What We've Been Working On

Aaron and I have a couple of new projects going on around our house these days. They might not look like much now, but we are really excited about how they will turn out. A little while ago our apartment complex had a yard sale. Aaron and I made $40 selling off all our junk. Yahoo! With that money we decided that we would buy the wood to make ourselves a nightstand for our bedroom. You can see the drawing above (and I should probably mention that Aaron did this drawing and it is to scale. That's Aaron for you. If I'd drawn it we'd be lucky if the lines were even straight.) This night stand will be tall enough to look nice with our bed (our bed is pretty high up there) and it will fit in the corner of our room very nicely. The side that's on the same wall as the bed will have a cupboard with doors on the bottom and two drawers on top. On the other side it will be a bookshelf. Awesome!

Here it is so far. We took it to Hooper a little while ago and Aaron used Kerry's router to make the corners look really nice, and the nail gun to put in the shelves. We picked out a stain that will match our bed. Now all we need is for Aaron to have some extra time to finish it up. :)

For the last couple of weeks whenever I've had a free second (not very often, in other words), I've been working on my latest project which is a levi quilt. My mom's friend had a bunch of levi she didn't want anymore so I was very glad to take it off of her hands. :) The quilt I'm making isn't going to be entirely out of levi, about half. The other half is different colors of cotton fabric that I thought looked cute together.
I am sort of following a pattern, but I made a few changes to it that I think are a nice improvement to it. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do on the back, or how I will bind it together, but I have really enjoyed having another sewing project to work on. I guess we'll see how it turns out. Happy creating to us!

Book Review: Memoirs of a Geisha

by Arthur Golden

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was a little leery to read this book because I knew there would be a lot of sex in it just because of the topic. I watched the movie, which I thought was good but it left me a little confused and wanting more information, so then of course I had to read the book. I really enjoyed the book, which was a nice surprise. Yes, there were a few parts where I had to skip, but for the most part the author does a very good job of describing the life of a Geisha without getting too hot and heavy. That being said you should be aware that a lot of sexual things are discussed but I didn't think of them so much as inappropriate but rather historically accurate. I think it's sad that a nine year old girl could be sold into slavery and made into an object for man's enjoyment. I should probably say, for those of you wondering, that a Geisha is not a prostitute, but more of a human made into a work of art.

Anyways, even though the story had the happiest ending it could possibly have, it was still a sad book just because of the situation this girl finds herself in. The story was entertaining though. It was interesting to read about a culture I was unfamiliar with. And what I enjoyed the most about the book was how the author wrote it. The narrator was the Geisha as an old woman telling her story to someone who was researching about Geisha. So the story is told from her point of view as she remembers it, which I thought gave the book an authentic feel. Also, the author used metaphors in such a good way. They feel natural to read and they help draw a picture in your mind of what's going on. I gave the book only three stars because it wasn't one of my all time favorites. A good read, entertaining, well written, but not in the top ten. But I recommend it.

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Family Pictures

I've been wanting to do family pictures ever since Ivan was born, but we just never got around to it. Then I saw the family pics of Aaron's sister Sydni, that Aaron's brother Kelly took for them while he was up visiting in Washington. They looked fantastic. So we decided to have Kelly do ours too. :)

On Saturday we went up to Bridal Veil Falls. There are lots of great spots up there for taking pictures. And the weather cooperated very nicely. It was over cast which is great for pictures, and it only rained a tiny bit right at the beginning. The kids did pretty well. Lincoln had some trouble holding still, but we copied Sydni's idea and bribed him with M&Ms, which helped.

Kelly did an exceptional job, and he was very patient while we tried to get Linc to smile and hold still. He took over 600 shots. It was hard to narrow it down.

I love this one of Lincoln sticking his tongue out. It fits his personality so well.

This is towards the end. Linc got bored while we were doing some shots of Ivan and rested his head on the fence rails.

Ivan grinning for the camera. He's getting to be such a cute baby.

I thought Ivan would hate to be propped up again the tree, but he did so good.

I love this shot!

On the way back to the van Ivan was hungry and tried eating my face. Haha.

Let's Get Rollin'

Ivan has been rolling over sporadically for a couple of weeks now. But never often enough that I could film it. He's just finally starting to roll from back to front almost every time we lay him down on his back. He rolls from front to back too, but not nearly as often or as easily. Here's to the coming mobility! Ha.

