November in pictures

Jens gives everyone kisses before bedtime. He is always willing to give multiple kisses  :) Such a sweetie. 

He really was eating out of a measuring cup for dinner because there were no clean plates or bowls ( I loathe dishes).
I did have clean forks though, he just is a silly boy.  

Christmas Tree

Love those lashes.

Peek-a-boo!

Found these cute vintage-looking ABC's online. Just printed them and sewed them into a banner. 

These are my rejected Christmas card pictures.  

I like this one, but I needed more Christmas lights behind them. And I wish you could see that they were reading the Polar Express. I tried getting this shot for 30 minutes, but really needed an assistant.  Cute faces though. 

Thurm let me take some pictures of him after a haircut and beard trim, so he took a few of me too.  

I just think my husband is so handsome.  I think he's hotter and love him more than the day we got married.
 He's great. 

November {I am thankful...}

{Nov 19} I am thankful to be a mother.  I have many friends who are single and who want to be married with children. I remember being in their shoes and pushing away sad, empty feelings and replacing them with adventure, self improvement, friends, work. I have several friends who are trying to get pregnant or trying to adopt.  Friends who it took years and lots of money to have children. Alot of days I take for granted that I am a mother. That I am entrusted with these little, completely trusting, innocent people. I forget that every word I say, action I take is shaping them for better and for worse.  

Today Quinn had a melt down. The kind where no amount of reason, explaining or logic will talk him down.  He was out of his mind and almost drove me out of mine. But then later at dinner he volunteered to say the prayer, which he never does.  I watched his sweet, little face as he prayed and it was one of those moments that made parenting the best job in the world.  I mostly held back the tears.  I hope I remember that moment forever and can conjure it up in the moments where I want to ring his neck ; ) Being a mother is the most satisfying, fulfilling, wonderful, happy, joyful roles I have ever been blessed with.  

{Nov 20} I am thankful for BOOKS!!! I love reading and seriously cannot understand people who don't feel the same.  Sure I can learn how to sew from a youtube video, but its nice to have a book about it.  Sure I watch "The Time Travelers Wife," but man, the book is a millions times better and more satisfying.    

{Nov 21} I am thankful for the internet. What did we do before the internet?!! I seriously remember wondering about so many things when I was younger and I just thought to myself "hmmm, guess I'll never know."  Or wondering about something and trying to find in in an encyclopedia.  I should count how many times a day I wonder about something and google it.  I google recipes, directions,  how to crochet a scarf, how to fix a leaky toilet, what IS this Occupy thing everyone is talking about?  

November {I am thankful...}

{Nov 11} I am thankful for photography. I've been taking photos for 15 years and its still not boring. I love how a change in light can make anything beautiful.
{Nov 12} I am thankful for music. Music makes everyday better.  Its fun to see how musical Quinn is. Its just apart of his makeup.
{Nov 13} I am thankful for Christmas. I already have my Christmas stuff up. I know, I know, its a bit early. But its never enough time : ) I love this time of year because everyone is feeling the love, trying to be better, serving one another, giving, loving. What's not to love about Christmas?!

{Nov 14} I am thankful for nature. I can't believe how much pleasure I get out of mountains and green plants. When we lived in Wendover, a flat, desert, we drove through Logan in May. I seriously teared up over all the mountains and lush, green plants, trees, flowers, etc.  I MISSED seeing those things.
{Nov 15} I am thankful for the friends I have in my life. I have really good friends : ) I'm lucky.
{Nov 16} I am thankful for my ward. I've never lived in a ward that I was instantly made apart of a family like this one.  I feel like I could ask one of fifty people to take my kids or call during an emergency.
{Nov 17} I am thankful for my calling as primary president.  Its been a huge blessing for me and I've grown spiritually, as a leader, in compassion, in my love for others, and a million other ways.
{Nov 18} I am thankful for all our material comforts.  We have everything we need and how many people can say that? Not most of the world. We have so much and are so blessed.

November { I am thankful...}

{Nov 8th} I am thankful for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I'm a skeptic and question everything. Even when I feel firm in my testimony, I still question and seek out answers to things. The more I study, question, and delve into this gospel, the more convinced I am of its truth.  

{Nov 9th} I am thankful for art and creativity.  I never think of myself as an artistic person.  Its just not a title I've owned yet.  I've owned single girl, business woman, married woman, mom, photographer... but don't title myself as artistic.  But I am. I love art and creating things and always have.  Thurm and I talked about this a few weeks ago. We find things we are good at early in life and usually stick to them.  We consider these our talents. But why can't I be a pianist at age 32?  Why can't I become a runner after having four kids? These aren't things that I'm good at now, but its not too late to find new titles for ourselves.  So I'm setting some goals to be an artist, a runner, a musician, an activist....

