find joy in the journey

words

So lately I feel like I am drawn to anything with words, quotes, monograms, etc.  Why is that?  I'm sure it's all part of getting involved in a hobby like scrapbooking that puts a lot of emphasis on journaling, telling a story.  But when I read a great quote or see a great text design it's like getting a big high and feeling like everything is good in the world.  Call me crazy, whatever.  I think it's kinda weird too.  I did go through a poetry writing phase in elementary - middle school, but the majority of high school and all of college I was deep into the sciences.  I just think it's interesting how your tastes, and interests can evolve.  So I've recently found some cool sites that use words in cool ways.  I browse these places from time to time -- total eye candy.

• cafepress -- It's a site that allows people to set up "stores" and sell their word or graphic designs on t-shirts, mugs, stickers, you name it.  I've got a couple favorites . . .
• Ali Edwards Design -- One of my favorite scrappers.  She totally gets scrapbooking, the reasons behind doing it, what motivates scrapbookers to capture the tidbits of life, and how this is so much more than just glue, paper, & cute stickers.  So she came up with a new name for scrapbookers -- "life artist".  I love this idea.  I also love her "delight in the everyday" line.
• Embrace Designs -- Another scrapbooker, Amy Grendell, set up this shop.  She has some adorable stuff for kids & babies.  But I especially love the stuff she has created for girls -- teens & adult.  Things like: "all you need to be is you", and "beautiful inside and out", "love yourself", etc.  They all have such cute fonts & doodles & designs she created herself.  I just think she has put together such great positive messages that girls (and women) really need. You have to go look, they are just as cute as can be.
• Wrybaby.com -- Ok, I'm also a sucker for printed baby tees and this site has some that are hilarious.  My favorite are the ones that give instructions on caring for baby -- the illustrations are perfect.  Scott and I also quite like the "Wheel of Responsibility". 
• So apparently I'm a little late on this trend, but I love the look of vinyl words/quotes on your walls.  I just ordered something from My Simple Expressions, but I frequently visit Wonderful Graffiti for good ideas (they are a bit out of my budget right now).

recipe for scrapping

I was intrigued when I received the May CK and saw an article titled Make 12 Layouts in One Night!  It was totally what I needed.  I am so far behind in my scrapbooking.  This article basically gave you the layouts and told you exactly what to do -- photo placement, embellishments to use, etc. just like a recipe  So I took the challenge and created 12 layouts without thinking about it too much -- just scraplifting as much as I could.  And while my version was more like 12 layouts in one week, I'm still proud of what I was able to accomplish. I also got to play with a style that is a little different than my own -- it really helped me learn how to use some of my embellishments and lots of ribbon.

Here's my take (in order from 1-12):

 

Now I'm off to put them in my albums!

caramel popcorn

Scott made me the best crunchy caramel popcorn last night.  And I know it was a complete act of love because he far more prefers the gooey, chewy variety. 

6 qts of popped corn, lightly salted

• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1/2 pound margarine
• 1/2 cup white Karo syrup

Bring to a boil.  Take off heat and add:

• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Pour over corn.  Stir.  Spread on cookie sheets.  Bake at 260 a little less than an hour.  Stir a couple of times.  Cool on waxed paper.

oompa loompa

Last night our family performed at the ward talent show, and oh, what talent we've got.  For months we've been keeping the details of our act secret so now I am free to reveal.  We did a dance/lip sync number to the song "Augustus Gloot" from the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Yes, we were oompa loompas.  And we were the opening act.  It was a lot of fun.  I made t-shirts with a big "b" on them, and masterfully crafted some black & white stripe shirts with electrical tape, and our big red-lens glasses came from party city.  We've been practicing for months . . . ever since we got wind that a talent show was going to happen.  The performance went off well -- there were several mishaps, but they added to the comic effect of it all:  1)Conner's glasses fell off his face in the very first dance step and he spent the next 15 seconds trying to put them back on . .. but the show continued.  2)Payton wandered behind Scott and got knocked flat on the floor, then stood up crying . . . . but the show went on without him.  Eventually, Payton got over it and joined in with us.

Here are some photo highlights from the night.  (Click the photo for a larger view).

When the talent show as over it was pretty fun to have so many kids come up to us and say how cool our act was.  I'm sure many of the adults had no idea what was going on.  Regardless, everyone was laughing and I think we did a great job opening the show.

