GET FREE STUFF

Free stuff in the form of AMAZING JEWELRY, that is. Here are my pendant designs for the holiday season. Choose your top 3 favorites, email them to me at semiprecious1@live.com, and you will get your name entered into a drawing for awesome and attractive jewelry! Yes, awesome AND attractive! You can choose your favorite pendant and a matching sterling silver necklace to go with it. To pre-select your necklace (cuz ur totally gonna win!!!) go to www.semiprecious1.etsy.com. Here are your the pendant designs......

Thanks for your time!

What A WEEK!

Hey Ya'll,

We are finally moved in and feeling slightly more settled now that everything is unpacked. Whew, it's been a long hard week. John and Aidyn were visiting family and friends in the NW from Tuesday to Saturday which left the girls and I (ok, so me) to get-r-done. If you know me at all, you know that a)I can't stand to sit around and do nothing b)I can't relax when there is a load of crap to get done, and c) chaos completely overwhelms me. So you will not be surprised to read, that all that's left to do is hang the curtains and put up a few pictures. In the immortal and always appropriate words of London Tipton, "Yay me!".

In just the handful of weeks we have been here, I have found out that two friends from back home in P-town live within a short drive from our new home! Lisa Anderson Stubbs lives in Frisco and Lisa, I just want to say that I was at Ikea last week thinking of you. Email me soon so we can get together!!! In addition to Lisa, I just noticed a comment on my last post from another old friend. Actually she is a friend of my sisters whom I used to baby sit. Hi Jenny! It was so great to get your comment! I can't believe you live in Highland Village! We are seriously neighbors. Lantana is about a mile west down the 407 from you. Email me at semiprecious1@live.com and I will give you the scoop. We really love this area!

I didn't do a quote of the week last week because I was too crazy busy. I just finished a book that had a couple I could use, but I am going to go with an Ensign quote in tribute to my BFF, Kerry. She was going to come and visit this week, but she is so sick being pregnant with her 3rd child, she can barely leave her house and had to cancel. So Sad!! A week or so ago on her blog she posted about missionary work and the pressure we feel as Latter Day Saints to be missionaries. I had literally the day before (or maybe 2 days before) read a great article in the September Ensign on missionary work. I like this article for the simplicity of the message I took away from it: missionary work is not something that you choose to do as a member of the LDS church, it is something that you are doing all the time be your example good or not so much. Of course there are other ways to be a missionary, but the example we set is probably the most influential on a daily basis. Anyway, read the article, it's called "Be A Missionary All Your Life" by Elder Quentin L. Cook. The non-preachy ones are my favorites. And here is the quote by this inspiring elder, "Missionary work is not just one of the 88 keys on a piano that is occasionally played; it is a major chord in a compelling melody that needs to be played continuously throughout our lives if we are to remain in harmony with our commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ." I even gave you one with a metaphor...now that's love people.

And for your weekly viewing enjoyment, here are a few pics of Addy as a mini-munchkin I recently re-scrapbooked digitally. Oldies, but Goodies! Can you believe she's 10.5? Oh, and that's not Addy getting married, btw. That's my adorable brother and his gorgeous wife, Lori. It just happened to be on the same page as the Addy scrapbooking for some reason.

What Kind of Shoe R U?

You Are Sneakers

You are creative, funky, and forward thinking. You are cool, but you are still approachable. You are stylish and edgy, but you aren't a slave to fashion. You tend to put your own spin on trends. You tend to have a fast paced, busy lifestyle. Not a lot of people can keep up with you! You should live: Near nature You should work: In a job that keeps you on the go

What Kind of Shoe Are You?

Quote of the Week

I've decided to add a new element to my blog. It's no biggie, but it's representative of who I am, so like it darn it! I love to read and always have. Reading is one of my guilty pleasures at this phase in my life. You probably don't know this about me and it's kinda silly but I keep a book in my purse and read whenever I have a spare moment: at long stop lights, while I wait to pick my kids up from school, if I am waiting for an appointment of any kind, when I exercise, while my kids swim in the pool, when I have time before I fall asleep, any other period of seconds or minutes that is unoccupied by other responsibilities. I think I read about 1 book every 10 to 14 days because I love literature so much. Right now I am reading "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak. It's excellent and was recommended to me by one of my best friends and fellow book connoisseurs, Olivia Wallace. Good choice Oli! My quote for this week is:

"In years to come, he would be a giver of bread, not a stealer-proof again of the contradictory human being. So much good, so much evil. Just add water."

