Full Bloom, Full Blown: May 2015

Sunday, May 31, 2015

Abby and Michael's Wedding

In the interim between our anniversary and Hawaii, we enjoyed a pre-25th honeymoon this past weekend, celebrating my cousin's (one removed) =) wedding. There is just nothing like the beauty of a sweet temple sealing to remind you of your own covenants with each other and the Lord, and help you to feel the unduplicatable rewards of dedication and commitment. It was a sweet reprieve from hectic schedules and a reminder of what is truly important: faith and family.

The announcement I made for Abby and Michael

The lovely Pre-Wedding Reception the night before

The amazing cake Mindy made and decorated--with no prior experience

Abby's gorgeous bouquet that Mindy made from a Costco floral bunch

Pretty Bride -- Brigham City Temple

One of my favorite families of all time

Josh enjoying the shade

Uncle Bruce made a "tie sling" for Kim's injured hand =)

The best of friends

On the way out of Provo, Fred found "The Phone Call" restaurant and had to take a picture

"Don't press your luck Joe"

At Abby's Open House in Nampa

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Cooking Lab

Without any help from Mom -- Completely from Scratch -- Day 1 -- Cupcakes

Day 2 -- Lemon Bars -- Total Pro's

Monday, May 25, 2015

Memorial Day

I love having an official opportunity to remember loved ones who have paved our way and so enjoyed visiting cemeteries today. I'm excited to start archiving family grave-sites for BillionGraves.com which is connected to FamilySearch.org. It seems like there are new tools made available continuously that helps link us to our extended families. The older I grow, the more important that connection becomes; it grounds me and helps me, somehow, to have courage and hope: to keep pressing forward with faith that families are eternal and that, in Pres. Hinckley's words, "It will all work out".

I couldn't get my camera to behave in Star to record our first visit of the day to the Higginson side of the family =( but Abrahm manned it for the other cemeteries and it worked for him...of course.

My Grandma who died from heart failure and Grandpa who died from complications related to age

Looking for family gravestones

My cousin Joylene's stillborn daughter

My cousin who drowned as a toddler

Recording for BillionGraves

My aunt who was stillborn

My uncle who was stillborn

Past patients of Fred that he was extremely close to

Spring Sprang

Abrahm picks flowers for me when he runs =) (one of his offerings picked during Track seson)

Homemade Fruit Salsa and Cinnamon Chips

Celebrating Lily and Sophia's Birthday at JumpTime

Happy 11th!

Bubbles, Ballerina Barre, Ballerina Outfits, and Bouncy Exercise Balls

All My Children Home for a Visit -- Making Vegetable Sushi

Helping Katie get Ready -- "How they buzz round her, like bees to honey"

Playroom turned Young Adult Dorm

Happy 48th Birthday Uncle Rico

Decadent Chocolate Cake -- Just how Fred likes it

Crochet Club Participation Award

Lily and Sophia's 5th Grade Graduation

Teacher's Aide Participation Award

Girls Reading Club Participation Award

Award for Top 3 Runners (laps for the year) in each 5th Grade Class -- Sophie 2nd; Lily 3rd

1st, 2nd and 3rd Place Girls Mile Run

Fun Run Winner Awards

Taking The Walk

With Mr. Myers -- Teacher

With Friends

With Mrs. Berg -- Principal

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived." (Marjorie Pay Hinckley)

"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places--and there are so many--where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand Utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human being s should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory." (Howard Zinn)

“God made the world for the delight of human beings--if we would see His goodness everywhere, His concern for us, His awareness of our needs: the phone call we’ve waited for, the ride we are offered, the letter in the mail, just the little things He does for us throughout the day. As we remember and notice His love for us, we just begin to fall in love with Him because He is so busy with us--you just can’t resist Him. I believe there’s no such thing as luck in life, it’s God’s love, it’s His.” (Mother Teresa)

“[To have Faith in Christ] means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing the things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.” (C.S. Lewis)

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