Activity Days - Temple Blocks

I am the Activity Days leader in our ward at church. This means that I work with the 10 and 11 year old girls. We meet two nights a month and we work on passing off certain goals or do fun activities. A few weeks ago we made these temple blocks. We learned about the importance of staying worthy to go to the temple, not only to get married but also when they turn 12 and can go do baptisms. They made these cute blocks using pictures that I printed from this site. They have all kinds of different temples to choose from.

Materials:

-Temple picture

-Wood 

-Tulle

-Modge Podge

So easy and will be a cute little reminder to always stay worthy to enter the temple. 

Mother's Day

I love being a mom.

I have always wanted to be a mom and growing up my friends, cousins, and I would play house all the time pretending to be mothers to loads of babies. In college, I had the hardest time deciding what I wanted to study because what I really wanted was to be a mom. I love learning and I understand the importance of an education but in the back of my mind I always knew that if possible I wanted to be a stay at home mom.

 This past year I was blessed with a beautiful baby girl and my dreams of being a mother finally came true. I understand that sounds a bit clique but I really am living my dream right now. Lorelai has changed me in so many ways. She has shown me my weaknesses, taught me to laugh, smile and find joy in the simple everyday things. I am so thankful that I have been given the chance to be her mom. 

 I also have an amazing mom. She has gone through more heartache and sorrow than anyone I know and yet she never complains and remains strong and firm in her testimony. She is such a great example to me. Now that I am a mom, my appreciation for what she has done for me has increased and I now realize even more how difficult times in her life must have been. She was always a great mother though. I am so grateful for all the great examples of mothers that I have had in my life. I have watched you and I have learned from you. From my grandmas to aunts to cousins and friends, I have been blessed with so many examples of what being a good mother is. 

I am starting to really understand what a sacred calling motherhood is and I am grateful for that knowledge because it makes the sometimes mundane and repetitive tasks seem so much more meaningful. It also gives me more direction and purpose in my life. 

 This Mother's Day has given me the chance to reflect on motherhood and has made me want to be a better mom. I want to try a little harder each day to make sure that I am teaching Lorelai those things that are most important and that I am taking the time to really enjoy being a mom. To not just go from one thing to the next trying to accomplish a list of goals in the day but to take the time to enjoy sweet moments with my little girl. 

I love being a mom.

St. George Anniversary

That sounds pretty awesome right. A trip to St. George for our Anniversary. We have never taken a trip on our actual Anniversary. So this year we thought we would doing something special, go somewhere cool, and do lots of fun stuff we have never done before....ACTUALLY he had to take Dental Boards in St. George and it just happened to fall on our Anniversary.

After the test was over we were able to have some fun. 

We went to the St. George temple grounds and walked around the temple and visitor center.

Travis and Lorelai climbed a tree.

 Don't let this picture fool you. She hates grass and refused to walk on it. But she loves to be outside. 

We went to lunch at a Thai restaurant. Lorelai was good in her high chair for about 5.2 seconds. We tried drinking a whole coconut and it was distinguishing. Travis was adamant we finish it so that it wouldn't be a waste of money. Hence the weird face as he tried to choke it all down. We also tried a place called Swig. They have delicious sugar cookies there. I'd go back to St. George just for that :) not kidding.

Happy Anniversary to the man who makes life great! To the best daddy and most caring husband. You make me laugh and always make sure we are happy even when you are so busy. I love you! Here is to another 6 years...one suggestion though...maybe next time DON'T schedule a huge test on our Anniversary, BUT if you have to make sure that test is in Hawaii :)

Easter Aunties

We were able to spend this Easter with Travis' family. We were on our way home from a trip to Winnemucca after ditching Travis for finals (again). Her Aunt Jenae and Aunt Cammy had the cutest Easter basket waiting for her. She loved all the things they put inside. I especially loved the little Under Armour outfit. Her aunts are too nice and always spoil her :) While there we had a nice breakfast, Easter egg hunt, played outside, and enjoyed spending the day together. Thanks for making Lorelai's first Easter special for her.

