Life

My pictures did not load in any sort of order, so I'm just going to describe them as they came up.

I needed some crafty stuff to do to distract me from my writing for a while. This bunny was for my friend, Tia's first baby who's name is Marty and my kids have now decided to call it Marty. :) I was proud of how it turned out. I made up the clothing mostly from my head.

I made another doll because my kids liked Marty so much. I didn't put ears on this one. I think I'm going to attempt hair because there are so many cute doll hair tutorials on pinterest. The hat was another present for Marty (the baby). I saw the pattern for the baby "turban" and I couldn't resist. So adorable!

I made another turban and four of these headbands -- two for Marty and two for another baby shower I was invited to in our ward. I enjoyed learning to make the flowers. They were both super easy once I figured them out. The yellow one took three attempts because the instructions for the pattern on that one were written, not just in another language, but in the Cyrillic alphabet, so I had to follow just the little line drawing and pictures and it was confusing.

Here is another picture of my hair. I wasn't loving it, like I said. It wasn't terrible, but I didn't feel pretty in it. So on Thursday I got it cut again and colored. You can see the new cut in the picture from our date below. I'm probably going to get it lightened even more, but I'm much more happy with it.

On Monday morning, I got up at 6am and went to the Provo temple. It was a beautiful morning and I got some great shots of the sun rising behind the temple before and after I did a session.

I picked up some flowers from the dollar store and made flower bows out of them to go with the headbands and to have for my girls. I think they turned out pretty.

My neighbor's birthday was on Friday. She's a new mom and her husband was going to be gone overnight for work, so I bought some Costco flowers and arranged them and brought them to her. I remember being a new mom and being so disappointed in how mundane birthdays were, so I try to do something special for new moms if I know it's their birthday.

Steve and I went on a date Friday night to a place called Taste. They make their own chocolate, so we got a tour of their facility and tasted 9 gourmet chocolates, 5 gourmet vinegars and 2 gourmet olive oils. I was surprised at how much I liked the vinegars. I tried taking apple cider vinager in the mornings a while back because I've heard so much about the health benefits. I lasted one day because I almost threw it up on my first sip. But these tasted more like syrup with a zing. I'd put them on ice cream or marinate meat in them any day.

It was a beautiful night, so we walked a few blocks after the tasting to Steve's favorite game store. While there, I found this poster for USAvengers and almost laughed out loud at how much this guy looks like a younger version of my dad if he were a superhero. Even the red is rather appropriate. :)

Saturday we worked in the yard a bit, but Steve and I weren't feeling well, so not nearly as much as we would have liked. We think Steve had a reaction to the vinegars and I've been fighting a cold. In the afternoon, we drove up to Salt Lake to look at some couches. Our current one has been through the ringer and was a cheapo couch to begin with. Then we went out for dinner and then went to Ikea to get some bookshelves to organize the kids' play room. Everyone was super tired by the end of the night. Cecily fell asleep like this:

This coming Friday I get to go to a writing conference with Steve and I'm excited. Conferences are a fun change of pace if nothing else, and this one I have a lot of friends going to, so it should be a great weekend.

Two trips, Easter, a color run, crafts, and a regretted haircut

So two weeks ago was Easter Sunday. The Thursday before that, I flew to Colorado with my brother, Ben, and Steve drove the kids to St. George. Steve's trip went significantly better than mine.

He and the girls had an uneventful drive to St. George, even though they had to come back twice before they actually got on the road and they left an hour and a half later than I thought they would. They all had a great weekend in sunny and warm southern Utah. One day they did a short hike into Zion's National Park along the Pine Creek Trail with Cindy, Haley, Flo, and Sebastian. The kids splashed around in the small pond at the bottom of the waterfall. Steve took some great shots of his feet (we don't know why) and some amazing selfies (he needs practice). :)

They also went to the "train park" and rode a train and played in the water and had a picnic. Saturday afternoon, they attended the Coombs' family Easter egg hunt, which I thought was awfully generous of the Coombses.

I, on the other hand, drove an hour to the airport with Ben, sat at the airport for six hours after two delays, and then flew the hour and a half to Denver and then drove another hour to Megan's house. So it took me 9 1/2 hours to fly and it's only an 8 hour drive from my house. We got to Megan's at 4:30 am. I don't recommend flying with Frontier. It was a terrible experience. Especially since the flight back was also delayed. Thankfully, this time for only an hour.

We were flying out to Colorado because Alison was going through the temple for the first time and we wanted to be there to support her and show how excited we were for this big step in her life. It was the first time the entire family was in the temple together and despite the terrible travel conditions, I was glad I went. Every time I go to Megan's house, I'm awed by the beauty there. I love the farmland backed by the mountains. Gorgeous.

The only picture of the family was taken by my Mom's phone. I'm terrible at remembering to take pictures of people. I'm always drawn by the landscapes. *whacks head*

We all returned home Saturday. I got home around 1:30pm and had a relaxing rest of the day working on projects, exercising, and eating leftovers so I didn't have to cook. Steve and the girls got home around 11pm. The next day, the girls got to search for the Easter baskets I had hidden. I remember loving searching for them as a kid, but my kids just find each others' and tell where they are. Party Poopers.

They all looked super cute for church though.

On one of the non-rainy-but-still-cold days, I took the girls out to find some lilacs, feed the ducks, and pick up some on-sale blackberries. I was getting my hair cut the next day, so I took some pictures of my hair long. I loved it long. But I thought I was ready for a change. I think I was wrong. But it's too late to go back now!

Last Saturday, we had a busy day. Steve and I ran a 5k Color Run because a friend of mine gave us tickets. It was a super fun date. Though both of us agree that we have no desire to do it again.

I found these pictures that Mira took with my phone of Daddy while he told them their room was a mess and they needed to clean it up. It pretty much sums up his Daddy stance. :)

This is the haircut I got. It was pretty cute the first day. But after two days and a washing, I'm just not loving it. It's going to get cut again and colored on Thursday of this week. *sigh* I wish I just hadn't cut it.

Last night I was craving something with sprinkles. These "unicorn ice cream sandwiches" filled the craving, but were kind of terrible.

Pictures of Cecily using the YouCam Makeup app. She's so cute.

I've not been writing lately, so I have gobs of time to work on crafts and such. Here's one of the things I decided to try. These are shrinky dinks with resin on top. I'm really pleased with how they turned out. I've been doing a bunch of other things, too, but I can't post pictures until I've sent them to the intended recipients, so stay tuned.