a trip to Utah

Life is full these days, and it isn't slowing down any time soon. I had to force myself to sit a few minutes and take time for an update. We just returned from a fun visit to Utah. Now we have a day of catch up for laundry and a bit of house cleaning before packing up for several days of spiritual inspiration. In fact, posting will probably be a bit sporadic for a couple more weeks, and then hopefully I'll be able to resume my normal posting schedule (whatever that is).

I thought I'd share a few highlights of our Utah trip. We hadn't been back for more than a year so we had a long agenda of shopping and visiting plans. It was difficult to get everything done and see everyone we wanted to in just a few short days (between two LONG days on the road), but we did a respectable job. In the end we did less painting the town with our credit card and more catching up with friends. Which was just fine.

We stayed with our ex-next-door neighbors (love you guys!) and shamefully didn't take any photos of them. Our time with them was fantastic and it was a blast to fall right back in to our old patterns—hanging out outside while the kids played and playing Settlers of Catan. We even took time to play at the park and visit a few others in the neighborhood. Speaking of our old neighborhood, I had to sneak a couple of photos of our old house:

The new owners get to enjoy the fruits of all my planting labors. Everything has gone crazy.

Perhaps just the motivation I needed to patiently tend to my new garden and dream of the day it matures like this. I mean, how about those lilies? They're huge!

Something we don't miss so much:

Incessant road construction and traffic.

I popped by my old office for lunch and a visit with old coworkers. Tom did the same the next day while I checked off a big item on our shopping agenda—Ikea. They were under construction :( and out of stock on a lot of items (grrr) but I still left with a much lighter wallet. I'm sure you'll see some of my purchases in future posts.

We spent a fun-filled day with friends downtown, shopping and attending the Chalk Art Festival at the Gateway. The kids were so happy to see their old friends.

Sure loved meeting this beauty of a baby also:

The chalk art was fun to see:

From the Gateway we rode the tracks to the new City Creek development, across from Temple Square. Tom worked on that job when we were there, so it was fun for him to see the finished project. It was a bit depressing to see how many stores had pulled out of other shopping areas to go there. (Even my beloved Anthropologie that I so looked forward to stopping at was closed at Gateway and not yet reopened at City Creek. That saved me some money, I guess.) I hope places like Trolley Square and Gateway don't die because of this development—however nice it is. It was a shopper's paradise, but it was hard to do much real shopping with lots of kids in tow.

We ended with a bit of time at Riverton (church) Convention. We certainly could have profited from spending more of our time time there but enjoyed the time we did have, and the people we saw.

And then one final visit on our last night:

A reunion of two-year-olds and their mamas. The perfect way to cap off the trip. 

For those faces we regretted to miss, we hope to see you next time. For those we did see, thanks for the great time. And a huge thanks especially to our gracious hosts. Miss you already!

Eva is 2!

Our little miracle baby is two! There were definitely times while I was pregnant with her I thought this day would never come to be, but here we are, blessed as ever to know and love this little munchkin.

At two Eva is full of spirit and life and well on her way to living up to the terrible two reputation. No, really she just has a few moments of frustration and agitation mixed in with her mostly good moments. We just go with the flow around here.

Since no obvious theme inspired me this year, I just made a big #2 cake. I even cut a few corners and used a box mix and frosting, and low and behold, everyone thought it was tastier than ever. But when is this momma going to learn how to use her auto-focus points and focus on her beautiful babies instead of those candles? Argh. I don't know how many photos I have of the sweetest blurry expressions.  

At this age you tend to rely mostly on family parties since, you know, they often don't yet have a full entourage of friends their age. We brought it down to her level though with these two cute little red heads (my cousin's twins.)

Don't you love the addition of the hog wire on our deck? It sure gives us peace of mind when little kiddos like this are out there... until we have a time to build a permanent railing.

Eva's favorite gift by far was this little drum set. 

