let's party!

I love perusing Pinterest and admiring all the fun and amazing things people accomplish. I saw this image and HAD TO MAKE IT. 

How festive and fun is this?!

I ordered WAY MORE ping pongs than I needed off of Amazon. I used a seam ripper from my sewing kit to make my little holes. My lights had a little hinge on the side so I didn't even need to worry about hot gluing the loose lights to the balls. Bonus!

I hung the lights during Christmas for a friends birthday party in December and I am planning on leaving them up for the New Year. 1) because I'm still morning sick and 2) they just add a little flare and fun because I'm missing my Christmas decorations.

Now, I have a HUGE bag of ping pong balls and don't know what to do with them. What projects have you seen or done that include ping pongs.

psych

This is not about the best comedy on T.V. but about being fooled into believing something so vehemently that I was crushed when I realized my mistake:

Joe has 2.5 years left of pharmacy school.

I knew this. I know this. But somehow my gifted math brain mis-calculated the time and I got excited thinking he was going to be finished with school in less than a year! Since this pregnancy has made my body react very strongly and very negatively toward chocolate, sympathy fruit candy can be sent instead.

i miss papa

Joe warned me that the second year of pharmacy school was the hardest, that he wasn't going to be around a lot, and he'd have to study a lot! 

His warnings are coming true.

The first semester of his second year of pharmacy school is coming to an end. And we miss him! He has done a good job of spending time with me and each of our kids, but I am ready for more! 

Joe is usually around Sundays, Tuesdays after 4, and Wednesdays after 4. Mondays and Fridays he is gone before any of us wake up and home after all of us have gone to sleep. Thursdays he studies with buddies and me and the kids are usually asleep before he gets home then too. Saturdays are iffy. He will study all day if he has exams the following week, which he usually does, and get home after bedtime again.

Kuddos to all the single parents out there. I do not know how you do it!

pregnancy lessons PART 2

Two weeks ago I shared PART 1 of this two part series. So, without further ado:

What Pregnancy Has Taught Me Thus Far

• When I am sick, I just want my mom!
• Everybody smells, even me.
• Surviving becomes #1 priority. 
• It doesn't matter what my other kids are wearing, even if it's just underpants.
• It doesn't matter what my other kids eat, as long as they have something to eat.
• I CAN throw up nothing.
• I become a withering mass of emotion; pet and home insurance commercials. Need I say more?
• Sleep is the BEST medicine.
• Eat foods that taste okay coming back up. NO APPLES!!
• Pregnancy sweat is AWFUL.
• NEVER. EVER. NEVER throw up in the shower.
• Eat plenty of fiber!
• Something that tastes good one day can be REVOLTING the next.
• Staying hydrated when you're vomiting is a delicate balance.
• I can't sneeze without peeing just a little.

Bonus things I have learned! (I have watched A LOT of TV in the past couple of months, most of it being about nature.)

• Hyenas are lead by a matriarch.
• She and all the other females have fake penises and try to mate with each other when they are little.
• Baby hyena siblings will automatically try to kill each other to take out the competition. 

t ball

We decided to sign up Corban for t ball. We were very under prepared for this. We didn't know, and still don't know, if he is right of left handed; we didn't have any equipment for this sport; and practices were a bit longer than we had expected (Mondays AND Wednesdays for an hour!). 

It has been a challenge getting Corban to go to practices and games. He usually is playing around in the dirt or looking around at the other things going on at the park. The highlight for him is when he can play on the play ground after the game! I think we're gonna try soccer next.

pregnancy lessons PART 1

Joe and I decided that we were gonna try again to have another baby. I made some stipulations about getting pregnant again after I had baby #2: 1) I didn't want to be pregnant in my late 30s and 2) I didn't want to be pregnant during the hot summer months in Southern Arizona. This left us a small window, especially after miscarrying earlier this year. I'll spare you the details, but a short time later I got this little piece of happy news!

Miscarrying is never an easy thing, or any kind of loss. The next pregnancy, for me any way, is spent worrying a bit more than is necessary. I wasn't sick and asked my family to send thoughts and prayers our way.

Six weeks later, this was my daily view.

