Crafty Clarissa....

So, while I was on maternity leave... I got my first taste at being a stay at home mom. I could hardly wait to go back to work because it was something I really didn't enjoy. Well, now that we have moved to Nevada and my chances of working part time are slim to none, I decided that keeping myself busy and having fun with Carter were the most important things. I actually made these cute little crafts awhile ago (the very beginning of June), but have time to share now :)

Things you need:
Ingredients of any kind (I made up my own and did brownies, pudding, and marshmallows in one. Then I bought no bake cherry cheesecake mix for the other)
Small pint jars
Pretty papper
Modge Podge
A sponge brush
Ribbon


First you wash the jars of course, and while they are washing cut your pretty paper to cover the lids.

Once all the paper is cut, get a sponge brush and modge podge the paper on to the lid of each jar.

While the lids are drying, layer your ingredients in your nice clean jars and cut ribbon to put around the jar.

When the lids are finished, simply put them on your now fully layered jars and tie the ribbon to make them cute. They are a great gift to give for friends or neighbors. I even made one for Jason :)

The finished project

Anyways, that's it for my craft moment. Now I am working on my house and trying to get it looking decorated and cozy. Here is a sneak peek :)

A Three Month Old Cutie Face!

Today marks the day our little Carter bug was born 3 months ago. Time has seriously flown by, and he gets cuter and cuter with ever passing month! Jason and I are so blessed to have this little man in our lives, who brings us so much joy! He lights up our life even when he is fussy.

Carter's hobbies at this age include: Blowing spit bubbles, smiling, drooling, putting every toy and limb he can fit in his mouth, staring at his toes, laughing, telling stories in gibberish, taking naps, reading books with mom and dad (he loves pictures), and sleeping through the night sometimes for 10 hours! We love our little man so very much! Enjoy the pictures of his cute little face :)

Play time! No smiling for this picture though

Telling mom a story

Smiley little cuttie

Looking cute for mommy :)

Not sure what he's doing, but he's having fun :)

Reading books with daddy <3

My cute little sleeper :)

Fourth of July Adventures

This weekend was basically awesome! Especially because it started on a Thursday, the day of independence! It was Carter's very first fourth of July ever, and I must say he did very good :)

Thursday morning started with a very nice run (I didn't even pass out this time) and packing up the car. Because are are literally in the middle of nowhere and have not a single family member around, we decided to take a road trip to some fun place. Well, because of our budget, thinking about the little guy, and our family's plans for the fourth, we decided on Twin Falls Idaho! Pretty much the best place ever right? What could be more exciting than a trip to Gooding Idaho too, for a free lunch and swim party?!

Carter all ready to go on our adventure :)

After traveling for about an hour we decided to pull over, because Carter bug was hungry, and so we fed his cute little face. Once he was happy and sleepy, we set off for Gooding and guess what we found when we got there? An empty pool.... so we headed back to our hotel to swim in their little pool. I don't know why we decided to drive 45 min out of the way to swim, when our hotel had one the whole time. Oh well, it was an adventure.

Our little family.... in the car ALL day

After having some fun in the pool, we decided to crash a party at the CSI campus with free chili dogs and rootbeer floats. Once we finally found it, the wind picked up, it started raining, and we found ourselves holding Carter from flying away and walking back to the car. With yet another strike out to our adventure, A&W was decided for dinner (all american food) and a drive inn movie, that would hopefully still be playing with the yucky weather.

Carter Bug with mom

Carter Bug with Dad

He wasn't sure about the water at first....

The only strike out we didn't have was the movie!!! We got to see Despicable Me 2 and Carter was surprisingly good.. well, sort of. He slept through about the first 15 minutes and then Jason had to walk around with him. Once he fell asleep, he was asleep for 30 minutes and decided he wanted to join in the fun. Jason says the movie was good from what he saw (poor guy) and me because I'm super spoiled with an awesome husband, I thought the movie was great! The first one was much better though.

Those are Carter's sparklers... no one else...

Carter wondering when we'll be home.

We ended up getting back to our hotel around midnight and jumped into bed before Carter could disagree. Sweet little thing slept pretty well and we were up again at 8:00 for some yummy breakfast and an exciting grocery trip to Winco. On the way home we stopped once for the bug to have a clean bum, and we were home before dinner :)

The rest of the night was very relaxing, and then Saturday morning came. We cleaned the house, had a visit from our landlords, and Jason mowed our "lawn" of weeds. Then it was off to another adventure at our neighbors house for a delicious BBQ with moms, babies, and daddies too. It was so nice to know that we aren't the only ones living out here, and that we have some pretty awesome neighbors and friends now.

Relaxin' with dad

Today has been most wonderful, playing with Carter, eating chili &cheesecake, and playing games together. I am so very sad that the weekend will be over tomorrow, but we only have 5 days until the next one :)

I hope your Fourth was as awesome as ours :)

Carter was pooped :)

 

Civilization!

Well, hello World! It has been a while... and yes, I am going crazy. Life in isolation isn't all it's cracked up to be. That is why we made a trip to Utah this weekend, and my goodness did I love it! I'm pretty sure our little bug Carter enjoyed himself as well.

Why did we go to Utah? Well... because we missed it of course (I used to think I'd never say that ever in my life) and needed some time with the sistas! Well, I did anyway, I think Jason might have been feeling a little home sick for our house in Nevada... Here are some of the fun adventures we had :) P.S I failed miserably at taking pictures. I really need to work on that...

Friday we left right after Jason got off work, and ended up getting into Murray pretty late. We said hello to everyone, played with Carter for a bit, put him to bed and watched random things on Netflix. We were so excited to be there and around people! It's amazing how much of a difference it makes when you haven't seen a soul in a week...

My sisters are awesome and happily kidnapped our little one while we attended the temple on Saturday. We've always had a dream of going to every temple built and operating, but haven't been too adventures lately. Well, we decided the Oaker Mt. Temple would be a perfect one to visit, and on our way discovered that there are temples we haven't ever heard about. The Jordan River Temple is literally 3 miles away from Oaker Mt, and when our GPS wasn't working, we thought for sure we'd found the temple we were looking for. Well, now we know that there's yet another temple in Utah.

After our adventure in South Jordan, we went on a lunch date at Dickey's BBQ and decided we missed our little man too much to be gone for longer (he was the only thing we talked about too lol). We headed back to my sister's apartment, gave hugs and kisses to our little man, and then headed for the pool. It was hot!

The Pie Pizzeria was our next destination where we ate massive pieces of pizza, and played friendly games of battleships on our phones (I totally demolished Jason!). Then on to Walmart to buy ingredients to a delicious dessert. The boys ended up playing a game of catch the bag of cranberries, while the girls an little Carter headed for the nail polish isle. Needless to say, our random trips to Walmart (which have never been before midnight until now) are pretty exciting adventures.

After eating a ton of ice cream, watching random T.V shows, and playing in Carter until he was put down for bed, we all decided maybe going to sleep wasn't such a bad idea. That's pretty much what we did all the next day to. We got some much needed R&R. I love our trips to Utah....

Well, now we are back in isolation, and I have a mission to find a new hobby to keep me sane. Any suggestions? So far today, I have cleaned the kitchen, made two loaves of bread, completed 3 loads of laundry (folding and all), watched a movie, and of course played with the Carter bug.  Besides Carter being my everything, while he's sleeping, let's face it I NEED something to do!

Until next time.... I'm still searching for a hobby.....

Spring Creek Nevada and a cute little boy :)

Well... It has been a week since we moved out to the middle of nowhere, and yes I have already gone crazy. Thank goodness for making friends, unpacking boxes, playing with Carter, running, and attempting to decorate. That's pretty much all I have done while being here. Once my decorating skills aren't too bad, I'll post some pics lol.

Now to brag about my cute little boy Carter! He is my everything! I have spent so much time with him, and each moment I fall more in love with this little baby. He is the sweetest thing ever!! Jason and I have been so lucky to have a little boy who is almost always happy, smiles every waking moment (unless a camera is involved), has slept completely through the night since he was 6 weeks old, laughs when he wakes up and in his sleep, loves to blow spit bubbles and drool, and loves to tell all kinds of stories. We love this little man!

Carter is 2.5 months now and so so big! He is already well over 13 lbs, 26 inches long, and has the biggest head of all time. I was so excited to go shopping in Elko last week with a new friend and bought him new outfits, only to find that he is already starting to grow out of them. He is the easiest to put to sleep, once he shows any signs of being sleepy, we lay him down and he is out. He is also so content with laying on the floor and listening to his own voice for hours or at least until he gets tired.

He does have his fussy times, but as long as you hold him he's happy with that. Holding him is my favorite, so I don't mind.

Well... since I don't have any pictures of our house yet (I'm lacking the motivation to take any, and well there are still so many boxes everywhere it would just look disastrous) so enjoy all this pics of my little obsession... He is the cutest thing ever!

a kind of smile :)

Play time!

Carter and Mom <3

Jason's favorite Sunday Activity

This is the little man the whole time we were packing

He has spent lots of time in his car seat lately

Silly sleeping boy <3

<3 his spiky hair!

Yes, his mow-hawk is natural :)

Change and all its glory...

Surprise surprise, it's been a while. Life just never slows down and continues to keep us on our toes. We have been traveling the world and I'm so thankful Carter is such a good traveler. I think he might be getting a little sick of living in his car seat though. Here are some pictures and some of the things we have been up to lately. Keep scrolling cause there's some not so exciting news that you might want to read.

