happy happy

Happy Mother's Day to all my dear friends near and far! I want to share my beautiful roses with you too. John did a great job picking these out - I *love* them. I took them outside this morning and the sun made them glow :)

I believe all women are mothers in one way or another whether they have their own children or do not. I think God gave us the gift of nurturing others and it is a sacred gift. I can't imagine what the world would be like without it.

I am truly grateful I have my 3 maniacal boys, and more thankful than I can express that they are all here with me today. I cannot remember the last time we were all together on Mother's Day, so today is a very rare and special day for me. I plan on milking it for all it's worth and forcing them to take pictures without making any faces. 

I'm going to end with a poem that I wrote for my Davy many years ago when he was about three years old ~

Little flickers

magic light

the tucking of a quilt at night.

silence lingers

silence glows

across the precious face of those

angels here upon the earth

angels, these of priceless worth.

all I wonder without cease

shades of gray amidst belief

pale, then wither in the night

whence before this precious sight.

breathe them deep,

their cherub smell

kiss their velvet

all is well.

~

a pint of pinto

❤ Einstein ❤

I simply can't hold back any more. Ever since this teeny tiny little guy 

was born a few weeks ago, I have wanted to put him on my blog! 

Other things going on around here have been a bit more poignant lately, 

so I waited. The problem with waiting, is that it's guaranteed something else 

will always come up. And of course, things came up! Well, I just can't wait any longer! 

So today is finally devoted to precious Einstein, the smallest horse in the world!

Einstein is a pinto stallion, born weighing just 6 pounds, and measuring 

only 14 inches high. That's tiny even for a newborn miniature horse. 

His proportions are excellent. Sometimes a miniature this small will show 

signs of dwarfism, but Einstein shows no signs of it at all. 

He's just a lovely little guy all the way around :)

I've been entranced by miniature horses for a number of years. I think they are 

completely and utterly adorable. (someday.... someday... you just wait and see!) 

I have read every article, looked at every photo, and watched every video about 

little Einstein I could find. My kids just roll their eyes and laugh like I am 95 years 

old and they are visiting me in a "home" :/  But I don't care - watching him just 

makes my heart happy. It's like he has the sweetest little spirit inside that tiny 

little body. You'll see for yourself - he will make your heart happy too :)

girls on ice

Our church's new Young Women's Organization leaders - that's right, we're gonna rock the house :D

Vanessa, Rebecca, Robin, Me, Kerrie, and Megan - I love and adore these awesome gals!!!

We had our first activity as their new leaders a few nights ago - it was so much FUN! 

The girls went ICE BLOCKING down a grassy hill (sliding down the hill on big blocks of ice) - how great is that!

Many thanks to Brenda, our one other leader who ran off before she could be in our photo!

How cute are these girls! Some of them I've known all their lives, some of them I'm just getting to know.

The Young Women's Program is for girls ages 12 to 18. It's a great program and we have a LOT of girls!

future Young Woman in training - how adorable is she :)

the wipe outs were actually the best part - LOL :D

as you can see, everyone had their own method of sliding down on the ice blocks

Hey! INFILTRATOR!!! 

See, the Mouse is no dummy. He could go play frisbee at church with a bunch of stinky guys, or he could jump into his mom's car and end up rolling down grassy hills with a whole bunch of cute girls. Kind of a no-brainer. 

like I said, everyone had their ways of sliding down

AND WIPING OUT TOO! LOL! 

Big group getting ready to go down the hill.....

Get ready, get set, GO!

And they're OFF!

Oh dear....... FAIL :/

Good times, good times :)

I was just sad to see the Mouse so miserable ;)

Idol Icon

So Frank Sinatra. What did you think about that? And Harry Connick Jr. as mentor. Is that boy too cute for words or what!? Now THAT is talent. I'd like to see Miley Cyrus and her man voice try to put in a fourth of that much mentoring. But the whole Frank thing was a tough one for me. None of those contestants are going to end up as crooners - even our lovable romance singer Big Mike is worlds away from Loungedom. I felt the challenge made them all fish out of water - kind of on purpose. I think some definitely swam, and some unfortunately sunk.

Frank Sinatra Week ~ Harry Connick Jr. as mentor extraordinaire

1) Aaron - "Fly Me to the Moon" - Nice job for a 17 year old who keeps squeaking by but needs to go home now

2) Casey - "Blue Skies" - Oh my gosh... poor Casey. That was so painful. I was mortified for him. 'Nuff said.

3) Crystal - "Summer Wind" - Definitely not her best performance, but I still thought it was simple and lovely.

4) Big Mike - "The Way You Look Tonight" - Loved it. Mike and his beautiful voice gave a great performance.

5) Lee - "That's Life" - Wow - go Lee! The surprise of the evening, Lee nailed it AND seemed comfortable. Yeah!

Predictions? This is going to be tough. Bottom 3: Aaron, Casey, and... dare I even say Crystal???

Homebound: I think it may just be Casey and Aaron may squeak by yet another week! :(

What do you guys think???

just checking

This is what I wrote on our whiteboard last week. It's right by all the game systems. Still, it took several days to be noticed. Actually, John already scored major points as I mentioned in my last post. And all I ever ask for for Mother's Day is a poem. I love for my boys to write me a poem :) And since they are of the creative type, fortunately they oblige. Sometimes their poems are funny, sometimes they're silly, sometimes they are actually quite deep and poetic... sometimes they are so precious and heartfelt they make me put my hand over my heart. I cherish each and every poem from my boys - they mean more to me then I could ever possibly express. 

How are you coming with your Mother's Day plans? Just checking... Here are a few ideas if you need a little help:

From my friend Bev's store Hillcrest Cottage on Etsy. Bev draws and paints the sweetest illustrations in her cozy artist's studio. She's always working on something new and worthwhile. Plus, she's the mom of 3 boys too :)

Ellen was one of the first people to follow my blog - I don't even know how she found me. A Canadian photographer, her skills are absolutely exquisite - simply breathtaking - so visit her store The Eye on Etsy. 

My friend Cristi in Florida is a great person and mom and so talented. And her Etsy store 2 If By Sea is constantly being filled with her wonderful jewelry creations. I am wishing she could create full time someday :)

 

My friend Aimee from Artsyville on Etsy (and her delightful, raucous blog) is AWESOME. She puts into colorful words and doodles, the thoughts that are floating around in all our minds but we never know how to capture them.

I grew up with my dear friend Lauren from Harmony Quilts on Etsy. I also have several of her wonderful pieces in my own home. Her designs and skills are impeccable. And all of you know how I feel about peace signs :)

My girl Sara is the most upbeat, colorful mom & wife I know. Full of energy I admit I envy, she is also a talented painter and loves to combine her colorful talent with inspirational scripture and sayings: Sara's Art on Etsy. 

So anyway... there's a little Etsy love for you today - it's been a while. Be good to your moms this week people!

the gamut

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Ours was packed with just about everything you could think of and more!

Thanks for all your awesome comments here on the blog, via Facebook, through e-mail, and in person, regarding my last blog post :) Sometimes there's just not enough aspirin. You guys de bomb and make everyting iry man.

So this is my new painting - I just finished it. It's called "Spring". I might have to marry it. Not really - it's going into my Etsy store along with a few others. But I definitely lurve it. Speaking of which, I may need to make up some more of my "so little aspirin" frames and sell those in my Etsy store too... opinions? 

So we indeed ran the gamut this weekend. The Mouse and I cleaned out our closets and made donations. Davy's girlfriend Val left for a month of volunteer work in India. John & Daniel helped a family move. We had to do a major grocery store run which nearly required a U-Haul rental. Mouse went to a birthday party, I didn't even count how many movies were watched all weekend, and I reorganized the TV/DVD cupboard. Which leads me to announce that I got my Mother's Day present from John early - an amplifier and speakers that I can 1) plug the record player into, and 2) play my iTunes through! I will no longer have to settle for my tiny laptop speakers as my only form of listening to music - my house can once again be filled with BIG TIME SOUND!!! Way to go John - I am happy, happy, happy :D So John and the Mouse spent some time getting that all hooked up. 

