Billsology

Valentine's Printable Round-up and a Freebie from Me!

2012-02-06T17:47:00.000-07:00

Check out my other blog - Kids All Around for nine free Valentine's Day printables, including a freebie from me!

A Mom Knows

2012-02-03T08:34:00.003-07:00

I am so excited that I have the opportunity to write for the wonderful website, A Mom Knows! My first article (actually it's part 1 of 2) was published today. You can check it out here: The Truth About Mommy Brain.
The second half should be published sometime next week! If you read the article and "like" or +1 it I could win $100! Either way, there are a lot of fun articles on the site that I think you will enjoy!

Lemon Lemon, Everywhere!

2012-01-30T22:20:00.002-07:00

Baby 2.0 has been craving anything lemon these days...kind of a weird craving for me since I am normally a chocolate-all-the-way kind of gal. I've been making anything lemon that I can get my hands on and wanted to share my two favorites.

Lemon Crinkles

Lemon Blueberry Muffins

Photo from Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Photo from The Sister's Cafe

The Lemon Crinkles are delicious little morsels that just melt in your mouth. Delish and perfect for a little afternoon treat. The Lemon Blueberry muffins are my favorite muffins to make. The directions say to dip the warm muffins in a butter, lemon juice and sugar but I am lazy and think that is too much work so I make a strudel topping with butter, sugar, and a little lemon juice and sprinkle that on the batter before baking.

My doctor walked in to my last appointment, looked down at my chart, and said, "Well, I can tell you are feeling better!" Let's just say that even though I hadn't gained the "typical" amount of weight for the first 5 months I definitely caught up over the last month...and all these lemon treats really aren't helping!

On a side note - the two websites these recipes came from (Sister's Cafe and Mel's Kitchen) are two of my favorite cooking/baking sites. Check them out!

Getting Your Home in Order

2012-01-23T17:08:00.000-07:00

My sister wrote a great article on A Mom Knows about getting your home in order and I wanted to share her ideas with all of you. I have implemented a few of her tricks in my life (creating a kitchen command center with files, setting a timer for clean-up time, and making my bed right when I get out) and I have really noticed a difference in my home! Check out the article here!

Parenting Fail!

2012-01-19T17:01:00.000-07:00

Greyson and I went to our regular story time at the library yesterday, something we have done for over a year, but the outing this time didn't quite go as planned. I'll just come right out and say it.... I LOST my son in the library. LOST. GONE. DISAPPEARED!!!
I feel stupid even writing this, but I have a habit of publicly proclaiming my faults. Whenever I do something dumb or embarrassing I play the events over and over in my head and can't seem to move on until I confess my sins...so here goes!
After story time I went to the reference section of the library to find a book I wanted to read. Ironically, it was a book on parenting and disciplining toddlers. G is usually pretty good about staying right by me, which he was doing while I was kneeling down looking for the book. He slowly started walking towards the end of the aisle (about 4-5 ft away from me), so I asked him to wait for me. That was my mistake because, of course, he turned the corner of the bookshelf and took off running. I stood my pregnant body up and walked to the end of the aisle to get him and didn't see him. I looked down the aisles 2 rows up and down from where we were and still no Greyson. I called his name and no answer. I walked back towards the children's section of the library, thinking he had gone there to look at the books, but still no Greyson.
Starting to panic, I told the closest librarian I couldn't find my son and they pretty much called a "code pink" in the library for Greyson. "Code Pink" is the announcement made in hospitals when a child has gone missing and it is taken very seriously there, just as it was taken seriously at the library too. One of the librarians stood by the exit to keep an eye out for him and make sure no one took off with him while the rest of the librarians fanned out to help me look for him. And no one could find him...which is when I started to bawl my eyes out. Some really nice library patrons started to help me look as well, but still no Greyson. The Logan library was just remodeled and is now a huge building with interconnecting rooms and tons of tall bookshelves, not the easiest place to find a toddler.
I think about five minutes had passed at this point, which is five minutes too long for me to not have my son. The worst part about the whole experience was that no one had seen him anywhere. Not anywhere! I imagined someone just walking out of the library with my precious little boy and REALLY started to loose my cool. It was then that I remembered a similar experience my sister had with my nephew (I promise we are both good moms). One that ended when she found Miles in the nearest bathroom. I ran back to the bookshelf where I had last seen him and, sure enough, there was a bathroom with a push-to-open door right across from the aisle. As I opened the door I could hear my sweet Greyson's voice as he happily flushed the toilets and said, "bye-bye water!" He was having a great time playing in the bathroom while I had a nervous breakdown looking for him. I swooped him up and gave him a big hug, then looked sternly in his eyes and asked why he ran away. To which he responded, "run away! ha-ha-ha!" I didn't find it nearly as funny.
After thanking all the library staff and people that helped me look for Greyson (of course while still crying, I just couldn't pull it together) I high-tailed it out of there! I am so embarrassed about the whole thing. I am NOT one of those parents that lets their kids run around public places and am always so careful when we are out and about. In a matter of a few seconds he turned the corner of the aisle, pushed open the bathroom door, and had disappeared before I could see where he went. It was an awful, awful experience, one the I hope never happens again. Well, one that I know will never happen again since you will now see me walking my son around on a kid leash...until he is 15. :) So, if you ever lose your child in a public place take a lesson from me (and my sister) and check the nearest bathroom before you panic!
Just for fun here is a pic of G riding his little 4-wheeler that his Nana and Papa Bills bought him for Christmas. You can see he is still a happy little boy, even with a neglectful mama!

Crazy Kid!

2012-01-18T09:48:00.000-07:00

Speaking of my crazy and rambunctious little boy, here is a video I took yesterday of Greyson counting. He can go up to 13 so far, but adds new numbers every day. He was jumping up on the couch and counting to himself when I grabbed my phone and had him do it again so I could record him. He cracks me up! I know I am biased, but I think he is one smart cookie!

New Camera

2012-01-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

After much deliberation (and if we are being honest, begging and pleading with my husband) I finally purchased a new camera! I bought a used Nikon D50 five years ago to see if I was really going to use a digital SLR. I loved learning how to use it and though I still have a lot to learn I think I was able to catch some incredible pictures of Greyson over the last two years. Unfortunately, that same little Greyson pulled my camera off of the counter top (my fault for leaving it there and leaving the neck strap hanging down) and ever since then it had a hard time focusing. Add in a little mister that never stops moving and I had a hard time getting the photos I wanted. With the help of my Christmas money (and some of Ed's...what a nice guy!) I purchased the Nikon d5100 and so far am really happy with it.
It just came the other day and I haven't had much time to play around with it, but I did snap this photo of G man playing in our living room. He was actually scowling at me since I wouldn't give him the camera to play with, even though he insisted it was his by saying "me camera, me camera".

Lately, his new nickname is "Turkey". Not because he likes to eat turkey, oh no, the kid won't eat anything these days. He gets called turkey because that's the nicest name I could think of for the stubborn, not-listening, destructive, rambunctious, screeching, and tantrum-throwing little boy he has been lately. "Hey you little turkey, stop that!" is the most common phrase I seem to say these days.
Everything is "mine", he answers all requests with "NOPE!", he gleefully throws his toys down the stairs or in the toilet, and he has perfected the mommy guilt-trip by scowling at me and saying, "I sad, mommy". See...he is a turkey!! There have been a few gems lately though, like when he sits in the rocking chair and "reads" books to his baby and stuffed animals, how he jumps out and yells "boo" and then says "I funny", when he calls me "silly mommy" while we are playing, and my very favorite, when he runs up to me and gives me a random hug and says, "I happy mommy". He can be pretty cute in between all of his almost two-year-old behaviors. I guess we will keep him around for a couple more years. :)
This wasn't supposed to be a post about Greyson, but that's what it turned in to.....oops! I actually wanted to post some new recipes that I tried that are yum-o and a couple new book reviews. Next time!

The Big Reveal!!

2012-01-13T16:56:00.001-07:00

I know you are excited to see some of the changes that we made in our house. Let's look back at my to-do list and see what we have accomplished

Replaced the banister

Fixed all the cracked drywall
Ran the TV cables behind the wall
Added lights to the living room and a couple to the hall/entry
Updated light fixtures throughout the house
Paint and re-tile the fireplace
Paint all the walls and ceilings
New flooring- hardwood in living areas, tile laundry closet
Install and paint baseboards, doors, and trim throughout

Whew! We are so glad that we are finished (well, 95% finished). First up, the living room.

Yes, that's a blurry Greyson in the bottom right corner!

This is now my favorite room in my house, even surpassing Greyson's room. We still have a few to-do's for this room: add trim to the bookcases to make them look built in, buy/make new curtains (I re-hung the curtain rod almost at ceiling height so the current curtains are too short), get a new rug (this one was borrowed from Greyson's room for the time being. I am going for a green-blue-gray look in here and the blocky brown rug isn't cutting it), finish decorating the bookshelves, and buy/make new throw pillows. My favorite things about this room are the hidden storage I now have for toys and media stuff and the ceiling lights (remember we had NO overhead lights in here before). I also love our little office area that, thanks to my handy husband, doesn't have to have the printer or other computer items on it anymore since he was able to put them all in the hall closet...more on that later.

Please note the stylin' clock above the desk. This clock hung in my Grandma Barnard's house for as long as I can remember. On a visit to her house not long before she passed away she asked me if there was anything I wanted from her house (she had done this every time I visited for the past five years!) and I finally admitted I wanted the clock. She looked at me like I was crazy, but said I could have it. I LOVE how it looks and that it reminds me of my grandma every time I see it. It was powered by a wall plug, but I used my crafty skills to convert it to battery powered. Yes, you should be impressed. :) I still have some decorating to do here. I am thinking floating shelves on the short wall on the right, but haven't decided.

This is the dining area looking in from the kitchen. We haven't touched the kitchen so now it looks REALLY out of place. We will get there eventually. I still want to paint the cabinets so at least it won't stand out so much, but Ed refuses to do it and I can't while I'm pregnant so it will have to wait. Ed and I joke we need one of those hospital curtains that can slide across the room so people can't see it. We kid...but not really. One of my friends suggested putting a mirror up so that I could see the TV while in the kitchen, and it really works well. It also helps me keep an eye on G while he is in the living room. I want to spray paint it a glossy white. Again, more decorating to add here. I have my heart set on a new dining room table from West Elm and have been on the lookout for a larger buffet/console and larger rug.

Here's the view of the dining area from the front room/entry. Please enjoy my awesome kitchen cabinets and the fact that Ed and I stopped painting the ceiling right above the peninsula. We were running out of paint and time before the painting had to be finished so the flooring could go in, so we stopped there. We will get to it as soon as we get over the trauma that was painting the whole house (and the living room three times thanks to my color indecision). Remember what I said about the project being 95% finished?
Would you take a look at how yellow the kitchen ceiling is?! That color was on the trim, walls and ceilings throughout the house! Yuck! The rest of the kitchen will stay as-is until we decide what to do with it....unless Ed goes on a business trip after the new baby comes and then he will come home to painted cabinets. :) To-do's for this area: add a curtain rod and curtains above the patio door and take down my Christmas card holder...eventually.

Oh, how I love this next picture of my new banister. I had a play date at my house the other day and one of the little ones tested it out by trying to shove her body between the balusters. She was unsuccessful, which means our new banister is a success! We replaced the light here as well.

This is a shot looking from the back hallway towards the front door. Maybe you are wondering what that big vent is in the ceiling? It's our AWESOME whole house fan that we use in the summer to cool our house. It's a constant source of teasing from our friends, but we love it and love the money it saves us in the summer. Feel free to join in on the mocking; we aren't afraid.

This photo is looking into the dining area/kitchen from the hallway that leads to the bedrooms. I set up a little family organization station here and added a key rack and coat rack for G's coats. I have great plans to spray paint the frames and "B" fun colors, but will have to wait until the weather warms up and I am not prego.

This masterpiece is our hall linen closet that we turned into a catch-all closet. My favorite thing about it is that Ed ran electrical outlets and network lines into the closet so the printer, modem, router, and other computer related junk can stay in here and not on my desk. I also love my hanging diaper bag/purse organizer and all the storage areas for G's art supplies, random baby gear, my work bags (yes bags- that's what happens when you work for four different companies), the vacuum, my camera gear and my new floor sweeper. LOVE!! We have another small coat closet across from this so we only left a little hanging area for extra coats. There is ANOTHER coat closet at the bottom of the stairs in the basement that we use to store out of season outerwear.

Next to the catch-all closet is the laundry closet. What I wouldn't give for a laundry room...but the new organization here makes my life easier. We added lots of shelves for storage, a dirty clothes basket (perfect for bibs, dishtowels, etc from the kitchen), a place to hang up clothes and a retractable wire so I can hang dry a few things when needed but it's not always in the way (can't see those last two from this angle). I need to add mop/broom organizer and hopefully the closet door we ordered 5 weeks ago gets here soon! We special ordered a solid core door to help with the noise factor but the store we ordered it from lost our first order so we have to wait a few more weeks until it gets here. To make up for it they gave us a steal of a deal for a bunch of materials on our next project, so it all worked out okay.

Once you turn the corner in the hallway you run into the two bedrooms and a built-in linen closet that still needs to be painted...but that's it! We are in love with our house now and I am not longer embarrassed to have people over. Well, maybe if I could add that hospital curtain in front of the kitchen then I won't be embarrassed! :) You might think we would stop here and take a break from renovations for a little while, but half of our basement is already ripped out to make way for a remodeled family/play room and Greyson's big boy bedroom. We have to insulate the walls (there is NO insulation in the basement walls...brrrrr!!), add new lighting, dig out the bedroom windows to make way for large egress windows, add a gas fireplace insert, re-drywall, paint and add new carpeting. Remind me again why we bought an old house? We are hoping to have all that finished by August/September, so at least we gave ourselves a little more time! Hope you enjoyed the tour. If you have any questions about how we did anything just leave a comment and I will have Ed answer it! :)

Christmas Recap

2012-01-04T15:42:00.000-07:00

First of all, I need to say that a remodel (or reno-saster, as I like to call it!) Is 95% completed!!! Yes!! We have a couple of things left to paint (the kitchen ceiling, the hall linen closet, and the laundry closet door that has yet to arrive because the people at the lumber company forgot to order it...sigh), but we are in livable conditions. Enough that I actually hung some artwork and had my friends over for a visit/playdate. Yes!
I will post pics later, first we need to get to Christmas!!
I was so, so excited for Christmas this year. I had told myself that I wasn't going to buy too many things for Greyson, but I started shopping for deals in November...and just never stopped. When I went to wrap his presents I realized the ridiculousness of the amount of presents sitting in front of me and put half of them away for his birthday. He was still beyond spoiled! That's what happens when you have three sets of grandparents as well as lots of family and friends that like to buy cute little boys presents.
We celebrated Christmas with my parents the weekend before the actual holiday. We went out to lunch and visited, but sadly, no pictures were taken. :( It was fun to show off our remodel though, and spend some time with them. The actual holiday was spent with Ed's parents. We ate tons of food, had a nice time relaxing, and even won some money playing Christmas Bingo! Ed's mom and step-dad have a tradition of playing Bingo with the whole family on Christmas or Christmas Eve. We always have so much fun and this year enjoyed a lucky streak! Greyson loved opening all of his (and everyone else's) presents. He was fun to watch on Christmas morning. He loved all his presents and especially his Christmas candy (we don't do a lot of candy in our house so it was a real treat for him!) Baby 2.0 received some cute baby girl clothes as well. Which really hit home for me and Ed that there will be a lot of pink in our future!!
Here are a few pics from Christmas. After seeing the joy on Greyson's face this year, I am know that next year is going to be a lot of fun. I just need to remember to not start shopping so soon!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-23T09:42:00.000-07:00

It's a.....

