Koford Time

Check It Out

2012-01-27T12:08:00.000-08:00

Look at the accent wall I painted in my entryway! It's in a fun alternating-color herringbone design. I've been wanting to do something cool on this wall for a while (I even tried and badly failed a stenciling attempt back in the summer), so when I saw this ceiling, I knew I wanted to copy the design. It was a fun project. What do you think? I'd love to dress the wall up even more with updated lighting, a console table, a huge shiny mirror, and a plush rug on the floor.

2012

2012-01-17T01:53:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012, folks! It's time to start year six of my blog! I'm really going to try to post more this year that I did last year. It's so fun to go back and see what I've written in the past. Henry is always asking to look at his baby pictures and to watch videos I used to post of him as a baby. I'm so glad I've written and posted as much as I have, but I think I can do better this year.

We headed up to Kings Canyon National Park for a little hike with the kids yesterday. Did you know Martin Luther King Day (actually the whole weekend) is a free admission day for all national parks? We're always up for a bargain so this is the second year in a row that we've taken advantage of the free day. There was no snow, only some patches of old hardened snow (ice), and it wasn't too terribly cold for January. We hiked up Buena Vista Peak, which was very easy and perfect for the kids. McKinley rode along in a backpack carrier. Tim chose a really windy and long route up the mountain (route 245) which made Owen and I feel pretty carsick. I forgot to bring peppermint oil (it helps with motion sickness), and Owen had to use a barf bag. He was a trooper, though, and didn't complain. Once we made it up there it was a really fun day.

2011 was a good year, but I had to learn some lessons in being responsible, and many of them were hard. I had to learn the hard way to do things like, change the filter in our refrigerator before it starts leaking while we are gone for the weekend and our wood floor gets ruined. Or the "fun" experience of having our vehicle stolen and having no repercussions because I opted not to buy comprehensive auto insurance. I learned that our cars need to be locked up at all times, even in our driveway. And I learned what it's like to be a parent with a sick baby who needed to have surgery. While tons of great things happened, and I couldn't have changed much of the trials, I wish I had been more responsible and could have prevented the heartache that many of those challenges brought me.

So this year, I'm going to try to be responsible before I am forced to be. I am going to be better with saving money. I'm really, really, going to work on having food storage. I'm going to take better care of myself, my family, and our home. I'm going to be a better friend and kinder to my family as well as strangers. I'm going to act on the promptings I get from the Holy Ghost. And I'm going to have a great year.

Christmas

2011-12-29T00:45:00.000-08:00

We had a really nice Christmas season this year. Here's a log of some of the fun things we did!

Tim and I threw an Ugly Sweater Christmas party. We played games and set up a "photo booth" to take pictures of our friends in their glorious festive sweaters. I got my red tweed sweater with calico appliques at a garage sale and Tim's awesome sweater, in its hot pink glory, complete with shoulder pads, 3/4 length sleeves, bedazzles and gold glitter puffy paint, came from a second hand store in Exeter. He found it all by himself! Our party was awesome.

Tim dressed up as Santa for work again this year. I took the kids to see him and McKinley got really freaked out. She screamed so loud when we tried to put her on Tim's lap! Even when he pulled down the fake beard and removed his hat she wanted nothing to do with him. It's hard to tell in the next picture from the Christmas party at church, but she hated that Santa just as much.

At school, Owen was chosen to play the lead in the first grade Christmas play. He played a beggar dressed in rags who asks some children for money, then later reveals himself as Santa. He had a lot of lines that he memorized. Here's a clip of his big reveal. Please excuse the poor photography!

On Christmas Eve, we drove down to Tim's Aunt Sherrill's home and spent the day with his Aunt, cousins Craig and Vickie, his parents, and sister Amber. We exchanged presents with everyone. The boys were excited to get toys, and not so excited when they got clothes. It's not surprising, but still funny when they excitedly rip open a box, then dejectedly say, "Pants." and throw them over their shoulder like it's such a disappointment. I guess we need to teach them a lesson on gratitude!

That evening we went to a big Koford Christmas party at Tim's cousin Shannon's home. The party was really cool; there was a magician, dinner, games, crafts for the kids, and at the end all of the children got a pillow pet!

We spent Christmas day at my parents' house with my parents as well as Susanna and her family. Chad's family came for dinner that evening. The kids were sooo excited to see what Santa brought. After we peeked in our stockings at the crack of dawn and had breakfast, we dressed up for church. Sacrament meeting at my parents' ward was a really nice musical Christmas program. My favorite part was when the Stake President and a sister in the ward played a duet of Silent Night on accordions!!! They even had another sister accompany them on the xylophone! I had never heard someone play the accordion in church before, but it was awesome. You just can't help but smile when people play the accordion! I absolutely loved it.

After church we came home and opened up all of the presents under the tree. Owen and Henry got wooden rubber-band guns that Grandpa made. I love to see how excited my children get on Christmas. It's so much fun. They had such a blast playing with their toys and their cousins, until Owen, playing on Blake's new skateboard ramp, smashed his nose so hard we thought it might be broken. He just about ruined Christmas! Luckily after it stopped bleeding and he had a little nap he was fine.

After a fabulous Christmas dinner, we all got together and played some Christmas songs on pipe chimes that my Dad made for me. I gave him some measurements and he cut metal conduit pipes at different lengths to make almost two octaves of chimes. Everyone got to play their notes to some songs, and I "conducted". Fun!

Then we divided into two teams and went head-to-head playing Christmas Minute-to-win-it. We had a bunch of different silly games, and here are a few pictures I managed to take: My Dad and Caleb squared off on the Holiday Nut Stacker game.

Sharli and my Mom stacked cups, and the boys had to hang ten ornaments on a yardstick balancing on a wrapping-paper tube without knocking it over. And go to my sister Susanna's blog to see way better and funnier pictures of our minute-to-win-it games!

It really was a wonderful Christmas. Although we missed all of the loved ones we weren't able to see, we feel so blessed to be able to celebrate the birth of Christ with so much of our family.

Merry Christmas!

nine months

2011-12-28T21:45:00.000-08:00

Wow, McKinley is already nine months! She is growing so fast. She weighs 18 pounds, putting her just above the 50 percentile for girls her age. She loves to eat real food, especially crackers. Her eyes are somewhere in between brown and hazel. The left eye is more greenish-hazel and the right is more brownish-hazel. Whatever color they are, they're very beautiful. McKinley is almost crawling but still only wants to go backwards. When I tell her to say "Mama", she almost always says, "Da Da!" She celebrated her first Christmas this month at Grandma and Grandpa Packard's house. Also notable: she learned to scream really loud this month, just for fun.

eight months

2011-11-29T16:44:00.001-08:00

McKinley had a great eighth month. This past month she got her second tooth, learned to wave, she can smack her lips, and sort of say Mama. She can turn around 360 degrees on her tummy and propel herself backward but isn't crawling yet. She likes to follow Mommy all around the house in her walker.

After accomplishing all that, McKinley decided she needed some excitement in her life. So she took her first trip to Disneyland, helped Owen celebrate his 6th birthday, hosted Grandma & Grandpa Packard and Chad & Sharli's family for Thanksgiving, and even helped Daddy, Uncle Chad, and Grandpa build a swing set in the backyard as an early Christmas gift. What an industrious baby!

Halloween

2011-10-31T17:40:00.000-07:00

We had a great Halloween this year. The boys dressed up as lumberjacks and McKinley was an owl. My sister, Merilee, made the owl costume. They were all so cute!

seven months

2011-10-28T16:35:00.000-07:00

Having a seven-month-old is such a hoot! This month Miss McKinley learned to sit up, got her first tooth, and even learned to play peek-a-boo. She is dressing up as a little owl for Halloween. Let's hope her lumberjack brothers don't destroy her habitat!

six months

2011-10-11T21:31:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe McKinley is already six months old. She is such a cutie! She captivates people all around when we are out and about. She smiles at everyone. She giggles when you put your face really close to her. And she's got a new nickname: Thumper. She thumps her little chunky legs when she wakes up in her crib. It's so loud, we can hear the thumping from our bedroom.

McKinley started eating solids this month, and she has rolled over exactly once, which made her very mad and she decided never to do it again. When we put her on her tummy she stretches her arms and legs up and out and looks like a little weeble-wobble. She is very grabby and likes to put everything in her mouth, especially anything made with fabric.

First bite of baby cereal before and after! She wasn't impressed.

Look at those cheeks!

Our little Weeble-Wobble!

We just had another ultrasound and checkup with her doctor, and got great news: The McKidney is doing great and she got a clean bill of health. Hooray!

SOOOO glad it's September!

2011-09-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

I love September. It's still pretty hot here, but not quite with the intensity of the previous few months. Since my last stranded post things have gotten so much better. We bought a work car for Tim, and I got my independence back. Seriously, that and Owen going back to school made all the difference.

Owen started the first grade a few weeks ago and is doing great so far. The little boy that lives next door to us is in the same class, and they are having fun playing at recess and after school. We also just started him in piano lessons.

Henry doesn't seem to mind having Owen gone at school most of the day. He plays really well independently and likes to go around shopping with me. As soon as we pick up Owen from school, Henry brags about anything he got to do or have while Owen was at school. A few days ago it was, "Owen, I got a Wunchable!" (Lunchable) followed by the inevitable whiny "Awwwww!" from Owen.

And I have been busy creating, reworking, and doing stuff I like to do. After two months of not being able to think of any projects I wanted to do, now I've got at least five in different stages of completion. I started reupholstering this chair that will be going in McKinley's room. What a beauty, right??? What is it about gold velvet that was so enchanting three or four decades ago? I don't get it. I got this chair at a garage sale for three dollars! After stripping it down to the wood and removing about 42,562 staples, I painted the frame white, and now I'm about halfway done covering it with a pink and white houndstooth print. I'll definitely post pictures when I'm all finished. This project has been so fun to do. My grandfather was an amazing upholsterer, and I like to think some of that is coming out with this project. It's going to be gorgeous in McK's room!

I really need to take more pictures of my family. But I did get this one. And who doesn't love a picture of a cute baby with striped pants on? Come on, now. You know you love it.

five months

2011-09-11T19:08:00.000-07:00

I've got a cute little 5-month-old! McKinley's eyes look to be settling to a nice Root Beer brown. She is getting to be such a big girl. She just moved into 6-9 month sized clothes and fills them out pretty well. This month she became very vocal and has perfected the raspberry. When she's unhappy or uncomfortable, she lets you know it! I think she got that from me. :)

McKinley sure likes to be stationary (aka she still isn't rolling over) but if she's held, she wants to be bounced or moved around. She loves to be in the Baby Bjorn carrier when I vacuum around the house. She also loves taking baths and walks outside. She is still very conservative with her laughs--if you want her to laugh, you've gotta work hard for it! Smiles are free, though.

Stranded for the Summer

2011-08-16T16:59:00.000-07:00

We love to take trips in the summer time, especially to visit family. But this year as family members called to invite us for a visit, we knew that with McKinley's surgery happening (and the bills resulting from it) as well as gas prices as they were in June, we'd probably need to stay home. I had no idea that my idea of being "stranded" was about to become much more literal at the beginning of July.

Tim went out the door for work one morning and found that his old Toyota pickup truck was gone. Like, stolen, no trace of the thing, gone. And after about a week and no signs of its return, I resigned myself to the fact that I would be without a car for a while. You see, in a two-car family in which the husband works and the wife stays home with the children, circumstances that lead to having only one car don't make all that much difference to the man. He's still got to get to work, so he takes the car. But for the wife, going down to one car is like a prison sentence.

I'm the one who is punished when a vehicle breaks down or is stolen. If I play my cards right and Tim's schedule works out, I may get one or possibly two days a week that I get the car after dropping him off at work. Those days I run around town like mad, trying to get all of my errands run and stock up the house with food. And if you are out and about in the evenings, you may see me on any of a series of late night Target runs where I've just got to get out and have some time by myself.

This was not a good time to lose Tim's truck. We've been looking for a replacement vehicle, but haven't secured anything yet. It has been hard to find a reliable vehicle in our low price range. So, subsequently, I have been a grouch for the past month. I haven't worked on any projects, blogged, or felt like being creative at all. I just feel trapped and I'm mad! I've read two novels in the past few weeks and only just now been hit with the parallels there. One is The Grapes of Wrath and the other is Room, a story about a woman and her child who are kidnapped and live in one room for seven years. Isn't that funny?

So, here is my sad log of the activities we have done this summer. And sorry about the negativity! This is why I haven't blogged about it! It's depressing!

Owen and Henry took swimming lessons at the high school for a few weeks!

We went to a Fresno Grizzlies game for Tim's work picnic. Owen got a spider painted on his hand and Henry got his face painted like a dog. It was the cutest thing ever!

We did a million, zillion kids crafts. Seriously. After this summer I've got the recipe for homemade playdough completely memorized!

We did, actually, make it down to Newport Beach for one day. It was the best day ever!

The kids played outside in the backyard a lot!

McKinley and I wore matching dresses and shoes to church one week! I love matching.

Oh man, Henry is going to be SO handsome when he gets older. Can't you see this boy at 17? What a babe!

Okay, so that's pretty much ALL we have done. We did go to Hesperia to see my sisters Merilee and Mindy and check out my mom's sewing camp she did for all of the (old enough) granddaughters. And just last week, we got a call from the CHP that Tim's truck had been found in an orchard about 1/2 hour away from here! We have it back, but it is thrashed and not driveable. I will try and post some pictures of the funny things done by the jerk who stole it soon!

four months

2011-08-06T11:26:00.000-07:00

McKinley is four months old! She's so much fun to have around. She has a huge smile and we laugh so much at how wide she can open her mouth. At her four month doctor appointment this week, she weighed just under 16 pounds, putting her in the "pleasantly plump" category.

McKinley's hair is growing a little, and the little bald spot on the back (that most back-sleeping babies get) is starting to slowly fill in. She grabs toys but doesn't yet have the dexterity to put them in her mouth. This week she really started to jump well in her Johnny Jump-Up toy.

