The Redmonds

2012-02-13T20:25:00.000-08:00

This last week has been no fun. Stew has been sick with a nasty virus for a week and a half. He is finally getting over it. But now Calvin has caught some sort of a bug and is so congested and has a nasty cough. I took him to the doctor today and luckily it isn't RSV. We just have to keep a close eye on him. It is hard to hear him struggle to breathe and not be able to do anything about it. So he has been taking his naps as close to the humidifier as possible.

Funny story: After I took Calvin to the doctor this morning, I had to go to the Vital Records office to get Calvin's birth certificate and then to the Social Security office to get his SSN. Of course they couldn't be in the same building/location. Anywho, by the time I got to the records office, Calvin was hungry. So I figured I would just feed him in the back of the car. I got in and fed him, and then I went to open the door only to find out it wouldn't open. That's when it hit me...the door is on a permanent child lock. We can't take it off. So I then had to try to climb over Calvin and his car seat to get to the other side of the car. There is not a lot of room in the back of my car. I'm pretty sure I pulled a muscle in my back in the process. When I got to the Social Security office, I had to feed him again. I did not make the same mistake. Go me!

Oh, and the kid is a little porker. He has gained almost two pounds in two weeks! Go Calvin!

Birth story

2012-02-05T13:17:00.000-08:00

On Sunday night, I was having pretty consistent contractions but nothing too bad. Stew and I visited my parents and then went to visit his parents. Liz told me that I might have this baby tonight because there was a storm moving in with low pressure and she had heard that the change in pressure made women go into labor. She even advised me to go to bed early. Too bad I didn't listen. We went home and around midnight, I decided to go to bed. See how I didn't take Liz's advice? Dumb decision. Anywho, I was sleeping and I felt wet...you know...like maybe I peed a little...awkward. But I decided it wasn't anything to worry about so I just fell back asleep. Don't judge me, I made that decision in a tired sleepy state. Around 12:30 though, I woke up during a painful contraction and realized that maybe my water had actually broken. Sure enough it had. Stew was about to come to bed at that point and I told him too bad, we are going to the hospital. As soon as I realized my water had broken, I was immediately nauseous. It was the real deal. Scary!
We got to the hospital around 1:30 am. They hooked me up, and I received my epidural at 5:30. I wanted to make sure I had the drugs before all the morning scheduled c-sections arrived. As soon as I had the epidural, they started pitocin to help move things along. I was laying there, minding my own business when about 10 minutes after starting the pitocin, 4 nurses, a doctor and the anesthesiologist came in and were kind of freaking out. The nurses started to turn me from side to side and gave me not one, but two shots of this stuff that makes your contractions stop and makes your heart race faster than a kid who just ate 6 pounds of sugar. Finally they told me that I had one giant contraction that wasn't stopping and Calvin's heart rate had dropped into the 60's for about 9 minutes. Finally they got the contraction to stop and took me off of the pitocin. After that they decided to let me just progress naturally because clearly the pitocin was not going to work. After that, the nurse continually had to come in and had me lay from side to side when his heart rate would drop. Around 9:00 am (I think) Calvin's heart rate again dropped into the 60's for about 6 minutes. The on call Dr. came in and was talking to me about the possibility of an emergency c-section. While he was talking to me, Calvin's heart rate went back up. He said if it happened the third time then we would do a c-section. After that, I felt so much pressure but it was not time to push. I was only 7 centimeters but the nurse told me I felt that much pressure was because Calvin's head was facing the wrong direction. It was crazy intense. It was so hard not to push during each contraction, and believe me I felt them all even with the epidural. Calvin's heart rate again dropped around 1:00 and the doctor came in and said it was time for a c-section. Honestly, at that moment, I was relieved. I knew I shouldn't be pushing and was in so much pain trying not to, that I was just happy for it to be all over. I was tired after 12 hours. I do not know how women labor for 24 hours+. Crazy! So they took me to the OR, and a couple of minutes later I heard the most beautiful sound in the world. Calvin's first cry.

Recovery has been really good actually. I feel like I have had it easy. Easy pregnancy, fairly easy labor, easy recovery, and easy baby.

I have returned

2012-02-02T18:45:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I have been absent for awhile...a long while. But I have a good excuse! I was baking myself a little baby. So I guess that is not the best reason not to blog, but along with school and work, it pushed my blogging days into the background. But I have made myself (and Heidi ) a promise that I would start blogging more. So, let me introduce you to the newest man in my life:

So far Calvin has been in our lives for 2 weeks and 3 days. I have loved every minute of it... except for maybe being up all night. But even that is okay because then I just get to stare at his sweet face.

I have already have been introduced to many situations that I am sure will occur quite frequently. Exploding poop right as you are trying to leave, pee going everywhere (including the TV...oops), and quite a lot of spit up. Notice these are all bodily functions.

~ It's all worth it though~

2011-08-21T20:51:00.000-07:00

I miss camping.

Why oh why does school have to start tomorrow?

2011-08-20T22:01:00.000-07:00

I have this awesome sister, Mandy. She is what Anne of Green Gables calls a "Kindred Spirit". Indeed. But one time, this sister convinced me I should cut my hair short. Not like chin length, but shorter.

Now, Mandy had short hair and it looked great. But keep in mind, Mandy is ten years older than me. She was... how should I put this? Let's say she was "developed" at the time. In short, she looked like a girl.

Me? Well I could go either way at this point in my life. Boy, girl. Whatever. My clothes didn't help determine. Nor did my face. All I had was my lovely hair.

So I listened to this sister because I adored her. I cut my hair.

Here is how I looked:

Don't worry, I'm the one on the right. You may still be looking for me. Don't look for a girl. Look for a boy.

Oh yep, right in the middle. That's me.

This was "growing" it out. Hideous.

True story: I had a lady in a restaurant say "And what would you like, little boy?"

So sad.

Anywho, I still love Mandy regardless of this incident. I will just warn Ellsie to run away the day her mom wants her to cut her hair short.

Another horrible hairstyle I had, which I can only blame my self for this one, was when I had two little strands of hairs styled like bangs. It's hard to explain, so let's have the picture do the talking.

What was I thinking? Why do we all have to go through an awkward stage in our younger years? I swear mine lasted at least 7 years. These "bangs" prolonged it.

Don't worry, we all get a good laugh out of it now.

Photo Challenge: Beautiful Eyes

2011-08-15T11:19:00.000-07:00

When I read about this week's photo challenge from iheartfaces, I immediately thought of this picture I took of a student while volunteering at Ngala School for the Deaf in Kenya, Africa. Her eyes are not edited at all. All I did was crop this photo and add a slight vignette. Her eyes are beautiful!

http://www.iheartfaces.com/

2011-07-26T19:12:00.000-07:00

So it's been a long time since I have posted, but whatev. Here are all the events I would have posted had I been a good diligent girl :)

The mounds of flash cards I had to memorize for my Human Physiology class. I passed with an A by the way. Can I get a holla?

Bailee and Riley playing at our house. I am so glad I saved all my toys when I was a little girl. My nieces and nephews love it.

Oh, and Midge LOVES to lick Riley. Correction, Midge LOVES to lick everybody. Riley just lets her. Or doesn't have the strength to get her away from him. I like to think they are besties.

My adorable Pyrex gravy boat. So fancy.

Time spent with the Redmonds. Was it Mother's day or Liz's birthday? Too long ago to remember.

Oh hey Aubrey, Mike and Madison! Glad you could join us!

Madi did not like Marvin.

Stew took pictures of Grandma Wilkey's yard and we hung them in her room at her care center. These are our adopted children. So cute!

I took Heidi's family pictures awhile ago. I hope she liked them!

I also took pictures of my friend's daughter for her senior pictures. I hope she liked them too!

I went and visited my parents on their mission in Washington. I had so much fun. I was so thankful I was able to go.

Aren't they the cutest couple ever? I captured this cute moment on Vashon Island. They were enjoying the morning together.

We had a blast feeding french fries to the seagulls. I will have to try and upload a video of it soon.

The nasty gum wall in Pike's Place Market. My mother's exact words while taking this photo "Are you sure you want to make that face?" Sure do mom, sure do.

Stew and I went to the top of the Kennecot Copper mind, via Butterfield Canyon. It was actually kind of chilly. Then it rained on us. We had fun though.

With so much rain, we saw a faint DOUBLE rainbow. So INTENSE! Anybody, anybody? If you ever are bored, youtube the double rainbow guy. Stew and I personally love the song they created out of it.

Now for the real reason I decided to come into the blogging world again. I wanted to show you my recent chair redo. It just took me 6 months or so. So I am behind on everything. Again, whatev.

