Lotsa Lovin'

Get Ready!

2011-09-30T07:30:00.003-05:00

Today is a very big day. We are closing on a house today! It's going to need some TLC, and as we've been deciding what to do first and how to go about doing it, I thought I'd take a look at the last fixer-upper we took on. I made this little video of some of the before-and-after pictures just after we sold the last place, in 2006. It was super gross at first, so if you have a weak stomach, be forewarned. :) This house sat empty for 8 months after we finished fixing it up, so I taught my group piano lessons there (that's why there's tables and keyboards in the living room) :) I think my favorite memories of working on this house are of our crew - we couldn't have done it without Nathan, Enoch, Doug and Daryl!!!

So here's to house projects!!! May they be completed in a timely manner with only 3 more Home Depot trips than anticipated!! Wish us luck!! :)

Best Day Ever.....Family

2011-09-19T22:15:00.000-05:00

I don't know if you ever have those days where you just understand intrinsically what really matters most...like family. These last two days have been like that for me. Yesterday throughout the day I caught these glimpses of Tara as she'd be walking, or talking to someone, and she'd smile, or as she'd make some funny face - and time just seemed to stand still for just a moment and I was able to capture it and enjoy it...and yes of course I thought "she's hot". Today I asked her out for lunch. As I sat across from her, all I could think of was how lucky I am - she is amazing. I also got some good time in with Baby "A" who joined us for lunch, she sat next to me and we chit chatted as we tried different foods - Baby A decided that a pile of salt was her favorite..she was very particular about us not putting any food on top of it and corrected us when we did. Luckily she made it through more than just a pile of salt! It was so pleasant to be with them and I really soaked in the moment and went back to work on cloud 9. I came home as soon as I could from work and played soccer with J-boy - he loves to play and tonight I taught him a few new moves - he amazes me at how he learns them so quickly. The best moment though was when he laughed so hard that he fell over and couldn't get up. I love those moments with my son. His laughter is pure joy. Then we ate dinner together as a family. It was nice to be all in one spot together. On Monday nights we make an extra effort to hang out together as a family. K-lady showed off a science experiment she'd seen at school and then we ate ice cream together and played a game. The kids love to sing, so we sang some songs. It was a blast. These last two days reminded me of the things that bring me the greatest joy - my family. I believe in the family, and that if centered on the principles taught by Jesus Christ, that it can be the greatest source of strength and joy in life. It is for me - From Joseph

A few more moments from July

2011-09-01T14:59:00.000-05:00

This guy celebrated a birthday - we decided a party was in order!

Using my sister Heather's darling tags and party ideas from earlier in the month, we threw together an ice cream buffet. I should have read the instructions on the ice-cream-cone-cupcakes more carefully - they were overflowing messes. But still delish! :) I hung about 100 B&W pictures of Joseph around the house. I love pictures! Sometimes I'm really bad about taking them (ie, @ a party when there are PEOPLE around, and all I remember to photograph is the grub), but I never regret it when I do.

Heidi and her girls joined us for a little stay-cation for a few days. We mostly tried to figure out fun things to do INSIDE because it was sweltering outside. :) The BBQ pizza was a fantastic.

Heidi brought these two matching PJ's.

We spent some sweaty afternoons at the Farmers' Market - hurrah for local watermelon!

And a little crafting for a new baby - I think this little lady is my favorite Black Apple Doll yet. (the pattern is somewhere on the Martha Stewart website if you want it)

10 years

2011-08-18T21:20:00.000-05:00

10 years ago I rented my wedding dress. Somehow this picture (w/o my permission, or the permission of my photographer) ended up in a Utah Valley Bride magazine with the caption, "Can you believe it's a rental?" Classy, right? I didn't know whether to be flattered or furious. :)

We went to the temple in Salt Lake City on August 18th, and at 9:40 in the morning we were the 36th couple to be sealed together for time and all eternity. Busy day at the temple! I remember being amazed that the celestial room (the room that represents heaven) felt so peaceful even when my mind was reeling and my emotions changing every second. We sat there for a few quiet moments before we were ushered into a sealing room where we knelt at an alter and promised God we'd take care of each other forever.

Joseph was 25, I was 21. We were so clueless! I thought I was in love.

The good news is that today I know a little better. Joseph is my one and only. He makes my life sweet. He works hard so I can be a mom. And he understands when being a mom makes me [more than] a little spazzy (that's polite for insane). He is kinder, gentler, more forgiving, more patient today. Wouldn't it be nice if that were true for both of us?? :) We've had some ups and downs, and I know we'll have many more before we're done with this life. Today I look at these photographs and smile indulgently at the newlywed love we had. Today's love is so much better! Thank goodness we didn't give up in year 1 when I was psycho hormonal on birth control, or year 5 when dental school was making us both nuts, or in year 7 when I was pregnant and horrible to everyone with whom I had contact (for the 3rd time). (My sincere apologies if you are one of those people - what's my excuse now, right??). :) I'm so glad that we've learned to keep going, and to hang in there, and that it gets better - as long as we keep that promise we made at that alter 10 years ago.

Library Lovin'

2011-08-02T17:02:00.000-05:00

We had a good time this summer at our local library -- they did an around-the-world theme for the summer reading program and had weekly activities and concerts and reading times. I only brought my camera a few times, but we enjoyed exploring the world from the comfort of our local library. I love love love to read - and I love seeing my kids get excited about it, too. :)
The library kicked off the summer activities with water games in the courtyard....

I really loved their Brown Bag Concerts (bring a lunch while you watch) - it was so neat to see the town come out and enjoy it all together.

Hot and sunny, but so fun!

One week we went to the Africa explorer day - the kids made masks, and LOVED trying out all the cool stuff the guest presenter brought along. J-boy was especially sucked in by the masks and percussion instruments.

And of course, A-girl wanted in on the photo fun.

J-boy and A-girl fit really well in this one together. :)

And this one was about 2x A-girls' size. :)

While the other two rioted around playing with the 'artifacts,' K-lady dutifully made her mask. :) What a sweetie. :)

Girly A is THREE!

2011-07-28T23:12:00.000-05:00

We ended up with two little celebrations for Girly A - a little family dinner on the day itself, and then a bit of a party with friends the following week. I completely skipped out on her birthday last year because we were in the middle of our move, so the friend party was totally motivated by guilt. Yup, that's the good stuff. :)
Anyway, since I knew we'd be doing cake for the friend party, we just grabbed pink hostess cupcakes for the family affair. Quite sufficient!

We hide the presents and the birthday kid looks for them - we sing happy birthday loud when she gets close and quieter when she is far from the presents. Girly A didn't really get that part, but the big kids helped. :) But she certainly excelled at ripping the wrapping off and being tickled pink about her gifts.

And for the friend-party, we had her little play group over, plus siblings. We had a sprinkler, wading pool, and sidewalk chalk in the back, and coloring pages and play doh at the table. And all the food was served via toothpick. It takes better that way (scientific fact!). (aside: Joseph's childhood photo album is full of birthday pictures of he and Jake in their swim suits. I think Girly A's will be the same. :)

I tried making a ruffle cake, and ran out of frosting half way through the top. That's a TON of frosting on that thing!!! So I just spread it out across the top, and I think it turned out darling.

Thank you again to the internet for inspiring pretty things. :)

Make a wish!!!

What a cutie!
At three years, Girly A is talking non-stop, finally potty trained, loves to snuggle, sucks her thumb (!?) and plays with her hair constantly. She adores J-boy, and is his little copy-cat (much to her parents' chagrin at times). When she gets hurt (or is disciplined by mom or dad) she cries for K-lady. :) She NEVER naps, and likes to sleep in and stay up late. She is a darling little girl, and we all simply adore her.

Busy as...

2011-07-27T00:59:00.000-05:00

Yup. We've got bees. Joseph has been wanting bees for years, and I guess this was the year to finally do it! They are absolutely amazing! Joseph ordered 3 bee boxes and all their odds and ends, along with a smoker and a suit and a veil thing. He got them back in February or March, and eagerly awaited the arrival of his bees (Did you know you can order bees by mail? We actually found a local-er source, so we just had to go up to the city to procure ours, for which I'm sure the post office was grateful!)
In April we got about 500 little worker bees and one queen. She was kept in a little cage in the middle of the workers so they could get used to her pheromones and want to stay with her always and take care of her. It worked! (I wish that would work for me.... I could use 500 little workers...)

This is some renegade honey comb they built while Joseph's back was turned for a week or two. Those little white things on the edge are little bee eggs! (We had to murder them when we cleaned out the unwanted comb - it was kind of tragic, actually. But I was there for moral support and picture-taking, so Joseph got through it alright, and we didn't squish the queen, so all's well that ends well.)

All the closed up cells have bees that were in the final stages of development. Sad!

Mmmmm... honey!

This is a boy bee. There's a special frame that has a slightly larger framework for the bees to build up the bigger honeycomb, and the queen lays the male eggs in it, since they are larger. I'm not sure how that all works, but apparently it does, cause I watched this guy push off the top cover of his incubator cell and hatch out of his extra large honey comb, and he was BIG. It was utterly amazing. I took off my camera lens and flipped it around for a wanna-be-macro, and thoroughly freaked myself out by the size of this man-bee.

There he is learning how to use his legs on the big-fat-man-bee-honeycomb-frame. But his life was cut short. In the beehive, the boy bees are just loafers. No bringing home the bacon - no, they just eat the honey the ladies are working hard to make. So they've got to go. Joseph flicked him off and stomped on him (I kind of gasped - I mean, I'd watched his miraculous birth just moments before!) Then Joseph wrapped up the whole frame in a trash back and stuck it in the freezer to kill them all off. Right next to the apple juice concentrate. Makes me shudder, but, hey, it's for a good cause. (cause: honey and a happy husband)

Right now we have 2 bee boxes full of bee eggs and honey and the queen and stuff, and another box on top that's full of honey. There's a little wire frame separating the top box from the bottom two - it's big enough for the workers to get up and make the honey, but too small for the queen to get through and lay eggs. That top box ss HEAVY, so there must be lots of honey. The bees need the two bottom boxes to survive through the winter, but we get the top one. I'll let you know how the harvesting goes. I imagine it will be messy. :)

This poor blog has been so neglected, and I have so much to post, but I'm overwhelmed by how far behind I am. So we'll see what happens. I'm entirely noncommittal about any future regularity of posting, but I will try to update. I still have stuff from April. Ugh. But I have learned that if I don't put it on the blog, I'll most likely forget it within a year, so I guess I'd better blog it! Some sort of incomplete record is better than none at all! Wish me luck. :)

Damage Control

2011-07-18T22:30:00.000-05:00

Sweet Baby A decided to give herself a trim a few weeks ago - here she is, hiding her face in shame. Her hair was finally long enough to just tuck behind her ears (she yanks out pony tails and barrettes and headbands, so tucking behind the ears was actually a really good option.) And then she gave herself a mullet. I think this is a first for our family - I don't remember J-boy or K-lady getting fancy w/ the scissors.

I tried to clean it up a bit - curly hair can be so forgiving... But I sure missed her long pretty curls.

We needed to get Baby A a passport, and I decided it would just be easier to take the picture myself. Nope. :) Lesson learned.

Family Reunion

2011-07-07T22:33:00.000-05:00

Joseph's extended family enjoyed a reunion in this sweet little spot tucked away in a quiet valley of northern Utah. Joseph flew out to meet the kids and I after our little visit with my parents, and together we enjoyed some good times, good food, and good company.

There were games - Joseph and Jacob won the horse shoe tournament!

These two were inseparable.

A little blurry, but it was so sweet to see K-lady greet Aunt Bev - it's been WAY to long!

She was entranced by the tether ball. It's the little things, right?

Taking her little cousin for a ride.

We enjoyed a few extra days with Joseph's parents and siblings - went to Temple Square and celebrated the fourth of July together.

I took pictures for my brother-and-sister-in-law's family @ the temple. Such beautiful folks!

The kids and dads went on a hike while my sister-in-law and I made a pilgrimage to Ikea.

They found and killed a rattlesnake, skinned the thing and grilled it on the BBQ. Ew.

And watched Tangled during quiet time. :)

And watched fireworks from Uncle Jared's beautiful balcony overlooking the southwest side of the Salt Lake Valley.

wobbly camera. :)

June 2011

2011-07-01T07:09:00.000-05:00

We attended the baby blessing of our newest neice - it is always so fun to visit Jake and Jen!!

Father's Day fun

We got new patio furniture - so nice to have a comfortable place to banish the children outdoors. At least for a few weeks till it became unbearably hot! We've been diggin' the games on family night. And a little craftiness on the side - a housewarming gift for my sister.

When the weather turns good I get an itch to build something. :) This was quite gratifying - quick and easy. The hardest part was waiting for the paint to dry.

The kids and I took off to Utah a few days earlier than Joseph - the drive was beautiful. I drove through part of this stretch of the Flinthills a few months later and it was dead dead dead fried up from drought and heat. Quite the contrast.

This is at a rest stop along Bear Lake - almost to mom and dad's!!!! We had an interesting twist to add some spice to this trip. In an unfortunate act of service, Joseph inadvertently acquired an infestation of cockroaches in our swagger wagon. It was disturbing (in other words: resulted in days and days of scrubbing/vacuuming/bombing the van, more than a few episodes of weeping on my part, reaffirmed our no-food-in-the-van policy, and meant that all snacks consumed during our 20 hour drive had to be stored in sealed containers and only enjoyed OUTSIDE of the car. Hence the nice long break at Bear Lake rest stop. Might as well take pictures while I'm at it, right?

In between my boughts of cockroach freakage we had a nice visit with my parents/sister for a few days - we visited Grandpa at his work site...

...and visited Scotty at HIS worksite - he was a counselor at this boy scout camp up in the mountains for the summer. It was breathtaking. He lived in that picturesque little cabin up there. It was the first time he'd seen my kids since Christmas of 2008!

We explored the camp a bit...

And ended the night with a camp fire. I sure love this guy!

And so do my kids!

The last thing I did at 'home' was work on my music stand for a bit with dad. It's coming along nicely, if I do say so myself. :) That's the desk, all rough cut, and behind it the stand part is laying along the work surface, all clamped together and drying. Next up: shaping the edges on the desk with a file and a router, and turning the pedestal on dad's big fancy lathe. It's gonna be good.

Easter 2011

2011-06-21T13:50:00.001-05:00

I look at this picture and just smile. I love these kids! They make life good. Hard sometimes, but good.

The Saturday before Easter I was out shopping for some last minute little things, and I just couldn't resist the clearance, and J-boy needed some new church clothes anyway (justify justify justify), so we ended up with a little Easter outfit coordination. :)

I made J-boy's bow tie using the directions here - he wasn't sure what to do with it (the only bows he'd seen belong in girls hair), and asked if he had to wear it, 'cause the kids might laugh at him. But we convinced him it was cool, and he submitted - the Primary chorister complimented his bow tie, and he said, "Thanks, but it's a bow." :)

Baby A insisted on wearing clunky black Mary Janes that are a size too big for her. And she also insisted on taking her little Easter goodie basket to church. Sweet after-church snacks! Though it made it hard to get pictures of her since her mouth was FULL of chocolate for half an hour or so.

K-lady was worn out w/ the picture taking and wouldn't let me take one of just her, and only agreed to another group shot if it was silly faces. The dress has some tulle peeking out there @ the hem, and K-lady says it's horribly itchy, and hasn't worn the dress since then, so this is probably going to be the only photo I have of her in her Easter dress where you can actually see the dress. So there you have it. :) Cute dress, though, right? (curse itchy tulle)

After church we made the drive up to Grandma & Grandpa's for a family dinner and Easter Egg Hunt - these kids LOVE their cousins!

And we got to meet this sweet baby - she was only 3 days old at the time, our newest little neice (destined to look kinda like Baby A, since her Daddy is Joseph's twin, and her sister looks kinda like K-lady and her brother looks kinda like J-boy). :)

And because we didn't get to it before Easter, we dyed eggs for Family Night on Monday AFTER Easter Sunday. What do dyed eggs have to do with the Resurrection, anyway???? I was a little worried about Joseph dying his fingers - kinda gross if your dentist comes @ your mouth with green and red fingertips, right?? But he turned out okay. Baby A, on the other hand, was pink for a week. :)

Spring Break

2011-06-19T23:54:00.000-05:00

Back in March we decided to go camping. I am not a big fan of midwest camping at the height of summer - 104 degrees + 95% humidity = very unhappy momma from the Northwest! So we went in March! And we went south, hoping to catch a little more warmth than we were getting here. We landed in Devil's Den State Park where we enjoyed hikes, crawdad chasing, paddle boats, and a ginormous new tent (car camping just got way more comfy). Spring was just around the corner - there may not have been many leaves on the trees, but the grass was green, and there were no mosquitoes, no ticks, and no humidity! And there were beautiful hills and valleys and rivers and lakes. Here are a handful of pictures from our little adventure.

Baby A is such a big kid (she needs a new blog alias - "Baby" is just wishful thinking @ this point) - she tore off her shoes and socks and followed K-lady and J-boy right out into the stream. Joseph tried to get them to herd some crawdads into captivity, but it didn't quite work. :) They still loved it. This was the evening of the first day - right after we took these photos, we hopped back into the car and drove a half hour to the nearest town w/ a sports bar - we watched the last BYU March Madness game over dinner. :)

That's Joseph' pop can stove on the top left, and J-boy looking for fossils on the bottom right. :) We went to one of the park ranger classes at the visitors center on fossils. 5 minutes into the 1/2 hr. presentation, the ranger asked if any of us had any questions up to that point. J-boy raised his hand politely, and asked, "When is this going to be over?" :) Love it.

"I haven't had anything yet, so how can I have some more of nothing?" "You're killin' me, Smalls!"

Baby A was in HEAVEN when it was finally her turn on the paddle boat.

Cheese whiz & crackers, granola bars & lemonade for lunch. All the essential food groups, right? K-lady was thoroughly grossed out by the cheese whiz texture. Can't say that I blame her.

Devil's Den was built by the CCC back in the 30's - beautiful trails, cool old caves (closed down so the bats don't all die of some weird bat disease spreading across America that makes them wake up from hibernation early, then starve to death because there aren't enough bugs around to eat), amazing stone shelters & dams. In the Visitor's Center they had some of the old original CCC newsletters from the camp titled The Voice of Satan. HA! Cheeky little Depression boys, right? :)

The day we got there was beautiful - sunny, about 70 degrees or so. The next day dropped down to the 50's-60's and drizzled a bit, and that last night we had a HUGE thunderstorm - the kids slept through it alright (amazingly enough!), but Joseph and I stared at each other wide eyed for a couple hours. It cleared up enough in the morning for us to get up and make breakfast and pack up camp. The temperature kept dropping and by the time we got home, it was just cold (that's frost on the window on the way home - she was very protective of her junk food even in her sleep :). That night we slept snug in our beds while it flurried outside.

Yay for the first camping trip of the year! :)

Back in May...

2011-06-01T23:40:00.000-05:00

Yes, back in May...

I went w/ the 2nd grade classes on a field trip to the park - water balloons, many variations of tag, sidewalk chalk, bubbles and playgrounds. Good old fashioned fun, and the kids LOVED it.

This sassy little miss also had a piano recital and a piano festival. She was mildly (okay, completely) terrified at the festival, but she did wonderfully well -- she got a I+! And got to play at the Honor's Recital that afternoon, which she considered punishment rather than honor, but it's all good. :) I put off blogging about it because I wanted to upload the video, but technical difficulties abound and I'm about ready to swap out the computer anyway, so we'll just make do with photos and imagine the lovely music, 'kay?

K-lady's group lessons were taught by two teachers and a student teacher, and her 2nd grade teacher came to her recital to cheer her on - so sweet!

We enjoyed a much-too-short visit from Heather and Ryan & their beautiful kiddos - oh my goodness I love those guys!!! We stayed up WAY too late eating yummy Quinoa lettuce wraps and making s'mores and reading 'one last story' and just soaking in the good company. It kind of broke my heart all over again watching them drive away. WHY is my family so darn spread out?! As soon as we pay off the dental practice and house and student loans I'm going to buy an airplane!!!!!!!!

We went up to Omaha for an overnight stay and a visit to the Winter Quarters Temple. So beautiful, and peaceful and wonderful. Then on the way home we looped over to see my in-laws and visit a cousin who was in town and drove right past the still-under-construction Kansas City Temple! It was the first time I've seen it in person, and it quite literally took my breath away! I'm so excited to have a temple in Kansas City. It is amazing the peace and perspective and comfort that comes from attending the temple. I could always use a little more of that in my life!

The elementary school had a family cook out on what was supposed to be field day, but it got rained out and we had to eat in the cafeteria. But foot long hot dogs are fun no matter the weather, right?

And then a visit to Wichita to see Tiff and Matt and their beautiful kiddos. Tiff and I were roommates for almost 3 years in college. She's from KS and married a boy from WA and I'm from WA and married a boy from KS. Makes for good visiting every couple of years! :)

Fun was had by all (running water and horse troughs and pioneer games and rope swings @ Old Cowtown Museum)

We played on the little reconstructed railroad and in the school house - the kids actually sat for a good 10 minutes listening to the re-enactment of a graduation ceremony. It was like they were in a trance. I wish I could do that to my Sunday School kids. :) And the bowling in the alley was a big hit!

Then back to Tiff's mom's place for some time in the field of daisies. :) And a little movie to hypnotize the kids while Tiff/Matt and Joseph/I snuck away for a quick little dinner date (Tiff's wonderful mom/step dad/sister watched the kiddos for us)

We had to pry Matt away from Curious George. :)

Back at the home front Joseph persevered (in spite of a murmuring wife) and planted a garden. And made a strawberry planter that never got it's strawberry plants. But the garden did produce peppers, zucchini, several cantaloupe and a handful of tomatoes, and we enjoyed fresh basil, parsley, rosemary and peppermint from my little contribution: the herb pot. :) We grew food!!! Yay! We're excited to try a non-tilling/lasagna layering/mega-mulching sort of garden next Spring if we can get it started this Fall.

A lovely Memorial Day campout @ Jake and Jen's, complete with rides on the new lawnmower, fishing, canoe rides, and a pancake breakfast @ the park.

And we ended out the month w/ a kid-swap w/ our friends the Bill's - they took K-lady, and we got Sarah for a few days. J-boy and Sarah had a grand time together - they are such good little buddies!

And now I'm only 4 months behind. :)

J-boys Birthday

2011-05-02T23:05:00.001-05:00

Long overdue, but it must be posted all the same! I found this album of pictures in picasa, all set to blog, but somehow I got sidetracked 3 months ago, and it never happened. Can't imagine how that happened. :)
Back in February, J-boy turned 6! Here's a little J-boy through the years (because on my blog I specialize in self-indulgence)

We had cupcakes at school on the special day, then we had his party and good times the next night.

I found a picture online, printed out 18 on a piece of paper and used a circle punch to make the little flags - J-boy was so excited. I didn't really think about how dangerous it would be to give a bunch of kindergarteners little flags made our of very sharp little toothpicks. :) Live and learn, right?

Baby A got to join in the fun. J-boy was so excited to have her there - it was really darling.

The next day, Joseph helped me throw together an awesome birthday party. We made light sabers out of pvc pipe and pipe insulation and colorful duct tape, then the kids did a little Jedi training -- they shot dart guns at paper-plate-Darth Vadar targets, swung across a 'giant chasm' on a rope swing from the tree in the front yard, beat on a hokey little homemade 'Deathstar' pinata w/ their light sabers, did 'light-sabre training trying to hit a ball blindfolded (use the force!) and were generally awesome. :) I didn't take many pictures because I was running around crazy w/ a bunch of nutso padawans swinging sticks at each other. But I did make everyone pose individually w/ their pretend light sabers and took pictures to edit for the thank you cards. Here are my favorites:

He was so serious - I loved it!

Mrs. L Goes to Utah

2011-05-01T14:23:00.000-05:00

Way back half a year ago in April, I went out to Utah for a quick little siblings weekend. My little brother, Scott, had just gotten home from his mission a few weeks earlier, and it was the first time we'd all been together in about 5 years - that is WAY too long!! It was a little cost prohibitive to fly all of us out just for an extended weekend, so I ended up going alone.

We had such a grand time!!! We stayed one night down in Utah valley and got to see my aunt and her kids, including meeting my cousins baby for the first time. We ate dinner together at a yummy pizza buffet in Provo - I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Provo!

We stayed the night in a hotel - what is it about hotels that makes kids (and teenagers, apparently) super hyper??? It was fun watching them wrestle/leap/play. And I'm still adolescent enough to think that the sign in the hallway was amusing. :)

The next morning our wonderful parents watched the grandkids so we could all ski together. *Sigh* I love skiing with my family. The boys are really good skiers, but they slow down enough for us ladies and we all have a wonderful time. All 8 of us squished into the gondola - so happy!!!

The snow was pretty slushy down lower, but not bad (considering it was mid-April!) We wore ourselves out!

We tried to set up the skis as a tripod to take a group picture - the timer went off right as it started to fall - Dave rescued it just in time! :) Then a nice stranger came by and offered assistance. No clue who the dude is in the back. :)

We left the slopes a little early to make it back to Provo for a baby shower for another cousins first baby - it was so fun to see these folks - just icing on the cake, I tell ya!

The night before Mindy left I made us all take thousands of pictures (it took about that many to get the one good jumping picture). :) I love this one below of the 6 of us:

I found the same angle in my scrapbook from Christmas 1999, just after Dave got back from his mission (Scott and Kendra were so little! Curse the paper-scrapping-relentless-cropping!)

We got to do a few of our favorite things while we were there. Dad and I are slowly making headway on a music stand we designed - we got a little work done on the desk. It's one of those work-4-hours-every-6-months kinds of projects. :) It's so fun to work with him in his huge new shop. And Dave decided it was time to slap the shingles on that shop's roof, so Ryan jumped right in with him. The boys also fed their gear addiction with online window shopping, and the girls had a few rounds of riotous singing at the piano. And we took some more pictures -- my mom asked for some pictures of Scott and Kendra, and Angela and Heather and I were happy to play photo-shoot. :)

the smolder :)

I missed my kiddos, and so wished they could have been there to play with their cousins!!!! These kids are wonderful. It is amazing to me how much I love my nieces and nephews. There's something special about having that family tie to these particular kids. It was so lovely to be with my family - every time we get together I just feel life get better. I'm really looking forward to that part of forever!

Valentine's 2011

2011-02-26T02:13:00.000-06:00

Nothing wrong with being a little late -- 11 days later, I'm still feelin' the love. :)

I decided to subject my children to a photo shoot since they were home from school for 2 snow days the week before (and 2 more the next week, along w/ 2 teacher work days - they only went to school on Monday last week!). So here you have it - my Valentines:

K-lady is the such a great big sister. When Baby A burned her hand on a hot stove burner last week, she cried and cried for "K-bug." It was quite heartbreaking, but made me realize what a sweet little momma she is to Baby A. She helps me constantly with a thousand little things. She's very sensitive to the emotional state of others and works hard to maintain peace. Her dearest dream is to have her own room, and she's all for saving money so we can buy a house and she can have her own little haven where little hands cannot destroy Barbie accessories. :) She isn't really into playing with the Barbies, but she LOVES to 'remodel' the doll house - she says, "Will you come and makeover the Barbie house? It'll be like those shows on TV when they change where the furniture is and make it all beautiful and nice at the end." :) We haven't had HGTV for years, but apparently it made an impression on her! Girl after my own heart! She hates it when I listen to talk radio in the car because all the negative news freaks her out. She tries to be tough and grown up, but she's pretty tender under her little grown-up-guise. This morning I heard her telling J-boy, "You know, there's a song that says girls just wanna have fun. And it's true - girls really do just wanna have fun."

This little man has the craziest sense of fashion, and he's quite passionate about it. He is a class clown and loves to make people laugh - he's got some awesome dance moves/air guitar skills, as well as hilarious facial expressions. He has a terrible whine, but if I can slow down the situation enough to actually listen to him (if I can get him to pitch his voice 4 octaves lower so it's possible to listen to him) he's easy to calm down -- is that a middle child thing - trying to be heard and understood in the middle of the mayhem?? He loves Star Wars right now, thanks to bits of exposure from cousins and friends. The other day he looked at me with an amazed expression and said, "Mom! Our car is a toyota! TOY YODA!!" I think our van just got quite a bit cooler in his eyes. He is starting karate this week - he told me he was thinking about gymnastics (it kills him to watch K-lady jump on those trampolines and not get a turn), but he decided it was better to "learn to karate-chop the bad guys, and karate-kick them so I can get the bad guys with my karate kicks." My little defender has his priorities in line. :)

This isn't a great pictures of this monkey, but it's one of 2 that I got of her before she was done. :) She is such a fun little buddy! She is very independent (she helps herself to yogurt, movies, diaper changes.... sometimes independence is overrated....). We tried to potty train her during that 4-days-at-home stretch, but she had a minor tragedy while dressed as minnie mouse -- she decided she wanted to go by herself w/o help and w/o the little seat (since she's so independent), but the dress was a little too poufy, and she lost her balance and slipped right into the toilet and couldn't get out. So now she's a little freaked out about the toilet and I've missed my magic window. No big deal - I'm sure another one will come along (I'm such a lazy potty trainer!). She loves to twirl and sing and tromp through the snow in her boots. A few weeks ago she and J-boy were playing some sort of pretend game, and she was bossing him around -- "Hey, friend! Come on!!" And when he didn't come right away she tried the threatening-count: "One...Three...Two..." :) She's been having nap-time-bed-time issues since discovering that her monkey skills are sufficient to get her in-to-and-out-of bed. Bleh. Some nights she goes down like a dream, and others it's kicking and screaming. I still baby her a ton - she's NOT AT ALL a baby anymore (which makes me very sad), but I still carry her around and even spoon-feed her occasionally (anything to get her to EAT!).

Those pictures to the left were the real purpose of the photo-shoot -- a little internet-inspired Valentine's goodness. The kids were not excited AT ALL at the prospect of homemade Valentine's, but once we started putting tootsie pops into the pictures they decided they were cool after all. :)

Joseph bought each of his 3 girls tulips (J-boy got candy from daddy) - they were beautiful! I loved the way they caught the morning sun. And now we have some bulbs that will make next Spring beautiful, too (I hope... if I don't kill them like I kill all plants I touch). :)

It was a busy but good day - we had our traditional candlelit family dinner prepared by Joseph and I (I love cooking w/ him - I'm afraid I often think of cooking as a chore, but when we do it together it's so fun). I made the mistake of putting the fruit & chocolate fondue out with the dinner, and that was all Baby A ate. :) But we had a grand time.

Joseph wasn't around for our snow-day-photo-shoot, so I don't have a cute picture of him, but he really is the best Valentine of all. He is so good and so good to us. We have had our ups and downs, just like everyone, but sticking it out and working through (or sometimes, it seems, just enduring) the problems is so worth it. He is a wonderful husband, and a great father. I found my old box of love letters from when we were dating - gave me a nice little trip down memory lane, remembering all that twitterpation. But I love what we have now even better.

That's Baby A's first Valentine's Day up there - don't blink, right??

Warming up for J-boy's birthday

2011-02-13T17:06:00.000-06:00

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

J-boy wants a Star Wars birthday (I don't think he's ever even seen any of the movies, but that doesn't seem to dampen his enthusiasm). Anyway, this made for an amusing refresher course. :)

Boy, Oh Boy!

2011-02-10T15:17:00.000-06:00

{Thank you so much for your kindness and encouragement in the comments on the last post - it is so sweet to still be connected to all of you in some way! I've always had a hard time deciding how much to put on here -- it's easy enough to share the 'public' side of life, the picture-perfect or funny moments. But I hesitate with the more personal, more heartfelt, more vulnerable moments of life. That stuff gets messy, you know? Anyway, thanks for making me feel safe and loved in spite of my messes.}

K-lady and I spent Saturday afternoon up in the city to help w/ a baby shower for Heidi - after 3 girls she's finishing off the family w/ a boy!

We did the decorations and the sugar (my favorite parts!) Our wonderful friend Stephanie hosted the shower at her lovely home - it was so nice to see so many familiar faces from our old ward.

I made cake pops for the first time as favors - these are so yummy and dangerous.

Here's me and Heidi at the end - we've always had babies at the same time, but it's just her this go around. She's such a wonderful friend, and our husbands are great friends, and our kids are great friends. Poor little baby boy isn't going to have a counterpart in our family! But I'm sure J-boy will show him the ropes (watch out, Heidi!)

K-lady had a blast playing with Stephanie and Heidi's girls. We both left with full hearts - there are so many wonderful people to love!

To blog or not to blog....

2011-01-12T12:25:00.000-06:00

This is mostly just stream of consciousness with very little pictures. (in other words, feel free to go ahead and skip it; as my sister says, I won't judge.) :)
So the last 6 months or so I've been wondering about this blog - I try to be careful about too much detail and information about my family (Joseph's brother thinks I'm nuts to even put my kids faces on an unsecured internet site). So I didn't blog much about how Joseph was traveling a lot last Spring looking for a job. And I didn't blog about all the turmoil that went along with looking for that job. Dentists tend to get a job and stay put, you know? And we've never stayed put in all our married lives - and to be quite honest, the thought terrified me. :) Especially as it turned out - we didn't get our first, our second, or even our third pick for location. What we ended up with was a place that wasn't even on the list at all. But we prayed and prayed and made lists of pros and cons and hashed it all out till we were blue in the face (figuratively) and decided that this out-of-the-way little town was really the best choice. Along the way I learned beyond a doubt what a real NO felt like (that was dental practice serious option number 1), and then Joseph learned what a NO felt like (that was dental practice serious option number 2). Time was running our, options were dwindling, and I kept waiting for the NO on this place, but it didn't come.
But it was pretty hard for me. At first I was just too sad to blog -- generally speaking, I only blog about happy stuff. :) I know that might seem like a pretty incomplete view of life, and I'm sure it is, but I stuck the disclaimer right there on the blog header - we're remembering the good times here! I am an optimist and an editor - I write down painful lessons learned in my journal with all their maudlin details and save the blog for the cheerful, photo-opportune moments. :) And the flash on my camera was broken, and our new apartment has very little natural light, so even non-cheerful photo opps weren't happening!
Anyway, after being sad for a few months I had a little life-changing moment. I'd spent the weekend in UT, surprising my dad for his 70 birthday. We had a grand grand time - it was so lovely! Mindy was there, and we laughed more in those 3 days than I think I had in 3 months. It felt so good. I cried all the long way home (2 hr. drive to the airport in the rental car, 1 hr flight to phoenix for the connection, 3 hour layover while the plane was repaired, 2 hr. flight to final destination, 1/2 hr. drive to friends' house for the night, sleep for 5 hrs, 1 1/2 hr. drive home. That was a lot of crying!) I continued to feel extremely sorry for myself for a couple days, then was asked to teach a lesson on gratitude for a midweek activity at church. Great - most ungrateful person on the planet is going to teach gratitude, right? But I know by now that those lessons are always for ME, not for anyone I'm teaching.
That lesson gave me the shift in perspective I needed to get out of my pity party. This quote sums it all up:

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.

It turns what we have into enough, and more.

It turns denial into acceptance,

chaos to order,

confusion to clarity.

It can turn a meal into a feast,

a house into a home,

a stranger into a friend.

Gratitude makes sense of our past,

brings peace for today

and creates a vision for tomorrow.

~Melody Beattie

So I am grateful for a good job for my husband - stressful at times, to be sure, and not where I wanted it to be, and very very busy - but good. I am grateful that because of that good job, I can stay home with my kids and indulge in all kinds of introspection. :) I'm grateful that our home is small and imperfect, because it means we're saving money on rent, and hopefully someday we'll be able to put that extra money towards a house that won't be quite so small and quite to imperfect. I'm grateful that our town is little, because it means that I won't be distracted by 2 million things (only 200), and I can focus on my family. I'm grateful that I have a mother and father and siblings that I miss terribly, because that means that my home growing up was filled with love, and that love can (and does) stretch over time and space. I'm grateful for my 'job' - I've been accompanying up at the university here, and I'm enjoying it immensely. It's so nice to have to practice again, to see the progress I can make, to challenge myself. Having that extra responsibility has given me a sense of productivity I was really lacking. And I'm even grateful that we've got a new 'home town' - unwanted-at-first though it was. We feel welcomed and needed here, and it's the perfect time to build our own home, our own family, our own traditions and systems. And I think this semi-sheltered small town will be a gentle sort of place in which to make small mistakes. Which is really what we want for our family. See, Heavenly Father DOES know what He's doing. What a comfort! So, of course, I'm grateful for answered prayers - even when the answer is an uncomfortable no or an even-more-uncomfortable yes, it all works out eventually.

So at first I was too sad to blog, then I got to busy to blog, and I didn't have many cute photos anyway. :) But I rather like jabbering at my family at the other end of the internet, so I think I'll keep going afterall. At least occasionally! :)

The REAL big day!

2010-10-18T11:23:00.000-05:00

Here she is! (Whew! I was feeling like a wedding planner at this point.) We had a wonderful day celebrating K-lady's baptism. Here she is outside our church building...

Daddy baptized and confirmed her a member of the church - the picture above is right before they went into the water. We baptize by immersion to represent being washed clean of sins and being reborn as a child of God. As part of the ordinance, we make covenants with God. We promise to take care of each other and try our best to be good people. God promises to bless us with His Spirit.

This is probably much too personal and serious for a blog, but I felt so humbled and honored as I watched my daughter and husband participate in this ordinance. I felt like our family got a little closer to being together forever. It made me catch my breath. It was beautiful.

Of course best friends must be present for such a wonderful occasion! (don't they look like fire and ice?) :)

And wonderful family and friends made it extra special. I did not in a million years expect all these people to come! 2 Grandpa's, 1 Grandma, 3 Aunts, 2 Uncles, 10 cousins (I got to meet that sweet-as-sugar baby up there for the first time)!! All driving 2-3 hours to get here, and seemed quite happy about it, too (which was even more amazing to me!)

And wonderful friends-that-might-as-well-be-family, too. I still can't believe they came - wonderful ladies!

There were FOUR kids baptized that day! Quite a shock for our little congregation - the entire chapel was FULL for the meeting.

Then everyone (40 people!) came over to our little house for a ham dinner - Dad, Joseph and Doug figured out how to glaze the ham with just a little help from Heidi and the instructions. :) It was so fun - the kids just ran around and the adults chatted. It was a great way to celebrate together!

These last pictures are from my little 'photo shoot' with K-lady a week or two beforehand. We went to a lovely park here in town and caught some beautiful late afternoon light and had fun - though K-lady didn't have as much fun as I (NO MORE PICTURES, MOM!). But I just couldn't quit - I loved being able to catch these moments. My little K-lady is a wonderful person - I can't wait to see what she does with the rest of her life. She is kind and caring, and gently negotiates and maneuvers her siblings (as a big sister and mother, I can say with good authority that these are essential skills for a happy home). She is anxious to do the right thing and tries to do good. She loves to laugh, is cautious in new situations, but quickly adjusts and adapts. And lest you think she is too good to be true, she's also sassy. She hates showing affection in public, and is quite concerned that her friends might be within hearing distance when I say, "Bye! I love you!" as she gets out of the car at school in the morning, and absolutely refuses to acknowledge my expressions of affection. :) But I'll take the cold prickles along with the warm fuzzies, 'cause that's how most people are packaged, anyway.

We love you, K-lady!

Eight Years in Seven Minutes

2010-10-17T22:21:00.000-05:00

My fabulous friend Heidi introduced me to this video site - very easy - I threw this together pretty quickly for K-lady, and I love the end result. ;)

The Party

2010-10-14T20:58:00.000-05:00

We decided to party on the 18th - seemed like a good day. :) K-lady invited a few friends (I made her keep it small because I'd been feeling like my brain might explode), and we had a good time. My wonderful dad arrived the night before for the weekend's goodness, and our wonderful friends Heidi and Doug & their girls came down for the weekend. (please forgive the huge long post and overload of pictures - Heidi took pictures for me, and I love them all!) :)

K-lady wanted a rock star party, but, like I said before, I was in danger of loosing my mind if the party got too big, so we kept it relatively simple (none of that build-a-stage-and-bring-out-the-drum-set-and-karaoke-stuff). I also had a little mini-personal-crisis about getting too carried away in the fluff of a party, and not remembering the importance of this birthday (in our church children are baptized when they are old enough to be accountable - 8 years old - so it's the beginning of making covenants with God - that's pretty important to us.) In the end we decided a party would make K-lady happy, and not building a rock star stage would make me happy. :) Win-win.

Some of the girls, waiting for a few more guests to arrive.

Decorating their cardboard 'guitars' (crafty/gluey/sequiny/glittery things like this are so nice with girls. They spent FOREVER getting their guitars just. right. J-boy and his little buddy were too busy using their guitars as nunchucks to bother with much decorating) :) The girls took these home instead of goody bags.

Monkey here was quite happy blowing bubbles while the girls decorated and the boys nunchucked.

Then we headed inside for some nail polish - it was so fun having the dad's around! They helped paint the girls' nails. :)

K-lady insisted on helping every other girl paint their nails first, THEN and only then would she allow her nails to be painted. She was a sweet little hostess.

Another dose of uber-processed-foods for dinner - The dad's took care of making dinner (K-lady had requested cheese and pepperoni pizza, more dorritos, chicken nuggets and mini-sodas. I really hope these things are appealing because they are rare in our home and she's a kid. She will grow out of that, right???).

Dad helped me put up the decorations. It was so fun having him there!

It kind of looks like she's sipping that soda in a worshipful way, doesn't it?? :) (she really was in heaven to have her very own little can)

And if the food by itself wasn't enough to make your tummy ache, how about a game of twister right afterwards???

Back to the kitchen for cake and candles and wishes and presents and ice cream (yes, all at once, we were a little crunched for time there at the end).

She bestowed a huge hug on each gift giver.

And the girls rocked out a little right at the end. :)

K-Lady's big day (#1)

2010-10-13T21:41:00.000-05:00

So Ms. K turned 8 this past month - it turned into a month long celebration, so this is the first of 3 K-lady birthday posts! (aside: does that make up for poor Baby A's pathetic one-picture-second-birthday-in-the-middle-of-a-move....... guilt guilt guilt....)
Anyway, it's a friend party year, and the party was planned for a week and a half AFTER the actual day, so installment #1 contains pictures from the birthday itself.
We started off with some decorations around the house and breakfast in bed (her choice this year was pop tarts and lucky charms and orange juice - ick!). No pictures of that blessed event.
Baby A and I brought treats to school to share (she wanted cookies and a lollipop for each kid)

She was very silly and giggled the entire time the class sang her Happy Birthday. :)

After school she had gymnastics, then we did dinner (hot dogs, dorritos, and blue jello), brownies (her request, since she'd have cake at the party).

And FINALLY, when she didn't think she could take it anymore, we let her find and open her presents. :)

(sad little low quality pics snapped from video I was taking w/ my camera)

...to be continued...

How to have a lovely campout on Labor Day

2010-10-06T09:23:00.002-05:00

Pick you location carefully (state and national park campsites are likely to be overrun w/ party animals for Labor Day). We find it best to reserve our site far in advance. We also find it best to camp on private property at Jake's new home: lake view (check), shade trees (check), big fire pit (check), room to play (check), fish for catching (check), ample facilities - showers, stocked kitchen, hammocks, corn hole game, volleyball, tractor rides & slip'n'slide (check), family (check), friends (check), friends' awesome camera (check).

(that's the morning mist rising off the lake - it was magical!)

Be sure to bring your best friends along.

(We've already arranged the marriage between those two up there.)

Double trouble.

Warnings: We DON'T recommend letting mom get sick while camping (fever, headache, sore throat, loss of voice). And please avoid stomach flu aftermath by J-boys of all ages (we had to go home a day early and didn't get to see all our OP friends at church on Sunday). But it was still a great weekend! Jake and Jen were amazing hosts - we are now officially way to spoiled to enjoy KOA ever again. :)

I think we'll invite ourselves again next year.

PS - Labor Day marks our blogs 3rd year! Happy Birthday! :)

Summer @ a Glance

2010-09-07T13:18:00.001-05:00

So what do I do when I haven't blogged about anything that's happened in the last 3 months? Why, a collage parade, of course! Because I am incapable of skipping the pictures that I love, but I'm equally incapable of staying on top of blogging in the middle of bedlam. And I'm also incapable of actually remembering my past without visual proof in the form of pictures. So here's June:

Wow, wasn't that a fun month? I think you should be able to click on the collages to make them bigger. It really was a great month - trips to the park & library w/ friends, a baby shower for Heather, COSI with big machines and cousin L (see the pic of Baby A fighting J-boy for the steering wheel? I love that one), the last day of school for K-lady, Father's Day, a chance meeting w/ Heather & Ryan at music in the park (lucky!), temple visits, a day trip south to Hocking Hills (WOW!), and an quick campout in Northern Ohio to visit Kirtland (you'll see a little more of that trip next month, since we woke up in July)

July saw the end of our Kirtland camping trip including fishing and Amish country on the way home, a gorgeous 4th of July celebration that lasted all weekend, a beautiful new niece to adore, K-lady twisting her ankle and breaking our last stroller (I've given away 3 in the last 2 years, and go figure the trusty indestructible umbrella stroller just couldn't take it anymore and gave up the ghost on the way home from the 4th of July parade), my last Sunday in Primary, Joseph's birthday (we love you!), loading up a moving truck, Baby A turned TWO, we unloaded a moving truck (my parents are amazing - that they can even stand to be around us after the torture we put them through year after year is nothing short of amazing....), we hopped back in the van for another 18 hours for a family reunion with nearly 100 cousins, and finished the month in lovely Cache Valley.

And August! We had a couple extra days to spend in Utah - we ran down to Provo for a quick trip down memory lane and to catch up with some more cousins and old friends, we spent more time w/ mom, dad, Kendra, Grandma (happy birthday to you!), Dave, Angela, Bailey & Matthew, we crashed the Bill's family reunion, and when we could stall no longer we went back to our new home, woke up and took the kids to the first day of school, and started unpacking. We went to a Ranch Rodeo - that's a talented bunch of cowboys up there. Our 9 year anniversary was nearly unnoticed - I hadn't unpacked the calendar yet. :)

So I think that brings us more or less up to date! We're getting settled in our new digs - I sure miss our old beautiful neighborhood and my wonderful sister and friends in Ohio!!! And I miss my wonderful parents (with whom we spent almost a month and a half by the time we dragged ourselves out of the mountains).

But we are getting to know our new town, and Joseph LOVES his new job (it's so happy to see him enjoying it so much!). We're two hours from a bunch of friends and family, and that's perfect for a quick getaway. So life is good. If you want a more drawn out version, you can check out my picture-a-day blog (the perfectly ordinary days button in the side bar there). I'm giving myself about 2 weeks to get a little more organized here before I go completely insane. :) And hopefully I'll be on here a little more often. Happy blogging everyone! Thank you, and goodnight.

a little time to play

2010-07-11T14:50:00.000-05:00

I'm very deadline-driven - nothing like a deadline to get me to kick it in gear. So with the end of the school year fast approaching (not to mention a move), I figured it was time to tie up some loose ends!

K-lady and I made this for her teacher - the back ring says "love & grow." It was going to say "learn love grow," but the little set of metal stamps I bought was kind of lame - the A squashed flat on the first try! So we settled for a-less words. And I took the stamp set back to Harbor Freight and exchanged it for one that hasn't squashed yet. :) I followed the tutorial for this necklace from this website.

Then I slapped a few quotes together in photoshop and used up some of the misc. frames I've had kicking around (no need to move those again, right?) for some other favorite teachers.

And I needed more shelving for my stuff - this was harder than K-lady's desk - I bought cheap pine plywood that was super bowed. It would have been much easier and better to have bought something straighter and $10 more expensive. But it's done now and I learned something, and the books stay on the shelf, even if it isn't square. :) I can't get a good picture - it's wedged in the corner of the room far from natural light. But I LOVE having all my sheet music right by the piano where I can actually USE it (sigh...) These plans are also from Knock-off Wood blog.

And K-lady needed more shelving for her stuff (she really does take after me, doesn't she?). There is a set of plans for a hutch on the Knock off Wood blog that I used as my basis, but I adjusted everything to fit the desk and use scraps I already had - I only had to shell out $5 for one little 1x2 piece of trim! Yay! My dad and I are working on a little ottoman/stool to match the desk. But at the rate I'm going with this blog you won't see it till Halloween. :) (I'm sure the suspense is killing you).

J-boy

2010-06-29T16:25:00.002-05:00

May 26th was J-boy's last day of preschool -- here he is with his teacher, Ms. Raquel, and his best buddy (and best buddy's little brother in the back). Preschool was pretty good to J-boy - he always told me Ms. Raquel made them LEARN so they didn't have enough time to PLAY, but that sounded like an okay problem to me. :) They met 2 days a week from 10-12, and Ms. Raquel built her curriculum working her way through the alphabet in order. She sent home cute little crafts and projects, and J-boy liked seeing his buddies (7 little boys and 2 little girls made up the class).

After school that last day, we got Wendy's and had a picnic on the front lawn.

J-boy is such a law unto himself as far as fashion goes. I'm still trying to figure out what's going on in that little head when he whips out a little number like the one pictured above. It drives me a little crazy (fashion is not my favorite thing on which to devote time/energy, but I do have some standards....), but we finally reached a compromise - I pick out his church clothes and his school clothes. And when we're home he can wear anything he likes. He's a funny kid - he is always smiling and happy-go-lucky. He's pretty easy to please, and loves to 'snuggle' with mom and a good book. He also is addicted to computer games - mostly race car games, but motorcycles sneak in there, too. He plays really well with Baby A (about 85% of the time) - the other day I had to laugh when I heard him plotting with her to tickle me -- "Let's do it, A!" And she just goes along with him - even when it means she comes in at dinner time with ears full of dirty car oil (gross!) -- "Yeah, I accidentally stuck my oily dirty fingers in Baby A's ear. Well, both of her ears."

So thanks to J-boy, you might hear something like this when you come visit our house:
"J-boy, are those K-lady's leopard print-stripped tights??"
"Oh, you found your belt! Wait, is your belt holding on daddy's underarmor as super hero pants? Of course."
"Oh, honey, yes, he looks like a cat, but you need to ask his momma before you draw on his face."
"Can you help me write my Christmas list? I want a 'mote control car. I know it starts with a mmmmm."
"I made my stretchy keychain fit around my neck! Now I have a collar!"
"Mom, where are my boots?!?!" (really, any boot will do - snow, moon, cowboy, hiking, rain, etc.)

We just gotta love that boy! :)

HA! About that last post....

2010-06-28T09:33:00.001-05:00

That's what I get for leaving the computer mid-post to go make dinner -- Baby A finishes it for me! Once we finally had the kids down and dinner cleaned up and the house put back together, I went to turn off the computer (love the thunder storms here in the summer!!!), and it was already off! I thought that was odd. But apparently Baby A finished my journaling, went ahead and posted, and turned off the computer for me. What a sweet baby to finish my chores. (She does try to clean the toilet and mirrors, too. Maybe I've got an untapped resource here...)
Anyway, those pics are of our impromptu trip to look at practices - we got to go to church in our old ward (we love you!) and have a very quick lunch with our darling friends before we were off to look at two more practices - Joseph and I looked at 5 or 6 that weekend while the kids hung out with friends and family. It was a whirlwind trip, but turned out really good - so fun to see people we love. And it was also so nice to spend so much one-on-one time with Joseph - we actually had uninterrupted conversations and moments of comfortable silence in the car. Amazing! It was date-weekend for us (many many thanks to Joseph's parents watching our children so much!)

Trip to KC

2010-06-27T17:53:00.001-05:00

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Sheesh....

2010-06-27T17:32:00.000-05:00

And suddenly here we are in summer (which, in our family, means time to pack up the whole house again - this will be move #10 in almost 9 years of marriage). The only problem with this move is that we are still not sure where it will take us! And we're supposed to be there, wherever there is, in 24 days. Hmm.
It's been quite a roller coaster the last few months trying to make decisions, looking at as many possibilities as we possibly can, and praying more than I think I ever have in my life. I don't like to put too many details on here, but after looking at dozens of practices and two almost-did-it-till-we-realized-it-was-wrong-choices, I think we might have found a winner. We've had mixed feelings about this particular practice - it doesn't quite fit the picture we'd planned on. But I think we can fit ourselves into this slightly different picture and still have a good go of it. Right now we're waiting on approval from the bank that we can actually get a gargantuan loan (just add it to our tab?!) to purchase the practice - hopefully we'll find out within the next week or so. And if that doesn't work out, then I guess we'll just hang out on the roller coaster a little longer!
Anyway, with all of that I've been slacking on the blog. But life continues, whether you're making life altering and terrifying decisions or not. So while I procrastinate packing for the unknown move (HOW do you get motivated for that kind of thing?!), I guess I'll try to catch up on the blog!

Family Night in May at Highbanks Metro Park - bikes, picnic, swings, having our kids all to ourselves. We like that. :)

Social Skills

2010-06-07T12:52:00.003-05:00

1 - Approach the situation defensively with trepidation and suspicion. Growl a little. :)
2 - once you realize it's safe, a little game of...
3 - peek-a-boo will quickly break down the barriers.
4 - identify head, shoulders, knees, toes, eyes, ears, mouth & nose (the essentials).
5 - your new friend has passed the test - seal the deal with a hug.

A Day at COSI

2010-06-04T23:31:00.000-05:00

We couldn't let K-lady be the only one with a field trip, now could we??

When we first moved here, Heather introduced us to Cosi and bought us a family pass for the year (yay for student discounts!) - it's been a great place to play and explore.

L's "thumb's up" was pretty cute :)

These kids were so great - they are such good friends. After a lot of playing we settled in a quiet stairway for some snacks to escape the mobs of school-age kids (definitely field trip season!). When J-boy realized I was taking a picture he pulled that little pose out for me. :) Love it!

A few of my favorite people at a fun place close to home - what a great way to spend the morning!

A trip to the Farm

2010-05-18T06:35:00.001-05:00

I went with K-lady to a small private farm for a school field trip a few weeks ago - it reminded me of home in so many good ways - trails through the forest, chickens, small orchard, gardens-gardens-gardens. It seemed so odd to me that this was such a new and strange experiences for these kids to see food that grows out of the ground! And eggs that come from a chicken! And tromping through the woods was definitely new.

We had chickens like these when I was a kid - we named them Paula Abdul and Janet Jackson. :) They just seemed so trendy w/ their black and white back in the early nineties! I guess some styles are timeless.

They let the chickens roam freely through the fenced orchard - natural bug repellent. (I didn't think to ask how they keep the predators away from the chickens.) The orchard was in full bloom - I felt like I stepped right into an L.M. Montgomery book. :) A gorgeous green house overflowing with foliage, and sweet little babies - calves, kittens, kids - all over the place. That rooster was a hoot - what a poser! (or does that make him a cock? Is that too PG for this blog?)

K-lady was great - she let me take as many pictures as I wanted. :)

Am I the only one who pines (along somewhat romantic lines) for a sweet little spot of earth far away from the pavement?

Mom, will you play??

2010-05-13T10:36:00.000-05:00

J-boy got a hold of my camera the other day and wanted to tape me 'playing.' I wasn't too interested in an episode of Tara-plays-with-Batman-toys-by-herself-for-the-camera so I said, "J-boy, the only thing I play is the piano." So he was okay with that for subject matter and set himself up for a little movie-making. I hope it doesn't make you nauseous - he was 'feeling' the music, and it's not exactly smooth and sweet. :)

(I've learned about 2 pages of this piece so far - 4 to go! It's sloppy, but that's pretty much my life right now) :)

And because Baby A is cuter than me any day, you get one of her 'playing' too. :) The other day she climbed up next to me while I was playing a little Liszt (lots of flowing arpeggios) and started waving her arms around to mimic me - I think it's adorable! :)

Sunday

2010-05-11T09:15:00.000-05:00

These pics are from Sunday a few weeks ago - I just like the feeling I get when I look at them.

self portrait by J-boy

We spent the entire beautiful, warm, Spring afternoon outside - K & J tried putting on swim suits as a ploy to get us to put out the sprinkler (didn't work!). But we did make them a 'tent.' And let them eat conversation hearts left over from Valentine's Day. (blech!)

The kids were arguing about something, so Joseph made them do push-ups. :)

Joseph attempted to make chocolate truffles (I think it was fast Sunday - he always gets really ambitious in the kitchen on fast Sunday). They never quite set up.... But they were tasty! :)

love that girl....

We did Family Home Evening that night - Joseph made up games to play with rocks and sidewalk chalk for the activity.

Then the kids changed the rules - throw your rock, then jump all the way over to pick it up. Not a lot of strategy involved, but sometimes it's the simple things, right? :)

I love a long, sunny, Spring-time Sunday.

Franklin Conservatory Take Two

2010-05-08T11:15:00.004-05:00

Thanks for your kind comments!! (I tell myself I do this blog for my family history, but if we're being completely honest, the comments are pretty motivating, too!!!) And there are lots and lots of things I don't do well - the laundry, dieting, being punctual, the dishes, exercising, pregnancy, being decisive to name a few.... I just don't blog about that! ;)

Our first trip to the conservatory was a bit too much of an adventure for me (a little ugly, if you will), so I was quite pleased when this trip turned out less eventful (except for the part where our friend 20-month-old Hugh decided to take a dip in the Bonsai Garden pool...).
We met up with Joseph, the Sondrups and Heather, Ryan and L - it was fun to explore together and watch the kids' excitement over each new thing.

Handsome boys! (picture from Kristi - hope you don't mind I stole it from you!)

Sweet girls (also from Kristi)

She is such a peach - running up the stairs when I approached with the camera - she immediately turned around and said, "cheese!"

Just because

2010-05-06T10:06:00.002-05:00

I think she's cute....

side tracked....

2010-05-05T08:48:00.000-05:00

It all started with a little Spring cleaning..... I had really good intentions of making my way through the whole house, collecting mounds of things to donate, leaving me with a sparkling home, full of things that I either 'know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.' That way when I pack up in June (dah! next month! where are we going?!) it'll be easier, right?

But when I got to K and A's room, this bookshelf was buggin' me. This is the pretty picture of the bookshelf - but we were well beyond pretty. It was just a clutter collection spot - K-lady had a make-shift desk coming off the second shelf, and it was stashed FULL of half-colored pages, partially finished projects, art supplies, tea sets, CD's and junk. We keep 'cleaning' it out, but it just doesn't stay clean - it was driving me nuts.

So I listed it on Craigslist and told K-lady we'd get her a desk to replace it (hopefully one w/ less storage space for stuff we don't need!).

I looked around half-heartedly for a used desk, but finally decided I'd just make my own. I've been eyeing this blog for months now, and could no longer resist it's siren call.....

a quick trip to Home Depot while J-boy and K-lady were in school - just me and Baby A and Chip at the saw, cutting all my pieces to size for me right then and there. This is how to fit a whole sheet of plywood in a mini van. :)

My back patio was transformed into a shop! I found that this is a great way to get to know your neighbors. :)

Here she is at the end of day one - rough around the edges, but that's what power sanders are for!!!

and at the end of day three...

And finally finished, covered in the clutter that moved here from the shelf. K-lady has also requested a hutch! More shelves??!!! I guess I can't win 'em all. :)

But I do love this desk! And it feels GREAT! I told my wonderful neighbor, Matt, (who let's me borrow his tools and use his garage - SO NICE!), "I feel so powerful!" and he said, "Why do you think us guys' do it?" It took about $90 and 1 week of working on it here and there, during naps, after bedtime. I could have just gone to Pottery Barn and bought it here, but where's the fun in that?? :)

Now back to that spring cleaning (as soon as I'm done with the bookshelf waiting for stain in the basement, an ottoman for K's desk, and a hutch....)

I ♥ power tools. And Knock-Off Wood blog!

Easter, anyone??

2010-05-04T22:46:00.000-05:00

(I'm such a bulimic blogger - binge and purge, binge and purge - time to binge....)

We kept it simple with just one Easter egg hunt, hosted by our good friends the Sondrups. It was a beautiful beautiful evening, and the kids had fun - Baby A was so pumped to find CANDY in her eggs!

The Easter Bunny commissioned me to make the kids bike baskets for Easter this year --I found a tutorial on a blog (imagine that!) here. It was pretty easy to follow, but I'd beef it up a little more if I were to make them again - J-boy's been pretty hard on his, and K-ladies isn't quite as crisp looking as it was at first.... :) But I love a good project, and I love a good deadline, and this gave me both so I was quite happy. :)

We didn't do Easter dresses or Easter pictures or any of that. We did enjoy a fun crepe breakfast with Heather and Ryan and L, then zipped off to the church for the morning session of General Conference, which starts at noon here (the bishop asked our ward to attend at least one session in the church, so we picked Sunday AM - I remember next to NOTHING of that session - too much fun chasing Baby A around and trying to hush J-boy and K-lady. But by golly we were obedient!). Then we came home, enjoyed lunchish/dinner with our friends the Nielsons and watched/dozed to the afternoon session of conference in the comfort of the living room with an internet connection. (Does anyone else ALWAYS fall asleep during the Sunday afternoon session of conference???? In Joseph's defense, he was a little sick. No excuses for me....)
In any case, it was a lovely Easter!

April Fool's

2010-04-17T12:26:00.002-05:00

My plans for April Fools' day got hijacked by a trip to the Emergency Department (ugh, no offense to you wonderful ED docs, but I really don't like visiting you at work).

J-boy slipped climbing up a ladder at the playground - it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't too fun, either. We'd ridden our bikes over and met up with Heather and then Ryan stopped off on his way home from school. J-boy hit his chin, Ryan (med-student-super-hero) checked him out and drove us home while Heather rode my bike w/ her baby and K-lady back to our house. I was SO GLAD they were there! I wasn't excited about J-boy riding his bike with his chin dripping blood all the way home. :) And though my little stock of bandaids and neosporin came in handy, it wasn't quite enough!

Joseph was still at work, and (bless them!) Heather and Ryan stayed with the girls so I could take J-boy to what I thought was our urgent care clinic. Nope! Scary part of town and scary psycho clinic (literally and descriptively - psychiatric care). After chatting with a phone-nurse via cell for a while I ended up just taking him to Children's Hospital where the urgent clinic said, "Sorry we don't do stitches! To the ED for you!" Which roughly translates to "This may take a while."

(nice nostril shot, no?)

J-boy did great the whole time we were waiting. But as soon as the doc came in to start with the sutures he freaked out. Poor boy was so worn out by then (he fell around 5:00, and finally got stitched up around 9:00), and though I'm pretty sure the local anesthetic stuff worked it couldn't numb his imagination. :)
Finally we made it out - never counted the stitches since I was wracking my brains to come up with some wonderfully diverting and distracting story I could share (the only thing I came up with were stories about my own stitches experiences.... I don't think that helped). :) But he had somewhere around 8. The doctor said no bike riding or running or jumping or being-a-boy for a week while they healed. That lasted almost 16 hours, which I felt was probably long enough. After all, we had Easter eggs to hunt and zoos to visit. :) All's well that ends well!

"pasketti" night

2010-04-16T14:40:00.003-05:00

K-lady and Joseph decided we need to have a Spaghetti Night - cloth-napkin bibs, no cutting of noodles allowed, and meatballs are a must. I'm good with that. Friday is pizza, Saturday is leftovers, Monday is spaghetti (though after a month of spaghetti night, I'm starting to think we need to shake it up a bit - maybe fettucine alfredo next time???)
Anyway, it does make menu planning a little easier!

You heard the man - (but could you understand him?) - GET SOME PESKETTI!!!
Do your kids turn into complete goofs when the video camera's on??

Spring Break in Jeresey!!

2010-04-06T06:50:00.001-05:00

Get ready for a LOT of pictures (5 adults + 5 cameras + 5 days = 459 pictures!)

We decided to hit the road for K-lady's Spring Break this year -- Joseph couldn't get time off, but my sister and nephew came along to keep my children entertained so we could all meet this wonderful little man:

my new nephew! Isn't he handsome? Dave, Angela and their kids live in New Jersey, about a 10 hour drive. We had such a good time visiting with them and just loving up the time we had together.

Dave is such a good uncle -- he even set up a tent for a camp out in the back yard one of the nights we were there. Baby A and I opted for beds inside, but Dave and the older two slept out there all night (with the electric blanket plugged into the house). Cousin Bailey started out with them, but apparently she was too much of a party animal and got banished to the master bedroom. :)

We spent the first day of Spring on the Jersey Shore -- Baby A and J-boy's first time to the Atlantic ocean. It was COLD, but that didn't stop my kids from getting wet! :)

My wonderful mom was there, too -- bonus!!!

We got to visit Dave's "office"

This little guy is such a sweet sweet baby! And Angela is such a sweet sweet momma.

all the cousins! It's a good bunch.

The whole crew (minus mom, who is taking the picture). There are always a few moans when we announce that it's time for a family picture, but I never regret having them.

miscellaneous moments

2010-03-26T14:17:00.000-05:00

A few little updates for the good ol' blog...

Joseph broke his hand playing church ball -- the arrow points to the diagonal fracture in his middle-finger hand bone (sorry, no technical medical terms from this music major). It's been healing really well -- because the bones on either side keep the middle bone in place he didn't need a cast and has been wearing a brace for the last few weeks. Hopefully he can ditch it soon! It was a good wake up call for him - no contact sports that put his career in jeopardy, thank you very much!

J-boy and Baby A got a hold of my make up bag. I really thought this kid was old enough to know better. Apparently Baby A is a bad influence. :) Every time she sees my make up bag she says, "Eye! Eye!" That kid loves eye shadow. :)

Happy late St. Patty's Day! Do they look lucky, or what??? :) I made the banner with my cricut, cut clovers out of knit and sewed them to plain white shirts, made Baby A a new hair bow and leprechaun hats out of felt for the big kids. We ate corned beef with cabbage, potatoes and carrots, and lemon (golden) jello for dinner. I think it's the first time I've ever served my children jello -- they were completely amazed by it. :) I think that's the most attention that holiday has ever gotten from me. :)

J-boy decided he was done with training wheels, so I broke out my new baby seat (Christmas gift from mom and dad!), and now we can't get enough of the family bike rides. We need to get another grown up bike so Joseph can come with us on weekends. :) I really really really love this - what a fun phase of parenting!!

Other updates -- Joseph had a trip to check out potential practices. It was a good trip and now we know what we DON'T want! A few days later the kids and I took our own trip out to New Jersey to visit my brother's family and met a new little boy to adore. :) I'll post about that soon.

J-boy turns FIVE!

2010-03-15T13:03:00.000-05:00

The day after his birthday we were driving in the car and J-boy announced, "Mom, I made a wish when I blew out my candles, but I can't tell you what it was, but it was a really good wish." Then about 30 seconds later, "Mom, I can't tell you what my wish is, because then it might not come true." Another 30 seconds later, "Mom, my wish is to drive a big rocket, but I'm not going to tell you because I want it to come true." :) We had a little chat about 'driving' rockets, and how you should learn to fly airplanes first -- now he wants to be just like Uncle Dave and fly an airplane "big enough to fit a car inside!" :)

(the birthday cake picture has been modified from the original version - it has been formatted for the blog) :)

Then the next day we got to visit the dr. and the pharmacy - poor kiddo had strep and bronchial ickiness (my interpertation of the official diagnosis) so we had fun with the antibiotics and the albuteral. But he's all better now!

One of his gifts -- he loved digging for treasure -- by the time he was done my entire kitchen was covered in a thin layer of treasure island. If there is a next time for this sort of gift, I'll try to give it in the summer - this would have been a good OUT DOOR activity. ;)

J-boy picked this sword out on amazon and waited (ANXIOUSLY) for it's arrival by mail. :) He's been through at least a dozen plastic or foam swords in his short life, and had been wanting a new one for quite some time, so this was perfect! It also came with a mask (serious J-boy bonus!!!) It hasn't broken yet!!! It's a G.I.Joe toy and came with a dog tag, too -- J-boy says, "Don't call me [J-boy] -- call me G.I.J-boy."

And for my un-scrapbooking purposes:

J-boy is such a fun kid - he loves to play with and clober his little sister, he loves to play with and mimic his older sister. He does have a slight problem with his wardrobe - poor kid can't choose an outfit without emptying every drawer in the dresser. It gets kind of tough putting ALL those clothes away every day. :) He's also frustrated that he's now 5 and still wearing clothes with a 4 on them. :)

favorite color: dark green

favorite movie: pixars' short on Cars - Mater and the Ghostlight

favorite game: freeze tag

favorite song: If you're happy and you know it

favorite accessory: green swimming goggles (at the moment)

Love that kid. :)

Snow Animals

2010-03-13T10:27:00.000-06:00

Joseph's at it again -- I love seeing him play with our kids. :)

Valentine's Day

2010-02-27T15:15:00.001-06:00

(I think these pictures have aged sufficiently that I can now blog about them)

Heather, Ryan and L joined us for Valentine's Day dinner - it was really fun. It seems like having more people around always makes it a better celebration. We had Heather's red chicken with pink rice, pink faux-tatoes (mashed cauliflower - not a big hit!), and salad with strawberries and bacon. Mmmm bacon. Heather also made the awesome cupcakes - so pretty!!!

The night before Heather had babysat for us so Joseph and I could go to a Valentine's party. It was so fun! We played a few games, carved our initials in the 'love tree' (a bare-branched paper tree taped to the wall), the girls made cards for the husbands while the husbands drew crayon dipictions of our first date (the girls had to pick which one was their own). The ladies brought their husbands favorite desserts (Joseph got a hot-lava-ish-fudge cake w/ ice cream & hot fudge sauce), and the husbands brought a poem they'd written for their wives. Joseph's was beautiful - it was so sweet - I had to be careful not to cry. :) Joseph and I won one of the games and got a prize - some Valentine's treats including Twilight conversation hearts (not the ones in the bowl up there)! I laughed so hard - things like "True Love" and "Forever" and "Bite Me." So romantic. :)

Joseph is a great husband, and it was lovely to have our own little Valentine's night. And then to celebrate again with our darling family the next day was just the icing on the cake (or cupcake, as the case may be).

Valentine's Day completely destroyed my diet (I was doing a little South Beach action - hence the mashed faux-tatoes). But that's okay. I was not very happy without my carbs and fruit in phase one, so now I'm skipipng to phase two(ish) -- I feel like it's a better balance now. I'm hoping that someday I can actually figure out how to eat sweets in moderation and have one of those active, fit and healthy lifestyles (a proper ending to a post that began with a humongous bowl full of candy, right?)

this and that

2010-02-20T22:04:00.000-06:00

J-boy said, "Uncle Ryan taught me how to do this." :)

We've had lots and lots of snow lately - this particular night we got around 3-4 inches - and we left the sliding door on the van open all night long! Joseph had it mostly cleaned up before I took a picture, but I just had to laugh and laugh.

You can see little bits of the snow drift and Baby A sitting on a grocery sack (since her hot little bum was sure to melt the ice-crusted car seat!).

And K-lady lost her two front teeth! It was a little involuntary -- She and J-boy like to hop around with both legs stuffed into one pant leg on their PJ's. It's always bugged me SO MUCH (I think because by the time they are in PJ's I'm generally not in the mood to be amused by their antics - I just want them IN BED!) Anyway, she tripped and knocked her already loose teeth quite a bit more loose. Joseph whipped out some lidocaine and hypodermics and did a little tooth extraction while I distracted K-lady with tales of tea parties when I was 10. :)

Thanks for the kind comments and advice - it always does work out. I always wish I could see the end from the beginning, but it's never worked that way yet! And I suppose that's a good thing. My word for the year is diligence - to me it means one day at a time, each requirement fulfilled step by step. I'm trying to turn "endure-to-the-end" into "joy-in-the-journey" -- one day at a time. :)

Good food and our 'adventure'

2010-02-12T08:37:00.001-06:00

On my birthday we had dinner with Heather and Ryan and L - we decided appetizers would be fun and out-of-the-ordinary. So Joseph made the pina coladas (aren't they so cool?!), I made the shrimp, Costco provided the mini quiche, Ryan & Heather made the bruschetta, the fruit & veggie plates and the artichoke dip w/ pita chips. Oh yum. This is making me hungry.

Lucky for me, they only put 5 candles on the cake - and I still barely got them all out (something about blowing on food someone else is going to eat in the middle of H1N1 season just didn't feel right...)

Joseph made me a movie - Tara-through-the-years style (his first 'music videon' - Heidi, you'd be so proud!!), and then I opened my presents - I think K-lady was a little more than excited. :) All told, it was a great birthday.

The next day was a little unsettling - we'd been planning on going to GA for another years' residency. Joseph flew to GA to interview and they unofficially offered him the chief resident position. For residency we go through a 3rd party to actually get the job - it's called the match. So this third party gets a list of all the schools you want, and they get a list from the school of all the residents they want, and they 'match' it up.
We didn't match at GA. Which was a bit of a shock, and really, truth be told, just made me mad - isn't it kind of wrong to lead us on like that?! So now we've begun digging into the practice search - we want a retiring dentist who wants a quick transition (1 month or less). And there we go, off into adulthood and career path!

So if any of you know of any retiring dentists, let us know! (silly aside - the phrase retiring dentist makes me think of southern belles and sweet, coquettish manners - that's not what I meant.) I go from being mildly terrified to terribly anxious. I told a friend I used to think the 'bend in the road' ala Anne of Green Gables was romantic and intriguing. Now it's just obnoxious. Who wants a bend?! Especially with 3 kids and students loans coming due!! AGH!

Meanwhile Joseph just tells me, "It's our adventure!" Isn't it nice that when one of us feels like we're falling apart, the other one has it together? Bless him and his adventure! I'm sure it will all work out. It always does, right?

Picasa Collages - how-to

2010-02-07T13:43:00.000-06:00

I've had a handful of comments asking about the collages -- I thought this might be the easiest way to show you how I make my collages. Sometimes, if I know exactly how I want it to look, I use Photoshop Elements (a watered down digi-scrapping friendly version of the full photoshop). But most of the time Picasa works just as well for simple, quick and easy collages.

So download Picasa if you haven't already! It's a free photo editing software by google people, and it's GREAT! Just google 'picasa' and they'll send you to a link.
Once you've got it open and running it'll find the pictures saved on your hard drive. So pick a few of them that you'd like to throw into a collage: click on the picture, then click on the little thumbtack button by the bin at the bottom of the screen (I circled it in the screen shot below). It'll show up in the bin at the bottom left hand corner. Then pick the next picture, 'hold' it with the thumbtack button, etc etc. till you have all the pictures you want for your collage in the bin. (You can also hold down the ctrl key while you click multiple pictures within the same folder, then click the thumbtack to 'hold' them all at once). Then click the collage button (the 2nd red arrow is pointing to it on the screen shot below)

Now picasa puts you in the collage window -- there's lots of fun possibilities to explore in the options bar on the left of the screen - starting with format - a picture pile, a grid, a mosaic, etc. You can rearrange the pictures (at the bottom of the screen below your collage draft is a shuffle pictures button), you can add a grid in the color of your choice, you can do lots of stuff. If you decide you need to edit one of your pictures, click the library tab (circled below), edit the picture that needs it (maybe a recrop to fit the collage space better? Maybe a color adjustment?), then click back to the collage tab (to the right of the library tab). It's pretty straightforward and user friendly.

Once you're done with your tweaking, click create collage. It'll save it to a new folder picasa will create (for me with my Windows XP operating system, it's in My Pictures folder - it'll probably be the same thing for you with Windows 7 or vista or whatever). It'll show your finished collage in your library view. Double click it to add text if you want (button in the red circle below).

I love adding the text - I think it makes it fun and interesting - just play with the options in the text box -- for this one, I wanted it all the same font, right justified. Piece of cake! Once you're done adding text, save the changes - back in your library view it's the little disk button at the top of the folder (did that make sense?!).

And here's the collage (blogged straight from picasa - see the little blogger button in the bottom button bar?? It'll upload 4 pictures at a time for you - it only works with blogger. If you use a different blogging platform, just upload the pic as you usually do - you can copy the full path of the collage by right clicking it in picasa):

Wasn't that easy?! LOVE free picasa goodness!

Collage Catch-up Part Deux

2010-02-04T19:16:00.001-06:00

Thank you for the birthday wishes! You are all wonderful!

Now, forgive my untimeliness (yes, I know it's February!), but I've got to finish the collage catch-up -- here's Christmas!

After driving all day in rain, we made it to Grandma & Grandpa's the evening of the 23rd. It started raining ice on Christmas Eve, and by Christmas morning, we were in a winter wonderland!

We spent Christmas Eve with all the local family who stayed in town, and then had Grandma and Grandpa all to ourselves on Christmas morning - we felt so spoiled!

By the time the Jake and Jen came around we needed to get out, so we went sledding - behind Jake's CRV!! It was so fun sliding around the parking lot!

I wanted to try for a more home-made Christmas this year - I can't figure out if I'm trendy because I make stuff or if I'm nerdy because I make stuff. (just to clarify - I think everyone who "makes stuff" is awesome - I just want to be like you) Anyway, above are pics of most of my Christmas gift crafts (& links if I found it on the web).
1. super hero cape & mask for nephew (made it up)
2. Let It Snow sign for Dave (love that Cricut)
3. Black Apple Doll + accessories for Bailey (Black Apple Doll pattern here - I made her a little skirt and blazer because I'm not modern enough to leave her lower half nekked! I made up Bailey's skirt, too. I found the flower clip here)
4. reversible apron for my mother-in-law (from this book I found at our library, probably the most complicated thing I've ever sewn on my own!)
5. another black apple doll w/ hair flower clip for another niece
6. baby Sling for Angela (from KarmaBaby)
7. buttercup bag for Heidi (from Made By Rae)
8. notebook & crayon caddy for K & J - made it up -- it's a modified crayon roll w/ a big pocket for the steno notepad. These are for church, and I LOVE THEM.
It was really fun to be all crafty - I really do like to make things (be it nerdy or not!)

Cute little blizzard-maker!

We went to our old stomping grounds in OP, KS, to see our best friends and attend our old church. But mother nature foiled our plans - church was cancelled because of the weather (as my sister said, "Church was canceled by an act of God!") So we had a good snow day and just played all day. We still got to see a handful of friends (at least most of those who were in town for the holidays!)

We CUT HER HAIR! I finally decided her long, gorgeous, coveted hair wasn't worth the damage it was doing to our relationship every morning as we sorted out the tangled mess before school. (whew, run on sentence!) She wanted to look just like her best friend, Madeline. :) Thanks for your good work, Jen!

Best Friends!! How cute are they?!

Uncle Jake fooled Baby A into loving him by pretending from the get-go that he was daddy! Baby A just went with it, and Jake didn't have to endure the 'warm-up' period she put everyone else through. :)

I love my kiddos!

And if you made it to the end of this mile-long post, I love you. Consider yourself hugged. :)

Thirty

2010-01-24T14:03:00.001-06:00

I'm feeling like a bit of navel-gazing is required today - today I am thirty (I hate that I cringe when I say that, but I just did). And in an effort to be positive about such introspection, I decided to make a list. Not things that I need to do (there are certainly more than 30 of those), and not things I'd like to change about myself (more than 30 of those, too), but 30 things for which to be grateful.

1. answered prayers (most recently the hymns in Sacrament Meeting this morning - the Sacrament hymn said, "Holy day, devoid of strife" - HA! I had to laugh - it was only 9:15am and I'd had strife enough! But then we ended with "Where Can I Turn for Peace." My own little tender mercy.)

2. a good husband who works hard for our family - and does a very good job of it.

3. safe, warm, comfortable, clean(ish) home

4. healthy children

5. beautiful things all around me

6. a camera to take pictures of said beautiful things (and being content with my camera) :)

7. The hustle and bustle of December, followed by the quiet instropection of January

8. A sweet baby who loves me (even if she'll only say Da Da and not Ma Ma)

9. twinkle lights (in January)

10. Snow Days

11. Two cars that are more (or less?) reliable!

12. rain on melancholy days - when heaven acknowledges your frustration

13. being a stay-at-home mom - hardest and best thing I've ever done

14. eating cold cereal for lunch

15. playing with my kids

16. rocking and singing to my baby before bed time

17. freshly bathed children, ready for bed

18. bedtime (for the kids, for me!)

19. a mantle and a fireplace - we probably won't ever burn a fire in there, but it sure is fun to decorate!

20. teaching myself this piece- cheaper and probably more effective than counseling :)

That just makes me smile.

21. wonderful parents who love and sacrifice and give endlessly

22. fabulous siblings (and their families) that make me laugh and love

23. great in-laws that teach and encourage

24. Knowledge - why I'm here and what I'm doing and how to do it.

25. a basement = room for my crafty stuff!

26. an uncertain future that keeps me humble and prayerful

27. the gospel and organization of the church - my built-in family, no matter how far I am from home.

28. the chance to choose (specifically: choose faith and family and friends)

29. others who love and teach and care for my children.

30. technology in my life (from the computer to the sewing machine to the stone-age cell phone (5+ years old!))

30. a charmed life - trials, heartache, hard days, yes, but the good makes up for it

30. optimism

30. being a citizen of the United States.

30. YOU :) I'm so thankful for friends and family that make my life so beautiful and rich and fun. Thanks for your comments, too - I love them. You are a blessing to me!

(I love having my head full of blessings. I certainly have more than 30 of them, too!)

The Annual Collage Catch-Up

2010-01-17T15:17:00.007-06:00

Seems like November and December are never very good blogging months for me! But I do have some good pictures to document our wonderful holidays, and I just can't move on without posting [at least] my favorites. And you know I am a firm believer in the collage. :)

A brief explanatory note:

My entire wonderful family (except for one brother serving an LDS mission in CA) came to Ohio for Thanksgiving - we had 16 people altogether, and turned the living room into a banquet hall. :) Then it was the music room (lots and lots of singing around the piano - it felt SO GOOD to sing with my sisters and mother again, and we even had the boys join in a few times!), and finally it was the Christmas Hall (complete with my little 10 year old artificial tree that I said would just get us through college..... still there....). My brother in law is a chef (a crazy blogging chef I might add), and he wowed us all with his skills -- I was afraid to cook in my kitchen for a week after he left, thinking that I might desecrate it. :) I gained about 5 pounds in 3 days. (OUCH). But it was worth it. It was that good.

Since everyone was here we did Christmas on Saturday morning - it was the crazy marathon holiday weekend, and it was fantastic.

I love love love my family, and having them all here in my home was such a treat. I love the way we all squish together on the couch, the way we talk for hours, the way we sing and sing and sing. I love the way my brother played heroes with my son, my sister colored with my daughter, and my mom and dad moved around from room to room, activity to activity, supporting and loving all of us. We all have faults, but when we're together it's perfect.

The Truth about Santa

2009-12-14T15:01:00.002-06:00

Warning -- this post contains spoilers! (Or maybe not!)

I was getting worried about J-boy's understanding of reality. He's told me several times that I am not really in charge -- Santa and Jesus are in charge. And he's pretty preoccupied about Santa and reindeer and chimneys and stockings and presents and presents and presents and presents.

Now I'm not trying to be a scrooge, and you may disagree with me, but I don't think Santa and Jesus should warrant the same amount of faith. Santa's fine and dandy and fun, but Jesus is real. So I talked to Joseph about it, and decided it was time to break the news. Joseph actually told K-lady a few years ago the truth about Santa (she asked, and he was on the spot, and I was rather annoyed with him at the time, but since then I've come to appreciate his candor and honesty). I really want Christmas to be about Christ, not Santa.

So I sat down with J-boy the other morning and told him that Christmas isn't about Santa, it's about Jesus. We get presents because it's Jesus' birthday, and he got presents, too - remember the 3 wise men?? And we can even have a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas day. And Santa was actually a sweet old man named St. Nicholas that liked to give presents, and sometimes people remember and celebrate him. But Santa Claus from the North pole is just pretend. We can pretend about Santa, but Jesus is real.

After my big long shpiel, I waited anxiously for J-boy's response - was he going to cry? Was he going to understand?

J-boy scoffed at me (did you know 4 year old's are excellent scoffers?). "No, mom, Santa is real. Santa AND Jesus are real. They are the boss. But we can talk about Jesus if you want to."

I tried. Maybe we'll try again next year. :)

Family Pictures

2009-12-07T20:19:00.005-06:00

Meet my darling sister, Heather. She is (among other things) cute and funny and sweet and talented and long suffering in affliction to boot. I asked her to take some family pictures for us (the self-timer thing only works so well with a 16 month old and I'm too cheap and too addicted to photoshop to do it any other way...), so she did - not once, but twice! The first try we had a minor run in with wardrobe that put us behind and we missed the best lighting. So we headed out again a week later (that's what I mean by long-suffering in affliction)! Anyway, I think she got some great shots. Thank you so much, Heather (and Ryan and L!!)

It's not every day you get a good photographer who loves your kids almost as much as you do!

I love her smile. I think that is what 7-years-old should look like.

Outakes -- Don't I look like a caricature?! I didn't know my face could look that way without some seriously silly photo editing.

A bit o' random

2009-12-06T22:11:00.000-06:00

Just 'cause I think she's so stinkin' cute (that's J-boy's discarded jacket that she insisted on wearing over top of her own)

J-boy made his own bed! I asked him about the bump towards the bottom of the bed, and he explained that he liked it that way so he could "lay on it like this (lays himself down with the bump supporting under his knees) and sleep like that"

When decorating, it's all about the details. And snacks.

The kids had some time on their hands a few weeks ago on a Sunday morning before church. They decided to try to make some cash. They were yelling and screaming at every car that drove by: "GARAGE SALE!! KID STUFF ONLY!!" They were charging $10 for every item (including the homemade paper-taped-to-a-stick-flags). But they gave Joseph a great deal - they weren't getting a lot of customers, so they clearanced everything at $1 a piece. (I still think he got suckered into that one)

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-03T08:23:00.003-06:00

May your nose be merry and bright.

(I think I owe this to Joseph after having his bite at the front of the blog for nearly a month -- more posts coming.)

The Difference Between You and Me

2009-11-06T08:15:00.000-06:00

When I play with the camera, I

When Joseph plays with the camera, he performs a

It takes all kinds, right? :)

(I hope he doesn't mind me posting his 5:00 shadow and pearly whites....)

Go Buckeyes!!

2009-10-31T21:06:00.002-05:00

Joseph and I went to the SHOE!

