Life is so precious

On Friday morning my family woke to some tragic news.

My cousin lost her husband yesterday morning. Leaving behind his wife and two children.

As I sat in horror that morning as I discovered such tragic and life changing news the only thing I kept repeating to myself and to my Mom who had just got the call was: "No, no he can not have died" I laid in be for a while letting that reality hit me.

Those of you who know me and my family know my mom. My mother lost her parents when she was only 4 years old. Both her parents died in a plane crash. My mom is the strongest person I have ever met. She gives me strength every day. But from her experience, I know that my cousin and her children can make it.

I am sad to think this happened, sad and horrified and incapable to imagine what pain my cousin must be feeling at this moment.

As I mourn with her and my family, if you could keep her in your prayers our family would be ever grateful.

The only thing I can think of that makes this situation at all bearable is to know that my cousin and her beautiful little family have all been sealed together, for all eternity. I am so grateful for Heavenly Fathers loving plan for all of his children. How precious to know that death is not the end, and that we will see those loved ones we lost again someday.

My mother held onto this truth her whole life, she knows she will meet her parents again someday, because she was sealed to them too. And myself? Well I look forward to the day I can meet them too, the day I can finally thank them for bringing my amazing and incredible mother into this world.

Life has its challenges, I am just grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful I am sealed to my husband for time and all eternity. I know that this life is such and incredible gift. I was reminded of that yesterday.

So hold your loved ones a little closer. Never leave with out saying I love you. You never know when you will speak your last words to the ones you love. This life is so short; yet beautiful and incredible.

To my cousin I pray God will be with you in your time of need. I pray his angels will surround you and lift you up because while you know this everlasting truth, it does not change the fact that you will mourn him, and miss him, and I am so sorry for this pain, so ever sorry for your incredible loss, for it is indeed so great.

-Kayla

A bit of my Fall/Halloween decor

Just a little peek of what I have going on this year.

This branch on top of our wall unit let me just say it was worth the totally embarrassing moment I had when I pulled it from a tree and ran through the apartment complex with everyone looking at me like a crazy person.(not something I intent to repeat)


We are broke collage students like normal so I made a BFF out of the dollar store yet again this year. Have I told yall how much I heart that store?



well I do I love it.



That is where I found these three lovely birds. IN LOVE.












This is the enlarger my grandfather and I fixed up this summer for my darkroom I plan on having soon! also a vintage camera from world war 2. Kodak awesome.

And that is just a peek cause my house is kinda not so clean at this moment. We watched movies tonight and when that happens... well there are pillows everywhere and blankets and well I did not feel like picking up after my lazy Sunday... so shoot me. (don't).

9-11-01 I remember

 

 

I can not belive it has been 11 years. I remember waking up to my mom on the phone and the T.V. really loud. A man was talking and I was watching as a tower burned somewhere and I had no idea where. Was it close? Was it in the United States? I listened and all my questions were answered. It was in NYC and it was the twin towers where thousands of people worked. Where thousands of Americans died. I remember watching as they Live saw the second plan crash into the second tower and it was as if the world stopped for that moment. I stood in horror. It was not an accident, it was an attack.

School was bacially canceled although we all went. Each class in my Middle school was spent watching T.V. all period in horror of what happened. Why we were attacked and where else they were targeting. I remember drawing outside on the black top watching planes flying, afraid wondering what was really going on. Being so close to California's Capitol we were on alert thinking we would be a target.

I remember watching for months afterwards the cleanup crews finding people in the rubble, and how many people they found, but were dead.gone.

September 11 2001 was probably the most scariest day of my life. I saw what horror is, what true hatred brings. I am so proud of the stars and stripes. So proud to be an American, so proud of all who gave their lives to protect me. To those people who died that day 11 years ago; you are heros.

 us Americans-- I, will never forget.

Flower Crafty Birthday gift-$7.00

So I am not going to lie. This gift was brought to you by the dollar store. Its like one of my Favorite places of ALL time.

I bought these clips above (bare without flowers) I bought some cloth flowers, had some buttons laying around and used my hot glue gun to stick them in place.




Uh, this dress was also from the dollar store. Just an example of what you can do with little money. I sew on the flowers and then hot glued gunned the buttons.