{Nov 10th} I am thankful for my brain. There is absolutely no way to write this without sounding cocky and pretentious, but I'm thankful to be smart.  School has always been relatively easy (except statistics, accounting, finance, anything that was required for my major ; ). I can pretty much figure whatever I want out and catch onto things quickly.  Today I fixed TWO toilets and was pretty proud.  Thurm comes home and tells me about kids that he teaches who have serious mental problem and just don't have the capacity to learn.  It makes me feel blessed that learning isn't one of the things I struggle with in life.  

November { i am thankful...}

{Nov 1st} I am so thankful for my husband. He is my best friend. We spend alot of time together and its always a fun time. He makes my life not so serious--he's a great balance for me.  He loves me unconditionally and is completely supportive. I've never met someone like that---that no matter how I act, what I do, how fat I get, he still worships me.  He is so different from anyone I've met. I really admire that he is never bored in life-he always interested in something, like gardening, running, cooking, reading, hiking, biking, playing guitar, bird-watching, looking for toads, whatever... he is interested in it. He is the most loving husband and daddy. We are so lucky.

{Nov 2nd} I am so thankful for Quinn. He is hilarious. He makes us laugh every single day.  Right now he is into "friends" which are basically imaginary friends.  One day he found three "leaf friends."  I was painting my finger nails so he wanted to paint the leaves fingernails too.  This last week he has had some paper friends.  One morning I found them a little wet and covered in toothpaste with the toothbrush lying next to them.  Thurm said he had been in the bathroom the night before getting them ready for bed.  Quinn is silly like his daddy and will do anything to get us to laugh.

{Nov 3rd} I am thankful for Jens.  Jens and I are alike. We get each other.  He is a little busy-body and can entertain himself for hours just walking around the house discovering things.  He loves to tease Quinn.   More than once Jens has snatched away a toy from Quinn and ran.  He LOVES to read books. He would read all day long if I would read to him.  I have to put him to bed with a book now.  And he is just so cute to look at.

{Nov 4th} I am thankful for our house. Its old, has some problems, needs to be updated, but its ours and its comfortable for us.  We love our huge back yard, nice neighborhood, and our newly finished bedroom.   Its nice to have space of our own.

{Nov 5th} I am thankful for Thurm's job. Teachers are completely under paid and under appreciated, BUT he likes it and is good at it and the kids love him.  Its a job that won't go away in a bad economy and it has great vacation perks!

{Nov 6th} I am thankful to be healthy.  All the toys, comforts, travel, etc are useless if you are sick or don't feel good.  I am thankful that me and my family and healthy 99% of the time.

{Nov 7th} I am thankful for FOOD! Oh man, I love food. In the paper there was an advertisement for "Food addicts annonymous" and I seriously considered going- I probably still can.   I just don't get people that just "eat to live."  Food is such a joyful part of life.  Well, the cooking and dishes I could do without most days.  I think I'm feeling so thankful for food today because I'm fasting and baking bread and the same time--bad idea.

I found Jens eating nuts out of a toy car the other morning. I'm sure Quinn thought that was a genius idea to fill his car with food for his travels around the house.  The problem was he had previously filled the car with sand and grass and it had never been properly cleaned.  How do you discipline for this?  The funniest part was I found the nuts and cleaned them up while Quinn was at preschool. When he came home I heard from his room, "huh, someone ate all my nuts."  It was like a pound of nuts.  

Thurm and I had our five year anniversary on Oct 21st.  He bought me roses and took me for Thai,  yum.  I can't imagine my life any different than it is now.  He makes me so happy. 

Nothing better than Grandma hugs.  Quinn plays "grandma" alot. He always goes on visits to grandma's house on his little car.  I usually have to play the grandma : ) 

Jens the Cowardly Lion

Mama as Dorthy, Quinn as the Scarecrow

I found a Dorthy costume for me for $3 and we had the lion from last year, so I talked everyone into doing a Wizard of Oz theme for Halloween. I can already tell, this is probably the only year I'll be able to do a family theme.  I made the Tin Man costume for Quinn and he wouldn't wear it. So he agreed to the scarecrow.  

Daddy as the Tin Man

Quinn got his face painted by our friend down the street.  What a cutie. 