She hates lying down when she is being held. She always wants to sit up and see what's going on around her. She'll lie back to drink a bottle, but as soon as she's done, she's using her super strong abs to try to sit forward. Even when she had to have general anesthesia to have her stint out this week, once she woke up she was trying to sit up to look around and see the nurses when they came in.

McKinley has started wearing a daily bib as her accessory of choice because she drools A LOT. She loves the little extra "umph" it gives to her outfits. While she's still not babbling a whole lot, she squeals, blows raspberries, and has started giggling, but it takes a lot of effort from Mom to get her to laugh. This girl just won't crack and let out a belly laugh!

three months

2011-07-06T16:50:00.000-07:00

Little Miss Kinley turned three months old last week, and to be honest, it's been a LONG three months. Not that she's been particularly difficult, it just seems like she was born a very, very long time ago. I'm not sure if it is because we've already been through a lot (health wise) with her, or simply that she came into our family so seamlessly that it seems that she's always been here. Whichever the case, she's a doll and we all love her so much.

In the past month, McKinley fully made the transition to sleeping through the night. She has started cooing a lot, although she's still on the quiet side. Based on her personality so far, I think this girl may be a shy one. She loves to jump (well, it still looks more like spinning with a bit of tap dancing) in her Johnny Jump-up toy and swing in the swing. She's a very happy baby and is just starting to be interested in toys. And she's got some seriously cute, chunky legs--I can't even touch my fingers together when I put them around her calves!

Also in the past month, McKinley had her kidney surgery to correct her hydronephrosis. She has recovered beautifully and will be having some imaging tests done in the next few months to check on how things are healing. Despite all of the tests, surgery, and medical bills(!), you would never know she had any health issue. She seems perfectly normal and healthy. I am so grateful for that!

I love this little girl!

Is it just me?

2011-06-23T17:45:00.000-07:00

Is it just me, or does McKinley's bow remind you a little of Aretha Franklin's hat from the 2008 presidential inauguration?

I think we know what we'll be wearing in 2012!

McKidney

2011-06-22T11:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon we brought McKinley home from Children's Hospital, where she had her kidney surgery on Monday. She is doing really well. The doctor had to remove a small part of her ureter and reattach it to the kidney with a stint to help it heal correctly. She said the part of the ureter that was causing the blockage was very, very tiny--about the width of a string. No wonder her kidney coudn't drain before!

(excuse the bad cell phone picture)

We had to stay overnight in the hospital with McKinley. When the nurses would come in, she'd put on a brave face and smile at them a little. However, when she was just with Tim and me, she wouldn't smile at all--she just looked so sad. It was hard seeing her in pain. But despite just having the surgery two days ago, today she is acting as if nothing bothers her and is the same happy baby as before. I am so grateful for all of the prayers, blessings, and well wishes we've received. Baby Mac and her McKidney are on the road to recovery.

In other news, the rest of us are having a bit of a rough day:
-- Owen and Henry are vomiting with a stomach bug
-- The A/C is not working and it's supposed to reach 107F this afternoon
-- My mom and dad went home

It's one of those days that you just feel like you could cry like this guy!

two months

2011-06-10T17:23:00.000-07:00

McKinley is two months old! She's getting really big. At her two month doctor appointment she weighed 11 lbs. 10 oz. She is very smiley, still very sleepy, and very quiet. She has not yet discovered her voice. The sounds she makes are mostly breathing and crying sounds. McKinley sleeps through the night about 75% of the time, making life much easier for all of us. She drools a lot and loves to swing in her swing. We are having so much fun with this little one around!

Cherry Cherry

2011-06-01T18:26:00.000-07:00

It was Memorial Day a few days ago, and we had some visitors come to town. Amber and Tim's Aunt Sherrill were here visit us. I just love those two!

While they were here, we took Amber and Sherrill up to Clovis to pick cherries. This is our second year picking cherries, and it has become my favorite Memorial Day tradition ever (but when the only other Memorial Day tradition is a family reunion in Porterville with the trashy side of the family, it's not much of a contest). I've got a thing for u-pick farms. I love being able to eat and pick the freshest, best fruit of the crop and getting it so much cheaper than the grocery store. We picked and ate tons of cherries. Henry carried Amber's bucket and helped her fill it up. Owen tripped two times and dumped his bucket each time, and I kept thinking of the game "Hi Ho! Cherry-O" and was glad there were no birds or dogs around to steal our cherries. I pushed the stroller up a tree-lined hillside littered with tree branches and irrigation lines that made McKinley's ride pretty bumpy.

The cherry crop is fantastic this year. We came home with eleven pounds of cherries--most of them are already gone, and even though my stomach hurts a little as I type this, I can't stop eating them!

McKinley's Blessing Day

2011-05-19T17:38:00.000-07:00

McKinley's blessing day was so nice. Many of our favorite people came to be there. Tim's parents, his sister Amber, brother Adam and Adam's son Charlie all came to town. Then my parents and our Fresno friends, the Hibbard family, came, too. Tim gave a beautiful blessing, and McKinley was great. She looked so cute in her dress. My mom sewed her gorgeous blessing dress and made a little bonnet for her to wear, too.

The best baby shower/Easter egg hunt EVER!

2011-05-19T16:59:00.000-07:00

A few months before McKinley was born, my sisters started talking about the idea of throwing me a baby shower. Susanna couldn't stand the thought that my little one might not have much to wear (other than little boy hand-me-downs), so she got together with Mindy and my mom and planned a baby shower for me.

The shower was planned about a month after McKinley was born, and was held at my parents' house so we all had a central location to meet and no one had to drive too far. The best part was that they invited my very best friends from Hesperia, so it was like a little reunion for us. Everything about the day was lovely: friends, food, and now McKinley has lots and lots of adorable little things to wear. Thanks to everyone for everything, especially for making the trip (since many of you had a distance to drive)!

And, since the shower just so happened to fall on Easter weekend, Susanna also threw together a little Easter egg hunt for the kids afterwards. Actually, the Easter egg hunt was huge. I think we ended up having about 27 kids, along with many parents and grandparents, there for the hunt. It was so fun seeing everyone's cute kids hunting for eggs just like we used to do when I was little.

One Month

2011-05-03T15:47:00.000-07:00

McKinley is now one month old. She's getting so cute. She's still a very sleepy baby, although every day she is having longer and longer wakeful periods. McKinley doesn't cry much at all. When she wakes up in the middle of the night, she makes noises like she's sort of annoyed rather than all-out crying. I can appreciate that!

This past month went by so fast. McKinley is already starting to smile and make some very beginning cooing sounds. She loves to be held and cuddle. She'd probably sleep all day if someone would just hold her all the time. She's growing and gaining weight well, allowing her to develop some cute chubby cheeks!

Easter Ties

2011-04-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

McKinley and I will be wearing pink and brown this Easter Sunday, so I thought I'd try my hand at sewing some coordinating ties for the boys. I found an easy tutorial here that makes a good-looking tie that fastens around the neck with Velcro.

After spending the morning at the park I got down to work and found them to be much easier than expected. I like the fabric; it reminds me of Rubik's Cubes!

Daddy's Girl

2011-04-15T21:10:00.000-07:00

Hollllllly Cow, McKinley looks so much like Tim, it is not even funny! Okay, actually it is a little funny. After we put Owen and Henry to bed at night, Tim and I stare at her sweet little face and giggle at how much she looks like Tim. With every baby, people have always said our children look like the Koford side, but with McKinley it is NO CONTEST! The pics below, while not the most flattering, show off that unmistakable chin. She's such a cute little thing!

This week marked some exciting milestones for McKinley. Her umbilical cord fell off and she had her first real bath (she cried the whole time). She saw the doctor for her two-week checkup and weighed in at 8 lbs 7oz. She's growing so much that many of the newborn sized clothes already don't fit.

We've been working for a while with several doctors for a kidney problem that was spotted way back at my 18-week ultrasound. McKinley has hydronephrosis on one side. That means she's got fluid on one kidney (we call it McKinley's McKidney). We are sort of at a wait-and-see point with it for now, but hopefully she will grow out of it. Besides the McKidney, she's healthy and you would never know that there is a problem in that cute little tummy of hers.

And here's the glamour shot that was actually taken at the hospital. Our hospital has a great photog! Who doesn't love a cute naked baby photo?

I miss my buddy.

2011-04-10T19:28:00.000-07:00

It's been four days since my mom went home. She had been here for about 10 days, helping to care for me and my family with the birth of the new baby. And I've gotta say--I miss my buddy! My mom is not just a fantastic mother and grandmother--she's one of my best friends.

While she was here, Mom took care of all of the mundane household chores that I couldn't do. But that was just the beginning. Never one to sit still, she was constantly working on lots of projects the whole time she was here. She sewed a crib bumper, curtains, and two basket liners for the nursery. One evening we made spring wreaths for our front doors together. Then she sewed a cover for my sewing machine and even knitted a doll sweater while she was here! Mom just doesn't ever stop. She runs circles around me. Once we were finished with the projects for me, we worked on some cute art prints to put up in her sewing room at home.

She's always up for anything--I'd say, "Hey, I saw a square boxwood wreath with a big satin bow on a blog the other day that was really cute. Want to make one with me?" and she'd say, "Yeah! Let's go get the supplies!" I'd say, "I've gotta find a cool chair to reupholster for the nursery. Want to go garage saling?" and she'd drive us all around town and end up carrying the chair we found back to the car for me. Or I'd say, "chocolate covered strawberries sure sound good right now", and she'd be right in the kitchen melting some chocolate. My mom makes me feel so pampered and loved.

Take a look at the quilt she made for the baby. I love the bird embroidery and the yoyos! The fabric is sooo cute.

I love my mom so much. She is so much fun to spend time with and I never tire of her. We always have something to talk about and she's got great advice. That's the best kind of friend. It doesn't hurt that she's a fun grandma, too!

Having a third baby is all fun and games...until Mom goes home!

Nursery Progress: bumper, curtains, and more

2011-04-05T18:29:00.000-07:00

It's time to post some more nursery progress pictures. This might be the last nursery post for a while. I have at least two more projects to complete but I know they will take me even longer to finish with the wee one claiming my free time these days!

I had a little breakdown a few weeks ago (before I had Mckinley) over the crib bumper. I was stuck. I had cut the fabric but the fabric wasn't lining up when I tried to sew all the layers together. So I called my mom, and in over-emotional-crazy-pregnant-woman-tears expressed my inadequate sewing skills: "I can't do it! It's too hard!" She calmly reminded me that she'd be here in just a few days and would make it all better.

And, as promised, LaWanna arrived with her sewing machine in tow and was ready to get to work. By the time I was released from the hospital, the bumper was done. Mom fixed all of the problem areas I had created and made it look like it had been sewn by a professional. I love it!

After that, she got right to work on the curtains. I had purchased the fabric, but that was as far as I'd gotten. Mom sewed the panels and we hung them under the cornice board I made.

The last few pictures give a better look at the whole room. I found the round mirror over the crib at home goods and painted it green. I bought an old lamp at a yard sale for 3 dollars and painted it white. I painted a pink and white chevron design on the shade. (You can just see the lampshade in top left corner of the last picture.) My mom also sewed pink liners for a laundry basket and the basket on the changing table. This room is so hard to photograph because it's so small but it's fun to show to visitors who come over. The giant Ikea light is such a surprise and makes them gasp when they walk into the room. I can't get it in the pictures very well, though!

I love this room! And of course, McKinley loves it too.

McKinley Elizabeth Koford

2011-03-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

Baby McKinley is here! She was born Monday, March 28, 2011 at 11:34am. She weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces and was 20 inches long. McKinley was delivered by Dr. Mark Wiseman by Cesearean Section. She screamed as soon as she came out, and the doctor noted how fiesty she was. She didn't want him to even suction out her mouth.

McKinley is such a beautiful, sweet baby. She's a total cuddle bug. She loves to be held and have "skin-to-skin" contact. She is a really good eater, too. On her first day, we thought she looked just like Henry. But on her second day, she looked just like Owen. It's going to be fun to watch her grow and develop her own look. She has dark brown hair, almost exactly the same color as Emily's. It's pretty short and thin on top, but there is lots of long hair all around the back. Cute! We just love her and are so glad she's healthy and she's ours!

Welcome to the world, Baby Mac!!!

Last One

2011-03-27T08:05:00.000-07:00

Today is the last Sunday before I have my baby. I started the countdown back when I had ten Sundays to go, and I was really hoping that I might get out of going to church on this last one. Because, when it comes down to it, I think that Sundays are the hardest for a pregnant woman in her third trimester. You walk through the hallways at church, garnering comments from lots of people who have plenty to say regarding your body and its funny shape. All the while trying not to waddle and keep your too-tight nylons from rolling down. And it's hard! I try to focus on the compliments, and while there are many of them, there are always far too many comments that I take hard.

Like, No! I'm not having twins! But thanks for reminding me that I have eaten way too much in the past 7 months or so and my body is far larger than it should ever be, even if there IS a baby in there. Or, how about that fabulous comment, "Did you go off your diet, or are you just pregnant?" Ouch--that one from a few months ago still stings. It always astounds me that so many people feel like a pregnancy means you have free reign to tell a woman exactly what you are thinking about her body. Especially when it almost always comes from other women with smiles on their faces.

So anyway, today I face the music one last time. I think I'm prepared, though. Yesterday I had a fabulous manicure and pedicure, so I'm hoping my sparkly hot pink toes might somehow distract people from noticing and commenting on my enormity! I hope I have a good day. Because certainly in about a month or so, all of those looks will be right back on my abdomen, checking out how well I've fared in the slimming portion of post-pardomhood. And I have a feeling it's going to be rough!

On the bright side, here are some things that are keeping me happy:

Who says the mother has to do all of the nesting? I got Owen to dust all of my baseboards and all I had to promise him was 25 minutes of video game time. Best trade I ever made.

