Marquis and Emily

Dancing and Tumbling Through Life!

2018-07-26T10:12:00.000-06:00

Princess has been having a blast in tumbling, and now cartwheels anywhere she goes.

And our tiny dancer had another recital in May, performing beautifully. This girl is loving dance!

Haircuts!

2018-07-25T16:34:00.000-06:00

This girl loves her beautiful, long hair, so just asked for a trim.

This girl, however, decided to cut off most of her gorgeous red hair and donate it to Wigs for Kids.

Someone is going to end up with a gorgeous wig!

Food!

2018-07-24T16:25:00.001-06:00

So much of life in our home revolves around food. If you were to ask us what our hobbies are, cooking and eating would be high on the list, and we love sharing that passion with our kiddos!

Here we are letting the girls experience a tepanyaki restaurant for the first time.

Sweetheart has developed a real love of tamales, so I decided that she needed to know how to make them. She is the best little tamale maker I know!

Princess is super great at making pizza, even making the dough from scratch and grating all the cheese. We are trying to teach them both that when you cook, you get to cook things that you love!

And here is a beautiful fruit salad.

I'm sure more food adventures are coming soon!

Tree Nut OIT - Miracles in Action

2018-07-16T16:23:00.001-06:00

We have seen so many miracles when it comes to our little Sweetheart and her food allergies, and this year we were able to see yet another. In 2017 we started OIT for her tree nut allergies.

She is allergic to walnut, pecan, pistachio, and cashew. Walnut and pecan are in the same nut family, so treating one of those allergies helps treat the other simultaneously. Cashew and pistachio are also in the same family, so this meant that if we did OIT for walnut and cashew, it should take care of pecan and pistachio.

So once a week we drove an hour each way to the allergist's office (they opened an office 1/2 hour closer to us, so we didn't have to drive 1-1/2 hours each way, hooray!). At the office, they gradually increased her dose of walnut and cashew until one day, she got to eat a whole cashew!

Eventually, she was also eating whole walnuts, and then she was eating a whole lot of both walnuts and cashews. After about six to seven months, she "graduated," and can now eat as many of these nuts as she wants!

After graduation, she went back into the office for a challenge to make sure that the work we had done also protected her from pistachio and cashews, and they did!

We are so grateful for this treatment and the freedom it has given our family. We really have been able to watch miracles in action!

For more info about Sweetheart's peanut OIT, here are some posts you can refer to:

Peanut-geddon

The First Peanut Day

The Story of 2015

Random 2018

2018-07-03T08:39:00.004-06:00

Well, 2018 is half over, and I have so much to record for our little family journal here! Today I'm sharing just a bunch of random pics with no rhyme or reason.

I don't remember where we were or what we were doing for this first pic, but I love it!

Jordan River Temple open house

Hanging around at home

Easter!

Found this gem in a drawer, Marquis and CG when she was just teeny!

Brandon Sanderson is one of our favorite authors, and he has a book called the Rithmatist where they have magic battles using chalk. The girls love this book, and often create Rithmatic battles on our sidewalk.

These little creatures are so fun, and life is so good!

The Rest of 2017

2018-06-27T15:18:00.004-06:00

Begone, creative post titles. Who needs you anyway? Especially when the content here is almost a year old, it's better just to get it up than spend time being creative with post titles. There was so much to celebrate in 2017 that I wanted to throw up a massive blog post with all the awesomeness we had going on. Hooray!

First up, on August 29, 2017 Sweetheart started her next round of oral immunotherapy. We did this same thing for her peanut allergy, and it was time to go back for her tree nut allergies. All she had left at this point was cashew, pistachio, walnut, and pecan.

Cashew and pistachio are in the same family of nuts, and walnut and pecan are in the same family, so she did the treatment for cashew and walnut with the expectation and hope that it would cover the pistachio and pecan. Just like with the peanut treatment, we started with a liquid that we would then dose her with each day. We then gradually increased the dose each week until she was eating cashew flour and walnut meal, and then eventually the nuts themselves!

Princess started tumbling! She had been doing parkour for a little while, but she wanted something with more girls in the class, and with better outfits.

Our garden gets better and better each year, and we started getting some great harvests!

Hiking!

More garden harvests!

Sometimes you open up an avocado and it's so perfect that angels sing, and you have to take a picture.

Friends in the park!

Matchy sisters

Halloween!

Mavis (the vampire girl from Hotel Transylvania)

and Wonder Woman

Princess had a part in the 2nd grade program, and she did a great job!

First snowfall of the year

Funny faces

Cousin time! (I don't have a pic of this cutie pie that isn't blurry because she never stops moving!)

Top Golf with family

CG came home for a visit, and she brought a boy!!?!?!?

Overall verdict: No one is ever good enough for your little girl, but this boy is acceptable. We like the boy.

Christmas dance recital

Precious treasures made in pottery class

She ate a cashew! (December 19, 2017)

We met one of our favorite authors

And then Christmas!!

As always, even with a post this long, I wish I had more pictures. But that's a wrap on 2017!

Sweetheart's Birthday Experience 2017

2018-06-22T16:32:00.001-06:00

For Sweetheart's birthday experience this year, she wanted to go hang out at Gardner Village. In October each year they do a super fun thing where they have witches everywhere! So we dressed up our own little witches and went to see it.

(Sweetheart also brought her BFF, but I didn't check with this cute girl's parents to see if they wanted her pics online, so she's cut out of these. But we love you BFF!)

Bear Lake - August 2017

2018-06-22T11:38:00.000-06:00

In August of 2017, my entire side of the family rented a cabin at Bear Lake on the Utah/Idaho border.

(Short tangent, why in the world do I not take more pictures? I always regret it afterward.)

This was the most fun ever! We are definitely doing this again. It was wonderful to hang out with so many cousins and aunts and uncles and Grandma and Grandpa.

Also, we got a ton of beach time at the lake!

Out on the kayak is Sweetheart, with her cute cousin in the front sitting on the unicorn floatie.

My sweet sister and her cute miracle boy.

Same sister, boy, and husband on the peacock floatie on the left, my handsome husband playing in the water on the right on the board.

Quick story about the peacock floatie. In the picture below you'll see a canopy that was put up for us to hang out under. I was sitting under it when a sudden strong gust of wind picked up the canopy and tried to take it away. A bunch of us jumped up and grabbed it so it didn't go anywhere, but as I was hanging on to that canopy I looked over to see the peacock floatie tumbling rapidly across the beach, and chasing right after it with more amazing bravery and gumption than I've ever seen on her face was our Sweetheart. As she chased that rolling peacock down the beach, a few people noticed what was happening and started also running toward the peacock, but Sweetheart was determined, and when she was close enough, she jumped.