-Death
"The Book Thief"

Do you have a favorite book? If you do, I would love to read it! Leave a comment to this post that includes your favorite book and why you liked it. There are only two rules to follow: First Rule-check my Shelfari book shelf and make sure it's NOT something already on there. Second Rule-it can't be a book from the Twilight series, people (just in case you are cheating and not checking my shelfari). We all love that series. The fabulousness is known. Recommendations are my favorite way to find the next book I will read. I still remember the first recommendation I ever got from a friend. One of my best friends from high school times, Amanda Teare, recommended "Follow the River", an amazing piece of American historical fiction. I have since read that book 3 times and love it each time I read it even more. It remains one of my very favorites of all time and rests as a permanent resident on my non-virtual bookshelf. Thanks Amanda! So leave your favorite as a gift to me. Thank you in advance!

Our Lil' Dancin Queen

One More Week!

We had our first walk through on the new house this past Thursday. Nothing major to finish up, just odds and ends so we are still set to close on the 19th of September. Since I have had numerous requests for pics, here are few I took this evening....

Before the house visit, we went downtown to the Dallas World Aquarium. It was our second visit since we have been here in DFW. What a cool place. They have a great variety of animal life both land and sea. Avery was really hoping to see some buffalope (buffalo). But unfortunately, she had to settle for Karin and Oswald, the giant river otters. Here is a video we made in the car on the way to the house...Bummer. It's too long. If your video clip is longer than 100MB, you can't publish it on Blogger!!! That's kinda sucky. Oh well, it was way cool. Sorry you will miss it. If I had video editing software on my laptop, I would totally shorten it for you, but Windows Movie Maker is the closest thing I have and it won't work. Here are some awesome pics of our awesome aquarium adventure instead! I will take a shorter video clip tomorrow and post it in the evening because I feel guilty now for getting you all excited about big fat nothing.

Ahhh, animals are so fun. I just love em'. If my allergies weren't so crazy bad and animals didn't poop, I would totally have my own zoo/aquarium. Maybe someday I can have an OUTDOOR zoo/aquarium and I could hire someone to clean up the doodoo. Hey, a girls gotta have a dream.

The cute manatee you see in the upper right pics just came right up to the glass. He sat there and watched me take pictures of him for like 3 minutes! I was so flattered! One of the 3 toed sloths was out for viewing but he kept his little face hidden so the only pics I could get were with him tucking his face down in his lap. Still pretty cute! Addy loved the burrowing owls the best, Avery loved the jaguar, manatees, and giant river otters, and Aidyn loved the monkeys, snakes, and crocodiles. Ginormous crocodiles! John is a fan of the jaguar and me, I love the river otters and manatees. I could sit and watch them all day long. I know, easily entertained.

In Stevens' news this week, Avery continues to love dance class. She can shake that booty with the best of them. You should see her learning to shuffle-ball-change! It's precious! Aidyn started baketball and continues to amaze John and I with his utter lack of athletic ability. He can run like the dickens but that kid cannot catch a freakin ball to save his life. Oh well. Maybe he'll be a track star. Addy insists on swimming and piano so she will have to wait until the pool is done and we have a new piano to start her extra curriculars. I think we are looking at mid to late fall for both. Cooper is his normal loveable Frenchie self. I have decided that he needs elongated soft pallet surgery and I'm not very excited about the amount of money it's going to cost me to pay for that. Sigh. John is on a diet and back to the gym-anyone wanna take the over under on how long that lasts? I give it 2 weeks tops. Hope y'all are well!

Kickin' it on a Saturday Night

So, I am sitting here goofing around on Facebook, checkin out the friend blog scene and it's just amazing to me how fast time goes by. I found a couple of old friends on Facebook and checked out their blogs and just have to say that BLOGGING ROCKS!!!! What a fabulous way to catch up with people and not have to pick up a phone. In the not too distant future, we will rely on phones less and less. That is my prediction! Write it down somewhere and save it cuz it's going to be a famous quote. Oh and just for the record, 50 billion pictures is kind of an exageration. I know I'm affectionately known as the "crazy camera lady" in certain circles, but really, it was more like 40 billion.

Random Thought: Cody Teare, if you ever read my blog, I just want to say that your wife has awesome taste in literature, music, movies, and shopping destinations. I don't know her, but I love her.



