Simply Radiant

More to the story

2012-01-27T02:22:00.001-07:00

There's so much want to remember about this Christmas (What? Christmas is long-gone and the last thing on your mind? Shocking!)

The way we made simple nativity scenes with the Activity Days Girls at church and Creed (forever thinking he is one of the 8 to 11 year-old girls) insisted on making his own (we only decorated the people and lucked out finding the stables at Target for $2.50)

The way Creed's Mary looked starred eyed to say the least (I guess she just gave birthday afterall) and we carried those little people around all through the holidays. I will forever treasure these sweet hand-drawn faces.

The way Creed had to have this Rudolph hat, and I secretly had to have it too, because who can resist this?

The way he proceeded to wear the hat all over.

The way he was a dashing little wiseman in the live nativity at church

The way it was the sweetest nativity I've ever seen.

The way the reverence was smashed when they ushered all the cast onto the stage for a the last song and Creed desperately needed to use the potty. I was wrestling with Ollie in the back so this is the only photo that we have, but oh, I wish you could have seen him hopping and holding his crotch through the whole song while earnestly singing with a look of desperation until Larry rescued him and ushered him to a bathroom the moment the song ended.

The way both boys fell in love with their annual new Christmas ornament (Creed is oddly obsessed with the short cartoon Mickey and the Clock Cleaners, and watch are the chances we would come across this ornament?)

The way he was not so thrilled in many of the holiday photos I took, and already has the look of a teenager obliging his crazy mom.

The way Ollie knew which ornament was his and we found it in a new spot every day because he couldn't resist holding his Santa.

The way the boys and I had a few adventures on our own like going on a scavenger hunt to find all the creepy elves around Gardner Village (Creed loved it so much that I swear he is already planning our trip back next year)

The way their annual new Christmas books were loved to pieces.

The way we came home with a million, zillion cookies that we planned to giveaway after my bookclub's annual Christmas dinner/cookie exchange and then we ate almost all of them ourselves.

The way Creed glowed at his preschool Christmas program.

And the way they still make four-year-olds sing the most random Christmas songs you've never heard of with a few classics mixed in.

The way Creed was bursting with so much excitement as he left out cookies and milk for Santa that I thought he'd never sleep and he was out almost instantly.

The way Christmas was on Sunday so we saw what Santa brought and looked through our stockings and then went to church without opening a single present and there were no complaints.

The way Creed was thrilled to get exactly what he wanted.

And ollie was happy to sit by bemused and not open a gift.

The way we went to my parents' and met up with all my siblings families to open our presents and we could only get Ollie to open one. After that if you approached him, he'd yell, "No presents, no!" and push them away so this bin of his gifts sat in our kitchen for the next two days until he got interested.

Christmas has always been a wonderful time of the year to me, but Christmas with kids is the best!

What I did wrong this Christmas

2012-01-26T02:21:00.000-07:00

You know I love advent calendars. This year we pulled out an advent calendar that I made a few years ago by adding numbers to a set of Ikea gift boxes and using command velcro strips to stick them on the wall in our entryway.

We usually just add a slip of paper to each day stating the Christmas related activity we'll do that day (drink hot chocolate and watch how the Grinch Stole Christmas, drive around the neighborhood to look at Christmas lights and leave an award for our favorite house, attend a live nativity etc.). After Christmas last year, I picked up a bunch of little Christmas things on uber clearance to put in our advent calender this year. I had a few things that didn't make the picture, but I didn't have a trinket every day. Each box always had an activity listed in it (and i love having them in containers that I can sneak open and switch up, in fact, I filled each box the night before we opened it so I didn't have to worry about peeking) and sometimes it had a small treat or one of the trinkets.

Sometimes the paper and trinket were just waiting in the box, but often Creed had to do some kind of activity to find it. Like follow quickly scribbled clues on a treasure hunt around the house to discover our activity for the day.

Or follow a piece of yarn winding through the house.

Which made it easy to gift items too big to fit in the box we opened that day.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't an epic fail, Creed loved the whole experience and was eager to open a box each day, and he was grateful and gracious and sweet, but the more I thought about it, the more I think I was going about things the wrong way. Yes, it was fun, and I think Creed will remember it, but I think it set the wrong tone for our holidays. There's already so much focus on the material side of Christmas, the last thing Creed and Ollie needed was to be getting more gifts each day up until Christmas. How can I expect them to be focused on giving and to not have a case of the gimmes when I'm giving them gifts every day? Ollie was oblivious and Creed actually handled things really well, but I think it would be so much better to put a part of the Christmas story in the advent every day or maybe every day should have some service or small item that the boys will have to help me figure out how to GIVE that day. A few of the activities in the advent involved giving, like picking out toys for a sub-for-Santa program, but it wouldn't be hard to think of something small the boys could be involved in every day (Drive around on a cold day to find a Salvation Army beller ringer and drop off change and give the ringer some hand warmers, shovel a neighbors driveway, make teacher Christmas gifts, etc.). At any rate, it was sort of a missed opportunity to help the boys focus on the true meaning of Christmas, and I pledge to better next year.

I tell myself the boys are little and Larry and I have more time to figure out this parenting thing while they are too little to remember our mistakes very well, right?

2012-01-25T01:16:00.000-07:00

Thursday night, we arrived home after a two week vacation. I have way too much to fill you in on from the last month, but let's start with how we arrived home just in time for a snowstorm (finally, this has been such a warm winter). of course we had to build a snowman right away.

Creed has been talking to me about how snowmen come to life sometimes (maybe it was all those readings of Snowmen at Night by the Beuhners and The Snowman by Raymond Briggs). So after our upside-down snowman melted, I snuck out and rebuilt him right-side-up. Creed was amazed when he saw it.

That snowman is now surrounded by much more snow and I'm tempted to go out there and surprise Creed again by adding a snowdog.

Hello?

2012-01-07T00:09:00.000-07:00

Dear readers,

Rest assured that I have not forgotten you, I've just forgotten where the charger for my camera battery is (or, more accurately, Mr. Oliver Danger decided to take the charger on a trip to a mysterious land and it has not returned yet). And what's a post without pictures?

We have all sorts of holiday loveliness and I pledge to share it with you when the new charger arrives, but I only got around to ordering it today so I'll see you back here in a week or two when it arrives!

Back to our regularly scheduled program

2011-12-14T23:40:00.000-07:00

A week or so ago we headed out to pick up a Christmas tree. We almost didn't buy one at all because Ollie is still at the age where Christmas trees pose a danger, and I drew a giant tree on a canvas in our living room so it feels festive enough, but it just didn't feel like Christmas without a real tree so we ventured out to find one.

Friends recommended Baum's Christmas Trees (1650 N. 1250 W.), a family owned business located right in their yard, and the trees were so fresh and cheap! (And I didn't know they still sold flocked trees like that. I haven't seen one in ages)

It was so fun walking around and we will absolutely buy our tree there next year.

This year, however, we headed to a different lot because Creed spotted some tiny trees on an earlier drive by and fell in love, and a tiny tree seemed like a good idea to us when keeping Ollie in mind so everyone was happy (the tiny tree actually cost about as much as a 6 ft tree at Baum's, which made me laugh, but they didn't have any that small at Baum's)

So we found the tree that was just right for us this year.

And as if the day wasn't filled with enough cheer, we ran into this site on our way.

That's right, a race with hundreds of Santa. It was awesome! We drove around the block and got stuck in traffic and it was totally worth it to watch the Santas for a few more minutes.

Lighting and decorating the tiny tree was so easy that I might be tempted to buy a tiny tree every year.

All is Well

2011-12-12T01:30:00.000-07:00

Thank you Secrets of a Stylist for the idea to make this map in our living room a little more festive!

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support! We've felt so much love these past few days and I'm happy to report, Ollie is back to his old cheerful self.

It turns out Ollie has Ketotic Hypoglycemia, which means that his liver doesn't fully function and provide him with the glucose he needs between meals so if his blood sugar level gets too low, his body goes into starvation mode and shuts down while he starts converting any fat he has stored, which was why he seemed comatose and also explains why he is so small so we'll be feeding him lots of small meals and loading him with protein before bed, and then we may have just a few of these episodes to deal with every year. In extreme cases, some kids have to have NG tubes while they sleep, but we're hoping it doesn't come to that. The good news is that he should outgrow it by the time he's five or six. At any rate, his blood sugar can get so low it can cause seizures, but it's a totally different kind of seizure then he normally has so the two are completely unrelated, and it might just be the anti-seizure medication he was already on kept him from having seizures when we couldn't wake him up. Crazy right?

In the meantime, we're supposed to do what we can to help this little guy build some fat up in his system. My friend Kersten's dad just happens to be a pediatric endocrinologist who helped talk us through everything going on with Ollie and provided some advice to help him gain weight (Ollie is now almost up the the 50th percentile in height, but has fallen to the 3rd in weight and he can't keep a pair of pants on to save his life). A few suggested changes for Ollie's diet: adding half and half to his cereal in the morning, adding melted cheese anytime he's eating vegetables, keeping brown gravy on hand to add to any meat that we can get him to eat, never giving him water to drink, and adding carnation instant breakfast to his whole milk which he will continue to drink well after the normally recommended age 2 cutoff.

Things are going to be interesting around here, but this was actually the best possible cause of his low blood sugar that we could hope for and we're feeling pretty happy about the news.

We pause this program for a message

2011-12-08T02:51:00.000-07:00

We're in the midst of embracing this holiday season around here, and I have so many fun things to share with you, but today all that is on my mind is this little guy. Let's talk about how happy and friendly he all the time.

And how adventurous he is. He can NEVER be out of sight. This week I told Larry that I needed to make a phone call and left him playing with the boys. He had to answer a page and the next thing I know, I hear the sound of Larry's electric clippers in the bathroom and catch Ollie's hand just as he begins to shave his own head.

What fickle eater he is. He doesn't have favorites and you never know if he will hate something he loved the day before. He would much rather survive on milk.

How he still takes his little blanket everywhere he goes and cannot sleep without it. When you pick him up, he will often pat your shoulder and explain, "Blanket!" reminding you to put in on your shoulder so he can lay on it and nestle his little forehead up against your neck.

How he is always watching Creed, just like the the photo below, where he's watching Creed while snacking on a half eaten apple he picked up off the ground (Creed's friend Lydia had just dropped it, and I failed to snatch it from Ollie before the damage was already done. Yuck)

The way he giggles with glee when you put him in a swing and begs to swing the rest of the day away.

The way he grabs my phone at every chance and has filled it with funny self-portraits. It's pretty amazing how well he can use it.

The way he adores Mickey Mouse and Elmo, and points to the computer, begging to watch Youtube clips of them, and he's so happy, how can you not loves those annoying squeaky voices?

The way his seizures exhaust all of us, but most especially him.

The way he didn't wake up today.

Which sent us on yet another excruciating ER journey with him. It has happened once before, but it was no less terrifying today, in fact, it was worse because it lasted longer. To see him laying with his eyes open, not responding to anything, not moving, not speaking strikes a terror in me that I cannot begin to explain. I spent hours wondering what I could have done wrong and feeling like I failed him some way.

The test results came back slowly one by one, each normal result leaving us a little more baffled and feeling a little more helpless until, finally, we got an answer, or at least a symptom; extremely low blood sugar. Easy to temporarily fix, but very scary as we are now left to consider the possible causes. The nightmares are cycling in my mind: hormone and pituitary gland problems, maybe. A tumor secreting extra insulin, possibly. Something in his brain . . . I try to remind myself, that it could all be nothing, right?