Geesh, its been awhile. What have we been up to... we've been canning tomatoes, salsa, chili sauce, sweet and sour sauce, vegi soup, peaches, green beans, MORE tomatoes, pickles.  Thurm planted SEVENTY tomato plants. He's CRAZY for tomatoes.  And we've been CRAZY with tomatoes running out our ears. I went to Idaho for a week to spend with my mom and sister-in-laws. We did fun sewing projects-Christmas pillow, pillow cases, and boy's ties.
Quinn started pre-school. A girl in my ward traded me a few months of preschool for a photo package.  Quinn LOVES it.  He is a little sponge and its good for him to be around other children.  Quinn gave up his nap about a month ago. He takes the occasional nap when he's really cranky, but overall is done. The bonus that came out of it though is that he is asleep by 7pm. I put Jens to bed at 6pm and then start Quinn's routine after that. So Thurm and I have our evenings alone which is so nice!  We decided to read a book out loud together.  That's been fun other than Thurm doesn't like the author--guess he can pick the book next time.  Any suggestions? I put a table in our bedroom and have all my sewing stuff out. Its awesome because I can sew every evening and don't have to clean it up.  Thurm's been reading to me while I sew.
Quinn has been really into witches, dragons, monsters, etc. He likes to pretend he is witch (dragon, monster) and it gives him liberty to be naughty.  Creative little loop hole he found to the system.  Quinn wakes up in the morning and waits till he hears Jens talking and then goes into his room and puts on a show. Its awesome because it gives me an extra half hour to sleep in.  Which is really lazy of me because they don't get up till 7am and thats totally reasonable.

Jens is growing up!  He is 15 months. He loves to read books.  He is constantly bringing me books to read him and cries if I don't.  He's figured out that crying gets Quinn in trouble.  I usually don't see what happened and can only judge based off how loud Jens is crying.  It'll be nice when Jens talks and can defend his side.  He LOVES his blanket. And he is finally starting to cuddle and enjoy being rocked.  I think my babies always associate sleep with those things and think its a punishment to be cradled. He's also getting good at entertaining himself.  He will wander around the house for an hour entertaining himself.

My ward's primary program is in three weeks and it still isn't put together. I put my chorister in charge and its really stressing me out that the kids don't know the songs and we still haven't figured out the structure of it.  I'm not good with waiting till the last minute to pull it together. I like to be planned well in advance.

Cute little cousins!  I am so sad they won't grow up together!  His parents moved to Florida : (  

What's Cooking

French dip and grilled zucchini marinated in Italian dressing.

Strawberry pie with a cream cheese layer.

Jalapeno poppers-filled with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon. 

The boys loves to wrestle with daddy. And daddy LOVES to wrestle with them.  

Quinn can still make Jens laugh more than anyone else.  

The other day Quinn was supposed to be in his room going to sleep.  I went around the corner and caught him mid-"SNEAK" with a hilarious sneaky face.  The second he saw me his face changed to "oh no, I'm in trouble!"  These pictures are just a recreation and not nearly as funny.  

Alturis Lake

Quinn cracked his head open on the driveway.  I had to shave a spot so the bandaids would stick. So the next day we just shaved the rest.  

I've been thinking about what it means to be dedicated. Specifically dedicated to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I've been reading about the pioneer Willie Handcart company that crossed the plains to Salt Lake. If you don't know the story, the short version is that they didn't have wagons, they walked and pulled their food and personal items in a handcart. They left Iowa way too late in the season and got caught in the middle of snow storms in Wyhoming. Out of about 500 people, 50-something died.  Which it seems like a huge tragedy and church members talk about this pioneer party frequently because of the heart wrenching stories.  But its actually pretty miraculous that ONLY 50-something people died.  Would I walk across America in snow, no shoes just rags wrapped around my feet, a handful of flour to eat per day?  Or would I be one the few that joined the first settlement we came across because it was too hard and possibly deadly? Would I give my life for the gospel.  I'd like to say that I would...

Last Sunday one of my primary teachers passed away.  She had a pulse Sunday morning, but wouldn't wake up. They life flighted her to Salt Lake where she passed away. Her daughter, also one of my primary teachers, called substitutes to take their classes before leaving for Salt Lake. In the middle of a fatal emergency she had the presence of mind to make sure her primary class had a teacher. If I did anything, I'd probably just call the president to tell her I wouldn't be there and pat myself on the back for doing that. I was just so impressed with her dedication to her calling.

Maybe some more thoughts on this later....

Gorgeous morning light in the countryside of Rupert.