52.

On the 13th my cute papa bear turned 52 years old. 52!! A few more years and he's officially a "senior citizen" 

It was a busy day for every with work, school, and football games, so everyone was gone til about 6:30, which was a bummer because I wish we were able to do more with him! But once we were all home we had a celebratory birthday dinner, opened presents, then ate cake (yellow cake and chocolate frosting for dad of course) and ice cream. 

These dark low quality pictures are KILLING ME. I was going to edit them to make them look better, but they were driving me too insane because they're kind of at the point of no return haha. So I gave up and am reminding myself this isn't a fashion or lifestyle blog, it's simply for me to look back on - so I can deal!

 After he opened up his new Ute's shirt maycie held it to her body, looked up, and said: "It fits!" hahahahahaaha. I love babies. 

 Maycie is obsessed with lucky charms. She refers to them as "marsh" and everytime my dad walks through the door she instantly shouts "Marsh! Marsh!" because she knows he's always down. She doesn't want to eat them with anyone else because eating lucky charms is their special activity (and their favorite one.) But of course, her favorite part is the marshmallows. She doesn't care too much for the actual cereal, can you blame her? So grammy found a bag of straight lucky charms marshmallows online and Maycie has never been so thrilled then when she helped her bumpa open those up.

Grammy bought him "marsh" for Maycies sake and a princess cupcake game for Paisley's sake. He win's grandpa of the year because his favorite gifts are always the ones he gets to use with his granddaughters. 

Happy birthday dad! Thanks for loving and supporting me every single day. I'm so lucky to have you.

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See 50th birthday here and 51st birthday here. I love looking back at these posts and seeing how we all grow and change! 

Conference Weekend.

Conference weekend is always one for the books. Especially fall conference... Because FALL! And OCTOBER! And SPIRITUAL UPLIFTENT! 

Even though I was babysitting all weekend, I feel so blessed that I was able to get all sessions listened to. Saturday night I baked a peach pie with sweet pais for the boys to enjoy after preisthood session. 

(it looked prettier before it was baked. Is it just me or does everyones strussel topping get significantly less attractive once it's baked?)

Pais was super lovey dovey and wanted to constently be giving me butterfly or eskimo kisses. I love when she gets in these moods of never wanting to stop squeezing and hugging me because touch is no doubt my top love language. 

She also kept making the cutest comments like "We're the bakers aren't we?" And "Okay! So you're the mama baker and I'm the little girl baker" I love the way 3 year olds minds work ;)

Later that night we took a family toilet papering trip. Quality bonding right there! 

Sunday morning we made pumpkin french toast, and gathered together in the family room as we listened to the last 2 sessions. My favorite talk of the whole weekend may just of been Evan A. Shmutz's titled "God Shall Wipe Away All Tears"

Here are just a FEW of the things I scribbled down as I listened: 

"As apart of the plan he's allowed sorrow to be woven into our lives; but we can know in the midst of affliction that eternal compensation will be ours"

"Living the Gospel doens't make us immune to tragedy, but Jesus Christ can and will bind up the brokenhearted."

 "Suffering doesn't teach us anything of lasting value unless we invest in the process with faith"

"When we link suffering to a purpose we see the light at the end of the tunnel. We have been promised that God will wipe away every tear from our eyes"

As I listened, my heart was overcome with peace. Everything just made sense! 

Hopefully you were all able to tune in too! If not, rewatch or read the talks here.

XOXOXO

labor day.

Over labor day weekend we had a quick girls trip up at the family cabin.

We baked, watched movies, went on walks, played card games, danced a lot, and sang really loud. 

My grandma also told us a lot more about her upbringing. I love spendingt time with her and hearing more and more about her past. 

Growing up her and her siblings got an allowence of one penny a week. Each week they would walk to the store and buy themselves a penny candy or 2 half penny candies. Could you imagine growing up with one treat a week? I was use to my mom making cookies twice a week and my dad taking us for daily treat runs to the gas station. 

My grandma and her siblings would also walk home every day at lunch time, after lunch they'd have to walk back to school to finish out the day. She said they hated it but her parents wouldn't send them with lunch to school. It just wasn't as common back then!

When she was first married, her and my grandpa lived off of $100 a month. $75 of it went to rent and the other $25 went towards food or what ever else they might need. How simply and lovely does a life like that sound?! I crave the simplicity of it.

It was a quick trip - real short and sweet - but SO needed.

 Clearly a real good time. 

The end. 

image via pinterest

Life is full of dark battles and trying times, but at the end of the day... life is really really sweet. And not only is it sweet, but it's actually really really good. 

It's amazing what peace this gospel can bring. It's amazing that no matter how big and rough the waves become, God can bring an instant calmness to the storm. He brings comfort and hope. He IS comfort and hope. I want to testify to all of you that he is there. He is leading us through this mortal experience - even when this mortal experience requires us to suffer like no ones ever suffered before (or so it seems) - and nothing we do will ever stop him from being our Shepard and our Guide. 

Life is real sweet guys; and the only way I've been able to experience the sweetness is because of him and the knowledge I have that he is there and he loves me.