a beautiful thought

We had some Friday night fun with Lauren & Tyler, and while we were there she showed me this video that Ryan Woodward, one of Ty's future BYU professors in the animation program created. It is so completely beautiful. I was excited when she sent me the link to his blog (which you can view by clicking on his name above, and see some story behind the video and more info on him) that the video had embed code so I could share this with my blog friends. Like I said, I think it's beautiful, and this kind of work fascinates me. Enjoy!


Thought of You from Ryan J Woodward on Vimeo.

13 miles in September

I would like to run a half marathon in September. The Moab second half to be exact. It's not official yet, and I haven't started training - but I think that's a worthy goal & am hoping Lauren thinks so too! She mentioned it the other day and I got all excited - I'd wanted to run this one and didn't think I had any sort of partner to make it a go-ahead. Please Laurie please oh please... :p

While I'm at it, besides needing to get better snapshots of myself for these things, here are some goals for 2011...

beautiful girls

I can't believe a week has gone by since my last entry. If that's any indication, this will be another fast year. :p

I have a little something to make up for my absence - I'm going to share some shots of a few of my most favorite beautiful girls. :)

I have to grab a picture of my princessmonkeybeautiful. I can't do a beautiful girl post without including both of my girls, right? :)

There. :) Aw I need to give Maiah a proper little photo shoot soon. She looks so much like Kirsten, they just have different coloring. I heart my pretty girls. I've gotta say too, that I've loved working with Kori. She was always camera shy so I never bugged her to come pose for me like I did Laurie & Kirsten. She's a natural though, and the camera loves her. Beautiful. Just beautiful. :)

Hugs!

a few of my favorite things

 ...in no particular order

Elijah's hugs

Pudding

Maiah's kisses

Diet Pepsi

The gym

Vernie's smile

WoW and even better - my Dissension friends

Talking to Kirsten

Brandon's sense of humor

My new shoes - so sexy
Running

My pillow

Bridal sessions

Dancing (in the kitchen. with my kiddos.)

Maiah's laugh

my Victoria's Secret lotions

movie night/girls' night out

Calla lilies

the Beach

Happy babies

Cuddles
Fog
when headache medicines actually work :p

Christmas Eve

Have you ever worried that all you've got was somehow not enough? That's me this Christmas Eve.

Have you ever missed your family or loved ones during a special day & just wished you could change things and show them that they mean something to you even though they're far away? Yep, that's me too.

Have you ever had a sweet little monkey-babe smile at you and make everything seem almost okay, if only for a moment? Their hugs work too, and kisses are the bestest. Yeah. I heart my monkeys, and that's me this Christmas Eve.

Normally I love Christmas. I still do, I just feel a little detached this year - like something's missing. I've spent a lot of years in Utah and have developed a few traditions with my aforementioned babes, but I guess I haven't been caught up in monkey-joy just yet. I'm sure having Chinese food with Vern's family followed by some hopefully smile-filled Christmas morning festivities and our own traditions will bring some good times.

Yeah, it's just been a slightly blue-ish Christmas season thus far. Maybe more blah than blue - but definitely off regardless. Thankfully, I do think all of  my babes will be happy, and so am looking forward to enjoying them (and all of their smiles, hugs & kisses) this weekend. I'm channeling good thoughts to those I love who are far away. I didn't even do cards this year (again) but I'm hoping people feel loved regardless. I was able to do something for my dad that made me feel good. He felt loved I think. :) Hopefully I can do things for everyone else on my list as opportunities arise.

Merry Christmas (or whatever you may be celebrating) peoples! I hope that this entry finds people smiling, healthy and enjoying their loved ones. I'll add tree pictures once Santa arrives. :)

Hooray! Santa made it! My kiddos are going to be so happy when they wake up. Now I hope I can somehow sleep so I can enjoy them in the early morning hours. lol Physically I'm exhausted, but my mind has had problems shutting down & letting me sleep of late.  
Wish me luck!

a merry-wishing sort of blog entry

I'm sorry I haven't blogged in a few days. I've been battling the sickies, trying to get some work done and getting ready for Christmas. I'm all excited to see my kiddos' excitement on Christmas morning - that's my absolute favorite part. :) 

Christmas kind of snuck up on me this time around. I just haven't been all that into it, but we were at least able to do good things by our kiddos in the end, so all is well. 

I'll do my annual Christmas Eve pic tomorrow & hopefully my kiddos and I will all be feeling well enough to enjoy Christmas morning.

Meanwhile, I hope that all of you blog-reading friends are enjoying your holidays. I wish you all happiness and good times. :)

sweetness

For those of us in need of a hug, a smile or some dose of sweetness in these last days before Christmas, I've got just the thing.

Awwww... yep. I love that little face so much! It worked for me. :) If the sweet face of a little one doesn't work for you the best consolation prize I can come up with is to share my cherry cordial kisses. So there. :p

/squishes!