October Leaves | Fashion Friday

OUTFIT:

 JACKET (Similar Match*) | VEST |  SCARF |  PANTS |  SHOES | BAG*

It's my favorite time of year!! Chris and I took the girls on their first real outing to look at the fall leaves in the mountains, but it ended up being freezing so we never took them out of the stroller where they were all bundled up. There was a nice paved trail we walked on, really testing out our stroller for the first time (I'll do an official review on it at some point), and just enjoying the beauty of the mountains... while also nearly freezing to death.

This is my awesome diaper bag. I had so many diaper bags in my Amazon* wishlist for months trying to figure out which one I wanted most. I needed something at a good price, had lots of storage space, I preferred a backpack, and I wanted it to look nice too. I think this bag is so pretty and it holds everything I need for both my girls. I will be doing an official review on this bag soon, but I honestly love it and highly recommend it for anyone pregnant, with small children, or even who just loves backpacks as purses... with insulated pockets for bottles. Because, why not?

PURCHASE THIS BAG*:

MORE BLANKET SCARVES UNDER $50*:

Learn how I did my makeup in these photos by CLICKING HERE.

This post contains affiliate links that I receive compensation for all marked by an asterisk. 

My Autumn Makeup Routine | Fashion & Beauty

Hello friends! I am getting back into the YouTube world because it's something I've wanted to do forever, laziness and self-doubt have kept me from it thus far, but I'm ready to really work hard at it and make one of my dreams a reality.

I made the following makeup routine video for this fall season. I love this time of year! It's so beautiful and fun. This year I'm especially excited for my girls to have their first autumn! I'm honestly really happy they have an autumn birthday like me (though typically in Utah there's snow on mine so it doesn't always feel like autumn). I realize because my twins are so young we won't get to do all our usual autumn activities, but I'm sure we'll still have lots of fun as a new little family.

So without further ado, here is the tutorial of my current makeup routine and down below the video are all the products used in this routine. And please go subscribe to my YouTube channel! I'd really appreciate it.

PRODUCTS MENTIONED:
The following may contain affiliate links, however, I only promote products that I use and love. Thanks!

Rimmel London Exaggerate Waterproof Eye Definer - In The Nude 

Winky Lux Peeper Perfect

Maybelline Dream Liquid Mousse Airbrush Finish - Classic Ivory 

Luxie Dreamcatcher Precision Foundation Brush 660

Bare Minerals Matte Powder Foundation 

Me Me Me Foundation Brush

Benefit They're Real Mascara

Skone Cosmetics Brow Wand*

Maybelline The Nudes Eyeshadow Palette

Maybelline Line Stiletto Ultimate Precision Liquid Eyeliner

Covergirl Perfect Point Plus Eye Pencil 

Hikari Shimmer Bronzer

Bare Minerals Gen Nude Matte Liquid Lip Color - Juju

*Two things about this product: Since the label was faded away I was searching through my Ipsy account to figure out what brand this was, I thought I got it recently, but apparently it was almost a year ago. And when going to their website, I just now learned there's a brush on the other end. Who knew?

Thoughts On General Conference October 2016

Hello friends! I'm feeling really emotional today. Maybe it's my cold that's already making my eyes (and nose) water or that it's October or that my birthday is coming up or that it's General Conference or that I cannot tell you the last time I cried (that's a literal achievement). There's a lot going on. So this post is basically pouring out my heart.

This weekend is General Conference. I remember last October conference very well. I went on a trip with my family to St. George. We listened to the sessions while driving and went to a musical at Tuacahn. Oh. And I was pregnant.

My mom took me shopping in St. George and bought me some maternity clothes. We had talked a lot about my future child and how excited we all were for it. My baby was the first grandchild in the family and all of us were so excited to welcome them into the family.

But... as fate would have it, a few weeks later my baby stopped growing. It took a couple weeks for me to realize and on my birthday on November 4th, I had a surgical procedure to remove the fetus from my body.

I was no longer pregnant. I no longer had a child. My parents were no longer going to be grandparents. And I was no longer going to be a mother.

It sucked. And that's putting it extremely lightly.

My whole plan for my life had collapsed. I was lost and I didn't know what to do. The next year of my life had been planned around being a mother and now...

When April General Conference rolled around I barely registered it. I'm pretty sure I had it playing in the background of my apartment but I didn't pay attention. April Conference had landed the week before my baby was supposed to be due.

I was angry and bitter. I was horribly depressed. I was in pieces. I was confused. I was lost. I didn't have friends or anyone to talk to. I felt so alone and helpless.

I had prayed every day of my pregnancy that my baby would be safe. And I prayed for a few weeks after my miscarriage that I would be comforted. And then I just stopped.

I don't remember what triggered it, my return to the gospel. I think all it took was one more prayer. One prayer asking my Father in Heaven for help.

I started going to church again. I started (occasionally) praying again. I started making an effort to take control of my life.

This weekend, listening to General Conference I'm reminded how blessed we are to hear the words of God through modern day prophets. I believe, with all my heart, that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet called of God. The messages that he shares with us each conference are the words of God, the words we need to hear most.

I'm not perfect. I still make so many mistakes. I have things to repent for and changes to make. I don't consistently pray or read my scriptures.  I still have work to do to get my testimony stronger. I still struggle now and again, those feelings of anger coming back to me. But God has never once given up on me and I would be crazy to ever give up on Him.

I'm not a perfect member of the church, nor do I think anyone really is. But I know that this church is true and as long as I center my life around God, then I know I'm in a better place.

I love General Conference and I urge each of you, members or not, to watch the Sunday sessions and see what you can take from it. There's so much information, but as long as you take one small thing from it, then its done it's job.

Never give up on God. Because he will never give up on you.

If you would like information on General Conference or the LDS church in general, you can visit www.mormon.org. You can also send me an email at thedancingcowblogger@gmail.com and I would be happy to send you a Book of Mormon.

Yes, I Am Pregnant - Blogtober Day 10

If any of you missed yesterday's post it ended with this:

That's right people, one of the main reasons I have been absent from my blog the past few months is due to the nausea and tiredness of the first trimester of pregnancy... and finding it difficult to want to blog about anything but my pregnancy.

As of today exactly I am 14 weeks and into my second trimester. Which is crazy. I am due April 9th, 2016 and we are beyond excited. Unfortunately for people not interested in pregnancy, almost the entirety of next week will be pregnancy diaries that I have been writing but not posting, going back from the day I found out I was pregnant. So next week is all about pregnancy.

After that my pregnancy diaries will slow down. My plan was to do them weekly but I'm very inconsistent (as I'm sure all my blog readers know) but new diaries will be popping up every now and then throughout my pregnancy.

This has been a long time in the making and something I have been wanting since forever. I cannot fully describe in writing my excitement to have a baby!! You guys... I'M GOING TO BE A MOM!! Do you realize how relateable this will make my blog? Wink wink. Yep, I'm finally moving on up to mother/blogger, what an accomplishment.

For the majority of my friends and extended family this is brand new news. I'm sorry if you are at all insulted we didn't tell you. Personally I didn't want to tell anyone except immediate family until this point, but Chris got too excited and started telling random customers at his work, which led to his coworkers knowing... and then telling everyone he sees... I would have gotten mad, but I know he's just excited and so am I.

I'm so happy everyone gets to know now and I no longer am burdened by this secret. I AM PREGNANT!!!! And I truly could not be happier!!!

Here are more photos from our fashion/pregnancy reveal shoot with my friend Lindsay. Yes, Chris ran into her at Walmart and immediately told her. He's terrible at keeping secrets, but at least it got us a photographer.

We are cheesy and I will never apologize for that. 

We're also very careful with our baby. 

And a little scared to be parents. 

Yep, we are great parents in the making. 

And are sometimes a little dramatic over our love for our little pumpkin. 

Thanks for all the love and support you've already given us! It's a little scary, but with friends and family like you, we know it'll make things a lot smoother. Love you all!!

Happy Tuesday 10/6/15 - Blogtober Day 6

Getting a great review at work

St. George trip

Roadtrip with the family

How To Train Your Dragon fruitsnacks

Catching up with my friend Lindsay

Autumn is here!! 

New clothes

Paco's Tacos

Chris for being the greatest husband in the world

My Favorite Things About Fall! -Blogtober Day 3

Hey ya'll, I'm back for my third day of Blogtober. It is now officially autumn and it's my favorite time of year! So in today's post I'm going to simply tell you all the things I love most about fall. And it's a Saturday, so I'm sure you have more important/fun things to do then read a long list of my favorite things, so I'll keep this nice and short.

When the leaves change in the mountains and create beautiful colors

Pumpkin patches 

Corn mazes

Halloween is the best holiday

My birthday is in autumn

Being able to wear boots all the time

Fall fashion is the absolute greatest

Sunshine and cooler nights

The crunch of stepping on fallen leaves

Colder weather is more of an excuse to stay in and snuggle

The North Logan Pumpkin Walk 

Hot chocolate

Insects are slowly disappearing from view

The anniversary of meeting Chris, our first kiss, and our engagement (not all the same year, ha ha)

Welcome to Blogtober 2015!

I'm sure you're all painfully aware of how little I have been blogging recently. It's a shame really. I do so much to get you all excited for upcoming things but then nothing actually comes. I don't want to make excuses... but I actually have a really good one. That you will be finding out about probably next week.

I was browsing through Pinterest like I do everyday and came across something called Blogtober. Now this was done on the blog Helene In Between (and possibly other blogs) last year, but in an attempt to kickstart my blog once more I'm doing it this year, not really caring if other blogs are doing it or not (I haven't done the research, I don't even know).

The whole idea is to blog every day for the month of October, which I'm sure you realize is going to be a huge struggle for me. I'm nervous that I'm going to forget or skip a day, but I'm trying really hard to plan this out so I get every day in. I'm hoping that in doing this I'll remember how much I really do love blogging and I can get back into the groove again.

Today's post is fairly boring, just explaining what Blogtober is about, but here's a brief look at what you should be seeing this month on my blog:

• Fashion Friday posts
• Happy Tuesday posts
• Creating my Halloween costume
• Halloween decorating
• Fall activities
• Learning more about me
• And a special surprise

The Blogtober post I was inspired by had prompts for everyday of the month so I've been using tons of other blogs to inspire different blog posts for this month and I'm very excited to write up new things that will help all my new followers to learn more about me. While I'm not giving you prompts to do, I would love it if you would participate in Blogtober as well, just making an effort to blog daily in October. 

I love all my readers and love that despite having been gone for so long, I still get new followers every month. You are all incredible and you inspire me with your sweet comments and the support you've always given me. This month is about showing my gratitude by giving you more to read from me every day. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful Blogtober!! 

Feel free to join me on social media with the #Blogtober2015! 

ALL BLOGTOBER POSTS:

Day 1: Welcome to Blogtober 2015

Day 2: Glasses & Flannel

Day 3: My Favorite Things About Fall

Day 4: My Travel Wishlist

Day 5: Just For the Laughs

Day 6: Happy Tuesday 10/6/2015

Day 7: Web Video Wednesday

Day 8: Dream Date Night & Men's Style

Day 9: Lil' Pumpkin

Day 10: Yes, I Am Pregnant

Day 11: Thoughts on Being Pregnant

October Review

While October is probably my favorite month, nothing substantially exciting happened this month. In fact, it was kind of just stressful and boring. However it was so beautiful outside! I loved it. :)

The first weekend was General Conference. I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!! I feel that I learned so much! My sister drove up here from Provo. We went to Rumbi's and ate their delicious soup. We were going to go to a corn maze but got distracted and tired. We spent most the night looking at Twitter's trending topic, #addawordruinamovie. Some of them were so funny! Then we watched The Wedding Singer when my husband got home from work. We all had a sleepover in the living room and watched The Iron Giant as we fell asleep. I love my sister! She's my best friend! It was a great weekend having my sister there and watching conference together and I enjoyed Tweeting through the whole Sunday session. I loved it so much!

I went through an emotional crisis on the 11th. I was sort of angry at my husband and sitting in my room alone, wishing I had someone to talk to and realizing that I don't have anyone to talk to... except my husband. I have no friends. At that point I began bawling hysterically. I ran to my husband and he held me tightly, trying to comfort me as I moaned, "Why don't I have any friends? Why doesn't anyone like me? What's wrong with me?" He couldn't successfully comfort me because I was so emotionally distraught. He then sat me on a mattress in the living room, turned on Tangled, and gave me my cookies. It was the hardest my husband had ever seen me cry and I hadn't felt so emotionally torn apart in so long.

