Friday, December 30, 2011

Evolution of our Game Room

 

So when we first moved into our house we had our game room like this:

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 Then we moved that couch and rug into our sitting room and made the game room like this:

(I liked this because it was more room to play and not so much big bulky furniture… but it looked sad)

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So for Christmas I worked on some crafts bought a few things to make it look like this:

The pink kitchen was the girls big gift this year and the bean bags were mine :)

I do like the look of a rug, so maybe sometime in the future… who knows when, I will get a rug for the game room floor and maybe a curtain. I don’t know why but painting scares me so badly. Picking a color, painting it and having it be all over the room for awhile. Big decision because I love to change and rearrange things. You can’t easily rearrange or change paint in a room. But maybe I will get the guts to paint this game room. But for now this to me looks better. Seems more like a play room then a toy dump. There are a few more things I would love to add and so through time and saving money I will work on it more. But this is a start.

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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Whitney is a trooper…

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We have been so busy lately with everything. The other day I put Whitney in her car seat so we could get ready to go and as I am gathering up things Kaitlyn says to me, “Mom, Whitney is asleep” I had just put her in there and I could not believe that she would have fallen asleep that fast. She usually sleeps well in the car. Anyway, I walked over and this is how she was. Her feet are always up whenever I check on her, in her crib and carseat. Anyway, she is a trooper. She doesn’t complain when we are going non-stop. She just makes due. Sweet baby girl. ALMOST 9 MONTHS! Crazy.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Getting my Craft on

081Ever since I got onto Pinterest I have been wanting to do so many painting crafts. So this last couple weeks I got it all out of my system for awhile. I found a $5 toy box at a garage sale and painted it. 084

 

I bought a designated “Time Out” stool for when we need to take a little break and cool down… Painted it. I might do more but I could not decide what to do and this is as far as I got.

 

 

 

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 088I made this Birthday Calendar for my Mom for Christmas for her to remember all her families birthdays.

 

 

 

 

I saw this idea on Pinterest and I know that everyone has probably seen it and/or is doing it but I wanted this to hang out my Game room wall. So I painted it blue.

 

 

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Got this bookshelf at a Garage Sale for $3 and already had some pink paint left over from a few years back. So I bought a stencil design and painted on it.

 

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And made this tissue paper ball for decoration. Might do more of them to decorate the game room but for now this is all I have done. But it has been so fun to work on things and get them done. They all took a lot longer than I thought they would. And I think deciding what to actually do with the things is what took the longest. Oh well. It was super fun. But I do think I need a break for awhile. Maybe next I will go on a Sewing kick or maybe Cake decorating. We shall see…

Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas

 

What a great Christmas we had. We woke up early. Got ready for our 9am church. Had to of course wake up Kaitlyn at 8:15am… she never sleeps in but on Sundays and of course Christmas Day. We did decide before Sunday Morning that we would open presents after Church.

Alma and I had the opportunity to be in the Church Christmas Program. We were in the Choir and sang two songs and also did a Special Musical number. Alma played and I sang Silent Night. He made up a beautiful rendition of the song (in a range I could sing it well in) and before I sang, they asked me to give a 3 min talk about the song and the Savior before I sang. It was a wonderful experience and made our Christmas wonderful.

We came home and Whitney had fallen asleep in the car so we put her in her crib and since Kaitlyn had waited long enough we let her go ahead and open her presents. She did so slowly just enjoying each thing. We got her a couple silly things. I wanted to get her reaction to everything so I took a lot of movies. So there are not a lot of actual picture of her opening presents at our house.  Then Whitney woke and she opened a few things. She was a little cranky at first but started to have fun.

Then we went to my Moms Church and attended her Church Program at 1:30pm. It was a beautiful program as well. It was such a great way to spend Christmas. Then we went to my Moms and had a beautiful Ham dinner and played games and opened a few presents. It was a perfect day. Hope all of your Christmas Days were filled with love of the Savior, love of family and loved ones. And of course good food.

