kevin & dani

grammys

2012-02-13T18:00:00.000-08:00

Best Dressed: Katy Perry! (she can really pull off any hair color!)

Best Dressed: Miranda Lambert

Best Dressed: Carrie Underwood (Kevin's fave)

Worst Dressed: Fergie

Ali on American Idol!!!

2012-01-22T23:17:00.000-08:00

How cool is this?! Tonight on American Idol they featured my little sister, Ali. She did so great! We are so proud and happy for her. It was such a fun experience to go down to San Diego and participate in the whole thing. I was there but you can only see part of my face for like .5 seconds (see pic below). LOL. :)

blink and you'll miss me

Ali totally deserve all the media attention that she has/will receive. I can't think of a sweeter girl. My dad was dying when her saw her booty dance....twice. he has come to the point where he just rolls his eyes and admits that he's lost all control of his kids. :)

Here is her audition video:

the golden ticket!

"cruise ships don't sink"

2012-01-16T18:32:00.000-08:00

about a week ago, my parents left for a week-long cruise to the caribbean. right after they left to go to the airport, clay started getting a worried about their trip. he was telling kevin and i that he was concerned about the ship. i tried to reassure him that they would be fine but he couldn't relax. then i decided to give a 5 minute speech about:

-how he's ridiculous for being worried
-cruise ships are the safest form of travel
-cruise ships don't even hit things in the water
-cruise ships have modern technology, top of the line stuff
-cruise ships have the ability to see miles under the sea
-cruise ships travel so slow that they can avoid any type of collision
-this is not 1912 & mom and dad are not on the titanic
-they're cruising in the caribbean, not the northern atlantic

and lastly i said this multiple times, with plenty of emphasis:

-cruise ships don't sink

SO imagine my horror the other night (while our parents are still at sea) when i see clay browsing the internet and this pops up:

"Up to 70 cruise passengers missing and three dead as captain of capsized cruise liner is arrested and survivors tell of 'chaotic evacuation'"

the looks on both our faces was priceless. my face = shock. clay's face = horror. he immediately started mocking my little speech complete with quotation fingers. i so deserved it and all i have to say is touché.

golden globes 2012

2012-01-15T22:44:00.000-08:00

#1- Jessica Alba...amazing!

#2- Nicole Richie

#3- Salma Hayek

#4-Jessica Chastain

Worst Dressed: Zooey Deschanel...love her, hate the dress/look

it's a.....

2012-01-10T19:14:00.000-08:00

BOY!

we are freaking out! let the shopping begin :)

half way!

2012-01-07T11:50:00.000-08:00

20 Weeks

20 weeks marks several exciting changes during this pregnancy:

THE ARRIVAL OF A LITTLE BELLY BUMP. this is more exciting for my family because i told my younger siblings that they were not allowed to rub or caress my belly until there was an obvious bump. this became a necessary rule when, at the time, i realized that my belly was a magnet for everyone's hands and my baby was only the size of a grain of rice. which bugged me because they were not touching my tiny baby, they were just rubbing my fat. but now, touch away:)

I JUST STARTED TO FEEL LITTLE KICKS AND FLUTTERS. this baby is becoming more active everyday and it has been really cool to start to feel him/her move around.

WE FIND OUT OUR BABY'S GENDER IN 3 DAYS! this is what we're most excited about. kevin and i are at a stalemate of baby names, nursery ideas, registry items, etc. of course we are going to be happy with whatever sex our baby is, kevin is convinced it's a boy and i'm convinced it's a girl. we'll see:) i'll definitely update as soon as we find out! :)

our baby :)

2011-12-12T22:19:00.000-08:00

11 week ultrasound pic

there are no words to explain how happy kevin and i are because we're having a baby!!!!! shout it from the rooftops! i'm feeling a lot of emotions like happiness, excitement, stress, etc. we waited so long to tell everyone because i wanted to surprise my family & friends in our christmas card. i wish we didn't have to keep the secret so long but i'm really happy that everyone was surprised. currently i'm 16 weeks along.

shout out to clay and camryn (& my mom & dad) for keeping the secret this whole time! they did great. at about 7 weeks i had no symptoms and i actually thought to myself, "i don't think i'm going to have morning sickness". haha! wrong! first thing you need to know is that the last time i threw up was when i was 8 years old. i get car sick and queasy but never actually vomit....until now. i feel like this pregnancy is making up for all those 16 vomit free years :( my sickness has subsided though. i'm down to 1-2x a week. other than that i'm not experiencing any symptoms. most food sounds unappealing and unfortunately the only food that sounds delicious all the time is a mcchicken from mcdonalds! eek! i'm not showing yet and all my regular clothes still fit but i'm sure that won't last much longer seeing as i'm entering my 4th month.

names: for the 4 years we've been married kevin and i have yet to agree on a single baby name. ugh. we will definitely be finding out the gender (in january) to help us in the baby name area. i'm always so curious to what names people are thinking of so here is our very rough draft of names.

dani likes for a girl: bridget, indie, amelia, alexis, macy

kevin likes for a girl: reagan, mila, georgia

dani likes for a boy: graham, grant*, eric*

kevin likes for a boy: case, drew*, steven*

*family names

the only name parameters that i'm setting is that the name is easy to say, easy to spell and normal. so basically it could be anything! we're always trying to think of more suggestions. if you have any, please let us know:) i'm sure we'll be deciding on the final name after they are born but i need to have a least a top 3 that we both agree on.

basically, we're both just really happy to be entering this chapter of our lives. kevin came home from costco the other day with a box of diapers (apparently it was on a good sale). our first baby purchase. ahh, it was cute. i'm sure i won't think it's a cute a year from now when diapers are draining all our money but for now it's cute :)

we can't wait!

not gonna lie...

2011-11-29T21:30:00.000-08:00

i'm not going to lie, i'm happy it's christmas time because i can listen to this song on repeat. kevin is understandably annoyed of me ;)

ps- i can't remember if i posted this last year and i didn't want to search in the archives so sorry if this is a repeat post.

my morning routine

2011-11-23T12:17:00.001-08:00

my morning routine usually goes like this:

5:55: alarm, wake up, go to bathroom & brush teeth

6:00: run back to bed & stay warm for 5-10 more minutes before battling with myself and finally getting up to get ready for the day.

so today was no different. i go to the bathroom and head back to bed. when i'm finally able to get up i realize that i've misplaced my glasses. i feel around in the bed...nothing. i check my side table...nothing. weird. so i get up and put my contacts in. i go back to my bedroom to search again with good eyes. i still have no luck so i decide to turn on the lamps and this is what i find:

haha! i literally could not stop laughing and only pulled it together long enough to take this picture. after the pic i said, "kevin!" he grumbled something so i said, "kevin...what are you wearing?!" his eyes opened a little and then he said, "i found your glasses in the bed. i was just holding them for you." I say, "why didn't you just put them on my side table?" he was already asleep again...

i laughed all morning long.

recent music

2011-11-16T22:45:00.001-08:00

I just got the new Kelly Clarkson and Miranda Lambert albums. Both are so great. Here are my favorite songs from each album:)

so excited!

2011-11-14T20:08:00.000-08:00

nothing cuter!

