We Have an ANNOUNCEMENT!

Well, I have been waiting approx. 6 months to post about this. It is something that I have refrained from mentioning much about as the process has gone on. It has been a little overwhelming and sometimes very trying for me. But I am grateful to say that I feel so blessed for the opportunity that we have received and I know that it has come at the best time for our family.

Well, I guess I better mention what this is all about. :) As you know, Zac and I graduated in December. Zac then enjoyed another season working as an Office Manager for H&R Block, all the while looking for a job. In Zac eyes we have only been looking for a job for about two months, but to me it has felt like the entire six months. I would say that as a rough estimate he has interviewed with 12 different companies totaling about 50 different interviews throughout that time (most of them in the month of May).

Now, I know my husband, I know the way he speaks, the way he socializes, and the way he presents himself, and all of those are very impressive. I knew that he would do very well interviewing. I cannot tell you how many times he made to the top 5 or 3 or 2 in being considered for a job and yet we were never given an offer. After each interview I would stress for days about whether or not the company was going to call back, and it was driving me crazy. I just couldn't stop thinking about it. It took a lot of faith and patience to calm myself down and trust that everything would work out.

Well, last week we were offered two jobs, seriously! I felt so much gratitude I couldn't believe it. But then we had to make a decision about which one we would accept. This was almost worse than not having a job at all. We took the weekend to really think things through and find which decision was the best overall for our family. And we have chosen (drum roll please):

Denver, Colorado

And we are moving on June 29th. Yeah in less than two weeks! Can you hear me screaming? We have so much to get done, and we will be leaving our home of the last 4 years of our lives. We have so many memories of meeting each other, getting married, having a baby, graduating college, just to name a few. We will miss our friends, our ward and most of all our family. We love you all, and hope you will come and visit us!

We are so excited for what this opportunity brings for us, and especially Zac as he begins his first career position at First Data.

I've Had A Birthday, Shout Hooray!

One year older, and oh so much wiser! :)

Well, last week was my birthday, sorry forgot pics, but it was great. I turned 22 and it seems so weird. Zac and I went and bowled a single game on Thursday, and my score was awful but Zac did ok, and then we went to ice cream at G's Dairy. If you haven't been, it is a must, AMAZING ice cream, with homemade waffle cones, yummo! My Mom decided to come up for my birthday because she was already driving part way, so she came thursday night and left Saturday. I am so glad that she was able to come. I love you, Mom. On Saturday we headed into Idaho Falls while Zac worked and went to lunch and then walked around the Mall and such for a little bit. For dinner we went to Zac's parents house and had yummy grilled steaks with baked potatoes, rolls, and salad. Great food, thanks Mom and Dad Barrus! Then we opened presents and had some yummy ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. It was a great birthday and I am so grateful for all of the gifts that I received from everyone, I felt so loved! I just have to mention that I am quite impressed with Zac, at Christmas I had mentioned that I wanted this

and then I forgot about it, but zac remembered and got it for my birthday, I was SO excited and Surprised!

Also I just want to mention this great book that I received. I can't wait to start making some of the projects in it. Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones.

Gavin turned 7 months the day before my birthday and I can't believe what a big boy he is. He tries to pull himself up to a standing position with anything he can get a good grip on. He continues to be a speedy army crawler and it is so funny to watch. Also, his two bottom teeth broke through on Saturday so we are dealing with that but it will be fun to give him different foods now that he has teeth. We love him more each day and couldn't imagine our family without him.Picture taken by Amanda Barrus

KitchenAid Cover

When we were looking at KitchenAid's I saw that they had covers online, but they were like $20-$30 so I figured I could just make one myself. Our kitchen is black and red, so I got a black KitchenAid so that I can change the color scheme later on and a bright red one would not stick out. So I made a red cover. I was going to follow this tutorial at Make It And Love It, but I found this one this morning. The pattern is at About.com and I got the idea for the pocket at Homemade by Jill. I bought the material about two weeks ago just at Walmart for like $2/yd. The tutorial tells you to use quilted fabric, but I just used what I had on hand. So I added some batting to the fabric because it was just a thin cotton, and I didn't have quite enought to cut double the amount of fabric, so the underside is just the cotton batting, but you don't see it. I also did not have piping, so I just skipped that step. I am really happy with how it turned out. It is not perfect of course, because I am just a novice sewer, but it is my first, as time goes I am sure that I will make others and they will improve over time. The great thing was that I already had batting, thread, and the bias tape before bying the fabric so it probably only cost between $4-$5 if you include all the materials. Pretty good.
I like the idea of the pockets and that I can keep some of the attachments in them. Of course, adding the bow was my own personal touch :).

The Goings On

Well Gavin just got over his first cold last week and it was miserable. Of course, all of us were sick at some point so that didn't help either. But he is doing a lot better now and we are grateful. It is hard when they are so little and there isn't much that you can do for them. But we have just been enjoying life. Zac has been interviewing like crazy this month, and we are definitely ready to receive a job offer but we are patiently awaiting the time when that will come. But that is pretty much it. Not too much is going on in our home.

Here is a project I did today. About two weeks ago I found these shirts at Old Navy, I had been wanting to do a shirt re-vamp so I picked up two.
And of course they were an awesome price: see $0.97 each, yay!

I got the idea from this blog, sorry its blurry my camera was on a different setting and I didn't realize. Not too bad for a $2 project, plus I have tons left of the second shirt so I am hoping I can find one more and make a different look!
We were able to go to Chesterfield, Idaho where there is an old pioneer town for Memorial Day. It was free to visit that day and it was fun to walk around and see the little town. They even had people sitting in some of the homes that were born in Chesterfield when it was first settled, kind of interesting. But, I forgot to take pictures. Enough of that, lets get to the good stuff, pictures of Gavin :).
This boy LOVES water bottles, he will not drink out of a bottle or sippy cup, just water bottles.

He has THE BEST smiles, we love them so much. Zac calls them 'squinty eyed' smiles, its a Jones thing. :0)

Ok, funny story, Gavin was asleep and woke up, saw the remote sitting on the arm of the couch, grabbed it and then fell back asleep. It was so cute I had to take a picture. By the way, this boy loves to suck on the remote, we try to get him to use the remote from our old TV but I swear he knows the difference, and frequently changes the channel while playing with this one.

At the park today, it was a little chilly because of the wind but not too bad.


And the splash park is now open, but it was too cold to actually get wet so we just let him check it out a little.