I'm Fired in!

So back in Idaho there were always opportunities for getting snowed in, I thought I wouldn't have to worry about that in California, but that ole' Santa Ana wind has done it again. The only way for me to get home to Zac will take an extra 2 hours, assuming there is no traffic. I can't handle four hours alone in a car with Teagan so I'm just staying until a route opens up...it is not looking good so far!
It's a shame I don't have my camera cord because I have so many pictures to post! Be looking forward to posts about:
--My mom's awesome art show
--Teagan's finished book!

Funny Teagan

He doesn't really like to ride his car around or hold on to it...it's more like a game of fetch. Whatever keeps him entertained works for me.

I couldn't help myself on this one. Last night vs. Teagan's first bath...I can't believe my baby's almost 1!

Shout out to my mom.

So my mom is an amazing artist and she is so creative and is talented in SO many different areas. She teaches graphic design at FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandise) in downtown LA and is simply remarkable.

I think there is a TV show where the girls go to FIDM...yep, it's the same one.

Well, they have asked her to do an art show in their gallery starting next week and going through Thanksgiving and I'm so excited to see what she puts together! I will post lots of pictures. Here is the flyer she made for the event:

One of her pieces "Merry White Tree in the Night" inspired a song that Kirby Heyborne ("The RM", "Singles Ward") wrote and so she designed his CD. (they happen to be neighbors). On opening night he'll be performing at the gallery while we get to look around and my mom's creative/funky/amazing artwork.

If you are reading this and you know my mom or Kirby or you like funky artwork and want to have a night out on the town you should totally go!

Here is her website if you want to see more of what she does (she is currently designing a new one which I've had a sneak peak of and it is so cool!):
http://dianepacker.com

"Oh, how those words have tortured me..."

Can you name that movie?

If you guessed Pride and Prejudice you are correct! I was introduced to that wonderful book in High School---thank you Christine, and then I became a huge Jane Austen addict while living next door to my Grandma Packer. She has all the books and all the movies with all the different versions for every Jane Austen story. When I was first nursing and it was taking FOREVER to feed TEagan I went through ALL of them, and now I'm hooked! The 6 hour Pride and Prejudice is addicting! I got to go pay a visit this week to my mom and we watched it while working on our projects. It was so fun and I love the last half hour. I could watch it over and over

"...If you had acted in a more gentlemanly-like manner.......Oh, how those words have tortured me..." Good ole' Darcy, can't get enough of him!

I realized that I had to go to Valencia to vote since that is where I'm registered so me and Teag made the 2 1/2 hour trip. I got to work on Teagan's Christmas present some more which was really stressful and a little fun.

I am by no means a seamstress, so I have to redo so much, mostly I just leave it as is cause I hate ripping out seams! The book is imperfect, but I'm learning lots from it! I'm learning about different types of fabric, stitches, and finding ways to make things hold REALLY well. Here are the newly added pages.

This is a string where you can move the buttons back and forth. I did it by 10's so that I can teach him to count by 2's, 3's, 4's, 5's, and 10's. Until he cares he can just make them jingle.

This was inspired by Deagan. The tongue and arms aren't attached and the eyes are buttons. This took about 2 hours because the fabric is ridged and the sewing machine just couldn't work. I was SO angry by the time this page was done!

This page is a peek-a-boo page. Different shapes with different items hidden beneath...pretty simple, but very time consuming!

After a couple harder pages I did this one as a break. I just sewed on a pocket from an old pair of jeans and took a little man my mom had made and attached it with a ribbon. It was easy until I realized I had sewed another piece of fabric onto the back...blast! More seam ripping...

I just took a bunch of types of buckles from my mom's buckle box and sewed them on. The orange and green ones are leather and really fun textures...sewing machines do not like leather :)

This is my favorite page!!! The fabric was already checkered and my mom taught me how to sew on a button with the machine! Talk about amazing! I loved going through her many stashes of buttons finding the coolest ones! Some of them have really cool details that you can't see through the picture.

I created this for the ride home so that when Teag through his toys he could retrieve them himself. he loved the fact that his binkie was on a string!

Well, I keep thinking...what have I gotten myself into with this project, but I'm really glad I'm doing it for a few reasons.

1. Everything is free via my mom! Thanks mom for letting me go through all of your "stuff"

2. I'm learning so much about sewing and the idea that slow and steady is much better!

3. This book will be fun for me to play with during church! Teagan might like it too!

Teagan the cutie

Okay, Teagan is a crack up. This kid makes me laugh so hard and then he makes me want to rip my hair out, but I still love him, nonetheless.

He isn't into getting his picture taken much anymore. He's good for about one smile then he starts to bawl cause he wants the camera...I've never given in...WHY WON'T HE LEARN that he just can't have it??? I just had to include a picture of what he looks like after I try to get him to pose for a cute picture. :)

Our good friends moved :( last weekend which is SO sad. I don't know who I can hang out with anymore and we were having so much fun! Anywho, we inherited one of their boxes and Teagan has loved playing in it ever since. Silly kid.

