Angels

Christmas Ornament Pictures are easier to take with a better camera... sorry mine are blurry

My mother has lots of Christmas decorations so when I was young she started putting the angels in my room. I love to decorate for Christmas and pull out my beautiful angels and remember Christmas past. I am sure you want to know where and from whom each and every one of my angels came from. So I will tell you:

1994- paper/glitter that one is a personal creation made by my 8 year old self
1995- wooden from Grandma B (I think this one is my very very favorite)
1995- stain glass from my childhood best friend Christi
1996- blown glass from Grandma B This one made me feel like an adult because it is SO fragile and pretty.
2006- faux wood from my college best friend Laura (she has one that says Liz)
2007- glass- from Grandma B. we went for a visit that summer and she got me all the angels that the store had like this (in Georgetown, CO)
2007- beaded icicles from Grandma B, Mom, Andrew, Jeffrey I know not angels but I still love them I have at least 20 they are lovely. (they made them for our first Christmas so that we won't have a bare tree)
2009- angel bell from Grandma M. (she saw it and thought about my collection) I thought it was very sweet of her to get it for me.
my shell angel I don't remember when I got this one but it is also from my Grandma B she loves and collects butterflies so it is very special that I have one that has both our collections together.

Okay so I have a few more angels but these are my favorites. I am so grateful for my Grandma giving me this collection and for the others that have contributed. I have received some from dear friends and I love the memory I have with each.

Pictures from November

Snow!!

Ali and Carter

Run away from the camera

 Tell me about the snow Carter: "It's Cold. I get in snow. Ali in the snow. It's WHITE! White white snow."

-I must tell you his little voice makes the words sound much better!

We got a few inches of snow last night and I was able to easily find all Carter's snow clothing this morning. It was nice to be able to send him out to play and see him having so much fun without getting too cold. We also had pie last night and snow this morning it's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Desk update

We stained the desk with Antique Walnut last night, but it did not come out as expected so we will need to do several more coats to darken it. What do you think? I guess next time we stain light wood we will go one more shade darker than we want. Maybe then it will turn out.

11 Months

Dear Landon,

I love you so much you are a wonderful addition to our family. You and Carter play pretty well together. You are a little turkey. You try and get away and laugh when I am changing your diaper. You love to go up the stairs and go play in Carter's room you've done rather well at coming back down but you still need a little help.

You have started to copy Carter and push the toy cars around on the carpet. I'm a little worried about your frustration level, it seems rather low. When things don't go perfect you tend to yell a bit. The car flips or if you walk your walker into the couch or wall you tend to get frustrated and verbalize that. I am afraid we are a family of stubborn ones. I wish I could say it's just from your dad but that wouldn't be entirely true.

I love cuddling with you. In some ways I am sad that we are almost done with nursing but in other ways I am almost ready to be finished. Yesterday your dad got you up from your nap but you didn't stop crying because you wanted me. You looked around but you couldn't find me. I love that cuddle time we get after naps when we just get to hold each other.

Love you forever,

Momma

Daddy's Project

Ryan has been working on this desk for weeks. It looks lovely. We were inspired by Ana White to build some furniture. I really like this cabinet and maybe we will make for the dining room one day but we needed a desk first. What do you think?? We still need to finish it. I was thinking of going two toned like in the picture of the apothecary cabinet that I like. But now that is is closer to finished I am having second guesses. We used poplar wood and the top is many pieces placed together. Ryan has done a really nice job so we don't want to ruin it with the finish. If you have any great ideas please share.

roses

Ryan just added 5 or 6 roses bushes to our garden. We already had 2 so now we have a pretty good number. One of our neighbors wants only grass. Ryan removed the bushes for them and planted them in our yard yesterday. They are so beautiful. I hope they survive the move.

a conversation

"I wanna help you momma."

"okay why don't you pick up all your toys. Daddy will be here soon and that will make Daddy so happy if you pick up all your toys."

"I want daddy be sad."

I'm so Pleased!

A potty training Post

Friday Night:

I saw Carter starting to poop and I told him to go potty and he said no.. and I said.. I don't like it when Ali (the dog) poops in the grass and I don't like it when you poop in your diaper and he said okay and walked with me to the bathroom and he read two books and pooped!! and than later he said my diapers are all gone! So we decided to go with it.

Saturday Morning:

I had to wash the sheets.. I think that Ryan took him potty but wasn't quiet patient enough and than he but him back to bed (it was 5:30 am) and he really did need to go potty. We had to go clean the church for an hour and no accident there. But 24 hours go by not one success in the toilet.. Lots of sitting and reading but not much business. But we stuck to it I mean really what's wrong with more laundry? (luckily we had no accidents on the carpet (which is horrible anyway..)).

Sunday:

I believe I had to wash the sheets again. We went to church.. I was a little nervous. We only stayed for Sacrament meeting because Carter has a runny nose and a little bit of a cough and so it was a good weekend to potty train. He waited until we were home and refused to come when I called and peed in the grass in his Sunday Clothing. We took a nap and than I forced him to sit on the potty until he peed! And we were so happy! He is a little bashful about it but quiet pleased with himself. And than another accident..

Monday:

We sat on the potty until he peed this morning at 6:30 am. A couple more accidents.. Than a "I need to go potty" but he was peeing when he said that. He peed on Daddy on the way once. Than later a success! He asked and made it to the bathroom and he wasn't in there for 15 minutes either! Than again he peed before bed! No sheet washing today but also the only nap he got was the few minutes he fell asleep on the potty.. :)

So at the end of three days I see a little hope. Maybe tomorrow he won't ask for a diaper.. He is sure there are some in Landon's room.. and he's right but I see hope and he started it so we will keep on chugging along.

We use this seat but he actually likes to just hang on because "I'm like daddy!" and he likes to be like daddy. But the seat is nice and I'm glad we got it we also have the frog potty chair.. but that's kinda of a waste unless your kid doesn't like toilets and you like to clean up poop... Good luck!

Ball Boy!

Palouse Falls

This morning we went for a hike and picnic. It was beautiful and so nice to get out of the house! I've been missing Idaho because of this very thing. Often times Ryan and I would go on a Sunday drive when we lived back in Idaho, just to relax. This time we asked our friends (really the husbands picked the location and invited us, wives) along. It was wonderful. The place they choose was about an hour away, and a little dangerous, but nothing 4 adults couldn't handle. If there had been more kids than adults then maybe this wouldn't be a good place. I'm corny but one of these views literally took my breath away!

Pumpkins!

So concentrated.

Liz's, Carter's, and Ryan's

When I was little my mom had us cut out and decorate pumpkins to put in the yard. (She posted about them a few years ago here.) Since Carter is just two we didn't do faces this year. Even without the faces we had a great time with only a little bit of paint split on the tile. Next year Carter should be able to draw a face, he had so much fun painting that I think that we will do this next year too.

The Chili King!

I'm married to the Chili King!! Ryan won the chili cook off at work. Someone at work said they made the best chili on this side of the Mississippi and were ready for some competition. Well Ryan delivered! He presented a spicy chocolate chili and it was GOOD!

Old Windows

While I was antiquing with my Grandmother-in-law back in July and we found this beautiful old window that had a hutch built around it. I love it! The paint on the window was antiqued and sanded but the rest was left to look new.

Do you like it?

our fireplace.

really bad quality but..

I could not find where I had posted this previously maybe I never posted it. but here is our beautiful fireplace in our old house.. that is UNDER CONTRACT!! woo hoo! Not sold yet but we are suppose to close in a few weeks!