Moments of Happiness

Let's talk about life.  It's hard.  It's messy.  Its's complicated.  At this point, at 32 years, I think I've realized a good deal of the hard stuff life has to offer.  I would never boast that I've been through it all, because I haven't, but most people at 32 years have been through a significant mountain of trial.  So, that said, I have learned to bend.  To sway.  The winds come howling past me and I have learned that in order to live, I must give. And it's OK!  The winds will come, they always do.  As a child, and as a teenager, and as a young adult coming into maturity, when things do not go as planned, it tends to turn our world upside-down....and we hold so firm to our belief that everything is going to be ok, we forget to bend....and then we crack.  We hurt ourselves even more by trying to be so completely stalwart in our idea of perfection and blue skies, we don't know how to deal with the storm.  I'm learning to bend.  And I'm learning to create my own little blue skies amidst the storm.

This is great picture of creating my own blue sky.  This is Thursday night DATE night, right here.  Even if I had to go to bed about an hour after we ate because I had to be up at 4:30am to go work at a job I really don't like anymore.....THIS was my blue sky.  Stouffers lasagna and Martinelli's at 8pm.  It was perfect and I got to eat on the couch with my best friend.

 Our couch on conference weekend.  It was crowded.  It was chaos.

 In between Saturday General Conference Sessions, we took a quick drive up to a little farmers stand in Ogden to buy some apples (for pie!), and it absolutely down-poured on us!  It was so dreamy!  

 My favorite October General Conference activity, making apple pies.  It's tradition at this point.

 I don't have a lot of pies tins, so I used my muffin tins and made a whooooole lotta tiny pies to give to neighbors...and then I did make one giant peach pie to share with friends who came over.  It was delish, BTW.

 This girl and shoes.  It's a love story.  

I love my minivan.  Hey, we have a minivan, in case you didn't know.  We bought it back in June after we found out we were expecting.  It's amazing, and I am totally loving it.  I can squeeze so many things in my van....like those clothes I keep meaning to drop off at Kid-to-Kid or the ones to DI.  So that when I go grocery shopping, and forget I have all that stuff in my trunk, I can flip the seat down and pack my groceries in, no problemo.  I know.

 Kind of how my lunches look.  Blech.

 Oh, my sweet girl.  How I love her.

 She is my little darling girl.  She is incredibly loyal to her mama.  My big kids are daddy's kids, by Rosie, she's a mama's girl.  It's exhausting, but it does melt my heart.  And isn't she rocking those little blonde piggies?

 PLUM jam.  So I have a friend who picked some purple plums from her grandfather's farm and gave me a flat of them.  They made the most delish jam....I couldn't stop licking the ladel....and then I was eating it with animal cookies....so gooooood.

 Kris and I had a great DAY date this past Saturday. 

 My beautiful and amazing friend from New York was married this Saturday.  Stormy (her name) is pretty amazing.  I have so many memories with this girl and she is just the best.  What a testimony!!!  I seriously can't believe we've known each other so long!  

 Stormy has been patiently waiting for her eternal companion for a while, and she deserves every ounce of happiness in the world.

 And I got to take some great pictures with this guy.

 This is probably the most hilarious picture I've taken in a while.  We are totally the people you want to hang with.  You know it.

 Kind of my favorite picture.  We make a cute couple.  For reals.

October is off to a great start and we are going to be celebrating another birthday tomorrow; my little Rosalie is turning TWO!

A Beautiful Baptism Girl

Shortly after getting back from an amazing anniversary vacation, and sending two kids back to school and celebrating a birthday girl, and picking my mom up from the airport, we took this beautiful girl out for her baptism pictures!  My amazing new neighbor was so sweet to agree to take her pictures and I am so grateful to her.  She is pro.  

I'll tell ya, getting prepped for this photo shoot was not smooth sailing, sheesh!  I had purchased the dress a few months prior, and I loved it, but it's sleeveless, so I figured Marin could use her little white shrug from her Easter dress.  The shrug, however, was not as pure white as the dress, so the night before, the three of us were driving all over town looking for a white shrug.  We ended up wandering around at the mall, in and out of stores.  I was kind of freaking out on the inside....and a little on the outside.  By chance, my mom stopped to look at a window display of an incredible dress, and I glanced through the door.....to see a giant display of baptism and blessing dresses and accessories.  And there were the pure white shrugs.  I know.  And there were gorgeous shoes.  And sparkly things.  And none of it was outrageously priced!  It was like a little ray of sunshine.  Sometimes you just need those moments when life isn't pooping on you....and this was one of them.

The next day, I had to work and I entrusted my mother to prep Marin and do her hair, my poor mom was so intimidated!  She did such a great job though, and Marin looked so beautiful.  I was able to meet up with them at the Bountiful Temple, I was just in time!  Another moment of sunshine!

This beautiful girl was radiant.  She was just so purely radiant.

 After so much chaos in prepping for so many things and this photo shoot, the evening was perfect.  

 I love my sweet girl so much.  She is growing into her own person, and becoming...her.  She is making decisions and testing her strength.  I really can't even believe that this girl is 8!  I started this blog just a week or so before she was born....and now she (and the blog) and 8 years old.  I'm not sure I remember when that happened.

 We tried to get Marin to do a cute little pose, and she would NOT!  Marin is mostly inherently shy, so this pose for her was after a LOT of coaxing!

 This picture right here is the Marin I know.  She is just a shy girl when the camera is turned on her.  

We did get her to do a little bit of skipping.

 We were wrapping up the photo shoot, and Marin was determined to find the water.  She said she could hear water and she wanted some pictures with it, so we headed around to the side of the temple.

 I'm glad she found the water because the pictures turned out so great.

 There are pictures that catch the essence of Marin, and this is another one.  She is a very serious girl, wide eyed and taking everything in, she doesn't miss a beat...and this picture captures just that.

Ah, my heart!

 The sunset that night was UN-real.  So beautiful.  My friend had such a hard time getting this shot (apparently the lighting is real;y challenging).  But I am SO glad she got this shot!  Look, look how beautiful!

 Poor stressed out me, haha!  And beautiful Marin and my mama.

I had thought about whether or not I really wanted to do this photo shoot, because truth be told, since August 1st, life has been insane and so crazy busy, and did I really want to add another activity to the list?!  I try to keep things simple, and I kept telling myself that Marin's baptism is about the ordinance, not anything else.  But I wanted to remember.  I wanted to have something for my daughter to remember, to look back on and have a happy memory.  The ordinance will forever remain, and for that I am so grateful; but the day, the moment, the memories, those are the things that slip away even when we promise ourselves we'll remember forever.  So this photo shoot, as stressful as the preparation may have been, it was worth it.  I am grateful for it.