I am now 12 weeks pregnant and am still sick! I have been sick for 5 months for my last two pregnancies!! Needless to say, my family and house has taken a hit and have been a bit neglected and my kids have been very creative on how they entertain themselves.

Jovi planted herself in the laundry basket while I attempted to fold clothes. She sat in there all day!

Corban is a bottomless pit! He is CONSTANTLY eating. He asked me what he could have to eat and I told him anything he could reach. So, he grabbed two chairs and got the good stuff on the top shelf. There's no stopping this kid!

happy halloween

Happy Halloween!!

I know. I know. I'm about a week late, but lately, a week late is progress for me! I was going to wait and announce my pregnancy through my halloween costume, but this girl got uber sick and needed some help.

So, happy halloween from a family of skeletons!

bouncy baby ...

Announcing! 
Baby Beck #3. Due May 19, 2014

Pinterest Project: button art

I'm still trying to put together my bedroom. Right now we have blank walls with pictures leaning up agains them. I saw a Pinterest project where they made a Christmas tree out of buttons. It looked so quaint and fun. I've been rolling the idea of button art around my head and this is what I came up with:

1. Find a font that you love and print it off. Tape it to a window with lots of light behind it. 

 2. Find the material you want to use for your canvas. I used canvas! Tape the material on top of the paper with your font, making sure to center it where you want it. Also, make sure the ink you use won't show up when you're done gluing buttons, or make sure the buttons cover all the ink.

3. I laid out the buttons before I started gluing. This taught me two things. 1) I didn't love the modge podge of random buttons I pulled out of my bag, I definitely needed a color palette. 2)the middle of the "L" needed to be open, not filled in. Thank goodness I didn't glue them down the first time!

4. The final product.

This little button art is going to paired with another Pinterest project that I'm almost finished with. It is pallet art with my favorite love song from Mulon Rouge: All You Need is Love. Anyhoo ... check back soon to see that finished project!

brown paper packages follow-up

Do you remember the Favorite Things Summer Swap? It was super fun and easier to host than I thought; there will definitely be a Favorite Things Summer Swap next summer! 

I got my package and this was what was inside:

The nail polish is this incredible stuff that dries pretty much instantly. Amazing! The book is "Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand" by Carla Kelly. I was a little doubtful, but I LOVED THIS BOOK! It's full of romance, adventure, humor, sadness, and every other emotion one human can have.

This was super fun and I can't wait to do it again next year.

beck cave birthday

Calling all Superheroes! 

Do you remember the invites I made for Corban's birthday? I finally get to show what I've been preparing for for the past couple of months!

I hung up the decorations. I used the colors from the old school batman of blue and yellow and the classic black. I strung balloons across our arch, taped up a shredded, black table cloth for our bat cave, and cut and pasted many many MANY bats across our wall flying out of the cave.

Party goers donned their masks.

We played games. As we were waited for all the kids to arrive, they colored pictures of the Joker and I hung them around the living room. Each of the kids put on the batman masks and I gave them a can of silly string. Then Joe brought out masked bad guys and they attacked! 

We then played musical bats.

And pin the bat in the signal.

We ate cupcakes.

Corban made a wish.

And opened presents. Joe and I gave him the Wii game "Pikmin2" which he has been watching shows about it for THE longest time! This was his face:

I'm pretty much the luckiest mom to have had this little boy for the past 5 years! Happy birthday!!

book review: Made to Last

Things I liked: The characters were cute and fun and supported each other. I could see each character and their personality very clearly in my minds eye. I thought I knew how Miranda was going to FINALLY tell the truth and I was surprisingly wrong!

Things I hated: Why would someone chose to put their life in such disarray? It bothered me that supposed adults would abandon truth for the easy, self-supporting lie that just caused more turmoil and drama. But I guess that is exactly what the author intended. Job accomplished then. Next time, make the book a little shorter. It also bothered me that the author would introduce cliff hangers and not answer the questions until pages, even chapters later!

Good clean read. I would give this book a C+.

**I received a free copy of this book to review.

back to school

I love deals! I hate paying full price for most things! What I usually do is buy things at the end of their season for next season. I was shopping and decided to check out the Back to School and End of Summer sales and scored. 

I got 6 outdoor solar lights for $1.50 each, 10 lunch box ice packs for 30¢ each, and I found 2 backpacks for 50% off! 