She even knew exactly what to do with it. It came with some other noise makers also, but the drums were her favorite. I'm pretty sure this is the kind of gift you give when you don't like the parents. This was from her Grandpa and Grandma though, so I think they were just paying me back for all the years they had to listen to me play "Heart and Soul" on the piano until I got it just right. :)

Now for a few 2-year milestone updates:

I mentioned in a post a ways back that Eva has had a tremor/shake, so I wanted to follow up with an update. While it was never super obvious, our pediatrician noticed it at her 18-month well child visit and asked if we would like to have her evaluated by a neurologist. Thus began a long, drawn-out process. We made an appointment with a neurologist and waited nearly 6 months to see him. At first he recommended waiting and doing nothing, but after evaluating her for awhile, he said that her tremor was definitely more than he likes to see and he recommended doing an MRI. At least another month passed before we were able to have that done, and another week before we had results. The waiting game certainly wasn't fun, but I didn't ever feel too worried since her tremor always seemed really subtle and wasn't getting worse. The MRI process wasn't exactly fun either, as she had to be put under for the test. All went smoothly, however, and the results came back normal. They then backtracked a bit and recommended doing blood tests (normally the first course of action), but those returned normal as well. Perhaps she had some nerve damage from the pregnancy and will just grow out of it...? We may never know. In the end, we have a bruised pocket book and some peace of mind. 

Eva loves more than anything to be outside and explore. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes are terrible on the farm, and even worse, they love all the females in our family. We also seem to be quite allergic, and poor little Eva has been reacting to every little bite she gets. I hate deet, but I also hate being a prisoner in my house. We may have to resort to spraying the yard to minimize them, but if anyone has suggestions for safe organic repellent that actually works, please share the love!

We haven't introduced Eva to the potty yet, but we did buy a little one and are starting to hint in that direction. I sure wouldn't mind a smooth and speedy transition in that department. 

Eva is a great little talker and entertainer. She counts really well—skips a few numbers—but makes it to 10 and even beyond. Her favorite song to sing is "Twinkle twinkle". I just have to leave you with this funny little video we captured of her walking up to the camera tripod and using it as a microphone—like it had been left there just for that purpose. 

Mother's Day

I spent the day working outside yesterday, so just now getting around to downloading my photos from the weekend. I hope you all had a happy Mother's Day weekend! Mine was rich with blessings.

On Friday, I got to join all the moms from Kindergarten through 2nd grade for a "Muffins for Moms" celebration. Sarah, dressed as a little Shirley Temple, performed Good Ship Lollipop with her class and I must say she was the most darling. :) I just love our small school and it brings back so many memories . . .

Saturday morning we headed out early to join Tom's family at a horse show, and the girls got an opportunity to get a little experience in the show arena. This isn't really my thing, but the smiles on the girls faces make it all worth while. Sarah was led in a Lead Line class by her cousin Tristin.

Abby hasn't been on a horse for months but did awesome in her Walk class with not so much as a warm up. 

On Sunday we enjoyed the Mother's Day brunch at the beautiful Gallatin Gateway Inn. It was a treat.

Me and my beautiful girls—I am the luckiest Mom!

This is Tom's sister and her gorgeous family. Tom's Dad is known for being thoughtful and bought us lilies to wear. 

My nephew is never serious for the camera—I have a million pictures like this of him, some at this very hotel! These kids were so grown up and well behaved. It is rather nice when your kids get to the age where they can tend to themselves at a buffet. Know what I'm sayin', moms?

Eva still needs help with her plate, of course, but Tom took over that chore so I could relax and enjoy my meal. Eva kept herself busy by loading every single finger with yogurt, then licking it off.

Abby loves to borrow my camera, and I think she does a great job. It means I actually end up on the other side of the lens once in awhile.

My dapper nephews—not having any boys of my own I really enjoy spending time with these sweet guys.

Thanks to my sweetie for a great weekend. It was perfect! Well, there is one thing that would have topped it off—spending time with my own mother. But unfortunately I can't be two places at once, and I'm glad I get to see my Mom almost every day. Love you, Mom!

Back at home I get to spend lots of time with my own kiddos and enjoy mornings hanging out with Eva instead of trotting off to work. I do consider myself very blessed having had worked full time while the other two were little.

Eva plays me a tune on the ukelele. . . and then carries it off to her next gig.

Much to be thankful for. Happy Mother's Day to you all!

basement playroom

Hello there! I'm back on this beautiful Monday to share another basement project. There may be a million things I could add to the kids playroom under the stairs before I call it finished. It will probably change as fast as the kids grow and their interests evolve. The latest addition was a fun and inexpensive improvement.

