An Entrepreneurial-Diva Idea...

My Martha Stewart bones are rattling again. Cami and I have always talked about the boutique we plan on owning and running together when we're old ladies, but when I saw these cute children's 'Pettiskirts', I'm not sure I want to wait that long!

The joke is, the store will have a line painted down the middle, and all of the fun, frilly, or fabulous things will be sold on my half of the store, and all of the beautiful, rich, or functional things will go on her side. Tell me, are these pettiskirts not fun, frilly, AND fabulous!? Heaven help me, I think I found the first item I want to invest in, create, and sell!

These darling skirts remind me of the slips I would wear as a child to make my frilly dresses poof out for church. With my hair all curled and my ruffle socks, I always felt like a princess- maybe that is where I got my love of going to church from? While I loved all my miniworld dresses, I often found my diva self lounging around in just my poofy slip. Many a time, I played dress up with these slips- there's even a picture of me dressing Trevor up in theses slips when he was a defenseless todler! What better way to make my mark in the word than by providing kindred diva spirits with the means to dress themselves up like a princess?

Made from nylon chiffon and satin charmeuse, they are super soft, and they have lots of body to expand when twirled. I think I'm going to experiment with making these little pettiskirts, and maybe a children's boutique is nearer to my future than I thought. Now, if I can only find an investor... any takers? :)

Go Frogs, Happy Birthday Trev, and Viva Mexico!

The Facts are these:
*The TCU Horned Frogs played The BYU Cougars on Thursday 16 October at TCU's Amon G. Carter Stadium.
*My mom and dad, Trevor, Cami, Kevin, Ashley, Spencer, their little girl Sophie, Lance, and nearly every other mormon within 5 hours driving distance, who weren't on their missions, were in attendance at this game.
*TCU was ranked number 24 and BYU was ranked number 8 at the time this game was played.
*After this game, TCU is ranked number 14 and BYU is ranked number 21.
*The day this intense fall in the polls happened, as previously mentioned on October 16, which was also the 16th birthday of Trevor, diehard BYU fan.
*The final score was TCU- 32, BYU- 7

Poor Trevor.

Despite the polar feelings between me, a horned frog, and the rest of my family who came to the game, cougars 'till the end, it was a fun night which we ended with dinner for Trevor's birthday at Ihop!


This is Spencer, Ashley, and Sophie, who made the five hour drive from Lubbock, Texas to see their cougars play. That is dedication, my friend.

Sophie was so cute all decked out in blue- she had the CUTEST blue ribbons adorning her pigtails! Ashley has some really cute pictures of her with the pretty fall flowers on campus. Thanks Again Ashley and Spencer for giving up your extra ticket so Lance could watch the game with us!


This is my mom, Cami, and Kevin ready to cheer on their BYU cougars...


My mom is really a horned frog at heart... As evidenced by the horned frog symbol. I know, I know, you want to taunt her and make fun of her- I just ask you to be kind.


This is during half time, when Lance and I came to the BYU section to taunt-- I mean, console, my family at the 23-0 lead TCU had over BYU. Yes, Lance was wearing blue. Don't even get me started...


Cami, too, is a horned frog at heart. I ask you to be nice to her as well. She can't help her true feelings- she was born that way.


This is one of the MANY reasons why I love Texas- look at that sunset! GO HORNED FROGS! :)

So, Because Trevor's birthday was on the 16th, and he got to cheer on the victorious horned frogs on that special day, we had a family celebration the next night. I was able to come home for the weekend, and since Lance was on Fall Break, he got to tag along. He's beginning to become more of a permanent fixture in our family, which- I love. It is so wonderful seeing him in all sorts of new situations; it has been really good for us to be able to see each other more this year.

The celebration kicked off Friday night with a good ol' fashioned pizza-making party. It was so much fun- but my mom has those pictures, so I'll let you read about it on her blog. While the pizzas were baking, Trevor opened his presents. He got cologne, clothes, and candy- what more could a boy who is 16 want-- oh, besides a car and a macbook (which, much to his chagrin, he didn't get)!


This was handsdown the best gift of the evening: Cam admitted IN WRITING on Trevor's birthday card that she was glad he was born a boy. When my mom brought our new baby brother home from the hospital 16 years ago, my sister and I were very unamused that she brought home a boy and not a girl. WELL, 16 years later, we have both decided God knew what he was doing- the Lesueur family probably would have reached its untimely demise if there was another girl in our blessed little family. Trev, we're ALL glad you are a Trevor and not a Trevina! :)


When asked what kind of birthday cake he would like my momma and me to MAKE for his birthday, he replied, "I want an icecream cake from Wal-Mart." You can imagine my little Martha Stewart heart fell. So begrudgengly, we bought this cake from Wal-Mart, and he loved it.

Another specific Trevor gave us about his birthday is, he wanted a Mexican dinner with just the family and Kendra. So, we got out our best chimichanga and enchilada recipes, a bag of chips, and a lot of red white and green decorations

This is our mexican flag table, complete with mexican sodas and mexican flag place cards.


Here's my mom and dad and their cute place cards.


Cam and Kevin are sweet!


Trevor and his beloved Kendra. Note the piniata in the background- its hanging from the balcony. I really love having a balcony in that house!


Here is Lance and me, stuffing the piniata. we do everything with a smile :) Just so you know-- it was my dad who ended up breaking the piniata, it was fun to feel like a 10-year-old at a birthday party again!!

This was a super fun weekend, and it was so great to spend it with those I love most!

Our Search For The Perfect Pumpkin

It has long been a tradition in our family to go to the Farmer's Market in Downtown Dallas to get pumpkins, bales of hay, stocks of corn, and flowers! When we were little, my mom would take us kids while my dad enjoyed a day at best buy, looking at a new toy for him. This is the first year in a while we have been able to go- so it was great to restart this fun fall tradition, and throw Kevin into the mix- even if he did roll his eyes at the scrutiny with which we examined our pumpkins and the copious amount of pictures I took! When we got downtown, we got some lunch at Dos Panchas, this cute little Mexican food restaurant, where we watched part of the University of Texas vs. Oklahoma University college football game. Texas and OU are major rivals, and Texas WON!!

So when the boys (and Baby J) were fed and happy, we started off on our search for the perfect pumpkins:

We saw all sorts of pumpkins- really really big ones, grey ones, white ones, teeny tiny ones,
warty, bumpy ones


green ones that look like ducks,


orange/red/white/green ones that look like Rafiki's bum, according to Kevin,


many terracotta pots,


and lots and lots of beautiful fall flowers!


These pumpkins look so neat when stacked with other flat-ish pumpkins. They're S-U-P-E-R HEAVY though!


Mom and Cam looking for the flawless 'designer pumpkin'.


While we were obsessing over the perfect pumpkin, Trev and Kev were taking it easy- probably following some football game on Trevor's phone. BUT, I feel like I should stress how wonderfully complacant they were after being fed lunch. Rather than whining, they were just sitting patiently, letting us girls do our thing. Thanks Boys! :)

We finally found our perfect pumpkins and hay just as the farmers were closing their markets- Once we get them arranged in all their fall splendor, I'll make sure to document their perfection!

Here are some other cute pictures from today:
Cam and Kevin were thrilled to see a sign advertising meats since they now know (and have educated all those who read their blog) where the different cuts of meat come from!


My talented soccer player brother, juggling a water bottle his feet!


Me and my momma with the beautiful fall flowers


It's the great pumpkin, Cami J!


A cute picture of Mom and Trevor at Dos Panchas!


Kevin loves posing for pictures!!


This is all of us- my skirt has a little bit of Marilyn Monroe action going on, my life is ever so exciting! We all had a great time today, and yes- while we were carrying on the tradition of Farmer's Market pumpkins, Daddy carried on the tradition of shopping for his own toy at Best Buy. Apparently he has been thinking about replacing his not-mac laptop for a mac, so he was able to spend his 'daddy time' getting information about that. In case you didn't know- macs are sent from heaven. I highly recommend everyone within eye shot of these words pay a visit to your apple store today and see all the things a mac can do for you! Once you're fully converted, your life will NEVER be the same... And oh yeah- Happy Fall too :)

On A Fine Fall Day...

