a little winter

we haven't had much of this yet this season....but when it is snowing, you can bet your bottom dollar that caleb is shoveling....what a gentleman....

grateful {6}

i'm so grateful for my two little scoundrel, raggamuffin boys! now that maryn is in school all day, i get to spend a lot of time hanging with the boys...

they are interesting little fellows and not a thing like girls. they tease, they run, they bounce off of things, they wreak havoc, and they are too terribly curious for their own good. they are both willing hand out hugs and juicy kisses and love to make me laugh. i love their untucked shirts, their always dirty faces and their hair constantly standing up in "sprigs".

i'm just warning you, if you hang around them too long, you'll probably end up looking something like this....

grateful {5}

there is much to be grateful for this month....

today, i had the unique experience of receiving my US citizenship! it was a day that has been long awaited and i was the last member of my family to get it. the others got theirs earlier this year and this month. the process to citizenship is long and tedious. it is expensive. it has taken many, many years for us. the final step (which was today) is the interview and then the oath ceremony.

so this morning as soon as the kids were off to school with grandma, i hopped in my car and raced to the immigration office to get there JUST in time. i went through security, and then up to the second floor to sit in a waiting room. i walked in to the room expecting a room full of mostly hispanic people but on the contrary, i entered a room as diverse as the world. people of all nations who speak all different languages. i felt honored to be among this group who obviously all had their own stories.

i was not nervous for the test as a i knew i could pass. i felt i was on the home-stretch. i had studied the booklet. most of the questions came right out of high school government and history class. what i was nervous about, however was the fact that not one member of my family had gotten a single question wrong. i wasn't nervous about getting six out of ten to pass but rather six out of six to save face. i would never live it down if i was the only one who didn't get them all right!

but as i sat and observed those around me, i felt the anxiety of some of the folks around me....they were so nervous. i wondered why they didn't just study harder and then, they couldn't fail. but as i eaves-dropped on the study session going on next to me of a husband and wife, it dawned on me....she was struggling to speak english. i can't imagine someone telling me that i had to take a test in russian and if i didn't pass, i would be denied citizenship. the exam is completely spoken. there are no multiple choice questions. you have to know the answer. you have to understand the question as there are many similar questions. i was suddenly nervous for her. then, her name was called. hesitantly, she stood up and left her husband's side and followed the officer....for the next five minutes, her husband paced the waiting room back and forth wringing the study guide in his hands. the door opened and she came out! victory on her face as she pumped her fist and and said, "YES!" he ran and hugged her. it was such a sweet moment. i thought of the millions who have gone through this process. this country truly is a country of immigrants...whether you're first generation american or ninth....that could have been your mother or grandmother. i felt so much joy for her.

i had my interview. it went smoothly. and i was invited back for the ceremony that afternoon.

at 1:30 was the ceremony. it was simple and well done. we said the oath of allegiance and were given our certificates at the end. my family was there to support me. i know that maryn will probably be the only one (of my children) to remember this day but i know it will mean more to her as she gets older.





i am grateful and feel so blessed to live here and now be a citizen. everybody's path in life is different. but i know this was god's plan for me and my family. i feel like god literally scooped us up and placed us here in the rocky mountains. i don't know all the reasons but i know that it has blessed and changed my life in many ways. i am grateful for parents who have sacrificed so much for us to live here. that is what i am grateful for today.

grateful {4}

today, i am grateful for friends! wherever i have been and lived in my life, i have been blessed with amazing friends {kindred spirits} that i cherish (can you tell i've been watching anne of green gables?). this truly has been a blessing throughout my life. i am still in touch with friends from my childhood, elementary, middle and high school years. i have amazing friends from college...particularly our young married student ward. in oregon we were blessed to have friends that became our "family" as we had no family of our own close by.

after we moved back to colorado, we have been basking in the warmth of being close to family and i didn't put in that effort to friends...possibly because i already had several friends when i moved back home. ....and then i got busy. to the point that when all the girls were going to the pool or at the park, i would inevitably be frantically catching up on housework or editing or emails or something. it also has to do with the stage that i am now....running kids around and getting life done is really exhausting and everyone else in this phase (i.e. my friends) are just as busy and caught up in their own lives. this year, i decided that i at least needed to make it to "girls nights" and i have and they have been so much fun.

but in the last month or so, i've started going to a regular pilates class at 5:30am. something that i've wanted/needed to do for a long time but being exhausted almost all the time, i couldn't give up that sleep. anyway, i finally have buckled down and been going. the pilates has been great and i love the workout. but i love seeing a group of my friends in the morning....giggling and chatting as our families sleep. i have found my stress level go WAY down and how much i look forward to 5:30 in the morning! it is amazing what a difference it makes to feel a part of something like that. a part of a group that will notice if you don't turn up.

so today, i am thankful for friends and pilates! i'm grateful for how it has helped me to feel more alive and like my life is about more than surviving one day to the next.

i would post pictures....but you can imagine 5:30 in the morning, sweaty....not that pretty:)

grateful {3}

{just in case you are keeping track....my "grateful" posts are in no particular order}

today I am so grateful for these ragamuffins! they are mine and i adore them completely.

this year, i really wanted some pictures for our new home that embody our family. big bold gallery wraps. i asked my friend, joel, if he would do them for us. he is a great photographer, art director, graphic designer...etc. i gave him strict instructions that i didn't even want to attempt traditional pictures...i just wanted pictures that show us having fun together and enjoying one another's company. it was a good thing too because within the first 20 minutes, joshua had dived into the river and was soaked from head to toe...no worries...that's how we roll!

i am doing giant gallery wraps all the way around our family....and i wanted you to feel like you are just wrapped up in our family when you are in that room. i was thrilled with how they turned out. i was thrilled to let go of what was going on behind the camera. it was a lot of fun and i am thrilled to share a few with you....sorry...you don't get to see the ones i'm saving for the christmas cards...

i love joshie's goofy faces...they are so typical...




i just ordered my gallery wraps.....yipppeeee! come and visit me and you can see my family room slowly coming together!!!

grateful {2}

this lady has been the center of my universe for 27 years now. she has seemed to have the power to make the world go round! she is the one i am dying to call as soon as my babies walk, talk, or do anything brilliant because i know that she will be oozing enthusiasm for any accomplishment and is bursting with love for all her children and grandchildren.

she is also the one i want to call when i want to cry. when my heart aches and i need to know that things will be okay. she is the only one that i wanted to talk to when i was pregnant and in hospital and felt like i wanted to die. she was the only one who understood. she didn't tell me to buck up or that it would go away or even that she knew exactly how i felt (even thought she is possibly one of the only people i trust really does know). she would just listen and say that she was sorry and encourage me to hang in there because it would all be worth it.

she is the person that i can share my honest truths with. i often say things that are hard to say but i can say them to her because i know she'll love me anyway and that she will judge me fairly. she allows me to vent and talk things out even when they are hard subjects. and she doesn't offer advice on every little thing. that way what she does council, i take very seriously.

most of my "loves" in this world come from hers - learning, cooking, eating, sewing, babies, music, being an entrepeneur,....etc.

she builds people up. she gives real and honest compliments - the kind that really mean something. as we drove home from general relief society meeting this september and she gave me a compliment about something they talked about during the meeting that she thought i did well. i wanted to laugh because as i sat through that meeting, the predominant thought in my mind was how christ-like she is....and i wish i were more like her.

she is an advocate. she will fight for what is right. she will especially fight for her children. there is no messing with her kids.

she is a virtuous woman. she is not someone who shouts her testimony of jesus christ from the rooftops but she lives everyday by the spirit...following it's promptings. she is one of the busiest women i know and yet will often stop in at someone's house on the way home to visit because she felt prompted that they needed a friend. she is never too busy to do the lord's work.

mom, i love you! thank you for your unfailing love and example!

happy 50th birthday!!!

Grateful thoughts {1}

As we are now into November (how crazy is that?)...I thought I'd post some things that I am grateful for this month. Today, I've had a lot of "sensory" type memories on my mind. I was thinking how grateful I am for my sense of smell. Strange? Maybe... but truly, here are some of the things that I just LOVE to be able to smell...it's not all inclusive and very random...but just some thing on my mind today....

• Lumber/hardware stores….mmmm….always makes me want to paint or nail something
• Fresh paint
• Sunday dinner hitting you as you walk through the door after church
• Chocolate cake
• Food in general
• Scotch tape
• Breastfed baby’s breath and skin
• Each of my children’s distinct “smell”…it’s not bad or good…it’s just theirs
• The sea (salty freshness)
• Sunscreen (+ salty sea water)
• Even chlorinated water….so many childhood pool memories
• Moth balls…old dusty books
• Clean laundry
• New clothes
• Surf board wax
• the hair junk I put in my hair to stop is from curling and frizzing…don’t know what it is…emma gave it to me…and also Bedhead Manipulator
• leather
• Bath & Body Works Coconut Lime Verbana
• Cocoa butter

What do you love the smell of?

october update - now a memory

well, as you can imagine, october has come and gone and i'm hardly sure where is went!!! it was busy as heck, both very warm and very cold, dry (even for colorado) and beautiful. we rang it in the joshie's birthday which he is still reliving...telling us happy birthday every few minutes and then when you wish him back, his response is, "good." he was a lion/chicken/firefighter for halloween none of which panned out. the day arrived and he flat out refused to wear ANY costume at all.

caleb is enjoying his preschool three days a week and getting tired of speech therapy. he has a little friend in his preschool class and apparently, the two of them live in their own little dreamworld. her name is lexi. he has proposed multiple times and holds her hand occasionally but mostly they love to play. i questioned him about it and she said it's because she's his best friend. love that boy! he got his cast off a couple of weeks ago and hurt his arm twice since then giving us heart failure. caleb was a knight for halloween...and sometimes "peter" from narnia. he was heroic no matter what. and also somehow sawed a branch off of my aspen tree with his plastic sword. for the record, he is very disappointed that he was named caleb and wishes that he real name was "speed racer". i suppose it will be his life-long sorrow.


maryn is enjoying first grade....LOVES her teacher, Ms. Wonner....as is clear to anybody who looks at her homework papers..."I LOVE MS. WONNRE" written off to the side. she is the loveliest girl. i am teaching her piano again and she is so enthusiastic. she practices and practices and then makes her own variations of the songs....she's pretty good and creative. it's clear she likes pretty music and doesn't have much time for anything written in a minor key:) maryn was a cheetah ballerina or something like that. whatever is was, she was very beautiful and very much her style. Leopard print with a tutu and pink...that's 100% maryn. Emma rocked her make-up which was fun too.



my month consisted of lots of shoots, lots of lessons, lots of running around, not much sleep, piano recitals etc. it really was a whirlwind. my favorite parts, making soups & bread....i love soup & bread, reading to the kids at the end of the day, starting a new regular pilates class (at 5.30 AM - are you impressed? i am), hearing joshie sing all his songs, soaking in the autumn colors against the mountains and beautiful sunsets.


eric is into a new volleyball season, doing insanity again, and doing "research" for work like going to haunted houses. things have calmed down for him which is nice as the backcountry turns cold.


i always think...this year i'm going to take great pics of halloween....but it never works out...bad lighting....too late...etc. blah. maybe next year.