Christmas Trinkets

I was looking out the window yesterday afternoon at the snow and my eye caught the tree I had decorated up for Christmas. It looked so beautiful with the ice and snow and ornaments. I decided to try my photography skills out and see if I could capture the beauty. My camera isn't the best for this type of picture taking, but I got a couple of nice shots.

Oh, the weather outside is Frightful, but I find it Delightful!

Here are pictures of our crazy snow. We rarely get snow here and right now we have almost a foot. No one is going out and driving on the roads. The city is just not equiped to handle this much snow removal. It snowed wednesday and our road was finally plowed yesterday morning.

This is the sidewalk I cleared with a stupid dirt shovel. I called 8 different stores before this last storm hit trying to find a snow shovel, but they were all sold out, everywhere! I was using our big garage broom, but this stuff was so heavy with moisture it packed instead of pushed.

Leah and I build a snowman on Wednesday. He's still there but hunched over with old age.

Charlie loved the snow until he tried walking directly in it. I haven't been letting him out because he's been sick. He's mad about that, he want to go outside and play in the snow.

Pictures from Derek

Derek called me this morning to tell me a little about the trip he was able to go on this last week. He emailed over pictures as he was talking to illustrate his story. Here are the pictures.

Typical Derek humor...

This is one of Sadam's thrones. It's in his hunting lodge in Baghdad. It was given to him by Yassir Arrifat (I'm too lazy to look up the proper spelling of his name) I personally love the enormous copper tea-pot in the background. Seriously...what is that thing?

This is Derek in the main palace hunting lodge. It is wall to wall, floor to ceiling marble. That is an enormous crystal chandelier in the background.

This is a picture of the grounds of the hunting lodge. A large man-made lake sits in teh middle surrounded by these "houses". Derek said this lake is probably 6 feet deep and miles around. So think of that when you think of all the people dying of thirst and the millions upon millions of gallons used to fill up this useless lake.

This is the main hunting lodge palace. I know I'm calling everything by the wrong name. It's a talent I have.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let is SNOW

I love snow storms. They are so beautiful. Right now we are experiencing quite a blizzard. The snow is thick and wet and falling by the inches. I took the kids for a walk with morning in the snow and we watched all the excited neighborhood kids sledding down our ridiculously small hills. On the way home, there were snowmen dotting the sides of the road. Now I must preface, we don't get a lot of snow here, only once or twice a year. Snow is a big treat. That's probably why I like it so much now. I can't wait to take the kids out after naps and let them play in it and we can build our own snowmen. I'm sure pictures will follow eventually.

Collection of Photos

So here they are, a bunch of photos for you people. So now you can leave me alone and stop asking me to post more pictures. (you know who you are :)

Most of these are from Leah's birthday party. She had an artist party, paint, playdough and coloring. Everyone had so much fun. It was a beautiful day and the kids were even able to go outside and play on the playground before lunch was served. Leah didn't get to blow out her candle. Her best friend Ethan (seen holding hands with her in one of the pictures) blew it out for her. He was too excited to wait for her to get it herself. Oh, and I didn't make the cake, I designed it but had Safeway make it. Her invitations looked like the cake.

Some of the other pictures are from our trip to San Francisco.

the Octopus

This is Leah's Octopus. She was drawing pictures on her new art desk and she ran to me and asked me to come see her octupus. I was expecting the usual scribbles and circles she draws. When I got to her board I saw this drawing. Wow, it looked like a real picture. I had to preserve her first real image. The octopus even has eight legs, well 7 but you can see a scraggly line that could count as the 8th. It was a proud moment for me. Unfortunately it wasn't too long after that that she lost her art supplies. Coloring on the neighbor boy may be considered a form of art in some circles, but not in my house.

I'm still alive!

I know many of you are wondering where I've been the last month and a half. I keep getting requests for more pictures and details of my exploits. Unfortunately, this is only to let you know I'm still here and in the near future, I will be giving a thorough update with pictures. I have been insainly busy the last 2 month and things are just starting to slow down for us. I need to get through this week and then I should have a little more time to spend at the computer uploading pictures. A quick nut shell of our happenings:

1. Charlie turned 1!

2. I made the kids costumes for Halloween.

3. We all flew to San Francisco for a week.

4. We all flew to Boise for almost a week to spend an early thanksgiving with my family

5. Leah turned 3!

6. I taught a class for my wards Super Saturday, so much preparation involved. it took weeks.

7. We had a wonderful thanksgiving with our friends here at home.

8. I went shopping on Black friday with friends. Too much fun!

9. I'm trying to decorate for the holidays

10. Leah is having her 3rd birthday party on Saturday, so much to do.

11. I'm attempting to make christmas cards

So you must forgive me for not being very good at posting lately. I'm taking care of two kids all by myself and trying to keep a social and creative life at the same time. There just aren't enough hours in the day for me to do everything I'd like. Maybe this will keep you satisfied until I can post more...

