jack o'lanterns, earrings, & my boy

Awhile back I was told about this awesome blog and I found this great idea for some Halloween decorations, so during the priesthood session a couple weeks ago my mom, sisters, and I made these jack o'lanterns. It's such an easy craft to do and very cheap. You will have to check out her blog, she has many great ideas.
Pictures of these cuties in the dark....blurry. Pictures with the light on.

Steph and I have recently started making these fun crocheted earrings. We have started a blog called "String and Bling," so you'll have to check it out here. We have lots of fun colors: raspberry, dandelion, oatmeal, shadow, marshmallow, lilac, ruby, rose, chocolate, and honeydew. Here's Steph modeling the honeydew for ya.

I haven't done a monthly update of Jacoby since he turned one, so now that he's 14 months I wanted to remember all the fun things he's doing now.

-Dancing to music, and dang he's a stud when he dances.

-Climbing and FALLING. He climbs up on the couch, trunk, chairs, and hearth.

-Sleeping so well through the night, from 8:30 pm-8:30 am.

-Says day doo(thank you), mamma, and dadda.

-Holds my hand when we walk.

-Puts things back where they go. He loves playing with our pans and so he had them out in the kitchen and all of a sudden he went over to the cupboard where they are kept and opened it and set it inside; I was thrilled. And another time I was going through my coupons and he wanted to "play" with them, so I handed him one I didn't need and he went over to where the garbage is and waited for me to open it, because it has a child safety lock, and threw it away. That smart little devil.

-Gives kisses, only with his mouth w i d e open.

He's a lot of fun and keeps us very busy. He's so hard to get pictures of now because as soon as I set him down where I want him and am ready to take the picture he stands up and tries to run grab the camera, so I mostly have really close up shots. :)

more good news

Last weekend I got together with my sisters and mom during the priesthood session. I always look forward to hanging out with them during that. We worked on some Halloween crafts that I found on a blog, so I will have to post pictures when we get them finished. It was nice because we had the guys watch the kids from 4-6 while we did our craft and then we met them at Arctic Circle to get the kids and then they all played on the toys and we ate. After dinner we went to Deseret and Robert's. It was fun to hang out with the girls all night. My mom took this cute picture of Jacoby and Johnny in their matching shirts. Funny story...I had bought Jacoby some clothes at Target and was telling Becca about them and she said she had a green shirt for Johnny too and it sounded like the same one. So when she was coming last weekend, I called her to tell her to have Johnny wear his green shirt and Jacoby and him could match and she said she was already planning to. We were pretty much on the same wavelength. Ha ha.

They're cute. Today I made mint brownies! They are pretty tasty, but take a little bit of time. I'm way too nice, I let Jacoby lick the beater. He went to town.
We went to the park the other day and it was pretty chilly, but he loved getting out of the house.

I'm loving being done with school and being able to hang out with this kid all day long.

More good news: Tyler was accepted to Kirksville! It's a really great school in Missouri and we have heard so many great things from people that have gone there. Way to go Ty! He's still waiting to hear back from another school and then we can really start deciding, so stay tuned.

Midwestern University

Last Friday while Tyler was on his trip to Missouri and Iowa for his interviews he received a phone call from Midwestern University saying he had been accepted to their school. We were all so excited and so relieved. It's nice to know that he has been accepted somewhere and now we can really start looking into the area and see if it's somewhere we want to go. Tyler really liked it down there when he went last week. I'm so proud of him and the hard worker that he is, what a wonderful accomplishment. He should be finding out in the next couple weeks if he gets accepted to Kirksville or Des Moines and then we can start to look into things more and really decide where we want to move. He had an interview lined up in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, but he decided to turn those down now that he has been accepted somewhere. I'm glad that he's done with his trips because I've really missed having him around the last couple months. Tyler's dad went with Tyler on two of his trips; I'm so glad that he was able to go with him. I really wanted to go to with him on this last trip, but he had to drive a ton and we knew that Jacoby would have a really hard time. We decided it would just be too hard, so I just stayed at home. He had a really great time and enjoyed both schools down there too. We will see what happens. Now this is all starting to feel more real!!! Congrats Tyler! You're the best.

just a few things

Tyler just got back from two interviews at med schools in Arizona. He felt like things went well, so we'll see what happens. I went and stayed with my parents for a couple days and it was nice spending time with them. Tyler heads to Missouri and Iowa next week for a couple more interviews. He's has worked so hard on getting things ready for medical school while still going to school. We are really proud of everything he has done. It will be nice to find out where we are going to be living for the next four years. We'll keep you posted. I love this picture of Jacoby. He looks like such a little frog and especially with that green, gingham outfit.

