Pumpkins!

Last night was the annual Family Home Evening pumpkin carving marathon at our house. This year we had 4 jack-o-lantern wannabes, so it was kind of a late night, but we had fun! Vicki and Lexi each designed the faces for their pumpkins, which they had lovingly selected at the pumpin patch. Chris designed the faces for the other two. He's our master carver, and it's my job to scoop out the guts. This year Vicki wanted to help me, with amusing results. Lexi gave Chris the inspiration for the face on the big one ("Make it angry like this, Daddy. Grrrrrr..."). Ellie just ate the guts.

Home Improvement

Last January we came back from a trip to Utah to discover that a pipe in our master bathroom had leaked. Not just a little leak, either. Our bathroom cabinets and floor were ruined, the carpet in the bedroom and out into the hall was soaked, and it had leaked through the floor into the living room ceiling and had ruined the carpet down there, too, plus part of the wall and the closet door. Fun times. We decided to look at it as a blessing in disguise and consider it a chance to increase the value of our house. And we decided to do the work ourselves and save some money, giving us a chance to upgrade rather than replace. So now we have tile in the downstairs and master bathrooms, happy pale yellow walls instead of dreary gray ones, and, most exciting, wood floors downstairs! Being married to a guy who works in design and has construction in his blood definitely has its benefits! We got our new bathroom cabinets yesterday, so all we have left now is restretching the upstairs carpet, putting in the baseboards, and painting up the stairs and down the hall. Here’s some pics of our progress:

The hole in the ceiling:

Old, ugly paint (gray) vs. new, pretty paint (yellow):

Old kitchen and living room floors:

New floors:

My favorite picture from this whole process:

That "magical" age

A couple of nights ago Ellie woke up at 3am and for some reason didn’t fall back asleep until nearly 5:00. This hasn’t happened in a long time. She needed to go potty, but then she was wide awake and not all that interested in being left a) in her crib and b) alone. I, on the other hand, really wanted to go back to bed. I took her potty, got her a drink of water, gave her kisses, took her potty again, said prayers, petted her kitty, covered her again, got her more water, took her potty again…you get the idea. Between all of this, during those times when I thought she had gone back to sleep and I was, thanks so much, too awake to sleep, I got to thinking about all those times when the girls were babies and I was just waiting (and sometimes praying) for that magical age, whatever it might be, when they would just sleep through the night…play by themselves…walk…express themselves in a way other than crying…stop dropping food on the floor (still waiting on that one…).

I think it’s like this for most mothers, but the more I thought about it the worse I felt that I spent so much of their baby time not really enjoying the moment because I was so looking forward to the next moment. This isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy them as babies, because I did, but at the same time I couldn’t wait for those magical moments when life would suddenly get so much better. It makes me sad that I spent so long waiting for “everything to be better” when it was already so good.

So the conclusion I came to, around 4:30 in the morning when Ellie put her arms around me and said, "I yuv you, Mommy," is that there’s no such thing as the magical age when everything becomes better. Because they’re all magical.

Happy Birthday Ellie!!!

Ellie turned 2 on Saturday. She's definitely ready to get older. For weeks, whenever anyone asked her how old she was, she'd answer "Five!" But I think she's finally okay with two. We celebrated with caramel apple cake (which was supposed to have pretty swirls of caramel on the top and a big green 2, but due to an unfortunate incident with a pastry tube and really hot caramel sacue was instead covered with a large caramel blob which we then tried to make pretty by swirling the green through it. But Ellie's 2 and doesn't care what her cake looked like, so it's all good) and cookies and cream ice cream. As soon as we lit the candles she clapped her hands and said, "Now everyone will sing Happy Birthday to ME!" She even blew out the candles all on her own.


It was a great day and she had a blast. I just can't believe my baby is two years old!

The Mom Song

My friend Donna emailed me a link to The Mom Song on YouTube. And the best part is, you don't even have to be a mom to appreciate it! Anyone who's ever had a mom knows exactly what this woman is talking about!

Look at me! I'm a Domestic Hero!

Several years ago, when Chris's grandparents moved out of their house and into an assisted living center, a lot of their stuff was up for grabs. We got our kitchen table that way. We also got these awesome placemats that we've put to good use over the years:




But they're definitely from another generation and they're starting to fall apart. Those big white patches on the left side? Apparently paisley is the first thing to go. So Chris, ever overconfident in my sewing capabilities, said, "Why don't you make some new ones?" So in March I went to the fabric store, bought a bunch of red fabric, and then left it alone for a while. In April I cut it all out. In May I sewed the tops together. Then I left it all alone until last week when I couldn't take the not-so-subtle hints anymore (Vicki: "These placemats are starting to fall apart." Chris: "I know. Wouldn't it be nice if we had some new ones?") I finished them yesterday and I'm so proud of myself! I did it with no pattern, nothing to go by except the old ones, and I think I did a pretty dang good job! (Of course, I'm only posting a picture of the last one I sewed, when I finally figured out what I was doing!)

Mac-a-what?

I made macaroni and cheese for lunch today for Ellie and her friend. They were very excited about it and were jumping up and down and running circles shouting, "Macaroni and cheese!" Except that they're both 2 (or almost!) and can't really say "macaroni and cheese" all that well. Here are some of my favorite attempts:

-macamoni cheese
-maraconi cheese
-macacheese
-cheese cheese macamoni
-mocanooni cheese

and my personal favorite...

-mony-mony cheese