2011-11-08T21:16:00.000-08:00

i got to visit my sister in baltimore last week and it was so fun! spending all day with eden, chelsea and mike was such a blast. obviously by the video you can tell that i was constantly trying to get kisses from eden. too cute! she loved using the front facing camera on my iphone...see below:)

emmy 2011 best dressed

2011-09-20T21:50:00.000-07:00

Heidi Klum in Christian Siriano

Emily Blunt in Elie Saab Couture

mammouth lakes

2011-09-19T18:15:00.000-07:00

kevin and i switch of planning our wedding anniversary every year. he is the odd numbered anniversaries and i'm the even ones. my parents do this and it's a pretty fun tradition. this is the first year that we've actually done something. the last few years we have been students in school so going out to dinner was about it.

so this year was my year. trying to be as frugal as possible, i decided to plan a little camping trip but 1 con to getting married on labor day weekend it nothing is available because everyone else and their dog(literally) want to travel that weekend too. i scoured websites and campgrounds until i found one available for that weekend in mammoth lakes, ca. there was only one spot left so i tried to do a little research (ie: must have plumbing) then i booked it. it was a risk because i didn't know anything about this place. it's about 4 hrs away from lodi but at least it was something.

kevin was hesitant but as soon as i told him to bring his fishing stuff, he was on board. we had 1 little blip on the way there when (heaven forbid) i didn't know how to navigate myself through the entire yosemite national park. we have to drive completely through yosemite to get to mammoth. we actually missed a turn and ended up losing 20 mins but if we wouldn't have been lost, we wouldn't have these pictures:

half dome in background, we look happy because we don't know we're lost yet

anyways, we got there fine, just a little hungry/irritated. i was literally amazed about how awesome of a place this was. i guess this city has like TONS of lakes. we saw at least 10. there is fishing, swimming, kayaking, hiking, biking, horseback riding, etc. the bike trail starts at the top of the mountain and is totally paved/nice the whole way down into the city. the best part is that there is a free shuttle system that will take you back to your campground or the top once you've ridden your bike down...we had so much fun! now for some pictures:)

View from our campground, waterfall in background

fishing on the bridge

we caught a fish! kevin is a happy camper....literally!

at the top of the waterfall, looking down to our campground

we had a picnic on a rock right next to the waterfall

beginning our afternoon bike ride

of course, kevin got the good bike! LOL

quatro

2011-09-06T22:33:00.000-07:00

we just celebrated our 4 year anniversary:) i was talking to kevin earlier and told him that i can't believe that it's been 4 years since we got married. he agreed because he said, "it feels longer" right as i was saying, "it feels like yesterday"...awkward silence....

anyways, i don't write often enough about how great of a husband kevin is. he really is the greatest partner, friend & spouse:) i can't express in words what that means (i tried...this is like draft 4 of this post). i love him more than anything and i would be lost without him. i remember the first time i ever saw him, i had a crush on "the blonde guy". who would have thought that eventually i would marry him and 4 years later i still have that crush;)

when i think back on my wedding day it's really a blur of memories/nerves. i remember saying a prayer that morning, right as i woke up, asking for comfort for my nerves and hope for the future and that everything will go smoothly (with the wedding/reception & the rest of our life... quite the prayer, huh? LOL). i had no idea the trials/hardships we would endure as a couple. i also could not imagine the happiness that we have experienced and the memories we have shared. when i married kevin 4 years ago, i knew i loved him but i had no idea how great of a man he is and how lucky we were to have each other.

happy 4 years!

woo-hoo!

2011-08-29T12:06:00.000-07:00

technology

2011-08-23T23:07:00.000-07:00

i just watched a 2 minute web tutorial that could have shaved off ~~hours~~ days of frustration from my college career. i love technology and all but i often feel like it's laughing at me!

it's probably just karma from the days of me laughing-so-hard-i-couldn't-breathe because my mom didn't know how to copy/paste and she was typing her young women's handout's one by one.

i hate when she's right about karma.

.

2011-08-23T23:04:00.000-07:00

i love reality tv...

i love weddings...

needless to say, i'm excited to see all the pictures from kim kardashian's weekend wedding. i'm sure everything will be grandiose, just like her booty...hehe:)

i'm not blogging because i'm looking at pinterest

2011-07-30T15:42:00.000-07:00

i joined pinterest because one of my favorite bloggers did a post about it and i joined right away. and never looked back...lol. she explains it much better than i, so go read what she said. think of it like a digital pinboard of all the things you look at--and like-- on the internet and want to save the picture, recipe, idea, etc. it saves the link on a pinboard on your profile. here are some of my favorite things:

love this bedroom

diy hot air balloon mobile

button monogram

kate

cute robot

birds beak shelving

it also has lots of great tips for everyday things...my sister chelsea just posted how pinterest helped her get rid of fruit flies.

so...do you want an invite? leave a comment or email me (( danishields (at) gmail.com )) and i'll send you one! :)

the zipline

2011-07-26T23:08:00.000-07:00

this is what happens when the zipline functions properly:

this is what happens when it does not:

Last thursday, Ali went down the zipline fine but once she let go and fell into the pool, the rope got a little tangled. Camryn tried to get it untangled by yanking on the rope several times. When that didn't work, she just climbed the tower and untangled the knot at the top. After pulling down on the handle a few times to test her weight, she held on and left the tower. As soon as she was fully hanging, and at the highest point (20 ft), the bolt broke that held the handle to the zipline. Ali is the only one who saw it happen and she said that Camryn just laid still. After the paramedics came and some maneuvering to get her into the ambulance, she was rushed to uc davis. She broke 5 bones: 2 bones in her right arm, 2 bones in her right leg, and 1 bone in her left arm. She is currently in 3 casts and has to be transported in a wheelchair.

That being said, we are really lucky that all her injuries are not more severe! She has been so positive and strong. She didn't even cry at all for the first day but then her leg started swelling in her cast and the real pain hit. She learned that she is immune to morphine (not something that you want to learn when that is the only pain med that they are giving you!) After 4 days in the hospital, she was finally discharged Sunday night.

Here are some pics:

this is the face she made when i said to smile :)

all casted up

home from the hospital:)

we were all sad that cams was hurt:(

view from atop the tower...pre-accident

i'm happy to be her new chauffeur :)

Look At Me Now

2011-07-20T22:58:00.000-07:00

Please enjoy this very candid home video of Ali, rapping Look At Me Now. This is the song she sang for her American Idol auditions last week. If she is famous someday, this video is priceless. If she's not, this video is blackmail:) Either way, it's pretty cool:)

grocery list

2011-07-19T21:42:00.000-07:00

Occasionally I will try to add an expensive item to our budgeted grocery list...thinking kevin won't notice and just add the item to the cart without question. The image above is our grocery list last week. Did you find the item?! the bike. Needless to say, he spotted it right away and promptly reminded me that he is watching me (while doing the "i'm watching you" signal) and i'm going to have to keep riding my ghetto bike.

for our wedding anniversary last year kevin restored a old schwinn bike and it's seriously so adorable but it lacks certain things. things like...brakes (he could easily add them but he has no desire to continue working on it--plus, finding parts is a nightmare, i hear). scary thought for me, especially since i'm pretty clumsy. i tried to have a good attitude about it and i drove very carefully but then i rode his brand new bike once and i was hooked. nothing like brand new tires, brakes, shocks, etc...so from now until i ride that new bike out of the store, i will continue to "hide" the bike item in the grocery list. maybe someday he'll be in right mood:)

the "up" house

2011-07-11T17:01:00.000-07:00

The summer after high school i went on a date with a really nice guy who took me to see the movie Cars. I quickly learned that my date was a HUGE fan of pixar...and by huge i mean completely obsessed. his excitement and knowledge of the whole pixar movie process made it so exciting the whole night and finally when we saw the movie i was hooked on pixar. after that i started a personal tradition of going to see the most recent movie every summer and one of my most favorite movie's i've ever seen is the movie "Up". kevin took me to see it for the first time on my 22nd bday in rexburg with our friends. really good memories:)

anyways, my dad told me last night that a construction company in salt lake made a replica of the "up" house! how cool is that?! i'm actually tempted to make a quick trip to utah just to tour the parade of homes...

movie

herriman, utah

national geographic did something similar back in march, i just forgot to blog about it:) their house actually flew!

movie

national geographic

movie

national geographic

Brightside Prints/Giveaway

2011-06-10T18:49:00.000-07:00

I'm very excited to announce that I am now a featured designer at Brightside Prints! My good friend, Jill and I, along with other great designers are now collaborating to bring you affordable, fresh, beautiful and high quality designs. It's really a dream come true to design beautiful wedding invitations (along with plenty of other things but wedding invites are my fave) and have people appreciate and love them like I do.

