this year and its doing okay I guess. I have gotten one zuccini and three small tomatoes so far. This 100 degree heat is pretty hard on them right now though. Here's a pic of my garden box when I first got it started.

Anyways, those are just a few of the things I've been up to.

4 months

2010-06-10T22:17:00.000-07:00

Rosalie is 4 months old today!

It has gone by SO fast! Here are a few things she been up to now-a-days. She loves to stand and move around, she has always been our little wiggles. She is a very happy baby as well, always smiling. She currently has a meltdown at precisely 9:00 pm if anyone other then me is holding her. Hopefully its just a phase, we are working through it. :) She has a little laugh, I wouldn't call it a giggle but a few hardy Ha ha's. She loves listening to music and being lifted up in the air. I don't know what she weights or how tall she is but I know she is growing super fast. I have an appointment next week so I will have to update this. We love Rosalie and feel so blessed to have her!

2010-05-05T13:10:00.000-07:00

Rosalie is getting so big and its been forever since I last undated this. So I'll fill you in on what we've been up to. This past weekend we had a bunch of family in town for Rosalie's baby blessing, it's so nice to have such supportive family. The blessing went so well. Afterward we went to the park and ate lasagna. My sisters and I made it the night before and we made five large pans of it, it took us until about 1:30 in the morning to make all of them, It was fun though, my little sisters can get so goofy, haha, it reminds me of me when I was their age.

We also had the Ironman in St. George this weekend, That was so incredibly motivational to me! Congratulations to all those who competed in it, you're an inspiration! I would love to train for one, I'll just through it out there as a life goal and maybe someday :).
So Rosalie is learning how to use her hands and its so fun to see her study them. She studies her toes too, and can't figure out how they disappear when I put pajamas on her that cover them. She is grabbing things now and trys so hard to make them go where she wants them to. She is playing with some toys now and loves them. She is such a blessing to us and such a sweetheart. She is super smiley in the mornings and smiley all day. She loves play time with me and with Paul. She has Paul wrapped around her little finger and it is so fun to see how much they love each other already. He is a great dad!
She is sleeping through the night now and has been pretty much all along. For the first month and a half to two months she was sleeping from 10:30 pm to 2:30 where she would wake up for about 10 minutes, then go back to sleep until 6 or 7 in the morning then up for an hour then to sleep until Noon. The last month or so she goes to bed around 10:00 and sleeps straight until sometime between 5:30 and 7 then wakes up for an hour and back asleep until about 10 or 11. So, I really can't complain, she LOVES her sleep! :) I guess she gets that from her parents. She has been experimenting with her voice lately and gets so excited when sounds come out. I love her so much and am enjoying being a mom more and more everyday!

Here we are after we blessed her

Here's Rosalie in the blessing dress I made her, right after I finished it, I made her a sash after this picture to help the dress fit her body more, you can see the dress is a bit big, but it was so fun to make her the dress. I'm going to keep it for her so that if she wants to use it for her girls someday she can, I think I will make it a tradition to make my baby girls there blessing dress. We'll have to see if I can pull off making a baby boys blessing outfit.

Such a cute little sleeper!

The first smile caught on camera, well the end part of her smile at least, I'm still working on getting her full smile in a picture.

She loves to play the game where you stick out your tongue and then she sticks out hers, it makes her smile. :)

2010-02-20T12:19:00.001-08:00

Update on our Sweetheart
Rosalie is growing so fast! I can't believe she is 9 days old! She has been growing like crazy and looks different everyday. It makes me happy to see her grow but sad at the same time. A part of me wishes she would stay a newborn forever. She has been such an angel! She sleeps almost all the way through the night. I have to wake her up to feed her. She loves to be cuddled close to her mommy. I absolutely love being a mom! I feel so blessed to have her!

