Hallelujah!

What a funny looking word! "Hallelujah!" Maybe it's just cause I looked at it too long. This post is dedicated to the 8th wonder of the world: Miles' completed stocking, as of 1:35 AM last night.

Richie's siblings all have this style of stocking, and even made me one last year. Let me tell you, you may 'ooh' and 'aahh' over it, maybe call me and praise me with tears of admiration, but you will never understand what a pain in the neck these stockings are until you make one. Every stitch, every sequin, every tiny little piece....hand done. And while you may think this particular stocking is the greatest thing you've ever seen, just wait until you see the one Richie's mom made for him and the one his sister made for me. Holy Hannah!


I kept pushing myself to finish it last night saying "I'm so close!" and then an hour later, "I'm even closer now!!". Good thing I finished just as I was delusional enough to begin sewing the top of the stocking closed.

I also thought I'd post a few pictures of Christmas around our house this year since I will be taking all these down within a couple of weeks.




Here's our tree. Weirdest thing happened. Much to Miles' chagrin, after we got all done decorating it, it grew about a foot and a half!


Remember the "Thankful 4" tree? Maybe you didn't recognize it after it's incredible transformation by Clinton and Stacy. It's our Christmas card tree now and I think I like it even more this way than with the leaves.



I can't believe Christmas is this week. Time has been flying unusually fast the past couple of days and it's driving me nuts! I try so hard to plan in advance so that I don't feel stressed at Christmas time and I can just enjoy the spirit of the season. I have yet to experience such a result.

I'm not one of those girls...

I'm not one of those girls who walks out of the hospital after giving birth in her regular jeans. In fact, I barely walked out in my sweats. "Who cares", I thought, "if I gained some extra weight. It will all melt off magically once I start nursing, right?" *Cricket chirps* "RIGHT? Please someone tell me it will come off and I can fit into my regular clothes again???" Sadly, this was not the case. True, a lot of it did come off in a few months due to water weight and yes, nursing. But there were those pesky inches that kept me in my maternity clothes and buying bigger sizes than ever. I know a lot of ladies lose the weight in a matter of a few months. Like I said...I'm not one of those girls.

But I'm happy to report that about a bazillion salads and countless stairs climbed, I am at pre-pregnancy weight and pre-pregnancy clothes. I'm not going to kid myself and say I'm not bragging or being proud, cause gosh-dangit, I am! And I expect all the comments on this post to be flowery words of congratulations and much praise. I'd like to thank the academy, South Beach Diet, Richie, for doing much of the diet with me and watching Miles while I went to the gym, and loving me at post and pre pregnancy weight, The Biggest Loser, for getting me pumped up to go to the gym and all the little people. I won't forget you. And remember, if I can do it, anyone can do it.

BUT...(Of course there is a but, albeit a somewhat smaller butt) my lovely, large, bigger-than-average head son caused my ribs and my hips to spread out significantly. Therefore, I am still on my quest to keep losing weight. I would LOVE to hear how you guys have lost your weight. (Pregnancy related or not) to keep me motivated and give me some fresh perspective and ideas.
Happy Gym-ing!

Heeeere's Santa!

Miles met Santa at our ward party last night.
This isn't so bad....

Wait...who is the guy with the fuzz holding me?

Dad!!!! Help!

Gingerbread Ornaments

We had some people from our ward over on Monday for FHE and we made Gingerbread Ornaments! They are easy to make and make your tree smell delicious. We forgot to take pictures of our friends when they were here, so I guess you get these amazing and way flattering pictures of Richie and I. Here's the recipe for the ornaments if you're interested:

10T applesauce
4 oz cinnamon
about 1 t elmers glue

Mix it to the consistency of Play-dough and roll it out like Sugar Cookies to about 1/4-1/8 inch thick. Dust the surface and rolling pin with cinnamon, not flour. Cut out whatever shapes you want and put a piece of paper clip where you'll want to hang your ornament from. Bake at 200 for about 20 minutes, sometimes longer. Then you can decorate them with puff paint or whatever you can think of, and loop some yarn through them! Ta-Da! So easy.




Life is pretty normal up here. Miles is learning to walk and both of his front teeth have broken through. He's starting to climb on things now! yikes. He's also found the toilet flusher and toilet paper to be lots of fun. I babysit this cute little girl a few hours a week and to keep us busy, we like to build forts out in the office area with all the uhaul boxes. What would I do without all those resources? It's pretty fun.

Good Tidings of Great Joy

The other night, we made some "gingerbread houses" with our friends the Christensens. The girls definitely had more fun with it than the boys, but I guess that's expected right? Can't you just see their excitement?? We had 1 cottage, 1 government housing complex and 1 stunningly accurate replica of Stonehenge, lovingly re-named grahamhenge. Who says you have to make a house? :)


I also thought I'd post a Christmas video here to get in the spirit. I haven't posted a "Mormon Message" in a while, so I figure this is overdue. This version of "Silent Night" is one of my all-time favorites. The spirit seems to be present immediately when they sing. Being a parent, even for a short amount of time, has taught and re-taught me some very important lessons, and one of those is a fresh perspective on Christmas and Heavenly Father's role in that sacred night. I'm so grateful for the 'good tidings of great joy' for which we celebrate this season.

This Thanksgiving we.......

Went to the Garners in Bluffdale


Ran a 5k to raise money for the food bank on Thanksgiving morning


Played the piano, fed the neighbors animals and Miles fell on his face, and passed around the flu, because families share. :) Hope everyone eventually feels better!


Richie played frisbee golf to his heart's content and I started a new craft project of Miles' stocking.


My favorite part about this Thanksgiving was that I've been a part of Richie's family for enough time now that even smells in their house bring back memories! I know that probably sounds weird to some people, but it is what it is.

Thankful Update

Well, today I'm grateful that Richie watched Miles today during Relief Society so that I could actually listen to a lesson. I'm also grateful that there's only 3 more days until we see some family! Today it snowed pretty hard, and you know what? I'm grateful for that too. I'm ready now, it doesn't seem premature and it's beautiful.
Here's our "Thankful 4 tree". It has lots more leaves on it this time! We still have a lot to put on it though because there is a lot to be grateful for.


We went over to the Christensen's for dinner tonight and I made a turkey cake! So I can at least say I've baked a turkey this year. :) No, it's not a hand with a face. I meant it to look more turkey-ish, but I ran out of motivation half-way through. We also had turkey pancakes this morning! (Just pancakes with apple slices fanned out to look like feathers) I just feel like Thanksgiving has crept up on me! Where has November gone?

Being Temperate in All Things

Today I am grateful for enrichment temple night, visiting teachers and the conference edition of the Ensign. I remembered one of my favorite talks from a few weeks ago, and couldn't wait to read it again. It came up in my morning reading today, and I thought I'd share some excerpts and thoughts, if you don't mind.

"Being Temperate In All Things" Elder Kent D. Watson

What is temperance exactly?

*"Being temperate is to use moderation in all things or to exercise self-control."
*"Being temperate means to carefully examine our expectations and desires, to be diligent and patient in seeking righteous goals."
*"...a temperate soul-one who is humble and full of love-is also a person of increased spiritual strength. With increased spiritual strength, we are able to develop self-mastery and to live with moderation. We learn to control, or temper, our anger, vanity, and pride. With increased spiritual strength, we can protect ourselves from the dangerous excesses and destructive addictions of today's world."

How Can I Be Temperate In All Things?


* I can show maturity with our finances by saving for tomorrow, rather than buying something I want today.
*I can be in control of my body and choose only good things to put in it, rather than eating that 15th cookie. :)
*I can pray to have a change of heart to be more full of charity and then exercise that desire often and without expecting something in return.

What Are the Blessings of Being Temperate?

* "Security for our families comes from learning self-control, avoiding the excesses of this worlds, and being temperate in all things. Peace of mind comes from strengthened faith in Jesus Christ. Happiness comes from being diligent in keeping covenants made at baptism and in the holy temples of the Lord."

Definitely worth a second read.

No News is Good News, right?

I know it's only been 5 or so days since I've blogged, but it feels like forever. Could I be addicted? Not important. There just hasn't been a whole lot of stuff going on here lately, so be prepared to read nothing extraordinary in this post.

The other night for date night, we went to the new food court at BYU-Idaho. It's incredible! The food is alright, but the facility is amazing! Richie and I were feeling jipped that we finished school before they finished all the remodeling, so we went. This is Richie and Miles Enjoying a burger, fries, and graham crackers.


This is Miles showing off his D.I. high fashion. And no, neither Richie nor I are of Asian decent. I don't know where Miles got those extreme smiley eyes.


I babysit for a friend of mine for a couple hours a week while she finishes school. Miles loves playing with this cute little girl. And today, he made a new friend! I started babysitting for another friend of mine who has to go back to work, so her daughter will be spending a lot of time over here in the future. She's a doll! Miles got along great with her as well.

Today I changed 8 diapers (and counting), made a spoon into an airplane, wiped 1 nose 1 skillion times, pretended some boxes were a huge fort, crawled through the huge fort, blew gigantic bubbles and got more excited about it than the kids, colored so hard I broke a crayon, snacked on left over grahams, fishes and puffs, cuddled with 2 adorable kids, read stories (voices included), watched Baby Einstein until I couldn't take it anymore and got wet during bath time. Full day :)

"Gratitude is a Spirit filled principle. It opens our minds to a universe permeated with the richness of a living God. Through it, we become spiritually aware of the wonder of the smallest things, which gladden our hearts with their messages of God's love. This grateful awareness heightens our sensitivity to divine direction. When we communicate gratitude, we can be filled with the Spirit and connected to those around us and the Lord. Gratitude inspires happiness and carries divine influence."
Bonnie D. Parkin

Our "Thankful Tree" is off to a good start! Today I'm grateful for the DI, as I am frequently. I went there today to find some warmer clothes for Miles and hit the jackpot! Today, I am also grateful that Richie's coming home. Let me fill you in. Yesterday, he made a mistake at work, and in order to correct it, he had to drive to Montana to deliver this guy's order. Not just over the border Montana, but almost to Canada, Montana. 8 hours one way. So within an hour or so of my finding out about this mistake, I was husbandless for the night. :( Our entire married...career...I guess, Richie and I have only been away from each other 3 times. This last one included. We don't do well being apart from each other. Luckily, my friend Angie and I decided to go see a movie and leave the kids with her husband. Thank goodness I had something to do with someone, or else I would have been going crazy at home! I'm excited to have him home, nice and safe tonight.

The Forgotten Holiday

Ever since I was little, I always felt bad for Thanksgiving because as soon as Halloween was over, people moved right on to Christmas. I like Christmas just as much as the next guy, but why can't the industry give due credit to Thanksgiving? And why do I feel such a personal responsibility to make sure Thanksgiving gets celebrated? I don't know. But I really do love this Holiday, so in an effort to keep gratitude in our hearts all month long, I made us a "Thankful 4" tree. I got the idea from a magazine, and it's not exact, but it works. I just cut a tree out of paper, then made die cuts of 4's and leaves. Whenever we think of something we're thankful for, we write it down on a leaf and stick it to the tree! Ta-da!



Another way I've found to feed my need to create is rearranging our decorations! It's free and it makes me feel like I have something new and fun. This is just some shelving that's built into the wall. I used some squash that Richie's family gave us, some of our brown placemats, leave from the park, and stuff we already had to make it look more "Thanksgiving-ish".

Here's the Halloween Post

I figure everyone will be making a similar post early this week, so here's ours! Halloween has never been one of my favorite holidays. It seemed to me, an excuse for girls to dress like ladies of the night, guys to buy cheap, tacky masks and scare children, and over-aged punks thinking they can show up at your door and expect candy. Not that I never enjoyed Halloween, but if I had a choice between it and say...Thanksgiving, I would choose Thanksgiving. This year I was finally warming up to Halloween and accepting it as not just a tacky holiday, but the ushering in of actual fall and all things cinnamon and warm. I even tried to celebrate it throughout the month and got a few awesome new decorations. Then, on Saturday, I went to IF to go grocery shopping, and I remembered why I don't like Halloween. I saw a woman, who in an attempt to cross-dress painted a beard on her face, and that was it. Weird. A mother with her son, dressed a level below "whore", and countless other half-effort costumes that reeked of adjectives like cliche, tacky, creepy and crazy.
However, our little family DID enjoy Halloween in a fun and traditional manner. We went to our ward trunk-or-treat where we showed off Miles' bat costume, that turned out so good!(I got the idea from my sister. We just bought him some black sweats and a black long sleeved shirt. He had black mittens and a beanie. I cut out ears and wings from black foam, hot glued pipe cleaners around them, put buttons in the ears and safety pinned them to his clothes. The foam was hashed by the end of the night, but it's a great, cheap costume idea with re-usable clothes!) We gave him his first taste of candy (a dumdum sucker), and he promptly threw it all up on the pavement. Then we went to our friend's house for their annual Halloween party! It was such a good time. Since it started at Miles' bedtime, we brought his pack-n-play and got to stay the whole time! Long enough to play Halloween Bingo, eat lots of sweets, make masks, and watch "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken". Such a good show!
Anyway, hope you all enjoyed your all Hallows Eve.
Next Post: Our kick-off to celebrate the forgotten holiday: Thanksgiving.

Who says you have to carve a face in a pumpkin?

