so excited!

I have something exciting to share! Here it is:

You might be thinking something along the lines of... "why did Michele post a picture of some land and the back of someone's house?" Well, I posted it because this is the spot where our new home is going to be built! We are SO excited! And look, it already has a nice rock wall in the backyard for us. We have the spot reserved and are waiting a few months until we actually start building.

And this will be our view:
This is one of the reasons I really liked the lot. They will never build a home right across the street from us because that is where the cute little walking path is (it goes all throughout the community). Eventually there will be homes built along the hillside in the left part of the picture, but for now this is what we will see every day.

It's pretty exciting stuff! We have already looked at some of the details and options for the home and there is so much to choose from. It's fun being able to make your home exactly how you want it.

Here is one of the reasons we liked the community:

This is the park that will be about a 2 minute walk from our house. It has 2 playgrounds, a splash pad, sand volleyball, tennis courts, a basketball court, and lots of green space. We figured it would be a great place for when we have visitors and also for when we have kids.

The community also has a pool (which is a must in St. George!), and the church and all 3 schools are within walking distance. Which is great! I mean the school part is only great if we stay here long enough to have kids that age.

I will for sure post more once the process starts moving along. It's hard waiting though, I wish we could live there now! :) I think I'm most excited about the fact that we will no longer have to share walls with other people and we will have a garage where I can park my car and easily carry in groceries (no more tons of stairs! woo hoo!)

Finished!

I'm so excited to announce that today i finished the quilt i have been working on!  Hooray!  First quilt ever= complete.  And even though it's not perfect and there were definitely moments of unpicking mistakes (not fun), I am very happy with the turn out.

Here it is:

This is the front.

This is the back.

I decided to make a picnic type blanket because we don't have one and i figured it didn't have to be quite as big as a quilt for a bed.  Seemed like a good starter.  I also decided to do a rag quilt because I thought it would be easier.  It definitely is easy, if you can sew a straight line you can make a rag quilt, but easier does not necessarily mean it takes a shorter amount of time!  I honestly worked on this every day for the past 3 weeks.  But I had a lot of fun!  I chose to do red, white and blue b/c I guess 4th of July makes me think of BBQs and picnics.  Plus I think it's a really cute color scheme.  I should have done some more close up pictures so you can see the fabric better.  I love it.

Now I can say I accomplished one of my goals for 2011.  I wanted to have it done by summer but I got so into it I finished it in 3 weeks.  Now what should I make?

visitors!

This weekend my brother Joel, his wife Becky, and their little boy Mason all came to visit us.  We had a great time!  We sure love visitors and we are happy we live in an area where people want to visit, especially during the winter.  While it was in the 30's and snowing in Provo they were happily visiting us in sunny 60 degree weather.  We enjoyed hanging out, playing games (Joel & Bec always have the best games), taking Mason to the park (actually two parks), eating, and just being together.  Joel & Dan also went golfing while Becky & I enjoyed watching Gilmore Girls :).  We of course took them to the Orange Peel and unfortunately that is the only picture I snapped of our weekend...

Mason loves smoothies!  I guess he liked his dad's the best because he kept stealing it from Joel.  It was so funny!

 

And here we are.  Love the weather here!  I don't think I can even say it enough :)

Mason has now learned my name and calls me "Shel".  He would walk around the house saying "Shel, Shel, Shel."  My most favorite Mason moment was when he sang along to the Beatles.  It was the cutest thing ever!  His favorite song is "She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah..."  he is really good at the "yeah, yeah, yeah" part.

Thanks for coming guys, we had a great time!

I love free

Remember those Lime Ricki swimsuits I like? Well... they are giving away 3 free swimsuits next week! Just leave a comment on their blog about something that makes you happy. I already have one of their suits, but I'd be happy to get another one :). Especially now that I have a pool and warm weather to use it, oh and the fact that it's free is an added bonus too.

Lime Ricki Giveaway

Good luck, I hope you or I win :)

p.s. if i were to win i think i would choose the chloe top with the yellow boy shorts.

quilting

I'm so excited! I have started working on Goal #2 (see below). I bought all of the fabric yesterday and cut it all out today. I was going to take a picture, but I decided to wait until the quilt is finished. My goal is to be done by summertime. And why would I need a quilt for summer you ask? Oh because it's going to be an outdoor/picnic/bbq type blanket!

