Birth story

The night before I had Sayler was just a normal everyday night. Greg and I stayed up late that night watching who knows what on tv, then laying in bed til late just talking about how excited we were about having our little girl in just a few short days. We had an inducement day planned for the following Monday morning...so of course that's how I expected everything to go down. Never in my wildest dreams did I think this girl was going to be making her debut any earlier than that. I woke up at 1:30 am thinking I was about to pee the bed...so I quickly sat up and just a gush went everywhere. And I thought "are you kidding me? Did I really just pee the bed?!" Greg kind of woke up enough to ask if I was okay, and I just mumbled yea I'm fine because I was so embarrassed I had just peed the bed! I ran to the bathroom and it just kept coming out...I was in shock and thought no way, my water did not break. Then I start kind of freaking out. I yelled for Greg and of course this is the one night he's actually in a dead sleep, never happens! So he's like what? What's going on? Are you sure.. So I call my mom, trying to get the words out through my panicked voice. And she's like yup! Your water just broke! We both were in shock. Greg jumps out of bed and gets dressed so fast and I wrap a towel around myself and we run out the door. We arrived at the hospital and they got me all hooked up and told me they'd start me on the pitocin at 4 and my doctor would be there at 8:30 in the morning. So I had a few hours to kill until then. We tried to sleep but that only worked for uh maybe 10 minutes before the contractions kicked in.. I'm so grateful for  an amazing doctor who said I could get the epidural pretty much when I wanted it. So I was almost a 3 and I got that bad boy! Best decision ever. I had no idea I wouldn't feel anything...I thought it just dulled the pain. So I was loving life. Once it was 4 they started me on the pitocin and I dilated to a 5 quickly after. I told Greg he should run home and grab a few of my things at this point while he had some time. He had been gone not even an hour and the nurse came in to check on me and was like oh wow, you're a 10. So I call Greg and I'm like hurry!! I'm a 10. Greg got there minutes later. :) Once the doctor made it there I started pushing and had our sweet girl 45 min later. Sayler was born at 11:34 am. I can not put in to words what an amazing experience this was to welcome such a beautiful girl into this world. And she was ours. Since we had two miscarriages before Sayler, I think it really made us appreciate this whole pregnancy and her coming into this world that much more! She's perfect. We love her so much and can't believe how much joy she brings into our lives. 

Sayler weighed 7 pounds 4 ounces and was 20 inches long. 

Anchor's Aweigh, Baby Sayler is on her way!

So I was TOTALLY spoiled this weekend with the cutest baby shower ever! We're naming our sweet girl, Sayler, so it only fit to have the nautical theme. My mom did all of the planning and made it look absolutely perfect! All of my sister's were able to fly out for my shower and that was the ultimate gift. It was so fun having all of us girls together. Teresa was the absolute sweetest for letting us use her new shop, Flourish! It seriously is such a fun spot and decorated SO cute! Because she already did a super cute blog post, I'm just going to let you check out hers here.







Thanks to all of the friends and family who came, my sisters, my sister in-law, my amazing mom, and Teresa for making this such a wonderful day for me!

Chevron, Glitter, and Pumpkins!

It's definitely Fall here in Amarillo, TX...or shall we say winter? I'm not too fond of the weather drastically changing from 100 degrees, to 55. HUGE change. I like slow adjustments :) It makes me happy though, I love seasons and fall is definitely one of my favorites. I love decorating for each new season/holiday. It makes it that much more fun! Since we've been in a few different apartments the past year there's not too much decorating that can take place, but I try to make it as home-y as possible. :) This year I actually started putting up my fall decorations.....at the end of July.... :) I was too excited! This week I decided to add a little more to it. I had been seeing the glitter chevron pumpkin on Pinterest and I just had to make one. So I went out to Hobby Lobby and got myself a fake pumpkin, some glitter, and paint and went to town! Loving the start of a new season!

"Waiting Upon the Lord: Thy Will be Done"

Today I read the most the perfect conference talk that was exactly what I have been needing to hear. I sometimes wonder why things haven't gone exactly the way I have always thought they would, and why we are faced with the different challanges we are faced with. After reading this talk, it was a HUGE reminder of how blessed I truly am and that the challanges that we are faced with are for our own good.

"The purpose of our life on earth is to grow, develop, and be strengthened through our own experiences." Robert D. Hales

Of course we all know this, but we sometimes forget. I am so grateful for a loving Savior who has suffered more than I can ever imagine and is there with us every step of the way. I know as I trust in the Lord and His timing, everything will work out.

4th of July

This year we celebrated the big 4th in California with my family, it was SO much fun! It's our family tradition to go up to our houseboat each year for the fourth. With our family growing it makes it real hard for us ALL to get together at once, so this is one of those times that we can all be together...and what's better than being on the lake? :)

My mom always make everything a good time..she's the most amazing woman I know. & when it comes to the food at the lake, we eat like king's. My mom is always making some sort of amazing smoothie (hers are better than Jamba, they're that good) We'll wake up to breakfast already ready, go out for a morning run on the boat, and come back to lunch already prepared. Seriously, she makes it the ultimate. She never ceases the fail with her amazingness.

The lake puts on a firework show each year which is so fun to watch from the boat. This year because the 4th fell on a Wednesday they did the fireworks a day early and it wasn't as crowed as normal, which was kind of nice.

This was on our boat ride over to the other side of the lake to watch the fireworks. It was so gorgeous outside.

It was a great time, sad that it went by so fast. While we were there we made a trip up to Yosemite, it was Greg's first time, so I'll post about that one later!

The Lucky One...

Just a few weeks ago Greg and I celebrated our ONE year anniversary! I cannot believe how quick time flies, it feels like just yesterday we were walking out of those temple doors. I can honestly say, I am THE luckiest girl in the world. I can't believe how blessed I am to have the most amazing man in my life, for eternity. I look back on this past year and it's filled with SO many great memories. We've moved three different times since we've been married...crazy, there is definitely never a dull moment with us. :) He is my best friend, he knows me better than I know myself sometimes. I love that I fall in love with him more and more each day. He treats me like a princess, he is the absolute sweetest to me, and I know he is going to be the best dad ever! It's such a great feeling knowing you always have someone right by your side, no matter what. I couldn't have found someone more perfect for me. This year we have been blessed to be able to travel, a TON. We've had some pretty amazing trips! For our anniversary he took me to Vegas and we stayed in the Venetian. SO fun! I've been to Vegas many times, but this took the cake! First of all, the hotel was gorgeous, we got to see the Phantom of the Opera..which truly was amazing. I can't describe how awesome it was, the detail was unbelieveable.

We ate LOTS of yummy food, at all of our favorite spots :)

did a TON of walking, which is expected..and great for burning off all those calories. ;) We got a couples massage, wow, let's just say when the hour was up we both were wanting more...nothing better than a good massage. We loved walking through all the hotels, it's so fun to see how the decorations change at the different times of year.

And of course, we did some shopping. He's such a trooper. We've had the best year and I'm so excited for the many years to come. It only gets better with him. Love you so much babe!

Ruffle Pillow Tutorial

So a while back I saw a pillow at Pier 1 and LOVED it. Unfortunetly, it was kind of a little more than I wanted to spend...but I decided that I'd try and just re-create it.

Here's Pier 1's pillow, cute right?
(Don't get your hopes up too high, this one still is cuter than mine ;)

I found some fabric that was similar to the one above, and I'm pretty sure I got it at Walmart for like 2 bucks a yard, so really cheap.

*First thing first, you need to cut out a TON of strips. Depending on how wide you want your ruffles will determine about how wide you cut them. I think I did mine about 2-2.5 inches wide. Keep in mind you'll need a rotary cutter for this, it'll make it SO much easier. (When I did this project I cut all the strips by hand using pins to try and cut a straight line :/ it takes forever this way) So don't be cheap like me and just a get a rotary cutter and board. They're not too expensive.

Sorry I didn't take any pictures of these steps.

*Next step, after you've cut out all your strips (you should have a pretty big pile) you're going to want to make sure you still have enough fabric that you can cut out two squares the same size of your pillow and add about an 1-1.5 in. extra on each edge for your seam allowance.

*Now that everything is cut out, what I did was de-fray for a lack of a better word, my strips. I didn't want them to fray so I just got a lighter and lighty moved the strip across the flame. You can use a candle as well. I did this to all my strips.

*This is how I began pinning my ruffles to my piece of fabric. I started at a corner and just pinned them in place to create a ruffled look. Because my fabric wasn't the same on both sides I couldn't just continue looping it around. I had to cut it off at each end that I reached. If that makes sense.

*After it was pinned in place, I just sewed right up the top of the ruffle.
-It should start to look like this:

*Continue doing this until you've done all four corners.

*From here you're just going to start your fabric going in a cicular pattern around the middle.
-Like this, and just keep it going til' you've finished it off:

*Once you've got all of your ruffles sewn on the front now you want to attach the back to the front. For this, all you'll do it flip both fabrics inside out and sew them together, keeping in mind to keep a space open on one of the sides. Reason for this is so you can flip it back to the right side out and stuff your pillow in.

It's finished! Here's a close up of the finished product:

Here it is:

This pillow is actually easier than it may look. It's a little time consuming, but it looks great when you're finished!
-Something I might change for next time would be to get a fabric that is the same on both sides so you can create a continued ruffle look for the whole pillow. And I'd also do my strips a little wider for a fluffier look.