Who does these things?

School Spirit = Crazy Hair

2012-01-27T09:54:00.000-07:00

Today is Crazy Hair Day at Bridget's school. I told her about it on Wednesday evening and she immediately began obsessing about how to do her hair. So many ideas! She discussed it with her friends on Thursday. Some of the friends knew exactly what they were going to do and others hadn't decided yet. We woke up a little earlier today so we'd have time to rat her hair. (She decided "jacked up" was the way to go.) Bridget has fine hair, so it was easy to make it really big. When she first saw it in the mirror she had to laugh hysterically for a full minute. Then she got nervous that other kids would look at her or that she would be the only one with crazy hair. We watched out the front window for the kids to start walking to the bus stop (the usual).

The first two kids we saw walking did not have crazy hair. I admit that I was freaking out a little on the inside wondering if I'd read her schedule wrong. That would put me in the Uncool Mom Hall of Fame.

Even Emil and Colin were laughing at Bridget's hair.

Especially Colin.

After a few tense minutes, one of my sweet piano students (a 5th grader) came around the corner with super crazy hair. She helped me encourage Bridget out the door, but Bridget did insist on wearing her hood over her crazy hair. Baby steps to the bus stop... :)

Family History Photo Monday: Katy's Fabulous Birthday Cake

2012-01-23T10:16:00.001-07:00

This photo is mostly of my Mom showing off. The neighbor lady (whose name I cannot think of to save my life right now... Edith? Ethel?) had a cake pan in the shape of Holly Hobbie and she helped Mom do the frosting. That is extreme Fun Mom. (Hahahaha - look at Jennie posing. And wearing a bib when she's five years old.)

Seeing this photo makes me think I need a housecoat. That's how moms could dress nice back in the day - they wore a housecoat over their clothes! It's been on my mind lately, sorry.

Happy Birthday on Thursday, Katy! Also, Happy Paul Newman Day on Thursday. :)

Sew & Tell Friday: Missing Mojo

2012-01-20T10:30:00.003-07:00

I took the whole month of December off. No piano students, no sewing. I devoted myself full time to being a Fun Mom. Now I'm exhausted and not in the mood to do stuff anymore. I want to be in the mood to sew. I bought some fabulous fabric, a tall stack of fat quarters of Moda Urban Chik's "Urban Cowgirl" and that has helped. I've also made myself sew a little bit every day. What do you know? I finished a quilt top yesterday. It's kind of pretty. I'm teaching a class on the Quiltsmart's Pumpkin Seed block at The Quilting Cottage on February 23rd. Tell your Utah County Friends! I thought it would be fun to have something big to display even though we're just doing a table runner in the class.

I used 3 Sisters "Etchings" fabrics (mostly the grays and reds from two layer cakes). I'm taking it in to be quilted right now. Hopefully seeing the finished product will make me want to finish some of the other stuff in the queue.

Check out Amy's blog today. Maybe you'll find your missing mojo. :)

Busy Babies

2012-01-20T07:40:00.001-07:00

One of my daily duties is prepping the house for the workers who come in every morning after their diapers are changed. I pull all the blinds up, lock the gate to the stairs, shut all the doors to bedrooms, put anything breakable out of arms reach. These guys need to be able to get down to business right away.

Colin's first order of business is dancing in front of this window like he was on the choir trip bus, see. Those socks aren't going to eat themselves!

Emil ("Captain America") is testing the strength of these curtains. We all feel safer knowing they can be pulled on with the strength of a 23 lb. baby and still not come down.

Look how serious these two take their jobs!

The dismount is key here. He'll need to tuck and roll just enough to get on the couch. Time for Mom to put down the camera and avoid some of the tears of the day.

Bridget the Skier

2012-01-17T12:17:00.000-07:00

One of Brian's Christmas presents to ~~himself~~ Bridget was gear for skiing, an official lesson or two, and a few winter Saturdays on the slopes with Daddy. Their first outing was last Saturday. I wasn't there so I don't have the great details, but Brian said she took to it right away. Bridget was in a class with other children her age and they were sent up the hill on a conveyor belt thing. I watched a video of Bridget appearing at the edge of the belt thing, getting off and skiing down a small hill, making a three-point turn, then skiing down another hill. She did it!

Look at that focus.

Brian said there were a few times when she just took off on her own when she was supposed to wait for one of the instructors. It's possible she couldn't hear very well, but I can just see her thinking she knew what to do and just did it.

Even with all that gear on and from the back, I would know that was Bridget. She has that nervous posture that I've seen many times. Just like the other times I've seen her get nervous like that, though, she went through with the adventure. Always brave.

Bridget asked me yesterday how many times I fell when I went skiing. "Too many to count." She only fell three times. She even demonstrated to me how to get up without using poles. Talk to me when you're 38 and you're only halfway down the tallest mountain you've ever been on.

We're counting down the days until they get to go again. For real - every morning we count down the days until it's a ski day again. :)

Family History Photos of the Week: New Baby Makenzie 1982

2012-01-16T10:17:00.000-07:00

My youngest sister Makenzie is turning 30 on Sunday! It's a big deal. I found a couple of very early photos of her, so that's what you're getting today.

That's me holding Makenzie. She looks so much like her own babies. How about that. :)

This would have been a month or so later on Makenzie's blessing day. She needs a bow in her hair! But the dress is very cute and the booties are adorable.

Makenzie's birthday was always a very big deal when she was little. She used to talk about it months ahead of time and get so excited about everything we were going to do to celebrate. Infectious! In a good way, of course. Birthdays tend to get less awesome as time goes on, but I hope the 30th is a good one, Makenzie. :)

Starting the New Year in Chubbuck

2012-01-11T15:15:00.000-07:00

That may sound very "Thrillsville," but compared to last New Year's Eve it was much more fun. (Last year we were in a hotel on the north rim of the Grand Canyon watching Pawn Stars.) We haven't been brave enough to stay the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house since the boys started walking and conducting special ops to get to things they aren't supposed to have. Other than the constant changing of poopy pants (we just made the switch from formula to whole milk - p.u.), we had a nice relaxing few days. Bridget insisted on watching "Singin' in the Rain" and "Pollyanna," the two movies she associates with Grandma's house. She also got some very rare alone time with Grandma and then with Grandpa. Jealous! It was also fun to be there with Uncle Aaron again. I'm sure he's the boys' favorite.

Emil and Colin played some duets with Aaron, then did some dancing. The usual.

This is a good representation of what we do at Grandma and Grandpa's house - sit at that table and eat good food and talk. We did have to keep a guard near the stairs to stop babies from sailing down them.

Colin's hair was CRAZY the whole weekend. My parents' house is super-charged. We even tried some Dapper Dan to get it to settle down for church and it didn't work.

For some reason there were a hundred cookies to decorate. I'm pretty sure it's just the three of them living at that house and yet there are always a hundred cookies somewhere. Bridget was very careful.

Mom put the magnets down low where the boys could reach. They fought over that sandwich magnet for a while before Colin conceded (always). Emil tried to eat it for the rest of the day. He KNEW it would be delicious if only he could bite into it!

Those are Emil's Afternoon Tea fingers. High class.

Family History Photo of the Week: Ice Cream Party at Grandma & Grandpa's House

2012-01-09T10:42:00.000-07:00

I have been looking for this photo for so long I was beginning to think I'd imagined it. We're at Grandma and Grandpa Furniss's house and Uncle Wayne is making ice cream. AND I'M POINTING A GUN AT SOMEONE WITH A MENACING LOOK ON MY FACE. What? WHAT?! It's the funniest thing ever. No one is even looking at me - inside or outside. Disturbing. So, from left to right we have Lance Furniss, Steve Furniss, Wayne Furniss, Jennie, Allyn, Katy (standing), Bryan Furniss. Inside sitting on the back of the couch is Mark Furniss and that's me with the charming dress and the gun.

Besides me being inexplicable, look how pretty Jennie's hair is. I wonder if the Primary sang the "Hello Song" to us that day.

Also, I wonder what happened next.

Best and Worst of 2011

2012-01-05T15:29:00.000-07:00

I love lists! I'm a little late with this one, but I'm having trouble getting going so far in 2012. Something about all that creativity and vacationing from my problems in December of 2011. I should go back and look closer, but I won't. This is mostly off the top of my head.

Best TV - Maybe it's because the second season starts on Sunday (PBS) and I'm really looking forward to it, but I'm going to give it to Downton Abbey. I thought I was just getting into another "bonnet" movie, but it was so different and interesting and thought-provoking. And beautiful! It's created by Julian Fellows, the same man who did "Remains of the Day." There are so many brilliant performances, but all you really need to know is Maggie Smith is in it. Also, the first season takes place just before World War I. The first scenes are the family's reaction to the Titanic sinking. Amazing how just changing the time period to something we're not used to seeing made the whole story fresh.

Worst TV - This is tough. I don't watch a show more than once if it's The Worst. We got rid of a bunch of channels early in the year, so I didn't have the option of getting caught up in a Real Housewives of Crazytown marathon or any of the Kardashian nonsense. (Man! That family is THE WORST. I so do not care about anything they do or say. They should go away.) I set my DVR to record the premiere of "Ringer" - a show that looked kind of promising. It ended up being unintentionally hilarious and I quickly took it off the DVR schedule. The tipping point for me was Sarah Michelle Gellar in a boat with herself, obviously filmed in a big water tank in a studio somewhere, going top speed with her hair not moving a muscle. Then she took a nap (?) and when she woke up, on the boat, her "sister" was gone! GONE! And for some reason it was the funniest scene ever. Missed again, Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Best Book I Read in 2011 - I usually read a lot. (I plan to do more in 2012 because Brian gave me a Kindle Fire for my birthday. Weee!) I did not read a lot in 2011. I did, however, read Bill Bryson's book "At Home" and LOVED it. He details the history of each room in a typical home and how it has evolved over the last thousand or so years. It was so much fun to learn where phrases like "room and board" came from. (The host used to offer a room and an actual board to put on your lap so you could eat your dinner off it.) The book also let me off the hook from making homemade bread if I don't feel like it. Speaking of wheat, Bryson writes, "Somebody must first separate out the grain and grind it into meal, then convert the meal into flour, then mix that with other components like yeast and salt to make dough. Then the dough must be kneaded to a particular consistency, and finally the resulting lump must be baked with precision and care. The scope for failure in the last step alone is so great that in every society in which bread has featured, baking has been turned over to professionals from the earliest stages." I love it! Bryson tickles my funny bone.

Worst Thing I Read in 2011 - This is ongoing, actually. Most of the flyers that come home from kindergarten with Bridget contain spelling errors. Her teacher is doing a fantastic job and I love it and Bridget loves school. If only someone spell checked these things! They're not even real words - surely the computer underlined them. Sigh.

Best Wisdom from Bridget - She blows my mind almost every day, but one of my favorite things Bridget said last year was about one of her classmates who never gets "green tickets." (When the kids do something good, they get a green ticket to go in a drawing for a dollar store prize at the end of the week.) Being cheeky, I said this little girl must be naughty if she never gets a green ticket. Bridget responded, "She's not naughty, she just makes bad choices." Whoa.

Worst Diaper Blow Out - This is quite an accomplishment. There were so many incidences to choose from and both Emil and Colin really made an effort in this category. We can only have one winner, though, and that was Emil B. I was parked in front of the house where Bridget takes swimming lessons and there was poop all over Emil's car seat, his clothes, his body... I used an entire to-go package of wipes. Once he was all cleaned up and I had them in the stroller to see the last five minutes of Bridget's lesson, I had to put him back in a poopy car seat that I couldn't quite get completely clean with no wet wipes. The final insult was me driving away without my precious stroller that I cannot live without. (Brian picked it up later in the day because I called him with an hysterical tone in my voice. It was the straw that broke this camel's back, I tell you!) So, Emil is the winner even though Colin had an epic blow out in the middle of the night and he had to take a bath, also in the middle of the night. He should have known - public blow out beats blow out within walking distance of a tub every time.

Best Movie (Kid's Choice) - We discovered some fun stuff this year; "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", "Megamind", "Tuck Everlasting" (I had to "accidentally" delete that one after so many viewings), Shreks 1-4 (sigh). I asked Bridget what her favorite was and she said "How to Train Your Dragon." It would be something different if I asked five minutes from now, but we'll go with that. I wish I liked the voice of Hiccup (Jay Baruchel). It sounds like he's imitating Christian Slater, who sounds like he's imitating Jack Nicholson. No. Just... no.

Worst Movie (Kid's Choice) - I'm not even going to ask Bridget, it had to be "Despicable Me." We saw it at the dollar theater and then rented it and both times Bridget paid NO attention to it. Because it was boring and not funny, that's why. The only parts that you'd even smile at were in the trailer. So it could have been a two and a half minute movie. Booo.

Best Movie - Like I said, we mostly saw movies on DVD and we did see "True Grit" at the dollar theater (shout out - again), which I enjoyed. I'm going to say it was "The Adjustment Bureau" because I didn't expect it to be good and it was! I often think about what my life would be like if I'd taken a different path. I don't wish I had taken a different path - I just think it would be interesting to see what it would look like. And I think I've said it before, I'll watch anything with Matt Damon in it. (Although, what was up with Fat Matt Damon most of last year? It was the haircut! Never have big hair, Matt Damon.)

Worst Movie - Tron:Legacy. There, I said it. No amount of 1980s nostalgia makes this movie good. The Dude didn't make this movie good. It was stupid, it was long, the main character ("actor" Garrett Hedlund) could have been played by an orange on a stick. But the worst part was taking that movie back to Blockbuster (yes, we're the last people on earth who still use Blockbuster) and it was on all the TVs there. AH! I made small talk (or so I thought) with the kid ringing me up and sympathized with him that they had to watch Tron:Legacy all day. Mistake. He thought it was awesome and proceeded to explain the first Tron and then give me the low down on Tron:Legacy. It's too late! I've already seen it!! And now I hate it even more.

I guess I know now why I don't do review posts very often anymore. Three days! But it's my favorite (that and smiling, of course). Thanks for indulging me.

Family History PHoto of the Week: Happy Birthday Grandpa Furniss 1978

2012-01-03T08:06:00.000-07:00

Nicole, Katy, and Jennie singing "Happy Birthday" to our Grandpa Furniss, January 24, 1978. I stole this picture right out of one of my parents' photo albums. ("I ripped this right out of a library book!") Anyone who has seen their photo albums is not shocked right now. Obviously my favorite thing about this photo is Katy's shower cap. Second favorite is that Jennie and I are both wearing jumpers. Hee!

Christmas!

2011-12-26T21:25:00.001-07:00

This year Christmas Eve was just like I remember it being as a kid - super long. We tried really hard to occupy the kids all day; I had Bridget help me make cinnamon rolls, we re-filled our luminaries on the porch and lit them, we made reindeer food and spread it out on the grass. All of that took up about an hour and a half. The rest of the day was just waiting and more waiting. The kids went to bed on time (Christmas miracle), then Brian and I stayed up to watch "Christmas Vacation" and... that's it. :)

Here is Colin behind the barricade on Christmas Eve.

Emil was the first child up on Christmas morning, but since it was 5:00 Brian gave him a bottle and then put him back in bed. Bridget woke up at 7:45 and we made her wait in her doorway until we had the diapers changed and the babies could come out too.

A hoola hoop and a scooter!! The dreams came true. Colin immediately checked under the hood of his new ride. Emil noticed our bedroom door was open, so he went to see about getting all the stuff out of Daddy's nightstand drawer. We let them open their pajamas on Christmas Eve. Bridget has now worn that nightgown for three nights in a row. :)

This is the first that Colin and Emil have had access to the tree and everything under it. In between opening gifts I'd find one of them sucking on an ornament. I really can't wait to put everything back in the boxes until next year. Although I've heard it's worse with two year-old twins. Maybe 2012 is the year we have an aluminum tree. Or a Festivus Pole. Emil would rock at the Feats of Strength.

Colin and Emil got some sweet wooden train cars from Aunt Jennie and Uncle Ben. They know what boys need.

Emil is wondering what all the fuss is about these candy canes. They're not that delicious with the plastic on. I love that he is standing in this photo. He walks around like bear. Cute cute cute.

As is tradition, Daddy is wearing everything he's opened so far. Emil is wearing the hoodie from Grandma Peggy. (That is a new ski coat he's opening, not a blender.)

The boys were so crazy and destructive that we finally put them into their high chairs (and the tree back behind its barricade). I had to get a shot of Bridget jumping on the bubble wrap in the background. It was a noisy morning.

Since it hadn't been outside yet, we let Bridget ride her new scooter in the house on Christmas morning. Daddy is setting up my new iPod Touch and the speaker deck he got for me. Hooray! Music is back upstairs! We finished that puzzle on the dining room table earlier today and then we started another one.

We ate our cinnamon rolls and played with our new toys, then got all dressed up for church. Bridget is wearing the dress and headband from Mama. She lost another tooth on the 23rd and she's still unsure how to smile without it.

Church was lovely with the singing and nice talks. Not so lovely were our baby boys who ran wild in the gym (we thought we'd try the back of the chapel to see if it was any better than the front - it is not) and screeched and went boneless when we caught up with them. Merry Christmas to everyone at church. I did get to sing with the choir, which I love.

We were off to Grandma and Grandpa's after church. They had crackers and summer sausage and chocolates and ham and hard rolls. Brian made another cheese ball, too. Ahhhh.

Colin and Emil will be the death of all the fun musical toys at Grandma and Grandpa's house. They did make it through Nate, though. Maybe there's hope.

"Well, hello, Santa. We meet again."

After everything had been opened at our house, Brian asked Bridget if she got everything she wanted. "I got everything I asked for except my wings." Sniff sniff. Good thing Grandma and Grandpa came through.

This year we got Grandpa a birdseed chalet. A birdhouse made of birdseed! Don't worry, I didn't make it. Grandma got a picture of us and a calendar with all the faces of the people in her family.

Janessa, Emil, and Brian are watching Grandma and Grandpa open their gifts.

We let Bridget bring her scooter to Grandma's to show it off. She's wearing the skirt from Mama, the headband from Aunt Jennie, and the wings from Grandma and Grandpa. Oh, perfect day!

I know this photo is out of focus, but you have to love Emil's face here. Grandpa likes to pretend he's a horsey and take the small kids for rides on his shoulders. Emil LOVES to be thrown up in the air and that kind of craziness. This was his favorite thing on Christmas Day.

I had to include this photo of all of us because we all have our own brand of crazy eyes happening here. It was time to go home and go to bed. What a wonderful Christmas season and Christmas Day we had this year! I'm going to treasure it. :)

Family History Photo Monday: Christmas Chaos 1978 and 1979

2011-12-26T06:44:00.000-07:00

I posted a color photo from Christmas 1978 in January of this year. I found the proof sheet with a few chaotic shots (that reminded me of our Christmas morning yesterday) from that same morning.

That's Allyn on the left cussing with Katy, Mom, Jennie holding the Candy Land/Bingo game, and Uncle Mark. I'm only posting this because of Allyn's face. Don't mess.

I can see three new dolls in this photo and there are a whole lot of presents still under the tree. And there's our wagon! Good times.

This was on the same proof sheet, so we must have celebrated Jennie's birthday while we were at Grandma's. What an angelic face. :)

This is only shot I found from Christmas the next year, 1979. Everyone is so serious! Or maybe tired from all our dreams coming true? I wonder if the curlers in our hair mean that it was also Sunday. I noticed that Jennie, Katy and I are wearing necklaces and I remember those little hearts with a tiny birthstone in the middle of them. Awww.

Swedish Christmas Traditions & French General Lone Star Quilt

2011-12-25T11:59:00.000-07:00

Ahhh! We've had our Christmas morning and all the dreams came true. While I'm downloading my CDs to my itunes library (I got an ipod touch and a speaker deck thing-y to listen to it upstairs!), I'm going to do a quick report of one of our Christmas Countdown Chain activities and reveal the lone star quilt I made for Katy's family this year. Multi-tasking! I've made it an art form. (My brother-in-law, Ben, once told me my life must be very "symmetrical." He always uses exactly the right words.)

Three of our chain activities were honoring our German, English, and Swedish ancestors by having one of their traditional meals and talking about their crazy Christmas traditions. For the Swedish dinner we had meatballs with mashed potatoes and cream sauce from a mix I bought at Ikea. Swedish! I read online that one of the Swedish treats was something called "pink caramels." Sounds cute, right? But it's just a regular ol' caramel with pink peppercorns ground on top. Since Mom, Dad, and Aaron were joining us for dinner, Mom jumped on my bandwagon for finding pink truffles for our treat.

I found these raspberry and white chocolate truffles at Dear Lizzie in Alpine. They were beautiful in my mouth, too. In my research I also discovered that a Christmas tradition in Sweden is ornaments made of hay. We got an angel made of hay for a wedding present and it was strange at the time, but we've always put her on top of our tree instead of a star. Who knew?

My parents were staying with us because Dad sang the baritone solos for the Utah Oratorio Society's Messiah performance over that weekend. Brian and I were able to go to the Sunday performance. It was heavenly. I cried like a baby. And the boys got to open gifts from Grandma and Grandpa a day before their birthday. Please take note of Emil's tie. Hee!

I've taken a break from sewing for most of December. I think the only thing I've done all month is the blind stitch hem on Katy and Matt's quilt. I'm getting excited to start some new projects over the next week or so. Remember how last year I started my own tradition of making a lone star quilt for the sibling I give a gift to for Christmas? 'Member that? It's an homage to our Great Grandma Rhoda Paskett Lee. She made lone star quilts for her children and grandchildren. Here is the one I made for Katy & Matt.

She asked for a black and white one. I searched and searched for a combination of black and white fabrics that I liked, but it didn't happen. Until I'd finished this and it was already December. Katy has five daughters and the pinks and reds made me think of a girl-y household. Sorry, Matt. I'm sure he's used to it by now anyway.

The back is one of the French General woven fabrics that are kind of to-die-for, I think. It will look good with black, Katy! I promise!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Just Hear Those Sleigh Bells Ringin'...

2011-12-23T07:39:00.000-07:00

The title today comes from the Mr. and Mrs. Claus at Grandma's house. Those two love singing that song! Actually, some of grandkids who shall remain nameless (since three of them are mine) like to push the buttons on the Mr. and Mrs. Claus and make them sing that song.

We had our annual Christmas party with Brian's side of the family last Saturday. I prepared so many presents and Brian made a delicious cheese ball and we forgot to bring food for our babies. Woops. They mostly eat people food now anyway, but Emil and Colin got pretty unruly after a few hours. Thank goodness Santa came early on. Colin was called up first (the youngest grandchild by one minute) and he was not concerned about the situation. He probably just wanted Santa's glasses.

Emil was getting ready to wail and make a dive for me, but Santa distracted him with the sound of wrapping paper. Crisis averted.

Bridget was very brave this year. She has repeated what she wants so many times that it was easy to talk to Santa. "A hoola hoop and a scooter." :)

Everyone gets their turn to tell Santa what they want. Since he's been coming to our family parties for so many years, he knows all of us well. He did one thing different this year, he sang a song. Emil loves music - he was riveted by the performance.

Another tradition is having all the kids take a photo with Santa. I don't know if it's because they're all so big now or what, but it seems like a lot of kids all the sudden. I guess we did add two baby boys and Linzy's husband since last year. Still!

Then Bridget and Abby flew to the window and threw up the sash...

Santa drives his truck when it's not Christmas Eve. Those reindeer need to rest up.

That concludes my picture-taking for the night. It's a sweaty time when we're at a house other than our own trying to keep the babies out of danger. I need two hands. One last image - Brian mentioned how fun it was for him to see his Grandpa sit on Santa's lap because it seemed like they knew each other. How cool that his Grandpa was friends with Santa! Adorable.

The party really started after Santa left. We ate great food (sandwiches and salads and crackers with cheese ball), played our White Elephant Gift Keep or Steal Game (we usually call it the Dice Game, but we didn't use dice this year), exchanged presents with cousins and siblings, heard the Christmas story read by Grandpa. It's a big deal. :)

Nicole's First Birthday

2011-12-21T09:22:00.000-07:00

I know it's not Monday and that I've already posted family history photos this week, but this picture is appropriate for today. It's my birthday! Look at the appreciation on my face for that adorable bunny cake. That's my Great Grandpa Milton England in the background. My Mom clearly went to a lot of trouble making a cute cake and all I did for Emil and Colin was buy a cupcake for each of them. The difference here is my Mom is 24 years-old when I am having my first birthday and I am 38 years-old when my twins are having their first birthday. Ahhh. :)

ONE

2011-12-19T22:25:00.000-07:00

Our baby boys turned one year old today. Of course we've been reminiscing about the day they were born and it's funny how it's still so fresh. By this time last year we didn't know if we would get to take them home - we didn't know if they would be part of our family. A year ago tomorrow we didn't know if Emil would be healthy. It seems amazing that we ever had those questions. They've made Brian, me, and Bridget more joyful, more engaged, more loving. They've made everything better, and I didn't think that was possible. Happy Birthday, Emil and Colin!

They each got their own chocolate and peppermint cupcake with a candle tonight (that's on video instead of still) and we watched them make a huge mess. And I put crowns on them. They fought that pretty hard until the cupcakes appeared, then they forgot all about those awesome crowns and went to work. Very low-key (especially compared to Bridget's first birthday), but we're partied out and this might be the only year we can get away with cupcakes and a song.

Emil walked more than he crawled today. He hid behind the wall and played peek-a-boo with me and laughed and laughed. Colin has been walking for a while and turning on one foot when he wants to go another direction. It's the most fun to watch. It doesn't matter if we have two of the same toy - that just means one of them has to be holding both toys. They're starting to wrestle each other a little and sometimes I catch them "talking." In the last two photos you can see Colin's hand resting on Emil's tray. Just a little check to make sure he's close. :)

Family History Photo Monday: Christmas Morning 1953

2011-12-19T08:21:00.000-07:00

I've been missing my Grandpa Furniss the last few weeks. He has been part of my Christmas in some way my whole life - this is the first one without him. That's probably why the photos I have today are making me a little emotional. He's not in any of them, but he took all of them and they have his signature. He captured such beautiful moments and there is that touch of humor in a few, too. These are from his proof sheet of photos from Christmas morning in 1954. (Mom will have to correct the year if I got it wrong. This is one of the few proof sheets without a date on it.)

Peggy, Mark, and Carol opening a strange looking gift. My Uncle Mark is my favorite in all of these photos. He couldn't be more adorable.

A top! Look at their cute little slippers. This isn't their house on Fairmont, right?

This could not be more classic. Mark has big plans for that dollhouse.

Again, so cute I can't stand it.

I don't know why, but I cry every single time I see this picture. My Grandma Carol's birthday was on Christmas Day. Look how happy she is! In all the photos, not just this one. She just loved her kids.

