Disappear much??

Yeah...I know, right?

You guys. I think about all kinds of things to write about all the time. I just need to discipline myself to make short quality posts on a regular basis. Because, you know, my 10 followers might be missing out on my important inner thoughts.

Well, here are a few inner thoughts to hopefully get me started on here again.

This new part of my life has been pretty amazing. Bubba has stolen our hearts and she has taught us so much of her wisdom in her short 10 months of life.

And wouldn't ya know...a second sweet bundle of joy is on the way! Which was certainly a surprise, and a very welcomed one! We are so excited for our family to continue growing.

The last 10 months have been a blur! A blur of craziness and immense blessings. Our cup truly runneth over and we are so grateful.


Like I said, I'm hoping to be at least a little better at regular blog posting. Even if it's not that often. If for no other reason, so that I can have a record of goings on around here and keep up with other friends and family.

Have a great one!

Baby came early! :: The Abridged Version

I was pregnant.

Now I'm not.

Our sweet little Bubba Gump wiggled her way deeper into our hearts on December 12, 2014. We love her and have had such joy in watching her grow and learn so far. We can't wait for what the rest of our lives as a family has in store for us!


If you're interested in reading the long version of Bubba's arrival, here is the story.

Looks like we're having a...

Looks like we need to start making some sweet little bows!

What's your guess?

Here was our silly little announcement about the gender. Steven likes to hear what people guess we're having. Also...ummm, we're really cute babies. I'm just sayin'.

Any guesses??

We are SO excited!

A while ago I mentioned that we were trying to start our family. It was a confusing journey for a couple of years for us. We have been blessed and we are SO stinkin' excited! I thought I'd share some of our little progress pictures that we've been taking so far. It's not really showing much in belly progress yet -- mostly it's just for journaling purposes for future generations. :)

See that belly? It was just bloated at this point. ;)

I cannot say enough about my hubby. He has truly picked up ALL of my slack. I won't lie, I'm not an amazing and diligent housekeeper in the first place. We each do our best. But Hubs has become a rock star and superhero husband. Love that guy!

We already know the sex of the baby from the 15 week ultrasound. The doctor was 97% sure! However, we are keeping it a secret until we visit my home for vacation. We figure it was close enough to our vacation to have this be the one thing we can tell my family in person. So another week and we get to tell family and everyone our exciting news!

This has been such an exciting time! We are trying to enjoy every second of it!

Excused Absence :: Here's the deal

I'm really sorry for my absence from this blog for like a week. It's really not that long, but since I've been posting a few times a week, not posting for over a week seems like a long time. I've been pondering and thinking about sharing about this topic for months. I finally feel comfortable sharing this with the big ole world wide web.

Here's the deal... we're trying to make a baby. :) In fact, we've been trying to make a baby for a couple years. So occasionally I get a little overwhelmed and need to re-focus. It's been an unexpected and frustrating journey so far. I'm learning a lot about myself, my hubby, our relationship, and our faith. There have been ups and downs. However, I must say that I think we've been handling the whole situation pretty well so far.

I'm not going to go into much detail right now. But I plan to share more about this whole deal more as I sort out my feelings and thoughts on it.

Thanks for your understanding and support during this. You've all been super amazing and loving.

I could not have asked for a more patient and supportive teammate throughout this time. I love my hubs dearly for his caring.

I shared this picture on Facebook for Steve's 30th birthday. Can you even handle those sweet blue eyes?
TOO. MUCH. CUTE.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Did you have a good Thanksgiving weekend?? I hope so. Ours was great. Very relaxing and nice to be around family. It was so nice to eat good food and just chill in our family cabin.

Here was one of my favorite little passing moments with one of our nephews. He loves his uncle Steve.

Playing on Steve's phone

This game never gets old with little ones

Then we got to enjoy a lovely sunset on the drive home. We have so much to be grateful for this year.

Can't wait to immerse myself in Christmas music, Christmas crafts, and Christmas traditions!!

Fall Leaves

This picture is totally Instagram filtered,  but I'm fine with that. If I had tried to get any better pictures, I may have gotten very car sick.

But I enjoyed our relaxing evening driving up the canyon with the fam. Watching the little ones play Red Rover with the big ones was cute. And I love enjoying all the beauty that surrounds me daily.

Hope you had a happy Sunday!

To my future family

Dear future family,

There are a few things I want you to know.These things are simple (personal) truths that I have found to help me through my journey in life thus far. These simple habits and thoughts have helped me change my perspective into a more loving and accepting perspective. I am not perfect at these, but I continue to work on them at all times. I hope these can also help you when you are in a tough spot or need some guidance and love.


1. Be kind to everyone -- to their face and not to their face. 

This seems like common sense. Yet, many people in our world do not see the value in being nice to everyone. Many people only see value in being nice to the people that can get them want they want. In reality, everyone has something to offer. And everyone deserves kindness. Remember to be kind to people even when they are not there. Gossiping can tear friendships apart and hurt feelings quickly.

When you are genuinely kind to others, they are more likely to be kind in return. Some people will not return that kindness, and that is just fine. Continue being kind. If for no other reason, be kind because you want to be Christlike. He was the ultimate example of kindness and love, and we need to follow in His way.

2. Show gratitude whenever possible.

Again, this seems like common sense. Yet, I sometimes forget to say a simple "thank you." And for many people, a simple "thank you" will suffice. It doesn't matter the service - getting you a drink, taking out your trash, holding the door open, or saying "bless you" - please make sure to show your thanks.

The form may not ever be the same -- a smile, a card, a letter, a phone call, or a word. But always make sure to take that extra 2 seconds to tell your waiter, sister, friend, coworker, stranger, neighbor, mother, father, and Father "thank you." Our Father wants to hear from us often - no matter how mundane our words seem.  Those two simple words - thank you - will help your heart grow in unbelievable ways.

3. When you are frustrated, take a breath.

It is so hard when someone is frustrating you. But just take a moment and do not reply. Let aggravating moments pass by and replace them with understanding. There are many ways to interpret a situation, and I implore you to choose the more compassionate view. We do not know what battles people are fighting, what hardship people are coping with, or what terrible news a person just received.

Please note the Savior's example when dealing with difficult personalities. He served them with kindness and a heart full of love. He loves us all, no matter what mistakes we have made (or how frustrating we are). Remember Him when you need help dealing with a difficult situation or person. We are all children of God.


We are trying to start growing our family, and we hope that blessing comes to us very soon. There are so many things I wish I could tell you now before I forget. I have the strong impression to make a record of these things - including some of my testimony. Not only are these things for my future family, but I hope I will remember them in times of hardship or trial. We will continue to share these family truths with you as our lives keep growing.

We love you, future little ones.

Connection

Do you know those moments/days/weeks when you don't feel truly connected to your special someone? It could be your spouse, child, mother, or good friend. I don't usually have those moments, but when I do I think it's safe to say I don't like it. At all.

Mosiah 18:21
And he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another.
[Emphasis added by me.]

I have always loved scriptures about people who have unity in their communities through love and a single purpose of heart. Because I want this same principle in my marriage, I have decided to think of some ways I can reconnect with my hubby when I occasionally do have those moments of disconnect.

Turn off the TV and really talk to him about his day/activities/etc. for at least 15 minutes each day. Usually when we come home we talk about our day with the TV on and we're playing on our phones. So we need to take away the distractions and really communicate and talk to each other.

Have a good hug. I've talked about The Five Love Languages before, and I super love that book. (Speaking of, I should re-read that. It's been a while.) I know that Steve's top love language is physical touch. The days when one of us is really stressed, we have a long hug and it seems like the stress starts to melt away. So we need to have a regular good hug and it could help us connect and de-stress.

I'm starting out simple. I think small and simple things help in very large ways in the long-run. We'll see how this works out and if hubby will be on board with reconnecting.

Any other ideas on reconnecting with special people in your life? Any ways to keep some unity in your family relationships?

FIVE

Today we are celebrating our FIVE YEAR anniversary! It is so insane and I cannot believe it has been this long! For our actual anniversary we went and saw Grown Ups 2. It was stupid and we loved it. So there ya go!

But this post is going to go over the trip we took to Cedar City for our 5th Anniversary. We decided since it was our 5th we should do something a little different than just the one night away. We decided to go the Shakespeare festival in Cedar City. We both enjoy theatre and thought it would be great.

And we're off!

Pretty much I was obsessed with the beautiful-ness on the drive down.
(These pictures are all natural and not edited at all.)

The first show we saw was Peter and the Starcatcher. Cool set, huh? Except those ships were just the places where the sound effect/music people were. It was a cute show that is based on a novel. The performers were incredible. But it wasn't my favorite show in the world. Just not my favorite type of theatre.

Right before our next show, we went to the Green Show. It was cute to see some performers in those costumes. And it was nice to be outside. Kind of a silly show.

Later that night we saw Anything Goes. I have seen this show before and I really enjoy the music, dancing, and fun story. And these performers were amazing as well! And believe it or not, I didn't realize how many different shows are all in the same places. This stage is the same stage as what we saw earlier in the afternoon. I can't imagine the work they go through immediately after shows are finished to get things ready for the next show. But I loved this show! I really enjoy the stereotypical, classic type of theatre.

We found a fun, local BBQ place. PS-We reeeeally love BBQ. And it was yummy. Other than this place, we really couldn't find another local place we found appealing. It made me sad, but it was fine. Applebee's treated us well. ;)

Here were some statues that were around the theatre where we saw our shows.

Juliet

King Leer/Lear? I can't remember

The man this is all for.

The second day of our trip we visited St. George. We had never been to that temple. We have a tradition to do sealings in the temple on our anniversary. Since we were only about an hour away from St. George, we decided to go there.

My artsy picture of the temple.

