ABC Picture Project

So glad I saw @corina_sorensen's ABC project on instagram! I followed her lead! Just made the letter/frames kind of clear, using one of my favorite photo editing apps Afterlight. It was fun taking most of the photos along the way, and grabbing a few from the recent past that worked perfectly with certain letters. Now to get these into a book for the kids! I hope they like it. :) Then maybe put together a photo gallery wall, we'll see...

A is for apple crisp.

B is for balloons...and Brooks and bare buns.

C is for chocolate chips.

D is for Dad.

E is for eternal family...and evergreen trees (we started ours in the Salt Lake Temple, but the Portland Oregon Temple, surrounded by evergreen trees, has a special place in my heart. You can go here if you want to learn more about temples)

F is for family.

G is for gratitude.

H is for happy.

I is for ice cream.

J is for jump!

K is for kiss.

L is for leaves.

M is for missionaries.

N is for naps.

O is for ostrich.

P is for the pond our the beautiful Liberty Park.

Q is for quilt.

R is for reading.

S is for siblings.

T is for tea party.

U for 'Up' one of our favorite movies.

V is for vacation.

W is for walking and wearing Ava.

X is for "xoxo"...never too early to teach my prince charming to write love.

Y is for yaawwwn.

Z is for zest.

Sakura Bloom Sling Diaries Vol. IV: Dreams

Dear Ava,

"A dream is a wish your heart makes."

That quote is from a song in the Disney movie Cinderella, a movie I'm sure we'll watch together one day. The soon-to-be princess in that story lived in such sad circumstances, but she never let it break her hope, her heart, or her dreams. She was still kind to those around her and made best with what she had, and eventually lived out her dreams...all while singing happy tunes. :) The song she sings of dreams being wishes our hearts make is a simple, but incredible sentiment! Aves, your heart will drive you to take risks, love deeper, make changes, and dream big. Your heart, and my heart, is where I feel our faith lives...even when our once-burning faith--in ourselves or in those around us--is just a glowing ember after life's storms pour down on us. The dreams we have for our lives take faith and passion and dedication on our part, but the people we surround ourself with also influence how those dreams unveil themselves and eventually turn out.

I hope you surround yourself with people that lift you and encourage you to dream big! Your Dad, older brother, and I will always be some of those people. Even though you'll have hard seasons in life, and you'll walk through frigid, snow-packed trails (like our wintry walk we took last Sunday), you may feel like your dreams are frozen and they'll never see the warm sun. Sometimes we'll carry you over the ice, like your Daddy as he wore you in the sling. Or we'll hold your hand to keep you steady, like we did with you brother. And then one day I know we'll have to watch you fight for you dreams on your own. But we'll always be here for you, cheering you on as you reach for your dreams. That's a promise. I see a strong woman in you Ava, and I'm so excited to see what dreams are in that beautiful heart of yours! 

Love,

Mom

PS - Watching Dad wear you makes me melt every time! Thanks for making one of my dreams come true...to see my love raise a daughter. He cherishes you Ava. So much.

** I am participating in the Sakura Bloom Sling Diaries, sharing thoughts and photos of our baby wearing adventures. See my other Sling Diary entries/letters to Ava here. In these photos Adam is wearing Ava in a Sakura Bloom Simple Silk sling in Bittersweet. And please excuse the poor quality of some of these pictures, I take all of my photos with my iPhone, and when I lose day light I lose quality. xo

2013 Year in Review

Feeling blessed to live a life of love and color. I enjoyed sifting through photos of last year, reliving sweet memories and learning from heart-breaking moments. Overall, so happy to say that 2013 was a good one!

See past "year in reviews" here:

2011

2012

Picnic in the Mountains - 2013 Family Photos

This past October we were beyond lucky to get sweet Jen Herem to photograph our little family again. Last time we had barely become a family of four, and I treasure the photos she captured at our home. This go around we soaked up a beautiful fall evening in the mountains with a little picnic. Jen had her work cut out for her...Ava was wasn't feeling well (a lot sicker than I thought) and Brooks decided to fall asleep on the drive there and woke up with his grumpy pants on. But even with our two littles not feeling so hot, Jen got some beautiful images! Love this little family of mine.  

To see more of Jen's work go here.

