Hard Knocks and Happiness.

Life for the last few months has included a few hiccups, perhaps this is why I haven't written lately. {I will attempt to catch up over the next few days.}

To begin, January brought me a miscarriage and all of the physical and emotional turbulence that accompanies it. The Lord truly works in mysterious ways and I have come to learn and accept and be grateful for His eternal, omniscient timetable. He is so much wiser than I and I love Him more than I can ever express.

In the middle of this trial, Patrick had a severe staph infection. And yet through it all, all I could feel was an overwhelming surge of peace. In a miraculous way that I have never experienced before, the Lord blessed us with faith and hope and courage to match our mountains. It was a gift and an assurance that poured out without ceasing. The prayers and fasting of our dear family undoubtedly blessed us more than I could have imagined. Truly, the Lord is good.

And while these trials were upon us, I felt to pursue some meaningful dreams. It seems counterintuitive to pursue a dream when trials are weighing you down, but I felt such liberation in the working towards something bigger than myself. The first dream included the initial stages of dreaming and envisioning and planning a remodel of our home. This will be an ongoing project that is just beginning and I am so excited to bring my vision to fruition. The second dream that has been so time-consuming {and yet so rewarding} is writing. I've been so busy as of late, trying to write and uplift and encourage on my website writinginthestillness.com. I have felt such an urgency about it. And though I'm not sure why the urgency has accompanied this dream, I know the promptings I have received have come from Above.  And so I will continue to write and bless in the way I've been inspired.

And this pretty much sums up the last few months.

Lastly, I've been re-crafting my morning routine when I'm home with just Maylie. She was getting so stir-crazy being cooped up in the house {and so was I}. She doesn't do very well all by herself without her brothers to play with. So I devised a daily activity to do together to get us out of the house and into the beautiful world around us. Going to the library, park, and window shopping were included in the routine. I was so excited last Sunday when I put it all in my planner...and then I got sick with a nasty cold (for the first time this winter). That, coupled, with the fact that the library doesn't open until the afternoon kind of foiled my plans this past week. Maybe next week will be better?

So yesterday I drove a few miles to the most beautiful, quaint antique shop you could ever imagine. In a little old barn in the middle of nowhere I listened to old cowboy music and spent an hour looking through every piece of primitive and vintage antiquities. It was truly soul-therapy for me. I walked away with the sweetest double washtub and a white enamel pail for my "new" home. And I will be returning.

And since this post has been quite the summary, I think I'll end with a compilation of all the miscellaneous, sweet photos from the past few weeks:

Easton began and ended his junior jazz basketball season since I've last posted. He did excellent. He plays defense like a star and made lots of baskets this year. We are so proud of his hard work and how much fun he has out there on the court. I've really seen Easton flourish in basketball this year. It's such a good sport for his high-energy and the complexity of the game is an enjoyable challenge for this sweet, smart boy of ours.

 Maylie's angry eyes:

 And nice face:

The day Nana brought us the fixins for building snowmen...

This girl of mine is such a mother/decorator/entertainer/hostess at heart. These are the staples of her pretend play:

In the early morn...

Easton's completed lego train from Christmas (over 700 pieces I think? He did it all by himself).

Homemade, healthy, delicious Key Lime Pie for our January "Puzzle Date."

The night the Young Women had a pajama party and we watched the movie I made of the past year's photos.

My boy:

The End.

A Winter Vacation.

On Friday we kept the boys home from school so we could travel down to Salt Lake for our winter vacation. We began the afternoon touring one of the most beautiful places in all the world--Temple Square. I feel so blessed to live close enough to this magnificent space set apart from the world in its holiness. I have so very many fond memories of family trips to Temple Square when I was young--not just at Christmastime, but dozens of other times when we would go stay at Little America during my dad's business meetings.

This square represents so much of my childhood and is intricately woven into who I am. Coming back always feels like coming home and I feel so grateful that I get to pass on this wonderful tradition to my own children now.

This night was just the prescription I needed for restoring the Christmas spirit to my heart. Seeing all the millions of lights, hearing the voice of the Savior at the Christus, feeling the wonder of His birth with the new photos displayed, touring the Visitor's Centers. We watched the videos and explained the displays and quotes to our children. Easton watched just about every Homefront available, and we sat together on the bench in front of the Humanitarian display and watched Easton's favorite "corn movie" from when he was little. We laughed as we reminisced. And when we sat in the little dark theater all alone with just our family and watched the #sharethegift movie, my heart nearly burst with love. I whispered the words and phrases to Tate and choked up with emotion. For me, those few sacred moments in that little theater was the highlight of my entire Christmas season. It was just exactly what I needed.


After our Temple Square excursion we settled in to our beds at the Plaza on Temple Square. I also used to stay here as a child and it brought back fond memories as well. We watched a Christmas movie, shared a gigantic over-sized apple and then went to sleep.

 The next morning the littles watched all of the Disney Channel special Christmas editions while we got ready to leave. We ate breakfast at JB's (we also ate dinner there the night before).

{Silly faces}

Then we drove down to Provo to do a little Christmas shopping at the amazing Blickenstaff's, and drive by the two temples in Provo. It was raining so we didn't get out of the car, but it's been so special to visit each of these temples.

After our stop in Provo we drove to Riverton and happened upon Santa and Mrs. Claus while in the grocery store. Maylie told Santa she wanted "skates for everybody" for Christmas, Tate said he wanted a candy cane, and Easton--legos.

This year at the Johnson Family Christmas party, Patrick and I had the privilege of hiding the stockings--which I've been dying to do for 8 years.

When the grandkids opened their stockings they found hand-crocheted monster slippers...certainly the hit of the evening!! {Thank you Grandma for this special gift!!!}