dear bergen jo,

**This is a letter I wrote to Bergen the night my sweet Mother passed away...

Tonight your sweet Grandma Joyce passed away. Tomorrow you will wake up and ask to go to Grandma's but you are to little to understand what's happened and it breaks my heart.

You loved your Grandma dearly and would give her loves and tell her all kinds of stories about everything. Her house was a second home to you with you visiting lots and sleeping on her bed when you were just a tiny baby.

You have dark hair and eyes just like her. She loved you very much and you would often sing to her...
"I looove you, I looove you, I looove you....so much, so much!"

We will miss her very much but I hope you know what a strong example she was of faith and strength she was to all of us. She battled a disease called scleraderma for 19 years and fought to see your mom graduate from high school, get married, graduate college, and give birth to you.

I hope you know and can feel of our Saviors love and the Atonement, for I know Grandma is whole and with family that has gone before her and Jesus.

We'll miss you Grandma, we loove you, we loove you, so much, so much!


=============================================================================


Things are well, different. Everyone tells me things will get easier, however I don't think that's the case. I have caught myself crying over fireworks, yarn, fabric, and just about anything else dealing with Mother's Day. I hope my heart will get stronger, and in the moments I am feeling weak I find myself being caught by so many uplifting, kind, and caring individuals. Words can never express my thanks (and the thanks of my family) for the prayers, cards, gifts, hugs, and other kind actions! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

My Mom

I feel so new to this, naive even. I can't tell how many times I tried to write down in words how I feel, how I've felt. Just on Sunday, we were at Church and someone handed me a piece of paper to write down something about my mother for an upcoming lesson. I sat racking my brain for something to write about my mother and yet I wrote nothing. Later on that night I would learn that my Mother passed away.

And now I need to write something.

My Mom was diagnosed with Scleroderma 19 years ago in June, I was 7. Everything changed, not all at first (at least for me) but eventually we all worked our way through that crippling disease. Her life, our lives, were a steady stream of bad news which we somehow turned into good. An original diagnosis of 5-7 years, turned to 7-10, turned to defying odds. That's how stubborn my Mom was, she fought to see graduations, missionaries return, weddings, and babies being born. She defied odds.

These past few years my sisters' and I have spent our days off during the week taking care of my Mom. I've had several people tell me "Oh, I couldn't do that..." or "How do you do that?" day after day. And I can tell them that I have grown up in the most charitable and giving family that I don't know any different. My Mom who was in extreme amounts of pain on most days, would be the first to ask me how I was feeling before I could even ask her.

My mom was a talented lady and I remembered being so excited when she was making a dress or costume for someone. I would sit beside her and scrounge together all of the scraps of fabric and save them for projects. She even helped me sew curtains for a playhouse that we had in our backyard. Two years ago, starting in October she decided she was going to make blankets for Christmas for all 7 of the married couples in the family. Not only did finish in time, she made one more for my Dad. The next year she made 15 blankets for each of the grandkids, plus other things over the years such as blessing outfits and blankets. I drove her several times to Michael's and enjoy helping her choose colors and patterns.

In all selfishness, I hate that she's gone but I guess it's NO COINCIDENCE that I wrote earlier on Sunday how grateful I am for the Atonement in my life. I have a strong testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

And hey, I like knowing she's in Heaven out of pain, with her Dad and future Grandkids, doing cartwheels and standing in line for the buffet.

I love you Mom.

Easter Egggstravaganza

 Our weekend was a busy one, on Friday we went to our Aunt Tipee's house to dye Easter eggs.

Bergen wasn't really sure about the eggs and what to do with them. She did good for awhile until I caught her drinking the dye and later throwing it up.

This was Bergen on Saturday morning while we were waiting to go to a local grocery store for a scavenger hunt. I attempted a lot of pictures and yet this is the best one, at least I tried! :)

The line for the egg hunt was super long but was worth it when we finally made it to the Easter Bunny. Bergen wasn't afraid of him like I thought she'd be, she just wouldn't take her eyes off of him!

Later we ate at Grandma's and then had an Easter egg hunt. We were all excited that the sun was finally out and spent quite a bit of time in the backyard.

 Bergs and Bells were dancing with their eggs and then per usual, ended it with a big 'best friends ever' hug!

After all the festivities we headed over to Old Main to roll {or throw} our Easter eggs.

Bergen launched 4 of them off before I could even get a picture. She loved rolling eggs so much it has been all she has talked about today!

 The university has some cool places to take pictures so I couldn't help but snap a few of the youngest grandkids.

 Little Gradyman thought the girls were really funny, but would only hold still for a minute before taking off! He is a busy little guy.

 Rounded the other kids up for a quick picture. Funny thing is they all posed themselves and I love how it turned out!

And finally this is Bergen on the way home from Grandma and Grandpa Clark's today...

I think she was exhausted from the busy weekend! Me too!

Hope you had a good Easter too!

P.S. We had a great time at church today, with a great lesson on a general conference talk from the dear Prophet President Monson. I am thankful for the Atonement and feel blessed to have it in my life. :)

SYTYC Scraps ONLY - Bloomin' Yo-Yo Skirt Tutorial

Many of you guessed and voted that the Bloomin' Yo-Yo Skirt was mine! 

I am stoked to have made it in SYTYC this long, I seriously feel like a small fish in the ocean when it comes to this crafting contest. 

So thanks again for everyone voting!

My husband was excited about this craft because I have laundry baskets full of fabric scraps, and well let's say I put a huge dent in it with this project!

For my SYTYC scraps project I made a Bloomin' Yo-Yo Skirt!

 I have always been obsessed with the fabric yo-yo's because they are so simply and fun. Make about 60 of them, add them to a high-waisted skirt, and you have one cute skirt for all ages!

You can also jump for joy because with the Bloomin' Yo-Yo skirt the outfit possibilities are endless!

TUTORIAL

I used my favorite high-waisted skirt tutorial found via Anna Maria Horner (love her!) only I replaced the band with a thick elastic.

I used a dinner plate to draw my cirlces and made my Yo-Yo's, since I am pregnant and therefore lazy...I will send you to tutorial for Yo-Yo's from the equally fabulous Heather Bailey. **Tip you can lay several layers of fabric on top of each other and cute about 6 circles out at a time**

{I know this challenge was scraps and let's face it, some scraps aren't as big as plates, so let's get crazy and I will tell you I pieced several fabrics together to achieve plate-sized status.}

I made about 60 yo-yo's and started in the back along  the bottom and worked my way around the skirt sewing them on an inch from their tops. For the second rows and beyond, I alternated the  yo-yo's between the spaces of the row below and covered 1/2 of the below yo-yo's.

For the top row I used a salad plate and hand sewed each of the yo-yo's on to give the skirt a polished look.

Now you just need a cute model, like my Brinlee Joy and you are ready for Spring. I just wish Logan and I were on the same page!!!! Sheesh!

P.S. This was my cute photo assistant Brooklyn... she was a really good help, when she wasn't skiing down the hill or jumping off the steps! ;)

You may recognize her from my shop or the model from my purse last week...Thanks Brook & Brin!

Our Life in Polaroids

These are just a few of the billions of pictures we take using Photobooth. 

I used a cool Polariod App on my computer found HERE. 

I highly recommend it.

Scraps ONLY @ SYTYC

Go on and vote for this weeks Scraps Only project. I have to admit I have been dreaming about this one for awhile and it's fun to have made it and finally able to show it off!

GO ON AND VOTE, HOPEFULLY FOR ME! :)

SYTYC Knock Off - Summer Garden Bag

 Like most of us, I drool over all the items that Anthropolgie has to offer, minus the price.

So for my knock-off craft, I decided to take a purses of theirs that I have been wanting, and give it a summery twist.

And at a fraction of the cost, I would like to introduce to you my Summer Garden Bag.

 This bag is made out of a houndstooth suiting material (found on clearance at Wal-Mart) and adorned with brightly colored garden felt flowers.

This bag is lined with a heavy green stripped material from IKEA and has an extra pocket for all of your important items.

I am a BIG BAG girl so I made the bag a little bigger so I could hold all of my Summer essentials. Can't wait to show this bag off well into Summer!


======================================================================

I'm a little bummed my cute summer bag didn't do as well as I hoped!! I am getting around to the tutorial but I have been not been feeling great lately (verge of a cold, who knows?)

But I will hopefully get it out soon!  Thanks to everyone who did vote for me, I sure love this bag and can't wait to use it! :)