Thanks For Choosing Me, Babe :)

We had a pretty awesome Stake Conference weekend. We got to hear from members of our stake congregation and our stake leaders, and today from our church-wide leaders. It was completely refreshing for me.

 

 On Saturday night, our Stake President said something that I absolutely loved! He spoke about all sorts of beneficial and uplifting topics, one of which was strengthening, and keeping strong, our marriages. President Pullan gave an amazing reminder:

"Think of how remarkable it is to have one person on this earth choose you."

 

I teared up. I used to be a perpetually teary-eyed person when finding myself in any kind of emotional setting, but lately my tears have been more few and far between. Something's really gotta touch me deeply to produce tears. I thought of how remarkable it really is that people all over the world are saying, "I choose you, babe, and I'm going to stick with you for forever. Promise." I LOVE that! It is just so right.

One of my friends, Carol, told me how that part of Pres. Pullan's talk struck her as well. She said how she often thinks about how she chose her husband, but forgets that he chose her as well. That's a pretty special feeling when you really think about it. :)

 

I can't even say how happy it makes me that my Jared chose me, over anyone else he knew, or anyone else he would ever meet, to be his forever. (I chose him a long time before he chose me...I'm glad he finally saw the light! ;)

That handsome guy up there chose me; I chose him. And we will forever choose each other. Pretty sweet. :) Love you, babe!



Halloween Costume Flashbacks

Ahh, fall is finally here! The four of us had such a fun Labor Day today filled with tons of fun family stuff. It was a great day. I always love it when Jared stays home from work! Those are the best days. :) We went to a parade with our friends, a carnival, another carnival, watched some Studio C, a Cosby episode, had tons of delicious food, and it was pretty much a perfect day. Tomorrow, out come the fall decorations! I'm so excited. And this has me especially pumped up for our Halloween costumes this year.

Jared and I have always loved dressing up for Halloween! It all started back when we were dating, and has continued every year. We already know what we're going to dress up as this year and I've got Little Man's costume already in the works...I'm so excited! :) How about a walk down costume memory lane?

 

Dating. I went as a hippie and Jared went as Steve Urkel. Pretty hot right? :) It was fun.

Newlyweds. This time Jared was the hippie, and I was a witch. These costumes came from my amazing friend Linda, who let us borrow them. Loved them!

 A Very Pregnant Halloween. :) We couldn't think of what to be until the last minute, but finally Jared decided to be a domino and I saw the cute idea to be bubblegum on the bottom of a shoe, from one of my favorite blogs Crystal B.. Her daughter Claire whipped up that costume is no time flat. I loved the idea!

Baby's First Halloween! We went with a family theme - so fun! Little Man was the football, Jared was the football player and I was the referee. I think this might be my favorite of all our Halloween costumes, so I had to add a bunch from that year. :)

 I  made a pretty ridiculous ref, but it was fun!

This next year we kept the family themed costumes rolling on! Little Man was Mickey Mouse, Jared was Goofy, and I was Minnie. (At the last minute I couldn't find ears for my costume! But I know I have a pic somewhere of me wearing the little man's mouse ears...)

I love how Jared's Goofy costume turned out!

 Cutest little Mickey Mouse I have EVER seen! :)

And last year, I could not think of an awesome family theme for us where Little Sister's costume would make her clearly look like the cute baby girl she was. I didn't want anyone wondering if she was a boy or a girl. So we each did our own thing costume wise. Baby was a strawberry, Little Man was Rex the Dinosaur, I was a witch once again and Jared was a super creepy dude. Seriously, no one at our ward's trunk-or-treat recognized him and I think some of them were keeping a close eye on the creepy dude at the party. :)

I am seriously so excited for Halloween this year!! I've got a lot of work to do to get our costumes together, but it's fun to do DIY costumes and dress up together as a family. Little Man decided on what our costumes would be months ago, and I've been thinking about it ever since. Can't wait! :)

Baking Away the Last Days of Summer

I looked at the calendar last weekend and realized we still had an entire week of August left. Sigh... I like summer, that's for sure, but fall is my ultimate favorite season. I know that many people are grasping at these last days of summer, hoping to make them last longer, but with school starting already and the rainy, cooler weather we've been having, I am so ready to deck my house out with my favorite fall decorations and officially begin the autumn season.  And for me, it isn't official until September 1st. So I shall wait.

