Wedding dress shopping

I cannot believe that February has come and gone. Everyday I think I should blog and everyday has been filled to the brim with activity. I have had some random thoughts through the month that I thought I should blog about but now that I am typing all those thoughts have flown from my head. That seems to happen from time to time - a little more often than I like to admit really.

I do want to post about one particular highlight of February - The day we went wedding dress shopping. All the girls except Chloe (she got called into work and was very disappointed that she could not go) and three of Ashleigh's friends and of course, Nick's mom met together at three different bridal shops a couple of Saturday's ago.

We had wonderful experiences at two of them and let's just say that the last store we went to is not a place I would ever recommend to anyone to shop at. We were going to have lunch in between but time was short so each carload of people just grabbed a quick bite to get us through and then we ended the day with dinner at Macaroni Grill. Ashleigh was beautiful in everything she tried on. She even tried on a couple of dresses just because - beautiful gowns way out of our price range. We really had a great time and it was one of the funnest Saturdays I have had in a very long time. The following Saturday Ashleigh and I got together and went to the place where the wedding is going to be, had foot massage (my favorite thing to do in the whole world) and had lunch. Then it was back to the store to buy a dress. We met Chelsea and Paige there. She thought she had decided on the "one". And I have to say it was beautiful , but there was something not quite right in my mind so while she was trying that one back on Chelsea and I asked to look at a book with all their dresses in it. Then we saw it. We asked if they had it and could she try in on. She agreed to and I have to say never has anything more beautiful covered Ashleigh's body. It was only a couple hundred over our budget and I told her we would make it work and not to worry about it. I wanted her to have this dress. Now I am not going to post pictures of that dress but I will post some of the others that she tried on. Mostly I want to not ruin the surprise for her as she walks in the room with that gown on her wedding day.

And of course, it is always fun to find random pictures of Autumn taken by Autumn on my camera. She had so much fun being with the big girls. She certainly can hold her own with them.

I am now working on the centerpieces for the tables. It is nice to have these few months to work on things. But before we know it wedding day will be here and we will have added a new son to our family!

Snow, Snow, Seminary and Earrings

Well, I finally am getting around to blogging. It seems like a long break - with the computer being fixed and then having some trouble downloading pictures. I have figured everything out and now have a few minutes while the grandkids watch "Dora the Explorer" to catch up a little.

I think it has been two weeks ago now that we had snow! And we went to the coast. While at the beach it did snow a little bit. David stayed there with the little girls and I came home with the older kids. Well, it snowed here as well! It was so fun and we actually got a little more than expected. Noah was watching the temperature for days with the anticipation that snow would come. It finally did and the kids got two days off from school. We had fun building snowmen and sledding and even the older kids went out and played for a few hours. Chloe and Chad and Noah were so cute as they came back from their exploration of the snow. In the end we actually could have stayed at the beach with David - the kids would not have missed any school. But then on the other hand, we had more snow and even though the storm at the beach was exciting (90 mile an hour winds) I am glad I was here to enjoy the snow at the house.



This snowman lasted a few days even after the snow was beginning to melt.


This is Jonathan's snowman at the beach - looks pretty big huh?


Not so big when he is standing next to it! Ha! Ha! I did not know that Hayden had taken these pictures until I got home and developed them. She did a pretty good job showing perspective.


This picture just shows how deep the snow got at our house. Like I said it was more than expected and David didn't believe me when I called him to tell him. So I had to take lots of pictures.

Seminary is going well. Lots of studying and trying to fit that in with all my other activities has been tricky some days. But I am being blessed in ways I had not imagined. My personal study and insight has grown so much and I have a post in the works for some of that.

Friday we had bead group. We meet once a month and make jewelry. My good friend Denise used to teach us but she had to quit and since then I have been teaching the class. This month we made some cute heart earrings I found on pinterest. It was really an easy project.

