Happy 2nd Birthday Eva!

Ms. Eva celebrated her 2nd birthday recently.  

We had lots of fun celebrating the life of this special girl.  Thanks to everyone that came!  Eva is blessed with so many fabulous friends.

Eva's boyfriends giving their birthday kisses!

bunny party favors with Rice Krispies inside 

Wild Eva waiting anxiously for her friends to arrive

What a goof.  We love this girl!

Eva helping  Kaden to get in the water.  What a big helper.  I don't think that Kaden was very excited about this!

Splashing around.

My fabulous friend Amy made this cake.  She was super pregnant and still was kind enough to make this beautiful and tasty cake!

Eva eatin' cake

Opening a few gifts

Looking back in time. Eva at a little over 2 weeks old.  A lot has changed over these last two years!

Looking back in time.  Eva at about 2 1/2 months old.  Still a happy little girl.

Happy Birthday Eva!  We sure love you!

Before and After: Spring Projects

I am finally getting around to posting pictures of our spring projects. Aaron had one week off school and he spent it ALL helping me get the nursery ready for the baby's arrival.  Worst Spring Break ever!  Being on a tight budget meant that we spent a lot of time and little money.  Check out the pictures, I think we did good!

This is Eva's new bed set BEFORE Aaron stained it to match the nursery.

This is the toy box BEFORE Aaron sanded it and  I painted it to match the nursery.  It was old and ugly.

This is the nursery BEFORE.

The nursery BEFORE.

The nursery AFTER!  Complete with Eva's new bed and the baby's crib.

Eva's bed AFTER Aaron stained it and I made a "hut" out of fabric.

The toy box AFTER!

We were proud of our money-saving selves.  But mostly we are just happy to be done and Eva is stoked to have a SLIDE on her bed!  Best thing ever.

"Though your sins be as scarlet..."

We will punish her when we stop laughing... 
if we stop laughing.

And that spot on the floor is pee...

In case you were wondering, the bottle is completely empty.

Ships Ahoy! It's a BOY!

 Can't believe I'm getting this close to my due date, but I only have 7 weeks left until he comes!  

To help me prepare for my first boy's arrival, my fabulous friends threw a baby shower for me a few weeks ago.  The theme was, "Ships Ahoy!  It's a BOY!"  Thanks to Amy, Brandy, and Jamie for all their efforts!  I really appreciate you girls.  Also, thanks to everyone who came to show their love and support!  It REALLY meant a lot to me.  I have such wonderful friends.  And one final special thanks to my Mom and sister who came down from Utah to come to my shower and for their help making the boat party favors.  I left the baby shower feeling so blessed and grateful to my Father in Heaven for all of the wonderful people in my life!  Thanks again everyone!

 Can you believe this girl?  She made this cake!  Thanks Amy!

 My Mom entertaining the kids.

 Amy, myself, and Brandy.  We are all due in the month of May!   I look exhausted.

Thanks for coming ladies!

And she's down....

I've been a blog slacker lately.  I have so much to catch up on, but here is a quick preview of our little girl Eva.  She is now 21 months old!  The girl never stops moving...which also means she is constantly falling.  Love this slide-show of pictures, check it out:

 The East German judge gave her a 10 for the dismount.



Check out this goof (she is her father's child 100%):

Homemade Christmas Gifts

 I can't wait until the day I have money and can just go out and buy gifts for people!  I'm sure my family can't wait until that day as well!  Until then we make due by making most of our gifts for family.  And hey, I can't lie, even though it is more stressful and time-consuming, I enjoy doing it.  A special thanks to a few sisters from my ward that gave me some free fabric to make a few of these projects possible!
Here are some of my homemade Christmas gifts, which are, as always, my design made without patterns:

Actually I made these two years ago when I was on "bed-rest" during Eva's pregnancy.  I just set up the sewing machine in my bed and sewed stockings for all of Aaron's family as well as our own.

Oven-mitt and coasters

Oven-mitt close-up

Coasters made with Mod Podge.  The pictures can be taken out and exchanged from the back.

Skirt and sweater for my little sister to wear on her mission.  She just got a call to Fresno, CA!  I made the skirt from scratch and added the flowers to the sweater I purchased.

Scripture-marking pencils for little sister to take on mission.

Scripture-marking pencil case opened.

OH! Can't take credit for this idea.  Check out my friend Shannon's craft blog.  She sites the web page she found the idea from.  I made FACE plates for all my family.  They are dishwasher safe!

Aaron's face plate close-up.

I also made place mats for my mother to match her Americana themed kitchen.  The utensils have there own pocket!  I found this idea in a book once upon a time but made my own version of it since I didn't have the pattern.

Place mat close-up. 

We didn't do Christmas cards this year but we still send our love to everyone.  Hope you all had a Merry Christmas!  We love and miss all of you.