Tag Archives: children

Invest in your relationships.

Ever since my daughter Ashley left on her mission I am constantly being told by people how my daughter Ashley sent them a birthday card in the mail, or how Ashley sent them a sweet letter about a special occasion in their life, or how Ashley sent them a random card just to say she […]

A Child Who Treats Their Parents With Respect Is An Employee Any Boss Would Be Thrilled To Hire (Forbes Article)

As a child I was taught the importance of respect – we were taught showing respect for other people, showing respect for other’s cultures, showing respect for people’s position of authority, showing respect for a venue, showing respect for an event, etc. This principle was emphasized greatly in my home and it is something I […]

What Kind Of Trails Do You Leave

We all walk through life leaving a trail in our wake that has been created by each choice we have made. Every person who follows in our footsteps is impacted by the trail we leave. Whether it’s our children, or a family member, or a business associate, or someone who is watching our example, we […]

Ordinary Miracles

Life is full of ordinary miracles. Sometimes we recognize them and sometimes we don’t even realize they have happened until much later. Back in July of 2011 my family was headed down to Lake Powell when we experienced some pretty cool ordinary miracles happened to us. I shared the experience in a blog I wrote […]

Put a little love in your heart!

So last week I had a crazy week full of meetings where I had to get up super early each day and then I was up late each night. Thursday afternoon as I was battling to get through the traffic on the ridiculously crowded freeway with all the construction going on, I was definitely feeling the […]

Those Words A Parent Never Expected to Hear

As those of you who follow my blog know, my son Dalton recently got engaged to his sweetheart and we are now in full blown wedding preparation mode. Because they want a short engagement it is like wedding planning central at our house with invitation selections, picking colors for the reception, figuring out venues, booking […]

Express and Live A Life of Gratitude

“Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” – William Arthur Ward Tonight I have been thinking a lot about Gratitude. My life has been a huge whirlwind the last several months. Some things I have experienced have been amazing and some things I have experienced have been […]

“Don’t wait for the perfect moment. Take the moment and make it perfect.”

“Don’t wait for the perfect moment. Take the moment and make it perfect.” This last week was a truly momentous week in my life. My son Dalton proposed marriage to his girlfriend and she said YES! In the weeks leading up to the proposal my son and I spent a ton of time planning out […]

Life’s Tug of War

Life’s Tug Of War  Life can seem ungrateful and not always kind. Life can pull at your heartstrings and play with your mind. Life can be blissful and happy and free. Life can put beauty in the things that you see. Life can place challenges right at your feet. Life can make good of the […]

Never Assume..Let Them Know

Over this last few days my husband and I were able to go and visit his family up in Idaho where he is from for his family reunion. His family, like mine, is large and spread out to several states across the country so it becomes increasingly more difficult to get everyone together in one […]

We Will Never Regret The Moments We Took

Here we are on August 3rd and I am suddenly aware of the fact that this is our last month of summer vacation before our kids go back to school again…And even though we can’t change the fact that summer vacay will be coming to an end in a few weeks for all our children […]

Maybe the Angels Will Quote From It for Eternity

As we go through life we have experiences that teach us, hurt us, bring us joy, help us grow, and shape us into the person we are. But if we don’t take the time to stop and write down those experiences and what we learned from them we are limiting their impact to only impact […]

“Sometimes you’ll never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”

“Sometimes you’ll never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” My husband’s older brother and his family came to visit us today. They started reminiscing about their growing up memories together and the friends they’d had along the way. My husband shared with his brother that a few weeks ago one […]

We are never too old to believe in fairy tales, happy endings, and MAGIC!

