THE CATCH OF THE DAY

zig zag zoo

2012-02-10T13:18:00.002-07:00

So I work for a quilting store, doing their blog. It is a laid-back easy from home job that I love. The store does lots of fun stuff, like put everything in a kit together for you to make a quilt. You just buy it and put it together. I was lucky enough to put together my first kit. Here it is in all its adorable glory:

I call it Zig Zag Zoo. I'll admit, it was a little stressful making sure I got the measurements, instructions, fabric cuts, all right. But I love how it turned out! Now lets just hope they sell...

Yesterday I had nothing to do (ha ha), or at least no events scheduled, so I decided to get Mady's immunizations out of the way. She has been so nervous for them so even though she is so excited to go to kindergarten she knew that before she could go she had to get shots, which really put a damper on her excitement.

So I bribed her with ice cream afterwards and going to lunch with Daddy. She was pretty brave until it came time for the needle. She really squirmed and screamed for her 5 SHOTS! Yes, 5. But she recovered pretty quickly and had a great rest of the day. I'm so glad it is done and she is so glad that she doesn't have to get shots again until she is 11 years old.

a tip, from my belly to yours

2012-02-09T17:38:00.003-07:00

Mia has been waking up earlier then usual - - at 6:30. Which is not my favorite. Her other molar is finally coming through, so I am blaming it on that. Or maybe the fact that I am putting the kids to bed earlier and earlier (those nights are hard when Ryan isn't getting home until 9).

Anyway. Instead of being a grump I have been trying to take her downstairs with me while I exercise. She just sits on the floor coloring or watching tv while I ride the bike and run. Usually her siblings join us sometime during the 30 minutes, and then they just play together. It is nice. And really, I like getting up early. It helps start my day out right.

Getting dinner ready is one of the worst times of day. The other night Mady and Austin decided to color and Mia was crying and clinging on to my legs so I plopped her at the table too. They were content coloring at the table for at least 45 minutes. Heavenly!

And here is my tip for you. After a long long day it is nice to have something sweet to look forward to, but I don't often have the energy to cook anything. So when I DO Have the energy to make a batch of cookies I will freeze most of the dough in a long cylindrical shape, wrapped in syran wrap like this:

Then I pop it out of the freezer when I need it, slice it up, and stick it in the oven.

You will need to cook them a few minutes longer, but they end up coming out looking like perfectly shaped store-bought cookies that taste MUCH better.

You're welcome.

back in the saddle

2012-02-06T20:10:00.002-07:00

Mia loves wearing Mady's snow boots around the house.
So does Austin - he calls them his astronaut boots

Last week is finally over.

So Saturday night I went shopping. It was really great to get out of the house and spend time with my mom, but the shopping was a little frustrating. I'm at this awkward not a teenager yet not an older women shopping stage that I don't really feel like most stores cater too. It was really hard to even find things to try on. Online shopping here I come!

That night Mia threw up. Again. I tell you what, I have never given so many middle-of-the-night baths or done so many middle-of-the-night loads of laundry. Once again she wouldn't fall asleep in her bed, but fell asleep sprawled across my middle. Another night of not great sleep for me!

Sunday she stayed home from church with Ryan. We had a super bowl party at Jason's house with some amazing food (Ryan made wings that were probably the best ever) and we had fun until Austin peed his pants so I took him and Mia home, gave them both a bath, and put them in bed.

I was determined to have a better day today than last week (not hard!) so I woke up, exercised, took Mady to preschool, ran errands, read my book for awhile, did laundry, and cooked dinner. I don't think I cooked dinner once last week so it was fun to get back in the groove: caesar salad with homemade dressing and croutons, homemade breadsticks, sauce and pizza. And the best smoothie ever. I found this website and yes, they taste just like Jamba Juice. Of course the kids pretty much only ate the smoothie and so it was just me chowing away at the dinner (since Ryan won't be home from work until late late late). Ah well.

Random awesome things:

I weigh the lowest I have for at least 5 years. Love that!

I walked into the laundry room at least 3 separate times to find Madeleine and Austin changing the laundry for me all by themselves.

Driving the car to preschool, Mady said "Mom you are going fast. Girls are supposed to drive slow. Boys drive fast."

oh boy

2012-02-04T11:05:00.003-07:00

Just when I thought we were in the clear and everyone was doing better...

Mia threw up again last night. We were up with her until after 1 am so we finally brought her in bed with us. She fell asleep lying across my stomach. Luckily I was so tired from all my late nights this week I passed out too. When I carried her to bed at 2:30 she didn't even wake up. Poor girl is exhausted. I am pretty sure she picked up this bug at nursery. Curse those parents who take their sick kids to church.

I told Ryan that I'm taking the night off tonight. Taking myself out shopping and to dinner. He's working this morning so I guess he deserves a night off too, but his night off can be staying home playing Xbox and he will be happy. Lets hope we have a sick-free night!

sick

2012-02-03T09:06:00.004-07:00

Monday and Tuesday night Mia was throwing up.

Wednesday night Mady was throwing up and I had a really bad stomachache.

Thursday I was throwing up.

It has been a gross week of lying around feeling sick.

my meltdown

2012-01-30T19:08:00.002-07:00

As it turns out, Friday was not a good day. Austin had been stellar the last few days but Friday it was like he forgot what he was doing (going on the potty). Super frustrating. My mom came over to babysit so I could go to a meeting at Ryan's work about their new health care coverage. Ryan went straight from there to a basketball game so I grabbed some Cafe Rio on the way home so I wasn't starving AND lonely.

I had high hopes that Saturday would be better (with Austin) but it was like he never learned. So frustrating. We had friends over for lunch and games and dropped the kids off at my parents so we could go to the temple. I was pretty much ready to give up with him and was feeling really discouraged. Of course I was thinking about it while I was at the temple and I had a really strong feeling that this...like all things...would pass. And I felt good.

But then we left the temple and I had to drop Ryan off at home so he could go in to work (Saturday night!!). I went back to my parents to pick up the kids and my mom told me Austin had like 3 accidents. I couldn't handle it any more, but just started crying and couldn't stop. I was so frustrated because he KNEW what I wanted him to do, he was just choosing not to do it. I was pretty much ready to go back to diapers. My mom could tell it had been a long hard week. And it was after 7 and I still hadn't eaten dinner, so she drove my kids home and instructed my dad to take me to get some food. We got some take-out from Bombay House and I went home, changed into my PJs, ate Indian food, and cried some more. Ryan eventually came home when I was in bed and enjoyed my Indian leftovers :)

Ryan knew I was at my wits end with potty training so he told me to take the girls to church and he would whip Austin in to shape at home. And guess what? He did. I came home to find the boys watching bull riding (and Austin tells us that he wants to do that some day)and to hear that he had one accident, but since then had been 100% successful. We even went to my parents house with him in underwear with no accidents.

Today he has done better. It is just crazy how much this rules my life. I decided I wasn't just going to sit around the potty with him all day today - - I had to get some things done. So I vacuumed, cleaned the kitchen, did the dishes, the laundry, and even made dinner. He was really good at telling me he had to go. So maybe we have progressed.

On a cute note:

I kissed Ausy's cheek and he said "Mom please don't kiss me. You get slime on my cheeks."

No matter what time Ryan comes home, Mady puts a positive twist on it. "Dad you came home before we finished dinner" "Dad you came home before I was in bed" "Dad you came home before I fell asleep" "Dad you came home before Saturday!" She helps us all be more positive.

check these out!

2012-01-27T15:26:00.003-07:00

A picture of the haircut:

I am happy today. Why? Because there is a light at the end of the potty-training tunnel. Austin is getting it, which means I might eventually be able to leave my house once again! Actually I should be grateful - - potty training Mady was one of the most traumatic things I have gone through. She was terrified of sitting in the potty. It was a long process! Austin is much more receptive and even though we have had accidents galore he is getting there. With a minimal amount of screaming.

Never leaving Ausy's side has meant I have had to get creative on how to get things done. The house is messier then usual, but I have been getting lots of hand-work done: working on my applique quilting square for the block of the month club, crocheted myself an infinity scarf, and I am just finishing up a baby quilt for the quilting store. I was so happy with my scarf that I tried to take a picture...but failed miserably. See?

I have a few LOVES that I want to share:Cook's Illustrated Cookbook. Bought at Costco. I don't usually buy cookbooks that don't have pictures, but I did. And I'm so glad I did. This book has become my cooking bible. If I am looking for a recipe this is where I turn first of all because EVERY RECIPE I HAVE TRIED HAS BEEN DELICIOUS. Best pumpkin pie I've ever had. Best buttermilk biscuits. Best snap pea stir-fry. You have to check it out.

My uncle gave me his well-worn copy of this book and I have been going through it with Mady. We just finished lesson 30 and she is reading sentences and loves it. Each day you do one lesson and they are short and engaging. Austin even loves to do it...usually.

A few funnys:

- Austin, when Mady walked in the room in the morning said "You are gorgeous."

- Mady loves saying the word scrumptious

- Mad and Austin are a little obsessed with the old-school cartoon Iron Man. I let Austin watch it while sitting on the potty and when Mady was getting her hair cut I told her she could choose whatever she wanted to watch. She chose Iron Man!

anything but that!

2012-01-25T19:30:00.002-07:00

I decided it was time to potty train the boy. I have DEFINITELY been putting it off, hoping beyond hope that he would just do it on his own (yeah right! but you can wish...). So far I have only wanted to quit twice, he is successful about 50% of the time, and we have only had to watch about 900 hours of tv. Yahoo! But seriously. I really really REALLY don't like potty training.

And while I'm getting nothing done besides monitor Austin all day, Mady decided to cut her own hair. I didn't realize until I saw chunks of hair on the kitchen table. When I asked her about it she said, "Mom I just decided my hair was too long." So I ended up giving her a bob cut tonight.

And Mia has been so patient through this all. She will walk up to me with one of Mady's tutus and want me to put it on her. She is jabbering like crazy! Some new words: blankey, cheese, hello, GO (yelled really loud, then she takes off running), please, thank you...she is a bundle of fun.

Meanwhile, Ryan has been working like crazy, as usual, which is hard on both of us.

I just can't wait for Austin to figure out this whole potty thing. I will reward myself with a gallon of ice cream!

get away!

2012-01-22T14:57:00.005-07:00

Last Sunday afternoon Ryan and I boarded a plane to Las Vegas. Alone.

Ry had to go down for a Solar Conference and I decided to tag along for a few days get-away. Although we both dislike Las Vegas, we still had lots of fun. We stayed in Mandalay Bay (the location of the conference) and it was by far our best strip-hotel experience.

Sunday night we walked down to Cheesecake Factory and ate dinner. Delicious, as always.

Monday Ryan had classes and stuff to do all day so I worked out, relaxed, and read. That night the conference had a buffet dinner as well as a casino night with different gambling tutorials and complimentary chips. We started the night with $2000 and ended up with over $4000! We were tempted to try our luck at the real tables upstairs, but didn't. It was a pretty fun night - - everybody else was completely hammered (there was an open bar). When one guy found out Ryan was Mormon he asked if he left his other wives at home. Then he died laughing at his hilarious joke.

Tuesday I walked the strip, did a little shopping, and met Ryan for a matinee movie in a deserted theater to see Sherlock Holmes. We both really liked it!

Then back on a plane and home to our munchkins, who loved sleeping over at my mom and dad's house. It was a wonderful, much needed vacation.

And then I jumped back into real life when I realized I had totally forgotten it was my turn for joyschool on Wednesday. Surprisingly the day went pretty smoothly and better then days when I had prepared obsessively.

A few funny things:

-Last Saturday Mady and Austin went to the pet store with Dallin and Shellee to pick out a new goldfish. When they got home I asked them what they named it. Aus wanted to name it Cosmo and Mady wanted to name it Nickel.

-I'm trying to get Ausy to go on the potty. As he's sitting there he says "Mom, I don't think boys go pee in the potty. Just girls."

-At joyschool I asked "Does anyone know what the five senses are?"
Mady: "I do! Five senses are like if you want to buy something then you can use your five cents-es."

-After pouring Mia a bowl of cereal for breakfast she looked at me and said thank you!

-If there is any kind of small box or bucket Mia will pull it over and try to sit on it.

anger management

2012-01-13T15:20:00.003-07:00

This week was my turn at Joyschool. I had kind of forgotten how crazy those little boys are. It wasn't so great that my lower-back has been killing like crazy lately. Apparently jumping right into cycling training wasn't such a good idea (I guess that is what it is from!). Take it easy, self. This week we learned about Imagination, the letter N, and the number 9. It was fun but hard to find activities that would keep their interest for more than 30 seconds.

Mia has been sick. And Mady is extra tired for some reason. I went to the music store yesterday and she just collapsed on the floor crying "I can't walk! My legs are too tired!" It was more then a little embarrassing but I was just laughing at her. So dramatic! It wouldn't have been so bad if she hadn't done pretty much the same thing at Costco the day before. I guess she isn't sleeping well??

The other day I went to get Mia from her nap and found her standing up in her crib with her blanket over her head like this:

Now she walks around the house like that. She thinks it is hilarious. She also loves to stand on anything: stools, the arm of the couch, chairs. She is a little daredevil and thinks giving mom a heart-attack is funny!

Lets not forget Austin. He has a little temper problem sometimes so when he gets angry and throws something I give him a time out. While he is sitting on the window sill (our time out spot) he has started yelling "BUTT!" as loud and as angry as he can because it is the only "bad word" (or word that I tell him isn't nice to talk about or say) he knows. It makes me laugh...and a little nervous for him to learn any more "bad words." Especially since Mia will yell "butt" now, just like her brother :)

This week has also been busy and crazy because Ryan has been training for some certification for work, which means he has been gone 7:30 until after 7 every day. I am more than a little excited for our little excursion to Las Vegas this weekend.

I started teaching a neighbor-boy piano lessons. I'm nervous, but excited.

I'm thinking about doing my first quilting project for the quilting store. Again, nervous...but excited.

2011...and onward!

2012-01-07T13:59:00.004-07:00

Last year I kept it simple and had only a few goals for myself. I think I did pretty well!

- try a new recipe every week. With ease, and found some amazing ones along the way!
- run in two races longer then 5k. A 10k and a half marathon. Can I believe it? No.
- not get pregnant. For the first time since 2006 I went a whole year without spending a portion of it pregnant. Yahoo!

On the reading front, I only read 65 books this year. Here were some of my favorites

For 2012 my goals are:

- attend the temple monthly, preferably with my husband
- complete a triathlon (sprint or olympic distance...yet to be decided) and run at least one race
- learn to knit

seriously?

2012-01-07T13:11:00.004-07:00

I hate when I have to recap a whole week because I KNOW I am leaving stuff out.

On Monday we helped clean out the loft at Ryan's parents house in hopes that we can turn it into a play room for the kids. I kind of love cleaning and de-junking so this was actually pretty fun for me. I err on the side of throwing everything away though...

After a morning of cleaning Ryan got a call that he needed to go into work so the kids and I went to my mom's to play for the afternoon. We went out to lunch at Cafe Rio, made our own laundry soap (I feel so industrious!), highlighted my hair, and played. Then Ryan told me his dad was taking everyone to the Jazz game that night in the Suite. I wasn't too excited about taking our already exhausted kids to a 7:00 game. Luckily my mom said they could sleep over! You know Mady is ALWAYS up for a sleepover. The tickets were pretty sweet - - I had never been in the suite before - - until the Jazz Bear got in to the suite next to ours and started spraying confetti and silly string all over them. And then us. He is annoying sometimes, although pretty sweet job: you can be totally annoying and no one knows its you!

