Gifts a plenty.

My family was sweet enough to get me some graduation gifts.  Even though them coming and having a sleep over and luncheon together was the best gift.  Here are some pics of the exciting and thoughtful things they gave me.

 My brother and his wife and family gave this adorable journal.  As I close a door on one part of my life and enter in a new one, I'm looking forward to writing about what new and exciting things that will happen.

And my parents and sister gave me these Dr. Seuss books.  A traditional graduation book, Oh the Places You'll Go (my mom also added a sweet personal message inside, something she's always done when giving a special book), and three of my other favorite Dr. Seuss books to add to my growing children's book collection.  What a sweet family I have.  They've been the best cheerleaders. 

Zalie.

Last night I was able to go to my good friend Deborah's baby shower.  After having two boys, her and her husband decided to be surprised on their third and were blessed with a sweet baby girl!  Her name is Zalie Ann, and like all newborns is soooo precious.  My friend Christy threw the shower for her and we all got together last night to celebrate and shower her new little girl with tons of cute clothes and accessories.  It's just the best passing around a new baby girl and oohing and aahing over cute baby clothes.

 The deliciously large vanilla cake with coconut frosting.  Courtesy of the famous Rhonda Riley.  So so good, as always.  

How cute is she?

Graduation/Vacation

Lots happening at the Crandall household.  I graduated the 21st, and my sweet family came to watch.  They stayed with us in our little place and had a Jesperson family sleepover, woohoo!  Then my graduation came, the weather was up and down all day.  Freezing and misty in the morning and blazing hot in the afternoon, just in time for my actual graduation ceremony.  Needless to say I was exhausted after such a long day, but then we boarded a plane at 11:00 that night and headed for Aruba.   We spent a week laying on the beach, snorkeling, and sampling the bad, but sometimes good, food Aruba has to offer.  It was a splendid trip, and I'd recommend a week in Aruba to anyone.  The locals were wonderfully nice, and very helpful.  The best part of the trip was our crazy drive around the island with the famous "Maddie."  She drove us in her Willyz truck to the Natural pools, natural bridges and a beautiful and secluded beach where we jumped in the waves.  Such a fun trip!

 Happy families.

I'm a lucky daughter-in-law.  Aren't they cute?

 All of the markets on the island were Chinese.  what the what?  that's what we thought.

 The Willyz.  I must have one some day.

 On this side of the island the wind is very strong, causing the trees to grow sideways.  

 The natural pool.  Such an amazing experience.

 Under one of the three natural bridges we saw.

 The famous "Maddie."  aka Crocodile Dundee's wife (self proclaimed)

 Playing scrabble on the kindle.

 Reading one of the two books I was happily reading.

  Our last night was spent at the beautiful Hyatt for one last fancy dinner.

I'm ready to go back.

Cute as a button.

I finally got a new clock in our room that won't keep me up at night.  Our old clock was back lit with blue light, and I had to put it face down every night to keep myself from waking up at night.  So Ryan and I picked out this cute 60's clock from etsy.  It is now featured on my, also new, night stand.  Love it all.

And there it is on my cute nightstand!  This makes me happy.

It is Finished.

The chairs are back, and beautifully refinished.  We got them refinished by the same man that did our dresser, and he did them in two days!  Wow!  So we shopped around for some fabric, both high end places and low end places.  I thought we could meet in the middle, but who ever heard of cute fabric below $35 a yard?  Apparently none of the stores we found.  It was really hard to find anything we loved, and I wanted to buy it in person.  So we searched in all of the "clearance" sections at stores and turned up with this cute fabric for only $7 total!  Wowie.  When we asked about new padding for the seat, the worker asked what was there already.  I had no idea.  I was just concerned about the fabric.  They said to check it out before they cut some foam for us because there could be some good foam left over, or even horse hair.  Horse hair?  Really?  No way there was horse hair in our chairs, but low and behold.  We found digustingly old cotton and horse hair in our chairs.  Yikes!  After I was done vomiting, I got the foam, recovered the chairs and voila!  Here are our new chairs!!!  We love love love them!

Go here to see the before pictures.  Don't you just love them?

Today (yesterday) is Mudder's Day

We had a lovely Mother's Day yesterday.  I got to visit my family for the weekend, get a glorious microderm facial from my sister in law, saw "Water for Elephants," got to hear both my dad and sister speak in sacrament meeting, eat lots of Mexican food, See's candy, and Yogurt Mill.  Such a nice weekend.  I also finally made it over to West Elm in Mission Valley.  If you haven't been there yet, you must go!  It's so fun to look and get inspired about decorating.

I took some cute photos during dinner, and our family's Mother's day gifts.

This card is from my 5 year old niece Aubrey

Her name is: Nana

Her eyes are: Brown

Her hair is: Black

She is 50 years old

She weighs 19 pounds

Her job is: ?

Her favorite color is: Pink

Her favorite food is : Everything

At home she likes to: Cook

I like to Snuggle with her

My nana is special because: Sweet

 

This card is from my 7 year old nephew Braeden

Her name is: Nana

Her eyes are: Blue

Her hair is: Brown

She is 31 years old

She weighs 40 pounds

Her job is: Work

Her favorite color is: Brown

Her favorite food is: Potatoes

At home she likes to: Make stuff

I Like to Water with her (water plants with her)

My nana is special because: She is always excited to see me (how cute is that?)

 My brother and his wife gave an old  framed picture of my Mom reading to my brothers and sisters.  So sweet!  I love seeing these pictures of her as a young mother.  She's so beautiful.

 And this was my sister's gift to my mom, homemade butterfinger cupcakes.  They turned out so good!

Here's the cute little baker herself.

And the reason why we celebrate such a great day.  My beautiful mother.  Happy Mother's day Mom!

Many Hands.

This weekend we took part in our annual "Mormon Helping Hands" service project.  Our ward decided to clean up Irvine Regional Park and weed, cut back plants, and clean up the planters.  It wasn't too hard, and fortunately it wasn't really hot, but boy was it windy.  The winds picked up leaves, trash, tables, thick branches and everything making it hard to see and pack up all of the clippings.  But, we made it through and had a good time with friends and ward members.  It feels good to give back to our community and I hope we were able to plants some seeds in the hearts of the people that received our service.

 Oliver.

There were many many weeds that looked like this one all of the park.  It was some serious labor.  But oh so fun.