melis and aaron

Mistletoe Neighbor Gifts for Christmas 2011. FAIL.

2012-01-24T15:32:00.003-06:00

Let's talk about the clever neighbor gifts that sister, Becca, and I dreamed up.

Credit is due to our dear neighbors, the Dew family, back in our hometown, who have given a darling little bag of mistletoe for the last few years as a neighbor gift. We thought it was so original. So fun. So cool! Because we BOTH live in Texas now, we thought we should jump on the fun gift train and give to those we enjoy.

I called our sweet neighbor and she happily told me the website she ordered from and all the ins and outs of ordering. Awesome. They were pretty inexpensive (being less than a dollar per pre-bundled sprig) and we went ahead and ordered the minimum quantity of 50! Becca and I decided to split the order and I waited by the mailbox.

They came earlier than expected (cool!) and Aaron, Tillie, and I got to work tying on little red bows and inserting the sprigs into mini ziplock bags (that I already had purchased from Hobby Lobby). The instructions said to keep the mistletoe refrigerated. I thought since it was so cold outside, that storing the box in the garage would be fine. Not so. We live in WARM Texas. They were fine for a few days as we started delivering a few each night (we wanted to take some to several people from our church---and since the boundaries for our ward are so far reaching, we could only deliver a few each night before we were worn out).

Well, a few days turned into a week, and then another week, and what do you know? The mistletoe sprigs had dried up. Like majorly. And, having them jostled and moved around in the box night after night didn't help. All the leaves fell off their little branch and there was nothing really salvageable about it.

So, how many did we end up delivering? I think 8. Which means 17 just went to waste. Boo. And that, my friends, is a neighbor gift FAIL.

Moral of the story? FOLLOW MANUFACTURER INSTRUCTIONS. I had put two of the baggies in the fridge right after we had gotten them. Yep. They were in mint condition weeks later.

You might wonder, well, if you do this again next year, and you already have given the sprig of mistletoe, won't the recipients' dry up and crumble if they don't keep theirs refrigerated? Well, I wondered that too, but the sprig we hung up when it was fresh, stayed in the same condition b/c it wasn't jostled and shaken around in a box being tampered with. It just dried up in it's original state.
Does that even make sense?

Anyway, we'll try again next year!

p.s. funny side note: Becca chose to write on her stickers, "Merry Kissmas! from Becca"which I thought was super funny. She got some strange looks from her MARRIED MALE co-workers. hAAA!!! I told her she should have said when she delivered them, "Don't read into my gift." But alas... !!! hA!

pretty RADICAL news to report...

2012-01-19T22:12:00.002-06:00

So, we've had a really good secret we've been keeping, but tonight is the night to share the news...

Becca and I just signed a contract with KOKKA!

Who? where? when? whaaat?
Kokka/Seven Islands is a fabric company that liked our work and wanted us to sign on with them. Insert us dying of excitement. They are a Japanese company who produces some of my most favorite fabric, and really, we couldn't be happier about the union. We've been in communication for the last few months working out details, and finally, yesterday we sent of the signed contract. Boooo yah!

Truly, Becca and I thought that we were going to just be One Hit Wonders with Rainy Days and Mondays. We really thought our "fabric career" was over. I know, I know. One day I'll tell more about how all the recent excitement all came to pass, but for now, it's celebration time!! Bring out the root beer!

Once upon a time, we traveled to Quilt Market (spring 2011). If you saw the post I did about the event, you'll remember I spent the most time and took the most pictures of the Kokka booth. It's because I'm in love with them.

Let's show you some pictures of some of my favorite samples of Kokka fabric, shall we? Great.
Ever heard of Echino? Oh, she's awesome and she designs for Kokka.

image from the superbuzzy shop

image from this etsy site

image from fabricworm.com

Or have you heard Melody Miller? Oh, she designs for Kokka. And, she is ridiculously nice.

image found on this etsy site

screen shot taken from Melody's blog

of maybe you've heard of Heather Ross? Yes, you guessed it. She designs for Kokka.

image taken from DesignSponge blog interview with Heather

taken from indiecrafts blog

I love their work.
Oh, here's a more photo of that I took at Quilt Market last year. It's another Kokka print.

They have such different and unique designs... things that you don't see other companies producing and honestly, to say we're thrilled is an understatement.

Dreams really DO come true.
Grab that star, hitch a ride and... ok, ok. I kid. I have no idea what I'm saying.

Anyway, this means that a new line is being printed THIS spring. That's right. It will be ready to rock and roll Spring of 2012. I'll let you know more of the details when I can, but I had to share the news.

entertainment center turned into office furniture + messing around

2012-01-17T12:39:00.000-06:00

About 2.5 billion years ago, I said that I'd show you the new WOODEN paper sorters I had found for a SONG at a going out of business sale. $5 for each. Remember that I had spent weeks looking for a replacement one and they cost well over $70? Yes. It was my lucky day. And, every time I take a gander at these beauts, I am pleased. Don't mind the cord on the right, and the messy paintings we have tossed up there too. But, you get the drift, right?

I was actually taking a bunch of photos of the kids messing around, when I realized I hadn't taken any shots of the transformed entertainment center. So, alas, let's get on to the REAL stars of the show... Tillie-face and Cal-pal.

A few great shots of Cal and his many faces. I love doing these! See this fickle pickle!? (love that he is wearing green too. A pickle indeed! oh! and funny in this first shot, I'm holding him back so he doesn't throw himself into me/the camera. nice.)

so funny.

he kills me, really, he does.

And a few more, for good measure.

Not a real hug unless your eyes are closed...

oh! there he goes!

happy days at the wood house. good times.

the end. for now.

Jennifer Wildey Photography does it again + Holiday 2011 cards

2012-01-16T22:00:00.000-06:00

So, we have some really good friends, and their last name is Wildey. We met them back in San Antonio, and basically, we love them. They are high up there on our "WHO WE MISS" list. Anyway, we knew we were making the move to Dallas in a week and I convinced Jen to take our family pictures before we left. I am in LOVE with the location she had us go to. The scenery was amazing.

Also, I love Jen's ability to make us comfortable. Honestly, I've NEVER been that comfortable taking pictures. We just played and had fun. And she captured it.

p.s. let's talk about my bang situation. I know. Wonky. I had them pinned back, but then it was super windy, so they are half there/half not. Weird. I know. But, I think we can all agree to look past the wonky bang situation.

Okay, you gotta follow the story on these next few... Cal found the pollen ball thing and was thinking it was funny to try to eat it...

This is me, trying to hold his hand back and Tillie thinking she's going to mimic him...

This is me realizing that Tillie is trying to pull a "calvin" and thinking she is pretty funny... All the while, Cal has stuck the entire gross pollen ball in his mouth while we turn away. GAG!

Calvin and Tillie both thinking they are pretty clever. Calvin is ESPECIALLY getting a kick out of himself. His mom never does that. I'm certain he didn't get it from me.

okay, now you can see a few more at your leisure.

So what did we do for our holiday cards this year?

I am sure you are dying in suspense...

The rational was to create a Happy Thanksgiving card + Moving card so that people could remember to update their address cards and send us their Christmas cards.

Method to the madness, people.

I love getting Christmas cards each year and knew that no one had our new address.

Genius.

A huge perk of doing our cards this way was that it was totally done before Christmas really got started. (well, for the most part... I slacked off on some of them. sorry friends. you know who you are!)

I might just have started a new tradition. Really, it was so great to have my end checked off my list!

So, here's what the card looked like (well, almost looked like... I am using the digital version here (because I'm lazy and didn't feel like taking a true photo), imagine it printed on a cream card stock in real life).

front of card:

photo we used:

what the inside of the card said... well, I changed the address...

what our return address sticker looked like:

So, there you have it. Feel free to contact Jen if you want her to capture your family, baby, milestone, etc. etc. etc. I cannot recommend her enough!

Remember, she did Cal's baby pictures too? Hello. She's awesome.

Check her out. You'll thank me later.

www.jenniferwildey.com

let's get it started... Calvin is TWO!

2012-01-14T22:15:00.000-06:00

I've been meaning to post for a while now, but when I think about all the catching up there is to do... whether I should start in chronological order... etc. etc. etc. I would get overwhelmed. So, I'd bag it and say, "I think I'll sleep instead." True story. Sleeping is a talent of mine. I think I've talked about this before.

I also blame my lack of posting to the semi-recent acquisition of a certain piece of technology: the iPad. Because of that invention, I can now surf the web from the comfort of the couch, or my bed, or the floor, or anywhere else for that matter---instead of the office chair on the far side of the house. So, alas, I'm not in front of our big computer all that much anymore (comparatively speaking). All these reasons, plus more (oh, there is lots more) have held me back. But, I decided to take the Black Eyed Peas' approach (hence the title of this post), "Let's get it started!"

I've opted to just start RIGHT here and RIGHT now. The most recent fun event was Calvin's 2nd Birthday! Yes, that's right. He is finally two years old. It seems like he's been two for a while (because of his large stature), but finally, it's official.

Calvin still LOVES the movie Iron Giant (we highly recommend it). Loves his new Batman sweatshirt. Loves his Mickey Mouse t-shirt we made for Tillie back in the day. Loves his dad and won't settle for anyone else when he's around (his mom doesn't love that ALL of the time). Loves LOVES playing with his Mr. Potato Head toys. Loves having his shoes on. Loves anything Lightning McQueen or Woody. Loves playing on the iPad (we hide it when we're not using it, b/c he'd play on it all day if we'd let him). Loves anything with CHEESE (his father's son). Still loves eating "ru-nahk" (fruit snacks in his jargon). Loves to peel clementines by himself. Loves watching shows. Loves playing with Tillie (for the most part). Still loves his little dog lovey thing... sucks on a corner of it every night (his mom thinks it's cute and disgusting all at the same time).

And for the most appreciated one... Calvin LOVES to TALK!! This is a new skill of his that just started happening about a week or so before Christmas. Really, a Christmas miracle if you ask me! He had so many big emotions and no way to communicate them other than crying, so now that he is talking---it's A WHOLE NEW WORLD (thank you, princess Jasmine (and special thanks to my friend, Sarah who corrected me after I originally wrote 'Ariel'! Ha! You'd think I'd know my princesses by now...)). Seriously, life is 10.7 billion times better now that he is talking. Blessed day.

Those are just a few of the things I could think of that he loves. We just switched him over to a big boy bed and he's almost convinced it's better than his crib. He alternates between the crib and his bed... which is fine by me. It does, however, make it a little crowded in him room, but all's well.

Okay, enough chit chat. Let's get to the pictures!
Aunt Stephanie (Aaron's sister) flew into town to help watch our kids while I was whisked away on a Caribbean adventure with my sister, Emily. (Obviously, more to come on that!) Anyway, I came home on Cal's birthday and sweet Stephanie had made an angel food cake dessert for the birthday boy! Too fun!
Here he is blowing out the candles with Tillie's and Dad's assistance:

The big boy on the night of his real true birthday in his beloved Batman sweatshirt. He was pretty happy it was his special day and kept singing over and over, "Happy Birthday to Cal, Happy Birthday to Calvin, Happy Birthday to you!"

Then, two days later, I got around to taking some pictures... and boy, did we take some pictures. You know how I love to do photo overloads, so you shouldn't be too surprised. There are just so many sides to this boy, so maybe you can catch a glimpse of a few of them...

Love that profile.

Wasn't quite sure what I wanted him to do...

CLASSIC CALVIN POUT. I am so pleased that I captured it.

I told him if he'd hang out for a minute and let me take some pictures then he could have a pack of fruit snacks. He was overjoyed so he started jumping:

another CLASSIC CALVIN. this is his, "uhhh..." face. Becca said he looks like my brother, Jesse, here. hA!

A side note about these shoes of his: We love them. Bought them at Target for $12 and have gone back and bought more in a few sizes. They are the perfect play/church shoes. There you have it.

