Here are a few pics of Ella in her beautiful dress. It is the same one Hannah was blessed in. I just wish I would have taken a picture of the shoes. They are gorgeous silk crochet booties with a pink ribbon and tiny little flower. So, darling.
We went to Salt Lake City this weekend to bless Ella. We had so much fun with the fam. Hannah loves her cousins and they played together constantly. They had to sit together at dinner, at church and play outside as much as possible. she was in heaven and so was I. Playmates! Of course, we had to eat at Cafe Rio and had Ben's Cookies (our favorite).
The blessing day was wonderful to have everyone there. Especially 95 yr old Great Gandpa Christensen. He held Ella a ton and was so good with her. She just relaxed and fell asleep in his arms. Then it was back to the Williams for dinner before we headed back home. It was a quick trip, but we are so glad we were able to do it. It is all worth it to be with family.
To be honest, I can't remember if my father took this picture of if I did. But either way, I love it. The colors and the store.. I can smell it now. Don't you wish we had spices like this.. so authentic and real. BTW - This is a store in the Grand Bazar in Istanbul, Turkey.
I found this on a blog somewhere and was so impressed I had to put it on my blog. I don't know if I would ever have an opportunity to make it, but if I do, I will. It is so realistic looking and super clever. This is what I love about blogs, you can find cool things like this!
I took some pictures yesterday, just of Ella (since she didn't make it in any of the bowling photos). She was in our big hot pink bean bag and I had to get some shots. I interrupted a little picnic Hannah and Ella were having, but Hannah was okay with it.
(again playing with photoshop, so the colors are slightly different.)
I love recipes. Especially desserts. I just wish I could bake all of them. So, I thought I would share different recipes periodically. Here is my first one. There is no picture, but if you take a look at the ingredients, it has to be good. I am going to try and make it soon, but thought I would share it. It just sounds too good to keep to myself.
I got it from Mrs. Suzie HomeMaker
If you can't read it, click on the image and it will be readable.
This is my little nephew. Isn't that the cutest thing? I love pictures of baby sleeping. You can see just how simple life is for them. Especially when they fall asleep like this. So cute.
For Family Home Evening this week, we went bowling. Hannah had been asking to go for awhile now and we tried on Saturday, but it never happened, so Monday it was. She loved it, of course. At first, we didn't have the ramp and her ball went 1.02 mph down the lane, needless to say, she was thrilled when they gave us a ramp. Now the ball was actually moving and pins were being knocked down. We all had a blast and daddy even scored a 155 (pretty darn good).
I love chocolate chip cookies. The older I get, the more I love them. Of course I love homemade cookies the best, but when you don't have time or energy to whip up a batch of cookies, the next best thing are these goodies.
I was craving cookies the other night (but after a long day, I didn't want to bake), so Chris ran to the grocery store and picked up these. Oh, my goodness these are a close 2nd to homemade cookies. Now, I am talking about this specific variety - TURTLE SUPREME. Really sooo good. So, if you see them in your grocery store and love chocolate chip cookies like I do... pick some up. You will not be disappointed. Oh, and like every good cookie/brownie - DON'T OVERBAKE!
....Pretty in Pink. I had fun taking pictures of her the other day. She was somewhat cooperative. We had tons of fun on Sunday baking dinner together. We made pancakes, muffins and omlets. She was a great helper and proud of the dinner she made. And even ate most of it (except the eggs). It is fun to have a child old enough to help and participate in daily doings.
I was over at my friend's house the other day and her daughter was playing with a ViewMaster Projector. A wave of memories came rushing through my brain as I remembered many road trips in the car playing with a View Master. It has changed somewhat (although you can get the original manual View Master), but now they have projectors... what a perfect gift for Hannah. Hours of entertainment. And the best part is that you can get the reels on Ebay for cheap and the variety of "movies" are unlimited. Anything you can think of. Pictures of the Grand Canyon, old TV shows, pictures of Disneyland, superheros and of course Dora and Veggie Tales. What fun we are going to have with this old-timer made new!
Okay, so I am not a huge sports fan (although my husband is), but if I were to root for a team it would have to be the Boston Red Sox. And tonight there is a lot to root about. The swept the New York Yankees for the first time in decades. And to top it off, they hit 4 consecutive home runs in one game. I have to admit, I would have loved to have been at that game. How cool would that have been to witness and participate in the thrill of home run after home run after home run. Go RED SOX!
