peices

“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”
― Abraham Lincoln

Oh, Abe. I think everyone can learn a little someone from you now and then. In fact, this quote couldn't have come at a better time. 

If you blog, or do any sort of social media, you know what it's like to run across someone's profile, blog post, photo etc. and the thought of, "why can't my hair be that gorgeous? Why can't I look good in dark lipstick without looking all "vampy"? why can't I afford extravagant vacations?" etc. Maybe not everyone has these feelings, but I sure do.
I'm happy with my life and I need to remember all the things that I do have that others may not. I'm beyond grateful for all the things I do have and I need to be happy with who I am and how others see me. Everyone see's you differently then you see yourself. I will always find my flaws while others may not even notice these things. My husband always tells me how beautiful I am, but I will immediately say something negative about myself rather then just taking the compliment. I need to stop doing this and figure out how to love myself. I wouldn't say that I'm not confident about myself, but in someways I'm not confident at all. For example: I know I'm an quirky/awkward person, my personality can sometimes come across as "bitchy" because I have a very, very dry sense of humor. These are things that I've accepted and I'm 100% okay with that. I just need to learn to be confident in myself in other ways. I need to learn to make the very best of every situation, learn from it, grow from it, and be happy with it.

Enough of my rant. Here are some pictures and some updates. 

 ^ ^I love them both so much I could split in half.

 ^^ Grammy (my mother) bought Smith a mustache binki. Smith isn't one to take binki's, but we stick this in his mouth just to get a good laugh every once in a while.

 ^^ his current favorite bath toy is a 44 oz cup from the gas station. We try to give him other toys, but they aren't as cool as that cup. 

 ^^ Tummy time on the boppy is quite the experience now. He tries to push himself forward once we have him on it, but then this happens. We then spend the next 5 minutes watching him try to figure out how to get out of this position. He grunts and tries so hard to either roll over, or go forward. We get a good laugh out of it.

 ^^ Little Olive Grae was born! Smith is excited to have a cousin that he can run around with when the time comes. Smith doesn't know he is excited, but I decided that as his mother. She's super precious and I was excited to take her newborn photos. I love looking at these photos and seeing those extra wrinkly hands.

hardware ranch 2014

Last weekend, my family and I headed up to Hyrum to a place called Hardware Ranch. My family has been up there a few times and we love going. If you aren't familiar with Hardware Ranch, it's a Wildlife Management Area that is a popular spot to view elk when the animals are wintering in a large meadow. At times, 500-600 elk can be seen there, including some large bulls.
During winter, elk are fed at the ranch to keep them in the high country, out of farmers' fields. Feed is taken out into the meadow on horse-drawn wagons and sleds. The elk become use to the wagons and sleds and are not startled. During the winter, people can ride on the sleds and get quite close, providing great opportunity to view and photograph the animals.

The wind was blowing and there was a storm warning all day for the area, but the storm never came through, but it was still freezing. I was worried that Smith would be too cold and cranky, but we bundled him up and he quickly fell asleep, so he was quite comfortable.

Here are a few pictures that I took. 

 All in all, it was a fun day trip even if the wind was blowing and we were all freezing by the end of it. If you've never been, I recommend going. Its $5 bucks per person for the ride and it's about 30 minutes long.