2011-12-23T09:37:00.000-07:00

GIRL!!!! Ed and I were convinced we were having a boy, but it was OBVIOUS in the ultrasound that a little girl was on her way. We are both thrilled! And I can't wait to stock up on cute girl things. My mom has been making girl blankets for years, so she already has a few things! It was everything I could do the other day to stop myself from buying a bunch of pink outfits. I decided to wait until we get a little closer, as I know this baby has grandparents, aunts, and faux-aunties that will spoil her!

Here are a few of her ultrasound pics. She was really curled up so we didn't get as many with her as we did with Greyson.

I really like the one of her sucking her thumb! I thought she looked like G did in his ultrasound pics, but she looks like she will have more of my nose instead of the Bills nose. We will see, a lot can change once she gets bigger!

Greyson has come up with a few helpful name suggestions for the baby, like Hat, Elmo, and Fireman. Those are nice, but I think we can come up with something else! Speaking of Greyson, he is making his speech therapist/mom really happy and has started talking up a storm and using 2-3 word phrases. Some of our favorites: silly daddy, watch show, move Finley! (this always cracks us up), please candy, up high daddy (when he wants Ed to throw him in the air), what color that?, sit this chair (he really does not want to sit in his highchair anymore and always requests a different chair), and many more. He is also figuring out numbers and colors and is obsessed with counting things and wanting to know what color something is. He can count to 6 by himself so far, but always starts at 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and then says 18! with a big grin on his face. He loves pointing out colors but so far only gets purple, green and white right all the time - don't ask me why those colors are the ones he knows! Since getting back from Detroit he has started to turn into a bit of a daddy's boy. He gets really sad when Ed leaves for work and spends some time every day looking around the house for him. He opens doors, looks out the window, goes downstairs, and wants to look in the garage all the while calling out for daddy. He has requested daddy to read him books and put him to bed for the last few nights and has also requested daddy for diaper changes. I am happy to oblige. :)

Ed's dad and step-mom took G to see Santa the other day, and it didn't really go over well. Oddly enough, he has been obsessed with Santa since then and has been asking about him every day. We asked Greyson if he wanted to go see Santa again and he said yes, so we trekked to the mall to go see him. We told G that Santa would give him candy so he was pretty excited about that! As soon as he sat on his lap and got his candy cane he wasn't so sure anymore though! Once we started to walk away though he began talking about Santa and hasn't stopped since...especially the candy part.

We are pretty excited to celebrate Christmas with our little man! Hope you all have a great Christmas!

Detroit

2011-12-11T13:04:00.001-07:00

In the midst of all the construction craziness, Greyson and I took a week off and flew to Detroit to visit my sister. We planned the trip so the hardwood floors would be installed while we were gone. Much easier than trying to live without any floors. More on that in a later post.
We had a fabulous time visiting with my sister and her family, and especially enjoyed snuggling with new baby Jude. To put it mildly, Greyson was OBSESSED with the baby and spent the whole week mauling/loving him. Miles and Greyson played and played and played and my sister and I talked and talked and talked. Some highlights of the trip included:
-A visit to the Imagination Station (a lot like Discovery Gateway in SLC) and watching the boys explore.
-A trip to Ann Arbor to hit up another children's museum and to eat at Maize and Blue Deli (which was featured on Man vs. Food and my brother in law really wanted to try). They had the biggest sandwiches that were really yummy! It was right off of the University of Michigan campus and was full of college kids. We definitely stood out since we had three small kids in tow!
-A trip to Ikea that turned into a four hour shopping experience. If Sarah and I can do anything, it's shop!
-Finding Greyson sitting in Sarah's bathroom sink, brushing his teeth with HER toothbrush.
-Sneaking away one night to see a movie with Sarah. Which I promptly fell asleep in! Oops!
It was a fun, fun trip! Though I am hoping the next place they live is a little warmer! Here are some pics from the trip. These are all from my phone, so really not the best quality. I'll add some decent pics from my camera when I can!

Fireplace Fix-up

2011-11-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

Apparently taking before photos during this forever-long renovation has not been on my priority list. I didn't take a single before photo of the fireplace so I dug through random photos to try and find one that has the fireplace in it and I found this sweet picture of our living room before we moved in. It's pretty awesome.
Except for changing out the curtains and moving our furniture in, this is what the room has looked like for the last three years! Notice the only lights in the room are two can lights over the fireplace, the bronze fireplace insert and that the fireplace, walls, ceiling and trim are all painted the same creamy yellow color.

Here is the fireplace after we, I mean Ed, removed the floor tiles and spent an hour trying to remove the vertical tiles and was only able to remove two. Turns out those puppies were built to last so we just decided to tile over them.

We (and again, I mean Ed) used self-leveling cement to even out the floor where the tiles would go and back-filled the place where we tried to knock out the tiles to even them up with everything else. Then Ed built this little support system to hold the top tiles in place. One of my friends was asking me the other day how we have learned to do all these projects. First, I credit my parents for being the sort of people that build their own house and force their children to help them in the process (I kid, I kid, we weren't forced....were we?) Ed's parents are also DIY kind of people and have renovated and remodeled their own houses, along with helping us with ours.So, we grew up working on projects with our parents and we have nice family members that are willing to show us how to do things. Plus, with the help of Google, we usually like to just jump in and start figuring things out. This is also our third house, so after doing projects like these three times you start to learn a few things (self-leveling cement and creating a level board to rest tiles on being two of these tricks we learned the hard way.)
And here is the fireplace after we tiled it (I keep saying we here, but please assume that Ed us just doing everything.)

Tiling is actually my favorite DIY project to do and I was sad to miss out on this one, but with baby 2.0 on it's way it's probably safer that I stay away from as many projects as possible. Knowing that we have two more bathrooms to tile made me feel better. I wanted a marble herringbone mosaic tile for the fireplace, but at $20-30/square foot I opted for single cararra marble tiles at $4/sq foot. We only needed about 10-12 square feet (depending on how we cut the tile and any mistakes/cracks) but $200-300 on fireplace tile wasn't something I wanted to commit to, especially with all the new rugs, curtains, mirrors, etc. I want to buy! Eventually, we will replace the fireplace cover with a gas insert so we just used a can of high-heat black spray paint to paint the existing cover. We have a "gas" fireplace now, and by gas I mean you have to open the fireplace, turn on the gas, and fear for your life as you light it on fire. Not very safe or up to code and will be changed soon. But did you know fireplace inserts are around $3000!!!!! Yikes!

The trim around the fireplace has been primed but still needs to be painted white. You can also check out the wall color I FINALLY selected. It's Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore and is just what I wanted...after only three tries! It's a soft gray that leans towards blue or green depending on the light and I love it! We ended up painting the entryway and hallway a very soft and even lighter gray (Cloud Cover by Benjamin Moore). The folks at Bennett's Paint were so helpful in helping me pick out just the right colors. They went so far as to pull up the color formulas for the colors I liked so we could easily see what undertones the paint would have.

The floors are getting installed on Dec 5th! We are waiting on one more light fixture and then all the lights will be in and the painter is coming on Friday to paint the banister and exterior doors. Things are slowly coming together. We need to tile the laundry closet before the floor gets in, but most of the rest of the work needs to be done after that (adding trim and painting ALL of it, painting the interior doors, adding hall closet organizers and decorating!!) Can't wait to see it all come together!

Christmas Cards

2011-11-15T10:16:00.000-07:00

I am in the process of making our Christmas card for the year and wanted to remind everyone about my etsy site: www.digitalgreetings.etsy.com . I've posted a few new Christmas cards and can create custom cards easily! As much as I love making cute cards, what really makes the card cute is the picture of my little mister! Our friend, Travis, took G's photos this year and did a great job! He literally chased G around a playground for an hour and tried to convince him to look at the camera. After about 40 minutes, Greyson figured out what was going on and just refused to look at the camera anymore! Travis was able to get some great shots, and while I don't want to share too many here (as certain people may be getting some new photos for Christmas) I had to share one of my favorites. Travis calls it his "superhero" shot! Which is perfect, since I am making Greyson a Superman cape for Christmas!

Photo by Travis Atwood

You can check out Travis' site at www.travisatwooddesign.com and see a few more pics of Greyson, as well as Greyson's little friend Jackson (Travis' son).

G-man updates

2011-11-08T17:01:00.001-07:00

In the midst of our Reno-saster I thought I would take a minute to catch everyone up on the cutest little boy in the world and all the fun things he is doing lately. Such as...
Learning new words every day and repeating everything we say. He likes to say "what'd you do?!" when he drops something or trips. I know he got that from me. When he does something naughty I always say, "uh-oh! What did you do?" He is also constantly asking "what's that?" and wakes up in he morning naming all the objects on his room. Every morning we hear "book, ball, baby, chair, light, door, truck, block, etc". It is too funny!
He loves to go out the doggy door and play outside. I have had to keep a close eye on him after he escaped out the doggy door and I couldn't find him for a few minutes.
Brushing his teeth is something he wants to do by himself, thank you very much! When I try to brush his teeth he yells "self, self!" I wil often find him sitting in the bathroom brushing his teeth. Of course after he climbed up onto the counter and got his toothbrush down.
That leads me into how much this kid is climbing! He pulls out drawers and climbs on top of counters, up the built-ins on our hallway, up the shelves in his closet, up and over baby gates, and everywhere else he can get his little monkey body! I caught him on the kitchen counter today trying to figure out how to get on top of the fridge. He also climbed up on the counter, it my camera down and, with the lens smooshed against his face, walked around saying "cheese"!
He certainly is an inquisitive and mischievous little man!
We've had to pick a couple of rules to start enforcing with timeouts. The first was climbing because he is bound to fall down sometime. We are still working on that one! The second was hitting. He started hitting me when I told him "no" or wanted him to do something he didn't want to do. I think he learned pretty quickly that a 30 second timeout was worse than doing what I asked so that has actually gotten a lot better.
He loves to go to tumbling class and storytime, still loves to sit and read books, and has a new obsession with Mr. Potato head.
He refused to wear his Halloween costume until 7:30 that night, so we just went trick-or-treating to two of our neighbors. He liked knocking on the door but didn't really like seeing the people answer the door and wasn't interested in the candy.
As I see G turn more and more into a little boy I am so thankful that baby 2.0 is on it's way! I need another baby in the house!
I am adding a few pictures to this post. With my house a disaster zone I can't finds camera so they aren't the best!

Painting Blahs!

2011-11-08T09:47:00.002-07:00

Apparently, the painting gods are out to get us! Never have we had such a hard time painting a house. We have ran into quite a few problems this go around. Part of the problems have been caused by the actual paint, and part of the problems have been caused by my inability to choose a color!
So let's start at the beginning: The drywallers had just finished repairing all our drywall so I picked out the "perfect" paint color - Benjamin Moore's Hazy Skies. I had seen this color on a designer blog (who happens to be a Utahn) and really liked it.

Photo from 6thstreetdesignschool.blogspot.com

Benjamin Moore describes this color as a "delicate gray-green". I put a sample on my wall and it was a little dark in my house, so I had them mix the color at 75%. I also picked up some ceiling paint - a soft white called Polar Bear by Behr. I was having all these colors color-matched at Lowes so I could use their Olympic No-VOC paint. Olympic doesn't have a no-VOC ceiling paint that can be mixed with color, so the paint guy at Lowes recommended their low-VOC ceiling paint and primer in one. I figured that it would save us a few steps on the ceiling so purchased a few gallons of that and a few gallons of Hazy Skies and was on my way.
And this, my friends, is where the trouble started. Since we had our drywall repaired we had drywall mud on the walls and ceilings that had to be covered with primer before we could paint. We primed the whole house and most of the ceiling, hitting the areas with drywall mud an extra time. We then painted the ceiling with the special Olympic Primer+Paint I purchased at Lowes and finished with the first coat right before bed time. I woke up the next morning excited to see my freshly painted ceiling and get to work on the walls when I noticed the ceiling paint had cracked and peeled in certain places! It was only where there was drywall mud under the paint so we think that even with two coats of primer and a ceiling paint+primer the drywall mud leeched the moisture out of the paint, causing it to dry too quickly and crack/peel (which is why you have to make sure to use primer over drywall mud). We have done quite a bit of drywalling and painting and have NEVER had anything like this happen before!
People, I wanted to cry! Rather than painting my living room (at this point my house had been torn apart for almost 2 weeks and I was so ready to have my living room back), I spent the next 3 hours scraping off cracked paint, sanding the ceiling, and using spackle to repair the ceiling. No fun at all!
That evening, Ed and I repainted all the areas with drywall mud with another coat of primer and I painted the ceiling (again) the next morning. And guess what!!!!!?????? It cracked in a few places again! At that point we had used all the ceiling paint and decided to give up on the "special" paint. We purchased regular flat paint, had them mix the Polar Bear color in, and finished the rest of our ceiling without incident! It really was the "special" paint! We were hoping that the different types of paint would match (they are both Olympic paints so the base should be the same) but there is a slight difference between what we did in the living room and in the rest of the house, so we will be painting the living room ceiling....again!!

After that debacle, we painted our walls Hazy Skies but it didn't turn out like I thought! When all the walls were painted it looked more green than the gray-green I was going for. We discussed waiting to see what the paint would look like once the new floors are in, but felt it was going to still be too green.

So, bright and early Saturday morning I ran back to Lowes and picked out a few new samples. I decided I needed to forgo my gray-green dream and just go for a beige-gray. After looking at the samples we decided on Moonshine by Benjamin Moore (second from the top).

We liked that it was more gray than the others. It did have a hint of blue to it, but we liked that. The second runner up was the bottom - Vail by Allen + Roth - but I really wanted to go more gray. So, we painted the entire house and woke up the next morning to another fail! It was supposed to look like this:

And instead, looked like this:

Way too blue! Notice that we were confident enough to move the furniture back and put the TV back on the wall. Sigh! I like the color, but it is too blue for my whole house. So, back to the drawing board we go. A have learned a few lessons on this painting journey. Just because a paint color looks good on someone else's wall doesn't mean it will look good on mine. The truth is, I don't get a lot of natural light in my house so these gray colors with "subtle" blues and greens read really blue and green in my house! We are going to try for more of a neutral this time, even though I had my heart set on adding a little color to the walls. I can bring in the color I want through art work, pillows, curtains, and rugs and save my husband the heart ache of painting the house more than three times!
We are currently leaning towards Martha Stewart's Whetsone Grey (again color matched to Olympic No-VOC paint). Here it is on the Martha Stewart web page. Rather than being blue or gray at night and in the morning (when there is no natural light) and think it will just read more beigey and be more gray during the day. I have done a lot of searching the interweb for the perfect greige (gray-beige) and have read blog after blog (even professional designers) that have had a really hard time finding a gray, so I am glad to know I am not alone!

Keep your fingers crossed that this is the color!

The Reno-saster Begins!

2011-11-02T12:28:00.001-06:00

When we found out baby 2.0 was on his/her way I demanded, er, politely requested to Ed that some of the projects we have been sitting on for the past two years get finished ASAP. We have been waiting to do most of these projects until we were ready to remodel the kitchen, but with the housing market like it is we aren't quite ready to make that expensive plunge, so we decided to go ahead with the other projects anyway. First up, fixing our old banister. It was too short, the balusters were too far apart (allowing little kids to fall through) and it wasn't really our style. Ed put on his carpenter belt and made a new one! When we pulled out the old one it came out with one tug and was only secured to the wall and floor by 2 finish nails.....so not safe! I think the almost finished result looks great! We are just waiting on the painters to come and spray it white.
Up next:
Fixing all the cracked drywall (something we are leaving to the professionals!)
Running the tv cables behind the wall
Adding lights to the living room ( we currently have no overhead lights!) and a couple to the hall/entry
Updating light fixtures throughout the house
Painting and re-tiling the fireplace
Painting everything!
New flooring (we snagged a sweet deal at Home Depot on some beautiful hardwoods! I am so excited to get rid of my carpet!)
New baseboards, doors, and trim throughout
Tiling the laundry closet
Adding a closet organizer to master closet and hall closet
Possibly repainting the kitchen cabinets for a temporary upgrade ( if I can talk Ed into it).
That's a lot!! We have about 6 months to get it all finished. I will keep you updated! Wish us luck!!

Promotion

2011-10-26T14:00:00.002-06:00

Greyson has been doing such a great job lately that we decided to promote him to the title of .........................Big Brother!
Baby Bills version 2.0 is due to arrive in early May. (Thanks to my friend Annie for dubbing this baby 2.0 in honor of Ed's computer geekiness - it makes me laugh every time I say it!) We are so so excited (and slightly terrified) for this new addition. Ed and I are both thinking we are having another boy...but I am 0-1 in the gender guessing category so we will see!
And just for fun a cute picture of Greyson and me practicing our "cheese" faces!

Uncle Adam

2011-10-15T11:08:00.001-06:00

Greyson and I are spending a few days in Wyoming so Ed can work on a few projects around the house (trying to do anything around the house with a toddler in tow is impossible). My brother and Greyson have been having fun playing. G just loves his Uncle Adam (or A-da) as he calls him.
I had to take this cute photo of the two of them. Greyson found this helmet and insisted on wearing it around all day. And really, if you know my brother it is probably a good idea to wear protective gear whenever you are around him!

Kids All Around

2011-10-10T12:36:00.000-06:00

When Greyson was born I was excited to become a (mostly) stay-at-home mom and find fun activities to do with my little guy. I was a little disappointed with how hard it was to find one website that showed kid-friendly activities and found myself searching site after site to find the activities I was looking for. After complaining to Ed he suggested that I just create a site myself....because that's so easy!

Well, it's taken me a (long!) while but I am finally ready to show off my website, Kids All Around. I hope it will be a place for Cache Valley moms and dads to be able to find fun activities to do with their kiddos. I am still in the process of adding information and you might see some changes as I get feedback, but I am pretty excited about it. If you live in Cache Valley and know of any events, activities or deals that I don't have listed on my site send me an email at cvkidsallaround@gmail.com with the details and I will post them on my blog!

USU Homecoming

2011-09-29T16:05:00.000-06:00

Despite losing the football game in double overtime we had a great time at USU's homecoming this year. I am ashamed to admit that for the first time in all my years in Logan I actually went to the homecoming parade...I guess in college I was never up that early! We met up with our friends and all the little boys had a great time collecting candy, watching the floats and dancing to all the music. Most of my friends had never been to the parade either...so it was a first for all of us!

Taggart, Greyson, and Pierce (we are missing one little friend, Dylan, in this photo)

We also went to the tailgate held by Ed's fraternity. You never know what you are going to get when it comes to these guys(usually they call my friend's mom the day before the event and beg her to help), but it was actually well-planned, with good food and really fun! We were able to visit with some of our friends we don't get to see very often and even got to show of Greyson for a while before he went home with one of our babysitters so we could have a date night. We love USU and are glad to share that love with Greyson. Go Aggies!

Comfort Foods

2011-09-27T14:06:00.000-06:00

Fall has never been one of my favorite seasons. I think it's because I have spent most of my life living in places where fall just signals the impending doom of winter. Wyoming and norther Utah winters are not pleasant. This fall, however, has felt a little different for me. I am excited for all the fun things fall has to offer: taking Greyson trick-or-treating, going to a local pumpkin walk with our friends, heading out to a local apple orchard to pick apples, attending football games with my friends, pulling out my favorite sweaters and boots, beginning some new mommy and me classes with G, and making some of my favorite foods that are perfect for fall weather. Oh, and the fact that all my favorite TV shows are back on air doesn't hurt either.
On the agenda this week was making banana bread - a perfect treat for fall mornings. I am a believer in all things banana but especially love me some banana bread. I have tried many recipes that fail to live up to my expectations. And with banana bread they are high...it has to be moist, very banana-y, and have a crunchy top. My favorite banana bread recipe (so far) comes from the homemaking diva herself, Martha Stewart. The sour cream keeps it moist but it still has a nice, crunchy top. Yum! I think everyone will really love this. Unless you are one of my friends that has a strong aversion bananas - then you won't like it.

Online Storytime

2011-09-15T12:53:00.001-06:00

Entertaining an 18-month-old boy has turned out to be quite the challenge. You can only play trucks and blocks for so long before going insane. I recently found the online storytime by Barnes and Noble. They have a new children's book up each month that is read aloud by a celebrity or the book's author. It's a great way to entertain your little one for a few minutes! The book this month is "Home with Mama" by Anna Dewdney... the author of one of my favorite series of children's books(beginning with Llama Llama Red Pajama)!

They also have "Charlie the Ranch Dog" by Ree Drummond, also know as the Pioneer Woman and one of my favorite bloggers. It's a really cute book, especially if you are a dog person.

Greyson listened to a couple of these books yesterday while I was making dinner and really seemed to like them! Check it out and let me know what you think!
P.S. You can purchase some of the books that are featured for a discount by clicking on the "Shop our Storytime Sale" link.

So Long, Summer

2011-09-12T21:37:00.001-06:00

My mom keeps texting me to tell me to post more on my blog, so I will finally take her suggestion and get to it. She even had a few helpful suggestions for topics to write about!

First, an update on our Finley. She has grown into a beautiful, easy-going dog. Like any dog, she has a few bad habits (she is trying to dig to China in our backyard for one) but she has been a great addition to our family. She is really mellow, never barks, and continues to be a good-mannered girl. We went to the intermediate training class at Petsmart to help proof the training she received prior to coming home with us. She did a great job and is going to start the advanced class next month. If you live in Logan and you want to have your dog trained I would highly recommend Mark's classes. Finley is really patient with Greyson and takes his poking and pulling in stride. Though she does run for it when she sees Greyson heading towards her with one of her toys in hand. I showed him how to throw the ball for Finley but he seems to think you are supposed to throw it at her....which doesn't always end well for poor Finley.

Greyson turned 18 months and is a crazy, active little man. He has a mop of curly hair and a habit of ~~saying~~ yelling hello to everyone he sees. He stands at our front window and shouts, "HEY! HI!" to everyone that walks by. He has been pretty sick this last week with tonsillitis and even when he was feeling awful at the doctor's office he would pick up his little head off my shoulder and weakly say hi to everyone that passed by. He is a friendly little man. He is learning new words everyday, but some of my favorites are okay (pronounced o-tay), hoos for juice, and when he says, "cheese!" whenever I pull out my camera. He calls Ed daddy but calls Finley and his little lovey dada. He calls me mama, but "ma" is also how he says no. He also loves to throw his toys down the stairs and then say, "oh no!" He is a climber and a jumper, a dancer and a singer and the light of our lives.

This summer has gone by too fast but we have had fun. Highlights of the summer include many trips to the pool with Greyson, boating with family and friends, perusing the farmer's market, taking long walks, hanging out on our new patio, and spending lots of time together as a family. We ended the summer with both Greyson and I getting tonsillitis and feeling miserable for a couple of weeks. This summer went by too fast, but I am looking forward to fall...but not to winter!

Child-free Vacation

2011-09-06T10:14:00.000-06:00

For the first time since Greyson was born Ed and I went on an adult-only vacation. Greyson stayed at his grandparents for 5 days and we went down to Lake Powell with four of our good friends. I was REALLY looking forward to some relaxation and just having a break from the constant go-go-go that my life is with a crazy toddler! I'll admit that actually walking out of the house and leaving Greyson behind, knowing that I was going to be gone for 5 days, was a little traumatic! Once we got on the road though it was easier.

All photos are courtesy the Albrechts and Riccis as I didn't bring my camera! :)

We decided to go to Wawheap Marina and just stay in a hotel in Page, Arizona rather than deal with a houseboat. It's not a vacation to me if you still have to cook and clean! We wakeboarded and tubed, went to see Rainbow Bridge (I only saw it from afar though - three of us didn't feel like hiking up to see it in 100+ degrees and wimped out!) and Hole in the Rock, explored canyons, jumped off cliffs, and relaxed, relaxed, relaxed. It was a great time with great friends! I wanted to post some wakeboarding pictures, but let's be honest here, no one looks good wakeboarding. I hope my girlfriends don't mind the tubing picture though. It made me laugh out loud when I saw it! It really was a much-needed break for me and Ed, but after five days we were anxious to pick up our little man and head home. He was apparently excited to see us too because he jumped in my arms, turned to his grandparents and said, "Bye-bye!" and blew them a kiss!

Thanks to team BAR for a fun time!

2011-08-19T20:25:00.001-06:00

Last weekend was the Atkinson family's annual weekend at Bear Lake and I have to say it was probably one of my favorites (which makes me feel a little bad because neither of my brothers made it down...sorry guys!) My sister, brother-in-law, and nephew flew in for the occasion. We rented a great house within walking distance to shops and restaurants and a two-minute drive to the marina. We ate lots of great food, went wakeboarding and tubing, and just relaxed in the sun. Greyson was nice enough to fall asleep for almost all the boat time we had, so Ed and I were able to relax a little and not chase after a toddler intent on falling out of the boat. The weather and water were the best we have ever had at Bear Lake for boating. It was so great that my mom even tried her skills on the wakeboard.....impressive!
My cutie-pie nephew made us laugh constantly and Greyson had fun chasing him around the house and going up and down all the stairs. Miles even gave everyone helpful tips when we were wakeboarding like, "Uncle Ed I have to tell you something. Just hold on tight and don't let go!" I even managed to complete one of my wakeboarding goals: going over the wake. I might have done it while screeching at the top of my lungs while my family lovingly laughed at me in the boat, but I did it nonetheless!
It was a fun, fun weekend! I know Greyson had fun because he is still walking around our house yelling for nana and papa!

Unbroken

2011-08-09T08:58:00.001-06:00

Generally, I don't include a lot of non-fiction books on my reading list, but I had heard amazing things about the story Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand and finally checked it out from the library. Once I start a book I usually read it pretty quickly, but this is one of those books worth staying up all night for.
It's the story of Louie Zamperini - a kleptomaniac and trouble-making child turned track and field star and Olympic athlete who fought with the Air Force during WWII, was shot down and lost at sea for over a month only to be captured by Japanese forces and held (and tortured)as a POW. It is truly an incredible story!
It definitely reads like a non-fiction novel, but was so entertaining I forgot that it was. I felt a bit of a personal connection to the story, which made me even more interested. My grandfather was a fighter pilot in WWII, flying 30 missions over Germany. Though the story details Louie's life as a bombardier stationed in the Pacific, it gave me a little insight into what my grandfather's life must have been like at that time.

At 93 years old, Louie Zamperini is still going strong! He is an amazing example of courage, fortitude, and forgiveness. Read this book about his amazing life.....you won't regret it!

Tuning out

2011-08-02T09:40:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago Ed and I decided that we were spending way to much money on cable every month and that we were spending too much of our free time watching tv. With all of the options available online for viewing our favorite tv shows we decided to cancel cable and try getting our tv from the internet. Ed found the site www.cancelcable.com and that helped us get started. We ended up buying a Push2TV TV Adapter that wirelessly connects your laptop screen and tv, so what you see on your laptop is what you see on your tv.

Between Netflix, Hulu, and network websites we are able to watch 90% of our favorite shows. The shows that are most difficult to get are shows that air on premium channels like HBO and Showtime. With the money we are saving on not paying a cable bill we decided we could buy or rent those shows on itunes or Amazon when they come out on DVD.
After not having tv for two weeks I can honestly say (brace yourself here).....................I don't really miss it! I'd say the biggest drawback is not being able to plop on the couch and flip on the tv after a long day. Who doesn't enjoy a little brainless tv watching? If I want to watch a show I have to sync up the laptop and tv, find the show I want to watch online, and then play it. Another drawback is the delay to watching most shows. I won't get to watch some of my favorites like Dexter on Showtime and Entourage on HBO until they come out on dvd. A lot of the shows on Hulu are on a week delay, so we watch the shows a week after they air on tv, but that's okay with me. One of the hardest things to find on the internet is sports games. We did find, however, that the games for the college football and basketball teams we like to watch can also be found on the internet. For some teams you have to buy a $20-30 season pass, but that's still less expensive that paying for cable.
At this point, the extra $100+ we have in our pockets at the end of the month has been worth the little bit of inconvenience. We might at some point get a digital antenna so we can watch some basic cable channels, but for right now we are pretty content!

Let me go!

2011-07-28T09:46:00.000-06:00

My life for the last couple of months has revolved around this battle; Greyson wants to be an independent little boy but mom isn't quite ready to let him go. I have a feeling this battle will continue for a very long time!

Funnel Cakes

2011-07-26T09:35:00.001-06:00

My sister and I had a long and serious discussion yesterday about our love for funnel cakes. Fried dough covered in powdered sugar....yes, please! I found this recipe online (Allrecipes.com)and though it isn't exactly like the secret family recipe that we have (it's a secret so I can't tell you everything, silly!) it is pretty close.

Ingredients

1 egg
2/3 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 1/3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 quart vegetable oil for frying
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar for dusting

Directions

Beat egg. Mix in milk. Sift flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder; beat into egg mixture until smooth.
Pour oil into a heavy pan until it is 1 inch deep. Heat to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
Pour batter through funnel into oil with a circular motion to form a spiral. Fry until lightly brown; turn over to brown the other side. Cook to golden brown, and remove to drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar while still warm.

Most of the comments said to add more milk and a little more sugar to the recipe, but you'll have to give it a shot and see how it goes. Enjoy!

Catch-up

2011-07-07T17:03:00.001-06:00

I haven't been very good at posting lately and I would like to say it's because we have been super busy, but really I have just been working on a few other projects and Greyson is down to one nap a day...which really puts a damper on my blogging time. :)
Now that summer is finally here we have been spending our time at the pool, relaxing on our new patio, going to the park, and taking Finley for walks.

Greyson and dad love to watch cartoons before bedtime ("too-toos" as Greyson calls them).

We went to an event at the local fire station and had a great time looking at the firetrucks. Greyson ran around and around the whole time...just like he does all day long! His new favorite thing is to run from person to person and say "hi!" to everyone he sees. If someone doesn't say hi back he yells "HEY!!!" to get their attention and then in a sweet little voice says "hi!" again and waits for them to say hi back.

Greyson discovered baseball hats when we were at Grandma and Grandpa Bills' house a few weeks ago and is now obsessed. He likes to wear all 4 of his hats around all day. Here he is with Grandpa's hat!

We are not really sure how this happened, but all of the sudden Greyson's hair started to get curly! My dad says he had curly hair when he was little. We hope it stays because we think it is adorable! Also, after spending a few days in the great state of Wyoming he has decided he is a Cowboys fan! :)

This is just a cute picture I stole off my dad's facebook page of the Atkinson cousins down in St. George. Nana Atkinson bought them all new robes and they had a blast running around the house in them. My sister and I were laughing at how all three boys look nothing alike because they all take after the non-Atkinson side. You can definitely see a little Mike, Joni, and Ed standing there!

Greyson has been such a character lately and keeps us on our toes. He is really entertaining and all we need to do for a good laugh is put on some music and watch him go! Poor kid didn't have a chance when it came to dancing abilities!

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-21T09:12:00.000-06:00

Happy (belated) Father's Day to all the wonderful dads in my life! We had the rare opportunity of getting to see ALL our dads on Sunday and had a great time. I wanted to wish my hubby a special Happy Father's Day! He is one great dad to our little guy and we appreciate all he does. We couldn't ask for more! He was nice enough to give me a new car for Father's Day (score!) and pick out, purchase and install his own Father's Day present (an XM radio for his car).
I am STILL working on G's first year scrapbook, but here are some pages I made with Mr. Greyson and his dada...

Sister, Sister

2011-06-14T18:54:00.000-06:00

My favorite sister came to Utah for a few weeks and spent a four days at my house. She lives in Michigan and I only get to see her once or twice a year, and even though I talk to her a lot (lets be honest here...practically everyday!) it's just not the same. We had a fun few days of eating out for EVERY meal, convincing Ed to watch Miles and Greyson so we could go to a movie, going to the park, and just hanging out at my house. I snapped a few photos just as they were getting ready to leave. I should have thought about it earlier and taken some decent photos, but we were pretty caught up in running after the two little boys.

