our weekend

We had a fun Easter weekend. Aaron hasn't had to travel in a month, it has been so nice to have him home!

Our neighbors Martel and Ardie Adams put on a neighborhood BBQ and Rodeo every year at their house. They have a corral and a huge backyard right in the middle of Chandler, it's really cool. The kids look forward to it every year.

Paige wore her favorite purple horse shirt and her new hat. I swear she would wear that shirt everyday if I let her...

Last night

Last night, the girls performed on DWTS. All I can say is that I really want a girl to win this year. They did really well last night. Here's my 2 cents:

Pricilla Presley- I was not expecting too much from her but she was elegant and did a great job.
Marlee- she was so inspirational...great job!
Shannon- She's good. Lucky for her, she has Derek for a partner. I'm telling you...he and Julianne can choreograph like no one else on that show.
Marissa- The Broadway Hairspray girl- she was happy and having so much fun.
Monica- Poor Monica. That girl can play some serious tennis but bless her heart, she can't dance. I feel bad, maybe she can get better...

My pick for this year is...

Kristy Yamguchi. And since Sabrina and Mark got shafted last year, I would like to see him win, too.That's all for now!

Paige has a crush on Derek Hough. She says he looks like Luke Skywalker...I always had a thing for Han Solo but that's just me :)

DWTS is back

The guys danced last night and the girls dance tonight. Here are my thoughts:

Jason Taylor- He's my favorite of the guys. I was surprised at how well he did. Mario did well too.
Adam Corolla might be the dark horse this year. He's got a fan base and he's got Julianne as his partner. Penn Jilette was fun to watch. He's not the best dancer but he was having fun and not taking himself too seriously, I liked that.

The girls are on tonight. I can't wait to see how Kristy Yamaguchi and Monica Seles dance. They both have a competitive drive and most likely an awesome work ethic...it'll be interesting! I'm kind of hoping a girl wins this year!

buried treasure

Our old computer was having some problems. I thought some of my earliest digital pictures were long gone. Last week, I fired the old thing up just to make sure and guess what?!

I found my pictures!

It was really like finding a buried treasure. Pictures that I had completely forgotten about are now found. I also found some priceless pictures I took of the kids with my Grandpa and some from his 80th birthday...it made my week!

So I thought I would share a couple. I know I've said this before but dang! Paige and Heston look so much alike!

I can't leave little Heston out, here's a picture I took this week of him. He's almost 19 months old and in Nursery now.

some Easter humor

1984 flashback

I just realized that I haven't blogged about Project Runway in a while. Are you still watching?! I'm so happy that Rami and Jillian are in the finals. I'm sad that this show is ending but we'll have Dancing with the Stars back.

I went into Braden's classroom to get some homework and Miss Bledsoe handed me this book. I said out loud, "Oh my gosh, I'm having a serious flashback!" Does anyone else when you see this?

I am such a nerd to take a picture of this but I thought it might be fun to take a trip down memory lane.

my dollar store find

I made this little book for Allison, she was one of my Achievement day girls and she's babysitting the kids tonight. I called her yesterday ( short notice) and not only did she say yes but she said, "I'd love to." How adorable is that?! She's a sweetheart.

I got this little 6x6 album at the dollar store last summer. I just used some paper from my stash, stamped a few of the pages so she could journal, tied on some ribbon and that's it! I used my Cricut (Base Camp) to cut out her name. The little dot on the "i" I've had in my stash for a while, it worked out great.

Just wanted to share this with you in case you're looking for a gift idea or want to make one for yourself. I'm always on the lookout for fun, easy and fast projects. I've been on a crafty roll the past 2 days...Aaron's home from China so he can help with the kids. yeah!

layout for today

Just wanted to share a layout I did today. It's nice to sit down (even for just 10 minutes) and do something creative. Enjoy your weekend!

Grandpa

My Grandpa passed away on February 16th. He was 84 and he was having heart problems for the past few years. He died very peacefully at home. Grandma asked Braden to speak at the funeral and he did a great job...Pa would have loved it!
He was a great man and I'm going to miss him.
http://www.vernal.com/pages/full_story?article-Robert-Gray%20=&page_label=news_obituaries&id=19848-Robert-Gray&widget=push&instance=1st_left&open=&

Valentine's Day projects

Hi there-
Just wanted to share a little accordian album I put together for Valentine's day. I'm going to include the little notes and Valentine's from the kids on the back. Just a fun little happy project...

Last week for Family Home Evening, we put together some "Love Sacks" for each person in our family. We've been writing notes and kind things this week to each other and putting them in each other's sacks. A simple thing that I think will become a new Valentine tradition for us.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I love you Aaron :)

Friday

I haven't added pictures of us to the ol'blog lately, thought I would do that today. Braden is at the stage where he
tries to be cool and makes a face in every picture. He takes his role as the big brother seriously, he's a huge help to me. Little Heston is growing up fast. His new nickname is Bamm-Bamm. Instead of a club, it's a plastic lightsaber. He'll hand you a lightsaber, then he'll grab his and start making the sound effects. He doesn't say much but I'm sure he'll make up for it down the road. He still likes to cuddle with me, I love that.
Then there's our little Paigey, right there in the middle to shake things up. She gets as excited about doing crafts as I do. She comes up with some pretty cool ideas! Ok, mommy brag session is over.

I wish I could share some of this nice sunshine with you. This is the best I can do, enjoy your day!

President Hinckley

Like many of you, I'm going to miss this man. What a great example he was to so many people.

I bawled my eyes out the first time I saw this picture and it was the first image that came to my mind when I heard the news of his passing. He will be missed...

the blues

It's Thursday and time for a recap of last night's Project Runway! Who doesn't love denim?! I was so excited about this challenge I could hardly stand it. I was ready for them to create some cool pieces and they didn't disappoint.

Chris' dress was ok. I really like his personality. My favorite part of the show was when Christian was whining and he said, "Give him a bottle and send him to bed." So true...

Rami puts together some really classy pieces. I loved the detail of the zippers and the button detail on this dress. I really liked it. I know he was running out of time but it made me really sad to see him design this great dress and then use a hot glue gun to attach the buttons.

Victorya's dress didn't have the "wow" factor and therefore she was eliminated.

This dress is my favorite of the night. Sweet P has done it again. It was looking "hippy, dippy" as Tim Gunn called it and then she cut the dress short and it looks awesome! Great job!

Jillian has some good ideas and she's still my favorite but last night, she kind of bombed. I liked the idea of the little red tabs on the shoulder but it just didn't turn out. She did the coat last week and then again this week...I'm just glad she didn't get the boot. Next is Ricky's dress. Cute dress. I was starting to lose interest in Ricky but with this dress he has redeemed himself. Christian designed jeans and a jacket. He is such a diva but he's talented. You can't tell in the picture but these jeans that he designed were cool and original.

Happy Thursday!

FYI

The new season of Trading Spaces with Paige Davis will be on Saturday at 10 pm on TLC!

don't sweat it

Back in 1998, I picked up a book that continues to open my eyes and is one of my all-time favorites.

This little book is just full of good stuff and it reminds me that I need to take a deep breath and to not "sweat the small stuff".

This last week, I was thinking back to when Aaron was in graduate school and I was working full time at NuSkin and Braden was just a baby. We didn't do day care so Aaron and I juggled Braden back and forth between our schedules, we never saw each other...it was the toughest year of my life thus far. I would read this chapter to keep some perspective in my life. I just wanted to share it with you...maybe it will help you as much as it has helped me.

Be Happy Where You Are

Sadly, many of us continually postpone our happiness-indefinitely. It's not that we consciously set out to do so, but that we keep convincing ourselves, "Someday I'll be happy." We tell ourselves we'll be happy when our bills are paid, when we get out of school, get our first job, a promotion. We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough- we'll be more content when they are. After that, we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, are able to go on a nice vacation, when we retire. And on and on and on!

Meanwhile, life keeps moving forward. The truth is, there's no better time to be happy than RIGHT NOW. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with challenges. It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway. One of my favorite quotes comes from Alfred D'Souza. He said:

"For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin-real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life." This perspective has helped me to see that there is no way to happiness, Happiness is the way.

thursday morning

i love thursday mornings. I have a routine: go to the gym, get the kids to school and then come home and watch Project Runway.

What is it about this show? I have to say one of my favorite parts is when they go to "Mood" to get fabrics.(Going shopping for fabric makes my heart happy) I've never been to New York but someday when I go, "Mood" will be the first place I want to go.

So Kit gets the boot, sad to see her go. I know the judges hated her dress but I liked it. That fabric is adorable. I love the trim but the thing about satin, it's very unforgiving. If it's not sewn well, it shows.

Chris and Christian did an awesome job. This dress is 45 yards

of fabric! Very original and they worked great together.

I also liked Sweet Ps little dress.

I'm pulling for Jillian, she did great this week too.

