On my mind......

I'm so behind on recording things on this blog. But today I just wanted to share some things that are going on in our lives and some thoughts in my head....some events, some mini confessionals, some totally random.....and perhaps a picture or two because I love them. :) So here we go!

* Last Sunday was a big day for our family, as Jaden was sustained as the 2nd Counselor in the bishopric of our ward. We feel like we are ready to take on the challenge as a family, and we are also ready for the associated blessings! :) Our new bishopric is wonderful, they will do a great job. One quick little story. We were telling our kids that we were getting a new bishopric soon (and although we knew Jaden was going to be a counselor, we didn't want to tell the kids yet and have the whole world know!). Brandon said "I want you to be the bishop, Dad." When Jaden asked why, he replied, "Because you're good. And because you are the Bishop's 'clark.'" I said, "Oh, you mean the clerk. Yeah, Dad's been a good ward clerk."Then Brandon said, "You are a good clerk. And, I just think that you're ready." :) It's been a little bit of an adjustment, as yesterday was Jaden's first "official" day in the bishopric and we were both really busy at church (and we had baptisms Saturday night too!) but I'm feeling like everything's going to be okay! We've had tremendous support and encouragement, and a feeling of peace. Which leads me to my next thought...

* Since the first week of December, I have been serving as the 1st Counselor in the Primary Presidency. I LOVE IT. I love the women I serve with and I love the children in our ward. So Sundays are pretty busy for us. :) It came as a bit of a surprise because I hadn't been teaching in RS for that long and I thought I'd forever be on that organ bench--my bum was beginning to take on the bench shape (ha ha)--but I was very excited to accept the calling. I may have even surprised the Bishop with how excited I was. :) For a long time I've been wanting to experience the closeness that comes from serving with other women in a calling, such as a presidency, and was thrilled to get that opportunity with some AMAZING women. And the kids in our primary are awesome. I love hearing the things they say and how smart they are. One little boy, a new Sunbeam (3 year olds), told me that I looked like Handy Manny---What? Is that even a compliment? Then I figured it out---I always have a pen or pencil stuck on my ear, just like Handy Manny. And I knew that this particular little boy LOVES Handy Manny so I'll definitely take it as a compliment, ha! :) February is my month for sharing time and we're also having our first Primary activity next Saturday, so bring on the busy-ness. :)

* Jaden got an iphone for Christmas. My kids ask for it the minute he walks through the door. It is awesome even though I now call it "the girlfriend." Even Haylie knows how to work it with her itty bitty fingers.

And this is what happens when Annie uses the camera:

We were literally CRYING, we were laughing SO HARD when Jaden found this gem of a picture on his iphone. Crying and convulsing with laughter. "THE EYE." HAAHAHAHA! And this was another beaut, I'm loving the whole extreme closeup vibe we have going on:

Whooooo boy. I'm still laughing.

* My photos and files are finally restored/recovered from Mozy. It was a stressful thing and I'll admit I had several crying episodes but I'm happy that it's done and that my precious memories were safe. Back up your stuff, friends. You'll be glad you did.

* I started teaching Brandon piano lessons, and it's going really well! I know that it will probably be a test of my patience but for now, he likes it and even asks to practice. I know THAT won't last forever so I'll enjoy it while I can! :) He's catching on really quickly. Music is VERY important to Jaden and I and we really want to instill that love in our children.

* Speaking of music, I like the song "Party in the USA." Yes, I'll admit it. I'm not a Miley Cyrus fan but I can't help but like that song. All of my kids sing along. It's hilarious.

* I had to say no to something sort of biggish last month. It was hard for me to do and I'm still feeling small lingerings of guilt for saying no, but after I did it, I felt so much better!! I think it's so hard to say no to things that are positive and good and that will teach you a lot, but sometimes you have to look at your priorities and allow yourself to place your family first. I truly feel that there is a time and a season for everything. And I know it wasn't my time to say yes to that particular thing. (It wasn't a church calling, FYI.) But why must we as women feel GUILTY for saying no??????? It's like we want to always make everyone happy, I guess, or be superwomen and do EVERYTHING, and when we can't, perhaps we feel like we're falling short of some expectation that we place on ourselves.

* I'm still planning on blogging about our lovely trip to Hawaii (I promise, Jaclyn!). But for now, here is probably my favorite photo from the trip--I LOVE these four people so much! And the fun memories we made together there. I wish we were there now.

