3 Years Old

Thomas turned three years old today. My happy, friendly, good-natured little guy, with curly blond hair and a smile that can turn gray clouds into sunshine.


He's a boy of few words, but lots of cheerful and expressive jargon. He loves cars, silly dancing, and pretending to be a monster or a dog or a dinosaur. Sometimes he's talkative and sociable, other times he's quiet and thoughtful. And he's downright adorable all the time!


Right now Thomas is all about cars. Like he has been pretty much his entire life. :-) So for his birthday gift I made him a little car playmat, with roads to drive his cars on, houses and trees, a store, library, and fire station, and a little pond.


Then I decorated his cake to match. As usual, I did it using the sugar-overload method. A Hershey's Minis road, chocolate rocks, gumdrop bushes, lollipop trees.


It was a big hit with Thomas, who was too excited about picking off chocolate rocks to sit still enough to get a clear picture.


He was so cute singing "Happy Birthday" along with the rest of us. He loves to sing! I have a video, but Blogger is acting up so I can't post it right now.

Thomas LOVES his playmat. You know it's a successful gift when the plate of cake and ice cream sits ignored and all attention is focused entirely on playing with the present! He never did get around to eating his cake and ice cream, choosing instead to zoom his cars back and forth on his new playmat all evening. And he brought the playmat to bed with him. Yes, he definitely likes his present. :-)

Happy birthday to my wonderful little man.

Computer Stuff

I really haven't been wanting to write this post, because this is something I don't want to even think about, let alone write about.

About a week ago our computer crashed. Completely died. We think it was a virus that got through and did its thing. No hardware problems or anything, but our entire system was wiped out.

We had to re-install everything on the computer, all the basic software, we basically started it completely from scratch. The computer is working fine now, running fast, we have better anti-virus software.

But everything that was on the computer before the crash is gone. Completely lost. I don't mind losing all the random documents and unused software. But my pictures... more that two years of pictures and videos have been totally wiped. Gone. Anything that I didn't post on the blog is lost. And there were a ton of pictures and videos that I didn't post on the blog.

It just makes me sick to my stomach when I think of the moments we captured, the kids' adorable antics, the trips we've taken and documented with pictures. The video Jeff took when I was in labor with Audrey, when the midwife said hi to the camera knowing that someday Audrey would watch that video. The sweet little videos Jeff took of Audrey in that first hour after her birth, as she started opening her eyes and mouthing her hands. Pictures of Zaylee and Thomas playing with Audrey.

They're all gone. It's devastating.

Audrey Update

My baby's growing up! At seven months old, she finally has a tooth. The bottom left front tooth has popped through, and the right one looks like it will be following soon. The other kids got their first teeth around five months, but Audrey marches to her own beat.

Speaking of marching, Audrey has also discovered her mobility. She's not officially crawling yet, but she scoots like a pro. She can get just about anywhere in a room by pulling up to her hands and knees, then plopping herself forward onto her tummy. We really need to put up a baby gate on top of the stairs. We even have a top-of-stairs gate already. It's just the problem of installing it - we have iron stair rails and they don't line up evenly with the wall on the other side.

Lastly, we have started Audrey on solid foods. She gets rice cereal, coarsely mashed fruit (she especially loves bananas), and breads. I've given her bits of pancake, muffin, biscuit, wheat bread, etc. and she really enjoys being able to mush it around in her mouth. Her diapers aren't quite as inoffensive as they were before she started solids, but it's fun that she's growing up and trying new things.

Family Visit

Okay, this visit from Jeff's parents and brother happened the week before Father's Day, so I'm a little late posting this. Oh well, better late than never.

It was a very fun, very busy week with Jeff's family. We did fun stuff every day with Grandma Jean, Grandpa Richard, Jeff's brother Curtis, and Jeff's sister Joy and her family.