And as I wait, ever so patiently, for fall to begin, I've been pinning fall dessert recipes like mad. Pumpkin bars, pumpkin rolls, oatmeal cream pies (they just look like a wear a sweater on a brisk yet sunshiney fall day kind of dessert to me), pumpkin whoopee pies, apple spice cupcakes...I am dying. Just check out my fall baking pinterest board...all I can say when I see that gallery of amazing desserts is "Are you KIDDING me?!" I want to make them all today. But there is one recipe in particular that has been especially tempting my taste buds. Pecan Praline Cookies with Brown Sugar Icing, from My Own Sweet Thyme.

 Let me just show you a picture of the batch I finally made yesterday afternoon.

Aaannd one more.

Okay, now that you're hooked...:) 

 

I first came across a picture of these beauties and the recipe on pinterest, of course ;), which lead me to a blog that had totally RIPPED the recipe (and the picture) from the original source. I was trying to find the blogger's name so I could give her complete credit on this post, when I found another blog with the same recipe and picture, this one much more credible. Can you believe people? So, the real credit goes to Lisa from My Own Sweet Thyme. Hop on over to her blog for the recipe.

I had drooled over Lisa's picture of her cookies for weeks, and yesterday I excitedly set to making a batch. These cookies turned out good, but oh, the frosting. It was heavenly. That is the only appropriate word I can think of to describe it. I whipped up the frosting and dipped a spoon in it to test it out, worried that I had burned it. Inexpressible joy when I tasted it. Quickly I slathered it on a cookie and took a bite, only to realize that the flavor of the cookie didn't let the frosting shine like I was hoping it would. So, my mind immediately started racing, trying to think of alternative ways to use this frosting! You know, it actually tastes almost exactly like the frosting my grandmother would make and drizzle over angel food cake. That stuff was also heavenly. I'll have to try this frosting on angel food cake!

I think if my cookies had ended up a little less pudgy, and more flat like Lisa's, the frosting/cookie ratio would have been perfect. What I did differently was use baking powder instead of baking soda (we were out) and I didn't put nuts inside the cookies. Not sure if that's why mine were so different. The last pan I made, which had only two cookies, had thawed a bit so I pressed them down in flatter circles, and those came out looking much more like Lisa's.

So the moral of the story is, these cookies are good! But I will not judge you if you decide to just mix up a pan of this frosting and straight up eat it for dessert. And most importantly, for me, daydreaming about, then making and eating these cookies has helped me get through one more summer day (oh the torture ;) as I await the start of my favorite season. :)

Fall officially begins the day after tomorrow! Bring it on! :)

Gray Fabric Headboard

First of all, my mom is amazing. She can do anything. Like, for real. If there is a project she wants to do, a piece of furniture she wants to paint, fix, build or sell, she does it. And she does it well. And those are only the beginning of her all-around major skills. Well, my pretty awesome mom came to visit a few times after I gave birth to our second baby (she lives out of state), as I've mentioned before. She flew to my rescue and was literally a lifesaver for me. LITERALLY. She was there when I needed her, and I can't thank her enough. But besides being there and caring for our family, she also got her craft on while at our house both times she visited. The first time making those gorgeous yellow pillows, and the second time making this beautiful gray headboard.

For months previous I'd been telling her all about the kind of headboard I envisioned for our bedroom. It started off in my mind looking kind of like this, but morphed over the months. As we chatted over the phone many times before she came for her visit, I pitched the idea to her that the next time she came to visit we could to try and tackle this project together, because there is absolutely no way on earth I would ever attempt a project of such magnitude on my own.

Mom came for her visit and we ventured out to find all of the supplies at Home Depot and JoAnn's (I know it's not technically "JoAnn's", but I can't bring myself to simply say "JoAnn"...it sounds so weird), and we got to work! But really, it was 99% my creative mom. I was there to help and learn from her, and I'm amazed at her ability to build such a thing!

And here it is.

Ahhh, I just love it!

 Oh, do I love this headboard. It is so gorgeous!! I absolutely love the fabric we chose. At first we wanted to put brass tacks all the way around the border, because we both loved that look. But we didn't find what we were looking for and decided to save that for a later date. I've decided that I like the simple, clean look of the gray fabric without the tacks, so at least for now, I won't be adding any. But adding tacks would be an easy way to totally switch up the look of this headboard if I'm feeling it later on.

