Winner!

Okay, people - only 12 people entered the CSN Stores giveaway!!!!  

 I would have entered if I could :)

But since there were only 12, it gave all of you who entered a better chance to win.

And the winner is . . . 

Ashley, who said, "I love csn!"

Congrats, Ashley!  

I will email you your promotional code so you can get to your shopping!

CSN Stores Giveaway!

If you're a follower/reader of my Loving Every Second blog, you know that CSN Stores did a giveaway for a $20 promotional code.  Well, they have so generously offered to do another giveaway, this time for a $35 promotional code!!!  

CSN Stores has over 200 online stores where you can find everything from stylish furniture, counter height stools, or great cookware!

Some things I found:

Love these dishes . . . they are so pretty!

And I love this bed . . .

. . . or this bed

. . . for Emmy's room!

I could seriously spend SO much time shopping online at CSN Stores!!!  They are your one-stop-shopping center!

To enter:

All you have to do is leave me a comment!  

It's as easy as that!

Contest ends on Monday, December 20th at 9:00 pm MST.

Winner will be announced Monday night or Tuesday morning.

Good luck!!!

The Crafty Gals

My cute sister-in-law, Mary, has started a new blog.  It's called The Crafty Gals and she does some super cute things!  Go check her out at TheCraftyGals.blogspot.com and give her some bloggy love!

P.S. - she's doing a giveaway right now for a gift card to Hobby Lobby, so make sure you enter

To Help Stop Hunger Benefit Concert

I have the great opportunity of performing at a benefit concert on Friday night.  West Coast Jazz {a local, and amazing, jazz band} asked me to sing a few numbers with them and I gladly accepted!

If you live in the St. George area and are looking for something to do on Friday night, you should seriously come.  You can have a steak dinner and stay for the concert {$25 per person} or you can come for just the concert at 8 pm {$10 per person}.  It will be great entertainment and the proceeds go to a great cause - to help stop hunger {it's for the St. George Soup Kitchen}.

To order your tickets, see the flier below or leave me a comment and I'll get back to you.

For more info on the St. George Soup Kitchen, go to StopHungerHere.org.

Tickets Still Available!

Steak Dinner & Jazz Benefit Concert Presented By:

Steak Dinner & Live Music Premium 21-day aged steaks, potatoes, salad, dessert and beverage.. Tribute to Cool Jazz Concert (Music from the 40's 50's and 60's) West Coast Jazz Players, together with local jazz artists, play songs made famous by: Miles Davis, Lionel Hampton, Sarah Vaughn, Stan Getz, Tony Bennett, Chet Baker and many more. Date: December 3, 2010 (Fri.) Tickets: $25 Per Person Venue: Grace Episcopal Church Address: 1072 East 900 South, St George Dinner: 6:30 PM Concert: 8:00 PM ($10 for concert only) Reserve Seat Now or call Jessica at 435.215.9084 Just go to www.StopHungerHere.org and click on the "Donate" button. You will be contacted soon to verify your reservation.

A Tinkerbell Party

Emmy wanted a Tinkerbell party for her birthday, so that is what she got!

{Emmy dressed up like Tinkerbell}

I made these tissue paper pom-poms:

I've seen them all over blog-land and decided to have a go at them.  I thought they turned out really cute, and they are now hanging in Emmy's room.

For the party, I sprinkled the kids with "Pixie Dust" as they came in the door.  Then they decorated paper stars:

and then played "Pin the star on Tinkerbell's wand":

I read them a Tinkerbell story:

They colored Tinkerbell pictures and we had a Tinkerbell pinata:

{I LOVE this picture of Skye!  She is getting ready to hit that pinata!}


The kids, frantically trying to get their bags of candy filled:

And I made Tinkerbell cupcakes w/ homemade strawberry frosting - yum yum!  They were easy-peasy and super cute.

Emmy made a wish and blew out her candle!

And, of course, there were lots of presents to be opened:

Emmy had so much fun at her party!  I put "Pixie Dust" in the goodie bags (glitter from the dollar store) and Emmy has me put it on her "so she can fly" at least once a day, which means she's always got little glitter flecks in her hair.


I also got to take donuts to Emmy's preschool class for her birthday.  She was really excited for me to come, and I got to meet the kids she always talks about.


Here she is with her teacher, Ms. Charlene:

 Kate enjoyed a donut and some crackers at Emmy's school, too:

And here are Emmy's stats:


{Weight}: 35 lbs, 14 oz (58th percentile)


{Height}: 39 inches (33rd percentile)

{Love this pic - mouth full of donut and frosting on her face, just the way it should be}


We love you, Emmy!!!