Sweetheart is a tiny little thing who might weigh 50 pounds on a good day. I didn't think that that would be enough weight to stop a giant inflatable peacock in that super strong wind, but she snagged it right around the neck and ended up sitting on the back of it. The people who had been running to help were thoroughly impressed! They helped her carry it back over to our family on the beach, where she saw me and immediately burst into tears and came for hugs. "I was so scared!" she told me, and I told her that she was the bravest girl I had ever seen. So amazing!

This cute little guy is my baby brother's baby! They look so much alike, it's crazy.

Uncle Mike is the best to snuggle with.

On the drive back home we got to see the beautiful temple in Logan, Utah.

Birthday Experience - Balloon Festival

2018-06-22T09:54:00.001-06:00

For Princess's birthday experience in August of 2017 we decided to visit the hot air balloon festival, and somehow we didn't get a picture of even one hot air balloon! I have looked and looked, and none! It was a windy day and there weren't many balloons up, so I guess that's my defense.

We did get some cute pics of other parts of the festival, and Princess thoroughly enjoyed it as her birthday experience.

It was too windy to put up the balloons at night, but the people still got out their baskets and torches and lit up the night. It makes such a loud sound when they make the torches burn, and it was magical to be a part of the people and noise and the way the light from the fires lit up the field.

Happy birthday Princess!

Summer of 2017

2017-10-12T16:43:00.000-06:00

What an incredibly wonder, amazing, beautiful summer!

Ruth's Diner:

Fairies at Gardner Village:

Splash pad:

A new little friend:

Avoiding pictures at the eye doctor's office (the summer of pinkeye):

Park picnics:

Snuggles:

Swimming lessons:

Restaurants after swimming:

Ballet:

Scottish Festival:

Healthy dinners and mini food bloggers:

More swimming:

Visiting the organic farm:

Crazy rainstorm:

We need a picture on the balls at Target every time we visit. Why?

Sweetheart doesn't get it either. "Can we just go shopping now?"

Oh hey, let's swim some more!

Picnic and hiking in the mountains!

Thanks summer, you were a blast!

New Family Pictures 2017

2017-09-20T11:47:00.001-06:00

The story of 2017, so far...

2017-09-18T13:43:00.002-06:00

Look at me, another blog post in the same year in which the events occurred! How amazing. Before you die of shock, let's look at some fun pics, shall we?

We had so, so, so much snow this year! This picture doesn't really show well enough how deep this snow was. It was easily up to my knee, and anytime it melted a bit below that, more snow dumped to replenish it. This was also the first winter that I had a metal plate in my foot. It was strange to realize that the pain I was feeling when it got really cold was the plate getting cold inside my foot. So weird!

The girls got new (to us) beds! Since we moved in to our house we had a gigantic bunk bed/dresser/bookcase/desk combo. It was massive and neither girl liked sleeping on top, so it was time for it to go.

We were excited to meet baby Charlie! (Daughter of the girls' cousin Josh)

The girls also have been getting more and more excited about being super healthy. They love to get dressed in their exercise clothes and do Cosmic Kids Yoga, and they were also excited when we got a new, shiny blender so we can do lots more healthy smoothies.

And create beautiful smoothie bowls!

I was lucky enough to go on the 3rd grade field trip to the Museum of Natural Curiosity. So exhausting, but so fun!

Some silliness...

Princess was able to start a parkour class this year. She had a ton of fun learning to do cartwheels, handstands, and flips. She's also super good at it!

Marquis got a new ride! This sweet man let us sell his last motorcycle a few years ago to help get us in to our house. We promised that the next year he would get to have another one, but then we sent me back to school instead for my health coach certification. Each year since there has been something else get in the way, and this selfless man let us keep putting it off, even though he really, really, really wanted another bike. Then finally! This isn't the best pic of the bike, but his smile says it all!

Princess's animal report in school was on zebras, and she was excited to read it to us.

We went back to see the Alton Brown Live Show again. Best date night ever!

Crepes with family for LDS General Conference:

Mommy daughter date to the movies:

I was able to teach some classes at the Utah Home Show this year. It was super fun, I loved it!

More baby Charlie:

And then the Easter Bunny came!

We got this for Christmas, it's called a raclette grill and it's so super fun! You cut up a bunch of veggies and potatoes and cook them with some lunch meats on the top, and then melt cheese in the little trays below to put over the top. It's a super yummy, fun, easy meal!

First grade field trip was more exhausting than the third grade one, but it was very worth it to be with this cute face! The zoo was a ton of fun.

I keep getting better and better at this whole garden thing, and the rewards are awesome. I love that my girlies will walk through the garden and graze on lettuce, kale, cherry tomatoes, etc.

We also got an upgraded chicken coop. For anyone thinking of getting chickens, it is worth it to make your coop and not buy it! Just go for that, don't waste time like we did!

Sweetheart had a dance recital in May and did an absolutely beautiful job. She also got a trophy that she loved so much that she just might have slept with it for a few nights.

I love these people so much. Life is incredibly good!

Epic Christmas Road Trip 2016

2017-09-08T16:37:00.000-06:00

This post contains so, so, so many pictures. I tired to narrow it down further, but I simply couldn't, and in fact there are some pictures that I know are missing that I may add to this later when I have access to them.

This trip was amazing! Exactly what we needed.

We started the trip the night before, with a night out at a restaurant. I certainly didn't want to cook or clean after cooking and cleaning and packing all day, so we went to a place called the Strap Tank. We were immediately given a $50 gift certificate that some kind soul had purchased and asked the wait staff to give to the next people to come along. What a nice way to start a vacation, we were super grateful!

(Sweetheart was in her ballet clothes because we went straight from dance.)

The next morning we took off and started the long drive through Utah and Colorado.

We passed some incredibly beautiful scenery, had dinner at a cute little spot in Denver, and then continued to the border where we found a hotel just barely before you cross into Kansas where we crashed for the night. The girls started out sleeping in the bed the normal way as evidenced by their pillows in the picture below, but somehow by morning they ended up like this:

The next morning we were up and back on the road fairly early, and just a few minutes into the drive we found Kansas!

