BHS Class of 2001…

Here’s a blast from the past! Hard to believe our 10 year class reunion is this summer!

We are trying to track down any of our classmates that are not on Facebook, so if you know of any, please let me know, you can e-mail me through FB or at sunshineinmysoul_33(at)yahoo(dot)com. We need info like mailing addresses, e-mails, & phone numbers. Or just direct them to our BHS Class of 2001 Facebook Page. All the updates & info will be posted there first. Go HERE, if you have not already joined. Looking forward to sharing some time reminiscing with all of you!!!!

Sprinkles…

One of my best friends turned 27 a couple weeks back, I thought I had posted about it but I guess not! We went to lunch with my girls! Some of my favorite girls in the world. Nicole is so darn talented. She is an artist, see for yourself go HERE. She is kind, and giving, she is one of the best listeners I know. She is incredibly smart, not to mention gorgeous!! Kate is another bestie. She has the curly hair in the pic. She’s 29 weeks prego, and her belly looks like mine does after I eat breakfast! ;) She’s super athletic, and has the best sense of humor. Ever. She is silly and fun and gorgeous too. Love them! Cole’s mom, Judy also joined us, she’s always been our second go to mom. She is also super talented. She is an artist too, she scrapbooks, is an amazing photographer and she throws the best parties, she would also give you the shirt off her back. Now that I’ve introduced them to you all, you can go check out their blogs! LOVE these girls!

 

Zach took me down to the Jazz game on Monday, his boss gave him sweet tickets, so we sat in row 6! It was so dang fun! The only thing that would have made it better is if they would have won!

 

Also found a new favorite… this blog brings a little sunshine to my house every single Tuesday. I bet some of you have heard of Stacey Julian. Her whole blog rocks, but my most favorite part about it… what she calls Sprinkles!  This is what Stacey says about Sprinkles:

Sprinkles are such little things, yet when you shake a few sprinkles atop something ordinary, it instantly becomes special. When you learn to follow your curiosities, practice daily creativity, and treat people with unexpected compassion, you discover a greater degree of consciousness, that makes life surprisingly delightful and fun!

Do you love that? YES or YES?! 

Every Tuesday, she gives us a challenge, or an uplifting quote, or simply something to look forward to. {go read about Lemon Jello, I know my anticipation is building!!}

I think Stacey hits it right on the dot, aren’t some of those things what makes life so great?!

Today we made Strawberry Short Cake Cookies,

we needed a little spring around here! After Valentines Day I always end up getting the winter BLAHS! What do you do with the Winter Blahs? Any good ideas on how to keep the kids entertained and me sane?

Hope you are all having a really great week!

It's a great week...

How do you thank so many people that have touched our lives during this difficult spot in our lives? You all make me want to be a better person, kinder, more compassionate, and Christ-like! Thank YOU. You have made this load lighter for us to bear. I am so grateful.

I am so thankful for the knowledge that I have, we will see Jayden again, this life does not end after death. I have gained an even stronger understanding and testimony of the Atonement, the peace & comfort it brings is real. Heavenly Father knows and loves each and every one of us.

Here is a quote that was given to Angie and Neal:

"The Lord takes many away even in infancy, that they may escape the envy of man, and the sorrows and evils of this present world; they were too pure, too lovely, to live on earth; therefore, if rightly considered instead of mourning we have reason to rejoice as they are delivered from evil, and we shall soon have them again."

-The Prophet Joseph Smith

Another beautiful one that we found comfort in:

"The best way to have Heaven in your home is to have someone you love in heaven."

It's already a great week! Yesterday we went to the Semi Annual Bath & Body Works Sale... ♥ that sale! I always stock up on the Wall Flowers! I changed some of my scents around so right now my house smells like lemons & lilacs! YUM!!!

We also watched an AWESOME movie over the weekend. I seriously recommend it to all of you! It's called Forever Strong. Go rent it this weekend! Great message.

I'm headed in town today to do a little grocery shopping, I like to try out new products every once in a while, so I'm going to be looking for these:

I can't decide which ones Salt & Vinegar or the Vanilla Bean...YUM!

