Sweet Sunday

This year I am recommitting to be the best me I can be.
For my family, for the world around me, and ultimately for my Savior, who gave everything for me.

The 13th Article of Faith states:

We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

I believe that this will make us happy, as we continually seek the good.  As I think about the people I most admire and want to be like, I can see that they follow this counsel and live it! Perhaps, this is the answer to my continual struggle for happiness and understanding in the conflicts of life.

The young women in church have been given this article of faith and this admonition to go along with it:

"This year, believe. Believe you are a daughter of Heavenly Father, who loves you and will help you. Believe in the Savior Jesus Christ. He is your light. He is your hope. He is your exemplar and Redeemer. Believe in yourself! Believe in the power of all young women living the standards. All together we can seek after those things that are virtuous, lovely, and praiseworthy. All together we can make a difference in our world."

I know this applies to me, although I'm not so young anymore, and I will follow my Savior, seek out the good, and believe.

Brea First 100

 Last week we went to camp out for the Brea Chick-fil-A First 100. In case you haven't seen my previous posts, the first 100 ticket numbers called, and 10 alternates can camp for 24 hours in the parking lot to win 52 free meal tickets to Chick-fil-A!! The numbers were announced one by one and my hope kept dropping, but finally David's number was called for #88!
Then our friend, Rachel was chosen soon after.
My number was chosen as alternate #104. We were so excited!!

Everyone set up camp.

 We snacked our way through the day.

  Played games. 

 Play-doughed.

 Played with our friends.

 Snuggled.

 Ate free food.

 Danced in the drive-thru.

 Played silly games.

 Enjoyed the D.J.

 Rachel was surprisingly agile for being 6 months pregnant.
 Go Mama!!

 That night was the coldest ever.
I don't think I slept more than a few minutes at a time.
But in the morning, when we lined up to see who had made it the 24 hours and won the 52 meals, I had moved up to #100!!!
It was so exciting!! I was screaming!!
We were interviewed twice on TV.
This is the only clip I could find though.
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2011/01/13/feathers-fly-for-chick-fil-a-in-brea/

 Rachel made it through her first Chick-fil-A campout!

So much fun to do as a family!!

Get ready for Lakewood, Aliso Viejo, and HOLLYWOOD!!!

Cherish

I am the luckiest girl ever. I have been blessed with 4 amazing, talented, wonderful, loving sisters from my parents' various marriages who each bless my life in different ways. 

But there is only one Cherish.

Cherish was born when I was 4 years old. I pretty much bothered her incessantly, carting her around like my own personal doll baby, and then teasing and tormenting her when we got old enough to fight.

 But then I moved away from home. And we became friends.  

And then, just as I was beginning to realize how much I adored her, she moved away to the frozen land of Utah.

Whenever she comes down to visit, she tries to spread her time out among everyone, so I only get a little piece of her. I always try to manipulate her into giving me more, and sometimes she gives in. We always do fun things like going out to breakfast, dying hair, and other silly girly things.

We have a long history of hurt feelings and guilt trips in our family, and Cherish and I have made a pact to break the cycle and be honest with each other. It's nice to be able to be myself around her, no matter what I have to say.

When I was making the preparations for Jeremy to get baptized, I found out my mom would be too ill to come. I was really sad and disappointed. Cherish knew how much it hurt, so she planned a surprise trip down to be at the baptism.

I was the happiest girl in the world.

Cherish is wonderwoman.

She works full-time, bakes all her own bread, budgets like nobody's business, makes things from scratch that I would never, hello cream soup, wheat thins, chicken nuggets, flax eggs, etc. Amazing that girl. She's super smart, super compassionate, and super fun. But most of all she's my super sister, and I love her.

Thanks Cher for being my sister. J'aime J'aime Cherie!!

It's Great to be 8!!

Last Saturday my boy turned 8. So exciting and unbelievable all at the same time. My fun friend Kyla made this cute invite for Jeremy's Baptism Birthday Bash!

We started the day off with our traditional donut cake.
Always a winner.

 That night was Jeremy's baptism.

It was so cool that he could get baptized on his birthday! There were 11 children getting baptized that night, and it was a zoo!!

 Our Happy Family

 Afterwards, we went back to the house and had a party with all our wonderful friends and family who came to celebrate with us. There were 48 people who came to see Jeremy get baptized, and 42 at our party afterwards! We felt so loved!!

 Jeremy requested a big "8" candle.

 I hardly saw Kelsey at all the whole party.
She was in heaven with all the food and friends!

The birthday boy received so many thoughtful gifts as well!! He loves them all. Thank you to all who came and made Jeremy's Baptism Birthday Bash so special!!

