HAWAII

Aloha! We had such an awesome time in Hawaii! Our camera hasn't been working so I was afraid we had lost all of our pictures, but today I got it working! YAY!

So Zach earned this trip as a sales incentive for his awesome amount of sales last year (Go Zach!!). Zach and I went to Oahu on our honeymoon and we were sooooo excited to have the opportunity to go back as a family (and FREE makes it even better :)). Unfortunately, Graham started getting sick a couple days before we left. It peaked the day we were traveling. He was miserable on the plane. It was probably one of the worst trips of my life. We were so glad to get off that hot, crowded, tiny airplane and arrive in beautiful Hawaii where it was 70-80 degrees the whole week! And this was the view we had from our hotel room...

The first day we went to the Sea Life park. Graham was still pretty sick so he only lasted about 2 hours before he was crying and begging to go home. So we headed back to our hotel room to let him sleep.

(Sea turtles at the Sea Life park. This is the only picture we took that day because Graham was so miserable.)

Tuesday Graham was feeling a little better and was content most of the day. We went to the Dole pineapple plantation and up to the North shore to watch a professional surfing competition.

Graham loves anything that is cars, truck, trains, planes, etc. so the train ride at Dole was his favorite.

And of course the pineapple ice cream is a highlight!

Not to mention the CA-RAZY fish there.

Wednesday we went to the new Alani Disney Resort for the character breakfast. First of all, let me just say that that place is amazing! We wished we could have stayed there.

The character breakfast was so so fun! We have never been to one before and didn't realize how fun they are.

Minnie really liked Graham and danced with him and held his hand during the parades and songs, it was so cute! Graham LOVES Minnie now.

We spent the rest of that day lounging at the beach.

I think that was my favorite day. :)

Thursday we went snorkeling at Haunauma Bay.

Zach and I had to take turns snorkeling while the other stayed on the beach with the kids.

I could have stayed and snorkeled all day but the babies weren't having that. They lasted a couple of hours and then we left to go look at a natural blow hole and this cool Byodo-in temple.

Friday we were out and about early for our whale watching cruise. THAT. WAS. COOL. It was a two our cruise and we were seeing whales every few minutes! There were usually dolphins swimming along side them too so it was really fun to see.

(With a very slow camera, getting a picture of the whales was difficult, but check out this shot I got... that's a whale's tail on the bottom left.)

Zach took some Dramamine on the cruise and had a bad reaction to it. He was acting like he was drunk and literally couldn't keep his eyes open! It was pretty funny. So after the cruise Graham and I went swimming while Zach and Campbell napped the rest of the afternoon. They also did fireworks on the beach that night that were right outside ofour window. We had the perfect view!

Saturday we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Zach and I had already been there and we knew our kids wouldn't last long so we met our friends there for just a couple of hours and for dinner.

Sunday we went to the Swap meet and bought lots of cheap junk! That is a great place to buy souvenirs. Then we met up with the rest of Zach's work people and went to a science museum and out to dinner. Our flight home didn't leave until 11pm Hawaii time and went all night. Campbell also got sick halfway through the trip and I ended up taking her to the ER early one morning to make sure it wasn't something serious like RSV. Nope. Just a nasty cold. So traveling with sick kids was pretty stressful at times but we still had a great time.

DIY Part One- Drapes and Pillows

A post all about my drapes? Yes!

I have been on the hunt for the perfect drapes or material for drapes ever since we moved into our house. I knew all along that I wanted a large scale black and white graphic print.

You wouldn't think that would be a hard thing to find. Well, it is. And if you were to tell me right now that you know where to get some that is reasonably priced, I would probably cry. At one point I found some fabric that was almost perfect. I was ready to pull the trigger and then I found out it was $50 a yard. With 10 foot ceilings, and needing four panels, that was more than I wanted to spend.

Then I found these...

Swoon. Right? I loved them. They are from DrapeStyle.com I was so excited, I plugged in all the dimensions I needed (choosing the cheapest finishes and pleats and linings) and my total came to $1,463.96.

Just a tad over my budget. (!!!)

So then one day on Pinterest I came across this image...

A very similar pattern made from cheap IKEA drapes and a stencil. I could do that right?? Agreed, not as great as the first option but for about 10% of the cost I think I can definitely settle. So I bought my stencil online, my two sets of white drapery panels from IKEA, my sponge brushes, lots of black paint, and fabric medium.

Here's what the stencil looks like...

After doing my very first stencil I realized how I had seriously underestimated this project.

It took me about 20 minutes to do ONE stencil. And each panel would require 9 stencils. And I had 4 panels. So... 9x4x20/60=12 HOURS! But that would have been easy if it were just 12 hours. Then you have to take into consideration that I had to let each section dry before I could do the next. So this project literally took me WEEKS to complete! I must have lost my mind. I should have just paid the $1500 bucks! Or at least the $50 a yard! But I was already invested in it so I pushed through. And here is the final result...

