Funny Faces

Last Saturday we celebrated my Dad's birthday...and it led to "funny faces." I think it first started with my nieces...but soon we all had caught the "bug." Here's my brother...he did that on purpose.

My cute nephew didn't join in the game but I had to get his picture anyway.

Here's my cute sister-in-law.

Notice the grapes...and try to notice the grapes in the later pictures. The first one to start stuffing grapes in her mouth was this cute blond girl. So, as you can see...she started it all.

And then this dark haired cutie joined in...and....

...and then it was too late!!

Grapes?

Our upper lips aren't big enough for grape stuffing! But we had to try.

More grapes...

No grapes...this is natural!!

Mountains and Sky

One afternoon I was driving home from visiting my mom and the visual feast was amazing. I've always loved looking at the mountains but took them for granted since this is where I was born and raised. Well, when I moved to the East Coast I was blown away at their trees and blossoming bushes. I fell in love with the "green" that always surrounded me after I got over the feeling of claustrophobia. Now that I'm back home, I can't stop looking at the mountains and gushing over them. Unfortunately, it has also lead me to take pictures while I'm driving. I promise I look for places to pull over but most of the time...there really isn't a place. At the above picture, I was stopped at a stop sign...which is why there is a car in the picture.

I wish my little point and shoot camera could do justice to a sky that magnificent. It's a nice picture but it was even a nicer sky.

It's kind of funny how you can look past all the street signs and buildings to see the beauty around but when you take a picture of it...the camera doesn't look past those darn stop lights. (I was stopped at the stop light when I took this picture).

This time I did pull over to take this picture...it's a picture of the front of Timpanogus Mountain...just a quarter of mile from my parent's house. Try to look past all the houses and cars and enjoy the majesty of this mountain.

It was really cold outside so this is taken indoors...through a window. This is the back of my parents house. When I was in grade school, sometimes I'd wake up in the middle of the night, walk into the family room and look out the window at this view. I did it most often during the winter when the ground was covered in snow and the moon was full. The night wasn't dark with all the light reflecting off of the snow and it had a peace that usually calmed me enough that I'd be able to go back to sleep when I returned to my bed.

This picture was taken while SM was driving. I get to see this view every day as I leave my home to drive to my mom's house...unless we have an inversion in the weather and then I can barely see in front of me.

This picture is another one where the camera can't do justice to the colors. I took this one last Saturday morning from my bedroom window. Can you believe I am surrounded by such beauty? I thank my Heavenly Father for giving me wonders to look upon often. I am truly blessed.

Friend found

I just wanted everyone to know that I was able to find my lost friend. Thanks to my friend for contacting me. It was great to see her blog and to see how she hasn't changed but her children have really grown. Yeah!! I feel blessed to live in a time where distance doesn't keep people apart. We have technology that has made it possible to do "the impossible."

When we were living on the East Coast, I loved using my web cam to stay in contact with all my family. One day I was even able to play "Hide and Go Seek" with my niece through our web cams. It was a joy to be part of that simple game and be thousands of miles away at the same time.

My Shawl

I crocheted a shawl to wear to church because I get so cold during the winter time. I wanted to get a picture of me wearing it with my Sunday clothes but forgot to do so. SM did snap a few pictures of my wearing it while I was playing with my nephew and neices. Do you like it? It has a ruffle near the bottom that isn't shown in these pictures. I'll have to remember to take another picture of it so that you can see the whole picture.

I wore the shawl to church and stayed mostly warm during Sacrament Meeting. I still had a coat on my legs and wore my boots with my skirt. Anyway, that's my new shawl. I enjoyed making it and now I'm enjoying using it.

New Shoes

Here are my new shoes. I went shopping with SM on Saturday. He needed to get new workout shoes to replace those that had been stolen from his car this last week. As we were shopping, he remembered that I had been saying that I needed to get new shoes because mine were pretty worn. We were at the outlet shops and went in and out of the different stores trying to find some shoes that I liked...and then I saw these. I had to take a picture of them outside so that you could really see the color of them. In the store they had a grayish look to them but out in the light they are purple. Yep, purple and I absolutely love them. You can't see from this picture but they have a very small pattern of flowers on part of them. They are so beautiful. SM found shoes in the first store we went to and I like his very much also. They are a black, gray combination.

Icicle

I know that icicles are not a big deal but the first time I saw this one I was amazed at how one icicle split into two and so I took a picture. It's hard to see the icicles but I thought with the tree behind it you could probably get the idea.

Side effects from staying up past midnight

The side effects from staying up past midnight, surrounded by family and lots of food are sometimes really scary. This is not the norm for these two love birds, but as you can see, they did have a lot of fun.

Christmas Pictures

Christmas morning was a lazy morning. We all slept in, showered, ate breakfast and finally got around to opening presents. (It was 10 am when that started). The above picture is of SM's mom and his youngest brothers' girlfriend.

SM loves opening presents which makes it fun to give him presents.

My niece's family came over as we were opening gifts. I just had to throw this picture in and show everyone the "baby" that she received for Christmas.

And there's a crazy picture of me opening one of my presents. I can tell from the label that it is a present that I bought for myself, wrapped for myself and wrote the tag "to" and "from" myself. Ahhh, the perfect Christmas present.

And the hoodie that SM is wearing is the present that he bought for himself, wrapped for himself and gave to himself. I know we don't always follow tradition with gift giving and receiving, but we love getting just what we wanted!!

In search of a friend

I have a friend who used to live in Falls Church with me and moved her family to Arizona after her husband finished law school. I know she follows my blog but I don't seem to have her email any longer. This friends' name begins with the letter "A" and last name begins with "P." Last I knew, she had two daughters with names of cities (at least the eldest daughter has a city name). As you can tell, I'm trying not to give any personal information away. I was hoping to get an invite to her blog so that I can follow her and her family as they grow. If my friend reads this, please contact me (somehow)...I'd love to get back in contact.

Yarn

I have been crocheting a shawl to wear during church, to keep warm...and it is almost finished. I'll post a picture or two when it's finished. Meanwhile I am posting a picture of some yarn that I purchased on sale at Michael's last week. It was so hard to make a decision on what to buy so I bought a little bit of my favorites. Now I just have to make something small.

Favorite Christmas Gift

I wanted to post a few pictures of my favorite Christmas gift. SM surprised me with this pearl necklace. All of these pictures are of the same necklace, it just looks different because of the background.

Thanks, SM for a great gift.