Christmas with Everyone!

 

This Christmas Eve, we had all of our kids and grandkids with us and nothing could have been better. 

I took this photo and the next one and ran them through AI to get some nostalgic pictures and they turned out so cute.

We had a great evening together and I am so grateful to have my people in my life.

Family and faith is everything. 

Hayes Christmas

 

It's not the same without Mom physically present, but she was definitely with us tonight in spirit.

I am sure of that.

The numbers were very low.

Even Dad only stayed long enough to eat and then he went home.

But the gift exchange was the most epic ever.

A few months back we were cleaning out Mom's craft room and came across all these doll heads.

So I had Makenna take them all and hide them in Marissa's house.

For weeks she was finding doll heads.

Well, then her and Ruby got the grand idea to make bodies for the heads and gift them in the gift exchange.

I can't remember laughing so hard.

Tears were coming out of my face.

It was really good to be together for a moment again. 

Hello Again!

 

I'm not sure what happened but my blog didn't happen.

It's now been 5 1/2 months since I have posted. 

We are still alive...barely and definitely. 

Let's see if I can do an update in bullet form and maybe share some pictures after that. 

I hope that by me posting, it will encourage me to keep going, but I'm not sure what I will actually do next. 

There has been so much loss in the last year and a half and some things have been more important than other things. 

So, I guess we'll see. 

And if you are still here, you will get to see as well. 

March-

*Visited Fairbanks kids and grands.

April-

* My nephew, Diego was here on leave for a short time

*Starting trading sourdough for eggs with Brittan- Yum!

*Digging in the dirt began in haste

* Sunny gave birth to 10 puppies- Surprise!

* Husband/wife conference in Seattle

May-

* So many puppy snuggles

*Hammock Time

*Said goodbye to my Anchorage classes

*Planted a lot of veggies and fruits

June- 

*Spoke at Girls camp

*Seattle inservice at Rosario Beach

*FSY at San Francisco

*Father's Day Dinner at our farm

*Head on car crash

*My birthday with ALL my kids! 

*Hatched out chicks

*FSY San Diego

*Harvest started pouring in

July-

*Visit from childhood friend, Shundi

*FSY Tacoma

* Sold the trailer

*Mav and Margot got baptized

* Penny time

August-

*Learned to make mozzarella

*We grew corn! 

*Stacking veggies

* Started new position closer to home

The Light

 

I am just so grateful for all this! 

I leave for work a little later in the day on Wednesday's and because we are gaining light so fast right now, it was fully up by the time I left.

I was making breakfast in the kitchen and turned around to see the walls bathed in light and I just had to smile and snap this picture.

I am so glad we did big windows.

I love this house and am so grateful for it. 

Pillows

 

Marissa has this habit of buying me the weirdest gifts and most of them have her face on them. 

This time she upped her game and included my face. 

These are two pillows.

One for the couch and one for travel, she said. 

Sigh.

The picture on them was taken while we were in Maryland about 7 years ago and we are definitely judging the lady that was talking to us. 

I don't remember the conversation but I remember this moment when Tracie snapped the picture of us. 

I don't actually know what to do with these...

or her! 

Mushroom Collection

 

I don't have a lot of time to paint lately, but it's Spring Break this week and I found that I had lots of time. 

So I started my mushroom collection. 

I have 7 pieces done and I really like how they turned out. 

I have no idea what I am doing with them though. 

Matt thinks I should open an etsy shop or sell them in some way. 

I am willing to do that, I just don't know how to go about it. 

He also thinks I should turn them into stickers. 

That would be fun and do I know how to do that. 

We'll see what I end up doing. 

I really enjoy painting.

It has been VERY therapeutic for me. 

First Function

 

Several of my seminary kids asked to come out to the farm this week since it is Spring Break. 

I said that they definitely could. 

They drove the hour and 45 minutes to come hang out. 

Ammon, Ransom, Kylie, Owen, Bella and Shannon all came.

We made cookies, played games and painted. 

It was fun to hang out with them. 

I seriously love these youth. 

They are just the best of the best! 

Favorite Spots in the House

 

There are several spots in our house that I absolutely LOVE!

I just wanted to share them here. 

I have gathered the ideas and the items for these spots over that last year and love how they have turned out. 

The framed pictures on the fridge might be my favorite though.