Thankful Day 30

So thankful I can stop being thankful!! (Haha!) Can't even find the pic I took for today. I think I forgot to upload it so now it's gone.

Thankful Day 29

Today I am trying very hard to be thankful for our new sectional that was delivered today. My decorating style is very modern and contemporary so I swore I would NEVER own what I refer to as a "butt couch". Your know the kind. They are huge, overstuffed, and look like a bunch of butts together.

Since we are redoing our family room for our Christmas present this year (new carpet, couches, and 70" LCD tv) I only have 1/3 of the vote. My husband and son both outvoted the super comfortable, clean lined, contemporary sectional I wanted for a large, butt couch with storage and cup holders and 5 recliners. Comfort won over looks. I do admit I love to sit on it, I just don't like to look at it. I'm sure it will eventually grown on me, especially when I see these little cuties snuggling on it and enjoying it so much!

Thankful Day 28

Today I am so thankful to finally get rid of our nasty light colored carpet in our family room! I've suffered trying to keep that thing clean for three years but no more. It's what I wanted for Christmas so I got it!!


The before...

(should have vacuumed it but didn't want to waste my time!)

The After :)

Love it!
What is it about new carpet that is just so awesome?

Thankful Day 27

Today I am thankful for my mom's roll recipe which she has passed down to me. I've seen a lot of people post their amazing roll recipes and I have to say, none of them can hold a candle to these babies. They are in high demand every Thanksgiving and Christmas when I make them. Since all the ones were devoured on Thanksgiving day I promised my son I would make him some more and did so today. They are simple in ingredients, but take about 4 hours to prepare and the technique definitely makes a difference. Don't believe me, take one bite and you'll be hooked. I guarantee it.


Jane's Perfect Rolls
1 C Milk
1/2 C Sugar
1/2 C Cooking Oil
3 Eggs
1 Package Rapid Rise dry yeast
2/3 tsp. salt
3 cups flour

Directions:
Scald milk and cool to lukewarm. Beat eggs until light. Add the 1/2 C sugar gradually to the eggs, beating all the time. Add salt. Mix the oil with the milk and then add to egg and sugar mixture. Mix yeast in thoroughly. Finally add the flour, beating as it is added. Cover with moist, warm towel and put in a warm place. I put mine on the stove top and have a space heater blowing right on it. Let rise until the dough is double in size.

For this part you will need a large area to work with. I clean off my island counter top and then generously sprinkle flour over the surface. Then I take my dough and dump it onto the counter covered with flour. I sprinkle more flour over the top of the dough and rub flour over a rolling pin so it doesn't stick. Then I start rolling out the dough into a large rectangular shape. If my rolling pin sticks to part of the dough, I add a little flour to that spot and keep rolling.

Once you have your large rectangle, get a knife and cover with flour. Starting on one end cut a triangular shape (Mine are usually apprx. 4" wide by 10-12" long) and roll into a crescent roll shape by starting at the larger end and rolling. If your dough is sticking to the surface as you roll, stick your fingers in the flour and keep rolling. The key is to not add too much flour, that is why I add little bits as it is needed. Once you have rolled your triangle into a crescent, place it into a greased and lightly floured pan (I use 9x13 glass pans and fit them two across and 5 down - 10 total in a pan). Most of the time my rolls look kinda messy and it's okay, they will rise and look so much better once they are cooked!

Once a pan is filled with rolls put the pan on the stove top and cover again with a moist, warm cloth and let rise (I still have the space heater going). I keep heating up the cloth in the microwave every several minutes so it stays hot and steamy on the rolls as they rise. Once they have doubled in size, you put them in the oven at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes or until the tops just start turning a light brown (see above photo for how they should look).

Then you just butter and eat. So good, so perfect.

If anyone is interested, I can do a step-by-step recipe with pictures so you can see how I do it if it helps. Just let me know.

Thankful Day 26

Today I am thankful that we are finally getting my house organized. I am nesting for sure and my hubby is on board so we are getting rid of a bunch of stuff and I took pics of it all and listed it. Here are the theater chairs we are finally selling after having them in our storage room for almost 3 years!

Thankful Day 25

It's Black Friday and I it's the one day a year I NEVER go shopping. I know the deals are amazing, but I don't do crowds and shoving and grabbing and stress very well so I choose to keep my sanity rather than brave the stores.

Two of my brothers and I are all looking to get new couches so we all decided to go together today. Lucky enough furniture stores are not that crowded on Black Friday so we had fun. I am thankful I ended up finding a black leather sectional my hubby and son love even though it's not my first choice.

One furniture store has thing nasty, larger than life glider rocker than I am sure thousands upon thousands of people have sat on but I'm a fun mom so I let the kiddos climb up for a picture.

Thankful Day 24

Happy thanksgiving everyone. I am thankful for all of you that follow my little blog here and make me feel a tiny bit important in this big ol' world.

This is the only picture I was able to take today. We had 20 people over for dinner including 2 Indian families that work with my husband that have never experienced a Thanksgiving. My husband and I were up at 4:30 in the morning to start cooking and didn't stop until late so taking pictures kinda slipped my mind.

Thankful Day 23

I made these centerpieces for my two large tables for Thanksgiving tomorrow all for $25!!! The best part, I can re-use the jars again for Christmas. I bought two sizes of mason jars, 2 bags of cranberries, and a bag of floating candles. Then I went out in my front yard and cut some small branches off of my trees that had yellow leaves. I put them in the jar first, then filled up the jars almost to the top with water, put in a handful of cranberries, and then the candle. I had the silk leaves and orange candles already and just added those to tie it all together. Easy huh?

Today I am sooooo thankful for Pinterest! My friend Andrea pinned this awesome center piece idea for the holidays and made them herself. I was struggling with what to do and she suggested these. I have to say I am crazy about how they turned out. All thanks to Pinterest (and Andrea)! If you have never heard of it, check it out. It will change your life :)

Thankful Day 22

Today I am thankful for family. I have a pretty amazing one if I do say so myself. We had our family pics done today by my amazingly talented friend Andrea Carter from Andrea K Photography. She rocked it. I didn't yell at my kids once and I am loving how they turned out! Can't wait to show you my Cmas cards when they are done.

I technically didn't take this one or edit it but I'm posting it anyway. It's one of my favs of me and my hubby.

Thankful Day 21

Today I am thankful for this long week of shoots to be done! Once I'm done editing, I get on to the holidays, YAY!! Oh yeah, and my own family pics which are tomorrow, please let the weather be good!

I love working with seniors. They do everything they tell you to without a single complaint :)

Thankful Day 20

Today I am thankful for my only son Michael. He and I have been through it all together and he is my rock. Ask anyone who knows him and they will agree, you cannot find a better son or young man than he.

Almost done with mini shoots! One more tomorrow.

Thankful Day 19

Today I am so thankful for the gorgeous weather we are having. It has made my crazy week so much easier!

Thankful Day 18

Today I am thankful for my clients. I have the most amazing, loyal clients and I wouldn't trade them for anything. I guess that is why I would do anything for them. Thanks to you all, photography wouldn't be nearly as fun without you!

Thankful Day 17

Today I am thankful for my amazing hubby who stayed home with the kiddos so I could go see "Breaking Dawn" with my amazing girl friends who I am also thankful for.

Thankful Day 16

Today I am thankful for this amazing world we live in with all it's amazing beauty. One of my favorite songs says it best,
"I see skies of blue....clouds of white
Bright blessed days.....dark sacred nights
And I think to myself.....what a wonderful world"

Thankful Day 15

Today I am thankful for my Abby. She and I often butt heads a lot since our personalities clash so much, but I do love her. She is so smart and when she is in a good mood, everything in the world seems right just by her being there.

Another mini shoot day :)

Thankful Day 14

Today I am thankful for my little Lu who is my joy. She is so loving and nurturing and always can bring a smile to my face when no one else can.

Have tons of mini shoots this week (10 to be exact) so quite often my picture of the day will be from one like this adorable little guy. Can you believe those eyes?

Thankful Day 13

Today I am thankful for people who have great ideas that I can take advantage of! I love those cute leggings everyone wears with tall boots. I recently saw that you can make them out of old sweaters so here is what I did.

