Annie's Bridal Shower

Neal's brother (Brent) is getting married next month so we wanted to throw a bridal shower for his fiance, Annie. I offered to host while Stephanie put together some games and Neal's mom and I did the food. I had a lot of fun making some  tissue paper pom poms to hang from the fan (find the tutorial here here ) and setting up the table. On the menu was: yogurt, fresh fruit (strawberries, pineapple, blueberries, kiwi, and grapes), mini muffins, and bundt cake. Yum! I had Neal snap a quick picture while I was setting up, and then I  forgot about the camera until the very end of the shower, so my pictures are not the best.   

It is always fun to get together with family and friends and I think a good time was had by all. We can't wait for Annie to join in the family, Brent is one lucky guy!

The food table 

 Just visiting after games and presents.

Lydia playing with her balls.

Regional Conference

Last month we had an amazing opportunity. Our stake was able to attend regional conference- in the conference center! Neal's parents took Lydia for us so that we could both sing in the choir. It was neat to see the conference center from the choir seats, although we could only see the speaker on the screen (as they were below us). I thought I was safe from being on the tv screen, as I was in the very back row and the camera's usually don't shoot that far back. However, I was also in the middle so when they showed the conductor I was also in the screen (so I was on tv basically all during the congregational hymns). Oh well. Neal's family also said that they saw Neal once or twice during the choir numbers (he was sitting closer to the front and to the right).

                                  
We had the privilege of hearing and learning from Elder Jeffrey Holland and Pres. Dieter Uchtdorf!  They both gave amazing talks and it was especially nice because with family watching Lydia, I was able to listen and take a lot of notes!

9 months!

I can't believe that Lydia is 9 months already! She is a very busy girl and loves getting into everything! She started crawling a bit before Easter but she has gotten really fast in the past month. She loves being able to go go go! She has also gotten really good at pulling herself up to standing and can even stand by herself in the middle of a room for short periods of time.  She is still very sweet and happy, especially when there are lots of people around to give her attention. Her first two teeth finally popped through (the first came through the end of April), but no signs of any others yet. 

Lydia loves to pull every single toy out of her box. I guess this time she wanted the container too.

Also at the end of April, Lydia discovered that she doesn't need to just lay down and go to sleep while in her crib. She has always gone right to sleep when we put her down, so I thought it was strange when she just kept crying. When I came in to check on her, she was sitting  up in the corner of the crib (top right pic). I had no idea she could sit up from lying down! She finally did go to sleep and the bottom right pic is how I found her after her nap. :) Luckily this crying phase didn't last too long and she is back to taking good naps- just in crazy positions now. 

Uh oh! Her new favorite activity is pulling each book off of the bottom two shelves. I think it is time for me to do some baby proofing. 

Playing with the dishwasher is almost as fun as the books.

Her hair is also getting longer and I was able to put it into her first ponytail (yes- it's super tiny)

Anything to save a dollar!

A few weeks ago Neal and I thought it would be fun to take Lydia swimming. She already had a cute swimsuit, but still needed some swim diapers. I had a coupon for $1 off Little Swimmers so I sent Neal to the store to get some. I probably asked him 4 or 5 times if he still had the coupon and if he was going to remember to use it. As he was leaving, he repeatedly assured me that he had already put it in his pocket and no, of course he wouldn't forget to use it. Upon returning, he placed a plastic bag on the table. It contained; a package of little swimmers, the receipt, and a one dollar bill. A dollar bill? Yep, he had gone to Walmart and bought the diapers without remembering to use the coupon. It wasn't until he was standing in the customer service line at Kohl's (we had a return there) that he remembered the coupon. After finishing up at Kohls, he drove back to Walmart and explained to the lady what had happened. He told her that he just couldn't go back without using the coupon because his wife would not be very happy with him. She laughed, refunded him with a dollar bill, and said that her boyfriend forgot things like that all the time too. Maybe it was just a dollar but I'm glad he remembered and went back. A dollar saved here and there add up more quickly than you'd think. :) 

