2011 January

Beauty

January 26, 2011 2 Comments

“I am a stinky, p.u., beautiful princess” – Katey, 3:42 p.m. on a Tuesday (Jan. 25, 2011 to be exact)

She’s right on all counts. Well, was right. I did change her bum before the photo shoot.

And a few minutes later after some accessorizing:

We talked for a few minutes about beauty and good hearts. I wanted her to know there is so much more to beauty than polka dot scarves and fluffy dresses. It will be an ongoing conversation. She is already a beautiful, beautiful princess, partly because her heart is so beautiful. And I love that she knows she’s beautiful. That’s something even a stinky diaper cannot hide.

Filed Under: {tickles and smiles}

{flashback friday #3}

January 25, 2011 2 Comments

Hmmm… I might need to change the title if this gets to be a habit. 😉

Here’s the flashback for last week:

My dad and older siblings are in this photo. Based on ages I was probably down for a nap or sitting on my mom’s hip while she took the photo. 😉 I wish I remembered those snow people – I really dig the tie and the hair. I do have many wonderful snow memories though.

I loved playing outside for hours. We would stomp a big circle in the snow and play fox and geese. {from Wikipedia: A traditional type of line tag, sometimes played in snow, is Fox and geese. The fox starts at the centre of a spoked wheel, and the geese flee from the fox along the spokes and around the wheel. Geese that are tagged become foxes. The intersections of the spokes with the wheel are safe zones.} We built forts and had snowball fights and sometimes we went a few blocks over to the Shimer’s house and played on their sledding hill. It was steep and those big black inner tubes worked really good! Little circle plastic sleds worked good too. Even flattened cardboard boxes worked good on that hill. Sometimes when there was a deep snow we would stand on our front steps and fall backwards into the big drifts. And snow angels. We are all really good at making snow angels.

One of my favorite traditions ever is that on Christmas Eve – no matter where we are, we all do snow angels at 10 p.m. and think about each other. I’m not sure how it started (Can you help me out Ruth?). I sure love it though. Some years it’s on dirt or carpet, and one year for one sister it was in a hospital bed. I’m thankful for the time to think about each of my family and wish them a Merry Christmas under the stars.

I’m not in this photo either. This one is of my younger siblings. Forts like this were common in our yard during the winter. What I absolutely love about this photo is the child-high fort and not much snow in the rest of the yard. Every inch of snow was used. That or maybe it was built and then the sun melted most of the rest, but the fort was left standing. Not sure, but I like my first thought better. 😉

p.s. I cannot tell you how much this image of how to play Duck, Duck, Goose makes me smile:

{also from Wikipedia} Love it. Especially when the colors change. Another favorite game from growing up.

Filed Under: {flashback friday}, {reflections and deep thoughts}

A sweet thing…

January 24, 2011 Leave a Comment

I am loving looking through all the photos from our trip. We used goblets for fry sauce, whipped cream, and chocolate milk, but not orange juice. We ran around barefoot in the sand dunes at Snow Canyon and *almost* attempted a hike up an extinct volcano. The trail was a little too snowy and muddy. We saw pioneer names written with axel grease on the wall of the canyon. I think from multiple generations as they had the same last name. There was also a website written in smaller lettering if you looked close – it was dated later than the rest. 😉 I might be posting from this trip for a while – here and there.

One wonderful memory from our trip was such a sweet, thoughtful thing. Jim Bob told me there would be a fun surprise, but did not give any hints beyond that. One evening he told me I had to go away for about a half hour. When I came back he had the condo set up like a spa. He treated me to a spa-inspired massage with a warm fire and the sound of waves in the background. It was the epitome of relaxation and indeed a sweet thing.

Indulgence papers and elements by Linda Roos – In the Making design, available at JessicaSprague.com.

Filed Under: {digital happiness}, {holidays and celebrations}, {Jessica Sprague}

Happy National Pie Day!

January 23, 2011 6 Comments

How are you celebrating?

We are having muffins for breakfast. (Obviously I didn’t get the memo in time.)

I did receive an email from Martha this morning with the cutest craft for pie day.

A paper pie box. I’m saving the template for next year. Really, those emails should come at least a week early, so I could gather the supplies all week and make it the night before. 😉

However, the rest of the day we’re covered. I have leftover deep dish pizza planned for lunch. Love leftovers on a Sunday. Pizza pie. perfect.

And it’s already PIE night. We got this idea from a High Council speaker in church a few years ago. He told of a family that had pie every Sunday evening and personal interviews – parents with children. Personal. Interview. Evening. JB jumped on the idea right away. He adores pie. Our interviews with the little ones had been quite sporadic and I loved the idea of consistency. It’s been so good for all of us. With Christmastime I got lazy. There were treats galore around our house and we’d just grab sugar cookies or peanut brittle during the interviews and called it good. I know JB has been missing the pie and this is the perfect excuse to get back on track. Thankfully he thought ahead and we have a whole bunch of blueberry and cherry pie filling in our food storage. Makes it easy. Easy as… my, oh, my.

{pie by me, photo by JB – we make a good team. ;)}

Filed Under: {holidays and celebrations}

1-11-11

January 22, 2011 8 Comments

My man and I celebrated our eleventh anniversary. The real day is on New Years Eve. We love to celebrate the new year with the kiddos and then, if possible, take a week a little later in January for a getaway. We always pick a whole day to celebrate us. It’s like a joint birthday. Could there be anything better?

This year we thought Tuesday the 11th (of 2011) would be perfect. Nevermind the fact that it was the morning of the 11th when we decided it would be perfect. 😉

Here’s how our fake anniversary went down:

Strawberry stuffed french toast after sleeping in.

Some late morning dancing and talking.

A trip to a place very similar to where eternity started for us:

We were married in the Manti temple and went there New Year’s Eve a few weeks ago. The two temples were built around the same time and have many similarities. We couldn’t think of a better place to celebrate us, so we went to the St. George temple to do sealings. We wanted to be reminded of all those wonderful promises given a couple who choose and qualify to be together forever. I love this temple (and grounds) – so beautiful! …and Jim Bob did an amazing job taking evening photos – without a tripod.

Next was one of my favorite places for dinner. Cafe Rio. Yeah, it deserves it’s own sentence. Their napkins alone deserve their own sentence. JB had the fire grilled chicken salad and I tried the Pork Barbacoa burrito for the first time. We both won.

Dessert at Applebees (thanks to Mom Pipes for the GC!)

Jim Bob’s only requirement was that his dessert sizzled. He loves the fajitas there. Same reason. When his blonde brownie came to the table it was sure sizzling. Even more so when he poured the buttery carmel sauce over it.

A quick trip to Target for valentine-y stuff we can’t get back home and then back to the condo.

And like all our days there, it was nicely punctuated by a trip to the hot tub. mmmmmm.

Happy Birthday to us.

Filed Under: {holidays and celebrations}

Livin' it up!

January 17, 2011 4 Comments

What do we do on our anniversary get-a-ways? Just the two of us, without any children?

Why we eat smiley face pancakes with chocolate milk filled goblets and jump on the bed of course.

We also watched “Despicable Me” for the first time. All the way through. In the middle of the day! *sigh* I loved the film. It shows just how children can change people for the better. Even a crusty old villain. We had rented it from redbox. When we returned it at a Walmart we walked right in to see if they had the blu-ray. They did, for a good price, and it soon became ours. I can’t wait to watch it with our little ones.

eta: While we were gone 3 of our 6 watched the show in two different houses. Fun! Our wonderfully sweet 93-year-old grandma also liked it. I guess it was the week for Despicable Me. 🙂 Now there just needs to be a sequel so Gru can find a Mrs. Gru and those adorable girls can have a mommy!

Filed Under: {holidays and celebrations}, {tickles and smiles}

{flashback friday #2}

January 15, 2011 2 Comments

on a Saturday evening. 🙂

This one is dedicated to my love! 11 years (and a little bit) ago we hooked up for eternity.

This photo is from our first Christmas Eve together:

I love the dreamy feel. That’s how I felt.

We spent the week leading up to Christmas in my childhood home. Many wonderful memories and last minute wedding preparations – we got married on New Years Eve. We also found lots of time to snuggle. In separate blankies of course. 😉

11 wonderful years… so far. Many more in the works. And to think he thought I would be a good summer fling. 😉

Happy 11th Anniversary Love!

p.s. Some fun anniversary celebratory posts to follow in the next few days.

Filed Under: {flashback friday}, {holidays and celebrations}

Effort

January 11, 2011 8 Comments

My one little word for 2011; effort. It feels big to me. Let me tell you how it came about.

This story starts decades ago when my mom would pick a color and word for the year. She selected a word that she wanted to focus on in her scripture study. Now, naturally you need to find a color that fits with it. That way you can mark the passages that contain your word with that color. I remember her saying when we were younger that her favorite color was “rainbow”. She couldn’t pick a favorite. This way she could have a different “favorite” each year. She said it’s amazing how something will jump out at you because it’s your color for the year. Same with your word. I’m not sure why, but her “magenta” year stands out to me. I’m not even sure what the word was. Anyway, I thought it was something neat that my mom did. Only my mom.

Flash forward to 2008. I was reading and enjoying Ali Edward’s blog. She had her one word she was focusing on, vitality. She had found a word for a few years to focus on and I thought it was a neat idea. I really loved her next word too – nurture. That’s on my list for the future. 🙂 How did I not see the connection to what Ali was doing and what my mom had done for years?? I don’t know. I guess sometimes it takes a few exposures before giving yourself the okay. Anyway, I decided on “language” for 2008. I wanted to focus on the language I used with my husband and children. Positive, faith-filled language. And my color was brown. Why? Mostly because it is my very favorite color (I’m not completely like my mom 😉 ). I LOVE brown. A nice chocolately brown. And it seemed like good foundational color to start with. 2009 was orange and thanksgiving. I feel gratitude often, but had a hard time with expressing it. Or, more accurately, making the time to express it. That was my focus that year. Last year was Create. And ocean blue. I thoroughly enjoyed my study and time creating. And now, I think we’re to the point of why effort this year. And the color reveal. 🙂

November of last year I had a whole list of words I could pick from and one that I really wanted. It just didn’t feel right though. I know it will be a word that I focus on in the future, but the timing wasn’t right. I had never felt that before so I studied and prayed and thought and studied some more. I tried to talk myself into certain words and then right back out again. I thought about being patient, but I wanted a plan. And now, please. I proceeded to make a list of goals for the new year. Usually I do that with the word in mind. A little backwards, but I moved forward. And thought and talked with my hunny and thought some more. And prayed. I wanted to know that my actions and whole year of study would be what the Lord wanted me to be doing. Because what He wants of me is what is always best for me. That I know!

The beginning of January came and I still did not have a word. I felt closer. I knew that my scripture study would be on prayer. I want to focus on that communication. I want to commune with my Father in Heaven. I wanted my word to reflect that and my other goals. I want to put forth my best. Effort had come into my mind, but honestly did not seem enough for what I wanted. It felt like the word “try” and I wanted to do. While studying prayer I found hymn #170, “God, Our Father, Hear Us Pray” and the very last phrase stood out. “Bless our efforts day by day”. And it all came together. My efforts aren’t enough. Never will be. Too many nights I flop into bed and think on everything I wasn’t able to get to that day. I need to focus on what I have done and make sure each day is my best effort. Then ask for His blessing. My efforts blessed by God is enough.

All this was going through my head and heart as we went to the temple on Saturday, January 8th. I prayed to know if this was my answer. Was this my word? I received the answer. Overwhelmingly yes. And a thought: “How meaningful would it have been to have the word effort without a whole lot of it getting there?”

Once again I learn to trust the Lord’s timing.

Effort. Effort day by day. And daily is why my color this year is Sunshine Yellow.

Filed Under: {one little word}, {reflections and deep thoughts}

{flashback friday} #1

January 7, 2011 2 Comments

I have too many wonderful photos that do not see the light of day very often. It is so fun to pull them out and relive the memories.

This category is dedicated to all those who made my childhood wonderful. And to my children, who will hopefully feel the same way someday.

The first to be featured is one of my fav photos ever:

Me and my “girly pie” sisters. Ruth, Sarah and I. I believe this was the first time I ever quilted. I remember my job was to sit under the quilt and make sure the yarn was pulled all the way through so the knots did not bunch on the underside. I pretty much rocked that. I think I got to pose with the needle for the photo. I still have my quilt with my name stitched on the top. It’s a treasure. I stored it away for so long and then realized that was silly. Now my boys take turns sleeping under the warmth of that sturdy quilt. Sadly I also have Ruth’s right now (sorry Ruth! nothing like a public confession, no?). When we visited at Thanksgiving time it ended up in our van, hiding some Christmas presents. Ruth even reminded me to bring it in before we left. I noticed it was gone and thought Jim Bob had. Instead he had folded “my” quilt nicely and placed it in the back with our luggage. Ruth, I promise we will keep it safe until we see you next!

That front room at my grandparents was one of my favorites rooms. Big soft couches, Grandpa’s paintings on the wall, geese pillows and relatively quiet. My cousins and I would play imaginative games for hours and pour over my Grandma’s hardback children’s books with the DI stickers still on. How I loved the sunshine filtering through the curtains and the view of the river from that front room. Heaven.

Family – feel free to tell more of the story or your perspective. Friends – feel free to comment. Especially if it’s about the hair. 😉

Filed Under: {flashback friday}

"Gee, do they still make wooden Christmas trees?"

January 3, 2011 2 Comments

Of all the trees in the world, ours is the Charlie Browniest.

Perhaps because it’s licensed. 😉

“Isn’t he the cutest thing?”

I saw this adorable tree in the Shopko ad for Black Friday. Beautiful and wonderful. Only 7 dollars, but I wasn’t willing to fight the crowds to pick up one item there. Jim Bob found it the next week online. 8 bucks shipped. That we could do.

Our Christmas tree took a little while to get this year (another story for another time). This one came just in time to help us celebrate the season. When we got the large one for the living room, this Charlie Brown tree moved to our bedroom. I loved how it helped me focus on the simplicity of the true meaning of Christmas.

A few days later we added something: