em's birthday

disclaimer:  I don't do birthday shout outs very often.  Actually, I hardly ever do them.  Sometimes I feel like if I do one I should do a shout out for every birthday---but alas, I'm not that wonderful.  But, I had the perfect equation (vacation + parent's computer + kids asleep = blog post in honor of my dear sister).  So, let's get onto the main event.

Today is my sister's birthday.  Which sister?  Emily.  

She is so great and I am lucky that I got to spend a few days with her last week.  

She lives so far away in a land called BOSTON, and I live in the far away land of Texas---but for a few days we got to hang out in Utah We Love Thee.  It was lovely.

A few words that come to mind when I think of Emily:

brave, happy, strong, thoughtful, resilient, generous, teacher, spiritual, friend, and good to the core.

those are just a FEW of the things that come to my mind when I think of my sweet sister.

I hope her day is fabulous. 

(here are a few gems I found of the birthday girl.  enjoy.)

darling darling em.

look at that face!?! SO cute.  Love she's holding a CareBear.  And, who didn't love wearing sponge curlers at night?!  

i love everything about this picture.  pure darling.

baby me, em, jesse when we lived in hong kong

jesse, me, emmer (do you love how creative my mom is with our jams!?! amazing.
Fun Fact:tillie currently is wearing the same ensamble with the bear peeking out of the pockets.  It's STILL in great condition. 

Now let's see what a beautiful grown up gal she has become...  

this is em at my bfa final show back in 2006. 

this is her at a summer camp for girls in NY she helped with one summer.  It was right before she found out she had cancer.  I have no clue who that girl is next to her, but look how genuinely happy that Emily is.  Love it.

Em and Becca visiting me in good ol' San Antone.  Everyone has fun on the Riverwalk, duh!

craft night in the Snyder home.  (yes my mom made that quilt in the background, amazing.)  Here's the thing, Em always complained that she wasn't crafty.  Liar.  She has as much crafty-craftiness in her body as the rest of us and finally is tapping into it!  Three Cheers for Em!

happy close up shot of the craft night gal mentioned above.

I have NO idea who this guy is and why he's dressed up on a horse in the middle of winter (perhaps a Nativity story?), but Em and Lizzy look super cute in their winter garb.  

speaking of Winter, this was taken LAST winter in Utah.  During Christmas time.  At wonderful Cafe Rio.  We are happy together.  Obviously.  Good times.

Again, I have no idea who this other lady is, but I think Emily looks amazing.  Em was asked to speak at BYU's Women's Conference.  yes, she is that awesome.  And, I'm awesome by association.  Look at how beautiful Emily is!

one last one. This is the photo I chose to blow up poster size in my parent's family room.  It's legit, real, and happy Emily and I love this shot.  But more, I love this girl. 

 happy birthday, em.

favorite movie of mine prompts deep thinking...

My sister told me that my blog is turning into a scrapbook.  And, not that scrapbooks aren't great---it just made me stop and remember how much I miss writing about all the strange/wonderful things that happen in my brain/life/day.  So, in order to prove to Becca that I'm not AS lazy as she might think, here's a post with more words than photos.

p.s. there are so many things I could blog about, but I'm just enjoying not being productive at the moment (and let's play the honest game: I've not been blogger-productive for the past few months).  This post is dedicated to my hard working husband that is allowing me to play and have fun.  Aaron, you are the bomb.  I hope you know this.
...........
So, tonight my father-in-law asked me what some of my favorite movies were... and it took me a minute to think about some of the best of the best.

As I thought about it more tonight, I remembered that Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken is definitely on my list.  If you've read my blog for any length of time, you'll know that I've referred to this gem a few times in my life.  This post was the one that immediately came to mind.

image via

You remember the story line, right?  It's about a girl who runs away and convinces a diving horse showman to hire her.  She eventually learns to ride diving horses, falls in love with the showman's son, marries him, and then loses her eyesight in a diving accident (she had her eyes open when she landed in the water---that scene always makes me cringe!).  I'm sure you could find a much better description on the web, but there's my little summary.  Anyway, I love this movie and watch it year after year---hence, the reason it falls into my FAVORITE category.  I never get sick of it.

My sisters and I started the movie tonight, but since we started the movie so late, I start dozing in the first 20 minutes... much to Lizzy's (my 15 yr. old sister) chagrin.  It's okay.  I will finish the movie later, I assured her.  

After I finally decided to pull myself off the couch and make the long walk down the stairs to my room, I had a second wind.  As I was listening to the muffled sounds of this all-to-familiar story, I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to lose my vision.

Let's take a moment and think about the gift of sight.
I mean, can you imagine being blind?
What must that be like?  It seems like there are two categories you could fall into---having your vision and losing it, or being born with no vision.  I was trying to imagine which would be worse?

Then, my thoughts began to wonder, what would it be like having a child that could never see?  It made me teary to think of it.  How would I be able to help them realize how beautiful this world is?  How could I explain to them what color is and how it has the ability to affect our mood?  How do you explain what "shiny" is? or glittery?  or what sunsets look like?  And, then there's the practical real life things---like, how would you get to the grocery store?  Public transportation?  But, what if you lived in a small town?  How would you prepare meals?  Another question, as a mother, how would you be able to change your baby's diaper?  How could you care for busy toddlers?  I found myself wondering about things like that.  Normal "little" things to me must be huge challenges to people with no vision.  Can you imagine? 

