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 :)!!

Blessed!

Some days feel like more than a trial while others are a blessing. Some days feel never ending while others whiz past. Some days we lose our will to press on while others give us strength, courage and hope. Some days what starts out as one of these things, by night fall turns into all of the above.

I have had my fair share of good days and bad. But recently I experienced the most bittersweet day. My youngest, who is 11 months old, was scheduled to have an MRI at Primary Children's Medical Center. The MRI was to be done on her brain. We had just come home from Washington a day or so before so Jess was not able to take work off to come with me. So my Mom came with me and my little sister watched my other sweet children while we were gone. They expected us to be there for 4 hours. As I said my prayers the night before I asked Heavenly Father to give me the strength and courage I needed to face this day. The MRI was schedule for 6:30 a.m. and I had to be to work later than day as well. I wasn't sure how I was going to make it through the MRI and then have to go to work two hours later. Miracles Happen! There are Angels in all of our lives watching over us, I truely believe this with all my heart and soul.

We arrived at the hospital right on time. My sweet Mother and I started out talking about a book she is reading that I have read in the past several times called "The Secret" on our way to the hospital. After the nurses gave my baby the IV and then the sedation medication, they took her to the MRI room we were not allowed to watch the MRI but we were told where her recovery bed would be and about how long it would take to run the test. My mom and I grabbed a drink and went out to the tables and chairs and chatted in the morning sunshine. We talked about "The Secret" and how it intertwined with our religious beliefs and how it works and what we are doing in our personal lives to make it work for us. It was the best conversation for me and we did talk a little bit about my family's vacation to Washington. Then we went back to the recovery room to wait for my baby to wake up. She did great and was a little trooper the whole time. There was another baby having an MRI done as well. The mother and grandmother were still gone when several doctors and nurses started showing up, pulled the curtain between us and working with this baby. My heart sank, I knew this was not a good sign. My mom and I continued to talk about being positive and little miracles and little "secrets" that happen in life. I was facing the door way when this mother rounded the corner, the look on both her face and the grandmother's said enough. My baby was waking up and almost to the point where I could take her home. At first I just wanted to get out of Dodge because I felt like I was an intruder there and that I was making it worse with my baby who was waking up and who didn't have tons of people working on her. The mother and granmother embraced and tears streamed down their cheeks and my heart hit the floor. It was then that the Spirit confirmed to me that my baby would be okay. You may say that should make me happy, and it does, but I knew the heartache this mother was facing and I felt guilty that my baby was more okay than her baby was. It was a very humbling experience for me; bittersweet. Even though my youngest is not out of the woods just yet and is still in physical therapy, she is progressing and doing well. I feel blessed! But before I went to work that night I prayed and gave my thanks to Heavenly Father but I also prayed for this other baby and the parents/grandparents for miracles to happen with them as well.

Washington Vacation

We took a family vacation to the Olympic Pennisula the last week in June. It was beautiful, fabulous and just what I needed and I think Jess did too. We left early Friday morning and drove all day to the Seattle area. We stayed in Bellevue. The next morning/afternoon we had to get our car fixed but were back on our way around 2pm. We rode the ferry over to Bainbridge Island and drove up to Port Townsend, then to Sequim, Port Angelas and finally over to Forks (where our condo/hotel was). We saw amazing sites, played in the tide pools, rain forests, on the rocky beaches and the sandy beaches. Did some hiking and missed out on a few hikes that we wanted to go on, saw some snow and freezing temps up at Hurricane Ridge along with wild wind. We had some rain, lots of sunshine and mild beautiful temperatures. We visited a few Native American Indian reservations. The Makah Rez has Cape Flattery which I think was one of the highlights of our trip along with the sandy beach just down the road from Cape Flattery. The other highlight was we stopped at every LDS temple along the way. I will post pictures later of the books that I am making for the kids. The books will have pictures of them in front of every Temple we visit from every family vacation from here on out. In the fall we are planning a Utah temple tour. I think the kids have had fun this summer :)!!

Giveaways!

OK! I am super EXCITED! Yes I am on vacation but I need to post about something super amazing. First.... there are several bloggers giving away a Silloutte. You will want to check out their blogs. Here is a list of them and you'll want to visit each one because they all have amazing projects. My list of projects just tripled.
They are all blogspot dot com's:
Tater tots and Jell-o
Oh, hell-o, Friend
southern hospitality
Thrifty decor chic
giver's log

So go have some fun this weekend and know that I will be busting out the projects after I win one of these babies!!! Think happy thoughts, right :) plus it will totally make my day when I win one :)!!

Biggest Loser

My in-laws designed their own Biggest Loser game for the family to play. It has been a lot of fun and a lot of hard work. Jess and I have lost a lot of weight as well. No I have not met my New Year's Resolution weight loss goal but that goal is for the entire year. But I will tell you this I am well over half way there in-fact I may be closing in on three quarters of the way there. I have dropped another pant size :) and I am getting very close to dropping another hopefully this weekend. My pants are falling down and I am having to pull them up constantly :) this is a good sign!

These pictures were taken on Mother's Day at Temple Square. We had so much fun with my kiddo's, you'll have to check out the family blog for those pictures.

One thing the Biggest Loser has taught me is that I LOVE ZUMBA. It's tons of fun and you don't even feel like you are working out. So I am going to become a Zumba Instructor :) and start teaching too. It's a lot of hard work, but fun and rewarding too. It's much easier to take the class and just follow along than to actually teach the class.