Christmas craft

For Christmas this year I decided to make a ruffle tote I found online for my nieces.  It's a simple canvas bag with no-sew ruffles, which is perfect for me since I don't own a sewing machine yet. They were really easy to make and I'm excited how well they turned out. 

You can find the tutorial for it here: ruffle tote

Scary Night

On Monday night I had a nightmare. You know the ones that don't go away even after you've been awake for hours? I had one of those.

In my dream we were asleep and woke up to our security system going off because someone was in the house. He was upstairs in Emery's room (don't know how I knew that in the dream but I did) and Gavin went to go find him while I sit there freaking out, trying to call 911. Then I see him go out the back door and we rush out there and he's hopped the fence and is running across the empty lot behind our house. I start screaming at him to GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW, and he turns around and says, "Are you serious?" but he listens and comes back (what? who does that? dream robber that's who). I then proceed to throw him to the ground and put him in this choke hold while yelling, "What did you to do my daughter?! Why were you in there?! What did you do?!" Then the cops come and take him away. As they are walking him to the car I start feeling all sad and run after him, give him a hug, and say, "Merry Christmas. I'm sad it all turned out this way" and I feel all bad for beating him up for breaking into MY HOUSE (don't get your hopes up would-be robbers, that's NOT happening in real life). He makes some threat about how this is just the beginning but I ignore it and just think how nice he is (blech, also not happening). Then I end up at school and I'm super scared because I never checked on Emery during all of that and I don't know if she's ok. It's a stupid dream, but I woke up TERRIFIED with the "nightmare goosebumps" that won't let you relax and the heebie-jeebies that stuck around all morning long.

Since then I have been turning on the security system at night. I usually don't worry about activating it but the dream freaked me out enough that I thought, why not? Last night the I re-lived the Monday nightmare, some of it anyway. Around 2:00 am I hear a siren going off, it's loud and I can't quite place it in my sleepiness. Gavin and I are stirring when I'm jolted awake as I realize, IT'S THE HOUSE ALARM. FOR REAL. "Gavin, it's the house!" We both jump out of bed and he rushes to the box to see where the breach is while the siren's screams fill the house. I run to the stairs, looking frantically around when Gavin shuts off the alarm and I hear wind blowing fiercely outside. The wind was blowing so strong it blew open a door that wasn't shut all the way, setting off the alarm. No robber for me to wish a Merry Christmas to this time, thank goodness.

Needless to say we were quite shaken up. It did make me think about our "game plan" though and what we would do in the event of a break-in. As terrifying as it was I think I'm actually grateful it happened as a "practice run" so if it ever happens for real (pray that it never does) I won't make the mistakes I made this time.

Kind of a downer-post...but Merry Christmas!...and have a game-plan. :)

Helloooooooo

I could talk for hours about things I love about Emery and all the cute things she does, but I try not to go on too long because no one cares as much as Gavin and I do. :) I will mention one thing she is awesome at and that is playing by herself. Some days she wants to just follow me around all day and be super sad if I am not constantly paying attention to her, but those days are few. As soon as she learned to climb up the stairs she would climb up there and play in the toy room for 30-45 minutes, sometimes an hour, all by herself. It's AMAZING! I can cook dinner, blog, read, or do whatever I want, completely uninterrupted. If things get eerily quiet I'll poke my head up there to check on her, and if she sees me she'll just smile, say a few jibberish words and keep on playing. 

It really makes my life easier. I love it. 

As fearless as she is in climbing up the stairs, she is scared to come down them by herself. This is good and bad. Good because she tends to play longer up there because she thinks she's stuck, and bad because when she is done playing she will just sit up there and yell until I come help her down. She used to just come to the railing and stare me down like this:

That's when she was patient about it, but now she just yells. It's funny though, because she knows how to climb down the stairs, I've taught her to turn around and go down on her belly and once I get her first leg going she will go down the whole way by herself. It's just that first initial step that makes her nervous. But we keep practicing and she's getting better at it. Maybe she can make that her New Year's Resolution: go down the stairs without mom's help.

My favorite Christmas poem

The following is one of my favorite Christmas poems. My mom used to read it to us and I love the message it brings. I found the poem and picture here.

From Santa with Love ~ by Michelle Davis

A long time ago in a land far away,

A child was born on a cold winter’s day

He wasn’t the baby you’re thinking about

But another small lad, he stood short and stout

He grew up to be quite a caring old man

He loved little children, everyone in the land

He found the “Good Book” and studied its pages

It was the story of Jesus passed down through the ages

His heart overflowed as he read, could it be?

