Long lost 9 months....

Okay, so I haven't been very good at updating for it seems to be 9 months and counting. I've been busy and this picture should say it all.

I have started my own little thing of cutting out wood letters in my garage for fun and it has turned into a snowball effect....I know provide all the letters for a little scrap booking store here in town, where I also work a few hours and teach classes on how to decorate them. Plus I do lots of custom orders on the side. It's been pretty nice, but from this picture you can see what I do most of the time and why I've been so out of touch!

Here's a quick recap on us:

July-September....Mom and Dad's house is built and finished! It was quite a process to be involved in and we are so glad to have them here! I spent a lot of time dumpster diving (I can't believe how much construction stuff is thrown away!), got to help design the yard with Mom and marveled at how our choices all came together! The house is beautiful but even better is being able to pop in on them when ever I want! I was so impressed by Cam and Vaughn and their willingness to take time off to come help them too. Cam was a complete life saver, how many trips he made down with loads, I lost count....

June: We took a 3 week trip across the United States for a Cornaby family reunion meeting at the beach in Charleston, SC. The reason I was behind in blogging is that the camera was "lost", only to be found a week after we got back. The only pictures we have are on the Video camera or a few shots from the cell phone. I'll try to get some shots from Aunt Autumn soon. We traveled up through the Tetons, saw Mt. Rushmore, across South Dakota (which was beautiful!) Down to Winter Quarters, Adam Ondi-Oman, Independence Missouri, Knoxville, Charleston SC. Then on the trip home we went down through Georgia, the Florida Pan Handle, stayed in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Austin (for a quick visit with Dallas & Melisa Family, a highlight of the trip! I had so much fun with my nieces and nephews!) up through New Mexico, Utah and finally home. I thought I'd go nuts being trapped in the car that long but we did great! Avery only watched about 1 1/2 hours of Harry Potter the whole trip. Thank goodness for her Leapster! Britt had in his Ipod and I had complete silence. It was perfect! I was shocked at how much I enjoyed the beach. Besides the sweltering humidity, being down by the water was great! We enjoyed many hours of shell hunting and brought home quite a few mementos. We saw so many cool things, here are a few: A real live bear!, antelopes (cantaloupes is what Avery calls them),buffalo's, deer, elk, moose, hawks, bald eagle, vultures, prairie dogs, alligator's, heron's....and I'm sure I'm forgetting something else....

July: The beginning of my letter cutting. I did a class for enrichment and it all went from there.

Britt went on his high adventure hike and came home with 3 toenails ready to fall off. Gross! He has really enjoyed working with the scouts and it's been good for him. I have seen a great mellowing of my husband since we have moved here and it's a good thing!:)

With Britt's time off we finally put together the swing set that yes (lucky number 9 months again,I got last fall), put together finally! I got it for a whopping $50 normally $400. Now we just need to put Candy's together!:)

This picture was taken by our budding photographer Avery!

August: Okay, I have never been more scared in my life, even about birthing Avery, than I was over doing the wedding flowers for Kelsey Peterson. Her Mom is my visiting teaching companion and somehow talked me into doing the flowers for her wedding. I lost more sleep worrying over these silly things than anything else in my life. Yes, silly, I know. I had to find the best price for real live sunny yellow calla lilies,which was a chore in itself. All said and done, my pride will allow me to say they turned out perfect! I even had cars stop and stare as I hauled them in at the temple. Avery was my little helper all the way. The wedding was on our anniversary so that quashed much of our personal celebration, but can I just tell you about the relief once I dropped all the flowers off and was done!!!!

September: Mom and Dad officially move to Boise Idaho! Hooray! I'll have to say though that moving them was way harder than ourselves and ours was pretty scary! We also got a great visit from Dallas and his family for a few days and from Cam & Brandy and the girls too! I have to say I have seen more of my family/extended family since Mom and Dad have moved here than most of my life! It has been so wonderful! I told Mom and Dad from the beginning "If you build it, they will come!" It has been so true! Avery loves seeing her cousins! She glued herself to sweet Ellie and still talks about her as the cousin with the blue striped shirt.

Britt makes a career change and decides to go to work for Farmer's Insurance. Yes, Enterprise is now thank goodness a thing of the past. We knew that if we intended to stay here in Boise, he would have to land another job so here it is. I don't really know what to say, so it's "no comment"at this time. Read into what you want.... At least we aren't going anywhere!:) We also had a great visit from my dear friend Celina Dulude Lay and her hubby Jeff and daughter Esther! It was so great! Her little girl Esther and Avery hit it off completely. Those two were snuggled up in Avery's bed, giggling till 1:30 in the morning. Our husband's weren't too happy about it but Celina and I were giggling about as bad, just at the thought of our girls giggling together. It was a very sweet moment for us! If you would have told me 8 years ago that we'd have 2 girls giggling together, let alone that they'd even exist, I wouldn't have believed it! Celina has been such a good friend to me, especially as I have struggled all these years with infertility. She gives me hope, believes in me and encourages me that it's worth the fight. She is amazing!

October:

Only a few pictures here of stuff we made.
Candy and I also decided to do the whole boutique/bazaar scene here. We started with our very own boutique which at the end of the season actually turned out to be the most successful. We rented her neighborhood clubhouse and just about made ourselves and our husbands crazy. I thought I was going to lose it after spending 6 hours kneeling on my cold garage floor hand painting the dumb signs to go up around town. We weren't even good about taking pictures of the stuff we did. I only have a few of the bazaar and odds and ends. We promise that this next year we'll not procrastinate.... The good thing is that it really got our name out there and I continue to get orders trickling in from them. It's a good thing we have a year until they start again because it will take that long to get the courage up to do it again. All I can say is that my sister is amazing! She is my biggest cheerleader, confidant and friend. I love doing things with her. I am so blessed to have her as my sister!

Halloween is our favorite time of year~ Imagine my relief with my crazy schedule when Avery wanted to be a kitty cat this year. Oh how I love glitter glue and a glue gun! It was her favorite costume yet, and she wore those kitty ears for about 2 months straight, I'm not kidding, everywhere we went! I also got to watch the boys along with Mom and Dad while Candy and Bryan went on a cruise. It was really fun and we went along with Nathan and Avery on their preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch. It was soooooo cold!

November: Avery turns 5! Can you believe it! This year we didn't do a party, just a little family one. Uncle Chris happened to come into town and Avery still is convinced that he came just for her! Grandpa was out of town for business so we grabbed Grandma and Uncle Chris and went to the build-a-bear factory where Avery had a blast! It was a very fun day!

I also taught my first class for Paper Cottage. I was shocked at the response to my first project I made. I spent a lot of time cutting and prepping for that class and even put my little worker Britt to work. Yes, he complained the whole time! I have felt doors opened to us through this though, blessings I couldn't have even imagined and I am grateful for them. Although I'll probably die from all the saw dust I've sucked into my lungs....

Avery got her very own camera for Christmas (this way she'll leave ours alone and I won't have to hide it so well that I can't find it for our vacation!) Here's some photo's she took Christmas day.

Bryan was so good to sit and play games with the kids. They had a blast with checkers and bingo!

December: Flew by, in fact I don't even know where it went. Christmas came and went and Avery was so funny! I honestly couldn't care less about how my Christmas goes as long as I get to watch Avery enjoy hers! We went over to Mom and Dad's and hung out till almost midnight! A few days later Autumn and Allen surprised us with a visit! We cleaned like crazy, since all my craft stuff littered the house and we hadn't used the kitchen table for 3 months..... It was so great having them here and having them closer to us! We enjoy them so much! They were here for Britt's b-day and then as they left to go home Cam and his family came into town to pick up a snow blower. Cam snapped his collar bone (wicked bad!) and needed extra help with all the snow they were dumped on!

Avery, Charlotte & OliviaThe "kids" spitting into the pond for the fish to eat, yes they also tossed pennies and dimes to see if they'd eat them too. Kids huh.Here is Grady, who has the sweetest eyes. They melt me!

Avery and Daddy trying not to slip at the park.

When Cam got here we all headed to the Souper Salad, yes Mom and Dad's new favorite "old folk" spot. They give a senior discount!Here's Andrew, Avery, Zach & Sierra. We then headed over to this great park we have here. It was so cold with the wind blowing, we only lasted about 15 minutes!

Taylor Madison
January: I turned the big 35. Woo hoo. That's about as exciting as it gets. As long as I have some almond roca my day is complete. Candy came and grabbed me and took me out for a fun morning and then we went out to eat with Mom and Dad. It was a nice day! They spoil me! Nothing else really to say about this month. It just came and went.

Here are some of my latest projects. I am doing an ongoing monthly class with the seasonal hanger. Each month we do a different hanger for the holiday. I've had a great response to them all. It still amazes me that someone let alone anyone would want to buy my crap!:) I cut these home letters and house out for Candy and she decorated them. They turned out cute!

February: Avery has lost her first tooth! Yes, I could hardly believe it! I gave her a piece of gum at the end of sacrament meeting that she bit down on wrong and waa lah, a loose tooth. Only 30 hours later and she yanked it out! I can't believe how ridiculously I reacted to it. I have a phobia about my teeth and to see her precious little teeth wiggle made me want to pass out! She was a brave girl and made me laugh with all her excitement and posing in the mirror.

Britt has started coaching the Centennial High School Lacrosse Team. Cool thing is that his cousin Dylan is on the team. He loves it and is really good at it too. He has wanted to go back to coaching for a long time and has never been able to with his crazy schedule with ERAC. Another blessing from Farmers I guess. I am so busy getting things going with my classes.

This is my latest creation that I have to get going on for my class Saturday. I'm such a procrastinator! I'm trying to be a bit more prepared but I think the last few crazy months have caught up with me. I can't wait for spring to come and I've spent some time out getting the yard ready. I love having my parents close. Have I said that too many times? I just love them! I love spending time with them, I love seeing Avery with them and knowing that she is building a relationship with her grandparents that I didn't have with mine. I love going over there with Candy and her family to watch lame BYU games. I love that my parents always hug me hello and hug me goodbye. My Mom is the best cook in the whole world. She has the magic touch to get our kids to eat vegetables. Her quite gently disposition, they are drawn to. My Dad always makes me smile and laugh. He is the epitome of safety to me. He's going to be sick of giving the grand kids surgeries some day....maybe not!:) I am blessed, truly, I am.
So there, in a nutshell is the last 9 months. I promise to be better at blogging! I've been caught up on Facebook lately. I signed on so I could see Celina's baby's pictures and have had so much fun reconnecting with my childhood friends and friends from Tooele! I have heard more about Dallas and Vaughn from their children on there than I have in probably 5 years or more from them. It's great! It's good to have friends....

Mom & Dad's Home....The Beginning!

Okay everyone, I know you're all dying to see what's going on with Mom and Dad's new house being built, so here are the latest pictures! First are views from the back of the house and then the front right after they have poured the foundation and set out the rock area prepped for the patios and driveway.

Second shots here are just different front views of them on Thursday as they have got the bottom of the house framed and are starting to work on the trusses. Pretty exciting to watch them go! I don't think that reality has set in that they are actually going to be here!

For those of you who haven't seen what the finished product will look like, here is a pic of the model home exterior. The inside is absolutely gorgeous, with cabinetry I've never seen so fancy, too bad Mom can't reach most of them!:)

I will try to make daily updates to keep everyone up on this! Enjoy!

Finally An Update!

I have been incredibly busy lately and horrible about updating. I've also been waiting on my Dad to send me some pictures he took of Avery and her cousins which I still don't have and will have to add later.....

We had a big snow storm and Avery and I got creative with our snow"women" we made....

February

My last remaining grandparent passes. My Grandfather Morris Mitchell left us on the 13th of the month. As sad as it was, there was comfort in knowing he was reunited with my Grandmother once again. We went to Burley for the funeral which was rather short and sweet. My Grandfather despite his oneryness was a brilliant man that loved geneology and Grandma's chocolates! It wasn't until I was married that I actually got to know him better. I feel blessed that my daughter had the chance to know him too. It was great being together as a family and although unfortunate the opportunity for gathering, what a blessing to draw close to eachother and form stronger family bonds that will last us forever! On a light note, Avery has made a wonderful friend with my Aunt Yvette. She latched onto her as soon as she entered the building and pranced around being the drama queen that she is. It was so sweet for me to watch them together. Picture to come soon!

March

We headed down to Salt Lake for one of Britt's company parties that we totally flaked on....but we did get a nice hotel to stay in thanks to Enterprise..... We ate at a few of our favorite restaurants, visited IKEA, but most importantly went to see Grandma Mattie. I have missed her soooo much. With the death of my Grandfather the realization of how blessed I have been to have her in my life was all too clear. Not only has she been the closet Grandma to me she has also been one of my dearest friends. I know it is because of her that I am supposed to be a Cornaby. She has always loved and supported me, listened and loved unconditionally. The first time I met her we went to dinner at Chuck-o-rama, her favorite place. She told me at the end of the date that she knew I was the one because I didn't load up my plate and throw away lots of food. I took little tastes of everything and that impressed her. Silly and unforgettable to me. I can honestly say that she is the thing I miss most on a very short short list of things I miss about Utah.:) Avery got hold of the camera and it was quite funny to see things from her point of view.