Cookies With Friends

2011-12-17T07:41:00.001-07:00

I know, I know - another post. The thing is that I'm working on my 2011 blog book (at Blurb, in case you were wondering) and I can't put off these December activities because I want to finish the book during the holiday before piano lessons start again. It's for the kids! No, it's for me. I've been patting myself on the back every time I go to edit anything in our book because I took pictures and documented our first year of having twins. I did it! It's all there! It really happened. :)

Our Christmas Countdown Chain activity for Friday was "Cookies with Friends." We've had to move a few things around to accommodate last minute ideas and this was one of them. Angelyn suggested it a week or so ago and we had to do it - it's just not the holiday until we do the cookie decorating. I provided the cookie dough (Bridget and I made cookies earlier this month and I froze half of the dough - smarty smart smart) and the location. Angelyn brought Tyce and Lauren and frosting and cookie cutters (I have a few, but she has a collection). Kristi brought Clara, Eddie, Henry and a tag-along Austin and some sprinkles that weren't Easter themed. (Bridget told me later that they played Freeze-Tag Special. "Austin called it 'Special.' The kids play Freeze Tag at the bus stop. I don't understand Freeze Tag." Hahahahaha!) I didn't think we'd have enough cookie dough and I almost made more, but each kid ended up doing at least two cookies. We definitely didn't need more.

Look at Colin in the background here. He loves Angelyn's purse so so much. Before we started decorating, he put on Emil's Woody hat and smiled big for the kids. Why am I not surprised that he's a show-off. :) I found Emil looking out the front window by himself a few times. He wasn't enjoying the action as much as Colin did.

Notice where Lauren's left hand is - she's got this, Mom.

Bridget and Clara are expert at this by now. They use lots and lots of sprinkles.

Eddie, Henry, Kristi, Tyce, and Austin hard at work.

See? Lots and lots of sprinkles.

I asked all the kids to take a bite for a picture and Tyce and Eddie's were the only ones in focus. Sorry!

I posted the recipe for the cookies on The Seven Bum Kitchen if all this talk of cookies has made you want to do some yourself. It's from the Cook's Illustrated Magazine November/December issue. I highly recommend that magazine, by the way. No ads - all good information and recipes. It's fantastic. (Also, we used store-bought frosting for this activity. Easy peasy.)

The Lights at Temple Square

2011-12-16T11:44:00.002-07:00

I worked at the Church Office Building on Temple Square from 2001 to 2006. Every year at Christmas time I was asked to play background music on the grand piano in the lobby during an hour of my choosing, once a week in December. One year it was 4:15 to 5:15 in the evening. When I was finished, I'd go out to the bus stop to catch my bus home. One time as I was leaving the building and walking through the middle of Temple Square to my bus stop, every light on every tree suddenly came on. It was all I could do not to drop to my knees, such a rush of emotion! I think I did start crying, too. Of course.

My experiences seeing the lights on Temple Square with the rest of the masses - looking for parking, standing shoulder to shoulder with other people trying to see the same things - have not been as awe-inspiring, but I still enjoy it and I still want to go there. If only to remember how I felt that day I saw the lights turn on. It was fun to take the kids last night and walk all over the place. Downtown is really looking good.

Must Be SANTA!!!!

2011-12-15T15:22:00.000-07:00

Today was Bridget's Christmas concert at school. She has been referring to it as her "play" for the last month. We lost the December calendar and I almost went crazy wondering what the heck she was talking about. ("You have to sign the paper or I CAN'T BE IN THE PLAY. Call Mrs. McCann. CALL HER." Oh. My.) Thankfully Mrs. McCann sent home another calendar and my little kindergartner's code was finally broken. (CODE: It's a Christmas concert, not a play. CODE: FINE.) I have to hand it to my sweet Bridget. She was Student of the Month in November for her class! I still can't say that out loud without bursting into Olympic tears. We put her Major Award on the fridge and it will probably never come off.
All the kids in Bridget's class were asked to wear their pajamas to school. We chose very carefully and Bridget insisted I drive her to school today because she didn't want to ride the bus in her pajamas. The funny part about that is I totally get that, so I did it. The babies and I showed up very early and some friends helped me secure chairs for Grandma and Grandpa. I know Bridget loved having them there, but I think I loved it more. How did I think I was going to video and take pictures with two crazy boys? Duh.

The kindergarten classes sang "Must Be Santa" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Did you know they say "LIKE BASEBALL" instead of "LIKE MONOPOLY" after the reindeer don't let Rudolph join in any reindeer games? No wonder Bridget kept giving me weird looks when we'd sing it at home. (Is the girl next to Bridget waving a gang sign? What's that about.) When Bridget is nervous, she often cries. I thought she was going to cry the whole time she was up there, but she powered through and sang all the words and did the actions. She's always so little!

When we got home, Bridget had lots of stuff to show us. (Her backpack is the prize find for the boys. They love to suck on it.) There were lots of fun treasures in this paper bag.

This is Bridget's life. Emil and Colin are so grabby.

She'd only been home for a little while when Bridget said she wished she could do the whole program again. Ha!

Colin was in the DEPTHS OF DESPAIR throughout this unveiling of everything in the backpack. (Do you like my Christmas tree barricade? I found Colin hunched under the tree the other day. Merry Christmas to me!)

That is until Bridget introduced him to bubbles. Emil is on his way over to me to try to knock me over.

Emil is surrounded by all his favorite toys. He's pretty rough with those books, but he loves them almost as much as Colin does.

This post is brought to you by a busy morning, late afternoon naps, and a 32 oz. Dr. Pepper.

Family History Photo Monday: Christmas 1974 at Grandma's House

2011-12-12T05:30:00.000-07:00

Christmas morning at Grandma's house in 1974! And it's early, for Jennie and me anyway. Serious bed face in the next few pictures. I love these photos. My babies are the same age now that I am in these pictures. My pants are rolled in half (did they not double roll pant legs in the 1970s?). There are quite a few of these, but only because I couldn't choose.

Awwww. That's my Uncle Mark saying hello to me while Jennie tries to open something. What a sweet expression on Uncle Mark's face. No one can resist a one year-old baby.

What a great reaction on my Grandma's face! It looks like she opened a watch and that perhaps Jennie and I have not noticed Grandma until this moment. She was still wearing that bathrobe when I was in college.

I'm including this one because of the sweet dollies on the piano. They're from Grandma Furniss to me and Jennie. How lucky were we? I bet it was fun to buy stuff for two little granddaughters.

It's the dog! In the front room!! I look ridiculous. Couldn't those pants be hemmed, Mom? And moccasins? The good news is I'm walking and not scared of a dog. The better news is the look on Jennie's face. You can tell she's been around the block a few more times than I have. Dogs cannot be trusted.

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out, Kid

2011-12-07T07:57:00.001-07:00

We visited Santa last night at Thanksgiving Point. It's the first time I've experienced a snaking line, crying children, snappy parents, and flashing camera lights to see him. My kids didn't make a peep the whole time we were in line, though. Angels! I wanted all three of them in the picture (I'm guessing three separate pictures would have been the death of all of us) and this Santa was up to the challenge. He's huge. Can you tell from the photo that he is huge? Even his face is huge. HO HO HO! We also got to meet some reindeer and hear an Australian guy sing "Silent Night" after we saw Santa. A good night was had by all.

Christmas Chain

2011-12-06T07:18:00.001-07:00

My sister Melissa stole the idea of doing a paper chain Christmas countdown with activities during the month of December to keep her kids from popping around the house like popcorn for 25 days straight. This year I'm stealing the idea from her since I suddenly have a child who can't stand it and wishes it was Christmas TODAY. Every day. Bridget and I made the chain together (next year I need to surprise her) and I think we may have made it a few days too early since we have conflicting activities now. So far we've had a few Christmas movie nights, a family birthday party at Grandma's, Christmas shopping, and This Is The Place Heritage Park. I knew we'd have to do that last one early in the month because it would take some serious Christmas spirit to get us out there with the babies. We went to The Corner Bakery for dinner, then drove around The Avenues in Salt Lake instead of going a block and a half the other direction. Bah. We got back on track quickly, though.

It was so cold! This Is The Place (TITP) is all about life in the 1850s in Utah. It's several acres of land with houses and hotels decked out the way they would have been at that time. For Christmas they have a different activity in each building. We made a Christmas card on an old printing press, bought candy at the general store, did crafts at the social hall, wrote a letter to Santa and burned it in the fire place so the ashes would fly up and the wishes would come true (love that), visited "Father Christmas" at the main Visitors' Center.

My favorite part of the evening, though, was their live Nativity in a real barn. A couple of "shepherds" waited by a fire until it was just our little family ready to go in, then they led us very quietly into the barn. We could hear a real baby crying as we walked toward the stall and then we saw the actors there playing Mary and Joseph with Baby Jesus. We stood there watching them for a few minutes and a couple of "wise men" came in and quietly put their gifts in front of the baby. All of us were mesmerized. We didn't talk for a minute after we walked out of the barn, then Bridget whispered to me, "I liked seeing the Baby Jesus." I even heard her telling Clara about it yesterday. I'm so glad that was her take-away from the experience. :)

Bridget in the candy store. That candy garland is pretty awesome. I should steal that idea too.

Bridget doing some crafts while Daddy entertains the boys. Emil B. was not having most of this activity. We bundled him up so much that he was too warm. Woops.

I couldn't resist taking a photo of this tableau - a sewing machine in the back room of one of the houses, right next to a big window. That's exactly where I would have put it, too. :)

Bridget made an icicle ornament and she checked its sparkle at every lamp post.

Watching her wishes go up the chimney. Note the rocking chair and dutch oven next to the fire.

I secretly didn't want Bridget to sit on Father Christmas's lap since visiting Santa is our activity tonight, but we also didn't want the evening to end in tears (which it would have). This Santa was pretty good. I've always found the "Father Christmas"-type Santa a little creepy, though. Bridget is so nervous right here. She hates talking to Santa. The kid right before her gave Santa a big ol' hug. Not so much for my girl. :)

Family History Photo Monday: 6th Grade Christmas Concert 1986

2011-12-05T06:36:00.001-07:00

One of the legends I like to share with my piano students is the Christmas Concert at Edahow Elementary in 1986. I was accompanying the numbers my grade sang. As you can see from the photo (if you'll stop looking at my ridiculous hair for a moment), I was using individual sheets of music that were not weighted down by anything. During this number, someone entered the gym/cafeteria from an outside door and a cold gust of wind blew through the room. ("A gust of wind. Enter Felix with a not-so-bright look on his face...") My music sheets went flying off the piano. I can remember hearing gasps of horror from the audience. The legendary part is that I kept playing because I had the whole song memorized. My Grandma Shirley (she was in the audience) cried when she told Brian about it 20 years later - it was pretty dramatic. That blonde woman leaning on the piano totally lost her mind when it happened, too. Anyway, it reminds me that kids are much more brave than we sometimes give them credit for and always put your sheet music in plastic sleeves or tape them up. Duh.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jog

2011-12-02T06:45:00.001-07:00

Remember two years ago when my brother, Aaron, left for his mission in Peru? Does 2009 seem like yesterday to anyone else? Sometimes the only evidence I have that it wasn't yesterday is this blog and my children. Anyway! Aaron served an honorable, beautiful mission and he is home again. We saw him for a few minutes the day after he got home and he and my Mom went to Vermont to watch Jennie's son, Taylor, in his high school production of "Singin' in the Rain." Last Sunday we heard Aaron speak in church (barely - the guy that spoke before him went off the rails a little and spoke for 30 minutes) and then we had a wonderful lunch at my parents' house. It's nice to have him back and it was nice to have a missionary in the family again. :)


I finished the binding on his quilt in the car. Aaron's friend Kyler really liked it. I should find his Mom and tell her to build him a T-shirt quilt.


Some of Aaron's high school friends came to hear him speak and eat home-cooked food.


They're looking at a yearbook here.


My cousin David and his wife Wendy came with their five children. What a pleasure they are! I think it's been 10 years since I've seen them. They have one daughter, Anna. I asked Bridget if I could set her up with the dollies downstairs and she answered, "You can set me up with Anna." Ha!


There were baby boys everywhere! That's Emil in the foreground, then Ian tugging on his ear and Colin trying to take a nap behind Ian. A little sidebar, look how Emil is sitting. He has such a big bum and legs and yet he is so flexible.

Colin reads everything he can get his hands on. He was so excited to find out the meaning of life.

Let me see if I can get this right - Cassidy, Tyler, Kyler, Ben, Aaron, Michelle, and Chelsey. (I checked Facebook AFTER I wrote down all those names and I got them all right! Win.)

We took this picture in the same spot two years ago. Makenzie had a baby girl and moved, Rob has a son, and I have two more kids, but otherwise everything is the same. :)

Speaking of Miss Ruby. I wish this was in focus - she is so cute!

I love this picture. I don't often catch Brian with the smile he uses in real life.

We drove to Pocatello and back on Sunday, which worked out well since the babies got to sleep in their own beds and everything. We had to use our combined repertoire of songs to sing to Emil during the last 45 minutes when he was losing his mind on the way home, but otherwise it was great. It's always so nice to be with family and the occasion made it even nicer. After everyone else had gone, we demanded a performance from my Mom and Dad and they obliged. :) That's always my favorite part.

