Sometimes I laugh at myself:

... sitting on the couch...
...eating some scrumptious goodies...
...watching little E play on the ground...
...listening to the OCMCO "That Easter Morn" CD... (go HERE for more info because there's a concert coming up on Wed.)
...beginning to get teary and feeling warm fuzzy things inside...
...beginning to fully cry and become enveloped in the music...
...nearing the "boo hoo" cry because it's so beautiful...
...trying to get a hold of myself because I think I'm being dumb...
...failing miserably until the song ends...
...laughing really hard at myself. REALLY hard...

Katie and Kendra's book give away...

If you're looking for a fun homemade book give away... GO HERE to my sister-in-law's blog. Katie and Kendra (my sisters-in-law) are giving away a book bundle SPECIALLY made by Kendra. She's SO talented. It's intense what she can do. HERE is her website where you can see some of her creations. She also teaches classes... too bad I don't live in Utah! Blast.

But I hope I win it. Maybe if I begged her for some books she might give them to me anyway... maybe the one's she has laying around her house or something. That way if I don't win the give away I won't go and cry about it. I LOVE Kendra's stuff. We have two of her books. One parchment like journal that I love to write in and the one that she made for Josh and my wedding. It was our guest sign in book. SO FUN and so cute. We loved and still love it. I hope I get some more books. YES!

I'm not sure why... BUT I LOVE THIS SONG!!!!!

For some reason, this song is totally a "get up and move" song for me. It gives me good feelings inside. Like, the kind of feelings that tell me I'm having a great day no matter what happened/happens! Love it. And once again, this is something that was introduced to me by my lovely sister. Thanks HOTH! Oh, and ps: sorry for the not so modest girls in the video. I guess it could have been much worse.

Experimenting...

...with my new photoshop program!!!!

It's so stinkin' fun. This is kind of a dumb picture...it's something I made as an idea for place settings at Thanksgiving dinner... so I played around with the picture of it in photoshop to try and learn some things. I can't seem to figure out how to actually crop my picture so that you don't see the background green stuff. I'm VERY new though... so I'm sure I'll figure out tons of things soon. It's also TOO glowy... haha... I liked that feature. :)
This is my newest creation! I had seen a few different variations of this online... but I just came up with this on my own (using different parts of different kinds I had seen online). I wanted some place to store all my fun ribbons! And this is really easy and accessible. I decoupaged a shoe box with cool paper, hot glued some ribbon as a trim, put eyelets all along the base, and put my ribbons through them! I keep all the ribbon spools in place INSIDE the box with the long part of a wire hanger I cut to size. Anyway... sorry about the glowy/faded nature of the picture. Like I said, it's just me trying out my new program! YES!!! THANKS HOTH!

Haynie Happiness New Post

To see it... click here.

My projects this week...

I attempted a few new projects in the last few days and I really liked them! Here is my little crinkle toy that I made for little E. I got the tutorial from Lil Blue Boo here. It was actually super super easy. And I LOVE ribbon.

Little E loved playing with it. He liked feeling it crinkle in his fingers and he loved chewing on the ribbons. It makes a mom really happy to see their child like things they got/made for them. It makes it all worth it.This is a travel size baby wipes case that I made a little more pretty. The tutorial I used was from Homemade by Jill. There are some significant flaws in my attempt... but after fixing most of them... it turned out pretty good! And it didn't take long at all. Fun fun! And guess what else!!?? Josh glued the button on for me while I fed little E. So nice. :)

I've inherited some WONDERFUL fabric from some WONDERFUL women and I'm very happy. It's been really fun this weekend! I've tried a few things with my new sewing machine and my projects didn't crash and burn like I thought they would.

These are the VERY first things I made... like EVER in my life made. Like, the only other thing I've done on a sewing machine was hem a pair of pants. So, this was a LARGE step. I got the tutorial from stardust shoes and it was actually super easy. If you notice though, I made one shoe different. On accident. Oops. And by the time I noticed it... I didn't feel like re-doing anything. So my next pair I made, I did both shoes at the same time, rather than one shoe and then the other shoe. I guess I was just nervous I wouldn't be able to do it the first time so I only wanted to waist a little bit of fabric in case I messed up. This first pair looks like a couple of ducks to me. Do they to anyone else? I also didn't use fabric that I was in love with because, again, I had no confidence in myself. :) And then, I ventured some better fabric and came up with this...

