Finally...our Anniversary meanderings...

We began our weekend by dropping the kids off at Chris' folks house and then going out to eat to the Chinese Buffet down the road (I know, lame lame lame...anyhow we shouldn't have bothered because the food all tasted the same and totally wasn't worth it. Oh well, you live and learn!)

Then we headed back to Twin Falls and grabbed some of Chris' favorite snack (Peanut Butter M&Ms at Target) along with some pillows and some other snacks from our house and headed over to the DRIVE-IN!!!! Chris and I hadn't been to a drive-in since one of our first dates so that was a lot of fun! We played good old SKIP-BO while we waited for the movies to begin. First we saw WOLVERINE and then 12 ROUNDS, both great shows!!!

The next day:

After a leisurely morning of sleeping in (and being suprised with breakfast in bed by Chris) we decided to get in the car and start driving! Our first stop was in the countryside outside of Wendell, Idaho (about a 20-30 minute drive from our house)

BOX CANYON PRESERVE:

When we got there (after missing the parking lot and turning around)

we followed a mile long path down through fields...

tumbleweeds...yup, we're still in Idaho!

as you can see it looks pretty boring....

and then we saw this:

For those of you who may have trouble reading this sign it says:

DANGEROUS CANYON RIM

USE EXTREME CAUTION

PARENTS PLEASE CONTROL YOUR CHILDREN

Chris and I got a good laugh out of that and then after walking a few

more yards we came upon this:

That's a canyon....out of the middle of nowhere...and it's a long way to the bottom! I was reminded that Chris is deathly afraid of heights as he wouldn't even go near the edge and freaked out every time I stepped an inch closer to take a picture!!!


The blue water is natural hot springs and the reason why it's so clear is because the water bubbles up from underneath the ground (they are called blue hidden springs)

The water was so pretty and made such a beautiful noise- it was hard to believe that just seconds before we'd been strolling down an old dirt road

And then, back to the sagebrush for our walk back to the road...

Along the way I decided to take some pictures of the old pivots in the fields. I really love photography and especially capturing graphic images that you don't see by just looking at an object normally. I try to capture with the lens the details of what actually makes something what it is...what I wouldn't give for a Nikon D60!!! (hint, hint!?!?)

Since I'm a COWGIRL WANNABE and a JOHN DEERE fan

I thought these pics came out pretty cool...

And then we went to BUHL....

(all I could think of was "Buehler, Buehler..." when the teacher from "Ferris Buehler's Day Off" was taking attendance!)

Along the way I made some friends and they let me take their picture...

Once we got to BUHL there wasn't much to see and not many options for lunch and since Chris was "STARVING" he ate at Arctic Circle while I tried some Mexican Food from Senor Habaneros (I should have had the burger and fries!)

...

From there we drove WAY out into the "Williwacks" as we say in Maine...just to see the "Famous" BALANCE ROCK

There "she" is in "all her glory" sitting alongside some old forgotten

highway in the MIDDLE OF NO WHERE!

They hardly had a sign marking her existence!

Reportedly this beauty "balances" on a width of only 3 feet...something like that....

... another trek and up the hill we went...I told Chris that I was going to go to the top and have him take a picture of me standing beneath it- he couldn't let me show him and his fear of heights up so he made the daring climb of death to have his picture taken as well (it only took him a half hour sliding down on his bum and holding on for dear life to get down!)

.

I made it down in about 5 seconds!

Chris facing "the enemy" as he prepared to climb to the top

I occupied myself with picture snapping while he made his arduous climb

And here he is, at the "Top"...I feel okay that I'm slightly teasing him about his fear of heights and his wussy attempt to face his fear because he has tortured me over the last 7 years by making me watch scary movies with him (I have an over-active imagination, which paired with scary movies doesn't mix well with me when I often wake up during the night and can't sleep...)

...Anyways, I climbed to the top next and took a picture of "the view"

That's me, under the rock...I was hoping for a close-up but I guess I wasn't specific enough

when I asked Chris to click a picture...