Giving Thanks

2011-11-30T07:38:00.001-07:00

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Brian's family this year. Kyle and Diana hosted and their house seemed a lot more full this time than it did two years ago. We added two grown-ups and two babies, but did that really make the difference? Everyone was at the top of their game with the food this year. Now if only we'd add pie for breakfast on Thanksgiving in Brian's family the way my Mom does... (Thanks to Melissa and her in-laws for coming up with that awesome tradition.) I'm also grateful to the teenagers who mostly posed for the camera this year. It's just nice to see your beautiful faces instead of your hands. Ha!


Nate is a bull in a china shop except with Bridget. He always greets her with a careful hug. (Note Diana's fun turkey place holders. I saw Grandpa eating one before it was even time for pie.)


Nicolette and Kalvin - so civilized. :)


Abby and Janessa looking so cute even though Janessa told me not to take her picture because she was growing out her eyebrows. I'm so mean for writing that down, but it's still making me laugh. Janessa is the best! She is so good to our kids and Grandma and we love her THE MOST.


I'm tempted to go look in McKade's closet to see if he has a dozen of those shirts in there. Is it his Family Party Shirt? Shawn was most uncooperative when I tried to get him to look at the camera. Not cool.


I'm including this picture because of the science happening on Hal's plate. He has stacked his meat and his roll, the gravy is in a perfect lake in the middle of his potatoes and he has saved exactly 1/3 of the room for whatever else is coming around the table.


Speaking of science, Brian dished up his food AND my food with Grabby McThrow-y sitting in his lap. (That is my sweet potato souffle he's dishing up. I'm going to admit that it was the hands-down best thing anyone has ever eaten.)


The Newlyweds! Linzy and Nick.


That's how good the food was - we had babies jumping on our laps and trying to get our food and we still enjoyed it.


One of the great traditions in Brian's family - the football games get WATCHED. (Hey! I didn't get Jake at the table! That's the back of his head in the green T-shirt. Booo! Sorry, Grandma.)


After dinner most of us went downstairs to stretch out and watch Enrique Iglesias.

Grandma got a workout keeping babies away from the table once she was done eating. Emil continues to be fascinated by everything Nate does.

MFEO

2011-11-29T15:27:00.001-07:00

Brian and I got married 15 years ago today. I went through our photo albums and picked a photo from each year, then I made some collages.

1996 - 2000

2001 - 2005

2006 - 2011

We celebrated a few weeks ago by leaving our children and half of the stuff in our house with Brian's parents while we went to Vail, Colorado for a few nights. We ate warm food, talked to each other without interruption, slept through the night. After almost a year of not having any of those things, it sure was nice.

Brian has been wanting to teach me how to ski since we got married. One of my areas in the mission field was Vail, so we took a trip down memory lane and did something we've never done - go skiing together. I am good at quite a few things. Skiing is not one of them. I fell down a lot. My body still hasn't totally recovered - most of my right thigh and bum is still purple and blue. Brian was very kind, as he always is. We know two things we didn't know before; I cannot ski and Brian doesn't like Nutella.

We sure missed our little kiddies. Brian and I have always been a pretty good team, but being parents together is probably the greatest pleasure of my life. Happy anniversary to us. :)

Family History Photo Monday: SMURF SLEEPING BAG 1983

2011-11-28T06:18:00.001-07:00

In 1983 my Furniss grandparents gave all of us the indoor kind of sleeping bags. Makenzie, who is a month away from being two years-old here, got a Smurf sleeping bag. I used to snicker a little at my Mom's over-the-top face in this photo, but now I get it. Kids don't know how awesome something is until they see how awesome their parents think it is, right? IT'S A SMURF SLEEPING BAG, GO AHEAD AND FREAK OUT! There are other blogtastic things happening in this picture - Makenzie's "bangs" starting at the back/ top of her head. (I think we should call it something besides bangs at that level.) It's fun for me to see Jennie and me in the background chillin'. My Mom always worked so hard (still does) at making holidays memorable for us. Can you imagine keeping track of what eight different children wanted? The pressure to make everyone happy must have been heavy. Good job, Mom. :)

Eleven Months

2011-11-22T07:39:00.001-07:00

Emil and Colin are almost a year old! How is that even possible?! Last weekend we left all the kids with Brian's parents while we went on an anniversary trip to Vail, Colorado. (More on that later.) That's why the delay in reporting on the 11th month of the babies' lives.

You know how babies are busy every minute they're awake? I still haven't figured out how to get anything done with these two on the job all the time. This first photo illustrates my ridiculous furniture arrangement in the kitchen (chair in front of the garbage cupboard and bench in front of the frying pan and casserole dishes, the oven, and the drawers with glass stuff in them) as well as the so-cute-you-can't-stand-it haircuts the boys got last week. Colin has bedhead, but no more mullet! You can also see that both of them prefer standing to sitting while they're in destroy mode.

Emil and Colin both like to ride the lids and overturned plastic bowls around the wood floor. By "ride" I mean they are on their knees pushing it around. The other day Colin went around the island in the kitchen pushing the red bowl. Tradition! What is it with kids and running around in circles? You can also see that Emil likes to keep an eye on what Colin is playing with. Colin is a trend-setter, see. Whatever he is playing with is clearly the coolest toy in the room and Emil will need to come get it in a minute.

In an attempt to get them into better light, I went into the front room. Colin followed me first. He is a lover! Right now he weighs 18 lbs 9 oz. He was really sick last week with croup, which was very sad. Colin lost his voice and he really really likes his voice. Fortunately for all, he's finally on the mend. Now we see his happy face most of the time again. Colin will randomly walk between couches and chairs (especially on the carpet) instead of crawling. When he sees someone sitting on the floor, or even laying down, he'll come over and use them as a step stool to get to the couch or table or whatever. He even stood on Emil's face one time to get a better view of a chair. That's partly Emil's fault because he likes to take breathers...

True, he does this more when he's not feeling well (Bridget was sick first, then Colin, then Emil), but Emil likes to put his head down. If I'm on the floor crawling toward him, he'll start crawling faster and then very gently give me a head butt. Lately Emil has been "playing" by getting our attention, then turning and crawling fast in the other direction as if he wants to be chased. It's irresistible. He's taken a few unassisted steps, but he definitely crawls more. His weight at the doctor's on Friday was 23 lbs 6 oz.

Part of our routine for the last month has been to watch the kids go to school from the front room window, then I'll play the piano for a little while. Emil likes to come over and try to catch my hands while I'm playing. Colin crawls under my feet and pops his head up, then his hands are on the keyboard. So many things they do remind me of puppies.

SQUIRREL!!

Family History Photo Monday: Thanksgiving Weekend 1978

2011-11-21T06:46:00.001-07:00

Well, this is embarrassing. I ran out of Thanksgiving photos. Scanned ones, anyway. I'm much too tired right now to go digging for something juicy. Instead, I have some proof sheet shots that never made it to a photo album from Monday, November 26, 1978. Were we in Oakley by that time? I think so. This is on the same sheet with a few fuzzy and dark photos from the balloon photo shoot. Looks like I had pants to top those house pants I was wearing the day before. Where did we spend Thanksgiving in 1978? Why can't I find that, eh?!

This was one of Grandpa Furniss's favorite things to do. He loved having us jumping in photos. Look at Jen's adorable expression. Jen is five and I am four here.

We're probably both supposed to be running here. Maybe I can't hear so well with that boy's haircut and pointy hood.

I like that you can see Grandma and Grandpa's neighborhood behind us. It does not look like this anymore. All those neat little well-kept homes. Also, is Jen wearing socks on top of socks?

Family History Photo Monday: Aaron 20 Years Ago

2011-11-14T06:23:00.001-07:00

This guy gets home from his mission tomorrow! It went by so fast, and yet a lot has changed in our life in the last two years. I've caught myself thinking about the things that are different. (We had one child, now we have three. That's kind of big.) I'm sure he's different too. I'm excited to see what he does next. And I'm excited to feed him. The usual stuff. :)

I found this next photo on the same page in the random photo album of Grandpa's that I have. It's so sweet that it needs to go here, too. This is Independence Day weekend in 1991 - that's why Aaron is looking so patriotic with his clothes. We lived in Woods Cross, Utah, at the time, but this is my Furniss Grandparent's house. Aaron is about the same age as my boys here. Dad is feeding him ice cream (Baskin & Robbin's pink spoon?) and the dish is far enough away that Aaron couldn't make a grab for it without getting caught. Ahhh. I so get that. :)

Reality Check

2011-11-09T14:50:00.000-07:00

Parents of twins told me to enjoy the first six or so months because it gets really difficult after that. Every time someone said that to me I would wonder how it could get more difficult and then I would decide they just couldn't remember correctly.

I was wrong...

My kitchen is a mine field of lids, toys, books, plastic dishes. Anything that could break or hurt someone if it's thrown (Emil likes to throw stuff) is on top of the counter. There is a chair in front of the cabinet where we keep the garbage and the dishwasher soap. Emil and Colin are officially on the job.

I feel like I'm throwing sand into the ocean one teaspoon full at a time. When I make their bottles, the babies come over and hold on to my legs and scream until they get their food.

Can you see the metal lids on the counter? And Emil using his puke as finger paint? Charming. :)

Colin is such a tough guy! Look at him walking. He's so little and he bumps into everything with that Megamind head of his, but he is so excited every time he takes a few steps. The other day Bridget said (after Colin walked a few steps with a huge smile on his face), "He thinks he's awesome, doesn't he." But he IS awesome. Colin figured out how to walk! It's a big deal. It makes my life harder, but it really is awesome.

Look at this face. Are you resisting it? Are you dead inside? Emil wants me to hold him. He will grab my face and try to pull it off with his fingernails, but I will hold him because that face is too much. So beautiful.

That's it. Our life is messy right now. And also beautiful. :)

Family History Photo Monday: 1980 Thanksgiving

2011-11-07T07:33:00.000-07:00

I know I already posted a color version of one of my favorite Thanksgiving shots, but I found the proof sheet and discovered some blogtastic photos. Also, I thought it was 1981, but it was 1980. Apparently Melissa was a big baby. Ha!

Here we are making crafts. We're in the basement at our very own little table (a dream come true for me, I don't know about Jen) and Aunt Julie has left us a tape dispenser and sharp crayons and a pitcher of something liquid. So many dreams coming true in this photo! And Jen is crossing her legs. :) By the way, she is seven and I am six in this photo.

Here is Allyn ready to analyze you. The bangs, man. Noah would look exactly like this if Allyn let his hair grow long and mullet-y.

I think anyone who has a lot of younger siblings has a friend who only wants to love on the baby when they come over to play. Koryn might be one of those sweet girls who loves the babies :). Melissa (the baby she's holding) looks so much like Miles to me right here. And she looks so into being held by someone not that much bigger than her.

I saved this one for last because I love it so much and it kind of makes me cry. Allyn and Katy are laughing at something and it's probably the cutest thing that ever happened. They still make these expressions, too. :) Allyn only took her thumb halfway out of her mouth to laugh. Ha!

Sew & Tell Friday: Uncle Aaron's T-shirt Quilt

2011-11-04T10:27:00.000-06:00

My little brother left for his mission to Peru almost two years ago. A few weeks before he left he gave me a bag of his T-shirts and asked if I could make a quilt out of them. Sure! Two whole years to make an ol' T-shirt quilt?! Easy. Naturally, two years turned into about four weeks for me and I had to hurry up and get this thing figured out. Truthfully, it kind of sucked the life right out of me. Who knew it would be so hard to find a way to make the logos on a bunch of T-shirts the right size to make quilt blocks? And I had to put interfacing on the backs of all the T-shirts or they would roll right up on the edges. Bah! All it needs now is a binding. I still have two weeks. Plenty of time.

I found maps of the states Aaron lived in before he went on his mission, traced them onto interfacing, then ironed onto fabric and cut them out and sewed them to a block. The state blocks are my favorites. I should make a whole quilt of just the states! That would be AWESOME. And really difficult. Everyone just calm down and think this through, for crying out loud.

I had to supplement the T-shirts with some manly flannels and cotton fabrics. After ironing interfacing on all those T-shirts, I wasn't about to do the entire quilt with just T-shirts. Crazy talk.

Bridget helped me cut out some of the logos. It was mostly to keep her distracted, but the little "Aaron" block was her handy work. :)

The back is "fireside minky" which doesn't shed as much when you cut it, but it's still soft. Win-win.

So! There it is. I can't decide if I like it because I'm done with it, if you know what I mean. I'll think very hard before I make another T-shirt quilt. :) Check out some other fancy stuff at Amy's today!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T10:59:00.000-06:00

Last year we spent Halloween in the Burlington, Vermont airport. Bridget didn't get to wear her costume to preschool and she didn't get to go trick-or-treating. I think we didn't even decorate since we knew we wouldn't be home. (According to Bridget's little friend Ryder, we didn't decorate enough this year either. That's been our favorite thing - he cupped his hands around his eyes and looked through our front window and told Bridget through the screen, "You need to decorate." Hahahaha! Back off, kid - you're talking to the daughter of a registered Fun Hater.) After this weekend, we have officially over-compensated for missing Halloween last year.

First, I volunteered to help Bridget's class with their Halloween party. It sounded so fun on paper - I'd get to see all the kids in their costumes and have fun playing games with them. The reality was changing four diapers, getting myself dressed, getting all three kids into their costumes (Emil's is pasted on, if you can't tell), making copies of my lame "find the differences" game, and getting to the school before 9:05. We dropped Bridget off, then went to the next town over to find a parking spot. This was my initiation to the School Halloween Parade. Oh! THE HUMANITY! So very many children and so very much noise. The babies were delighted. Not.