Tuesday I started feeling sick so I was planning on just taking it easy. Instead I had kids coming over to play all day, and found out I needed to play a musical number at the retirement home. I found a babysitter for the kids and quickly practiced a piano piece and drove over. I guess they do their relief society/priesthood meeting on Tuesday afternoon's to help break up the week and spread the meetings out. I got to play twice at two different facilities. The first was higher-functioning elderly who were more independent. I had a woman recognize the piece I played and say that it was one of her and her husband's favorites. We then went to the lower-functioning/Alzheimer's ward. It was really sad and hard. Again, I had a few people recognize the piece and I talked with people for awhile before I left. It made me wish that I could stay and just visit with them because you could tell they just wanted to talk to someone so badly.

That night we had a family dinner before Lincoln was set apart as a missionary! Which meant another late night...the Salmon family is getting so big it makes family gatherings hard. But it was great to see Linc before he left.

Wednesday we met up for one last lunch at Pizza Factory as a family. Our kids were running around in circles being crazy while we ate. Oh well. Mady was pretty sad to see Lincoln go.

Since then I have been resting and recovering from being sick and having an all-day migraine. I have attempted to get back on a schedule and start cooking again, although my first night of cooking dinner was kind of disastrous. Huge triumph for me? Not freaking out, but just breaking open a can of tomato soup, which the kids loved.

Yesterday two great things came in the mail: our new exercise bike and a new Ipod for me! I had an original IPod Nano which was recalled for some reason so I sent it in and got a brand new tiny Ipod Nano with a touch screen. How sweet is that?

Other sweet and not so sweet things: buying a 9 foot Christmas tree 80% off, having Austin poke his fingers in each loaf of my rising bread right before I stuck it in the oven, painting Mia's toenails for the first time, spending 15 minutes trying to find Tahini at the grocery store with no luck, hearing Mia say "Hello", having a tea party with Mady, and buying tickets so I can go on a business trip to Las Vegas with Ryan in a week (not exactly the exotic vacation I was hoping for with him, but I will take it!!).

out with the old

2012-01-01T19:24:00.003-07:00

This week was pretty great. Ryan hasn't had to work so we have had lots of down time together.

On Tuesday night Ross and Karen babysat all of the Salmon grandkids while we all went out to dinner and a movie. We saw the new Mission Impossible which was better than I expected. It was fun to go on a date with my husband. Mady decided to sleep over even though the other kids were "bugging her so she couldn't sleep" :) We had some cranky kids the next day but it was worth it.

For Christmas Ryan's parents bought us Pass of All Passes. On Wednesday we decided to get our passes printed and go miniature golfing. We took Haley and Brynlee with us. Apparently the rest of Provo decided to go too because it was pretty busy but the kids loved it. Even Mia loved running around and exploring the place.

Tuesday night my parents were back from Canada so we went over and opened our presents that they got for us. Mady got a tea set which she absolutely loves. And I got a new knife set. Our knifes were TERRIBLE and now they are amazing. I love love it.

Friday night we had some high school friends over for dinner. We ate raclette (can't get enough!), tri-tip, and ice cream sundaes. It was so fun to get together and visit. Good friends are the best.

Then Saturday we went out to brunch with more friends to Communal, took the kids to the BYU Basketball game, and ate Chinese food at Ross and Karen's. I forgot to take my camera for ANY of those events. When we got to the BYU game Mady started screaming and crying because she was scared to see Cosmo. I'm guessing her fears were just exacerbated by her exhaustion but it was a little out of control. She eventually calmed down. And Mia enjoyed the game as long as I was distracting her with candy.

The New Year's Eve celebrations were fun. We ate delicious Chinese food, watched the little kids dance the night away, and then made a huge mess with bubble wrap, Silly String, noise makers, confetti, and other crazy stuff. It was pretty fun. Austin was really nervous and just sat on my lap the whole time, while Mady and Mia were running around and laughing and being crazy. Mia would pivot around in circles and get so dizzy that she would tip over. It was hilarious!

And today we have a house full of grumpy kids. BUT on the plus side our church is now at 9 which is amazing. I LOVED it.

Christmas 2011

2011-12-26T21:04:00.004-07:00

Christmas Eve we went to the Salmon's for a delicious ham dinner and a Nativity reenactment. It was fun for the kids. Mady was a "blue angel" and Austin was Joseph...when he wanted to be. He is so shy and hates being in the spotlight.

Then we came home and let the kids open one present: their new Christmas PJs. I lucked out because I LOVE these kind of pjs and they had all the right sizes, perfect kind on clearance at Old Navy. They were all pretty excited! Mady loves anything when she and Mia are matching.

Mia wondering if anyone would notice if she ate all the cookies for Santa...

Mady was really nervous on Christmas Eve because we had the fire on. She would yell from her bedroom "Dad, turn the fire off so Santa can come." After the kids were sleeping we brought Austin's basketball hoop upstairs and Ryan even played Boggle with me...for the first time in our married lives. He is the best.

We really downplayed Santa this year. We have decided not to make a big deal about him and the only thing Santa brings to our kids are their stockings - all the presents are from Mom and Dad.

I was so happy with Mia's reaction to her sock monkey. She makes this face whenever she sees it and makes monkey noises.

And this was Mady's reaction when we told her we are going to Disneyland in February! She is so excited...until we started talking about going on rides. She's not so sure about that part...

After opening presents we ate THE best Christmas morning french toast casserole. YUM. For sure a tradition from now on. So easy : make it the night before, stick it in the fridge, then stick it in the oven Christmas morning and it is done by the time you finish opening your presents.

All ready for church:

After church we went to the Salmon's for soup and opening presents over there. Like always, the Salmon's spoiled us with candy, fun toys for the kids, a date night for Ry and I, and lots of other fun stuff!

Today is Boxing Day so we went to Ry's parents church where we played basketball and kickball and ate scones and honey butter. It is fun to let the kids run around and the boys play.

The kids sitting on the stage watching all the boys playing bball

Since we didn't do a big family Christmas dinner we cooked it up tonight: steak, raclette, fruit soup, salad, Martinelli's. Yum. I am so stuffed.

Christmas this year was so great.

12 days of Christmas

2011-12-26T20:08:00.004-07:00

For Ryan's 12 days of Christmas here is what I did:

Day 1: a carton of his favorite Ben and Jerry's ice cream
Day 2: delivered Jamba Juice to him at work
Day 3: a back rub/head scratch
Day 4: a dozen golf balls
Day 5: breakfast at Communal with Kyle and Rebecca. It was amazing, of course.
Day 6: breakfast in bed
Day 7: box of Dr. Pepper
Day 8: out to dinner with Kyle and Rebecca to Pizzeria 712. Some interesting pizza was tasted, but we found our favorites.
Day 9: a new wedding ring! He told me I wasn't allowed to buy him a ring right now, but my sister in law got me an AMAZING deal for this ring. Like less than $15 amazing. I couldn't pass it up. I love that he is wearing a ring again.

Day 10: a carton of eggnog, which he LOVES!
Day 11: family movie night. The kids have been begging to watch Willow so we popped popcorn and made an orange julius and watched it all together. It was a little intense for them but it was fun to have a family movie night.
Day 12: Jon Schmidt piano music

I loved doing this and might make it a tradition. It was a lot of work, but fun to always be thinking of things/ways to serve him.

homemade christmas

2011-12-24T14:50:00.002-07:00

This year I wanted to do more homemade stuff for Christmas. I definitely succeeded on that front, but I think I was a little ambitious in all the things I wanted to make. I got them all done, but it was a lot going on.

For neighbor gifts we usually do braided bread but this year we also delivered homemade chocolates, homemade granola, and homemade sugar cookies when I ran out of bread. And when I ruined the bread, like this batch:

Total loss. Boo hoo.

For the kids I have made:

Matching dress and skirt for Mia and Mady

The doll bed Ryan made and the quilt Tara made
Hooded towels with an A for Austin and an M for Mady. I was completely retarded on Mady's towel, in that I didn't even realize it was a bath SHEET until after I had finished sewing it all. It is going to drown her...but oh well.

The softest sock monkey you will ever feel for Mia. We didn't get much for Mia this year because she could care less, but when I was making a sock monkey for my nephew Graham she was totally in love with it and would make a monkey noise whenever she saw it. I decided she needed one too. It was a really easy project, although because I used the really soft fuzzy socks I had to sew it all by hand. Ryan thinks the pink eyes are totally spooky...I kind of agree.

A crayon roll for Mady to take to church

In addition I also made aprons for sister-in-laws that we had for Christmas, as well as a few little ones for Mady's friends and cousins.

There is nothing like making a homemade gift and having it turn out good but when I'm not happy with the results it can sure be frustrating! I guess I'm learning and hopefully improving :)

date nights

2011-12-23T11:14:00.004-07:00

I'm getting so far behind it is not funny.

Monday night Mady and I got to go on a special date to the Nutcracker ballet.

Let me just tell you about this girl and the Nutcracker. She loves it. She wants to check books out at the library about the Nutcracker story. She wants to listen to Nutcracker music all the time and dance in her ballet clothes. She loves watching Nutcracker videos. She knows the story and can recognize all the music.

Ryan and I thought she would love to go. I was a little late finding tickets so the only place nearby I could find that was still doing performances was in Sandy. She absolutely loved it.

Walking to the car after the performance I asked her what her favorite part was. "My favorite part was all of it." She loved the fancy tutus and ballerinas. It was pretty magical!

Tuesday night for Ryan's 12 days of Christmas gift we went out to dinner with our friends who also love good food, Kyle and Rebecca. We tried Pizzeria 712 (my first time) and it was pretty delicious. We decided it is in a pizza class of its own. Our favorite part of the night was trying a dessert, loving it, asking the waiter for the recipe and him giving it to us! How awesome is that.

Wednesday was Austin's birthday! We made him pancakes for breakfast and he opened his presents. We TRIED singing happy birthday but he wasn't too happy about it. Seriously does NOT like attention! After a chill morning we went and had lunch with Ryan. We were going to do dinner and cake just as a family but Grandpa Ross invited Ryan and Austin for a special boys night to the Jazz game...courtside tickets. I was pretty jealous it was a boys night out... Austin was pumped to see the Jazz Bear :) The boys had an awesome night and even chatted it up with Phil Dunphy (Modern Family!!).

Holding the game ball!!

Luckily for us, Ryan's boss told him to "ski as much as possible and stay out of the office as much as possible" this week. That meant yesterday he got to go snowboarding in the morning and hang out with us in the afternoon. And today he is hitting the slopes again, followed by some last minute Christmas shopping.

As for me, I think I am officially ready for Christmas. I had my shopping done awhile ago but I had a lot of homemade projects in the works that I just finished up yesterday. I'm excited for our first Christmas in our own home, just our little family!

salmon family christmas party

2011-12-19T13:45:00.004-07:00

Ryan's family was all in town this last weekend so we decided to celebrate our Christmas a little early with them. We all gathered together and ate breakfast for dinner, opened birthday presents for the 3 birthday boys, and then opened our Christmas presents to each other. It was chaotic (as all family events seem to be now that we are getting bigger!) but lots of fun.

by the end of the night Mia was fading quickly on Ryan's shoulder...

which is funny because that is exactly what she did last year at the party!
I made a birthday cake for the birthday boys. I wanted to make a homemade funfetti cake and found a recipe online to try. I wasn't in love with the white cake/frosting combination but the cake looked pretty fun and festive!

Our little birthday boy...

For the cousin gift exchange, Tara wanted to make Mady a doll quilt. Of course we decided she needed a doll bed to go with it (she has been begging for one!) so Ryan built one for pretty cheap. It turned out so adorable. It needs a few more coats of paint and a few pillows and it will be perfect. Although my mattress turned out sadly dwarfish. I may need to attempt a new one...

Sunday Lincoln gave his farewell talk in church and Tara and Gary blessed baby Mason. It was great to see everyone and spend time together.

After rushing off to our church so Ryan could teach his primary class and I could play the piano we went to my parent's to celebrate Austin's birthday with them. They are in Canada for Christmas so we wanted to celebrate before the left. He loved the cars and trains they gave him and carries them with him everywhere.

The funniest part of the night was when we got the cupcakes and candles out to sing Happy Birthday. He said "don't say good job and don't say "Yeah!" Apparently blowing out the candles at the Salmon party was traumatic for him (he didn't want to do it and was really embarrassed when everybody cheered). It was pretty funny. He kept making sure we weren't going to cheer for him before he would blow them out.

up-chuck-e-cheese

2011-12-18T20:01:00.005-07:00

Another whirlwind of a week.

Soooo all of the Salmon family has been in town so we have had our Christmas celebrations a little early.

We kicked them off Thursday night with a trip to Chuck-E-Cheese. Lucky for us grandpa bought a bajillion tokens to use so all the kids had free run at all the games/rides/crazy whatever they wanted.
I'm going to be honest - - I was a little freaked out by the other people who were roaming chuck-e-cheese so I was trying to keep a close eye on my kids, which was hard to do. Austin ran from ride to ride with Brynn. They would put a token from their little stash in, ride for a minute and then jump off. It was pretty cute.

They loved every minute of it until a man dressed in a Chuck E costume came out. Then they were freaked out. Mady said "you just have to stay low to the ground so he doesn't see you." oh man. Although when we were leaving and I said I didn't want to come back because I was scared of Chuck E Cheese they said, "Mom he is a nice guy. You don't have to be scared."

They each got to choose a prize at the end of the night - Austin (no surprise) chose a sweet stretch car, Mia got a soccer ball, and I tried to convince Mady to choose a little Princess doll but she chose a Chuck E Cheese fan. That is already broken. On the ride home she said, "mom I wish I would have chosen the Princess doll but my heart told me to choose the fan!"

This is a picture of Mady trying Skee Ball. She would throw that ball so
hard and it would usually end up a few lanes over...oh well.

Not my favorite place, but of course the kids love it. We will see how long we can avoid going back...

On the first day of Christmas...

2011-12-14T23:24:00.003-07:00

Sunday I stayed home from church feeling sick sick sick. I kept Mia home and , because Ryan didn't want to battle to keep him in nursery, Austin as well. I put Mia in bed for a much-needed nap (she is sick too!) and Austin and I cuddled on the couch. We both ended up falling asleep and basically slept until Ryan came home from church. Wow. I can't remember the last time I took such a long nap. Oh...probably 4 years ago before I had children.

The rest of the week I was very productive: finishing up projects, cleaning, and the usual. I have really been trying to focus on being a better mom. It seems like lately my first response is always negative or "don't do that" "stop" or to be mad. I don't want my kids to think about me as an angry, negative person so I am really focusing on being more loving, kind and gentle in my responses. So far I am definitely seeing improvement - the difference maker? Saying a prayer in the morning.

I really thought I was on the ball for Christmas but somehow I still had to go out shopping this week. It has been crazy awful. Ugh. And note to self? Don't even attempt to get fabric cut at Joann's during the month of December. Mad. House.

On a happy note I am doing the 12 days of Christmas for Ryan. I wanted to do something to surprise him since his Christmas gift is not a surprise (snowboard he bought himself). So far he has gotten Ben and Jerry's ice cream and today, a Jamba Juice delivered by us to him at work. It is so fun...especially involving the kids. Mady totally loves it.

good, bad, and ugly

2011-12-08T21:40:00.003-07:00

The good:

My mom and I have been experimenting with making chocolates. So far we have made peanut butter chocolate bars, turtles (chocolate, peanuts, caramel), caramel chocolate bars, peppermint, bark, peanut brittle, and rocky road fudge (marshmallows & peanuts in fudge). Some have turned out better then others but for our first attempts we are happy!

I bought a box of oranges at Costco and I can't stop eating them. Wow.

