The Institute of Healing Arts GRADUATION

 My sister Mel graduated from: 

The Institute of Healing Arts

Where they focus on the emotional connection to healing, providing private sessions, workshops and year-long courses. 

SHe was able to attend the school with Tsukie, our dear friend and they have both learned so much more about how to help others leave the past behind them and to live a life free from a limiting past. 

I'm so proud of everything Mel has been able to accomplish. She has sacrificed so much to reach this point and I wanted to take a moment to recognize that. Here are a few pictures from the graduation. 

Congrats Mel!

 

All the graduates

. Congrats!!

 Mel and Tsukie

 Tsukie, Pam (The Owner/Director), and Mel

 Mom, an instructor

 Mel's number one fan and number one babysitter

Grandpa and Vienna, also huge supportors

 

Tired Joesph....and Alex:)

 

Love Burst for Baby Vienna

I just had to post these cute pictures of my little princess. We were waiting in the warm car for Daddy to finish playing football. I love this sweet girl...

 Tio Sergio and Boy were playing the guitar and Nena was loving it!

This one of those moments that I will always treasure. One of my most favorite things about being a mom is listening to Vienna when she wakes up. She sings and talks to herself and I finally found a way to document these moments. They are so special to me.

DIY Earring Display

So I have yet to find an earring holder that will hold all my earrings and still be pretty. 

Here is how I used to have them.....Or at least one of many ways I've tried it.

I love it but my sister Adi calls it my grandma corner. Plus also it collects dust and It's hard to dust regularly.

My cousin Justine made a small 5x7 frame to hold her earrings so I started there. My friend Brittni gave me the frame because she was moving out of state and I stole the lace from my mom.

Here's a total list of what I used:
*Frame (no glass, back or mat is needed)
*Hard poster board (Walmart $2.00) Whatever your frame size is
*Lace
*Material to put behind the lace (so you don't see the stuffing)
*Pins (I really like the pearl-tipped ones....)
*Quilt/blanket batting (to make it deeper for the earring hooks to catch)
*Glue gun & glue sticks

I fitted the poster board to fit like a back to the frame, nice and tight.
Then I glued the batting to the board, then snuggly fitted the backing material to the board, over the batting.
I then zigzagged the lace over the material, pinning each side to the back as I went.

I have a few earrings that aren't hooked and are actually studs so I wanted to be able to put the backs on some of them. I used a shorted strip of lace, doubled, across the top that I pinned to the back as well.

I then placed the frame over the board (and all the stuff attached) pinned it up and put some glue around the edges and held it till it dried.

Then I added all my earrings.....which was the funnest part:)

Be careful not to just hook the earrings to the lace or it will pull it down and make it look sloppy. Hook it through the batting. 

 A lot of these are such great memories attached to them and most of them My Sweet Husband Evan got me.

Halloween Trick-or-Tricking

We went trick-or-treating around my parent's neighborhood. The kids were so adorable and it was fun. The best line of the night came from little David: "Trick-or-Treating!!" David was the cowboy, Cami was the Spanish senorita and Joesph was also a cowboy. Vienna of course was a Firefly and pooped out of Holloweening at about 9pm. Evan and I were bummed because there went our candy stash. lol. Can't wait to see what next year hold.

 

And Lastly, Evan wanted to take one last picture of my costume. He picked it all out with Vienna, put it all together and I loved it:). He's a keeper.  

Murder Mystery Halloween Dinner

So! The Lehman's invited us to a Murder Mystery Halloween Dinner at her parent's house in Alpine. We had such a blast. It was so creative and.... EVAN (and Vienna and I) won! Great night, great food, great company:). Oh and beautiful house!

An OrangeSoda Halloween

I finally got to take my baby to Evan's work trick-or-treating event! I usually take my niece and nephew, Cami and David, which I also love but this year I got to take my own sweet little baby. I got us all dressed up, she was a Lightening Bug/FireFly and I was a Bandita (like from "Banditas" starring Selma Hayek & Penelope Cruz). We looked SO cute! Mostly Vienna though. My mother-in-law, Brenda made it for her. So sweet of her! Evan was so set on her being a Firefly so Brenda and I made it happen! Mostly she did all the hard stuff, I just found matching wings:). She looked so adorable though, twinkling bum and everything! We also brought Evan's Captain America costume accessories so he looked awesome! Best costume yet:). 

You know in the movies when the mom stays up all night working on Halloween costumes for her kids.....? Yeah, that was me with Evan's costume the night before. We did the "ashing" on his shirt, spray painting his helmet blue with a white "A", and attempting to spray a white star on his shirt. I ended up having to cut out a white star out of material, burn the edges and glue-gun it on. Evan tried to help but pretty much made things worse. Lol. He was pretty cute though, so excited about making it look awesome:)

I got most of my 'gear' from my daddy because he's a real cowboy and had all the real stuff. It was so cool. The only problem is that the only thing I can compare to the weight I had baring on my hips was when I was 10 months pregnant with Vienna! All that leather and metal was SO heavy. Between all that and Vienna and her diaper bag, I'm sure I was carrying an extra 100 pounds. So....needless to say, I switch outfits for our actual Halloween party.

The little Firefly herself! She is just the most adorable baby girl ever!

 Melissa! Evan's old boss in Training. She's is so beautiful all the time. Love this girl!

 This was MY contribution to her costume:)

Adorably, Beautiful DeNeige! She is the best receptionist ever! She has a great stash of treats that she shares with us when we come in:)

 DeNeige decorated this so cute!

The lovely lady again:). Her costume was so spot on.... only girly style!

Our little family:).