Forgiveness: My Burden Was Made Light

Once again.... I have been inspired.

I normally dont get too personal on my blog but I just had an incredible experience this weekend that I must share.

Let me give you a little history... Last Friday night I went out to eat with some girlfriends. After dinner we went out for my brother-in- laws birthday and then went bowling. I had a great night spending time with friends and family... except something got in the way...

My feelings got hurt. Ryan (unintentionally) was frustrating me :).... (looking back I was probably just tired and stressed about my church talk). Anyways, I allowed something so small to take control of my mind. I held a grudge for a few good hours.

Then on Sunday the Gosple Doctrine teacher shared this message...

I was so moved by this message. How many times in our day do we not forgive. I truly believe I needed to hear this message. There are so many times in my life where I need someone to forgive me and this message helped me realize the true power of forgiveness!

Side note: I know I havent blogged in forever but sometime soon I will catch everyone up on what has been going on this summer. And I promise... I still love Ryan... even though I sometimes get frustrated!

another day--- another craft!

recently Brynlee has been napping again (she stopped for a few weeks) --YAY! So I have had time to make things.

today I made my first EVER nursing cover. I must say the one I made is definitely cuter than the one I have been using... too bad i made it for a gift.

i used an amy butler print for the main part and then a white eyelet (my fav) for the trim! I topped it all off with a chunky PINK button.

Tail-LESS

today i created my first stuffed animal!

lets just say--- it's TAIL-less...but that's ok because i had a blast making it (supposed to be a giraffe but looks more like a flying dino if you ask me :)

Just a quick shout out to my amazing husband---thanks for making Mother's Day PERFECT!

My day started off with a wonderful breakfast in bed... which ended up being mostly eaten by Bitty (bryn) - needless to say I had to wash sheets this morning

then i got a wonderful SURPRISE! Ryan gave me this beautiful Brighton necklace with the letter B (for brynlee) charm. I just may wear it every day!

After church Brynlee had a fever of 102.8. I was freaking out a little bit-- but hey- that is what being a Mom is all about. She has been feeling much better today!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Mother's day!

My New Life

InspIratIon

What inspires you?

People, Places, Music, Service? I am inspired by people more than anything else.

Stephanie is an inspiration. I look at her and TRULY think she is one of the most beautiful people.

I want to be like her! Today I will try...

-to think positive thoughts

-to be grateful I can lift Brynlee EASILY

-to SLOW down

-to not complain

-to not have a pity party when things in life don't work out perfectly

I hope this video inspires YOU!

Brynlee happenings:

-waves hi

-gives high fives

-gives kisses (my personal favorite)

-dances

-shakes her head NO (not so cool)

-claps her cute little (yet chubby) hands

-inspires me to be my BEST self

This weekend has been GREAT.

Top 5 things of my weekend....

5.) Time with Ryan--- I feel like we have both been on the go and so it has been nice to have time together!

Ryan was able to go to the Final Four in Indiana and although I missed him---- I am SO happy he was able to spend quality time with his brothers and dad!

4.) House Hunting

3.) Yogurt Stop

2.) 2 NEW swumsuits.... in the summer I LIVE in swimwear and so it is ALWAYS a relief to find one that I LOVE

1.) DAVID ARCHULETA--- we went to the Blaze game because I knew he was doing the half time show. He is amazing....I can now check that off my bucket list! My husband was such a trooper for this one!

All in all I would say I am one lucky girl!

Oh and how could I EVER forget.... BRYNLEE

She is starting to light up a room with her big smile and beautiful eyes! Grandma Jensen is just a little proud :)

One Year

One year ago today I lost my Dad!

I have missed him SO much this past year. One thing I have learned though is that some days are better than others.

My Graduation day, Brynlees' BIRTHday, Christmas and my Birthday were especially hard.

He was not just a dad-- he was truly the person I aspired to be. He was the GREATEST example of the type of person I hope to become one day!

This Month has been a BLAST. Ryan and I love February because we each have a birthday as well as V-Day.

This year for Ryan's birthday I threw him a surprise birthday party the night before his actual birthday. It was so much fun. I had everyone meet at the pool house and then I was in charge of bringing Ryan. We have been so blessed to have such good friends that helped me pull off a great party.... although he kind of figured out what I was doing :)

OK-- now that I have written all that I think I may have talked about his birthday in a previous post.... hmmmmm... if so.... SORRY!

Moving on.

Other February happenings:

-we have both been sick :(

-we got AWESOME tennis rackets from Ryan's parents.... they always rock at picking our gifts

-ryan is planning an amazing birthday for me on Friday :)

TeEtHiNg TiMe!~!~!~

The past couple of days have been rough..... IT'S TEETHING TIME :(

Brynlee has been a little grumpy since her two bottom teeth have been coming in ...

I rushed to Wal Mart and purchased...

Thank You ORAJEL :)

Flowers.... ugh

I have been DYING to know how to make cute crocheted flowers for Brynlee's headbands. My friend, Abbey, knows how to make them and so I asked her to teach me how. Needless to say.... mine did NOT turn out.

