Count Down to 2010

Today is Eric's 25th Birthday

I am pretty sure that last year I listed things I loved about him...I could not think of anything original to do instead, so here is my new (without even checking the last) list:

1. He spends most of his time thinking of what he can do that will make me happier
2. He shows me his love everyday with hugs and kisses and endless "I love you's"
3. He is happy, just being together
4. He let me get a dog AS SOON as we had a back yard, even though he didn't really want to
5. He works so very hard at his job to provide for us
6. He has a full time school schedule too, because he knows how important it is for our future
7. He is freaking hott.
8. He wants to be a father so badly, and is working really hard so that we can
9. He is so sweet to me, always
10. He took me to the Temple and we are sealed for Eternity. What a blessing.

I'm am so grateful to be married to him.

I love you, Eric and you make my World. Thank you.

My Fives

5 Things I was doing 5 years ago:

1. my first date

2. learning to drive

3. received my first cell phone

4. taking my first photo darkroom class

5. ...eating junk food.

5 Things on my To Do List:

1. buy and decorate a Christmas tree

2. find the plastic things you attach to the outside of a house for Christmas lights

3. bathe the dog

4. install the shelves my dad helped me build

5. learn to make (and eat) more healthy foods

5 Things I would do with One Million Dollars:

1. have kids (YAY)

2. buy both of us newer, better cars

3. pay off our debts

4. have Eric invest it

5. go shopping and not feel guilty. Oh yes.

5 Places I Have Lived:

1. In the home Eric and I bought =)

2. in our first apartment

3. in our second apartment

4. in my parents house

5. .....in Arizona......

5 People I Tag:

1. Ali

2. Jill

3. Cindy

4. Elise

5. Kathy

Grattitude

I know I am late getting this up, but I wanted to put a few things I am thankful for in honor of the season.

My husband, Eric

My families

A loving Father in Heaven

Our home

Our stable jobs

My good camera

My new computer and editing software

Junk food ;>

The example set by so many around me that I look to everyday

The (free) piano now residing in my living room

A close Temple, and our Temple Sealing

I asked Eric to list a few too:

My wife

Snuggles, kisses, and loves--whenever I want them

My family

A good job

Family Pictures

This is the least stressful family picture I have ever been involved in. I guess there is something to be said for a family of seven.

Considering this was just Sunday afternoon, "ok, everyone smile for about 5 seconds" it turned out REALLY well.

This is a little bit of love from the Lara Family 2009

Avery

This is the most darling little girl. I have lots of images of her--she was so easy to make beautiful photos of. Just look: you can't go wrong with an adorable baby. =)

Is that not the SWEETEST smile?!!!

For more images of the this darlin' dear, go here. Please. Please.

Just For Rachel Giveaway!

My friend Jen over at Just for Rachel is having her first giveaway. I have been excited for this all month because she is just starting out and I actually have a chance to WIN this one =) If you want to know all the info to enter go here and you can enter too. ...On second thought, please don't, I'd love to win ;>

My Photography

Want to see what I've been working on lately?

For more like this, go here. Please and Thank you.

Rachael's Baby Showers

Sorry to be so late getting this up....I don't really have a good excuse. I am just slow.

Anyway, September 25 and 26 were Rachael's showers for upcoming Baby. She had a very long list of invites, so in order not to make a house absolutely bursting at the seams she decided to have 2 showers to make it not too full. They were both lots of fun. I was in charge of the Friday one, which had less people, so we had food and games. It was a good time. The Saturday one was a good time too, but there were more people so we did not try to play any games.

I used Mom Julie's awesome cupcake stand as my centerpiece and it was way cute. I don't remember if I had ever frosted a cupcake before so I asked her to help me make them too.

Here is before:

And after (sorry it's so dark, the better of this one was accidentally deleted):

I also made cookies galore. I was trying to add up ALL that I ended up baking (not all of these were served though, some were ugly, so we ate those ourselves, darn... ;> ) I think the total of cookies was around 127... Something like that


My counter was covered!