Pretty happy boy. Pretty happy he's ours.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Bubba.

We love you SO much!

... and, he's off!

"You better watch out, You better not cry..."

2011-12-20T12:30:00.000-06:00

Do any of you out there think in song lyrics? Me too. I almost was going to entitle this post, "Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat..." And then, I realized I did that LAST year. And then I started looking at all the pictures from this time last year and kind of died a little at how TINY Calvin was. He's like a little bald Buddah. Too cute.

But, I'll tell you what, he STILL is pretty cute. I can say that, because I'm not biased at all.

Let's talk about how we put up our Christmas decorations BEFORE Thanksgiving this year. Yes, we did. Sue me. Here's the rational: We were leaving to Utah on Nov. 22nd and wouldn't be returning until December 3rd, meaning only 22 days left to enjoy the Christmas decor. That, of course, would be unacceptable. Does anyone else out there think it's a tragedy that Christmas comes on December 25th and not on January 25th? I mean, why can't we enjoy all these fun things for LONGER?

I digress. Sorry.

I just am pleased about our decision to make an early jump on the whole thing. No regrets (it's the motto I like to live by). Tillie was in HEAVEN and I think she's now found a new calling in life... ornament arranger. She took her job very seriously and still does (she likes to re-arrange them on the tree if they aren't looking "quite right" as she likes to say). In fact, during one of her re-arranging sessions, she knocked over the tree. The stand broke. No one was hurt, but the tree is in a weak state now. Luckily, Aaron worked his magic and "fixed" it with some wire. I'm hoping the incident means that I get to buy a new tree. You know, the HUGE kind? Here's hoping.

Did Calvin love decorating the tree? No. He was more interested in his Toy Story 2 library book. Typical boy.

Oh, and Becca got to come play too. It was good fun.

And here is the proof:

someone has to do the dishes from time to time. Look at how much fun I was having!

No, that's not how the mantel ended up looking. That was MID swap. One day I'll take a new photo.

This kid was VERY uninterested. That's okay. Tillie made up for his lack of effort.

::: Having a Christmas tree out and all the Christmas books is really pretty fun. Aaron was reading to the kids one night and I had to take a few shots of Miss Matilda's hair. She's got GREAT hair, that girl. I had just taken it out of a bun an hour earlier. It stays curly for so long. Such a gift! These next shots are blurry, but you get the idea.

::: Speaking of HAIR, Cal has a good head of hair too. Granted, these shots were taken in our bathroom with tungsten lighting, so it makes all the colors really WARM, but he does have a nice reddish blonde hair color. We decided to cut it to make it shorter around his ears, but to leave the top long. Luckily, Aaron is a pro with his clippers and did a great job. I was demoted last time, remember? I'll have to post the "AFTER" pictures soon, but I thought it was interesting to see how MELLOW Calvin was before he got his hair cut. This kid is a fickle pickle. You never know what side of him is going to come out with each event in the day.

::: Do you guys do that Elf on the Shelf thing? My mom got us one last year and this year the kids are totally into it. It's pretty fun. Apparently some parents do all sorts of tricks with them and pretend like the Elf undecorated the tree and other naughty things---I think all that stuff is LAME. We just put the Elf named "Crizbee" in new spots each morning... if I remember.

One night when Aaron ran to the grocery store, he came home with this MINI Bananas! He thought it would be a fun to pretend that Crizbee brought them. What a fun dad he is! So, I took a picture. MINI BANANAS!? Everything is more fun in MINI size. Good work, Aaron.

::: The kids and I went to a church play group outing and we had a lot of fun. I'm finding out that I really quite enjoy a lot of the girls in our new ward. This new area has a lot of older women with teenagers, but I've been happily surprised at how many younger kiddos there are to be found. In Nursery this year there will only be 6 kids in nursery, but there are something like 50 young men and 50 young women. Crazy, right?

Anyway, we had a fun time. And, guess who showed up?! Santa himself. I was shocked to see how happy my kids were to see him... Cal especially. He just walked right up to him and climbed on his lap! Too funny.

Am I crazy or does Calvin look like he's 8 here too?! Too funny. It's nuts when we keep saying, "Oh my word, he's only 1 year old!!" It's true. He doesn't turn 2 for another few weeks. hAAA! That's the biggest ONE year old I've ever seen!!

::: Next up, Tillie's dance teacher said that the parents could come watch one of their lessons. It was pretty fun to see what Tillie had been learning. She was SO happy that we were there watching and kept looking over her shoulder to make sure we were still there. There is nothing as sweet as little tiny girls all dressed up to dance.

I love this one with their feet up. Too fun.

Do you love the family photo here with us in the mirror?

Cal kept busy with some bunny crackers.

Tillie's version of a Plié (yes, I definitely had to look up that word)

Calvin moved on to his box of raisins pretty quickly. The boy loves his raisins.

::: Church Christmas parties. I don't have any photos of the Relief Society night we did, but a few weeks ago, the presidency asked me to put together several musical numbers for part of their program. I said "Yes" and then started stressing out, because 1) I didn't know anyone in the ward 2) I didn't know who knew who was musically inclined and 3) I HATE asking people to do things.

Thankfully, they gave me a list of names of people who might be willing to help. And, thankfully, those people were all very nice and helped me out. In the end I pulled together 8 musical numbers and accompanied 6 of them on the piano. Let's just say, THAT is the reason why I've been M.I.A. in blog-land. I've been practicing like a motivated jr. high student. Hours each day.

Glory! Glory! It's all a thing of the past. We came, we saw, we conquered... For the most part. I botched up a few times, but all in all, it went pretty well.

Anyway, a girl in our ward saw that I played the piano and asked me to accompany her and her daughter for the big Ward Christmas Party a few days later. It was a good time. I played with no mistakes (whew!) and all was well. Santa even turned up that night.

I'm including this photo that Aaron took only to point out the guy sleeping in his chair. Top left. Very funny. I have no idea who he is, but I thought we chuckled when we were looking through the photos.

Yes, indeed, all signs point to the fact that Christmas is coming!!! I can't believe that we only have a few days left!!! Let the fun begin!! I love exclamation points!!! !!! !!!

Becca MOVES here!!! and other fun times

2011-12-19T15:30:00.000-06:00

So, I don't think I ever told you about the greatest thing to happen to me since... I don't know! Becca, my little sissy sister (just kidding, she's no sissy), just moved here to Dallas. !!!!! When she landed an AWESOME job at this AWESOMELY famous advertising firm, I about fell off my rocker. Actually, wait, I think I DID fall off my rocking chair (la-z-boy, thank you very much).

I think I might have even cried too.

So very exciting. After she found the job, she quickly flew up to Utah to collect all the belongings she could fit into the Toyota Matrix and headed south with mi madre. Apparently they had a lovely little road trip. I hate driving a billion hours upon end, so I didn't feel TOO bad that I wasn't accompanying them.

Luckily, Becca found a great apartment and a nice room-mate just minutes away from where she works. So, she lives about 35-40 minutes away from us, which I wish she lived right next to me, but alas, we're making do! Anyway, isn't that great news?! I know.

Aaron had one of his days off shortly after they arrived, so he took the kids while I helped move Becca in. We had a grand time. Can't you tell?

Nana also got to play with Banana 1 and Banana 2 while she was here.

They LOVED having her around. Duh!

Happy kids with their happy Nana. Good times. All around.

::: Then Nana had to go home. Sad day.

Okay, okay, Cal was sad she had to leave, but he was even more miserable because he woke up the next morning with a super stiff neck. It was awful. When I pulled him out of his crib he just was sobbing and holding onto his neck. Of course, I started thinking of all the worst possible causes. Meningitis? I took him into the doctor, and she thinks he must have just slept in a weird position. Crazy. Luckily, the pain went away after several hours, but man alive, I was dying.

I mean, look at that face?!

Fortunately, we have an Entertainer on our hands. This was Tillie's way to help her brother cheer up:

So, this is me, Loser MOM here. I had forgotten that I had purchased this robot costume LAST year after Halloween on MAJOR Clearance. I totally spaced (pun intended) this purchase as I planned Cal and Tillie's Toy Story costumes this year. Hello? Oh well, we're getting good use out of it now, obviously.

::: Tillie has a really cute little monster doll she got from her friend in San Antonio (thanks, Brooklyn!). Matilda wanted us to draw some pictures of her doll, so we went into the computer and made a monster for each member of our family to print out and color.

calvin

tillie

me. hello, couldn't you tell with my diaper bag and two sippy cups?

dad. ha! i love his spikey hair and teeth.

Too bad Calvin hates to smile.

I love the mustache she added. It may or may not look like some old World War II dictator?

::: Speaking of coloring, Matilda has been a COLORING machine. She loves it. And, of course, I love that she loves it. Here's a picture she colored for her dance teacher, Ms. Lisa. It's a row of flowers! Clever!

This girl is also OBSESSED with her lips. She hates having dry lips and is constantly ripping off the dead skin. Gross, I know. But, it's a part of our life right now and I'm recording it. I have now learned to have our chap stick at the ready!

What? More dance pictures? Sure. I'll oblige.

This next one is probably one of my very most FAVORITE pictures of her. I think I'm going to photoshop out the edge of the mantel and outlet. I love it so much.

Cal was trying to impress us all by crawling like a baby (in his words, "Cal baby, Cal baby!")

::: We like checking out parks. With two toddlers, it only makes sense. We saw this cool playground and had to stop. Look at all the fun trees in the background too! After we got out of the car we realized it was FREEEEEEZING cold and windy. So, we didn't stay too long.

of course Aaron wears shorts in 30 degree weather. that boy...

::: The next day we decided to go look for another adventure. After checking out a floral sofa found on Craigslist (which we ended up purchasing... pictures below), we decided to check out a local lake that we had seen on the maps. Not being able to find a legit way to the lake, we decided to park our car and head into the forest. According to the GPS the lake was just beyond the trees.
hA! boy, were we wrong.
After forging through the forest (no path) for about 20 minutes, we opted to turn around. Here we are RIGHT before we turned around.

Well, the lake had dried up.

Don't believe me? Look at these pictures:

I'm just glad we turned around when we did.

We took these shots as we were heading over a nearby bridge. Tillie was disappointed and said that she had wanted to go boating on the lake. That made me think about trying to water ski, and then I started cringing, because can you imagine WATER SKIING here? Think about how many pokey sticks you'd hit! AGHH! The horror of it all is too much!!!

Apparently, the drought this year did a number here too.

Not a particularly nice subject to talk about, you know, that of pokey sticks up your bum while water skiing---so, let's move on. Quickly.

::: We bought a new couch. Well, actually, my parents bought us a new couch. :) The Snyder family is going to be having a MAJORLY fun reunion here at our house soon, and my dear mother was worried about seating. Makes sense. Currently, we have a 3 man sofa and one recliner. Another sofa was a good idea. And, we have the space for it, so we started looking.

I'm kind of in love with this floral beaut we found online. She's been in a old lady's mansion for the last several years in a parlor that was never used. Of course! Who has parlors these days?

Oh, and I know. The thought of buying a USED sofa kind of gags me out. But, it was in such excellent condition, I couldn't help myself. Oh, and the price was right. I think I'm going to rent a steam cleaner, though. Just in case...

In other related news, I found a white Ikea slipcover that fits surprisingly well. BOO YAH! I'll have to take legit photos soon, but here she is in all her floral glory. (yes, the floral is nice, but it's not really in our color scheme with all the peachy colors. you know? so, white is good for now.)

::: One last event to record before I end this mega post... We now have a fireplace. That means we get to have FIRES! Pretty fun. This was a first for us. We were ALL fans.

Confession: My name is Melissa and I am really liking blurry ghost-like pictures. Sorry, you get what you pay for!

