never fear

I know-- I know I got a little sick of blogging last week...it takes up so much time and sometimes I just don't have enough of that. So my friend emailed me a document with tons of questions to answer about myself. So I have been answering a question or two every night to get my journaling in. I am loving it too. It's amazing the memories that come flooding back as I think about how to answer the questions. By the time I am finished most of my life history will be recorded for my children to read.

A little update from last week. I am back in jewelry making gear. Trying to get some pretties made for a trunk show I have in a few weeks. It's a challenge to get anything done with a 1 yr old. I'm pretty much trying to keep him from killing himself everyday. He is constantly climbing on things or eating something gross.

We are still in painting mode too and yesterday I finished up all the trim. YAYAYAY!! Kyle is working on the doors still. I have some touch up I should do but for the most part I'm done for now. The only thing I pooped out on is painting Kyle's mans-room/work-out room. I figure he can paint that. HA! I'm SO sick and tired of painting and I never want to paint again. EVER!! I'm sure your all sick of hearing about too :)

The kids had fall break this weekend so we have been partying it up with them. I'll post pictures later.

I'm getting in a rut of what to make to eat that is healthy. So tonight I printed out a bunch of online recipes for me to try. I did tweek my roll recipe for dinner today and made them mostly whole wheat. They were delish! I wonder if I can get them to fly for Thanksgiving - probably not.

I've been a bit of a cheater this week on the challenge. I've just wanted more treats then usual. I need to get back on the wagon tomorrow. I'm still doing pretty good, but definitely not hard core like a few people I know *wink wink*. My favorite part of this challenge so far is the journaling and scripture reading. I have never been this into reading my scriptures and most days I read far beyond my 15 min. Hopefully I will have my Book of Mormon finished by the end of this challenge.  That is my goal anyways. Did I tell you that Riley has been doing this along with me? She is doing awesome and has been running almost every day with a friend. I like that I get to benefit from her acts of kindness :) some days. She is a sweetie and I'm so thankful for her being mine!

toodles!

challenge day 9 - accomplishments

It's only day 9 yet I feel like this challenge has been good for me to accomplish more around the house and balance my life a little better. The second week has been LOTS easier with the no sugar/soda. I've also been trying to get my house a little more organized and projects finished. WHY am I such a pack rat and pile maker. I drive myself nuts.

I had a little helper today in the basement, well, a couple little helpers. It's definitely more fun to have a buddy to paint with. Thanks Miranda for coming to my rescue today!! She's not the only one. I've also had others come to my rescue lately and I TOTALLY appreciate it. You know who you are!!

It's getting there, slowly but surely. We are working on the trim/doors/closets now and then the paint will be done. Next CARPET!!  Can I hear a wooot woooooot!?

challenge day 8 - blockhead

(to the tune of abc's)

~a-b-c-d-e-f-g~

this tower mom made is history.

i know she built it to the sky
but she's got to know i'm on the sly.


because you see i'm only 1,

and that is what i think is fun.

 the end

Challenge - day 8

I'm feeling at a loss of what to blog about tonight. I feel I'm having to stretch

to come up with anything at all. I'm sure you couldn't tell by my fabulous previous posts.

I noticed Riley accidentally downloaded her pictures into MY file. So I will secretly share a few of my favorites.

Riley's Art Gallery

I call this "the MEADOW"

a little ray of sunlight

Fun with friends.

LOL - I found this picture of these HOT BABES - I wonder who they are??

Pure Genius

I see she is learning the art of a good SELF PORTRAIT - (Jamie - I'm sure you'll appreciate these)

the IN DEEP THOUGHT photo

the "I AM A DREAMER" photo

the 'ALL AMERICAN GAL' photo

Ahhhh I found a last year picture of Reece and he looks so much smaller. This might actually be two years ago. He always had a smile or an eye-roll to give you♥

a typical picture of my Hayden boy probably about to say "I'm BORED"

ahhhh Hayden holding lil c - adorable!

There is more but Blogger is really driving me crazy - so I'm done!

I love looking into Riley's brain a little bit and seeing the things she see's beauty in.I also LOVE her!

Challenge - day 7

My FREE DAY WOOT WOOOT!

Consisted of LOTS of goodies, DC, and some relaxation!

We watched conference, which was amazing and just what I needed for some upliftment to get me through the rest of the year. We hung out with Grandma O. and ate some yummy French dip sandwiches, salads, pies, brownies...pretty much you name it, it was there. Probably we went a little over board but it was our first free day. What do you expect?? We didn't forget the one/two's and a little card playing action to top off the night!

The boys got to lay some pumpkin eggs and we were so proud!

 

No really though, Grandma let them pick a pumpkin out of her garden. They were so stoked!

Melanie and I came up with a great new concept for a new kind of work out video. Just keep in mind that these are our BEFORE pictures. In eight weeks we will have some after pictures in our bikini's. Also, this is a very new concept and I have a feeling it's really going to catch on!

 

We are here to PUMP YOU UP!

It's called 

drumroll...................................................

....................................................................

WET-NOODLE  NINJA FIGHT

It's FUN, it's WET, it's with NOODLES

what could be better??

challenge - day 6

We LOVE General Conference weekend around here!!

This is how we usually are during the talks but with atleast one eye open.

But today it was having to be paused 50 times a minute to get Crew who is

a mischievious little guy now.

Then on to Paradise Bakery for a little GILBERT GIRLS lunch and chit chat!

My CrAzY cousin Jonna was there. She was hilarious and kept me on my toes.

I love getting to gether with them and getting to know them better.

Like who knew that:

Cousin Erika's blow dryer broke and she was having a bad hair day because of it (promise- we couldn't tell), and got to have a HOT date with her hubby the night before, dinner, a hike, and then on to sonic for their favorite little dessert.

Cousin Nikki is about to take the LSAT and is extremely amazing how she is juggling a new baby, two other young children, a work from  home job and studying for this super hard test is beyond me. But, her mom and sisters and brother got together and surprised her for her Birthday and did a complete home makover on her house with new paint and furniture and EVERYTHING! That is awesome! When can I recruit them to come here.

Aunt LuAnn wasn't supposed to be at the lunch because her and her husband uncle Bart were supposed to be at general conference. They had tickets and everything. Well uncle Bart is a Bishop of a BYU ward and one that has married off like 120 couples and so when one of his male ward members wanted some conference tickets to WOO a gal - he gladly gave up his tickets. He is the best and we got to benefit from his kindness.

Cousin Lindsey, who is a recent BYU grad in nutrition, was bumbed she didn't get to run the St. George Marathon. They do a raffle and she didn't get chosen this year but the rest of her family was. So bless her kind heart she was anxiously awaiting their call to find out how it went. She is going to be moving soon to Vegas and we are totally going to miss her at these little gatherings.

Cousin Jonna (you know the funny one) thinks her baby, that is a TOTAL mini-me of her hubby, looks like her sister Annie. But, she must know she looks like her hubby because for Halloween she is going to dress her little baby like the baby daddy; ripped jeans, acdc shirt...the works! She was just moving this very same day and her new place is super cute with a Rachel Ray turquoise black splash. Lucky Girl!!

Cousin Stacey is an attorney, she is working on a case right now that a little boy got shot from an upstairs tennant, fiddling around with their gun. Can you imagine the odds of that? Shot in the head...luckily he survived. Her little boy Isaac was there and has the BIGGEST most beautiful blue eyes! He's an escape artist, just like Crew, and gets out of the house and he's only 1....scary!!

Auntee Joyce, is enjoying being a grandma and is such a good mom too. She recently has a daughter and grandson that have moved back in with her so that keeps her busy, especially when she has to drive her muddy daughter home from a mud-run (don't ask).

Cousin Annie is who we all gathered together to see today. We were celebrating the upcoming birth of a new little one she has coming in a couple weeks. She is loving all her kids in school and preschool and having some time to be alone, nap and get things done. She is so tender and lives so close to me and I never see her. We need to work on that.

