Happy Valentine's Day!

Photos taken by Aunt Sarah.

Headband found here.

A Little Wisdom

This week we received a newsletter from Jacob's mission. His Mission President said some really great things that I am so grateful I read:

I received a wonderful article at Christmas time from one of our missionaries entitled “In the Strength of the Lord” by Elder David Bednar. In this article he talked about how important it is that we pray daily to the Lord to assist us to have the strength to deal with whatever circumstances that we find ourselves instead of always begging the Lord to change our circumstances. He mentioned that those people who truly began to understand the “enabling power of the atonement” would often pray to ask the Lord to strengthen their ability to deal with the pain instead of always asking the Lord to remove the pain. These people understand that all experience is for our good and helps us to become more like Him. III Nephi 27:27 “what manner of men ought ye be, even as I”. He cited Nephi’s experience when he was bound with cords by his brothers. His response to this horrible ordeal as he prayed to the Lord was this, “O Lord, according to my faith which is in Thee, wilt thou deliver me from the hands of my brethren; yea, even GIVE ME STRENGTH THAT I MAY BURST THESE BANDS WITH WHICH I AM BOUND”. In Mosiah 24 as Alma and his people were being persecuted by Amulon and the burdens upon them were too difficult to bear, the Lord did STRENGTHEN THEM THAT THEY COULD BEAR UP THEIR BURDENS WITH EASE, AND THEY DID SUBMIT CHEERFULY AND WITH PATIENCE TO ALL THE WILL OF THE LORD”. He also cited a journal entry of Daniel Jones who was part of the rescue effort of those early pioneers and ended up with little to eat. As he worked diligently to survive while eating cow hides instead of praying for food he prayed that their stomachs would adjust to handle the meager cow hides that they were boiling in the water to survive. Elder Bednar stated that he was quite sure that he would have been praying for quail or buffalo or other relief from this pain. Those who begin to understand the “enabling power of the atonement” will practice a prayer to the Lord that will help us change ourselves instead of our circumstances which so often are placed there to “mold us to be more like the Savior”. So if we find ourselves wishing that life should be some other way or praying that our companion, ward mission leader, Bishop or Branch President, or our area should be some other way it might be a wonderful day to rediscover the “enabling power of the atonement” in our own personal lives and look to “act” instead of looking at life as “being acted upon”. The Lords promise is sure and the “enabling power of the atonement“ will work in our own personal lives to assist us in “becoming more like Him”. Every day is a gift and an opportunity to become more like Him. Our areas, companions, and wards and branches are a perfect opportunity for our growth and the growth of our investigators. How we love you and pray for you eternal growth in the “Greatest Mission on Earth” Thank you for being a part of this great work.

When I got to the bottom I knew I had to share this. And then I read his wife's message, and knew I had to share THAT too:

January is such a great time of the year, isn’t it? It is the beginning of a brand new year. A time when we can start over; begin again. A time when we can access the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ to commit to make a few new changes in our lives. I love new beginnings! I love the fact that we can change our behavior that isn’t working well for us and try something else.

Sister Wendy Watson Nelson, wife of Elder Russell M. Nelson, uses the analogy of new beginnings to “turning a corner”. She says that making a commitment to do something different in your life that will bring you closer to the Savior, or to STOP doing something in your life that is taking you away from the Savior can work just like “turning a corner”. Once you turn a corner, when you look back, all you see is the corner---not what was there before the corner happened. You are shedding your “old skin”, coming out of your cocoon and starting to become the person that God intended for you to become.

My challenge to you is to work on one Christlike attribute that you would like to acquire in your life. Read about it, write about it, and visualize yourself having that quality. Make a commitment of one thing that you will do personally to make that attribute a reality for you in your life. Line upon line we can become more and more like the Savior.

I love these two messages and hope you will too. Speaking of Jacob:

He just finished up an 'area' as a traveling missionary. There are several areas in his mission that don't have missionaries because they don't produce enough missionary work. So the members do the finding and the scheduling and the traveling missionaries visit all these areas and go to the appointments the members have set up for them. So there are a lot of people and a LOT of driving, but he absolutely loved it. He also was considered a Zone Leader, even though the zone was basically him and his companion. He did that for 6 months and just got transferred. He is a district leader again. So far he is loving his new area.

Here he is working hard:

(Almost) 4 Months Old

Penny will be 4 months old next week. We still like her.

As of today she is 15lbs 11oz and 28 inches! (And hates shots) She is in the 95th percentile. She is growing so fast, and is passing up her 7-9 month old cousins/friends.

She is still a very good girl! She's still exclusively breastfed, but we plan on introducing solids soon. (I can't wait. The liquid poop that runs out the side of the diaper as soon as it comes out is getting a little old) She loves food. We gave her her first bottle a few weeks ago, and I was a little nervous that she wouldn't take it. But I shouldn't have been- she really doesn't care about the package as long as there's food in it. She's a good sleeper, and doesn't give us any problems going to bed. She does still wake up 2-3 times a night to eat, but I figure when you're growing as fast as she is, you need the nutrients.

Picture courtesy of Kellie

She still hates tummy time and will start to whine after a few minutes. She rolled over for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and neither Scott or I were in the room! I walked in just in time to see her land onto her back.

She got this cute ornament as a gift. You mold your child's hand in to it and then hang it on the tree. It took about 7 tries. One of them Scott swears looked just like a raccoon's paw.

She loves standing and sitting. When she is laying on her back she will try to sit up (all she can do is lift her head and grunt), and when she sits on your lap she will lean forward so that she is sitting on her own for a moment or two.

We have started baby sign, and she can't do the signs yet but she does get it. When I sign "Eat" to her, she gets all excited and antsy.



