Monthly goal review

Goal for March: See how many books I can read.

Rating:★★★★★

10 books, I'd have to say that's pretty dang awesome. It's more like 14 books cuz some of them were BIG, especially Undaunted-talk about massive(but incredible) book! I'm serious when I say that's more I've read than the whole last year and maybe the year before that combined. I have a love-hate relationship with books. (among other things) I don't read much and I remembered why when I started this month. I can't stop!! I really get into my books. I loved every one that I read and recommend them all. It was not a waste of my time, but...wow! haha

Three of them had quotable lines and thoughts that stuck out to me and I wanted to share a few of them. I'll list them under their titles below.

The Last Song- Loved it and am so excited to go see the movie with my friend on Wed!

Man's Search for Meaning- Excellent, made me think and I agree with the points he makes.

• “Don’t aim for success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it."
• “No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same."
• “Everything can be taken from man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms- to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way."
• “What matters most, is to make the best of any given situation."
• “A human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to be happy."

Hunger Games- Great series! I'm hating the wait til August for the last book to come out!

Catching Fire-" "

Leadership & Self-Deception- Excellent as well! loved their other book Anatomy of Peace also! I love how they write in story format, it helps me able to grasp the concept so much easier.

• “We can tell how other people FEEL about us and it’s to THAT that we respond."
• "No matter what we’re doing on the outside, people respond primarily to how we’re feeling about them on the inside."
• " Sometimes we focus on and inflate other’s faults to feel justified for our own. We inflate other’s faults while minimizing our own."
• "The behavior we complain about is the very behavior that justifies us."

Undaunted- Fantastic! I loved reading the true story about the pioneers-what amazing, courageous, faithful people!

City of Bones- Another great series! I'm thinking I like this one better than Twilight series.

City of Ashes-" "

City of Glass-" "

Glimpses- So great. I love this lady and admire her so much, what an incredible woman!

• Do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, with a cheerful heart.
• Appreciation unexpressed is not appreciation.
• It is our trials that make us humble and strong.
• Everything you do now is preparing you for something else.
• "The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry, I prefer to laugh, crying gives me a headache."
• Let us be kind to one another, for most of us are fighting a hard battle.
• It is the artful duty of a woman to adjust.

I have so many other books on my list to read and am continually looking for great recommendations. So if ya have any, let me know! =)

Burlap bunnies

I thought all my energy was sucked out of me from the party, but when I saw this too cute, easy tutorial for these bunnies, I found my second wind. =) I went right into my craft room and made up 3 in an hour! I'm tellin ya.....EASY.

If it weren't for Tim's darn allergies, we'd have a REAL bunny rabbit.....buuuuuut, I guess I'm just going to have to make up lots of fabric, burlap, plastic, metal, wooden (aka FAKE) bunnies to compensate. =)

I think I like the thin ones over the chubbies, but aren't they just too cute for words?!?

Faith's Party: Decorations

I can't tell ya how much fun I had making decorations for this party! I got so caught up in that I didn't really make time for Easter stuff. Easter.... *sigh* I'm a little too pooped to think about that right now.

There were a TON of decorations and I'm going to include links to where I was inspired and for the tutorials if any of you would like to ever use these ideas. All I can say is Google is my bestest friend, how else would I come up with these ideas?! ;) My main source of inspiration came from Here, Here, Here, and Here.

Faith's sign we put up outside. The letters I printed in color using THIS font and then cut them out and glued onto poster paper. You can get a huge roll of this at Walmart for $7! For the peppermints, I cut them out with my Cricut machine and taped lollipop/sucker sticks with them. The "poles" are empty wrapping paper tubes wrapped with colored cellophane. The tops of them, which you can't really see, are glass candle holders filled with gumballs, wrapped in opalescent cellophane. I got the idea myself when I looked at the candyland game and saw the King had a gumball staff.

For the gumdrops, I cut from cardboard, spray painted them and while still wet, sprinkled white sugar over them to give them a realistic gumdrop look!

For the lollipops: some I used styrofoam circles, but those got pricey after getting a few, so my mom came up with the brilliant idea to staple two paper/styrofoam plates together and then wrap in cellophane. Brilliant I tell you! Shove some dowels in there for sticks and there ya go.

Paper plate birthday sign. Paper pinwheels lined along the bottom of the wall.

My favorite part, Balloon arch! Don't be intimated by making these, because they are actually super simple. My dad let me borrow his air compressor to fill up balloons (or else I'd be dead from lack of oxygen), twisted balloons around some thin, flexible pvc pipe (found at Home Depot) and it was a cinch. The tricky part was getting it to stay up. I got some stakes that fit right into the pipes and tied the top of arch with string to my rain gutter. I really loved making this, I can't wait to have reason to make another one!

This is my pathetic attempt at a sucker topiary. I didn't have enough dum dums to close up all the spaces, so I had to make do with what I had. I was disappointed to find out that all those suckers make the styrofoam balls heavy....making it not able to stay standing. arg.

Faith's party: The Fun

The easiest way, I read, was to do stations as activities for the kids. Each station being about one of the Candyland characters. At the beginning of each one, I held up a picture I printed of the character and read a small thing about them that I found in the Candyland game. Then we'd do our activity.

Once again, these pro pictures were all taken by my SIL Marcie. She was a lifesaver for doing this or else I'm afraid I would have no pictures to show.

To start we did a Pinata, rainbow colored '3'. That was for the start of the game..the rainbow start (which they also went under the balloon arch and walked along the rainbow path for this also). Olivia ended up being the one that broke the thing loose! Didn't take long for that candy to get claimed. I had each kid draw their name on a paper bag to hold their loot in.

Next up was Jolly from the Gumdrop Pass. For that I put gumdrops in a jar and whoever guessed the closest number won that. I gave little pieces of candy to the rest of the kiddies. My bro was awesome enough to do the one I made for the adults too.

Next for Mr. Mint, I had them come take a seat on the stairs and passed out paper peppermint pinwheels, pencil and trimmed pin. Stick the pin through middle of paper into eraser of the pencil and you got yourself a fun twirly pinwheel.

Then we headed back to the kitchen for Gramma Nutt and had a peanut butter eating contest. I gave them each a spoonful of peanut butter and I think we had a tie.

Then for Lord Licorice, I gave them pull n' peel licorice and fruitloops to make necklaces, rings, headbands or to just eat it. As you can see I'm still wearing my fruit loop-licorice ring in picture above. =)

For Gloppy, they each got a chocolate oreo pudding cup to eat. That was the messiest I wanted to get with that character. =)

For Lolly, I handed out Big Whirlypops with paper attached that said, "Thanks for making my day so Sweet. Love, Faith". I did have plans to stick them outside in the flower bed, but the weather so SO the opposite of wanting to cooperate.

Last but not least, Queen Frostine. I made a cape and crown for Faith and crowned her Queen of the day, while the other kids received ring pops! We went straight into gifts after that, then cake/ice cream.

Enjoying the yummy treats.........and running around in a major shuga high. Oh to be a kid again and eat that much candy but not feel bad afterward.

Faith: The Birthday Girl!

Here's some cute shots of our birthday girl in her cute birthday outfit!

These next 2 have got to be my favorites, too cute! Thanks Marcie, you rock!!

I can't believe our lil firstborn is going to be going to kindergarten in TWO years! ahhhhh I'm not ready for my girls to grow up. I now understand why my dad always told me "But don't you want to stay a little baby forever?!" They're so sweet, innocent, precious, trusting, forgiving, loving.... then they become teenagers. =)

Faith's party: The Food

Today was the big day, Faith's Candyland party! Wow, 2 months of planning and preparing and then the party's over just like that. Amazing.

I'm kinda relieved it's over, maybe cuz it's one more thing I can check off my list. Such a good feeling. =) It was way fun though, I sure hope everyone that came had as much fun as I did! I could definitely tell the kids were excited, especially about the loads of candy at our candy buffet!

I know it was an overdose of candy and sweets, and I'm sorry parents but what fun is Candyland without the CANDY! =)

Besides a whole variety of candy for the buffet, we had jello jigglers, rainbow fish crackers, 5 different colored Hawaiian punch drinks (found at Walmart), Mint cookie cupcakes and rainbow cupcakes with ice cream cones. I couldn't help make 2 different kinds of cupcakes because they both sounded SO good and cute and fit right in with the theme! I loved the incredibly bright colors on the rainbow ones.

Pretty much all these awesome, pro photos are courtesy of my SIL Marcie! Didn't she do awesome!

I think it's safe to say that we're set in the candy department for Easter, Tim's birthday, my birthday, Halloween and Christmas....and every other holiday in between. =) Got a sweet tooth? Come on over and I'll help ya with that.

Faith's birthday!

Today our sweet lil Faith turned 3! It was the first year that she understands what a birthday is, and was SUPER excited about it!

Her favorites are as follows:

Color: Pink, purple and blue.

Book: Brown bear, Brown bear

Song: Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam, I love to see the Temple and I am a child of God.

Game: rolie polie with dad. (He rolls them in a blanket down a mattress from our bed to floor.)

Movie: Full House (knows all their names and pretty much has seen every season.)

Pal: Mikkie (she is always making sure Mikkie gets treats, etc. first before her)

Food: Pizza and CANDY.....duh =)

Drink: Water (no wonder she's so skinny, compared to Mikkie-the tank who drinks milk ;)

For dinner tonight we had her favy, pizza and chocolate cake and ate on the floor which she thought was pretty cool unlike her dad who didn't see the fun in it. (every party has a pooper ;)

It was pretty simple tonight....the real fun comes Saturday!

Mikkie, however, did NOT sit on the floor with us......and you can see why.

For her gift, Tim and I worked on this little play kitchen over the past month or so, and though it has many imperfections (please don't look too closely) we were pretty happy with our results.