* I have also decided to step away from photography, that is, doing paid photography sessions for other people. I've been lucky I guess, people have always come to me for pictures and I've never had to advertise or say anything, and I generally do enjoy it. Maybe some of you didn't know I really even did photo sessions as I don't think I've ever mentioned it on the blog. But..... I wasn't charging enough to make it worth all of the time and energy I put into every session, and the time away from my kids and family. And I was spending too much time editing on my computer and I'd worry and wonder and my confidence level would be like a roller coaster and then I was feeling that big ol' yucky GUILT feeling too much. Once I made the decision, it felt as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. A very real feeling. So I'm still a "mamarazzi" to my kids, I'll never put down my camera, but I'm not taking anymore clients at the moment.

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Well. That was fun. :) Probably for nobody else but me, but that's okay! I've got some Valentine's projects in the works that I hope to share before LOVE DAY, a guest stint with Sassy Scoops last week to chat about, a recipe, and hopefully Hawaii pics and headwrap news. Maybe if I write it down here, I'll actually do it, ha ha. :) Have a lovely day!

PS: Why does Blogger always have to mess up my formatting??? Sorry about the weird spacing on everything. Lame!

Rosey Heart Shadow Box

I'm SO excited about this. This project is something I've been wanting to do for YEARS and finally decided today to just do it, for crying out loud. :) I'm really happy with how it turned out, imperfections and all! These dried roses have a very special meaning to me, they are roses Jaden has given me throughout our relationship, some of them dating clear back to the early-mid 1990's. So they are OLD. :) And I have saved them because I am sentimental like that. And I love my husband. And now my little "vintage" dried roses can be displayed prettily in our home. And I am happy about it.

It was pretty easy. I just got my basket of dried roses out and dusted them off a bit, carefully, with one of those compressed air thingies that you clean out your keyboard with.

I removed the dried leaves and trimmed the stems as far down as I could. Then I arranged them into a heart-like shape and didn't worry if it wasn't a perfectly symmetrical heart. :)

Out came my trusty hot glue gun--I glued the bottom of the roses onto a piece of cardstock, then I mounted it on the back of my shadow box frame. Easy.

Yay! A project over 14 years in the making. :) A good way to start a new week. And a new month! Happy February!

*Linked on:

Made It Monday

Make Your Monday

Just Something I Whipped Up

DIY Day--A Soft Place to Land

Talented Tuesday--My Frugal Family

PS: Thanks for the nice support about our little crocheted head wrap venture! We've shipped out all of the orders and it's been fun! :) Stay tuned for more designs, an announcement and an upcoming giveaway.....

Handmade Crocheted Head Wraps For Sale

Hi! So after my post about my head wrap, there's been some interest in making these available for purchase. After some thought, my mom, my grandma and I have decided to team up and make that happen!! :) How exciting---and honestly a tiny bit scary for us! We've been busy little bees (especially Grandma) whipping up these delightfully comfy and cozy head wraps for sale.

As you can see, we have LOTS of great colors and yarn styles to choose from, and even more not shown. This photo makes me happy on this dreary January day. :)

Here's the overall scoop:
**Tapered Head Wraps with flower (adults): $15.00 (approx. 18.5 inches long)
**Tapered Head Wraps with flower (kids): $12.00 (approx. 16 inches long)
**Crocheted Headbands with flower: $12.00
**We will do custom orders as well--you pick which yarn and color from our stash and even the type and color of flower you want.
**Shipping/handling to US destinations: $2.00
To order, contact us HERE. Payments can be made with cash, check or PayPal, we can discuss options when you place an order. Orders will be shipped following payment.
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The following head wraps are available NOW for purchase--they are already made and ready to ship! Email us HERE to place an order and specify which number and color. Note: colors may vary slightly with different monitors. Don't forget we also do custom orders--head wraps with different colored flowers than shown.
Each head wrap is lovingly handmade with a button closure and will stretch to a stylish and cozy fit.
"Valentine" and "Winter" Collections:

1. Creamy Vanilla (homespun, 5 inches at widest point)

2. Rose Pink (homespun, 5 inches at widest point)

3. Pink Cotton Candy (homespun, 5 inches at widest point)

4. Purple Plum (homespun, 5 inches at widest point)

5. Green Bean (homespun, 4.25 inches at widest point, this one has 2 stacked flowers)

6. Sea Blue (homespun with small flecks of green/gray, 5 inches at widest point)

7. Cherry Red (homespun, 5 inches at widest point)

8. Charcoal Grey (thick wool, 19.5 inches long, 5 inches at widest point)

9. Blush Pink (thick wool, 5 inches at widest point)

10. Blackberry (standard acrylic yarn, 5 inches at widest point)

11. Chocolate Brown (shown here with a Blush Pink wool flower--standard yarn, 5 inches wide)

Cotton "Sunshine and Blue Skies" collection--narrow taper (3.5 inches at widest):