Happy Birthday Charlie!

I'm a week late at posting this, but all the same, Charlie turned 1 on October 9th. We didn't really celebrate on his birthday. I had a small dinner party for him on Saturday evening. I don't get to cook for adults anymore so I went all out. We had a nice dinner and a nice little party for Charlie. I wish Derek had been here to celebrate with us. I took a bunch of pictures and a lot of video's to send to him.

On a slightly different subject, Charlie has officially taken his first steps. He did it two days before his birthday. He isn't all out walking yet. He crawls too fast and doesn't seem too interested in slowing down and learning to walk. I have no pictures of this feet yet. He does it at such random times and only once, I haven't been able to capture it.

He was talking to daddy on the phone the other day and you could have sworn he said "hi da", so cute.

I just looked at the photo's for the first time and I'm totally disappointed! Most of them turned out blurry. I don't know what happened. My flash must have been off or something. So I'm uploading the ones that looked decent. Sorry Charlie, I didn't mean to screw up your first birthday pictures! Leah only has nice one's because Cadence was here to take them.

The Dinner

The Cake

The eating of the cake. So prim and proper, he didn't even need a bath afterwards.

The Present, at least one of them.

Like I said, pictures are all blurry.

It's Here!

finally

I've been waiting for years for this and now it's here...

Weekend Happenings

We had a very busy weekend. Saturday, I put the kids in hourly care on Post for a couple of hours so I could help a friend of mine move. It was fun being kid free, even if I was moving. They invited us over to dinner that night in their new place as a reward for helping them get everything moved in. The kids had fun running around the new place. Though, I must say, the next house we get, if I have any control over the matter, I want it to be ONE level. I will accept a basement, but I want the bedrooms and main living spaces on one floor. I am so sick of stairs. I thought I'd always love having stairs. They are a pain. I hate going up and down them 50 times a day. I don't clean up as well as I could because I have to walk up the stairs to put something away. (yes, I can be a little lazy) The kids could have all and I mean ALL the toys in their bedrooms, because it would be easy for them to get there and play while I'm in the kitchen or living room doing my thing. They won't go upstairs and play yet with me downstairs. This want for one level was brought to the surface again through this move. They moved into a 3 bed, one level apartment. Such a great floor plan and it was so easy for the kids to play, and us adults to keep track of them. ahh...someday...

I enjoyed watching General Conference over the weekend. I always look forward to Conference weekend. It's so enjoyable to sit at home and listen to our church leaders instruct us, through the power of revelation and the Spirit, how to survive and live happily in these trying time of ours. I recorded all the sessions and watched them at my leisure. Leah even sat relatively still and quiet watching church on TV. I got the hint after she came over and turned off my sewing machine, that I needed to be more quiet and listen instead of working on all my projects. I love to work on stuff and listen to the messages at the same time. There were some amazing talks and I can't wait to read them again in a month when the new Ensign comes out.

One exciting thing that happened during conference...Leah and I were eating popcorn for our afternoon snack. Charlie was still down for his nap. I walked away to do something, and when I got back to Leah, she kept sticking her finger up her nose, over and over and kinda whimpering. I decided to see what she was whining about, normally I just ignore her when she acts like this. I lean her head back and look up her nose...to my horror, she had stuck a popcorn kernel up her nostril. My first thought was, "crap, now we have to go sit in the emergency room". I decided to try and get it out first. The wait at the emergency room is horrendous. I started walking upstairs for my tweezers and halfway up, I remembered I had a great pair of thin tweezers I use to thread my serger. I came back down, showed them to Leah and asked her to lay back. She was scared and kept jerking away from me. I calmly showed her what they were, that I was going to get the popcorn out of her nose then, I barely put the tweezers up her nose and moved them in a slow circle so she could feel that it wouldn't hurt her. After about a minute of finagling, I was able to grasp the stupid seed and pull it out. I almost took a picture and decided against it.
So we had a busy weekend, it could have been worse, but thanks to my serger...we were able to spend the evening at home enjoying a good dinner and a warm bath.