The ER doctor has probably been practicing longer than I have been alive and he has never seen a patient with provoked seizures like Ollie. He said it makes him a zebra among horses. This new problem seems to be unrelated so he said it makes him something like a rare subspecies of zebra. The whole conversation I kept losing focus and thinking about how zebras are Ollie's favorite animal and how we just got him a new Christmas book about Ollie the Zebra.

So now we will head in for more testing and we will play the waiting game, and I stop trying to imagine the what ifs, and focus on how grateful I am to have Ollie the zebra in my life, walking and talking again. And I feel grateful to look around me to see Christmas everywhere, a reminder of another baby who lived at another time and provides much needed hope and peace.

Creed Finds a Place to Call His Own

2011-11-30T14:46:00.000-07:00

Someone mentioned to me the other day that I've never shown Creed's room on my blog (so much for the home tour, I have yet to show you about half of our house). Creed has one of the coolest rooms in the house architecturally, and we have big plans for it, but they'll have to wait until next year while we take care of more immediate needs. I'm a little embarrassed that I've put so little effort into, but why bother for something temporary (and I must admit Ollie's room is much worse off at the moment).

Another reason that I haven't posted pictures is that with so many windows, it's really hard to take pictures in Creed's room so I hope you'll excuse the messy photos.

Welcome to Creed's room for now.

For the past few years I've been picking up letters here and there with the hopes of someday spelling "abracadabra" on Creed's wall. I know I could have easily gone on a site like Etsy and picked them all up, but the fun was in the hunt. Most of them are vintage sign letters picked up from neighborhood consignment shops when we lived in Salt Lake. The last letter that I picked to complete the collection was the letter A with wings, and it actually is a new letter from Etsy, but it was too amazing to pass up (You can custom order any letter in several colors at Edie's Lab. They were remarkably fast, and they happen to be having a holiday sale right now).

I'm not even sure how we ended up with The Cat in the Hat wall stickers, but Creed found them in a donation pile when we moved and begged to put them up in his room, which is fine for now.

The original plan was to spray paint the letters in different gold finishes, but I ended up loving them just the way that they are.

In the corner we have the bookcase that my dad built to hold bedtime stories, which we are always rotating from our bigger library, and a rocking chair to sit in during the bedtime stories. The map of the US is from a printer from our old hometown, Columbus, Ohio, These are Things and it looks like they just got in back in stock. We've had this printing sitting around for a year and I'm glad we finally found it a home. I'm pining away for a few of their other maps because they are all so cool.

In the opposite corner is a shelf to hold Creed's toys plus a couple of odds and ends that I have yet to find a home for.

And next to that is a whole wall of sliding glass doors with a balcony (did I mention that every bedroom in our house has a balcony and they all have big gaps at the that my children could easily fit under? Yes, we keep those locked)

The view is pretty amazing. It's the best place to watch thunderstorms when they cross the valley.

The wall next to that is basically covered in doors so it's not terribly exciting, but you can see our one splurge on this room, that David Trubridge pendant. Luckily, we got it for an amazing deal and had out electrician install it when we were remodeling.

My fingers sure hurt after putting it together, but I think it was totally worth it.

And that's Creed's room. What do you think?

Making Spirits Bright

2011-11-21T19:54:00.000-07:00

Friday was one of those days; I was tired, I was having a terrible day, both boys were melting down, and I tried to sneak into the bathroom to shed a few tears and calm myself when both boys stood outside the door, banging on it and crying. It's moments like that that I try to take a deep breath and think about how all of those little frustrations that come along with being a mother are signs that I truly have everything in life that I could want; if I didn't have those frustrations, I also wouldn't have kids. There was a time in my life that I thought that maybe I might not be a mother, I would have done anything to have even just those moments of frustration. Instead, I made other plans for myself; I went to graduate school, I thought about a PHD, I worked really hard at my job, but all my daily actions felt hollow. I didn't have what I really wanted. In a strange way, I think those days have made me a better mother. Now all the yogurt Ollie throws on the floor, all the snot I find wiped on my shirt, all the crying and banging on the bathroom door, are little reminders of how I have two little dreams come true in my life.

Friday, I picked myself up off the bathroom floor, and took Creed and Ollie to the lighting at the Shops at Riverwoods. I promised Creed we would go as a reward if he memorized his part for the Primary Program. Larry was stuck late at work so we headed off to fight the crowds on our own. I wish you all could have seen Creed's face light up when Santa arrived! The line was so long and Ollie was so tired so I promised we would visit Santa the next day.

We usually put off visiting Santa until much later in the season, but Creed REALLY wanted to see him, and I must confess that Larry and I had an ulterior motive. For weeks Creed's been telling us he's going to ask Santa for a Barbie Princess Dream Castle. Yikes! It's not the princess castle I have a problem with, it's the massive unstorable size of the plastic monster and the $150 price tag. I tried to explain to him that it's too big and too expensive and he patiently reminded me that it doesn't matter how much it costs because Santa's elves will make it in his workshop. Hard to argue with, so Princess Dream Castle it looked like it would be. We let it go. Who are we to crush his Christmas Dreams?

But then, with no prompting from us, Creed told us he would wait until next year to ask for a Dream Castle because this year what he really wants in an accordion. What? And AWESOME! So we were in a hurry to get Creed to Santa to make that wish official. Wouldn't you be?

Saturday evening we went to the mall, we got in line, and about a minute later one of Santa's helpers told us Santa was leaving to feed his reindeer and would be gone for an hour. Creed was heartbroken. I told him we would visit Santa another day, there is still a lot of time before Christmas. He looked at me with eyes full of tears and told me this was really important to him, he needed a chance to actually talk to Santa. So we headed off to see where Santa's reindeer took him next. Luckily, he didn't fly too far and we found him at the Riverwoods (Which is an awesome place to visit Santa if you're in town. There was no line, Santa was wonderful, and they didn't even have a photographer so they expected you to take your own picture.)

Ollie was a bit bewildered by the whole experience, but he didn't mind sitting on Santa's lap one bit. And Creed was all smiles once he had the chance to tell Santa how much he wants an accordion for Christmas (we've taught him that he can only ask Santa for one gift. Is that wrong?)

PS-earlier in the day we took some pictures for the Christmas card I have in mind this year. Here are the out takes.

Poor Ollie!

2011-11-06T23:15:00.000-07:00

Have you seen my sister Candice's mantle all decked out for Halloween?

And my mom's mantle, which was equally amazing?

Incredible, right? You should check out both of their blogs to see all of their decorations. I, on the other hand, was sort of a Borup family fail. My style has evolved and I don't really love most of the decorations that I have anymore nor do I think they really belong in my house so I just put out some pretty pumpkins and some mouse silhouhettes and paper decorations my mom brought over, and called it good.

But then I was hosting bookclub and the only part of my house decorated for Halloween was my kitchen. What's a girl to do, but call her mom into action while she whisked her son off to ice skating lessons.

An hour later, I arrived home to this, because my mom is magic.

Don't let the pigeon Steal Your Candy

2011-11-06T22:51:00.000-07:00

Creed started out Halloween as a bee at our neighborhood preschool and he was stinking cute. He decided on his own to take a break from being a pigeon. We have a lot of dress-ups to choose from, but instead of a shark or airplane or doctor, he opted to wear this slightly too snug bee costume. He regularly wears it around the house so I guess it was ready for its public debut.

By the evening he was ready to be the pigeon again. He waited oh so patiently for the rest of us to get ready to go trick-or-treating.

This year we made it to more than five houses, we made it all the way around the block. I'd like to credit the company of friends and the wagon ride for this great accomplishment.

Who knows, maybe next year we'll make it to two blocks?

Don't let the pigeon drive the bus, but a pony ride may be ok

2011-10-30T22:49:00.000-06:00

It's not even Halloween yet, but we have been busy, busy, busy with Halloween happenings. Creed has an amazing memory and kept asking me when he'd be able to go to Barnyard Boo at Thanksgiving Point to ride a pony. This was not a wear your costume kind of event, but Creed insisted and who can resist a pigeon on a pony?

This year instead of having a punch-pass, you could do any activities you wanted and I though tit was much better. Creed loved all the not so spooky games.

On the way there he asked me if I knew there was a real witch who was not pretend, and I figured out he was talking about a witch who did storytime last year and talked about growing up as a witch with Glenda as her best friend. He really believes she is a witch and he was so excited to see her again.

Ollie on the other hand, just loved running free and checking out all the animals.

He loved the wagon ride and kept pointing to the horses with a big grin.

We also headed up to Red Butte Gardens After Dark again this year. We arrived just at dusk.

We learned the hard way in the past to paint your pumpkin first so it's dry when you take it home at the end of the night.

I love that they have a different theme every year so never know what to expect. This year's theme was "Light up the Dark" and they had glow-in-the-dark decorations and blacklights all over the garden. You tour around the garden to do different activities and crafts. Creed loved coloring an owl mask with a highlighter so it would glow.

Creed would have stayed in the snake maze in the children's garden all night.

Since everything was glowing in the dark it was hard to take many pictures so I gave up after a few like this.

One really cool thing Creed loved was this sheet they covered with glow-in-the-dark paint and then let the kids "color" on it with little pen lights.

If you have the chance to go next year, I recommend it. Maybe we'll see you there!

Simple joy

2011-10-28T15:41:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I let the boys play in our sweet neighbor's leaves for a few minutes, but I had to hurry them inside with promises to come back the next day because I had to get ready for my book club to come over. Creed did not forget. He woke up and dressed himself for the occasion (no surprise, he decided to wear solid yellow from head to toe) then he patiently waited through breakfast for his friend Lydia to arrive so we could head back across the street.

I think the wait was worth it.

Notice how disgruntled Lydia is in this next picture. She is the youngest in her family so she isn't used to being around little ones and Ollie makes her so uncomfortable. She panics every time he comes near her. She stayed as still as can be in those leaves while she whispered, "Ollie, don't come any closer to me! hurry, somebody come get Ollie, he's getting close to me!"

I bet you can't even spot them in this next picture.

Oh, the joy a big pile of yellow leaves can bring.

Picture Perfect

2011-10-28T15:25:00.000-06:00

I think I mentioned that we are just getting around to hanging up some artwork around here (I really should admit, I just convinced my mom to help me hang up some artwork around here).

I commissioned family portraits from our favorite seven-year-old friend, and I think they were a bargain at a quarter a piece. We hung them up in the hallway between the boys' bedrooms.

I bought the frame from Target, and the sizes are odd and they aren't the greatest quality, BUT they have hinges and a magnetic closure so you can open them up and swap out artwork without taking them down, and they have a pocket inside to store extra artwork.

The plan was to swap the artwork in these frames out once in a while to showcase whatever the boys have been working on, but I don't know if I will be able to take the family portraits down. How great is this picture of Larry?

And I'm partial to the freckles on mine.

You can just get a glimpse of them when you look across the entryway from the library. They make me so happy and Ollie loves to name the person in each picture. I think they'll be around for a while.

If you see a monster, call the police

2011-10-25T15:20:00.000-06:00

Creed was giving me some advice to stay safe this halloween season and he asked me to film it and send his advice to all the neighbors so they'll be safe too. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you so here you go!

Falling for Fall

2011-10-24T14:11:00.000-06:00

Fall in Utah is heavenly while it lasts. The mountain that we live on has been covered in patches of bright orange and red so a week ago, when we had no plans for our Sunday afternoon, we made a spur of the moment decision to drive the Alpine Loop and even convinced my grandma to join us.

These pictures don't even come close to doing it justice. Even Ollie was mesmerized.

