picture mania.

What's up everybody! Since you're reading this, that means that you've followed us over to private blogland. Thank you for that.

As a warning, this post has probably close to a billion pictures, so I recommend getting up and going to the bathroom, washing your hands, grabbing a cold beverage and a snack, and then coming back to the computer.

The babies do not like being on the other side of a baby gate. Dane especially. Dane is our sensitive baby. He's adorable like that, he takes it very personally when he gets put in his crib or when the baby gate goes up. But sometimes the babies make funny faces, and that makes all this crazy twinness work worth it. To see their faces smooshed in the mesh of a baby gate or pack n play.

This is Alec's smooshed little face.
Big news around here. We laid sod in the backyard and it's pretty dope. First we spread around some compost soil that Erik brought in big truckloads and dumped in wheelbarrow piles around the yard. Then I would use a rake to spread around the piles. I have a lot of experience in spreading dirt. Ask my mom and dad.
The huz being all handy and hardworking and stuff.
There he is again, still at it, and now laying the sod. Our friend and home teacher Nick came by to help. It was a HUGE help. The weather was perfect and in about 2 or 3 hours all of the sod was laid.
Here's Reid the next morning, remembering that there's grass and wanting to play in it. He still had his pajamas on so we gave him a sweatshirt and let him at it. We love this grass so much. Pretty soon we'll have some friends to roam the grass, but I'll mention that later...
The babies like to chat with each other. Here they pulled themselves up next to each other and I heard both of them giggling and giggling at each other. Alec is on the left and Dane is on the right.
The gang all ready for a Sunday afternoon walk around the neighborhood.
On labor day we went to the beach for a few hours. I love being so close to the beach. There are some A+ beaches within an hour drive from our house, but there's also a B- beach that's only 15 minutes from our house. So we pick that one.
Best idea ever. I put the babies in sleepers to try and minimize the sand that seems to get everywhere. It worked pretty darn well. Plus, it reduced the surface area that needed sunscreen. Double awesome. Here's Dane checking out some dried seaweed-ish stuff.
All the boys.
Alec being cute.
Isn't their hair coming in so nicely? I love it.
Dane's cute mug.
Reid loves the beach. He's super psyched every time we go, and the whole time he has sand all over him and never seems to notice. When I give him a snack, he has sand all over his face and probably eats as much sand as he does snack, but he loves it.
Here are the babies modeling their new booster chairs. We copied our awesome friends the Crandells and just skipped the whole high chair stage and went straight to this booster business. It worked great with Reid, and our babies love it, too. Here's Dane.
And Alec.
And another one of Dane. Look at how crazy huge his eyes are! Even as a tiny baby he's always had such bright eyes.
Bathtime. After a lot of trial and error, I've discovered that the boys like the sink the best. Especially Alec. Alec hated baths in the tub, but will now endure a bath in the sink without screaming. Sometimes he even smiles a little bit.
The boys are always playing together. One morning I found them all congregated by the window.
Then by the piano.
Last Friday we had a little birthday party for me. It was a success and a failure mixed in one. A success because our awesome friends the McCunes came over and partied with us. We had ice cream sundaes and here's Reid going to town on his ice cream. Sometimes utensils just slow him down, so he takes matters into his own hands. Literally. The party was a failure because I invited like 6 families and only one ended up coming. That sucks. It sucks being the new kid all the time and not really having close friends. Then, by the time you're in one place long enough to make close friends, you move again. Sucks. I want to be like, "I'm Emily, I throw fun parties! Hello?!" Oh, and I bought enough ice cream for an army, plus all kinds of sundae toppings. Which are now in my pantry. And I've decided to go on a sugar diet. As in a diet from sugar. Not a diet made of sugar. More on that later.
The boys enjoying the grass. Check out Alec's face in this one.
And Dane's face in this one.
This year we learned from last year's cake fiasco and just went with my favorite. A classic. Rainbow party chip. Erik employed his creativity to make this beautiful cake. That's me in some cheesy pajamas in the back.
The candles are sparkler candles, and Reid wasn't quite sure how he felt about the sparks.
Yeah, he was a little bit concerned. But the cake was awesome, and the birthday was probably my favorite ever. Erik was like superhero husband awesome. More about that later.
These pictures are just cute. I gave the babies those baby toast things and Dane wasn't quite sure what to do with it.
Here's the Reidman being adorable.
Alec loved the little toasts and is modeling why I'm never buying that crap again. I forgot how messy they are. There was toast mush and crumbs everywhere. Seriously. Everywhere.

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for...

The winner of the cookies!

Reid helped me pick a winner...
and that person is...
Casey! Suh-weet! Casey and I are friends from all the way back into elementary school, and I'm so glad that weird things like facebook and blogs have brought us back into each other's life. So, homegirl, email me your address so I can send you some sugar-induced comas.
The next issue of the blog will be a full report on Monday's successful birthday-ing. The theme of which is: Erik is the best.