I used to store the kids' dress-ups in an expandable bucket of sorts. The trouble was, when they wanted to wear something, they dumped the entire bucket out to find what they were looking for. 

We have quite a lot of dress-ups because Sarah especially was into dressing up for a long time. I've saved most of their Halloween costumes and dance outfits for dress-ups also. Now the older two have mostly outgrown it, but Eva is just getting started. 

I found some cute velvet child-size hangers on sale for cheap recently, so I snatched up a bunch and bought a tension rod to hang in this shallow space under the stairs. It looks so much more organized, and it is much easier for the girls to find what they are looking for. Best of all, it is removable/movable.

 

Eva adores her playroom (another tight space and difficult room to take pictures of)!

That means my old strategy of storing Legos up here to keep them out of her reach is no longer effective. Oh well! :)

photo book annual

My photo book arrived, and I'm thrilled with it!

 

It has been a goal of mine for a LONG time to do photo book annuals for our family photos, but it seemed like it always fell to the back burner. So to finally get one finished and printed feels SO GOOD. I'm freshly motivated to start on 2012, and also to work backwards until I have one for every year that we've been married. (Back to 1997!) When I get back to about 2004 I was shooting film, so my photos will need to all be scanned. I also didn't take as many photos back then, and I don't remember as many details to write about, so I may combine multiple years in one book.

I ordered my book from Shutterfly, and it was about $68 (including shipping) which I think is a screaming deal when you think about how much it used to cost to buy film and develop a year's worth of photos. Or how much it would cost in supplies (or time) to scrapbook. I had a 50% off promotion code, and an additional $10 off code that kept the cost down significantly. 

My book is 12 x 12 (ideal for fitting lots of pictures on a page) and 72 pages long. I used a lot of the photos and text from my blog rather than starting from scratch, which helped a ton with the time factor.

Here are a few of the layouts:

I set up a limited number of grids and font styles to follow and kept the design pretty simple from there. I intend to keep this same design theme going through all the books I do, so I wanted it to be pretty clean and classic.

Shutterfly has some really nice templates to follow, but I wanted complete design flexibility so I built mine in InDesign and uploaded full pages as JPEGs. The production isn't absolutely perfect—the spine text doesn't align perfectly for example, and I've found a couple of small design errors already, but I know from my years of catalog publishing that they are never perfect. 

Overall it turned out awesome and my family is already having a ball reliving our last year. I can't wait to start the next one—wish me luck!

Easter weekend

I'm a little behind on this, but I thought I would kick off this weekend by sharing last weekend's Easter photos. After a gray winter it is so refreshing to see spring colors and green grass. A little Photoshop saturation boost doesn't hurt either. :)

Every year as sort of an Easter tradition I try to get the girls a new spring outfit. This year my mom made it easy for me and sewed these adorable skirts with fabric she acquired in Hawaii. My mom is a seamstress extraordinaire. I know this because she used to sew all my fancy childhood dresses.

We shared an egg hunt with my dear cousin Barb and her boys and everyone soaked up the beautiful spring weather. 

Today, just a few days later, it is cold and wet but we are loving the sight of a good spring soaker. Tom said, "It's great, but it's making those weeds I haven't sprayed yet grow faster". Yes, that means it is making the crops grow also. The bulbs in my flower garden are growing, the grass is greener, the weeds are taking over, and the gophers are out.

Abby and her buddy Jace are doing their part to control the gopher population. I'm pretty sure they would need to make this quota daily to make a dent.

spring on the farm

A lot of random thoughts to share with you today. I've been rather inconsistent with my posts lately and I'm starting to feel like have lots to catch up on, so random is what you get. 

So we are approaching Easter weekend around here. Actually, we are approaching it everywhere—ha. But here in our small school we don't get a spring break, just 3 days off for Easter to make it a 5 day weekend. We finish earlier than the bigger schools at the end of the year then, but for now we just get this one short break. I was really hoping to make a trip to Utah this weekend. It's been a year since we visited. I have a VERY LONG shopping list, not to mention all the friends we'd love to catch up with. 