On Tuesday, they arrived and we went out to Golden Corral for dinner. So much yummy food! I love all-you-can-eat buffets. We even gave Audrey some mushed up peaches and a bit of ice cream, which she thoroughly enjoyed. And the kids ate so much ice cream I wouldn't think that their stomachs would hold that much!

On Wednesday, we decided to tour the Pioneer Memorial Museum.


But when we got there we found that it was closed for renovation. We were a bit disappointed. However, since the Utah State Capitol building was right next door, we decided to visit there instead.




I really loved the beautiful arched ceilings in the building. They were covered in paintings depicting the history of Utah.


While we were there, there was this group of Japanese tourists who were absolutely enchanted by Zaylee. They kept taking her picture as she posed and smiled. She loved it, she acted like she was born to be a model, basking in the limelight while cameras flashed all around. I wish I had gotten some of her cuter poses, she really was hamming it up for those tourists!


Here's the kids on the steps leading up to the Supreme Court. They liked being able to run up and down the stairs. My goodness, where can I get that kind of energy?


The kids and I posed in front of this replica of the Liberty Bell. Not the best picture, but it's the only one that I'm in.


Outside the building, after the tour, Jeff found a little grasshopper and pointed it out to the kids. He started prodding it gently with a stick so it would jump. Suddenly it jumped really high, right into Zaylee's overalls! We were all laughing like crazy as I unsnapped her overalls to free the poor little grasshopper.

On Thursday we visited the Sweets Candy Factory. It was founded by the Sweets family, and they are the makers of such favorites as saltwater taffy, cinnamon bears, and orange sticks. We got to walk through the factory and see the rooms where they make their delicious candies. My favorite was the chocolate room. There wasn't anything going on in there when we toured, but the smell was intoxicating! We also got a few free samples, yum. Then at the end of the tour was the shop, where Jeff and I bought enough candy to last several months. We've already finished off all the chocolate and now there's just a bit of taffy left. *sheepish grin*

They had us all wear these hair nets when we were in the factory, even Audrey. Hers was super cute, even through she didn't care for it much.


On Friday we visited the Hogle Zoo. We started off with a picnic lunch. Joy brought some delicious chicken salad and crescent rolls. Oh, that chicken salad was soooo good! I brought homemade cookies, which were also quite yummy.


After the picnic, we spent several hours wandering around the zoo, seeing all the neat animals. Zaylee's favorite animal was the enormous elephant sculpture. Whenever someone walked or stood in front of its trunk, it would "sneeze" water on them. It was hilarious to watch it happen to someone who didn't know it was going to - like when a mother was taking a picture of her children posing on the trunk. It didn't happen to me, but several unsuspecting picture-takers were squirted. I didn't get a picture of that elephant, unfortunately, but I did get a picture of the new baby elephant, Zuri, and her mommy.


A really neat thing about the Hogle Zoo is that they have peacocks that just wander around uncaged. The kids really enjoyed being able to see them up close. Here if you look closely you can see Zaylee trying to chase one. When the kids got a little too close we called them back so they wouldn't upset the peacock - they may be beautiful but they've got some major claws!


On Saturday I was too worn out to participate in the fun, but the rest of the family visited Wheeler Farm. It's a real farm, with animals and crops and everything. People can visit and see the animals, and basically just see how a farm is run. Apparently everyone had a good time. I stayed home with Audrey, and we got in some nice relaxing down time.

Sunday being Father's Day, I gave Jeff his gift of a really nice fishing rod and the Avatar DVD. We had a yummy dinner of grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, with cupcakes and ice cream cake for dessert.

Jeff's parents and brother left on Monday morning, and we took several days to recover from the whirlwind visit. All in all, it was a lot of fun, and we're glad that they came to visit.

Whew! Finally finished the post, pics and all. Only a couple weeks late...

Kinda oops

I wrote this post intending to put it on this blog, but it ended up on my food blog instead. Oh well, I just changed a couple words to make it relevant there and left it. And I'll post it here too.

