Birthday Wish #2

Party Hats!
The fluffy ones are for the girls, the boys get the animal hats.

Birthday Wish #1

Birthday Wish #1: Hair Cut. This was completely Miriam's idea, down to the salon where she wanted it cut at. She picked out the cut (hair like cousin Madison's) and asked to go to the salon across from our favorite children's bookstore All Tucked In.

Precut, she was sooooo excited

Miriam did all of the talking. I didn't have a pen, so this isn't verbatim but it went something like this: "I am so excited to get my haircut! I am getting it cut like my cousin Madison, she is sooo nice to me, she likes horses....and like my cousin Ali, but her hair is brown like my mom's, and Bub's too. I am having a princess, valentine, unicorn dance party in THREE days. It will be at 2:00 at my Aunt Julia's studio, my Grandma is picking me up. Have you seen Madagascar? Let me tell you about the animals, there is Alex the Lion......"

She loves it!

We went browsing at All Tucked In after her appointment. When the owner Bonnie came in she Miriam said: "Hi! It's me Miriam, you didn't recognize me because I got my hair cut." Bonnie, and the other workers made a fuss over her, and she ate it up.

Where Were You?

We were reading the scripture story of Abinidi with Miriam when our neighbor called. They know we don't watch much TV so they called as soon as they had heard. Darin answered the phone, saying that I was busy, and he took the message. In between bedtime stories he kind of whispered to me that President Hinckley had died and I started to cry. Not wanting to upset Miriam we quickly finished the stories, had family prayer and put her to bed. Then we talked about it. We realized that he became the Prophet when we were Seniors in high school. I remembered seeing him speak when I was serving my mission in Boston, and that he once waved to us from his apartment at an outdoor Peter Breinholt concert in the Brigham Young Park.

It was a blustery blizzard day today. I have been a bit weepy all day, but we have been busy with swimming lessons, grocery shopping, and all the motherly things I do all day. I talked to two friends on the phone about it. I randomly watched Good Things Utah, which I rarely do (because of time, not content, I love that show) and they had a special about him. Again I cried. Miriam and I talked about the Prophet but I haven't mentioned that he has passed away. We are going to have a Family Home Evening about him tonight and we will tell her. I know it won't really phase her, but I dread telling her all the same. Maybe I dread telling her because I know it won't phase her. I don't know if she will ever realize how special he was.

Thanks for the challenge Kristi

Mindboggling

Our little ground hog will be 4 next week. Unbelievable.

Miriam is taking a 6 week city gymnastics class. She loves it, the gym is amazing. I am tempted to sign her up for the regular classes, but hesitate because the real gymnast girls look like they could trample Miriam. The seem very serious for being 4/5. Miriam is just in it to wear the leotard.

Pep talk in the Tub O' Sponges

Sweet Bub does a lot of hanging out during Miriam's lessons. He's cool with it.

New Beginnings

Things just got busier in a good way around here. I am serving in the Young Women's program again, this time as 2nd counselor. I have to admit to feelings of anxiousness about giving my time. I feel pulled in so many directions already, and am admittedly failing in some areas, I am afraid of adding to it all. However, I know (through experience) that when you serve others it always comes back to bless you and your family. It really truly does. I am excited to get into Personal Progress again. It always helps elevate my spirituality when I have a goal. I have been floundering for a year or so now with scripture reading and perhaps this is the kick in the pants I needed. I love working with the Young Women, and I have the Beehives (12-13) GREAT age. I am also VERY excited to work with the other amazing women in the Presidency. Heavenly Father has always blessed me with friends through my callings, although I have learned not to pray for friends...I was called to the Relief Society presidency last time I did that.

Anyway...I am off to bowl with the Young Women, and then to plan New Beginnings (a special welcoming meeting) which is next Wednesday (AHHHHHH).

Germs Smerms.....

We've got the sickies. All the signs are here; flushed cheeks, old pillowcase/sheets on the bed, and Miriam sleeping at 9:31 am. I just hope this is a different strain than what is going around our 'hood (although that would be a miracle) because it's the 4/5 day variety. So far Bub has shown no signs of sickness. He was quite chipper throughout the messy scene last night. Darin is the hero of the day, he dealt with both bouts of sick, while I held Bub away from it all and tried to hold my own queasy stomach under control. When Miriam started moaning, I knew she was sick because I my own stomach had been out of sorts all evening.