Labor and Delivery
So I never told how the whole labor and delivery went. On Wednesday the 10th, whenever Rosalie would move inside of me I thought my water was going to break. so after work on Wednesday I went "hiking" (more of a walk), around Pioneer park with my sister and her family. Afterward we went and walked around Costco and ate the samples. :) After that I came home and cooked dinner, we sat down to eat and right after we said the prayer, my water broke, it was like the flood gates opening and I just looked at Paul and said "oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!" It took me a minute to realize what was happening and that this water gushing wasn't going to stop. haha so I got changed and went to the hosptial, I told them my water broke and they said, "oh you think your water broke?", then they came out from around the counter and saw me, the towel I was holding, and the water on the floor and then they took me more seriously. haha, So my water broke at about 5:40, I was hooked up to the IV's and everything by around 6:30 pm. They checked me and I was a 2+ so they put me on pitocin to help the contractions be more consistant and in a few hours I was to a 4, then a few minutes later I was at a 5, then I had some intense pressure so I had the nurse check me again and I was at a 10! So I went from a 4 to a 10 in about 30 minutes! They got me ready for some practice pushes and they decided to have the baby move naturally down the birth canal and have her head mold to it, so they had me do a thing called rest and descend where you lay on your sides and let the baby move down slowly, So I did that for about 2 hours, with practice pushes in between. During that time the nurse was trying to move the baby, she was facing straight up and so they wanted to turn her. So after 2 hours of that we were ready to push for real and surprisingly the baby had turned to a better position to come out and so I pushed for a little over an hour. They had to put me on Oxygen which helped me and the baby out alot, (I felt like I was going to pass out and the baby's heart beat kept dropping). Finally, our baby girl came out and they put her on my chest, that is an experience that I can't even describe, and no matter how many times I have had it explained to me, I couldn't comprehend it until that moment. It was very special and absolutely amazing. After they cleaned her up I had skin to skin time and that was very special as well. She was a natural at nursing! One of the coolest things was seeing Paul become a daddy! I could see him look at her when they were cleaning her up and he was right beside her, the look on his face was priceless and so precious! He has been such a good daddy, he loves his baby girl. :) Anyways, that is how our little girl came into the world, it was an absolute miracle and I can't even express how grateful I am that everything went so perfectly and how grateful I am for her to be a part of our family!

Adjustments
I forgot what it is like to not be pregnant. I drank some milk the other day and my stomach started hurting, I thought what is this? Then I realized that I have always been a little sensitive to milk and it gives me stomach aches especially in the morning, I forgot this because when I'm pregnant it doesn't bother me at all. I have heard that women who are lactose intolerant can drink milk while they are pregnant, I guess its the same with me. I also didn't care for some foods when I was pregnant, like tomatoes, ranch dressing, pork, and apples gave me a small stomach ache, but now I love all of these things again. Its so Weird how that works! It has also taken some getting used to to not have to go to the bathroom 3 or 4 times before bed and several times during the night. At first I thought something was wrong with me, then I realized this is normal. Anyways, I'm now adjusting to not being pregnant.

Rosalie Joy

2010-02-16T19:07:00.000-08:00

We welcomed our sweet baby girl, Rosalie Joy on February 11th, 2010 (her due date) at 2:57 am. She weighed 8 pounds and 5 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches! she has lots of brown hair (especially in the back) and she's got her daddy's dimples! We think she is pretty darn adorable! :) We love being parents! She has been such an angel!

Update on the bump!

2010-01-29T16:59:00.000-08:00

I am now 38 weeks and 1 day pregnant, so that means only 13 days until my due date, (for my own mental sanity I will say that today is pretty much over so I have 12 days left) and if she decides to be stubborn that is about 20 (or 19 days) days until they will induce me, but lets not think about me being pregnant for another 20 days!!!
So, my last Doctor's appointment I was measuring at 40 weeks, (that's totally baked and ready to come out!) exactly 2 weeks big! So the Doctor told me that this is a "BIG KID" and the way he looked at me so seriously, it kind of freaked me out! I wanted to ask, "how big are we talking here" but the shock didn't wear off until after the appointment so maybe next time I will ask him how big is "BIG".
Needless to say, I was slightly panicky after my appointment to get something going. I was dilated to a "loose 1" I'm assuming that is somewhere between a 1 and a 2 and I was 50% effaced. So yesterday and today I walked until I started to hurt, then I walked some more and somehow the pain that was building in my back and hips was settling my mind. haha
All I could think about was a quote I saw on someone's facebook a while ago about how there baby needed to "pack up her placenta and head out" I truly understand her frustration now.
So now that you all think I am crazy! I can now say that I understand why women take all the drastic measures to put themselves into labor.
Well, that's my update for now, I hope she decides to come early, that would be awesome, but if she decides to stay in there and keep growing "BIGGER" then I guess I will have to deal with it. :) and just focus on how cute her chubby little cheeks will be when she comes out! :)

So here are some belly pictures from the last few weeks.

