{Crafts for Japan Relief}

I have been meaning to post these pictures for about a month now. Sorry I have been so slow.

So the story behind these is: my sister Kelsey and her friends in Chicago decided they wanted to help send relief to Japan. They came up with the idea of hosting a craft bazaar fundraiser. I was asked to help share my talents and be apart of this wonderful event. So I hosted a craft night at my house and had all of my friends here in Atlanta come and help me make necklaces, bows, broaches, and headbands. We were able to accomplish a lot and have a fun girls night. I love to craft and I love being able to share my talents by teaching them to others. 

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Here are some of our creations

 {Bows} 

 Great for headbands or hair

Ryker will love me for this picture someday OK maybe his future wife will love me for it. This picture will be a perfect one on his wedding video! hahah!!! But at least we know now that we will make cute little girls if they look anything like Ryker. 

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This was my favorite bow that I created. I love the fresh watermelon look. Perfect for summer. 

 {Broaches & Headbands}

Broaches are prefect to clip on your shirt, cardigan or bag.

{Necklaces}

Fun way to dress up a simple t-shirt and jeans. 

{Little Girl Necklaces}

My nieces LOVE these!

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I am so happy that the fundraiser was a HUGE success they raised $3,700 to send to Japan. I love serving others and I feel like my life was truly blessed by being apart of this event. 

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Recently Brady and I were talking about what our talents are. This got me thinking what are my talents? This is what I came up with: being a good friend, cooking, and crafting. To some these may not sound like talents because they do not involve singing or playing an instrument but these are the thing My Heavenly Father has blessed me at being good at. Brady then said OK what are my talents? I think a few of Brady's talents are: being patient {something I am not}, always putting others first, playing sports- he is AMAZING {at every sport even if it is his first time playing}, Brady can cheer anyone up and make them laugh, and he has killer dance moves. 

What are your talents? Do you use them? Do you share them with others?

{Sewing Skirts}

I had this CRAZY idea that I should make my Easter skirt.

 A day and a half later this is what I had created. I don't know if any of you sewers are like me and you get super excited about the idea of sewing something, then you start, and then you wonder "what was I thinking?", and then you are happy with the outcome? This is me on almost every sewing project. I hope that someday I will enjoy my projects from start to finish. Someday. 

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I discovering that pockets are VERY difficult and that I struggle with reading patterns. I feel like they are written in Latin. But over all I am very pleased with how it turned out. I learned a lot for the next time I use this pattern. 

Jersey Skirt.

I fell in love with this fabric and knew I could find a {tutorial}online to put it to good use. I LOVE how it turned out and it is super comfortable and will be perfect for the summer. I need to go and get more jersey and make more of these in different colors. 

{Happy Easter}

Happy Easter!

 Our first Easter as a family of 3!

This was our first Easter on our own. I had so much fun making Easter dinner {ham, scalloped potatoes, fluffy dinner rolls, and Brady made a jello salad}. It was fun spending this special Sunday with good friends the Quinn's. I am so grateful for my Savior and his atonement so that I can make it back to live with him and my eternal family.  

{ A taste of our days }

Ryker is super silly.

He LOVES to be tickled by his daddy and thinks it is the funniest thing in the world.

Enjoy his cute little laugh...... Well I was going to load a video but I now understand what you all mean when blogger wont let you upload a video. Lame. I guess you will get to see it another day.

 Tiny may not move very much when he is awake and on the floor but he sure does when he is asleep and in his bed. This is his new preferred way of sleep. One leg up and he has gotten really good at turning his mobile on with is piggies {toes}. He is silly little sleeper and usually has his blanked wrapped around his head when I go in to check on him.  

Last week this toothy, chubby, smiley guy had this picture sent into a baby agent here in Atlanta. So now we wait to see if they think he is as adorable as we do. Who knows you may just see this cute face in an add or on you TV sometime soon. I am not really interested in my baby being a baby famous model or anything. I am more interested in the big $$$$ we could make from it that our family could use while in school. 
Here is to wishful thinking. 

