Holly Jolly

We had a most merry Christmas! It was preceded by a week of a serious cold for Mason and I (which has now taken up permanent residency in our chests, I'm afraid) but it was great anyway. I got just about everything on my list and I got to spend so much time with my wonderful family and it's warm in my house even though it's cold outside and last night Mason said his prayers all by himself. So basically, life is so good.

29

My husband has now been alive twenty-nine years and one day. Yesterday we celebrated the last birthday he'll probably want to admit.

Today I was thinking about him and how he's old and I'm still so way young, and it made me think of when we were dating long distance and did most of our flirting via e-mail. I went back and read a few of those old e-mails and boy, were we cheesy! I was very clearly smitten and things have really not changed much... just a couple of kids and a lot more love. He's still the honest, hard-working, smart, funny, sexy man I knew when he was just 21.

Enjoy your twenties, Tim!

Such a serious crafter

A couple of weeks ago I got this sudden burst of crafting energy and started planning a million fun activities to do with my kids. So far we've done one. Win!

When I was younger a friend and I made cars out of cardboard boxes and I wanted to recreate that fond memory with Mason. I also thought it would be super mommy-blogger cool if I documented the whole thing with my sweet new camera and posted it here, tutorial style. "Maybe I'll even get someone to pin it on pinterest!," I thought. This is how far I got into my tutorial.

Yep, one picture. This was Mason when it was done.

He played with the car once. So basically, we're going to just keep watching Little Rascals over and over. Oh, and look who's getting SOOOO BIIIIIGGGG.

All Hallows Eve

Pumpkin carving! And coloring.

 

 

Annual Arbon Halloween Party! Soup in bread bowls, s'mores, and tons of family. Tim's mom dressed up as The Wolf Dressed As Grandma. I thought that was pretty clever.

 

Trick or treat! Our little Alfalfa thought it was pretty amazing that those three little words encouraged people to shell out candy. Holidays are sure a lot more fun with kids.

A spooky little party to usher in the holidays

The Christmas music will start playing on the radio in just a couple of weeks, and Costco has already got me coveting many a holiday decoration, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Let's enjoy this first.

(A fasion blogger)

(Catwoman and Two-face, clearly)

(Mason/Grandpa grew this pumpkin from just a little seed)

Under the big top

My mother does not like the circus, or at least that's what she always told me was the reason we never attended one when I was kid. Animal cruelty, hefty price tag....Dumbo and all that jazz. So then one day she's like, "Hey Crystal, I got the family some tickets to the circus. Only, you are all going and I'm staying home and playing with your baby." And I was like, "Heck yeah! I've always wanted to go to the circus!" Then I started getting kind of nervous, because if you remember, Hogle Zoo didn't leave the best taste in my mouth. What if I have to rescue all the animals!

Fast forward to this weekend. We are circus rookies so we didn't go early to meet the animals, which, bummer. My mom did end up coming because Brielle won't take a bottle so no babysitters. And we all really loved it. The train ride there made the adventure just a little more adventuresome too. And! I don't think I need to invite any of those animals to come live with me. They seemed pretty happy.

Sometimes you just need a scenic walk, and antibiotics

The days around here have been feeling a lot like this lately...

Scarlet Fever. Rosiola. Parental Insomnia. General Malaise. So yesterday we took a little trip to the Willow Park Zoo to chill out and enjoy the silly monkeys and the sort of scary but also very fun ducks.

What a peach

And what an original Peach Days post title!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Brigham City's Peach Days, familiarize yourself. (not sure how long that link will stay active.)

I really don't know why I love it so much. It could just be all the spectacular people watching, but it's probably the peaches. Millions of them! We will definitely be hitting the parade every year now, seeing as my kids just loved it.

Oh well...happy weekend!

Please just lie and tell me summer will never end

Everyday lately I look out the window at the beautiful green grass (which is our lawn! because we have one now!) and I get this sickening feeling that someday very soon it will all be white. I'm trying so hard not to think about it, because snow before December or after December is so depressing. And cold. And this was such a good summer.

The last weekend of summer was the pool and Willard Bay and homemade raspberry shakes and the park and all that good stuff that you can only really do when it's warm. There are people all around me clamoring for some crispy fall weather and basically, I think they're nuts. I can't be the only one...

Wedding Bells

Over the course of last week and weekend I had the opportunity to shoot this pretty couple's bridals/groomals? and wedding. It was so fun and I am just so happy for them. The bride and my family have been planning the wedding all summer. We were down to the wire getting things set up, but in the end it was fun and romantic and I think such a beautiful wedding is a sign of good things to come.

Getting tired of this

But, boy, are we glad when he's back!

History

In the past couple months I have done the following very small-town things...

• Attended a quilt show at the museum.
• Watched the steeple be lifted onto the temple (No, not the angel Moroni. That would make too much sense.)
• Complained about how far away Home Depot is.
• Picked fruit from a tree and eaten it before it was even washed.
• Seen someone I know every single time I leave the house. Occurrence rate increases exponentially when that trip is to WalMart.
• Walked two miles pushing a double stroller to buy plants from a driveway, and then decided I really needed to think about it some more.
• Went to a magic show at the train station.
• Driven by the wreckage of a torn down building more than once. On purpose.
• Taken pictures in a poppy field.

This week we toured the Historic Tabernacle. It's way cooler in there when there aren't hundreds of people crammed in. Both literally and figuratively.

And now if you please, I would like to go to the county rodeo, ride a horse down the street, and go swimming at the high school pool. Maybe I will spend date night sitting on the wall? Things are getting crazy up in here, so you just never know.