Happy Easter!

We had such a special one this year.  Leo was really excited this year and got into all of the activities.

After living away from family, I appreciate so much more the effort that goes into making a holiday special.  Both sets of grandparents went all out this year.  

For much of my childhood, we spent Easter in Ophir, a ghost town up in the mountains.  My grandparents owned a cabin up there and would have a huge egg hunt.  I can remember sitting in the front room opening eggs.  Grandma Lois always made things so special. 

My parents put together a party to rival the Ophir Easters. There were so many little details, special egg hunt, prize table, hand sewn carrots filled with treats, a beautiful meal.  Leo had a great time coloring eggs and especially hunting for them.  I don't think I've been to a nicer party. 

On Easter, the "Bunny" delivered some baskets.  We went to church.  Amy, who was darling in her Easter dress, had a rough Sunday and we ended up coming home early.   

 

I love Easter, the candy, the traditions but most of all, my Savior. He lives.  He loves us. 

Spring Photos

One of my friends out here in Logan, Christy Brown, put together a mini photo session in honor of spring.  I am so happy with how the pictures turned out.  I think I need to hire her to do some family shots soon!   Here's her blog if you want to check out more of her work: http://photographychristybrown.blogspot.com/

Glass Knobs and Adventure

We have been tired here lately.  The "I just had a baby" kind of tired.  I can still claim it even if it's 3 1/2 months out, right?  Well, I am.  Honestly, I haven't been that excited about life lately but tonight was a good night.

Last week I was reading HGTV Magazine.  Do you read it?  You should, there's so many great ideas, bright colors.  I like it.  Anyway, there was an article on knobs.  I thought, I could make that on the torch.  I'm one of those people who get a lot of ideas (well, I used to before I had a newborn).  Heber (who is ever supportive of my crazy ideas), ran down to Home Depot the very next day to hunt down some hardware.  Heb is a problem solver.  He likes to look at a project and figure out how to make it happen.  It's one of the things I love most about him.

Leo was excited too!

I sat down to the torch just tonight to try it out. As a first run, they came together way better than expected.  This is why I love doing glass, there's always something new to learn.  It's in that newness, that adventure that makes me excited about life again. 

 

 I saw this quote recently.  It is so true.  It is in those moments of adventure (which is really getting out of your comfort zone, doing something new, embracing change), that life becomes worth living.  And in those moments that we discover who we are and stretch beyond. 

Cousins and Camp Fires

This week we had family in town.  I thought that moving from Virginia meant that we wouldn't really have visitors anymore (let's be honest, Logan isn't the most exciting tourist destination).  Heber's brother's family were in from Portland and stopped to spend a few days with us in the frozen north. 

We thought and thought to come up with a fun activity and settled on having a campfire up the canyon.  One of the real perks of living in Logan is that you can be up in the mountains in about 10 minutes.  We trekked up to 2nd Dam (a mile or two past Hydro Park, where Heb and I were engaged), and had a fire. 

We did our classic sliced up steak that is dipped in course salt and then roasted over the fire.  What results is the most flavorful and tender piece of meat.  Yum!  And of course we had smores. 

Of all the things I missed about Logan when we lived in VA, sitting around a campfire was one of the big ones.  There were places to do fires there, just more complicated and farther away.  I love sitting around a fire and chatting.

Leo was contented to throw rocks in the water all afternoon.

Family of four photo!

They met Amy for the first time, which is always so special, and played with our wild man, Leo.  It was a fun couple of days.  We miss them already, I guess we'll have to make a trip up to the Northwest to visit them soon. 

 

Lighting the Flame

It's been nearly 5 months since I've been in the glass studio.  I have missed it so much.  Some people meditate to clear their thoughts, I sit down to work on the torch.  There's something about the quiet rhythm of melting glass that helps me think.  

We've slowly been gathering equipment, starting with the the torch itself all the way back in September but there were a few items that were harder to find for the right price.  A few Saturdays ago, we just bit the bullet and got what we needed.  The best part was that we got to make a trip to Smithfield Implement. 

It's still hard to find time to get in the studio, which is out in our garage, with our curious two year old and newborn but just knowing that it's a possibility makes me happy. 

