Embrace the Camera Day-Mindy Gledhill Concert

Over Valentines weekend,

we had a blast going to hear the lovely Mindy Gledhill sing {or sort of sing}.

Sweet Mindy had only a little bit of her voice left from a cold.

That amazing woman got up and said that she would turn a bad situation into a good one. 

And that she did.

She asked that the audience be her voice and sing with her.

We did just that, when she couldn't reach the notes, we did.

There isn't a better confirmation to know if people listen to your music than to ask them sing the words,
as said according to Kevin.

Standing in line while waiting for the concert to start. 

That particular night out was just what the doctor ordered.
A fun trip to Provo to try out SLAB pizza, along with the best cupcakes at the concert.

Believe it or not, Kevin even sang along to his favorite Mindy Gledhill song, Anchor.
On the album she sings it in Spanish {brownie points to Mindy for having it as a bonus track},
I think that's why he loves it.

My favorite song is All About Your Heart.
I hate admitting it, but I have terrible scars on my face from acne.
Photoshop and makeup are my friends. I still have lots of acne too now even though I've been told
it clears as you get older. Um, no, not for me anyway.

While this song was written for my inspiration-NieNie, it has helped me with my own personal image.
I listen to it everyday and it reminds me to worry about more important things such as being a
good friend or even better yet, just being there.


Beauty is definitely about what comes from the heart.

We {heart} you Mindy! Thanks for sharing your stories and music with all of us.
The concert was amazing and I couldn't have asked for a better date night.

For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone. 
~Audrey Hepburn

{don't forget that tomorrow is Joyful Moments and come back later today, 

I'll finally have the post ready for a really great giveaway!}

Homemade Christmas

Friday after all the shopping and a little decorating at my parents house, we all ended up at IHOP (International House of Pancakes) for the traditional breakfast (even though it was dinnertime). Some (like me), still ordered breakfast while others actually ordered dinner. It was nice because normally it is just my mom and I getting breakfast at about 5am when we're done with our Black Friday shopping.

I love spending the time with family and the more, the merrier!

On a side note . . . I received my copy of Holiday with Matthew Mead and I absolutely love it!

You can order yours here.

There are some amazing ideas inside the magazine. One of my favorite ideas came from NieNie. She wrote about how her kids are only allowed to give homemade gifts to each other. I thought this was great and could really keep Christmas in perspective.

Granted, Santa will still come and there will be plenty of toys made by his elves.

After I had read the small blurb, I mentioned it to Daddy. He then said, "Why don't we do something like that this Christmas? We could draw names." Brillant.

So Friday night at IHOP, we drew names. I'm really excited to get started on my little project next week after my major finals are done. Cross your finger for me, four huge projects and a paper are up ahead. If you see me looking a little frazzled this week, wait for next week or maybe even the week after when I'm completely done. I'll look better then. In meantime, I might just need a hug.

Now the CHALLENGE:

What can you make this Christmas? You can buy the supplies at the store, but you have to make it yourself. It really makes you think long and hard about what someone really wants.

Please COMMENT:

Do you have any homemade Christmas gift ideas? I want to hear about it!

I love NieNie

As part of our birthday months, I convinced Kevin to drive me to that school down south to hear NieNie speak. I was thrilled.

We arrived almost a half hour early, thanks to leaving early and some pretty fast driving by Kevin. What we didn't expect was an already filled auditorium. We couldn't find a seat anywhere and didn't know where to grab one (both of us have never spent much time in Provo). We ended up camping out by a post and stood for almost the whole talk (Kevin stood the whole time, I almost made it). We were just glad not to be in the very back. It was a pretty good view of the overcrowded room.

You can see Kevin's blue shirt by the post on the left. I'm right next to him.

Photo by the amazing Justin Hackworth

I was amazed at how brave Stephanie was and how she just stood right up without any hesitation to so many people. She told her story of her plane crash, I hadn't heard all the details before and can't even begin to imagine how hard it truly was to live through it all.

NieNie's Mormon Messages Video, just in case you haven't seen it.

I love it. It's my favorite one by far. It has given me hope during the hard times and strength to continue down this road we call life.

A few things that were hard for me to hear:

-Stephanie explained how she never got to see her Arizona home again. Her house was sold and Stephanie's sister prepared a new home for her family in Provo while Stephanie was in a coma. She explained that it was the house that they worked so hard to have; painting and decorating every nook and cranny.

-Once Stephanie woke up after being three months in a coma, still not being able to see her children. I can't imagine how difficult that was not to see your kids and miss out on all the wonderful things kids do for that long.

-When she did finally see her kids, Jane (her daughter) wouldn't look at Stephanie for the longest time. Stephanie said that it wasn't until she was home and had started taking care of the kids again when Jane could look at her. She said that she had to sneak up on Jane while she was in the bathtub and no where to run. Jane finally had to look at her mom again. Stephanie said she screamed, "We're doing this!" and a smile came from Jane.

-Stephanie shared of when she looked at herself in the mirror the first time. I didn't like hearing about how hard it was for her and how the moment built up. It would have been a hundred if not a thousand times harder for me. The doctor who was taking care of her in the burn unit had suggested having her look into a mirror. She didn't right then (I wouldn't have), she took more time and some encouragement from her husband before she really took a long look at herself in the mirror.

What I loved most:

-Hearing Stephanie say that she overcame it all.

-How she encouraged everyone to ask Heavenly Father to confirm that they're beautiful.

-Seeing all her family there to support her (and seeing all the people there to support her).

-Listening to one of my favorite people in the world be so amazing in a simple way.

