Dan, Jamie, Max & June

The 3 Amigos

2012-01-17T22:46:00.008-07:00

They're all here!

Say Hello to cousins June, Knox & Graham!

photo by Joeen Hill

Hello from juju

2012-01-03T14:31:00.004-07:00

I'm in love :)

Umm.. We Bought a House!

2011-12-07T16:07:00.010-07:00

Out of the blue, I know! But it was just the right house at the right time so we had to snatch it up! It's like it was meant to be. So this is THE house - like the house I hope we grow old in. We love it and although there's a lot we'd like to eventually do to it (mostly involving paint), it's already a beauty. Here are some pics.

The roof didn't pass inspection so it's being replaced.

Here's the shed/playground in the backyard! Isn't it awesome!?!

The mudroom/laundry (we'll be taking down the wallpaper)

Here's my new kitchen.

Look at all that cupboard space!!

and the appliances....*sigh* sooooo nice!

I'm so excited to have an ice-maker!!

the living room:

the exposed brick has to be my favorite part

upstairs - here is Max in his new room

June's room

jack & jill bath between the kids' rooms

Master:

more brick! yay!

here's the basement

and this room will be perfect for a theatre someday

and I think this room will be my new happy place! I LOVE storage!

So we're closing this month and moving next! I will be sad to leave friends we've made in this house but I'm planning on holding onto them, whether they like it or not! ;) And make a few new ones as well! Onto a new adventure!

Baby Shower for Mari

2011-12-06T17:57:00.013-07:00

I threw a little shower for my darling sister-in-law, Mari, this past weekend. She is pretty much the cutest pregnant girl ever!!! She's almost done - little Knox will be born sometime mid-January, but likely before, since she's gone into the hospital at least 4 times already for pre-term labor! I'm just glad she made it to the shower!! :)

getting ready...

the spread

the mommy :)

So jealous of this gift!!

Gorgeous girls!

the cake

Can't wait to meet little Knox!!

Blessing the babes!

2011-11-13T22:27:00.005-07:00

Today little June & her cousin Graham were blessed. It is so fun to have this little cousin the same age (4 days younger than Juno) and I'm sure that she and Grammy will become best buddies!

Thanks to Joeen for the great pics!!

Max's Toy Story Birthday Party

2011-10-28T14:55:00.007-06:00

My little guy turned 4 this last week! We had a little party with his buddies at our house. He asked for a Toy Story cake & I had something in mind like this:

But life with a newborn has made me pretty wussy when it comes to all-nighters so I had to be okay with something a bit more scaled back. Here is what I came up with for him:

He didn't seem disappointed so I was good & quite proud of myself with being okay with making something that wasn't up to my usual standard. I also came up with these cute favor boxes.

I got the green boxes at Michaels, bought craft paper to match to make the ears & googly eyes (both hot glued on), drew the mouths on with a sharpie and hot glued on a pipe cleaner and pom pom antenna.

Love these girls!

Pinata was a "hit" :) haha I couldn't resist

present time!

Happy Birthday Max! Mommy loves you!

Yummy Salsa Recipe

2011-10-28T13:03:00.006-06:00

My friend Caprice gave me this super yummy salsa recipe about 2 weeks ago and I've made it about 4 times since and each time it has been a hit!

1 can black beans (strained)

1 can yellow corn (strained)

1 can white corn (strained)

1 green pepper (chopped)

1 red pepper (chopped)

1 avocado (chopped)

chopped cilantro (about 1/3rd bushel)

juice of one lime

italian dressing (i use Zesty) and just use as much as you like (i use maybe 1/4 cup)

salt to taste

I alter it a little depending on what I've got around - I made it last night and added extra avocado, an extra red pepper and one roma tomato because I just had those lying around and they needed to be used.

Enjoy!

Trenton's Monster Birthday!

2011-10-08T12:44:00.005-06:00

My friend Jami's little boy Trenton turned 6 last week! Here is what I made for him for his monster-themed birthday party!

pictures taken by my talented friend Jami Caldwell

Lately

2011-10-05T13:30:00.010-06:00

Aunt Mimi & her family came to visit

just a few days after June was born!

We love them :)

Sadly, they couldn't stay for long, but we loved having them!

We finally got down to Spanish Fork so that June could meet her cousin Graham who was born just 4 days after her.

Max ended his soccer season in style

(wanted to wear these for almost the whole game!)

Max and his friend Logan, the team's MVP

(seriously, he's incredible!)

And our little Juniper is now 1 month old!!! Time is flying by!

little juju

2011-10-01T14:48:00.007-06:00

sweet little one...

photos taken by my talented friend Caprice

Meet June

2011-09-03T19:21:00.008-06:00

June Charlotte Hill

born Friday, September 2nd 10:07pm

7 lbs. 14 oz. 21 inches

perfect

More pics & nesting continued...

2011-08-29T13:18:00.012-06:00

It's kind of amazing the amount of work a girl can get done when that nesting kicks in!

I got the bookshelves up ($4 ikea spice racks painted white - thanks to Dan's cousin Sarah for the idea!) and now the room is pretty much complete! I plan to blow up some newborn pics of June on canvas and add them to the room right over the bookshelves, but that should do it! Phew!

I kinda went crazy making little headbands & flowers for June. They were super easy and fun so I just couldn't stop :). I got 26 yards of skinny elastic from Etsy.com for about $9 which makes 52 headbands (2 in each color) but I just made one in each color in the smaller size (about 13 inches) and saved the rest to make headbands in a larger size once she grows. All you do is cut 13 inches of elastic and then use hot glue to glue the ends together (overlap about 1/2 inch). Done! I'm keeping them on a chip clip (LOVE these from Ikea) in her drawer.

Here's all the flowers I made! I learned how to do the rolled rosettes from this website, and the rick-rack flowers & mini-pom flowers I just figured out on my own.

The mini-poms you just roll and glue onto themselves and the rick-rack flowers you just take a needle & thread and sew through the tips (if that makes any sense) and hot-glue on a button in the center.

This is what mini-pom looks like before:

Roll it up, and wa-la!

To attach the clip, I just cut out a small circle of felt, slid a bobby pin (found really small bobby pins at Walmart) on the circle and then hot-glued the whole thing to the back.

And we're finally getting to that woodwork in the master bedroom! Yay! (started working on this 1 year ago!)

We're painting all the woodwork white (the color above is Martha Stewart's Bedford Grey). I'll be posting more pics once it's finally done (hopefully this week!!)

June's Room - Almost done!

2011-08-12T14:51:00.013-06:00

It's almost complete! I hung the vintage wallpaper print & my grandma's vintage lamp,

Got the crib from my mom who drove it out from Minnesota! This is the crib that I slept in! My dad sprayed it white (said it was a PAIN, but looks great, eh?).

Ready for the wow factor? The quilt my mom made!! Isn't it just pure perfection????? The picture doesn't even do it justice.

My mom also surprised me with a mermaid doll using matching colors/fabrics! This doll was based off of the Black Apple Doll pattern found on Marthastewart.com.

After some thought, I decided to make the mobile rather than buy it. So I pulled out Max's mobile from storage and took it apart. Here it is before:

And here it is after!

I recovered the arms with coordinating fabric and tied on strings of clear faceted beads, capiz shells, little seashells & wooden seahorses bought from Michael's which I painted coral & drilled holes in the top.

And below you can see my take on the latest trend of using embroidery hoops as decor! I just used the fabrics I bought for the room (Heather Ross's Mendocino collection) and some vintage chenille (the tangerine fabric) and a scrap of coral/white polka dot I had bought years ago. Then I did some embroidery work on a few of them. On the largest one, you can't tell, but I did some bead work, and then one hoop I embroidered a "j" and on another I embroidered "june" by printing out what I wanted on my computer in the size I wanted and then I pinned the paper design (right side down) onto the backside of the fabric and then embroidered right over the design! It was a quick & easy project & I think it turned out pretty cute!

