if i were a bug my name would be: BEE hind

has it really been almost two weeks since i've updated the blog?! really? i don't even have a great excuse... i could definitely use the i was battling off sickness last week and pumping vitamin c and airborne like there was no tomorrow... but mostly the yuckies just made me tired. which, i might add, is far better than feeling really seriously crummy. i'm back to *mostly* normal now. all excuses aside, the real deal is that i just got behind, and it felt a little daunting to try to catch up. but it's 9:18pm and i'm feeling quite awake as i listen to the frogs croaking a springtime song outside.

i'll do my best to sum up my life in pictures from the past few weeks. on saturday the girls and i went for a bike ride with my mom, my niece and nephew. it was a nice short ride, and a fun one for our first ride of the season. we've gotta get our bums back in shape for some longer rides! after the ride, the girls and i headed for the daffodil fields. it was getting close to the end of their bloom, and we hadn't gotten up to see them yet this year. (you've gotta time it right because they mow them all down toward the end to harvest the bulbs.)

it doesn't matter how many times i've wandered through the acres and acres of flowers, it always amazes and overwhelms me. what an amazing display of creation for us to enjoy. there are a few more pictures here. we also drove through the fields filled with the white blanket of thousands of snow geese. they were taking off and it looked almost like someone was shaking out a great white blanket. it's truly an amazing sight to see.

ella publishing is running several weeks of tv scrapbook challenges... if you're in need of some inspiration, check out the ella blog for details and join in the fun (and have a chance to win a fabulous ella ebook)!

sunday after church a friend of ours came and mowed my lawn while his wife and i visited & the kids played. we have a pretty crazy big hilly yard that is no easy beast to mow. and i credit stan being an amazing man and having wonderful friends that do so much to help us when he's away. so THANK YOU gabe for supporting the troops!

thursday emma started dance lessons for the first time ever. i picked a package of ballet/tap lessons up at the school auction recently since our love of classic musicals has spurred her into wanting to tap dance like fred astaire and gene kelly. though she has not quite reached astaire level in one lesson (hee hee) she has quite enjoyed tapping her way through the house everyday since.

last year on st patrick's day i was feeling extra motivated and made quite a crazy green dinner for us. although (shockingly) i still have some green food coloring left from last year, i was not feeling 100% and couldn't muster the energy to massacre our dinner. all i managed to get done was a couple of three leaf clover hairdos for the girls in the morning. while i wasn't earning any super-fun mom awards this year... at least i kept them safe from pinching for the day. :)

no really, thank you chinese food! you fed my little sweeties when i was feeling too crummy to make dinner.

while clicking through flickr last week i stumbled across a picture that inspired me to take some shots of me & my wedding ring in honor of the amazing man who gave it to me so many years ago. i am the luckiest girl in the world to have landed such an incredible man. i know i don't tell him enough just how proud i am of him, and just what an honor it is to have him by my side... even when that means he's a million miles away. he's the man of my dreams, and quite possibly most wonderful man in the world.

emma and i stopped by a little blue schoolhouse on our way to a benefit dinner the other night. it's right on our way to church, and i've always wanted to stop to utilize the pretty blue walls. well, with a little extra time on our hands, we stopped by and took a bunch of pictures just for fun. :)

just like her mom & dad, torrey got an eye exam the other day and was told she'd need a new set of stronger glasses. so off to costco to pick out some new frames and replace the lenses in another pair. after picking up the new set of glasses we took a bunch of pictures (here and here) for daddy to see the new specs. i think they're pretty dang cute!

another fun surprise this week was my march ck. i've been dying to show this layout to my dear friend donna struggling her way through breast cancer, who inspired it. she has the most beautiful heart and contagiously inspiring spirit of anyone i've ever met. (see her adorable self here & read about her here and here) since we took these pictures, she's finished chemo and grown back about 1/2" of hair! she's kickin' cancer in the you-know-what! {love you donna!}

this week my mailbox was also graced with a beautiful new handmade necklace i ordered from the darling janna wilson. i {heart} her... besides being a super talented scrapping genius, {lucky for me} she's also a crazy crafty jewelry maker! i'm pretty sure i'm gonna need one of these babies in every color! i'm so in love with this little beauty. check out her way cute necklaces here!

and last, but not least, is this little pair. and by little i mean ginormous golden eagles. i was sitting in my living room enjoying a nice hot cup of coffee when these two bad boys landed in the tree across our yard. they are seriously amazing creatures, and the picture doesn't nearly do them justice. we see a lot of bald eagles in our area, but rarely get a good long look at golden eagles. after this little eagle chat, the meeting ended in something that would have been more suited for the likes of animal planet... if you know what i mean. yes, spring is in the air!

i hope you have a wonderful week filled and overflowing with blessings.

xo
noel

{life} is beautiful

{life}
is beautiful

several weeks ago i posted about my friend, donna, who was just beginning her battle with breast cancer. this beautiful lady is now in the throes of chemo, more surgeries and all that accompanies the fight against breast cancer. i cannot express how much of a blessing donna has been to me over the years, and what an inspiration she is to me now. her heart is so beautiful. she is courageous and encouraging and hopeful. when she came over today for some baldie pictures, we laughed so hard we nearly wet our pants. she reminds me that through life's toughest moments there is joy that is found in the Lord, and that each moment we have is a blessing.

donna pulled out a bunch of her hats for one of the pictures and showed me this scarf. it had been her mom's. she told me how when she pulled it out of the storage box when she started losing her hair, it still smelled just like her mom. another reminder to cherish my mommy, too.


if you think to pray for my dear friend, it would mean so much to me, and to her. thank you so much!
if you'd like to see the rest of the pictures from the shoot you can check them out here.

{pray}

this is my beautiful friend donna. just two weeks ago she had a very sudden double mastectomy due to breast cancer. on the day of her surgery she called in the morning and asked us to pray for her. the girls and i did, and after school i got this little note from emma's reading teacher:

One of our reading words today was "pray." Emma said, "speaking of pray...I would like to pray for my mom's friend Donna, who is having surgery... could we do that?" I was touched. I told her that I would in my heart and anyone who wanted to could in their own heart. That seemed to satisfy her

donna is emma's sunday school teacher, and a walking miracle. she spen 8 years in a wheel chair with a bucket list for the "time left" she'd been given. then, within the last year, she started walking! our miracle girl can walk, even up stairs holding her gradbaby! she has one of the biggest hearts of anyone i have ever known, and makes me want to be a better person.

this dear friend starts an aggressive six months of chemo next week. so today she came by for some pre-chemo pictures before heading off for a couple days of camping with her hubby. we'll do some again when her hair is gone, and celebrate each day God blesses us with her. but i wanted to share this wonderful woman with you, and ask you to pray for her as you think to.


oh, and as a side note, i have a new article out today on the scrap review. :)