The Abundant Life

My sweet Grandpa, Arthur Watkins, passed away this past Thursday. He was 95 and truly lived life to the fullest.  When you would go to visit him and ask how he was doing he would reply, "chipper!" 

 Grandpa Watkins left quite a legacy!  He fathered 8 children, 42 grandchildren and 112 great-grandchildren (with more on the way)!  He is the son of a Senator,  served in WWII as an intelligence officer, was a Professor and Dean at BYU, served as a mission president TWICE, speaks 12 languages and has even written a book!  He has millions more other noteworthy qualities but for now I'll leave you with that.  You can learn more about him by reading this news article written a few years ago here.  I will definitely miss my Grandpa but we know he is so happy to be reunited with his sweet wife Ruth!  Until we meet again!

Cupid came to Visit!

We didn't do anything too big on Valentine's day but we do try to do something fun!  For most of the day it was just your average Tuesday.  For dinner we decided to get take-out from The Cheesecake Factory (hooray- no cooking dinner for me!) and a cheesecake, of course, for dessert to share!  We have kept on Zack's family's tradition of doing candy grams for each other and that is always something fun to look forward to.  Both Zack and I got lots of yummy treats along with a funny poem :)  It always makes me laugh.  Elise also got something but we thought that we should forgo the 10 candy bars and stick with a book instead.  Here is what cupid left behind! 

It was a fun evening for sure!  I can't wait for the future years when Elise is a little bit bigger and we can do more Valentine related activities!  It is always fun to celebrate the people you love.  I hope you and yours had a great Valentine's Day too!



Projects

It has been a while since I have made some projects so I thought it was time I get back on the horse!  A few weeks ago I got and email from a girl in my ward who was organizing a hair bow exchange.  If you have girls you know you can never have enough bows!  I was excited to participate :)  Here is what I will be bringing to the exchange! I'm pleased with how they turned out and I hope the other ladies will agree!

My next project is one that I think will take me a LONG time to do.  My goal is to finish it for Elise's 2nd birthday.  If it takes me longer than 10 months I think we will have a problem ;) 

Here it is!  I want to make a play kitchen for Elise!  I have seen so many ideas all over the web and have a bunch of ideas for this little cabinet!  I'm going to put a sink and stove on the top and with the cabinet I will have one be an oven the other I think I will have it be a mini fridge.  With the open slot I'm planning to put up a tiny curtain and that is where Elise can store all of her pots and pans to play with.  I can't even tell you how excited I am to get going and to see the end result.  The first thing I need to do is sand....ugghh.  The worst part!  Wish me luck! 

This play kitchen is my inspiration.  Image and tutorial found here.  Cross your fingers for me that mine can look at least half as cute as this one!

Caught in the Act!

It was quiet the other morning so I went on a search for Miss Elise.  Here's where I found her!

Needless to say, we have kept the bathroom door closed at all times!  Love that little girl!

Be My Valentine

For Zack,

"So won't you be my honey bee

giving me kisses all the time

be mine, be my Valentine"

XOXO

Wifey



Swinging in the Snow!

I decided to take advantage of the nice winter day today and take Elise to the park!!  We haven't been in such a long time and I knew that both of us would have so much fun :)  Looks like I was right!

Here is my adorable little snow bunny!

Climbing all over!!

Mom and Elise

Last, here is a video of Elise in the swing just loving life!  She is such a talker and loves to laugh!  I hope that is a trait that will always continue!



My Guilty Pleasure....a little Japanese drama

I have been sucked into watching a Japanese drama.  It is called Hana Yori Dango which means Boys over Flowers.  Sounds like a show you want to watch, right?!  This was a very popular show while Zack served his mission in Japan and was able to finally see it when he got home.  I was able to see the first two episodes of this show probably 10 times before I was able to see the entire show. 

So here's what it is about- The main girl is named Makino Tsukushi (or is it Tsukushi Makino?).  She comes from a poor family but goes to a very rich and ritzy high school.  The school is ruled by a group of four senior boys who call themselves the F4.  You don't want to mess with the F4.  Each boy in the F4 comes from a very wealthy and powerful family.  Through a series of events the leader of F4 begins to like Makino and the story begins to unfold with the following: love triangles, unapproving mothers, memory loss, and lots and lots of non-verbal communication which ruins everything. 

It has been a lot of fun to watch these with Zack and hear all the Japanese and see how they interact.  The Japanese people are always overly kind and seem to always skirt around the issues.  They also rarely have much physical contact at all.  Another thing they do is run the same songs over and over and over again.  Every episode- same four songs.  You can check out a few of them down below.  Some are pretty catchy I must say!