Here is the table with the awesome cupcake stand. It is black and white, so I just put some green material on it to be like a baby boy table cloth.

The table:

I should have done a close up of just the cupcakes, but it was very cute. Thanks Mom. And a big thank you to Rena Jean, Celeste, and Cindy for helping with the food.

This is Trevor, he and I are gonna have a photo shoot soon with his Mom. She says he is fascinated with the camera and always gives this "wow" face. We will have to work on that ;>

The Saturday shower:

More cupcakes =)

Me and Celeste. She is due in January and finally showing it. But only a little ;>

Jeff's parents bought Rachael this awesome (and incredibly soft) rocking chair. It is cute. She loved it. Oh yeah, love the typical Rachael face.

I think she looks fabulous in this one.

This is a group shot of the Kalehuawe girls and the Van Capelle girls. Fun.

And this is Malu and Julia, Rachael and Cindy, and me and Mom. I love a shot like this, we did one at Rachael's bridal shower too. Precious.

Some Things Makin' Me Happy Right Now

The Number One is definitely Eric (DUH), but he is always on any list of this nature.

Dude. This is probably the HAWTEST picture I have of My Eric. Yeah. Don't be jealous.

2. Earlier this week I decided I was sick of all the wasted space in our linen closet. This is the before, but I had already started before I remembered to take a picture, plus the photo makes it look cleaner. We just put anything we needed off of the floor into the linen closet, so it wasn't being used the way I wanted and I finally took charge.

And the result:

ShaBAM! Space to put things. You can't tell, but mostly I just moved things that could be organized in a better space-saving manner (like vertical instead of flat, silly) and took out a few things that do not belong (like a big tv antenna and a phone in a box how does that happen?).

When Eric came home I was so excited to show him. Yeah. I was esxcited about a linen closet. I am nuts.

3. Sonic Chillers!

Have you tried these yet? They are fan-freakin-tastic. Definitely get the bigger size. I've only had the strawberry, I want to try the regular lime next. Mmmm. Oh yes.

4. My camera. This is my "other love." Don't worry, Eric knows-- they've even met before.

Yesterday I did my first photo session with a baby. It was so much fun! Thank you Kathy for trusting me with baby Avery. I am super excited to edit these photos so I can show them off. Avery is a doll, so it was easy to make cute pictures ;>

And Oh My Goodness, thank you Mom Julie for the camera. I'm so glad me and the camera are finally friends. I am the boss now, no more automatic setting for me! I finally know how to work the settings on this thing. WooHoo.

5. The Wheel of Time series.

Hollar for Robert Jordan everyone. Eric has loved this series for I don't know how long and I started reading it after we got married. It is awesome. I am in book 4, (I am a slow reader people) but I definetly love it. Eric converted most of my family too: my mom has read the whole series at least 3 times now, my brothers Daren and Kenneth have read it, my sister Celeste is in like book 8 and my sister Jill is gonna read it soon. I think that's everyone. Casey will probably read it soon too.

I am not a crazy snake lady, this is a symbol from the book. It's The Wheel of Time. I pointed out to Eric once that that wheel wouldn't be able to move with those snakes and he said I was being nit picky. Oh well. Artist's mistake.

6. This Clock.

I have decided that I must have an obsession with clocks. I always love the clock row when I'm at target...or anywhere really. This one came from Home Goods, not in the clock isle actually. It is so way cool. I love how it hangs from that frame like a huge pocket watch, and that it's not centered in a square frame. It's still a rectangle and there is space under the clock. It's basically just awesome.

7. Green!

I found this random green ball at Ross for only 4 dollars a few weekends ago. I thought "it was totally WICKED!" (name that movie). I have a green wall in my living room, so on my bookshelf that is across from the green wall, I have been trying to make sure there are green accents. This little thing is the perfect green, plus it's shiny, and I couldnt go wrong with 4 bucks. I had been needing something to fill this space anyway. Boy was it perfect. It was the only one on the shelf and I'm so glad I found it. I have been kind of obsessing with it ever since I put it up....I should probably stop that....

