Williams Visit in Utah

In July 2011, Reuben, Jolynn and their kids came for a visit to Utah. It had been awhile since we had seen all of them and our niece and nephew had grown into a young woman and young man. It was so much fun to see them. Jolynn and I went on our traditional shopping trip to Deseret Book after which we met Jon, Jay, and the kids for dinner. When Reuben arrived, Jon and Reuben made their traditional trip to NPS and Savers. Daniele, Ashley, Jolynn, and I had a girls night where we went to dinner at The Mayan, shopped and Bath and Bodyworks and finished up with dessert at Red Mango. We had a chance to go to dinner with Reuben and Jolynn at the Blue Lemon and then cought a screening of Midnight in Paris. I'm sure we did so many other things that I can't remember.

On Reuben and Joylnn's last night in town, Jon and I met their family in downtown Salt Lake for dinner at the Blue Lemon and then walked around Temple Square. It was so fun to have them visit and sad to see them leave. We'll just have to look forward to their next visit.

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Random Spring Photos

In April, Jon and I went to Thanksgiving Point to attend the Tulip Festival. We went the first weekend and since we have had such a harsh winter, there weren't very many tulips. But we only paid $8 a person to walk around all the gardens. There were still alot of flowers to look at. They also had food vendors and entertainment so it was still alot of fun. These are just a few pics that Jon took as we walked around. All the gardens are themed which is pretty neat.

This is a fountain from one of the gardens and I beleive it was the Ventian Garden or something like that. But there is a statue all the way at the top.

The last garden was The Secret Garden and it's just like the movie/book. It has a wall around it and looks just like you would imagine.

This goose had made her nest in this garden and if you sat in the the right place you could see her really well. Jon took some great pics of her.

For my birthday, we decide to go to The Roof restaurant at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in downtown Salt Lake City. This was our veiw. I has specifically requested a window seat so we could overlook Temple Square. It was a very nice buffet with prime rib, chicken, fish, salads, cheese platters, yummy desserts, etc., etc. It was definitely very memorable for me.

Random Pics of Max

These are just same random pics of our cute nephew, Max Williams. They were taken a while ago, but it has just taken me some time to post them. We are so lucky that we get to watch him every once in awhile. So I try to take some pics if I'm thinkign about it or when my camera is near by.


These first 3 pics are from a day that we got to babysit Max. His mom, Ashley, had the opportunity to go skiing with her family and his dad, George, was on a camp out with his Scouts. It was an all day job, but we loved it. And the last 3 pics are from Christmas 2010. We bought Max a truck that makes a lot of noise and rolls around. It was a hit!!

We put some Nutella on a piece of bread and he really enjoyed it. Got chocolate all over his face which tells me he LOVED it.

Chewing on his fingers.

Such a cutie patootie!

I LOVE IT!!!

Look Ma! A truck!!

Owen Ostvig Tippetts

On May 31st, at 3:37am, my sister in-law, Liz, gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Owen. He weighed 8 lbs and 9 oz. I think he look just like my brother, Scott, when he was baby. Looking at all the cute pictures on Facebook and hearing about him makes me so homesick. I just want to hug him and kiss him! But....for right now I'll just have to deal with pictures. The pics posted below came from Facebook and actually came from Liz's mom's photo's. (He He He)

Welcome to the world!!

His aunt must really love him

10 days old So darling!!

What Are You Grateful For?

