On the Run

out with the old. . .

2012-01-11T23:08:00.001-07:00

For the last couple years, there’s been a mountain growing in my storage room. It moved from NC to CO with us and has been continually growing with each passing month. That mountain is the piles of baby stuff that we no longer need, and each time Emery outgrows another outfit, the piles get bigger. I’ve been meaning to do something about it for a long time, but apparently 2012 is the year. To start it off, I gave some of it away to two of my sister-in-laws. I craigslisted a couple BIG items and brought in some cash the last couple days which felt NICE.

While I was on my “purging/making money high,” I decided to check out a thrift store that I hadn’t been to in a while. Yes, I know I’m supposed to be getting RID of things, not buying other people’s old stuff, but I stumbled upon this little beauty and was instantly taken with her. The steel blue-gray color was perfect for what I had been hoping for in our family room. I sat down to try her out and was thrilled with how comfortable she was. The velvet is soft and in great condition. Yes, she’s a little outdated. . .

. . .but I knew that as soon as I ripped off her skirt and exposed her dainty legs, she’d be a whole new woman!

Amazing what a change that made! (The last picture is the truest representation of color.) And wanna know what makes this sweet chair even sweeter? She only set me back FIFTEEN BUCKAROOS! Why don’t I stumble on these deals more often?

So I guess it’s “out with the old” and “in with the old.” You know what they say—old is the new new!

master bath final pictures

2011-12-29T15:04:00.001-07:00

It’s a good thing I’m not a professional blogger. I feel like in real life I’m pretty good at following through on promises, but I clearly struggle with following through on my blog promises. WAY back in January, I took some pictures of our bathroom and said I would post some more as soon as I finished up the last couple things, like the towel hooks and the cabinet hardware. Those were finished up forever ago, but, yeah. . . never took any more pictures. Until NOW. My motivation to finally do it is that for Christmas, Patrick got me the wide angle lens I’d been wanting, which means I can take some much better pictures of this room. So since you’ve already seen the close-ups, here are some pictures of the whole room!

There’s one check off my long list of blogposts to do. Stay tuned. I know you probably don’t care to see all the backposts I’m working on, but since this is my only way of scrapbooking our lives, it WILL be done!

the Christmas mouse

2011-12-24T22:36:00.001-07:00

While Emery wasn’t too jazzed about visiting Santa, she was definitely pumped to be a mouse in her preschool Christmas program!

This one was my favorite of all the songs they performed—Silent Night with sign language. Emery is standing right next to Mary. So cute!

Silent Night

the ugly sweater party

2011-12-23T21:29:00.000-07:00

When my brother Mitchell and his wife Erin decided to come out to Denver for Christmas, their one request was that they could put on an ugly sweater party. So the Friday before Christmas, just after my two other sisters and their families arrived from Utah and Iowa, they made it happen! Here’s some of the gang at Grandma’s house with their Christmas worst. In this picture are three of my sisters, two of my brothers, two brothers-in-law, two sisters-in-law, my mom, two nephews, a niece, and a partridge in pear tree.

There was dancing,

stories,

food,

including a hot chocolate buffet,

and, of course, some very attractive outfits.

And then there was the white elephant gift exchange.

And finally, there was a little Tebowing (in the size 17 basketball shoes that Tom got).

True to Mitchell and Erin’s style, this party will be hard to top! Thanks for a fabulous night that we didn’t want to end!

advent calendar

2011-12-22T23:39:00.001-07:00

Six years ago, I decided to make an advent calendar for my little sister for Christmas. It was definitely a labor of love and took me MUCH longer than I had hoped it would. Thankfully, I think it turned out pretty well. (Sorry about the fuzzy picture!)

I wanted to make one for MY kids, but every time I thought about it, I chickened out when I remembered how long the first one had taken. The first time around, I made each individual pocket, traced and then cut out each number out of cream fabric, ironed them on with Wonder Under, and then stitched around each one to make sure they wouldn’t come off. Was NOT doing that again! So, I put it off and put it off. Well, a couple years ago, I happened to find some Christmas numbers on an Etsy shop and knew that was going to save me!The numbers were already printed on iron-on fabric, so I just had to cut out each one and iron them on to the pockets that I made. I also stitched around each square to make them super secure.

I already had these tiny wooden ornaments from when I made my sister’s calendar (they came in a set of 48 and I only needed 24 for hers plus a star for the last day).

I designed it all myself, but don’t look too closely cuz it’s not quite done. The edges are unfinished but I didn’t want to go another year without hanging it up, so we’re using it anyway. Hopefully next year it will be complete! Here’s how it looks with just a few days left till Christmas!

I remember as a child getting so excited when it was my turn to take something out of the pocket and put it up on the calendar. My version of the calendar is slightly different than the one my mom had, but I’m glad we’re keeping this fun tradition alive! THREE DAYS TO GO!

I’m a cheap date

2011-12-13T15:42:00.001-07:00

I have touted the awesomeness of Zulily before, but for those who haven’t gotten on the train yet, this is the time to do it! Until December 16th at 6:00 am PDT, you can take advantage of a sweet deal. For just $25, you get two movie tickets from Fandango ($24 value), plus $50 at www.restaurant.com. So, if you’re quick at math, like me, you’ve figured out that means you get a $75 date night for just $25! There are TONS of restaurants to choose from at restaurant.com, but if you want to see your choices, go here and put in your zip code.

Supplies are limited, so if you want to be a cheap date too, act fast! Click HERE for the deal! (You have to join Zulily first, but it is free to join.) I have gotten SO many Christmas presents on this website that I am pretty much set with my shopping!

Hey, Santa

2011-12-09T15:34:00.000-07:00

We were going to dinner with friends when we had a Santa sighting. There happened to be NO line, so we walked right up. Kendall and Berkeley were excited to see him. I loved that there was no photographer that came along with this Santa—they actually wanted you to bring your own camera and take pictures instead of paying through the nose for some!

We couldn’t get Emery within 20 feet. She told me later that she only likes Santa when he’s nice. This Santa was pretty sweet, so I’m not sure what that means! K & B just loved that they got a little more interaction with Santa than last year. Remember this?

O Christmas tree!

2011-12-04T15:31:00.000-07:00

We flew home from Utah the Saturday morning after Thanksgiving. On our way home from the airport, Patrick suggested that we go pick out a tree. Normally I am the one who is the most anxious to get the tree up, but I kinda wanted to get home and unpack before I thought about decorating the house. After a much-needed nap and a trip to Costco, I was back in the spirit. We picked out our tree in record time and I think it may be our best one yet.

TAH-DAH!

Behold the Noble fir:

I love a freshly decorated house!

I am so much more in love with how the final result turned out this year. That’s a little strange, since I didn’t buy even one new thing! Maybe part of it has to do with the projects we had done since last Christmas, like the new floors and the freshly painted walls. All the decorations just look THAT much better against a fresh canvas!

turkey trotters

2011-11-25T10:51:00.001-07:00

Patrick and I continued our tradition of running a Thanksgiving morning turkey trot, and since we were in Utah visiting my sister’s family, we dragged our 15 year old nephew Evan along with us as well!

Even though it was only a 5K, I was kind of nervous about the race for a couple of reasons. First of all, even though I work out regularly in other ways, I don’t run much at all anymore because it does miserable things to my knees. (I think I have run three times in the last three months.) In addition to that, anybody who knows me well knows that I am NOT a fan of the cold, so an 8:00 am start time in November in Utah did not sound ideal to me. So basically, I was kind of dreading the run, but was doing it to keep with our tradition and because I wanted to run with Patrick. Thankfully, it actually turned out better than I thought and I ended up getting 5th in my age group! Patrick got 9th in his and Evan slaughtered both of us. He’s on his high school cross country team and took 10th overall!

The rest of our Thanksgiving was spent cooking, eating, chatting, and playing games with tons of family! Is there any better way to spend the holiday? Can’t believe our week long vacation is almost over and we fly back to Denver early tomorrow morning!

Provo day

2011-11-20T23:01:00.000-07:00

When we decided to go to Utah, Patrick and I knew we had to incorporate a trip down to Provo. We wanted to show them the BYU campus and a couple other hotspots, like the place Patrick and I met, and maybe stock up on a little Cougar gear while we were at it! So, the morning after we arrived, we drove down to P-town from my sister’s house in Salt Lake.

While we were all having lunch on campus, I got a phone call letting me know that there were two extra tickets to the Vocal Point concert (BYU’s a capella group) just a few minutes south of campus. It was decided that Kendall and I would be the lucky two who got to go, so we hustled to get there just as the concert was starting. After watching Vocal Point all season on The Sing Off, Kendall was in heaven.

Berkeley was pretty upset that she didn’t get to go to the concert, but all sadness faded when she got to get all the singers’ autographs when it was over!

Our next stop was to visit Grandma & Grandpa McKinnons’ graves. It was freezing and snowy and dark (and Emery fell asleep in the car) but we were glad to be able to show K & B that special place.

And to finish out the day, we met my brother Morgan and his wife Ashley (pregnant with the first of my parents’ grandchildren that will actually carry the last name of Fillmore!) for dinner.

We got back to my sister’s house just in time for movie night with the cousins!

I’d say that’s one successful day!

Off to Utah!

2011-11-19T22:48:00.000-07:00

We decided to take advantage of the full week off of school that K & B got for Thanksgiving by taking a family trip. The five of us had NEVER all been to Utah together and since it is only an hour plane ride from Denver, it’s a pretty easy getaway. We took the girls out of school a little early on Friday to maximize the time for FUN! The girls were so excited to spend some quality time with their cousins!

And how nice is it that all three kids can sit together and Patrick and I get OUR side of the aisle to ourselves?

the basement tour

2011-11-07T16:04:00.001-07:00

One of the big selling features of buying this house was the finished basement. In Charlotte, it is an extremely rare thing to find a house with a basement (only houses built on a slope have them) but in Denver it is hard to find a house without one. Since Patrick and I did not want to shell out a bunch of money to have someone finish our basement for us, (and we’re not handy enough to do that kind of work on our own) it was key to find one that was already done well. There were a few houses that we liked, but the basements were dealbreakers—not only did we want one that was finished well, but we wanted a basement that had a bedroom and a full bathroom for the many many people who are going to come and stay with us (hint hint), in addition to a large open space that could be used for an entertainment/workout/play room area. So when we saw this basement for the first time, it had us at “hello.” It had all of the things on our wish list!

The movers came on August 10, 2010, and here is the basement playroom area just 3 days later, after I had gotten all of the girls toys unpacked.

It looked okay, but still needed some help. I called the basement The Tan Explosion because as you might have noticed, EVERYTHING down there was tan—the carpet, the walls, the ceiling, and even all the bathroom tile—so that was something that was driving me crazy. Also, not shown in the picture above is the TV area, but if you wanted to watch TV in there, you had to sit on the floor. I fixed that problem last November when I picked out the sectional. I also would love to do some built in cupboards on either side of that window in place of the storage solutions we currently have—something like the two pictures below, except all the shelves would be covered by doors so that I don’t have to look at all the puzzles and toys when they’re put away.

