The Sealing at Mt. Timpanogos

The sealing in the temple was so special. I loved being in the temple with all of my family, I just wish Jim could have been there and it would have been perfect. Gabe made a good choice in his eternal companion. He and Molly are well suited to each other and will have a happy life together.

Sisters picture and one of our shoes

Mom and Dad…they’ve been married 40 years! Love them!

Molly’s little brother is in the MTC right now, the MTC president gave him permission to come to the sealing. It was so neat for Molly and her family to have him there. It was a huge surprise when he walked into the sealing room. There were lots of tears of happiness. It made their day even more special.

It took forever for Gabe & Molly to come out. Luckily our iPhones kept us busy!

Here’s a few of the pictures I took. They had a photographer they had hired so I tried to stay out of her way.

Gabe was pretty silly when they came out. He said he didn’t know what to do, so he just kept pointing and raising his arm in the air.

 

I love Molly’s dress. She looked beautiful and radiant and just happy.

Congratulations Gabe & Molly!! We are so happy for you!!!!

Utah-My first day

Gabe and Molly got married in the Mt. Timpanogos temple in Utah on August 10. I got to fly out {by myself} for it! I almost didn’t make it there. A bomb threat got called into the DFW airport the night I flew in. My terminal was closed off from all the other terminals. We got no information from anyone at the airport. Lots of people were saying the whole airport was on lock down and no flights were leaving, but when I checked my flights status on my iPhone it said it was leaving on time. So I finally exited the airport and hopped on a shuttle to my terminal for my flight to SLC. I was the last one to squeeze onto the shuttle and barely made it to my gate in time to board my flight to Salt Lake. It was CrAzY!! Oscar & Tara picked me up from the airport, my flight got in around 11:00 that night so it was late and we were all tired and crashed at Jen’s. Wednesday we did some cupcake decorating and baking for the dinner that night. We had time to get out a do a little sister shopping. It was nice to not have any kids to worry about and just hop in the car and go. It is always fun to hang out with my mom and sisters. We always do lots of laughing when we are all together.

Here’s some pictures from the dinner with Molly’s family on Thursday night. I loved her family, they were all so nice and fun.

poor little Parker…his face gets so red in the heat! Look at those big blue eyes , he is a cutie!!

 

All the food, we had brisket, baked beans, watermelon, coleslaw and bean & corn salsa. It was all so good!

We made peanut butter cup, rolo and funfetti cupcakes. They were so good and everyone loved them.

Mom & Dad with Gabe & Molly

All the DeVaux girls. We are so lucky to have such great sisters in law.

Maggie really wanted to be in the picture and of course Gabe is lurking in the back! After the dinner we cleaned up and did a little more shopping. I stayed with Trish down in Pleasant Grove that night.

Marji’s weekend away…

I got to go to Dallas a few weeks ago for the weekend. Brandy and I got tickets to go see Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney. I flew there Friday afternoon. Brandy picked me up and we we went and did some shopping at Firewheel {I miss that mall!} It was fun to shop and hang out with Brandy.

Saturday morning we got up and I did a quick photo-shoot of Clara & Carter. They are so cute it was a lot of fun. here’s some of my faves.

Brandy had to work on Saturday for a few hours so I went to the pool at the club and laid out. I bought the latest Harlan Coben book on my Kindle and I enjoyed just reading in the sun. It was heavenly…except that the snack bar had no diet coke! I also ran into my good friend Staci who I hadn’t seen for a long time. I love catching up with old friends!!

Before the concert

The concert was at Cowboy stadium, such a nice venue! {I got a LOT of sun!}

Tim performed first and was great. Jim and I saw Tim & Faith when we were living in LA {probably 12 years ago!}  He has lots of fun songs that we loved.

The crowd went crazy when Kenny came out. He is awesome {and HOT of course}.

It was great when Kenny & Tim performed together. They started with their duet Feel Like a Rock star and then sang Indian outlaw and She Thinks my Tractors sexy together. They are a lot of fun together on the stage! {Sorry for the crappy pictures, I just had my iPhone.}

 

Can’t wait to see Kenny next year. Some day we want to spend the money to be on the floor in the “sandbar” area. Thanks for a great weekend Brandy. It is always great to spend time with you!!

Mother’s Day Weekend

I don’t know where May has gone! It has been a busy month. I had a really nice Mother’s day weekend. We started out having a date to see Avenger’s on Friday night. It is always nice to get out with out the kids and to come home to all the kids asleep and a clean house! Sunday morning the kids woke me up with breakfast in bed and presents. Jim made waffles with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. It was so yummy!