Oh, for Hannah's birthday, she is getting a pink Red Sox hat. It will be a gift to her from her father. We figured since she was born there and the team is her dad's favorite... she should have one!
Well, she has been doing it for a few weeks now, but I caught it on film. She smiles the most when she is on the changing table getting her diaper changed. It doesn't matter how upset she is, it always brings a smile to her face - she gets so happy and then once I take her off - back to whatever mood she was in. To bad I can't keep her on it for a few hours :-)
This other picture I thought was so cute of Hannah. She finally looked at me (which never happens when I am taking her picture). But this time I got her!
On one of the blogs I look at, they featured someone that makes simple ribbon barretts. They were super cute, but the problem was she was charging $8 a piece. I thought "are you kidding me" I can make those and so I did. I went and bought some cute ribbon and purchased some alligator clips on ebay and with some glue ... WA-LA! They are super easy to make and cost about $.75 each. I have about 6 sets to go with any outfit my daughter might have and I will make more anytime I see cute ribbon. This is so much fun!
I have to thank that person for the idea (whoever she was, I don't remember where I saw the barretts) .... it is a cute one.
This is what I found on the computer this morning. My husband gave the "Which M&M are you" a try and this is what he created. Spittin' image. Although I am not sure why his arms are green...hhhmmm.
BYU magazine featured the woman who started a website called The Mommy Times So, of course I checked it out and fell in love with it. It is clean and easy to get around and it was a wide variety of interesting, useful and fun topics (and non-religious). It is a nice way to take a little break every once in awhile. Check it out and see what you think.
My sister (thanks Jill) led me to this. Hannah created this M&M all by herself (well mostly). Introducing the HANNAH M&M! I am digging the tiara with the birks. Nice touch. And of course the ice cream, she had to have ice cream.
You can do the same at M&M.com
Here is how I found Ella the other day after her sister had some time with her. She is covered in stuffed animals fast asleep. She looks so content.
I thought this would be fun to see how Hannah was grown up through the years - month by month. It is interesting to see the slight changes and also the big changes all in one spot. I should do years 2 to 3, but this took long enough. I might add on later. Click on the image to make it bigger.
Okay, not really. We just give them out. I am in charge of birthday's for our church's primary (for kids 4-11 yrs old). We decided last year to give them a coupon which allowed them to get a treat from our bishop and a hand shake on their birthday. Here is the coupon each child gets. Pretty simple, it could be used for almost anything. Thought I would share.
In this outfit. Hannah now has to have on her princess outfit when we go for walks. Tiara and wand and all. It is pretty cute though and luckily when people drive by the give me that look of "ahh, I've been there). So, here are a few pics from the other day. (I played around with photoshop on each one - so they are all slightly different).
I found this great visually stunning online magazine about everything SMALL (mostly kids stuff). It is a fun little artistic magainze with little nuggets of goodies. Like the sundress in the picture above. It includes the pattern on page 61. I am definitely making it when my fabric arrives. I just bought this great vintage material off of ebay and it will be perfect for this dress. I love when you find things like this online, so I had to share.
I was searching the web and came across this old-timer
Snoopy Sno Cone Machine . It brought back a wave of memories of my sisters and I trying with all our might to produce one snow-cone to eat. But when we had enough "sno" oh, how good it tasted! This little machine was a huge part of my childhood growing up and it is good to see an old friend :-)
I was in Michael's yesterday and saw this book The Best Bake Sale Ever Cookbook. My daughters weren't allowing me to browse, so I just saw the cover and thought to myself... I think I would like that book. Well, I found pictures of it online and now I KNOW I want that book. I love baking. But it is also ALL ABOUT THE PRESENTATION! This book has that too. Can't wait to go back to Michaels to get it.
This time it is my siblings I am referring to. After the photo clean-up. I had to post my most favorite pictures of my siblings. Every time i see these photos - a smile comes to my face. I love them mostly because they remind me of the good times I always have with my siblings. Love you guys!
It is birthday time in our household. My daughter's bday is coming up and here are the invites to the shin-dig. They were printed on magnetic paper, so her friend's can put them on the fridge as a reminder of the big day. They turned out better than I thought... now for the rest of the party.
As you can tell, we are having a Curious George themed party... messes and all.
