{Crafty Love}

It's almost February! What's more fun than Valentines crafts? Some years I'm all over Valentines and some years, I'd rather just skip it. I'm not sure if this year I'm going to care about Valentines its self, but I've been enjoying myself some Valentines craft time!

Ok, this first project isn't a Valentines craft, but I'm excited with it and wanted to share. I've always just stuck all the friends and families pictures on the fridge, but with all the kids papers and such, it was getting messy. Then my bloggy friend Cherie showed that she sticks hers all in an old window, something I happened to have a few of sitting in my back garage! So, over Christmas break, I pulled one out and started to clean the grime off it, and when I say grime, I mean it. See, these window came out of my Grandparents house, long ago and were deposited in the old milk barn, until Lisa and I found them and rescued them. I thought about painting it, but I like the rusty red color and the old hardware, so I left it as is! I still have some pictures to add to it, but I've been funny about the placement of the pictures and need to find time to play with it.

Now to the "Lovely" things. I honestly haven't done much, just added a few things here and there. I changed out my pictures in the ladder, they are now all sepia tones with little sayings on them in pink and red such as....True Love, Be Mine, XOxoXo, and Little Sweetheart. I also added a little crafty Love frame to the top. I won the cute Love banner at Bunko and added some hearts to hang from my rail.

And, last but not least, I made this Be Mine banner. I just got the dies from Stampin' Up! and have been excited to play with them. So, since I love all of my bloggy friends out there, I want to share my banner fun and will be giving one away (it may not be exactly the same, it just all depends on my paper supply) Just leave me a comment and share something you love...anything! I'll randomly pick a winner, lets say Thursday. And all you non-commenter's/lurkers..... I'd love to hear from you too!

{Hidden Treasure}

I'm sure none of you could tell from my last post that I'm SUPER excited about my new big heavy treasure. I can't wait to get it cleaned up and in my house. I think I'm just going to give it a good scrubbing and try it in my kitchen as is. Anyhow, Derrick and I were looking at it this evening when I found a hidden treasure! I opened up the top two doors and there are little notes penciled along the insides. I know these pictures aren't the best.....but how cool is that?
This particular one says 10 lbs to Milton. Milton was my Great Grandfather!

Some of the other little notes........

• Started to take milk, Nov. 20th (do you think that's a cow or a child?)
• 11 Lbs. mutton
• 9:30 Wed Night KSL
• Phone bill $1.20
• pd for Deseret News Sept. 20, 1926
• No 101 check for Edith's coat (Edith was my Great, Great Aunt)
• Check to Sears Roebuck Edith 37 Papas 25
  
  There is also a recipe for something that is only partially legible, a couple addresses and quite a few other little notes. I for sure won't be painting that part if I do decide to paint.....and I'll have to be very careful to make sure and clean around it all!

YEA, for hidden treasures!

{Treasures, I Tell You}

We had an interesting sacrament meeting in our little town last March. It didn't start out different than any other week, but about fifteen minutes into the meeting the pager of one of our firemen went off, and out he ran. Ten minutes later someone came in and got a young couple, a few minutes later their parents, then some family friends. By that point, I felt bad, but I don't think many of us were hearing the speakers, but were wondering what was happening. It turns out there was a fire in the home they were renting, a home that has been in my family for generations. My Grandpa's, grandpa built that home over 100 years ago. As long as I can remember the house has been owned by Uncle Orrin, who is actually my Grandpa's Uncle. It was a summer/weekend home for his family. I have so many memories of sitting on the front porch visiting, playing in the yard or playing Chinese checkers when the cousins came to town. Uncle Orrin always called me, and any of the other girls Matilda, and as a child I could never understand why. My parents rented that house the summer I was born, and I lived there the first 3 months of my life. That Sunday was a sad day for many. In the many months since that day, I've driven by the old Beckstrand home daily and been so sad to see the shape it's in.

For weeks after the fire, the bricks stayed wet from the water used to put out the fire.
These pictures honestly don't show how bad it truly looks.