Before:

After:

Total cost: $14.00

The breakdown:

Chair: $5.00

Paint: $5.00

Upholstery Fabric: $4.00

Alright. I feel better. See ya in a couple of months! Kidding of course...

2011-05-30T15:13:00.000-07:00

I have an announcement!

I received one of the most awesome-ist things EVER in the the mail today.

Dun dun dun dah!

I LOVE PYREX!!!

Cousin Sara sent me this fabulous hot pad. Sara, I can't thank you enough. I am uber excited to use it!

2011-05-29T19:54:00.000-07:00

So as you may recall, we used to live in Salt Lake...ok, it was pretty much Rose Park, but whatev. Remember our place? When we were first married, we slept on a double size mattress for like the first 5 months of marriage. Stew suffered more, believe me. So we finally bought a queen size sleep number bed from Select Comfort. We were so excited about it we put it up in our living room (the thing comes in boxes). So for three days we ate dinner in our bed, worked on homework, baked an entire tub of Nestle TollHouse cookie dough (in the kitchen) and ate them in our bed and watched a marathon of Lord of the Rings. Pretty ghetto if you ask me. Good times. Just thought I would share.

Here's a lil photo from that time of our life. Does Stew look like he is on drugs? He he.

What weird things did you do when you were first married?

Ouch

2011-05-15T20:25:00.000-07:00

So here I am. Twenty three years old doing crazy things that end up with me getting stitches. First time in my life.

I guess I can't get in ginormous barrels anymore. Not that I do that too often.

2011-05-08T10:32:00.000-07:00

There will be many posts out in the blogging world today about their moms. You know what? I love it. What a great time to celebrate our mothers. When I read the all the many posts about moms, I am reminded of how lucky I am to have my very own, unique mother.

My mom raised six kids and I was the last.

I'd like to believe I am her favorite.

But I know she loved all of us the very same.

My mom always encouraged us to have fun. She let us be apart of everything.

I absolutely loved being home schooled by my mom. We would go on nature walks, draw different types of flowers, act out history, and have spelling bees. She has always sacrificed herself for what is best for her children.

My mother taught us how to have fun, and how to love. I grew up watching the love between my parents and I knew that that is what love really is. Always wanting the best for the other person. I strive to be unselfish like my mom.

So mom, I miss you. I love you. I can't wait to see you.

Happy Mother's Day

I would also like to wish a happy mother's day to another mom in my life, my mother in-law.

Liz has always been so nice to me and helped me feel apart of the Redmond crew. I have to admit, I was scared to enter another family. I have always been such a goober with my own family, and was worried they wouldn't understand or "get" me. But Liz has always made me feel like one of her daughters. Whenever she gives something to her other daughters, I am included in the mix. I hope she knows how much I appreciate that. Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-01T16:52:00.000-07:00

So there are a couple new members to our family:

One is....well, we haven't named him yet.

He is an Indian Ring-Neck parrot. And for once, I think he likes me. He was cuddling and sleeping with me. For cute!

So help us think of a name. I like Henry for some reason. Stew isn't to fond of it.

The other member is....

Pyrex canisters!!!! Ha ha, so they are clearly not alive or anything, but I love them just the same. Probably more than the bird. I ordered them off of e-bay. Uh oh, I know. Don't worry, I don't plan on ordering any other Pyrex off of e-bay (even though there are thousands and I love them all). It is too expensive. But I figured I will never find all three at a thrift store and I really wanted some new canisters.

2011-04-29T19:54:00.000-07:00

Quick post for ya.

I went to D.I. (Shocking).

I found a cute pair of jeans and I was like "Huh, these seem nice. Like fifty dollar jeans or something". They were cute. So they came home with me for a whoppin $7.00.

I decided to google the brand of jeans.

Here they be people, but with a little bit lighter wash:

They are AG Jeans. I know, never heard of them either. But apparently they are for rich people. They cost $168.00. I know. I should have told you to sit down before reading this. Shocking.

So there you have it. Once again my love for D.I. is strengthened. $168.00 jeans for seven buck-a-roos.

~Love it~

2011-04-25T17:48:00.000-07:00

Easter! Beware, lots of photos. Photo overload. Photos to the max. Death by photos.

We had a great Easter. Church was good, food was good, family was good.

Ready. Set. Go!

Quite possibly, my favorite photo of the day. I love this girl.

Stew was a little bit crazy. What else is new?

Photos speak for me. It was good.

Today was a fabulous day as well. Besides all the studying for my final and writing a paper, I managed to go to D.I. with Mandy & Amy. I bought seven pieces of Pyrex. SEVEN! For only 21 dollars. I was so happy. I will post them soon on my side bar.

2011-04-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

So as my previous post mentioned, we went to V-town this weekend.

We had a ton of fun. We hiked, shopped, talked, ate, laughed, and ate some more. Yum.

Madi was one adorable one year old.

We did go to D.I. I found an awesome vintage dress. Except that I think it makes me a titch...large. I wore it to church on Sunday.

It was bright, hence the squinty/barely there eyes.

I also picked up a vintage sheet. I am going to use it for something. Not sure yet. But not as a sheet.

I also picked up a piece of Pyrex. I didn't take a picture of it because I already have it. This one was just in better shape.

It was a fan-tab-ulous weekend though.

Have I mentioned recently that I love this dog?

2011-04-16T20:41:00.000-07:00

We went to Vernal this weekend to celebrate Madi's B-day. I am tired. So I leave you with this.

More tomorrow (including my D.I. finds)

2011-04-10T19:56:00.000-07:00

Alright...so maybe we need to have a chat about your little obsession with D.I.

But why?

Because. You go...how to say it....a lot.

Oh. But I love it.

Oh, ok. Keep it up then!

That's a conversation I have with myself about once every two weeks. I try to limit my little shopping trips to once a week. Sometimes I feel bad. But then I have to take a step back and realize that it is actually helping. How you ask? Well, I love to shop. No really, I LOVE IT. It's so much fun. So now that I have been thrifting it up about once a week, I never go to fully priced/brand new stores. Really, I don't have the urge. I spend 10 bucks at D.I. and I am good. Stick a fork in me, I'm done.

So here are some of my thrifty finds from Friday.

A cute purse $2.00. Do you spot a Midge?

This was my outfit for church today. The dress did not come from D.I. It came from Nordstrom's Rack about 2 years ago. Things thrifted: The belt $2.00, the shoes (pretty sure they were never worn) $5.00.

Aren't these the most adorable things ever?

Yes. This shirt does in fact say "I love Jake Ryan" from Sixteen Candles. What girl wouldn't want this shirt? ($3.00)

I also got some Pyrex, just check out my side bar. It was a total of $5.00.

So my grand total for Friday was $15.00 (the belt was from a previous trip).

On another note, for quite a while, our bathroom lacks a towel to dry your hands. Now, we do have hand towel rack. It just is awkwardly placed once I put a cabinet and a laundry basket beneath it. So we had to dry our hands on our normal towels. You know, the ones we dry off with after a shower. Gross. So I found a cute idea. For the life of me, I can't figure out the blog/website where I found this idea from. It was featured on http://www.oneprettything.com/ but I can't seem to find it again. I'm a jerk. So thank you whoever you are!!

Before:

After. I am also going to replace the shower curtain. More on that later.

My towels wouldn't stay, so I just sewed a little ribbon onto them.

Just find a picture frame, put some cute paper or pictures in it, drill some holes for your knobs and wha la!

2011-04-06T19:30:00.000-07:00

Sheesh, I haven't blogged in awhile.

To tide you over until I find the time, here is one of my chair makeovers.

Before: Ugly and nasty.

After: Add a little paint, a table cloth that I purchased for 2 dollars at the D.I. (of course) and whala!

I know this sounds weird, but I want all different chairs for my dining room table. A little quirky, but it's going to be rad. Now I just need to find more chairs in need of some lovin.

2011-03-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

Things I found at my D.I. excursion:

A polyester dress:

I know, this dress could be (and probably is) ugly. But I plan on chopping off some of the length and I think that will improve it. There is something about polyester that I love. So hopefully it will turn out the way I want it to.

My most favorite find:

This adorable owl.

It's a light!! That's right people, a light! So cute!!

Sadly no Pyrex, but the little Hootie made up for it.

2011-03-23T19:04:00.000-07:00

Hi, welcome to McDonald's. Can I take your order?

Ok ok, I am not working at McDonald's. I am playing one of Stew's video games. Ok, not even that (hence the black monitor). To be honest, I just wanted to wear the headset. I think I look cooler when it is on. Sometimes I wear it when I surf the inter-web. I feel prepared. Oh, that is my game face. I'm bringin it.

Here is the headset's owner. He is the real pro. He is ordering a frosty and a burger for someone at Wendy's. It's a pretty complex menu.

I know what you did yesterday

2011-03-20T20:24:00.000-07:00

For the Satur-day, I went down to Provo with Mandy (and clan) and Amy to visit my grandma.

Josh was of course a whirlwind of energy.

Ellsie had so many sad faces. I kept telling her I was going to document it with my camera. That would get a smile out of her.

She cheered up though.

Jaxon of course was a perfect angel! (I am for real)

Can you tell I like to use Lightroom?

Afterwards we ate at the delicious Joe Vera's. Yum! I took a picture of the salsa with my phone and sent it to my parents. I am a meanie. Sorry mom & dad!

Super fant-abulous day.

My current love: Mindy Gledhill. Check her out here.

A bit frightened

2011-03-16T18:59:00.000-07:00

Today I went to D.I. with a friend from work.

We went to the one in Sugarhouse. I have not been to that one before. Other than the three levels, it appeared to be very similar to the one that I visit on a weekly basis. That was about to change.

As we were looking at sweaters, there was an... interesting woman by us. Every time someone came on the over head (there was a car with their lights on so it was happening quite often) she would start to say loudly "It's too loud!!!" and "Turn it down!. She was saying this over and over again.

A little bit later, Jen (my friend from work) was wandering in the jeans section and I was looking at skirts and sweaters still.

I was walking along looking at a bottom rack.

I turned my head.

Three feet away, all I saw was thigh. Yes. A bare, nude, naked thigh. No pants. I saw too much thigh to think that they even had the shortest of all shorts on.

I looked up a little bit more. There was panties (thank goodness, but still!).

I looked up a little bit more. It was none other than the woman who was saying it was too loud.

I quickly ran away with my face in horror.

As I came around the corner, I saw Jen. She was standing there laughing because she watched the whole thing go down.

So there you have it. Some one was undressing in the middle of D.I. to try on some clothes.

Never seen anything like it.

Never been so scared.

Never been so close to an unknown thigh.

Pyrex Use

2011-03-13T21:35:00.000-07:00

When people see my Pyrex collection/obsession, they usually ask the question "Do you even use it?" The answer is of course!! I love using it. Granted, I don't use all of it, but we use at least one or two pieces daily. Tonight I used four total. Two mixing bowls and a small bowl to make cookies. Then I placed the cookies in one of the dishes to store in. I used Heidi's most recent recipe on the food blog. Delicious! I think is it my new favorite cookie recipe. So thanks Heidi!!

(After reading the post to check for errors I realized I used the words: used, use, and using a lot. A lot a lot. In fact, I'm not even sure it is even a word anymore.)

2011-03-11T13:37:00.000-08:00

This was Mandy's retaliation:

See previous post if you are confused.

Clone it up

2011-03-10T19:45:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I do creepy things to photos.

Sometimes I take people's perfectly good photos and ruin them for life.

So that no matter how many times they look at the real picture, all they see is this.

I call it Jed & his wife

This post is dedicated to my dear sister, Mandy (Jed's wife).

There was this one time

2011-03-07T11:08:00.000-08:00

As my title states, there was this one time I had a some Simpson bobble heads in my little Honda back in 2004.

They were my pride and joy. I had spent like 50 cents on each!! That's a whoppin three bucks total! So anywho, I left my car in the church parking lot one day for some reason while I went to hang out with the Stew. I came back later that night to retrieve my ghetto car. As I walked up I knew something was wrong. There was a giant branch wedged between my windshield wipers. Odd I thought. So then I got in the car. Someone had ripped off all of my bobble heads and stole them. All but one. They couldn't get Millhouse's body off of the sticky thing. So they just ripped of his head and left it on my seat. Some kind of warning I guess. Oh, and they threw McDonald's trash in my car too. I was pretty upset, so I put Millhouse's head back on and then managed to get him off of the sticky thing. Then I stuck him in the hole in my steering wheel with Wonder woman. See the little Honda thing? I managed to rip that off one day and there was a little cave in there, so in Wonder woman went.

Then, a couple of years later I got rid of the car, still with Millhouse and Wonderwoman together. I hope they are still in there, madly in love.

Thrifty Finds

2011-03-06T10:29:00.000-08:00

Things I found at D.I. this week:

Some Pyrex (yeay!). Check out my side bar, I will be updating it as I find more Pyrex. How fun is that! Also a mirror and a picture. I really just want the frame.

This is the loot from only one trip. I went to D.I. twice last week. Shhhh, don't tell Stew.

Scrabble Loan. What does that mean? Keep readin.

2011-03-01T20:04:00.000-08:00

Check out the game of Scrabble Stew and I played last night. We only had three letters left. Awesome!!! Stew unfortunately beat me. I hope my mom doesn't read this. She will be ashamed. We used to play Scrabble all the time together and I would try so hard to win. I usually did. Ha ha, just kiddin mom!! But for reals...

The biggest news in our life currently:

We payed off the car loan for our Infiniti!!!!!!!!!

It was a four year loan and we were able to pay it off in one year & 9 months. So that is pretty awesome. We just have to pay off the truck and we are debt free!

What has been taken with my camera?

2011-02-28T16:48:00.000-08:00

Recent pictures my Canon has held:

Stew was playing with Midge and her hair

was getting so static!

Stew is going to mock me for the following pics:

I was a little bored Sunday morning so I decided to take pics of my grapenuts cereal. Afterwards, I ate my cereal, reading the Ensign, while sitting in the sunlight. Pure delightfulness.

I cut my hair!!!! My work is enforcing our hair to be pulled back if it is shoulder length or longer, so since I don't want my hair to be back everyday (I get headaches), I decided to cut it. I was able to donate it so that was super exciting.

Before (Don't mind the kink or the grossness of it all. I had just woken up and asked Stew to take a quick picture):

After:

Don't mind the akward squat. It's hard to take pics of yourself. Mandy also dyed it today! Everyone tells me I look younger.

Current projects:

I'll let ya know how they look after.

Babies and kids

2011-02-21T16:00:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I wonder how Stew and I's kids will look and act. Now hold your horses, this isn't some sort of announcement, just a wonderment.

Maybe they will wear glasses:

Maybe they will have crazy hair:

(I think Stew's hair is crazy!)

Maybe they will be dirty:

Whoa, I just realized we have same hair!!

Maybe they will be able to play the piano:

Maybe they will like Santa:

Maybe they will look adorable in their Sunday best:

Maybe they will think they look cool...but not so much:

After looking at the pics, I'm pretty sure they will be the most unique children ever!

Chalkboard

2011-02-13T20:25:00.000-08:00

It's so easy to turn this:

Into this:

Just add a little chalkboard paint and some normal paint and wah la! Oh, the message was for me from Stew. I had a cold this weekend. No fun.

As of lately

2011-02-09T19:46:00.000-08:00

This is how I spent my weekend:

Decorated my house for the holiday of love (ok, really it is just my mantle):

Picked up me some Pyrex:

Went out with one of my besties (not to be confused as beastie), Annie. We went to a frozen yogurt place by our house. Had a great time catching up.

One thing that is not great: breaking your first piece of Pyrex. Sad business. The thing shattered!!! Even took a chip out of my tile. Probably because it was pretty much frozen due to my crazy fridge. Anywhoozle, I was sad but life goes on.

Funny thing: I went to Barnes and Noble tonight to by a book and I decided to see if they had Pyrex: The Unauthorized Guide for Collectors (at least I think that is what it is called). So when I told the woman this she just looked at me blankly. I said just look up Pyrex. Had to spell it for her. Looked it up. Figured out what it was. Then looked at me like I was kind of crazy. Nope, not in stock. Can't ship it. Oh well. But seriously, hasn't she ever cooked? Pyrex is everywhere.

I realize my blog has become one directional. And all the arrows point at Pyrex. You bored yet? Oh well. It's a part of my life at the moment. I embrace it.

Brownies....

2011-02-01T19:45:00.000-08:00

No pics, but please read. I was surfing the intra-web the other day and came across this recipe on one of my most favorite blogs. I was intrigued, scared, interested, grossed out, wondering, loving, hating and pretty much many other emotions about this recipe. But I consider myself to be a brave soul so I decided to try it yesterday. Let me give you the ingredients:

One Betty Crocker Low Fat Fudge Brownies mix (I couldn't find the low fat so I used the normal fudge brownies mix)

1 cup of water

One can of black beans.

That is right. Black Beans.

