MARCH!!!

I love the month of March! It's my birthday! Our Anniversary! And sometimes it gets warm..... :)

Behold: our adventures in March:

this cutie after bath time....she kills me!

by far my favorite sight to see

Our last night with Lindy - we got Waffles/Pancakes Lindy loves attacking her Daddy!

We had a crazy snow storm at the very beginning of march! It was nuts!! It took me over an hour to get to work. I was not a fan.

Then it was my birthday! Allan took me to dinner and then the Opera at WSU.

my mom made this for my birthday!! :D

Once again we got the fixer upper kick (more like I got it. I think Allan could care less in some ways...) First our light in the dining room was having issues and we figured out it was a wiring issue. I hated the previous light fixture anyways, so we went and bought a new one and installed it! Then we put in a shelf behind/above our couch so that we could have more space in the living room without the coffee table. I loved the coffee table, but it was always in the way. So we moved it! :D

new light fixture!

new shelf!

We then spent one weekend watching Sammy and Rusha while their mom and dad went on a little getaway. It was a lot of fun.

Then we celebrated our SECOND anniversary! I can't believe it's been two years! :D I love this man of mine. He's so amazing.

beautiful flowers he got me for our anniversary!

Us on our date! :)

Other fun things:

hands down my new favorite kind of peeps!

beautiful sunrise one morning with a good quote...love this!

Spring is coming! Maybe?!

At the very  end of March we hosted other couples in our ward for a fun FHE:

we talked about being a "real Easter bunny" or a true follower of Christ

and then we played SEVERAL fun games with peeps. It was awesome.

So that was the month of March. Pretty exciting stuff if you ask me. ;)

Busy Life

I know I say it quite often, but life is really busy in the Ambrose household. Between every day work, ballet teaching, church callings, the Army Reserves, and having fun family adventures our days are quite packed!

There's a lot in life right now, but one of the biggest things is the fact that Daelynn (my baby sister!) is getting married in June. I'm planning her wedding and it is different than the other two weddings I have planned by far. It's been very frustrating at times but also fun. I love putting together the visions in my head and I'm hoping that everything will turn out how I envision it. :)

We're also dealing with many other things that I won't go into detail on here, but our families are struggling. Life is really hard sometimes and we seem to have found a rough patch. Overall we're doing really well, but there are some days that life is just really hard and I wish that people could be more considerate, more understanding, or just have more common sense then they exhibit.

Beyond that, life is really good. We went to Disneyland in February (I promise I'll post about it soon!) and I'm brainstorming some fun things for us to do this summer. I also really want to go to Virginia sometime soon so I can see my family on their turf and say goodbye to my Grandpa McCue. He's not doing well and we really don't know when he'll go, but he's in so much pain and so unhappy that we really hope that his time won't be long. I want to be able to see him one more time, but if it doesn't happen it will be okay because he'll be reunited with my grandma AND he won't be suffering any longer.

Anyways, that's all for now. I really want to update you more and I will try to get this blog updated with our adventures. I start to get to close to being updated and then life happens and I get all behind again. :P  But never fear, someday I will be caught up! Maybe!

Until next time my friends! :D

Operation: Be Crafty

Less than a year ago I posted some goals of things I wanted to do while Allan was at his Annual Training (AT) for about a month. I didn't really do a good follow-up on how that all went down, and for that I apologize. My 31-day challenge and leaving/starting a new job kind of took over my life. Add to that the fact that I wasn't sleeping or eating well with my new husband gone, I struggled.

Well, that annual training season is upon us once again. My husband's brigade is going MUCH earlier this year - he leaves on Monday. He will be gone for 26 days and then once again still have drill the weekend that he returns. le sigh.

Now that I know what to expect on how I will feel/act/do etc while my husband is gone. I know that I have a hard time eating and sleeping and I'm trying to prepare myself for that this time. Also, while I had a lot of craft projects I wanted to complete last year I found that I had no motivation to get the supplies and then start said projects. I am not completely sure why the motivation to shop for crafty supplies left me, but it did.

This year, I've tried to mitigate some of the problems I had last year by preparing myself better for the next 4 weeks. I have more than a dozen projects that I want to finish while Allan is gone. Add to that the fact that my little sister BreeAnn is due to have a baby sometime in the next two weeks, and I'm pretty sure I'll be a busy person. :D Hopefully the time flies until Allan comes back and it won't be too bad without him.

So...without further ado, here's the plan for Operation: Be Crafty for while Allan is gone. :)

1. finish making Lindy’s curtains (I've done one of the panels, but I need to do the other one. I've purchased the supplies)

2. scrapbook wedding book (I picked all the photos I want to use, I just need to get the photos printed and then start scrapbooking away!)

3. finish small pillows for couch (need to get the main fabric still. I have accent fabric.)

4. fabric wallpaper the cabinet doors (see this inspiration post for what I mean. http://www.figmilkshakes.blogspot.com/2013/01/wallfabricking-wallpaper-wall-with.html I still need to measure all the doors, and get fabric)

5. Master Bed bed skirt! (http://ankastreasures.wordpress.com/2010/08/16/dust-ruffle-tutorial/) (fabric has been washed and dried, just need to cut and sew!)

6. Canvas Crayon Art ( I am using the following two posts for my inspiration: http://jennaleighbrown.blogspot.com/2011/09/diy-wall-art-melted-crayons-on-canvas.html and this one: http://artisticjunkie.com/blog/item/129-crayon-art)

7. Living Room Curtains (MAYBE. I haven't decided if I'm actually going to get to this or not. If I do I'll need to get fabric)

8. Master Bedroom Curtains/valance(MAYBE. I haven't decided if I'm actually going to get to this or not. If I do I'll need to get fabric -- maybe same stuff to match the bedskirt for a valance?)

9. Table runners for lv room table and wall table by kitchen (bought fabric, washed and dried, just cut and sew!) 

10. photo canvas established thingy (see this (http://treasuryofmemories.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/04/established-canvas-kit-is-back-in-stock.html) post for what I'm talking about. I've bought my canvases, created my text for the established canvas, and gotten pictures printed.)

11. Lindy dresses (3) (I'm going to make her some more of this dress: http://craftycupboard.net/twirly-t-shirt-dress-tutorial/ I've already bought the t-shirts and have most of the fabric on hand. One of my fabrics needs to be lined, so I need to get white fabric for that.)

12. Add flutter sleeves to Lindy’s Zebra shirt-dress. (I'm talking about THIS shirt-dress, and I want her to be able to wear it in the summer, but an undershirt will be too hot, but I think I can add flutter sleeves to it and it will be great. (I need to buy black fabric for this.)

13. Turn Lindy's Tinkerbell PJ’s into dress. (Lindy has these adorable flannel Tinkerbell Pj's that are a long-sleeved button up shirt and pants. (that are way too small) I am going to try my hand at turning them into a nightgown with short sleeves. We'll see how well it goes. :P )

So there you go. My crafty plan. Ambitious? Yes. However I'm okay with being ambitious. I've put together a rough plan of when I'm going to start/work on each project. That plan is subject to change depending on when Breezy's baby comes. :D Here we go!!!

Life keeps on happening

I keep thinking I'll take time to update this little blog, and then I keep on doing other things. :)

Life has been busy lately for me and Allan. We work all day and play all night. Our "playing" consists of doing anything from working out and watching to TV, to going to a performance at Weber State and having ice cream afterwards. We're enjoying our many, many adventures! :o)

Since my last post we have enjoyed making new friends and hanging out with them, running in a color 5k to celebrate the inaugration of the new WSU president, going to the Imagine Dragons concert at WSU and celebrating Halloween with one trick-or-treater stopping by our house.

Like I said, life has been busy! I post lots of fun things on Instagram, so you really should follow me there. ;)

ANYWHO. We're getting excited for Lindy to come visit us at Christmas time - hard to believe that Christmas is less than 6 weeks away at this point! I'm excited to see Christmas through a toddler's eyes and for the magic of the holidays to be extra present in our house.

In other news, Allan and I are hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year with his Mom and Step-Dad, Brother and Sister-in-Law and other brother all coming to dinner. The total number of people at our house will be seven and it should be fun times! I'm going to brine a turkey and I'll try to be better at posting so I can tell you all the adventures that will surely bring. :o)

That's about it around these parts - I'll just throw some pictures below of our recent happenings and will try to be better at posting. :) Life is fun!!!!

us at the end of the color run 5k we participated in

what I did at Super Saturday - oh and it should be noted that I am now the RS First Counselor and Allan is a Gospel Doctrine teacher. :) We've been put to work!

Imagine Dragons concert! It was AWESOME!!!

We were Mario and Princess Peach for Halloween. :)

I may or may not have ruined Allan's hair when trying to use our new hair clippers. I may or may not have cried.

Funny faces time on FaceTime.

We have new friends! There are a 4 other newlywed couples besides us in the ward.

Ambition

So, if you have talked to me at all recently then you know that I am about to live out being an "army wife." In t-minus 10 days, (not that I'm counting or anything. ;) ) my lovely Army Reservist husband will embark on his two-week Annual Training (aka AT) that will cause him to be gone 27 days.

But wait, you say, you said two-week training but that your husband will be gone for 27 days! The math doesn't work you say! And in that, you are correct. See...normally AT is only two weeks out of the summer. However, my lucky, lucky husband's section got put on the advanced party AND the clean-up crew. Therefore, he's going to be gone for 27 whole days AND still have to do his normal weekend drill the weekend he comes back in August. So it's almost like he'll be gone for 28 days (I won't really see him that Sunday after he gets back...)

I knew this would be the life, and really 27 days isn't that bad especially when he could be deployed at any time for a long, long time. This will just be a taste of what it could be like....but that doesn't mean I'm excited that he's going to be gone for so long so quickly after getting married. sigh

ANYWAYS. I have all this pent up ambition of things I want to do while my dear husband is off gallivanting around an Army base in another part of the country. I have made 5 fairly lofty goals for myself to do while he is gone and I'm telling them to you to help me be accountable for them or something. :o)

so, without further ado I present my 5 Goals to accomplish while the husband is gone:

1. I have been given the opportunity to participate in a little mini-dance workshop put on by one of my colleagues/friends in the dancing world. We're going to get together twice a week in the month of July and then have a little performance at the end of the month. I'm really excited about this!


2. I am going to make my own 31 for 31 fashion challenge. There will be more details coming on this by the end of the week (I hope!) and you can totally participate with me if you want. ;)


3. I am going to re-do our Master Bedroom. We are still using the same bedspread from when I was single...and while nice it is showing some wear and tear. SO I am going to redecorate! This will include making new pillowcases, duvet cover for said bedspread, painting the nightstand and hanging some pictures and such. I MIGHT just buy a new sheet/bedspread set....but only if I can find what I want for a good price. I will post more on my plans on this at the beginning of July. I have a Pinterest board on it and everything and I'm really excited at the prospect of this project.


4. I have a ton of recipes that I have printed off from websites and such and I want to compile ALL my recipes into one place. I'm thinking that instead of a book I'm going to do a box w/recipe cards. BUT that's subject to change. I plan on working on this project all month long when I'm not dancing and watching all of my guilty pleasure shows. ;)


5. Finally I have been collecting ideas for crafty projects to do for a long time and have a dozen or so on a Pinterest board. My plan is to complete at least THREE of these ideas while Allan is gone. I'm not sure which ones yet, but I'll post about them when I figure that out. I plan on doing these on the weekends. 

Whew. I'm going to busy! I also want to work out on a regular basis and possibly work on our Wedding Album...but we'll see how that all goes down. I do know that it's going to be hard, but so rewarding at the same time. Distance makes the heart grow fonder, right? :o) ANYWHO....if anyone wants to play with me let me know! I'll definitely be wanting to play with my girls!

Time

I have been thinking a lot about time as of late. It's interesting to me how at times time seems to fly by and yet at the same exact time it seems to crawl. Someone commented on my Facebook post about this that I notice this phenomenon because of an upcoming wedding....and they're probably right.

However, I have noticed it at other times in my life. I think it comes from being fairly busy day to day with all the different things going on and on in life. Pair that with the excitement of something big (or even little) coming up, some event that I'm looking forward to and thus you have the fast/slow conundrum of time.

You know what I just though? "Sheldon Cooper would get a kick out of my philosophical thinkings right now. I bet he would have some scientific explanation...." ha ha ha ha. I love the Big Bang Theory.

Anyways. That's all. Life is good. Sometimes it seems to be going by fast and at other times it seems to be crawling by (like right now! Took my ring in to get it re-sized so I'm not afraid of it falling off and I have to wait until SATURDAY to get it back. I want it to be Saturday NOW.)

Hope y'all have a great day!

P.S. Look for the upcoming goal re-cap post (with pictures? perhaps!) and a few other fun things that I have up my sleeve. :o) Ciao!