The Sprinkle on Top

I had a monumental birthday on Sunday - the big 26! It was such a fun birthday to get to explore and play the entire weekend in Vernal. The best part of it was that my mom and twin sister drove out from Utah county to spend the weekend with me and Justin. We did a lot of fun stuff: Beauty & the Beast movie night, hike to Moonshine Arch , dinner at 7-11 Ranch Restaurant, but one of the highlights was getting to see Flaming Gorge Dam while they had the spillway open! Tours of the dam are totally free and last about an hour. A guide walks the group through the dam, giving you some good knowledge about the construction and purpose of the dam along with an amazing view! The tour is easy (even for a pregnant lady) and pretty interesting. After looking down at the dam from the top, the guide leads the group to the bottom of the dam near the spillway. If you're lucky, the spillway might be open and you'll get to see water flowing out of the dam at 75 mph....

Hello Virginia. We were so excited to get to go back to our home away from home this last week to celebrate Justin, attend his graduation, and have one last getaway before baby comes. The travel from the East coast to the West coast and back is nothing new to us as we've done this exact trip 5 times in the last 2 1/2 years. I know, nuts! Our travel plans don't include many more trips from one end of the country to the other, at least not quite as often so we really wanted to make every day count. Even at 7 months pregnant. North Carolina Our flight landed in Greensboro, NC at 3PM on Thursday afternoon where we met up with Justin's brother and sister-in-law who recently moved out East. We got to spend two full days with them and their two darling little girls painting the town. We spent the afternoon recouping from what turned out to be a more difficult flight for me and our little girl, but it was just what we needed after getting 3 hours of sleep the night be...

I'm all about doing it yourself whether it's creating your own cute home decor, preparing new recipes or making your own cards. There are so many fun ideas out there and if you have some colored paper and just a little bit of time, you really can make them your own. Below are some of the cute cards I fell in love with on Pinterest and made my own so far this year: Happy Valentine's Day Card idea from Stamping Julie It's a Boy! Card idea from CKScrapbook Events You're Invited... "RSVP Please respond by DATE to PERSON at NUMBER" "Come & Have Tea with Me, At a Mad Hatter Tea Party!" Happy Birthday! Text goes in place of the black arrows Card idea from Coops Crafty Corner Happy Mother's Day! Card idea from Bead and Cord Do you have any go-to cards you like to give?

When I think about our little girl's arrival I am filled with excitement and am rest assured that I'll have everything together by the time she gets here. After all, I've got nine months.  My nine months of pregnancy have flown by and I am left in awe every day that there's only 2.5 months. Where did all of the time go? Justin and I have slowly been collecting baby gear: her stroller and car seat, diapers galore, and clothes of all sizes. We still have a lot that we need to get, but one thing is complete: Evie's nursery! Check out her cute, little room below! Baby's First Library: According to a PSA posted by Provo, UT in April 2017, children will become the most successful if they hear 45 million words before the age of three. That's 15 million a year, 1,250,000 a month or about 41,000 words a day. Hearing many new, complex words help babies form connections in their frontal lobe and build neural circuits in their brains. The more words ...

Free printable from It's Always Autumn The Articles of Faith  are 13 verses of scripture that outline what we, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, believe - beginning with God the Eternal Father. The children in our church are challenged to memorize these 13 Articles of Faith in Primary to help them have a bedrock understanding of what we believe as they grow increasingly to become like our Savior.  Our ward acknowledges each child who memorizes and passes off the Articles of Faith each year with a big box of candy. As teachers of the Valiant 9 primary class in our ward (9 year olds), Justin and I wanted to actively help our class memorize these principles - a lot of which I have already forgotten from when I was in Primary. So we made a deal with our class: For a few weeks we would practice memorizing Articles of Faith 1-5. At the end of the period, the kids would be "tested" on those five Articles of Faith. Those who had th...

When it comes to memorizing long passages of scriptures with complicated sentence structures and big words, we all need a little help.  This year in primary, Justin and I are helping our Valiant 9 primary class memorize the 1 3 Articles of Faith . Most of us who grew up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have, at one time or another, memorized these verses depicting our basic beliefs.  Most of us, also, have probably forgotten the majority of them. I know I have. Here are some techniques that we've been using in our primary class to help the children memorize and review the articles of faith... and to help ourselves.  These techniques can absolutely be used to help kids memorize anything - scriptures, a short speech, the Gettysburg Address, whatever.  1. Erase Words Write the passage to be memorized on a chalkboard, whiteboard, or piece of paper. Let the kids study it for a few minutes and then have everyone read the passage out...

"We would do well to slow down a little, focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter most." - President Dieter F. Uchtdorf Do you ever find yourself bogged down by the never-ending to-do list of your life? I do. Laundry, grocery shopping, taking Lucy on walks, putting in time working, cleaning, reading, writing, repeating... If not careful, life can easily get stuck in an endless time loop of doing the same thing day after day, week after week until suddenly you wonder, "Where did all my time go?"  Justin and I had deliberated a lot about when the right time was for us to get a dog and when the right time was for us to start having babies. We'd been trying to get pregnant for a few months, but in November 2016 decided that nothing was guaranteed with a baby so we were going to get a dog. Surprise! We ended up getting to have both! Many people told me how difficult it was going to be having a puppy and a baby...

Living in such a small town with limited doctors and resources available, there are a few things that we have foregone when it comes to our first pregnancy - like only getting one ultrasound because they are $200 each! When we went in for our first ultrasound, baby looked a lot like a tremor... with eye sockets. She wouldn't uncross her legs or give the ultrasound technicians a good shot of her profile. Luckily, Ashley Regional Medical Center is very thoughtful. Along with a cute teddy bear wrapped with a pink ribbon and a recording of baby's heartbeat implanted in it's chest, they gave us a tag to come back and get a 3D ultrasound on the house. So we did! And we got some much better photos of our sweet baby girl! She's obviously still growing, but I think she's darling already! Look at her little nose! That little foot! And her little fists! I am in love! And so happy to see how much she's grown. The entire 30 minutes we were tr...

Happy 28th Birthday! Justin turned 28 years old this year! It's crazy how fast time flies. I used to think it was crazy that my parents and siblings would forget about their birthdays or even forget how old they were... well, we are approaching that territory.  Until then, celebrating birthdays are one of my absolute favorite things to do! You get to spend an entire day (or in my case spread it into an entire week) doting on someone doing everything in your power to make them feel special.  Unfortunately, Justin's birthday was on a weekday this year and he had to work so most of our festivities were at night time. Here's what we did to celebrate hubby's 28th birthday this year: Stud Muffin Breakfast I wanted breakfast to be a little more special than the oatmeal or whole grain cereal we typicall eat. So I bought some delicious blueberry muffins for my "stud-muffin".  Along with muffins, I also made us our favorite Orange, Banana, M...

Easter is here and the weather has been perfect for this beautiful spring holiday. I've never been one to decorate much for Easter as it typically leads up to one of the busiest months in the Benson family - May, filled with 7 birthdays AND Mother's Day. But I wanted to add a little spark to our main floor this year without breaking the bank to do it.  I wanted to use as much as I could of things I already had laying around the house to avoid having to spend much money, if any. I rummaged through our house and pinned a lot of ideas on Pinterest, but ultimately used the simple items below. Silver Placemat: Already owned Green Basket: Already owned Easter Eggs & Grass: Already owned Square Vase: Already Owned Jelly Beans: $1 Daffodils: $1 Tip: Fill the vase with a candy that you aren't particularly fond of. The level of those jelly beans kept getting lower and lower the closer we got to Easter. (Some of us can't help ourselves). I wa...