THIS PAST WEEKEND and a GOODIE....

Our horses and the view behind our home

We finally got a bit of snow! This year has been so strange, we got a snow storm about like this in November and haven't had any snow since then. This past weekend we got this much again. I love watching what the storms do with the red rock mountains behind our home.

We had a little slobbery little visitor this weekend and I

just couldn't stop kissing those little chubby cheeks!

At her bed time, her daddy and mommie enjoyed reading her a

story book...her daddy really enjoyed them I think! LOL

Lindsey loved reading her little girl story books that she was read as a little one.
This book you can stick your finger through the holes and make legs or arms etc.
for the characters in the story. I have kept all my children's books and now their
children can enjoy them too.

Sophia is 6 1/2 months...has been sitting up since she

was 4 months and now she wants to walk! She loves

to stand like this and this weekend she also said her

first word! I was throwing my hands up in the air and

saying.."Ta Da"..and she mimicked me by doing and

and saying it too! Seems like the little ones are so eager

to do everything so early now!

Getting a ride on her cousin Kelton's shoulders

Headed to visit family...As you can see, Sophia has discovered her tongue...

She was constantly wrinkling up her nose and biting on her tongue. To me,
she looked like a little bumble bee when she does it!

The last few days have been calm, no wind, just mild winter days..so nice.

I wanted to share a muffin recipe with you, it's simple and so delicious!

PECAN PIE MUFFINS

1 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs (beaten)
2/3 cup softened butter
1/2 cup flour
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350'
Grease a muffin pan (regular, but I like the miniature pans best.)
Mix together the brown sugar, eggs and butter.
Then add the flour and nuts. Mix by hand, and then
pour the mixture into the muffin pan so each cup in 3/4 full.
Bake for 20-25 minutes for regular size muffins, around 18 min.
and at 325' for mini ones. You could even frost these if you wanted..
They make the house smell so good while they are baking too!

Just to share...

The Five Stages of a Woman's Life:

1. To grow up
2. To fill out
3. To slim down
4. To hold it in
5. Oh, to heck with it!

Hope you all have a great week Sending all my love to everyone.

THE LURE OF LAVENDER....

Oh Lavender...You hold such lure for me! I love, love the scent of lavender!

It's scent is such a heady aroma, filled with magical sprinkles of lavender
petals, drops of morning dew, a dash of fairy dust, a whisper of moon sparkle,
tiny fairy giggles and dancing bunnies in the moon light.

Have you ever been weeding and brushed up against your lavender plant?
I have, and at that moment, I just have to stop and inhale the wonderful
scent of it over and over!

There is a Lavender Farm about one and a half hours north of where I love.
It's called Young Living Farms, they have these farms all over the world too.
I love to visit this one in the summer time, it's such a joy to just be there, walking
around and enjoying the fabulous scent!

There is an old house that sits on this farm and you can go inside and
browse to your hearts content all of the lovely products that they make
from the lavender that they grow. I could spend all day there.

They hold all kinds of festivals there in the summer time too.

You can smell the farm for miles around, I think Heaven must smell like this.

The owner giving a tour over their farm and all that goes on there.

I can't imagine being around this scent all day...
I think I would go crazy with the pleasure of it!

I love to put a drop on my pillow at night or spray my bed linens with it.
It just makes me fall deeply asleep and have a wonderful nights rest.

For Valentines Day, my husband gave me some products from the

Young Living Farm. He truly read my mind! I am loving all of it.

I love the massages that come with the massage oil the most!

I have been sick for a week, I have been living on Day Quil/Night Quil to
kept me from coughing to death! I think I got what my little grands had
that landed them in the hospital. This lavender is really helping though.

A wonderful foot soak

Lavender-Peppermint Foot Soak
2 drops of Lavender
2 drops of Peppermint
2 drops of Chamomile
1/4 Cup Epsom Salt
Add to a large bowl of warm water.
Soak away for a good 10 minutes.

Lavender can be added to almost any food to bring in a wonderful favor!
like...Blueberry Lavender Sorbet

Lavender cupcakes

Lemon and Lavender Pound Cake

Lavender cookies

Lavender butter is so good on any kind of bread

Aromatherapy uses fragrance to stimulate nerves in the nose.Those nerves send impulses to the part of the brain that control the psyche. Lavender helps reduce stress, anxiety and insomnia.

Try misting your bed sheets and pillowcases with it and using it in your home as an air freshener or with a nice candle. I love using it in my home and on my body. Love it the best of all the scents. I also love the scent of Jasmine and rose. These scents must have been part of my Heaven because the certainly hold a lure over me even now.

What scents do you love?