We attended our first (and, honestly, probably last) OSU football game in October. It was really fun -- the stadium is GINORMOUS, the fans are infectious and the marching band is AMAZING. And the football team was pretty good, too. :) There were a few LONG passes for touchdowns that were pretty exciting. And we won by a landslide. It was a little on the chilly side, but my smart husband had a blanket handy and enough cash to buy us some hot chocolate.

The kids stayed home with Aunt Heather, though they wanted to come and cheer on the buckeyes! This is Baby A's Halloween costume - she and I had nasty colds so we stayed home from the trunk-or-treat, but I dressed her up to take a picture anyway. Don't mind the spaghetti sauce on her cheeks. Just keepin' it real.

Projects Galore!

2009-10-29T12:14:00.000-05:00

I decided to figure out how to bake bread. I have LOVED taking time off' from teaching piano lessons. And with K-girl in school all day I seem to get so much more done -- probably because my day starts at 7:00 instead of 9:00. I know, I'm still spoiled. Early morning seminary is going to kill me. ANYWAY - the bread. The bread is fabulous. Many thanks to Heidi & Tracey for the recipe!

We needed a place to sit in our bedroom, and I found one of those twin-sized bookshelf headboards on Craigslist for free. My handy brother was in town that weekend, and helped me saw off the bottom 3 feet -- after a little paint this is what I ended up with!

J-boy has his own room here -- I decided it was time for the girls to share. So I tried to figure out what J-boy's passionate about to help with the decorating. It's definitely dresss-up. Remember this?? So he needed a spot for his super-hero-ness. :)

And last but not least, I finally got tired of the kitchen table all scratched up and ugly. I think this one put me over the edge - I have an awful cold/fever/chills/ear drum explosion ick, and life is always a little miserable for everyone when mom is sick. I don't mean to be a big baby about it - I generally consider myself a tough it out kind of girl -- bring on the natural childbirth and all that. But I'm wallowing in misery. At least the table is black.

In a month or two I'm going to buy some new paint to re-paint the top -- it looks great in the picture, but it's not so great in person. But I'm tired, so it'll wait. And then eventually I'll take the sander to the edges and distress it a little. I figure if I wait my kids will do some natural distressing for me. :) Back to bed.

Apple picking

2009-10-27T09:40:00.000-05:00

Two encounters with food at it's point of origin!! First the tomatoes and peppers, and now apples! Wow!

Heather and Ryan and L went with us to a nearby apple orchard a few weeks ago -- the apples were so amazingly good right off the tree. We picked Jonagolds and Golden Delicious, and got gloriously wet in the process. It was during an OSU football game (we're quite amazed at how the city comes to a complete stand still for football games!), so we had the place to ourselves for the most part. I think the getting wet just might have been the most fun. Although driving Sadie the Sienna through the muddy mess was pretty fun, too.

I loved it when K-girl asked me if she could eat a Silverjonny appleseed apple. :)

I also love that we get to do these fun things with my sister & her family! They are so much fun!

One last taste of summer...

2009-10-22T20:21:00.003-05:00

I don't know what it is with me, but I have this need to let my pictures and memories age a little before I can commit to blogging them. Okay, I'm just a HORRIBLE PROCRASTINATOR and I'm either into the blog or out of the blog, and I guess the last month has been an out-of one. So I give you the end of September a month late.

My sweet dad insists that I have tomato plants. Last year I said "No tomatoes!" All I know how to do is rot the poor things. But Joseph brought home starts from a family at church (after I'd turned down an offer of starts from the same generous family a week earlier). I refuse to care for something that will rot. The little guys sat in their yogurt cups on my kitchen counter for weeks till dad came to visit. He rescued them and put them in big pots with lots of good soil and bid them grow.

This year was a little more of the same, but we had an actual patch of dirt to fill with tomato plants. Dad put in two little tomato starts, and they GREW! We got quite the tomato crop out of those two little plants. Our next door neighbor and land lady gave us some pepper plants, so we grew salsa this year. I had to buy the garlic and onions, but it was really quite amazing to eat something that grew right next to our back door. Thanks for the tomatoes, Dad!!! They were delicious!

J-boy got to play soccer this year - one of the awesome moms in our new circle of friends made her own little soccer league for 3-4-year-olds. She is a brave, patient woman. :) This was the last game & trophy ceremony. I love the picture on the bottom left - the kid on the bottom left corner is laying on top of the goal. It was kind of like wrestling-soccer. The coach had to call time-outs to remind the boys (and one girl) that hitting wasn't part of the game. J-boy had a great time, and adores his trophy.

It was a good summer.

K-lady turns SEVEN!

2009-09-15T12:45:00.002-05:00

It's been a big couple of weeks for Ms. K! The week before school started we had a complete frenzy of activities -- squishing in all the last summer outings we possibly could. We visited a small local airport for a tour, we went to the zoo, we enjoyed picnic lunches in the park, & had one last summer visit to the Science Center. By the time the first day of school rolled around, I think we all breathed a sigh of relief that we could take a break from all the crazy fun and calm down into a normal routine.

K started first grade this year -- the first day of school was so exciting. She could hardly sleep the night before, and woke up around 6 am (school starts at 8:15, so that was a little early). She got ready & had extra time on her hands, so I painted her nails and we chit chatted for a while. My sister came over to stay with J-boy and Baby A so I could walk K into school without my usual menagerie tagging along (what a nice sister!). I knew K was a little anxious when I tried to share a little scripture with her before we left the house -- I read her a sweet little scripture about being able to call on God wherever and whenever, and told K that I knew it was true, and that God can help her at school or at home or anywhere she might be, she can just say a little prayer in her head and heart, and He'll hear her. K looked at me and said, "Mom. Idon'tcare. Let's go." Way to deflate my spiritual mom moment. :)

Then at school we parked the car and were walking towards the playground. My sweet girl reached up to hold my hand, then she let go quickly. Two steps later she reached up to hold my hand again, and quickly let go again, shaking her head and hand. Three times she did this! She was to wait on the playground with her class. The other kids ran around and played, laughing and shouting, but she was so somber and serious - standing uncertain at the cone labeled with her teachers' name. I tried to talk to her, but she gave me one word answers at best. I teared up at one point, thinking about how brave and scared she was, but put a stop to that as fast as I could - she would really detest me if I cried on the playground! :)

Once the uncertainties and unknowns of her new school went away, she settled happily into school. She was a bit grumpy and rude with me after school for the first week or so. I realized that she and I really only work together - we hardly ever play. I take her on outings and she has a good time, but that doesn't necessarily translate to, "Gee, mom took me to the zoo! I love mom!" Usually it ends up being more like, "Mom wouldn't let me get that 7 foot stuffed python at the zoo! She's so mean!" So we had a play date that Friday night - dinner, a movie, and scrapbooking. It was so nice to have a good positive time with her. She woke up the next morning, and the first thing she said was, "Mom, I had SO much fun last night!" That made up for the "Idon'tcare." :)

K's birthday was next on the calendar! K requested breakfast in bed (fruit loops, kiwi slices, fruit dip & pink milk), we took treats to school (lollipops), then we went to Red Robin for dinner and had Heather & Ryan & L over for cake and ice cream and presents. We didn't get to play too much after school because I needed to finish that silly cake! Grrr. But K made it worth it by coming into the kitchen at random times and sighing and fawning over it: "Mom, it's the most beautiful cake ever! I just love it!!!" :) She got a kid camera for her birthday, so you'll probably be seeing some original pics by K soon. She takes it every where and is very kind about sharing with J & A (on occasion). In the interest of my sanity, we've implemented a new party policy -- 'odd' years get a friend outing or sleep over, so K-lady had one friend spend the night last Friday - they had a grand old time and were only a little grumpy on Saturday. :)

Misc. K Facts:
Favorite color: turqoise
Favorite animal: puppies and cats
Favorite subject at school: recess
Favorite subject at home: Barbies, Polly's & Ponies, (but she has been known to play cars and super heroes to placate her brother)

The Good, The Bad, and....

2009-09-10T20:32:00.002-05:00

The Good:
There is a beautiful Conservatory in our new city that has a free community night once a month! It's a beautiful place - gorgeous indoor gardens covering everything from the desert to the Himalayan mountains to the tropical rainforest. There's butterfly gardens, and there is currently a gorgeous collection of Dale Chihuly's beautiful glass art on display.

The Bad:
I dutifully printed out directions and thought I knew where I was going. But between freeway closures and detours and a complete lack of any sense of direction, it took me about 50 minutes to drive what google maps said was an 18 minute drive.
Also, I guess late August is not a good time for butterflies. The few we saw were all kind of dying.

The Ugly:
(You knew it was coming. Brace yourself.)
Due to our extended travel time, we arrive flustered and anxious. One of my children (who will remain nameless) needs to use the restroom. We unload, pack up the stroller and stride off to the building, thinking that if we can just find the front door.....
We can't find the front door. I'm too frazzeled to read the whole sign, so I just follow the arrows to the side entrance, which is locked and deserted. My child is about to wet his/her pants. In complete desperation I cast my eyes about, toss said child over the rail into the bushes and let him/her just pee in the bushes. Not a soul in sight. Dreadful, yes. But I felt it was better than wet britches.
Until the voice came over the intercom, saying, "Ma'm, that's not a bathroom."
Video cameras in the corners and an intercom so security detail can give me a lesson in proper waste disposal.
Oh, the mortification! Oh, the shame!

Just lovely. Er, I mean, Ugly.

Thirty Three??

2009-09-01T11:00:00.000-05:00

My handsome husband turned 33 last month. We've had such a nice time enjoying his less-hectic schedule here. He's doing a general practice dental residency - just a year long. He works in the dental clinic, does rotations through the university hospitals, and is on-call with the emergency department about once a week for 24 hour shifts. He loves to work out and eat healthy. He loves to fly fish and be outside. He loves to hike, bike, climb, swim, run. He loves to play with the kids. He hates to play Barbies and loves to play sports. :)

Since our move we've had more time to be together -- I love how changes like this force a little re-invention. So we're trying to be healthier and simpler. We don't have space in the living room for the TV, and our neighbor shares her newspaper with us, so instead of watching TV in the evenings we read the newspaper. Joseph has access to an awesome work-out facility at school, so he's been enjoying that after work each day. I'm no longer teaching piano lessons, so I (theoretically) have time to keep up on running the house a little better. :) I think it's all been really good for us. We're better friends.

I love this man! He is a good man. He forgave me for wishing him a happy 32nd birthday. :) I think where we are right now is a good place to be for 33. I hope it keeps getting better. :)

Consider the Cake...

2009-09-01T09:17:00.000-05:00

My Baby turned One.
I don't know when I turned into such a sentimental schmuck!
Little A was what it finally took for me to slow down a little (not a lot, just a little). I finally enjoyed those baby moments that I was too worried to enjoy with Ms. K and too busy to enjoy with J-boy. I snuggle her as much as she'll let me and every time I hug her I wonder if I just hold her tight enough if she'll stop growing and stay my sweet baby forever.

She loves to laugh at her brother and sister. She loves to eat yogurt and applesauce and strawberries. She loves to watch the mobile on her crib when I lay her down to take a nap. She loves playing with shoes and removing EVERY. SINGLE. BOOK. from the bookshelf. She loves to take most of the toys out of her toy baskets so she can crawl in and get cozy with the remaining stacking rings. She signs "all done" and grins. She claps whenever anyone says "good job!" She loves to play on the [very scary] stairs to the basement and gets mad when I don't let her.

I can't imagine our family without her. She brings out the best in all of us.

A's saying, "How did I get stuck with these clowns?"

Happy Anniversary!

2009-08-31T16:37:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I've been married for 8 years. You'd think I'd know how to keep up on the laundry by now!
On the 18th we celebrated 8 years together. It's been quite the ride - lots of ups and downs, lots of love and forgivness. I'm so glad that we've got each other. I've had some time lately to think about marriage and why and how and what makes it important. I thought I was doing pretty good before I got married -- I've told friends' that I didn't even know I had a temper before I got married. But boy do I have one now!
I know that our family is where we learn to be like Heavenly Father -- nothing else can test and try and prepare us like the home laboratory. And I know that as hard as the hard times are, the good times more than make up for it if we keep pressing on.
I love you, Joseph!

Who said you could grow up?!

2009-08-30T21:40:00.004-05:00

Baby A started walking the day after her 1st birthday -- this is for you, mom:

You know that feeling where you love someone so much it feels like your heart somehow just jumped right out of your chest to tie itself to that other person?

I love that feeling. :)

You might not get that feeling looking at my kids. That's okay. :)

Dirty faces courtesy of Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches.

Little Pay Day

2009-08-09T19:10:00.005-05:00

Today I was going to sneak in to Baby A's room while she was napping to grab a few diapers for my bag. I peaked through the door, and saw her laying peacefully in her crib, playing with her little taggie blanket and jabbering at herself. I love that.

And then tonight, J-boy started singing the song I've been TRYING to teach him in Primary (I'm the children's chorister at church now). We were eating dinner, and he just busted out in his squeaky little boy soprano: "I Feel My Savior's Love in all the world around me! His Spirit warms my soul through everything I see." His squeaky little boy soprano has been driving me crazy lately (MOM! Dan I-dan I- dan I - MOM! Dan I have dookies? MOM! I want a dookie! MOM! Dookie please!!!!! Please please please please please??!!!! MOM!!!!!), so it was nice to hear something sweet coming from his vocal chords. :)

What do you do in the Summer Time?

2009-08-09T00:12:00.004-05:00

Caught Red Lipped...

2009-07-26T21:28:00.004-05:00

I was taking a few pictures of Baby A this afternoon, and couldn't get my camera to focus! After a few pictures like this one

I checked the lense and found it all smeared and smudged. I grumbled something about kids getting ahold of my camera, cleaned the lense (it was REALLY dirty) and carried on with my picture taking.
Then tonight as I was uploading pictures I found this video:

My sister Heather was teaching me the sign language to a song I'm teaching the children at church (that's what we're doing in the background). Joseph thought it would be a good idea to video tape us so I can review it during the week. Great idea, till you make Ms. K and J-boy the cameramen!

Rule #369:

Do not kiss (or lick or nose smush or TOUCH) the camera.

I should probably tell the children they generally shouldn't DOCUMENT it when they break the rules.

At the Beach

2009-07-21T22:31:00.001-05:00

As far as I'm concerned, the greatest advantage to living here is that my darling sister lives about 5 minutes away. How lucky am I?!
With mom, dad, and three out of the 6 siblings here, my brother Dave and his family in Jersey just couldn't resist - they had to come for a quick visit. :) This meant that all 5 grandkids could play together for one brief weekend! After everyone helped unload the moving truck, we decided it was time for some fun. Heather and Ryan took care of us -- they planned & prepped the food for the entire weekend, and Heather made sure we always had something fun to do. We spent a fun afternoon at the beach of a local state park -- the kids loved the sand!