Weekend in Hooper

Kyle's homecoming talk in church was Sunday, and I had a friend whose wedding reception was Friday night. So we decided to make a weekend out of it and head up for a few days in Hooper.

Saturday was an awesome day. Mom and Kerry were kind enough to watch the boys so Aaron and I could do a session at the temple. I'm embarrassed to say how long it's been since we've done a session, but it felt wonderful to go and spend the morning in the temple together. When we got home Aaron worked on his new project (he's making a nightstand/shelf for our bedroom) and I filled up a little pool that Tanner had borrowed from the neighbors and let Lincoln splash around, while Ivan and I sat in the shade under a tree and watched. Lincoln absolutely loved the swimming pool. I think he had about 30 plastic Chevron cars (remnants from Tanner's childhood) in there with him, not to mention his new favorite thing in the world, a toy Apache helicopter (which he hasn't parted with since, fyi). He stayed out there for two and half hours easy. And only got out because I made him come inside and have a bath so we could get ready to go watch Papa Kerry, Aunt Steph, and Uncle Kirk go sky-diving.

Steph and Kirk were going to celebrate their 1 year anniversary, and Kerry got a ticket to go for his birthday. They were really excited. Personally, I think they're nuts! Hell would have to do way more than freeze over before you could get me to jump out of an airplane, but whatever floats your boat I guess.

I stayed happily on the ground with my mom and watched. Lincoln also stayed on the ground, but not so happily. When Kerry went to get on the plane, Linc started stretching out his arms as far as his could (he was strapped into the stroller) and shouting "Papa! Papa in! Papa in!" Meaning that he wanted to get in the plane with Papa. Linc did have a really good time though. He loved watching the plane take off and land. Even more than that, he loved to watch the jumpers. He's see them in the sky, and every time one came down to land Linc would say, "More! More! Nother one. Nother one!" He couldn't get enough of it. I am happy to report that all three, Steph, Kirk, and Kerry, made it down in one piece. Kerry's story about the whole experience is pretty awesome, and to listen to him tell it you know he had a good time. So if you ever see him, ask him about sky-diving.

Kyle's talk on Sunday was awesome. He did such a good job of bringing the Spirit into the meeting. I'm so proud of him. I think I'll claim him as my brother. ;)

Welcome Home Brother!

After spending two years in Guatemala serving his mission, my brother Kyle is finally home! Yay! Sometimes it doesn't really feel like he was gone all that long, but then I stop to think about it and I realize that pretty much my little family doubled in size while he was gone. He hadn't met Lincoln or Ivan. I wonder if that's weird for him to come home to? The long standing family joke is that for Kyle coming home would be like going to one of those family reunions Mom used to always drag us to, where you don't really know anyone but your still related. :) While Kyle was gone he acquired two new nephews and a niece, and a brother-in-law (Steph's husband Kirk).


Aaron and Lincoln and I made Kyle a sweet welcome home sign, and instructed my mom to get the balloons to go with. (Balloons and the four of us would never fit into our Accord at the same time and still allow safe driving.) Of course Mom got the first hug. I think she threatened us all with our lives if we even thought about trying to get to him before she did. As far as what I expected Kyle to be like, I'm not sure. He seems the same, except more spiritual and more responsible and less self-oriented. He's skinny and can't eat very much at once. I thought he'd have a harder time with English, or have more of a Spanish accent, but he doesn't really.

After the airport we went back to Hooper and had Chinese food with the fam. Kyle brought home some really awesome stuff from Guat. Aaron and I got a hand carved ceramic chess board and all the pieces. It's really cool. We are so happy to have Kyle home!

Firsts

1. Who was your FIRST prom date? I'd have to go back in my journal and check for sure, but I think it was John Gittins.

2. Do you still talk to your FIRST love? We're friends on facebook, and once in a blue moon I see him when I go home, but not very often.

3. What was your FIRST alcoholic drink? I've never had one.

4. What was your FIRST job? I worked for my dad alot picking up garbage at the houses he was building, I baby-sat some too, but my first real job with a paycheck was reffing softball/baseball and Roy City Recreation.

5. What was your FIRST car? 1990 Honda Accord, oh how I loved that car. I had it from when I was 16 until just after my freshman year of college when it exploded. :( It was such a sweet car.

