my family makes the cutest babies

don't even try to deny it...







...and these are just the ones i hung out with this weekend!

now, see here

we have really wonderful friends, friends who bring us flowers!



i love having flowers in the house.

we have more wonderful friends who let us come over and watch 'the lion king' and then send us home with farm eggs.



i love farm eggs. i love the color, soft & brown. i love that each & every single egg is a different shade, shape, size. they're all so unique.



thank you, friends.

finally!

we got a kite as a wedding gift from some close friends. we've been out numerous times since the weather has (finally) warmed up, but each time the wind has hidden away, refusing to come out and play. it blew all day on wednesday and decided to stay. we were so glad. it was refreshing to be out in the clear, cool air.

these photos were taken with our brand new camera! i've been aching for one ever since i took photography courses in college and we finally found the one i wanted with the right price tag. i love it! i'm looking forward to developing some talents and capturing moments.

have a wonderful saturday!

-l

p.s. i've been listening to 'the weepies' all week. sometimes i forget how i much i like a band and then, when i remember, i listen to them non-stop.

remind me not to forget about 'the weepies' again.

butter pecan & chocolate moose tracks

like i previously mentioned, i spent this past weekend with my mom, sister, grandma, aunts and almost more cousins than we could squeeze into one house. almost.

it was a blast! a weekend that will go down in the ages and, i hope, be repeated.

we spent friday night and all of saturday together. we shared beds and passed around the babies. we ate the ice cream that my mother has owed to us for a few months now (kissing ice cream!) and birthday cake to celebrate three different birthdays within a couple of weeks of eachother.

we were reminded, by eachother and by the speakers at time out for women, of our worth and value as women. we were encouraged to grow and progress. "what lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us." we were told that nothing, not even ourselves, should stop us from becoming the women Heavenly Father intended us to be.

i don't think i have ever been at a family function and have not expressed, to another family member, that we have the raddest family ever. this past weekend was no exception. my grandma sewed each and every one of us microwave potato bags. we got to meet tims daughter; they're great! at one point, my aunt said, and i quote, "i laughed so hard i could've dropped a baby." i die! we ate delicious food together and laughed and cried together, growing in spirit and love.

i love these women.



like, a lot.

for the mothers

you bet this is a mothers day post! how could i not?

i am thankful for my own mother, who has always unselfishly offered me her love throughout the years. she has a gentle heart and has been an example of a believer. thank you for your love and your faith, dear mama.



she has been influential in, quite literally, helping me to climb mountains. she is strong and courageous and i strive to mirror these qualities my mother so naturally possesses.



she is incredibly hardworking; any weaker woman would've dropped dead after my seven week engagement last summer. seriously mama; a huge thank you for all you did for us last summer. we appreciated it so much!

happy mothers day! i love you!

of course there are plenty of other mothers in my life and i could not write today and have them go unrecognized as women who has influenced my life.

to my sweet grandma; thank you for raising my mama. you are an example to me of happiness and righteousness. i cherish the time we spend together. i love you!

to my wonderful mother in law, who was, it felt, a mother to me long before brian and i were ever married. she lead and guided in young womens and we worked on the temple flowers together for two summers. thank you for raising the man i married and teaching him all that he knows. i love you!

to my precious sisters, who have not only become mothers to children of their own, but who have all mothered me in one way or another. they teach me and love me and listen to me. i started out with one dear sister, a friend throughout my childhood, and have now been blessed through marriages to have many more sisters. i admire and look up to each of you. i love you, sisters!

to my aunts and cousins, too! how could i leave you out? you have fed me and loved me and let me stay at your house. i have been blessed to live with cousins, whom i love dearly and could never replace. i marveled at my family this weekend; all of these wonderful women joined together by the ties of friendship and the bonds of eternity. i love you!

there is nothing like the relationship between a mother and a daughter.
happy mothers day, mama! and all other mothers whom i adore.

magical mustache

dear brian,

your mustache is awesome. like, seriously awesome.

remember?





please grow it back while i'm gone this weekend, m'kay?



in the mean time, i'm heading slightly south to hang out with a plethora of my female relatives. we're all going to time out for women together. i can't wait! we're also having a gigantic sleepover at my aunts house.

hello, girls weekend!

bean farmers

how do i even begin to write about a weekend that was that awesome?

it started with a bonus AND a gift card at work. go team! then came my mama and her man, tim, up to our city for a visit. we gorged ourselves at an indian buffet (oh, cinnamon naan bread) and waddled home to my brothers place. we stayed up late playing games.
and then mama and i stayed up even later giggling in bed while brian slept on the couch. sorry, m'dear. we slept in and then we ate english muffins with eggs and bacon for breakfast. yum. but then we topped it off with fresh chocolate milk from a dairy farm in bc. thank youuuu, big brother matthew and all your awesome connections.
then we walked to the farmers market where we got bounced around by like 623 other edmontonians. we had samples of fruit & veggies & sausage & chocolates. my mama bought a huge basil plant and we strapped it into the strolled that haylen opted out of; he'd rather be snuggled up to tim. we walked down whyte ave and saw a man playing three recorders; one with his mouth and one out of each nostril.
we visited aunts and uncles and introduced tim to even more family.
we played angry birds and we taught mama how to play angry birds. we ate burgers (with fresh basil leaves!) and potato fries at home and kept our food away from the little scavenging baby haylen. then we played even more games. and then mama and i giggled some more.
we went to church and listened to the testimonies of others. then we sent mama and tim on their way, and went to singing time with our little sunbeams. we sang out our little hearts in preparation for mothers day next week, and we taught them a lesson all about the wonderful things our bodies can do and why Heavenly Father made them just the way He did.

we had a really, really great weekend.
welcome to the family, tim. we're totally delighted to have you.