The bad:

Ryan left his wedding ring on the bleachers of the high school when playing basketball on Monday night. Of COURSE lost and found hasn't found it. I'm not getting my hopes up it will ever turn up.

The ugly:

On Tuesday night Ryan was playing basketball as well and....sprained his ANKLE!! He is limping around in pain, using crutches, and my mom's boot that at least helps him walk. The ugly part is that his foot is all black and blue and swollen. Not fun.

I'm not too fond of basketball right now.

cosmophobia

2011-12-05T13:43:00.006-07:00

Saturday morning was the annual BYU Christmas party. Because my parents work there we decided to go see what kind of festivities were going on. Of course the place was packed, but we still had lots of fun. Mady made a Christmas wand, the kids wrote letters to Santa, watched some dance/singing performances, saw Santa from afar, and went fishing for toys. Meanwhile Mia chilled in the stroller.

The kids knew that Cosmo was there and were totally scared. After seeing him from far away and then doing some other things, Mady decided she was going to be brave and wanted to get her picture taken with him. So we stood in line and she and Austin were totally doing fine...until Ryan got right next to him. Then they both started to flip. out. It was hilarious! Ryan wonders why his kids were the only ones scared... After we asked Mady why she was scared and she said she thought Cosmo was going to bite her.

After doing some Christmas shopping at the book store we went and got some lunch and got the rest of Ryan's winter snowboarding gear. He is so excited for Sundance to open up.

Then we hurried off to the temple to go through with Lincoln for the first time. It was a really special session and so fun that all his brothers and sisters were there with him!

Of course I thought it was a great photo op and asked Ryan to take a picture of us. This is what we ended up with:

Self portraits weren't really working, so Ryan's Aunt saved the day and took one for us:

Then off to a BYU Football party, an ugly sweater party (which we did not win!), and then to bed. It was a long day.

Sunday was equally long. Fast Sundays are pretty much brutal around here. Not only do you have 2 starving, grumpy parents but you have 3 tired, grumpy kids. I got to play the organ in church and it was so fun to play again. We had a family party at our house with a few aunts and uncles and my parents and $125 of raclette cheese and creme brulee. Wow it was amazing. And we still have half a wheel of cheese in the fridge that is calling my name "grill me! grill me."

misc.

2011-11-30T14:29:00.002-07:00

The day after Thanksgiving we were putting up our Christmas tree and realized that it is not as tall as we thought. It is 6 feet tall, but against our windows and vaulted ceiling it looks like it is 2 feet tall. So we thought about buying a new one and even shopped for one, only to realize the kind we like are around $400-700. Boo. We will make do with our tiny little tree until we can take advantage of after Christmas sales!

Mady woke up this morning and said, "Do you know what I had a bad dream about last night? I dreamed we were going somewhere and you said I could wear flip-flops and we were outside and I was so cold that I got sick and had to lie down on the couch." Sounds like a nightmare to me!

Instead of singing "Follow the Prophet" Austin likes to sing "Follow the Monson."

We attempted taking Mia into nursery (our ward, if you have a primary calling they go when they are 15 months old). It was a no-go. Apparently she got hit in the face in the first few minutes and screamed. I stood out in the hall as long as I could until I finally gave in and got her.

Austin has started coming in to Primary for singing time. I can't believe he is almost a Sunbeam. He sits so reverent on the front row...although last week once he realized I was behind the piano he ran over to sit by me.

I keep stressing about all the Christmas present projects I have going on and then I realize it isn't even December yet. I'm a nut case.

stuffed

2011-11-27T08:59:00.002-07:00

This year we had Thanksgiving at our house with my parents. My grandma was supposed to come down but she refused (she just had surgery and said the traveling would be too hard on her). Ryan started the day off by playing in the annual Turkey Bowl. We are glad he came home without injury this year. He even braved the shopping crowds to buy a new snowboard and snow gear (his boss bought everybody a pass to Sundance, the lucky duck.)

It was actually a really easy, non-stressful Thanksgiving splitting the dishes between my mom and I. The food was delicious and the leftovers still taste amazing.

We had four pies to split between the 7 of us. AWESOME. And I found the best pumpkin pie recipe. Ever.

We watched some football and tried to take naps and later went to visit Ryan's family. It was a great relaxing day.

The next day the weather was so nice we went for a walk on the golf course. I can't believe it is almost December!

Last week we got solar panels on our house. I've been waiting to write about it because the installers had this cool camera that did time-lapse photography of the install but I can't get the video to upload. It was pretty cool. Mady asks Ryan what they are and he tells her they are to save the penguins. Then she laughs at him and tells him he is crazy.

Other things we did this week:

-played lots of games with friends
-tried to avoid Black Friday
-watched Hot Rod. Laughed so hard I cried.
-watched Seventeen Miracles with Ryan's family. And cried the whole way through.
-went bowling with the Salmon family
-set up our Christmas tree (Mady couldn't wait!)

I'm not going to lie that the kids have been pretty grumpy and awful the last little while. They are so tired and maybe a little sick. Like on Friday when Mady said, "I'm tired" at 4:00 and went and got in bed and fell asleep. That never happens. It has made this supposedly relaxing holiday weekend a little more stressful and anger-filled then I would have liked. Still, we managed to cram some fun in.

Quilts and more quilts

2011-11-19T17:51:00.004-07:00

I had so so so many projects in the works that I have really been focusing on finishing them up the last few months.

My "easiest" project that I have been wanting to do was a coffee filter lantern over Mia's crib. It was so easy, just time consuming to hot glue all those suckers on. I love how it turned out. And so does Mia, as she falls asleep.

The biggest projects: 3 quilts. As a quilting beginner, I'm happy with how they turned out and anxious to start my next projects because I know that much more about how to do it.

Quilt #1: For Mady's bedroom. I really wanted to make each of my kids a quilt for their bedrooms, something special that they can always have. I found this adorable fabric and loved it. I was pretty picky because I wanted something that she would love when she was older, so not a juvenile print and colors that wouldn't go out of style. I felt like this line of fabric fit the bill perfectly. I found the pattern on Moda Bake Shop, so it was free! It is a little big for her Ikea bed so I am on the hunt for a taller twin bed...

I had it custom quilted with flowers
She's pretty excited about it...

Quilt #2: Last summer I signed up for a block-of-the month club with my mom and mother-in-law at the quilting store I now work for. It is so much fun! Every month you are given blocks to do and then by the end of the year you have an entire quilt that showcases all the things you learned. Definitely a keepsake, as I probably put more than 100 hours into this one. I love the Vintage theme of this one!

Back of the quilt

I love block-of-the months because they make quilting manageable. Side note: The store I work for is starting an online block-of-the month club at the beginning of the year so you won't have to live close by to do it! If you are interested, let me know and I will keep you updated on when it is starting. The quilt we are doing is adorable.

Quilt #3: Austin's room. I found a quilt on Etsy that I loved and so my mom and I jumped right in. Since we didn't have a pattern we just winged it and I really loved how it turned out. Instead of having it quilted I opted to just sew the front and back together as a duvet cover. He's a boy and probably doesn't want the complexities of sheets and all that junk as he gets older :) This project took a long time to finish but I'm so glad we did it!

Back

I finished these just in time to start all my Christmas projects....

snip snip

2011-11-13T22:18:00.002-07:00

Saturday was an eventful day.

Ryan had to go in to work, so my dad was kind enough to watch the kids for me while I got my haircut. It was long overdue. My brother has cancer and just shaved his head and so we are cutting/shaving our heads to show support for him (want to join in? go here to find out more.)

Dorky self-portrait before

Short and loving it after

The haircuts didn't stop there. My cute dad decided he wanted to support my brother by shaving his head. His biggest worry was that Mia (who absolutely loves her grandpa) wouldn't recognize him. We decided the best way to combat this was to have Mia watch the haircut. She just kind of giggled at him and went right to him...even when he was bald. Phew.

We also managed to stop in at our favorite fabric store, go grocery shopping, make dinner, watch Ryan's little sister play in the NCAA soccer tournament on tv, and watch BYU football. It was a full day.

Jump around!

2011-11-11T15:19:00.002-07:00

I have had a few breakthroughs this week. Mothering break throughs.

Like:

I let my kids get out basically every board game we own without having a heart attack.

They built a fort in the middle of the mess with our dining room chairs and blankets.

Austin dumped a bag of cereal on the floor....the carpeted floor, allowing me to get out the vacuum for the third time.

They were jumping off furniture. Instead of flipping out, I took pictures!

Mia has been out of sorts. Still reacting to her immunizations? Sick? Teeth? Who knows. As a result of WHATEVER it is she is really cranky during the day and wakes up at night. Every night this week when I try and make dinner she becomes very clingy. Imagine: 20 lb girl attached to your leg who is crying and just wants to be held. Slows you down a bit.

I've been trying super hard not to loose my cool (yell, get angry, swear in my head) and believe me my patience has been tried. But I've been doing better this week, through all the chaos (see above list for references).

bum bo de

2011-11-06T12:05:00.004-07:00

Austin walks around the house singing "bum bo de bum bo de teach me how to jimmer teach me teach me how to jimmer" He also loves to sing another song that the play at the football games all the time...so he sings the notes saying "na na na" and then "Go Cougars!"

Last night we had a party to watch THE big football game with Ryan's brothers and family. Before the game started Austin thought BYU was playing and thought we were going and said "Mom I will give Cosmo a high five. I won't be scared. I PROMISE! I PROMISE!"

Mia is walking pretty much everywhere. Austin and Mady love it and keep me updated on her movements "Mom, she just walked all the way to the toy box! Mom she's standing up!"

Mia is obsessed with shoes. She finds them, puts them on her hands and crawls around the house and leaves them somewhere. So when it is time to put our shoes on things can get a little tricky because you have to FIND them first.

Mia is a little water baby. When taking a bath you have to keep a close eye on her because she likes to throw her head back and lie down with the water up to her eye balls and just float there.

I have two quilts waiting to be bound and Austin's pieced duvet cover that is almost finished. I love finishing projects.

Took Mia for her 1 year immunizations (finally!). She had to get five shots. Austin and Mady made sure to tell everyone that they weren't getting shots - just Mia. They also cringed and almost cried when the poor little girl got her shots. It was so sad.

I am playing the piano every day. It is good for the soul, I tell ya.

spooky

2011-11-01T13:51:00.005-06:00

Saturday night we had an awesome Halloween party extravaganza at my parent's house. Kyle and Rebecca came (our good friends) and made us homemade egg rolls (amazing.). My mom and I made some delicious stir-fry and hot and sour soup. We carved pumpkins and ate homemade donuts. The kids were in heaven.

This is Mia's camera face. HILARIOUS!!Kyle and Rebecca with El-pumpkin-0

Sunday was Ryan's little sister's last soccer home-game of her college career so we loaded the kids and drove up to Logan. I was worried it would be FREEZING but it was actually a gorgeous day. Mady said "we were driving so long I thought we were going to AFRICA." Mady also entertained us with handstands and cartwheels when the game wasn't exciting enough.

Mady had to go to the bathroom and the only thing we could see were some port-a-potty's. She was terrified and refused to use them. Luckily we found a building that was open and disaster was averted. We decided to say a prayer to say thank you that she didn't have to use the port-a-potty's. She said "Thank you that I didn't have to use the teeter-potty."

Austin, tossing a ball to his uncle

Mady, Chan's number 1 fan

Mia crawled around on the grass with Mady's boots on her arms. She looked so funny but it kept her happy and entertained!

Our Halloween started out with a bang when our new piano was delivered! That's right. We finally bought a piano! I love hearing the kids play and love being able to play whenever I want. Basically it is paradise. I can't wait to start teaching Mady. There was a scary few moments there where we didn't think the piano would fit in the niche that Ryan built specifically for the piano. I had no idea where we would put it. But luckily it barely squeezed in.
We all met up at the Salmon's house for soup and some braided bread (made by me!) before going trick-or-treating. Here are all the grandkid's in attendance:

This picture is after Mia's first trick-or-treating house. Once she grabbed a candy for each hand she was good to go.

Austin and Mady would run from house to house like this was the best day ever. I guess it is for little kids - FREE CANDY!! If any house had a dog or scary decorations they were a little nervous. Mady would stand on the porch and keep taking candy as long as they let her.

I even made them trick-or-treating bags, just for fun.

It was a fun night and we have tons and tons of candy.

mady: "Mom, why don't you have a bag for candy?"
me: "Well you usually only get candy when you are little and when you are dressed up."
mady: "Oh. This is not your lucky day."

You got that right.

dancing queen

2011-10-29T13:21:00.002-06:00

Mia can crawl up and down the stairs totally fine. She has never fallen down them and is usually pretty careful. It is nice not to have to worry about her on the stairs any more.

Also she can totally walk, but opts to crawl to get around faster. I love looking up and seeing her toddle around the room.

Lately Mady asks pretty much every day for me to turn on ballet music so she can dance. I will put on a Tchaikovsky CD I have and she dances and dances - - after she changes into a tutu or leotard, of course. It is so cute.

I finished my round of joy school this week. It went pretty well - it was really hard to gauge how long activities would take. And I also usually assumed that they would be as interested in an activity as Mady would be. Not good. The rest of the kids are boys and they did not love crafts as much as she does. Good to know for next time around.

I have two quilts that I finished and I am just waiting to get them back from the quilter. I can hardly wait! Just in time for winter.

holy weekend, batman

2011-10-25T12:12:00.003-06:00

We jam packed a lot of fun stuff in this last weekend.

Friday night was a Salmon family (adults only) Halloween party. We dressed up, ate soup, played quarters and werewolf, and had a fun night.

Saturday morning Ryan helped someone move into the ward while Mady went to a friend's birthday party. Then we loaded all of us in to the car (dropped Mia off at my parents for a nap) and went to the BYU football game. Thanks to Grandpa Ross we sat in the loge and had an awesome time.

We got back and I had just enough time to put the finishing touches on Mady and Austin's Halloween costumes before another Halloween party. I crazily decided to make both of their costumes (Mia has a hand-me-down and couldn't care less!). This was my first experience sewing without a pattern and it was a little tricky. I thought I could save time on Austin's by just buying all the pieces at Old Navy or something and then sewing on to them, but I couldn't find the right colors so I had to do it ALL from scratch. I have a few regrets and kind of wanted to scrap them both and start over once I realized easier ways to do things, but they both fit and they love them. Success. Ryan had a migraine so he stayed home with Mia girl so they could both get some rest. The party was so fun - tons of yummy snacks and spooky games that the kids loved. There was a boy whose face was painted like a skeleton that Austin was completely freaked out about but other than that...awesome.

A little Halloween sneak peek. Can you tell what they are?
Tinkerbell and Superwhy!

series of unfortunate events

2011-10-19T13:33:00.005-06:00

Somedays I just do too much. This, I am slowly learning, can be a recipe for disaster.

Take last night, for example:

Last night I was bottling grape juice, making bread, and feeding the kids dinner all at once. Then Mia and Austin needed a bath. I started filling the bath tub up and Mia was standing at the edge of the tub in her diaper really excited to get in. I went to get Austin ready and heard a huge splash. I basically threw Austin out of the way (directly in to the wall - awesome.) and went to save my drowning baby. She had dove head first into the bath tub and was crying pretty hard. Everything was fine - Austin forgave me, Mia finished her bath like a champ and all was well. For a minute.

30 minutes after putting Mia in bed I realize something is wrong - she wakes up crying and doesn't look like her healthy self. She ends up throwing up three times, getting her pjs changed 4 times, has a cough and a really bad runny nose. I felt totally blindsided - she had been so healthy and happy and fine and this crazy sickness came out of NOWHERE! After running to the store for infant tylenol and having her fall asleep in my arms a few times, only to wake up screaming as soon as I put her in bed I realized I was in for a long night. I "slept" on the couch with her until 4 am at which point she was in a deep enough stupor that I put her in her own bed. I was lucky enough to get a few hours sleep before starting another day.

