Visions of Sugarplums

One of my favorite new traditions that my family has done the last three or four years is decorating trees for the Festival of Trees! I love to decorate and wish that I had more money to be able to buy or make things for my home. This is a great way for me to get to do that a little bit. It's so fun to go shopping and buy all the things you would like to use for a dream tree of your own and put it all together. I realized that this could be my last year because we'll be moving away, and I will miss it so much next year when I hear about my mom and sisters doing their trees. I was able to do a full sized tree and a smaller alpine tree. The Festival of Trees opens today and goes through Friday from 10:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m. all week long. Try to stop by and check out all the beautiful of trees and help support the Development Workshop. Steph and I are also selling our crocheted earrings that you can find here at the Festival of Trees Boutique. This is the smaller tree that I did at about midnight-2:00 a.m. I'm so glad that Jess, Steph, and Katie were able to help me get it done! I love this color combo; I would probably do a tree like this if I could spend a bunch of money on mine.

"Visions of Sugarplums"

When we went to Taipan Trading to get our stuff for our tree Olivia told me that she really wanted to do lime green and plum for the tree and I was a little reluctant because I had other ideas in mind, but I ended up loving the colors. Of course Livi was really proud of the fact that it was her idea and likes to rub it in my face. Oh well. My good friend, Jessica, was able to come help us decorate and it was so fun to talk and hang out with her.

My uncle Dave and aunt Janell with their tree. I think that Dave is trying to look as manly as possible because he had just helped Janell with her tree, but I think it's cool that he was willing to help her. It looked beautiful, Dave! :)

"Merry and Bright"

Becca and Steph's tree was so beautiful. I loved the color combo and the bird cage with the little nest and birds inside. They always do a great job.

a fun Halloween weekend

I always love when Halloween falls on a weekend. We had a party with my family on Thursday evening and on Halloween we went trick-or-treating to my grandparent's and Tyler's aunt's. I always remember wanting to go over to see my grandparents on Halloween and show off my costume. I know it always meant a lot to them to have us come over then and I know it still does. This year was a little more fun than last year because Jacoby could actually hold a sack and carry it to the door. I remember last year all we did was dress him up as a monkey and stay home. :) He looked really cute as a lion I thought. My brother, Thomas, was a lion once when he was little and my mom always said it was adorable so she helped me make the mane. I want to try to find that picture of Tom and send it to him with a picture of Jacoby. I hope that everyone had a nice Halloween weekend!
My friends used to call me Mufasa in high school because of the big hair, so this is for you guys:

Mufasa and Simba :) At our Halloween party we played carnival games. For Steph's prizes she had these sticker mustaches...I know, we are dorks. We always do this smile too; it's an inside joke that I'm not telling you guys about. :)
For my carnival game we did a donut eating contest. I hate to brag, but I'm GOOD at eating contests because I love to eat. Well I was doing pretty good, but you see that donut above my head that Devan is eating? It fell in my hair! Well that's my excuse for letting Lonnie beat me. Ha ha.

When we were at my parent's I looked over and saw that Jacoby had a sucker in his mouth. I asked everyone if they had given it to them and they said no, so I went over by the candy bowl and there was the wrapper on the ground. That little thief! Well he loved it so who cares.

This is Jacoby's new toy! He was always playing with our broom and I didn't really like that, so his Grandma Roe picked him up this broom. He doesn't really like toys very much, but he loves just regular things that we use all the time. Funny kid!

Subway

Subway is having buy 1, get one free today for customer appreciation! I heard it on the radio today, so my mom, Steph, and I ran over there for lunch. On the radio they said it was going on all over Southeastern Idaho. Just wanted to let you all know!

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. :)