lily's cow

Lily is a far more superior artist than could ever hope to be! She has such an amazing ability to put things on paper the way she sees them in her head - I have never been able to do that. This is one of her latest creations and I LOVE it!

a little more upbeat

I figure it is time to stop complaining (at least publicly). We have actually had a good couple weeks. Here's what we've been up to...

Uncle Eric came for a visit a couple weeks ago. The kids LOVE him! And why wouldn't they - he totally plays with them.


While he was here he yanked Lily's top tooth out with some dental floss. It was a bleeder, but she was SO SO SO excited to have it out!

Basically the cutest baby ever! And totally a chick magnet!

The kids exploring with Scott in the garden.

Gracie is taking a little six week dance class. Here she is on the first day. She isn't best participant - she is more a free dancing spirit. No surprise there.

Lily's second top tooth accidentally got knocked loose (dangling) by Adam and so Scott had to yank it (neither of us love this job). Here she is the next morning after getting her dollar from the tooth fairy.

We had a little family reunion with my Mom's side of the family. It was really fun. Last Friday was the kick-off and we had a little talent show (with a surprise performance by the DeOrens; thus the outfit that I am wearing - I am in costume. Oh, you have never heard of the DeOrens? Well you are missing out. We are world famous - as long as your world only encompasses Sandpoint, Idaho in the mid-ninety. It is a lip-syncing group my cousins and I started when I was 14 and still endures today). Lily and I performed a little piano duet. It was really fun and Lily did great!
We have to hugest, prettiest sunflowers growing in the garden. This one is probably 10-11 feet tall; I kid you not.
Little man Davie was so tired during the reunion festivities. He did a good job all day Saturday and was a great sport. Isn't he cute; sleeping and still holding that graham cracker.

During the reunion we hiked to this lovely waterfall in Pleasant Grove. It was really the nicest, prettiest hike and was the perfect skill level for the kids. Gracie hiked the whole way in her tutu holding my hand and only needed to be carried when we got near the waterfall (I think it scared her a little).

Grandpa (my dad) helping Will through the stream (above). Grandpa dragging Jack into the falls (I don't think Jack was very happy about it).

Scott hiked to the top of the falls and got some pictures. I think the one of me pointing him out to Gracie is funny. She had no clue where he was...
I have been feeling very crafty lately. I have decided that I like projects that I can get done in a day. I think that is why I could never really be an artist - my dad will spend days on these amazing paintings; I don't have the patience for it. Anyway, here are my latest projects. I will explain (of course); Lily has been wanting a new backpack because apparently all the kids get a new backpack every year. Well that is just a waste of money when the backpack she has is still perfectly great. But she was a little sad about it so I suggested we spice it up a bit and make it like new. She was good with this (blessed child), so I got some iron-on appliques and went to town adding all sorts of fun little sparkly stars. I think it turned out pretty cute. Although I am not sure how I am going to spice it up again for next year. Oh well, I worry about it then.

Next I found this great, HUGE, Pottery Barn storage tote at a clearance center that I shop at. It is the best; it is lined with this plastic-type material and so I thought it would make an ideal beach bag or cargo bag in general. It had a funny named embroidered on it (Thiago) and I figured I could make something to go over it. So for $3.50 I bought it. I picked out the "Thia" and left the "go" and added a picture of a car in front of it. Now it is literally my "car-go" bag. Isn't that fun!

Next, while also at the clearance center I also found this awesome toiletries bag, but it had a little hole on the flap. Again, I figured I could cover it. So I bought it for $1.50 and with this little flower iron-on look how cute it is.

Last, the one thing I did allow Lily to get new this year was a lunch box. I didn't like the one she used last year, so while we were at the that clearance center I had her pick one out. She really liked this one with the elephant on it. It had the name "Jocelyn" embroidered on it so I knew I would have to cover it somehow. But for $1.50 I figured it was worth it. Look how cute it turned out with the iron-ons I put on it. It was so fun doing these projects.
Isn't this little fabric flower I made fun! I attached it to a headband and it looks so cute on the girls.