It'll be a good one.

Rainier trip- August 2009

First of all, I had a great time walking around the woods and climbing the rocks and ice. I came home with blisters and sore hips, shoulders and legs, but I loved every minute. But first before first, Emily is so great. She was so supportive of me going. She encouraged me to take this opportunity because they don’t come along very often in our busy lives. I love her for that, and for taking care of the kids for the week I was gone.

I flew into Seattle where I met my hiking partners (ringleader being Fletcher, my friend from Tucson) We drove to REI to get rent some equipment. I would need ice crampons, ice boots, an ice axe, helmet and a climbing harness. We then grabbed some food at the grocery store in Enumclaw on our way out to the park entrance. We began our hike from the White River campground on the NE side of the mountain. We would take the trailed route up along Emmons Glacier, past Mt Ruth and onto Camp Schurman, our base camp.

White River campground (4400 ft) to Camp Schurman (9510 ft) was the the first days hike. It started out in a friendly forest path with the mountain looming overhead. We crossed a small river at the treeline, and the path went from uphill to straight up. We did a lot of climbing around rocks and boulders on the ridgeline next to Emmons Glacier. We were carrying all our supplies for the four-day trip, but it was surprisingly manageable. I don’t think my pack weighed more than 50 lbs. I was by far the weak link of the group. There were six of us, made up of ultra-marathon runners, extreme climbers, super-outdoorsman, and mountaineers. Then me, who can run a pretty fast mile and a half. They were all really friendly though and glad to have me along.

Sunday night we spent at Camp Schurman and Monday we would spend resting and practicing managing the ice. The camp was literally at the foot of the mountain glacier. From our tent we would walk right onto the ice and that was it. Monday we got roped up, put on crampons and walked up a few hundred meters to practice falling and doing a self-arrest with the ice axes. Each day there were teams of climbers going up and down the mountain. It was a pretty busy weekend.

Our summit day was Tuesday. We rose at about 0330 AM to a gale force wind. Tents were flapping, the weather still seemed manageable, but we would watch and react if things turned sour. We were roped in two teams of three, one would be right in front of the other. I was in the middle of one team as the least experienced. We turned on our headlamps and had our packs just with extra clothes and a little food and water. The next five hours passed quickly as we trudged up the ice. Unfortunately it was probably around eight hours to the top. I got to a point where I could tell I was visibly slowing the process. My breathing had become very labored at around 13,000 ft, I would take a couple steps and have to manage air-in, air-out. After a few steps more I had to stop and rest again and again. At that point I was getting really cold, and realized that no matter how far I got up, I still had at least 3-4 hours getting back down. It was then that I decided it was unwise to continue up. Fletcher was feeling a little ill and was willing to rope in with me and let the other four continue upwards. The four others made it to the summit (14,410 ft) and back down at around 4 PM-- after almost 12 hours! We slept there again, and the next morning, Wednesday, we hiked it back out.

I was disappointed not to make it, but really just enjoyed myself so much being out there. I would love to attempt another 14’er, but maybe one with less ice before I go back to Rainier. I need to find a way to train at altitude. Sea level apparently isn’t the greatest help.

200th post! Woot Woot!

I think I tend to oversell. Okay, so I said I had an announcement, and I realize that that makes things sound all official and stuff. So, uh, sorry about that. I exaggerate. A lot. You may have heard me say things like "want to hear the funniest story ever?" and it's just my lead-in. I am the heavyweight champion oversell-er.

But, I do have an announcement...

which will come later...

because now it's time for...

Memory Lane!

This was Reid at around 12 mos. and he was aw-hawl-hawlways getting himself stuck in these stools. It was pretty funny, and frustrating when it was the 30th time of the morning.

I'm sure I've posted this a hundred times, but it's just so awesome. This is Reid at the moment just before sneezing. I can't get enough of this picture. If you're ever in a bad mood, come to the blog and look at this picture. Problem solved.
Isn't this the cutest thing ever. This is a newborn Reid with a sweet new dad Erik.
This is newborn Reid with a very content new mama.
This is one of my all-time favorite pictures. This was around the time that Erik and I met, and he took a self-portrait while he was in Florida for work. I don't know what it is about this picture, besides the super handsome huz going on, but I just love it. It's framed and next to my bedside.
This was summer of '06 when we went to visit Nick and Jan in Houston. It was a great trip and we had a lot of fun with them. This is us at an Astros game, but I need to find the pictures from playing scum, because those are the really good ones.
Oh, this picture just cracks me up. Reid was born on a Thursday night, we got home from the hospital on Sunday afternoon, and this is that Sunday evening. This is me after taking a shower and nursing Reid. So, obviously no makeup on and the exhaustion has sucked all the color from my face except for my dark eye circles. I remember when Erik took this picture, and he was so sweet and so proud of me and our sweet little guy, and he wanted to take a picture of the moment. But then he looked at the camera to see the picture in the display after it was taken, and I remember his face was like...yikes. Then he said something to the effect that we didn't have to show anyone this picture if I didn't want to, and I knew from that that I must look pretty haggard. I'm sure I was, and probably hadn't slept in 3 or 4 nights, and had been nursing non-stop since Reid was born...