I went to Deseret Industries (you can go to any thrift store) and bought several sweaters with lots of fun textures and patterns. They were $4 a piece.

If the sleeves were big enough I just cut those off to use for the leggings or used the body part of the sweater. Here is a step-by-step of my favorite pair I made:


1) I fell in love with the buttons and cute ruffles of this sweater so I cut out the pieces I needed. You can see from the mat I cut it on about how wide and long I made them.

2) I placed both front and back next to each other with right sides up and slightly overlapped them and then sewed a straight line down the edge (see photo).

3) Then I put the other two sides together with the right sides facing IN (or facing each other) and sewed along the edge.

4) Then I just removed three buttons from the one legging and sewed them over the button holes on the other legging. To finish off the raw edges on the bottom I just cut them to be even and then put "Fray Check" (it's a type of fabric glue that keeps raw edges from fraying which can be purchased at any fabric store) around all the bottom edges.

Done! It's seriously that easy and oh so cute! Still not easy enough for you though? I also have a 100% no sew method I did on some for my girls that I will post another day.

I even made some for me and my daughter out of a navy blue striped sweater to go with our family pics.

Thankful Day 12

Today I am having a hard time being thankful since Mother Nature has ruined a second weekend in a row for my photo shoots. Had to cancel my mini shoot day for the second time so now I get to spend every night next week shooting when I was supposed to be done with photo shoots by now! Oh well, I'll make it positive and say I'm thankful the weather was rainy/windy/snowy today so I could have a day off with my family and I got to babysit my sweet niece :)

Thankful Day 11

It's 11/11/11 and what am I thankful for? Today I am oh so thankful for all those hard working people over at Bethesda Game Studios who created the most amazing game since Oblivion. So excited to finally play Skyrim!!! Yes, I am a geek ;) My son is more excited than I am so I think I will let him play all weekend and I'll just play next week when the kids are in school.

Sorry for the horrible pic. It was late and Michael was a little to anxious to play and only let me take one.

Thankful Day 10

So thankful for photography :)

Thankful Day 9

Today I am thankful for Christmas music to help me stay in the mood while I'm still sewing. I'm getting it done in little bits and pieces. If I could work on it straight through I'd be done by now. Oh well.

One little note on Christmas music - Just because a song happens to have the word "Christmas" in it does NOT mean it's a Christmas song. Oh, and if the song is just talking about how cold it is outside so stay and let me get in your pants DEFINITELY does not make it a Christmas song. Just wanted to clarify since a lot of people seem to misunderstand :)

Thankful Day 8

So thankful for my bed and sleep. Its been a long day and I'm exhausted! See u in my dreams, which by the way are crazy weird when I am pregnant!

Not only am I sewing my girl's Christmas nightgowns, but I'm making their dolls matching nightgowns too! Am I a cool mom or what?

Thankful Day 7

I am thankful that I can sew! Bought fabric today to make my girls Christmas pj-s. Definitely a blessing to have that talent.

Thankful Day 6

Today I am thankful that my hubby is such an amazing cook and does it so often. He made the yummiest food today for lunch and dinner. Sunday dinners at our house are the best.

Thankful Day 5

How could I not be thankful for the first snow of the holiday season? I wish that fall with it's beautiful colors and perfect weather had lasted longer but waking up to this winter wonderland got me excited for the next months to come. When we looked out the window this morning Abby said, "WOW! It looks like Christmas!"

Thankful Day 4

Today, I am thankful for my amazing sister-in-laws. I have all brother's so I've become really close friends with their wives and I am so lucky to have them. I got to spend some time with one of them today as we took newborn pics of my new baby niece. Love you ladies!

Thankful Day 3

Today I am thankful for my children's honesty.
While driving in the car I was singing a Christmas song and Louisa said, "Mommy, can you stop that? That screaming noise hurts my ears."

Thankful Day 2 {Boy or Girl?}

Today I am grateful, well, because...







Yay! Another little girl :) I call her my Coco Bean.

Thankful Day 1

Since I am finding it hard to be thankful with how sick I've been lately I'm taking the month of November to focus on something I'm thankful for every day.

Today, I am grateful for the little legs inside me that have been kicking me a lot today.

Here is my baby bump at 17 weeks.