Yesterday, I noticed some cars there and wondered who was there and what they were doing, since I'd heard that the family was selling the home. Lisa and I were visiting for a minute when she came to pick up Tylie, and my grandma called. She said the family was closing on the house in just over a half hour and had asked if there was anything she would like from the home, she said, "No, but I know two girls who would love to come look." We jumped in the car and ran right down. I don't know which I noticed first, the treasures or the devastation? We just stood there, with melting snow dripping on our heads, looking at the amazingly detailed mouldings and beautiful doors amid ashes and damage. I would have taken all of them, if the buyer didn't plan to try and restore it. But, in the middle of the living room floor were two huge old cabinets. Cabinets that had been there as long as I can remember, cabinets that have a bit of smoke and water damage, not to mention age damage, cabinets that the family wasn't taking and were offering to us!
Tonight we got a crew together and went to pick up our treasures......treasures that the guys (Derrick, Dad, Shad, & Ky) joked should have burned with the house. How could they say such a thing? I guess the old saying is true "One mans trash, is another mans treasure". They are both made from solid old barn wood, with old square nails, not to mention are very heavy. While the guys went to drop off Lisa's cabinet (the multi-colored one, we drew to decide who got which one). I visited with my grandpa. He said that the cabinets had been in the house as long as he could remember, even when his Grandparents were there.....meaning these belonged to my great, great, grandparents!

TREASURES I tell you!
I can't wait to get to work on them, and I have just the spot picked for mine!

{SNOW Much Fun Again}

It was another snow fun weekend for the Dearden families! James & Kami (Derrick's cousin)made arrangements for us all to borrow a condo at Mt. Holly above Beaver for the weekend. After hours of packing, (seriously why does it always have to take so long, and why must we take so much) and the back of the truck packed full, we headed out late Friday afternoon. They got there a few hours before us, and had cleaned everything up (it hadn't been used in awhile) and had dinner almost done, or maybe a little too done...... lets just say James may never be allowed to cook steaks again.Saturday morning we all went out sledding for a bit.

There was plenty of snow and a hill that was perfect for both the kids and the grownups too! I have to admit, I only went down two or three times, because the hike back up in that deep powder was rough! But everyone was having a blast, until.....

.....suddenly it was cold, and everyone was tired and ready to go back in!
The kids really all play pretty well together and kept busy watching movies, playing the PlayStation, and Carlie even entertained us with her dancing moves. Derrick and James took advantage of that time to take the snowmobiles out for a bit. The kids and Kami (yep, I wimped out....no really I was listening for Tyce to wake up from his nap) went back out and made a big snow fort complete with seats. Then later that afternoon James and Kami were nice enough to watch all the kids while Derrick and I took the snowmobiles out a little bit. It had been quite a few years since I've ridden and I have to admit, I was thankful for the groomed trails.
The next morning (after much preparation, it seemed) we all went out on the snowmobiles. Again, I was very thankful for the groomed trails, especially since I was riding with two kids. I did kick them off every so often so I could go play in the open areas. We found a great hill, and were glad we'd deflated a couple tubes and threw them on. The kids were in heaven with this hill, the slope was perfect and it probably took two minutes to get from the top to the bottom. I think they each may have climbed back up (or even half way up) once.....and the rest of the time they'd go down and one of us would run down on one of the snowmobiles and bring them back up! What could be better than that?

I have to say it was a great weekend filled with fun, games, not much sleep, good food, not many quiet moments, and especially good memories!

{SNOW Much Fun}

One of the boys Christmas presents from Derrick and I were tickets to the Western Nationals Snocross Races! So Saturday morning we packed up all our warm gear, jumped in the car with Damon and James and headed out! Oh, and we dropped Miss Carlie off at Grandpa and Grandma Dearden's. I think she was really excited to spend the day with "big Syney" and could have cared less that we were leaving her. After a few shopping stops, picking up Kami, and dinner, we made it to Rio Tinto stadium and proceeded to add layer upon layer of warm clothes. Yep, it's chilly outside at 7:00 pm, and even colder at 10:30!
Honestly it wasn't as cold as I thought it was going to be, my nose and my toes got cold, but otherwise I was good. I bet the guy we saw walk in wearing shorts and a light jacket couldn't say that!
The races themselves were pretty fun to watch, especially the hole shots, when there were 15 sleds all piled up together trying to get the best spot!
But my favorite part was, and always is, the freestyle riders! I love watching the jumps not to mention the back flips!
The boys were so excited and had to go down and get a front row view!

