My Favorite Holiday

The 4th of July is my favorite holiday... probably because it is also my birthday.

It is seriously the absolute best day to be born.

You get a parade, fireworks, barbecues, no school, no work, people don't forget it, and it is a holiday but no one else but you gets presents!

Since the 4th of July was on Sunday it felt like my birthday went on all week! I had so many wonderful things happen I just have to give them each their time in the sun. So here they are (not in any order)...

A few months ago I mentioned to my mother -in-law that when I was little I'd always wanted one of those cakes with a Barbie in the middle. She said that she'd always wanted to make one and well... my wish came true.

I was seriously giddy like a five-year-old. I loved it... even though it felt rather morbid cutting into her.

Then Jon made me this amazingly beautiful tortilla press. It almost looks too beautiful to use. Anyone have a fantastic recipe for whole wheat tortillas?

Asher loved the sparklers... until he burnt his finger.

Asher, Rose and my niece had a blast with the sidewalk chalk. They drew more on each other and other people than the sidewalk.

I got to meet two of the girls I am working on with the book with for the first time! They are even better than in real life. We had a blast and talked birth until we were exhausted. Heavenly.

I don't have a picture of all three of us.
This is just me and Busca (her blog name). She is amazing and if you get a minute to skim over her blog, it is absolutely beautiful.

I'm not getting paid to tell you about this (darn it) but I thought I'd tell you about Lime Ricki and the amazing swim suit I just got from there for my b-day. This is just about the best swim suit I've ever had... and trust me I've owned a lot of swim suits. I was really skeptical about buying a tankini but this one is long and tight and doesn't ride up at all. I've never felt so comfortable in a swim suit before-- maybe because it is the most modest and cutest one I've ever had. Now I need to go swimming!

No this isn't me but this is the suit I got... except i got the boy shorts instead of the briefs.
It looks really old fashioned with the shorts. Ooh, I love it.

Yet I think one the best things about the week was that my mom and her husband came up to visit and on my birthday my mom told me the story of when I was born. I don't think I'd ever heard it before and it was really sweet to hear about it and think about the experience she had bringing me into the world. I need to write it down because it is something I will always treasure.

So wonderful.
Hope you had a good Independence Day!

New Hair

So here is the moment you all have been waiting for...

But first here is what my hair looked like before.. It is sad the most recent picture I could find of me with my hair down is from way back at Rose's baby blessing in November. Just goes to show you how often I ever took the time to do it... thus one of the reasons it is now all gone.

I've pretty much had the same hair style since I was a Jr. in high school so it was quite the shock to see myself with super short hair. It is still taking me awhile to get use to but I really love. I especially love the fact that all I have to do is add gel and comb it.

Jon likes it. The first time he kissed me he laughed and said, "Woah, it feels like kissing a different woman." The first thing Asher said was, "Oooh, Mama hair pretty" and Rose just smiled and wanted to eat. So I guess it passes the family inspection.

It can also be "done" with the bangs down. This is a little sloppy but you get the idea. I'm still discovering lots of new things to do with it.

I've gotten lots of compliments on it but I don't know if it is just people being nice or if they really like it. But I don't really care... it is fun and it is the change I wanted. It really makes me feel like new person. It is strange how hair can make me feel so different... like I can do and be different things. Even though I know short hair draws attention to your face I'm feeling less self conscious about my leprosy and I feel like I this hair cut makes me feel light, free and at peace with myself.

I'm enjoying it.

Going Short... Way Short

Tomorrow I have an appointment at a salon to go get my hair cut... really, really short.

I'm thinking like Hallie Berry, Audrey Hepburn short.

Something kind of like this

or this



or this

The top one is my favorite and her face shape is about the same as mine so I'm hoping it would look good on me. I am just really tired of my same old hair style. I usually just pull my hair up every day because I don't care enough to blow dry it. I hardly ever wear it down because I'm just not very picky about my hair and it is usually very low on my priorities. Beisdes... I'm really not that good at "doing" my hair.

So what I am hoping to get is a super easy and low matinence hair style. One that I can shower, put gel in it, brush and maybe put in a head band and be done. Does such a thing exist. I'm hoping it does.

I figure that I will either LOVE it or HATE having short hair, but at this point in my life I just need a dramatic change and I'm ready to take my chances.

Have you ever cut your hair short? How did it turn out?

Our Reenactment of the First Relief Society Meeting

I've been waiting to post about this till I got the pictures and it has just about been killing me.

Every year in March LDS women around the world commemorate the birthday of the Relief Society which was organized by the prophet Joseph Smith on March 17, 1842 in Nauvoo, Illinois. In the past our local Relief Society has just had a nice dinner and a simple program... but this year someone got the brilliant idea to reenact the original meeting. I got SUPER excited about this and volunteered to write the script and organize the actors.

