For Miss Capri

Last week I got to meet up with a bunch of good girl friends from high school and my growing up days. We all got together for Haley (Swenson) Pruitt's baby shower, which was so cute thanks to Lindsey. I loved seeing everyone and wish we would have had longer to catch up. If any of you are reading this, we should all get together for lunch soon!


Anyway, Haley is having a little girl and they are naming her Capri. I am so excited for Haley and hope to look like her when I'm pregnant. Seriously, she is gorgeous and doesn't look pregnant at all. 


In an effort to be more domestic I've been sewing and stitching up a few small projects (ok and using the fabric iron on adhesive that makes sewing = not sewing), and decided to make a few cute onesies for Capri. I also made a few for my friend Whitney Bott's new baby Aleeah, but forgot to take pictures of hers. 


And, while we're at it, a headband to match? Everything baby is so much cuter.


Oh, and can we please ignore that all the onesies are wrinkled at this point. Thanks.

Can someone else have a baby for me to dress? Thanks.

DIY Earrings

I think the only expensive pieces of jewelry I will ever own are my wedding band and engagement ring. Those I never take off. Everything else, mysteriously gets lost.  I honestly have no idea where any of it goes after I take it off. So, I'm really not allowed to buy anything of worth in that department. Thus, lately I've had some fun experimenting with making my own earrings. It makes me happy in three ways:

{Super inexpensive}

{Make to match any outfit}

{Always unique (or as my cute husband would say, "I"m not sure those are normal")} 

I got a bunch of posts and earring backs at Roberts during their going out of business sale, and most of the time I just use fabric or ribbon scraps to make the earring. I've even used wallpaper, scrapbook paper and scrapbook accessories to add to some of the earrings (not pictured). While I'm a bit amateur, I enjoy them all. Its always fun to make something nobody else is wearing. Here are a few of the ones I've made.

Now that Christmas is over...

You know those tubes of cookie dough in the refrigerator section of the grocery store? The ones that literally call your name every time you walk down the aisle to grab a gallon of milk or carton of eggs. Yes. I know you can picture it, now picture me sitting on my couch with that very tube of cookie dough and a fork in hand, happily eating that cookie dough (which didn't cause a mess in my kitchen to add to the beauty of it all) to my hearts content.

And if you can't imagine, my sweet hubby has captured the moment as documented proof for the next time I complain about feeling fat. A good man he is.

Now that I've babbled on about my spontaneous and atrocious eating habits, I'll share a short recap of our 2011 Christmas at the Staheli residence.

We partied.
We got spoiled.
We had a great time.
We got to spend a lot of time with our favorite people, our families.

Here is what the Staheli house looked like over the break... and since we actually celebrated Christmas day at our parents' houses... we don't have any gifts pictured.

Made a cute little tree skirt with some thrifted fabrics (I think they started out as somebody's curtains)

Thanks to Alyse and Bob for the sweet stockings

And somehow the little birds could stay for the winter because lets just all agree that it wasn't cold enough to fly south yet at this point... and I didn't have anything else to put up there.

Used my leftover tree skirt scraps to make a wreath out of this  random deer wreath I also thrifted.

 It was a great Christmas. I loved every second of the time we got to spend together. Maybe next year I'll actually take pictures of people:) I think the only one we took was of the pathetic gingerbread houses we attempted to decorate.

Little Ricky

Since my parents are vacationing in Italy for the next month, Brent and I are experiencing our first attempt at raising a teenager.  This is my sister Ayrika, better known as Ricky. She is a senior, 17 and probably the least rebellious teenager I know.  Thanks for making our job easy:)

Getting asked to my first prom ('05, yellow dress)

Anyway, last weekend was the Homecoming dance so we had fun getting Ricky all dressed up for her date. Due to having two older sisters, she has a plethora of dresses to select from, so she decided to alter my first prom dress to bring it "up to date" (I'm sooo old, I know).  Well it turned out gorgeous as a knee length party dress and she definitely out did me in it. So fun for us to wear the same dress.

 

I smell like campfire.

I love summer and I love outdoors. Since getting married, I've realized my ideal outdoor adventures are rather tame. For example, I like peeing in toilets and not in the wilderness. Brent on the other hand, basks in the opportunity of "roughing it".  Now, obviously it is more enjoyable for men to pee in the wilderness as they have complete control over that activity. Me, I don't enjoy squatting by a bush with a fear of potentially peeing on myself. (TMI I know).


Anyways, over the past month, Brent and I have had some great outdoor adventures and he's been kind enough to find me toilets all along the way.


The weekend of the 4th, Brent and I took my dad's four wheelers down to a random little place called Vernon. Its way the crap in the middle of nowhere... think Eureka and then 50 random miles after that. But it sure was pretty. There is a nice little reservoir and a whole lot of pretty mountain views. I like to forget my camera, so I don't have any pictures, but we enjoyed our time playing with all of Brent's friends who we met up with.


We shot shotguns, went fishing, took the four wheelers on a fun rider, sat around the campfire, accidentally burned holes in some camp chairs, made s'mores {my favorite} and slept under the stars.  


The weekend before that, Brent and I had a bonfire up Payson Canyon. 

