Five Beautiful Blessings Between Heaven & Earth

Today Bridgett helped me make "tooties" for the ward party, Tooties is of course how Bridgett says Cookies. She had a great time helping me but kept telling me the whole time that what we were making, while fun was NOT tooties! Until I pulled the first batch out of the over, It was so cute to see her eyes grow large and the little light go on in her head and she said "Tooties!" It was cute to see her figure it all out. However later as I took the cookies off the counter and into the front seat of the car she followed me out to the car wailing "MY TOOTIES! MY TOOTIES!!!!!" I guess we have somethings to work on still. :(

Project #6 would have to be yard work, and trust me there is plenty to go around! the front burm is now finished and we even got some mulch down on it, now it's just to keep it weed free and help all the plants to grow and flower. And above is a progress photo of Colette's Corner. It's coming along nicely and I LOVE the little bench there, I used hammeriate on that as well and got rid of all the rust. I love how white it is now. Grow and flower little daisy plants GROW!

What to do with all those rocks? So mom had the great idea to put them in the front flower bed that only seems to grow weeds and collect leaves. So I spent lots of time bring rocks from the back to the front and leveling out the dirt to make them look more happy. And the flowers started coming up through the rocks, I actually really like it, I think it's pretty!, So we pull the weeds and then let the flowers grow up and vine their way through the rocks.

Project #4 was to spray paint the front pouch railing. This I have also been meaning to get to since we moved in two years ago. And now all that unsightly rust is GONE! You have to love Hammerite!

Now out walk in master closet is now all neat and tidy! Dusty came home walked in it, walked out of it look at me and said. "I LIKE being able to walk into our walk in closet!" I said "Great! Then maybe you can help me keep it that way!" :)

Project #2 was I finally got the the curtain rod in our bedroom painted white. See how nice it looks? So happy to have it done, I have been meaning to get it done since we moved in two years ago. Well now it's done!

So remember how I said a few posts ago that I was trying to keep busy and do things this summer that I had planned to do next summer, (thinking I would be busy this summer with a new baby.) So I've decided that I should get going on these projects so that I'm not all talk and no action. So in this post and the next several posts I will post some of the things that have been keeping me busy. Mom told me that I needed to stop sewing dresses and skirts and get to work on the my valances that have been waiting to be done since I posted the that I had sewed and hung up the first valance. So I decided she was right and to the sewing machine I went. I even managed to make a matching table cloth out of the last few extra yards. Aaron said "Wow your making everything match!" I had to giggle at that one. Anyway this is the best shot I could get of the whole kitchen and dinning room, Don't mind my dishes in the sink, I probably should have done them before tak...

So today I have a visit from a beautiful friend. She brought me some "Colette" flowers (Daisy's and Gerber Daisy's are Colette's flowers) because she knew that next week the 24th will be 5 months since we lost Colette, and she was going to be at Girl's Camp that week so she brought them a week early Thank you so much Jennifer! For all the little and big things you do to help us know that we are not the only ones who remember her! I have been very amazed at how many people not only remember Colette but also remember what I refer to as her date. And do things for us here and there to help ease our pain and grief. Truly this has taught me a great deal about morning with those who mourn and comforting those who stand in need of comfort.

Made your own bouncy balls? After Bridgett goes to bed Aaron and I usually have a couple hours of quiet time before it's his bed time, we often like to do a craft together. And tonight we made out own bouncy balls. How did we do this? Well It was a kit that I found at Walmart. It was simple, easy, fun and really not very messy at all! Aaron had a great time, he made some for him, some for his Sister Bridgett and even one for Colette. He wanted to know if she would come down from Heaven and play with it, I told him no, but that she would know that he had though of her and that would make her very happy. He seemed satisfied with that response. If you ever get the chance, we think that making your own bouncy balls is a great way to spend some time. They do have to be kept in a zip lock bag when you are not playing with them but that didn't stop Aaron and Bridgett from having a GREAT time with them!

Now Rocks are funny things. Have you ever really sat down and thought about them? Sadly I have. And I have been thinking about them a lot lately. It seems that when you WANT rocks they are very expensive and hard to come by, but when you don't want rocks, they seem to pop out of the ground like you are growing them! Can you guess which one is our problem. Well Actually both! I would LOVE to have some beautiful rocks to lay in my flower beds, but the rocks that I seem to be growing in my flower beds are NOT the kind that I want. But oh well, so it has been a rock raiding week for me, I have spent many many hours out in the flowerbeds this past week digging up rocks, racking them out and smoothing the dirt back out. And here is the question of the day? Where do you then put said rocks???? Now THAT is the question of the day. Colette's Corner as I have dubbed it, is looking very nice! It is now rock free with many new plants added and even a bench and 2 solar ...

Last night while Dusty was working late and after the kids were all fast asleep in bed I decided to make the skirt for Bridgett that I have been meaning to get to for a week or so. After much hemming and hawing and of course after finding out the expert opinion from my beautiful cousin of which fabrics to use I opted to go with a plain brown hem for the bottom of the skirt. Thanks Jen! (the above was the two fabrics I had first picked out to make the skirt but all week long I just kept thinking that for my taste it was just a tad to busy.) I'm so glad I went with brown! So I sewed and ironed and sewed a little more and this was the end result, I love it! And to my utter delight then next morning when I showed it to Bridgett it was met with "Oooo's and Awwwww's" and much clapping of hands. She even let me try it on her and take some photos. Of course she demanded the "pretty shoes" and after much convincing we were able to leave the p...

So I have a corner of our yard that has yet to be landscaped. This corner has now been named Colette's corner, and eventually will be a place that we can go to peacefully remind ourselves of our Beautiful Daughter and the day that we can all be together again. It does not look like much yet, I'm still working on it. I still need to get all the rocks out, the plants I have planted are mostly daisy's with some little pink flowers in between. Each year they should get a little bigger and bigger and fill out more and more. But for now this is a good start. I'm still looking for a ground cover that I like to go with it and more plants to fill in the area. But it's been fun to work on it little by little. This morning we drove up to Hobby Lobby to find a statue, A friend of mine placed one in with her beautiful flowers that she planted in memory of her daughter and I loved it so much I had to go and get one for myself. I'm not a big fan of ...

This morning I told Aaron that if he helped me get my chores done and was a good listener today we would all go to the pool this afternoon. Of course he was so excited the boy LOVES the pool. He had to go run and put on his swim suite right away. Of course then Bridgett had to have her's one too. We got a lot done this morning and I even got out do much needed spraying on the weeds with roudup while the kids played in the family room. I was nervous about taking them both to the pool with out Grandma so I told them if they didn't have on their listening ears and stay close to me we would just pack up and go home. But to my surprise they did great! I put arm floaties on Bridgett for the first time ever and she actually knew how to use them. Aaron could not make him self float with them to save his life but she is a natural. When she got used to the water the first thing she did was walk out as far as she could reach and then push herself off the floor to even deeper ...

Today we spent LOTS of time outside, This morning we meet a friend and went walking on a new path. It was a much better start to the day then it would have been! I was not feeling very patient and so getting out and getting some exercise helped a lot. Then after a quick lunch we headed outside. I had a few things I wanted to get done in the yard so we ignored the house and got to work. I have found that if I get everyone a water bottle, and pack some different snacks the only thing I really have to stop for is to take Bridgett potty. They kids love it, they play doing what ever they want to and when they decide they are hungry they pull open one of their snacks and snack for a while and then go back to playing. I got the lawn mowed and the fruit trees cleaned out under. it does not sound like much but it was hard work and took quite and while. So glad to have it done. I never thought I would hear Aaron say, "Can we go inside now?" But after 3 hours he was done,...

Today begins the first of many days of keeping our self busy while Grandma Cindy is out of town visiting Auntie Tamara. So this morning we packed up after breakfast and went over to Nannie and Papa's house and Nannie helped me to sew a dress for Bridgett while the kids played with Papa. I brought my own sewing machine so that we could work at the kitchen table and still be where I could help Aaron and Bridgett if they needed anything. So we got the dress finished. and tried it on Bridgett who I guess did not feel like having her clothes changed cried and screamed to have it "off!" I'm hoping that she will be fine with it when I put it on her on Sunday. Because that was sure a lot of work if she's not going to wear it! This is one of my fav pictures because she reminds me so much of me when I was that age. Perhaps it's the foot pop or the hand to the face, who knows. Anyway I think the dress turned out really cute. It was a great pattern to u...