Here is a little funny story about the birds to your left. I am finding that there are some really smart people that live down here in Texas. While we were at the zoo on Labor Day, we approached these two macaws and a couple of ladies were talking about them as we walked up. Imagine this conversation taking place in very southern accents-it will be funnier-think Jeff Foxworthy but chics:
Chic1: "Ahh, Chic 2, them birds are sure pretty. What kind do ya think they are?"
Chic2: "Well there's a sign right here that says Birds of Peril, so they're Birds of Peril."
Chic1: "I don't think I've ever seen Birds of Peril before, I like em."
Chic2: "Yeah, me too. Kids. These here are Birds of Peril. Let's go see some more."

At this point Chic 1 and Chic 2 walk away with their 2 smaller chics. John and I are really having a hard time holding it together because all though we have never seen "Birds of Peril", we are pretty sure these aren't them. So we walk up to the sign and it says, "Birds in Peril" and it's the title for the article that follows about rescuing macaws from the rain forests that are being depleted in South America. At that point we bust out laughing. I mean the guy that called the meerkats weasels was funny, but Birds of Peril? That was HILARIOUS. Maybe you had to be there.

This weekend was pretty uneventful. John had a friend in town so he spent the majority of his time on the golf course. I had big shopping plans: Gymboree, Home Goods, Hobby Lobby, then possibly a splurge at Striderite, but realized there is absolutely nothing I need at any of those places right now. Generally that fact would not stop me, but I have done so much post tramatic move stress shopping in the past few weeks that I REALLY don't even know what I would buy. Crazy, I know. Wow. Just rereading that is shocking. John saw "Tropic Thunder" and I'm a little jealous because he said it was fabulous. I will definitely make him see it again with me.



Aidyn's 8th birthday was on Sunday! He is officially the age of accountability. We aren't going to baptize him until November because several family memebers want to come down and join the festivities. His special day was a little anti-climactic because we had already celebrated with his friends before we left KS. But we did find this great restaraunt to eat at not far from the new house called "Life's a Beach". Kinda catchy. They have great food and a super huge area with a massive sand pit for the little kids and a volleyball net for the not so little kids. We loved it!

Oh, here is some good news!!! Not only is my BFF Kerry coming down at the end of September for a whole week, but the season premiere of "Dexter" will take place while she's here so we can totally watch it together!!!! I am super excited. If she could only be here for the "Twilight" opening, life would be perfect (ok, if Olivia and Karina could join her then it would be really extra completely perfect;).





Addy had a really good week at school this week. The sporadic crying seems to be ebbing. Her teacher gives out an award every week based on performance and behavior called "Knight of the Week" (btw their school mascot is the knight). She got the award for this week! I thought it was pretty awesome considering it's the first "Knight of the Week" award given in her class. We celebrated at Bennihana's this evening. Her choice. PF Chang's was booked.





Avery started dance on Friday and loved it. She is completely in her element with tap or ballet shoes on her feet. There was an ear to ear perma-grin on her face the entire 45 minutes. I will post some pics after I take them next week. She also started preschool this week which was almost as exciting as dance. Getting ready for all day kindergarten meant putting her in an all day preschool class to prepare so she does that twice a week. It wears her out of course, but she loves it. My lil' social butterfly.





Aidyn is his normal awesome and attractive self. By the way, there's no charge for that. He encourages Addy to suck it up on a regular basis, plays with his lego minifigs, tells me random Star Wars facts about random Star Wars characters, and is just mom's sweet guy. I always tell him that I can count on him for whatever I need, and it's true.





By the way, if they could somehow start an elementary school program for boys where learning and Star Wars were incorporated, the results would be PHENOMENAL. They could call it, "Jedi Problem Solving", or "Let the Force Read with You", or "Anakin Can Spell, and So Can You", or "Young Padowans Unite" something like that. I should totally invent it....maybe for the Wii.





Anyway, hope y'all r doin good. This is the longest post ever about random stuff, hope you didn't get bored:)

Labor Day Fun at the Forth Worth Zoo

Hi its me Addy! ;) We had a great day at the zoo! Oh my gosh! It was so cool!! The orangutans were so funny!Like this one his face is so weird.We got to see them swing on the ropes too.My mom took like 50,000 pictures so im only going to put a few on here.anyways the gorillas were cool because they came up to the glass and stuff so we got to see them.We also saw a this cool owl (i love owls!) called a milky eagle owl.(top right corner)We saw the giraffes and mom just had to take like 50 trillion pictures of the baby giraffes.But we got to see the lion and a coyote. We had alot of fun! I hope we can go again i loved it!anyway i guess im done and hope to blog again! talk to you soon!