That's Bridget's teacher with the spider hat.

The babies and I followed the kindergartners back to their classroom where I thought we'd have their party right away. First we had to watch the rest of the parade.

I could barely hear Colin screaming.

We finally got to the party, which was pretty adorable. They decorated cookies, played my dumb games, read Halloween stories and wrapped each other in toilet paper to make themselves mummies. All the kids were well-behaved. I had to hold Colin the whole time until Emil lost his mind, then Bridget's teacher held Colin and I held Emil.


They also closed their eyes and Peter Pan picked one of them out to cover with a sheet and they had to remember which person was missing. Bridget loved Lola's cowgirl costume. "She was so beautiful." :)

This little girl was Astrid from "How to Train Your Dragon." I bow to the woman who made this costume because it was awesome.

We came home from that extravaganza and had some lunch and quiet time, which turned into an epic meltdown by Mama. Someone didn't flush the toilet and left the door to the bathroom open for a couple of babies to discover the joy of splashing. The babies and Someone got a bath and then everyone took a nap, by order of the queen. Grrrrr. Worst Halloween trick ever.

Ahhhhh. After naps it was time to go trick-or-treating with Clara and Eddie!

They were total pros. Running everywhere, saying "trick-or-treat" as loud as they could. Good form, all.

It was getting dark, so pretty much all my photos are out-of-focus. I loved this next one too much not to include it.

Oh, the happiness! They were coming out of their skin with joy. And then...

You can't really tell what's happening here, so I'll explain. Cameron, a 12 year-old perfectly nice kid, came out the door just as the kids were about to get their own candy from the bowl on the porch. He was wearing a scary mask and he chased them. High pitched screams of terror followed. We see that Bridget's fear instinct is to freeze up, while Clara and Eddie are running for their lives. Is it so wrong that I'm laughing right now?

Kristi helped get them their candy a few seconds later. Look how creepy Cameron is in the door way.

It officially got too dark after this picture. It's one of my favorites. We have such a sweet neighborhood. These girls are all taking just one candy from the bowl left on the porch.

Then it was time for a visit to Grandma and Grandpa's house for more candy, Chick-fil-a, and getting a load of Nate's costume.

Brainy smurf, y'all. He requested it.

Colin has officially picked his favorite - Grandma.

Emil and Colin were fascinated by Nate and his blue face and glasses.

Good thing I didn't take any pictures of our church Halloween party on Saturday night or our pumpkin-carving party on Sunday night. I'm so happy to be changing the calendar over to November today! This morning at breakfast Bridget said, "I miss Halloween." Dude.

Family History Photo Monday: Day in the Life 7-17-82

2011-10-31T07:38:00.000-06:00

Some of my favorite photos in Grandpa's collection are the ones that show normal life. The images from this proof sheet (these are from his 35mm camera, so I grouped them to see them better) show exactly how I remember my life in Oakley. In the top left you can see me on the phone (probably with Kellie - we talked all the time about who knows what), Katy's chillin' on the couch next to me and there is a baby on the floor (Makenzie). Since our grandparents were there, Grandpa Furniss was getting his hair done by Allyn. (That's how we did it - we sat on the back of the couch. :)

There is a little mystery in these - Mom and Jennie are dressed up, but no one else is. The 17th in 1982 was a Saturday. What could they have been doing? I have to know. The photo with my Mom on the phone reminds me that she used to chew on the inside of her cheek when she was talking on the phone. I started doing the same thing because I thought that's what you did. A few months ago Bridget asked me what I was thinking about because I had my "thinking face" on. Apparently my Thinking Face is me chewing on the inside of my cheek. Three generations of a weird habit. You're welcome, posterity.

Buzz, Woody, and Rapunzel

2011-10-28T19:15:00.000-06:00

My children looked so adorable in their Halloween costumes that I thought it would be nice of them to stand all together and let me take their picture. Nothing makes them happier than giving Mama what she wants.


The real Woody would never eat Buzz's boot.

"Hey, look! I'm Woody! Howdyhowdyhowdy."

Buzz Lightyear TO THE RESCUE! (Careful - he bites. And walks. Colin can walk!)

Howdy, M'am. I'm Sheriff Woody. (Careful, he also bites. He doesn't walk, but he does give real hugs.) This is the only photo where Emil looks like he might be wearing the hat. It's not in focus, don't go get your glasses on.

Poor Bridget would pose all day if I let her. I would have gone through 3 rolls of film to get this handful of pictures. If digital cameras hadn't been invented, there would be zero pictures of my children. Ha!

Halloween Piano Recital

2011-10-27T10:32:00.000-06:00

I'm having the best semester of teaching piano since I can't remember when. We had our Halloween recital last Saturday and I was afraid it would be so short that people wouldn't have time to sit down. So! I provided refreshments for only the second time in the almost seven years I've been teaching. My students wore their costumes and once again we tried to coordinate their song to their costume. Some were kind of off (Bridget wore a Rapunzel dress to play a song from the movie "Anastasia"), but there is something about being in a costume that makes the recital kind of awesome for Halloween.

This is Annie talking with Bridget after the recital. Annie is three years older, but she and Bridget are kindred spirits. I love to watch/listen to them playing together. It's like one mind.


I had the ultimate crew to help me - Mom and Denise and Janessa. I get pretty sweaty trying to put these things together, so having such great help (even Bridget was setting up chairs!) was a huge relief.

The babies did pretty well. They probably thought they were supposed to be playing a six-hand duet with me when I was performing.

These are fantastic sugar cookies. I'll have to post that recipe. I know they're a little rustic-looking and that a witch's hat should be black. (Unless you're the White Witch - one of my investigators when I was a missionary in Colorado. She was trying to decide whether to join the LDS Church or become a white witch. Decisions! Decisions!)

This is Beatrice. She learned "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" for the recital. It should have been too difficult for her, but she came back after one of our breaks and she had it memorized. I started to cry (Olympic Cry) after she'd played it.


This is Millie (her sister Abby is behind her in the cowgirl hat). Millie isn't one of my piano students, but she got dressed up anyway. :)

Right before it was Bridget's turn, she turned and whispered, "I don't want to do it." Once again she faced her fears and played her song perfectly, swinging her legs and chewing on her tongue the whole time. Another Olympic Cry. I love that she powers through the things that scare her. She is the best. :)

Family History Photo Monday: Thanksgiving 1981

2011-10-24T05:30:00.000-06:00

Around the table starting at the far left with Katy (in stripes), Jennie, Nicole, Koryn, Melissa, and Allyn

Hee! I wonder if the adult table was where all the Pilgrims ate. Here we are at my Uncle Mark and Aunt Julie's house in 1981 for Thanksgiving dinner. My favorite thing is that we are all wearing paper headdresses, but that's the obvious thing to like best. Next is Katy's expression (notice the spoon in her hand). Then it's a tie for the tin foil on the TV antenna and Koryn talking with her mouth full. (I hope I got the year right - I went by how old Melissa looks.) When Aunt Julie joined our family, the kids had fun crafts to do instead of whining all day before a holiday dinner. Revolutionary! :)

Hiking with Grandma

2011-10-23T08:05:00.000-06:00

Last week Bridget, Emil, Colin, and I invited Grandma and Nate to go for a walk at Thanksgiving Point with us. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. Nate and Bridget ran and rolled (Bridget rolled - Nate did a few up hill somersaults) and yelled to their hearts content. The babies seemed to enjoy themselves until almost the last minute. They really should start with the up hill hike instead of ending with it at Thanksgiving Point. Whew! I was totally done for the rest of the day after pushing the stroller back to the main house. I want to do it again tomorrow, though. So beautiful and inspiring! (As long as I avoid eye contact with that super cheesy video they play over and over again in the main house lobby.)

I didn't get very many pictures because I was working too hard. These kids sure love their Grandma. Bridget "made a plan" with Grandma while I was out of the car and she ended up having a sleepover at Grandma's house that night. Nate and Bridget can't get enough of their grandparents. :)

10 Months

2011-10-19T19:50:00.000-06:00

Trying to get a photo of these two together today made me sweat. Colin thinks it's hilarious to make me run. I'd put them together on the blanket and back up enough to get them both in the frame and by that time they had taken off in opposite directions. Why aren't they curious about the same thing at the same time ever?

Emil weights 21 lbs 11 oz. and he is 28 inches tall (57th percentile). He is crawling and using the bar stools for a walker on the wood floor upstairs. Every night he is my favorite baby because he sleeps for 10 hours in a row. Emil is tenacious - he will try and try and try something until it opens or he gets the thing he's going for. He's pretty patient with Colin's love of wrestlemania, unless he's tired. When he's tired, Emil will screech and cry (but not move away) when Colin comes over to pull his hair. Emil also claps enthusiastically and it's usually when something pleases him. Like just now when I opened the door for him and picked him up. Yay!

One of the things I do many times a day is put toys in that basket. Every time Emil or Colin peek in and grab something it's like they're seeing it for the first time. (That poor rug is covered in dried spit up. So classy.)

Colin weighs 17 lbs 8 oz. and he is 27 inches tall (3rd percentile). He has already started building Cat in the Hat ladders to get to stuff he wants to see. A few days ago he pushed one of the bouncy seats over to a bar stool and started climbing. Ah! He will be an escape artist for sure. Like I said, he likes to see me run. Colin can also be remarkably patient. I've seen him sit and look at a book and turn the pages for several minutes. Colin can also clap - his is more of an opera performance applause than game day cheering like Emil's. Both babies have radar for open doors (especially when that door is to a bathroom or the pantry), but Colin can beat me into the room every time. Fast. Like Jesse Hunter.

The babies are so much fun right now. I love seeing what they play with and how they interact with us. They're so delighted when I get down on the floor with them and crawl around or tease them. If I'm playing with one baby, the other just watches and smiles instead of trying to knock his brother out of the way. Keeping them fed, diapers changed, sleeping well, and out of harm's way is not a walk in the park. Putting diapers and clothes on them is my cardio every day. ("I'm trying to help you!") Every night at about 8:00 it feels like bed time to me.


I tried to sit them in the Bumbos and get them in the same photo. This had happened by the time I backed up to take the shot.

Can you see what is happening here? Colin is riding Emil and using his hair for the reins. Mean! :)

We love our crazy baby boys. :)

Family History Photo Monday: Thanksgiving 1974

2011-10-17T05:55:00.000-06:00

I could probably do a Thanksgiving photo every week until Thanksgiving. This one is from 1974 at my Furniss Grandparents' house. (They're using the plates and glasses I use about once a week. Awwww - that makes me oddly happy.) From left to right we have Jen (23 months old), Mom, Dad holding me (I'm 11 months old), and my Uncle Mark. Everyone has such wonderful facial expressions and we have sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes in the foreground. The perfect Thanksgiving photo. Discuss!

Beautiful Day

2011-10-13T05:30:00.000-06:00

Something about this day made everything beautiful. My children looked extra beautiful to me today. The weather was perfect. The leaves are changing. Ahhh. And I got a photo that is easily in my Top 5 Photos I've Ever Taken.

I opened the front door because I knew these guys would come running. They mean business. (In front, that is. That hair is all party in the back.)

They have to be strapped down for me to get a photo in focus these days. Look at how beautiful Colin's eyes are! And four very sharp teeth.

Emil looks so different every day. His bedface makes him almost unrecognizable in the morning.

Sometimes they are into the same thing at the same time. Messing with the blinds is a great bonding experience.

This is the opposite of what it looks like. Colin actually backed into Emil, who was sitting there minding his own bidness.

Bridget and her friends set up a coloring station on the sidewalk in front of our house tonight.

Colin is good with the ladies, so he headed over to say "hi."

Here it is! My favorite picture maybe EVER. If you are a woman and you have little siblings, you have made this face. :)

Naturally Emil was crawling in the opposite direction.

These three were so cute I couldn't stand it. In this photo they are discussing the best color for lips. Red if it's warm outside and purple if it's cold.

Boutique This Saturday!

2011-10-12T11:59:00.003-06:00

This Saturday (October 15th) there is a mini boutique in front of The Quilting Cottage (51 South 100 East in American Fork). Kristi and I have made twirly skirts, quilts, table toppers and runners, and car seat blankets to sell. We'll also have skirts made by my Mom, bags and headbands made by Allyn, and lotions made by Angelyn. Plus! All the fabric in The Quilting Cottage is going to be 20% off. You know you at least need some fabric.

Family History Photo Monday: Playing in the Dirt

2011-10-10T09:09:00.000-06:00

This is a great photo. I don't know who "Roy C." and "Norma B." are, but Lloyd (sitting in the back on the right) is my Grandpa Furniss and Lola F. is his sister. The rooftops in the background are familiar as possibly Grandma and Grandpa Ohlson's neighborhood in Ogden, Utah. Being that dirty can only be the work of grandparents. :) Is that a chicken coop behind them? All four of these children are adorable, but I think Lloyd and Lola are the cutest. Roy's kind of rocking a codfish look. I love seeing Grandpa as a boy. He was always an observer.

The Park

2011-10-07T08:08:00.000-06:00

Tuesday was a beautiful day. Too beautiful not to play at the park with our friends. Even though I spent most of the time holding one of Colin's legs and one of Emil's legs so they didn't crawl superfast to the disgusting wood chips on the playground and eat them. Our adventure had exactly the effect I hoped it would on the babies - it wore them out and they had a great nap. Unfortunately it had the same effect on me, except the part about the great nap.

Emil makes this face all the time. He's grinding his teeth. I know he looks disapproving, but trust me, he's just grinding those little teeth.