Get your beans. Open them up. Smell them. Gross. Rinse them. Now stick them in your blender. Add the cup of water. Smell again. Still gross. Puree those beans up till they become a beautiful brown liquid. Empty into a bowl.

Still smelly. Add your brownie mix. Mix. Smell. Mmmm. Normal. Good. Maybe stick your finger in and try it if you dare. Tastes good right? Add a handful of chocolate chips if you want.

Now bake according to the box.

Take out of the oven when your timer dings.

Eat a piece. Pretty good right?!

Now I am not saying they taste as good as a plump full of fat brownie, but hello! They have fiber! No eggs, no oil. Beans!!!! BEANS!!!!!

Stew ate pretty much the whole pan.

Nuff said. Make them. Try them. Eat them.

Wowza

2011-01-30T17:57:00.000-08:00

The other night I was checkin my e-mail and I had a friend request and message from some one I didn't know. After I read the message, my heart was so incredibly happy. When I went to Africa I fell in love with the sweetest little girl, Evaline. I wanted to stick her in my bag and take her home. As we hugged goodbye on the last day, tears were streaming down our faces. As she was in my arms and I was squeezing her as tight as I could I had the weirdest experience. My eyes were closed but I could see me hugging her again. I am almost positive it would not be on earth, but in heaven. I knew with all the surety in the world that I would see her again someday. I was so happy that I had the knowledge that there is something after this life and that Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us to return back to him and to each other. So this message and friend request was from her brother who was also at Ngala School for the Deaf. He told me how Evaline never forgot me. I was so so happy. Words can't even describe it. I never knew I would be so thankful for Facebook. It has given me the opportunity to communicate and talk with people that I love and care about.

Evaline is the one to the left (my right). Her brother is the one who sent me the friend request. The other two girls are their sisters as well.

Evaline and I traded name badges. I still have hers.

I asked for her address so I can send her a letter and some pictures. Hopefully he will write back with that info soon!

Current things

2011-01-25T19:39:00.000-08:00

Current things I love:

My letter opener. I found this a long time ago in the hutch in my parents living room. I loved it so much, I told my mom it was mine. She was fine with it. I don't think she was too fond of it. It is one letter opener with two sides. I told Stew yesterday that I loved it more than him. I was kidding of course...

These adorable flats I bought this weekend. Stew asked me why I keep buying (and I quote) "grandma" stuff. He says it looks old. I told him that was the point. Nuff said.

This adorable suitcase and bag. Love love love them. Molly and I used to have a blue suitcase just like this one. We would use it when we went and spent the night at my grandma's. I loved that suitcase. Then I got older and thought I was too cool for it. So we gave it to D.I. Little did I know I would miss it. So had to have these when they made their way in my shopping cart at D.I. I found a 1973 Disney Land coin in the blue one. I gave it to my boss because he is a Disney Land finatic.

Oh, here is my recent Pyrex purchase. The pattern is called Autumn Harvest and these are Cinderella bowls. Just for your information. Case you wanted to know. F.Y.I.

Speaking of Pyrex...want to see the collection? I'm sure you have all been waiting for it. Just one thing before. Please don't judge me. I don't. I love it.

I am seriously putting together a blog about my Pyrex love. Or obsession. Call it what you want. So stayed tuned. Although, with school almost every night, it may not happen in the near future.

Adventure

2011-01-23T22:04:00.000-08:00

One of the gifts I gave Stew for Christmas was a jar. Remember this pic? I added some arrows to help you know which jar I am talking about.

This jar contains tons of things to do in Utah (although I did put some potato place in Idaho. I hear they have potato ice cream. Couldn't pass it up). It has hikes, temples, museums, lakes and much more. So we pulled out the first one and luckily it was one we could do in winter. Drum roll please. The Clark Planetarium!!!

My lame attempt and having the whole world in my hands.

Stew visited mars. Funny story. I had read a sign a couple of minutes before this picture and it said something to the effect of "Stay of the rocks. Stay on the path". I thought the path was on the carpet. I didn't realize there was a path through the display. So next thing I know, Stew is standing out there posing for a picture. I kind of freaked. Then he just laughed at me.

So I took a turn.

Whoah!!

Pros: Free exhibits.
         Some cool interactive stuff.

Cons: All the shows cost money. Like 8 bucks a person for a 40 minute show. Or you can watch movies in 3D (Hate the 3D. Stinks when you wear contacts and have two different prescriptions).
         Have to pay for underground parking.
         Not enough exhibits to last for very long.

So due to the shows being kind of expensive (we are cheap!) we decided to just go grab a bite to eat, shop, and then buy some delicious snickerdoodle cookies and head home.

All in all, it was fun.

Last night...

2011-01-09T16:59:00.000-08:00

Went and saw this:

Rating: A nine out of ten. I liked it...a lot. I like those kinds of movies though. Didn't hurt that it had some eye candy in it too. Don't worry, Stew found some eye candy of his own.

Love it!

2011-01-04T19:17:00.000-08:00

Remember this guy?

He got a face lift.

I'm not sure why, but I loved this chair. It has been at D.I. for quite awhile. I know because I would look at it every time I went. So last Friday when Molly and I went I told myself that I would buy it if it was still there. Good thing I waited because it used to be marked for $8.00 and I got it for $3.00! That's a good deal! So I bought some fabric (Most expensive part. $11.00) and some spray paint ($4.00) and gave it a makeover. So for $18.00, not to shabby! Oh and Heidi, good guess!

Redo

2011-01-02T20:52:00.000-08:00

I was bored. I didn't love the colors of my couch. So I decided to change it. Bought some upholstery fabric from Hobby Lobby. Held on to it for about a month. Then, with Mandy's help, sewed us up some new pillows covers. Ah yeah!

Before:

After:

I love it! Mandy and I had a hard time putting in the zippers, but I think it will be worth it in the end. That way I can change it up if I ever have the desire and I can wash them! So nice.

Can't wait to show you what I am going to do with this little beauty! Picked it up at D.I. for a whoppin three bucks!

Christmas Day!

2011-01-01T18:16:00.000-08:00

For Christmas day, we went down to Orem to spend the day at Heidi & Luke's. I got some Pyrex (my obsession of course) and Leslie got a giant ring (her obsession)

We played some Mario Kart which was a blast. Everyone looks so intense!

Later, we headed back to Magna to eat dinner and skype with the parentals! We made them a fleece blanket with a ton of pictures on it. They loved it! This year, we all exchanged names and made homemade gifts. It turned out great. Everyone loved their gifts! Amy made Stew and I pillow blankets. We put them on our head and danced around. I don't think that is how you are supposed to use them.

I took this photo of Mandy's family, edited it and had it printed on canvas.

It was a great day!

Christmas Morning!

2010-12-27T20:21:00.000-08:00

At five thirty a.m. (that's right) Stew and I woke up to have our Christmas. The night before Stew had told me to stay in the bedroom while he put some presents out. When he came back, we were lying in bed and he told me my present was partially alive and that Christmas morning may come sooner than I thought. I freaked out. I jumped up and turned on the light. I was scared something was going to wake me up. He told me he was just kidding but that I really could not go out there until the next morning or he was going to attack me. So in the middle of the night I had to go to the bathroom. I was still half asleep and remembered that I couldn't leave the bedroom so I woke Stew up just to tell him I was going to the bathroom. It makes me laugh thinking that I woke him up just to tell him that. I was scared he was going to attack me. So anywhoozle (Wow that little story took a bit longer than planned) once I got to the living room I saw what he had put out! PYREX! Love that guy!

Then Stew opened up his "main" gift. A gun! I'm the best wife ever. I picked it out myself. Not really.

Then I opened mine. A Wii!!! I was so excited. I have been wanting one for a long time!

The loot! (That's right, that is a sing-a-ma-jig. I'm five years old)

At six thirty we headed over to the Redmonds to watch them open up their gifts.

I think Madison was excited.

Afterward, we went back home and watched Austin open up his presents.

We had a great Christmas morning! Next is Christmas day!

Christmas Eve

2010-12-26T21:02:00.000-08:00

Because I took so many photos for Christmas, I am going to do them in different posts. The first is Christmas Eve! Stew and I woke up, got ready, and took our annual Christmas photo in front of the tree.

Can you see the remote? Ha ha. You can't see very much of the tree, but oh well.

Next we headed over to Grandma's for the Wilkey Christmas party. It was a ton of fun. I think the count of people went over a hundred again. Here are some pics:

The Nativity (One of my favorite parts)

A Shepard (Riley)

Baby Jesus (Liam)

The audience

Afterward, we headed over to Mandy's to have our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. We have fondue with meat every year. This year, Nellie made breaded shrimp and it was DELICIOUS! We also had top sirloin, t-bone, chicken, pork, and new york steak. All the meat was marinated in everyone's concoctions. It was sad not having my parents with us, but we had a picture of them with Santa Claus hanging up.