But that's not all! We are having a giveaway RIGHT. NOW! Go to our blog and leave a comment of your favorite design and 10 people will get a $25 gift card to the shop!! 10 people!! Not getting married? Not having a baby? It's ok! There is a such a great selection of fun summertime party invitations, kids birthday invitations, etc... i'm sure you'll find something you'll like:)

So if you all just go and leave a comment, 1 of 2 things can happen:
1. you waste 30 seconds of your life supporting me (your friend/family/blog stalkee--i love you, stalkers)

OR

2. you win an $$ for an amazing design!!! yay!! :)

AND i just looked and there are 8 comments and the winners are being announced on Monday so the odds are totally in your favor:)

Ps- If you don't win you can always use the coupon code "DANI" and get 10% off your order:)

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

most recent playlist

2011-06-01T20:09:00.000-07:00

i've been listening to this playlist for the last week straight. if you like country music, you'll love these songs:)

like my pre-teens weren't embarrassing enough!

2011-05-26T19:00:00.000-07:00

Unbeknownst to me (i saw this page for the first time on one of the last days of school), in my 9th grade yearbook, i was dubbed the cover girl of the "most embarrassing" page. Eerily appropriate if you know even 1 story of my life during those years, but how did the yearbook staff know that?...weird. my 2 favorite things about this page are:

1) the girl in the background who is looking at me like i'm a psycho...i'm just smiling!

2) you can't see this part but i'll quote the last paragraph of the article on this page, "as you can tell people do embarrassing stuff everyday. Danielle Shields (to the left) smiles for us!"...aka "as you can tell people do embarrassing stuff everyday, just look at the freak in the giant picture to the left!"

to our mothers,

2011-05-07T21:47:00.000-07:00

thank you. happy mother's day:)

two thumbs way up

2011-04-29T13:58:00.000-07:00

I have definitely loved all this royal wedding fever (but i'm also kind of glad it's almost over). Kate, or should i say Her Royal Highness, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, looked amazing! I love both her dresses:)

happy weekend:)

youtube tuesday:

2011-04-26T20:51:00.000-07:00

how amazing is this video of carrie underwood singing how great thou art?!?

love<3

happy easter!

2011-04-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

kevin and i exchanged easter baskets for the first time this year. how hilarious is it that i got kevin his favorite magazine and he got me mine....without telling each other! so funny:)

speaking of baskets...i was a basketcase yesterday. i was able to attend the funeral of a lady in my ward who had been the young women's president my junior and senior year of high school. for a little while i was the laurel president so i got to know her pretty well during that time. just like every funeral i go to, i really struggled throughout the whole meeting...i'm such a baby! it was amazing though. the speakers, the music, everything. one of my favorite parts was when her sister read a poem that carol had recently written. i don't have a copy of the whole poem but here is the last stanza:

happy easter:)

it's eden's birthday!

2011-04-21T18:45:00.000-07:00

remember this post?! that was 1 year ago today! eden is one! i do not exaggerate when i say that my entire family has been completely enamored with this little girl since day one. she is the light of our lives and is such a blessing. one thing i also want to say is that it's been amazing to watch my sister become a mother. i remember talking to chelsea minutes after eden was born and i was saying, "good job chels, she's here and she's perfect and she's yours." and it was just the greatest feeling ever...we were crying, of course! lol.

anyways, chelsea has made motherhood the most glamourous thing i've ever seen and it's not because she sugar coats it. she's honest and truthful but it's her example. actions speak louder than words. one time she was telling me, "you know when people are mad when their kids wake up early? i don't get that. every time eden wakes up i think, yay! i've missed you so much!" another time my whole family went to the galt flea market and we all took numbers on who was going to hold eden next. i was second in line, then clay, then dad, etc. at one point chelsea said, "wait. what's my number? am i after dad or kati?....i looked at her and laughed. i said, "chels, you don't need a number. you're the mom. you can hold her whenever. her reply, "i know but i like holding her too and i wanted to be fair".

i'd also like to make a shout out to our mom, heidisan. she's the best grandma & mom. this week a lady in our ward passed away and it's just been so devastating. she was young. she wasn't done raising her kids yet. it's just so sad but it also makes me very grateful for my mom in my life. she definitely was a good example to all of us!

happy birthday little E:)

brown recluse

2011-04-18T20:31:00.000-07:00

something i never knew about kevin until i married him:

if you are a driver that happens to be on the road around us and, heaven forbid, you forget to use your blinker while switching lanes your will be yelled at, chased/tailgated closely and your life will be threatened.

BUT

if you are a freaking BROWN RECLUSE SPIDER in the shower while i'm half way through shaving my legs...don't you worry because kevin will make sure to grab a cup, paper plate and spend the next 5 minutes coaxing (using a little baby voice.."come here little spider"..etc) you onto the plate while i'm standing cold, wet, soapy in the corner of the shower. and then he will take you to back to your "home" aka the front yard.

haha:)

dear blank, please blank

2011-03-28T20:44:00.000-07:00

THIS website has literally left me laughing for days! Here are a few of my favorite ones:

my fave? the dear 2011 one. amazing.

what is your favorite?

tv pet peeve

2011-03-24T19:49:00.000-07:00

so i have this small pet peeve about tv story lines being overly unrealistic. take private practice for example: really, addison(main character)? you're going to try and harvest an unborn baby's eggs so that you can mature/stimulate the eggs w/hormones so that the parents can have another child after the aforementioned baby dies?! really? ugh. episode HERE. (if you don't believe me)

while ~~talking~~ venting about the ridiculous storyline in this episode kevin pointed out to me that one of my favorite shows was (sadly, cancelled) medium. yeah medium, where patricia arquette's character dreams real life crimes and then promptly solves them just in the nick of time.

touché kevin, touché.

giveaway winners!!

2011-03-23T18:50:00.000-07:00

congratulations to JANA, ERICA & CRUZ CREW!!!

Please email me your addresses- danishields (at) gmail.com

Erica-I'll give it to you on sunday! :)

Sooooo excited for tomorrow:)

---------------------------------------------------

ashley- jimmer fredette is the best college basketball player in the country! and byu is going to the sweet 16! he's all clay has been talking about for the past 6 months (clay is a jimmer/byu encyclopedia!) so needless to say, it's a exciting time! he's a phenomenon...you have to watch this video, is amazing :)

giveaway

2011-03-21T12:07:00.000-07:00

TEAM JIMMER T-SHIRT GIVEAWAY! Just in time for the Sweet 16!!!!!!!!!!

--Leave a comment by tomorrow night with your name and shirt size (S, M, L).

*note: if i didn't want people i didn't know reading my blog, then it would be private...which it's not, so even if i don't know you and you want a shirt, please comment:)

And the winner is...