12. Sky Blue (cotton)

13. White Daisy (cotton with yellow-centered flower)

14. Sunshine Yellow (cotton)

15. Orange Creamsicle (cotton)

16. Hot Pink (flower will be added--we just wanted to show this fun color option)

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Do you root for a certain school or sports team? We can create head wraps in your favorite school or team colors, for example:

17. BYU (navy blue standard soft yarn with white flower)

18. University of Utah (black yarn with red flower--also can be made with Cherry Red homespun yarn with white flowers)

19. Murray High School (orange and black, with coordinating flowers)

**We made some for a few of the MHS Spartonians and they look adorable in their school colors! We can do any high school colors.
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Crocheted Headbands with Flower

Here's a custom ordered headband I made, these can also be made in any of the colors featured above plus more, in any width you want:

This one is approx. 2.25 inches wide in the Purple Plum homespun with a Black homespun flower.

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Here are more colors and yarns available:

Homespun Yarn (Creamy Vanilla, Cherry Red, Green Bean, Sage Green, Lavendar, Purple Plum, Charcoal Grey, Pumpkin, Black, Blue Berry, White, plus Rose Pink, Pink Cotton Candy, and Sea Blue colors)

Thick wool (Charcoal Grey, Pumpkin, Blush Pink, Green)

Acrylic yarn (Eggplant Purple, Yellow, Black, Sagey Green, Pink, White, Cream, Navy, Chocolate Brown, and Heather Gray)

Whew! Did you make it to the end!! Let us know what you want and we'll be happy to create your own head wrap! THANKS!!!

Lookie what I made!!

Pardon the yucky pics, I just quickly snapped a few and I wanted to share what I made yesterday!! My grandma taught me how to crochet this cute head wrap. I love it! I made it all by my little self!

I even sewed on a BUTTON and made the flowers and everything! I feel so domestic. With my photos and files and digiscrapping stuff STILL working on being restored (driving me crazy but it's okay) and my daughter having pneumonia and my other daughter being sick too, I've spent lots of time on the couch snuggling with my babies and crocheting. It's been a good distractor. :)

It makes me happy!

It's so fun to create stuff, it's pretty satisfying to be able to finish a little project like this. I'll have to post more little projects later on. I have a whole list of things I want to do......

PS: How fun!! Some of my past Valentine projects are featured over on Tidymom today!!! Cheryl always has fabulous posts and great stuff to share so check her out: http://www.tidymom.net/2010/01/fun-valentine-ideas.html

Annie in the Nutcracker--Dec. 2009

Who can believe that we are here in 2010, a new decade??? I love the feel of the fresh new start of a new year. We spent the week after Christmas/the first few days of the new year in Maui with Jaden's family---it was heavenly. Definitely hard to get back to the regular routine and yucky weather, but we're plugging along. I have lots of posts in mind but unfortunately my EHD died on me!!!! Luckily most of it is backed up on Mozy or else I would have to be committed to the loony bin. For reals. I would die if I lost all of my photos and stuff. Anyway, the restoration takes forever so many of my 2009 "wrap-up" plans and a few other projects will have be put on hold for the time being. I'm trying to be patient. :)
So lots to think about, lots to chat about, and I'm planning to share some pics of Christmas fun as well as our Hawaii trip, but for right now, it's all about the Nutcracker.
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This fall has been Annie's first class of tap and ballet and she LOVES it. She takes with her friend Eliza and they have a ball. Her dance studio has put on a Children's Nutcracker every year for the past 20+ years, and this year Annie's cute class got to be Peppermint Sticks in the production and were absolutely adorable! It was a time commitment and I'll admit I grumbled a few times, but in the end it was all worth it, because Annie loved it so much and did a great job!!!

All of the Peppermint Sticks had Candy Cane partners, who were older girls and they did part of their dance together. Annie's partner was Emily and she was so awesome and sweet with Annie. She gave Annie the neatest gift--a Sugar Plum Fairy snow globe that plays music from the Nutracker! She was thrilled.

Here's Annie and some friends waiting off stage for their turn.

I love this picture of Annie jumping in the air. She was happy to be there. :)

I took these pictures at the dress rehearsal so I could get up closer.

Annie thought the big "mother" was hilarious. :)

We took a few pictures of Annie in her costume in front of our Christmas tree before one of the performances:

Annie and Eliza

Annie with Emily

Annie and my family who were able to come!

Annie with me and her daddy. :) Brandon and Haylie were off gallivanting around somewhere. Oh, we got her a bouquet of flowers but left them at home, oops. :) It was fun to see Annie's love for dancing--during the other dances like Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy, etc etc etc, she would just watch with big eyes and her hands clasped together in delight. Adorable. :) It was a fun experience and hopefully some great memories for Annie. She did an awesome job, especially for her first performance. Can't wait for the next one!