Another Year Older

Well, another birthday has come and gone. It seems the older I get, the more quickly time seems to fly by. I've had to work on my birthday the past couple years. Joe said to me "Welcome to an adult birthday!" Ha ha! Andrey and I went to the park and had fun playing on the playground, playing tag, and picking acorns.

Joe had told me the night before my birthday " Don't expect to be wakin' up to balloons and decorations everywhere." When I woke up, there were no decorations.........but when I got home from work that evening I walked in to this! It totally made my day! I didn't realize how much I love seeing decorations on my birthday until I woke up to none, and came home to tons! Joe even put confetti out! (That's hard for him because its "so messy") ha ha!

Joe had all of my cards out on the coffee table. Talk about feeling loved!

He thought the candle on the centerpiece would be a good place to put my birthday crown=)

Joe took me out to The Olive Garden for dinner. SO YUMMY! Our good friends Jason and Jillian came over for dessert. They are so sweet!

Their baby's name is Lincoln and he's so adorable. He LOVED the balloons. Jason and Jillian say he has a crush on me because I can always get him to smile SO big.

They brought over these yummy cupcakes from a bakery they found. Joe had already gotten dessert, and they knew that, so they said these were for Joe and I to eat later. So yummy!

So, let me just tell you about these amazing cupcakes that Joe got from Coldstone! They were seriously AMAZING!! The "cupcake wrapper" is hard shell chocolate, and it's filled with half cake, half ice cream, and topped with this amazing cool whip type frosting! I have been craving one ever since, but have not given in because they come in a 6 pack and I know I would eat them all=) I HIGHLY recommend them if you ever have someone to share with! They are in the freezer by the cakes.

After Jason and Jillian left, it was time to read cards! This is the cute card Brittany made from her, Joseph, and Korv. Joe always loves seeing what cute cards she makes. It's so cute!

Well, not long after I started reading cards, this is what I looked like and Joe thought it would be funny to steal my phone and take pictures of me crying. ( He also posted one on facebook without me even knowing!!!) Bob and Sharon, and Tiffany had me in tears. Later, I read an email that my dad had sent (because my mom sent the card without giving him a chance to write something) and the water works started all over again! Thank you so much for all the cards and the sweet things that you all said. I really felt so loved and so special!
Joe's card made me cry and laugh. He and my sister had a little sneaky plan to get me to try on some cycle shoes in Utah and Joe surprised me with some for my birthday! I have been wanting a pair forever! LOVE them! They totally make the workout different! We didn't take a picture of me opening the shoes I guess.

The next day we went to lunch with James, Shelby, and Grayson to La Madeline!

They have the best tomato basil soup!

After lunch Joe and I went to the theatre to see Moneyball! It was a good movie, and something fun to do!

As if all of the above wasn't enough.....The following Friday morning (October 14th) I woke up at 4:45 to get up and get ready and then head to Dallas for the weekend. The story behind this is.... Ashley and I always wanted to go to a Chris Brown Concert after he got big (either our senior year, or right after graduation) but his tour never went to Utah. We've wanted to go to one of his concerts ever since! Several weeks ago I heard a commercial on the radio saying he was coming to Houston, but he was going to be here on a Sunday:( I looked up his tour and saw that he was going to be in Dallas on Friday October 14th. I really wanted to go! I jokingly text Ashley and told her he was coming and that I'd come up with this plan that she could come Friday and stay until Tuesday so she could use 4 regular days off and just use one personal day. She could fly in to Dallas, I would pick her up and we could shop and sight see before the concert, go to the concert, spend the night in Dallas, then shop and do whatever Saturday then head back to Houston that night. I added a few of these :) :) on the end of my text. Well, she text back "What are the dates? Ok, let me request them off" HOLLA!!! I was SOO excited! Talk about an awesome friend! I love that she's willing to do stuff like that spur of the moment. Ticket prices had a lot to do with her being able to come too. They were cheap! It was meant to be because everything fell in to place! We ended up having such a fun weekend, and the concert was SO amazing! Everything we'd dreamed of=) ha ha!

After I picked her up we happened to pass SMU and she and her boyfriend have this inside joke so we had to stop and take a picture at this Barnes and Noble that sold SMU stuff. She ended up buying a t-shirt too!=)

Just had to have proof that we were together again!=)

We headed to the North Park Mall because H&M had just opened there! I LOVE this store! They had some really cute things for way cheap!
After the mall we went to the hotel to check in and drop our bags off and then headed to the concert! It happened to be right over near the fair grounds and the Texas State Fair was going on. It took us a while to park, but we got there.

T-Pain was an opener and he was such a fun entertainer.

Then Chris came out and the place went nuts! Talk about entertaining! His dancing and everything was SO good! It was just so much fun to be there. We got really good seats. I took lots of videos (so I could re-live it later=) but I can't get any to load on here=( So, this picture will have to do. We had SO MUCH FUN! We didn't sit down the whole time, and we sang our hearts out. It was totally worth the drive, and it was so much fun to be there with Ash! We can check that off of our bucket lists=)
On Saturday we decided to go to the State Fair. THat opportunity doesn't come around very often. It was not a decision we regretted. We had a blast! There were so many fun booths, lots of cool vendors, and some good ole' fried fair food!

Ash tried one we had never heard of.....Fried Bubblegum. She said it was NASTY! I took her word for it! Her face says it all!
The corn dogs were great though!=) I couldn't remember the last time I had eaten a corn dog!
After the fair we went to the Galleria Mall in Dallas for some more shopping. That's something we really miss doing together. Our boys hate to shop and it's not fun to go with them. We were both in the mood to shop and had so much fun! We didn't go nuts though, don't worry. Just a couple new things. Ash tried on this ugly feathered hair thing! Pretty hot eh?
We drove back to Houston Saturday night, went to church Sunday and then went to the Kemah Boardwalk that evening just to walk around. Joe and I had never been there. It was fun to be near the water, and to walk around.
Monday we headed to Sam Moon! Woot Woot!! Ash stocked up on purses to take back to family and friends. I think she bought 12! She brought an empty suitcase just so she could take them back! So much fun! It's always a highlight to her trips to Houston!
After Sam Moon we headed to Highland Village to look at some cute stores. Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, West Elm, etc. There is a cupcake bakery called Sprinkles. Dave and Serena always rave about it, so we had to try it out! AWeSOME!!! Ash got one with coconut and said it was the best cupcake she's ever eaten. I got a dark chocolate one and it was fabulous!
We finished off the night and her trip, with Lupe's! Also a highlight of her trips to Houston! Everyone we've ever taken there has loved it! Best fajitas ever!
Birthdays just don't get much better than this! I got to celebrate for almost 2 weeks! Ashley has come out around my birthday for the past two years that I've been here and it makes it so much fun! I had such a great birthday! Hard to believe I am now 28!!!

Crafting Fever

Well, I'm sure you can guess from the title of this post what it's going to be about! Let me just start off by saying this is my sister's fault=) The last couple of times I've been in Utah she has wanted me to help her with some decorations for her house. I LOVE doing that sort of stuff. It's crazy the satisfaction I get out of being able to make something for a home. I can't explain it really, I just love being able to look over at something and think "that's so beautiful! And, I actually made it!" So, while I was in Utah last month, Tiff and I worked on finding cute things to go on the shelves of her TV stand. We went to several stores, (we got good at getting Braden in and out of the car) painted shelves and picture frames, used copy paper to trace and cut out outlines of picture frames so we could arrange a collage on the wall, and more. I really enjoyed spending time with her! I love knowing that even though I'm far away, when she sees those things in her home that we've worked on together, she can always think of me.=) This I did late one of the last nights I was home. Tiff was so exhausted! She had worked late several nights and had spent almost every spare minute with me. We had picked out the paper together, and the letters so it just had to be done! It turned out pretty darn cute, and it looks fabulous on her black shelf!

Well, after I got home I continued to have the urge to be crafty. I will be the first to admit that I'm not creative when it comes to making up stuff, but I can sure copy someone's brilliant idea=) On Etsy I had seen this

So cute, right? After shipping it would have cost me $40.00. I decided I could probably make it cheaper, and remember the whole satisfaction feeling I mentioned earlier? I wanted that every time I walked into our apartment and saw it!=)Well, after consulting with my handyman (Joe) we made a trip to home depot, and hobby lobby. We just bought a 1x3 piece of wood, and some unfinished wood knobs. At hobby lobby we bought some wood plaque pieces, paint, ribbon, and vinyl letters. Joe was so sweet to go to our friend's house to use his saw and cut the wood to the right size, then measured and screwed the knobs in for me. He also painted the "welcome" pieces of wood. What a great side kick=) Here's the final product! We made it for about half of what it would have cost to buy it!