Wes, Ricci, Hunter and Gavin came down last weekend for a visit. I love having people come to visit, I miss having family around. We had fun and I ate way too much. They couldn't get enough of the sunshine. Yes, the summers here are pure hell but the winters are beautiful.

My dad had surgery Monday on his right shoulder...again. He had the surgery last spring and it was just healing up. He was working about a month ago and heard a 'pop'. He's home recovering and doing well. Mom is taking care of Dad and "holding down the fort" as she says. She's a trooper

Thanks to Casey and Alisha

Just want to say Thanks to Casey for the new blog banner she made for me! Casey is a next door neighbor/friend to my bf Amanda.

The picture on the right was taken back in 6th grade. Permed hair and some messed-up teeth...those were good times. I remember picking that shirt out at Christensen's (one of the only clothing stores in Vernal at the time) and when I found that pink pin to go with it, I was ready to go! The reason I'm posting it is because I'm in the process of scanning and fixing some of my old school pictures that I found at my parents house while we were home for Thanksgiving. I'm doing just a few pictures at a time, I don't want to overwhelm myself.

My Photoshop savvy sis-in-law Alisha is helping me fix a picture that I thought was ruined, I love technology. It was a newpaper clipping that my mom taped in my book with Scotch tape(that is a swear word to scrapbookers everywhere) and she did such a great job fixing it. I'm trying to learn Photoshop myself...there are so many cool things you can do. But for now, Casey and Alisha are hooking me up so Thanks!

Hello 2008!

Happy New Year! I still can't believe that it's 2008 already. We brought in the new year with Heston being sick :( I took him to the doctor yesterday and he has an ear infection in both ears. The doctor said he only had 1 ear infection last year so here's to hoping this will be the only one for this year.

Christmas was awesome and really low-key for us, it was nice. After Christmas, we've just been enjoying each other. There have been a couple of times when I've almost lost it because I'm not used to having the kids home all day (how do people homeschool?!) but honestly, we have had such a great vacation just hanging out and playing. Not rushing to a practice or being on their case to get homework done, it's been enjoyable.

family Christmas journal

If I don't post the pictures now, I probably won't get around to it. I've had this chipboard book sitting in my closet for 3 years so I just painted it with some green acrylic paint I had. I used my Cricut to cut the "H" and the star. Rubons are Daisy D's and the other stuff is Making Memories. I stamped our names on the cover but it didn't work. I will add that today.I added tabs on the side for each year (the book will hold 10 years of stuff) Simple and fun...we will write in it tomorrow. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I hope all of you have a really nice Christmas and create some great memories. Today, I've been creating a family Christmas journal. My thought is that we can start a tradition to write one page in it every year on Christmas Eve, maybe add some pictures or drawings and other things as well. I'm decorating the cover but I will share some pics with you later.





We don't exchange gifts with Aaron's brothers and sisters. Instead, we share scrapbook pages. We started this 7 years ago. We make 2 scrapbook pages and make copies for all the families. It's fun and I enjoy looking through the book at how fast our nieces and nephews are growing. Here's our scrapbook pages for this year:

The picture that Braden drew on our family page is a classic, I hope you can see it. He also wrote this poem.

Family by Braden Hammond

When I was 1 I cried and when I was 2 I cried

years passed I was 8

I was baptized and I was brave

years passed and I was 18

I went on my mission and I was sad I had to leave my family

but no more spankings for me.

Enjoy your Christmas!

Kevin, Jillian or Rami?

I'm having a hard time choosing my favorite on this year's season of Project Runway. I really like Chris March. He's got a great personality but I'm not crazy about his style. So for me, Kevin, Jillian and Rami are my favorites. Didn't you just love the trio they put together a couple of weeks ago?
I can't get enough of this show. It makes me want to break out my sewing machine and go to town. (I'm in the process of tweaking a vintage skirt pattern) I'll have to wait until after Christmas...

Christmas and traditions

One of our Christmas traditions is that we buy a Christmas book each year. I have the kids write their names and the year in the book. We enjoy reading these books throughout the month and I've also shared many of them for lessons at church during December.

The kids and I chose this one at Deseret Book:




This book is beautiful and it has little quotes and stories that go along with different themes. I found this quote from Linda and Richard Eyre in this book that I wanted to share with you.


"Traditions offer opportunites to create memories, share love, and build strong bonds between family members. They will not only help your family life be more peaceful and rewarding, they will also give your children memories they can draw on no matter where they go or who they grow up to be."

Hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season and creating lots of traditions with your families!