Photos

Wondrous

We are in the land of snow.
This photo was taken a few weeks back.
It would be a whole lot better
with my old broken camera,
but I take what I can get.

I was having a bad day
and when I opened up this file
it made me smile from ear to ear.

I am so blessed to be a mother
even if sometimes I want to quit the job.

My husband and my girls
are my greatest treasures.
Period.
Nothing else is relative
if I don’t have them first.

They make everything enjoyable.
Even the stuff I don’t like.
Snow
for instance.
Not a huge fan.
I did grow up in San Diego
after all.
But, my family makes snow
wondrous.
Wondrous to behold.

Thank you God
for giving me an eternal family
and this mortal life
with earthly experiences
to savor
with the ones I love most.

Salt Lake City

I am so happy to live back in Utah.

I miss my Tennessee,

but I sure do love both places

with all my heart.

I can’t wait to go back to Temple Square

when it is all lit up.

It’s on the family calendar in the next few weeks.

Anyone want to join us?

Here are some photos from Temple Square

during a summer wedding.

Winter photos to come, very very soon.

Our Little Monkey

Happy Thanksgiving
to you and yours

from us and ours.

I think we win the cute contest.

The Miracles of Life

I have tried to capture
a good photo of the moon
for as long as I can remember.

I have never had a real nice camera
and keeping it steady enough
to get a focused photo
is really tricky at night.

On Halloween,
I finally got my shot.
I looked and looked for
an inspiring quote to go with it
but I couldn’t find what I was looking for.

So I made my own.

I loved the story that I read by
Thomas S. Monson.
He is an inspired man of God
and his address titled
Finding Joy in the Journey
from 2008
is something that will get you
looking at your life
from a whole new perspective.

Many years ago I was touched by the story of Borghild Dahl. She was born in Minnesota in 1890 of Norwegian parents and from her early years suffered severely impaired vision. She had a tremendous desire to participate in everyday life despite her handicap and, through sheer determination, succeeded in nearly everything she undertook. Against the advice of educators, who felt her handicap was too great, she attended college, receiving her bachelor of arts degree from the University of Minnesota. She later studied at Columbia University and the University of Oslo. She eventually became the principal of eight schools in western Minnesota and North Dakota.
She wrote the following in one of the 17 books she authored: “I had only one eye, and it was so covered with dense scars that I had to do all my seeing through one small opening in the left of the eye. I could see a book only by holding it up close to my face and by straining my one eye as hard as I could to the left.”
Miraculously, in 1943—when she was over 50 years old—a revolutionary procedure was developed which finally restored to her much of the sight she had been without for so long. A new and exciting world opened up before her. She took great pleasure in the small things most of us take for granted, such as watching a bird in flight, noticing the light reflected in the bubbles of her dishwater, or observing the phases of the moon each night. She closed one of her books with these words: “Dear … Father in heaven, I thank Thee. I thank Thee.”
Borghild Dahl, both before and after her sight was restored, was filled with gratitude for her blessings.

We have so much for which to be grateful.
I know a God of miracles.
And I love Him with all my heart.
Dear Father in Heaven,
I thank thee also.
For all the miracles in my life.

The Uinta’s

There is no better day than Sunday

to post a bunch of photos

of my family

and God’s great earth.

I love them both.

Thank you God

for my amazing life.

Feel free to join us on our drive

from last weekend.

It’s pictures like the one above

that make me want to

oblige the girls

when they tell us we need to have another baby.

How bout it honey?

Rock on rock.

Or as Caroline says it

big rock, little rock.

I love girls with pockets.

I love pockets with souvenirs.

I love free souvenirs.

I can hear your sigh.

I wish you could have come with us too.

Just imagine what I could do

with a camera that costs more than $100.

My birthday is coming up LG.

(hint hint)

Yeah right.

We all know he ain’t spending more

than $100 on me for my birthday.
A girl can dream though.

We love you Uinta Mountains.

Especially in the Fall.

Thanks again to a God

who is the ultimate artist.

You take our breathe away.

DIY Dining Room Frames

Remember the post
where I told you about
my thrift store picture frames?

Well, here are the photos of the finished product.
Just for my mother-in-law.
She won’t be visiting any time soon
to see it for herself.

My father-in-law
will be serving in the
Columbia, South Carolina
LDS temple presidency
and my mother-in-law will be
assisting the temple matron
for the next three years.

We are so excited for them
in their new calling.

I think I need to redo this one

so that the lettering is darker and easier to read.

Your love is better than ice-cream.
And African safari animals.

The Two Year Old Blues

I caught the two year old blues.
I’ve been suffering for quite some time.

I don’t want that.
No.
I do it myself.

Give me that.
It’s mine.
I don’t wanna share.

Sometimes there are shut-ups
learned from older sisters,
they leave me appalled and entertained.

Sometimes I want to hollar back.

I don’t want that.
No.
I do it myself.

Give me that.
It’s mine.
I don’t wanna share.

And even catch myself
wishing deeply
for some shut-up time.

Giveaway = MyMemories

No, I’m not giving away my memories.
Or I guess I kind of am.

Read on down and you’ll get to take a look into my heavenly getaway with LG.
In My Memories style. You must keep reading for the giveaway. It’s my best one yet.

Guess what?
You can have this too!
For freeeeee.
We love free, don’t we?
(No, you can’t have my getaway or my man,
but the digital scrapbooking software silly)
Get your own man.

