4/16/15

That's What Saturdays are For

Saturdays are my second favorite day of the week (my first being Mondays because that is weekend for SAH mothers.)  Here are our last few months of Saturdays, the end of a non-existent winter and beginning of an unusually glorious Utah spring.
Saturdays are for Pogo contests.  Hush was the champion but Mimi has been practicing and she is coming up on him fast.
Saturdays are for exploring.  We are trying to find good adventures in the basin because the mountains are still covered in snow.  This hike looked more like a good place to dump a body.  But fun nonetheless.  It's somewhere over near Taylorsville by Hush's previous residence. He used to run there. With mace.
Saturdays are for team cooking with Blue Apron. I believe in Blue Apron, it is the most fabulous cooking thing that's happened to me in years. You need it for your birthday or Mother's Day. 
Saturdays are for balancing red vines on your face and then having an epic stale red vine battle.  What do you do when your kids sneak out of bed after they've been tucked in?  We rain red vines down upon them.  Back to bed or face the red vine barrage! 
Saturdays are for recovering after a long drive to LA to visit Aunties Alina and Val. BL 6 months, Alina evidently ageless and with perfect eyebrows. My eyebrows are "sisters, not twins, and they should be treated as such." ❤️broad city
Saturdays are also for abandoning all four of your kids at Valina's,
grabbing a pair of glasses from Val's organized sunglasses drawer,
and piling in Nathan's dad's car with Kim and Sarah Beth to make a panicked drive to Colin and Lisa's wedding in the San Diego temple.  It was a race against the wedding start time and the XL cokes we drank on the way down.  The cokes won.
Saturdays are for reconnecting with some of LA's finest at their reception.
Kim, me, Nathan, Shiloh, Colin, Lisa the most gorgeous bride, Stevo, Erin looking like the babest pinup girl, and dapper Adam.  A proud collection of freaks and geeks whom I adore.
Saturdays are for watching my five people bonding in the yard. Hush is building a retaining wall and restructuring some things in the wall. There's a master plan.
Saturdays are for hammocks.  When I first checked out this house I was so excited to see three perfectly aligned  hammock trees that would keep Hush happy forever.  He's talking about double decker hammocks. 
Another Saturday Blue Apron meal. So, so delicious.
Saturdays are for free dance classes at Highland High. In an ingenious publicity push for their dance program the dancers put on a three hour free class a few days before their performance. The kids in the free class get to perform for 30 seconds in their show, which means all the parents have to come pay to see their whole entire endless dance show. Hats off, ya sneaky teenagers. Genius plan.
Saturdays are for snugglin my baby in my bed. Every baby I've raised I continue to relive our lost snuggles when I cuddle my current baby. This is why I'm addicted to having babies, I think. I'm trying to regain the infants I've lost as they've grown.
Saturdays are for learning to sit up!

Saturdays are for girl trips to the salon. 

This is how we're spending our transition to spring Saturdays. Pretty soon we will start traveling and hiking and playing soccer and going on outside adventures. But for now we are just relishing the free form days of family and, finally, roots.

3/20/15

First Quarter Iphone Picture Download

I've halted posting for a month because I was waiting to hear back from TED.  I applied to give a talk and I didn't make it.
So now I have some catching up to do! Thus, some disorganized posts. 

We've been here three + months and I'm still having a love affair with our new house.  I always think it's interesting to go back through my records and find house pictures to see how I decorated wherever I've been living.  And I like to be reminded of things I may take for granted as normal in the future.

This is the view from our front window and it has become a major part of my daily life.  When we used to visit Hawaii as a big family my dad would make us march down every.single.night to the beach to watch the sun set.  Rough life, right?  But enough times of being bossed into watching the sunset became annoying.  We called him the Sunset Nazi.  And now I hear myself nearly every day demanding that the kids come look at nature's fireworks.  Thankfully they don't yet resent it and have started alerting me to spectacular sunsets.  Thus I've become a person who takes pictures of sunsets.  That pink line at the bottom is the Great Salt Lake.




