Farm Country

5.27.2010

While Eric was in Oregon, Hallie and I met Kelsie and her girls at Thanksgiving Point to see some farm animals. It was a great time, and Hallie loved all the animals. Be ready for picture overload. :)

Hallie loves to hold hands. How cute are they?
Baby Turkeys

The three girlies comparing their weights to baby animals

Our little farm girl

So I just realized what this sign said. I should've taken a picture of Hallie with it. :)

Hallie thought the cow was hilarious. She let it lick her, and she'd run away and giggle, then go right back to have it lick her again.

Hallie pawned some food off of some other mom for food to feed the goat. What a nut. It's a good thing she's so cute.

Playing in Old Western buildings

And Hallie went to jail

Emi and Lizzie

I thought this quote was cool. Especially when the girlies had just ridden a horse.

Emi

Hallie

Lizzie

After seeing all the animals we had a picnic on the grass before it stormed.

Thanks Hall girls for such a great day!

Girls Weekend

While Eric was gone, Hallie and I kept ourselves busy, and had a fun time.

We went to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point with Kelsie, Emi, Lizzie, and Alisa.

We cleaned the house, and Hallie confessed her love of sweeping to me. :)

(It's too bad she isn't more effective in her sweeping.)
We made allergy-free cookies

And stayed up late with Sonic slushies, watching Cinderella

What more could you ask for?

Sounds like a good weekend to me!

Eric's Trip

Over Memorial Day weekend Eric got to go spend five days in Oregon to spend time with his dad for his birthday. It was a good trip for Eric, and he had a good time, and was glad that he could go.

Eric and Hallie before we took Eric to the airport.

Hallie was not at all happy the day we took Eric to the airport. She started screaming around American Fork, and she screamed quite literally all the way to the airport, and about half of the way home. It was a long drive to say the least.

Eric didn't take too many pictures while he was there but here are a few.

Eric and Jeremiah

Eric with his dad

FHE

5.24.2010

We have been trying to be better about having Family Home Evening every week. We've been trying to do something fun, with a short lesson that Hallie will pay attention too. So the Monday before Eric left to Oregon, we decided to do a lesson about Heavenly Father, and that he created the earth for us. As an activity we strung Cheerios onto twine, to make a bird feeder. Hallie thought it was pretty fun.

For some reason, Hallie is in love with hats, and this day it was her winter hat. So she looks like a little garden gnome or something. :) (and yes, it was a rather warm day)

Our bird feeder Hallie was determined to go on a walk, but we ended up going to visit Grandpa instead.

Play-Doh

3.24.2010

In my attempt to do more "fun" things with Hallie, we braved Play-Doh. At first she wasn't sure what to do with it, but by the end she was sad when we put it away.

Finished!

I FINALLY finished another journal!

I know that this is slightly pathetic, but I'm quite excited. It has been a long time, since this has happened. It has taken me almost three years to get through this journal, and notice it is quite small. But I finished it tonight. Happy day! Now, this may seem like not that big of a deal, but I began writing in this journal in October of 2007. Which, may not seem like that long, but consider this...

I went through this many journals in about the same amount of time. It took me four years to go through all of these journals. There is such a thrill in finishing the last page in a journal. It means you get to open a new journal, and fill its pages. Which I know is corny, but it's completely invigorating to complete an entire book with your writing.

Writing in my journal used to be part of my daily routine, and something that I loved, something that I thrived on. I just LOVED it. It was my release from the day, a place to dump everything, both good and bad. Even still I love to pull these journals out to read from and see where I've been. There are so many things that I have forgotten about. It's fun to see what I worried about, things that made me happy, things that made me frustrated, things I loved, and life in general.

When I was writing everyday, I was often asked how I could do it everyday and what was there to possibly write that much about. To which I never knew how to respond. But then I realized, my journal wasn't just a log of my daily experiences. Rarely did it touch on what I did I all day. It was a place to express thoughts, to vent, to work through problems, to tell a funny story, or to share excitement. It truly was like a friend to me. It was a place that was always there, willing to listen to whatever I had to say, was completely non-judgmental, a place to be completely 100% honest with myself. In the process it helped me find answers to my problems, and ultimately it helped me find myself.

I miss that. I truly do. Even still when I pull my journal out to write, it's like pulling out a long lost friend. I need to get back in the habit of writing frequently. I'm not sure everyday is completely realistic, but it needs to happen far more often than it does.

In one of my classrooms last year this quote was on the wall, and I have loved it ever since:

"Knowledge carefully recorded is knowledge available in time of need. Spiritually sensitive information should be kept in a sacred place that communicates to the Lord how you treasure it. This practice enhances the likelihood of your receiving further light."

-Elder Richard G. Scott

This is how I feel about my journals, it is a strength in time of need, and it shows our Heavenly Father that I treasure the experiences and lessons I have been given in this life.

...and swimming too?

For the last few weeks Hallie has been pestering us to go swimming. We were debating going today, but realized that Eric has a training class for his volunteer stuff. But Hallie didn't know that, but she has been getting her swimming suit out and trying to put it on. After about 20 times telling her we weren't going swimming she put her swimming suit away and our conversation went like this...

Me: Hallie should we go to the library?
Hallie: ...and swimming too? (then gave me this look like "why are you laughing?")

Ha ha! The things that she comes up with! She always seems to keep us laughing.