Mother nature had other ideas. When spring comes, so does the farm work. It doesn't wait on petty vacations. The seeder is parked out front ready to go and we are out spraying the eager weeds. Once we get rolling, we have at least 2 solid weeks of very long days to finish the seeding. So for now, IKEA can wait.

We are using this contraption to clean lentils and peas for planting:

Last Sunday we had a sneak preview of Easter dinner—I had an old ham in the freezer and some new ovens to try out. The leftover ham bone was the perfect base for pea soup, so while we were out cleaning peas for planting, we were inside cooking last year's bounty for dinner. Farm to table at its best.

I should have trekked out to the shop for some freshly cleaned peas. I had to pick some straw out of mine since they were collected straight in off the field. (Extra fiber, right?) Aside from that, a quick rinse was all that was needed to ready these for cooking into a yummy pea soup.

The girls want to be outside all. the. time. I caught this picture of them on one of our first warm days:

Their cowgirl boots and ball caps made me smile. That's how they roll. Now Sarah is already sporting her flip flops and tank tops. It will be quite a shocker when it snows this week. The snow likely won't stick around for long, however. Spring is in the air. Bring on the moisture! And if it snows, maybe I'll have a little luck getting some help with a few more indoor projects, hey?

Our swing set is being put to good use. Best investment!

The big girls aren't the only ones enjoying the great outdoors. Whenever the door opens, Eva makes a run for it. "'side?" she says. She doesn't want to stay in the yard, either. She just wants to take off down the road and never stop. Reigning her in is going to be a challenge and we are just praying she doesn't learn how to open the door any time soon.

A few other Eva-isms: (See, I told you this would be random.) She is talking a blue streak. One of my favorites is when she says what she wants—for example "juice"—and you repeat it back to her to make sure you understand, "Juice?". She says "ohay" (okay) to confirm. Like its your idea and she is just agreeing to it. So cute.

At night when it is story time, she has to have her own book (always an Archie comic) and reads aloud along side us. She is getting quite vocal when she isn't understood, or when she doesn't get what she wants. Typical almost-2 behavior. Love her.

We are done with the skiing season. Sarah got a slow start this year, despite having a lesson and lots of encouragement from Dad. Finally I had an opportunity a few weeks ago to join them on the slopes, and with a lot of patience was able to get Sarah started, one inch at a time. With every inch came an ounce of confidence, and now she is beating us down the slopes. The photo above was taken on the little bunny slope conveyer lift, but I promise she has graduated to much bigger adventures.

So that is what is going on at the farm—outside. Do you like hearing about the farm work? Would you like to hear more? Inside, projects have stalled indefinitely. Though I'm not completely out of things to catch up on and share with you. More to come!

My poem that won both county and state in a writing contest

by Abby.

My poem won 1st in county and state in a writing contest held by the women's club.

It is now going to nationals!!!I am super excited!

The poem is called " Oh Old scarecrow" and I am very proud of it.

So here it is!

Oh Old Scarecrow

Oh old scarecrow

Hanging in the alfalfa field

Pesky mice

Irritating gnats

Annoying flies

Squawking crows

How do you do it?

Smile on your face

Arms pushing against the wind

Scaring fluttering moths away.

That must really make your day!

Yep! That's my poem.

Hoped you liked it!!!

Progress report

I didn't blog at all last week. Sorry for disappearing, but sometimes you just need to leave the computer off and get to work. Know what I mean? It's like this quote:

After vacation and then being sick for way too long, we had some serious ground to make up. Long hours were put in last week and I do have some progress to report.

Above: Texturing the ceiling and then priming and painting (in the dark). Done! After that we were able to install all the ceiling can lights so we don't have to work in the dark. Then painting the walls. We still have one more coat to put on the walls, but we'll wait until after the flooring mess is complete.

Above right: Dust coats every surface in the house. I can't keep on top of it so I quit trying for now.

An unexpected delay—our existing subfloor was particle board, which is not an ideal substrate for tiling. It has a tendency to swell when wet and can cause your tiles to crack. We decided $400+ in plywood would be a cheap investment in the long run to protect the 900 square feet of tile we were laying. So up came all the existing subfloor and down went brand new plywood. (A dusty job.)

Next a layer of cement board goes down with thinset and nails. The nailing kicked up even more dust.