Pretty cute eh? I wanted a wreath above it but didn't want to pay $40 bucks or more for one. So, I looked up on youtube how to do it. With hobby lobby's half off sale it ended up being about $10 bucks! I just bought the stick wreath and added the berries! I am going to change out the wreaths with each season. I looked up how to make a wreath out of ornaments to hang for Christmas! I'm pretty excited about it!

The inspiration for my next project was this.

I thought it was a pretty cute way to show some pride for your team. I knew Joe would love it if I showed some Aggie spirit, so I decided to make one for A&M. This involved Joe cutting a 2x4, and another piece of wood I had used for my sister's baby shower, paint, scrapbook paper, ribbon, and scrapbook letters, and vinyl letters again. Here's the finished product! It sits on our tv stand.

My next projects came from an incredible blog I happened to stumble over! One night while I was at Joe's softball games, I was playing around on my phone and some how ended up at this girl's blog. Let's just say I didn't see much of the game after!=) Oops! I've since apologized and done better at just watching the games when I'm there. The blog is decorchick.blogspot.com and she has links on her blog to thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com (which I have also found some cute stuff on) I think I have links on my blog for both. Well, after I saw some things she had made, I had visions of what I wanted to make and where I would put it! The thriftydecorchick said she gets lots of cute stuff at the dollar store. So, I have ventured into more dollar stores the past couple of weeks than I have in years=) I have found a few really cute things!

I got all excited to decorate for fall after looking at those blogs. Here is what I made, and the finished result=)

This cute wreath is made out of a styrofoam wreath form and yarn! Pretty sweet! It did take a while to wrap the yarn around it, but I started it on our road trip to College Station for the A&M game, and finished it while watching tv. I found that I enjoyed being productive while watching=) The tutorial is on decorchick's blog

This tutorial is also on her blog. It was really pretty easy! The leaves and berries were all 40 percent off at hobby lobby! I spray painted the little pot and dowel, and used little foam balls and some floral moss. It was all pretty inexpensive! Joe appreciates that fact=)

Here are our shelves all decorated for fall!

I must say that I still sit there whenever we're watching tv and just stare at it sometimes=) It is so fun to make things! The little harvest thing came from the dollar store, and the pumpkin is actually one from hobby lobby used for wreaths! I just cut the stick off. On sale it was a dollar fifty. Not bad!=)

I made this little arrangement for the coffee table last year. The leaves and stems of pumpkins poked through the bottom last year and minimally scratched the table, so this year I just added a little bit of fabric underneath. I love this!

Next I saw this and just had to have it=) It was pretty dang easy too! The rosettes are made out of lace, the foam wreath wrapped in burlap and tied with ribbon. Several hot glue sticks were used in this project!=)

It's hanging on the mirror of my dresser in our room. Love it!

Well, I'm not quite finished with everything. There are a couple more thing's I've done but just need to add some finishing touches. I will do another post with those. If you've made anything lately, do a post about it! I love seeing what people make!

Test Drive of Parenthood

Last month we watched Maggie and Chloe from Friday to Sunday so that Dave and Serena could take a little weekend get-a-way to Austin to celebrate Serena's 30th Birthday!(Kinda an important one!) We got to get a little taste of what it's like to have kids. It was different to have to be home at certain times for naps, have meals at a scheduled time, wake up early, check on them in the night, and have it take longer to go anywhere because we had to pack the diaper bag, and get kids in carseats. (just to name a few) We have to give mad props to those of you with kiddos!=)

We did lots of fun things together while they were here, but I only snapped pictures on Saturday for some reason. Friday we went swimming at our pool, put puzzles together, colored pictures, and watched the movie Rio. Saturday, it was cloudy and rainy, so to get a little break from our apartment we decided to go to the Bass Pro Shop and walk around. When we pulled up, there was a small helicopter in front of the store. They had a company there advertising.

We got to watch it take off! Pretty cool!!

Maggie loved watching the fish!

She decided this is what she wants for Christmas! Sorry Dave and Serena=) (Check out the price tag) Look at that huge smile on her face! So cute!

After we told her it was okay to get on the 4-wheeler, she decided she'd like to try "test driving" all the motorized toys they had!=)
This is always the highlight of the trip for Joe. He loves the shooting game they have! I love this picture with little Maggie! The gun was too heavy for her to hold so she was pretending to shoot it while it was in the holster.
We walked past the 4-wheeler again and she had to sit on it one more time. This time we decided to let her hold Munchie for a picture! So cute!
Saturday night after all the fun, Chloe fell asleep in Joe's arms. So sweet! Moments like this are so rewarding and priceless.
It was quite the eye opener to go from having no kids, to two kids! I won't lie, we were exhausted by the time Dave and Serena came back, but we really enjoyed it. Joe will still randomly say "I miss Munchie and Maggie." Since we don't have any kids of our own, it's such a highlight and blessing to be close to our nieces and nephews here in Houston and Dallas. We love them so much! We miss our nephews in Utah, and love them to pieces too! We loved spending time with these two precious girls, and would do it again in a heartbeat.

