Meet The Halversons

Valentine's Day

2012-02-13T12:35:00.000-08:00

I don't really ever celebrate this holiday, but just because I don't celebrate it doesn't mean I can't make awesome Valentine's Day cookies. I remember growing up my Nana would make the best cookies EVER. Every Valentine's Day we would get a ring at the door bell, my brother and I would run to the door to see what it was. When we opened the door there was a plate of cookies resting on our door mat. I always looked forward to that and those cookies were always the best tasting cookies in the whole entire world and not just because my Nana made them but because they really do taste delicious! So now every Valentine's Day I get to share the most amazing cookies EVER with the people I love the most.

P.S. Your probably reading this blog post hoping that the recipe will be waiting for you at the end, sorry to break your heart but I can't give it up. It's a hidden family secret recipe but

I can always show you how amazing they look.. so enjoy!

Blade Turns 27

2012-02-05T15:35:00.000-08:00

For two weeks I was planning out a surprise birthday dinner for my husband. I let all his friends know what was going on, I had an awesome cake made and I had the reservations all set up. Blade just couldn't seem to let things happen, he kept asking questions and snooping. He found out about the dinner but kept it a secret from me cause he figured I worked so hard to make it happen he didn't want to blow it so when we got to the restaurant he wasn't very surprised but what he didn't know was that I had a TRON cake made just for him. At least he had one good surprise for his birthday. Even though things didn't go according to plan it still was a great night and we got to celebrate with the people who mattered the most.

Happy Birthday Blade, Love you always!

Here he is.. old man Blade with his Tron cake.

6 weeks to go!

2012-02-05T15:17:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I only have 6 weeks to go, the competition is March 10th and time is just flying by. This whole time I started this program I've been thinking about what my first cheat meal is going to be. I think I would actually feel really bad eating something "un-healthy." I've been eating such healthy food for such a long time I think I've forgotten how sugar tastes, it's crazy! All I can say is that this has been an extremely hard process but I've enjoyed it so much. I've learned a lot and I've grown to be a more motivated and happy person. It makes me wanted to strive to be better and to be able to accomplish my goals that I've set out to do. I'm so glad I stuck with it and I'm seeing the outcome of all this hard work, it does pay off in the end.

Here I am, 20 lbs and 8% body fat down.

Be Prepared!

2012-01-05T07:56:00.000-08:00

I'm going on week 3 of my 12 week program and I've been getting lots of emails and what not asking about what I'm eating, so here is a little video I made of what my Monday's look like. Cooking and preparing your meals for the week is a key step to getting the results you want so all you have to do is grab and go. It's time consuming and hard work but I know it will pay off in the long run.

New Year New Me

2012-01-02T08:50:00.000-08:00

I started a 12 week program two weeks ago to get into shape for this coming year. At first I just wanted to look good but now I'm actually thinking about competing in a bikini competition. It's a scary thought, getting on stage in a tiny bikini and showing off what I got to lots of people but I'm always down for trying something new and if it pays off and I'm looking smokin then why not.. Right! It's very time consuming and takes lots of effort, you have to prepare all your food and be at the gym everyday but once you get the hang of things it actually becomes very easy. I've been tracking my progress from week to week and I've felt and noticed lots of changes, I'm looking forward to seeing the end result and I know all this hard work is going to pay off.

Here is a picture of what my Monday's look like. I have to cook all my food for the week so I can just grab and go. This is the key to success right here.

Here I am only two weeks in, Still have a long road ahead but It's a good start.

Christmas already!

2011-12-11T22:40:00.000-08:00

November came and went, I can't believe christmas is only two weeks away! So much to do with so little time, I guess it just wouldn't feel like the holidays without that. Christmas is one of my favorite holidays, besides halloween of course. The lights and all the different kinds of decorations always puts a smile on my face and a warm feeling in my heart.

It's carving time!

2011-10-30T13:06:00.000-07:00

Halloween can't be complete without pumpkins. I love carving pumpkins and this year I wanted to challenge myself a little and I didn't want to do the typical looking pumpkin or get any carving patters, you know the ones you buy at the store in the little booklets. I must say that I had some mad carving skills going on and was able to do the most amazing pumpkins I've ever done.

The first one I did was a sugar skull, I thought it looked pretty awesome.

My second pumpkin I wanted to go all out. I surprised myself doing this one, I didn't think it was going to turn out as well as it did. This is by far my favorite pumpkin EVER!

Scary silhouettes

2011-10-27T18:42:00.000-07:00

Only 4 more days til Halloween.. I'm getting pretty excited! Most of our decorations are inside the house so I wanted to show some love to the outside so the little kidos wouldn't pass us by. I made a scary silhouette to put in our window. It was very easy to make and I didn't have to spend a dime either, I just used material I had around the house. Here is what you'll need to make your own silhouette.

Butcher paper (I used brown then spray painted it black)

Scissors

Pencil and a BIG eraser

Scoth tape

The first thing you'll have to do is figure out what kind of picture you want for your window. I just googled an image that I liked and printed it out so I could draw it onto the butcher paper. This is where the BIG eraser came in handy. I just drew the picture by hand and whatever I didn't like I would just erase it. Once I was happy with the design I just cut it out, pretty easy. I used some scotch tape to attach it to the window and BAM there you have it, a spooky Halloween decoration lurking in your window.

Round 2

2011-10-20T19:22:00.000-07:00

What can I say.. I LOVE DISNEYLAND. This week was Mickey's Halloween Party which I've never been to so I figured I might as well go to see what all the hype is about. I was so excited my mom actually came with me this time, she hasn't been to Disneyland in a very long time so it was fun getting her up to speed on everything. We met up with my besties, got all dressed up in our costumes and went trick or treating, talk about the best time ever! Halloween and Disneyland make a great combination I think and I already can't wait for next year.

Here is my mom and I with the giant Mickey pumpkin, I just love it!

Halloween Time is my favorite

They had some awesome Day of The Dead decorations up

Ghost Mickey!

Waiting in line for The Haunted Mansion

Inside The Haunted Mansion, it's always decorated like The Nightmare Before Christmas for Halloween.

TRICK OR TREAT

Maile and I in our costumes, she was a cowgirl and I was a rockabilly zombie chick

Happy Holidays from Jack!

This is Halloween!

2011-10-08T22:10:00.000-07:00

Halloween is right around the corner, I can't believe it! It seems like I'm way behind on everything especially decorations and we all know the best way to get into the Halloween spirit is decorating. So this year I decided that I was going to make a Halloween banner to hang over our fireplace. October is one of my all time favorite months ever, I mean come on.. how can you not like it? I went out to the craft store and found some awesome materials and got down to business. I took some pictures of most of the steps I did to create this awesome banner so I hope you can follow along so you can make a Halloween banner for

your home.

Here are some materials you will need

Ribbon

Scrapbook paper

Hot glue gun

Brads to attach everything

Paper doilies.. Make sure you get the ones that aren't grease proof

Instant coffee mix to dye doilies

Anything you want to decorate with

Here are some of my scrapbook papers I used to make my banner. I tried to choose some with a Halloween feel that matched together well.

Ok so the first step is to dye your doilies cause they take forever to dry. I just used an instant coffee mix it gives you an old rustic feel to the paper. All you do is mix the coffee with water in a bowl, soak the doilies then set them aside to dry. If you want them to be a darker color then just repeat the process but make sure they are all the way dry first cause then they will just fall apart and you don't want that to happen.

Then what you want to do is make a pattern for each flag, there will be 9 so make sure you do one for each letter. I made mine with all different kinds of shapes, you can do whatever you want. Then you just take the pattern and trace it onto your paper and cut it out.

Here is what it will look like all cut out

Your going to do the same thing for the letters. You can use any font you want and it can be any size you want.

I have all my flags cut out and all my letters cut out, you can lay it out however you want. I even layered some of the flags with a different paper to give it some flare.

Next you add the doilies, make sure they are dry and ready to go. I kinda crumbled the doilies in my hand to give it a more wrinkly aged look. I didn't want them to lay flat and clean on the paper cause that's no fun. So once you got all your layers together your just going to hot glue them all together to look like this.

I wanted to make something fun to go on the banner as well so I thought some rosettes would be great! All you do is take a strip of paper, mine was 12 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. You can make yours any size you want though, if you want smaller rosettes then cut smaller strips. Start to fold the paper like an accordion

Once you get done folding the strip cut off 1/4 inch fold at the end so the folds match up, glue both ends together to look like this. Gather the top of the paper together and push down so that the bottom spreads out from the rosette.