2011-03-15T18:46:00.000-07:00

...the wife!

First, thank you to everyone that voted on this silly poll. Second, I would like to add the back story that led me to allow you all to settle our little argument. Our current bedroom is so small! I would say that about 90% of the space is taken up by our queen sized bed. Rexburg really spoiled us in the space dept…we never lived in a place that had less than 2 bedrooms, storage rooms, etc! Because our room is so small and all of our furniture is black, I decided that I wanted bold, colorful bedding.

**Side note: In regards to interior design: I feel like my ideal style and my current style are somewhat different. The reason: square footage! The only focal point potential that I have right now is my bed which is why I choose the bold colors, patterns, etc:) in case you were wondering.

Anyways, in the early months of marriage I showed Kevin a picture of bedding that I admired. His exact response was, “There is no way in hell that I’m sleeping in that bed”. His main disgust is anything that looks too feminine in any way. I was really surprised that he was so opinionated!! There began my search for cute/modern/gender neutral bedding. The search failed and we had blah, tan bedding for like 2 years! Last year we got cute bedding from ikea and I’ve been really happy with it. #100 reason I love ikea is the fact that I can switch up the entire look of my bedroom for $30. They have so many bedding sets and when we were there last week (and to Kevin’s chagrin) I purchased the bedding featured in the post below. He literally would not stop talking about how it looked too feminine. I completely disagreed. This is where the poll came in.

TOTAL COUNT:
-more feminine: 10
-more masculine: 5
-gender neutral: 14
-ugly, don't buy it! (haha): 4

I realize that some of you didn’t like the bedding at all but I do (& I think that the picture from the website does not do it justice)! And honestly, I’ll probably get bored again and want to switch and that’s okay because it’s only $30 :)

Here is a more accurate picture. Our sheets are gray and our bed frame is black so don’t even tell me this bed looks feminine. Even if it is, it doesn’t matter. The people have spoken...LOL :)

the marriage ref

2011-03-13T13:12:00.000-07:00

PLEASE VOTE BELOW!

this bedding is:

pics of me & cams

2011-03-12T19:34:00.000-08:00

Picture #1

DANI'S THOUGHTS WHILE TAKING THIS PIC: "why are my eyebrows never symmetrical?"

CAMRYN'S THOUGHTS WHILE TAKING THIS PIC: "i love twilight and all, but why am i starting to look like an actual vampire?..creepy"

Picture #2

DANI'S THOUGHTS WHILE TAKING THIS PIC: "can you tell that they're not symmetrical at this angle?...camryn still looks weird"

CAMRYN'S THOUGHTS WHILE TAKING THIS PIC: "at least you can't see my fangs if i make this silly face"

Team Jimmer T-Shirts

2011-03-11T08:19:00.000-08:00

Start spreading the word! Our TEAM JIMMER T-Shirts are now for sale in our etsy shop:

http://shieldsshirts.etsy.com

Getting one of these shirts is the perfect way to start out March Madness!!!

byu vs. sdsu

2011-03-08T21:44:00.000-08:00

where do i start?

this picture was taken about 30 seconds before we found out that we were sold fake tickets...

clay got in, he had a different ticket from our uncle. my ticket actually cleared and it was only when kevin's didn't scan that i walked over to see what was happening that they told me that mine was fake too. i was super embarrassed/upset. i started crying, kevin started cussing and security was approaching. it was an intimidating situation because here we are with clay, dressed in head-to-toe BYU attire. he was waving a giant "Y" flag and we're literally surrounded by drunk, fraternity SDSU fans. ugh. i didn't want to leave clay alone...

**looking back i should have done SO many things different. don't want to bore you with all the details, just know that this is the VERY short, rated G version**

basically there was this girl telling security to escort me and kevin out. i was really panicked about clay, which was just making me more upset but kevin calmed me down. clay took kev's phone and we went and filed a police report. along with like 30 people who also had fake tickets. ugh...i'm still so annoyed.

**when i asked how i could have known that these were fake (before driving 8 hours to san diego i spent a lot of time making sure i trusted this guy and these were legit--research, personal info, etc--, kati met him and she was even impressed about how cool he was) the police & ticket people literally were amazed about how real the tickets looked...and let's not forget that mine worked! there was no way we could have known.

clay met up with our uncle in the arena and after that i felt a lot better. kevin and i went to a restaurant to watch the game. i don't want to make such a generalized statement (especially when this is kati's alma mater & because there is a small % of people that this does not apply to) but SDSU fans are freakin' douchebags. i was already really upset about everything but i made a choice to have a good attitude the rest of the day. so we're sitting there, keeping to ourselves, eating lunch and watching the game. we weren't even clapping but when jimmer hits like four 3-pointers in a row, kevin says "BOOM!" and i was clapping. these guys at the bar start freaking out and telling us to shut the f*** up and that byu f'ing sucks. whatever. it's not worth it. we finish eating and leave to watch the rest of the game somewhere else.

at this point in the day i was so mad that all i cared about was byu winning. we'll show you sdsu. every shot that went in the basket made me feel a little bit better. please win. please win. please win for clay. we watched the 2nd half with kati's friends and classmates and they were super nice. they are in the small % of people that i described earlier. they wanted sdsu (obviously) and kevin and i wanted byu and we watched the 2nd half and it was really pleasant and civil....imagine that! haha!

i was SO HAPPY when the game finally ended! WE WON!!!! take that!

all in all this trip had a ton of frustrations but all it took was seeing clay, when we picked him up after the game, that confirmed that it was totally worth it. he was so happy:)

i seriously love this kid!

TEAM JIMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

best dressed-oscars 2011

2011-02-28T11:30:00.000-08:00

FIRST:

SECOND:

THIRD:

photos

this commercial is cool:

2011-02-26T21:02:00.000-08:00

paypal ?s

2011-02-23T23:20:00.000-08:00

i hate when the question "who was your childhood best friend?" pops up to verify my account. it's like the people over at paypal didn't take into account the kids that didn't really have childhood friends... salt in my emotional wounds.

i doubt "a red ballon that i used to play with" would suffice.

frame/bulletin board

2011-02-15T21:31:00.000-08:00

my favorite part about the movie 'life as we know it' was this large frame/bulletin board that katherine heigl and josh duhamel were fighting over. sorry this picture is such bad quality. i'm constantly studying the interior design in movies (usually when the storyline isn't keeping my attention). i couldn't tell you very many details about the interiors in 'Inception' but I do think that the apartment that Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Connelly share in 'The Dilemma' was decorated very nicely! haha! the dilemma is super dumb. don't see it.

anyways, i found this pic in my ever-expanding "inspiration" folder on my computer. it's similar...i love it:)

5 things

2011-02-11T00:36:00.000-08:00

i totally copied emily's blog but here are 5 things that currently make me happy:

1. google reader---use it...it's the bomb. i used to think bloglines was cool and then they were shutting down so i "forced" myself to transfer all my blogs over (it wasn't that hard) and then i realized how amazing it is. never looked back:)

2. spray tan---i'm an avid believer in the spray tan (which is a nice way of saying i'm very against tanning beds). this is my favorite brand:

3. parks & recreation---how did i not know how funny this show was?!

4. mint.com---kevin & i currently have a very structured budget, thank you to this amazing website. it is a love/hate relationship at times and i do have to go in and tweak things but for the most part, it's way better than our old budget keeper(my old, used sketchbook that always ended up lost or under the bed). LOL.

