lsat prep and craft.town

burke has been busy studying with these people:

to prepare for this baby:

for some reason, he's really enjoying it. which, i'm so grateful for. burke is a very smart boy, and he's completely driven to get the best score that he's capable of. i'm thankful for his drive and discipline, but that doesn't keep me from being grumpy about it. he HAS to study hours and hours each day. he works all day long while i'm going to school and working. so, when we would usually be spending time together, he's completely devoted to LSAT instead. so, to keep myself busy (aside from homework) i've been crafting.

i got this cute monogram idea from this blog.

i can't decide if the buttons are cute or too busy. but, i love it on our little shelf. let me know what you think.

the little wire thing on the right is a sculpture of one of our mugs. it was for my 3d design class.

you can find more of my crafts on my poppy.in.love blog.

alpine loop 09' - part 2

the big one-one.

it's this studs birthday today. the big 11! happy birthday, will!

william is one of those people that you just think about and smile. he's a quality kid.

he collects coins, and has the most extensive collection i've ever seen.

he saved all of his allowance money until he could buy a nice leather wallet from the department store.

(he was 5).

"um hey, aunt sawuh," were my favorite words out of his mouth.

he's an avid reader, and is always recommending books for me.

when he was 3 or 4, he wouldn't rest until his mother mail ordered a specific pair of overalls from gap kids.

before he knew how to ride a bike, there was a certain bicycle at my mom's house that caught his fancy. i watched him stare at it until he said, "aunt sawuh, i'm going to learn how to ride that bike." even though he had never ridden one before. i was leaving for an errand, and i was planning on helping him upon my return. a half an hour later when i came back, he was riding that thing all around with that quiet and proud little face that only william could portray. no one had helped him! he had quietly taught himself.

i love his tender, determined and masterful disposition.

way to be, will!

i have the best nephews ever.

my b.f.s.t.g.f.

i've had so much to catch up on, so sorry about the overwhelming amount of posts. but, that's good, right? i love all the people that i love in my life! and, when i get to see them and do fun stuff with them, that's when i get all blog.town! ahhh, happy.

meet my b.f.s.t.g.f. (best.friend.since.third.grade.and.forever) crystal leigh havens jensen! (her twin sister, lacey anne havens carney, is my other b.f.f. but, i don't know when she was added...do you remember, lace?) any rate. crystal lives in daybreak, which is only a hop.skip.anda.jump away....but, we don't see each other NEARLY enough! it's pathetically sickening, actually. we did get together FINALLY the other day, and it was pure bliss! crystal's all cute and with.child, and she is just glowing - as pregnant women always tend to do.

daybreak is a very picturesque community. it's just perfect. like you're walking down the pretend neighborhoods in disneyland. i loved these bright yellow fall leaves up against the almost exact shade of yellow in that cute house.

crystal has the most darling doggy named grizzley, who is still growing out of his puppy phase. which is such a fun age! so, i brought my doggie.children up to have a play date. kira and frita didn't want to admit it, but they had a blast. :) there was growling, snarling, chasing, snapping, barking, yapping, and oh so much entertainment. :)

i love you sweet crystal! i wish lacey were here. (face)! let's not wait as long for our next visit, k?

ronin and his cough/laugh

awww, mer and her lil' boy. isn't she beautiful! and such a good mommy. i have the best sister-in-laws!!!

josh and his big baby boy! speaking of josh, it was his birthday! that's why we all went out to dinner! happy birthday, josh!!!

we tried out the new restaurant "communal" (from the makers of "pizzeria 7.12" which is soooo fabulous). it was wonderful. the style is so different and refreshing. best of all, it's about 3 blocks west of us. a little out of our price-range for frequent dining...but, every once in a while we can just stroll on down!

isn't it cool how they have a big ole' table for tons of guests? and it's all family-style dining. perfect.

look at this guy! he's so full of personality.

oh rex. :)

ronin is growing and changing every day!!! he is so enjoyable. he's at that point where he can almost crawl, and it frustrates him to no end that he can't. he's babbling and laughing, and making himself laugh. his cough/laugh in this video is just great. everyone likes to make me talk to him because he talks back to me so well. we'll just sit there and have a great conversation. and you know why? because i too have a baby voice. it's fine, i know i do. i've accepted it. the best perk about it is that babies and animals love it. those are the top two things on my list of joy...so, you know...good, whatev.

