Anatomy Lessons

" I can only imagine where these tiny feet will go in their lifetime.

My only hope is that they never forget the way home.""He speaketh not; and yet there lies a conversation in his eyes."
"Life is like a diaper. You put something in it and you get something out of it. And sometimes what you get out of it can be stinky."


"Life's short, play naked!"

""Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.""
Author: Joel Barker

Listen to the still, small voice, listen, listen;

When you have to make a choice, He will guide you!

"A baby is cuddles and tickles on toes, the sweet scent of powder, a kiss on the nose!"

"Children are the hands by which we take hold of heaven."
Author: Henry Ward Beecher

Hats Off to YOU KC!

I couldn't resist having a little fun with all of the cute hats that KC has. I love how adorable babies look when they wear hats. Somehow it focuses all of your attention on the innocence and purity of the facial features. These were all taken about a month ago. Oh how he is already growing SO fast. Now that I know that this is absolutely my last little baby I am hoping that he will take his time growing up. I am in NO hurry to give up this amazing time with him. I don't even mind the lack of sleep (usually). I can't seem to get enough of him. He is such a sweet little guy. We couldn't ask for a better baby. He truly is my little angel. He sleeps when he's supposed to sleep and eats when he's supposed to eat and inbetween endows us with the most angelic smiles and coos. There are times when I feel like my heart will just burst open wide because it can't possibly contain that amount of love inside it. That feeling has come with each one of my babies. I guess every mother out there has had those priceless moments when you have felt like that. What a gift we have been given.

Italian relief-work display

One of my favorite things to take pictures of when we were in Italy has always been the relief work. It is all over the place--everywhere you look, even on "regular" buildings you will find the coolest moldings and pillars and doors etc. I have always wanted to do something kinda cool with the picts. A couple weeks ago our ward did a super saturday craft day and one of the projects was these super fun picture blocks. They were meant to have pictures of your kids and family on them but I thought that it would be fun to finally put some of my Italy pictures to good use. The square blocks were already cut for me. I just needed to sand them down and then Modge Podge scrapbook paper to the sides (applying the MP to the underside of the paper.) After that was dry I printed off black and white pictures of my choice--just on regular paper. I cut them to size and ModgePodged those, again applying to underside of paper. After that was dry I painted on one more layer of ModgePodge to cover everything, this time applying the MP to the Topside of the paper. After allowing that to dry I was finally able to add my embellishments...and WahLah! Now I have a cute way to display my love of Italian rennaisance reliefs.

Thanks for the service

I blogged recently about visiting teaching and this week I have been "lucky enough" to be the benefactress of two really great visiting teachers. Since I had my little surgery procedure on Thursday my visiting teachers have been "Johnny on the spot" with watching the boys and bringing dinners. It was really wonderful to be able to go through the procedure knowing that everything was ok and that the boys would be well taken care of. (the girls were in school) It really is nice when someone sees a need and fills that--even if it's not totally neccessary. I'm sure that I could have taken care of the boys today--but I didn't have to because someone else volunteered--acutally more than volunteered, they insisted (politely). I'm quite positive that I have been able to rest a lot more and hopefully will recover a lot quicker. So...To all of you visiting teachers out there as well as friends of friends, my heartfelt thanks go to you and I hope that when the time comes, I will be able to return the favor.

Because I Have Been Given Much...

I have thought and thought about what I wanted to do this year for Thanksgiving--how I wanted to teach my children and get them to think more deeply about what Thanksgiving means to them. I decided to do a variation of the "gratitude box". We make available a box with a slot in the top, slips of paper and pens to write with. Then every day, or more if we want, we write something that we are grateful for on the slip of paper. Then we also add something nice that we are going to do for someone else. I want to make the connection that, as the song goes, "because we have been given much, we too must give." Hopefully we will not only be more consious of our blessings but we will be serving others and thereby blessing the lives of others as well. To go along with that I thought I'd try to record some of the things that I am thankful for here as well.

Today I'm especially thankful for KC's smiles. Because they are just emerging and are therefore still somewhat rare I appreciate them all the more when they do come. At times you have to work pretty hard to get them to come out--although they are becoming more frequent and joyful each new day. My heart is immediately filled and sunshine seems to wash over me the second he breaks into his lighthearted little grins. I just love-love-love him!!!

Halloween Goodie Bags

I meant to post these before Halloween this year but alas... procrastination--it's not a good thing.

Oh well--Here they are anyway.

I have been meaning to make these for several years and I finally got my rear in gear and did it. I love how they turned out. I think they are very cute and hope that they will turn out to be fun keepsakes that I can add to each year. It was so nice to actually have real bags this year instead of grocery sacks. I am pretty pleased with how they turned out. I left lots of spots to fill in a new picture each new year. There are some on the front and the back. I will also start one for KC this year. I just printed the pictures out on photo transfer paper and then ironed them on to the bags. The only question is whether or not they will weather the wear and tear of the yearly use. I hope so.