Photos of our home taken in January 2011
kitchen and dinning area

sitting room

office
kitchen
back yard view


deck
back yard
shots of the front of our home




20 deer came through our back yard on Saturday. kc took these shots!

Home Where my Heart IS!!!!

One of the courses I am taking this semester is photography, I have weekly things that I get to shoot and this week it is my home. So in doing so I have been thinking about my home and what makes my home mine. I do love being home, and it is one of my new challenges with going back to school is not being home as much as I like to be. I love being at home on a cold snowy day, or at the kitchen table playing games with John and the kids. I love to curl up to a good book, or a good movie. My kitchen is a great kitchen for cooking, it is light and roomy. I love my home because it was built with love, by John. No it is not a perfect home,we have many dings and dents, chipped paint and dirty dishes always in the sink. I sometimes wish to be in a neighborhood, and not such a rural area yet,that seems some how to dissipate when I look at my kitchen window and see the view that I have. So when I see and wish for something different, I always come back to the memories we have made as a family in our home and the warmth I feel when I enter the doors.

Happy New Year! I am not sure why but for some reason I am so excited for this new year to come. I am thankful for the past years of my life but I am grateful for an opportunity welcome a new year and look forward to all the exciting things to come. I hope to be better blogger this year. I really do enjoy blogging and I am not sure why so many things get in the way. I am looking forward to posting our trip to DC and Christmas so ........................stay tuned!! I will propabbly post date them so not to get out of chronological order!!

Christmas Memories 2010

Baby Helaman on Santa's lap
Ammon and Santa
Abbi and Santa
Taking the Kids to the lights at Willard Bay
Ally and her easy bake oven!


Heavenly cupcakes brought to you by KIMBERLY!
Ally and her cash resister
Christmas morning

Brady and Rachel

The excitement of Alex

Our Christmas Eve Dinner

Molton fudge cake YUM!!


Okay everyone SMILE!!

Christmas 2010

We had everyone home for Christmas this year and it was so much FUN! Most of our favorite traditions were accomplished this year............. like our special dinner for Christ............this is a five course meal followed by each of us putting in our special box our gift to Christ for this year followed by going to the graves and putting out luminaries to remember those whom we love and miss. We opened up our special jammies and posed for a picture, then we all curled up to watch a special video on the Saviors Birth. John had us all up by 6:30 the following day. I am not sure Rachel appreciated this fun tradition! We had are yummy Christmas Breakfast of waffles and sausage and then all took a NAP! We then went to visit Grandma. We ended the day playing games together..........always wonderful memories as we celebrate together.

On a side note John and I gave each other a trip to Washington DC to see Brady and to see the sights. We had a wonderful time. The bad new is that when we got home all the pictures got deleted off my camera!! Sad day!! We had a tour of the White House all decorated for Christmas which was one of my highlights, Brady gave us a personalized tour of the capital which was really neat. We also toured as many of the Smithsonian museums as possible. Arlington cemetery was humbling, I didn't realized how big that place was. This experience made me so thankful to all who has paid the price for my freedom in this great land. We went to DC LDS temple and was able to see Jenny Oaks Baker in concert which was another highlight of our trip. I love to travil and see the wonders of this world, I love being there with John. Brady did get some pictures on his camera so I will have to share them.

WOW! I just opened up my blog and realized that I haven't written since my birthday!! Oh well life goes on!! Some thoughts I want to share: The reason I started my blog is for my posterity to learn something about me! So hear goes................I love to cook for my family, not that I cook all the time in fact lately I hardly cook at all, but I love to cook, I love to make homemade goodness and I love to smell up my home with that goodness. I love rain. I love a good roll in the hay!! I love to hold babies ( sometimes that is what comes from a roll in the hay!!). I love to laugh and I love to cry. I love chocolate cinnamon bears! I hate parking tickets! I hate dog hair! (not the dog just the dog hair that sticks to my furniture!) I hate grumpy moods. I love the snow but hate cold. I love the sun but hate sunburns. I love to travel. I love doing nothing. I love sunsets. I cry watching sappy old love stories. I love freedom. I am grateful for the gift to choose.

Happy 45 to ME! Wow I can't believe I am even admitting I am 45! Yet, I am and I am proud of the 45 years I have been lucky enough to live! I have learn so many lessons, tested many principles and come to know myself on a deep level. So today I celebrate, because I can and because I have so many wonderful things to celebrate and be thankful for!! They say that to get to forty is easy because biologically you are made to live to 40 after that you live because you choose to every day! I believe this. I don't do things anymore because I have to, I do them because I want to! I live life to the fullest, I treasure memories and I embrace moments! Yes, I still cry, I still am working through hard things and I still struggle. Life doesn't become perfect when you are in your 40's you just have a new understanding ! TRUST ME 45 is a wonderful age to be! I love my life and am grateful for the life lessons I have been given!

Happy Birthday! NOW bring on 46!!

Growing up is hard to do! Or what I really should say is change is hard............my baby who is now is 18 years old just wrote me the sweetest letter home! I feel like I am the one growing up and changing going away from the role I have played for the past 22 years of being the mom. I know I will always be the mom to my wonderful children, yet they are growing up and I am changing careers and change is all around us so it is nice that they still remembered that: I am that mommy-lady who made them laugh, and that I was the one who knew where their shoes were half the time, and the one who made lists on paper for everything we would do (job charts, grocery lists, to-do lists, and fun to-do lists).
But mostly I am glad that they still call home to talk, get advise and let me in on their live and mostly I hope that they know I still love them if not MORE than ever before and I want them to feel it. Thanks Alex I will always treasure your love note!

So...here we go!

1. Sometimes, I want to forget all that has to be done and take a NAP.

2. Forget about the whole thing.

3. Small acts =big paybacks!.

4. Opening up your mind is very enlightening.

5. I keep meaning to wash my windows for fall, maybe today!

6. Today I have great intentions to get everything on my list done.............yet.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to Ali coming to spend the night and Brady coming home for a couple of weeks, tomorrow my plans include a birthday party for Ali, a wedding in Logan, and a Real game in Salt Lake and Sunday, I want to sleep in!