Lake Powell 2014

My parents have a time share on a houseboat in June every year.  It is the vacation my whole family talks about all year round and everyone always tries to make it.  This year all 19 Crosland's made it as well as our adopted mom Sandy (one of my parents good friends who is basically family). I didn't take many pictures this year. But I will share with you what I have. My cute sister Amy and her husband were in charge this year and we did a Survivor theme.  We were broken into teams and all got buffs in our colors and we had survivor activities everyday. It was so much fun! It was a little big different of a trip because of the 8 grandchildren all under 7. But we still had an awesome time!

Stef and I 

Iceberg Canyon

These are our awesome Survivor flags!!

Sexy man taking selfies

An early morning wake boarding run and I was a little tired… 

Cody!

Callie Goose

Tubing! Callie fell asleep every time she got on the tube and would almost fall off! Then when you would take her off she would cry because she wanted to tube!

This was one of the many trips to costco before we left! When we bought all the stuff we forgot we had to somehow get it home.. 

The Accolade

Stefan had to go home two days early and be responsible and go to work… Him and Kevin both left early and we missed them! 

Me and Clara Mae 

Us and all the grandkids!

We had an awesome time!! Thanks to my parents for taking us and Amy and Luke for planning the activities.  We had a blast!!! Until next year. 

DIY Door Wreath!

I saw a few pictures of adorable burlap ribbon door wreaths on Pinterest and on Etsy. All the super cute ones were ones I had to buy on Etsy for around $70 each… and that just wasn't happening. Since I couldn't find any type of tutorial that would make it look like I wanted on Pinterest...I took matters into my own hands.

These were my inspirations

So naturally I headed over to Hobby Lobby and I got all my ribbon on sale for 50% off and I bought a large wire wreath loop and my letter! 

After A LONG TIME I got as close as I could… and here was my final product!

It's not exactly the same as you can tell but I'm still really excited about it and so I had to share it with you all.  Besides the fact that a moth family has made their home in my wreath and every time I open the front door they all fly around me like crazy, I have really liked it! 

The Painting Adventure

A few weeks ago we underwent the project of painting our 'great room' in our house.  This was the first time I have ever painted a house in my life.  So for all those people like me who have never painted before… I learned a lot so here is my advice.

These are my before pictures 

         
             

Advice number 1:

Buy pizza because painting when you're hungry is a really bad idea.

#2 Put tinfoil inside your paint trays so you don't have to clean them out!

Advice #3: Get a REALLY helpful husband:)

Advice 4: No need to fix nail holes… I just filled them in with bar soap and painted over the top 

**Disclosure: I read this on pinterest and it worked awesome for our walls because they have the hideous texture on them. But I don't know how it will hold up but so far so good. -So take this advice for what it's worth.**

Advice #5: I don't have a picture but you probably won't be able to paint it all in one day so put your brushes in the fridge overnight when you are done for the day so you don't have to clean them out and they stay wet and ready to go the next day!

Advice #6: Again, make sure you have a really helpful husband. :)

ADVICE #7: My best advice I have to give… HIRE IT DONE. Seriously it was awful and it doesn't look very good.  But it was an adventure for us!

Here is the final product… Not the best picture ever but you get the point. Things around here are starting to look more like us! 

A great weekend!

Early last Thursday morning, my mom, Amy and I headed down to Provo to the annual Women's Conference.  What an amazing experience.  I love going down there every year and getting some spiritual enlightenment. We had such a great time and I am so happy that I went.  We slept over Thursday night and were in classes all day thursday and friday!

After women's conference, Stefan and I headed down to Vegas and St. George for the weekend with our good friends Scott and Christine.  We drove straight to Vegas after Stefan's work and pulled into Vegas at 1am.  We had a great time down there. It was so warm! We got some shopping in, and some laying by the pool, despite the tan I didn't get.  

When we were in Vegas we went to the Jabbawockees. When we got tickets they were second to last row, when we sat down a guy that works there came up to us and told us he could get us some better seats.  He moved us to the front row in the center… Heck yes! We were so excited.  During the performance, the jabbawockees pulled Stefan and I onto the stage with them! It was a blast. :)

The reason for the trip was for Christine's birthday! So Sunday we went to St. George and stayed there and Scott and Stefan made us dinner and we bought a cake and celebrated!

Happy 24th Birthday Christine!!

Easter

This year we had a great Easter! On Saturday we went over to my parents and Stefan and I played easter bunny and hid eggs for Blake and Callie. It was so fun to help them find them! Then my cute mom had us make the most adorable little birds nests out of chocolate rice crispies and cadbury eggs.  Then on Sunday we spent the day at Stefan's parents, had dinner at their house, searched for our easter baskets, and just had fun with the Brown family!

The Easter banner I made! 

Cute Blake and Callie making our egg nests!

Our nests!

Callie put my little pony stickers all over me! Haha what a cutie. 

This was my attempt to make a bunny out of orange rolls for easter morning…. it didn't work as well as I hoped!

Whiskey Creek!

Stefan's uncle owns a huge ranch in Idaho called Whiskey Creek and were able to go up there this weekend with Stefan's family! It is so nice there, I would live there if I could! We had a blast shooting, four wheeling, swimming and lava, playing games, and my new found favorite thing GEOCACHING! Who knew that was a thing and who knew it was so much fun?! My sister-in-law Kelly's fiancé Cody is into it and so Stefan, Paige, Kelly, Cody and I went on a little adventure and it was so much fun!! Paige found it at the ice caves.  For those of you like me who don't know what it is…. Basically its a treasure hunt! There is some website where people post the coordinates and you put it in your GPS and go find it.  It's just like a small container or something that has a list of names and you sign your "geocaching user name" and the date.  It sounds weird… because it is… but obviously I am not a professional at this as you could tell from my attempt to explain it. Just take my word, it's fun! I didn't take very many pictures… but here is a few!

Notice my freaking cute Deathly Hallows hat that my cute sister in law Paige made for me!!

We took this picture at the fish hatchery! Which is disgusting how many fish there are, but kinda cool!

Families are Forever

My dear grandma LaRae passed away about a week and a half ago and last week we had her funeral.  I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have that I can be with my family forever and that this isn't the end. I had the opportunity to give the eulogy at the funeral, it was great to reflect on the great times I had with my grandma.  I would always go and stay at her house and growing up I always loved it.  It was a beautiful funeral and we couldn't of had a better day!

For the funeral I was in charge of the table decorations and so I went through tons of pictures to find some for the tables and I found this cute one of my dad when he was little!! I love it!!

At the viewing, Blake helping Callie 

And Lucy and Blake dancing

Logan and his mad skills

Our photobomber Logan

The original 7 Crosland kids! Great to have everyone together, even for just 24 hours.