So today I'm finding that I love fresh baked goods! I love the smell of them, I love the golden hue that cookies and bread and even the edges of a cheesecake take on when they are baked correctly :) It makes me smile to lean over fresh baked bread and feel the heat rising up from a pan of fresh baked bread, the smile widens as within the heat rising I'm am taken in further by the sent, breathe deeply and I honestly feel like I could fall into that gorgeous soft loaf of golden bread! Not to mention I know it'll make me even happier in a few minutes when I get to eat them.
Sadly enough this is brought home to me this morning as I have come very close to over cooking a gorgeous christmasy cheesecake... :( It was all swirled white, green, and red. Now it's very golden, green, and white. I'm frustrated but at least golden is christmasy right? :) I just hope it's not to dry... thus my love and happiness over beautifully prepared and delicious baked goods :) And so today I love fresh baked bread, cookies, cakes, pastries, and really anything like that!
The way they touch and look and hold tiny things finding for the first times and watching them discover what wonderful things these hands are capable of. Seeing such tiny replicas of my own hands, having them come up and pat you on the arm or the cheek or wherever they happen to be able to reach is such a sweet feeling. 
I love a well made gown... not just a pretty dress, but a Gorgeous, long, uniquely designed, well made, gown!
I love the way fabric hangs on a gown I don't care if it's straight or aline if it hugs the body or billows in layers of tulle or drapes in a shapely bias cut gown. Any tme you see a gorgeous dress like this I start to imagine myself wearing it ...which usually leads to brief moments of depression and frustration but, The first initial thoughts of these gorgeous gowns are just enchanting (speaking of I'd love to see that movie... have you seen her dresses? :) ) they make me think of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty which in turn makes me feel that anything is possible. So I've just convinced Layna to change out of her ballet clothes so we can go to the store to buy Dora cereal, but she is not happy about it so she pulls off her tutu and turns her back to me stomps her foot and shouts "ZIP!" I raise my eyebrows and calmly say "Ask me nicely please." She gives me a grumpy face, stomps her foot again, and a very little bit quieter yells "Zip!" I shake my head and say "Nicer" I of course am waiting for please, she stomps her foot again and says "Zip!" Mom shakes her head. Layna, foot stomps and a little quieter says"Zip" still looking very grumpy. again I shake my head and say "How about, Will you please unzip me Mom?" Layna's face sudden'y changes to a confused, and very sad look, "But I said that Mom"
Hmmm.... maybe I'm missing something. :)
This actually happened the monday before Thanksgiving :) I love decorating! We went through a whirlwind day trying to get things cleaned up enough that I was comfortable getting out all this christmas stuff and then the girls had a blast! We mainly did the Tree, The Nativity, and of course what is the tree without the Christmas train! :)
Well here I am.
Yeah. Hmm...
Boy I'm exciting! Aren't I! :)
I guess it's time to go and find out what's on my camera, I'll be right back.
Well first it looks like we have leaves!
This was a while ago but it was a lot of fun... in fact the pile may still be out on the lawn. Oops huh, it never made it to the trash :)
Ally's so pretty!
I have a bunch of these! This is one of my favorites but I guess I'll have to scrapbook it all and show you later:)
Here's some pics of costumes and pumpkin carving! Definitely a favorite fall passtime :)
Here's how my Texas trick or treaters were dressed hehehe (truthfully it did get a little chilly :) but Livvy wouldn't have it any other way!)
And Phoebe was eating candy and dancing to... was it Monster Mash? Anyway it was adorable as always :)
Here's Livvy...
And her pumpkin :}
Here's Layna...
And her Pumpkin :S
And here's Ally...
And her Pumpkin :)
Anyway I hope everyone had a wonderful time! We miss you all! Happy Halloween!
Then we have Ally the Queen Diva of the night ;)
Livvy's party was awesome... I'm lucky anyone came really. I went around searching out parents the week of because it had taken so long for me to get on it & to figure out who Livvy even wanted to invite. But it was fun and Livvy had a happy day!
