Friends

 Karmindy has had the opportunity to make some pretty fun friends over the past year or so and I am grateful for that. Karmindy loves to be social and play with friends and have them over for playdates. Karmindy has had the opportunity to get to know several new friends this past year and what good friends they are to her. Karmindy loves her friend Avery Wallin. Whenever the girls get together they enjoy dressing up and playing with Karmindy's princess dress ups and putting on make up. The picture above is of them one afternoon after I dolled them all up. Karmindy wanted to use her make up from her birthday that she had gotten from Avery and so we pulled it out and had a fun time using it. I also got out some of my make up and the girls were so excited. They have a cute little friendship!

Last year while Karmindy attended Small Wonders Preschool, she was able to get to know a little boy in her class. His name was Jake Simmonds. Karmindy and Jake were inseparable throughout the year. They really bonded and banded together. They loved doing everything together in class and were truly so respectful towards one another. I love when my kids find really good friends that help them and lift them up and bring no drama! It is very rewarding to watch. I am so grateful Karmindy has a friend in Jake!

Just a few weeks ago, Jake celebrated his 6th birthday and he invited Karmindy to a super hero birthday party! Karmindy was so excited to go and she said she had a blast. They had face painting at Jake's party and Karmindy came home looking like a princesses. Literally! I love the job they did on Karmindy's face paint. I thought it was very creative!

I love watching my kids grow and develop and it makes it extra special when they have good friends in their lives!

Boating with Friends

Our neighborhood is growing and new families have been moving into our ward. It has been so fun to get to know all the new families in our ward! It is also fun to get to know families that have lived in the neighborhood but don't quite get to know too well. Mark and I were invited by our friends, Matt and Liza Hood to go boating with them and a couple of other couples in our ward: Jason and Natalie Bradford and Joe and Crystal Albrecht. Mark and I love waterskiing and boating and were grateful for the chance to go and do something we enjoy doing with friends. All eight of us had a great time. It was so nice to get to know everyone and laugh and water skii and wake board. The weather was pretty moody that day and we got rained on several times but that didn't deter us from having a good time. I am so grateful for good friends near and far!

All Things Crafty...

Having the kids away during the afternoon has been hard for me! It has been quite an adjustment! I have tried to embrace this new chapter of my life. I know next year will be even harder when they are gone all day. To keep myself busy, I have been crafting. I have done organization crafts and some Halloween crafts. Halloween has become one of my favorite Holidays and my mantra for Halloween is that one can never have too many Halloween crafts/decor! Here are a few of the crafts/projects I have been doing to keep myself busy and to help me not miss my kids so badly!

 I saw the idea of organizing your kids school work by years and placing them in personalized bins on Pinterest. I figured I better get going on this before the kids get too many school years under their belts. It was a very therapeutic project and very rewarding! It was so fun to go through the kids school work and see what they had accomplished and what they had done over the past few years. The kids were really excited about the bins when I showed them! I hope this will end up being a great way to keep all there school years and projects in one place!

This "Out of Treats" sign I saw on....you guessed it! Pinterest!! I thought this craft was ingenious! We get a massive amount of trick or treaters around these parts and I thought this sign would be awesome to warn them when we are out of treats. I hope this door hanger will work; especially since no one seems to pay attention when we turn off the porch lights when all the candy is gone!

 I have a dead space above my fireplace and it drives me nuts when it comes to decorating it! It truly is a waste of space and I wish that the wall above the fireplace went directly up instead of having an alcove to decorate! I saw this witch silhouette on the internet and knew she would be the perfect addition to add to my Halloween mantle. I am obsessed with all things witch anyways so I knew this "little pretty" would look awesome. She was a lot of work. I distressed a white foam board with antiquing glaze and then traced the witch silhouette pattern onto the foam board and then hand painted the witch in black. I love how she turned out and I can't wait to decorate for Halloween!

These embroidered spider hangers craft, I found in a craft magazine while waiting in line at the grocery store one day. When I saw them, I knew that I wanted to make them. I made a few changes to the pattern because the embroidering knots that it required were a little over my head but I still think they turn out darling! I hate spiders typically, so while making this craft I would catch myself wanting to throw my needle work across the room as I got closer to finishing them because they looked so real. :D I am excited to get "RUN", "EEK" AND "OH, ICK" hung up on my kitchen shelf for Halloween!

These project has been a year in the making. Last year I saw these ghosts on Pinterest and after finding the link, I found out there was not really a pattern for them. So I decided to be brave and make my own pattern and sew my own ghosties! These ghosts were a lot of work and last year when I started making them, I got distracted and never came back to finishing them. This year, while cleaning out my crafting supplies, I found them again and decided to finish them. They turned out cuter than I thought they would. I am proud of myself for finding a project and making it my own.

I am excited with all my projects I have been working on and I am excited to display and use them over the upcoming years!

My Sweet Angel Nephew!