But at the time I just smiled like I would for any picture.

Anyhow, funny memory.

And look at my sad attempt to smile for the camera.

Alaska always had the most beautiful clouds. When the sky wasn't white and cold and snowy, it looked like this. I really miss Alaska clouds.
This was our first Christmas together, our first Alaskan tree, our first home, our first everything. That's still our favorite tree.

That concludes our stroll along Memory Lane. I don't have any new pictures of the gang to share because last week Erik was in Washington being all awesome and stuff and climbing huge Mt. Rainier. And he had the camera.

But, on to the birthday wishlist!

I take birthdays very seriously. I think everyone should.

So, while this wishlist isn't for real, it just extends the birthday festivities in my head, you know...the getting ready for birthday fun. Getting ready is always the best part.

Of course, a flower from Emersonmade. I love the big wild rose the best. And this color is perfect. Man, she's so rad. I bet she's good at cards. Whenever someone seems really fun, I always want to play cards with them. Playing a good game of cards with someone who's really fun is like the best thing ever.

This is a fat quarter stack of old bedsheets. I just love it.
This is a suh-weet necklace from Fossil, and on say-yul! Oh, that's my new thing, to make more syllables for words. I've taught Reid to say yey-yah! and it's awesome.

These are the coolest things I've ever seen.

See, there, I did it again. The classic oversell. Of course I've seen cooler things, I just mean to say that these are supercool.

They're reusable bags for the grocery store, or for, I don't know...whatever.

But they roll up like this:

And then they unroll into this and I just love them. But, over the past few years we've accumulated a nice collection of those really ugly bags that they sell at the front of the store, so I just use those. It's not really quite green (oh, I hate that word) of me to throw those away so I can get pretty ones, is it?

For the reader who wants to buy me this birthday gift, I'll even let you pick the color. Seriously, that's generous, right?

Do people out there in the world seriously just plunk down $1500 on a sweet cookware set? Who are these people? I mean, I wouldn't kick these gorgeous pots out of my cupboard, but dang...that's a lot of cash.

For real though, if you want to buy them, you can pick the color. My gift to you.
A million years ago I saw this woman on Martha Stewart's show, the one back before...pre-jail...and this woman started her own business of small hand-blown glass votives. The company is called "glassybaby" and they are seriously the most gorgeous things ever. That's not really an exaggeration. They're that gorgeous. I don't love the transparent ones, but the opaque ones are perfection.
I saw this in a Costco mailer and I think it looks a little bit like a yard alien, but it seems really cool. It's a composter, and I think the concept is that it's in the shape of a ball so that you can roll it around to stir things up. I'd like to start composting.

Backyard goals:

-grass (this weekend! The huz is the best!)

-chickens (heck yes I really do want them. For real. And no I'm not crazy. And yes, we don't live in city limits so I think it's kosher. And I think the boys will love them. Chickens are funny, and Reid's got a pretty sweet chicken impression already.)

-garden

-compost heap/ball/or whatever
I am so crazy about the company Vintage Hem. Natalie told me about them and I'm waiting for the day when I plunk down the cash for one of these beauties. They're slips that are meant to be seen under your dress/skirt. Like, if a skirt is too short...then this is a slip with a decorative ruffle at the bottom to give you a little extra length. Love it.

So, that's the latest birthday wishlist roundup...

which brings us to...

the announcement.

It's seriously not that big of a deal, but I've decided to make the blog a private blog. If you're reading this now then we're probably friends, so I definitely want you to still read the blog. I just think all this internet/social media/bloggy stuff is kind of strange and would rather have this thing as an online family newsletter type thing for friends and family than to have a for real blog out in the cosmic cyberspace world.

So, here's the plan. Email me and let me know you'd like to be in on the email list so when this thing goes private I can invite you to view it. Or, you can leave your email in an comment. As a bribe to get you to do that so you'll do the move with us, one lucky person will win some pumpkin cut-out sugar cookies from Cheryl and Co. They're so good that it's seriously wrong.

I mostly just want to send someone some cookies, so...this will be fun.

Well, there it is. The announcement and the special prize. Is anyone still reading at this point? This has been very long.

To sum up:

Blog going private.

We want you to come along with us.

So email me (my email is up in the top right corner area of the blog, or leave a comment with your email address) so that I know you'd like to be invited to view the private blog.

We'll take all those names, put them in a hat, pick one, and then send them some cookies.

Awesome.

Check you later!