SECRET COMPARTMENT BOOK

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For Christmas, I made my lil' sis (also a book freak), a secret compartment book. It was really fun to make, and the final result looked great, so I wanted to share it with you all! First step: I bought this sturdy, old book from the local Deseret Industries thrift store for only a couple of dollars.

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Second: I separated the first ten pages or so from the rest with some plastic. I wanted there to be something to hide the compartment inside, even after opening the cover.

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Next: I made a mixture of about half Elmer's Glue-half water. Using a paintbrush, I brushed this on the outside edges of the pages of my closed book. It's supposed to seep in each page from that outside to glue them all together (minus those first few pages that you are keeping separate from the rest).

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As you can see from several pictures above, the moisture now caused the pages to curl and ripple. In order to keep the book from doing this permanently, we then tried several different things to keep the pages together and curl free while they dried.

heavy hanging plant on top? No good. wood clamps? made marks on the book cover. Andrew's muscular body? Perfect. That is, until he quickly got bored. So, we resorted to putting it under a heavy army chest in our bedroom for awhile. The result? Perfectly straight pages.

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After it was dry, I used a ruler and pencil to draw a line about an inch away from all four edges of the top page that had been glued together. This, and the holes we drilled in all four corners, helped to guide the razor blade, as we cut out the compartment. (I'll admit it felt slightly sacrilegious at first, to be defacing a book like this.) Cutting out those pages took some time, and Andrew and I had to keep taking turns because it was surprisingly tiring. (You can only cut a few pages out at a time.)

Then, I pulled out the glue mixture and brushed another layer on the outside edges and a layer on the inside edges we had just cut. After another drying stint under the army chest, I glued pretty paper at the bottom of the compartment (actually the inside back cover), embellished it with ric rac, and modge podged over everything.

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I also glued some pretty paper on the inside front cover just 'cause it looked nice...

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And Finally:Voila! A beautiful, personal, cost-effective Christmas gift that fits my sister's personality. Now she can use it to stash her cash, love notes, or to hide evidence of past crimes. No one would suspect that book to be full of anything

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If you're interested in such a project, you can find (better) directions like these all over the Internet. If you try it out, send me a picture. I wanna see! =)

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GABRIEL AND JOHN

After Christmas, Andrew's sister Gabriel, came to visit with her hubby John, and their two leading ladies: Riley and Laney. We played lots of games, watched lots of movies, and played lots in the new snow. (Here's a picture of my Progressive Rummy hand that will very soon kick every one's tushes.)

I'm guessing that Riley was feeling a little left out during this round. =)

Here's little Laney. She's pretty chill.

I swear, she looks like a china doll in this picture.

Outside our warm home, it looked like this:

So Andrew and I took Riley for a walk around the block to enjoy it. Little Miss Energizer Bunny didn't stop running the entire time. She was so excited. Most of the pictures from this excursion were of a cute blurry Riley backside. Here, she follows in her Uncle's footsteps.

Riley sure loves her Uncle Roo!

"Ha ha, Auntie Rachel! You can't keep up with me!"

No worries. I was content with my view from behind.

(How sweet is that? It would be sweeter if Riley would have let Andrew hold her hand, but NO...she is much too independent for such nonsense!)

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KYLAN'S WEDDING

This my cousin, Kylan. I recently posted about his mission homecoming, as some of you may remember. A couple months later, here I am posting about a wedding to his darling high school sweetheart, Karyn. Hooray for love!

This is the mother of the groom holding her granddaughter Ada, at the SLC temple. Picture in your mind the coolest person you know. Got it? Okay...Now, I'm sorry to tell you this, but my Aunt Joy here, is probably cooler than whoever you were just thinking about. She is who I want to be when I grow up.

I have made it a goal to get more pictures of my mom. She usually avoids them like the plague, so it's been a bit of a challenge. Outside waiting for the happy couple to come out from the temple, I got a few while she was distracted. I think candid shots are usually the best, anyway.

For a mother at the age of 50, it is my personal opinion that she's a total babe. Anyone know of any good, Mormon, single, rich(why not?) guys in search of a wife? She deserves it.