LOVE IS IN THE AIR.....

Imagine me and you, I do I think about you day and night, it's only right.
To think about the girl you love and hold her tight, so happy together.

I can't see me lovin' nobody but you for all my life. When you're with me,
baby the skies'll be blue, for all my life.

Me and you and you and me, no matter how they toss the dice, it has to be.
The only one for me is you and you for me, so happy together, so happy together.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's that time of year.... love is in the air and it's time to break out the love songs and
the love poems, and the goodies to share with our loved ones. I just love Valentines Day!

I want to share with you a couple of delicious recipes, they are just right for Valentines Day!

PEANUT BUTTER CUP MINI-BROWNIES

Spray 40 mini-muffin cups
Prepare a box of brownie mix according to it's directions.

Spoon 1 heaping tsp. into each muffin cup. Bake at 350' 14 min.
Take out of oven when top is set but slightly wet inside, wait for
centers to fall a bit as they start to cool.

Place 3/4 cup of peanut butter in microwave for 45 seconds,
then stir. While brownies are still warm, spoon about 1/2 tsp. of
peanut butter into center of brownie. Top with chocolate and
peanut butter chips. Cool


AND

LEMON POUND BUNDT CAKE

Cream together:
3 cups of sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 sticks softened butter
1/2 cup Crisco

Beat in 5 eggs, one at a time.

Add:
2 T. Lemon extract
1 cup Milk
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
(alternating flour and milk)

Pour into a Pam sprayed bundt pan.
Bake 1 hour at 325"

"ICING"

Mix together;
1/2 stick softened butter
the juice and zest from 2 lemons
1 box powdered sugar (3 c.)
Spread over cooled cake.

Or you can also do 2 loaves instead of a bundt cake

I hope you are getting...In The Mood...to celebrate this love filled holiday.

It seems that February is really when winter hits us hard, so I always
welcome Valentines Day because it seems to bring a warm break to all
the dreariness.

I think Valentines day is such a fun day, we get to really celebrate all the loves in
our lives, from a spouse, to our children, our dear parents whether here or gone on.

I hope you will think about all that love and let it warm your heart real good,
it just might get us through to Spring! HAPPY VALENTINES DAY to each of you!

THE ENSIGN...and...SOME CUTIES.

There are many magazines out there that one can subscribe to, but this is the one that affects my life in the most positive way for good. The articles and helps in it always touch and uplift my spirit. I would like to share a little article and a couple of thoughts from it.

THE GRAPEFRUIT SYNDROME

(This story is about and by Lola B. Walters)

My husband and I had been married about two years..long enough for me to realize that he was a normal man rather than a knight on a white charger..when I read a magazine article recommending that married couples should schedule regular talks to discuss, truthfully and candidly, the habits or mannerisms they find annoying in each other. The theory was that if the partners knew of such annoyances, they could correct them before resentful feelings developed.

It made sense to me. I talked with my husband about the idea. After some hesitation, he agreed to give it a try.

As I recall, we were to name five things we found annoying, and I started off. After many years of marriage now, I remember only the first complaint: grapefruit. I told him that I didn't like the way he ate grapefruit. He peeled it and ate it like an orange! Nobody else i knew ate grapefruit like that. Could a girl be expected to spend a lifetime watching her husband eat grapefruit like an orange? Although I have forgotten them, I'm sure the rest of my complaints were similar.

After I finished, it was his turn to tell the things he disliked about me. Though it has been more than half a century, I still carry a mental image of my husband's handsome young face as he gathered his brows together in a thoughtful, puzzled frown and then looked at me with his large blue-gray eyes and said, "Well, to tell you the truth, I can't think of anything I don't like about you, Honey."
Gasp!

I quickly turned my back, because I didn't know how to explain the tears that had filled my eyes and were running down my face. I had found fault with him over such trivial things as the way he ate grapefruit, while he hadn't even noticed any of my peculiar, and no doubt annoying, ways.