Instead of lazing around and recovering I had joy school this morning. It went well and I wasn't as incoherent and out of it as I thought I would be. Good thing 4 year olds are forgiving. I was really worried about how Austin would do with a house full of little boys (he is usually pretty scared/intimated by other boys) but he has loved it. He tries to be the center of attention while they are here - a little clown. A few of our colors activities:

Mia seems ok today - congested, runny nose and a cough but no more throwing up. As I was sitting on the floor cutting out Austin's Halloween costume I looked up to see my baby walking. She has taken a few steps (first ones were on Sunday to Grandpa and Grandma!) but not on her own, walking to nothing. She stands up all the time on her own. So I looked up to see her just walking around the room like it was nothing. Runny nose and all.

Her best Zoolander face :)

run down

2011-10-16T20:13:00.003-06:00

Another busy week is over.

Wednesday was a field trip to the Fire Station open house with Mady's joy school. I had Mia in the bjorn, Austin in the stroller, and Mady walking. It was so busy. We were there when a paramedic helicopter landed which was loud and crazy windy and awesome. We got to watch firefighters put out a real fire (my kids were SCREAMING and so scared) and teach us how to put out a grease fire (again, screaming and scared) and saw Smoky the Bear (guess what? screaming and scared). I thought it would be super fun but mostly they were just overwhelmed by all the people and really scared of the fire. They didn't understand that it was under control - they thought the fire was going to get them.

Friday night we ventured out with Kyle, Rebecca, and Bonnie for Thai food in SLC while Uncle Lincoln babysat. It was great food, great conversation, and a fun night out.

I always look so forward to the weekends and then when they come I feel like I fall behind on everything, my house becomes a mess, and I stay up too late. Hmm.. Saturday we hit balls at the driving range. It was supposed to be a fun family outing but the kids were quite grumpy from their late night on Friday. Ryan glued the train table together for me so the track stays together (anticipating a rowdy bunch of kids coming on Monday for my turn of joy school!). We watched the football game, ran errands, got take out, and put the kids to bed early.

Mia has been taking steps on her own. If you ask her to stand up, she will and then she will clap because she is so proud of herself. She gets so excited when she is walking. It is so adorable. Also adorable? Her pigtails for church today. When she snuggles on demand. How she is always barking like a dog "woof woof."

My mom gave me a new cookbook and I am loving it. Everything I have tried has been super tasty. It has everything in it.

Homecoming Parade

2011-10-11T14:37:00.002-06:00

Saturday morning we met at Grandma and Grandpa Salmon's for a big breakfast before heading to the BYU Homecoming Parade. It was a little cold and rainy, but luckily the rain stopped.

This is the best parade ever. It isn't too long, tons of candy is thrown, and you show up right before the parade starts and get a prime spot! The kids love all the dancing and crazy energetic people. Mady was even brave enough to wave and say hi to Cosmo this year...from a distance. Last year? Not so much. Screaming. Scared. Mascots are not her thing. Lately she has been saying "Maybe I'll be a cheerleader. Then I can say hi to Cosmo" because she thinks Cheerleader's are the only ones Cosmo is nice to :)

Watching her balloon float away...

Yes, Austin was there. He was just snuggled on someone's lap in a bunch of blankets, freezing cold.

That night after a delicious barbecue at our house we tucked the kids in bed at my mom and dad's house and went to the football game. It was pretty cold but a fun game to go to. As always, with my Ryguy.

my job

2011-10-09T19:45:00.003-06:00

I got a job awhile ago that, thanks to my aunt, just fell in my lap. She works at a quilting store, American Quilting, that I love and they were looking for someone to create a blog and update facebook for them. So I get to do that from home!

I haven't been quilting for very long. Last year I did a "block of the month" club through American Quilting and loved it. I've made a few of my own quilts and slowly but surely I'm building up some knowledge. For now I mostly rely on help from employees and books to help me out! It is so fun and I am totally loving it.

I know some of you out there love to quilt/sew so go check out my blog and see what you think. Give me some suggestions on what would get you to read it more often.

And go right now because we are doing a giveaway of some really cute fabric! Click Here.

bad day over.

2011-10-08T13:08:00.003-06:00

After a bad day where nothing was going right I found out Ryan was going to have a late night. So we met up with him at his work "cafeteria" for dinner. It was nice to not have to cook and to see Ryan for a minute to fortify myself for a long night at home alone.

The next day Austin was throwing up. It was hard having a sick little boy that didn't like to sit still and would forget he was feeling sick and then...throw up. We made it through the day and no one else has gotten sick yet.

Last night I had a girls night at my house. Ever since moving in to this neighborhood I've wanted to do a girls party to get to know the ladies around here better. I'm not very good at just hosting an unstructured girls night (I love craft nights, or project nights but I thought I wanted to keep it broad so more people would come). I found the perfect idea on Pinterest (of course): a Favorite Things party. Here's how it works: choose one of your favorite things. Bring (5) of them. Come to the party. Talk about your favorite thing. Give it to (5) people. You go home with (5) new favorite things. I made tons of yummy food (SOO many leftovers!) and we had a great turnout. It was exactly what I wanted it to be - a good icebreaker.

Meanwhile Mady and Austin got to sleep over at my mom and dad's house. They loved it and love feeling grown up enough to have a night away from mom and dad.

so you had a bad day

2011-10-05T16:13:00.003-06:00

Sometimes I'm a wreck.

Today - my house is a mess.

I was running errands all morning. Didn't get half of what I needed to done.

Had a nightmare about a girl's night party I'm throwing on Friday night and it has been haunting me all day.

Totally lost it at Austin when he locked himself in a bedroom for the hundredth time.

Tried to make cookies- utter failure. Apparently I substituted too much buttermilk for butter. They turned into a runny, ugly mess. (they were for the party on friday - nightmare about girls night is coming true!!)

I'm tired. Oh so tired.

Behind on work.

Ugh. I wish I could just crawl into bed but there are three hungry, tired, grumpy little munchkins who need me. Apparently. As dysfunctional as I am.

hit it a long ways

2011-10-04T10:25:00.002-06:00

Mia has gotten a hang of this little walker. She can totally steer and walks all around the house with it, like a big girl.

Ryan was out of town all last week. I survived! I'm so glad he is home.

I picked him up from the airport Friday night. We came home, watched the entire BYU football game (staying up way too late) but luckily the outcome was awesome.

Conference weekend was nice. Of course, you never get to watch or hear as much as you want with little kids. I'm excited to read/listen to the talks over the next few weeks. We got to go to Draper to walk through Ryan's aunt's new home which was in the framing stages. Ryan loved it.

After Priesthood we had a pizza and a movie at our house with all of Ryan's family.

Sunday morning - big breakfast with all Ryan's family. Delicious pancakes, sausage, OJ, bacon, eggs, hashbrowns. Yummy.

Ryan and I left our kids for the afternoon to go a session of Conference, meeting some friends from Canada who had come down. It has been a long time since I actually went to Conference. It was a really great outing (besides being stuck in the parking garage for 30 minutes afterwards! Claustrophobia.)

Yesterday was a long day of catch-up at work for Ryan but we got to eat lunch with him at his office. They have the most amazing cafeteria (I hate to even use that word to describe it. More like a delicious restaurant), so I always love going.

The kids were a little restless so we met Grandpa at the golf course to hit a bucket of balls. Mady and Austin both absolutely loved it. They both hit some over 30 yards and were really improving! When the bucket was gone, Austin said, "Get another bucket, Grandpa." I even got to hit a few and it made me want to get out and play a few holes. Meanwhile Mia chilled in the stroller. She is amazing. I'm sure I looked ridiculous - carrying my golf clubs, and the kids while pushing a stroller and having Mady and Ausy tag along. Oh well!

cannery

2011-09-29T19:59:00.002-06:00

I just realized the other day that peach season is almost over and I haven't canned any peaches. As luck would have it last night my friend called to see if I wanted to can some with her. We stayed up last night until 1 canning peaches and she left a whole half a box here for me to finish up today. I was so happy! Canning is always such a process and makes a huge mess, but all those beautiful golden cans on my counter make me happy. Instead of canning today I decided to freeze them. I have so many. My mind is full of delicious peach smoothies.

Besides going through peaches today I took the kids miniature golfing. They completely loved it. Mady would scream and dance every time she made it. Austin would pick his ball up and move it right next to the hole, hit it in, and then celebrate. It was fun.

Then swimming lessons. Mady is doing great. It is really hard to keep Austin and Mia entertained without splitting their heads open on the cement bleachers. Today we were all a little grumpy by the time lessons were over.

Ryan is out of town for business, so we decided to eat at Cafe Rio for dinner. It was awesome because it was totally free - free meal, free dessert, free kids tortillas, free drink. Rockin.

I just put the kids in bed for what feels like the tenth time. They always have some excuse - drink of water, miss daddy, can't fall asleep...I'm exhausted.

pigtails

2011-09-28T15:53:00.005-06:00

I find that if I have something to look forward to in the day I am a lot more motivated. I actually get dressed, exercise, shower, and do things during the day if I know that we are trying to go to the park or whatever it is. It is really nice to have Mady in school 2 days a week and swimming lessons 2 days a week. Although it does make for a lot of running around it keeps our days scheduled.

Today we went to the park to feed the ducks and have a picnic lunch. The bag of hot dog buns I brought lasted all of two minutes because Austin liked to throw the buns in the water whole. Those lucky ducks.

Yesterday while I was showering I turned cartoons on for a minute. Looks like Mady decided everybody needed a snack and some snuggle time while they were at it.

My mom went out to visit my little brother and their brand new baby. I wanted to send an extra special gift for baby Graham. I decided to attempt another freezer paper stencil shirt (onesie) for him. It was super tricky - I was a little overambitious, but I think it turned out good. We made our own family golf association (Archibald Golf Association) and call it the AGA, a play on the PGA. So I took the PGA golf logo and changed the picture and acronym to fit the AGA. We are total golf nerds :)

Mia has started making a doggy "woof" noise. This is her face when she makes it:

And this is her first pair of pigtails:

It made her look so old. But adorable.

Recap

2011-09-24T20:17:00.008-06:00

Monday Mady started joy school. She was so excited and absolutely loved it. It was really nice for me to run errands with just two kids! Austin missed his best friend a lot though...

Monday night we had Bonnie, Asher, Kyle, and Rebecca over for dinner. We made Indian food and besides starting an hour late because Ryan was stuck at work, it turned out delicious. Mady said the blessing on the food and I was crying I was laughing (silently) so hard. Some cute things she said: "Please bless Heavenly Father to be healthy (she said this probably four times). Please bless Jesus to be resurrected. Please bless Jesus to arrive alive." Sometimes she blesses that mom won't get frustrated or that Austin won't hit.

It was a really fun night.

Tuesday at swimming lessons Mady put her whole face in the water and jumped in from the side, holding only one of her teacher's hands. I was really proud of her and she was so proud of herself.

It was a really busy week for Ryan at work, so I spent my alone nights making a new fall wreath. Fun and easy.
Friday morning we went on a joy school field trip to Bridal Veil Falls. It was a little chilly because it was still shady, but the kids loved throwing rocks in the water. I can't wait for the leaves to change colors...

Friday night we took Mady and Austin to the football game. We were lucky enough to sit in the loge. They were obsessed with keeping an eye on Cosmo. It was really annoying to not be able to bring food/drinks to the game because of course as soon as we got there Mady realized she was starving (never mind that we ate dinner right before we went!). We went crazy and bought some popcorn and treats for an outrageous price. I remember the days of taking a huge bag of homemade vanilla popcorn in to the games. That was sweet.

Also occurring during this crazy week: Ryan twisted his ankle, I ran 4.3 miles (my furthest run since the 1/2 marathon), I mowed the lawn, girls craft night with some lovely ladies, picking raspberries and making jam, and a softball tournament.

It was a busy one folks.

house

2011-09-16T15:01:00.002-06:00

There have been (and I'm afraid there always will be) projects around the house that I want to work on. Here are a few that I crossed off my list:

We have needed a rug by our front door since we moved in. I've been looking for the perfect one and it took me awhile to realize that I wasn't going to find it in stores - - so I found it online. And here it is!

We have these shelves above our tv that I didn't really know what to do with. I didn't want it to look like a hodge podge mess of stuff and I didn't want them to distract from the rest of the space and they are kind of awkward shapes/sizes. So I turned to Pinterest and found a tutorial on how to make your own milk glass. I bought all this glass at DI for 5$, a little thing of white paint and went to town. It was a really fun project. I think I need a few more pieces to fill it. What do you think?

Do you recognize what my kids are watching? Rainbow Brite on Netflix!

Mady loved it

When we moved in our house we bought a huge, expensive table so that we wouldn't be limited in table space for get-togethers. It has been hard to keep our table nice looking with little kids...and with me around. I guess I set something really hot on the table and it left a big white heat mark in the very center. So I tried a bunch of home remedies (mayonnaise, hair dryer) and found that a hot iron turned to the steam setting worked. I'm so relieved. And I promise, I won't do it again.

razzies, as my grandma calls them

2011-09-14T20:14:00.009-06:00

Mady started swimming lessons on Tuesday. She loves it. She is so ready to be involved in things/learning/interacting with other little kids. She is so nervous to put her face in the water. The other little girls are like fish and just dunking their whole heads in and she can barely stick her mouth in. So we worked on it that night when she took a bath. She was so proud of herself when she could blow bubbles. It makes me feel so anxious for her - - like she is already behind. I am such a mom.

Good news? She starts a little neighborhood joy-school next week. I'm really excited! It has been really fun doing preschool at home with her and Austin, but Austin's attention span and excitement for learning just isn't the same as hers. It will be great for her to spend time with kids her age.

After dinner one night I found this cute action going on in the living room:

Everybody snuggling with Mia as she drank her bottle.

I picked raspberries again on Wednesday and got so many I decided to make jam. I made (8) bottles, froze (2) yogurt containers full of fresh berries, and still had enough left to try a new dessert (it was amazing). Have I told you how much I love this time of year?

For dinner the other night we ate crepes. As Austin ate his filled with peaches, raspberries, and whipped cream he tipped his head back and sort of yelled "I love this." It was so cute

Mady and Austin love to play the "opposite game" where I say something and they say the opposite. Today he was walking around the kitchen he said "ladder - - ladder. Opposites, mom!" I gently tried to explain to him that he was saying the same thing. He said "No. Your joking. Your not serious." He is hilarious!

productivity

2011-09-13T13:36:00.005-06:00

Yesterday was a really productive awesome day.

I did the laundry, tried a new recipe for white bread (delicious), had an awesome preschool with Ausy and Mady about seasons, specifically fall, went to the library, did some shopping , cleaned the kitchen from our cooking extravaganza the night before, went out to dinner as a family (didn't go so well, mostly because the dumb high chair didn't have straps and Mia kept standing up so I ended up holding her. Cross that restaurant off our list!) got some work done...and Ryan mowed the lawn. For the first time. It looks gorgeous!

I also put together a package for our friend who is deployed in Afghanistan right now. It was so fun to do! I used a Super Hero theme and put tags on all the items that were hero related and added some comic books and other fun stuff (I went off this cute idea and just modified the printables to fit what I had). I can't wait for him to get it.

harvest

2011-09-11T21:06:00.004-06:00

My mom is in Canada right now to be with my brother and his family during his first round of chemo (we wish we could all be there to support him during this hard time!).

