HELP!!

Not as dramatic as what the title may portray, but my mom just informed me we have switched hotels in Vegas, now we're headed for the JW Marriott Resort! so i got to thinking- i've never had a massage, so i decided to check out the spa there... umm holy smokes, where do you begin!?! ok the cost is kinda steep, so i don't know if i'll actually break down and do it, but if i do, what kind do i get!?! i have no clue... any suggestions? here's the list. HELP!!

Shelly's Baby Shower

So the baby shower obsession has begun, so here's the inspiration for round 2, which will be for my sister Shelly! You'll have to wait until July to see what we come up with! :)

The bestest husband ever!

He's the greatest... he's working a 16 hour shift from 11pm to 3 pm, he's simply the bestest. He's been working crazy hours lately and does this so I can stay home with phil and lil... i don't tell him thanks enough, so here's to my crazy-i -work-super-hard-so-my-wife-can-stay-home-HUSBAND! Thank you!

ps only 2 weeks til VEGAS!! :)

Tania's Baby shower Part 2: Gifts

I found some journals at Michael's on clearance for .50 so I decided to cover them. I took the spiral binding out of the journal covered using a handy dandy glue stick and scrapbook paper. I after covering I used my Crop-a-dile Big Bite (LOVE this tool!!)to punch the holes through the paper for the spiral binding to go back through and decorated it using the scallop punch and warm words stamp set from stampin' up. I made 4 (i think) coordinating cards to match the journal, included envelopes and puff a cute inexpensive shower game prize!

Cards up close

Favors

Jamie put together these cute favors by covering small pieces of candy with pink scrapbook paper, stacking 2 of them together and tying them with a cute piece of pink ribbon. Simple and adorable!

Candles

I bought plain white pillar candles and embellished them by "stamping" on the candles. Actually you stamp whatever image you want on to coordinating tissue paper (i used white). Cut out the design you want to place on your candle, attach it to candle using a glue stick (just enough to make sure it doesn't move around) and break out your handy dandy heat gun and melt the tissue paper to the wax. When melting the tissue paper to the wax you have to be really careful to not deform the candle by letting it get too hot. It takes patience and a few practice tries. I finished the candles off by tying 2 pieces of ribbon around them and wrapping them in cellophane.

Tania's Baby Shower Part 1

I'm so behind, it's been like 3 weeks since Tania's shower and I haven't posted any of the goods I've been dying to share! I had so much fun working with Jamie and Shellee to put the shower together- Tania totally deserved every little bit of it, she's a sweet sweet girl who really helped me feel welcomed when we moved here and gave me so much great infertility comfort! and now she's pregnant with twin girls and moving across the country :(


anyway enough sob stories- and some pics of the goods! (i apologize for some of the not so great and sporadic pics, I do have 8 month old twins so it's a miracle i actually had time to do any of this!) Here are some of the decorations i created with a pink on pink theme...

Candles

Totally simple, wrapped ribbon around candle and attached with art accentz terrifically tacky tape by provo craft (the best double sided tape ever which i used for pretty much everything you see below!) used stamps from the by ones & by two's stampin' up set and water colored them (i used watercolor pencils and a blender pen) and attached them with a couple dimensionals.

Washcloth lolly pops

I lifted this idea from my friend emilie and her mom. I bought a pack of washcloths from target (6 for 2.99) and folded them into a strip about 1 1/2 wide rolled into a tight spiral, attached another folded washcloth using my terrific tacky tape and rolled around the 1st, and did this with one more wash cloth. I then attached a Popsicle stick with my tacky tape and took a piece of cellophane and wrapped it around the lolly pop finishing it off by tying a bow with ribbon around the cellophane and Popsicle stick. I put 2 of them in pink pails i found in target's dollar section and while crinkle paper. Super easy and super cute!

Napkin rings

I used some more stamps from the same stampin' up set (by ones & by twos) with "twin phrases," punched them out using a scallop circle punch, punched a small hole (1/8") i think and attached the tag to a piece of twine tied around a rolled napkin. and I almost forgot- of course I inked the edges of the tag, nothings complete without a little ink around the edge right?!?

Diaper Cake

See upcoming posts for how i did the diaper cake... I have a couple more to do so i'll put together some better instructions :) But for a teaser, it's hard to tell by the pic, but this one square in shape, complete with a sparkling cider in the center!
Live saver Pacifiers

Jamie created these for the "don't say cute" game, I know they are made with jelly bellies and 2 live savers, I think the jelly bellie is attached with a frosting paste of some kind, but not sure! and a ribbon is put through the live saver to make it a bracelet, necklace, or ring!Here are a couple pics i "borrowed" from Tania from the actual shower. Some wonderful food, trays, flowers, and candles, topped it all off!

And can I just say (sorry if it's too much info) but out of pocket I only spent $25 on decorations and gifts! I may be giving ty a run for his money!

OREOS!!!

My wonderful husband came home after getting off work at 11:30pm last night with a special treat and a killer deal!! 5 packages, 5 I say, and let me repeat 5 PACKAGES of oreos for (drum roll please) TWO DOLLARS AND 50 CENTS!!! that's $2.50, 2 bucks 50 cents!!!! that's like how much i normally spend for 1 package... a total savings of $20.25 on OREOS- seriously he's the bargain shopper of the week, ok so maybe the year- looks like i have my hunting cut out for me!!

ps he found the killer deal at albertson's- pretty sure you all know where i'll be at some point today!

