Penny's New 'Thing'

Today the 3 of us went on a walk, with Scott and I pushing Penny in her carseat, which fits into the stroller. This is what it is supposed to look like:

Notice the hood. The back of it is against the back of the carseat, and the front is pulled forward just enough to block the sun from her eyes without obstructing her view of the world.

Turns out, that's not how she wants it.

Yes, she has decided she wants the whole thing in front of her, and will pull it forward, no matter how bad the sun is in her eyes, or how many times we put it back the way it goes.

I Made This

Again, thank you, Pinterest. I saw an idea similar to this mail sorter, and made it my own.

Can you tell the reason I had to make these, based on whose box is overflowing?

Again, this cost me $0 to make. They are cereal boxes, cut to the right dimensions, covered with scrapbook paper (you could also use fabric or wrapping paper), with clothespins hot-glued to the front to hold anything important.

And now, Scott and I are not moving little piles of mail back and forth all over the house!

2 Things

1. How cute is this baby?

2. How awesome are our "Scott Smith original" shirts that Scott made for us? If you like them, or know someone who will, similar shirts (and other products!) can be purchased here. Also, if you have a specific design you'd like, let Scott know, and maybe he can draw it for you!

We love wearing our matching shirts made by our favorite guy!

I Made This

I've been seeing menu boards all over Pinterest lately, and I love the idea. I found this one in particular:

(found here)
and loved it.

So I decided to copy it.

This menu board is great because:
1. It's a spot to put down what you're making for the whole week and takes a lot of the stress away from planning dinners.
2. It is a nice list of what meals you make, for those times when your mind just goes completely blank even though you know you make tons of recipes.
3. You can put all the ingredients required on the back, which makes compiling a shopping list so much easier.

I did a few things differently- in the interest of cheapness, ease and my own taste.

First, I couldn't see wasting a perfectly good picture frame, so I just got a piece of wood and cut it to 11x14. Then I mod podged my paper onto it.

Also, since I don't have crayon boxes at my disposal, I used jello boxes. They were thicker than I wanted, so I ended up cutting them all the way along the side, then fitted the 2 pieces together and glued them in place. Does that make any sense? So they were still the same height and width, they just didn't stick out so much when I attached them. I just needed 1 box- I cut it in half and used the top for one box and the bottom for the other.

I used ribbon and Stickles for my clothespins, and cut out my letters on the Cricut and used a gel pen and Stickles to decorate them. I hot-glued the clothespins and the boxes to the board.

I drilled holes in the top and used wire to hang it.

I didn't laminate my cards (cheapness and ease- it will be easier to add new cards whenever I get new recipes this way), so I had to print on both sides of the paper. It took me a few times to get it all lined up, but it worked pretty well. I entertained the idea of color-coordinating the cards for main ingredients, but I haven't done that yet. If I decide to then I will just ink the edges.

Here's my sister's:
It was made using all the same techniques except we used a mac and cheese box.

This was all very easy and could have been done in an hour or two. (If you don't spend twice as much time messing around than you do actually working, like we do.) And it cost me $0 to make, since I already had all the supplies!

I Love to Read

Penny loves books! (In case you can't tell by the millions of pictures I have taken of her with them)

She holds the book while I am reading and will even turn the pages!

I have tried very hard to get it on video but it never works out.

As Scott and I are both avid readers, we are so excited about this!

This is a book about hearts I was reading to her at the doctor's:

Terrible, huh?

She also thinks anything that glows is wonderful.

We don't let her watch TV but if she is in the same room as it, she will wiggle herself around until she can see it.

She still hates tummy time. She will be like this for usually about the first 3 minutes of it:

But quickly turns into this:
She has found her thumb!

And loves it.

She also loves her dolly:

And we love her.

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: