{The Wedding Day}

I'm finally posting pictures from my brothers wedding day. Hey I said I would post today, I didn't say what time :)

Well this is where they were married, the Bountiful LDS temple. It was seriously a perfect day, we couldn't have asked for more perfect weather.

Here they are coming out of the temple, husband and wife.

Of course I had to get pictures of my kids, the temple grounds are always so beautiful. I can't even begin to imagine how much work must go into maintaining them. My sister gave me this cute little suit because her son grew out of it. As handsome as he looks, he sure was not happy about wearing it.

Sister and Brother!
A so so family picture!
I love this picture, wish it wasn't blurry!
Bride and groom with all the nieces and nephews or at least the ones that would cooperate long enough for a picture (notice my baby isn't in this one)!

Don't I have the cutest parents!

Another picture of the amazing temple grounds!

Here my brother later that day at his wedding reception.

Bride and my son in his cute suit that he hates!
Bride and my daughter in her cute dress that she would wear 24/7 if I would let her.

The wedding cake, (you probably figured that out huh)!

First Dance!

Bride and all the cute nieces!

It was a beautiful day and I am so happy for my brother. He's had a rough year and I'm so glad he has found such a sweet and beautiful girl to be his wife!

{The Wedding Dinner}

As a lot of you know my little brother got married this past Thursday, so of course I'm going to blog about it. I have a ton of pictures though that I want to show so I'm going to have to break this up into 2 or 3 post. So first off, I'll show the wedding dinner.

Usually here in Utah we have a nice wedding dinner the day of the wedding, but since we really didn't know my brother's sweet wife's family we thought it would be nice to do the dinner the night before so we could get to know each other a little. My mom decided to do a BBQ in her back yard.

Here are the guests......................


A view from the deck.....................
The food was so good. We had pulled pork sandwiches, baked potato with all the fixings, salad, baked beans, and lemon water. My brother (the groom) is the one on the right.

And for dessert.................cheesecake!

These were the centerpieces. We got the candle holders and ribbon from Tai Pan for 2 bucks a piece, the candle from the dollar store and the vinyl lettering I had a friend do for 25 cents a piece. I think they really turned out pretty and elegant.

I wish you could see the candles in this picture better. Each ribbon hanging from the tree is holding a votive candle holder and candle at the end. When the sun started to go down it was really pretty.

My mom has grape vines in the back of yard that she put Christmas lights in, it looked gorgeous.

This is where the kids hung out most of the time. In their little car under the deck!

Tomorrow, I promise to show pictures from the wedding day!!!

{Remember Me}

I have been the absolute worst blogger lately. I try really hard to comment back on everyones sweet comments, but wow, it's becoming difficult. My 1 1/2 year old has decided he no longer needs naps, which means there goes my alone time with my computer :) I think I've finally figured out how to get him to take naps, we'll see if it works today, wish me luck! Also my brother is getting married tomorrow so I've been trying to help me mom get everything ready. Anyhow, enough excuses, I'll try and do better



So remember way back on Sunday when I told you I had purchased something really great off of ksl.com? Well here she is................

I know it might not look like much, but I have big plans for this baby! I actually bought her (it's just easier to assign a gender) to go in my kitchen. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think it's going to work.
I love the top. It actually still has the original hardware, but not for long. I'll save it though!

And then the other day when I was driving to my moms house this girl was selling these window panes for $10.00. Yeah, like practically free. I knew I needed it, I mean it needed me. I can't wait to give it a little TLC and make it beautiful. I have the perfect place for it in my house.

Have a great weekend. I'll try hard to post on Saturday about the wedding!

{Signs of Fall}

It's definitely looking like fall around here! Here is my tree that looked like this a couple weeks ago.........................

And here's how my tree looks now.......................
Isn't she pretty (it's such a dainty looking tree I'm sure it's a girl)

I decided this shelf needed a little something more. That's the bad thing about buying a shelf with pegs to hang stuff on. Then you actually need to hand something from them. So back to Tai Pan I went to shop on a budget!