My Memories has generously offered their MyMemories Suite (a $40 value) to one of my loyal readers.
I told them that you guys were the best and thought you deserved something.
All you have to do is go to My Memories.com and look around,
come back here, and tell me one thing you love.
It can be your favorite layout, paper, embellishment or anything.

Enter now because this giveaway will close at 11:59 p.m. on September 30, 2011.
You only have a week to win.

Don’t miss out on MyMemories.
I found digital scrapbooking way better than the old-school ways.
I never got into cutting up all that paper.
I hated spending a fortune and wasting all the scraps.

Really this software is sooo easy and fun to play with.
After three pages, I had to tear myself away.
The possibilities are endless:
Christmas cards, baby announcements, birthday invites…
your imagination is the only limitation here.

If you can’t wait to win, or if you lose this giveaway, have no fear, you’re all winners.

Go here to purchase

By using the code STMMMS1691 you can save $10 on your purchase.
That’s a whoppin 25%.
Pretty good savings if you ask me, and you all know that I’m the couponing queen.

Oh yeah, if you really want the chance to win,
go do one of the following three and let me know in your comment that you did
and I will enter you into the pool of contestants twice.

Follow the My Memories Blog
Like them on Facebook
Or link up on Twitter

Go ahead check out their intro video, it will make you really want to win.
Way more than anything I can put together.

20 years later

Remember last week’s post about High School.
Well, I just wanted to fill you in on the after high school.
I know you just can’t wait.

This is Adam.
Remember he was my first date.
Yeah, I am pretty much the luckiest girl alive.
Adam is still one of the coolest guys.
And his wife and kids are gorgeous.
He’s aged well,
and still seems to have great taste.

This is Dawn.
She is one of my most favorite
funny people
on the planet.

Me, Jen, and Brandi.

They were my gal pals in the Del Mar Photo booth photos.

And many of the others.

Funny story about Brandi.

In first grade, after school, I walked with her to her house a few doors down from our school.

When I got back to school, all the school buses were gone.

I walked home 2 miles.

Yeah, I was just five years old.

Nobody even noticed that it had taken me two hours longer than usual to get home.

I was happy to not get in trouble,

but also kind of sad that nobody loved me.

There are definitely pros and cons to living in a large family.

Here is our group from Junior Prom.

Sorry, I failed to provide the before photo.

You’ll just have to trust me

when I tell you that we still look just as good.

I didn’t include a photo of Mike in the aforementioned post.
I may have to give him a post of his own someday,
after all, he was my first kiss.
Guess where it happened?
In the hall, at the Mormon church across from the High School.
He saw me and came out from freshman basketball practice
to get a drink from the water fountain.
I walked home in a daze.

Don’t worry LG,

he was just preparing me for you.

You know your lips are the only ones I want.

Nica had way too much to drink.

When she cuddled up to my man, I told her where to go.

Not only because it was totally inappropriate,

but because she scared the bijeezers out of him.

Why is that so funny to me?

I wish I would have gotten a photo of LG’s face.

Eric Stitt lived two doors up.

I would have never guessed in a million years

that he would turn into this amazing comedic actor.

All he seemed to care about back in the day

was his skateboard.

Laryssa was a great friend.

She was my campaign manager

and helped me win that election for Sophomore class president.

I guess I am indebted to her forever

for feeding my need for attention.

Thank you Laryssa for befriending my anti-social hubby.

I guess you have always been good with the men that I love.

(She used to date my brother)

Last but very well not least.

Fred. I included this blurry photo

because I couldn’t leave Fred out.

He was my best entertainment.

I can’t even imagine what the party

would have been like if Todd had joined us from Hawaii.

We would have definitely needed to find a photo booth

and lured some unsuspecting people in for a smell

of the reunited Team Flatulence.

And just like in high school,

I would have ran the other direction

while laughing hysterically.

Your love is better than ice-cream

I am so excited to present my original idea.

It’s gonna put me in a higher realm

with my oh so crafty friends.

Trust me when I say you don’t want

to miss out on hitting the read more button.

My mom brought me these great frames from the thriftstore.

They are black with red matting.

They match my kitchen-aid.

Remember this post about me and red.

There was one problem with the frames,

they had safari animal prints.

They hung with the original prints

for the past 4 months

until I got sick of explaining my

fake love for Africa.

I took some photos a while back,

that I intended to use.

And I finally found the time

to edit them and put them to good use.

I present the best dining area framed photos

of all time.

I know you are all going to copy me.

Can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Lay off the ice-cream shots.

They are mine.

All mine.

As is LG’s favorite song.

Your love is better than ice-cream.

I love how the added text

combines the love LG and I have for each other

with the love we also have for and from our kids.

I would show you the photo of how cute they are on the wall,

but I am too lazy to get my camera back out.

I guess you’ll just have to come over and see it for yourself.

Definitely do come over.

It’s just too bad you weren’t here the first time Caroline

discovered the photos on the my wall

and bubbily exclaimed,

“Look mom, it’s my Caroline.”

Sometimes two year olds are too cute.

I am pretty sure God intended it to be that way,

so we don’t kill them when they go and sling dog poop

And LG, your love is better than ice-cream,

and chocolate molten cakes,

and Olive garden,

and Cafe Rio,

and rootbeer floats,

and chocolate covered strawberries

combined.

alice w. gold

Where I reserve the right to be myself, apologize, and evolve.