Hallelujah

"In the case of us mortals, men and women are confronted with a world in which there are appealing arguments for God as a childish projection, for modern prophets as scheming or deluded imposters, and for modern scriptures as so much fabulous fiction. But there is also compelling evidence that a glorious divinity presides over the cosmos, that God calls and anoints prophets, and that His word and will are made manifest through a sacred canon that is never definitively closed. There is, as with the ass of Buridan, nothing to compel an individual’s preference for one over the other. But in the case of us mortals, there is something to tip the scale. There is something to predispose us to a life of faith or a life of unbelief. There is a heart that in these conditions of equilibrium and balance—and only in these conditions of equilibrium and balance, equally “enticed by the one or the other”—is truly free to choose belief or cynicism, faith or faithlessness.

Why, then, is there more merit—given this perfect balance—in believing in the Christ (and His gospel and prophets) than believing in a false deity or in nothing at all? Perhaps because there is nothing in the universe—or in any possible universe—more perfectly good, absolutely beautiful, and worthy of adoration and emulation than this Christ. A gesture of belief in that direction, a will manifesting itself as a desire to acknowledge His virtues as the paramount qualities of a divided universe, is a response to the best in us, the best and noblest of which the human soul is capable. For we do indeed create gods after our own image—or potential image. And that is an activity endowed with incalculable moral significance."

"Lightning Out of Heaven," Terryl L. Givens, BYU Speeches November 2005

#Hallelujah

girls' room redo

summer and afton recently (and without warning!) grew out of their playhouse room. 

(easily their mother's most favorite room in the house.)

they ended up leaving it a mess all time time because the setup just wasn't suiting their needs anymore.

new needs included: a bigger dresser for their bigger clothes, more floor space to set up their barbies and/or american girls and/or my little ponies and/or shopkins and/or whatever especially tiny toys they are in to on any given day, a space to spend hours drawing (doing homework would be nice, too), and a place to store their ever growing collection of art supplies.

here's what we came up with:

a couple of these projects were a wee bit DIY because i got this crazy, harebrained idea that i was some kind of ikea hacker. dear future emily, you are definitely NOT an ikea hacker (your blood pressure may never be the same), but it was worth a go.

after clearing out and selling most of their old stuff, i painted the room (and the ceiling -- curse whoever decided it was a good idea to put color on ceilings!)

then i spray painted almost every thing i could get my hands on with gold spray paint (the dresser knobs, the curtain finials, picture frames, the desk legs, a couple of my kids). 

i painted the ikea hemnes drawer fronts for a peachy ombre effect and mounted bookplates on the ikea alex drawers. 

bryan and i built the desk from an ikea linnmon top and four hairpin legs. 

i also found an awesome idea for a striped bulletin board at sarah m. dorsey designs, used liquid nails to adhere a few ikea corkboards together, and spray painted a copycat design. my piece de resistance.

now the girls are happy, and i'm tired (but the girls are happy).

this message proudly sponsored by our recent trip to ikea 

and the many, many (MANY) trips to the hardware store that followed (hi logan!)

hair today, gone tomorrow

about a month ago, caleb got a pretty sweet haircut:

he owned it, gelled it, and pretty much rocked the socks off that 'do until...

he found a pair of scissors.

as an added bonus, while bryan was shaving caleb's hair to even out the damage (shown above), the guard inadvertently fell off the razor, which resulted in a pretty sizeable bald spot that (for consistency's sake) had to become an incredibly large bald spot (shown below).

duh duh duh DUN (snap, snap)

some things i want to remember about this experience: 

--caleb keeps running to the mirror to see if his hair has grown back yet. 

--one of his first comments was how he now looks like opa d.

--he is telling everyone not to touch his hair because "it's pokey!"

dear preschool in the morning, please be kind :) 

who run the world?

just an evening out at ikea with my girlies.

where we show that mass produced (and extremely heavy) pressed wood furniture who's boss.

(hint: it's us.)

dally woo is two!

yesterday, our baby boy turned two! and what a change two has been for him. he went to bed my little one year old munchkin and woke up a whole stinkin' lot older. his vocabulary and understanding and communicating and participating are all just booming.

every time you say his name now, he answers with "what?" every time you ask him to do something, he says "okay!" and when you do something he likes, he says "yeah!" or "yay!" he knows what things are, he asks for them by name, he is patient and doesn't scream (most of the time) when he is waiting. he can *finally* be reasoned with (hallelujah!) oh man, the communication barrier is one of my all-time favorite breakthroughs in child rearing. so much screaming (on both our parts) is now just a beautiful bygone memory. new screaming will come, for sure, but for now, i shall sunbathe in this sweet, sweet (sweet) victory.

so let's talk super powers. dallin's is observance. he has always been eerily observant. remember object permanence? and how infants younger than about eight months old don't generally have such a thing? well dallin had object permanence down from, like, two days out the womb. nothing gets by this kid.

his hearing is almost superhuman.

he can spot tiny objects from across the room. in the dark.

and he most definitely knows when you're eating something delicious in the kitchen, even if he's upstairs in his crib napping.

and while there is undoubtedly a lot of good that will come from having such a super power, the bad is that he is almost impossible to distract -- distraction being a main behavior management strategy of the toddler years and all (insert screaming here).

okay, so on to his birthday.

to know dallin is to know that he loves cereal. i mean, not like passively "loves," but he loves cereal. if the pantry door is open, he will go in and find a box of cereal and eat it. all. cereal is the first thing he asks for when he wakes up on the morning and the last thing he asks for before he goes to bed at night.  

and because our kids only get sugar cereal on rare occasions, it's become one of the ultimate treats at our house (seriously, if it was a choice between a box of candy bars and a box of sugar cereal, the sugar cereal would win at the wheelers every. time.) so for dallin's birthday gift, i decided to raid the cereal aisle and brought home twenty-two (eek!) boxes of cereal. the older kids were in absolute heaven and are looking forward to downing every single box. dallin made a bee-line for the lucky charms and was unimpressed by my other offerings (he came around to the awesomeness of it all after a few bowls of lucky charms, though). 

later on, we made breakfast cereal donuts.

he also received a box of crayons ("colors," as he calls them) and some great grandparent gifts. it was pretty much the best birthday of his life. ah, two year olds: so deliciously easy to impress.

dallin, you are adored. your juicy cheeks, your sparkling eyes, your dimply dimple. your precious waddle. you are the messiest eater i've ever met. the spitting image of your father. you have the cutest voice, kind of an anger management problem, and the world's tiniest feet. you never back down from a fight, observe everything, think your mama all but hung the moon, and boy, are we excited to watch you grow up.

(not too fast, though.)

happy birthday, woo!

firsts

caleb's first day in primary!

and the season's first snow!

polar bear plunge

(into a nearby hot tub).

ode to twenty fifteen

photo by lindsay salazar photography, august 2015

well 2015, we came, we saw, we survived.

highlight reel!

bryan, you'll remember, began working for an exciting new company, arivale, in the middle of this year. he still finds time to cook dinner for his family three times a week and enjoys hiking, biking, skiing, and dancing. (am lying about the dancing.)

emily, you'll remember, ran a grand total of three times this year: once to practice, once to complete a 5k, and once to shave four minutes off said 5k. now she's tired. in her free time, she's usually sewing something, buying something, cleaning something, or hiding in the pantry eating cookies.

summer has thoroughly enjoyed being a red head these past few months. she's kind of over it now, though, and we're working diligently on returning her to her naturally hued hair, so stay tuned. she still loves school and people of all sorts and sharing with her siblings (weird, i know). she is becoming quite the pianist and quite the artist and quite the connoisseur of fine chocolates. (am lying about the chocolates.)

afton is also a talented artist and almost always drawing something. she loves fashion and has notebooks filled with her designs. she also loves sparkles and organizing and has eaten more vegetables this year than in all of her previous years combined. afton's first grade teacher is a match made in heaven for her, and she's really coming into her own at school. she hates playing games even though she's wicked good at them and almost always wins.

caleb has been in constant motion since the year began. he made his first friend (hi gabriel!) and has been really digging preschool lately. he continues to weasel his way out of discipline using his dimples and/or pouty face and is known by name by almost all of our small community because his mother shouts it in exasperation so often. caleb is affectionate and kind-hearted and huge. also, if you happen to find him out wandering the streets without a guardian, please return him to our home forthwith. many thanks to the friends and neighbors who have already done so this past year. 

dallin's dream come true is being a baby. his favorite things in the whole wide world are his mama and his blankets. he loves snacking and napping and saying "see you!" his vocabulary is booming, and his favorite word is definitely, definitely "no." he loves music and coloring and cereal and horseback riding. (am lying about that last part again.)

wishing you laughter, love, and *lots* of noise,

wheelers (and 2015) out.

wheelers in a winter wonderland

christmas day in the morning

"And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more."

--Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

candy land

caleb at the mall

not crying, just soaking it all in.

a few more baptism pics

december twelfth was a cold and rainy day in the pacific northwest, and we were glad to have so many family members and friends with us to support our summer sunshine.

when i was a little girl, i was baptized in a beautiful white swiss dot dress that i loved. a few years before summer's baptism, we started looking through family trunks and closets for the dress to no avail. also, nowadays, for practical reasons, most lds baptisms are performed in thick white (non see-thru) jumpsuits.

i decided to merge the best of both worlds, and after i finished summer's white and gold chiffon dress, i had (barely ;) enough time to sew her a beautiful white (double-thick) swiss dot jumpsuit for her baptism. that she loved.

and which i hope to see my granddaughters in some day.

summer girl receiving a baptism gift from the primary the following sunday.

bow tied

when i am baptized

summer is such a joy and a light and was so, so excited for her baptism today!

announcement design: west willow designs

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

it's great to be eight

friday, november 6th was summer's eighth birthday.

here's how i think the aging of children generally goes (from a parental perspective): 

0, .25, .5, .75, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 13, 18.

see how that sucker really speeds up there at the end?

yikes.

and while it's been pretty slow going for the past eight years around here, right about now that roller-coaster is definitely starting to round into the decline.

double yikes. 

as scary as it sometimes is to be on this speedy, bumpy, windy, twisty, and way, way high up in the air space mountain of sorts, the kids just make it so darn enjoyable to watch them grow up. to get to know them. to learn who they are. and to help them find their way.

it's my favorite part.

summer is an artist. she's a writer. a dreamer. a believer. she is kind. caring. a quick learner. summer is inclusive. a sharer. a sister. she can be shy and is easily embarrassed. she gets distracted. she loves to read. she loves to dance. she loves to know about things. about people. about history. about science. she loves treats and excitement and surprises and her family most of all.

happy birthday, sweet summer girl!

enjoy the ride :)

breakfast at the wheeler's

#brothers

scooby dooby doo

where are you?

we've got some work to do now.

scooby dooby doo,

where are you?

we need some help from you now.

come on, scooby doo, i see you

pretending you've got a sliver.

but you're not fooling me, cause i can see

the way you shake and shiver.

you know we've got a mystery to solve so scooby doo

be ready for your act. don't hold back.

and scooby doo if you come through you're gonna have yourself a scooby snack!

that's a fact!

scooby dooby doo, here are you

you're ready and you're willing.

if we can count on you, scooby doo,

i know we'll catch that villain.