The Sprinkle on Top

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...

For the past 6-7 weeks, Justin and I have participated in a Self-Reliance course held by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Each lesson includes a "My Foundation" principle which links an aspect of self-reliance back to the gospel principles. This week as we discussed managing our time, I was inspired to include service in my daily to-do list. It's an idea that I haven't been able to shake and have tried to include in my daily life throughout this week. Well, this was especially on my mind this morning as I studied my scriptures. I began by reading 1 Nephi 2 where Lehi is commanded to leave Jerusalem with his family.  I thought what a sacrifice this likely was for Lehi and his family to leave behind all of their belongings, their friends, their lives and immediately obey the commandment from the Lord. Then I thought, what a service Lehi did in directing his family away from Jerusalem, which was soon to be destroyed.  Often times servic...

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...