Make a Wish!

Once again I am WAY behind! I'm in charge of the primary program at church, so all of my spare time has been going to that. I just turned it in to the bishop today, so I should have some free time to catch up on blogging.

First things first! JOE's 28th BIRTHDAY was on August 5th. I must say that I get pretty excited for his birthdays. It's fun to try and surprise him, and to make the day all about him. His birthday was on a Friday, and he's lucky to have Fridays off. After I tucked him in Thursday night, and made sure he was sound asleep, I snuck out of our room to decorate. I always love doing that! So, this is what he woke up to.

I had his cards out on the counter when he woke up, and was planning on him just opening his cards in the morning, and his present later. You know, to stretch out the fun of presents=) When I told him the plan, he wasn't too fond of it. Joe's not very good at being patient when it comes to presents. He wants to know what it is immediately. He always shakes his presents to try and figure out what they are too, and he can usually guess! Drives me nuts!=)

Joe pretends like he doesn't need cards on his birthday, but I know deep down he absolutely loves it!

So, after card reading I pulled out his present from the guest room closet. He was like a kid!

The face he's making in the next picture is an "I told you so" face. He was trying to rip the paper evenly in the middle so he could just pull the top off instead of just ripping into it! Who does that?! Anyways, I told him he wasn't going to be able to do it. He did!=)
Look at that smile! He has been wanting a grill for so long! I bought him this same one when we were dating in Utah. He ended up not having room for it in his truck when he had to come back to Texas, so he returned it. Well, two years later he got the same one=) It's nothing huge since we don't have a house, but it works great and we'll be able to take it to the beach for cookouts. We LOVE grilling now! We hadn't had grilled food in so long, we forgot what we were missing! There's just nothing like it=)
I made him his favorite southern breakfast complete with biscuits, gravy, hashbrowns, and bacon. After breakfast Julie and the kids came over to swim. They were here from Dallas for Julie's mom's birthday so it worked out great! There's nothing Joe loves more than his nieces and nephews, and swimming! He's a fish! We had so much fun, and it really made his day. The kids are growing up too fast. It was so fun to get to spend time with them.



That night we went to dinner with our friends Jason and Jillian. As part of his present Jason thought it would be funny to get him........

a copy of the book Polyanna. Ha ha random! Joe said he'd read it=)

When we got home I had a little cake for him so he could blow out some candles. Birthdays just aren't complete without singing, cake, and ice cream.

Make a wish! I actually had to light the candles twice because he forgot to make a wish!=)

After we ate our little pieces of cake we realized something. There was WAY too much blue food coloring in the frosting!=)

Happy Birthday babe!

On Saturday we met Joe's family at Jake's Grill for lunch. Maggie ended up getting sick on the way there so Dave and Serena didn't end up making it and Julie was at the temple with her family. They were missed. We had a fun time chatting and being together.

Anthony, Addie, Serena, and Joe all have birthdays close together so I got a cake for all of them.

After lunch everyone came back to our place for a bit. James snapped this picture of me with the kids. We had so much fun! Look at little Grayson standing up! These kids are growing up so quickly. It's moments like this that I treasure.

We went to dinner with James and Shelby at BJ's and had a fun time with them. They spoiled us and bought us dinner for Joe's birthday! So sweet! Thanks guys! After dinner we went to watch Jack and Addie while Anthony and Julie went to dinner to celebrate her mom's birthday. We always love being able to do this! We watched Care Bears, and got ready for bed. I love being able to do their nightly routine of brushing teeth, reading some books, saying prayers, and singing them some songs. They always remind me if I'm forgetting something. We love these kids so much, and had so much fun together.
I'd say Joe had quite the birthday weekend. He really learned how to milk stretching his birthday over the entire weekend. =) I was ready for it to be over by Sunday, after hearing..... "can you do this......it's my birthday!" =) ha ha! I'm so grateful for my sweet husband! I remember when he proposed he mentioned being able to celebrate our birthdays together for the rest of our lives. So far, they've all been pretty great! I look forward to celebrating many more together! Love you babe!