DATENIGHT AT DISNEYLAND

Had a fun date night at the park! We were so excited to see that splash mountain is open again. SO GOOD.

ACTIVITY: PAPER BAG SCRAPBOOKS

I seriously have the best calling. I get to hang out with 5 of coolest the little girls and do fun activities. Tonight we finished off our 2-parter Mothers Day project and put together our scrapbooks!

At our previous Faith in God activity night we did all the prep for the scrap books. We did a photo shoot in a pretty little park area outside the church and  I had them each fill out a questionnaire about their Moms. (I loved reading their answers by the way....hilarious) 

So last night we actually put together the scrapbooks. For the book itself, I used brown paper bags. Once you fold them in half they make perfect little 5"x5" pages. Every alternating page has a little pocket from the top of the paper bag which can be used for thank you notes, drawings or whatever you like. We used them for some Mom-coupons.

What we used:

-brown paper bags

-scrap booking paper cut into 4.75"x4.75 squares

-twine or yarn (to bind the book)

-photos (we did a really pretty photo shoot with lots of flowers!)

-questions and answers about their Moms

-quotes from General Conference about Motherhood

-Mothers day coupons (find these here!)

-hole punch

-washi tape 

and here are some shots of of my pretty girls from our photo shoot:

Belly Girl

Just came across some photos I completely forgot about from the spring picnic we did at the end of March. This is my niece Annabell Hill and she is insanely adorable, feisty, enthusiastic and expressive as heck and downright cuddle-able . Keep it up Belly girl. 

ROADTRIP TO SF

This past weekend we did a little road trip up to San Francisco. Too much time had passed since we've gone up to see Dri, Landon and little Leo so we were way overdue for a visit. Plus we actually just love a good road trip. Not only is a road trip an excuse for picking up Costco snacks and drinking a socially unacceptable amount of gas station fountain soda, but its also a catalyst for some of the best conversations and weirdest inside jokes that we have.

One of our road trip favorite things to do: Dallas loves when I read rotten tomato movie reviews aloud. But only ones that have like 30% or less. They are always really funny and its something we just wouldn't make the time for unless we were in the car for that long.

So the traveling was awesome, and then actually visiting in SF was so fun. The first night we caught up with one of Dal's mission and college besties John John and his family and ate dinner at the Google campus where he works. The next day we went to Carmel-by-the-Sea, which is this insanely adorable little story book town in Monterey county. We walked up a down a bunch of streets to check out the crazy little cottages (its seriously like you are in a storybook), got lunch at Le St Tropez, raided the Cottage of Sweets candy store, relaxed on the beach and then did the famous 17-mile drive. That night we got some deep dish pizza and stayed up till 2am laughing hard enough to keep their downstairs neighbors up (sorry guys).

The next day we checked out Stanford and walked around all the athletic facilities, (Dallas tried to inspire Leo for a future in college soccer), got lunch at tacolicious and walked around Landon and Dri's new stomping grounds in Palo Alto. 

We had such a good time catching up and getting the lay of the land in their new neighborhood and seeing how much Leo has grown just in the last 6 months. Cant wait for them to visit us here next! 

REFLECTIONS ON A RECIPE FOR ENDURING LOVE

At my bridal shower all the women who came to celebrate brought one of their favorite recipes, and their recipe for enduring love. So I have this recipe book full of delicious recipes, all of these thoughtful words and wise advice from women I admire. It's awesome. Today I was looking over them again and I'm just so grateful for that book. 

Mary Lou Butkovich from my family ward in Barrie passed on some of her own advice along with this quote:

"The first to apologize is the bravest.

The first to forgive is the strongest.

The first to forget is the happiest"

-Oscar Wilde 

I love this quote and Dallas and I had a discussion about it and he thought that the word "first" suggests competition, which is not what problem resolution should be about. I totally agree and I wanted to share my own spin on the quote (which is probably literary blasphemy-sorry Mr.Wilde)

"Bravery is to not put off an apology.

Strength is to not put off forgiveness. 

Happiness is to not put off forgetting."

I'm pretty lucky to have a husband who is not only cool and handsome, but who is my best friend and my complete partner. We are usually on the same wave length, and when we are not, he is crazy humble and always strives to understand where I'm coming from. (Even when its just my irrational PMS feelings- so extra kudos there Dal)  I hope I do just as good of a job at doing that for him.  Anyway, that's my reflection for today. Here's to being brave together, strong together and happy together.