PIANO!!!

I'm so excited. By the end of next week, if all goes well, I will have a beautiful piano sitting in my already over crowded living room. My grandma decided a while ago that she was going to give me her piano. It's currently sitting in her living room in Idaho. I made arrangements a couple of months ago to have it moved here, we are closer to Idaho now than I think we ever will be and I want to get it before we are living on the East coast again. I hadn't heard from the movers in ages and I finally found time, when I actually was remembering, to call them up and see what was going on. Happy day! they surprised me with saying it's scheduled for next week! WooHoo! (you can't tell I'm excited or anything can you?) I can't wait to start refreshing my playing skills.

Fun Times!

My dad was able to come visit, twice, for a total of about 2 weeks. We had so much fun. We were able to go do all the touristy things around Washington, well at least as much as you can with 2 young children that need to nap. Here is a collage of our travels. We took a day and rode the ferry up to Seattle. We also took another trip out to Ocean Shores on the Pacific Coast. We stayed the night in this great little hotel right on the beach. I would go back out there in a second. What a great area. We ate dinner at a quaint little Irish pub, so good. Charlie crawled all over the beach and got soaking wet and sandy. He crawled right into the ocean and let the waves lap around him. Leah and I built our first ever sand castle. Not the best, but it was freezing that day on the beach. My dad went out early and found dozens of whole sand dollars on the beach. They were beautiful. It was a great time. I can't wait to do it again.

Look at these two!

Seriously if they were dressed nondescript, I don't think you could tell them apart. I, sadly to say, can't pull up Leah's baby face in my memories. I remember her actions and personality, but I can't remember her face. I just happened across some pictures while I was cleaning up the computer and I think I found out why...they look too much alike. I tried finding pictures of them in similar poses. Without too much looking, because it's passed my bed time, I found these and decided I needed to take another 5 min and post the pictures for all to marvel over.

Long Absent

Life as a parent is tough, life is even tougher when you find yourself doing the job alone. I find myself incredibly busy now, some of it out of my control, a good portion of my own doing. It's good to be busy, it makes the time fly by much faster and I really want that right now.

Leah and Charlie are both doing well. I know I have pictures somewhere I should post, but you may have to wait for that. I'll see if I still have time when I finish writing this up.

My Dad has come for a visit and we have been having a lot of fun. So far we have hit the Farmer's Market, the book store, checked out the tugboats and gone blackberry picking. Leah is an excellent blackberry picker. Better than most kids because she won't eat the blackberries she picks. Doesn't like the taste of them. We had Belgian waffles with blackberries for breakfast this morning. Yum, Yum. It's fun having another adult around because I can cook again. We have been feasting my my house the last few days. I made some decadent crab cakes the other night. Thank you Erica for sharing the recipe with me! They truly are magnificent. I've had crab cakes from a restaurant and these top any I've ever had. I will post the recipe for all of you to try. I didn't take a picture of them because we were too hungry to wait for the perfect shot. I'm sure I'll be making them again soon and I'll try to get an appetizing picture.

Let's see if I can find some pictures I haven't shared with you all....

These are from our first trip to Seattle.

We rode a ferry there and back.

Leah had a blast on the big boat.

Charlie on the way to our first Ferry ride.

Charlie and Daddy on the Ferry

Leah playing in the fountains at the Ferry Station

Leah and Daddy on the Ferry

update

This is only a quick update. I hope to find time some night and give a good and proper one with pictures. I wanted to let everyone know we are all doing well. Charlie is on the mend and so am I. He ended up with an ear infection but we got some meds and now he's feeling much more like his old self. Leah skated through our colds without catching it. I'm glad for that. One sick kid is enough to deal with and Leah is not a happy sick kid, charlie is much easier. Well that's my update. Stay tuned for more...

