The one with the simple abundance.

A project completed. ahhhh.sigh.

My new sconce, it is too divine not to share!

A doll "set up" completed by an adorable 4 year old.

A sunflower from a friend....thanks Trish!

Flip Flops! A sure fire sign that spring and summer are right around the corner!!!!

A clean pile of clothes, nicely folded and waiting to be packed! This usually means something fun is about to happen!

Have you ever been puttering around your house, doing the daily grind, and started to notice all of the little things that make you happy? That happened to me today. I love a book called "Simple Abundance". It has an inspirational thought for each day of the year and I usually start it every January but for some reason I didn't this year and i've missed it. It talks about simplifying, and being happy with what you have and many other great topics, but the title stuck in my mind today so clearly as I looked around at the simple abundance in my home. I hope you can do the same. Here are just a few....

ps. if someone could teach me how to do a lay out that is not all jacked up and also how to make my typed paragraph go before my pics that would be great. thanks.

The one where I've lost my will to blog.

Well not really. I just find that if I don't have a picture I don't really blog. Is that lame or what!

I guess while I'm here I'll update on some of our happenings. SO maturation was totally lame(those were Ethan's words) Josh gave that a strong second. Ethan did inform us that he doesn't want the "talk" yet, he said he's not ready to hear it! whatever. What age did you out there give your kids the talk? nevermind, I think I have the oldest kids of all of my friends!

Moving on.

Eliza has had the fever gunk that has been going around. That made for a few days of being at home and I was able to get a lot done! Nothing like a little sickness to keep you on track!
Also before she got sick she got her ears pierced! crap, there was a good post with a picture opp. that I missed, see I'm off my game!

Some thing's to look forward to!

11 more days until our "girls trip" to nationals! Can you say Disneyland, American Girl Store, Wicked? Oh I can't wait! Don't worry, the boys are going to Phoenix for spring training! I keep telling them they are gong to have as much fun as us! They aren't buying it but they are still excited!

Well there you have it, a post without a picture, I think it went well. Oh who am I kidding? Everyone likes a good picture! Where is Eliza with those cute little earrings when I need her!

The one with the "man".

So today my darling son came home from school and informed me about the maturation program at school next week. My first instinct was to joke so I muster up as much sarcasm as humanly possible and say, "don't worry they are just going to inform you about your changing body." He was mortified. He is a pretty innocent kind. I said,"haven't you and your friends discussed, you know, stuff?" He looked at me like I was speaking spanish. I was sort of relieved, I want it to come from us and by us I mean Josh. SO wish us luck next week, I think we may need it.

ps. as Ethan went outside today he yelled,"enjoy the boy for next week I will be a man!"

crap.

The one with the Happy Love Day!

SO THIS IS LOVE..........HAPPY VALENTINES EVERYONE!

The one with the freaking tag!

Son of a tagging nutcracker!! What is with these things? Don't get me wrong I love reading everyone else's tags but I find that I am just not that interesting.

But to appease Laura's tag here goes:

Fav. 5 songs of all time.

1. That's the way it is (Celine Dion) I may have just lost some friends.
2. Make a Memory (Bon Jovi)
3. No One (Alicia Keys) I often belt this out at the top of my lungs, and I'm proud.
4. The Prayer (Andrea Bocelli and anyone he chooses to sing it with)
5. "Popular" from Wicked. ( I know you think I'm copying you Laura but this is mine and my girls fav, fav, fav, song! We are seeing Wicked in march in L.A.)

And now on to Susie's tag, again here goes:

Ten years ago I was: the mom of a one year old little boy thinking that I knew what tired was.

5 things on my to do list today: Laundry, laundry, and more laundry. Me on a monday is not a pretty sight.

Snacks that I enjoy: pretzels, movie popcorn, bit o' honeys, pirates booty(seriously awesome!), anything hors devourish. anything.

If I were suddenly a billionaire.....I would poop my pants and then buy new ones that aren't on sale!

3 bad habits: I stay up too late when I have to get up early, I love to lay out even though it's bad for me, and sometimes I have a potty brain with a mouth to match.

5 places I have lived: Centerville, Logan, Bountiful, Kaysville, Layton.

5 Jobs I have had: Life guard at Laguna Beach, Bagel schlepper, secretary at a dog trainging school( if you truly know me this one is laughable) bank teller and new accounts girl, and Mom.

5 things you don't know about me: I am an open book, so you pretty much know it all, except for one thing that I have NEVER told anyone....nope you know that too!!!

I now tag everyone that is listed to the right of this post. oh ya, i'll be checking.

The one with the sun.

Have I mentioned sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy?

I know this is a random post but these sunny, blue skied days are making my heart sing!

Can I get an amen!!?

(does anyone know when spring actually begins? March 16th?)

The one with the eternal perspective.

We had quite a week last week. With the passing of our dear prophet and Emma's upcoming bastism I was an emotional wreck. I kept thinking how Emma would never forget her baptism because she shared the day with Pres. Hinckley. This was up for discussion around our house quite a bit and Sam was constantly asking questions about Pres. Hinckley, in fact the night he passed away we were all teary but Sam had a complete emotional breakdown. It was the saddest thing I have ever seen. Soooo, on friday I was a complete basketcase cleaning the house and doing other preps. for the baptism when Sam asked me if we could go the the funeral. I told him that we couldn't go but that they had a viewing for all of the people that wanted to come to Salt Lake and say good bye. Sam looked up at me and said,"oh, ok I'll just to that then." My first reaction was no way!!! I have way too much to do! And then that old sneaky eternal perspective snuck in and I thought in the grand scheme of things what is more important? SO off we went to Salt Lake with my sister Sarah and her little baby. Sam fell asleep on the way and when we pulled up you would not have believed the line! I said, " oh there is no way we can wait in that we will all freeze!" (we were not as prepared in that area as we should have been) I told my sis that we will just wake Sam up, show him the line, tell him we gave it our best shot and then head home! SOOOO, we woke him up, he looked at the line and was like "ok, I can so this, lets go!" So we parked, got in line and stood there fo 1 1/2 hours only moving 15 feet. We were all freezing especially Sarah's baby. Sam was not going to leave, "we can do this" i'm not cold" "I want to see him!" He was breaking my heart! Well we found out we had another 1 hour wait outside and 2-3 more hours inside and I hate to say it but we gave up. Sam was a good sport about it. I am thankful for Sam, he showed me that day what is really important, clean house? not so much.