Meeting Ellie Goulding

Every now and then I go to a concert and it makes me seriously jealous and miss music so much. Ellie was kind of like that. Meeting her was great! Ashley's husband works for the station so he set it up that I could meet her with Ashley and Brandi. I am jealous of any girl my age that is famous while I sit here...very NOT famous in Centerville, UT. But to be honest, that superficial lifestyle would be very difficult to remember more wholesome things in. I am constantly reminded here of the greater picture and a more divine purpose in almost all things that take place in my life. Here's Ash and  I with Brandi meeing Ellie:

Her concert was good. I hate the venue of Saltaire, but I like her songs enough that it was worth it to go

 

 

 

I still, deep down, think that someday I'll get my big stage. I guess we shall see :)

 

Lime Green Lucky Stars

I love St. Patrick's Day. I don't drink so the reason I love it has nothing really to do with the age old tradition of a good excuse to get hammered...but rather, I love anything green and I love anything celtic. I wish America had cool traditions like that. The fourth of July seems like a hillbilly's free pass for blowing crap up and Thanksgiving is actually a pretty sad and racist event if you really think about it...hence, my jealousy of the good ol' irish. I am Scottish blooded, not Irish, but I can still hold respect for it :)
When I was a child, one of my randomly happy memories was 3rd grade, my mom taking me to the bus stop in Washington State and handing me a little present. It was a set of shamrock earrings for St. Patrick's Day. I love matching stuff like that. Probably one of the foundational reasons why I love accessorizing the way I do now that I think about it. Anyway, it always makes me think that I should do something cute and simple but memorable if possible for the kids each year on St. Patrick's Day.
So I decided to make them Pots of Gold! well.....gold...fish!

 

The next day the kids woke up with green toenails because the leprechaun came and painted them green in their sleep!

They also got their green on to make sure no bums got pinched in our house!

Luckily, the only pinching that happened all day was from them to daddy!

 

 

 

February Hearts and Flowers

I love Valentine's Day. I do. Owen, on the other hand, tends to feel like it's a forced holiday and doesn't really serve any purpose other than to judge one another's affection displayed in front of other people. That's way too much thought on it in my opinion. I think it's a good excuse to go a little over the top for the person that means the most in your life. So....there ya go :) This  year he got me flowers and chocolate and we went to Tucanos downtown for some stellar grub. I love the food there. I always leave that place slightly fatter and much happier than the moment I walk in :) Then we went and saw the new Bruce Willis Die Hard movie. It was exactly what you would expect it to be. Cheesy one liners, Bruce kicking some serious behind and this time an added element of him having a son. Go Die Hard. :) Most people think Owen pushes those shows...nope! I chose it! why is this idea so hard for others to grasp? Some stupid chick that hates action movies ruined it for the rest of us in this world. Anywho, I like violent actions movies. Call me a mutant. Whatevs. It was awesome, and I love my Owen. He lets me be the crazy weird version of the girl that I am. :)

Winding Down and Gearing Up!

I know I know. Long time, no write. Been a while. A lot has happened. That's what everyone says. And, in this instance, it is of course true as well. The last blog I made was in August. Ugh. Soooooo long ago in my head. So we're going to stream through and hit the high points:

Owen's Birthday:
Owen turned 32 this year. He acts like he keeps turning 50. Crazy man. But we had a fun time. I got him some tools. I felt bad because we were saving every cent we had to get into a home so according to my standards, it was a meager birthday for him.

House Buying:

Owen and I did it! We saved our pennies, called in favors, sold our souls and bartered with pirates! We bought our first home :) It's awesome. I love it.
The search was grueling. The market was horrid. A home would hit the market and ten families had put in offers before we could even inhale to open our mouths and talk about it. It was rough. We put in probably 5 offers on other homes until we found this one. The right now. We prayed about it and both of us decided we should consider moving north to be near the kids. We expanded our search and Owen found our new home. We are located in Centerville City just off the Parish Lane exit. It's perfect for us. We have a commute to work and adjustments to the new town, but the adventure has been worth it. The kids love how close we are. We can see them more often, we can spend a longer time with them when they come over and we are able to establish our own little home and family up here together. We have enjoyed every minute of it thus far.

Only a week or two after moving in, festivities began for the holiday season. I admit, this holiday season has been the hardest for me yet. Alot of expectation goes into the holidays for a wife, a mom and a home owner. I got overwhelmed. But I think we are finally out of the muck now! We pulled through!!

First came Halloween. Witch's Night Out is a must each year. I loved that the weather held out and was warm for us this time. We went twice, once with the Esau's and once with the Andersons. Both were a great time!
Then Little Haunts. This is my favorite tradition for Halloween I think. This Is the Place National Park holds this thing for kids and it's awesome every year! We heard a story from a witch, had homemade doughnuts, trick or treated in the old historic homes, road on the horses, pet animals in the petting zoo, road the train and played in their pirate ship! It is always a blast :)

Halloween night was a little weird for us actually. By the time the kids came to us, they were tired of trick or treating on Main Street in Bountiful with Barb so they mostly wanted to hang out and play video games. We had family over and treats out so that was fun. I did have a Pinterest fail. It was pretty funny. I saw a thing on how to make sugar cookies look like fingers. Here's the pinterest pic:

Here's what actually happened:
                                                       
                                                       Nailed it.

My birthday was a great one this year. Owen was adorable and found me a vinyl record player. I don't have one anymore but I inherited a collection of vinyls from my grandma. I have started collecting some from my era as well to keep the ball rolling! Owen picked out such a perfect one! I love it!!
Turning 28, however...not so awesome. Now I've got some ridiculous issue with my biological clock ringing, embracing my life and where I'm going and figuring out what comes next before I look back and regret doing nothing. Sigh. It's a standard problem everyone faces, and I will figure it all out, it's just a process.