5. pictures of eden---forever on my list of top 5 things that make me happy! cutest baby ever!

the book of mormon & justin bieber

2011-02-05T23:02:00.000-08:00

i didn't plan on posting twice this week about my dad but i just think he's so funny. for instance, this is exactly how i found his side table today. apparently, he also has caught bieber fever!

after taking this pic and asking my mom about it she said, "yeah that's actually my vanity fair but dad said he wanted to read it first."....just in case anyone was thinking it was accidently placed there. haha!

resolution #1

2011-02-03T22:04:00.001-08:00

my new years resolutions mostly consist of things that i will NOT do. for example:

-i will not eat cookie dough for dinner.

-i will not sleep past all 4 of my alarms.

-i will not dance/sing in public (*requested by kevin...you should all thank him.lol)

-i will not wait until my car is chugging to get gas

-i will not wear my ugly pajama pants if there are any humans present...pets? free game. (*also requested by kevin but more understandable than the singing/dancing one...i'm a good dancer!)

-i will not text & drive

...the list goes on and on

this is #1 on my list:

i will NOT buy nail polish. ever. again. (!)

i believe that this little collection will last me for possibly the rest of my life. and i'm okay with that.

*btw the pink color on the left of the pile is the one i was looking for...why is the color i need always on the bottom?!

:)

email from my dad:

2011-01-26T23:16:00.000-08:00

I'm glad this was a forwarded email...i'd be a little concerned if it wasn't:)

LOL!

home video circa 1988 (baby dani + sprinklers)

2011-01-23T23:53:00.000-08:00

i found this little gem-of-a-video tonight while watching family videos. *please note that my mom was present for the commentary and i would NEVER call her a jerk normally but it seemed appropriate in this instance. haha. watch the clip to see what i'm talking about:)

rolling in the deep

2011-01-20T23:54:00.000-08:00

i LOVE this song & music video:)

golden globes 2011

2011-01-16T22:21:00.000-08:00

Best Dressed:

1st Place: Mandy Moore

2nd Place: Carrie Underwood

3rd Place: Rhea Durham

(Mark Wahlberg's wife)

zoe!

2011-01-13T19:20:00.000-08:00

so this last saturday becky and i had the following conversation:

DANI: "you should wait until tuesday to have your baby because then her birthday would be 1/11/11!"

BECKY: "uh, yeah right dani! she's going to be born way before that!" (becky was already 6 days overdue)

I really thought that becky would be right but tuesday at 12:08pm, zoe noelle thomas entered the world:) i was the super-lucky best friend that got to stand by becky's side for the 26 hour (!) laboring process!!! and that's only counting from when becky was dialated to 4cm on--not counting the 24 hours of steady contractions before that!

becky. was. amazing! to see her in labor just confirmed my thoughts that i will need an epidural at about 7 months because i am such a wimp. she really was so good at laboring: no complaining, giving it 150% every push!

one funny moment was when she was just talking to me and her mom saying, "i just can't wait to meet her and hold her...she's just mine and no one else's"....chase (who we thought was asleep) piped up, "hey! she's mine too!" haha!

in all seriousness this whole experience was so amazing! i'm so glad that becky asked me to be there. you could feel the spirit so strong and when zoe finally came out from the c-section i had to hold back the tears when i saw her for the first time. i couldn't hold back the tears when becky got to hold her though. ahhh, so so cool!

:)

this is what labor is like...with and epidrual:)

zoe girl!

kevo + zoe

me + zoe

dilemma

2011-01-05T16:30:00.000-08:00

am i an oxymoron if i wear skinny jeans?

i mean, they're not called, "kinda-chubby-but-working-on-it-jeans"....

gingerbread forest & team jimmer

2011-01-04T23:26:00.000-08:00

this year my family decided that instead of just decorating gingerbread houses that we would also hold a competition and see who made the best house. the winner got $$ and surprisingly the caliber of decorating shot right up. no more measley m&m houses. i decided to make a peppermint house but about 10 mins into my project my house collapsed (see pics). i recovered though and actually ended up winning the whole competition...i credit that to my parsley/glitter forest. :)

this is my gingerbread house.

this is my gingerbread house 30 seconds after i took that last picture:(

i was actually more excited about my forest than my actual house so i decided to scrap the house and just do the environment.

the trees are made of sugar cones (that i cut to different heights), glitter & parsley....parsley! such a good idea! good job me. jk:)

i actually enjoyed the giving more than the receiving this year....i guess that means i'm an adult now...? this family tree was one of my favorite gifts to give. my mentor, jill, trained me on making these for her and i decided to make one for my parents. it was a lot of work but totally worth it! sidenote: i have an ancestor named "jemima batman". hilarious!

probably one of the highlights of my whole christmas was watching my little brother open up the new byu basketball shorts that i got him. i can see his reaction in my head perfectly. he was just so surprised & happy...ah, it felt good:) i have NEVER met a byu fan like him. you would think that jimmer fredette was a member of this family the way they all talk about him. we decided that we need to make "team jimmer" t-shirts...anyone else interested? jk!

one of my new years resolutions was to blog more consistently so hopefully it's not 3 weeks before the next post:)

the voicemail

2010-12-13T13:45:00.000-08:00

in an effort to show my family how cool google voice (mostly the voicemail transcription) is, i asked clay to leave me a "detailed" voicemail. by detailed i meant something more than "hey dans. it's clay. call me back."

this is what i got: (the transcription did pretty good but i've fixed all the errors so, yes, what you're reading is what he really said. haha!)

"hi dans. umm, meet you at the apothecary at 902 hundred hours. in coordinates 52 degrees north, 35 degrees west near the polar east ice caps. we will go over the top secret unclassified blackhawk down file. and we will share some crumpets over the apothecary table with a pulsing idea in a manilla envelope, full of ipads and modern family. so see you at family camp this next year. and isn't eden so cute? i know. but look at that. we must get ready for halloween. what are you going to wear? i'm going to wear a gorilla…so i wait wait wait ps. ali is a weirdo and camryn is crazy. and okay and see you at 500 hours in the morning at army base camp. ready salute soldier bye."

ah-mazing! sometimes i wonder what's going on in his head but i think this pretty much sums it up. so random! :)

first christmas tree

2010-12-09T19:08:00.000-08:00

i have a hard time posting on this blog because i feel like our life is a broken record most of the time. wake up, got to work, come home from work, eat, go to bed. repeat. repeat.

we threw kevin a surprise birthday party a few weeks ago. it went well and here is a pic of him with his golf ball cake....so cute, huh?!

this is kevin & eddie, his sister's new puppy:) he's so handsome, huh?......oh, and kevin looks cute too:) lol.

this has nothing to do with anything and yes the sole reason i'm posting this is to show that i got a 78 point word against becky! ha!

although she (and every single person i've played) went on to beat me...

here is our first christmas tree. every other year we were traveling to california for the entire christmas break so kevin demanded that we didn't need a tree. so this year is the first! i told kevin that my dream is to have christmas trees like martha stewart (actually my dream is to be just like martha stewart minus the felon part) ...so i wanted this to be a mini version....it's a little heavy on the ornaments but oh well.

close up on my fave ornament...the"t".

as i'm posting this my only niece (who is here visiting from maryland), eden, is sitting 1 mile away at my parents house so i better get going....

Did you hear??

2010-11-15T18:46:00.000-08:00

My little sister Ali was a special guest on The Ellen Show today. Watch the clip HERE.

How cool is that?!? Ellen is the best!

Hear more of Ali's music HERE.

