I wanted to make something "Love-ish"this Valentines Day because...
I LOVE love.
I especially love
our Savior Jesus Christ
My Family
You
&
our Latter-Day Prophets
So here is a little video I put together today to sum that all up and to share my hope and desire to grow in love and testimony.
Lets fill the whole world with love!!!
Love you!!!!
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
So we are so excited to announce that baby number 3 will join our family this July!
We are so happy.
I have been soooo sick.
Now I am finally starting to feel better and thus determined to update the blog.
The couch has been my best friend the last few months, and food has not. I have been happy to complete a few projects with the baby creating my body has been working hard at. It sure is a miracle. My Man has been a champ, getting us through the holidays with his cooking, cleaning, and endless laundry. I am so blessed to have him:) It has also been really neat to see our Sabrina step up and help with things. She is so excited too...and she is sure it's a girl. We'll find out in two weeks.
Here is how Sabrina has looked for the last few weeks (we whipped this together during an afternoon, she has been obsessed since she saw my brother perform as Captain Hook in his high school production)
Did I mention My Man is the Bread-winner and Bread-maker!!! He makes THE BEST homemade bread almost every week...and we love it. He even uses our wheat grinder for fresh wheat flour! We have a few favorite recipes.
My other creations have mainly included toddler entertainment devices, such as gallon bags filled with paint -duct-taped to the floor, and piles of shaving cream with food coloring...and lots of muffins and banana bread (Binna LOVES to make those!)
I know there was more...but I can't remember right now...but we are in the process of creating a very organized house so maybe I will post some before/after pictures...maybe :)
My cousin and I have a tradition of making a wreath for Festival of Trees. My wonderful sister in law Angie and niece Meg joined us this year and this is what we have so far. We are doing two this year because we had a lot of supplies.
This one will have a garland, some gifts, and some caroling minions with it too:) More pics to come. And go the the Festival of Festival of Trees if you can! It is so fun!
We are going to make some for ourselves next year:) Come join us! (Just shop 90% after Christmas and these wreaths come out to be about $10 each)
I got to help carry out my cousin's "Skype" baby shower. Here is what my Aunt Chrissy (whom I love dearly) and my 2nd Mom (also much beloved) came up with:)
Silver, pink, and white color scheme
My 2nd Mom's AMAZING taco soup recipe
Babies breath centerpieces with balloons up top
My cousins Alycia and Kyle Skyped the whole time (they are in Arizona and this is their first baby) and it was so much fun! We opened the presents in front of the camera:)
Baby quotes all around
Pineapple sherbet with raspberries
With my Box Troll winnings I promised my Heavenly Father
I would do good and help build up His kingdom.
So...I began with buying a special computer that makes it possible for me to make something to contribute to the work....Family History videos. My Man and I made one for the BYU Former Student Officer Society to Honor our Alumni Anne Snow-The Student Body Secretary from 1948. I was deeply touched by her example and influence and can't wait to begin my Grandparent's and Great-Grandparents life stories! (you can see the video here:) Anne Snow
I am also excited to make other videos for fun...here is my first(and rough) stop-motion video.
I made it to apologize to My Man for my grumpiness on Saturday afternoon. (He LOVES the song the video is done too...so that made it more sentimental...as sentimental as a potato can be...haha...My Man is quick to forgive, which is such a blessing)
And Madsen and I made this one today while he is having a sleepover. He was so proud.
My niece made this entire thing all by herself!!!!!! Isn't she great!!!
I mentioned in my last post how I am trying to "create" something to go with every talk from last General Conference to help me remember the words of our living prophets.
It is really helping me a lot (I consider my self very Dory-ish...aka...short memory)
Elder Nelson's talk was inspiring and how I love our Living Prophet! I know he is a prophet of God. I know that the Lord directs all he teaches. Here was my favorite parts of the talk which I created into a poster to help me remember. And here is his talk Elder Nelson Oct. 2014
My birthday was on Friday(Halloween) andMy Man made it incredible. I got 2, yes TWO birthday dates. One on Wednesday, one on Thursday. The first was a lovely dinner to Olive Garden, the second was a marvelous replica of a date I cancelled on him 5 years ago that we never got to have. He created an entire picnic, took me to a park, and had invented the most fun game using clay, paper plates, watercolors, and poetry to remind us of what we love so much about each other. We watched the sunset as we ate chocolate pie in a park on possibly the last "warm-enough-to-picnic" day of the year.
It was heavenly. Pictures couldn't do it justice.
My Man made me this for my birthday from scratch! It isn't quite done but I am ever so impressed :)
He made me this birthday cake too!! (it is a tradition that we always make each other a fun cake:)
Sabrina and I created lots, and lots, and lots of tearsthis week....and let me emphasize the "I" in that sentence. Having two toddlers can be very overwhelming. However, despite the struggles this week, my sweet daughter helped me take some real good inventory of who I am and who I want to become as a mother and a disciple. My newest (and most complex) creative project is going to be finding out exactly what the Lord needs me to do to help my child who is bright, determined and talented. I am excited to rely on Him more, and see what He has in store for us to create to help her.