At lunchtime somewhere in the middle of Kansas, we decided to stop and find a restaurant that we found on the GPS. Apparently we accidentally landed in the Czech Capital of Kansas (what, you didn't know that was a thing?) so we enjoyed some traditional Czech food along with burgers and chicken nuggets at this crazy restaurant that had been there since probably the beginning of Kansas.

And of course we had to stop and visit the largest Czech egg! It was so crazy random to find this in the middle of Kansas.

After lots more driving, we found Missouri! And then we decided the sign was in a place not safe at all to get out of the car for pictures, so this is the best we got:

We got to Aunt Aura's house near St. Louis pretty late that night and went right to bed, but the next day all the cousin fun began!

This was Christmas Eve, and we wandered to nearby St. Charles, which is the cutest little historic town. They had an event where all these Christmas characters from different stories went around handing out cards and playing in character with the people.

I wish I had gotten more pics of the fun of this day! I believe Marquis took some, so I'm going to try to track them down and get them added.

Then we of course had to make cookies for Santa, and carrot sticks for the reindeer!

Santa found us, even in a different state, and we had a grand time checking out all our new stuff.

Christmas Day was on a Sunday, so we went to church, and then on the way home we stopped by to see the St. Louis Temple and get a fun pic taken.

More cousin fun!

St. Louis has an amazing zoo, and it's totally free! We spent a wonderful day there checking out all the animals.

We also stopped by for a fun pic with the arch.

We had so much fun at Aunt Aura's house. We stayed a total of 4 nights, and we had so much fun and food and just a general soaking up of the people that we love. We will be back as soon as possible, that's for sure!

After tons of fun in Missouri, we got in the car for another long ride to visit Aunt Lacey in Oklahoma, with a stop on the way at the Pioneer Woman Mercantile. This stop was pretty much entirely for me.

Aunt Lacey drove a long way to meet us there. There was a 4-6 hour wait for the restaurant, so we opted instead for the 1 hour wait for the deli counter. It was so busy this day!

More cousin fun at Lacey's house!

We explored a natural history museum there.

And just like that, 3 nights went by and it was time to head home. We picked up some cool shades for the drive:

Hello Texas!

We stopped in Amarillo, Texas for lunch at the biggest tourist trap we could find, the Big Texan Steak Ranch. It was over the top and way over priced, but the girls had a blast.

At about this point Princess turned to me and said, "I feel like I'm in a dream!" and I haven't stopped laughing about that since.

The kids' meals came served in a complimentary cowboy hat! (Just ignore the fact that the kids' meals here are $3 more than a kids' meal anywhere else in the world.)

And then we kept driving to New Mexico!

We spent the night at a hotel in Albuquerque. This was also New Year's Eve. Marquis was getting sick and was exhausted from driving all day, so after a quick dinner out he laid down and was out for the count by 8:30. The girls both said they would stay up with me until the New Year, so we cuddled in bed watching Youtube videos. Princess fell asleep not long after that, but Sweetheart was determined to stay up, and so we did! At midnight we could hear fireworks, so we tried to look out the window and find them, but never could. Then Sweetheart got in bed and fell asleep instantly.

The next morning we were on to Utah!

We passed through Arizona on the way.

We went a little out of the way to go to Four Corners, only to discover that it is only closed 3 days a year; Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. So we took a sad picture outside the gate.

Then Utah!

This is the Monticello, Utah Temple. It was smaller than the church next door! So teeny, but fun to see.

And then we were home!

Even though this post was long, there was no way to include all the fun, adventure, and memories of our trip. This trip has only sparked more of our gypsy spirits, and we need to travel more!

The Story of 2016

2017-08-09T09:35:00.001-06:00

And just like that, another year and a half flew by. I feel inspired today to bring this back and get more caught up, which means another massive post.

As I have looked through pics from this past year, all I can think is that I sure am a very blessed girl! I've tried to keep these in chronological order, but I have forgotten way too much.

First up, I have some super healthy girls! These are some pics that my brother took, but I love how it shows my girls trying to take good care of their bodies. I'm super proud of them for that!

In January we went to visit the Ice Castle in Midway, Utah. It looks like Sweetheart is miserable, but that was because I told them they had to leave.

We also attended the open house for the Provo City Center Temple. It was absolutely lovely! So much so that we again got crying when it was time to leave.

These girls continue to become more and more interested in cooking with us. I'm not sure there is anything better than gathering in the kitchen to prepare good food for your family!

In March we decided that since we live in a small town in the middle of nowhere, we should go get some cute, fluffy chicks, with the idea that we then would have delicious eggs coming right from our backyard. And boy were they cute! The girls named them Rose, Daisy, Violet, and Sunflower, which I thought was adorable.

And then the chickens got big! This is Sweetheart holding Violet.

And Princess holding Sunflower (Sunny).

They finally got old enough to start laying eggs, and then we got one egg out of Violet. A day or two later, some of the neighbor's dogs got in the chicken run and killed them all. It was so frustrating for me because I had put in so much time, money, and energy, and I was very much looking forward to those fresh eggs. Thankfully, the owner of the dogs replaced our chickens pretty quickly. They were younger than our originals, so it was still a few months before we were getting eggs regularly. We have been loving having fresh eggs from the backyard!

And then.... ooops!

We decided to completely change our yard, and move the garden from the back to the front yard where there would be a lot more sun. This involved a lot of work, and a trailer to haul away unwanted stuff, and one day while unhitching that trailer, it slipped and hit my foot, breaking the second metatarsal of my right foot. I apparently did a great job. If you looked at the x-ray that looked straight down, it was obviously broken but didn't look too bad. If you looked from the side, though, it was obvious that it was severely displaced. I had a surgery to get a fancy plate and six screws. The surgery was easy, I got there around 7:00 a.m. and was home by 11:00 a.m. I had five weeks where I couldn't put pressure on my foot, which made things really interesting for awhile. Good thing I have a fantastic family who pitched in and were a huge help.

One of the girls made me this at school:

"If I could give you one gift, I would give you a new set of colorful crutches. You don't like your old crutches."

Eventually I graduated to a boot and could (carefully) walk again. Hooray!

And then this gorgeous child graduated from Kindergarten. She is incredibly smart, and we are so proud of her!

Memorial Day, pretty picture!

I went back to Good Things Utah a few times, I really love those guys and it's so fun to go cook on TV!

We spent Memorial Day weekend at Strawberry Reservoir where we camped overnight with some friends. While there Sweetheart reeled in this baby:

I believe that technically it was in the size range that should have been put back, but by the time we got the hook out it was dead, so we ate it for breakfast. Yum!