My Sweet Nephew Bronson passed away on July 31, 2013. Bronson was born with congenital heart disease, something our family has come to know over the past 5 years all too well. Karmindy was diagnosed with congenital heart disease after birth. Her defects were an ASD, VSD and a Coarc. We were surprised when we learned last year before Bronson was born that he was also going to be born with a heart defect. One that was so much more severe than our sweet daughter. Bronson's defect was called Hyper-plastic Left Heart Syndrome. It is basically where the left side of the heart doesn't develop.Over the past year of Bronson's life, I have been able to visit my sweet nephew on several occasions at Primary Children's Hospital. What a special experience it was to visit him there and I am grateful for the time that I was able to go and sit beside his bedside and caress his head and hold his tiny fists and feet in my hands. What a sweet and special little spirit he was and when he was feeling well, he radiated this love and a light that you don't in see too many people these days. He truly was a great little person and spirit! Bronson was a fighter and fought to live here on earth. He was a valiant spirit. He was an example to me and I am so proud to be his Auntie. I hope that he is looking down on his family here and is proud of us and is looking out for us! Four to Five months before Bronson's passing he was doing well and than one weekend he just went down hill. Looking back we know that it was his time to go. His mortal mission was complete. July 31st was a hard day for everyone. It was hard to say goodbye. My brother Kaden and my sweet sil Amber called us to tell us to come say our last goodbyes at Primary Children's Hospital. When we arrived, it was hard to see Bronson so swollen and in complete misery. I felt for him and wanted to take it from him. When we were there to see him, he was relying completely on life support. I have never had to say goodbye to someone that I was this close to and it was hard. I am so grateful for my belief in Forever Families and I know that one day I will get to see my sweet nephew again. After Bronson passed, I was able to go with Kaden and Amber to buy something for Bronson to wear at his funeral. It was a special experience for me and I am glad that I could be apart of it.

On Saturday August 3rd, we traveled to Southern Utah for Bronson's funeral and graveside service. His Funeral was held on Monday August 5th. It was so nice to be with family and celebrate Bronson's life. Bronson's funeral was a beautiful one. Bronson looked like an angel in his crisp, white tux. He really looked like the most handsome little angel boy. I remember gazing at him as he lay, and thought he truly was the most angelic little spirit. I love you Bronson! Thank you for your sweet and perfect example you are to your family and extended family. Even though your life was a short one here on this earth, your life touched so many! May we make you proud and I can't wait to hold you again soon! I love you sweet boy!

Back 2 School Party

I decided I wanted to throw a cute little back to school party for my kids to help them get excited for the new school year. I found a few free cute and simple printables on Pinterest that I printed out and then went to work making a family dinner a little bit more memorable for my sweet little chicklets. I didn't do anything extravagant for dinner. I made Knock off P.F. Chang's Turkey lettuce wraps, had Strawberry milk for the kids to drink and some veggies. For dessert, I made the kids some cinnamon rolls. Typically Kaleb doesn't get to gaga for desserts but I do know that he enjoys cinnamon rolls, so I made them for him. Karmindy loves all things sweet so she was easy to please. For their little favors, I made them little snack bags filled with chocolate-covered pretzels for an afternoon snack. Kaleb and Karmindy had a fun time at our Back to School little dinner party. It was a fun tradition to start with our family! I hope the kids have a great year. After dinner, it is also a tradition to have Mark give the kids gave priesthood blessings/father's blessings. Mark does a wonderful job with giving the kids blessings, and I am so grateful to have a worthy priesthood holder in my home. Mark blessed the kids that they would do well in school this year, blessed them to make friends and be good friends, and to choose the right. I am so grateful that Kaleb and Karmindy have such a good daddy! We love you Kaleb and Karmindy and are so proud of you both!

Karmindy our Kindergartener!

 My baby is a Kindergartner! Gasp! When did this happen?! Life keeps pushing on and my sweet babies keep growing up. I am so proud to be Karmindy's mother! I truly admire her stubborn yet free spirit ways! She keep me on my toes and I am thankful for that! I love her "Spirit!" with all things and life! Today was Karmindy's first day of school and she loved it! She loves her teacher, Ms. Calhoun and is lucky to have a few friends in her class. Carter Anderson from our neighborhood is in her class and she also has her friend Avery Wallin in her class. Avery lives several neighborhoods away. 

Here is Karmindy with some of her friends on the first day of School: Ashley, Sienna, and Avery Wallin.

Another highlight of her first day of school was riding the bus home with her big brother and Adilynne Hagen (Kaleb's best gal pal). All Karmindy was focused on that first day was riding the big Yellow Bus. She was so excited! 

Some of Karmindy's interests right now at five years old include:

Movies/TV: Harry Potter, Curious George, Seasame Street, Super Why

Color: Pink, all things Pink! And Purple and Gold. In that order. You have to make sure you get it right too!

Toys: Lalaloopsy Dolls, Paper dolls, Dress Ups: makeup, fancy dresses, and necklaces. Also, Karminy has a huge collection of stuffy's (Stuffed Animals) each with their own names. She hates to lose any of them and when she does she gets very worried. She loves to be a caregiver and has the best little mother, caregiver, bedside manner.

Books: Curious George, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Pink-a-licious Series, Little Critter Series, The Berenstien Bears Books.

Interests: Dance, Karate.

Favorite Foods: Peanut Butter Sandwiches, McDonalds Chicken Nuggets, Mac n' Cheese, brownies, cookies, cupcakes and chocolate chip pancakes. She loves all desserts (like her mom.)

Karmindy we are so proud of you and the wonderful little girl that you are turning out to be! We love you sweetie!