Wednesday, March 31, 2010

I'm now officially a HOME-MAKER!!

A few years ago I was able to go out west and had the opportunity to stay for two days with my dear friend Addy Cagle. The Cagles were living with Addy's family at the time and so I had the opportunity to meet her family and stay in their home. They were so welcoming. One of my favorite things about their home was all the amazing paintings they had of scenes from Christ's life. Every room I went in touched me in some way because of spirit their art evoked. Ever since my trip there one of my biggest temporal wants (LOL) have been to have paintings like this in my home. HOWEVER, since in no way can we afford anything that luxurious at this time I decided to get a little creative! Here is what I did...

Some time ago we were lucky enough to get a Greg Olsen calendar for free through the church. I don't really remember how, I think he donated a bunch of box loads. Anyway, we didn't actually use the calendar and I didn't want to thow it away because he has some really beautiful work. Since moving, our place has some pretty bare walls - we have just never had this much space before!! So I finally decided to do something with the calendar. I took it completely apart and picked some of my favorites out of the paintings. This is one of them...

The size was a little too big for an 8x10 so I bought a fairly inexpensive document frame 10x13 matted with an 8.5x11 opening. I just think that these look WAY better and more professional when matted. I don't usually like to go too cheap on frames because they generally fall apart pretty easily but these seemed to work out fine. They were six dollars at WalMart (where I usually don't like to go, unless absolutely necessary!).


Inserted the "painting." And, I was so surprised at how amazing it turned out. I mean, in no way does it compare to the Huge immaculate slash wonderful paintings that the Holladays have, but for our small budget I think it's A plus. :)


I did two more and hung them over our cubes. To hang them I actually used the new 3M Command picture hanging strips and I have to say, I was a little hesitant but they do work really well! This is what it now looks like....


This one is a litte bit more of a close-up. It looks as if the one to the right is smaller than the other two, but they are actually all the same size.


I have to say that for $18 dollars plus tax this little project turned out better than I expected AND I get a little bit of the feeling that I have some beautiful paintings of Christ in my home. Maybe one day I can upgrade haha, but for now I can be more than happy with this!

Thanks to the Holladay family, again, for their hospitality AND for displaying some of the most spiritual yet stunning pieces of art I've ever seen.

I'm pretty sure this counts as a tutorial, so now when people ask me my job... I can say homemaker!! :)

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Oh, How the Times Change

And SO quickly too! Our little boy is growing up so fast that I can’t even keep up. It’s like he literally learns 1,000 new things a day. His vocabulary and his speech are different and better everyday…

Now, I know that he is not special in this and that it just happens… I mean, I studied Child Development in college so in no way am I really surprised at many of the things he can do and how fast he learns. I guess it’s just that no matter how much you know about children and development, when you become a parent you really get a whole different perspective. Do I know that children are sponges and they pick up things and learn everything incredibly fast? Yea but, I am STILL surprised when I see Avery doing something that I only showed him once. … absolutely!

Guys, I know I am just UH-mazed, because this is my child… so, pardon me for tooting my babies horn LOL but I can’t help it!! Plus, some of his grandmas have been asking about all the things he can do now

Here are some of the things that Avery has done recently that may not be all that special, but they were big in my book!!
~ Just a few weeks ago he didn’t want anything over him when he went to sleep – now he asks for a blanket: “bankie, bankie, bankie” : )
~ When we are going off, he goes to the driver side door and says “mama, mama” then to the back door and says “bebe, bebe”
~ He can tell me what the dog, the sheep, the cow, the fish, the cat and Lady GaGa says…. he can say a few colors: orange, blue, yellow, brown, red, and pink
~ He knows the members of our family – including some extended family and he can look at a picture of a different family and tell who the mommy, daddy and baby are.
~ He can blow his nose : )
~ And for a while now he’s known all of his body parts

AND last but not least – I think I am going to try and start potty training him as SOON as he hits 18 months because 1) he knows when he is going, he points to himself and tells me; and 2) when he’s in the bathroom he goes to the toilet, points inside and says “pee, pee”

Anyone got any tips on how to make it a smooth and relatively quick transition?
Here are some recent pictures of our little guy!