We finally got around to carving our pumpkins last night and it was so fun. I went for something a little less conventional and carved the logo for "The Office" in my pumpkin. And Richie carved a giant bat in his giant pumpkin that turned out really awesome. Miles slept through most of it. We tried to get him to touch the pumpkin guts, but he wasn't a fan. After, we watched an old movie we got from the library called "The Hustler" with Paul Newman. It was a perfect smoky room, playing pool, slow jazz, black and white kind of movie with names like Fast Eddie and Minnesota Fats. But it was kind of depressing, so I don't know if I would necessarily recommend it. Unless you just want to watch Paul Newman for a few hours, which is plenty of reason. I can say that because I think Richie looks like Paul Newman. :)

Mother and Son Weekend

This past weekend, Richie had to go to SLC for a business deal, so it was just Miles and I hanging out on Saturday. We went to a craft store (where I couldn't help myself and bought a few discounted Halloween decorations), a craft boutique (where I exercised great control), and came home to hang out and play the game "do whatever makes Miles happy". It's a really hard game. I still haven't won. He's feeling a bit under the weather, so it's a challenge! We did his favorite thing, bathtime, and after he went to bed, I made some eyeballs on a fork!! I got the idea from my sister who saw it in a magazine. You fork doughnut holes, dip them in white chocolate, put a chocolate chip in the middle, and draw red icing all over for veins. Pretty creepy yes? Perfect for Halloween!




p.s. I just got back from the Doctor's Office and the verdict is....teething! Miles has only cut 2 teeth thus far, so when the doctor and I took a closer look, it looked like it's about time to cut some more. It looks like he's getting all of his top teeth at once! Ouch! So until they come through, Miles will be playing with his best friends a lot. Namely baby orajel, tylenol and motrin. :) As far as percentiles go for the 9th month, he's in the 50th for both his height and weight. I didn't think it was possible, but his head has gotten bigger and he's in the 95th percentile for head circumference.

Oh there you are Fall!!

Today, Richie and I got to go down to Idaho Falls and play frisbee golf with some friends at a beautiful park. Miles thoroughly enjoyed being outside in the awesome weather. I was so worried that we were skipping Fall this year and heading straight for Winter, so I'm glad that I walked through some fallen leaves and breathed some crisp air this year!


These other pictures are just some that I snapped in my new favorite pj's that Miles has. My sister-in-law and bro sent them to us when he was born and I'm so excited that he fits in them now. All except the hat, considering his huge head.

"E=mc2 you say? Ah yes, indubitably"

$ more money saving tips $

Richie and I are definitely not professional at saving money and cutting corners, but we have picked up a few helpful tricks here and there. Last year I did a similar post, so excuse me if I repeat myself, but saving money is just something that has been occupying my thoughts these days, so blogging about it seemed like a good place to start. I would love to hear your money saving tips and tricks too!


*I've learned to cut Richie's hair, and am getting better at it!

*We use grocery bags for our garbages, except our big kitchen one

*We wash and re-use all of our ziplocks

*We try and wait as long as we can to turn our heat on and just use a space heater. It works very well!

*In the winter, we buy window sealing kits at wal-mart for $10 and seal our windows to keep the heat in. For $10, you can seal more than 10 windows and it really helps!

*If at all possible, air dry some loads of laundry

*If you haven't already made a budget, MAKE ONE!!! We have an entertainment category so that we don't get too burned out, but we keep it very low. If we have any fun, cheap dates, I usually post about them. However, I found this really cute website through a friend's blog and it's all about romantic, fun and CHEAP dates! Check it out! http://loveactually-blog.blogspot.com/

*Instead of buying books that I want, or work out videos, or baby videos for Miles,or renting movies on the weekend, I just check them out at the library for free! Fabulous!

*I make Miles' baby food. It's SO much cheaper, it's incredible. And it's healthier for your baby! I've found it's not even that much more work. There are a lot of websites and places to go to find out more about it, but basically you just cook the fruit or veggie how you want, blend it up, then freeze it in ice cube trays! ta-da!

*I learned a little about canning recently and have already seen the benefits! I use the fruit I bottled frequently to make food for Miles. So much cheaper!

*Lately, we've tried only doing 1 major grocery shopping trip a month. We go to Idaho Falls to Winco where you can buy many things in bulk for cheaper. Before I go, I plan meals for the month, write a shopping list, categorize it (which makes shopping faster) and then look online for coupons for things I'm buying. There are plenty of sites out there if you google coupons that can help you save money. But it's important to remember that even though you have a coupon, it may not be saving you money! Sometimes if I have a coupon, I'll immediately want to buy something, but it's usually something I would never have bought in the first place. Also, when at the grocery store, never go hungry, stick to your list and make sure you look on the bottom shelves. Stores will stock higher priced items at your eye level. If you just look down more often, there are usually cheaper, comparable products.