I know you can't tell from this photo but my sister is prego with another little boy! Though she told me almost 6 months ago she kept the secret from my parents until they saw her in person. It was a fun surprise...and one I actually kept for six months!! I am excited to have another little nephew!

She really likes us

2011-06-02T10:52:00.000-06:00

Finley has been home for about two weeks now and she doesn't like it here at all....

Okay, maybe she likes it here just a little. It's been fun having a dog around again, but we forgot how much work a puppy is! She is a sweet little girl, is a little shy at first, and loves to snuggle. She survived her first road trip to St. George and did great in the midst of 3 loud little boys and 2 very loud little dogs that would NOT play with her...much to Finley's disappointment.

This photo was taken when we went to pick her up. I insisted on holding her, though she surprised me by weighing more than Greyson! Look at the beautiful Clarkston mountains in the background...Cache Valley is so pretty.

She really loves to snuggle...though Greyson wasn't totally sure that he liked it. Greyson has learned how to throw the ball for her and she has learned to stick around his high chair during meals! I tried to get some cute photos of them together...but that is impossible. This is literally the only photo I took with both of them in it. At least you can see the smile on Greyson's face!

I did get some cute ones of just Finley though.

And one of Greyson discovering a new fun game called "let's dump out Finley's water bowl!"

She has been a great addition to our home and we just love her to pieces!

15 Months

2011-05-26T11:26:00.000-06:00

Did you know that no matter how hard you try to keep your baby a baby time just keeps marching on? I know, it was hard for me to believe, too! G man is 15 months old and is doing what 15-month-olds do....get into everything! You should see the number of child locks, baby gates, and bi fold door locks that are currently residing in my house...it teeters on the ridiculous side, but with Greyson and the new puppy that will be my life for a while.
Greyson weighed in at 20.5 lbs (5th percentile) and 31 inches (47th percentile). He is a skinny little man! He has a few more teeth coming in, has added the sign for "help" to his repertoire (and will also say "heh" for help) and says up, down, hi, bye, ball, bubbles (beh-behs), mama, dada, shoes, dog, duck, peaches(cha-chas), crackers(kuh-kuh), and cartoons (too-toos). He has started to put two words together, usually "bye-bye dada". He makes car noises and can make the animal sounds for dog, cow, duck, sheep, snake, bee, donkey, duck, elephant and fish(most of these he learned from one of his favorite books called, "What Do You Say?"
He loves to climb in things, especially laundry baskets and his toy boxes. When it hasn't been raining we love to go to the park, though Greyson is not a fan of the swings. I think he gets a little motion sick because after 2 or 3 swings he starts to look a little green in the face and will frantically sign "all-done". He loves the slide, but recently discovered the sandbox and I think he has found a new love.
He loves to look at books by himself or be read to...which is literally the only time he holds still. His favorite books are "Brown Bear", "Sheep in a Jeep", "What Do you Say", and "Goodnight Gorilla". He also really likes Sesame Street (and let's be honest - after a long day mom really likes Sesame Street, too!)
We have been working on being "soft" with the new dog, so he will often come up and "pet" my face or arm softly. When I tell him good job for being soft he gets a big smile on my face....and then hits me. Being "soft" is definitely a work in progress!

He really is a sweet little boy and lights up our lives. He makes us laugh everyday and we are constantly amazed with the new things he is learning.

Tunes

2011-05-16T06:48:00.001-06:00

One of the things that I really hate is being in a house that's too quiet. Maybe that's because I grew up with 3 siblings in a house that always seemed to be full of friends, cousins, dogs, and lots of noise. Plus, if it's quiet I start to notice all the weird noises my house makes and convince myself that someone is breaking in and I need to get Greyson and myself out of the house without the robbers knowing so I can get to safety and call 911. Not that I have spent a lot of time thinking about what I would do in that situation or anything.

So, to combat the dangers of a quiet house I almost always have music playing. I really love Pandora because I can get a great mix of music without having to do anything besides type in a favorite song or musician. Did you know there is a monthly playing limit for Pandora? Well, there is...and I have reached it! :)When not listening to Pandora, Ed is usually my personal DJ and keeps my itunes playlist updated with great music. We do have slightly different taste in music though, so on occasion I have to search out some new tunes for myself. I am ADDICTED to the new Adele album, 21.

Especially her song Rolling in the Deep, which was recently covered by the some of the Glee cast.

I have also discovered/rediscovered Iron & Wine.

I love their song, Flightless Bird from their American Mouth album. I didn't realize though, that they had a song on the Garden State soundtrack, Such Great Heights, which I listen to all the time.

Arcade Fire, especially their Funeral album, and Metric's Fantasies album have also been rounding out my playlist. Well, if we are being honest the Wicked, Legally Blonde, and Les Misérables soundtrack are also favorites....as long as Ed isn't home to make fun of me!

What are some of your favorite songs?

Mom's Spaghetti

2011-05-14T16:44:00.000-06:00

One of my family's favorite dishes is my mom's yummy spaghetti sauce. It's a staple in my house and gets rave reviews by everyone who tries it. On a spaghetti-related note, I once had a conversation with a coworker about not feeling like cooking dinner and she told me whenever she doesn't feel like making dinner she just makes spaghetti. I was confused for a second, because my spaghetti in my house isn't a quick process, until I realized she meant she just boils some spaghetti and uses jarred spaghetti sauce. Honestly, that had never occurred to me....spaghetti just isn't the same unless it has my mom's sauce.
So here's the recipe. Try it and you'll never go back to the jarred stuff!

1 chopped onion
1 chopped green pepper
1 lb hamburger ( I like to use half hamburger and half Italian sausage, but we generally don't make it with meat at all)
(Use as much or as little as you like in your sauce. I like green peppers and onions so I include a lot.)
1 large can diced tomatoes
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 small can tomato juice
(My mom's original recipe calls for jars of home-stewed tomatoes, something that I don't have :) This is just what I use to get the tomato-ness I like.)
2 Bay leafs
2 tsp basil
1 Tbs Sugar (more to taste...this is key!)
1/8 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
1 tsp Italian Seasoning
1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup

Cook burger/sausage, drain and rinse. Saute onion and green pepper and add meat. Add in all ingredients except cream of mushroom soup. Let simmer for 4 hrs.Yes, that's a long time but it is worth it! My mom uses an electric skillet, but I usually saute the meat, onion, and green pepper and then throw that and the other ingredients in my crock pot and leave it simmering all day. Mix in Cream of Mushroom soup just before serving. It's delish!

Hogle Zoo

2011-05-10T15:36:00.000-06:00

To celebrate the beginning of summer break from my job at USU and since the weather was going to be nice Greyson and I jumped in the car on Friday and drove down to SLC to spend the afternoon with two of our favorite little boys and their mama.

Trying to get a picture of two one-year olds and a three-year old while on a bouncy chair is nearly impossible!
We had a fun afternoon running around and looking at all the animals. My mom used to take us to Hogle Zoo a lot growing up. For me and my siblings (and usually a cousin or two), it was a big deal to drive to Salt Lake, go out to lunch and go to the zoo. Though it seemed so much bigger when I was 10! I have a really funny memory of me, my sister, and my cousin pushing my brother, Adam, down a slide that had a lion on it. We told him it was what they used to slide the food down into the lion's cage....and then we pushed him down it. I can still hear him screaming. Poor Adam. :)
My favorite part was the baby elephant, Zuri. Greyson just liked looking at all the people, though I do think he liked the gorilla.
It was a nice to soak up some sun...especially since it has rained here for the past two days!

Reno-saster

2011-05-04T11:05:00.000-06:00

The last few weeks we have started our latest renovation-disaster, tearing out our old patio and replacing it with a new, larger, and safer one. Our old patio was small and consisted of cracked cement. There was just one step down from the patio door to the ground, which we jokingly called the "death-trap". The whole patio wasn't very usable and with G getting bigger we knew we would be wanting to use the backyard more this summer. We also wanted to replace our old aluminum sliding glass door with a patio door and put a built-in doggy door in the wall. So, a few weeks ago Ed rented a jackhammer and did this:

Poor guy, I think his teeth were chattering for a week. Not only did he spend all day jackhammering the patio but he also wheelbarrowed all of that cement to a dumpster in the front yard. Then, with some help from Ed's mom and stepdad we did this:

Put in our new patio door that I am in love with. I mostly love the blinds that are in the glass, especially with little baby hands and soon to be little doggy noses in the house. Ed also cut that hole in our brick for our doggie door...and then discovered that the tunnel part of the doggy door (the part that goes in the wall) was too narrow for our house. Apparently old brick houses have exterior walls that are 10 inches thick but the tunnel was only 8...oopsie! Luckily, a local machine shop, Ducworks, came to our rescue and made a new tunnel for us that worked perfectly.
And that, my friends is where the reno stopped. Three weeks of rain and realizing that this was going to be a bigger job than we anticipated lead us to throw in the towel and call in the professionals. We want the project to be completed by the time little Finley comes home (in a few more weeks...yippee!) and didn't think that was going to happen. So, the landscapers are set to start on the patio in the next week with completion in a couple of weeks....stay tuned for pics of the completed project!

Damage Control

2011-04-26T09:03:00.000-06:00

Though Greyson has turned into a very active and inquisitive boy we haven't suffered too much damage at his hands...until Saturday. I spent Friday and Saturday in Wyoming visiting with my parents and throwing a bridal shower for my best friend from high school. My mom and I were running around the kitchen Saturday morning making food for the bridal shower when I heard Greyson say, "uh-oh!" in the living room. I peeked around the corner to see what he was doing and to my horror he had pulled my mom's Scentsy candle (that we both forgot was there) from the end table and onto the floor, spilling red wax all over her brand new carpet and freshly painted walls. RED WAX all over NEW CARPET!!!!! Luckily, Scentsy wax isn't that hot and Greyson only had a little splash of it on his pajamas, so he was fine. But the carpet!!!! I almost had a panic attack but my mom calmly said she new how to get the wax out of the carpet. I was a little incredulous but it worked so I thought I would share the trick with you.
Step 1) Grab an iron and paper towels.
Step 2) Place the paper towels over the wax and plug in the iron and turn it to just a warm setting.
Step 3) Iron over the paper towels, keeping the iron in motion, and the wax will soak into the paper towels and come out of the carpet.

Accordingly to my mom, it works better if you take the point of the iron and really press it into the carpet. I was relieved when the wax came out. You couldn't even tell where it was on the carpet. My mom was also nice enough to show me some wax still stuck to her couch from when my nephew, Gabe, did the same thing when he was little. Good to know Greyson wasn't the first!

Bad weather = bad mood

2011-04-19T11:10:00.002-06:00

Maybe it's the weather (seriously, is spring ever going to get here?) but I have been feeling down in the dumps the last couple of weeks. Which, I know is ridiculous, since I am such a lucky lady to have the life that I do....but do you ever just feel blah?

To fight these "blahs" I thought I would list a few things that make my happy, rather than my favorite things this month.

Making things in photoshop:

Taking Greyson to music class:
We go to a music class taught by Miss Ewa every Wednesday and really like it! It's laid back, fun, and Greyson loves chasing around all of the kids. If you live in Logan and are interested the summer session starts April 27. You can check it out here or on facebook here.

Going to visit Finley:

Please feel free to make fun of the sweet scrubs I am wearing. The puppies haven't had any shots yet so to keep them healthy we have to sanitize everything and wear scrubs over our clothes...and look like dorks every time we go visit. You can also make fun of my stupid smile. I can't seem to figure out how to smile like a normal person in photos.

Watching Mad Men:

I am kind of addicted to this show. I just started the 4th season and can't get enough. I did just read that Season 5 isn't going to air until 2012, so I think I might have to stretch out this last season so I don't go into withdrawals! I have been watching it on Amazon Instant Video, but you can get some episodes on Comcast On Demand.

Getting pedicures:

I am getting a pedi and mani tomorrow at The Kutting Edge Salon. My friend, Annie, and I went there for pedicures a couple of months ago and I was really impressed. They did a great job and the price was really reasonable

Making Greyson laugh:

Greyson is one serious baby and it takes a lot to get him to laugh. Yesterday, he started growling at me (his main form of communication these days) and I jumped up like he had scared me. We went back and forth for a few minutes and Greyson was laughing so hard he had a hard time breathing and even started crying! He would growl and look at me, waiting for me to jump and say, "oh, you scared me!" If I didn't respond fast enough he would come over and pat my face, telling me it was my turn.

I really appreciate his little giggles, especially when I can get him to have a full-blown laugh fest. Of course, he stopped laughing as soon as I tried to video tape him, but it was one of those cute moments that I will cherish.

Well, I am already in a better mood after writing this. It also helps that the sun is shining today! What makes you happy?

Book Reviews

2011-04-16T11:18:00.001-06:00

If you know me at all, you know I LOVE to read. I typically read a book a week, if not more. My love of reading is so great that I go to the library every Monday with G, have my library card number memorized, and will read pretty much anything I can get my hands on...newspapers, magazines, the back of cereal boxes, junk mail...whatever. I am always asked for book recommendations so I thought I would share a few of my all-time favorites here. Granted, this is hard for me to do as I feel like I am choosing a favorite child. :)

A recent read that I loved....

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

I will read any WWII era novel...well, I will read anything, but I really love books about WWII. This is fascinating, heartbreaking, and a serious page-turner. It intertwines two stories, that of a modern-day journalist and a young Jewish girl in Paris during the Holocaust. Highly recommended!

A favorite book that is coming out as a movie.....

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel by Jonathan Safran Foer

First of all, if you haven't read anything by this author you are really missing out. He is an incredible writer and I have devoured all his books. This book is laugh-out-loud funny, quirky, original, poignant, and, endearing. The story follows 9-year-old Oscar on an urgent quest to discover the lock to a key he finds in his father's belongings after his father dies in the 9/11 attacks.

The movie is coming out in 2012 and stars Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks. Read it before you watch the movie!

My favorite speech language pathology related book....

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Though my specialty isn't working with children with autism it's a huge part of what SLPs do. I was asked to read this book as a graduate student at USU. They were starting a new treatment program for children with Asperger Syndrome and I was lucky enough to be part of the first group of students to run the program. This story is written in the first-person perspective of Christopher John Francis Boone, a 15-year-old boy who describes himself as ‘a mathematician with some behavioural difficulties’. Though Christopher never mentions the word autism or Asperger syndrome in the novel, the author describes him as having Asperger Syndrome (which can be described as high-functioning autism). This is a work of fiction, and Haddon has explicitly said he is NOT an expert in autism, but he did an excellent job of telling a story from this unique point of view and helping people understand how someone with Asperger syndrome thinks. It's short and easy to read, but is a compelling and extraordinary story. There is quite a bit of swearing in the book so if that is a concern for you than don't read it!

My favorite book of all time (and this will demonstrate what a true geek I am)...

Forever: A Novel by Pete Hamill

So ~~I am a big fat nerd~~ a sucker for historical fiction. It seems that people either love this book or really hate it. I loved it...but I ~~am a serious geeky geek~~ love this genre.

This novel is about an Irish man who arrives on the island of Manhattan in the 1600s and, through some unusual circumstances, will live forever as long as he doesn't leave the island. It follows his for over 200 years and you get to learn so much about the history of NYC. It's obviously fiction, so it's not completely historically accurate, but it's still full of really interesting tidbits about NYC and is a really clever story. An interesting fact is that Hamill finished the book on September 10, 2001 but rewrote the ending after the September 11 attacks.

Do you have a favorite book? Leave it in the comments and I will definitely read it!

New Card

2011-04-13T09:55:00.002-06:00

Over the last few months I have thought about shutting down my Etsy shop a few times and, without fail, I get a couple of orders that same day. I just received a few new orders and one was for this baby shower inviation.