This beauty was able to come with us, too! We didn't get enough pictures of her! Never do, though.

Summer swimming lessons, the girls finally learned to put their faces in the water!

We decided to go check out Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon, and the girls loved it. They have asked to go back several times.

Right here you have to image a bunch of wonderful pictures. I'm still looking, but somehow I don't have any pictures of Princess's birthday. We had a wonderful day and had her birthday experience right on her special day. We started with lunch at the Blue Lemon, and then a trip on the Ferris wheel at Scheel's, because that's tradition. We then went to Nickelmania, running around like crazy people and spending lots of nickels on crazy games. I think this might be why we don't have any pics? It was fun, and we were so excited to celebrate her 6th birthday.

And then school started again! First day of 1st/3rd grade!

And then Sweetheart had a birthday! And we actually took pictures this time.

For Sweetheart's birthday experience, we were able to take her best friend and go swim with some mermaids!

In the fall of 2016, Sweetheart finally was able to have her dream come true, and she started dance class. She looks a little sad in these pics, but she was loving it, I promise! Just concentrating.

We took a drive back to Strawberry to see if anyone would have more luck and get a nice, big fish, but it was so cold that we didn't stay long enough for anyone to catch anything. We need to go back soon, though, everyone loves this place!

Then Halloween!

I had the great opportunity to teach a class at Pinner's Conference. It was a ton of fun, and we fed people lots of banana "nice" cream and avocado brownies. Yum! This pic is backstage as we were waiting for it to start.

Princess lost her first tooth!

And then Christmas.

This isn't actually all of Christmas, just the party at my grandma's house. We spent Christmas on an amazing road trip. That trip has so many pictures that it will be it's own post.

2016 was an amazing year! We had so much good flooding our year, and I'm very grateful. Again, I'm one very blessed girl!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

2017-08-09T09:18:00.002-06:00

Princess and I were discussing her new preschool and her teacher one day at lunch, and she said, "She is just the bestest teacher ever! I will never leave her behind!"

One day as we were walking up to someone's door, their dog in the backyard started barking at us. Princess lovingly told him, "Don't you worry dog, we aren't here to kill your family!"

At the dinner table one night:
Princess: Is this how you make lasagna?
Me: Well, it's how I make lasagna, anyway.
Princess: Maybe Daddy needs to teach you how to cook.

Princess: Dad, the only thing good about you is when you eat ice cream you stay warm!

The little girls were given Nerf guns for Christmas from CG, and Sweetheart was instructing Princess on how they work, "Now one thing we never want to do is pump the guns up like this, and then shoot someone in the face. See? Like this." (Shoots Princess in the face) "Shooting in the face can hurt a lot, did you feel that? And that's why we never shoot in faces."

The Story of 2015

2016-01-24T21:52:00.000-07:00

The year 2015 shall hereafter be forever known as the year of miracles. We have had many years of miracles, but this one definitely qualifies for that title. We have been so very blessed! I thought I'd sum up the year in one massively long, long, long post to forever have a record of this epic year.

January - we started an amazing treatment that would forever change the life of our Sweetheart. It would, in fact, save her life, and I will never be able to express my gratitude enough. On January 13th (our temple anniversary!) our sweet girl ingested microscopic amounts of peanut in a Kool-Aid solution. We took that same solution home and dosed her twice a day. Then, once a week we'd drive the 1-1/2 to 2 hour drive to the allergist's office, where we would hang out long enough for them to increase her dose and watch to make sure she didn't have any adverse reactions. I wrote about it in more detail here.

February - Miracles exist. I was able to go to a blog conference that totally changed my life with some amazing ladies.

The trips to the allergist continued, and we became very familiar with the long drive, with everyone who worked at the office, with the specialist co-pays (ouch!), and with the idea that feeding our sweet girl poison every day was a good thing.

I also graduated from the Instituted for Integrative Nutrition as a health coach, something that I had wanted to do for a long time and was so grateful to have finally done it!

March -

We had more death this year than we are used to. I had an aunt that lived in another state, that I didn't get to see near often enough. Despite the distance and the long times between visits, I have always known this aunt loved me so much, and her presence on this planet is missed.

My grandpa also graduated this life this year, after a long and good life. I still miss him so much even almost a year after his passing, but he definitely lived a life worth celebrating. My girls even were dancing on the day of his funeral between the tears. Goodbye Grandpa, we love you so much!

March was also a month of uncertainty and fear. The whole month we weren't sure where life was going to take us. One day early in March on his way in to work, Marquis tried to log in to his computer to find that he no longer had access. Turns out, his company had lost one of their biggest accounts overnight, and most of the company suddenly didn't have jobs. Thankfully, another blessing, Marquis still had his job. For the moment, anyway. They didn't have anything for him to do, though, and so for nearly an entire month he "worked" from home while waiting to hear if the company he had been with for nearly 10 years would survive. Of course, he was also sending out countless resumes and interviewing for jobs, and by the end of the month he was able to start with a new, more stable company that also happened to be a lot closer to home. The whole month was a great example of how something scary can turn into something even better than you could have imagined with a little trust and faith.

April -

April brought us another miracle, the day of the first peanut. My little peanut ate a real peanut, and she didn't die. That's pretty crazy awesome, and still blows my mind. I won't say more about that because I said an awful lot about it right here in this post, but it was amazing. Miracles, miracles!

Thanksgiving Point adventures.

Strangest medicine ever...

Showing off my geek card, I bought some leggings that are a map of Middle Earth. (And if you don't know what Middle Earth is, I don't think we can be friends anymore.)

May - I love these cute little Mother's Day surveys, but the last line on this one kind of hurt. Mom guilt and all that crap.

I've been doing medical transcription for many years and it has been a huge blessing because it has allowed me to be home with my babies while still paying the bills. Except that around this time it started not to pay the bills. I don't know if I burned out and lost my focus, if the work was becoming harder, or what, but I found myself working from early in the morning until very late at night just to get in my lines. Any time my girls wanted to play, my answer was not right now, I had work to do. It was pretty crappy, for all of us.

I have never, ever been good at gardening, but I am slowly getting better. This year we started our seeds inside early, and I was so proud of our little sprouts!

My cuties were able to join me on Good Things Utah to help promote Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Day. To get more information on that and maybe to see a cute picture of my girls that shows up sometimes, go to this website right here.

In May our Princess also graduated from preschool, which is awesome enough to warrant a trip for some delicious ice cream.

