Grandparents from Idaho come to visit!

It finally happened.... after months of guilt trips and threats, and begging and pleading from Quincy we finally managed to get Kent and Teesy over here for a visit! They came last week for the weekend... arriving Saturday morning and leaving Sunday afternoon. We wish they could have stayed a little longer because there was so much we wanted to do!

Pics above were from Taco Bell.





Quincy cooking us something in their 'grocery store'.

As you can see the boys spent at LEAST 10 full minutes with this vacuum ball machine thing. They LOVED it!

Since we had a whole Saturday with them we decided to first take them over to the Adidas employee store (Tyler can occasionally get passes from a co-worker). It was fun to go, we got a t-shirt for Derek and Quincy got a new jacket. When we were done we headed over for a quick lunch at Taco Bell. We wanted to take them to Burgerville... but discovered too late that the only one close to us downtown was back on the other side of the river.

Quincy found ROCKY! :)

And wanted to take him for a walk. lol

Braxton busy answering phones in the Pet hospital department.


The 'cone of shame'. :)

Braxton loved the fish.

When we were all full of tacos we headed to the Portland's Children Museum. It was Saturday afternoon and quite busy with lots of kids, but the boys had a blast. There was SO much to do and after a few hours we had had enough... or rather all us adults had had enough, and were ready to head home for a little rest before going out to dinner.
Quincy was a little apprehensive about the water works area.... but soon discovered he loved it!

After letting Grandpa Kent and grandma Teesy take a quick nap we took them to The Ram Restaurant. Tyler and Kent really wanted to watch the BYU vs San Diego State basketball game... and since The Ram is a sports bar/ grill style Restaurant we were able to watch the game. The food was delicious and the company was even better.

Grandma Teesy got sandwiched between the grandsons at dinner. Lucky her!

When we finally went home I think we were all pretty tired from our busy day. Sunday Kent and Teesy went to sacrament meeting with us and had to part ways to make the long trip back to Fruitland. :(

It was SO great to see you and we hope you had as much fun as we all did. You guys are welcome back ANY time!!

DIY projects...

My mom has lent me her sewing machine so I could work on a few projects... so I thought I'd post what I've been working on.

I have lots of new nieces, nephews, and little cousins' babies being born so..... I've been sewing some practical burp clothes. I really liked that this flannel I found wasn't baby-ish, but rather more the modern mom type of print. I made these ones for my cousin who's having her first baby boy this June. With the scraps of fabric I made a little hair flower.

Okay, so the dress above I didn't make, but I DID find it brand new with the tags still on at our local Goodwill store for $4.99! I love Target and I love a good deal... I even love when I find a great target deal at the Goodwill. :) I can't wait until I can wear it without tights.... COME ON SUMMER! :)

Most of you wouldn't recognize this next shirt above...

It used to look like this:

I figure, why throw out a good shirt when you get tired of it? Why not try and make it into something else that's fresh and new? The sleeves on the shirt were getting little stains on them but I thought I'd attempt some imagination and make my own little shirt vest. I think it turned out cute. I had no patterns except a vague idea of what I envisioned it to look like. the pockets are the end of the shirt sleeves. And the ruffles along the neck were the sleeves themselves. It's not perfect, but was fun to make.

Another target deal at the Goodwill. I have been looking for a new wallet for a long time now and as most of you know cute wallets can get spendy! This cute one was at the Goodwill for $3.99. Bargain.

Okay so one of my other projects was making aprons for my nieces. I thought it would be a cute gift for them since they are little and will probably enjoy being helpers in the kitchen. My niece Lexi just turned 2 and her apron is different from this one above, but they are the same print. This one is for my other niece Rylie who will be 1 this fall.

As you can see Braxton is happy to model that it will be the appropriate size for a 1 year old. :)

So... my mom signed me up for a free years worth of Better Homes and Garden's Magazines. While I DO enjoy reading through them I find that magazines tend to just pile up so when I'm done reading and saving any articles worth saving... I cut them apart to make cards. Above some of the cards I've made.

Alright.... so you're probably all well aware of the fact that I've redone this lamp like 3 times, but this is the LAST time! I've never quite liked the color and have recently decided to add navy blue and deep fuchsia/ purple to my living room color scheme of green, black, and white.... I really like how it turned out.

Here it is in the navy. Thank goodness for spray paint!

I also jimmy rigged up some side tables for my lamps our of cardboard boxes and covered them with our old living room window swag of fabric. They will do until I can find some tables I love/ can afford.

And speaking of lamps.... while at my favorite store, the Goodwill, I found a 2nd side table lamp. Though I wasn't a fan of the bright red color (at least not for my living room) it was the perfect shape and size to compliment the other lamp I already had.

A little spray paint, a new shade$10.00 shade from IKEA (which matches my other side table lamp) and voila`!! A nice table lamp for reading while sitting on the other end of the couch.

So because I have two side tables now I had to do some rearranging with my living room furniture. This sort of posed a problem since my living room shape limits the amount of furniture options I have... however, I think what I came up with turned out pretty nice.

Note the purple orchids are my one and only touch of that color in this room... soon I will incorporate more of it. I'm thinking a throw or area rug with that color in it. I also have navy blue curtains... but no curtain rod! :( On my list of things to do.....