I'm so glad that we caught the fall eaves at just the right time.

We also drove over to Cascade Springs (how have i never been there before?)

Ollie gave going for a plunge his best effort

I can't think of a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Sundays with the boys are magical

2011-10-24T14:02:00.000-06:00

It seems likes we're so busy during the week that Sundays are a chance to relax and take a breath. I treasure Sundays with these boys.

We're never ready for church early enough to take pictures, but I managed to take a few when we got home for our post church wild rumpus.

These boys are magnificent

While the Cat's Away

2011-10-13T15:35:00.001-06:00

There are always so many things that I would love to do that are a little bit hard to manage with two little ones in tow, and it's surprisingly difficult to work around preschool schedules and Ollie's naptime and the fact that I can't leave Ollie with the average babysitter. When I realized that it would just be Ollie and me for the morning, I convinced my friend we were meeting at the park to check out the 'Matter of Words" exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art first.

The book sculpture by Adam Bateman was pretty incredible

But truth be told, the boys were probably more excited to drop grass into this hole outside in the sculpture garden, but I think a good time was had by all.

We couldn't resist stopping at the Museum gift shop on our way out (what is it about museum gift shops? They are always so great, I find myself wanting one of everything). As an added bonus, it was the first time I've walked into a store and seen my own cards for sale (look close at the top row) so it was a pretty exciting morning (and that's not counting when I locked me keys inside my car with my cell phone and had to call the campus auto-shop and beg them to come to my rescue. He said it was his fourth call to unlock a car that day so I shouldn't be too embarrassed, but let me tell you, I was.)

He's Gonna Party Like a Rock Star

2011-10-13T15:11:00.000-06:00

Long story short, Creed is on a 24 hour adventure going solo with my parents to see The Little Mermaid at Tuacahn in Southern Utah. I was supposed to go along and stay at my uncle's house with Ollie so my parents really only had to take Creed to see the play and then we'd all stay the rest of the week to play. There was a change of plans and they graciously (and maybe a little reluctantly) agreed to take Creed and bring him back the next day.

Creed's been couped up in the house all week with a cold and he was so EXCITED to go!

I took this picture of him while we waited in the driveway for my parents to pick him up. He asked me if I knew what he was thinking when I took the picture, and he explained, "I was thinking, New York, I'm on my way!"

My mom has been sending me pictures of their adventures and he looks like he is having the time of his life. He called me after the play to tell me, "Mom, the play was a million billion good!"

I can't wait to hear all about it this afternoon.

Our House - The Library

2011-10-05T13:22:00.000-06:00

So remember that spiral staircase in the back corner of our living room? Well, it goes up to a library, one of my favorite features of the house

There's a second fireplace up there and built-in shelves to the ceiling. All the windows in this house go from floor to ceiling and I love all the light they let in (Although, what kind of blinds or curtains does one put on a slanted window like that? I'd love your ideas)

It doesn't look like a lot of shelves, but in the past we used three huge Ilea expedit shelves and couldn't fit all of our books, so they fit a lot more than you'd think.

It's hard to see in this picture, but on one side next to the staircase, there's a small window overlooking the entryway

And the opposite side is open to the living room. Through that door is a small office that overlooks the master bedroom (which is a little weird)

eventually I'll get around to organizing all the bookshelves and perhaps one day, we'll even have some cozy chairs up there, but it's not happening any time soon. For now I'm just happy to have space for all of our books to be shelved together with a little room to grow.

What's on our bookshelf

2011-10-03T14:27:00.000-06:00

Creed still has the bookshelf that my dad built in his room at our new house and I still fill it with different books about every month or so. Since he just started up at preschool last month, all of last month's books were about school.

A few of his favorites:
If You Take a Mouse To School by Laura Numeroff
David Goes to School by David Shannon
Hooway for Wodney Wat by Lynn Munsinger
Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes
The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash by Trinka Hakes Noble and Steven Kellogg

This month we've rotated in books about, books, the alphabet, and counting.

Born to Read by Marc Brown
We Are in a Book by Mo Willems
Have I Got a Book for You by Melanie Watt

The Z Was Zapped by Chris Van Allsburg
Alphabet Under Construction by Denise Fleming
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr., John Archambault and Lois Ehlert
Antics by Catherine Hepworth
A is For Salad by Mike Lester
The Hidden Alphabet by Laura Vaccaro Seegar

Ten Terrible Dinosaurs by Paul Stickland
Chicka Chicka 1, 2, 3 by Bill Martin Jr., Michael Sampson and Lois Ehlert
Count! by Denise Fleming
1, 2, 3, To the Zoo by Eric Carle
Click, Clack, Splish, Splash: A Counting Adventure by Doreen Cronin

Happy reading!

Preschool Soccer

2011-09-30T15:04:00.000-06:00

So Creed joined his first soccer team this year. He was pretty excited about the new shoes that he said helped him run super fast.

Four-year-old soccer is one of the most entertaining sports around. They are so terrible it is funny. At any given time there may be extra players on the field or kids stopping to practice summersaults or pulling crackers out of their pocket to have a snack. Several times in every game you'll see the coach ask all the players to point in the direction they are supposed to go because they regularly score goals in the wrong goal.

We loved cheering for Creed. My parents made it to almost every game and Larry's parents came to help out at the two games that I missed so he had quite the cheering section.

He's so big he was about a head taller than the rest of the team.

His favorite Gal Pal from our neighborhood, Lydia was on his team so most of the games he'd prefer to sit on the sidelines snacking with her.

He was so thrilled to get his medal at the end of the game last night. He's been dying to have a medal or a trophy and that's about the only thing that motivated him to sign up for soccer so Larry had a plan to run out and buy him a trophy if they didn't get anything because he would have been crushed. Luckily, he was all smiles and he's been wearing his medal all day today.

Larry's birthday Hullabaloo!

2011-09-30T14:38:00.000-06:00

Mr. Ford had a birthday yesterday. I knew he wouldn't have much time for celebrations on his actual birthday so I surprised him with Spoil Larry Day on Saturday. In the morning I handed him nine little envelopes with cards directing him to his plans for the day.

Larry's the kind of guy who will say he just wants a hug or dinner together for his birthday, and with all the chaos that has ensued this last year, I'm afraid he's been gypped on Father's Day and our anniversary so I wanted to make up for it.

I almost asked for a day alone for my birthday to do whatever I like because as much as I love my children, it's almost impossible to try on new jeans or have a relaxing lunch with them in tow, and it's nice to have the opportunity to do things like that once in a while. Larry always wants to spend his birthdays as a family, but I knew he needed a chance to do a few things on his own too so I tried to plan the day to be a mixture of the two.

I had a few letterpressed little cards from Sycamore Street Press so I wrote an activity on each one and Larry had to complete it before he opened the next one. Most of them were simple things that I knew would please him like, downloading some new songs for the soundtrack to his day (his I-tunes wish list is a mile long because he sticks to an agreement that we made when he was in medical school to only buy one song a month) and a few apps in case he got stuck in line anywhere.

The second one was to meet up with us for brunch. Third was get a haircut (he's been saying he's needed a haircuts for days, but we've just been to busy). Fourth, stop a Barnes and Noble, browse all you want and don't come out without a new book. And so on.

I made a reservation for him to get a massage, but the night before he mentioned the circus was in town and he really wanted to take the boys so I cancelled the appointment and bought tickets to the circus instead.

Larry was right, the boys LOVED it!

Ollie was enraptured by any animal act, but he especially loved the elephants.

Since yesterday was Larry's real birthday, we couldn't let it go unnoticed. He woke up to a note on the bathroom mirror (thank you chalk ink pen)

He worked and then met us a Creed's last soccer game. We had just enough time to go out to dinner and end the night with a stack of Larry's favorite cookies from Flour Boys & Dough Girls (have you had their chocolate chip shortbread cookies? SO GOOD!) before we tucked the boys into bed.

It was simple and sweet, but I think a good time was had by all.

The latest

2011-09-22T13:56:00.000-06:00

We have new barstools in our kitchen so we can finally get a little more use out of that island!

We wanted something simple with just enough back that the boys wouldn't fall off, but we could still slide them all the way under the counter. As an added bonus, that walnut finish matches our cabinets so nicely. Please ignore all the pinata making mess in the background.

In other news, you may have noticed that I still have not committed to a back splash. I guess we need to get around to that, huh?

There's A New Sheriff in Town

2011-09-22T13:50:00.000-06:00

You better watch out if you're not behaving yourself!

Favorites of the Month - September 2011

2011-09-22T13:46:00.000-06:00

Favorite food of the month - Locally grown peaches. Utah peaches are so amazing! We've been picking them up at the Allred's Barn in Provo.

Favorite Middle Grade Reader of the Month: Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick. If you liked The Invention of Hugo Cabret, you'll LOVE Wonderstruck. The illustrations are equally amazing, but the writing is so much stronger. I'm not telling you anything about the storyline because I want it to be a surprise. Just pick it up!

Pop-Up Book of the Month: The Yellow Square by David Carter. Creed is obsessed with finding all the 2's in the Blue Two so we'll soon be surprising him with The Yellow Square and I know he will be thrilled. I love all the books in the series of modern pop-up books by David Carter.

Favorite Drink of the Month: Mundet Manzana Verde. I love Mundet's apple soda and now they have a green apple version that comes in the prettiest shade of green (so? sometimes I buy drink just because they are pretty). Luckily, it's made with real apple juice and it tastes really good too. Plus, it's only 65 cents a bottle, found in the ethnic foods aisle of my local grocery store.

Favorite Classic Movie of the month: Without Love, because you really can't go wrong with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn

Favorite Music Video of the Month: OK Go Muppets Theme Song. As if OK Go didn't already have the coolest music videos on the planet (my kids would spend all day watching them).

Salt Lake City Spotlight - The Main Library

2011-09-15T14:43:00.000-06:00

I know, I don't live in Salt Lake anymore, but I've been missing it a lot lately and I never posted about a few of my favorite places so I thought I'd post about them over the next few days. The first stop, the Main Library Downtown. If you've ever driven around downtown Salt Lake, I'm sure you've noticed this building, but have you had a chance to visit it?

Here are some photos from our visit with my friend Mary Ann and her girls last summer.

There are several gardens around the library where the kids love to run around. The field of tulips on the East side of the building make my head turn each spring.

It's always an entertaining place to people watch and it doesn't hurt that Les Madeleines Bakery is across the street so you can pick up lunch and have a picnic.

The structure of the library itself is incredible. It was designed by Moshe Safdie and he deserved the award he won for it.

We always head to the children's section first.

If you go to the backwall, you'll discover some hidden rooms.

like grandma's attic

and the ice cave that makes me feel like I'm in a Superman Movie

And the children's department has it's own little garden with a wall of water

and more supersecret hiding spots.

But for the best view, you have to take the glass elevators up to the roof

don't miss all the cool artwork along the way and don't forget to see what's written on the elevators when they all line up.

The roof is the best picnic spot of all. On my first visit, I was so surprised by how lush the garden up there is.

Be sure to check out your books before you head to the roof so you can enjoy the outdoor walk down from the roof. You don't want to miss it!

On Parenting Quirky Little People

2011-09-15T14:15:00.001-06:00

These little people sure have minds of their own. As a parent, I think it's my responsibility to try to make them healthy and strong in both body and mind so they can be themselves and live their own dreams. I'll admit that sometimes it's really hard to help them be themselves instead of who I want them to be. Case and point:

Creed wants to become a figure skater.