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE Disney. I love Disney movies, Disneyland, Disney artwork, Disney statues, and well…all things Disney.  Perhaps some of you might think it’s strange that a grown professional woman loves Disney so much, but let me tell you why: What Disney represents to me is: Once Upon a Time […]

Enduring Love of a Father (Happy Father’s Day)

Father’s Day holds an incredibly special place in my heart each year. Not only because I was blessed with an amazing Father of my own and an equally amazing Father-in-law, but also because I have been blessed with an incredible husband who came into my life 7 1/2 years ago and became the Father to my two children. […]

Don’t Be So Focused On The Steps That You Forget To Dance!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE to dance. Anyone who spends five minutes with my family pretty much knows that my husband and I and our two kids are constantly dancing around to music as we drive, as we clean the house, as we throw impromptu dance parties pretty much any place, anytime. I still remember coming […]

Brain Fry, Headaches, and Exhausted Guardian Angels

“I have a theory about the human mind. A brain is a lot like a computer. It will only take so many facts, and then it will go on overload and blow up.”  – Erma Bombeck Do you ever come to the end of an exceptionally long day and feel like your head is going […]

What Memories Will We Have Left Behind?

This weekend I attended the funeral of a neighbor and a friend. She left behind a husband, children, and grand-children and many friends who loved her dearly. She was an amazing person and she lived her life with love and service for others and I feel lucky to have known her. It was really hard […]

We are all that person that can change the world

I don’t often share videos in my blog because I know everyone’s time is short and just the fact you take time out of your day to read my blog is such an honor that I try to keep them quick to read. However, I had to share this video with you today because it’s […]

Live, Love, Leave a Legacy

I hope all of you had a fabulous Memorial Holiday Weekend! There is something special about seeing all the flowers laid on the graves of everyone’s loved ones on Memorial Day. It serves as a great reminder of the love and the legacy that great people leave behind when they pass.  In my own family […]

Life is Your Time To Dance. I Hope You Do It!

We all have an unknown amount of time to live our lives, and during that time we will have the opportunity to do many things like take chances, enjoy moments, fall down, get hurt, get back up, learn, and best of all….dance. The first time I heard the lyrics to the song below I fell […]

Best Friends

“You can always tell when two people are best friends because they are having more fun than it makes sense for them to be having.” I love that quote and it is so true. I have been able to take some time this week to hang out with my husband and my son now that […]

Your Get Rid of List

I read an amazing blog the other day written by someone I know who lives in Arkansas where my daughter Ashley is serving a mission. She and Ashley have become dear friends and this gal shared with Ashley some of the bad habits she is trying to get rid of in her life. Together she […]

Does Life Ever Get Easier?

I remember as a kid thinking how I couldn’t wait to become and adult because life seemed so much easier for adults. Being a kid felt hard….I mean after all, Adults got to go out whenever they wanted to, they had money to buy whatever they wanted (at least that’s what you thought as a […]

Someday We’ll All Have Perfect Wings

I would guess most of us have either heard of or seen the bumper stickers which read, “Mean People Suck”. I happen to agree with that sentiment. When someone treats another person mean I really struggle with it. When I hear stories of bullying in our young people, or see people taking pot shots, or […]

True Friends

“Good friends care for each other…close friends understand each other, but TRUE FRIENDS stay forever…beyond words, beyond distance, beyond time…!” Many of us have friends in our lives over the years. Some friends we make as children and then lose contact as we grow older. Other friends we make as adults and stay in touch […]

Getting Your Life Affairs in Order

So often in life we get incredibly busy to the point that we are literally only able to handle the new things coming at us each day, with time sensitive items getting first priority, rarely even getting to the list of items in second priority, and just forget about anything down in the third priority […]

The Rules We Learned At Recess

I loved recess as a little kid. I loved being out on the field running around with the sun shining. Now that  I am an adult I can look back and see that not only was recess a time for fun, it was also a teaching ground full of life lessons that would apply to […]

Charity Is Expecting The Best Of Each Other

“Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down or resisting the impulse […]

You too? Thought I was the only one.

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: “What! You, too? Thought I was the only one.” – C.S. Lewis So true! One would think that it becomes easier to make new friends as you become an adult because at that stage in life you are more comfortable in your own […]