After we got back down to the car we drove into a little park down the road that has some picnic areas. I almost killed myself while scaling a smooth-faced rock just to get this pic

On the way back into "civilization" we passed by this AWESOMELY PERFECT VINTAGE FORDand Chris was nice enough to oblige and pull over so I could spend the next 15 minutes walking around someone's front yard clicking pictures.

Here's some of the coolest ones...

This wheel was actually on the back left wheel of the truck!

The truck had obviously been "patched up a little" since the front half was FORD and the back half was an INTERNATIONAL truck bed...I've always wanted a INTERNATIONAL SCOUT (and a VW BUS!!!)

As we drove out of BUHL towards the HAGERMAN Valley we were followed by a beautiful wide rainbow (this was the best shot I could get as we were going about 65 mph)

THOUSAND SPINGS, HAGERMAN:

Back before this area of the Snake River had a power plant which has diverted a lot of the natural springs there were literally thousands of springs that spouted out of the rock walls of the canyon. Today there are still several large springs cascading down the rock:

We drove all around Hagerman and saw some pretty reservoirs and a few interesting sights.

Hagerman is actually the site where they discovered the "Hagerman Horse" which is in the Smithsonian-

We also went to Devil's Washbasin to see this waterfall that is unfortunately hidden from view along the highway because the Interstate goes right over it (wouldn't you think that they could have moved the road over a few hundred feet?!)

Because the river is so narrow between the canyon walls right here is creates a lot of force when the water is finally squeezed down through the waterfall (hence the name Devil's Washbasin)

We ended our wonderful weekend together by eating some delicious "steak nuggets" (small pieces of very tender and juicy steak) at The Montana Steakhouse right around the corner from where we live. The food was delicious but they really should hire a different interior decorator!

...

Then we went home and TRIED to rent a nice sappy love story to watch but couldn't find anything from the "Black Box" in our lobby so we ended up watching the Will Smith movie, "SEVEN POUNDS" which was good but SLOW and somewhat DEPRESSING!

Oh well, off to bed for another wonderful night's rest and a morning of sleeping in!!!

...

(Thanks mom and dad Graf for watching the kiddos!!!)

The Daily Musings of Brady Graf

BRADY: (said randomly when on a walk) "Mommy, if you put lettuce in my chocolate cake that would be disgusting! Eck!"


BRADY: (on the same walk, and also randomly) "I don't want to go on this long walk anymore!)
MOMMY: "Well, mommy needs to burn more calories so I can lose weight so we have to go on this walk!"
BRADY: "Well, I'll keep my calories then!"


BRADY: "Mommy, do you have a baby in your tummy?"
MOMMY: "No, why do you ask?"
BRADY: "Because your tummy is fat like it has a baby!"
MOMMY: "Well, that's not a very nice things to say" (and thinking to myself...."I need to go on even longer walks!")


OLIVIA: "bjbjsjahuryhuhkjnmnvfj...hehe"
(I thought I'd throw that in there because she is very observant, smiley and happy. When Brady and I are talking she laughs at everything Brady says!"

BOTH my sites....PRICES DROPPED!!!

Hey everyone-

I wanted to let you know that I dropped a bunch of the prices at my site:

Little Treasures

and I lowered my Taggy Blankies from $22 to $18 and also now offer custom matching/co-ordinating burp cloths in a pack of 4 for $12!!! Shipping is flat rate $3

So if you're having a baby or need a great baby gift check out my site:

TaG-a-LoNgS

Also...be watching for my post about my ETSY shop (still in the process)

PLEASE tell all of your friends and link to my blog- just a SAHM trying to make something on the side!!!! (and let me know if you have any side "pursuits" for sale so I can tell all my friends!)

6 Years...

Chris and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary on May 2nd. We had a nice relaxing weekend staying at home and were so thankful to Chris' parents for watching the kids for the weekend! It was so strange to be at home without them but we caught up on some "Zzzzz's" and got to "explore" southeast Idaho a little. (More about that in the next post!)