Last week we had our Cookin Mama's Recipe Group... great food! Find all the recipes HERE.

Speaking of recipes, for some reason I had the cooking bug last week, and tried a bunch of new recipes, I liked all of them! A few of my favorites:

Brazillian Lemonade, let's just say this drink has changed my life! ha-ha! Really it's THAT good!

You can find all the recipes HERE.

I don't really know where to start catching up?! I guess you can expect to see a few posts this week.... June totally snuck up on me!

And one more: Bleu Bacon Chicken Quesadillas

Just another post...

I'm in some kind of Spring Time funk. I have lots to blog about, I just don't want to make the time to do it. I figured I better since I do want to share with you a couple of fun links for

General Conference.

If you are looking for something to keep your older kids busy with try THIS.

I'm planning on printing it out and just letting Brooklyn use the coloring pages on it. I can't wait, I think I need some uplifting messages to get me out of this little rut I'm in!

We also had a great family home evening on Monday night. I got the idea from

Shelly. Take a peek at her post HERE.

Lately it seems like quality not quantity is what we are aiming for in our FHE lessons. We've got about a 15 minute time span to get the message in before we need to play some games and have a treat! haha. So after reading Shelly's post I thought, perfect! I can do that. We talked to Brooklyn about work ethic. What would happen if daddy didn't go to work? Or what if mommy stopped making dinners and cleaning the house? We also told her how rewarding and fun work can be. I downloaded THIS cute chore chart, took pictures of Brooklyn making her bed, reading books & brushing her teeth and attached them to her chore chart. Now each day when she does her "chores" she gets to put a sticker by it. So far it's been a huge hit!

Last week my friend Shaela came to visit. ( She drove all the way from WA a 9 hour drive alone with two kids!) Shaela & I became friends while our husbands were going to college and we were neighbors. I also got to meet Kim,

we became friends through blogging, and finally got to meet up! It was a fun filled day. The kids had fun playing together and we had fun visiting too! Thanks Kim & Shaela for stopping by! :)

I also took a day and replenished my stash of homemade cards (I ♥ having cards on hand). My friend Kristeen, let me borrow her stamp set, and I went crazy with it, SO fun to have a few more to pick from when I'm sending them out. Made me feel productive and got a little creativity flowing through my veins. Felt good! I still need to stitch a little on each one with my sewing machine, but haven't yet got around to it. Great way for me to use some of those paper scraps!

I picked a new book to read, I decided on Tuesday's with Morrie.

I'm excited. I think I'll love it. It's a short read and then I'm going to move on to Angels & Demons,

I've heard alot about this book, heard it's better than the Davinci Code, so I'm excited about it too! Thanks Angie, for letting me borrow it!

I had the opportunity to go to the General Young Women's Broadcast and it was awesome!

It was pitch black so I couldn't take very good notes, but a few things that stood out to me:

President Monson quoted Mother Teresa: "If you are too busy judging people, you have no time to love them." He challenged the girls to have the courage not to judge others.

Sister Ann M. Dibb said "We must unite and help one another to become virtuous. "Virtue is dying in this world around us.

Sister Elaine Dalton said, " One virtuous woman can and will change the world."

"You are not common, you are not ordinary , You are a daughter of God."

She asked us what our personal banner would be or what our one message to the world might be? I loved that!

All of the talks were amazing. It spurred up some great emotions for me. Last night at 10:30 pm I wrote this letter to my sweet Brooklyn.

Dear Brooklyn,

I am sitting here tonight after you fell asleep in my arms. I carried you to bed and paused to look at your angelic face. I knelt in prayer and thanked my Heavenly Father for you. You are so precious to me & to your Heavenly Father. As I look at the world around us I often wonder about the trials you may face. I wonder how your life will turn out and what your future holds. As I look back at my own life I realize that there is much of my past that I would wish to change, however I also understand that I have learned and grown from my mistakes as well as my tests & trials, as I hope you will. I know that you are not common, you are anything but ordinary, You are a daughter of God. I just pray that you will rise to the occasions in your life where you will be required to have much courage- courage to choose the right-the courage to be a virtuous young woman, if you can do this I have no doubt that you will change the world! As you grow and become a beautiful young woman, I challenge you to ask yourself: What your personal banner or motto is? What will your message to the world be? I have no doubt that you will do great things. I love you so much that sometimes I think my heart might burst with gratitude and joy. You are so perfect. You already want to do good and at such a young age. I am truly grateful for you Brooklyn. Always know that I love you.

Love, Mom

Our own Clutter Crew...

It's been close to a perfect day. One of my favorite things in the whole world is to have a day that I can spend at home, no errands. no appointments, just doing whatever we want to. Dancing with a certain little princess.

And watching Baby Einstein with a certain little guy.

Love it. How did I get so LUCKY?

Oh, but our day wasn't all laid back and fun. We got down and dirt too with some Spring Cleaning. I like to Spring Clean all year round. It's an obsession of mine. I don't know what's wrong with me but I get a natural high from a big garbage bag full of stuff to take to the DI. I've been on a 6 week purge, thanks to Peter Walsh's book that I have been reading. I definitely recommend it! On a side note have you been watching Oprah on Wednesdays? I ♥ Peter Walsh and his Clutter Crew!

This morning we took down all the blinds and washed them! Cleaned the insides of all the windows and then washed all the curtains too. (I still need to iron them, but maybe I can get to that tonight when the kids are in bed.) Ahhh. Feels SO good!

I also got the SWEETEST surprise in the mail today. If you know me very well, you know that I love to get letters in the mail. So every day I get excited to go out and get the mail. If it's anything other than bills I'm excited. So imagine my excitement when I saw this in the mail box:

Christal just out of the blue sent me this package and it made my week! I love the quote on the plaque. (Christal and I share a love of good quotes!) I've never even met Christal we've just become friends through blogging. Let me tell you a little about Christal. She is a mom of 3 darling children, all adopted and we are crossing our fingers she gets a 4th soon! ;) Christal is also one of the most positive people I've ever come across. She's darling, and she is kind and genuine. And that's not all. She's organized and obviously thoughtful too! That's why I love blogging. How else would Christal and I have ever become friends? So THANK YOU Christal, you'll never know how much your friendship means to me. And those Smarties... I think they are better than M&M's!

On Tuesday we had some fun friends over and we made hair bows and bracelets for our girls. Here are some that I made... EASY PEASY! Seriously SO simple! Brooklyn loves them.

Oh and another recommendation from me... Australia. Have you seen it? It gave me allot to think about. I loved it! Really a great movie.

What is your favorite way to SPring Clean? Any great tips for me? Products that you love?

The White Elephant Gifts...

We had so much fun at the Christmas Party we went to on Wednesday! Thanks Travis & Sabra!This is where they had the party!

It was so cozy, this place holds 60+ people, if you are interested let me know & I'll e-mail you the website. Would be SO fun for a family Reunion etc.

Okay so on to the White Elephant gifts! We died laughing! The first one was Maxi Pad Slippers. This guy was hilarious, and even tried them on! haha.

The second one was Shaving With Barbie. I love this one too! You just buy a cheap $1 store barbie and cut some of her hair off, use double sided tape or a glue gun to put the hair on her legs. Add a shaver into the package and type up the words Shaving with Barbie and add to the package and you are good to go! You'll have to let me know if you use these ideas and how they went over. haha. There were some other great gifts too, not G rated for the blog though. lol.

A little Christmas tag from my sister! Thought this was fun, Ang... you & I had almost ALL the same answers! Can't wait for you to be home with us!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper--definitely. 2. Real tree or artificial? Call me lame but I'm all for the artificial, it's not so messy and all you need is a nice pine candle! Plus I'm sorta against cutting down trees... (right Hanna) hahaha. 3. When do you put up the tree? The day after Thanksgiving 4. When do you take the tree down? Around New Year’s 5. Do you like eggnog? Yes who doesn't like that extra 10,ooo calories a sip! I love eggnog shakes and I like to put in my hot chocolate! 6. Favorite gift received as a child? Pink beanbag chairs that all 4 of us girls got one year.