I’m not sure when the storage issue will be taken care of, but a few months ago, I finally got around to doing some painting and it looks SO much better without the tan craziness going on everywhere. I chose a color called Tempered Gray by Valspar. (It’s actually the same color I painted our master bathroom but it definitely reads differently in the dark basement versus our bathroom that is flooded with light from the window and skylight.) So here are some pictures with our newly painted walls (and ceiling) and the cozy sectional that we just LOVE.

I had a really hard time getting good before and after comparisons because the “befores” are all from the real estate listing pictures and are taken with a wide-angle camera lens. . . which unfortunately I do NOT have. My phone camera gets wider angles than the lens I have for my nice camera, which is why the “afters” are all pretty crappy!

Open Area: Before

Open Area: After

First, we have the entertainment/workout side of the space.

Our little exercise area hides (you can’t even see it, right?) behind the sectional. We had our bike in our family room in Charlotte and I always hated that it had to be in our main floor living space, so this is a big improvement!

This view is taken from the spin bike and that door you see is our under the stairs “Harry Potter closet.”

And here is the playroom part of the open area.

Unfortunately the phone pictures don’t do a great job of showing what a dramatic change the paint color made, but just trust me on this one—it looks so much brighter down there and the white on the ceiling makes it feel taller!

Now we’re heading to other side of the basement. The door you see on the left is the bathroom and the door on the right is the bedroom.

I painted the bathroom a very pale green called Green Highland by Valspar.

Bathroom: Before (not bad, but a little bland for my taste)

Bathroom: After

Here is the guest room, which I painted an off-white color since it is a tiny room with lower ceilings that doesn’t get a ton of light (don’t know the name of the paint color cuz I found it in a pile of paint cans left by the sellers). The biggest difference was painting the ceiling white—it made the room feel so much less like a cave!

Guest room: Before (in all of its tan glory)

Guest room: After

And finally, across from the bathroom door are these two “overflow pantry storage” closets (the two doors on the left of this picture). The tiny cabinets on the right are small linen cupboards for the bathroom since there are no cabinets in the bathroom itself. The door in the middle leads to a large unfinished space that we use for seasonal decorations, bins of clothes awaiting someone to grow into them again, clothes waiting their fate in a consignment shop, things waiting for a home in the rest of the house, possible projects, and more food storage.

That completes the official basement tour. It is still a work in progress—not sure when we’ll get around to the play area storage cabinets, and I haven’t even come close to deciding what to hang on the walls yet—but so far it is meeting all of our expectations of what our new basement would be. Hooray!

Now when you come visit us, you’ll feel right at home staying down there since you know exactly what your accommodations will be! It’s no palace, but it’s comfortable and cozy!

isn’t she grand?

2011-11-02T14:18:00.001-06:00

It was a snowy cold day this morning (third snow already this season—blah), so I got K & B all bundled up to go catch the bus. I thought Berkeley looked so adorable in her hooded scarf that I just had to snap a picture.

Oh, wait—what’s that behind her? Could that be our new PIANO??

It’s a 52” upright, which means the strings in the piano are as long as the strings in a GRAND piano. So while it’s NOT a grand piano, it can produce a comparable sound quality and it takes up much less room! Sounds grand to ME!

See the snow outside reflecting in her beautiful finish?

I love it. Never mind that I don’t even play. . . I think it’s beautiful and I am so excited to have it in our home. This morning as I was lying in my bed wishing it wasn’t time to get up yet, I heard Kendall playing downstairs. Even though it was the first morning I’ve woken up to that sound, it felt completely normal. . . like we’ve always had a piano in our house. This is how it should be. Now we just need to find a teacher for Kendall, and maybe, just MAYBE, it will motivate me to re-learn how to play right along with her! No promises, though. Remember, I’m working on my rock climbing goal as well!

P.S. I realized I never posted about our new floors after they were finished (back in June!) but you can get a look at them in these pictures (it was previously carpet in these rooms)! I am working on some before/after posts that I will hopefully finish in the not too distant future that will include all of the projects I’ve done (or had someone else do) since we moved in!

P.P.S. I just went outside to measure the snow we got and we have 9 1/2 inches on the ground! And, still, school wasn’t cancelled. Will I ever stop longing for our Charlotte/Austin years?

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T23:11:00.001-06:00

Emery and I went to the elementary school to watch the costume parade and found some front row seats with our friend Gabby. Of course, Emery wanted to wear her costume even though she wasn’t in the parade.

Berkeley was our little sorceress. She loved the blue lips.

Kendall was our lovely senorita. She thought wearing mascara and lipstick was pretty sweet.

We stopped in to watch their class parties for a little bit and got to see Berkeley wrap a mean mummy.

Tonight, we had a great time trick or treating with friends and neighbors. Berkeley went a little crazy with the make-up for her “evening look” apparently—and looks like she helped out her little friend Eliza right next to her on the far right! Sorry to Isaac (the only boy in our group) for accidentally cutting him out of the picture but the kids were so anxious to get out the door that I couldn’t keep them there for another try!

overheard

2011-10-31T22:53:00.001-06:00

Emery was in the family room playing with a doll when I heard her say, “Welcome to family home evening. Tonight we are going to learn about Jesus and monkeys.”

Halloween carnival

2011-10-26T11:05:00.000-06:00

Let the week of Halloween festivities begin, starting with the church carnival!

The girls had fun with lots of games, including the popular “eat the doughnut off the string”. . .

face painting and manicures. . .

. . . and a cake walk!

Kendall even won “Most Memorable Costume”! I think that’s pretty impressive since my mother-in-law (who was in town visiting us) and I threw it together at the last minute!

I may have spoken too soon. . .

2011-10-24T21:39:00.000-06:00

Remember last year when I mourned the skunk costume that would no longer fit anyone in our house? Well, today we pulled out the costume box to try to figure out what the girls would be dressing up as this year. Kendall thought it would be funny to try on ALL the costumes. Please refer to Exhibit A:

Maybe it has a few years left in it after all. . .

movin’ on up

2011-10-20T22:01:00.000-06:00

I lasted as long as I could, but after living here for a year without belonging to a gym, I couldn’t take it any longer. Working out in my basement is doable (and running outside is great when the weather is nice and my knees aren’t screaming at me), but I am just a little more sane when I have the option of going to classes and have lots of cardio and weight equipment at my fingertips. The gym we joined is brand new and practically everyone in our neighborhood has joined it because it is right around the corner. Not only is it ridiculously convenient, but it is SWEET. In addition to every convenience and service you would expect a gym to have, it also has an indoor/outdoor pool and waterslide area, hot tubs, indoor soccer field, racquetball courts, free childcare, a huge indoor climbing room, and a full salon/spa (for hair, nails, massages, facials, etc.). It’s awesome. After I signed up, I told K & B the good news. Can you guess what they were most excited about? ROCK CLIMBING!

I realized that the only day that the “free climb” time doesn’t conflict with soccer practice is Monday nights, so I decided to surprise the girls this week by taking them as part of our FHE. Berkeley had been once before for a birthday party and apparently was the rockstar there because she was the only one who made it to the top. Kendall had never been, but since Berkeley had been talking it up so much, she was pumped.

A few of the routes have automatic belays, so you don’t need to have a partner to belay for you. It made it possible for K & B to both climb at the same time and I could just sit back and watch them have fun.

Here you can see both girls climbing:

When you get to the top, you just let go and the auto-belay slowly lowers you down to the bottom. It’s almost as fun as the climb up!

After mastering some of the beginner climbs, Kendall tried some more challenging ones. . . and even did a little bouldering! Love it!

Emery isn’t old enough to climb yet (you have to be at least five years old) but she had fun rolling around in the rubber mulch.

I used to climb quite a bit in college, but it had probably been about 15 years since I last went. So before we called it a night, I strapped on a harness and took one attempt at a decently challenging route. I don’t have any pictures, but pretend this is me:

I made it just as far as he is in that picture but couldn’t quite get up over that ledge (and by the way—he didn’t make it either). That will now be my goal. . . not as easy as it might look! We all had so much fun that I think this is going to become a regularly scheduled activity for us ladies!

And of course I can’t think about climbing without picturing this amazing opening scene:

if I had a boy. . .

2011-10-19T21:41:00.001-06:00

. . . he would have a whole set of these adorable dinosaurs!

Found them on Zulily. Awesome site if you’ve never checked it out! Great deals on clothes, shoes, toys, and gear for moms and kids. Click here if you want to see what it’s about!

meant to be

2011-10-18T21:41:00.000-06:00

Look what I found when I was doing some purging/organizing today:

The one on the left is Patrick’s—bought in Boston back in 1990. The one on the right is mine—bought in Kenya while I was on a trip there in 1998 after I graduated from college. If this doesn’t seal the deal that we’re soul mates, I don’t know what does. . .

in the sun he melted. . .

2011-10-11T21:39:00.000-06:00

. . .small, small, small!

It has been nice and warm during the day (as evidenced by our midget snowman), but it cools down enough at night that a pot of soup really hits the spot. Last night I tried out a new recipe that I am in love with. Check it out on my recipe blog if you want a little cup (or maybe a HUGE bowl) of heaven!

family night

2011-10-10T21:59:00.000-06:00

I never get tired of watching these girls sing together.

I don’t find this amusing. . .

2011-10-08T16:15:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, the girls were out in the backyard playing soccer. This morning, they were out in the backyard building snowmen and snowdogs.

Oh, Snow-- I had not been missing you since it was just five short months ago when you last showed your ugly face around here. You think you’re pretty funny, don’t you? The leaves on our trees haven’t even changed colors yet, for crying out loud! You’re lucky it’s going to be back up into the 70’s by Monday or I would REALLY have some words for you. . .

party in the ATX

2011-09-12T21:19:00.000-06:00

Patrick and I got to take a quick trip to Austin over the weekend. Those of you who follow college football might have some idea of what we were up to down there. (Don’t mind the traitor in orange. . .)

My father-in-law Paul was a little nervous about the game.

And just to prove that I was there showing my school pride as well. . .

Have you ever seen so much burnt orange in your life?

In this picture, you can see that there was some blue sprinkled here and there. . .

We got to see a great friend from our Boston days who was also in town.

The marching band was pretty darn sweet—after all, they are “the showband of the southwest!”

Patrick was sitting on the opposite side of the stadium from the rest of us, but I was able to spot him with the binoculars!

It was a sad ending to the evening, but that was okay, because the biggest event of the weekend happened the next morning. My newest little nephew (Patrick’s sister Meredith’s first baby) was blessed on Sunday. Little Henry didn’t make a peep and his dad Eric gave such a sweet blessing.