Sick Babies

I hate having sick babies. It always breaks my heart to watch them suffer and not understand what's wrong. Poor Charlie, somewhere he picked up a bug, probably from Leah, but who knows. He started feeling crappy a couple of days ago and I caught it from him yesterday. It's not the most pleasant cold. He's in relatively good spirits, but I can tell he doesn't feel well. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

Reverisble Bird Seed Skirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Reverisble Bird Seed Skirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Such a cute skirt. I love these givaways. Maybe I'll get lucky.

the host

One of the things I've loved doing the most since I went on my sewing hiatus is being able to read again. I received a notice from my library the other day that one of my book requests was in and waiting for me. I didn't even remember having a request. The book was the host by Stephenie Meyer, the author of the Twilight Saga. I was already in the middle of trying to read my book club book, Pillars of the Earth when I picked this up. Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down. My poor children...such neglect. I read the 500+ page book in about 3 days. Stephenie calls it "science fiction for those that don't like science fiction". Well I love anything that's a bit off kilter from reality, something that could be real, but as far as we know, isn't. This book was perfect for me. The love story in it wasn't quite as unbelievable as I found the story in Twilight...and I LIKED that. The story was so believable, it was kinda scary. I'm not good at book reviews, I've never had the talent for breaking down a book and saying what was so wonderful about it, unless I was discussing the book with people who have already read it. I tend to give away the parts that need to be secret. All I'll say is, what a incredibly fascinating storyline mixed with love and loss and the complexity of human relations and emotions. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes a good story they can get lost in.

Being Creative

Most people who know me probably consider me a really creative person. I've experienced a huge awakening this past year about my creativity. I have a whole other post I want to do about that, hopefully I'll have time in the future get those thoughts out. In a nutshell, and I'm sure many will disagree with me, I'm not creative. I'm an executor. I'm a pretty good executor, but I'm not creative. Not originally creative. I have rarely had an original, great creative idea. Oh, I'm good at taking other peoples original great ideas and copying them. Sometimes blatantly, sometimes with a twist. I prefer the twist, it's what has made me FEEL creative my whole life.


I was messing around on the computer, really a luxury, and decided to check out the Matilda Jane clothing line. My friend Amanda introduced me to her stuff. I love the clothes. I think they are amazing. The night before I had been watching a small marathon of the new Project Runway. I am in awe of the sewing and design talent on that show. I wish I could be more like that. I think that's what spawned the next few thoughts. "maybe I could...I have a ton of fabric remnants...what could I make?" So after feeling inspired by Project Runway and Matilda Jane, I got busy. I pulled out all my fabric scraps to see what I could pull together. I wanted a dress for Leah. She's been crazy about dresses lately. I blame watching Cinderella on the ride home from Reno. I couldn't listen to Monsters or Cars again. Now it's Princess this and Princess that and she has to wear a Princess dress everyday. She's my little tom boy and this princess phase is funny to me. She finally acting like a girl. So I set out to create a princess dress. I had fun and didn't want to stop till my creation was finished. I had no pattern, it was all out of my head and I designed it as I went along. I'm really happy with the finished product and Leah loves her princess dress. I feel like it's the most originally creative thing I've done in a very long time.

One Busy Month

Where'd I Go?
Many of you have probably wondered what happened to me. I've been MIA for over a month now, at least in the blogging world. I have been so over scheduled, all my fault of course. I'm always taking on more than I should. I manage to get it all done, but WOW, I hate what happens to me in the process. I get grumpy, sleep deprived and I'm sure there is whole list of negative traits. So here is what I've been doing.

1. I volunteered to organize my local MOMS Club chapter's Annual Yard Sale. It's a big fundraiser for us. I was able to help last year and decided I'd like to run it this year. It was a huge undertaking and of course I had to plan it down to the last detail. I was gathering donations from our MOMS for months and then the week before, with loads of help, we went through everything. Now you may not understand how much stuff there was. I have a 2 car garage and it filled up 2/3rds of it, most stacked to my waist or higher. I should have taken pictures, but I didn't. I spend almost every second of my free time getting ready for the big sale. It was alot of fun and I'd consider doing it again. We raised a bunch of money and I'm happy about the outcome.

2. I decided to take a break from my sewing business until after Derek deploys. My business has been great. So many wonderful people telling everyone they know about me. I've been getting hits off Google and I'm sure if I tried I could sew full time. I'm not trying and I'm sewing in every spare minute I have. It's awesome, but challenging to fit everything all together. I was inundated with orders right at the end and was rushing to get those done so I could be ready for my family vacation. So no time to blog, yet again.