6. Who was the FIRST person to text you today? No one texts me because we don't have text messaging as part of our plan.

7. Who is the FIRST person you talked to this morning? Aaron

8. Who was your FIRST grade teacher? Mrs. Calvert, in the gold room at Hooper Elementary.

9. Where did you go on your FIRST ride on an airplane? California to visit my Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Jim.

10. Who was your FIRST best friend & do you still talk? Ashley Hunt, I haven't talked to her since probably 3rd grade.

11. Where was your FIRST sleep over? I have no idea, I had lots and lots of sleepovers in my day.

13. Whose wedding were you in the FIRST time? My Aunt Nan. I was the Mormon wedding equivalent of the flower girl.

14. What was the FIRST thing you did this morning? Hoped out of bed, listened to see if my boys were still sleeping, and then stuck into the shower before they woke up.

15. What was the FIRST concert you ever went to? Backstreet Boys, oh ya!

16. FIRST tattoo? No tattoos. No thank you.

17. FIRST piercing? My ears. And I did them myself when I was in Jr. High. :)

18. FIRST foreign country you went to? The Bahamas on a cruise with my family in 4th grade

19. FIRST movie you remember seeing? I have no idea, but the first movie I went to in the theatre was Fox and the Hound, so my mom says.

20. When was your FIRST detention? I never got detention. I was a good student. :) Don't ask how many times I got grounded though...

21. Who was your FIRST roommate? Alyce Marie Ford, she's from England. She's awesome!

23. If you had one wish. What would it be? That Aaron was graduated from college so he wouldn't have to spend his nights and weekends doing homework.

24. What is something you would learn if you had the chance? How to play the piano

25. Did you marry the FIRST person to ask for your hand in marriage? Yes

26. What was the FIRST sport that you were involved in? T-ball which of course lead to my 13 year career as a softball player

27. What were the FIRST lessons you ever took? Probably dance, I remember being an Ogden City Doll, however once I was old enough to make my own decisions about that kind of thing, I promptly put a stop to dance lessons. :)

28. What is the FIRST thing you do when you get home? Argue with Lincoln about why he needs to come inside.

29. Where's the FIRST place you'd travel if you had unlimited time and funds? New York City!

The Hair Cut I Desperately Needed

I've been threatening for months. My problem was that I couldn't decide if I was actually brave enough to do it or not. But ya know, you let your hair go long enough and pretty soon the ends are super nasty and it won't curl worth a fart and your ready to try anything just to get it out of your face. I became desperate. Desperation helps one to be brave as it turns out. My mom (who has a cosmetology license) always cuts my hair, because she does an excellent job and because she doesn't charge me anything to do it. :) I had a really cute, short hairstyle in mind. I explained it to her as best I could, but she still seemed a little nervous. I wasn't nervous about her abilities I knew she'd do a great job, what I was nervous about was whether or not I could pull off this short of a hair do. I've never had my hair this short before. Well.....it turned our fantastic! I absolutely love having it up off of my neck. I love that even if all I do is get out of the shower, comb it out and slap some mousse on it that it still looks good enough to go out in public. And it looks even cuter if I actually do it. I'm thrilled about my new hair cut. So thrilled in fact, that I don't even care if anyone else likes it, or thinks it looks good one me, because I do. Maybe some day I'll have long hair again, but after this, it's not likely to be soon. :)

PS I took these pictures myself, so they may not be the best angles, but I only had limited options.

Lincoln's New Trick

I've been trying to teach Linc to do somersaults for quite awhile, but he's always been uninterested in doing them by himself. Then the other day we were all just hanging out in the living room, and with no prompting at all, Linc starts doing somersaults. He was pretty pleased with himself too.

He's been catching on to things so quickly lately. The same day he did the somersaults, he and I were coloring on a legal pad with black pens. Lincoln got some pen on his face, so I licked my thumb (beware, what you are about to read may be extremely graphic and disgusting, but I couldn't help it I'm a mom.) and used the spit to clean pen off of his cheek. Several minutes later, Lincoln was trying to stick his fingers in my mouth. I couldn't figure out what he was doing for the longest time, but he was persistent and eventually got his fingers in my mouth and across my tongue and then started rubbing a spot on his arm where he had gotten a pen mark on it. Once we figured out what he was doing, Aaron and I laughed pretty hard, then promptly taught him how to use his own spit to get the pen off.