Every day when Bridget gets off the bus from school she asks me if we can do something very specific. Sometimes I have an alternative plan and she's quick to agree to it, but there has to be SOMEthing to do.

Slide train! Always good for some laughs.

Lauren was originally part of that slide train, but she didn't hang on. Who cares?! She was playing with the big kids.

Ultimate Slide Train! It included Eddie and Lauren and Gracie and Riley (who joined the party later).

These girls were a blur. They ran back up the stairs and Slide Train as many times as they could. Then Bridget bonked her head and cried. While I was holding her (and Emil) she asked through her tears if Clara could come to our house and play. Huh? She's at the park with five friends having the time of her life and she's thinking about next.

Lauren played peek-a-boo with me through the tube.

This is my view of Colin most of the time. (That's Angelyn trying to wrangle Emil.) Colin's knuckles are red because he crawls like a gorilla, on his knuckles. He's very fast, too. :)

William has just seen his Mom holding one of my babies. Betrayed.

Virginia is for Sisters

2011-10-04T07:35:00.000-06:00

It is 4:00 in the morning and Colin and I are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to start the day. He is standing next to my leg pulling at my pants and asking, "Eh? EH?" This is the second time we've gotten up this morning to contemplate that question. While he thinks it over, I'm going to report on my crazy weekend adventure in Virginia.

Several months ago Allyn and her husband, Aron, were notified that Aron (a doctor and officer in the Navy) would be deployed for an eight month stretch. At the time, Allyn was pregnant with baby number six. Allyn is the toughest lady I know, but I cried every time I thought about her having to do everything by herself for so long. It's too much! I can't do a whole lot to help being so far away, so we worked out a weekend for me to come visit and maybe do a little cooking and freezing. When I told Katy about it, she decided to put aside the same weekend and drive up from North Carolina to help us. Sisters! Between us we've got 14 children and a whole lot of stuff going on. That means this was a feat of strength AND we know how to work. We made 21 main dishes and about 135 rolls in one day!


Allyn peeling potatoes for Hamburger Soup. Charlie Brown and Snoopy are dancing to Katy's iPod workout mix.


Katy's cooking hamburger and onions for spaghetti sauce. Katy brought two of her girls to play with their cousins. Anya, her youngest, sidled up to me while I was picking at a rotisserie chicken and whispered, "Mom, can I..." She stopped because she realized I wasn't her Mom, and yet... was I? The look on her face was hilarious. Very Twilight Zone for her, I'm sure. :)


That's me rolling out one of the batches of rolls. Lilja, Allyn's 10 year-old daughter, informed me that I look taller in pictures. Emma, Allyn's 12 year-old daughter, told me I look like Paris on "The Gilmore Girls." When I saw the few pictures of myself from my trip, I decided I need a new wardrobe and more sleep. And a different hair-do.


This is Anya and Helena (Katy's girls) after their makeovers. Emma and Lilja had a spa upstairs while we were cooking.

This is Chance! He's a pretty tough boss. He supervised the whole operation.

Katy brought her Bosch mixer and we washed it out a few hundred times over the course of the day.

See? For some reason Katy had the energy to make cookies at 5:00pm. Maybe it's the M & M supply in her top pocket?

This photo is not in focus, but Chance is wearing a skunk hat.


We finally got all the kids outside for a walk before dinner and it started to rain.

We thought maybe we could wait it out, but then it just rained harder. You beat us, Virginia weather!

We took it down a notch for Day 2. Here Lilja and Helena are toasting a beautiful breakfast of crepes and orange juice.


Emma getting the cream. Yes, this is the photo I got of Emma.

Chance loves getting his morning kisses. :)


Katy had to leave a little earlier than she thought, so we took a photo in the rain. (Allyn and Katy look so fresh and pretty here. This just shows how much I love them posting this photo of me.)

Allyn and I finally got a walk in. We took Banks, Adam, Lilja, and Chance with us. There is no end to the energy between these two boys.

Lilja painted my fingernails purple with a top coat of glitter for the plane ride home. (We're twinsies, Katy!)

Chance napped through the whole walk. That baby is getting his naps any way he can.

The homestead. I like knowing what my siblings homes look like. This was the first time I'd seen Allyn and Aron's place.

Now it's after 7:00 in the morning. I finally got Colin to go back to sleep, but it's time for me to start the day. A mama's work is never done. Brian survived my trip (with help from his parents) here with the kids. My absence made Bridget and Emil's hearts grow fonder for me. Colin doesn't appear to have noticed that I was gone. Anyway, I think my brain is done functioning for today. Not a good sign.

Family History Photo Monday: Lee Girls Hanging Out in 1978

2011-10-03T09:32:00.000-06:00

This is Jen, Allyn, Me (Nicole) and Katy on the floor of my Furniss grandparent's front room floor. I just got back from visiting Allyn in Virginia with Katy (more on that later) and I had to find a photo of the three of us (at least) as kids for today. There really aren't words to express how much I love my siblings. They are my best friends and my favorite people. Everything I post here is mostly for them because I know what will make them laugh and what will make their day. I hate that all of us live so far apart.

I also had to post this photo because I'm wearing some sort of grease monkey coverall. :)

September Birthday Party

2011-09-28T09:30:00.000-06:00

I can't believe I haven't done this post yet. Today is McKade's birthday, though, so it's not really late. On Brian's side of the family we like to celebrate birthdays early and in style. This was a few Sundays ago, but here are the September birthday boys, Nate and McKade, as well as some random family shots.


Nate never disappoints when reacting to anyone's birthday party. He was kind of freaking out about his Caillou cake. Not that there's anything wrong with that. His favorite cartoon was a cake - that's as good a reason as any to freak out.

McKade at 16. Obviously.


Meanwhile Janessa introduced Colin to the chimes.

And Emil got up close and personal with Pixie.

This isn't the first time Nate poked his cake.


It's hard to remember what we all did for entertainment before Nate joined the family. :)

I think all of Nate's new toys were noisy ones. We're good aunts and uncles like that.

Family History Photo Monday: Grandma Winnifred Furniss

2011-09-26T08:21:00.000-06:00

The little girl in plaid is my mother, Peggy. She looks about 18 months old, so this is probably the summer of 1951. Her Grandma Furniss (Winnifred Ohlson Furniss) is helping her pet a doggy. Besides being really adorable, I'm posting this picture today because of Winnifred's crazy get-up. The head wear, the dark socks and no shoes, the dress and apron. Also, check out the wood with exposed nails right by her. Can you imagine what Winnifred Furniss had to do every day in 1951? And she's wearing a dress to do it.

Sew & Tell Friday: Countdown To Christmas Lone Star & Skirts

2011-09-23T08:04:00.000-06:00

It's really Sew & Tell Friday! Go to Amy's to see more fun projects.

I love making lone stars. That was my Great Grandma Rhoda Lee's signature quilt. I'm doing it a much easier way, but the results look very much the same. I also love doing a lone star with Christmas fabrics. Get it?! It's a STAR and it's made with Christmas fabric! Delightful, right? :)

I used Moda Sweetwater's "Countdown to Christmas" fabrics. I wanted the "burst" (the biggest continual circle of the star) to be in my favorite fabric from that line, the red with all the days in December up to the 25th. While I was working on it, I felt like I was seeing the number 18 a lot, but now that it's done I hardly see any 18s. So many people I love have December birthdays, it was fun to think of them being "represented" in this quilt. Man! I'm a quilt nerd.

The back is another piece from the same line of fabric. The black writing says "Have yourself a merry little Christmas" over and over. Since it wasn't quite big enough, I used some old Mary Englebreit fabric with music on it to break things up.

This is gratuitous, but I love seeing quilts all folded up like this. Plus, I wanted you to take note of my bias cut, candy cane stripe binding. It is awesome. Now we can move on.

There are about a dozen more skirts where these came from, but my part of the assembly line (picking and buying the fabrics, cutting, sewing them into circles, then sewing the hem to the middle) is at the beginning and they're not all finished yet. We're making them for a boutique on October 15th in front of The Quilting Cottage in American Fork, Utah. (It's during Shop Hop, for those of you in Utah. Also, I won't link to The Quilting Cottage's website because it's kind of useless. These are ladies who don't have much use for the internet, y'all.) Everything in our shop will be there, too. Tell your friends. :) Or if you live far away, buy what you like now because we're hoping it will be gone after the 15th.

Bridget has four cardigans, Allyn. I've had to make two of all of these because I want Bridget to have just about every one. What?! She wants to wear a dress to school every day. :)

Nine Months

2011-09-21T09:32:00.000-06:00

I love this age! The babies have so much personality and they're moving and getting teeth. Brian and I are back to getting no sleep, but it's still fun. I'm going to start with Colin this time.

Colin

Look at that adorable bedface! You can also see from this photo that he is a drool machine. When he's not crawling, he's got at least four fingers in his mouth. Yesterday one of his two front teeth poked through. For him that meant not taking a nap for more than 20 minutes the whole day, drooling constantly, and wanting me to hold him. So sad. Everything Colin does is cute even when it isn't. You know what I mean? Like somehow getting past every possible barrier and getting into the bathroom to check things out. He also enjoys crawling into the pantry when it's open. He is the fastest baby in the West.

Nevermind the playdough on the floor. Isn't that cute! When I'm sitting on the floor Colin takes it as his cue to come wrestle and pull my hair. He has the biggest grin on his face when he does this. It's funny when it's happening to Bridget, but kind of gross when he's doing it to me.

Colin makes lots of different noises, most of them are loud. He's pretty tough, which is a good thing since he has almost zero depth perception. He bonks his head in the same place at least once a day. Colin is very snuggly. He snuggles with pretty much everyone. When he sees a blanket on the floor he crawls over and lays his head down on it. Even blankets get love from Colin.

Colin can climb stairs! He figured it out at Grandma's house where there are fewer stairs in a row. He'll get to about the fifth stair at our house and kneel there and cry until someone rescues him. (I'm always right next to him when he's climbing the stairs. When he stops, he looks over at me as if to say, "Why don't you just CARRY me up the stairs?!") Colin prefers to stand when he's not crawling. He can even walk along in a side step next to the couch. The other day he stood for a few seconds all by himself. One of my friends described him as "scrappy," which I think is very appropriate.

Emil

Can you see Emil's teeth?! He's got two huge ones on top, too. Getting teeth is rough. Emil hasn't been sleeping well or eating well (he's in size 12-month clothes, though). There have been a few mornings recently where I've awakened to numb arms from holding a giant baby for a few hours during the night. Emil is not snuggly. Once in a while he'll rest his head on my shoulder and give me a second of love, but then he's back to wanting to play. He loves to be swung around and thrown into the air (Colin does NOT love that). Emil will laugh and laugh when we blow into his neck or tummy.

We like to leave fun toys for the babies to find in Bridget's little kitchen area in the basement. Sometimes Emil will crawl around with the plastic chicken leg in his mouth. If there is music playing, Emil will move his head back and forth and bounce up and down.

Those little teeth are sharp! And Emil is always looking for something new to bite down on. Both babies love it when Bridget and I sing. They are a great audience - big smiles and sparkly eyes.

Emil stands up next to stuff, too. He doesn't do pratfalls like Colin - he just sort of eases back down to his bum. Speaking of Emil's bum, it's big. Nothing tickles me quite like the sight of Emil crawling away. He doesn't make quite as many sounds as Colin, but he can sound exactly like a frog when he's feeling his teeth with his tongue (that's what he's doing in the above photo).

Every new trick the babies do means a little less sleep or a little less time to accomplish anything for me. I've had to finish a time-sensitive dinner while listening to them cry. Everyone's clean laundry remains unfolded and in baskets in my room. My house is not clean. I hardly ever shower. And yet! This is exactly what I want to do every day. I'm so happy to be Bridget, Emil, and Colin's Mama.

Family History Photo Monday: Colin Chester and Other People

2011-09-19T10:44:00.000-06:00

Colin Chester is standing on our right.

I hesitate to even post this picture since I don't know anyone but Colin Chester. For a while I thought maybe it was him with his siblings (William, Charles, Lucy, Frederick, and Hattie), but there is only one other man and there are three women. Maybe it's a school picture? Maybe these are friends? Cousins? The woman standing next to Colin looks a lot older than him, though. (Colin's mother had long since passed away by the time this was taken.) The woman sitting on the right looks so much like my Grandma Carol Furniss (Colin's daughter).

Any ideas?

Heirloom Tomatoes and Medium Plus Salsa

2011-09-18T10:56:00.000-06:00

My friend Angelyn has the most amazing garden ever. She planted lots and lots of heirloom tomatoes this year and I even bought a couple of plants from her. Our Black Krim did really well at first. We had them on BLTs and just by themselves as a side. Those tomatoes changed my life. They were beyond delicious. Then they stopped growing. I'm sure it was my fault, but it didn't stop me from weaseling my way into Angelyn's garden for more tomatoes. Look at them! Aren't they beautiful?! That's right - we took pictures of tomatoes.

Then we made salsa. And by "we" I mean I cut up a few peppers and provided seven of the 30 tomatoes we needed and then I let Angelyn do all the hard work. She and her husband also make honey from their very own hives. And she makes lotion that is crazy good. I just realized I'm not bringing much to the table in this relationship. :)

*Angelyn sells her lotion, honey, and even those amazing heirloom tomatoes and she doesn't charge enough for them. Send her an email!

Lose Something?

