New Family Pictures

My brilliant sister-in-law 

took our family pictures. I just got them and am so thrilled! 

She threw in some other pictures she had of the boys. 

I am so excited to get these printed and on my wall!!!

never mentioned

i love the idea of picnics. Every time we go outside to enjoy food, we get swarmed by bees and flies. being dive-bombed for my corn or potatoes is unpleasant. IT is also dangerous to all surrounding the table: you know the motions--large arm swinging motions to shoo a bee away as if they were prize boxers.

 It is more than obnoxious!

so trying to plan a romantic outdoor meal is impossible. 

This absolute fact is never mentioned in movies or books.

In movies and books, picnics  are where romantic, private chats and secret moments occur. THey are always picturesque. Always inviting and i always get sucked into thinking..."maybe this time"

i find this misleading. 

much like my favorite romantic movies of youth, they give the wrong impression of picnics (and love). 

life is good. life is hard. 

sometimes it is hilarious in it's irony. 

how come the real parts are celebrated minimally?

Fruition

i couldn't find any  'before' pics on my mac so just the 'after pics will have to do. 

i have been dying to fix up our heidous desk space for a while and finally, we did! I have designed this space multiple times and i am sure it will have further changes as time goes on but for now, i am thrilled!!

 The supports for the shelves are from ikea (2pk for $5) and i loved the pop of color they provided!!

 Thanks to my brother, i have the leg on the desk (kitchen countertop piece from home depot). The red was my idea. 

This is for my sisters in law, katie and maddie. They are wonderfully crafty and they make their homes adorable! I do not have that skill however i am practical and i had some paper so i recovered a cheerios box to hold papers on my new desk space. 

if you can't tell, red is my accent color (and latest obsession). 

happy friday!

how i know...

here is how i know fall is on its way:

when i put on a pair of pants and the material touching my legs below my knees feels foreign. 

i relish that feeling.

i look forward to it every year. 

everything below my knees rarely sees coverage in the summer so when i put on pants and it feels noteworthy...i know fall is on its way.

this always makes me smile. 

BYU football begins a week from today. 

Leaves are starting to change in the mountains. 

my thermostat is reading lower numbers in the morning. 

lets all pray for a stormy, wet fall and a snowy, slushy winter. 

we need it (and hey, i love storms!)

dear Inka

Dear Inka:

if you ever look at my blog, will you leave me a comment so i can get in touch with you? I deleted my Facebook account and i miss being able to message you. email would be fabulous perhaps then i could email you and get your address?! Me and the boys would love to put a package together for you. Caleb is big into mailing things and a german-bound package would be super exciting.

We all wonder how you are doing.

love,

your american sister
jill

Ikea Trip

 The whole time we were making our new bookshelf i was thinking "i should be taking pictures" but i was too absorbed with making sure everything went together perfectly so we could surprise daddy (something i never do and love doing!).

I haven't ever bought IKEA furniture before. It was fun, my four year old helped a ton and my 18 mo (not pictured) played around us. 

The box was super heavy and how i got it in the house is something i wish i had on video. Thanks to Caleb and 4 phases everything worked out just fine. 

From Caleb

Today we built a house out of foam, scissors, and some imagination. 

Caleb took these pictures and wanted me to post them so his grandparents could see them. 

:)

 The orange guys are the brothers, caleb and colton. See the front door? it has two little dots meant to be windows.

 To show off the roof

 Inside shot of the spacious palace. mom and dad are in blue and green, falling over.

We had so much fun with this project. 

these foam pieces were at the dollar store. 

 Then he decided he needed to take a picture of me

 of himself (he is wearing a tiger shirt with marker on it)

 Gatta get the curtains in

And me, nicely trying to get the camera from him. After this he dropped it on the floor. 

On sunday, emily in primary suggested making a specific commitment during the sacrament to help get more, learn more and work harder to understand the sacrament. I am so glad she shared that with primary. Immediately i took her challenge and two days in, it has helped me tremendously. 

Thank you emily for sharing your thoughts, even if the kids were not being reverent. 

Fishing trip/debacle

 Peacefully fishing on the point at butterfly lake in the uintah mountains.

This spot is legendary for rob and i. 

 Caleb has his own spiderman fishing pole and colton took apart Rob's fishing pole so he could splash the water in the name of fishing. He managed to fall in the lake (no surprise here) and get his brand new chair all muddy (no surprise there either).

 But man oh man were all three of my men happy! I overpacked as usual so i designated myself the pack mule. Totally worth the preparedness though!

 Spyin' on my man

 Tryin' to smile staring into the sun. He has his jacked because his shirt got soaked when he fell into the lake face first. 

 Mighty fisherman. He did all of his own casting and we were impressed with him. He enjoys doing things himself so much! 

 Overprepared momma

 The debacle: fishing hook in the back of caleb's head. 

He was casting so so good! Rob and i had finally settled down to enjoy the deafening silence and stillness when caleb started to scream. The hook was imbedded all the way to where it bends. I trimmed the hair and was going to try to jerk it out but couldn't get it. Poor Caleb! He was overreacting from fear (wonder where he gets that from??) and rob took him for a meander to help settle him down. They said a prayer and when they came back Caleb was calm. At that moment, there was a fish on the line so Rob had Caleb reel in the fish which promptly came off the line once we all got a good look (but not a picture). 

We felt like this was a tender mercy for Caleb from Heavenly Father. 

 Then we packed up. hauled all the crap i brought back to the car (i had brought it over seriously less than 1 hour before the incident)

 Rob put the bandaid over the hook in an effort to prevent it from getting caught on the seat and hurting caleb terribly. 

 He tried to sleep on the way home but even then he was so worried about the hook he couldn't sleep. We had taken the back of his carseat off and he couldn't get comfortable. Rob and i giggled for a while watching him startle and jerk in his sleep (remember when you 'fell' off your desk in school while you were sleeping? imagine that only sitting up.)

So three hours after the event we make it to an instacare here at home and Caleb manages to charm the lady at the desk, he learns the nurses name (lindsay) and charms her and charms the doctor too. 

The doctor and i decide to have him just rip out the hook (as opposed to numbing with a shot, and cutting it out with a  small incision). I tell caleb what is going to happen, ask him if he wants me to hold him down. He didn't want me to, he wanted to hold nurse lindsay's hands. He squinted his eyes closed, gritted his teeth and BAM!! the doctor ripped out the hook.

 Caleb started crying of course but then nurse lindsay asked what color of popsicle he wanted--"pink" and just like that, he stopped crying. 

I was so proud of my little man. 

The look on his face as the doctor got ready to pull out the hook has stuck with me. 

Scared but brave. His body was so small looking on that bed with the doctor and nurse around him. 

We haven't heard a peep about the incident except when he proudly told our neighbor's what happened to him.