I also tried a new recipe (also found on pinterest) for a bowtie broccoli and grape pasta salad. For desert I made some brownie/cake cupcakes. Again, I found that on pinterest. I have to say that it is fun to find some new things to make. It has kind of sparked on interest for cooking again. I don't want to get to committed to it though - then I'll have to cook all the time! Just kidding - I am finding that there is "purpose" in being organized with my menu planning and cooking. So I think I am finally out of my slump - my family will be happy that I have found some new things to eat. Well, everyone except. Noah. I swear that boy only likes one or two things and won't try anything new. I guess he can survive on peanut butter sandwiches;)

It really has been a fun last couple of weeks around here. Everyone is doing great and as Chad keeps reminding me school is half over! He can't wait to graduate. {Just a side note: If I hear I'm 18 - one more time I think I'm going to scream! - Not really, but seriously - as if being 18 years old is going to make me change my rules or something} We are looking forward to the events that are coming up in February. Hope you all have a great day and can see the "purpose" in whatever you are doing today.

Hair and Wreath and a Little Rambling

I have my computer back! I am so excited - I did not realize how much I have come to depend upon this thing. My calling, bill paying, communicating with people, every thing seems to be connected to this machine. I wanted to catch up on a couple of things that I had done clear back in December. My intentions were to get it all blogged and posted before the new year. I have been working very hard putting my new word into "action". The word is "purpose" and with that I have been cleaning something out almost everyday! Good for me - lots of stuff has been discarded and things I LOVE are now in their proper place. Well, lets say things are beginning to be where I want them. But I wanted to share this hairdo I did on Taylor. Knotting hair has become one of my favorite things to do with the girls long hair. It reminds me of making "pin curls". My mom used to do that to my hair all the time when I was little to make it curly. Taylor has such beautiful hair and it is so fun to play with. I remember in the movie "letters to Juliet" a line - "One of the greatest pleasures in life is to have ones hair combed". I hope the girls remember all the hours of getting their hair combed. There is something therapeutic for me in doing it. I love the connection I get with my girls as I do their hair. Now I do have to say my older girls have reminded me how I would say all the time - "use the muscles in your neck" - and how I "pulled" on their hair. Their memories are probably not as fond as mine - "You have to suffer to be beautiful" a line I quoted from my mother to them. Anyway, I always wanted to do hair when I was little - but then I found out how much you have to know besides just cutting and styling and I was not willing to put the time in to learn. So I just play around with their hair and most of the time it turns out pretty cute!


Now on to an entirely different topic - my Christmas wreath. I had a lot of vintage ornaments that I did not use on my tree anymore. I saw on pinterest how "easy" it was to make this wreath. So I gave it a try. Really it was not too hard but I had to be careful as I was using glass ornaments not plastic like I think they used on the tutorial I watched. It took me a while to finish (I was short about five ornaments and had to go "thrifting" to find some) But in the end I love it! It looked so pretty hanging from my mirror.


I did not really take very many pictures of our house this year. It seemed to take me forever to decorate and even then I did not do things the way I usually do. I don't know why it just seemed a little overwhelming at the time.

It has been a wonderful month so far as I have been decluttering and cleaning out. It is one of the most rewarding things I have done in a long time. David just finished up a closet that I have wanted to turn into a pantry. He did a fabulous job and now that is full with food storage that needed to come in from the garage. Of course, that spurred on more organizing and cleaning out of videos and movies. Wow, that was a big job. Thirty years of movie collecting sure adds up. It surprised me how much we still had on VHS. I think to date I have taken five boxes to the goodwill and about five garbage bags full of stuff. It is amazing how much stuff you can stuff into closets and nooks and crannies of your house. My mind set is - What purpose does this serve me, the family, or my callings?. With that in mind it has been so easy to finally let go of things that really should have been gone long ago.

This is kind of a rambling blog post but it feels so good to be writing again. I am off now to take Autumn to meet up with Ashleigh and have a little girl time with my oldest and youngest!

12x12x12

So, my computer has a virus. I tried to blog yesterday and I couldn't sign into anything. It was so frustrating. I had some great things to blog about and some pictures to share. I will get to it when it gets fixed but for now I want to share a project my sister and I are doing. It is not a new idea but we wanted to do it in 2012. We are calling the 12x12x12 project. On the 12th day of the month we are going to take 12 pictures and the the following week scrapbook them. The thing that we have added to this is that there will be a challenge for each month. Plus we assigned each month a color. The two- page layout has to incorporate the color and the challenge. The challenge could have to do with what we take pictures of or how we scrapbook it. Then we are emailing picture of our layouts to each other. We do not live in the same state so this way we have accountability. She is such a fabulous scrapbooker and has won many contests and been published. I have never entered anything but feel like I can keep up with her ;) Thursday is picture taking day. I am going to blog what I take pictures of and about the challenge each month. I will wait to do that this time until my computer is fixed. So hopefully by Friday I will have things up here for other family to follow along. I have to say that it is great having a sister! She constantly keeps me motivated. So do my other sisters and brothers for that matter. I have an awesome family! I love you all.

