showering baby boy bremner

last month kathy and erin threw the cutest shower for kari. kathy is the queen of details and made everything look darling. and of course there was tons of delicious food. i'm drooling thinking of all of the yummy-ness!

 one of my contributions (actually it was a team effort, i traced the template and dave cut and assembled them). here's the template for the cones. easy and super cute!

 kari wanted hot chocolate, so i made marshmallow sticks to stir the hot chocolate.

 is this not the cutest diaper cake ever?! like i said before, kathy is amazing!

 kari is loved by many and it was clear by all the friends who came to celebrate baby collin. check out all that loot! she was seriously showered with gifts!

 dave's cousin meagan took good care of emma. she even got her to fall asleep on her (the proof is below) which never happens. i was a little jealous!

 grandma gg, meagan and emma

 a little help from cute kingsley (who is exactly one week younger than logan)

 i made baby collin some shoes and a tie onesie. i could not have done the shoes without my friend jessica's help. she is amazing (and very patient)! i must say, i am quite proud of myself. 

if the type of aunt kari is is any indication of the type of mother she will be, she is going to be incredible! we can't wait to meet baby collin!

thoughts on life

a few weeks ago dave and i went on date. i had found a fun list of questions to talk about over dinner (to spice up our conversation) and one of the questions was, "how would you like people to describe you at your funeral?" it really made me stop and think, because in my opinion the heart of that question is "what/who do you want to have become by the end of your life?"

fast forward to last friday. i attended the funeral of an amazing woman from the ward i grew up in (and still lovingly refer to as my "home ward." it still feels like home there). despite the sadness of the occasion, her funeral was an inspiring event. i don't think a single person left it without wanting to be better. as i listened to how her family and friends described her, it was clear the kind of person she had become and what was important to her, her family and the gospel of jesus christ. she had spent her life loving and serving those around her. one of her daughters described her as a "people builder" and i thought that was a beautiful tribute. i can honestly say that i never left her presence without feeling important, special and loved. it was a gift of hers to make everyone feel that way. shortly before she passed away her family was gathered around her and she asked them to be true to their covenants, because as she said, it's all we have. one of her daughters shared with me that while she and her mom were talking, her mom had told her that she while wasn't perfect, she had lived her covenants. what a wonderful thing to be able to say at the end of your life (or really any time during your life)!

and once again i thought about who and what i want to have become by the end of my life and it could be summed up in one thing: i want to be someone who has kept their covenants. because if i have been striving each day to keep my covenants, i will have become who i want to be: someone who loves the Lord and has tried to follow him and keep his commandments; someone who loves her family and has lived so it can be eternal :) ; someone who served and cared for others during good times and hard times and was "willing to bear one another's burdens, that they may be light;" someone who stood "as a witness of God at all times and in all things, and in all places" that i was in; someone who learned to submit my will to God's, trusting he knows what is best for me; someone the Lord could use to build his kingdom and further his work; someone who had become an instrument in the Lord's hands; someone who learned to recognize and follow the voice of the spirit; someone who loved truth; someone who loved life and lived it fully and found joy and happiness (and laughed a lot); someone who was true. i have got a long way to go to become that person, but my covenants have become a little more real and hopefully will influence me a little more each day.

slice of life: our lazy weekend

we had a lazy weekend and it was wonderful! lots of time just hanging out, playing, reading books, watching mormon messages, hanging out and talking in bed, and just being together. i love these kind of weekends!

no matter how many times i see this scene above, i can't get enough of it

a week worth of halloween celebrations

we had such a great halloween. it really is true that kids make everything so much more fun! logan loved trick or treating and let's be honest, why wouldn't he?! free candy (after all, he is my son!)! we celebrated over the period of about a week and rather than doing multiple posts i'm just doing one long one. prepare yourself for lots of pictures of a cute fireman and darling ducky!

the week before halloween we went to the trunk or treat at my parent's ward. i always love visiting their ward, it still feels like home to me. this was logan's first experience with trick or treating. whenever he would say trick or treat he would hold up his arm (like the picture on the left). it was pouring rain so rather than going car to car, people lined the halls of the church with their candy. it got pretty packed (like claustrophobic) at times but it was worth it for candy (can you tell how much i love candy?!)!

is that not the cutest duck ever?! 

thanks to kari and sterling for lending us their japanese kimonos!

logan got his face painted (obviously...not a necessary caption)

they had a harry potter room that was really cool. logan sat on a stool and was sorted into a house (yea gryffindor) and this was him getting his wand from mr. ollivander!

the saturday before halloween the weather was beautiful and i thought it would be the perfect day to visit the zoo. it wasn't until we were pulling up to the zoo and saw all the kids dressed up and nowhere  to park that i remembered it was "boo at the zoo." after driving around for 15 minutes looking for parking (and getting mighty frustrated) and parking a 15 minute walk from the zoo, we finally made it. we looked like the total slacker parents because our kids weren't dressed in their costumes (i seriously think i only saw one other kid without a costume and there were a lot of kids there). luckily logan was oblivious and just thought it was fun to see the animals and more importantly, fun to get candy!

