Love Everyone. Period.

As I get older and "wiser" and my life and the world get more busy and complicated I find that truly the most important thing to strive for in life is love. I guess that is what Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have been telling us all along. 

Mark 12:30: "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these."

But loving is a hard commandment to follow. I wish I could just simply love first and not judge someone and try to determine if they are "worthy" of my love. 

I can think of two different times when I met someone and right off the bat I decided I liked them and even told them right then that I liked them. I think there is power in that. Deciding from the beginning that I liked them settled it in my mind that they were my friend. I didn't have to go through the process of meeting, getting to know them, and then judging them to determine if we had enough similarities and common interests to deem them "worthy" of my friendship. I just choose to like them. In both of these cases I still consider that person my friend. I need to always make the decision to just love first. Maybe that's why we have the phrase "love at first sight."

To quote one of my favorite books, "I guess I don't know why I like you really... I guess I just like you because I like you." -I Like You, by Sandol Stoddard Warburg. 

Happy Valentine's Day!
Love Your Friend, 
                              Jeana 

P.S. I think the best movie love story is from "Up." I can't watch it without crying. 

Our Little Fireball is 5

Eva is our strawberry blond. And with that little bit of red comes a whole lot of fire and spiciness. She is packed with personality and energy. She is sweet one moment, but it only lasts a moment, and then she is exploding with fiery anger. She is a handful. And as of today she is officially a whole handful (5). 

A very common Eva glare. I see this look too often. 

Playing with Lucy. 

These two truly are best friends. 

Eva loving Lucy. 

Most afternoons she can be found wearing her princess dress and speaking with a French accent. 

Here she is with her preschool/church buddy. 

Today at preschool we celebrated her B-day. 

She's a beauty. You got to love her. 

Current Gulity Pleasures

I make this weekly. I don't want to admit how many times weekly. I call it brownie in a bowl. It's super easy. All the ingredients are already in your fridge or pantry. It only takes a tablespoon, a microwave safe bowl/mug and a microwave. I got the recipe from my mother-in-law, who got the recipe from her son, who got the recipe from his wife, who is the woman who has all the most delicious recipes.

The recipe:
4 T flour
3 T sugar
1 T cocoa
3 T milk
3 T oil
3 T chocolate chips
vanilla

Spoon all the ingredients into the bowl/mug. Mix them up. Add chocolate chips once the other ingredients are well mixed. Microwave for 2-3 minutes. ENJOY!

It's easy, it's not messy, it's warm and chocolaty and it's yours and you don't have to share

I usually make it late at night while watching my other guilty pleasure Studio C. Have you seen it? You should. It's funny. It's a comedy sketch show on BYU TV. We watch it online. 

This clip is especially great. 

ENJOY!

I Heart the Moon

The girls love Lucy

 Last week I took my girls once again to Half Moon Bay and the tide pools at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. Before going to the beach we stopped in town to take some photos. I saw these cute signs my last time at Half Moon Bay and knew they would make for some great shots.

 While I was taking this picture an older gentelman with a charming accent approached me to tell me he painted the signs and he did it for the children. What a nice man. I am sure glad he made these charming signs and displayed them for all to see and enjoy. It reminded me of the value of art and beautiful things. They bring so much joy to life.

Mally drawing "Mally" in the sand.

 Speaking of joy... I find so much joy at the beach. We met some friends at the tide pools. I planned this trip to be at the tide pools during low tide. It was ingredible. The tide was so low that the rocks and tide pools went out a long way. We saw crabs, fish, shells, and sea lions. Too bad I didn't take any pictures of them and too bad that the rain called our outing short. The kids didn't seem to mind the rain, but eventually we were too wet and cold. So, home we went. We spent the rest of the afternoon wearing cozy clothes, watching movies, drinking hot cocoa and trying to get warm again.

It was a good day.

Why I love this place

I love living here because on a lazy afternoon you can jump in the car and within 30 minutes be at beach. It's awesome. We went to Half Moon Bay and spend a sunny afternoon in warm 60 degree weather. Our sweaters and sweatshirts were not needed. Loved it. 

I gave the camera to Mally. This is me and Lucy from her perspective. 

Cute sleeping Lucy. 

The Holiday Rush

December was PACKED with visitors, parties, family, friends, trips, and travel. Here are a bunch of pictures from the month. 

At the first of the month uncle Marshall came to visit. 

Brothers playing Starcraft together. 

Eva posing outside of DreamWorks before the Family Christmas Party. 

Eva didn't dare get close to Santa, but Stephen and his co-workers gladly posed with St. Nick.

Sunday evening visiting the lights at the Oakland Temple.

We traveled to Sacramento for cousin Rachel's wedding. The kissing newlyweds.

Love was in the air. Us kissing Lucy. 

Eva and Rachel giving thumbs up to marriage.

The eating newlyweds.

Lucy with her newest cousin Conver.

Spending the day with cousin Lanelle visting for the wedding.

Aunt Sarah gladly holding Lucy.

Surfing Santa. 

Lucy trying to look like Santa.   

Taking Grandma Ward on a boat ride around the SF Bay.  

Mally on the Bay. 

Taking Grandma to Pier 39.

Lucy with Grandpa Nat. 

Dreaming of sugar plums. 

Girls playing Silent Night on the hand bells. 

The "Holy Family." 

The Christmas morning lineup. 

Girls with the gifts they gave each other. Eva made a joke book for Mally and Mally made a coloring book for Eva. 

My favorite Christmas gift, Boom Wackers, from the Suggs.  The musical instrument you play by hitting each other. 

We escaped for a night to stay in the Castle Creek Inn. 

The girls crashing in the car 

Seeing the lights at Temple Square with all the Lewis family. 

The Scotts at Temple Square.

With Grandma Mitchell. 

Mally's work of art. 

The girls with their favorite older cousin, Aubriaunna. 

The girls with Logan and Lizzy. 

And that's a wrap.

The Guardians Rise Again

One of the perks of Stephen's job is we get to see free screenings of DreamWorks movies before they open to the public. We went last weekend to see their newest film, Rise of the Guardians. Unfortunately, the power was out in the theater and about a 1/3 of the city. Apparently two hawks were fighting and crashed into a transformer and caused a widespread blackout. You can read about it here. Dumb birds.

So, this weekend we got to go again to the theater, but this time actually see the show.

My review of Rise of the Guardians:
It's magical, delightful and charming. It's definitely a great family holiday movie. It has a great message about belief and hope overpowering fear.

We got to see it in 3D and the first 30 seconds were so visually beautiful that I caught myself saying out loud, "so cool." Except for laughing I usually don't audibly make comments while watching a movie in a public theater. But, the show was too cool not to comment. My girls loved the show and even my baby was mesmerized.