Getting my craft on.

So one night I was feeling especially crafty and made all kinds of stuff. There also is some other stuff that I have just been working on over time. So I figured I would do a quick post to show off my craftiness. I have a ton of other stuff to blog about, it is overwhelming, but this seemed easy enough to post.

These are two blankets I have been working on. The one on the left i started forever ago and then ran out of the yarn and can't find it again. So that one may never get finished but I worked so hard on the small portion I can't bare to undo it. The one on the right is one I am still not done with, though the baby it was meant for is about 2 months old now. This one is a very easy pattern. Much easier than the one on the left.

This is probably the closest thing to a baby book that Caroline is ever gonna get. It was a total scrapbook kit type things, otherwise it would not look so pretty. I am not one with the paper crafts. But here are a few exerts from it. I was originally gonna give it away but Ryan liked it so much he wouldn't let me.




These are some cards I made for YW. I am so proud of myself for my paper craftiness. Usually things I make out of paper don't end up looking very good. ( I can't cut in a straight line ect..)

Grandma Wilma

So, I am writing this mostly for my sake so bare with me. So, my Grandma on my fathers side, my last living grandparent, died this past week. She was 92 years old. I have really been struggling with the fact that I won't be able to make it to her funeral. I have tried many scenarios but it doesn't seem like it will work out. This has been leading me to think about what she would do and want me to do, which has lead me to do a lot of thinking about her and what kind of women she was. She of course would say not to worry myself and not come. She was a very practical women being raised during the depression. I complain about being poor....we are sooooo blessed compared to the lifestyle she lived as a child. We really take what we have for granted and think we need things that we can actually do without. Many a times I would find myself thinking about what people did in the past and I would ask my grandmother about it. I have to say they struggled much more than I ever have. So anyway I had grown very close to my grandmother over my whole life but especially this past few years living in Utah. I grew up so far away from all my grandparents that I felt like I hardly knew them, though my grandmother was a great letter writer and I would receive and write her letters often. I loved learning about her life through them. When I moved to Utah and my parents moved into her home in Wyoming I got to know her much more. When I stayed in Wyoming for a semester I felt it helped my understand her more by experiencing where she grew up. I discovered that we had the same favorite book. Aside from the scriptures of course, our favorite book was Gone With the Wind. My grandmother served a mission in Ga., and other southern states, and was there at the time of the movie release of Gone With the Wind. I will never forget about the way she talked about how handsome Clark Gable was. I found her original copy of the book in her home and she let me have it! Grandma had a great memory and kept very good record. Once Ryan and I went through her old photo albums she had made from her mission and other various times with her and she told us all about stories behind the pictures and things she did on her mission. I wish I would have written them down sooner because I have forgotten most. My favorite story about her mission experience was when she met my grandfather. Things were so different then. She met him in the training center. They wrote while they were on their missions and when grandpa came home she met him and they drove with only their parents (if I remember correctly) to the Mesa, AZ temple. No big reception or dress or a million pictures just got married. In the next few days my grandfather left for WWII. She told me the story of when my Uncle Robert was born when I was pregnant and Ryan was away and I wasn't sure if he would be there for his sons birth or not. She said that grandpa had leave when he was due but Robert decided not to come until the day after my grandfather had left. Of course Ryan didn't make it Jack's birth either. Such is the life of being a soldiers wife. Grandma's biggest joy in her life was he family. She was a proud wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother and great great grandmother. She always said if I knew having great grandchildren was this fun I would have done that first. She would always inquire about my children when we came to visit. She would always ask if I was breastfeeding. I always told her yes of course and she would say "good, good I think that is best for babies." Of course I agree with her. She loved to watch Caroline play and sing as she got older. On one occasion when I was visiting with her with Caroline just recently Caroline was singing and doing some nursery rhymes and Grandma commented, "That just tickles me to see her sing those nursery rhymes." You could see the joy in her face as she watched her. I know the joy I feel when my children accomplish and do things, but I can't imagine when it is my grandchildren and great grandchildren. She had 5 sons, 17 grandchildren, about 30 great grandchildren and counting, and 1 great great grandchild. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to live and see your posterity grow that much. All of those people came from her and she lived to see it. Grandma lived the last several years of her life in a few assisted living homes. I called them dorms for old people, except much nicer living conditions. I had just come to college and could see all the similarities. It was a place structured so that it was a little community for everyone living there and gave them the chance to interact with each other much like the dorms do for college students. And grandma was the socialite of the Seville. She knew almost everyone's name and would introduce us to everyone every time we came to visit. She was so proud to show off her family. She had a group friends she always sat with for meals one of which included my sister-in-laws grandmother who only passed a year ago. I so admired her ability to socialize and know everyone and I strive to be better at that. She had a very good quality of life and I could tell she really enjoyed herself. She always did her visiting teaching!!! All the other things I will remember about my grandmother are that she loved the color green, she loved big flower prints as she spent several years in the south pacific with my grandfather on a mission, she rarely wore pants, refused to use a vegetable peeler, she was thrifty and practical, but loved a good joke and to laugh and was a great cook. She was raised on a dairy farm and says its the reason she had such good bones. She loved Ryan...probably more than me...and they would talk about everything and she always heard everything he said though he talks softer than anyone I know. She loved the gospel and served endlessly. Because of her faithfulness we have the chance to be an eternal family. She is a wonderful example to me and I know she has left an impression in not only our family but many peoples lives. I am so grateful for the legacy she leaves me and my children. I will miss her so much and am so grateful for the time I had to visit her though it was short. I didn't know that the last time I saw her would be the last and that she was so close to the end, so I am grateful that we took the time to see her every week. I know it was her time to go and she had been waiting. I hardly have anything to be sad about. She lived a great and full life right until the end, and now she is with the person she has been missing for the past 15 years and loves the most! I know she is happy and that one day I too will see her again.