Jovi and Corban were so excited about their backpacks that they immediately put them on and kept them on for two full days! Corban kept asking if we could go on an adventure with no maps and no where to go. He went around the house and put most of his toys in his backpack and even wanted to sleep with it!

I bought the backpacks for Jovi's and Corban's 72 hour kits. I have gotten most of our kits put together. All I need is some odds and ends, food, and water! So, they're basically worthless until I get those last two items.

What do you put in your 72 hour kits?

bucket list

Do you remember this picture on my Instagram account?

This is our community's water park that is open during the summer. It has a lap pool, slides, a kiddie pool, and this little water park, complete with this little beauty:

 THE BIG RED BUCKET!

Corban saw this water park and instantly wanted to go in. Joe and I made a deal with him that when he was potty trained we would go to the water park. Right when he got potty trained the park closed and he had to wait until the beginning of summer of this year! So sad, but kind of funny. 

I digress ... I saw this bucket and honestly was a little scared. It is a HUGE bucket that takes 3 minutes to fill. It literally knocks people over! And I HAD TO DO IT! Especially before the water park closed again on Labor Day.

I told Joe my goal of getting under the big bucket so he would make me before we left the park on Labor Day. I asked Corban to be my buddy and he agreed. 

The amount of water that came out of the bucket really surprised me! In fact, I was so surprised, I pushed Corban out of my way which made him stub all of his toes and fall in the water -- I'm a great mom, what can I say! I can still see my face in my mind's eye and the expression that I had. There was people around the rim of the pool watching and they laughed at me! 

Joe was going to get video of my excursion. He didn't get it the first time--the water came faster than we all expected--so I had to do it again. Corban had sworn off the water bucket, so I took Jovi to be my buddy. 

She hates hates HATES getting her face wet and totally gave me the stink eye after the water cleared.

Labor Day was a great day full of volleyball, water, and a BBQ! We were all pooped by the end of the day and fell asleep pretty fast and deep. Man, I love holidays!

happy anniversary .. 7 years and counting

Joe and I celebrated our 7th anniversary this month. We got a babysitter and headed up to Tucson to spend the morning together. 

We went to Bobo's where I had the BIGGEST chocolate chip pancake ever! I couldn't even finish it. I decided when my face started tingling that that was enough sugar for me. 

We then went to Kohl's where I discovered Petite cropped pants fit me like shorts and Joe charmed the elderly cashier into giving us a discount from a coupon that wasn't supposed to be used until tomorrow. 

We then went over to La Z Boy and checked out their recliners. I found one that I LOVE and am now hoping it goes on sale!

For lunch we went to Beyond Bread. Their cookies are enormous and their sandwich's delicious! 

A mere 40 minutes later we were back home and picked up the kiddos from the babysitter. It was a great day spending the morning with my handsome, smart, talented, and loving husband. 

Here's to many more years! I love my man!

shopping tip: shorts

I am not a shop-a-inista. Never have been. Never will. But I figured out a splendid little shopping tip today that I hope others will benefit from: petite pants!

I am a Mormon and as a Mormon wear garments which are simple white underclothing composed of two pieces: a top piece similar to a T-shirt and a bottom piece similar to shorts (click here to find out more about garments and/or the Latter-day Saints). 

Because of these garments, my tops and bottoms need to cover them, which means my bottoms need to go to about my knees. My body is one where my top half of my body is kind of short and my bottom half is super long; finding bottoms feel and look weird and I HATE some of the fashions today.

Cropped pants.

I can't stand cropped pants. It's like they can't decide whether or not to be pants or shorts. They are just stuck in the no-man's land and look a bit like floods to me. 

Shorts

Obviously, they are not and would not be any where close to my knees and therefore not even an option. 

Bermuda Shorts

These shorts are closer to covering my garments, but they are still a bit too short. 

I found a solution today .... Petite Cropped Pants!

I never fully understood Petite clothes, but I'm guessing that they are just shorter than Regular sizes. I found these cute, cute, cute cropped pants today but they didn't have my size plus I would have had to cut and hem them and basically change them completely before I felt completely comfortable in them. And then I found the EXACT pants in petite and in my size. I tried them on and they fit PERFECTLY as shorts!!!!!! I was so excited that I bought another pair in a different color for good measure. 