:) we're freaking out. if you couldn't already tell from facebook! LOL

i don't even win rock, paper, scissors 99% of the time

2010-11-13T17:51:00.001-08:00

i'm unlucky.

i never win anything. as i walked in to my high school grad party the girl i was with won $100 and went on to win a ton of swag later on throughout the night. i went home empty handed. but i accept this about myself so it's okay. so a while back when the company i work for was doing a raffle for a year of pest control service free, so i decided to enter my mom (i'm an employee & couldn't enter myself) with zero hope that she would win.

fast forward to the next week and my boss and i are getting ready to pick a winner. so while i'm spinning the raffle thing, i was telling all of my co-workers about how unlucky i am. i reached in and was fishing my hands through hundreds--seriously hundreds--of raffle cards saying out loud. "where's my mom's card? come here card...i want you to be the winner...i'm looking for you..." etc. you get the idea. i'm goofy. so anyways, i finally pick a card and decide that i'm going to fool all of my co-workers and pretend that i got my mom's card. so everyone is looking at me and i open the card and it says............................

Heidi Shields, 84 Westbrook Drive, Lodi, CA 95242

oh.my.freaking.gosh.

SHE WON. i actually picked her card and definitely did not cheat. i had a ton of witnesses. i'm sure the look on my face was classic. i was FREAKING OUT ~~saying~~ screaming, "i don't even win rock, paper, scissors 99% of the time! i never win things...especially things like this" i actually started crying a little (which is embarrassing to admit) but i was so shocked. so apparently i cashed in all my lucky chips on a year of pest control for my mom but i guess i'm okay with that. :)

p.s. kevin just asked me to "put-on-some-wayne" (all slurred together). I thought he said "put on celine". surprised by his request i asked what celine dion album he wanted to listen to......if looks could kill i would definitely be dead. he clarified what he said while i started singing along with "Because You Loved Me". Needless to say, he left the room quickly:)

p.p.s I've been listening to this song on repeat for 3 days straight. This video is so good:

♥ kevin

2010-11-08T08:01:00.000-08:00

This little darling was less than 24 hours old when this pic was taken and today he turns 27! Wasn't he such a cute newborn?!...and such a cute adult?! ;)

Happy birthday Kevin! :)

andrew ammon thiel

2010-10-29T22:24:00.001-07:00

May 30, 1988--October 15, 2010

"i shouldn't be doing this."

That is the phrase that has plagued my mind for the past 2 weeks. I (meaning me and kevin, together) shouldn't be up all night bawling my eyes out. I shouldn't be seeing my husband like this. I shouldn't be at this burial/funeral/memorial. I shouldn't be shattered...he shouldn't be gone.

Sometimes i think about life and death with an analogy to the game pong. ---bear with me--- You and those you love the most in the world are represented by a rectangle, your rectangle. the ball represents death. the ball always hits a rectangle. sometimes it's close to you: a classmates husband, your grandmother, your friends grandfather. sometimes it's not close to you you at all: someone in the news, a friend's friend, a baby you read about in the paper.

and then it hits your rectangle.----and if you could will death away with endless tears, sleepless nights, empty appetites, showers that always end up with you sitting down in the tub and crying, begging, pleading with God, you would. and it won't work....because you've tried.

and drew was in our rectangle. he and kevin considered each other brothers. drew's family is kevin's family. it's hearbreaking for me to write this but drew was killed in a plane accident on friday october 15, 2010. without a doubt in my mind, this is the worst thing that has ever happened to kevin and i. it's one thing to lose someone you genuinely love. i really loved drew. he was always so nice to me and at times when my own insecurities made me feel unwanted, i never felt that way with him....and then it's another thing to watch the love of your life lose his best friend.

i could write for days and days about the kind of person he was. the all american boy. a outstanding-all league- athlete in 3 sports, high school valedictorian, prom king, recent college grad at the top of his class, magna cum laude, deans list...on and on. there could not have been a better kid. he had his whole future ahead of him. he was applying to medical schools for the fall of 2011 and he died on a volunteer trip to serve underprivileged people in mexico. excelled in everything, humble in everything. i've listened to stories about drew for days and days and i'm so lucky to have known such a good kid.

thank you for your prayers. it's times like now where i'm especially grateful for the knowledge that i have that we will see drew again and that will be one happy reunion. :)

a conversation that you should NOT have with you 15-year-old brother over dinner

2010-10-15T19:28:00.000-07:00

CLAY: "Dani, how are old are you?"

ME: "23....why?"

CLAY: "i was just thinking about your eggs........they're like dying off rapidly and i think you need to have a baby soon before they all die"

...............disbelief..............

................weirdest little brother ever....................

................what teenage boy thinks about this stuff?!?!................

ME: "that's not true and don't talk to me about my eggs please....especially at dinner."

a weekend with kate

2010-10-04T01:04:00.000-07:00

gas: $100
food: $20
miles to san diego: 477
hours in the car: 8 +
bathroom stops: too many

**driving through the night/early morning to surprise you little sister & help her mend her broken heart with laughter, love, snuggling, taylor swift songs, movies, shopping, jokes, the beach etc:

................priceless.

every time i got a positive reaction from kati (saying a funny joke, playing a song she liked, giving a compliment, etc) she and i would make a little noise(and a sewing motion) like "meep" which represented a tiny little stitch in her heart. like we were literally mending her heart. well, after a while i would say something she didn't like and she'd look right at me and say, "bing", which represented one of the little stitches that i had previously made had just burst back open. haha! maybe this is really stupid but it got really funny between the "meeps" and "bings" but also hard to keep track to see if any real progress was being made....jk :)

also, happy 20th bday kates:) i really do like being your sister even though this picture says otherwise:)

poster

2010-10-02T22:00:00.003-07:00

so i bought this poster a while ago thinking it was a cute tree like design and it had potential to add some spunk to my bare walls. today i finally got around to putting it in the frame and hanging it and when i backed away to make sure it was level i saw......

this.

a skull! i'm usually really good at paying attention to detail but this time i totally sucked. the whole time i thought it was a tree. haha. now i'm back on the search for some unique poster that will spunk up my walls in a less creepy way:)

pet peeve

2010-09-22T20:55:00.000-07:00

i hate when i take my contacts out and my glasses are not where i thought i put them. it's like do i put my contacts back in so that i can find my glasses so i can take my contacts out again?!

vicious circle. i have this argument with myself at least once a week. you would think that i would learn to put my glasses in the same place so as to avoid searching my apartment like a blind person with just my sense of touch. lol. i have terrible eyes.

so i just finished mockingjay...

2010-09-20T21:29:00.000-07:00

and it was so good! i loved everything about it except that i felt like it wrapped up too fast, not enough details/explanation. i saw another blog where they picked what celebs should play the characters so i decide i would do that too. these are just what these characters look like in my head...well the closest i could find. if you've read these books, you should do this too so we can all compare. anyways, enjoy and make sure you leave comments on what you think of my selections! :)

PRESIDENT SNOW

ALMA COIN

BEETEE

EFFIE

*i cheated on this one. i googled "effie trinket" and a picture of kristin chenoweth came up and i knew that was the perfect pick:)

CINNA

kim vo

*this isn't an actor, he's a hair stylist but how perfect is that?!

PRIM

elle fanning

FINNICK

alex pettyfer

HAYMITCH

robbie coltrane

*this one is 100% a joke. the very first time i read the name haymitch abernathy i envisioned hagrid from harry potter. i know he doesn't look like this but for some reason i was never able to get this image out of my head. i tried to envision someone else but is was too late, this is my haymitch---hogwarts garb and all:) so ridiculous! haha!