Before..........

After.....................

I also decided this wheat looking thing needed a little something more.

I found this pretty fallish looking ribbon. Twenty five yards of this stuff for $4 dollars.

I thought these little acorns were cute!

My favorite find of all was this wreath. I think it's actually supposed to go around a candle, but for 5 bucks I new I could make it work, especially when the bigger one was $20 dollars. Here's that ribbon again. My only problem is now I have like 22 yards of ribbon that I don't know what to do with, so Megan or Aubrey or Sherri or anyone close by let me know if you want some!

I loved these cute little mini acorns.

So this weekend I bought my first item off of ksl.com (our local e-bay). My boys were so excited to go pick it up, that by them time we got to our destination, this is how they looked.

Check back tomorrow to see what had them so excited!

{The simple things in life}

Life seems like it has been crazy busy lately. Sometimes I forget to stop and enjoy the simple things that bring me joy.

The other day I caught my daughter and niece out in the front yard enjoying this sweet moment.

Sunday my little boy received this from his primary (church) teacher. He carried it around for most of the day, I thought it was so sweet. Later that day when we went for a walk he even took it with him then.
Blogging awards always make my day. It's always nice to know that someone out there is enjoying my simple posts like I do everyone else's.

This one is from Nicol over at Classy and Sophisticated. Thank you Nicol. You'll have to go check out her blog, she has a darling family and a beautiful home.


This one is from Carrie over at Carries Little World. Carrie has the cutest blog, it makes me want a blog makeover. She also looks way too young to have been married for 15 years and have two kids. I feel bad about this award. Somebody gave it to me a while back and by the time I got to blogging about it I couldn't remember who gave it to me. I'm really sorry, please don't think I'm a jerk!

The award is from cute Shannon over at Bless My Nest. Umm what's not to love. She has the cutest home and the best decorating advice. I'm still wrapping up all my electric cords since she showed her neat little trick.
Ok, now the fun (hard) part, giving the awards back to my favorite bloggers.

For the BFF gold card I get to pick 5.

I pick Rachel B. over at Made with Love and Glue lots of Glue. Rachel is so sweet, she even helped me fix my messed up looking blog. You have to go and check out the beautiful pumpkins that she made.

JoAnne over at The Carter Clan. I have loved getting reaquainted with JoAnne through blogging. She just opened up an Etsy shop to help pay for her son's mission. She has some darling things that you need to go check out. If you hurry over, she is also having a great giveaway.

Amber over at The Mcillece Spot. I was so lucky to win some of her cute 4th of July decorations with the Tip Junkie was having her 20 day giveaway. Need a good gift for friends or neighbors, go check out her post on Apple Orchard Pancake Mix.

My friend Felicia over at Graves Family Meanderings. Not only is Felicia super craft and an incredible quilter, but her posts always crack me up.

Tausha over at the Hoyt's House. Tausha has the cutest blog, and always leaves the best comments. Someday were going to meet in real life, I we will be best friends I just know it.

Ok, now for the I love your Blog Award, I get to pick another five.

Scrapper mom over at My Yesterdays Todays and Tommorows. You have to go check out the scrapbook pages that she just did, they are amazing.

Tiffany over at Songbirdtiff. She always has the best posts and is just plain sweet, nothing more needs to be said.

Becca over at Making Memories of Us I think we'd be friends in real life. It been so fun getting to know her through blogging.

Auntie over at Auntie's with advice. Another incredible lady that I've been able to meet through blogging.

Mimi Sue over at Mimi Sue's Cottage I've been admiring her house forever. One day she left me a comment and I went over to check out her blog and there was a picture of her beautiful house, I was pretty sure we were neighbors.

Last, but not least, the Fluffy Nest Award. For this one I only get to pick two.

