all i really need to know . . .

. . . i learned at our retreat, which was held in beautiful heber. if you hear about this from someone else & they tell you we went to a cabin . . . they are lying. it was a log mansion.

i'm not kidding - three car garage with plenty of room for six or seven church tables & chairs.

two huge family rooms, enough bedrooms/beds for about thirty people {or so}, amazing windows/views, a lovely kitchen, & most importantly - very, very generous owners who would share anything with you. love them! thank you.

anyway . . . what i started to say is this - it was worth going just for the following important lessons i learned:

1 ♥ if you follow the signs {and your leaders [boy, am i glad she's our leader!]} you'll get where you need to go.

2 ♥ chips & salsa are {or should be} considered an essential food group. i think vicki would agree.

3 ♥ whoever invented fajitas = pure genius. props to sherman and mikejones for cooking them for us.

4 ♥ men will be men - even when seriously outnumbered.

5 ♥ it is possible to unwrap a candy bar whilst wearing garden gloves & using only a knife & fork. {we are so prim, proper . . . & violent}

6 ♥ if your last name is fuller & you are a girl in our ward, you are tall, blonde, pretty & thin. {their husbands = not blonde; their boy children = not tall yet}

7 ♥ if you brought matching clothes, now's a great time to sport 'em.

8 ♥ i never knew this, but peanut M&Ms provide a protective force field for your valuables.

9 ♥ simple math: two grown women + sleeping in this double bed {definitely} = rolling to the middle

10 ♥ this is apparently an effective & scientifically proven method for relieving that "b l o a t e d" feeling that inevitably comes with a change in altitude. {ever notice what happens to your contact lens solution bottle or a bag of potato chips when you take them to the mountains?}

11 ♥ rest/relaxation wears you out. seriously. who sleeps in the payson sonic drive thru?12 ♥ most important lesson: the 2008 HP Ward RS Retreat is a must attend event. pencil it in now!

happy birthday rambo

this is amber leigh.

it's her 27th birthday. she is amazing. she is a wife, mother of my three darling grandkids, & all i could ask for in a daughter. she can do SO many things {& do them well!} including - but not limited to - cooking, decorating, staying in incredible shape & scrapbooking. she has an infectious laugh. she's beautiful. she's creative. she's organized. she has a really cool blog.

here is the rest of her cute family:

husband=chris

oldest daughter=addison

second daughter=halleigh

favorite grandson=tate

she had 15 minutes of fame several years ago.

check her out!

celebrity or not . . .

i love her to death.

halleigh{lujah}

this is halleigh, which fyi, rhymes with *rally* as opposed to rhyming with *daily*. she was born 4 years ago - the cutest/pinkest little girl you've ever seen. just look at her . . .

if she'd waited only one more day to come into this world, she'd have been a 23rd birthday present for her mom. she looks like a present here, but that's really how she looked on her blessing day. she was lovely. grammy {that's me} made her blessing dress.

before long, she was pretty chubby & really darling - a big factor in our "merry christmas" of 2004.

there was a time when we lovingly referred to halleigh as "shadow baby". her older sister [by 15 months] has quite the personality and we were a little nervous that #2 would be a step behind. not to worry. halleigh anne can more than hold her own, & she always makes me laugh.

don't be fooled by this snow outfit . . . she's always lived in mesa/gilbert/higley/gilbert {aka . . . no need for fleece clothing} but hey, it's pink.

these days, halleigh loves to color. if you ever ask her what she did at preschool that day, the answer will be coloring, painting, or some form of artwork. here she is doing what she does every time she comes to my house.

the finished product. i think it's a picture of me.

halleigh is definitely a sass master. before her parents left recently to go on a vacation, i asked her if her other grandpa & grandma were going to sleep at her house while they babysat. without skipping a beat, she said {in her best wannabe 14-year-old attitude} "they live in michigan, HELLO!"

happy 4th birthday halleigh anne. i love you, too!

too many candles

for my birthday, my dear husband {with the help of my online-shopping expert son} gifted me with a new camera. point & shoot, baby! no fancy schmancy stuff for me. my wonderful children hooked me up with photo shop elements & enrolled me in a "learn to use photo shop elements [for dummies]" class. cool, huh? so at my celebration, i did what any new camera owner would do. i handed the foreign object to my son-in-law & told him to "capture the moment", which he did. thanks, t jo. {that's what his family calls him, but i don't.} addi & halleigh were shocked/amused - as was i. there were five curly candles {each representing an entire decade} - go ahead & count them - on my german chocolate cake. {p.s. i think it's fun to request a cake that so many people won't eat because they don't like coconut.}

guess what, folks?

i'm ONLY forty-nine, thank you very much.

let's not rush things . . .

because i really want to hang with the cool kids . . .

here's my blog, where awesome snippets of my life will randomly appear. better late than never.