things I love

1. When I get in the shower and tell Daniel to listen for Hannalyn, then come out to find them like this. Because, I mean, you know, right?

2. When I leave Hannalyn with my brother while I run some errands and I come home and ask where she is and he says, "Well, I fed her some cheerios and she fell over." ...and then I find her totally zonked and have to run away quickly as I bust up laughing.

3. When Hannalyn can walk along any piece of furniture (except my mom's kitchen table because it's too tall) and loves it. She is so proud of herself. And hey, I'm proud too.

4. Living life. It's rough and long and full and stressful . . . and happy and joyful and spirit-filled and awesome. Basically, we're in a good place right now and I need to remember it. Remember and enjoy.

crafty!

I love crafting. I love it more when I can copy something and not worry (too much) about how it will turn out. Because I'm a perfectionist, crafting is really hard for me. I worry and stew and fret that it won't be PERFECT. Thankfully, I love how these turned out and am so excited to display them in my home! Yay for Lady Craft Nights and friends who are more creative than me and tell me to just do it. Because I do love it. :)

all filled up

Last weekend we had the opportunity to go to Idaho for a whirlwind of a trip. It was a whirlwind emotionally and in how fast - yet slow - the whole weekend seemed. Daniel's grandmother passed away last week in Idaho and we went up for the funeral. We left at 6 am on Friday morning, drove to Orem and stopped to chat with my grandparents and run some errands before picking up Daniel's brother and driving the rest of the way to Idaho Falls after lunch. When we reached our destination, we were greeted by five more of Daniel's siblings and his dad. It was fabulous. Daniel loved being there with family. It was so good for him.

Friday evening was the viewing and Saturday morning the funeral. We drove Matthew back to Provo, went back up to Salt Lake to see Daniel's grandma Jackson & say hello/goodbye to his dad and siblings & see my roommate Aimee and her baby and family, then finally made it to Draper and my grandparent's house at 10:15 pm where we stayed the night. We had planned to leave very early on Sunday morning, but after a long day on Saturday decided to sleep in til 7:30 and left about 8:30. It was a beautiful drive home - bright blue skies all over the place, and we made it just in time to shower and change for church. Hoorah Jacksons.

Hannalyn was such a trooper. She put up with all the car travelling without (too much of) a fuss. I am so proud. :)

We got home after our weekend and realized how full we felt - full of emotions like joy, peace, and a little bit of sadness, but mostly full of love. We felt heavy with the love we felt over the weekend that we had received from all the family that we got to spend time with. It was a wonderful weekend full of the spirit of God. I am so grateful for family. I am grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for love. Mostly I am grateful for Daniel & Hannalyn. Yup.

Life is good.

Perspective

This week, Daniel's Grandma passed away. She was a fabulous lady. I only met her a few times, but I loved the time we spent with her. I am so grateful that Hannalyn was able to spend a little bit of time with her back in November. It has been an interesting week as we have talked about our memories of Grandma and spent some time with Daniel's cousin & her husband and heard her memories.

Even though we are sad that Grandma is gone, we know that she is in a better place. She is with her husband again and gets to see Daniel's mom. I am sure that it was a marvelous reunion on the other side when she saw her family and loved ones. We know she was ready to go and we are happy for her.

Meanwhile, we think of her fondly and look forward to seeing Daniel's family this weekend at the funeral. We are excited to see family and celebrate a life well lived. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have that life continues beyond the grave. Because Jesus Christ died for us, we will all live again. I am grateful for the comfort that knowledge brings to our family. It has been a week of learning and growing and appreciating life. I am very grateful and we have gained perspective from studying the scriptures and praying together. We look forward to the day when we can all be together again, but for now find joy that we have the promise of forever.

peek-a-boo

Crappy picture, I know, but if you look closely you can see Hannalyn's crinkled nose. Which is my favorite. She does it when she fake smiles and laughs. Maybe not fake, but the one she does to get a reaction out of us. She has been walking around all day "coughing" and "laughing" and then really letting out giggles when we look at and laugh at/with her. It's been adorable.

She also got a kick out of playing with the chairs at Cold Stone today. She was walking behind them and I would growl at her through the slits? bars? rungs? whatever they were and she would crack up. Hannalyn is at such a fun stage. She is getting more demanding and harder to keep up with and sometimes I wish she would just sit still, but watching her grow and learn is the most exciting thing I've ever experienced.