Now Scott tells me that I need to start teaching Conner & Payton a song that they can sing in church sometime.  That should be an interesting challenge.  We can't even get Payton to sing a song at FHE.  Maybe if I let him wear his oompa loompa glasses . . . .

auntie Shannon

So I'm finally a "real" aunt today (as opposed to an aunt-in-law).  My brother and his wife had their first child this morning -- a girl they named Carlee.  She weighed 7lbs. 8oz.  Sam and Heidi have been through quite an exhausting day(s).  They went to the hospital Tuesday at 11pm for a scheduled induction and the baby wasn't born until Thursday at 5:04am!  I think they all deserve a good long nap.  I'm so happy for them!

orange biscuits

Cream together

• 1 cube margarine
• 1 cup sugar
• grated rind of one orange

Place two cans of biscuits in a greased 9x13 pan.  Crumble (or spread) orange mixture over the top.  Bake at 325 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

These were so good -- I even had a couple warmed up for breakfast today.

easter

One of my favorite parts about Easter is getting new clothes for church.  We hang up our dark winter clothes and opt for something much more spring-y and colorful.  As you can see the boys looked handsome as always in their new sweater vests.  And Anna . . . . I just can't imagine ever having a more wonderful Easter dress & bonnet for a little girl.  She definitely turned a lot of heads.

While snapping pictures on Sunday morning I got this one . . .

   

And I couldn't believe the height difference between Conner & Payton!  For some reason I had just never noticed that Conner was a whole head taller than Payton.  It's pretty cute though to see the big brother with his arm around little brother.

And one last picture of Anna

Dinner was fantastic.  Ham, scalloped potatoes, deviled eggs, jell-o, orange rolls, and crescent rolls.  I spent about an hour and a half in the kitchen after church pulling it together.  Not to mention time spent making the crescent rolls before church -- Scott did help out by mixing the dough the night before.  Payton ate his ham, and Conner ate the deviled eggs minus the filling.  That's it.  I just don't understand the pickiness -- it's something I did not experience as a kid (alright, I will admit refusing to eat squash, lima beans, & yams -- but who really enjoys those food anyways?).  Ok, I better not get off topic because the whole dinnertime issue could be left up to it's very own post.

I hope you all enjoyed a Happy Easter!

fun day

In our house Saturdays are known as "fun day".  Scott is home from work and we get to do some of the things that normally we don't have time for in the middle of the week.

Today was an especially fun day because it was also Bunny Day.  For the last 2 years we've been doing all the easter bunny stuff on Saturday, and saving Easter Sunday to focus on remembering the Savior's resurrection.  I got the idea from a college friend who celebrated Easter this way with her family.  I think it works out really well.  It eliminates all the chaos from Sunday morning.  And when you're trying to get 3 kids ready for church, you can use all the calm you can get.

So after the boys woke up and we gave them the signal they went searching for their easter baskets and plastic eggs hidden all over the house.  (We live in the pacific northwest -- there's no such thing as an outdoor egg hunt here).  Anna got a fun new toy and the boys got Backyardigans books and a new puzzle each.  (Conner is so proud that he can tackle the 100 piece puzzles all by himself).  Payton commented, "the easter bunny is very tricky" because so many eggs were hidden in unusual places -- the last one was discovered at 3pm.

Then we loaded into the car and headed into town.  A stop at Party City was needed to pick up some accessories for the costumes we'll be sporting next week at the ward talent show.  We are very excited about our little routine -- the whole family will be participating and it is going to be a riot (just ask us).  Scott and I were up until midnight last night finalizing the choreography.  I'm really excited about this -- the whole thing is just so us.  And I think it will show a part of my personality that not many of our local friends have seen before.  Now, I know Karen, Tamra, & Bernie would vouch for my inhibitions on stage or in front of a camera.  We were quite the group of performers in our college days.  It should be great and I'll give details next week.

For lunch we ran through the McDonald's drive through to get hamburgers for the boys and then headed over to Chipotle for some mom and dad food.  It was the perfect lunch.  Everyone got just what they wanted, and everyone was happy.

Back home we spent the afternoon watching Star Wars Episode 3, doing laundry, playing with puzzles, and Payton got a haircut.  A great fun day.

playing it cool

Payton is an interesting little kid.  I've found that at times it can be difficult to get a sense of what his emotions are -- he doesn't express them very readily.  For example, when I give him lots of praise for a job well done or tell him how much I love him, most times he'll just sit there with this scowl on his face.  It's like he's trying to play it cool  and I think scrunching up his face helps him to hide the smile that wants to come out.  I don't know why he does this.  It's just his thing -- and kind of endearing to him. 

I think it's so interesting how each kid comes with their own personality and really is their own distinct little person.  While it was a little surprise to us at first (yes, I thought my kids would all be little clones of each other with the same interests, behavior, etc.) it's also pretty fun to get to figure out each one and enjoy them each as individuals.

