It's the most wonderful time of the year...

No, I am not talking about Christmas, you sillies. I am talking about spring in Virginia! It seems that there is so much fuss about fall being so beautiful out here (and it is beautiful), but in my opinion Spring is even more beautiful. Somehow over the course of the winter I forget that Virginia really is an incredibly beautiful place to live. I think it may have something to do with the millions of dead trees you see everywhere and grounds covered in dead, crunchy, yucky-dull-brown-colored decomposing leaves. But all the yuck makes spring seem even more amazing. Blossoms of purple, pink, red, yellow, and white are everywhere right now. And the air is crisp and the skies are so blue. And the birds are chirping (I love opening my windows in the morning when I clean up my kitchen- it makes me feel like Cinderella.) Ahh... I love it.

Well there is this one tree in particular that I love out here. I heard recently from a client of mine (who happened to have one of these trees in her yard) that they are called red bud trees. In the spring their buds turn this beautiful magentaish, plumb-colored purple. It is the most beautiful color- I wish I could make a shirt out of that color. Anyways, I really wanted to take a picture of one of these trees, but they ended up being a bit harder to come by than I anticipated. I was worried that their color would change soon, so I knew I didn't have much time. So one Thursday evening on our way to mutual I brought my camera along to get some shots. There are a bunch of these trees down by Monticello off of rt53. Of course it had to be raining that day, but did that stop me? NEVER! So I got a plastic baggie to protect my camera, and bundled up in my winter coat. Well the only tree that seemed to be accessible was right off of the road and it was right during rush hour, so after a few minutes of standing out there in the rain and having very little light and feeling like a complete MORON snuggled up against a tree in the rain with a big lens sticking out of a plastic bag, I called it quits. But I did manage this shot that I liked. The color is much more beautiful in real life, though.

I was a little bummed that I didn't get many shots, so I decided that the next day I would hunt down one of these trees on our way to the library and I would take a branch home with me for a little photoshoot. It took me FOREVER to find one of these trees that was not on someones personal property, but I finally did. And the garbage man drove by right as I broke the little branch off and I felt so stupid and nervous and guilty, like I had done something really bad. I had to keep telling myself on the way home "it is just a tree branch... BREATH". But me and my tree branch had a great photo session together. I finally got to use some of the fabric squares I bought months ago as a backdrop for florals. Aren't they pretty?

Ooops, I forgot to mention this other blossom. Borrowed from the tree by the Fluvanna Library. Who am I kidding- STOLEN. Sheesh, no wonder I was feeling guilty! It is a wonder that I can sleep at night! Perhaps I need to go talk to my bishop...

More of the stolen blossom. It doesn't look quite so beautiful now that I think of the level I stooped to in order to obtain it. That drop represents a tear- a tear from this poor blossom, longing for it's mother tree, thinking of the great leaf it would never become. I am a monster...

These are the tears of grief from all his brother and sister blossoms, back on the tree at the library. So sad...

But doesn't the texture look nice?

And here are a few shots taken of my beloved Pleasant Grove truck. Before I found and stole the blossoms.

Have you ever seen a more beautiful, rusted hinge? I think not!

I have often wondered why Tim's old Tercel does not have a passenger side-view mirror, but I think at long last I have discovered where it went! Haha, just kidding honey!

Hope you enjoyed these! I have lots of pictures of the boys that I will post soon, but I will likely get to it next week. I am swamped this week, which might explain the goofy ramblings above...

Take care everyone!

Date Night

For Tim and I, date night has been pretty hit and miss with us since having kids, especially since we have lived in Virginia. There always seems to be a million excuses preventing us from actually planning a date and most of the time we are just tired and want to veg on friday nights. But recently we were reminiscing about the good old days back in Logan, UT when we were poor college students but we still managed to plan dates. These dates, which usually involed little money but lots of creativity, were so much fun! From candle-light picnics in the living room to sledding down old main hill on $2.00 sleds (which were really just long sheets of thick, rolled-up plastic with holes cut out of the top for handles), we had some of the funnest dates! And I have to give Tim props for the most creative date nights- he is amazingly creative, my husband! I consider myself very fotunate! I will admit that I was not too thrilled about his idea to sled down old main hill ("But I don't have snow gloves" "It's too cold" "Our sleds suck" "We are too old to go sledding"), but it was one of the funnest things I have ever done. I will never forget that date.

Anyways, enough reminiscing. So Tim and I decided that we need to start having a weekly date night. And since getting a babysitter and going out every friday is not in the budget, we knew we were going to have to get creative. Tim took it upon himself to plan our first date. All day friday I kept asking him "So what are we going to do? Did you rent a movie?" But he refused to tell me. I noticed when he got home from work that he had a little plastic CVS bag, which had me completely baffled. "What in the world is he planning that would involve something from CVS?", I thought. I had my doubts about this one, as I usually do. So we got the kids to bed and Tim brought over his little bag and pulled out a package of paint brushes and kids paints. Then he grabbed a roll of old drawings from work and announced that we would be painting portraits of each other. Just imagine me with a very smug look on my face that said "Are you kidding me?" I am sure a "Hmph" or two came out of my mouth. I am by no means a painter. I have never painted anything in my life unless it involved scrapbook paper or old wood frames. But he insisted. Well first off, I knew that if I was going to paint a portrait it was not goint to be with Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Purple kids paints. How do you make a proper skin tone out of those colors? So I pulled out my extensive supply of Craft paint (which apparently Tim had no idea existed) and we donated the kids paints to the Art for Jace Association. Then we turned on some good music, grabbed all of our supplies, sat accross from each other at the kitchen table and started sketching.