nephew time!

there will be many people who will tell you that they have the cutest nieces and nephews in the world. but, I am telling you..I HAVE the cutest nieces and nephews ever! in the whole entire world. i promise. I mean, you've all seen ronin lately, and he's part of the gene-pool that i've married into! cute kids are bound to come out of us. (um, someday soon...please)?

morgan loves the camera.

my cute sister with number 5. (yep, that's five little boys. any of which i would steal away with out batting an eye - upon her consent, ha).

we went to byu where clay and julie met up with some of their old professors, and even one professor that went to school with them and graduated at the same time. it was in his classroom where the boys were able to meet a player on the byu football team. he was quite impressive/large, and they were awe-struck.

while visiting with another old professor, henry and morgan decided it was time to get into a fist fight. they were very disruptive to all of the students currently learning in the widtsoe. that's when i decided it was time to take the boys back into the sunlight of day and let julie and clay finish their visit in peace.

that's when the boys decided that it was time to sprint up all 9 flights of stairs of the widtsoe building. and i raced after them..at a much slower pace. where did all of my child-like energy go to? when i got to the top, they were sitting in this order. morgan got 1st place, henry got 2nd, and will was 3rd. they're perfect.

joseph (now officially a teenager), thought it was extremely amusing that he was taller than i am now. he kept saying things like, "i just feel so sorry for your age group, aunt sara. how old are you? and you're shrinking?" in the above picture he was "melting" to show my anti-growth. too silly!

i took them to the eyring science building to do all of the hand's on displays that they have there. the boys loved it. we would have stayed longer, but morgan ran head first into the display where they create a mirage of a 5 dollar bill. he made such a huge "bang" and fell backward - everyone was looking at us and some people were coming toward us...so i gathered the children and high-tailed it outta there! morgan was fine, he thought it was pretty hilarious, actually. he's a tough kid.
they were very interested in the "tree of knowledge" (or is it wisdom? i can't remember). they wanted to play on it like a jungle gym.

i had so much fun. i wish that they lived here! well, i wish that we lived in california, actually. can't burke's family move to gridley?

sara.blog - revamp

i just did a little makeover on my blog - now named (for good this time) poppy.in.love.

i love being back in school, i'm learning so much, and i so enjoy what i'm studying. everything finally feels right. i'm still so hesitant to post the things that i make, because ...ya know...i'm not as good as all the amazing artists that inspire me. but, i'm going to be better, because it's a record of my progress. and, i'm going to just keep on improving! i hope. so, you're welcome to join me in my journey. :)

one my favorite flowers are poppies (i'm a botany minor...i can't choose just one)!!! and, my little jazz-juan sister nicknamed me poppy. it has always so appropriately fit my style in all walks of life and design. i've settled on the name "poppy.in.love" for my blog because i have burke now. i never could have progressed with out him. he inspires and motivates me constantly to be better and do more. i AM poppy in love - in love with life, in love with the beauty of the world. i see it all through rose-colored glasses now. thanks to my sweet soul mate. i don't know what my art would've have been with out my mr. austen...but, i know it will be beautiful now.

alpine loop 09'

every autumn we make our way up the alpine loop at least once. saturday was our first trip of 09'. the aspens were not quite all the way turned...maybe in a week. (we'll be returning for that). but, the red in the maples. oh the reds! absolutely stunning.

it was quite chilly up there, so...yes, the dog-children are in their coats.

oh we love it! special times in that place. such as this lil' thing.

puppy love

i wish that this little guy were mine. he was such a doll. i haven't fallen in love with a puppy like this since i got kira. i tried to buy him, but once reality settled in, i took him back and said goodbye.

sometimes i babysit little doggies for animal ark (the pet store i work for). it's so fun when i do because we get to pretend that we have puppies again. usually i only babysit 1 doggy at a time (i guess it's dog-sit), but this time it was 3!

and they were the most adorable puppies ever. they are long-hair chihuahuas. that's right, for a week we were coming home to 5 chihuahuas. :)

this apricot fellow was the tiniest of the bunch, would have made the perfect husband for frita!

well, i'm sure i'll fall in love again. but, i'm still bummed. it was fun while it lasted!

summer's last hurrah

burke's birthday was on 9.11.09, and he had about 1 week of PTO.  so, we decided to squeeze one last summer trip into the season!  we went down to st. george, stayed in burke's family's condo, and camped/hiked/explored at zion's national park. 

on our way down to st. george, we stopped by cove fort.  it was built by ira hinckley - president hinckley's grandfather.  it's a really cool little place packed with history.  if you haven't been, check it out on your next venture south.   

they've done a great job at preserving all of the rooms.  it's really darling.

there are about 30 missionary couples that live there and give tours and things.  they all maintain the garden out back.  they are too sweet.

i love this shot of all of their mailboxes in a row!  this would make a great painting...i might just give it a go.

the sunset was amazing.  so vibrant!

the next day we just kind of lounged around the pool at the condo.  look at my little sunbather!  ha.  all covered up wearin' his zinc oxide and my batman hat like an old man.  (he was still suffering from his burn received at the soldier hollow classic).

that afternoon, we traveled to zion.  there were some dark and ominous clouds overhead, and we were scared that we would have to camp in the rain.  but, then the rainbows appeared just as we were approaching the park! 

we ate at our favorite restaurant in springdale - the whiptail grill.  soooooo yum-town!

we camped by the east rim of zion's that night.  we were awaken at about 3am by these little monsters!  our fault though - we left one of our food bags right in front of the tent!  they were so funny, chomping away on our chips.  we didn't want to get sprayed, but we tried flashing them with lights and yelling at them anyways...nothing worked.  they completely ignored us, little stinkers.  once they had full bellies, they trotted away leaving us with quite the mess to pick up.

the next morning, we drove through the east rim and stopped when we saw these guys!  lovely bighorn sheep.  they were just basking away in the morning sun. 

they inspired burke to take a birthday run up the mountain. 

cute lil' birfday boy.

once in the park, we decided to hike through a bit of the narrows.

go crocs!  :)  i had to tie shoelaces around mine so that they wouldn't slip off.  but, other than that, they served us quite well!

it was really gorgeous.  burke was in his element!  he loved it.

he kept trying to get in the deepest parts of the water, just because.  

because it was his birthday, and being the good wife that i am, i would hold his things while he explored the waters.  i do not enjoy freezing temperatures.  in fact, anything under 80 degrees numbs me.  i am such a whimp!  but, cute mr. austen loved it!  so, it was worth it to me.  he probably would have stayed forever if i didn't make him leave after a few hours.  

burke accidently unpacked my hiking shorts, and i was NOT about to tromp around in waist deep water with my long jeans on...so, we cut them off.  :)  

i'm standing by this tree because it was so cute!  it had a wild grape vine wrapping around it creating that darling canopy.  i wish i could have taken it home with us.

this is my favorite.  burke is so happy!  he doesn't even care that he looks all scary and ghostly from his zinc oxide coverage.  i love him.

gorgeous!  it was the perfect day.  :) 

that night we got a little bit cleaned up and ate at the spotted dog restaurant.  we were less than impressed, sadly.  but, it was a good bday, nonetheless!  

(my camera ran out of batteries earlier that day, so we were using the camera phone). 

happy birthday baby!!!

i love you!  thank you for being my darling husband.  i adore you!

2 trips to in n' out while in st. george.  thank you!  they are perfect. beautiful.   i don't know how i've lived with out them in utah.  i am just so grateful that they are finally coming to orem!  that will definitely make this winter more bearable.

(pictured above is a sara special - grilled cheese sandwich, animal style, no pickles and fries, no salt.  the best)!

burke's parents watched our doggie-children while we were away.  (thanks guys!)  we missed them so much!  the night we came back, this is how burke and kira fell asleep.  i seriously don't understand how he dozes off like this!  he has to be at least slightly narcaleptic, i swear.  

now it's back to reality!  cold weather, school, and work. blah.