I got the idea for these shoes from Homemade by Jill. I'm happy with these ones the most. They are WAY cuter on little E's feet than off of them. :) I'll have to post a follow up picture with him wearing them. So cute. All in all, I'm very happy with myself. I actually did WAY better than I thought I was going to. I guess that's why I'm so happy. Little E will be showing off his new shoes at church today... that's for sure!

JACKPOT!

Soon after Josh and I got married, my great grandma moved from her larger home to a smaller apartment. I think it was like a weekend before she was planning to get rid of everything that she offered some stuff to us... because we were JUST married. And poor. And needed things.
One of our fondest first year memories is renting a huge Penskie truck, driving all over California (it seemed), and ending up back in Utah where we lived. Part of that trip was to pick up some stuff from Grammie. We definitely hit the jackpot. She gave us AWESOME things. Like a fridge, table and chairs, and many cool cabinets (some of them my dad had made a LONG time ago). But the one thing she gave us that I'd like to focus on at the moment is this...
It's one of those OLD FASHIONED sewing machines that is built in to this cupboard thing. The sewing machine can be hidden away and everything can close up so that it just looks like a regular old cabinet. IT'S SO COOL. I haven't pulled it out to use it until now, two years after we got it. We've been carting this thing ALL over the place. We've moved 6 times with it. And it's REALLY heavy. Like, I could barely move it. Anyway... because it's so heavy and I wasn't using it, there were SO many times that I just wanted to throw it away or give it away. I was tired of carting it around for nothing. Oh how glad I am that I didn't throw it out! Thank you to all who talked me out of it during almost every relocation we made.

The other cool thing is that my Grammie gave me a big box filled with all of her sewing stuff. I hadn't looked through the box until today. I can't believe it took me that long! Usually I think it's so fun to look through old stuff and discover things I could use, etc. So, here is a picture of the box before I went through it....


Oh my... this is just SOME of the fun and interesting stuff that was in the box. If you close up on the picture above you will see how old this stuff was. You can see how they advertised back then and how much things cost. It's so funny and crazy!
This one was priceless. "I want PROSPERITY pockets!"

She had TONS of zippers. And you can see that the packaging for the "invisible zipper" is starting to look a little less 1940's. That kind of zipper was revolutionary!
And then of course all of her thread. Isn't this cool??!!

Look closely... these boxes are... yep, you guessed it... cigar boxes. :) I had to call my mom to figure this one out. My great-grandfather's (gramps) step-father smoked cigars and a pipe. So my Grammie used the old boxes to store stuff. Haha.

I was SO happy with my find today that I was literally singing and dancing around the house and not realizing it. I only noticed after Josh gave me a weird look that probably meant something like, "who are you and what have you done with my wife?" Or I guess it could have also meant "you're kind of scaring me honey." But I was and still am SO happy! Today I was able to find tons of stuff I can actually use to further my homemaking skills and I didn't know I had it! And it felt like it NEVER ended. I kept finding cool things, like a package that said, "Renu-a-bra!" over a drawing of a woman in some odd looking underwear. :)

New Haynie Happiness Post:

Click HERE to view it.

I LOVED my wedding

It has been two years and three months since my wedding day. Some people say once this much time after their wedding has gone by that they wish they would have changed something or another about that day. But I wouldn't change a thing. Not two years ago, not now, and I'll probably never feel like I wished it was different. It was perfect. Everything about it. Simply perfect. Our sealing was in the most beautiful temple that we now get to visit often. Our sealer was the absolute BEST sealer we could have ever asked for. The most important part of the whole day (and our whole lives) was made even better by such an inspiring, spiritually in tune, loving man. It was so special. I'll never forget it. And after the BEST morning ever I had the BEST evening ever at our reception. Wow... my parents REALLY outdid themselves. I still can't get over how many times I heard, "Hillary, would you rather have 'this' or 'that'?" or "what would make you most happy??" They were so SO awesome! I was so amazed by their generosity and complete love. My parents are so cool. And they certainly made my reception the talk of the town. :) Here are some pictures from one of the most fabulous days in my memory:
It was so nice to not be one of those brides who was completely tired after getting up at 4am in the morning. The temple was SO close so I didn't have to! What a great idea it was to get married there! Because, you know... the LA temple was closed (where I originally wanted to get married), and so the San Diego temple was where we were going to get married. We had the invitations printed and everything. But then I got a call from my sister that changed everything. And I'm so glad she called. Yep, thanks Heather. She talked some sense into me and I in turn talked some sense into Josh... which wasn't hard because his goal then and now has always been to make me happy.

