Friday Favorites

(image from http://www.gettyimages.com/Home.aspx)

YAY! It's Friday! I don't know why I look forward to Friday's so much....because as a Stay-At-Home-Mom - it's not like your work week is at an end on Friday....since every day is a work day....but I still look forward to the weekends. I don't have to make dinner as much (Cory's good about us eating out so I get a break), Cory's around to help out a bit more, and we try to do something fun as a family most of the time.

I thought today I'd jot down a few of my favorite things right now.

• One of my favorite digital scrapbook product designers: Studio Baers Garten. She sells her stuff over at www.scrapbookgraphics.com and is awesome! I think the reason I am so drawn to her stuff is because for one it's simple, and for two - it's cute. It reminds me of the days in scrapbooking when it was cool to do paper piecing, and simple embellishments. That is what I love in scrapbooking. I think that very often in digital scrapbooking the artists do a lot of very...."artistic" things....sometimes using entirely too many embellishments...at least for my taste. I like this gals stuff because it's not over the top, and it's still fun and cute. So check out her great stuff!
  

• Another scrapbook product designer I really enjoy - for templates - Janet Phillips. She also sells stuff at www.scrapbookgraphics.com and I love the clean/crisp lines of her templates!
  

• Favorite drink of the moment: Coke Zero. This stuff is great super cold, with a small slice or 2 of lemon. Very refreshing and doesn't taste "diet" at all!
  
• Favorite feeling today: Having several cooking projects done, floors mopped, bathroom cleaned, mirrors shined, sliding glass windows polished - all before 9:00 am! WOW - I think that might be more than I've accomplished all week! And speaking of cleaning - I really have loved these microfiber cloths and mop we picked up at a home show earlier this spring. I love that I don't have to use any cleaning products - just water! It seems much safer with little kids.
  
• I LOVE these crocs. Have I showed these before? Super comfy, and don't feel like I should be out gardening in them :). I can wear them with skirts, capris, just about anything.
  
• One of my favorite inventions EVER - The iPod. I am so in love with my iPod and sometimes juts laugh thinking about what I did before I had it (I know I bought a lot less music - iTunes is just so easy!) I recently got a new 80GB silver iPod and I am in love with it. I love all the new features! I even added a fun $5.00 game called Cubis that I have a blast playing through the day (like when I'm nursing Hunter or waiting for Gabe to go to the bathroom). Pretty amazing that this little gadget holds all of my music, games, movies and even photos! I am hoping someday they will make the iPhone with more storage someday, and I can have all of my stuff in one fun gadget!
  

Ok - we're getting ready to head to the swimming pool with the Young Women (it's Youth Conference this weekend, so the Beehives are having their own swim and pizza party), so I should get off the computer. Gabe has been DYING to go swimming and is more excited than I think I have ever seen him!

Post # WHAT?!?!?!?

YIKES! I just sat down to write down a few tales of our potty-training adventures when I noticed that this will make post # 500!!!

WOWZERS!

For some reason a post with an awesome number like that needs to be important - not about how your son put his poop in the 'little toilet' this morning so that he could have a rolo (you notice that I didn't say that my son POOPED in the toilet, but rather put his pooh in there....yeah, he was pretty sure if he emptied it from his pull-up into the toilet that he would still earn a Rolo...and he's funny because he always says, "I'm going to pee for an M-n-M", or "Mom, you should poop for a Rolo.")

For some reason post #500 should be important, full of wisdom, insight, wise or at least full of beautiful thoughts about how much I love my spouse, or love my children.

However, I'm out of those kinds of posts (that is assuming that I have had at least one post in the past full of wisdom....). Right now I'm pooped (pun intended), tired, and just tuckered out. Potty-training your 2 year old while your almost-10-month-old is teething is exhausting. Having said 2-year old not take naps all week is tiring too!

And so since I have no fabulous things to write about tonight, I'm going to share with you five blogs that I enjoy (sorry - 5 is going to have to do ya - I might be a blog lover - but I do not have 500 blogs I visit).

1. Scrapping with Ikea Goddess - This blog lists free kits, templates, and other scrapping goodies - every day! Some I like, some I love, some I am not a fan of - but they're all free, and it's great to check it and find some neat goodies. I've found some of my favorite digital scrapbooking sites through here.


2. The Lawsons Do Dallas - Ok, if you don't enjoy potty humor - skip this blog. But if you need a laugh - a really good laugh - this is where to find it. Her blog cracks me up!!! I am often saving posts to read to Cory (because we all know he enjoys potty-humor with the best of the bunch!).