5 Year Annivesary!!

Yesterday was our 5 year wedding anniversary. I cannot believe it has been this long. Though sometimes it feels longer. I look at these pictures and now I think they were so young, what were they thinking? But obviously we made the right decision, though we didn't really know what we were doing at the time. But we have learned and grown together and have come a very long way and I wouldn't change a thing. We have been so blessed in our marriage and I am so happy to have a such a wonderful husband who puts up with me and still loves me!! Man did I get lucky. And to think I found him at a fraternity house. I love you babe and here's to many more years of wedded bliss!!

I got some more cute pictures of Mr. Stinky from a women in our ward. Just thought I would share with everyone!! (PS Jack looks cute too..hehe)

My birthday/Family Pictures

So I know my birthday was like a month ago, but I guess I am little behind on the blogging. So my birthday was on the 8th of November, which was a Sunday so we celebrated on Sat. That morning I went and got my eyebrows done and then Ryan took us to chick fila for lunch and we ate it at the park. He surprised me with my present. He hid it in the stroller so when I opened it to put Jack in it was inside and guess what it was?? A new camera!! He is such a great husband. He got me a great new digital camera. Only one problem...I miss placed the box that had the USB cord in it to upload my photos to the computer...and the other day Ryan says he thinks he may have thrown the box away when he was cleaning out the car while I was gone...ahhh Ryan. So who knows when I will be uploading all my photos I have been taking with my new amazing camera. Good thing I have a big memory card in it!! But I do have pictures from the family pictures we had taken at JC Pennies. I could sit here and write a book about all the complaints I had about our experience, but instead all I will say is I don't recomend going to JC Pennies for pictures. These are the most decent pictures we got. Come on like it's that hard to get good pictures of my kids? They are so cute and Jack smiles at everyone all the time. Anyway it will do for my Christmas Cards this year! But I think we will look back and laugh....look at the shirt Ryan is wearing....it looks like a redneck Christmas. He bought it that day while I was getting my hair done at Target. I laughed when he showed it to me. I also went to MD for a visit just Jack and I recently, but once I can get my photos off the camera from the trip I will blog about it! Oh and he also got me some of those super yummy cup cakes from cookie addiction!!! So good!!!

Halloween Picture!

Here is a picture of the three of us. Thank you to Jessica Flores aka Jack's women for taking this picture for me!

Happy Halloween!

So I know Halloween has passed already, but I thought I would blog about Halloween even though we have no photos cause of the camera hiatus. We took some video, but I'm not sure how to upload those. I will learn I promise. Caroline was a bumble bee and Jack was a skunk. (What Caroline was 2 years ago) They were so cute. Sorry you just have to take my word for it. Friday night we went to the ward trunk or treat. It was alot of fun, but chilly and lots of people took pictures of my kids so I'll have to get copies from them. The day of Halloween was HOT. I never thought I would say I was hot on Halloween. We were outside carving our pumpkins and I was dying. Of course it isn't as hot as this summer but still it is supose to be cold. It was so warm Jack couldn't wear his costume when we were fixin to go trick or treating. We went to a friends house for dinner who have a little girl Caroline's age and went trick or treating in their neighborhood. Caroline had lots of fun doing it! We got home around 7pm and there were lots of trick or treaters out not like in UT where we would get maybe one. We sat outside, seeing it was so nice, and handed out the candy. Caroline loved giving out the candy more than she did collecting it. When we ran out she was happy and ready to give out the candy she had just gotten from trick or treating. I was more than ok with this. We saved a few pieces for Caroline and gave the rest away. We still ran out before 9 and had to come in and turn out our lights. Though some people still came to the door. All in all we had a fun time.
As for other news Jack started crawling!! He is all over the place now. He also started pulling himself up and getting to a sitting up position all by himself too within a few weeks of each other. He will be walking in no time. It's so sad my baby is growing up. His new favorite thing to do is pull the books off the shelf now that he can get there. He also likes to come over and mess with whatever Caroline is doing. Hehe its funny, she gets so mad. Caroline just recently got some safe sissors to practice her cutting skills during preschool time. Well I think you all know where this story is going. Yes she cut her hair. Ryan was "watching" her and she was cutting away at her paper when he heard her saying, "I'm cutting the crazies out of my hair" Still not a reason for concern according to him. Then he noticed her hair in the trash can and I hear him say "Oh no" so I come in from the bedroom where I was getting ready for church and Ryan is hiding the hair and I was like what happened? She didn't cut too much thank goodness. But it is so frustrating cause her hair grows so slowly. I explained to her that you don't cut your own hair and no more sissors for Caroline for a while.
So we survived another three weeks of Ryan being in the field. They let him come home to watch the kids while I did YW in Excellence which only one girl ended up coming but it was still worth all the hard work that went into preparing it! We had the most amazing cup cakes there. They were from a place called cookie addiction. I am have been dreaming about them ever sense.