Be Thankful !

Ok I can hardly contain my excitement!!! My daughter Julia and I are crafting again. Which means we will set up shop slowly and go from there. Years ago I had an Etsy shop and made crafts and sold and shipped them. It was going great but I wasn't in a place that I could continue that busy life. I'm thankful that I can start up again. I don't know if I will start an Etsy shop again but you never know. For now its just out of the home. We will soon have a link for a blog dedicated just for crafting. I cant wait for that.  It really gives me such joy to express myself in my crafts and creativity and if nothing comes of it,  Oh Well! At least I get to do what I love.

Sports!

 It has begun!! It is the time that our schedules will soon no longer belong to us anymore. Lowell and Isabelle are in soccer, luckily the same team this year. Logan is in his Junior year of high school and is on the Varsity Football team. Logan pretty much is at football everyday twice a day, except weekends. He loves football and loves his team, he hardly complains about anything that is hurting him. I just love Logan!  Lowell and Isabelle took some time off of sports which was good because we all were just drained. They moved to the bigger field this year and Isabelle is nervous about that. Lowell he hasn't said it but I think he missed playing soccer a lot. I'm so glad they are back at it again. Oh and I'm team mom! Yay me!

This is a terrible picture of football practice but its so hard to capture one of Logan while he's doing his thing. Game pics are going to be so much better!

Oh Wonderful Day...

I just loved today!

The Sabbath day is such a wonderful day. We are able to go to church and renew are baptismal covenants and remember our Savior.

Then come home and rest or watch family movies or play games or nap. My favorite is taking a nap!

Yesterday was my birthday and it means I'm crawling faster thru my 40's, BOOOOOO!!!!

I don't feel like I should be turning 42, I really don't. I don't feel I should be any certain age I just don't feel like I should be getting older. I don't know how to explain it, its just how I feel about birthdays.

My family made me feel loved yesterday and while Mikey took me out to ummm........

Well it wasn't what you would normally do for birthday celebrations but I just wanted to hang out with Mikey and I'm very simple and don't need extravagant parties to feel special.

So.....

Yes, we did errands but we were together.

If you understand me you understand  why this right here is good enough for me. I needed a new prescription glasses and guess what!!!! Mikey needed hearing aids! Oh my goodness yes my hubby needed hearing aids. So yesterday proved to us that we are getting older but wiser for sure. I don't even know what this contraption is on me in the pic but it helps I guess.

Then we went to lunch and that was yummy.

When we got home

 I had a yummy Chocolate Buttermilk cake with Whipped vanilla cream and Isabelle decorated my cake with Sixlets. Yum!!

It was a great day and I have some exciting things coming up. I'm finally getting into crafting again and loving it.

Happy Birthday to all August birthdays out there.

Mom and Belle

I've been slacking on the whole taking turns with each of my children out on a mom\child date. So the other day I needed to make a point of doing that with the youngest.

She was having a bad week and I knew just the thing to lift her spirits. Isabelle LOVES to go to the pet store and look at all the different animals and then she asks to take them all home.

She was checking each little critter, kitten, birds, reptiles (gross) and anything that was living. I let her look until she feels she got enough time with each. Of course she wanted to name each one.  Then of course her favorite ice cream to top it off.

On our way to our outing Isabelle saw some people with signs asking for food or money. She was very concerned with them and wanted to help. She then said "is there anyway we can cook some food and give it to them?" I told her she has a serving heart and that I love that she wants to help someone in need. So our next mission is to help the homeless somehow and I will have Isabelle help take charge of this. I love her tender heart!

Peaches & Campout

My family LOVES Peaches

We love peaches in cobbler, yogurt, ice cream, by themselves and in muffins.

So this past weekend Mikey happened to be off for three days and decided to campout with the kids out on our trampoline. That's a favorite of the kids to do with their dad in the summer time.

So for breakfast I thought Peach muffins would be delicious to wake up to. I was right and I actually didn't even get one because by the time I went to eat they were all gone.

That's ok because that means I can make them again and I know they will be eaten.

 This is on my Pinterest page under recipes, this lady's recipe was awesome!

 I made mini and regular size and then it had a drizzle to go on top.

Delicious!

My baby is not a baby anymore

How can this be possible?

Oh how time flies is what I think all the time as I see my children grow. But my youngest being almost 10 and into the double digits (Which is a big deal in our house) is so hard to believe.

My family bought me a new camera so it has been a lot of fun to capture moments that actually turn out good and not blurry or just off color.

Isabelle has kept me on my toes for her whole life. She is a joy, and every thing she does I think she is just the smartest. Isabelle at 2 days old passed out and started convulsing and scared us really good. For almost 10 years this has continued with her even hitting her head on furniture as she was passing out. I remember her being on top of a hill in our backyard and I look at her and see her starting to pass out and I start running to her to catch her. I couldn't make it in time and she rolled right on down. She was ok but the thought of not being able to reach her in time was painful.  Her young body has been thru so much and she struggles with many things but her joy is wonderful and she deals with these trials so much better than I. I love her so much and thank my Heavenly Father for her sweet spirit in our family all the time.