Lately, there has been so much negativity in the news. Natural disasters, government shutdowns, etc., etc. And it really got me thinking......We, in general, are so focused on all the bad things out there in the world and the daily things that face us everyday, I think we tend to forget about the things we do have. I know that I do. And maybe I'm the only one. I have my challenges and my trials and my bad days where I don't want to get up and do anything. And believe me, I complain quite a bit about how life is not fair for me. And I'll admit, I have ben n quite a funk lately. Life is hard right now for so many people and it SUCKS big time. People are losing jobs and there houses and so many other things that it just makes life that much harder. It makes me so sad. So, I have decided to think of all my blessings and list them, and I know I have done this before. And this is just for me. It's what I need to do to get through the horrible things that are going on in this world. I know everyone else has their own way of uplifitng themselves and being positive. But if I can't be grateful for the little things as well as the big things in this life, then what is their to be grateful for??? What's the point?? So here it goes. I am grateful for: -My husband, Jon, who works so hard to succeed and love me very much -My parents who have taught me so many valuable lessons -My parents in-law who have raised a wonderful son -All of my wonderful brothers and sisters -My nieces and nephews -All of the AMAZING friends that I have -My membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints -A roof over my head -Food in my cupboards -Two cars that get us to point A to point B -Our little dog, Dixie -Clothing -All of my talents -That my daffodils are still standing strong after all the snow that has been piled on top of them -Netflix....because watching Glee has been like a mini-vacay -A job -Insurance coverage -Modern medicine -My Nook....because I just love to read -Music -All of the people who have walked in and out of my life because they have been an influence to me -Hand lotion...because my hands get soooo dry -Target....because it's my favorite place to shop -Hearing the robins outside my window in spite of the snow and cold weather -My tabloid magazines....because I know I have it way better than some celebrities -My trial of infertility......because it has made me a stronger person. And when I get my baby, I am going to be the best mother to that child. And I know I have so many others. It is so hard for me to remember my blessings and all that I have. Especially when life is giving you lemons. Because sometimes the last thing you want to do is make lemonade. I just hope we can all find our positive outlet and find some good, even if it's just a little good, out of all the bad. I know that one day, we will see a light at the end of the tunnel, and that light will be so bright, we won't be able to open our eyes.

Randomness

I know I have been a slacker and a stranger to my blog. I haven't really blogged about anything it looks like since November. Although, I just posted a blog about a book I just read in my book club. But I don't think that really counts. So I guess I should blog about some things that are going on in our lives.

Jon is currenty attending the U of U to work on his bachelors. This semester he is taking two courses. Orginazation in Communications and Investments. He working on both his major and minor. His communications class is on Monday and Wednesday and he has the 5 starting players of the basketball team in his class. He say it makes class very interesting. His investment class is on Thursday nights and on those nights I find some friends to hang out with so I don't get too bored.

I have fallen in love with The Nook. I received it for Christmas and I love reading books on it. I have bought and downloaded quite a few books so I am slowly building my library. The one thing I love about it is that I can download samples of books to read before I decide I want to buy them. I have saved quite a bit of money with this little gadget.

We are ready for spring to start. We are so over the winter and snow. I have seem to be sick non-stop since Thanksgiving and I'm kind of tired of it now. We already have tulips, daffodils, and crocus's trying to come up. Our little flower garden will be so pretty this spring.

O.kay...that's about it for now. I will try to conjure up some more interesting stories to post because I know several of you have missed me. ;-)

Heart of the Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I truly enjoyed reading this book. I am very weary of books that discuss marriage and how to work out problems in a marriage. I feel like alot of marriage books can be a little too extreme and can vear you down a path that may not be the best path.



However, this book was very different. Gary Chapman discusses 5 Love Languages. Quality Time. Words of Affirmation. Physical Touch. Acts of Service. Gifts. He talks about how everyone has a different love language and in a marriage it's important to understand our partners love language and do our best to "speak" it. He also discusses that it isn't an easy task to do so. For example: My love language is receiving gifts whether they are thoughtful, homemade, tangible, or just doing something nice for me. My spouse isn't always good at doing this. However, we learned from the book that if you aren't speaking your partners love language then they start to feel unloved. So for me a gift can be doing the dishes, making the bed, taking me out to dinner ot a movie, buying me an unexpected gift, etc., etc.



It was very interesting to read and to learn that everyone wishes to be treated a different way in order to feel loved. I found it to be very inspiring.



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