Happy Anniversary

Six years ago today Arek and I were sealed together for time and all eternity in the Bountiful LDS Temple.  Best decision of my life.  It has definitely had it's ups and downs as we've adjusted to being a married unit, gone through jobs and lots of schooling, plus having two children.  But it truly has been the most fulfilling, wonderful six years of my life, and I cannot wait to see what the next six (and twenty and fifty and... etc) will bring.  

Here's some pictures of the blessed day six years ago - 

Husband and wife for time and all eternity

So in love

Our engagement picture on our invitation

Arek's awesome motorcycle that we both loved but that Arek selflessly sold (to his brother) when we needed more money for school

Summerfest

I feel like I've really been slacking on my blogging lately, but it's mostly because I haven't been taking pictures of anything we've done.  It's been a great start to our summer, but nothing too extraordinary has happened.  Just good old parks and swimming and house-hunting and playing with grandparents/aunts/uncles/cousins, etc.  

The girls both finished up their swim lessons.  Julie "graduated" the white swim group and can move up to the "red" group when she takes another session of lessons in August.  She loved every minute of her classes, even the few extra cold days we had (50s &60s), where she still went to lessons.  After changing into warm clothes, Julie made sure to ask for us to have hot chocolate when we got home... it was definitely needed!  Kallie, I think, should have received the "best improvement" award for her mom/tot class (if only they had such an award!).  The first day I could only get her into the water (with me holding her) for the last 5 minutes of class.  By the last couple of days of class she was voluntarily walking in on her own, she loved when I helped her float on her back, and she also constantly wanted to climb out of the pool and jump back in with me catching her.  Big success for her.  Now all we need to do is go swimming one of these evenings when Arek gets off work so we can show him the girls newly acquired water skills!

Two weekends ago we drove back up to our dearly loved Cache Valley to attend the summerfest arts festival that they have on the lawn of the tabernacle.  We attended every year that we were going to school up there, but being poor college students that we were, we never bought anything.  This year, however, we found the perfect gift for my dad for Christmas.  Unfortunately for you all I can't tell you what it is, because he may read this post.  But it was so fun to walk around and see all the wonderful art that people create.  Julie remembered that last year we got her face painted at summerfest and we were so impressed by her memory (and excitement) that we got her face painted again. 

 I'm not sure why, but she always chooses to get a rainbow on her face.  I love her cheesy excited smile.

Can't wait for all the more fun days we are going to have this summer.  We'll keep you posted  

Busy Week

This past week has been an especially busy one for us, particularly for Arek.  He is the deacon's quorum advisor and scout master in the ward and this last week entailed the following:  last Sunday- board of review for a scout getting his Eagle, Tuesday mutual, Thursday Round Table, Friday Eagle Court of Honor (we all got to attend this), Saturday baptisms for the dead at the temple with the youth, and Sunday teaching the deacons as well as a scout committee meeting after church.  It almost maked me wonder, "what calling does he have?!"  :)  But in spite of his being gone a lot, and not seeing the girls for more than an hour total most of those days (Saturday and Sunday excluded) we have truly felt like the Lord has blessed the time we've spent together.  It has been a huge learning week for me of how men (and women) with even busier callings than us are blessed for the time they serve. We've both felt that the Spirit has been more present in our home, and they time we have gotten to spend together has been "stretched out", feeling longer than it is.  

While Arek was gone at his committee meeting yesterday afternoon the girls and I had a wonderful afternoon.  We made rice crispie treats (with sprinkles, of course), watched lots of Church website New Testament videos, and put a sparkle coat of nail polish on our already-painted toe nails.  I felt overwhelmed by the feeling of love that I have for my two beautiful daughters, as well as a crystal-clear knowledge that days like yesterday is what life is all about.  After Arek came home from his meeting we had a pizza picnic in the living room and watch a little bit of "Frozen" then went on a walk to the temple and tabernacle.  We reflected on how lucky we have been the past several years to live less than a mile away from two different temples.  What will we do when the temple is no longer within walking distance?! :)  On our walk we also met a member of the 1st quorum of the seventy(How terrible is it that I can't remember his name?) But he shook our hands and said hello, and Arek and I both reflected on how busy he must be with his calling.  

This sounds like a long rambling post, but truly I have felt so blessed this past week.  I have an amazing husband, two beautiful healthy daughters, and the love of my Father in Heaven and Savior Jesus Christ.  what else truly matters?  

Because I hate to do a post without pictures, here are my two cuties all ready for their first day of swim lessons.

 Verdict after day 1 - Julie loves her lessons, Kallie is still not convinced, even though I held her the entire time.  I'm sure by the last day of lessons she'll enjoy it though

Little White Flowers

This morning we spent a lovely half hour picking what Julie's refers to as "beautiful white flower" that dot the front lawn of our apartment.  These beautiful flowers that Julie adores are more commonly known as Morning Glory.  

Having morning glory in my lawn would probably really frustrate me if we owned a house because it is such a pain to get rid of, but since we are still renting, it was a wonderfully exciting discovery for us.

Julie picking her flowers

Kallie thought playing with the house keys was much more fun than picking flowers

Once Julie tired of picking flowers we dumped them out so we could count them.

 We didn't actually count all of them, but it was probably close to 100 flowers. There are still dozens more, meaning we'll have more flower-picking days.