I feel like he looks so grown up in this one

I don't think it gets much goofier than that...

We took a trip to the beach this past Friday and Avery LOVED it!! The water was SO cold, but it didn't really seem to phase him...

After just a few waves, our feet were buried - Avery had sand up to his shins!!

Every time a wave would come he'd stick out his tongue and scream!

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Little bit of Everything

So first I wanna start off by saying this was my first season watching the Bachelor. Jake picked Vienna in the end.... I keep having to say it to believe it. It's not my place to judge Vienna; I don't truly know what kind of person she is. And who knows what Jake really felt toward either of the girls... Maybe it was just a more special feeling with Vienna. All I wanna say is how she was portrayed (either by her own doing or by ABC's, I don't know) was not a person that seemed ready for something long term and just a little immature. I felt as if the only reason he didn't feel the same thing for Tenley was because she wasn't all over him everytime they were together. There is NO difference between physical and sexual chemistry. Tenley deserves better.
Another thing I want to say is that I am SO glad that Ali is the next Bachelorette, although I thought it should be Ella, I do feel like Ali deserves it. I think if she hadn't gone home, she would have ended up being the one with the ring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In terms of how we are doing here in Celebration, FL things are going about as well as they can be. I am not working, but I have started babysitting for a family here in Celebration. They are really nice, quirky organic people and they have two kids - a 3.5yr old girl and a 2yr old boy. So, I am putting my very expensive education to good use! I am planning to look for a pre-k position maybe during the summer, but I guess all that depends on a few different variables. I do LOVE being at home though. I have been trying to work on several different crafts to sell at a boutique shop owned by a friend of a family member. I will be meeting with her here in a couple weeks, and I am a little worried because Avery is at the age where if I am doing something besides giving him my attention he cries for me. SO, I can only work on things when he's sleeping. Plus, my sewing machine does not always like to cooperate with me...
Alex has finally started working at Marriott, once he got offered the job we ended up having to wait like three weeks before he started. Yesterday was his first day and today he starts his regular schedule of working late nights; we are looking at him being gone almost 60hrs week between his two jobs and school. We will miss him!!
The one thing that I really wanna share though is about some really great blessings that we have recieved.
I was asked to be a part of the Women at the Well for our Relief Society birthday celebration coming up here in a week. I never really got into Reflief Society functions back home; I have to say that I didn't really feel comfortable there. Let me explain: I converted to the church right before my 18th birthday, so I wasn't ever really in Young Womens and I was almost immediately called to the Primary, so I didn't make a home in the RS and I always felt like the youngest person in the room. To be honest, I still feel a little like that but I am so excited to be a part of this and I feel like it will be a great opportunity for me to start feeling a little more at home in the Relief Society.
I have already been given a calling. I will be assisting with the activity days for the girls age 8-10. This is an age group that I'm not really experienced with and I am glad that I will be getting to know some great girls and also learning a lot for myself as well. Wish me luck!
Some of my favorite testimonies are ones that have inspired me. I find myself in the same situation as some of those sisters that have touched my heart. Since we moved we have barely been making it because of Alex not starting at work till yesterday; of course he had no control over it but we just didn't know how we were going to pay these bills that we were going to have for two months. We are so greatful that our parents could help us but certainly we couldn't keep asking them for money when we know they are struggling too. We got a bill for our car insurance and we just didn't know how we were going to come up with 221 dollars by the 1st of March. We'd been praying for help but we still couldn't find a way to come up with the money. Yesterday, the bill was due. Alex walks in with the mail and shows me something we'd recieved from our previous insurer from Georiga. A check for 278 dollars. There is no other way to explain it except that Heavenly Father was there when we needed Him most. Listening to testimonies of faith and paying tithing have strengthened my testimony of these things and my family has blessings to show for it.