Next the tile was brought in from the garage to warm up. Even though not every inch of plywood and cement board has been laid (we still have to do the laundry room), we are trying to move forward in the kitchen area so we can begin installing base cabinets and then get countertops templated. While we wait for the granite to be cut and installed, we can continue to work on the rest of the floor. As of this morning, about a 3rd of the tile has been laid in the kitchen/dining room. Progress!

Although I was recruited for painting and a few odd jobs here and there, mostly my job is feeding the crew and keeping the kids out of the mess. Am I ever thankful for our finished basement to hang out in right now.

Eva is a busy girl and loves to be in the middle of everything going on. Although I probably won't dedicate a whole post to it, Eva did pass the 20 month mark in February. Her biggest milestones are talking—she has a broad vocabulary now and communication is getting easier. This is absolutely my favorite age. She is also getting molars on both sides, top and bottom, so teething symptoms are rampant. Overall she is such an easy, mellow kid and such a joy to us. Loving her to pieces.

Did I mention we had company for several days last week too? Some great friends from San Diego made a visit and we couldn't turn them away. We issued a warning before they came, of course, and really appreciated their patience with our chaos and dust. 

Their little Emma Grace and our Eva Grace are less than a month apart in age. They had the ultimate play date and we had a blast watching them interact. Poor little Emma got sick on their last day here. Boo :( Hopefully it didn't come from lingering sick germs around our house. Consider this a warning—it might be best to avoid our house until the dust and germs dissipate!

Happy Valentine's Week

Valentine's Day was a bit of an afterthought this year, what with getting home from Hawaii just prior. And getting the flu. We brought a stomach bug home with us and it has taken pity on nobody. Abby is the last one to be affected and is home from school today. Progress on the kitchen has completely stalled while we all work on getting our mojo back. 

I did absolutely nothing Valentine-y for those I love the most. I guess we figured a trip to Hawaii was gift enough. We did spend one night pulling together a last minute homemade Valentine for the girls to give to their classmates, however. Tom wondered (as he always does) why I couldn't just settle for store-bought cards, but they just feel so impersonal to me. 

So I stole (borrowed) this idea found via Pinterest. While the idea wasn't original, it fit the bill of being personal and homemade.

They are rice crispy kisses, molded with a funnel and then wrapped with foil with a simple printed verse attached. And they hardly took any more time to put together than it would have to hand print 40 names on generic cards.

Parent's were invited to join Sarah's Kindergarten class for a party, complete with songs and brownies and ice cream. I was able to watch the kids open their Valentines and witness first hand what appealed to them. 1) Must have candy/treats. If it didn't, it was cast aside quickly. 2) Must be unique. One kid hand painted his cards on plain paper. They were so cute and while I may have appreciated the extra effort more than the kids, they did take a few extra moments to look at the card. 3) Must have the element of anticipation. If they have something to open—an envelope or a box—they really had a good time revealing what was inside.  Oh yeah. And 4) fake tattoos. For some reason those were a hit. 

Hope you had a fabulous Valentine's week!

Hawaii—Part 2

Continued . . .

We ate out about one meal a day while we were there, and the rest of the time we cooked. We made one giant trip to Costco to stock up at the beginning of the trip and we left with more food than we thought we could ever use. Our mantra became "Use it up!" and I must say, we did pretty darn well. My sister-in-law Amy even made granola bars (from leftover pancake syrup, peanut butter, trail mix, and oatmeal) for the plane trip home. How is that for resourceful? They were awesome, by the way.

I'm proud that we incorporated the local food into our cooking. We stocked up on pineapple, papayas, mango, Hawaiian sweet potatoes, Ono (fish tacos!), and so on. Grilled pineapple is awesome in everything.

One restaurant we enjoyed was with our dear friend Sue that we met up with at church and then joined for lunch at her favorite Chinese place. The food was excellent.

I suppose an ideal trip to Hawaii would include a lot of relaxation time for reading, sunbathing, etc. When you travel with kids you have to adjust your expectations. However, there is absolutely nothing better than seeing the world through the eyes of a child.

