I Think The World Is Glorious

A few weekends ago, we went up to Sunrise to enjoy the changing leaves. I told Jason more than once, "This is the best day of my life!" That might have been a dramatization of my feelings, but regardless, the natural beauty witnessed was breathtaking.

We snatched donuts from my mom's for breakfast, Clara found the perfect hanger for her drink, I tried Combos for the first time (Jason was embarrassed to be married to someone that's never had them) and Hazel learned how to pucker up.

The drive up was incredible. I couldn't stop taking pictures out the window. We could have turned around and gone home and I would have been completely satisfied without even getting out of the car. It was also beautiful at Sunrise, especially the lift ride up and down. Jason was paranoid and hung on for dear life right along with the girls. Meanwhile, I took hundreds of pictures. It was more beauty than I could take in. We rested at the bottom with some kettle corn and then drove over to Big Lake and looked around before heading to Taylor to visit Jason's family. It was a spectacular day.

Somewhere in between

Certain days end leaving me feeling rather lazy and unproductive. Other days end leaving me feeling frazzled,  ragged and overwhelmed. My favorite kind of days end somewhere in between. Today was one of those. It was non-stop, but not in a stressful way. I was really busy, but was able to manage my to do's. I had time to help others, be with my kids, visit with a friend, make dinner and get some work done.

5:55am Get up (I didn't dare get up with my 5:15am alarm since a.) I was tired and b.) Clara found her way into our bed at some point in the night and I didn't want to disturb her) and get dressed
6:00am Drive to fruit stand, wait in line, buy two boxes of apples, deliver one box to my mom
6:40am Get Clara up, dressed and fed, prepare snack for Clara, clean up nasty, rotten apple in box leaking all over
6:55am Shower and get ready
7:15am Kiss Jason and Clara goodbye
7:20am Finish getting ready
7:35am Personal scriptures (rarely Hazel sleeps through the morning commotion around here, and I take full advantage when she does!)
8:00am Hazel up and fed while I do little things around the house
8:50am Hazel into the bath tub to try and wash off the peanut butter smeared all over
9:05am Out the door to Jason's office for health screening
9:15am Wait at office, health screening (think: two viles of blood drawn and blood pressure taken)
9:55am Leave, stop at the Ranch Market for a few groceries
10:20am Home, put groceries away
10:30am Watch Jojo
11:30am Load up the little ones to get Clara
11:45am Home from getting Clara, "make" kids' lunch (cucumbers, strawberries, raspberries and chicken)
12:15pm Debbie returns, we eat salad (spinach, caramelized onions, feta, strawberries and candied walnuts) and discuss things we're passionate about
1:20pm Put Hazel down for a nap
1:30pm Conference call (surprisingly productive)
3:00pm Read to and visit with Clara
3:20pm Clara and I have a snack
3:30pm Start dinner prep
4:05pm Take Hazel to my mom's
4:25pm Go to music with Clara
5:25pm Back to my mom's for Hazel and a few minutes of visiting, then back home
5:40pm Finish dinner (chicken and avocado enchiladas... I'd tweak things slightly, like maybe not even make enchiladas at all, rather make the sauce and eat it all in one sitting with an entire bag of chips. Mmmmm)
6:15pm Jason home, debrief Jason on the evening plans
6:25pm Leave to HOA meeting
6:30pm Half listen to meeting, half get depressed over the thought of our orange trees all dying at once/how much it's going to cost to replace them
7:35pm Home from HOA meeting, family scriptures, help Jason finish getting kids ready for and into bed
8:10pm Eat treats from HOA meeting, talk with Jason about politics and blog
futurepm Work and go to bed, hopefully before Midnight

If only every day left me feeling as disciplined and structured...

The Party Hats (You Might Think I'm Crazy)

The party hats were made of kraft paper and black embellishments. Except my parent's, they got gold. And rightly so, raising 9 awesome children definitely deserves the gold. As I was taking pictures of the hats, I couldn't help but think of them symbolically. All the hats were special and unique in their own way. In some ways, they were exactly alike, but no two were the same. Each had little imperfections, each served a purpose. Together, they made such a happy little bunch. This is one of my favorite pictures. I smiled to think how the party hats represent my parents standing, together, at the head of our family.

Speed Blogging

I love Instagram. I love that I can take a real-life, quick picture and instantly post it for people to see and to document every day life. I think "speed blogging" is the perfect description for it. I hope it will never replace my blogging because clearly it only allows me to express a fraction of my thoughts and only slightly more of the pictures I take. But it is handy when life is a bit busy, like it has been the last few weeks. It isn't bad or good, it just is. So here's a little of what we've been up to over the last few weeks.