This is the end result once it's all spread out. I took a doilie and did the same process, I cut out a 1 inch circle of paper and glued it to the center to hold it all together. Then I added an awesome skull for the center. I made 4 of these rosettes, two for either side of the banner and two for the middle.

Now that everything is finished I laid it all out and I took my ribbon, which was just black and started to add everything to it.

I used copper brads to pin everything to the ribbon.

Here is the finished product. It turned out looking awesome!

I hope you were able to understand my steps, just have fun with it and try different things.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Take a Hike!

2011-09-23T22:49:00.001-07:00

My husband and I love to get out of the heat and Vegas period. We drove up to Mount Charleston the other day to go on a hike. They also have a local ski lodge up there, I know what your thinking.. What they have snow in Vegas? Yes it does snow but alot of it they have to make as well. The weather was amazing, it was so nice and cool compared to the city. It's only a 45 minute drive so It's pretty close to where we live. I always look forward to getting out for awhile to enjoy the great outdoors, it makes me happy. Here are some pictures of our hiking adventure.

Here is Blade at the start of our hike, we have a long way to go.

There was a really cool tree trunk in the middle of the path so I figured it would make for an awesome picture.

We hiked all the way to the top of that mountain!

We made it to the top! I had to give him some lovins for dragging him up there with me. It was well worth it.

On a quest to have some fashion sense

2011-09-21T15:55:00.000-07:00

Alright.. I seriously do not know how to dress. I see all these cute clothes in stores and I have no idea how to even put an outfit together or what goes with what, I don't even know what it is I'm looking for exactly. I still wear the same clothes that I've worn since high school, just jeans and a t-shirt. I'm getting so tired of looking the way that I do so this is the day where I've decide to start putting an effort into dressing better. I've been researching.. I guess you can say, about fashion and looking at pictures for inspiration and man have I been missing out! I found a cute outfit the other day online and I printed the picture out, went to the store and tried to re create it as best as I could. I actually did a pretty good job but I must say trying to look good is hard work. I'm hoping I'll start to get better at the whole dressing myself and be able to gain an amazing wardrobe. Tomorrow is another day and I'm ready to go shopping!

Here come the Holidays!

2011-08-31T19:06:00.001-07:00

Can I just say how excited I am for the holidays... It's my favorite time of year! Halloween is coming up soon then Thanksgiving and of course good ol Christmas. This horrible heat wave is going to disapper and It's gonna be time to bust out the hoddies and snuggle up with some hot chocolate. It's going be an amazing holiday season and I can't wait!

Disneyland For Life!

2011-07-24T10:34:00.000-07:00

How can you not like Disneyland.. It's the best place on Earth! I got a season pass for my birthday so now I'm an offical pass holder, It's pretty exciting. My friends Maile and Jen basically live at Disneyland so they got me up to speed on everything. We went out to California for a week, spent lots of time on the beach and of course went to Disneyland, we even made our own t-shirts. Here are some pictures from our week of fun.

Out at the beach

Maile & I enjoying the view of the beach

Thunder Mountain.. The wildest ride in the wilderness!

I love Roger Rabbit.

Splash Mountain!

Down at the dock for some good food.

We made t-shirts..yup we are awesome.

DISNEYLAND!

Loving the sand and the sun.

Fire & Ice...

2011-02-13T13:56:00.000-08:00

More like Fire melted Ice.

Every year up in Ely Nevada they have a Fire and Ice show. It's a contest where people carve stuff out of ice and snow on a frozen lake, sounds fun! We'll this year it was way to hot and there were some cool sculptures to look at but I didn't really know what I was looking at due to a major melt down. Everyone who was in the contest worked so hard on there sculptures but later that day it started to rain and instead of everything freezing, it started to melt. When we got there it was so sad to see everything destroyed by the rain but it was still fun to walk on the frozen lake and go around trying to figure out what the sculptures were supposed to be, some were hard to figure out cause there really wasn't anything left but a pile of snow. I got a few pictures of some of the ones that were still holding strong.

That's my mom and Justin walking on the lake

Pretty sure this was a mine.