It seems that I get more orders for anything with damask on it than any of my other designs. I love this combination of hot pink and lime green. They wanted me to base my design around this Lily Collection crib bedding set...really cute!

You can see more of my designs at http://www.etsy.digitalgreetings.com/.

**You may think I am weird for adding a watermark to my cards, but I found out that a techo savvy person can figure out how to save my card and change the info to use for themselves...sneaky sneaky. So I added the watermark to prevent people from being thieves!

Walking

2011-04-06T10:30:00.000-06:00

This little man of mine went from taking a few tentative steps last week to wanting to walk EVERYWHERE this week. He is pretty pleased with himself...but I am still getting used to seeing my baby toddling around on his own two feet. I am looking forward to seeing him run around the park this summer....if it ever decides to warm up around here.

Finley

2011-04-04T12:29:00.009-06:00

Here are some updated photos of Finley. We were able to go visit her this weekend for the first time and really fell in love. She is a sweet and mellow little girl. She snuggled up in our arms when we held her and seemed content to just hang out. She was interested in what was going on around her but wasn't as frisky as the other pups. She is probably going to be more cream than golden, but we love that her coat is so soft and fluffy! We are excited to get her!

Spring Fun

2011-04-03T14:08:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago my mom and I escaped to St. George for a five day mini-vacation. Since I was bringing Greyson my mom brought my nephew, Gabe, so they could play together. We spent our time eating out, going to the park, swimming at the huge aquatic center, visiting a wildlife museum, shopping at the outlet malls and chasing after Gabe and Greyson. Here are a few picture of Greyson at the park. He loved Gabe's Hot Wheels and pushed it in circle for probably 20 minutes. He had his first spin on a swing and thought that was fun. Gabe liked the swings, but there was a tractor at the park doing some spring clean up...he could hardly contain his excitement about that. I tried to get a picture of him on the swing, but he just wanted to wave to the man driving the tractor. Of course, we had get the obligatory "cousins in the bathtub" photo! It was a fun getaway, though next time we go we are going to leave the boys at home...then we can actually relax!

G's New Trick!

2011-03-31T21:51:00.000-06:00

Dog Town

2011-03-30T06:42:00.003-06:00

Ed and I were searching for something to watch Saturday night and ran across this show on Netflix. It's a show about a no-kill animal sanctuary, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, that happens to be in southern Utah. They take dogs, cats, and other small animals from across the country and try to place them with good homes. They provide whatever medical care is necessary and have full-time trainers that help to train the dogs to be good pets. It's really heart-warming and we were instantly addicted.

Since deciding to add little Finley to our family, I have felt bad that we didn't adopt a dog that needed a loving home. We were really looking for a dog that would be good with Greyson and wanted a dog we could train, I mean...we could send to be trained, from the time they were a puppy. I took some comfort in knowing we were buying her from loving, responsible breeders that treat their dogs like family, but have still struggled with the fact that we were buying a dog and not adopting one of these cuties:

So, we are making a donation to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in honor of Mocha and plan to make another donation for our annual neighborhood and friend Christmas gift (we make donations to charities rather than give gifts). You can watch Dog Town on National Geographic and can visit Best Friend's website by clicking here. Be warned...it's very addicting!

Visitor

2011-03-29T08:41:00.000-06:00

I was washing dishes after dinner a few nights ago, glanced out the window and saw this gal in our backyard. We aren't sure how she got in and she wasn't in any hurry to leave. We eventually had to open our gate and shoo her away. It's not unusual to see deer walking up and down our street in the winter (along with the occasional sheep), but this is the first time one was in our backyard! She looked a little haggard; I am sure the poor little deer are looking forward to spring as much as we are!

Not the Best Way to Start Your Weekend

2011-03-28T14:49:00.002-06:00

This weekend was unusual for our little family as we didn't have to do anything or go anywhere...and we were bound and determined to enjoy it. We were having a lazy Saturday morning, hanging out in our pajamas, listening to music, playing with Greyson, and just relaxing. I noticed the USU Cross Country team running by our house. Since we live close to USU this is not an unusual occurrence. They must have been running in a circle around the neighborhood because they ran by 4 or 5 times, each time spreading out more and more until it seemed there was a steady stream of college students running in front of our house every few minutes. I was looking out the window and saw one of the girls rounding the corner by my house by herself. She started to slow down and look up and down the street and before I knew what was happening had squatted down and was taking a little potty break. ON THE SIDEWALK! THE SIDEWALK! I shouted to Ed, "this girl is going to the bathroom on the SIDEWALK!" and he looked out the window just in time for a surprise and quite unwanted rated R show as she stood up and ran on her way.
So, I understand, when you gotta go you gotta go....but the middle of the sidewalk??!! I live in an older neighborhood and there are lots of shrubs and trees she could have hidden behind. Even going behind a car would have been better, but nope, she chose right in front of my house! She obviously couldn't see me sitting on the living room couch or she probably would have picked another location, and boy howdy I wish she had! Yikes!

Oh, Mocha

2011-03-25T21:32:00.000-06:00

Just a few days after deciding to add another fur-baby to our family (see previous post) I decided I was ready for spring weather even if it was currently snowing outside. I went down to the basement and pulled out some of my warmer weather clothes and shoes that I had packed away in the fall. I finally found my favorite pair of sandals, the ones that I have lived in for summers, that go with everything, that are super cute and comfy and that I love above all other sandals. I should probably say LOVED above all other sandals, as in past tense. I don't know how I missed this when I tossed them in the storage container last fall but someone had nibbled off the heel of the right sandal. I had a good laugh, was furious, and so sad at the same time...my Mocha girl had to have one last go at my shoes, just to make sure we didn't forget about her. Well played, Mocha, well played.

Growing Family

2011-03-25T13:53:00.004-06:00

Meet Finley......

our soon-to-be new fur-baby. Yes, we are that crazy. The house as felt really empty since we lost our Mocha. We both wanted another dog at some point. I was thinking when Greyson was 3 or 4. Ed was thinking...right now. He found this litter of golden retrievers and was suckered in by their cute little faces and black button noses. I wasn't so convinced. However, after a few days of thinking it over I decided that if Ed really wanted a pet it was definitely his turn. He didn't want a cat...but I still brought Lola home. He didn't want a dog...but I still brought Mocha home. He didn't want a baby....haha, just kidding.

What really sealed the deal for me was that the breeders have a puppy training program that little Finley can go to. We won't get to bring her home until she is four months but when she gets here she will be trained to sit, stay, walk loosely on a leash, not dart down stairs or out doors, fetch, drop it, no jump, no bark, no chew, no begging at the table, ring a bell to go outside, be house-broken and crate trained, and will do something that we could NEVER get Mocha to do...COME! Hallelujah! If you had ever been to my house when we had Mocha you would know that we were not the best dog trainers. Ed wanted to send Mocha away to be trained when she was a puppy, but I couldn't part with my baby. Now, I know better and will gladly spent a couple of months apart for 10 years (hopefully) of a well-trained dog. The breeders are local so we can go visit her over the next couple of months whenever we want but will get to bring her home the beginning of June. I am excited to have another little fur-baby in the house. She won't replace Mocha, but she will definitely help fill our hearts!

Chicken Corn Chowder

2011-03-23T13:35:00.000-06:00

I don't know why, but I love to make soups, stews and chowders. Maybe because you can usually just throw everything in the pot, let it simmer for a couple of hours and have something delicious waiting for you!
One of my favorite recent recipe finds is this chowder from Picky Palate. I serve it with homemade rolls if I am off the low-carb wagon or a green salad if I am feeling healthy. Well, I guess with the cream cheese and cheese this isn't the healthiest soup either :)

Chicken Corn Chowder
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 stalks of celery, finely chopped
1 medium bell pepper, color of choice, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 jalapeno, finely chopped, seeds and membrane removed
1/4 Cup thinly sliced or chopped ham or canadian bacon
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 14 oz cans chicken broth
3 Tablespoons flour
3 ears of fresh corn kernels
2 large chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
4 oz softened cream cheese
1 Cup milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 Cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Place olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Saute celery, bell pepper, onion and jalapeno until softened. Stir in garlic and ham; cook for another 3 minutes. Whisk the broth with the flour in a large bowl then stir into soup. Stir in corn and chicken. Bring to a low boil and reduce heat. Whisk together the cream cheese and milk in a large bowl until smooth. Stir into soup along with the salt, pepper and cheddar cheese. Simmer until ready to serve.
photo borrowed from picky palate

I have made it without the chicken and/or ham and still think it is yummy. I wouldn't recommend leaving out the jalapeno. It doesn't add a lot of heat but really livens up the flavors. One trick I use (and probably why I like making soup so much) is to use bags of frozen pre-chopped vegetables. I can find bags of onions, carrots, green peppers, and a carrot, onion, celery blend(mirepoix blend) at my grocery store. I actually just use a bag of the mirepoix blend for this recipe and add in about 1/3 of a bag of frozen green peppers. That way, the only thing I am chopping is the jalapeno (let's be honest here, sometimes I use a small can of chopped green chilies). It makes the recipe really fast to make which is great because we all have better things to do than chop vegetables, like tickle little boy bellies and play peek-a-boo.
Give it a try and let me know what you think!

March Favorites

2011-03-21T14:53:00.000-06:00

Is anyone else having a hard time believing it's the middle of march? I don't know where the times goes. I really feel like I was just snuggling up on the couch with my newborn little man. Maybe you forgot what a cute little newborn he was? Here, let me remind you!

Ahhh, what a cute little peanut! Since we are halfway through March I wanted to post a few things I am enjoying this month. Because what I like is really important. :)

I am loving my new umbrella stroller. We purchased a larger UPPAbaby Vista Stroller and Rumble Seat(for future kiddos) before G was born. We love love love it but wanted something that didn't take up as much room in the car and was easier to tote around. After searching and searching for an umbrella stroller that was lightweight, had a reclining seat, and wasn't super expensive we decided to purchase another UPPAbaby brand stroller and went with the UPPAbaby G-Luxe Stroller. We were able to snag a 2010 model for a steal of a deal and couldn't be happier! G likes it, too!

I am currently addicted to the Clickin Moms website and usually spend a few minutes in the morning while G is eating breakfast to browse through the forums. I have learned an amazing amount of photography related info, photoshop tricks, and have snagged some cute free templates to use in my digital scrapbooking/projects. It's a subscription site but you can get 10% off by using the coupon code FRIEND. Now, if only I could buy the new camera I have been eyeing...

One of the women that run the craft site DIY DISH has been in my mist since September and I didn't even know it! She told me about her website last week and I have been addicted ever since. Watch their cute videos to learn how to do some crafty diy projects...and keep your eye out for coupon codes for fabric, craft items and more! I have added about 100 new projects to my to do list. If only Greyson still slept 10 hrs a day.

Hope everyone enjoys the first few days of spring...otherwise known as "still winter" or "sprinter" (spring/winter) around here!

A Student Forever

2011-03-17T06:13:00.001-06:00

Continuing education is a requirement for me to keep my state and professional license in speech-language pathology. Most people probably dread completing their hours but I am geeky enough to enjoy attending continuing ed conferences. I attended a conference put together by the Utah Speech Language Hearing Association conference last Friday and had a great day dusting off some cobwebs on my brain and learning some new things. During the conference lunch there was a drawing for prizes. When someone's name was called they would go to the state to collect their prize and the emcee, who happened to be an audiology professor at USU (someone I took a couple of classes from and see around our building since I started working at USU) would ask the person where they worked and announce it to the crowd. I never win ANYTHING so was really excited when my name was called. As I walked up to the stage the audiology professor said, "Oh, Rachel...she's one of our wonderful students at USU!" Um... not quite! Apparently I have been attending USU for the past 8 years.

Speaking of being an SLP(get it...speaking of???....man, I am clever) the American Speech Language Hearing Association has started a new public service campaign called "Listen to your Buds" aimed at preventing noise-induced hearing loss by practicing safe listening habits, especially when using ear buds with personal audio technology(ipods, nintendo ds, etc). Recent research both in the United States and abroad indicates that misuse of the technology has the potential to cause noise-induced hearing loss, which is caused by exposure to loud sounds over time. They are predicting a rise in hearing loss in young people, solely due increased use personal audio technology (76% of kids have ipods or mp3 players) and using them at too high of volumes. Noise-induced hearing loss can be caused by repeated exposure to anything loud: fireworks, musical instruments, lawn equipment, household appliances, etc. Once your hearing is damaged, there is no way to reverse it. Some tips to follow:
1)Keep the volume down on your ipod. If you can't hear someone talking to from an arms length away the volume is too high.
2)Give your ears breaks. You really don't need to listen to your ipod ALL day!
3) Wear hearing protection when you will be in loud environments. Say, an Aggie B-Ball game?

Greyson is modeling his ear muffs at a recent USU B-Ball game. The Spectrum is L-O-U-D!! We were the recipients of a few bewildered looks the first time we brought him to a game these on, but we have seen more and more little ones with ear muffs as the season progressed and have been stopped to ask where we purchased them. He doesn't seem to mind them at all! You can purchase hearing protection for your kiddos by going to Amazon.com.

Laugh for the day!

2011-03-16T13:11:00.003-06:00

I have seen this in a few different places on the interweb but laugh hysterically every time I see it...so I wanted to share.
To clarify, this is not my baby!

And since I am posting some videos here are a few more of my YouTube favorites (also not of my baby).

Money, money, money

2011-03-14T19:54:00.002-06:00

After chatting with a friend in the grocery store today about organic baby products (once again, I lead a very fulfilling life) and the need to purchase them online because we live in no-man's land and have very limited shopping options I realized I haven't shared one of my online money saving tips with you. That was a bit of a leap, wasn't it. Organic baby products to saving money online. Just stay with me and it will pay off.
Before you buy ANYTHING online make sure you head on over to Ebates or Shop At Home and see of the store you are purchasing from is listed on either of these sights. With every purchase you make after going through either of these sites you get cash back and will often get special coupons/deals. I have used ebates.com for a few months and received my first check (actually it was a paypal deposit) in February. It was just about $20, but that was free money!
If THAT doesn't make you want to shop...maybe this will. Gap's Give and Get event is coming up March 17-20. Use this link (Give and Get is Here!) to get an in-store coupon for 30% off Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy stores. Gap gives 5% of your purchase to a charity; I chose Feeding America. HOWEVER, if you leave a comment with your email address I can email you a code for online purchases for 30% off (each person has to have an individual code that I can send them). If you go through Shop At Home you get 4% cash back (Ebates only has 2% cash back right now) along with your 30% savings! YES!! Time to go shopping! (PS - Use the links above and I get a referral bonus!)
And just because I can, a picture of Mr. G....my so-close-to-walking little man!

Invitations

2011-03-10T07:35:00.001-07:00

I had to share this invitation I made for a triple baby shower for Ed's cousins. The craziest thing is that both of the girls that married Ed's male cousins have the name Jamie, so their first and last names are the same. Trying to differentiate between the two Jamies and make sure each momma-to-be was recognized was a bit of a challenge! They are all due within a month of each other and I am really excited to get to see these little babies! I will have it up for sale on my Etsy site shortly!

Since I am pretty much an expert mom now(hah!) I can share with them all of my mommy advice, as well as a few of my favorite baby items:

Silhoutte Tutorial

2011-03-08T07:01:00.002-07:00

I've seen cute silhouette prints on Etsy (see here, here, and here) and considered buying one for my house, but it's one of those things that I knew I could do myself...if I just got around to it. Since I was also itching for a new blog header I decided to make a silhouette print and header for my blog at the same time..and thought I would be nice enough to share how to make a silhouette yourself with Photoshop.
1) Take a profile photo of your subject. It would best against a white background or in a window so the subject is dark and the background white. If you have uncooperative subjects like me, then you will be forced to go through years of photos to try and find a profile photo that would work. This is the best profile photo I could find of Ed....oh, look at new baby Greyson...so snuggly.