So there you have it! I enjoyed it all, every second, oh......except the fact that I didn't get a soda or a YUMMY YUMMY cookie from the bakery :o(

toodles!

challenge - day 5

The weather man is predicting that this is our LAST....let me repeat LAST weekend of

beautiful weather and then it will be all down hill from here :(

So today I,

went on a LONG walk

had a picnic at the park

got some good girl talk in

came home for some good old fashioned nap time

watched the kids play outside after school

made some beautiful jewels

ate some healthy snacks

went out to dinner with some friends

now home for some journaling and scripture study

(I have to admit, this is my first Friday night scripture study.....probably...unless I had to prepare for a lesson or something. I also will admit I'm really enjoying this part of the challenge. I really needed it!)

tomorrow I might:

lay outside and listen to conference

well I will probably do lots of painting too

what else should I do to soak this good weather in, any ideas????

Day 4 - was a PEACH!

Well I for sure got my fruit in today! One for the jar........one for my mouth....one for the jar...and so on.

I got to go to Grandma O's and can peaches today. I love to smell them and of course eat them! 

It brought back memories of when I was young and helping my mom can peaches. I LOVED to take the skin off the peach after they are blanched. It just slides right off - like BUTTER!

My kids LOVE them too! If I open a jar they will down the whole thing. I'm finding that there are many perks to living by family again and this is one of them. 

But there is some sad sad news. I was weak today and drank a Diet Coke ok 3 Diet Cokes because if I'm going to LOSE a point, I'm going to make it worth it! I know....my bad!

 

things I dream about - day 3 of challenge

It's been frustrating to me lately living at my house!

I'm so disorganized. I have TOOOO much darn stuff and no place to put it!

This base construction is really getting to me. I SO thought it would be done by now.

I tried to plant a money tree last year but it failed to produce any dollars :(

 

I've been trying to make some new fall goodies but I could crank so much fast if I had an office to go to when all the kids are playing or asleep. A place where I could leave a project and then return to it unharmed. A place where little hands can't get it and destroy all my hard work!

Here are some beautiful rooms that I found that I've been dreaming about.

They are kind of my inspiration for my new basement that may or may not EVER get finished!

We are close but yet SO far!

I feel bad not giving credit to the blogs to which I've stolen these beautiful photos.

I did not keep track of where I found them.

This is what I've been dreaming about making my new office/studio to look like.When I get discouraged I just take a quick gander at this and know that SOMEDAY I will make this happen :)

I would LOVE for my entryway to look more like this with a big chunky round mirror and cute hutch to fit all my goodies into!

These colors are my INSPIRATION for my basement. I WILL absolutely paint something this

FANTASTIC bright blue/green!  I've also painted all the wall this gray color to which I've had many sleepless night over and almost repainted twice. I've decided to stay COMMITTED to it!

I LOVE the other little touches of color also. I have a hard time keeping things simple and subtle - I'm all about TOO much color usually. I'll really have to restrain myself.

I will be mixing lots of masculine BROWNS with our gray basement.

I don't think Kyle wants it all frilly.

I love the POP of color this red chair adds! Is it red or orange? I'm not sure but I like it!

What I wouldn't give for a mirror and chair like that!! I LOVE old vintagy items like this to really add some FUNK to a space. I also wish I could get my hands on that HUGE frame. If it was mine I would add some mesh to the back and use it to display earrings......*sigh* .... a girl can always dream...right?

the end

Day 2 of challenge

 This is pretty much how our day went!

lots of crying 

falling down

mom being busy

too busy for him

mom needing a treat

but can't have one

giving him all the goods

trying to keep him happy

 

(STUPID BLOGGER SORRY AGAIN - WHAT'S THEIR DEAL?)

ALL HE

REALLY

WANTED

WAS 

THIS!

the end

Day 1 of the challenge

I woke up totally psyched for this challenge this morning! I'm going to DO IT!

Then the stomach pains started setting in - probably from my BINGE EATING last night trying to get in some candy and diet coke since I can't have any until my first free day.

I still did it - I went out walking for about an hour with some friends I roped into this challenge with me.

It felt great!

Let's do this thing!!!!