Meet Victor - Ryker's best friend. 
I am not sure why the boys both have such serious faces on because we were all LOVING the pool and sunshine. 
Victor is 3 weeks older than Ryker and the boys have been best buddies here in Georgia. We are VERY VERY sad that he will be moving away from us in just a few weeks. I have decided the worst part of this stage in life is all of my dear friends that we have made here are moving away due to their husbands graduating in May. This next year will be full of making new friends {again} I guess. 

{ Happy Birthday Brady Michael }

Happy Birthday Brady Michael!!

Saturday was Brady's 27th birthday. We had fun celebrating Brady's birthday all week with "birthday week" festivities. My favorite was Friday night we made homemade pizza and root beer and snuggled up and watched Harry Potter  and the Deathly Hallows. It was so much fun to just sit down with Brady and watch a movie. 

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Saturday morning Ryker and I woke up early and decorated the house and made daddy his favorite breakfast - waffles with strawberries and whipped cream. This is what Brady woke up to......

 It was family tradition to decorate your bedroom with streamers on your birthday. I decided to do the whole house for Brady this year. He was super surprised by this. 

  I made this little beauty to use for all of our birthday's. I am very pleased with how it turned out. 

 We surprised Brady with a trip to the driving range. He has not touched his clubs in over a year and a half. The three of us had a blast hitting balls. 

Ryker got pretty good at throwing the golf balls and trying to suck on the club. 

We had all of Brady's school friends over for cake and ice cream and games and it was a total blast. It was a perfect end to a perfect day with my two favorite boys. 

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Brady is such an AMAZING husband, father, and best friend. I am so grateful for all that he does for me and Ryker. We love you Brady Michael!! 

:: cupcakes ::

Last week was my friend's daughter's birthday party and I had the pleasure of helping her make these little beauties. 

 As most of you know I LOVE to cook and LOVE LOVE to bake and make pretty things. The party was at a bounce house called Monkey Joe's. That being said monkeys was the theme. I LOVE how they turned out. So cute AND the kids LOVED them and devoured them at the party. 

 Ryker had a blast just watching all of the kids running everywhere at the party. He was even more excited when I took him down this HUGE slide. 

Sweet Erin tried really hard to get a picture of us coming down the slide and this was the best we could get. 

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I love birthday parties {this week is birthday week for Brady stay tuned next week to see the fun from the festivities I have in store}. Thanks to my lovely sister Kell.a.bell I have already been brainstorming ideas for Ryker's FIRST birthday party. It is going to be a BIG deal. LOVE IT!! 

:: a first for everything ::

I don't know how Brady convinced me into doing this but he did. I cut his hair for the very FIRST time.

 {Before}

 {After}

I know it looks like a monster on the floor. 

 {After}

 I know a bunch of you readers are professional stylist so don't judge too much on my cutting abilities BUT I do feel like I did an OK job for my first time. Brady was great in walking me through what I needed to do. I suppose life is all about learning new things. 

I guess the best part of my new learned talent is I can cut Brady's hair every few weeks and keep it short how I like it!!!!! 

:: my baby is cuter than yours::

All I can say is "STUD MUFFIN"!!! 

This little guy of ours is one good looking guy and always full of smiles and GREAT laughs. 

Ryker got this sweet new hat and sunglasses yesterday and he LOVES them AND he looks super fly in them.  Who says you can't accessorize with a boy?

Sportin it at the park with our friends. Ryker was introduced to gold fish this week and thinks they are wonderful. I love that they invented baby gold fish. They are the perfect size for him and I don't have to break them up for him or anything. 

Brady and Ryker were having a blast working on balancing rings on Ryker's head and seeing how many rings we could put on Ryker's feet before he started to cry. I was impressed that they actually got the whole stack on his head for about a half a second. But they DID IT!!!

Ryker is still not rolling over or crawling but he does wiggle like a worm on his back and can kinda get where he wants. He has now learned how to get to the bookcase and take all of his books off. It was pretty entertaining. 

While watching conference Ryker decided he wanted to help me make necklaces. He thought he was such a big boy for helping me. 

Ryker thinks he is too big for baby food and only likes to eat real food. His favorite is black beans. They are crazy messy and not so fun on the other end of things but he sure does devour them. 