Even though we only lived in Austin for three years, it’s a place that will always feel like home to me. It is one of my favorite places in the US of A. We took a little detour on the way to the airport Sunday night and drove down our old street. When Patrick and I moved there back in 2001, we were lucky enough to find a house to rent in Tarrytown, which is one of the most beautiful and sought after neighborhoods in Austin. Driving down those gorgeous tree-lined streets with all the houses that just OOZE charm made me incredibly homesick. I’m not giving up hope that we’ll live there again someday. . . and it doesn’t hurt that we still have family that lives there either!

Oh, and in case you’re wondering why my girls are noticeably absent in these pictures, it’s because my sister Melayna graciously offered to watch them for us back at home. Thanks, sis!

emery’s first day. . .FINALLY!

2011-09-06T10:25:00.001-06:00

Had we not moved to Denver, Emery would have had her first day of preschool LAST year at the same preschool that Berkeley graduated from in Charlotte. We loved that little preschool and were sad to leave it. Not only did we love the school and the teachers and the other families who attended there, but I loved that it was just a seven minute walk from our house. We had paid our nonrefundable money to secure Emery’s spot in the two year old class, and then just a few months later, we made the decision to move to Colorado. Of course, by the time we figured out exactly what part of town we were going to be living in, all the preschools around here were full. I was pretty sad about it because I was a huge fan of Kendall and Berkeley starting when they were two years old. Those two mornings each week really helped them to be less clingy and start building up their independence. But, there was nothing we could do about it, so we made the most of it and enjoyed the time we had together while K & B were at school last year.

So, Emery is my youngest, but my oldest one to start preschool at three years old. Today was the BIG day!

She was SO ready for me to drop her off today. (She’s not crying, it’s just really bright!)

She was even more excited when she saw the table all ready to go with play-doh!

I can’t wait to see Emery grow and mature this year. I love this little girl so much, but it’s time for me to let her spread her wings a little. I’m also pumped about what this will mean for me—I’ll have eight hours each week where I can use my time for WHATEVER I want. Here are the things on my list:

temple (definitely haven’t been going as often as I should—especially since it’s 5 minutes away!)
volunteer in K & B’s classrooms
kid-free exercise
errands
massage/pedicure

Okay, that last one will probably never happen, but I can dream! It is beautiful outside right now, so I think I’ll go out for a run WITHOUT the jogging stroller! What a luxury!

long overdue

2011-09-05T22:25:00.001-06:00

I hadn’t gotten a haircut since May 2010. Yes, I said two thousand and TEN. Stupid, I know, but I had to come to grips with the fact that I couldn’t go to my girl in Charlotte anymore and I finally got up the guts to find a new stylist here in Colorado since my hair was absolutely KILLING me. It is SO much better now!

I explained to the new girl exactly what I wanted and exactly what I DIDN’T want. As soon as she finished and I looked in the mirror, I knew she totally GOT me. Then she said, “Don’t you feel like yourself again?” YES! Long hair definitely drags me down and it’s just NOT me. It might be hard to tell in this picture but it is MUCH shorter than it was. The back of my hair hits right at the base of my neck and then it angles toward the front so it is a couple inches longer in front. It’s very layered, which you also can’t tell in the picture. Hopefully I like it just as much when I wear it curly! Can’t wait to play around with it a little!

Here you can see how the back is shorter than the front.

post-demo

2011-09-04T20:57:00.001-06:00

Here’s what our backyard looks like with that massive deck gone. We knew there was a concrete patio under it, but weren’t sure exactly how big it was. Now that we’ve seen what we have to work with, we came up with a plan for our new patio.

Here’s where I got my inspiration:

You can see they started out with a concrete slab just like we have, and they put their brick pavers right over the top of it and extended the existing patio a bit to change the shape from a rectangle to a semi-circle. Hopefully ours works out just as well. . .

*The only thing I’m using from this inspiration photo is the patio itself—not the landscaping, privacy screens, or furniture (although I do like that dining set)!

my boy

2011-09-04T20:40:00.001-06:00

I know I’m not the only mom whose kids get a little cuckoo right before bed. Tonight as we were getting ready to say prayers, Berkeley put Patrick’s BYU hat on sideways and said in a low, rap-style voice, “I’m a BOY, I’m a BOY, I’m a BOY from BYU!”

Kendall took one look at her and said, “Then why are you wearing a nightgown?”

Without skipping a beat, Berkeley replied, “I’m a BOY, I’m a BOY, I’m a weird BOY from BYU!”

And at that, we all burst out laughing! I said, “This is going on my blog!” so, of course, Berkeley wanted me to take a video to post as well. For your viewing pleasure:

almost there!

2011-09-02T15:52:00.001-06:00

Emery had her preschool open house last night and she was very excited to meet her teacher Miss Diane and check out her new digs.

Kendall had soccer practice, but Berkeley came along for the evening. She thought the set-up was pretty sweet, but wondered why she didn’t fit into those little cars very well anymore! “My knees keep smacking!”

Preschool starts on Tuesday!

backyard destruction

2011-08-31T14:30:00.001-06:00

These are scenes from our backyard. If you didn’t know we lived in Colorado, you might have thought we lived in one of the areas hit by Irene.

Now that most of our indoor projects are done (for now, at least), we decided to focus our energy (or the energy of the landscaping crew) on the exterior of our home. The front porch is in (pictures to come once I decide on some plants and furniture) and so it was on to the backyard. Our 20+ year old deck is almost history, and it should be entirely ripped out by the end of the day. Gone will be the boards that wouldn’t screw in anymore, the spots where the hailstorm beat off the paint, and the home to many neighborhood animals, most recently, THE FOXES.

In its place will be a lovely brick patio—maintenance free, slightly smaller than the deck so we can regain some yard space or maybe have room for a garden box or two, and there will be NOWHERE for animals to live. I can’t wait!

what’s going on in our front yard right now?

2011-08-29T14:27:00.001-06:00

This:

We are getting our front porch poured today! Can’t wait to sit out there on these cool nights and enjoy Colorado. Guess I need to get shopping for some porch furniture. . .

back to school

2011-08-16T21:17:00.000-06:00

It still weirds me out that we start school in the middle of August out here. K & B started school yesterday (3rd grade and 1st grade) which means now Emery asks me every five minutes, “When do I get to go to preschool?”

Unfortunately, Emery doesn’t start till after Labor Day, so it might be a long next couple of weeks. . .

Thank goodness the pool is still open!

just another day at the pool

2011-07-29T23:34:00.001-06:00

When you have a pool that is practically in your backyard, it’s difficult NOT to want to go there every day. . . especially when it’s sunny and over 90 degrees. We give into the urge as much as possible, which means we have barely missed a day this summer and some days (like today), we go there TWICE!

We load up our wagon with towels, sunscreen, pool toys, and lunch. Then we walk, scooter, or bike the 30 yards (give or take) to the pool. Can you find Emery in this picture?

Swim team is over, but Kendall and Berkeley are practicing up for next year now. Kendall’s dives are coming along. . . Berkeley’s might need a little more work!

It is going to be a sad day at our house when the pool closes for the year.

W E L O V E O U R P O O L. Maybe a little bit too much.

One of my neighbors asked last week, “Are you guys at the pool EVERY day?”

Ummmmm. . .

Is there something wrong with that??

this is what 36 looks like. . .

2011-07-24T23:35:00.000-06:00

Only 25 minutes left of my birthday, and it was a good one.

We started the party on Friday night by going to see the final Harry Potter movie with Dr. Chris and the lovely Jenny (some Charlotte friends who have just moved to Colorado—woo hoo!) and then continued the celebration last night by going out for a Birthday Eve dinner with Patrick and my girls. Today, I got to have a nap after church and then a couple friends paid me a surprise visit with some delicious treats. For dinner, we went to my sister’s house where she had cooked up a fabulous meal. Then my girls started pulling out all the presents that they had wrapped for me—I’m modeling some of them here:

Berkeley and Emery’s gifts were so cute. Basically, they had gone through the house and found things to re-gift me. It was pretty hilarious and I think my little brother might have wet himself because he was laughing so hard! There were:

Mardi Gras beads (around my neck)
a homemade necklace (around my neck)
some bracelets they found on the ground one day
two dollars
a Primary bookmark
some Church pamphlets
a pen
a pencil case
some scrap paper
a pink ribbon
some pictures they had drawn
and a crepe paper flower that my mom had made for a decoration for Emery’s party a few days ago (in my hair in the above picture)

Kendall had helped Patrick pick out some other gifts for me:

Junior Mints
gum
a running watch
and some new Keens (love the spicy red!) so I can look like a real Coloradan

It was weird thinking that my last birthday was spent in Charlotte with a few good friends just a couple weeks before we moved. I still miss all my peeps in Charlotte, but it sure has been great living close to some family, some amazing friends from our Boston days, and making some fabulous NEW friends!

Happy birthday to ME!

my number three is THREE

2011-07-20T21:57:00.000-06:00

Last night as I was giving my little Emery a hug and a kiss before I put her into bed, I thought, “This is the last night that I will hug my two year old.” Because today, she turned THREE!

We started off the day by going to the Cherry Creek Fresh Market with our friends (Kendall is convinced she is going to marry Isaac someday) where we shopped for produce and had a breakfast of smoothies, crepes with fruit and nutella, pupusas, and tons of free samples. Emery’s little birthday crown even scored her a free miniature blackberry-raspberry pie from one of the vendors!

Waiting for the cake to bake. . .

. . .and then licking the pan clean.

The day ended with dinner and a party at Grandma’s house. Whenever I asked Emery what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday, she said “pink.” When I asked her what presents she wanted, she said “pink.” Thankfully that is an easy request to grant, so we went as pink as we could.

She loved being the center of attention while everyone watched her open her gifts. It was pretty darn cute. Shoes, a purse, art stuff, hair accessories, gum, a doll, a puzzle, jewelry, a book, a tiny broom set—and just enough of the presents were pink to make her the happiest little three year old around.

In keeping with the theme of the party, at one point during the night, Emery had to go to the bathroom, and when I was helping her with the wiping portion, I noticed that her poo was HOT PINK. I have never seen such a phenomenon before and then I remembered what we had for dinner last night. . . BEETS. Yes, that is the kind of party planner I am. I spare NO detail to stick with a theme! As she flushed the toilet, she called out, “Bye bye, pink poop!” (Sorry if that was an overshare, but it was the funniest part of the evening for me, so I had to document it!)

Emery makes me laugh every single day, which gets me through the moments when she makes me want to cry because she is exerting her independence a little more than I’d like sometimes! She gets cuter by the second and I often wonder how I got lucky enough to have her in our family. I melt every time she wraps her little arms around me and says, “I lub you, Mom.” A couple weeks ago, Kendall said, “I’m gonna miss this Emery when she gets older.” I know what you mean, Kendall. No one can get enough of our little Em, and I’m at the top of her fan club!

the REST of the swim season

2011-07-11T14:07:00.000-06:00

After a less than stellar start to the season, we (Kendall included) all ended up having a fabulous time. We just got back from the final meet of the season and I’m so proud of both girls for working hard the last two months. The only two things I asked of them when they started the season was to try their hardest and to have fun. Well, they did both those things, but K & B have also both improved their times dramatically and even placed first and second in some of their events. I couldn’t have asked for anything more from their first year of swim team!

We have also LOVED our coaches. They are so great with the kids and push them hard yet are incredibly supportive and encouraging. They go all out for every swim meet with different costumes for each week’s theme: hippie, cowboys & aliens, pirates, and rockstars!

And this morning when we left the house for our final meet, look what we found on our garage door:

I couldn’t believe they had taken the time to make and deliver those signs for EVERY kid on the swim team! Now that’s dedication!

Kendall admitted to me about a week into the season that she was really glad she hadn’t quit and that she was having SO much fun. Of course, I then reminded her to trust me next time because moms are always right! Kendall and Berkeley are both sad that swim team is over for the year and are already excited for NEXT season!

technical difficulties

2011-07-06T17:03:00.000-06:00

My computer has been cuckoo lately which is why I haven’t posted in over a month! I don’t even want to think about how much time and energy I wasted trying to figure out what was wrong, but I finally came to grips with the fact that I had to call customer service. After speaking with a nice gentleman in India a few nights ago, I found out that the hard drive on my newborn computer (she’s just two months old!) has gone bad. WHAT?? Thank goodness for warranties, so it has now been replaced. I have oodles of pictures to share and stories to tell. . . if I can only remember them all! Not sure if anyone really cares whether or not I get caught up, but since this is our family’s only method of recording what happens around here, I DO care!

symphony in the park

2011-07-03T23:37:00.000-06:00

This post is dedicated to Emily, who cares! Miss you!

One of my favorite summertime activities when we lived in Charlotte was going to the Symphony in the Park series. I was excited when I found out that Denver has one too! We brought a picnic and joined my family (my parents, my sister, and my brothers and their wives) for a relaxing evening on the lawn. And because it was the night before Independence Day, they finished the show with a great (albeit a little short) fireworks show!

On our way to Civic Center Park from the parking garage, we passed by the Denver Art Museum and Kendall wanted to clean up a bit. . .

Yummy treats. . .

. . . and fun people!

The state Capitol and massive crowds!

This was Emery’s very first fireworks show and she loved it—it was so much fun to listen to her reactions. I don’t know how to use my camera at night, so here’s a little video I took before it got too dark:

*I didn’t realize this till I uploaded the pictures, but somehow I didn’t get any pictures of Berkeley! (She makes an appearance in the video, though.) Patrick was unfortunately not able to make it since he was speaking at a baptism that was at the same time!

if you TRY, you can do a TRIathlon!

2011-07-01T14:07:00.000-06:00

The swim coaches put on a triathlon in the neighborhood for everyone on the swim team. When I heard about it a couple weeks ago, I knew it would be the thing to get Berkeley to want to learn to ride her bike. She had the swimming and the running down, but without the biking part, she wouldn’t be able to compete! You can pretty much bet that if Kendall is doing something cool, Berkeley will want to do it too. Since Kendall is a pro at bike riding now, she would definitely be participating in the race. Not to be outdone by her older sister, Berkeley decided she would let Patrick teach her how to ride her bike, and just like Kendall did a few months ago, Berkeley picked it up in just minutes. With a couple weeks of practicing under her belt, she was all set for the big day!

The instructions. . .

the swim. . .

the bike. . .

the run. . .

. . .and the finishers!

I loved watching all the kids working so hard. K & B said they thought it was so much fun and want to do more!

Boston, baby!

2011-06-06T16:39:00.000-06:00

Patrick and I just got back from a wonderful weekend trip sans kids. We haven’t done that near enough as we should (I think we counted that this was the fourth time we’ve done that in the eight years that we’ve been parents), which made it an especially nice treat.

It was Patrick’s five year reunion for business school, so we dropped the girls off at my parents’ house (still can’t believe they are just 20 minutes away!) and hopped on the redeye to Boston. After a long night with only a couple hours of sleep each, we landed in Boston at 5:00 am. We grabbed some breakfast (and I snagged a little nap in Au Bon Pain while Patrick did some work on his laptop), and then we decided to go on a long power walk/run along the Charles River for old times sake.

The weather could NOT have been better. There was not a stitch of humidity the entire weekend and the temperature was in the high 60’s to low 70’s. It was exciting to be in Boston where the memories of our two years there came flooding back.

Over the next few days, we went to seminars, dinners, and galas with the class of 2006. I got to hang out with some of my favorite friends from our Boston days but noticeably missing were a few of my ladies that couldn’t make it. Next time can everyone please plan their family weddings and anniversaries and childbirths AROUND our reunion?

Some of us even took a little side trip to check on our favorite ducks. . .

. . . who were all dressed up in Bruins gear for the playoffs.

Patrick surprised me by turning into a night owl while we were on our trip. The final party was on Saturday night and was at the Museum of Fine Arts (gorgeous building BTW). We ate and chatted with old friends and then I dragged him down to the dance floor. Even though Patrick said he would only dance for a little while because it was getting late, we ended up dancing until they closed the party down at midnight. And then, some old classmates of Patrick’s asked if we wanted to go to a karaoke bar with them. Patrick surprised me by saying, “Yes!” Of course, as soon as they were out of hearing range, he said, “Yeah, we’re not going.” I admit I was disappointed because I LOVE to karaoke and I just wanted to make the most out of our final night. But as we were heading back to our hotel, he had a change of heart and said, “Let’s just stop by for a little while.” I seriously thought he was messing with me, but he was for real! So we went and had the best time. I was singing my little heart out and everyone there said, “Why did you guys never hang out with us while we all lived here?” Well, remember how we had a toddler and a newborn and none of you guys were even married then? Yeah, THAT is why we never hung out! We ended up staying until they closed down the karaoke club at 2:00 am. I know. . . we are hardcore.

And I’m sorry, but I just had to post this picture after the hilarity that ensued when I posted it on Facebook. I could say a lot of things about this picture, but mostly I just wanted to post it because I crack up every time I look at “Angry Grandpa Bill” in the back row. I have no idea why the light in that room aged you so much, Bill, but man, this picture has provided LOTS of entertainment! We love you, Bill—we had some great laughs with you and Rose!

I am so glad we took this trip. Patrick has been very stressed out with his new job ever since we moved to Denver, so even though he had to work quite a bit while we were there, it was a great break for both of us. And there’s nothing better than coming home to three little girls who can’t stop talking about all the fun times they had with grandma and grandpa!

Memorial Day

2011-05-30T21:00:00.000-06:00

When we moved here last year, I was totally thinking that come Memorial Day, we’d all go up to Boulder to run the famous Bolder Boulder 10K. I ran that race many years ago when I lived here as a single twenty-something and it is a HUGE but fun race. Much to my dismay, it became clear a few months ago that I really shouldn’t be running more than a couple miles at a time right now, due to my knee issues that are STILL plaguing me. I was bummed until I heard that our neighborhood does a fun run every Memorial Day that is the perfect distance for my aging and decrepit knees—TWO MILES!

Our whole family entered (if you count Emery in the jogging stroller) and Kendall and Berkeley were pumped since it was their first real race. We all started together, but it quickly became clear that we were not all going to be able to keep the same pace. Berkeley wanted to RUN and Kendall was fine with running interspersed with walking. My knees were actually feeling surprisingly good and I felt like I could have really pushed it, but it was important to me that this was a family event, so I stayed with Kendall. Berkeley and Patrick were quickly out of my sight, so I didn’t see them until Kendall and I crossed the finish line. Berkeley immediately ran up to me and said, “Mom, they said I got third place!” She doesn’t have the best track record for being 100% honest, so I have to admit that I didn’t believe her for a second. . . until they were announcing the winners from the race and I hear a guy say, “And the third place winner for the Girls 8 & Under category is Berkeley McKinnon!”

Say what?

First time I’ve ever been wrong. But I was pretty proud of my little 6 year old who was determined enough to run the entire way and smoked a lot of the kids who were much older than her! She was proud of herself too, and was even more excited that the spoils included a ten dollar bill! I think I may have found my little protégé. . .

Kendall did well too. While she may not have placed, she worked hard and finished in the top third of all the participants.

I am slowly getting closer to my dream of having our WHOLE family of five running a race together. . . fingers crossed that my stupid knees don’t ruin it for me!

cousin sleepover

2011-05-24T23:07:00.000-06:00

Elodie and Xander got to spend a day and a couple nights with us while my sister was detoxing their house after they kicked out their renters who turned out to be less than ideal. I forgot to take many pictures but I promise that Elodie was having more fun than it looks like in this picture! We have to savor all of these moments with our Colorado cousins, because in less than a month, they will be our Alaska cousins! EEK!

the meet

2011-05-23T22:55:00.000-06:00

Amazingly, after a week of cancelled swim practices for cold and soggy weather, the sun came out so we could have our first unofficial swim meet on Saturday! (It was a “fun” meet where they weren’t competing against another team.) But even though it was just a “fun” meet, it definitely didn’t start out very fun. It’s strange because for the past three months, Kendall’s been so excited about starting the swim team and has talked about it TONS. While she’s never done swim team before, she has done lessons for the past few years and has gotten to be a pretty strong swimmer. But after swimming her first length of the pool for the warm-up before the meet, she hopped out and was bawling. She said she hated freestyle and she wanted to quit the team. Not exactly how I pictured the first day going. After a lot of pep talks from me and her coaches and reminding her that it was only her FIRST time getting in the water this season and that she was going to get better and to just treat this as a practice. . . she finally decided that she would swim in the meet but that she would only do backstroke.

In complete contrast, Berkeley jumped out of the pool after warming up and said, “Mom, I did it! That was so fun!” She didn’t even care that she was grabbing on to the lane rope about every 5 seconds. . . she made it across the pool, so she was happy!

Hanging out in the tent was also a highlight of the day. Having never been on swim team before, I was not familiar with the fun that is THE TENT, but Patrick has fond childhood memories of chilling there with his teammates in between events and I’m sure my girls will as well!

Let’s hope that Kendall gets a little attitude adjustment. . . we can only go UP from here!

foxy

2011-05-22T22:00:00.000-06:00

Patrick may have been gone all last week, but I wasn’t alone at night. I had these guys keeping me company outside my window:

Yes, we have a family of four foxes that have decided to take up residence under our deck. Over the past week, I have observed their patterns. Every night at around 10:00 pm, they wake up and come out from under the deck and get ready to go hunting. They must have to get themselves pumped up because I can hear them running around on the deck, knocking things over, and slamming into the windows—the first time I heard it, it scared the crap out of me! Now that I know what it is every night, it doesn’t freak me out so much anymore, but it still is pretty unsettling to hear all that ruckus going on right outside your window. Then they go out for their hunt and I try to fall asleep. Sometime around 8:00 or 9:00 am, they come back and play around on the deck and in our backyard for awhile (this is when the above pictures were taken) before they crawl under the deck to go back to sleep for the day. After a couple days of this, I was done. The fact that they use our deck as their toilet doesn’t help either (what is it with finding rogue turds lately?)