I have about 5 shoe boxes full of pictures from high school to about 2004 (everything else after 2004 is digital). So, many photos! Many of them I don't even know why I kept. Either I don't know who is in the picture or you can't see anything because they are so dark, etc. So, I have been spring cleaning my pictures and putting them in photo albums (the ones that matter). Well, this has caused me to reminisce about my past life. Mostly family trips (since that is a huge portion of my pictures). Here are (what I like to think) great photos of just some of the places we have been.
This is from back in October. The shadows aren't great on their faces, but I love the picture of the two of them and it looks so summery, even though it is fall. Enjoy!
I love when people make cheap, easy things look expensive. I highlighted Matthew Mead site a few weeks ago, but I discovered this great cake on his site. It is quite easy and cheap to make, but you would never guess it.
Fancy French Fruit and Cookie Cake
YOU WILL NEED:
Yellow cake mix, prepared in two 8 inch rounds
Fancy Pirouline Cookies (2 boxes)
Fresh raspberries, strawberries, blueberries (2 cups total)
Fresh purple grapes (3 small clusters)
3/4 inch gross grain ribbon (12 inches)
1 container prepared frosting, vanilla
2 cups Bird's custard mix, prepared
Place cake round on cake stand and top with 1 cup custard mix... top with second layer. Frost sides of the cake with prepared icing. Press cookies into the icing to surround enitre cake and tie with ribbon. Cover the top of the cake with custard and arrange fruit. Serve cake immediately and store remaining cake in the refrigerator.
Okay, if you love cute fabric like I do, then you are going to love this guy. Michael Miller Fabric has some of the cutest fabrics out there. Everything from romantic to retro and geometric to playful. I love his stuff, so it is time I make somethings using his fabric.... I just have to! i will show you when i get it done, it could take awhile, since I have to find the time and what I will be making (well, I will be making it up). But if I complete it and it looks good you will see a lot of them on my little girls.
Psst... search his name on ebay and you can get fabric super cheap!
We came across these interesting wind "chimes'. Well, they aren't really chimes. They just spin in the wind. They were pretty cool though and they had hannah mesmerized. I thought it made a cool picture. So, here you go.
Last of the Easter festivity pictures. Here is Hannah decorating eggs for the first time. She loved it as she put eggs in every color of dye she could find. It was a success for all involved.
My sister found this great site and I had to share with those that visit my blog. Dresses that are adorable and modest. Check out their mission for fashion Shabby Apple and then check out their clothes.
Honey, take note. This dress would be a great Mother's Day gift! oh, and don't forget the black dangling earrings :-)
At the carnival this weekend, hananh rode her first pony. His name was KitKat. She was very excited about it and doing well, until KitKat sneezed. That made her nervous, but eventually she relaxed and had a blast. She was telling her Nana about the experience and told her that she rode a horse and a unicorn. That is because KitKat was white.
Also, the other night for Family Home Evening, we were reading an illustrated Book of Mormon. We were reading about Lehi's Dream and she said "the people in the building are laughing at me". The crazy thing is, I dont' think we have read that story for months. But she remember the people laughing.
Another funny saying. Hannah woke up the other day and started walking around the house saying "Gosh dangit". Over and over again and with gusto. I told her, we probably didn't need to say that and then realized I must say that quite often, if she chose to repeat that particular saying.
Last story. The other night Hannah and I were playing Hi-Ho Cherrios. We had to play on my lap, because i was holding Ella too. Hannah starting climbing all over me, so I shoved her off (not too hard). She quickly said "mommy, don't push me like that. I was only playing the game." She was right, I shouldn't have shoved her off. I apologized and was reminded my little girl is growing up.
The town over from us (Clovis) has a yearly event called Big Hat Days. They turn the town center into a big carnival/festival. With rides, food and booths. We went and had a great day. Hannah had so much fun on the carnival rides and the bounce house. So, here is alittle something to capture the day. The funny thing about this event - not many big hats, go figure.
I came across this on another blog and I fell in love with it. I wish I had some place in my house to put it, but unfortunatly I don't. Someday, I will have this in my home (mark my words), since, we are all about family. Check out the website Wonderful Graffiti , there are tons of great ideas.
This is why I don't do traditional scrapbooking. I started this project a year ago and just finished it last week. It consists of 12 very small pages that I didn't have to decorate. I only had to cut out a picture to fit the page. So, imagine if I had to do a whole album or just a few pages... I would be in some serious hurt. But I like how it turned out and it chronicles Hannah's life month by month during 2006. So, for all you non-scrapbookers out there... here is a simple and somewhat easy idea.
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