2011-09-15T20:34:00.000-06:00

After brushing her teeth this morning, Bridget's loose tooth fell out. She asked us to write a note to the Tooth Fairy and make sure to tell her to only take the tooth in the little box. Leave the rest in Bridget's mouth.

Family Band

2011-09-15T08:06:00.001-06:00

We have one room in our house that is off-limits to the kids. It's the front room where we keep the piano. No messing around in there. None. I keep it nice for the piano students and Bridget can practice, but THAT'S IT! I am in charge.

No cooperation! NO COOPERATION! It's so cute, though. I love it when babies figure out how to make the noise on the piano and they're on tippy-toes. I do not love it when two babies figure out how to open drawers and put the contents of the drawer inside their mouths. No no no.

Family History Photo Monday: Melissa & Makenzie in Oakley 1983

2011-09-12T08:30:00.000-06:00

After last week with another photo of the first four Lee girls, I thought it was high time we saw numbers five and six. These are from a proof sheet of photos taken on September 29, 1983.


Awwww! Aren't they cute! That was "The Little's" dollhouse we got (a present for all of us) for Christmas one year. Each of us girls got a different doll with the furniture for one room.

Sweet Melissa. My children won't believe me (someday) that the TV in the background was the only TV in our home at the time. I believe that is a 12" screen.

Makenzie was such a fun baby. She has the same hair as Carol Brady. Remember the pipe chairs?! Awesome. Looks like they are being used as a coat rack. That's about right.

This photo was on the same proof sheet. The new seminary building! You can just barely see the edge of our house on the right. What a great commute! I told Bridget about singing for my Daddy's seminary students when I was little. "So, so, so, so, Grandpa Bob worked at the cemetery where they put all the people when they die?!!" Did I mention that I spend most of my life explaining myself? :)

Ruby's Blessing

2011-09-06T10:33:00.000-06:00

Brian, Rob, David (holding Ruby), David Sr., and Bob

From December 19th to July 1st, there were five new babies born on my side of the family. Makenzie's little girl (the only girl of the five), Ruby, is the last of them. Little Ruby was blessed on Sunday and we were there - for all three hours of Makenzie and David's ward. (My first thought on seeing pictures of myself from this event was, "I look old and tired." Because I am old and tired after three hours of wrestlemania and the like at church.) David did a lovely job blessing their little girl and, as always, it was a pleasure to be with family on such an occasion. The rest of this story will be pictures.


Wax on, wax off.


Bridget ended up in a Primary class with a bunch of boys. She wouldn't go in until the one girl in the class showed up. Close one!


Claire had two adorable french braids in her hair about two minutes before this photo was taken.


Ruby wore Makenzie's blessing dress and she's wrapped in the blanket Grandma Shirley made.


This is as good as it got, Kenz. Sorry about Gabriel with the car in his mouth.


Can you believe I only had their neighbor take one picture? He had four cameras to go, so I didn't dare ask.


I love this photo! This looks the most like Colin, minus his usual grin.

I promise Ian smiled huge right after this.


Ruby! She was perfectly silent and still through the blessing. Then she slept in Grandma's arms for the rest of church. Unlike SOME people I know.


Ah! That face was for Emil. I was holding him at the time.

Cookies from Grandma Peggy!

I love that her hair is out of control and she has a perfect little face. :)


Emil fell asleep like that.

We wanted to get a photo of all four of the babies together, so we put these two clowns down first. (Allyn's baby, Chance, is the only one of the five missing from the next few pictures.)


They were all so excited to be together!

Emil: "Hey, you're not Colin."

What a bunch of hams! (Seriously - Emil smells like a ham every morning.)

That's it! More pictures than I thought. :)

Family History Photo Monday: Lee Girls in 1970s Fashion Shoot

2011-09-05T09:52:00.000-06:00

Jennie, Nicole, Katy, and Allyn on Grandma Furniss's couch in 1978 or early 1979.

There we are. All wearing red pants. Mine have a house on one leg. Katy's got the Old Woman in the Shoe's house on her shirt. I think Jennie's has road signs on it. And we have balloons! Am I the only mother who doesn't like balloons? They're always in a bad spot and when they lose the helium they somehow stick around the house (in a closet, in a drawer, under the bed) for too long. Not my favorite. (I love that my hair is static-y to the balloon.) But! We are cute as can be even in the crazy clothes. :)

A Jolly Holiday with Bridget

2011-09-04T18:16:00.000-06:00

Several months ago I bought tickets to the touring Broadway production of Mary Poppins in Salt Lake City. One for me and one for Bridget. Bridget has never been to a live play or musical, so I had to answer more than the usual number of questions whenever the subject of going to see Mary Poppins came up. ("Not the REAL Mary Poppins because she's a Grandma now." That's after we saw an interview with Julie Andrews and they showed clips of her in Mary Poppins the movie.)

This is the Australian cast performing Supercalafragalisticexpealidocious.

Yesterday was finally the day! We dressed up and got there early so I could find decent, free parking. Bridget was talking a thousand miles an hour, so I know she was excited. :) We got her a cushion (all the kids get cushions at Capitol Theatre), treats, and headed to our seats near the front of the balcony. Bridget was impressed with all the chandeliers in the theater. She also kept saying she didn't want to sit on the extra cushion. She said it so much I thought maybe I'd made a huge mistake - it was going to be a long show. Then the curtain came up and Bert sang Chim Chim Cheree on the rooftops. Hooray! At least once every five minutes Bridget and I would look at each other with our jaws dropped. It was AMAZING! She would hold my hand and whisper her questions: "Is it really raining?" "How is she flying?!" My favorite was during the second Chim Chim Cheree when Mary and the kids were on the rooftop with Bert and Bert started walking up the side of the stage. When he got to the top, he started tap dancing on the ceiling of the stage. I looked over at Bridget and she had her mouth open and she was clapping. Ah! That was worth the price of the ticket.

My favorite song and accompanying dance number was Supercalafragalisticexpealidocious. They made some of the letters with their hands and bodies and it was so fast and awesome. Our favorites were Mary and Bert. Great voices and acting. I also like the grumpy cook. (The Banks home was like a pop-up book picture come to life. I can't get over it. Amazing.) The kids weren't my favorite. They were bratty in a 21st century way instead of being just precocious like they are in the movie. And no one beats Glynnis Johns and David Tomlinson as Mrs. and Mr. Banks. (Although the story in the musical is very different from the one in the movie.)

Towards the end of the show Bridget leaned over and said, "This is a fun date for us." :) I wanted to go to Elizabeth's Bakery afterward (a tea parlor) and they were closed. Booo. We went to Tucci's instead because I didn't want to get back in the car and find something else. We drew pictures on the table cloth from the show (an umbrella, a kite, a flying nanny). Bridget really was a great date. I hope her memory of it is as sweet as mine.

Hanging in the window of the former bakery.

Sew & Tell Friday: A Christmas Table Runner

2011-09-02T11:20:00.001-06:00

It's also Fabric Tuesday at Quilt Story, so go check it out!

A few of you asked if I cried when Bridget went off to kindergarten. The day I saw her name on the roster I cried a lot. I hadn't thought about it before that moment and it all seemed so...sudden. I was a little teary on her first day, but it was Olympic tears. I'm very proud of her and she's so ready to be at school that I can't cry about it. :)

After the babies and I walk Bridget to the bus stop, we come home and they eat (if they haven't already) and we play. Right now "playing" is finding all the gross stuff they can put in their mouths on opposite ends of the room so they can watch me run and say "Ew! No!" Great fun. Then I put them down for their morning naps and I go sew. Here's what I finished this week!

It's a Double Wedding Ring Table Runner with 3 Sisters "Grace" fabrics. I used a jelly roll for the rings and I found the green fabrics on sale a few months ago.

For the back I used a piece that looks like a quilt, but it isn't! Tricked! That way you could use either side for your table runner.

I hope you noticed my painstaking tiny border and binding in the diagonal stripe. I'm all about stop borders these days. I also did a blind stitch binding on this one. High quality! If you didn't guess, I'm wishing it was cooler outside and I could justify having soup and good bread for dinner three times a week. Also, this is the only time it's fun to sew Christmas stuff - when Christmas isn't a few weeks away and there are a thousand things to do. Ahhhh!

First Day of School!

2011-08-30T15:10:00.000-06:00

Bridget goes to school now! On a bus! So grown up. :) Yesterday we watched the big kids get on so that Bridget would have an idea of how this whole thing works. A thousand kids drop their backpacks in a line on the sidewalk, play and joke around until the bus arrives, then step back in line where they left their backpacks and get on the bus. (Shannon heard from one of the new bus drivers that the other bus drivers marvel that there are about fifty kids who get on the bus just from our neighborhood. "Those parents need to get out of the bedroom!" Ha!) Bridget was pretty nervous - hanging on to my hand tight when I wasn't taking pictures of her. The moment to line up and get on the bus finally came and I introduced her to Emersyn, who was also going to kindergarten today, and they boarded the bus together.

Look at the size of all those backpacks! Insane. And Emersyn was wearing a sweater and boots. It's about 90 degrees today. For the last five or so days Bridget has been talking and asking questions non-stop. "Hey, Mama? Who gets to ride on the green buses?" "What green buses" "The buses the kids don't ride - the ones that aren't yellow." "City buses?" "Yeah. When do I get to ride a city bus?" Um, 'get to' is not the way to ask that question. Anyway, my brain hurts from listening to all these inquiries. In the space of five minutes we went from talking about city buses verses school buses to the resurrection. Yikes. I can't imagine what it must be like inside her head. (Wait, yes I can. I'm pretty sure she's saying every single thing that pops into her head.) Anyway! The kindergarten teacher suggested I follow the bus to the school so that Bridget would get into the right line in all the chaos.

She saw me and was probably a wee bit embarrassed, but secretly glad I was there. I know I've said it before, but I love that Bridget does things that scare her. We saw a little boy with an Indiana Jones backpack, spike-y fauxhawk and awesome new clothes clinging to his mom with both arms and both legs, bawling his eyes out. (It's funny because it's not my kid.) Bridget followed the teacher across the school yard to the kindergarten play ground and the first day of school officially started.

Then the babies and I went home and pressed our noses against the front window and waited for Bridget to come home.

She was crowned Queen of Kindergarten! At first she didn't get off and I had a few moments of panic that she was sitting on the curb outside the school. She was just waiting for someone with authority to call her name and tell her to get out of the bus.

Hey... Another Queen of Kindergarten?! Did they think we wouldn't notice?! It was so blazing hot right then. I bet Emersyn is cookin'! So, it was a great first day. Now we just have to gear up to do it again tomorrow. :)

Family History Photo Monday: Makeover 1978

2011-08-29T08:37:00.000-06:00

In 1978 my family lived in a Connor's Mobile Home in the middle of "The Basin" near Oakley, Idaho. Did I say The Basin? It was actually The Basin of Nimh. Mice everywhere. We were in their field, I guess. (I had to pause to shiver.) Bridget likes to hear stories when I was little before she goes to sleep at night. A few nights ago I told her about my heroic rescue of my family the night my parents couldn't find the keys to the mobile home. I was put through the bathroom window and I unlocked the door for everyone. It was a proud moment. Today the photo is one of me and Jennie doing Katy's hair.

Katy looks like she's about to take off. There is one other picture on the proof sheet of this activity and, indeed, she is out of focus because she is done! Almost as usual, I'm missing my sisters this morning. This brings back lots of fun memories. :)

Splash Park

2011-08-26T08:25:00.000-06:00

It's the last week of the Summer of Bridget, which makes it the perfect time to introduce her to one of the local Splash Parks. (If she'd known it was there the whole time, I would have been pestered every day to take her, see.) Our nice friends invited us to go and even offered to pick Bridget up, but she wanted me to come, which I couldn't resist. That means the babies had to come too (during lunch - I fed them at the park because I am a HERO) and we picked up Kodi as we left the neighborhood. (Of course we got Shannon's permission first.) It took about three seconds for them to get in a surprise-fountain-up-the-nose zone.

That's Kodi and Clara on the other side of the water.


There was also a "river" with giant rocks all over the place. Even though school has started for the big kids, the place was packed. And super hot.

Most of the mothers at this park brought giant pavilion tents, something they probably learned by coming to the Splash Park before. Hot and no shade except under the baby trees. There's nothing my little boys love more than being hot, wearing a hat, and sitting on a blanket.

I could only hold one baby while I tried to get pictures of Bridget playing, so Colin (the not-heavy baby) got passed around a little.

Harmony's little boy was totally fine with this arrangement. (Not really.)

The ritual of the sunscreen. What did they do back in the day? I don't remember my Mom ever putting sunscreen on me. Did we just stay in the shade? Get sunburned?

This is Lauren and Henry's rookie season, so they didn't get to see much play time. It's good to watch the juniors and seniors closely to pick up some moves.

I think Henry figured it out.

Remember doing this? Stretching out on the hot sidewalk to dry off and get warm before diving back in. Kodi and Bridget start kindergarten next week and Clara goes to preschool. Bittersweet.

Skirting Around

2011-08-23T18:10:00.000-06:00

I love having a little girl. And she is such a girl. I'm taking advantage of her desire for twirly skirts and going all Crazytown making them for her and to sell. (To sell because I have lots and lots of fabric in my stash, y'all. And it's cute stuff. And I have an etsy shop.) I'm making school clothes! It's very fun for me. As are the photo shoots.

That yellow sweater is my victory of the week. I ordered it from Old Navy thinking it would match this skirt nicely...AND IT DOES. Winner!