We have an Announcement

NO, I'm sorry, I'm not pregnant. Someday I will be able to announce that.....someday. But for now Eric and I have a puppy. She is one year old and already house trained. =) We wanted to get a puppy after we bought this house since now we would have a back yard. But we had been worried what are we gonna do to train it becuase neither of us are home during the day to teach it. So my Aunt Joy one day called my mom and said she knew the perfect puppy for us. (Daren and Cindy got Bob from the same lady.)

There is a Schnauzer Rescue Service that has volunteers who take care of the dogs. And we got to take her home for only $150. That is a serious deal.

This is Lexi:

She really likes our bed skirt. Sometimes she gets stuck when she rolls over on her back and it takes her a few minutes to figure out how to get back up. It's pretty funny.

Lexi came to the rescue service with a massive 3rd degree burn on her entire back. Joy says the first time she saw Lexi her back looked like raw hamburger meat. (That was about a month before I saw her the first time.) The vet who took care of Lexi thinks that from th eshape of the burn, something very hot--probably boiling--was spilled all over her. Then the owner waited 2 full weeks before even seeking veterinary help, at which point the burn was very infected. When told it would cost almost $1000 dollars for treatment and pain medicine the owner did not want to pay for it. He had 2 choices: put her to sleep (which he would have had to pay for) or give her to the Rescue Service.

She is completely healed now, and hair has grown back on about 90% of the burned area. She is the sweetest dog and a big attention hog. We love having her around.

Fun Crafting

I got this idea from a magazine, but it didn't have any directions, I was totally flying blind here. Ok, only mostly, I did have advice from Eric and both of my dads. And help, from Eric and both of my dads. =) So here it is:


The smallest size they sold at Home Depot was 4x2 feet, it needed to be cut to fit inside the frame I chose (from Home Goods, I love that place, it is CHEAP).



We traced the glass, and Dad Greg, cut it down for me, it fits in that frame just perfect. =) Suh-weet! Y ou can see there was a bunch left over, Oh darn, I will just have to make another one.



Eric helped me drill the holes, glue the fabric down, and screw in the knobs. ( I used the drill too, I am proud.) It was even fun, especially since we did it together, we sure don't get enough time together. I miss him alot when he is at work at night.



With the frame:

Oh I really love it, and I liked that I chose all different kinds (again) of drawer pull knobs.

Finished product, this is what it's for, why hang my really long necklaces in the closet to get all tangled again, when I can use them to DECORATE. How awesome is that?

What do you think? Am I silly to like this? (Please say no, it's such a cool idea...I think) Would you put one in your home?

Happy Weekend Project

I just want to let everyone know that there is a new store called Romy at the Santan outdoor mall thing, and it was't crazy expensive--probably 5 dollars more for this than a knock off target dress would have been. Eric bought me 2 dresses the other night. (isn't he so amazing to me?) This is one of them, unfortunately you can't tell it's a dress because I forgot to ask Eric to take a picture for me. It is an awesome black and white knee-length dress that is longer in the back. I love it. And it's very comfortable. Sorry, the sleeves were extra.

This is my new love seat recliner, and you can see a little of our new couch behind it. We got a great deal, so we also bought a tv stand from the same place. Our new family room is looking really good, now I just need to decorate the walls =) This photo was actually of our way cute accent table, my mom bought it for us as a late birthday-Christmas-anniversary-New Home gift. The tv stand is black, so it helps to tie in the room. We love it.

To the project:

Eric and I have been talking about putting my violin series up in our black-and-white bedroom since before our wedding. This weekend Eric got really excited and was the force behind me getting the whole thing done in only TWO days. We needed 9 frames, and had only one from a wedding gift, so we bought the other 8 at multiple stores. They are all different; I didn't want matching. I am also proud to say that only two were over 10 dollars. Woohoo.

This is the arrangement I came up with on the floor:

You have my permission to ignore my toes when you blow it up on your screen.

Here is the finished product on the wall, I have to say--it is way hard to take a funky shaped arrangement and reproduce it on a vertical surface. Also, I hate washing the glass and trying to place the photo straight in frames with mattes. I was lucky enough to have a ton of help from Eric and Kaylee though. Thank you thank you.