A love so divine that he died just for me?

A twinkle appeared in his eye on that day

He found a road straight to Heaven and Christ was the way

As Christmas came closer, his heart filled with joy

He’d show God’s people he loved them – every girl, every boy

He made lots of goodies and stocked up his shelves

Yes, Santa was busy and so were his elves

He was filled with such love, that he wanted to share

So he handed out gifts to kids everywhere

Praise be to God, let the Angels sing

For this jolly old man spreads love for the King

As he steps into the chimney, he looks high above

And whispers, "Happy Birthday Dear Jesus, from Santa with Love"

I tear up every time I read it. I love it because it puts into words what "Christmas Spirit" is--feeling the love of Christ in our own hearts so strongly that we desire to share that love with others. I also love it because it ties together Santa to the real meaning of Christmas. Of course I understand that Jesus is the reason for the season and celebrating Him is most important, but Santa is a good tradition that I, like most kids, LOVED growing up. And I still love it. When I was little and would ask my mom if Santa was real she would say, "Santa is the spirit of Christmas. He's the spirit of giving." And it's true, he is. The Santa tradition isn't just about "gimme this, gimme that", but it's about giving gifts to show how much we love others and as a symbol of the greatest gift ever given, the gift from Heavenly Father to us of His Son, Jesus Christ. A gift of which I am very grateful for. 

So Merry Christmas to all our family and friends, and Happy Birthday Dear Jesus, from the Girauds with love.

The Little Mermaid

"Look at this stuff, isn't it neat? Wouldn't you think my collections complete? Wouldn't you think I'm the girl...the girl who has EVERYTHING?"

Yesterday Emery was wandering around with this tupperware container, putting "treasures" into it. She brought it to me and the assortment of goodies she had found made me laugh. She was quite proud of her collection. 

I guess The Little Mermaid characteristics are in our genes because I remember my favorite thing to do when I was really little was put my legs in a pillowcase and pretend I was Ariel. Flopping around on the floor wasn't quite as graceful as swimming in the ocean, maybe I should have taken a play from Emery's book and just collected stuff.

Decorating

A week or two ago we finally put up our little gallery of pictures. It isn't finished yet, we have a few small spaces that I want to fill with some non-picture items, but it is nice to have something up on our walls. I couldn't believe what a difference it made to have that one wall put together. It feels so much more like a home!

This is in the hallway so I had to take the picture at an angle, but you get the gist of it. I am planning on posting a video tour soon, but I want to get a few more things done before I do. I will post one though! Our house is starting to come together, slowly yet surely. I'm really happy about it.

Use it up, wear it out...

...make it do or do without!

Gavin and I are both frugal people and we feel that this is most often a good trait (most often is the phrase I would choose, but Gavin would probably say this is always a good trait). Well I had a good laugh the other day when I noticed that our frugal and "make-do" attitude seems to be rubbing off on Emery. It was a sunny day so I had the back door open and Emery was playing in the backyard, talking to herself and pushing around her trike and car. Suddenly I noticed it was very quiet and had been for a few minutes. I ran outside and found this:

Emery had found a large plastic screw that's used to anchor her big car onto its base and was using it as her pacifier. And she was loving it.

Also, she hasn't died from all the dirt and germs on that thing. Thrifty and super-immunity! This kid is the complete package folks! 

Stake Softball

Gavin was in charge of the Stake Men's Softball tournament recently and because Emery and I are the BEST, EVER, we went and watched him play all day...well 8am-2pm at least. It was actually quite chilly when we got there around 7:30 am. The temperature was in the 50s which for me is ARCTIC. I'm a sunshine girl--I like it sunny and hot--so anything below 75 I'm wearing long sleeves. Emery and I bundled up nice and cozy-like and cheered on our #1. It warmed up as the day went on and we shed the outer layers but I was glad we had them for the first few games!

Our ward actually came in second place. Gavin played with them some of the time but had to go fill in other places as well. He did a great job bringing it all together and getting it set up despite the cancellations and scheduling conflicts that arise when planning stake activities. 

Corn Maze at the farm

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we took a trip to a corn maze. We had so much fun! It was a beautiful day, a little bit cooler, but the sky was blue and the sun was warm. I had never been to a corn maze before so I was really excited. Lone Star Maize definitely didn't disappoint! It felt good to get out of the house after relaxing all day Friday to get some sun and a bit of exercise. 

Emery is squinting, not scowling. :)

Hide and Seek! Can you find us in the corn? Gavin is in the first picture, I'm in the second.

They had a few other things to play with on the farm and Emery enjoyed exploring and playing in the dirt and hay. She was a mess by the time we left but it was so worth it.

Besides the big corn maze they had a little hay bale maze for kids. Emery had so much fun in it! She's been walking for a few weeks now but is still a bit unbalanced so the hay maze was perfect for her to walk in and use the sides to balance when she needed it. It was just her height too so she felt pretty big.

Emery and I had fun on the tire swing. She is getting so big!

Here we are, LOST IN THE MAIZE/MAZE! I can't wait to go back next year.

It was such a lovely day walking along with Gavin and Emery, the sun shining so warm and feeling the crisp autumn air. I was overwhelmed with happiness and gratitude and couldn't stop smiling and hugging Gavin. I love my life and who I share it with. But who wouldn't love these two:

Birthday

I had a birthday! Gavin surprised me with breakfast in bed which consisted of chocolate chip pancakes and eggs. He also learned a new song on the guitar for me, but I'm not going to tell you which song it is because it's a teenage girl song and I should be embarrassed that I like it. :) It wasn't his top choice of songs to learn but he did it because he knew I liked it. It was really sweet. Emery celebrated by devouring a cupcake:

Yep. She was all over that.

We got new couches for my birthday and I am so excited to have a nice place for people to sit when they come and visit! It felt like we looked at every furniture store within 50 miles and finally found the ones we wanted. So, EVERYBODY, y'all are officially invited over to the Giraud's house, to sit on our couches and...lay on our couches...and that's pretty much it because we don't have much else. Maybe if you're lucky Emery will share a treat with you while you're here, but you might have to fight her for it. Look at that face. She ain't messin' around. 

Primary fun

I got this sweet card from a little girl in Primary last week. It totally made my day!

Giraud is a hard last name and I love that you can tell she was trying her hardest to sound it out. Droid and Durad! So cute.

Another funny primary story: The music leader before me taught the children the song, "Nephi's Courage" by making up a lot of hand signs to help them remember the words. It worked well and the kids knew the whole song when I got in. As the program approached I didn't want to use all the actions as I thought it might be distracting, but the kids loved them so much so I kept a few for the chorus, which are as follows:

Nephi was courageous (PUT HANDS ON HIPS, LOOK COURAGEOUS) this was his reply,
I will GO I will DO (ON GO AND DO SWING ARMS IN FRONT OF YOU IN DETERMINED FASHION like a mini fist pump in front of your body)
The things the Lord commands...

It was cute and they did a great job looking righteous and determined. I didn't think too much about what they kids thought the actions meant, but realized my mistake later when Gavin related a conversation he had with one of the men in our ward who has a few kids in primary. One of his kids is a very energetic 5 year old boy, we'll call him Jason. Jason's dad told Gavin the following (paraphrased):

"Your wife does a great job in Primary, she taught the kids all these actions for the song and they know it really well (*sidenote, I didn't teach them...but apparently I'm taking the credit*). Jason thinks it means they are punching people in the face so he has an angry look on his face." I laughed so hard when Gavin told me that because Jason always is VERY enthusiastic about the actions, and he typically doesn't sing at all. But he puts his heart and soul...and his fists...into the chorus every time. Whatever it takes to get them excited I guess.

Little purple dress

Emery had on a very pretty dress today for church and Tiffany had me take some pictures of her in our front yard when we got home.  She is growing up so fast but Sundays are really good for me, I can spend the whole day with her.  I love it.

Craft night

We recently had our Relief Society craft night and I'm so excited that I actually finished a craft I started. Before you get too excited for me, know that I DIDN'T finish it that night, which would have really been impressive and deserving of applause, but I did finish within a week after craft night. I'm almost done with the wooden Christmas tree I signed up for too, just needs some hot glue here and there and I'll be done with it. 

I'm getting excited for Christmas. I usually try to keep the excitement reigned in until after Thanksgiving, but I've had to take a lot of trips to Hobby Lobby in the past few weeks and all that exposure to Christmas decorations has made it impossible to keep focused! Who can resist all the pretty, sparkly, reds and greens, and the intricate nativities? Not me!

Idaho girl

You can take the girl out of Idaho, but you can't take Idaho out of the girl.

Emery sucking on a raw potato.

No mom, it isn't weird to eat raw potatoes.

Pumpkin patch 2

I forgot to post these pictures when I posted about our pumpkin patch visit. For someone who doesn't like grass, Emery sure loved playing in the hay.

Halloween miracles

This year was the most fun I've had on Halloween in probably 10 years. The main reason was because I witnessed a miracle: Gavin dressed up for Halloween. Can you believe it?!?! Ever since we've been married he's always talking about how he doesn't like Halloween and he would balk at even the mention of costumes. I give the credit to Emery, that little girl can make anyone do anything. Here is a picture of us at our church's Trunk-or-Treat

The mad scientist, her adorable hunchbacked assistant Igor, and Frankenstein. What a good sport Gavin is! Doesn't he look AWESOME?! And Emery is making a good Igor face, caught her in a blink I think but it fits perfectly. You can't see her hunch very well in this picture, but it was there. 

Little Igor

Emery makes the cutest pouty faces these days. And yes, I do point and laugh every time she does them. 

Halloween was also amazing this year because I got to hand out candy from my own front door. I was so excited but failed to realize that we are the last street in our neighborhood and there is quite a bit of construction going on around us so we don't look very promising candy-wise. But we did have about 15 or so groups come around so I was happy. And we have left over Dubble-bubble so Gavin is also very happy (can you believe someone actually LIKES that nasty stuff?!). Here is a picture of us on Halloween night. Emery looks even cuter in this costume.

...And then I cried. Hard.

Gavin took the Texas State Bar at the end of July. We've been anxiously and nervously awaiting for grades to be posted, but we had to wait until this past Friday November 2nd. It's been a long three months.

Even though the Bar said they post grades on the 2nd, Gavin's coworkers said they usually post it earlier so you should start checking on Monday. I bookmarked the page and checked it often, my nerves increasing with each passing day. Monday, nothing. Tuesday, nothing. Wednesday, still nothing. Thursday early morning, nothing. Thursday around 1 pm, I check the home page and the link has changed from "grade release date" to "PASS LIST." At this point my stomach jumps to my throat and I am so nervous. Not that I don't have faith in Gavin, I ABSOLUTELY do, but it is a very hard test and a lot of talented, smart people don't pass on the first go, plus Gavin was at a disadvantage not having gone to a Texas law school so he didn't learn the state laws in school. I felt almost sick I was so nervous and contemplated just calling him and telling him to check it and tell me, but I can't stand suspense and knew I had to hurry up and look or I'd probably explode. I clicked the link, scrolled to find the G's, and then I cried. Hard. He passed! I sat there and sobbed for a few minutes, completely overwhelmed with gratitude, relief, and being so happy and proud of Gavin. His hard work and the fervent prayers of many paid off. What a blessing.

Kind of a dramatic post, but that's how it went down. :) It's ok if there's some drama as long as there's a happy ending, right?

I told Gavin that I was really, really happy for him and proud of him...but I'm also  really, really happy for me too because it's no fun having him study for the Bar and I didn't want to go through that again. :)

So three cheers to the best (and handsomest!) new attorney in Texas! Hip hip hooray!

Pumpkin patch

We had a lot of fun while Gavin's parents visited. One the best things we did was go to a pumpkin patch called TGR Exotics, hosted by Gavin's work. It was so much fun and we got some great pictures. TGR has rescued a bunch of animals that we don't usually get to see and we had fun riding around in the tractor learning about the animals. They had camels, an emu, water buffalo, the World Record smallest buffalo, pigs, bearcats, coatimundi, capybara, a kangaroo, and a few other farm animals.

The weather here has been about 85 degrees (LOVE IT!) but that day it cooled to around 70 degrees. It felt like fall in Idaho for a bit.

Emery is generally afraid of animals, but she did really great today. We try to expose her gently but as often as we can and I think it's helping. She still looks unsure in this  picture though.

Loving being held by Grandma, and trying not to laugh as I tickle her. 

All the animals were so friendly and wanted attention. They  followed around the tractor, getting pet when they could.

Emery didn't care much about the kangaroo, but she did want to eat some of that dried corn  sitting in the dirt.

It was a great day and we were so glad John and Mary Lou came to visit. We are loving it down here and it was fun to share Houston with them for a few days.

What I do all day in 3 pictures

"Don't eat that Emery!"

"Emery, put it down, that's not for eating."

nom 
"Sigh."