Easter with Addy...

Now that my bro is home from China I have permission to blog about Easter. Well, two weeks ago while I was working at Edible Arrangements, I got a call from my brother from the airport on his way to China. He said he had a plan of action to surprise his girls on Easter Sunday (how stinking cute!)

He got the arrangement on the left, with two of the little bunnies pictured on the right.

So this was the plan, he ordered a cute little arrangement from Edible Arrangements with some super cute chocolate covered pineapple bunnies in it for Lindsay and Addy. Then he had me get some cute plastic eggs and fill them with gummies for Addy (of course as the favorite aunt I just had to go all out and got some other little surprises for the eggs). I was to hide the eggs all over the back yard, then deliver the arrangement to Lindsay at the front door and play a sweet little message that Seth left on my phone for them! So the plan was in motion!

Then I got a frantic message from Seth while he was between flights. He said Lindsay told him she will probably be heading to her parents on Saturday and spend the night there! He said to come up with a way to make her stay at least for Sacrament meeting so the surprise could be delivered early Sunday morning! He said if I could pull this off, I own it!

So know I had to come up with some reason for her NOT to go to her parents house! gah! Luckily I had some ammo, I was going to be leaving for Kansas Sunday afternoon. So I texted Lindsay and said, "Hey I'm leaving for Kansas on Sunday. Do you mind if I stop by to say goodbye to Addy on our way out of town?" She took a while to respond, I'm assuming trying to rearrange her plans a bit and then said she'd be going to her parents about 10, so come before then. Yup, I own it!

So Saturday night I brought the arrangement home. First think in the morning (8am, much to Tanner's dismay...lol) we headed down to Lindsay's and started hiding eggs in the back yard. Then came the knock on the door...Lindsay was very excited to see the arrangement she thought was from me (hehehe) and let us inside to see Addy. Once they were together I said, "well, I have a little message on my phone for the two of you" Lindsay got a very confused look on her face, then when Sethies voice came on, both Lindsay and Addy got big smiles on there faces!

It was soooooo sweet! In the message Seth let them know he left a surprise for Addy in the back yard and to grab a basket. So we got our shoes on and off we went! Addy had a blast and she was sooooooooo good at finding and picking up the eggs herself!

I just love the way she keeps her pinky and ring finger up. Such a lady :)

That's only half the eggs!

Then she opened all the eggs! She was so excited! There were gummies, (which she popped in her mouth right away!) necklaces and bracelets, hair clips and some scruchy-bow things, and even some cute little rings that had bubbles in them!!!

Here she is with all her jewelry on :)

Oh my gosh it was so cute and I was so glad I got to help with it! I love my little niece more than anything and I miss her so much already!!! Love you Addy-chicken-patty!!!

Here we are!

Well, we made it. Took the 14 hour drive from Utah to Kansas on Monday. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to look at on the drive so...i don't have any pictures for you, lol. But here we are in Liberal, Kansas.

The locals here keep telling us that Dorothy's (yes, THE Dorothy of Wizard of Oz) actually home is here in Liberal. So...at some point we may be visiting that, but I'm not gonna lie...it looks a little ghetto...

These pictures don't look all that bad, but when we drove past it those signs looked about 20 years older and the place was really run down. I'll have to take my own pictures when we go to give you the real idea. We'll see.

But we have high hopes for the summer! Wish us luck and keep us in your prayers!

Mother's Day Board Book

This is what I made my wonderful mom for Mother's Day. It's a board book. My Mother-in-law made one for me for my wedding and it was beautiful! My mom and sister-in-laws really wanted one, so this is the first of many I will do hopefully!

Front

Grandma and Grandpa Gonzalez

Grandma and Grandpa Cowles

Mom and Dad~Brother and Sister-in-law

Me and Hubby

The back, the figurines are the cake toppers my Grandma Cowles made for

her wedding and I used them at my wedding too!

Front standing

Back standing

For my wedding we collected as many of our families wedding pictures as we could. I had them all framed and on the tables as center pieces, and now they are all on display at my home. A lot of people said it looked more like I had a shrine going on, so I decided they needed to come down and I'd make a cute book! My mom wanted one too, so this is the one with all my mom and dad's families.

They are really fun and easy to make. I just got some children's board books at DI, cut the pages apart, then glued cute paper on each page with a glue stick. The most time consuming part is just deciding how and where to put the pictures and embellishments.

I thought it turned out really well and my mom loved it!

Decision Made...

Sorry it's taken a while to update for those of you who have been on the edge of your seat...lol. But I had to let my parents know before I announced it to the rest of the world. Well, here goes...I'm going out for the summer with my hubby.

It's been a struggle to make this decision and I still haven't gotten that personal confirmation that this is truly what I should be doing, but we're gonna go with it, but the council came from someone really trying to get us where we need to be.

So that's that, off to....um....who knows where we'll be. There's talk of Kansas then Alabama, then talk of Kansas and Virginia, and even talk of Canada again, (please no, I do not want to deal with that fiasco again!)

But any who, this also means that we will have a vacant apartment. We are still coming back to it in August, but if you or someone really clean and responsible you know is looking for a place to live, give me a hollar. We won't be moving our furniture out...so...it'll be fully furnished. We also may just be storing our stuff in the second room, so technically it will be a one bedroom apartment. We'll work out a deal for you!

Thanks to everyone who has worked through this with me, I so appreciate you love and concern, you know who you are ;)

In need of advice...

So...struggling with something here. Tanner is going out and selling for the summer in Kansas and Alabama. Should I stay or should I go?

I could stay here and work and go to school. For those who don't know, I am planning on starting at MATC to get a certificate in Medical Office Administration. Basically, I would be the receptionist at anything from a doctor's office to a hospital. I feel like that is right up my ally because I love office work, as I'd learned from being a Field Office Manager last summer. And I feel that being in the medical field there will always be jobs for me, great hours, and insurance is for sure. It's only a 10 month program and I can always finish faster than that because it's self paced.

I've also got two really good job prospects, I've interviewed for one and I'm waiting for a call on the other. But basically, I could stay, work, go and finish school, and that way when Tanner gets back from selling, I could support him through school. But the issue with this plan is that it will make Tanner and I be separate for the whole summer, which will suck! And I get pretty nervous in my apartment by myself, so I might need a roomie.

So, the other option is to go out and be with him and be the office manager and be with Tanner, which will be great for the summer, but then we will be in the same rut as we were last year upon coming home from selling. What I mean by this is that we will be jobless upon return and if this next return is anything like the last, it will be wicked hard to find a job again. Seriously, I haven't had a real job since we got back and it's been SUCH a struggle! I worked a few weeks and Macy's only to be let go because it was just for the Christmas season. Then I work for a few weeks as a Dish Network saleswoman, but that didn't work out. Then I worked 5 days at Edible Arrangements for the Valentine's Day rush. We just can't afford for this to happen again, especially if we are both going to be in school in the Fall.

That's the other hang up, I could be done with school by January or even by the end of summer, but if I go, I'll be putting that off till after the summer, pushing my graduation at most to next July, thus putting Tanner's school off another semester or two. I really just want us to hurry and get done with school so we can get our lives started you know, like getting into real jobs and starting a family and all. Ugh!

So I could stay and be super depressed about being without my hubby or I could go and be stressed about school, jobs, money, our futures, etc. I just don't know what to do!!! I need advice! Please!

Some Projects...

Okay, I've only done a couple projects the past month or two. So here they are!

This is a $10 writing desk that we got at DI. Here it is before:

And after:

Now it is my wonderful vanity! Didn't do anything too special, but I love it!

Next is a cute project I made for my besties little girl. We found the tutorial a Danny Sao's blog:

It's just a bird house, modge podge, and a golden book! Love it! However, I have a lot more books and no more bird houses and I can't find any good cheap ones :( So keep your eyes peale, and if you happen to see any let me know!

Family Time!

Okay, so...yeah it's been forever so here is my update.

Let's start with January, mostly just 'cause I want to show off some pics. On my birthday my family got together to take some family pics! Here are some of our favorites!!!

This is one of my personal favorites with my cute niece walkin' away!

and this group is some of our individual shots, they were two cute to pass up posting ;)

My cute Mom and Dad and their Modern Family picture!

Big brother Stevie and little bro Stockton~~~Seth, Lindsay and Adalyn

Scott, Cassie and the little one on the way!!!~~~Me and Hubby!

We had A LOT of fun! And the pictures turned out great! Then we went to my parents house and had lunch and cake. Then, Tanner won some Auto Show tickets on the radio, so me and my mom and sister-in-laws decided to send the boys to that and us girls would have a day of shopping and Mimi's Cafe! Yum!

I was such an awesome day! I love my family! And we're a good looking group too;)

Well, I think I'm gonna do another post for the other updates, mostly crafts and venting so...stay tuned!