Well, once again, Tim proved me wrong with his amazing creativity! I have to say that this was probably the funnest thing I have ever done! I don't think I have ever laughed so hard in my life! Watching what we were each coming up with was such a blast! I am sorry I doubted you, honey. And now I have no idea what to plan when it is my turn next week. My brilliant idea to rent Spiderman 3 just isn't going to cut it anymore. So I have my thinking caps on (And if anyone wants to send me secret ideas, you can email them to me. I am open for suggestions!)

So here are our masterpieces, signed by the artists. We think they are both pretty darn good, so we thought we would put them up on the blog for you all to vote on. Which is your favorite? We would love to hear what you think about our art! I hope they give as good a laugh as they did us!

Here is Tim's painting of me. Hhe had a little trouble with skin tone, so don't you worry- I have not recently had a bad accident with the self tanning lotion. But have you ever seen more beautiful hair highlights?:



And my painting of Tim. Clearly I had a little trouble with head proportion, but I thought the added chest hair(which Tim was a bit upset about- he goes to great lengths to hide his chest hair) was a great touch:

And does anyone else see the resemblance between Tim and Yao Ming? Tim thought my picture looked like Yao, so I googled some pictures of him and boy was he right! I will never look at Tim the same again...

Hope you enjoyed those! Please be sure to VOTE!

Free polls from Pollhost.com

Which is your favorite?

"Mandy" by artist Tim Carroll "Tim" a.k.a. "Szzzzz" by artist Mandy Carroll

Our Nations Capital

Easter weekend, our family headed up to DC to see some sites. This was our third trip to DC since we have lived here and we STILL have a million things left to see. There are so many great attractions there, and with two young kids we MUST stop at the Air and Space Museum and the Museum of Natural History EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. We don't mind, though. I am just as much a sucker for gems and dinosaur bones and Tim for planes and rockets as Jace.


First stop, The Museum of Natural History. I was shocked that Jace actually held this giant grasshopper- he is usually afraid of this kind of thing. Though he does have ambitions to be a 'bug guy' (among many other things) when he grows up, so maybe he is just preparing himself for a future occupation. I hear it is a tuff industry...

This is the Hope Diamond- the largest blue diamond in existence. It was very big and very beautiful. It is crazy that in person I thought it looked blue, on this picture it looks green, but they say when it is not so strongly lit, it is actually ruby red. It is on my wish list for next Christmas. I wonder if it would change colors to match my outfit? Although, being worth nearly 1/4 of a billion dollars, it might be a few Christmases before I find this bad boy in my stocking.

We stopped for lunch on the lawn. We actually went to see if we could climb the monument, but apparently it is virtually impossible to get tickets. So we had to settle for some pictures at a distance. I love this first one- that kite totally makes the shot!

The boys, posing for mommy. I think they are both chewing on rocks, actually, a suitable past-time for all ages amongst boys. Come to think of it, Tim may have been chewing on rocks as well...

After lunch, we headed to the Art Museum. I absolutely love this Rembrandt painting...

And Tim enjoying a bit of Monet...

Here is what Jace thought of the Art Museum...

Outside the museum. The trees were just starting to bud- I am a bit bummed that we missed the cherry blossoms by one week YET AGAIN, but it was still beautiful. Maybe next year we will be on time...

Tim and Jace waiting in line to go through the first commercial airplane.

Who needs amusement parks?

And last, but not least, another one of Jace's dreams: being an astronaut. We are a little more enthusiastic about this potential occupation than the 'bug guy'. No offense, Mr. Orkin. If only astronaut suits had impressive wing spans like Buzz Lightyear, I have no doubt that Jace would forever be determined to become one!And that concludes our exciting trip to our nation's capital. I was hoping to round it out with pictures of our stop at Sonic in Fredricksburg on the way home(which i was really looking forward to), but unfortunately the kids had just fallen asleep and we didn't want to stop and wake them. Now THAT was a tough decision- you have no idea how much I was craving a Lemon-berry slush and those jalapeno things... Mmmmmmm...

I Love This Kid...

If you missed American Idol last night, you have got to check out this performance! If you saw it, watch it again! I liked it last night, but watching it again today I almost cried! I love his voice and all the emotion he sings with- gives me goosebumps! I am excited to see what great things this young Utahn does!

GO DAVID A!!

Feeding Frenzy

Ethan is truly our little piggie! It is so funny to watch this kid eat- he literally shovels his food in his mouth with his hands and has even begun to discover the ease of forgoing the hands and placing his face directly in the trough on the tray. It is like watching a pig eat. But have you ever seen a cuter pig?

I have to wonder, though, who is truly to blame for his animalistic eating habits? No doubt our scrapping his food directly onto his tray just like you would feed any barnyard animal is to blame. Or maybe he gets it from watching me eat- and I will admit that although I don't use my hands very often, the speed at which I clear my plate is perhaps less than human and definitely poor manners (I think Etiquette 101 says you are supposed to breath AND chew between bites, neither of which I do.) Yes, all of my family can attest- I am still the first one finished at nearly every single meal, only occasionally beaten by my younger brother-another inhumanly fast eater.

I wonder if any of my kids will grow up to dethrone me of my title of Queen of Bad Table Manners? Perhaps I will try a little harder to have better manners at the dinner table. For the sake of teaching my children good etiquette...