Valentine's Day

What did you do for Valentine's Day?

Our Family Heart made from veggies :) A fun morning surprise

I got a NAP and a fun scavenger hunt for my Valentines cards on Sunday, and Nathan cleaned the bathroom and other things on Saturday morning. I was a little out of it though and when I found him cleaning in the bathroom (I thought he had just left the light on and the fan going so I went to go turn them off) that morning that my reaction was "what are you doing?" "cleaning" "hum, weird". I know, I'm horrible, but I was just waking up, and I was tired, you get the picture. Nathan got a nice Valentines Day letter and card from me waiting for him after church (our ward meets at 8:30am, entirely too early for church if you want my opinion).

Wait, didn't he give you flowers or chocolates or something?

We decided to forgo the usual stuff as because a) last month he got me this (its red! ) and b) we decided to get this:

Yes folks, we found the place that we've decided will be our first place, in Mountain Green, UT. Less than a mile from Equation Consulting's new office, this place will feature all the things the Manwarings love, like the outdoors by bordering the Cache National Forest.
"Um, hate to break it to you" is probably what you are thinking, "but there isn't a house there".
Yep, we are going to BUILD a house. That is our little spit of land, and across the street is national forest. So AwEsOmE!!

Check out some plans here if you are interested, that is pretty close to what we are building (exterior will have a red "accent", so also appropriate for a Valentines gift)
and the community website here

Buddies

These two are such cute buddies. Lady watches James' every move, and if we ever go outside, she is always right there sitting or laying beside him. When he is playing on the floor inside, she is like a nanny and lays down near him, and always has her eyes on him. James in return loves to watch Lady and see where she is going. He laughs at her and likes to pet her too. They are so cute, and a great friendship I can see is just growing :)

Giving a tummy rub

Lady sits watch while James inspects the grass

A passing bus catches both of their attentions

Crafty

I made these frames out of sea glass. They are even more special because Nathan and I collected all the glass on our beach in Eleuthera, Bahamas. We collected a ton, and I've wanted to make something with it for awhile. When I looked up sea glass frames online, the 8x10'' was going for $85 and the 5x7's for $45. I am so proud of how they turned. The brown and green go with James' room, so tada:

All three frames together

A close up of the mosaic style

Nathan plays with John Schmidt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went to a John Schmidt concert on Thursday, thanks to Ryan and Michelle. We got there late, and we were going to leave early to get James again, but stayed for the whole thing after this! We were in the back, and check out what happened....

John Schmidt had an unplanned part in the concert where he asked for audience participation to come up and Jazz add lib with him. The person had to

1.Be able to joke

2.Have done some jazz improv before

3.Say from the audience the Jazz Blue's scale in C

4. Not be forced up by other people.

Before he was really done talking, Nathan was yelling out the blues scale, and John said, that'll do, come on up! Nathan did awesome, I didn't even know that he could play like this, and John Schmidt was like "He's good", Nathan then said "You too", and the audience cracked up. Anything you hear up high is Nathan, while John played low. Here's the video:

6 month Pictures!!

Where has the time gone? I don't know, but it is flying too fast!! James got his 6 month pictures taken, and he is the cutest little one ever. It has taken me awhile to get these up, but enjoy!

I seriously can't stand how cute this kid is!!

Love at Home

I was reading a book this weekend called Love at Home, which is about how to embrace being a stay-at-home mommy and using a budget. After some calculations for our house buying escapades this weekend as well, I was hoping the book would be a great resource. The author had talked about herself and how she used to be the epitome of the "disposable society" that we now live in, and how if you can "eat it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" you can save money and live in your budget.

"Wait a sec", I thought, "I already do that?!" I was hoping that this book could give me some inside tips, but it actually instead reconfirmed what I already think about things and such.

"What is it that you think about things?" you ask...

Well, I am a fixer, I hate wasting, and I do like nice things. And I don't want to hurt the things feelings. To me, if I think about it long enough, sometimes things have feelings. Have you ever seen the movie "Brave Little Toaster". So when I buy something, I really think about it, and that I'll use it. That is why I'll usually wait and save, and get a nicer thing. They usually last longer as well. But not always, just most of the time.

I decided to make a list of things that I've been able to fix or reuse while still feeling like I have nice things:

1. Blue Comforter~ Ah, a favorite of mine. Right after we were first married we got our navy blue comforter on sale at Bed, Bath and Beyond with money from our wedding. I love that thing. Well, I decided to wash it, and it got caught on the inside of our used washer machine in Texas. I pulled it out after the buzzer went off, and to my grief and surprise, there is a HOLE and TEAR in the side of it! Some of the fabric had been pulled so tight it was now a whiteish color too. I called Nathan at work in tears saying I had "ruined the comforter". He couldn't understand through the tears and thought I had said I "ruined the car". Once that mess was worked out, he didn't mind, and I went to working looking for another. Couldn't find one. Anywhere. So then I decided to try to fix it. I put a patch over the hole (which was on the side) out of the same color fabric, hand stitched it, and fixed the piping along the side. It actually looks really good, you can't really see it, AND it cost about $5 at the most to fix for thread and the fabric. Now I love it even more because of that patch.

2. Vaccum~ Our vaccum had stopped working, had a short in the handle, and wouldn't suck anymore. Time for a new one according to Nathan. We looked around, but man, vacuums are expensive! So I opted to try out the vacuum repair shop down the way just to see if it could be fixed and for how much. Easy cheesy lemon squeezy! All it needed was a new handle (that you can apparently just switch out), and hair removed from the bottom where it had gotten entangled. Nathan even replaced the handle himself, and $35 later, we had ourselves a vacuum that worked like new :)

3. Pack-n-Play~ This got a hole, and a BIG one at that. I couldn't figure out how either, it was in the meshy part on the side, and James hasn't even used that part yet. Well, I wanted to fix it. So I went to the store and found the right sort of thread, and sewed it back together. The lady behind the counter said I shouldn't even try, to just get a new one. What?!? I don't think so. Expensive, and I love my safari animal one that goes with everything, and they don't carry that one anymore, and again, expensive! $3 later, good as new!

Well, you get the idea. I've had a bowl and a cup from my blue plate set that I've fixed, multiple buttons, turning pants into shorts, reusing glass baby jars for multiple uses, refilling our own ink cartridges each time now, using that crazy puddy stuff that is super strong to fix trim on a car, etc. I think I'm doing pretty good.

What is the most memorable thing that you've fixed?