Thanksgiving was a memorable one for me. My grandfather is dying of Cancer. We are at the stage where he has hospice in the home and he sleeps in a hospital bed each night. This is most likely the very last Thanksgiving and Christmas we will be able to share with my grandfather. I remember him every year of my life on the holidays doing our traditions and loving me through everything in my life. He has come to my performances, supported me in all my endeavors, loved me through my divorce and hugged me so close on my wedding day to Owen. I will never forget the beautiful and loving example of my grandfather. He is the best man I know. We decided to bring Thanksgiving and Christmas this year to my grandparents in their home.
I made cream puffs (first ever attempt at pastry cooking and I kicked butt!! If I do say so myself) Made them from scratch. I also made an apple pie, a butternut squash casserole (took 3 hours to make) and garlic Parmesan rolls. I was a bit tired by the end but it was worth it!
Owen also made stuffed mushrooms and I brought sausage balls. Some traditions cannot be ignored!

This Christmas season was great to have with my family in our new home. Admittedly, I hate the whole blended family thing because feelings can get super sensitive this time of year with who gets what tradition with the kids, but I think we pulled through pretty well. We did some of our key point events such as the Festival of Trees, we saw the lights at the zoo and we met with all our families and exchanged gifts.
For the first time, we also had Christmas Morning in our living room in our new home. We may not have had furniture other than the tree and a shelf, but had Christmas!! :)

 

The New Year rang in this year just Owen and I. I haven't really had the desire to "party hard" for a few years now. Weird how life changes on you with age. We just watched shows and a movie. Somewhere around 12:09 I started getting a bunch of texts. I was like...Oh, right...Hey, Happy New Year! lol. So, needless to say, it was a bit anticlimactic, but it was ok with me. This year will be great with or without a party or banging on pots and pans.

Mitchell turned 5!!!!
I have learned through the last few years that birthday parties can go one of two ways. Either I can plan it all, stress about it all, forget something and hate myself or take on too much so I don't even enjoy the party when it comes. This year, I refused to feel this way. Moving and the holidays and Jessica's baptism all burned me out last year. So this year, I just want to move through our events with traditional love and not worry so much about the big BANG to make it the biggest and the best. Eventually, you can't beat everything you do from the year before. So, this year, I booked a Superhero room at Classic Fun Place. Invited everyone and paid ahead of time for a hostess. It was awesome. The hostess got the pizza, drinks, ice cream, announcements, etc. I got to visit with people, watch the kids have a good time and make sure people remembered their coats at the end. *exhale* that was soooo nice! Mitchell had a good time and I wasn't pulling my hair out at the end! Win Win!

We got him some imaginext toys and a sock monkey. Owen's wrapping of the sock monkey cracked me up. Morbid looking.
My parents got Mitchell a car toy that hooks to his wall. He freaked out when we put it up! It's his favorite thing ever!!

Yay we are up to the present!!

January has been a little crazy for us here at the Esau house. Owen is doing school, I have had a bunch of stress at work lately and I have a new calling being a scout leader for the bears. We spoke in Church last week and it was awesome actually. I am looking forward to making some great friends in this ward and with our cute town up here. Setting down roots is not something I know a lot about. So here's to trying!! Wish us luck!

Jessica's Baptism

It's amazing, those moments when you graduate from child to parent. Occasionally, I still feel like a kid at heart. I love trampolines, cotton candy still solidifies any activity as "fun", and new nail polish will always make me feel pretty and giggle. But the moment you are watching your husband take his little girl into the baptismal font and baptize her a member of the church, you check in with reality and realize, yep, I'm grown up now. And now it is my responsibility to teach this girl through my example, the lessons and values my mother once taught me.
My mother made a dress for my oldest sister Vanessa when she turned 8. Vanessa was baptised in the font in this dress. Amy wore it after her. I wore it after Amy and Mindee then wore it after me. The dress has now been passed from daughters, to grandaughters. Jessica is the first of the grandaughters to wear this dress. Pouring around her skinny shoulders, Jessica wore with pride, what meant the world to me when I turned 8. I remember trying the dress on, watching my sisters wear it and dreaming of the day when I could wear the dress. It meant so much to me to have Jessica experience this special moment with such an heirloom that my mother started.
I don't know how long this dress will hold up, but I pray that the tradition will continue to pass on through the family.

After the baptism, Jessica came out of the font and looked at me from the side and beamed with joy, lifting her shoulders and sinking her head simultaneously with a big smile on her face as if to say, "Here I am! I did it!!!.......now can I get warm please?" lol.
I got to hug and kiss her and tell her how proud I was of her. I took the dress off and hung it up then gave Barb some time with Jessica.
In this moment, I stood there, looked in the mirror and saw a woman staring back at me. Not the child in my heart that I normally see. Yep, I teared up. I am so happy for Jessica in my life.
On to the confirmation!
We filed into the relief society room where another little girl was confirmed first. After her family filed out, we scooted in. My father, brother, Owen, his brother, my brother-in-laws and some of Ryan's family stood in the circle to confirm Jessica. Owen did such a beautiful job. Afterward, Jessica stood up, smiled, hugged her daddy, and shook the hands of every man in the circle. She hugged grandpa too :)

Afterward, we all went into the cultural hall that Barb and I had set up a few hours before. I did the decorations, Barb purchesed the food and the cake. I think it turned out very nice. At this party, we presented Jessica with a new set of scriptures. Blue with silver pages and her name engraved. I also layed out her baptism memory book for people to sign so she can look back and remember who came.

The day was a success. Jessica was announced in primary the next day and she bore her testimony on baptism in sacrament meeting. It was so sweet. I'm grateful for this wonderful day and that the whole thing turned out beautifully.