Lee Family Life

Balance is key. I stopped blogging over a year ago because I felt I spent too much time documenting and not enough time enjoying. But, in the past year I have felt I removed myself from making each experience memorable.....it felt like I stopped cherishing and in a sense 'framing' the moment as much. I missed having a whole year of my family documented! Yet, I don't want to get sucked in, in front of a computer or behind a camera ALL. THE. TIME.

Since my dear husband and I share the same birthday, we have a favorite tradition of having a homemade middle eastern meal every year for our family birthday dinner. Everyone chips in and it turns out to be one FABULOUS, finger-licking amazing meal of samboosas, hummus, tabouleh, falafel, pitas, rice....and, of course, baklava! Annie added in some essential chocolate with her rasberry cheesecake pie. Oh, it was worth it to turn 28 (and 31) just for this. :)

Dear Pioneers,

Thank you, thank you, thank you for having the conviction, the determination, the vision and the faith to persevere, to sacrifice and embrace a life in the deserts of Utah so that the gospel of Jesus Christ might live and fill the earth. We love living here and know it is only by your courage and charity that we have such a gift.

We will be singing your praises today and for eternities to come!

Our love,

the Lee's

I love being with my extended family. Particularly on my mom's side, these are people that I look forward to spending eternity with (not everyone can say that). My grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins are some of the best people I have ever known. They are kind, generous and sincere....they know how to laugh and I love my time with them!

We recently got together for my cousin's (amazing) missionary farewell as well as a double birthday celebration for the two twins - my grandma and her sister. Good times were had! I hope none of them mind me sharing their pics with the few people that actually look at this blog. :)

I found this video and forgot to post it. In May, my dear husband left for a business trip to Atlanta. Within the week he was gone, kiddo #1 graduated from preschool, started t-ball, learned how to tie his shoes by himselfand learned to ride his bike without training wheels. It was an eventful week and I was in big trouble when said husband returned from his trip to find his 5 year old all grown up!

Our little J-bug was a rock star on the bike.....I went in one circle around the driveway holding onto the back of the bike and then he just took off. No help needed after that!

This kid was BORN TO RIDE. :)

{This vid was taken from my phone, so the quality is poor - sorry!}

On July 10th, my AWESOME sisters and I raced in the Adventure Race for Africa where we canoed (1 mile), biked (12 miles) and ran (3 miles) side-by-side as a team to send money to children in Africa through some great local charities. In Auntie Annie's words, "It was a HOOT!". :) Yes, yes it was. Since we knew our chances of winning based on speed were slim, we decided to use our team name "Thor Girls" and create costumes to race in in hopes that we would win in that category. We stayed up 'til all hours knitting our fabulous handbands, wings, belts and arm bands. A and A took care of our matchy tanks and even ironed on "Thor Girls" to the back so we were totally official.

And was it worth it?....Of course! We all won for best costume and got ourselves some seriously cool hand-carved African salad 'tongs'. Plus, we helped out the kids in Africa....what wouldn't be worth it for that???
Thanks ladies for a fantastically super good time.