Summer was great. Even though I worked way too much, we still found time to play a little outside. The magnolia tree in our yard is the perfect climbing tree, and many hours were spent there, and playing in our garden.

I'm afraid my lack of experience in the garden got the better of me. I had proudly tended all my sprouts from seedlings. My research online said that May 15th was typically the date of the last frost, and so I decided that the Saturday after May 15th was the exact day to transplant all our little seedlings into the garden. I should have also looked at the weather prior to doing this, but I didn't, and so the frost that came in a few days afterward killed our whole garden, and months worth of tending those sweet plants went to complete waste. One week later I replanted our garden, this time with plants from the local hardware store. Oops! Live and learn.

The end of May our sweet CG came out for a super fast weekend visit. While she was here, we made reservations for her to go through the Payson Temple open house. It was so wonderful to be there together with our family!

June - we were lucky enough to be able to go see the celebration for the Payson Temple dedication. It was outside at a stadium at BYU, and it poured an icy, icy rain. It was thought that they would have to cancel the whole celebration, something that the youth in our church had worked so hard on for months, but at the last minute the clouds parted and the show was able to go on. The kids had been praying for a miracle, and they were able to see one in action that night. It was pretty incredible!

July - With July came graduation day for Sweetheart's peanut allergy treatment. In one sitting she ate the equivalent of 24 peanuts in peanut butter. I'm still in complete awe that this is even possible! We now had freedom from the weekly allergist visits, from early morning dosing, from fear of accidental exposure. She also now can eat peanuts or peanut butter whenever she wants, and we soon introduced her to the beauty that is a peanut butter cup. She still has to have a twice daily dose of peanut butter, but that's a small price to pay for her new ability to be around and to eat peanuts.

We were so blessed in July to be able to take CG with us to a family reunion in Idaho, a beautiful spot on a lake not far from where Marquis's parents grew up. It was amazing and perfect, and all three girls had so much fun!

August - With August always comes the beginning of the school year, and Sweetheart was beyond excited to start second grade.

August also brought us some decisions to make. I was working day and night to try to make ends meet, and those darn ends just wouldn't meet. And then, my transcription job cut my hours, making it impossible to earn what we needed. After much discussion, it was finally decided that getting a "regular" job in an office would allow me to be home with my girls when I was home. I applied for and accepted an entry level customer service job for crappy hours and pretty crappy pay. The thought was that I would continue to search for something better, but the instant I accepted my heart sank and my belly twisted in knots. The job was to start two days before my Princess was to start kindergarten (kindergarten starts one week later than the rest of the school), which meant that I would have had to miss dropping her off on her first day of school. As the days went by, the sunken heart and the belly knots turned into crying myself to sleep at night, and I knew I just couldn't do it. I had already given notice at my transcription job, though, and so when I called back and turned down the customer service job, I was then completely unemployed. For the second time in a year our family had one parent unemployed for a month, with no idea what the future held for us. On the plus side, I was able to take this adorable girl to her first day of school ever!

During August our garden also started producing like crazy, which was so fun to watch. What a great experience for our girls to be a part of, too!

Our garden also helped us get through our month of me being jobless, another huge blessing!

And then our beautiful Princess had a birthday, turning 5 whole giant years old! She wanted a bow and arrow for her birthday, just like Merida.

During my month of unemployment, our house became cleaner than it has been in a long time, I got to play with my girls, help them with homework, and unfortunately also binge on Netflix a lot. Sometimes you get a little bummed about being unemployed and scared, and you just need to zone out on Netflix for awhile. Thankfully, I also was able to apply to several jobs a day. I was made a few offers, and finally accepted one. It was an hour commute away from home, but when you live in the middle of nowhere you have to expect that, and the pay made it worth the drive. I accepted and was grateful.

During that month, I also perfected my eggs Benedict recipe, my favorite breakfast of all time.

And then, a week before the new job was to start, our next miracle came. I was offered another job, this time closer to home. In fact, this job was in the building right next door to the building where Marquis works. They are so close that the buildings are connected by a walkway. And now, each morning Marquis and I drive in to work together, park between our buildings, give each other a kiss and go to work. We eat lunch together almost every day, and we love to take a break in the afternoons for a nice walk. I still hate leaving my babies behind each day, to not be there when they get home from school. I'm so blessed to have a beautiful sister who loves them and takes good care of them for me, but it still hurts a bit that it's not me. However, the job is good, the people I work with are funny and friendly, and I have discovered that God likes to paint the sky between work and home the prettiest right during our drive home each day. I'm so grateful!

And now in the evenings and on the weekends I get to be fully present with my darling babies, which is a huge gift.

September -

Our darling Sweetheart decided that she wanted to have her ears pierced for her 8th birthday. She had actually been begging for months and months, and couldn't have been more excited. At least, up until the moment the earring actually went in to her ear. This is the face of, "Oh crap, what have I done?"

October -

October will be known as the month of the stomach flu. It started off as most stomach flus do, and I figured we would be plagued for a few days at most.

And we were. After a few days, both girls were back to normal, and Marquis and I came away fairly unscathed, with just a night each of a queasy stomach. Everyone was well enough that we spent a day at Thanksgiving Point...

...and then went to meet my brand new baby nephew. (Somehow my teeny baby brother got old enough to find an adorable wife, and together have a little teeny baby, a boy who looks exactly like my brother did when he was little. How does this stuff happen, I ask you?)

A few days later stomach flu #2 hit, and this time we weren't able to keep Princess hydrated. After a week of sickness and lethargy, we found ourselves checked into the hospital so an IV and some good anti-nausea meds could work their (crazy expensive) magic.

It is worth every penny, though, to see that cute smile! She was able to be discharged the next day, and was on the mend within the next few days.

She was recovered for about a week before stomach flu #3 hit, getting all of us this time. We kept everyone hydrated, took turns being sick and being the ones taking care of the sick, and pretty soon the month was over. Just in time for Halloween!

Sweetheart isn't sad in this pic, but since Hello Kitty doesn't have a mouth, she was pretending she didn't have a mouth, either (yes, Hello Kitty has a mouth, but not usually in the pictures, so Sweetheart didn't think she had one).

November - Thanksgiving came and CG came back, and we were able to have lots of great snuggle time!

Our girls had become obsessed with the show the Food Truck Race, so while CG was here we braved the cold temps to go try out some food trucks that we knew often parked near our works. CG was able to get a grilled cheese sandwich with 5 types of cheese, and since cheese is pretty much her most favorite thing ever, that made her happy.