Purpose

I can't believe that it is the 5th day of January already. I have been working everyday since New Year's putting things away from the holidays. It has been a slow process because I am cleaning out as I go. I decided that this year is going to be my year for organization and de-cluttering. I began this process while putting away the Christmas decorations. I have accumulated so many holiday things over that past 32 years and so much of it I don't use anymore. I was tired of repacking everything just to set aside. I know some of you would not let this go on but it really has only just been a couple of years that things seem to be overflowing. I organized the decorations by theme and even had a box for all the homemade things the children have made over the years. I don't think I can ever let those things go. It feels so good to know that what is up in the rafters for next year is what I absolutely love! It will be fun unpacking it to decorate next year. Along with this goal of organization I thought long and hard about my word for the year. Last year I worked all year long on my word and was able to apply it in lots of areas of my life. I wanted this word to mean more than "unclutter". I do a twelve month journal with my word and also wanted it to be a word that I could continue to work on after I got "organized". So this year I came up with "purpose". It really fits. I have so much filling my life right now. I want everything I do and everything I surround myself with to have purpose. That does not necessarily mean functional. I want to love the things around me. Some of the things I collect don't function per say but they make me smile. Memories of an event or time in my life will fill my mind and that gives that object purpose for me. As far as organizing goes not only have I accumulated tons of Christmas decorations but all over the house things are tucked away because I might "someday" need to use it. I am realizing that if I have not looked at it for the past seven years (as long as I have been in our new house) I just don't need it taking up space. I am going to focus on an area of the house each month. The ultimate big goal is to get my garage cleaned out and organized. It is some what of a daunting task if I think too much about it. That is why I am being realistic about things and also biting off chucks at a time and not the whole thing in one weekend. With what little I have already done I feel lighter, more focused, and a bit more organized. Clearing the clutter will allow me to use my time to better myself and those whom I love. I will be a better mother, wife, sister, aunt, and grandmother. Yes, this is going to be a great year - a year with "purpose"!

Twelve Days of Christmas 2012

So I have been waiting for a long time to share our twelve days. It was a lot of fun this year coming up with ideas to make and give to the children. Please forgive the pictures I am a terrible photographer and it was hard to get good angles on some of the things we did.

This is the letter that we wrote to start the whole season off. It was so fun delivering the tubs together and talking about what each of our favorite gift was to make or give this year.

Day One:
To start off we gave them an advent calendar with things to read each day and put together a picture of a nativity. I did not get a picture of that as David was really efficient in getting it wrapped early. He helped a lot more this year with the wrapping and has decided that that job can now officially be mine from now on:)



Day Two:
I made snicker doodles and peanut butter snicker cookies. These are some of Seth's favorite cookies and so I had him in mind when I made them. All the children called that day and loved them! They said they were some of the best cookies ever. I do have to say my children grew up on chocolate chip cookies - I never ventured out very much in the cookie making - so I think they were surprised that I actually made something other than chocolate chip!



Day Three:
I had Chelsea in mind when I made these perpetual birthday calendars. She is always calling me and asking dates for birthdays. It turns out that all the kids loved this one as well. Since I have already made this for myself last year David and I bought the whole series of Harry Potter movies. We only had a couple - so when the children opened these at our house they were so happy. We spent last Thursday having a Harry Potter movie marathon. We started at 8:00 in the morning and finished to halfway through no. 7 at 12:45 that night. We finished no.7 and no.8 the following morning. I know it might sound like a waist of a whole day - but it was truly one of the funnest times we've had in a long time. No on got dressed - pj day - we ate popcorn, made cupcakes and ate our food all without missing any parts of the movies. The only thing that would have made it perfect was if David could have had the whole day off to be with us. As it was he didn't get home that night until 10:00 - its hard this time of year being a UPS man!



Day Four:
Socks!!!!!! That is a lot of pairs of socks when you are counting 17 pairs of feet!