I think I have a picture from long ago with me & my friends in our own paper plate birthday hats and all holding cabbage patch dolls. It reminded me of this one with all their homade party hats they got to decorate and create their own hat it was fun :)
Then I wanted to show the cupcakes I took and frosted each cupcake on their plates like a mini cake using whatever colors I previously had it wasn't till after spraying on the blue that I realized I'd made 4th of July birthday cakes :) The middle platter was just made as rainbow as possible. :)
Seriously I think Phoebe was a little jipped it doesn't really even look like a birthday. :[
But She loved the food
and Livvy loved the cake! :) Livvy sure knows how to get into the spirit of things :)
And Sarah, she did stick her face in the cupcake of her own accord (and idea I had nothing to do with this except for the picture:) )
So that was our birthday... time... couple of months... whatever you want to call it :) Happy birthday to my girls :) I guess it's time for some new tickers:)
So we've had a lot of sickness going around the last two days and I meen some serious sick. Eww! So who else but Mom is taking care of everyone? That's what I thought. So anyway, I'm a little tired and I happen to know that my girls are at one end of the house and as I'm walking to go put away some laundry I hear the radio playing loudly (not blasting... it's been worse :) but loud) and I'm getting upset, I round the corner and look in the room to go shut it off and I see Phoebe standing there swaying to the music and bending down to pickup one of there toys every so often. It was too cute! :) So I let the radio stay on and watched her for a little longer as she kept dancing and lookin around before I went on to finish putting the laundry away and continue with my normal stuff. It's sad but life goes on. :) Love the memories :)
So this weekend I have been flattened against the cabinets in the kitchen stuffing metal cables down a 1 1/2" tube in the wall and pulling it out covered in black sludge and a lye solution that was supposed to be cleaning the pipes and instead kept splattering ourselves..... Continued :) We had some horribly clogged pipes starting from Fri. morning we have been unable to use our kitchen sink and although the lye solution worked the best of any of the pipe cleaners every time it touched us we had to hurry and run it under hot water or we would end up with a painful if not deep burn where it had touched. At one point as Alex pulled the cable out of the wall and I tried to hold it steady it turned and splattered across all my arms and neck... that was probably one of the more painful moments. :] But after several tries with an electric snake and In the middle of Conference(coincidence? I think NOT:) ) and after much prayer It started to finally drain.... slowly! By the end of the day it was fixed and we were able to get some of the 2 days worth of dishes washed before the morning. I still have to go and wash off all the things that had sat under the kitchen sink because they also are rather covered in lye polka dots :) Fun, fun, fun!
Conference was great wasn't it. There wasn't anything in particular said to fix this but somehow it really helped me get over my woe is me feelings I've been dealing with (again) lately :) There was a lot said that helped me in other things though. I think it brought back all my smiley faces too (as you might have noticed there are quite a few in this post :) )
Yeah so that post started about conference and I really did enjoy it and my friend and I got to talk about several things pretty well but those of you who know me will understand that though it was wonderful I'll have to wait for it in printed form to actually give out my favorite quotes.... I know president Monson said something about service that I really liked and as with all of us I loved Sister Beck's talk. I hope the painting post isn't too long ( Okay I just looked at it again.... it's pretty long) I just had to get my feelings out there somewhere because every time I looked at it I knew there was so much more there than Alex saw and here's to the hope that someone else can see it too :) You don't have to read it all but it's there if you want to. Oh and it's better in person... I'll let you decide how much better :)
OK people this is what I did the night of Women's Conference :) Actually I was painting at a non member friends house and we had Conference playing on the internet which was a good thing :) I did enjoy conference and I loved Natalie's thoughts on it. It was a very powerful go mom kind of night and had some awesome spirit strengthening moments. :)
I am wondering about HONEST thoughts on the painting if you want to give them this is not my rendition of Sherry's pictures don't worry I'm not quite that strange :) Honestly, from me, this is not the kind of art that I would normally consider great art but at the moment I feel more attached to this than I think I would to something that I had done in an exact image because then it can be more if they like what I painted ( I suppose it could be something great and I just hacked it, :) but let's assume I'd be decent for the sake of argument... though I haven't yet tried that... at this point the painting of Alex and I will be he first... ooh) and this painting it is very symbolic and very much from my heart, so I'm a little attached. So I really do want some opinions and if it's bad I might cry a little but I'll take it get up and try again so let me have it :)
I am feeling a need to share it's story Livvy believes that they are statues of a woman and (because he is so tall) God which I could see, and the woman with hands on here hip is saying "well why are you here?" Hillary "Why would you say that to God if he were next to you?" Livvy "I don't know, that's just what it looks like." Hillary "ummmm, OK" :) I can see that too, hehe. For my story on it though It's called Paradasiacal Glory ( Paradasiacal defined as in a paradise like state):
The painting most basically is a couple very different but loving eachother very much and through the differences that they have there love and unity brings them to this paradise like state in their lives with eachother. So that for me makes it a painting of what I hope to someday be all the time. I think I've been there sometimes and I love it and want to be there all the time.