the day before halloween we went trick or treating to gammy and pappy's house. halloween is kathy's favorite holiday and she goes all out decorating and spoiling the kids. i think the picture below on the left perfectly captures her love of this holiday (and her grandkids)

finally the actual night arrived. we went trick or treating around our neighborhood with our friends the gordons and it was so fun! logan thought it was great and would push his way to the front at every house (not so great). he said "trick or treat" and "happy halloween" and we couldn't get over how cute he was. we visited one house that goes all out decorating. i'm personally not a fan of inflatable lawn decor, but this house was so festive we had to get a picture. plus they must have had between 12-15 intricately decorated jack-o-lanterns. they were incredible (and sadly by the next day all the decorations were down and the pumpkins were in their trash cans).

logan with the 2 cutest ladybugs

we came home and logan had to check out his loot. i think this picture is funny because he is lining up his candy that is the same size and shape. and dave and i had fun passing out candy to the late trick or treaters (i think it is one of dave's favorite things about halloween). it was the perfect end to a great week of celebrating. we also celebrated by attending our nephew josh's halloween birthday party but sadly didn't take any pictures :(

let's just say i have eaten more than my fair share of candy. i could relate to what one of my friends posted on facebook, that for every one piece of candy her son eats, she eats five. that sounds about right to me. one of the first things that logan asks for when he wakes up is a piece of candy and then he begs for it for the rest of the day. aahhh! it does work well for bribery though (like bribing him with candy if he would be reverent during family scripture study tonight)! happy halloween!

choose to become

last month i went to "time out for women." it was a day and a night full of inspiration and the spirit. the theme was "choose to become" and i left feeling rejuvenated and more determined to become who the lord wants me to be. but as often happens, once i left that spirit filled room and stepped back into "real life" it was easy to forget what i learned, what i felt and what i had resolved to do (and of course "real life" is really where i needed to remember and apply what i had learned).

last week in particular was a hard week for me. i had a lot to do for my calling and was feeling completely overwhelmed about doing it all, not to mention the day to day stuff of life and trying to be a good mom and wife. nap time, that precious time each day where both kids are sleeping and i have a chance to do something for me (or take care of some of the business of life) was being taken up by relief society stuff and i felt like i was treading water and barely keeping my head above the surface.  i had a few breakdowns. one by myself, one to my counselor and one to dave. all them included tears and me saying, "i can't do this," "what was heavenly father thinking when he called me? there must be someone better for this job,"and "there's not enough time to do everything." i know these feelings aren't unique to me, we all feel them at some point, to some degree. but i needed to be reminded that my heavenly father was aware of me and loved me. dave gave me a priesthood blessing and it was the reminder i needed that my heavenly father is there.

i've thought about the theme, "choose to become" and i am grateful it emphasizes choice. it's up to me who and what i become and even the little choice each day matter. and the process of becoming like christ isn't an easy one and it isn't a quick one. it is filled with overwhelming moments, moments of inadequacy, moments where we think we can't do it, lonely moments and hard moments. but there are also moments where the spirit whispers who you are, a son or daughter of god with incredible potential, and you feel it and believe it. and with that understanding, you can overcome and learn from all those hard moments that are inevitable parts of life. and i guess even those moments are good, because they are usually the moments when we look to god and turn things over to him. when we learn to trust and really rely on our faith, because we remember we can't do it on our own.

i want to be able to remember (and apply) some of those spiritual whisperings from time out for women. because clearly i need them in my "real life."

• (mary ellen edmunds) there is an all out war for my identity. satan doesn't want me to know/remember who i am because if i do, he can't make me miserable. and nothing feels better than remembering who i am.   talking to my heavenly father and reading the book of mormon protect me from identity theft. 
• (heidi swinton) president monson said one of the sweetest experiences in mortality is to be an answer to someone else's prayer. the spirit doesn't justify or explain to us (when prompting us), it just expects us to respond - immediately!
• (hilary weeks) extraordinary moments happen in the middle of ordinary days. ask heavenly father each morning in my prayers what is the most important thing for me to do that day.
• (emily watts) we learn something about ourselves when we do hard things, it is how we learn and grow. be careful about judging. we usually don't see the whole picture or know the back story. develop a thick skin because others may judge us without seeing the whole picture or knowing the back story. 
• (kelly ogden) we have every reason in the world to be happy. "don't be a pickle sucker" gordon b. hinckley. we can have a bad day but have a good life. the spirit of god (and things that bring the spirit of god) inspires cheerfulness and brings happiness regardless of circumstances. 
• (merrilee boyack) be bold and fearless. blaze my trail and pray that the lord will help me know who to serve along the way. women do incredible things!!
• (emily freeman) if i want to become the lord's, it will require ALL of me. i can't hold anything back.

i already can't wait for next year.