So I called the city wildlife department to find out what can be done about this little problem. The lady said that I could kill them or that I could “encourage” them to find a new home. Since foxes do help control the bunny population, I thought it was probably a good idea to keep them alive. . . just not in my yard (also, Kendall told me we were NOT allowed to kill them since that is how animals become endangered). So in order to get them to feel unwelcome at our house, here’s what we have to do:

Put a radio out on the deck, and in the morning turn it to a talk radio station and let it blast as loud as possible until sundown. (This disturbs them while they’re trying to sleep.)
At night, soak some rags in pure ammonia and toss them under the deck. (Have you ever smelled STRAIGHT ammonia?)
Repeat steps 1 and 2 for 5-7 days until the foxes get the hint.

The plan has been in place for the last two days.

No neighbors have complained about the radio yet.

Foxes are still holding strong. (But as I just typed that, they are making the freakiest noises outside—maybe they’re not digging the ammonia.)

We have our bishop “the hunter” on retainer. . .

last day of school

2011-05-20T20:45:00.000-06:00

School gets out so much earlier here than it did in Charlotte. TODAY was our last day and if we were still in Charlotte, we’d have almost another month left! It doesn’t seem like it could possibly be the end of the school year already, especially since the rainy and cold weather we’ve been having this week feels like the furthest thing from summer! The girls came home with yearbooks, report cards, and we spent the afternoon going through everything. K & B both brought home some pretty cool artwork that I will definitely be framing. (I am dying for Colorado’s first IKEA to open in a few months since it is my favorite place for frames— and it’s just about 7 minutes from my house!)

I took all the girls out to dinner tonight to celebrate a wonderful year. It was their first time having PHO and BOBAS and they were big fans. (Patrick has been out of town all week and we’re so ready for him to come back tomorrow!)

And in other news, this morning we got a delivery, which means our next project is just around the corner!

Big day tomorrow—it is K & B’s very first swim meet EVER (at our neighborhood’s brand new pool that was just finished!) and due to the weather that I mentioned earlier, swim practice has been cancelled every day, so the kids haven’t even been able to get in the pool to practice yet! Should be interesting. . .

when we’re helping we’re happy

2011-05-17T23:29:00.001-06:00

In spite of the challenges that come with two year olds (see previous post), I love that Emery is at the age where helping Mom is still fun! She asked if she could put away the silverware and wanted to do it all by herself!

(These were taken when our family room was still “tented” in case you were wondering what was going on in the background! Old project. . . not a new one!)

the smell

2011-05-15T21:19:00.000-06:00

Disclaimer: This post is NOT for the queasy-stomached. If you are pregnant or sick or eating something right now, please stop reading.

I noticed it a couple days ago. I walked up the stairs and something tickled my nose. . . but not in a good way. I asked everyone else to come and check it out so I could make sure it wasn’t just me who was smelling it. Nope. There was definitely something. For two days, we looked around upstairs to try to find the source. A dirty diaper that got tucked away somewhere? Nope. A moldy cleaning rag? Nope. Then Patrick had a thought—what if there was a dead animal up in our attic? Oh, great. How much did I NOT want to climb up in our attic and look for some decomposing animal remains? I called my dad to see if he could help out with our dilemma, but he wouldn’t have a chance to come over for about three days. Crap. I didn’t think we could wait that long. . .

A couple hours ago, Patrick was in the girls’ bathroom on “teeth brushing duty” when he called down the stairs to me, “Mer, you gotta come up here!” Based on the tone of his voice, I was scared. I reluctantly went into the bathroom. Once I was inside, he closed the door to reveal something that had gone undetected behind it— sitting on top of an air vent that is inconveniently hidden behind the door when it is open (and since my girls NEVER shut the door when they’re in there, it is ALWAYS open) was the CLEAR source of that smell. A baseball-sized turd. Trust me, I am as grossed out as you are. I was even more disgusted when I thought back over the last couple days which have been unseasonably COLD, meaning the heat has been coming on quite a bit. . . baking the darn thing and blowing the smell all through the air. All that time I was searching the rooms upstairs for the smell, it NEVER occurred to me to look behind any of the doors. Oh, and by the way, we do NOT have any pets. . .

There are actually two bright sides to this whole thing:

I no longer have to scavenge around in an attic/pet cemetery.
This was the first time that Emery hasn’t done her business in her diaper—maybe we’re closer on this toilet training thing than I thought!

You can thank me for not taking a picture. . .

a beautiful baptism day

2011-05-07T22:54:00.001-06:00

Perfect.

I’ve been busy. . .

2011-05-06T15:21:00.000-06:00

. . . which means my little blog gets neglected. I will be catching up on all the posts that I’ve composed in my head, and ever since I discovered that I can “back date” my posts, it’s like I’m not actually LATE in posting them! We’ve got Easter, an eighth birthday party, a tea party, a field trip, a melodrama, one act plays, soccer games, and some house projects. Yeah, that’s a lot for two weeks in my opinion!

But what’s happening tomorrow will trump ALL of those posts, cuz we’ve got THIS:

what to do with a coconut

2011-04-20T15:45:00.001-06:00

Crack it open and slurp up the delicious coconut water!

Okay, you can eat the coconut part too, but it’s just not as cute. . .

great to be eight

2011-04-18T22:19:00.000-06:00

My sweet Kendall is eight years old. We had a small birthday celebration at home on the actual day, but since EIGHT is a big deal, she’s got a lot more to look forward to. We’ll have a big party with some friends in a couple weeks, and then on May 7th, we’ll have the BIGGEST day she will have had in her eight years of life so far. . . her baptism!

But back to her birthday evening—Kendall chose enchiladas and coconut cream pie for her special day. I was happy to oblige! I even made up a new enchilada recipe that turned out AWESOME if I do say so myself.

Kendall loved the little penguin that Emery gave her.

. . . and was excited to have an “iPod” just like Berkeley’s!

Berkeley was pretty excited about some of the presents too!

This girl has been a Beatles fan ever since kindergarten when they learned about them in school. I remember a Beatles song came on in the car one day and she surprised me by saying, “I wonder who is singing here—maybe it’s John or Paul. Or maybe it’s Ringo or George.” We have indulged this love ever since. Her NYC grandparents graciously expanded her collection!

I love watching what a great little girl Kendall is turning out to be. I don’t get to be with her all that much since she is gone for a minimum of seven hours a day during the week, so I really treasure the time that we DO get to spend together. Love you, Kendall!

to bike or not to bike

2011-04-10T15:54:00.000-06:00

That was the question for the last four and a half years. For Christmas of 2006, Patrick really wanted to upgrade Kendall from her tricycle and get her a two-wheeler bike. Patrick was disappointed that when she saw her big present on Christmas morning, she passed right by it to go look at everything else. In fact, Berkeley at just 20 months was more excited about the bike than Kendall was.

We convinced her to try it out a few days later, but she wasn’t a big fan. She only ever hopped on it a handful of times and we didn’t want to FORCE her to ride it. In her defense, we didn’t have any sidewalks in our neighborhood in Charlotte and since our driveway was a little sloped, it wasn’t the easiest place to learn.

We offered to take her to a parking lot somewhere to learn, but she declined. Again and again and again. A couple years ago, we bought the girls scooters and they took to those quickly. Whenever we’d offer to teach Kendall how to ride her bike, she’d say, “Naaaaaaaah. I’ll just ride my scooter.” Every time I’d see a little four year old kid out there riding a bike, I’d think, “Man, I’m a lame mom. My daughter is [insert age here—five, then six, then seven] and I still haven’t taught her how to ride!”

Well, I guess Patrick was feeling lame too, cuz for Christmas this year, he got new bikes for Kendall and Berkeley.

Kendall had clearly outgrown the one she got four years before, so if we were going to do this, it had to be a bike that FIT. Once again, Kendall was not that excited about a new bike. Even though it has been winter, we’ve had plenty of nice days since Christmas where she could have learned to ride, but she just didn’t WANT to. Berkeley wasn’t all that thrilled either. A month or so ago, we rode the bikes to the park (with the training wheels) and it was a nightmare. One or both of the girls were crying multiple times throughout the excursion. Seriously? Who knew it was going to be this difficult?

Yesterday, after the soccer games were over for the day, I decided that we had to pull off the band-aid. I wasn’t going to give them the choice—we were going to take off the training wheels and figure it out once and for all. . . whether they WANTED to or not. Patrick and I went out to take off the tiny wheels and we were able to get both of Kendall’s wheels off but only one of Berkeley’s. The darn thing was stuck, so we said we’d just take Kendall’s bike to the park and Berkeley could ride her scooter this time. Wouldn’t ya know it, Kendall was upset and said Berkeley was lucky! Kendall said she was nervous and didn’t want to fall and hurt herself. I told her that it wasn’t going to be as hard as she was imagining it and that when she figures it out, she is going to love it so much that she’s going to wish she didn’t wait so long to learn!

Patrick headed off to the park with K & B while I stayed back with Emery to mix up the pizza dough for dinner. Twenty minutes later, the two of us walked to the park while we let the dough rise at home. In that 20 minutes, Patrick had coached Kendall and she was riding completely by herself like she’d been doing it for years. With a HUGE grin on her face, she told me that I WAS RIGHT—she LOVED it and wished she had learned a long time ago! She said she didn’t even fall once while she was learning. I watched her ride around and around and around the park. I was a proud mom. She didn’t want to leave and made me promise we would come back to the park on Monday after school so she could ride some more.

Phew—she figured it out just 9 days before her eighth birthday. It sounds so much better to say she learned to ride her bike when she was seven instead of when she was eight!

In other bike news, not only did K & B get bikes for Christmas, but Patrick surprised me by getting the two of US bikes too! (Excuse the scary Christmas morning pic!)

For our date on Friday night, we decided to go out on them for the first time TOGETHER. The plan was to bike to a restaurant (about two miles away), eat, then bike home. Unfortunately, Patrick got a flat tire on the way there, so we had to walk his bike most of the way to the restaurant. After dinner, we walked it over to a bike repair shop so we wouldn’t have to walk it all the way home. Of course, it was pitch dark by the time it was fixed. I was wearing ALL black and since there are NO street lights between there and home, it was freaking me out that I couldn’t see anything (and no one could see ME). I was having visions of running off the curb into the road or into a telephone pole! Patrick didn’t mind that he couldn’t see, but apparently I’m a wimp. We ended up walking the bikes most of the way home! In spite of that, it was a fun date, and I’m looking forward to our next time out on our bikes! Won’t that be fun when the WHOLE family can ride?

for the budding artists

2011-04-04T15:55:00.001-06:00

Kendall’s birthday is just two weeks from today. When I asked her a couple weeks ago what she wanted for her birthday, all she said she wanted was art supplies. So when I saw a blog post last week about an “artist trading card swap,” I immediately signed her up!

Basically, your child is put into a group of five other children his/her age who have signed up for the swap, and then your child makes five small pieces of artwork (2.5” x 3.5”) and sends them to the other people in the group. In return, your child will get pieces of art from the five other children in the group—there are people participating from across the United States and all over the world!

I know Kendall is going to be really excited when I tell her about it and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with!

If you think your child would have fun participating in this (the minimum age is 4), don’t wait to sign up because registration ends TODAY (Monday, April 4th)! Registration is SIMPLE. All you have to do is send an email with your child’s age, name, and address. See this site for full directions!

little piggies

2011-04-04T13:56:00.001-06:00

I saw this the other day and I just can’t get over it!

And apparently it is so popular that there is a WAITING LIST, so if this got you really excited, don’t get your hopes up quite yet. . .

the birthday festivities continue. . .

2011-04-03T22:27:00.000-06:00

Last year Berkeley had a party with her friends and Kendall didn’t, so we decided we’d swap this year. We did a family dinner party (with Grandma & Grandpa, two aunts and an uncle, and a couple friends from church who had joined us for Conference) after the last Sunday session.

Berkeley got some fun gifts, but she was most excited about THE PONY. Ever since she happened upon it at Target a few weeks ago, she couldn’t get it out of her head!

She’s also really taken a liking to her new “iPod.” My girls have been asking for an iPod Touch like their dad’s, but there’s just no way I was going to pay $200 for something they could ruin. I bought this little guy a few months ago for just $35 and it has exceeded my expectations!

It only got 2.5 stars on Amazon because it definitely isn’t as technologically as advanced as the iPod, but here’s why I think it works great for my girls’ first MP3 player (I’ve got another one waiting for Kendall’s birthday next week):

it has a touch screen which makes it easy to navigate
it has a speaker built in so you don’t always have to use the headphones
it has a voice recorder—Berkeley cracks herself up by recording herself saying silly things and then playing them back!
it can be used for listening to music and viewing photos and videos
it can hold about 2000 songs, which is plenty to hold all the music she could ever want on there—I loaded it with lots of her faves (Beatles, Beach Boys, ABBA, Jack Johnson, Wicked, Enchanted)
it’s quick and easy to hook up to my computer and drag and drop files into it
it’s easy to plug it in and recharge it (I hate kids’ toys that you have to keep buying new batteries for)
it was cheap enough that whenever it breaks, I won’t feel too bad!
it’s already given me my money’s worth just by watching how much fun Berkeley’s having with it!

happy Berksday

2011-04-02T23:38:00.001-06:00

My Boston-born beauty is six today. I remember that rainy morning as we drove to Brigham & Women’s Hospital and I was so nervous to do it all over again. I really thought she was going to be a boy and so when she was born and Patrick shouted out that it was a girl, I was truly shocked. I wasn’t prepared for the challenges that being a mom of two would bring, but slowly I figured it out. The first year of her life was kind of a blur. Since then, it has only gotten better and better.

We went to The Original Pancake House for breakfast (a repeat of last year) and Patrick even told the girls they could go in their PJ’s. All the girls got the “smiley face pancakes,” but before the real breakfast came, the server brought out a special strawberry crepe for the birthday girl and sang to her, which of course, she loved.

The rest of the day consisted of soccer games for K & B (where Berkeley scored two goals!) and watching Conference.

We told Berkeley she sure ordered some great birthday weather—it got into the EIGHTIES today! We finished off the day with a trip to our neighborhood park with some friends. Tomorrow we’ll do cake and presents— too much going on to do that today (and Patrick was at Conference tonight) but Berkeley didn’t mind cuz that just means her birthday gets to last another day!

topsy turvy

2011-04-01T23:25:00.000-06:00

I love April. We started off our April Fools’ Day with some toppling piles of laundry. Emery wanted to help me out with the folding .

Or maybe not.

I thought it was an April Fools’ joke when Patrick told me that he decided not to go into the office, but he was for real! While K & B were at school, Patrick, Emery, and I went for a nice long walk. Emery wanted to wear a hat and kept saying, “Go Red Sox!”

As an early birthday present, Patrick took Berkeley to the Rockies’ home opener. I told him to take pictures, but this is the best (and only) shot he came back with!

And the rest of us went to Topsy Turvy Night at the elementary school. Kendall is barely taller than her best bud Brooke when she’s standing on these cans!

Emery and Kendall burned up the dance floor!

They got to make a couple crafts and chow down on some pizza.

April Fools’ Day is only the beginning of a great month. We’ve got Berkeley and Kendall’s birthdays, General Conference, lots more soccer, the second grade melodrama, the kindergarten one act plays, a visit from some of our favorite Charlotte friends, and Easter to look forward to!

princess posse

2011-03-26T23:46:00.000-06:00

Just a few days after my little sister Marliese and her family left, my OTHER little sister came into town with her husband and three kiddos. Monette and Aaron left their two oldest children (Xander and Elodie) with us while they jaunted off to the North Pole to check on a job possibility. We got to spend a little time with all of them before they left.

Emery is obsessed with baby Hazel. Not hard to figure out why—check out this cutie!

When Berkeley and Elodie get together, the first thing they always want to do is dress up. . . and now Emery’s old enough to join in on the fun! (Just noticed in this picture that Emery is almost as tall as Elodie—and she’s a year and a half younger!)

I have no pictures of Kendall and Xander from this night—the first thing THEY love to do together is build things, so I’m sure they were off playing Legos when all this was going down!

the fever

2011-03-25T12:27:00.000-06:00

We all had it. It was an epidemic sweeping the nation and there was no known cure. We had Jimmer Fever.

It was so fun watching my girls get into it. It was great having my sister and her family staying with us for the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament where we got to watch two BYU wins!

Then our houseguests had to go back to Iowa just as their spring break ended and ours started. The day after they left, I woke up and went into K & B’s room to find this:

I asked them what their little creation was, and Kendall told me that all the dolls and animals were watching the BYU game! (Apparently, the striped book in the first picture is the TV if you hadn’t guessed.)

When Thursday finally came, we all started gearing up for the big game to see if our team was going to make it to THE EIGHT. Huge.

K & B wouldn’t let me see what they were working on and then came downstairs with these:

That night we made pizzas and had our “Cougar Mints” all ready to go.

I have declared them the official sweet treat for BYU fans. They are essentially mint M&M’s but they are blue and white! If you’re shocked that I’m promoting candy on my blog, check out the bag a little closer. . . they’re DARK chocolate, which is essentially a health food, right?

My girls were all dressed in blue and white and had their pom poms ready.

Anyone who watched the game knows it was intense the whole way through. It was hard to look away. Despite Jimmer’s bum calf that night, they were able to hold their own. . . until the last few minutes. It was painful to watch them lose when they really SHOULD have won, and we all went to bed a little sad. Well, maybe not as sad as THIS girl. . .

packing it in

2011-03-20T14:47:00.000-06:00

We were thrilled to have a slightly impromptu visit from our Iowa cousins. They arrived on Tuesday night,and we filled Wednesday through Saturday with good quality family time.

Kendall and Berkeley got on the bus at 8:45 am on Wednesday morning like usual, but little did they know I had a plan up my sleeve. Since it was supposed to be the nicest weather for the whole week that day (in the 70’s) I decided to surprise them by picking them up at 11:00 am so we could join everyone else at the reservoir for a picnic. The kids played in the water, the sand, and we finished off a great lunch by roasting marshmallows for Smores.

Then it was off to the Pepsi Center to watch BYU practice for Thursday’s game. The practice sessions for all the teams were free and open to the public, so since we knew we couldn’t spring for tickets for EVERYONE to go to the games, we thought we could at least all go watch the teams shoot around for a bit. We weren’t prepared for what should have been just a thirty minute drive to take an hour and 40 minutes (and it was WELL before rush hour) but thank goodness we had left early enough that we got there just in time to see BYU and The Jimmer.

We watched BYU and then checked out some of the competition too—we stayed for Wofford and St. Johns. By this point it was about dinner time and we weren’t anxious to jump back into what would now be rush hour traffic, so we walked down to the 16th Street Mall for some Noodles.

We took up half the restaurant!

The rest of the weekend was spent watching the Cougs, jumping on the trampoline, playing Kinect, and going on walks to the park. My mom also made a fabulous St. Patrick’s Day dinner—and of course the fact that I didn’t have to cook made it even better!

Every time Marliese or Tom sat on these arm chairs, kids came from out of nowhere to pile on top of them and read!

After the kids went to bed each night, I got to have some fun with Marliese and Tom—watching funny YouTube videos, cracking up as we shook our booties with Dance Central, and belting out some karaoke! Props to my sister who wasn’t feeling well the majority of the time she was here—she was a TROOPER and didn’t let it get her down!

We miss them already. Berkeley reminded me that the house next door to us is for sale, so why can’t they just move here? Wouldn’t that be a dream? Why can’t it be that easy?

Selection Sunday

2011-03-15T16:08:00.001-06:00

Do your kids get this excited to watch the NCAA Tournament bracket be announced?

My sister and her family live in Des Moines, and a couple weeks ago, they told us that if BYU was playing here in Denver for the first two rounds, they were going to come and visit! The girls had all been asking me when we would find out if they were coming or not, so I told them that we’d find out on Sunday at 4:00 pm. Of course, 4:00 pm rolled around and Kendall and Berkeley came to me and asked what the verdict was. I told them we had to wait for it to be announced on TV, so the three of us (Patrick was at work and Emery was napping) sat down to watch the selection show together. I told them the words they were waiting to hear: BYU will be playing in Denver! They patiently waited until almost the bitter end when they announced the second to last game. . . finally!

You can see how happy they were—such basketball fans, right? Or maybe just big fans of their COUSINS!

go green or go home

2011-03-12T17:34:00.001-07:00

We had a busy Saturday morning but made sure we squeezed in the big St. Patrick’s Day Parade downtown! We watched it with some old friends and some new friends and enjoyed the people watching and good company in spite of the chilly temps since we were on the shaded side of the street (sorry again for making you move, KC)!

In the picture above, Emery had just shoved a huge piece of that nasty parade gum in her mouth, so that’s the best smile she could manage!

Here’s a summary of the parade:

lots of bagpipes
lots of curly wigs
lots of “princesses” riding in convertibles
lots of Harleys
lots of dogs (ever seen a wolfhound? not a pretty sight!)
lots of people who looked like they didn’t belong in the parade
lots of teeth chattering (by me)

The big disappointment was that it was missing two key things that every good parade needs:

Shriners on tiny bikes

and

high school marching bands

We had fun, but I would not have minded a little of this action:

Guess I’ll have to get on the committee for next year. . .

Kotze-WHO?

2011-03-07T16:35:00.001-07:00

Kotzebue (pronounced COTS-uh-byoo, I think). Never heard of it? Me neither, until my sister and her family thought about moving there. It is a tiny town in Alaska that is located 33 miles NORTH of the Arctic Circle. Yes, I said NORTH. If you sneeze, some of your germs might land in Russia.

My sister is amazing. She always looks at the bright side of things, so when they heard this could be a job option for her husband, she said “How cool is it that during the summer, the sun doesn’t set for over two months?” Of course the flip side of that is that the sun doesn’t RISE for over two months in the winter, but she didn’t even focus on that at all like I would! Just check out this info I found from the all-knowing Wikipedia:

Kotzebue has a subarctic climate with long, somewhat snowy, and very cold winters, and short, mild summers. Monthly daily average temperatures range from −3.5 °F in February to 54.7 °F in July, with an annual mean of 21.8 °F. Days of above 70 °F are not common, but can be expected on 5 days per summer.

FIVE DAYS PER YEAR THAT ARE ABOVE 70 DEGREES???

If you want to see how supportive my sister is being about this possibility, just check out her blog post on it! They are currently living in Sidney, Montana (almost to Canada), so maybe that’s part of the reason why this doesn’t sound like too big of a stretch for them?? Let’s just say I would much rather find myself living at the Equator than the North Pole!

Groupon

2011-03-03T15:40:00.001-07:00

If you haven’t yet gotten on the Groupon train, what are you waiting for?

I have scored some pretty sweet deals—restaurants, water parks, and even a photography class that I’m looking forward to taking this spring! You can find deals in tons of cities around the U.S., so if you haven’t checked it out yet, what are you waiting for? It’s free to sign up for the deals and if you see one you like, you just buy it! There’s no commitment to buy a certain number of them—just wait till the right ones come along! I love Groupon!

There are also some wanna-be sites popping up like Mamapedia and Juice in the City where you can find some more great deals. Every day, I get emails from each of these sites. If the daily deal is nothing I’m interested in, I just delete it. Take’s a few seconds of my day but it’s worth it. Who doesn’t love saving money these days?

cabinet reveal

2011-02-28T10:46:00.001-07:00

The cabinets were finished last Tuesday, but I’ve been waiting to post the after pictures until the carpet guy came out to tack the carpet back in place. (We had to pull it back a bit to install the cabinets.) The carpet guy still hasn’t come, but I know you ALL want to see the pictures, so here you go!

BEFORE

AFTER

I am SO happy with how it turned out! To me, it looks like this is the way it should always have been, which is exactly what I was hoping for. We haven’t put everything away in the cabinets yet because as you can see on the right side, the carpet is flipped up, which means you can’t really open those doors to put stuff in there. The right side cabinet is where a few baskets of children’s books will go. Easy access for the kiddos—covered storage for ME! The left side will be for TV stuff (maybe a new Blu-ray player?) and a few of Emery’s toys. Most are down in the basement playroom, but she likes a few to be upstairs to keep busy when I’m on my computer.

I love how much brighter it feels—it was already the brightest room in the house with the wall of windows and the two skylights, so now it almost glows! Now I just need to figure out the furniture in this room. The leather couch will stay, but the rest of it needs to be tweaked a bit! On the left side is a window seat that runs the full length of the room. I don’t want to put anything in front of it, but that side of the room feels bare! I think I need a Nate Berkus intervention. . .

And this right here just makes my day—no more CORDS!

around the world in sixty minutes

2011-02-24T22:41:00.001-07:00

It was the second grade’s “Country Night” last evening. Kendall was representing France. All the students have been working so hard on these projects for the last month. They researched, took notes, made a rough draft, and then typed all of their information into the laptops at school to create a book with all of their information and illustrations. You can see Kendall’s book below, along with the other things we brought for her display—a tablecloth we bought in Provence, some perfume we bought at a French parfumerie, some Santon dolls, and a picture of Patrick and I on top of Notre Dame.

Each student sat at their display while all the guests wandered around and talked to the kids about what they had learned about their countries. Kendall thought it was so much fun to show people her book and answer their questions.

When you visited someone’s display, you dropped some change into the little brown bags on their desks. All the money donated went to Heifer International. Everyone was also asked to bring some food from their country—there was quite the smorgasbord in the cafeteria! I got a good chuckle when I saw someone had brought Swedish fish! Patrick, of course, made his famous crepes. With so much food there, I thought we would have to bring home a ton of leftovers, but every single crepe was devoured!

All the kids were supposed to make a little card to put on their desk that said “5 minute break” so they could run to the cafeteria to get some food. As Kendall salivated over all the amazing food that was there, she said, “I wish I would have made my card say ten minute break!”

never say never

2011-02-18T16:26:00.001-07:00

No, we did not just get back from seeing the new Justin Bieber movie.

Growing up, we never had any sort of gaming system in our house. Many of my friends had Atari (yes, I’m THAT old) and then the original Nintendo. It was kind of fun playing Mario Bros. at friends’ houses, but because I didn’t play often, I wasn’t good, so didn’t really like it all that much.

Fast forward to Christmas 2000. Patrick and I spent our second Christmas as a married couple together and he REALLY wanted the new Sony PlayStation. Being the good wife that I was, I got it for him. We played it together on occasion and sometimes he’d have the guys over to play Madden 2000.

Eventually, the newness wore off and it got used less and less. We were both busy and there were other things we’d rather do with our spare time. We still have it, but only because we like to bust it out every so often and get crazy with some Tetris (apparently that game is worth $70 now)! It’s the only video game I’ve ever loved.

I liked to think we’d never let our kids have video games. I mean, that’s the way I grew up and I turned out okay, right? I’m all about encouraging outdoor time and physical activity and video games went against BOTH! Until. . . the Kinect came along. I was still a little resistant, but I had to admit that this was a gaming system that is anti-couch potato. It isn’t possible to play the games while sitting down and unlike the Wii you have to use your WHOLE body.

Patrick’s parents were so generous and bought it for the girls. It arrived yesterday and here are some action shots from their first time playing. I love that they don’t have to worry about a controller! They were having a blast and working up a sweat!

No, a tutu is not required.

We have set a few rules:

You must ask permission to play. (No sneaking down to the basement without Mom knowing!)
When Mom says it’s time to quit, there is no whining.
If any arguments or fights start while they’re playing, it is immediately turned off.

This is only our second day using it, so we might have to add more rules, but so far that’s working for us and they’ve been great about following them. They know if the rules aren’t obeyed, I’ll pack the whole thing up and hide it for a while!

Today was a day off of school (four day weekend with President’s Day too—woohoo!) so they did a little Kinect, watched an episode of Little House, and have been spending most of the day outside. Almost all the snow on our lawn is melted—finally!

after the dust settled. . .

2011-02-17T21:52:00.000-07:00

. . . this is what we were left with. This is where the TV was (that’s a little firewood nook that was behind the TV).

And here’s the other side:

Looks amazing, right? Okay, maybe not amazing, but I just love that we’re getting closer to the final product! Oh, and when Jeff pulled out the bottom shelf, look what we found—our own little time capsule! Amongst our loot was some puzzle pieces, a bunch of “congrats on the new baby cards” from 1983, and some missing book pages.

But my favorite was this school picture! I didn’t know they had the bumpit in the 80’s!

Today’s task was rerouting the electricity and cable for the TV to come right through the new cabinet so we don’t have to try to hide the cords behind our giant “pretzel baskets” anymore. See all those cords in these pictures?

Of course drilling through brick is a lot more challenging than drilling through drywall so it took a while to get it just right. The cabinets were custom built in our garage yesterday and will be installed and painted on Saturday!

Don’t think we’re slave drivers over here—we let Jeff have a little break so he could show off for the kids with some backflips. Can your handyman do THIS?

a very noisy V-day

2011-02-14T22:40:00.000-07:00

My family room went from this:

To this today (pay no attention to the man behind the curtain):

Our friend Jeff (of the bathroom remodel) is back again and this time he’s giving our fireplace wall a little facelift. Here is a little rudimentary computer drawing I did to show Jeff what it I wanted it to look like. Basically, a cabinet will be added to both sides, which means a lot of the brick has to be ripped out (hence the plastic tent to control the dust). The brick will also be painted, but I can’t decide if I want to go with a white or something like a charcoal gray (like I tried to show below).

The reason we’re having this done is because we didn’t want the TV sitting on the hearth anymore (shocker, right?) and you can’t tell from the picture, but it would be too high if we put it up above the fireplace.

It will also give us a spot to put a DVD player and any other stuff we want hidden behind cupboard doors. I can’t wait to see how it turns out!

As soon as there were no more air hammer sounds in the air, the girls and I enjoyed a little dinner that included artichokes (our tradition for V-day) and then had a treat before bed.

Patrick made it home in time to chase them up to bed so the two of us could snuggle up and enjoy Ken vs. Watson. I have no idea how Watson is doing it, but he is SMOKING Ken. Come on, buddy! Pull it together before double jeopardy!

Favorite quote of the day? When Emery said to me (completely unprovoked), “I’ll be your Valentine, Mom!”

just doin’ what I’m told

2011-02-09T21:38:00.001-07:00

Emery and I get one-on-one time every morning while her big sisters are at school. She was being silly this morning and I was snapping some pictures. I uploaded them to the computer so that she could look at them and she immediately said, “Put them on ya blog!”

I was laughing so hard because I didn’t even know how she knew about my blog—just shows you that kids are clued into more than you think!

So, at Emery’s request, here are the pictures from today. I know I’m a tiny bit biased, but I can’t get enough of this little face with those beautiful browns!

Is it local?

2011-02-07T17:37:00.000-07:00

Got a good laugh out of this today. I’ve never seen this show before, but the clips I’ve watched on YouTube are pretty good!

zippity-doo-dah

2011-02-05T10:41:00.001-07:00

We have this little hoodie that I bought when Kendall was two years old. Berkeley then wore it, and now it has been passed down to Emery.

But there is something very strange about this particular hoodie.

And just in case you think we were torturing her, she kept asking us to do it again and again!

back in the saddle

2011-02-03T13:42:00.001-07:00

I’m not sure how Emery felt about it being back to just the two of us today after two full days of having the school kids holed up with us at home. It’s snowing again and while it’s much warmer than the last couple days, the high is still below freezing. As a general rule, I prefer to be outside than inside, but when it’s cold, there’s nowhere I’d rather be than curled up in my house. With no errands that were really pressing this morning, us cowgirls just hunkered down on the couch and read some books, watched a little Elmo’s World, and then rounded us up some grub!

Now my lil’ pardner’s all tuckered out, so she decided to hit the hay for a couple hours. . .

below zero

2011-02-02T21:09:00.000-07:00

So apparently they DO close schools around here, but not for snow. . . for COLD! We only got a couple inches, but since it has been so frigid the last two days, they cancelled school yesterday and today!

