Everything That Keeps Me From Blogging

So, I've been getting some grief from a few of you faithful readers about my recent neglect of the blog. (Thank you for noticing, by the way.) Every day I put it on my mental to-do list, but somehow it keeps not happening.
But, after coming to the realization that for many of you, true happiness simply cannot be achieved without an update on our various exploits (or, at least, not without pictures of Jacob and Leila) I resolved on Friday morning that nothing was going to get in the way of my writing that long overdue blog post. But guess what? Lots of things did. So, I decided to take you on a little photo journey of my day to document everything that kept me from blogging.

I started the day by running five miles. I'm training for the Park City Marathon on August 22. These are my reeeally old running shoes, by the way, which were happily replaced on Saturday.

After getting ready for the day, I put Jacob to work on a craft. Here he is, painting a wooden birdhouse he picked out at the craft store. He kept referring to it as the temple (if you can't tell, it has a steeple). Then, when he was finished with it, he went out on the deck, held it up in the air and yelled, "Here you go, birds!" Oddly, they were not quick in responding to the invitation.

While Jacob covered the birdhouse, table, and himself with paint, I did the morning chores, then got to work on my own craft. This lovely quilt has been dominating my living room for a week now, and I am desperate to finish it.

It's taking a little while because, as you can see (at the top of the brown block), the stitches are very small, and I have to do lots of them. I guess that's what quilting is. Anyway, I've been using every free minute I have to try to get this done. Unfortunately, Bryon just enlightened me to the fact that I can actually pick up the frame and put it against the wall when I'm not quilting, so it's not in the way. Without the motivation of reclaiming my living room, I'm not sure when I'll ever finish it.

So, I worked on the quilt all morning, thinking I could blog after lunch during "nap time" when there was peace and quiet. That is until...

I went to check on Jacob while he was supposedly napping, and discovered this.

This devastation is particularly impressive considering I made a pointed effort of removing everything from the room that he could get into, before I put him down for his nap. Obviously, my mind does not work like a two year old's. He found some lotion in a drawer and spread it all over his chair, his rug, and of course himself. Oh, and I didn't realize this until after I took the picture, but he also removed his pants and underwear.

So, instead of blogging, I spent the afternoon encouraging Jacob to "help" clean up the mess he made, and cleaning up my own messes in preparation for a babysitter coming that night.

Leila was the only thing in my day that wasn't an excuse to not blog. She just played happily on the floor with her toys. (By the way, every time Jacob got loose and made it to the living room, he tried to put that plastic bucket on Leila's head.) Anyway, all the tummy time she's been getting is paying off. This weekend she got up on her hands and knees, and she's already doing the commando crawl. Looks like baby proofing time again.

So, suddenly it was time to leave on our date, and the blog post had not happened. But, I hope you'll all be forgiving, especially since I'm staying up late tonight to finally get it done. And of course, since it's been so long since I've posted anything, I have a few parting pictures for you of the little ones.

Jacob and Leila had their frist bath together tonight. Leila loved it, and Jacob...

Well, Jacob tried to make her drink bath water. Lovely.

Here are Jacob and Leila in their Easter clothes. We'll get professional pictures done soon, but hopefully this will tide you over until then.

Now that I've used every excuse in the book, I'll try to be more proactive about keeping current on the blog. Feel free to point it out to me again, though, if I don't.

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

A perfect day yesterday for kite flying. We went to the field across the street on the SLCC campus and Jacob loved it. Not only did he love seeing his kite in the air, but he even laughed whenever it crashed into the ground. We had a lot of fun.

Jacob and Daddy reigning in the kite. Jacob got to the point that he could do it on his own.

It took awhile to get the kite ready for flying (we had some string issues) so Jacob played with the tails that were flapping around, and found that very entertaining.

Wrestling with the string. We ended up doing some cutting and tying. Yay for Bryon's knot-tying abilities. I knew being an Eagle scout was good for something.

Yeah, Jacob's not actually flying the kite here. But he's having fun holding the handle while Daddy tied knots.

Love this.

PS- We just got back last week from our trip to Phoenix. I'll post about it soon.

A Lovely Day

Valentine's Day 2009

We had a lovely Valentine's Day (ha ha, get it?) celebrating as a family. For starters, we decorated Valentine's cookies with Aunt Trenda and Aunt April, and cousins Cade and Ambree.
They all thought the cookie cutters were a lot of fun, even if we did end up redoing most of the ones they cut out.
Jacob was most excited about the various candies we had to put on the cookies. He kept asking, "More this one?" and pointing at the conversation hearts. Once I let him get down to play, he would occassionally sneak back and steal a candy heart or two.

Leila contributed to the cookies by chillin' here and letting me work. What a good baby!

Saturday morning we had heart-shaped pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream. By the way, heart-shaped pancakes are harder to make than you'd think.
Jacob eating his strawberries and blueberries. His pancakes were already gone by the time I got the camera out.