While she was here we put her to work putting up Christmas decorations.

November was also pretty amazing for us because Sweetheart was able to be baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We are so proud of our sweet girl and this choice that she made. The day was amazing and perfect!

One day as we were grocery shopping, Sweetheart picked up a pomegranate. My first instinct was to tell her to put it back, we weren't here for pomegranates, but then why would I tell her to put away fruit? So we brought it home. She immediately drew a portrait of the pomegranate. I figured that was the end of that, until that night. On my way to bed I peeked in at the girls like normal. As I was giving Sweetheart a kiss, I noticed that she was cuddled up next to the pomegranate. I laughed, removed it from her bed, and thought that was the end of it.

For the next few days she carried that pomegranate around everywhere. She played games with it, slept with it every night, and kept it by her side. She refused to even consider eating, at least until she had named it. Finally, after I could tell that we really had to eat it soon, I suggested a few names. She told me no, until I suggested naming it Emily. She delightfully agreed, so we cut it open and enjoyed it. I'm still not sure if I should be amused or concerned about this part of the story.

December - My beautiful niece is a talented ballerina, and had the role of Clara in the Nutcracker this year, so of course we had to go and watch.

I have no idea what is happening here, but I love this picture so much!

Two days before Christmas, we came home to a cold house. I checked the thermometer and it said, "Lo." I was excited because a low battery on the thermostat means a quick, easy fix, and soon new batteries were installed. Unfortunately, the house still didn't warm up, and Marquis's handy googling skills said that the news wasn't good. A visit from the furnace man the next morning confirmed our fears, our furnace was just plain old and while we could put a (rather expensive) band-aid on it by replacing one part, several other expensive parts were getting ready to go, too. For Christmas, instead of getting each other what we really wanted for Christmas, we got a brand new shiny furnace. Bonus, it's energy efficient! Yeah, hooray. Rah. But the blessing? We sent two different text messages and within an hour had six space heaters warming our house right up. We then ran away and spent the next two nights at Marquis's parents' house, where they have a cozy guest bedroom, an awesome tee-pee for the girls to sleep in, and a working furnace. We spent Christmas night at home camped out in the family room with the space heaters, and the next day the new furnace was installed. We have such amazing friends and neighbors who take good care of us.

And of course, with December comes Christmas. This year we really focused on our girls giving gifts to other people, making sure they bought presents for each of their sisters. The results were wonderful!

And, of course, Christmas morning was amazing and awesome.

Dear 2015,

Thank you, for all the amazingness. This was one crazy pants year, one that we could never have expected. While I'm so grateful to have had miracles after miracle this year, I'm also glad to have you under our belt. Thanks for the ride!

Love,

P.S. Can you please tell 2016 to be a little more boring? I would sure appreciate it. Thanks!

On Summer

2015-06-29T10:00:00.000-06:00

My intention has always been for this blog to be a place for us to record the history of our family. It is a journal, a photo album, and our personal family history all rolled into one. My vision is of a blog that is absolutely current and chronological, me hopping in each day or two to download the newest pictures and jot down a little daily log of the events filling our days.

Ha! Hahahahahaha!!! Ha.

Ok, now that we've had a good laugh, I'm going to go completely out of order and write down what I want to remember about this summer so far. I'll come back to March, April, and May sometime. Probably.

This summer has been so blissful and fun and chaotic, and most of all, FULL. There has been a whirlwind of lazy mornings, soggy swimsuit and towel piles on the floor, playdate after playdate, attempted camping (without somehow ever succeeding, more on that later), and picking and eating raspberries right off the vine and warm from the sun. We have weekly long, long, LONG drives to the allergist for Leannan's peanut allergy treatments (as of today she is up to 7 peanuts in the morning and 7 at night! Miracles! We only have 4 visits left!), but also long hours of staying home where I listen to countless cries of, "I'm bored!" while I am working, until I relent and Netflix wins so I can get some stuff done.

Sweetheart has been full of so many fun ideas this summer. First, she decided that we need a theme for each day, so only princess dresses should be worn on princess day, and only ballet leotards on ballerina day, etc. Then she decided that we needed a pool party and they both put on their swimsuits despite the fact that we have no pool. After a long "pool party" in the bathtub, I threw shampoo on their heads and declared that close enough to a bath for that day, and decided that toweling up the swampy bathroom could definitely be counted as mopping it.

Princess has spent the summer full of expectation. She has been on the verge of so many things that she couldn't do before, and has been jumping off the walls with excitement and incredibly timid, all at once. She was so excited to finally be able to start swimming lessons, but wait, does that mean she actually has to get in the pool? She wasn't too sure about that. She also can't wait to be a gigantic Kindergartner, and asked me so often when school starts that I printed her off her own calendar so she could mark off the days and count down. She also decided to make things exciting and swallowed 2 pennies, just 4 days before Marquis's insurance from his new job kicked in. As a medical transcriptionist, I have typed up many reports describing the removal of coins and/or other foreign objects from a child, and each time I would laugh. Thanks, karma, for coming to bite me in the butt! I couldn't decide whether we should go in to the doctor or not, but Marquis convinced me to at least wait until she had some symptoms before we went in, and I'm glad I listened to him because everything came out okay in the end (Get it? Har, har!) and we got our 2 cents worth (Ha!! I'm hilarious! Actually I stole these jokes from people who commented on my Facebook post about it, but ssshh, no one needs to know that, they can just keep on thinking I'm a comedian.)

And my garden! When Marquis and I bought this little house, we thought it was so funny that we had gone from apartments and townhouses where someone else always took care of the yard, and then we bought this place that has a bazillion fruit trees, a huge garden spot, and more grass that it is humane to make anyone mow, ever. The past two summers we have lived here I have sort of attempted to grow a garden, and both times it has been apparent that gardening isn't necessarily a talent I was born with. But this year? I'm so proud of my garden this year! Our fruit trees have been producing like crazy, and so far I've been keeping up and able to get it all preserved in one form or another before the birds eat it all or it goes bad. I did kill everything we planted the first time in the garden, and since we replaced it most things have continued to live! There are definitely still more weeds than anything else, but I have been able to spend at least 15 minutes each day in the garden, and I have been enjoying myself so much! I love that my girls are also getting in there and seeing firsthand where their food comes from, and that they are learning from a young age how to grow and take care of their own food. They have even learned to take any ladybugs they find right over to the kale, and so far that has been enough to keep our kale free from icky aphids.