We didn’t venture outside at ALL yesterday and just stayed in and baked cookies, played games, read books, and watched some Little House on the Prairie (Kendall recently read one of the books and it is the girls’ new favorite show now).

But today, we decided to go out and try a couple “below zero” science experiments that one of my brothers told me about.

Experiment #1: Boil some water, throw it up in the air, and it will come down as snow.

I burned my hand trying this out and it didn’t even work for me, although a couple people I know tried it and it worked just fine!

Experiment #2: Blow bubbles and when they pop, they will shatter!

This one worked great and the girls loved it!

Some of them shattered, but others I guess were too frozen to pop at all! Here’s a bubble that fell on the deck. Look how it just crumpled up like a deflated balloon instead of popping!

Kendall was even able to pick it up!

When it is this cold, you really can’t be out for long before you just want to get back inside to warm up. Emery was done after about 2 minutes of being out in the cold. Awwwwww—a girl who takes after her mother! We were just out on the deck but she kept saying, “I wanna go home!”

While Emery was napping, K & B were starting to get bored, so I thought we might as well have some fun and be productive at the same time. It was time to bust out the valentine making supplies! I love that this is a project that they can do on their own with a bunch of stickers, some heart punches, foam hearts, and markers. Plus, it kept them entertained for a while and now that’s one less thing we have to do before their class parties!

And now back to school tomorrow after the little mini-vacation we just had!

extremes

2011-01-31T15:23:00.001-07:00

On Saturday it was 70 degrees, and the last few remaining piles of snow that still hadn’t melted because they were hanging out in the shade FINALLY disappeared.

K & B found stuff to do in the backyard while they waited for Emery to wake up so they could all go to the park.

I wish I could say that I got to spend the entire day outside basking in the sun, but unfortunately I had procrastinated my Sacrament Meeting talk that I was giving the next day in church (I was going to be the ONLY adult speaker = PRESSURE), so I had to spend way too many hours inside working on that instead. I took a break to go to the park in the afternoon with Patrick and the girls. . . just in time for the sun to start going down.

And now, it is 3:00 pm on Monday, it is 9 degrees and it hasn’t stopped snowing since I woke up this morning. Tomorrow will be a high of negative 2 degrees. If you need me, I’ll be inside cooking soup!

kindergarten rodeo

2011-01-29T17:37:00.001-07:00

Emery and I had the pleasure of going to Berkeley’s class rodeo yesterday. In preparation for this day, they all made their own hats, bandanas, and stick horses in class.

Here’s a shot with my 50 mm fixed lens (Berkeley is in the middle with the yellow bandana):

I’m glad I remembered to grab my 70-300 mm zoom lens so I could get some close-ups of my little cowgirl!

In case you’re wondering what a kindergarten rodeo looks like, here you go!

what a deal!

2011-01-25T09:40:00.001-07:00

Here’s a deal for you that is only available for the next 24 hours, so act fast!

You can get a hardcover photo book with 20 pages for just $5.99! All you do is click here and enter your email address and the promo code TODAYBOOK on their landing page. You'll then receive an e-mail with your unique coupon code and specific directions on how to fill out and purchase your personalized photo album.

You don't have to pay for anything until you create your photo album, and your unique coupon code will work until Feb. 28th. If you want your book to ship in time for Valentine's Day, you must submit your order before Feb. 5th. Also, to save on shipping costs, you can pick up your customized album for free at one of their 300 stores nationwide. Check their website to see if you have one close-by. . .there’s one pretty close to me! SCORE!

If there's no location near you, you can have the book shipped to you for $8.99 (which is a rip-off for shipping but still ends up much cheaper than the regular price for a book like this).

So click here for where you can enter your e-mail address for the free unique coupon code that will allow you to buy the $29.99 personalized photo book for $5.99.

We have a few books like this that I’ve made in previous years and they are one of the girls’ favorite books to look through. I signed up for this deal with every single email address in the house! Thankfully, I’ve got over a month to get the books all done. . .

haircuts

2011-01-24T21:35:00.001-07:00

Emery needed a haircut. She’s not a big fan of keeping anything in her hair, and with its length, it didn’t look that great unless it was pulled back from her face with a clip, headband, or ponytail. Here’s evidence (from Christmas Eve) that it was getting a bit straggly and needed a little help:

Now that I cut it, her hair looks great with a clip (when she’s willing to keep it in). . .

. . . or without anything in it but some crumbs!

I am loving it and so is she. I think I’m a sucker for little girls with short hair. . . have you noticed?

when daddy calls

2011-01-21T16:24:00.001-07:00

Nothing lights up her eyes like a call from her dad!

(She was watching me post this picture and got really excited and said, “Emery hold phone. Talk daddy!”)

it’s back

2011-01-19T16:32:00.000-07:00

Many of you noticed that my camera is BACK! I finally ordered my new one and got it about a week before Christmas. Even though he’d been gone for a few months, we wasted no time getting reacquainted.

I tried to get Patrick in on the act, but all I got was this. . .

MLK

2011-01-17T21:41:00.000-07:00

On the Sunday night before MLK Day, Patrick gave a great Family Home Evening lesson about how Heavenly Father loves all of us equally and then we watched the “I Have a Dream” speech.

Kendall especially liked it and asked lots of great questions about Dr. King. I’m so glad my girls think racism is as ridiculous as I do.

Kendall and Berkeley loved having time to play together during the day off of school. Is it your tradition to celebrate the holiday by dressing up as cats (that is what their outfits were apparently supposed to be) and run around the trampoline with a huge umbrella?

new year . . . new bathroom

2011-01-14T17:28:00.000-07:00

So, what seems like AGES ago, I mentioned we were having our master bathroom redone, and just in case you forgot, here are some previous posts about it here and a little bit here. Well, it has been MOSTLY finished for weeks now. Our friend Jeff who does home remodeling as a side business worked his butt off doing our bathroom for us. We were paying him for his work, but I had agreed to help out with some of the work along the way. Jeff (and his wife Ingrid) did the majority of the work, but I assisted with the demo, I painted all the walls, I grouted the backsplash, I caulked the toilet and all the baseboards, I painted the new trim around the mirror, and I installed these. Anyway, a few weeks ago, Jeff finished all of his work, so all the remaining projects were up to ME. . . just three things:

seal all the grout
put up the towel hooks
put on the drawer/cabinet hardware

Doesn’t sound like that much, right? Well, all the stuff involved with getting ready for Christmas got in the way and then I decided to paint the kitchen and family room before we hosted Christmas Eve dinner at our house and then we went on our trip to NYC and then I had to recover from our trip to NYC and then I had to take down all the Christmas decorations. . . and in the meantime, we have never been able to shower in our new bathroom because we had unsealed grout! It was kind of annoying that we could use the sinks, the toilet, and even the tub if we wanted to (but I haven’t yet), and had to shower somewhere else. It sounds weird, but even though I really wanted the shower to be functional (and Patrick was anxious too) I kept putting it off because I was dreading the job. I had never sealed grout before, so my hang-ups were

A. I knew it was going to take a while (shower walls, tub surround, floors, and counter backsplash all needed to be sealed!)

B. I didn’t want to mess it up.

A couple days ago I decided that I had put it off long enough and it was finally the day. I dusted off the “impregnator sealer” and got to work.

From start to finish, it took a couple hours, but it really wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. It has to cure for 72 hours, so by Saturday night, we’ll actually be able to shower in there!

I still need to install the towel hooks (actually I still need to finish CHOOSING the towel hooks) and then install the cabinet hardware. So until that’s done and I can show you some FINAL pictures, here are a few sneak peeks:

a few more reasons. . .

2011-01-13T23:32:00.001-07:00

. . . to love my kids even more (as if there weren’t enough).

When I asked Kendall at dinner what the best part about her day was, she said, “I got to see Berkeley THREE TIMES at school today! I usually don’t get to see her!” And then she proceeded to tell me that every time they see each other at school, they give each other hugs and kisses! Melted my heart.

While I was working out on the spin bike in the basement, Berkeley came in and said, “I really need to stretch, Mom,” and then pulled out the exercise ball and started doing some crazy “stretches” on the ball. Loved it.

After I put Emery to bed, I closed the door and then just stood there for a couple minutes because she was first humming and then singing “I Am a Child of God” – I could barely handle how cute it was.

one–one one–one one

2011-01-11T22:05:00.001-07:00

This year we get four days that are all ONEs:

1-1-11

1-11-11

11-1-11

11-11-11

I don’t know if that means anything, but it’s kinda cool anyway. To commemorate the second ONE, Berkeley and Emery did some spinning around the room, I did some spinning on my bike, and Kendall watched Pat Sajak spin the wheel.

1-1-11

Sorry about the poor video quality—but this picture’s pretty cute, huh?

normal schedule

2011-01-10T10:20:00.001-07:00

It snowed all day yesterday and into the night. When I heard that our county had gotten 10 inches of snow, I thought there was a possibility that school could be cancelled, or at a minimum, delayed a couple hours. Then when Patrick texted me and said it had taken him 90 minutes to get to the airport ( a trip that usually takes about 30 minutes) I KNEW the girls wouldn’t be getting on the bus at 8:45 am like usual. I turned on the TV and saw that the school district just south of us had cancelled school. The one just east of us was on a two hour delay. I didn’t see anything about OUR district so I went to the district’s website to find this: All Littleton Public Schools are on the normal schedule. What? Of course I can’t help but think about what it would be like in Charlotte with this kind of accumulation—school could be out for a week!

I bundled up and went into the backyard to get a few shots:

Okay, girls—stop coloring and get ready for school!

Sunday shoveling

2011-01-09T19:47:00.000-07:00

Patrick was having a post-church nap and Kendall & Berkeley thought they’d be helpful by going outside to shovel some of the snow that was piling up.

The shoveling quickly turned into “let’s try to shake all the snow off the bushes” . . .

. . . which then developed into “let’s throw snow on each other!”

They relaxed by making driveway snow angels (that’s almost as good as shoveling it, right?) . . .

. . . and then we finished up the night with FHE and polished off the last of the huge tub of popcorn for the FHE treat!

one–one–one one FUN

2011-01-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

We didn’t let the piles of snow in New York get in the way of our New Year’s Day!

I’m not blogging again till next year

2010-12-31T23:33:00.000-07:00

We kept making that joke all night tonight. . . “I’m not going to work out again till next year!” or “This is the last time I’ll give you a kiss till next year!” and Berkeley kept saying, “Mom, are you serious? I know you can’t be serious.” I wait all year to make those jokes and they’re completely lost on her!

How is it that I’m in the city that never sleeps on New Year’s Eve, it’s 11:30 pm, and I am the only one left awake in the apartment?? So here I am, watching a little of this guy. . .

. . .while I wait for the fireworks in Times Square to start, which apparently I’ll be able to see from my bedroom window. I love New York!

How did you celebrate YOUR New Year’s Eve?

We did ours with Minute to Win It, silly glasses and Magnolia cupcakes.

Happy 2011!