Sister Albright at church made this cute bonnet for the baby that I am positive is going to look better on the wee one than it does on Henry. I LOVE the giant flower!

Tim's coworkers threw a surprise baby shower for us this week. They gave us so many cute things for the baby! I loved the cake--it said, "Babies are a Hoot!" Soooo cute.

And on my freezer door is a list of ELEVEN meals I've stored up inside for the next few weeks. (Thanks to Cyndi Bickmore for adding #11--yum!) So bags are packed, the house is clean, I'M READY to have my baby tomorrow! All I have to do is get through three hours of church.

Nursery Progress: The Dresser That Started Everything

2011-03-18T21:02:00.000-07:00

When I was contemplating the nursery and trying to think of a design for it, I had a hard time deciding which direction to go. The only thing I knew I really wanted to use in the room was my Grandma Mitchie's green dresser for the changing table. I love the look of this old dresser--she gave it to me along with a whole bedroom set that I love. I thought it would add a lot of charm to the room, and I thought long and hard about a wall color that could really help make the green color (which can lean toward avocado or artichoke, depending on what's with it) pop. Eventually I settled on pink walls as a compliment to the green dresser and found fabrics to work with the two. I love it!

My Grandma painted the dresser back in the 1970s, in the heyday of lead-based paint (which is now outlawed due to its danger to children). I've had a sinking worry for months that it may have been painted with lead paint, but this week I bought a lead test kit and eventually I worked up the courage to test the dresser. After waiting the two minutes and holding my breath, I got a negative result and breathed a huge sigh of relief. No lead--yay! This week I added the collage of frames and shelves to go over the changing table. It's sort of a work-in-progress that I plan to add to as time goes on. The small square green frame is actually a shadow box that will house some tiny booties that my mom saved from when I was a baby.

And now, for some comic relief: a five-year-old boy who was playing in his parents' closet and thought coming out and surprising his mother by wearing her maternity dress would be HILARIOUS:

Well, it made me laugh, at least.

Henry is Three!

2011-03-16T23:14:00.000-07:00

Henry turned three this week! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. Henry is so much fun to have around. He loves to laugh, sing, and mimic everything his brother is doing. Henry loves to play outside and ride his scooter to the park. He is really sweet--anytime I say "ouch", he is quick to come kiss me better. And he is very fast to say he's sorry when he makes a mistake. I love it when Henry plays "robot". Basically he'll take anything he can find and put it on his head or up to his chest and say over and over in a monotone voice, "I am a robot. I am a robot". What's really funny is his choice of items that he believes make him turn into a robot--today he had a guitar on his head, saying "I am a robot", and later he had an empty crescent roll biscuit roll up to his chest, proclaiming his robot-ness to the kitchen. Silly kid!

Nursery Progress: The Crib and Skirt

2011-03-10T21:28:00.000-08:00

I really, really wanted a white Jenny Lind crib for the nursery. I didn't really want to spend the money for a new one, so for about two or three months I stalked Craig's List, waiting for one to come up for sale. I was hoping to find one for 50 dollars or less. There were several that came up for sale, but most of them didn't meet my standards. I was even willing to buy a recalled drop-side crib and do the required repairs myself if necessary. But most of the cribs listed came in a set with old bedding or a changing table, and most people wanted more money that I wanted to pay. And for a used crib with drop sides (recalled last year and now completely phased out for new ones), I wasn't willing to pay a hundred dollars or more, even if some old purple butterfly wall art was thrown in the package deal.

Last week after having no luck, I got desperate and decided to buy a new one. But for some reason there were no white Jenny Lind cribs in stock anywhere--every website that sold them said they were out of stock until April. That's when I really started to panic. This baby was coming and she needed a white Jenny Lind crib! And even though I had a perfectly good natural wood crib sitting in my garage, it would not work with my design for the room. It probably goes without saying at this point that I am completely crazy with pregnancy hormones and reason stands no chance with me and my design.

Anyway, lucky for me, I finally found someone in Fresno who had one to sell and I snapped it up gratefully last week. Even the chipped paint from some baby with seriously powerful teeth couldn't deter me. I can paint it, right? And best of all, I got it under my budget--only 45 dollars. The replacement parts to make sure it's safe came in the mail today.

Having the crib kick started me into sewing mode. For the crib skirt, I was thinking of ruffles. Lots of ruffles! So I found some fabrics to compliment my window shade fabric and went to town with the ruffles. I had never sewn ruffles before, so as I made these, two things were running through my mind:

1. THANK HEAVENS for the serger my mom gave me!

2. Ruffles take FOREVER to sew--at least these ones did. If I had known how many steps were involved, I probably would have just done flat panels with only one fabric. Oh well...now they're done and I love them!

Next up is the formidable bumper pad with another component I've yet to try on my own: piping!

Nursery Progress: Lighting

2011-03-01T16:27:00.000-08:00

My mom likes to shop at Ikea with her friends once in a while. One time when they were there, they were looking at a big light fixture and one of them said, "Where in the world could this ever go and look good?" It was a giant white light with about 160 big petals shooting from the center, giving it the look of a big dandilion. They thought you'd have to be crazy to buy the thing.

It wasn't until after I'd already decided I just HAD to have it for the nursery that my mom told me that story. I knew the perfect place for that light! The nursery is very small. It's only 10 feet by 10 feet. But it has a very tall ceiling. The ceiling is about 14 feet high at its peak. So when I was thinking about a fun light fixture for the room, the big one from Ikea popped in my head. It took some convincing to enlist Tim to help me remove the perfectly good, nearly new ceiling fan to put up this light, and to be honest, I'm still not sure that he actually likes it. Too bad for him. Once we had it up in the room, it was as if my baby leapt in my womb with joy (not really). It looks so cute! It's almost 3 feet in diameter, and I think it's perfect for this girly bedroom! You have to see it in person to really appreciate it.

Nursery Progress: Window Shade

2011-02-27T22:52:00.000-08:00

I'm going to start posting all of the things I'm doing to decorate the baby's nursery. It is so much fun to have a room to paint and decorate. I love the fact that my boys have a blue bedroom and my daughter will have a pink bedroom. It's a classic idea that I am totally enamoured with!

I've been spending way too much time looking at design blogs lately. I just love them! They give me great ideas of what to do in the nursery I'm working on. Last week I finished making a window shade that I found a tutorial for on little green notebook. It's like a cornice board, but instead of being made of wood, I cut a piece of foam core into the shape I wanted and stapled on my batting and fabric. The foam core cost me less than four dollars and was so easy! To hang it, I used some L-shaped brackets that I had leftover from another window project. Isn't this Amy Butler fabric sooo cute? That combined with the scalloped shape of the shade makes it so feminine. I love it.

I can't decide if I want to add some long curtain panels behind the shade or not. It's been hard to find fabric in the just the right shade of pink in a geometric pattern that I've got set in my mind and can't let go of. So until I find that perfect print, I'm working on some other things: wall art and as soon as I get some more fabric that I ordered, I'll be sewing some custom bedding.

Only four weeks until Baby K comes!

Grey to Sun and Back to Grey...All in One Day

2011-01-17T20:15:00.000-08:00

Our town gets so grey in the winter. We get lots of fog, but even worse than the fog is just the cloudy weather all the time. The central valley of California would be a perfect place for vampires to spend the winter. Maybe old, snowbird vampires? Usually I don't mind if it's overcast, but lately, (I think mostly because of my pregnancy) it's really been getting to me. I look out the windows in the morning and if it's cloudy, I don't want to do much all day. But if the sun does come out, I've been trying to make a point of getting outside and enjoying it. The boys ride their bike and scooter down the street to the park and I get some exercise walking. I even pulled my pant legs up and exposed my shiny white legs at the park last week in an effort to get some Vitamin D to boost my mood!

Today was a holiday (Martin Luther King Day) and Tim had the day off. I'd heard that this weekend was also a free entry weekend for the national parks, so we decided to head up to Sequoia National Park for some light hiking. The morning was so dreary and grey, and I thought we'd freeze and be miserable. We live only 30 miles from the entrance to the park, but in that 30 miles the weather completely changed. Before we even got to the park entrance, the clouds lifted and we had warm, sunny, perfect weather. It was 51 degrees and so nice! We spent a few hours hiking around Hospital Rock and climbing on all the big boulders around the river that goes through the area. It was such a beautiful day.

After leaving the park, we descended back into our dreadfully grey valley and no one wanted to go home! I'm going to have to remember this every year for MLK day. Every year it's always cold and grey and I never want to go anywhere, but the mountains are the perfect place to go and get some sun.

The boys were all about the binoculars today.

We saw this tree that was covered in thousands of ladybugs. Cool and freaky.

Our Year

2011-01-01T16:36:00.000-08:00

2010 was a pretty wild year for the Kofords. It started out in January with an email from a lender with whom we'd worked (unsuccessfully) in the past. He lit a fire under Emily that this year was the year to become homeowners, and we needed to act fast if we wanted a piece of Obama money (first-time home buyer credit). By the end of the month, we'd found a decent agent as well as the (starter) home of our dreams and were on our way to escrow.

February took Tim to Salt Lake City for a few days to complete training on a therapy program for addiction. Emily held her breath for what seemed like 28 days straight, waiting to see if everything worked out for the house and losing sleep over all that she planned on doing to it. In March we got the keys to our house and immediately commenced renovations with the help of Emily's parents. In between painting and replacing flooring in the entire house, we celebrated Henry's 2nd birthday and were moved in by the end of the month.

In April we unpacked and settled into our new home. Emily spent a day with her best friends and kids at Disneyland. In May we celebrated our tenth anniversary with a trip to San Francisco. We saw Wicked on Broadway, shopped in Union Square, and held hands the whole time. In June we celebrated Owen's graduation from preschool and Susanna and her kids came out for a visit.

Over the summer we took a trip to Utah for a big McEvers family reunion and had a really fun time. We ran a 5k on Independence Day with Susanna. Later that month Mindy's family came for a visit. We also hosted Tim's mother and his nephew, Lucas, and went to the Island Waterpark in Fresno for the first time. We went camping in Sequoia National Park. At the end of July we found out that Emily was expecting and were soooo excited.

August brought with it morning sickness. Emily really doesn't remember much about this month except that Owen started kindergarten. Tim says we went to Morro Bay to the beach, but Emily doesn't really remember it.

In the Fall, when Emily was feeling somewhat better, we went to visit Amber and went to Disneyland. Owen started football and was on the Broncos tiny tots team. Emily got to take five days away from the family to go to Ohio with her mom and sisters to visit Merilee. It was the best girls trip ever. Owen and Henry dressed up as Mario and Luigi for Halloween and Emily won first prize for best chili at the ward Halloween party.

In November we found out our baby is going to be a little girl. Owen had a lego party for his fifth birthday and Tim's parents came to celebrate. We spent Thanksgiving in Hesperia with a fantastic dinner at Chad and Sharli's house and Emily and her mom sewed Christmas pajamas for the family.

This last month we decorated our house for Christmas for the first time, went to several Christmas parties, Tim dressed up as Santa, and Emily baked until she could bake no more. We watched the spirit of Christmas in our boys' eyes as they bought gifts for each other and opened packages of their own. We rang in the new year (a few hours early) with our family with a surprise cake filled with candy and root beer floats at home.

Happy New Year, friends. 2011 promises a new addition to our family, more home decoration as we prepare the most amazing girly nursery ever, and who knows what other surprises? We hope 2011 is our best year yet.

Christmas Pics

2011-01-01T14:49:00.000-08:00

We had a very nice Christmas last week at home. Owen and Henry got to meet with Santa two times before Christmas, so he was pretty clear about what they wanted. Owen asked for three Bakugan balls and Henry asked for a candy cane in his stocking. The second time they met Santa, it was it was at Tim's work with Tim, where every year he volunteers to dress up as Santa for the kids who receive services. They are glad their dad is willing to help out when Santa is too busy to be everywhere.

This is Tim as Santa--and he's actually wearing the same beard as the Santa in the previous photo! (don't look too close at me and my freaky eyes in that picture)

Owen took part in his school's kindergarten Christmas program. He sang and danced and the whole time kept winking at us. It was very cute and totally funny.

We didn't have any house guests this year until after Christmas, so we spent our Christmas Eve frosting sugar cookies and delivering goodies to some close friends. After that we had a little Koford fiesta with Tamales, Taquitos, Christmas cheese dip, lots and lots of guacamole, and all the goodies I'd been making for the past two weeks. Christmas morning was a celebration when the boys woke me up at about 6:30 and Tim jumped out of bed like he was a kid on Christmas morning, just waiting for someone to make the first move. Santa brought Owen and Henry Star Wars guns that shoot nerf bullets, hot wheels racing sets, Bakugan balls (for Owen) and a Thomas train (for Henry). We had homemade orange rolls for breakfast and a traditional ham dinner that night. We spent most of the day in pajamas and played with all of the new toys we'd received. Then the day after Christmas Tim's parents and sister Amber came for a visit filled with even more toys. We played games and had a good time together eating lots of yummy treats.

Henry got a little doctor kit and LOVED it. He kept chasing people around with the toy shot, saying "Don't cry! Don't cry!"

The giant pillow pet (from Grandma & Grandpa Koford) and the giant fun roller (from Grandma & Grandpa Packard) were both huge hits! Owen and Henry were delighted.

We missed our extended family so much, but we tried to look on the bright side and appreciate how nice it was to have Christmas in our own home with no pressure to clean beforehand or entertain people! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Finally Five!

2010-11-22T13:23:00.000-08:00

Owen turned five last week! Here are some pictures of his birthday party. We had a family Lego party with Tim's parents.

We had a tower building contest, ate lego head marshmallow pops and cupcakes, and opened presents--the most exciting of which was a pillow pet that he had been wanting for months!

It seems like Owen always makes developmental strides right around his birthday; maybe it's just that I'm paying more attention to him and notice them. But in just the past week, he's learned to ride a bike without training wheels and all of a sudden, he likes to color. He will sit quietly for a few hours coloring pages I've printed for him---which is SO out of character for him, I never could get him to color for longer than one minute before last week. It's fantastic!