I had the lucky task of picking her raspberries for her on Saturday. So I loaded the kidlets in the car and dumped them on the grass to play and run around while I loaded my bucket with goodness. Mia tried to follow me into the raspberry patch but got stuck by some bushes and started crying. Austin was keeping himself busy digging in the sand. Mady was right by my side picking berries like crazy - - none of them made it to the bucket, just straight into her mouth. She had the genius idea of getting a big handful and going on the sidewalk to share them with Mia. She just went back and forth until I was done. Such a good little helper.

Because my dad is home alone we had him over for dinner tonight, just to make sure he got at least one good meal. We ate Chicken Tikka Masala, Naan, Pea and Almond Pulao, and for dessert - Apple Dumplings. It was amazing. Ryan cooked the best naan ever and I made the spiciest Masala yet. We are a good team.

This past week I've been doing preschool with Mady and Austin - nothing big, not too long (I'm lucky if Austin lasts more than 30 minutes) just something fun and educational. We learned all about A's. Mady LOVES it and never wants to stop. "Can't we learn some more? I want to do more A's! What's next?" I wish I was more creative and had more ideas on fun things for them to do! Lucky for me there is lots online...if only I had more time to look around.

my boy

2011-09-08T19:54:00.004-06:00

Austin:

-whenever we are talking about something, he says "I love (insert whatever we are talking about). That is my favorite."

-when something isn't working he says "It's not working. It needs new batteries."

-sometimes I catch him singing "teach me how to jimmer" to himself as he is playing

-ever since we went to the demolition derby he is obsessed with cars crashing into each other. As we are driving, he looks out the window at the other cars and says "crash. crash.crash" Hmm.. he has a long way to go before we let him drive!

-the other night he woke up crying so I went down to help him calm down. He rolled over, crying and said "I miss daddy so much" and went back to sleep.

-today, getting ready, he said "mom you are so beautiful. You're my very best friend."

We love our little Ausy boy.

Labor a little less, play a little more

2011-09-04T21:28:00.006-06:00

Thursday we had the wonderful surprise of having Ryan home from work early. All the terrible weather in New Jersey means work is slower here. We went out to lunch, went bowling, and did a little birthday shopping (in preparation for my birthday). That night we had a college football kickoff celebration dinner: steak, sourdough rolls (my first attempt at sourdough!), potatoes, a little DP. So yummy. Such a great way to bring in the football season!

Saturday. Went for a family walk to the park, did some work around the house, relaxed. My parent's stake was having a 50th neighborhood anniversary party. It was huge. I decided that it sounded so fun I would skip watching the BYU game and go with the kids (Ryan opted to stay and watch the game with his fam). I'm so glad I went! There was a petting zoo, a car show, live music and dancing, carnival games, delicious food, hay rides, water games, balloons, cotton candy blow-up toys...all free. It was awesome. The kids absolutely loved it and I saw some old friends and it was great to catch up. Mady and Austin were running around trying to win prizes and just taking it all in. They both went on the blow-up toys (I was totally surprised) and loved it, until the big kids came and were acting a little too crazy for them.

They both tried cotton candy for the first time and weren't too sure about that sticky mess.

Mia was a complete doll. I really forgot she was there a few times because she was so happy and content in the stroller. When we got her out she was just clapping along with the music and dancing with grandpa. Permagrin.

The car show was pretty cool. Austin loved the motorcycles.

I even got to watch the BYU football game rebroadcast that night. It was nice knowing that they won before I watched :)

Today is my birthday. I woke up to breakfast in bed, which was divine (especially the pineapple cut up in a pineapple bowl. My husband, the gourmet chef!). We opened presents and he completely surprised me with a RACLETTE GRILL. For those of you who don't know what Raclette is (I'm guessing most of you), it is a Swiss delicious delicious dish that my family loves (we were introduced to it when I lived over there). You use the grill to melt Raclette cheese and pour it over your potatoes, pickles, and onions. I'm not even doing it justice. If you ever want to try some, let me know. We'll have you over.

We had my parents over for a birthday dinner of more steak, asparagus, wild rice, more sourdough rolls, and fruit soup. Carrot cake and ice cream completed the night!

I can't believe I'm 28 - you can basically just round that number right up to 30. I'm getting up there, folks.

Mia Dixie

2011-08-31T15:02:00.004-06:00

Here are some facts about our little beauty:

-she has lots of nicknames. Most commonly called: cookie (Mady started this one and it has totally stuck!), Miacita

-she is pulling herself up on everything. Constantly wants to be moving. Yesterday she stood by herself for a few seconds and she has started walking using her walker toy.

-her 7th tooth is just coming in..and it is a doozy. She is not getting enough sleep, folks.

-she is always fake laughing. If Mady and Ausy are laughing she tries to join in with a little wheeze/chuckle sound. Last night Ryan and I were watching Hotel Rwanda which is a really sad/moving movie about the Rwandan genocide. Mia woke up (with aforementioned tooth pain) and watched with us. I would be crying (because it was really sad) and she would be fake laughing, which made Ryan and I laugh. I guess it was a good way to lighten up a really sad movie!

-always smiling. I constantly have people ask me "does she always smile?" Yes. She really does!

-she loves to read books, especially the animal books Grandma gave her for her birthday. She snuggles right into my lap and wants to touch all the pictures.

-doesn't like anything in her hair. Whenever I try and fix it she immediately pulls it right out!

-drinks from a straw, sippy cup, basically anything but after she gets a mouth full she dribbles at least half of it back down her chin so she is pretty much constantly soaking wet.

-loves her siblings. And her dad. Boy, when he gets home from work she lights right up.

We love our little munchkin!

get 'er done

2011-08-30T15:00:00.005-06:00

I finally finished up a few craft projects I had in the works.

I made this fabric butterfly display months ago, but didn't like the way the wings were curling so I took it apart, mod podge'd all the butterflies to paper so they weren't so flimsy, and hung it in Mady's room.
I also made this lima bean wreath a few weeks ago but finally hung it on our front door.

And hung my felt wreath in Mady's room:

I've been wanting to make Austin a BYU shirt every since I attempted making 4th of July shirts with freezer paper. I found the design I wanted and got it all done Sunday night. I love it...and so does he! Just in time for college football kickoff.

snap out of it

2011-08-29T15:38:00.004-06:00

I need a new post...that last one was a little bit of a downer. I felt like such a LOSER and pretty much cried when one of my dear friend's wife commented about that is her life every day because her husband is deployed. Wow. That kicked me out of my funk real fast! Since then I have really been trying to focus on the positive and change my perspective. But it's been hard. It seems like there are a lot of little bumps in my path right now.

I have never had allergies before. The last month or so they have been off the charts for me. You name the symptom, I have it. Medication hasn't helped yet, so I'm just walking around the house feeling like I have a cold and sneezing every 10 seconds! It does make me grateful for all the years I've had allergy free!

We were hoping Mady would get in to preschool at our local elementary school, but no such luck(it was need-based...). Positive? She gets to spend more time with me! We are going to do our own preschooling (unless I can find a cheap alternative, or moms who will joy school-it with me!). That means I am finally going to get around to painting my little school desks downstairs!

On Friday I drove up to my Grandma's house with kidlets and my mom to help my Grandma in the garden. We brought home 5 huge buckets of tomatoes, a few zucchinis and squash, red potatoes and a belly full of raspberries. The kids were so cute when we were at GG's house (that's what we call her). When Mady said the prayer before they had a sandwich she said how much she loved GG and how much she loved her raspberries. It was so cute.

All those tomatoes meant I spent all Saturday canning with my mom. It was exhausting, but I now have a pantry full of stewed tomatoes and fresh salsa in the fridge.

Friday night was father's and son's for Ryan and Austin. Although they didn't sleep over they had a blast eating yummy food, watching bowling bowls get cannoned over the mountain, watching the human sling, and hanging out with family. The girls didn't want to be left out so we had our own girls night including Cafe Rio, brownies and ice cream, and just talking. It was a super fun night.

bored.

2011-08-24T15:00:00.003-06:00

What do you do when your husband is working until after 11 pm?

Let me tell you what works for me:

-bake a batch of cookies and then eat them all

-don't bother showering. In fact, don't even bother getting dressed.

-waste countless hours on the computer

-spend some time on sewing/quilting projects you started and have never finished

-finally fold the laundry that you have been putting off

-Netflix

-look through the fridge for something else you can eat

-finally, drug yourself so you can go to sleep without him

Disclaimer: This may well work for one night, but after two or three you may be going a little crazy. I know I am.

PS: I posted the recipe for Mia's Cake here. If you care.

Cake for hair gel

2011-08-23T19:38:00.004-06:00

Mia turned one yesterday. From experience, I knew that she wasn't going to care what happened that day...but I still tried to make it special. We made her her favorite pancake breakfast. She loved it.

Then we spent a chill day. We went to the park, then came home to make a cake and do boring every-day things (like laundry and the dishes). We did manage to spend some time on our new grass which I hope I never take for granted.

Then the beautiful birthday girl took a marker to her face and hands. I was making the cake in the kitchen and Mady ran in saying "Mia is all blue." Of course I freaked out, thinking she wasn't breathing so when I saw what actually happened I was relieved. I couldn't really get it off, but at least it wasn't permanent.
My mom and dad came over for dinner and cake and ice cream. I made a chocolate cake with fresh strawberry frosting. It was quite delicious.

She kept wanting to grab the flame, but once we demonstrated how to blow out the flame she attempted to blow.

She was super cautious when we plunked some cake down for her. She just kept poking it with her fingers. Finally once we gave her a taste and she realized it was YUMMY she went to town.

The night was finished off with a bath and new PJS. Of course, she later threw up from coughing so hard and stayed up most of the night but other then that I think her birthday was a success.

And just for fun, here is a picture of Mady on her first birthday.

Derby 'til you die

2011-08-22T21:04:00.002-06:00

First lets start with our anniversary celebration. Friday night we went up to Park City for the evening while the kids had a sleepover at Grandma's. Mady was so excited that she made a list of things to do and the first thing she said when we got over there was "Mom can you leave?"

We went out to dinner, felt adventurous enough to go down the Alpine Slide, went hot tubbing, relaxed, tried to sleep in, ate a delicious breakfast, and did some shopping. It was divine.

The night of our real anniversary we went to the Demolition Derby with Mady and Austin and the Salmon fam. It was awe.some.

You can't help but feel a little white trash, but it just adds to the fun :)

Austin was just beaming and loving every minute of it. I was a little nervous with the whole bleacher situation (Mady's shoe and Austin's jacket managed to fall down into the depths, but they were retrieved. I hate open bleachers with kids!!) but we survived and was so so fun. Maybe even fun enough to be a yearly family event...

7 glorious years

2011-08-20T06:30:00.003-06:00

"To give and not expect return, that is what lies at the heart of love."

- Oscar Wilde

“Doubt thou the stars are fire,
Doubt the sun doth move,
Doubt truth to be a liar
but never doubt thy love.”

-Shakespeare, from Hamlet, Act II, Scene II

"Love at first sight is easy to understand; it's when two people have been looking at each other for a lifetime that it becomes a miracle."

-Amy Bloom

"Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired."

- Robert Frost

"The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved, loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves."

- Victor Hugo

"Marriage is the most natural state of man,
and the state in which you will find solid happiness."

- Benjamin Franklin

"I like not only to be loved, but also to be told I am loved."

- George Eliot

"The best thing to hold onto in life is each other."

-Audrey Hepburn

"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred
minus one day so I never have to live without you."

- A. A. Milne

Happy Anniversary, Rybaby.

green carpet

2011-08-18T22:38:00.002-06:00

I got home late on Thursday night from my family reunion camping trip. Friday morning I was awaken at 6 am by a phone call from the sod company...our sod was on its way (so much for sleeping in and so much for last delivery of the day!). The day was spent raking and preparing the soil with my dad and we got it done (Ryan was on a business trip and missed out on the final raking, lucky dog)!

Saturday we had tons of help from family and friends to help us lay our new grass. We came up a little bit short and had to make a few more trips out to the sod farm, but we finally finished it on Tuesday! It is so fun to look out our window and see green (or trying to be green) grass:

Prayers needed!

2011-08-16T13:11:00.000-06:00

My older brother just found out he has Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Please keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

We survived...but we're dead

2011-08-15T08:51:00.006-06:00

(2) of my cute little campers

Last week was my mom's side of the family reunion. She has 10 brothers and sisters with over 150 total family members now so it is a big feat to try and get everyone together. The gathering place was Aspen Family Camp in Heber. It was gorgeous and such a great place.

The only thing I was nervous about? Camping. In a tent. With 3 small children. For 3 nights. Without Ryan.

Guess what? The kids loved it. Mady and Austin slept so soundly and great, even with the wind howling outside. Mia slept great the first night but the next two nights were another story. She ended up in my sleeping bag both nights and slept great. I didn't sleep much, but oh well.

It was so fun to see cousins and aunts and uncles that I haven't seen for years!

We played tons of fun games, canoed, ate delicious food cooked in the gourmet kitchen (all planned by my amazing mother), worked on the worlds biggest crossword puzzle, had a talent show, and tons of other stuff. Madeleine and Austin were in heaven. They made lots of new best friends and loved all the attention.

Mia with her entourage

Look at that dirty little face!

Mady loved loved loved canoeing and went every single day.
Ryan came up for an evening so she got to go out on the lake with him.

Mady performing some tumbling in the talent show. She won the "Best Headstand" award :)

Moral of the story? Camping with 3 kids was totally doable and even fun! With Ryan there I even might actually get some sleep.

The morning after we got home the first thing Mady said was "Can we go camping again?"

My kingdom for a horse!

2011-07-31T11:16:00.007-06:00

Last Sunday was my mom's b-day. We celebrated by having them over for dinner and then inviting family over for cake and ice cream. We tried a new Indian recipe and it was delicious. The cake was Ina Garten's flag cake...and it was super yummy. And quite patriotic!

What is a family gathering without some headstands?

On Monday I went down to the Shakespeare Festival with my parents and extended family. Ryan had to stay and work...bummer. We had an awesome week and the kids loved loved loved all the attention they got from my cousins. They were carried everywhere, always had little playmates, and got snuck lots of treats.

We usually do lots of swimming but this year it was colder than usual. Luckily our hotel had an indoor pool. Although the water wasn't very warm, we still did some swimming. Austin did not even want to get in the water but after awhile he realized it was fun and even started jumping in. We did swim outside on the last day and I got to do crossword puzzles in the sun, which is a definite requirement for our Cedar City vacation!

We had a fun picnic with family, ate lots of great food, and my kids even slept ok in the hotel (always an adventure). I got to see Richard III, Music Man, Romeo and Juliet, and I saw Midsummer Night's Dream with Madeleine. I wasn't sure how she would do, but she loved the fairies and the dancing and understood it for the most part. She was laughing out loud in some parts! The best was the set - a huge tree with leaves hanging all across the stage that would light up with different colored twinkle lights. It was pretty magical.

Mia, the water-baby

Mady, all ready to go to her first play!

At the annual family picnic
with the founder of the festival

On an early morning walk up the canyon

fraud.

2011-07-24T08:46:00.003-06:00

This week I was going through our checking account charges.

I saw a $200 charge at a perfume store.

First thought: Wow, Ryan spent $200 on perfume for me!

Second thought: Wait a second...

Called the bank - we had 3 fraudulent charges on my debit card. Which I still have in my possession. They are reversing the charges and cancelled my card. I can't believe how evil people are.

Yesterday was a long day spent outside putting in our sprinklers! I was outside from 9 until 5 and I am feeling all that shoveling today. We have it almost finished and are so excited to get some grass in. We couldn't have done it without all the amazing help from family! They were lifesavers.

Now today is my mom's birthday.

And tomorrow me and the kiddies head to Cedar City with my parents, without Ryan. I haven't even started to think about packing. It might be a late night...but boy are we excited!

