Dallin H. Oaks on Religious Freedom and Politics

An excellent talk given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks. I highly recommend it!!

Beehive Bazaar details

The Bazaar takes place on:

Thursday December 3rd from 9 pm until midnight;

Friday, December 4th from 10 am to 10 pm,

Saturday, December 5th from 10 am to 8 pm

Beehive Bazaar — Winter 2009

I'm selling delightful goodies at the Beehive Bazaar in December. I'll have paper dolls, candy rings, papier mache deer sculptures, and more. Come see me there.

Family Reunion Family Photo

I love the family photo taken at the reunion. And how about those shirts? (I designed them :) ) Each of the ten siblings from Don's family had a different color shirt for all of of their kids and grandkids.

A whole new world

The bottom half of one of the wooden planks in the fence is broken off. The remaining hole provides lots of excitement as it exposes the neighbor's backyard, usually replete with boys and bikes, and sometimes even water balloons that the boys might throw at you. Mavis is intrigued by this window into a new world.

Late Snow

I had already planted my garden during a two week warm spell mid-spring, when a late-spring snowstorm took us by surprise dumping a LOT of snow SUPER fast. The first picture is my garden, with the neighbors flowering plum trees about to break in the background. I took some pics, then grabbed my broom to follow the example of my neighbor and her kids in smacking snow off of the trees to alleviate the branches. All around the valley hundreds of trees had huge branches break off from the weight of the snow.


Josh scraped a path to the sidewalk before he left for work.


This is a neighbor's tree right after the snowfall, in the early morning. Next we see the same tree after an hour or so of sunshine had melted most of the snow off.

The Proper Role of Government

Today I heard a quote that I believe is true, and important and not understood by most, especially by our current government (nor was it very well understood by many of those in our government in the last few years):

The proper role of government is to protect equal right's, not to provide equal things.

Also, here is a slide show that I've seen lately that helped me understand more clearly the form of government the Founding Fathers set up for us, namely a republic, and how important that has been to the success of the United States of America. http://www.wimp.com/thegovernment/

Asayo's Wish Foundation Walk-a-thon

I'm excited to go see the beautiful gardens at Thanksgiving Point, in Lehi, Utah as part of a fundraiser for Asayo's Wish Foundation. I think it's a great idea because who doesn't love to walk through the gardens there? And then to pair that with a fundraising effort is fantastic. It will be on Saturday, May 30th, at 8 am (registration begins at 7 am). Check out the official event site for details here.

www.asayoswish.org
www.asayoswishblog.com

Grapes for snacktime

As pretty as they are sweet.

Wacky Jacky

At this age, 14 months, he is very insistent about feeding himself.




This is his favorite jacket that he asks ("uhh, uuhh") me to put on him whenever he spies it. Today, after wearing it during a very messy dinnertime, I took the jacket off of him to put it in the wash. Jack was irate, pointing to the jacket and screaming and crying, hoping I'd return his beloved possession.

Neon Hues

We had fun sculpting with Play-doh the other day. Mavis had the clever idea of pressing her plastic princess ring and other found objects into the clay to make fanciful impressions. I made a river of clay, with floating flowers and a large shoreline bloom.

Easter Blues

Don't let the title of the post mislead you. Easter was as pleasant a day as could be, with the bluest of blue skies and perfect temperatures. Blue is a calming color, and the brilliant sky helped invoke the peacefulness that the Resurrection and Atonement of Christ bring to our lives.

Following is a whole slew of photos from the day.

Hunting for eggs and baskets from the Easter Bunny.

Jennifer made a piñata.

The piñata stick cracked!

And the winners for best photos of the day: