Mother's Day

Mother's Day was great.
Saturday, Dustin and I spent most of the morning in Las Vegas, where we attended the wedding of our cousin and his sweet bride! The sealing, performed by Grandpa Whitney, was wonderful. I always love to hear the blessings and promises of the sealing covenants that we made, (almost 9 years ago!) again. After the temple, we went to Lowe's and got my Mother's Day present.. new fans for my living room!!

Sunday morning, Dustin got up early with Johnny and made breakfast while I showered and got ready for church. The kids were all angels and doted on me and showered me with love and kisses. They even cooperated long enough for a photo!!

This Sunday was also my first day as the new Primary secretary. That was a whirlwind of fun! I have a whole new respect for Primary Presidencies (or any presidency.. or any church calling really) now that I'm having more "grown up" callings. Its truly an honor to work with the children in our ward and I'm so excited for the adventure that I'm embarking on!

Allie and Mark (Estefan spent the day with his mom) were able to answer questions about me during Singing Time and this is what they said (in italics):

Mark: My mom is almost 60 years old. My mom weighs 30 and 60 pounds. My mom's favorite color is blue and red. My mom's most favorite, favorite food is macaroni and cheese. My mom always says I love you when I say I love you to her. My mom cooks the best lunch and dinner. My mom's job is to take care of me and my family. My mom laughs when I tell her something funny. If my mom had time, she would love to watch me play baseball with my dad. My mom and I like to sometimes paint together. My mom really loves me giving her something that she likes. I love my mom because she loves me.

Allie: My mom is 26 years old. My mom weighs 78 pounds. My mom's favorite color is red and turquoise. My mom's favorite food is spaghetti. My mom always says she loves me. My mom cooks the best homemade macaroni. My mom's job is she works on the computer. My mom laughs when we tell her funny jokes. If my mom had time, she would love to take me on a girls day. My mom and I like to have a girls day. My mom really loves to go on camping trips. I love my mom because she loves me.

Luke made this super cute hand print flower in nursery!
The flower book was made by Allie in school. The books has pictures and more fill in the blank type things: If I could give my mother something special just from me, it would be a new sapphire ring and a big kiss! I want to thank you, mom, for loving me, giving birth to me, giving me toys. My mother looks prettiest when she goes to church. I know my mother loves me because she takes care of me. She helps me when I am sick. My favorite thing about my mother is she is beautiful. My favorite time together is when we go on girls days and watch a movie at night.

Mark made this in preschool. Best Mom, Hands Down. Mom you bring me mounds (Dustin ate it.. lol) of joy when you make me cookies. You make me snicker when you tell funny things. (Mark stuck on a piece of string for some reason.. silly boy!) You are extra special because you give me money when I work hard for it. Kisses I love you, Mark.

And my Mother's Day scrapbook page!
I fell in love with this template in the Split Pea Soup pack from Little Green Frog Designs over iNSD weekend. I love the circular elements! The design kit is by Megan Turnidge, of course!

The journaling is the words from the song Mother, I Love You from the LDS Children's Song Book.
I love that song and never tire of hearing my kids sing it!! It brings tears to my eyes thinking about my kids singing it in Sacrament meeting and when I remember that Heavenly Father sent them to me. I'm so grateful to be a Mother and for the sweet spirits that I've been given to raise!

Happy Mother's Day!
I love you mom! Thank you mom and all the other wonderful mothers who have influenced me and made me the mom that I am today!!

A Vintage Inspired Sign Tutorial

This tutorial was recently featured on, my sister's blog, Him & Her
and I thought I'd share it on my blog as well! 

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The tutorial that I'm sharing with you today was inspired by the "Life is better on the Farm" sign that I recently made. I painted an old piece of wood turquoise and then added my vinyl and distressed it. After I got it done I was telling Dustin how I wished that I could make the vinyl look distressed like the wood.

He had a fabulous idea to try on our next sign project.. to start we'd paint a piece of wood white, add the vinyl, then paint it our color and finally peel the vinyl off, revealing the white distressed wood instead of the shiny vinyl!

So I immediately started another sign project, that I'm sharing with you today!

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To start you'll need a piece of wood and some vinyl lettering.

1. Spray paint your board white or whatever color you want your text to be.
Distress if desired. Dus thinks its hilarious that I like things to look "old and crappy"! ;)

2. Once the paint dries add your vinyl lettering

3. Outside or in a well ventilated area, spray paint your wood the color you want your sign to end up. Right on top of your vinyl lettering! 