To say I'm better now would be a lie. It's really hard to feel like you don't have any friends, and even worse when no one talks to you; that pretty much solidifies it. We have a framed quote in our little apartment that my best friend gave me years ago (we're still best friends even though we live two hours apart and hardly ever talk, but I still love her with all my heart). The quote says "Good friends listen --Best friends hear." If this quote is true, than I'm in trouble, because hardly anyone listens to me. Certainly no one tries to talk to me. I consider this to be an opportunity to find new friends, ones who will care about me, but since I'm switching my major I've realized recently how much older I am than all my classmates (they were in 1st grade when September 11th happened, I was in 5th). I've always had a hard time making friends and now that I'm married and older than my peers, it's only gotten harder.

So if any of my readers are in the Cache Valley area or even just in Utah, I need a friend. I swear I'm not crazy. I cried because I felt so alone, but I normally don't cry that much. I like dance and music and writing. I like to give service and LOVE buying gifts for people. I think that I'm a good friend (which is why it's so hard that I don't have any). If any of you have tips to getting more friends, please leave a comment. I'm struggling and I need help.

I decorated our apartment for Halloween and it looks fantastic!! It was also super cheap and you can read all about it my CLICKING HERE. Hopefully next year my decorations can be more exciting because (hopefully) we'll have more money then, but with our current situation, these decorations were all we could do, and they were still fantastic. And we are the only apartment in our complex that is elaborately decorated, so I'm proud of myself. :)

On the 12th Chris and I went to Little Bear Bottoms. You can read all about our adventure by CLICKING HERE. I love my husband because even though we're low on money, we find cheaper ways to have fun, and honestly, just being around him makes my life more fun. I love him!

October 13th Chris and I drove through Logan Canyon and I took pictures of all the changing leaves while Chris fished (you can read about it by CLICKING HERE). It was fun spending time with my husband in such a beautiful setting. Afterwords, we went to my Aunt Cherene's house and they fed us dinner. I love having family nearby! It was good to talk to my grandma (who recently moved to Utah and moves between my parent's and my aunt & uncle's house) and to see all my cousins that I'm really close with. I also got to see my cousin Nate and his very pregnant wife Kara, who two days later...

Photo Credits go to my Aunt Cherene

HAD THEIR BABY!!! He is the cutest little baby and I already love him so much!  I'm so happy for the two of them and their adorable baby! CONGRATULATIONS NATE AND KARA! I LOVE YOU BOTH SO MUCH!!

October 17th I first met with a "math tutor". It was really just my friend Kyle... and his baby Kyrani (and Kyle is a real friend and doesn't count in my above rant about friends)! She's so cute! I got to hold her a few times. Back to math, I've been stressing out because it's been four years since I've done math and I absolutely HAVE TO get into Math 1050 next semester, which (because USU has weird math rules) I have to take the Math Placement Exam to try and get into it. (Even though I've already taken Math 1050, see? Weird math rules!) So I was stressed because a few weeks ago I tried to take a test online and couldn't even remember 7x8. I forgot basic multiplication! So I met with Kyle so he could help teach me, but ironically, all he really had to do was remind me of thing. I ACTUALLY REMEMBERED MATH! It was hard and each question took me a long time to figure out but I did it! I still have a lot of work till I feel ready to take the MPE and when I'm actually in Math 1050 I'll still want his help, but I did it! And I'm feeling very accomplished. :)

On October 18th for fall break, Chris caught this monster. It was huge and gross and covered it garbage, but I'm so proud of my fisherman husband because I know that fishing means so much to him, and he's so good at it too! I'm glad he has something that keeps him happy.

Photo Credits

Basically October was filled with school and beautiful colors. The above picture was on the Utah State Facebook page and I fell in love with it! This is my campus and I love it so much! I love going to school at USU! I think this October was more beautiful than usual because of the lack of snow, which I am super grateful for. It snowed in the mountains and it's starting to get super cold, but I'm not looking forward to the snow.

I realized my hair is like the autumn leaves, because for some strange reason, recently my hair is full of reds and blonds and browns, like autumn trees. I don't know why or how this happened because it used to just be dark brown. Although I am grateful that my hair didn't have an awkward growing out faze from dying it. The whole thing just changed colors. I want to color it again though but I'm not sure what color and I don't have the money to do that, but someday it will happen.