Day Five:
Popcorn and a game boxes. I filled a pencil box with a deck of cards, dice, scorecards, pencils and directions to about ten card and dice games. At our house at least, we can never find the dice or a full deck of cards. The plan is to have it stay in this box and it also is easy to travel with when we go on family trips. The popcorn is just plain fun to have for any kind of fun - games, movies, etc.


Day Six:
These ornaments turned out so cute. I saw them on pinterest and had Toshia make me up the names and initials (of course I could not tell her why I wanted them and I am sure she was curious). I found the ribbon at Costco and the ornaments at Michael's. I used a whole punch for the circles from the scraps of vinyl.


Day Seven:
We usually do a puzzle over Christmas break. So we thought why not get everyone a puzzle and who doesn't love to do a puzzle?(Noah - he had me work on most of his and then when there were about 10 pieces left he stepped in and finished and took all the credit - gotta love the kid!)


Day Eight:
Aprons. Not just any kind of apron but Christmas aprons. The boys got "Santa" one and I made the cutest ruffle ones for all the girls. The picture does not do the girl one justice - it really is cute. For Jonathan I did his foot and hand prints and made a reindeer on the front of his and Reagan got the cutest little ruffly thing I could come up with. Along with the apron you have to have something to cook so I put together a cupcake kit. I know we had fun at our house making the cupcakes!

Day Seven:
Again, David wrapped this gift before I could get a picture. It was a childhood story from David and I made journals for the kids. David is always sharing his adventurous childhood with the kids and so he put together a story of the time his brother and him went to see the total eclipse of the sun. I guess this does not happen that often and it was great adventure for them. The kids got colored pens to doodle and write in their weekly journals.


Day Ten:
David worked for a few months on this one. He put together a history of how the Weitzel's came to America. He starts his story clear back to Catherine the Great of Russia. His ancestors came from Prussia. He did a lot of research and put together quite an amazing little book with pictures and maps and the Weitzel genealogy. He had a lot of fun putting this together and even the little kids thought it was so cool!



Day Eleven:
PJ's - Funny side story. I really messed up on this one. When you are buying for 17 you are bound to make a few errors. I mixed up a couple of the sizes and even ended up buying too many pairs---can I just say that black Friday was crazy this year and I am lucky to have gotten it as together as I did! I just gave away that I did not make the PJ's this year - honestly I got such a good deal at black Friday that it was worth it to me this time.

Day twelve:
Again, I do not have a picture but I could not really take a picture of this one. Every year we have a family reunion with our children. We started this about a year after Ashleigh moved out. I wanted to have a tradition of reunions in the summer. So we set aside a weekend every summer for our reunions. This year we wanted to do something extra special. So we gifted the children (all of us boyfriends included) a paid trip on Jerry's Jet Boats to cruise up the Rogue River for the day. We will also try to go to the Wild Animal Park in Winston. Everyone is so excited for this trip. David and I did it last summer for our anniversary and really all we could think about where we were on the river is how much fun this would be if the kids were with us. So I guess you could say that day twelve is the gift that we will have to wait for but in the end it will so be worth the wait!!!!


Today when we got together for Christmas Day we had waiting for the kids one last gift. Santa apparently made a visit to our house and left goodies for everyone. This truly was one of the best years for us. We have been so blessed with all we have and for the children that are in our lives. Everything went to smoothly and David made it through another year of deliveries. {by the way, he had 18 hours of overtime last week - Santa really needed his help in getting all those packages delivered}. We hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas and that 2012 is a year of great joy and love!!!!

Picking a tree in record time!

When we went to get our tree this year we were surprised at how wonderful the weather was. It was cold. But no snow or rain and that made for a very pleasant experience. Last year we had to wait until some football game was over before David would budge to get the tree. It was dark, rainy and very cold - our usual place was closed and so we drove around looking for a place to cut one down. We finally found it but the kids were cranky and not happy about the whole adventure. This year we got out the car at our favorite spot walked about 20 feet in front of the car and there was our tree. We did not want a big one this year and it had to be kind of skinny. I have never found a tree that fast before. The kids headed over to the hot chocolate wagon and David loaded the tree onto the car. I think it was the best experience we have had ever! The kids were perfect angels and we got home in record time. Of course, there was some silly football game on again and I think that is why the boys were so happy to be done so quickly. I on the other hand had lots of things still to do and checking "Christmas Tree" off my list made me very happy!