My baby's getting so big and adventurous -- it's making me really sad this time around watching my baby grow up.

Kendra and K-lady were lovely mermaids while burried in the sand. Not so with J-boy -- he was a shark. You can tell from his grimmace.

I'm so glad Dave & Angela & Bailey came -- it was so fun to be with them again! They helped me relax a little -- just when I'd be getting uptight about the crazy mess and huge amounts of work at home, Dave would tell me to chill out and have some fun. What a smart big brother.
Ms. K just worships her Aunt Kendra. It was so fun to have her around! K still asks if I think Aunt Kendra would like this shirt, or if Aunt Kendra would eat that food. :) Of course, I always answer in the affirmative (apparently Aunt Kendra is VERY supportive of eating vegetables...)

The Other Graduate

2009-07-21T20:26:00.001-05:00

K-lady 'graduated' from kindergarten the same day Joseph took off on his bike adventure. We'd spent the weekend before at a family reunion in Colorado (pictures floating around on a laptop somewhere....). Dad met up with us at Estes Park, and he and Joseph took off for their bike trip while the rest of us headed home (good long drive home....). The day after Memorial Day, K had a funny little 1/3 day of kindergarten, which included this little graduation ceremony. She LOVED kindergarten. It was kind of bittersweet to finish up -- we've really liked her school -- her friends and teachers there have been great.

Shaking the principal's hand -- she was so somber and serious. It was pretty cute. :)

With her best friend, who was in the morning half day kindergarten class (K was in the afternoon half day class)

The kid line up -- Baby A was super excited that K graduated from kindergarten (as you can see)

K and Madeline with their teacher.

This is the 4th graduation for K -- in utero for my Bachelor's, in the stroller for Joseph's bachelor's, waiting impatiently in the bleachers for Joseph's Dr., and now wearing her own little cap. What a cutie!

Our "one-lasts" in KC

2009-07-21T15:43:00.005-05:00

We had some good bits of fun while Joseph was pedaling his heart out on the Continental Divide -

One last Ladies Night In for digital scrapbooking and chatting. These ladies are GREAT! I miss our late night chats!

One last trip to the KC Zoo -- to bring our grand total of visits to a whoppin' 3 in five years. We had fun with three other families of friends. The Kangaroos just roam around wherever they want -- I was tempted to drag Joseph back with his cap and gown to get a picture of him with his alma mater's mascot (what kind of a feirce mascot is a 'roo???)

Once Joseph and my parents & sister made it to KC we had one last extended family night at the park with all the KC crew -- one last hurrah with cousins! Good food, good people!

One last get-together with school and church friends -- popsicles, bubbles and side walk chalk always make for a good time.

Obviously, one last hug and one last FLEX with best friends

I didn't get pictures, but we also had one last dinner at OK Joe's BBQ with my parents and sisters -- I still dream of their Z-man sandwich and crack fries! And one last dinner with the Bills' at their house -- I think we actually did take a picture at this one, but I sure can't find it now.... And, of course, we had to have one last Mormon Village BBQ in the backyard. (Why do all my memorable moments involve lots of yummy, not-so-good-for-me food??)

It's interesting to be at the end of this phase of our lives. I keep waiting for the 'vacation' to be over, and to head back to OP Estates to dig into another semester. :) Part of me feels so grown up, but part of me feels so inexperienced and unprepared. I'm thinking I'd better get used to this feeling -- I'll probably be enjoying it for the next 50 years or so. :)

Side note -- this is my 100th post! Happy blogging, everyone!

Goodbye KC!

2009-07-21T10:49:00.001-05:00

We've lived here for a month and two days! So I guess it's time to post the move pictures. :) This was our 8th move in almost 8 years of marriage. You'd think I'd have it down by now, but it was a lot more complicated this time -- probably has something to do with the 2 additional children and all the STUFF we've accumulated over the last 5 years in Kansas...
Thankfully (SO THANKFULLY!) we had my parents & sister to help us! I can't believe how much work they did, and how much time they spent helping us. Thank you so much!!
It's been a pretty smooth transition - we miss our friends and family in Kansas, but we're feeling pretty settled. Joseph is enjoying his residency - he got to do a jaw reduction yesterday (peel away gums & shave away jaw bone to prep for dentures). He's lovin' the crazy stuff. The kids have made some good friends, and I'm almost done getting the house organized. Maybe I'll finish before we move in 11 months (ugh).... And if I don't, then maybe there's hope for my perfectionistic obsessiveness. I suppose that could be good. Sounds like a win/win to me. I probably won't need the stuff I can't find, right?? :)

The vehicle line up -- Joseph drove the Penske, I followed in our van, then came mom in her van (with continental divide bikes on the back!), and Dad in Joseph's car. Whew!

Heidi to the rescue again -- she showed up Thursday morning and helped with all the last minute stuff that is just kind of hard and icky -- getting the last of the junk out of the house, cleaning, keeping kids occupied. She is such a saint!

That's our Penske heading out of KC (my sister was riding with me and the kids to keep the kids happy -- she was a life saver!! But she did make a few comments on my driving skills as I took pictures along the way...)

And our first good view of an interstate sign that said COLUMBUS OHIO!!! (yes, that was at sunset, and we still had about 5 hours ahead of us...)

Great Divide Mountain Bike Ride

2009-07-10T22:21:00.005-05:00

Day One - Leaving Jasper, Colorado

So... there's a gaping hole in the narrative of our lives (aka the Lotsa Lovin' Blog). Just where did we go? Just what did we do? I know you've all be sitting on pins and needles waiting to find out about our awkward silence. :) Here's a peak into one of the adventures from the past two months.

First, just a wee bit of history.

In 2004, my dad, two brothers and a cousin began this adventure. They started out at the Port of Rooseville on the Canadian border and rode their mountain bikes, towing B.O.B. trailers down a route that stays within 50 miles of the Continental Divide. That year they ended in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The next year, 2005, they picked up the trail in Steamboat Springs and rode for about a week to Del Norte, Colorado when things unraveled a little. Dad took a fall, and wasn't able to finish the ride. My brother took the Greyhound to Salt Lake to grab a car, and my dad drove the 'support vehicle' while my brothers and cousin finished the ride to the Mexican border.

Every summer since then Dad's been trying to figure out how to finish his ride. With Joseph's graduation and the 4 week break before residency began, it was the perfect opportunity to have a buddy on the trail.

Because they were riding so early in the season, the snow made it impossible to start in Del Norte. So they picked up the trail in Jasper. Joseph rode 565 miles in 11 days (add in 2 rest days for a total of 13 days on the trail), but he injured his leg and wasn't able to finish the last 3 days. So he hitchhiked to the nearest greyhound station and caught a bus back up to Colorado where my sweet aunt left Dad's truck for Joseph to pick up. Then Joseph drove the support vehicle for the last few days and 190 or so miles, following my dad to the border.

It sounds like it was an amazing trip. Joseph says it was absolutely worth the effort -- tough, but beautiful. I'm intrigued by the idea of such complete solitude - out in the middle of nowhere, propelled only by your own strength, alone with your thoughts and feelings. (I'm probably so intrigued because I have at least one child hanging off of some appendage most hours of most days). :)

Trip highlights:

Spending a beautiful rest day with Enoch and his family one week into the trip -- this was after riding hard (till midnight) to get to a hotel in Cuba, only to find all the hotels closed. Instead of the much anticipated clean bed, the boys camped behind the Conoco by the dumpsters and AC compressor. Not exactly restful.

Visiting with friends along the trail that Dad met 4 years ago -- they even let my stinky dad and husband sleep on their living room floor! And gave Joseph & Dad a history lesson on the Navajo nation. Thanks, Dennis!

Seeing lots of wildlife - including a black bear - and lots of beautiful wild flowers.

Finding pure beautiful springs just in the nick of time (Joseph REALLY didn't want to drink that brown stuff he tried to filter out of a cow field mud hole....)

Riding straight into horrific headwinds ALL DAY LONG on several occassions -- granny gears pumping and only going about 4 miles an hour.... that's when Joseph's knee started hurting (it's all better now!).

Riding through hail and rain, from burning heat to freezing cold.

Riding down hills.

Taking a shower.

Mailing home 25 pounds of stuff they didn't need (including dirty laundry!).

Getting excited for future adventures.......

Anyway, I'm proud of Joseph and my Dad - they are AWESOME!

Proud!

2009-07-06T13:30:00.000-05:00

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! (yes, I'm aware it's the 6th...) I'm so grateful for our wonderful country. We went to our new town's 4th of July parade Saturday morning. The first half of the parade was fun old cars full of veterans from World War II, Vietnam, & the Korean War. There were even Pearl Harbor survivors. My heart filled with gratitude for the men and women who fight to preserve our freedom and share those freedoms with others. It is such a blessing to be raising our children in this country.

To my brother and dad and all those who have faithfully and honorably served our nation, Thank You. It is truly an honor.

HE DID IT!!!!

2009-06-09T01:30:00.001-05:00

My fabulous Joseph graduated the beginning of May, and I am so proud of him! It's been a long road, and he's stayed the path so well. There were definitely times we wondered if this was the right path, if going back to school was the right choice. I'm grateful Joseph was able to take those steps into the dark, knowing that it was the best thing for his family. I'm so grateful for his hard work and perseverance. I'm grateful that for the most part he was able to leave the stress of school at school and come home and be a dad and a husband. I'm grateful for all his good friends at school that kept each other going - the 'Mormon Mafia.' :) I'm grateful I'll never have to pay for another filling again! I'm grateful that Joseph and Jacob chose the same career path, and they can keep each other excited about dentistry. I'm grateful for the awesome support of wonderful family, local and distant.

And I'm grateful I'm married to the hottest doctor I know. :) Love you!!

(Are any of you Anne of Green Gables fans? Remember when Anne was grown up and their housekeeper called her Mrs. Doctor Dear? I've just always liked the sound of that....) :)

backtrack!

2009-06-01T01:04:00.003-05:00

I've been 'cleaning house' on my computer and found these pics from the St. Patrick's Day parade -- a bunch of my momma friends got together and drove downtown and had ourselves an adventure hauling kids all over to see a bunch of crazy drunks in a parade. Check that one off my list! The walk back to the car was a little long, so I let K and J-boy hitch a ride in Baby A's stroller. Who needs a double stroller?
I love the video clip -- K turns around, realizes we're taping her, then she gets all crazy. :) Ah, my little exhibitionist!

Jammin' J-boy

2009-05-29T03:03:00.002-05:00

We were at K's school for the Spring Carnival, eating dinner in the cafeteria with music blaring on a stereo. J-boy just couldn't contain himself -- he just HAD to move. :)

BIG & little

2009-05-29T02:29:00.007-05:00

The past few months have brought us several transformations - some big, and some little.

I made my first solo batch of freezer jam. There's just something wonderful about freezer jam... It's probably that there's just as much sugar as there is fruit. The berries here didn't come from the raspberry patch by the shop (ah, Washington! My home!), but they did make tasty jam.
Ms. K lost her first tooth! It was quickly followed by baby tooth #2, and the dentist in the family (more about him later) was pleased to see the permanent teeth sliding into place.
Goodbye, Lafonda (our voluptuous black beauty), hello Sadie (our new-to-us silver sienna). Lafonda served us well, and squished 3 carseats in the back with great economy, but, alas, it was time to move on. It is official, I've traded in my youthfulness for practicality, and I am a mini-van mom.
Baby A's fauxhawk had to go.
I LOVE SPRING! The midwest seems to have a knack for dramatic seasonal changes - these pictures were taken just a few weeks apart. I love watching the trees come back to life.

Ms. K's Recital

2009-05-27T01:44:00.006-05:00

The 1st of May Ms. K graduated from Let's Play Music. Her past three years of music class culminated with a recital where she played her original composition. She decided to write a lullaby (because she loves to sing to Baby A). At one point Ms. K made up words to it, too, but I don't think they were ever the same words twice. In the video you'll actually hear Baby A singing along at times. :)

I have to add in a little story -- a few weeks ago, K was singing to Baby A in the car on the way to school. When we got to school I turned around to help K hop out of the car, and was surprised to see tears on her cheeks. I asked her what was wrong, and she quickly replied, "Oh, momma, these are happy tears -- I just love to sing to my sister."

K is such a sweet and loving big sister. And I'm so proud of her for finishing Let's Play Music -- it wasn't always fun to practice every day, and it wasn't always fun to have her mom for her teacher, but K kept going (probably because she didn't have a choice... sometimes agency is overrated), and it almost makes me cry 'happy tears' to watch her. :)

Tara Runs Into a Tree

2009-05-13T00:13:00.004-05:00

Because I promised and Dave asked for it.

I'm wearing the camera on my goggles, following my sister in law (in the blue coat).

Silly Tara. Stick to the courderoy.

March to May....

2009-05-12T09:06:00.000-05:00

(This is for you, Katie -- I LOVE the socks!!! And so does everyone else - the compliments are inevitable!) :)

Vail was a blast -- we stayed in a beautiful home just minutes from the resort and skiied half days for three days straight (the snow wasn't fantastic, but the weather was gorgeous). We doubled up with Joseph's twin's family - always a good match. The kids played nicely with one set of parents while the others' skiied, then we swapped.
The funny thing about this trip was that it was an accident. The 3-day 2-night stay in the 'condo' was up for bid in a fundraising auction last year at Joseph's school. He jumped in at the minimum bid, never thinking he'd win it, and DID! THEN he called me, and explained what a great deal this is, what a fun time we'd have, how we'd never be able to take a similar trip for this modest amount, and shouldn't he bid on it? Once he'd talked me into it, I heard his buddy laughing in the background - I asked him what was so funny, and he told me it was actually a done deal, he'd already bid and won (albeit 'by accident'), and he was really glad that I wasn't going to be mad at him. :) What a charmed life he leads!! :)

Shameless Plug...

2009-04-09T10:47:00.002-05:00

I'm way behind on blogging (as is my custom after a vacation or holiday...), but Joseph and I just did something that I had to share. We made a website for a wonderful dentist in the area!!! I did the photo and image editing and Joseph did the html code stuff, and we actually had something to do TOGETHER that didn't have to do with the children or the finances (or lack thereof). Hurray! We just might have a hobby in common! Anyway, we just finished up the flash part last night, and I think it looks awesome. So here's my shameless plug -- if you're in the area and need a good dentist, head on over to Summit Dental! :)

www.summitdentalonline.com

And I promise to do a proper post full of our exciting adventures soon -- I actually demoed a helmet camera while skiing in Vail -- I'll be sure to post the footage from when I ran into the tree... :)