I love to have cards on hand when things come up, but it seems like I never have the right card that I need. Well I finally decided to break down and do a bunch. There's still some events that I've probably missed, but this covers most of them.

A lady I work with asked me to make carmel, chocolate pretzels for her son's wedding. Her colors are pink, black, and white, so I thought these heart sprinkles would be great. It was fun to make these, but I ended up having to make two flippin' batches because a few pans of pretzels fell out of the freezer and broke. I was so mad!!! Thanks to my mom and all her help we got them finished finally.

I really love cupcakes right now. There's this great little cupcake cafe up here called the Cocoa Bean and they have the best cupcakes. I tried to copy them with these red velvet cupcakes.

We had Travis, Betsey, and Savannah over for dinner the other night and it was a lot of fun. They're all going to school up here too and it's so nice to have them so close. We had a great time visiting and playing games. I love having people over for dinner, but then I realize how small our apartment is. We had to use our computer chair and rocking chair to have enough chairs to sit up to the table. Ha ha.

back to scrapbooking

It's been awhile since I've been able to scrapbook very much and I've missed it! So in the last few days I did these two pages. I'm trying to finish up some pages for Jacoby's 6 months-1 year scrapbook so that I can get my Shutterfly book ordered. I just got back his birth-6 months and it turned out pretty nice. There were a few mistakes, but now I know how to fix them and this next one should turn out better.

This is Jacoby's birthday layout. I loved the pictures of him eating his cupcake.

We haven't had a family picture taken in awhile, so I was anxious to scrapbook it. This picture was taken at my brother-in-law's wedding reception. Plum, robin egg blue, and yellow were their wedding colors and they were beautiful so I used the colors for this page too.
I had another family challenge with my sisters and mom. I love doing the challenges because it motivates me to get a page done and FAST!

Here are their pages:
Becca's page
Steph's page
my mom's page

WEDDING & A GIVEAWAY

My brother-in-law, Travis, got married last Friday. It was a really nice day for them. The ceremony was very nice and they both looked so happy. They had so many people there supporting them too. The reception was at a family friend of Betsey's and the house and yard were so beautiful! It was a really nice evening and the reception was gorgeous, and man they had some great food! They had cupcakes from the Cocoa Bean, those are my all time favorite. We're so excited to have Betsey in our family. They're living at our apartment complex, so we're excited to have them so close by!

Our family at Trav's reception

The Bride and Groom cutting the beautiful cake.

Taylor, Travis, and Tyler

Jacoby & Travis

GIVEAWAY

I just wanted to let you guys all know that my aunts are doing a giveaway on their blog for a free watch. They do the cute beaded watches that are so popular. So head over to their blog right here and leave a comment to be entered into their contest.

check out my bike

Well I know it's been a long time since I blogged and I'm real sorry. I just haven't really felt like it lately, but I'm going to try to be better! It's been hard because we've been running all over the place, we've been back and forth from Idaho Falls and Rexburg. August is a month full of birthdays on my side of the family. Jacoby kicks us off, then a week later is Eden's, mine, and then Johnny's. I still wish that Johnny would've been born on my birthday, but it was the day after so that's cool too. My aunt Janell and cousin Nic's birthdays are the day before mine and I always thought that was fun, so hopefully Johnny will too someday. Well I had a really nice birthday. My birthday was on Sunday, so after church we went to my parent's for dinner. A few days before my birthday I begged my mom to make me peach cheesecake, my very favorite, so Steph made the cheesecake and my mom made the tasty peach topping. After cake we went to Tyler's house to stay the night. Debie also made me a very yummy cake! I received lots of nice gifts from everyone, so thanks a lot.
My parents gave me a bike and I'm so thrilled! For Jacoby's birthday they gave him this great bike seat. I hadn't ever seen or heard of the seats in front, but my cousin's wife, Kirsten told me how much she loved hers so I thought it would be great. I took Jacoby on a ride today and it was really fun, but man it seems like I'm always going uphill here in Rexburg. Ha ha. Hint hint, need to start working out!
This video of Jacoby is hilarious!! He's just laughing and screaming and he's so proud of himself, I'm so glad I got a video of this!