It's certainly not what I have in mind for his future, but I want him to be happy, and who am I to squelch something that he may be amazing at or he may fall in love with (even if a little part of me is really hoping this is just a phase)? He has been constantly begging for ice skating lessons since he was two and our neighbors told him about their lessons. I insisted that he was much too little at the time, you can't start lessons until you are three. At three I told him it was really hard and asked if we could put it off a little longer. I was afraid I would pay for six weeks and then he would hate the first lesson, and I would have to drag him there every week or waste the money.

Well, this summer, as I was registering him for soccer this fall, I noticed the summer session for ice skating was just starting at a nearby rink, and he would only have one other child in his class. I figured, if this was really what he wanted to do, this would be the best opportunity for him to start.

He was thrilled. His instructor asked him if he wanted to learn to skate so he could be a hockey player and he gave her a weird look and explained, "No, I wanted to be a figure skater!" I think she fell instantly in love.

He got out on the ice and fell and fell and fell and when the lesson ended, you couldn't wipe the grin off of his face. Our whole family has been there at times supporting him.

Larry took him to the last lesson of the session. When Creed cried at the end because he didn't want his lessons to be over, Larry signed him up for the next session.

He was so excited to get back on the ice this week. They skipped him up a few levels so he's in a class with two girls who are nine and eleven. And since I'm there for 45 minutes every week, I'm taking lessons at the same time too because I might as well get a little exercise out of it. While I don't think I have to love everything that he loves, it's nice to give it a try to be supportive too.

So we made it a date that ended with Creed's restaurant pick

and my favorite neighborhood ice cream shop.

So every week we head to ice skating, and quite regularly we get weird looks when Creed talks about being a figure skater, but truthfully, I wouldn't have it any other way. I think the fact that he's having fun doing what he wants to do, even if it's not the popular choice, is the best lesson he can learn. And seeing how happy he is doing something I wouldn't have chosen for him is one of the best parenting lessons that I've learned so far.

If I Knew You Were Coming I'd have Baked A Cake, But I Always Have Cookies On Hand

2011-09-14T13:55:00.001-06:00

Lately, we've been making lots of cookies or should I say, cookie dough because not many of them have actually made it into the oven. We bake a tray or two, then we put the rest on a cookie sheet and pop them into the freezer to bake or snack on later.

You can put them really close together since you're just freezing them, just make sure to put wax paper or parchment under them so they are easy to get off of the cookie sheet. You don't need to cover them and they'll get hard pretty fast.

Then you can stack them up in a freezer proof container and you have homemade cookies on demand.

I think it would be fun to make several different kinds and divide them up to deliver to friends.

PS- If you need a good cookie recipe, this is one of my simple favorites. I wish I could give credit where credit is due, but I got it off of a package of chocolate chips at least 12 years ago, and I have no idea what kind of chocolate chips they were. Sorry!

Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter softened

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup packed light brown sugar (I just use whatever brown sugar I have)

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 cups chocolate chips (my friend Marta does half chocolate, half white chocolate)

Bake at 375 degrees for 8 - 10 minutes. Makes 5 dozen cookies.

PPS- If you love cookie dough like I do, you might like this tip, my friend Melinda uses pasteurized eggs when she makes cookie dough so she can keep it in the fridge and she doesn't have to worry about any of her little ones sampling it. Brilliant, right? Why didn't I think of that on my own?

Show and Tell

2011-09-14T13:40:00.000-06:00

We're finally getting around to hanging up some art around here. It makes it feel so much more like home, and I can't wait to share some of the fun pieces we have. We're just starting to build up an art collection (we have a lifetime to do that, right?) so for now, we're mostly putting up art prints, but we do own one original painting from Ayn Averett. She's been working on a series of paintings over other paintings, and I heart them. I love the way she painted the scene to spill-over onto the frame and you can see traces of her former street art days. Creed begged to put this painting in his room (what little boy doesn't love robots and monsters?), but we have other plans for his room. We hung it in the entryway, which now looks much less empty.

I met Ayn when we were living in London ages ago and it's been so cool to watch her develop as an artist over the years. Plus, it's pretty great when you know an artist well enough that they come over when you plead with them to help you hang their painting up and they even let you take their picture in front of their artwork elementary-school-art-show-style.

She's pretty great. I wish you could all meet her in person, but you can at least check out more of her work here.

Taking a little time for myself

2011-09-09T15:11:00.001-06:00

I'm headed to camp for the night with the Relief Society (the women's group at my church). I don't think I've ever been away from either of my little ones overnight and as you can see, the idea is not going over well. I feel guilt every time I leave to do something without them and they are upset to see me leave, but I try to remind myself that I am a better mother when I take care of myself too. The happier I am, the more patient I am with them, and I think I'm a better example to them when I'm trying to learn and grow too.

Good thing Larry is so supportive because it looks like it is going to be a rough night!

PS- Creed just told me that he's the poorest kid in the world because his mom is leaving him to go to camp.

Our House - The Master Bath

2011-09-06T14:54:00.000-06:00

So two months before we bought this house, the previous owners gutted the old master bath (and I'm guessing the master closet too since we don't have one now) to put in a new master bath, and it is beautiful.

The only thing that we have changed is we put up a frosted film on the window because Creed's first time using this bathroom he yelled, "Look mom! I can watch cars while I'm going to the bathroom!" Awesome! And you get an even better view of them when you step out of the shower.

It has double sinks, a great big bathtub

and behind the bathtub is a really big shower

Those holes even let in some natural light.

They had an interior designer help with the space and you can tell. If only the other bathrooms in the house were as lovely . . .

Would you give up a big closet for a bathroom like this? (I do have a closet, it's an ikea wardrobe along one wall of our bedroom)

Oliver at 18 months

2011-09-06T14:32:00.000-06:00

So when I run into you, dear friends, in real life, the number one thing I get asked is, "How is Ollie doing?" I sometimes avoid the question because it breaks my heart just a bit. Truthfully, he's wonderful; he's smart and charming and friendly and very, very busy.

But he's also not doing so great when it comes to his seizures.

His seizures have been getting more frequent and it seems like he has at least one every day lately. The good news is that as far as we know, he does not have a seizure disorder and when he grows out of breath-holding spells, he should stop having seizures. I try to look on the bright side knowing that things could be much worse so I should count my blessings.

The hardest part is seeing how much the seizures affect him. He's usually exhausted afterwards and sleeps for a few hours, but on the days he doesn't fall asleep there's not much we we can do to calm his frantic crying and the rest of the day is pretty much shot because he's not the same kid afterward. It hurts so much to watch how hard it is on him and know that I've already done everything that I can do and it's just not enough.

Every parents wants the world for their child and I have a lot of heartache thinking of the ways Ollie's life might be limited, at least for now. I never leave him alone. He is my constant companion every moment of the day. We very rarely go on dates when our parents or other grown-up friends are available to babysit because it's a little too much for the average teenager to handle, and I hate to think how he will react when he wakes up from a seizure and I'm not there to comfort him (it's only happened twice and it did not go well and I felt serious mom guilt over it). It's definitely wearing us out, but I try to keep in mind that this is not permanent. In the meantime, I find myself worried that he won't be able to go to preschool, and he won't be able to play on sports teams like Creed because he has a seizure every time he gets hurt. For now I guess I just need to stop worrying about things out of my control and take things a day at a time.

So let's focus on the brighter side, developmentally, Ollie is doing fantastic.

We had his check-up today and he's grow a lot, but he's still tiny. 38% in height 2% in weight. It seems like maybe I should be worried about the 2% in weight, but the doctor wasn't so maybe that's just fine. Ollie and Creed's birthdays are a month apart so I remember thinking Ollie could just use all of Creed's hand-me-downs, but Ollie is so tiny that he's not even close to wearing Creed's clothes from this age so the seasons are all off.

He's obsessed with sticking things in holes. Every time he finds a hole, he scours the surrounding area for anything that can fit into it. My keys have been missing for three months.

He's finally started to love being read to. He will bring you a book and he will not settle for sitting next to you while you read, he must be snuggled on your lap.

He's learning new words every day. I tried to make a list of his currently vocabulary, but it's too hard to keep track. A few of his favorite words are: book, blanket, drink, hot, Creed, and wow.

He's still climbing anything and everything he can. He can climb things Creed cannot, another reason he can never be out of my sight.

He loves toothbrushes. He steals them and carries them around for hours. That's Creed's pink Belle toothbrush. Ollie's not picky about who the toothbrush belongs to.

He loves to get a laugh and makes the silliest faces to crack the rest of us up.

He's a fickle eater. One day he will stuff himself with bananas, then he will not touch them for two weeks. You never know if he will love or hate his food, but he will always have a great time making a giant mess with it.

He's still wearing 12-18 months clothes and a lot of them are still ridiculously big on him.

He still loves his soft blanket and can't sleep without it. We keep a big one in his crib and two small versions for him to carry around (thanks mom!)

These last few pictures are from over the past six months and he looks so small in some of them. These are just a few more moments with Ollie that I don't want to forget.

I'm going to miss it when he stops sleeping with his bum up in the air.

One of his first haircuts.

He's way more interested in playing with balls than Creed ever has been. It's hard to keep him away form the ball during Creed's games.

He's wearing us all out, but I can't even describe how lucky I feel to have him in our family.

We live a charmed life around here

2011-09-02T01:06:00.000-06:00

After looking at pictures on my sister Marissa's blog of all the fun things they've been doing this summer, I've been feeling a little bit guilty about how we've spent our summer. A summer full of moving and construction is not exactly every kid's dream. We've missed out on a lot while we had to be at the house waiting for hours on end for drywall guys or cable guys, etc.

Today I'm letting the guilt go; mom's can't do everything, right? And while we didn't do everything that I wanted to this summer, looking back at my own photos, we've fit in a lot of fun this summer too. So here are way too many pictures of what we've been up to this summer.

Taking walks with friends around our new neighborhood

Teaching our kids to be computer geniuses.

Looking a little too grown up on road trips

Testing out the bungee trampoline at Larry's Aunt and Uncle's

Having the cutest Pioneer Day celebration ever at church. Creed still wears that bandanna around all the time.

Trying to find a decent splash park in Provo

Settling for a baby pool in our backyard. See that luscious grass? Oh, I didn't mention that the sprinkler system at our house hasn't worked in years and the whole yard is dead? A big project I'm forgetting about until next year.

Playing secret agent. Creed keeps his backpack full of secret agent gadgets like headbands that help you see really far away when you slide them over your eyes.

Watching thunderstorms and spotting rainbows.

Cheering at the Fourth of July Parade. We start teaching our children how to deck themselves out for the holidays at an early age.

Enjoying barbecues and fireworks with friends (this one was hosted but the Sycamore Street Press team and Creed serenaded Keri. He told me that he might marry her.)

Who wouldn't want to marry this adorable guy even if he is twenty years younger?

We enjoyed being outside every chance we had, and it was always more with friends.

We had a few middle of the night tv sessions to distract an unhappy, teething baby.

We made many trips to the library. Yes, those are the movies my son selected for himself.

We tried not to get too much sun.

We enjoyed Grammy and Papa's treehouse. Do you think we can convince my dad to build one at our house?

Speaking of, we spent some time with Grammy and Papa while they graciously let us live with them for a few weeks.

We had some fabulous puppet shows from the loft.

Enjoyed snowcones

Wore ourselves out partying.

Took advantage of our zoo pass, especially since there have been dinosaurs visiting the zoo.

We made it to the drive in because it seemed Cars 2 would be best seen at the drive-in (but we only made it to the drive-in once because Ollie threw up on me 2/3 of the way through the movie so it was a LONG drive home)

We even made it to Lagoon for a day because we couldn't resist free tickets, even when it was stinking hot.