After going for a walk last week, and discovering little green textured apple looking things that look SO COOL, I decided they would make great home decorations. It turns out, these green 'apples' are actually called Horse Apples, or Hedge Apples, and they can be spray painted gold, silver, or just left in their original brilliant green form. Well, I told my mom we should collect some and spray paint them this weekend... so off we went in the name of Martha Stewart craftiness. We took my dog, buddy the nose-driven beagle, in of the spirit of inclusion, and as we collected our horse apples, Buddy was leashed to a bench watching and sniffing... The following are pictures from our 'Martha' adventure...The horse apple tree, sitting right on the lake

My momma, making sure our horse apples didn't have any stowaway creatures from nature

Bend... and snap!

I really like this picture of us. We may have a new fall tradition!

This is the fore mentioned Buddy, minutes before wriggling free from his leash ensuing on an adventure of his own: a three hour run through the creek and cow pastures and brush. Yes, we followed this adventurous little dog for THREE HOURS before finally being able to catch and bring him home.

Now, some insight into Buddy: he has always been an adventuresome dog- He's a beagle, and even though he likes to think he is the purebred hunting dog he was meant to be, he just simply isn't. He is completely a city dog who wouldn't know what to do with something if he actually did catch it! When he gets to smelling anything out of the ordinary though, there is no breaking him from the scent- should one try to grab him, one should prepare to be minus a finger or two, indefinitely. He simply has to run his nine-year-old joints until they're too tired to run any more...

Well, after spending some great quality time with my mom and a flash light, the cavalry- i.e. my brother Trevor, and my dad, show up after Trev's soccer practice to relieve us from our frustrating pursuit. Trevor wanted to help my dad look for the dog through the woodsey area, but would rather not have stickers permanently embedded in his legs, or have a nasty run-in with some poison ivy per the lack of coverage his soccer shorts provided him with; so he turns to me and says, "Chelsea, trade pants with me...". After some more of our rather awkward conversation to the tune of my mother laughing hysterically, I gave Trevor my jeans and he gave me his shorts... He went and helped search for the dog while i sat contemplating the idea that I'm pretty sure his butt looks better in my jeans than mine does! I'll let you see for yourselves:
See? What do you think?

Trevor in my jeans and sweatshirt, and me in his soccer shorts and Dallas Texans T-shirt. We kept our own shoes though :)

My momma's poor wet, muddy, sticker infested shoes

The dumb dog, banished to the laundry room. Look closely, and you can see how wet and muddy he is. He knew he was in trouble...

Still banished to the laundry room, Buddy is sleeping on his palatial 'Prince Buddy' bed. He'll probably be gimping around for the next couple of days... I hope he remembers why, and restrains his little hunter self next time he feels like pulling out of his leash!

Needless to say, we didn't quite get around to spray painting tonight. Hopefully that aspect of this project happens with a bit less excitement!

When it was all said and done, it wasn't quite the drama we thought it was while we were in the moment. We got to talk to a few of my parent's neighbors who were very nice and sympathetic, we got to see some cute frogs and some beautiful nature, and we got to spend some quality time working together as a family sans TV, cell phones, and all of our other daily distractions. So maybe thank you's are in order to 'Prince Buddy'? Maybe I'll un-banish him from the laundry room...




...Then again, maybe not :)

The Blogging Bug

SO, I caught the blogging fever from my cute cousins and my brother-in-law. I blame them for all future procrastination that takes place on this blog!

In the world of Chelsea, A LOT has been happening lately. Namely, I am a junior theatre student at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. I am definitely loving it- it is wonderful to be so close to my family and especially my sister now that she will be giving me a little niece or nephew soon. Being a patron of the theatrical arts, and a HUGE fan of Shakespeare, you can imagine my joy when I found out Baby J, as we lovingly refer their little blessing, will be making his/her sure to be dramatic entrance on none other than The Ides of March, March 15! E tu Brute?


I was actually here for my momma's birthday this year! She turned 29. Again. My dad got her a charm bracelet and each of us children got her a charm. My mom, Cami, and I spent the day shopping, that was fun until pregnant Cami got Baby J nausea, and I got sympathy nausia. Poor mom- we were such debbie downers!



It is also nice to be close to Lance. We have been dating off and on since March of 2006, and I couldn't be happier than I am right now. This last weekend, he and I went to my parent's house in Prosper to watch General Conference with them- what a fun experience that was to watch the prophet and apostles speak on the importance of family and other spiritual matters with those I love most!


My family is doing very well; in light of the suckishness of the economy right now, I think we are turning inwards and recognizing the importance of the things that are important! Newport Homebuilders is my dad's company and it is indeed a family affair! Seeing as how about 80% of the company is LDS, they have monthly Newport Night at the Temple, which from the outside looking in, I can see has made a difference in demeanor. The Lord surely does bless those who follow the commandments!

This is part of the Newport crew at the Mongolian Grill post temple. It should be noted that Cami was also there, but due once again to Baby J's nausea, had to skip out on dinner.


On 16 September, my family received the disheartening news that my Grandpa Jones passed away at 3:56 in the morning, Arizona time. My whole family gathered together that weekend for the funeral; it was wonderful to get together to share our favorite memories of grandpa- he was feisty until the very end, and I hope that is a quality I received and will maintain until my the very end- just like him! Just a little anecdote, the day before he passed away, he was checking into the ER; when being asked the routine questions he cooperated politely until they asked him if he smoked or drank, to which he replied, "Do I look stupid?". He was never afraid to set people straight... Here are some of my favorite pictures from that weekend:

Here are the cute boys of our family at my Aunt Melodee's house. There's also a great picture of trevor sitting on my dad's lap with a smirk on his face- in the interest of maintaining a good relationship with by darling brother, I will refrain from putting it up. I'm not sure what Kevin is doing here though...












And here's one of the girls! Can you see the family resemblance?












You know how they say when children are quiet, they're probably making a mess... here is photo evidence! This is Aden and Westin, My cousins Celeste and Harmony's little boys, finding fun in dominoes. They are too cute!













This little beauty is my cousin Connie's daughter Kaydance. This was taken at the Arizona temple when we were taking family pictures.























Here are all the cousins with grandma.

These darling little girls belong to my cousins Jared and Ashley. Their Grandma Neeenee, my aunt Lisa, got them these precious dresses. They both LOVED the flowers on the temple grounds.












This is the ever-energetic Kade. He is my cousin Shalynn's son, and he is a HOOT! At the viewing, he was running up to everyone in the line, introducing himself and shaking their hands. This was when he was all introduced out. What a cute kid...

















These were the Navy men present at my grandpa's grave site service. Their salute was so neat to watch, I'm sure Grandpa was proud :)












My cousins, the pallbearers












My cute Aunt Kim and her girls Jamie and Annie. At the funeral we had an arrangement of red roses, one representing each child, grandchild, and great-grandchild. When everything was all said and done, we each got to keep our rose.












Clayton, with his rose.









One of my favorite pictures, the Arizona temple with some beautiful yellow flowers.

























This is at my Tick-Tock Grandma's house. I have so many memories around this table!














My family, sans my momma, in front of the fireplace where we always take pictures.














Trevor being so cute and musical. Family Von Trapp anyone?


The Little Red Caboose was my daddy's favorite book as a child. He rediscovered it, and read out loud to us, this was such a cute moment that I hope to always remember!












Another nostalgic moment: my grandma, in an effort to clean out, had this little memento from my daddy's childhood sitting on the trashcan. When my dad walked up to the house and saw his Bobby Hall Hockey game heading for the city dump, he let out a, "Nooooo!" then he turned to my grandma and said, "you're not throwing this out, are you?" It was a cute glimpse into my dad's sentimental side- he has memories of playing hockey tournaments with his dad and brothers. This is a picture of Trevor and Daddy carrying on the father-son tournament tradition.