SNOW!!!

Story of the lives of most of the country right now, I know, but boy have been had the snow coming down here in Utah lately! Right now we have about 10 inches or a foot of snow on the ground... expecting more with snow falling for a beautiful white Christmas!

We let Allison out to play in the snow for a little while the other day... this was when we only had about 4 inches... there's a ton more now. I'm not quite sure what she thought of it. She had a hard time walking in it.

Hardest part about the snow on the ground... having to keep Allison cooped up inside all day. She is definantly not enjoying that part about the snow.

Merry Christmas!

We took Allison to visit Santa. She loves Santa, but didn't want to sit on his lap all by herself.

Merry Christmas anyway!

The Quiet Encyclopedia

For Christmas, Allison is getting a quiet book. I made a couple a few years ago for neices and nephews and figured it was about time for Allison to have one. She's SO busy and hopefully this will allow Brian and I to actually pay attention to part of our Sunday meetings.

Little did I know when I started that Allison would be receiving not a just a quiet book, and The HUGE Encyclopedia Britannica of quiet books. The thing is 3 inches thick! I think I got a little carried away. There were just so many good ideas that I wanted to include.

At least this way I can split the book in two in another year or so and add a page or two (since I didn't use up all of my ideas) and I'll have two quiet books to keep two kids quiet at the same time. Bright side, right? =) Here are the photos!

Front Cover. Notice how its curved? That would be becuase its so HUGE!

Alphabet page. We have all the letter in the pocket on the front cover. They velcro on & off.

Getting dressed page & closet. It's got a zipper to play with and the doll clothes velcro on & off.

Lacing and tying shoes & counting/number recognition gumball machine. The gumballs velcro on & off.

The house is "Lift the flaps". Weaving page... some of these pages she'll grow into.

The balloons are color matching. They velcro on and off. I made a buckles page becuase Allison LOVES to play with buckles on her puppy leash, her car seat, the grocery cart...

Winter and spring themed pages. Build a snowman (velcro part) and button on the flowers.

Summer and fall themed pages. The apples snap on and off and the leaves velcro on and off.

Shape matching and hanging clothes on a clothesline.

Counting with beads and a peek-a-book page. When she's older she can braid the yarn hair too.

"Whats in mommy's purse" and a notepad for drawing. Some keys, dead credit cards and play make-up will probably go in the purse.

If you want to try your hand at making your own (its a great project, but its not really any cheaper than buying one, except when you make your own you get a lot more pages for your $30), here are some resources that I found and used to make Allison's.

• Anna Fowler's Quiet Book blog ... lots of good ideas and a work in progress. You might check her family blog for her post that shows all her quiet book pages on it.
• LDS Quiet Book Packets ... for purchase, but can give you some good ideas.
• Mommy Chic: Quiet Books
• How to make an LDS Quiet Book ... this one now has patterns for quiet book pages. The author of the book by the same name as the website gave permission for them to be publish on the website.

If you want to know more about how I made mine or what I used comment here or email me. =)

PS - this was my 100th post, and I just passed my 1 year blog-o-versary! Stay tuned for some blog candy... (aka: a give-away) =)

Simply Sweet Marriage

This company is all about enhacing marriage through intimacy, without having to slog through a bunch of pronography. They have had 12 days of giveaways... and we've entered! Check it out here!

Sometimes I wonder...

Why I bother. Case in point... This is my Chistmas tree, fully decorated. Please note that Allison was asleep when this photo was taken.

And this is my Christmas tree when Allison is awake.

Its a little hard to see, but pretty much the tree is bare of ornaments below midway up the tree... they are scattered (Allison would probably say nicely placed) at the base of the tree. Allison takes then off to play with them and collect them. She's also quite fascinated with the lights... she keeps trying to pick off the individual lights.

At least we did the smart thing and went fairly minimalist (and child safe) with the ornaments. Ahh... life with a toddler.

I have the best husband

He took me back to Motherhood on Saturday and bought me that sweater from his spending money. =) Isn't he great?

A Sad Story...

Today I went into Motherhood Maternity. I needed tights, since its December and going bare-legged is simply no longer an option. They had this BEAUTIFUL sweater.

Now, I'll be honest. This picture doesn't really do it justice. Its super soft and I fell in love with it. It is just so... me. I wanted it.

Sadly, I did the responsible things today with our paycheck. I bought 4 of these...

I'm sure you can imagine how much that cost. Tack on the necessary oil change and wheel alignment... *sigh*...

The beautiful sweater is still at the store. And I'm sad now...

Allison's Early Reading Skills!

Allison LOVE books. She asks us to read a good 20 or 25 books a day to her. She's also good at sitting down and reading to herself. She has a few favorites... She loves "Fancy Nancy", "The Tooth Book" and "The Monster At the End of This Book." Lately, this is what we have been finding when she reads her monster book to herself.

