Happy 30th Birthday Teri!!

Back in the saddle and it felt reaaaaallll good. Although being charged by some cows in a field that we snuck into was quite frightening.

look at the horns on that bull. He was so mean looking. This picture was taken right before Teri turned around and saw how close he was. When she did, she threw her orange for him to eat and we hid in the trees before making a run for the fence.

Poor Teri, couldn't relax for quite some time after that. She kept looking over her shoulder nervously. You were a trooper Teri. And we got some great ones before the cow incident. ha.

Like this one!!

Teri, you are beautiful inside and out. I am lucky to have a friend like you!

deep thoughts by heather ives

Have you ever had something happen in your life that is yucky and it makes you feel so bad you want to just hide away and never put yourself "out there" again? That makes you never want to make yourself vulnerable to be hurt again. That makes you feel like the world isn't as great of a place as you thought it was?

Yeah, I have had a few of those lately.

But here is the lesson to be learned. We can't let the one bad experience cancel out or taint the 100's of amazing experiences that we have in life. I think Satan works hard to discourage us because he knows what a powerful force for good each one of us can be. How many lives we can uplift, and make better every single day.

So, I am going to consciously choose to love even more. To serve others even more. To give of myself even more. So what if I get hurt every so often. That is a fact of life that sometimes we will be misunderstood, treated unkindly, taken advantage of, or misjudged. Focus on all the wonderful good in your life and keep on giving!

Speaking of all that wonderful good.........here are some of my favorite recent pictures that remind me of just that.

Ammon on his blessing day.

These two pics are from Rachel's 14th birthday. I can't tell you how much I am loving that we always have a house full of kids. It makes our home a happy place. All of my kids have the most wonderful friends and I love them all. Over the Christmas break there were always at least 5 extra kids that were at the house everyday in and out all day playing. Often we had many spending the night as well. That makes me happy.

I love this picture below. The boys let Rachel smash their faces into her leftover cake.

How could I ever be sad when I have 6 healthy and loving children???? I just really can't. Add on to that, a healthy husband who didn't have a heart attack this year (unlike the past two). Plus, I am feelin' pretty darn good myself these days. smile.

This picture brings me joy for two reasons. One because hello!!! look how cute that quilt and wall hanging are! Which leads me to the second reason. How blessed I am to have sisters that I adore and friends that are as dear to me as any sister could be. The quilt was made by my sister and the wall hanging with Ammon's name is from my dear friend Heidi that I first met in Japan, while our husbands were both stationed there. Moving often can be difficult but because of it I have met so many kindred spirits. Heidi is just one of the many dear women that have influenced my life in a significant way. That have been an example to me, truly cared for me, and made my life better. They are women that I know I could call any time, even if we hadn't talked in years and they would be there for me in a heart beat. I am so blessed!

How could I not be happy when I am surrounded with such beauty and love every day.

Of course, I have to put one more picture of this little man. He just started to really smile and coo all the time. Today as i snuggled and talked with him, I thought my heart would burst for the love and joy that I felt to have this little angel in my life. I couldn't help but cry.

I hope each of you who read this will realize how amazing you are. You have gifts, talents, and experience that no one else has. You have so much to give to make this world a better place. So don't be paralyzed by fear of making mistakes or getting hurt keep you from loving others and letting them love you. So if no one else has told you today. I think you are incredible, amazing, and fabulous. Let's do lunch. smile.

Christmas party invite.

I try to have an adult only holiday party every year. With a move and a baby I haven't gotten the word out to everyone I am sure of it. I delivered some invites, but never finished (bad me). I told some people as I saw them. So if you haven't heard of it, doesn't mean you aren't invited. It is not an exclusive event. It is my way to say thank you for being a part of our lives. We are so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful friends, and we love and appreciate you all so much. So excuse my disorganization and last minuteness. If you are a friend, you will know that is just how we roll, and forgive me. So here is the info...

Friday December 18th, 7pm

bring a white elephant gift per person, and your holiday cheer.

Oh and please let me know if you are coming, so I have enough food.

Hope you can come!

Leah + Ammon=true love

Look how little man is chunking up?

I really think a sleeping baby is the most beautiful thing on earth. I never tire of just staring at him as he sleeps. I love to put my face up really close to his as I snuggle and rock him so I can feel his warm sweet baby breath on my face. Are you baby hungry yet?

P.S. To my sisters KElly and Nicole who both want a baby of their own to snuggle- Lizzie has had two fast sundays since she has turned 8, and really fasted both times. When I asked her the first time what she fasted about she said, "That Kelly and Nicole will have babies." Last week when we fasted she asked me if it was OK if she fasted for the same thing again. So cute. I am praying too, but I think Lizzie's may be more effective. She prayed Ammon here.

one month old.

