Family Pics

My Dear talented friend Ciara Richardson did our family picts back on September 1st. She did such an amazing job I am in love. I can't wait to print and frame them. The only problem i am having is I literally want to print every single one. Oh well! I guess that is a good problem to have!

Take a peak and let me know what you think!

My New Love

So - l learned how to eye lash extensions last fall and have been doing them for my sisters and super close friends just whenever they want them. These last two months I have been insanely busy doing them. The best part? I LOVE doing them! I am a perfectionist when it comes to lashes and my clients can tell. I keep getting referrals and that makes me so happy! I feel bad that I am not a licensed esthetician and am doing them out of my house. But who can feel too bad about make $35-$40 an hour. Plus Utah is trying to remove that law - so hopefully that happens soon =) I usually just do them during Rafe's naps so that has worked out perfectly for me. For Crey's birthday I was able to surprise him with $500 from lashes (and a small portion of a wedding photography deposit) so he could buy his ski pass to Basin! He was sooooooo surprised and so excited. He is ridiculusly difficult to surprise so I always feel so accomplished when I can pull it off successfully! I recently did a few more of my friends lashes, so if you follow my blog and want to let me know how your babies are holding up! Feel free!

Decorating on a Dime!

A good friend of mine planned to have her wedding reception in my parents backyard earlier this week. A few days before the wedding I took a tour of my parents yard and decided some garden decor was desperately needed. The problem? She had basically used her entire wedding budget up. So I decided to challenge my DIY abilities and told her if she could give me $70.00 I could do some fun, colorful, large decorations. She accepted and I went to work!

Listed are the 10 different garden accessories I was able to put together!

1. For this super fun and modern decoration I snagged a picture frame mat from Hobby Lobby for $1.50 then I also grabbed some crepe paper for the rosettes which was $1 a bag. I purchased a bag in all 3 colors (other 2 colors not shown here) Total for this item $4.50



2. If you love this elengant classy look you are in luck! I found this fabulous mirror frame at Ikea for $3 and picked up the felt at Joann's for $1. Total on this item $4.



3. I happened upon these beautiful and spacious yellow lantern balls at Hobby Lobby. They are originally $6.99 for a set of 3 which would still be a good deal but I got them on sale for 40% off which made them $4.20 for the set of 3! Score!!! I bought 4 sets. Total for these items $16.80 (for 12 gigant yellow lantern balls!)




4. Tissue balls! They seem to be the craze this year. I purchased tissue paper in 3 different colors each bag of tissue was 20 sheets/1.00 I was able to make about 3 balls per 7 sheets of tissue paper, so almost 9 balls per $1.00 Overall super inexpensive and so vibrant! I bought 2 bags of each color. Total for this item $6.00



5.These gorgeous white lantern lit balls came from Ikea! They were only $3.00 each and that included the light! I bought 4 to hang in the tree as people exited my parents yard. Total for these items $12.00





6. For the fun, old, recycled look I used salvaged picture frames and broken windows. These were free!



7. By far one of my favorite purchases to date! I found these adorable birds at Honks around the corner from my house. They came in 4 colors and 2 different sizes. I bought 8 of the larger ones and each smaller set of birds came in a set of 2! These would be so adorable covered in modge podge and scrapbook paper! They can be repainted and customized to match any wedding colors! Total for these items $12.00



8. Now for these, I had to go a little out of my comfort zone. I knew my budget didn't have enough in it to cover the cost of these beauties so - I called a local green house and asked if they were going to be dumping some flowers anytime soon. I also explained that I was decorating for a wedding and didn't have a whole lot left in my budget. They gave me these flowers out of their dump pile for FREE =) They were going to be dumped just later that week, so it was no biggie for them! I couldn't have been more ecstatic!


