Stuff everywhere

A few weeks ago I was going through our stuff and getting rid of ... just Stuff that sits in our closets or under the bed and man do we have a lot of Stuff. going through it all I came across these paintings of mine. I did these in my painting class at UVU and each painting had a different technique we had to use in order for us to understand our own painting style by painting with touch/feel and emotion. We painted as though we had no idea what skin, eye, hair etc color was supposed to look like and had to paint only by feel (without a mirror or picture) Color has feeling red yellow and orange usually means warmth and etc.. so the colors we used had a lot to do with how we were feeling that day. Another painting we could only use a pallette knife or our hands. This was something i had never experienced with because im more of a realistic artist, but I absolutely loved this assignment as it helped me venture off into a new realm of painting.  The last two paintings we could use a mirror but we still acted as if we saw only in black and white.

You should try it sometime, it actually is quite fun

I decided to recreate these Blocks... I never really liked them much until now (i liked the quote though)

Oh and if you haven't heard We are Moving to Houston Texas!! Dan accepted the offer with Deloitte.

 yay for jobs.

St. Jeezy

This weekend Daniel and I took a trip down south to St. George. His good friend and old mission buddy lives down there so that was the main reason of the trip (to visit him and his wife). The weather was blissful and the hosts were great. It was nice to get away and not have to worry about anything. Daniel was especially thrilled to get away from Provo. It was our first road trip together (just us two) as married folks and of course Calvin's first. He did pretty well for getting his shots the day before which caused a minor fever, being in a new environment and being stuck in a car for 4 hours blowing out his diaper 3 times good thing i brought lots of extra clothes lol.

When we got there we headed to the temple because Daniel has never been there before. We had fun taking pictures. The weather was beautiful and the scenery was gorgeous and man did it feel great to get out of that car and walk around. 

Here's Calvin taking a turn at the wheel

We hiked up to Dixie Rock and saw the ocean.... no one believes me but if you lay on your back on top of dixie rock and look up towards the sky it looks like the ocean.

 Our friends the Blands

It's fun when daddy comes home

Daddy has been home a lot lately and we have been loving it. For Family Home Evening we went on a camp out. Tin Foil Dinners, kettle corn popcorn, building our very own tent and instead of star gazing we watched a show. Calvin loved our man made tent as you can see in the picture below.

 There was quite a bit of a static force going on under there... or should I say rock n rollin

 Dad and Calvin in our tent

On Tuesday we went to the Legend's Building at BYU. We were trying to find a place to take pictures of Calvin by a Y. Daniel was like let's go in this building I'm sure they'll have something (neither one of us had ever been inside before). but little did we know that we would be getting a 30 minute tour of the place. It was actually quite fascinating to hear and see all the trophies and the record breaking things BYU athletes have performed. And of course to see how pampered they get. haha. Our tour guide and his wife have been doing this for years and are avid BYU fans... gone to 850+ games (trying to reach 1000 before they die). what loyal die heart fans. 

The next day we got to have a lovely picnic together. We have sure been loving this warm weather lately and it's just getting warmer this weekend as we head down to St. Jeezy.. (st. george). This trip has been planned for about a year and we are finally heading down yander. 

Me= Ecstatic. 

We also got the pleasure of seeing both Grandparents on Daniels side and having the company of Kelsi and Jason for a Sunday evening. 

The four generation photo

Discipline vs Regret

Almost every morning I get up and drop Daniel off at school and then afterwards Calvin and I go running around in circles on the indoor track at BYU. (now I wish I would have gotten a running stroller instead)
On Friday as I finished up my run I stopped to stretch in the track/hallway area right after the courts and pinned to a locker door was a quote that I absolutely loved and is the main reason why I am even posting right now.

"We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs Tons."
-John Rohn

This applies very well to athletes because of the physical and even mental pain they put themselves through. If they don't discipline themselves by giving all they've got, then they will come out short in the end and the pain of regret will fill their entire soul.
 I also think it applies to each one of us as well.
It caused me to reflect on my life and how I have disciplined myself and when I have not, and I'm not only talking about punishment, but instead how I control my thoughts, actions, words, and how much effort I am willing to put in accomplishing my goals and dreams. The pain of regret does indeed weigh much heavier on the whole body, so why can't we choose the lesser pain that will help enable success and happiness? And as we become more disciplined, we will be able to endure much more  which will help generate and create accomplishments and knowing that we can and will conquer the unimaginable.
I hope this causes you to pause and reflect on your own life, what will you do to make your life a little more disciplined so there won't be regrets weighing you down.


 And of course my bundle of joy... I can't post without posting about my Calvin.
still rocking the newborn shirt but sadly it's time to say goodbye.

Lovers Day, a special day to reflect on those I love

As you can tell I'm slow at posting updates about our life adventures, since I'm always a week behind. I wanted to express to you, family and friends (if I have any friends out there reading this) how much I love and appreciate all you do for me. 

I am truly blessed to have such good Parents who taught me good values and principles and lived the way they taught. Who love me so dearly and continue to support me through all my deeds. 

My wonderful four brothers and four sisters who I cherish so dearly, I look to your examples everyday and your friendship means the world to me. 

My dear sister-in-laws and brother in law, so happy to know my siblings are in very very good hands and your friendship and love strengthens the family. 

My friends who continue to care for me. 

My sweet little mister, who on a daily basis brings a piece of Heaven into my life. and reminds me how much I love being a Mother. 

My dearest Mister, whom I love with all my heart. He makes my life complete, I am so blessed that the Lord through his kindness inspired the Stephens family to make the decision to move next door so I could marry the man of my dreams, for truly he is the man I always dreamed of.

I love each one of you dearly. 

My mister came home and surprised me with a beautiful Daisy (a favorite) and the sweetest love note ever.

Here is an idea to surprise your sweetheart next year that I surprised mine. 

It is 14 reasons why I love you zippy bag filled with surprises stapled to a favorite treat.
I wrote 14 reasons why I love Daniel on little slips of paper and on the back I provided 14 different treats. I tried to correlate the treats with the reasons but some were hard to think of so I just did random ones for those.  Some included a 15 min massage, three 15 minute back tickles, temple date night, iron all his shirts for a month, make his favorite main dish, side dish, drink and dessert.  Simple but meaningful cause i know these are a lot of his favorite things.

We spent the night with the Osmond family. Shelbs made two killer salads and the best mini rolls. 

We contributed with bringing a dessert to share but do you
Remember this post

these are the trying to be famous cookies... we didn't have shortening so we used margarine instead and they tasted bready equals not very good. 

So . . . Valentines night we made Daniel's (Stephens Family's) famous chocolate chip recipe found here. And this time we had shortening and wow they were amazing.. even after 2 days they were still mouth watering. 

Giant size cookies makes for a great date activity.. Now create a masterpiece of your own.