Finding the Chance

I wanted to give a shout out to my bro Cory, who just wrote a book!!! Woohoo! Isn't that cool?! It's such a sweet and touching story, and I'm super proud of him for making this happen. Check it out here!

Peter's Finally Home!!

Now Adam leaves on the 28th to Rankagua, Chile. Ahh!!

Now when I sit down to sew...

I have a lovely little corner of art to serve as my muse. When I rearranged my living room, I created a little nook for my sewing stuff. I bought a desk, and gathered a few paintings and photos of all things sewing. I also created a few pieces myself! Very tactile. Here are a few of the pictures:

I cut these gems from old vintage patterns, and then modge podged it all on blank canvases.


This is by Edouard Vuillard, and I LOVE the detail in her dress. His mother was a dressmaker (the woman is his mother), and he grew up around his sisters and mother SEWING.


Mary Cassatt. Growing up, we had an art history book that had several of her paintings including this one, and so she's always been a favorite. I love how the little girl is just chilling with the mother. That's just like Josie. Sometimes she just stands behind me on my chair while I sew. She's always near me, whatever she's doing.

I love this painting by Edward Hopper for two reasons: Firstly, the vibrant reddish orange color that makes you feel the warmth of all that light shining the through the window. Secondly, doesn't it look like she was getting dressed, but then she noticed something that needed altering on her dress and so she skipped over to her sewing nook to fix it before her she got dressed? Many a Sunday morning can I be found at the sewing machine fixing something real quick--

PS I'll take a picture of the desk plus art when I finish the desk...

Shake it like a polaroid

My kids are getting huge. This past summer Josie has grown like a weed right out of her pants and shoes (In fact we measured her right at 24 months--kids are supposedly supposed to double their height at two--and according to those calculations she'll be 5'10''). She's grown an inch since then. Merritt has gone from infant to bouncing baby. He cracks us all up with his laugh (see video below), and makes more squeaks and squeals than a rubber ducky. He's diligently trying to roll over, and casually trying to sleep through the night.

Conference this past weekend was brilliant. I ate up every single word with gusto. After it was all over, I just had this warm, happy, buzz and felt so thankful because I knew it was all true, and that felt good. I re-watched Elder Holland's talk today, and yep, it's just as powerful the second time. I loved them all, but especially Elder Bednar's talk, President Monson's, and Elder Cristofferson's. Which were your favorites?


My friend Martha started a new blog on which she talked about Rollip--a website that changes your photos into polaroid-looking pictures. Fabulous!! Here's me going crazy this afternoon...

President Monson

Timpanogos Temple

And here's a gem from the other night. You don't have to watch the whole video, because it's pretty much the same thing for two minutes. But I always say you can never have enough giggling from a 5 month old.