Overall, this summer has been a whirlwind and I have definitely not been able to keep up, but every once in awhile, after I tuck the little girls into their beds at night, I have been able to overload our dishwasher, gather up the soggy swimsuit piles, sweep up the corners and put our cute little house to bed.

What a glorious, beautiful summer!

Life is good.

I forgot the most important thing!

2015-06-24T14:58:00.002-06:00

In my 16 Things in 16 Years post, I somehow forgot the most important thing! So here is a bonus tip for you, and if you only follow one thing, ignore that whole post and just do this one. I promise you, this is the best possible thing you can do for your marriage and for your family! And I'm about to get all religious on you.

Pray and read scriptures together. I really encourage you to do this with your kids, too, but set aside time to read and pray with just you and your spouse. Marquis and I do this early in the morning before the kids are awake, when it's really quiet and peaceful. We have only been doing this for the past couple of years, and wow, it makes an incredible difference! I don't care what religion you are or what you believe in, but share those sacred moments with your spouse.

You're welcome.

Random February

2015-05-18T10:00:00.000-06:00

February was so crazy warm this year! Instead of having snow, it was warm enough that Princess got a little trampoline time at her aunt and uncle's house, without a coat. In February, in Utah! That's just nuts.

Just moments before getting a major hair whack. It was so long that I couldn't get it to all fit in the selfie.

Pretty sunrise.

I had the most amazing opportunity to attend the Build Your Blog conference this year. I wrote about it in more detail on my food blog, but I wanted to throw a picture here, too. Amazing, amazing, amazing!

Meanwhile, my poor husband and my wonderful in-laws got to deal with some surprise sickness from my kids. Oops! Would you call that bad timing, or good timing?

And of course, what is better during times of sickness, than to have your dryer break right in the middle? At least I could get the clothes clean. The first night I realized it was broken, I asked the girls to please help by hanging the wet clothes over chairs and things all over the house to dry. I came upstairs a little while later and found these:

Princess took a super long time to get better from this round of sickness, so I finally caved and took her to the doctor, where she proved my longstanding suspicion that all it takes for a kid to get better is to drive to the doctor's office and drop a copay, then put up with the doctor thinking you are some kind of paranoid mom because there is nothing wrong with your kid. But if that's the price I have to pay to get the vomiting to stop, I'll pay it!

February was apparently the perfect month for haircuts!

And she looks exactly the same, hooray!

This was Princess's very first haircut ever, ever. Four years is definitely long enough to wait, but this momma still teared up a bit, and saved the little lock of sweet hair.

16 Things for 16 Years

2015-05-15T12:30:00.000-06:00

Today Marquis and I are celebrating 16 wonderful years of marriage. (Sixteen?!?! What the crap, how did that happen?) So today I thought I would share 16 things I've learned in our 16 years of marriage, things that have helped us have a glorious time while trying to figure out this whole marriage thing.

1. Laugh a lot. A lot. And then some more. And then make each other laugh. A lot. And then some more. Then find things that make you both laugh. For example, if you have ever talked to me about marriage ever, I've probably told you about this guy and this video clip. It's funny because it's true, and you get to laugh and improve your marriage at the same time. You're welcome!

2. Learn to communicate. The video above will help with this part, too. (If you skipped it, go watch it. I'll wait here. Done? Good.) So yes, you have to be able to talk to each other! And in a nice way. If your only way to communicate is through screaming and fighting, may I suggest finding a new way? Here's another great resource for learning to really communicate.

3. Do most things together. If you are just two people that happen to live in the same house and you never both land with your butts on the couch watching the same show, or spending time at the same activity that isn't necessarily kid-related, or anything like that, then aren't you really just roommates? You need to have some hobbies that are the same, things you can do together to build that relationship, to remember why you fell in love in the first place, and also to understand the person your spouse is becoming (because people can and will change!).

4. You married a human being. That spouse of yours is far from perfect. They are sometimes going to have morning breath and bedhead. They are going to say dumb things and make mistakes. Expect them to be human and cut them some slack, ok? Because they are living with a human being, too, and you are also going to sometimes have morning breath and bedhead and say dumb things and make mistakes. They don't need your criticism, they don't need you trying to "fix" them, they just need your unconditional love.

5. Physical intimacy is a must. There are things that can be communicated through those intimate moments that just can't be communicated any other way. Plus, it's super fun, it's free, and it's a great way to relax before sleep. Or a big presentation. Or a job interview. Or a Monday. Gosh, why not?

6. No cheating. This seems like a duh, but I'm going to delve a little bit deeper. Creating an intimate yet nonphysical relationship with someone else? Cheating. Looking at pornography? Cheating. Chatting with some anonymous person online who you will never meet so it's harmless, right? Nope, still cheating. Anytime you give any of that part of yourself to someone else, it hurts your marriage. Marquis and I are so careful about this that we never even spend time alone with a member of the opposite sex. Most of the people we might spend time alone with are not potential romantic partners, but that doesn't matter! If we don't ever start down that path, even a little bit, we'll never get to the icky part at the end. Make sense?

7. Let it go, let it go! Mwuahaha, now you are singing Frozen in your head, aren't you? My evil plan is working! Anyway, stuff is going to happen, and there will be times you'll be mad or unhappy or sad. If you can just learn to let it go and give your spouse the benefit of the doubt, you'll be so much happier. Don't hang on to grudges. (Marquis, yes, I know I'm terrible at this one, but I'm still learning!)

8. Schedule fun stuff. It is so easy to get lost in a sea of homework and laundry and grocery shopping and work and blah, blah, blah! We have had so much fun planning and going on our Grand Adventures, and I love that it gets us out of the house and away from the list of work that needs to be done and more focused on time together. This has been great for our family, but also for us as a couple as we have tried to have regular date nights and time to just go do fun stuff together. Schedule this stuff, put in on the calendar, make it nonnegotiable.

9. But have fun in the moment, too. Like Mary Poppins says, just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down. (Yes, I have been saturated with Disney movies, how can you tell?) There will always be laundry and dishes and homework and all the boring stuff that just goes with life. You can whine about mopping the kitchen floor, or you can each grab a mop and turn on some fun tunes, and dance around the kitchen. It's all attitude, and you can choose to be grumpy or choose to have fun in the little moments of life.

10. Outside help is sometimes necessary. You know what drives me crazy? People who complain about their marriage, but then won't go get help to fix it. There is nothing embarrassing about getting help, especially for something as important as your marriage. And there are no excuses! You can't afford a marriage counselor or therapist? Go to your religious leader. Watch the rest of that seminar from Mark Gungor on Youtube. Go to the library and check out library books. Along with this, if you are having depression or other problems and it's hurting your marriage, don't be afraid to go get medical help. Your marriage, and your own sanity, are worth it!