I'm searching...

...For my camera! I have a couple posts that I need to write and post, but can't really do it until I upload a bunch of pictures. Okay, technically I could write them, but it'll be much more interesting with pictures. Now I know that camera's around here somewhere...

Well, when I find it I'll put up a nice update. But right now it's late and I really should get to bed. I just thought I'd pop in and let everyone know that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth or anything. :-)

Fun Refashions

I got the itch to do some clothing refashions this week, and now I've got some fun stuff to show for it!

I went to D.I. the other day and got several plain t-shirts to dress up. Today I took a pretty brown shirt, some lace, and some ribbon-


And turned it into this lovely number (don't mind the goofy look on my face).


Basically, I ruffled the lace and sewed it onto the front of the shirt, then added a ribbon over it. Very feminine! I was kind of going for the Anthropologie look - soft, ruffly, lacy, girly. I also shortened the sleeves a bit. I really like the way it turned out.

Next up was this dress I made years ago.


Yuck. The length was awkward, the fit was frumpy, lumpy, and a bit too tight, and basically this dress just wasn't wearable anymore.

However, cut the skirt off and put it on over a cute shirt, and I now have a totally awesome new jacket!


I might add a belt to cinch in the waist a bit, but other than that I love my new jacket! It definitely looks better than that old dress did.

It's so much fun to refashion clothes. I can't wait to see what I come up with next!

Janelle's Wedding

I tend to be late getting up the important posts. Well, better late than never.

This past weekend we flew up to Idaho for Janelle's wedding. Jeff says we're never ever going to fly again. He really hates it. I enjoy flying actually, but for Jeff's sake I think we'll stick with a seven-hour drive from now on. The only reason we flew this time is because Jeff could only get a couple days off work and we wanted to be able to go to both the wedding and the reception (the reception was the day after the wedding).

So anyway, it was a whirlwind trip, quick but very enjoyable. I loved being able to be in the Temple watching Janelle get married to her sweetheart. I should have planned ahead and brought tissues, because my face was streaked with happy tears by the time it was finished!

On Saturday, I dropped by my friend Tiffaney's house and invited them over to hang out while we did preparation for the reception. It was soooo nice to be able to visit with Tiffaney, I haven't seen her since we moved to Utah. Her kids have grown so much, and her newest little baby is so cute! We had a good visit, and I'm already looking forward to the next time we go up to Idaho so we can hang out some more!

Michelle and Janelle's friend Nicole spent pretty much the entire day Saturday decorating the cake for Janelle's reception. I helped a little bit with some of the marshmallow fondant (yummiest fondant ever!), but Michelle and Nicole did the vast majority of the work. It was totally worth it -


One of the photographers commented that it was the best Mormon wedding cake he'd ever seen. I agree - it was gorgeous. These pictures totally don't even capture how amazing the cake was. I loved the vibrant colors. It definitely fit Janelle better than a plain white cake would have.


Now for more pictures:

Janelle and Danny standing by their awesome cake.


Janelle and Nicole, when I asked them to smile for the camera. Hey, it's a reasonable request, right?


My sweet little family, enjoying the refreshments.


Me, showing off my pretty cardigan. I wanted something special to wear for the reception, so I cut up a slightly ill-fitting blue shirt, sewed on some lace, and turned it into a lovely cardigan that went perfectly with my skirt, my corsage, and my eyes. :-)


And one more picture of the lovely bride:


I'm really glad that we were able to go up to Idaho for Janelle's wedding.

Lots of pictures

First set of pictures - Audrey's first bowl of rice cereal. My baby's growing up!

Hmm, I wonder what Daddy's putting in my mouth.

Whoa, what is this stuff?

Daddy, I love you...

But I'm really not sure how I feel about this goop dripping down my chin.

Actually, she enjoyed her first official solid meal. She's got a bit of learning to do before she gets good at keeping it in her mouth, of course, but she had fun getting good and messy. :-)


Next picture - the completely constructed bookcase, waiting to be sanded and painted.