This was a bear and some pine trees were behind it but they turned into a pile of snow

This was a giant wall of ice that they made.

This was the frozen lake that you could walk on. It doesn't look very frozen does it, The water on the top was from the sculptures that melted.

A cute dump truck

This looked like a snowman that got a cannon shot threw it

A hand holding the world? Maybe a ball?

This one was actually my favorite. It was a truck but the way that it melted kind looks like it was on purpose.

One year down

2011-01-24T11:53:00.000-08:00

Wow... It seems like time flies by so fast, I can't believe Blade and I have already been married for a year and what a year it was. I can't wait to see where the road takes us and I'm very excited for many more years to come. Happy Anniversary babe, I love you so much!

Turkey Day!

2010-11-22T08:43:00.000-08:00

I love Thanksgiving! Every year I'm always so excited for some good food and spending time with my family. I also love decorating for the holidays and I think this little guy will make the perfect thanksgiving decoration for your home. Isn't he so cute!

As soon as I saw this turkey I had to make him, and its so easy to do. I was so excited I ran out the door and went straight to the craft store to get the supplies. I made a few extras to give to some of my family members and I know they are gonna love em! I got this great idea from one of my favorite blogs that I've been following called Craftily Ever After. She has so many great ideas I just love her blog!

Beaded Turkeys

Here are all the supplies you'll need to make this cute little guy. You can

find everything at Michael's in the bead section. You'll notice the gold wire in the picture, you won't need to use that instead use a hot glue gun.

For Tom the Turkey's head and body, I glued two sizes of brown glass pearls to each other, the bottom pearl with its holes on the top and bottom, and the top pearl with its hole pointing out. This way their holes would get covered up by other beads.

I hot-glued a yellow "beak" bead over the hole on the front of the face (doesn't it look like he's squawking with an open mouth??) and the wiggly-shaped red bead next to it for the dangly red thing they have on their faces.

Using the same yellow beads as for the beak, I glued two underneath the body bead, for Tom's feet.

For the tail, I glued five red beads together with their holes touching.

Then I glued it to the back of the large brown bead.

And that was it! Once I figured out what to do, it took maybe two minutes per turkey to complete. And crafts like THAT are something we can all be thankful for! :)

Everything can be found here.

Making A House Into A Home

2010-08-03T18:22:00.000-07:00

I just bought this really cute print to hang up in my house. I found it on Etsy.. I must say I LOVE ETSY! There were actually a few that I loved. Check out Persimmon&Pink, everything is so cute. I can't wait to get it in the mail so i can put it in a frame and hang it up. Our apartment is finally starting to look like a home. I love decorating, it makes me very happy and our home is starting to feel warm and fuzzy.

LegoLand!

2010-08-03T12:02:00.000-07:00

I went to San Diego with some family and it was so much fun. We went to LegoLand and Sea World. I was so amazed by all the things that were made out of legos, it was crazy! They have this section that was called mini town and its all mini versions of places made out of legos. I found Las Vegas and i couldn't believe the detail on the buildings and they even had little cars and little lego people. It's amazing what they can do with legos.

The Excalibur.. They even had the little wizard guy in the window!

New York New York

Treasure Island

The Luxor

In Business

2010-08-03T11:53:00.001-07:00

I finally have business cards.. It's so exciting! I was looking on Etsy and as soon as I saw them I knew I had to have them. Visit pixelimpress on Etsy, She has really cute stuff.

Here they are!

My Hair Blog

2010-07-21T08:31:00.000-07:00

So I decided to make a hair blog. I wanted to show things that I've done, things that I would like to do and just things that I love. Go check it out!

Bombshell Beauty

http://abombshellbeauty.blogspot.com/

Obsession with aprons

2010-07-20T08:57:00.000-07:00

I've been looking for a really cute apron that I can wear when I cut hair and I found the perfect one! I came across this website and I fell in love with everything they have. If your not a hair person, it's ok they have aprons for in the kitchen as well and they are just as cute. Go check out JessieSteele.com you won't be sorry!