Upside Down

2011-07-20T08:00:00.006-06:00

Mady probably spends half of the day on her head - no joke. She is doing headstands everywhere, on everything. If she has a free second she runs to the wall and flips on her head. Now she can do them in the middle of the room without leaning on something. Here she is:

And her new trick!

I forgot to tell you the good news: I found Ryan's WALLET!!! I had given up on finding it and, of course, that is when it turned back up. I am so glad - I didn't care about the stuff inside (all replaceable) but I bought the wallet for him in Italy and it was pretty special. So I was pretty excited about finding it.

I also got a job I can do from home. I don't know a whole lot about it yet but I am excited to make a little mulah and stretch myself a little bit.

We have been to the park for a picnic lunch the last two days. It is so great to get out of the house and let the kids run wild for awhile. Mia loves crawling on the grass and exploring her new world. Yesterday we went to this awesome park where the whole play area is built out of wood with ramps, bridges, towers, you name it. It is an imagination wonder world! The kids loved it until their little faces were red and sweaty. It is always nice to have friends to go with, too.

This was right before Mady about threw up - she didn't like it when it started spinning!

A few stories:

There was a big lightning storm and Austin really wanted to go outside and watch it. Every time the sky lit up or he would hear the thunder he would say, "Look mom! Fireworks!"

For family home evening on Monday we read some stories from the Friend. One was called "The Lookout Girls" and talked about two sisters who realized their mom was forgetting things, like brushing their teeth and saying prayers. They decided to help her remember and try and do things for her without her asking. Mia started crying so I told Mady and Austin I would read a few more stories after I put her in bed. While I was getting Mia in bed I heard a flurry of activity in the living room and Mady saying, "Mom is going to be so happy, Ausy, she is going to give us a big hug!" When I walked back into the living room they had picked up all the toys and the room was spotless. They were both so excited "Surprise Mom! We cleaned up!" It was adorable.

This morning at breakfast Mady said "Mom we don't kill birds. They are a part of the earth so we shouldn't kill them." I have no idea where she comes up with this stuff.

Rock and Roll

2011-07-17T20:28:00.004-06:00

Mia (and I) survived a day where her fever got over 102. She was pretty sad, but seems to be doing lots better. She also pulled herself up to standing on the bathtub this morning for the first time. I knew it would happen by the bathtub - she gets so excited when I am filling it up with water!

Mady woke up screaming one night because there was a fly in her room. She would not go back to sleep and just kept crying. Eventually, I started crying because I don't function well in the middle of the night. Daddy came to the rescue and told her that if we turned off her bedside light and turned on the hallway light the bugs wouldn't come in her room. She immediately went to sleep. He is my hero.

My kids got to play at grandma's house on Friday so I told Austin he could play with his friends (some kids across the street). He said, "Those are grandma's friends. I want to play with my friends." He is always asking if his friends can come over and asking if today is Sunday so he can play with his friends, but then when Sunday does come he is always nervous to go to nursery.

Mady was eating her dinner really good and said, "Look mom! I'm eating my salad! I'm growing up. But don't worry. I will still be your little girl."

We got our rock walls done! And by we I mean the people we hired :) They look great and help our yard take shape. This week we tackle the sprinklers.

West Side Before

West Side After

Back Porch Before

Back Porch After

East Side Before (kind of during...)

East Side After (with an excited munchkin)

new things and bad days

2011-07-12T11:51:00.003-06:00

A few new things going on around here:

--Mia has finally ventured into the world of mobility. She is fully crawling, skipping right over the army variety. She is already pretty quick so I have to keep a close eye on her.

--Mia has 2 new top teeth that have poked through. It has been a rough road for the poor girl. Yesterday her gums were bleeding and they are still pretty swollen. Thank goodness for Tylenol.

--We are slowly but surely getting rid of the jungle in front and behind our house! Today they scraped the weeds away, tomorrow the rock walls will start going in. Mady and Austin are loving it - they got to ride the tractor today and watched all morning out the window.

Yesterday was the worst day ever for Ryan. Ryan decided he needed to go to the doctor because he has had a hacking cough for over a month. In the process of getting ready for the day he realized he lost his wallet and his badge for work. Combine this with a migraine headache. Awesomeness. Then he got to work and it was a crazy day, working until 7 and then coming home to work. I called Ryan today and asked him if things were going better today and he said it was pretty much impossible for them to go worse then yesterday.

I did get to go to the 5 Browns concert at Thanksgiving Point with my mom last night, after the kids were snuggly tucked in bed and I made sure Ryan was going to survive his crappy day. It was a really amazing concert and such a fun venue.

Half. Marathon.

2011-07-10T10:23:00.004-06:00

Yesterday was the big day. I slept at my parents house so we could get up and leave at 5. The race was supposed to start at 6:30, but there were some bus complications getting us up to the starting line. We started closer to 7. The run was down Hobble Creek canyon and was absolutely gorgeous. It was nice and shady and there were uphills, mostly downhill but not so downhill your legs are being jarred with every step. We set a goal to finish - and we all did! I was really proud of myself. I didn't stop and walk once. I felt really good up until the last mile. It didn't help that at the last mile marker I got sprayed in the face by someone who was trying to be nice and cool us off. Instead, I couldn't breath and almost threw up coughing. There were a lot of people who stopped and walked in that last mile and I REALLY didn't want to. I thought I wasn't going to make it, but I did. I was so happy to see my smiling happy kids and husband and even Dallin and Shellee! It was so great. I surprised myself by running it in 2:07!

About ready to collapse across the finish line

I loved this half-marathon journey. I love that it helped me reach my weight goal. I loved that it pushed me. I honestly can't believe I did it. I am amazed that you can set goals and accomplish things you never thought you could.

our weekend

2011-07-05T11:31:00.011-06:00

Friday

Date night. Mady and Austin got to go to the pool with grandpa and his ward while Mia and Ryan and I went out to dinner with friends to Communal. Ever since Ryan went for work a month or so ago he has been dying to take me and raving about how delicious it is. I was worried it wouldn't live up to his rave reviews, but oh boy did it. It was incredible. And really fun to go with friends so we could try lots of yummy things! I think my favorites were the steak and gnocchi. And the veggies. And the quinoa. It was all amazing.

Saturday

Woke up bright and early to see the balloons. It was a struggle getting everyone out of bed and in the car but it was so worth it. The balloons even launched this year! My mom and dad met us down there. I love going with little kids - they are so mesmerized. Mia couldn't figure out what was going on and just looked up the whole time. There was a Darth Vader balloon this year and it was pretty amazing.

This is how Mia looked the entire time we were there:After balloons we went to a neighborhood breakfast at my parents. In the afternoon Ryan went cycling up the canyon with some guys from work. We met him up at Sundance. It was so beautiful up there. I definitely want to try riding the lift up the mountain some time.

Sunday

Madeleine's birthday celebration continued! We had a birthday dinner at my parent's house. She requested steak, pasta, and cheesecake. So funny. It was all really delicious. She loved having another chance to blow out her candles and open more presents!

Sneaking the first lick - - she can, because she is the birthday girl.

Monday

I ran the 10k race with my parents. It was my first race doing more than 5k. It was a hard course with a few hills, but it was really fun and a great warm-up for our half marathon on Saturday!

I hurried home to shower so I could meet the rest of the family at the parade! We had a great spot, as always (thanks to Ryan's little brother who slept on University Ave. all night). The kids loved it and weren't too scared of the mascots this time. I made special George Washington shirts for the boys and shirts and headbands for Mia and Mady. It was really fun!

If you asked Austin who was on his shirt he would say "George Washing"

and then Mady would say "ton"

We spent the rest of the day relaxing, finished off with a bbq with my parents and sparklers.

One mishap - Austin grabbed the sparkler after it went out and burned his little fingers. It was quite traumatic and he has a few blisters to show for it.

So Far

2011-06-30T19:21:00.006-06:00

Sunday

Stake conference. Got all ready, headed over to the church. No one is there. We were told that it would be broadcast at our building and that we were supposed to watch it there. So then we drive to another building. It wasn't our stake...but a singles ward. We realize we have no idea where our stake center is. Madeleine is crying because she wants to go to church. I am so frustrated that we made the effort, only to not go to church. So instead of going home and having a crappy day we drove up the canyon to South Fork and walked around the park, by the river, and enjoyed nature for awhile. It turned into a beautiful Sunday.

Monday

Mady's birthday! She wakes up early and opens her presents, which she loves. Tinkerbell pjs, a new softball glove and bat and ball (pink of course), a clock for her bedroom, Kung Fu Panda movie, and a pink tshirt with a panda on it. We went to the library and to the park to play, watched her new movie, and then played in grandma's backyard all afternoon. Ryan had a softball game so we got to watch that.

Have I told you that Mady does handstands everywhere
we go? This is her at the softball game. And Austin is trying his best!

Then to a barbecue at Cascade and miniature golfing. I was going to make cupcakes because I felt like she had to blow out some candles on her real birthday, but I just ran out of energy. Instead, I bought cupcakes at Walmart. For anyone who knows me, you know that this is huge for me. I never buy stuff like that, but Mady absolutely loved it because they had Tangled rings on the top. She is pretty easy to please! It was a long fun day.

This picture is hilarious. There was this bird dive-bombing everyone's head on one hole of the golf course. This was taken right as the bird swooped over and everyone was screaming at Ryan's little brother.

Tuesday

Tried Jumping Jacks with the kids ( a place with blow-up toys). I was worried the kids wouldn't like it, but Mady almost immediately was yelling "I love this place! This is a lucky day!" Austin took a long time to warm up, but by the end he was doing the obstacle course and having fun. Mady tried the huge slide once and started crying because she was going too fast. It was a little much for her!

Wednesday

My cousin asked if she could watch the kids for awhile so I could have an afternoon off. You better believe I jumped on that offer! I went out to lunch with Ryan and then went to the mall for a few hours of child-free shopping. I'll admit, whenever I heard a child crying it took me a minute of panic, worrying it was mine to remember that my kids weren't there.

On Ryan's way home from work he called to tell me to line up a babysitter because his boss was taking us out to dinner. Of course I already had dinner cooking in the crock-pot, but leftovers are great! We went up to Sundance to the Foundry Grill. It was amazing. The setting alone was breathtaking, not to mention the amazing food. Wow.

Thursday

Ryan is in San Francisco all day for work. The kids and I went to the craft store and then to a CARNIVAL at Ryan's work. There was facepainting, balloons, bouncy house, delicious food, helicopter and fire truck tours. It was awesome. Mady got her face painted like a butterfly and they both got balloons that popped minutes later. I was pretty nervous about going and surviving by myself but the only time it was tricky was getting food. That was mostly because as I am trying to balance our plates of food, push the stroller, and keep Mady close the stupid Real Salt Lake mascot came right up by my kids who started SCREAMING and trying to get me to hold them. Can you see that you terrify my children? Please go scare someone else. We survived. The band Fictionist was playing and they were pretty awesome. Mady was dancing.

Now the kids are in bed and I am off to attempt a fourth of July craft to keep me busy until Ryan gets home around midnight. I hope it turns out.

bday bonanza

2011-06-26T21:21:00.007-06:00

Friday was a big day. Although it wasn't her birthday, it was Mady's party with friends. After she woke up she ran into my room and said "This is the best birthday ever. Thank you for the balloons from Aunt Diane." We hadn't even DONE anything yet and it was already the best, so we were off to a good start. Then she opened a present from my aunt and her daughters...and she was over the moon. A barbie that was a princess, mermaid, and Rapunzel all in one. Wow.

Then Mady got into her princess outfit. After all, it was a princess party and she wanted to be ready. I gave her a special crown and wand I made for her. And then she started asking when her friends were coming over. And it was only 9 am. It was a long morning.

But 1 o'clock finally rolled around. After all the princesses arrived we started off with some of Mady's favorite foods: carrots and dip, watermelon, grapes, strawberries, banana chocolate chip muffins, cookies, and marshmallows. And pink lemonade.

Then the princesses were presented with their very own crowns and wands, which they got to decorate with glitter and sequins.

Then on to the princess games. We played pass the poison apple (like hot potato, but with an apple). That didn't go over to well. They didn't really get what was going on. Mady just wanted to take a bite out of the apple and pretend she was poisoned, so we did that for awhile.

Then we did a freeze dance, which they loved.

And duck duck goose, but we called it princess princess prince.

And a few other games.

Then cake and ice cream.

Let me clarify something: that disaster cake picture that I posted? I didn't make that. I found the picture online.

Here is the real cake:

A munchkin princess in all her glory. Mady thought it was the best cake ever and I tried not to correct her.

A few more pictures:

treats, for goody-bags

all the princesses...and a kitchen-tool toting prince

She absolutely loved it.

Then came the clean up. We tried to have Austin rescue the balloons from our vaulted ceiling but he couldn't quite reach.

As if that wasn't enough excitement for one day, we had a couple over from our ward for dinner that night. To say I was exhausted when bedtime came around is a giant understatement.

perfection?

2011-06-23T19:59:00.003-06:00

When I start a new project I like to start with a clean environment. Really organized. Everything where I need it. And then I start. And it becomes a disaster zone! And all my kids start crying! And...you get the idea.

Today, the project was Mady's cake. She wanted a princess cake so I was going for this look:

Instead, I'm afraid it looks more like this:

The cake wasn't as deep as I wanted it to be so instead of adult princess barbie it looks like munchkin barbie. The icing started melting off the cake and I was freaking out...and I realized our house was 84 degrees! So I scraped the icing and started over. And turned on the AC. At this point I was not fun to be around. I'm pretty much going crazy. In the end, it still is far from perfect. Even maybe far from great.

But guess who loves it? Mady. When I am going crazy because things aren't perfect, I just have to breath and remind myself that she will love this party. No matter what.

playing pretend

2011-06-22T22:15:00.003-06:00

Austin and Mady have been playing together so well lately. They entertain themselves by wrestling, running around, playing pretend. Of course they get on each others nerves every once in awhile but those moments are not happening as often as usual.

Today I looked over to see Mady, dressed as a princess lying on the couch with her eyes closed. Austin was her "prince" and he kissed her until she would open her eyes. Then Austin was the evil step mother and would chase her around the couch. And little Mia would sit on the floor laughing at her silly siblings.

Mia has had a runny nose and cough for a few weeks now. I keep hoping she is getting more teeth (still just 2!) but so far no sign. She is still her happy, smiling self. Sometimes she doesn't want to nap...and that is about the only signal that all is not well.

Meanwhile Ryan is working like a madman. Last night he came home for dinner, only to leave again and work until midnight. Most nights he is out until 6:30 or 7. This might sound like me complaining, but it isn't. I'm so glad he has a job. I'm so glad he loves it. Of course I miss him...but hopefully this won't last forever. And it has given me time to work on my all-consuming project: Mady's princess birthday party on Friday. This is my first birthday party and I think I'm in a little over my head. Mady is so excited. So so excited.

Toddler Conversation

Mady: "Sometimes, when I take my hair out at night and its all curly I like to comb it so its not curly anymore"

Me: "When I was little my grandma told me to brush my hair 100 times before I went to sleep so it would be healthy and beautiful."

Mady: "When I was a grown-up and Grandma was a little girl I told her to brush her hair a million times at night."

sing the chariot of fire theme song in your head...

2011-06-19T20:04:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I did it.

I ran a half marathon.

Our real race isn't for a few weeks, but this was our last Saturday we could practice running the distance before the big day. It was hard. So hard. My legs were like jelly at the end. But I did it!

To top off a great day we had my mom and dad and a few friends over for Indian food last night, then headed off to the Strawberry Days rodeo. It was such a fun date night.