I hope NieNie inspires you too, the way she does for me. The last thing that touched me the most is that when she came home from the burn unit, she started trying to doing things that she did before the accident. Such as putting on eye makeup and wearing earrings. I used to do all of that too and rarely do now, my energy is just gone for something like that. She said that her kids would remark that she was bringing herself home when she did those things. I am learning too, how to bring myself back from being so sick and taking it a day at a time. I'm trying hard to do those things again. It wasn't that long ago.

While it's terribly hard for me to say I'm beautiful, know that you are. I look at everyone and I can tell everyone that they're beautiful, without a doubt.

I'm so excited

Kevin and I are going to hear one of my favorite people speak tonight. I can't believe I convinced him that we would drive to that school down south. Somehow, I convinced him though. I honestly think it counts because September and October are the birthday months. We don't have enough time or money to celebrate all at once, so why not celebrate all month long? Good times. I can't wait and hope that we can leave in time before the traffic gets really bad. We're leaving an 1 hour and a 1/2 early just in case.

I'll have to make sure that Kevin isn't wearing a U shirt. Otherwise, it might get ugly when we're being their guest.

This weekend is going to be GREAT! I'm so excited for General Conference. I'm going to the Saturday morning session with Jen, Melissa, and my mom. A girls morning! Make sure you look for my dad (about the second or third row).

I'll update on all these fun things happening. Until then, enjoy the warm weather while it lasts.

To my brother Nathan

Happy happy birthday!

There are several things that I love about you. First of all, you are my older brother, my partner in crime, one of the three musketeers. I admire the way you are an amazing father and how you are working so hard to give them everything that they need. You inspire me to be a better person everyday and the strength to keep going when I feel I can't continue.

Thank you for being the one to give lots of advice and late night frosty runs. A younger sister couldn't ask for a better brother. We made it, you're 27 with another girl on the way, I'm almost 25 and married. Best wishes to you always! Love you lots.

For Nate's birthday, we kept it simple and fun. A nice family dinner with the exceptions of Mark in the Philippines and Kevin down at a conference for engineering students in Austin.

I actually heard about the dinner last minute. Luckily, we don't live that far yet. I racked my brain about what I could get him. The thought of providing some cash to attend the state fair came into my mind. However, I still wanted to give him something other than cash.

As soon as I got out of class, I was talking with my sweet friend Lexi who just happened to have a buy one get one free coupon for the fair. That came just in time. Thanks Lexi!

I then remembered having heard about a sweet cupcake shop over in Foothill Village, SLC, called the Sweet Tooth Fairy. I LOVE cupcakes and everything that has to do with them. So I had plan. Get out of class, go to the Sweet Tooth Fairy and get

a cupcake for Nate, and hit the ATM for money for his family to go to the fair.

The Sweet Tooth Fairy is such a cute little sweet shoppe. A place that I recommend anyone to head to anytime they want a cupcake for ANY reason.

I smiled when I found that they have a cupcake especially for NieNie. Her flavor is VaNIElla Squared. All proceeds of that particular cupcake go to her family and the Arizona Burn Center.

Nate's cupcake was chocolate peanut butter. He said it was the best cupcake ever!

We also had an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen for him. Either way, you can't go wrong. The funny part though was the candles. The seven happened to break and so we used Scooby Doo instead. Katelyn was thrilled.

Not a bad present. I heard that Nate and Jen did end up going to the fair. Jen's post on Facebook said it all, "Jennifer Soules had fun with the kiddos at the fair. Aiden kept pointing to all the animals and kept asking "Whas dat?", and Katelyn says we need to get a goat. Haha!"

Glad you guys had a great time!

We love you!

Meet Nie

With today being the first game of the season, why not have a surprise go along with it as well? All year long I've been wanting to get a smaller camera and am so sad that I did not get two cameras last Black Friday. I only got the one Nikon for Mark. It's true, I have a my SLR Nikon which I just love but I miss having a little point and shoot that can fit in my purse or my pocket. There's always some funny moment that I want to take a picture of but didn't want to bring my big camera. Football games are just one of those moments. And so for Kevin and the games, I bought Nie.


I believed that it is named appropriately after NieNie. I stumbled upon her blog last week while reading another friend's blog. It has been a joy for me ever since. You see NieNie's story is like no one else's. She survived a plane crash which burned 80% percent of her body. Her blog is about her experience and how much she loves her family.

I have no idea how she has so much energy and is just a supermom all around. I love her pictures. They're fun and simple of her family, just everyday life. NieNie is always positive about everything! When I'm feeling down and blue, I open NieNie's blog and it's an immediate lift to my spirit. See for yourself as I've included my favorite post from her.

NieNie and her family

In Stephanie Nielson's words a.k.a. NieNie (from her blog)
I think all my energy was sucked out of me when the plane crashed.
I have to promise myself every morning that I will do anything it takes to get it back. All of it. (even if that means going to yoga at 6:00 am)
I want to do the things I used to do along with the extra things that need to be done now.
I've almost gotten everything else back from that awful day.
I can spend time with my children and nothing stops us.
I get to love my husband and kiss him and more ...(wink*)
I get to decorate my house, scrub the toilet, listen to the crickets out my window
and make school lunches every morning.
Smell the rain, look forward to snow, and go for walks by the mountains.
I can zip up ziplocks, tie my shoes, make a mean chocolate cake, drive and text.
(but certainly NOT together).
Wow, I never thought this day would ever come.
But it has.
There is always hope for something more, something better.

NieNie's family pictures are by Wendy Whitaker

Even though I've never met NieNie, I can't believe how much she's helped me. Our pains, our trials are completely different but it comes down to one thing: overcoming it with joy!

That's what I want my pictures to portray. All those fun happy memories that I never want to forget and to remember to have joy no matter what. That's why my camera is named Nie, so I don't ever forget!

So I hope Kevin likes my surprise at the game tonight! Maybe if I put a U sticker on it, he'll love it even more.