Family History Photo Monday: Anton and Rosina Lallatin at "Home"

2011-08-22T08:02:00.000-06:00

I have box full of old photos that we found at Grandpa Lloyd's storage shed in 2010. There are at least 25 of these photos (all in fancy little folders) of people no one can identify (even Grandpa Lloyd couldn't). None of them are labeled. It is the most frustrating mystery ever. I don't want to throw them away because they are someone's ancestors. I guess I just wanted to let you all know that you need to label your old photos today. And the photo I'm sharing was a bit of a mystery for a while, too. I had one labeled photo of Anton and Rosina Lallatin - their wedding photo. From that I was able to figure out other photos of them when they were old. After staring at this photo long enough (it's tiny) I decided this is Anton and Rosina Lallatin (and the Woman in the Yellow Hat?) in front of their home.

The quality is terrible, I know. I cropped in the tears so you could see what I was working with. The Lallatins were living in Logan, Utah, according to the 1900 census, with a widow named Elizabeth Wikland (from Sweden - maybe the cousin they came to live with?) and their daughter Florence and son Joseph. On that same census Anton's occupation is listed as "Weaver." In 1900 Anton would have been 57 years old. I used to think that "01" cut off on the left was part of a year, but now I'm not so sure.

Anton is on the side of the house and Rosina is right in front of the door holding the hands of a couple of grandkids. The woman holding a baby is probably one of their children. Just in case you don't have time to click on the links to see the connection between Anton and Rosina Lallatin and me, they are my Grandma Carol Furniss's grandparents on her mother, Helena's, side. And the Woman in the Yellow Hat is Curious George's first care taker. :)

Eight Months

2011-08-21T10:39:00.000-06:00

Our baby boys are eight months old. I can't believe it! They are so much fun - crawling and sitting up and pulling themselves to a stand next to usually stable objects. All this progress means that I get out of the house even less than before. (Only Jennie will get this, but if I thought I was a homeboy before!) It was much harder to photograph all the cool stuff they do than I thought it would be.

Emil

The babies entered this new stage so seamlessly that I didn't notice they needed new toys to play with. The jungle gym I put over them a few months ago is now boring. Thankfully Angelyn brought over an exersaucer and one of those musical table things they can stand next to - which reminded me that we also have one of those table thingies. Emil and Colin both love to stand up and slap at the table and do little dances.

One of my favorite things Emil does is give me hugs. He'll put his cheek against mine and grab onto the hair at the back of my neck and say, "Awwwww. Awwwww. Awwwww." into my ear. Emil thinks I am HILARIOUS when I say no. When he's not occupied by the exersaucer or strapped into his bouncy seat to eat, he crawls (more like a breast stroke) over to the rug under the sink in the kitchen, lifts it up and tries to suck on the disgusting rug pad underneath. GAG. MORE GAGGING. It grosses me out big time. When I move him away and say no, he smiles. Best game ever, Mom!

Emil was throwing up so much (so very very much) that we started making his food (rice or oatmeal combined with a vegetable or a fruit) using water rather than the regular formula. When he didn't puke that up (first time in days - my arms were tired from all the scrubbing) we decided to try an acid reflux formula (he has been officially diagnosed with acid reflux, by the way). He still throws up a little, but nothing compared to what he was doing before. Relief! Emil sits very well on his own and he transitions into a crawl easily. We have to set him in the sitting position, though, because he can't quite get there on his own. He follows the sound of my voice and crawls to me to be held. Emil's talking is all vowels in a gentle, raspy little voice. His hair is sandy blond and he's got beautiful brown eyes. No teeth yet.

Colin

Look at that sweet little face! Colin cannot help himself - even if he is crying he will smile when we look at him. He does the same breast stroke crawl that Emil does, but Colin can go from the crawl position to sitting up. He still falls over after a few minutes of sitting. That head is so heavy! ("Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain!")

Colin is very observant. He noticed he could see me in the oven window and he spent about half a day looking in there and laughing and looking at the real me and then back to my reflection. Can you see his face in the window? Cutest thing ever. Both boys watch Bridget intently, but Colin seems more interested in teasing her. My new favorite thing is giving Bridget a Popsicle and watching the boys crawl all over her to get at that Popsicle. Colin laughs hysterically when we play Peek-a-Boo, too. So easy. His hair is the same blond as Emil's, but Colin has blue eyes. And no teeth. He has added consonants to his vocabulary. Every time I try to get him to say "Mama" he smiles and says, "A- DADADADADADADA."

Our boys don't play "together" exactly, but with the exersaucer and the activity tables, they're in the same place at the same time more often. A few days ago they were across the little table from each other dancing to the same music and laughing at the same time. Adorable! Then Colin reached over and grabbed Emil's face. A mother of twins recently told me that grounding one of her twins did no good because he had his best friend in his house anyway. That sounds like a nice problem to have.

We've put a gate on the stairs and small objects out of their reach, but both boys manage to find a flip flop to chew on. Emil introduced Colin to the boinging door stops. They sleep pretty well through the night if we time feedings perfectly. I've done a few errands with all three kids in tow (the phrase "you've got your hands full" crosses all gender and age barriers, for crying out loud) and that is the day for me even if it only takes a few hours. Sometimes just getting them diapered makes me sweat. (So much twisting and back-arching and flipping over! They're worse than dressing a cat. Which I've done.) We're loving every minute of it, though.

Sew & Tell Friday: Finished!

2011-08-19T15:21:00.001-06:00

Maybe some of you have noticed my link to Sarah Jane's blog. I've been enjoying her artwork in Bridget's room, the playroom downstairs and even on my calendar. I love it! Now she has fabric. It was killing me to wait for the yardage to come to the fabric stores I frequent. When it finally did, they weren't carrying enough of the line, so I bought a fat quarter bundle of 14 from (ironic) the fat quarter shop online. My obsession with Quiltsmart's Apple Core pattern continues - but, COME ON! This had to be done.

Don't you love the colors and the sweet little patterns?! Orange is one of my favorite colors for boys. I think it was the day after I bought the border and the back that my favorite quilt store got all the flannel from "Children at Play" in. Not cool.

Emil is secretly crying here, but he looks good.

The back is Moda "Dottie" fabric (which they've updated and it continues to be awesome) and I used a flannel version of the turquoise and orange stripe for the binding. Bias cut! (Not by me. I sewed it on, of course.)

Since I posted only the tops of two of my other projects, here they are all finished a fantastic. :)

That's Colin on my other boy apple core quilt. I think this is the only view of the boys where they look related. Ha!

I'm linking to Fabric Tuesday. Go enjoy!

So Utah

2011-08-18T11:17:00.000-06:00

After Melissa and her family visited Utah a few weeks ago she observed that over-the-top shakes and glorious sunsets were two of the sure signs you are enjoying summer in Utah. I guess I've lived here too long, because it took that observation for me to notice that there are some truly awesome things about a Utah summer. At the end of a long day, we sometimes go out in the backyard and sit on a blanket.

It's no big deal if the blanket isn't quite big enough because the grass is thick and soft. I like that it's nice in the shade in Utah. I've lived in other states (who shall remain nameless) where there is no relief ANYWHERE in the summer time. Melissa also mentioned that cheap haircuts are particular to Utah. I didn't take this photo to show off the haircut, but since Bridget got a haircut earlier in the day, I'll count it.

When we planted that seed Bridget brought home from Primary in a paper cup, we were under the impression it was a cucumber. Clearly, it is a sunflower. Which is why it is growing in our super hard ground that we didn't do anything about AGAIN this year. Next year for sure. Anyway, a cucumber would never have made it this far. Bonus!

On Monday we decided to get dinner at Iceberg and go for a drive in the canyon and eat it. You can live in very few places where it's only a few minutes to the mountains. On the Iceberg menu it says you can upgrade your meal to include a "mini shake." It sounded good, so Brian and I both got one. "Mini" at the Iceberg means as big as my face and then over the top of the cup. Lesson learned! Next time, one shake. Bridget and I did a little exploring while Daddy and the boys took in the view. (A good view and being in the car always makes Emil want to poop his pants, so Daddy had the pleasure of changing him in the car. Nothing makes you feel like a parent more than changing a poopy pants in a car/van.)

I asked Bridget to find us something pretty to photograph and she pointed out this pine cone in the water. It IS pretty. :)

If Bridget had been with Grandpa Harold, she would have come home a lot dirtier. Every time she went to step in mud or put her hands deep in the water she'd look back at me and be reminded that I was not Grandpa. She did find some good walking sticks. :)

This is Colin's face when we play Peek-a-Boo. He is surprised and delighted every single time! Easy audience, that one. :)

A few days ago I learned that Bridget doesn't start Kindergarten until the week after the big kids start school. One more week of summer in Utah! Hooray!

Family History Photo Monday: Furniss Brothers 1920s

2011-08-15T07:56:00.000-06:00

I don't have an exact date for this one, but I'm guessing 1920s. This is my Grandpa Lloyd Furniss's grandfather (Smith) standing with two of his brothers. Clearly Grandpa Lloyd did not inherit his Grandpa Smith's hair. I have one other photo of Smith and he's wearing a hat. Grandpa Lloyd Smith Furniss was named after his Grandpa Smith Furniss (obviously) and Grandpa Lloyd used to say it was because his father, Bryant James Furniss, wanted to make sure he was in Smith's will. Hmmmm.

I wish I knew what the occasion was here. They don't seem terribly comfortable in ties. Smith's hands remind me of Grandpa Lloyd's, anyway. I'm posting an old-y today because I got an email from a distant relative (from Orvil Ohlson's line - he's Winnifred Ohlson Furniss's brother) after they Googled Orvil's name. How awesome is the internet! Maybe Ephraim and Robert have relatives out there looking for them, too. :)

Fun Mom Adjacent

2011-08-10T10:55:00.000-06:00

I am not a Fun Mom. In fact, I am a Fun Hater most of the time. Lucky for Bridget we live in a neighborhood full of Fun Moms who think of Super Fun Things to do. They host Last Day of School parties and End of Summer parties. Some of them even take their children for rides on awesome 4-Wheelers down our street. I sometimes put a blanket on the lawn and eat a popsicle with Bridget. Snore. The thing about living around Fun Moms is that we get to come to a party right outside our door with a 50 FOOT WATER SLIDE. Not to mention the amazing food. This was pretty much Bridget's dream come true times a thousand.

I don't think Bridget recognizes me here. I asked her to smile and she obliged, but she was still a little doped up on 50 FOOT WATERSLIDE.

They had to climb the ladder first. On one of their trips, a kid slipped at the top of the ladder and everyone went crashing to the bottom like human dominoes. I watched it happen and made my way around the slide to see if Bridget was okay and by the time I got there she was halfway up the ladder again. Not going to lose her place in line, suckas!

Is Clara wearing two headbands? I think they're talking strategy here.

Try as I might, I could not get a photo of them sliding in focus. It was dark and they were FAST.

Kodi and Bridget exiting the slide.

Oh! THE HAPPINESS!!! Seriously, it was the best night of her life.

Emil and Colin were really popular. One of our neighbors didn't know we had twins. Ha! I never leave the house.

Millie and Brooklyn were too ladylike to try the slide. These two are a year younger than Bridget and Clara and this is exactly what Bridget and Clara did at the neighborhood party last year. I love our neighborhood! Thanks, Fun Moms!

Like the Corner of My Mind

2011-08-09T09:07:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday Ben and Jen and their boys stopped by for lunch at our house before Jen's 20 year high school reunion. Makenzie and David joined us with their kids, too. The hour before everyone arrived was pretty hectic until I realized I might as well not clean. Duh. We ate, we had some fun girl time, and David finally got to see photos of Ben with hair. I forget that Ben, Jen, and I were all at the same high school at the same time. It's been 20 years, after all. I shouldn't say I forget - I just don't think about it. It was fun to go down memory lane with a few of the people who lived on Memory Lane with me.

Ruby, Henry, Claire, Bridget, and Gabriel eating in the shade.

Claire and Gabriel actually look at me when I asked them to.

Ethan, Emil, and Taylor stayed inside with the food. Ben was just passing through.

Henry deciding if a cowgirl is something he could play with or not.


Ben, David, Jen and Ruby looking at the 1990 yearbook from Woods Cross. They're on the picture of the student body officers - Ben was Student Body Artist. He wore shorts to the picture when he was supposed to wear jeans. He remembered one of the girl officers was mad at him for the rest of the year for that. I don't know why, but that is super funny to me.

Group shot! I think it should be a new tradition.

Family History Photo Monday: Peggy's Piano Recitals

2011-08-08T08:35:00.000-06:00

My fall semester of piano starts a week from today. I have much less anxiety about this one than I had for the last one because I finally did a reality check and realized I cannot handle my life with 25 students and two babies. Bad math, people. This time I have 10 students (11 counting Bridget, which I do) and I'll be teaching one less day a week. I think I'll win this time!

My Mom has been teaching piano for about 45 years. She moved a lot, so the number of students shuffled around a bit over the years. I believe at one point she had an insane number (was it 50?) of students and seven children. Besides actually teaching all those lessons, having piano students means having piano recitals. To my Mom, having piano recitals means making lots and lots of cookies. Today we have photos from 30 years ago at a recital in Oakley at the church. I've featured photos from this particular recital before, but I just found these recently and they are my favorites.


Green punch and glass cups - not to mention the beautiful punch bowl. My facial expression is also "Pleased as Punch." Ha!

Nicole, Allyn, Grandma Shirley holding Melissa, Katy, and Jennie. How can you not love this picture? I'd say more, but I have a hungry baby crawling around my legs. Looks like my shift has started.