I think Mikkie seemed more excited than Faith, she dove right in and started playing with it, stuffing the cart and fridge with play food....that made Faith interested all the sudden.

I found a little play set at Wally World that came with a little cart...see how it says Walmart on it, how cute is that?! We got some extra play food to go with it and now need some play pots, pans and dinnerware but can't really find any for a good price.

We're pretty sure she had a fun birthday, she is such a sweetheart and we're SO happy to have her in our family! Thanks to all of you who remembered her on her special day, I can tell it made her feel good. =)

Lion House muffins!

You haven't tasted muffins until you've had these! Wow, some yummy goodness I tell ya! Oh how I miss the food from the Lion House! I worked there for almost 3 years and was so spoiled with free food. I had to be very careful when it came to their rolls and dessert....especially their raspberry cheesecake! My mom and I went down to visit my old boss (Julie, you're the awesomest boss anyone could ever have!), ate lunch and of course indulged ourselves with getting some of their muffin mixes, which is a new thing! They had roll mix and brownie mix too, but I haven't tried them yet.

I'm tellin ya, if you live near SLC, make a trip to the Lion House to pick up some of these babies. they're 3 for $10 or $4 each. I did the variation that my boss told me to do, which is add frozen raspberries to it.....she wasn't lying, it WAS the best!

Welcome back home Paul!!!!!!

I've been waiting for this day for 2 years!! My lil bro-ha Paul got back from his mission yesterday!!!!! I can't tell ya how excited I am!!!

A few days ago, some of us went to put a "cup sign" up on the bridge coming home from the airport for him to see! Gotta do it, it's tradition! We didn't have enough cups to spell out Welcome Back, so we just did HI PAUL with his favorite....smiley faces! =) Some unhelpful people went and took them down so he didn't even get to see it.

Waiting anxiously for his arrival.

The proud and excited parents!

We taught Faithy to say Punkle Paul to which she says "Pinkle Paul". so cute! I don't know if she remembers him that well, she was only 1, but she was sure excited to see him.

Pooped after a long, fun day. Did we ever get some good sleep last night!

This is all his stuff that was stored while he was away. Notice anything........... unusual or odd? If ya can't see it, He bolted all his containers shut! hahaha We are all still having a good laugh from it. What did he think we were going to do to his clothes? =) boy is he going to have a fun time opening those! Pretty hilarious, if you ask me.

New Blogger feature!

Blogger has added the "New Page" feature where you can have more pages/tabs at the top of your page like some websites. Like:

About

Contact
Links/Favorites
Photo Albums
Videos
Projects
Tutorials
Shop
Website
Disclaimer
Press
Giveaways
Polls
Advertise
Guest Book
FAQ's
Favorite Posts

Maybe I'm just slow at figuring it out, but for those of you who Don't know and DO care, here's how to do it. =)

Click on your POSTING Tab, then EDIT PAGES; click on the blue button that says NEW PAGE.

You'll then see a page like this, similar to a regular post. You'll see though that at the bottom, the orange button says PUBLISH PAGE. So type in what you want your page to be and the info like I did below.

click PUBLISH PAGE and you'll see a page like this. I put it on Blog tabs, but you can do what you prefer. Save and Publish.

This is my home page, it now says Home and Contact Me!

If you go to your LAYOUT tab, you'll see under your Header a new bar that says PAGES. You can edit and arrange the order of the pages there.

I realized that i didn't have my email anywhere on my blog for people to contact me if they don't want it to show publicly as a comment. I'll be adding more tabs as soon as I figure out what. =) But until then...... Got questions for gOt cHiKiN? Contact Me! =)

Faith's party: Invitations

Faith's birthday is not until March 9, and her party not til March 13, but instead of just posting after it's done (which would make for an extremely Looooooooong post) I'm going to make separate posts for some things.

So, this is the invite. I thought long and hard about what kind of party to do for her. Then one day after googling(what a funny word) a million party ideas I found "Candyland". PERFECT!! She is a sugar freak and everything about Candyland is fun, bright and SO my HER kinda thing! =)

A load of preparation and time has gone into it, so I'm excited to see it put into action.

Eternal Marriage Blog Train!

I was contacted to be part of a Blog Train, Eternal Marriage being the theme. What an awesome idea, I've never even heard of a blog train. So what it is, is a bunch of contributors who design a small portion of the kit, so between all 23 of us, you're gonna get a beautiful, awesome, HUGE kit with lots of variety (we all worked with the same color swatches). You should be excited, cuz everyone did such a fantastic job on these!

If you want to follow the train, it starts HERE at My 4 Princesses Designs.

Here's My portion below:

You can download it HERE

And your next stop is over at Design by Alevtina. You can get her great portion on her blog HERE!

You can get a complete list of ALL participants by visiting the Blog Train Blog HERE!

*Remember with participants from all over the world, time zones vary. All links should be active by the end of today! Hope you enjoy this! And don't forget to leave comments for everyone's time and talents!