9. This terrific trifecta of jars I scored at Ikea for $10 for the set! Total for these items $10.00



10. And last but not least! I so luckily stumbled upon this fake fruit at a garage sale for $2 - I'm not usually a fake fruit kinda girl but these were too big, and colorful to resist. Then to take away the phony fake fill to the fruit i picked up some real fruit at a local grocery store and added it to each of the jars. Each jar has $1 worth of real fruit chopped up and jammed in there. Total for these items $3.00




So how did I do? Let's re-cap. I spent $4.50 for the picture matt and 3 colors of crepe paper
$4.00 for the white mirror frame and felt
$16.80 for the yellow lantern balls
$6.00 for the tissue in 3 colors to make tissue balls
$12.00 for the Ikea white lite up lantern balls
$10.00 for the jars with the fruit in them
$3.00 on fresh fruit to mix with the fake fruit

My budget? $70.00 what I spent? $68.30! My mother would be so proud =)

The Talented Elle

So for LittleMissTutu I decided to team up with the amazing and taleneted Eleanor at http://elleapparel.blogspot.com/ and she did a featured post on us today! Check it out!

Small Leave of absense

So - I have completely neglected my blogging resolution. I have a few good reasons - 1. I now work at the gap super part time... mostly for the discount, but it kinda cramps my style waking up at 5:45... 2. Crey's business is alway slammed around this time of year with renewals and fun customer service stuff and 3rd. I just launched my very own pettiskirt company. www.littlemisstutut.com It has been a crazy little while but so good! We are leaving for Mexico in a week and a half to see Christian (Crey's co-business owner of Aptivada) get married! I am so excited! I will post some fun pics of the wedding!!! Feel free to check out littlemisstutu and give me feedback!!!

Thanks for the fabulous weather we will have a great day out side today and maybe to a few projects around the house. I want to re-decorate Rafe's room and make it more big kid style... =( he is gettings so big! So maybe some fun pics of today's hard work and fun!

St. George in April!

So it's tradition. We go to St. George every year over Easter. This year we went 2 weeks before to support Robert and Ellison on a road bike race they were doing. It was super duper cold while we were there but we still had a blast none the less. We decided to take Rafe to the park and just play! It was so fun!!!

I have been MIA a little over the past 2 weeks... But with good reason =) One of my very best friends of all time had a baby. She lives in Arizona right now =( which I really really REALLY hate! SO on a last minute decision I decided to hitch a ride with my fabulous Aunt and Uncle who just so conveniently happened to be visiting us up here and drove down to AZ and surprised my bestie!

She cried of course. And so did I.

At the very very last second I decided to leave Rafe with Crey and juggle him between our two moms. It worked out perfect and I got to spend 3 days with Hazel and my favorite Cousin who also lives in AZ. While I was down there I decided to do a baby photo shoot of the little

Sofia Reagan Hunt.

She is a beauty. Here are a few of my favs.

Just a fun little side note - We didn't have a tutu or head band for Sofie so we decided to whip these out in no time at all. We headed to Joann's and bought 2 small of tulle and 18 inches of elastic. I think they turned out perfect! Thanks Ash for teaching me how to make these!

A Not so fun side note -

Rafe was really really really sick the whole time I was gone. He threw up until 3:30 in the morning the first night I was gone and was sick clear until I got home. Everyone was a good sport about it though. Crey - his mom and my mom. I am so blessed to have so many great people around me =)

My Biggest Fear

So as of right now there are so many fun and fabulous things that Rafe can do:

He can - say hi, no, don't, mom (of course) dad, kaka, woah, occasionally he will say shoes and cheese, and he tries to say thanks but its just a cute little sounds he makes. This past weekend he started staying Ahhbree. One of my twin little sister's name is Aubree. So i told her he was saying her name and it made her day. A funny little sorry about that. I wanted to show Aubree so I told Rafe to say it and he did... He is quite the little performer =) then I asked him to say Auty (for Autum) and he didn't say anything. Then I asked him to say Brooke - which is my other sister's name and he said KAKA!!! HA HA HA we all laughed so hard. Good times. He can also do the signs for "more" and "all done"! and they are awesome because he knows how to use them and it makes communication for us much much better!