On Saturday the 26th Chris and I went to the Pumpkin Walk!! It was so much fun! We went last year and loved it and had to go again. It was super busy this year but totally fun. The Pumpkin Walk is on The Cache Valley Checklist and I'll be writing a post about it soon.

That night after the USU Howl, I had to work and clean up after it. It was disgusting and I was super tired. I've been to the Howl twice and it can be a really fun event if you go with a good group, but otherwise it's just a building full of crazy sluts and alcoholics. Thirty people were arrested this year at the Howl, all alcohol related arrests.

This is my handsome little brother. On October 27th my brother received his Eagle Scout Award! I drove down to Sandy to be there for the Court of Honor. I'm so proud of him! He's such a fun brother and one of my best friends.

So it sounds totally pathetic, but one of my favorite moments this month was on the 28th when these girls from my class invited me to lunch. I've been feeling so lonely and friendless so it was just a wonderful moment to be invited to eat lunch with these girls. They will never understand what that meant to me but will probably never invite me again if they read this paragraph. Regardless, I'm beyond happy that this happened for me!

Obviously it hasn't been Halloween yet, but we don't have anything exciting planned because we both have school and work. However I am going to make cookies and we might carve pumpkins! I'll write a post about my Halloween, but nothing too exciting is planned.

We had such a great October! It is truly my favorite month and it was just so beautiful and wonderful! 

To see my other monthly reviews CLICK HERE! 

I'd love to hear about what you did this October! Leave a comment below! 

Pinterest Sunday

I have been on Pinterest so much this week it's ridiculous! To see all my pins, feel free to CLICK HERE. Below are just some of my favorites from the week. Thanks for reading!

I would like to have a better job. That would be really nice for me. This article had some really good tips and it's a great reference for me for the future. To see the article CLICK HERE. 

4 EASY SCHOLARSHIPS ANY STUDENT CAN WIN

I don't have the best GPA right now and yes, being married brings a bit more financial aid, but we could always used more money for college. This is a great resource because you don't have to have a fantastic GPA to apply to these scholarships. 

I am NOT excited for winter to come, but I cannot get over how beautiful this picture is! 

I really miss ballet. I'm hardly even flexible anymore. I just love this picture and like to look at it and wish I could be doing that again... 

These are so simple and quick to do and can be incredibly effective! I'm sick of being at this weight, this is the biggest I've ever been in my life, so I'm working on changing that. These simple exercises are great for inner thighs, which are always a trouble spot for me. :)

I'm sick of going through a lot of cleaning on Saturdays and then letting everything pile up through the week. So I'm thinking of making a checklist/routine like this. This is a great example and something that I think would be great for my little apartment. 

Autumn in Logan Canyon

This post is a part of The Cache Valley Checklist

To read more posts similar to this CLICK HERE

Alright, so this post is basically just a bunch of pictures. That's it. But before we begin, you should know that autumn is my favorite season! I'm so in love with autumn because it's the most beautiful time of year. Sunday, my husband (still trying to keep me happy from my recent emotional breakdown) drove me through the canyon to look at all the pretty leaves changing colors and to pick leaves to press. 

When I was younger my parents once took us into the mountains and we picked our favorite leaves off the ground and we pressed them into a large book. (This is what you can use the textbooks you can't sell for!!) It was so much fun and we still have those leaves in that book. So I wanted to press leaves with my husband. So on our drive we stopped to pick leaves. 

I can't say "Let's drive through the canyon" without my husband thinking "FISHING". Yep. So he took his fishing pole and we stopped at First Dam, Second Dam, and Third Dam. He fished and I took almost 200 pictures. Ha ha. Chris did catch a fish at Third Dam. It was a little guy and we let him go (you'll see a picture of him below). 

I don't think I have much else to say. Just enjoy the beautiful pictures (semi beautiful, I need a new camera). If you have your own adventure looking at autumn leaves, I'd love to see them! Leave a comment or send me an email! Thanks for reading/looking!! 

There's almost 50 pictures so if you want to see them all at one point you'll have to click the link to read the whole story. Thanks!