(Me around 35 weeks)

(Me around 36 weeks)

(me around 37 weeks)

(me today at 38 weeks and 1 day)

(the boxy shape of my belly comes from my undershirts not being long enough anymore to cover the bump, haha, it just keeps on growing!)
(it also looks like I need to clean my mirror)

What a week!

2010-01-10T17:39:00.000-08:00

It is amazing how prayers can be answered just at the perfect time and how well that our Heavenly Father takes care of his children's needs, I'm not saying that if I want something then he gives it to me, alot of time its the opposite but looking at situations from hind site I find that he was blessing me with what I needed!

So, that being said, this week was an interesting week. I had tears of frustration, tears of joy, laughter, humility, a lot of fun, transitions, prayers of graditude, more prayers and some mircles!

On Tuesday just before I went to my dr. appointment, I opened a letter saying stuff about my insurance possibly being dropped, needless to say I cried tears of frustration, (kind of like a baby) but I got it taken care of, hallejuah!

Later that day, I went to my Doctor's appointment and figured out the reason behind one of my pregnancy symptoms that I thought was just normal but has been really uncomfortable for the past month. The Doctor assured me that is wasn't normal and gave me some medicine for it and I am doing SO much better! That was a total blessing and now I feel like I can ride out these last few weeks of Pregnancy. (only 4 weeks and 3 days until my due date! :))

After my appointment, Paul got a call saying he got the Job that he really really wanted, it is perfect for what he is going into and an even better job then what he first applied for. So he started work on Wednesday and while its been a little intimidating, he is learning alot and is feeling more comfortable now. It is so fun to see him so excited about going to work and still smiling ear to ear when he gets off work! That was such an answer to many prayers!

On tuesday, after jumping for Joy about paul getting his new job we went home and realized that our front tire had the tread riping off and it was about to blow, I'm so glad we caught it before it did, I think that is kind of a miricle!

Because of Paul's new job I can cut back on hours and take some time to prepare for this baby to get here. So I have cut back to working part time. I never thought I would have to get used to working less but it has been a weird transition stage for me. I have felt guilty for not being at work all day, but at the same time it has been really nice to take some time to get ready for the baby. It has definately allowed me to think more about when she gets here and I have had more time to get excited for her to come. I mean, I have always been excited but the role of being a mother hasn't hit me as hard until this week when I could focus on my divine attributes I have as a woman and a soon to be mom. Its really awesome to prepare to settle into this role. It is so humbling and so exciting along with a million other emotions all at the same time!

So this weekend my parents and sisters came down to help my other sister throw me a baby shower. It was a lot of fun! Thank you mom and girls for all the time and effort you put into the shower, and for the presents. My mom made me three baby blankets that are super soft and cuddly, I can't wait to wrap my new baby girl in them.

So, thats a general summary of this week. It has been an amazing week and I truly have felt blessed beyond what I deserve!

(Here are some pictures of my baby shower)

(My cute aunt, cousins and sister)

(me with one of the three blankets my mom made me)

2009-10-24T11:15:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures of my belly through out the last couple of weeks, It is crazy how it has gone from a little bump to a Belly, mostly in between months 5 and 6. I am now 24 Weeks and 2 days along and there is no denying that I have a baby belly now! Its nice to get past the "chubby stage":) Paul has also been able to feel the baby move from the outside of my belly so that is pretty awesome!

Baby Face

2009-10-08T10:29:00.000-07:00

As many of you know we found out we are having a baby GIRL three weeks ago, It was really fun to see her in the ultrasound! Everything is formed perfectly as far as we could see, so that was awesome! She still measures exact with her due date of Feb. 11, 2010! Here are a two of her first pictures :)

Here is her profile

Here is our little Goul picture, actually this is from the 3D ultrasound but the baby was really deep inside of me and it didn't work too well.

I have a few more, one of her hand and another one of her profile with her arm above her head, and of course the picture that show's she's a little girl, but I'm not going to put them on here.

We are really excited for our little girl to get here! 18 weeks left from today if I go to 40 weeks! :)

Jamin's mission farewell, Buying our first house, Fishlake, Having a baby, California and Camping, WOW!

2009-08-31T18:49:00.000-07:00

So the title pretty much explains the other major events that have taken place this summer. After we went to New York we came home and went up north to see Jamin give his farewell talk. He's now on his mission in Mexico!

(This is horrible picture of me but a cute picture of Jamin so I'll post it)

The next major thing was that we bought a house! We have been fixing it up and trying to move everything in!