3. Family VACATION! It took some time, but at the last minute. Seriously, 2 days before departure, derek's leave was approved and we were able to head to Reno for our family reunion/vacation. What a blast! I loved meeting and seeing some of derek's family again. We all got together on the 4th at Bower's Mansion just outside Reno. It was a great location and the weather was nice and cool. The kids had fun playing while the adults played and chatted. See the pictures below for all the fun. I even got a picture of a very elusive creature. She's in a red shirt with a camera strapped around her neck... We got back at the end of last week. I'm glad to be home and glad to have that drive behind us. It's not as bad as I expected. It helped having derek drive so I could manage the kids. Though at one point of the trip, I crawled into the back seat to sit between the car seats. Not the most comfortable, but it helped keep the peace the last 90 minutes of the trip.

4. Since I've been home, I've been relaxing a little, okay not much, I had another project to hurry and finish. I didn't take pictures, I'm hoping the new owners will so I can post them. This last year I've been on the executive board of MOMS Club here in my town. It's been a wonderful experience. I was the secretary. My year term ended on July 1st. As a gift for our 2 co-presidents and good friends of mine, the rest of the board chipped in for some gifts. At the last minute I decided I had time..ha..to make something special for them. I found a great pattern I drew inspiration from while in Reno and whipped these two aprons up. I wanted to have them ready for our end of the year Volunteer Appreciation Dinner that was held last night. We met at a local restaurant for dinner. I had so much fun. Everyone was all dressed up and looking great. We had a great dinner and a good time talking. I always love getting together with these women. They are a source of inspiration for me and have helped me through rough times. I have a very rough patch coming up here with derek leaving and I know each of them will be there to help when when I need it and even when I don't. I'm lucky to have these friends in my life and I'm so happy I found that MOMS Club business card right after I moved here. I don't know what I'd have done without it.

So here are some random pictures from our days.

Charlie has learned to crawl and climb. He pulls himself to standing and is cruising around slowly. He has his two front teeth coming in and has started screaming in high pitched bursts. ugh, not a happy phase.

We all toured a local fire station a few weeks ago. Leah LOVED it. She has a thing for fire trucks. I didn't remember my camera so I snapped a few after in her plastic fire hat.

Leah likes to pretend to put on my makeup when I get ready in the morning. This time she didn't pretend and I didn't catch her till it was too late....

Charlie and his little baby friends, emily and bryce.



The Digger
Leah loves to dig in the dirt. She donned this outfit herself and went out to dig in Grandma's garden. She is good and only digs the dirt, not the plants, so Grandma was okay with her out there.
Outdoor Fun

The kids and I headed out side when the house was too hot to be inside. We don't have A/C because apparently WA doesn't think it's hot enough for it. HA! So here we are playing in the grass, eating Popsicles and looking cute.

Pictures

Here are your pictures. Enjoy!

Adventures in Eating

Charlie is really getting the hang of eating. He LOVES to eat and practically growls at you until you give him some of whatever you are eating. He makes a royal mess too. Leah is always calling him messy and he grosses Derek out. I still think he's adorable, messy or not.

Collage of Daily Life

Nothing special here, just daily living. Leah has to help me make breakfast now. I'm teaching her how to stir scrambled eggs and in the picture above she's stirring my hash browns. If you zoom in on Derek, you can see him giving me (the camera) the stink eye. He hates having his picture taken. I think it's too cute when he and Leah or Charlie are bonding.

Signal Ball

It's not the best picture, I'm holding Derek in place. He hates having his picture taken. You'd think in June the long sleeves on my dress would be too much. Well it wasn't. I was almost cold the whole evening and the jacket is lined. Crazy Washington. We had a nice time at the Ball. They had a different program then we've seen in the past and it was much more enjoyable.

Who'd Have Thought?!?

I never knew what a scaredy-cat Leah is. Here I thought I was being a nice mom. I ordered a movie off Netflix for her that we could watch together. I started it this evening and had to shut it off after oh, twenty minutes. She was crying and ran away into the kitchen to get away from the show. I'm laughing at her, I think it's hilarious. I had to turn on Wow Wow Wubbzie to calm her down enough so she can go to bed. I'll have to finish this one sometime on my own.

Will it ever be Summer?!?

I am sitting indoors, yet again, wondering if the sun will ever come out. It's June 3rd. My kids cute summer clothes hang in their closets untouched. We are still wearing our winter gear. Today we won't be venturing outside because it's raining and 50 degrees. I've never lived anywhere where I need to turn on the heat in June, I mean really...I turned on the heat yesterday, we were freezing! As much as I love the people here and the constant green, I'm looking forward to leaving this horrid weather behind and experiencing actual seasons again.