Remember my July 4th stars? Well Renee and I came up with this brilliant idea. I have one star and then several sets of laminated holiday themed paper with magnets on the back that attach to the star. That way you can just rotate according to which holiday is coming up. We are going to be selling them at a boutique in October that we are going to (to sell Soap Star Mom stuff). Above is the Christmas one, below the spring set, and on the bottom is Valentines. We are also including Halloween, Autumn, July 4th, and Birthday.


I painted my bathroom cabinets yesterday. When we bought this house the previous owners had done a pretty nice job updating most of it. Both of the other two bathrooms were really nice (other than the wall color in one which was easy to fix), the kitchen was brand new, brand new hardwood floors, new paint in pretty decent colors, etc. The only place they didn't seem to touch was the master bathroom. It was still all the original stuff from 1996 when the house was built and it is starting to look gross (I hate linoleum floors!). So this winter Scott is going to lay tile in there, trim and frame the mirror, and hang new light fixtures. Painting the cabinets was a great first step and it really only took me a few hours. I think Scott was surprised when he saw them; I don't think he had a lot of faith in how they would turn out....

no comment....

I am done with Gracie. She is three and a half and it high time she is potty trained. She has other ideas though! And she is making me crazy. I decided that when the diapers ran out I wouldn't buy more. I figured after a couple accidents she would get the idea of what I mean by going in the potty. I figured wrong...

It has been three days of her only going in undies - she sits on the toilet plenty, but holds it until she gets her undies back on. I am afraid the last straw that broke this camel's back was this afternoon when she held it for about four hours because I wouldn't let her out of my sight unless she was sitting on the potty. She doesn't like to be bothered when she is going so I thought that if I didn't bother her when she sat on the toilet and be her buddy the rest of the time then maybe she wouldn't be able to hold it in any longer and let it go on the potty. Well my little plan was working until Davie woke from him nap. I went to get him and I kid you not, I was gone less than a minute. When I got back she told me she peed in her undies. I LOST IT! What a stubborn little stinker! I can tell you it only went downhill from there (in the form of a number two accident in her undies for the second day in a row).

Clearly she is not ready (or maybe just not willing) to be potty trained. But I don't want to lose this power struggle, AND she can't go to preschool unless she is potty trained (their rule, not mine - it is dumb). I can't tell you how tired I am. In fact tired isn't even enough of a word to describe what I am right now. I am spent. I need a magical fairy to come and fix this for me. I have tried prayer and so far that isn't panning out. And on top of it all I am SO SICK of hearing about how everyone else's child "just magically potty-trained her/himself at 18 months" blah blah blah....is that supposed me feel great about my life? Come on, try some sensitivity or at least tact! I always want to say, "Oh good for little Whoever! Your child must be a real self-starter. I bet she will be President someday!" For crying out loud, how is that productive advice? Okay, I need to pull it in a bit - sorry. Maybe that was a little rude.

Anyway, I am frustrated and feeling everything else that comes along with this. I don't really know what to do from here, although I am sure I will figure it out. I do know one thing for sure, I am tired of Gracie's potty woes ruining my year.

my little soapbox...

Most people who know me well, know that I am incredibly opinionated. I actually really hate this characteristic about myself; sometimes I wish I could turn my brain off at about the point where I start developing opinions about things. I try to keep most controversial and offensive opinions to myself as I would like to continue having friends...

With that said I cannot hold it in any longer, I have two very strong opinions about some things that lately have been driving me crazy! First, it recently came to my attention that President Obama smokes cigarettes! Not just once in a while, but habitually; like on a daily basis! Is that not the most ridiculous thing you have ever heard? I have issues with smoking - I think it is disgusting, I don't understand the allure of purposely doing something to harm your body, and I can't stand the fact that smokers don't seem to have any respect for the air I am breathing (they seem to be so put out when you ask them to move out of the non-smoking sections - people, I can't breathe. Maybe I should start carrying around a can of yucky-smelling hairspray and spray it in their direction. Let's see how well they can breathe then). I think it shows a huge lapse in good judgement; plus I wonder how no one seemed to know this about the President when he was running for office. It seems to me that most educated people upon hearing that a candidate smokes on a regular basis would also thereby figure he must be an idiot and not vote for him. If you are going show poor enough judgement to even start smoking and then continue smoking into your mature years then I think you must be just down-right stupid! I know, that was the highly-emotional, opinionated Emily speaking...I will tone it down now. I try and not spew too much garbage out about the President; I think that is somewhat disrespectful (even though I really don't like him all that much), but in this case it infuriates me; especially since his wife's entire agenda is focused on healthy lifestyle habits for children. Well shouldn't her husband, the President, be the first to set a good example?! I mean, duh! Okay, I am done with this issue, on to the next.