(our new house)

After we moved we went on our annual friends trip to Fish Lake and as always it was beautiful and fun to be with good friends.

(Me and Paul at the lake)

This next big thing was actually here the whole summer but was a secret until the second week in August, the secret was that we are going to have a baby! I am 16 1/2 weeks pregnant and find out what we are having on Sept 17th!

(here's me at 14 weeks)

After we announced to all the Family, We took a family trip with Paul's Family to San Diego and L.A., it was alot of fun!

(Family Pictures on the beach in Oceanside)

To cap off our summer experiences we went Camping this last weekend at Pine valley with Kevin and Charity and their cute kids, then we went to the Enterprise corn festival and bought some fresh corn! We will be eating it for the next couple of weeks I'm sure. ;) Those are pretty much all of the major things we did this summer! Its been a busy, crazy and an exciting summer!

(sitting by the camp fire)

(me and Charity)

(our cute niece and nephew posing for their mom, I think they've got this picture thing down)

part two of our eastern trip

2009-08-29T23:15:00.000-07:00

the view from the top of the bunker hill monument in Boston

Us with Ben Franklin, who knew he was still around! (his breath was definately cryptic)

(bunker Hill Monument, yes we climbed that after walking the entire freedom trail, I was sore for days!)

(one of the many cemetarys in Boston)

(delicious Homemade icecream at christina's, my favorite was coconut butterfinger, yummy!)

Continuing on from my last post, here is what we did the rest of our trip back east. We hung out in Boston for Mothers day. The next day we went to New Hampshire and visited Paul's brother up there, we then went to Hampton, NH and saw the beach house that Paul's bro was helping fix up to live in, lucky for him! (me and Paul at David's work, the State House)

(dave looking across the ocean to England)

(me and Paul at Dave's Beach House, yes that is the ocean so close to our window)

the Atlantic Ocean

We spend the rest of our trip in Boston went to the Blue man group for our anniversary, that was fun! we walked the entire freedom trail and saw lots of historical sites.

we went to the aquarium,

We had such a awesome time on this trip!

The first of our summer adventures

2009-08-29T14:51:00.000-07:00

So this summer has been crazy and looking back on it we have done so much and experienced so many new things. I wanted to recap on all of the big things we did this summer since I didn't post them on here.
The first major thing we did this summer was take a trip back east. We flew into Buffalo New York, then drove to Kirtland, OH and saw the temple there and the visitors center, we drove into Cleveland, OH looking for a grocery store. Who know that kirtland was so close to Cleveland!

(us in front of the Kirtland Temple)

Next we drove to Rochester, NY where we stayed while we visited Palmyra, NY and the Joseph Smith Farm and the Sacred Grove, we got to see Paul's Mission President and his wife who are the directors over the Palmyra sites, we also ran into a friend of mine from high school who was serving her mission out there. It was the first day of her transfer there, how lucky! (me and Paul at the Joseph Smith farm with the Palmyra Temple in the backround)

(Paul in the Sacred Grove)

The next day we drove back to Buffalo, NY and then we went to Niagara Falls and got to ride the maid of the mist and walk around the beautiful park! (us in right before the maid of the Mist)
The Next day we flew from Buffalo, NY into New York City. It was such a shock to go from sweet peaceful Palmyra and Niagara Falls to the hussle and bussel of New York City. With the help of a very nice subway driver who obviously sinced we were lost and stuck his head out of the subway to ask where we wanted to go, we made our way to the heart of the city and then got lost trying to find our hotel, we finally found it and then went and waited in line for tickets to a Broadway play, we saw Phantom of the Opera that night.
The next day we met up with Paul's sister and Bro in law and they showed us all around NY, they took us to a place with friets (Belgian frys), which I still crave by the way, (they put a gravy on homemade fry's with cheese that melts on them, yum!) That is where we learned that nearly nowhere in NY city takes debit or cedit cards! That was a little embarassing. We went to central park, the manhattan temple, Ground zero, a delicious hamburger place, the brooklyn bridge, Grimaldi's (the yummiest brickoven pizza!) we then went to get frozen yogurt and then we left NY at like 1 in the morning to drive to Boston.

(us in Central Park)

(us at the Manhattan Temple)

(us on the Brooklyn bridge)

Renovations!