So as far as a tutorial...this will not be in depth. At all. It really isn't a tutorial. But you can look here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here for some really helpful headboard tutorials! That's a lot of tutorials, but you can never have enough inspiration, right?!

 First step when making a headboard:

Put the babies down for a nap. This step is pretty important. :) 

 I'm not going to number the rest of the steps. But here's what we did next. We ironed the gorgeous gray fabric that we bought from JoAnn Fabrics.

 We sprayed adhesive to our plywood board and placed the foam egg carton mattress over it.

 Mom did some trimming...

 Then we flipped over the board and stapled the egg foam to the back.

Next we placed our layer of batting over the foam and stapled that down as well.

 Then for the fabric. The most important and nit-picky part!!

 Jared is the handy man who attached the legs to the headboard, having to do it several times until we got just the right height. Thanks, babe!

And now, over a year and one move later, I have decorated my room enough to where I think it deserves a few pictures! So here is the pretty headboard that my mom made for us, along with the stunning pillows. :) (Larger pillows and pillow cases ordered off of Amazon here and here).

And we actually  just moved, again, last month! So these pictures are now outdated...awesome. The master bedroom in our new place has grayish-blue walls that the headboard and Sunburst Mirror clash with. So I've got my work cut out for me to figure out what to do...probably just a quick paint job! That will make a world of difference. But until then, I'll just stare back at this beautiful room and sigh! I really wanted our bedroom to become a place of relaxation where I could steal away to read a book, or two or three. :) I hope to create that again in our new home!

I also have to add how in love I am with this Sunburst Mirror!! I think it looks so pretty above our bed. I followed Linda's tutorial (here) over at Craftaholic's Anonymous - one of my very favorite blogs! :)

LOVE!

About a million thanks go to my amazing Mom for this beautiful gift of a headboard! You are the best, Mom, and for an incredible amount of reasons. Love you, Mama!

Songs I Love: "With Him We Can"

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Mercy River is my FAV! Like favorite, favorite, favorite. Their music inspires and uplifts me, energizes me, helps me be a happier and calmer mom, teaches me about the Atonement, brings the Spirit more fully into my life and brings me closer to the Savior. Pretty great, right?

My babe and I at a Mercy River concert a few years back. My children probably know Mercy River's music as well as I do. :)

Here are a few lyrics of just one of the many songs that I love by Mercy River, "With Him We Can". (short preview of song here. full song lyrics here)

 

"The Living Water is a cleansing rain

 For each of us

He knows that everyone falls down

He's reaching His hands

 To lift up and strengthen us all now

He helps us stand

Higher than we ever knew how

Through things that we can't do alone

So we'll know that with Him we can"

 

When I listen to this song I think of peace, repentence, joy, my Savior. I think of how good it feels to leave behind a choice or mistake I made in the past, after I've made it right through the help of my Savior. I think of the peace He gives me and the hope I feel through His atoning sacrifice.

 

Just a few more lyrics that I love...

 

"And when we let Him guide us
To where we should be
The peace inside us is as warm as spring
And we can feel His love encircling each of us"

Oh how true these words are! I couldn't be more grateful for my Savior, and I love that through a song that teaches His truths, I can feel even closer to Him! Music is powerful, both in harmful and helpful ways. Extremely powerful. I choose the music that lifts and inspires me and brings me closer to God. There are so many artists and groups who share their beautiful talent of music in such uplifting ways. Mercy River, Hudson Lights, Laura Story, Michelle Tumes, Jericho Road, Jenny Phillips, Meredith Andrews...and there are so many more. Their music helps me be who I know I should be, and I'm grateful to them for sharing their amazing work. :)

Fabric Napkin Pillows

So I bought some gorgeous yellow and white patterned cloth napkins awhile back. I happened upon them at Target on a clearance shelf, priced something like $2.50 for a package of two. I bought two packages with the idea in mind to make a set of matching pillows out of them. I took them home, put them in a drawer, and there they sat...and sat...and sat. Until my mom came to town! :)

When she came out to visit after our second baby was born, she went to work sewing these pretty pillows. Can you say LOVE?! Because I can. I say it all the time. And I think it. Pretty much every time I look at these darling beauts residing on my white bed. :)

