Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Cowboy Nic


Little did I know that when I took my nephew, Nicholas, home from preschool I would be spending the afternoon with "Cowboy Nic."  When we walked through the front door of Nicholas's home, he immediately ran upstairs to change.  Meanwhile, I got out all the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies for his borthers (there's nothing better than coming home from school to freshly baked cookies, right?)  I started wondering what was taking Nico so long, so I called up to him to ask if he was still going to help me with the cookies.  He quickly responded that he just had to finish buttoning up his shirt.  A few minutes later, he came clomping down the stairs in full "Cowboy Nic" attire:  plaid button-down shirt, sheriff badge pinned to the chest, leather hat, belt, jeans, and--most importantly-heavy heeled cowboy boots (which where actually a pair of Kim's cast off fashionable low-heeled boots, but that did not bother Nic AT ALL).  He clomped into the kitchen, hopped up on a chair and proceeded to help me make the cookies.  After the dough was mixed up and plopped onto a cookie sheet (and after taste-testing, of course), Nic jumped back off the chair and continued to clomp around the kitchen, outside deck, garage, front side walk, and back in on the kitchen wood floor.  I decided that there must be something very satisfying about the  sound of clomping boots to a 6 year-old boy.  Nic told me all about cowboy boots and why they are so good for walking in dirt and and desert sand.  He then decided he needed to make a cowboy house (which he did on the deck) and then he asked if I would go on a walk with  him.  Heck yes, I would LOVE to walk the neighborhood with Cowboy Nic.  As we headed down the street, we found piles of tree branches and cardboard boxes to clomp and stomp over.

Clomp, clomp, stomp, clomp, clomp.

Into the Sunset.


Monday, October 10, 2011

A Masterpiece

"But trailing clouds of glory we come,
from God, who is our home"

Last March, we commissioned this painting from a very talented artist, Annie Henrie.  I wanted something depicting our daughters, OUR masterpieces, looking down upon the earth from their pre-mortal home, and contemplating the beauties and soon-to-be experiences of their earthly existence.  More importantly, every time they look at this painting I want my daughters to remember that they were sisters then and that they chose to be sisters now. Families ARE forever.  We ARE sons and daughters of loving heavenly parents.  We have a divine nature and we have the inner strength, abilities and capabilities to accomplish great and marvelous things.

Y be fit


Today was Kelsey's day off from school and her internship (at YbeFit) and so Markelle and I drove down to Provo to hang out with her for the day.  I've been wanting to hike the Y for some time now, so when we arrived I told Kelsey to get her gear on and off we went to the trail head.  We took Jesse along with us, and it was a good hard, steep climb that set our hearts beating. The temperature was perfect for this type of hike, the jagged mountains majestic in their autumnal colors and the view was fantastic.  When we reached the snowy colored Y, we sat and talked about life, family and friends, marriage...all the good, girly kind of talk.  I love my Utah mountains, and it was fun to hike a trail that I haven't hiked since my childhood days of living in Orem.

Afterwards, we showered and changed, then enjoyed a day of shopping at Cherry Lane, Deseret Industries (Halloween Costumes!) and JoAnn's and eating yummy pizza from SLAB.  What a fun day with two of my favorite girls!