Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Bean Bag Chairs



I came across this GREAT tutorial from a blog called Trey and Lucy

She took a pattern and created bean bag chairs for her kids.  I found my fabric at JoAnns for 50% off.  You will need 6 yards of fabric for each bean bag chair.  I made the inner bag with clearance fabric I found for $2/yd.  I also was able to get the Velcro for 50% off and the beans were on sale at Smith's Marketplace for FREE (I had bought grocery's that gave me $35 in coupons on your next purchase)!  Normally the beans are about $12/bag and you will need one bag for each chair.

All in all it cost about $20/bean bag to make (with the free beans, or $30 if you have to buy them).  This can sound like a lot considering I saw some in Walmart for $15 but these are CUSTOM!  You get to choose how much fill is in them, what color of fabric, etc.  I love them!


I wouldn't say it was the easiest tutorial but the only hard part was figuring out the velcro.  If you know how to sew a straight line and a zig zag stitch, you will have this made!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

VOTE for ME

I LOVE photography.  I am getting pretty good!  I could be EVEN BETTER if I could win this opportunity to go to a free workshop!  If you could see me kneeling and begging and pleading, I would do it, PLEASE VOTE FOR ME!

http://julieparkerphotography.blogspot.com/2010/01/its-time-to-vote.html

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

My Latest Ramblings

A Lot of my life is updated to the world on Facebook.  It is usually more convenient to do a quick post there than log in here and type up a long post.  I decided to post a few of my ramblings from Facebook to tell you what is going on in our life!

"wants to find a fun family vacation that can be fun for Toddlers AND adults! I want to go the the Grey Wolf Lode in Washington but it is far and $170/night . . . hmmm"  
We would LOVE to go to Washington with the kids.  It isn't too far of a drive, not too expensive, and we have A LOT of friends to visit up that way.  I am pretty sure we will head there sometime in April or May after Cris takes his actuary test.

"Cayten gave his first scripture in Primary today. We lucked out as we had been memorizing one scripture a month and he memorized the one he gave! He did AWESOME and only needed help with one word! My little boy is growing up!"
 I can't believe my little guy is old enough to give a scripture in Primary, let alone memorize it!  We are working every month on memorizing the scripture of the month from the Children's Friend Magazine.  It didn't even take him the whole month to memorize it!  Not even half the month, WOW!  He did such a good job!  He stood up there and I was going to go stand by him and he said "No mom, I don't need your help!"  And he mostly didn't, I was so PROUD!
  
"Teaching Cayten about the Iron Rod . . . "What happens if we let go of the rod?" Cayten: "We turn into a tree" . . . "no, we don't turn into a tree, you don't reach the tree" . . . yeah, we get lost and turn into trees!" . . . . OKAY, ! ! ! oh and the fruit on the trees is pineapples . . . little does he know, pineapples don't grow on trees!"
For FHE we are acting out the scripture stories we can.  Cayten LOVES it and remembers them.  We have done Daniel and the Lions Den, Nephi building a boat, the Tree of Life, and last night we did Nephi and his broken arrow!  It is so much fun to see him grasp the concepts and recite the story back to us days later.

"Callie Chinen 's body does not like getting up at 5:30 AM no matter what time it goes to bed . . . . BLAH!"
 I workout every Tuesday and Thursday at 6:00 AM.  It is so great!  Today I rand 3.1 miles in 32 minutes.  It was on an ellyptical so I know it is very different from actually running but I kicked 15 minutes from my time last June.  I am SO excited for the Spring to come so I can start running outside!  I am doing the Top of Utah half Marathon in September and I am stoked!  I also workout every MWF in an aerobics class.  It is amazing how good I feel even though I still have at least 50lbs to lose (which I hope to get to by September!)

I am currently working on making bean bag chairs for my kids.  They are almost done!  I will probably finish them this weekend but then I have to wait to get the beanbag fill.  They are so CUTE and I can't wait to take pictures of the finished product!

After I finish the beanbags I am starting Rysa's birthday dress or Easter dress depending on when it gets done!  I am a little intimidated by it since the WHOLE thing is lined but I have amazing seamstresses in my family that I am sure will help me along the way!

The person that baptized me passed away this last weekend.  His name was Cole Westergard.  He fought a long hard battle with cancer.  When we moved away after I was baptized we lost touch with his family but there will always be a special spot in my heart for the person who baptized me into such a wonderful Gospel!

I would post the latest pictures but my computer is having issues so that is all for now! 
 

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Fixed

I fixed my pictures so they weren't so large . . . now those who wanted to take a peak can!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Looking back at 5 Years!

Cris and I are celebrating our 5 year anniversary today!  We aren't doing anything today but he has a "SECRET" planned for all day Saturday, I am QUITE excited.  In our 5 years and the other year of dating, he has only done secrets a handful of times.

Cris and I met in August of 2003.  I will recap my version of the story, although Cris's is slightly different!  We lived in the same dorms but I didn't really KNOW him until March 2004.  My roommate Sarah and him were really good friends so he started coming up to our apartment quite often.  I quickly got a crush on him but also quickly dismissed it as I never thought any guy would dream of dating or even looking at me!  We hung out a lot and I couldn't dismiss my crush and it drove me crazy.  He didn't help things at all by cuddling with me while reading scriptures or just hanging out.  My friends and roommates would ask him if we were just friends or more and he ALWAYS said just friends.  That is CRUSHING to a girl like me, so again, I dismissed my feelings for him.

On the last day of school that semester we stayed up til 5 AM and just had a blast hanging out with my roomies and friends! The next day was Sarah's (from above) birthday so we decided to have a birthday bash in SLC where all my friends lived.  I picked Cris up from his home in Ogden we went on our way.  While we were driving I had my arm on the arm rest and Cris grabbed my hand and held it . . . . I was smitten and confused, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN!  (He says my hand was on gear shifter so I was "wanting" him to hold my hand! Part of that is true)

We got to my friend Ang's house and I told her all about it.  She talked to him and still he said we were just friends.  So I gave up!  The next day we went home and I left for Oregon for a week.  While I was in Oregon I couldn't stop thinking of him and we talked every night for a few hours.

When I got back, Cris and I went on a drive and he pulled into a parking lot.  I was fully expecting Cris to say "Callie, I am sorry to have led you on but we are only friends"  Instead he said "Callie, I think we should start dating!"  I BUSTED OUT LAUGHING!  Shocked the poor guy to death! IT SERVED HIM RIGHT!

We began dating and never looked back.  Cris is the only guy I have dated and I am the only girl he has ever seriously dated.  We have only kissed each other and I think that is just NEAT!

He proposed to me on September 6, 2004.  We were at his parents outside in the back yard at the park.  We were reading scriptures under the tree and he explained to me what the scripture meant.  It was a scripture about the Top of  the Mountains and Utah and temples.  He kept asking me what I thought that meant and I didn't know.  He then asked me to stand up but I wouldn't so he stood up first then knelt down and proposed to me!


We were married on January 7, 2005 in Bear River City.  It was an amazing day.  So laid back and relaxed.  I stressed over NOTHING and was in Heaven!  We only invited a few close family and friends and partied all night long (ok, really just until 9:00 when we realized it had snowed close to 3 feet in a matter of hours!)
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Cayten joined our family on December 12, 2005.  I don't remember a lot from that day but I do know that my life will never be the same!  I am constantly looking at him and am in a complete blissful state as I remember the past 4 years with him!

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We were sealed in the Logan temple on May 18, 2006.  That day changed my life forever!  There were so many feelings in that sweet Celestial room and in the Sealing Room.  I don't remember anything the Sealer said unfortunately but I know that Cayten was having sweet dreams of Jesus that day as he slept through the entire ceremony only to wake up as we said AMEN and he was quiet as can be.
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Cris and I have taken a few vacations without kids and I HIGHLY recommend them!  Right after we were sealed we went to Oregon to celebrate another friends wedding.  We travled to Portland then down the coast of Oregon and back home.

In May 2007 we began building our home.  That experience was one in a lifetime.  I will never do it again, but I will always be grateful for the 4 bedroom house we built with our own two hands!

That same year I graduated from USU with a Bachelors in FCHD and Family Finance.  I never gave up on an education and even though I don't use it, I will always be grateful for that time in my life.  Cris was always encouraging and helping me along the way.  Not once did we look back and think maybe I shouldn't do this.

The year we were building our home we didn't really do anything.  We had to be stuck in Logan EVERY weekend for way TOO long!

In February 2008, we welcomed Clarysa into our lives.  She changed our lives forever.  I Love her with every ounce of my being but let me tell you, she is one independent stubborn little girl even when she was a newborn and that hasn't changed.  Many ask us when we will have more but Rysa is enough for 2 or 3 children alone!  There will be more but not for a while, I still have to convince Cris!

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Cris graduated in May 2008 with his degree in Statistics and Actuarial  science. Since we had just moved into our home we looked for jobs around here and still haven't found anything career wise but he has a decent job and we love the area for now!

In May 2009, Cris and I got to take a trip of a lifetime to Hawaii.  We went for nearly 3 weeks without any kids.  It was AMAZING.  It was a little too long but AMAZING just the same!  I consider that our 5 year anniversary present just 6 months early is all!

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And here we are today.  Not anything majorly exciting but we love our life together.  This morning Cris woke up and said "Happy 5 YEARS"  I responded "glad you survived!"  There have been ups and downs as there is with any marriage but as I look back I remember 95% more ups than downs and that's the way it is suppose to be!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

New Blog

My sisters friend has started a new blog and she is doing a giveaway.  I thought I'd through it out there and try to win!  The new blog is http://balancedmoms.blogspot.com/  I am suppose to share a video but I don't know how to do that so go to her website and try to win too!

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

A New Year, A New ME!

Well, these last few weeks have been tornado like in our home. We went out of town for Christmas and New Years. It was great, Relaxing, and most of all a BLAST! I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked mainly because I just sat back and watched all the festivities take place. It was wonderful!

I am not a person that makes new years resolutions because I NEVER keep them. But, I am going to make one resolution and a lot of different little goals to complete each month. I figure if I go little by little and re-evaluate each month, I might actually accomplish something!

MY MAJOR resolution is to do a half marathon in September! It sound so scary, intimidating, and daunting at the same time. I did a 5k last year and decided I could take it up a notch this year. I LOVE running sort of! I love the way I feel after I have ran 3-5 miles. It is WONDERFUL! I also like the losing weight part of it. I have currently lost 20 lbs and am hoping to lose 50 more or so! I know I can never be 130 or 140 or maybe even 150. But I am going to get in better shape, better than I have been in my ENTIRE life. I have lost all Rysa's baby weight and only have 10lbs to go to get to the weight of pre-Cayten. I am excited for that day to come and it will! I have turned exercising into a habit. I HAVE to do it now and I LOVE it!

Other goals are small and mostly personal. I will share some but not right now. I am on the road to a new me in this new year so I hope all will have fun watching the transformation!

Happy New Year to ALL!

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