2009-08-17T17:45:00.000-07:00

So, as many of you know we have been moving into our house for the past three weeks now and we have painted our whole house, ripped up old linoleum, replaced door handles, cleaned out cabinets, and are about to re tile 1/3 of the house. It has been alot of work! I'm excited to see it all come together! So, along with those renovations it only seemed fair that we would have another drastic renovation, here is the picture of what we want to do.

In case you are still wondering what I mean by this, or are thinking what a stupid post! I will tell you that this will be a major life renovation and those feet definitely won't be twelve inches right off the bat (at least for my sake I hope not)! What I'm trying to say is that we are going to be parents in February!!! February 11th to be exact! This picture is how we broke the news to our parents. I saw a picture like this a while ago and always thought it was clever because it took me a few minutes to figure out. So if you are the one who posted that picture and I stole your clever idea, consider it a compliment! :) We are super excited and can't wait to find out what we are having! which should happen around the middle of September. So we will keep you posted!

Puppy Surprise

2009-04-20T21:52:00.001-07:00

On Sunday me and Paul went to his parents house with his Brother Adam for dinner. After dinner Adam went home and to his surprise someone had tied a little Chihuahua looking dog to his front door with a bag of puppy chow. He went around to all of the neighbors to see if they knew where it came from but no one had seen it before. The leash was from a Veterinarian office in Las Vegas, so who knows! It is the sweetest dog, Adam brought it over and it crawled on my lap and fell asleep. Seriously so cute! Here's a picture.

Today Adam came over again and Paul introduced it to the Kitty, I guess they got along well... ha ha I love how you can tell how the kitty wants to make a break for it in this picture. Who knows maybe they will be a future Milo and Otis... :)

The Beautiful Arts!

2009-04-17T23:43:00.000-07:00

So, I have been privileged the past two days to attend Paul's concerts for both Band and Choir. I really feel blessed to have him involved at school in both and that he is able to continue to develop his musical abilities.
All growing up I viewed band concerts as a torture that you only went for the sole purpose of supporting the person who was in the band. However, I have really come to love going to the college band concerts and look forward to the next one. The Concerts have found a place in me I guess. It will be a sad day when Paul is all done with them, hopefully he can find a local one to play in to keep up his skills.

(Soap Box/Aryn's Epifany...feel free to tune out)
I have decided however, that too many people let that part of them die when they move on from school. I have come to realize what a privilege it is to have Art museums, Band & Choir Concerts, Plays, Dance recitals, etc. in our communities. Having the arts around us really illuminates the beauty of the world that we live in! I've always been passionate about the arts but recently the resources around me have made my passion for them catch fire! So, I hope that everyone can realize that there is always an opportunity for us to attend something locally that will uplift us and awaken our inner artists!

Okay back to Paul's Concerts, His band concert was amazing! They performed eight songs and if you have the time, Click on this link to www.songza.com to listen to them yourself, I would recommend it! My favorites were Raging Machines composed by Brian Balmages ( this song intreged me), Four of a Kind composed by Jack Bullock, I couldn't find a recording of this that did it justice (this made me want to break out some swing dancing!), All those Endearing Young Charms composed by Simone Mantia (A classic! and the Trumpet Soloist got her decree from Burklee School of Music in Boston, MA, she was absolutely amazing! it was really beautiful!), Rhapsody in Blue (I'm sure you have all heard this one, but hearing it at a concert was just amazing! The Pianist that soloed was really talented! Totally perfect! How do they remember 10 minute or longer songs! I have a hard time remembering the top hand of hymns! :) They also premiered for the first time in the United States, (or so they told us) a new composition called Concerto for Timpani and Band This one wasn't my favorite but the drummer was super talented and the song was enjoyable. Now the dreaded conclusion, I have spent my whole life avoiding becoming a Band geek by never taking a band class, and now look at me I'm blogging about movements and composers! :)

Anyways, I guess I should save the rest of my thoughts for some future paper on honoring the Arts that only a teacher would take the time to read :), but I just wanted to share my excitement for my newly burning passion, and hope everyone finds something beautiful around them so they enjoy life a little more fully!

Recipe experiment... yay!!!

2009-03-31T20:25:00.001-07:00

So yesterday, I had the urge to make up a new recipe and take pictures along the way. So I looked for things in my fridge that I had, that I thought would go good together. I had asparagus, bacon (left over from our camping trip), frozen chicken, and cream cheese (left over from making Chicken Enchiladas) So I originally wanted to make asparagus with bacon wrapped around a few of them, but then decided to do them all together when I did a internet search for the ingredients, I found a few recipes for asparagus in chicken, wrapped in bacon. It sounded delicious, but I was missing some key ingredients so I decided to make it my own and forget about the recipe.
So my first step was to cook the asparagus in butter with fresh garlic, then after the asparagus got nice and green.

I pounded out the chicken, I put grated Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper, and Italian Seasoning on the inside of the chicken, then the asparagus and then some cream cheese.

I rolled it all up and wrapped it in bacon. Put them on a tin foiled pan and bake it at 375 for about 40 minutes. then on broil for the bacon for about 2 minutes.

It turned out totally delicious and it wasn't really that hard, the best part was that most of the bacon grease melted onto the pan and not all over the chicken, so even though this recipe was probably a weight watchers nightmare, it didn't seem greasy at all!

This recipe didn't take that long and looked totally gourmet. :)

For a side I decided to use the rest of the bacon (only one piece) and the asparagus. So I chopped up the asparagus cooked it with the bacon and a little water to steam it. Then I cooked about a cup of Macaroni noodles. After the water had dissolved out of the asparagus, I added a can of corn and browned it, then I mixed the macaroni, asparagus, bacon, and corn in a bowl, I cooled it down in the freezer and added a little mozzarella and Parmesan cheese and some zesty Italian salad dressing. It went well with the bacon, asparagus chicken. So it made for a great meal and it was fun experimenting!

First camping trip of the year!!

2009-03-28T19:54:00.000-07:00

So, this weekend me and Paul went camping for the first time this year! We went to Red Cliffs with our friends, Brian & Lindsey& their 7 month old baby, Mike, Brett and Janell. Mike, Brett and Janell didn't camp with us but came up for dinner. We ate dutch oven potatoes, Chicken and of course Smores. Everything was delicious and the weather wasn't too bad either, as long as we kept close to the fire, we were just fine and once we were in our tent we were really warm.
So we had a great time visiting with everyone for dinner. Sleeping in our tent was perfect and we were pretty comfortable. Brian and Lindsey were worried how there daughter would do on her first camping trip and she actually slept through the entire night and woke up happy!
In the morning we woke up to the voice of the Ranger, telling us that we couldn't camp next to the river because it was a flood plain and not even a camp site, who would have thought, we thought it was perfect. I guess last year there were "20 foot waves" crashing over the bridge by our campsite. :) So, I guess we are lucky that we got to the campsite late and didn't get kicked out last night. :) All in all, it was a fabulous trip and I'm looking forward to doing it a lot this summer. So if anyone wants to join us, give us a hollar! :)

California Trip

2009-01-06T13:21:00.000-08:00

(Katie on the Balcony of our Villa, on a clear day you would be able to see the Ocean but it was really foggy everyday we were down there!)

California Trip
So me and Paul went to California a couple of weeks ago for New Years and to visit Paul's Grandpa. We went with my Sister in Law Kim and her Husband Brian, there two Children Katie and Brogan, My sister in Law Laura and her hubby Jared, Paul's parents and Paul's Brother Jon.
The Trip was a lot of fun! Lucky for us Brian works for Marriott and got to go to the Newport Coast villas and stay for free and we got to go with them.

The First night down there me and Paul went exploring at the resort, we found the Ping pong tables and Giant Chess Set, the Pools and Hot tubs and then we played Basketball on there outside court, then we played Miniature golf on there mini putting green. They also had a big Fire pit going that people were sitting around. It was really fun to have all of these things right at our resort.

After that we went back to our villa which included a full kitchen, dinning room, front room, , two bedrooms, two bathrooms one of which had a jacuzzi tub and a walk in double headed Shower, and two balconies! Me and Paul found something on the back of our bedroom closet door that said this room goes for $800 a night! wow! I'm sure thankful Brian works for Marriott!(here is our Villa, This was taken on the last day, so everything is messy, should have taken pic's after house keeping :))

The second day we entered into an Iron Chief Competition at the Resort. The secret ingredient was Water Chestnuts. So we went to the store and got the other ingredients and had to rush back to the Villa to make everything in 1 hour. So me, Laura, Jared and Paul made a dish and Kim and Brian made another one. We made a Chicken Alfredo with broccoli, Carrots, Water Chestnuts, Garlic, Ginger, Mushrooms, Onions, and Chicken and put it over egg noodles. It turned out pretty good! Laura came up with the idea from a recipe she made in her crock pot! good thinking Laura! Kim and Brian made a Asian Style salad with Water chestnuts and Chinese crunchy noodles on top. Theirs was delicious and won first place for Taste! They won a Marriott mug. Katie thought it was pretty exciting! :) So that was a lot of fun!
(Here is our creation!)

We went shopping a lot while we were down there and of course I came to a Victoria Secret Store where all of their fragrance and makeup was 75% off! So, needless to say I spend money on things that smell delicious but I don't really need.

On new years day we went to Paul's grandpa's Home where he is staying in Laguna Beach. We visited with Paul's family, uncle Don and Aunt Susan, there children were visiting from Pennsylvania - Savanna and her husband, and Iowa - Channelle and her Husband. and Aunt Gwen and Uncle Jay, and there Children Talon and Ali and her husband and two kids. They were visiting from Temucula, CA and up by San Francisco. Uncle Jimmy was there as well as his Son Mike and his Girlfriend Sue. (I hope I got all of those names right) anyways, after playing the Chimes at Grandpa's Home we all went out to eat and enjoyed a nice dinner visiting one another.(all the Men & boys with mustaches and Berets)

(Santa (Jay) came to visit Grandpa, sorry its so blurry)

The next day we went to the beach and walked around a little before heading for home.

(a panoramic view of Laguna Beach)(Another picture of the Beach, I love the beach! I think I could be happy being a beach bum, it is just so beautiful and relaxing!)

(The city portion of Laguna Beach, in Panoramic view)

(Kim and Brian, Katie and Brogan on the beach, What a lovely Family)

The whole trip was a lot of fun, I enjoyed spending time with Paul and his family and appreciate all that they did to help us have such a great time.

Christmas Time!

(here is a Christmas Card Paul designed and created for us, but we didn't get around to sending it out, But I thought it was pretty cool looking so I thought I would post it)

For Christmas we stayed here and had our own Christmas morning, then went to Paul's Brother Adam and his wife Dominique's house for Christmas with Paul's family. As always we had the usual funny gifts and of course the nice ones. I love Paul's Family Christmas because there is always some gift that makes me laugh into tears! This year it had to be the old Reindeer hoof that Dori lovingly wrapped in a brown paper bag and gave to Dale with a label that said, To Dale. love, Rudolf. I guess this hoof has been circulating throughout Paul's Family for a while and I don't really know the whole story or inside joke behind it but the shear randomness of the gift made me laugh until I cried!

(Paul on Christmas)(Me and Paul after a very, very long and wonderful Christmas Day!)

(our annual Friend Christmas party, Alan, Eric, Kim, Steve, Teigan, Brian, Lindsey, Halie, Mike and me and Paul all showed up and we had a good time, we were sad not everyone could make it, maybe next year)

Christmas was wonderful and as always it was over before far too soon. Of course if you look at the weight I gained from all the goodies, it lasted long enough! That's the blessing of New years resolutions! I'm focused this year to keep my goals and continuously set new ones. I think this year is going to be a year to remember! :) At least I'm going to try to make the most of it!

Christmas Background

2008-12-17T19:27:00.000-08:00

Oh Man! I was trying to be clever and design my own background for here and edit the HTML myself, but it turns out I'm not that good at programming a blog. However, I did spend time creating a cute background for christmas. Okay, now looking at it its not that cute, but hey its Christmas related and I did it on adobe Illustrator so woo hoo! So, I won't waste my efforts and I will still post my Christmas background, even though the candy canes are really pixelated on here! darn! better luck next time!

Holiday Fun!!!

2008-12-02T11:22:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving!
The week before Thanksgiving we went up to Salt Lake City, for my cousin Jared's wedding to Janaca and also to have a pre-thanksgiving feast with my family. All nine of the children were home with our spouses, that doesn't happen very often, so it was fun. The Wedding was beautiful, they make such a cute husband and wife. The Thanksgiving dinner with all the Family was great, delicous as always and a lot of fun!
For the actual Thanksgiving Holiday me and Paul went to Adam and Dominique's house (his brother and sister-in-law) for a feast with his family, I got the privilege of making Pies for the dinner. So I went all out and made everything, minus the cherry sauce from scratch, it was alot of work but fun. I got to make a chocolate moose cream pie, a banana cream pie, cherry, and Apple. Other then my pies, my bro-in-law brian made a delicous butternut squash and banana pie! All the food was delicious as always! We played Rock Band afterwards and had a really fun time!