 

4. Before the top coat of paint dries completely, grab some tweezers and start peeling your vinyl off. 

If you wait too long and the paint dries fully the paint may peel off with the vinyl.

5. After your sign dries completely, you can give it a nice once over with a very light grit sand paper and distress the edges with a heavier grit, giving it that fun vintage look.

Here is a close up of the white lettering, after peeling back the vinyl. Love it!!

And a look at where the cute sign sits on the shelf in my kitchen!

The quote we chose is very special to our family. Not only do we love gardening and the literal meaning behind "reaping what you sow" but also the spiritual message behind it.

Dustin was inspired by this Gerneal Conference talk for the quote. 

And I especially loved this segment of President Perry's talk:

One must be impressed with the great message of the Lord’s law of the harvest. His system produces growth, multiplication, and abundant rewards. Surely as we watch the blessings of this growth cycle each year, we would expect His children to catch the vision of their mortal potential. He has entrusted to many of His children during their earthly ministry the opportunity of caring for His special creations—His sons and His daughters. It is surely the greatest of all responsibilities which He has delegated to mankind.

So not only is it a reminder for us to tend to our literal gardens but also that we must tend to our children very carefully. That we and our children may reap the good that we sow in them. 

 Which as President Perry said, "is surely the greatest of all responsibilities which He (our Heavenly Father) has delegated to mankind."

I'm giving away a 10x12 version of the vinyl I used for this project. 
To win click here and leave a happy comment!!

2013 Scrapbook Catch Up!

Whew! I've got the 2013 scrapbook all caught up!

Now I'm working on getting 2011-2012 done... yikes!

Luke turned 2!! Journalling reads:

On January 19, 2013 Luke turned two years old! Luke loves trains, so I made him a train cake that said “Choo, Choo, Luke’s Two.” He wasn’t very sure about the candles again this year and Mark ended up helping him blow them out! Luke got lots of fun toys and presents from his family, including two guns and rubber snakes! We are sure glad we have Luke in our family. We love our Luker man!

Design kit: GG Digital

Template: Cindy Schneider

Back in February, Dustin and the boys.. his dad, my dad, my brother and my grandpa went out to Gold Butte. They all had a blast. They even got to see an Army helicopter hover really close over head.

Design Kit: Etc by Danyale and here

Template: Little Green Frog

These are photos from this post back in March. Journalling reads:

Johnny is eight months old and has mastered standing up! He pulls himself up on everything and anything. He has two bottom teeth now so I can’t call him my one tooth wonder any more!

Design Kit: Megan Turnidge

Template: Megan Turnidge

I planned on making Allie a Christmas dress, but with all the other homemade Christmas gifts I was making her dress kept getting put on hold, so it became a Valentine dress.. it almost became an Easter dress!! But I got it done the day before Valentine's day. I even had a little extra to make myself a skirt to match.

Design Kit: Megan Turnidge

Template: Megan Turnidge

In March we had a Nelson family get together. Journalling reads:

Every year, the Bill and Bonnie Nelson family get together for a family reunion. This year Grandpa Jack was the host, so it was held in Moapa. We had lots of fun visiting and playing at the park. Its good to see our Utah family!

Design Kit: Megan Turnidge

Template: Little Green Frog

In March, we took a quick trip to Cannonville over Spring Break. The kids looooooove going to Cannonville and staying in the cabin. But March is a little early to visit and there was still snow and it was freezing! We were able to make a Mossy Cave hike though. We went to Pine Lake and Tropic Reservoir and the were frozen solid. The kids loved slipping and sliding all over the ice! It was a great trip.

Design Kit: GG Digital

Template: Janet Phillips

Mark turned five this month!! Journalling reads:

Mark turned five years old on April 9, 2013! He requested a mustache cake and a Lego crane for his birthday and he got both! He also received a giant bottle of ranch dressing, a Cowboy Sam book, money and lots of other goodies. Mark is turning into quite the handsome young man. We love our big cowboy!

Design Kit: Megan Turnidge

Template: Megan Turnidge

The fair!!! We love the fair. 

We ate and ate and ate and went on rides til we dropped and watch the rodeo and the concert!

Design Kit: GG Digital

Template: Little Green Frog

 Easter is always a fun holiday. The kids look forward to dying eggs and playing with cousins. And of course all the candy and the egg hunt!

Design Kit: GG Digital

Template: Janet Phillips

 And my baby's 9 month pictures! I had to get him photographed in those construction boots! And we had all the perfect toys and an outfit to go with them.
This photo shoot turned out great for how ornery he was!

Design Kit: Heather Roselli

Template: Megan Turnidge

Now, lets hope I can keep up with 2013 and get 2011-12 done on top of it!!