Same applies here, but instead no buttons.




and they had a pack of these awesome hair clips. I took two lunch paper bags folded them and clipped the clips in place like so.

and there you have it my seven dollar gift. When in doubt go to the dollar store. It saves lives people.

Behind the scenes-Easy DIY Vase

So this weekend was my nieces 1st birthday party.We had a lot of work to do to pull this party off... 

baking, cooking, drawing, cutting, gluing, taping, anything and everything.

 This is my behind the scenes look at this post.

It looks awesome and wonderful (all done) but a ton of work and Pinterest inspiration went into the making of this cute party. I am going to share this cute vase idea my sister used LOVED it so simple and cute and EASY.

All you need is:

a clear round vase

some fun paper

and scissors

directions:

cut paper right height 

roll

place inside vase

 

and there you have it! The cutest/easiest vase you ever did see!

perfect for this birthday party!

um that totaly rymed and I did NOT plan that. Awesome.

Happy Monday!

Happy Birthday

My baby Niece turned 1 yesterday. And I thought about that for a while; One year of life.

 

That is a big deal. One year living and so many more to come. Who will she become? What will she do?




What kinds of things will she like?




What things is she going to be good at, what talents will she have?




Will she be a painter? A ballerina? A singer? A doctor? What will she do?




































That is the reason why we celebrate. We celebrate because one year of life is a big deal, we celebrate for the girl, women she will be someday. And that person she will become right now? Well those possibilities are endless, like the grains of sand on the sea she can be anything, do anything.

One year of life, Brooklyn Christine Krebs. I love who you are now and look forward to meeting the women you will be someday. I can now see what its like to watch someone grow, I remember waiting in the hospital till 3am waiting for this little girl to come you can see that post here

I remember taking her pictures here and holding her as a bran new baby right from heaven.

So, when Kristin asked me to take some pics for her 1st Birthday I was excited to yet again document a special moment for this little girl.

Happy Birthday Brooklyn I love you so much, thank you for being apart of our family.

Cooking with Grandma/ eating snow cones... RANDOM OLD pics... from July (sar!)

I love this Women. My Grandma. Who I was named after...



She is so talented and incredible/amazing! She is so sweet and loving and I loved spending time with her this summer.

I found out an interesting fact while cooking with her...




and for those of you who know my grandmother know SHE IS AN AMAZING COOK



She told me she taught herself everything. She said when she got married she had to teach herself because she spent most of her time outside with her daddy


and I felt a little hope from that, because those of you who know me, know that I do not really cook. It does not mean I am bad, but it scares me cause I do not REALLY know what I am doing.



but if my grandmother can do it-so can I! :)





on another note, we also had an awesome time hanging out with my G-ma and Pa they are AWESOME and so COOL> deff. the best peps ev.





I was thinking about them today and realized there are some pics I never added on my post from back then...

So in a nutshell:

Cooking is awesome
Even if you have no idea now what you are doing you could teach yourself and ROCK
Icee's are incredible
I love my grandparents!

Catch that?
lol

up next I PROMISE! I will let you tour my place! sheesh I have been asked a lot!
I am working on a couple fall projects so be prepared for that and...
my neice is turning one!

CRAZY

happy Thursday!

I once was a baby... as blond as could be...

This is me and my uncle Donald. He is my grandfathers brother, the only MacKay family I really ever met.

 mom said I used to love to have him hold me, that I would just let him hold me for hours. I guess he was one of my favorite people

This is my mothers sister my Aunt Susie. I used to love to be held by her too! She was one of my favorite aunts mom said, she did spoil me so that probably helped, but I think its fun there were certain people I loved to have hold me when I was younger, my mom said I would not just take to anyone.

 Blond haired blue eyed, chubby Kayla Ann Strawn (at the time)

 The Zoo with my sister (above) My brother (boy in the center) me in the back and my lovely momma ready to be done with the pic. isn't she so pretty?!

Um mom how awesome is it your glasses are back in style? lol

and while I was cleaning my house this week, these are a few things I found. Makes you wonder, seeing as blondes run in my family, and black hair in roberts, what will our kids look like? But that wont happen for a while so we will see! :)


Happy Sunday!