Envy My Cooking!

I was introduced to an adorable blog by my sister-in-law today! It's called Envy My Cooking and they have an awesome giveaway!

These two adorable aprons are up for grabs! I've already decided I'm going to win them, but I guess it's worth a shot if you want to check it out! *wink

Just Imagine

Isn't childhood fascinating? Being little in a world that is so big, seeing so many things for the first time? I wish I could remember how it all felt.

It's not that we come to earth as clean slates. We've existed forever. But because of forgetfulness, we are rediscovering things, and because of this mortal life....we are learning to manage a body and figuring out how to enjoy this physical world.

As a mother, I get to be a witness to this discovery, and I must say......It is beautiful to behold!

Imagining you are something bigger, better and more capable is all a part of childhood. In all this complexity of a forgetful spirit in a tiny body there is so much power and determination. We come to this earth full of it! It shoots from our beaming little faces and our shiny little eyes. We have been sent here with a mission.....a message from God. We can feel it just bubbling out of our fingers and toes in crazy bursts of energy. We come eager to fulfill the plan.

We are never more alive than we are as a child.

True Love

Every year here on the ranch we experience what I'm going to call "moth season". The timing seems to be different each year, unless I'm just forgetting what time it occurred last year, which could definitely be the case. The moths work their way into our home by any means possible: cracked window, open door, vents, maybe even waiting in your hair and clothes to be smuggled indoors.....who really knows? All I know is that they get in, and they drive me crazy. They leave their red (yes I said red) droppings on everything! Walls, lamp shades, drapes, and now, just now I noticed a big splat on my white teapot! Not only that, but they dive at your head and flutter in your face. They hide in the toaster and come flying out at you as soon as it starts to heat up. They hide in the cupboards in between your dishes and die, then you get to be disgusted as you pull out a plate for lunch and find a dried up moth looking up at you with its wee beady eyes!

All of this brings me to something else. Adeline!

Adeline is the opposite of those moths, she is adorable, sweet, and though she does enjoy diving at my head and fluttering in my face, I love it and welcome it (most of the time)! As I type this she is crawling around the kitchen torturing the moths on the floor and trying to eat any dead ones she finds under the kitchen table (Nasty). Go Addy!

My youngest child, my baby girl, is almost out of the baby stage. A couple of nights ago Tyler and I watched some video taken not too long ago and the changes were obvious! She is growing like the ragweed around our house. Yesterday she walked, unassisted from the couch to the chair where Tyler was sitting. We cheered and celebrated! This led to several more attempts and stumbles, which led to Emilee walking and falling and stumbling.....trying to be like baby and get in on some of the attention!!

For about the first six months of Addy's life she was a total and complete "mama's girl" she was my shadow, my sidekick. She wasn't interested in anyone else......including her daddy! Emilee had always loved her "dadoo", and so I assumed that Addy would too. It kind of concerned me that they weren't bonding. She would scream under his care and insist that I and only I be the one to soothe her troubled heart.

Seasons change though, and as she has grown into a more secure and comfortable version of herself, she has also developed a bad case of the daddy crush! This girl adores her daddy! If Tyler is around, you will most likely find Adeline snuggled against his chest, offering her sweet baby kisses and gazing into his dreamy blue eyes. The way she looks at him tells you, she's got it bad.

I'm pretty sure he's got it too!

Someone to miss

I am a dreamer. A planner and dreamer.

I love to imagine weekends filled with beautiful places, delicious food, shopping for pretty things, soaking in tubs filled with bubbly water, good entertainment, and of course lots of love.....pure passionate love!

This weekend my plans and dreams became reality, as Tyler and I dropped our girls off (one with each grandma), and headed to Park City for a beautiful weekend together! We enjoyed the leisurely days surrounded by pine covered mountain tops and large piles of clouds. It was perfect and beautiful, but the entire time an ache lingered in the midst of our bliss.

Our babies, our girls. We missed them terribly. We wondered about them and checked in from time to time to make sure they were happy and on their best behavior. We talked about them and wondered what they might be doing and whether or not they even noticed our absence.

It felt so good to getaway and focus on just the two of us, but it felt equally good to know there were two bright lights awaiting and expecting our return. Going away is good, but even better is having someone to miss while you're gone!

Becoming a Queen

In recent months, I have been fascinated with the idea of becoming. By that, I mean the idea of changing and evolving into my full potential. Into something greater than I currently am.