We got a bunch of snow that morning, so decided it was the perfect day to go sledding. Jacob got sprayed in the face with snow the first time down, and decided that wasn't any fun. So, we built a snowman and chased each other around in the snow.

He also let me pull him in the sled, but he kept hollering, "Walk SLOW, Mommy!!" What happened to my daring little boy? He did eventually warm up to the idea of sledding (on a very small hill) and enjoyed racing Daddy. Then, as a special Valentine's Day present for us, he fell asleep on the way home from sledding and didn't wake up all night! Sweet! So, Bryon and I were able to enjoy a quiet dinner for two.
Bryon made me some fabulous penne pesto, bruschetta, and bread sticks. My present to him was his favorite chocolate layer cake, which tasted way better than it looked, thus no picture. Bryon also got me an amathyst ring from this site: www.silverjewelryclub.com, which has some great jewelry.

It was a very fun Valentine's Day for all of us!

Leila all ready to go sledding. She slept in her carrier the entire time...but she sure looked cute doing it!

Jacob showing Daddy the snow. He loved having 'snowball fights' which consisted of him running up to you, and setting a pile of snow on you, then running away laughing.

Ambree, Trenda, and Jacob decorating cookies.

April helping Cade. He had very specific instructions for April, and his cookies were masterpieces.

The best picture to come out of cookie decorating. Ambree's enjoying her creation, which has about 8 cookie's worth of frosting on it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yeah, so, the Christmas card thing didn't so much happen this year, and what was going to be a New Year's card once we got family pictures, turned in to a Valentine's card. Hey, at least it wasn't Memorial Day! So, for all of you blog friends who don't get a real card in the mail, just know that we love you because you save us the price of a stamp!

Family Pictures Winter 2009

I've been meaning to post this for awhile now. We had family pictures done, and I'm really happy with the way they turned out, especially considering the subjects the photographer had to work with. Anyway, she was awesome, so if any of you are looking for someone to do family pictures, check out her blog at http://www.candidexpressiontm.blogspot.com/ Enjoy!

Goodbye, Edna; Hello, Minivan

R.I.P

Edna Chrysler

1991-2008

Okay, so Edna isn't really dead. Just dead to me. For those of you who don't know, this beautiful '91 Chrysler New Yorker has been my car since I got my learner's permit. I would never have imagined as a Sophomore in high school, driving my friends to lunch, that I'd one day be hauling around two kids in car seats in that same car. Edna has exceeded my grandest expectations, enduring thousands of miles as I drove back and forth between Brigham and Provo, and giving me the ability to work after I graduated from college, when Bryon and I definitely couldn't have afforded two cars. Having this reliable old dame (and no car payment) all these years has been a great blessing, and I'm sad to see her go.
Ah, I'll never forget her plush velvet seats, faux wood paneling, and all her little quirks I came to know and love so well. We just sold her yesterday (to maintain her dignity, I won't mention the price), and I had to restrain myself from calling out "Take good care of her!" as the new owner drove away. (Okay, not really, but I kind of thought it.)
But, there is a silver lining in seeing Edna go. As much as I loved her, I really hated trying to load kids into the back seat (especially since only one of the doors worked), and I'm extremely happy to now have a nice, new minivan, complete with automatic sliding doors.

Here I am with our new (for us, anyway) Chrysler Town & Country minivan (brand loyalty coincidental). It's been very nice so far, with lots of extra space, and separate captains chairs in the back, so Jacob can't throw his toys, shoes, juice box, etc. on Leila's head. I'm still adjusting to my new identity as a 'minivan mom,' but when you compare that to driving around a car targeted at the AARP crowd, you can't really consider this a step down.
So, yay for new cars! And best wishes to Edna. You will be missed.

New Look

Who doesn't love a good Before and After photo? Well, here ya go. I've been growing my hair out since Jacob was born (not on purpose. More as a result of laziness), but the length was getting kind of annoying. So, I decided to go for a new look. This is the shortest my hair has ever been, but I'm all about easy maintenance, and this style requires practically zero work. Anyway, here I am last night, bidding farewell to the long locks...

BEFORE

I decided to donate my hair to Locks of Love. This is actually the third time I've chopped off my hair and donated it. The stylist joked that I didn't even flinch when she cut it off, and I explained that when you have long hair, there comes a point when you move past attachment on to annoyance. When this happens, you're glad to see it go.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...

AFTER

It feels amazingly light, and I find it very weird to have my neck exposed (the last time my hair didn't cover the back of my neck was third grade!), but I definitely like the look, and I'm so excited to not have to do my hair. Seriously, she just put some gel in this and brushed it around a bit. No heat required! Awesome. By the way, she's an excellent stylist, if you're in the market. Her name's Memorie, and she's at Landis Salon here in Salt Lake. Unless of course you live in Brigham, in which case no one compares to April Miller.
Anyway, it's nice to have a change once in awhile, so I'm happy with it. Feel free to post comments telling me how cute it is!