As it turned out, a big van was the cheapest way to transport our group. It turned out to be a fun way to get around and spend time together. It didn't really say that on the side. But if it had it would have saved a few poor saps some embarrassment as they tried to flag us down at the airport.

Having a pool at the house was the only way to go. It meant the kids could still have fun even if the adults just wanted to sit around and chill.

If you ask people which island is their favorite you usually hear Maui or Kawaii. Tom and I had been to the big island before. Even though many people don't love the city atmosphere of Honolulu, Oahu won out because of the attractions it had to offer (Pearl Harbor, etc.). And we didn't want to island hop with the kids. We have no regrets. We stayed over the mountain from Honolulu and found Kailua to be a perfect mix of urban amenities and rural flavor. The scenery was stunning coming and going. My advice? Oahu is great for a first-time experience, but be sure to get out of the city!

Hawaii—Part 1

While my blog was busily posting as usual, I was off playing hooky. Yep, that's right. No kitchen progress—again. But we figured we would keep up appearances and not announce to the world we would be away. 

I suppose it is crazy to leave in the middle of a huge project like a kitchen remodel, but this trip was in the works for a long time. My mom saved her own paychecks to make it possible to take her entire family on a trip to celebrate their upcoming 40th anniversary, and we were the enormously lucky benefactors.

(Note—you may notice one member of the family is missing in all of the photos, and it wasn't because she was behind the camera. My sister-in-law Annie opted to stay behind since traveling wasn't advised for their little bun in the oven. We missed you Annie!) 

And off we go on a photo journal of our trip:

The house we rented was absolutely perfect... beachy, roomy, and a just short walk to the beach and downtown Kailua.

The first few days we were there were rather cold and rainy, but we made good use of the time by doing some touristy things. The rainiest day was spent at Pearl Harbor. It was quite something, really—while on the deck of the Mighty Missouri battleship, we could see a wall heavy rain storm heading straight for us. Our tour guide gave us a quick warning to make a run for it, but we were all soaked before we made it to cover. 

We took in a luau and the pig was delicious. The other local fare—like poi (Hawaiian root vegetable)—not so much. The show, called Ha!, was worth the while. 

 Kailua beach is touted as the best beach on the island and it wasn't hard to see why. And only a short walk from our house.

I worried we wouldn't have any sunny days to play on the beach, but the weather came through for us.

More to come . . .

creativity—rein it in or let it go?

I have raised little monsters of creative genius. Don't get me wrong—I am proud of them—but with creativity comes a LOT OF MESS. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

My girls are into American Girl dolls. They each have one, and I love that every birthday and Christmas is a piece of cake because they always have an outfit or accessory on their wish list.

Lately though, I've wondered if I should be wasting my money on those accessories. Abby especially has the most fun making her own!

Both girls have little "rooms" set up in the corner of their bedrooms. Here is Abby's setup:

I think every room of the house is accounted for here. That hip black bucket chair you see is made of a cute top and skirt that should be hanging in her closet. (They aren't damaged, just occupied.) The clutter that ensues is a bit frustrating, but I tolerate it as long as it is kept in one corner of the room. (It never does). It's the building process that is the messiest.

The craft room always looks like this. 

So they make their creations on their bedroom floors. (Wait, this picture was AFTER she cleaned up! But the strings, supplies, and fabric scraps still carpet the floor. Never mind the hot-glue-gun-melted spot.)

I was too late to snap a picture of this, but one day I found their dolls laying out on a sandy beach of colored cardstock in their homemade swimsuits with homemade beach bags and towels beside them. I didn't think much of it until later when I was cleaning up and found pieces of socks on the floor. Their bikinis were made out of socks! No wonder my daughter never has enough socks! They are resourceful, I'll give them that. They know right where to find my best scrapbooking adhesive and scissors. I had a workshop recently and found all 3 of my adhesive cartridges empty. I've started buying it in bulk.

I'll end my rant and just say: beware of teaching your little girls to sew. Or paint. Or use scissors. Just sayin'.

Eva—19 months old

I just realized it has been awhile since I've posted an Eva update. I missed her 18 month mark and now have let 19 months slip by too. This is what our precious Eva has been up to:

Here she is playing one of her favorite games. She loves things with lots of small pieces, and loves to scatter them everywhere. I feel like I'm constantly picking up toys and books. Time to learn the "clean up" song!

