The month started off with a big milestone for Zac! On January 7th he turned the big 3-0!
As Zac puts it his "life is a third over." I'm not sure he was entirely ready to turn 30, but it came just the same. In his 30 years Zac has made many friends, got an Eagle Award in scouting, served an honorable 2 year mission for the Church, graduated from a great university with great grades, got an awesome job right out college, married a pretty cool girl, received high praise and accolades from those he works with, received promotions and raises at his job, had the world's most beautiful baby, and has really great ideas and will one day be a very successful entrepreneur! I would say that is a productive and successful 30 years, and I can't wait to see what he does with the other two thirds of his life!Now to be completely honest, I kinda forgot to plan something for Zac's birthday. I felt terrible! I kept thinking I needed to plan something, and then put it off because I was busy and all of a sudden it was Saturday the 7th at 3:20 PM and it hit me! We had planned in advance to spend Saturday cleaning our house and organizing our office, so somehow I hadn't put two and two together that Saturday was our cleaning day and Zac's birthday. I could tell Zac was a little disappointed since this was a big milestone for him, so the next day I planned a surprise party for him for the next weekend. I sent him golfing, invited a bunch of our friends over, and when he came home we surprised him! Well since it was a week late, he was definitely surprised, I said that was my plan all along. :)
We had pizza, Olive Garden salad and bread sticks, and I made a fun-fetti cake that tasted better than it looked. Then we played Bezzerwizer, which I got for him as his birthday present, and we played a really fun game of girls vs. guys. I guess since it was Zac's party it is only fitting that the guys won, but we will have to have a rematch soon because it was really close! I think Zac had a great time, and I hope I made it up to him for forgetting on his birthday!Much of the rest of the month I was very busy with stuff for my business. Gabbie and I flew out to my mom's house for a little less than a week to make kits, and samples of all the things we wanted to sell at a Craft Show we were going to at the end of the month in Phoenix, AZ. It was fun and pretty productive, especially since my dad and really great friend Linda Lyons came over to help us a ton! Although we never seem to get everything done we need to at these work weeks, could it be because Gabbie is just so helpful...?
If you couldn't tell this is Gabbie walking all over the fabric we are trying to cut!At the end of the month Gabbie and I flew down to Phoenix, AZ for a craft show put on by Rusty Barn. We had never been to one of their shows before and weren't really sure what to expect. It wasn't nearly as big as the other two shows we have been to, and people weren't buying as much as we would have hoped, but it was probably still a good experience. We learned a lot from the previous shows, and I think we did really well in terms of being prepared, and what to bring, and how to set up the booth, and if people would have just bought more we could have done really well. We had a ton of people come into our booth, and tell us they thought our stuff was really cute, but only about 1 in 5 people actually bought something. We talked to our neighbors, and apparently it was the same story for them as well. One guy said that with the recession the last 4 years he has made about 4 times less revenue than he use to. Well at least it wasn't just us! We will just have to see how the next couple of shows go, so keep us in your prayers that we can actually make some money at this because I love doing it, but it would be great to actually cover our costs at some point!
We sold baby blanket kits, stuffed animal kits, patterns, and some of our favorite Shannon Cuddle fabrics. I was very proud of what we presented, and we got a lot of compliments, which feels pretty good!Another great thing about going to Phoenix is that I have a bunch of family on my dad's side that lives there, and I don't get to see them very often. My dad's parents and his sister, her husband and daughter all live in Tempe. It was great to spend some time with them getting to know them better, and enjoy spending some time together. My aunt Kathleen, and cousin Kristina were also very gracious in that they worked out their schedules to be able to watch Gabbie for me the whole time I was at the show. It was so nice of them, and I think they actually enjoyed it too! However everyone who any spent time with Gabbie has become quite familiar with Dora the Explorer, since it is her favorite show! They also got to see just how much Gabbie loves the park, especially the slide and swings, and luckily it tires her out pretty well, and then she would take a good nap for them!
Another great thing about visiting Phoenix is that my oldest friend Alexis Perry lives there now with her husband and two cute kids. Her husband Ben has been going to Medical School there for the last couple of years. It was really great to see Lexy and her cute little house, and letting our kids spend some time together. Lexy has already arranged the marriage between Gabbie and her son Hayden since they are only about 4 or 5 months apart, so that we can officially be related!
We just got back from the show, and I have been busy developing things for my business, and working on getting my clearance to do my in-school observations for my teaching preparation program. Zac has been busy finishing a highchair he is making for Gabbie that he started at my parent's house over the Christmas break. And Gabbie has been enjoying Dora some more, but we haven't been to the park the last couple of days because she has been sick, but hopefully she will feel better soon!Well that is January in a (kinda large) nutshell. My goal is to blog at least once a month, so stayed tuned for a February update at some point next month!