I made this blankie for her when I was pregnant and just now decided she is ready for it. This is her favorite way to sleep now. Just for the record, I do take it off her once she's asleep.


And, it turns out Mommy is funny too!

She was actually laughing harder before, but as soon as the camera comes out, she always just stares at it. Isn't she a little young to understand what a camera is?

A Little Bit of Randomness

Today I saw this video of a woman who was born deaf and, through a hearing implant, hears herself for the first time:

It made me think of all the things that I have to be grateful for that I take for granted everyday. The little things, like being able to hear my daughter laugh. Just wanted to share a few of the beautiful things in this world that we don't always appreciate.

This is Roger Hammerstein:

Penny's 2 best friends (they don't know it yet), playing at the park:

We have the most beautiful roses in our yard! The best part is, we don't even have to do any work for them :)

My 2 favorite goofballs in the world:

You thought that was a mobile. It's really a rotating punching bag.

“I believe the Savior is telling us that unless we lose ourselves in service to others, there is little purpose to our own lives. Those who live only for themselves eventually shrivel up and figuratively lose their lives, while those who lose themselves in service to others grow and flourish—and in effect save their lives.” President Thomas S. Monson

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Daddy is her favorite person!

Did you hear her saying "Hi"? She does it all the time. It cracks us up.

The Smiths in 2011

2011 was a great year! We started it off with a wedding...
...where we got to hang out with these fun guys:

The next day we found out that our team was expanding.
And were thrilled.

The next month we celebrated Scott's 28th birthday with a fun little trip.
We took another trip in March, to spend an awesome week in New York with the Singletons.

(Whose belly is that?? Actually that's pretty much what it looks like now and there isn't even anyone extra in it. Sad.)

I chopped the mop!

We celebrated our cotton anniversary.
We got to see Elder Cook throw out the opening pitch at a Dodgers game!
We watched my belly get bigger...
and bigger...
bigger...
and bigger!
(And my face a little bit too)

Scott finally got into his dream field of work.

The sweetest, most beautiful little girl joined our family.


And we got to take our cute little chicken trick-or-treating for the first time.


This has been an exciting year for us! We are so grateful for all of our family and friends and all of our wonderful blessings. We can't wait to see what next year has in store for us!

DIY wooden photo

Recently I found a tutorial to transfer a photo onto a piece of wood. I tried it out and it turns out that it's not difficult and it looks great! The video is short and cute but does not explain well, so I ended up having to try several times before I (semi) mastered it. So, watch this video, and then if you want to try it, keep reading below and I will explain more in depth.

*If any of this seems real obvious or too in depth, sorry. I am trying to answer a lot of questions that were posted about the video. And, sorry if some of my pictures are blurry. My camera is somewhat less than perfect (or it's an 8-year-old 5 mp point-and-shoot).*

Materials:
Yes, that is my family. I wonder if Dustin had any idea what he was getting himself into that day.

Block of wood
Can be any type of wood, actually it doesn't even have to be wood. Any surface that can be painted would work, even canvas.
Gel Medium
The brand I used was Liquitex, the same as the video. Another brand that I have heard works better is Golden, but I haven't actually used it. Both are sold at Michael's.
A photo
The photo must be printed on a laser printer (not ink jet). I have heard color works, but haven't tried it. Also, the image will be flipped, so if you have words in it, or are just OCD, make sure you flip it before you print it.
Mod Podge
Works as a sealant, sold at Michael's. You can use gloss or matte. Other sealants are OK to use but I haven't tried any others.
Water
A paint brush
In these photos you'll see I used one of those cheap foam brushes. A real paint brush will work better but this works just fine if it's all you have.

1st step:

Cover your wood with gel medium. You want to apply it liberally (Just to give you an idea of how much gel to use, I made 6 photos and used half of the bottle.) but smoothly. This is where a real paint brush comes in handy. If you use the foam kind it's more likely to look splotchy like mine. If this happens it will still work but it won't look as nice- you get color variations and spots where it's harder to remove the paper.

2nd step:

Place your photo facedown on top of the gel medium. It's important when you do this that there are no air bubbles or globs of gel. I found the easiest way to do this was to put the middle down first and then slowly put down the edges while smoothing it:

3rd step:
Wait for it to dry. It takes about 4 hours but it's OK to leave it overnight.

4th step:
Using a cup of water, start getting your paper wet. Don't be afraid to use too much, you want to thoroughly wet your paper.
Keep going until the whole paper is wet.

Then, using your fingers, rub back and forth over your picture to remove the paper. In the video, she says to "gently" remove the paper. The term I would use is "carefully." If you rub gently, nothing happens. So rub hard enough to remove the paper but be careful, because sometimes the picture will come off with it. You probably will need to keep re-wetting your paper while working.
This part takes a good 15 minutes. Once you're done it will look something like this:
Except your family is probably not as crazy.

It still looks fuzzy, and that's OK. It will look better with the mod podge on it. If you're a perfectionist you can keep re-wetting and removing paper. If you are, then wait for it to dry and you will see paper concentrations, but don't expect it to look perfect when it's dry- it won't.

5th step:
Apply mod podge evenly over entire surface. You can do this when it is wet or dry, it turns out the same. I prefer to let it dry first so I can make sure there are no big spots of paper in unfortunate places.
Once it's covered it will look like this:
But when it dries it will look something like this:
Except better because your eyes are better than my camera. You can see there are still some spots with paper left, and some small areas (especially around the edges) where the picture has come off. This was OK with me because it gives it a rustic look, but if you spend more time on it you can definitely get it to look nicer.

The entire process can be done in a day, with about an hour of work, and costs about twenty bucks to make several photos.