just a post

a few things worth mentioning...

- itunes radio. I wasn't completely sold on it until we discovered the "Van Morrison" station. I can listen to it for hours and hours and never hear a song worth changing. Never.

-In Kevin and I's latest bed war, he sat straight up at about 3am and poked me in the eyeball. !!!!!! Then he laid back down as if nothing had happened. Seriously! who eye pokes in their sleep? So i kicked him in the shin and rolled over. When the sun rose, my eye was all blood shot and he wondered what had happened.

- I threw away all the sugar in the house, and it's not going so well. I'm an addict.

- Don't think that because the sun has started to shine that my obsessive hobby of knitting has gone by the way side. I've just switched to bigger projects. Like poufs. with rope. you can imagine the rope burns on my fingers...

- My sister announced she's having a baby! boy! in September. Naturally I started going through the boxes underneath my bed for maternity clothes. But they weren't there. Henry is almost 18 months old and my maternity clothes were still hanging in my closet. whyyyyyyyyyy......

-On my trusty "van morrison" radio station, crazy love came on as I was pulling Gus out of his high chair. He didn't wiggle out of my arms, instead he laid his head on my shoulder and patted my back as we danced in the kitchen. for the entire song. I know it's not a long song, but that kid never has much affection for me. But there he was dancing in the kitchen to crazy love covered in goldfish crumbs and maybe a few tears rolled down my cheeks. maybe.

- Today is Pi Day. and naturally it seems like my kind of day. As I sit pouring over a few different recipes and options to commemorate this glorious holiday, I just really love baking pie. and since all my pie pans have been delivered to grateful homes, it's time to purchase my yearly stash of pans. I go through about a dozen every year. Easily.

- Last week I made the most beautiful pie. Salted Caramel Apple. from four and twenty blackbirds, and it was the best way to spend the morning. It was just so much fun baking it. Early in the morning, with a clean kitchen and a good playlist going. I was in my moment and grove and it felt so nice. Especially when it all turned out.

-and worth noting, in my fifteen years of obsessive pie baking, I have never changed my pie crust recipe. never. I've been there when someone's tested a vodka recipe, or listen to people drone on and on about an all butter crust and read all about the reasons why you do it one way or another. There has never been a different crust in my pie pans. Its the same recipe my mom used, her mom used, and my great grandma used. It's trusty and good, and you shouldn't fix something that isn't broken. But I had an itch, and I changed it last week. I did a part butter, part shortening crust. It was good. It had a different flavor, a different feel, and now I can say I've tried something else. But it won't be replacing my crust. not really ever again.

-also, all three of my kids are burying each other in the sand box and i'm so grossed out. I hate sandboxes and would give a lot of things for my kids to hate them too. But cheers to the sunshine and Gus being able to play outside with the others, he's in heaven.

love love

rambling shenanigans

It feels like once every couple of days I send a text message to my mom and dad with my kids latest rambles. I'm so glad I do, because if I didn't immediately document this, people would think I'm making this up. I wish I could make this up. I'd write novels.
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Ruby praying: "Bless Grama Deb she can feel better, and bless gramps Trace he can... ... ... ... deal with grama Deb. And bless Hunter he will go on a mission already..."

Ruby: "Mom, I struggling. Cause my feet are so smelly that I can't even think about things. And I need to think about things to make me strong. But the smell gets in the way."
she is not kidding about that, they smell so terrible. 

Ruby: " I'm not feeling very beautiful today. That's why I'm having a hard time."

Ruby: after an all out brawl with Kevin, she was sent to bed early in a full blown tantrum. After Stella had gone to bed, Ruby snuck up to our room...
"Mom, Dad... I need to opologize. I sorry that I was mean and crying."
as Kevin tucked her into bed and said prayers with her... "ahhhhh, my bed feels so much better after I opologize."

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Lately my dad's favorite thing to do is stop by our house about 8pm. Just as the kids are winding down for bed, ya know quiet time. And when Grampa Trace comes over all hell breaks loose and I can't win. So it's not worth trying. This week, Grama Deb took a rest on the floor and Gus stomped on her head. Then Ruby wasn't paying attention and toppled right over her. There were cookies being thrown across the room and boxes of girls scout cookies inhaled. Gus was testing everyone's hand eye coordination by throwing balls out of your peripheral vision. Stella mostly snuggled, holding her own with sweetness. So basically everyday chaos, and then some.
But it did end in Ruby telling Grampa about her new favorite song. As we were anticipating a Katy Perry tune or Taylor Swift, we got a primary song. He sent his Son. I'm counting it as family home evening. (and it was really sweet listening to her sing it.)
As we were waiving goodbye on the front step, Ruby was examining this week's race car when she just got in the back seat with Grampa. Ya know for a spontaneous middle of the week sleep over. Casually.
Stella was a little sad that she didn't get to have a sleep over with Grampa, but was logical in that she had school the next morning. And I let her watch an extra show on TV. At about 10:30 I got a call from my mom. Ruby was coming home, sleepover's weren't her thing tonight.
The next morning I was taking Stella to school (Because my alarm clocks overslept due to there late night sneagians, we missed the bus.) This conversation happened in the backseat...

Stella: Ruby, why didn't you sleep at Grama's?
Ruby: I just missed you Stella...
Stella: But you also missed out on breakfast at Gramas, think about all the kinds of cereal you could have had... head shaking...
Ruby: Oh I didn't think about breakfast...

Seriously. It's hard not to spend your day laughing at these two.

love love

blah blah blah

He's sick. agaiiiiin. Kevin's genes have clearly made for a sick kid. Cause I feel like he is kinda always battling some silly cough, or running nose or wheezy breath. I guess I can't complain to much cause he is always happy, regardless of the snot smeared all over his face. Ok, I can complain a little bit, I have to be quarantined with him while he blows snot all over me. And I hate being quarantined. I go all stir crazy and end up thinking I need to do some new project of mass silly proportions and that's never the case. Or I online shop. And amazon boxes just start piling up on my front door. It's a problem and I'm blaming the quarantine. 

Last night we were telling Ruby to pick up her toys and in classic parent voice, the words "how many times do I have to ask you to pick up your toys!?" slips out. (You know you've said it before, just like your parents did.) Ruby calmly responded "Two times. You have to ask two times." 

Her comedic timing is infuriating, exhausting and hilarious all at the same time. 

Then there is June, who I have a hard time writing about because she is so sweet and good by nature that I can't even poke fun at it. On Friday I went to "mom's and muffins" with her. She read me a "little critter" book from start to finish as we dined on muffins and apple juice in her little kindergarten chairs. She's a pretty great kid.

So there you have it, thats what a week full of quarantine is starting to look like. Ruby's shenanigans, Henry's snot and Stella's angelic nature. Sometimes I still can't believe I'm a mother of these three hood rats.

love love

a little of this and that...

Welcome back to the Wednesday Ramble folks! Ok, if we're being honest about it, I'm writing this on a Tuesday. Because all the children are sleeping, or at least pretending to be, and I'm all caught up on my shows. And I thought about sewing some stuff, or knitting, or baking, but decided that my domestic side needs to calm down and the geek in me needed to come out. So I'm writing a blog about nothing. Completely productive use of time. Completely.

-- Now that Kevin is out of the house at the crack of dawn, I'm back to getting the kids out of bed and ready for the day and such. The girls are easy peasy. But Gus. Oh Gus. It turns out that the cute little routine of wrestling during the morning diaper changing only works with Dad. This kid is strong, and wiley. Like he wrestled out of the proper diaper changing position, off the dresser and I caught him by his ankle, inches from the floor. All while trying to clean to poop off of everything. Let's just say Gus is having a hard time adjusting to Dad being gone all day long.

--Yesterday, after months of bad hair. Like mooooonnnnths of bad hair. I walked out of the bathroom and thought, "hey, it doesn't look so bad". And then I didn't leave the house for the day, cause well, I had already done my morning errands and you should never wake sleeping children for nothing. So I sent a selfie to Kevin and wandered the house with decent hair.

--I finally finished this giant pouf project that I've been mapping out. And you'd think for all that time I had been waiting for my yarn to arrive I would have done a little more research. I'm already staring at it trying to figure out ways to make it better. Mostly plotting way to successfully unravel it and start over without Kevin chastising my perfectionist side.

--Ruby is very into Frozen. Like running around singing, "let it go! Let it go! Can't hold it back anymore!" And then when she yells "The cold never bothered me anyway." She cops the fiercest attitude that I'm afraid for her teenage years. It's also really hilarious.

--The best part about the girls playing "Frozen" is Stella can't convince Ruby to let her be their favorite, Elsa. It's the one thing that Ruby has put her foot down and said no; she is Elsa and that's that. Usually Stella can convince her to be the puppy, or Dash, or what ever the secondary character is. But not with this, there is no budging Ruby on this one and Stella is struggling a little with her sisters new found dominance. I kinda like it.

--Last week I went cross country skiing. For the first time ever. Luckily my mom took me out, so nobody could really laugh at my attempts. I mean I'm sure she laughed, but she's my mom, she's obligated not make fun of me during the ordeal. Let's just say, it is quite possibly the most unnatural feeling ever. There's no edge! It's all wobbly and the poles are long!
But! But it was really fun after I situated myself in the track and stopped thinking about it all so much. Way better than running, thats for sure.
And now to a few random photos that haven't already graced this blog...

He throws.

oh this kid.
He likes to throw balls. like, all the time. To anyone, at anything, all day long. So watch out, because the moment you look away you are going to get whacked in the face. guaranteed.

And when the ball has bounced to far away, he likes to tell you. By pointing at it, hopefully convincing you to go get it. 

Then when you won't get it for him, he will eventually go get it.

But when he can't find the ball, he likes to look at pictures of balls. He get's real excited and oohs and ahhs at them. 

it's hilarious...

I just can't get over his gapped tooth, bad dandelion hair, cheesy ways...

love love

The world's best...

Corndogs.

She ate the entire thing. For the first time in her life, she ate the breading on the corn dog instead of picking it off and then eating a sick looking hotdog on a stick. It was that good.

And yes I just wrote an entire blog post dedicated to a corn dog truck. Sort of sad, but sort of fantastic at the same time. 

love love

We played hooky.

I'm a big fan of the winter. Huge fan. All that glorious fluffy snow! I can hike up it and ski down the back country on it; or  I can rip down the corduroy of Deer Valley with a lovely lunch in between runs. I can cross country ski on it with my mother in the mornings instead of a casual run around the track. We can snowmobile on it, snowshoe it, shovel it, or just snuggle instead and watch it fall. Oh the snow, its just so magical, it makes all the months of winter completely blissful.

Um, did the snow miss the memo this year? Did someone forget to tell mother nature about the calendar? I do not enjoy the winter without the snow. I think it's stupid, and cold and I have to wear warm layers to just protect me from the air, instead of the snow. And let's be honest, that's a different kind of wardrobe. Winter is no fun without the snow. It's gross looking and boring.

So this last week we boycotted this blasted, strange winter and went to St. George. The sun is shining there and it was warm. No socks necessary. Boom.

We packed the car full of every possible item to keep us entertained outside, and completely ditched kindergarten. Kindergarten isn't mandatory right?

Gram and Gramps kept us highly entertained and extremely well fed. Seriously. Like the kids bellies are still full and they are still napping in recovery. Best runaway ever!
At least Ruby thinks so...

And PS- St. George's new children's museum is pretty amazing.

I had to drag everyone out of the museum... They had all forgotten what it felt like to be hungry, except me. I was hungry. And the quota on being inside had been filled. It was warm outside and we were going to enjoy it. dammit.

love love

A little sleigh ride

Sometimes when you live in the land of winter sunshine and you have amazing neighbors, they call you up and invite you over for a sleigh ride. Ya know, because Bud had just finished building the sleigh from scratch and was working on training the team of horses to pull it. Just casually.
I don't wanna live anywhere else. ever. Ok maybe not ever, but probably.

And I really love these three. 

Just a casual view of our backyard...

Thanks Bud and Marcia for always being the best neighbors!

love love

oh hey

OK.
So it turns out I didn't blog in December. Eh. I could have and probably should have. But then in the last weeks of 2013, I found myself getting all indigent and saying to myself, "no, go the whole month without a post" aaannnnd I'm not exactly sure why. Like I felt some need to protest; why and for what? I dunno know.
Mostly, all my creative energy was busy elsewhere. It was knee deep into a few dozen skeins of yarn and varying knitting needles. I feel like I knit Christmas this year. But seriously, I did. I gifted 17 hats, 2 sets of hand warmers  and 2 scarfs. And that doesn't count all the times I had to unravel a hat, or the times Henry helped. Such a helper that one.
This blog was not alone in it's neglect. There was all that Christmas crafting I was gonna do, and then didn't. Or the baking list that I pretty much didn't even attempt, aside from a couple batches of caramel. I'm pretty sure I didn't even snap the shutter of my dslr until Christmas eve. Not even for a photo of all the knitting!
I was busy. Knitting.
...
......
So it turns out, I got a little manic with the knitting. I'm seeking professional help.

While I gather up all the blog posts of the last month, along with a farewell to 2013; I can't forget that, I mean, I did keep 3 small children alive and well.

Ok, if we're being honest, Kevin did that.
love love

a study break

My creative outlet for the last month or so hasn't really been this computer, scratch that, hasn't been this blog. It's clearly evident. I've come to realize I only have so much creativity, and if I expel it elsewhere, I can't or don't write here. But I find myself reading with my children. Making sugar cookies and smothering them in a serious amount of frosting and sprinkles. I make a new hat or scarf with knitting needles or I sit on the floor and color pages of disney princesses. It wasn't an official declaration or a required change of pace, it just happened. I don't write Henry a monthly letter because I find myself living his monthly letters. Not to say I didn't with the other girls, or writing a monthly letter is bad, I just haven't. I wish I had, to remember every little detail. But I am enjoying him instead of thinking about how I can write about him. does that make sense?

Plus I think I need new glasses, I'm having a hard time seeing my computer screen.

And well I'm easily distracted by a dance party to Safe and Sound. It's hard to concentrate on anything else when this song is being demanded and then sung at an extremely high volume.

And then there was this one time that our friend Jed made this video and showed it to 50K people at the Global Citizens Festival. He forgot to mention that Stella was in it, she's around the 20 second mark...

Oh and Gus, he has got the zombie down...

I sort of just can't get over how perfect everything feels... 

love love

A Tinker

September is in full swing. Can you believe it? You probably should since it's half over. The rain has drowned out the fall leaves and the need for pots of soup, warm crusty bread and anything made out of pumpkin has arisen. I have spent the last weeks tinkering it feels like. Tinkering because I don't have enough focus to fully commit to anything. Mostly, maybe, because I have a little friend named Henry Augustus, who has taken a firm position on my hip. I have never had a baby that is so clingy. Jeeze. How am I supposed to get anything done? I don't get anything done, I get a lot of things half done. But on a happy note, my arms are getting real strong.
Stella had picture day at school this week and we decided that she needed a new shirt. Ya know one that wasn't just a t-shirt. Because after all, it is picture day. I had only been in JCrew for a total of 37 seconds before both Stella and Ruby were covered in accessories. Ruby was walking around with a sparkly handbag in her elbow crease, talking on a cellphone case. Stella had two giant flower headbands in her hair; of course in coordinating colors. She had a necklace, 3 chunky bracelets, sparkly shoes and sunglasses on. aaannd she was flipping through the racks of flannel shirts, oohing and ahhing appropriately. Mostly I was muffed that they had broken the rule of "no wearing things without paying for them" (sometimes they don't tell me they are wearing things inside their pockets until we are all the way home and then it leads to a long family home evening and several discussions about stealing and a trip back to the store) , but maybe I was a little bit proud that she was rocking the best arm candy around. After stripping them of the best dress ups around she settled on a shirt from the boys section and was soo excited. Oh and a leopard print belt, obviously.

We ran away to the barn this weekend and left Kevin home to fend for himself. It rained and felt appropriate to be in the mountains with a fire place. And if you are in front of the fireplace sipping a Diet Coke, it only seems logical that you read a book called "stitch n' bitch" and learn to knit. Because I don't have enough things going on and knitting just seems like a good way to pass the time. After hours of trying to figure it out, casting on, ripping it off, casting on, ripping it off. Purling then Knitting, I think we got the hang of it. Courtesy of a few you tube videos. I'm almost done with my scarf for Ruby. She doesn't mind if the tension is off. Which it is. We enjoyed ourselves so much that I decided not to come home until yesterday. And Stella was heartbroken about such a thing. She missed a day of school. How could she miss a day of school. Tragedy.