As I started to write the script I realized that I wanted it to be historically accurate and that I wanted the actors to say the words that the real people would really have said. So being the overachiever.... super nerd... that I am, I made a trip to Salt Lake City to look at Eliza R. Snow's (the original secretary) minutes taken at the first meeting. The church has them digitized at the new Church History Library and it was so incredible to be able to see Eliza R. Snow's handwriting and read what was said that day.

I copied her notes word for word and then wrote my script making sure that the right people said and did the right things. In almost all the cases (I had to make a few exceptions for the times they used parliamentary procedure) everything that people say is exactly what Eliza said they said.

Getting everything organized was a lot of work but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

Besides... I got to be Emma.

And Jon was Joseph...

Doesn't he make the perfect, most handsome Joseph?
I told him that if he was a better actor he could totally be in all the church movies.
It was kind of strange kissing him when he was in costume :)

This really was such an amazing project for me and it turned out to be an incredible experience for our Relief Society. I think one woman, who was one of the actors, explained it best. She said, "It felt like Joseph and Emma and all the rest were really here. Like they were standing in the background watching us."

It really did feel like they were there and it is kind of hard to describe how beautiful it felt. We had our own little piece of history.

Researching, writing, planning and participating in this reenactment really strengthened my testimony of the Relief Society and of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I realized what incredible people these early Saints were and how my life has been so blessed because of their courage and faith. I am so grateful to have such a great spiritual heritage. It makes me proud to know that I am helping to carry on the work that these women began more than 150 years ago. It is just as important today as it was then and seeing what they went through has made me a more dedicated follower of Jesus Christ.

If you would like to read the full script that I wrote you can access it here or email me at heatherlady at gmail.com for a copy. You are free to use the script for your own use as long as you give credit to where you got it from. In fact... I hope you do use it because learning about the incredible history and mission of the Relief Society is really powerful and helps women understand that as Emma Smith said, "... sisters, we are going to do something extraordinary!"

If you want to see some professional pictures they took of us go here

Oh, and just because I'm kind of proud of it... I made my dress. I've always wanted to sew a civil war era dress, call me crazy, and I figured this might be my only valid excuse to do it. It was so much fun to wear!

Asher on Skis

A few weeks ago Jon's cousin invited us to go with her husband's family up to a local ski resort for night skiing. Ski rentals were really cheap so we decided to get Asher a little pair of skis and take him down the bunny hill.

He really enjoyed getting the skis on and was really excited about "skeen". There was just about NOTHING sweeter in the world than Jon walking around with Rose in the backpack and and little Asher in the smallest skis I've ever seen.

We didn't take him on the lift, even though Jon really wanted to. I was just too terrified he would fall off and so I insisted we just take him down the "magic carpet" (imagine a flat escalator in the snow). Jon held him between his legs and tried to get Asher to do a "snow plow". Ash really liked it for about two times down and then he threw a tantrum. Jon took him down several more times but he screamed the whole way. I think he was cold and ready to get the weird things off his feet. Jon was kind of disappointed because he REALLY wanted Asher to like it. Once upon time in high school Jon was quite the ski bum and I think he'd always fantasized about how it would be to take his little boy skiing for the first time... I don't think he imagined a screaming, kicking fireball.

I had to remind Jon that Asher is still REALLY little for skiing and that next year he will probably be really excited about it... hopefully.

Rose also got to go skiing. I took her down the hill in my backpack (remember we didn't ride the lift so don't panic) and I got THE funniest looks. I don't think she was too impressed though because she fell asleep pretty quick. Oh, and just so you know it is a strange feeling to downhill ski with twenty extra pounds of cute blue fluff on your back.

I Can Tell Spring is Coming Soon...

because the woodpecker has started pecking on our chimney pipe again.

Several times a day I hear a drumming rattling noise coming from the roof...

and it reminds me that Spring is just around the corner.

And

That there is a very confused

woodpecker up on our roof trying to make his nest in a iron pipe.

Good luck tragically mixed up little bird...

welcome back...

but try not to give yourself too big a headache.

I Feel Like Such a Grownup.

We just got our census... our VERY OWN census.

For some reason that makes feel like such an adult.

I guess owing a home and having two children should also make me feel like a "real" adult but honesty, deep down inside, I still feel like I'm 19.

Jon and I were kind of giddy about it and argued like little kids over who got to fill it out. Finally we waited till the babies were asleep and then took turns filling in the boxes.

I can't believe that the last time the census came around ( every 10 years for those non- American's out there) I was 15.

It is even harder to believe that next time the census comes I'll be 35.

Asher will be 12 and Rose will be 10.

Wow.

Time goes by so fast.

Do you think I'll feel like a "real" adult by the time I am 35?