Owen is such a sweet kid. He's almost always kind to Henry, even when Henry isn't being very nice. He loves to play with friends, help me in the kitchen or with crafts, and he loves to play games of all kinds. His favorite food is corn dogs and he chooses plain Cheerios for breakfast 95% of the time. He gets mad when we call the new baby (arriving next spring) by it's nickname, "Coco Ko", and insists that she should be named Sally. He's always humming or singing. Whenever Tim or I start to sing a song, Owen always takes over after a few bars and makes up a big, long song that cracks us up. Yesterday he sang a song about Monopoly. Incidentally, he's beaten both Tim and I, on separate occasions, at Monopoly, without us making any accomodations for him other than helping count money. He's so good at games!

In school, Owen is doing great. He is advanced in reading and math for his grade level. Today as I dropped him off at kindergarten, I stayed in the car and watched Owen walk to his class. He walked toward the classroom, stopping to turn around and wave goodbye about every five seconds. Then when he was almost there, he turned and started running back toward me. I thought he might have forgotten something,so I opened my door to see what he needed. He said, "You can go now, Mommy. Bye!" and waited, waving, for me to drive away. He makes me laugh so much--I just love my Owen!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloweekend

2010-11-01T14:39:00.000-07:00

We just wrapped up a fantastic Halloween weekend.

I made Owen and Henry's costumes all by myself this year. They went as the Super Mario Brothers. The costumes turned out really cute! I truly believe there is not much cuter in life than a little boy with a fake mustache--and I had two of them! Owen was Luigi, the taller of the brothers, and Henry was Mario. I made Henry's overalls a little big at the waist and then wrapped batting around his middle to make him look like a short little chunky Italian man. Tim and I couldn't stop laughing at how funny he looked with a fat belly. Soooo cute! Both Henry and Owen loved their costumes. It was nice not to have to force them into something that needed constant adjusting or was uncomfortable and scratchy like the costumes of years' past. They were comfortable and happy, which made everything so much more fun.

The weekend began Friday night with a Halloween party at the church. The party was outdoors and everyone brought chili for a chili cook off and cornbread for dinner. After eating chili there were lots of little carnival games for the kids to play, and then everyone went to their cars and opened up their trunks for the kids to trick-or-treat. We were supposed to decorate our cars and pass out candy while the kids circled the parking lot 10 or 15 times until the candy ran out. Owen took off on his own this year, and I actually had to hold Henry's bucket for him (the freeloader!) while we went to all of the cars. I casually asked someone if had seen Owen, not particularly worried, but later found out it started an all-out search for him.

I was back at our car with Tim and Henry when I was handed an award for the best chili! I'd made white chicken chili with a recipe I got from America's Test Kitchen a few years ago. I beat out two WARDS worth of chili pots with my chili! I was so excited about winning that when someone brought "lost" Owen to me, I didn't show any appreciation or say thank you or anything. Oops! I feel bad about it now. But did I mention how AWESOME my chili was????

On Saturday we carved our pumpkins. We decided that I'm the family pumpkin cleaner-outer and Tim's the family pumpkin carver. While I make quick work of getting the goo out, Tim carves them super fast! Owen had a very specific design in mind for his jack-o-lantern, which turned out being very easy and traditional. I love the classic jack-o-lantern face. Tim made his like Mario in honor of the boys' costumes.

On Sunday night we invited friends over for homemade donuts and apple cider. Then we drove across town to see a cool pirate ship someone in town puts up every year for Halloween. Owen loved it. We ended up making it to ONE HOUSE to trick-or-treat that night, at about 8:30. It was pretty late, but I couldn't let Halloween end without showing off Owen and Henry's costumes just one more time!

I LOVE HALLOWEEN!

Girls' Weekend in Ohio!

2010-10-18T19:27:00.000-07:00

I've gotta write about the awesome week I just had with my sisters and my mom. Mindy, Susanna, my mom and I all flew back to Merilee's house in Ohio last week for four blissful days without our children or husbands! It was such fun. We spent almost all of our time doing what we Packard girls do best--SHOPPING, of course! Oh, and driving, because everything in Ohio is spread out. I'll also mention that much time was also spent laughing so hard we cried (okay, mostly me. I'm soooo emotional right now!), trying to steal pictures of each other sleeping with Susanna's enormous neck pillow in the car, and staying up as late as possible while managing to get up as early as possible for another car ride into the city. Really, I can't write much about this trip without thinking of a million inside jokes that would make no sense to anyone but us. There is nothing in the world like being with my sisters!

Ohio is so gorgeous this time of year, and Merilee lives on a perfect tree-lined country lane in a perfect country house on a huge piece of gorgeous property. Picture that classic Microsoft Windows computer wallpaper with the grassy hill and clouds floating over it: that's exactly what Merilee's backyard looks like. So pretty! I LOVED it--too bad it takes fifteen hours of traveling to get there. I wish I could visit all the time.

One day we drove into Cincinnati and met our cousin Wade's wife, Nancy, who lives nearby. She spent the day shopping with us and it was such a fun day. Nancy met us at an awesome Gap/Old Navy/Banana Republic clearance center that is basically a step down from their outlet stores. I found some amazing deals on clothes and shoes for the whole family. That day we also made it to Ikea, SugarCraft, and had dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory. You'd think three stores and dinner wouldn't take all day, but you don't know us...we shop until we drop (or find some diet pepsi).

Another day was spent in Amish country in Ohio. We visited some stores there including a grocery, a cheese factory, and a bakery. The whole days' travel was mostly focused on one thing: sprinkles! It is a little known fact that the Amish sell sprinkles of all types in bulk in their grocery stores. Merilee knows all the best places to shop in Ohio! So we filled up our baskets with dozens of little containers and later had a little sprinkle dividing/swapping party as well as cheese tasting. It's so fun when everyone buys something different and we all can share. Note to anyone traveling by plane with sprinkles in their carry-on bag: you WILL be searched.

Now you would think that between the five of us, at least one would have remembered a camera; but I think we were all just so excited to get away from home that nothing else mattered. So that's why I have no pictures of my trip. I am so glad Tim was so good about taking time off to take care of the kids. It was fabulous to come home to happy kids and a clean house. I'm grateful to the other men as well- especially Hans, who not only watched his children, but cooked some fabulous food for us and provided scintillating conversation to boot! Thanks, Hans and Merilee! I'm so glad you're mine.

O O O Owen

2010-09-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a cute picture of my O-boy at his first flag football game. He looks a little stand-offish here, but as soon as the plays started, Owen snapped into action. He made a touchdown on the first play of the game, and played some fantastic defense. He's good at running fast and is not afraid of diving for those flags! He definitely had a part in helping his team win their first game.

The little boys were so cute and funny. Many times, they didn't notice the cones marking the end of the playing field, and they would just keep running. On one particularly exciting play, the boys on both teams ran all the way to home plate of the adjoining baseball field before the coaches got their attention to stop running. We just sat there and laughed so hard!

On Monday, we went to Disneyland with Tim's sister, Amber. It was a perfect day in the park. In Tomorrowland, there is a Star Wars show for kids to participate called "Jedi Training Academy". Owen was one of the lucky kids picked to go up and get some lightsaber training. He even got to practice his moves on Darth Vader!

Owen LOVED it. He was so excited to be up on stage and learn to fight like a Jedi!

Tim tried to catch his big moment fighting Vader on video, but had some camera problems so only got the very end.

Disneyland is all decorated for Halloween and some of the rides are even Halloween-themed. It totally got me into the Autumn spirit so I'm feeling really excited to get out my holiday box and decorate my house for Halloween. Yesterday I decided my door needed an Autumn wreath, so I made a rectangle one with a Styrofoam frame and some bright leaves. I love it!

Lots to be happy about today!

2010-09-17T13:18:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday! I love Fridays. I thought I'd post a random balloon dancing video to brighten this blog up a bit today.

Things I'm happy about right now:
1. New apple crop! I love a good, crisp fall apple. Hurray for the Organic Galas Costco is carrying currently!
2. Henry's feeling better! He's had a little cold accompanied by a nasty diaper rash this week, but it seems to be on the mend. Hmmm....I just had the thought that I should look in his mouth to see if there are any new teeth making an appearance. Just checked...nope.

3. I've come to terms with Owen and kindergarten. He's going to have good days and bad days, and he may need to do kinder for another year due to his maturity. But for now I'm just going to try to stay positive and enjoy taking advantage of the free education that otherwise would be costing me $200+ per month for another year of preschool. And he is improving--it's just going to take some time to get used to it, I think. And he had a great day at school today!

4. Business is finally picking up with Tim's private practice job in Fresno! Man, summer is soooo slow for the therapy business. Nobody wants to deal with their problems, I guess. But yesterday he saw six clients and his schedule is almost full now.

5. Projects! I've got a sewing project in full swing and a few knitting projects that I'm just wrapping up. Finally after a very slow, stale, hot summer in which I did very little besides read and swim, I've got the crafting bug back and am feeling creative.

6. Owen is starting flag football with his first game tomorrow! He is super excited. It's just tiny tots (3- and 4-year-olds) and with Owen being just a few months shy of 5, he's the biggest on his team. I think it'll be nice for him to be the oldest after being the youngest in his school class. And he's going to be making lots of touchdowns! Not to mention that tiny tots football=HILARIOUS.
7. A flower bed with no weeds! After letting it go crazy all summer because pulling weeds in 100+ degree heat was the last thing I wanted to do, Tim and I tackled our big front flower bed this week. Once we'd cleared it out, we made sure to put down the weed-controlling fabric with bark on top, so hopefully those weeds won't be returning. Now, what to do about the "grass" that is also all weeds? I'm trying to find a solution that leans more toward staying organic (no chemical herbicides like Roundup), but for now my yard is regrettably the ugliest on our street. But at least the flower bed looks good!
8. Clothes that don't fit! Wait, what? Actually this is one of the worst things about what is making me happy today. Today marks 12 weeks of pregnancy #3 for me. We're expecting baby three at the beginning of April, and we are very, very excited.

My Kindergarten Kid

2010-08-25T19:40:00.000-07:00

Last week Owen started kindergarten. He was so excited to go on the first day, that he came to the side of our bed and woke us up at the crack of dawn, whispering, "First day of school! First day of school!" just like Nemo in that terrifying Disney movie that takes place entirely under water. And the first day of school went great for Owen--he walked in and out the door of his classroom with a huge smile on his face.

Unfortunately, since that first day, I can't say that kindergarten has gone particularly smooth, as Owen seems to have a penchant for getting out of his seat and bouncing around the classroom. And I have already seen the "wide freaky eyes look" Mrs. Glispey gives when a child is not meeting her expectations! Hopefully he'll get used to the order of things soon. I have to remember that he's still only four, and he's learning. I just love this little guy so much. In the past few months Owen's been going through a really sweet stage where he comes up and hugs and kisses me and tells me he loves me. All that one minute, and then the next I discover something that makes me completely livid: like his dumping out every single toy bin in his room or finding the toilet in my bathroom surrounded with a huge lake of pee. It's like a roller coaster of happiness/anger in this house!

Last weekend we left the valley for a day at the beach. We went to Morro Bay and Cayucos. Morro Bay has a huge rock that makes it such a pretty place to visit. Besides it being a little chilly (and how can I complain about that in August, anyway?), it was a very fun day.

When we first arrived at the beach, we all ran down to the water and when a wave came, it scared Henry so bad, he turned around and ran for dear life way up on the sand! He just kept running--it was like an episode of Gilligan's Island where Gilligan runs in fast forward all the way up the beach. We kept calling for him to turn around and come back but he wouldn't stop until he had made it all the way to the lifeguard platform. It was the funniest thing. Here's a short video of Henry running away from the waves.

My second favorite Mindy in the world

2010-07-23T20:07:00.000-07:00

I am completely enamoured by this new song by Mindy Gledhill. I can't wait until her new CD comes out next month! Between that and the new Hunger Games book, it's going to be a good, good month.

And in case you were wondering, my very favorite Mindy in the world is, of course, my sister. She and her husband, Jason, are so much fun. I really wish that I could live closer to Mindy and Jason, as well as my sister Susanna, who both live in the same town. I love my sisters! They can have me laughing so hard I cry with just about anything they say. Mindy and her super fun happy good time family drove all the way from Utah to visit us last week and we had such a blast. Love you, Mindy!

What could be more fun than one fun cousin? Try five at once! Always someone to play with.

We drove up to Sequoia National Park and braved climbing up Moro Rock. Ugh, all those steps gave me a pretty good workout, especially carrying Henry all the way back down!

We even had a special treat completely out of the ordinary for us: three Muller girls in our car on the way home! They had us laughing so hard, making up songs about their babysitters. Sigh! Little girls are so much fun!

Now that Mindy and Susanna's visits are over, I kinda feel like this last picture. Life is not nearly so fun without a sister or a cousin to play with! I'm counting down the days until I get to visit my other favorite sister in the world, Merilee, in a few months! Watch out, Merilee! FREEZE! Blind man bluff is ready, here I come!

If only I had a chicken right about now...

2010-07-15T02:33:00.000-07:00

I went out to my garden this morning and noticed an enemy had invaded...a giant horned tomato worm! Man, I hate those things. They are so big and fat, they just freak me out. Judging by the loss of the leaves of my tomato vines, it had been partying for quite some time--unless there are more still out there (gulp). I have very vivid memories of growing up when my dad would find tomato worms in the garden. We would all go down and watch as he would flip those big, fat tomato worms into the chicken pen. The chickens would go crazy fighting over the worms, it was such fun for a child to watch. Feeding tomato worms to chickens has got to be the best vengeance after losing all those leaves! So of course today I had to put on a brave face and call Owen and Henry over to check out the worm. I couldn't help but screech a little bit as I tried to pull it off the vine with a pencil--it held on for dear life, as if it were imagining the worst case scenario for its future--chickens!. We snapped a pic, and simply flipped that lucky worm into the garbage.

Sum-Sum-Summertime

2010-06-13T17:43:00.000-07:00

Summer time is here, and I've been making plans with fun things to do with my boys for the next nine weeks or so. It's going to be so fun! I picked a theme for each week and have activities planned out with things to do every day revolving around the weekly theme. I'm excited. Mondays are going to be swimming day, Tuesday is movie day (either at home or at the free family film festival at the movie theater), Wednesday is library story time and craft day, Thursday will be playgroup at the park and library program day (they've got a full list of entertainers coming each week), and Friday will be field trip day. I'm hoping to find some fun things to do that will get us out of the house that day. Does that sound like too much? I want to make it fun and simple without getting ridiculously rigorous--I may have to make some adjustments along the way.

Oh, and I've just completed my annual summer mix CD. I've got envelopes addressed and ready to ship to some special sisters of mine, but I'm eager to share, so if there are any other readers out there interested in some fun music perfect for listening while driving to and from the pool/park/Sonic Drive-Thru-at-happy-hour-with-a-half-price-lemon-slush, leave me a comment and I'll send it to ya! I've still got a few licenses left, and I think it just may be my best compilation yet.

Kindergarten, Here I Come!

2010-06-06T20:55:00.000-07:00

Owen graduated from preschool! Not that it's particularly hard to achieve preschool graduate status (age certainly overpowers academics here), but he has really grown in the past year, and despite my astonishment that he's actually old enough for kindergarten, Owen is on his way this fall, whether I like it or not. I am so proud of this kid. He's been going to a state preschool program that put on a fancy schmancy graduation ceremony with cap and gown, even. I was rolling my eyes when I heard he'd be wearing a cap and gown (they actually ordered them from Jostens! Your taxpayer money here!), but once I saw him wearing the getup, I must admit it might have been the cutest thing ever.

Way to go, Owen! The easiest, funnest year of your entire educational career?

Go ahead and check that off your to-do list.

I can't wait to see you wearing Cougar blue in about 13 years. It's BYU or bust!

It's curtains for you!

2010-05-21T16:50:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid I used to HATE following my mom around fabric stores. She sewed so much, it seems like we were in a fabric store several times a week. When we went into the store, I usually had two choices: I could look for a cute fabric and formulate an idea for something she could sew for me, and if it was a good enough idea and a cute enough print she would usually buy it (assuming it cost less than $2.00/yard). The other choice was what usually happened: I would hide underneath the circular stands that held the bolts of fabric and wait for what seemed like hours for her to be done. I never would have guessed that I would get to the point where I actually ENJOY going to fabric stores with her! But my mom's got a great eye for finding diamonds (and deals) in the rough. Every time we go she amazes me by finding companion fabrics for any print that I might be considering. Now it is so much fun to shop with her, I love it!

Recently we made some new curtains for the windows in my kitchen and family room. We found some cute green fabric and formulated a plan to make them look like little awnings over the windows. We also picked up some cheap beige cotton panels from Ikea for the sliding glass door that we planned to spruce up a bit. We looked everywhere for brackets that would hold the curtains out from the wall at the bottom, but had no luck. So we enlisted my dad to weld us some. And I found some coordinated rods to give them shape.

We hunted for a long time to find some cute trim for the awning curtains, and our favorite, a brown fringe trim that we found, cost $15.99 a yard--that would have been more than $70 for the amount we needed. We sadly settled for a different trim that wasn't as cute but cost $7.99 a yard, still a hefty sum for us. Then as we were walking around the store, we saw some other trims in a clearance section. We found several we liked, but fell in love with a cute green one that was only $2.99 a yard and looked better than anything else we'd seen. Then after the fabric cutter at the store scanned the bar code, it turned out to be marked down to only $1.99 a yard! We had enough money to buy the amount necessary for all of the windows plus the curtains on the sliding glass door! I love finding deals like that, and I love the little extra "oomph" this trim adds to the curtains.

And here's a little teaser, this is the fabric I picked for some long panels in the living room! I can't wait to get them finished.

This last picture is my inspiration room for the living room. Hopefully by the time I'm done I'll have created something along these lines!

(source)

p.s. it is HARD to photograph windows! Sorry for the dark shots!

Ten

2010-05-05T22:43:00.000-07:00

Ten years exuberant.

Ten years beautiful.

Ten years divine.

Watch out, Nadya Suleman!

2010-04-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon I had Oprah turned on as I was cleaning the house. She had Nadya Suleman, aka Octomom, on the show. In part of the interview they showed some video of Octomom at home with her 14 children, eight of them babies less than two years old. It was a pretty chaotic, noisy video clip, and Henry and Owen were glued to the screen. When I noticed how interested they were, I said to them, "Wow, look at all those babies!" and Owen says, "Oh, I wish we had a house full of babies!" Then Henry, in a voice that sounded like Sloth from Goonies, screams, "BAAAAABY!!!!"

Please, Mommy?

My Refurbished Chandelier

2010-04-19T20:14:00.000-07:00

Shortly after Tim and I were married, I worked at the electric shop on the campus of BYU. I was a secretary for most of that time, and my favorite part of the job was answering distress calls from people stuck in campus elevators. I really loved that job--I had a radio, so I always knew what was going on around campus. One semester instead of working as secretary, I worked on fire alarm systems. I learned all kinds of stuff about how to do electrical work and lately, my knowledge has come in handy. Take a look at the change I made in my entry lighting.

This is the old fixture, which, incidentally, is up for sale on Craig's List in case anyone reading has just gotta have it. It wasn't really terrible, it just wasn't my thing.

I found this used chandelier at the local Habitat for Humanity Restore. It cost 15 bucks. I covered the lampshades with some craft paper, mod podge and bias tape for the trim. I covered them while listening to general conference. Before the last conference talk was over, I had myself a pretty cute light fixture! The biggest problem was finding a bracket to fit underneath the cover to attach it to the ceiling. Luckily my awesome dad came to the rescue and welded one for me.

This is the finished light! Isn't it cute? I love it.

House Pictures!

2010-04-11T22:16:00.000-07:00

I've got some house pics to share. There's still so much to do, but we are moved in and the decoration has just begun. I haven't hung even one picture yet, and the walls are bare. This past week I was just enjoying walking around barefooted and not having to do anything! So here are some before-and-afters of our new house.

We removed carpet and tile and installed new laminate flooring in all of the living areas, kitchen, hall, and office. We removed the built-in in the great room and replaced it with a craigslist oak thing I rescued from a trailer park that will soon be black and have a renovation of its own. We removed wallpaper, painted the walls beige with white ceilings and white trim, and put in new baseboards. While all of the doors were off, we painted the hinges and knobs with some oil-rubbed bronze paint for a more updated look than the old gold color. I LOVE my floors. I can't wait to do some window treatments and make things look a little more home-y.

In the kitchen we haven't done much, other than put in a new range and microwave. The dishwasher is also on its way out. Oh, we did have to put in a new faucet and some of those cool magnetic child locks on the cupboards. Hopefully next year we can change out these countertops, and the gold light fixture over the table's days are numbered, too.

Did you notice the previous owners had even painted the tile backsplash under the cabinets? Someone had painstakingly painted little hearts and vines all the way around by hand--and that is only the beginning of the crazy paint! Read on.

The living room is very bare right now. It needs some decoration. I have taken down the old chandelier and found a different one to replace it, but that's still a work-in-progress. And I've got to figure out some way to make the entry from the front door more of an entry, rather than just being right in the living room as soon as you walk in. When my mom and I removed the wallpaper from the living room wall, we found--can you guess? Yet another mural painted on the wall. I never got a picture of it, but it was a big, roundish abstract bushy-looking thing painted in burgundy and gold metallic paint. It was our very own hidden mural, a secret gift from those who lived here before. We primed and painted over it the next day.

We are using the first bedroom as our office/sewing room. I want to put in a big desktop that goes along most of the wall and add a little work space for the kids, as well. For now I am happy with a closet to store supplies and not having to look at that ridiculous dolphin/boat mural! In all of the bedrooms except for the master, the light fixtures were gone when we moved in, so I installed ceiling fans in all of them.

The second bedroom has an extremely high ceiling, and it had a giant tropical waterfall-palm tree mural thing that went almost all the way up, so after priming the heck out of that thing, we chose a light blue for this as well as the boys' room. I love the color. This room will be the guest room until we have the need for a nursery someday in the distant future. This room came with mustard brown blinds. I will be changing those out hopefully soon, but for now they're better than nothing! The carpet we picked for all of the bedrooms is medium brown low shag with multi-colored flecks. I love it, too. Unfortunately on the night we moved in, Henry was sick with the stomach flu; and wouldn't you know it, he threw up right on the carpet in my bedroom. We didn't even have one full day with clean, new, vomit-free carpet! It just makes me sick to think about it!

The boys' bedroom had a ceiling painted with clouds and stars. If you haven't noticed by now, the previous owners were CRAZY for paint and murals! It had Tinkerbell stickers stuck all over the place--not the best look for two boys. This room is not a very big room, so we are debating the idea of bunk beds. For now the mattresses are on the floor. Don't judge me!

The hall bathroom had dark blue and purple paint. Not just on the walls, but ceiling, too, and that includes the vents, fan, even the light switch. It was so dark and made the little room seem even smaller than it even is. We didn't even notice the sink or anything else about the bathroom until we had painted it. It was so overpowering.

After a few days of scraping the tile off of the kitchen floor, I undertook scraping linoleum off of the floors in the bathrooms and laundry. The laundry room floor had a big hole in it, and the hall bath floor had some obvious water damage, so although we hadn't planned on this job, it needed to be done. That job--scraping the linoleum off the bathroom floors--was by far the most disgusting job of all that I undertook. We had to remove the toilets, and combined with old, damp vinyl floors--it was stinky and just gross! Tim and I replaced the flooring in all three areas with some big tiles and epoxy grout, which is supposed to be stain free--perfect for a bathroom frequented by little boys. Time will tell if it was a good choice! Laying these big tiles was not easy, especially to get perfect, straight lines. I really wish I could do this job over again. I'm not very satisfied with how it looks.

Check out the crazy paint in the master bedroom. Who would do this? I just don't get it. It was so ugly. When I wonder why no one else bought this house before we did, I just have to think about this room and it all comes back to me. This room was painted completely brown, vaulted ceilings and all. Someone painstakingly painted and sponged everything--even the doors, except they were too lazy to move their bed and paint behind it! Once we painted this room, it was unbelievable how much bigger it looked. You have to have seen it to really understand how much the room is transformed.

So, that's about all I have to show! I've got lots of plans and am I the only one who wishes she could just get rid of all of the old mismatched furniture and get all new?!?! It will come with time, I guess. This past weekend we were doing our best to eradicate the dandelion population that has taken over the front and back yard. Honestly, I'm not sure there is any grass left.

My Big Boy

2010-03-30T23:27:00.000-07:00

Henry turned two a few weeks ago, and he has been making some huge developmental strides in the last month to celebrate. Just in the past four or five weeks, his vocabulary has gone from only about 10 words to being able to say just about anything. For so long about all Henry said was "uh! uh! uh!" accompanied by a stong pointing index finger, but all of a sudden, something clicked and now Henry talks. He repeats anything you tell him to say. It's so cute. He also started being interested in using the potty at bedtime like his brother. Tonight he went and as I was getting him into pajamas I was singing a song with a conga beat: "You went pee-pee in the paaaah-teee! Pee-pee in the paaaah-teee!" And he was singing along with me. It was awesome. I guess you had to be there.

Henry is so excited about doing big boy things. After we moved in last weekend, we decided to forego the anguish of reassembling his crib, with plans to buy bunk beds for the boys' room. Until we get the new bed, we just put his crib mattress on the floor with lots of "you've got a big boy bed!" grandeur. Henry was so excited. He laid right down on his bed and stayed in it! On the first night he spent in his bed I was expecting him to be in and out, in and out, repeating the MONTHS of anguish we endured training Owen to stay in his bed after transitioning out of the crib. But Henry came out one time. That's it. ONCE! I put him back in bed and he went right to sleep! And two nights later, he hasn't gotten out of bed at all! Owen came out three times tonight, but Henry stayed in bed. He's such a good boy.

Okay, maybe he doesn't exactly stay in bed, but pretty close!

The Best Birthday Gift Ever

2010-03-08T12:48:00.000-08:00

I got an early birthday gift last week--keys! We closed escrow on our house last Tuesday, and since then have been working practically non-stop trying to fix it up before we can move in by the end of the month. We bought a foreclosure, so it needed some work. My parents came up from Tuesday until Saturday and we focused on the walls. By the time they had to go back home we'd torn down a huge built-in entertainment center, removed yards of wallpaper, repaired walls, had the roof fixed, torn out kitchen tile, and painted the whole house on the inside.

This is the enterainment built-in thing before we'd started. It was an eyesore--huge, not practical, and the first thing on my list to change out. We thought it would be super easy to just knock it down with a sledgehammer, but we were so wrong. It was actually framed into the house, with beams that went all the way up into the attic. My dad worked for three hours straight ripping it out. (He's awesome, by the way!)

This is how it looked after tearing it out. We knew we needed some professional help with the wall repair. I know a fantastic drywall guy now, incidentally! Take a look at the after shot! After the paint dried, you'd never know it was there. And the great room looks so much larger now. It really opened things up.

This week I'm scraping the thin-set mortar off the cement and tearing out carpet in preparation for laminate flooring in the living areas, kitchen, and hallway. I'm also taking out the old linoleum in the bathrooms and laundry and I hope to get tile in by the time my parents get back on Friday! Phew! Time to get back to work!

Count Your Blessings!

2010-02-25T04:04:00.000-08:00

I have insomnia. Almost every night since we started the homebuying process, I've been waking up in the middle of the night, thinking about all of the possibilities and to-dos that surround the whole thing. So tonight to pass the time I've been bleary-eyed-blog-hopping and found this fantastic video that someone posted on her blog.