Only thing left are the little bookshelves that I still need to spray paint white and hang on the walls! Pictures to come! :)

Nesting in full force!

2011-07-20T22:04:00.005-06:00

Nesting in full effect people! Here are some projects I've been working on:

Room painted with scallop border. Check.

Hand-me-down dresser repainted with new knobs. Check.

Hand-me-down desk repainted/new knobs. Check.

I did the scallop paint detail using a homemade stencil made from posterboard. Took forever, but I'm happy with the results! I stole the idea from ISLY blog - but she did hers by cutting the whole border out of contact paper and sticking it on the wall. I didn't want to put paper on the wall and I thought paint would be easier, but they are probably fairly equivalent in the amount of work, possibly more so the way I did it.

Splurged a little on those curtains (urbanoutfitters.com), but I think it was worth it - they make me happy because they are oh so pretty pretty! I did get them on sale... plus free shipping...

The knobs were a steal! Got them at Hobby Lobby (awesome for knobs) for $3 each for the pink ones and $5 each for the black handles. They were having a 50% off sale so I think I scored! I think they are both perfect for what I was going for!

The dresser & desk were gifts from Dan's Aunt Holly (Thank you!!!) and they couldn't have come at a better time. We were in need of a dresser/changing table for the baby's room and since the baby's room took over our office, we needed a new space for the computer/office supplies, so really it couldn't have been more perfect!

Now that those two pieces are done, I can work on some other things I've got on my project list. I found this mobile on potterybarnkids.com and I want to make something like it for June's room.

I kind of love this phase - I feel so productive!

The last few cakes before baby

2011-06-26T18:42:00.007-06:00

This is it (I think)! Here's the last of it for a while, as cake making will probably be on hold at least until my little jujubee is born!

two photos above taken by

my super talented friend Caprice!

Wedding cake for Whitney Bennett

In the home stretch...

2011-06-17T23:49:00.003-06:00

I've finally reached the 3rd trimester!

Just 12 weeks to go!

Max's 1st bike

2011-06-06T00:06:00.007-06:00

It's really starting to feel like summer now that we spend our days cruising the neighborhood. Max couldn't be more excited about his new bike!

Baby Shower cake & pops

2011-05-28T16:51:00.004-06:00

My good friend Ashlee had her baby shower today and asked that I bring a goodie for the party! I love the Martha Stewart Ruffle cake - so little effort for so much wow!

P.S. Thanks Brittany B for the idea! I saw your ruffle cake and so I thought I'd try as well :)

4 more months!

2011-05-09T23:25:00.003-06:00

Notice the blue tape in the background? Yes, this is the same project I have been talking about doing since August. I was hoping once I got the tape up I'd be more motivated to finish but it's been over a week now... :)

Easter Weekend

2011-04-26T16:25:00.008-06:00

We went to the Easter Egg Hunt at Thanksgiving point with our friends, the Erickson's. Although it was a little chilly and the lines were long and the hunt was short-lived, Max had a great time!

Here he is in his Sunday best, hamming it up as usual.

Her room: Inspiration

2011-04-20T13:16:00.003-06:00

Don't you just love all these! Amazing!

Her room part 3

2011-04-18T23:09:00.009-06:00

Bought it.

Thinking of making a few of the following 3 myself...

(I have white dot minky &

vintage white chenille already)

star, urchin, scales

am I going too literal with this theme???

and lastly, I'm biting my nails over the following two...

exhibit A) pricy

exhibit B) pricier

(any thoughts on where to get something like these things cheaper?)

A day at Hogle Zoo with the wild animals

2011-04-17T22:22:00.011-06:00

Look, here's one now!

and a whole bunch more right there!

Hahaha :) I kid, I kid... These little animals were actually really great and it was such a fun day! My favorite part of the day had to be seeing little Cole's reaction to everything. He just had that look of quiet wonder about him all day... so cute!

As you can see below, not everyone had that wondrous feeling :).

Though I admit, some parts were a bit smelly...

And these guys were more interested in maps than pretty much anything...

All in all, it was so much fun to spend time with family.

I'd do it again :) wild animals & all.

Photo 101 class & cupcakes

2011-04-09T15:38:00.003-06:00

Took these to my cousin-in-law Sharon's awesome Photo 101 class this morning. I came in with only point-and-shoot ability and left with a fairly good grasp on how my pricey Christmas present works! She really has a way of making things easier to understand. If you have a fancy camera and aren't really sure how it works, this is a great beginner class - I highly recommend it!

http://sharonjohnsonphotography.blogspot.com/

Her room part 2

2011-04-05T12:59:00.005-06:00

I found a 7x9 Pottery Barn rug at Down East Home for $99 for June's room and I couldn't pass it up! It's, as Max would say, huge and mungous, but all the better to cover my icky carpet! Kinda hard to get the real idea of the color here but it's pink with cream dots.

I have also found this great print on Etsy by seller APAK and can't wait to see it in person! I think it's beautiful and really adds to the vision I have for her room.

Her room

2011-04-02T15:50:00.006-06:00

I found the perfect fabrics to use as my palette/theme for her room! I have purchased a little of each of these and they will be used in a quilt (made by my amazing mama) and as inspiration for the rest of the room! These are from fabric designer Heather Ross - the Mendocino collection in Blush.

Her name

2011-04-01T19:01:00.006-06:00

My little Junebuggy! Can't wait!

Drum Roll Please...

2011-03-31T20:15:00.001-06:00

It's a girl!!!!!!!! Woot Woot! Bring on the pink!

Thursday!

2011-03-26T20:09:00.002-06:00

This Thursday is the day we'll find out what we're having!! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! Of course I want a girl, but really & truly I'd be happy if it's a boy too. But I hope it's a girl. Oh it would be so much fun! Any guesses out there?? Boy or girl?

These three letters never looked so good!

2011-02-16T19:02:00.004-07:00

I totally cried! It seemed like (although it wasn't at all) forever that we tried for this one! I just was so completely immersed in it that every passing day just crawled by. Anyway, now it all seems so silly! We are all so excited & Max is looking forward to being mommy's special helper & the best big brother ever. It did take him a while to come around to the idea though - at first every time we asked him what he thought of having a baby sister or brother he said "I will squish it!"

Due September 9th! Yay!!

Gingerbread House Contest!

2010-12-17T19:28:00.007-07:00

K so I entered a gingerbread house competition that Ivory Homes put on and if you have a Facebook account I need your votes! 50% of the score is Ivory Homes judges and the other 50% is votes placed by the people who saw them at the event and Facebook votes (likes) combined. So go and vote for me by going to Ivory Homes Facebook page and go to their 2010 Gingerbread House Contestants photo album. I'm #5 (it has my name on it too). You first have to click "Like" on their profile page (sorry) and then you can vote by clicking "like" under my entry photo! It just takes a sec! Plus it's super fun to look at all the entries!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=493942231504&set=a.493941856504.264046.52656001504&theater

thanks so much!

Jamie

Family Photos

2010-11-13T13:18:00.007-07:00

My good friend Caprice took our family photos yesterday & I am so excited at how well they turned out! If you go to her photography blog you can check out the ones she posted. My favorites are the one of us laying down and the one of Dan & I squatting with Max, but they are all so great!

Chasing Dandelions Photography

A Halloween Boo-day Party

2010-11-10T11:25:00.012-07:00

It was a birthday celebration to remember!

