Here's Some Advice

School throws everything off. Life gets busy and time flies. (This is obvious in my own life since I haven't posted anything in a few days.) This can be a good thing if you think how fast time is going. Cody's already been out 53 days! That's crazy. 

But school takes up 7 hours a day, 5 days a week.  Cody can't be on my mind every second if I want to pass my classes. (Sadly) So I've gotten behind on sending his first package and replying to three of his letters. I know, I'm so awful. Like really though. 

So here's an idea my mom and I came up with...

Premade packages. 

There is plenty of companies that do this for missionaries and military men but in my opinion they're over priced and pretty basic. Besides, I like my packages to be personal and specific to the things Cody likes.

So I went to Target and bought tons of treats, chapsticks, lint rollers, gum, pictures, quotes, socks, ties, etc. so I have a whole cabinet FULL of package items. 

You can pick up flat rate boxes and envelopes at the USPS store for free, so I got a bunch of those and threw them in the cabinet. 

This next step is still in the works. I'm going through and putting together all of the packages into the padded envelopes. When I'm ready to send a package all I have to do is go down to that cabinet and pick which one I want. I will add a couple current pictures and a letter each time. So these are all still totally thought out and personal, they're just done ahead of time. I just worry that if I don't have a few ready ahead of time I will get behind and out of habit of sending things. 

So there's my latest and greatest idea. :) Let me know what you think!

Oh and here's a picture of Cody in the MTC with a couple of kids that went to our school. I love how awkward he looks next to the girls. Hahahaha. He's a really "huggy" person so I'm sure he didn't know what to do in this situation. I just think he's the most adorable thing ever-even when he's awkward. 

Xoxo

-Mads

Cody's Last MTC Package

Don't get me wrong, the fiesta was totally for Cody. But I couldn't let him leave the MTC without a little package that was 100% for him. So the next day I sent him this...

-Cody's Favorite Candy (Chocolate-Covered Acai Berries)

-Photo Album

-Hand Sanitizer

-"Open When" Letters

-Chocolate (I can't send this once he gets to Mexico)

-Highlighters

-Quotes (I send them in every package)

Leaving the MTC Fiesta

Okay this is my number one, all time favorite package I've sent Cody (so far). Cody's district has 12 elders, huge right? They are the biggest district in the MTC and everyone calls them "The Twelve". Coincidence? Haha just kidding.

Anyways Cody has had a lot of fun with these guys and they have had a great connection. I thought they all deserved a little party to celebrate their last P-Day in the MTC. So in honor of Cody leaving for Mexico I sent these boys a Fiesta in a Box. 

I found this printable to make 12 "minionaries" haha they're adorable! You just wrap them around twinkies and draw on a face they turn out adorable. You can find them here. This will connect you to the blog I found them on. 

Here's what my minionaries look like...

Next I added a dozen Mountain Dew bottles. If you know me or my mom there's always a way to make things cute. So we made little ties and laminated them. Then we tied the to string and wrapped them around the "necks". I think they turned out pretty cute. 

Yes, I know missionaries don't wear bow ties but they looked really cute on the bottles and I think they'd look even cuter on missionaries but I don't think that will ever happen...

Missionaries love chips and salsa. It's kind of a stereotypical package item but it's a classic fiesta food. 

Next I bought 12 mustaches. I seriously love this haha. They better have taken pictures! 

I'm sure they were the most excited to get the little ping pong set. It has a net and everything! You can get this at Target by clicking here. I'm sure they'll have lots of fun with this. 

One thing I always add to Cody's packages are quotes to put in his scriptures. So I printed out twelve copies of this. I found it on Pinterest but don't know who made it. I'm not claiming credit for this printable. 

I bought lots of candy and 12 of those little popper things that you just pull the string and it explodes. You can get those at any party store. They're really fun! 

I wrote a letter to "The Twelve" wishing them luck and thanking them for taking care of Cody. But I wanted to test their progress so I wrote the whole thing in Spanish. (Insert smirking emoji) But seriously if they can't read that basic Spanish I'm really worried about them... Good luck elders!

Last I added a Baja Blast for Cody a long with a letter for him and his favorite candy. I wanted to make him still feel special. I'm sure the other elders will tease him relentlessly. 

I sent him a "Leaving the MTC" package that was all for him on Friday. I'll post about that next. :)

Here's the rest of the pictures. Btw this box weighed 22 lbs from all the food haha. They better have enjoyed it! 