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I love being Ryker's mom and Brady's wife. This is what I have wanted my whole life and I could not be happier. Some days are great and others not so great but that is life full of ups and downs and its all about what we decide to make out it. I love conference and getting to hear the words of our prophet and his apostles. They give me such hope, guidance, reassurance, and praise. It seems like there is something in each talk that applies to my life which helps me to focus and enjoy it that much more. I am so grateful for the gospel in my life and that I get to hear the words of a living prophet of God. Now I just need to take all that I have been reminded of and apply it to my daily life. That is the hard part. I love my Heavenly Father and I am so blessed to have is hand in my life daily. I would not be who I am today without him and I am so excited that His temple will be opening up here in Atlanta in just a few weeks. I have missed going to the temple and can not wait to go often again. 

:: Fun in the sun::

Ryker is more and more fun everyday. He is still very picky when it comes to solids. I don't understand him at all. One day he LOVES something and then the next day he refuses to touch it. He is already SUPER opinionated. But we love this toothy little grin. 

 We are LOVING this spring here in Atlanta. On Saturday it was 80 degrees and we decided that we needed to hit the pool. Ryker was So excited to go swimming. 

The water was FREEZING. Ryker did OK with putting his feet in but when we sat him down he was NOT so fond of that. I am thinking if it keeps up this warm weather for another 2 weeks we will be set to start hitting the pool and not turn into pop sickles. 

Friday was such a nice day we deemed it necessary to have a picnic with daddy at our favorite park after school. Can you tell how excited Ryker was about this? We even got to play a round of bocce ball {Brady killed me} and Ryker had a blast watching us play. He laughed and laughed at us. I am just praying that the blasted misquotes don't come out for a few more months so we can actually enjoy being outside in this beautiful weather. 

:: exercise ::

Why is it so hard to find motivation to exercise? I WANT to keep loosing the baby weight but the last few weeks I have been struggling with the motivation to eat healthy and do my daily exercise. I do best if I go for a run right when I wake up and if it doesn't happen I can't seem to find the desire to get my booty off the couch later in the day.

So I came up with an idea to help myself stay on track {thanks for the idea Kels}I am going to start a sticker chart for exercise and healthy eating. I will get a sticker for:

 every hour of exercise

 every day that I do not eat a treat or have junk food

  drinking 64 ounces of water

 Once I fill up my chart I will get something special for ME. I have not decided what yet. A few ideas are a new outfit, shoes, 1 hour massage, mani/ pedi. So I am hoping that this will motivate me to stay on track with being healthy and being accountable for my daily consumptions. This will be good for me also because I will be running my first 10K with my sisters this summer and I have not been training very diligently lately and I want to do well in this race. 

Wish me luck and here is to being healthy! 

:: special delivery ::

Special Delivery from France. 

Can you tell how excited I am that this lost package finally arrived? My sweet sister Megan who lives in France mailed this to us oh maybe 6 weeks ago and it just arrived today! We have been checking the mail box daily hope to find this special box. 

I love the awesome valentine that my sweet nephew Liam and niece Lyra made for us. Oh and lets not forget the Mi-cho-ko's. Only my favorite French candy. I didn't get the mail until 9:30pm tonight and when I opened these puppies up of course I had to eat them but this meant I broke my no eating after 8pm rule. Oops. But it was SO worth it. 

Moral of the story don't trust the French mailing system. It just might take FOREVER to get to its destination and you are lucky if it actually arrives. 

I miss my sissy and her sweet little ones. I can not wait to see them this summer. All of the sisters are going home to Utah this summer with our kiddos and it is going to be such a blast to have 5 weeks of sister time and hanging out with Nana and Papa. Needless to say we are VERY excited for summer to come. 

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RYKER news: 

He rolled over today for the FIRST time!!!!! 

Now we will see if he does it again. But it was pretty exciting news at our house. He is pretty funny when we make him do tummy time now. He gets super mad and starts scooting backwards while he is screaming. I don't think he even realizes he is moving because he is so upset. It makes for a good laugh for me and Brady. 