We just bought a power sander today, and I'm looking forward to giving it a go.


Lastly - the crocheted corsages for my sister Janelle's wedding this weekend. All together, they look like a cheery field of blue and white daisies.


This one is for the Maid of Honor, Janelle's friend Nicole:


These two are for the mother of the bride and the mother of the groom:


And these two are for Marie and Rheanna, the excited younger sisters of the bride:


I made these corsages by crocheting each flower and leaf separately. Then I sprayed them with lavender-scented starch so they would hold their shape (crocheted objects tend to curl up). Next I used hot glue to attach them to two layers of white felt, then I glued a brooch pin to the back.


For scale, here's me wearing one of the corsages:


They're flatter than traditional corsages, but I think they turned out quite pretty. If I find time in the next few days, I might make a couple more for Michelle and I to wear. Putting together the corsages was pretty quick and easy, but crocheting all those flowers and leaves was a lot of painstaking work (especially weaving in the ends, yikes).

Fun Stuff

Yesterday was a pretty fun day. We started bright and early with the Cannonball Run - our stake's annual 5k. Jeff and I decided we would participate, and the whole family got in on it. :-)


We started out jogging, but after about 3 minutes we realized we were too out of shape to keep that up. So we just quick-walked the rest of the 3.1-mile race. With Jeff pushing Zaylee and Thomas in the double stroller, and me carrying Audrey in the mei tai, just walking the 5k was a good accomplishment. My legs are still sore. Our official finish time was 47:39.

After the Cannonball Run, there was a neighborhood Tennis Block Party being held at the tennis courts that are near our house. They had free food, and free tennis lessons for the kids. Zaylee was a bit frustrated at first because she was shy and wasn't quite sure what was expected of her. It even brought her to tears and I felt really bad for her. But then one of the volunteer instructors spent a good deal of one-on-one time with her, showing her first how to toss the ball over the net, how to hold the racket even while balancing a ball on it, and eventually how to hit a ball that was gently tossed to her. She ended up having a terrific time. I wish I had brought my camera (the batteries were dead). It would have been nice to get some pictures of her having so much fun learning about how to manipulate the tennis ball and racket.

While we were there, they handed out forms for a summer tennis program they'll be doing - it's free and the program includes classes for kids ages 4-6. I think I'd like to have Zaylee participate. She could spend time with other kids, and start learning a fun sport. Besides, no matter how important I think it is for my children to be with me (so much that I plan on homeschooling), it's good for them to spend a bit of time learning from other adults as well, things that I can't teach. Like tennis. Or any sport for that matter...

Anyway, in other news, I've completed construction on my bookcase. I don't have a picture of it yet, but it's looking really nice. All that's left now is to sand it and then finish it. I'll probably paint and distress it. Go ahead and have it start out looking worn and beaten, then I don't have to worry about it getting beat up in a house with 3 kids.

Getting Close!

Another update on the bookcase. Today I nailed on the back and part of the trim. There are a few areas where I need to shave off a bit from the edges to make it straight, before I can add the rest of the trim and finish it up. You may or may not be able to see it in the picture (I can, because I know where the crooked parts are), but if I were to try to add the outside trim now, it would be extremely wonky.


Unevenness aside, I am so excited every time I work on my bookcase. It's gonna be so awesome!

Progress on the Bookcase

After lunch today, Jeff taught me how to use his drill. Then with his help, and eventually on my own after I got it figured out, I attached the shelves to the sides:


And then attached the top.


By the time I got that done, it was time for Audrey to eat and Jeff to go to work. So the bookcase is now waiting patiently in the shed until I get time to work on it again. Having to start and stop so much, this project is going to take me a while. But with this little cutie helping me...


I'm sure it will turn out great!

Power tools are fun...