I think we all had a fun day....good times, good memories!

{I Confess....}

• as soon as my kids walk out the door to the bus every morning...... I climb back in bed and go back to sleep. I have this theory- if it's dark, I should still be asleep! Call me lazy, but I have a hard time getting to sleep at night, so I figure if Carlie is asleep in the morning, and I can sleep, I'm gonna!
• I spend way more time on the computer each day than I probably should.
• I am a horrible Visiting Teacher..... I have good intentions, but I never seem to follow through?!? I have a testimony of Visiting Teaching, and have had Visiting Teachers in the past who have made a huge impact on my life....still I'm horrible at it.
• I haven't had one drop of water to drink today! (unless you count the water that my Coke was made with.....there's gotta be some water in there, don't ya think?)
• I read a ridiculous amount of pages in 2009 (34,967 to be exact) but I would be embarrassed to admit how many of those pages were read from the scriptures.
• It's January 6th, my Christmas decor is still up and honestly I have no idea when I'm going to get around to taking it down......before Valentines, I hope?
• I weigh....NO, I'm not really going to share that! Let's just say, I weigh more than I would like and I'm really out of shape.

Pretty pathetic list, right? Hey....I'm just keepin' it real! So, it's the start of a new year.....I just proved that there are plenty resolutions that I could make. But let's be honest....my resolutions usually last, a few weeks, maybe a month or two if I'm lucky and then I'm back to square one. One of my friends is setting goals, goals seemed more attainable to her, and I like the sound of it better. I think I've decided to set one goal...... To simply be better...pretty all encompassing right? A better mom, better friend, better wife, better church member, better about my health decisions, just better! I figure if every day I just work at being better than I was the day before, I've accomplished something, and by the end of the year, I hope I can truly say I feel like I am a better person ending 2010 than I was beginning it!

{Santa Came Down the Chimney...}

about half past three....with lots of nice little presents for my baby and me!!!

I wasn't going to do a post about all the fun things Derrick and I got for Christmas, but I've had a few people request some pictures.... so here are a few of our treasures.

Santa got a new SLED! Ok, Derrick got a new sled....one that I think even Santa may be a bit jealous of! I've been waiting till it's either, not in use, or not dirty from use, so I could take a picture of it......but so far that hasn't happened! Unfortunately yesterday it hit a buried tree stump and ended up with a bent A-arm, so now it's at the shop awaiting a part so Derrick can fix it. So, the factory pic is just going to have to do.....just imagine that sled in our garage, with my hubby on it (and he's definitely been on it a LOT.....like 170 miles worth in the last 2 weeks).

Derrick surprised me with a new Kitchen Aid......Yippie! My mixer broke a few months ago and I've been using this horrid little hand mixer with only one beater (because one disappeared) in the meantime. Let's just say after using that little gem, I truly appreciate this gift!
Ohhhh, an electric pressure cooker. I've only used it once so far to make porcupine meatballs and they turned out perfect. I'm super excited to experiment and see what else this baby does!
How cool is this? One purse, three completely different looks...without ever having to empty or re-organize your purse! SWEET! Can you tell I'm loving this gift?

This beautiful print was given to me by my sweet best friend Ann. I saw it an issue of the Ensign earlier in the year and wanted to have it in my home. I looked for it online and couldn't find it, then started thinking I was pretty sure Ann had it hanging in her home. I called and asked her about it and she said there was only one place to get it and she'd pick it up for me. When she went to get it, it was no longer available. One of her ancestors actually had the copyright to the picture and after much work, her dad was able to get a release. Not only did she go to a great effort to get it for me, but she wrote the sweetest note on the back, that of course made me cry! It's now hanging on the wall in my bedroom to remind me of the things that are truly important in life!