From pinterest to reality

My husband would be the first to agree that I love Pinterest. It quickly becomes addicting.

Source: cheezburger.com via Marie on Pinterest

 I love to see all of the things that you can make, create, design, place, read, etc. A while ago I was talking to a friend about this site and she asked me if I had actually made any of the things that I had pinned. This is also a frequent running joke on that site. I thought about and I could only recall about 3 things that I had made and I'm thinking that most of them were food. So you can all see the evidence I'm going to be sharing my projects with my readers. I just started this yesterday and am currently working on a scarf as a present. I found this crochet pattern on pinterest. The tutorial is for a ripple blanket, which is beautiful and I decided to use it to make a scarf. More to come. I hope you enjoy the journey with me.

So I've been meaning to catch up on my blogging. I have all these blog posts sitting in a folder because I haven't uploaded pictures yet. Sometime this week I'll be able to get to those, but until then here's a sneak peek.

M now looks like this (just an fyi she did this on her own):

And J looks like this:

Ben and I pretty much look the same.

Like I said, it's been a while since I've updated this. Miriam is soon to be 7 months old. And John is coming up on two and a half in a few months.

What have we been doing? Halloween was a few days ago and you can read about our adventures here. (when I make this a link). I'm getting over a weird science infection this week. And John and Miriam are just being two crazy, fun-loving, kids. Miriam eats mashed up food and tries to eat everything else that she can possibly keep her hands on which means I have to keep on eye on her brother because he seems to think that he needs to feed Miriam anything that he is also eating. At least he likes to share with his sister, right?  Miriam is also sitting on her own, rolling to any destination, gooing and gaaing-with do da in between. She loves to bounce and stand on our laps, sit in her bumbo, etc. John continues to impress us with all of the words he knows and the sentences he can now form. He's really great at opening the fridge now too and was in awe at the past holiday where people he knew kept giving him candy.

Ben is finishing up the semester and is almost done. YAY! And I? I have just started working twice a week at the lds church offices. LOVE it.

So, soon I'll be all caught up on the blog and will be posting about our holiday season adventures and about the amazing crafts I'll be making for them thanks to my new friend, PINTEREST.

Catch you later peeps!

Winner, Winner

The coolest thing happened to me. I had been talking to Ben about getting season passes to the aqaurium so that I could take the kids to do something fun and educational on boring house days (or quite frankly days where I just needed to get out) and thank goodness I didn't buy them. I entered a contest and won myself one and was able to get Ben one for half the price. SWEETNESS! I also ended up winning ksldeals daily giveaway with free minigolf and batting. I was feeling pretty awesome and better than that I had an auto date night outing. This free thing is not overrated people. Pics to come of usage of these sweet prizes.

We all scream for ICE CREAM

We went to Ben's parents' home on Monday evening and, what a treat, we were able to have homemade ice cream to boot. Ben wanted to use the hand crank ice cream maker and his parents were nice enough to do that. As you can see John caught on very quickly and was soon a pro at alternating ice and salt in the machine.

Here are Ben, his mom, and Miriam waiting for ready and delicious ice cream.

A very rare moment. I've captured a picture of Ben's elusive brother. Mwahahaha. Of course, he did manage to hide his face. /:<



Miriam was very patient. Here she is happily waiting for her ice cream. And again here she is just moments later and tired of waiting. It's ok though cause she wasn't going to get any this year anyway.

Here's John giving it a crank. He was a great helper and obviously very involved in the ice cream making process this year. He even tried to churn it again at the very end when it was hardest to turn. Maybe next year he'll have the muscles to do it :)

Below to the left you'll see that scout, the family cat, is also waiting for her portion of the ice cream.

For informational purposes today was also a holiday, Pioneer Day. See my other post for that info.

 

John and I together. Lately I can not get this kid to pull of a regular smile. So here we have crazy face and Mr. Wiggle worm.

It's probably best this way though since what you really get to see is the energy that my LO has  and just how much fun everything is for him. So while I would like to have a nice family pic of all of us together smiling, I love these peeks into what real life is like.

The finished product. A deliciously yummy rasberry cheesecake ice cream. I was posed the question of whether I would like this particular flavor to which I replied something to the effect of, "anything with cheesecake in it tastes good." This was not an exception.

 What better way to end a summer night than to sip water from the hose? John sure got the whole summer experience tonight. Grilled hamburgers, potato salad, home made ice cream, and cool hose water. He has been inaugerated into childhood. I couldn't be prouder.

Yogurt face

I gave John some yogurt and this is what it became. He at with a spoon and apparantly draped it all over his shirt and face (including nose and forehead) before actually putting it into his mouth.

Somebody's been sleeping in my bed

Looks like goldilocks has some competition.

Mac sleeps everywhere. I don't mind if he curls up in his own bed or on the floor, but I am constantly finding him on the couch, on our bed, in John's bed, on the big stuffed monkey, on the chair, on Mimi's changing table, and in the cradle and crib.

Just look at poor mimi and her bed companion.

You better believe I kicked him out. Sheesh!

Happy Birthday John!

We can now officially enter the terrible '2's. Though, if my chunk-a-munk wants to postpone or skip that phase, I wouldn't be too crushed.

We greeted John with Blues clues pancakes and we let him watch the show too. It was so cute because John saw these pancakes and said 'a clue, a clue' . He loves blues clues and can sing all of the songs. It is so amazing to me all of the things that a two year old knows. Ahhhh! I have a two year old. This went by so quickly.
 .

What a crazy day. I was kind of procrastinator and ended up having to make most of the cake today, but I think it turned out pretty well.
However, I did need to do some damage control. I went to check on Miriam and then John comes running into the room with chocolate and crumbs all over his face and hands. OF COURSE he thinks this is the best thing ever. I think, "oh no" and go running to the kitchen and find this...

Luckily it wasn't something that a little frosting couldn't fix. Shhhh! Don't tell the parentals.

While this was all going on, Miriam sat adorably in her swing. That's my girl :)

We had a pretty chill day and the grandparents came over for some cake and present fun. All minus my pops of course since he is still living in Hawaii. (miss you dad) I wish we could have had more family and friends over but with all the events we'd already had with everyone I was a little partied out and just needed something easy.

My Bro (Uncle Fish) enjoying the Hunger Games series



Miriam is ready to PARTY!!!



John got some great gifts and it was SO thoughtful of our parents to get him something that he would really love.

See. Toys so fun, even Ben can't stay away. Lol.

Time for cake (that's supposed to be Elmo)

I can't believe that two years have gone by since our little boy entered our lives.
He is so smart and can understand and say so many things now. He is able to do so much too. Every day he surprises me with the things that he knows.

Some of his favorite things are:

Reading. He loves to read. He is always bringing books to us and pointing things out. Even when he goes to time out in his room he ends it by trying to get a book to read with us.

Dancing: We have an electronic keyboard in place of a piano. John likes to turn it on and put the beatboxing sounds on and then he goes into dance mode. I have NO idea where he gets these moves. He's bouncing back and forth, twirling, doing somersaults, bending his knees, working the arms, the head, the hips. I mean seriously this kid has some talent. The one draw back is that I am now so tired of hearing the same beat over and over and over again and he will finish dancing and just walk away to leave me "enjoying" his tunes.

Singing and music I am so glad that John loves these things, because we all know that I really love these things. John is always singing. He sings along to Blues Clues and Elmos World. He sings primary songs. And the other day in the car and then in the store he sang along to Bruno Mars' song Amazing. And my boy John IS amazing.

Cars and trucks Ok, so I took  social work, psychology, sociology, and anthropology classes in college. I even took a women's studies class in high school. I remember learning about how we tend to provide our kids with gender cues and faux pas (ie boys playing with dolls and girls with trucks). Well, I did not push these on my kid (to the ultra feminist out there no I also didn't push the opposite either) and he still discovered his need to push cars and trucks around, crash them, and make sounds. John also like to point out the real-life cars and the obvious size difference in very big trucks, fire engines, bull dozers, etc. He does this by the eloquent "WHOA! Big truck!"

Coloring This boy loves to color. For his birthday we got him an easel with a dry erase on one side and a chalkboard on the other. We were smart and haven't given him markers yet. However John has discovered that chalk writes on other things around the house. Grrrr. He loves to color in his coloring books, and lately if we aren't watching he practices his artwork in reading books, on chairs, walls, doors, and the blinds. Joy.

Food: I am very thankful that our little boy is not a picky eater. He will eat or at least try pretty much anything. Sometimes he doesn't want it right away but he will eventually eat it. He's getting to the "everything around me is way more exciting than sitting here and eating" phase so we take what we can get.