11. Service! Lots and lots and lots of service. It's been proven over and over that you love those whom you serve. Love is a verb, an action word. It requires action on your part, and more than just sitting around thinking about your sweetheart and sighing. Get out there and serve them. Leave them little treats, make the bed for them, bring home flowers you gents, you know what will make your sweetheart happy, go do that. Daily, if not more.

12. Yes, you can go to bed angry, and quite often that's better! You know that old adage, "Don't ever go to bed angry." It's crap! Total crap. Quite often, if I'm mad, it's because I'm grumpy, and I'm grumpy because I'm hungry or tired or had a bad day. If I can go to bed and give it a little time, get a good night's sleep and a full tummy, in the morning I wake up wondering what was the big deal? And in the rare case that there is still an issue, I will be in a much better place to address it and communicate what I need more effectively.

13. Support each other. Marquis will sometimes come to me with a glint in his eye, so excited about some project or another. And I know I have done the same to him where I have been so excited about a new idea, and I'm sure he wondered if I was totally off my rocker. But you know what? Why not go with it? Support each other fully and completely, and believe in each other. I'm sure your spouse has enough gremlins in their brain giving them reasons why they can't do this or that, so unless it is illegal or possibly going to cause bodily harm, let them know you've got their back! I can guarantee that if Marquis wasn't behind me 100%, I wouldn't have lost 70 pounds, or then gone on to be a Certified Holistic Health Coach. I NEED that man to be my support and tell me that I've got this.

14. Have the same goals. Now, this isn't to say that you can't have any different interests or plans for the future, but if you don't have at least a few of the same goals in mind as far as the direction of your family, you are going to have problems. You can't run in different directions and have it work.

15. Run away!!! This has been ESSENTIAL for me and Marquis. Once a year in the spring (tax refund, woot, woot!) we let one of our wonderful extended family members enjoy the company of our littles while we spend a night away. We enjoy a nice dinner and a hotel and really just reconnect. When we do this, I feel like I'm remembering who he is again, and also remembering who I am. I can suddenly breathe again, and that never-ending list in my brain will quiet down for a little while. Aaaaahhhh!!!!

16. Don't compare! Just don't, ever. Whether it's comparing to an ex, to another married couple, or whoever, just don't. Just like each person is different and unique, each marriage is also unique. Comparison just hurts, don't do it.

Of course 16 years of marriage certainly doesn't make me an expert, but wow, it has been so good!

Marquis, I adore you more with each day. You are my perfect match, the most amazing person I know. Thank you for all you do for me, I am blown away by how much you show me you love me, every minute of every day.

I can't wait for the rest of forever!

February's Grand Adventure

2015-05-14T10:00:00.000-06:00

Our Grand Adventure for February took us back to Thanksgiving Point, this time to the Museum of Natural History, otherwise known as the Dinosaur Museum by our family.

Alice in Wonderland

2015-05-13T10:00:00.000-06:00

Photos courtesy of the very talented Jami of Jami Broadbent Photography. I just have no words for the cuteness to follow:

The first peanut day

2015-05-12T10:00:00.000-06:00

I recently did a post about Sweetheart eating her very first peanut ever, but I thought I should go back in time a little bit and explain what is going on and what we are doing.

We have been so very blessed. When Sweetheart was diagnosed with a peanut allergy, it was as if we had just been handed, well, I don't want to say a death sentence, but it was something permanent and dangerous that would follow her for her entire life. We had to change everything. We cleared out our pantry and learned to be very vocal and insistent that other people be careful enough with what they were eating to keep our daughter safe.

And even then, there were instances that we couldn't expect, things that we didn't even know to consider. When her big sister flew in to visit, we found out the hard way that we had to ask her not to eat the peanut packets they hand out on the airplane. We learned that you can't drive past Five Guys Burgers and Fries, or the delicious smell of the French fries fried in peanut oil will make Sweetheart's eyes water and her face get rashy. It changed everything.

And it was permanent. There was nothing we could do to change it, so we all just had to learn to live this way. And then we heard about a treatment called oral immunosuppressive therapy, and we had a glimmer of hope that just maybe she had a chance at a normal life.

Our doctor is Dr. Jones at Rocky Mountain Allergy in Layton, Utah. Oral immunotherapy, or OIT, involves giving the allergic person very small, even microscopic doses of the thing that they are allergic to, and then gradually increasing that dose until the body learns that the substance is okay. She started out on day one being given ever increasing doses of a peanut solution that looked and smelled like Kool-Aid.

After that first very long day, they sent us home with a liquid that we were to give her about every 12 hours. Ever since, we have gone back once a week to have her dose increased, and to have her monitored for an hour after the new dose to make sure she is doing fine. We went from ever increasing doses of the liquid to a powder that we would mix into applesauce, to now having a full peanut. This treatment is nothing short of miraculous!

She is doing so well with the treatment, and should be able to eat as many peanuts as she wants within just a few short months. After the treatment is over, she will be on a maintenance dose of 8 peanuts per day for the rest of her life in order to keep her immunity.

Miracles upon miracles, we are so blessed!

January's Grand Adventure

2015-05-11T10:00:00.000-06:00

For information about all our Grand Adventures, check out this page right here.

We were blessed to receive a pass to Thanksgiving Point for Christmas this year, and we decided to put it to work right away for our first Grand Adventure of the year. The great thing about Thanksgiving Point is that there are just so many different things to do!

We decided to first try out the Museum of Natural Curiosity. We only made it through two different wings of the museum this day, so it's a good thing we have this pass so we can go back soon!

Random January 2015

2015-05-08T10:00:00.000-06:00

Fun hat:

Lunch with Dad at his work:

Love notes:

In January I had the amazing opportunity to be interviewed by the lovely Emily Clark from ABC4. When I found out she was coming, I panicked because our house looks exactly like what it is, a bit run down and with only old, hand-me-down furniture. I called my amazing sister-in-law for help because she could make a hole in the ground look like a cozy place to live, and here's what she did to my living room:

I had no idea it could be so pretty! The interview then happened primarily in the kitchen, so none of this amazingness ended up on camera, but at least I wasn't embarrassed to let them in my house. You can see that interview on my food site at www.thatswhatieat.com and scrolling down, look on the right hand side.