I'm not meaning to pretend I'm a deep thinker all of the time, I just was shocked to realize how often I take for granted the gift of sight.  The thought of losing my vision and never being able to see my Calvin toodle across the lawn after his cousins, or watching Tillie dance with her arms in the air while prancing around the living room in her little underoos, or watching my husband carry our tired little boy on his shoulder, or watching our parents interacting and loving on our children---it makes me shudder at the thought.

So, basically, this is me grateful that God allowed me to have two eyes to see.

I hope I remember to SEE more often all the beauty that goes on in this sometimes crazy life.

Calvin's 1/2 birthday! 18 months. feeling good.

 

Oh yes, it's that time to show the big boy at 18 months.  I just love half birthdays so much.  Here is Mr. Calvin-pants sporting his crown for some pictures.  Unfortunately, a lot of them turned out a little blurry.  Boo.  But, I still love them.  So, we'll post a lot.  

(oh, and you might see some floating arms.  guess who that might be?)

And, how can we not show some of him exactly ONE year ago in the same crown?  Okay.  Get ready for some more cuteness...

So so sweet.  Love that baby face.  

If you want to see ALL of his 6 month photos that day, feel free to go here.

And, while we're playing the COMPARE game, here's Tillie's half birthday shots (6 months and here's 18 months)

Tillie always loves sporting her crown too, so we let her get in a few shots too.

And, they wanted to sport their new Jessie and Woody dolls.  We got them the day before we took these.  They still love playing with them---Cal, especially.  

We are SO happy Cal is ours.  He is a DEFINITE keeper.  Happy 1/2 Birthday, Calvin-Malvin.

The Catch up continues...

Two more posts from May 2011...


Our 3 year old delight.  Annual photos.  Be warned, she is completely adorable.
She's THREE. happy are we.


This one is especially packed with RANDOM photos.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

Photo-Happy mom takes 1.5 weeks by storm---capturing EVERYTHING. 

random summer days in june and july... with lizzy comes to town

I knew the kids weren't going to be thrilled that I was dragging them into the grocery store... so I wanted to figure out a way to make it more exciting.  Enter the awesome carts at HEB.  The kids loved them for the first 15 minutes.  Then, they were over it.  It was pretty cute to have them ride side by side until they started poking each other and making each other cry.  Oh well, at least I got a cute picture of them while they thought it was a novelty.

Let's talk about more novelties in the month of June.  I made a lot of baked goods this month.  And, I happened to take a picture of this one.  Lemon bread.  Hello.  I'd like a slice of it right now.  I hope it turned out good.  I gave it to a friend who had just had her baby girl.  Oh, and I made some stationery for her baby too.

What's with the three strawberries in the huge container?  Well, I had purchased that huge thing of strawberries earlier in the morning from Costco.  By mid-afternoon, the children and I had consumed all but three.  We would have eaten those last ones too, but I thought Aaron might want some.  We're generous like that around here.

Up next?  Random photos of the kids during the random days in June.  Remember, it's super hot during the month of June, so we spent most of our life indoors.  We have to get creative.

blurry, but still cute.  love that boy.

We're still trying to master the art of the pretend "saftey goggles".  

We thought it was pretty sweet how Tillie had lined up her little stuffed animals and made a little bed for them all on the floor.  So, we came in and took some blurry night time pictures.  She's a thoughtful one.

::: The highlight of the month, by far, was when my little sister, Lizzy, came to town.  It was totally great, as always.  Enjoy some of the party that my sister is:

Our friends had invited a ton of people to come play at their gym.  The lighting was crazy, so I made all these next photos B&W.  Aaron thinks I am trying to be all fancy when I do that, but really, the gross light irritates me.  So, call it what you will, but I'm doing it.
Anyway, back to the night at the gym... It was fun.  The kids, especially, had a blast!  (can you tell by Cal's face below?)

I had asked Aaron to take some photos of the Lizzy and me and then some more with me and the kids since I don't end up in pictures that often.  Well, all the sudden he starts going "paparazzi" on me.  It was annoying and not what I had in mind.  Thanks anyway, smart aleck.  

he just looks way too old here.  and, I can't get over his little defined jaw line and chin.  Too cute.

where's waldo?  i mean, where's Aaron?

can you find his hand?  ten points to whoever can.

::: Our ward was having a 4th of July swim party.  We came.  We swam.  We ate.  We conquered.

Speaking of conquering the 4th of July, here we are whoopin' it up on our front porch.  Gotta love the background of the American Flag.  Who can help but pose?   Enjoy TOO many pictures of Lizzy and me being rad.

okay, okay.  We'll let the kids have a little face time too.

our attempt to get a family photo before church... we'll try again next year.

Ahh, the youth in America.  Tomorrow's leaders.  

thanks for coming Liz-berty. (wow, that kind of reads like "Liberty"---perfect timing)

The next day was the ACTUAL 4th of July.  The kids and I celebrated by jogging over to a park where Aaron was playing ultimate frisbee with some guys in the ward.  I had them dressed up in some more patriotic threads.  Oh, and what do you know? Their stroller even matches the ensemble.  

 It's amazing how much they LOVE looking into the sun.

Later, we went to watch Cars 2 at the movie theater.  Again, I love how everyone looked so patriotic.   

Let FREEDOM ring, all y'all.