After we ate, we played the white elephant pass around. Then we took some pictures. We are some major goobers.

Hmm...no title please

2010-12-22T20:33:00.000-08:00

Now let me prepare you for what you are about to see. A crazy woman. Who is the crazy woman? Me. Unfortunately. My birthday was a couple of weeks ago and Leslie surprised me with non other than vintage Pyrex. I think I had to come to terms with how bad this obsession is after this event. I believe Heidi was the one to capture the pure madness with one shot of the camera.

Here it comes...

Are you ready?

You may say you are.

But are you really?

Ok, just get it over with.

This is me. Lovin my Pyrex. Sigh.

Oddly enough, a couple weeks later Santa came to visit the family at my sisters B-day bash. Notice anything?

What is wrong with my face? Man, I have a big mouth. I should be embarrassed about these pics but I have chose to accept them. Oh, and apparently I think Santa is as awesome as Pyrex.

In love

2010-12-11T14:44:00.000-08:00

I am in love...with Adobe Lightroom 3. Stew bought it for my birthday. I love it. Can I say it again? Here are
some of the pics I played around with. I had fun editing some of Stew and I's engagement pictures.

Stew edited this photo of me. Maybe I should go brunette!

Old or not old?

2010-12-06T10:11:00.000-08:00

So as you all know, I love D.I. Saturday, I found a wool pencil skirt for three bucks. It is an old skirt. I can tell. But I thought for sure I could make it cute. It also is a high waisted pencil skirt. So I took it home and put it on to show Stew. He made some faces and said it looked like something an old woman would wear. Is that a bad thing? Ha ha. So you be the judge. Old, or not old? I still wore it to church. I think it is cute, but maybe I have no fashion sense!

Oh, and I also picked up some Pyrex. I am obsessed! I may actually create a blog dedicated to my Pyrex findings. I think I need help.

Been awhile

2010-11-27T09:28:00.000-08:00

Wow, it has been awhile since I have blogged. I don't mean to be such a slacker. I am just busy busy with school and work. But it has been a nice calm morning, so I thought I will play catch up.

First off, we had a great Thanksgiving two days ago. We were able to spend the day with the Redmond crew.

We had some delicious food. I was stuffed!

Riley and Madison were adorable as usual:

The next morning at 3:00 am. That's right, three o'clock in the morning, I went shopping with all my sisters. It was a blast. We went to Kohl's, Shopko and Michaels. Afterwards we ate a good breakfast at Ihop. I love shopping! I ended up buying an entertainment credenza from Shopko. As soon as I got home Stew and I tried to put it together. As we were unloading the box, we realized the very last piece, which was the top piece, had a huge crack in the varnish. I was so mad! So I called Shopko and asked if I could bring in just that piece (The thing was heavy and I did not want to load it all up again) and exchange it for a new one. The girl told me that they still had one more so I could bring it in. So I did. And sure enough, they did not have one when I got there. So I called the company and they are sending me a new top for free. We still put it together though. We just have to pop off the top when the new one gets here. In case you are wondering why we got a new entertainment center is because we got a new TV and our old one won't fit. It's sad, I really liked my old entertainment center. So yesterday afternoon my house looked like this:

Can you find Stew?

But Stew and I worked very hard and by 5:00 pm, my house looked like this:

It's all ready for Christmas!

Here is the new entertainment center and the new TV:

Here are some things that have happened that I failed to post about:

Girl's Retreat:

So much fun!!!

Stew's Birthday:

(Love that guy!)

The leaves:

Halloween:

My sisters and I had a Lady Gaga contest. I won. And yes, that is meat cleaver in my hand. It was my necklace. Stew dressed up as a.....I have no idea.

So there you have it. I am updated!!!

Pictures

2010-10-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday I took Tara's family pictures. She is a awesome friend I have at work. They turned out cute I thought. We were going to take pictures of her husbands side of the family as well, but it started to pour as soon as they showed up. At least we got Tara's done!

Conference

2010-10-03T19:43:00.000-07:00

Yes indeed we had a great day. Took a little drive up Butterfield canyon for the second half of General Conference. It was awesome to look at the beautiful trees while listening to some profound talks from the Lord's apostles. I love this time of the year!

(Nostalgia)

2010-10-02T19:57:00.000-07:00

Warning: Long post. Could be boring.

~Nostalgia: A wistful desire to return in thought or in fact to a former time in one's life, to one's home or homeland, or to one's family and friends; a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time.~

As the Holidays approach, I tend think back to all the many wonderful times in my life. Holidays of course being a time of happiness. I truly had an awesome childhood. For any of you who don't know, I am the youngest of six kids. Here is the order:

Amy:

There is a 14 year difference between Amy and I. Her son, Brayden and I are actually closer in age (ten years) then we are. Amy has always been a happy person. I remember listening to records with Molly in our bedroom and Amy would come in twirling around, dancing to the music then leaving as fast as she came.

David:

David is the only boy. Poor guy having five sisters. He has always been the best brother to all of us. I remember him and my dad playing ping-pong downstairs, and Molly and I would watch and cheer them on.

Nellie:

Nellie and I became really close when I got older (although I loved when she babysat me when I was younger because she would always cook me grilled cheese sandwiches). We always had a good time together. I remember once we drove by Amy's house and threw a poopy diaper on her porch and then accidentally hit her garbage can on the way out. Maybe it wasn't an accident. Ha ha, don't worry though, Amy had left a poopy diaper in her mailbox earlier. Payback!

Mandy:

Mandy and I have always been really close due to us being such goobers. We have always had such a fun time together. I would always bug her and want to hang out in her bedroom. I usually convinced her to let me in as long as I organized her CD's or shoes (She had almost a hundred pairs, no joke). She would always call me her Honey Bunches of Oats.

Molly:

Molly and I were best friends growing up. We did countless things together. We were both home schooled and we would read so many books. Once we read about the Indians eating things like pansies, so sure enough, we would go eat my mom's pansies (They aren't too bad). We would read about the pioneers traveling through the bitter cold, so while my mom went and ran an errand, we dressed up in our pioneer dresses and went outside (barefoot) to trek through the snow. My mom's face was priceless when she drove up and saw us playing in the snow with no shoes and no jackets. We had wild imaginations and did crazy things. Whether it was sneaking outside to go across the street to a party (I was so scared I left after five minutes) or pretending we were witches with our spell book (my dad's old Bible) we always had fun.

My childhood was awesome not only because of my siblings but because of my fantastic parents.

My mom:

My mom grew up in Pleasant Grove Utah. She was the oldest daughter out of four kids. My mom has always been one of my best friends. She made life fun. She is one of the most selfless people I know. She gives everything to her family. I miss her so much. But only one year left!!!

And of course.....My dad!!

My father is an amazing man. I know I know, everyone says it, but my dad truly is the best dad in the world. He has always been a best friend to all of his kids. I have never known anyone to be as hardworking and as dedicated to serving people as he is. Plus, he is just plain one of the funnest people to be around. He grew up on a farm in Tullare South Dakota. He later was a convert to the Church in his twenties and served a mission. Miss ya dad!

So a little about me:

I was born in December of '87.

I was a crazy baby. My mom told me I could not drink and breathe at the same time. I was always choking. Hmmm, sometimes I have that problem still.

I was (still am) an obsessive child. I had to have everything of anything. I collected pound puppies, fisher price house, shoezies, ponies and anything else you can think of.

I loved dressing up and being someone else. My friend Tiffany and I would dress up and go swim in the pool and pretend we were shipwrecked people. It was awesome.

I just loved my childhood. I sometimes wish I could go back and still be young. Life was seemingly easy. No bills, no responsibilities...just fun. Life is still fun, but I think for most people, childhood and home is something you always hold close to your heart.

Problem

2010-09-19T22:02:00.000-07:00

I think I have a problem. I am obsessed...with shopping. The problem is, I don't have a lot of money to just spend on clothes. So I know I have said it before but I am obsessed with D.I. I love going. I get some sort of high when I find some good deals. I always have good luck with Sunday clothes. I don't think I have bought a skirt since I have been married. Anywhoozle, I was bored tonight so I decided to take some pics of all my D.I. clothes.

                                                                            Dresses:
                                   DownEast Tuxedo Dress              DownEast Shirt Dress

A vintage dress that I loved!

Coats:

Brand new Gap coat Cute cargo jacket

Skirts:

Nine West white skirt Silk pencil skirt with pockets!

