What did I just tell you?

What did I just tell you?

Are you not listening?

I guess we need new couches anyway...

What can I do to make you more comfortable?

Thanksgiving at Dad's "Farm", Part II

These pictures are of loved ones that make long plane rides worth it: Dad, Lindsey and Rachel (also Tammy, Kurt and Trent--not pictured). It pains me that we literally only see each other a few times a year. We all live in a different state, so we count it as a miracle when we can get organized enough to all get together.


Hiking with Dad and Lindsey

Lily and her Aunty Linds

Me and Rachie

Thanksgiving at Dad's "Farm"

About a month ago my dad left big city Atlanta and moved to a tiny little town in Vermont, called Woodstock. He's always dreamed of having land and living a quiet little existence and now with his career winding down he jumped at the chance to live his dream. We thought he went crazy until we saw the place (we still think he's a little crazy). The population of the town is 1700. It is a picturesque, quaint little town and now with his land and his farmhouse and his tractor, etc. etc. my dad is a self-proclaimed "fake farmer." He has the land and the barn, just no cows to milk or sheep to graze...He lives in a cute farmhouse, built in 1790. Yes, you read that right. It is adorable and charming, but very funky. None of the walls or floors are straight, flat, square or perpendicular. If it weren't so dang far away I would go there every chance I could get. There aren't direct flights and the closest airport is a 1 1/2 hour drive from their house, so let's just say that flying/layovers/long car rides and Lily don't exactly paint a pretty picture. The first picture in this post is of how we survived our flight: tylenol before and sugar during (exemplary parents, we know). While we were there we had lots of fun with things that have wheels: atvs, motorcycles, tractors, etc. We each gained an embarrassing amount of weight for such a short trip because of my step-mom's fabulous and fattening cooking (Thanksgiving dinner was just the tip of the iceberg). The highlight of our trip aside from being with family we rarely get to see was driving to Sharon, Vermont to the birthplace of the prophet, Joseph Smith. We attended church and visited a monument erected in his honor and the small plot of land where his birth home rested. The peace and the spirit surrounding that place is hard to describe. Loved it! It was a great way to end the Thanksgiving holiday and made us so grateful for all that we are blessed with.

The longest flight of our lives

The barn, house, and swimming hole

Fun on wheels

Fun on wheels, Part II

The white bench is where the prophet's house rested.

Highlights of this Week

Okay...so I used to do these posts and I am going to try and get back in the habit. Like many, I'm sure, (I hope) I find life as a mom to be totally crazy much of the time, and if I don't stop and remind myself how lucky I am, and that I spent many a year looking forward to "arriving" here- I find myself focusing on the stressful things and not on the wonderful things. So here goes...

* Today's beautiful weather and the scenic mountains. Living in Michigan taught me that not only do I love the mountains, I REQUIRE them to feel at home, at peace...and also as a frame of reference because I have zero sense of direction. And I do mean zero.

* A very friendly neighbor who invited me to playgroup with the other neighbor/ward moms and kids even though my kid is not yet of playing age. I think she sensed that I needed to get out of my house.

* A wonderfully working dishwasher. Never had one until now.

* A very hot, very long shower during Lily's nap.

* A tantrum-free jaunt through IKEA.

* Christmas stuff hitting the shelves and the way it makes me giggle with delight.

* And a very well-timed call and a great conversation with a wonderful friend.

Our Very Own Randy

Yesterday's weather prompted the purchase of this cumbersome, way-too-big-but-we-think-she'll-grow-into-it ensemble, dubbed the "randy."

Tolerating it mildly.

I left the room for a second and heard sounds of struggle...

Followed by crying...well Lil was crying, and call me mean, but I was laughing my head off.

All very reminiscent of my favorite Christmas movie.
I LOVE winter, and I am already excited for Christmas!

Buddies

I came downstairs to this cute scene last Saturday. It is so fun to see Chris interact with Lil. She really hams it up for her dad. She seems to understand that Mom meets most of her needs, but Dad is more fun, a.k.a. he is the guy that'll throw you up in the air or hang you upside down (not my favorite trick of theirs.) And he is the guy to watch the Utes win with!

Life these days...

Hello Readers...assuming we still have any. I am finding it harder and harder to update this thing these days, for lots of reasons--3 in particular by the names of Lily, Ruby and Rex. But I am not ready to pull the plug on blogging and I still love reading all my friends' blogs so here goes...


This is my adorable girl doing her most recent trick- sitting up! I am loving every minute of being a mom. I can't believe that she is now 7 months old. It is a blast to watch her personality coming out. She is a sassy little drama queen, full of funny faces and pterodactyl-like noises. She is close to crawling and I am bracing myself for life to get even crazier when she becomes mobile!

This is our newest family member, Rex. He is a very sweet boy and we are glad Ruby has a playmate--although I must say that I feel very much like the mother of three children. These dogs are high-energy! They follow me around the house and can't bear to be apart from the rest of the family. Wherever I move throughout the house, I can be sure to have 8 little legs (soon enough it will be 10 little legs!) following close behind me.

Playing in the Pack n' Play

Lily in my favorite little yellow dress of hers.

This is our cute house. I'll post a picture of the front, but the inside still needs pictures to be hung, and lots of furniture to be purchased, etc. etc. We have moved into a wonderful neighborhood and ward, with no less than 21 babies having been born in the past year. We are finally settling into home-ownership. The idea quickly got knocked off it's pedestal in the 2nd week of living here. I will just say the modern-day-convenience gods had conspired against us...Things went something like this...closed on our home. Moved in. Washing machine broke-fixed it. S's car required very expensive repairs-fixed them. Broken sprinkler-fixed after three weeks of tinkering. Broken dryer-had to get that fixed too. C's car bites the dust- I mean completely. Sayonara '99 Subaru. Broken lawn mower- still in need of fixing. So all in all things are good now, but for a while we felt like the butt of a very mean joke.