It is Starting to Feel a lot Like Christmas

So, the best part about having your parents get remarried is that all of a sudden they have two of everything and need someone to give the extra stuff to... me! Which means that this year I have lots of beautiful Christmas tree decorations, which resulted in a tree that looks like this

Trust me... it looks better in real life

This Christmas tree is an improvement over our past three Christmas trees which have been decorated with our one box of thrift store tree bulbs, a garland I made out of leftover the material leftover from my bridesmaid's dresses, and a cardboard star covered in tin foil. Those trees always turned out pretty beautiful and I will always remember the one I stared at while in labor with Asher but it is kind of nice to have real decorations this year!

I also finished Rose's Christmas stocking and think it turned out pretty nice, if I do say so myself. I designed, cut out and appliqued all the details on it out of felt and embroidered her name on it.

Both her and Asher's stockings are done to look like the ones my mom made for me and each of my siblings. Our Christmas socks were one of our favorite Christmas decorations and I wanted my kids to have something to treasure.

I am pretty excited for Christmas. This is the first year that Asher will actually get excited about opening presents. Having kids at Christmas time really brings back the magic and excitement that seems to get lost as we get older.

How sweet it is to have two socks for Santa to fill this year!

Why Rake Leaves?

I don't get it.

Why do people rake up leaves?

It seems like a complete waste of time to me.

If you just leave them on the ground they will compost over the winter and they will magically be gone by the time spring rolls around.

So why go through all the hassle of raking them up?

I have a theory.

This is it:

Once long ago people raked up their leaves because they wanted them for their compost piles. Eventually people stopped making compost piles, but because all their life they had seen people raking up leaves they thought that you were suppose to do it... so they did.

I haven't raked any of the leaves in our yard. I probably won't.

Unless of course we decide to jump in them... then it might be worth the work.

I love living in a place that looks like this in the fall. So pretty.

Halloween Carnival!

Yippee! Is time for the Halloween costume carnival. The widget to link your post is at the bottom of this post (here are the guidelines for those who want to play). Don't forget to leave a comment with your vote for the best costume. The winner will be announced on Wednesday night and will get a homemade moby wrap like the one I am wearing in these pictures (except it will probably be a different color). Aren't you excited?

Here is how Halloween went at our house. Every year our neighborhood does a trunk or treat on Halloween and this year we decided to go with a farm theme. We loaded our chickens into the back of our truck and had a regular little happy chicken farm.

Complete with the biggest chicken of them all...

and a little black barn cat...

our pumpkins even got into the chicken theme...

Jon did the chicken; he free-handed it... no pattern. I did the other one, it is suppose to be a vampire... I know, it looks like a smiley face. I hope our kids get some of Jon's artistic genes.

Asher got the hang of trick-or-treating really fast. At first he wanted to eat every "snack" he got, but once he realized he just kept getting more-- he took off. He'd run up to each car with his hand out and demand "snack". Unfortunately his favorite "snacks" were the fruity, colorful ones. Next year we'll have to teach him how to go for the good chocolaty stuff... so he can share with mom and dad... he he.

Okay so now it is your turn! What were your you or your kids for Halloween?

What's On My Happy List Today

#1 Rose in her bonnet

Perhaps this is one of those "froofy" (is that a word?) mommy things, but I ADORE this bonnet. I'm sure one days she'll look back on these pictures and say "Mom, I CAN'T believe you put me in that." But I don't really care, she just looks so cute. Not to mention I got it at the dollar store-- yeah, what dollar store carries Carters baby clothes? I guess I went on the right day!

#2 Asher with his "bi [big] ball"

Just more evidence of my son's ball obsession. Jon bought him a big blue ball from the grocery store a few weeks ago and Asher adores it. For the first few days it had to go everywhere with him, even to the breakfast table. I wish I would have gotten a video of him eating his oatmeal with his left hand and holding the ball with his right hand so that it wouldn't roll off the tray. He actually managed to eat almost all of his oatmeal like this. Crazy boy.

# 3 Baby Smiles

Rose has started smiling and every time she does my heart melts.

# 4 Making bread that actually looks and tastes good!

I've been working at making homemade wheat bread for the last year or so. Sadly my loaves never turn out very good and in the last 12 months my family has eaten some pretty atrocious looking and tasting "bricks". But this week somehow I managed to produce these

And I am so proud of them. I almost didn't want to eat them. They were big and the bread was the perfect consistency. I'm convinced it was just a fluke, but part of me hopes that somehow I've been blessed by the bread fairy and that this will start to be normal. Any bread making tips?

I also made French Bread for the first time and it was delicious and super easy to make. I don't think I'll ever buy French Bread again, this was much much better.

#5 This is where I am going this weekend!

Orlando, Florida!
This is a picture of the hotel we are staying at.
Jon won a competition at school and gets to go to a conference, and Rose and I are going with him. Asher is staying with his grandparents. Technically he could still fly free but the idea of having to hold two babies on our laps for a cross country flight did NOT sound appealing. I am really excited. It is starting to get cold up here and it will be nice to go some place where I can still wear my flips flops!

I really should be packing.