Sarah

Many of you have heard about the passing of my friend Sarah Songer-Smith. I was so grateful to
be in Utah for her funeral, to be able to remember her life and to be with her sweet family. I feel like there were many tender mercies from the Lord surrounding her passing and I feel so blessed to have known her. Just wanted to share a few photos of this lovely friend here on my blog. You can visit this site for more from her sweet family.

In costume for our performance of "Fiddler on the Roof"

 Sarah and I looking triumphant in Paris:

 Stuffing pastry in our faces in Austria

Crossing the English Channel (we got so sick!)

Getting ready for a canoe ride.

Sarah, you were such a loving person and wonderful friend. I love you and miss you.

Coocoo for Tutus

I have a cousin named Ashley. She is blond and gorgeous and also one of the kindest and most positive people I know. She's been that way since I can remember (like since when I was 2.) She also has Lyme's Disease. She contracted this from a tick while serving as a missionary for our church in Boston. This disease is a complete bugger to treat and involves incredible amounts of pain. She is a wife and a mom, and has been so very sick for so many years. I admire her strength and perseverance more than I can say.

As both a means of physical therapy and fundraising for her extensive medical costs, she makes the most beautiful, perfect tutus. 

 They are sparkly and fluffy and soft and come with silky satin ribbon wrapped waists and are packaged so sweetly. We were lucky enough to get our hands on some for Christmas and my girls have loved them so much already.

If you're looking for something very special for a little lady in your life, please take a look at Ashley's site: coocoofortutus.com

All about E.

Emme turned one.

She can be coy.

 She can make a mess.

 She can stuff her own birthday cupcake in her face.

 She gets lots of kisses because she's just that great.

 And in honor of her birthiversary, she did this:

Little E., we love you. Happy Birthday, and way to be flippin' awesome.

Christmas 2011. . .

. . .in pictures. Because like you, I'm too tired to write much.
It certainly was merry and bright, and I'm so glad to have spent it with my besties.

The Trimmings

We'll be heading West for Christmas, so we're hoping to enjoy as much of the season as we can in our own little home before we go.

Here are some of our preparations:

Malan's snowman, Jane's Christmas terrarium, and our tiny snowy forest-

 Sparkly stuff-

 Snowflakes (Caleb had an undiscovered talent) etc.-

 Wooly things-

 And a 12 minute project: I had a yucky old faded autumn wreath from years ago and gave it a little spray paint and glitter facelift.

 If you've made it through all these photos, I have a little treat for you, a "best moment of the holidays so far" moment:

As Caleb was walking out of his shift at the girls' school holiday store, a door down the hall slammed open and a young fellow waddle-ran out, double-arm-crotch-hold in place, panic faced, yelling ahhhhhhh!!!! the whole way to the nearest potty.

My Christmas wish is that he made it in time, and that next time he plans ahead.

Merry merry preparations to you!

Ghosts of a Christmas passed here.

Thanks and Stuff

We shared a lovely Thanksgiving with my brother Mike and his family in Virginia. Every time we visit Virginia I'm a little more inclined to move there as soon as possible.

I have much to be thankful for.
At the moment, I'm thankful Emme decided to learn how to get herself up
(and down) the stairs this weekend.

(giant cat!)

(regular sized cat)

We have a tried and true method for helping our kinder learn this important life skill:
we accidentally let them tumble down the stairs shortly after they learn to crawl.

This provides both a lesson in depth perception and a healthy fear of stairways.
(Never had a repeat offender.)
Within a couple of months they're ready to give them a go again with a new determination to
not get injured this time.

Judge away but it works like a charm (unintentionally) every time,
as long as you can handle a little well-earned parental guilt. Which I can.

Hope your Thanksgiving was groovy. (good + gravy)

Last Bit

I was confronted suddenly by yellow maple leaves against a blue sky yesterday and it made me quite unspeakably happy.

I think Emme noticed as well.

We all spent the rest of the day absorbing the last little bit of Fall.

Winter, I'm not ready for you yet. Please hold off a little longer.

Toothless

Yet another milestone being shattered by this young lady, who lost her first tooth last week.
She seems pretty happy about it.

 And a few classic Jane moments for you to mull over during your weekend:

Missionaries at dinner: "...and so we see that by small and simple things, are great things brought to pass. Taking the sacrament each week is an example of that."
Jane (with big eyes): "Yeah, like it's a really small piece of bread and a tiny little cup of water."


Jane, on her way up the aisle to the stand for her primary program, crouched over, gave me two thumbs up,
and whispered intensely as she walked past our row: "I'll make you proud, ok!?"


Then yesterday, as we were drawing pictures and writing words that start with "n,"
Jane, ever sensitive to others, held this picture to her chest before showing it to me and said,
"This is Nathan. He has glasses, but DON'T laugh."

I tried really hard, but I couldn't help myself.

Sure love that ever serious, always hilarious Jane.

Have a great weekend.