Kate! You're the BOMB!

So we had a photo shoot today with Kate Lines another of my favorite photographers.  Mike is doing her website so she's giving us some free sessions which is so generous of her since her work is soooooooo professional.  Check her stuff out HERE.

Here's just a sample.

She took pictures of Taylor too.  They will be posted later.  Stay tuned . . .

Ta da!

I did it! I'm done!  I wanted to make a picture book of my parents and give it to them on their anniversary.  Their 39th anniversary is -4 days ago (March 27th) which means I was late, but hey.  I did it! I'm done!  It's ordered!  PS, aren't they so cute :)

This was then . . .

This is now! (When they were in Hawaii!)

And this is what has become (minus a couple grandkids and a couple more on the way).

Okay, so I've never really done the whole however-many-things-i-love-about . . . kind of list and now I think it's time.

My dad:

He's such a hard worker.  I can honestly say he's the first thing I think of when it comes to work.  He is exactly the opposite of lazy.  Even when it looks like he's not doing anything, he always seems to be contemplating something deep and meaningful.  Most of the work I witness first hand is his garden.  It's inspiring.  I hope someday I can be as good as him.  He's also incredibly spiritual.  I love talking to him about gospel subjects or asking him questions about the scriptures.  He's always got an answer for me or a fresh perspective.  My dad may fall asleep in the middle of family gatherings, but he is so caring and loving I can't help but love him.

My mom:

Get her out from behind the camera and you will find how service oriented she is.  You can even see the evidence in her freezer or on her kitchen counter.  She's always baking up a batch of Friendship Bread.  (If you don't know what that is, we need to talk.) She is always willing to listen and be sympathetic to any plight.  She loves to quilt!  Our family would be frozen without all the quilts she's made for us, especially our kids.  It's becoming a lost art, but not with my mom.  She's going to quilt until her hard working hands fail her.  And yes, her other passion is pictures.  She says her mom didn't take many so she's making up for it.  Well, that must skip generations because I have to constantly remind myself that somethings do require a camera to remember. She loves her grandkids and is always taking them on walks.  I love my mom.  She's one of my bestest friends.

Thanks Mom and Dad.  I'm glad you got married and had 6 kids. My life wouldn't be the same if you didn't. :)

Most recent project

Our kitchen table chairs are covered in stains so I thought I would finally do something about it.  I took my 40% off coupon down to Joann's and bought some fabric that I just fell in love with.

Here's before . . . 

and here's after.

Yeah for staple guns! Next project: Brooklyn's curtains

Next movie review

So we rented this the other night and Mike made me watch it with the lights off.  Mike had already seen it and assured me it was a good movie.  I have to wait until I'm over the last horror movie before I go see another so I finally got in the mood to see this one.  Between covering my face with a pillow when I knew something was going to jump out, squeezing Mike's hand in suspense and saying "yucky" every time it was, I actually enjoyed this movie.  It had a great plot that was pretty easy to follow.  I didn't even have nightmares.  My favorite part had to be the mannequins he set up around town so he wouldn't feel so lonely or going hunting for deer in a mustang was pretty cool too.  So if you're in the mood for a scary movie, this one will do.  ****

Give said the little stream . . .

Making handcrafted items is a dying art, but they are so fun to make & get! So, here's a little game to encourage the handcrafting to live & thrive!! The first 5 people to leave a comment on this post will receive, at some point during the year, a super-duper handmade gift from me.What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise!The catch is that you must participate as well-before you leave your comment here, write up (or copy & paste as I did!) a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going. Then come back, let me know you're going to play, and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift! Remember that only the first FIVE comments will receive a gift from me, so be quick!

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!2. It will be done this year (hopefully sooner than later.)3. You will have no clue what it is going to be.

C'mon, you know you wanna play!

Movie Review!

(Spoiler Alert!)

So I rented this movie in need of a romantic story.  Richard Gere has a pretty good record at being in the center of  romantic movies (i.e. First Knight, Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, etc.) So I felt pretty safe knowing this would turn out to be good.  I didn't know anything about the story only that the woman's "life would be changed forever."  Typical story, boy and girl meet at beach house, girl going through a divorce, boy widowed or divorced, I can't remember . . . they fall in love, only to separate back to their homes at the peak of romance. The whole "absence makes the heart grow fonder" theme takes place.  They write letters to each other and it is so mushy I love it.  Finally, boy plans to come back to girl forever, but never makes it.  He dies in a mudslide!  What the heck.  I didn't want a sad love story.  I wanted a happily ever after love story.  I mean, it ends well, closure and all with ponies running on the beach, but man,  I wasn't looking to cry that night.  So if you want a good tear jerker, mushy and gushy with romance, rent this one, just plan on being sad. **** (4/5)

Prayer works!

On Sunday nights we like to go visit one of our parents.  Last night we went to my parents.  Mike's parents were out of town.  We had fun hanging out with my parents and my sister and her family.  When it was time to go home our car wouldn't work.  It seemed the battery had died.  We're not sure why.  No lights were left on which has been the case before.  So my dad brought his truck around and we tried to jump it.  To our surprise that didn't work.  They thought the connection wasn't very good so my dad went to get the Impala. Brooklyn was getting a little worried, especially because she thought we'd have to walk home (it's a 20 minute drive as it is). So I said, "Brooklyn do you want to try something?" She said sure so I said, "Do you think Heavenly Father could help us fix our car so we can get home?" Her face lit up and she said, "Yeah, he can help us." So we went in the house and knelt in a circle.  Brooklyn wanted to say the prayer.  She just said, "Heavenly Father, we're grateful for this day.  Help us to get our car feeling better" and then she closed the prayer.  Not five minutes later we were in the car on our way home.  It was a little scary because the headlights were flickering a little and the car kept dinging all the way home and the last thing I wanted was to be stranded on the freeway with our little girls.  We kept the radio off, turned off the air, and even dimmed the interior lights just hoping we would make it home.  Well, we pulled into our driveway all in one piece.  After Mike turned the car off he turned the key again to see if it would come on.  It didn't start again.  What's even cooler is that our battery was under warranty so we got a new one this morning for free!  I'm glad we had this opportunity to teach Brooklyn about the importance of prayer.

IKEA . . . you complete me

If your finger had a tool in it like Inspector Gadget, what would that tool be?  My husband told me that if I had and IG finger I would have a measuring tape inside.  I'm always walking around the house measuring things to see if my remodeling/rearranging ideas work.  My recent fruits of my labor are these awesome Malm dressers we got from IKEA's Seize the Day sale they had on Monday.  

They are doubling as night stands and dressers.  Our bed is really tall so it's been hard for us to find night stands big enough for it. And now I have my own dresser and so does Mike.  It has brought equality to our bedroom and now I can sleep better at night.  Thank you awesome Sweedish superstore!

Tummy Time!

It's been a while since I've posted! So sorry.  I hope everybody had a great Valentine's Day like I did.  I was pampered with a manicure and pedicure.  I got my first perifin wax ever.  (I'm not even sure I spelled it right) In case you don't know what that is, it's when you get your feet dipped in hot wax until it cools.  Ooooooh, it felt so good!  Thanks honey for watching the girls while I got all girly.  

Brooklyn is really enjoying Taylor. She always wants her to do tummy time and play with her so I took pictures of them one day.

Then of course, Brooklyn had to take a picture of me and since there hasn't been a picture of me on here for a while, here you go!

Plan ahead

I don't think I'd make it two days without having certain things planned ahead such as the ever looming question "What's for dinner?" Thanks to Excel I've mastered the menu! I put it on the fridge every week.  Along with sistersavings.net it saves a lot of headaches and helps with the grocery shopping.  My favorite part is telling Brooklyn what we're having. Instead of giving her choices, we just refer to the menu. Another great part is, after 4 or 5 weeks, instead of coming up with a new menu, I just refer to one I've already made.  I like to save the weekends for surprises like eating out, Sunday dinner, or a special breakfast.  

Meatloaf beatloaf, double meatloaf . . .

Why is it that when kids have meat-loaf, they make it look as disgusting as possible and then don't eat it.  It could have lettuce, ketchup, pickles, and a bun on it and they still won't eat it.  I'll admit I added the spoon to recreate the "Christmas Story" scene (minus the mashed potatoes on top of the spoon), but really, it just looks gross on her plate.  Needless to say, she only had a few bites, but that's been happening a lot lately.  She is not mommy's little piggy!

We had the neighbor kids over today. I couldn't help but think of my friends who have their babies one after another and think, "So

 this is what it's like to have 5 kids 5 years old and under."  I'm glad Brooklyn was able to have some fun this week with friends. It was sad this morning when she said, "Mom, can we have some fun today?"  You have to understand, she has been around kids as much as a full time job for at least half of her life.  Taking her away from that has been quite the shock to her system.  Thank goodness for neighbors!  

Pajamas

I just noticed that the last few pictures I've posted of Brooklyn. She's in pajamas!  I promise she doesn't spend her life in them.  She does get changed eventually.  Since we've stopped going to school/work, there really isn't anything to get ready for until maybe lunchtime.  But wouldn't that be great if your whole wardrobe was made of pajamas?

Daddy's girls

Mike went back to work today. I've really enjoyed the last two months of paid paternity leave and having my husband home every day. I'm actually surprised he lasted that long, but very grateful as well. I love you honey! We miss you!

Keepin' busy

I've been trying to find things to do while Mike is still home from work on paternity leave.  I want to take advantage of every minute he's here.  So I came up with this little crafty idea that was completely funded by my Joann's Gift Card I got for Christmas.  Thanks Mom H!  

Brooklyn's also needed some help finding something to do.  However, holding the baby is always going to be her favorite thing I think.

Taylor falls asleep in the weirdest positions sometimes.  I think this time she was dreaming about the Cardinals.  TOUCHDOWN!  Congratulations AZ!  See ya at the Super Bowl!

Christmas Rocks!

Christmas was awesome this year.  These are just highlights of the awesome day.  From my cousin-in-law Julie, I got a piano!  Okay, so it was already mine, but it's been sitting at her house until we had room for it in a place of our own.  Since we moved in our house last July, I've been begging Mike to get it over here.  So for my secret Santa gift from Julie she brought it over and gave me money to spend at Milano's.  Thanks again Julie!  

Not only that, but Mike's secret Santa was his Uncle Wade who knows Mike is in to guitars and stuff.  Well, he gave Mike this mandolin.  We were both totally stoked to get these and we're very grateful to have them.

Brooklyn also got something she'd been wanting for a while.  Her first bike!  We got her a 16" since she's so tall.  Hopefully it will be the right size for the next couple of years.  She loves practicing on her bike.  She's already taken a trip down to the mailbox and back with no help at all.  

When we got to grandma and grandpa Harris', she was even more excited to see she got a 3-wheel scooter.  It's easier for her to ride and smaller too.  She loves to ride this in the house.

Christmas tends to wear us out.  This is the routine Mike and Taylor have every morning.  She really fell asleep like that for like and hour and a half.  Mike just loves to stay in bed.

Brooklyn doesn't sleep in, but she does fall asleep in funny ways.  One night she made a bed for her Minnie Mouse.  She liked it so much she wanted to sleep there too.  She fell asleep on the floor and as you can see, we don't have carpeting, so we took a quick picture and put her back in bed.  Good times!

How can you mix up night and day?

Our little Taylor turned 5 weeks old today.  I am now coming to grips and accepting fully that she has night and day totally mixed up. I had it coming.  Brooklyn was such a good baby and easy to keep on a schedule that I knew this one would be different.  Not only does she want to play at night, but she also must eat more at night, then sleeps pretty much the whole day.  For instance, last night I was up every hour and a half to feed her.  That means get up at 1, feed and change her (takes about a half hour) then attempt to go back to sleep, only to be woken up 45 min to an hour later to do it all again at 3:30.  This lasted till 8am when the sun is up and smiling and my eyes are rolling so bad I can't even read what's on the tv guide channel anymore. That's when Brooklyn gets up and wants breakfast and watches Sesame Street so I guess it doesn't really matter anyways what show I get to semi sleep through.  Once breakfast is on the table my day starts and there is no turning back.  

Now I sit here, 11pm, feeding Taylor, typing one handed, dreading to go to bed knowing what kind of routine awaits me in just a few short minutes. Feel free to drop any advice. I'm not quite desperate, but I can feel the time soon coming.

Baby Pictures!

Isn't she lovely . . .

My sister offered to take pictures of Taylor.  She's not a real photographer, but loves to play with her camera.  We had lots of fun at her house this morning getting some cute pics.  Big sisters are awesome.  Thanks again Traci!

Merry Christmas

We hope you strike gold!

Elf Yourself!

I had too much fun making this. Merry Christmas!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/Xm7qIT9DNm181r7w

It's about time!

Okay, so she's been home since Saturday and we've spent so much time loving her I haven't updated the blog till today.  We got the phone call as we were on our way to my niece's baptism.  The doctor started out by saying, "How would you like to take your baby home today?"  We were shocked. 

We are so happy to have Taylor home with us, especially Brooklyn.  She wants to hold her, hug her, and kiss her all the time.  She's always coming to me saying, "Mom, Taylor is so cute!"  Brooklyn's been a great big sister getting burp rags, throwing away diapers, getting pacifiers, and making sure that Taylor is happy.  

When we were bringing Taylor home, Taylor started to cry and Brooklyn plugged her ears and said, "Mom it's too loud."  I had to explain to her that Taylor might do that a lot, so the whole way home Brooklyn kept her fingers in her ears not knowing what else to do. 

 

We've kept her in the house all week due to the wet weather, but soon we'll be planning some outings while Mike is home for paternity leave.  I'm going to cry the day he has to go back to work.  At least we're all together for the holidays.  

The Mom Song!

Check this out!  So funny and so true.  I'd post it as a video, but I haven't learned how to do that yet.

http://blogs.northlandchurch.net/2008/08/11/the