Mesa Falls

We cannot believe how good life is and how extremely blessed we are to live in such a beautiful country where we are able to spend beautiful summer days at a water fall. This state is amazing!

This is before she spit up in my hair!

Her new face- she snorts while doing this. She's so awesome.

Dad gets those giggles out

One order of sleeves, please.

I have this cute yellow dress that just hangs in my closet, but I thought if I could add some sleeves to it I could at least take it out for church. After all, what did I have to loose? If I don't like the finished result, the dress would still just hang in my closet. A new friend of mine turned me on to pinterest.com where I found some inspiration. Having borrowed from this blog I set to work turning a discarded white pack- n- play sheet into ruffles and roses:

Someone loves her cereal!

Amidst the sticky fingers, oatmeal flaked counter tops, and unorganized team work (Hold her arms down- she's grabbing the bowl again! Are you going to clean her face yet? You dropped the spoon? I'll get another one...) is a whole lot of laughter! We are the thrilled first time parents of a cereal eating baby! She loves the stuff!!!

Rexburg Rapids water park adventures!

You haven't enjoyed summer unless you have enjoyed a water park. And, we all three, yes- even our baby(or should I say especially our baby) enjoyed swimming/ splashing around.

The silly hat clan

Thank goodness the water isn't cold!

I just want to grab it!

Is this not the coolest thing to have at a pool?

Two Feet Tall!

Our little girl is five months old this week! What a fun age! She is rolling around and scooting backwards, this really frustrates her when the toys in front of her get farther and farther away. She is also sitting like a pro... almost. (Depends on your definition of pro.) She smiles almost constantly, and has the cutest darn laugh! She loves to sit on her dad's lap when he's at the computer. While he is typing away, she smacks the old key board he sets out for her.

These totally count!

These totally count as being home made because I painted them. I was motivated by the fact that one white frame cost $15 dollars, and one wood frame cost $5. So heck, with a little work I got three for the price of one! My brother took our family pictures. My husband took the pictures of the flowers at the BYU-I gardens and he also took the beautiful picture of the Rexburg LDS Temple. He is becoming quite the photographer; he sees things I would never notice. You can check out his blog here to see his work.

Bar Stool Seat Covers

Here is today's afternoon project!

Fried Zucchini

More often than I would like to admit, my cooking doesn't turn out the way I'd like when following a recipe. Imagine my excitement then when a recipe I made up turned out absolutely fantastic! I'm not normally a big supporter of fried food, but we all jogged today (pushing a jogging stroller) and had a fruit smoothie for lunch. We so totally deserved this, and you do too... Here is the recipe:

Mix up the following in a bowl.
2 eggs
2/3 cup of milk
1 cup of flour
1 handful of Parmesan cheese
1 shake of cayenne pepper
A few more shakes of Italian seasoning
*If you feel it is too thick, add more milk. Add more flour if you think it is too thin.

Coat sliced zucchini with the mixture and set in hot oil in a stove top skillet. Cook about three minutes on each side. They should turn a nice dark golden brown. Serve hot with ranch dressing or spaghetti sauce.

Splash Park!

We moved our little family to a whole new state and we couldn't be happier! Hubby doesn't start school for another month, so we have lots of time to play and explore when he isn't working. We discovered a fantastic park just a short distance from our home. This park is BEAUTIFUL! Very large and well kept. Babe isn't too sure of the splash part of it yet, but she loved listening to the music and watching the lights as the carousel went around.

Aren't those rolls adorable?

Brrr Dad it's cold!

This place is so neat!

They offer a package price for 75 rides. Can you even imagine going around and around that much? Bleh!

Strawberry Cake Cookies

I live in a four plex, and with only three other families in the building, I don't think there is any reason why I shouldn't know my neighbors. So I dawned my newly made apron (figuratively that is. I haven't yet formed the habit of wearing it while I cook. It does however make a cute fire extinguisher cover. After all, the red really clashes with my kitchen). Before seven o'clock this morning, my home smelled like strawberry cake. This delicious recipe was a great ice breaker when we knocked on our neighbor's doors, and it is so easy... Try it!

1 box of any flavor cake mix
2 eggs
1/2 cup of oil
Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Western Wall Art

Here is the picture of my naked duo, as promised:

To give credit where credit is due, I found this idea in crows nest trading catalog, my poster board and mod podge rendition, however, saved me quite a bit of money.  

If at first you... sew a hospital gown? Try, yes- do try again...

What I had in mind was a sweet southern dress. I could see myself wearing it along with some brown boots, long blonde braid over my shoulder, as I walked through a field of wild flowers even before I purchased the Vogue pattern and yellow floral material. Several hours later, er- days later if we're being honest, I had created something that resembled a hospital gown... and it fit just about as good as a hospital gown would too. For my first, practically independent, sewing project (thank you grandma for the help in navigating my way through the pattern, and showing me the magical blind hem setting on my machine) it was pretty darn good. But, I would NEVER wear it. So, I declared today a pajama day and set to work transforming ugly dress into cute apron. Not bad, right?