Happy Birthday Jacoby

I can hardly believe that Jacoby is one; this last year has just flown by. I have loved watching him grow and do new things, but I'm so sad that he's growing up. I love being a mother; I have never felt so much joy in my entire life.
We had a couple parties for Jacoby and he was pretty dang spoiled. I was going to take a picture of everything he got so that we would remember, but there are some things that aren't here yet. He got a bike seat to go on my bike, a helmet, a little train toy, cars, stuffed giraffe, clothes, and some other fun toys. It's fun for him to get some toys and have new things to play with. Thank you everyone for the nice gifts.
We had a family reunion for my mom's side of the family at Downata Hot Springs this weekend. We've been there a few times before for reunions and it's a lot of fun. Thankfully Jacoby slept really well in the tent. On Friday we went swimming for most of the days and Tyler likes to tease me about acting like a little girl when I go swimming, but I just love it. Becca and I went down the waterslides and I would stop in the middle and wait for her to catch up and we would go down together, we're such rebels I know. They didn't even say anything to us because I think they figured we were too old to be doing it on purpose; we sure fooled them. Ha ha. I really love my family and it was great to spend time with them. On Friday night we had a little party with my family for Jacoby's birthday.
Yesterday Tyler's parents had a barbeque for his birthday and that was a lot of fun. This post has a lot of random pictures from Jacoby's birthday and my reunion.

This is the best picture I could get of Jacoby on his birthday. Everytime I got the camera out he would chase after me and try to grab it. Ha ha Jacoby sure liked his cupcake and he almost ate the whole thing.

Opening presents
Jacoby is getting so good at walking and is super fast. I thought this was a cute picture of Annie and him at the reunion. Annie is such a great helper with the grandkids and will play with them and help take care of them whenever we need her to.

Jacoby is now facing forward in his carseat and we are loving it. It just makes it so much easier to take care of him in the car and he loves to be able to see everything. On the way to the reunion he was getting pretty fussy so I pulled out the camera to take a picture and he got this huge smile on his face, man I've got him trained pretty well.

These are the monkey cupcakes that I made for his birthday. My cousin, Hailey, made some for her son's birthday and I thought they were darling.

I'm done with my internship!!! It's such a relief, I can't even tell you. It was so hard for me to be away from Jacoby for 45-50 hours a week, but it was well worth it. I learned so much and made some great friends. In the beginning I had just planned on doing my internship and being done for good, but then I decided to work Tuesdays and Saturdays for a little while. It will be good to keep up my skills and make a little money. I didn't want to work if Tyler couldn't watch Jacoby, so it should work out that he can watch him and I'm so glad. I can't even tell you wonderful it was to have Tyler watch Jacoby while I was working. He took such great care of him, always had dinner ready when I got home, cleaned the house, and even organized closets and cupboards. I knew that he would do a good job, but I didn't know that he would be this awesome, I feel pretty lucky. This past month has been one of the hardest months of my life, and I'm so glad it's over. I'm so glad that I'm a woman and that I get to be a mother and stay at home with Jacoby and that Tyler wants to get a career and provide for our family.

what we've been up to

I don't know if I've ever gone this long without posting. Wow. Right now I'm doing my internship at a doctor's office in Rexburg. It's been one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, just because I have to leave Jacoby. When you're used to being with your baby everyday, it's definitely an adjustment. I'm trying to get it done quickly so I'm working nine hour days. It did work out pretty well because I have the best babysitter I could have ever hoped for, Tyler. He has a seven week break before fall semester starts so we decided this would be the best time for me to do my internship. I've learned a lot while working, but it's been hard for me to enjoy it because I miss being a mom so much. I will be done August 13th and I can't wait; I'll be completely done with school. Tyler and Jacoby have been having so much fun together; Tyler is such a great dad. As soon as I'm done working, I'll be able to get back to blogging more. I'm counting down the days, that's for sure. :)