GALE

penn badgley

PEETA

liam hemsworth

KATNISS

amanda crew

*katniss and cinna were the hardest for me to think of. the thing the keep bugging me was that she has to be 17. this is the girl from charlie st. cloud (love that movie) and i think that she would make a good mockingjay:)

thoughts, thoughts?!

***UPDATE:

My mom, the celeb-o-pedia, choose the most perfect cast! 1000x better than me! I googled who she picked for peeta and when his image came up i thought, "that IS peeta!" lol! (her full cast is in the comments section w/names)

modern family home evening

2010-09-13T21:11:00.000-07:00

click image to enlarge

here we all are in our video chat tonight:) isn't technology so amazing and fun?!

scents

2010-09-08T21:10:00.000-07:00

this is my new scentsy candle warmer. i know i'm a little late to the game but isn't it the cutest one ever?! canary it's called. which is perfect because i love that color and name:) also the black and grey one's from this collection are named raven and sparrow, respectively. clever i think. what are some of your favorite flavors? right now it's melting the "beach" one. but if anyone out there in the blog world has a favorite flavor...please let me know:)

i like this hoodie:

2010-09-07T21:31:00.001-07:00

that's all:)

dear person in stockton who clearly cannot park,

2010-09-06T21:43:00.000-07:00

really?! even if i was tiny, i could not fit in this small of a space! i actually had to climb over the passenger seat into the drivers side. ridiculous! this picture does not do it justice!

kevin says mariska, i say lea.

2010-08-29T23:33:00.001-07:00

My favorite dress/look

Lea Michele

Kevin's favorite dress/look. I had him choose from my top 4.

Mariska Hargitay

clay's abs

2010-08-22T21:46:00.000-07:00

i was trying to get clay to take a picture with me but then i noticed why he was refusing to get in the frame...

haha! he's such a 15-year-old!

what's the worst that can happen?

2010-08-20T21:33:00.002-07:00

on our honeymoon:)

my dad was laughing at me the other day because we were discussing that sometimes i'm in situations where i think, "what's the worst that can happen?" and then that exact thing happens.

take for example story #1:

kevin and i got married, flew to mexico, honeymooned for a week, came home & packed everything in 2 days, and moved to idaho. so we had been married like 9 days when we got to idaho. it was 4:30 on a friday afternoon and we had to go to walmart to but toilet paper and stuff like that. kevin suggests that we stop by the school on the way to walmart and get our health insurance set up. (he's always on the ball!). so here i am thinking, "we're only going to be on campus for a maximum of 10 minutes, i'm going to wear my flip flops, plus what's the worst that can happen?" {*sidenote: flip-flops, shorts, overalls and pajama's are against the dress code at byui.} kevin says, "dani, you know that you're not supposed to wear those, but whatever." so we go to campus and it takes like 5 minutes to get everything set up and as i'm standing in the doorway to leave i see someone i recognize. at this point i have forgotten that i'm wearing the flip-flops and i walk, too confidently, up to the president of the university. "hi president clark, my name is danielle shields. this is my husband kevin. we got married 9 days ago in california. i've been a student here since high school but it's his first semester. blah. blah. BLAH. i realize that he's not listening because you know what?! he's looking at my FEET! he then proceeds to say:

"the only thing i have to say to you is what is going on with your footwear?"

.............ouch.

i gave the only reply i could choke up. "i apologize. i'll change that in the future."

he walked away.

story #2:

flash back to when i was dating this guy and i was very embarrassed because i could be freezing to death and still have very sweaty armpits! gross, i'm sorry:( we were on a date and i just wanted to blend in. i hoped he wouldn't notice. i never did anything to draw attention to myself in that way. but then he did it----> he tickled me! the sweaty-armpits-girl's worst nightmare! mortified of his reaction i waited....he just looked at me and wiped his hands off on his jeans. i wanted to phase out (like when you're in a bad dream and you wake yourself up). ugh. but we both awkwardly laughed and then the moment was over.

story #3:

flash forward to last week. i'm getting ready for work and i'm contemplating wearing a skirt or pants. i have weird bumps on my feet & ankles which turned out to be athlete's foot((this post is VERY TMI!...i'm sorry)) and i'm very embarrassed of them. i reluctantly choose a skirt because i had worn pants 3 days in a row and what's the worst that could happen anyways? no one notices feet. especially since mine are always under my desk. so i get to work and my first email is an announcement of a morning meeting. {minor stress moment.} i reassure myself it will be fine until i see people gathering a circle with chairs for the meeting. i try to take my chair to the very back so as to avoid any contact with anyone noticing my feet. then my boss notices that i'm rapidly going in her opposite direction and says, "danielle, i don't bite. come sit by me." {medium stress moment.} i'm thinking, "it's still no biggie. i mean people probably wont look at my feet. even though we're in a circle looking at everyone and now i'm sitting right next to the ONLY person talking....it's okay right? then it happens.....my boss says, "danielle! your shoes are so cute!" {major stress moment.} que screeching music and slow motion and envision all my co-workers eyes slowly following my legs down to my shoes, which were black flats (i chose them because they're boring and their purpose was to blend in). ugh. i wanted to phase away again. the moment wasn't over until a few girls in the coveted back spots said, "stand up. we can't see your shoes". i'm not sure if anyone noticed my bumps. how could they not?! i'm sure they did notice my awkward behavior. at any rate, no one said anything and i immediately regretted picking the skirt over pants. who even cares if you wear pants 4 days in a row?

and this is why ellen is my favorite celebrity:

2010-08-13T01:55:00.001-07:00

so cool!

on my mind:

2010-07-24T11:18:00.000-07:00

| source |

i wish i could sketch/draw like this.

nyc.

2010-06-28T15:48:00.000-07:00

well i'm off to the big apple for what i'm sure is going to be a fun/amazing trip with my mom and sisters:) will post pics lata!

pixar.

2010-06-25T21:54:00.000-07:00

I'm a huge pixar fan! I loved reading the article about the making of toy story in wired. these artists amaze me and i loved toy story 3:) i even cried a little...

"With only weeks to go before the film is released, the audio mixers at Skywalker Sound combine dialog, music, and sound effects. Every nuance is adjusted and re-adjusted. After a four-year production process, it can be hard to let go of Woody, Lotso, Buzz and the rest of the characters. “We don’t ever finish a film,” Lee Unkrich says. “I could keep on making it better. We’re just forced to release it.”

i love talented people...this guy especially!

2010-06-25T21:39:00.000-07:00

wild for this child:)

2010-06-25T21:29:00.000-07:00

these are some pics from eden's blessing:

check out those eyelashes!

sew cool!

2010-06-25T21:15:00.000-07:00

i had my 23rd birthday a few weeks ago and it was so fun! my family surprised me by taking me to breakfast and then 6 flags for the day. it was a perfect day because i spend all day laughing and having fun with my favorite people. seriously, my perfect day is a day spent with my family. so thanks, familia! love you all! i got a lot of sewing stuff for my gifts. I'm excited to start sewing things....yay!

my new sewing machine:)

ali & the camel & their "humps"

if you look closely you can see kati and mikey in the front 2 seats and miguel is behind kates.

such a good birthday!

blogs i love

2010-06-03T16:53:00.000-07:00

here are some creative blogs that i love to read. i recommend them. enjoy:)

the beach and camping

2010-06-02T10:24:00.000-07:00

On memorial day kevin, kati and i went to santa cruz for the day to meet up with the fam. it was super sunny and warm and fun to relax and spend time together.

the girls.. look at eden, so cute!

the boys

kati & eden

mike & chels (don't you love that she's wearing e's hat?!)

me & eden

ali kissing baby

ali loving baby

kevin threatning me so i stop taking pictures..eek

kevin & clay

camryn

BIG "E" and little "e"

tin foil dinners

and here is a short video of eden at the beach:

diva

2010-05-28T11:05:00.000-07:00

On the rare occasion that I'm giving kevin some attitude about something he always says to me, "dani, you need a snickers."--------------which really means, "dani, you're being a diva, stop!" watch the commercial below and it will make way more sense:)

also, last night our family ate DINNER at 11:30! yeah. my mom made the comment that they were taking a long time to get us a table but then i pointed out that we are a party of 12. she got my point.

convo (me & my mom)

2010-05-24T12:17:00.000-07:00

My mom and i went to ~~paradise~~ san diego to pick up kati a few days ago and this was one of our many conversations:

[preface: i am funny. especially to my mom because she laughs at basically everything i say.]