The Zoku popsicle maker was busy making popsicles with whatever was in season.

There were many shows at our puppet theater

Many trips to cool down at the pool

A few more trips to the zoo

Visits to admire friends' gardens and impromptu concerts

Storytime whenever we could steal a moment because Ollie has also fallen in love with books.

We were a little sad every morning Larry left for work.

Larry and I even snuck out for a REAL DATE, which included dinner at Sundance, followed by Singing in the Rain in an outdoor amphitheater and being dowsed by rain just as the Maria sang about Raindrops on Roses.

And thanks to the Randalls, there were outdoor art projects

first times bowling

and there were even pictures of me because Melinda was around

We even attended a Princess tea party where excellent manners were observed.

And a quick trip to the Randall's cabin for some R & R

And some zipline adventures (Ollie refused to be left out of that one)

Knowing what was ahead of us, I wouldn't have guessed it could be such a magical summer, but it was my friends, oh yes, it was.

Back to School

2011-08-26T01:47:00.000-06:00

Creed was all smiles when it came to starting preschool this year.

We had the chance to meet his teacher the day before school started. He was shy, but I can tell he loves his teacher already.

The next day he told me that he was a little bit nervous, but he didn't hesitate to jump in the car when our neighbor Davis and his dad showed up to carpool. It will be interesting to watch their friendship unfold this year because Creed spends most of his time pretending to be a princess and is used to playing with all the girls in our neighborhood, and Davis hates girls. The first time I met him he was crying because the only seat left in church was next to a girl, and he would not sit there because he hates girls. In the car on the way home he kept asking me to change the songs because they were too girlish (any song with a girl singing is "too girlish"). Should make for an interesting year.

I'm also feeling a little unsure about the preschool. There aren't too many options here and this particular school seems so strict. Creed's already reading a bit so he's up for a challenge, but there is no playground, there wasn't a toy in sight in the tiny classroom, and when I asked Creed what he learned on his first day, he told me, "We just learned that you sit in your chair and you be quiet and you never talk." Hmmmm, I'm feeling nervous about this. He's only four afterall.

I can't tell you how much I've stressed about this. Is it normal to worry so much about preschool?

Davis and his dad picked Creed up a little early so we took first day of school pictures after school. I had Creed write his name on a paper with his grade and year and hope to do this every year so he can see him develop (an idea I can take no credit for because I swear I saw it somewhere on Pinterest)

I love that kid!

You've had a birthday, shout hooray!

2011-08-26T01:26:00.000-06:00

I turned 31 yesterday. 30 was a wonderful but trying year full of multiple moves, job decisions, renovations, and Ollie's seizures. I'm looking forward to a little more stability this year, which will hopefully afford us a few more adventures because we have some plans up our sleeves.

The day was filled with simple gifts that made me smile.

Delicious chocolate cake that my mom made (this is what was left of it)

Thoughtful gifts from friends.

And this was my favorite gift from Larry because if I have the pleasure of spending hours a day playing cars with the boys, I should at least be able to be the car I want to be, right?

Our House - The living room

2011-08-09T01:38:00.000-06:00

We still have so much work to do on this house, but I thought it's about time to start showing you around, and why not start with part of why we chose to buy this house. When you come up to the stairs from the entryway, you walk into our living room. This terrible picture is the only one that I took that show you how much light comes into the room. Those sliding glass doors are eight feet tall.

The furniture is way too small for this room, but they are the leftovers that we're hoping to replace down the line. What I really wanted to show you is all the character in this room. That spiral staircase leads up to a loft library.

The other side of the room is feeling pretty empty. That huge, empty wall above that red dresser is begging for some great artwork.

Next to the spiral staircase is a fireplace. The stone continues up into the library where there's a second fireplace.

I'll miss having a mantle to decorate for holidays, but I love that big metal hood.

And here's a few pictures taken from above.

But the real seller? The view outside those sliding glass doors. Did I mention the house is on the side of a mountain?

We love to sit our on the balcony and watch the sunset. Every bedroom has a balcony too (just what a mother of two little ones needs). The living room balcony connects to the master bedroom so it's extra long.

And that, my friends, is our living room. So far. I'm a little embarrassed that we haven't accomplished a little more in there since we've moved in, but we don't spend a lot of time in there, and we have the rest of our lives to work on it, right?

2011-08-09T01:06:00.000-06:00

I hate being so far from some of our family. Especially since I'm dying to hold Candice's new baby Sebastian, Marissa is due in the fall, and I have yet to meet my nephew Max! Creed doesn't get to see his cousins often, but he has a newly discovered bond with his cousin Cole thanks to Iphones + Facetime. This morning Cole called Creed. They chatted and giggled for a while, then they played Club Penguin online together while still talking to each other via facetime. They do this regularly.

Then Creed suggested they watch a movie together. They opted for Tangled. We turned it on at our house and Cole watched in on his phone.

Grant even made a brief appearance.

They watched the whole thing. THE. WHOLE. THING.

They crack me up.

Four hours on the I-Phone and we're feeling a little bit closer together.

I have too much stuff

2011-08-05T21:45:00.000-06:00

When we put over half of the things we own in storage, we thought it would be for a month or two; it turned out to be over a year. There were a few things that I missed (sewing machine, winter clothes . . .) and we even had to rifle through the storage units looking for a few of them (oh yes, I said "units" as in more than one because we had that much to store). But you know what? I didn't miss a lot of it, and I found myself thinking that if we could go without all of it for a year, we could surely pitch a lot of it.

Until I started unpacking the boxes.

Hello Robert Sabuda pop-up book collection! You have swiftly become Creed's new BFF. He spends hours a day with you and shows you off to our guests.

Hello rows and rows of shoes and awesome storage racks! You make me smile every time I stand before you pondering what to wear. I just wish that Creed didn't love you so much because you're becoming a little worse for the wear.

Hello extra dishes, that I completely don't need, you're making life around here a bit more exciting.

Good think we have much more space in this new house. Could you part with such dear friends?

Steppin' Up

2011-08-02T01:16:00.001-06:00

One totally unnecessary improvement we made before we moved to our new house was to put in new staircases. Craig Crittenden of Third Dimension built the custom cabinetry for our kitchen (he was amazing by-the-way). We mentioned to him that we loved the staircase he put in the last home he worked on with Geoff Tice, and he commented that our staircase would be a great candidate for something similar. He included a bid with the pricing for our cabinets and the price was too good to resist. He's still experimenting with stair-building, and I asked him to try something new so he gave us an amazing price so he could build up his portfolio. There are many other projects around here that we are saving up for, but I'm so glad that we went ahead with this one.

The old stairs were average carpeted stairs

The new stairs are made of three inch thick walnut and they sort of look like they are floating.

They come up from the stone floor in the entryway to the living room

and they continue up to the bedrooms on the other side of the house.

I love how much light they add to the entryway, and as an added bonus, we were able to use some of the carpet we tore out to patch holes where we took out a doorway and extended the hallway to the laundry room upstairs. I don't know what we would have done without it.

We still need to touch up some of the paint around them, but I'm so happy with how they turned out.

He's an adventurer

2011-08-02T00:54:00.000-06:00

Have I mentioned how much Ollie likes to climb

and climb

Zoiks!

Signs that you've been eating too much fast food.

2011-07-24T22:28:00.000-06:00

Have I mentioned how happy I am that our kitchen is functioning again?

Who knew there was so much to do in Ogden.

2011-07-24T22:14:00.000-06:00

We tried to take a few day trips while we were living in Salt Lake because we had a long list of things we'd been meaning to see and do and never seemed to get around to. First on our list was spending a day playing on Ogden. We started out at the Treehouse Museum. My sister-in-law Janelle met us there with our nephew William and our one and only adorable niece, Lucy. Creed had fun pretending to be president in the replica of the oval office.

It was funny to see that Ollie and Lucy are about the same size, but Ollie is a year older.

And this is the only picture that I caught of William because the kids were all on the move exploring.

After lunch, we visited Odgen Eccles Dinosaur Park, which we loved even more than the Treehouse Museum.

There are dinosaur statues all over the park and Ollie thought the dinosaur sounds were hilarious.

Creed and Larry had a blast pretending the dinosaurs were real.

This photo of Creed might be one of my favorite pictures of him ever.

There was a really kitchy playground there and since it was a cloudy day, we were the only family there so we played the day away.

They have a museum inside with the typical dinosaur bones that you would expect. Then upstairs they had some animatronic dinosaurs.

Creed had a hard time believing they were not real. He didn't want to be anywhere near them, but he would have watched them for hours.

If you are in the area, I highly recommend a visit. I have to say, Ogden is sort of little boy heaven. You can see a lot of cool old trains downtown at Union Station and next time we're up there, we're hoping to visit the Hill Aerospace Museum just outside of Ogden. Good thing we have cousins up there to visit!

A Place To Call Home

2011-07-22T09:59:00.000-06:00

Each time we move, I like to take pictures of our little family on the doorstep so we can look back and show the boys how little they were when we moved in.

I wish I could show you the versions with the whole house in the background, but, you know, stranger danger and all . . .

These boys are so very, very adorable.

They have my heart!

And so does this guy!

We're so happy to finally have a place to call home!

Our kitchen, so far

2011-07-21T01:59:00.000-06:00

So the kitchen of this house was remodeled two years ago. The finishes weren't exactly what I would choose, but they were nice and we probably would have kept them, but they just didn't take advantage of the space.

Since there were no upper cabinets and only a narrow cabinet next to the fridge, there was very little storage space. In fact, from our tours of the house, it looked like the previous owners kept all of their food in the basement pantry. My friend Kersten commented that the family had seven kids so they could just run one of them down there when they needed something, but that wasn't going to work for me.

Since we had one month before we moved into the house, we started renovations hoping they would be done before we moved in (ummm, not even close).

Behind the fridge, there was a hall closet eating up kitchen space so you previously walked in from the entryway to walk around this to enter the kitchen.

Luckily, the wall was not structural so we ripped it out and were left with this teeny broom closet

and all of this kitchen space! (pardon the pictures, it was cloudy when I took them, and I forgot to edit them before I uploaded them)

There is still work to be done obviously. I'm having trouble choosing a backsplash and that hole in the island will someday be home to a microwave drawer.

I think one of my favorite things about the kitchen are the pull-out pantry cabinets on the sides of the fridge and freezer. Oh, and the giant fridge and freezer. They are not fancy built-ins, just separate units squashed together to look like it, and we opted to skip the trim kit to make them look really built-in, but Larry and I still ooh and ahhh each time we open them and see all of that space.

It's hard to get perspective in these pictures because everything is a little bit oversized, but I also love this big sink that we got from our friend/contractor Geoff Tice.

And we FINALLY got the range hood back up this week so it's feeling like a little less of a construction zone. The guy who came to install it has come four times and always has a reason that he can't do it. This time, he didn't have anyone with him to help lift it so he said he'd have to come back in a week, but I promised him I was up to the task. Imagine me standing on the stove, balancing the hood on my head and shoulder. It was not pretty, but it was worth it not to wait another week.

And after an extra coat of finish on the floor, we were finally able to bring in our table and chairs. That table seems so puny in there, but we were already planning to buy a new one. Larry and I bought the table and chairs in a set for $120 at Shopko when we got married and it's in bad shape, but we were trying to hold on until we were settled somewhere.

Oh, and remember this laundry room/computer closet off of the kitchen?

It now looks like this.