And I have to say, I LOVE THEM!! I know they are far from perfect. (And if you ever come over and notice my mistakes, you better not point them out! I know they're there!) It was exactly the look I was going for. The pictures don't do them justice. I know it's because I did them myself, and worked so hard on them, and only paid about $150 bucks total for them that I love them so much, but I do. :)

We also got this new sectional, which we are LOVING. It's much more of a nice deep gray color than the silvery color it looks like in the pictures. It is super comfortable. And we moved our old furniture into our formal living room so after a year of living here, we finally furniture in the living room. Yay!

The pillows that came with the couch were super ugly. I wanted to bring in lots of fun color with the pillows so I bought some fabric online and made the pillows myself. I even put zippers in each one so I could easily remove and wash them. (It was my first time sewing a zipper into anything and I did it all on my own, so I am pretty proud of myself!)

Ever since I had Campbell I finally have energy and have been getting a lot done. I have done a few other fun projects that I am excited to share so those posts will be coming soon.

PEZ

Did you know my husband collects PEZ? Yes, PEZ. As in, those plastic cartoon characters that you tilt their head back and they dispense a hard, crumbly, fruity piece of candy. He has been collecting them since he was a little boy. As he got older he stopped buying so many but people who knew he collected them kept buying them for him and kept his collection growing. I first found out that Zach collected PEZ back in college. He had a whole bunch of them lined up on top of the cabinets in their apartment. Back then I thought it was quirky and fun. He told me he had a big collection. And when we got married I saw the bins filled with PEZ that we moved with us from apartment to apartment but I had never REALLY seen the collection. Zach has said multiple times that he wanted to get them all out to see what he had, so the other day it happened. This happened...

I knew he had a lot, but this! This was more than I had imagined. And was actually way more interesting than I had imagined! He not only has the little plastic characters, he has everything PEZ you can imagine! Books, and shirts, and piggy banks, cars, pens, keychains, stuffed animals, ornaments, you name it! It was interesting when I asked him what his most valuable PEZ was. He pulled out this guy...

The no-footed green incredible hulk. Apparently it's worth about $250 bucks. Not bad!

(By the way, if you ever come across PEZ without "feet" or the little stand at the bottom, they are much more valuable than "footed" PEZ. See how much I've learned?)

As much as Zach would like to keep these out on display, it has been kind of rough keeping Graham away from them- and eventually we'll want to play ping pong again- so they'll be going back in the bins soon. Maybe one day when we finish our basement and have a game/entertainment room, he can display them. Maybe. :)

Christmas 2011

This Christmas was great! Mostly because I wasn't pregnant anymore- yay! It was so fun to have a brand new baby, but that also put a damper on some of our Christmas activities. I didn't want to take her out in public or in the freezing cold so we had to skip a few things this year. We still had lots of fun though. Graham was so excited about Christmas and asked me every single day all through the month of December if it was Christmas yet. At the beginning of December he saw a Mack truck at target and Zach made the mistake of saying "maybe Santa will bring it for you." So the rest of the month we heard- "I NEED that Mack! I NEED Santa to bring him!" He was really cute. And even though Christmas is over, he still asks me to sing Jingle Bells about ten times a day and wants to watch Christmas movies all the time.

Here we are making gingerbread houses, or ginger boy houses as Graham calls them. :)

Yes, we let our son climb all over the table like a monkey.

Now you can see where Graham gets that cheesey grin.

We went to my parents house on Christmas eve. Look how festive their house was! It felt magical!

Us in our Christmas jammies. And look! I didn't get a pink sweatsuit this year! I got a blue one. Just kidding! Good job Zach!

On Christmas morning we opened presents at our house and then headed to Provo to spend the day with the Hintzes.

Once Graham saw his Mack truck that Santa brought he was so excited and obsessed with it that he wouldn't open the rest of his presents! Zach and I literally had to open the rest for him and yell "Graham look! Look over here for a minute! See what you got?" ... Oh well, good job Santa. :)

Campbell's first Christmas!

The Hintze house was festive too!

Way to get their attention before snapping the picture Zach :)

And this is my favorite picture of the season! The cousins (minus Heath) in matching hats that Heidi made. Cute kids!

(P.S. I don't know why blogger sometimes makes my type underlined when I don't want it to, and I can't find a way to turn it off)

Hope you all had as great of a Christmas as we did!

Family Pics '11

When Campbell was 2 weeks old, we went and got our family pictures taken. I had so many favorites I couldn't choose- so here are a whole lot of pictures! :)