After a few weeks of moving to Bountiful, I was called as a den mother for the Wolf cub scouts. Among other things, I needed to go down to the Scout shop and buy a yellow den leader shirt.After watching KSL and D.I. in hopes of finding one that is a bit cheaper (and finding nothing),  I finally decided that I needed to just bite the bullet and go buy one. Lydia and I drove down to the scout shop and looked at the shirts again. They only had ones with long sleeves and they were $33! Yikes! No way! I would NEVER pay that for a shirt, especially one that is not cute and that I only wear once in a while to my meetings. After wandering around the store for a while and trying to think up some alternative, I found the clearance section. In the middle of the pile of scout shirts there was one yellow leader shirt. I started to pull it out and the fabric just kept coming and coming. It was HUGE! Definitely the biggest shirt I have ever seen. Finding the tag I read the size- 56. It didn't have a price tag so I asked the employee there how much it cost. He replied it was $4.95. Great! I'll take it! $5 is SO much better than $33. He gave me a really funny look when I wanted to purchase it and wanted to make sure I knew that it was a really big size and wouldn't fit me. I told him for $5 I would find a way to make it work.

My lovely new scout shirt. :) This picture doesn't do it justice, but it really is HUGE!

After getting back home I got out my scissors and started cutting! First I had to take off the pockets and badges so I wouldn't cut throught them. Next I cut off lots from the bottom and from each side. After sewing up the sides and hemming the bottom, it was time for the sleeves. I decided to make my new sleeves by using the cuffs on the long sleeves- this way I didn't have to hem each sleeve and it makes the shirt a bit cuter. I sewed the pockets and patches back on in their new spots and , TA DA! I had a new, much smaller, and much cuter version of my $5 shirt.  It was actually kind of fun and my shirt turned out better than I thought it would. 

My finished shirt. Hopefully this gives a bit more perspective to how big the original size was. The fabric below my shirt is what I cut off from the bottom of the original.

After seeing my cute new shirt for only $5. Who wouldn't want to be a den mother? :)

Warm weather and goodbye to friends

As usual, I've let the time get away from me and have put off updating the blog. It has been another great, fun, and busy month.The weather has also been really nice and we love being outside more and more each day! We finally got our garden planted. Hopefully it does well this summer and we can enjoy our own bountiful harvest-literally! So far we have; peas (regular and snap), potatoes (red and yukon gold), tomatoes, pumpkin, squash (a few varieties), corn, and a few herbs. We also planted carrots, but hardly any came up :(  The Mayers also have some fruit trees (cherry and peach) as well as raspberry bushes and a few strawberry plants that we are hoping to enjoy this summer as well.

Neal taking advantage of the warm weather by washing his car.

Thanks to Joseph (Wendy's husband) we were also able to buy a bike trailer. He was working at the D.I. here and bought one for Porter to use. Because they are a very in demand item, they just don't last long when one comes through so we asked him to let us know when he saw one come in again. A week or two later Wendy called me to say that someone had just brought their old bike trailer to D.I. and Joseph thought it would be put out on the main floor in about 15 minutes. When I got there it was still in back so I asked a worker if he could bring it out for me to look out. He actually came out with two of them- another had come in that day as well. As I moved over to examine the better looking one, a lady came up, grabbed the other one and bought it. Wow! No kidding these things go fast- if you aren't there when they first come out, you don't stand a chance of getting it. Good thing we only needed one of them. :) The one we got was a bit dirty and looked like it had been stored outside for a while, but after taking it home and cleaning/sanitizing it really well, we were quite pleased with the results. Best part is- it only cost $20! Lydia enjoys it for short rides, but she is still a bit small for the straps and slips down if we ride for too long.

