Christmas!

Well, Christmas has come and gone. It's funny how there is this big anticipation for this one big day, and then all of a sudden it's over. Christmas was a lot of fun this year. We are in Utah right now, staying with Dan's family. We got here on Monday, the 21st.

Anna got a lot of good stuff. It was so cute to see her open gifts. It took a gift or two, but she finally got the concept of opening gifts. She got some new books, which I'm extremely happy about because I was getting tired of her old ones. :) We usually read about 10+ books a day, so day after day, it gets very repetitive. :) Her grandpa made her some wooden blocks, complete with a wooden carrying case. He made one block with pictures of me, dan, a horse, cat, dog, etc. You roll the block and whatever it lands on, you can spell that word with the blocks he made. I thought that was a clever idea. He is very talented with wood. Last year, he made her a rocking horse! I'll have to post pictures later, because I haven't downloaded them yet and want to wait to do it on our computer at home.

She also got a little doll, a cute pair of pajamas, and the CUTEST little ballerina outfit with a tutu, a leotard and ballet shoes. I cannot wait to put it on her and take pictures. We bought her a little music instrument set-maracas, tambourine, cymbals, the triangle, etc. Plus a leapfrog toy and some books.

We decided for us this year to just get a certain amount of money and we can buy our own gifts and then buy each other a small gift. I got Dan an iTunes gift card because he is always wanting to buy music. However, I didn't want him to guess what I got him, so I wrapped it in a small box and put a book in there to trick him. I told him I got his gift at Michael's (which is true, but I knew it would throw him off). He kept insisting he knew what it was, but I knew he was wrong!

He tricked me pretty well this year. I told him I could use some ink pens for my cricut machine. I told him he could get it at Michaels and I even had a coupon for him to use. Well, he went there a few days before we left and I knew he was going to get it. He came home and said he was going to wait to get it in Utah. Then a few days before xmas, we went to the mall and he said he needed to get my gift. Then, a while later we met up at a bookstore in the mall and he had bought my gift. Well...Christmas morning I open my gift and it was the pens I wanted. He had bought my gift before we left for Utah, and went to the mall, just to throw me off! He got me pretty good this year. I thought that he had gotten me jewelry.

Christmas was good and it was just so nice to be with family and enjoy each other's company. Dan's family has some funny traditions. One of them is running out in the snow xmas morning, barefoot. Their front yard has a slight downhill slope and a bush at the end. You're supposed to run out and touch the bush and come back and warm your feet by the fire. Well, this year it was so cold that the snow had become crusty, so it hurt to run it it. Oh, the crazy family I married into. :)

Little Anna has been loving life here at grandma and grandpa's house. They have a dog and 2 cats and she just loves being with them. The cats don't care for her and usually run away when they see her. When she does get to be with the cat, she keeps wanting to poke it in the eye or grab a tail! Then when the cat or dog go away, she says bye-bye titty/dada. It's so adorable. Everyone just loves little Anna.

Tomorrow, the 27th, is our 3 year anniversary! We decided to go skiing on Monday. I'm looking forward to going skiing with Dan. We've never gone together and the last time I went was 4 years ago. I'm just hoping we don't break anything. :) I'll write more about that later.

Christmas stuff

I keep reading blogs where people are making wreaths. I was at Michaels last week, and saw some wreaths on sale and I decided to make one.

I think it turned out nice, but I don't know if it was quite the style I had in mind. Instead of white flowers, I wanted red, but they were out of them. I do like the little balls. Anna LOVED them and wanted to play with them so bad.

I do like our security door, because I do feel more secure, however it's not the prettiest. And I don't have a wreath hanger, I used the one from our bathroom that hangs over the door. So unfortunately, the wreath hangs a little high. Better luck next year?

Here is a Christmas card I made. I did this for a mutual activity and the girls had fun. I decided to make more for the gifts I'm giving this year.

I can't believe Christmas is next week!!! Where did December go? It seems like we just had Thanksgiving and Halloween. We're heading out to Utah and I'm so excited. It's always good to see family and friends. AND Dan gets 3 weeks off. One plus to having your husband as teacher. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!!