Amidst a swirling blizzard, the new Mr. and Mrs. Brown emerge!

Apparently, Kylan is famous for his bad luck. The weather was bad enough on a wedding day. But among other things, mechanical difficulties at the temple veil delayed the wedding by about 40 minutes (who has ever heard of such a thing??) and that morning, the lady making the cake collapsed into the cake and had to be taken to the hospital! A quick replacement cake had to found instead. They were good sports about it though. Just happy to be gettin' hitched, I suppose.

That night there was a formal dinner on the top floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

We ate dinner surrounded by full length windows. They afforded a view of falling snow and downtown Salt Lake glowing beneath us. So beautiful!

While we were in Salt Lake, it happened to be our anniversary. To celebrate, we ate at a Chinese restaurant called The Mandarin. Yes, in case you were wondering...it was very romantic.

The restaurant was still decorated for Christmas. It's hard to see all the details in this picture, because the lighting was dim, but this place was fancy! The food wasn't so bad either (quite de-lish, actually). If you're ever in Bountiful, UT, go check it out!

That's all. =)

JACKSON, WYOMING

A couple days after X-mas, we drove Mom and Becca to Jackson, WY, for the day. The Tetons were sure majestic under that blanket of Christmas snow.

The drive was almost as fun as the destination. We read comics, rocked out to my new Taylor Swift CD, and were just plain goofy. Family is so fun. .
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And of course, I had to take some pictures. What a beautiful, sparkly drive it was! Click HERE for a few more of the trip through Jackson Pass.

For an updated family picture, we stopped on our way at the giant potato...again. Mostly I wanted to try out my new tripod. How did I ever live without one?

(Mom totally kicked Andrew in the head a second after this was taken. It was an accident of course...but sooo funny.)

Jackson is the best. Ever been? So quaint and touristy and artsy...and still so festively decorated for Christmas! Here is "take one" of Andrew and me in old town Jackson. (Andrew always needs a few practice shots first before he gets his sillies out.)

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I won't mention how many takes it required before we got this one.

Pretty Mommy.

Oh No. That giant stuffed polar bear in the middle of this department store is going to EAT us. FYI: We were lucky enough to escape unscathed.



Meanwhile, Andrew was distracted by wildlife of his own.



I was wondering why he was making such a goofy expression until I stood in the same spot, and suddenly, I understood. lol!
(Doesn't it look like he's smiling for the camera?)


I was in heaven, wandering through countless high-end art and photography galleries, outdoor sporting goods stores, and charming little book shops. But nothing compared to this glorious sight.



Now, I've been to Disneyland several times, and I'd say it's a pretty happy place. But, I don't think the guys in charge of slogans over there have ever been to this candy store.



Becca: wandering around the happiest place on earth packed wall to wall with every imaginable goody. I'll admit it. I have a sweet tooth...a really big one.



Guess what I discovered? Huckleberry Fudge. (They gave free samples of a whole parade of fudges.) Who even knew such an exalted sweet existed? This place was so magical, I just had to take lots of pictures.

The snow, the lights, the decorations, and the magic of Jackson sure made me miss Christmas. I love this picture! Nativity set, presents, ribbons, wreath, and stockings. And the TV's reflection shows our Christmas tree and the shape of a paper snowflake cut-out hanging in the window. Sigh. This'll have to hold me over til next year...

OH, WHAT FUN!

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On Christmas Eve, Mom arrived from Arizona! Here, she and Becca chat before our family Christmas devotional.

The Ashmore family has a fun Christmas Eve tradition. Everyone gets to unwrap a new pair of pajamas. Then, we open a new family game and play it together! We've tried to carry on the tradition, but we've modified it to better match our means. We unwrapped fun, new socks instead! Becca loved her Snoopy socks. She's a Peanuts fan.


Mom's fun foof-ball socks

I loved my Christmas-y socks.

(This picture was not supposed to be dirty...but I've just had to learn that when Andrew's around, photos won't ever turn out the way I expect.)



Our game this year was Settlers of Catan! Hooray! We also played hours worth of our favorite card games in pj's and new snuggly socks.

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I guess we had a lot of fun on Christmas morning, because I didn't even get any pictures! The only one I have is this one that Andrew took in our living room mirror. But boy did we ever rake in the loot. That giant TV you see isn't ours. If you recall, we were babysitting it for someone. We've since had to return it to its owner. We were resigned to the fact that we were going to have to back to our little, teeny, tiny TV forever...So you can imagine my surprise when while standing in our front doorway, a special friend of ours handed me a bow the size of my head ("Here. hold this.") and proceeded to carry in the awesomest 40 inch flat screen TV you ever saw!! Holy Hannah!

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Andrew got that jacket with gift card money. I can't find the words to describe how studly my husband looks in this getup. I also got a tripod for my camera (yesss!) and Andrew got some fancy shmancy new scriptures.

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And The Grand Finale: Andrew made me this bed and these nightstands to match! My husband actually built these in a friend's wood-working shop! I am still recovering from shock at how beautiful it all is! I can't believe it! It would cost thousands of dollars to buy a bed like this at Pottery Barn...and Andrew put 'em all together for hardly anything. Aren't they gorgeous??!

(Erin made me that beautiful quilt draped over the chair below for Christmas. Perfect colors.)

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Check out the beautiful knots all over the wood.

It was a very happy Christmas.

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3-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

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In honor of three happy years together, I thought I would re-post our very first blog post. It documents our love story. Our love story? It's a good one. Andrew and I were definitely meant to be together. The Lord's hand was very apparent during that phase of our lives. Many of the miraculous details aren't apart of the story we wrote below, but this gives an overall gist.

In some ways, I can't believe it's only been three years! (I mean that in a good way of course) It just seems so much longer. I can hardly remember life before I had my Andrew. Wasn't I a miserable, unhappy wreck? All I know is life would sure be like that now if I suddenly didn't have him anymore! Love ya, babe. You're my perfect match in every way.

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-December 29, 2006-

How it all began...

Version I: By Andrew

We were first introduced by her sister, and since Rachel was/is so cute I asked her out on a date. Of course she was dieing to go out with me so she said yes...We went to the D-Backs game and we were together everyday after that. She was planning on serving a mission, and actually had her call already...so I knew that I didn't have a lot of time to work the magic, so I laid it on pretty thick. After 2 weeks I knew that she was the one I wanted to marry, so I popped the question. She thought I was a little crazy, but was willing to kick around the idea! Sweet! Well, to make a long story short, she took a week to thing about it and we were married 3 months from our first date!

Version II: By Rachel (A much more accurate version)

I moved from BYU-Idaho back home to Arizona to prepare for my MISSION to Charleston, West Virginia. My little sister, who had met Andrew at the high school where he had coached wrestling, introduced the two of us in passing in the hallway at church. I thought nothing of it. A few weeks later, however, I noticed that he kept smiling me and I could just tell that he was going to ask me out. I was annoyed. I tried to avoid it until one Sunday Andrew cornered me and asked me to a Diamondback's game. I was focused on a mission and wanted nothing to do with the drama of dating. I did not want to go! But I love baseball and so I went for the game. I remember dreading that date the entire time before he picked me up. Most first dates totally suck but my mom says that when I got home after this date, I was floating on cloud 9. It was the best first date ever! We saw one another every day after that though I kept reminding him that I was leaving in a few weeks to West Virginia. (Why do you keep asking me out??) Ten days from our first date, Andrew asked me to marry him. Well...sort of. He never really even asked me the question or showed me the ring because when I realized what he was about to do I freaked out, refused to let him ask, and told him he was very much a cRaZy person. That next week I couldn't shake the feeling that I should at least think about it all because there had been way too many coincidences to list in the circumstances that allowed me to meet Andrew. As I prayed about it, I continued to go forward with my mission plans. I even gave my farewell in Sacrament (with Andrew watching from the back row) and set the date for my TEMPLE endowment. Exactly a week after he proposed, I got an unmistakable assurance that I was supposed to be with Andrew Ashmore. So, in the Celestial Room of the Mesa Temple, I told Andrew that I would be his wife. Two and half months later we were married and moving up to Rexburg, Idaho, to start our new life together. I haven't regretted my decision once!