Here's to the last six years!!!

No "Love at FIRST sight!"
We met at BYU-Idaho in our sophmore year. My roommate and I had been friends the previous year and were eager to go to church and "check out" the guys in our Ward. We were a little dissapointed when we got there because we soon realized that there were only a handful of guys that were Returned Missionaries! We saw Chris and his roommate, Ryan walk in and Michelle (my roommate) and I both called "dibs" on Ryan! Michelle, said "No way!" That I should "Take the tall guy" (referring to Chris), but I said "He's way too tall!!!" So then we joked around a bit more and figured that we were just destined to go on missions...

Encounter #2: Later that evening...we got split up into Family Home Evening Groups within our Ward and believe it or not we got paired with Chris' apartment! (There were many apartments so this was a pretty lucky draw!) I talked to Chris that night breifly as we made plans as a group to go have a bonfire the following evening at the sand dunes...

Encounter #3: In the Smith Building on Monday afternoon...I saw Chris as we were walking through the hallway. I smiled and said hi as he walked by (figuring that he's remember me from talking with him the night before). He just looked at me and kept walking...I thought, "Jerk!" So I went home and proceeded to tell my roommate Michelle how I wasn't going to FHE that night because our guys were a bunch of jerks anyways! She tried to convince me to go but I decided to just go to the opening prayer at our neighbors house and then stay home and do homework...

Encounter #4: Opening prayer for FHE: (This is when Chris "claims" he first saw me and felt "Love at FIRST sight!" Hahahahaha...anyhow, we had prayer and as I was going to the door to go home Chris turned around and asked if I wanted to drive with them. I thought, "Well, okay, at least he can't be that much of a jerk if he's being so nice...well as they say...the rest is HISTORY!!! Chris and I talked the entire night and never left eachother's side. He roasted me marshmallows, I told him all about Maine and he asked me out for the following evening!

Our First date was dinner and a movie and he successfully held my hand and a kiss!!! After that we were together every day after school and whenever he wasn't working or we weren't studying! It was a whirlwind "romance" as we got engaged only after 5 weeks of dating!!! It seems so crazy and incredible now but at the time it felt like I'd known him forever and that everything just settled into place. We did have some tough, confusing emotions through it all but we survived a 6 1/2 month engagement and here we are now!!!

Our First (and last!) Dance- Homecoming 2002- after only 1 week of dating...

Being crazy one afternoon...I think maybe we were bored?! Chris put my clothes on and I put on his!!! He barely squeezed into mine and his were falling off of me!!! Those pants that Chris is wearing came all the way down to my ankles!!!



Then comes marriage...

May 2nd, 2003 Logan Temple

And many good times since...

Rodizio's Chuhascarria

1st Anniversary

On our FIRST anniversary we went down to Logan for Chris' sister, Nickie's wedding (They got married 1 year and 1 week after we did!) and we had a wonderful time with them. Not only that but we also came back with the most memorable anniversary present that we opened 9 months later...our little Brady boy!!!

SECOND anniversary -trip to Montana to hike, eat out and of course visit family

THIRD anniversary- early trip to San Antonio and then during driving cross-country to Maine!!!

FOURTH anniversary- Philadelphia to visit Nick and Nickie and plenty of walks along the beach

FIFTH anniversary- expecting Baby #2, our sweet Olivia- we went to a new Brazlian chuhascarria and on a "cruise" to the Isle of Shoals with Chris company- really it was a nice boat ride into the bay with a dinner and we got to stay in a hotel for the weekend!

SIXTH anniversary- stayed home and relaxed!!!

What's happend during 6 years?

• We both graduated with our Bachelor's from BYU-Idaho
• We've held a total of 13 jobs between the two of us
• Moved 10 times, but lived in 4 cities!!!
• 2 cross-country moves (with kids!)
• owned 4 cars
• had 2 kids
• gained AND LOST ...and gained a lot of weight!
• been to 19 states
• held 10 callings between the two of us
• had lots of UPS, DOWNS and ALL AROUNDS and come through it all stronger, happier and still holding hands!!!