MOM: "it's just a shame that you didn't get to show people how funny you are".

ME: (puzzled...) "umm, okay. are you going to say that at my funeral because apparently it sounds like i'm going to die soon..."

MOM: (laughing) "you know what i mean, like people, like people before now...like high school."

ME: "yeah whatever."

hello, jello

2010-05-24T11:23:00.000-07:00

camryn has a portion control problem. can you tell she likes jello?! the funny thing is that she usually just has meat and jello so we we're happy to see some veggies in there:)

my day in photographs (may 19)

2010-05-20T07:50:00.000-07:00

here is my day (yesterday) in photographs. all pics undedited from cell phone. captions are above.

1. wake up

2. shower

3. dress

4. make bed

5. makeup

6. hair--is today a ponytail day?

7. yes.

8. work on computer

9. bake, while watching glee

10. drive to get mom and camryn

11. go shopping

12. pick flowers

13. try on clothes

14. go back home

15. make dinner

16. kev home from work! :)

17. eat & do dishes

18. drive to airport

19. pick up eden:)

20. love eden

21. sleep:)

why i haven't been blogging:

2010-05-06T18:28:00.000-07:00

1) My parents computer is ancient and I basically have to wind it up before I use it so my motivation gets instantly depleted when I sit for hours trying to get something up.

2) Chelsea's blog, featuring all things eden, has now captured the eyes(& hearts) of all my family and now my blog is something of the past...

3) nothing to blog about. when i told ali that i had nothing to blog about she said, "umm, yes you do. my birthday, my prom, my track meets..etc." So here you go: This is the school poster and Ali is front and center. well actually a little left and center but whatever.

close up. check out that faux-hawk.

and here she is at prom with ian. he brought her a bouquet made of candy!

but basically our life has fallen back into a somewhat normal routine (of which i am grateful). kevin is working. i am designing/working and we now live in a cute 1 bedroom apartment in california, which is really nice:)

and these are my favorite people in the world right now! jet and cord. they're my favorite team on the amazing race, my favorite show eva and the finale is on sunday!! i hope they win:) this show is my dream. if i was a part of the make a wish foundation, this would be my wish. if i could only watch 1 television show, this would be my show and these are the best players. so humble, so nice, so talented! can you tell i'm excited?!

SHE'S HERE!!!!!!!!

2010-04-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

Chelsea and Mike's baby girl was born today! 6 lb. 13 oz. 19.25 in long. Chelsea did it all natural, no drugs, no episiotomy...amazing! We are so thrilled, especially my parents who will probably only go by "grandma" and "grandpa" from now on:) No name yet...i'll update when they decide:)

YAY!

*UPDATE: It's official-- Eden Jean Shields Strayer is her name:)

i love this commercial

2010-04-07T21:27:00.000-07:00

update on us

2010-04-07T00:09:00.000-07:00

-kevin graduates with his bachelor's degree in biology this saturday
-kevin's sister & mom are coming to town this thursday to celebrate & help us move
-i am packing our apt
-we are moving back to california on monday (yay!)
-we're going to work for the summer
-we're still looking for an apt (suggestions, anyone?)
-we're still waiting to hear if kevin gets into usc. he's on the wait list.
-we're excited for the next chapter...

headboard decal

2010-04-06T16:13:00.000-07:00

i saw these on rock, paper, scissors and thought it was so cool! kevin and i have a bedframe from ikea so this wouldn't work for us but i might just get one anyways. people are so creative! this reminds me of the scene in 500 Days Of Summer when they have a chalkboard wall and the headboard was drawn on in chalk. i loved it then too:)

Are titles of movies in "quotes" or italicized? Ms. Geyer would be so disappointed in me right now...

green bathroom

2010-04-06T15:46:00.000-07:00

{image}

i love this bathroom. the mirror vanity/sink, the small tilework, the bookcase shelf, the green/black combo...but mostly the mirror vanity/sink. someday...

paper bouquets

2010-04-01T21:55:00.001-07:00

yes, please. i love.

i've also spent a good amount of my day (well, when i could peel myself away from designing invitations) admiring this blog. :)

freak snow storms...

2010-04-01T16:40:00.000-07:00

yep, i'm not going to miss those!

template designer

2010-04-01T11:59:00.000-07:00

how cool is the new blogger template designer?! i love it:)

wrapping paper

2010-03-29T21:53:00.000-07:00

i LOVE the wrapping paper at snow and graham.

...

2010-03-29T21:47:00.000-07:00

my fave celebs were literally tiger woods and jesse james so yeah, i know how to pick 'em.....not!

@ kohls

2010-03-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

i love the new lauren conrad clothing line at kohls:) cute cute.

leaving rexburg... :'(

2010-03-24T23:02:00.000-07:00

{there are many memories i have here in rexburg. dorms, dating, roommates, sand dunes, dances, etc. kevin visited me here when we were falling in love. then we moved here 2 days after we got home from our honeymoon. it's our home as a married couple. we've lived in a different apartment every year. it's been good and bad and such and adventure. we've seen the best weather (rexburg is amazing in the summer) and the worst, literally the worst. for a short time we didn't have very many friends and we spent all of our time together. it was a good newlywed time, full of laughter. but in the past 2 years we've met and loved our best friends. they are: ryan and nikki nichols and richard and ashley skifton. while i could write all day long about all the various things i love and how great these last 5 years have been, this post is for them. so friends — thank you and i love you.}

————————————————

with a tear in my eye
i write this short poem
it's hard to say goodbye
wow...nothing rhymes with poem...ironic?

--anyways, next stanza:--

i don't love the weather
especially the snow
i hate scraping frosted windows
i thought i'd be happy to go

but as moving day draws near
i can't help but think
why is there a fear
and why does my heart sink?

it's because i love this small place
and i've called it my home
for the past 5 years
it's all that i have known

it may be small and it may be cold
but this little town
will have a piece of my heart
for the memories it will forever hold

we met over a poker game
and never looked back
thank you for the love and friendship
my love for you will never lack

i've loved snuggling your babies
i've loved laughing all day with you
i've found my best friends
i know this is true

so here's to our friendship
the happy times and the sad
it has been so fun
i hope we never forget what we had

in future days we will sadly part
and be separated by time and miles
but i hope it's not the end
and we meet up again for many more smiles:)

you see, you both owe me tons of babysitting
and i'll cash in those rain checks eventually
but until that day gets here i want you to know
i'm so glad to call you my friend, i am so lucky

and finally in the words of jordin sparks:
you're still a part of everything i do
you're on my heart just like a tattoo:)

♥

bedtime

2010-03-19T09:18:00.001-07:00

umm, last night i went to bed at 8:40pm. what is happening to me?!?