Last week, the Young Women from our ward came out to see me work on the torch.  I did some demonstrations of fish, hollows, dots...it was a great time.  I felt so cool having a hobby that I could share.

 

Leo always likes to see what comes out of the kiln.  He kisses all of my fishes (and breaks some too).  He likes to see what's going on.  Did you think I was joking about the kissing?  Oh no, I was totally serious.

Life Lately in March

I wrote this one a couple weeks ago too and never got it posted.  I'm sharing it anyway.


Heb and I went out to dinner tonight to the Black Pearl.  It has become one of our favorite spots, I think it's the egg rolls.  We opened up our fortune cookies and it was like the universe came together to give us two completely perfect fortunes.

Here's mine:

  

 I'm not sure I could fit anything else in with our new babe but we're doing fine.  This is like the motto of our life right now.  It's not awesome, it's just fine. It's doubly funny because Heber and I were having a discussion about the word "fine" over that very meal.

And Heber's:

 It's funny because we've been trying to make some changes lately.  We are still fairly stressed thinking about the future.  Job changes?  Moves?  We just don't know.  I guess we'll just keep moving forward until something feels right.  Do we just need to calm down and do what we can here?

Two perfect fortunes, well played universe, well played.

Here's what else has been happening lately.

My sister from Wisconsin was in town recently and all of my siblings got together.  This has not happened in forever.

I've been going to my dance class every week.  I've enjoyed getting to know some new people and trying to remember the steps of our dances.  It's good to flex different parts of my brain.  Our recital is coming up and I've been trying to master the dances.

Our sweet little Amy took a pacifier last night for the first time and fell asleep hours earlier than her 1 a.m. usual.  I could have cried.  She is growing like crazy and gained almost 4 pounds last month.  I never knew I could have such satisfaction in her growing.  I found her staring at her mobile this morning, having just discovered it.

Heber has been taking a blacksmithing course on Monday nights.  He has been enjoying banging on metal.  We've had several discussions about how the metal reacts compared to glass.  We both now have fire hobbies.  I told a friend this and she asked me what he was going to do with that.  I explained that Heber and I need to have hobbies.  We have to have things to be working on that are creative or we will go crazy. 

My boy makes me smile everyday (and want to tear my hair out too.  He's started asking why for everything.  I mean like 50 times a day.  Why?).  Just yesterday, he was coming down the stairs and I heard him say, "temple.  I going there someday."  You know, just like the primary song.  It just melted my heart.

A couple of weeks ago, to my surprise, I discovered that he knows all of his letters.  I have not been pushing this but he knows them all.  He is recognizing letters everywhere we go.  Driving in the car, he'll point out letters and numbers on signs that he sees.  He is a new grown up boy, this one.

The Amy and Leo Blog

I don't know if you knew, but I write a separate blog about Amy and Leo.  It's more of a record of their lives.  Funny stories, pictures, all the details....good stuff.  It's private because the world is a scary place.  Let me know if you'd like an invite.

Valentines

I wrote this ages ago and it got lost in the newborn tiredness.  Thought I'd share it anyway. 

Valentines day was this last week and it got me thinking of our first valentines together.  Heber and I had gone out on a date or two but Valentines was kind of a turning point in our relationship.  We went up to Bear Lake and had pizza at a little restaurant.  Bear Lake is about 45 minutes away through a canyon. 

The first year we were married, we got all nostalgic and thought we would recreate that first Valentines.  The plan was to drive up to Bear Lake and to eat at the little pizza place.  It was a very snowy drive through the canyon.  When we got up there, the pizza place was closed for the week, as well as pretty much everywhere else in town.  It's a tiny town that is really only busy during the summer so it's a ghost town around February. 

We ended up at a gas station looking for info and maybe a bag of chips to tide us over.  It was there we heard about the two dinner options, the truck stop or a small restaurant on the edge of town.  We chose the restaurant and I'm pretty sure we paid $8 for a full steak dinner with dessert.

While most people are out dining at fancy restaurants, Heb and I celebrate with pizza in honor of that special Valentines day so many (many) years ago. And this year, we stayed in town for pizza.

I have two little Valentines to celebrate this year.  I love them so.  

One of the best smiles I've caught recently.