Happy scrapping!

Johnny | 10 Months

These are actually pictures from Johnny's 9 month photo shoot, but I just got them back and I love them and had to share, and he pretty much looks the same anyway!! 

How was that for a run on sentence??

Johnny turned 10 months old on the 13th.. almost a week ago! 

But I can't keep up with life lately. Its a whirlwind of fun.. and the blog gets little time these days.

At 10 months Johnny

:: has 7.5 teeth

:: is going through a screaming phase

:: loves the bath

:: crawling up stairs (see above photo. eeek!)

:: loves to be outside

:: loves four-wheeler rides

:: hates small animals.. deathly afraid of dogs and cats but will sit on a horse and feed a cow.. lol!

:: got his first hair cut (pictures to come!)

9 Months | The Littlest Cowboy

Johnny is 9 months old!
I can't believe we're only three months away from his first birthday!

Johnny has really gotten big this last month.
He's lost a lot of his little baby qualities and is quickly changing into a toddler!

He's finally sleeping all night again. Yay!!

He's also cutting a second tooth, his bottom right. So he won't be my "one tooth wonder" anymore.

I can't help compare him to Mark and Luke at 9 months -- My boys are little clones of each other!

Love you Little Feller!!

Handy Hubby

The other day, I sold my Kick Off Your Boots sign. 

I loved this sign!! Dustin made it for me, but the brown vinyl just wasn't working in this space.. so I opted to sell it and order new vinyl in black.

As I was taking pictures of the sign, I thought..
Its a good thing I have a handy hubby that will make me a new one!

Then I realized that I had never taken a picture or posted about the boot bench,
right below the sign, that Dustin built too!!

And then I thought,  
Dustin is so flippin' handy! 
He made the bench and so many other things lately, that I haven't even talked about!

So this post is what ensued... enjoy!

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Here is a close up of the fabulous boot bench in our mud area/backdoor. 

(Boots By the Backdoor, anyone??)
I'm thinking a double decker like this might be in order, if we keep having kids!

He also built the hat/coat rack on the adjacent wall.
He's built a couple others, in the office, for backpacks as well.

This is the corner by the backdoor where shoes, coats, hats, backpacks, spurs and the like get thrown down!

Since I was taking pictures of the house, I had to document my new paint in the kitchen! 

I've been begging and pleading for Dustin to paint our kitchen, for a while.. but as it would seem I have him on lots of other projects!

But he just finished it about a week ago! I love the color!!!

The next thing in my kitchen, that my handy hubby made, is this awesome chalkboard calendar.
He used chalkboard paint and stuck it in a frame for me.
The cans are just old veggies cans and hold our chalk, pencils and pens.
Everything is stuck to the fridge with magnets or velcro tabs.

I've really needed a place to hang all my necklaces. This would be ideal but I don't have room for it. So I asked Dustin to just build the bottom part. He did a great job! Now my necklaces don't get tangled!!

The boys were in serious need of some kind of bookshelf in their room. But since space was limited I knew a wall mount was needed. I showed Dustin this picture and said, "build this please!"
And he came up with this great shelf!

Mark keeps it full of hunting, rodeo and fourwheeler magazines as well as some classic Dr. Suess and the like.

And last but certainly not least! Luke's new big boy bed!! 

Dustin made it using wood from an old fence that used to be in our backyard.

I made the bedding to match Estefan and Mark's.

Up close of the head board. So sweet.

And here is my handy hubby!! 

I love him so much.

Did I mention he's not only handy but also very good looking. 

The fact that he changes diapers and helps clean just raises the bar even further.

Man... maybe I need to start pulling more weight around the place!

Love you babe! Thanks for all you do!

Spring Garden

I'm so excited, we've got our garden ready to plant!

We've been working the soil and preparing the seeds.

This is a double page layout I put together. 

They are supposed to line up right next to each other, but I split it for preview sake.

Journalling reads:

Every Spring, we plant a garden and this year was no different. First we have to prepare the ground by tilling under last seasons crops. Then we level it and dig furrows. Once the ground is ready we plant the seeds and the starts. We love this time spent together, working in the soil. The kids love it too. They have hiding places in the palm trees and play tractors in the dirt. Even Johnny was big enough this year to crawl around and chew on rocks. We all work together to get the job done. Then when harvest time comes, we can enjoy the fruits and veggies of our labors. Its a good time to grow as a family, as we learn the importance of teamwork and hard work!  

Design Kit Credit: Chelle's Creations Grandpa's Garden

Golden Girl's Grandpa's Farm