Luckily there was a wedding photographer waiting for his people to come out, so he kindly took our picture for us. Yesss.

When we got home we were going to go on a scenic drive in the Canyon Breaks National Park. Well, on the way up to the park, we got these amazing pictures. It was mostly in the Dixie National Forest. The drive through there was super scenic anyway. And before we even got there, it was twisty-turny enough for me to feel sick. So we just turned around and enjoyed these pictures.

This picture was partially accidental. And it turned out beautifully!

Steve's smile looks funky here, but it's still cute.

Well it was a lovely anniversary. And I'm so glad we got to spend the weekend together. Happy FIVE YEARS to my hubby! And here is to the rest of eternity!!

The hang up

I'm getting closer to getting my living room to be more like a home than a sterile room that we sit in.

I debated quite a bit what I wanted to do on this wall in my living room. Originally I wanted to paint this entire wall (that goes from living area into the dining area) an accent color or something bold. After finally figuring the color for the entire living area (which took many hours days) I was sooo tired of deciding on paint colors. So I just decided I would paint it like the rest of the room and do it a different color some other time if I really wanted to. 

Then I decided I could just paint right above the fireplace -- to make it look like a chimney and make it have something bold on that wall. I even got some paint for it. Then I painted the mantel brown and loved it so much that I didn't want to mess it up with anything else. Oh well. I'll have some pretty paint for something else. Perhaps for that end table I got from my mom-in-law....

Here is a before the of gross tan mantel: (with suuuper awesome lighting)

Here is the after of the brown color: (luurrve it sooo much!)

The day after painting the mantel brown, I had gotten a couple glass vases from DI for flowers. I decided to make the mantel area about family/faith. So I got some old pictures of family to use (I still have a couple more to add.)

I used frog tape to measure my pictures and put it on the wall to get a sense of what I wanted. I was going to try and go for the asymmetrical/perfectly imperfect gallery type of look. I just centered the biggest picture and randomly arranged the rest around it. It stayed like this for a month:

I told Steve I didn't want to start anymore new projects until I had at least hung up the pictures above the mantel. (We still have all the pictures in the hallway and at the top of the entry/stairs.) But at least this part makes me feel more homey. Here is the possibly-temporary look:

I've already changed it in the last 24 hours since putting it up. And I know that I'll change all the things actually sitting on the mantel many times before I'm totally satisfied. I'm not 100% on board with this asymmetrical look, but right now, I'm loving it. It's taking all my courage to leave it this way. But when I come up the stairs and see it, I smile. So I think it's good for now.

I love the antiques and old pictures I got for this. Especially love this picture of my grandpa and my uncle. We are a John Deere family. Also loved finding those books to help me add some height and horizontal interest on the mantel.

And I super duper love this antique hummel of my grandma's that my mom brought out for me to keep. So sweet looking!

So we'll see how long this whole asymmetrical thing lasts. Right now, I'm digging it even though it makes me a little uncomfortable. But maybe that is a good thing!

Timing

I know this:

Every man and woman who serves the Lord, no matter how faithful they may be, have their dark hours; but if they have lived faithfully, light will burst upon them and relief will be furnished.

Teachings of Lorenzo Snow

Millennial Star, Aug. 24, 1899, 531.

I don't know the blessings or the time they will come. But I know there will be blessings as long as I serve the Lord faithfully. So that is what I will be doing around here.

Monica's Wedding

A quick post about my sister's fun wedding. Mostly just pictures. ..as usual..

It was a fun and laid-back type of celebration. But it was great to have family here to celebrate a new person in our family.

Cousins getting ready to start.

Monica and Dad coming down the aisle.

You may kiss the bride.

The happy couple!

Cinnamon rolls instead of cake?? Holla!!

The first dance.

A new sweet family!
Cute shot of all their boots.

Like I said, it was a fun celebration with dancing, treats, and hot chocolate. You can't lose!!

Some special ladies

Mother, I love you.

Mother, I do.

Father in Heaven has sent me to you.

When I am near you,

I like to hear you

Singing so softly that you love me too.

Mother, I love you, I love you, I do.

Of course I need to express our love and appreciation to our mothers today. And I chose my favorite mother's day primary song to do it.

I'm so grateful for all the things we learned from our mothers' examples. They taught us how to be courageous, loving, and cheerful.

I'm grateful for Vicki and how she raised such a wonderful son, so I could marry him! She is an ever-enduring woman of faith, and she continues to amaze me.

I'm grateful for Melody and her best-friendness growing up, even if I was a snot. I'm especially proud of my mom right now for being a seminary teacher, because I know I inherited her lack of of being a morning person. ;)

And I'm grateful for all mothers that we are related to and that we aren't related to. You all do such an important job, and I'm so glad I have amazing examples to learn from everyday.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

[I was going to crop me and Grant out of that picture with Steve's mom, but I figured I'd leave Grant in since his birthday is the same day. So happy birthday to Grant!]