My poor girl.

Kiddo Update

Bub is 8 months today!!

Darin thinks this picture may be a glimpse of what he will look like in the future, very handsome I think...but then he looks like his daddy so of course I think he is handsome!
Bub isn't my easy as pie to put asleep sleeper anymore. He got his bottom two teeth and stopped sucking his fingers, he isn't napping as long and is waking up in the night more. Hopefully its a phase.
He is crawling officially, although he sometimes chooses to do his worm/toe crawl to get around. Still our cute little smiley guy!

Conversation I had with Miriam today:
Miriam: "Mom, maybe we are in a story."
Me: "What do you mean?"
Miriam: "Maybe someone is reading a book about you and Dad and Bub and Me, and we are doing the words or the story, or maybe watching a movie."
Me: speechless....and then "I think we talked about that once in a philosophy class I took in college."

OOPS, I forgot to mention....

I forgot to mention in my last post, that Nie Nie, of the Nie Nie dialogs will also creates beautiful silhouettes, for more information contact stephanienielson@yahoo.com

My 3 year project is complete

My cousin Kristi posted these silhouettes of her kids way back in 2006 and I have been thinking of them ever since! I took Miriam's picture in March of 2007 with the idea that I would talk Darin into paying to have them done from Simply Silhouettes it looks like they do wonderful work (Land of Nod also did them for awhile but I couldn't find it when I searched recently).


My darling husband answered just exactly how I expected him to "Elisa, you could do that yourself!" He said he didn't mind if I ordered them, but basically told me I was competent enough to do it on my own and found this website for me, which explains how to do it. It's infuriating and wonderful when he does that to me. Infuriating because I just want things done NOW, and wonderful because I would never be as adventurous creatively without him. BUT, even with all the hubby support I did nothing with the pictures I had taken.

Then I came across this, the Nie Nie Dialogs and fell in love all over again with silhouettes.
Then (and I couldn't believe this) my own sister-in-law did them of her kids?! I was seriously shocked and decided right then and there to get off my duff and finally make them. So, back in October I went out and bought all the supplies and......


Did nothing with them until last week. So, without further ado

my silhouettes!!

* What I learned: #1 You should take the pictures of your subjects on the same day, the same distance from the camera. Because Miriam's picture was taken almost a year before Bub's the distance is off. #2 You need really good little scissors, I used hair cutting scissors and it was rough...and I think my silhouettes are rough because of it, but I am not redoing until next year or so. #3 I couldn't get Bub's light wispy hair to look right so he looks bald...that isn't anything I learned I just don't know how to fix it.

Thank you to all the inspirational crafting women in my world (real and blog) and to my husband for giving me the push to get out and try new things.

2 Great Parties

We are generally not party people, so it was a rare occasion for us to have 2 parties to attend last Saturday. They were both so great they helped immensely with my holiday let down.

The lovely Vanessa celebrated a milestone birthday. There were lots of people, food, laughter...the perfect birthday! It was a fun event, we were so glad we could go.

Birthday girl with her new purse (good job Regan). Her romantic giraffe house story is not mine to tell, but it's pretty cute.

Bub enjoying the party

Miriam maxin' and relaxin' at the party. Thanks for the cute outfit G'ma!


My cousin Heather had her annual White Elephant exchange party which is a highlight for me every year. That side of my family rarely gets together, we are spread across the country, and those of us in Utah....well I guess most of the rest of us are not party hosting people (excluding cousins Lisa and Burke, they do an AMAZING haunted barn every Halloween). Anyway, it's so fun to see extended family, and the exchange is always fun. Heather has video games downstairs for the boys and her daughters get out all their toys upstairs for the little girls so the adults can play games. I wish I had pictures of the crazy exchange (Bub was a bit needy at that point so I didn't attempt to get out the camera). I won't recap the whole exchange but there was reindeer poop, romantic mittens, and a carved owl involved.
Thank You Heather and Brad!!