The weekend after the amazing Siehara graduated, we were invited to yet another graduation. The timing couldn't have been any better really, so off we drove to Boise Idaho. It was there we attended my cousin's high school graduation, and Carter was able to meet great grandma and grandpa Ballantyne :) We really had a nice time seeing family and being entertained by a sweet little baby boy. Jason was able to take off most of the week, but he has been working a lot lately in Nevada. I was thankful that I didn't have to be left alone this time, but was able to spend some extra time with grandma and grandpa.

Great Grandma Ballantyne!

Great Grandpa Ballantyne!

Our next adventure was heading off to Washington to spend some time with grandma and grandpa and see uncle Dyelan graduate from high school. It was so fun to be home! My dad bought a new boat and so we decided to be crazy and tube in the freezing Columbia river. Best ever!:)

The fam at Dyelan's graduation

Congrats uncle Dyelan!

Well, we left Sunday morning to begin our 10 hour drive home to Utah. On our way there, Jason had some business to take care of in Elko Nevada and so we decided to extend our trip a little more and get a hotel for the night. The next day went by so fast and the next thing I knew, I was looking at our new house and going over paperwork. Yes that's right, our new house. I can not be more devastated to be leaving our beautiful home in Utah and moving out to the middle if nowhere Nevada. We only have one week here as well. I'm really trying to have a positive attitude about the whole situation, but it is super hard. I won't be able to do what I love (teach) and I'm going to have to make all new friends again. This will be our 7th move in 3 years, so I guess that kind of makes us experts right? It'll be good and I won't go too crazy right? Oh boy this is going to be interesting.

My favorite... spending time with Carter

Well we already have most of our stuff packed and Jason has already taken a load with him when he had to work this week. The rest of my week is going to consist of packing, cleaning, crying, and trying ever so hard to be positive about this whole move. If you are ever driving through Elko... Please stop by and see the crazy Clarissa.

Why does life have to be so hard sometimes? Friday was my last day of teaching for a least a really long time, and I had to say goodbye to my kids yet again. I hate the end of the school year... I just wish I didn't get so attached. Cleaning out my classroom was awful and to make things worse, I have have to go back to finish up. Bring on more tears I say!

CUTEST boy EVER!!!

Anyways... I'll keep you updated on the Osborn's move to Nevada and at least post pictures of our house. That is the only good thing I can see from this... We will have a really nice house to live in, and it is only for a year...

Happy Monday!!!

May Surprises :)

I have decided I am a complete failure at keeping a blog. I almost always forget I have it, and get lovely reminders from my family that I haven't posted in a really long time. Dang I wish I was good at this, but hey here are some fun quick updates on the Osborn family.

May 3rd -- Jason graduated! He has been graduated since December really (already got his diploma and everything), but this time he was able to walk! It was a fun weekend in Logan where we got to see some of our awesome friends, drag our little newborn all over to see the world, locked our car keys in our trunk with no way to get in (our car is very special with no way to get into the trunk from the inside), and Carter also had a sleep over with his best little buddy Jace. It was fantastic!

2013 What a BIG year!

Carter's little buddy Jace! 

May 12th -- My first mother's day! Jason and Carter pampered me, and got me a beautiful necklace with Carter's birthstone. We also went to Kneader's the day before to have the most amazing life changing french toast! It was all you can eat and that's exactly what we did... Ate until we couldn't take it anymore :)

look at our cute little family! I love my boys!

May 17th -- Threw my dad an awesome 50th birthday surprise party! It was a complete surprise too, because his birthday was April 19th, but I ruined it by having a baby and everyone coming to see me instead of my dad. It was so great to have my whole family there!

Carter meeting Grandpa for the first time!

May 18th -- Siehara graduated from hygiene school! She can officially become a dental hygienist ! We are all so very proud of her, and loved the BBQ she threw afterwards. It was freezing (that's what happens when you live in Utah), but the food was delicious and the company even better!

Way to go Siehara!!!

May 19th -- Carter's big day! We were able to bless him and have lots of family attend. I can't believe we didn't take any pictures, but we sure had fun afterwards once everyone left. We even caught one of our precious little boy's smiles on camera! It was a happy day, but a little sad for me, because everyone left town... including Jason.

Cute little man :)

The Osborn family :)

Our family portrait! We really need professional ones! :)

Well today it is May 21st, and I'm just chillin' with the cutest little boy ever created, counting down the days until Jason gets back! I love being a mom! It has been driving me a little crazy not to be teaching anymore, but every little noise, smile, and attempt at laughing is totally worth it. I don't want to miss a thing with this little boy! Anyways... hopefully it won't be a whole other month before I post something again. Have a wonderful day and enjoy the pics of our cute little man!!

Taking a bath. The face tells it all :)

He likes hanging with his daddy 

More bath pictures :)

One of his first pics... he is getting so big!

Look at this cute little face!

We love that Carter is here!!!!!!