Plus we moved the furniture around today and so I'm feeling much better about my house.
I still need new curtains though. Anyone want to come give me curtain advice? I need it.

Tomorrow is Sunday. I'm worried about the 1-pm-church-and-still-haven't-figured-out-nap-situation, but I love Sundays. LOVE THEM. Hoping to catch up on my Personal Progress and love the time I spend with my family. Yup. It'll be a good day.

Being Passionate

I am a passionate person. Well, I am passionate about certain areas of my life. For example, I am passionate about children. I am passionate about music and the arts. I am passionate about family and the Gospel. I am passionate about love and books and good media and pregnancy.

I try to remember this when I get frustrated with others for being passionate in different ways. For example, I know someone who either loves or hates. There is no middle ground. For this person, when they are offended or something goes wrong it is the end. They have a history of many ended relationships because they had a fight with someone and now can't even think about it without seeing red. This person is a wonderful friend because she loves so deeply and will do anything for her friends. But then it gets hard to watch her in other relationships because she hates them so completely.

I try to remember not to be offended when others have polar-opposite views from me on certain things. Like taking music out of schools. Or telling women where and how to have their children. Or when the family units gets thrown out on the street. However, I like to think that humans are meant to be passionate. If we weren't, we would all sit and twiddle our thumbs and do nothing.

Sometimes it is hard to be passionate about something when you feel powerless to control the outcome. Or when you feel like you're the only one who feels the way you do. At least I feel that way. So I try to balance passion with understanding and compassion. It is not an easy thing for me to do, but I'm working on it. Balance. It's good for me.

Happenings

Things are pretty chill here at the Jackson home. We play and read and play and eat and play and sleep and play again. We also count our blessings, read new Christmas books, do puzzles, bang things around, and try to find the motivation to clean. All the Christmas decor is put away but for some reason the house is a mess. *sigh* I'm hoping for a break-through this weekend.

But enough about house-blues. (That's what I'm calling it now - when I have no motivation to clean my house unless I get to dump everything out and start over with paint, redecorating, and moving furniture around. Happens every January. Why? No clue.)

Have I shared these awesome pictures with you yet? I may have. But in case I haven't, here they are again:

Once upon a time, my sister L worked at the Dinosaur National Monument. For quite a while, actually. And we promised we would go see her working there and I wanted to go because I hadn't been since before it closed and Daniel had never been. So... One day, sister L texted me and said "These are the last three days I'm working at the quarry so you'd better come see me." And I said "Holy crap. Okay!" So we all went and it was windy and cold, but hey, we had a blast.

I don't often let Hannalyn watch TV, but she was enthralled with whatever cartoon was on, so I let her sit and enjoy for a bit. I'm not sure if she liked the TV or head massage from grandpa more.

Playing on grandma's Christmas tubs. She loved walking along them and getting into them.

Hannalyn loves reading. She reads everywhere and everything.

Hannalyn also loves walking wherever she can and finding new places to fit herself. It's great fun... until she can't get herself back out. Oh well.


We are happy. We didn't get to do the fun things we wanted to do over Christmas break, which we are kind of bummed about, but we hope to get a nice weekend vacation in sometime soon-ish. In the meantime, we have fun hanging out and spending as much time together as we can while keeping our business up and running. It's hard work, but we still love it.  So I guess that says something. :)

Yay for life happenings.

2015

So far our new year has been cold. Freezing cold. Below freezing, actually. We do jumps & skips if we are above 20 degrees during the day. Plus wind chill. Yup. We stay inside and move very quickly when outside. Staying inside has given us lots of chances to reflect on the previous year and make plans for the upcoming year.

This year, I want to do better about praying personally every day. We did really good with reading our scriptures & praying as a family last year. Now I need to be better about personal prayers. It's helped that I've started doing my Personal Progress again. I got it when I was 14 because I was promised a palm pilot when I finished (wow. I bet no one remembers what a palm pilot is/was.). My sister is working on getting hers for the second time and so I'm doing it with her. It's been great so far - we are half-way through Faith and Divine Nature. I love doing something specific every day to better myself. I'm brainstorming ways to do something similar when we finish Personal Progress.

This year, I want to be better about speaking kindly. I hope to do better in thought, word, and online/in writing.

I am so excited for 2015. Even though I started out on the first day of the year by staying in my sweats all day. ;) Daniel made fun of me, but it turned out ok. And I was comfy and happy all day long.

Happy New Year to you and yours! I hope you stay warm & happy. And warm.