 Getting ready for our ride

Speaking of Joseph, Wendy, and Porter, they moved to California. We are so sad that they are gone and miss them like crazy. It was so fun to have my best friend just minutes away. Lydia also loved doing anything with Porter, following him around, and always trying to touch him (although Porter didn't feel the same and would usually run away). They moved down to try and help Wendy get better (she is currently going through the Gerson therapy in hopes of curing the Ulcerative Colitis/ Crohns Disease she has had for the past 10 years). Good luck Wendy!

Costco run with Wendy and Porter! Lydia was thrilled that she could sit next to Porter and grab his hair, while Porter spent most of his time trying to ignore her and sit as far away as possible. :)

Easter Sunday

Neal's mom gave us a beautiful Easter dress for Lydia. She looked so adorable and the weather was really nice, so of course we had to take lots of pictures. 

 Lydia is fascinated by the grass and loves to pull out little handfuls.

Lydia and her handsome daddy!

Mommy and Lydia!

Lydia loves to stand! She can stand by herself for a few seconds, but is still a bit shaky, so we help her out a bit. I don't think it will be much longer before she starts walking.

As much fun as the holidays and festivities can be, I hope that we all take time to remember the real reason for our celebration. Our Savior, Jesus Christ is risen! I love a hymn we sing,

 "He is risen! He is risen! Tell it out with joyful voice. He has burst his three days' prison; Let the whole wide earth rejoice. Death is conquered; man is free. Christ has won the victory." (LDS Hymn 199 'He is Risen!', text by Cecil Frances Alexander).

painting by Simon Dewey

I know that our Savior died and was resurrected for us. He lives that we may also live again! Through Him we can find peace and eternal life. Through Him our families can be together- not just until death do us part, but beyond through the eternities! I am so grateful for this knowledge and for the joy that comes by following Him and by keeping the commandments. Not only do I need to remember this every day, but I need to really live it- to do and become better and more like Him each day. Let us never forget that HE LIVES!  (To visit more about our belief's visit http://www.lds.org/?lang=eng )

Easter Fun

Lydia, our own Easter bunny. Doesn't she look cute?

One of my fond Easter memories growing up was making Easter candy! We had some little chocolate molds- bunnies, chicks, baskets, eggs, etc, which we used every year. I remember sitting down with my mom and sisters to make our chocolates pretty and "paint" them pastel colors (we melted small amounts of white chocolate, added a little coloring to them, and 'viola,' colorful, fun, and tasty chocolate). I can't imagine why I enjoyed this as a child because I never like to sit still for long and these can be quite time consuming. I really did love it though and have kept up the tradition. It is definitely not as fun without my family to be with, but it brings back lots of good memories! Another Easter candy I grew up making are marshmallow eggs. We'd make a batch of marshmallows, shape them into eggs, and dip them in chocolate. They are quite simple to make and are super yummy! After everything was made and set up, I dressed Lydia up as a bunny (in her white snowsuit and a bunny ears headband) and we took the treats to  a few good friends and neighbors. 

Saturday afternoon we had an Easter egg hunt at Neal's parents home. Since it had snowed the day before, we had the hunt downstairs. We discovered that Lydia LOVES plastic eggs- she will hold and play with them forever! Lydia was content with her couple eggs and played happily on the floor while the rest of us went hunting. 

Look Mom, I found some eggs!

Neal's mom had way too much fun finding crazy and difficult places to hide the eggs and it took us all quite a while and some hints to find everything. There were eggs in pockets, in laundry baskets, underneath the liners in garbage cans, hidden in boxes, in the filing cabinet, in the laundry soap, in the light cover (so you had to unscrew the light and take it out to get to the egg), and many more places. We all had fun and enjoyed being together. After all the eggs were found we wandered upstairs  to the prize table.

Some of the eggs had numbers on them, and for each eggs we had with a number- we got to choose a prize! We all got spoiled, especially because Brent and Bradley were gone, so there were less people for the prizes to go around to. Thanks Mom and Dad!

Lydia loving being with  Grandpa Johnson