Update

Just a little update on Bows for Ruby. The auctions have raised over 12,000 dollars so far, incredible! The auction ended up having a lot of movie star memorabilia and autographed sports items. My items alone generated over $300 dollars. When I saw this I just burst into tears.

Today was was such an emotional day for me. I didn't talk to anyone, didn't want to because I knew I would just cry. I spent the day looking at old pictures and showing Ella and telling her about her Aunt. Someone that she will never know in this life and it made me so terribly sad. Ella kept on wiping my tears and saying "mommy.. sad?" A hurt mommy?" I really didn't want to cry in front of Jarrett because I know the sadness I feel and can't imagine how much more difficult it is for him and his sweet family. When I cry in front of them I feel incredibly guilty. I know I should be celebrating her life today but that is so much easier said than done, I miss her so much. I always think how much life would be different if she were here, maybe she would even have a child of her own right now and Ella would have a playmate. Wishful thinking I guess.

I remember being mad at Danielle on our wedding day because she was missing when we were trying to take pictures of all of the bridesmaids. Later I found out that the reason for her absence was that she was cleaning my car for me so that I could have a clean car when we left for our honeymoon from the wedding. How sweet is that? She was always so thoughtful and sweet. I only have good memories of her she was such a good sister and daughter.

I miss you everyday Danielle. Thank you for being such an inspiration. You are one of the most beautiful people I know both inside and out.

Bows for Ruby

I know I haven't posted anything in a long time, it's been an extermely busy summer but I plan to do a Summer post so that I can remember all the fun things that have happened.

Sometimes there are stories out there that just break your heart, little Ruby is one of them for me. This poor little baby is now an angel in Heaven and out of pain (she died just a few days ago) you can read her story here. It is just heart breaking to hear what this poor little girl and family are going through. Ruby was waiting for a liver but just didn't make it before she could receive one. Her family's medical bills are sky high and her friends and family are making bows to try and raise money for the family and they are adorable.

They are having an auction as well and I've donated some items from my shop to try and help out, you can find them here and here. For the second one you might have to like bows for Ruby on facebook because the auction is through Facebook. They just received 5000 fans, in just a few short days! That's how compelling her story really is. Even if you are not able to donate, tomorrow everyone is wearing yellow and pink to celebrate her life.

This month is always a hard month for our family, Danielle passed almost 4 years ago this month. I suppose this is why I'm so sensitive about her story, I can't even talk about it without getting all choked up. I've never lost a child, but I've been beside someone who has and it is my biggest fear (every mother's biggest fear). Please be extra sensitive to anyone you know who has and say a little prayer for them.

I promise my next post will be happier, it really has been a fun Summer and I can't wait to post about it.

It's been a while

Things have been a little crazy lately and I have totally neglected my blog. I need to keep up on this because I don't keep a diary and I don't want to forget all the special things that Ella is doing. She is growing up SO fast. She is now closer to two then to one and a half, sniff sniff where did the time go? I absolutely love this age because she is so funny and she understands pretty much everything we say. I can tell her to go do things right now and she's starting to really help me out. She gets me a diaper if I need it and she goes or does what you tell her mostly. She can say most words and is really good at pronouncing words.

It's funny because she loves to pester Maggie. She likes to wrap her up or put the blanket on her head. She will go in her room and grab one of her shirts and put it on Maggie's head like a hat. Maggie is really good about putting up with it but I can tell she is totally annoyed. Ella gets a kick out of it, I have a feeling she's going to dress the poor dog on a daily basis when she gets a little older.

Ella is super cuddly, Especially when she is tired. She kisses me on the lips and hugs me on a daily basis. She is the sweetest little girl in the whole world. I love her to death. She has a new found love for her blankie, she doesn't have a particular blanket that she sleeps with but she loves having a blankie next to her, even on car rides. She is really good about telling me if she poos or pees, I think she'll be early with potty training even though she hasn't had much interest in it quite yet.

She is pretty fearless and very trusting. She's definitely a water baby and I can't wait for this summer to get her in the pool! Is it too early to start her in swimming lessons? Any thoughts? She would really like them I think I'm not sure how much swimming an 18 month old can do but it would probably be a good thing to try. She loves the swings like seen in the above picture, Jarrett pushes her pretty high and she doesn't get scared.

She's still a carp and will eat pretty much any food. She will ask for juice, milk or water which is nice because I pretty much always know what she wants because she can just tell me. She LOVES chocolate in her milk (I blame Jarrett for this) Yesterday she wouldn't drink regular milk without it.

