Baby Shower

Last night I threw a baby shower for my friend Janna. Her husband is a medical student. I met her through a medical wive's club about a year and a half ago. She is one of those brave girls who does it ALL NATURAL, this time she will be doing it at home. She is expecting her 2nd, a girl and it was the first baby shower I've ever thrown, and I have to admit it was SO FUN planning and getting it all together.

These pictures are mainly for my mom and sisters, they wanted to see the details.

The table with most of the food, Marilyn brought a few more things a little later on.
Thanks again Marilyn!!!

My wheat grass!!!
I love it, even thought they look a little funny in the jars, but I didn't have many options on pots and stuff to plant them in. I still think they are cute!
Plus, they were so funny and easy to grow.

I saw this little birdie at Micheals and fell in love. It was only $1.19!! I want to go back and buy another...and the bigger one they had. I just love it!

On to the party favors!
One of my friends had done this recently for a baby shower and I thought it was an easy, good idea. I've dipped pretzel rods in caramel and chocolate before and I only did chocolate this time and it was much easier! Plus they turned out pretty cute. I did milk choco, white choco and purple candy coating.

I also made these killer peanut butter bars that were to die for. I've made few different recipes trying to find the right one and I think I did. Look here for the recipe!

Janna opening the dress. She got some great presents last night, lucky girl!

I'm glad she liked it.

Kate Homer, Janna Hawkins & Marilyn Kiene

Thank you for those who came, we had a fun girls night together!

At last...

my chair is finally complete!
(well the hardest part is over anyway).






This is how Luke helped me make my chair covers. He handed me things and the most helpful part was when he would climb/sit or just stand on whatever fabric I would lay on the floor to cut or work with. Like in the picture, he would just climb onto the old cushion and lay there. It helped me to learn more about patience. :)

Here is the ugly, old chair we found on the tree lawn back in the summer. I've draped a blanket over it for months. The cover before was flat and the fabric was rough and itchy. We needed a chair in our living room because we only have a couch and no room for a love seat.

Eew!

Drum roll please....

TA DA!
Here she is in all her glory.
I must say the bottom cushion was the easier one of the two. The top gave me a bit of grief, but it's done and I am happy with it. I put two zipper's in (one in each cushion) and it was much easier than I expected! And the piping took a little extra time but looks great and was not very hard at all. I'm very happy with the result.
I haven't painted it yet because I am afraid black will be too much of a color contrast with the fabric. I like the brown, but it's dinged up and really needs some covering up. I'm thinking of just antiquing it with black.
Any ideas?????Here is the fabulous fabric close up.
I love it!

On to some more projects that I have been working on the past few days (like a nut!)
I wanted to get a white table runner so I just made some and sewed some brown, twin-looking ribbon down the middle.
It's not the best picture of it, but you get the idea.

Look familiar?
I added some fluff to my pillow covers.
They were a little too loose of a fit for my liking so I just added extra stuffing and love their new look.

Should have done this one over a year ago.
I just made a bed skirt for the little one's bed, thank fully it hides all our food storage that is stashed down there and matches his bedding.
I tried to do the ruffly look, but I actually like the straight look better.
Here is a simple little purse I made. I felt like I needed a new purse, but when you have no money to buy one (or put in one) you make it!
It isn't my favorite, but it does the job for now and was fun to make.

On to the dress.
I just might love this little dress more than my chair.
My awesome sis, Jenny, taught me (over the phone haha) how to do shirring and it was so easy! And looks great!
I threw a baby shower for one of my friends last night (pics to come) and she is having a girl and I thought this little dress would fit her perfectly.

It was the first fabric I ever bought and I was saving it for an apron or something. I'm glad I got to use it on the dress, I think it turned out great.
I love the fabric.
(even though I HATE butterflies)

mmmm so sweet.

I've slowly been learning how to sew since September and I just love it!
Thanks mom and dad for the awesome sewing machine. You guys are the best! I love you both.

Kayaking Video

So this is pretty zoomed in and when you're watching the video it may not look that scary...but we're pretty sure you'd have to be a pretty experienced kayaker to take on the Potomac Falls.
The best thing is to turn down the volume pretty low, so you can't hear my comments...I sound like a nerd. And I am NOT talking to myself (Matt thought I was). I am talking to Meg.

In that moment, I seriously thought this guy got hurt really bad or was going to die...it was scary. Looking back, it may not look as scary as I thought.

Enjoy!

Video #One

It's taken me a while to get around to posting this video, as promised. I have been super busy sewing up a storm, working like crazy and trying to stay on top of my school work. Oh and take care of my family, ya the house has been a little neglected lately. I've got some great projects I am getting excited to post soon.
This fun video is of Luke on our drive down to Washington D.C. This is one of his new things, he is so silly!

Enjoy!

I will post the other crazy kayaker video soon...

Maryland weekend-with LOTS of pictures!

Welcome to MY land!Over our wedding anniversary weekend we headed down to Germantown, MD to visit our closest family members Meg & Dave & to meet their new little sweetie, McKelle.
It was a short trip, but very enjoyable! Matt finished taking a test Friday morning and we took off on the 5 hr drive. We really had so much fun in such a short amount of time. We are so grateful to have at least some family living within driving distance!
Thanks you guys for letting us come & visit!!!

Luke wakes up at about 7am every morning, so by 8am we were ready for the day. The new parents needed their sleep (can ya blame them with a 5 wk old?). Meg & Dave live in a nice apartment complex and right outside their door is a park, pool & the club house. Luke had never really played on a park before so we thought we'd head outside until everyone else got up. It looked sunny, but we know how deceiving Cleveland weather can be and thought it'd be the same so we took our jackets.
It was the most AMAZING feeling when we stepped out the door into 70 degree weather at 8:00 in the MORNING!!!!

Not sure why, but I love this picture.

What a stud.

Where we live!
Sooo far from home... :(

Isn't this fun?

Notice the drool.

Oh how I love my boys.

We headed over to this pretty little pond to take a stroll.
We may look cold, but it was actually in the 70's!!!! The sun was out most of the day, except when we took these pictures.

The daddy's with the babies.

Cousins.Matt likes to take pictures of birds, turtles...any living thing there is to offer at a pond.
Here are your Terrapin Turtles Hun.
(And no we are not getting a pet turtle).

After spending time at the pond we ate an awesome lunch at an Amish Market. It was awesome! Highly recommended. In fact, I can't wait to go back just to eat there! (And see Dave & Meg..hehe).After lunch Luke needed a nap (as you can tell from the pic), but I just wanted to share how Luke felt about the baby when his mommy and daddy were around her. He wasn't like this the whole time, but he definitely got jealous.

Later that evening we drove into Virginia to see the Potomac Falls. We were actually quite impressed! It was very pretty with the sun setting and the wonderful weather!
I have a crazy video of some guys kayaking (and nearly killing themselves) that I will post later.

The happy (& tired, I'm sure) new parents!
Dave, Meg & McKelle

The East Coast Clark Gang.

Our fam.

We did a little photo shoot of little McKelle while I was there, here's one of the many pictures. Isn't she sweet?

Silly Luke. I think he was trying to kiss her in this picture.

As we drove away I looked at our car temperature thing that says the temp outside and it said 77...oh how I'll miss you 77 degree weather!!!

Love being an Auntie!

Not to brag or anything...but I seriously have THE CUTEST new nieces and nephew!!! Not to mention that all of my other nieces and nephews are just babes! I can't get over how cute these new little babies are!!!
I had to share.

All these pictures are just to die for, aren't they?!
They go oldest to youngest.

Above is sweet little Logan. I just LOVE this picture!!! He was born right before Christmas, but lives all the way in Houston, so we haven't been able to meet this little guy yet.
All the McArthur kids are darn cute! They all have dark hair (except Madisen) and these big brown eyes. I'm hoping it isn't just a McArthur thing and that it's a Clark thing...

Little McKelle is the itty-bittiest one of all.
We were lucky enough to meet her this past weekend in DC. She's only about 8 lbs and she is five weeks old! She is so little and precious! She definitely does not look like a Clark yet anyway. She has blond hair and will probably get big blue eyes, (I guess that's what her dad has, but he's a different looking Clark (where did him & Doug come from???)

Last, but not least, is the oh-soo-cute Adalee Mae!!!
She is such a sweet little babe, even if she is screaming in both of these pictures. I just think they are so dang cute!!!! My brother and sister-in-law are so creative at taking her pictures.

Adalee was born in February and like Logan, we still haven't met her either.
She is definitely a Johnson baby. I can't wait to meet you little Adalee!

Thanks to Uncle Dougy (matt's bro), who is getting married, we will get to meet all the babies in May!!! We (especially me) cannot wait!
Logan is Matt's oldest sister, Emily's, sixth baby.
McKelle is Matt's younger brother, Dave's, first baby.
And Adalee is my older brother, Matt's (yes there are two Matts in my family) fifth baby.

Welcome to the family!
We love you little babies!!!

happy anniversary

Today we celebrate our TWO year anniversary!
It has flown by, especially since we had Luke. We have seriously had so many fun adventures traveling and seeing new things. Life couldn't be better.
Oh the memories...
(I love reminiscing)
Dating. Matt came home for Labor Day weekend after he had started med school and we had a major adventure weekend, including four wheeling-Oh how I miss four wheeling.

One of the many engagement pictures.
Fortunately, I have a sister (mandy) who has an eye for photography and she spent a whole day in different locations taking hundreds and hundreds of pictures of us. Thanks sis!

One of my favorite wedding pics.

We were married at 7:40 AM in the Salt Lake Temple. It was one of the earliest times, crazy I know, but we had no choice. We originally were planning to get married in June of 07 but didn't want to wait that long, since we were already dating long distance and Matt's spring break was our only other choice. So we only gave the temple like a three month notice and that was the only time left.
We had our luncheon at the Joseph Smith Memorial building and later that night had our wedding reception in Salem. Fortunately it was a beautiful and pretty warm day in March (but I was prepared for the cold weather, I had white thermals to wear under my dress, just in case, haha).

It was the happiest day of our lives! I wish I could relive it over and over again!

Thank you for the best two years (so far) Matt, for all your hard work and all you do. I love you and am so happy we were married in the temple two years ago today.
I love you!

5 years

My friend Maddy did this on her blog and I thought it was cute...so here I go!

Five years ago I was...gesh...it's almost embarrassing to say....16!!!!! Weird! I had just gotten my license and my first hand-me-down-piece-of-junk-car (thanks to my reckless sister who neglected it and flipped it around a few times! Jk Susie!!) I was in tenth grade and was working at Pier 49 Pizza in Springville..wooo.
I wasn't expecting to get married shortly after high school and pregnant shortly after marriage, but I wouldn't change a thing.

Enough looking back on life....

Five years from now, where will we be....

• I will be 26 years old.
  
• We will be living in who-knows-where (hopefully the west, lets say Oregon)
• We'll be finishing up our four year residency...almost entering into the real world. (Unless Matt decides to do a year more with a fellowship...we'll cross that bridge when we come to it).
• Luke will be SIX (Weird, and a bit sad for me)
• We'll probably have three kids, if all goes according to plan...
• Hopefully my schooling will be done or close to.

The life ahead has much more to offer than my life did at the tender age of 16.
And I'm glad I'm pass that!

However, life is great and goes by fast enough! Even though I look forward to the future, I also want to enjoy every second of our good life now.

a new trick

Luke has recently learned a new trick.
It involves him taking off his diaper.
He sucks in his tummy and pushes his hands down on the top of his diaper and weasels his way out of it.
Sunday afternoon Matt had just changed a poopy diaper (thank goodness) and apparently didn't put it on that well...

I promise this is a clean diaper, I wouldn't let my child do this (well maybe for a picture, jk).

Luke is about due for his first hair cut.
He's getting quite a little mullet in the back, but now I can do cute things like spike his hair or part it for church (that's what Matt likes).

Lastly, the other day we were trying to get a picture of Luke just like this one of his daddy. I'd say they look quite a bit a like, wouldn't you?