Champ loves friends

It's so nice to have family over and especially Mikey's brother David and Angela and the kids. They are a breath of fresh air and are just very loving people. My niece Felicity is usually scared of dogs and she just sat right down next to Champ and started petting him. Of course he soaked all of it up. Logan is pretty much laying on the floor not wanting to move because conditioning week started for football.

Faith is like a seed

Have you ever wondered what does Faith mean?

What does it meant to have Faith?

How do you have Faith?

I use to wonder about these questions most of my life. I didn't understand what it meant to have faith. I wanted desperately to know how to have faith and to obtain it somehow.

I remember hearing a church lesson on faith and I asked, how do you have faith? What does that mean?

Well, it isn't as complex as I was making it out to be.

Faith is when you believe something with out seeing it, like wanting to work towards something without seeing the outcome.  Its like knowing if you work towards a specific goal and having hope for good in the end.

In the Book of Mormon in Alma chapter 32 verse 21 part of the verse says

"therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen which are true."

I have found that having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ I can be happier and more joyful. I know he will lead me in the right direction and he wont lead me off the path. I have faith in him and trust his guidance for me and my family. It took me so long to understand this and to come to believe it.

Today was a very hard day and I know it was because I have  hurdles to jump over and I found myself on my knees praying for help to get thru this day. I exercised my faith in the Lord to help me and I knew that I've been thru worse and I can get thru today. 

I like the children's primary song called Faith

Faith is knowing the sun will rise, lighting each knew day

Faith is like a little seed

If planted it will grow

Those are just a couple lines from the song but speaks so much to me.

 Here are our Almond seeds from our tree. Logan picked these today and it reminded me about Faith. I love the reminders that randomly happen throughout the day that are for the good.

Theme for the day....

 11 years ago my wedding ring had to be cut off while pregnant with Lowell because my hands were so swollen. So Mike surprised me by taking me to Los Angeles for the day to get my ring fixed and pick out a new band for our 20th. The theme for our anniversary this year was "do things we never do" Mike and I are very simple people and we never buy jewelry because we just do wear it usually. Mike is extremely busy working hard for our family and we just don't have time to do much. So this day we are going to LA where it  is busy and crowded, something we would never do.  I'm just grateful to have a wedding ring again!

 Everything about Downton Los Angeles is really cool, except the smell.  I love the old buildings and all the different architecture.

 We ate down a alley by the jewelry district and had a very delicious sandwich I must say. Yummy!!

When we got home as a surprise our kids thoroughly cleaned the fridge. Now as a mom I thought this was the best gift ever and it surly made me happy. Sweet kids!

20 years........

20 years ago Mike and I married and were sealed in the Los Angeles Temple. This is how Mike asked me to marry him and just like that we were a family.

Here to eternity Mikey!

Strawberry and Duck

Beautiful Strawberry point and Mikey

This was such a beautiful area and the day was just perfect.

 This is our friends cabin in Duck Creek and its awesome. Our little Isabelle didn't want to go on the drive so she is a bit grumpy.

 Too close to the edge people so I will stay over here.

Her dad trying to make her laugh.

 Mikes in heaven, him and Logan got this all to themselves

A DEEEERRRRR!!!! That is what Isabelle kept screaming as we drove.

 Going down,

this is Mammoth Caves and as soon as you go down you immediately feel the coldness. I loved the feeling of the cold but the dark I could do without. We had to use our flashlights to see where to go otherwise it would've been pitch dark. Lavinia and I weren't going to go, we were going to wait for everyone at the top. But then I thought wait that is what I always do, I don't explore or go forward with adventures so since I'm on a path of change I had to do this. And we did it!!!

It was scary especially at the end when we had to fit thru a tiny hole to get out but we all did it!

These two guys looking down at us had a scout troop there and these scouts helped with lights and helped us get over the hundred rocks that you had to climb over. Great job boys!

Inside the cave! This is our friend Lavinia and shes amazing and inspiring and such a good mom.

This is the exit, yes the EXIT! The kids didn't see what the big deal was but for some of us, we may or may not of had a little panic attack at the end. Whats important here is that WE DID IT!!!!

Yep still a little swollen and someone still a little grumpy.

Day 1 in UT

The day we arrived in Utah to visit our wonderful friends we headed over to the park.

What a great way to get energy bugs out after traveling all day.

This park was awesome, it had some sort of play equipment that looked like a spider web. Lowell saw that right away and I knew he would need to climb to the top instantly.

You can see Lowell's head over the top of the tree

These are the Crawley boys with Lowell

They have become such good friends and I loved how they didn't stop talking after we arrived, the had so much to catch up on.

I must say I LOVE Utah!! I want to live here and every time I either drive thru Utah or visit it feels like home and I don't want to leave. The weather is awesome especially since I grew up in Arizona where its yucky hot.  I know one day we will be living somewhere in Utah.

In Baker California on the way to Utah its 113 degrees

YUCK!!