coloring

Riley thought it was a good idea to give Julia a blue marker and let her go to town on this cardboard box.  It was fun to watch her and have to wash all the blue marker off her skin.

my little pink bathing suit

Riley and Julia love going in the spa at night a few times a week.  I can only put my legs in...boo hoo...one thing I missed most while being pregnant is the spa or hot baths.  Anyways, heres Julia in her cute little pink bathing suit with her handsome dad.

Lehi's Vision

Today I taught Lehi's Vision of the Tree of Life lesson to my 8-9 years olds in Primary which is found in the beginning of the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi 8-15 LINK & LESSON LINK).  The dream was so inspired and full of symbolism. A reminder, the basic symbols are:

The Tree - The Love of God (in Giving the World his Only Begotten Son & Atonement)

The Fruit - Eternal Life

The Rod of Iron - The Word of God

The Mist of Darkness - Temptations of the Devil

The Great and Spacious Building - Pride of the World

The River of Filthy Water - Depths of Hell

The Strait and Narrow Path - Christ's Way of Life (Praying, Honest, Service, etc.)

The painting of Lehi's Vision by Greg Olsen below has been one of my favorite religious paintings since I was a little girl.

One thing that really stood out to me as I was preparing for the lesson that I would like to share is that once the people made it to the great and spacious building or fell and drowned into the river, they did not come back to the path to the tree.  If the people were caught in the mist of darkness, they may find their way back to the straight and narrow path with the rod and to the tree OR they may find themselves falling into the river or going to the building.  This shows the white, gray, and black lines of living a Christlike life.  Its so important to stay away from the gray area because you can be lost in the black area so quickly.  The black area of sins is so dangerous and can only be reversed by hard changes in ones life and repentance.  It is very difficult to be so caught up in the pride of the world and come back to the truth of the gospel.  The world's/devils ways are so enticing and so evil and it feels like the majority is choosing this way.

Today, I pray that everyone who is in the mist of darkness can find the iron rod again.  It is so sad to see family and friends who are lost in temptations continue to head towards the great and spacious building.  Lehi mourns and beckons in his dream for Laman and Lemuel to come back to partake of the tree of life, but they would not come, they would not listen to even their family members.

I am so grateful to have taught this lesson today and to reflect on the knowledge given by the words of the Prophets.

penguin pjs

Tackle Dada

I'm just playing with this apple....BAM!!!....tackle dada

Sunday, January 22

Julia's Outfit for Sunday.  We love dressing her up!

:-O

We went for a beach drive last Saturday and took some pictures of Julia blowing on the window.  It actually looked 100000 times funnier in person, but for documentation sake, here is what the iPhone captured.  Just imagine her faced really squished up on the window.

Playing at the Park with Oliver

Last Saturday we were able to go visit our friends the Mosmans over by UCLA.  We had a great time chatting and having our kids play.  Here are some pictures of Julia and Oliver playing at the park together.

Julia REALLY enjoyed this little toy thing....

julia goo goo playtime

Taking her clothes out of her drawer...caught red handed

 Wud up fools??  Riding my car.

Playing with the peas...i love my veggies

DIY : Button Letter on Fabric

Made this J for Julia's room.  I absolutely love it!

Step 1: Pick out your fabric.  And pick out the board in which you will put it on.

Step 2: Pick out your color buttons.  And your sewing thread - same color as buttons.

Step 3: Pick out your font on your computer and print the letter onto card stock.  My J's font was Bookman Old Style and like size 700ish.

Step 4:  (Iron Fabric if creases) Lay your fabric on your board.  Outline your card stock letter lightly in pencil on your fabric.

Step 5:  Lay your buttons on the fabric on the outlined letter where you want them.  Use toothpick and glue to place a little glue on the back of each button, not covering the holes in the button.  I used normal elmers glue onto a plate and dipped the toothpick in it and dotted it onto the back of the buttons.  (this step took awhile - this is basically to help you keep your buttons in place while sewing).  other methods work too, but this is what I chose.

Step 6: Sew each button, overlapping three times each onto your cloth in your letter arrangement.  Some buttons might lose its stick with the glue, but sewing them on will keep them in place.

Step 7: Iron out fabric again so that there are no more lines in it.

Step 8: Set up fabric on board with your letter in the correct postion. 

Step 9: Hot Glue fabric onto back of board (and sides of board) very carefully so that you don't have any hot glue showing through on the face of the project.  I did this with careful folds like wrapping a present.

Step 10: Hot Glue buttons on the side.  You could probably figure out a way to sew them perfectly on the side a few steps back, but it just seemed like way to much work.  I put one in each corner.

Step 11:  Add Ribbon on top to hang.  I hot glued the ribbon to the back.  Then tied a separate bow to the ribbon.  It took me awhile to figure out how people got it to look this way, but just fiddle around with it and you will find the right look.

FINISHED PRODUCT: