Winter Wonderland

The Spirit of Christmas at the Holbrook Home

We searched all over Russia for the perfect santa and finally found one! Welcome to Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Danny bought me the photoshop sweet! YAY!!!! I love it!
This shot reminded me of the inside of a seashell and my favorite shell is abalone so I tried to make the photo look like an abalone shell. Thanks Danny!!!!

SKIING!!!!!

I LOVE my new skiis!!! 

 It was so crazy skiing down the mountain with the camera and lenses!

 Yep, that's my husband doing a back flip!!!

Dance!

As you can imagine, we had FUN shooting this one!

A note for when I'm a mom

A note for later in life: I was reading an article for my religion in the home class that talked about parent vs. child-centered religious conversation. Parents is fulfilling the parents needs or desires (like them telling their child to get out of bed and come to church) but they fail to explain the why behind coming to church; or they simply lecture to their child. This study found that child-centered religious conversation where the child initiates or continues the conversation is much more productive.
One other thought: religion puts you and your children (and spouse) on the same plane working toward similar values. Studies show that religion helps resolve marital conflict!

Two photographers I love

Randal Ford and Steve McCurry

The Dream of Eden

My watercolor teacher sent us to find our favorite titles at the Museum of Art and we narrowed them down in a fun way until I chose "The Dream of Eden." This first one resembles the ideas overall: Eden as a dreamer, reaching for her dreams but what dreams?

This picture represents the beauty of Eden---especially her beauty before this life.That's why I chose to do so many of these in watercolors because watercolors are transparent and more dreamlike; they show every brush stroke and cover up nothing. They are etherial. Red is her favorite color :)

The dream of Eden is to go to Australia! This "window" on her dream is in the shape of Australia. The books represent the knowledge she'll gain before traveling; the suitcases represent what she'll have to pack (including her favorite hat); the clock is the time---when will she go?; and the pictures are the memories she'll make while she's there. 

This painting is a modern piece that symbolizes Eden and her husband being united as one because that is one of Eden's greatest dreams. 

Finally, this tree is similar to one that was in the beach cottage where Daniel and I went for our honeymoon. This represents marriage and now connecting with eternity in the middle of the tree. Also, this is the tree that represents Eden's eternal posterity. Purple is her royalty and the pink behind was her sense of design because it's laid out in really cool ways. The funny looking character is a Russian "D" that's the signature of "Danny and Dani" :)

Treasure from Russia

Daniel and I were trying to find what we'd like for our souvenir; we found two paintings that we loved best and though they were at different shops we were surprised to find that they were done by the same artist! This birch painting has amazing detail and beautiful colors. What great memories of Russia!

More pictures from the break

A Tribute to Danny

7 Reasons I love Danny this week
1) He calls me "Lyssa pants" (what better nickname could you ask for?) and puts lyss in everything. "Merry Lyss-mas," "kissy face" ("Cuz I want to kiss your face!"), and most recently at carollama "Lyss-truction" (long for Lyss and destruction).
2) Each day he sets up our space heater so it blows right on me, grabs me a sweater and my new fuzzy pink slippers he bought for me.
3) When I'm cramping I come home from work, he gave me an amazing blessing---dressed in a suit! and got me kleenex and ibuprofen to ease the pain; then cuddled with me for a moment before running off to work to provide for me.
4) He came to my doctor's appointments with me and had sympathy when they did 12 tests on me.
5) Thursday he helped me with long philosophical papers until midnight. Kierkegaard is the hardest class I've taken at BYU and Danny helps me understand the difficult writing and express my ideas clearly.
6) He emptied and loaded the dishes MANY times this week
7) My favorite: he gets really excited WITH ME about my crazy ideas of what business I'll start next year.

Trip home from home :)

Veedawoo. When I was little we'd come here and pretend to be squirrels like Miss Susie (a squirrel) who protected her tree house home from the mean soldiers. We'd collect pine cones, bring our school up there and eat picnic lunches, and play "smurf."

 There are so many really cool rocks that just look like they'd fall off and crush you! We also loved finding the holes in the rocks where Native Americans would grind their food.

 BEAUTIFUL SNOW!!!

 Danny and I got stuck in the snow but luckily he used his big muscles to free our car.

 In the middle of nowhere Wyoming there are shimmery lights. But it's not a big city, it's a town called Sinclair (maybe you've bought Sinclair gasoline). Danny and I stopped to take a look :)

I think part of the town law was that you could ONLY drive a pick-up truck. 

This one was Danny's favorite -- he found orange smoke! (This is totally unaltered)

Thanksgiving

WE LOVE TO SING!

Savannah is becoming a beautiful pianist

Danny is so so sweet to me!

 Dillon works with such concentration

McKay makes us laugh!

Movies!!!

Ok, we're goof-balls

Merry Christmas Gilly!

Let the decorations begin!