Anna's new crib bumper

I wasn't really planning on it, but I ended up making a bumper for Anna's crib. There were a few times where she would get a foot or hand stuck in between the bars. A few times I have come in her room to find her sitting with her two legs sticking out of the crib. It was kind of cute, but I don't think she liked it. So, I embarked on my next sewing project. I was lucky to find the same striped fabric I used for her baby blanket, so it matched. I looked at some patterns online, but some of them didn't make sense, so I just kind of made up my own thing. I did learn to make it 160 inches long and 10 inches wide from my research.

I like how it makes the crib look my complete. However, if I had to do it over again, I would have gotten better batting. The stuff I got was a good deal, but it isn't thick enough to stand up nicely by itself. I didn't realize it at the time, so I had to sew more ribbons on it to tie to the crib. And when Anna wakes up, she likes to push it down with her feet, so it gets kind of squished. Overall, it wasn't a terribly difficult project. Should anyone be interested in how I made it, leave a comment and I'll tell you. :)

Additions to Anna's room

I finally found a stand up lamp to go in Anna's room. I got it at Goodwill and it was only $6! The only downside is it is extremely tall, like the tallest lamp I've ever seen. I debated on getting it, but it was such a good price, I wasn't sure if another deal like that would come along. It was originally a dark bronze color. I primed it and spray painted it white. I found the lamp shade at Wal-mart. By itself, it looks kind of funny.

It looks better here in the corner. It still is pretty tall, but since it's in the corner, it doesn't really stand out, like it does in this picture.

I made a wall hanging for Anna's room. I got my inspiration from an etsy site. this lady makes really cute things with her cricut machine. So I made my own version. Here is her idea:

This is what I came up with. I still think hers is cuter. I would have liked to have pulled the ribbon through the front. But I used fabric instead of paper and I didn't want to put holes in it, in case I decided later to do something different with it.

Here is another idea she has that I really want to make. I think it's so cute. I think I would do it with Anna's name or something. It looks so easy too. Buy some wood, cut it into blocks, sand it, paint it, put paper on it and cut out some letters!

While I was at Goodwill, I found this candle holder. It had wax on it that I had to pick off. I primed it and painted it black.

Here's how it looks now! Much nicer. I didn't realize I bought glossy spray paint, so it's a little shiny. I may spray it with some matte spray stuff that Dan has to tone it down a little. I just need a shorter candle holder and I'll have a group of three that will look nice together.

Anna went to nursery a couple of weeks ago and they had bubbles and she LOVED them. I forgot we had a bottle of them till she found it and then the fun began! She kept saying, bu, bu, bu!

Trying so hard to catch a bubble.

This picture cracks me up. It's like she's saying, "I believe!" at some religious revival.

Master Bedroom Paint Job

I've been meaning to post pictures for a while, but I kept forgetting to take them! When I did remember, it was evening time and the room is a little dark. So, here is our bedroom with the new paint. I really like it. It's slightly darker than it is in the pictures. I think it gives the room a really nice, mature feel, that goes well with the bed and duvet cover.

I now need to work on the wall decor. I'm thinking of putting some vinyl on the wall above the headboard. I have some almond/cream color vinyl that will look nice. We'd also like to add some crown molding where the ceiling and wall meet. We'll see when that happens.

I'm trying to find some new lamp shades. The one on the right is new. I think I like it, but I haven't decided for sure. The one on the left is the old one. It's just too big and the color doesn't look good with the paint.

I really like how the white looks with the paint. I'm still looking for a cheap dresser. I really don't like the ones we have now. I want a longer, shorter one that I will paint black. I have a mirror already to go on it.

We took the trim off the bathroom because we're going to put up new trim. That's why it looks kind of funny. And yes, there is no door knob. When we moved in, there wasn't a door to the bathroom. We put one in, and also replaced all the other doors. We need to get new doorknobs for all the doors and will soon. But we want them to all match. There's always something to do or buy it seems. Slowly, yet surely! It does create some fun for Anna and playing peek-a-boo though. :)

Anna update: This little girl is starting to eat with a fork!!! Last night, I cut some chicken up for her and I used a fork to help. Well, she wanted the fork, so I let her have it and she started to use it to eat her chicken! She is just so smart. She used a fork tonight to eat her pasta as well. This little girl is just getting bigger and bigger. Before I know it, she'll have a boyfriend. Wait...she does! His name is Logan and he's her church boyfriend. He's 5 months older than her. I guess she likes older guys. :)

I love before and after

It's Black Friday! I didn't even try and venture out to the madness of all the chain stores. Instead, I stayed local and went to my favorite baby consignment store and got some awesome deals. She was having a buy one get one or two for a penny! So, I got Anna a winter coat and a snow outfit for only $6. Then, I got 2 pairs of shoes for $4. Two toys for $6, 3 books for $2 and 3 shirts for $2. With tax and everything it was only $22. Not too shabby. I seriously love getting these kind of deals.