Larry would like you all to know that he picked out that faucet.

It's actually the only things he's picked out for the house, but don't you think he did a good job?

Our Laundry Room, so far anyway

2011-07-10T13:00:00.003-06:00

When we bought this house, the laundry room was off of the kitchen on the main floor of the house. As much as I loved the orange laminate counter top (I should have taken a close-up of it, it's sort of hidden in the photo) and the linoleum backsplash, we decided to make some changes.

Because upstairs in a bedroom closet was a second kitchen. You heard me right, a second kitchen, in a bedroom closet. And I didn't really want my toddlers to have access to a stove in their bedroom in the middle of the night.

And since we were tearing out the kitchen, and it already had plumbing, it seemed like a good place to move the laundry room.

Our budget for renovations before we moved in was fairly small so we kept the laundry room simple, and hopefully we'll finish it off later. We started off by extending the hallway so you didn't have to go into the bedroom to get to the laundry room. Then we tore out the kitchen, swapped out some of the plumbing, fixed up the drywall, painted the room white (Have I mentioned that the previous owners painted the whole house tan a few months ago? THE WHOLE HOUSE. Even most of the ceilings), we popped off the peel and stick laminate tile, and tiled the floor with 2" marble hexagon tiles.

We are happy to leave the last year of using the laundromat behind us.

Now we just need to save our pennies so someday we can get a sink and some cabinetry in there. The washer and dryer are enormous so I don't really know what to do for cabinetry or organization. Let me know if you have any good ideas.

Our Love Is Here To Stay

2011-07-08T20:44:00.000-06:00

I can't believe I've been Mrs. Ford for ten years! Larry and I celebrated our tenth anniversary on Wednesday. We weren't making grand plans because we sort of bought a house for our tenth anniversary (Actually, what could be grander than that?)

Of course, Mr. Ford had to step things up a bit an surprise me with these postcards with handwritten love notes on the back of each and every one. They were stashed all over the house for me to discover throughout the day. When I took this photo, I didn't know I still had a few more to find.

Thanks to Larry's mom and step-dad, we also had a nice dinner out at Communal, just the two of us. Sheesh, it had been way too long since we'd been out on our own!

In honor of our anniversary, here are a few more interesting tidbits about Mr. Ford:

He downloaded mmmbob
He's very anti piracy. He would never download anything without paying for it.
He will never wear corduroy due to a traumatic elementary school experience
Creed thinks he's really magic because he can take his finger off
He always volunteers to change Ollie's stinky diapers
He's adopted his dad's motto of, "If it doesn't bleed, I can't fix it."
He took Latin in high school
He loves to watch the cartoon Phineas and Ferb. He's even DVRed episodes and watched them by himself.
He is the one who fell in love with our house and had to have it. All the houses we saw before this he was like, "It's fine. It'll work. Whatever, let's just buy it." and I kept telling him I wanted a house we LOVED because I'm sick of moving. I know he's happy that I made him wait.
His favorite artist is Mark Rothko.
He loves to travel. Since we've been married, we've been to the Mexican Riviera, Vancouver, Toronto, New York, Boston, Knoxville, Louisville, Washington DC, Chicago, Las Vegas, Nauvoo, Yellowstone, and many trips to So CA. We can't wait for the boys to get bigger so we can travel a little further abroad.
He gets more excited about trips to Disneyland than the boys do.
I think I've finally convinced him that Jimmy Fallon is funny, but it's taken him years to come around
He never minds making dinner, but he says if a recipe calls for more than three ingredients, it's too complicated.
He has a heterosexual man-crush on Zack Braff
He can make the boys laugh so much harder than I can.
We don't see eye to eye on how to furnish the house. I tend to head for modern with clean lines and he tends to look for crazy modern or keeping it vintage 70's
He takes longer to get ready than I do.
He was recently asked to teach a group of rowdy 11-year-olds at church. He's only had one Sunday with them so far, but I think they are going to love him.
In his teenage years, he loved heavy metal and wore mostly black. There may have even been a time or two that he wore black lipstick and painted his nails black.
He told me to stop buying him books because he never has time to read them. Any spare reading time he has is spent reading medical journals to stay up-to-date.
When we got Ipods, we agreed to only download one song a month because he was in medical school and even that was stretching the budget, but he still sticks to that agreement, which makes I-tunes gift certificates his favorite gift. (which also makes #1 funnier)
He'll eat anything that I make for dinner and pretend to like it, even if it was an experiment gone terribly wrong.
He always tries to keep my car filled with gas. I rarely have to stop at the pump.
He takes care of making sure Ollie gets his medications and keeping them refilled.

He is the love of my life, and I'm so lucky to have him!

June 2011 Favorites

2011-06-21T23:33:00.000-06:00

Game of the month: Sneaky Snacky Squirrel. This game is really similar to HiHo Cherry-o. Scott and Janelle sent it to Creed for his birthday, and I promise that it is hard to resist its cuteness! Creed loves it so much he got it for his friend Sara for her birthday too. Simple enough for a four-year-old to play and it helps work on small motor skills too.

App of the Month: The Three Little Pig 3-D story by Nosy Crow. I'm not one to go gaga over Apps, but if you have a little one you NEED this one. It's expensive, but it entertains Creed for ages. It's a book, and the animation is incredible. You can choose to have the story read to you or to read it yourself and you can interact with all the characters, flicking them in the air and flipping them around, and they say something different each time you tap them. You even blow on the wolf to help him blow the houses down. The background moves when you shift the screen so it looks almost 3-D. The characters are funny and they have the CUTEST British accents. I'm dying to get my hands on the next storybook app they have coming out this summer, Cinderella, but it's hard to imagine how it could live up to this one.

Picture Book of the Month: We Are In A Book by Mo Willems. We love all of Mo Willems' books, but this one in particular has Creed rolling on the floor with giggles.

Middle Grade Fiction book of the Month: Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool. I hadn't even heard of it before it won the Newbery Medal this year. It was hard to get me hands on it, but it was love at first read. The award was well-deserved.

Young Adult Book of the Month: Delirium by Lauren Oliver. Ok, yes, it is Hunger Games and Matched by Ally Condie rolled into one, but I still enjoyed it.

Sesame Street Clip of the Month: Creed never liked Sesame Street, but now he asks me to turn it on "for Ollie" and then he's glued to the TV, which enables me to sneak a little unpacking in or just some extra snuggle time with the boys. Some of the cameos are so awesome. This one might be Larry's favorite of the moment. Conversations with Bert: Part 1, Andy Samberg

And don't miss Conversations with Bert: Part 2 with Andy Samberg

HEEELLLLLLOOOOOO Counter tops and cabinetry!

2011-06-21T14:54:00.001-06:00

Our kitchen is far from finished, but what a difference a weekend makes! Our counters were ready early so we were surprised by a knock at our door, 7 a.m. on Saturday. Five installers got to work moving that incredibly heavy piece of quartz on the island and by the end of the day I was greeted by this sight.

And what's that in the background? A working fridge and freezer? Wahoo! We finally have milk in the house again! Now if only we can get the sinks hooked up so we can have some drinking water . . .

A Step In The Right Direction

2011-06-15T11:02:00.000-06:00

Riss was asking me for some updated pictures of progress on the house so the rest of you get a sneak peek too. On the bright side, things are really coming together and I'm going to try not to focus on some of the problems that we still have to work out.

Here's a picture of the old laundry that's right off the kitchen. It will be a butler's pantry soon. (see that light, I'm not talking about it)

And speaking of the kitchen, the wall is gone, overhead lights are up, the floor is patched and refinished (you can't tell because it's covered with brown paper and construction mess), the base cabinets have gone in and the countertops should go in around Monday (hooray!).

And we have doors in the house again!!!!! I never knew I could be so excited about doors, but they had to take the old doors out to template the new ones (they were junky and many of them were missing so they had to be replaced and we decided to put in new solid wood doors). Going to the bathroom with all the construction crew around without doors in the house was a problem. They are not the very light birch doors that we were expecting (some of them are really orange), but let's focus on the positive today.

Creed's room is coming together. We're just waiting for some hardware that was missing for that light.

The big wooden ball in this picture is the rest of the light, just waiting to go up. And look, there are closet doors now!

What used to be a second kitchen in an upstairs bedroom closet (so weird, right?) has been converted to a laundry room. There was a problem with the tile so as soon as we come up with some new tile, the floor will go in. Any suggestions?

And maybe most exciting of all, we have new stairs and landings!!!!! They should be finished up this week, and they are looking really good so far. A few people have been asking me about these and thinking they are deadly for my children, but they are not as scary as they look. The stairs are each three inches thick, which only leaves a four inch gap between them. It's up to code here and no children will be able to slip through them (the railing above this with six inch gaps, now that's another story), of course, Creed and Ollie have already had lectures on being careful and not playing on these stairs, just in case, and we will have baby-gates up for Ollie's protection for a while.

Even though the house is chaotic the kids love going over there and rediscovering all their toys that have been in storage for the last year.

So, we don't have any appliances or running drinking water, but I think we're moving over to the new house this afternoon, because believe it or not, my parents' house is under even more construction than ours. Their new wood floors are being sanded as I type and the toxic stain will be applied this evening so it will no longer be an option to stay here. Wish us good luck!

Yellowstone Reunion.

2011-06-11T23:31:00.000-06:00

We were going to take our time checking out of the hotel and head home on our last day in Yellowstone, but the craziest thing happened; my sister Marissa called my mom to tell her that she was driving from her home in Canada to go to a funeral in Idaho and they planned to stop in Yellowstone on the way down. What are the chances we would both be in Yellowstone at the same time? We had to stay a few more hours to meet up with them, especially since Creed and his cousin Logan are BFFs and always ask to see each other. They were thrilled! And we got to watch Old Faithful again with Marissa's family!

And Creed had to take Logan back to see his favorite Mud pots.

I thought I had more pictures of them, but I realized that I took them on Marissa's camera so I'll have to steal some from her blog.

It was a pretty perfect end to a really great trip. I'm really excited to take the boys back again in a few years when we can be a little more adventurous. Marissa says they'll meet up with us the next time too.

2011-06-11T23:21:00.000-06:00

We got a later start than intended on our second day visiting Yellowstone because Ollie had an early morning seizure and then fell back asleep for a few hours and we wanted to give him time to fully recover.

Late morning, we headed to meet the Davids at the Mammoth Hot Springs area of the park and we were even later than we'd imagined because we ran into another herd of bison slowly meandering along.

Creed and I called them the Buffalo Parade and were thoroughly entertained, but Larry's Southern Californian Road Rage was surfacing.

All I could do was giggle and take a picture of how annoyed he was while gently reminding him that we were there to see wild life.

Palette Springs and the Minerva Terrace were worth the drive

It was chilly so I forced Creed to wear a warm hat, but don't worry folks, he still wore his Davy Crockett hat in the car.

He happily hiked up for a view from the top with me while everyone else entertained the babies.

We stopped at the mudpots on the way home and Creed liked them so much, we ended up going back the next day.

We saw a bear, and a wolf from afar while we were in the Mammoth Hot Springs area, but when we got back to West Yellowstone we spent some time at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center to see them a little bit closer. Ollie was fascinated and kept saying, "Doggie! Doggie" and pointing to all the bears.

Creed turned into a Wild Thing while we were there and almost moved in.

Creed & Ollie Take a Trip to Yellowstone

2011-06-09T09:06:00.000-06:00

One week after Las Vegas, we went on a trip to Yellowstone with our friends the Davids. It was just the grand adventure we were hoping it would be (and totally the opposite of vacationing in Las Vegas).