Of course I had to make cake pops :)

Each kid got a mini pumpkin to decorate themselves.

Cookies to take on your way out :)

The monkey, the banana and the witch.

Hallie (Miss Utah), Max (Monkey), Maddie (Pirate), & Reagan (clown)

Beautiful party princess Lauren & her beautiful mom.

Tanner (Luigi) and Leila (kitty)

The Ericksons! (Awesome!!)

Little princess Belle (Maci Bell) and sis-in-law Mari (dressed as a model) haha jk she just always looks that good.

Maddie-boo & her pumpkin

Reagan all changed in her jammies to go home with her pumpkin.

Saying goodbye to best friend Griffy. We love our friends!

Super Max's Secret Identity

2010-11-06T00:55:00.005-06:00

Should I reveal Super Max's secret identity????

You'll never guess....

It's Max!

I just blew your mind, didn't I?

Yeah, he actually lives with his mom.

And he doesn't like to wear pants unless he has to.

Sorry to blow your cover, but in good conscience,

I just couldn't NOT share these pics! :)

For Daisy

2010-10-25T14:20:00.003-06:00

I loved making these cute treats! These were for a baby shower for a baby girl that would be named Daisy :) So adorable!

Mason's Train Cake

2010-10-21T00:16:00.003-06:00

Max's best buddy Mason's 3rd year train birthday was awesome! Caprice went all out & showed all us mommies how it's done :). To top off the amazing evening she had me make a train cake for her little man & here it is! She sent me a photo of a cake made by Cake Box and said make this! So I can't take credit for the idea, and mine didn't turn out quite as good, but I'm pleased nonetheless :)

photo taken by Caprice Erickson

More!

2010-09-20T09:34:00.003-06:00

More more more! I just wanna keep making these - I'm obsessed!

Cupcake Pops

2010-09-14T21:14:00.005-06:00

Okay so I LOVE Bakerella and so when her new book Cake Pops came out, I had to have it immediately. :) Here is my first attempt at her cake pops - the cupcake pop! They were so easy and so cute, I'm totally hooked & am thinking about making them again this week.

Haley's Cake

2010-09-02T21:19:00.005-06:00

She gave me her colors & a few ideas and just let me design it! Brave bride! Don't think I could've done that! Maybe I'm too much of a control freak :). Anyhoo here's the result! I'm loving her colors - when done in just the right amounts, it is so fresh & bright feeling.

Love these pics!

2010-08-31T23:38:00.008-06:00

Dan's cousin Sharon took these awesome photos on Sunday when we were all at another cousin's farewell party. I just LOVE Love LOVE them :) Thanks Sharon!!! You're amazing!

Boston & Calvin

2010-08-04T23:54:00.010-06:00

I went to Boston because my little nephew Calvin was born a week ago. Up until then, Max was the only grandbaby on my side of the family. Welcome Cal!!! He is completely perfect in every way! Such a good sleeper and seems to have a wonderful, easy-going & cheerful temperament. It was so great to get to enjoy a newborn without the pain & exhaustion that comes along with actually birthing it! But Miriam could've fooled us, she sure bounced back quickly, well, almost immediately. Crazy! Just hate her for it! ;) (love you meems). She was up and walking around and running errands pretty much every day after getting home. I could virtually see the pounds melting off the girl. So unfair. K well now to the stuff you've all been waiting for... PICTURES!

Boston is an amazing city; I see why my sis & bro-in-law love it. Here's me at the end of the Freedom Trail! My mom & I did pretty much the whole thing - we walked almost 7 & 1/2 miles around Boston in one afternoon! I loved it!

Some of my favorite sites-

Zakim Bridge, the wharf & the Old North Church

I just loved all the architecture... *sigh* they just don't make 'em like they used to!

Calvie

they make the cutest parents

he looks just like Bryant!

I just realized we have the exact same hair color!

Missing the little guy already!

Summer is here

2010-07-01T10:39:00.008-06:00

I finally can say I ran Wasatch Back! Yay! It was so fun, but then again, I had the best team ever :)

Can you believe how much it's grown??? Craziness.

Dan borrowed this from a friend to use for the race. Of course, we had to test drive it around the neighborhood.

My fam visited from Minnesota! I wish they lived closer... it was so much fun to see them and Max just couldn't get enough of them.

Ben especially.

We've done 2 days at Lagoon so far this summer. This was the first - it was VERY cold & windy. Not sure if you remember that super windy Saturday?? Yes, that was the day we went to Lagoon.

Lagoon gave us a free day because it was so miserable. So here we are again, this time in shorts.

Love these boys.
Max has really gotten brave since last summer. He'll go on pretty much anything!

The cousins.
Nina, Griffin, & yes, that's baby Coleman in her arms! They let her take him on Flying Aces! Awesome!

Started a little late, but so far, it's been a great summer!

Abbey's Wedding

2010-06-04T19:55:00.004-06:00

It was so beautiful. Loved everything about it! The colors were fun and graphic & she had it fine-tuned to the last little detail and I'm all about the details. Here is her wedding & groom's cake I made.

Isn't it just so pretty :)

2010-05-22T12:49:00.005-06:00

I love love love this cake! It may be in my top 2 favorites that I've done. I loved that I had so much creative freedom on this one - she just said to make a girly teapot cake (for a 6 year old's tea party themed birthday) so I came up with this. I did a lot of research online, looking at lots of teapot cake photos (you'd be surprised at how many are out there... I'm talking about in the THOUSANDS), and I didn't find any that I really loved or that fit with what I was going for, so I took some ideas here & some ideas there, threw in my favorite color scheme right now for little girls & Wah-La!

scout & cleo

2010-04-15T03:10:00.006-06:00

I have had so much on the brain lately & I have an obsession with great finds online that I thought I would just put it down on paper... or internet, so to speak (or so to write? haha). So I created another blog just so I can let some of my thoughts out & so I have my own personal archive of the lovelies I find. Eventually, I plan on creating my own things... illustrations, crafts, accessories, & who knows what, that I'll post on there as well. I've called it scout & cleo, after my 2 kitties of course :) (rip scoutie!). Anyone who knows me knows that I love cats (and not in that weird cat-lady way... at least I tell myself that) and I think their names sound so cute together so... there you have it! Presenting scout & cleo!

oh and let me know what your thoughts are on whether it should be scout & cleo or cleo & scout? I couldn't decide so this is just what I went with. whaddya think?

the holidays.

2010-01-10T14:54:00.022-07:00

The holidays are over. :( Sad. It was a great holiday season & I was so lucky to go spend time with my family in Minnesota. I haven't blogged in a while so I'll just catch you up.

Right before Thanksgiving, Dan & I took a trip to Key West. What a fun place! I fell in love with the beachy colonial architecture and the delicious key lime pie.

We went parasailing (first time for both of us) and it was incredible to see the keys from above. It's not scary at all, but actually really relaxing. Like a swing in the sky.

Dan, Max & I spent Thanksgiving with the Hill Family up at their cabin in Liberty, UT.

Sometime in between Thanksgiving & new years I made about 75 sugar cookies on sticks for a big primary thing my aunt (in-law) was putting on. They were really fun. And I got a new recipe that I think is a winner - thanks to AussieMum!

Right before we left for Minnesota, we opened our presents from the Hill family. Max got this sweet Adidas track suit and the trampoline you see in the background. He loves it!

and I got this piano! It's pre-owned but it's in amazing shape, has great sound quality and I love the look of it. I'm thinking of painting it...

ever since I saw this green piano on Design Mom. Isn't is incredible?!

Later... in Minnesota...

Christmas Eve dinner. Yum. Thanks Mom!