Independence Day Evening 2009

When I try to picture how our family will celebrate the Fourth of July ten years from now what I see is something very similar to the party/BBQ that Uncle Richard and Aunt Debbie put on last night. They invited all their family and friends that are in the area. It was pot luck, so everyone brought something, there was even home made ice cream. It just seemed so picture perfect to have everyone gathered together eating, talking, and laughing while we celebrated our country. Maybe that sounds sappy, but that's how I really feel about it. I would love to be in a position someday to put on that kind of a gathering. But I do love being a hostess, so maybe that's why.

Uncle Kelly watching Bolt with Lincoln and Bennett

Dinner wasn't scheduled to start until 7:00pm, but we went over around 4:30pm. It was nice to chat with Richard and Debbie. We haven't seen them in awhile. The little kids got kind of bored, so Uncle Kelly was kind enough to sit and watch Bolt with them to keep them from tearing the house apart.

Lincoln showing off his sparkler

The original plan was to stay and watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks with everyone, but since we'd woken up so early this morning, Lincoln was pretty well ready to call it quits by about 8 o'clock. Before we headed for home we pulled out some of our fireworks to let the kids play with them. We had sparklers and pops and some things that spun around really fast in a brightly colored circle, and something that made a really loud whistling noise.

Bennett waving his sparkler around

We had to light the spinning ones and the whistling ones out in the street. There were a lot of neighbors out lighting fireworks with their kids as well, so we all took turns and all got to enjoy each others' fireworks. It was nice how that worked out.

Linc throwing a pop, those were his favorite

Ivan didn't like the smoke from the fireworks, so he and I didn't get to stay out and watch very long. Linc kept getting scared, which I think probably had something to do with all the unfamiliar people around added to the fact that he hadn't gotten much sleep today, and that this is his first experience with fireworks. When he got scared he would come over and hold tightly onto mine or Aaron's leg, but once we bent down and gave him a kiss on the head he was fine for another 5 minutes or so until he needed another "tiss".

After that we went home and put both boys to bed, then Aaron and I went and sat out of the front grass with a few of the neighbors and watched the first part of the stadium of fire fireworks. For some reason they did about 5 minutes worth and then paused for about 20 minutes before starting up again. During this pause Aaron and I decided we were exhausted and that it would be more beneficial/enjoyable to go in and go to bed. So that's what we did.

Independence Day Morning 2009

I didn't think there would ever be a time when I thought that waking up at 5:30 in the morning by choice would be worth it, but today it most definitely was. We woke up at 5:30 so we could leave to go to the hot air balloon festival by 6:00am. Last night Aaron and I made muffins and juice and packed bagels and water, and everything else we could think up into our newly acquired wagon. When we woke this morning, all we had to do was dress, and get the boys dressed and we were out the door.

We walked over with some friends from our apartment complex. The field where they were launching them from was only about a block away from our house so we figured it would be easier and fast to walk. We were right. We got there in time to see them spread out a lot of the balloons and start to fill them up with hot air. It was really awesome.


I was surprised at how close we were able to get to the balloons. We were sitting right in the middle of them all, it was like a giant balloon forest. We even had one that needed to be spread out right where we were sitting, so we had to move for a minute, and they spread it out right over our blankets while it filled up. We were able to touch it too. Lincoln was a little bit scared of the balloons and didn't like being too close to them. One flew right over our head and Aaron got a cool shot of the inside.


Here's our family at the balloon festival. While we watched the balloons fill up and lift off we ate our breakfast on the blanket and chatted with Stacey and Rob and their kids.


We tried really hard to capture the sheer quantity of balloons in the air. This picture still doesn't do it but it's the best we got. There were three shaped balloons. Lincoln's favorite was the one shaped like a piggy bank. He would look up into the sky to find it, and then yell "Pig! Pig!" At the top of his lungs. Then I'd ask him what the pig said and he's say, "O-oint"


I'm not sure why exactly, but I really love this picture of Ivan. He was really good during the whole thing. He just let us hold him while we watched the balloons go by. The sky was beautiful this morning, which made for some really awesome pictures.


When the balloon festival was drawing to a close we loaded everything up and headed over to the parade. Lincoln and Jeremiah we the lucky winners who got to ride in the wagon with all the stuff.


Jeremiah enjoyed the wagon ride so much he fell asleep, and slept through most of the parade, firetruck sirens and all. About 20 minutes into the parade it started to rain. Now I know where the saying "Rain of your parade" comes from. :) But it actually was kind of refreshing, and it only lasted about 10 minutes and then the sun was right back out drying everything off. So it didn't ruin the parade at all.

Here are the Baileys, Bennett, Jeremiah, Audrey, Stacey, and Rob, at the parade. Audrey and Bennett had a lot of fun running up to the front to get candy from the floats. It'll be a few more years before Linc and Ivan are old enough to do that.

And of course this is our family at the parade, sporting our awesome 4th of July T-shirts. I love Lincoln and Ivan's shirts, they say "Freedom is Cool" and have a little flag. Mine and Aaron's are just the typical $5 Old Navy Flag T but hey, we look patriotic so that's all that matters. :) After the parade we came home and took much needed naps! Later this afternoon we are headed over to Aaron's Uncle Richard and Aunt Debbie's house for a 4th of July BBQ and to watch Stadium of Fire! Should be fun. I'm sure I'll take pics so check back again soon.

Rock Canyon With the Baileys

Aaron's sister Stacey and her husband Rob and their three kids, Audrey, Bennett, and Jeremiah came into town last night. They are stopping here in Utah for a couple of days on their way to Washington to visit Aaron's parents. We met up with them this morning and decided to go hiking in Rock Canyon. Kelly also joined us.

Jeremiah and Aaron

Bennett, Audrey, and Rob

On the way up, just past the bright green gate, there was this little place in the rock that was good for climbing for the kids, at least the older ones.

Lincoln walking with a stick

We had one adult per child. I carried Ivan. Stacey carried Jeremiah. Aaron watched out for/helped/and carried Lincoln. And Rob and Kelly kept track of and sometimes gave piggy backs to Audrey and Bennett. We didn't get super far along the trail, but that's ok.

Krystal carrying Ivan

Kelly showed a us nice spot across the river where we stopped and ate lunch. We saw a pretty decent sized Wolf Spider, and someone, Rob I think, promptly killed it. That was a little bit scary since all the kids that could walk were crawling and climbing around all over the rocks.

Lincoln picking up rocks to throw in the stream

After lunch we started to cross the river to continue on with our hike, but we only made it about half way across. The kids weren't that excited about hiking, but they were very excited about throwing rocks in the river. So we sat in the middle of the river in a shady spot (the river isn't deep at all) and let the kids throw rocks in the river. We even set small rocks on top of the really big rocks and used them as targets to aim at. It was fun. After about an hour we decided it was time to head back to the house for nap time and such. Lincoln threw a major fit because he didn't want to stop playing in the water. I think he would have been entertained for hours.

We came home and put the kids down for a nap and Aaron and I prepared everything we needed to for our BBQ. We made chicken sandwiches, roasted pineapple, and a dessert called fire roasted apples. It was all very tasty. We had to invite some of the neighbors over to help us finish off the food. It was a very wonderful relaxing night. Tomorrow we are getting up bright and early to go see the hot air balloons.

Tie-Dye Shirts and the Little Red Wagon

Have I ever mentioned how much I love my neighbors where we are living right now? If not, I really should have by now. I have the coolest neighbors in my apartment complex. They are very nice ladies, and all have at least one kid, so we all sit and talk out in the back yard while the kids play together. Sometimes we have girls' nights and sometimes someone plans an extra fun activity and invites everyone to join in. Yesterday the activity was to tie-dye patriotic shirts for the 4th of July. I'd never done this before, but I thought it was a lot of fun.

I was originally planning to dip the shirts in red and blue, but then while I was holding them in the red, one slipped and fell in, so I decided to drop the other one in too and just do red shirts. The patterns turned out awesome, but when I washed the shirts they turned out to be just a tiny bit pink. The shirts are still darling though, and next time I do tie-dye I'll have a much better idea of what I'm doing and I'll be able to make even more awesome shirts. :)

One of my awesome neighbors, Esther, is moving. :( But I mentioned in passing that I wanted to buy a wagon for the boys for Christmas, and she was like, why don't you just buy ours, we are trying to get rid of it. I'll sell it to you for $5. I couldn't pass up such a sweet deal. So for only $5 this two seater Radio Flyer with cool opening door is all mine! Lincoln loves it and insists that it be parked in his room at night while he's sleeping.