2) Open in Photoshop. Whenever working on a photo I always like to copy the background layer and do a "save as" so I have the original in case I mess up...which I NEVER do.

3)Increase the contrast to help differentiate your subject from the background. This is where a dark subject on a light background comes in handy.

4)Now, you need to select the outline of your subject. You could use the quick selection tool, the magic wand, the magnetic lasso, etc. After experimenting with a few different pictures I liked using the magnetic lasso the best, but I bet if you had a better photo (dark subject against light background) you could easily use the quick selection tool. It's hard to see in the next screen shot, but there are little "marching ants" around Ed's head.

5) After your subject is selected go to Select>Modify>Smooth and put in 5 pixels. This just helps smooth out any rough edges. You might have to use a higher number of pixels, depending on how smooth your selection is. You just don't want to smooth out any of the detail.

5)With your subject still selected hit Ctl+J. This copies your selection on to a new layer. Create a new layer underneath your subject and fill in with whatever background color you want. Now you have a floating face. Creepy!

6) Grab your black brush and paint over that floating face. The subject still needs to be selected. The black brush will just fill in the face and not paint on the background.

7)Smooth out your edges as needed with a black brush/eraser. I added the torso part (just drew it with a brush), a few hair strands, and eyelashes.

8)And your finished! Save your image and add to whatever project you want!

I made this family silhouette and am going to print it out and frame it. I thought it might be fun to do one of Greyson each year as well. Crafty!

Cupcakes

2011-03-07T09:16:00.002-07:00

The cupcakes at Greyson's party were a big hit, especially the red velvet ones. I neglected to take photos of the cupcakes all together (42 total...whew!), so all I have is a photo of the last lonely cupcake with the cute cupcake topper I made. I also have a rare photo of me, one that Ed snapped while I was making the colorburst cupcakes. Not the best picture of me (I can't seem to smile naturally in photos), but this doesn't occur very often so I wanted to add it.

The Colorburst Cupcakes came from Our Best Bites. I used 4 colors and loved how they turned out! I found that the recipe didn't quite make 24 cupcakes, but I like the cupcakes to be rounded on top so I put a little extra batter in each one. Click here for the recipe. Ah-hah! I did take a photo of the inside of a Colorburst cupcake. This one has a little too much yellow, but you get the idea!

The Cookies and Cream cupcakes were my favorite and really easy to make. Here are the ingredients:

30 Oreo cookies
1 package (18.25 ounces) plain white cake mix
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Take 12 Oreo cookies and separate top and bottom wafers. Line your cupcake pan with liners and then place one wafer (cream side up) in each liner. Put the rest of the Oreos in a bag and crush with a rolling pin. Reserve about 1/4 of the crushed Oreos. Mix remaining Oreos and all of the other ingredients together. Fill each lined cupcake cup about 2/3 of the way with batter. Bake 18-20 minutes at 350 degrees until the top of the cupcake springs back up when pressed. I made a chocolate butter cream to ice the cupcakes and then topped with crushed Oreos. (See picture above).

For the Red Velvet cupcakes I actually cheated and just used a red velvet cake mix but used the same ingredients as the Colorburst cupcakes to make them moist (the sour cream performs miracles). I made a cream cheese butter cream frosting to go on top. They were delicious!

To make the cupcakes look a little fancy I put the frosting in a large ziploc bag, clipped the corner and filled in the top of the cupcake in a spiral motion. They looked so great one of my friends thought I bought them from a local cupcake shop!

I found a recipe for strawberry lemonade cupcakes...those are next on my baking list!

On a side note, I just purchased the cookbook from the Our Best Bites gals and am excited to get it in the mail. I think my favorite part is going to be the "rollover" section. I hate when I buy special ingredients for a recipe and then don't have a way to use them. This section lists not-so-common ingredients and all the recipes you can use them in. Really smart! Theses ladies should probably start paying me for advertising!
You can buy their cookbook here: Our Best Bites Cookbook

Lessons Learned

2011-03-06T13:26:00.001-07:00

After patting myself on the back for surviving my first year of mom-hood I started to think about everything I have learned in the past year. Who would have thought a tiny little baby (now a toddler) would teach me so much? Here are a few things Mister G has taught me over the last 12 months.

Most people are generous. Friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, and even strangers....it seems that everywhere I turn people love and "ooh and ah" over Greyson and offer support whenever they can. I am so lucky to have such a supportive family and a close group of girlfriends to help keep me sane!

Some people are not. Also, I hate double doors. If I am walking with my stroller into a building with two sets of doors (say, the mall) and you are walking through and don't hold the door I am going to give you eye daggers behind your back (ooh, scary)! It is nearly impossible to get through with a stroller in one piece.

Get used to leaving the house with some sort of bodily fluid on your shirt or pants. It's inevitable...though over the last few months has happened less and less. I'll never forget the time I got back from a rare trip to the grocery store by myself when Greyson was just a few months old, only to realize I had spit-up all over the back of my shirt. Awesome.

Not everyone will agree with your parenting decisions, and will be surprisingly vocal about it. I was warned it would happen but still have to resist the urge to plug my ears and shout, "I can't hear you!" every time I hear some (un)helpful advice, am told "you know you really shouldn't..." or get to hear about how THEIR child was sitting up/rolling over/crawling/walking/etc. by now and they couldn't believe that Greyson wasn't doing that yet. I actually started to get so worked up about people's comments when Greyson wasn't crawling at 10 months that I checked out a developmental assessment from my work and gave it to Greyson one afternoon. Guess what? He was just fine! And though he wasn't crawling yet he was ahead of the game in other areas.

Time with your spouse alone is a rare commodity! Time alone with your spouse when you are not talking about or planning for your progeny is a Christmas miracle! I have to say that I really look forward to Greyson's 7:00 pm bedtime. Baby+ conversation=impossible.

It's just a stage. When he goes from sleeping 12+ hours a night to waking up every 2 hours, when he suddenly won't eat anything but peaches, when he cries the second I leave the room, etc, etc, etc, I have to tell myself it's just a stage. Give it a few days and it will be fine.

Mom's nights out are necessary and oh-so- fabulous. Enough said.

Babies are surprisingly durable. When Greyson was about 3 months old I was carrying him into his bedroom and hit his head on the door jam. I was convinced I had caused a brain injury, even though he didn't even cry, didn't have a goose egg, and barely even noticed what I had done. He also nose-dived into the wall the other day, sat up, and started clapping (we clap and laugh when he falls down so he doesn't think it's a big deal). See...durable. I know he has a lot of bumps and bruised ahead of him...he isn't even walking yet, but I know that a little fall now and then isn't going to be the end of the world.

We've come a long way in the last year. I am pretty sure the lessons I will learn during his 2nd year will be: I didn't know a one year old could be so well-behaved, who would have thought I would sleep so much, and babies can be potty trained at 2!

Diapers!

2011-02-28T17:00:00.003-07:00

A whole post about diapers...aren't you excited! Here's the deal: diapers are expensive! When Greyson was little we purchased G Diapers with cloth and biodegradable inserts. We used them almost exclusively for a few months and really liked them. Then, however, came solid food....and things changed drastically in the diaper department. I didn't mind washing wet cloth inserts or flushing wet biodegradable inserts, but when it came to dirty diapers...I wasn't a fan. Plus, Greyson went from having a dirty diaper once every 4-5 days to 2-3 times a day!! In the battle of helping the environment vs. Rachel not wanting to deal with dirty cloth diapers, helping the environment went out the window. We started using disposable diapers and I was shocked by how much they cost and how quickly we went through them. Then, I discovered Amazon.com's Mom's Club and their subscribe and save service. By joining their Mom's Club (don't have to be a mom, just have to buy baby items) you automatically save 15% on diapers and formula. You also have the option of signing up for their subscribe and save program (free as well, just sign up for auto shipments of the diapers...which can be cancelled anytime...even before they send the next shipment...hint, hint) and save an additional 15%. A case of Greyson's diapers from a big box store costs us $38.98. A box from Amazon costs $40.88, however with the 30% discount you get from the two programs it costs $28.61. Plus, as a member of the Mom's Club you get free shipping on baby items, and with each purchase you make Amazon gives you a few months of their Prime membership, which allows for free shipping on other items.
So, that's a great deal by itself, one that I have a hard time competing with even with grocery store sales and coupons. But, hold on to your hats people, it gets even better. If you subscribe to Parents or Parenting magazine (I have heard American Baby has this deal as well) look for a green card with a unique discount code for an additional 15% or $10 off!! I had two different cards from two magazines that I was able to stack on top of each other for a case of diapers...and only paid $10 for 204 diapers. One of the codes had even expired, but I put it in anyway and it worked! I have been able to purchase our last 3 cases of diapers for $20 or less....a super deal!
I am happy to report that since Greyson has been on solid food for a few months, and things have become a little more regular and predictable, I am using G Diapers again while we are at home...and I feel good about limiting the amount of diapers that our family is sending to the dump while still having the ease of disposable diapers when we need them. The best of both worlds!

*Check out your local Babies 'r' Us and snag a free copy og American Baby and Baby Talk magazines. Both had $10 off coupons for Amazon!

12 month update

2011-02-27T10:27:00.000-07:00

Our fabulous pediatrician (Dr. Horkley at Budge Clinic for any Loganites that are interested) confirmed what we already knew about Greyson at his 12 month check up: he is tall (75%ile) and skinny (8%ile), independent, smart as a button, and just the cutest little boy he has ever seen. Well, he confirmed his weight and height and just nodded his head when I told him the other things. The last month has been a blast with our little man. He has started "dancing", cracks himself up about 100 times a day, can sign more, all done, milk, and food, can point to his head, will do the clapping part of pat-a-cake, shakes his finger no during "no more monkeys jumping on the bed", will give kisses (really slobbery open-mouth ones), is down to one bottle of formula a day and drinks milk out of a sippy like a champ, loves to walk behind his little walkers and especially the radio flyer wagon his Siti and Jidi bought him for his birthday, has started saying "uh" for uh-oh when he drops something, has a meltdown when I leave the room, gets really excited when daddy/mommy comes home and when the nanny comes over, and started chewing on his crib rails.

It has been a month of learning new things, meltdowns, celebrations, and lots of love!

Shrimp Salad

2011-02-25T07:06:00.001-07:00

This is probably one of my family's favorite salads. It's a staple at most family parties and trips to Bear Lake. It got rave reviews at Greyson's birthday party, so I wanted to share the recipe here. It's my mom's recipe, one that she had perfected over many years!

Shrimp Salad

12 oz Salad Roni

2-3 cans small deveined shrimp - crumble

1 small can evaporated milk

1 C. Miracle Whip

2 Tbs milk

1 Tbs lemon Juice

2 Tbs sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tbs pimiento - chopped

1 Tbs green onion - chopped

4 stalks celery - chopped fine
Dash pepper

Boil and drain salad roni. Drain and rinse shrimp, crumble. Mix all other ingredients together. I usually start with 1 Tbs of milk and the rest of the ingredients, mix together with the pasta roni, and then add another Tbs of milk if needed. It's simple and really good! (PS - I usually add a little more green onion and some celery salt in place of the regular salt - I'm a rebel like that)

Not an actual picture of mom's shrimp salad, but the best I could find on the interweb.

Part-ay!

2011-02-23T11:05:00.001-07:00

Greyson's birthday extravaganza was on Saturday. It was a lot of work (90% self-inflicted...he probably didn't need a homemade birthday banner or cupcake toppers) but we had a lot of fun. Greyson actually gave me a big hug afterwards and said, "Thanks for throwing me such a fun party mom. I really appreciate it and I will remember it forever." It's true, he said that.
I ~~stole the theme for~~ ~~his party~~ was inspired by my uber-crafty friend Allie to center the party around the UNO game. Since he's one...get it?! One of my coworkers asked me if it was because he likes to play UNO...um, nope.. he's one. And can't count. Or pay attention to something for more than 30 seconds.

I made UNO card banners, a centerpiece filled with M&M's and topped with UNO cards and pictures of G, tissue paper pom-poms in UNO colors, cupcake toppers that had pictures of UNO cards, and a happy birthday banner....most of which I didn't take pictures of. :( G also had an UNO shirt that I made him with an iron-on transfer. We had sub sandwiches, my mom's yummy shrimp salad, Annie's favorite pasta salad, my favorite spinach salad, a fruit tray and dip, fiesta dip, and of course...cupcakes. I made colorburst cupcakes, cookies and cream cupcakes, and red velvet cupcakes (a Bills family birthday tradition). I'll post some of the recipes in the next few weeks.

You would think with my love of taking pictures that I would have taken more of everyone at the party, but I only have a few pictures of the little boys that were there...and about 300 of Greyson. Next time, along with my list of things to do to get ready for the party, I am going to make a list of photos I want to take...and then assign someone else to take them!

Thanks to all of our family and friends for making the trek up and spoiling Greyson. It means a lot to us!

ONE!

2011-02-17T09:40:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it. Greyson is officially one...and we all survived. I know every parent says this, but the year went by so fast and I can hardly believe my blob baby (how I lovingly referred to Greyson when he was a newborn) is now a 12 month old little boy. We are celebrating with a birthday extravaganza on Saturday and though he will have no idea what is going on I wanted to have a big party with our friends and family. He only turns 1 once!

When Greyson was born I had the idea to take a picture of him in the same spot every month next to a stuffed gorilla that Ed and I had purchased for him not long after we found out I was pregnant. Looking back, I would do a few things differently(not sitting him in the rocking chair and not using a white background while he was wearing a white onesie), but I am happy with how this little project turned out. I need to take his 12 month photo, but here it is so far.

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby boy! We love you more than we ever thought possible and are so lucky to have you in our lives!

February Favorites

2011-02-14T10:14:00.002-07:00

Here are a few favorites this month. Some new finds, some old finds, but all fabulous!

Balboa Baby High Chair and Shopping Cart Cover

Ask anyone who has spent some time with me and Ed since Greyson was born and they will tell you we are a wee bit germaphobic. Restaurant high chairs and supermarket grocery carts are germ magnets and give us the heeby-jeebies. I knew I wanted a high chair cover for Greyson and was going to make one, but every pattern I found was ginormous and puffy. I found the Balboa Cover on diapers.com ($49) and loved it's sleek design, modern patterns, and that it could be folded into a pouch. My favorite thing about the cover is that it has it's own strap that goes around baby and hooks to the cart/high chair so you don't have to use the one that comes on the cart/high chair. It also has two little loops to attach toys to so they don't fall on the floor. It's really one of my favorite baby items and I would highly recommend it!

Anastasia Brow Express

For the past couple of years I have had my eyebrows waxed at a local salon. It was fairly inexpensive and they always did a great job. The salon recently closed, however, and I was left to fend for myself...and I went a little crazy with the tweezing. To get my eyebrows re-shaped and to fill them in in the meantime I bought this kit. Anastasia is the Hollywood eyebrow guru and her kit completely saved my brows!

Our Best Bites Blog

I love to cook and try new recipes and was searching the web for some cupcake recipes when I came across this blog. The recipes I have tried are great! I loved their black bean soup, best rolls, and their not-too-sweet cupcake frosting. Yum! (On a side note I was just reading their "about us" section and discovered that one of the writers is originally from Logan and both attended college in Utah. Random.)

Gary Fong Pop-Up Flash Diffuser

It's no secret I pretend I am a photographer and know how to use my DSLR camera, which is a big fat lie. One thing I do know - I really really hate using my flash and the blown-out and flat look it gives my photos. So, I bought myself a fancy external flash for Christmas all prepared to "bounce the light off of the ceiling" when shooting indoors (something I read about on a blog somewhere) and take really incredible indoor shots. After playing around with the flash for a few days though I decided it really wasn't making a difference and I didn't want to spend $300 on flash I couldn't figure out how to use. I returned the flash to Inkley's (they let you try things out for a few days and return them if you aren't happy) and instead bought this $20 flash diffuser. And I am so happy that I saved myself a lot of money. The diffuser still adds light to the subject, but diffuses it into a soft light rather than a harsh light that ruins my photos - hence the name diffuser. :) He has a diffuser for point and shoot cameras as well.