She has this adorable cheesy grin that is hard to capture on camera. Her sense of humor is really starting to shine.

Another favorite activity—drawing. Not long ago I showed you her artwork on one of our new doors. I do have to watch this one because she will walk up to any wall and start coloring. For some reason it is so much more tempting than paper! The vertical surface of this easel is perfect for her. By the way, did you notice we might have a lefty on our hands? I don't know why this surprises me so much, but she is the first one in our family.

She trucks up the stairs as she pleases, but is much more timid coming back down and usually prefers to be carried.

Therefore, the gate at the top of the stairs is more for the pets than for Eva. We like to keep the cat out of the basement since she has an affinity for sharpening her claws on and snagging our new carpet.

Eva loves to say "meow" to the cat and is quite gentle with both of our pets. 

Her hair is getting longer, isn't it? I bought some cute little barrettes for her, but she won't leave them in. She loves to have me put them in, but immediately takes them back out and hands them to me to put in again. I tire of that game after about 4 times and give up. 

She is still such a slow teether with only 8 teeth. Her eye teeth aren't in yet, but recently she has had some definite teething symptoms and I can feel a molar coming on. 

Eva's vocabulary increases everyday and she will mimic everything. I love that she still babbles in her own language quite a bit also. She knows EXACTLY what she is saying and says it with so much inflection and expression, but we just nod and say "really"? She just loves to holler "Abby", but she uses that name universally for both of her sisters. Sarah is just too hard to say!

I looked back at my last Eva post a bit more than 2 months ago and saw that it was when she finally started walking. Now it seems like she has been walking forever. I was concerned about her feet pointing out, but it seems to have corrected quite a bit. Her hip x-ray was good, so we will just continue to monitor it. Her pediatrician noticed a bit of a shake/tremor when we were there also. It is very subtle, but since we have noticed it a little bit too we are going to play it safe and meet with a neurologist to rule out any nerve/muscle related issues that could have affected her late walking and stance. We have to wait for availability with a doctor from another city that only comes once a quarter, so our appointment isn't until April. There seems to be no other developmental issues or reason for urgent concern, so we will wait!

These photos were taken over the course of one of our ordinary mornings. Every day I count my blessings and marvel at how great it is to spend this time with her at home since I didn't have that privelege with our other two. I don't get much done in the morning as I follow her around, but I try not to fret about it. We tend to spend a lot of time in the basement to stay out of the remodeling mess. After lunch time I put her down for a nice long afternoon nap, and that is when I can really go to town and get something done. Today it was painting light fixtures—more on that later. I'll be back to remodeling updates next time! 

Episode 2: Christmas Joy is . . .

. . . Christmas Programs!

The girls' school has the best old auditorium. This Christmas Program was so adorable.

Abby was the narrator and did a fabulous job, never missing a line (and the rest of the time she mouthed every one else's lines :)

Sarah's group sang "I'm Gettin' Nothin' for Christmas" (among other songs) and most of the kids had their own little solo. Sarah sang "broke my daddy's coffee mug" load and clear and right on key. I was such a proud mom.

Aren't they cute in their little pajamas?

After the program, Santa came to give everyone a candycane.

During the entire program, Eva sat on her Grandpa's lap, occasionally yelling out "Abby!" and clapping her hands. Afterward Grandpa put her up on stage and she was quite thrilled to face everyone and smile. She had her moment with Santa also, but was mostly interested in the candycane. 

The girls had a great support group come to watch them. Thanks everyone for coming, especially Nanna and Papa all the way from Bozeman! 

Episode 1: Christmas Joy is . . .

. . . building Gingerbread Houses with the Kindergartners!

Before the break I spent an afternoon building gingerbread houses with the Kindergartners, using milk cartons and graham crackers. I love those kids. We made the real thing a few days later, which I'll share in an upcoming post.

Are you all enjoying your holiday? The Christmas spirit is still going strong at our house and we plan on soaking it up as much as possible before next Monday rolls around. I'll share some of our best bits over the next few days. 

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a wonderfully low-key Thanksgiving at home this year. 