Love you Babe!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Finally....pictures of our new apartment!!!

I've been having a lot of fun decorating my apartment with things I've found here and there and things I've been making. I'll show the kid's room first because this is the room that I'm most proud of!!! I think their room turned out so cute for a little boy and girl to share!!!

The Kid's Room:

It hasn't changed too much since I posted pictures when we were living in Boise and it was just Brady's cowboy room.

The biggest changes are that I had to make all of Olivia's bedding and include her in the room by making it somewhat "girly."

My mom gave me the three stars above the window and at first I didn't know where I was going to put them so I was just holding them and walking around my house aimlessly looking at places where they might look good.

When I walked into the kid's room it just clicked that they would be so perfect up there and I think they totally bring the look together! (Thanks Mom!)

As you walk into the room this picture is the first thing that you see. My mom found the frame and the sign at D.I. (yeah, we heart D.I.!) She also took this cute picture of the kids and I made this matte, if you will, with a red bandana and hot-glued it to the frame.

Rustic and cute for $1.50!

As you look to the left these pictures are hanging on the wall in

the empty space before Olivia's crib.

I've been wanting to make some sihlouettes of the kids for quite some time now and got an idea off of a cute blog the other day to use scrap-book paper and embellishments. I thought it would be a cute way of making the room both of theirs.

I've tried putting little touches here and there that include Olivia and make it her room too!

I found these frames at where else, the D.I. for $1.50 a piece
and I already had all of the other materials.

To hang the pictures I just stapled some bandana strips onto the backs of the frames.

The sihlouettes themselves were very easy to make. I just took a picture of each of my kid's profiles (the hardest part!). I had Brady look up slightly so his sihlouette is looking up at Olivia's and for Olivia I was just lucky to get her to sit still and look in the right direction!!!

Then I uploaded the pictures onto my camera from my picture card and copied them to a Word Document where I opened the picture toolbar and made the picture into a black and white outline and cropped the picture to elimate printing extra ink that wasn't necessary to print.

Then I just printed and cut out around the sihlouette, leaving space so I could do a detailed cut. I then put the sihlouette on the paper that I wanted to use and cut through both papers at the same time along the sihlouette to get the outline. Easy!!!

(TIP: when taking the picture have their profile fill up your screen,leaving as little around the edges as possible. Then when you're editing the picture you can make it whatever size you'd like)

Olivia's picture has a red polka-dot background but for some reason it looks pink in this picture (must be the flash).

Underneath their sihlouette I put the words that describe what their name means.

Brady's bed:




Olivia's Bed:

I feel really proud of myself for making Olivia's bedding!!! I didn't know if I could actually pull it off but I decided to do it and just winged it and it came out so adorable!!! I wanted to make it really nice so that when the next little boy "GRAFFER" decides to come along he can use it(since he will share a room with Brady, and hopefully Olivia will have a girly room!)

Here's what I did: I bought 2 denim curtain panels from the D.I. for $2.00!!! They already had the ties on the top so I instantly knew that I wanted to cover Olivia's bumper with them. I then bought some really cute dark brown material with white swiss polka dots (really small polka dots on them). The denim is on the outside and the brown is on the inside.

I also used the denim remnants to make a box-pleated skirt for around the crib. All of this cost me $11, which I think is really awesome because I'd been pricing out bumpers and crib skirts for weeks and the cheapest ones I could find that were cute would have come to a total of over $36.00!!!

Plus, it feels really great when you know that you made something all by yourself!

For the two pillows: I took 2 blue bandanas (yup, from D.I., a quarter a piece and sewed the edges and then covered a pillow form and tied the corners together. The other pillow I slip-covered one of my old couch pillows with some faux-cowhide fur.