She's saying "the page" on the pages where Grover is shouting about having the pages turned! She shakes the book back and forth because Brian and I tend to shake the book when we read it to her on those pages. I thought it was too cute. Do you think I'll have an early reader?

The reason I scrapbook

There are many reasons why I scrapbook. It gives me a reason and excuse to print off photos. It gives me something to do with the vast majority of them. I remember things better when I've gone through the photos and done a short journal entry about them. I enjoy the process. Its a creative outlet for me. But there is a new reason.


Allison loves to look at her scrapbook album. I don't have a lot of pages done in her album, but she loves to look at them over and over again. She will very quietly sit on mine or Brian's lap, just looking at the pages and naming the people (or objects) in them. She gets so excited when I add a new page to the ablum for her to see. I love that she appreciates her scrapbook. It makes me want to get more pages done for her to see and get excited over.

Its a Boy!

No pictures... but we did find out yesterday that we are having a little boy this time around! I'm very excited... especially since I'll have one of each and that way will be able to decide I'm done having kids at anytime without worrying about getting my one boy or one girl... I've already got both!

We're thrilled... plus having a boy this time means mommy gets to go shopping for more baby clothes! =)

Scrapbook Blog Updates

I posted a couple of new layouts on my scrapbook blog. You should go look at them. I'm quite proud of them and I love to share my artwork. I finally feel like I'm getting good at this scrapbooking thing. Now if I could just get faster...

Why didn't I do this last year?

The windows in our apartment, for lack of any better way to put it, suck. They are old, single paned, aluminum framed windows. They are gigantic heat seives in our house. Last year our heating bills got really expensive. When I made Allison's black out drapes last March I learned that black out drapery liner not only blocks out light, but is an insulator.


I've had drapery fabric for about 2 years and finally, yesterday, I made use some insulating drapes for the 8 foot window in our living room. Hopefully it will help keep our heating bill down a little this year, huh? We can already tell it makes a difference... you don't feel the cold air dumping on you when you sit on the love seat! What do you think?

Happy Halloween!

We took Allison trick-or-treating at the mall. She LOVED picking up the candy and putting it in her little pumpkin bucket and, even though she was very tired, she had a blast!

Once she got a few peices of candy she thought she was done... she wanted to sit down and play with her bucket and two peices of candy. It was too cute.

She also loved that she managed to get her hands on a sucker, get it open and eat most of the way through it. Mmmm... yummy mess for mommy and daddy to clean up!

Happy Halloween! Hope you had a fun and safe one!

Fun Fall Adventures

This week we thought we'd take advantage of the season and, heaven forbid, actually do something fun! We went to Hee Haws Farms & Corn Maze Monday night and had a good time as a family. Allison LOVED the big tall slide and thought that getting to pet the animals was so much fun. She also thought that the hay bale maze was so fun to run around in.

Yeah for the mini-maze! It was so fun to run in the straw!

This is my favorite pumpkin! I tried to pick it up, but it was too big!

What on earth did they put me in?

The tractor ride with mommy was kind of fun.

But the slide with daddy was more fun!

And getting to touch the cows was so cool!

And I got to ride a pony! What a fun day!

First Boyfriend

Allison has a friend, Luke, who lives down the street. His mom Kristi and I are good friends, so they see each other often. Here's what happened today.

I only interfered to that she didn't end up tackling the poor kid in some future attempt. Plus, it was totally cute. =)

Isn't She Cute?

I love this girl!

New PJs

We've been having trouble finding fall/winter PJs for Allison lately. She's small baby, so even though she's 14 months, she's only wearing size 9 months at most. The problem with PJs is that they don't put grippers on the feeties until size 12 months, which look about twice as big as Allison is. What are we to do?

Its Grandma to the rescue! My mom made Allison 4 pairs of PJs that fit PERFECTLY and are so cute. Allison loves them and so do we. Thanks, Grandma!

First Haircut

Last week I finally bit the bullet and got Allison her first hair cut. This little girls has SO much hair and its getting so long. I wanted to avoid the childhood mullet, so we cut it off at the nape of her neck to give the rest of her hair time to catch up and get all one length. We cut bangs too... her hair was just so long on top and it falls forward. They're a little short, but cute when side swept. What do you think?

On another subject, I had my 12 week doctors appointment yesterday. My doctor couldn't find the baby's heartbeat so we got to do an ultrasound instead. Baby is fine... was active and bouncing around in there... just playing hide and seek right behind my big abdominal vein. In theory we'll find out the gender in 8 weeks. =)

An Unexpected Souvenir

Well... I'm ready to spill the beans. Brian and I apparently made our way home from Europe with a little surprise souvenir...



Yep... Thats right. We are having another baby this spring. Currently 11 weeks along... Due April 1st. Two under two... I'm mildy terrified.

