Easter 2011

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. :)

How to have a lovely campout on Labor Day

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!  :)

Easter, anyone??

(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!

Valentine's Day

(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?)

Collage Catch-up Part Deux

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. :)

The Annual Collage Catch-Up

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.

backtrack!

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!

Thanksgiving, 2008

 

 

(Yes, I'm well aware of the fact that it's nearly the end of January.... did I mention that one of my New Year's goals is to blog more regularly so I don't get behind like this?!)

Thanksgiving this year was spent in Missouri with Joseph's oldest brother's family. We had a good crew present: Grandma & Grandpa L, Uncle Jared & family and Uncle Jacob & family brought our grand total to 23. My sister-in-law Heather enlisted the help of her wonderful Aunt to feed the crew, and feed us they did! They were completely amazing. Heather made an amazing turkey roll in place of a traditional roasted turkey -- she deboned an entire turkey the night before, rolled it up with sausage and stuffing and cream from her cows and butter from the cream and all kinds of goodness. They made a fantastic sweet potato dish, a fabulous corn casserole, cooked the ham on the grill outside, had 5 different beautiful gourmet pies, fantastic mashed potatoes, scrumptious green beans, and the list goes on and on. This family amazes me -- they moved to MO from Puerto Rico (literally from a sandy beach to a muddy farm) a few years ago, and have been experimenting with small scale farming. They use all organic fertilizers, & their produce is fantastic. Then they also raise their own meat (food storage on the hoof!), have their own milk cows and all the products they can derive from that (Heather makes butter and just about every kind of cheese I've ever (and never) heard of. They currently have two milk cows, a handful of sheep, pigs, beef cows, chickens, 2 dogs, a variety of cats and occassionally have goats, donkeys, horses, you name it. I have always been impressed with this family's industry, but now I'm simply amazed. Joseph dreams of having a few acres some day, but I just don't know if I could handle all that WORK!  In any case, along with all those fantastic raw ingredients, Heather is an absolute wonder in the kitchen.  She and her aunt really made an amazing meal.

About the fried turkey -- last year, Joseph fried up his wild turkey that he'd shot earlier in the season.  He tried to share it with everyone, but after Jacob got a piece of breast meat with buck shot in it, no one was very interested.... :)  So this year he was determined to redeem himself.  He BOUGHT two nice little birds, and fried them up to PERFECTION.  He did get a leetle carried away with the injecting of cajun marinade -- there were pockets of soupy juice in a few spots that were a little weird.  But it was so yummy and moist and flavorful, and I just wish I had brought a second stomach so I could have eaten more...

So Thanksgiving this year (and, really, every year) was all about the FOOD. I didn't even manage to get a picture of all the beautiful people there. Oops....

After dinner we lounged around and enjoyed one anothers' company while we digested.  The boys all went off to the back of the property to play with their guns.  The kids enjoyed exploring the barns and watching the milking of the cows.  It was a really pleasant holiday.  We came home, went to bed, and 4 hours later I woke up to go to WalMart.  Crazy.  The portable DVD player is a piece of junk -- should have slept. :)