I used one of Brady's top sheets as her crib sheet and just tucked it under
the matress using "hospital corners."

This is Olivia's mobile and I'm really proud of this too!!! I had the vision in my head and I think it came out cute (just don't look too close!!!)

I had bought her a mobile for her other room so I just looked at how they constructed it and then winged it again. It was actually pretty easy and I used up some of my remnants so it was FREE!!!

I still need to make Olivia some of her name letters that I'll hang over her crib. That's my last project for their room and then I'm done!

Eventually I'd like to make them a retro kitchen to go along with the vintage stove that I inherited from my Great-grandmother.

Here's the miscellanous parts of their room:

Brady's Nightstand:

I made the lampshade (still need to add some fringe to the bottom),found the stacking star boxes at a yard sale for $4 and I've had the frame since I was a teen. I'm going to change the picture out eventually.

Brady's "library:"

Where he also displays his super cool Teepee tents that I got at a used children's store in Maine for $2.00!!!

He also likes his football goal posts that he found with Daddy at D.I. for 50 cents!!!

Olivia's Dresser:

We use her changing table as a dresser and a place to store diapers and wet ones. Above the dresser we keep the baby books and on the hanging shelf (which one of my brother's made) hangs Brady's cowboy hat, his Quarter collection, and his nature box.

Onto to the rest of the house!!!!

The Livingroom:

This is basically the first thing you see as you walk into our apartment(but from an angle as the door is to the left of this).

This small wall seperates the diningroom from the kitchen and the other half of the room is the livingroom.

I made these curtains and the ones in the background on our "buffet tables" to hide books and our DVD collection. It was really easy and I just attached them with spring rods, which are adjustable to the space.

I also re-made these livingroom curtains by using leftover material to add to the bottom and top of the curtain panels I already had.

I made the large pillow, got the smaller tan one from D.I. for $1 and the other two red ones from Wal-Mart on sale for $9.99 each(they're silk so that was a good deal!)

We have a small balcony off of the livingroom with sliding glass doors. It's nice because we can see the Perinne Bridge from our apartment. I'm planning on having some herbs, tomatoes and flowers out there this summer.

Now we just have to figure out what to do with all of our strollers!!! We have the bike trailer in the diningroom, the double jogger in the entryway and the single stoller on the balcony along with Chris' bike! I'm going to be getting a bike soon too...we may just have to get a storage unit here in our complex!

The Kitchen:

I really love our little kitchen. It's really cute and has just enough space for right now-keeping me happy until I can have a nice big kitchen with tons of counter and cupboard space someday!

The Diningroom:

Our trusty table made another cross-country move with us! I picked up these two pressboard paintings at a yard sale, total: $20! (great deal considering they still had the $30 tags on them from Home Goods!)

This is a little "vingette," if you will that I composed of yard sale finds and
clearance items at Wal-Mart!!! Total cost was $18 for EVERYTHING!!!

The Hallway:

I am still in progress with finishing my family gallery in the hallway
(I have some pictures ordered and still need a few more frames...)but I love how this came out! I have pictures from our childhood, our wedding,our seperate families and our little family.

Most of the pictures are in sepia tone but there are a few in color too,which I think makes it have some interest.

Our Bedroom:

I really love our bedroom because it's big and bright and ALL OURS!!! It's so nice having a room to ourselves again and not having children in with us! It has really helped me to sleep better at night.

We also have an AWESOME walk-in-closet and vanity/dressing area which I really love too!

This is our brand-new bed!!! Isn't it lovely? I LOVE having a REAL bed for the first time!!!!

I set up our bench underneath of the windows and found these two matching
brand-new POTTERY BARN pillow slipcovers at D.I. for $2.00!!!

The Bathroom:

I took some western-style pictures that I had collected from calendars and my personal photography (cactus, Idaho wheat, Joshua trees etc.)and framed them using bamboo placemats as the background. I got all 4 placemats in a package at Target for $1...not bad for some interesting art!!!