Isn't it fantastic? It won't help me fall back to sleep but it totally brightens up this chilly early morning! Wouldn't this arrangement be so fun for a primary group to sing at a ward talent show or other activity? I love it!

Back in Business

2010-02-21T23:56:00.000-08:00

Tim is back! He's been in Salt Lake for training on a new addiction program he'll be helping to implement at Roebicek & Thacker, where he provides therapy on the days he's not at his other job. He's so excited about starting the program and helping people break out of their addictions.

I decided that rather than staying home alone with two little boys, I would take them down to Hesperia for a birthday visit to my parents and my sister Susanna and her family, who were also in town for the weekend. It was so fun! Susanna, my mom and I chatted about plans for our house while we sat and made flowers for headbands into the late hours of the night. On Saturday afternoon I got to babysit four boys between the ages of 7 and 2 and imagine what life might become if I never have a girl (Not bad! Kinda fun, actually!).

I missed Tim, though. Since the new year commenced, we have been really good about reading scriptures together as a family. It's very simple and short, but it works for us. Owen and Henry sit in these little kid-sized folding chairs and we spend only about five minutes reading a page aloud each night before bedtime. Even if one of us is out in the evening, Tim or I have kept up the reading with the boys on our own, until now. I was too lazy on Thursday to grab my copy of the Book of Mormon, and Tim forgot his, too--so this weekend was the first time we'd skipped reading scriptures since we began. Whenever I hear people at church say things like, "If I skip a day reading the BOM my day just doesn't go right!" or other cheesy things like that, I always think it's a lie. But this was the first time, maybe in my entire life, that I actually MISSED reading scriptures! I don't think it particularly changed my day or anything, but I did miss those few minutes to sit together with my family and read a few verses. When we were all back together tonight, our lapse definitely showed. Reading scriptures was so hard! The boys were wild--not staying in their seats and being noisy, not listening, and every time it was Owen's turn to repeat a verse, he only moved his mouth and wouldn't say it aloud. It felt like all of our work and training for the past 6+ weeks was lost!

But at least we're back, Tim is back, and tomorrow is a new day looking to be filled with work, preschool, dental visits, tile and grout, and maybe a few more scriptures.

Secrets Revealed

2010-02-08T15:37:00.000-08:00

Psst! I have a secret. This weekend we figured out the best time to go to Disneyland. If you follow this advice, you will have a great day with much more time spent on rides than in line. First, you've gotta go in the winter. January or February is the best time. Although we wore jackets, it really wasn't very cold--the temps were in the 50s. If you really want the park all to yourself, add a big rain storm the night before, with threats of more rain the day you plan to go. Week days definitely help too, but even on a Saturday, which is when we went, the park was empty. To top it all off, those rain threats? Never materialized. We had a little mist as we arrived, and a light shower for maybe five minutes in the afternoon. That was it. A perfect day at Disneyland. We arrived at 9, hit every ride we wanted in both parks, and were done by 6.

Maybe the only downside to going to Disneyland in the winter is that the offseason is the time that rides are closed for maintainence. This time the Matterhorn was closed and the Rivers of America was all drained as it is being worked on for maintainence. I had never seen the island without the water surrounding it, but I thought it looked kinda cool. It's really not a very deep river.

This is our brave Owen who wanted to go on the Haunted Mansion ride, but wanted neither to see nor hear it (at least during the whole beginning wall-stretching lights-off part). While he loves all of the roller coasters, Owen's been too scared to go on this ride for several months, so we were glad that he made it on this time, even with eyes shut!

Tim and sons love all things tomorrow-ey.

Doesn't Tim look good? He's down 100+ pounds now. Isn't that unbelievable?!?!?

Waiting for the others to return from Space Mountain, Henry kept pointing and running over to the popcorn stand, which was closed, but had a little toy man inside turning a canister of popcorn. He thought it was awesome.

The best part, of course, was spending the day together with Amber, who always makes our time more fun.

Thanks, Amber!

Late in the day, as we were standing in our longest line (15 min.), we heard some people behind us complaining about the park closing early because of the rain (that never came). I couldn't believe them. If not for the rain, they would never have gotten on so many rides, regardless of the time spent in the park. They would have spent the bulk of their day standing in lines! Crazy people! They didn't know how good they had it!

And now, for a little teaser...

We are signing papers on this place tonight. If all goes as planned, we'll be moving in next month! I need some advice: what color should I paint the trim, front door, and what color shutters would look good on this place? My excitement and desire to change everything is keeping me up at night!

Crafty People

2010-01-16T17:29:00.000-08:00

Ever since we took down our Christmas decorations, I haven't been able to get my mind off the awesome advent calendar that my sister Susanna made my kids for Christmas. Every day before December 25th, O and H got to look in a bag for a little treat, and it was so much fun for them. They got toys, stickers, stamps, suckers, you name it, and Susanna included it. I really liked how it also served as a good motivator for them to do things like get dressed in the morning and pick up their toys.

So I've been thinking about making a new advent calendar for Valentine's Day. I came up with these, which are much simpler than Susanna's masterpieces, yet hopefully will still be fun. We'll start the countdown on February first.

And I've got to share the movie bag my mom made us for Christmas this year. She created this awesome bag that can fit just about any treat you could want to take into the movies with you. While the inside fabric has a cute popcorn and candy print for the pockets, the outside is a dicreet black with a cute button. And it's huge! You could fit a meal for an army in this thing! We took it out and tried it today when we went to see The Princess and the Frog. Inside we fit two bags of popcorn, candy, two sodas, water, and two juice boxes along with my wallet and even my camera. And we could have fit much more. It was awesome!

It's the most wonderful time of the yearrrrrrrr.......

2009-12-22T09:56:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all!

Man, oh man, Christmas is nearly here. I am not ready! But my family seems to be. When Henry wakes us up at the crack of dawn each morning, the first thing he does is run into the living room and plug in the Christmas tree lights. If I had known how much my children enjoy playing with tree ornaments, I might have kept the tree up all year! My Sister Susanna sent us an awesome advent calendar made with 24 little bags that hang on the wall, strung together with a strand of garland. Owen and Henry love getting their little Christmas gift each day. Henry isn't talking much, so we don't know exactly what he wants for Christmas, but he's getting a toy cash register. And Owen told Santa that he would like a toy car and a dinosaur slide. We have no idea what dinosaur slide is. When I asked him he told me, "It's a slide that people can go up and down and up and down and sometimes they go straight and then down"--and he moves his hand around like it's a roller coaster. I asked him if it's a toy he's seen in a store, and he said no, that he made it up and Santa's elves can make it for him. We'll see about that! Santa may bring him some legos instead.

November in a Nutshell

2009-12-06T20:09:00.000-08:00

December is here already and it seems like November was the speediest month ever. Here's a post that pretty much sums up what we've been doing lately.

Owen turns four

I can't believe he's already four. When did this child get so big? Owen wanted to celebrate his birthday with all things Batman, and between the shirt, the toys, and the cake, he is totally hooked! Tim's parents came to celebrate the weekend before Owen's birthday and we took him on a big birthday scavenger hunt. I highly recommend birthday scavenger hunts--they are so fun, easy to put together and have become a birthday tradition in our family. I like to make some of the locations places in town that give away free stuff on your birthday--like a milkshake at Del Taco and free miniature golf at Adventure Park.

My favorite thing about Owen's birthday was that after months of practicing and no success, he finally started saying the "l" sound. It actually happened ON his birthday. Now when we're driving and we see houses with Christmas lights, he says "llllook! lllllook!" instead of "wook! wook!" It's totally cute, because he emphasizes the sound to make sure he gets it right. Don't you just love pictures of kids blowing out candles and capturing them mid-blow? This picture makes me laugh every time I look at it.

Henry gets his first haircut, ditches the pacifier

I decided to buy some hairclippers and with just one haircut each for Tim, Owen and Henry, I have already saved money. And it's so fun to cut hair! Talk about all powerful. I'm DYING to take classes at a beauty college (do they even call them that anymore? Cosmetology school? Whatever.) Youtube instructional videos will have to do for now, though.

Henry did really well during his haircut, besides getting a little grumpy about his lollipop getting coated in hair a few times. I had about two minutes to cut Henry's hair before he was ready to be done, so it looks a bit choppy on top, especially in the sun. I will get better at it, I'm sure. And, finally Tim and I had the willpower to get rid of Henry's pacifiers last week for once and for all. You know when your child takes his pacifier out to say something to you and then pops it back in that he is WAY too old to have it! For the most part, he hasn't been too upset about it.

Tim runs his first 5K

We headed downtown on Thanksgiving morning, where Tim ran his race and did pretty well. His time was 34:14. I think that's so good for training less than two months! We joined a gym at the end of September and made it a goal to run a 5K on Thanksgiving. One of us had to stay with the kids, so I will be running my race in January. Tim's favorite thing about running a 5K was getting the T shirt! We loved cheering him on and seeing him cross the finish line before the missionaries who were also running the race! Losers!

Emily finishes her Three Year Quilt

I saw a quilt like this at the Fresno fair back when Owen was a baby and fell in love with it. I took a picture and enlisted my mom to help me make it. It's taken us three years to finally finish because we have so little time together and I didn't do any of the work by myself. I wanted a big lap quilt that the whole family could cuddle up under at Christmastime. We already had the top all pieced, so when we were down at my parents' for Thanksgiving weekend my mom and I decided that we were going to finish that quilt if it killed us! Tim was so good to keep the kids occupied and I was in heaven with two full days of "Mom time" sewing and tieing (with a little Black Friday shopping thrown in there for even more fun). I love what we accomplished, even if it took three years to actually get it done!

Oh, and here's one more thing I've been working on: Christmas ornaments! Aren't these cute? I have so many more projects going that need to be finished by Christmas. What a busy time of year!

tradition

2009-11-01T02:36:00.000-08:00

I'm a sucker for tradition, especially on holidays. It just doesn't feel right to me if we don't do some specific things for Halloween. Here are some of our Halloween traditions.

Pumpkin carving

Halloween is in the air the moment I lift the lid off a pumpkin and start cleaning out the inside. I really love that smell. Owen picked out a design and pushed out the cut pieces after I carved his pumpkin. Tim and I also carved our own pumpkins. This week we've been checking on them on our porch, watching them decay. Henry is our little pumpkin spotter. Whenever we are in a store or pass by a house with pumpkins, he points and grunts, "uh! uh!"

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

I know that I shouldn't necessarily be proud of my child watching TV, but it just makes me smile inside when I think about how much Owen enjoys Peanuts holiday shows. Henry still prefers pushing around his popcorn popper toy over Charlie Brown, but we'll get him next year. I guarantee it.

Pumpkin Patch

Henry and I went along with Owen on a field trip to the pumpkin patch with his preschool class. Can anything be cuter than little kids trying to pick up pumpkins that are as big as they are?

Costumes

We all dressed up this year, and being such a slow sewer, I worked until the very last minute finishing up everyones' costumes. Owen and Henry went as cavemen. Henry's language development fit his costume perfectly (he grunts more than speaks actual words these days)! They both really liked their costumes, especially the clubs they got to bang around all over the place. Tim and I dressed as Disneyland cast members. Can you guess what ride we might work on? We painted our faces to look like a dead butler and maid for our church Halloween party, and a member of the bishopric asked me to get him some chili as if I was his servant.

Food

On Halloween night we had some friends over for corn dogs, homemade donuts, and apple cider after the kids went trick-or-treating. Despite a few trip-ups such as Henry falling on his face and hurting his lip, Tim ripping a hole in my blouse with a pin from his unfinished vest, and bits of fake fur EVERYWHERE, when it comes down it it, this just might have been the best Halloween ever!

Happy Halloween!

Amused and mad...all at the same time

2009-10-26T22:18:00.000-07:00

So I was laying my stomach on the living room floor today, trying to finish the gripping conclusion of Catching Fire*, while Owen played games on the computer and Henry toddled around playing and making messes that I was ignoring. In fact, I was ignoring Henry well enough that I didn't mind as he came over to me, climbed up, and started scratching my back. For about 15 seconds, I actually enjoyed the back scratching--until I snapped out of my reverie and looked back to find out what he was using to scratch. Henry was grasping a black ball-point pen--and had just scribbled all over my new shirt!!!

You know it's a pretty good book when you don't even notice your son is drawing on your back!

*The sequel to Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games, which I cannot recommend enough. Seriously, read this series!

clown, part 2

2009-10-22T14:48:00.000-07:00

Henry was playing in the bathroom as I was taking a shower the other day. He loves to get into all of my hair clips and other bathroom novelties. He kept opening the shower door to show me what treasure he'd unearthed. Then when I had my back turned he opened the door and came into the shower, fully dressed. Luckily I shooed him out before he got wet, telling him, "You can't come into the shower with clothes on, Henry". He ran away crying, and about five seconds later he came back in with his swim trunks and was trying to get them on his head! I don't know how he figured that one out, but I couldn't stop laughing.

class clown

2009-10-18T20:08:00.000-07:00

I've got a little boy who loves to get lots of attention and laughs. Today at church he was going full steam. We've got a great music leader who is really nice to give Owen, one of the youngest in primary, lots of attention and positive feedback. I think she's a big reason why he sings so loudly in church. The music leader was teaching the children a new song today, was having the children repeat each line without music, and then after they'd said it correctly they'd sing it. Owen apparently didn't enjoy her methods, however; he went right up to her and said, "I'm not going to say it. I'll sing it but I'm not saying it". She was so nice and acknowledged him while getting him to sit down and continue teaching. Then as she ushered Owen back to his seat, he backed up to sit down and completely missed his seat! He sat right on the floor instead. The whole primary erupted in muffled laughter as we tried not to embarrass or give undue attention to that clumsy kid. Later as I was out in the hallway doing some paperwork I heard the primary singing the ABC song, obviously not a church song. I poked my head in the room, and sure enough, Owen was leading the whole primary in his favorite song! Thank goodness for sweet Sister Law!

I ♥ ETSY.

