A recap

Our wonderful trip in Arizona is coming to a close.
We're driving up to the Jones' cabin for the weekend before heading out!
So I'll give a little recap of this amazing trip that we've had!

First, a goodbye party for the pinkie.

And then a long recovery,

Plus, a "recovery" cotton candy cake (my mom's favorite) from our favorite bakery Sweet Tooth Fairy.

Cornrows for Gigs.

A fun sewing project,

And two amazing Sunday dinners out in the front yard in the cool Summer evenings.

Lots of rides on the Jones' golf cart too. We were headed to the temple in this picture.

We also spent a lot of time swimming in the heat.

 We went to see "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Solo" too. I enjoyed "Solo", but if you've seen the "Avengers" movie, I think you can understand why I didn't like it.

We had a lot of fun! I'll miss the Jones family!

Skirts + memes

As you may know, we've been staying with the Jones family while we're waiting for an available house to rent in North Carolina.

(Which we found!!! We'll be leaving to North Carolina this weekend!)

We made some fun plans to do while we were with them.

It included a sewing project.

Me, my two sisters Jane and Charlotte, and the two Jones girls Livvy and Avrey all picked out a cute skirt pattern and fun fabrics and started sewing!

Here's the pattern if you'd like to try!

We haven't all finished yet, but here are some pictures of the progress and my finished product.

There's a lot going on in this photo. But it was the only one I had of ma new skirt!

Also: Here are the memes for the week. All definitely relateable.

gigs and his hulkbuster

This is my little brother Nicholas.

His nickname is Gigs because when my other little brother was little he could only say "Gigolas". So it eventually turned into Gigs.

Gigs is an awesome kid.

He is very inventive, smart, and creative.

He's an insect whisperer, mine craft builder, and make-you-sister-laugh expert.

He is also obsessed with Iron Man's Hulk buster.

He's spent the past few days watching videos, searching on amazon, and reading every last review of this guy.

He convinced my mom to buy it for him because of his (semi) good behavior. 

It finally came today. 

Pretty cool, huh?

Huzah!

The weekend is finally here again!

Huzah!

The weekend playlist is below:

This is why I need you-Jesse Ruben

New Light- John Mayer

Hideaway-Karen O and the Kids

Famous-Mason Ramsey

Waterfalls-Mr Little Jeans

Nighttime Girls-The Districts

Vincent-Ellie Goulding

Lava Lamp-Mree

Run For Your Life-K.Flay

Madness-Muse

Down-Andrew Belle

White Winter Hymnal-Birdy

Here's the Sundee playlist:

A Quiet Life-Marco Beltrami

Lost Fur-Carter Burwell

The White Queen-Danny Elfman

Opus 23-Dustin O'Halloran

Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons: Spring 1

Snow White in Black-Mark Isham

Spring-Thomas Newman

Goodbye Eilis-Michael Brook

Also, here's something you should definitely look at:

Exciting News

And something to think about that has helped me and my family in our adventures and life and situation.

"Fear not. Be of good cheer. The future is as bright as your faith"

President Thomas S. Monson

QuEstIonS wItH ClaIrE

The question for today is:

What is your guilty pleasure?

Well, mine would have to be pinterest. I don't have any social media but I do have pinterest. And I love pinterest. 

I spend too much time on it.

You can take a look at it if you want, it's LIT.

What's yours?

Meme Wednesday feat. Jane Nielson (the meme queen)

Here are the memes for meme Wednesday!

I think I should also introduce my very best friend the meme queen.

This is Jane, she's my sister, we're 16 months apart.

Sometimes we pretend we're twins. We're pretty much Siamese twins and we share everything. 

I mean that's what sisters do, right?

Arizona, and the pinkie

We came to Arizona for three reasons:

First of all, to visit and stay with the Jones family! Our favorite family ever! We love them and they're the best.

The second reason is (as I said in my last post) that we're moving to North Carolina, but we don't quite have a house yet... So we're hanging out in AZ until we find a house to rent. The plan is to rent a house in the Raleigh area for about a year while we build a new house in a more rural area, I'm really excited!

The last reason that we're hanging out in AZ for a little while is because my mom has just gone through surgery on her hand. She and my dad were in an airplane crash in 2008 and they were both severely burned. They've gone through countless surgeries in their lifetime, and will probably go through more. It's just a part of life for us now. Anyway, my mom's hands are burned pretty bad and one of her pinkies broke in the crash. It healed broken because the doctors didn't do anything about it (they had much more pressing matters to attend to). It's been hurting her for almost 10 years. So she decided to have it amputated while we were here, my mom's favorite doctor (Dr. Sal Letteri) lives here so we just took care of it while we're in town!

It was a lot more emotional than I thought it would be, we were all attached to little pinkie. And now it's gone. My mom is recovering, slowly, her pain medication makes her really sick. And when mom's miserable, everyone's miserable. We're all bummed right now, but when my mom's better, I think it will feel worth all the work.

Catch up!

Hello, its been a while. 

I haven't been blogging this week because it was one crazy week!

We came home from Utah, packed up our house at the ranch and drove to AZ!

We're moving to North Carolina. 

Its a long story, but we'll be moving there as soon as we get home from Arizona.

I'm sad and excited, sad because I don't want to be done being a cowgirl, but I'm excited for the new opportunities we'll be having there.

I'm beginning a new chapter in my life, and taking my blog with me!

w e e k e n d

It's the weekend again!

This Friday I will be listening to:

Let Go-Frou Frou

Daughters-John Mayer

I Can See Your Tracks-Laura Viers

A Lot of Things-Rosi Golan

Don't Know Why-Norah Jones

Somewhere Only We Know-Lily James

Ghost of a Dog- Edie Brickell

I Can't Get Next to You- Annie Lennox

And this Sunday I will be listening to:

The Derry Tune-Kila

Adaline Bowman-Rob Simonsen

At first Sight-Alexandre Desplat

Opening Titles-Micheal Brook

The Secret Life of Daydreams-Jean-Yves Thibaudet

The Great Secret-Patrick Doyle

True Love's Kiss-James Newton Howard

The Hours-Phillip Glass

Here's a little something for you to think about over your weekend.

The Articles of Faith

This is what I believe!

If you want to know more about what I believe go to this website or order a free copy of my favorite book.

Have a lovely weekend!

Movies

When I was about 8 or 9 I got into making movies.

We had a little tiny video camera and a whole basement full of dress-ups and we would spend every day in the Summer making movies.

When I was a little older my parents bought me a nicer video camera and we would spend time making big productions like these:

  

(ER)

(Ariel)

(Hansel and Gretel)

(Anna and Elsa)

(The Little Match Girl)

We never made millions off of these movies, and hardly anyone has seen any of them, but I'm so glad that we made them. They're remind me of good times.

Meme Wednesday

So every Wednesday I will share with you 3 of my favorite memes for the week. My sister Jane, who is a meme expert, will be contributing to this new meme Wednesday. You can find my sister's meme account here.

So, here are the memes:

Heaven

Heaven, I'm in heaven,

And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak

And I seem to find the happiness I seek

When we're out together dancing, cheek to cheek. 

Heaven, I'm in heaven,

And the cares that hang around me through the week

Seem to vanish like a gambler's lucky streak
When we're out together dancing, cheek to cheek.