Football!

I love football... especially college football. I'm the kind of wife who will quite happily let the TV be tuned to college football games for most of the day on a Saturday. NFL is a different story, but college football is great, if you ask me.

This year, Brian and I are excited to be Cougar Football season ticket holders again. YEAH! Yesterday was the home opener. We took Allison and it was so much fun! She really wasn't sure what to think at first... there was so much to look at and take in. But, I think she enjoyed it.

Great photo, right? Football is just so beautiful... we pretty much have nosebleed seats, but its really not a bad view...

Touchdown! She really will do that if we ask her to say touchdown. =)

She was a big fan of the yummy popcorn...

Getting ready to leave. It was a fun day, and so past bedtime.

Scrapbook Blog!

I did it! I started a scrapbook blog. I'm signing up to be a Close to my Heart (CTMH) consultant next week. This is a place where I can share my artwork. Here's hoping for a successful business! You can check out my scrapbook blog at http://rosies-posies.blogspot.com.

Apparetly she was hungry...

Allison very much likes to be helpful. She especially loves to be helpful when mommy and daddy are putting away the groceries. That means the fridge gets opened and she can explore it. She's very interested in the fridge... especially since she made the connect between the fridge and food.

Today, while we were putting groceries away, Allison gets poking around and what does she find? A plum. Apparently she was hungry and she decided that this plum looked so good that she had to have it right then. No waiting for mommy or daddy to get it cut for her. She just bit right on in. So, heres to my big girl, eating her first fruit the "big girl" way. And yes... she ate the WHOLE thing.

Frustration Revisited

I went home this weekend. One of my best friend's from high school, Chrissy, got married. It was an absolutely beautiful wedding. If you recall, I was frustrated over my apparent inablility to finish making a dress I started a few years ago so I could wear it to this wedding.

Well, I took the dress home at my mom's request. The thought was that we could work on it and get it finished before the wedding. Apparently my mom lapsed on the fact that I have a 1 year old... needless to say we didn't even touch the dress. I did, however, leave it at my mom's hoping that she can finish it and make it look as nice as it does in my head. I wore a cute little number that my little sister had made a few weeks eariler (which made me jealous and slightly more frustrated).

So... here's my game plan. I'm going back to square one. Several years ago I made a cute black jumper that I really like. It no longer fits super well in the bodice, so I think I'll get some fabric and make another one of those jumper. A tried-and-true pattern working out could help me get my bearings and confidence back. Then I'll probably work on some small projects and garments for Allison. I have fabric and a pattern for a cute little dress for her. My mom also told me to try Burda patterns (apparently they tend to be more true to measurement than McCalls/Vogue/Simplicity/Butterick), and to try my hand at flat pattern measurements, to make sure I'm not being lied to. I'm also thinking that if I want to make nice things for myself, I need to take the time to do a fitting muslin. Hopefully, when I'm ready to get back on the horse, all this will help me get the results I want.

Allison's Expanding Vocabulary

With her steps into toddlerhood, we are also fast explore with wide and wonderful world of words. Its new words everyday. Here is a list of Allison's current words. (Disclaimer: much like the bible, you should believe this list to be true as far as it is translated correctly)

"Eeeets" - Eat
"Duts" - Duck (as in rubber ducky)
"Ezzzzz" - Please
"Ot" - Out
"Pu pu" - puppy
"Mum Mum" - Mom
"Da Da" - Dad
"Ba ba" - binky
"Mon Mon" - monster (as in "The Monster at the End of This Book")
"Ma ma ma ma ma!" - MORE!

And she signs. We have signs "milk" and "more" (both of which seem to mean "food" to her). She will sometimes tell us "all done". And we're working on "please" and "music."

I'm relatively certain that Allison has more words and signs than this list... Brian and I just haven't figured out their translations yet. Hey... its not like we've got a rosetta stone here! =)

Frustration...

A little background info. I sew. I've been sewing since I was 10. I remember wearing an outfit that I had made all by myself (well, as "all by myself" that a 10 year old learner gets) to the first day of 5th grade. That was 15 years ago. I sewed a lot during high school. And I didn't just sew. I was pretty good. I made 5 prom dresses and, not to toot my own horn or anything, they were beautiful. I was an excellent seamstress.

Today, however, I came to the sad realization that I know find sewing far more frustrating than fulfilling. I can't remember the last time I finished a project of any significance. The last article of clothing that I made for myself was a cute black jumper. That was almost 4 years ago, and it is the last sewing project that I have been happy with.

What brought this all up? Well, if you look at my project list you'll see "My Graduation Dress" listed there. This "graduation dress" is a dress I started for my college graduation in April 2006. This is the pattern I was using.

I've been working on the one shown in the bottom right corner (plus sleeves of course). The twisted bodice is adorable and it has a high waist and A-line skirt. I'm making it out of this beautiful maroon and gold silky, border print fabric. It looks a little like sari fabric.