I have felt a need to find out what I am really doing here. It is my belief that we came from another existence where we were given a choice to come to earth. I believe that promises were made there and assignments were given. We interacted with God. I believe we are His children, and as His children we hold divinity that is beyond our comprehension. Being here on earth is part of a grand plan, the purpose of which, is to unite all of us as one eternal family and allow us the choice to return to our Father in Heaven. I have lived my entire life with these understandings, but I realize that just knowing something doesn’t mean I am really living up to my potential and purpose.

What is it then, that must be done for me to become who and what I am meant to be? Is it more about changing myself, or is it more about remembering myself? Most likely some of both.

Because these things have been on my mind a lot lately, it feels like I am at the beginning of my journey, but if I look back at my life thus far, I find that I have been on the journey all along. Becoming is simply about choices. Every choice we make sends us down the path of becoming. The question is what am I becoming?

Am I on the path to my full potential? Or am I wandering around, lost, confused, and focused on things that are nothing more than distractions.

I want to become who I am supposed to be. That is what I have decided for myself, and hopefully my choices will reflect that more often than not. Fulfilling my purpose is a very personal and sacred path, but I am all about working together to make things happen, and I’d like to include anyone and everyone who would like to help. In return I’d like to help anyone I can.

Because of all of this I have started a new blog Becoming a Queen. Through this blog I am going to share what I feel are crucial elements in this process. My hope is that others will help and contribute. I would love to interview others who are on this same quest, and who may have insight that will help me on my journey. I am excited to learn and...become.

Stell & Livi

Today I discovered this darling little shop on Etsy. It is called Stell & Livi and they sell the most darling felt items you have ever seen. This whimsical crown is a must for the dress up box and of course a tooth fairy pillow to hang on the door knob when Emilee loses her first tooth!

Their party hats are so adorable.....everything is! Take a look for yourself!

In the tops of the mountains

This weekend we had our 1st annual Iverson reunion......... and I loved it!

I'll admit that I was not really excited to go, because the days leading up to it were filled with sickness in our home....and along with sickness comes crankiness and exhaustion. Not exactly the makings for a good time in the outdoors if you ask me. Luckily the sickness went away and as soon as we headed up the twisty road to our campsite......I was so glad I was there!

We camped near Puffer Lake on Beaver Mountain and it was beautiful! We played games, sat around campfires, some fished, some hiked and nearly everyone got soaked. It rained quite a lot which chased us into a large huddle under the tarp to wait out the down pours. It was so nice though....being out of the heat. I really couldn't complain, that is until my nights were rudely disrupted by Adeline's night terrors, or sleep screaming, or I'm trying to make this experience miserable for my mommy tantrums.....or whatever you want to call them. You could safely say....she "wasn't a happy camper".....at least not during the cold damp nights.

Poor girl.

This was her very first time camping and I think she quickly got annoyed at not being able to crawl in the mud and jump in the puddles like the bigger kids. Maybe next year chica! In all honesty though, she was a trooper!

Of course Emilee capital L.O.V.E.D-ed it! She rolled in mud, ran up and down...up and down....up and down. Washed her hands in the creek. Played with cousins, and aunts, and uncles. Gave mommy heart attacks every time she stumbled around the fire pit. She screamed into the vast expanse of creation with her loud/squeaky voice and basically lived it up in every possible two-year-old-I'm-running-free-in-the-mountains kind of way!

I would say her shining moments included her outdoor potty chair photo shoot and her performance on Sunday morning during our devotional. As we sang our closing hymn "I Stand All Amazed", she moved to the middle of the circle and entertained us with an interpretive dance routine. When the hymn was finally finished she let out a long dreamy sigh and then proclaimed...."that was a good song!"

I loved spending time with everyone! My husband comes from an amazing family! They are all so loving and accepting of one another and it is always a joy to be in their company!

I'm already looking forward to the 2nd annual Iverson reunion! Unless of course I'm pregnant with twins by then.....which may be the case considering two of my sisters-in-law have notified me on separate occasions that they had dreams that I was pregnant with twins.....yikes!

As of today.......not pregnant with twins.......not pregnant at all (just to clear that up)! I'll keep you posted with any new developments on that one!

For now.....here's to sleeping in my own bed and 10 thousand loads of smokey laundry! Better get to work!