Paper Christmas Trees

 While walking down the book aisle at Walmart (something I do every time I go) I saw a craft magazine and on the cover they had a paper Christmas tree. I thought it was absolutely adorable and decided that I had to make a few of my own. They didn't turn out quite like I thought they would and I think they look better from afar, but I am pleased with them. Below is a close-up of one of my trees. I am very excited to use these tress for decorations this Christmas season!  

Craft Fair

Today I went to one of the local elementary schools because they were having a craft fair, it is my first time being to one. I am very excited for the items that I got and the pumpkins are already being used on the mantle. I love snowmen and so I was excited to get more of them to decorate with. I am so thankful for all of the work that I have had recently and that I am now able to buy things that I want instead of only being able to get what I need.

What a cute snowman family!

My 2 new snowmen ornaments.

Angel

Christmas trees that need to be looked at from above in order to get the full effect. I think I will try to make some of these on my own, but add more layers so that it will have a fuller look.

Christmas in November

Today was our Relief Society's Christmas in November. There were many fun crafts to make but I only chose to do 3 and only completed one of them. Theses are my felt flowers that I got cut out but not sewed together. The only flower that got finished, Mom sewed for me and I love it. I hope to get Mom to finish the other two for me as well because I am just not a sewer. I have decided that I am going to make a wreath to put my flowers on. It will either be a Christmas or a Spring wreath, I have not yet decided.

I also partially made a Christmas tree. I have to add two more rows to the bottom once I get some more cardboard rolls to use. I will then add ribbon down the middle and then add a button to the ribbon on each roll. There will be loop at the top so that I can hang it on the wall.

The last craft that I made was my pasta angle. The angle is completely made of pasta except for the head. I think that the angle turned out absolutely cute and I look forward to being able to hang it on the Christmas tree.

And what do I get for all of my hard work...a very painful blister.

Book Order

I am a very avid reader. Barnes & Noble is offering a free 2 month membership trial so I have decided to give it a try. And because I am a member I get discount prices on books and free shipping, I also found a coupon that gave me 40% off most of the books I ordered. This week my 9 books arrived in the mail!!!! I have already read 5 of the books but I enjoyed them so much that I wanted to own them and be able to reread them at my leisure. Plus I have been waiting on the library to read the second book in both the Firelight and Godmother series and decided to stop waiting and to get them for myself. I kind of have this problem where I can't buy 1 book in a series without having the other books also, so of course I had to buy the first books in those series also, it's a good thing I enjoyed them. In addition to the books I ordered online I bought 2 books at Goodwill and a book at Sams Club. So my goal is to finish the 4 books I have checked out from the library, then to read the 3 books my friend Mary let me barrow, and then to get started on my newly owned books. I have a lot of reading to do!

Pumpkin Patch

Well, my pumpkin patch is actually only a pumpkin of one. Tonight for activity days I had the girls make curled paper pumpkins. This is the one I made as an example. The girls really enjoyed the craft and they were a big hit with everybody that saw them. I have all the activities planned out for the rest of the year and even a few for next year. There are activities that I would like to do but they would work best with many children, I only have 2 girls and will soon have 3 but only for a few months. I love coming up with the different activities but every time Wednesday night comes around I don't feel like going but I usually end up having a good time. I am grateful for this calling and that activity days is only twice a month.

Friends

Today my friend Mary and her absolutely adorable daughter Ellie took me to Hank's Deli for lunch for my birthday. The food was good but the company was much better. Mary and I met while at BYU, we worked together, and it made me so happy when she moved to Fairmont a few months ago. It is so nice to have a friend in the area! So thanks Mary and Ellie foe a great afternoon.

Not a good picture of me but this is the only one where everyone is looking and you can see Ellie's big, beautiful, blue eyes.