Oh yeah speaking of Jarrett, last weekend we celebrated out 5 year Anniversary in Park City. We had so much fun and ate out way too much! I've been fasting this week to make up for it because I probably gained 10 lbs in 2 days (I definitely felt like it but I was too scared to get on the scale). I can't believe it's been 5 years it doesn't feel like it's been that long at all!!

the past few weeks

The past few weeks have been busy for Jarrett and I both with work but we've managed to have a bit of fun and a few projects. First of all my living room was driving me nuts. When we built our house a few years ago I loved really dark woods and colors so I went a little over board with brown. I like brown and all but it was way too brown for me so I decided to brighten it up with some yellows. I had brown curtains and I didn't want to buy all new ones I have six in all, so I just sewed some fabric to the top of my existing curtains. Below is one before and one after.

Then I recovered some of my throw pillows, I made a pocket cover so that I could throw them in the wash when needed. I got the textured pillows at TJ-Maxx, I LOVE them, they're cuter in person.

Next Jarre had his birthday this past Saturday. He went snowmobiling with my brother in law Danny in the morning, when he got home I surprised him with a cake and his favorite lunch.

Only one more year to be in his twenties, I keep reminding him too much of this...

This is my Sis Hilari. I'm so glad they got to come up and stay with us last weekend, I wish she lived closer.

He is such a good daddy and Ella adores him so much. She latches on to him every time he comes home.

Of course I made him carrot cake with cream cheese frosting from scratch, it was SO good. The whole cake was gone in two days.

After we celebrated we went to our cousins wedding and then out to eat, it was a fun day!

I want to show you another side of our cute little girl she turns into a monster sometimes...

This is how she eats, notice her hair...

She draws on the couch...

She bites my foot, notice the chunk that she took out.

but oh what a sweet little girl she is, especially when she sleeps.

Her hair was driving me nuts a few weeks ago so I decided it was time for a trim.

She insists on helping me put the hair mousse in her hair, what a funny girl!

That pretty much sums up the last little while, I'm hoping that soon I'll have a fun spring post to put up. I'm getting spring fever REALLY bad and so is Ella she tries to run out the door every time it's open. Jarrett on the other hand is loving the snow because of snowmobiling, what a weirdo.

Projects

Remember when I said I was working on a craft room way back in like July? I was working on a building a room to do all my crafts in because the kitchen counter just wasn't cutting it. Well I finally finished it a few weeks ago and it's so nice to have my own space to do my crafts because I am crafting A LOT! My craft room is in the bonus room upstairs where I rarely used to go, but now I'm up there all the time!

OK my craft room actually turned into a play room because toys were taking over my downstairs literally. So this is Ella's playroom and she loves to play in it while I'm crafting, what do you think? I love it for when my clients bring their kids because they have a room to play in and mess it up as much as they want.


It's not quite a room anymore, it's more of a crafting nook but I have plenty of room for all of my needs. This way I won't worry about her playing by the stairs and there is even a TV which you can't see in the pictures where I can watch my shows, (I love HGTV)!


Jarrett is supposed to build more shelves for me and there are a few more things that need to be hung up but I just love it! The two rooms combined cost under $100 dollars! I got the desks from DI and painted them and modge podged the cabinet fronts with craft paper. I already had a lot of the stuff that was just waiting to be used! I also use both of my upstairs closets because I have a lot of craft stuff but I have to be careful of what I leave out or Ella will either destroy it or eat it.


This is our guest bedroom that needs to be used more so come be our guest at our house!!


Poor elliptical that's collecting dust, I need to start working out because Summer will be here before we know it I just need a little more motivation!







This is another nook that turned into Maggie's house when we moved into our house, Ella plays in there now. I'm sure we'll turn it into Ella's nook soon. I'd like to put some shutters on the window and make it really cute but for now I'm taking a break from decorating. So that's my upstairs bonus area, there is a bathroom up there but I didn't take a picture of it.

Another thing that I'm really excited about is that Izzy's Attic is featured in the Barrel Magazine! It really is the cutest magazine and I'm in love with this Month's Issue they have a lot of giveaways and yummy recipies that I can't wait to try. Check it out here http://www.thebarrelblogreviews.wordpress.com/ You'll just love it I put it as a button to the right of my blog so I can access it any time I need to. I am so excited for the success that I've had with Izzy's Attic already it has been great and so much fun!

16 months

Today my little sweetie turned 16 months old, I am still asking myself how that happened so fast. She's definitely a little person now, far from a baby at this point here is just some of the new things she does:

-Counts on her fingers to three or the counts cheerios and puts them into piles.

-She doesn't use her arms or legs to go down the stairs, she slides full force all the way down in like 4 seconds.

- She can now say my name "Sy-ee" is what she calls me. She doesn't call me it a lot though she usually calls me mom.

-She's really good about saying thank you when you give her something it's "dank-doo"

-You know when she makes a mess in her pants because she says "Eew poo!"

-She LOVES hugs and gives them to us all the time, she loves to hug my legs when I'm cleaning or cooking.

-As always Maggie is her favorite still.

-"Doo-doo" is still her favorite show (Oso) "Bob-bob is a close second (sponge bob)

-She knows what her potty is although she's only peed by it, hasn't made it inside yet.

-She loves to help me clean she was helping me clean the outsides of the cupboards today

-She can locate her eyes nose, mouth, ears and hair on herself and others.

-She knows a lot of animals we are still working on it but she's doing really well.

- She can shake her little booty when she dances, it's hilarious

She can do so many more new things these are just the main things that I can think of right now. I just can't wait until it gets a little warmer so we can do a fun photo shoot outside, I have so many ideas and she is such a good little model for me. I have been using her to model my bows for pictures so much lately that I don't have a lot of pics doing her crazy stuff, I need to work on that!

XOXO

Happy Valentine's Day! I just love this holiday, it is for sure a favorite of mine. I've been taking some photography classes and playing with my camera when I get a chance and was able to take the picture of Ella above. I just love when she smiles like this, it makes my heart melt. This year we had more like a Valentine weekend, we both gave each other our gifts on Saturday, we couldn't wait. Jarrett decided he wanted to go snowmobiling on Saturday and I got him some new snow pants so I gave them to him before he left, then he gave me this:

In the picture it looks a little purple but it's actually a pink Sapphire and diamond ring, he is such a sweetie.

Today I attempted to make some valentine cookies, to surprise him when he gets home for lunch, they didn't turn out as cute as I wanted them to be, oh well they still taste delicious!

Ella got a new playroom, I'm not all the way finished so I'll post pics in a few days it turned out really cute. She also got some cute outfits toys and jammies from the Grandparents, they are so thoughtful.

I've had a lot of people ask me over the year how I make all of Ella's headbands so I decided to make tutorials on Etsy that show step by step instructions. I am giving away a free custom headband here. Be sure you enter there are 8 different ways you can win! Not a lot of people have entered so your chances are really good!

Must read magazine!

Ok so I have a friend that is the editor of this awesome magazine called The Barrel. It is a must read it has all sorts of cool stuff from different blogs. I love all the recipies and tips it has. Best of all it's FREE and you can read it online. They put out a new magazine every month and you can put a button on your blog so you can stay updated. You can also check out my friends blog called mylifeasarealhousewife.blogspot.com

January is always the longest month of the entire year, my least favorite month. Surprisingly it is going by so fast and we've found lots of things to do this year. I've actually been enjoying the snow a lot this year (weird) and we've found plenty of things to do to keep us busy, not hard with a one year old though.
Ella is now 14 months and she is acting more like a kid than a baby. At her health and wellness checkup her stats were:

Weight 17.8- 1%
Height 28.8- 13%
Head 18- 51%

She is learning new words everyday and she can say 17 words. You have to be so careful these days because she mimics what you say. Her new word last week was "poo" because I was changing her diaper and I told her she smelled like it. She now LOVES "bob-bob"- Sponge bob square pants which is huge because I can't even tell you how sick of Oso I was. Maggie is her everything. She gets so stressed out when I take Maggie out to go potty. She's waits for her out the door saying "Maggie, oh Maggie, she literally cries every time. She is so busy, she's got an agenda everyday. She keeps herself pretty entertained and plays well by herself. She can be really good at sharing and then be the exact opposite ten minutes later. If she's with her friend Alexis she does all sorts of naughty things like pouring milk on her face and trying to step on her afterward. She doesn't like to share her toys with her either, what a stinker. Bath time is still the BEST we have so much fun! Here are some pics:

I decided to take her outside to snap a few pics. It was So hard to get her to even look at me she is too interested in everything around her.

Then after we got back inside she found Jarrett's shoes and decide to put them on....





But couldn't walk in them because they were too heavy so she cried, lol.

We went up to SLC to see the lights a temple square, it was SO cold but BEAUTIFUL!

We pretend the hot tub in the backyard is a swimming pool on Saturday mornings, we have a lot of fun.