Vanessa over at V and Co. Holy cow, this woman can sew. I love the quilts that she has made and all the vintage decor in her home.

Mary over at Gettysburg Homestead. Mary always leaves me the sweetest comments and she makes the cutest prim decor on earth. Go check out her shop.

Wow, that was harder than I thought. There are still a ton of you that I'd like to give an award to. I won't even try to name you all because I'm sure I'd miss one. Thanks for the awards, and as always for your sweet comments.

Hugs,

Nicole

{The perfect party favor}

My little brother is getting married at the end of this month so Saturday me, my mom and my two sisters threw a shower for his cute fiance. Me and my mom have made these caramel and chocolate covered pretzels before, but I think we finally have it figured out because they turned out super good and were a big hit. So here is how we made them.


First off I bought those long pretzel rods at the store, then we cut them in half with a serrated knife. Then we dipped them in the caramel. Here is the recipe we used. It's out of the Lion House cookbook. Just cook as directed and but don't pour in to a pan to set. Pour about a fourth of it into a small container with high sides (the high sides make it easier to scrape off any excess) and start dipping. If the caramel becomes to set up to work with just pop in into the microwave for a few seconds.

A trick me and my mom used this time that helped a ton was to line your cookie sheet with tin foil and then spray some cooking spray on it. This helps a ton. Then stick them in the refrigerator to help them set up quicker.

For the chocolate we used Guittard white and milk chocolate chips. I melted then on the stove in a double boiler. Another trick we used was to keep the smaller pan in the pan of hot water while dipping the pretzels. This made the chocolate stay the right consistency for a lot longer. Once again if it hardens up just stick in back on the stove for a little while. (I have done this in the microwave, but it seemed like it burnt the chocolate easier.)

Once again lay them on the cookie sheet (you don't need cooking spray this time) and pop them in the fridge until they set up.

For the drizzles on top we used white chocolate tinted with red food coloring to make it pink and normal milk chocolate since her colors are pink and brown. Take the pretzels out of the fridge about a half our before drizzling the colored chocolate onto them.

We put the melted chocolate in a small ziplock bag. (Don't use the cheap ones, they break really easy with warm chocolate). Then we just snipped off the very tip, and started drizzling. Another hint, we just did one row at a time and then pick up each pretzel a little so that the chocolate would go down the sides.

Now the milk chocolate.

These are so fun to make. For the wedding dinner we are going to put a few in a bag with some pretty ribbon to tie it shut for the favors. You could do these for just about anything you can think of. It's also fun to put those little sugar sprinkles on them. I think I might do this this year for Christmas for the neighbors.

{Check out this giveaway}

Jo-anne over at The Carter Clan is having the best giveaway. Go over and enter and you might be able to win this darling stuff that she made. She also is opening her own etsy shop that has the cutest stuff for great prices also.

This blogging world is so strange sometimes. I've been blogging back and forth with Joanne for a while and come to find out we were neighbors growing up. She used to babysit me, isn't that crazy. It's amazing we figured that out when we live in two different states. I didn't remember her babysitting me, but I remember being friends with her sister in Elementary school.

Ok, enough of that, Joanne is also having a Christmas ornament/decoration exchange that I'm thinking really seriously of doing so while your over there go and check it out.

{Harvest Blessings}

So I just saw that the Nester is having a party. A POOPIE party. People opposing objectionable pretend plans in the environment. I already had the post all typed up, but it sorta works right. The fake leaves and wheat and all, ok so the wheat is real, whatever. I want to go to the party so who cares!

Yesterday I went to my favorite store Tai Pan with my mom. I saw this Harvest Blessings sign for only $11.00 and loved it.

I thought it went really well with my decorations from the Dollar Store.
Ok, the wheat was from Tai Pan too, but it was still a good deal.
I think I like these decoration better than my normal everyday decorations.
Here is a random picture of our Cozy Little Nest.
Have a great day!