Emmy turns 4!

{The birthday girl on the morning of her birthday}

Emmy turned {four} last week!

My, how the time flies.  For real.  I swear, this little girl was just a little baby joining our family.

She had a great birthday!  

She opened presents:

{She's a big Tinkerbell fan}

 {She had been asking for a Book of Mormon.  She has to hold it every time we sing "Book of Mormon Stories"}

{This present was the big winner - she loves that the fairy wings can turn into the Barbie's dress, and vice-versa}

I made her an Ariel cake, but it was not the best looking cake in the world, so I am not posting pics - I'm too embarrassed about it!  But she {loved} it and that's all that matters.

She had a Tinkerbell party with her friends, which I will post about later.

Here are some things I want to remember about Emmy:

- She still {LOVES} to sing!  And she's got a great little voice (I'm not just saying that because I'm her mom, promise!).  She is always singing her little heart out.

- She has a fun little imagination.  We are constantly "playing" something.  Most of the time she's Christine and I'm the Phantom.  Or I'm Jane and she's a monkey (from Tarzan) or she's Jane and I'm Tarzan.  And it doesn't matter where we are or what we are doing.  It can be while I'm making dinner or getting ready.  She's always ready to play make believe!

- I taught her "I am so smart.  S.M.R.T."  Why?  I'm not sure.  But it is so funny listening to her sing it.  I wonder what her preschool teacher thinks about that one . . .

- Emmy can write her name and she knows all of her letters.  We will be at the store and she will get so excited and say, "Mom!  There's a "L"!!!"  The best was when we were in St. George and she saw the big D on the hill.  She excitedly yelled out, "MOM!!!  There's a "D" on the mountain!!!"

- She is becoming a better eater (YAY!) and is more willing to try new foods.

- She LOVES books!  We try to read to her for at least 15 minutes a day, usually right before bed time, but she could be read to for hours at a time.

 

These are her school pictures.  So cute!!!  I love them!  I was too lazy to scan it in, so I took a picture of the picture, which is why it maybe looks a little distorted :) 

Emmy and I had a mommy-daughter date a couple weeks ago with my sister and her daughter.  We saw "Phantom" at Dixie High.  Oh my.  She LOVED it!!! 

The girls dressed up in their "Christine dresses" and their "Christine cape's" that Grammy made them last year for Christmas.  We went to dinner first and everyone was loving them in their dress-ups.

{Mysterious . . .}

DHS has changed A LOT since I went to school there!  Their theater department is awesome - it really was such a great production.  Just look at the huge Phantom mask that was outside the theater!

Emmy wanted to get a picture with "Christine" but, of course, I had to be in the picture with her.  She just stared at all of the characters after the play.  Especially the Phantom.  But she would not even let me get close to him!  Apparently he was too scary.

Coming up next, a post about the Tinkerbell party!

A much needed update

Life has been crazy and busy at our house lately.  Here's a little update on our lives.

In June, Jake was called to be in the Elder's Quorum presidency.  When he got the call from the Stake President, he was really scared that he would be called to be the president.  When he found out it was to be one of the councilors, he was relieved!

In July, Jake got a job at the hospital working as a Patient Care Assistant (CNA) in Same-Day Surgery.  He really loved working at the Pediatrician's office and worked there for almost two years, but when he heard there was an opening at the hospital he decided to go for it.  There were around 100 applicants and Jake is the one who got it!  He is such a hard worker and we are so proud of him!

Then in August, I was called to be the Young Women's President.  Yup, the President.  I don't know how qualified I really am to be in charge but it has been so much fun so far!  I have so much fun with the girls, I feel like I still should be one of the Young Women :)

Needless to say, between our two callings Sundays are not the peaceful day they used be.  Jake and I are juggling kids between meetings before church and then trying to juggle Kate at church.  I cannot wait until she is officially in the nursery!

Did I say Sundays are busy?  Scratch that.  Every day is busy.  Jake and I are juggling kids almost everyday, it seems.  Between work and Jake's classes, my voice students and YW responsibilities, we have to schedule everything out so that we know who has the kids.  Luckily we live next door to my parents.  They have really been lifesavers!  If Jake and I both have to be gone at the same time (which happens more than I'd like) my parents are always willing to step in and take the girls.  What would we do without them?!

 {Jake and the Premier Pediatrics team}

Also in August, Jake ran in a 31 mile relay down Cedar Canyon and through Cedar City.  He was on a team with the people he used to work with at the Pediatrician's office.   He had a great time doing it and we were proud of his accomplishment.

