em & me: 2015

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

She Teaches Fearlessly

Today I am pleased to announce the launch of She Teaches Fearlessly, a new website for LDS women to which I will be contributing.

The site's founder, the incredibly impressive Kelly Westover, contacted me a few weeks ago about participating and after she explained her vision to me, of course I wanted to be a part! She explained her vision: "She Teaches Fearlessly as a team of LDS women who are dedicated to answering Elder Nelson’s call in the October 2015 LDS Conference. Together, we teach fearlessly the gospel in our homes, neighborhoods and communities. Join us in the call to serve and teach, fearlessly. #sheteachesfearlessly."

Sheteachesfearlessly.com launches TODAY so please take a moment to check it out and see all the many things it will have to offer. I'm particularly stoked about a little project in the works - daily devotionals that will aid personal study of the Book of Mormon and serve as a complement to the 2016 Sunday School course of study. As someone currently serving in Primary, I often feel that I am "missing out" on spiritual nourishment and progression because I am not attending Sunday School or Relief Society each week. I'm excited to work on these devotionals to help push my personal study to a more meaningful level.

In addition to following the site, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter! Thanks for following, I look forward to teaching fearlessly with you.

Monday, November 16, 2015

October photo overload

November 16th? Are you sure? That can't be right. Surely it's still October...

But we had the BEST time for Halloween this year - so many fun celebrations! Here's a little peak.

First up: Play group Halloween party!

Cookies, frosting, and sprinkles! What's not to love?

Such determination hahah

Then we painted pumpkins. She was super into it this year! She even stole her little friend's to paint that one, too.

Little Picasso!

So proud of her work!

For FHE one night, we visited a little pumpkin patch at the church down the street. She loved all of them and had a hard time picking! Then we took them home to carve (or in her case, painting round 2).

When we asked Em what she wanted to be for Halloween this year, she only had one thing. And she was adamant. It HAD to be Mary Poppins. Seriously, what two-year-old is so obsessed with Mary Poppins like our kid is? She had her little Mary Poppins umbrella from Disneyland, so I knew it had to be the jolly holiday costume. But I seriously couldn't find one of these for a little one anywhere I looked. So I decided to make it. Worst. Idea. Ever. I do NOT know how to sew. I have done a straight line (i.e... blanket) and that's it. This project was definitely over my head. But with way too much time, many tears and probably some blood from my fingers, a lot of hot glue and velcro (don't look too closely!) and some help from some very wonderful friends, it finally came together. I'm kinda patting myself on the back.

I didn't get the sleeves on in time for Trunk-Or-Treat, but it worked!

Goodwill suit and painted stripes... that's good enough for Bert, right?

And since mommy's waddling anyway, I figured I'd make a great jolly holiday penguin.

And then Bapa came for a quick visit! Em was so happy to see him. She was literally jumping up and down as she watched him come down the escalator at the airport. We took him to one of our favorite places to celebrate fall - Sweet Berry Farms! We almost didn't get to go because of torrential rains, but we got just enough break to really, truly enjoy it.

We stopped for brunch at Blue Bonnet Cafe in Marble Falls. Our breakfasts were super tasty, but we couldn't leave without getting pie. This place has been around decades and is lauded for having some of the best pie in the state. We tried the fudge and the apple - totally worth it.

Berry Bounce!

Goofballs

I think she got her daddy's love of animals.

Goin' on a hay ride!

Choo choo! Her first time riding a train by herself. I think she was confused when we didn't go with her, but she ended up loving it.

Sad because she wants to take home all the pumpkins

I have never seen her concentrate so hard at holding still while she got her face painting. It melted my heart.

We tried to get her to get something Halloween-y, but it was a blue fishy or nothin'

On Halloween night, we had a wonderful little potluck with our play group buddies and then hit the streets for trick-or-treating. It was so much more fun in a big group - they kind of fed off each other's energy. I loved hearing Em shouting "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you!" at the top of her lungs. She ran the whole time. That night was the easiest it's ever been to get her to sleep

I don't think the neighborhood knew what hit them! There's even 3-4 more stroller babies not pictured here. We were quite the crew.

Hope you all had wonderful Octobers, too!

Monday, October 19, 2015

2015 OCTOBER GENERAL CONFERENCE PRINTABLES (Part II)

Did anyone else notice that we had way more speakers than usual this time? I think I kind of mentally registered it while it was happening, thinking "This is great! We are hearing from EVERYONE!" but it didn't hit me how much more until I was putting together these printables. Usually there's 12, occasionally 13 per session. With the testimonies of the new apostles, there were 16 in the Sunday session. Which means - extra printable goodies for you! Thanks for stopping by, I hope you enjoy them.