I Too Must Give, The Follow Up

 It's 15 degree outside.

This little girl had no socks or shoes

remember how cold it is? 15 degrees. Do you see the adult behind her? Sandals. Only sandals.

No socks

But do you see that smile?

I'm so proud of the women who pulled together to bring a little bit of help (and warmth) to these people. We're doing it again if anyone else would like to be a part of it, let me know. I'll give you the info on where to send the boxes if you're not around these parts.

Because I Have Been Given Much . . .

A friend at church told me about a refugee village in Afghanistan where many children died due to the unseasonably cold winter and lack of warm clothing and blankets. I spent that night reflecting again and again on them, unable to wait to collect blankets and clothing to send. My friend collected four large boxes worth of items to send to these refugee villages. Then we found out that there were friends who didn't get the email with the instructions in time to donate. We started another collection of donations, but this time my friend was out of town and asked me to head it up.

Oh. My. Goodness. Three large boxes and 7 medium boxes. Full. Completely full of blankets, clothing, shoes, socks, hats, gloves, scarves, and anything else that these fabulous women dropped off to my house. Money for shipping costs has poured in.

One friend told her son that children in Afghanistan were freezing and didn't have any blankets. You want to know what her two boys did? They walked right into their bedroom and stripped their beds of their blankets, bringing them and a stuffed animal to me.

There was actually more than this. I got about 4 more large donations before taking it to the post office.

Lincoln helping with the boxes.

Megan brought me her favorite blanket. It's been her favorite since she was very small. It was very hard for her to give it up, but she really wanted to be a part of this.

Today another friend met me at the post office to help me send the boxes off. As we were finishing the last of the taping a woman came up to us and said she had to ask what we were doing. Without even waiting for a complete explanation, she whipped out her checkbook and started writing. "I have to help you with shipping. What's your name? Can I just write you a personal check?" People, this woman wrote me a $100 check. That was almost half of the shipping cost right there. This random woman I've never met heard a snippet of our story and helped us do something that was financially difficult for us.

I've been in shock all day. So many people, my friends, friends of friends, and a woman I've never met and will probably never see again have come together to try to help people none of us will ever meet half a world away.


This whole experience has helped my testimony of Relief Society as an organization. This is what it was organized for. This is what God wants us to do.

Laundry Day

I went down to the basement to do laundry and after opening the dryer, shoving some clothes in, and walking back to the washer for more wet clothes, I came back to the dryer to see this cute mug.

He actually threw a pretty big fit after I took him out.

Maybe next time I'm down there he'll help me take clothes out.

Expelliarmus!

Emma Wins!

I walked into the living room and found Emma and Nathan playing Harry Potter. It was adorable so I had to take a few pictures. You'll notice Memory Cards on the floor. We are back to playing Memory all day long with Emma.

I Know, I Know. Stop Yelling Already!

I'm back from Blog Failures Anonymous. I haven't posted anything in a long time and I've missed a few birthdays, too.

So quickly, here you go.

Nathan, I love you, happy birthday!! I'm so grateful to have you in my life. You are awesome and you will always be my Samwise.

Then it was Lincoln's birthday. I honestly thought I blogged about it. But apparently, I didn't. But now I have!

Lincoln is 1!! He is a sweet boy and we are all so happy he's in our family. He loves to sit in the dishwasher, take out all the baking dishes, throw anything and everything (and he's really good at it, this boy's gonna be a pitcher!), he's an excellent climber, and he still loves to give slobbery, wet kisses! He says Momma, Papa, Dada, ball, and "this?" when he wants to know more about something he's holding. He's quite an adventurous eater, but if he's not in the mood for it, even if he likes it, he won't eat it.

last few hours of being less than a year old

Happy Birthday, Lincoln!

opening presents

 

happy boy

scary cake!

he got over the fear pretty quickly

then we cut his hair. sad, but good.

 Jeremy and Emma

There aren't a lot of times where they get along this well, so we had to take a picture to document the occasion. Jeremy was reading to Emma and both were enjoying it.

Star Bellied Sneetch Brownie Balls!

I finally found a tutorial for making these that is actually helpful! yay!

More Lincoln

cause he's cute :)

Megan's Birthday!!!

This deserves it's own post, but time isn't really something I've got right now. So here ya go.

This is what we did to her door while she slept

this is what we did to her floor while she slept

more decorations

Love you, Megan!!

Lincoln Turns 1

Just realized I never posted this. Oops.



Happy Birthday, Lincoln!

Lincoln's last night of being 11 months old.

Nelson Ledges State Park

This place was really cool! Green moss everywhere, caverns you could get lost in. . . . We plan on going back and taking family pictures :)

Bound- Book Review!

Today I'm reviewing C.K. Bryant's debut novel, Bound, as part of the Dark C.A.R.M.A. Tour. I'm excited to share this book and fabulous author with you. I had the pleasure of reading and doing an edit on this book this past summer.

Bound is a fast-paced read. Here's the book blurb.

When a photo shoot ends in tragedy, Kira discovers her best friend, Lydia, has been keeping a secret. Knowing the truth, and accepting it, will change Kira’s life forever and thrust her into a world of ancient curses, magical objects, and savage enemies. What happens next will challenge everything Kira knows about her world, herself and the shape-shifting warrior she’s falling in love with. No longer the timid mouse her mother accused her of being, but a woman who finds the mental and physical strength to endure and survive.

BOUND is a heroic tale of true friendship, infinite sacrifice and untamed love.

 

 

Seriously, what more of a secret can you keep from your best friend than having two completely different souls inside of your body? C.K. Bryant has created a fun story here, with plenty more amazing secrets. I really liked Kira's best friend, Lydia, and her less of a best friend alter ego. Kira was a great heroine who I enjoyed rooting for. I loved her determination to help Lydia despite the dangers. And as with many great stories, the male love, Octavion, interest is interesting and complex and gives opportunities for swooning if you're the swooning type.

 

If you enjoy adventurous love stories with fantasy twists, you'll enjoy Bound! 

If you'd like to learn more about C.K. Bryant and her great book, you can visit her website.

You can go to Smashwords to download the book or Amazon to get it for your Kindle.

The Dish Washer

 I can't do anything with the dishwasher without Lincoln getting into it. He loves it.

Apple Picking!

 Before General Conference on Saturday I took Megan apple picking at Patterson's Farm.

We went with a group of friends and it was a lot of fun. 

The guy cut Ben off the picture, but he was there next to Maggie. You can use your imagination because he looks a lot like Austin on the other side of Maggie since they are brothers.

  It rained the whole time ;)

Megan and Ben did a lot of apple squashing.

And just for fun, here's a picture of Lincoln. He fell asleep in his high chair and Emma (I still can't believe this happened), took a nap at the same time! Just the fact that she took one is amazing, but that it happened at the same time as Lincoln and, get this, I told her she needed to take a nap so she went upstairs, laid in bed, and fell asleep. All on her own! Holy Cow! I was shocked.