 {Jake and the girls}

I also started a new blog, Loving Every Second.  I don't have the time to do new posts everyday - I'm lucky to get one or two posts a week on it - but it's fun to have a place to put the projects I've been working on.

There is a little update on us!  Now you know why I've been MIA on our blog!  But stay-tuned for a new post next week on Emmy.  She turns four next week!

Halloween 2010

Happy Halloween!!!

We had such a fun Halloween this year.  

Emmy was SO excited to go trick or treating.

We decided to all be pirates this year - I have to go with a theme as long as I can get away with it!

Isn't Emmy the cutest pirate EVER?

Along with Kate, of course :)

And Jake actually let me put some make-up on him so that he could really look like Captain Jack Sparrow!  And he did!  He got so many comments at our ward Halloween party, he's thinking of becoming a stunt double :)

All the girls have matching pirate "beauty marks" on their face (I couldn't resist . . .)

 

 

Mr. and Mrs. Pirate at your service . . .

 

 

We had dinner at the church and then the ward had a Halloween Carnival.

The kids had so much fun!

Jake and I were both in charge of booths (because of church callings, I'll tell you about them in another post), but luckily I got to close down my booth early and take the girls around to the other booths.

After the carnival, we went trick or treating.  Emmy loved it!  So much that she did NOT want to go home.  We've all been eating way too much candy, but that's the fun of Halloween, right?

{Picture complete with Kate's "camera face"}

 

We had a great Halloween and

we hope you all had a SpOoKy Halloween, too!

New blog!

I love to be crafty. 

I love to cook and bake.  

I love being creative.  

So . . . I decided to start a new blog!  It's called Loving Every Second.

I will share tutorials, fun ideas and my favorite recipes, just to name a few!

It is seriously brand-spankin' new, so I'm sure there will be lots of changes to the blog decor in the next little while, but I did what I could for now so that I could get it up and running.

So head on over to LovingEverySecond.Blogspot.com and check it out!  Share some Bloggy love!

Grandpa Speechly

My sweet Grandpa Speechly passed away on Sunday.

Here's the link to his obituary - it is such a wonderful tribute to his life.

I just wanted to write down a few things I will always remember about him.

{This pic was taken in June. We don't get up to Ogden too often, but every chance we got, we would make a trip up to see my grandparents}

- Grandpa was always smiling and laughing. He was so much fun to be around! He was a happy person who loved life.

- Grandpa fought in WWII but didn't talk about it very often. The times he did talk about it, I loved hearing the stories. He was a real war hero!

- Grandpa and Grandma had a house in St. George and had a HUGE cactus plant in the front yard. Grandpa made the BEST cactus jelly out of that cactus! I miss that delicious cactus jelly.

- One of the scariest nights of my life happened with grandma and grandpa Speechly. It was the night the Quail Creek dam broke. It was New Years Eve and I was spending the night at my grandparent's house while my parents were at a party. The sirens went off and grandma thought it was to celebrate the new year. Then a Policeman knocked at the door and told us to evacuate the area, that the dam had broken and they didn't know what kind of flooding would happen. My grandpa grabbed a $100 bill! I thought he was so rich (I was seven-years-old)! We ended up spending the night in town at a bishop's house. My house ended up being one of the homes that got flooded. The water came within an inch or two from flooding the main floor of the house. I was so scared because I wasn't with my parents, but I love that I have that memory with grandma and grandpa.

- Grandpa would always make waffles for breakfast when I stayed at their house!

- Grandpa always drove a nice, new, paid for Cadillac - he liked to drive in luxury!

- Grandpa loved to fish and golf! And he stayed active as long as he could by going to the mall in the morning and walking with his friends :)

- My grandpa always loved Jake - I think the fact that they were both immigrants to the US gave them a special bond. And Jake has a couple of shirts that my grandpa gave him that he still wears! They were bro's :)

- When I was at SUU, I was in a singing/dancing group. We did a Christmas show in St. George (my grandparents lived in their St. George house in the winters) and my grandparents came. I got to choose someone from the audience to come back stage where we dressed him up like Santa and sent them out on stage. Of course I picked my grandpa! He was a good sport about it and was a great Santa!

{This pic was taken in December. Grandpa had just had surgery on the skin around his eye to remove skin cancer. Emmy was so concerned about him, she kept hugging him and asking him if he was ok :) }

I will miss my grandpa so much, but I know I will see him again. Knowing the gospel is true brings so much peace to me at this time. Grandpa was such a wonderful person and lived a long and happy life {he turned 93 in July}.

We love you, grandpa!!! You will be truly missed!