Friends, Roller Skating, Hair, and Family

Whenever I visit my cousin Natalie's blog I am inspired to blog too and record little bits and pieces of what is going on in our lives right now.

Speaking of Natalie, there she is on the far right in the picture below. A few weeks ago we had a girls weekend and it was so great to be able to get to be with these 3 women who all have super busy lives but were each able to carve out some time to get away from the every day routines and reflect on life a bit. All three of these women help me to be a better person. So grateful for them!

I went to Washington a few weeks ago, via Phoenix, don't ask, and I went roller skating with Jared and his kids.

I had never seen these cool "walker" type things that they had for the little kids...if they had them for grownups I would use one too!

I got to be a photographer at a charity hair show a few weeks ago and after I arrived and realized I needed to run home and get a backdrop I decided to bring Sydney and Talmage too since it was just so cool to be backstage and see dozens of these hair models with their creative hair-dos. 

This is Sydney with the winner...look closely and you will see that the hat, is actually hair. This model was just over the moon excited that she had a little fan in Sydney.

I think Talmage single handedly ate most of the cherry tomatoes that were in the green room.

These girls are twins and in the brief time that I spoke with them I found out that they have 19 siblings and that they were raised in foster care. They were both so, so sweet.

I don't know why, but this girls hair was one of my favorites.

This was our Valentiney table. The only trouble with these chalk markers is that the writing doesn't completely wipe away. Not such a bad thing I guess when it's love notes too each other.

The first weekend in March my nephew Fred got baptized in Cache Valley so we went up for that and had fun spending time with family. I remember well  flying to Portland to meet little Fred right after he was born. He is such a good example for my kids.

It was raining  most of the day, but it slowed to a mist just long enough for me to take some pictures of Fred at the Temple before it got dark.

Fred with his mama. He looks like he is saying something profound in the picture above.

This is the group (minus Steve and the twins who were napping) who came to celebrate Fred's baptism. We missed Kacie's parents because her dad was in the hospital. I am posting this despite the fact that I look so large and in charge. Note to self, do not stand on the outer edge of a picture when shooting wide. I totally should have had Sam scoot over and stood on the other side of him and I would have had time to still run and make it into the picture. I mean, if I am taking the picture I should at least be able to make myself look good right?

Dr. Lucy was on site in case of any emergencies. I don't know if I have ever seen Lucy so serious!

Dr. K was also on hand to write prescriptions.

I love getting the cousins together to play. Cousins were and are so important to me in my life and I hope that it will be that way for my kids too.

Me and Emily. I didn't realize how blond my hair was looking. I want it to be dark like Emily's but the hair people keep convincing me to stay a bit lighter so my grey/white hair doesn't stand out so much. I  have had grey/white hairs since I was 24 but in the last little while the amount of those grey/white hairs has increased dramatically. Sad!

We had some good food.

I love this picture of Sydney and my mom.

This boy is very excited to meet the newest addition at Grandma Jeans house...a puppy!

Finn was full of cuteness the whole day. His bowtie was killing me.

I love this pic of Emily and since she will probably never post it, I will. So pretty.

In Relief Society someone made a comment about how you should have two comfortable chairs in your home facing pretty much like these chairs in this picture. The lady making the comment said it was because it is most comfortable to have conversations like this, in comfy chairs that aren't directly facing each other. I think the lesson was on fostering good communication in our homes. As I listened to her I remembered this picture and these chairs and thought about how those chairs were always filled and people were always talking to each other while sitting in them. There were lots of other comfy couches around, but the conversations seemed to always be in the chairs. I need some chairs like this.

What to do with a whole bunch of kids on a rainy wintery day? Take them to the warehouse of course and ride around on scooters and skateboards and anything with wheels.

And make friends with your cousins cousins and decide to paint your face with dirt. Silly kids.

Have a great week!