Spokane

I'm so lucky to be able to travel up to Spokane once a month with Ty while he goes to drill for the Air National Guard. Before the babies were born I would shop, shop, and shop some more on Saturdays, it was a true shopping marathon. I'd hit all the goodies in Spokane like Spokane Discount, The Classy Rack, Northtown Mall, Ross, Target, the Distribution Center, REI, Liquidation World, Picture Pages, Good Will, the BX, the Commissary, and of course eat at Pita Pit! On a good day, I could hit most of these stores and a few others if I so desired!

Now that I have the babies, I'm I can't quite make it to all of these places :( I have to pick and chose and plan around their naps, etc. So this last month I decided that instead of sitting in some parking lot bored out of my mind while they slept, I would drive around and look at the beautiful Spokane sights (even despite the tremendous gas prices!)... we drove around downtown, across the Monroe st bridge, out to Riverside State Park to see the raging water at Bowl and Pitcher, and then finished the nap off with a walk on the centennial trail, it was a gorgeous day and reminded me of the things i love about spokane. Boy do I miss working amidst the gorgeous parts of spokane!

Aunt Laurie

So i just realized these are the only pics i took while ty's sister Laurie was here last week :( She came up from Utah to spend a couple days with us- it was so fun to have her here, even though our weather was horrible! Pretty sure she even went to Seattle over the weekend where it was sunny and warm and came back to us where it was rainy and cold! anyone see anything wrong with this picture?!? anyway we miss her already and want to see her soon!!

"Aunt Laurie are you awake yet?" If he wasn't so intrigued with the camera you would have actually been able to see him peering through the door like I witnessed!

and yes this is my husband wearing a dress, long story, not blogworthy, and hopefully he won't check this for a few days so he doesn't know i posted a picture of him in a dress on the Internet :)

"Aunt Laurie, where did you go?"

Las Vegas here I come!

I just booked my flight for 3 days in Vegas with the girls of the fam! so here it is...

The upside-
1. 3 fun days with my mom, aunts, and grandma
2. sunshine and a pool
3. no commitments AT ALL!!! that means no house to clean, no babies to feed, no diapers to change, etc, etc, etc.!!!!!!
4. sleeping in with no baby alarm!

The downside-
1. 3 nights away from my sweet babies
2. ok really that's pretty much the only thing i can come up with for the downside, but it's a biggy! i haven't even been away for a night yet! 12 hours is the most i've done and i thought that was hard! but of course after 2 nights of screaming cranky babies, 3 nights doesn't sound so bad afterall!

So the countdown begins 21 days, 14 hours, and 56 mins!!

Wrestling, chasing, giggling, and screaming!

Just before this video, I came around the corner after putting something away in our room and found Micah and Hallie wrestling with Twister, Micah seriously had him in a headlock and Hallie was grabbing his tail. I quickly grabbed the camera, but missed the headlock :( Thank goodness Twister is a tolerant cat! Hallie loves to chase him around and gets so excited when she sees him.

Speaking of chasing, they have been chasing each other around the house, giggling and squealing at each other- super cute! Not quite sure why that can't transfer to their cribs though?!? I've read in numerous places about twins/multiples "talking" to each other for long periods of time after waking from naps, sleep, etc. Pretty sure all mine do is grab the crib slats (with both hands), peer over the bumbers and scream at each other! It turns into cryfest 3000! Maybe some day (hopefully soon!) they can learn to talk nicely to each other! :)

Legacy

The DeVries Family

My grandparents recently celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Can you believe that! 60 years! Nowdays, you don't hear of these things very often. My grandparents were truly best friends- they seemed to thrive off of serving each other. My grandma always had food prepared for my grandpa and grandpa was always willing to do whatever he could to provide for his family and make sure the house was in excellent working condition for my grandma. Simple things, but what a profound statement of love they make. My grandma said of my grandpa this last week, that he was always gentle with her and was always there to help her with any problem she had.

What a legacy my grandparents have built in their 60 years of marriage. 8 children, all married to their original spouses with the exception of my aunt who's dear husband, uncle Bill, passed away several years ago. 20 grandchildren, and 17 great grandchildren with 3 more on the way (my niece :) + another set of twins!) I can honestly say I absolutely LOVE spending time with my family. Some of my fondest memories are with my family from camping on the farm in Sumas, Sunday get-togethers in Seattle after church, to simple gatherings at the clubhouse in Mt. Vernon. They are a special memories which I cherish and all leave me looking forward to the many get-togthers that are to come.

The Grandkids

Grandkids and spouses

The Great Grandkids

Micah's great escape

After a week with aunties shelly and kendra and uncle mike and tons of other family, Micah attempted to escape back to western washington today.

Here he goes on his way out the door, you can see the get-away car parked out front...

Grandpa Great

Over the next week, as a tribute to my grandpa who, as surrounded by his family, went peacefully home after a 6 month battle with lung cancer this last week, I will share some of my fondest memories of him. I am so blessed to be able to call him grandpa, he truly was a gentle giant. I will always remember him as being a kind and gentle person. I never heard an ill word come out of his mouth (unless of course it was regarding politics!). He set an example for all of those around him through his hard work, service, and laughter. He truly has left a long-lasting legacy...

Where on earth is summer!?!

After almost a week in Western Washington yucky weather and very little sun, I thought I would for sure come home to some true Eastern Washington weather of warm wonderful temperatures and beautiful sunshine, but no! I came home to this...

Oh someone please tell me where on earth summer has been!?!