Me and sweet Ellie Marie

It's Official

Well, it's official...I am now a resident of West Virginia. It all started by getting my car insurance here because it was so much cheaper than Michigan. And in order to get car insurance I had to have a WV driver's license. Here in WV they make you put your weight on your license which is not cool at all. Then today my Michigan license plate was no longer valid so I went to the DMV and got my new plates, which is also cheaper here then in Michigan. But despite being an official West Virginia resident, I will always be a Michigander!

5 Years in the Making

So last week I finally finished my mission scrapbooks. It has taken almost 5 1/2 years but finally, finally it is done! Well, almost done anyway. I do have one last page to do but I can't complete it because I don't know where I packed my picture CDs for the move, so it is as complete as it can be for now. I must admit that the last few pages aren't that amazing because I was just ready to be done. I have added a few pictures of some of the pages from the scrapbooks. Enjoy!

Kieth's Baptism (left side)

Kieth's Baptism (right side)

(left side)

(right side)

Jamie's Baptism

P-Day Soccer

Just goofing off

Pioneer Day

I gave a talk last Sunday in church on pioneers. So in celebration of Utah's Pioneer Day tomorrow and I will share with you a part of my talk.

"The pioneers who crossed the plains were brave, courageous souls. They endured many challenging hardships. Yet pioneers did not cease to exist when the Latter-day Saints reached the Salt Lake Valley, for I have known pioneers in my own life who have chosen to follow the example of the ultimate pioneer Jesus Christ.

In the fall of 1975 my Grandma Hicks received a phone call that changed the lives of many. On an October day two missionaries randomly opened up the phonebook and put their finger down on a name and dialed the corresponding number. My Grandma answered the phone and an invitation was extended. Because of her introduction to the church 21 years previously in California the invitation was accepted, and the missionaries were invited to her home.

At that time my parents lived in a home that had no running hot water. So every Sunday they would take their two young children to my grandparent’s home so that my dad could actually take a hot bath. Sunday also happened to be the day that the missionaries would be at my grandparent’s home sharing the gospel with them. To the missionaries great delight their lessons turned into a family affair. They were able to teach my grandma, grandpa, Uncle Paul and his wife Maureen, Uncle Joe, Aunt Jean and her boyfriend Brian whom she later married, my mom, and my two oldest sisters Kim and Sabrina, and eventually my father.

Dad wasn’t receptive to the missionaries at first. He would sit in the living room and watch football while the others were being taught in the kitchen. He would also sit in a chair by the kitchen door to listen to the lessons but not participate in any of the discussions. During the second lesson the missionaries gave my mom The Book of Mormon to read. The same book that my dad later used to find answers to different questions that he had. He started to participate just a little in the discussions. One day he told the missionaries to not push him and he would let them know when he was ready to listen. So my mom would attend church with my grandparents and dad would send money with her so that she could pay tithing because he had been taught about tithing from his Grandpa Eaton.

A couple of weeks go by without my parents hearing from the missionaries. Dad asks Grandpa what’s going on and Grandpa didn’t know but he would find out. It turns out that the missionaries had done what dad asked them to do and stayed away. The missionaries were then invited to my parent’s house in late December to share the gospel with them as a family.

My mom accepted the gospel before my dad did. So while the rest of the family was baptized in December, mom chose to wait for my dad. I am extremely grateful for my pioneer parents and for the covenants that they made in the waters of baptism on January 31, 1976."

1 is a good number

I spent this last week babysitting for a 12, 9, 6, and 3 year old while their parents were out of the country. I am exhausted. The idea of only having one child is becoming appealing. Ok, so I hope to have more than one kid but man is it going to be a lot of work which I always knew, but I have gotten a preview of what is to come. They were good kids and well behaved overall, but I could tell that their mother does almost everything around the house. It was rather entertaining to see the kids faces when I made them clean up after themselves. The 3 year old is the only girl and she is without a doubt very spoiled. When the parents came home they asked me if I still want children. Yes, I do, and I look forward to the day when the Lord will bless me with my own children. Whoever said motherhood isn't a real job should give it a try. So thanks to all the mothers out there and all that they do. 

Plain Speaking

So while in Michigan mom and I went to see Grandma Herbert and visit with her. So here is a conversation that took place between Grandma and I.

I walk into Grandma's house and she looks me over.

Grandma: "You've gained weight since I last saw you."

Me: I stop and look at her. "Yep."

Grandma: "Why?!"

Thanks Grandma, I love you too.

Snow

Some have called it Snowpocalypse, Snowmagddon, the Storm of the Century, or Snowpalooza. But lets be realistic, it's Michigan, snow happens. I know that other states have been hit harder than Michigan, even states that aren't used to snow at all. Granted it is the biggest storm we have had this season, but it isn't anything we haven't seen before. I spent an hour and a half shoveling my sidewalk and a small part of the driveway. A neighbor came by with his snow blower and helped me finish my driveway. We got about 7-9 inches of snow but it was very windy so we had huge snow drifts.The picture is kind of dark but this is what I found when I opened my door this afternoon. I literally had to shovel my way out of my house. Luckily I keep my snow shovel on the porch right outside the door.It is safe to say that my car was snowed in. The view from the back, that is how high the snow was in my entire driveway. The snow drifts in the front of the house weren't quite as high but now you might better understand why it took me so long to shovel the snow. So after I got done shoveling I came in and had a cup of hot chocolate and a warm shower.

The New Do

Before

After

So I am very excited with the results of my new hairdo. It doesn't look exactly like the picture I took with me but that would require a curling iron, of which I don't own. It has lots of layers and it is very light. In order to make my hair look even the stylist Koni had to cut an extra inch off the left side because it doesn't curl as much as the right. Before Koni started cutting she measured my hair to see if it was long enough to donate, she was only cutting 7 inches off and apparently you need 10 inches in order to donate, so maybe next time. I also think the new do makes my face look thinner. So yeah for a fabulous new do!  

Thoughts

So I have been thinking that I want to cut my hair short again. I am ready for a change. I have had my hair short before but I am conflicted on how short to go and the style. My hair gets gets tighter/more defined curls when it is shorter and I am thinking that maybe I will do more layers this time. I found these pictures online and I really like the cut and style. The color would just be my natural color because I am not a big fan of spending a lot of money on getting my hair colored and then touching it up. Plus I like my hair color just the way it is. So, should I give it a try?

What are your thoughts? I realize that it won't be exactly like the picture because that is the nature of curly hair, but I think that I could come close to achieving what is in the picture.

New Calling

On Sunday I was released as the 1st counselor in relief society and then called as the 2nd counselor in primary. I am excited to work with the kids even though it will only be for a very short time. The primary president is also an educator so I feel that we will be able to keep the kids on track, which has been a problem in the past. So I am looking forward to this new calling.

Here she comes, Miss America

During the Miss America pageant my sister-in-law Kristi held a Miss America party. We were invited to pick a state to represent and then given options on what to wear; a bathing suit (not going to happen), formal wear, or an outfit to represent the chosen state. I decided to be Miss Louisiana, Hillary (another sister-in-law) was Miss Wisconsin, and Kristi was Miss New York.
I chose Louisiana because I thought it would be fun to represent the state by dressing up for Mardi Gras. I was going to make and decorate my own mask but found one at Party City that I really liked and cost about the same it would have after I bought all the different items I would have needed to decorate my own mask. FYI, Party City has so many cool things for themed parties. I made my sash by cutting a plastic table cloth and then gluing on ribbon and the letters that I cut out using a Cricut. I found my gold sparkly shirt for only $2 at Salvation Army, what a find! I will never actually wear the shirt again though unless I am dressing up in costume for some reason. To be completely honest I was very excited to dress up and attend this party. We were also asked to bring our favorite treat (mine being peanut M&Ms) to share. As we watched the pageant we were able to eat only after our state was eliminated from the competition. We had our own awards and I won for best state representation and Hillary got an award for best hair. This was such a fun idea for a party and I was able to really enjoy myself. Thanks Kristi for a great time and I hope that you do this again.

All the party goers