Teaching Ellie

I was showing Ellie some youtube videos of a friend of mine from high school.

Maybe you've heard of her.....

Lindsey Stirling

Okay so I never actually "hung out" with her, but we were in orchestra together, I desperately wanted to be concert mistress like her, we also had a few seminary classes together.

=)

Anyway Lindsey has made quite a name for herself!

I showed Ellie some of Lindsey's covers.

Have you seen my ultimate favorite?

Radioactive

How about this one?

Crystallize

Ellie wants to do something similar to Crystallize....in her words, 

"play outside and dance, pause and build a snowman, then play violin again!"

 Lindsey's most recent video is a collaboration with John Legend!
It's totally awesome!

All of Me

Ellie kept asking or saying, "Can I do that?", "Can I play outside today?", "I want to do that!"

Can't wait to see what Ellie comes up with herself!

29/31 Things: Lessons of Life

{To know what I am talking about, and to see past 31 Things posts, start here...}

29. Things you've learned that school won't teach you.

**********

I've learned that God loves me, I am His daughter and He knows all of my trials, sorrows, pains, and aches.
I've learned that God knows more about me than I currently know about myself, and He will only give me challenges that He knows I can handle. 
I've learned that when both parties in a marriage want it to improve and want the love to grow, it can!
I've learned that no matter how often I get my blood drawn I'm still a wimp.
I've learned to trust myself and not worry about others thoughts towards my life, appearance, and decisions. Only I know why things in my life are the way they are. =)
I've learned to trust in God's timing, while doing my best to allow/help His timing in my life.
I've learned a lot more....but I'd rather not overwhelm you!
=)

Happy New Year!

I think that 2013 is going to be amazing and full of so many good things!

I am just filled with excitement and hope for this year!

My sister will graduate from High School

We will each turn a year older

We are in our 5th year of marriage

We are seeking out the best way to grow our family and beginning to at on them.

We are starting to look for possible summer internships for Mr. Dawson

We are getting Mr. Dawson ready to officially enter the PHD program this fall.

There are other family resolutions/goals that we are working on, but I think that the biggest one is to make sure that our desires are aligned with our Heavenly Father's desires for us.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Sunrise!

I unfortunately do not have a picture of this morning's sunrise

But I wanted to let you all know that I saw my first Kansas Sunrise this morning!

=)

I know!

It's been 4 months since we moved here!

We are really blessed with a little girl who sleeps in

AND

A class schedule that allows us to relax in the mornings too!

Unfortunately Mr. Dawson had a final this morning at 7:30

ugh

But all three of us made it out the door to get him there a few seconds before the professor!

I even made him donuts for breakfast!

I think it's been a successful day already!!

Grad School Decision

We will be attending Kansas University in the fall!!!

Spolied

We have heard back from grad schools

NO DECISIONS ON OUR PART YET

Don't worry

We will tell you once we've decided.

But here's the thing.

Justin mentioned figuring out where the nearest temple would be from the schools we got accepted to

and then using that info as maybe a helper in our decision process.

OH. MY. GOSH.

Since I've been temple age and worthy,

the farthest I have ever had to travel to attend the temple was 2 hours

(Colorado Springs to Denver)

That was also my first experience!

Since then I have had to travel no more than 15-20 minutes

I know.

Spoiled.

So you can imagine my surprise when I found out that for one of the schools 

the closest distance one temple is, is:

3 hrs and 30 minutes.

I am not even sure if that would be our regions specific temple to attend...it's just the closest one!

The next distance after that, for the same school:

4 hrs and 30 minutes!

And it just gets farther...

Like I said, spoiled.

There were two others where the shortest distance was:

1 hr or 1 hr 30 minutes

(depending on the school)

Then the other two were 10 minutes and NM's 15-20 minutes.

I know, I know.

I too have heard those stories of people saving for years to travel for days to attend the temple.

I have been very blessed and spoiled to have temples so close to everywhere I have lived.

And from now on I promise not to take it for granted.

=)

A few pictures of my February creations!

 This chain counts down the days to graduation...starting on February 2nd.

On the opposite side of the link is something to encourage Mr. Dawson to endure to the end!

=)

Such as a kiss, a foot rub, telling him what I love about him...you get the idea

This is a shirt I made for my brother!

It is a chinese translation of:

"Genuinely made in Taiwan"

I got a professor of chinese to translate it for me

Then I screen printed it on the shirt by hand!

It was surprisingly easy

just time consuming.

And there you have it!

February crafts in a nut shell!