Luckily she was nice enough to make me some...

So I took two flowers and put them together and added a jewel. I LOVE how it turned out.

Tonight I spent another hour trying to figure out how to make them .... I GIVE UP!

25 years ....

Yesterday was Ryan's birthday!

I was finally able to surprise him with a big present. I am NEVER able to do a big surprise because we are both pretty aware of our finances and we both get emails to our phones when we have "exceeded" a certain budget. Anyways.... I DID IT :)

IT'S A ....

KINDLE!

It was such a perfect birthday for Ryan. Monday night I threw a big surprise party for Ryan. Then on his birthday he went out to eat for 2 meals :)... we spent some fun time with his parents and then enjoyed a yummy dessert (a homemade ice cream cake--- let me know if you want the recipe). I am SO happy he was born. I am SO lucky to be married to such a wonderful person. He makes life SO easy....

Thanks for being such a great example to me! Brynlee and I look up to you so much! You are PeRfEcT for me :)

P.S.

Ryan will start working from home sometime soon. On his birthday I ran to Costco and picked up his work chair and assembled it ALL BY MYSELF.

It will be so fun to see this cute boy working at his desk everyDAY!

WOW.... I CANNOT believe it almost February.

This month has flown by for us.... we have been super busy but it has been a great start to 2010.

Here are a couple updates ...

-Brynlee and I traveled to Texas. It was a blast. I loved visiting with family and friends. I truly believe it is always great to go back to where I came from and remember what has made me.... ME!

-Ryan will be starting a new job position with Express Locations. He will be working from home. I am so excited to make him lunch everyday. I am also SOOOOOO excited to have the opportunity to peak my head through his office and see that cute face.... WHENEVER I want :)

- I was called to be Relief Society teacher in my ward. I did my first lesson a couple weeks ago and I think it went pretty well. I was SO nervous but the ladies in my ward are just absolutely amazing and they helped me feel completely comfortable.

-Ryan and I will be speaking in Church this coming Sunday.

- I LOVE Zumba. I look forward to Thursday nights ---- although I try and work out most days... Zumba is by far the most fun workout of the week.

-Ryan is in Spokane, WA for a business trip. I am so proud of him! He works so hard for our family and he is just the best.... I think absence truly does makes the heart grow fonder. I feel as if I havent seen him at all this month.

-I have been working really hard to meet all my fitness goals. I am now lighter than when I was MARRIED. My sister is a personal trainer and when I went to visit her in Texas she really helped me realize how to make my workouts and diet work together. Thanks Angie... you are the BEST.

-I have been blessed with amazing friends. There is a group of 6 girls in my apartment and we are just becoming the best of friends. They keep me sane. We have so much fun watching The Bachelor, doing crafts, Zumba, etc.

-Brynlee is eating baby foods now... which means these cheeks will just be getting bigger :)

Well I think that basically covers all the new things in our life.

CrAcKeRs!!!

Up until today, our little Brynlee has only tried rice cereal, a little bit of pickle juice :) and of course.... milk. However, when you get 27 people into one cabin .... she is bound to be fed something different than the usual.

Nancy decided to feed her a Ritz cracker....

Brynlee LOVED it.

She loved it so much that she began screaming as we took it away from her.

By the way....

She is sitting up SO well!

We have had such a blast the past couple of weeks. I love the Holidays. I won't bother explaining every little thing we did; however, I must share a picture of tubing. It just may be one of my favorite things about Utah!

p.s. if any of you have noticed my amazing picture quality it is bc I got a Canon DSLR camera for Christmas ---- now I just have to figure out how to use it! :)

Digital Scrapbooking

I LOVE learning new things.

Over the holiday break, my sister-in-law showed me how to scrapbook .... DIGITALLY. This morning I finished my first page.

Thanks again, Burgundy!

What do you think?

Inspiration

Today I have been inspired.

Do I feel guilty for spending 2 hours of my life admiring http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/ while Bryn was sleeping....

NEVER.


Today I feel I have learned how to be a better wife, mother, sister, daughter, friend, and person.... all because of Stephanie Nielson.

"Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength."

As I go through different hardships in life, I pray that I will remember the strength and courage of this amazing mother.

I hope to be such an inspiration to my daughter... who I ADORE.

ST GEORGE!!!!

Monday morning Brynlee and I packed up our stuff and headed to St. George with Angela (Ryan had to work and so he came up later in the week.) Anyways, we had such a fun trip and there was no possible way we were able to get all the fun things in that we wanted.... but here are a few highlights from our trip...

Monday we had such a fun drive to St. George and so time seemed to just fly by. We talked about life, babies, music, basically anything and everything you can think of. When we arrived in St. George, Angela's mom (Karen) had a yummy dinner ready for us. It was called Chicken Divan and I am SO excited to try the recipe.

Later that night Angela's brand new baby niece came for a visit. She was SO tiny and I couldn't help but be a little emotional because Brynlee is just growing up SO fast. We had fun watching Dancing with the Stars while playing with all the toddlers and babies that were at Angela's house.