Speaking of the camera.....Avery is hilarious! She sneaks the camera and snatches all sorts of pictures, lots of them being of the toilet..... She is such a good girl. She is so good to help me all the time. She most of the time (yes there are exceptions)alsways has a sweet word for me telling me "Mudder, I love you, you're the best mudder in the whole wide world, no mudder is better than you!" She is growing fast fast fast! She is losing her babyness and really becoming a little girl! She loves to be very dramatic, wear pretty dresses and donning her beautiful handmade pearl jewelery from her Nana! She is very very very very chatty! She waves and talks to anyone and everyone where ever we go. She is learning to bat her eye lashes and has her first crush on a 14 year old boy in our ward named Spencer. He is one of Britt's scouts and comes over every once in a while. Avery has to put on her Sleeping Beauty dress and the whole nine yards to catch his eye. Thank goodness he comes from a very good family and has a sense of humor! Here are also some shots of Avery, Nathan and Andrew while we tote them around for preschool, Andrew asleep in the car, Nathan in Zachary's drone costume and look how cute Avery and Nathan are together. I never dreamt that my child and her cousin would be such loyal friends. It is really something to watch the two of them together. And when they are apart, all they talk about is getting back together again...

We had our first annual Potato Derby Race in our ward. Being on the activities committee has been a lot of fun for me! I was in charge of this activity and the pressure was on for something fun! We had witnessed a similar race with Britt's Smith family reunion 3 years ago which was hilarious! This was equally fun and now everyone thinks I'm brilliant for putting it together.....hee hee hee I've got them fooled! It was fun with my car "Nessie" coming in 5th and Britt's close behind in 7th. It was an adult's only activity and the winning car was "Spud Muffin". It was great! Here is Britt with our great friends Stuart and Eva Conde sporting their masterpieces! And then there's my Nessie....

April

Easter came and went so quickly, as did the Cadbury eggs. I bought a secret stash I hid in my bedside table drawer that disappeared all too quickly.... Avery was so pretty in her dress and loved her bunny she got! The neighborhood Easter egg hunt couldn't end any quicker for me or Avery. Right before we went I tripped and fell full weight on my bad knee which was already tender from kneeling building a cabinet in my kitchen all week. I believe it hurt worse than child birth and all I could do was grin and bear it. Then at the hunt Avery tripped too and was so embarrassed to have fallen down over her basket, that tears won out over grabbing as many eggs as possible. The only good thing that came out of it were that the 4 dozen sugar cookies we made together with Mom's famous recipe were the hit of the hunt! It is amazing to me how nobody makes anything homemade anymore. Avery and I had so much fun making them and sprinkling the sprinkles and colored sugar on them! They were sooooo pretty! She was content to come home to her new bunny which she appropriately named "Powdered Sugar".

Avery has started swimming lessons and is doing great! We are lucky to go to a nice lady in our neighborhood who has an indoor pool. She taught Britt's cousins many years ago and has such a way with kids. Avery is fearless and eager to learn to get ready for the ocean this summer.

Mom and Dad also came for a quick trip to look at houses. It looks like they have decided to build a beautiful home about 4 miles away. We are awaiting finalization's of their plans and look forward to being spoiled rotten with them being here by mid August! Now if I can just get my husband to behave.... I'll upload photos of the lot and model as soon as every thing's in writing!

Here are Mom and Dad with Jason Blakeslee taking the plunge and signing the papers on an offer to start building..... Avery was happy to be there amidst her lovely wound aka cat bite from Morris front and center on her forehead. With some antibiotics it has cleared up real quick but I wonder if she'll ever learn that when you corner a cat you'll never win....
Here's Mom with her grand kids...I wonder if she's prepared to live this close to them permanently? Ready or not, here they come!

Candace Messina Streep

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A Start At Updating....

Okay, I know I need to update so a start at that is at the bottom of the page. A funny site Candy sent my way which will guarantee a laugh if not at least a smile....
Starring: Grandma Annie, Uncle Chris, Britt, Avery and me:)