3. (No) Sex and the city - This blog makes me kind of wish for a second that I was single, talented, living a fancy-schmancy live in New York. This cute gal just lives such a fun life - and is always meeting celebrities and doing amazing New York City things!


4. The Poineer Woman - I just came across this blog recently. Check out her recipes - HOLY COW! These look so amazing, but I'm pretty sure I have gained at least 20 lbs just looking at the pictures and all the butter she uses...


5. My Crazy Life - I met Sherelle through the scrapbooking world several years ago. Not only does she AMAZE me with her scrapbooking/crafting abilities, but more than anything I am inspired by her as a mom. One of the main reasons is that she has 4 small children and still manages to appear to be totally on top of things. Her kids are adoreable, her house is beautiful, photography - amazing. And the #1 reason - her kids always look happy and like they are having the time of their lives in the pictures she takes. And most of the time it involves them being covered head-to-toe with dirt. They look like they have a blast.

So there you have it. Here's to blogs, cherishing memories, and hopefully being able to remember at least a snippet of the things that happen in this blur that is called life.

Memorial Day

So this weekend I was telling Gabe that we should check out the cemetery behind our house (right around the corner from us) to see the beautiful flowers that people would be putting on the graves. He wanted me to explain things. So I explained that Memorial Day was a holiday where we would remember the people we loved, our family and friends - who have died. I explained that specifically the people who have served in our military.



He said, "People are going to DIE??"



I explained that older people die - like Cory's grandpa Harding died a few years ago. I said someday we would all die and return to our Heavenly Father. I tried explaining on 2-year old terms about how we are forever families, and how when we die we get to be with people we love, and hopefully our Heavenly Father. He gave a very sympathetic, "Ohhhh.....People die there".



I realized I was just digging myself into a bigger hole, but I explained that people don't DIE at the cemetry, but they are put in boxes AFTER they die, and are buried at the cemetry.



So yesterday morning we were driving into town to get donuts (our Memorial Day breakfast tradition) - and we drove past the city cemetry (not the one behind our house, but the big one in Cedar). The flowers were beautiful and I said, "Gabe - look at all the pretty flowers".



He looked thoughtful and said, "But Mom - where are all the boxes?"



Cory and I were confused and asked what he meant. He said, "The boxes that people go in when they die. I don't see any boxes." (He was talking about caskets).



So we explained that the boxes are in holes that they dig (really - where did I get the bright idea to try to explain Memorial Day to a 2 year old!?!?) and then the graves are in the ground.



Then he said, "Yeah, our grandma's and grandpa's will die someday. And so will Aunt Julia. But it's ok, because we love them all and then we'll see Heavenly Father."



So I guess in a way he gets it....(although I'm not quite sure why just grandparents and poor Julia are going to die....)



So I hope as we celebrated our loved ones who have passed on that we can all remember the beauty of the Plan of Salvation, and the gift of eternal families. I feel so blessed that we have these beliefs!

and not to forget this little guy...

I don't want anyone to think I'm leaving Hunter out. Here's a little post about this guy.

Right now Hunter has become SOOOO mobile! This little guy is crawling all over - and he's FAST! He isn't on his hands and knees yet, but he kind of drags himself around. But he's getting faster by the moment - and I'm pretty sure he's ok with how it's going. I can tell him to follow me from room to room and he's great about getting himself to where he wants to go. And since he is army-crawling around his poor knees are all red and chapped, and so are his arms where they rub on the floor. It made me feel bad, but it doesn't seem to hurt him.

He also loves to scoot around the kitchen floor on his bum. It's funny to watch - but he can be pretty fast. He likes to do it more on the slick surface of the linoleum that we have in the kitchen.

Hunter officially has 2 teeth - the ones on the bottom. He has discovered biting his spoon when he eats so that it sticks in his mouth, but other than that he's been pretty friendly with these new sharp additions. They're still small, but when they show more I'll be sure to take a picture.

Hunter is quite the eater. Most of the time I have to stop feeding him because I have fed him too much - not because he is done, or he is acting like he doesn't want anymore. Most of the time he would just keep eating and eating. He's pretty great at eating all foods, but isn't a huge fan of tart fruits (like peaches or apricots). Oddly some of his favorites seem to be the green veggies. Lately he seems to want to feed himself more, so we've been trying a few more finger foods. He has enjoyed mini-graham crackers, goldfish crackers, freeze dried fruits, cheerios, and little baby-food puffs. And Gabe has managed to feed him pieces of food from his plate too (and when I got mad he said, "But Mom - I squished the beans up so he wouldn't choke).

