I Love Halloween!

Ok, I Love halloween! I think it's so fun! I love to dress up and come up with costumes and such, so I think that it's great. Last night we had our ward's Trunk-Or-Treat and it was so fun!:)

 Can you tell who we are? I'll give you a hint..:

 I was Katniss, Joel was Peeta and Siena was Effie Trinket from Hunger Games. I totally loved putting these outfits together. I did a little lipstick on Siena and she was so mad about that one..lol

She also LOVED the trick-or-treating. She started crying when we took the bucket from her to buckle her into her car seat.

 We also went garage sale-ing and found some great 18-24  mo. old clothes for Siena and a few other things.

Have a great weekend!

Trip to Houston and Carrie and David

This last weekend we traveled over to Houston for a little doctors visit for Siena and to visit family.

Siena really liked the popsicle stick and saying "ahhh" with her mouth wide open. on the downside, she didn't like the doctor or nurses though.

 She carried this bear around all over the place.

 She also likes the Reader's Digest apparently. It's just the right compact size.:)

While we were there, we also visited the grave sites of Carrie and David. It was a really special experience. I have been wanting to write about this for a little bit, but I wasn't sure exactly  how or when, and I figured that this was the perfect opportunity.

First off, I want to give a little explanation about it all. On mother's day just over 5 years ago my little brother and sister passed away in a car accident. Carrie was 10 and David was 8. This was obviously a very hard time for my family, but thanks to the power of prayer coupled with the help and support of all our friends around us, we have been able to cope with it.

David was such a curious little guy. He was always getting into trouble, but he had such a sweet face that he was often able to get out of it. My mom told me a story about when they went to a nursing home to sing, one of the ladies held out her hand to David to dance. My mom was worried about what his reaction would be, but he just started dancing right alongside her.

Carrie also had such a tender heart. She was always looking to do good, and sharing her love and testimony with others. I learned so much from her and know that I am a stronger person because of her. On the night before she died I heard her playing in her room at about midnight when I got home. I was flustered that she hadn't gone to sleep yet, when I heard her footsteps coming toward my room.  I decided to not get mad at her but to softly tell her to go to bed. She exclaimed that she had not given me a hug yet that day and wanted to come say goodnight and goodbye because they were leaving early the next morning for vacation. She gave me a hug and quietly headed back into her room. I am so grateful for that tender moment that I was able to have with her that night.

Although it was hard to lose them both, they were meant to go together. They were always together through life, so why would it be any different in death?

We love them dearly and miss them both terribly. However, because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I know that we will see them again one day. I know this because I have a testimony of the atonement and that Jesus Christ died for us so that one day we can return to live with Him and with our Heavenly Father surrounded by our loved ones.

Before she died, Carrie memorized this poem and it describes her disposition perfectly:

If I Knew

If I knew a box where the smiles are kept, 

No matter how large the key 

Or strong the bolt, I would try so hard 

'Twould open I know, for me; 

Then over the land and sea broadcast,

 I'd scatter the smiles to play,

 that the children's faces might hold them fast

 for many and many a day.

If I knew a box that was large enough 

To hold all the frowns I meet, 

I would like to gather them every one,

From nursery, school and street;

Then folding and holding, I'd pack them in,

And turning the master key, 

I'd hire a giant to drop the box

To the depths of the deep, deep sea.

- Maud Wyman

To learn more about what I believe click here: mormon.org

While we were there, Joel was able to teach Siena to say Carrie and David in her own little way.

Fall dress and an updated end table

I just finished a dress for Siena! You may recognize some of the fabric...lol

She will now match her glider in her room..lol but I think it turned out really well!

We also just finished painting one of the end tables that we got this last weekend. Here are those pictures:

Hope you're having a good week!

Garage Sale finds and random photos

Ok, these pictures definitely aren't the best, but they'll do! There are a lot of them too, so bear with me!

Siena LOVES to read. It's adorable. She'll grab a book and sit for a bit and just go through the pages. I love watching her.

 On Friday, we went to Sirloin Stockade. They had one of these in Mexico and Joel went there a lot on his mission, so we had to go once just for the memories.

We were EXTREMELY full walking out of there. We decided after this experience that we aren't really buffet people.

 Siena was soaking it up! She loved watching all the people walk by her and waved to everyone!

 We got a lot of stuff this weekend at garage sales. Some of the stuff was even free which was awesome. I'll mark what was free.

This chair was FREE! We drove by a ladies house and she had some furniture sitting by the side of the road that was labeled FREE. I was ecstatic! So we picked up 2 pieces.

Here is the finished product of the chair:

This was $5 and it's a very heavy, solid wood piece that's in great condition..just a paint job and it'll be great!

Another FREE piece. We got 6 different handles from Hobby Lobby for this guy! I'm so excited to get it painted and stick those handles on it!

We got this for $15. It was exactly what we have been looking for! We needed a desk for our desktop computer that we just got and we happened to run across this yesterday.

This was not from a garage sale, but this is the shirt that I made from some of that vintage fabric that I got at the garage sale a week or 2 ago. I love it!

Aint she cute!?

Ok, these next shirts are all from one garage sale where a girl had a bunch of vintage clothes and I was stoked to get all of these clothes for $5! I have to tailor them, but I think once I do they're going to be awesome!

The next 3 are the only ones that I've tailored so far. They're so fun!

 We also got these 2 blu-ray's from a garage sale for $4 each.

 These Steve Madden shoes were actually from last weekend, but I realized that I never got a picture of them. I think they're so great and they were only $2.

I have one last picture. Have I mention that Siena loves to dress up?! I think she's really going to enjoy Halloween!

Re-vamping a Crib/Bassinet Bumper

For this bassinet bumper I used an old-school winnie the pooh fabric bumper that I cut off the fabric and re-covered. Here's how:

1.To get started you have to measure your old bumper and make sure that you get the right amount of fabric. I believe I got 1 & 1/2 yards for this bassinet and there was a little extra leftover. Don't forget to add in the fabric that you need to make the ties for holding the bumper onto your crib edges.

2. Before doing anything, I cut off the old fabric as lose to the seams as I could. If you would like to unpick everything, be my guest! I didn't feel like taking the time, and it looked good even without doing all that work.

3.To measure my fabric, I layed the fabric over my bumper  and rolled it over once, then added about 2 inches to the end for extra fabric so that later I could roll it over and stitch it closed. I did sew 3 pieces together so that it would be the length that I needed it to be.

These 2 pictures are just to show you how to cut your fabric, when you are cutting, you will want your bumper to be about 2 inches inside the edge of your fabric on the ends so that you have fabric to close off your 2 ends.

4. Roll the top of your fabric around the top edge of your bumper and pin it in place.

 5. Using the other side of your fabric, roll it under and then pin it over the top of the fabric that you rolled over the edge in step 4. It should look something like this:

 6. When you get to the end, fold the fabric to create a nice corner and pin in place.

 7. Hand stitch all the way around! Once that is finished you just need to do the ties. Do this by folding your fabric that you have cut for them in half, hot-dog style, right sides together. Sew along the long edge and then turn right-side out. To be honest, I took a shortcut and just cut the ends of the ties and put a little fray-check on the edges then sewed a little line of stitching along that edge. I felt it took too long to roll the fabric under and sew it, and I knew that it was just the ties, so I took a little shortcut. SHHH..Don't tell my sewing teacher..:/

You're done! You now have a custom bumper! It's pretty easy and makes it look SOO much better. No more winnie-the pooh bear fabric!:)

I haven't done the ties yet in this picture.