Zac makes Teagan so happy. In the tub the other night Teagan was seriously giddy and didn't stop laughing for like 10 min. We put the tail end of it on video...this kid is funny!

The support for Proposition 8 is overwhelming.

The past few weeks have been amazing. As a community we have really come together in support of Proposition 8. For those of you who live outside of California: If you vote yes you are agreeing that marriage is between a man and a woman only.

This is a really controversial issue and I know that there are many people who probably read this blog who disagree with my opinion, but that's why it's my opinion. I hope we can still be friends. :)

Here are some pictures of a rally we went to Saturday. There were hundreds of supporters of Prop 8 lining the roads and waving signs. There were so many horns honking constantly and the crowd was cheering. We all got the motivation to continue making phone calls and passing out door hangers!

We had a little get together after all the prop 8 events saturday and I made another cake!

The past few weeks have been amazing. As a community we have really come together in support of Proposition 8. For those of you who live outside of California: If you vote yes you are agreeing that marriage is between a man and a woman only.

This is a really controversial issue and I know that there are many people who probably read this blog who disagree with my opinion, but that's why it's my opinion. I hope we can still be friends. :)

As a family we have grown so much closer in the last couple of weeks. We have spent hours holding signs on corners, passing out door hangers, and making phone calls trying to encourage others to vote yes as well. As we've worked for a cause we believe in our testimonies have grown and I feel the spirit filling a little emptiness I've been having for the last few months. I feel that I'm finally back doing what's right and fighting for my beliefs. I encourage everyone who reads this to anxiously engage themselves in something they believe and know is right. I have never felt better and happier.

As I went to various activities in support of prop 8 I really had to ask myself, why am I voting for prop 8 to pass, what does it mean to me? It means everything to me. My family is the most important thing to me in the world. I agree with the Leaders of my church completely when they say "There is nothing in this world as important as the creation and perfection of family units." Our families make up society and are vital to the function of society. Without strong families I believe with all of my heart that society as a whole will suffer and fail.

Strong families are formed when a man and woman are married and together create children and raise them with strong core values that will teach them to treat others with kindness. In a family children learn how to take care of their earthly body and make good decisions. As these children are raised they become the leaders of our country. I know that the best place to learn these things is in a home where there are both a mother and father to be examples.

Society is already suffering from "failure in the home." Both heterosexual and homosexual parents are failing to teach their children correct principles to guide their life and I can see the results around me every single day. The world seems to become more "wicked" every day and it feels there is no way to stop it. The media alone is almost embarrassing to watch and listen to. I feel I can hardly leave my house without being exposed to things that I couldn't disagree with more. We went to go check out a movie from Hollywood and I was shocked to see how many movies had horrible titles! The titles alone made me feel extremely uncomfortable.

I guess that is what I get for being ultra-conservative.

Back to my point. I don't like living in a world where it is now normal to dress like a prostitute. I don't like living in a world where it is normal to swear and be drunk and scream and yell. I don't like living in a world where it is normal to have sex with people you hardly know. And I don't like living in a world where it is normal for men to marry men and women to marry women. I don't like these things, and I know that they aren't right, because I was raised by amazing parents who taught me right from wrong and I have prayed and I know that those things do not promote kindness, charity, love, or happiness in the long run.

I do not want my little Teagan growing up thinking those things are okay. It won't be easy for my son to come home from kindergarten and say "why didn't you want to marry a girl instead of a boy," or "what's sex," I'd rather try to make the world a place where those things don't come up for kindergartners. I don't want those things to be "normal" and I will do everything I can to protect my children from being exposed to things that we feel are wrong.

You may think that I'm not being tolerant, and you're right. I don't have to tolerate actions that will directly effect the happiness of my own family. I will always try to be kind to everyone. I know that there are wonderful people who don't make the greatest decisions and I 'm friends with lots of them. But I can hate the sin all I want, and put my heart into making sure that sin doesn't become the "norm." The bottom line is, my family is more important to me then anything.

If I could vote to change every one of the things I talked about, I would. Maybe I'll start writing propositions and try to make the world a better place.

Guess what works better than hairspray?

So we weren't going to dress up for Halloween cause Teagan isn't quite old enough to enjoy trick-or-treating, but when Zac said some friends from school were having a party I got way excited to get dressed up!

Teagan got dressed up as the smoldering vampire once again, and it was better this time since his fangs are growing in.

Zac went as a Goucho, Brazilian Cowboy, who was wearing the coolest boots, but I don't have a picture with the boots...so sad! He also was smoldering.

I decided that I wanted to do something fun with my hair as part of the costume so I debated between a future girl with spikey hair or Cindy-Lou-Who from the grinch. I went with Cindy and let me tell ya, she is definately wearing a wig cause there is no way her hair can have that long of braids and be that short on top. I did the best I could with my length of hair and I was pretty pround of the outcome!

About the hairspray---I used egg whites for the ringlets instead of hairspray and apparently it works really well! The only problem was trying to wash it out this morning. My hair turned into a giant rat's nest and the tips of my hair are way damaged! I use egg whites whenever I do my hair curly and it works really well and washes out fine, but I think it was egg whites in combination with a curling iron that were the issue!