Lehman Caves & Fishing

2010-06-24T10:36:00.001-07:00

Blade and I were able to go out of town with my parents to our cabin in Sunnyside for a weekend. It's always nice to get out of Vegas and just go hang out and relax. We had a great time! Lehman caves is so awesome and if you haven't gone your missing out, its a long drive but once you get there its worth it. We also went fishing, I had to give a little lesson to Blade on how to catch a fish.. but not just any fish, I'm talking the monster of the lake! When you go fishing with my family you gotta keep up and Blade did a pretty good job of that and he caught a pretty big fish.

Blade was so excited he got to hold a flash light when we went into the caves

Blades fish he caught.. "YOU GOT THAT SUCKER"

Another Year Older

2010-06-09T12:04:00.000-07:00

The big 24... man I'm starting to feel old but at least it was a good birthday. My mom took me out for the day we went and had lunch at Sammy's Woodfired Pizza then went and got a pedicure which was awesome, a girl's gotta have nice feet right? I got home and Blade bought me a basket for my beach cruiser I LOVED IT! Since we both had to work the next day we didn't do much but that weekend Blade surprised me and took me out for a nice dinner then we went to the Beatles Love show. It was so much fun! All in all it was a great birthday and i got to share it with some of my favorite people. Couldn't have asked for anything more... well maybe some cake and ice cream but maybe next time.

Our Big Day

2010-04-24T19:35:00.000-07:00

The pictures are here! We had an amazing photographer, Jimmy Bishop of Gideon Photography he is the man. Here are a few of my favorite ones. Enjoy!

Jonesey... The Cat

2010-03-10T14:50:00.000-08:00

This here is our cat Jonesey. Blade and I went down to the animal shelter and adopted him. Don't let him fool you with his cute looks, he is a hand full and a little crazy but we love him.

Our Honeymoon Adventure

2010-03-10T14:38:00.000-08:00

You can't go on a honeymoon and not take pictures. Here are a few we took on our honeymoon adventure in San Diego. We had a blast going to the zoo, eating tons of food, going to the aquarium, kayaking in our sweet wet suits.. I didn't want to leave. But starting our life together back at home is great too.

Getting Married & The Honeymoon

2010-03-10T14:02:00.000-08:00

Well the wedding is over... Thank goodness! I'm officially Mrs. Kristin Halverson. Everything turned out AMAZING! My family worked so hard and through no sleep and countless hours we got it done. Being able to go through the Temple was such a great feeling and having my family there made it even better. I can't believe how fast the whole day went. I guess time flies when your getting married! We are off to the honeymoon, I'm so excited to go to San Diego and I'm even more excited about spending the rest of my life with such an amazing guy. I love you Blade!

Just Out Having Fun

2009-12-16T18:27:00.001-08:00

Blade and I went to the Springs Preserve, it was pretty fun. There is a lot of things to look at. All in all it was a fun day and i have the picture to prove it.

Wedding Planning

2009-12-16T18:02:00.000-08:00

Well January 23rd is around the corner, I can't believe it! Planning a wedding is crazy business. I'm pretty excited for it to be over with, even more excited that I'm gonna be Mrs. Kristin Halverson.

The Dating Game

2009-12-16T08:57:00.000-08:00

We all know how the dating game works, most times its a hit or miss. Some get lucky and find Mr. Right without having to go through all the toads. I finally got lucky! I met Blade at an FHE activity, who would've thought. Ladies this is why you should always go, you might get to meet your future husband. Blade was very persistent, at least that's what I would say, he would say otherwise. As soon as he heard from the grape vine.. AKA my best friend Maile.. that I thought he was cute that boy was calling me the next day. Of course I didn't hesitate when he asked me to go out to dinner with him, not gonna lie I was actually pretty nervous. All nerves aside our first date was great! He picked me up on his motorcycle, with a rose in hand and we went out to get some sushi. He definitely got lots of points for that and as soon as he smiled, those dimples of his put him over a 10. So one date turned into two and two turned into three and then three turned into 8 months! I knew the question was going to pop up soon, it was just a matter of when and where. On June 7th 2009 we got back from a trip to Disneyland for my birthday and in my front yard Blade got down on one knee and proposed! I told myself if i was ever in this situation I wasn't going to cry, but being a girl I couldn't help myself. It was such an amazing moment, even if it was in my front yard. I'm so happy and so excited to be getting married to such a wonderful man, I couldn't ask for anything more.