Christmas Trees & Rivalries

This Christmas is completely different from last Christmas, and thank heavens it is. Not that last Christmas was terrible (how can Christmas be bad?) but lets just say we have made some progression. Last year Brock and I bought those tiny little minature trees and decorated them with lights and little chains we made out of paper. This year we have a new and improved REAL TREE !!! with lights and even Christmas ornaments. Now it is far from the "perfect tree" but still it is good. When we went to buy ornaments i wanted to do like a silver and blue and decorate it all cute. the whole time we were in the store Brock kept asking if blue and silver were christmas colors.... I had to kindly explain to him that Christmas trees dont have to be docorated in "christmas colors" they just needed to look cute. even after our christmas tree 101 course brock still kept saying things like- well are you sure you dont want a little red on it. AND FINALLY...... Haili I dont want to have a BYU christmas tree. OH BOY !!!! So i said ok well do you want to put some red ornaments on it too, or how about a big red bow on top, or just some red ribbon. -the red ribbon was the winner. so when you see the picture of our Christmas tree please do not judge because in our house we do not discriminate between BYU and UofU. they are both represented in our home. (hence the ugly red ribbon that messed up my blue and silver) I never knew that decorating your christmas tree could be such a hassel. Next year I hope to do better. (and i have learned my lesson to not pick BYU or Utah colors) maybe i will just stick with a silver and gold option.

Out of ORDER

ok so i took a little peak at my camera card and decided that i have a few pics that need to be posted and its all out of order a bit.

SO first things first (not in chronilogical order but more of an importance order)

Brock and I got to go to Coeur d' Alene with my family for state volleyball. Let me tell you that it is gorgeous there and I love it !! but also i am the worst person when it comes to taking pictures so of course i have far and few pictures.

So there are the very few pics i got of us actually out and about. there was this cute little boardwalk right on the lake so my sisters brock and i and my mom went and walked around it. it was a pretty cold day and the wind was blowing so that if you werent careful the water would come splash into you, it was kinda like walking to a mine field, but with water.

Now for the real reason we went up north was to watch edee play volleyball and my mom coach. let me tell you what Edee is a super star and i cant believe how good she is. Another thing that is suprising when you think that my mom was a cheerleader in highschool is that she is one of the best coaches i have ever seen. she knows how to get her players in, and when to pull them out and how to motivate etc. etc. As far as the team went not so great but the VanOrden women went and showed those northerners whats up !!! OH BTW eden has brown hair now-

(me and addi)

Also if you know anything about our sweet little maddi, you know that she is a water woman. as soon as we even mentioned that we were about 30 minutes away from the hotel she was already trying to get people into the pool with her, and insisted that once we got there we all got it. It didnt quite work out that way, but every chance maddi had she was in the pool. her friend Ashley went with her and even little addi got to go play.

also a while ago i finally got my break from school which consists of one week of freedom and then it is back to school and here are a few fun things that i got to do

THIS is the BIGGEST P-I-G i have ever seen i couldnt believe it !!!

DIY canopy bed

We moved in about 2 months ago and I am now finally finishing my bed. This is kinda what we started out with nice plain black and white.

I got brave and decided to make my bedspread and all of the pillows. and this is what it turned into.

I have always liked the way that canopy beds looked but I kneew that right now we arent able to afford the whole BED part of the "canopy bed" so I decided that i could make the canopy.

I got some PVC pipe and cut them the length that i needed them, put some of the corner connector thingys on them (the HOME DEPOT guy helped pick them) then spray painted all of it black. (inspired by my mother-in-law who is the queen of spray paint) hooked them together. and got black zip-ties that have holes in the end of them and put a screw through the hole and screwed the whole thing in the ceiling. then put my "canopy" part up (complimets of the leftovers of my moms curtains.) totally this project cost me $3 for spray paint $2 for PVC pipe. and about $25 for fabric. this $30 makeover turned out better then i thought !!!

finally.....

When i made my pillows .... (forever ago) i decided that i was going to do something with my bedspread or the lack thereof. So i bought some fabric... sewed some pieces together. did a couple of frilly things and this is what i came up with. I hope brock likes it when he gets home from work. the only thing left i have to do is a couple of small pillows and a head board.

ARCHES

Black & White.

Ok so i took my last final today. AND I HAVE OFFICIALLY PASSED ALL OF MY CLASSES !!! (thank heavens) So now only 15 more weeks of school and i am officially an RN !! (woot woot) But in the mean time.... I have discovered that i get myself into more then i bargain for a lot of the time. beginning with this......

A while ago i decided that i didnt really like our bedspread. so i decided that i was just going to do something really simple and neat. And anybody that knows me knows that i love black and white. in fact if you look in my closet thats what i wear a lot of the time and my whole house is black and white its almost ridiculous.. well.. this is what happened and i have only just begun.

I am not quite finished with this one yet

I am wondering if i took the whole black and white thing too far??

the before

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Tess & Addisyn. I am a little early for Tess's and really late for Addisyn's I have taken up the sewing thing and i think i am getting a little bit better. I havent finished the sleeves yet. but i am still working on it! It was also nice to be able to get these done instead of studying for finals !!! Oh and it is Brocks 25th on saturday September 19th

some fair and being crafty is tuff !!

Addi's favorite animals were the pigs !!

ADDI LOVED HER HUCKLEBERRY ICE CREAM

MADDI HAD HER 4H PROJECT IN THE FAIR AND GOT A PURPLE RIBBON!!

ADDI WAS ONLY IN HER STROLLER FOR A LITTLE WHILE BECAUSE EVERYBODY WANTED TO HOLD HER

Brock and I got to go to the fair with some of my very favorite girls this past week! It was so much fun to get to spend some time with my sisters and walk around the fair (even addi was there) Also while we where there Brock had quite the time. On sunday we were out kicking the balls for the dogs and as dex let his go one of them had a rope still on and it gave brock a nasty rope burn. after that brock kicked and ended up giving himself turf toe !!

Maddi's new dog named "flash"

SO while I was skimming blogs i found this cute mirror that this lady had made, and instantly thought oh yeah i could do that easy. well it wasnt as easy as it looked that was for sure. (could have been because i didn't measure things right 100%) Also i got a mirror for a dollar, well like brock always says you get what you pay for. so its finished and i kinda like it but i am going to be redoing this project now that i think i have it down!