Gingerbread Cookies & Buttercream Frosting

Apparently I chose to miss the wrong BUNCO night, because me friend Shay served these gingerbread cookies and they were a hit! ;) So much so that everyone was asking about the recipe and she was sweet enough to share. Thank you Shay! Another friend of hers passed it on to her from a Cutler's Cookie baking class (where do I sign up for that?!), and considering that I had a not-so-great gingerbread cookie baking session earlier this week, I was giddy when these turned out! They are delicious! Christmas in your mouth. :) I just changed a couple minor things, which I noted below. So, happy gingerbread baking! Love this time of year. And I loved getting to make the dough while wearing my sweet Ava...then baked/frosting them while she and brother slept. It was a good sunday indeed. xo

GINGERBREAD COOKIES & BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
(Similar to Cutler's)
1 cup butter (I used salted)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup molasses
1/2 teaspoon salt (I didn't add any)
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ginger
1 1/4 teaspoon cloves (I used Allspice (1 1/2 teaspoons) because I didn't have ground cloves)
1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (I used 1 teaspoon)
4 1/2 cups cake flour (more if needed, so it's not too sticky)
** (if you don't have cake flour you can make your own by replacing 2 Tablespoons of flour for every cup with cornstarch and sifting well...but I use cake flour often, as it's called for in my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, so I advise stocking up:)
***Update with the replacement cake flour...I tried it today and it was definitely not the same. It may have just been me, but I made two batches of dough, one with Soft Silk cake flour, and one with the sifted flour/cornstarch and it was much more dry. So use cake flour if at all possible! :)

First cream butter and sugar (I did it in an electric mixer with the paddle attachment). Add the egg and molasses and stir until combined. In a seperate bowl mix dry ingredients together and gradually stir into the molasses mixture with a spoon. (It becomes a good workout toward the end;) Chill dough in the refrigerator for at least 1-2 hours. Chilling the dough makes it easier to handle if rolling dough out to make cut out cookies. *** When ready to bake, take the dough out of the fridge then preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Scoop the dough, using an ice cream or large cookie scoop (unless you're using cookie cutters...then you would flour your surface, roll and cut...keep them thick so they stay nice and soft!). Drop dough balls onto a parchment lined baking sheet, about 6 per sheet. I used a cup and pressed them down just a bit.  Bake for about 8-10 minutes. Cookies are done when top is crackled and middle no longer looks wet or shiny. Don't overbake, as they'll continue to cook even after they are out of the oven.

BUTTERCREAM FROSTING:
1 cup butter, room temperature (I used salted)
4 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
few tablespoons milk, optional

Beat the butter and the powdered sugar together until smooth (I used my mixer with the whisk attachement, but a hand mizer would work too). Add vanilla and beat well. Add milk, a tablespoon at a time, until the frosting is at desired consistency (I added 3 tablespoons to mine). Continue beating until smooth. Making sure the cookies are completely cooled, frost them and ENJOY! The mo' frosting the betta' ;)

Guest Post: Healthy Christmas Snack

It's old news that I am definitely one to take advantage of any chance I get to play with my food. ;) I've seen fruit and vegetable Christmas trees before, served at holiday parties, and they're always a big hit. But I thought, why not make a simple version that my little boy could take part in making? We did it, and as I had hoped, it was a hit--even for our little party of 2! I shared the details over on my lovely friend Lindsay's blog, here! Deer Lindsay is such a charming spot in blogland...take a look and try not to smile at the gorgeous photos of her sweet family, and her beautiful and honest words that accompany them. xo

Brooks was pretty proud. :)

Dear Brooks,

Today it snowed. And it snowed and snowed. Felt like we were living in a giant snow globe and we kind of loved it. :) While Ava slept, you and I headed out, per your request, to "play snowball fight like ELF"...oh, bring it on. ;) Wish I could have captured video of our sheniangans! But considering that I finally took my phone out with us capture some fun in all that powder (we've loved the snow the last couple weeks!) I'll call it good.

Watching you, sweet boy, try to catch snowflakes on your tongue, stomp through knee-deep snow, making and throwing snowballs in your batman gloves that are too big for your little hands, and then reminding you where your pockets were so you could warm up those hands that you said were "so wet and so code" were just a few moments that made my mama heart smile. And after you decided even your hat was "wet and code", we came inside to soak gingerbread cookies in milk, and it topped off our afternoon pretty nicely. We've had some pretty great mom-and-Brooks afternoons lately, and I treasure them. I treasure you.

Love you forever Brooks! And I'm so excited for our white Christmas next week!

Love,

Mom