I Love Visitors

I especially love visitors when they come all the way from New Jersey to visit Las Vegas, AND they are two of my and Rebecca's favorite people in the whole world.

I was lucky enough to get to hang out with Wendy and Julianne while they are here vacationing for ten days. And they brought a new little visitor Caleb who I was afraid I would never get to meet because they live so far away. We had dinner at McDonald's, and then we came to my house and let the kids play while Wendy and I got some more time to talk.

These two cute girls put on a dancing show for us before Wendy, Julianne, and Caleb had to leave.

I'm so glad you called, Wendy! We are so happy that we could be a part of your vacation!

More Politics

So today I went to my school and found out (or was reminded actually) that we were being visited by Brian Sandoval:

He is the Republican candidate for governor for the state of Nevada. He beat out Governor Gibbons in the primary elections. I didn't get a picture this time because I honestly forgot that he was visiting today.

Brian Sandoval seemed like a good guy. He's very good looking, and he's quite young. (He mentioned having a first-grader.) He talked about education reform for Nevada, which I am all for since I think we are now ranked last in the country in education.

It's crazy to see these famous politicians at our humble little school. I'm guessing the name American Heritage Academy might be a draw for them. At least our school is being bipartisan in who they allow to visit.

18 Months

Braden is 18 months old and officially going to nursery (although we've been sneaking him in for the past two weeks). I didn't realize how happy we were about leaving him in nursery until Kevin and I got a few comments at church about the smiles on our faces. This boy is seriously BUSY. He's definitely the busiest out of all three of our kids. Keeping him entertained for three hours at church was a chore, and I'm happy to be getting rid of two of those hours.

Here are a few things to know about Braden:

• We tried the sock for a while, but it didn't work out, and I'm sorry to say that he is still a thumb sucker. My friend Emily suggested using bandaids and cod liver oil, so I think that's what we will try next.
  
  
• He is way more vocal than his brother and sister were at this age. He can say juice, baby, no, uh-oh, my (mine), isa ball (which sounds like it's a ball, but I'm not quite sure), and we catch him trying to mimic words we say every once in a while. He also says mom. Not mama or mommy, just mom. It's funny to hear.
  
  
• He says uh-uh to everything I ask him. "Braden, do you want some juice?" - "Uh-uh".
  
  
• He's got this cute pigeon-toed walk.
  
  
• He just got four new teeth, so he now has all of his teeth until he starts getting new molars. I don't keep up on when babies should be doing what or when they should be getting certain teeth, but after talking to Jenna, I think I've realized that my kids are very early teethers. It must be the steak we give them as infants that makes their teeth come in. (Just joking. Don't call CPS on me.)
  
  
• He likes to dance when music is on.
  
  
• He is a lover like his brother. He's content to sit still on my lap and cuddle, which I'm sure is tough for him being a busy one-year-old. I'm enjoying every minute of it.
  
  

I know I've joked about Braden being our little accident, but I am really happy that Heavenly Father knows me better than I know myself and that He blessed us with this busy little boy. He's a perfect fit for our family, and I can't imagine life without him.

Check It Out!

Holly created a new blog for the Relief Society. It has all of the projects we are doing for Super Saturday, so if you didn't get a chance to see them on display today, you can see them on the blog.

coronadoreliefsociety.blogspot.com

My First Blog Tutorial

I've been meaning to do this post since Thursday. Here it finally is. I'm just showing how to make the flowers because they are SO EASY. The necklace is online, but you will have to go find it because I don't want to give too much away before Super Saturday. (If you are really interested in the necklace, send me an email, and I'll send you the link to that tutorial. embowman28@yahoo.com)

To make the flowers you will need: 1/8 yard of satin fabric, a lighter, a glue gun, beads.


Step 1: Cut six circles from your satin. The biggest should have about a three inch diameter, and the rest get smaller from there. The circles don't need to be perfect. The other tutorial I read on this said that the flower actually looks better with less than perfect circles. (I know I have five circles here, but I just went to the other tutorial and there were six. I don't want to redo all of my pictures.)


Step 2: Use your lighter to singe the edges of the circles. This will keep the edges from fraying and will also make your petals curl. I used matches to do this because I didn't have a lighter...

...but this gets annoying, so I would suggest buying a lighter if you don't have one.

I would also suggest not using white satin fabric because on some of my petals there were black singe marks. The other tutorial suggests using a nicer satin that will burn okay. Maybe that's my problem.

Step 3: Use your glue gun to glue all the petals together.

Step 4: Once the petals are glued together, put a dot of hot glue in the center of your flower...

...and dump your beads on the glue.

Pour off the excess beads, and this is what you are left with.

I bought these cute white hair clips at Michael's, and glued one on the back. The other tutorial shows two flowers on a headband that is so cute. You can find that here.

Doesn't that look so easy? And once you make one flower you will realize that it really is easy. Happy cute flower making!

Senator Harry Reid

The Mormon Business Association in Las Vegas holds its quarterly meetings at our school, and Harry Reid was the guest speaker at today's meeting.

I promise this is a picture of Harry Reid. It's the best I could get with my cheap camera.

Our principal asked all the teachers to be there, but I probably would've gone if she didn't. How often do you get the opportunity to see the Senate Majority Leader speak? I try not to talk politics with most people because 1. I get a little too heated about some things, and 2. I honestly don't like offending people, and getting into politics is a good way of figuring out how you are different from someone else. But I have a few thoughts about Harry Reid from the meeting that I would like to record, so please don't take offense to anything I have to say.

I can't say I agree with most of what Senator Reid had to say, but I will say that he is a brave man. After his short speech, he opened up the meeting to questions from the audience. He got some tough questions and a little bit of harsh criticism, but he answered all of the questions asked to him, and he graciously took the criticism. If I were a politician during a difficult economic time, I don't know if I could ask a room full of non-supporters to give me their best shot. I definitely respect him for the way he handled himself and for opening himself up to questions in the first place.

Am I going to vote for him in this upcoming election? Probably not.

She's Crafty

Yesterday I made a necklace AND a fake flower. Two crafts in one day is kind of a big deal for me. I read a few crafty blogs, and I spent some serious time and money at Michael's, and I really enjoyed it! Here are some pictures of my creations:

with flower added

We will be making these for Super Saturday in October, and I decided that if I can make them, everyone can make them. We (and by we I mean Holly) came up with these and some other amazing crafts that we'll be putting on display in a few weeks, so start getting excited!