Spring Break Staycation

Travis just recently had his Spring Break. He started it off with a bang by breaking his ribs the Friday that school got out. Good thing we didnt have any big plans to go on sweet roller coasters, surfing, or mountain climbing because he wouldnt have been able to go.

So here is what we did on our Spring Break. Its pretty exciting so be prepared...

Swimming at the indoor pool. We actually did this twice and it was lots of fun. Lorelai loves the water and swimming was easy on the broken ribs. 

Visit the Hoover Dam.  It was really neat but the water level is really low which was quite depressing. Anyways, they have a cool little bridge you can walk up to and overlook the dam. Of course, I had to carry the baby the whole way since broken ribs man couldn't. He was sure to casually mention it to everyone we passed. "My ribs are broken. That is why I am making my wife carry the child in the blazing heat on this steep trail."

Went to Costco and ate some samples and shared an ice cream with a cute baby. Deluxe I know...be jealous.

Went to China Ranch Date Farm. "What the heck is that you say?" You can read more about our trip there...here.

Bought a very LARGE souvenir cup from Hot Dog on Stick. That Cherry Lemonade stuff is good. You can never have to much. 

Watched Wheel of Fortune.

Went on a much needed mini golfing date with the hubby. 

Watched Lorelai learn to walk. I cant believe it. Yes, she is walking at 9 months....slow down girl.

Walked to the park. 

See I told ya it was exciting...So much fun can be exhausting. 

Cheap Living Room Updates

Decorating a house for cheap....like foam, duct tape, fabric, and hot glue cheap :) That is what I used to make this cornice box for our window in the living room. We have a small living room with not many furniture arrangement options. So our couch has to be in front of the window, which meant no long curtains. I still wanted to dress the window up a little though so this is what we decided on.

 (Yes, I realize the couch is not centered below the window. I'll fix that.)

Then use hot glue to wrap the fabric around the foam. Cheap I know but super easy and it works :)

INSTAGRAM DISPLAY: I actually did this awhile ago. I got the idea from my friend who made one like this. It's a fun way to display a lot of pictures and to be able to easily change them out. I used tacks with jewelry wire wrapped around them. Then used small Ikea curtain hooks like these to hang the pictures. Super easy!

Lastly, putting some religion on the walls of the home...The Family Proclamation. If you have never heard of this you should read it here. It is an amazing document put out by the LDS church about what we believe about families. I have had my eye on this one, but the Etsy shop where it is sold was closed. 

So I found this one and I am really liking it. I got the file for it here and then printed it for super cheap at Costco. 

China Ranch Date Farm

Travis heard about this place from one of his professors and since we didn't have much planned for Spring Break we decided to go check it out. It is a date farm (like the fruit) in the middle of Death Valley. It's an oasis of green in the middle of rock mountains with NOTHING growing on them. As you turn off the main road you drive in between two huge rocks on both sides of you. 

I don't know what it is about driving between to big rocks on a one lane road, but man Travis was all hyped up about it. We could have just turned around and went home after driving through these and he would have been satisfied. 

Then when you come out of that you see the oasis of green among all the rock. I wish I would have gotten a better picture. If you look closely though you can see the green. Or just look at this photo from their website:)

When we got there we checked out the little store that they had and then we went on a hike/walk along a small trail. 

We didn't really know where we were going but luckily it ended up making one big circle so we didn't get lost.  

We tried dates for the first time and had a date milkshake. It was actually really good and apparently it's what a lot of people go there for. 

 She enjoyed them too. 

Coming over to have some more with mommy. 

There was a little creek with lots of hermit crabs. Travis tried to catch one on a stick.  

Oh ya and there was an alligator in the water too. Can you see it?

Then we walked around the date orchard. They grow on palm tree looking plants. They had so many different kinds of dates. Who knew right? 

Should of brought the stroller...but that's okay she loves shoulder rides:)

 

Fun times! If you are ever in the area stop by and have a date milkshake...which I don't know why you would ever be in the middle of Death Valley... but if you are stop by, its pretty cool.