Kisses

We love giving kisses in our home. Jonah has finally graduated from the slobbery open-mouthed kiss to real kisses and he loves to shower us with them.

Up until a few days ago, Jonah was very hesitant to get close to Sophie. I decided that he was in such a good mood that he might actually allow it. Well...he did more than allow it! He even averted his attention from his beloved ball for a few seconds of snuggles and kisses!

Bon Anniversaire!

Jonathan turned 29 last Friday. I can't believe he's almost 30 (Sorry, Honey)!!! We spent the day in Colorado with my parents. We hung around and then went to dinner at Red Robin with Jeff and Audra.

This year for his birthday, Jon wanted a Wii. So we combined forces and got one with his birthday money. I figured the Wii is something we can all do together. We even got 3 controllers so Jonah doesn't feel left out if we happen to be playing it when he's awake. I'm pretty anti-gaming so this was big for me. My justification was that it's more active than normal video games and the games are family friendly (at least the ones we'll be buying).

In honor of Jon's birthday, I decided to write a short poem.

J is for joyous
O is for observational
N is for neat
A is for accumulator of receipts
T is for Tabasco Sauce
H is for hard-worker
A is for always a hard-worker

N is for noticeably hard-worker

Here's to a wonderful father!

Here's to my best friend who loves the same things I love!

Here's to my wonderful Jonathan!

Dearest Jonathan, thank you for being such a wonderful husband and father! I can't wait to spend eternity with you! Happy Birthday!

Wyoming, AKA The Armpit of the World

Wyoming is the most horrible place on earth. It's IMPOSSIBLE to overstate this. My feelings were magnified by infinity last night when my little family was on our way home from Fort Collins, CO from my parents house. My parents used to live in Littleton (one of the most wonderful places on earth) which meant that we'd drive to Utah on I-70. That route is much preferred as it completely bypasses the hell-like Wyoming and I-80. Since my parents have moved, it's much shorter (when the weather cooperates, that is) to take I-80. During the winter months...well, more like 8 months out of the year really...let's say September through April, the trip is likely to be very dangerous with snowy and icy roads almost the whole way. I've had numerous unplanned nights spent in Rawlins (who would plan to stay in the armpit of the armpit?).

On our journey home last night, nearly the entire trip was made going 40 mph through white-outs and on ice-covered roads. On one particularly bad spot, Jon was driving about 40 mph when the car decided it had a mind of it's own and started fish-tailing. We were at the beginning of a bridge and somehow managed to do a 180 without hitting either guardrail. Luckily there were no cars next to us, just a semi coming behind us. He saw us spin and slowed way down, giving us enough time to turn around and resume our journey. It was as if the whole thing happened in slow-motion and all I can remember doing is grabbing the "oh shiz" bar and saying, "Oh no, oh no, no, no, no, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot!" Then once the reality set in of what happened I broke down.

We nearly stopped over in Rock Springs but decided not to as the roads looked clearer than they had been up to that point. We ended up having horrible roads for pretty much the rest of the drive. Our little apartment has never sounded so inviting and comfortable as it did during that drive.

On a good note, we had a wonderful weekend with my parents, Jeff, Audra, and Eva. How wonderful to have such an awesome family. I love them all dearly. Plus, Jon had an excellent interview at CU Boulder for the MBA program there. We're excited to hear from them and the rest of the schools we've applied for. I'll keep you all posted on those happenings.

The Creative Itch

There are many things I do to satisfy (scratch) my creative itch. I recently finished a blanket for Sophie...nothing fancy, just a flannel blanket with satin binding. I've also started making her hair bows. There are countless companies out there making bows, leggings, tutus, etc. and charging an outrageous amount (which is worth it if you don't want to mess with it yourself) but I've decided that I have enough time during the day where I'm bored and watching TV that I can instead sit in my creative corner and work on projects.

When my mom was here after Sophie was born she helped me organize my projects into a nice corner in my kitchen. I dream that someday I'll have a craft/sewing room where I don't have to worry about where I leave the scissors, hot glue gun (which Jonah thinks is an airplane), or needles....somewhere, perhaps, like THIS!

This is just one idea of my "CREATIVE LOUNGE". That's what I'm going to call it. I've decided to start a folder (digital, of course) of pictures and ideas that inspire me and things that I'd like to have in my dream house.

For now, this is what I have. It also serves as our garage, music room, and dining area.

You can see that I've adopted the kitchen table as part of my space. This is due to the obvious lack of space elsewhere.

This is where I do my sewing. It works fine for now...except that when I get going really fast, the table and sewing machine bounce like I'm riding in the rodeo. You can imagine the fine stitching that results.

Here are some of the bows I've made. I crocheted this first one and then felted it by hand.


I also crocheted the one on the top. I know it's not much but they were my first crocheted flowers and I taught myself by looking up patterns online.


Sometimes I lie in bed at night wondering what other projects I'd like to take on. I have a half-finished sock monkey for my niece, several scrapbooks, skirts to be embellished, and a few other projects that are in an indefinite holding pattern. I'd like to start making and designing some baby clothes next. We'll see how that goes.

Some Kind of Wonderful

Our kids bring us great joy in life. Here are a few things that make us smile.

We call this the "balled-up" position...it's the most wonderful way to have a baby sleeping on you.

This is also the "balled-up" position. Equally cute.

When babies smile at us.

Pretty baby in her pretty dresses...even though she's mad.

Bath time!

When babies fall asleep in the jogger...or just stay quiet for more than 5 minutes! (This was taken just a couple of days ago. It was the initiation run with my new jogger. It passed with flying colors!)

When Jonah dances!

When Sophie talks!

We finally bought...

ONE OF THESE.

I don't know how many of you had to go out and buy one of these due to the fact that your TV just isn't cool enough for a digital signal but we're definitely in the category. About 3 years ago we bought a nice new TV. This was before the whole flat panel craze so our TV arguably takes up 1/3 of our living room (and not in a good way). The great thing is that we applied nice and early for the $40 government coupon and got not one, but 2. The bad thing is that with Sophie's arrival and the mayhem of all the holidays, we forgot to use them within the 90 day allotted time so they are expired. Now we're not eligible for anymore...which doesn't matter because the government ran out of money for them a while ago. So I caved and bought one on ebay.

P.S. We don't have cable or a satellite. I know we're a minority but we like it this way. When we have access to cable, we get wayyyy to addicted and find ourselves living Jerry Seinfeld's observation that the last part of your body awake at night is your hand controlling the remote, buying the Ginsu Knives no less.