I found my "thing"

I am not good at decorating. I am too easily swayed by different decorating styles, add to that indecisiveness, and feelings of guilt over spending money. I especially shy away from buying seasonal decorations. We have so many home improvements we want to make I feel wasteful buying the seasonal stuff. However, while after Christmas shopping with Nonnie I found these snowflakes and fell in love. I didn't even really think about it, I just bought them (50% off of course). And guess what? I feel absolutely NO guilt for buying them.....that is very rare in deed.

I am planning on decorating our Christmas tree with them during December, and then moving them to our stair rail and kitchen light for Jan-Feb. As long as we live in the wintry West this will work! I am adding sparkly snowflakes to my list of things that I confidently and absolutely love (along with globes and maps, pearls, and penny loafers).

Kitchen light December

Kitchen light now

I'm grounded....

No more blogging from me until I
1. take down Christmas
2. get Thank You notes sent
3. budgeting stuff done

Ringing in 2008

The girls ready for the snow action

We had lots of great snow this year for the big holiday. In fact, we drove through part of the snow storm which was an adventure in our little Nissan. I love going to my parents cabin for New Years, thank you Mom and Dad!!

We did lots of sledding....lots and lots and lots of sledding (I am still sore) and some snowmobiling. We played charades which was hilarious with the kids. Notable performances: Marcus's transformer routine, Ali's caterpillar to butterfly, and Miriam's fishing. Most of the adults played a game called Loaded Questions, I highly recommend it if you are playing with people you know well and everyone has a good sense of humor.

Check out Josh's maxed and relaxed set up.

The kids watched a few movies on Julia's new projector for her dance studio.

The won ton rolling.

Darin has become the go to guy for won ton rolling, he ends up giving a tutorial about it every year. We also had our traditional fondue fare which is always fun. How can you not have fun when everyone has their own little spear and there is hot cheese and chocolate being flung about.
No one stayed up to ring in the New Year. We were all hammered (the all day sledding/snowmobiling type hammered, not the other type). No one even considered it except for Julia and I. We almost did it but then realized we were the only ones who would be feeding babies in the middle of the night....why would we stay up? So, I slept through the New Year but I awoke about 3 am to the sound of Miriam screaming my name, falling down the stairs and hitting her head on a metal can...then Bub woke up, then Bub woke up again....and again for good at 7:00 am. I felt like I had partied like it was 1999.

Pink Christmas Exchange

Erin sent me this beautiful bag made entirely out of ribbons. I love it, the ribbon is so pretty/spunky and she sells it here. Thank you Erin, I really do love it and will use it often!

Find out about Pink Christmas here.

The Highlights

Miriam and Byron received so many thoughtful and wonderful gifts this Christmas. Lots of cute clothes (which is what I get excited about!) and games (we played a rousing game of Tea Party tonight...thank you Landon!!). But, every year there are THE gifts...the ones that really cause a stir of excitement. Here are the ones from this year.

Grandpa Byron made Miriam her very own kitchen!! To understand why this is so exciting, you just have to know Miriam. She rules over the kitchen in nursery, she asks to drive into S.L.C. to play with the kitchen at Pottery Barn Kids, she pretends to have her own cooking show, she wants to be a Costco cake decorator (and a ballerina/doctor) when she grows up...I could go on and on. The girl loves to bake!

The John Deer tractor has been fun as well.

The kitchen caused lots of spontaneous hugs and expressions of love for Grandpa B. I am just happy to have some place to put all her food toys.

Grandma R gave Miriam the cupcake decorating set (along with full uniform) she had been oogling over in the Hearthsong catalog. She wore the outfit all day, and had a blast making mini cookies in the tiny muffin tin. I think I am going to have just as much fun with the icing tools as Miriam will.


This little thing caused so much laughter! Miriam loves remote control anything (she is kind of a technology geek like her daddy). She giggles uncontrollably as this thing buzzes and flip flops around. Little Byron went nuts trying to crawl after these things. He was squealing, and doing this worm-like break dancing move to reach them.

Thank you Grandparents for making this Christmas magical!