The simple things

One of my many goals this year is to continue to notice and enjoy the simple things in my life and then be grateful for them. This is something that does take effort and I'm continuing day by day to learn this principle in my life. The past few months we have been able to enjoying the beauty of a simple sunrise. Each morning as we have had breakfast we have gotten to enjoy the different sunrises. Some pink, some orange, some yellow but each so different but breathtakingly beautiful. I feel so grateful to a loving Heavenly Father that gives me these to enjoy each morning. It starts my day off good. Here are a few pictures I took that past couple of mornings. I hope this year I can continue to be grateful for the simple and wonderful things in my life. I feel so blessed.

I love the sliver of the moon....making the sunrise that much more beautiful.

"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." -G.K. Chesterton

Music

The girls are continuing to learn how to play the violin. I'm so proud of them and how hard they have worked. Hayley got moved up to the older class because she was progressing so well. She was excited to be with the older kids and it's been a great motivator for her to learn even faster. They had a performance at their school last weekend and Hayley got to perform with all the other kids. Something she has been looking forward to since Emily's first performance. They both did an awesome job.

Tyler is continuing to teach himself the piano and is doing an amazing job at learning new Hymns and songs. He is also involved in band at school and does a great job with the drums and percussion instruments. I'm hoping all the time, money and effort that we are putting into theses activities will pay off someday. But what I hope most is that they learn to love music because for me music is one of the greatest blessings in my life.


At the performance...not the greatest pictures. It's hard to take a good picture when it's so dark inside. I bumped up the ISO to a high number but that makes it kind of grainy and it's hard to not have it blurry. These are the best pictures I got of the night. So, I'm glad I took the ones before we left.

Quilt

I'm excited to start something new...quilting. I've wanted to learn this skill for a while now. I've done some quilting in the past but not completely by machine which is what I'm hoping to learn. I've spent time on the internet trying to learn as much as I can. I know this quilt will not be perfect but I'm excited to try. I've been wanting to make a fun little quilt to take on picnics. I found these fabrics awhile ago and thought they would work perfectly. This week I've decided to begin. My goal is to complete it before spring so we can start using it on our picnics and when we go to Wyatt's grave. Don't these colors make you excited for spring and summer? They do me...perfect for the winter months. Wish me luck...I will need it. :)

The Month of Organization

This month has been the month for organization. I LOVE organizing things and making "homes" for items. It's been a while since a few areas in our home has been gone through and organized. So, I've spent a lot of time this month doing just that and I love how it feels at the end when something is organized in such a way that helps our household function more smoothly. I'm really trying to simply things and get rid of anything we really don't need. It's been great. Now I wish I would have taken before and after pictures of some of the closets areas I've cleaned out.

I started with the garage at the first of the month. Went through all the shoes and unused items that had piled up. Sent things to DI like jackets, shoes, coats and things the kids have grown out of. A good power wash of the floor in the garage always makes me excited. Yes, I can get excited over some different things. :) I then cleaned out our 1/2 bathroom and made places or "homes" for my daughters shoes. We were having a problem with backpacks being put wherever in the house and cluttering things up so I moved a few things and made a cubby for each kid in the closet by the garage. It has worked wonders. I haven't been nagging the kids to put away their backpacks and jackets since they got the cubbies. They do it right when they get home. It's been great. What I had for them before to hang backpacks up was just not working so we tried this and so far it's been good.

I cleaned out our game closet/blanket closet and love how it looks now. Moved the blankets so it's now just a game closet where things are so much more organized. I wish I had a before picture for this closet because it was a disaster before. Here is the after..


Last weekend I worked on the closet in Wyatt's room. Wyatt's room functions for many things. After he died I wasn't sure what to do with his room but eventually decided to make it into a reading/music room. It's also partly Hayley's bedroom. So the closet in this room needed to have many functions and I just didn't have enough shelves to have it accomplish all I needed it to. So, for our date night last Friday we went and bought some shelving for this closet and my sweet husband cut them up to fit. I love how it turned out. This closet functions as a library to house all our magazines and books, along with our music room where the girls have their violins and violin notebooks along with it being Hayley's clothes closet. I added some of the craft items the kids use and now it's functioning how I dreamed. It just feels so good to me to have a organized and clean closet. Now the challenge is to keep it that way. I did think to take before and after pictures of Wyatt's closet. I love how now the girls have their own shelf just for their violins. Easy access hopefully will make for more practicing. The books are all in order and I even made a shelf just for library books so that they now have a home which I hope will make things more simple and easy when it comes to returning books. Does organizing make you happy? It does me.

Wyatt's closet before.....
Wyatt's closet after...

Just Dance

For Christmas we got the Wii game "Just Dance" from my husbands sisters family. The girls have played it multiple times since Christmas but the rest of us hadn't tried it until Monday night. It was soooo much fun. Definitely my kind of game and I was very surprised at how good my husband was. Thanks Hansen's we have had a blast and laughed as we watched each other dance. :)

Ironing Board

I've struggled for years now on where to put my ironing board. I've had it in my closet and it has been such a pain. Always falling down and getting in the way. I've tried to think up a solution for years now and never came up with anything until I saw this idea of hanging it from hooks and putting it behind the door. Perfect! Of course I had to put my personal touch on it...bead board. One of my most favorite things is bead board...it's everywhere in my house. My sweet husband used a scrap of bead board, framed it with some flat pieces of wood and put the hooks on. Needless to say I LOVE IT! It just goes so well with the rest of my laundry room and I love how convenient it is for me now. So beyond thrilled to have a home for my ironing board.

Got the hooks at Home Depot. The perfect place...behind the laundry room door.

Road of grief

Yesterday me and a friend had the opportunity to meet with a girl that had just lost her little boy to SIDS. My heart completely aches and breaks for her and for what she has been through and what she will have to go through. I just hate to see someone having to start on the journey that I started almost 3 years ago. I wish I could just take it all away for her.

My friend that went with me is 15 years down the road of grief and is amazing. She has such great insight and knowledge so I sat and marveled as she talked with this girl. I hope in some way since we have both been down that road that we were able to help her. If anything I hope she knows she is not alone. Grief is hard, hard work. I hope some of the information I gave her will help. I was able to see yesterday how much I have progressed along that hard and difficult road of grief and it gave me hope. It just breaks my heart to see that she is just beginning. Oh, it's so beyond hard.

There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of my Wyatt many, many times throughout the day. I don't every see that changing. He will always be in my heart and will always be in my mind. Miss that boy!! Here are a few random pictures. I will never get sick of any of the pictures I have of him. Just wish I had more.





I love this one because it was a picture of our everyday life back then. He had just woken up that morning and I decided to take a couple of quick pictures of him. I love that it's showing his diaper and how his gowns would always creep up. I love that the blanket my mom made for him and the blanket I bought him are in the picture. I love to see the cradle that Grandpa L. made for us that we used with each of our kids. Sometimes it seems like just a dream that he was in our life but when I see pictures like this one it brings it all back...the everyday life with our sweet little boy. I'm so glad we enjoyed every second with him.

We especially miss his cute smile. What joy he brought into our life.

Paper towel free

I saw this idea on another blog and decided I would try it. I love any ideas that will help me save some money. I've replaced our paper towels with this jar filled with cloth towels. We have tried this new idea for about 3 weeks now and I feel it has been a great success. We are paper towel free. Yippy!

I was getting sick of spending money each month on paper towels. We were going through them way too fast so when I saw this idea I decided to try it. I was already doing a laundry load of towels each week so adding a few more didn't make much of a difference. The one draw back is I have more folding to do but it hasn't been too bad with these little towels.

I bought the towels from Target. They were $3.99 for six of them. I bought 3 packs to start with and since then have added a couple more so we can make it through a whole week without having to do laundry. They are the RE target brand and they said mop towel or mop rag on them. They are about the size of a washcloth. I just placed them in a jar where the paper towel dispenser use to be. I informed the kids of our new paper towels and that they can use them whenever they needed to.