And p.s.... i'm sorry to all of my freezing friends, but it is almost 60 degrees here today. One thing is for sure, I definitely love winters down here!

Goals

This year I have quite a few goals I want to accomplish... of course you already know my first one (as mentioned before), eating healthy & exercising.  I must say, so far it is going great!  I honestly feel much better, have more energy, and I've even lost a little weight :).  My favorite way to workout is Just Dance 2 for the Wii (so happy I got Dan a Wii for x-mas)... it's this dancing game and I swear I sweat way more doing that game than I ever do at the gym (sorry, maybe TMI).  I love it and I haven't even gotten bored of it, I just keep playing cuz it's fun and a great workout at the same time. 

And my other goals, in no particular order...
1. Read more books (any good suggestions???)
2. Make a quilt
3. Learn graphic design (i've already started learning photoshop for this one!)
4. Grow my own vegetables (so far I plan on growing tomatoes, haven't decided what else to try... and i live in an apartment, so it's not like i have much space)
5. Take a community class... in either graphic design, photography or gardening (i haven't decided which one, maybe all three)
6. Buy a house (i'm really gonna need Dan's help on this one)
7. Along with my scripture study, read a conference talk each day (modern day scripture is important too!)
8. Attend the temple each month with Dan
9. Use my talents to do more service
10. Judge others less (i was reminded of this today when i reread Pres. Monson's talk from the General Relief Society Meeting, it is a good one! One thing that really stuck out to me, he said judging and criticism is the opposite of charity.  Never thought of it that way before.)

I could really keep going, I have more!  Haha... but I think this is enough to keep me busy for now.

Magnet tutorial

So a couple of people have requested I put up a tutorial about how to make those magnets. However, I'm not going to, because my sister already did! So instead of retyping it all, here is a link to her blog where she thoroughly explains the process (she also tells how to make the chalk board too). Thanks Jan for letting me steal your tutorial!

Glass marble magnets

Just a few tips, I got all of my supplies at Roberts and my sister in law who made these got her supplies at Michaels. So either place should have the stuff. At Roberts they had two sizes of the glass marbles, I got the larger size (about 1 1/2 in.). The circles we glued on I made on my cricut, I believe I made them 1 1/4 in.

One other thing, I found the glass marbles in like the mosaic section... maybe? I think they might also be in the section where they have glass vases and fake floral, because you can use them to fill vases. That type of thing. I also saw something like them at a really random place, the Down East furniture store (by some vases).

Good luck! And if you have questions I'd be happy to help, but they are pretty easy. It's really just a matter of gluing cute paper on the back of flat glass marbles :)

sister crafts

While my sisters were here we made crafts! Yay! I love crafts :)

First we made cute glass magnets (idea from my sister in law, Katie):

These are Jannifer's. We just used cute paper for the backing. I made some for my mother in law with all of her grandkids faces in them for Christmas this year. And now i'm kind of thinking of making some valentines day ones too.

And then we made chalkboards. Noelle and I made menus for weekly dinner and Jannifer just wanted a chalkboard for notes:

Jannifer's.

mine :)... i didn't get a picture of noelle's, but it is similar to mine.

And here it is written on. Very functional! I even got a cute little picture stand at walmart to hold it up. p.s. i love planning out meals, you spend way less at the grocery store that way :).

Welcome 2011

This past weekend my 2 sisters and their husbands came to visit us for New Years.  We had such a fun time with them!  I love that we are all married now, it makes it really fun to hang out (and luckily all of our husbands get along well).  We did lots of things like... went to the Orange Peel (my favorite St. George treat), got Nielsen's frozen custard (Dan's favorite St. George treat), ate at the Bear Paw (a great breakfast place here), went to the St. George downtown New Years Eve Celebration (and froze... but the magician made it all worth it!), watched Dick Clark, ate more junk food (this was all before the New Year healthy eating kicked in), shopped the outlets, hiked in Snow Canyon, played games, went to Texas Roadhouse (yum! honey butter!), did crafts (just the girls, the boys watched football).  It was definitely a full weekend and lots of fun!

Here's a few pics I snapped during the weekend:

Danny, Jared & Dan.  At the New Years Eve celebration.

The girls: Jannifer, Me & Noelle.  I think it was about 20 degrees that night... freezing for St. George!  Although Northern Utah was in the single digits, I think.

The sand dunes at Snow Canyon!  The sand was so soft, if only it was warm.  Still fun to play in though.

Noelle.  She is cute.

hiking!  ok i'm really not all that outdoorsy, so we kept the hikes simple.  My sister Jannifer loves hiking, she has been to Snow Canyon about 4 times.  I told her to find me an easy hike :).

Climbing the rocks.  Noelle, Jannifer & Danny.

Jared & Dan, kung fu face off.

Jared, Dan & Danny... karate kid pose!

Thanks for coming sisters & brothers-in-law!  We had a great weekend!

Healthy Snacks

Like many people, Dan and I have a New Year's Resolution to get in better shape.  We are starting to eat healthier (which means mostly cutting out desserts and things made from white flour) and exercise nightly (at least during the weekdays, weekends are a different story...).  Anyhow, I have been looking for healthy snack ideas because I am a big snacker.  I prefer to eat smaller meals frequently (which is actually better for you).  So... anyone out there have any suggestions of healthy snack ideas?  I'd love to hear them!

While shopping I found these:

Bunny Snacks!  I thought I'd show them to all of you, especially you parents who are looking for something a little healthier for your kids.  Granted they are probably not super healthy, but they are all natural (no preservatives) and contain whole wheat.  They are similar to teddy grahams but, I would think, better for you.  They have other flavors and sell cheddar bunnies too (similar to goldfish).  So I bought some... for me :).  And they taste good!  I just got them at Walmart and they are pretty comparable in price to the other brands.

So... any other healthy snack choices?  Feel free to share ideas in the comments section.  It would be greatly appreciated!

Christmas

Ok I am finally getting around to blogging about Christmas. It has been a busy past few weeks, but I am excited for this new year! As for Christmas it started out a week before Christmas when Dan told me he got me too many presents so he wanted me to open half of them. And so I did...

Early Christmas for me!

And then for real Christmas we drove up to my parent's house in Saratoga Springs. We had family dinners, went to see movies, played games, and enjoyed a party with my high school friends... but I didn't really take pictures of any of that. The only pictures I snapped were Christmas morning.

Dan with his Wii. He was excited and I really surprised him! He didn't give me any ideas of what he wanted for Christmas but I figured how could I go wrong with video games? Plus it's a fun thing to do together. I'm not big into video games, but Wii actually has some games that don't take much skill. Meaning I occasionally beat Dan at them :).

My Dad opening presents. We got him Toy Story 3. He never saw it because he was on a mission, so we figured we'd get him up to date on the good movies that came out while he was away.

My mom holding a picture of her grandkids. She loves presents like this!

Christmas morning! Dan got me a Bosch. Which I love! I have already used it a lot. I told him I wanted a Bosch or a Kitchenaid, I didn't care which one. He went with the Bosch because it has a blender attachment and Kitchenaid doesn't (we really needed a new blender!). It is also more compact and I don't have much space in my kitchen right now. So it's perfect. If you are looking into getting a mixer I would highly recommend Bosch. They are known for lasting forever! :)

I took a picture of these cute treats my sister in law, Katie, put on top of our present from them. Thanks again, Tim & Katie & Chase & Riley! My sister in law is seriously so amazing at making the cutest things in the kitchen.

Last picture, Dan playing with the top my Dad gave him. My Dad got them for all of the boys b/c not many people have tops anymore or know how to throw them. Dan has wanted to learn so it was a great gift for him! He's getting better at it.

We had a really fabulous Christmas and it was especially great to spend Christmas with my parents, who I was not able to see the past 2 Christmases due to their mission. Thanks for letting us stay at your home, mom & dad! I really feel blessed that we were able to spend time with great family and friends and that we were able to afford such nice gifts. Life is good! I hope all of you had an amazing Christmas spending time with your loved ones too.