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Saturday, December 24, 2011

Ice Skating and Bowling

 

036We went Ice Skating and bowling this last week with my Parents and my Brother Jared and his wife Laurie who are in town from Utah for the Holiday. It was so much fun and Kaitlyn loved both and never got tired of doing it. She was awesome!! She loved to Skate and she did a great job at bowling. She got a STRIKE too!! No bumpers just used the metal slide thing. It was super fun!

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She has absolutely fallen in love with hanging out with Jared and Laurie. She talks about them all the time when they are not around and when they are she follows them and plays with them non stop. We love Uncle Jared and Aunt Laurie! Thanks for being so sweet to my girls!035

 

 

Here are some random photos of us bowling. Mainly me and Whitney. She was so happy and giggly and so I had fun taken pictures with her. 080072076

Love her smile!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

YW Christmas Party

029         Last night, all the girls in YW came to my house for a Christmas Party. It was great fun. We wore our PJ’s had a White Elephant Exchange, ate Pizza and fudge did a craft and talked about the Savior. It was great to have all the girls in my home and I loved being able to spend time with them at this wonderful time of year!032031

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

My YW Handout

When I was first put into YW a friend and I went to “This is the Place” (LDS store) I was looking for something maybe to give to them when they each had a birthday. This was this last August. I came across this (pictured below) in the store and fell in love with it. I was given a Handkerchief when I was in YW (did not look this cute but still great) but I was to save it for my wedding day. I knew as soon as I saw it that I wanted to get each girl one. Well they were $6 each at the store, and when you have 10 active girls in your Laurel class and sometimes the Mia Maids join in with us since they have not called an Advisor for them quite yet, which there is only 3 of them… I knew buying them was not an option. Plus, making them would be so much more fun!

So, I bought the ONE that they had in the store, and took it to my mom asking if she could help me with making them. So this last Sunday was the lesson that was on Temple Marriage.

We made 15 of them. SUPER CUTE!

Top is made out of paper, then stuck to a folded handkerchief that my mom made with extra white fabric and lace and I bought craft wire and just molded the wire to look like a hanger.

I felt like my lesson went well with the spirit and then to present these at the end and to see their faces was priceless. I pray that these girls, and my own girls, know how truly important it is to get married to the right person in the right place by the right authority.

So here is a picture of the finished product:

005 Looks like an army of them… they are so fun!!!!!

I did have 2 left over and I think I want to frame them with a picture of a Temple behind it and hang it in my girls rooms.

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Sunday, December 4, 2011

My Kaitlyn is 3

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What a great day we had on Saturday. It was Kaitlyns 3rd Birthday. She woke up and got to open Presents. She got 8 Princess Dolls and a beautiful play dress with new shoes and a necklace.

PS. When we pulled out all the Princess’ they had shoes that came along with them, and I thought no way are these going to ever stay with who they are suppose to. So we put them in a bag and we were just going to “Put them away” then I was talking to my Mom and she suggested that we super glue them on. SUCH AN AWESOME IDEA. Got out the super glue and 15 mins later, all of them had their shoes on and they will NEVER fall off! 

Then we had Lunch with Grammy and Grandpa Chamberlain at Red Robin, and then some of her closest friends came over and we had a Birthday Party with cake and played outside. Yup… we played outside in December on her Birthday. She was even wearing a skirt for a lot of the day.

I am so grateful for this girl. She continues to make me laugh and she is getting to be so funny. The things that come out of her just crack us up Daily. The other day she was using the word “Opinionated” and in the correct way. There are words like that all day. Like “Actually” and “Instead” I really need to start writing things down when she says them. It just surprises me how well she picks up on words and how well she uses them. She talks well and clear and correctly (she has always done well at this) and it has been so fun to be able to really communicate with her about life and the world around us. She is such a fun girl to be around. She has such a love for life. Never lose that love for Life Kaitlyn!!!! It is so easy to let life wear you down, Never let it!!! Always have that excitement and love for everything! We love that about you.

After a great day, Alma and I showed her a slide show of the first 2 years of her life, filled with Videos and pictures. She loved it. It was great to tell her about how much we love her and how we enjoy having her in our home.

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 011 I saw this idea online where instead of having helium balloons, you take balloons and hang them upside down. It looked really cute through out our house. Birthdays are a pretty big deal to me, so we just had to decorate and make the day feel different. Such a fun idea.