We had a fantastic photographer! The fantastic-ness was mostly because she seemed to be able to capture everything exactly how I remembered it. And she was so creative and fun. We totally felt comfortable around her. We were SO LUCKY!

"The Tunnel of Love" as some of the guests affectionately called the entrance to the reception.

Chocolate covered strawberries. OH SO GOOD. And also pretty.

I think the high light for me at the reception was the beauty of the flowers! Wow. So classic! My bouquet was probably my favorite. It only became me favorite, though, after my mom saw a little glimpse of disappointment in my eyes after seeing the finished product. I didn't say anything about it either because I knew they were doing SO much for me and trying to make everything perfect. But she saw it in me and she jumped right on it and added some flowers to my bouquet that made ALL the difference! My special bouquet went from being pretty to GORGEOUS in a matter of minutes. All because of my mom.

Ok... how lucky am I to have a massively talented cake maker of a grandma! It was SO BEAUTIFUL!

Oh yes, more of the lovely flowers. I just loved them so much!

I thought and still think that my parents are the coolest for coming up with this design. FLOATING FLOWERS above the table area! It was so cool.

What a perfect day. Thanks for reliving this with me! It was SO FUN.
Can you tell it makes me happy???

Ethan Video

I posted a video on our family website!!! Click HERE to view it. :) Enjoy!

Exercise is Awful.

Enough said. Exercise is really poopy. I don't especially enjoy it. Although, those who actually enjoy exercising can generally also do it well. It is fun for those who are fit because they can go forever and feel fulfilled and get all those happy endorphins. Well, for those of us who aren't great at exercising... we can't go for very long (in the beginning anyway) and so it's not very fulfilling when you only go a mile in 20 minutes. BUT, I know that I'm not destined to always hate exercise. I liked it once upon a time. Yep, I liked it when I was actually fit. The time it takes to GET to that fit stage, however, is the time when I hate exercise.

The other thing I have going against me is my short legs. When I was the most fit I ever have been, I had an exercising buddy. My friend Ryann and I would go and exercise almost every weekday. It was great! She would push me to my limits. But something I remember most is how after exercising the SAME amount of time and huffing and puffing the SAME amount as her... I would actually travel WAY less distance. I'd be so proud that I went 3 miles! And then she goes and says she went 4 and 1/2. Blast. Partly this discrepancy was because she was probably slightly more fit than me and could handle more, but I think a large part was because she had LONG legs and an even LONGER stride. I, on the other hand, have been blessed with my mother's stride. :) There is still hope though because after many years my mother has lengthened her stride (literally, haha)... so I guess with practice I'll lengthen mine. I've already had to quicken my pace since I have a quick long legged husband. But all in all, I think I'll enjoy my exercise more when I can actually go farther.

Don't you wish we could job in this scenery all the time? It MIGHT make exercising better. But I'm not completely sure about that one. I've tried changing my scenery up before. It didn't help.

Funny Clean Videos...

If you're looking for some clean videos that also happen to be funny... go to my bro-in-law's new site! FUNNY CLEAN VIDEOS!!
It's pretty cool, and I'm sure he'd love it if you visited. :)

OH THE CUTEST OF ALL!!!!!!

This video is priceless. I laugh every time. But the end is the best. :)

Crafty:

(To look at the new post on our family blog click HERE.)




I have finally gotten some of my crafty desire out. I don't really like buying thank you notes or blank cards because it bothers me that I have to remember who I've sent which kind of card to already. Like, when you buy a pack of cards there's at least 10 or more of the same card in each pack. If I send one kind to my great grandma for a thank you note for my birthday, by the time Christmas comes around I can't remember if I've sent that same card to her or not. It gets very annoying. SO, I've made my own. Well, at least a few of my own. I'm still debating on whether or not I will actually write something like, "Thank You" on the front of them... because to me it seems like they need something there. But, for now, I'm happy with them. And it was SO easy. FUN.

I think this video is SO cute. It makes me happy. Especially if you go to 2:15. It's about half way through. So fun. Thanks Erica for showing me this! :)

I love holidays...

I love feeling festive. Which means that I especially love the holidays at the end of the year. My sister will share these feelings with me probably... we're practically the same in this area. :) Along with loving holidays... I also love traditions. There are SO many traditions that my family did growing up that I'd like to do with my own family now. JB has traditions too, but not as many. So my want/need for traditions has caught him off guard a bit. Every holiday has a tradition. And every tradition makes me happy. So, we continue the traditions. He's such a good sport.