The kids all made me presents at school and were so excited to give them to me. I got to do a little shopping for myself earlier in the week. Jim got me an Otterbox for my iPhone.

The kids also filled out questionnaires about me. Their answers were HILARIOUS! It was fun to read what they thought I did every day.

My mom invited us down for dinner. Jim was excited to get out of cooking dinner. We had yummy steaks, baked potatoes and grilled veggies. Jim got a cheesecake sampler for dessert. It was fun to hang out at Mom’s. The kids had fun playing with their cousins. It was a beautiful evening.

I think my boys have great eyes…they are so cute!

I don’t have enough pictures with my mom so I had Jim snap one of us. I just got my hair cut and it feels so good to have shorter hair!

I love my mom and know I am so blessed to have such a great mom! I hope I can be as good of a mom to my kids!

Already February…

I can’t believe that it is already February! Where did January go? I’ve been meaning to do a post about some of my goals for 2012 and the time has gotten away from me. I’m doing a couple of tutorials a month on my sister in law Cathy’s awesome blog. I am having fun doing them, but I’m still trying to balance all my “free” time. I did one on how to redo your knife block. You can see it here if you want more info.

I did a tutorial on how to make this cute Valentine banner. You can see the tutorial here.

Today I did a picture tutorial on how to make your own laundry detergent. I have been using this recipe for a year and I love it. I love how cheap it is to make and that 1 batch costs less than $5 to make and lasts so long. We have HE machines so I don’t have to use as much per load, just 1/4 cup! You can see it here.

2012 To Do List

Here are some of things I want to accomplish this year, I figure if I write it on my blog it will hold me accountable and maybe I’ll accomplish what I want to!

1. The first thing is to stop drinking Dr. Pepper & Diet Coke. I don’t feel like I have a bad habit, but 2-3 a day isn’t good for me {maybe that is a bad habit}. So far I’ve cut back to 1 diet coke in the afternoon. Soon I will cut that one out. I am drinking more water and staying away from Sonic at happy hour! I will still drink the occasional coke, but don’t want the everyday habit, it is expensive and not good for me!
2. The next thing is to develop a good habit of studying my scriptures. I gave a talk in church this past Sunday on scriptures and it was a good reminder for me on what I should be doing. I found this wonderful article by Elder Bednar, Because We Have them Before Our Eyes that I used as a reference in my talk. I’m going to try to do what he suggested. I’ve been doing a  lot better about reading my scriptures everyday, now I need to add a little more depth to my study.
3. I need to start some kind of exercise program. I am still trying to figure out what I want to do. I have an elliptical machine that gets more use as a clothes rack. I think I wouldn’t mind running outside, especially when the weather is nice, but figuring out a time to go when Jim is home is hard. What works for you other moms of young kids?
4. Organize, organize, organize!! Especially my craft room, it is a mess! I have so much stuff, I need to get rid of some things. Anyone interested in old Stampin’ UP! stamp sets? I keep thinking I will sell them on eBay, but they are still sitting in my closet.  We are always trying to organize the playroom and the toys. I sill need to go through it and clean out junky old toys.
5. Do some more decorating in my home, We will have been here 2 years in June and I haven’t done much to put my mark on the house. I have all these ideas, I just need to do them! I think I’ll start with the playroom. Stay posted to see what I end up doing.
6. Learn more about shooting in manual and get a new camera. I love my Nikon d40, it has been a great “starter” camera; but I am ready to upgrade to one that gives me more options and takes better pictures. I’ll have to save my money for my dream camera, it might take me longer than a year because I am bad at saving, there are always so many other things to buy!

That is all for now, there are lots of other things I could list I’m sure! Hopefully keeping my list shorter will make it more doable!

My Birthday

My birthday falls on Halloween, which kinda stinks when you have kids.  Jim does a good job of celebrating before Halloween. We went to dinner on Friday night and did a little shopping afterwards.We came home to a clean house and our kids in bed thanks to our awesome babysitter Callie. On Saturday my mom came up and took me shopping for some new stuff for the house. On Sunday we went to my parents house for dinner for my birthday and little Oscar’s. By Monday I think Jim was tired of my birthday…The kids woke me up with some presents. The card was funny, it was a sound card with a cat laughing, Averi loved it and carried it around all day opening it up listening to the cat laughing.

They just got me a few little things and I got some money to go shopping with. Jim also surprised me with breakfast from Chick-fil-a, so yummy!