And here's for the "bad-mommy moment". Yesterday I had to run some errands with the boys as Cory helped some friends move (he really should go into the moving business - he is a great mover, doesn't seem to mind it, and can be really effective with squeezing things into small spaces. I guess if blinds don't work out it's good to know he has a back-up). Anyway, I drove past an old-fashioned ice cream parlor and asked Gabe what he thought of going in and getting some ice cream. He said, "You mean we could go INSIDE!?!? And take HUNTER!?!?!" I guess we go through too many drive-throughs to get food because he was thrilled to get to go IN and have ice cream at the "ice cream store". I had every intention of leaving Hunter out (I had a 'no ice cream till 1 year old' rule) - but when we were finishing up Hunter just looked so left out. So I gave him a small bite of cookies and cream. He LOVED it! He didn't shutter, didn't appear rattled by the cold feel of the ice cream, but instead he started squealing, clapping, and kicking his legs all over. So I gave him another small bite and had similar results. He really only had a couple of bites - but he loved every taste. So sorry Dad - I guess you don't get to give him his first ice cream.....but I'm sure he'll enjoy future chilly treats equally as much.

It was so cute because Gabe said, "Mom - this is almost like a date!" I told him it was a date, with both of my boys. Then he kept saying (or yelling - as everyone in the ice cream parlor could hear) "Oh thank you Mom for my ice cream date!" or "This ice cream is YUMMY!" It was fun to see both boys full of joy, and all it took was a little bit of time, and some small scoops of ice cream.

Well that's about it with my little guys. Thanks for indulging me in my journal keeping. Have a great week!

Crossing my fingers....

(Ok - I've mentioned this before - that this is my version of a journal - so bear with me as I share poor Gabe's potty training experiences...)

So this morning before church Gabe and Cory were looking at fun toys that Gabe could maybe get if he gets potty trained. We had told him that once he is potty trained (and has to be totally trained for a month at least) that we'd get a BIG outside toy for him, like a mini-Hummer, mini-ranger, or mini-John Deere tractor.

Anyway, they were looking at them and Gabe runs in to me and says, "Mom - I want to get potty trained today!" I told him that sounded great - and to go try to go potty. (We've gone through this 100 times it seems - he'll go potty, and then insist on putting a diaper on.) But he wanted to put on undies. This was at 9:00 am, and I figured that I was going to a meeting shortly, I'd let him wear underwear, but that he'd probably have to change before I left for my meeting, or at the very least - he'd have gotten wet and been changed by the time I got back. But just in case - I told him he could have an M&M (one of his favorite treats) whenever he went to the bathroom. Well we might have found the trick - because the little guy stayed dry - ALL DAY LONG!

At first he ran into go to the bathroom (or to have a M&M at least) ever 3 minutes or so. I would only give him one if he went -and he did it - every time! Then we went to church - and I figured with 3 hours of church, distractions at nursery, etc - that he'd be wet before we got home (I played it safe and put him in a pull-up). Guess what - totally dry when we got home! He even told me a couple of times when he needed to go to the bathroom! Then he continued to do great when we got home, and he was dry until he went to bed tonight.

I know I'm probably jinxing myself - and Gabe - but I am so darn excited. He loves going in on his "little potty" (he gets upset of you ask him if he wants to go on the 'big' potty - he insists on using his little singing one when we're at home), and is pretty stoked by the M&M's he gets when he is successful. (Cory has also promised him a Rolo every time he does a #2 in the potty). Anyway - here's hoping, praying, and crossing my fingers that he gets excited about potty training and this can work out for us.

(There is also a part of me that feels a little sad - if he gets potty-trained - that's a HUGE step for him, and a HUGE indicator that my baby is no longer a baby! I hate changing diapers all day long, but I am also a bit sad to think of my baby getting so big!)

One word....

ADDICTED.

I am totally addicted to Chili's chips and salsa. YUMM-O! And as I was scarfing some I bought earlier in the weekend Cory said, "You better stop - you're going to eat those too fast, and then you're going to complain you have heart-burn." I thought, "whatever - I rarely get heartburn". However, here I sit....he was right.....

Julia's Graduation layout

Graduation

So here are a few pictures from this past weekend. As I mentioned before - it was my *baby* sister Julia's high school graduation. It was great to have my sister-in-law Nicole and her baby Taylor - who is just a month older than Hunter. We also got to see my grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles - fun people! I love going to New Mexico to see family (despite the HORRIBLE drive), because even though I've never lived there - I guess in a way it's home.

Also - I mentioned that my cousin Rachel took pictures of our family when we were there. She put a sneak peek up on her photography blog - check them out.

We're back

Well We're back from my little sister Julia's high school graduation. It was a pretty quick trip to New Mexico - we left Saturday afternoon and got home tonight. We had Seminary graduation, a fun family dinner with extended family, getting to visit with my awesome sister-in-law Nicole, family pictures from my cousin Rachel who is becoming quite the amazing photographer, and high school graduation last night. I can't believe that my BABY sister is a high school graduate - and that she'll be going to college in a few short months. Pretty surreal.

Well the kids had a bit of a rough time traveling. It's just hard to sleep in different beds (or couches as the case may be....), have different schedules, and all the excitement of family and things. We loved seeing people, but hopefully a good night sleep in our own beds will be good for all of us.

Here are a few layouts I did recently, and I'll post pictures from the last few days soon.

Five for Friday

• Is THIS disturbing to anyone else? I was a HUGE NKOTB fan back in the day. I had pj's, t-shirts, walls plastered with posters, loved their music, went to their concert and - get this - slept on New Kids sheets. But even with all of my love for Donny, Danny, Jonathan, Jordan, and - my personal favorite - Joey - I'm just a little creeped out by a band called "New KIDS" - who are in their 30, who have kids of their own, and who dance around kind of awkwardly as if they're still teenagers....

• Cory fulfilled a dream today - he flew an airplane! In his words, "It was the coolest thing I have EVER done!" He has a client who has a house boat in Lake Powell. Cory had been doing some work on the boat yesterday, and got stuck there (LONG story) overnight. Today when it was *finally* time to come back they sent a pilot to pick Cory up (he's flown there both times he's gone to do work there). On the way back he asked Cory if he wanted to take off, and if he wanted to fly the plane. Cory said he basically flew home. I have a feeling he might have been bit by the flying bug :).
• My baby - doesn't look like a baby anymore! We got his hair cut today and not only did he do GREAT (Gabe has NEVER been so well behaved for a haircut) - but he even looks like a little BOY.

• Cory & Gabe are camping with the ward tonight at the Father's-and-Son's campout. Cory was excited to take Gabe, and Gabe was pretty psyched to go camping with dad. It was funny because as we were talking about going camping I said, "Do you remember when you went camping last year with Daddy?" He said, "Yeah, we had marshmallows and cooked them on sticks! He wasn't even 2 when they went camping - but even as a little guy he had memories of marshmallows :)
• Poor Utah Jazz. I was so sad to watch the game tonight and I was bummed that this is the end of the road for them this season. The end of the game was pretty exciting though...

layouts

Mothers Day 2008

Well, we were traveling (as you have seen from the previous posts) this weekend, so Mother's Day was not celebrated like I would have liked. Cory I guess decided that you only celebrate Mother's Day for your wife if you are at home in your own house....(I'm not real sure on this logic - but I'm trying to figure it out....it seems like a BIG cop-out to me - but I'm trying to figure out something better - so I don't stay mad at him....)

Anyway - even though my being a mother wasn't celebrated, we still got to see Cory's mom that morning and tell her we loved her, and she did give me a great book that I'm really excited about reading. We also got to spend some time with my Grandma Marilyn on our way home too. She has recently moved into a care-center, and it was great to get to spend some time with her so that she knew that we were all thinking of her and love her. We sat outside in a pretty gazebo they had and enjoyed chatting.

Oh - and I can't say that I didn't get anything for Mother's Day - Gabe did pick me a "Daffodi-lion" (aka dandy-lion). Then he proceeded to rub it all over his face, which created quite a yellow mess. It made me laugh at least :)

"Who Says You Can't Go Home?"

You know, they say you can never go back in time. But this weekend when we were in Rexburg we kind of did... (And in fact - we were listening to the radio on our way up there - and the song "Who Says You Can't Go Home?" - by Bon Jovi came on. It made us laugh.)

We drove up to Rexburg to see the temple (and I didn't get any pictures - darn it!) and to drive around the town to reminisce. We decided to drive past our old house - see how the outside of it had changed. As we pulled down the road we used to live on we saw several signs advertising houses for sale - and one with balloons and an OPEN HOUSE sign. We laughed and said - wouldn't it be funny if it was our old house? This was our first house we bought as a couple, and the house Cory grew up in (we bought it from his parents).

Well - the closer we got we realized that it WAS our old house that was on the market and that was having an open house. We pulled up in front of the house and teased that we should go inside. Cory finally was so curious that he decided to go for it. When he got inside he realized that the owners who bought it from us weren't around - it was just the agent who was showing the house - so he motioned for me to come in too.

So we went through the house. I was a little aprehensive because I was afraid that they probably would have changed things, and I was worried that I'd hate it. HA! The house was almost EXACTLY like we had left it almost 4 years ago - EXACTLY! Aside from our furnishings being missing (which was weird - it felt like I should be able to cozy up onto our couch and enjoy the entertainment system Cory and his dad had built years ago....) it was like a time-warp. We had gone back 4 years and nothing had changed.


Actually - that's not entirely true - they did take down the curtains that they fought me over (I wanted to take them, but they claimed that the real-estate agent said they stayed. I had places for them in my new house - but finally let them have them) and they put up lace curtains almost EXACTLY like the ones Cory's mom had up when we bought the house - that we took down when we moved in. Funny enough - all the curtains I couldn't care less about were still hanging...They also painted the master bedroom - get this - the EXACT color we had painted over when we bought the house. It was a pale pink color that Cory's mom had the room painted when they lived there. We laughed because the changes they had made had just un-done the changes we made when we moved in.


The back-yard looked pretty much the same except they had horses in the pasture, and we had not. The flower-beds had more flowers (since I'm anything but a green-thumb), and they had utilized the whiskey-barrels to plant flowers in. (Cory left the whiskey barrels I had bought earlier in the summer before we left - there wasn't room in our moving van and I had been sad ever since).


But it was really like going back in time, and was a bit surreal. Living in Rexburg seems like a whole different lifetime ago - even if it was less than 4 years ago. We didn't have kids, we didn't own The Blind Guy - things were different.


It was a good house for us, a good first place to live in and work on. We loved the painting we did, the wainscotting we stained and put up, the faux finishes we worked on - we loved the landscaping Cory had worked on - the fire pit and sitting area he built. I loved the quirky little things - like the basement with the LOW ceiling, or the tiny kitchen, or awesome wood-burning stove. What a great place. I'm glad in a way that they hadn't changed things - for just a moment we got to go back and remember that sweet time in our lives.

Bear World

UGH! I just typed a LONG report on our trip to Bear World this weekend, and the computer ate it… So here we go again…(dang blogger!)

When we lived in Rexburg there was this place called "Bear World" that was literally about 2 miles from our house. We laughed about it most of the time – it was a zoo like atmosphere set up for people to drive through and get to see bears. It is called "Yellowstone Bear World" – and was advertised as some people's only opportunity to see a bear on their Yellowstone vacations.

We never took the chance to visit, but when we were up there this weekend we thought maybe Gabe would enjoy seeing the bears.

You drive through the park (with your windows rolled up) and the bears and other animals can come right up to your cars. There are grizzly bears, moose, elk, black bears, wolves, etc. They even have an albino elk – which they said are super rare – about 1 in 6 million! I think my favorites were the grizzly bears – they were so pretty. Anyway, it was fun to watch the bears wander around, eat, sleep, and check out the visitors.

Then after we drove through the park we got to see my favorite part – the baby bear cubs. (In fact, Gabe kept calling it "CUB WORLD"). There were 6 new babies this year and they were precious! They kept pouncing on each other, wrestle, chew on everything they could find, and even seemed like they preformed for those who were watching. I wanted to reach over the divider and take one of them home with me – they were SO cute!

They also had a petting zoo set up. It was small – but Gabe enjoyed the animals, and even pet a deer. They had a moose by the petting zoo, and Gabe said, "Look Mom – the moose is eating a pancake! Oh, no wait – the moose is eating a MUFFIN!" (If you've read the books "If you give a moose a muffin" or "If you give a pig a pancake" – you know what he's talking about) – we cracked up!

Then we rode some of the little carnival rides they had set up. Gabe enjoyed the roller-coaster, train, and other rides that were just his size. We all enjoyed the weather – it was really a very pretty day.

It's interesting how sometimes you miss out on the things that are right under your nose. We are glad that we went back and checked out Bear World – even if it was years after we lived there.