EIGHT!

2011-02-08T19:48:00.000-07:00

With all the hubbub that comes along with the end of the year I forgot to mention that Ed and I celebrated our EIGHTH Anniversary on December 26. Yes, the day after Christmas. It seemed like a good idea at the time to get married that day. Ed was living in San Diego. I was in SLC. He was coming home for Christmas...so why not get married? But friends, I wouldn't recommend it. In eight years, the only time we really have celebrated our anniversary was when we spent Christmas in Mexico with friends. Usually, we are driving from family to family or are on our way home from visiting family and barely have time to say "Happy Anniversary" to each other. This year was no different. In fact, we both forgot it was our anniversary until almost 5 that evening.
Even though we didn't have time to celebrate on our actual anniversary I still feel like eight years is a big deal and wanted to make sure to write about it. The last eight years have included:
Two States (California and Utah)
Six moves
Three Apartments
Three Houses
1 Bachelor's Degree
1 Master's Degree
14 different jobs (between the two of us)
4 promotions (just for Ed)
1 Dog
1 Cat
1 very serious fight about a weed wacker
2 Trips to Mexico
1 Trip to Florida
Many Trips to Moab, St. George, and Vegas(we love the Vegas)
3 remodeled bathrooms
5 computers
and most importantly...
1 adorable baby
I am one lucky girl to be married to such a wonderful guy. He spoils me, loves our baby, works hard, and as if it couldn't get any better....he folds laundry. I love him more today than the day we were married and really think our marriage gets better every day. Sure we have our ups and downs, but I can't imagine my life without him. Happy Eight Years!

P52 Update

2011-02-05T17:50:00.000-07:00

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was participating in MCP Actions Project 52, a group project/goal to take a picture based on a certain theme every week. I really love photography and though I never tire of my favorite subject (Greyson, if you have to ask) I wanted to try different things and learn to take photos of things other than my adorable son. Here are the photos and themes for the last few weeks. Some turned out better than others, but I am learning new things every week...like I want a macro lens and better lighting in my house.

Week 2/52 - Photo Inspired by a song (Winter Song)

Week 3/52 - Shades of Gray (This may or may not be some beautiful bokeh taken from my Christmas tree that was still up in the 3rd week of January)

Week 4/52 Soothing Repetition

Week 5/52 Muse (I know I said I wanted to do this project to take photos of something other than Greyson, but he IS my muse...so I made an exception this week)

Week 6/52 Words

Wishful design

2011-02-02T11:01:00.001-07:00

Thanks to everyone for all of your kind thoughts about Mocha. I miss her so much...especially when Greyson is eating and she isn't there to eat all the crumbs and thrown food off the floor. :) But now, life moves on....
The countdown to our kitchen/living room/entire upstairs remodel is inching closer (like maybe in 2020, haha). I was in the mood for some mindless activities this weekend, so I thought I would put together a mood board for our future living room a la Sherry and John over at Young House Love. If you know me you might be surprised to see that the color scheme is blue and green. Okay, you're not really surprised. Blue and green are my favorite colors and pretty much my whole house is some variation of those two colors. I have, however, been making a mood board for our bedroom that has a color scheme of brown and, get excited....purple! Sometimes I like to live on the edge!
Anyway, here is my mood board. There's a little West Elm, a touch of Crate and Barrel, a smidge of Z Gallerie, a dash of Target and even some Ikea thrown in for good measure. I tried to stick with fairly neutral larger pieces and add color in pillows, curtains, and art work. One thing I know about myself is that I get tired of the same decor very quickly. I thought if I kept the larger pieces neutral I could change out the accessories every now and then without spending too much money (that sound you hear is Ed making a big sigh of relief). If I purchased every item you see here (minus the hardwood floors) it would cost about $3500. A lot of money? Yes. But not a lot of money when you consider that some sectional couches cost that much alone and this price includes custom blinds and drapery for our huge living room window. The nice thing about using this mood board is that a lot of the pieces we already own will work into this color scheme and style just fine so we could live with our current furniture and purchase those items as we needed/wanted over the course of a few months.
Even if I don't actually use this mood board, it was fun to put together and I think turned out pretty well. People should probably pay me to do this. Any takers?

Mocha

2011-01-28T19:00:00.014-07:00

Mocha Bills

04/04/04 - 01/28/11

After three days of no improvement we had to put Mocha to sleep tonight. I am truly heartbroken. I keep telling myself she is just a dog, but as one of my friends said, they are never "just dogs". She was a member of our family for almost seven years, faithfully followed us around all day for seven years (she was always underfoot), slept at the foot of our bed for seven years (while snoring loudly) and was a constant and loving, albeit sometimes naughty, companion for seven years. The house seems empty without her.

She was a character, our Mocha. She had the loudest, meanest bark in the world, but wanted nothing more than to be a lap dog. She constantly warned us of imminent danger, including kids riding their bikes in front of our house, the mailman delivering mail, and those pesky squirrels in the backyard. Honestly, someone could have broken into our house and she would have been excited for the visit. She was famous for her "60-second tornado" which is what we called the whirlwind greeting she gave to anyone that came to our house.

She loved bananas and since I eat one almost every morning for breakfast she would wait patiently beside me, knowing I would give her the last piece. She had a funny habit of thinking she could get up on our bed as soon as one of us got out. I think she learned this while I was in school and Ed was working. Ed usually had to get up before me, so as soon as he got up I would call Mocha to get up on the bed so she could snuggle with me. That turned into her jumping up whenever there was a vacant spot. It got a little annoying when I was pregnant with G and going to the bathroom six times a night. Without fail, I would walk back into the room to find a hundred pound lab snoring in my spot. She also eventually learned that when the alarm clock went off one of us would be getting out of bed, so for the last year or so she wouldn't even wait for one of us to get up. As soon as the alarm clock went off she jumped right up, settled in, and was snoring in less than a minute.

One of the hardest things for me is knowing that Greyson won't remember her. When I found out I was pregnant, one of the first things I thought of was how much fun the baby and Mocha would have together. Mocha had such a sweet disposition, and even though she was ousted from her number one spot when Greyson arrived, she was always so gentle and sweet around him (as gentle as a hundred pound dog can be). She liked to come give him "kisses", waited patiently by his highchair in case he dropped some food, and lately, didn't mind being Greyson's personal jungle gym. She literally would let him crawl all over her and would give him a quick lick when he got by her face. Greyson had really started to pay attention to and enjoy her. We would squeal and clap his hands when she came and sat down by him. Mocha was seven years old, but I had anticipated this "boy and his dog" scenario would go on for a few more years. Long enough that they would be able to run in the backyard and play together and that Greyson would remember his first dog. We referred to her as Greyson's "sister" and when we said, "Greyson, where's sister?" he would look around for her.

So, she wasn't just a dog. She was an integral part of our family. She was my fur-baby. She was a wanna-be lap dog, a sometimes trouble maker, a good snuggler, a patient big sister, and a huge part of our lives. She wasn't just a dog...she was our Mocha. And we will miss her terribly.

Sad

2011-01-26T21:59:00.002-07:00

Long story short, our dog Mocha injured her back last night to the point that her hind legs may be permanently paralyzed. She has to stay at the vet for a few days so we can see if she makes any improvement and at that point we are going to either be happy because she will be getting better and we will be able to take her home or we will have to make a tough decision and she won't be coming home. I am beyond sad; just ask anyone that called me today and instead of hearing a "hello?" got the sound of me boo-hooing into the phone.
So, I have been distracting myself today by making peanut butter cupcakes with chocolate frosting. The peanut butter cupcakes turned out fabulous, but I botched the frosting. It was the first time I have tried to make a flour-based frosting (kind of like a roux)...and it's probably not a good idea to make this when you are distracted. I will give it another go tomorrow. Here's the link if you want to give it a shot: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2010/05/chocolate-frosting.html
I invented my own cupcake recipe. I used a regular white cake mix, 1 cup sour cream, 1/2 C. vegetable oil, about 3/4 C. peanut butter, 3 eggs, and a little water. You could probably put in less peanut butter, but I love the stuff. Just ask my sister. I made her bring me a suitcase full when she came to visit me when I was living in Spain.
I am going to spend the rest of the evening drowning my sorrows in peanut butter deliciousness. I will let you know how things go with Mocha. I think I might save one for her to eat. She loves peanut butter just as much as I do.

11 months

2011-01-22T15:27:00.000-07:00

Greyson is 11 months old and has a new nickname....Mr. Independent.
He would like to do everything himself, thank you very much. We have pretty much stopped feeding him baby food, since there is very high chance that he will refuse to eat it. He loves to eat cooked veggies and fruit cut up into bite size pieces, noodles, crackers, beans and cheese. His favorite? Canned green beans. He can't seem to get enough.
He has learned how to "high-five", wave hello and good-bye, and clap his hands. He learned how to clap his hands by watching us clap and cheer after he would give a high-five. Now, he thinks that you clap after high-fiving...every time.
Mr. G started crawling at 10.5 months and quickly discovered everything in my living room that I didn't baby proof. After a few days of chasing after a crawling baby, I gave Greyson a big hug and "thank-you!" for not crawling any earlier...it's a lot of work! Greyson is now beginning to pull himself up and cruise along furniture. He loves to walk behind his toy walkers as well.
Greyson has become really interested in other kids. If we see any kids when we are out and about he gets really excited, shrieks in delight and then, when they don't come over to play, stares them down. He really likes playing with his little friends (my friend's little boys) and enjoys the playdates we have.

One more month until the big FIRST birthday! I am excited to celebrate and have some fun ideas for a party up my sleeve!

Valentine's Day Freebie

2011-01-19T15:05:00.000-07:00

It seems that subway art or word art is the big thing in crafty circles these days. I didn't feel like paying for one, but wanted one for my living room....so I made one. And I am just nice enough to share it with you!
Click on the image below and then choose download or print from the selections above the image.

Folding T-shirts...Japanese Style!

2011-01-19T10:09:00.001-07:00

The other day Ed and I spent some time (okay, a long time) learning how to do this....

We lead very fulfilling lives, just so you know.

Some of my favorites

2011-01-14T12:13:00.002-07:00

A few of my friends have been listing their favorite finds, and I thought I would follow suit:

Charm necklaces from Heart and Stone Jewelry

I had mentioned to Ed a few months ago that I wanted a "mommy" necklace and showed him this website. He surprised me for my birthday/Christmas/anniversary present (all in the month if December) with this necklace. It has a "G" charm, Greyson's birthstone and a heart. I love it!

Yes to Cucumbers Facial Towelettes

Taking my make-up off at night has never been a priority for me...I know, I know, it's so bad for my skin. I don't know why I don't do it consistently, but I think it has something to do with the fact that I am ~~lazy~~ really tired by the time I go to bed. I love these organic and biodegradable towelettes because I can quickly take my make-up off at night. They smell yummy and don't make my skin feel dry, either. I purchase them at Smith's Marketplace in the organic/natural foods section.

Seventh Generation Disinfecting Cleaner

This is by far my favorite household cleaner. I have tried a few different non-toxic and biodegradable cleaners, but this is the only one (that I have found) that is disinfecting. It uses natural ingredients to kill 99.9% germs. It has thyme and oregano oil in it, so it smells herby (not really a word, but it works). If I were going on smell alone Mrs. Meyer's lavender cleaner would win that prize, but it's not disinfecting. I buy it at Smith's Marketplace in the organic/natural section. They also have biodegradable wipes that I use to clean some of Greyson's toys.

I am also currently enjoying Chloraseptic lozenges as I have a serious sore throat! They work for about 5 minutes, but at least I can try and eat something afterwords!

Brown-eyed boy?

2011-01-12T20:06:00.001-07:00

My little blue-eyed baby is not quite so blue-eyed anymore. He's leaning more toward the gray-green with a little brown thrown in depending on the light. Still...so beautiful, errr handsome!

I am participating in MCP Actions Project 52, which is a challenge to take a photo each week centered around a theme. Last week's theme was either "something around the house" or "something new"...and I think these new green-gray-brown eyes are the perfect fit!

Eat your veggies!

2011-01-09T12:41:00.000-07:00

After really buckling down for a few months on our grocery budget and couponing like crazy, I was really pleased with the amount of money we were saving but was disappointed to find that most of the food that you can get for a steal is packaged, processed, and probably not that good for you. We try and eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies but guess what...they are expensive!! A few of Ed's coworkers recommended using a company called Bountiful Baskets for fresh produce. You pay $15 and get a basket of fruits and veggies trucked up directly from warmer climates. By cutting out the middle man you save some money and hopefully are able to get produce that is a little more fresh than you can get at the grocery store. We ordered our first basket this week, and while I was skeptical if I would like what came in it, I have to say I was really impressed!

Our first basket included bananas, apples, oranges, kiwi, a pineapple, blackberries, lettuce, yellow squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, broccoli, and the only thing I wasn't so sure about, brussel sprouts. A great deal for $15! If you want to sign up for Bountiful Baskets they have a specific time you have to order (Mon beginning at noon and ending Tues at midnight). I suggest you order early since they only have a certain number of baskets available for each location. Then, you just pick up your basket at the designated place and time. I ordered my basket last Monday at about 5 and all the baskets at locations close to my house were already sold, so I ended up having to drive to a nearby town (I needed to run errands out that direction anyway, so it wasn't that big of a deal).
You can find similar programs through the Utah Food Co-Op and Click 2 Pick Produce.
Now, the trick is to see if we eat everything!

10 Months

2011-01-04T11:20:00.001-07:00

Oh, man! I had this post all written out and ready to go, but never actually posted it. So here is Greyson's 10 month update - just a few weeks late!
Mr. G man is 10 months old, and I can really see the toddler beginning to come out in him. He is much more interactive, is very interested in his environment and tries to get into everything. Sometimes, I feel like I can actually see those little wheels turning in his head. He's right on track developmentally, though he hasn't been able to crawl FORWARD. This has been a little frustrating for him...and entertaining to me. Is it wrong for me to put something he wants a few feet in front of him and then watch him squirm, roll, spin, and lunge to try and get to it? I'm just encouraging him to crawl, right? He loves books, loves music, and loves to watch TV (unfortunately). If he is watching cartoons and you block his line of sight he will peer around you, try and push you out of the way, and if that doesn't work, screech at the top of his lungs! He usually watches TV in the morning while I try and wake myself up. I justify this by reminding myself that a few of the books I have read on children's development say small amounts of educational TV is fine for children, and can actually be beneficial if it's a shared experience and you talk about what's happening (just like you would when you read a book). So, that makes me feel a little better about his love of TV. Greyson thinks Mocha is very entertaining and likes to "share" his toys with her, which means he hands them to her and she chews them up. He hasn't yet figured out that he can give her his food, but I don't think that will last long.
I have taken a photo of Greyson next to this monkey every month since he was born. It was almost impossible to get one this month, though. He would not sit still, which really is not that surprising. I had to give him another prop in order to take the photo.

Saving Some Dough

2011-01-02T20:39:00.002-07:00

Before I share my money saving tips, I wanted to share the big news around here! I have a mobile baby! I was in NO hurry for him to start crawling since I knew as soon as he started moving I would be chasing after him for the next 18 years, but he managed to figure it out. He started crawling on Christmas and is now a little speed demon!

For the past few months Ed and I have really started to buckle down and follow a budget. Going from a family of two with two incomes to a family of three with one income (with a little extra $ from my part-time gig) was a bit of a shock to the wallet. After watching a million episodes of the Suze Orman show and reading the book Smart is the New Rich by Christine Romans we decided to rethink the way we spend money and reevaluate our financial goals and how we spend our money. One of our biggest expenditures was groceries and going out to eat. We were notorious for buying tons of groceries for the week, but then going out to eat multiple times, letting all the food go to waste. Knowing that was our biggest expense, we decided to cut back, not just on going out to eat, but on spending money on groceries. Over the last few months we have cut the amount of money we spend at the grocery store and eating out by 50-60%! We definitely are not eating out as much, but because of some smart shopping haven't changed what we are eating at home at all. I still make my favorite meals, I still buy organic when I can, and our pantry is always full.