Black Friday
So on the friday after Thanksgiving, my sister wanted to go to walmart for the sales, Me being the angel sister that I am, :) agreed to go with her. So, after going to bed at 2, I woke up at 4:30 to go fight through a mosh pit of tired and crazed shoppers! We were about 8 minutes late, and I'm glad for that! We missed the initial stampeed, but still got what we went there for. My sister go most of her Christmas shopping done all in one visit! I got a few things, mostly, to me from me gifts! Like a blender, food chopper, towels, food stroage containers, and sweatshirts for me and paul. The shopping trip was fun, and helped get me in the christmas spirit. After the trip to walmart, I went to sleep and didn't wake up until 2:30 in the afternoon, I don't think I've ever slept that late! We'll have to see if i'm up to black friday again next year!

Christmas Tree Hunting Fun!
The saturday after Thanksgiving I went with my sister Charity and her family to go get a christmas tree. We went on the very top of cedar mountain to find one. I found a beautiful tree fairly soon! That was awesome! This years experience was much easier then last year's.
Last year, me and paul went up to Cedar mountain the week before christmas and there was about four feet of snow to walk through! To make matters worse, it was getting dark when we got on the mountain to go look for a tree, and then we heard wolves howling! After all this, we didn't even get a tree! haha it was quite the experience! and we still joke about things that happened that day, on pretty much a daily basis! So, in a way this years trip wasn't quite as memorable, but definately easier and a lot of fun!

Birthday pictures

2008-10-19T20:28:00.000-07:00

Josiah, Charity, Sammy and me

Here is the cake Charity made me

Me and Paul

Here is the teeter totter at that cool park, you can see some of the other unconventional toys in the background. Its a pretty neat park.

Birthdays!

2008-10-19T19:30:00.000-07:00

My Birthday was in August and Paul's was in September. So these pictures are a little late but better late then never I guess. So, for Paul's birthday I cooked him dinner, we went out to ice cream and I made him a cake. This cake took two jars of frosting to make, because it was double layered and I frosted the top then it crumbled so instead of leaving it in bits I decided to use the frosting as glue, I frosted up the cracks then flipped it over and frosted the other side, It was way too sweet! We both ate a small piece, then we had it in our fridge for like a month before we finally threw it away because it was just too much frosting to take. But I got good pictures of it and you would never be able to tell!

For my birthday in August me and Paul went to dinner, but we don't have any pictures of my actual birthday, however, the day after my birthday my sister threw a party for me. She made me an amazing cake, it was chocolate with cherries and whip cream on it, and she made everything minus the chocolate from scratch, I know.. How domestic! but the best part was that the she didn't put in all the sugar that a normal cake has. So it was just sweet enough but not overpowering and I didn't gain five pounds from eating it! So that is always a plus! Also, as part of my party my sister and her family took me and Paul to a surprise location, She code named it "twisted metal" me and Paul were a little worried what "twisted metal" could be, but it turned out to be a really cool new park in town. The concept of centrifugal force is implemented into all the toys so there is a teeter totter made for grown ups that is like a judges scale and one person sits on each side. I'll put a picture of it on here. There are also these "twisted" metal things that you can climb inside of and your body weight spins you around, there are so many other cool toys, not to mention that you can enter the park through a hole in the rock climbing wall that goes onto a rope bridge and leads to an amazingly tall slide. So, to sum it up my birthday and Paul's birthday were awesome!

Sewing Fun!

2008-10-17T15:05:00.000-07:00

So, about two months ago I found out that the Wal-mart in Bloomington has a huge selection of fabrics for $1, so I went a little crazy and bought 20 yards... the first time, then I went back and bought 8 more, I had some grand Ideas of what to do with all of it and so far my plans are falling into action! :)
I started with a couch cover, the original couch covering is mustard yellow and has survived Paul's family of eight kids, two parents and a cat, not to mention that it has sat countless buns of friends and other family members, and yes even mine before I was a member of the Tharp clan. So, needless to say it needed a face lift, so I took the measurments, drew up the pattern on a piece of paper, started cutting, pinning a sewing and soon it was done! Well almost, I need to sew two more sides, but it is presentable. So that was my first grand project and it only cost me $8 to make!

Paul & Aryn Tharp

2008-08-21T22:28:00.000-07:00

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