I put the paper towel dispenser in my pantry for those moments when I need a paper towel. Which I've only needed to use once in the past 3 weeks when I cooked bacon. Anyway, it's been a good thing and I'm looking forward to saving some money by not having to buy paper towels anymore. Just thought I would share in case someone else wants to try going paper towel free.

Christmas day

We had a wonderful Christmas. We feel so blessed to have each other, to have a home to live in and to enjoy all that we enjoy. Words can't describe how much we miss Wyatt and how difficult it can be not having him physically with us. His stocking remains hanging each Christmas and that is hard. We do look forward to the day when it will be filled with all the wonderful goodies Santa brings and will be placed next to his presents. We especially look forward to the day when we can watch him enjoy the magic of Christmas. Until then we are enjoying the moments we have together and are grateful for each and every one of them.

I always get a gift that is from Wyatt that we can enjoy as a family. This year it was Toy Story 3. We have laughed much from watching this movie together.

Waiting to come upstairs. This year they sent the dog up at 5am...needless to say it was an early morning for us.

Sooooo excited!!

I decided to set the table the night before for our Christmas morning breakfast. I used my 4th of July plates and thought they brought some fun color to the table. I love red, white and blue. I worried that my new blue walls might clash with my Christmas decorations this year but I LOVED them and thought they fit perfectly with everything.

Chrstmas eve

It's tradition now...we always set a place for Wyatt at our families Christmas eve dinner. Like I've said before it does my heart good to be able to set a place for him. We talk about "No Empty Chairs" and how Wyatt doesn't have a chair at our table but that he has already filled his chair in heaven and is waiting for us to do the same. That our goal is to have our Eternal table full with "No Empty Chairs." We had a wonderful little dinner as a family.

After dinner we acted out the nativity. I'm not sure why I didn't take any pictures other than Hay being Mary but we all had multiple parts. Wyatt had the part of the star. We used the star my mom sent us two years ago when they retired and dedicated the star part to Wyatt.

We then went to Wyatt's grave and put a little bear on it that my visiting teacher gave me. We always sing Silent night at his grave and light a candle. This year Em had learned how to play Silent Night on the violin so we had her do that while we sang. It was neat. Such a peaceful place. We stood for a while after thinking about our Savior and the hope he gives us so that we can have Wyatt again. I always shed some tears at this point. Tears of gratitude and tears of sorrow. Gratitude for my Savior and sorrow in missing my little boy. It's especially hard at Christmas time...I just miss him sooooo much! But I'm grateful for the hope that Jesus Christ gives me that I will have him again and I will get to see him open presents and watch as his eyes light up with joy.

We then went home and listened to a CD of prophets and apostles testifying of Christ. Hay then bore a sweet testimony and we talked about Christ a little more. After that we did our traditional ice cream activity with the nuts. Both D and I got a nut along with Ty. Something new we did this year for Christmas was, we drew names and we made a homemade gift for that person. We called it the"gifts from the heart." We decided that we would open those gifts on Christmas eve. After opening our "gifts from the heart" the kids opened their traditional PJ's and then they went to bed and had their "Christmas Eve Party" together.

It was a very sweet and enjoyable evening spent together as a family. I have no doubt Wyatt was with us watching as we cried, laughed and enjoyed each other. He is not gone..he is still a big part of our family. We love him!

The Nativity
Gifts from the heart

I had made a tutu for Hay's doll.

I love this picture of Hay. She was so excited to give the gift she had made for her Dad.

Hay gave her dad a Reese's peanut butter cup she got at school and saved for him along with some coupons of service.

D made some frames for Em to go in her room.
Em made a pillow case with pictures of Wyatt and Ty on it with the words.."Brothers Forever."
Ty put all of our home videos on DVD for me including all the video we have of Wyatt. I cried many times over this wonderful gift.

Hay made a bell necklace for Macie.

Wyatt's grave

The bear we took and put on his grave.

PJ's