:: The bachelor part one ::

Tonight I attended my first ever Bachelor finale party. I have only watched a few minuets here and there of the show so I didn't really know what was going on but it was fun to get together with the girls and hey we got to eat these tasty little tuxedo's. The drama and tears of this show are pretty entertaining to me. 

All of the gals enjoying the show. 

Oh and we can't for get Lucy {the host} sporting a black eye to be cool like Michelle {the CRAZY Utah girl}

Thanks for a fun night girls full of good celebrity gossip and treats. 

 Who do you think will get the final rose next week Emily or Shawntel O?

Who do you think will be the next Bachelorette? 

:: Mardi Gras ::

This past weekend Ryker and I had the wonderful opportunity of going down to New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras with Nana & Papa and my brother Pete and his family. It was fun going back to a place that I have many childhood memories and seeing if my memories match up with the actual places. Good thing is they did!

We had so much fun I had to post all of the great pictures to prove it and share it with ya'll.  

 Ryker and Nana were having fun reading stories while chillin naked. Three thing Ryker baby loves: Nana, being naked {that does not happen often}, and reading books.

 Breakfast at Cafe du monde. Delicious hot beignet's and hot coco. We were covered in powder sugar after wards. 

 Ryker thought they were tasty also.... OK he liked the powder sugar more than the actual beignet. 

 Jackson square on the river walk. The weather was perfect. We had such a wonderful time just walking through the French Quarter and talking about all of our favorite places when we lived here. 

 One of my favorite parts of walking through the French Quarter is listening/ watching the street performers. These guys looked like a bunch of hobo's from the boondocks. 

 At Mardi Gras it is always fun to see all of the balconies in the Quarter decked out in the purple, green, and gold. It is very festive. 

 Nana and Papa at Laura's. The best praline's and candy shop. I love walking into a candy shop the smell is AMAZING! They make the best Mississippi Mud bar. I think it is my new favorite chocolate treat. Yes it was that good! 

 As a child going to the Audubon Zoo was one of my most fond memories. We would go weekly. I was pleased to know that my memories of this happy place were real. Hey and Ryker and I even got to pet this big elephant. That was neat. 

 Ryker loved the zoo. I can't wait to get a zoo pass in Atlanta. I think his favorite part was the petting zoo and petting the goats. He laughed and laughed at petting them. It made my day. 

 Papa had fun helping these little ones climb our favorite climbing tree. My memory of the tree was a bit off but that is to be expected I was 7 when we moved so of course it seemed bigger to me back then. 

Pete being a stud in the swamp.Where I have "fond" but not really memories of Pete and Ben swinging me over the swamp filled with alligators. Yes my big brothers love me!  

 Let the parades begin! Friday night we headed to our first parade right after we stopped at our favorite snowball stand - Van's. They were just as good as we remembered and Joey's teeth are proof of a good snowball. YUMMY!!!

 We made out with all kinds of great beads and toys. They were very generous with their throwings and having the kids is a great bonus for getting all of the goods. 

 Showing off some of great toys. This was before Ryker threw up all over me and himself. What an adventure. Good thing we had our bag with clothes for me to change in the car. 

Oh Jonny boy you crack me up and are always good for a great laugh. 

 Papa and Jon caught this amazing little hat for Tiny. He loved it. 

 Saturday morning we got to take the ferry across the river like the old days. 

 Bell's and Nana got some sweet masks. 

 Pappy was a champ and got these super big white beads for me. I'm not sure how but he worked his charm and got them. Love it. I wish I would have taken a picture of the piles of beads and stuffed animals we got before we packed it all up. It was unreal how much we ended up with. Pete and Shellie had a great idea of what to do with the beads - give them out for Halloween instead of candy. I think it is a brilliant idea. 

 We had such a wonderful trip. It was fun to go back almost 20 years later and see where I grew up. I loved eating the wonderful Cajun food for every meal while we were there. I think that is one of the best parts of vacations is eating the traditional food of where you are. 

It was a great place to visit but I am glad we do not still live in that stinky city. I am so glad that Atlanta does not smell like New Orleans.