*Richie may laugh and think it's weird, but I save all our wrapping paper, tissue paper, bags and boxes. It comes in so handy!! If I don't use it to wrap a present, I can use it as cushion to ship things, or for crafts.

*Use it up!!! Our society is SO wasteful, it drives me nuts. Before you throw something out, ask yourself "Is there anything else I could use this for", if there is, keep it. I'm not suggesting you become a pack rat (that also drives me nuts), but if you have some place to keep something that will be useful in the near future, don't get rid of it.

*Recycle! I know this doesn't really save money, but it makes me feel like I am! I recently started recycling our plastics and papers since there are bins not too far from our house. I'm not an all out 'go green' person by any means, but if there is something that I can easily do to help the environment, why not??

*Make presents for people instead of buying them! Richie's family always makes their own Christmas presents for each other, and while it's a lot harder, the gifts always have so much more meaning behind them. Here are some gift ideas for your significant other that Richie and I have done for each other in the past to help get your ideas flowing:
*Crochet a scarf
*Make an "I love you because" jar. Just get any type of jar you want, you can even decorate it, and then fill it with slips of paper, each with a reason why you love that person.
*When we were engaged, I deep cleaned Richie's old van for Valentine's Day. That is still his favorite present
*I got a frame with a couple different areas for pictures. I put 2 pictures of us in it, and then used the rest of the space to type in lines and dates from my journal when I wrote about Richie and how much I loved him.
*Last Christmas, we didn't really get each other any thing because we were saving for the best Christmas present ever...MILES!
*For our 2nd anniversary, I made him a board game called "LOVELAND".

*Here's an obvious one, but one that my dad can tell you I struggled with growing up. If you're not in the room, turn off the light!! Or if you're not using the appliance, un-plug it!!

*If your community or school has a group garden, utilize it! BYU-Idaho has a student garden and Richie and I benefited from that a lot last summer. You just weed for a while and help maintain the garden, and then get to take some of the produce. Such a deal! If your community doesn't have a group garden, you could always ask local farmers if you could glean potatoes or other veggies. Richie and I have never done that before, but heard it's useful.

*If you're thinking about selling some belongings on ebay to make a quick buck, think first. Over half of the things listed on ebay don't sell. And if your item doesn't sell, you still have to pay listing fees. If it does sell, you have to pay listing fees and a final value amount fee, which is basically a percentage of what you made. And then if you have offered free shipping, that cuts in to your profit as well. While ebay can be a valuable tool to make money, be careful. In a lot of cases, I think people could actually benefit more from just having a garage sale.

*Speaking of garage sells, go to them! And thrift stores! And discount websites, especially local ones like craigslist or byui bulletin board or blogsales online. I've already found 2 awesome Christmas presents for Richie for $6. There are so many useful things there that you can make work for you on your tight budget.

Well, there are some tips that we've benefited from. Maybe they'll help you too! Post some more of your tips to please! The biggest thing and hardest thing for me lately is that I see all these crafty ideas, or ways to make something on a budget. But truth be told, it's cheaper just not to do it at all. Saying no to creating, baking or crafting something is really hard for my these days, but I just have to remember that it's cheaper just to wait. Because if I wait, then I usually find the 'craving' goes away and I realize I don't need 'it'. Ahhh, one day when I'm a skillionaire I'm just going to buy out craft stores and home improvement stores and go nuts. I think I'll have to thank my mom for this trait. "It's a blessing....and a curse". -Mr. Monk.

And the best advice of all:
"When faced with the choice to buy, consume, or engage in worldly things and activities, we all need to learn to say to one another, "we can't afford it, even though we want it!" or "We can afford it, but we don't need it- and we really don't even want it!"" -Robert D. Hales
-Becoming Provident Providers Temporally and Spiritually- May 2009 Ensign
(This talk is fabulous to read over and over again. I wanted to put so many more quotes in here, but you'll just have to re-read it for yourself!)

Pumpkin Brains!!

Hey all! Just a weekly update here. Miles got a care package in the mail with some much needed warmer clothes that he can grow in to. We were both very excited as you can see! Thank you again!!


On Saturday, Richie took his test to become certified to sell term life insurance and passed!! Wahoo!! So he's one step closer to making Primerica work for us. To celebrate, we had our friends Mike and Megan over and we had a Halloween night. We had sloppy joes and hollowed out a small pumpkin and put a face on it and served the joes from there. That way it looks like you're eating pumpkin brains!! Then we watched "Wait Until Dark" with Audrey Hepburn while eating some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies! I have only ever seen the play, but the movie was 10 times better! So suspenseful and scary, but not in a creepy way! Perfect for the season.
Hope ya'll had a great week too!