I will continue to tinker with a few recipes, a few html codes, a few photos, and a few more skeins of yarn. Maybe at some point I will just do one thing, completely perfectly. Let's be honest here, that's probably not going to happen.

love love

The end

Tonight is the last night we can officially call it summertime. Tomorrow Ruby starts her first year of preschool and it can't come soon enough. She is ready. I am ready. That child is flirting on the edge of my patience most days. If I remember correctly, so was Stella before we sent her off to Pre-school. I'm hopeful a little space and someone else enforcing the rules will be helpful. We will see. Fingers crossed.
Stella has fallen in love with school. And she is working on loving the school bus. The morning ride is ok, but we are working on getting her switched to a different afternoon bus. One that will drop her off 30 minutes sooner than the other. She is so hungry when she gets home she is like Uncle Hunter after swim practice. I remind her she will be hungry as she is eating her breakfast, but she doesn't want any more cheerios. Sometimes it's just to hard to eat breakfast when you have places to go. Plus she isn't a breakfast person, and neither am I. So I guess I can't really blame her.
Gus got sick last week and we are still struggling. When the poor kid gets sick, he gets real sick. He keeps puking up all forms of food and crying. Lots and lots of crying. And his new favorite thing is to flay his body in every direction. So that's pretty fun. I think Kevin was really excited to go back to work this morning, just for the peaceful office. I never have to wonder why he doesn't work from home.

And now for the iphone photos...

All in all this has been a great summer. One of the best ones actually. I'm a little sad to see it go, but sort of thrilled for fall. Life starts over again when it gets crisp in the fall.

love love

Some sort of ramble...

There was this one time that I wrote a blog. In fact my editor feed shows that I wrote 4 last week. sort of. I half way wrote them, because I am really good at making half way thoughts. Not full sentences. Who needs full sentences? But is it better to have half sentences or run on sentences? Anyway. While I was trying to make sense of the the nonsense that was going around, you got to look at the bugs that I blogged about weeks ago. Aren't you so lucky??

There are dishes from the pancakes we had for dinner in the sink. I am leaving them there. I went to do them, but then I noticed that there was an unopened box of Captain Crunch in the pantry. And those children of mine don't fully understand the greatness that is the first bowl of Captain Crunch with Crunch Berries. So. Many. Berries. Captain Crunch is way better than doing dishes, plus Kevin is out of town so I can always do them tomorrow.
Kevin has been out of town the last couple of weeks. I am trying not to be bored, but I'm kinda bored. I have been keeping the children busy with water colors. Who knew that was all they needed to entertain themselves for hours. School supplies are in full swing everywhere, and I always stock up. I sort of love school supplies. Like really. I put them in a tupperware with a ream of paper and told the girls they could create whatever they wanted, but they just had to put them all back. I was very clear about putting them back, like those precious school supplies were a privilege to be revoked at any moment. Genius parenting. Stella woke up this morning at 7 and instead of asking to watch Disney, (which she does everyday, even though I never tell her no, she always asks. Obedient child.) She asked to go "create" in the toy room. There she spent the next two hours painting. We are gonna need more paper. A lot more paper. I will happily buy more paper for her to "create" quietly with.
Henry is in full crawling motion. That cute little scoot of his was short lived when he figured out how to be fast, now he is fast. His little knees are nice and callused and his belly is suffering a rug burn from an afternoon without his shirt on. Suns out guns out! But I should have known that it was only a matter of minutes before he would fall down the stairs. Why do kids always always gravitate to the stairs? I saw him heading that way, I made a lunge for it, his chubby little foot slipped right through my hand, and then he tumbled all the way to the bottom. Why do they tumble? Why can't they just slide? It would be a lot less dramatic if they just slid, instead of the rolling from one stair to the next.
Orrr, I could just put a gate up and prevent all of it.
The girls were sent downstairs to clean up their room before we headed out for errands and such. I found them coming up the stairs to tell me it was clean, and me asking if they had put the shoes away, or closed the dresser drawers. Then I finally went down there and took a look. Thats where it happened. I didn't even mean too. The words just spewed out of my mouth, "This is your version of clean, not my version of clean." The very phrase my mother used to tell me and Micall. I didn't even realized that I had said it until I was sorting the laundry a few minutes later and I yelled down to Stella, "I don't do laundry for practice, this sweater is NOT dirty." AGAIN! There I had said the most classic of Deb phrases from my childhood within minutes of each other. I am officially a mom now, I have quoted my mother during morning chores. I am so relieved to finally be a full fledged mom now. It only took 3 kids and nearly 6 years.

Now for some random photos...