When I started the project I carefully took my body measurements and cut the fabric out using the pattern siz that matched my measurements. Lo and behold, the day before my graduation I have the bodice done and the skirt ready to sew on and finish. I try the bodice on for fit and it doesn't. It super doesn't fit. Its about 4 inches too big all around (despite the fact that measured so carefully and cut out the "correct" size). I don't have the time to finish it before graduation, so I choose something else to wear and set it aside for later.

Fast forward to today. One of my best friends from high school is getting married in 2 weeks and I think that dress would be nice to wear to her wedding. It is sitting in my project drawer in the exact same state it was left more than 2 years ago. I had Brian help me take the extra width out of the side seams and I try to get going on this dress again. I manage to get the bodice properly fit and now I have to get the skirt top to match the bodice. I work on it and get the skirt put on only to try it out and discover that the skirt hangs weird at the side seams. It folds over itself and doesn't drape nicely. I take it apart, change the line of the offending seams and try again. One side is looking better, but the other side just looks strange.

Then, looking in the mirror, I decide that not only does it look weird, but it makes me look fat. And it will probably never look as nice actually made as it looks in my head. The only way I can thing to fix the problem is to take the dress apart again. Everytime I take a seam out, I damage the delicate woven fabric. So now I'm frustrated. I can't figure out how to fix the problem without ruining my project.

I used to like sewing... I used to be good at sewing. But now... all I ever have to show for my efforts is a drawer full of half-finished projects that I don't feel like I have time for. And its frustrating...

One Year Photos

We took Allison in to get her one-year photos today. I wasn't real crazy about how the session turned out as a whole. Either the photographer didn't have a ton of imagination, or Allison was just too difficult (wanting to crawl around instead of sitting/standing still to have her photo taken)... probably a combination of the two. Anyway... we did get two or three really cute photos out of it. Here is one of my favorites.

Not so little...

I've been organizing photos on our computer today. I managed to get all of our photos from Europe off the laptop and onto the desktop where I can work with them and submit an online order to Costco for printing. While I was at it I figured that I'd clear out our downloaded folders and put photos in their appropriate places (mostly into Allison photos organized by monthly folders... yes I have OCD) and I got looking at pictures of Allison taken in April. She was 8 months old in them. Looking at these picture it hit me. I don't have a baby anymore. I have a toddler. Allison doesn't even look like a baby anymore. She's lost that "baby" look to her face. Its amazing how in a relativly short period of time she has changed so much. See for yourself.

I started with this...

Before leaving for Europe I had this...

And now I have this toddler...

Do you see the difference, or is it just me? Where did my baby go? How did she change so fast? No one told me they grew up this fast. Don't they come with a pause button?

Paris

Beyond the 30° C weather and the lack of air conditioning, Paris was beautiful and amazing! Here's a sampling of what we did:

Climbed the Eiffel Tower. Call us crazy, but we took the stairs. 704 stairs up to the 2nd observation desk. Allison LOVED riding on daddy's shoulder's all the way up.

Took a Shetland Pony ride in the Jardin du Luxembourg. Its a beautiful garden with lots of fun activities for kids. Allison wasn't too sure about touching the horses at first, let along riding one... but she warmed up and didn't want to leave when we were done.

Toured the Catacombs. They were pretty cool. Napoleon, who ordered the arrangment of the bones along the walls, must have had some serious OCD.

Visited Notre Dame. We wanted to climb the North Tower, but we had the stroller with us so they wouldn't let us (which they didn't have posted and didn't bother telling us until we'd stood in line for 45 minutes). It was still beautiful inside.

Its was a pretty cool visit to Paris, but we are so happy to be home now.

Number 13

So I told you earlier about 12 reasons Brian and I look forward to home. I forgot one. A big one. Here, in all is glory, is number 13.

AIR CONDITIONING!!!

Europe is largely un-air conditioned. It hasn't been a big problem... we had a mild summer in Berlin and London is mild by nature, but Paris has been hot. Nigh unto down right miserable. We're talking close to 30° C every day (thats around 85° F for all your non-metric gurus out there) and humid, and the evenings stay very warm. I think it goes without saying that we are so anxious to get back to our nice, centrally air conditioned apartment.

Allison Turns One!

I can't believe that my little baby is officially one! Allison spent her birthday at the Lourve.

She wasn't too much of a fan of all the crowds at the Mona Lisa...

All the looking at old stuff sure tuckered that poor girl out...

Her favorite part was splashing and dipping her feet in the fountains outside.

And she LOVED the chocolate cupcake mommy and daddy got her from a French patissarie (no, Brian's not helping her shove that in her face... he's keeping it from ending up in her lap!)

Happy birthday, little munchkin! Love you so, so much!