Gap green skirt Gap blue skirt

Express black pencil skirt

Shirts:

Crazy Vintage sweater (I have yet to wear it) Banana Republic shirt

Brand new Vans shirt

Shoes: Disclaimer: I do not usually buy shoes unless they are brand new or they look brand new. Eww to stinky feet.

Ooo...I am also obsessed with vintage Pyrex dishes. These were my finds from yesterday.

V-town aka Vernal

2010-09-12T20:47:00.000-07:00

We went to V-town this weekend to visit Mike & Aubrey and of course....Madison!

-Awesome pic of Uncle Jerry-

I read up on my favorite subject (Combat Tactics) while Aubrey played with Madison

The boys played with their guns.

Later, Mike made Stew & I climb some crazy hills so that he could touch up the target. Ok ok, he didn't really make us. I wanted to go....till I saw the hills.

Can you see Uncley Jerry & Aunt Kay's house?

It was worth the gorgeous views though

Annie

2010-08-23T14:34:00.000-07:00

I am going to be taking my friend's family photos soon, so I decided to practice my manual shooting skills on my adorable niece Annie. We had a fun time going up to Cemetery Hill and taking them.

iheartfaces

2010-08-23T08:58:00.000-07:00

This weeks challenge for http://www.iheartfaces.com/ (Check it out!) is beach fun. I immediately thought of this photo I had taken of my nephew Jaxon. He had his squirt gun and had shot it right as I took the photo.

Announcing BookIt Photography

2010-08-12T16:49:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone, Heidi and I have started a photography business. We take photos of guests at events and print them out on a page for the guests to sign. We then put the pages in a guestbook. It comes from the idea of having a photobooth at the events to create a photo guestbook. But this way you get a photographer with studio lighting and a graphic designer to compile your guestbook for you. We photograph wedding receptions, birthday parties, family reunions, or any other large gathering. It's quite sweet and we're offering some fun deals right now too.

If you book your event before Dec.1, 2010 you will receive one extra hour for FREE! We also have a referral program if you have two people book an event you can get $50 off your event total!

Please share our site with your friends & family. Either via blogs or facebook would be great.

Check us out at: http://www.bookitphoto.com/

Seattle!!

2010-08-05T20:41:00.000-07:00

We went to Seattle for one day. It's only about 77 miles away from Ensign Ranch. It was pretty awesome. We drove right down the tiny street in Pike's Place Market. I don't think we stood out at all in a Suburban, Tahoe, and Trailblazer all with Utah license plates.

This is the closest we got to the space needle.

The cute Rivera Family

Jed at Ivars. We at lunch there. It was delicious!

Me!

A view of Seattle. They have some awesome buildings.

Stew and I!

We found Stewart's house. They also had a store called Maggie's Shoes. I so wanted to go in it!

Pike's Place Market. It is famous for the fish, flowers, and crazy weird shops. I loved it all. The flowers are gorgeous and only cost around 10 dollars. So cheap! I bought a peacock ring at an antique shop and these adorable salt & pepper shakers. I was looking everywhere for a cute set. Oink oink!

I heart Seattle.

Next post: The waterfall!

Ensign Ranch

2010-08-03T18:40:00.000-07:00

Not a lot of words. Just a lot of photos.

Josh was dirty all the time. He loved playing in the dirt.

Mandy (This was her fourth attempt at a natural smile. The Cockrells are big time goobers in front of the camera. We rarely have normal pictures of ourselves)

Cute Raylie

Nellie

Remind anyone of Anne of Green Gables? Gorgeous!

The woman I drove 12 hours to see!!

Elder & Sister Cockrell

Cute Ellsie (Molly put make-up on her)

Family Cabin #2. My mom decorated it for us!

Next post: Seattle

Who did I marry?

2010-07-31T19:07:00.000-07:00

(I am having some major problems with my blog. Sorry if things are weird. One minute the video was there, the next minute...not so much)

I am back from Washington!! I am taking a break from this:

To do this: BLOG! But not just about anything. About my crazy husband. I will do a couple of posts about Washington and this one is about how wild Stew is.

He jumped into the...questionable lake. I heard there were leeches in there.

He almost fell into the river
He climbed up a crazy hill in water shoes. Can you see him?
He blends in.
He convinced my dad to let him use the rope swing that just a couple of weeks earlier, two ladies broke their legs swinging on it.

But the craziest? He climbed to the top of a huge pine tree. Watch the video to get an idea of how huge it really was.

Sorry if the video is crazy. I am still learning how to film with my Canon.

Catch Up

2010-06-27T21:07:00.000-07:00

This year for my work party, they rented out Hogle Zoo for all the employees and their families. Stew and I had a lot of fun.

On a separate note, if you come over to our house, you will most likely find Midge in her favorite spot.

Farewell!

2010-06-13T21:54:00.000-07:00

Today was Steven's farewell. He gave a excellent talk in Sacrament Meeting and afterwards, we had some delicious food! It was fun to see and visit with everyone.

Madison playing peek-a-boo

Creepy Stew

Myself

Eating some good food (Thanks Amber for keeping the convo going!)

Soon to be Elder Redmond

Grandma Redmond

Cute Janowicz Family

Riley smiling!

After: The boys watching Robots (I think that is what it was called). They all look tired.

2010-06-02T06:42:00.000-07:00

You know the day is off to a bad start when you are driving on the highway to work and you realize you still have your slippers on. Great fun!

Random Post

2010-05-24T20:08:00.000-07:00

Here are some random things:

One: I am obsessed...with making watch bands. I can't stop! They are so cheap and so fun. So if anybody wants to do some, call me. It will give me an excuse to make more!
Two: Stew discovered something freaky in our yard. Actually it's the neighbors yard, but close enough. Beware of the BEE'S!!!!

Third: Because we like them so much, here are some pics of the Redmond family.

Madison!

Steven took out his endowments last Saturday. Congrats!

Crazy hair Bailee! I think she was in a wind tunnel :)

That's all for now. Pretty random, I know. BYE!! (Grandma Wilkey says it better than me)

(I am really tired and I feel like I said weird things in this post. Sorry.)

An Adventure!

2010-05-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Stew and I decided to take a drive in the crazy rain. We decided to check out Copperton. I have decided I am going to live there! I loved it. I just love the small town feel.Stew braving the storm. Check out his huge scar! He had Basal Cell Carcinoma and had to have surgery to get it out. Crazy!Entering the storm!Scared? Never.Copperton didn't have much. Just a post office. And the Ore House. Interesting.
Leaving Copperton...and the storm.

On another note: Love this pic of my niece. So sweet.

Naughty Naughty

2010-05-12T19:54:00.000-07:00

I have been a naughty girl. For almost a year now, I have been wanting to buy the Nikon D90. We almost bought it last Christmas, but a bonus fell through, so we weren't able to buy it. So I was sitting at my desk yesterday at work and and a co-worker was talking about selling his Canon 7d on KSL. I asked him what the difference between that and the D90. He owns his own business (www.happilyeveraftervideo.com) and owns several cameras so I trusted his opinion. All it took to sell me was that the Canon 7d had 18 mega pixels (D90 has 12) and that it could shoot 60 frames per second (D90 can shoot 30 frames per second). I had to have it. So I bought it from him and have loved it for the short 12 hours I have owned it. Here are some pics I have taken with it.

Oh, and the post I was supposed to do almost two weeks ago (Sorry!). We bought two new parrotlets! The blue on is a boy and the green one is a girl. Stew plans on letting them have some babies and hand feeding the chicks. I have to admit, the blue one is gorgeous. They are still loud though.

Petrie

2010-04-23T21:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Petrie, our Parrotlet died. It was so sad to see him go. He was me and Stew's first pet. We are not sure why he died. He had seemed sick for a couple of days. I admit, I didn't always love having him around. He was loud and always tried to bite me (maybe it was because I threw a pen at him), but I felt so sad when he died. Here are some pics of the little guy.

Helping Stew put lights on the tree.
Burrowing in my hair

Loving the Christmas tree

Best buds!

Check back soon, because I am going to post about something related to this topic. Hopefully by Monday!

The Ultimate Cupcake Off

2010-04-19T19:47:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to post this for awhile but I haven't gotten around to it until today. For Christmas, Leslie gave me a cake decorating set which I was so excited about. So one Sunday Stew and I decided to put it to use and decorate some cupcakes.

Ready, Set...

GO!

The finished product!
Thanks Leslie!

Bye!

2010-04-12T17:50:00.001-07:00

Last night we said farewell to my parents. I am going to miss them so much! They have been such great examples to me in my life. I am so jealous of all those people at the ranch because they get to see them everyday!