Christmas in July Package

I was SO excited to celebrate Christmas in July for the first time. I would talk to Cody about it all the time before he left. I was ecstatic. A week after Cody left I already new what I was going to do for his present. My grandma is an incredible seamstress. She makes the most beautiful dolls and quilts. Seriously they're amazing. I decided I was going to make Cody a quilt.
So I went to Joann's with my mom and grandma to pick out some "manly but cute" fabric. Cody's favorite color is blue, well Bingham blue or BYU blue to be specific ;)
I thought orange and gray would look cute too. Step one, done.
Next was making the actual quilt. This was so much fun! Oh my gosh sewing is my new fav thing. Maybe. Haha.
I bought this special material that you can print a picture on and then iron it right on to the quilt it's really cool.
This breezed by. Before I knew it I was  putting it in the box with his favorite drink, Baja Blast.
Well I had to cuddle with it for one night before sending it off so that added another day. On July 24th it was  at the UPS store for same day delivery.
This was such a fun project and Cody sleeps with it every night to this day. Here are a few pictures of the final project.

So there ya go! Christmas in July present complete.

I was totally surprised to get a package in the mail on July 25th. It was from Cody! I seriously was so excited to open it! He has remembered about Christmas in July. He is seriously the cutest you guys have no idea. This meant the world to me! He gave me a t-shirt that's about 4 sizes too big from the MTC with a map of Mexico on it. It's now my favorite item of clothing. I was so excited and impressed that he remembered. 

Doesn't he have perfect hand writing?! He needs his own font on Microsoft word. 

Pre-Mission Gift Ideas

Pre-mission gifts were some of my favorite things to give Cody because he wasn't expecting anything at all and it helped me learn more about what it was going to be like for him while he was serving The Lord.

I found out that Cody's farewell talk was going to be during my annual family Lake Powell trip. We were both devastated.

I had a couple ideas to make up for it. 

A few days before the trip I bought a Spanish Book of Mormon to have a friend deliver to Cody the night before his farewell. But this wasn't just any $2.00 Book of Mormon. On the inside cover I wrote my testimony in Spanish. I wrote Cody a seperate note with special instructions to read my testimony and find the right person to give it to while on his mission. This simple gift means a lot to me because my testimony is the most important thing I can ever give to someone. 

So I had a friend deliver it to him the night before his farewell talk. Little did he know I was going to surprise him and drive seven hours home to make it to his talk. I was so excited and he had no idea (insert smirking emoji). 

The day of the talk, my mom and I got to his church early and were sitting in the pews. Cody came walking in and freaked out. He said he knew I would be there because he's "telepathic." Hmm. I don't know if I believe him... ;)

He gave an amazing talk and I was falling more and more in love. I was and still am completely whipped. 

Another thing I gave him was a CTR ring. And he gave me one too :) Here are pictures of each of ours. You can buy these at any Deseret Book!

I'm sure you can guess who's is who's :)

The last thing I gave him before he left was this little paperback by Mark W. Newman from Deseret Book. I went through and highlighted some things that I thought were helpful or funny to stand out for him to read. 

It had some great advice! I was really impressed. Along with this I gave Code a picture of The Salt Lake Temple, the First Presidency, and Jesus Christ. I also wrote a letter to read on his first bad day in the MTC. He loved it!

Giving Cody little missionary themed gifts helped transition me into the "Oh my gosh, he's really leaving" stage. Honestly, it seemed so far away until all of a sudden he had his farewell talk. Everything went downhill from there. So this was fun for me to read the little pamphlet and be able to write my testimony of the Book of Mormon. And I'm pretty sure Cody enjoyed getting all the gifts. :)

These are just a few ideas and I'm sure there are plenty of other cute things you can find on Pinterest but these three things came from my very own blonde head. 100% original so I feel pretty creative ;)

Let me know your ideas! 

Xoxo

-Mads

My Inspiration

Meet Cody. (Yes, those are his abs without flexing or photoshop and yes, I love it-so enjoy.) This boy has rocked my world and I can't imagine life without him. Well I kind of have an idea... He left on an LDS mission on July 9. And it's been one of the longest four and a half weeks of my life. I miss him like CRAZY! 

It has been so hard being away from my sweetheart but I have been more blessed  than ever since he entered the mission field. It's crazy how The Lord works. 

One of the things that has kept me going while he's been gone is sending him packages. I am so lucky to live in Utah so that I can send him "Same Day Delivery" packages. And yes I think I've taken full advantage of this. A lot of my ideas have been influenced through Pinterest and are not original but I've taken a lot of them a little farther and made them my own! I'll post some of the things I've sent over the last month and maybe help some of you get through the 2 years our missionaries serve The Lord.

This blog is more for my sanity than anything else. But I hope that I can help someone out or just make someone smile. 

So enjoy. This is me:)

Xoxo 

-Mads