And here's that smile I told you about -- trying to crack through . . .

firsts

The past two weeks Anna has experienced a lot of firsts in her little life.

• first tooth
• first flight on an airplane
• first trip to the beach
• first time sitting up unassisted

Included among these "firsts" is the milestone of moving on to solid foods.

She loves her rice cereal and I'm always surprised by how much she will eat -- she just scarfs it down.  We've also tried sweet potatoes (she loved those), and peaches which got a definite no vote from her.  She eats her "solid" food twice a day and judging by the amount I'm spooning into her little mouth, and the fact that the rice cereal is pretty heavy (compared to breastmilk), I always figure that these feedings should tide her over for a long time.  But no, she's hungry again within an hour and a half.  I can't complain too much -- she's a great eater and always gives me her full cooperation. 

our preschool graduate

I picked up Conner's spring portraits from school today.  Scott thinks I'm pretty silly for choosing the cap & gown option, but I think it's cute.

Looking at this picture reminds me of Conner's ongoing comments regarding college.  Even this morning.  On the drive to school he told me that he put his money bank in his cowboy boot and that he'll be bringing it to college with him.  It all began a couple months ago when we were talking about him going to kindergarten next year.  Then he asks, "what's after kindergarten?"  1st grade.  What's after 1st grade . . . and so on.  I told him, "and then after 12th grade you'll go to college."  After a pause he asked, "what's college?"  The conversation continued with me explaining that there are colleges all over the country that he can choose to go to, and that he'll go all by himself -- he won't be living with mom & dad anymore, but he can come home to visit.  He asked me what the colleges names were and after I listed off a ton he said that he wanted to go to Yale.

The next few weeks were filled with random (almost daily) moments when he would come up to me with a hug & sweet smile on his face & say, "mom, I'm going to miss you when I go to college."

I think it's so cute when he talks about his college life.  Now he has begun talking about "his kids", telling us that he's going to bring his kids to visit us every saturday.  Currently there is no wife or mother in his visions of the future, but I'm sure that will all come in time. 

Ao Dai

{pronounced "ow die"}

Yesterday we got the most wonderful package in the mail.  It contained 3 cute little Ao Dai's for our 3 cute kids.  An Ao Dai is the Vietnamese traditional dress.  Now for some history . . .

Scott served his mission in Australia, speaking Vietnamese.  There was a woman & her family there that he formed a relationship with and we still stay in contact with them today  -- sending Christmas cards & occasional e-mails.  A while back ago Chi Nam told us that she was sending these outfits for the boys, but after some really bad postal service the package had been returned to her 3 times.  Finally, a returned missionary was visiting Australia and she was able to give him the package to mail in the US where delivery would be more reliable. 

So we had the boys and Anna try on their new clothes for FHE last night.  It was so cute.  Scott even pulled out his handmade Ao Dai for fun.  It was a priceless moment, a great thrill for Scott.  Thank you Nam and My!

mother daughter weekend

This past weekend Anna and I spent a few days in California at my parent's place.  Each year my mom and I get together for a mother/daughter weekend, so this year I came to see her.  On Thursday we went to a photographer to get some pictures of Anna and I together, and also some 3-generation shots.  The guy we went to actually took my senior portraits 10 1/2 years ago!  Pretty crazy.  The pictures turned out so well and I can't wait to see them again.  He did send a couple to my e-mail to tide me over.  Here's one:

 

A big part of my visit was a party my mom planned for Friday.  It was a party for women and each was allowed to bring another woman who was special in her life -- mother, daughter, friend, etc.  My mom had planned for the whole thing to be outside -- they have a beautiful back patio, garden, and view.  But the weather had another idea, so the rain forced us to move things inside.  No big deal -- we just moved all the furniture out and moved the tables in. 

As people arrived I took them back to snap individual photos which we used on a scrapbook page I created.  Everyone got to put together a page all about themselves -- which I think was a first for many of them.  Here's the page that I made (the photo of me is from a couple years ago, just grabbed an old one to fill the space):

In the pocket behind the layout I included 2 cardstock strips with questions about who you are & what you're doing right now.  I got the questions from the Sept/Oct 2005 Simple Scrapbooks.

Then on Saturday we visited the outlets to shop for Easter dresses, and ended the weekend with a visit to Monterey.  You can take a look at my PHOTO ALBUM to get all the details.

We had a good visit and it was great for my parents to get to see Anna.  It's also good to be home.  Things are a lot noisier than what I've experienced the last few days, but I think I'll get used to it very soon.