On another note, I went to D.I. again today (I told you I am obsessed). Not only did I find another great pair of capri's, but I also found a bag of Disney princess dress up clothes. My niece Ellsie is obsessed with princess's lately so I bought it for her. Turns out her brother, Jaxon, likes princess's too.

Easter

2010-04-07T19:09:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter this year. On Saturday, we had a delicious chili verde dinner and a Easter egg hunt.

Cute Midge
Mandy & Josh. He's a such a cutie!

The girls

All the grand kids

Ethan

My cute mom! I miss her already!

Stew and I

After, Amy asked me to take some photos of Annie. Here is how they turned out:

On Easter, we had a nice relaxing morning:Maybe too relaxing?

For the second half of conference, we headed down to Orem to finish watching it and eat some delicious dinner.

Cute Bailee!

Mmmm...

2010-03-29T18:30:00.000-07:00

Yummy yummy yummy!! Homemade strawberry jam (Thanks Liz for teaching me how to make it)!! I've posted the recipe on Food Glorious Food. Hope you make some too!

Dear D.I.

2010-03-20T18:14:00.001-07:00

I have a confession...I love D.I. While some may be grossed out to rummage through people's used and sometimes dirty unwanted stuff, I love it. My sisters and I call D.I. Dig it. Because that is what you have to do to find anything good. Dig. D.I. always fixes my shopping craves in a budget friendly way. Here is what I got today:

Cute bracelet. $3.00

T-Shirt $3.00

Light blue skirt from the Gap $5.00

Brand new Union Bay capri's. That's right, BRAND NEW!!!

Hmmm...which price do I want to pay?

Cute stars for my mom's kitchen $1.00 each.

Some elastic to make headbands with. 50 cents.

My grand total was $18.00. I can handle that!

Here are some things I have bought in the past and gave a little face lift to:

Before:

After:

Before:After:
Before (Midge loved licking off whatever dripped down the side):

After (It needs one more coat of spray paint):

Swing Life Away

2010-03-10T19:29:00.000-08:00

So I came home one day and could not find my husband. Where was he you ask? Out being a monkey and climbing up the tree (more like a stump) in the back yard. I just figured he was having some fun and that was it. A couple of days later, some boards were attached. Interesting. Then I came home and there were three boys downstairs playing computers. Stew was not one of them. I asked them were Stew was and they said he was out building a swing and they got bored and cold so they came in. Sure enough, he had built a swing. I am so glad I was not there to watch him crawl out and nail the second board on. Eeek!
I was terrified to do it the first time because I was positive I would slam into the tree stump. There is no way to steer yourself away from any object. Stew ran after me and made me do it. I will admit, it was pretty awesome.

This picture of my dad is awesome!

MISSION!!!

2010-03-04T19:14:00.000-08:00

Brother and Sister Cockrell have been called to....

The Washington Kennewick Mission and will mainly serve at Ensign Ranch Recreation Camp. We are all so happy for them. They leave for the MTC on April 5th. So soon!!! We (the kids) all waited in anticipation as much as they did because we all wanted to know where we were going to go on vacation this year. Washington sounds like a great place!!! Good luck mom & dad!!

On another note... Stew finally grew some facial hair!

And so did I.

Violins and Valentines

2010-02-15T17:50:00.000-08:00

First off, Stew bought an electric violin a couple of weeks ago. You may have seen the video on Heidi's blog of him playing it. Here are some pics!

Stew and I had a great Valentines, even though we didn't do anything that was too exciting. Here is what I got him:

Jelly Belly's!!!

A homemade cardStew got me a bowl full of chocolate. Yum!
Some gorgeous flowers
I bought us both a cute picture frame, although I am sure I like it more than he does.

Here is a picture of Midge. Just because she is cute.

The End!

Post Mission

2010-02-08T10:50:00.000-08:00

Last post about the dating years with Stew. I promise! So Stew returned from the sunny state of Arizona to the cold cold winter of Utah in Feb. 2007. It was great to see him! We dated for about 5 months and then he proposed at the end of July. We were married only two months later. Here are some pics!

Camping with my family:
Stew impressed my brother in-laws with his amazing shot gun skills. Must be all those computer games he plays.

Hiking at my family reunion.

Hanging out at my house:

Stew grilling us some dinner.

Being weird in at Stew's house.

Bear Lake with Heidi, Luke, Aubrey and Mike. Oh and Buck, whose head is huge compared to Stew's!

The Great Salt Lake!

The Dating Years (During the Mission)

2010-02-02T15:21:00.000-08:00

Stewart left for his mission in February 2005. I am not going to lie, I was a mess. I know I know, I was young. Too young to be so upset over a boy. But I wasn't just saying good bye to my boyfriend, I was saying goodbye to my best friend. I had made some decisions before he left that kind of left me with zero friends. I chose to hang out with him instead of other friends, so my relationships with those people had fallen apart. So that only made it that much harder to say goodbye. Now I won't focus on too much of the lame sadness, but more on the great funniness. I am about to tell you the best story ever. I don't know why, but it makes me laugh so hard. The day before Stewart was going to leave to the MTC, he needed a haircut. So I went with him to the barber shop. Now we went to the one on Magna Main by the post office. The whole hair cut was fine and I just sat and watched "Minority Report". At the end of the cut, while the guy was washing the combs, I mouthed to Stewart "Don't forget to tip!". I did this because I knew Stewart had probably never had a professional haircut that he paid for. Stew looked a little confused and mouthed back "How much?". Before I could reply the guy had turned around and told Stewart the total. So Stewart ended up tipping him five dollars. Well the guy was so excited he exclaimed something like "Wow, that is a huge tip!". He then told Stewart he was going to repay him or something like that and started to massage his neck. Stewart's face was priceless. he looked terrified. It was all I could do to not fall out of the chair laughing. I don't think Stew had ever had a neck massage, let alone by some big guy with big hands. The massage lasted for about 3 minutes. Best 3 minutes of my life. Any who, Stew and I wrote each other for the whole two years. I have a shoe box full of his letter, as does he. We sent each other tons of photos as well as tapes. I'm not going to bore you with tons of photos. Just a couple.

Photos from me to Stew:

I took so many photos of myself to send with Stew. Now that I look at them, I wonder what in the world I was thinking.

Proving to Stew I got a kitty!
I went over to the Swan's house so that we could take some pictures and send some Holiday greetings to all of our missionary friends (Stew and Brigham).

Proving to Stew I got a real job...as a hostess at Red Robin.

Photos from Stew to me:

Stew with some good ole investigators

Stew missing me. Ha ha.

Showing off his desk.

The Dating Years (Pre-Mission)

2010-01-24T20:07:00.000-08:00

Well, my life must be boring. I made the goal to blog once every week but it kind of hard to blog when nothing has gone on. I guess I feel like I need pictures in order to blog. I can't seem to just type without any pictures to go along. So I decided to post some pictures of what Stew and I did while we were dating before he went on his mission.

Good ole Mc-key Dees. We would go there often with a bunch of friends after playing basketball on Saturday mornings.

Entertaining ourselves with Stew's green laser.

Playing some good ole smash bro's with Aubrey and Luke. I think this was the night before he was to be set apart as a missionary. Check out Stew's hair! Crazy!

We unwrapped a Christmas ball and Stew was acting creepy. Must of been bored.

Shooting the BB gun.

Making grilled cheese sandwiches.

Christmas!

Interesting shot.

More Christmas

Stew had a sheet of these stickers so I put them all around his computer. I also made the background.

That wasn't fun enough so then I put them on his face. Good sport.Stew and Tiff acting like nerds. Both were Stewart's pair of glasses.

Eating m&m's waiting to watch a movie.

Stew trying to impress me. Ok, it worked.

Well, there you have it. During our "courtship" we did a lot of eating, playing computer games, chucking apples into a field, shooting, watching movies, more eating, driving up to creepy cemetery hill, cleaning the dentist office, acting like nerds, playing basketball, driving around on Stew's Honda 90, cliff jumping, lighting fire crackers in potatoes and milk jugs and pretty much anything else you can think of. And oh, maybe a little bit of kissing. Ha ha. Stay tuned for next week in which I will dive into our relationship during the mission! Oh the suspense!

Crazy? Don't mind if I do

2010-01-18T18:44:00.001-08:00

Not much has happened in the past week. I started school on Saturday and and oh what fun! It will be interesting to see how much I am going to love/hate going to school every Saturday morning. This picture is pretty awesome. We look like big time goobers. Well, I am off to go finish the laundry. Hopefully next week I will have more to blog about.