Please click on it and tell me what you think. The violin is mine, these photos were done in 2007 at ASU, they were all developed and manipulated in the darkroom by me. I tell you, a darkroom is addicting--if only it was more cost efficient to have one of my own ;>

Eric and I already decided that the big, highest one needs to go right some, but it has really annoying hanging hooks on the back and we decided to do it a different day.

FREE Jamba Juice

I don't know how to make a link, but try here http://www.summerblissisback.com/eb7/sbbg7.html for a buy one, get one coupon for Jamba Juice. Thank you Jen for the heads up.

Enjoy!

Home Owning Update

This is our HOUSE. We are so proud of it, I'm sorry that these two pictures were taken in the afternoon though, it put shadows in the front :( sad.

I do not have my absolutely disgusting before pictures because they are on my other camera which was not packed by me--so I don't know which box it is in, but these were all during our 2 massive days of painting (which doesn't even BEGIN to describe the amount of work that has been done on this house since June 30th).


My mom painting one of the hall bedrooms.

My dad and Mom Julie painting baseboards. I am very happy with my color choices, most of the house is this creamy color that has some yellow in it--you can really tell because I picked white white for the trim, it looks awesome.

This is Mike working in the hallway, he did alot of up high painting while my mom did the lower half in the same room.

Mom really loved those baseboards, she did almost the whole house! Plus she painted the kitchen for us. Woohoo.

Eric's parents painted our first mural on the wall. I was sad to paint over it the next day. This is the awesome green I put as an accent wall in my living room. I'm so glad I did this. I really love it, I also decided to paint the inside of our front door the same green to match, it needs a second coat, but if you don't look too closely it is great, at least color-wise.

Eric working the edger, it helped us out alot, but you have to be careful not to get too much paint or it drips, just fyi.

The screen door and my front door are now black. I think it looks great from the street. And don't worry, once it it gets cooler out our shutters will join them in the world of painted black awesomeness.

This is my dad. He is a rockstar. He was at this house everyday for nine hours or more working for over 3 weeks. Most of the time he was here by himself, or it was just him and my mom. Most of the things they did to help us, no one asked them. Just walked in and "oh, this is awful, I need to fix this." I can't list all of the things because I probably don't know every single one, but I know he redid every outlet and lightswitch in the entire house, fixed the internet cables that used to all come out of just holes in the wall in every room so there is actually a jack, took out and installed new baseboards where they were gross and damaged, painted and added trim to the hall bedroom closet shelves, made new hanger racks (what are those actually called?). One day I came home and he had redone our closet, completely. He added shelves and a third hanger rack, then the next day he painted all of the new wood. Our bedroom door was in the hallway when we bought the house, so when he went to install it one day he realized it was bowed and could not hang on a wall, so he and I went to the door place, I bought a new door and he installed it that day, drilled all his holes and everything, because the door place charged 40 bucks to do it for you. Wow. He completely redid the gate for our fence--which was falling off of the house and installed backwards. Plus there was all of the painting and sanding and who knows what else because I wasn't here to see it. I am a very lucky child to have a jack-of-all-trades for a dad. It helps that he is not working right now because he never would have been able to do all this if he was, but I am just so blessed by all of the help we received. From everyone. We are very lucky. Thank you.

And just so you know, we are officially living in this house now, we moved in July 25th. Yesterday we handed in the keys to our rental. But I still can't put most things in place because we have no carpet yet. It was on backorder. (Something they neglected to mention until AFTER we had paid for it.) At the last we heard it will arrive in Mesa early next week, so maybe I will have carpet by the end of next week, keep your fingers crossed. I want to bring my furniture in from the garage and decide where things go. Dang carpet. It's a serious hold up--but we decided that one month of frustration was worth years and years of this freaking amazing carpet. Just wait to you feel it, it is sooo soft. Our blinds are also ordered, my brother Josh has a window and blind business and he got us an awesome deal. Who would have thought I could afford real wood blinds? Thanks so much Josh.