So yesterday at church (9:00 AM church that is! Does anyone know how difficult it is to go to 9:00 church with kids? It's a freakin JOKE! - ) anyway so while we were sitting out in the foyer area Rafe found a new friend. Riley who is 3 and as cute as a button. They were having a blast. Rafe plays up for his age really well, he gets bored with kids his age and younger pretty fast. This Riley character was so great and keeping Rafe so so SOOO entertained. Well there is this stupid totally useless set of stairs that the kids love to play on. The only problem? Riley can go down the stairs facing forward and Rafe can not. I repeat - CAN NOT! He isn't balanced enough, isn't tall enough to reach the bannister, and just doesn't have the leg strength. Low and behold - today I was folding his laundry when I heard the most sickening gut wrenching sound in the whole world. I heard my baby fall all the way down our stairs - only making sounds when the wind was knocked out of him as he landed on another stair. I was franticly screaming his name at the first loud thud I heard but I didn't see him until he was plummeting toward the ground at the bottom of our stairs. Thankfully he only cried for a very brief moment then he reached for Crey which was awesome because he is such a Mama's boy that it was nice to see he really just wanted his dad. The funny thing about Rafe falling down the stairs is I had a terrible feeling like I knew it was coming... I didn't want it to and I was really dreading it but now that it's over with... hopefully I feel a little more at ease when he is on or by the stairs. I really hope he learned his lesson and he doesn't attempt it again.

Rafe Turned 1!

Rafe turned 1 on 12-09-2010

I honestly can't believe he is already one! For his birthday we threw a family party at my parents and had a blast!

First we ate dinner then we decided to do presents! Surprisingly he was pretty excited about the gifts he received and not just the wrapping =). He was spoiled rotten at his party =) he got so many fun gifts. I will try to remember them all!

He got -

An awesome rideable fire engine that he rides everyday! Thanks Grandma Toupin

A fabulous plastic phone that he totes around with him quite often Thanks M.A. and Spence

A fun stackable ring set Thanks Aust and Tara

Some fantastic PJ's and a complete wood block set that he gets out at least once a day to play with - Thanks Grandma Ell

A super cute sweat shirt and fun bouncy ball Thanks Makelle and Michael

A play piano which he loves dearly Thanks Brooke and Dustin!

It's cake time BABY!

Ok as a parent sometimes you invision how you think something will be or turn out or even specific pictures you will take on your child's first birthday. I did not get what I expected...

I got soooooooo much more!

I love being a mom more than anything in this entire world!!!

Grand Targhee!!!!!

It's Tradition!

Every year for the MLK weekend Crey's entire family goes up to Grand Targhee and skis all weekend long! It is always a vacation we look forward to! This year just for kicks I put Rafe on skis and took him on a run. He surprisingly liked it and played with the skis in our room for quite some time after his first ski debut. I think he will be a great skiier! It's just in his blood.

-As far as resolutions go I have done pretty darn good. I didn't blog last week but - I really think I will get better. As I am blogging right now Rafe is standing up on my computer desk patting my computer. It's not safe, it's not practical, and it's not a smart idea. But sometimes as a parent you just do things in order to get things accomplished! This is one of those times.

We purchased a new mattress yesterday from Knight Mattresses. They are going out of business so we got a killer deal. We have been sleeping on my old mattress since I was in Jr. High. It was high time for a new one! We debated over upsizing to a king but decided to stick with a queen. I am generally pretty dang excited to go to bed at night. Rafe just wears me out - but tonight- I am literally counting the minutes until I get to go melt into my new mattress. It will be heavenly!

Goodbye until next week!

Hello 2011!!!

Well that year flew by! I can't believe it's already 2011. Where did the time go?

Well I have decided to make a few

New

Years

Resolutions!

1. Blog once a week. If this is going to be my journal I need to give it a little more TLC.

2. Shave my legs as often as possible - until I can afford Laser Hair Removal. I know this one is gross and weird but it's for Crey (obviously) and I actually take my Resolutions very seriously.

3. Deep Clean/ Organize one thing or part of my house a week.

4. Shoot more in film.

5. Shoot more in general.

6. Cook 3 good dinners a week. This may sound pathetic to some - I would much rather bake then cook but I am really going to try to make better home cooked meals.

7. Keep my car clean.

8. Read my Scriptures with Crey more. We read them separately but I think it would be more fun to read them together.

9. Go to bed at the same time as Crey. He is really a night owl... I mean really.... He often stays up until 2 or 3 AM doing work stuff, so those nights can't count but other than that I think this would be a really fun and positive thing for us.

10. I want to try something new - I heard about this from a friend. Her and her husband set a side 1 hour a night just for the two of them. They can watch a movie, read, or just chat. I love this idea. So I will inform Crey of this later.