11 Months

I should have done this post a few days ago, but I haven't had the time. Jacoby is getting more and more fun everyday. We can't believe that he's almost one. WHAT? He's doing a lot of fun things right now that I want to remember. I got pictures of a few things, but these are the ones I didn't such as: walking, driving objects around on the ground like they are cars, and likes to be chased.

He's drinking milk out of a sippy cup and doing really well with that.Pushing his stroller around like a big boy.
This is just a picture of him walking.

He likes to play around in our entertainment center.

He still loves his binkies. I like to give him a few binkies and watch what he does with them. He'll just sit there and switch them around. Ha ha.

WALKING ALREADY

Our little boy isn't seeming so little anymore; he can walk! Yesterday he took his first couple steps and today he has taken a lot more. I can't believe it. I think about how long it seemed like I was pregnant, like it was never going to end, but ever since he was born it has flown by. It's fun to see him reach milestones, but I feel like he is growing up too fast. This is a pretty cute video I must say. :)

Fourth Fun

We had a wonderful Fourth of July! The fourth is probably my second favorite holiday; there's always so many fun things going on and it's so relaxing. We started out the day by going to Tyler's parent's for a yummy breakfast. Then we went to Taylor's baseball game; he did great and they killed the other team. After the game we went to the Iona Square for a barbeque with my mom's family. I always look forward to this barbeque because we have lots of good food such as: homemade rootbeer, french fries, homemade donuts, and other yummy things. We played a little wiffleball and then we went down to the river to hang out before the fireworks. I love the fireworks!!! I miss Wayne Richards though, he was the best d.j. on KLCE; it just wasn't the same without him. It was fun to watch Jacoby during the fireworks; he thought they were pretty awesome. However, he fell asleep about ten minutes into it. We had such a good time. I'm so grateful to live in America and enjoy the freedoms we have here.

This is a layout of our family on the Fourth of July. We saw Tyler's good friends, Josh and Lindsie Curtis and their cute baby girl, Lola
This is Taylor just about reading to swing.

Taylor does really well pitching; it's always fun to go to his games.

Before I forget, the funniest thing happened to me today. I haven't been feeling very good the past few days so today while I was running errands I decided to pick up a pizza at Papa Murphy's. I had Jacoby with me and so my arms were pretty full trying to carry him and the pizza out to the car. So I get out to the car and set the pizzas on the ROOF of the car. Oops! Then I hop into my car and speed off. Ha ha. As I'm driving by the park, this lady was frantically waving at me and I thought she must be telling me to slow down or something so I glared at her and glanced into my rear view mirror to see something that looks like garbage flying from behind the car. CRAP! I realized that it was the pizza!!! I turned around quickly and jumped out to see if my pizza was edible still. It didn't look too bad and I was very relieved because I would have been very grumpy and wouldn't have bought another one or made anything for dinner. Yay! That was very nice of the lady to flag me down. Silly me!

another challenge

Yesterday I decided I wanted to do another scrapbooking challenge with my mom and sisters so I picked a fun layout I had seen someone else do and we lifted her. (This means that we do a scrapbook page similar to her's) We only have an hour to do it and it's so fun because we meet in a chat room and talk about it first, set the timer for an hour, and post our page. It's a fun hobby to share with my family. They did some great pages so I had to share.

Steph's: Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

Eden is such a smarty pants. I love how you can see her saying the words

in the picture as well. Mom's: Ice cream

These pictures made me sad because they were taken the weekend before Thomas left and we had such a fun day together. I miss him like crazy.
Becca's: Six Months
I think the bottom right picture is especially adorable. He's darling!

Mine: Love You

I also did this page not to long ago. These pages will be a two page spread in Jacoby's first year scrapbook.