Well, I have really started enjoying getting stuff at thrift stores or on clearance and changing them into something better! Last week I found these little box frames for 99 cents each. I sanded them down, primed and painted them red, then put scrapbook paper in them and cut out letters and this is what I got:

Before: not very cute colored frames

There were large fake sunflowers in them.

I got this sign at Kohls for a dollar. It was yellow and had a bath saying on it. I sanded it down, painted it white and put vinyl on it.

I don't know if I'm 100% satisfied with the placement of it. I might move it, or put another saying on it.

Bed pillow shams

Well, I finished the shams! The first one was easy, everything went as planned, but for some reason, I messed up a couple of times with measuring and sewing on the second one, so that was somewhat frustrating. I like how they look with the duvet cover. However, they are kind of plain, so I either need to add some material to the middle, or add some smaller throw pillows in a beige color or something.

The hard part about making these, is you want the sham to fit snugly around the pillow, but it's kind of hard to know for sure where to sew to make that happen. Plus the corners can be tricky to fill out. I bought some cheapo pillows because we're not going to sleep on them and the corners aren't full.

In case anyone is wondering, we're going to be painting our room next week, so I bought samples of paint and tried them out. So that's what the patch of paint behind the bed is. I'm going to paint the room the color on the left. I'm doing this tomorrow and I can't wait. It's going to look so nice. Much better than plain white walls.

Here's an up-close look of the sham.

I got the pattern online. Here is the link, should anyone be interested in making their own.

http://www.digsmagazine.com/lounge/lounge_pillowsham.htm

First day of substitute teaching!

I decided a while ago that it would be a good idea for me to start subbing once a week for the next little while. This will allow us to earn some extra money that we can put into savings or use for home improvements.

I had my first substitute teaching experience yesterday. It went very well and I'm glad because I was a little nervous and wasn't quite sure what to expect. Of course, the night before, Anna decided to wake up right when we were about to go to bed and it took over an hour to get her back to sleep, so I was so tired the whole day! I got there and found my room and had to log in to the computer to take attendance. Well, I was trying to figure it out, the computer was being so slow. The kids start coming in, I finally got it, and then my foot hit the power cord that was on the floor and shut the whole thing off. Figures, right? Well, it was a Friday before a week long vacation and the teacher actually gave them a big, long assignment due at the end of class. I kind of felt bad for the kids.

Overall, subbing was easy. I just kind of sat there in front of the class and made sure they did their work and didn't get too out of hand. There were some funny instances that I want to share.

1. My personal favorite: a student opens the door, sees me and not his teacher and says, "Whoa, is it just me, or did Mrs. Sell just get a lot hotter?!" Then closes the door and comes back a minute later.

2. A guy and girl were passing a note, right in front of me. I went up and took the note away and the kid says, "What? You didn't say we couldn't pass notes!" I told him, that should be a given that you don't do that during class.

3. One kid didn't want to do his work, so he kept raising his hand to ask me questions like, "Do you think the world will really end in 2012? Or "Did you vote yes or no on Prop 8?"

Then, there are always the shockers:

1. One guy was kind of trying to hit on this girl, but she had a girlfriend...and a boyfriend. She was bi apparently. It was odd, because she looked like a teacher's pet kind of girl.

2. All the swearing, but I wasn't too shocked by it, just when one of the students called the absent teacher the B-word. Hmmmm...

Not having worked in a year and a half and then working yesterday, made me extremely grateful that I get to be a stay-at-home-mom. If I had to go to work everyday and leave Anna with someone else, I would miss out on so much of her life. I'm so grateful to get to be home with her. I love being a stay-at-home-mom. I love seeing all the cute things Anna does and telling Dan about them. I love creating our house into a home. Working yesterday also made me so grateful that Dan works hard every day and that he has a good job that allows me to stay home.