I'm on Google!

Yes, that's right, I'm on Google. Type is ACU Handbag and I'm the 4th one down. I've had 2 people find my sewing business this way. I guess that's the most exciting part, I'm having people find me on Google and then email me wanting my products. Very cool. I know 2 doesn't sound like alot, but really, it's 2 total strangers who decided they liked my design of the handbag more than all the other bags that are out there. There's alot too. Most of my business to date as been from friends or referrals from friends. I have some awesome friends that are marketing my business like crazy. Really I'll have to cut them in on the profits if they keep it up.

Can I tell you all how much I am in a love hate relationship with this weather?! It was beautiful on Saturday just over 70 degrees and sunny. Warm enough, but not too hot. Perfect. We spent the day outside, I weeded my flowerbeds and that afternoon we went for a long walk to the park so Leah could play. Leah is taking after Grandma Young. I have pictures on my cell phone, have no idea how to get them off. Leah likes rocks. She is always finding rocks anywhere to throw or pick up and make piles. On the walk home there were big rocks along the trail and she had one in each hand, trying to take them home. She wanted the flowers too, but couldn't figure out how to hold the rocks and flowers, the rocks won.

Charlie has been mister cranky pants. I have no idea what is wrong with this child. I think someone switched my happy-go-lucky baby with this little beast I have now. Nothing makes him happy. I hope it's just new teeth and happy charlie is right around the corner.

No new pictures to post. Only words from me.

A little bit Crazy?

You know, someone really needs to sit me down and tell me I'm crazy, commit me to a metal institution and leave me to sit with my imagination. I did recently discover my craziness is hereditary. I get it from my dad's side of the family. I have always known I've had this affliction, I didn't realize where it came from until recently. My Dad observed when we were recently together, that I had it too.
Derek calls it stress, I have always thought it was hustle. When something needs to get done, I can really light a fire under me and ZOOM, away I go. There is stress associated with it and there isn't always a clear straight path for my zoom. Most of the time it looks like frantic running around, back and forth on my tenth trip up the stairs as I race to gather something else I've forgotten.
Lately this craziness has been manifesting in my need to create. I was trying to simplify my life and hobbies, as many of you know, I seem to collect like most people collect spoons or coffee mugs. Then all of a sudden BAM! I'm adding new things into my life that I don't have time for but HAVE to have. Just more craziness I can't seem to fit in a 24hour day. Do people really need sleep? Unfortunately I do, my Dad on the other hand has found a way to survive on 2-4 hours a night. Maybe there is hope for me yet...
All I know, until I figure out how to live on 2 hours of sleep, I need to try to turn off the crazy, slow down, let some, okay a lot things go, and find some serious balance in my life.
Do you think they have a pill for this?...ha, if only drugging yourself was the answer.

life is crazy

I really wanted to do posts 2 to 3 times a week and I'm discovering this is a lot like writing in my journal, I don't do it and often as I hoped and then when I sit down I realize, wow, it's been 2 years??? Yeah, that really happened recently.

So life here has been crazy. I didn't realize how nice I had it being on vacation, even with a sick child. Someone else cleaned the house, cooked the dinners, managed all the crap that fills up every day. I got to spend time with my kids, hang out, have fun and relax. Now that I'm home, I'm buried in house work, I don't get to hang out with my kids unless I neglect something else. I am managing my life and activities poorly and floundering in the process of getting back in the swing of things. Can I just go back on vacation? Maybe hire a live in housekeeper? ah, motherhood, the joys and struggles.

Charlie has 2 brand new teeth. He's trying to use my finger as a teething ring. I forget how sharp those babies are, like a new puppy. Leah on the other hand is learning how to bite again from her little friends. She got bit pretty good on Friday and today when we were playing she bites down on my arm and leaves some teeth marks. She was so upset that she got bit, I was surprised when she turned around and did it to me.

Back in Action

We are home, I survived driving over 2000 miles with a 6 month old and a 2 year old. Really, I think I'm crazy. I wouldn't have survived the return trip if it hadn't been for that little wonder, the portable DVD player. I was hesitant using it, I know my daughter she would ask to watch her bebbies (veggie tales) every time we got in the car. I broke down and turned it on. Wow, what a difference. She was no longer whining or crying or throwing a fit over something. She watched happily for hours on end, giving my poor nerves a little peace.