2009-09-30T16:26:00.000-07:00

I am not a creative person. At least, not one of those "original idea" creative people. I'm more of a "give me a pattern and a picture and I can copy some other creative person" persons. I love making things but I am impossibly unable to create anything unique. That's why I am in looooove with Etsy.com. Never been on the site? You are missing out. In its own words, Etsy is a place to buy and sell all things handmade. In my words? Etsy's a great place to get (aka steal) ideas.

If you have an idea for something to make, just search Etsy and you will invariably find tons of ideas for that thing, but way cuter than you can possibly imagine. Errr...at least, cuter than I can imagine. Here's an example: I wanted to make some sort of Halloween banner to go with my Halloween decorations. I searched Etsy and found tons of cute ones. The one I liked best cost 24 dollars. So I decided to copy it and see how cheaply I could make it.

This banner uses only ONE 12x12 piece of cardstock, some paint, and ribbon. I have no idea how the seller can sell these things for 24 dollars and sleep at night--but according to her feedback, she sells lots of 'em. After checking my supplies I found that I had everything but the ribbon. Actually, I didn't have any orange paint, but I mixed my own color with some old red and yellow bottles of acrylic paint I did have. After buying a whole roll of ribbon, my banner cost a total of $1.80!!! It's not quite as fancy as the one on Etsy, but I'm happy with it. Check it out:

And here's the finished product with my whole decorated mantle:

Yeah, it is September still, but I love Halloween decorations! I couldn't wait any longer! Now I've got to find some cool costumes to copy.

Family Videos and Chinese Philosophy

2009-09-16T22:27:00.001-07:00

Henry's had a fever for the past few days and this afternoon after waking up with a temp of 104.0, I took him down to the doctor. They did a nasal swab to test for the flu and it looks like it is not the flu--at least not so far, but just a bad upper respiratory cold. He was pretty miserable for a while. But this evening after getting a good dose of baby Motrin, Henry was almost all the way back to his cute little self.

After baths and pajamas but before family prayer and bedtime, we were all hanging out on the bed together. Tim and I were talking and the boys were entertaining us. Henry and I had been racing Tim and Owen to see who could get his pajamas on the fastest. Henry won (probably because his are a one-piece), and I'd been jumping up and down with him to celebrate our victory. Then Henry started trying to jump up and down. Basically he bends his knees and crouches way down, then stands up really quick. No feet actually leave the floor, but it is so cute. So I grabbed the camera to catch it and found that my boys were in a performing mood. They love the camera! Here are a few videos that I captured.

Whenever I have days like today that have some rough, hard parts interwoven with wonderfully sweet parts, I think of this quote and am so thankful for all of the blessings I have. Life is good.

With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow--I have still joy in the midst of these things.--Confucius

18-month-old antics

2009-09-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Henry turned 18 months old. He's really getting to be a big boy. It was his first official day to go into nursery class at church, although unofficially he's been sampling the nursery for the past few months. He did great!

Henry loves to play outside, get into the Tupperware cupboard, and try on shoes that don't belong to him. We've been finding random shoes and little Tupperware bowls all over the house lately. He's talking more and more, and he'll usually try to repeat words if prompted. Last night at bedtime we were singing a song that says, "moon, moon, moon" in it. Henry was singing along, "moo! moo! moo!" Henry loves to pull all of the books off of the book shelf, just to find the perfect book to bring me to read with him, which in all truthfulness drives me slighty crazy after putting all of the books back for the third time a day.

Henry's favorite book is the Cheerios Cookbook. I hate this book; I can't explain why I do, but I've been trying to get rid of the Cheerios book forever. I've hidden it under the bed, behind dressers and in the trash, but it somehow is always found and rescued before it's too late. Hiding thrown-away toys in the trash takes some superhuman parenting skills that apparently I am lacking. Anyway, both of my boys love the Cheerios Cookbook, probably because all of the pages have pictures of yummy treats made with Cheerios posing with toys.

Henry brings me the Cheerios Cookbook multiple times a day and we look at three specific pages: one has a picture of a cat, one page a stuffed animal dog, and his favorite is a plastic dinosaur with a Cheerios treat in its mouth. Play the video to see what Henry does when we look at the dinosaur page. It always makes me laugh.

Preschool Ready

2009-08-20T12:47:00.000-07:00

Every so often I hear the twittering of mothers on the subject of preschool. Some mothers have their kids on waiting lists for years before their children are eligible. I'm not one of those mothers--not only do I know of not a single local preschool worth going to such lengths, but-- newsflash!--I'm kind of a procrastinator. So a few months ago when I began the process of placing Owen in preschool, I had a difficult time finding one. By a minuscule two weeks, he meets the Dec. 1st cutoff to start kindergarten next year. I'm not sure if he'll be ready or if I will opt to wait another year, but I figured a year of preschool might help his chances.

I made lots of calls and found that most preschools were either already full or were extremely expensive. This is much more serious business that I had anticipated. I tried to get Owen signed up for a free state preschool program that enrolls kids based on disability or economic need, but was told that we didn't meet the enrollment criteria. When my sisters told me of the fantastic (and CHEAP) in-home preschools to which they had sent their children, I couldn't believe the price difference. I knew I couldn't afford preschool and sadly concluded that I'd have to try to prep Owen on my own.

After returning from our vacation I went to church and talked to my friends whose children had started preschool. They gushed about how great it was and how much the childred loved it. That convinced me that I had to try one more time. I found the child development center at the local community college that has a preschool program, and upon calling I was told they had a few more openings. We went down and learned that we qualified for free, 5 day a week, morning preschool. I'm not sure who was more excited--me or Owen. It seems to be a perfect fit!

Here's a picture I took of Owen yesterday, just before taking him to his first day of preschool. In the bag he's holding is his required set of extra clothes they keep for him just in case. He was really excited to go to preschool. When we walked into the Child Development Center, we went out to the playground to sign him in and Owen was off. Not a tear or even a goodbye came from my eager little boy. I held Henry and we watched him on the playground for a few minutes before we left. When we got to the car to leave, I was so happy and Henry was so sad! He cried as we drove away. When we came back a few hours later to pick up Owen, we watched him through the window of his classroom singing and dancing with the other children. It was very, very cute. He was having lots of fun, and didn't want to leave. I'm really proud of Owen. I love him so much. It's very fun to see him grow and become more independent.

Utah Road Trip!

2009-08-15T08:31:00.000-07:00

We just returned from our summer vacation in Utah. We had a really fun time with my sisters Mindy and Susanna and their families the first week and Tim's brother Adam and his family the second week. Here are some pictures and highlights of the trip.

We stayed at Susanna and Robbie's house in Santa Clara. Our kids played together and we practically had to rip them apart to put them to bed at night. One evening we headed out on Susanna and Robbie's boat. My BFF Jill and her daughter Hannah drove out from Las Vegas to come along. Robbie is an awesome wakeboarder. We rode the tube and I was thisclose to getting up on the wakeboard. If only we had a little more time before it got dark, I think I could have done it.
Owen and Henry loved jumping off the boat into Tim's arms. With those life jackets on they were fearless.
The next day we went on a day trip to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. I was surprised to learn that the GC is only 2 1/2 hours from St. George. Including Mindy's family and Susanna's family, there were six adults and 10 children along. We took a hike that offered some great views. The Grand Canyon was really breathtaking--it was much more beautiful in person than in pictures. I think my heart beat five times as hard while we were on our short hike--not from exertion as much as from the thought of one of the little ones getting too close to the edge of the canyon! I made sure to keep Owen on the inside side of the trail next to me, and it was a relief when we finished the hike with family intact.

L-R Campbell, Quincy, Sydney, Owen, Preston, Blake, and Bailey

Cousins Tate, Sydney and Owen

We had so much fun in Southern Utah. There are lots of things to do there and it's really gorgeous. Everywhere you look is another great view. Even though the temperature is about the same as here, it felt a lot cooler--I think because it's so much more humid here. I continually had the thought: "WHY do we live in central CA? why why why why why?????"

We drove up to Farmington, UT for our second week of the trip to visit Adam, Amy, Lucas, Damon, and Clark. It was boy heaven for all of those cousins! They played very well together. I wish I had taken more pictures. I guess we were having so much fun that I kept forgetting to grab the camera. I really like the Bountiful/Farmington/Kaysville area north of Salt Lake. It's very pretty there, too. It would be so nice to live close to at least one of our siblings. It was another week of asking myself the "WHY?" question over and over again.

Although it was a fantastic trip and we were grateful for the comfortable accomodations offered us, we were very glad to be home. It felt wonderful to wake up in our own bed in our own bedroom and have no children in the room with us!

Cousins of the World, UNITE!

2009-07-30T15:23:00.000-07:00

We can not wait to see lots and lots of cousins in the next few weeks.

It's time for a Koford invasion!

knit one, read two

2009-07-18T09:58:00.000-07:00

People have been asking me what I've been working on since I completed my last big project. Basically I've been knitting, working on a few knitting projects that had been sitting around for a while. I finished a hat for me, an ugly purse, a little girls' hat, and a little scarf to match it. I went through my knitting bag and I've still got at least four unfinished projects to complete including two koala hats, another scarf, and a sock to match one I finished nearly two years ago. I told myself that I wasn't allowed to start anything new until I finished all of those other things. That was until I got some new knitting books from the library.

Every once in a while I go on Amazon or Barnes & Noble and look to see what new knitting books are out. I copy the titles and then paste them into the library's online catalog to see what's available. Then I put all of them on hold and within a week or two, they trickle in. This is my system for most of my books and DVDs--and I check out lots of books regularly. There are so many library branches connected to mine and I rarely find just what I'm looking for in the stacks, so now it's all request and hold. I love it--it's like Netflicks for cheapskates!

Anyway, the very same day this knitting book came in, Tim brought me 7 giant skeins of cream-colored yarn that his mother donated for my cause.

I knew instantly that my self-enforced rule was going out the window when this bear appeared!

And of course, she needed an outfit to match--don't you just love the basket weave?

It is a good thing I have neices. Owen and Henry loved this bear until she had a dress.

Henry and Alex

2009-07-18T07:51:00.000-07:00

best of friends

Recipe for a Fantastic 4th

2009-07-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

My family loves to celebrate Independence Day with plenty of food surrounded by family. The main ingredient is Dad's barbecue.

This man can make anything taste good! He actually builds his own barbecues, like the big smoker in this picture. If I'm counting right, I think my dad currently employs the use of four different barbecues. His specialty is ribs, smoked and smothered in his own sauce.

Yum!

We had lots of great food that I won't go into great detail to describe, except to mention my favorite dessert for this holiday, Mom's warm apricot cobbler with ice cream. This simple, amazing dessert is what home tastes like!

We picked lots of sweet apricots from the tree and are now enjoying them this week. If you have never tasted a ripe apricot fresh off the tree, you are truly missing a beautiful thing. I no longer buy them in the grocery store, because I'm always disappointed--they never taste as good as home.We enjoyed all the food down in the gazeebo my dad built (have I mentioned his nickname is Iron Grandpa?). The weather was beautiful: warm with a cool breeze. After eating we set the kids off on a magnificent scavenger hunt that ended when they found the booty--chocolate surrounded by water guns, and then they began a water fight that was so enticing that all of the adults joined in.
The cousins (Chad's kids, Merilee's kids, and mine) had great fun together, except for Henry, who for some reason cried every time little Alex (Merilee's son and the same age as Henry) came near. It was hilarious!
We topped off the evening by watching three different fireworks displays that we could see from the yard. Not one of them could be viewed in its entirety and all of them were far away, but regardless of running back and forth to find the best view and craining my neck to see portions of bombs bursting, just standing in the cool evening under the full moon surrounded by my family made it a memory I don't wish to forget.

I feel so blessed to live in freedom in a country that allows me to enjoy my family and live my life as I choose!

It's getting hot in here

2009-06-23T23:22:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness, I am hot. I just looked at the thermostat and it says it's 87 degrees. That's INSIDE the house, at 11:45 pm. At what point do I break down and turn on the AC? It's not that it doesn't work. But air conditioning is one thing I am thrifty about.

The first summer that we lived in Fresno, we lived in a one-bedroom, upstairs apartment. And being that upon moving we were unemployed and broke, we went the whole summer without using the air conditioning. Fresno gets really hot, but I was deathly afraid of what our electric bill might be. I remember very vividly how miserable I was, burning up, sweat pouring down in that stifling second floor apartment with the huge western-facing sliding-glass door. The thermostat went so high that the needle was off the charts. In fact, you couldn't even SEE the needle sometimes. It was SO. HOT. We bought this little cooler that had a compartment for ice cubes, and when you turned it on it made the air a bit cooler, but only if you were sitting within five inches of the thing. We suffered and survived, but never forgot. The next summer, we decided to start using the air conditioning more. And our bill did go up--but only by about 20 dollars. I couldn't believe it. I had suffered all summer when it would have cost less than a dollar a day to be comfortable? We could have run the air most of the summer for the price we paid for the stupid ice cube cooler. It still makes me sick to know how foolish I was.

Yesterday afternoon I met a realtor to look at a house, and afterward I took Owen and Henry to a neighborhood park. I'd only been to the park once before, and hadn't tried out the play equipment. So I pushed the boys on the swings, and then Owen wanted to go on the teeter totter. Usually at parks when I sit on one end of the teeter totter with him, I get a good quad workout. I really feel the burn, and I don't last very long. I end up having to push it down with my arms. But either my weight loss has made a big difference or this teeter totter must have a really good spring, because it was no sweat at all. We went up and down for a long time and it was really fun. I even fit Henry on the seat with me (yay!). The metal slide at the park was pretty good, too--it is fast and really pops you up at the bottom. We had a good time. Tonight after dinner we all went back to the park and played some more. It was much hotter out, and instead of going fast on the slide and popping up, my sweaty body stuck to the slide and barely slid down at all--it was terrible! After playing on the equipment we played Owen's current favorite outside game: freeze tag. We wished we had some more friends to play with us, because it's not all that fun playing with only three people and a baby who refuses to freeze, no matter how many times he gets tagged.