Hopefully, the rest of my subbing experiences will be positive and it will be a good experience overall.

This and That...

I finally got around to framing our family portrait and hanging it on the wall. It took a while, but I was able to come up with some vinyl and our name. I wish I had a font that was cursive and not so thick. I love the bottom part with the word Family and the swirlys. I need to add something to the top, but at the moment I'm tired of thinking about it, so it will do for now. :)

I need to add some stuff on the wall on the side, because it looks a little sparse, but I'll get around to that eventually.

I got Anna this dress the other day, and I LOVE it. It looks so cute on her and it matches her room, so I was extra excited about it. I love having a little girl to dress up, it's just so much fun. The best part is that I only paid $2 for it. I sold a few things at the consignment shop and had some store credit. I bought a pair of outside shoes for Anna, plus the dress and my total was only $4. Love these kid of deals.

She's just too cute.

I got another Kohls gift card in the mail this week, plus I signed up for their emails, so I got a $5 gift card you print and you can use them together, so I got a free $15. They were having an additional 25% off of their clearance, so I looked around and got some awesome deals. The picture below is missing a few things. I got a cute black polka dot shirt (which I had wanted a while ago, but it was originally $36), 2 shirts for Anna, a few baby clothes for my friend who is due in March, that yellow sign that has a bath tub phrase on it, but it's all marked and dirty (I'm going to sand it down and paint it and put it in Anna's room), and a metal picture frame (I spray painted it and will show it later in another post). My total? $8.22. So basically I paid a dollar for everything. Saaaweeeeet!

Anyone with a Kohls nearby should sign up for their emails and get a free $5. They can also have really good clearance deals on baby clothes, so if anyone needs to buy some baby shower gifts, check them out first. That way you can buy more for a friend, but not go over budget. Or even just clothes for your own kids. I'm just thankful I've been blessed lately to find some good deals.



From the Mouth of Babes

Anna is learning how to talk and it is the cutest thing ever! Her vocabulary is growing. Here is a list of some of the words she can say.

Dada

Mama

Dis-this

bye bye-she says this one perfectly, to cars in the parking lot and random strangers in the grocery store.

baby-she started saying it normal, but then switched to saying babyis, adding an s. Any little kid or infant is a baby to her. J

hi-it’s comes out very light and somewhat breathy, but is still discernable.

ba-ball, or balloon

wa-water

there it is-this one is a little muffled, but I know what she is saying. We’ll read a book together and I’ll ask her where the ball, flower or bunny is and she’ll point to it and say, there it is. So CUTE!

Uh-oh-she started saying this when we were out shopping. She would be sitting in the cart and her shoe would come off. I would say uh-oh, and put her shoe back on. She then started to take her shoe off on purpose and wave it, looking at me, saying, uh-oh! J She now has started saying uh-oh, just for the heck of it. She's getting better about when to use it correctly.

Buh-bug. The last few days, she has started to say bug. There's a picture of a ladybug in her farm animal book and I've started to tell her what it is.

Sa-sock. As soon as we come in from the car, she knows her shoes and socks come off and she wants them off!

Ckllldle dll-cock a doodle doo! I say this every time we see the rooster in her farm book and she tries to imitate it. It's so cute.

light-she's become fascinated with lights. I'm tired at the moment and can't think of how she pronounces it. :)

It's really funny how babies learn and really just how they are. I don't know how other babies are, but Anna really is a creature of habit. When things happen consistently enough, she knows and expects it. For example, when Dan comes home from work, he wears his work keys and ID around his neck. These are on a nylon type necklace, that clasp together in the back. Anna loves keys, so she always reaches for them. If you pull hard enough, the clasp becomes undone. She loves to pull them off Dan's neck. She knows this happens that when Dan comes home, that's the first thing she wants! It doesn't matter if she's in her high chair, or reading a book, every day she knows it's time to get daddy's keys and she will not relent until she gets them.

Anna loves water bottles and after our workout, we pick her up from the kid care and she instantly reaches for my water bottle. Even if it's not in sight, she knows it's there and wants to hold it. This happens almost without fail.