A post that is way overdue

2010-01-10T18:52:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, in August 2008 Stew and I moved into my parents basement. The basement was not finished. We lived out of two bedrooms and used the upstairs bathroom for about 2 months. Once the bathroom downstairs was finished, it was a lot easier to deal with just having two bedrooms. Or so I thought. I thought we would get the rest of the basement done in about another 4-5 months. This was not the case. I had no idea how hard and how time consuming it would be to finish the rest. Plumbing, electric, framing the walls, putting up sheet rock, mudding, sanding, sanding, sanding. Oh the endless sanding. Painting, can lights, the ceiling, tile, carpet, cabinets (which ended up being crooked...oops), counter tops, and yet again more sanding. I probably could go on for a little bit more. We finally finished the majority in August of 2009. One year later. I admire and appreciate my dad so much. He dedicated so much time to this project and did the majority by himself. So here are the before pics and after pics!!

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

To Diffuse or not Diffuse

2010-01-04T10:26:00.000-08:00

So about a week ago, I was at the in-law's looking at a photography catalog and in this catalog they were selling a flash diffuser. What it does is eliminate some of the harshness of your flash on a DSLR camera. It seems like I am always trying to hold down my flash or cover it up with my hand to get more natural pictures. The problem is, if I hold down the flash, my shutter stays open longer to get more light and in that time I have moved a titch so then my pictures are blurry. Not cool. So I made a spur of the moment decision and ordered a flash diffuser off of Amazon.com. Normal just the white ones are twenty dollars, but I found a deal for a white, yellow (warming), and a blue (cooling) one for twelve bucks! Yeah! So I got it in the mail on Saturday and played around with it yesterday. You be the judge, but I totally think it is worth it for twelve bucks.

Normal with the flash

White Diffuser

Warming Diffuser

Cooling Diffuser

Here is another example:

With the flash (my mom is going to kill me that I used these pics. Thanks mom!)

With the white diffuser.

New Year...New Resolutions

2010-01-02T09:53:00.000-08:00

With the year 2010, I have made some resolutions. I love the new year and the feeling of fresh starts. I think it is a great opportunity for anyone to make changes in their lives.

Number 1: Lose weight and lower my cholesterol. While I am sure this is a lot of people's new year resolutions, I really want to succeed in this. Especially the later. I recently had my cholesterol checked and it was High. That's high with a capital H. My family has a history of heart disease. My grandpa died of a heart attack. A cousin recently died of a heart attack and he was only in his thirties. My cousin died when he was only two days old due to heart problems. My mom has always had high cholesterol. My dad had a stint placed in his heart about 8 years ago. I could go on and on. Getting the picture? So it scares me that I am only twenty two and I am already running into problems. It could be due to my love of cheese. I absolutely love that stuff. Correction, I love all dairy. My cheese addiction started when I was a child. My mom even had to make me a cheese chart to control my cheese intake. So wish me luck. I am going to make Stew my personal trainer. Low cholesterol...here I come!

Number 2: Go to the temple once every two months. While this may not seem like a very aggressive goal, it is for me and Stew. For some reason we have a really hard time making it to the temple in our busy schedule. I am ashamed to say it, but we are lucky if we go twice a year. This makes me sad because before we got married I went to the temple all the time with my girlfriends from high school. I love the temple, and I want to help people. So we decided an achievable goal is once every two months. Temple...here we come!

Number 3: Blogging! I want to blog more, but life seems to weigh in and I never find the time. But never fear, I will find the time! Blogging...here I come!

So now that I have the plan for the new year, let's take a look at past Christmas. It was a great Christmas as usual and I had a blast. I love Christmas and spirit I feel. It truly is a wonderful time of the year.

Cute little Jaxon

Raylie

Me and Stew in our annual pic in front of the tree. Some day I will compile them and see how much we have grown!

Bailee dumping out her sock.

Leslie, Aubrey and Mike!

Me and Stew Christmas morning

Brayden and Annie anxiously waiting to go and open up presents.

Midge!

Naughty Midge

2009-11-16T11:16:00.000-08:00

Bed: $30.00
Lesson learned: Don't buy a $30.00 bed for a puppy. A blanket will do just fine.

Oh Baby!

2009-10-05T14:01:00.001-07:00

My sister Nellie had her baby girl almost two weeks ago. Raylie Lyric Rivera weighed 4 pounds, 12 ounces. She was able to come home after 6 days in the NICU. I went and took pictures of her today. She is so cute and so tiny. I'm happy that I have sisters who are willing to let me practice my photography on their children.

2 year mark!

2009-09-28T09:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our two year anniversary. It seems crazy that we have already been married for two years. It has been great. Although we have been so busy with work and school, we still manage to have tons of fun. My friend Annie told me we were now in the terrible two's. I thought that was only with kids, but we'll see. Just kidding, I love you babe!

From this:

To this:

Catching up

2009-07-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

Couple things have happened since I last posted!
First off, we got a puppy! She is a mini Dachshund. We named her Midge. She is a ball of fire! Pees everywhere though. Not to sure about that. But over all, she's been tons of fun.

Second thing is we went camping with the Cockrell clan for our annual camping trip. This year we went to the Uintah's. We haven't camped there for quite awhile. Last year we went to Bear Lake, and for about 3-4 years before that we went to Moon Lake in Ashley National forest.
Here are some pics!

The moon was gorgeous every night

Dirty dirty kids

Midge ready for bed. Don't worry she didn't sleep with us....most of the time. We went camping with Stew's family the weekend before this trip and we took Midge with us. She slept by herself most of the night but in the morning Stew made the mistake of looking at her. As soon as she saw his eyes, she went crazy. She was bouncing everywhere and attacking us and wanting to play. We learned our lesson, don't look at her. Otherwise, she's fine.

Normal Picture

Crazy picture!

Dirty Ellsie

Soooo many mosquitoes!

We drove up to a gorgeous waterfall.

Dad

2009-06-21T15:38:00.000-07:00

Dad, this post is for you. Today I sat in the basement that you have worked so hard on and thought about you as my father. You have taught me so much. You have taught me how to have fun. Everything in life can be enjoyable. Whether it is putting a Bar-B-Que together or playing Go fish. Every time I am around you, I have fun. Your smile never ends. I thank you for that. You have taught me how to work. As a child when I had to weed the seemingly endless rows of corn I thought you were just trying to punish me. When you made me work out in the front yard, mow the grass or husk the corn I thought my life was horrible. When you would ask me to go clean the Credit Union with you I wanted to throw a fit. But now as an adult (I know...barely) I know what you were teaching me. So few people today know the value of work. When I think of hard work and sacrifice I think of you. I pray that my kids can know you and learn from your example. Your testimony of the gospel is so strong. I haved love hearing you bear your testimony and am so thankful that you are my dad. What ever a man can conceive and believe...he can achieve. I love you dad.

Joshua Robert Nelson

2009-05-11T17:11:00.000-07:00

Today I had the opportunity to go and take pics of my newest nephew, Josh. He is so cute and so small!! We didn't get a ton of pictures because he kept crying. Better luck next time!

Easter..Vernal...Oops

2009-04-13T18:48:00.001-07:00

Three topics. First Easter.
We spent the majority of Easter at my parents house. The kids had a great Easter egg hunt and I even found the gold egg!! No worries though, I gave it to Jaxon. I guess grown-ups can't keep the prizes. I sat on the grass for awhile and took pictures of my hilarious niece, Ellsie. She is such a hoot. She yells and yells and runs around. I love just watching what she does.

All grand-kiddies!

Second topic. Vernal! I am sure the majority of you looking at our blog have already seen Heidi and Aubreys' great blogs. Here are a couple of my fav pics!

Bailee was not happy

Gotta love the car photos!

Rock hunters!

Third topic...Oops. I thought this picture was hilarious. Me and Stew were watching a movie (remember we have no living room currently so our bed also counts as a couch) and I was trying to get the bag of Easter eggs open in the dark. I tugged and I tugged and I could not get them open. I tried one last bit of strength and....they exploded. I was laughing so hard I was crying. Stew just stared at me like I was the biggest goon he ever knew.

2009-03-27T11:57:00.000-07:00

To explain the two posts below this one: I was bored today. I had the day off and had no desire to do any of the things I should do. Including taxes. Ugh. So I started looking through old pictures and decided to post the third picture of every folder from 2008 and 2007. It may be kind of boring. I realized this after I posted. Oh well. Time to get to laundry. I decided all of my clothes should be made from plastic so I can just wipe them off if I spill on them and that is that. There is no accidental shrinking or forgetting to spray stains involved. I wouldn't have to stretch back into my jeans every time I washed them. The joys of laundry.