Babykins is one month old today. Happy Birthday little man.

zee kitchen (in my best french accent)

So here is the finished kitchen, and I love it! It turned out exactly how I envisioned it. The whole hold up on moving to this house was because the finisher for the cabinets couldn't get the finish right for the cabinets. We finally got someone else and he got it the first try. Let me show you around.
I am so in love with these wood floors. They are a hand scraped maple (in answer to your question Mandee) with a black antique rub. They tie together so beautifully the cabinets. There is a brown rub on both colors that comes through.

The island turned out so great! I ended up pulling in two different colors of granite. I fell in love with this black slab at the warehouse and it looked really cool with my other choice. You always worry because you are hoping it will look good when installed and with everything else. I am glad that I didn't chicken out on this idea. I love it!

I was going to a very small pantry in this house, so I had them build another pantry in the butlers area. It turned out awesome. There are all roll out shelves on the bottom and huge cabinets on top. Delightful.

i love the movement in the granite. Beautiful.
I am so proud of the deal I got on my farm sink. I really wanted this sink but it was like $2500 dollars! Yikes. I just had this feeling one day to check Craig's list. I thought what are the chances of this exact sink being listed and in my area. But, I looked anyway because I learned long ago to follow those promptings. Low and behold a black kohler huge farm sink had just been listed 20 minutes before I checked and I ended up getting it for $250!!! So despite what Dave thinks, Heavenly Father does care about the little things that will make us happy in life. And yes, a black farm kitchen sink makes this mamma's heart fill with joy as she washes her dishes. But really, isn't that cool that Heavenly Father does care. He said to pray about everything, and He would answer. smile.

This is another one of my delights. I have always wanted a huge round table. Thank you DAve (and Potato Barn). I had a good excuse to get a new table. Our other table didn't match and the shape of it would be too big for the space.

Then, when I saw these chairs at Razmataz, be still my heart. Have you ever seen such cool chairs/ benches? Me either. Natalie pointed out that I have a serious chair fetish. I didn't realize it until she pointed it out and then I counted how many chairs I have in my house. Let alone the ones I am not using out in the garage. Anyone care to guess? I should give a prize to the one who guesses right.

The kitchen has lots of other fun things that I are so cool. Like this rack for the pans.

A spice drawer, and all of the drawers are self closing. The other thing that I was excited about is I got all of my appliances for like half the price. They just happened to be selling the floor model on some, and than Lowes made mistakes in my order and made it up to me by giving me top of the line stuff for cheap. So while this whole kitchen ordeal was quite the nightmare. I ended up getting more for a lot less because of all of the hassles. So in the end, all that extra stress was worth it. Right?

So there it is. The kitchen unveiled. What do you think?

oh and here is the view while standing at the sink. I need to get things up on the walls and I will be done. At least with downstairs. Upstairs is still a nightmare. I have a few weeks to get it together before my family comes for Ammon's blessing day. I have been decorating for Christmas and it is looking so cozy around here.

Thanksgiving memories

The days activities included football playing at 7am in the turkey bowl for Jacob and Dave. The girls cozied and watched the parade and made cinnamon rolls. Watching "Elf" and preparing the turkey. I still laugh out loud all the way through that movie. One of my absolute favorites. The Riddle Family came over for dinner, we have 12 kids between the two families. Lots of fast talking and laughing was involved. smile. My new dining room. I don't have things up on the wall yet. The mirror was hung that morning. (cut me some slack. smile.)Crazy kids in the kitchen.

crazy kids everywhere.
the delicious viddles. Hey, we had viddles with the Riddles. ha ha. Yah, my sense of humor is that stupid. Hence, my loving the movie Elf. smile.

I got the thumbs up from Rachel. We are really liking each other lately. We hung out all weekend watching cozy movies like "Wuthering Heights" and eating oreos. The men went hunting for elk. That's another story. All the hype and the purchase of two big guns and the only elk they saw the whole trip was as they were driving home at night they passed one by the side of the road. too funny.

Maybe it is because they drank too much on Thursday. ha ha. Jacob is seriously obsessed with sparkling apple cider. He was hogging it all!! how rude. ha Isn't Amy pretty?

Ammon was the best dessert on the menu. He smells and tastes delicious.

Rebecca was so proud of the family home evening lesson that she gave for Thanksgiving. She had us write what we were thankful for on the leaves and glue them on. Top on the list were family, home and gospel of Jesus Christ. We are truly blessed.

Now onto decorating for Christmas!!!