what's goin' on in the hiz-ouse.

Some of these pictures are a month or two old, but come on...like you care. Cute is cute, even if it's outdated by a month or so.

Here's Reid after breakfast one morning and he got out a little clementine cutie, one at a time, and counted them. It was really sweet.

Dane at breakfast making spit bubbles.
Erik with our boys, seriously, could they all be any sweeter? No, I don't think it's possible. It's easy to see where the boys get their good looks from. I hope that someday one of our kids will hit the jackpot and get Erik's blue eyes.

At this point Alec still had one goopy eye, but they are both clear now. He's had issues with both of his eyes and blocked tear duct drainage systems, or something like that. He was going to have to have a small operation where they put him under anesthetic and just kind of pop out the blockage, but luckily both tear ducts opened on their own.
This is what it looks like after bathtime. Pure crazy. Limbs flying around and naked babies trying to get free and then running around while we're trying to lotion them up and get diapers and pajamas on them. It's like the most stressful 5 minutes ever.
Reid's joy in life: making new combinations of Mr. Potato Head. He does it all the time and comes up to me with a new creation, and he's always so excited and proud. It's adorable.
Most mornings the boys all get to play outside and just goof around for a while. Sometimes it's a little chilly, so they have to wear coats and hats, but it's getting warmer.
Some indoor play. Here's Dane after one of their favorite scores, finding Dad's motorcycle vest.
Big smile from Alec.
Another appearance from Mr. Duck. He's still so into Mr. Duck.
The huz had a birthday two weeks ago and turned 34. I say, 34 never looked so good. He got some more camping equipment for the many campouts he has planned with the scouts, some handsome new dress slacks, new cologne (that one may be more for me...) and lots of slobbery kisses. From the boys, of course.

Here's Erik with his cake, a Martha masterpiece.
Reid can't wait for some cake! I used this cake recipe and this frosting. It was intense, but very good. Next time Erik requests a chocolate cake, I think I'll try a different cake but stick with the same frosting. The frosting was dense, glossy, and heavenly. Of course it was, the two ingredients are cream and chocolate chips. 4 cups of cream! Crazy.

There were three layers and it was seriously huge. Ever since I was a kid and watched Pollyanna, I've always wanted to make a huge layer cake. It fulfilled a deep-rooted childhood Disney fantasy. Speaking of, Reid needs to see Pollyanna. He's seen the Parent Trap and Summer Magic, so he NEEDS to see Pollyanna.
Here are the boys enjoying a movie together. They love sitting here, each with a blanket, staring right into the TV. They last for about 8 minutes that way and then run around the room playing while the movie just kind of happens in the background.
Remember my spending hiatus? It's going pretty well, except for maybe my new obsession with Liberty Tana Lawn fabrics. Well, the obsession is not new, but the flood gate finally burst and I've been snatching up some fabrics on ebay. This is one collection of 6" charm squares that I didn't win, but wished I paid more attention to it and had won it. Look at that triangle pennant print in the bottom left! Perfection!
I did, however, pick up a little more than a yard of this gorgeous print, "Betsy" in green. This is probably my favorite, and will maybe end up as a dress someday. For my someday baby girl. I just hope she doesn't puke as much as Alec and Dane did/do, because puke doesn't belong on Liberty Tana Lawn. True business.
Lastly, have you seen this couch at Anthropologie? Like I would ever spend that on a couch, but come on, it's so beautiful! I can't even stand it. And imagine how lovely in a living room with our black piano and with my someday/dream house white glossy floors...

Then again, Alec puked all over our couch in the living room last night, and baby puke on a couch this lovely would cause me to cry for a full fifteen minutes...

So, I'll just keep this in my dream house file in my brain grapes.

If the soda thing doesn't work out...

then I'm going to open a frozen yogurt place EXACTLY like this one. I've never been there, of course, because it's in Berlin. But isn't it perfect? Clean, modern, streamlined.

I think this should be an and instead of an or. I'll open a frozen yogurt place AND have the soda business.

Now I'm thinking.

Check it out.

found on Black Eiffel

please bear with me. (whining and stories about baby puke ahead)

Hello again, to anyone and everyone who still reads this thing.

Right, so now that this is a private blog, that means that it isn't going to show up on your reader anymore, which means that you're going to have to remember to click into your bookmarks and show up here.

How about we make some kind of an association in your head, so that it will be easier to remember to check the blog?

Maybe every time you vacuum the floor you could check the blog.

No, that's too much.

I don't blog that often.

How about every time you wash your sheets?

No.

Still too often.

I know.

How about every time you clean your baseboards you remember to check the blog?

Perfect.

Now that we have that settled, I have a few aggravating things I need to get off of my chest.

Aggravating thing number one:

Did you know that I dyed my hair bright red and cut bangs? What? You didn't know that? Yeah, that's probably because I didn't tell you, but it's true. I did it.

I've always wanted to try red hair, and my "granola vs. J.Lo" complex got the better of me and so I did something crazy with my hair.

It looks a little something like this.

For real.

Okay, maybe not quite that Kool-aid red, but it's pretty red. I realize that you're not going to believe me until I post a picture of my and my darn hair, but that may not happen. Depending on the day I either love it or hate it. And, I think I'm going to go dark brown here any day now, so...

Next item of aggravation:

These babies puke all day long. Seriously. All day long. And no, it's not just spit-up. It's puke. It's a real problem. And now they crawl and cruise anywhere they want to go, so the puke is taking over the house. Our carpet it in really bad shape. Like, it makes me depressed.

When we moved into our house the carpet was brand new. I'm not a huge fan (or even a little fan) of wall to wall carpeting (more on that later), but at least it was new. Now, a mere 8 months later, and it's disgusting. We steam clean it, and then a few days later it looks like a landmine again. Plus, many times a day I get the lovely surprise of finding puke bombs by stepping my bare foot into goopy pukey carpet. So gross.

But, in our kitchen we have tile and in the hallway we have laminate. That's better, right? Easier to keep clean?

Well, it's easier to keep clean, but I don't know if it's better because in the kitchen and hallways the babies puke and then slip and slide around in it. Or, I get to discover a puke splat as I walk down the hallway and slide and crash from slipping on puke.

*the climax of your pity for me:

True story. Yesterday the babies were crawling down the hallway making a fast sprint to the hall bathroom because they saw that the door was open (Reid and I are deep in the depths of potty training). The babies love the forbidden delights in the bathroom. They love to whack on the scale until the lights blink and then laugh and laugh. And the other day they figured out how to pull up to a stand by pulling on the toilet, cruise over to the side and pull the flush lever. Then the toilet flushes and they laugh and laugh. So anyways, they were on a fast break to the bathroom and so I dashed down the hallway to intercept them. Along the side of the hallway was a metal hanging garment rack thing, just sitting there, because we moved all the bedrooms around (more on that someday) and it was just kind of sitting there. The bottom of the rack has a wire mesh shelf with an edge that's kind of sharp. As I was dashing down the hall, I slipped on a big pile of puke (it's magically imperceptible on the tile/laminate...I don't understand it) and slid right into the rack thing while trying to slow myself down with my hands braking against the wall. The rack sliced a monster gash into my lower shin that streamed blood for a solid half hour despite my best pressure and elevation applications. It was pretty bad. Not bad enough for stitches, but I considered it.

Where does all this whining lead to?

Probably nowhere.

But it does make me daydream about flooring. All I want in this world is glossy whitewashed hardwood floors. Because I LOVE them. I love how they look. So clean and uncluttered.

And, as an extra bonus, I think baby puke would be easier to detect. And that would make my life 100% easier. You have no idea.

Have you heard of Sixx Design or the book Downtown Chic? Well, there's this couple with SEVEN children, living in New York, that finds old run-down properties, buys them, moves the family in and renovates them while living there. Then they sell the property for millions of dollars. Seriously. I love their style, I love that they have a big family and that they still are out there living their dream with kids right alongside them, and I love this house they renovated. This is one of my favorites. My dream house, if you will.

Oh, and notice the white floors.

Pretty awesome, right? Now I just need to convince Erik into the lifestyle of living in shambles while we renovate things into something awesome. That'll be a tough one.

But in the meantime, here are some more pictures of beautiful white floors to get me by. I don't think it will really happen. Not in this house, at least. We've got three more years here at the most, and possibly as little as a year. So, you know, I won't really be here long enough to justify making it my dream house. I can survive splatted landmine carpet. I guess.
Didn't you love it? All the white?

That's my design preference in a nutshell. White, white, and more white. With blasts of color spattered about. That's what my house looks like in my head, as I try to comfort myself when I step in a carpet puddle or bathe the babies again after they've been slip and sliding in their puke.

If you're laughing at that, I just hope you never have to do it. Because after nearly 10 months of daily doubletime puke, I'm not laughing anymore.

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!