We are still having such fun with Daniel being home. (even if it means he and Davy spend every spare moment watching Avatar cartoons like they're in 6th grade, but you didn't hear that from me) My Luna is his little jogging buddy before he goes running. 

And then Angel and Luna get to walk around the park, which they love. But I have ulterior motives and I bet you already know what they are. That Luna of mine is a naughty little character, and she loves to chase bunnies. She never catches one of course, but just watching her run like a bullet is seriously more fun than you've ever had :)

Tee Hee 

Sunday was an amazing day. My boy Davy was ordained an Elder in our church, which means he now has the Melchizedek Priesthood. Pretty big stuff. Ordained by John, with Daniel in the circle as well, and our Bishop, and High Council representative. Just look at these handsome boys. I'm so proud of them. I'm so proud of my Davy. 

I was also called to work in the Young Women's organization at church, which is so awesome! I am very excited! I love and adore all the other leaders I will be working with, and the girls totally rock. It's gonna be great :D

Last evening John, Davy & I sang at a special missionary meeting at church, and that was really neat. It sounded great too. So as you can see, it was quite a churchy day. Normally I have a hard time with churchy days. I'm a bit of a free spirit. I'm not a very good meetings person. Our usual 3 hours every Sunday is sometimes more than I can handle. Yesterday I was there 6 hours. And it happened to be "Fast Sunday" so we had all been fasting 24 hours. Now, the Walkers are not great fasters. We get really cranky. And shaky. We get headaches. Sometimes Davy surpasses white and turns clear. So it was a really big churchy day, with lots of neat stuff going on, and no food. But we made it through, and I know we have our Father who art in heaven to thank for it all. 

And then we ate. And I partook of much diet Coke. And we played UNO. And I threw nothing. And it was well. 

seriously?

This is what I'm eating right now at 1:00AM while writing this blog post. Yes, that's right, it's a Sprinkles cupcake. A Sprinkles carrot cake cupcake with cinnamon/cream cheese frosting. And I don't care if I puke, pass out from a sugar coma, have to take Exedrin during the night before my head explodes, wake up with a sugar hangover, or all of the above. My stress meter hit *BOING* this evening and you just gotta do whatcha gotta do. So after taking comfort in diet Coke and Ruffles while watching last week's "Office" - and pretending an extremely loud and obnoxious guy movie was not blaring from the other room - I remembered: Sprinkles! The gateway of Sprinkles frosted bliss was waiting for me! HURRY! BECAUSE MY BUTT IS NOWHERE NEAR BIG ENOUGH.  

This week was such a crazy week. Mostly good crazy. Here we're celebrating Daniel's 24th birthday.

These photos speak for themselves. Which is why my photos are rarely in focus when these 3 are together.

They are just ridiculous.

Please feel sorry for me.

Weirdsmobiles.

And the Mouse our poltergeist has finally fallen off his nut... gone a bit too far... lost his marbles... sat on his Pop Tart... you get the idea. I never know what type of upside-down-ness I'm going to wake up to - and have to clean up after. It's giving me major GRIEF!!! Perhaps he needs to be reminded I KNOW WHERE HE SLEEPS.

Really Mouse Mr. Poltergeist? Every end table and foot stool in the house?

Even the kitchen table? SERIOUSLY? Okay Mouse Mr. Poltergeist, that's it. I'm taking it to the mattresses.

Suffice it to say the above photo is how I am feeling - as well as why I excused myself from the dinner table and left. The house. This pink framed goodness is one of my favorite things. It is not popular with the rest of my family for obvious reasons. I made it a long time ago. Yes, those are real Exedrin. It resides in a sea of testosterone-filled frames on the Boy Wall. I *adore* the Boy Wall! But this is my little beacon that something female exists here. Not that I don't love my guys. I'm confident you all know how much I *LOVE* my guys!!! But sometimes - like tonight's mini meltdown - no truer words have ever been uttered.....

Ahhh... I feel much, much better now :D

HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEKEND EVERYONE!!! XOXOXO