To be clear, we do not live a life of luxurious vacations, but Larry will have to put in a lot of time building up his new practice so we wanted to travel as a family while we had the chance. I am so glad that we did.

It only took one day for Creed to become a mini-Davy Crockett.

He begged for that fake Coon-skin cap and it was worth every penny. He wore it almost every second of the whole trip. We thought the boys might get bored in the car, but Creed was very entertained spotting wildlife with his binoculars and Ollie was unusually happy to be driving around.

We were warned that May is supposed to be the worst possible time to visit Yellowstone because the weather is so unpredictable but we lucked out. The skies were blue, the temperatures were mild and the animals were busy roaming the park.

Ollie loved playing with the snow while it wasn't too cold outside. While the rest of us enjoyed Old Faithful, he spent his time happily stomping in the snow.

Creed saw Old Faithful four times while we were there, and he loved it. He wouldn't even turn around for a picture until after it was over because he didn't want to miss a second of it.

The warm-weather snowballs fights were a highlight for both of the boys.

And it was so fun for Ollie to have Ruby there to pal around with. It's so cute how excited those two get when they see each other.

Part of the charm of Yellowstone are the amazing old lodges and visitors centers around the park (don't get me wrong, the new building are pretty great too)

And unlike trips to Disneyland or Las Vegas, food in the park is really reasonable so we didn't feel the need to tote around meals.

The Davids made great travel buddies. They have a way of always finding the best local restaurants when they travel.

After lunch and a second round at Old Faithful, we went to see some of the geysers. Creed and Larry had been talking about the geysers for weeks so they were really excited to see them in person, and they did not disappoint.

I think even if you don't consider yourself an outdoorsman, you can't help but be struck by the grandeur of Yellowstone. I feel so grateful to have so many National Parks in the US.

The best part of the vacation for me was watching Creed on this adventure. It's hard to know what will impress a four-year-old, but he loved Yellowstone. He's already begging to go back.

It didn't hurt that we were stopped frequently by wild bison wandering around.

The last time I went to Yellowstone, I was 15, and I didn't remember the waterfalls, but they were amazing. They were especially grand because of all the melting snow.

Doesn't Ollie look like he could be part of the Lewis and Clark expedition? The scariest part of the day happened right before this picture, and it had nothing to do with this big cliff he was standing on the edge of. There was a big bus of Chinese tourists that we'd passed earlier in the day. When we saw them the second time, we were changing Ollie's diaper in the car and Creed was strapped into his car seat. They surrounded the car trying to take pictures while waving to the boys to get their attention and shouting, "China! China!" and pointing to themselves and Creed was a little freaked out by the large mob. Asian tourists took pictures of these blond boys everywhere they went, but by the second day, they hardly noticed it.

And to make a perfect day even better, it ended with ice cream.

Sycamore Street Press Giveaway

2011-06-03T13:19:00.000-06:00

Did you see that Sycamore Street Press is giving away a big batch of letterpress cards? You really should head on over there and enter. You don't even have to jump through any hoops, just leave a comment on their post here. You have until Monday. Good luck!

All's Well That Ends Well

2011-06-03T13:12:00.000-06:00

One of the last things we did in Salt Lake before our moving truck rolled up was attend Creed's end of the year, pre-school program. His class was so cute, but it was so dark in the church that my camera wouldn't take pictures. Fortunately, I caught a few afterwards.

Creed and his BFF from school, Malan. I still can't believe that he ended up in a class with one of my best friends from high school's daughter, and I'm so glad that they love each other so much.

He is really going to miss his teachers, Miss Becky and Miss Lynn. I keep trying to tell him that he'll have new teachers at a new school this fall, but he doesn't get it. He's already talking about things he's going to tell them next year.

And we ended the school year the same way he had to end every school day, walking along all of the parking curbs twice before hopping in the car. I just can't believe how much older he looks now.

If you're wondering if we moved into our house this weekend . . .

2011-05-31T00:26:00.000-06:00

The answer is most definitely, NO. Not even close. We did, however, move out of our apartment in Salt Lake. Thank goodness Larry's new job came with a moving allowance so we had packers and movers! I can't even describe how wonderful it was.

As we were moving out, we were scheduled to move in to the new house on Tuesday. We were staying with my parents for the weekend. Even though their house is also in the middle of a smaller remodel, we thought we could handle it for the weekend. Then we checked in on our house on Saturday, and it is still missing stairs, a kitchen, and lights, not to mention everything is covered in plastic and tape, waiting for the whole interior to be painted and there is dust and trash all over the place from the drywall work that's going on.

We are not moving in on Tuesday.

The new plan is Saturday, but I'm not feeling very optimistic. I just finished calling to reschedule the movers, the cable hookup and the appliance delivery for the third time.

I'm feeling pretty discouraged tonight, but now that I sit to think about it, I feel a little depressed every time I move and that's probably what this is. The renovation is a little stressful, but we can stay at my parents' as long as we need to. I just hate leaving our friends and starting all over again. We are only an hour away, but with little ones, I will not be driving to Salt Lake everyday so I'm anxious to move into the house and start growing roots here. Plus, it's always nice to keep busy unpacking and organizing while I'm feeling a little sad.

On the bright side, The tile for the laundry room arrived and we can't wit to see it installed.

And while there is not supposed to be a hole in the wall so Creed can talk to people where the stairs are supposed to be, look at that new maple floor that matches the floor in the rest of the kitchen!

Now let's cross our fingers and hope that a whole lot of work happens at the house this week and we will be ready to move in this weekend!

Sycamore Street Press 2011

2011-05-24T01:14:00.002-06:00

I love seeing all the new stationery that is released this time of year during the National Stationery Show.

Kirk and Eva, of Sycamore Street Press fame, stayed home with baby Ingrid this time, but they've been really busy putting together their new line. I truly feel blessed for the opportunity to work with them. This year, I added three new art prints and three new cards to the Pop Line and we're working on a few surprises to be released later this year that I can't wait to tell you about.

You would laugh if you saw the first rough drafts of the So Happy Together poster and the You Make Me Happy poster because they were so bad. Maybe a post for another time? Luckily, the designs came together at the last minute and Kirk did such a beautiful job printing them.

Can we talk about how complicated lining up the plates for the camera print is? We weren't sure that it could be done because plates that big are hard to line up and there is no room for error there. We all held our breaths and crossed our fingers and Kirk really pulled it off!

It's funny to think that people out there ordering these may see them in person before I do because we've been so busy that I haven't had a chance to get together with Kirk & Eva to check out all the new prints. I get a few prints each time Sycamore Street Press prints one of my designs so I usually have my own little stash of all of my designs (and I often trade them for items from the Lark and Folk lines so you should see the letterpress hoard I have. Heaven I tell you!)

If it wasn't too late at night I'd be tempted to post all the new additions to the Folk and Lark lines too because they really are amazing. Here's a sneak peak of a sweet new poster from the Lark line that I'm excited to get a copy of.

And I can't believe the detail on the new Folk series of fruit art prints. Eva's drawing skills always leave me in awe.

I work with such a talented group. You can pop over to check them out here.

All photos by Nicole Hill Gerulat

Did I mention that we decided to renovate the house before we moved in?

2011-05-23T00:56:00.000-06:00

I'm so behind on blogging, but while we were in Las Vegas a few weeks ago, we hired Geoff Tice, a friend of a friend who specializes in remodeling mid-century modern homes, to help us remodel our home. We knew the budget would be tight, but the house is sitting empty for a month so we decided to take advantage of the that time.

We stopped by Saturday and this is how our kitchen is looking (so exciting and scary at the same time). See that hole in the floor? It used to be a wall. The old kitchen was not that bad, but they had very little cabinetry so they kept all their food in a pantry in the basement so it was not very functional.

They had to rip up a bunch of the flooring to move the thermostat to the next wall.

And did I mention that we decided to replace the stairs?

And while we were at it, why not put holes in all of the ceilings and many of the walls so we can add overhead lighting?

Did I mention that we're supposed to be moving in on Saturday? Is it just me or is that not looking very likely?

Last Day in Vegas

2011-05-23T00:42:00.000-06:00

Our last morning in Vegas, we did our best to live it up in such luxury.

We cut through the Bellagio on our way to some shops and Creed asked me to stop and take this picture of him because he loved the glass flowers on the ceiling.

After some window shopping we stopped for a healthy lunch at Serendipity.

And then it was home again, home again, jiggity jig!

Creed & Ollie Take a Trip to the Hoover Dam

2011-05-23T00:37:00.000-06:00

Our second morning in Las Vegas we visited the Hoover Dam. I loved the art Deco Details everywhere. We rubbed the toes of the Winged Figures of the Republic and then headed over the dam on foot.

You can tell by the change of color on the stone that the water levels are way down from maximum capacity right now.

We were all filled with awe, except Creed, who didn't want to be anywhere near the edge.

In the background you can see the new Memorial Bridge. It was built after 9-11 so traffic now drives over that bridge. You can still drive over the Hoover Dam, but it's now just a scenic route and you have to turn around and come back.

We skipped the official tours figuring the boys weren't ready for that, but we did walk out on the Memorial Bridge to get the grand view of the Hoover Dam.

Ollie had no fear

Creed was happiest sticking close to the walls.

If you ever have a chance to stop and check it out, you really should. We'd love to head back when the boys are older (and they can fully appreciate having the excuse to say things like, dam tours, dam souvenirs, dam photos, etc.)

Creed Sees a Show in Vegas

2011-05-19T13:51:00.000-06:00

Now that Creed is getting older, it's so fun to watch him experience new things. We bought cheap (and by cheap I mean not full-price, but not very cheap) day-of tickets to the Blue Man Group and The Lion King. Larry took Creed to the Blue Man Group while I put Ollie to bed at the hotel and the next night we swapped and I got to take Creed to the Lion King.

Larry was excited that He scored front-row center seats for the Blue Man group, but I think that was a little too upclose and personal for Creed. They had to wear ponchos because they we splattered with paint and mushed up bananas. If you ask Creed about it, he will tell you he was terrifed, but Larry says Creed really enjoyed about 80% of it.

I think he liked going out for pizza afterwards more than the show.

Creed's only seen the movie the Lion King once a few years ago, but he was so excited to see the play. The elderly people by us glared when we took our seats, but he was so cute and excited and so well-behaved, and then adored him by the end of the show.

The play broke down so we had an extra intermission (I've never had that happen during a play before). I tried to convince Creed to make a bathroom run and get snacks, but he would not leave his seat because he was afraid of missing even a second of the Lion King. He's asked me everyday since then if we can go see Lion King again.

The other major highlight of Las Vegas for Creed was seeing this castle. He kept asking to see the princess inside. Good thing we're headed to Disneyland in January.

Creed and Ollie Visit Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Park

2011-05-19T13:36:00.001-06:00

While we were in Las Vegas, the weather was hot, but the mornings were nice so we went on adventures in the morning and spent the afternoons letting Ollie nap at the hotel while Creed and LArry swam.

Our first morning we headed out to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Park to drive the scenic loop and do a little hiking.

When we travel, I always try to seek out a place where the boys can rome free for a while and this park was perfect.

The peppermint-striped rock was so beautiful

And Creed even took a few pictures (his very first time with my camera)

Not too shabby for a four-year-old!

Viva Las Vegas

2011-05-16T00:49:00.000-06:00

Larry had a few days off last week and we had no plans, but wanted to take advantage of his flexible schedule before he starts his new job. The morning of, we got on Hotwire, picked an incredibly affordable five-star hotel in Las Vegas, booked it for the next three nights, and hopped in the car.

