Fashion Show at Lunch

Liam has an awesome taste for making his clothes extraordinary:

I take him on my errands or to church just as he is. Kids have no shame, so I've got to take advantage of this time while I can. Making people smile is so much fun.

Deer Me!

I don't know if it's the time of year or what, but we've noticed that if we wake up early enough most often we will spot a deer somewhere on our lawn or property. This morning we saw this nice looking buck.

It's kind of been a game with the boys. They run into our room and ask if there is any deer outside yet.

(Outside the window)

A couple weeks ago I was cleaning the paint brushes in the back of our house. It was dark but I noticed a silhouette of a deer laying just a few feet behind me. I went on cleaning my brushes and as I left I took my flashlight and did a panoramic scan of the area right behind my back. To my surprise there were 6 other deer laying only a few feet behind me!

Alright, I've just finished priming and painting the main area of the house. Priming and painting a 15 foot ceiling is not cool :) And because the trim was so dark it got three coats. Three! It's ok though- I'm just so excited to be in a house. I'll post pics of the living room after the curtains are finished.

I started on the boys room this week because I was so burnt out on the living room. I still need to do one more coat on the banister. Anyway, here's the before and after:

If you need a bunk bed we recommend Mark at thebunkshop.com. He'll ship anywhere in the country for free! The beds are really solid and you can pick the stain you want. We're totally impressed with their quality.

Mark is also a humble man and a very hard worker that has come up on some hard times. I'm so glad to give our business to someone who really needed and deserved it.

I think I wrote about this, but my friend Lisa suggested that I should organize my toys by sewing some bags with fabric that corresponds with the toys that are inside. Toddlers can even recognize that a car goes in the car bag. It's so awesome!

People of the World:

To the People of the World:

Please DO NOT paint your home forest green and easter egg green from the walls to the railing to the doors and banisters down to the baseboards!! It does not look good nor will it ever! You will just be creating a huge mess of work for the person moving in after you (i.e. Carrie and Tanner). Note the candid shot of my disgusted look.

Only little 4 year old boys appreciate the Ninja Turleness of it all. Ok, it's not that bad. It's just the green railings, doors, banisters, baseboards and walls that I don't dig, that's all.

Oh yeah. We've just scratched the surface.

We've been pretty busy this week, but I wanted to write about our church meeting yesterday that was particularly touching. Three men from our area were life flighted to Salt Lake City last week due to carbon monoxide poisoning. They were on a hunting trip with their sons and had put a propane heater in their tent. The boys found their parents unconscious and- because of their scouting training- had recognized what was wrong and new exactly what to do. They dragged their parents out of their tent and ran down to an area where they could call 911.

At Salt Lake, the intensive care doctors that were working to help them said that Randy (who is from our ward) was at the top 10% worse he's ever seen. A doctor in our ward told us that to have a comatose patient after carbon monoxide poisoning was very grim at best. His wife was told to expect the worse.

A miracle happened and Randy survived. It was so sweet, especially to see Randy there at church and here how touched he was. His wife and friends were so grateful that his life was spared and you could see how much everyone loved him. They really thought he was going to die and were so grateful he didn't. I thought of some council President Monson recently gave:

"The loss of loved ones almost inevitably brings some regrets to our hearts. Let’s minimize such feelings as much as humanly possible by frequently expressing our love and gratitude to them. We never know how soon it will be too late.

A grateful heart, then, comes through expressing gratitude to our Heavenly Father for His blessings and to those around us for all that they bring into our lives. This requires conscious effort—at least until we have truly learned and cultivated an attitude of gratitude. Often we feel grateful and intend to express our thanks but forget to do so or just don’t get around to it. Someone has said that “feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”

I love that last quote he shares, so I thought I'd share. Pictures soon to come about our painting fiasco!