Holiday Cards

HOlidays are upon us!!

Cards are pretty fun to make.

Not seeing the fruit

As much as i've tried to simplify my life, it never stems any easier. If anything, it just seems to get busier and harder! And i've come to the realization that I'll probably be just a "once a week" blogger, and i'm okay with that. Honestly, I got too much involved in this whole blogging phenomenon that I started slipping in other areas in my life, like the most important things: wife & mom.
I will confess that I have a discipline problem. I have a lack of self control with things that I wan to do. LIke be on the computer all night? sounds good to me. Go to bed NOT early? check. Wait to clean the kitchen tomorrow? done! Thoughts & decisions like these run through my head all day. I have to continually fight my "natural man" to be an organized, coherent, respectable and decent human being. It's hard! ANd I go through phases where I am slacking big time and then I manage to stay ontop of things and my house actually looks livable. And I have noticed i'm not the only one who feels this way about blogging and internet use. I've started reading other people's blogs about the same stuggle that I have. The whole idea of blogging is a great one. I really like that I can print it all out or put them in books for documentation. But with all things, the adversary takes something good and twists it, contaminates and very slowly, sucks us all into it more than we anticipated. Like I said, I was like the #1 fan of the blog. I would recruit everyone I knew to get one. But it began to be a tool for Satan to draw me away from being a mom and a wife. And he knew my lack of self discipline so he used that against me!
But because of this fault of mine, sometimes it's just easier to just stop all together, so the teomptation isn't even a threat to me. But I have a hard time letting go of blogging because it is doing my posterity a favor and connecting family and friends at the same time! Could life get any better?! (lol Brian Reagan...anyone?)
So here's what we've/I've been up to these past few weeks, picture time!
I helped out with some food for a "Bug" shower for my friend Stephanie last week.. I got this idea from good ol' Martha. Fun huh? Little rice krispie lady bugs and caterpillers. Even Emma helped me out:

Here's a few pictures of the shower. LInsay did a great job in supplying bugs to put all over the house.

Jan made these yummy cute butterfly fruit cups, so cute!

Yummy food table.

Last Saturday, we went to Sea World because we needed to get more out of our season passes and Emma's been talking about wanting to see the dolphins all week. So that was fun and the weather was great. We were going to hit the Log Ride but it was having some difficulties and wouldn't be fixed for like 45 minutes so we ended up just leaving after that. But it was still fun.

Kate had a different reaction to the dolphins...

I"ve been also busy with my calling in my church. I am the Visiting Teaching Coordinator and once a year, I am pretty much in charge of a VT workshop, where we instruct and motivate visiting teachers to "get to work" :) I found a theme online called, "Overcoming Roadblock to Visiting Teaching." So we did a construction theme and I had a lot of fun planning and decorating this! ANd I had sisters bring any cars/ trucks to help decorate the place. It turned out really cool.

I made these signs by the entraces in the church :)

Another sign so sisters wouldn't go through this door..

Sister's mingling & eating

We had a door prize too.

The food!

Got this idea from online too. Thought it was cute to have the salsa in the dump truck

If you can see the little cones as the center pieces, I actually made those. I found plastic megahones at the dollar store and spray painted them orange then stuck them on black paper squares. They looked like the real thing.

And our RS president hard at work, teaching us a great lesson.

So that kept me busy for the past couple of weeks! But I am glad it turned out well and that it's over so I can now breathe a bit easier!

And so it is....

8 crazy things...

Crazy 8's8 Things...

8 things I am passionate about:
1. My family
2. Church and my calling
3.Being organized
4. Exercising
5. My invitations
6. Hobbies
7. My friends
8. Documenting Life

8 words of phrases that I use the most
1. Emma!
2. No scratching!
3. Go to Time out
4. Kate, no no
5. Let's go to the potty!
6. Hey Joe...
7. Oh Geez
8. Um...ya...