So, if you are looking for bottoms that fit taller legs, go look in the Petite section!

double trouble

I love Pinterest! Love. Love. Love. However, I do not like have my boards brimming full and me never doing any of the projects, so I am constantly deleting and updating my Pinterest boards. 

Here is a project I recently finished for Halloween (I know. I know. Summer isn't all the way over yet.)

You can check out my inspiration website here.

• I painted all the blocks their base colors and then painted on most of their accessories like Frankenstein's scar, the pumpkin's mouth, and the witches black bottom. 
• I used large google eyes for all of them for uniformity (trust me, the pumpkin looked weird and out of place with triangle eyes). 
• My hubby drilled holes and screwed in bolts. 
• I used jute for the witch's hair, glued a ribbon around her middle, and used a button for her buckle. 
• The mummy is wrapped in tule. I wanted to use gauze, but ever the pragmatic one, my hubby thought that was an expensive choice. My tule was ultra thin and about 4 inches thin. I twisted the tule to double up the thickness and wrapped it kind of tight. So now you can see that it is, in fact, a mummy with its texture and my cleverness. 

What holiday(s) do you like to decorate for?

train your brain to be happy

Have you ever listened to, or watched, "Ted Talks"? I love them!

I recently watched two talks that I absolutely LOVE! They are:

"The Game That Can Give You 10 Extra Years of Life"

and
"The Happy Secret to Better Work"

I'm starting to believe that our brains are so powerful that what we imagine, we can have. I have also recently read a book called "Remembering Wholeness" that has changed my perspective on things in a big way. I won't go into a book review of it, but go out and read it! Now!

I'll wait ....

In the book the author tells her readers to imagine/decide what you want in life. Write it down and be as specific as you want. Then, ask your angels. When she first brought up angels, I was a HUGE skeptic. I almost felt guilty for wanting to believe that there are more people in the universe that want to help me out. After you have decided and asked, GET OUT OF THE WAY! Do not create resistance, or doubt, or anything negative. And then finally, when the thing you wanted happens, say thank you to your angels and your god.

Are you a skeptic?

For example, the other day my hubby applied for in-state tuition for the remaining three years he'll be in school. He turned it in at 10:00 one morning. He came home and asked me to make my magic happen and will for him to get in-state tuition. I laughed and told him he had the power within him to make it happen. I walked him through the steps and emphasized to get out of the way of this great thing happening. Within three hours he got an email explaining the board had reviewed his application and he had indeed had his tuition status changed to in-state!

Coincidence? I'm telling you, read the book, figure it out on your own, and be happy!

book review: Rules of Murder

I liked this book overall.

What I liked:
the love story; Drew, Madeline, and Nick; the random story with the kittens in Drew's room; the nice little wrap-up at the end of the story; the clean murder mystery; God and his gospel written in the story (I'm still getting used to reading about this).

What I didn't like:
the jerky plot twists; the many, many, MANY characters at the beginning that have nothing to do with the story or the plot or with anything.

zebra bday party

My little girl recently turned two. We invited a few people over where we ...

Ate some cake.

Played some games.
I was dealing with two-year-olds and 4-year-olds. I needed the games to be simple, but entertaining. I first gathered some treats and prizes and separated them into separate baskets. 

I then blew up 10 balloons with a slip of paper inside that either had a 1 or 2 on it. Each kid, and adult, had to pop the balloon with a pin or their body to get the paper out. Which ever number they got, that was the basket they got to chose from.

The second game was apparently THE HARDEST game the kids had ever played! The goal was to get the bean bag into any of the targets. Once they made it, they got to choose from the opposite basket they didn't get in the balloon game. I started out all strict and wanted the kids to stand behind a line that wasn't that far away--so I thought. I had an "ah-ha" moment and let the kids stand where ever they wanted to make the basket. The two-year-olds stood above the targets and the four-year-olds were about a foot away!

And opened presents. 
Jovi got spoiled and I'm okay with that. It's her birthday and she should get a special day were she gets treated a little different.

**I need to take pictures of people!

2nd year ... here we come!

School starts back up for Joe in about 6 weeks. Where did the summer go?! When I was pregnant, Joe kept warning me that the 2nd year was the hardest and to be prepared to not have him home all that often. Yikes! When I sit down and think about it, I kind of hyperventilate! But this is the 2nd year of pharmacy school! We're actually making it!

A Bit of String

Are you looking for the cutest newborn photo shoot props? Or even just an adorable hat for the new baby in your life like the one below?

My SIL Peggy has an Etsy shop that sells hand knitted and crocheted items for little ones. Check out her shop: A Bit of String.

potty training blues

My daughter turned two this month. I don't know what it is about the magical number of two, but in my mind it means that there should be ZERO diapers in the house; like there should be a magical switch you turn on and they suddenly know and understand their bodily urges and have zero accidents. 

I got pregnant with Jovi when Corban turned two-years-old. I DID NOT want to change two diapers from two different kids and had it in my mind that he was going to get potty trained and he was going to be potty trained NOW! 

Boy, did that blow up in my face! 

I started out with the potty train in a day method and tried EVERY SINGLE METHOD after that. He barely got potty trained when he turned 4-years-old! 

I am not the most patient person. I would over-react when he had accidents, I got upset when he didn't want to sit on the potty, and would sometimes yell. Yikes. Not a very fun time for him or me. And now I get to do it all over again. *sigh*

Even though I told myself I would not push Jovi to potty train, I fantasize about not having to change any more diapers EVER AGAIN!! Isn't that a great thought? So, we're going to take it slow and wait, as patiently as we can, for Jovi to be ready to go on the potty.

First, let me say, I HATE HATE HATE potty chairs! It totally grosses me out at the thought of cleaning poop and pee out of a little container--I'm gagging just thinking about it--that's what a potty is for; so you don't have to touch that stuff once it comes out!! We just sat Corban on the potty and let him sit side ways while we read him stories or he watched shows on the computer. I tried sitting Jovi on our toilet, but she FREAKED!! I'm not completely heartless, so I bought her a potty seat, kind of like this one:

So now every time she gets naked to take a shower, we sit her on the potty and let her get comfortable with the whole process. And I'm trying not to get vexed, even when she pees on the floor RIGHT after I take her off the potty!

Wish me luck!

pioneer day

In Utah, and in the Latter-day Saint (Mormon) culture, we celebrate July 24 as Pioneer Day. This the day back in 1847 that the first LDS Pioneers traveled across the United States, searching for a place where they could practice their religion without persecution, and made it into the Salt Lake Valley. 

The stories of strength, courage, and faith from most of the companies are... amazingly inspirational. This is one of my favorite art pieces: When Angles Come. The handcart companies started later in the season than they should have and were caught in Wyoming with early snow storms. The conditions were awful and a lot of people died. 

I love this painting because I know God loves us enough to send us help when we need it. He will not leave us alone. He will send us aid. 

Lorenzo Snow, a modern-day prophet, said, "The sacrifices that are required of us are of that nature that no man or woman could make them, unless aided by a supernatural power; and the Lord, in proposing these conditions, never intended that his people should ever be required to comply with them unless by supernatural aid, and of that kind that is not professed by any other class of religious people. He has promised this aid."

A book I am currently reading is "Remembering Wholeness". In it, Carol Tuttle talks about all the energy around us and how it affects us and how we affect it. She also talks about our angels. She claims that angels are at the disposal of God, their purpose is to serve humanity, and we can ask for their support! We need to decide what we want, ASK, get out of the way of it happening by not creating resistance, and then say thank you when what you wanted happens.

Angels our supernatural aid!! And they are all around us, wanting to help us.

So Very Blessed ... and a Little Crazy

A friend of mine has THE best food blog out there! She is kind, loving, and generous. She loves to entertain. And she loves to cook, which is good for me because I get to sample a lot of her food at her get togethers!

She came up with the Sonoran Hamburger:

(I made these for Father's Day. They were SO good!!)

And Mango Salsa:

She has so many more recipes that will knock your socks off! She also talks about her weight loss journey, her brood of animals (2 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 sugar gliders), weekly meal plans, and what she and her husband have been up to. 

Check out her blog: So Very Blessed ... and a Little Crazy.