Channeling her German Ancestry

Before / After : Bedroom

I am finally ready to show some before and after pictures of my bedroom. 

Before:

Oh man I took this picture when we had first moved in, everything was everywhere. 

It was totally intentional to have an unmade bed.... more drastic transformation.

Ok if it's bothering you that much, here is a before with a made bed:

After

I would like to interject here for a second. 

Yes I realize there is a massive blank wall above our bed screaming to be made super cute. However, in the next couple months we will be upgrading our bed to a king. 

Yup, I said King. 

I am so stinking excited. 

What's that? 

Yes of course I cuddle with my husband all. night. long. 

I just want to have the option to not touch another human if I don't want.

p.s. Trevor and I are both spread eagle sleepers.

So with a king will come a different headboard; Trev wants a fabric one, I want wrought iron...we'll see.

Before

After

Yes, my room may be having a 

silver / grey   

gold / brown 

identity crisis. It just happened.

Also, yes, that is a vision board.

Before

After

Do you love my pictures?

I have this great photo of Trevor and I dancing from our wedding. 

It reminded me of other dancing pieces specifically these ones by Renoir and Vettriano.

I have zero photoshop experience but I wanted our photograph to look more like a painting. So I watched a few tutorials, played around, and this is what I came up with:

Original

And after I tampered with it

I know it could probably be done much better but I will take it. 

Photoshop is hard. 

How does your garden grow?

We inherited a small garden patch with our house.

Luckily Trevor saw it's potential... I just thought it was ugly.

He made this:

soooooo much better, yes?

 We figured as the son of a farmer 

and a daughter of a master gardener 

we can't fail when it comes to a box garden.

Maybe we shouldn't get too cocky.

It's my family

Last week I went to a funeral. 
Her name was Hortense Smith she was the wife to my great uncle Eldred G. Smith and truly an amazing woman. 
It was a beautiful service full of many wonderful stories and memories of her. 


I went with my mom. We walked in took our seats, looked up at the stand, and were not so surprised to see Elder Ballard sitting there, he is a Smith. But sitting next to Elder Ballard was President Monson. We were very pleased to see him, but not completely surprised he was there as well. 

So who are these people that they would warrant the attendance of a Prophet of God at their funeral services, you ask?


They are my family.


Did you know I have a rich Mormon heritage? 


I don't often talk about it. 
I am very proud of it, but for some reason I feel like if I tell people that my great grandfather was the Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith I am boasting or bragging. 


Especially if someone talks about their Mormon ancestors I will never bring up mine for fear of looking like a one-upper. (It's hard to top the fact that I am a direct decedent of Hyrum Smith, the brother of Joseph Smith. Unless of course if you are a direct decedent of Joseph, in which case we would be cousins.) 


But why? Why should I not share? Why am I afraid to tell people?


To be honest, there are a lot of us cousins out there, Smith isn't really a unique name. 


And to be fare most people already know the stories and backgrounds of my mormon ancestors. 
But maybe I could make them seem a little more real, more human. 
When I hear stories of my great grandfathers they have, what I believe are more special names than "Prophet" or "Elder" I know them as:
Grandaddy (Joseph Fielding Smith) and
Grandpapa (Joseph F. Smith)

This is a picture of my mother as a little girl with Grandaddy (Joseph Fielding) and Grandma Jessie. 

But then it starts getting confusing because I am actually a direct decedent of Hyrum Smith, twice.  


Hyrum (through his second wife Mary Fielding) begat Joseph F., who begat Joseph Fielding, who begat Mit, who begat Ruthie, who begat me.


Hyrum (through his first wife Jerusha) begat John, who begat Hyrum F., who begat Hyrum G., who begat Donna, who begat Ruthie, who begat me.

(That's a whole lot of Hyrums)

Did you know the Hyrum was called by the Joseph to be the Patriarch to the Church? And that calling actually was passed down from father to son since Joseph Smith Sr.? 


That calling still exists today with my great uncle Eldred G. Smith. 
He has traveled the globe giving many, many people their patriarchal blessings, including myself. I received my patriarchal blessing from him on September 11, 2001. 
True Story.
But now being 103 years-old (seriously) he is understandably not actively serving as Patriarch to the Church, his calling currently holds with it the "emeritus" standing. 
And with the growth of the church and the calling of "Patriarch" extended on a stake level there will never be a Patriarch to the Church again, there is no need.


Eldred also has in his possession the clothing that Joseph and Hyrum were martyred in. 
He and Hortense, over the years, have traveled all over giving firesides and showing the clothing along with other artifacts that were owned by the Joseph Smith Sr. Family. Including Hyrum Smith's sunglasses from 1844. 

Cool, yeah?

I feel honored knowing the blood of prophets run through my veins. 

Makes me feel as though I have a legacy to live up to. That I am capable of great things. 

But shouldn't we all feel that way? Whether we are descended from kings or beggars, prophets or thieves, we are all children of God...our potential is limitless.

Other family members you may have heard of:
-Mary Fielding Smith
-Bruce R. McConkie
-M. Russell Ballard
-Dallin H. Oaks (through marriage)

You've Got Mail

But literally. 

Not even an email...

I participated in Gentri Lee's Send Something Good project. 

I received this package from Laura she lives in Canada. 

I love the postage.

First look, I see candy and chocolate, I can tell it's going to be good.

 She even sent a something for Bridget.

 She is so excited

 We LOVE books, and especially this book! 

 Look at all this awesome stuff she sent me! 

Can't wait to try the crepe recipe she sent, and use the darling cards she made. 

I love how she wrapped everything in old sewing patterns, 

so cute.

Best package ever!

Thank you Laura!!!!

Those Aren't Gloves

And the berries weren't fermented.

8 Months

 This little beauty is 8 months old today. 

A few things she has mastered in the last month:

-The word "dada"

-The fake laugh

-The fake cry

-Whispering

-Dancing to music

-Pinching (her favorite thing to pinch is the tender part of my arm while she is nursing)

-Keeping her feet near her face ready for her to gnaw on at any given moment.

-She has added the top two teeth to her arsenal.

Making the total teeth count 5. 

-She gives kisses

-She will eat anything she can get her hands on...

tomatoes

 strawberries

blackberries

 apricots

Tables

 But my favorite things she has mastered this month:

-shaking her head no

-clapping her hands

Next Best Thing

We had planned to go camping with some of our friends this last weekend.

However there were some scheduling conflicts.

Not to mention the overnight low was predicted to be 34 degrees, we thought we should probably not knowingly inflict hypothermia on our child. 

So we did the next best thing and moved the party to our driveway. 

I lived with these girls in France. 

However we were missing the rest of our "France Friends" (you ladies know who you are, hope you are jealous and seriously consider moving back to Utah.)

You can't have a camp out without a piñata! 

And everybody knows the best piñatas are scary fairies.

Thanks Rem for being the rope holder.

And the best part? When it came time to go to sleep, we all slept in our own beds.