And here's Max opening his traditional Christmas Eve jammies in Minnesota. They say "Dear Santa, I can explain..." So cute.

Every Christmas eve, my dad reads "The Cajun Night Before Christmas". It's a family tradition that started when my parents lived in New Orleans (where Isaac was born). It made me tear up to see Max enjoying the story I grew up with.

Christmas morning

Ben & Dan fingerboarding. Ben is amazing at this.

And as for the rest of the trip, we didn't do much of note...

a lot of this...

Max made a new friend, Camden.

some more of this...

a little of this... (air mattress stair sliding)

and Charlotte & I made these cute cases for an ipod, camera, or phone. She made one that looks like a panda bear face, and mine's a poptart! She loves doing crafts & we always come up with something fun to make when I visit.

and we went to my favorite store in MN - Unique. It's like a DI or Goodwill but there are so many gems in that place it's unreal. And for next to nothing. I could make a career of buying stuff there and reselling it. Easy. I got this amazing vintage Japanese-inspired blanket there for $3.95. Seriously. And they have no tax on retail stuff so it was literally $3.95. Crazy. I also picked up some beautiful ribbons, a bag of misc. buttons, 2 tablecloths (a buck fifty a piece!) and 1 adorable apron - all vintage. THE best store ever.

Well, that pretty much sums it all up! * Sigh* I love the holidays...

what to wear, what to wear?

2009-12-13T21:49:00.019-07:00

WARNING: Be aware that Blogger was being exceptionally irritating during the authorship of this post as it keeps cutting off words and I can't quite figure out why. Sorry for the annoyance!

So Dan was awarded top 40 under 40 (applause) :) and I couldn't be more excited for him... but... whatever will I wear to the award ceremony? I'm not quite sure what the dress code is, but Dan thinks it will be black tie. I have nada that fits that category & I've already exhausted all of my cute sister in-laws formal dresses (at least the ones that fit me, which aren't many... she is teeny), so I'm thinking it would be fun to buy one this time... well at least I can wish. So here are a few options I've been looking at for fun...

First off, I want to show you a dress - no THE dress - that I would kill for. Well maybe not kill, but I could definitely throw a hard punch for. I have no idea who it's made by, but I am confident that it would be out of my price range as it was worn by the lovely Claire Danes when she was a guest on Martha Stewart on Dec.4th. I couldn't find any photos online or info on where she got it, so I went to Martha's site, watched the episode & took a pic off my computer (hence the suckiness), but I wanted you to see the perfection that is this dress!

So since the only way I could have this dress is if I sold my body (which wouldn't go for much these days) or made the thing myself (which I have considered...), I am allowing for alternates.

The In-A-Moment dress from Anthropologie (fave store ever)

But is it too casual? Could this be black-tie worthy with a heel & jewelry?

These 2 are from Shabby Apple:

The Jitterbug dress is so glamorous and retro, I love it. Especially with this hat... but of course I couldn't wear a hat to the banquet.. and my skin & hair wouldn't have nearly that dramatic contrast which makes it so... romantic looking.

The Ingrid seems a little safer to me. White near my face = flattering in my opinion, black on the bottom = flattering to my touschie. Plus it would be so cute with some t-straps or mary-janes... and maybe a splash of color with a headband or clutch?

Here's one that I think is just so pretty, feminine & dreamy. It's from ModCloth and it's named "A Formal Affair Dress." Fitting.

Okay so that's all I got so far. Have suggestions or thoughts? I started searching Etsy but that is just so overwhelming - know any good sellers? I'd love your input!

Love, Jamie

Hi.

2009-11-16T13:34:00.003-07:00

The stuff. He demands to sleep with Barney, George & Max as well as 4, count em', 4 blankets. With how gimongous he's getting, there's not much room to spare in that crib these days. He calls the collective group his "stuff".

Enjoying one of the last nice fall days...

Max's first sledding adventure!

Isn't he a cute snow bunny?

Where the Wild Things Are

2009-10-31T23:48:00.010-06:00

The night before Max wore his wolf suit for his big birthday party, he was sent to bed.

That very night, while he slept, in Max's house a party grew...

and grew...

and grew until the ceiling hung with vines and the walls became a party all around.

And a platter stacked up with cupcakes just for Max.

And his mom worked on a haunted gingerbread mansion

through night and day,

and in and out of weeks,
and almost over a year,

to have it ready for Max's Where the Wild Things Are party!

And his friends came to the place where the wild things are.

And they roared their terrible roars, and gnashed their terrible teeth, and rolled their terrible eyes, and showed their terrible claws, til Max's mom said "Be still!"

But his friends wanted to go home where people love them best of all, but Max cried, "Oh please don't go. I'll eat you up, I love you so," and his friends said "No!"

So Max waved good-bye and then, with his cousin Griffin, went into the basement of his very own house, where they found markers & a white couch waiting for them.

And they made mischief of one kind...

And another...

His mother called him "WILD THING!"

and he was sent to time out without any warnings. :)

And after time out, he found his mother waiting for him...

and she still loved him so!

The End!

The Best Two Years

2009-10-23T10:08:00.006-06:00

My little baby is two years old today! Despite the truck load of other issues, Max has made these last 2 years the best of my life. Being a mom is more wonderful than I would have ever dreamed, and of course more difficult than I imagined, but I wouldn't trade it for all the world. He is like a little ray of sunshine that just lights up my whole life. Every morning when I go in to get him out of his crib his little head shoots up and he gives me the cutest little dimply grin. It makes even my darkest days light. His little hugs and slobbery kisses melt my heart. I couldn't imagine a more amazing little boy. He's so perfect & he's mine!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAXIE!

Catching Up...

2009-10-18T17:02:00.009-06:00

I haven't blogged for a while so for those of you who don't facebook, here is a very abbreviated look at what I've been up to lately:

Finally finished the wainscotting in the front room.

Went to Lake Powell for the first time!

Started making a haunted gingerbread mansion! Here is the model!

And began working on Max's Christmas stocking.

Planted a few trees in the backyard.

Made cupcakes for Isaac's birthday.

Went to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point.

Visited family in Minnesota cuz my brother Ben got home from his mission!

Went to baby Coleman's baby blessing & spent lots of time with family.

Things are looking rosy :)

2009-09-14T16:38:00.003-06:00

Aren't they pretty??? *Sigh* I just love how these turned out. I'll for sure be doing these again... but what I'll never do again is make a cupcake recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery recipe book!!

This is try #2 and both I thought were a bit on the grainy side - and the worst part about them is that the cupcake papers don't stick to them for some reason!! Maybe too much butter? Not sure but it was SO irritating I can't even tell you. Let's just say I was ready to smash some pretty flowers towards the end there. I had to "glue" every single one of the cupcakes to their papers with icing. And I know it wasn't the papers' fault because I used 3 different kinds between the 2 recipes (I've made the vanilla and these are the chocolate). A bit disappointing since the book looked so adorable... Has anyone else made these with any luck? I know Jeni Carlson has made the black bottom ones and said they were a hit... Maybe I just did both recipes wrong.... ?

As cute as these turned out... THIS is what I'm most proud of!!!!! Am I innovative or what?! :)

I had to transport these without them bumping eachother or the pan they were sitting in. I have a cupcake carrier that I could've used but the little cups they sit in are too low so if you hit any sharp turns they get demolished (it's happened to me before and it was very sad). So I came up with this GENIUS (if I do say so myself) solution of using Lincoln Logs as separaters! Whassup I'm amazing. Feel free to gush over my genius ;).

Cookie Bouquet for baby Cole!

2009-08-09T22:30:00.004-06:00

My first attempt at a cookie bouquet! What I learned:

1. How to get a cookie on a stick. It must be baked-in! (I tried various methods... baking and then sticking, baking & then "gluing" with icing, and only baked-in works!) So you put the stick down on the parchment-lined baking sheet and then put your cut sugar cookie on top, pressing gently around the stick. In the first 5 minutes after removing the cookies from the oven, take a flat object (I use a Wilton Fondant Smoother) and lightly & evenly press on the top of each cookie to flatten (otherwise you'll get a lump where the stick is underneath). Make sure the cookies are fully cooled before attempting to move & then turn over & reinforce the backs with royal icing (just for good measure!).

1. I need a new sugar cookie recipe - mine is no good (it's Martha Stewart... all looks & no taste!) Anyone have a good recipe to share? I'm looking for one that holds its shape well, but is soft & yummy!

and most importantly...

2. Don't stick the cookies in until the icing is dry all the way through! The icing started to slide which made them not as pretty as they should have been - and could have resulted in disaster if I had not discovered it early enough!

Happy Birthday Mari!

2009-07-27T09:53:00.004-06:00

I made this cake for my little sister-in-law Mari's 19th birthday (who is sincerely like a sister to me). I think this is one of my favorites - classically beautiful just like Mari!

Weed-o-phobia

2009-07-18T11:25:00.004-06:00

I'm scared of weeds. Is that weird? The bigger the weed, the scarier. If the weed is too large, I can't even pull it. It's just too scary. LOL I'm laughing at how ridiculous this sounds!! Little weeds, I can handle. I don't really mind them if they're under 9 inches in diameter or under 6 inches in height, but once they cross that threshold, I have to mentally prep myself, get the gloves or get Dan to take care of it for me. We had one weed that was growing in a corner that was almost as tall as me. It was one of the freakiest things I'd ever seen. I couldn't go within 6 feet of it.

The Latest from Jamie's Bakery

2009-07-13T00:48:00.007-06:00

This week was crazy! I was baking like a fiend!

16 Raspberry filled Vanilla cakes
+ 4 Buttercream filled Chocolate cakes
------
= 2 cakes!! (1 wedding cake & 1 birthday cake!)

Each cake took anywhere between 45-90 minutes to bake.... okay, I'm not good at math, but I LIVED it and I can tell you... it was A LOT of time! :) And soooo maybe I'm not such a fan of baking... but the decorating... *sigh,* I could do that forever!!! Such fun cakes! It's quite the experience... you work on them for hours, days even, but it's not until the last hour or two that it really comes together & becomes special.

Here's what I've been up to this week:

Grace's Wedding Cake

Ellie's Silvermist Fairy Cake

And I can't go without thanking Mari, Brandt, Brooke, Dan & Mike, the nosy traveling salesman.

Thank you!!!!

Lagoon Day!

2009-06-14T15:20:00.004-06:00

My father-in-law had a company Lagoon Day so we got to go for free. This was Max's first trip to Lagoon. Here's Dan with a confused looking Max on the Puff the Magic Dragon ride. This is the face Max made on every ride he went on (which was a total of 3 rides... he was scared of most of them).

When we got home from Lagoon, I fed him his favorite - Pizza with ranch dipping sauce. As you can see didn't just dip pizza in the ranch. He was so tired from a fun day at Lagoon that he fell asleep eating dinner! Another first for him. Adorable!!

I'm Famous People!

2009-06-08T21:08:00.005-06:00

Check me out! My Gushers cake is a "cake-do" (not a cakewreck, much to my relief!) on Cakewrecks.blogspot.com! So awesome!

Pony Cake

2009-05-23T10:01:00.002-06:00

All the parts :)

All the cuteness!

LOL of the day

2009-05-12T09:34:00.001-06:00

You have to watch this - it's hilarious!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/72447/saturday-night-live-surgery-center

2 Cakes for 1 Wedding = 1 tired Baker!

2009-05-02T11:56:00.005-06:00

It was stressful, yet fun! Here are the results from almost 2 weeks of work!

Wedding cake with damask stencil pattern on all sides & Tiffany Blue satin ribbon. All layers were made from scratch - bottom 2 layers were Irish Cream with Buttercream Icing & the top tier was made for the Bride & Groom to save and was a yummilicious Pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting.

And here is the groom's cake made to look like his beloved Dodge Charger! Cake is alternating layers of chocolate & white cake with oreo buttercream filling (his favorite snack is Oreos). The cake was hand-carved and meticulously measured! I haven't done so much math since college! His other love is golfing so I incorporated that as well.

Max in a Tux

2009-04-16T01:39:00.003-06:00

Oh prepare yourself for the cutest boy ever photographed in the history of the world!

Today's LOL (& P.S. I love Zac F)

2009-04-15T22:37:00.003-06:00

http://www.hulu.com/watch/67437/saturday-night-live-high-school-musical-4

Savy's Cake

2009-03-28T13:16:00.004-06:00

Here is the latest from Jamie's bakery! It was for little Savy's baptism day.

LOL of the day! :)

2009-03-25T01:10:00.000-06:00

Cassidy's Pink Pirate Cake

2009-03-19T13:41:00.002-06:00

Splits & Oven Mitts

2009-03-15T13:01:00.002-06:00

Check out Dan's new office!

2009-03-09T13:35:00.004-06:00

I haven't taken any pics myself, but my friend Kristin did (her hubby is Dan's business partner, Tanner Bell). Take a look!

Click here to see Ragnar's sweet new office

Everything's Amazing, Nobody's Happy!

2009-03-09T13:11:00.003-06:00

Presenting... my first ever wedding cake!!!

2009-02-28T17:50:00.005-07:00

I can now officially say that I've made a wedding cake! Yay me! This cake was for Michelle Brostrom (My brother-in-law's sister) and she had sort of an asian theme going. I hand painted the branches and made each individual gum paste cherry blossom! It was really fun to make & I'm proud to say that I have a wedding cake under my belt!

The back side looks identical to the front. I was going to do the cherry branches on all sides of each tier but I decided that would have been a bit much.

Yay Meemers came!

2009-02-27T00:59:00.006-07:00

My mom sent us this amazing lego set to put together while Miriam was here.
It was so fun! Legos rock.

We made yummy crepes with hand whipped cream & 6 different kinds of fruit. They were amazing. I loved them so much I had them the next 2 days as well!

Mir, Max & Isaac just hangin out. Max has really gone through quite a growth spurt.

Palsie walsies.

Aunt Debbie, our cousin Mindy & her little girl Opal came to visit on Monday.
She sure looks like her mama & it seemed she had her
mom's pleasant & cheerful personality as well!

Miss you already Meems!

Pucker up!

2009-02-14T10:59:00.005-07:00

My friend Anika asked me to make this cake for a ball she was putting on for Valentine's day. It was also a charity event and the theme was "Kiss Cancer Goodbye" so she thought a lipstick cake would be fun. This was the trickiest cake I've ever made, construction-wise. You don't even know what kind of architecture went into building this puppy! I had a PVC pipe running up the middle of the whole thing. Even though I had the thing built to withstand an earthquake, I was still nervous about making the drive from Farmington to South Jordan, but it made it! Here are pics!

The most annoying things ever

2009-02-11T03:29:00.007-07:00

Don't ask me why I've decided to write a post on this. Perhaps I'm just in an irritable mood, but it struck me as a great idea for a post since there are quite a few things that annoy me. Namely... :)

- BEEPING. Alarm clocks, phones ringing (I can never get to my phone in time), timers, smoke alarms going off when the batteries are dead

- STICKERS THAT WON'T COME OFF! When you have to scrape it off a milimeter at a time and it gets under your fingernails...

