dripping with passion

no baby yet! it’s so wild to live every day wondering when things will kick in and get going towards labor and delivery. every single morning i wake up super early and am convinced the sensations i am feeling mean i am going into labor. and then i realize i just really have to go to the bathroom ;) we will see when the little guy decides to make his entrance! in the meantime … we are having a great time with mom in town. she ended up moving her flight up a few days and it is soooo wonderful to have her here. she is the grandest mother and the grandest grandmother - i feel so blessed to have her by my side as i enter a new phase of my own mothering with baby number two! and she just published a new book!! i know i am biased, but this is some seriously  good stuff! my mom is a grandmother to  thirty  and she is the most deliberate, fantastic grandmother i have ever encountered. her vast experience - along with her golden heart - has provided her with so much know...

for my entire lifetime, my parents have had a unique job. “they write parenting books,” is how i usually respond when people ask me what my parents “do.” this is sometimes fascinating to whomever i am chatting with, and when follow-up questions are asked, i get to explain a bit about the work that my parents have devoted their lives to: sharing what they’ve learned deliberately raising nine children and connecting with other stellar parents all over the world. over the past four+ decades, my mom and dad have earnestly tried to reach other moms and dads, by whatever means possible, to offer humble encouragement, ideas, and motivation in parenting. in the beginning they did this through publishing books; soon they branched out into media appearances and speeches at worldwide events and conferences; then they utilized the miracle of the internet with their website valuesparenting (and did you know that these days you can access most of their books  for free online ?!). as they...

if you’ve read this blog for a little while, you’re well aware that i love, love, love shutterfly . i have tried lots of different online photo printing services, and i have found that truly no other company provides a better experience or product than shutterfly. the level of customization is so awesome (you really can create anything to look exactly how you’d like!), the designs are beautiful and varied, and customer service is top-notch. ^^ ^^ the front and back of this year’s christmas card! i like to design both sides on my own and then upload my designs to shutterfly (although they have tons of beautiful designs on the website as well). i especially have fun with the collage of pictures from the year on the back. ian keeps telling me i need to pick less photos so they are bigger, but it’s so hard to narrow them down! ^^ ^^ this year we not only made and sent our christmas cards using shutterfly, but also created a few really special christmas gifts using shutterfly. we ma...

kandy was the last capital of the ancient kings’ era in sri lanka. today it is a vibrant, bustling, colourful city, nestled into the hills. we spent a sunday there and stayed overnight at theva residency , which is the perfect place to stay in this fascinating and beautiful place. here’s a few pictures from our day in kandy! we woke up very early in nuwara eilya so that we could drive to kandy and get to church there on time. the drive was full of spectacular scenery that i’m so sad i wasn’t able to capture! i was jetlagged and carsick (windy roads in the hills!), but still so glad to see so much vibrant colour and lush beauty. i snoozed a little right before we drove into kandy and i woke up to this buddah welcome ^^   we went straight to church, which was one of the biggest highlights of our entire trip. the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints has been in sri lanka not much longer than a decade. we attended a branch full of remarkably faithful and happy people and ...