that girl up there--taylor--doesn't look a thing like me but has almost all of my personality. so i don't know if she got the raw deal or not...but she is a lot like her grandma U. in looks and personality--now that's a good thing! she complained about not having a lot of pictures of her--i had to remind her that everytime the camera comes out she bolts in the other direction. so she let me take a few. she came home from school yesterday and told me that she was going to give something up for 45 days until easter came. i said that's called lent. she said she was going to give up meat. i said allright, sounds cool. i guess her and some of her friends at school are going to do this together. i asked her if i could give up laundry!!

so this is a pic of one of my other card challenges. it was to use a symbol. i chose a clock. i love clocks--i have one in every room of my house. time--it's the one thing that we all have the same amount of. how do you use yours? i plan on journaling on the back.

david and i have decided to get healthy. i am going to go to costco and the health store today. loading up on fruits, veggies, whole wheat everything, lo-fat, grains, you name it--if it doesn't taste good it goes in the basket!! ha ha well, i like all this stuff--my husband and kids don't--so we will see how long before they get all cranky from lack of sugar coated preservatives!! my guess is not too long. but for david's and taylor's sake we will be going healthy and meat free.

oh yeah--that's max. i was taking pics this a.m. and he was sitting there with that cute face saying "take my pic!!" so i did...L

i have been on a little bit of a creative streak. have had some fun with altering different things. not much of an alterer here--more of a layout, mini-album type girl. but i saw this card challenge on emily falconbridge's blog and totally loved it! so i started mine this weekend. the first week was something i am proud of--easy--my missionary son that will be home the first of may! the second was something that is powerful to me. LOVE--'nuff said. the third was an I AM statement. i have been through a few things in my life. i always bounce back. so i chose resilient. i plan on journaling on the back of some of these. but i am having a blast creating them! so fun to just play and not stress about it. very relaxing!

the other thing i made was a mini album out of a grape nuts cereal box. all about my obsession with food. i entered that in the Making Memories Idol contest. today they announce the 50 finalists. who knows? crossing my fingers here...L

not much to say today--sickness is still going around at our house. i haven't taken too many pictures lately and while i had my camera out and was taking pics of everything on valentines day, haley walked in with her sunday dress on and this beach hat. she loves to dress up and put the most incongruous, yet fun, things together. the light was just perfect and i got some cute pics of her being her. can you look at this picture and visualize her not being named haley rose? it just fits her perfectly. i know she is my baby and therefore can do no wrong--but seriously--this child can do no wrong! she cracks me up because she talks non stop and when you have a non stop talker they are not going to make sense sometimes because eventually they have to start making things up! everytime she sits down at the potty she tells me whether or not she has to go "poop". and then without fail she lets me know that "poop" is a bad word and you can only say it when you really have to go "poop". but her chatterbox mouth is getting the best of the rest of the family--especially the more quiet ones. it's almost like a filibuster. like tonight she said she needed chocolate milk because it was good for coughs. um, okay dr. haley. then she looked straight at me and said "i love you" and then she gave me a hug because "you give hugs to people you love". yeah--you do...L

just a few valentine images and a layout i just finished. hope everyone had a great V-day! i made homemade individual pizza's in the shape of a heart, chocolate dipped pretzels and my girls got little buckets filled with treats. david got a dvd and a truth or dare game and i got a cute heart charm for my bracelet. love to all...L

i finally finished a layout! yay for me. i even broke out the glitter. if ever there was a girl made for glitter it was carson. such a sweet girlie girl. she definitely inherited her love of shopping and clothes from her mama. she can do everyone's hair and will tell you if your outfit is lacking something. she would dress the entire family if you let her. she's always a big help to me with the little girls and plays school with them and reads books to them. a real sweetheart. she reminds me of brianne when she was little. doesn't get mad often and if she does she gets over it quick. she has tons of friends and is a social butterfly (not like her mama!). she can doodle and do fancy handwriting and is great at art. she loves to make scrapbook pages and recently made one and sent it to her aunt in CA. glad to have her as my daughter...L

GO COLTS! well, i was excited that they won because that is who my son wanted to win. not too excited about the commercials. they kinda sucked. but we had a nice party with lots of friends and kids. even shanna and shane and their girls came up. it's funny because we have a family with mostly all girls and so do my friends--everyone seems to have girls--especially the ones that came over last night. but one couple have 2 boys and we noticed a huge difference in the decibal range when they came. they had a great time chasing the girls and i would love to say it was shanna's girls that were throwing panties at them but alas, it was my girls! after the boys left though anna came up to me and said "those boys gave me a headache" then shanna piped up and said "get used to it" and i said "for a long, long time!" ha ha

another funny thing. david was watching some show last night and they were talking about the differences between men and women. i was in on the computer but i could hear what was being said. the narrator was saying that after sex men want to go to sleep and women want to cuddle. the narrator said that men should take at least 5 minutes with their woman to hug her, tell her she's beautiful, talk to her, yada, yada, yada. I'm in here yelling to david "women really want that? are you kidding me? i just want to go to sleep!" david's response? "you really are a man!" that's what i've been saying all along...L

aren't they cute? they are coming down for the easter pageant in mesa in march!! woo hoo
david--you can't get mad at this picture because there is no kissy face going on!!!

speaking of the easter pageant--i saw the movie "the passion of the Christ" a few nights ago. didn't see it when it came out because i don't like bloody, violent, gory movies. david saw it and said it was good. then i forgot all about it. so when it came on one night david asked me to sit down and watch it. i told him that i was pretty sure it would be too much for me but he said to give it a chance and if it got to be too intense then i could stop watching. so i watched it. the entire movie. it was intense. it was also an insight into how horrible that last day of his life really was. what got me though was Mary watching Jesus the whole time. being there for her son in the most painful time i can imagine. i have a son and i can't imagine having to witness that. then i had a few thoughts. the first being that i can just imagine myself finally face to face with the Savior and trying to explain why i yelled at someone one day, or why i complained about insignificant things. when you know full well at what He endured and how he reacted to things. the second was when they showed his sermon on the mount and him teaching to love your enemies because "if you love those that love you where is the reward in that?" so true. so easy to love those that are kind and sweet and loving to us. but what about the person that has betrayed us or let us down or hurt us in some manner. that is the truly hard part.

so i emailed my son about my feelings and told him that if we just focused on Christ that all would be ok. here is the email he sent me:

Hey thanks for the letter. Hope that everyone gets better soon. Its soooo true if we can just focus on Christ everything will be fine. We won't be discouraged we will be more loving, everything will turn to us for our good--the trials, problems. with Christ all if possible with out him there's nothing. " Look unto me in all thy thoughts. doubt not; fear not." d&c 6

love you Anziano Gilbert

p.s. the colts

wow--that was probably the most serious post i have ever had! ha

oh yeah--i asked him in my email who he wanted me to root for in the superbowl. sorry beffy

and yeah--that boy is coming home in 3 months!!!!

on a lighter note i have been eating grapenuts trail mix every night for a snack. thanks brianne! she told me to get it since i am a grapenuts nut! i usually eat it with soy milk so i don't feel too guilty.

and while i am in a random posting mood i will let you know that i dropped my college classes today. i had signed up for photoshop 2 and digital photography 2 but i just wasn't feeling motivated. plus brianne graduates from BYU in april and dallas gets home in may so i knew i would probably be gone and missing class so i will just wait til fall semester and keep practicing and learning more camera stuff and photoshop on my own.

peace out...L