- PENCILS WRITING ON PAPER. The sound it makes is like nails on a chalkboard to me. I know, I'm an artist... how can I stand it? I have to mentally block all noise otherwise I'd go crazy. It's hard to do.

- MAX SPITTING OUT HIS FOOD AND/OR THROWING IT. Just when I think the kid is eating great, about 8 bites come tumbling out of his mouth. It's so frustrating. Especially when he then proceeds to throw it across the room onto my dark wood floor. Which brings me to the next one on my list...

- DARK WOOD FLOORS. Never EVER get dark glossy floors. They stay clean for about 30 seconds. Literally.

-the word SKIWAMPUS (as you may already know) and also the word FUDGE when used as a substitute for the curse (whereas when the definition is a tasty chocolaty treat, I LOVE the word!) (oh p.s. the no-sugar resolution was a total bomb) (big surprise)

- CAVITIES. wth? You can break any other bone in your body completely in half or even into millions of little pieces and yet THEY manage to grow back together. You get one measly little hole in your tooth and it's there forever?? No offense oh masterful creator, but I think you may have dropped the ball on this one. (Please don't crack me with your lightning. I realize this is totally my fault. The evidence of my sweet tooth is... in my teeth.) did I just say that? haha

- GETTING HIT IN THE HEAD. I don't get hit in the head by other people so much anymore (now that I don't fight with my siblings over who doesn't have to play with Trudy, the ugly no-necked Barbie), but when I bump my head on anything such as the car door frame... it's not a pretty picture.

- POOP BLOW-OUTS. No, not mine, Max's (you're disgusting, by they way). Occasionally the poop breaches all borders and ventures out into unwelcome territory. The only thing you can do is strip him down totally nudie (while trying to keep his hands out of it) and wash him head to toe and completely re-dress him (dressing this kid is an annoyance in and of itself as he has a serious disability when it comes to staying remotely still).

I would love it if you would comment and share something you find extremely annoying!

Brandt's Buzz Cake! (can I go to bed yet?)

2009-02-07T21:58:00.005-07:00

I'm so tired (stayed up all night making this thing), but here's the latest from Jamie's kitchen! It's a Buzz Lightyear (Astroblasters ride) cake! He loves Disneyland and especially the Buzz ride. He's especially proud of his high score (which I made sure to include on the cake.) So I made the cake all about the ride & even included a mini-Brandt riding it at the top! I'm pleased with how it turned out & it was really fun to make.

The Birthday boy with his cake.

Up close.

View from the back.

The Four Jacksons & some pix for your Max Fix

2009-02-02T15:03:00.005-07:00

My mom was getting on my case about posting pics of Max so here's some of the latest. The top 2 are from Steve's 60th birthday celebration where all 4 generations of Jacksons were present. Oldest to Youngest: Herbert Jackson, Stephen Jackson, Daniel Jackson & Max Jackson!

SKIWAMPUS????

2009-01-30T16:29:00.003-07:00

I had never heard this word in my life until 2 days ago. Now I've been hearing it everywhere. Where did this word come from? It certainly sounds like it originated in Utah (sorry you native Utahans, but you have to agree Utahan's do seem to have a skill for coming up with annoying vocabulary). From first listen, I had a serious aversion to this word (so much that it causes involuntary gagging - honestly, I don't even like typing it). How did this word go from me never hearing it before to the top of my "Words I Hate List" so quickly?? This has never happened before. I suppose it's something akin to love at first sight, but totally opposite. Hate at first hearing.

New Year's Resolutions that are sure to be broken

2009-01-01T13:02:00.003-07:00

This year I'm not going to lie to myself. There's a really good chance I won't follow through on any of these. But! I think by being honest and not setting the expectation too high, my killer competitive instinct will kick in to prove myself wrong. I do that kind of thing a lot. Things I don't even want to do will get done if either myself or someone else tells me I can't do it. So here goes...

#1 - No more sweets (did I just hear a "Yeah Right?")

I'm cutting out what I call "blatant sweets". These usually fall under the following categories: candy, cake, cookies, brownies, icecream, pies, sugar cereals. I do plan on giving myself a few exceptions including (but not exclusively) birthdays and special occasions. What defines a special occasion, you ask? Could be anything, really. But honestly, I think this time I'll actually do it because lately, when I've been craving sugar & I indulge, I've been disappointed. Why isn't it as good as I think it's going to be?

#2 - Go to all 3 hours of church every Sunday

So I haven't been perfect on this one. In fact, quite far from it. I have been using my innocent little boy as my excuse. Well his nap time does opportunely... er.. unfortunately coincide with pretty much the entirety of church (church goes from 11-2 and he usually naps from 11:30-2:00). So, in my defense, church becomes a meaningless, learning-free, 3 hour exercise loop in the hall because he is so restless and it is impossible to keep his voice at a learning-friendly volume. Alas, with the new year comes a saving grace (bummer). Church now begins at 1:00pm so my excuse is no longer valid! I suppose I could try to come up with a new excuse, or perhaps even make an attempt at changing Max's nap schedule (couldn't be that hard...), but I think I'll use this opportunity to my eternal benefit. Wish me luck :).

#3 - well there was a #3 but after writing those first two I have become somewhat overwhelmed at what I have resolved to do this year, so I think two is plenty. I'll bump this one to next year's list!

Well I wish everyone the best of luck with their New Year's Resolutions. I'll be sure to give an update later in the year as to the status of my resolutions!

Happy 2009!!

Another Castle Cake Creation!

2008-12-15T13:36:00.004-07:00

If you look closely, you can see the birthday girl in the top window of the castle! This was made for my best friends' little girl, Hallie for her 6th birthday. I had already made a cake almost identical to it, so it went a little faster this time. It was so much fun to make!

Max Walks!

2008-11-18T13:43:00.003-07:00

You've gotta listen to these with the sound on. It's the cutest thing ever.

Disco Dancin' Max Jackson!

2008-10-29T13:23:00.003-06:00

As part of Max's 1st birthday celebration, Dan & I compiled a video of Max gettin' his groove on!

Enjoy!!

I posted it to YouTube as well last night. The link is below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXH9doDsKic

"I'll be sad later. Today I'll enjoy the moment."

2008-10-28T18:18:00.003-06:00

Today's Oprah really gave me that "Ah-ha" moment she always talks about. There was a video about a baby named Eliot that lived for 99 days which really touched me. When Oprah commented about how they never gave up hope even though Eliot's prognosis was not good, Eliot's mother replied, "I'll be sad later. Today I'll enjoy the moment."

I love this because so often we say to ourselves "Tomorrow I'll be happy" or "When this happens, I'll be happy or when we have more money or when I get married or when I have a child...." Life will constantly give us excuses not to be happy. That's life. Many times we have no control over what happens to us, we can only choose how we will respond to life. I love how these parents celebrated each precious day of their son's life instead of mourning his inevitable death. And this leads me to add that death is inevitable for all of us. We should celebrate our lives as if it could end any day like this beautiful boy, Eliot.

Thank you Eliot!!!

Watch the video on YouTube (grab a few tissues first!) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qILw1iFzmIE

The Year of the Max

2008-10-25T23:58:00.004-06:00

I wanted to do this on Max's birthday Thursday, and I didn't get around to it, but I thought I'd do it anyway cuz I thought it would be fun for people to see! Enjoy!

I HEART Gingerbread

2008-10-25T22:11:00.002-06:00

Wow I absolutely love gingerbread houses and tonight I watched the Food Network Challenge where the theme was "Haunted Gingerbread Houses" and I am in awe of the winner's creation. It was spectacular.. it was phenomenal.. it was perhaps the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my entire life made out of food. Wow! This show sparked something inside of me - a crazy passion for this particular baking field! I think I'm in love! Seriously I'm thinking... how can I make this my career? Ideas, anyone?