I had never even heard of the Vdara (same hotel line as the Bellagio, but much more modern right next door), but we lucked out on booking a room there. There is no Casino in the Vdara so no smokey loud rooms to dash through with our kids. All the rooms are suites with kitchenettes (can you spot Creed grabbing a snack from the supplies we stocked the fridge with?). Kitchens are pretty unusual in fancy hotels, but so helpful when you have young kids and you can keep snacks and milk on hand!

The room was nice

The boys loved baths in the huge tub.

But our favorite part was probably the view. Creed mentioned how excited he was to see the dancing fountains and the lights when we were checking in so they spoiled us with this view. In case you were wondering, the Bellagio fountains are still magical after you see them 23 times.

We've been traveling

2011-05-12T01:12:00.000-06:00

Can you tell where we've been?

So glad I brought along my Fuji Instax Mini. I've been waiting for just the right moment to break it in. Thank you Santa! Now I might just need the full-size Fuji Instax or one of the new polaroid cameras/printers (It's an addiction, I tell you!). The credit card sized Instax Minis are pretty adorable though.

Did I mention that we bought a house?

2011-05-03T15:26:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I'm so busy trying to document the little things around here, that I forget to mention big things.

A few months ago, Larry decided to join The Central Utah Clinic where he will finally be practicing his specialty in Infectious Diseases. It's been a long ten years of medical training, and we are so excited to be moving on to this stage of his life. Larry has been joking that he has been putting off making any money as long as he possibly can.

Neither of us would have predicted we ever would be moving back to Provo, Utah. I have to admit I was not so excited about the location (I am a big city girl, through and through), but it's a great career opportunity for Larry and an extra bonus is that we'll be close to some of our family.

It feels a little weird moving back to a place we lived ten years ago. We've both grown up so much since then, and the city has changed a lot too. I have exactly one friend there, but I'm telling myself that we're sure to meet cool people there, right? And you know I love exploring new cities. I'm sure there will be lots of things to fall in love with there as well as some old favorites (J-Dawgs, drives up to Sundance, and breathtaking views of the mountains to name a few)

We looked at homes a few months ago and were far from falling in love with anything so we decided to build. We had plans in hand, but after a few weeks of frustration, we saw every lot on the market and came up empty handed because none of them were ideal. That night, I checked the MLS and saw a home I new Larry would love. The very next day we made an offer and we were in contract. We got our keys last week, and we'll probably be moving around the end of the month (third move in a year, and hopefully the last for a very very long time).

It feels good and a little intimidating to be a home owner again. I'll try to post pictures soon, I promise!

Happy May?

2011-05-01T15:25:00.000-06:00

I know we don't have much to complain about compared to the recent earthquakes in Japan or the tornadoes in Alabama, but what the big idea, Utah Weather? This is what we woke up to yesterday morning, and the snowpack in the mountains is already record breaking so we're waiting for flooding to start.

Creed couldn't resist the chance to go out and stomp around in my parents' yard.

And we had a chance to make one last teeny snowman this season.

Scenes From Our Easter

2011-05-01T14:49:00.001-06:00

As Creed checked out his Easter basket, Ollie got right to work finding his eggs and eating the pretzels and Easter Marshmallows that he found in them.

The Easter bunny was good to me too

But the best part of any holiday is always watching these three.

We feel so blessed and grateful to our Savior. It's nice to have holidays like Easter and Christmas to remind us of what life is really all about.

Sickies

2011-04-29T15:44:00.000-06:00

The littlest Fords have not been felling well. Our days have been filled with lots of cuddling.

We hope to be returning to our regular schedule soon!

Some Fun Easter Printables

2011-04-22T12:37:00.000-06:00

I love these Easter Printables. They make fun, quick projects to do with kids and most of these are free.

Bunny finger puppets. I just printed out a set to go in our church bag to keep Creed busy during our meetings on Easter Sunday.

Tumble bunnies. I need to get some marbles so we can try this one.

The Bunny Crew and Yolk Folk from Mibo studios. These ones are $3.90 per download. I used them last year and Creed's Easter Bunny birthday party. They take a while to put together, but I think older kids really might enjoy doing it themselves. It would be fun to have printed copies in their Easter baskets.

And to spend the Easter Cheer, it would be fun to surprise another family with an Easter egg hunt (Cat Surprised me one year and I was giddy). This sign is ready and waiting for you to leave on the door.

A few More Fun Easter Ideas

2011-04-22T12:25:00.000-06:00

As promised, here are a few more fun Easter ideas I've seen online this year.

Cake filled eggs. I'm not a fan of hard-boiled eggs. I'd much rather search for these.

Surprise Crepe Paper Carrots.

Sparkly Dot Easter Eggs. We made these at enrichment and they are really easy, but they work better if your eggs aren't cold.

I'm not sure about an original source on this one, but I love the idea of decorating things around the house so make them Easter-ish.

A jelly bean monogram.

Chocolate Bar Bunnies.

A streamer egg hunt. I might try this one with Creed this year, only maybe I would still hide the eggs and have the streamer lead to his basket.

Crystal Egg Geodes. Creed and I made crystal snowflakes not long ago and he thought they were magical. I'm sure he'd love making these too.

Plain wooden Easter eggs. This makes me want to order a bunch to replace our plastic set. I love them plain, but they would be really pretty died with rit dye too. Maybe I need to plan a DIY night with friends?

Little egg pinatas or paper mache eggs. Another brilliant idea from Not Martha.

Are there any fun projects that you're attempting this Easter? I'd love to hear about it!

Pencil me in

2011-04-21T13:14:00.000-06:00

So remember when I asked you if you'd mind if I talked about our Christmas all through January? Well, how do you feel about me continuing through April because I'm still not done. This one is just too fun to leave out though.

My siblings and I draw names for Christmas gifting, but on the odd years that we are actually all together, I like to have a small gift for everyone. It's usually something I make. The first year it was magnetic poetry including magnets to make each person's most common sayings. Another year it was hand-carved stamps with a picture of each person and their name. This year I gave each person a set of personalized pencils. Larry helped me think of what to have engraved on each of them.

Candice is a huge Jane Austen fan so her pencils said "Mrs. Darcy, I mean, Stringham"

Mark's evil genius pencils might be my favorite.

My dad's a professor so "Don't steal Dr. Borup's pencil" seemed just right for him.

Marissa's said "Bob Saget Fan Club President" because one year when she lived with me and Larry, she made me a shirt that said "Bob Saget Loves Me" and ever since then it's been an inside joke. Thinking of her using these makes me giggle.

Marissa's husband Mike has a heterosexual-man-crush on Ronald Regan, I swear. It was Larry's idea to make him pencils that said "Still winning one for the Gipper" I can see him using these in his office in Canada and feeling like he has a little bit of home with him.

I made Larry's say "Dr Larry Freakin' Awesome Ford" because I would laugh so hard if my doctor had pencils that said something like that in his office. I'm sure he will never use them in his clinic, but I still find them very entertaining.

They looked so pretty all together that I couldn't resist stilling a few from each person. They I tied up the rest in a bundle for each person with a big red bow.

I think they are so fun that I sent a batch to our adopted family in Ohio too. I just wish that I could have been there to see them open them in person on Christmas morning.

Now I'm tempted to make these for every occasion: birthday party favors, baby shower favors, Easter Basket filler . . .

Creed Atticus Turns Four

2011-04-21T12:57:00.000-06:00

I try to do a little photo shoot of Creed every year on his birthday so we have some current pictures on hand. We shot these ones quickly as we headed our the door for our bowling bonanza so they are literally right out of our front door. It's a mess because the house is due to be painted as soon as the weather is nice so perhaps we should have ventured out to a better location, but Creed wouldn't have had the patience for that. I guess this way, we'll remember where we were during this stage of his life.

This kid's adorableness kills me!

Easter ideas

2011-04-15T23:26:00.001-06:00

I just came across a bunch of bookmarks I saved last Easter to share with you so here are a few that I would love to try (and you actually still have plenty of time left before Easter to try them!).

Reusable carrot candy pouches.

Easter Candy on Parade

Easter eggshell crafts. You should click through to see the others. They are so funny/cute.

Egg cozies. These are no longer available, but you can find a tutorial for similar ones here.

Sweet and simple lamb pillows.

Grow your own wheatgrass.

Bunny finger puppets. I made some last year and they are so fun to work on.

Felted egg pocket.

Easter surprise eggs.

Surprise chocolate eggs.

Easter Eggs with notes inside. I really wanted to do this, but it's been so popular on blogs this year that I was afraid it wouldn't really surprise anyone. I would still love to get one in the mail though, wouldn't you?

Hopefully I'll stay motivated and I'll post some of my favorite ideas from this year soon.

Ollie at one year

2011-04-15T23:24:00.000-06:00

I'm posting these almost two months late, but I have to post about Ollie at one-year-old, and the joy that he brings to our lives.

This little guy is so friendly and full of smiles. He has absolutely no stranger anxiety (I think it's because we don't leave him with babysitters because we worry about him having a seizure while we are gone). We will walk up to anyone and lift his arms up, begging to be picked up.

We visited a new ward a few weeks ago, and he reached and reached for the woman sitting behind us until she picked him up. He continued to reach and be passed back about five rows, and I had to crawl over people to get him while he kept smiling and charming everyone. One of the cute older ladies he visited said she called dibs to be his adopted grandmother.

He's still very tiny, between the 10th and 25th percentile but his pediatrician thinks he will shoots up soon.

Just after his first birthday, he stopped talking and didn't say or sign anything for a few weeks. His doctor wasn't worried because he was still so social and happy. Now he's started talking again and has a completely different vocabulary. He doesn't say things like "hello" or "bye-bye" anymore, but he says "doggie" and "uh-oh"

Ollie happily goes to bed at night, and is usually asleep within minutes. He still wakes up once or twice a night though so we're looking forward to Creed and Ollie having separate rooms where they won't disturb each others sleep (and more importantly, our sleep ;) )

It amazes me how much he understand what we say to him. If we mention going outside, he is waiting at the door or bringing us shoes within seconds.

His favorite time of the day has got to be bath time. He frantically tries to get in the tub while we fill it and undress him.

Ollie is a climber. Creed was always timid, but Ollie is fearless. He is an amazing climber and has no fear of falling. I'm not sure when he will start to get it and not walk off high surfaces because we always catch him, for fear falling with cause another seizure. Any advice?

He loves to share big slimey kisses with us.

He's becoming a better eater than Creed but he will not touch raspberries or strawberries. He has an unfortunately love in Cheez-its and even recognized the box in the grocery store the other day and strained to grab it off of the shelf.

He loves making us laugh and will do the same thing over and over if it causes us to giggle.

He's found his love for books and is constantly bringing them to us so we can set him on our lap and read each book over and over. His current favorite is Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell.

He's becoming fiercely independent and gets upset when we try to help him with things. He wants to climb and eat and drink by himself, thank you very much.

He's not grumpy very often, but when he is, you can whisk him outdoors and he's as happy as can be.

Creed has always been a Momma's boy but Ollie has a special bond with his dad. He sprints to the door when he hears Larry come home from work and flaps his arms with joy.

He LOVES I-phones and gets upset if we try to pass him the I-touch instead (how does he know the difference?)

I know this post is crazy long, but I couldn't resist posting the rest of these pictures to sum up the last few months of Ollie's life.

He likes to wander the house exploring on his own, getting into everything possible.

He loves to color and gets desperate to get a hold of any crayon or pens he spots.

He's such a terrific little person!