We began the day with freshly baked cinnamon rolls. Shrimp cocktail, meat, and cheese tided us over until dinner. Our main menu was complete with a perfectly roasted and moist turkey, made-from-scratch sausage and apple stuffing, yam-bake, asparagus, mashed potatoes, spinach salad, and rolls. Everything went off without a hitch, I'm proud to say.

Somehow we still had room for homemade pumpkin and sour cream raisin pie, and not-so-homemade red velvet cheesecake. (You have to be allowed to cheat on a few things, right?) 

Our table was not so crowded with my nephews and Tom's parents joining us. Plenty of food to go around and enough leftovers to last a week.

It was stress-free with lots of time to relax and play games. A perfect day in my estimation!

Hope you all had a perfect Thanksgiving also. Enjoy the rest of your long weekend!

Guess who's walking?

Just shy of 17 months, we finally have a toddler on her hands. Kind of. At least now we know she can. She isn't very consistent and still prefers to walk on her knees:

Mom suggested we make bubble wrap bumpers for our fireplace and sharp countertop corners. That'd be a good look, don't you think? 

I am going to have her looked at by the doctor because I've been concerned that her feet point out too far, especially the right one. Now that she is walking it is more pronounced and I'd rather be safe than sorry and intervene early.

Other 17 month updates:

 

She had her first little injury (fell against a table and cut the inside of her lip) and ended up with a fat lip. It broke my heart. Of course she is okay.

She can get pretty testy sometimes in a mood that could probably only be blamed on serious teething, but I still can only spot 8. Those testy moods and sore lips make it pretty difficult to actually check.

Our conversations go like this:

E: "MOM"

Me: "What?"

E: "MOM"

Me: "What?"

E: "MOM"

Me: "What, Eva, what's up?"

E: "Ga ba do da waaiiii la mo"

Me: "Oh really?"

E: "No."

mermaids

Lately my girls have been obsessed with mermaids. Especially Abby. I'm not sure what started it—but I know it was these mermaid fins that fueled it:

They were originally spotted in the Chasing Fireflies catalog that always comes in the mail just to tempt us (good for drooling, not so good for buying, although I did buy a dress from them once when I could NOT resist the cuteness. I don't regret the splurge, especially now that I have another baby girl that will wear it someday!)

Abby started asking for these mermaid fins, but we were concerned about their safety for someone who was just beginning to swim. Didn't God give us two legs for a reason? But Abby persisted and tried to make her own. First she cut the fins from cardboard and covered them with tape. When I told her they would not actually work in the water, she was devastated. Then she tried again using cloth and a hanger as a frame, duct taping flip flops to the hanger to attach her feet to. She was determined to try to swim with them, but of course I was quite concerned about how it would look if my daughter actually brought those things to the pool with her . . . (Why, oh why did I not get a picture of her creations?)

I compromised and bought little snorkel sets for the girls (with separate, normal fins.) They got our money's worth out of them during our trip to California last month. 

Back to the mermaids. They have also long admired these towels (sold by Chasing Fireflies too):

But this mom is mean and cheap and I would not buy towels at $48/pop. Never fear—when you have an ultra creative and talented auntie Amy, you might just get exactly what you want in the form of a beautifully handmade belated birthday gift! Aren't they absolutely amazing? The girls are tickled pink (and orange and green and blue.)

Thanks a million times, Amy!

Halloween

This (normally) Halloween Scrooge couldn't help but have a ton of fun this year.

Parties, friends, and family are what this day is all about. And candy and good food.

Eva wore the cutest hand-me-down flower costume. We made Abby's costume this year, using this tutorial. Sarah's butterfly was pieced together at the last minute for our Disneyland trick-or-treating adventure, and she was happy to wear it again.

Our American Gothic costume was thrown together last minute on Halloween day. Those are usually the best kind, aren't they? But it was my mom's costume (whatever it was—80's workout diva?) that took us all out. And all because I made fun of her for wearing that jacket while she was raking leaves the other day. ("What are you wearing, and where did THAT come from?")

Big kids and little kids alike had a great time carving pumpkins. Especially the ones sporting our favorite mascots.

Tasty chili (did I detect a hint of duck?), homemade root beer and ice cream, wriggly worms, and more than enough sugary treats to go around. I shall be on a diet until next year. Or Thanksgiving, at least.