My Cute Husband

Last weekend, Brent's cousin Derek got married down at the Brian Head Ski Resort. Brent's family friends have a cabin at Panguitch Lake which is just about 15 miles from Brian Head, so we spent the weekend there. As usual, I didn't have my camera for the important event (sorry no wedding pics), but I did grab a few shots of Brent fishing and of my nieces at the cabin.

Pretty Rainbow Trout

Cute Nieces Audrey and Sidney

My Mother in Law Karen and Newest Niece Jordyn Kate.

Altogether, we've been loving spending time outside together this summer. We're excited to keep the adventures coming as we head to Lake Tahoe for the Hales Family Reunion in just a few weeks!

Raise your hand if you LOVE Elder Hales

For those of you who don't know my brother, just know that if you did know him, you'd probably be raising both hands right now.

To be completely honest, my brother has got to be the best guy, and once he gets home from his LDS mission to London, he'll be the most wanted bachelor around. You see, he has got a lot of things going for him.

1-He grew up with three adoring sisters, thus he understands the crucial aspects of women: we cry alot, we are generally as hungry as men (even though we'll rarely admit it), and we love being treated well.

2-My dad has always been one to build/fix/take care of things himself. And, since Dan was the lone male child, he participated in all of those events, and became quite the handyman.

3-He probably has the best personality of anyone I've ever met. He's trustworthy, absolutely hilarious, hard working, and spontaneous. Case in point:

A) In highschool, when my parents gave him the option of driving a toyota camry or an old ghetto (BROWN) Astro van that our neighbor had nicknamed "the Toaster", he chose the latter. He took out the seats, recarpeted the interior and hung up a hammock. Day after day he brought home girls in that van for lunch.

B) He shaved his eyebrows one week before prom to raise money for charity.

C) He is so creative. He loves playing with photoshop...

D) He is instantly your best friend and can make anybody laugh.

I could go on and on.

So I just thought I would share a portion of a recent letter and a few pictures he's sent to us lately of his work in England. He is seriously an amazing missionary and is loving the work.


I'm glad you all had fun at Powell last week, but to be honest, I didn't really miss Lake powell too much. Elder Turner and I were up to much better things....... DOM DOM DOM,  Elder turner had his first Baptism this week. Oh my what an amazing event that was, I was able to baptise Livi and Elder turner baptised Ovi. We held the baptism on Sunday rather than Saturday, due to scheduling problems, but I am quite a fan of Sunday baptisms. There were so many people in attendance, the spirit was so strong! It was perfect most of our ward was crammed into this little primary room. Priya (there mother)  was in tears the whole time, what a miracle this whole event was. I happened so perfectly, the lord has really blessed Elder Turner and I.  Too add a cherry on top a member went up to watford and bought at Costco Cake..... So good. It was quite an eventful day.

But there is some other news..... As some of you have mentioned move calls have came.... unfortunately this will be my last email from Wembley. Elder turner is taking over the area, serving with another English Gent named Elder Doyle. I am sure that elder Turner will keep things going- As for me...... I have been sent up north, the most north you can go in our mission boundaries. I have been called to serve as a Zone leader up in Norwitch, What crazy news that was. I am really excited though because Norwitch is a big city and we will cover 2 wards. Also it is really cool because I was reading some of our family history and some of our ancestors i think are buried there. This was quite a shock, I have only been a DL for one transfer, it was not expected at all.  All of the other Zone Leaders are well older then me. I guess we will see how it goes.

It has been hard to say goodbye to all of my friends here in wembley, The ward here is fantastic, We have an appointment with Ruben and Kofie tonight to say good bye, It kind of stinks to leave these guys.

Oh well, I guess I am off to a new adventure, I will be serving with an elder from Sweden (Another Country in my European tour) ... I sure do love you all a lot. Thanks for all of the love and support.
Elder Hales

Needless to say, I love my brother. London is lucky to have him.

Its hot in here...

The thermostat in my apartment currently reads 87 degrees.

HOT right?

Now, you're probably assuming that I live in a ghetto apartment with a mini swamp cooler and I survive on otterpops. But, only two of the three statements are true: ghetto apartment and otter pops.

We actually just got a brand new air conditioning system installed at our apartment that works like a DREAM. But, somehow I have an anxiety problem when it comes to spending money, even when it comes to the gas and electric bills. Usually Brent enjoys my inabilitly to buy things at the mall or furniture store, but when it comes to staying cool, he gets a bit ticked at my penny pinching.

So, I give in and let him turn on the air. Sometimes...

Anyway, another aspect of my spending anxiety hits hard with decorating my apartment. I basically fall in love with all the cute things I see and have a hundred ideas of what i'd do with my place but I can't ever make a purchase. So I just buy random things at the DI that cost $1 and feel great about myself.

Maybe one day i'll grow out of it, but until then, decorating is slow and steady. Here is my kitchen wall that cost me about $25 including my photo prints.

Here is my free kitchen table (still need to paint my chairs) +$8 for the stuff underneath the glass.

And look at this cute shelf I found for $2 at the DI the other day. I'm not allowed to paint my white walls so I'm going to paint it a tan color and put on some cute new hardware. Pictures to come...

And, because I forgot to post this earlier, it has to come now. I was able to meet up with all of my best girl friends from high school recently. We were pretty much inseperable in high school, but husbands, missions, and hawaii lifestyles have taken us in various directions.

It was so good to see B and her cute baby. We missed Lynz and Rach who are both out serving mission for our church.   Love all you girls!