Sister's Conference

Aimee Cardon was not able to come to my Sister's Conference but had volunteered to do the next one! Aimee did such a great job and worked really hard to pull everything together!! She is seriously amazing! We had about 20 women attend this one, it really was so fun! It was themed around President Hinckley's B's...Be humble, Be true, Be Positive..etc.

She made cute folders for everyone and had some talks that she recommended reading and her favorite quotes. She gave really great advice on being healthy.
Eat Whole Foods
Drink Lots of Water
Sweat Everyday
Wheat Over White
Eat Veggies and Fruits With Every Meal
Grind Your Own Grains
She and her husband have a great passion for living healthy lives.

I forgot to put the flash on...oops.
Aimee also shared an amazing resource for Family Home Evenings www.fhelessons.com it is so helpful, check it out!

We were just waiting for a few more to come.

Mary showed us how to use freezer paper to create a design with fabric paint for a shirt. I think it turned out so cute!! She really did a great job!

Sally is one of the most AMAZING seamstresses...She showed us how to make a maxi skirt in 5 minutes. It turned out so cute. She had lots of great tips for working with jersey knit too.
Aimee set up a google doc for everyone to sign up and each of us got to choose which "B" we wanted to give a little 2-3 minute talk with. We had so many wonderful stories shared. Jessica chose Be Involved. She gave great examples of places that can be involved in 1-calling 2-visiting teaching 3-attend activities 4-invite others to your home 5-service-www.vineyard.lds.org Aimee talked about Be True-she said we need to be true to our divine qualities. You are the only you in this world. Lindsay gave talk on Be Smart. She pointed out that we are all still so young and have plenty of time to keep learning. Kelli talked about Be Full of Laughter. She shared an experience about struggling to be happy after a personal tragedy in her family. She bore her testimony that she knew that laughter is a gift in our lives. Be Grateful-Elisa shared an experience with us where she prayed starting with the first year of her life and each year after that, thanking Heavenly Father for someone or something from that year. Sometimes we need to really think about how blessed we are! Be Clean- Emily talked about how much better everyone feels when the house is clean. She also talked about being clean spiritually too. Be Humble-Marla said that pride makes you lose the ability to see through the obscure. Be Positive-Robin learned that when life is good you shouldn't be concerned about what trial is around the corner but that you should enjoy your life. Men are that they might have joy! Be still-Have you ever had the experience where you create almost an anxiety attack about a situation? Olga testified that when those situations come, to be still, know that God is watching over you. Take things a little at a time and everything will be okay. I chose Be Prayerful. I made two quotes and shared a story about prayer.

He [the Lord] will always hear your prayers and will invariably answer them. However, His answers will seldom come while you are on your knees praying, even when you may plead for an immediate response. Rather, He will prompt you in quiet moments when the Spirit can most effectively touch your mind and heart. Hence, you should find periods of quiet time to recognize when you are being instructed and strengthened. Ensign, May 2007, Richard G Scott

What a great way to start the day! Thank you all for sharing a part of yourself! I hope there are many more Sister's Conferences to come!!

Mascara

Mascara is one of those things in my life that is a must. It is the only make up that I have to have., everything else is just a bonus. I was blessed with fairly long lashes, which is good because I need something to draw the attention away from my nose. Because of the length of them there is a real process in getting them ready for the day, and I thought I would share what that is. I have tried several brands of mascara. From Avon to MAC, and seriously the brands at the grocery store REALLY work better for me. I was a Full n Soft Maybelline girl for a long long time. Recently I have switched over to The Falsies by Maybelline. And I have been happy with the results. I have seen some commercials for Voluminous False Lashes. I was intrigued because it claimed to use nylon and rayon fiber technology to make your lashes longer and I have not seen any other brands claim that. I decided to give it a try and bought a tube this week.

(by the way, don't you love that all mascara commercials use fake eye lashes what a sham)

I seriously took twenty pictures and this is the best I could come up with. : ) Not the most photogenic.
So far I think they do enhance the length but could use a little work on the volume. But over all I think I am going to use this for a while. I guess that is not an overwhelmingly great endorsement.

Here is my process for applying mascara. I start by pinching my lashes and holding it for a few seconds. I apply a generous coat from the top of my upper lashes and then from underneath. I then let that dry a little. I pinch again to gain the lift I need, otherwise my lashes stick straight out and don't really benefit anything unless they are viewed from the side. After I pinch when they are dry I reapply a layer on all sides and add some to my lower lashes. This has been a pretty consistent process for me and it works just the way I need it to.
I don't really think anyone cares about my views on mascara lol- I just thought it would be fun to post about....so I did : )

Movie Time

I just love that they are both holding their stuffed animals, watching a movie together.
(Tiggy with Savvy and Rovie(short for Rover) with Judah)

Audrey, Savvy, and Judah

Could they be any closer(just so you know after we took pictures we made them all get down)

Audrey, Gracey, and Savvy

Judah had ONE blue peanut M&M and this was the result. He doesn't like the flash haha

Living The Abundant Life

“I challenge [all] to undertake a personal, diligent, significant quest for what I call the abundant life.”

—President Thomas S. Monson
First Presidency Message Jan Ensign

Last night I was laying in bed and I was thinking..."What do I want to do in my life?" I have specific responsibilities in my smallest sphere-

Wife
Mother
Homemaker
Church Assignment
Family
Friends

I will always have work to do within these and things to do better but I feel like I can handle another sphere beyond that

"...Let your first business be to perform
your duties at home. But, inasmuch as you
are wise stewards, you will find time for social
duties, because these are incumbent upon us as
daughters and mothers in Zion. By seeking to
perform every duty you will find that your capacity
will increase, and you will be astonished
at what you can accomplish.”
Eliza R Snow

As I pulled the covers up and enjoyed the quietness in the house, I asked myself, "What do I want to do along with my core responsibilities?" Two things specifically came to my mind. 1-I want to be a friend, I want to lighten other women's burdens or at least share a charity and love for them while they are in them. 2- I want to keep holding Sister's Conferences and try to spread the concept out as far as I can. The whole point of Sister's Conference is to strengthen each others' testimony and to give people an opportunity to grow with whatever their assignment is and to share talents. It is a way to practice teaching and training in front of others. But not doing only the heavy spiritual side but having the hobby and talent side to it. To make it fun and spiritual.

I have other goals like -finishing school-working in local politics-becoming more of a scriptorian-running an event center-to name a few. But those are all a little more closely related to my inner sphere and I wanted to think about the outer sphere to make a difference in other people's sphere.

“This is what we desire to
instill into the hearts of
the sisters-to be useful in
their sphere and not be

discouraged because of
difficulties in the way, but
trust in God and look to
Him, and His marvelous
blessings, I will promise

you, will be poured out
upon you.”
Lorenzo Snow
Young Woman’s Journal,
Sept. 1895, 578

I hope I can be useful in my sphere and use any talents and skills I have to help lighten burdens, lift up and empower others.

Shopping Carts and The Help

I am so glad that we have two shopping carts! It makes life so much easier! (do you love how we have to put the ottoman in front of the t.v. ALWAYS...otherwise Judah think he gets to play with the PS3.)

They had so much fun today just running their carts back and forth between the living room and the kitchen!

The Help-Judah thought he would help me clean our kitchen floor. He did nearly whack his dad in the head with the pole.: )

My obsession with lace...

I am a lace girl.

(aren't these shoes adorable with the little lace sock?! )

Sometimes it just adds that perfect finishing touch.
It is actually pretty versatile. Which you probably wouldn't think right off hand.

This is my absolute favorite.
(my wedding dress was all lace, and I still really do love my dress as well.)

Boots + Lace = unbelievable.

Some people hate the whole take a picture in the wilderness thing, I love it EVERYTIME I see it!

I have everything to make this skirt. I am just waiting for me to finish losing the weight I need to so it can be a form-fitting skirt. Isn't it adorable!?
I wouldn't really know how to define my style so I think I will just throw some words out there.

Ruffles
Polka Dots
Stripes
Lace
Layers
Grey
Black
Boots
Big Earrings
Scarves
Wedge Shoes

Not very daring...: ) but confident with what I do wear. Probably a little more classy and business like as opposed to casual.
I have been better at trying new things lately. Maybe when I am all the way down to my low weight I will put more pictures of myself!

Working Together

Savvy and I were working together today. She made a really cute card for her Aunt Jean in Vegas! Now we just need to get it in the mail! (her hair looks really crazy because we just got in from playing outside today while Judah was napping!)

Fun and Games

Our really good friends that live by us are named the Garvins (and as you know we are the Gavins) Both Dan Garvin and Glenn are from Vegas! But the really funny part is that her name is Kyrstin Garvin and I am Chrissy Gavin(I guess you knew that too). It does make it hard for people to keep us straight. The four of us are quite a bit alike, we love hanging out and talking and just doing whatever. They came over to our house at around 7:30 we played 2 rounds of yatzee, which Dan and Kyrstin won. Then we spent from about 9:30 to Midnight playing one game of Scrabble. We were all so proud of our board we took a picture of it! Glenn and I did end up winning. But all of us got to expert level!! It was a really fun night! Dan and Kyrstin, we love you guys : )

Dart was the first word on the board. We had Soda, Kettle Brand Salt and Pepper Chips and Nacho Cheese Doritos. We had Peanut M&Ms, Mike and Ike's, and Licorice. And seriously all of it was gone by the end of the night! It was good!

Crafts and Decorations

This is the new decoration for Savannah's room. I wanted to do a Paris theme...I love how this turned out! This is a little more on the fancy side but the rest of her room will pull more of the trendy side into the room. I want to cover the printed perfume bottles with more a trendy label like with a damask or something like that, I think. I love the gray spray paint that I covered the shelf with!

The little poodles were my Grandma Clawson's and my mom remembers loving to look at them and touch them when she was little.
I do plan to put something in the frame, i just haven't done that yet...
The bottles with the labels were from my mom that she bought for me from Michaels because she loves me : ) and the faceted perfume bottles were my Grandma Clawson's when she was alive.
The gloves were my Grandma Robbins' when she was alive. And I just covered some books with scrapbook paper.
My new cards for my Card Group that I am in. I like doing crafts, and I like the card group because it gives me an excuse to make something : )

My Sad Little Boy

This is a picture of my little son's arm. You might be thinking, "wow, that looks an awful lot like a bite mark" and you would be right. Judah had been wearing a long sleeve shirt and I found this when I took it off. Savannah better watch herself that it doesn't happen again or she is going to find she does not like the consequences. I wish I had caught her right after she did it. Can you believe how hard she bit him? Through a t-shirt. The mark stayed there for 2 1/2 days!