I wish I could say that this experience completely cured me of fault finding. It didn't. But it did make me aware early in my marriage that husbands and wives need to keep in perspective, and usually ignore, the small differences in their habits and personalities. Whenever I hear of married couples being incompatible, I always wonder if they are suffering from what I now call the Grapefruit Syndrome.
~~~~~~~

I love that little story, here's another thought from the Ensign...

THE GIFT OF PRAYER
by Richard G. Scott

"Prayer is a supernal gift of our Father in Heaven to every soul. Think of it: the absolute Supreme Being, the most all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful personage, encourages you and me, as insignificant as we are, to converse with Him as our Father....

"It matters not our circumstance, be we humble or arrogant, poor or rich, free or enslaved, learned or ignorant, loved or forsaken, we can address Him. We need no appointment. Our supplication can be brief or can occupy all the time needed. It can be an extended expression of love and gratitude or an urgent plea for help. He has created numberless cosmos and populated them with the worlds, yet you and I can talk with Him personally, and He will ever answer.

(I so believe every word of this and I know my prayers are heard and answered. One last thing I wanted to share with you out of this magazine, the Ensign. As this world rolls along with it's many worrisome things that are happening, hold on to this good and true thought.)


Your future is not determined by the conditions around you. It is determined by your faith, your choices, and your efforts. Yes, you live in challenging times, but so did all the people in the scriptures that went before you. You don't have to be carried along in the current of the times. The Lord can and will help you set your own course. The challenges you face will serve to strengthen you as you move forward with your life. Each of you has a bright future, a future you cannot now fully comprehend.

There are no better days than these days, because "these are your days" you are here on this earth at this time for a reason. You have what it takes. You have skills, knowledge, and natural talents given to you by God.

The reason I am confident about all of this is because I know that the Lord lives and loves us. He is the reason each of us have a bright future. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13). Because we are children of our Heavenly Father and because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ...I know our futures are bright.
~~~~~

This magazine is so very uplifting and will help you to look at life in a hopeful and more positive way. Anyone can order it...go online to: ldscatalog.com
(or) you can call 1-800-537-5971 to order
(or) by mail: send $10.00 by check or money
order to: Distribution Services
P.o. Box 26368
Salt Lake City, Utah
84126-0368

We went to visit our littlest grands this past weekend...

Sophia in a little gold angel dress we gave to her.

I think she likes being in just the bloomers the best!

And we had to go and check on our little grands, Caleb and Ella.
They have been in the hospital with RSV and pneumonia! They
were there 2 days and nights...it was so scary! They got a fever,
and within about 2 days they got so sick. They are dong a bit better
now and are at home. It was great to get to cuddle and comfort them.

It's a bad time for sickness right now...everyone take real good care of
yourselves and your families. It seems like some real strong viruses
are out there. I will be glad for Spring to come!

SHARING MY BLOG BOOK WITH YOU....

I am so thrilled...look what I have! I got my blog printed up into a book!

My daughters have done this with their blogs and when I saw how very
beautiful theirs turned out, I wanted to do the same thing. My daughter
Lindsey helped me to get it done...thank you Lindsey! I don't know what
I would do with out Lindsey and Tiffany's help when it comes to doing things
like this and navigating the net! I had this book printed through BLURB and
I have to say that I am very pleased with the quality of the printing and pictures.

Go ahead and look through some of the books pages, I hope you like it!

(You can click on each picture to see it better)

Our home and Summertime

Ella's Birthday

Helping with a new grand baby

Our Fall horse ride in the mountains

A baptism and Halloween time

Ohhh, our cute grand children

Salt Lake City's Pioneer Parade on July 24th

A weekend off with my hubbie and some shopping

Spring time where I live

What is deep beauty..what makes a woman truly beautiful?

Another Giveaway for my friends

My mean (wonderful) parents

More fun with the grands

My bread...and things I love in my home

Answered prayers and tender mercies

I can't think of a better way to scrap book. By the time I bought all the materials

and developed the pictures, and spent the time, I think it would have been more

costly than doing it this way. This book was around $100.0 and it is close to 450 pages.

My husband was going through our bank account and saw the bill for this. He asked
me what this was for and I said some see. I gave it to him and he sat and with some
tears looked through every page and said, "This is priceless!" And everyone that has
come to the house, gets to see it too! Ron will go get it and have them look at it! A bit
embarrassing but nice too LOL.I think it's a great way to keep a precious record.

See this sweet little grandson, I have to tell you a sweet thing about him.
He was sick and his parents just could not get him to take his medicine, I
think even if they held him and tried to put it in his mouth they wouldn't
be able to. So they were intelligent enough to try a different approach. They
all 3 knelt in prayer, to ask Heavenly Father to please help Caleb be able to
take his medicine. When the prayer was finished, Caleb got up, took the
dropper full if the medicine and put it in his mouth and swallowed it!

They asked him, "Caleb, do you think Heavenly Father helped you do that?"
And he said, "YES, He is very sweet!"... Out of the mouth of babes a great truth!

I just had to throw this picture in here too...this is Sophia, I think her mommie

likes to try hats on her! And I don't blame her, this one really made me laugh !


Isn't blogging the best my friends? I love sharing with you! I hope you are having
a really great week. We have had such a warm winter and still no snow but today
the wind is fierce...a good day to be blogging! Sending my love to each of you, stay warm