i’m always a bit melancholy when family leaves… a slight pit in my stomach when i watch them drive away or get on a plane. gotta save the love until the next visitor comes. good thing we live in california. keeps ’em coming back.

loved it this weekend. all of it.
being together. laughing.
talking. watching the kiddies play.
surfing. papa ‘n’ razzi. 🙂
sand. waves. dolphins. birthdays.
and pirates–cap’n hook, matey darlin’, matey lady, and matey bones.

so fun. so fun.

come again.  surf’s up, dude!

good times with family. nothing better than that! just wish the sun would come out. maybe tomorrow. 🙂

makin’ me smile today :

1. family coming to visit! yeah, baby!
2. two, count ’em, two big boxes filled with clothes for dallin arrived in the mail today! michele, thank you sooooo much! you are heaven sent. i’m so fortunate to have two wonderful, generous, and amazing sisters that i love. i believe more than half of what we have in our home once belonged to them. i am humbled and grateful. thank you. thank you.
3. clean house (which will only last shortly until dallin wakes from his nap) and sparkling toilets (which will only last shortly until jeff gets home from work. 😉 you know i love you, babe)
4. healthy household. no one is sick. oh, joy. oh, happy day.

the buddha baby has rolled over. 7 months and 2 days!!

sadly, though, i didn’t even see it happen. dallin was at the table and said, "hey, look mom! she’s on her tummy."

don’t know how she did it, but she did. love that little sweet tush (as she is affectionately called by daddy).

in other thoughts, glad to be taking the high road. i’m a woman. i’m emotional. i get my feelings hurt. and i can be extremely irrational at times. but what’s it worth? not much. so, i’m glad to be taking the high road and letting it go. just letting it go.

it’s been a very, VERY long time since i’ve put together any layouts. i think it was definitely worthwhile for me to step back and re-evaluate my priorities and balance in life. at one point, i think i was more interested in scrapping life than actually living it. 🙂
i feel like in the last year i have progressed so much in understanding who i am, what is important, and what makes me happy. i still have much to learn.
i’ll be scrapping again for sure. hopefully when i get that new mac i’ve been dreaming of.
i ran across this page i did before ella came along. it has so much more meaning now. it will always be one of my favorites.

Dallin’s snail family. Complete with Daddy, Mommy, Dallin, and baby Ella.
And of course, he needed milk to feed them from the sweet yellow daisy.

Here’s the latest excitement with us…
Last night we made a lovely trip to the ER.  Jeff was at a meeting and we were here at home watching Cinderella. Dallin was laying on the floor when he said,

"It’s stuck, Mom. It’s stuck."
"What is Dallin?"
"In my nose, the red ting."
"What red thing?"
"The bead ting."

Apparently he was playing with a dangly bead off of one of my throw pillows and put it up his nose a little too far. I tried to get it out but as he kept crying and inhaling it kept going up farther and I couldn’t get him to blow it out.So I called Jeff and we went to the ER.
We got there,checked in, and I figured we’d be there a while because he was breathing fine and quite amused at this point. And there were a few people there with things much more pressing than us. (Like a guy carrying a tupperware container filled with blood. Not sure what it was in it and don’t want to know)
I went out to the car to meet Jeff and Dallin said, "I have to sneeze." So, Jeff coached him how to blow it out and we heard it hit the floor. YIPPEE!  That wasthe best ER trip we’ve ever had. I took him back inside to check out and the security guard laughed and asked me if it was a jewel in my hand. 
Hee Hee, yep, we were actually trying to use Dallin to smuggle precious gems!

Yes, I admit it! I broke the law. It’s my first ticket and I have a photo to prove it. It’s bad enough to know you’ve done wrong but then to see it in action is pretty embarassing.

So, what do we learn from all this?
1. Never…Never…no, really NEVER try to rush through a yellow arrow.
2. Accept responsibility for your actions and the consequences that follow.
3. Try not to cry when you see the fine and keep repeating Article of Faith 12–we believe…in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.