Utah!

Yea I am finally posting, enjoy!LONG car ride antics...
Silly pit stops... and then...

We got to hang out with Grandpa and Grandma!

Fern got to enjoy playing with cousins, of course she LOVES holding babies, here she is with Renia!

We also got to meet Raimey, just a few days old! I love this picture!

How sweet is she!!

This is our crazy cousin shot, from 9 years old to a few days old!!

L-R, Garen, Leili, Fern, Renia, Ashton, Adara, Jake, Tahlia, Ransom, Riley, & Raimey! Whew!
We also got a fun evening with cousins Mitch, who was somewhere around Riley's age when Dan and I got married, and Ashley, who is just a bit over a year younger than Riley so they got along just fine!! :)

While we were up North we went to Temple square to see a few things, Mom & Dad, and Laura and her kids went with us! While we were there I got to meet up with Cherish and she got to meet Leili for the first time! Here are the three of us!

This is us at the end of the Confrence Center tour we took with Grandma & Grandpa. It was SOOOO HOT and I was melting with Leili snoozing in the sling!!

It was great to see you all!!

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After our fun we headed South...

And were greeted by these cheery cherries at Grandma's house!

My mom has connections and it just so happens that her good friend has a restored fire engine that was going to be in the parade, so grandma got us a ride! We had fun riding around town!!

Leili was surprised and so excited that grandma had a cat who liked her (our cats won't let Leili near them), here is Leili loven Stretch!

The main even of the trip was 4th of July, here is our little parade all decorated heading to the park!

Here is Leili in the walking race of the diaper derby, not racing. Not one step until after the race was called! Grandma and I tried everything!

Then there was the apples...

yes apples...

bobbing that is! Go grandpa!!

Wahoo Jake!

Even Fern!!

And Novella!

Aunt Mary even got talked into it!!

I have good pictures of Ryan and Riley bobbing too, but I'll have to fix them a bit first and well the computer (and my patience) are just not up for that right now! :)

Here are my sweet four all dressed up for the fourth! (Dan was in Rome, do you hear my violin it is really small!) And why it escaped us to get a cousin picture is beyond me, or even a group shot, oh well! :)

And of course here is Leili's first sparkler, she was not too sure of the bigger fireworks we set off, and slept through the BIG fireworks! :)

Back through the Virgin River Gorge!

Home again, home again, jiggity jog!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Big Fish!

So today I got to sneak away and go to Barnes and Noble to use some birthday gift card $$!! It was nice I did not even go into the children's section! I looked at a whole bunch of adult books!! Crazy!!

Anyway your probably wondering about this picture. Well these 4 cute old men came in and sat down with their coffee and snacks, you could tell they had been there often, together, "oh your going to sit there today". And you know how old men talk, a little loud so you could hear them through the whole store. And they talked about some current events, their opinions where fun to hear, and then it started. The BIG FISH stories! :) It was so fun to pretend to read books but listen to them instead, and snap a picture without them knowing! It reminded me of going to the coffee shop where my grandpa sat around with all of his old men buddies, where they would bug the waitress into giving me a second helping of whipped cream on my hot chocolate and pass me coins to buy lifesavers. Those old men are lucky I had babes to hurry home to otherwise I might have plopped down with them. :) I miss being a granddaughter!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Christmas in July!

I know I have been so bad about pictures from our road trip, my computer is on it's last leg and loading pictures from my camera has become almost completely UNBEARABLE!!! So you ask how have there been pictures here and there? Well I got lucky, super lucky. See my sister and brother in law got the fancy new iphones and I inherited one of their old iphones! So I have had fun having a little camera in my pocket, and I can just email them to myself and save them to my computer. Luckily that is still working! :)

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Ok back on topic! On said road trip we got an early Christmas present from Dan's sisters and their families, Amanda and Laura (by the way gals I think having new babes and having your Christmas gifts done in July is way over achieving!!!)!!! :)

So what did we get? It was on my list!! A wonder oven!! What is a wonder oven you ask? I first read about them HERE and thought it was a cool idea (although I never did get moving on it, thanks for doing the work Laura and Amanda!)!! I used it this last week as it has been super hot and I did not want to have the stove on long enough to cook brown rice. So I brought it to a boil and then plopped it into the wonder oven and presto a couple hours later perfect rice!! Yea!! I just have to remember to work on dinner before dinner time!! :) I did run into one snapfoo, Leili was down for her nap and counter space is a premium here so I set it on the floor. Well you can imagine what happened after she got up! :) So I told Dan I needed something to put it in so I could move the oven, so he made me this pretty crate today! Yea for Dan and is great wood working skills!!

So thanks Laura and Amanda I know it is a Christmas gift but it is a wonderful summer gift!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. XO!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

2 since last week was a bust! :)

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Summer Solstice Evening!

We had dinner by the sea, and enjoyed the increasing evening light!

I hope your summer started lovely yesterday!!

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Father's Day pictures coming soon!!

A YEAR! Oh my!!

Can you guess what we woke to?

I know it is completely unbelievable, but Leili is a year today!!! HERE is proof! We still have cake to go tonight but here are a few birthday pictures! The customary 1st birthday wake up! She LOVED it!!

Birthday crown and gifts!

Loving her OWN baby (Fern is thankful!)!!

AND... we turned her car seat around to go to church!! She was so excited!!

What a smile! I just LOVE this gal! What a blessing she is!

Retro? Vintage?

Leili is not the only gal running around here in her mama's old clothes!! Here is sweet Fern wearing a couple of my outfits that my mom made me way back when!! :)

Vintage is in, right!?

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Book Review & Another!

So I have been on the waiting list for this one at the library for a while and then finally it was my turn!!! So this is what I read this week (it is pretty short and written well so it only took a couple days)! IT WAS SO GOOD! I think everyone should read it! I wish I could talk several people into reading it, not only because it has really good information but also because I would love to talk to some one about it and have a comrade! So if you read it CALL ME!!! :) This book was so good that I would buy this for our family library.

It has given me new insight and perspective when my kids (particularly Jake, he's more sensitive), have a downward spiraling day. We really truly are what we eat, and let me tell you I don't want to be alot of what is out there!!! So go read it!! :)

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And for the "another", some of my friends are reading Radical Homemakers, at first glimpse I was a little leery of (and the cover art does leave something to be desired) but now after "hearing" some of their discussion and reading the introduction to the book online I AM HOOKED! Now if only my library would have something so... radical, or if it was not a bit of a $$ book! But I WILL READ IT!

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So there is a little food for thought for you all, oh and Dan bought me a book at the used book store - Anna Karenina. I am a little intimidated by it but I am looking forward to it!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Strawberries!

Ok, Rima won! Her post was up first! :)

My friend Rima was in our neck of the woods and invited us to met her and the girls for a little berry picking!

She is imagining all the yummy-ness!Every one's hands were a little colored!And our tummies a little fuller!

I promise Jake was with us, but he was always about a mile ahead of us! Rima got a shot of him though so scoot over there!!

I have found a couple new blogs to spend time (because I have soooo much extra), reading!! :) With all that has happened over the last few months I have kind of lost my self in the grieving and uproar, I am trying to re-center myself as much as possible in my new (not permanent) surroundings. Not an easy task, but I enjoy seeing how other mamas find the beauty and simplicity in life so one blog is A Non-Disposable Life and the other Plain and Joyful Living. And of course you will find me stopping in on Soule Mama most mornings for just that little bit of beauty and inspiration!