Thanks, Mom! Sometimes a new set of pillows and time with her mom is just what a girl needs. :)

Baby Girl Lilac Nursery

Before we ever had children, I loved the idea of a lavender colored nursery for our someday little girl. When we were expecting our first baby, I saw the most adorable lavender and white twin sheets at Wal-Mart. I loved them so much that I went ahead and got them, even though we had no idea yet if we were having a boy or a girl, AND even if the baby was a girl, those twin sheets wouldn't get any use for at least two years. So yeah, I was pretty serious about this lavender theme. At 20 weeks we found out our baby was a boy, and we were ecstatic! My nursery color dreams morphed into a bright orange, and the lavender dream was gladly put on hold. And then a few years passed and we had a little girl. It was time to make my lavender nursery dreams come true!

But here's the thing. I recently discovered that the actual flower lavender.....smells absolutely awful. I had no idea! Like, it makes me physically sick to even think about how it smells. So even though the lavender decorations in my daughter's room obviously did not come with a horrifyingly lavendery scent, I have changed the theme of her nursery to lilac. Lilacs have a beautiful scent and it brings me back to my childhood backyard days whenever I smell it. And lavender and lilac are pretty much the same color, right? :)

Thus we have, the lilac (but not exclusively) nursery! I love it. Love it, love it, love it. I'd love to make a ruffled crib skirt (with someone skilled like my mom to show me how!), and I am searching for the perfect large framed picture of the Savior to go on the wall to the right of the window, but besides that, I'm very happy with it! It seems pretty complete to me. :) As you can easily tell I wasn't strict on lilac being the only color in the room. I love all of the pops of color, especially the turqouise! But lilac is the base color that you'll find all around the room.

There were lots of little projects and amazing finds that went into this cute little room, but this curvy frame and pic of our sweet girl just MAKE the room for me! So darling. :) And that adorable hot pink, chevron blanket was made by Jared's sister, Lisa. She's so talented!

  

I saw this unfinished wood frame at Michael's and knew I had to do something adorable with it! Whether I was going to use it in my baby's room or somewhere else in the house, it took me a little while to decide. But I eventually decided to paint it this lilac color and put a picture of our sweet girl in it. I love it!!

 I am so in love with these cute little frames. The pink oval was found at Michael's, and the turquoise one at Target. I'm still deciding/trying to find the perfect pictures to go in them! The cute bright blue frame I got on groopdealz.com and the talented vendor was Simply Lulu Creations. And as for those cute matching purple frames - I am so proud of them! I found them at Hobby Lobby for 90% off, $1 each! Major score, considering curvy frames are NOT cheap! They started off really ugly, and I could totally see why they were 90% off. But a little bit of spray paint turned them around nicely! These little beauts are right above the comfy rocking chair in her room.

 I found all of these darling little buckets at Target and immediately snagged them. And then when I got them home I had no clue what to put in them or where to put them. I decided to use them for headbands and socks, and once I got this shelf they fit perfectly in it! I ADORE this white shelf! I originally bought it with plans to put it in our entryway, but then decided it would work so well in little sister's room. I found it at Kid-to-Kid for something like $7 dollars. Another major find! 

This changing table was given to me (FREE) when we were expecting our son. The natural wood color that it was worked perfectly in his room! Once little sister came, I set my sights on painting it. But what color, I didn't know! That always seems to be the question for me. So many fun colors, so few pieces of furniture! :) I toyed around with robin's egg blue or turquoise, and finally decided to just see how the lilac looked. It looks way more amazing than I had ever imagined it might look! I thought it would be too much purple, but I think it's awesome. I also got  brave and made the changing pad cover using this super awesome tutorial at Smile Like You Mean It. I got the gorgeous fabric, "Lilac Twirly", for it off of babybedding.com. If you haven't checked out that website and you're planning your baby's nursery, you NEED to check it out! You can use their "Nursery Designer" and try out all different kinds of fabrics and colors to see how they would actually look in your nursery. So fun. 

This picture was taken at night, so it looks a lot different in here. It's a semi-good view of the pretty banner I made for the window. I LOVE it, to say the least! Here is the pinterest board that inspired this cute banner.

Even though this room is constantly a mess with diapers and diapers boxes and toys and all sorts of stuff, it is still the cutest room in the house. I love rocking my baby girl in this sweet room. A darling room for a darling girl. :)