Singing, Sewing and other such Sabbath activities

In an effort to improve ourselves personally and develop our talents, Jon and I have devoted our recent Sunday afternoons to the following activities:

I joined the ward choir.

For the first time in my life. It should be a lot of fun! This ward in Loomis is MUCH smaller than our ward in Fair Oaks. I think there were about 10 of us at choir practice this week, but I love the spirit in music :)

Jon made me a journal!

I have been needing one since I just filled up my last one and he offered to bind one from scratch! I picked out the cover paper at my store (Beverly's) and he did the rest! Seriously this is the most amazing journal I have ever owned. He did it ALL from scratch:

Also, check out my super cute new nail polish color from Jon above :)

Here he is working on the book. The awl broke while he was getting ready for the binding, so he resorted to a nail and hammer and it still turned out amazing!

Traditional Japanese bind:

True sign of an artist's work desk: cutting mat, paper, and chocolate ice cream.

Jon has also been working with me on ukulele!

No pictures of this yet. All I know are my basic major chords. Someday when I can play a song, Jon and I will video it for y'all.

I sewed!

Dang, isn't this fabric adorable??

Man I have been hankering to bust out my machine for a while, and with the move it has been dormant much too long. No pictures of the completely finished product YET, because it's a surprise for someone very close to me, but I promise it is adorable and quite possibly the thing I am MOST proud of ever sewing thus far in my life.

These next things are not "Sunday" things, but just what we've been up to lately :)
We participated in the YW service auction for FO 5th ward! Jon and I donated photography services (yes, we are still doing that). I was pretty happy with the flyer I whipped together! Unfortunately it won't upload, so you'll just have to imagine that it was amazing. I also really really really wanted this purse donated by Katie Roth!

But I was outbid like crazy. Jon even put that the purse would be "for the baby" yet people still outbid me! haha at least it was for a good cause :) We DID come home the proud owners of some plush owls handmade by one of the YW in the ward. Perfect for the baby's room!

In other awesome news, our bro and sis in law recently took their boys to Disneyland and we house-sat for them. Check out these SWEET bowls that they brought back for us! We are spoiled. The backs of the bowls are like Mickey and Minnie's bums respectively. Totally cute!

I also finished a wreath for the baby's room door! Since we're doing the nursery colors here at the in-laws in chocolate brown, orange, green and a touch of blue (to go with the quilt already on the bed that my niece sleeps in) I wanted the yarn wreath on the outside of the door to reflect the colors inside the room! The orange looks a LOT more vibrant in these pictures than it is in real life. The tag on the ribbon was paper hand dyed by Jon and I wrote the words "Love is Spoken Here" (can you tell I love primary music??) And maybe it's just me, but I feel like my love for the funk of the 70's also shows in this wreath... maybe it's the colors... or the slightly groovy handwriting I used...

In family news; Margo is as cute as ever :)

Baby Alston and I have officially entered the 3rd trimester!

I have been doing pre-natal yoga and LOVE it! As my friend Amanda said today, who knew it would take being pregnant to get me excited for exercise? haha!
Since I do my yoga in the morning before my hair and makeup is done, I opted for taking a pic of my mat rather than ME actually doing the yoga poses... You can just use your imagination.

Baby A is doing well and kicking and stretching ALL the time!
Jon got me a body pillow this week (heavenly!), and Margo (of course) thought it was for her...

We have also heard some great name/nickname suggestions for Baby A so far from our friends:

Tyler

Tori

Logan

Larry

LorenzoNickChristian (for boy or girl)

Sven.

So let's hear your votes! The future name of our child may just be the one you suggest.
You can also throw in your votes for BOY or GIRL in the sidebar to the right >>

Very Merry

On SATURDAY we had a Very Merry and Mad UN-birthday party for Jon!

Ben and Breanna were nice enough to let us use their our house for the event and Breanna was SO awesome in helping me plan, decorate, and really make sure that everything came together!

Last weekend she and I prepped by gathering supplies and making party favors. We went with GREEN (since it's Jon's favorite color) and branched off from there with blue, orange, red and BLACK (since this was an UN-birthday celebration).

Everyone was challenged with wearing a CRAZY hat to the party, and we all voted for the Most Funny, Most Creative and Best Overall. The prizes were a mini paint can that Breanna and I decorated each filled with one of Jon's favorite candies (Snickers, Twix and Reese's PB cups).