This one really gets me; mainly because I see it as a problem everywhere. Littering! All through my public schooling years it was pounded into us that LITTERING IS BAD - basically the worse sin you could commit in society. Our society definitely frowns on littering, yet I see people blatantly littering ALL the time. About a year ago I was at a stoplight and in the car next to me the man cracked his window and out came an empty bag of chips. Oh but that is just the beginning. This was not your stereotypical person, the kind you might expect to litter or at least wouldn't be surprised if littered. This man was about 45-50, well-groomed, and driving an Escalade! What? I was baffled! Since then I have probably seen it four or five times; someone cracking their window and throwing out the trash - it makes me really mad. Have some respect, some decency. Where were these people when Mr. Wienburg (my 5th grade teacher) was talking to us about the perils of littering? It is the epitome of laziness. Almost as lazy as not even trying to quit smoking!

homebodies

I keep getting asked what our big summer plans are. Well, here they are...they consist of just hanging around the house having a good time together...

This is the world's largest tent! We are going to a family reunion next year in Yosemite and we will be camping for several days. Because of this we decided that in order to not go crazy we would need enough space for all us. We bought this three-room tent last week and it is awesome. Lily and Adam slept in it Sunday night. They had so much fun having a camp-out on their own. Plus I was amazed at the fact that they weren't up at the crack of dawn...

Look who got a haircut! Doesn't he look so big? What a handsome little man; I just LOVE him so much!!!

The kids wanted to have a Toy Sale. So I gave them all the toys that are going to DI, Lily made a sign, and they were set. Unfortunately, despite their best effort they didn't have a great turn-out. I told them that maybe Saturday would be a better day for the sale....

Gracie's new haircut and the chocolate cookie residue on her face. Still she is as cute as ever!

After a while with no customers at their sale, Adam thought he would take charge of advertising Paul Revere style. He jumped on Lily's bike and rode around the neighborhood yelling, "TOY SALE TODAY!!! COME SEE THE TOYS...TOY SALE TODAY!!!"

Adam wanted to take a pic of Davie and me. And nope, I am not wearing any make-up; that is why I look ten years older...or just very ill.

Here's what $20 will buy at our house...hours of fun "swimming."

all aboard!

Lily asked the following question yesterday:

"Mom, when you go on a cruise does everyone dress like pirates?"

She had Scott and me laughing pretty hard. We told her that pirate clothes are optional...although, what do we know, neither of us has been on a cruise!

good times galore

It has been a while. Here are some photos that chronicle our last few weeks...

We had a great thunder/lightening storm and look at the rainbow it produced. It was so beautiful.

We remodeled our front walkway and one day Lily came in saying there was a snake enjoying the dirt path leading to the door. It was a little creepy, but the neighborhood kids loved it.

The Fourth of July (the Third rather) was such fun. Here is Gracie having fun with a sparkler. We went to the parade in the morning, which is always fun here in West Jordan. The kids got more candy than at Halloween. The weather was perfect - sunny and a little cool. It was a great day!

Getting ready to leave for the parade.

At the parade

Davie was having so much fun waving this little flag around. It was pretty cute.

Davie's 1st birthday! July 5th is Davie's birthday and we had a great little party with the kids. I can't believe my boy is one - such a cute little guy!

Gracie was "helping" him blow the candles out - look how anxious he is to touch it!

I love this boy!

I just realized that these are out of order....oh well. Monday (July 5th) Scott didn't have to go to work in observance on Independence Day. So we decided it would be fun to find a little hike to go on. We went out west to the Oquirrh Mountains near the Kennecott Mine. We found the most beautiful little hike. I think Gracie would have walked all day - she was having such a blast! Adam wasn't quite as enthusiastic, but was a good sport.

After the hike we went up to the peak to look down in the mine - it was HUGE and so cool. I wish I had gotten a picture.

Here is how the walkway turned out. Doesn't it look pretty!