8 things I want to do before I die
1. Go on a long cruise with just Joe
2. Have peace of mind
3. Get done all the things I plan on doing some day...
4. Get a Hot Bod ;)
5. Own a home
6. Go paint-balling (like the kind in "10 things I hate about you")
7. Own an awesome, huge craft room
8. Go on a mission with Joe

8 things I need right now
1. More time
2. a Break
3. a clean house!
4. a reality check
5. sleep
6. Money would be nice!
7. To know where we're going next year!
8. a date with Joe

8 places I want to visit
1. New Zealand...LOTR!
2. Greece
3. Hawaii
4. Forks...wha wha
5. Roswell, NM
6. Manchester, England
7. Central America
8. Australia

8 favorite restaurants
1. Carino's
2. Cheesecake Factory
3. Red Robin
4. Paesano's
5. Firehouse Subs
6. Casa Rio's!!!
7. Papa Johns
8. Olive Garden

8 TV shows I watch
1. The Office
2. 30Rock
3. Chuck
4. Top Chef
5. My Name is Earl
6. The REal Housewives
7. Super Nanny
8. America's Next Top Model

8th folder, 8th picture:

Um ya, I am in charge of the RS photo directory so I have a folder of pictrues of sisters lol

I tag:
Cairen, Katie, Jenny, Heather F., Courtney, Jami, Elizabeth M., Natalie P,

Walking like a pro

Kate's finally walking like a natural!

Potty Power: cast your vote

" I can do it myself,

I'm a big kid now

I can do it myself

I've got Potty Power"

How long do I have to listen to this song?!

I rented "Potty Power" from the library to get Emma pumped up about Potty training, so she can say "No more diapers for me!" (another song!)

We watch this movie too many times. I think I have them all memorized! Well that's all that I think about. I feel my window of opportunity is growing thin. So I need your help.

We are currently using a seat that goes on top of the big toilet but I think maybe it would help to get a little potty for her. So I want your vote on which one I should get:

#1 The Dora Potty Chair-This one might be a winner with Emma. She's nuts about Dora these days...selling for $10

#2 Royal Step stool potty by Fisher Price. This one is nice because as they grow, it grows with them, from a chair, to a seat on the toilet to a stool! It also plays music when they "properly" go. Selling for $10

#3 Baby Bjorn Potty. I don't know too much about this one but it's selling for $5

#4 is the Safety First Girl Potty chair. THis one i've been tempted to get at the store because it's totally girly and so cute! But it also serves as a stool too. Selling price: $10

So there you have it...which one should I get?!

What? Private? Heck no!

So if there were some of you who tried to come on my blog in the past few days and got a "Private BLog" page, you were probably surprised...but I thought I gave ample amount of time for people to see the post saying that i'm switching to private. 2 weeks? Anyone not checking my blog in that amount of time should be cut off anyways!

So I gave it a go but have been getting emails, which is fine, to add them to my list so I'll give the slackers some more time. But you've been warned!

Alrighty, onto what i've been upto these weeks.

I went to Time Out for Women last Friday night and Saturday and it was awesome. It was refreshing to be without kids (again) and get inspired by some great artists and speakers. I went up with some friends. Here's the only picture I took. This is Jan and I out to lunch at Lonestar Cafe. It was really good.

Emma is so into purple right now. Purple...so hot right now... So here she is in her purple get up. Also, we lost one of her shoes so I had to get new ones...which ones did she want? yep, the purple ones!

Here are the only pics of the Trunk or Treat this year...such a pain to lose pictures! ANyways, I know some of you (Jazmin) took pics of us with your own camera so if you ahve any of us, let me know or email them to me :) Anyways, Emma was a witch and Kate was a garden fairy. Maybe I should put them in their costumes and take pictures?

So that's that! well, not really. I'm dealing with some Potty Training issues, like always....but that's another post!

Did My Part!

Things that happened yesterday:

Went to the Gym: good

Sewing Machine broke: Bad

Took Emma on a Temple Field Trip: Good

Took lots of special pictures: Good

Finally renewed my Library membership: Good

Didn't have "Potty Power" video that I wanted: Bad

Didn't have any potty books!: Bad

Vacuum broke: Bad

During the downloading process of my pictures, it got interrupted, and didn't download all the pictures on my card. Didn't find out till after I deleted all the pics. There went my special day with Emma at the Temple: BAD

Emma and Kate played with some friends and ate Halloween treats: Good

Joe realized that he wouldn't be able to vote on the official day so at 6:30 pm, went to the library and VOTED!: GOOD

Seeing that the kids were tired at 6 pm and already had a "Halloween" experience, I put them down at their usualy 7:30 pm bedtime: Good

Joe got home at 7:40 from voting. I then went to go catch to polls before they closed. Got there, NO line, total expereince was 5 mins and came out with a great "did my part" feeling!: Good

Got 2 more orders from my Etsy shop to work on: Good

Felt sore from the Gym: Bad/Good

It was a productive day yesterday! Overall, I think the Good overpowered the bad :) The good will always prevail!

So since i'm feeling patriotic, I wanted to post this Halloween comic I got from Jennifer Ray's blog, enjoy!: