The Sprinkle on Top

Hey Baby Girl, I'm so in love with you! You're 5 months old today and my how time has flown. I catch myself reminiscing to the first few weeks and months of your life and how difficult they were as you and I both adjusted to a new world with each other, but mostly how hard they were because you didn't feel good and I didn't know any better.  The past month has been a whirlwind of fun as you've reached and surpassed milestones and as your sweet personality has shone through your smiles and chuckles and brightened our home.  Over the past month you had your first battle with a cold - dry cough, very stuffy nose, and worst of all, a double ear infection! You and daddy both got sick over Thanksgiving and despite my best efforts to keep everything clean so the germs wouldn't spread, I got sick too. (I'm not blaming anyone but you did sneeze and cough multiple times on me while I was playing with you and I got sprayed in the face... mouth open in ...

New Year's is an interesting holiday to celebrate - a time to overeat while withholding yourself from the sweet calling of sleep, and, most importantly, to set new goals that you know you'll forget about within a month's time. I'm not cynical towards New Year's. I love the idea of setting new goals to become a better person. I'm just realistic that 99% (my own statistic, not a fact) of people never reach the goals they set on New Year's. I do  still set New Year's resolutions, but a better way to think of these goals is to initially set them on New Year's, but reevaluate and readjust come February and beyond. That's the only way I can accomplish my goals. 2018 New Year's Resolutions Publish The Harvest trilogy I've given myself a strict production schedule to write, edit and publish all three books by Fall 2018. The strict deadline is a bit daunting but I know me and if I give myself too much time, then it's too easy for m...

One of the fun things about hosting a Christmas party is there are so many themes to choose from. Will it be a White Christmas? Everything red & green? An ugly sweater party?  This year I got to host the Bunco Babes in December for our monthly game night. Our theme?  Whoville and a Merry "Grinch"mas.  It was a lot of fun getting to plan the party and even more fun when everyone came and got to experience Whoville with me. I had $120 to spend on the event including food, decorations, and prizes. Let's be honest - I spent a little over $120 but definitely less than $150. And if you do a little more bargain shopping than I did you probably could keep it even lower.  First I had to turn my home into Whoville. Keep in mind I came up with this idea 2 weeks before bunco night so I couldn't do everything I wanted to, but it still turned out super cute.   Truffula Trees These Dr. Seuss trees were very simple to make and I was able to pu...

With Evie so young and us being right in the middle of RSV season, Justin and I alternate who goes to church. Since one of us stays home each week, the other one takes detailed notes on what members spoke about during Sacrament meeting so that we can bring the spirit into our home.  Well, this last week, Justin came home with some spiritual insights from Elder Nelson's recent talk. One of the insights included “as we read the Book of Mormon daily, we will be blessed to know what decisions to make that day.”   If you didn't know, since Evie was born she's had a tricky time eating and an even trickier time pooping (often with blood). We've tried everything from helping her with gas and her poops, trying to reduce her acid reflux, to taking her to many a doctor appointments and trying all sort of different things to help her feel better. Almost two months ago she was diagnosed by a GI with a dairy allergy so I changed my diet and cut out all dairy (including a...

After 2 months of only attending the Sacrament meeting portion of church, I finally climbed back in the saddle and went back to Primary. And boy did it feel good to be back. The lesson was simple this week with only a brief history to teach, which left us more time to do an activity. The lesson: Joseph Smith writes the Articles of Faith. We followed the manual pretty much to a "T" to get the lesson started off. You can get the manual and their ideas here . After telling the kids of the events that surrounded the writing of the Articles of Faith, we dove into an activity that got the kids out of their seats, make them work for a little treat and it turned into a huge success. This activity was adapted from idea #1 & #2 given in the manual. The activity was to teach the kids that knowing the Articles of Faith can help lead them and others to a testimony of the gospel. To start off I pulled out a dish full of little baggies with some skittles in them. I explain...

Transformer Spider found crawling alongside our house. Photo is blurry because no way was I getting any closer to get a photo.  It seems silly that any person would be so afraid of a spider (whether the size of a hand or a pin head) that they refuse to kill it. Well, we exist. And a spider is a spider no matter how small. Some people, of course, have no fear - those are your modern day super heroes. The rest of us have to find ways to cope with the unfriendly and unwelcome creatures that stealthily make their way into our homes. Although I'm one of those afraid of spiders, my reasons are legitimate. Here are 5 reasons behind why I cannot kill a spider and maybe why someone you know can't either. 1.They have exoskeleton's meaning their bones are on the outside of their bodies. This just increases the risk of literally feeling their bones break when you squish them. I don't want that kind of carnage on my hands. 2. They mock you when you try. Without fail, ju...

33 Weeks on Bridge at Dry Fork Flume Interpretive Trail When talking with other mom's-to-be, more often than not I hear the complaint that time just is not going fast enough. The days drag on, the months linger, and why are they so far away from their due date? Not once during this pregnancy have I had that feeling. Maybe it was the chaos of moving cross-country the day I found out I was pregnant, maybe it was all the past experience I've had with time always passing no matter how anticipated or dreaded a certain day may be, or maybe I'm just content with the limited time I have left to focus on my husband & me. Regardless of the reason WHY? I have felt like my feet are strapped to a high speed train hurtling towards July 31. Days pass by in a blur, busy weekends fly by, and suddenly here we are in July with only a few weeks to go. As our last adult only summer for possibly a few decades, we wanted to really make the most of all our time. After all, wha...

With our weekends quickly disappearing, Justin and I have made some big plans to make the most of these lazy days of summer.  Often our plans are fluid and flexible and what starts as a fun game night plan turns into a weekend getaway or vice versa. With just the two of us - and Lucy - it's easy to be flexible. A few weekends ago, we planned an overnight camping trip to Skull Creek Campground up near Flaming Gorge. It's a cute little campground with a small creek running through it - the perfect place to relax, enjoy beautiful nature and a babbling brook, and let Lucy roam free... well, free-ish. Within a week our overnight trip turned into a day trip to Skull Creek where we could still play in the creek, light a fire, and make a dutch oven meal. All of the fun without sleeping on the ground 33 weeks pregnant. A few days later our plan changed into just going up for lunch, hiking, and exploring. And on the day of, we scratched the idea of driving 1.5 hours to eat a s...

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....