Tuesday morning we woke up and of course did our P90X workout (we did it every day in St. George and we were so proud of ourselves). Then we all got ready and headed out for a day full of shopping. We spent an hour and a half at a fabric store finding the perfect fabric. Angela and I are on a "craft kick" now that the weather is turning.

Here is a picture of the fabric for another fuzzy blanket for Brynlee... even though she already has about 15 awesome blankets!

We were planning on making the blankets in St. George; however, we ran out of time and so now it will be something we can work on this coming week. Angela picked out some really adorable fabric as well.

A few other purchases from Tuesday were a Chi strightener for 59.99--- seriously how amazing is that. Costco had them and I was so thrilled because I have never seen one under $100.

I also bought this cute Ranunculus flower to make a vintage headband for Brynlee. The picture doesn't really do it justice but you can get the idea....

We then went to a ward dinner that was actually quite fun and had some yummy dinner.

Wednesday began with another workout and then it was off to the salon. Angela's sister is in hair school and so we decided to go see exactly what she could do to my bangs (side note... my bangs were chopped at a local salon that did an AWFUL job and so we needed them fixed). Anyways, she fixed my bangs and then put a shine thing in my hair. It is AMAZING. It is this clear coat that goes over your hair that brings out the shine. I really enjoyed going and fixing my hair up a bit. Brynlee was just amazing while we were there which made the outing much more fun.

That night we came home to another amazing lasagna dinner.... I am not kidding... her mom is like SUPER mom!

Then we went to the Tuachan theatre (an outside ampitheater) and saw the play Annie. It was an amazing Broadway show and I was amazed at the talents of all the young girls. If you are ever in St.George, I recommend going to see a play in this theatre. It is amazing to watch such great talent while enjoying the fresh air. It was a two and a half hour play and Brynlee slept through the ENTIRE thing!

Ryan made it Wednesday night just in time for bed!

Thursday we were able to spend time with Ryan's grandparents. Grandma and Grandpa Heiner were excited to see us. We surprised them with dinner at 3:00 (thinking that was plenty early for DINNER) but they had already eaten at 1:00.... we all got a laugh at how they eat so early. Although we couldn't eat a meal with them, we had an awesome visit. Brynlee is SO lucky to have 4 Great- Grandparents. I am so happy she has had the opportunity to meet all of them.

This picture is when they first laid eyes on her. They were pretty enthralled.

Such a great picture that I am sure Brynlee will appreciate later on!

Grandma was just amazed at how tiny Brynlee is. She kept saying how she cannot remember the last time she saw a baby so tiny and new.

All in all it was such a great week. On the drive home Ryan and I were talking about all the great people in our lives. We can all learn so much from each other!

This weekend we may be making another trip. Grandpa Jensen isn't feeling well and so we want to visit him in Idaho. Brynlee has met him once and he was just so sweet with her. He is such a great man and so we hope we can go this weekend and spend more time with him!

Just a Wonderful Weekend

Any weekend that begins with a Friday night BYU football game has to be the start to something great. Yes, it is true... Brynlee went to her first BYU football game and she was an angel. Ryan and I had such a fun time and all the old people sitting around us just adored little Brynlee.

Before the game I was rushing around looking for her adorable little cougar onesie that my good friend Alex gave me; however, after about 20 minutes of searching I decided to just put a navy bow together and call it good! I think Brynlee had a great time and hopefully it is just one of the many BYU games she will be attending.

























After the game we headed up to the cabin for a relaxing weekend. We enjoyed sleeping in Saturday morning and then we watched conference. Brynlee did so well for all the sessions and I was so happy that Ryan and I were able to enjoy the talks.


Ryan and Brynlee relaxing on the love sac during conference!!!






















After the Saturday morning session we decided to bike to Granny's. They have the BEST shakes. It is about a 10 mile ride but it is mostly downhill. It was such a fun ride through the cold wind. We were all a little sore Sunday morning.

























After a great Sunday full of yummy treats, conference, and relaxation... we decided to head home.

And just when I thought the weekend couldn't get any better... IT STARTED SNOWING!

Rainy Days!!!!

Angela (workout partner and new found friend) and I decided that with all these cold and rainy days coming up we wanted to start a few projects. I decided to make letters for Brynlee's room and Angela wanted me to teach her how to make a car seat cover. After two afternoons of sewing, gluing, painting, etc., we were able to make two great projects.

Here are a few pictures of the past few days....

This is Angela holding the fabric to her car seat cover

Letters before the magic began....

After......

After.......

And where was Miss Brynlee while all this was going on?

Just chilling in her BUMBO! She is getting SO big

And this whole time Daddy had to work.... but we enjoyed spending lunchtime with him :) (Thanks Ryan for working so hard so that we can enjoy our rainy days so much)

And to make our night even more fun......

MAAMI Came for a visit! Thanks Maami Heiner!~!~!

So.... all in all... we have had a fun couple of rainy days!