A little get away

As I said before, James won a free night's stay in the hot tub suite (or honeymoon suite, as it is sometimes labeled) at the Best Western in Park City. My mom was going to be in town already so we had her watch the kids for the night. It's the first night away I've had from my kids in TWO YEARS!! Sick. I hope I never go that long again. I want to do it every week now. I guess that won't happen but a woman can dream, right?

We invited our good friends the Gasser's and had a blast. When we got there, we had to check out the room. It was AWESOME!

Giant Awesome tub with jets

Sweet table we ate dinner on, plus cool art.

Amazing bed of heavenly scent

Cool picture in our room
Very nice kitchenette with dishes included
Cute little fridge for our goodies

Big TV with some nice channels. We brought our own DVD player so we didn't have to pay a rental fee. Dumb. The couch and arm chairs folded out into beds so technically you can sleep 6 in this room. But why would you want to?

Then we hit the outlet mall and James and I both got a pair of Levi Jeans. I've decided to take back the Silvers...I saved $50 and they still look great. Maybe not as good but oh well. Now I have more money to buy some shirts. We also stepped into Carter's baby clothes and I almost died for cute overload. I couldn't even take it all in. I wanted to buy one of everthing. And they were having some seriously swingin' deals. A bunch of stuff was 60% off!! So we got some onsies for Lizzie. So cute!


The Gasser's met us at the outlets and we shopped and chatted until we realized that we were going to be hanging out all night and headed back to the hotel.

Dan wearing sweet children's sunglasses at Carter's
The Gasser's brought dinner; a delicious mixture with rice, chicken, mayo, olives, cucumbers, avacodo, and tomatoes. There might be something else in there but I've never made it. You serve it on warm pita bread and it's flippin' good.

We sat and ate and talked for awhile and decided we'd better hit the pool before it closed. So we hopped in our suites and swam and played ping pong for like 40 minutes. Then we all ran back to our room and got in the "hot tub," which was actually just an overgrown bath with jets. It fit the four of us comfortably enough.

Then it was treat and movie time. Popcorn, peanut M&M's, 6 layer bean dip, black licorice, Mug Rootbeer, Coke, and "Lars and the Real Girl." It was odd but it wasn't dirty and nothing bad happened. James stayed up with Dan and watched "Casino Royal" while Denise and I went to sleep.

About to dive into our movies and treats

The color is off on my camera but the decorations in this room were very cute
Settling down to "Lars"

The KING SIZE pillow top bed was NICE. It smelled so good. I think that's what put it over the top for me. Unfortunately I woke up a few times through the night. I think it might just be habit becuase of waking up with my kids. And sadly we had to get up and pick the kids so we packed, at an amazing breakfast of eggs, english muffins, sausage, and biscuits and gravy.

Breakfast was so tastey. As we were sitting there we realized we were all wearing red shirts. All I can say is "Go Utes!"

I ended up seeing an old roommate at the hotel. That was pretty wild! Shout out to Katie Spens. When we came home my mom told us that Lizzie slept throug the night! (I had been trying to prepare her for my mom staying so I've been weening her and specifically NOT feeding her at night so she'd know how to go without it. I didn't feed her right before bed or when she got up in the morning either.) And then she told us that Edin woke up three times crying for Grandma. I guess he just wanted to know someone was going to be there. Silly boy.

Things I've made

1. This amazing picture collage
These are some of the pictures we got taken at Target at the end of March. James and I picked out a bunch out of frames together and I designed the layout and hung them. Then my neighbor let me use her cricut to make these words to fill in spaces. "family," "Strait's," and "love." It looks dang cute in our house.

2. This vinyl letter board
The colors match Lizzie's blanket made my Grammy Irma. I really want Lizzie to grow up knowing that she truly is the Daughter of a King. I think that's better than the title princess.

3.Another vinyl letter sign
"Christ is the Center of our Home." I'm trying to live as if this is true.

4. A curtain for Edin's closet
I bought this monkey sheet way on clearance at Murvyn's. I thought Edin would like it and he does. It started out as a fitted sheet so I took the elastic out of the corners and cut that part off. It was easy to sew straight lines.



5. This curtain for my tall book shelf
I LOVED this fabric so I used it to match fabrics to for the other curtains.


6. These curtains for the small bookshelves
After I made these curtains, I realized maybe I didn't need them. The books were pretty organized. I guess I just wanted to add some color to the room. I even came up with the idea to make pleats at the top. I hung them with stick-backed Velcro. Love it.

7. These aweomse quilt block throw pillows
These are probably my works of genius I'm most proud of. I used the scraps left over from the curtains. (And then some. I had to go back to the store twice so I'd have enough for all the blocks.) My neighbor Cami helped me get started. Then my mom guided me on the rest when I went home.

8. Another amazing throw pillow
Cami actually made the center block for this pillow because I didn't have a piece of fabric big enough and I had forgotten about it. I didn't want to go to the store for a third time. I like it better this way.

9. This amazing child

Edin does so many cute and wonderful things all the time. Like sit on this step with a shovel and hat.

10. This beautiful little girl
She melts my heart and brings me so much joy.


11. This awesome face!!


I have to say, I feel pretty crafty sometimes.

SOLD!

We just sold our car!! Pop, pop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is!

This is James and Edin off to pick up the title in SLC so we could be Done, and done!

There are good days and bad days

This last week I've had quite a mixture of good and bad days. Fortunately today was a good day!

I got up "early" with the kids, which hasn't happened a lot lately. James usually gets up with them. Today he had class and clients so I got up at 8 ish. I fed the kids and then Lizzie went back to sleep for an hour while I got ready. Then my Visiting Teacher came over and we chatted and what not and it was nice. Then the kids and I went outside for awhile and played with some neighbors and I got to chat. That was nice! By the time we got inside it was time for lunch and naps. Lizzie went down with out a peep and Edin actually fell asleep in his bed. (He usually comes to the door and cries for awhile and then falls asleep there.) Edin slept for an hour and a half and Lizzie slept for an amazing TWO HOURS! I couldn't believe it. This was only one of a few real naps Edin has taken since we took the Binky away. That alone would have made today Awesome.

But it did get better because my good friend Lauren came over and hung out with me. We chit-chatted while I cleaned the house. Yeah baby! Then when the kids woke up we went to Plato's closet, a used clothing store that carries nice brands. I finally earned my jeans. I've been saving my points for almost two months now. When Lauren suggested we got to Plato's I thought for sure they would have some Silver jeans for cheap. They had only two pairs in my size and they were long and all wrong.

To make a long story short, we came back later, didn't find anything at Plato's and headed to Buckle, where I was reunited with my fit-like-a-glove jeans which bring me pure joy. They are Silver Jeans, aiko boot-cut

(Not my actual butt in the jeans)

It turns out they were a little too short and when purchasing $72 jeans, you want them to be perfect! I had to special order the jeans, which cost me five extra buckaroos but they are coming to my door in 8 days. Holla! And I can return them for a full refund if they turn out to be different or something wacko happens.

So I spent all my money but it is freakin' worth it. After we got home from shopping, my cute kids took a bath and ate dinner and they were both so cute it made me sick! They both ate and loved dill pickles. It's so odd that my one year old likes pickles but whatev. I can't complain! I forgot to mention that Lauren and I got some free candy at a sweets shop in the mall because we had a connection. I had amaretto chocolate fudge and died. Holla! I think the only thing that would have really put this day over the top would have been eating out. Mac & Cheese for lunch was pretty "average day" ish but still all right.

Also I got to see my good friend Brittany and her kids. Edin is tight with her son Dash.

AND! I have a wonderful FREE night's stay at the Best Western hotel in Park City, UT. Thank you James for putting your name in that cup and winning!! We're staying in the hot tub suite and SWEET it is. Our good friends from way back when are coming and it is going to rock. A night with out the kids. Wow. What's that like? I can't remember. It's been almost two years.

Another hair cut

I got my hair cut yesterday. I came home and showered and styled it. At 11 o'clock, just before getting into bed, I still liked it. Today I looked in the mirror and said out loud "Oh yeah, I've got cute hair." It made me happy. Even after sleeping on it, it still looks good. I think it's going to be a good day.

I have a hard time taking good pictures of the front but this is the best one I have. I've started straightening the front to accentuate the A line. The front is longer than the back. I usually push my hair behind my ears so you can't usually tell but oh well.

A picture of the back. I took myself, hence the angle...But notice the slant from back to front. And this isn't my best styling job but I like the stacked layers in the back a lot.

Cute things Edin did today

Edin from the window looking down while I'm outside-"Momma, my bois."
"What honey?"
"My bois, right there!" On the grass.
He wanted me to bring in the sippy cup he left outside earlier.
(I forgot to mention that "bois" is french. We use it to mean "drink.")

"Edin, it's time for bed."
"No Momma. Reedy"
Reedy means he's reading. I mean gosh, I can't complain about that can I? Actually my two year old has learned clever ways of prolonging his time out of bed. I didn't know two year old's did that.

I'm in shock

There's this strange phenomenon that happens when my children go to their grandmother's house. They eat. And eat. And eat. Edin turns into this little machine that devours everything Connie puts in front of his face. It's amazing. We were there last Saturday and Lizzie did the same thing. We had crock pot BBQ pork ribs, VEGETABLES! and pears. My kids sat there and ate forever.

I told Connie I didn't know my kids knew what a vegetable was because they don't get them/eat them at home. Hahaha, jokes on me. Lizzie ate carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower. (Probably Connie's favorite mixture, and I have to say after eating them there so often, mine too.)

Today I decided to try a little experiment. I opened a can of our favorite Del Monte Blue Lake Cut Green Beans. I heated some up and gave some to Edin and Lizzie. To my utter amazement, they both ate them. And wanted more. I even ate a few myself. Just to make sure if wasn't a fluke, they weren't just so hungry at lunch time the settled for whatever I put on their trays, I offered them more at dinner. And again, they ate. I'm in parent heaven!

Well with an addition like that, I'd say today was one of the most nutritionally balanced days we've had here in quite some time. Thank you for the inspiration, Connie!

Lizzie Walks

I thought I should post that Lizzie is officially walking. She's still a bit unsteady and she still crawls when she really wants something but I think it's fair to say she's walking. She's such a cute little girl. I'll post pictures later.

We also got a new camera. Now my pictures will be better!!!

A new addition

What an exciting weekend for. James and I have been waiting and looking and finally, finally! we got a new car! It's a 2006 Suzuki XL-7, crossover with third row seating. We seem to have outgrown our current 2001 Mitsubishi Galant. I'm sure James is really pleased we didn't end up with a mini van, as he has sworn never to own one. He was willing to look and we saw some good ones. I was rooting for the 2004 Honda Odyssey or Toyota Sienna but in the end, we felt the XL-7 was the right car for us.

Ain't she a beaut'?






This is basically what our "old" car looks like. Great trunk space but it just felt crowded! We are selling it ourselves so if you know anyone looking for a good, inexpensive car, let me know!

The How-to Gal!

Holy cow! I have been following this blog for a little while now. She has SO many cute ideas and in my opinion, most of them are things that I can actually do! I haven't tried any of them yet but I want to! Go check her out!


http://thehowtogal.blogspot.com