Our week in photos...

January 6th - 12th 

It was another 
beautiful and wonderful week in January.

X... Marks the Spot!
(loved these contrails we saw on a pretty drive!)

I NEVER tire of sunrises...
especially in the winter! 

SO glad I got to enjoy 
this burst of color early in the morn, 

because as soon as it was gone, 

it turned grey and stayed grey and gloomy all day long!

 I finally had time to grind wheat and bake bread! 

I haven't made Honey Whole Wheat bread 

since before Thanksgiving! 

I forget how yummy and enjoyed 
homemade bread is at our house. 

I had happy boys that pretty much 
finished an entire loaf in one day!

There's a freezing fog today...

everything is covered in ice and frozen snow. 

When I looked out the window and noticed 

icicles hanging underneath our trampoline, 

I had to go and investigate...

this is what they looked like. 

SO COOL!!

My Young Women girls made a 
"Value Pizza" for our weekly activity!
(we served it on blue plates and served Grape Juice so all of the colors of the values were represented)

 A sweet note given to me by one of my 2nd graders,

 letting me know what we should be doing in PE today.  

So sweet!

This is my every Wednesday... 

Saucony shoes, whistle, black exercise pants, 

in an old school gym! 

I run laps, skip, hop, gallop, jump, slide, dance, dribble 

and the list goes on as I teach kids PE skills and FUN 

in grades K-5! 

I Love this day of the week!

Icy and cold temps as 
I did lunch recess duty on Thursday!

The way the snow had melted on our back stop looked SO cool when I got home from work!

It's amazing the beauty you can see this time of the year in the most unusual places... 

if you just take the time to look!  

This was how the snow
 melted and froze in our drive way! 

Ice my Ride...

When I went out to take care of the chickens, I noticed that the wheels of my son's bike were covered in a thick ice.

LOVE how this photo turned out!  

BEAUTY at -17 degrees!
This is the window of our chicken coop, covered in frost with the windmill, blue sky and house in the reflection!

Even though I was sick, 
I couldn't resist bundling up
 and walking around the yard for 5 minutes 
in the bitter cold -17 degrees....
SO glad that I did because it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!  

 And beautiful tree branches were beautiful as well!! 

Our week ended with Tracy and I coming down with the dreaded flu and spending the majority of Friday and Saturday in the tub trying to warm up and find relief.  
It was miserable and the worst part of all, was pretty much leaving my kids to fend for themselves because I was doing good to sleep and rest to try and get feeling better.
I sure hope next week is better!  

New Beginnings 2013

"Stand Ye in Holy Places and be not moved"!  

New Beginnings!

My big assignment for the year and I was SO sick with the flu! 

I'm just grateful I had gotten the gifts for our YW girls wrapped early in the week and pretty much had everything else together.

I was also feeling grateful that I had asked someone else to handle making the treats for the refreshments, so that I didn't have to stress last minute to ask for help with that. 

All in all it was a wonderful night

 for our Young Women girls, leaders and parents!
I didn't hardly take any photos of the night, since I pretty much just showed up and set up the gift table and decorated the lamp and value table and then sat on the stage step trying to survive being chilled and not feeling well, in between turning on the lights when our Beehives talked about each value and then I ran the audio/tv when it was time to show videos.   

Here is the evening in photos...

(feel bad I took photos before, but no photos during and wish that I had photos of my sweet young women girls).

Oh well!  

There's always next year!  

 Our Personal Progress cheerleader, did the cutest talk and built a snowman as she talked about Personal Progress with the girls!  It was awesome!

Our Young Woman's President 

is amazing with decor and presentation!   

I was touched when I looked on the table and saw my Logan Temple in the center!
It was made for me by mom for Christmas over 10 years ago. It was awesome to see it on the table on a night when we were talking about the Temple with our Young Women!

Our week in photos...

SO, my poor blog has gotten neglected over the past year. Not that I've wanted to, but due to all of the social media, Facebook has definitely been easier to keep up with.

I have been grateful 

for one of the groups I have been a part of:  

"Project 365...photo a day". 

It has made it where I am able to capture something every single day.   

I very much enjoy my blog!  

I enjoy sharing my life through photos.

I enjoy sharing my recipes and cooking.

I enjoy sharing our frugal living tips 

and the journey to becoming debt free that we are on.

As I have pondered how I want to tackle the enjoyable things in my life, I am thinking I'm going to treat my blog as such.

I will take the photos I share from my 365 Project and the photos that I post on Facebook and each weekend do an "Our week in photos..." post. 

(that way I at least have photos that I love shared and blogged about)

I will then try and at least blog a few times a month sharing recipes and frugal living and see how that goes.

Sometimes you just have to START 

and so that is what I'm doing...

December 30th to January 5th

New Profile pic...

Love using the cool effects with my camera!

Sparkly Snow, 

striped socks and comfy shoes!

It snowed on New Year's Eve!
Loved these leaves that were still hanging onto the branches with the fluffy snow all around! 

  Cousins have fun playing "Mine Craft" 

on New Year's Eve

 The New year was off to a great start!  

My Buttermilk biscuits have never risen this high before! 

Hope that means that it's going to be a successful year 

for achieving those things we want most to become a reality!

The sun is shining brightly today 

and the snow topped roof of our chicken coop 

is melting into cool icicles! 

This was the temperature 

when we went to bed on January 1st!
YES, BRRRR... 

 The calendar said  

it's back to work and school today

 It was SO cold 

the kids had to stay inside for recess.

I love my "Peas and Carrots"! 

Here they are wearing their shirts

 that they got each other for Christmas!
While they are brothers, 

they are nothing alike, but, 

they go together like "Peas and Carrots".

Was excited that I was able to take photos 
of the freshly fallen snow 
and actually have it focus 
on individual snowflakes!  

I looked out the window tonight 

and saw a colorful sky filled 

with LOTS of contrails all intermingled!

You know it's going to be a great day 

when you wake up 

with bed-head this AWESOME!!  

 Sparkly snow...

it doesn't get more beautiful than this!

D8 NITE!!

HOT Friday night date with my 

"Hunk of burning love"!

LOVE this guy SO MUCH!!

 Loved the bright sun shining through our windows 

and I had to capture the reflection 

of our poinsetta on our kitchen table. 

SO cool!

More cool reflections 
from the bright sun shining! 

Happy first week of January! 

2013... It started out beautiful!

 I can't believe another year is behind us! 

I can't believe another New Year's Eve has been celebrated! 

"Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night--
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Ring out the old, ring in the new--,
Ring happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true."

Mr. Smith and I took a drive into 
town on New Years Eve Day
and it was absolutely beautiful with fluffy white snow, blue skies and hazy clouds. It was so much fun talking and driving together without any interruptions from our boys.  

Here is some beauty we saw...
photos taken with my iPhone!

Here's to another wonderful year of 

adventure, family fun, memories, 

baking and frugal living, photography

beauty, and trying each day 

to live by my NEW motto...

"Let what you do,

be what you LOVE"!