7. Hardest person to buy for? All the guys on my list! 8. Easiest person to buy for? My sisters 9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes a few, the one on my wish list though is the Willowtree set 11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Ugly Sweater 12. Favorite Christmas Movie? The Santa Clause (only the first one), ELF, and Miracle on 34th Street., Polar Express & Shreck the Halls 13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? All year long! 14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Probably to Goodwill! 15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Candied Almonds, chocolate covered pretzels, Carmel's, real oranges, hot chocolate with candy cane--all those yummy homemade goodies! 16. Lights on the tree? Yes! White for mom's tree & colored for the kids tree. 17. Favorite Christmas song? Oh my gosh, I LOVE them all! Big fan of Christmas music! 18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Home 19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yep all I gotta do is sing the famous song! 20. Angel on the tree top or a star? I like stars for the most part 21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? PJ's on Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas morning 22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? I hate how busy it is in town and how fast this time of the year goes by--I feel like I have no time to just relax and enjoy it. 23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Hmmm... I am really liking the red and lime green right now.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Rolls, ham and funeral potatoes 25. Favorite family Christmas tradition? We always had a small manger and we would go around doing good deeds for each other, every time we did one we would leave a piece of straw by the good deed or put one in the manger and see how soft we could make baby Jesus' manger for him. I want to start that tradition with my kids too.

I tag anyone who wants to play!

Carving Pumpkins and Zach's BIG fish...

I'm just not in the mood to blog... ever get that way? I need to make myself so I don't get behind and then feel overwhelmed by the need to catch up. I'm just a little burnt out. I spent so much energy preparing for our Halloween Party and then my lesson for Young Women's, so it's a good thing I don't have much at all scheduled for this week! :) Here's a few pictures from the party. We had alot of fun! Thanks for coming everyone!

{Blake & Chelsea}

{Linda & Aaron} { Brett & Melanie} {Amanda & Greg} {Trent & SueAnn}

{Heather & Jacey}

{Matt & Leslie}  
 

{Amber & Josh} {Sean & Jessi}

{Stacey & Andrew}

{Zach & Holly}

Zach went fishing and look what he caught! His fish was 11lbs 29 1/2 inches long, and here is the picture to prove it! He was pretty excited!

What's better than friends and family...

We certainly have had a great week! Well other than this minor little flood:

We got together with lots of friends this week, did some fun projects... thanks Amber,Linda, &Jen!. Last night we went to a "Host A Murder Mystery Party"... This is my second time doing one, and they are alot of fun! Marianne went all out decorating for the party! Here are a few pics from our fun night! { We all had to dress up as our characters, I know I look like a nerd, and that's what I was supposed to be! haha}

We also had these:

You can find the recipe for yummy Itallian Cream Soda's Here. or Here. Thanks Sueann!

I am SO excited to be going to the Relief Society Broadcast tonight too! Zach is even coming home early from hunting to watch the kids for me. {SO SWEET} Happy ALmost October!! Can you believe it?!

Happy Monday...

Okay... Rachel, Letti, & Camille, E-mail me your mailing addresses and I'll get your headbands out in the mail! Thanks everyone for entering! I LOVE all my blogging buddies, you are all SO much fun!! I just HAVE to share this, my mom e-mailed me these and I died laughing! I thought we could all use a good laugh today, hey, it's Monday right?! {if you can't read them just click on the picture to make them bigger}

DREAM ON GIRLS! RIGHT?! lol To answer your ? Amy... about the dresses, we got them at Down East Outfitters. Thanks for leaving me a comment, it's always fun to see who is reading your blog! :) PS I didn't know how else to contact you since your blog is private. Oh and I've had so many questions about what I was doing last Wednesday... The secret was me and my sister-in-laws were putting together a suprise birthday party for my mother-in-law. We decided to just have an icecream sunday bar and cake So here are a few pics from the big event: It turned out really great! She definitely doesn't look old enough to be 50 does she?! We love you Sheila! One more thing I've been whipping up are some visiting teaching, treats... I LOVE putting these together in the fall for little treats to pass around to friends or it makes a cute fall party favor. It's just an apple and those cute little carmel apple dips... {My cute sister-in-law AMBER made the Cake! Isn't it AMAZING?! }