Although I live in California where there isn't much of a seasonal change... I love it when the leaves change. It's so beautiful. It means all the fun holidays are coming. It means Christmas is almost here. It means bundling up in front of the fireplace, baking yummy things, and listening to Christmas cd's. Happiness.

There are a few things that are a must for the Christmas season. First is "The Muppet Christmas Carol".

We MUST watch it. Usually those that appreciate it most in my family are myself and my sister. One year just my sister and I watched it while we were up at BYU. We needed to feel festive and we were missing home so we rented the movie and watched it in my Heritage Halls apartment on a tiny TINY TV in my kitchen. That's how important this was to us.

And then there's the American Idol Christmas cd.
The best is Ruben Studdard's "This Christmas." (Awww... look at him. He looks cool doesn't he?
In his festive red and everything!
"Shake your hands, shake your hands, yea!" - Ruben Studdard)

Oh what rapturous and happy feelings that song gives me! And those feelings come most when I'm listening to it with my sis. Like I said... she is a sister after my own heart. Two peas in a pod are we when festivities and fun Christmas feelings are concerned.I love Christmas. What a glorious season of service and family and traditions. Summer is nice. But at the end of the year when everything is still and quiet, when the emphasis is put on others and not yourself, when we get to celebrate Christ's birth, when family seems more important than ever, and when traditions really make life happy is truly my most glorious time. Yes, the holiday season is my favorite. Nothing beats it. Not even the Summer.

Fun with Family!

We've posted on our Haynie Family Happiness Blog!
To look at our recent post go here.

The Unexpected...

Have you ever felt like you couldn't feel the spirit? But you REALLY wanted to? It feels like something is clouding your mind or is blocking you from feeling. And it isn't because you are sinning or because you are NOT doing something you should be doing... in fact, there is no obvious explanation you can find. You just can't feel. Your prayers hit the ceiling, or so it feels, and you try so hard but you can't feel those warm fuzzies.

I felt like that when I was pregnant. I don't know why I felt that way, but I did, and I hated it. Maybe hormone imbalances? Maybe some kind of depression?? I didn't feel depressed...
...I still have no clue what it was or why I was that way for nine months.

To clarify... I don't mean that I didn't cry when I was pregnant. Oh... Oh OH the crying! But my pregnancy crying was never because I felt spiritual or something special. It was always because I was sad, overwhelmed, or for no good/logical reason.

Well, finally, three months after birth... I can feel the Spirit again. I realized I had this problem during my pregnancy, and it frustrated me... but I didn't realize the extent of it until recently when it all came back. About a month after I had little E I all of a sudden noticed the change. It felt as if my tear ducts had unclogged and I couldn't help but feel the spirit and/or get emotional with the smallest things. The fog lifted, I could feel again.

Now I feel things all the time. I feel closer to the Spirit and in turn I feel closer to my Heavenly Father. I actually get personal enrichment from the smallest things. I can see the lessons He wants me to learn in life. My prayers move past the ceiling. I feel. My sister said the other day that the Spirit is in everything good. I love that! And now I can feel the Spirit in everything good.

I'm still not sure what exactly happened to me during those nine months that made it so hard to feel the Spirit. I'm so glad I'm "back to normal" now. I missed sitting in Relief Society and feeling that warmth come over me. I missed feeling compelled to bare my testimony. I missed feeling the affirmation of the Spirit when I learned new truths. And I missed feeling like I had a close and always growing relationship with Heavenly Father. I'm BACK. And I cry at the drop of a hat. But I cry about the good things as well as the bad. All things happy and sad. I'm most excited about the happy cries. Yep. I'm back.

The time has come...

I'm tired of limiting my blogging to only those that I give permission. So, this blog will be just for me. I probably won't post many pictures of my family, or at least be really choosy with the ones of my son especially... and I probably will refer to my hubby as JB and my son as little E. That way it all stays kind of anonymous for the wackos out there. But this will be the place that I can write all of my silly feelings and happenings.

AND, I hate how in the "blogs you're following" section or the "google reader" section it doesn't tell you when a new post has been posted by a blocked blog. So, in this blog... I'll also use it to let all of my friends and family know that I've posted something on my "Haynie Family Happiness" blog. Make sense?? :) I hope so. I find such joy in writing on my blog. And I wanted one for myself. And I didn't see the need to make it private. So, here I go! ... :)