Did I mention how hot I am? Better go lie down in front of the fan now.

reduced image size!

2009-06-14T18:44:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd post some new pictures of Tim and I. Tim is down 75 pounds and I'm down 60! We get a lot of comments from people about how good we look. It's wonderful to hear, and makes the struggle and hunger that comes with dieting easier to take. Someone at church asked me if Tim had had gastric bypass, and another told me it looked like I'd lost 100 pounds. It's funny sometimes how they say things like that--like, wow, we must have looked pretty bad before (we did!). I can't believe how good it feels to be smaller and healthier. I love looking at myself in pictures now. You can go here to see a picture of us before we lost the weight.

pushing buttons

2009-06-13T18:52:00.000-07:00

Henry found this toy in the toybox and loves it. It's a Thomas musical caboose, and it has a button on top that plays the Thomas song when pressed. Henry carries it around with him and plays the song over and over. He climbed up on the chair next to me and was showing me what he can do. He's a musical button pusher, this kid. I love him so much!

what is wrong here?

2009-06-12T19:37:00.000-07:00

Both boys are bathed and in bed by 7:30, nothing is wrong!!!

Except that my camera isn't working correctly. Indoors, all of the photos have big brown horizontal lines going through them and are slightly blurry. Outdoors, the photos are totally overexposed. (See below: the first pic of Tim is with the broken camera, the second I took with my new phone.)

By the way, I grew that carrot myself from seed!

Yay for Tim!

2009-06-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

Tim is now a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. He took his last licensure exam Saturday and passed it! We celebrated by getting balloons and spraying him with silly string when he walked in the door. Then we went out to dinner with his parents and saw Star Trek. Today he gets a new cell phone to replace the one that's screen hasn't worked for a year!

Tim is so smart, and he's great at his job. This is a big milestone for him and I couldn't be prouder. Hopefully it will open some doors and bring new opportunities for him.

I sewed something...and it fits!

2009-05-31T18:52:00.000-07:00

I sewed this dress all by myself!

I did everything myself with my mom only helping over the phone. Okay, my mom just happened to be here to help me when the time came to sew the hem (thank goodness). But everything else is my own work. I think this is a great pattern for anyone wanting to learn to sew and learn to do lots of techniques. It's certainly no simple pajama pants project. But if you have done pajama pants and want a new challenge, I highly recommend Butterick B5315. It has a collar, darts, back yoke and pleat, front button and side zipper closing, pleated skirt and belt with buckle. The hardest part for me was putting in the sleeves. I had to do that lots of times before I got it to look okay. But I got LOTS of compliments at church today!

A couple of creative people

2009-05-21T09:58:00.000-07:00

My parents are pretty amazing. They're both so creative. If there's something you want to make, you can bet that 1. They've done it before, and 2. They've got all the tools and supplies needed and will help you if you want to make it right this second! That goes for just about ANYTHING. They've each got their own workspace, and it is truly THEIRS. If they ever move from the home I grew up in, leaving the barn and the sewing room just might be the hardest part for Mom and Dad.

Among all of his many talents, my dad loves to do woodworking as a hobby, and he is really, really good. Dad can create anything you can think of and draw on a scrap of paper. In my house I've got a bed, baby cradle, changing table, hope chest, stand-up mirror, and a treasure box all made by Dad. The really amazing thing about Dad is that he doesn't use patterns. He makes everying from his own design. And he doesn't use shoddy materials. If it's worth creating, Dad is going to use the best woods and it will never, ever, fall apart. He makes heavy strong furniture that is really beautiful. When he had four teenage daughters, Dad became a hope chest maker--every one its own unique design. And now that lots of grandchildren have been around in the past 12 or so years, Dad has become somewhat of a cradle maker. I don't know how many cradles he's made, but it is a lot. Maybe nine or ten? There is one design that he's made several times because it is so unique and beautiful. It rocks from front to back rather than side to side. He made one out of walnut to enter into the county fair this month that was so well-received, he was notified before the fair even began that he'd won best in show and had his picture taken for the paper. When we went to see it, the cradle was highlighted in a big display right in the front of the exhibit hall, shiny and beautiful with all of its ribbons draped over the side. Dad is brilliant!

Mom's often saying that she needs to clean out her sewing room, but I don't think she should. She's got everything--and cleaning it out might mean that on any given visit we wouldn't be able to, say...sew a dress, embroider a shirt, knit a sock, wrap a gift, put together a quilt, applique Christmas stockings, make a card, make jewelry, etc. etc. etc. And that's just the sewing room stuff. Of all the home arts, Mom does it ALL. And she's always learning new techniques and trying new things. She doesn't throw away her good supplies, and I love it. You never know when you might need a scrap of cloth/paper/bead/yarn exactly that color and size, you know? (Not that she keeps everything, but she does hold on to stuff that just might be useful in the future.) Just last weekend Mom was helping me cut out fabric for a new dress. We needed a belt buckle, and the fabric store didn't have one in the right size. So Mom says, "Let's look at home. I might have some to choose from". When she pulled out her BOX of buckles, it felt like I stepped back in time because she had so many buckles, including a heart one that I used to wear on a belt all the time as a kid. I thought, this is unbelievable. Who does this??? My mom does.

Lately my mom has been learning to do heirloom sewing. She wanted to enter something in the county fair, so she got working on a pink baby dress. I do not have the skill to explain all of the details on this dress, but it has embroidery, lace, and is fully lined with French seams, among everything else. It has a big bow that ties on the back and is simply beautiful. When she told me about the dress, she was so blase, like it was no big deal, saying it probably wouldn't even place at the fair. And when she and my dad went to the fair to see how their projects did, she couldn't even find the dress among the other items in the class. She looked all around the exhibit room, at all of the sewing items, and could not find the dress. She started thinking that it had gotten lost or something. And then they spotted it in a big display case behind glass, hung up so both the front and back could be examined. And my mom saw a white ribbon and was crushed. She thought she'd gotten third place and was so mad--she said would have rather not gotten anything. Then my aunt pointed out the GIANT gold ribbon she hadn't even noticed on the other side. A best in show ribbon! She'd won best in show out of all of the sewing projects at the fair. It was so exciting! It turns out that the white ribbon was actually pale pink and was for some other honor she'd won. Here's a picure of my mom with her dress. I had to go down to the fair myself and take a picture of her with it. But then I stupidly forgot my camera at the house, so I had to use my phone, hence the poor quality:

I am so proud of each my parents for getting best in show! I wish I were as creative and talented as they are. Way to go, Mom and Dad!

hmmm...

2009-05-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

Maybe we need a bigger sandbox.

Happy Anniversary, Honey!

2009-05-05T15:09:00.000-07:00

Wanna see my 9th anniversary present? It's a new porcelain figurine Tim and Owen bought just for me.
Yep, it's a toilet. Tim and Owen broke the previous potty Sunday night in a struggle involving bedtime when the lid crashed down onto the bowl, cracking the bowl and crushing my dream of a nice piece of jewelry in a little blue box. What happened to the romance in this marriage? (Well, at least he didn't make me feel like an old lady by getting the comfort height model.) Love you Tim!

Tide Pools

2009-05-04T07:18:00.000-07:00

A snippet from our weekend in So Cal--we didn't see much in the tide pools besides anemones, snails, mussels, and a few hermit crabs.

Facebook freaked me out!

2009-04-29T23:33:00.000-07:00

Last night my sister Mindy posted the following on facebook:

Mindy Packard Muller Got your food storage? Swine flu may keep us indoors for a while. Costco run!

I'm sure she was kidding, but add to that Owen waking up this morning with a cough, Henry spitting up two times this afternoon (he virtually NEVER spits up anymore), and a morning partially spent watching the news in which a suspected case of the dreaded Swine flu was reported in my town, even shutting a school down, and hypochondriac worrisome Emily succumbed to the pressure. We took a little shopping trip this afternoon and after thoroughly sanitizing our shopping cart came home with 50 lbs. of flour, 50 lbs. of rice, a big bag of beans, five lbs. of hamburger, two gallons of grape juice, and two giant boxes of Ritz crackers (what? I had a coupon). It's just a few things to add to the five or six cans of refried beans and lemonade mix* I have that make up my long-term food storage. So now, like, yeah...I'm totally set to shut myself in for a good year or so, right? And I don't know why, but I hate buying stuff at the store when it's blatantly obvious why I'm buying it, so I felt really embarrassed pushing that cart out of Costco this afternoon. (thanks, Mindy!)

Why do I let myself get so paranoid? Thank goodness for level-headed Tim to keep some sanity in this house. I can't stop thinking about Edgar Allen Poe's The Masque of the Red Death, a story in which people shut themselves off to prevent getting a horrible disease that eventually makes its way in anyway. By the way, if you ever wondered if reading this story to a class of eighth graders would make for a "fun Friday" at school, just save yourself a lot of anguish and skip it. Oh, and quit the Facebook while you're at it, if you happen to be one of those hypochondriac, worrisome types.

*One year for Christmas when we were newlyweds, my parents gave us about 6 cans of food storage. They decided to give us some of the more "pricey stuff" that are usually the last things people add, and we've schlepped it around with us since that time, without actually adding the staples necessary to sustain life.

That's some serious cheese sauce.

2009-04-22T23:00:00.001-07:00

Henry gobbled up his mac & cheese today at lunch.

Of course, all of the vegetables are still on the tray. I'll keep trying! Until he learns to eat more veggies, shhh! There is butternut squash puree hidden in the cheese sauce!

Finally Finished!

2009-04-22T22:44:00.000-07:00

Man, I have never enjoyed wiping off my kitchen table more that I do now--it is so smooth and easy! With a little help from Tim and my Dad I completed refinishing my kitchen table last week. I don't know why it took me so long. It's definitely not perfect, in fact I'm wondering if I should go back and repaint the black part with enamel paint rather than the latex I chose (I think it shows fingerprints a little too well). But overall I love it! Now I'm on the lookout for some chairs to complete the look. It's yard sale time!

Spring Break at the Beach

2009-04-21T07:42:00.000-07:00

We spent last week camping in San Diego on the beach with my parents and my brother Chad's family. The first half of the week was freezing! It was really windy and cold. At one point I remember sitting in the trailer thinking, I'm on the beach! I should be outside enjoying it! But with the wind and cold that was the LAST thing I felt like doing. Finally by Thursday the wind died down and the sun came out.

Owen was in heaven playing with his cousins. They ran around, collected shells with my parents, and watched movies together in Chad's trailer. Owen pretty much wanted nothing to do with me the whole time we were there. He kept getting into trouble for trying to do what the big kids were doing, like playing tag on the lifeguard tower.

Henry LOVED the beach. If someone wasn't holding him he was constantly walking down to the water. It definitely helped his walking skills. We got home and now he's running so fast! He's wearing jeans in this picture because it was so chilly out there. They got wet and coated in sand, of course.

One day we went to tour the USS Midway ship (which was cool) and Old Town (which was forgettable). Then on Thursday my dad made a big bonfire on the beach and we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. It was my favorite moment of the trip.

We missed Tim, who had to stay home and work, but had a great time otherwise. I'm so glad my parents invited us to go. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Hop! Here He Comes

2009-04-11T20:52:00.000-07:00

We've been practicing all week at home. I'll hide plastic eggs in the house or the backyard and Owen finds them, and then he'll hide them for me to find. So I knew that when we got to the Eggstravaganza Easter egg hunt this morning over at the Nazarene church, Owen was going to tear up the competition. We had our technique all wrong, though--there was no hiding of eggs involved today. At this fun free event, the Nazarenes throw hundreds of eggs out in an outlined field and let the kids go for what lasts for--no joke--less than 20 seconds. Unfortunately Owen was placed at the young end of his group of 3-6 year-olds. Those big kids (and their parents! cheaters!) were a bit faster than my Owen, who kept looking back at me instead of scooping up eggs. He brought back his basket and was praised for his capture of 10 eggs--but alas! none contained winner tickets. Just some cheap chocolate "eggs" that look more like footballs than eggs, which incidentally Owen adores. Yippee for Easter!

This song was originally written by my songbird sister Merilee as a child. It has become an Easter tradition which Owen begs to hear over and over before bed.

I'm only cheating myself.

2009-03-31T22:46:00.005-07:00

Only four posts

2009-03-31T22:46:00.003-07:00

left to make

2009-03-31T22:46:00.001-07:00

thirty for the

2009-03-31T22:45:00.000-07:00

month of March!

crazy lady

2009-03-31T22:26:00.000-07:00

The owner of our house called Tim's cell phone out of the blue today. She asked him if we were planning on moving. Tim said, "No. Not in the near future." Then she asked him why she hadn't received the rent check. I do the bills, and Tim had no idea when I had sent it, so he told her he wasn't sure when it would arrive. (It's in the mail.) She reminded him of the late payment policy on our lease (a fee if paid after the 4th of the month) and then ended the call.
WHAT THE HECK? Why would the landlord call a renter's cell phone in the middle of the day while he's at work and ask these things when not only is the rent not late, it's NOT EVEN DUE UNTIL TOMORROW???? We've SO gotta move.

work in progress

2009-03-30T21:29:00.000-07:00

There seem to be some problems with my blog template. I've wanted to get a new one for a long time, so I spent a good portion of this afternoon trying to make my own background and header for this blog. I found a little tutorial on it that seemed easy enough. I learned that I need to learn how to use my photo program better. I don't have photo shop; I have to use what came with my computer: Microsoft Digital Image. It took me a long time, but I dug in and did alright. That's the secret to learning how to use the computer that a lot of older people don't get: you've just got to mess with it and figure it out through trial and error. You can't really ruin anything that can't be changed back without much difficulty. So anyway, I finally got my background and header done, but when I downloaded them into blogger they just looked bad. I think that together they are too dark and need more color--so I reverted back to my old broken template for now. I'm not very good at arranging things, so this was a fun stretch for me. Here are the header and background that I made all by myself. What color could I add that might be a good compliment to the black/white/kiwi green?