Do you use Pinterest? If not you are missing out, it's a virtual pinboard. You know when you find something online you like & you bookmark it and then if you're like me you have so many bookmarks you don't know where to find that awesome DIY project you found 2 months ago. If you have this problem you need to join Pinterst, you have to have an invite but just leave me your email and I'll send you one. While on Pinterest I found this wreath I wanted to try, unfortunately it was basically just a picture on someones blog not a whole tutorial so we kinda just figured it out on our own. I did it with my friend Bethany who is one of those people that I like to refer to as "hiding in a hole" cuz she's not on Facebook and doesn't have a blog but don't worry she really exists in the real world. We haven't done anything for ages but we got together a few weekends ago for a girls weekend in Vegas with 4 of our other friends it was a total blast, hopefully I'll blog about that within the next year, ha. Any we decided we were going to be crafty so this was our first attempt and though it took us a while I think they turned out awesome. If anyone is wanting to make a last minute 4th of July wreath here's how we did it. If you're as thrifty as me & you make it with a friend you could make each wreath for around 5 bucks! I found the felt at the DI, they sale packages of pre-cut fabric so it was $5 for 5 different colors of felt & there just so happened to be red, white, & blue all in one package. I also saw on Pinterest that someone used foam tubing from the pluming dept at a hardware store for a cheap wreath form. Ours was a $1.25 I think and there was extra tubing after we cut what we needed for our wreath. You have to cut it to the size you want and then duct tape it but it worked fine. We got wood stars and painted them white, curled some wire, hot glued it behind the stars and them hot glued them in the blue area. We cut the felt into 2x2 squares & I think we used about a yard each of each color. The hot glue does melt the foam a little so I put it on the fabric & then stuck it to the wreath. That's pretty much it. Let me know if you try it & how it turns out.
Today Zach and I talked in sacrament meeting. I always get so nervous and really dread it, which is sad cuz I feel like I use to not mind it much as a teenager and it didn't really stress me out. I didn't even use to really type much when I would give talks just write a few notes and go on the Spirit, for some reason since we've been married every time we're asked to speak, maybe it's cuz I start typing up our about us info., I always type my whole talk and just plan on reading it. Last night I was thinking my talk wasn't that great and my much more spiritual husband said just think of your topic and add personal experiences of how it's touched it. It was about midnight and we were in bed and I realized my talk was lacking any personal experience it was just basically repeating the talk I was assigned to talk on in my own words. So I started jotting down notes on my finished typed talk. I was so nervous my talk was going to be a big mess and I'd loose my spot if I tried to add stuff but I prayed hard that I would listen to the Spirit and be able to do well. I think I succeed, I realized why I got into the rut of just typing my talk it's cuz I must be more emotional now that I'm a mommy and as soon as I feel the Spirit I just start crying. Which makes it hard to get out what I really want to say so in my mind it's easier to just read it but that's not really getting as deep and spiritual as I know I could, so the congregation had to be patient and watch me shed a few tears but I think it was worth it. There is such a feeling of satisfaction after you give a talk when you feel like you listened to the Spirit in sharing. So once the giving of the talk is over I really do like doing it. Any way today made me realize what a strong testimony of the Relief Society I have because my talk was on a talk given at the last general Relief Society meeting by Sister Julie B. Beck, Daughters-in-My-Kingdom: The-History-and-Work-of-Relief-Society. I have never really felt or understood the real power there is in Relief Society until now. I have just recently started doing my visiting teaching consistently and it has blessed my life so much. I know Relief Society is truly an inspired program that is here to bless all of us. Here are a few quotes from Sister Beck's talk that I really enjoyed and used in my own talk today. "The purpose of Relief Society is to prepare daughters of God for the blessings of eternal life as they increase in faith and personal righteousness, strengthen families and homes, and seek out and help others who are in need. The history of Relief Society teaches us that our Heavenly Father knows His daughters. He loves them, He has given them specific responsibilities, and He has spoken to and guided them during their mortal missions.”
"Relief Society clarifies our work and unifies us as daughters of God in defense of His plan. In this day of mistaken identities, confusion, and distraction, Relief Society is meant to be a compass and guide to teach the truth to faithful women. Righteous women today seek an outpouring of revelation to resist distractions, fight evil and spiritual destruction, and rise above personal disasters by increasing their faith, strengthening their families, and providing relief to others.”
Isn't Sister Beck so great, I love, love, love her. I know the Lordhas shaped Sister Beck and all of the past Relief Society presidents to be the perfect women for the job at just the right time and I know he will also shape each of us, if we desire him to, to be the right wives, mothers and daughters of His kingdom in our day and with our own families. That is why Joseph Smith was inspired by Heavenly Father to organize the Relief Society to help shape each and every sister and help us to prepare for the blessings of eternal life. Just thought I'd share a little of my talk and testimony with you here on the blog so I can have it forever. Happy Sunday!
So I have just discovered this whole outfit of the day craze and while I think some of the blogs are a little much I've found a few I am a bit obsessed with. I guess a lot of them aren't really the outfit of the day but thrifty fashion. This has all happened in that past week so I'm sure there is lot's more to be discovered, which could be a little scary. Do you ever feel like there is so much at our fingertips with the internet/google/blogs etc... that's it's almost too much. I guess if you're the type of person that can just look at one neat blog and be done then you probably don't have this problem but I find one I like and just keep going on this crazy adventure looking at all their links and all the next blogs links and so on. Any way after looking at a number of fashion style blogs I really became excited to go through my closet and refashion as they call it some of my clothes. I already found quite a few new ways just to wear things that I wouldn't have usually even thought of. It sparked something in me I guess, I've always loved clothes not been real big on "fashion". I like to think I'm fashionable but I really don't know much about it and haven't really felt like I dress that cute since having babies, but reading a lot of these blogs has given me hope that I can make some super cute outfits out of what I already have and things I can find for cheap. So I need to take up sewing and I hopefully I'll find a great hobby that I really enjoy that's also saving me money. I'll be sure to post a pics when I really do refashion something and for those of you that hate the outfit of the day blogs don't hate me if I post a pic or two of me in a refashioned outfit. So here's a few of the blogs I'm loving: http://cottonandcurls.blogspot.com/ http://uberchicforcheap.blogspot.com/ http://melissaesplin.com/home/
Oh and I'm so doing this, it'll probably be my first project!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6yDxK68OZc
I'm starting to feel the blogging vibe again so hopefully I'll get on a roll.....We have been loving the weather lately so here's a few pics of the kiddo's enjoying it in our little backyard, that I totally love!
I love this time of year for so many reason, my birthday, Easter, good weather etc...My birthday is next Sunday so my mom, me and my grandma are all going to Vegas Fri and Sat to do some shopping, get some pedicures, lay by the pool and party it up. After that a few weeks until Easter and the week after Disneyland I have a lot to look forward to and a lot coming up that will be blog worthy so hopefully you'll see some fun updates here soon.
One of my friends did this post today so I thought I'd hop back into the blogging world after 7 months and copy her.....
Right now I am loving my little family even the craziness of having two kid, as hard as it is sometimes, most days I just sit back and think is this really my life cuz it’s pretty awesome.
Though I’m not loving not having my brother just a phone call, text, or 15 minute drive away I am loving these.
I am loving a new tradition my grandma, mom and I just started. We're going to have a project Saturday at least once each month where we take turns helping each other do a project we've been wanting to do at our house or what not. So last Saturday we had our first one and we got a pedicure (that I’m loving) and did a little shopping for things we all needed for some projects. While shopping I found this awesome ctr ring, that I'm really loving.
I also love my new hair cut, my hair really needed something and this cut and bangs seem to be just what it needed.
Another love is some free formula, that I got from Zach's cousin, who can't love that.
I saw this brilliant organizing tip on a blog and am loving it. You just attach the sticky hooks to the back of a cupboard.
I am loving my new love for the DI and the great finds I find there.
I am loving waking up and having sore abs today thanks to this brilliant website: http://randomabs.com/today/, they post a different routine everyday.
I am loving that for the first time in a long time I am doing my visit teaching. Along with that I truly love our new ward and where we live.
Oh and what I'm really loving this week is kids that aren’t sick anymore, such a happier house for everyone.
I don't have it yet but soon I know I will be loving this soap from Renee.
I'm not sure if I love it but I love the $ and the people watching that comes along with giving Plasma, can't get much better than $50 for 3 hours of people watching.
I am loving Coyote Exchange and my new jeans from there. What's better then getting new clothes in exchange for old ones. Plus I think I prefer second hand jeans I wear a smaller size & they already fit like your favorite pair!
I love having a camera again so that I can actually make this post more exciting. Plus the finding of old pics that came along with a new camera once we put the old sim card in that had 500+ pictures on it.
In a few months I'll be loving this even more than I did this time! Iyrlend will love it so much more and Easton will be there to enjoy it too.
Last but not least I love my husband and how hard he works. I also love his wonderful job and love even more how much he loves it. I love it for reasons like us getting to go to Vegas this weekend for a conference and getting to stay here, for super cheap!
WARNING: This is an extremely long birth story so if you're not interested in the whole thing or if you get bored, just skip to paragraph #4.
So for my delivery story I have to first give some background info. For this pregnancy I decided to go a midwife. I talked to a lot of people who had gone to midwives before I got pregnant and decided that it would totally be worth it because the cost was so much less and you get more one on one care. I had no problem with my OB doctor that delivered Iyrlend, I just hated waitING at his office and then paying tons of $ for a short visit. So my plan was to go to a midwife for my prenatal care & then have my OB deliver at the hospital. In the beginning I said I was going to deliver at the hospital cuz I wasn’t ready to give up my epidural yet, but sometime during my pregnancy I decided I wanted to try it without an epidural, mostly because I had hear the recovery was so much better. For a while I even thought about having a homebirth, so I went back and forth but then decided the hospital would be best for me but that I would just try and labor at home as long as possible and hopefully just show up at the hospital to push. I was nervous things wouldn’t turn out how I wanted cuz everyone that I talked to who had their baby at home warned me that it would be hard to have a natural birth at the hospital and everyone I talked to who had babies at the hospital told me I would want an epidural basically as soon as the contractions started.
If any of you didn’t see me the last few weeks of pregnancy I will give you a visual, my belly was so low that everyone had been asking me for at least a good month if I was due any day. On top of my belly being so low and large I had Iyrlend 2 ½ weeks early so the last 2 weeks were so horrible. I went to my OB doc on May 25th just to have one check up with him since I hadn’t seen him my whole pregnancy. He checked me and told me I was at a 4 almost 5 and 90% effaced. He was sure I’d go any day and I had felt so much more pain, braxton hicks, and so many things I didn’t feel with Iyrlend this pregnancy that I thought for sure it had to be any day as well. I had already been having Braxton hicks for a few weeks at least but after this appt. they just got more and more frequent, the best way to describe my contractions up until the real thing was constantly inconsistent. My doc was going out of town that weekend but was sure he’d see me before then, well instead he saw me a week later at the scheduled appt. I had that no one thought I’d make it to. At this point I was ready to through my whole plan out the window, walk over to the hospital and force them to induce me but thankfully I didn’t. That week was horrible I was just waiting for everything to happen & doing everything I could to make it happen not to mention everyone was telling me what I needed to do to make it happen and everyone was constantly asking if I had the baby yet. So the next week I just chilled out and told myself I was probably going to go past my due date.
Well I guess that was the trick because Sunday morning at 12:45 I woke up feeling crampy but not really thinking it was anything cuz that had been happening quite often. I went to the bathroom and was pretty sure my water broke but it wasn’t a big gush like I had expected so I still wasn’t sure, but I started having some pretty painful contractions so I thought it had to be the real deal. I had been told by my midwife for a while and my doc at my last few appointments that Easton was really low, which was kind of obvious any way, but they both had said his head was way down there so I had hoped that as soon as my water broke he’d just come flying out well that’s pretty much what happened.
We left our house at about 1:15 drove down the road to drop Iyrlend off at my parents and pick up my mom. I was having really strong contractions the whole way to the hospital and once we got there it was hurting so bad I could barely get out of the car. We walked in and I told them my water broke and they didn’t really believe me cuz they said was there a big splash and I said no, then they said are you wearing a pad and I said no, so they took me in the observation room and soon found out that my water really had broken.They too were shocked when I told them I had been at a 5 for about a week and a half. They checked me and I was at about a 6, they said they were going to move me to a delivery room and that’s when my contractions started just killing me. As soon as I got in the delivery room I went in to go the bathroom, my contractions were just on top of each other at this point and I had Zach come in and was telling him I just didn’t see how I could do it and that I wanted an epidural. I couldn’t decide and he wasn’t helping me know what to do so I finally just said this is stupid tell them I want an epidural. He went out and told them and I tried to make my way to the bed. Everything from here on out was just like a big blur to me cuz when I was in the bathroom I was going through transition and I didn’t realize it, I just thought that was the beginning of contractions and it was just going to get worse and go on for a while. Well once I got on the bed they said they wanted to check me and I just kept saying no cuz I was in the too much pain so my mom finally told me they really needed to check me so finally I let the nurse checked me. Good thing cuz as soon as she did she said no time for an epidural you’re complete. I wanted to cry but then realized that meant I was almost done which I had not expected at all so I was somewhat relieved. At this point the nurses started telling me how to breathe through the contractions; they were really so much help. They were worried my doc wasn’t goin make it but as soon as he walked in I was pushing. I had one big long contraction and did four pushes through that one contraction and Easton was out. We got to the hospital at about 1:30 and Easton arrived at 2:53, he literally came flying out and thank goodness cuz after those last few weeks I felt like I had been in labor for a few days.
So everything went just how I had hoped and I am so glad I did it natural because the recovery was seriously like night and day. I felt great from the moment I had him and have felt pretty good sense. We sure love our little man, who doesn’t seem so little already. I think I’m starting to get adjusted to life with 2 kids, super challenging but oh so worth it. Iyrlend loves her little brother and can’t get enough of him just like the rest of us.
So obviously I suck at blogging since it's been about 6 months since I last posted, which means I didn't post about Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Zach's B-day, or updates on my pregnancy. Oh well I'm not really looking to back track and I don't have any pictures at the moment but I'll work on getting some on here. Yesterday was my birthday and that's not even what I was going to post about but I will mention that it was a great one. It kind of was a three day birthday, cuz my cousin who's birthday is a few days before mine came down so we had a BBQ for the both of us on Friday & went to the NTB concert at Tuachan. Saturday on my actual B-day, Zach Iyrlend and I went to garage sales and scored some sweet stuff, then went swimming with the Gates fam cuz they were down for the Due West concert that night. We went to Samari 21 with my family & had an awesome dinner, then my parents watched Iyrlend so we could go to the Due West concert at Tuachan which was so fun and I even got a special Happy Birthday wish from DW during the concert. Then tonight we went to Grandparents house and had a birthday dinner as well, so it was a great 3 day birthday. So I turned the big 22 this year and that is what this post is about. Yes I will be 22 with 2 kids and you know what I'm dang proud of it and don't think there is anything better I could be doing with my life. I sometimes get exhausted explaining why I got married and 18, and began to have kids right away. I guess I don't need to explain myself here or to anyone cuz I know the decisions I've made have been the right ones for me but I get a bit sick of defending them. I guess I just had to get it all out and remind myself that I really am doing the right thing and that prayer and faith are the reasons I made the decisions I did. I know that as long as I stay close to Heavenly Father and do what I know he wants me to, I don't have to worry about what everyone else thinks. So this quote & whole talk actually by Julie Beck from GC 2007 are my motto tonight, today, this year, for life! "Mothers who know desire to bear children. Whereas in many cultures in the world children are "becoming less valued," in the culture of the gospel we still believe in having children. Prophets, seers, and revelators who were sustained at this conference have declared that "God's commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force." President Ezra Taft Benson taught that young couples should not postpone having children and that "in the eternal perspective, children—not possessions, not position, not prestige—are our greatest jewels." You can find the whole talk here: http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-775-27,00.html#4 So bring on baby #2 at age 22!
So this Halloween was one my favorites. My sister in law sent me these costumes she made for her family a few years ago. She had twins so they were pebbles & bam-bam. We of course don't have bam-bam yet but maybe next year. You couldn't really tell what Iyrlend was unless she was with us cuz she won't let me put anything in her hair let alone a bone. I took her trick-or-treating at my mom's work on Friday & she wore her flower costume that I bought a while ago but she looks like a fairy without out wings cuz she wouldn't wear the hat. Oh well I still think she's freakin cute. But she got so much candy at Skywest that we didn't even take her trick-or-treaking again on Halloween. Not that she even needs any candy, but she was loving it. She would take like handfuls put it in her bag and reach for more. Every year on Halloween my mom makes hot dogs & hot chocolate for the trick-or-treater's so we always go over there & help. Iyrlend just ran around all night in her little boots & loved it. We had a fun time, here's some pictures to prove it.
So if you couldn't tell I kind of gave up on blogging. But I have some exciting news so I figured I'd post about it, & maybe just maybe I'll slowly come back to blogging world......Any way baby #2 is on the way. I'm only about 5 weeks along, I can't keep things in for long....That puts my due date as approx...June 10th. So not in the dead of summer thank goodness. We're super excited to bring another bundle of joy into this world!
Hey everyone Modbe Swim 2009 collection is here! I posted some pics of a few of my favorite swim tops but check out my website www.modbeclothing.com/bretgates for the complete collection. If you order online be sure to put party#1447 in at check out to receive 10% off if you order 3 or more items. If anyone is interested in doing a live or virtual botiquie be sure to let me know. There are some awesome deals for hosting a partying right now including the new 20% in boutique sales rather than only 10%. If you have any questions on sizing or which swim suit style is most flattering for your body type let me know. Happy Shopping!
So I decided to do a little photo shoot with Iyrlend today. I'm not much of photographer but I have quite the model. I must say me and Zach sure made a beautiful little girl. As you can see I'm not very good at just picking a picture or two as my favorites. It was hard enough to narrow it down to this many but do you see her? Can you blame me?