And I looked all over the internet for a picture of the winning gingerbread creation but came up empty-handed, sorry! You'll just have to watch the episode or TiVo it.

The next time this episode airs will be OCT 31st 10:00PM ET/PT (by the way what does that mean anyway? ET/PT... doesn't that mean Eastern Time/Pacific Time? and if so which one is it? It can't be both!... so confusing!)

1 wonderful year!

2008-10-23T10:05:00.003-06:00

My little bubba is 1 year old today... wow. I've just been so nostalgic today thinking about last year and how amazing my life has been since then. Max has brought so much happiness in my life, I can't imagine life without my little scrunchie-faced dancer. He lights up my life!!! Here are some of the wonderful things about my Maxie...

- He LOVES to dance - he dances to everything that has any sort of beat - a tapping pencil, the dishwasher spin cycle, the icecream maker, cell phone ring tones, or just start humming a tune and he'll start getin' down!

- He's starting to talk now (which is so fun!) and right now his vocabulary consists of

Dada
Baba (bottle)
Tickle (can you believe this one!?)
No!
Bath

Although he hasn't repeated these ones (at least not with any consistency that proves he knows what it means), he has also been heard saying these words:

cheerio
tootles
byebye
mama
nina
ball
isaac
yeah
got it!
clap
wo
oww!
doggy
asia (tauni's dog's name)
grandma
papa (for Grandpa)
water
hi
dance

- He loves to clap & high-fives

- He gives big wet drooly open-mouthed kisses with his eyes closed

- He likes to slap people in the face, pull hair, and sit on people's faces that are annoying him

- He tugs at his shirt when he's nervous

- He puts his finger in his nose when he's bored or when you do the "shush" motion where you put your finger to your lips

- He loves chewing on toothbrushes and also loves the Raffi song "You brush your teeth - chchchch chchchchch!"

- His other favorite songs are 5 little ducks, and Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl - because every time she says "Shh" in the song (which is a lot) he puts his finger in his nose, and Michael Jackson's "Can You Feel It?"

- Max's favorite foods are nectarines and pears - but ONLY IF he gets to hold the entire fruit (not cut up in pieces) and is allowed to just go nuts on it (he has been known to throw fits in the grocery store just because we passed the nectarines and he wanted one SOOO bad!).

- He also loves goldfish crackers (aww, he takes after his Mom!)

- He is such a pain to bathe because he does nothing but splash as much and as big as he possibly can so I end up getting a shower while he gets a bath.

- He tells you that he's tired and ready for "ni-night" by waving "bye-bye" to you. Sometimes he will sit and play with the music toy in his crib for up to 15 minutes - just staring at it and dancing and talking to himself.

- He has a green super cuddly blankie that is his favorite and you can always tell when he's tired if he buries his face in it and bites the blankie.

- He's deathly afraid of the vacuum and other loud noise making things like the blender and the hairdryer.

- He's very cautious and gets nervous if you move things that aren't usually moved (Tauni has a giant ceramic pear that sits on her fireplace and it is usually never moved - but max was pulling on it so we put it on the soft carpet so he couldn't knock it off the hearth and he was very nervous and wouldn't go near it! He kept staring at it nervously pulling on his shirt. As soon as we moved it back up on the hearth, he felt it was safe to approach it again.)

* Sigh * my baby is growing up! I love you Max!!!!!! You are my whole world!!

Happy Birthday from your Momma!

Isaac's Birthday!

2008-10-02T17:15:00.004-06:00

My brody Isaac turned 29 yesterday!! Happy Birthday Ise! A bunch of his friends all met up at Chili's for dinner as a surprise and then we headed over to Jeff Reber's for cake & ice cream. Dan's sister Nina watched Max so we could have a stress-free dining & late night party experience (thanks Neen!). It was a really nice evening and I think Isaac had a lot of fun! The crowning moment of the night had to be the cake reveal :). Not to toot my own horn or anything, but the cake I made for him turned out Awesome!!! I was so excited that it ended up looking like I envisioned it to be. Here are some pics of the evening:

The Birthday Boy!

A waitress' worst nightmare.

Dave, Jeremy, Isaac, Dan, Greg & NataLee

The Gushers Cake!

Isaac's face when he saw the cake :)

My little walker

2008-09-25T12:43:00.005-06:00

Max got a new toy to help him learn to walk. It's so cute to watch him walk around with it - he looks so grown up. He hasn't quite mastered it, but he did get it on the first try! Go Max!

The men in my life...

2008-09-23T23:42:00.003-06:00

Dan thought it would be funny to draw chest hair on our baby's chest. I initially was completely adamant that it was like desecrating a holy untouched temple, but I finally caved (because if you know Dan at all you know that he is the master negotiator and I have realized that in marrying him I have volunteered to live a life where I will never win an argument). Anyway... so here you have it - a baby with chest hair (drawn with permanent marker thank you very much Dan).

... Okay so it is kinda funny.

Seeing the Fam in Minnesota

2008-09-09T01:38:00.007-06:00

Just got back last Wednesday from my 2 week stay with my family in Minnesota. Max came along, of course, and we had tons of fun visiting his other grandparents & auntie sarah & auntie charlie.

First of all, Max is the squirliest person EVER. Trying to get him to sit still in my lap on the plane was like wrestling a licking, drooling, biting, barking, wagging, jumping, jack russell terrier puppy for 3 hours straight. The longest and most exhausting 3 hours of my life. Even the stranger across the aisle commented "He sure is a busy body!" Needless to say, I was a sweaty mess by the end of both flights. And... I have a confession. On the way home to Utah, about 1/2 way through the flight, I gave up... put up my white flag of surrender... and ... I drugged him. A little children's tylenol and he was out! Followed shortly thereafter by his sweaty and tuckered out mother. :)

As for our time in Minnesota, it was spent lounging around the house, eating toasted sourdough bread with shredded romano cheese (mmmm my favorite), drinking what I believe to be the most decadent and pleasurable chocolate milk ever made in all the world (well done Minnesota!), playing Legos (a classic!), and doing crafty little projects. We also got out occasionally - we, of course, hit the Mall of America (4 floors of endless material things made specifically for your coveting with a theme park complete with rollercoasters right in the center!) for back to school shopping for my little sisters. That was so fun. I learned that there are some people (normal people, not those freaky models) that actually look amazing in skinny jeans.... one of them just happens to be my little sister Sarah! Holy amazing skinny jean body batman! It was sickening.

My favorite part of the trip was our family outing to the Minnesota State Fair! The best (and most fattening) foods America has to offer! And we tried pretty much everything - even a deep fried twinkie (which was actually better than the original... it actually kinda classed it up a bit... I never thought a food can be 'classed up' by deep frying it). My favorite food at the fair were the deep-fried cheese curds. Curds is such an unappetizing word, but MAN those were so... so... I'm drooling just thinking about them. Really, I'm making a mess here at my desk. Okay where was I,.. Oh the fair! Right.

So you would think that there would be some seriously sweet people watching opportunities at the fair, but unfortunately it wasn't as exciting as we had hoped. There are sadly way too many normal people in Minnesota I guess. The strangest thing we saw, which was nothing to sneeze at, was a grown man, probably late 30s, wearing a tiny pink tube top and pink shorts that said "Fly Booty" on the butt. His hairy belly was hanging over his shorts...(shudder)... it was horrifying. His face was painted in a pretty pink flowery design and he had a "Fair-do" - he got his hair done at the fair - hairsprayed into spikes in every direction on his head and then dyed hot pink and covered in glitter. Pretty hard not to stare.

