A Trip to the Temple

We spent last Saturday morning walking around the grounds of our beautiful Portland Oregon Temple. The weather was gorgeous. I took advantage of the entire family being in their Sunday best and took some new portraits for the living room wall (I love my camera!!!!). I would love to post more pictures, but I have so much trouble importing more than four or five (it does horrible things to my spacing and alignment), that I find it best to take the path of least resistance. I thought a collage would short-cut the problem a little.

(I, obviously, did not take the pictures I am in - Sean and a friend are to thank - respectively).

I am ridiculously proud of this last shot. It is my "Ensign - General Conference issue" photograph.

Silver Creek Falls

We spent Memorial Day at South Silver Creek Falls with family. We started with a lovely hike in the cool of the day. This is such a nice time of year to spend in the woods, as far as bugs go. After our hike we ate lunch on the big grassy lawn along the creek, and the kids played in the water. It has been a long time since we have had such a beautiful Memorial Day. What a blessing! Enjoy the pics!

Before and After: Rose Beds

Before

During

After

Much better!

My Favorite Days

Thursdays are the highlight of my week. Thursday is the day my sweet sister and I combine our little broods for a few hours of sheer enjoyment. Our kids get along famously, and Sierra and I are the best of friends. I always feel renewed and refreshed, and reminded of the entire point of childhood - to have fun! Yesterday, a simple batch of cookies seemed reason enough for a full-fledged party. Because I know I will miss these days in the future, I cherish them now.

Slumbering

If you have children who have long outgrown falling asleep while being held, you will appreciate this post. Anna's sleep schedule had been stretched to the max, and she simply could not stay awake one moment longer. She was screaming her head off and I picked her up to give her a cuddle. Within 60 seconds she was sound asleep. The beautiful part was that she stayed asleep. I spent two glorious hours with my beautiful little girl snuggled on my lap. It was the best excuse I have had in a long time to sit in the sun and read, and read, and read. The boys played, us girls rested and recharged.


I don't know what it is about having a little, tiny body nestled up against yours; especially when that little, tiny person is so very precious to you. As I held my slumbering daughter I couldn't help but reflect on the magical months immediately following Anna's birth in which the two of us spent many hours sleeping side by side as if we were part of one another . . . because we were a part of one another. She has grown so much in the past three years, and I would not trade it for anything. It was nice to remember holding my newborn baby girl, and it is nice to hold my beautiful, growing daughter.

Photo Shoot

I bought the pattern for this apron six months ago, or more. I finally made it last week and finished the last three items this morning. It turned out rather loud and crazy for anything I would actually put on my body, but it is cute anyway. I thought it deserved a blog post. So, I asked my ever-present companion, Annabelle, to photograph me.

She LOVED being behind the camera, and even got some rather artsy shots; but alas, none of the entire apron from top to bottom. She would turn the camera this way and that. I would place my hands at the top and bottom of the apron so that she could see what needed to fit in the view window (what window?). We wound up with several shots of my head floating on the ceiling, seemingly body-less. And 90% of them were blurry from Anna rapidly stepping closer and farther away to get just the right shot. It made for the most entertaining shoot I've taken part in since . . . ice cream sandwiches (in which Anna's ice cream got all over the place, much to her hilarious shock and amazement).

Hopefully, you get the idea. ;>

Cinderella's Slippers

I told you I'd post a picture. Gorgeous! Love Goodwill!

Love these shoes!

And love this girl!

(What a darling shoe model.)

Photo Collage Tutorial

We have one very long wall in the front entrance of our home. It is part of hallway and leads to the living room. As such, I felt it provided a perfect opportunity to introduce visitors to our home and family as they actually come into the house. So here is what I came up with. I wanted a collection of images that capture our family as we really are, not just portraits, but memories, and silly things. I also wanted the kids to be subtly reminded of who they are and that they are a part of something really wonderful and special - our family.

I went to Goodwill and picked up a ton of little frames in my color scheme (black, mahogany, pine, and pewter). I added those to my existing stash and laid everything out in a pleasing arrangement on the floor based around a beautiful family name plaque that my mother-in-law gave us for Christmas. Once I had my frames balanced around the centerpiece, I messed around with snapshots making sure I had a good mix of kids and styles. Next, my sweet husband carefully traced each frame on a large piece of white craft paper in its correct spot (I was not incredibly meticulous as it was not necessary with the complete mis-matched mix of frames).

We taped the paper to the wall and labeled the drawn frames with a description of the frame/photo so that we could both work at the same time and still keep everything straight. After hanging all the pictures in their drawn-on boxes, we removed the paper from the wall and viola`:

Happy Turkey Day

Last week my mom, sister, and I were sitting at the dining room table eating lunch in the peace and quiet that only happen when all the children outside playing. When what to our wondering eyes should appear but a bright purple turkey in all of her pre-Thanksgiving glory.

Annaliese insisted on wearing one of her tutu costumes at lunch time. Not wanting to have the lovely ensamble ruined via peanut butter and jelly, I threw on one of the kids' painting shirts (yes, Ricks is my alma mater). The tutu part in the front puffed her belly up quite nicely and the protruding tail feathers are far more colorful than any turkey I have ever seen. I think I just found a good excuse to send out Happy Thanksgiving Day cards this year.

Standing Strong and Immovable

There is a story told of a certain foolish man who built his house upon some sand, and a wise man who built his house upon a rock. The winds came and the rain fell and all of nature's fury beat upon both houses. And when the storm was over the house on the sand had washed away, and the house on the rock stood firm. How grateful I am to be on the other side of a storm, looking back, and clinging to my rock - my Savior.

I wish you all the happiest of Mothers' Days. My love to you.

An Addendum

Inevitably, after posting my Thirty Somethings post, blabbing on and on about how happy and centered I am, my tiny life began to crumble. I have had two very challenging weeks full of frustration, anger, and self-doubt (not to mention feeling like a total hypocrite for every word I said in that post). It is part of the ebb and flow of life. I know this.

I have a bit of an honesty complex, which means I could not simply let things lie with that last post about self-fulfillment. It would be a lie for any of you to think that I have my life all together or in control. I don't. I have good days, I even have great days; but they are balanced out by plenty of lousy days, or at least lousy moments in otherwise good days (I love the word "lousy" - it feels like such a 70's word to me). We all do. I know that.

I guess I just don't want anyone to think I'm perfect, not even myself. Because I can't live up to it. It's not me and it never has been. I think that too often I wind up lying to myself, pretending I'm perfect - because I get lucky enough to have a perfect moment here or there. Maybe my problem is that I attribute those perfect moments to myself, instead of to God. When I attribute them to myself I con myself into thinking that I can somehow make things perfect on my own, and then I fail - because I didn't do it on my own to begin with.

I'M NOT PERFECT!!!! I can even be a complete mess sometimes. Sean keeps telling me that nobody expects me to be perfect. Nobody even thinks I'm perfect. It's just me. Why am I so hard on myself? I would love to end this post with a nice little tidbit about finding "joy in the journey," and all that stuff, but it's not going to happen this time. You'll have to wait for another day. "Because tomorrow is another day!" (Sorry, I couldn't help myself - go Scarlett!)

Let's Go Fly A Kite

One of the many advantages of living in our current home is that I can send my kids out to the "backyard" and they have the space to do this:

We finally broke out the kites on Thursday and the kids have been flying them every chance they can get (including a grand attempt in the pouring rain - what better way to learn about the effect of raindrops on butterfly wings?).

This windy time of year can be so much fun when children have a tangible way to explore it. It was quite exhilarating for all of us - even just us looky-lous.

Anna's Room

Anna's room finally got put together this weekend. It is not finished. I still have a few grand ideas in mind waiting for another free Saturday and a few extra dollars. So conisder the following "stage one" of Anna's bedroom make-over. The doll corner looks very different already (I smartened it up with a baby Moses basket and some adorable purple storage containers), but I am too lazy to run upstairs and take a picture of it right now. The lighting would be terrible anyway (rain, rain, go away).

This is the dress-up area. The baskets are full of shoes and jewelry which will be replenished on her birthday. I found some gorgeous silver beaded shoes for her at Goodwill and I will try to remember to sneak in a picture of them soom. They are soooo vintage Cinderella. I love it!

The picture above her shelf is a simple collage of fairies for inspiration. I made it before whe was born (years before) in anticipation of this very stage in her young life. Blessings. ;>