Okay, so the Farmhouse Bed may be the thing I want to make the most, but it's not the thing I want to make first. It's a really big project, and I want it to turn out really good. So I need practice in carpentry and furniture building first.

So as of right now, I am in the early stages of building this bookcase. It's just a simple bookcase, very basic steps for putting it together, made with very basic supplies. The cool thing about it is that it can become a sort of hutch. Build two bookcases, fit one with drawers, stack them together, and it's suddenly the perfect dining room hutch, which will go very nicely beside my refrigerator. I'm just working on the one bookshelf now, getting in some good practice and experience, but I will be making a second one with drawers and putting them together. Another cool thing about this plan is that, while I'm working on the second one, I'll already have a functional bookcase that I can use until I'm ready to put them together!

Here's what I've done so far:

We went to Lowe's today and bought the wood...


And a beautiful, shiny new circular saw...


We also got nails, screws, wood glue, stuff like that.

In the absence of sawhorses (another item on my to-do list), I improvised with what I had available. Food storage - it's not just for eating...


I used my, I mean our, new circular saw to cut the wood to the proper sizes for the sides, top, shelves, and trim for the bookcase. I could have had them do it at the store, but I wanted to try out the saw and do as much of this bookcase myself as I could. Plus Jeff needed to get to work. I learned a lot about using a circular saw and measuring wood in the time it took to cut those pieces!

When it came time to cut the back piece though, I thought the wood (1/4" plywood) might be too flimsy to support the big saw while cutting it. I resorted to more rustic measures.


Yes. I hand sawed the back of the bookcase with a utility knife. It took a fairly long time, and was hard work! This carpentry stuff can provide a really good workout.

After all my hard work this afternoon, I ended up with this stack of pieces for the bookcase...


And this stack of leftover wood I can use for the next project.


The next step is to predrill and countersink the screws to attach the shelves to the sides. I wanted to do that this evening while it was still light out. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to change the bit in Jeff's power drill. And I definitely can't drill the screw holes by hand! So I have to wait until Monday when Jeff can show me how to work the drill before I can go any further on this project.

But wow, it feels awesome knowing that I'm building something for our home, something that will be strong and sturdy and last for years and years. And I'm doing it all by myself!

MUST HAVE!!!

So, I checked out the blog that Michelle just recommended in her latest post, called Knock-Off Wood. Okay, I've done more than just check it out. I've been drooling over page after page of furniture plans since yesterday, and already have a "shopping list" of furniture that I want to build. You can't look through that website and not choose at least a couple things that you want to make!

For me, the one item of furniture that I absolutely must have is this Farmhouse Bed:

Image from Knock-Off Wood

Yes, there are several other pieces that I would like to build, stuff that would be really nice to have, but this BED! I love it!

Our bed history has been somewhat pitiful. We started our marriage sleeping on an air mattress on the floor. It was a big day for us when we bought a bare-bones bed frame and a used box spring from the thrift store. Now our air mattress was actually up off the floor!

A couple months after we got married, Jeff's parents offered to pay for a mattress for us, as a post-wedding gift. Jumping on their offer, we gleefully headed downstairs to pick out a mattress (we lived in an apartment on top of a bed store). At last, we had a full bed - frame, box spring, and real mattress!

And that's what we've been sleeping on ever since. One of my fondest dreams has long been to some day have a head board. Anything over the head of the bed would work, really, I wasn't picky. I even considered nailing up a quilt and calling it good. Deep down, I knew I wanted a real bed frame with a head board and foot board, made of wood, but figured it would be years before I was willing to actually spend the money to buy a good quality bed.

And then Michelle told me about this website, and I saw this gorgeous bed! And those deep-down dreams of actually owning my dream bed started to stir. Not only can I own my dream bed, I can actually build it!

I don't know if this will be the first project I take on from this website (I mean, we don't even have a saw yet!), but a beautiful Farmhouse Bed will definitely be gracing our home in the future. Definitely.