January was the month when I was expecting a whole lot of people to come to our house so it had to be ready.  January 18 was the deadline -- our sealing party.  LouLou helped shop.  That's her first cart ride.


Finished product of our room.  My besties came over and helped me paint it that dark gray and Anna consulted and encouraged styling.  She's a beautification wizard.

For the first time in my life we have a TV in our room.  It doesn't get much use, yet.


Final product, currently.  My #1 favorite thing is the curtains that Amy made for me.  Sometimes you need to beg your meticulous and capable friends who can sew to do your real crafts for you.  I know my sewing limits.  She did a great job.
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Another house pic with my fancy light and hot pink wall.
Husband of mine caught on his way to work.  Let it be known that Hush agreed to let me live in my dream house/dream neighborhood at his expense: he has to drive an hour to and from work every day and I feel guilty and grateful.  He's the patron saint of sacrificing for love and family. Bless him. Amen.


Just a sunset, the norm. Everyday out our front window we get to watch spectacular shows.


Hush and his cousin twin. Three cousins born in the same year, and all three of them had babies this year! That's Becca and Blade the chunk of cuteness.
At Uncle Mark's modeling the deer horns of some variety or another.
LouLou doing the scoot back move that always lands her under the furniture.
Remember how after you have a baby you give up on ever wearing your normal clothes again? That's what this picture is modeling. Taken by Rebekah or Christine, my dearest.
Christine at Rebekah's house where the lemonade has fancy straws.
Oh! This picture is worth a thousand words. A few Fridays ago Hush came home and told me he had rented me a hotel room for the night. BY MYSELF. I was so excited I couldn't sleep. Is there any dream more dreamy than an entire night alone when you have four little kids and a baby who wakes up all the time?
The stars aligned and all three of us were available to spend the day together. One of the best days ever!
Mimi, Lou and Silas under the bench at church. 8, 5, 5 months.
Mimi's 8th birthday party. Family dinner with our Utah family: Kara and fam, Rebekah and Christine's fams. (Poor grammar that sentence.)
Mimi's an ace at opening presents and being excited, she has the Nate gene. He was the best present opener ever.  Also, note the guy holding the cake, Mimi, so that in the future when you're a teenager and screaming "You're not my real dad" you'll remember that Hush has been your real dad every day since you were six.
Rebekah has the magic touch with Baby Lou.
Maddi and Silas in their finery.
Fancy coat. Man I really love this baby. I love babies. Babies are great. I want a million of them.
Ahhh sweet Jude. He always picks me for his Valentine.

The homemade Valentines this year. Jude made each person in his class.
And here's the kid crew on Valentine's Day. 

3/19/15

Mimi's Baptism

My dear darling Mimi was baptized in February.  She had the most beautiful day and we appreciate everybody who came to support her!
Photos by Jessica Peterson.

Jude handing out programs.

Kids singing.

Menfolk confirming her a member of the church. Hush, Calvin, Jake Brom who happened to be in town, Nathan, Jim, I can't see who else.  Mimi thoughtfully went around to all of the grown men in the congregation and asked them to be in the circle if they were available.  Houdini also showed up but I didn't get a picture of them together. Actually I was waiting for the pictures from the primary to publish this post but I haven't seen them yet.  The primary did an excellent job putting the whole thing together.

8 and CTR cookies
Me and Nate on my baptism day.
Mimi and Jude on hers.
Anna gave the most wonderful talk on Baptism that involved smashing a plate with a hammer and magically making it whole. Jessica spoke on the Holy Ghost and did an excellent job.  I'm grateful to have adopted Utah family who support us!


Then we went skiing! Robert, Rebekah and Jim and I went.
First day skiing with my girl. Turns out skiing IS fun when you do it with your kid.

Don't let the teddy bear hat fool you, Robert and Rebekah are hardcore.

This is how I was feeling that week having a kid get baptized. It was an intense week. Lots of feelings.