So here's my two cents on saving some money at the grocery store (pun intended!):

1)Buy what's on sale and in season. Maybe you are all old hats at this, but I actually look at the grocery store ads now and plan my meals around what's on sale! Genius!

2)Save those coupons. I've tried a few methods for this, but the best way I have found is just to take the whole coupon booklet out the newspaper, write the date it came on the front, and file it away in my desk. Any loose coupons I get I store in a small accordion file.

3)Let someone else do the work for you! This is really important, and I don't think I would be nearly as successful as I have been without sites like Grocery Smarts, Hip 2 Save, and the Krazy Coupon Lady. My favorite for everyday grocery shopping is Grocery Smarts. You just select your grocery store (this is for mostly Utah residents) and up pops a list of good deals for the week and the coupons that you can match with them. If something is a really good deal it will have 5 stars, pretty good deal has 4 stars, etc. I look for the 4-5 star deals and then find the coordinating coupon in my file folder. It really is easy and I think it is kind of fun!

4) Don't forget drugstores! Stores like CVS, RiteAid, and Walgreens all usually have killer deals! We only have a Walgreens locally, so I do my shopping there. They have some basic groceries, baby gear, and of course drugstore-related items. Walgreens has a program called Register Rewards that I use all the time. If you buy certain items you get a coupon for $ off your next purchase. The nice thing is, that you can use the register reward on your next transaction in the store. Today I had three separate transactions, used

$23 in Register Rewards(and have $5 left over for next time), and with their coupons and sales bought $110.13 worth of groceries for $33.45. I use Hip 2 Save and Wild for Wags to find the best deals. They also have sections on how to get the most money out of Walgreens that you can read if you are interested.

5) Know what you buy. I have a file on my computer (and on my phone) that I keep the price per item/per ounce of items that we typically buy at Sam's Club, Diapers.com, or Amazon.com, like diapers, wipes, formula, paper towels, toilet paper, and laundry detergent. If I see what I think is a good deal at a grocery store on any of these items I can check the price against the price of what I can get at those big retailers. Sometimes it's a better price with coupon deals at a grocery store, and sometimes it's not.

These tips are a few that can definitely get you started. I have a few more to share, but will save those for another day. I told you a few tips of what to do, but I also wanted to share a few tips of what not to do (or what I won't do).

1)Don't drive to 6 million stores. It just doesn't make sense to me. You will spend more on gas than you will save. I usually go to Smith's and then Walgreens (which is just down the road from Smith's).

2)Don't go shopping and use your 200 coupons during a busy time of day. The people behind you in line will seriously consider slashing your tires.

3)Don't go overboard. Stocking up on basics (paper products, toiletries, canned goods, etc) is nice, but buying 10 tubes of toothpaste at once might be a little excessive. It will go back on sale, I promise. (This I know from personal experience...2 tubes of toothpaste down, 8 more to go!)

4)Don't get discouraged if you don't save $100 right away. It takes a long time to save up a stockpile of coupons and to figure out the system. I have coupon booklets from October that I used this week for some great deals.

Couponing is really easier than you think, and doesn't take that long. I spend 15 minutes pulling together my grocery list and coupons for the grocery store and maybe another 15-20 for Walgreens (they take longer because of their Register Rewards and multiple transactions). Hopefully, this post will get you started saving some money! If you're not really interested in couponing, you can just be glad I didn't write this long of a post only about Greyson!

Happy 2011!

2011-01-01T16:01:00.000-07:00

Greyson was a little incredulous when I told him it was 2011....

Some of my goals for 2011(Cliche, I know, but I love lists):

Finish G's baby book

-Keep saving $ so we can remodel my old school house (almost there!)

-Continue working on the children's novel I have been writing...for five years

-Finally get my kitchen all organized and keep it that way

-Make sure my family and friends know how much I love and appreciate them

-Go skiing

-Make a conscious effort to focus on the positive in me, in others, and in daily situations

-Win the lottery

-Not bawl my eyes out when Greyson turns one. If you see me cry at his birthday, blame my mother

-Take more pictures...of things other than Greyson (not that I don't like taking pictures of him, but 2000 photos before his first birthday is a little much, no?)

-Finish the sewing projects I started for my friends. Oh yes, friends, you were supposed to get them for Christmas but I think maybe St. Patrick's Day? Get excited.

-Master kipping pull-ups at Crossfit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV2Fiz0_B28

-Go on more dates with Ed

-Finish building our headboard

-Don't stress if I don't complete any of these goals by 2012!

Happy New Year!

Thank you!

2010-12-30T10:17:00.001-07:00

To all of our friends and family that spoiled Greyson this Christmas...THANK YOU!

Also, I never posted our Christmas card...so Merry Christmas!

New Moves

2010-12-19T21:40:00.002-07:00

Despite not being able to crawl forward, Greyson has turned into a mobile little guy. He rolls, scoots, pushes, and pulls himself all over the place. He is also working on some new sweet moves.

Pelvic Thrusting

Bear Crawling

Head Stands

He's pretty proud of himself!

Trying

2010-12-15T22:22:00.001-07:00

I was really trying to think of a non-Greyson related post to share with everyone, but I really can't. I am officially a mommy blogger, I guess (maybe you all figured this out 10 months ago!) I used to be quite pleased with myself that I had a blog that people found funny and entertaining, but I guess when you spend 24-7 thinking about, taking care of, and planning for your child you end up with a blog that's solely about said child. That and you get to work one afternoon and realize that, while you put on your work clothes, you never put on appropriate shoes and are instead wearing old Bjorn clogs that are kept in the hall closet to slip on when you take out the garbage, don't match your outfit at all, are really ugly, and are kind of platformish so they make your pants too short. That was fun.
I had another "fun" experience a few months ago that really solidified for me that my role in life has changed. I have wanted to write about it for a little while, but have just come to terms with what happened. So, here goes...
A few months ago I met up with some friends that were in Logan for USU's homecoming. Ed volunteered to stay home with G so I could go out and have fun. People...this was a BIG deal for me! My friends were in Logan and I was going to be able to spend time with them without worrying about Greyson! I met up with some friends for dinner and had a great time. Afterwards, some of our friends (old fraternity brothers of Ed's) wanted to go to the Sigma Chi house. Since it was homecoming they were having a get-together for alumni. I didn't really want to go, partly because I feel really old when I go there and partly because I teach at USU and running into my students at a fraternity house would be a little awkward! BUT...I did NOT want to go home! It was only 9 o'clock! Ed was home with Greyson! My friends were in town!
So, I went. Everything was fine and I was actually having a good time until in walks one of the girls that nannies Greyson while I work. She walked in with about 10 of her sorority sisters and when she saw me she got excited, called my name, and brought all the other girls over to meet me. She said hello, gave me a hug, and said to her sorority sisters, "Hey Girls! This is who I've been telling you about! ................................... It's Greyson's mom!"

So, it's official. I'm a mom. Someone who has a hard time thinking of something else to write about on her blog, someone who has to try to stop a baby from screaming in Hobby Lobby when you won't let him suck on a spool of ribbon (true story), someone who wakes up in the middle of the night and sneaks into the nursery just to stare at that sweet little face, someone who will be forever known as Greyson's mom.
I'm a mom. I am. And the truth is, I couldn't ask for anything more.

Anything for a laugh!

2010-12-10T21:07:00.000-07:00

I took this video on my phone of Greyson a couple of weeks ago to send to Ed while he was gone on a business trip. I thought it was too good not to share...but please ignore my annoying voice!

What are you lookin' at?

2010-12-10T11:22:00.000-07:00

Another Freebie

2010-12-09T10:37:00.001-07:00

A new, cute, card for you to use! Print, cut out, fold in half, and you are in business! Staple them to the top of plastic baggies filled with treats for a perfect neighbor gift or impress your family by using them as place cards at Christmas dinner. I decided not to use solid color backgrounds, to save on ink and save some $.
Click on the tag below to download the tags as a pdf from Google Docs.
Check out my other freebie here!

Avocados

2010-12-07T11:31:00.000-07:00

The kid loves avocados. G's sweet middle hair part was not my doing. He managed that all on his own.
That is all.

This May Change Your Life

2010-12-06T11:32:00.000-07:00

I just read about something on Cool Mom Picks that may change your life forever. If you are a Comcast customer and, like me, record a bazillion shows on your DVR so you can watch them without watching commercials there is a way to program a 30 second skip button, so you can easily skip through commercials without hitting the fastforward button. Lovely.
Here are the directions from the Cool Mom Picks website. Click Cool Mom Picks to read her full post.

So how do you do it? It's unbelievably easy.

1. Pick a seldom used button on your remote (I'd go with the "A" yellow triangle button.)

2. Find the "set up" button. Press and hold the set up button until the cable button blinks twice.

3. Using the number keypad, type in 994. The cable button will blink twice again.

4. Press the setup button again (do not hold).

5. Type 00173 on the number keypad.

6. Press the button you've chosen to be your 30 second skip button.

Done.

Seriously, it's that easy. Now you can happily skip through the commercials.

Heaven.

9 months

2010-12-01T22:56:00.000-07:00

I never posted Greyson's 9 month update. I am sure you were all very disappointed! Our Mister G weighed in at 18.7 lbs (17 percentile) and was 29 inches long (75 percentile). So, he is tall and skinny; too tall for 9 month pants, too skinny for 12 month pants, and still as cute as ever. His bottom two teeth are in (yeah!) and his top two are working their way out (boo!). He finally got around to scooting around on his hands and knees, but he only goes backwards. He doesn't think it is as funny as we do. He will (occasionally) do "so big" with his arms, loves to watch cartoons, and has taken to whining whenever I leave the room.He also likes to do the tango (which we learned in Kindermusik), will turn the pages when we read a book, refuses to hold a bottle but loves to hold his sippy cup (???!!!??? - I know!!! I tried filling his cup with formula and he threw it at my head), and I fall more in love with him every day!
Here are a few pics of his recent happenings.

Watching cartoons and drinking some apple juice. He needs a baby recliner.

Trying to crawl, but only going backwards. It's very frustrating!

At the pediatricians for his 9 month appointment. He just sat there while the doctor poked and prodded...then ripped up all the paper.

Another interesting thing that happened this month...Greyson had his first public meltdown in Hobby Lobby of all places. He managed to grab some ribbon off a shelf, I took it away from him, and his 9-month-old world ended. He really wanted that ribbon!

Gift Tag Freebie

2010-11-29T06:06:00.005-07:00

Christmas is around the corner and so I wanted to share something to you, all 3 of my valued readers. So...here are some gift tags you can print at home and use on your holiday gifts. You could punch a hole in the top and tie it with ribbon or make two slits on either side and thread a ribbon behind the tag and then around your gift. I have some more holiday freebies planned, so stay tuned! To save: Click on the tags below and you will be taken to Google Documents. Click on file then download to save on your computer or you can just click print and enjoy! Let me know if you download them!

Growing

2010-11-27T09:00:00.002-07:00

When I was pregnant with Greyson I searched and searched for a growth chart to hang on one of the walls in his nursery. I couldn't find one that I really liked, so when I happened to glance through a copy of Stitch Magazine while at Hobby Lobby and saw a pattern for this growth chart I new I had to make one for Greyson. It was my first "big" sewing project and, for the most part, turned out well. It's not quite square, which seems to be a problem in most of my sewing projects. This photo definitely exaggerates it's slightly off-kilter edges though. I learned a lot during this project. Most importantly, the saying measure twice and cut once applies to sewing, as well as carpentry!

Click on the magazine to get to their website. They have a bunch of free patterns on there, but unfortunately not the growth chart.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T19:08:00.001-07:00

Greyson will be celebrating Thanksgiving in style, thanks to my uber-craftiness. More evidence of my craft skills to come later. In the meantime...
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Love,
Ed, Rachel and Greyson

Shutterfly

2010-11-23T09:38:00.000-07:00

I have had a few questions about my photo cards and where I print them. I have to say that I LOVE printing my cards at Shutterfly. Their site is easy to use, they always have sales and coupons available and I have never been disappointed. You have the option to print your own design, or they have some beautiful designs of their own. I generally make my own designs, but last year I was almost 9 months pregnant and not in the mood. I found a design that was just my style and was really pleased with the results.
To order cards using your own design (or, huh-hum, one of mine) click here: Shutterfly - Your Design
To order cards using one of Shutterfly's designs click here: Shutterfly Cards and Stationary
I also use Shutterfly to print my digital scrapbook pages. I print an 8x8 album for every year and have loved how they turned out. They are beautiful and well made. If you don't want to create your own digital scrapbook pages they have adorable templates you can use. You just drop your pictures in, add captions, and you are on your way! This Sweet Baby photo book would be perfect for a new little one!

If you feel like this was an advertisement for Shutterfly...it was! I really do love Shutterfly and their products, though, and order from them multiple times a year!

If you are a blogger and want to share your experience with Shutterfly (and get 50 free photo cards) click here to apply. If you are accepted you just have to blog about Shutterfly and get 50 free cards!

Secret

2010-11-18T23:32:00.000-07:00

If your name rhymes with "Rarah Somer", you are almost exactly 13 months older than me, I once made you cry while we were riding Splash Mountain at Disneyland, you like to eat raw cookie dough and gossip with me, you understand the importance of homemade ice cream and hot fudge sauce on Thanksgiving/Christmas, you don't mind me calling when I really don't have much to say, you are really good at convincing me to buy that purse/jeans/shoes, I once locked you in the bathroom and fed you bread and cheese under the door, and I miss you terribly (though the 8th grade me would never admit that!)----you might be getting some crafty goodness in the mail soon. Kind of a late birthday present. Because I felt bad now that you are THIRTY (30!) and old. And getting wrinkles. And getting OLD! Thank goodness I am 13 months younger than you!

Can you guess what it is?

Happy (belated) Birthday to my dear (and much older) sister, Sara-ha or Sarah Sue, as I like to call her. I love you!

A few more

2010-11-17T17:29:00.002-07:00

Here are a few more cards! Contact me if you are interested. (See my last post if you don't know what I am talking about)

Taking orders

2010-11-15T14:08:00.010-07:00

Hi Friends!
I have had quite a few people ask about Christmahanakwanzika cards, so I wanted to announce that I am currently taking orders. I am only going to do a limited number so let me know if you want one. I will send you one high resolution card for printing and one sized to share over the interweb if ~~you are lazy like me and are going to email cards this year~~ you want to go green and email cards this year.
Cards start at $12. You can pick a card from my etsy site, or let me know what colors and style (traditional, modern, ghetto fabulous) and I will make one for you. Leave a comment if you are interested or you can email me on my etsy site http://www.digitalgreetings.etsy.com/
Here are are few that I have made so far. I didn't think my customers wanted their family pics and info on my blog so I changed them out for Greyson's and changed the names. Really, who doesn't want to see more pics of Mister G anyway?

Bored

2010-11-13T17:56:00.000-07:00

I couldn't watch the Utah game anymore so I made this instead. Cute and frame-worthy I think.

Glee

2010-11-12T10:14:00.004-07:00

I know I have said before that I am ~~pretty~~ 100% sure that I was a famous singer/dancer in a past life. But I just had a new flashback to the time I spent singing in the glee club of an all boy school. Weird.

Who thinks Darrin Criss (the lead singer in this video) is dreamy and deserves a full-time spot on Glee? I do! I am pretty sure I need to stare at him every Tuesday night. For the rest of my life.

Boring

2010-11-10T17:40:00.000-07:00

I don't really have anything new and exciting to report, but I like to try and post something every week...so here are some cute pics of Greyson in the tub.