so very thankful

this may be my most thankful thanksgiving ever!
when i look how far my family has come since last year at this time i am so amazed and grateful.
last year at this time husband was out of work. the company he was working for at the time laid off their employees off earlier than planned for the winter season in October and we were poor, husband was going crazy not working, and i was going crazy always being around the unhappy nonworking husband of mine.
it was a hard time but i learned so many lessons during that time.
like tensions run high when there is no money coming in and little mouths to feed, diaper and provide for.
or the fact that there were so many other people struggling around me that i was unaware of.
it was very humbling for me and husband. there were times we would hold on to each other and love each other and times of distance and annoyance towards each other and the situation we were in.
i think what made it so hard was trying to put on a front for our kids. we didn't want g and e to have a clue what was going on or that there were many times we were on each others nerves but i am sure they knew to some extent that there lives and ours were changing a little bit.
when Christmas came we had hardly any presents for the kids. in fact the only thing i remember buying was a doll for g on black friday and having a bib i had bought for e at swiss days. we were very lucky though because my ward surprised us with gifts for the kids and food for me to make for Christmas dinner.
Even though there weren't many presents we had a beautiful Christmas.
Attitude is everything my friend.
and that is probably one of my biggest take aways from that whole experience.
along with the no job situation i had developed arthritis in my knees and couldn't even walk up and down the stairs.  it was very humbling to not be able to stand up and sit down without wanting to rip my knees off from pain when all i wanted to do was play with my littles.
all this is to say times were hard a year ago; they are not perfect now, but for me are they are perfect.
i love this season in my life.
my daughter is the most amazing girl ever. she is sweet, silly and full of life in the most vibrant and innocent way. my son is such a heart stealer. he will forever have his hand on my heart and his laugh floors me! my husband is handsome, hard working, and has a good heart. He also has a job now, which i will never take lightly ever ever ever again.

In short there are so many amazing souls wandering around in my life and i am so grateful for this life of mine. i'm thankful for my Savior and Lord. and i am so thankful and smitten with this family of mine and that includes our little puppy dog betty.

child's artwork as wrapping paper

so recently my awesome brother came to visit for a couple of weeks. 

while he was here we had the chance to celebrate his birthday.

i started a tradition last year of taking advantage of dolly's love of painting. 

so when someone in our family had a birthday dolly would paint a picture for the lucky birthday boy or girl.

this time around i had the idea of wrapping tyler's present in a piece of artwork created by her.

 as you can see painting is a very serious business to my little one.

 this picture of her was actually taken the first time that she ever painted anything.

 her first painting will always have a spot in my home and heart.

anyways sorry for the departure.

a page ripped out of an old magazine is the perfect size to wrap a c.d.

you can also have your child paint on a larger scale of paper to wrap presents by way of using the big paper rolls that they sale at ikea in the children's section.

 i like to top the presents i wrap in different types of ribbons, yarn or jute.

jute turned out to be the perfect match with dolly's creation to man it up a bit for uncle tyler.

i love you pillow

so yesterday was a not fun day.

it was one of those days when anything that could go wrong did go wrong.

by that night when it was time for me to go to bed, i couldn't sleep.

 i was drained but not tired to the point of sleeping.

i decided i needed a quick project to cheer myself up.

my grandma had embroidered "i love you" for me and a couple of months ago she gave it to me to frame or make into a pillow or do whatever i wanted with it.

 so i dug through my fabric and found a cute coordinating fabric and made me a pillow.

 isn't my grandma crazy talented?!

i love love love  it! 

and it is so fun on my couch.

as for the coordinating fabric i chose a pink, orange and brown polka dot number that i got at hobby lobby a few months back.

my cute betty rebel was totally wanting to be in the picture and she makes the picture ten times cuter don't you think?

also check out her hair cut. 

oh i love her face! 

too cute of a betty rebel.

diy polka dot picture frame matting

hey there!
so i have a quick and easy diy for you today.

i picked up the picture frame below from ikea.

i thought it was the perfect picture for my latest etsy purchase, but i thought it needed some sort of pizazz to make it a little more fun.

 i love polka dots.

 polka dots are so fun.

i got some q-tips and black paint and just started randomly making my own polka dots on the mat that came with the frame. i didn't follow any rules as far as placement and i didn't worry about them all coming out completely black.

 in fact i kind of like the faded dots.

 it took all of five minutes. 

a perfect little diy while the littles finished up their dinner.

sweet charity

 picture via

 

"perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other,

when we don't judge or categorize someone else,

when we simply give somebody the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet.

charity is accepting someones differences, weakness or short comings;

having patience with someone who has let us down;

or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn't handle something the way we might have hoped.

charity is refusing to take advantage of another's weakness

and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us.

charity is expecting the best of each other."

Elder Marvin J. Ashton

Ode to a best friend

Early Monday morning my favorite dog ever border collie Jasper passed away next to husband in our home. It was just a month shy of the five year anniversary of us being brought together with him in Oregon. I am so glad we were the car behind that truck that day as he proved to be my constant fluffy companion. He was there for me through everything including all of my recent illnesses the past two years. He would sense when I was sick and lick me to death and place his fluffy puppy paw on mine and stare at me with those brown eyes of his.
He was so gentle with the babies and Mr. E especially adored him and thought he was hilarious.
I will miss everything about my fluff.
It breaks my heart to think about it too much.
I remembered this morning one of the very first posts
 I had ever written on my family blog was about him.
I decided to share it.
(Izzy was our first dog, incase you are confused when you read the story below.)

Jasper, the gentleman

On Labor day of last year we were driving behind a diesel truck with his tailgate down and there was this cute fluff ball running around the bed of the truck. I was so upset that someone would actually drive on such a busy road with there dog in the bed like that; when the guy floored the gas and this puppy flew into our car. All three of us were in the car and in shock. Bryan immediately pulled over to chase after the dog while Izzy and I watched nervously. The guy in the diesel truck never turned around and he had no tags and hadn't been micro-chipped. We debated on giving him to a shelter. (Which if you know us we could never do. We attach way too fast.) And so we tried him out. Now we are so happy to have our little Jasper. He is so different then Izzy. Easy going, lazy and he prances as if he was an English Gentleman. I told him he's the Jude Law of dogs, with the cheating aside. Jasper could never treat Izzy that way he loves her too much. And we love Jasper.

i find myself lately telling her a whole lot

"you are so pretty."

 

and my heart melts at the reply,

 

"thank you mom."