December Craziness

This December has been one of the most crazy ever in my married years. We have had all the regular family parties, birthdays, Christmas events and Jess had finals, Easton had his tonsils taken out and we moved. Now I am relaxing and working on my New Years resolutions. I will get pictures posted of my recent crafting. I will get organized so that I can do more crafting (it's a stress releaser for me) and I will post pictures of the new stuff I do. Right now I am working on a super fun craft/gift that makes my house smell super yummy! I also found a new hobby (well sort of new for me) that I am loving and goes right along with my scrapbooking. I love to take pictures. But Jess found this free program on line called picasa and it works a little bit like photoshop- just not as cool. But it's right on my level so I am having too much fun tweeking my pictures. Also since we've moved I am having to find a new gym/rec center :(- I need to find a Zumba Instructor that I like since I left the best ones up in Bountiful. This was one of the saddest parts of the move. I will miss Irma, Leslie and J! IF anyone knows of any super great Zumba classes in Utah County (specifically the Alpine/Highland/ American Fork area) I'd love your input :) Thanks Oh and HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Christmas

My most favorite scrap and craft store is going out of business. I know you don't thing it's a big deal but trust me it is. See I know I haven't been ontop of things with my photos of my crafts but trust me this is super sad. So anyway... I will post new pictures as soon as I can. Things are a little bit crazy right now but that is only because Jess has finals and I have a son and my sweet hubby who have birthdays this coming week. But the show must go on. I will find another craft store!

Just to let you know what is coming... I have vinyle projects that I have been working on. I have wood blocks I have been working on (stuff that have been waiting for a while now), bows for girls that are too cute, necklaces which are so dare cute you wouldn't know what to do and tons of things on my siloutte.

But my most favorite thing is this Christmas time of year. Take time to enjoy this Christmas time of year and remember what is really important, our Savior.

Haag Family Biggest Loser 2

Jess and I have decided we are in on the Haag Family Biggest Loser round 2. Jess is going to the gym and riding his bike. I am still going to Zumba, doing yoga, biking and a few other things here and there. I had surgery in September so I feel like everything I did in the first round was undone. I have gotten out of a few habits (like taking my dinner to work with me and drinking enough fluid) so I just have to get back into the swing of those things and keep exercising. Hopefully I will make my new weight goal by the end of the year (my new year's resolution goal) and I'm not too far off, so I am hoping to be able to get it done.

And I have been working on more projects and finishing up some others. I also went to my friend's Relief Society Enrichment (or what ever it is called now) and the Halloween Queen came. She was amazing and showed us how to throw all kinds of Halloween parties and gave us recipes... so yummy. I will have to post pictures of some of the recipes. I did make a "Monster Mash" themed dinner the other night and the kids (and Jess) loved it. Sorry no pictures though, we were having so much fun I forgot about it all :)!!

Halloween Crafts

I am a copy cat. I can see something and then duplicate it. My favorite scrapbook store had these cute "Eek!" blocks last year. Well I didn't take the class but I kept the sample picture. I decided that I wanted to use different paper and embellishments so I spiced up their idea just a little. I loved them so much I made a set for my mom and I taught my mother-in-law how to do it all. I think she had fun. Then I went to my favorite craft store and found these super cute kits to make Halloween wood monsters. I think they turned out pretty cute too. Now I'm totally in the mood for fall and Halloween. This is my end of summer door hanger I made as well. Love watermelons in August. I have finished up a Halloween and Fall door hanger and will get pictures of those soon. Oh and lets not forget the eclipse blocks. I bought this kit from my favorite scrapbook store. I will have to post the pictures of the twilight and new moon blocks too. They are fun.

Summer Dresses

Here are the summer dresses I made for my girls. I guess they are kind of jumpers. I made one for my brand new niece Lucy too :)!! I think they are sooo cute but really it's the fabric that is just darling!

Sew Crazy

Lately I have been in a sewing mood. I have made Emma a fancy, twirly girly skirt and then the cutest little jumper (one for each of my girls and a niece so far). I am loving sewing but I only know how to do the simple things. So I found this blog called newdressaday (dot) wordpress (dot) com. She takes a new dress from the thrift store everyday and transforms it into something amazing all for under a dollar a day. Go check out her amazing transformations. She makes it look easy (especially since I don't have to make any button holes or sew in a zipper). In this crazy world of recession and pinching pennies this actually sounds like a plan. I am going to eventually try my hand at it but first I have to find the time to go shop at a thrift store. If any of you take on the make-over-an-outfit challenge I'd love to hear from you and see your creations. You can e-mail them to me at thebabe_jph (@) yahoo (dot) com. In the subject heading write "blog sewing make-over" so I don't randomly delete you thinking you are spam. Also if you have made some awesome outfit for you or your kids- send me a picture to my e-mail and I'll feature you here. Pictures are to come of my sewing projects.

Bloggity Blog, blog, BLOG

Sarah and I haven't been singing as much as we have in the past. But to keep this blog alive we have decided to make it a schmorgusborg of stuff. I'll be posting FHE ideas among other things here. For family updates you'll want to visit my family page. I'll also post my crafting fun here too. So be watching :)!! And I've had several requests for my date night ideas & the little things ideas so be watching for those as well. And I will always TRY my very hardest to give credit where credit is due.

First off I will tell you about the "Wild About You" box. This is not MY idea. I found it on another blog (Thanks Dating Divas) there are several ways to go about this. I went to the craft store (Roberts) and found a little tin lunch box. Then I went to Heartland Paper and found "anmial"print paper (ie. zebra stripes, aligator skin, cheetah print, ect..) then I mod podged the paper to the outsid and inside of the tin. (I'll post pictures soon) Now here is where you put your own spin on it. The Diva's over at Dating Diva's put "Risque Frisky" ideas on slips of paper in the box to keep things alive between you and your hubby and then you draw one out as needed. Or you can do your own thing by putting on slips of paper reasons why you love your spouse, or all the little things you are grateful for that they do for you ect... But what ever you do is up to you. I made this box for Jess and he got a kick out of it.

Second- my Father's Day gift for Jess was the "Can-o-Dates" (thanks again to the Divas) I have seen this on several other sites as well. Get an empty paint can and use your mad crafting skills to mod podge paper to it and then decorate it up. (Pictures are to come I promise) then inside the can fill it up with date ideas. I gathered ideas from many dating sites, but my favorites come from the Dating Diva's! Then Jess draws a date night out of the can and waah laa!! Magic!! You have a date. As we go out on our dates I will post them so you know how they go. The Diva's really step up to the challenge of keeping your marriage alive by making little invites for their date nights (which is totally optional gals, but I've done a few for Jess and he likes them) and keeping their hubbies guessing all week long or sticking to the theme of the date.

I have to say I am happily married and I love my husband and I love going out with him. I love going on dates with other couples as well as dates with just the two of us. I love spending time with him without the kids but sometimes our dates include our kids because honestly we can't always get rid of them ;)!!! And I love new date night ideas because I do get tired of dinner and movie all the time. Don't be shy or afraid to leave your comments and feed back! Or you can give me the feedback when you come to the salon to get your hair done. I have lots of clients who read my blogs, then either e-mail me or come to the salon and fill me in. I love it any which way :)!!