Sabrina and I took some much needed time for just the two of us and painted this together while listening to a conference talk (to help me unwind a bit:). She did all the leaves:)
MamaT commented on our Box Troll post just a little bit back about making her own family of Box Trolls for Halloween. She and I corresponded a bit and look what she came up with!!!! Doesn't her family look amazing! Each of their characters match up with one from the show! Their family always coordinates their costumes. They.are.awesome.
Almost my whole family came to our house for my birthday. It was wonderfully wonderful. My dad even wore a Halloween costume!!!!I love them...very, very, very much.
General Conference Painting
I am a very visual
hands/on learner so I decided I am going to "create" something to help
me remember each apostle's talk from this last General Conference. Here
is my first creation. Elder Scott spoke of 4 Habits that I really want
to work to develop well. Take a few minutes to listen to his wonderful talk here: Elder Scott's Talk on 4 Habits
Some other fun things we made this week:
Bone Breadsticks
Name skeletons
(all the ribs are our names, paper folded in half and cut out on the fold:) Got the idea from my Sister-in-law Tara :)
We are all pretty tired around here! My favorite part of our day so far was watching Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, going on a short bike ride with my bike trailer hooked up, and roasting marshmallows out back:)
Here are some of last week's creationistic happenings and some thoughts.
Finished Halloween costumes... Eli's was inspired by a picture my amazing Sister in Law Lindsay sent me. He got to show it to his cousins at our super fun family Halloween party. Our own Stay Puft Marshmallow man. His cousins hugged and hugged his squishiness.
He loves it because he can do a belly flop on the ground in it...he is ALL boy:)
It was really fun to make...oh, except for the part when I broke the zipper, sewed on a new one...backwards...broke it...fixed it...re-sewed it...and made the whole costume just a little too snug(My Man and I have to work together to get it on him...good thing it only has to last until the end of the week:) Don't mind the black eye he got falling over the vacuum right before we left for the party :(
Our princess:)
My Man and I opted to be pirates this year:) Argh...picture coming later this week:)
My mother in law and I (and My Man of course) took on the task of making a horse corral, some horses--super easy DIY!!, and a bunch of other howdy-doodies for a shin-dig she had for a Church dinner. Here is what we ended up with. Isn't she so creative?! We kinda REALLY love making things together. I'll do a post someday on all of the things we have made (our poor blessed husbands.)
Our Corral...92 feet of cardboard fence and an 11 foot sign. (all cardboard, paint and tape....I love cardboard!!)
My mother-in-law's incredible flower arranging talents
These ride-on horses were so easy and were only $2.50 (each) to make.
Just send me a notey if you want more info.
My wonderful 2nd parents:)
Cowgirl/Cowboy IBC Rootbeer
KUTV :We had the opportunity, thanks to all of our wonderful friends
and family, to be on Channel 2 News for the Box Troll contest. Here are
my thoughts. It was a neat, new, and very welcoming
experience...however...I was reminded quite strongly that my favorite
thing to be doing and investing in is being a mom and wife. As we got
ready to go, both kids were crying the entire morning, especially
Sabrina, who did not want to go. My Man was off work that day and we
could have used some good quality play outside-read a book-snuggle on
the couch-just play pretend-family time due to the craziness of the last
few weeks...but instead the craziness continued and we spent most of
the day away from our baby, trying to keep Sabrina from having a fit in
the KUTV studio. She was a trooper, and all the people there were so
kind, but I don't need to do that again any time soon.
Our cousins are having a baby girl and live far away so we are doing a Skype shower and are going to mail them the gifts. Here is the invitation I made. We are so excited for them!! ( I took out the address just in case you were thinking of coming...haha)
Let it be know that in the process of creation craziness around here a great monster has also been created. The laundry pile monster...I think this is our biggest monster yet. It is a wonderful tornado of clean, dirty, too big, too small, and other misc. clothing items...slightly overwhelming, good thing My Man isn't afraid of helping out!
And the kids are happy...at least in the picture. I kinda want to cry when I look at it.
My Man in I are leading our Church choir for the Christmas program (haha...we are learning a LOT with this one.) We are singing a song by my dear friend Becca's mom Shawna Edwards. It. is. BEAUTIFUL. Take a second to listen to it. It inspires me every time I hear it to look at my heart and my life and re-focus it on my Redeemer.
Well, we made a nice little fire and roasted marshmallows for our family night tonight, and we just created a much cleaner house (minus the laundry which we hid in large black bags in the storage room for tomorrow:) Happy Monday...time for bed.
So one of my favorite things about creating is being able to do it with someone. I have a passion for teaching about how fun making things can be!
My neice is an incredibly talented girl and somehow became the victim of one of my crazy projects. The two of us have so much fun together. She and I entered a local Scarecrow contest and stayed up late making these together.
It was way fun. She learned to sew and I learned that her talents know no bounds! Isn't she darling?
So if you want to vote for her minions just email the number "6" to syrwarrens@qwestoffice.net :)
Since Sabrina opted out of being a Boxtroll for Halloween...she is a princess instead.
My sister and I have always wanted to make an 1800's dress....so I did a little test run yesterday for Sabrina:)
Total cost $2.50 (hand me down dress meets roll of fabric from DI). Guess we will have to make some for us! Anyone want to join us?