Hazel gets excited very easily.

Potty training is going well. She hasn't had an accident at our house in two weeks. She's had a few at other's houses, but that's expected, right? And PS, Clara's underwear are technically the same size as the ones I bought for Hazel, but apparently they are a wee bit stretched out.

I loved conference. There were some amazing talks. Note to self: study scriptures more diligently and work on becoming more sensitive to the Spirit.

And we thought her head couldn't look any bigger.

Karen made cupcakes for Jason on his birthday. He's 34. That seems a lot older than 33.

While eating the cupcakes, it became rather apparent that Hazel has not eaten enough cupcakes, as she proceeded to attempt to eat her entire cupcake without laying a finger on it.

Baby pot bellies = awesome

I love having this girl around

Cool weather = lots of walks

Lazy Sunday = Noah's Ark

We started our Fall Break early (Clara only had three days off) and watched Brave with Kathryn and her sisters. I braved it and took Hazel in undies. Clara started wailing/crying and insisted on sitting in my lap for a good portion of the movie. I love how sensitive she is to things.

Dance party in Best Buy for FHE

While my mom was out of town, we kept my dad company. One night he fed us chips and candy for dinner. Clara asked if she could have another candy bar because she "ate a lot of chips".

She's getting good at smiling for the camera.

And less good at fashion.

On day one of Clara's break, we met my dad for lunch. 

On day two of Fall Break, we decided to go to Globe. I imagined seeing autumn leaves and being home within 3 hours. 6 hours later, we returned. I didn't plan well, but in the end, we got to "explore" which made Clara very, very happy. Angela and I decided that maybe going to TJ's to get pumpkins would have resulted in a similar excitement factor. We had a good time, but, you know.

That night Debbie made us all dinner and Hazel shut herself in the dog kennel.

On day three, Clara and Hazel played at my mom's all day since I worked.

"Look! I'm a rhinoceros"

Hazel tried sucking my leftover green smoothie with a straw. When that didn't work out, she stuck her hand inside and sucked the smoothie off her hand.

Surprise! You're 60!

A few months ago I decided it would be awesome to have a surprise party for my parents. My mom turned 60 on August 12th and my dad on September 29th. I decided to try to get all my siblings in town for the party and was less than hopeful due to various circumstances and busy schedules. To my absolute delight, everyone ended up coming. We couldn't decide if we should invite lots of people or stick to our immediate family. In the end, we decided it'd be best to have just our siblings to maximize visiting time. We don't get together often and as our family grows, it seems to get harder and harder to coordinate schedules. It would have been fun to have more extended family and maybe even a few friends, but I am really glad we stuck with just the children and grandchildren. In typical Anna fashion, I came up with all sorts of wonderful ideas and bossed everyone around to execute them. I had lots of help* and realized the only way to throw a really awesome party is by having help. Everything came together beautifully and we had a marvelous time. Family, party hats, pictures, fresh flowers and food**. We wanted for nothing (except maybe the poor souls that weren't able to make it).

 

My dad's favorite candy: "those pink things" (none of us know what they are called, but we all know exactly what they are). Mom's favorite candy: junior mints (and chocolate Neccos, but I wasn't keen on spending money for sugary chalk).

My mom and dad with their 9 children. 

 The siblings. Apparently the three on the right were having a difficult time behaving.

This picture turned out cute but is missing the 4 Utah grandchiddlers (I've been reading the BFG, can you tell?) and Margo since she was sleeping. Maybe at Christmas??

One thing is for sure: I love my family. I love my parents and my siblings and am grateful to come from such a large family. In preparing for the party, I felt so happy as I focused on what matters most: spending time with and enjoying my family.   

*I don't know if I can remember all the things people helped with, but here's a shot: Ryan and Kathryn made a video, Debbie C. helped me with the party hats and delivered the chairs, Rachel cleaned my house all weekend long (including my bathroom which was filthy) and was a second mother to my children, Angela created a photo timeline for the centerpiece (that I dreamed up but made her figure out how to create) and the chalkboard sign and Emily, her kids, Lily and James taped the 200+ pictures I had printed to twine and hung them in the tree, helped me set all the tables and chairs up and put together the favors. Then we got to relax and enjoy the party. :)

**Debbie W. from Top This Wedding did the food. Other than the party itself, paying someone to do the food might have been the best decision of the night. I have told Jason repeatedly since then that we need to do whatever it takes to be able to have our girl's receptions catered. To be able to enjoy my family before, during and after the party, not have to worry about the right portions and not spend time shopping for the food, prepping the food, setting up the food, serving the food and cleaning up the food while my family was there was dreamy.

Tiffany Haynes took the pictures above.