The woman in the painting is rather dark and mysterious and very feminine. The lei she is wearing my mother wore in the picture that was my inspiration to me it represents and enhances all the beauty and femininity that she has. The faling flowers are the grace and beauty she leaves wherever she goes.
The man towers over the woman, not in domination but in protection, if you notice he is leaning towards her and that is another part of the representation of protection as well as his wanting to just be close to her. One of the reasons I chose to paint him in white is to show the white knight effect, he is the perfect hero. (by the way Alex thought this was the woman because "that one is wearing a dress" That is just the way I blended out... maybe I'll work on that :) )
If you notice the green connecting the man and woman that is representing a peace that comes when they are together that helps to unite them making them as one.
The eyes you see in the background (they are sideways) were originally the only part of the painting I started them on a night when I had to get out of the house and it was a very frustrating angry mom kind of night, but as I painted and I let go of those feelings the painting changed and I the whole painting wasn't supposed to be like that anymore (that's the point where I stopped and looked at it for a couple weeks before it became this.) So when I started the eyes I saw were angry and frustrated and where as one of them is red it is not angry to me, it is passionate and strongly emotional and the other peaceful and calm... again emphasizing the differences between the two people. Shoot, even the red and yellow blossoms in the background can show the contrast of emotions... but really I just liked the colors :)
If you want to know my inspiration picture I used for the man and woman was one of mom and dad in Hawaii. The feelings I expressed are as much my hope as what I see in you two as a couple. So, haha, let's see you write that you hate it now mom! Hahahaha
I don't know how "correct" any of it is but I like it and really I guess that's all that matters.
So Ally was baptised last weekend and Lot's of Family got to come it really was wonderful :)
We missed everyone who was not there and my apologies to those who I did not let know about this in advance it's all very new to me and snuck up on me all to quickly... as has everything lately.
This one is a great shot of all those who were able to attend again thank you so much it means so much to us that you were so willing to go out of your way to be here for this special event. :)
Here's a couple great shots of our sweet little 8 year old :)
And here are my favorites of her with her Mom or Dad... Thank you mom (Grandma Jenny) for remembering these shots and getting them on camera so well :)
Then we have the cake and some fun shots with cousins!
I have to go we also went hiking in the canyon and have some great shots of that but it's already 11:00 and I still have to get Livvy and clean and decorate... Atleast I'm done making cake:) for now :)
I have to say these are the things that happened that day but even looking back on it, It's all a little sureal. I can't believe that my little girl is that big... I know lot's of you have been there but being there myself is so strange. I sat there at the baptism next to my beautiful daughter all dressed in her beautiful white dress next to her daddy all in his white clothes we prepared everything and talked about this and talked about lots of other things but I can still hardly believe it is my little girl going into those waters of baptism. She is so sweet and so wonderful and so innocent and pure. I love her so dearly and I carry a prayer with me always that I will have the ability to teach her what she needs to know so that someday she will grow to be worthy of wearing that 3rd white dress and that I will be there to see it. My other prayer as I look at this beautiful girl is that her road will be only bumpy enough for her to learn to be able to follow the smoothest parts of that road.