We had such a good turn out! Amongst the party goers were:

Ben & Breanna

Jake & Brenda

Spanky

Michelle (my sis)

Andrew Nielsen

David & Breanne

Brandon & Tiani

Matt & Julia

and Riley & Summer!

 We couldn't have CAKE at an UN-birthday, so instead we had everyone bring their favorite ice cream and toppings for an ice cream bar! I even had my very own chocolate fudge Soy Dream ;)

Riley and Summer thought the hats were optional. FAIL.

Michelle (who won for Best Hat), Andrew and Me! 

Ah I wish I had a pic of David with his beard hat! He won Most Funny :)

Jon and his BFF Spanky:

Brandon & Tiani - way to be creative, guys!



Breanna & Ben - the party wizards :)

Me with the Birthday Boy!

This is Jon opening his new SHINS cd from my sis - so exciting! Of course I actually had to have him recreate this event since I didn't have the camera ready the first time.

Thank you to EVERYONE for making Jon's birthday such a huge success! We really missed those of you who weren't able to make it :( Next time I am hunting you all down. You know who you are...

HAPPY 27th BIRTHDAY, JON!

may you have many many many more :)



27

Yesterday Jon turned 27!!

Since we have been house-sitting for my older bro and sis-in-law this week, I had to be pretty sneaky with improvising birthday plans :) I think I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself!

The morning of Jon's birthday I woke up early to make him a cake (chocolate fudge with rainbow chip frosting).

I decorated the counter with a birthday banner and green streamers so that when he got home from work he would be surprised!

I had school that evening right after work, so I set out the present from Margo (new socks!) and a card from me (with a check of our returned security deposit from our apartment, heck yeah!) and let Jon enjoy his spoils (and take a nap) until my class was over.

 

 For dinner I took him out to Benihana! We hadn't been there since my senior ball in 2005, so we were long overdue for some amazing food that we watch our chef play with before serving. We had SUCH an awesome time! Everything was delicious and the group next to us was ALSO celebrating a birthday, which made it fun, although their version was full of a lot of sake bombs. It was just awesome to go on a date and enjoy his birthday together!

Jon was even given chocolate ice cream for dessert and was sung to! I'm sure he was most excited about the fact that he didn't have to share his ice cream with me at all ;) I had sorbet.

At Benihana when it is your birthday they take a picture of you with the person(s) you came with and print it out right there! Of course this is just a picture of the picture with my cell phone, but you get the idea:

HAPPY 27th BIRTHDAY JON!

I know this is going to be the best year ever :)

Happy Easter!

Due to house-sitting for my bro and sis in law this week, as well as moving and not having much internet access, my posts lately have been rare at best. BUT I did want to take this opportunity at Easter to post about my love for our Savior and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that I'm a day late, but I really think anytime is a good time to share the good news of our Savior!

Yesterday we were able to visit our Fair Oaks ward for sacrament meeting. I'm so glad that we did! We were able to see a few people that we haven't talked to in a while and the messages shared were very heartfelt. I know we have officially moved away, but I guess we needed to ease into the separation at a slow rate...

Then we headed over to Jon's parent's house (our new place) for Easter dinner. My niece had a little Easter egg hunt in the backyard and then she and I made deviled eggs together. Afterward we visited my family - where we were totally spoiled with Easter baskets and candy! Margo even got a new little purple food bowl. What a lucky pup!

But even with all of that, the best part was taking the day to remember the sacrifice of our elder brother to come to Earth, live as a perfect example for us, teach us to love one another, then die for our sins and be resurrected so that we ALL can have the opportunity for eternal life with our Heavenly Father. I am SO grateful for the atonement in my life and the blessing that it is so that I can do better every day and repair the broken parts of myself. I am thankful for a Heavenly Father who knew that we would make mistakes, and planned a way for us to pay the debt that we couldn't on our own.

I am also very excited for the blessing of motherhood and the opportunity that I have to be a parent with Jon to a little son or daughter of God and to teach them about all these miraculous things! It's hard to believe that in just 3 more months our little baby will be here! It is a wonderful life, and I am thankful for it every day.

HAPPY EASTER!!

To Purge

VERB

to rid of whatever is impure or undesirable; cleanse; purify

Recently this was the word-of-the-day at our apartment...

 Margo supervised as things were put in boxes and hauled away

until the place looked like this...

and then we turned in our keys and said goodbye to Orangevale.

At least Margo is ready for new adventures!