All of the flowers we picked - this picture doesn't do it justice; there were a LOT of flowers

  Picking morning glory this morning reminded me how much I love the beauty that Julie sees in all things.  We are currently looking to buy our first home, and every house that we tour Julie is quick to point out every virtue of the residence.  She would be thrilled for us to move into any and all of them.  Our realtor jokes that he wishes she could come with him on all his jobs.  

It's very likely that someday morning glory and dandelions will stress me out, trying desperately to keep them out of my yard.  But for now, I am glad our grass is speckled with white flowers.  It reminds me that there are always brighter ways to see things, like little white flowers out of morning glory.  I hope I can follow Julie's example and look for the beauty around me every day.  

Timeless

A few weeks ago Julie discovered one of my scarves that I bought years ago, I think when I was in high school, but I don't recall ever wearing it more than once or twice.  This scarf has quickly become one of Julie's favorite dress-up items (it IS pink, after all).  This is how she likes to wear it: 

I'm not sure how she came up with it (I didn't show it to her), but every time she dons the scarf I think of Grace Kelly riding with Cary Grant in a convertible, "To Catch a Thief" style.  It never fails to put a smile on my face.  Just goes to show that you some clothing items (and how they are worn) are truly timeless.

Walking with Dinos

Saturday we decided to have an adventure and go visit the Dinosaur Museum in Ogden.  It was a gorgeous sunny, hot May day, but with plenty of water, sunscreen, and snacks, we were all set.  

 The girls enjoyed the walk, trying to find all the dinosaurs.  

 I know it was completely ridiculous, but wandering through the wooded path looking for dinosaurs made me feel like I was in "Jurassic Park". I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I was a little nervous that the dinosaurs were going to come to life and eat us!  

 Julie and Arek thought it was so funny that someone put a binkie in the triceratop's mouth

 We were shocked that Kallie stayed in the stroller for most of the walk; usually she detests being in the double stroller.  

 Ahhh!!!

 We rarely get all 4 of us in the same picture, but a very nice gardener came up to us and asked if he could take a picture for us.  Thanks!

It also surprised me how much Julie was interested in my reading the fact-boards about each dinosaur.  She also came up with stories for what each dinosaur was doing; most of them were along the lines "that dinosaur is looking for their baby".   

 After looking at all the dinosaurs the girls played at the dinosaur park

 Cozy with the hatching triceratops... I still think of these as "3-horns" from the original "Land Before Time" that I must have watched a million times as a kid  :)

 Giddy-up

Such a fun family outing!

Ramblings

I haven't been motivated to blog since Arek's birthday so this is a modge-podge of posts I've been meaning to blog about.  

First, we had a wonderful Easter.  The girls woke up early enough Easter morning to do their Easter bunny egg hunt before 9 a.m. church (and we still made it on time!).  They had a fun time finding eggs, even Kallie once she realized they were filled with m&m's, jelly beans, and stickers.

Julie usually is the last person to change out of pajamas,
but for some reason she was the only one NOT in jammies before the egg hunt

Love her morning-hair look  :)

Immediately after church we headed down to spend the afternoon with Arek's brother's family, the girls' only cousins that live relatively close.  They had so much fun and played so hard with their cousins that I think  it took them two days to fully recover.  

'62 Corvette Model
Arek loved the model car kit I got him for his birthday.  He worked on it for several hours every night until it was finished.  

Day 1 - the engine

Day 2

Day 4 ( I forgot to take a picture of day 3) - Complete

Arek was so determined to finish this model that he kept us up until 1 a.m. to finish applying the final decals

Looks so good!

The details on this kit was crazy... there were 148 pieces of parts to paint, decals to add, and pieces to assemble.  He's already been online to create a wish-list of more level 3 models he eventually wants to build 

Up-cycling holey jeans
All of us have holes in the knees of pretty much every pair of jeans we own.  They all have patches, too.  But when I got a hole through the patch of one of my jeans, I knew it was time to through them in the pile of "jeans to cut up for a jean quilt".  Then I remembered an idea I saw on pinterest of adding lace to jeans.  I did a test-run on a pair of Julie's holey pants (if it didn't work, I was going to throw them away anyway).  I love how both turned out... they are my new favorite pair of shorts to wear

Julie's new shorts cost $0... the lace was from my mom's stash

my new shorts cost a grand total of $2 for new lace from Hobby Lobby... happy day for the pocket book

In-house Tents
Arek is the new scout master in our ward.  He loves this calling although it keeps him super busy.  He went on an overnight campout last weekend and Julie was so sad she didn't get to go (Arek took her on the "boys" campout last year that he does with his brothers every summer and she still talks about how much fun it was).  So we set up this temporary tent in the girls bedroom that we take down for naps and bedtime.

We bought these clamps when I made a quilt while pregnant with Julie...
so glad they finally have another use

 Then on Sunday we set up our little 4 man tent in the living room (it look up all the empty space between the couches, computer desk and t.v.) and the girls played in it until bedtime.  We'll definitely have to do family camp trips on the weekends this summer, if Arek isn't took camped-out from his monthly scout camp-outs and week-long camp trip.


I'm sure that's enough pictures for all of you for one post.  I'll try to be better at updating more frequently to keep them shorter.