How much more would I teach thee if thou would listen.  This just came to my mind.  I have been thinking lately about noise.  We live in a world full of noise.  It is everywhere.  It comes in all forms. Television, radio, cell phones, magazines, movies, the media on and on.  I have been feeling how important it is to take time away from the noise or to quiet the noise and listen to the what God would have us do.  He is there.  He loves us more than we can fathom. He is all knowing.  I know that if we take the time to listen, he will guid us.  I am so grateful for this.  Jarrod and I were talking about the veil tonight and what it is.  I was thinking about how the more righteous we are and the more we listen the thinner the veil.  If we can quiet ourselves and listen, we hear from Him As we submit out will and continue to listen, our ability to hear increases.  Sounds super simple.  And I think it is.  One of my biggest goals for 2015 is to listen more to the spirit and invite the guiding power of the spirit to influence my life.  I am so grateful for a Heavenly Father who loves me in spite of all my short comings.  Who forgives all my weakness.  Who is always there with open arms to teach and guide me.

Mr. Morris

You know those moments where the impact of just how blessed you are really hit you??  I was having one of those moments today while I was thinking about the handsome man I married.  I look back on my decision to marry him and thank The Lord I said yes.   It is amazing how when I first got married, I thought I loved my darling husband with all my heart....but then, that love grows.  It grows when I see him holding our newborn baby in his arms for the first time.  It grows when through hard times with hard decisions we cling to each other and the goals and dreams that we have.  It grows as I watch how hard he works to provide a beautiful life for our family. I have been married 8 wonderful years now.  In someways, it feels like forever and in others it feels like the blink of an eye.  I am so grateful that I get to spend my whole life loving, growing, adventuring and laughing with this man of mine.  God is good.

Being a mama

I once hear the quote "Making the decision to have a child is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body."-- Elizabeth Stone.   This pretty much sumed it up for me.  I remember the first night my oldest Ava was born.  I remember holding her and thinking, "I am it.  If she is sick or hurt or needs anything it is up to me."  I held my tiny perfect baby and felt the mantle of motherhood settle over me and knew in that moment that I would never be the same. I wanted to be the perfect mom.  Ava is now almost 5 and I have two more amazing kids.  I am far from perfect but I have learned that what impacts my experience as a mother most is my perspective. 

I love the Mormon message about Stephanie Nielsen.  She was burnt on over 80% of her body in a plane crash.  The small things like brushing her girls hair, making her kids lunches or giving them baths that she use to be do without even thinking about them, are now hard and involved.  She said she looks at motherhood as more of a privileged.  The first time I heard this it really struck me how blessed I am.  I have three beautiful, healthy, rambunctious little kiddos that I get to take care of everyday.   I get to wake up in the morning to Paisley saying, "I wanna snuggle mommy" and Ava laying in back of me tickling my arm while Jarrod snuggles Boston next to me.  I get to give my little kids bathes and do their hair.  I get to give them as many hugs and kisses as I want and hold their tiny little hands in mine.  I get to tell them how much I love them no matter what and make their lunches and drive them to school.  I get to take them shopping with me, and wash their cute little stained clothes and cook them dinner.  It is so easy for us to get caught up in the day to day of being parents.  I know because I regularly do.  Being a parent is hard.  You run on little sleep and hardly any alone time.  Sometimes I wonder if I will ever be able to go to the bathroom with out one of my kids wandering in and needing something again:)  But I like to try to remember that being a parent is a privilege.  I like to look for those small moments throughout the day that make it all worth it.  Like the moment when Boston sees Jarrod and says, "Hi daddy." for the first time or when Ava has a long discussion with me about something.  It is so easy to get busy and not appreciate or take the time to enjoy the time we have with our kids when they are young.  All to soon, they will want to sleep in instead of getting into bed with us and the cute little hand prints on the walls and mirrors will be gone. So here is to taking time, putting off the things that don't really matter and enjoying our kids.  Like my mom always says, "they won't remember if you dishes where always done and the house was always clean, but the will remember if you spent time with them." 

Tomatoe time!

I love visiting Utah in the Fall!!  Besides the beautiful weather, it is harvest time and there is so much fresh and delicious food. My parents moved here about 5 1/2 years ago and have since taken up gardening and canning their own produce.  It is amazing!

Ava and Paisley were excited to get to be part of the tomato picking.

Aren't they lovely??

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Mama had some good pickins

We ended up with 2 bushels and had a good time bottling them.  Mom said she still wants to pick and bottle 5 more because nothing beats vine ripened tomatoes bottled fresh in food. 

Boston boy's 1st birthday party

My Boston boy is one!!  I can hardly believe that it has been a whole year since he was born.  We are so blessed to have this little man in our family.  He is a mover and shaker always on the go.

Jarrod and I decided that since his birthday is in the summer, we had to do a pirate pool party.  We had a blast looking on Pintest and coming up with ideas for our celebration.

I had a ton a fun making this cake.  The sand is ground up graham cracker and Jarrod got these cute little pirate lego guys to top it all off.

Found a picture of this on Pintrest and let my amazing hubby do the rest.  He did such a great job making our Shark melon!

These jello cups where so cute and the kids loved them.

I went with Texas sheet cupcakes and made this cupcake stand out of candle stick holders and plates form the dollar store.  Not bad for $6:)

We had the party at my Aunt Tammy's house.  She already had these little picnic tables so we just put plastic table clothes on and cute some wrapping paper in half to make a runner.  To top it off, we added some candle sticks form home, coins and necklaces.

Boston got some great gifts and seemed to have fun opening them up.

What party would be complete without a pinata?  We found this one at Party City.  He wasn't sure about the pinata its self but he sure liked the bat.

When it came time for cake, Boston wasn't quite sure what to do with it....lucky for him he had lots of help:)

I think over all, the table was the most fun to create.  I made the Happy Birthday banner and Jarrod set up the sale.  I am so happy with how everything turned out!