We had quite the adventure. It was great seeing friends and family. There are so many we didn't get to see. Poor Leah got the stomach flu shortly after we arrived in Utah. She spent a day throwing up, a night in the emergency room hooked to an IV and the rest of the trip with diarrhea. No fun for Leah and no sleep for me. Charlie is a trooper. He was so good to sit there while I held Leah on my lap with a popcorn bucket in hand to catch the puke.

Fun stuff that happened.

1. Leah learned the joys of bouncing on a trampoline. I learned all about the fears of her jumping right off and breaking every bone in her body.

2. Leah learned how to do the chicken dance. Thank you Mitchel, really, it's hilarious. She spontaneously came up to me at my friend Michelle's house and said "chicken, bock, bock while flapping those little arms of hers. I nearly died laughing.

3. I was able to spend 2 weeks without the rain. I could walk on the grass in my socks, sit on the grass, lay on the grass with Charlie. Seriously, I never realized how much I missed the dryness of the high desert. I'll take it any day over Washington wet.

4. Charlie has learned how to pull himself around the room to objects he desires.

5. I was able to see the magic of the Cricut in action. I really need to get me one of these someday.

6. Leah was able to play in a huge yard with chickens, a sand box and swing set. She loved it.

7. Leah and Charlie got to meet their Grandpa, my dad, for the first time. They both adored him.

The pictures of all this fun are still on my camera. One of these days I'll get them online.

Other news. Charlie cut his first tooth on Sunday, finally. I think his second is soon to come. He's been grumpy today.

vacation

I'm on vacation visiting family and friends right now. Derek's home holding down the fort. He will probably have lost weight by the time I get home, no one to cook for him and all. I'm sure I'll have more stories and some great pictures when I get back. Stay tuned!

where does the time go?

Where does the time go? I was checking out blogs and realized it's been 4 days since my last post. I swear it was yesterday. I've been busy getting ready for our trip, cleaning the house, running last minute errands and trying to take care of my kids. They have been very good and I'm grateful for it. I've been a bit under the weather the last week or two. I had an eye appointment yesterday and the doctor couldn't finish the exam because of an eye infection. I knew something was wrong, just not what. Nothing serious, a viral something or other that needs to run its course. He did talk to me about this Paragon CRT as apposed to Lasik or PRK. I'm really going to look into it. I'd love to see clearly again and love even more if it was a non surgical approach. I can't really be out of commission with my kids.

We are heading out this morning for some fun at Lattin's Country Cider Mill. They have all the baby animals out for the kids to see. Leah can really identify her animals now and I think she's going to love it even more this time. It's a little cold and wet, but when isn't it? I am hoping it warms up a little before we go. I'll take pictures and post them later.

Random pictures for you photo junkies.

Constant Motion

This is our Easter picture. I forgot to take one until after I had changed Charlie from his Easter clothes into PJ's. This is one of my attempts at capturing motion in my children. I've been doing some reading and realized that blurry pictures are not always bad pictures like I've previously thought. Some of Leah's best pictures are captured when she is on the move.

Don't Bother me, I'm Eating

I've been changing the way I take pictures. Instead of one or two from a point in time. I'm starting to do more of a series, so a story can be told. Charlie is so good to sit and play on his own. I throw him a couple of toys and away he goes. This day, he found his way over to Leah's play food and started munching away on a plastic hamburger bun. It was so cute I had to capture it. I did have to shake a rattle to get him to look up at me. He was very intent on getting that bread in his mouth.

Dressing up Leah

I downloaded, finally, the pictures off my camera. I'll have more to post later. I have to do it in shifts or the kids start freaking out!

Leah has proven time and time again that she is not your typical girl. Maybe it's because she has me as a mother guiding her away from "girly" pursuits. Either way, she, when given her own choice, gravitates in the direction of the tomboy. When she plays with her friends, she plays with the boys, she roughhouses like the boys and in true tomboy fashion, she makes the boys cry. While Derek was packing up, Leah found his hat and had to wear it. She has a thing for hats, she'll make anything into a hat, a box, the laundry bag, any bag she can find. Daddy helped her strap the hat on. The thing is so heavy, Leah could barely hold her head up. It was so funny we decided to dress her up more, She donned the gloves and we tried to get her in Daddy's Kevlar vest. It weighs more than she does. She's not to happy with the last addition to her dressing up and decided the hat and gloves was enough for the moment.