getting things done

a few weeks ago i decided that once a week i was either going to 

1. actually make or do something i pin on pinterest, 

or 

2. complete a project i have been needing or wanting to do. 

it has been three weeks now and so far, so good!

i haven't done any big projects yet 
but i am at least crossing off things i have been meaning to do for a while now.

plus it will give me something to post on this poor little neglected blog. 

so i give you weeks 1 through 3

week 1: box of sunshine 

i found this idea on pinterest a few months back and have wanted to do it since. one morning i woke up and remembered i had a dream that i sent a 'box of sunshine' to my friend, sean, who is serving a mission in las vegas. so i decided it was the perfect project to start with, and set off to target to find some fun yellow things to fill his box with. 


week 2: rose gold phone cover 

i got a new phone [which i love] a few months back but i have been so picky about looking for a phone cover that i dropped it before i could get one. so i decided since i couldn't find one i liked, i would make one. i bought a plain ugly cover and painted it with some martha stewart rose gold paint and rose gold glitter paint on top. i love it!


week 3: pumpkin cinnamon rolls

[please excuse all the photos but i had to have proof i was actually successful]

if you saw my 'make & bake' pinterest board you would notice that most of what i have pinned have one thing in common: pumpkin. i have been waiting for october to come just so i could try out all of these recipes! first on my list were the pumpkin cinnamon rolls. i'll be honest...i don't always have the best of luck on the baking department so i wasn't expecting much. but i was pleasantly surprised that when i was done they resembled actual cinnamon rolls and they tasted even better than i thought they would, if i do say so myself! i even got a little adventurous and switched the recipe up a bit. 

happy birthday daddy-o!

it’s not the beavers or the bears or the pickles or the pears,

it’s not last week or yesterday…

today!

today’s your birthday! 

happy birthday to the world’s greatest, hard working, 
funniest, kindest, craftiest, dad with a teenage girls heart!

love you daddy-o! 

i hope your birthday is flickin’ sweet!

oops, i forgot a visitor

so...

this happened...

 

a little over a week ago now now, 

chad came into town and we headed to san diego for comic con. 

i know what you're thinking. 

nerds. 

and you're half right. 

one day i was sitting, watching all the costumes pass me by 

and a student from japan asked if i had 2-3 minutes for him to draw a picture of me.

he had to draw 100 faces for homework and i was #8.

this really only took him about 2 minutes!

chad said i look evil or like i'm up to something--

 but i seriously do that with my eyebrow when i feel uncomfortable. 

funny.

 

and the best thing about comic con, you ask? 

definitely the scratch i got on my face from a lightsaber.

no joke!

i was so proud of it because, really... of course it would be a lightsaber. it's comic con!

i wish i thought to take a picture--it finally cleared up just this week.

this was bad of me but i had been sending chad pictures of this cute little lady 

from a puppy store for a few weeks before he came out.

so of course we had to pay her a visit as soon as he came into town.

 they fell in love.

 she doesn't look too happy to be with me but she sure loved chad. 

i think i had him convinced she called him dad.

any 500 days of summer fans out there?

 

we both loved the movie and when i asked chad what he wanted to do in la this was his first pick.

i don't know why i had never thought of it! 

at the bottom of the sign it says july, 17, 2009...

we were there exactly three years from the day they filmed there. 

crazy.

 

we turned around to see if someone was around to take a picture of us

only to see a stranger already taking one...strange.

but convenient!

as always we were bad at taking pictures but let it be known...

amazing nerdy costumes were spotted, 

after two years of discussing the amazing spiderman was seen, 

the katy perry movie was watched, willingly by all parties,

bad pop music was listened to all week,

ucb theater was visited,

and i ate like a boy for a week.

viva las vegas

this handsome guy just left to serve a two year mission in chile! 

 

his farewell was in vegas so everyone traveled from california and utah
to get together for the weekend and see him speak.

 

 

we attempted to take a picture of all the cousins there...

it didn't turn out but kind of sums us up perfectly.

 [the girls!]

 

all i wanted to do was find a slot machine you pull—surprisingly hard to find!

but we found one and i won two whole dollars!

 

[very excited about my winnings]

and of course i loved getting to see this little baby.

 

miss her so much and love that we got to spend a few hours together! 

visitors!

we have had some fun visitors the last few weeks. 

mah baby sister and cute little cousins came to play for a few days and we had a blast!  

[a few pictures of the highlights to help me get all caught up on the blogging quickly!]

 first stop was 'mormon night' at dodger staduim-- we love our doyers!

 

[cute boys]

  since it was a friday there were fireworks after the game.

nothing is more patriotic than baseball and 

fireworks!

 

[seesters!]

we camped out on the beach all day on the 4th of july and cooked hotdogs and made smores. so fun!

 

and last, but not least--our little baby sam turned 18! 18 i say!

and then we ended our fun with a trip to vegas...

next post!

chicago!

people are always telling me chicago is just like new york city. and while i’ve slept in the airport  a few times, i’ve never really had a reason to go for real and see if they were right. lucky for me, after all these years i finally had a reason! chad has lived there for a year now and i decided that was just the perfect amount of time for him to get to know the city enough to be my personal tour guide.  

our first official stop [straight from the airport with my luggage] was pizza, of course. we don’t mess around! and then once i got rid of my bags, we made another very important stop—second city! i have been to a fair amount of comedy shows and this one was definitely my favorite! chad is a student there also [cool, right?] so it was fun to see where he goes to class since i hear about it all the time. 

 

the rest of the trip we did all the important things like eat pizza every single day, get magnolia’s cupcakes, build an ikea bed [i was more of a supervisor], and walk until we thought our legs might fall off [which was just enough time for me to admire all of the buildings and become completely smitten with yet another city].

 

and since chad and i are kind of professionals at standing in line, we thought it would be a good idea to go to the sears tower [which is not actually called that anymore, fyi. It is now the willis tower]. about an hour and a half, five lines, one metal detector, two elevators and 110 floors later, we were on top of the tower and wondering why we ever thought it was such a great idea. such a cool view but a little scary! even though chad wanted to go on the glass floor, i literally had to shove him with all my might to get on it.

 

[note where the floor should be. and please try not to note whatever awkward thing i am doing with my hands]

neither of us are big picture takers to begin with, and i forgot my camera charging at home in california so we didn’t take many and the few that we did take are horrible. it’s just what happens when you’ve been sweating all day and then are juggling taking pictures yourself while trying to make up for over a foot height difference. 

[disclaimer for this and the rest of the photos: usually i don't have a lazy eye and chad only has one chin. and these were the good pictures!]

we decided to go see the bean [which i learned is really called ‘cloud gate’] at night, which was incredible. sadly, because of the weird lighting you can’t really see it in the pictures—but it was beautiful!

 [you can kind of see the bean, but not us]

 [you can see us, but not the bean. we tried a million times to get it right!]

 

a city at night is seriously one of the most magical things to me! i saw chicago during the day and loved it, and then when i got to see it at night it literally took my breath away. 

[here’s what it looks like during the day]

so just in case you were wondering i don’t think i would ever tell anyone chicago is exactly like nyc, because it’s not. but i would tell them it’s awesome and they would love it. 

i can’t wait to go back!

it's friday!

happy friday! 

to celebrate, i offer you two of the best pictures my phone has captured recently.

i wish you could have seen this dog while the car was actually moving--

he had a huge grin on his face!

we had a serious staring contest at a red light.

and this other little guy is just the cutest.