Charlotte, Sarah & I also had our hair's 'did', Fair-do style, into these big poofy colorful glittery snagballs. It was awesome. My hair was black and in two piggy puffballs on the sides of my nogger with pink glitter all over (and deep inside the caverns of my ears - which still is affecting my hearing! so annoying!), Charlotte's hair was in one giant poofball on the top of her head and was striped pink & green. Sarah did her hair in one smaller poof and all her hair was striped orange & blue, then covered in silver glitter. It was so much fun!

We, along with Dan (who unfortunately wouldn't fold to our countless pleas to get his hair 'did' as well), went to the Paramore concert (held at the fair) all done up. We got some interesting looks from people (especially me - the adult with the mickey mouse ear hair) but it was so fun, we didn't care. It was the girls' first concert ever and it didn't disappoint! They had the greatest time ever, jumping up and down in the sea of people, shouting and yelling and raising their arms. Even though they didn't know most of the words they couldn't have had more fun! Especially when the song Misery Business came on (the one song they did know) - they were going crazy. Dan & I took turns putting Charlotte on either our backs or our shoulders so that she could see the stage. It may have been the most fun I've ever had at a concert. Hayley was incredible live!

Here are some pics from our trip!

We took Max to the park & he tried out the big boy swing & loved it! He cried when we took him out!

Max taking a bath in grammy's kitchen sink!

Cute shot of Sarah at Exchange 12 of Dan's Minnesota Race.

Dan & his deep-fried twinkie!

My sisters having fun at the Minnesota State Fair!

The girls in their 'Fair-dos'.

Paramore concert!

Max & Maci

2008-08-06T01:19:00.006-06:00

Maci came over to play with Max tonight and they had a great time together!

I think Max really likes Maci. He was putting the moves on her. However... I'm not sure she was quite ready for the secretary hiney slap. I think I'm going to have to give him some lessons on respecting women.

And then... Maci ready or not, their relationship was taken to the next level. They took their first bath together. It was adorable!

Maci was laughing the whole time. I don't think Max really knew what she was laughing at because he seemed oddly quiet during bathtime. Perhaps she was getting even for the spank session earlier...

Just ignore Dan's phone conversation in the background :).

Photo Session

2008-07-22T16:24:00.006-06:00

Photos taken by the photography GENIUS Ashlee Raubach! She said "Max's expressions are the cutest of any baby shoot I've ever done! I laugh while Im editing cuz he is so dang cute!" Check out her amazing photos on her blog listed under my Web Favorites!

Seattle Trip

2008-07-21T22:27:00.009-06:00

Max had his first trip to Seattle over the weekend! He and I went to go visit Daddy for the weekend - Dan is there preparing for the Northwest Passage race that will take place this weekend (Blaine to Langley). We were only there for 4 days but we had a great time. Max was an absolute ANGEL both flights - not necessarily quiet, but he was super happy and was constantly trying to make those around us smile.

The three of us went to dinner the first night in downtown Seattle at a place called Ivar's. We ate yummy halibut over purple potatoes (I had no idea there was such a thing) and fresh clam chowder while staring out over Puget Sound! Wow, I miss the water. Then dinner was topped off with the most delicious creme brulee I've ever had. It was a miracle in my mouth.

Here is the view from inside Ivar's!

The next day, we mostly laid around the house, which was so nice, and in the evening we went out and bought fresh crab legs, clams & prawns and brought them home and cooked them ourselves and ate them on the patio overlooking Big Lake (what a creative name!) - the weather was perfect and the view was killer. Here's a look at Big Lake! Personally, I think it deserves a better name. We'll re-name it Lake Max!

Being in a cool place like Washington is fun, but also semi-depressing. It makes me realize how much I miss the ocean... well water in general. Also the green-ness. Oh, and I love how earth-conscious the people are! How clean everything is... how clean the air feels & how good it smells. We were there for the sunniest time of the year so it was just completely amazing and magical. I love the morning fog... it's so romantic - it just makes you want to curl up in a blanket and read a book.

Here's Max hanging out at the lake house.

Max's famous schrunchie face.

Dan & Max getting ready to go out onto Lake Max!

Well, as for the rest of our trip - we went and saw a drive-in movie - a double feature of The Dark Knight & Wall-E. I highly recommend both movies!!

On our last day there, we went to the famous Pike Place in downtown Seattle. Here's a pic of the flowers -

We had a great time! It was fun to see Dan for a few days!

Dan, We love & miss you!!!!!!!!!!!! Good luck with the race!

Celebrity Look-Alikes

2008-07-15T14:46:00.003-06:00

I saw this on Kristin Bell's page and thought I'd try it out. You go to MyHeritage.com and you upload your picture and it scans your face & tells you which celebrities you look like - it's very fun! I think it's fairly accurate - I mean, people have said I look like a few of the people on this list - what do you think?

Park Silly Day

2008-07-13T21:12:00.000-06:00

Today, after an exhausting day of church (trying to keep Max still is next to impossible!), we drove up to Park City for the Park Silly Festival. They do this festival every Sunday from June until September (http://www.parksillysundaymarket.com/) and it's so cute! People set up booths, mostly artsy things like handmade jewelry and paintings... things like that. I bought some really cute handmade earrings from Brazil for $8 - they are very earthy and I can't wait to wear them! We just caught the tail end of the event since it ends at 4pm and we got there at 3 - but it was still very cool. The weather was perfect.

We met up with Dominique (Dan's friend from work) and her son, Jackson (about 3 or 4 yrs old and is one of the most beautiful and most well behaved little boys I've ever met) to hang out at the Park Silly Market and then we went up to Park City Mountain Resort. She & Jackson went down the alpine slide together and then she watched Max so Dan & I could have a turn. We bought tickets for the alpine slide but as we were going up the mountain on the ski lift, we couldn't help but notice that the zipline, which was significantly more expensive to ride, seemed significantly more fun. When we got to the top, we begged the lift workers to radio down to their supervisors to see if we could do the zipline and pay the difference when we reached the bottom. They called down and fortunately their supervisor, Russell, was in a pleasant mood and agreed (they said they usually don't let people do this)! We were so excited! And the zipline proved to be every bit of exhilarating as the screaming riders we saw while riding the lift advertised. It was a blast!

Anyway, it was a fabulous day - and just being outdoors in such a beautiful environment in such pristine weather made both Dan & I realize we need to do stuff like this more often!

Max's day at the pool

2008-06-16T08:53:00.000-06:00

Saturday, Dan and I took Max to the Bountiful Rec Center and went swimming with him for the first time ever. Max seemed very unsure of the water. He didn't quite know what to think of it. It was kind of nice because it was one of the very rare occasions where Max was cuddly. We've discovered he's only cuddly in 3 situations:

1) When he's asleep or literally seconds from being asleep
2) When he's sick
3) When he's scared or unsure of a situation

Anyway, he seemed to become a little more accustomed to the water as the day wore on, but he never smiled in the water - it was only when we sat down in the sunshine on our towels that he finally showed us his adorable toothy grin. Okay so the picture isn't the toothiest, but it's hard to capture :).

That day, there was also a fun car show going on right outside of the Rec Center. Dan & I LOVE car shows! It wasn't the best one we've ever been to, but it was fun nonetheless.

Flu Bug Alert

2008-06-04T18:13:00.000-06:00

Okay, ew. I just recovered from a nasty flu bug. So the weekend was a blast. Puking and chugging Pepto. Two of my favorite things! I hope Dan and Max are fortunate enough to miss out on this lovely bug. I'm luckily feeling much better today and I think I'm about 92% better!
I have one thing to say about this last weekend. You learn something new everyday and this weekend I learned that I need to chew my food better! :)