Another example is her high chair. I take off the tray and lean it against the side to put her in. While I'm trying to strap her in, she's leaning over trying to get the tray because she knows it needs to go in front of her. She does this all the time.

The other thing Anna does (and I'm sure all babies do it), is try and do something she knows she can't do. It's really amazing when you think about it. Anna tries so hard to put her shoes on. She doesn't give up. Even though time after time of trying, she's never succeeded, she's never given up. Or when she tries to get up on the piano bench. It's too high for her, but that doesn't stop her from putting her leg up there and trying to get up. Or trying to eat oatmeal with a spoon. Half the time the spoon is facing backwards, and most of it falls off into her lap, but she just keeps trying. It's like babies know they're destined for greatness. They know they have so much potential and progress to accomplish. They see other people around them doing it and they want to do it too. Adults generally after a few times of failing at something either give up, or ask someone who knows how, to do it for them. Babies really are God's creation and masterpiece. They're just programmed to learn and develop and it's so amazing to watch and be a part of it.

Anna wearing mommy's shoes. She loves to wear Dan's slippers and these shoes around the house.

Some new molding?

I've talked about the thriftydecorchick blog before and here is another project she has done. I absolutely love it! AND it's not that hard to do. She added some molding to the lower part of her walls in her entry way and family room. All she did was cut some molding to make a square and nailed it to the wall. Repeat that all around the room, then paint it all white and add the line of molding to the top of that section and voilà! Doesn't it look so nice? If you click on the picture to enlarge it, it's easier to see how nice it looks. I saw this in a decorating magazine as well. Plus, she bought the cheap molding, so this isn't a terribly expensive project, considering the outcome.

I really want to do this in my house now, but I'm not sure where. I think at the moment, it would be too much work to do it in my family room. Our bookcases are bolted to the wall, our computer desk is extremely large and bulky, and I've already got Dan committed to painting our room during Thanksgiving break. I don't think he'd agree to another project. :) For some reason, he's just not as excited as I am about decorating our house (weird, I know...).

I'm thinking of maybe doing it in our bedroom, but I still don't know if it would go well. I could possibly do it on one wall of the family room, next to the front door, but I don't know if it would look funny on just one wall. I might just have to wait till we move to another house in a few years. So until I decide, I'm just going to admire her molding. :)

My 'Life is Good' project

Here is my Life is Good sign I made. I love how it turned out. I cut out the words in vinyl and put them on, but it was pretty boring, so it needed a little something more. It took me a long time to find something that would work. I originally had a simple little swirly thing in each corner, but it wasn't completely satisfactory. However, I was tired to trying to find something, so I was just going to leave it. When I showed it to Dan, he said it still needed something different. I'm glad he said that, because then I was able to come up with the swirlys it has now and I love it! It's so much better than what I had originally. I'm glad Dan told me what he was really thinking and didn't just say, good job. :) These husbands are good for something. Lol.

This is made from an art canvas (Dan found some left in his classroom). I spray painted it red. I bought the cheapo stuff from Walmart, for $1.12, then the lettering seriously cost about $1.50-$1.75. I got the idea of using a canvas from http://thriftydecorchick.blogspot.com She seriously has such good ideas!

I already had the ribbon, I bought for $1.50 from Joannes a while back. Soooo, it was a pretty cheap project. They sell canvases at Michaels or Joannes for I think around $8 or so. If you get a 40% off coupon, it's not bad at all.

My Point of View

All the content in this post has been on my mind lately and I just wanted to share my point of view.

Part A: Exercise

I just want to say that I LOVE to work out. I know that this may seem weird to some people, but I really, truly do love it. I go to the gym 3 times a week. If I miss a day, I feel kind of sad, like I didn't accomplish something that should have been done. I love working out for a few reasons. First of all, I love the feeling afterwards, knowing that you worked your body hard, and that you did something good for it. I love the results! I love feeling healthy and being fit. I love having muscles! Obviously, I'm no muscle woman, but I got some, they're there, I promise.

:) Another motivation for working out is to ensure that I will be healthy for the rest of my life. I don't want to be 50 or 60 years old and have to take medication or not feel good because I let my health slide. I want to have a good quality of life.

Working out makes me happy. I've been working out consistently for a good 6 years (minus my mission), but had been lifting weights long before then (just not as consistently as I would have liked). After all this time, working out has become a part of me and my lifestyle. I would feel weird if I suddenly stopped doing it. It's so imbedded in me, just like doing the dishes or laundry. They have to get done, you can't let it slide.

Part B: Fast Food

I hate fast food! I wish it didn't exist. I wish there was a law that made fast food illegal and would shut down all the fast food franchises in America, heck in the world! I know this sounds harsh, but honestly, we all know that fast food isn't good for us. I think it's so sad, how much it's become a part of American life. Dan briefly looked at the book Fast Food Nation, and it said that in 1970 or so, fast food was a 5 billion dollar industry. Today, it's in the hundreds of billions (I'm paraphrasing here so it could be millions, instead of billions, but you get the point)! I haven't eaten fast food in years. I occasionally go to Subway, but I don't think that really counts as fast food. The last time I ate at McDonalds was in 2002. The last time I ate a fast food hamburger was in 2007 and I only did because I had just driven/moved down here to CA after graduating from BYU and we had no food.

We just had a lesson in Young Womens about taking care of your body, and I said how I don't eat fast food and I was the odd one out. Fast food has become such a norm, that it's odd if you don't eat it. I find this very, very sad. I don't know why people eat there, and eat there a lot. It's food that is high in fat and calories and contains very little nutritional value. I wish America would open its eyes! People are seriously eating themselves to death.

What makes me really sad is when little kids live off of fast food. A few years ago, I saw this little girl, she was maybe two and she was fat. Not just chubby, but fat. I felt so bad for that little girl, who obviously didn't choose her food. Her parents chose to give her unhealthy food and I can only imagine the kind of life she's going to lead. I don't know why people don't get it. If it's not good for adults, it's even worse for kids, whose brain and bodies are still developing. Doctors are now finding kids with type II diabetes and heart disease!

Just tonight, I watched an episode of The Biggest Loser. This was my first time watching the show and honestly, how sad that we now have a TV show about overweight people who need to lose weight. I think it's great that they're trying to lose weight, but how sad that it had gotten to that point and obviously fast food played a big part in these people's lives. You don't get to be 100-200 lbs overweight by eating fruit or a sandwich.

For those of you reading, I don't mean to sound self-righteous, like I'm so perfect with my eating and exercise habits and if you eat fast food, you're evil. I do feel I eat pretty healthy, but I'm not perfect at it. I need to eat more vegetables. I don't eat junk food, but I do eat chocolate and ice cream. Dan and I do go out to eat occasionally at sit down restaurants.

I just feel strongly about this. I love exercising and eating healthy. I just wish fast food would disappear and people would have such a better life of being healthy. I wish people would understand the ramifications of eating a lot of fast food. If people stopped eating it, businesses would stop selling it.

Okay, well I could go on and on about this, so I'll just stop here.

Halloween 2009

This Halloween was Anna's second. Last year she was a pea in a pod and this year she was the cutest lady bug! I bought the outfit, but made the antenna headband. I think she looks so adorable.

However, Anna kept wanting to take off her antennas and then have me put them back on again. She does the same thing with her hair bows she wears for church.

Dan made his costume this year. It looks like he's a monk, but he was really making his costume from a character in a game he plays, Warhammer. He's not finished with it, but you get the idea.

I didn't dress up because we weren't going anywhere. I did dress up as a pirate for a Halloween party we went to last weekend. But yesterday, I just didn't have much of a desire to.

This morning, Anna saw her antennas and wanted to wear them during breakfast. She's just so silly!

We didn't do much for Halloween. Anna is still too young to trick or treat, plus she goes to bed at 7:30. I wanted to do something, but Dan has been sick all week and didn't want to get other people sick. By the afternoon, I was so sick of being home, I had to get out of the house. I went to the mall to return some exercise pants and look for new ones. I found some cute ones on sale, PLUS the cutest sweater dress and leggings! I walked by and loved it instantly and decided to try it on. I used some spending money I had to get it. It wasn't on sale, so this is very out of the norm for me, buuuuuuut every once in a while it's okay to get an impulse purchase and it wasn't too expensive. :) It's funny how a new outfit can make you so happy.