Of course, the time in between running and rodeo-ing was spent recovering and trying to get rid of my migraine headache. And realizing that I still hadn't found that perfect father's day present, which meant I was going to face the day empty handed (I made him a delish breakfast to help soften the blow).

stared at

2011-06-15T13:39:00.004-06:00

There have been a few moments in the last few days where I was THAT mom. You know, the one where you are thinking to yourself "get your urchin children under control." I never wanted to be that mom.

*Saturday, at Costco. Mady threw up in the aisle and just couldn't stop crying. We got a lot of awesome looks.

*I went to Macey's with all three kids and loaded Mady and Austin into the truck on the front of the cart and buckled Mia in by me. I promised the kids ice cream cones because they had been so good that day. Of course, by the end of a long shopping trip they were both running around the cart, with ice cream all over their faces and clothes. They looked homeless. Again...lots of awesome looks.

*And then today. I really wanted to have a fun day. We went up to BYU to walk around, feed the ducks, and have a picnic lunch. So after hauling all the kids across campus down to the ducks I found the pond under construction. No ducks. I started heading straight back up the massive hill. I was seriously sweating by the time I got to the top...and I can't tell you how many crazy looks I got. They were probably thinking "look at the crazy mom. 3 kids. she is probably on her way to class, too. Such a zoobie."

Yesterday we ate Popsicle's on the porch. Summertime is the best.

Austin is hilarious when he is eating cold things. He won't bite, only lick. And he likes to have the whole popsicle in his mouth at once.

I have been trying to get a picture of this face for a long time. It is hilarious to me. If you wrinkle up your nose and kind of snort through your nose at her, she does it back. Mady would do it when she was a baby, too. I love it.

This happens all the time: Austin wants to hold hands with Mia. Mia doesn't like to hold hands (much to my chagrin. I love holding baby hands). She tries to pull it away. It becomes a pulling match - who ever is the strongest, wins. Looks like this time, Austin got his way.

My messy babies

Funny things:

Driving in the car Austin asked if we were going to Macey's. I said "You betcha." He said "Don't say you betcha, mom. Say thank you."

On our way home in a hot car, Mady said "Mom I am so hot. My hair is hot. I need to go home and snuggle in my blanket."

out to lunch

2011-06-10T11:16:00.005-06:00

This was not posed at all...

I woke up yesterday feeling sick. So before my day even started I threw in the towel. I decided I wouldn't do anything that day. It was going to be a crappy day. And it didn't help that my kids were up at the crack of dawn.

I think Ryan sensed that and turned things completely around for me. He asked me to drive him to work so I could come down later and go to lunch with him! He gave me something to look forward to, the sweetheart.

So after driving him to work with all 3 kids in the car we came home. I exercised, showered, got the kids all ready. We went and got the car tires rotated, did some shopping at the mall, and ate lunch with Ryan. It was so fun to get out of the house and have things to do. After nap time we went back to Ryan's work and the kids played outside in a giant grass field until he was ready to go. They both had new sunglasses on (from our earlier shopping expedition) and were chasing each other around, just loving being outside. The great day ended by going to Ryan's softball game, then out to grab burgers.

What could have been a crappy, unproductive day turned out to be great fun.

And this morning I woke up bright and early to go running with my mom - our usual Saturday long run got moved to today because they are leaving town. It was really hard to get out of bed at 5:30, but the run was beautiful. We are so close to our half-marathon distance; we went more than 11.5 today!! It felt so great to be back home, exercising over with at 8:30 am.

Look what fits, Aunt Brittney!

Her first ponytail!!

Other things I'm looking forward to?

-My little girls 4th birthday. She can hardly wait

-Strawberry Days Rodeo next week! We've got tickets and can't. wait.

-Watching a movie with Ryguy tonight

-Not waking up at 5:30 tomorrow!!

A Real date

2011-06-05T19:37:00.003-06:00

It is always hard to jump back into real life after vacation. Reality.

Having 2 kids was nice, but not completely smooth sailing. Austin was happier and didn't get teased, but he got bored and didn't have his favorite playmate. Mia got sick and wasn't interested in eating, only throwing up. I started to get worried about keeping her hydrated but luckily she is on the road to recovery. She has even started getting up on her hands and knees and starting to act like crawling may be in her near future!

And now Mady is home. It is nice to have her back...she loved being a big girl and having her own vacation. She is completely exhausted from all the fun she had.

Last night was a fun date night for Ry and he. We went out to dinner, then to the Real Salt Lake soccer game (our first!). The tickets were in a suite (from his work) and they were awesome. We only wished we hadn't eaten dinner before because there was so much food and tons of desserts to choose from. Next time we will know.

Cute moment tonight: putting Mady in bed, brushing Ausy's teeth I told him to go kiss her goodnight. They kiss, hug, and Ausy says "I love you so much Mady. Have a good sleep." Tender.

I love moments like that, especially after a long hard day. Like today. Fast Sunday's are so so hard. Not only am I starving hungry, but our kids are exhausted, Austin fights going to nursery, we have to juggle Mia through our various callings, and end up wondering why we even try going to church.

we got away

2011-06-02T08:49:00.004-06:00

Friday night, Mady and Austin were lucky enough to go out with Grandma and Grandpa to the Bean Museum. They were so excited to go "on a date" and loved the fun night out, including the pizza and chocolate milk afterward. They were even brave enough to pet a real snake!

Funny things Mady did:

They were doing a little presentation about a Madagascan beetle and Mady said really loud so all could hear, "I have Madagascar (talking about the movie)"

She asked somebody that worked there "So whats the deal with the elephant?"

Sunday morning we packed up our car to head down to Las Vegas for a mini-vacation. We weren't sure we could go because of Ryan's new job but luckily they let him go for just a few days. We had a few days of relaxing in the sun (as much relaxing as you can do with 3 little ones) playing in the pool and the lazy river, playing with family, and seeing a few things along the strip. The kids absolutely loved the pool. They could have spent all day in the water, especially Mia. She would just splash and play. Once she tipped over and went all the way under the water. I grabbed her and pulled her up and she was still just smiling and loving it.

I was trying to relax a little more this vacation and not stress so much about what the kids were eating and that they weren't sleeping great. We let them stay up later and eat whatever. Austin took a few naps, which he never does anymore and he was zonked out. Mia fell asleep twice in my arms, which she NEVER does.

And our little Mady girl was lucky enough to stay down there with the Salmon clan for the rest of the week. We miss her, but talk to her on the phone every day. It is funny how different it is to just have 2 kids running around instead of 3.

Some Tidbits:

On the way home, Austin was in the middle of a melt down. All the sudden he stopped, looked out the window and said, "Look at the sunshine. It is so beautiful." (it was sunset). It was so funny.

Mia had a few diaper blow-outs and threw up on the way home, so she made the final leg of the trek in just a diaper. Poor girl.

Walking from The Cheesecake Factory back to our car one night Mady saw people drinking some alcoholic drinks in cool glasses. She said, "Those drinks look cool daddy. I want one." Ryan tried to explain that they were not good to drink and that we don't drink them. We then saw a really drunk girl who couldn't even walk or function and told Mady that she had had that drink and that was why she was sick. It was a good teaching moment. It was interesting to see how much our little 3-year-old takes in and observes from her surroundings.

We were on our way out to the strip but stopped at the pool for a minute. Mady started wading in the shallow water and forgot she didn't have her swimsuit on and sat down in the pool. In her clothes. It was pretty funny...she felt really embarrassed.

One late night as Ausy and Mady were trying to go to sleep Mady said "Mom, my eyes are sleepy but my hands still want to play."

puffy paints

2011-05-25T09:29:00.003-06:00

My days are falling into a routine. I have recognized that I have energy and patience in the morning and I'm ok until lunch. Then I try and settle the kids down with a quiet activity (usually a movie) so I can have a break for a few minutes. Mia has not been napping well so this usually means only 45 minutes or so, but I take what I can get. It is the dreaded time after nap time before Ryan gets home at 7 or so that is usually where I lose it. Every day. I try so hard to be patient but it is hard when the kids are grumpy and fighting. Of course, some days are better than others. Some days they play SO well together. I know that they are going crazy stuck at home with me, but there is nothing I can do.

Some good things that have happened?

I ran 10 miles on Saturday. 10 MILES!! I never ever thought that would be me.

We have been exploring new artistic avenues, making play-dough, painting watercolors, trying puffy paints. The kids love it.

Ryan has a job. And he likes it.

And some funny kid conversations:

Mady, calling Rheubarb cake "rebar cake."

Austin: "I don't dance. I play football."

I was out with the kids and trying to pump up the stroller tire. The pump wasn't working and I was getting really frustrated. Mady said, "Mom, don't freak out!"

Then, later at home, Mady was trying to do something and she was getting frustrated and I asked if she was ok. She said, "Mom I'm freaking out!"

stuck at home

2011-05-19T12:47:00.003-06:00

Ever since finishing the school year Ryan has been looking for a job. There wasn't much out there, so he found other ways to fill his days (golfing, reading, doing fun things) so he wasn't that excited about going back to a real job. He hasn't worked since last JUNE. Since then he has been building our house and going to school.

Well, he did find a job! We are so excited and grateful that he found something. He is pulling some really long days (like a 12 hour work-day yesterday). But he is loving it and I can tell he loves expanding and increasing his knowledge.

This does mean that I have had a few major break-downs this week. I am stuck at home, without a car (we are a one-vehicle family) and the weather has been completely awful the last few days. The kids are stir-crazy but we can't leave the house. Austin has been driving me crazy at bedtime because he won't go to sleep, so we have stopped giving him naps for now. I have been desperately trying to think of fun things to do so we aren't just sitting around watching movies (a nice option when I need a break). We have been cooking lots of fun things, painting, building towers, playing house, drawing, and doing lots of puzzles. Sure there has been a lot of tears and screaming and "I miss daddy. Where is he?" going on. But we are surviving.

Friday the 13th

2011-05-15T14:21:00.005-06:00

Friday was Ryan's b-day and we packed in a day full of fun.

We started off by me running to Beto's to get him his favorite breakfast burrito. Yum.

After breakfast he opened his presents - a new running belt to hold his phone, running socks, and black licorice...and 2 BYU football season tickets. He was pretty surprised because I am probably the world's worst secret keeper. But I did it. Phew.

I wanted Mady to think of her own present to get Ryan, so I had been asking her what she wanted to get. At first she would say "a teddy bear" but I helped her understand we should get him something HE wanted, not something she wanted. She thought about it for a few days and decided she really wanted to get him a BYU shirt. It was such a thoughtful idea and it was really fun for her to do it all on her own.

The day was his to decide what to do and he decided we should hike the Y. We packed up a lunch, got the kids all ready and headed up to the mountain. I was a little worried about how they would do, but we were pleasantly surprised! Mady walked almost the whole way up and would say "I can be tough I can be tough" with each step to help her make it! Austin did really well too, especially when we distracted him with I Spy and took a snack break at each switch back. When we were really close to the Y Mady started to cry and said her legs hurt, so we stopped and she said a little prayer that her legs would feel better. She stood up and started walking and said "Heavenly Father heard me! My legs feel better!" She brought a rock home so that she can remember when she says a prayer, Heavenly Father will help her. The way down was a little rough...I carried Austin on my shoulders the whole way (his shoes were super slippery and he kept falling) and Ryan had Mia in the Baby Bjorn and Mady on his shoulders for most of it. But we survived, even though people who passed us thought we were crazy. WE DID IT!! And yes, we were quite sore the next day!

Ryan then got to play golf with his brother and a friend.

Then off to the Bombay House with more family and friends, our favorite place. It was delicious, as always.

And finally, home, for homemade cheesecake and a movie.

It was a great day.

Crazy Thing: We realized that exactly 10 years ago for Ryan's birthday we hiked the Y and I took him to Bombay House for dinner. Can you believe it?

last dance

2011-05-11T19:53:00.000-06:00

Ryan had a job interview tonight at 5:00. So after he left I started thinking about dinner. I was going to make something delicious. And then as I was making a bottle for Mia I walked directly into the open dishwasher and hit my shin soooo hard. I curled into a ball on the kitchen floor sobbing. All 3 of my children were screaming and crying because they thought I was going to die. Mady rushed over and threw her arms around me saying "Mommy you'll be ok" through her tears. So instead of my planned menu, we had pancakes for dinner (which is always the backup plan). Then I gave all 3 kids a bath together for the first time ever. Mia was terrified at first, but once she realized what was going on she was ok. And now they are all in bed and they smell terrific. I love that part.

Back on Monday Mady had her last dance class with a little recital at the end. She has loved dance so much and appears to have some natural talent. But this is where I am torn. I was not a dancer growing up and although I really love watching others dance, I'm not a big fan of the lifestyle/makeup and costumes/pressures. I know - - you are thinking your daughter isn't even 4 and you are thinking about this? I'm just worried if I leave her in it now it will only get harder to take her out. I think we will give sports a try and if that isn't her thing then I will consider dance more seriously. I would rather have her involved in something then nothing! Ryan's vote is for tae-kwon-do.

And yesterday Ry had to talk to a professor on BYU campus so we hauled all the chiclets and visited Grandpa, walked around, let them go bowling, and went out to lunch. It was a really fun day that almost didn't happen. Trying to get out the door was a chore (as always) and we almost gave up, just sending Ry on his own. Instead we put crying kids in car-seats and headed on up only to have a lovely time. Isn't that always how it goes?

a wedding

2011-05-07T11:31:00.004-06:00

I am really really behind.

* we cut Mady's hair. I just meant to even it out and give it a trim but it ended up a little shorter. Of course, she is still adorable.

* funny Mady moment: she has been waking up too early so we have been talking about getting her a clock so she can't come out of her room until it starts playing music. The other day she woke up and we were already up and doing things. She said, "I guess I don't need a clock." We explained that it was still early, too early to be awake. She thought for a minute and said, " I guess YOU need a clock."

* funny Ausy moment: Ausy has started sleeping with this Woody doll that was Mady's. When I left his room the other night after tucking him in he said, "See you mom. We're going on an adventure." When I went back down to check on him I found Woody tucked snuggle under his arm and a race car held tight in his other little fist.

* Ryan's little sister Chandra got married yesterday. Wedding's are always a long, exhausting day but everything was beautiful. Ryan's mission president sealed them in the Draper temple and it was really special. He told a story about his father (Elder Haight) being in the hospital, not being able to talk because of the tubes down his throat. His wife Ruby leaned over and told him she loved him. He wrote down on a piece of paper "You must know that I love you too." They framed it and put it in their bedroom, next to their marriage license as a daily reminder. I always thought the Haight's were so cute, holding hands wherever they went.

* I was crazy enough to attempt to make Chandra's wedding cake. It was a long process...I think it turned out ok. I don't know how soon I will attempt another one. Maybe I should just start with birthday cakes and work my way up.

Here are some pictures from the big event:

A cream soda bar, which was delicious

A new view

2011-04-30T15:54:00.006-06:00

We have not had window treatments in our bedroom which has been a pain to say the least. I was trying to decide what to do. And once I decided I wanted curtains (that I was going to make) I had to find fabric I liked. Finally, I enlisted Ryan's help and he helped choose fabric online. After a weekend of sewing (last weekend), with the help of my mom, our drapes are done. They are bold. They are fun. They add a lot of color in our otherwise beigeish room.

We love them. They make us feel fancy.

Mia girl had tooth #2 poke through this week. There were only a few late night awakenings but overall she has handled it like a pro.

You can see her two teeth in this one!

And a few of my girls. Oh how I love them.

Ryan has been heading over to the driving range a few nights a week now after the kidlets are in bed. He has caught the golfing fever. My only wish is that I could go with him...

For an early birthday present we took him to the Running Corner to be fitted for new running shoes. He got some sweet Asics that he tried out today on his 5 mile jaunt and loved them.

And last night we said goodbye to Thom, Brittany, and Jackson who are moving to the faraway land of Texas. We stuffed ourselves on Thai and Indian take-out and tried not to think about how long it would be before we see them again. Goodbyes are hard.

bunny hop

2011-04-25T21:22:00.002-06:00

We really tried to teach Mady and Ausy about the real meaning of Easter this year. We did a family home evening lesson all about the Savior and his resurrection. Mady really seemed to get it and understand. But things got a little confused in her mind as people started talking about a bunny who brings eggs that we have to hunt for. She would pretend to read her scriptures and talk about the bunny and the eggs. So next year, we will be separating the two. Fun, silly celebrations on Saturday; focus on Jesus on Sunday.

Somehow the kids managed to go on three egg hunts, which means we have entirely too much candy at our house. They really really loved it. One was Saturday morning outside in Grandma and Grandpa's ward. Then our family hunt on Sunday morning, right when they kids woke up. And then after church at Grandma and Grandpa's house. There was even an adult hunt for packs of gum hidden around the yard. Pretty funny.

We had a delicious, wonderful Easter dinner with my family and then collapsed into bed after a long day. Sunday's are busy, tired days with no naps and juggling cranky kids all day. We count it as a success if we survive and can squeeze some spiritual enlightenment in there somehow.

Here are pictures from our family egg hunt:

And I forgot my camera for the Salmon family one, but these were taken on our cousin's Iphone. Pretty neat!

kids

2011-04-21T13:56:00.002-06:00

Mia's first tooth has finally poked through.

She started waking up every night at 5:00 am like clockwork for a while. Then one day it poked through. I'm thinking there is one more, but her darn tongue is always in the way so I can't get a good look at it.

Austin is going through such a grumpy phase. I think it is just the terrible twos coming a little late. He likes to yell, cry, push. I'm trying to patiently endure but that doesn't always work. On Sunday he REFUSED to go to nursery. Screaming and going crazy like never before. I had to bring him into primary while I played the piano (my new calling). It was a rough day. But sometimes he is a little sweetheart. Normal, I know.

And Mady loves to talk in her grumpy, pouty voice to try and get what she wants. I'm trying to gently show her that she NEVER gets what she wants when she talks like that, but she hasn't quite picked up on the correlation yet.

On a happy note, I do love when Austin and Mady play together for over 30 minutes without having to play referee. I do love when they go to bed at 7:30 with minimal calls to mom or dad. I do love snuggling with them when they climb in our bed in the mornings. And I did love going for a walk with all 3 munchkins in tow this morning.

Firsts

2011-04-18T13:30:00.006-06:00

This weekend I did a few things for the first time.

I ran 7 miles! It feels great to be more than half way to a half-marathon. It also feels like I'll never make it :)

I made a wedding cake! I had a tutorial with my aunt last week and decided to try one on my own. Don't look too closely...it was definitely my first encounter with fondant icing. But it tasted yummy and I'm excited to try more! I was totally goofing around with the letters on the top, so don't pay attention to those.

I also made this pillow during our Salmon girl's craft night. It was more work then I thought, but I love it. I'm imagining a rainbow of pillows for our bed to go along with this one...and wait until you see the curtains I'm working on.

Funny Austin moment: him singing "wheels on the bus" in the car and starting into a verse that went "Mia is a cutie girl cutie girl cutie girl."

Funny Mady moment: we were playing the opposite game, saying a word and having her say the opposite. She said, "Dad, what about rock and high five?"

And a few of my favorite pictures from the weekend:

home alone.

2011-04-13T22:44:00.008-06:00

What do you do when daddy is gone for a boys night out to the Jazz game?

Well, you eat waffles for dinner. (No point in cooking something that only I would eat, right?)

Austin: "Is this all we are eating for dinner?"

Yes, buddy.

Dinner conversation:

Austin: "Guess what? (pause) Dragon."

And Austin singing "Mom is a cutie girl."

and

Austin: "Mady, why are you so grumpy?"
Mady: "I'm not grumpy, Aus."
Austin: "Oh, I'll be grumpy" and puts a scowl on his face

Where does he come up with this stuff?

The munchkins all get baths,

then snuggle on the couch for a movie night; Tangled, of course, for the 3rd time this week.

Mia, working on her sitting-up skills

So exciting they couldn't sit still...

And tuck the kidlets in bed so you can work on one of the million projects you've got going.

Only to have Mady yell from her bedroom "Mom I'm worried dad will blow away in the wind. Is he going to be ok?"

And Austin get out of bed a few times and say "I'm scared of the monsters" with a smile, because he knows there are no monsters.

Then back to projects and finally Daddy comes home.

We survived.

Family events

2011-04-13T14:36:00.002-06:00

For family home evening we took the kids to the driving range. While Mia sat patiently in her stroller (for the most part) the kids and Daddy hit balls. Austin and Mady loved swinging away with their plastic clubs and then running and getting the ball to try again. It was tons of fun. I think Austin could have stayed all night long if we would have let him.

That night as we were saying family prayers, Mady said "And please help us to be quiet at the golf course." I guess she did understand our golf etiquette talk!

Last night we went for a family walk to get out of the house while the weather was still pretty nice. Mady rode her bike. We got out on the golf course and she fell and scraped up her hand and her leg pretty good, so that put an end to our night. She kept saying "the road is all crinkly" because it was bumpy...and that was why she fell down. She tried to be tough but pretty much cried until she went to bed. Today she is doing better - - she just is really cautious with her hand and won't touch anything.

shots for all

2011-04-08T13:30:00.004-06:00

Friday I took Mia to her 6-month checkup (yes, she is over 7 months. Moving in our house was a little distracting!). Everything looked great - over 15 pounds now, 25th percentile for weight and 50th for height so she is good and healthy. Mady came with me and made sure to tell the nurse as soon as she came in the room that she wasn't getting shots, just Mia. Mia was a champ and recovered quickly.

On Monday I had to take Mady and Austin to get their shots updated. Mady was super nervous, but tried her hardest to be brave. She went first and got two shots, one in each arm. She cried really hard and held her arms for a long time. Austin jumped down from his chair when she was done and said, "See you later" to the nurse, trying to get out of there as fast as he could. When he realized he was getting a shot too he was not happy. He just got one in his legs and stopped crying as soon as the nurse gave him a sticker. All in all, they did great. And the coloring books we bought at the dollar store after worked wonders.

Here are the monkeys wrestling... in a nice, messy living room

today

2011-04-03T22:12:00.003-06:00

Mady: "Can I brush your hair with a fork?"

No. Forks are for eating.

"But Ariel combs her hair with a fork."

Touche.

And later: "Mia has magic poop."

She is a bundle of laughs.

Find of the week

2011-04-02T19:00:00.004-06:00

I have been on the hunt for a small kids-size table for the kids to craft on. I found a few on KSL and Craig's List, but I was never fast enough to get them.

Until my lucky day came along.
I came across a school district surplus sale and got 3 desks and 3 chairs for $1 each. My mind is going crazy with cute ways to fix them up (do you have any ideas??) But for now, they work great just as they are:

Somehow in all the excitement of having family in town last week I forgot to write about our bowling trip! We went with my brothers and their wives. Of course our kids loved it. And Ryan was on track to bowling over a 200 for the first time ever! He missed it by just a few frames. I, on the other hand, was terrible even with bumpers. Ah well.

Cute story of the day:

Ryan walked into the living room, all dressed up and ready to go to the Priesthood session.

Austin saw him and said, "Daddy I want to go to church with you."

Ryan tried to explain that it was a special meeting and he couldn't come.

But he just kept saying "Daddy I want to go to church with you" and ran in the other room to find his shoes. He couldn't find his, so he tried putting on Mady's flower sandals. He was pretty sad when Daddy had to leave without him.

And, finally, Mady's rendering of our family:

Twinners?

2011-03-31T19:33:00.006-06:00

As I have been working on the never-ending blog book project, I came across this picture of Austin:

He is the same age as Mia. I think she looks so much like him.

Mady's cheeks were chubbier and she had a different eye shape.

What do you think??

Newbies

2011-03-30T13:01:00.002-06:00

A few new things have happened around here.

Mady went to her first ballet class. She was so excited, mostly to wear her leotard, tights, and ballet shoes. She kept asking if there was going to be a prince there and if she could wear a crown (the ballerina's she saw at BYU had crowns and a prince, so they are inseparable in her mind).

She loved her class and loved learning new things. When we got home, she couldn't wait to show Daddy. First position:

Second position:She can't wait to go back next week!

And Mia girl has started saying DADA! Oh, it is adorable.

She has also started feeding herself cheerios. She has about a 30% success ration of getting it in her mouth, but she is getting there.

One of those special moments

2011-03-27T21:03:00.003-06:00

Today in primary, Mady got to say the opening prayer. She sat up in the front in the special chair and was such a big girl...she didn't want any help from me. I told her to be sure and talk loud and she said, "Like this Mom? Hello! (in a loudish voice)" She is so funny. So she stood up there on her step stool and said the prayer all by herself, with some coaching from one of her new friends. With her eyes open the whole time.

It was pretty darn cute.

Side note: there is a family in our ward with a Madeleine and an Austin (about the same age as ours). Crazy? Yes.

It gets crazier.

Another family has a Mia born the day after our Mia.

We feel right at home.

Another side note: After my 6 mile run on Saturday, I came home to find Ry holding Mady and Austin up to the open bathroom window yelling at me "We are so proud of you Mom! Good job!" Talk about a self-esteem boost.

And I signed up for a half-marathon on July 9th with my mom and dad. Originally I was doing one in June, but waited too long to sign up and it filled up quick. So we learned our lesson and got in early on this one. I am excited and nervous...

Happy

2011-03-22T15:35:00.004-06:00

..Mia slept through the night and has been napping like a champ without being swaddled. Finally!

..I found some great lamps at Pier One on clearance for cheap-o. And I love them! (Thanks for the tip, Diane!)

..I can run 5 miles!

..Ry has started interviewing for summer internships

..For the first time since moving into our house we remembered to take the garbage out.

March is Madness

2011-03-21T13:04:00.007-06:00

We have been having lots of gatherings lately; mostly to watch the bball that has been going on. We love parties ESPECIALLY when BYU wins. I love March Madness.

Crazy Ryan even went to the airport with some of his family late late Saturday night to welcome the team home. He was even close enough to touch The Jimmer.

Mia has been feeding herself lately. I just plop her on the floor with her bottle and she does pretty well.

In the solids department she is not catching on as quick. She makes such a huge mess, definitely worse than either Mady or Austin. I basically have to change her clothes after every meal. She just sticks her tongue out or drools the food right back out. I get frustrated. But I'm trying.

Ry and I went down to the driving range on Friday and hit some balls. We were both hitting the ball well and hope to play some golf this week (he has spring break). Today: no go. Gale-force winds and freezing temps are not so fun to play in.

My brother and his family are in town from Cali so we are trying to live it up while they are here. Saturday night the girls had a craft night and we made these. I love how they turned out. And they were really easy and fun, besides the cutting-out-a-bazillion-circles part. I think I will put mine in Mady's room.

Who's your favorite golfer?

2011-03-17T11:37:00.003-06:00

3 weeks later, and I am starting to feel settled. A few things left to buy (recommend a good place to buy lamps, anyone??), a few pictures to hang.

I did take around some bread as getting-to-know-you neighbor gifts. Of course, we ate a loaf or two as well!

Mia started eating solids awhile back. I've tried squash, sweet potatoes, and the latest has been green beans. She is not a big fan of the green beans, but she can usual dry-heave them down :) She loves loves loves sweet potato puffs. And she may or may not have almost choked on a cheerio. Under my supervision.

Funny toddler conversation, while Mady and Austin were sitting outside watching the golfers:

Mady: "Ausy, who's your favorite golfer? Is it Calcavecchia?" (no, she can't say his name perfect but you can tell what she is saying. She knows the name because when Grandpa and Austin watch golf together, Grandpa asks if Mark Calcavecchia is his favorite)

Austin: "No. My favorite is Ausy boy. He hits it a long ways" (yes, he calls himself Ausy boy).

Mady loves reading the scriptures and she carries hers around with her all the time. She loves to pretend she is reading and makes up her own scriptures: "And it came to pass that Heavenly Father and Jesus were happy." She is always trying to get Austin to read with her.

It is fun living in a not-finished neighborhood because there are lots of empty streets for Mady to practice riding her bike. I went for a little walk with 3 kids in tow without our double stroller (2 flat tires needing to be fixed). I think Austin fell over 4 times and he was just walking. Mady did great on her "bike with no peddles" (as she calls it). And Mia loved chilling in the stroller. Good weather is the best.

Curtains and Prints

2011-03-09T13:43:00.005-07:00

One of the first things we put in the house when it was finished was the kids curtains. I was really hoping the thick fabric would help them sleep better. Unfortunately, the excitement of living in a new house has them up and at-em at 7 in the morning. I'm trying to shut that down, but so far...they are winning.

Austin's room

Mia's room

Mady's room

Austin and Mady have discovered the joy of taking hundreds of pictures with our little camera. So it was really fun to go through all the shots of my feet, the carpet, fuzzy-out-of-focus things. Here are a few good ones they took:

{I photo-shopped this one.}

Austin took this one of Mady pouting because she wanted the camera. So great.

Mady finished her tumbling class. Her teacher said she was pretty coordinated and tried to get me to sign up for more classes. I couldn't tell if she was telling the truth or just trying to get me to sign up. She did love it - even the head stands and backwards somersaults.

And a few shots of my favorite prints hanging on the kid's walls:

Kid's bathroom

Austin and Mady know every word to this song, thanks to Grandma :) This is in Mady's room and she loves it.

goings on

2011-03-06T10:57:00.002-07:00

So we have been in our house now for one week!! It has been really amazing. I still feel like there is lots to do. Like clean all the windows. I started, but wow they take a long time. All that dust, the stickers, paint, you name it. It is going to take awhile. I really don't mind the cleaning part because it is fulfilling and they look so beautiful when they are celan but I really hate cleaning a window for 30 minutes then stepping back, only to see streaks everywhere.

This week we did a few fun things. Tuesday night Dallin and Shellee came to babysit the kids so Ryan and I could go on a date. We went to dinner at PF Changs, our first time since moving down from Canada, with my mom and dad and brother and his wife. Then we went to the Chanticleer concert at BYU. It was pretty amazing. Those male sopranos are out of control. I can't even pretend to sing that high.

Wednesday night Grandma and Grandpa came to babysit and Ry and I went to the BYU bball game with a few friends. It was so fun to go to a game...even though I wanted to cry or at least slap a referee or two. Not a great game.

Now we are just sitting on the floor playing and trying to find things to do before church starts. 1:00 church is hard. We are all dressed, ready to go - and church isn't for 2 hours. If only I could take a nap...

Pictures, anyone?

2011-03-03T20:16:00.006-07:00

I have tons of pictures, folks. But let me just say I don't like taking pictures of rooms. I can never seem to make them look good. Preface over.

And one of the cute chubber:This is our theater room in the basement. The kids love the bean bags.

A view from the living room/open area in the basement through the glass window into the exercise room.
And the open area. We have nothing down there, but it is nice to have lots of space for the kids to go crazy.
Austin helping me clean the entry.

Our living room view and back deck

The master bathroom.

A small view into the office. It is the one room I haven't even begun to tackle yet, so just a peek.
The entry and front door

Our living room from the kitchen

Dining area
And kitchen

Ok, and one more of Mia. She goes crazy in this jumperoo. Her new favorite toy.

So there you have it! If that didn't satiate, you will have to come visit and see for yourself. Seriously, come over. We love visitors.