Words and counting I can't believe all of the words John has learned in two years. Children are amazing. He expresses himself pretty well and is really good at mimicking what we say and retaining the memory of the word. He's able to pick out the letters of the alphabet in words now and Ben has done a really great job at teaching John the numbers. He counts to ten.

Show and tell: He loves to show us things. He points or just says " Airplane in sky, neigh horse, grass, dog, uh oh crying (when Miriam is), Daddy's home" and much more. It amazes me how much he notices.

Helping out: John is an excellent helper. He always wants to be around to help with dishes, vacuuming, feeding the cat, taking care of Miriam, etc. It's such a fun thing to see him so excited about doing everything.

Play time: Our little boy has no trouble getting into play mode. Just a hint of a smile or encouragement and he is running, dancing, yelling, talking, thinking, you name it and our boy is doing it. He loves to play. He hasn't really developed any aversions to any type of play either. He loves to figure out the mechanics of things, he likes reading and art as already mentioned. He likes puzzles and stuffed animals, being outside, animals, planes, puppets, sports, you name it and he'll probably play with it.

Church: Since we've moved to our new home and ward John has been great in Sacrament Meeting. I don't know if it's because there are so many other children now that we don't notice it as much though it seems that he really is calmer. Maybe he's still in awe at the constant children's voices hum in the chapel. At any rate he is being really great. I hope he's getting used to nursery though I can tell that he really misses his friends and nursery leaders from our old ward.

We have quite the special little boy and I feel so blessed to have him as part of our family.

Singing in the rain

There have been a good number of summer storms lately. On one such evening Ben, Miriam, John, and even the cat took part in the fun.

 As you can see, John thoroughly enjoyed himself. We can't seem to get him to let us wash his hair in the bathtub without a fit or fuss but put him outside to play in rain or any type of water situation and he is inevitably doused from head to toe.

Smartest thing I ever did was put him in these swim shorts.

I thought that the clouds around our house were really beautiful. You an see a very faint trace of a rainbow if you look closely and furher back along the horizon you can see the clouds start to change colors in lieu of the coming sunset. My camera skills were a little lacking to capture it all but I think you can still see the beauty of it.

Here's Daddy as he wrangles the kids and the garbage can all at the same time.

See, even Mac had a lot of fun in the aftermath of puddles. Usually our little trouble maker cat is right by the door at any sign of rainfall ready to be let into the house.

It's these lazy days of summer and family time small moments that are definitely to be remembered. The little things that make the kids laugh when we spend time together. I'm glad I thought to take a picture to remind me of the memory.

Cereal Monster

I don't think that there is anybody that loves cereal more than our family. Ben even puts chocolate chips in it at night and eats it for dessert.

Well it must have rubbed off on John because he is always happy to eat it. Every morning we pour him a bowl and he goes to town using his spoon, then his hands, and finally slurping down all of the milk. I have to be careful about leaving the cereal box out though or this is what happens.....
 

Mr. Mischief here thinks that he can just take the bag out of the cereal box and fest on the contents. As you can see his place of choice for this delicacy is mommy and daddy's bed. I have to be pretty swift because once he knows that I know what he's doing he runs out of the kitchen through the house laughing and screaming. He makes it pretty hard to be cross sometimes and I have to try not to laugh as that would defeat the whole purpose helping him understand that he's doing something naughty. Sometimes I just can't help myself though.

Do you see this face to the left? This is what I mean. This cute little expression just makes it that much more difficult. It's a good thing you're so handsome little john. Lol.

Taylorsville Dayzz

LOVE me some T-Ville Dayzz!

One of the downsides to living in Magna now is our vastly different proximity to Valley Park and the Taylorsville Dayzz festivities. Luckily our friends, the Tappanas, still live in the old neighborhood behind the park and we had a great excuse to go. Nothing better than food, fireworks, and fun....oh and of course shopping:) They had so many great booths this year and I picked up a lot of company cards for further perusal.

What was really great was watching John have fun with Lydia Tappana and Jackson Bassett (son of our other friends). He ran around and around dancing and laughing and playing.

Here's John enjoying some eats at Taylorsville Dayzz.

 

A blurry pic of John  but that's ok.

Here's our baby girl Miriam along for the ride in her stroller.

John's friend Lydia. She's pretty stoked about the straw she has. She and John have a pretty good time together. And it was really cute to see all the running around they did. I was amazed at all the words she knew.

All of our friends chillin and waiting for the fireworks to start.

John loved seeing the fireworks. After each one he kept saying "whoa" or "ooh" or "wow" and often "boom" and he would twirl or run or play. It was hilarious and really made the fireworks more fun.

More of the show

Here are my boys. Ben and John always take cute pics together. It's really nice to have John at this stage of "not too heavy to carry on your shoulders" because he really loves it.

 

No matter where we live for the rest of our lives I definitely plan on coming back every year for Taylorsville Dayzz.

Junior Picassos

Today  I took the kids to the Salt Lake Arts Festival in downtown Salt Lake http://www.uaf.org/. I was hoping that Ben was going to be able to go, but it just so happened that the only day that we could go was also the day that Ben was going to have to work late. So I packed the kids into the car with extra clothes and a huge water bottle and cruised on downtown.

There are a few things that I wish I would have thought about before making the trip.

#1- Parking

Parking downtown already sucks. I went in the afternoon- so parking meters weren't scarce but you can only put in so much change and A: I didn't have any change B: there's no way I'm walking back and forth with two kids just to put change in a meter. There are parking lots but they were charging 6 and even 10 dollars to use them. That is RIDICULOUS!!! Especially since one of the 10 dollar places was the library. Yeesh! I ended up deciding to Park on 5th south in free parking. This did require me to walk with John while pushing Miriam in the stroller a few blocks. Which brings me to my next thought...

#2- Event Transportation

Had I been thinking, I would have parked by the trax station further up the street and taken the kids to the library. That way  I'd besitting in an air conditioned train with total control of the kiddies. The next ideal would've been to bring my sling to carry Miriam and push John in the stroller. (What I would've given to have already bought the double stroller) I had decided not to take the sling because I thought it would be easier to have a place to put Miriam knowing that John would just get restless and I'd be stuck pushing an empty stroller while chasing one kid and carrying the other.

In the end, what I did end up doing was walking with John those few blocks,and then; quickly realizing at that rate I wouldn't get there til Christmas, putting him on my shoulders and pushing Miriam to the entrance. This is also how we came back. The upside? Excercise for me. :)

#3- Making the health booth your first stop is the best idea.

 Here you'll find free cold water and fans. They also gave us a plastic water bladder to fill up for John to carry (yes, I did bring our own water but this was way more fun for him). In addition to that they had adult and kid sunscreen and sunscreen in packets. I'm really glad that we stopped here first because it made the festival a lot more enjoyable.

#4- Swimsuits

If you think that there is going to be water for your kids to play in  where you are going, bring the inswimsuit either in your bag or by having them wear it there. We stopped at this little fountain (before and after we did everything else) and luckily I had the foresight to have John wear his swim shorts. He had a lot of fun and I didn't worry about him getting his clothes wet AND it dried quickly. PLUS it made a hot day bearable for my little boy.

We walked into the water and at first John was a little unsure of what I was letting him do. "You want me to play in the water and get my clothes wet mom?"

It didn't take him long to warm up to the idea though and pretty soon he was splashing and even sitting in the water here.

#5- How hard it really is to take to small children to any public place.

I applaude single parents who do this kind of thing everyday. It was an interesting experience and I think that I'll definitely take Ben with me to this next time because it sure was a balancing act.

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"Mom, get me out"

Someone's a little sad. :(

John thought that this dragon was pretty neat and he kept trying to shake his hand. I had to pull him away finally though cause I didn't want to be "that mom" who let her kid break the dragon art.

Playing with the blocks in the shade

John is trying to figure out how to get up on the slide. One little girl saw him and said, "um I think this one is for the bigger kids." Lol.

John loves the teeter totter and this Aligator one was right up his alley

This green sand was really soft and John loved playing in it with the other kids. They also had other sand boxes full of blocks and other toys.

Under the red shade of the stroller is Miriam dozing away while John has his fun in the sun.

FYI the arts festival is a great place to take kids. Ages 12 and under are free and they have some great activities for them. There were 6 to 8 booths with things to do and take home and they were free. There were even a few more things to do if you wanted to spend 7 - 10 dollars more. I'm glad that we went and I hope to make this a tradition.