Escape from WA

Thanksgiving vacation was so wonderful and much needed! We traveled a lot but with good purpose getting to do lots of fun things! We left on Wednesday and were in airports/in the air for a total of 8 hours...enough to have just driven to Boise ourselves :S So apparently this is what Clay felt like having to wait forever!

Our flight to Portland was delayed for maintenance so somehow we hopped on another flight and saw that once we arrived, our original flight was canceled so luckily we made it! We arrived in Boise with our fan club greeting us as it was great seeing lots of my family already! Thanksgiving day wasn't too hectic actually. We had lunch at the church and us ladies did most of the cooking! It was my first time like really helping out with Thanksgiving dinner so I felt good for myself :) ha ha It turned out really well though and we had most of my family there.

I've missed this little girl! When I last saw her we were celebrating her 1st birthday and she hadn't started walking yet, but now she's running everywhere! Ah, I love her!!!

And what's Thanksgiving without a movie that night? OF course we had to go see NEW MOON!!! My brothers and dad even came to see it with us! I loved it and I'm thinking I'm team Jacob now. I decided that they need to do an alternate ending and change things with Bella choosing Jacob instead of Edward. I haven't read the 4th book yet, but that's what I want to happen.

Janelle and I hit up some stores Black Friday but not until 8:00. Target was insane! Lines were through every isle practically and same with Old Navy. We went to Wal-Mart instead and uh, there were NO lines! We didn't have much to get and everything we wanted was still there! So it was quite the successful shopping trip! Afterward we hurried home and got ready to do a session at the Temple! It was a beautiful experience! Later that afternoon we headed to Burley, and I ran over to see my friend who was getting married the next day! I miss my Harper sisters ;) So great to see them! Wish I had more time to see everyone else though.

Saturday morning we headed for Utah, saw the Joseph Smith video on Temple Square, met up with Clay's brothers for lunch at Buca di Beppo (awesome place!) and then headed back to T.S. to see Janelle and Tom perform with their Institute Choir in the Assembly Hall. We then went to the JAZZ game! We were literally like 5 rows down from the top but it was just fantastic nonetheless. I was super excited to finally wear my D Will jersey #8 baby, and see them win! Oh, it was just too cool.

One day if we ever end up in Utah, my dream is to have season tickets front row ;) So if any of you ever get rich enough, you can surprise me for my birthday or something. And of course you can't leave SLC without seeing the Christmas lights which had just turned on a few days prior! So beautiful!

Anyway, it was a great vacay and so great being with my family! Looks like everyone else's went well so now that it's almost Christmas...more stories to come!

This is totally Clay's world...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Thanksgiving Madness

Yay! I'm super excited to head to Idaho for Thanksgiving! We first were trying to surprise my parents showing up in Boise by saying Clay couldn't get enough days off of work, but somehow it leaked through the grapevine and they knew we were coming. So, I'm pumped for running around like mad, letting Clay relax, making Thanksgiving dinner, craft time with my seester, watching NEW MOON, getting up super early for Black Friday (my first time ever! so I figured it'd be best to do it with Janelley!), big family breakfast, do a Temple session, have family pictures, leaving Boise and heading to Burley for a night, seeing my friends, driving to Salt Lake, go to the JAZZ game, seeing the Christmas lights on Temple square, watching Janelle and Tom perform with their Institute choir for Music and the Spoken Word, and then finally flying out of Salt Lake to come back home! I'm so STOKED!!!

magnet board

So I finished another craft of mine :) I was wanting to do more to this one, but decided against it so I could use more things I have for other projects. This all started at this craft show my friend and I went to. There were a ton of great things but over priced and I could have bought a lot of the things, but thought, oh my heck, I could totally make that. So we saw these magnet boards and Alisa was wanting a big one for her kitchen and I wanted something similar to that so we decided to just make them ourselves! Well, we were just going to get big frames from the Goodwill and spray paint it and add the steel but everything was over priced there too so our hubbies were chillin' after work, waiting for us to get home for dinner so we just had dinner and then dragged them into helping us shop for everything. We ended up at Lowe's, getting 2x4's and the steel and everything else. Got back to our house and they cut everything out for us while we just sat back and watched. :) :) Anyway, it was quite a fun date night! Here's my ending product!

Christmas Crafts Sneak-Peek

Alright, here are some more projects I've been doing for super cheap. The "Joy" blocks were created, well, for me, and for a Relief Society craft night! The other day my friend and I went to a traveling chic boutique home show which features awesome vendors and you can check it out here. One vendor had a bunch of these blocks selling for around $15 or so and I kind of chuckled inside because I can make them for super cheap BUT I understand the price because hey, well that's just business and it does take your time and labor :)

Anyway, so just a quick tutorial...
All you need is an 8x2x4 that you can get for like $1 at Home Depot, cut that into the size of blocks you want (I usually do no taller than 7" and then just alternate the sizes), paint or spray paint for the block, scrapbook paper or material, mod podge, and di-cut letters! That's basically what you need to decorate it, but I cut, then sand all sides/edges, then paint and let dry, apply mod podge on front, place scrapbook paper down, then mod podge again ontop, put letter on, then mod podge the letter. I like to set it in front of a heater to dry quicker. Now you're basically done, other than the little decorations! I like to put ribbon around the blocks, add a flower or whatever here or there. For this Joy one, I got the snowflake at Michaels and just painted it and added glitter to it. That's it for that! These sometimes take a long time for me though because unfortunately I don't have a cricut (hopefully for Christmas :) so I just print out the letters on whatever paper I want and cut them out with scissors. SO, this next one took a lot of time cutting out all the numbers.

I did the same steps with the scrapbook paper and mod podge. I had to figure out how many numbers I needed to get all the countdown for 25 'til Christmas, so I had to use 3 blocks, so I just added that bulb cutout to show what it was. Clay put that little "stand" together real quick just so I could put the blocks in something. I added the ribbon around it (mod podge it) and then put more glitter. The ribbon on top is just for decoration purpose. Anyway, use your own creative mind to come up with your type of countdown blocks! There's plenty more projects coming ahead so stop by again!

Anniversary Weekend Getaway

We went to go whale watching, but unfortunately we didn't see any, but the cool thing with the company we went with is that they guarantee it, and since we didn't, we got vouchers to come back anytime for life! We just happened to be in the unlucky 10 tours that don't see whales for the whole season so hopefully next time! We did see some awesome wild animals though, gorgeous mansions on the islands, and a beautiful view out on the wild sea! Now I understand the meaning of getting sea sick! You know when you drive on hills and go up fast like it left your guts behind? Yeah, it felt like that being at the front of the ship :) It was a great weekend though and there's so much to Washington that I am beginning to love!

The Best Two Years

...And a zillion, kajillion, bazillion, quadrillion more to come!



Wow, I don't know where the time has gone! It seems like it's been more than 2 years! Sometimes I feel like we've just been lazy bums since being married, gaining that "marriage 15" or whatever you want to call getting fat. :) But we've done so much it seems like, that our life together is only getting better.

We've both been able to play on sports teams in college, go to Vegas a couple times ;), have to live away from each other for 3 months :(, gain new friends, move 6 or so times, start P90X over about 7 times, be one of the 40 married couples that graduated together Summer 2009 semester, move away from our families to the great northwest, hit reality after no more school to go to and the real world awaiting us, try the new adventure of clamming and loving it, and the list just goes on and on!!! I couldn't have asked for a better husband who compliments me, is the better half, and makes me become a better person because of him. Here's to eternity...!