2012 Overview

Here is a picture overview of 2012 with a few of the highlights of that month. Enjoy!

January 2012

-Our little Warren Jay was born
-Lots of hugs and kisses
-Grandma Annie comes to take care of us
-Grandma Lorraine takes care of Rett (he was sick) while Warren was being born

February 2012

-Warren was blessed
-Super bowl party
-Great Valentines day
-Lots of dirty diapers from having two babies!

March 2012

-Boys are growing up

-We take lots of walks in the Arizona spring air

April 2012

-Boys' first real Easter

-Rett gets his first trike

-Grandma and Grandpa Childs and Uncle Scott visit for General Conference

-Take a "hike" in the Queen Creek mountains

May 2012

-Ali started an Etsy Shop

-Ali learns how to sew

-We refinish our side tables

June 2012

-Trip to San Diego

July 2012

-Ali runs her first 5K

-Boys start going to Kids Club at the mall

August 2012

-Just living the dream

September 2012

-We move to Utah 

-Brian gets accepted to grad school at BYU

-We visit silver lake and see the fall leaves and ducks

October 2012

-We remodel our kitchen

-Boys dress as Buzz lightyear and Rex for Halloween

November 2012

-My little sister Emily gets married

-Rett turns 2!

-We remodel our bathroom

-We paint our living room

December 2012

-Brian gets his dream job

-We have an awesome Christmas

-We paint our bedroom

-We create a playroom for the boys

We are beyond blessed and can't be more thankful for all that has happened to us this year. 

Here is to another great year in 2013!

Temple Lights 2012

Every year we have been married we go and see the temple lights. We also take a picture in the same spot every year. On our wedding day our photographer took a pic of us there. Here is the progression of pictures. See how much we change!

Wedding Day 2008

Christmas Lights 2008

Christmas Lights 2009

Christmas Lights 2010

Christmas Lights 2012 (We missed 2011 when Rett was one because we lived in AZ)

Kinda fun to see all the changes. I hope we keep this tradition up every year!

Here are some other pics from Sunday. Enjoy!

Funny Story: We waited in line to see the Christus and hear the presentation. While we were waiting Rett's uncle, Scott, took him on the escalators a million times. When we got there and Everett saw Jesus all he could say was "WOW" and "Whoa" in little whispers. Then when we were leaving he didn't want to go and kept running back to the Christus. When we finally left he said, "bye buzz, Jee Jee. Ove You." (Bye bye Jesus! Love you!) SO CUTE!

A "Mawwage"

Well my little sis Emily got married a few weeks ago and we flew down for the wedding! We had such a blast and the sealing in the temple was so nice. I didn't get too many pics because, well I'm lazy but Jenna took a few family pics of us.

Well this is sort of incomplete because I don't have any pics of Jeff and Jenna or the bride and groom together...or my parents. But here is a little snap shot of the wedding thanks to Jenna. :)

A "hay" ride around Grandma's house

Brian and I went over to Grandma and Grandpa Child's house to help them hang Christmas lights and to mow their lawn. Of course the boys were being OH so helpful...so Grandpa pulled them around the lawn on this little trailer thingy for at least a half hour. Bless his heart. The boys had a blast riding it and I didn't hear one little complaint.

Crafts and Happenings

Here are a few crafts I did in the months of October and November:

I used one of those holiday cookie tins, spray painted it and used a sharpie to label it. Now I have a cute holder for all the boy's crayons!

Ok, I know its nearly Christmas and I am just NOW posting this, but I had to show what we did with our pumpkins this year. Brian carved "Childs" into the large pumpkin and I did chevron stripes on our little one. Tip: after taping your pumpkin, be careful where you paint...it bleeds through the tape. :) Better luck next year Ali.

I attempted to make a ribbon-chain bracelet...turns out it only lasted a few minutes until the ribbon slipped off the chains. Oh well! It was cute while it lasted.

This was my biggest project (and the reason I haven't done too many crafts this month). I made this family tree cross stitch for my parents for Christmas. (Don't worry, they already got their present). Turns out cross stitching takes a LOT of time. :) 

Everett Turns Two-A Buzz Lightyear Party

I can't believe my little baby is all grown up. :) I always swore that when I had kids I would never let them have or wear or do anything to do with characters...like disney characters. I don't know I just think its kinda cheesy. But I couldn't resist when Everett's face lights up when he sees a Buzz Lightyear, so I thought it would be extra fun to do a Buzz themed birthday for him. Here are a few shots we got of the party:

Everett's uncle Scott and I made this cake for him. Rett kept saying, "Buzz Buzz Buzz!" the whole time we were singing happy birthday. Oh...and he blew out the candles several times because he is really good at blowing them out and wanted more than one turn.

Ok...so I got a little creative on the name of these pretzel wands...

These "planet pops" were a big hit. I even made them red velvet inside so they would resemble a real planet...oh yeah.

I kinda got teased for going to all this work with the pom poms and food since Everett is only two, but I didn't get to do a real party for his first birthday so I had some making up to do. :) And Aunt Katie and Uncle Steve were nice enough to host all the guests at their house so we could all actually fit.

The birthday boy eating his birthday meal: dino nuggets and planet pops.

Everett got so spoiled and received so many gifts. We are so grateful to everyone who came and who loves him. Thanks everybody!

First time in the snow

Although Everett was born during a blizzard, the boys have never really had a chance to go out and "play" in the snow. So when the first storm came through we were so excited to get out.

DIY Book Ends

So this was my little DIY project for the week. I have way too many (and yet not enough to fill my bookshelf) children's books and so I thought I would make these little book ends.

Heres how:
1. Buy two matching or mismatching little ceramic statues at your dollar store. I found these little owl ones. I'm not really into the whole owl thing but it was either this or a Santa statue. :) Be sure to choose one that has a hole in the bottom.
2. Spray paint said statues.
3. Let dry.
4. Fill with rocks.
5. Cut a piece of cardboard to fill the hole and hot glue felt on the bottom.

*Disclaimer: As excited as I was about this working for my kids books, alas it only holds up a few books at a time. But I saw another cute idea for children's bookends where use use a plastic toy (like a dinosaur or other animal) and glue it to a brick and then spray paint the whole thing and put felt on the bottom of the brick. I didn't do this because 1. I didn't have a brick and 2. My dollar store didn't have any animals larger than a few inches. But I think it would work better doing it with the brick.

I guess I only spent two dollars on this craft and it adds to my fall decor but they didn't really work so great. At least all my readers (cause there are so many) can learn from my mistakes. :)

As always,
Happy Crafting!