Autumn in January

I'm a Southern California girl at heart. I love all the mild weather. But I still think it would be fun to visit someplace with real seasons, for a few days each season, just to get my fix. Well in our town there are some big green parks with big leaves falling, and I decided to enjoy the season we got and have a pretty autumn in January photo shoot with my favorite little subjects.

Enjoy the season you're in!!

Holiday Season 2010

 Wowza!! This post is huge. We have been busy little bees, but have had a lot of fun!! Here's the pictures to prove it.

 My dear friend Kathy turned the big 6-0 and we had a rockin' party straight out of the jukebox! I love her to death, and I'm so glad we could be there to celebrate her!

 We went back to our old house for a party for Kelsey's little friend Ariyah. It was so fun to see their family enjoying our home and making it beautiful!

 Jeremy had a blast in the bounce house playing monster. Boys.

Look at him go!

Jeremy made pretzels and root beer at his soccer party.

Go Arctic Wolves! He had some really sweet kids on his team this year, and a couple of pretty intense ones as well.

The moms thought Kelsey was so cute, and would give her a soccer treat too.

And then for the Thanksgiving meal.
Oh the wonder and the goodness of it all.

This year we were at my in-laws house during the holiday, all living in one little room. I was especially glad for my little family as we snuggled close!

We got crafty. My SIL Kathryn made some festive table decorations.

I made these Thanksgiving bibs for the babies.

And our good friend Bonnie made a cornucopia out of bread!
Oh the wonder of it all.

After dinner, the cousins enjoyed playing at the park together.

Soon followed Christmas! I made these gingerbread appliqued potholders for two handmade gift exchanges I participated in.
I found felt buttons, which worked out perfectly, since the plastic buttons I usually use for my gingerbread men would have been too melty for potholders!

Uncle Jim had some passes left over so we took our friends and went to Disneyland! I made Kelsey this cute shirt and found some leggings and the skirt secondhand. I was in love with her outfit!

The kids had a ball playing together.

We introduced our friends to Captain EO!

The kids did a little dance for joy...or boredom. Whatever.

It was fun to see everything all lit up for Christmas!

We decorated Grandma's Christmas tree, and hoped we'd be in our house to decorate our own this year!

I did my final craft boutique and had to bring the kids along!
What an adventure!

Our friends had a tutu and 'stache bash and I made 7 tutus for the birthday girl and all her little girl guests! They were so cute in their tutus!

We left that party and hopped on over to Chelsey Marie's Elmo celebration! Isn't her mom so cupcake crafty!

Daddy was lucky and got some birthday party love!

After the parties we went to visit my grandma and pick up some pictures she had set aside for us. Pictures we had given her and older pictures of me as a child and my grandpa in the war. Treasures.

Then we hopped on out to visit my parents. David brought his pens he's been making and gave them a couple. Notice Kelsey still has her tutu on. She wouldn't take it off all day!

My friend Kyla threw a crazy Christmas cookie exchange party. It was super tasty! There were 13 confirmed girls with 6 dozen cookies each they had brought! Oh wow. We went home with sooooo many delicious treats!

I kept my running title from last year as Most Festive! I knew I would have stiffer competition this year, so I had to up my game.

I made some cozy quilts for my sweet nieces who were moving to the frozen northern land of Idaho.

And finally, just as we thought the short sale process would never end, the paperwork was finally all completed at the last possible moment on the Friday night before Christmas! We were so excited that we went and slept in the empty house on the floor that night!

The next day, we moved in, rain and all! 

The kids had fun climbing the mattresses and sliding down.

Kelsey was super excited to have her own bed!

I love it!!

Thank you!!

We had a celebratory facial.

And got all cleaned up and in our church clothes the next day to go back down for church!

That evening we celebrated with our annual sisters dinner and gift exchange. We toasted each other with sparkling apple cider, laughed, and played games. It was so fun!

It poured and poured that week, and I loved it!

We got our Christmas tree up!

I got to see my friend Lauren sealed in the Newport Beach temple! Hooray!

We snagged one more trip to California Adventure from Uncle Jim and saw Santa.

Ate our favorite soft serve.

Rode some fun rides.

Took pictures with Christmas Mickey!

And Jeremy taught Frozone some rad kempo moves.
Punch like this...

...and kick like that!

He's the man!

Christmas morning brought the biggest dollhouse I had ever seen for Kelsey, and the batcave Jeremy has wanted forever.

And of course, the treasured stockings!

 Because it's California, the kids went for a beautiful walk around the neighborhood later that day, and checked out the parks in our neighborhood.

 Later the grandparents came and brought their Christmas trove of goodies and ate dinner and played games with us. Good times.

 The next day we went to our ward for the last time to wish a fond farewell to our friend Jerica who left to serve a mission in Idaho!

We had the best time this Christmas break, working and relaxing together. I'm excited and a little scared to see what the new year will bring us! Hope your holidays were filled with fun!