Well, that concludes our photos of the rest of our Pre-Thanksgiving November memories. Thanks for joining us. Y'all come back now, ya hear?
Great.
Thanks.

The end.

Early November 2011

2011-12-17T23:28:00.003-06:00

I've been cooking Chinese food a lot more since we moved here. I don't know why. Maybe it's because there are more Asian people here? Maybe it's because I'm cooking more than I ever have? Or maybe it's because the kids do pretty well eating it? Yes, it's probably the last one.

Anyway, did you know that we have many ties to the Asian culture? Let me give you a run down: My dad served a two year mission for our church in Taiwan back in the 70's and learned Mandarin Chinese. When I was little, our family moved to Hong Kong for a while for my dad's work. Several years later, my brother served a mission for our church in Hong Kong and learned Cantonese. (Did you know that the church decides where you go? Pretty amazing, right?) Then, we went to pick up my brother after his mission in Hong Kong. After he got home, he learned Mandarin. Aaron served a mission for our church in San Jose, California (and learned Mandarin Chinese there). While we were dating, Aaron went and bummed around in China for a little while. Aaron and I went to Beijing, China right after we were married and taught English for a summer. And, now my brother lives in Shang Hai.

Whew! Did you catch all that? Anyway, when Aaron and I went together, we bought some fancy ceramic chopsticks and bowls. We decided to pull them out one night and show the kids how to use them.

Cal preferred the STAB method.

Aaron looks really happy here. I thought I'd share this one.

Eventually the chopsticks turned into drumsticks and two were broken before the meal was over. Boo. From now on, WOODEN chopsticks will be used for the 3 and under crowd.

::: In efforts to get bring an exciting diversion to Tillie's little life, we signed her up for a little dance class. She LOVES it. We knew she would. But, here's the kicker, we don't know if she loves the class more or the fact that she gets to have a stamp on her hand at the end of her lesson. Nice.

Regardless, she makes one stinkin' cute little ballerina. We took a few shots of the little Miss before one of her lessons:

She learned all of her tricky dance moves from her mother. This next one included.

Cal wanted in on the fun. He's pretty darling too.

::: On one of Aaron's days off, we decided to explore different parts of the Dallas area. News flash: Dallas is HUGE!

Anyway, while we were out and about we opted to check out one of the malls here. I had heard that an H&M was opening up, so I wanted to check it out. Ummm... yeah, there were about a BILLION people who wanted to stand in line for a few hours to check it out too. I quickly decided that I'd "check it out" another day and we happily went downstairs to the play place. It was PERFECT for our two toddler kids. Here they are whoopin' it up:

Blurry photos, I know, but they were having so much fun. And, for some reason, Calvin is looking SO old to me these days! Maybe it's his longer hair? I don't know. But, I feel like he's 8 or something!?!

::: Luckily, upon moving here, I found a great friend! (insert Hallelujah chorus!) I have my sister's friend, Ellen, to thank! She "set us up" after we moved here. It's so nice to have a nice, normal, REAL, and funny person to hang out with. Anyway, we've had several little play-dates at different parks around town, thanks to her expertise. Here we are one morning feeding the ducks. The temperature had just dipped down to 44 degrees, so we pulled out our "winter" wear.

You can tell by their faces, the kids were NOT happy to be there. Oh wait...

Let it be known that I HATE geese when they are up close and personal. They are aggressive and mean! We ran away from them because we were so scared!

I love these next shots of the kids. The lighting is great. The kids are happy (and cute). Pretty sweet.

The first few days of November. I told you I had a lot of catching up to do...

Thanksgiving Feasts and Fun with some of our most favorite people

2011-12-08T10:00:00.000-06:00

Has it really been almost an entire month since I posted? Amazing! Ahh, 'tis the season! (I love that no matter what excuse you have, you can cover it with, "Ahh, 'tis the season!")

I heard a quote a few months ago that went something like this, "If you want something to get done, give it to a busy person." And I was like, "Whhaaat? That makes no sense." But as I've lived my life and have gone through times of major busy-ness and then, in turn, had times of blank calendars and nothing going on, I can see how true that statement is. I accomplish a ton when I have to. And, I'm SUPER lazy when I can be. (I can see my mom being so proud of that last sentence.)

Unfortunately for all of us, the blog hasn't been happening during this time of busy-ness. Lo siento. I'm more sad about it than you, because I have a LOT to catch up on. I keep trying to figure out a way that I can just THINK blog posts and have them be written, instead of having to take the time to type it all out. Isn't there some App that will do that? Or at least can someone invent something great where I can just talk into it and have it compute everything I said and put it in typed form?

Sigh. Until that day comes, I'll still be here chugging along.

Anyway, let's talk about the vacation we just went on, shall we? Bahamas? no. Rome? Nope. Boston? nope. Utah? DING DING DING. Are you surprised? Me neither. Let's face it, that will forever be our number one destination in life. Why? Family. And, really, does it get any better than that?

Do I need to keep this format of typing questions? apparently.

Another thing I've learned as I've grown up is this: There is nothing quite like being surrounded by people who love you and are invested in you. Really. There is nothing quite like it. It's a magical place to be in. Some of you who live by your family/close friends might take it for granted because you are used to it. But, me? I try to soak it in.

Let's talk about the hermit life I lead. It's a good life and if I wanted to be more social, I could, so don't be sad for me. There are church playgroups to join, Mother's Day Out groups to participate in, girls who I've met that seem really nice---I could do a lot with other people if I chose to, but I really like being in my own space. I love that we have this unique time in our lives where we aren't dictated by school schedules and extra-curricular activities. I love being home. I like our same ol' day-in-day-out routine. We wake up, eat breakfast, exercise (kids watch tv), play/work, eat lunch, take naps (sometimes I get to participate in this one), play/work, see dad again, eat dinner, play/work, baths, bed. Occasionally, we'll slip a play date in during the morning hours or go grocery shopping/running errands. It's simple. Maybe monotonous to some, but I really enjoy it.

But then, we take a break from "our normal" and fly to Utah to be with our family and good good friends. And THEN I remember. Then I remember how GOOD it is to be with people who love me. People who care deeply about me. People who know who I REALLY am. People who know where I've been. People who see where I am going. People who I don't have to impress. People who encourage me. People who call me out. People who adore my kids. When we go home to Utah we get to be around people who are invested. And THAT is why I love going to Utah.

Have I ever taken a time out to write that before? Maybe I have. Maybe I haven't. But, it's how I feel. Luckily, the days of me getting hives when we traveled home to Utah are over. Yes, I used to get hives each time we went because I'd get so stressed about fitting EVERYONE and EVERYTHING that is unique to Utah in. It was craziness. No wonder I was an itchy mess.

I love that during a friend fun night this past trip, someone said something along these lines, "For someone who lives in another state, we see you a lot. That's pretty great." And, I shook my head and agreed. It's true. We are truly blessed.

With that as the preamble, if you will, let's take a look at the photos. I didn't remember to pull out my camera a lot during this trip. But, let me assure you, we had some good times.

The first portion of our trip was spent at the Wood house, and that's where we consumed our big Thanksgiving feast. It was wonderful. All of it.

He'd been up since 5a.m. from our flight and wanted to check out what was going on in the backyard. I love his eyebrows.

Let's guess who is who! Do I spy Cousin Max??

Loving the leaves... we've never had a big batch of leaves like this to play in.

::: The next day was Thanksgiving. It was grand. Can't you tell from my face? When I see my face from this angle I think, "Wow, I had no idea my nose could be so pointy?" Ahh, the things you learn from photos. In other news, did you notice that all the dark wallpaper has been taken off (by the kids as a surprise for Aaron's parents while they were out of town). It's amazing how much brighter the space is now without it!
Cute cousin Kelsey and her husband Davidson and darling little baby came too. It was so fun to see them!

They didn't have any fun. I feel so bad for them.

Which witch is witch? I love the plaid little boys.

Tillie running.

always running. check out that hair!

the gang minus cal

matchy-matchy with aunt melody

somber cal. the lighting is pretty crazy. adds to the whole MOOD of the photo.

Pretty tables.

Crazy Tillie. It's a good thing she didn't pull off that table cloth! I might have cried.

Wrestling on the floor. Hanging out waiting to eat pie. Uncle Tyler observing the fun. Fun times.

Matching M's Making their way. Just call me Dr. Suess...

speaking of matching... I think these two have similar genes. It's especially apparent when they snack on chips.

Am I right or am I right?

Hanging out after the hub-bub. I love this one of K'. Sorry, Aaron. This shot proves that you are willing to take one for the team.

a few of the other late night hanger-outers.

::: Uncle Aaron (Steph's husband) wanted to take the kids out for ice cream. Little did we know he meant the fancy kind of ice cream. Orange Cup in Highland was delicious. And, their chairs are super cool. Here is the big crew all enjoying Shrek on the tv.

Cousin Caden is SUCH a great kid. He's always so willing to help the little kids. Steph and Aaron raised him right!

Good times! Thanks, Uncle Aaron!

::: Next up, we had a little friend potluck dinner. We ate delicious food and chatted the night away. We love our Utah friends! Here are a few shots Aaron took. There were more people, but these were the ones he chose to capture in the two seconds he took out the camera.

::: Pathetic, I know, but we only have these few shots at my parent's house. Tillie was in HEAVEN when Nana told her that she could help decorate the house with Christmas stuff. Nana decided to trim TILLIE instead of the tree. She thought it was pretty funny.

During this trip to Utah, Calvin learned to climb out of a pack n' play AND the big legit crib. BOO!!! Tillie never considered this option when she was in the crib---but then again, she was OUT of the crib by the time Cal was born (19 months). So, maybe it's the fact that he is almost 2 years old, or maybe it's the fact that he is so much more curious/stubborn than she is... Who knows?! All I know is that it's probably time for him to switch to a REAL TRUE Big Boy Bed. Since I didn't want him to break his neck during his escape act, I opted to have him sleep in the twin bed next to Tillie.

It took a while for them both to fall asleep b/c of the excitement of sharing a room, but after a few hours, they both konked out. Tillie likes sleeping with a lamp on, so I had some low light to capture Cal's first night in a BIG BED. He did great. And, he looked WAY too old sleeping on that huge pillow. I might have cried a little.

p.s. one of these days I need to take some pictures of that darling room my mom and dad redecorated. She made the quilts too. It's probably one of the sweetest most darling-est rooms I've ever seen. TRUE STORY.

::: We had to run some errands in Provo and stopped by the BYU Bookstore to frame an amazing quilt/art piece my mom made (pictures to come one day) and get some pens. Tillie started talking to the mannequin and then grabbed his hand and said, "Let's go!" She thought she was pretty hilarious. My mom and I thought so too.

As we headed back to the car on BYU campus I had an Awesome Mom Moment. I said, "Hey guys, why don't you go play in all those leaves over there!" So they ran. It was great. I had my camera started snapping away. I let them leap off those big boulders... right into a huge hard pile of rocks. Needless to say, I stopped snapping photos as my son was crying bloody murder. How was I to know there would be a huge pile of rocks under those fun crunchy leaves?!

Luckily, he calmed down and forgave me and all was well.

Is it strange to anyone else to be back in their old stomping ground living in a totally different life? I feel like I was in college just yesterday, but uhhh... not so much. I felt SO old and had so many crazy emotions. Was it sadness? Was it happiness? It was weird, but good all around.

::: We had another little get-together at Ashley's house before I left. I'm such a big fan of these gals. So, I made them pose with me for a picture. You know, so we can always remember. We stay up till way late in the night and it is always a good time. Always.

::: Before we knew it, it was time for the kids and I to board a plane to find Aaron. He only stayed in Utah for a few days before he had to head back to work. But, I thought since we were there, we should stay a week longer.

Oh, did I mention this was the LAST TIME that we could fly with Cal as a LAP CHILD? Boo. That's a sad thought for MANY reasons.

I'm a veteran at flying with the kids by myself. I will say this, it is a BILLION times easier to fly with toddlers than it is two babies! Overall, the kids did pretty well. Poor Cal had an ear infection, so he was miserable, and really I just felt bad for him. But, those direct flights make all the difference in the world!

I can just hear Cal saying, "Uh, mom. You are disrupting my movie watching experience."

Wouldn't you know it? They BOTH fell asleep 10 minutes before we landed. Nice timing. Nice.
We made it back to Tejas. Another great trip to see some of our most favorite people.
Thanks for the fun.

20% and other thoughts.

2011-11-15T13:48:00.001-06:00

dearest friends and family members,

I have several random thoughts on the brain, and instead of taking the energy to post all of our Utah 5 Weeks of Summer fun, I thought I'd write down some of the thoughts that are floating around in my head.

1- Lately, I've been compiling all the patterns that I've created within the last while. I'm surprised to see the sheer volume of it all. As I was going through all my archives, I stumbled upon these files.

Remember when we did that fabric line for that big company? Oh yeah, me too. That was a fun time. Perhaps we'll end up being one-hit wonders? Like that movie, Music and Lyrics where they only had ONE hit song, "Pop Goes My Heart!" ---that might end up being us.

Anyway, did you know that the original colorway was made up of oranges, yellows, and greys? Here are some of the patterns and colors we made that didn't make the cut, but that I still love. In the end, they wanted greens and pinks more than oranges and greys, but my heart still gravitates to these ones.

None of them are earth shattering, by any means, but I still was a fan. In the end, I did really like the raspberry colors they helped to choose. Here are some other ones that I grew attached to but that never made it.

Pretty interesting to see, right? We had created about 13 different thumbnails, but fabric takes time/money to produce, so you have to be choosey. In the end, they took 6 different patterns and we put them in three different colorways. Fascinating, right? Maybe not? Hmmm... regardless, it was on my mind.

2) Lately, I've been really good at doing laundry. Aaron now wears scrubs to this new office---before he wore "business casual" which meant button down shirts and slacks. Which meant, I had to be on my "A" game and make sure they weren't a wrinkled mess. Ahhh, the life of a domestic woman...

ANYWAY, I am thrilled that scrubs don't require such work, but I will say, when you only have 5 sets you have to make sure you get that laundry done... weekly. (it used to be worse, he only had 2 pair, so I was running our ridiculous machine every two days!?!) If I didn't, my husband might have to re-wear old stinky ones, or worse, go naked. hA! Like that would be an option!!

Anyway, the point is this: I am getting very prompt in the actual WASHING of the clothing in our house----it's the putting AWAY that I struggle with.

Often times, I take our clean folded clothes out of the basket as we wear them.... then when it's time to do the wash again, I FINALLY empty out the basket and put away the clean clothes. Do you do this too? Why is it so hard for me to finish the last 20%?

3) Speaking of 20%, do you remember that awesome book I've talked about a million times called Clear the Clutter with Feng Shui ?? She talks about how we wear 20% of our clothing 80% of the time. I'm continually amazed with how true that statement is. As I was organizing our closets, I was tempted to get rid of the 80%, but I wimped out. I mean, you never know when you might need to dress as a gypsy/pirate again.

Anyway, I am gearing up to go through both dressers/closets of the kids to de-clutter their clothing. When they grow so fast, it's insane how often we have to be switching up wardrobes for them. Tillie keeps pulling out shirts from her drawer that she wants to wear, but they are now belly shirts. Whoops. Yes, Melissa, it is time to go through those dressers again.

4) I've been exercising a lot this last while and I'd really be happy for the scale to tell me that I've lost 10 pounds, but alas, it still won't. Lame. Don't you wish that when you gave good solid effort it would be rewarded right away? Me too.

I've even considered doing those ridiculous lemon juice cleanses---you know, the ones where they put in something crazy like cayenne pepper, lemon juice and two drops of honey? You drink ONLY that for 10 days? Have you heard of these things? I mean, it sounds crazy, but I did consider it the other day. Any experience with that?

I just feel like life is so much better when you allow yourself to eat delicious things. I'm not saying ENGORGE, just small/normal amounts on occasion. Do you agree?

I'm not really needing any of these questions to be answered, I'm just putting them out there b/c I have no recent photos to post. Well, I'm sure I do, but they're all still sitting on my camera. :)

5) One more thing, did you know that I have a talent for recognizing when people get their hair cut or bangs trimmed? It's true. As long as I see someone on a pretty regular basis, I can pretty much always tell if they have trimmed their hair... especially bangs.

For example, last night while we were watching The Sing Off (which, hello, is a great show on NBC. It's a singing a'cappella competition, and we're big fans over here. And, one of the main contributers of the show is Ben Folds---who we both are Ga-Ga over. It's a great show. But I'm SUPER sad that Vocal Point (BYU's a'cappella group) just got voted off. BOO. It's nothing like that show I had high hopes for, but were quickly dashed on the first episode. Yeah, you know what show I'm talking about---Glee. It is/was bad news bears.) ----------WOW, I have digressed.

Anyway, two of the singers in two different groups both got haircuts, and I noticed first thing. Aaron didn't really notice/care. But, it was right then and there that I decided I have gift for that sort of thing.

Isn't it amazing the talents we are blessed with?

So, there are the random thoughts for the day.
Take them or leave them.
love, melis

Pretty cool music video.

2011-11-05T16:35:00.000-05:00

Okay, just saw this very cool music video and I had to share. Kina Grannis is her name and she has a pretty great voice too.

Take special note that each frame is made up of JELLYBEANS. Amazing?!

To appreciate it even more, watch this "Making of" video. Kind of crazy, I'd say.

Found this video via Design Mom. Pretty cool stuff.
Just thought I'd spread the love.

Good Hair Night

2011-11-04T19:53:00.001-05:00

Does this happen to you or is it only me? Whenever I think, "Wow, my hair looks pretty good right now..." It happens just as I'm going to bed. And, I think, "Darn. That isn't really fair. Why couldn't this have happened earlier in the day so someone else can see that on occasion it looks presentable?"

I thought about taking a picture of myself right now so you could all see that, in fact, this is a Good Hair Night for me. But, then I thought that would be super vain. It would be like fishing for compliments and you might feel OBLIGATED to say, "Wow, you're right, it looks great!" And really, I don't need your validation tonight, b/c I can see that really, it does look good.

So, instead I googled "Good Hair Day" and found this image.

because I have good web etiquette, here's the link.

Wow. Yes. She is totally having a Good Hair Day.
Props to her.

Welp, that's all I have to say on the matter.

halloweenie goodness.

2011-11-03T22:58:00.002-05:00

Yee-hAw!

Yes, it's finally time.
After prodding from both of the grandmas, I thought I should go ahead and get these photos posted.

Oh, before we get started, did you like the title? "halloweenie goodness"? hA ha. A little joke. I laugh every time I say that. Never gets old.

I knew that Tillie had a ton of princess dress-ups and that it could be an easy route for a costume this year. But, for a few reasons, I don't love to FEED the princess obsession. I am totally happy for her to be a princess in her normal life, but thought we might be able to switch it up for Halloween.
Luckily, her little brother is IN LOVE with Woody from Toy Story. So, Tillie was Jessie from Toy Story--Not to be confused with her UNCLE JESSE, who is a BOY (he used to get so annoyed when people would say, "What? Your name is Jessie? That's a girl's name..." No. He is definitely a boy. And he spells it like a boy JESSE. Tillie would talk about it a lot.)

When we were at Target and looking through costumes, I was like, "$30 for one Woody costume?! No way! Why would anyone pay that price for a little kid costume?" And, then after it took me a lot longer than I'd like to admit to make a pair of chaps and a little cow vest (which, by the way, is LINED and has double red stitching)-----I now know why people fork over the cash for a pre-made costume.
I think our little Cowboy Duo turned out pretty cute, in the end. Becca even volunteered to do the embroidery on Tillie's little blouse. Too fun.

These first few were taken two days before Halloween. We went to a little city's celebration (kind of like Alpine Days for my home-town friends), and if you dressed up in your costumes you could get candy. Nice. We dressed up the kiddos. And, of course, took some photos. (We forgot Tillie's little sleeve cuffs in these shots. Notice, this is a 2T blouse and she currently wears 4 & 5T shirts. Hence, the reason I made cuffs to lengthen it out a bit. Oh well, you'll see it in a bit...)

fake smile!

Cal hadn't taken a nap this day... so he was kind of a grumpy-sad-face when I wanted him to take photos with his sister. I love that when I told him, "Cal, don't smile. Please, no smiling!" he then decided to do a little grin in hiding.

When we told him he could mess with the pumpkins, he perked right up.

This is a CLAAASIC Cal face. Too bad his eyes are closed, but check out his eyebrows.

Flashback? Yes. Same child. Same eyebrows. So funny.

Back to Present Day at the celebration! Aaron really was in a happy mood today, but it seems all the photos he is glaring. Weird.

Eventually, Cal just started putting his candy in Tillie's bag---which she didn't mind ONE bit!

Pretty fun that they made a replica Mater and Luigi from Cars. Too bad they did weird green and hazel EYES for the cars---I don't know why they didn't just do WHITE? Weird. But, the kids didn't seem to mind. :)

They had a ton of flying kites. Pretty cool. Apparently, they even did some hot air balloons later!?!

So, this next part felt a little bit like the show on TLC "Toddlers & Tiaras"---which I SOO do not support. I've actually never really seen the show, just commercials for it, and it's disgusting to me. ANYWAY, since they were doing a costume contest, we opted to enter the kids. Why not? It was a little crazy how often I kept adjusting the kids costumes while we were in line. Aaron reminded me of the tv show and I was like, "Oh yeah... I'm not one of THOSE moms..." Oops.

Anyway, they had to go up on stage and hold their little numbers up. Tillie did great! Even waved to the crowd! Cal looked like he was going to cry or yell.
In the end, they didn't win. Oh well, we wouldn't want one of those lame medals anyway.

::: Next up, Aaron and I dressed up. I know. Shocker. I'm not really into the whole costume thing, but alas, Aaron had a work party and they told him, "You'll feel lame if you're NOT dressed up, b/c everyone goes all out." So, alas, we were pirates.
People kept commenting that they liked my gypsy costume. Whoops. Oh well. I care about this (---) much.
Here we are posing it up while Becca took our pictures.
Best part of the night: watching Aaron act like he had long hair. He kept messing with his scarf and flipping it over his shoulder. It made me chuckle every time.

::: Next up, Halloween DAY. We'd been in countdown mode for SO long that Tillie was in disbelief when I told her today was Halloween for REAL. They were super pumped to see the little table cloth out for breakfast that Nana sent. Cal is especially excited.

Later in the day we went to a little playgroup. They did fake trick or treating in the house with different doors. It was pretty cute.

Okay, wow. We're getting there. Remember how many photos I took? And remember how many photos I decided to post? SHEESH. Last round. Ready to REALLY Trick or Treat. Cal was MUCH happier for this round. Can you tell?

Love this next face of Tillie's especially. Aaron took this on our point and shoot at the same time I was taking shots on our big camera. So funny. (yes, it was like we had two shooters for a wedding or something. Apparently Halloween is a big deal around here for us.)

Tillie is such a little "care taker" for Calvin. It is so funny. Here she is adjusting something.

Here she is fetching him his bag...

This pose of Tillie makes her look like her little cloth Jessie doll.

Our neighbors are pretty sweet. Here they are helping the kids figure out where to go to get CANDY!

Tillie kept getting stressed that a "scary witch" would open the door. She saw one at the city festival a few days earlier and it kind of wigged her out. She was pretty tentative at each door b/c of this.

Cal, on the other hand, would run up to each door and just say, "Treat!"

p.s. check out that horrible creature in the bottom right of this pic. Honestly, Halloween stuff like this makes me sick! I hate this kind of craziness!

In the end, it was a success, I'd say. "Thumbs up!" says Tillie.

Hope you had a Happy Halloween yourself!

THE END!

the tale of the new armoire

2011-11-01T20:00:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you are probably familiar with the latest craze called "Pinning" on Pinterest.
If you aren't, beware. It can be a time sucker. Also, it can falsely make you feel like you've been productive and crafty, when, in fact, you've been sitting on your rear doing nothing of real value.

If you DO want to see what I've pinned around the internet, here's my page. I was REALLY into it when we were building our house. It was super helpful as I was figuring out the tile/color scheme in our new kitchen.... gulp... sad pause.. .... crickets chirping. ... this is me, blowing my nose and taking deep breath.

Annnnnyway, let's stop mourning, because I have some new projects up my sleeve. Lately, after weeks of feeling like I haven't accomplished anything tangible, I have amazed myself (and Becca, for that matter) with all of the feats I have accomplished. Because it's my blog, and I like to talk to record the heroic things I've done (so when I look back I see that I wasn't SO lazy), let's take a look at what I just did.

Wow, great intro.
not.

So, we moved here to Dallas. We soon realized that our entertainment center would not fit in the new family room. Bummer. So, we moved it to the front office instead, and actually, I quite like it there.
But, we needed to figure out a solution for toys/tv in the family room. So, after doing some research, we decided to go to Ikea and pick out this little shelving situation with doors. I was a fan, the price was right, and Aaron was on board. Great.

Here she blows:

Great solution for the problem. I had a ton of storage for toys/dvd/etc. and we could see the tv from the couch. Good. But, day after day, I kept finding myself so irritated about that antennae cord on the mantle. You see, we have never paid for cable in our 7 years of marriage... we're antennae people. If the weather is right and the antennae is in the exact right spot, you MIGHT be able to watch a show on one of the big networks (abc, nbc, fox, etc.). Well, it just so happened that the SWEET SPOT, if you will, is located on the mantle.

Anyway, the cord thing + having the big black box of the tv sitting out---I know, it's lame, but the cord especially kept grinding on my nerves. AND, I thought that the new cupboard would work GREAT for all my craft supplies in the spare bedroom... see what I'm getting at?

So, after much deliberation, we decided to look for a big armoire that we could fit the whole tv in. I scoured Craigslist for a few weeks and came upon this delightfully inexpensive beaut.

Here she is on her backside in our garage. One thing to note, it's really heavy. Oh, and Aaron HATES (like with a passion) moving furniture up and down the stairs. Guess where the homeowner had it? You guessed it. Upstairs. And, they weren't normal stairs, they were the curving wrap-around kind. It was a trick getting it down, out, and into our van. But, we made it. Rather, Aaron and the previous armoire-owner made it. :)

Since we picked it up first thing in the morning and Aaron had his day off, I opted to get started on it right away. I know, I know. The cherry finish is LOVELY and I really thought I'd leave it alone... but my heart gravitates to white. Clean. Fresh. If I could, I'd repaint all the walls in this house white. But alas...

Aaron thought I was crazy, but I told him if he'd be in charge of the kids, I'd just go for it. And, that I did. Aaron took Tillie to and from dance class (did I mention she just started and LOVES it?---blast! those pictures are missing too! I'll have to retake some!), grabbed us tacos, and put them down for naps. In the end, he decided to help me finish up---my sore back and gnarled fist thanked him for that decision.

Here I am all hunched over... painting for 5 straight hours will do that to you. I told Aaron to take a picture so I could remember how motivated I was. :) I used a KILZ primer so I didn't have to sand off the smooth finish, and I'm so glad I did! Sanding bites. I did 2.5 coats of the primer and 2 coats with the white paint. In hindsight, I wish I would have done 3 coats of paint, b/c its thin in some of the spots. Luckily, there aren't too many, and I'll go back in with a small loaded paintbrush and fix it up.

So, here she is in all her white glory!!

I moved the globes at the top of the kitchen here onto the armoire. I know, the mantle is a little busy, but lately, I've just been throwing things up there. Maybe one day it will look more "polished" but for now, it is what it is.

Never did I imagine that I'd pick up and armoire and refinish it all in one day. Amazing what you can accomplish if you have some gumption. Let's see... what have I accomplished today?? hmmm... let's see.... my kids have been fed.... I did a blog post.... yeah, I won't give you a play by play for today.

Just call me Make-Over-Melissa.

more than you ever care to know about the last few weeks...

2011-11-01T12:25:00.001-05:00

Before I post the Halloween pictures we took yesterday, I thought I'd go ahead and show you a few more things we've been up to these past few weeks. With Becca around and her desire to do more creative things, I've been able to commit to doing a TEENSY bit more stationery printings in life.

And, I've increased the cost on these "Will You Be My Bridesmaid?" cards. Why? Because when you are modifying all the girls to look like ones in the bridal party, making custom text, changing colors, trimming down to size, making cigar wraps---it all takes a loooooong time. And, in order to make it worth the time and effort, I upped the prices. Becca was the one who changed the colors and got the text all ready to go on this last job, and I think it looks DARLING in the green.

Also, I just got the latest version of Adobe Illustrator---CS5 and let me tell you what... my life has been changed! They made so many smart modifications and I am SUCH a big fan. And, it's amazing how well my pen tablet works with the program. Really, it's like a whole new world!! So, that has helped me get back into making a few more stationery delights too.

Here's a few things we've been doing:

Also, a lot of people want us to add a "Will You Be My Maid of Honor?" So, we added that too.

Next up, my sister wanted us to make some cards for a friend in Boston. Apparently, she makes darling baby blankets for everyone having a baby, so we made up these cards for her to attach to her gifts. I thought it turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself. I love the little baby's feet and head poking out.

Also, while I was at it, I decided to change (permanently/not permanently) the name of my design business.... if Becca is going to do so much with helping on the production end, I thought maybe I'd change it to Melimba & Co. And, yes, I was thinking of Tiffany & Co. I'm classy like that. And, also I thought of this: "The Shane Company, at the corner of State Street and 7200 South. Open Mondays and Fridays till 8, Saturdays till 5, Closed Sunday."
Do any of you other Utah natives know that radio commercial? So clever and repetitive. Good advertising, my friends.
Anyway, here's what I have on the back of my stationery at this moment in time. Be warned, it will probably change in a few days/weeks/months.

Also, Em wanted some new cards made with her contact info. on them, so I did a screen shot where I omitted her personal information. I love that Becca did those little plus signs in the back. So great. Here 'tis:

More? Sure. One of my sweet friends had a little baby girl! This was so much fun to do. I always loving doing orders for Bekah. She is just so easy going and let's me show her random random ideas. Anyway, for the baby announcement, she had found an idea online and we made it our own---or, ehh, HER own. :) I think it turned out happy and fun, just like Bekah.

One day I'll figure out how to do the photography better---where the lighting is nice and pretty, but until then, here are these pictures I snapped.

Ready for more? You know it. A girl at Aaron's office was having a house warming party, so I made her these cards and gave her some fun Roasted Garlic Olive Oil. The row of houses idea has been swimming in my head for years and I finally made it digital and even created a few patterns out of it. One day, I'll show them. For now, here's the stationery. I liked it more on the kraft paper, Becca and Aaron liked it better on the ivory. So, I did both.

::: Okay, enough about the design work. Let's talk about a crazy thing I found while cleaning out our medicine. I saw that we had some eye drops and I knew they had to be pretty old. I couldn't find an expiration date, so I thought I'd open up the box to look at the actual bottle investigate.

Uhhh, if you look closely, you'll see that in fact, there was no bottle of perscription eye drops. No, in fact, it is Lee's Extra Strength Nail GLUE!! Can you imagine if I had something bothering my eye, and reached up for my eye drops---ONLY TO GLUE MY EYES SHUT!?!

It kind of gave me a heart attack. I screamed, called for Aaron and Becca, and we laughed while my eyes watered just thinking about how horrible it would all be.

Then, you KNOW I snapped a few photos for the blog.
That's how I roll.

::: Next up, I ~~hired~~ convinced Aaron to hang up some frames in our front room. Tillie and Calvin were GREAT ~~assistants~~ entertainers.
One day I'll post some pictures of the interior of this house. For now, here's what we have above the couch. I bet it will look better with real pictures inside, right?

After we hung the frames, we had a lasagna making party. LOOK AT ALL THOSE NOODLES! Good times. My mother-in-law's recipe is the best on the planet. True story. If you need it, holler, I'll email it to you. It will change your life.

::: Becca offered to watch the kids while we went on a hot date to downtown Dallas. We even booked a hotel for the occasion. It was lovely. Having Becca around is so great for SO many reasons!

We forgot our camera, but that's okay. We went out to eat at an delicious Italian place and went to a concert, left the concert after intermission b/c we aren't cultured enough.

Oh, I just remembered! Do you want to read Aaron's review of the concert? Okay, I'll share. I just copied it off of the TicketMaster website. So funny. Aaron kills me. I love that his "reviewer name is "awesomefella"---of course it is! And he uses the words 'cuz and kind of sorta---how's that for cultured?
___________________________

2/5

Too young to enjoy? Way too cheesy for me.

Verizon Theatre At Grand Prairie

by awesomefella

I've been married for 7 years. My wife and I thought it would be fun to go to a concert 'cuz we don't go out much. I kind of sorta recognized this guy, from PBS I suppose, and he was performing the night we were going out for our staycation.

The event was not nearly sold out and we'd bought the cheapest tickets on the upper level, after checking in, some nice lady pulled us aside and was giving away a bunch of lower level tickets. We thought that was pretty cool to be close.

Anyway, most the people there were older than us. Some were dressed to the nines. I wore jeans and a button down shirt and fit in fine.

The thing is... he probably does the same jokes every night all around the world. SOOOO cheesy. It was a little uncomfortable for me. Many others were really enjoying it though. The "snow" fall was pretty fun.

My dad is into opera and he told me this would be "schmoltzy" and I said what does that mean? And he said "fancy corny". That is correct.

The dancing/singing ladies in the back... weird. The weightlifting / body building trumpeters and stuff... uncomfortable.

We left the concert 3 songs after intermission because everything was just sounding the same. (I know... horrible concert etiquette... but it was that bad).

On a closing note, I just kept thinking... I bet my grandma would love this!

(ps - my musical taste is more along the line of jack johnson, ben folds, damien rice, iron & wine...)

__________________________

Great review. Fun(ny) night.

The next morning we went to an awesome breakfast at Bread Winners Cafe & Bakery where I ordered a little delight called the French Ham Benedict: croissant, 2 over easy eggs, ham, fresh asparagus, hollandaise. Hello. It was proababy the best breakfast of my life. Don't you worry, we then finished off our food fest at a super secret cupcake place called Trailercakes (you know, to get cupcakes for the kids, of course... errr...) and then to Costco to play Santa Claus.

Once we got home, we took pictures of the lovely cupcakes. Look at how delicious they were! Our favorite proabably was the strawberry pop tart one. Or the pumpkin one (Which we consumed too quickly and didn't get a photograph). Or maybe the oreo one was the best? Not sure. All delcious. We're glad for the recommendation by our high school friends, the Walker's. Dan's YELP food reviews are great.

::: While I had the camera out, I decided to take a picture of our painted Halloween pumpkins. Then, when I looked around on my hard drive for the other pictures of us at the Pumpkin Patch and painting them, I couldn't find them?! BOOO! HISSS! I have no idea where they are. Oh well. We DID go to a Pumpkin Patch. We DID take cute pictures. We DID paint them a few days later (which Tillie loved). Good times. Here's the result:

::: The kids are just getting over a really bad cold. It's not been fun. But, luckily the worst of it is over. Tillie's Half Birthday was just days ago, so we Becca took a few photos of the sickly girl. She's looks pretty darling, even if she is coughing in the first one and has a little bit of a snotty nose in the others.

poser alert!! with snotty nose, no less!

Pretty cute, in my opinion. We love this little 3.5 year old. Here are a few links to her past 1/2 birthday photos.

::: Big news. A new Costco opened up just minutes from our house. We were thrilled. Went to the Grand Opening. Twice. Once in the a.m., and then the second time in the afternoon with Aaron when he came home from work. We remembered the camera the second time. Not that anyone else would care, but WE love Costco. With all of our hearts. On this Grand Opening Celebration there were more TASTIES then we've ever seen. It was joy. Pure joy.

Don't let your kids try this at home. Oops. Glad she didn't knock over the cart.

Becca loves to push all the buttons and then watch. She's such a kid at heart.

On our way home, we saw a SNYDER DRIVE. Having TWO Snyders in the car + the camera = Photo Time.
Here we are working hard for the money.
Too bad the first one has the street sign cut off. hA!!

GOOD times. Let's the Halloween Festivities begin!

Farmer's Market + Oktoberfest = good times!

2011-10-25T22:36:00.000-05:00

Ahh, Fall. It's a great time of year, especially in Texas, b/c now we can FINALLY enjoy the outdoors again. The weather has been ideal as of late and we're having a good time exploring new places here in Dallas. Plus, let's be honest, I have Becca's help, so I'm a lot more keen to go exploring with an extra set of hands. obviously!

A favorite we've found is the McKinney Farmer's Market. Darling location. Trees everywhere. And, did I mention they had live Celtic music? Very charming. We've actually gone a few times since we took the pictures a few weeks ago, and we're fans. Especially of the bread vendor. Oh my word. Talk about CARB-HEAVEN.

Let's take a look around, shall we?

The kids were big fans of the drinkable yogurt. Can you tell? I love how focused they are.

This particular day was a busy one. We wanted to check out the Farmer's Market, but there was also a Oktoberfest celebration that day too (did I mention that they were two blocks away from each other?). On our way to the Farmer's Market we saw a little antique/garage sale thing going on. Don't you worry, I SCORED some awesome finds. I'll show you pictures later. I couldn't believe my luck. If you're curious, it has EVERYTHING to do with the first photo on this post.

ANNNYWAY, Since Aaron now works most of the day on Saturday, we opted to do the Market and then head home for lunch/naps/etc. and wait for Aaron to go back to the Oktoberfest fun. It was fun. One day I'd like to go there with no kiddos in tow to check out all the fun little shops they have. There were some darling window displays.
Overall, it was good. Let's see what we saw:

This INDEPENDENT kid has a mind of his own. Don't worry, the street was blocked off.

I thought these chairs could be cool recovered with some fun and exciting fabric. But alas, I have no idea how to really reupholster things, and I have enough projects on my hands. So, I kept walking. Those darned interior design blogs/pinterest gets my brain thinking all sorts of new things these days!

Kind of funny, this next one Aaron looks confused/sad/mad? But, trust me, he is glad.

Cool artwork. Loved the tangerine background especially. Makes me miss painting.

I don't know what this maze was for, but the kids sure loved it. Can you spy Cal and Tillie? Cal---he's about to get run over by what appears to be a cat girl.

Cal didn't quite understand the whole "staying within the lines" concept.

just happy to be here! and can I tell you how much fun it is to have Becca as a Team Texas member? Yes. Good. Sorry her face is cut off here.

On the other side of this white thing is a German landscape for people to pretend they're celebrating Oktoberfest IN Germany. Clever. But, there was a long line that we didn't want to wait for. So, let's do a family shot on the backside. As they say, "Das es goot." Calvin especially thought so.

Gotta love the running Tillie.

And, that awesome Texas sky. Very cool. Sorry, you'd think I was a meteorologist with all the sky photos I've been posting as of late. Maybe there's a little tiny meteorologist living inside of me. That'd be creepy, right? I mean, can you imagine a little weatherman living inside of me? Weird. Let's be done with this thought.

The end.

P.s. one day I'll stop doing the "scrapbook style" blog and let you know about all the random things/thoughts that go through my brain (you're probably thinking, "Uhh, if it has to do with a tiny weatherman taking over your body, I'm not so sure I'd like that...").

But for the moment, "scrapbook style" is much easier.

And, if you know me, you know I love easy. So, there you have it.

I should get an award or something.

2011-10-21T22:01:00.002-05:00

Okay, maybe I don't deserve an award, but I FEEL like I do.
Guess who just put together 5 blog posts from earlier in the year?
That would be me.

You want to see the fruits of my labor? Okay. I'll oblige.
Once I really catch up, my psyche will allow me to do current updates.

Here 'tis:

Middle of May 2011

End of May 2011

(yes, super clever titles)

Early June 2011---We're Posers

June/July 2011---Little LizBert comes to town & we ring in the 4th

Cal's Half Birthday! 18 months!

the utah marathon/summer trip is coming up next.
oh, and in case you were thinking I literally RAN a marathon in Utah... think again. I just took a billion pictures. obviously.

oh! and did you catch the fact that Aaron did his very own little blog post about the Boy's Trip that happened a few weeks ago.
Enjoy ALL the fun here.

Time marches on...

2011-10-11T21:07:00.001-05:00

Yes, that is my beloved paper holder. The one that cost about $70 a few years ago. The movers set heavier things on top of it---then blamed the "wimpy material it was constructed out of..." Hello, I didn't buy it because it was made out of superior material, I bought it so it could hold my card stock. And, it did that well! Boo. Oh well. Since this was the worst of the damage, I'd say we faired pretty well in the move.

I have a great story about a replacement paper holder situation---a happy ending, if you will. But that will have to wait until another time so I can show you pictures!

In the meantime, let's talk about a fun little event called "Trade Days" that we decided to go to one afternoon. Apparently, it only happens once a month and it's basically a big flea market. They had a little bit of everything there---from handmade wooden objects, little tinker toys brought over from China, random old cd's and dvd's, antiques, yard art, and your choice of puppies! There was this huge aisle full of little playpens with all different breeds of puppies. It was crazy. And, yes, I thought about buying one. They were SO darn cute!!

Anyway, here are some of the pictures (Aaron was working this day, so Becca and I took charge):

Can you tell I was loving the yard art? One day. One day...

Puppy Row. Tillie was as enamored as her mother.

Loved these keys. I'm going to go back and get me some.

I have a small (in comparison) print like this guy's US map. The real deal would be SOOO much cooler. But, alas, I don't have the money to spend on his delight. Until then, I'll enjoy looking at it. The birdhouses made out of license plates are pretty rad too, right? Agreed. Our friend, David Martin, makes similar maps of Texas out of old TX license plates too. (see right side of picture) In fact, I bought one from him before we left San Antonio. I'll have to post pictures soon. I love it. So much.

::: Get a load of these Texas skies. Amazing, right? I couldn't believe how the rays of light were streaming out of the sunset one night. Amazing! Luckily, I had my camera in the car. I thought you'd enjoy seeing this awesome-ness like we did. I love that quote by Frank Lloyd Wright that says, " I believe in God, only I spell it Nature." Amen.

not too bad for driving down the road with our point and shoot camera, eh?

::: Oh, and lately we've been big fans of making BANANA BOATS. Peanut butter on bread, then wrap it around 1/2 of a banana. Delicious. So easy, even a three year old can do it. (kind of like those geico commercials with "so easy, even a cave man can do it.)

With this next photo you can see the new map we bought for our big wall in our kitchen. Aaron is a big map guy and has always wanted one of those humongous ones, which I fully support. One day, we'll get a big big one and frame all the other random maps we've been saving in one great room. Until then, we're really enjoying this big one we found.

::: We've also been enjoying trips to different parks in the area. Good news, there are TONS of them! And, obviously, Tillie and Cal love that. Luckily, we've made a friend (hallelujah!) and she's great at inviting us to come join her and her kiddos. So great!

trying out new braids on Tillie. One of my new favorite past times. And, they actually STAY in! And keep her hair out of her face without a ton of little clips. Win. Win. Win.

::: Last but not least, Tillie loves to sleep in crazy positions. Here are a few different ways we've found her lately:

Okay, normally, her room doesn't ALWAYS look like this, but since she can either choose "Quiet Time" in her room, or take a nap each day---well, let's just say on this particular day she chose both.

The funny thing is that on days where she plays and plays and then konks out, she usually is able to find her way to her bed beforehand. On this day, she opted to lay down right on the floor. Paper/Fabric doll dress in hand. So funny.

And, if you're curious to know, yes, that is a pink diaper cover she has put on top of her little shorts. Perfect ensemble to nap in, if you ask me.

Here's another shot of her one night while she was in bed. Or should I say 1/2 in bed, 1/2 out of bed?

Not to be outdone by his sister, here's Cal. You see, on days that Tillie opts to play quietly and then sleep, Calvin has his mom and Becca all to himself for a while. Cal is one of those babies where you say, "Are you ready for nap time?" He nods his head, and then proceeds to lay down on your shoulder. This is one area of life that he definitely SUCCEEDS in!

Here he is post-nap, applying chap stick (one of his favorite activities).

For the record, Aaron thinks chap stick is a conspiracy theory.

Love you, Aaron.

AND, I love my chap stick.

So do our kids.

p.s. yes, those are little mosquito bites all over his head. Those darn mosquitos get us every time we venture outside. Hopefully our new bug spray will keep them at bay!

that's all for now, folks.

final day in San Antonio...

2011-10-09T09:00:00.001-05:00

The last few days in San Antonio were a whirlwind. Here's the schedule:

8th (Thursday): Aaron flies back to San Antonio from working the past week in Dallas

9th (Friday): Some of Aaron's best friends fly into town for the big BYU/UT game in Austin (and, of course we wanted them to stay with us!) MORE pictures to come (that deserves a separate post). Let me just say this, it was SOO much fun having them around. I love this shot with Kevin's shirt draped on top and Aaron doing a muscle man pose. Very fun.

10th (Saturday): The boys all drove up to Austin for the big game, the kids and I went to the funnest (yes, that is a word) birthday party.

The party was for our little friend, Brooklyn. I'm good friends with her mom (we used to work together at Moon Mippy, then found out we lived just 2 minutes away from each other!). Anyway, they invited us to a train themed party in New Braunfels. It was darling and such a perfect little party. We LOVED it. Here are pictures from our time there while Aaron and the boys whooped it up in Austin.

this was a crazy huge old oak tree---they built that brick support to help it from toppling over. amazing.

how cute is the conductor? hello.

Cal even took a swing at the pinata. So funny that it's bigger than he is.

Brooks, Brooklyn's dad, decided to give it a go. :) In case you were curious, yes, he broke it open.

Kristen, Brooklyn, and us. It was a happy day. I am posting two almost identical pictures, b/c in the next one Cal is doing a TRUE grin. I love that my kids get SO red faced like I do. Sorry, guys.

11th (Sunday): Church normal, good. Remember what happened 10 years ago with the terrorist attacks. So crazy that was 10 years ago. The boys went downtown after church. Then we all hung out and had perhaps TOO much fun on the Sabbath.

12th (Monday): Boys leave to airport after about 1 hour of sleep. Adam, another one of Aaron's BFF, was able to fly into San Antonio and hang out for the afternoon/evening. It was so great to hang out with him. We love that he is a pilot and we get to see him in our city!! Then my sister, Becca, flew into town late that night. That girl has great timing. :)
Yes, these pictures below gave me a heart attack. And, yes, my mom (denise) would NOT approve.

13th (Tuesday): Packed frantically all morning (luckily, with Becca's help now too!), movers came at 3:00p.m. They loaded up the truck (we barely fit!). We do last minute clean up. Take a few more pictures in front of the house for the last time. Load into the van and little car and head to Dallas around 7:00p.m. Arrived to the new city/new house around 1:00a.m. Crrrrazy.

we plugged the kids into movies all morning while we packed. :) Luckily, they like movies AND each other. So sweet.

Some of our sweet friends dropped by to wish us well. I wish I would have taken a few more pictures with some of the other friends that came. Man, I miss y'all!! THANK YOU.

The kids loved running around all the EMPTY rooms after the movers left.

We loved our neighbors. I wish we could have had time to go around and take more pictures with them! (Kelli! yes, I'm talking about you!) But alas, we were down to crunch time.

RJ was not happy we were moving. I think he's trying to be "tough" here.

Cal really does love RJ, but was acting shy here.

crazy our garage was SO empty!

family shot with RJ. :)

Last REAL family shot before we left to Dallas for good. Crazy that Aaron and I moved into this house as a young couple with no thought of children in the near future. 5 years later, we're a legit party of four. Amazing. Good times in San Antonio. Dallas pictures coming up soon.

Last weeks of San Antonio... early September 2011

2011-10-07T20:42:00.005-05:00

Sorry for the photo dump, but this is probably what our blog will consist of for the next few posts. I was on the phone with AT&T resolving our slow internet connection all afternoon (yaaaawwwwn), and now that my photos are uploading faster, hopefully I'll keep up the motivation I have to get caught up. Hopefully.

Seeing the early weeks of September make me sentimental. It's crazy to think that just a few short weeks ago we were living an entirely different life in a different city. Weird how time works like that.

Anyway, if you're curious, feel free to join me as we take a stroll down memory lane for the next while.

::: SeaWorld San Antonio. We love this place. We always have and always will pledge allegiance to this great place that was LITERALLY 5 minutes from our home. As we were making our list of "Things to do before we leave San Antonio" you know that SeaWorld was high up there.

It was great. Really, a perfect day. My advice to anyone planning to go on the weekend, GO EARLY! Like, right when they open. And, head straight to the water park. No huge lines, you have your pick of tubes in the Lazy River (or whatever it is they call it), and the crowds are minimal. Then, you can get dried off and do the shows and other delights. Feel free to thank me later. :)

A splurge. Come on, it was a special occasion. And, she was IN heaven.


We've logged many many hours in this indoor aquarium. It was the highlight of SeaWorld for us b/c it was the one of the only places that was air conditioned! That's a big deal when you live in South Texas. Especially in the summer. We've taken so many pictures of Matilda here, I couldn't help but grab another picture of her two years ago when she was 18 months. See below.

Oh, so fun.

And while we're at it, let's do another picture of Tillie when she was about 4 months old at Sea World. Okay, too cute.

Okay, back to real-life-present-day:

And, how can we forget about this little fisherman. Sheesh. So fun. He loves it here as much as Tillie does.

They were both so tired on the way home. Tillie zonked as soon as we buckled her in. Calvin was close behind.

Thanks, SeaWorld. You know we'll be coming back as soon as possible.

::: As I was cleaning out drawers, I came across the last page of one of my most favorite notepads. My family bought this for me when they went on a trip to Nauvoo a few years ago. They said when the saw it they thought of me. What that really means, I don't know. You be the judge. Regardless, I thought it would be worthwhile to take a photo to ALWAYS remember it.

::: We had some books that talked about a "bubble bath" and I was feeling bad that Tillie had no idea what a real bubble bath was, so I decided that I should introduce her to this phenomenon on one of the last nights that we were in San Antonio.

Calvin is always so sweet after his bath. I'm sure he'll love the fact that his bath towel has pink trim.

This was the first time I'd ever tried a french braid on Tillie's hair. She was a fan. As was I. Double french braids are now the favorite around these parts.

We made this chart for Tillie back in the day when she was potty training. It worked great for about two weeks. We'd forget about it, then come back a few weeks later to chart progress on other topics---like helping mom, being especially kind to her brother, etc. Eventually, she'd start sneaking up to the chart and coloring in spaces---thinking I wouldn't notice.
She's tricky like that sometimes.

I love how she colored in the faces. Good work, Til.

::: Tillie's favorite past time is painting. I should let her do it more often. Here they are with a painting book I got several weeks ago. The little pallet of paint is at the bottom of the page, and you're supposed to use that to paint the rest of the image. Basically, they'd just add more and more water to the little pallet until the paper ripped. Doing acrylic paint is much more fun, this I know, but it's much messier. Regardless, Tillie loves it and concentrates so hard.

Both children doing fake "cheeser smiles"---Tillie especially.

::: We loved our cute little neighbor, Emily. She'd come and hang out all the time. She loved to knock on the door and say, "Melissa, do you need any help?" She was darling. We'll definitely miss her. She loved playing our piano. One of these last nights, she wanted Aaron to play for her. Eventually, they started the duet "Heart and Soul"---classic. Cute cute girl.

::: We were able to squeeze in a date night with some of our favorite friends, Jen & Rex. They recommended a cool pizza place called Dough. It was amazing. San Antonio friends, you should definitely go try it out. It was such a fun evening. We love Jen & Rex and could chat with them for hours and hours. In fact, that is what we did that night.

Also, a little tid bit, Jen took Calvin's birth pictures and also just recently took our family pictures. She is so stinkin' talented. And, I love that she is such a great friend. I can't wait to show you the latest round she did. We're SO happy with how they turned out. Until I do that, let's look at some delicious pizza that we ate. Ready, break.

Ahhh, San Antonio. Good times. Great city. Thanks for the fun.
More catch up coming...

BYU/UT San Antonio/Austin Boy's trip 2011

2011-10-05T21:36:00.002-05:00

Scott and me trying out some different poses before the big group shot:

Mark's better side:

We thought it'd be good luck to wear the same outfits as last time, Blake couldn't make it, luckily Jordan had the good fortune to visit Blake before the visit, pick up his shirt, shrink it, and bring it to Kevin (we spent a good portion of the trip stretching the shirt out trying to convince Kev he actually looks very good in a tight shirt):

Walkin' thru Austin to go to Hut's Burger's:

I think we enjoyed the space Bruce (our minivan) offered:

Hit up a tailgate party in Austin at a church building across the way from the stadium... some fellow cougars tried to scalp their bbq tickets to us for a profit... we we're like "no we just ate at deliciuos Hut's Burgers":

We decided the stadium would be more fun and left:

Mark hooked up some cub scouts selling water, they hooked him up with a water bottle, looks like Kevin and Jordan already crossed the street:

I asked Jordan if my nose looked very big and he took this so I could decide:

Watching the cougars warm up:

Scott got us 4 tickets (for FREE!) but there was 5 of us... so we sat together for the first quarter and then we got split up and spread around, we were in the UT section so we had fun (especially during the first half):

Here we are having fun:

It may've been a while since I been to a BYU game... but I'm pretty sure their marching band would beat the cougars at a "spell something on the field" game. They were very good:

So that was Saturday... Sunday, we went down to San Antonio's Paseo del Rio. Some of looked like we were straight off a TV show... others of us just looked messy... you can decide:

Lookin' at stuff:

Here's a life size replica of the world's tallest man, Robert Wadlow, 8'11.5" I think:

More of the same:

Jordan didn't stand next to the tallest guy:

In front of the Alamo:

Walking around the Alamo:

Talking on the phone outside the Alamo:

This is a fake riverwalk on the way to the real riverwalk:

This is the real riverwalk:

Ummm... not much going on here:

A whole lotta stuff going on here:

This is the pile of stuff we had on the table (or chair as it were) if Scott was gonna be able to polish off melissa's 9x13 pan of brownies. He was starting a diet/exercise thing the next week and we were bulking him up to start.

Gonna take some photos/vid of the work:

The pile grew a little bit:

We had already all had like 2 burgers and chips and root beer and were stuffed to begin the contest...

GO GO GO!

Melissa already put these photos up... but it was the next day so I thought I'd put it up too.

we are here! we are here! we are here!

2011-10-01T17:34:00.003-05:00

If you are familiar with the movie, Horton Hears a Who, then you'll be able to re-read the title of this post again PROPERLY.
What? Haven't seen this movie? Feel free to watch the first few seconds of this clip:

Since it is Conference time and I'm hearing good analogies, I'll give you my take. Lately, I feel just like the Mayor of Who-ville. I've really wanted to do a blog post. I told my sister a few days ago, "We've got to make some noise! They don't believe we are here! We are here! We are here! We are here!"

We, in fact, made it to Dallas. It's a little strange to think we've been here for just over two weeks. Overall, it's been a terrific. Let's talk about some high lights and low lights:

::: Remember the whole housing renting stress---had we picked the right house? How would we "cope" without all the charm of that historic one? Well, since we came into this house I can emphatically say "YES! We made the right decision!" We're are happily surprised at how much we LOVE this house. There is just so much breathing room. There is so much natural light here. Good space. The kids love it. Aaron loves it. And, Becca loves it too, b/c she has her own room.

::: Did you know that little Becca-dear is here with us? Oh yes she is. Did I fail to mention that my sister came down the night before our big move to help us load up, clean up, move to Dallas, unpack, and get us settled? She has been such a great help and I love having her as my life assistant, friend, dance partner, nanny, caregiver, chef, creative collaborator, and I'm so glad she could come. She is on the hunt for an AWESOME job here in Texas (I'm especially pulling for the Dallas area, duh!) and we're all rooting hard that she'll find something great so she can stay by my side forever. Let's all start crossing our fingers for her----and, hello, if you know of a great job for her (graphic + web design) give us a holler. STAT.

::: We are slowly but surely getting settled in. I told Becca that I think we'll be ready to start putting up decorations on the wall next week. Tillie keeps having moments where she talks about missing her San Antonio house and her little friends and I think if we had some things up on the wall and start tackling little fun projects that will help keep her pre-occupied. Overall, she's done surprisingly well in the transition.

Love Tillie's fake smile and Cal's super short tie. Too cute.

::: Calvin is a fickle pickle. Remember how I used to talk about about what a PERFECT baby he was? Well, I'll stand by that statement forever. Calvin was a PERFECT baby. Slept well, ate well, was happy and content, easy cheesy. As time wears on and this baby turns into a TODDLER, it's amazing to see the transformation. Let's just say, Calving isn't as "easy cheesy" anymore. Yes, he is what I wrote above, "a fickle pickle". One minute he is sharing a Cheetoh with his sister and giving her hugs and kisses, the next he is hitting and pulling someone's hair (mine included) or sobbing about some injustice (remember these pictures?). That boy. I love him something fierce and he keeps us all entertained. For better or for worse. :)

::: Speaking of decorating, I went through a few different phases with the site Pinterest. At first, I loved it and kept finding great inspiration for our new house we were building. Then, when I found out we weren't moving into our new great house (R.I.P. that really was a great house), the last thing I wanted to do with my time was look at inspiration for a new home. I cringed at the thought and it just made me sad. But, I'm happy to report, that I've been born-again and I'm excited to make this house into our home for the next while. In fact, I think I stumbled upon a GREAT idea for a corner in Tillie's room. Hello.

You use a hula hoop! And, Tillie is the queen of book reading in her room. This could be a great plan. Found here.

::: Speaking of cool internet finds, Aaron found this one and it made my life. Please read.

::: In other news, I have been numb twice (two different places) in the last 24 hours. Last night as we were going to bed, I got a bite from some bug on my hand... it was itching like crazy and started swelling and suddenly the whole side of my hand was numb. Then there was throbbing pain going up my arm. Let's talk about the awful thoughts running through my head---death by bug bite... I'd die in the night. No one would know till the morning (even though I kept trying to wake up Aaron). I decided to take 4 teaspoons of Children's Benedryl (it's all we had) and then went online to sites like WebMD to diagnose how and when I would die of this bug bite.
I was terrified reading everything. So, I called the hospital.
They said it was my decision whether or not to come in since they can't diagnose over the phone (makes sense). So, I waited for another 45 minutes and decided to risk going to sleep and never waking up.

Good news. I am alive. I am a survivor.

Numb twice. Remember? The second time was when Aaron fixed a cavity for me this afternoon. He did SUCH a good job. When he numbed me, it didn't even hurt! I told him, in all honesty, that it was the most pleasant experience I've ever had in a dental chair. That's big, considering that Aaron used to tell everyone that I was his WORST patient he'd ever worked on (in my defense, the last time I went to him I was 7 months pregnant and the appointment was like 4 hours long at the dental school. not cool.).

::: Speaking of Aaron, he is famous. Seriously. That means I'm famous by association. This new practice is the big time. They have billboards up, ads in magazines, and all sorts of exciting marketing. Guess what we found in our mailbox on the bag cover of a magazine?

Now look at what Aaron's dad did to the photo. Such skillzzzz. I love it.

Funny story... that is NOT Aaron's body that his head is attached to. Gotta love the "blessing" of Photoshop. Rest assured, they just took new photos and Aaron's head will be attached to Aaron's body. I can't wait to see what else his face pops up on!

Crazy times. All around.
Anyway, there's the 411 for this very minute in time. I just uploaded over 300 photos from the last few weeks. There is MUCH more to show you and talk to you about. All in good time. In good time.

Moving day is today.

2011-09-13T07:48:00.002-05:00

These pictures were taken five years ago when we first moved here. We found this great spot just minutes from our house. We were trying to come up with a good photo for our first ever Christmas card. I think we decided on the top one.

Well, today is the big day. It's amazing that you can feel so many emotions at one time... Excited, nervous, happy, and sad.

I've been extremely reflective this last little while as I've been reviewing all the things-events-people met-experiences that have happened here in our little brick house.

This was the first real time we'd ever really been on our own.
This was the place I learned what it was like to rely completely on Aaron.
This is the place I realized how important cell phones were and how important it was for me to have support/love from our families back home.
This was the place that I started a blog to keep my old friends and family in the loop.
This was the place I learned how to be a full-time working member of society... Where I realized how wonderful it was to be in a great work environment. I loved the girls/women I worked with at the stationery store.
This was the place where it was acceptable and normal to use the word "y'all" in my everyday jargon. You know I capitalized on that. (I could do a whole post about how great that word is.)
This was the place where I learned how much I love the internet.
This is the place where I learned how to earn an income from home and started to figure out a work/life balance.
This is the place where I met so many great friends who have turned into family members.
This is the place where I learned how to comfortable, truly, in my own skin.

This is the place where I became a mom. twice.

This is the place where my life changed in so many ways, and this has been my home for 5 long/short/crazy happy/good years.

Am I weird for feeling so incredibly sad but excited at the same time? Am I lame that I want to take pictures of things like the bathtub to remember how many times I washed those little bodies in it? Am I silly for wanting to go over to every person that has been in our lives and give them a good hug and say "thank you"? Am I crazy that I want to push pause and stay right here for a little big longer in the place I have grown to love? Is it wrong to want to stay comfortable?

Maybe it is wrong. Maybe I am crazy. Actually, I am crazy. And schizophrenic too, apparently.

Basically, I just want to say thanks. Thanks to all of you who have made these past five years happy for me and my family.

San Antonio, you've been good to us. Real good.

"I like to move it, move it..." not really.

2011-09-07T00:27:00.001-05:00

In case you were wondering, I'm finally coming to grips that we are moving in 7 days.
Maybe it's because I've called to cancel our internet/phone, electricity, water, home owners insurance, etc.
Maybe it's because we took our last trip to SeaWorld as residents living only 6 minutes away (now that's a REALLY sad thought).
Maybe it's because I've been collecting a billion boxes and tips for packing from friends and neighbors.
Maybe it's because I've taken stock of the contents left in our freezer and figuring out how to eek out dinners without running to the grocery store (the recommended 3 months minimum of food storage our church recommends having on hand, we totally had! who knew?!)
Maybe it's because we took a trip downtown to the Riverwalk and acted like tourists, bought San Antonio t-shirts, and did the boat tour.
And, maybe it's because the movers are coming to load us up on the 13th.

Yeah, I think the last one is the kicker. I think THAT is the reason I'm coming to grips. Ready or not, they're coming to take me away ("haa haa, hee hee, ho ho, to the funny farm..." do you hate that song as much as I do?).

So, I've decided packing is good and bad. Good, because it forces you to go through things that you've been avoiding---or in my case, transferring from one pile (rubbermaid bin) to the next. It's one of my best talents that my mother loathes. (love you, mom---and remember, you still love me.) Call me crazy, but it's kind of fun discovering little papers we wrote our "Goals" on a few years ago. It's fun to go through printed photos and file folders that represent certain chapters in our lives. It kind of reminds me of this post I did a few years ago.

The part that isn't so good or fun---finding random Target, Costco, Walmart receipts from 2008. Were they important purchases? No. Seriously, I found a HUGE stack of dorky receipts I'd kept. So weird. Another part that is not so fun is convincing 3.5 year old Tillie and 20 month old Calvin to stay away from my boxes. They love to help and enjoy seeing all the crazy things I'm pulling out from under our bathroom sinks. But let's be honest, Cal playing with toilet bowl cleaner isn't the best of ideas.

crickets chirping.

I've decided this is a really boring post. I'm even bored typing it, you must be REALLY bored reading it. But, honestly, this is better than packing up my bulk shampoo and conditioner---I really hate having to squeeze & twist down the top to seal it up. Such a waste. And, I hope that darn pump doesn't come untwisted in the move and coat the rest of the box in conditioner. And, while we're on the topic of bulk bathroom products, why on earth was I convinced that I needed to buy 4 gallons worth of hand soap from Costco? I'm so sick of using that soap, it's killing me. Yet, I'm packing the remaining gallon to McKinney to use it there. Perfect. Can't wait.

See? Boring topic. But, hello, this is what I've been doing for the last few days. Boring. Melissa.

Let's reward everyone for making it through tonight's post. Let's post some pictures.
First off, let's take a look at our last big hurrah downtown at the Riverwalk:

Aaron's tall, but not tall enough to put Calvin with the stone men above. I advised him to put Cal back down to a safe level---and STAT!

ahh, much better.

somewhere on our computer I have a shot of Aaron and I when we first moved here five years ago. I thought it would be cool to have a side by side comparison of the photos---but alas, I'm not finding that old photo. When I DO find it, (and trust me, I'm now on a mission!) I'll show you the two. Pretty amazing what 5 years can do to your life.

hanging out on the river.

super sweaty, sorry. but that glass sculpture is so cool!

Yes, both children would have jumped into the water, had we let them.

very cute.

and another "Very cute"

Sorry children that you inherited your mother's RED HOT FACE if you are even remotely warm. I apologize. Really, I do. It was approx 104 degrees this day, if you must know. Thank you, Texas.

love that they scalloped the ivy. So cool. It's all about the details, people.

We went to a super lovely restaurant for lunch. Aaron had heard from a friend at work that this place was a favorite. We thought we'd give it a try. Let me just say this---not really kid friendly (really? Tillie didn't like the heart of palm? weird.), but super delicious. We used my birthday money and it was SO good. Aaron and I keep dreaming about the cheese bread that Cal is shown stuffing his face with. I think, if Cal could communicate better, he'd mention that he TOO has been dreaming of it since. Fogo De Chao is the name, in case you were curious. Oh, and found out it's not just a San Antonio restaurant---they have a few places all over---including Dallas. HA! That's funny.

Taunting poor pigeons with Cheerios. Lovely.

"Cowabunga!" or is he saying, "ALLL right!" Not quite sure. But, either way, he looks rad. And, hello, he's larger than life. Look how tiny the Alamo is. It really is that small in person. Seriously. Don't say I didn't warn you. It seems like whenever we took visitors to see it, they'd say, "Really? It's that small?" Yes. Sad, but true.

This is Cal trying to sleep in the car. I wanted to record the memory of his bright red and tired face. He was SUPER sleepy, but when he saw I was taking a picture, he flashed this smile. This kid kills me.

::: In other news, (wow, this post is suddenly getting less and less boring!!) I don't think I ever mentioned that the house we were building SOLD just days after it went back on the market. And, funny story, the new home owners hated the tiled floor, the glass tile backsplash, and the granite countertops we chose. So, they replaced them ALL! Amazing!?! I know! You wanna see? Of course you do. Here's what we saw:

landscaped front yard.

added wood flooring in the master bedroom and master closet (of all places). kind of funny. sorry for the blurry pic.

new tile work in the master bath.

Not jiving on the combo with the mini tiles...

Crazy, right? I wonder what it cost for them to make all those changes? Oh well. Not my problem anymore. I'm surprised at the combinations they chose. And, really, I'm not a fan of the granite/backsplash combo in the kitchen, although I'm surprised at how much I liked the brightness of the lighter tile in the main family room area and kitchen. In the end "it's different strokes for different folks," as my mom says.
Honestly, it was kind of nice seeing all the changes, b/c is just solidified the fact that this wasn't our home anymore.

So, all is well.

Oh, and before I sign off, please know that I appreciate all the kind words about the house situation. Honestly, I cried reading them. Oh great, now I'm boring AND lame. Sorry. But, y'all were so nice and made me feel so much better about the quick decision we made. Thank you. Seriously, thank you.

Alright, signing off now.

Or, as we used to say back in the day, "Wellllllp, gotta go work out!"

another house that MIGHT have been...

2011-08-30T10:28:00.002-05:00

So, we just got back. We went to Dallas, yet again, to go check out a rental house... b/c remember? We leave in just almost 2 weeks. The count down is on, ladies and gentlemen.

We had a few requirements (3 bed, 2 bath, and CLEAN).

We had been checking listings online for days prior to the trip, and luckily, our lovely Realtor and new friend, mapped out a ton of places for us to see.

This place was the first one we saw in person. Super duper clean. 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and even a study too. Oh, and did I mention a great kitchen? Here she blows:

and yes, in case you were curious, it does kind of look like our current home (this was back when we purchased it and there wasn't a front yard... for some reason I couldn't find any more recent pics without humans in it).

So, it was clean, in a great neighborhood, a little playground/park around the corner (we're talking less than a block away). And, the kitchen was so nice and open. It had a LEGIT laundry room too! Luckily, that house was first in our search and we compared every other house to it. And, with every house we saw, we kept going back to that first one.

Until we got to see this beaut in the historic downtown area... (sorry, some of the pics are blurry)

We loved this house and the idea of this house. Hello, look at those trees in the back? Did you see that bathroom floor? And that kitchen with the brick? Wrap around porch? Yes. All very nice.

But, let's talk DWELL on the bad parts, b/c we decided to not go with this house in the end. And, I really need to focus on the NEGATIVE so I can be happy about that first red brick house instead.
CON list:
-the floor plan. If you noticed in those first few images, it is a very CLOSED floor plan. Meaning, there is one main hallway and little separate rooms on both sides. The kitchen is in the back of the house and the closest area for the kids to play is way up in front of the house.

-it's a pretty small home. which is fine (we are used to small), but a little crazy when you have such a wonky old timer floor plan. Our current home seems much bigger than it really is, b/c so many of the rooms open into each other. Also, it would be tricky to figure out a place for another little baby (no, this is not an announcement, I'm just thinking future for a minute). I know that many of you who read this might live in the city and seeing these pics you might think, "Melissa, this is a ton of space comparatively speaking..." and, yes, I know. I'm a spoiled-little-tiny-wahh-waah-baby / brat. What can you do? I am who I am.

- the three bedrooms really turn into TWO bedrooms, b/c no way would I ever have one of my kids sleep in that first green bedroom with an exterior/rickety door to the front porch. So, i the end they would need be sharing a room. Which is fine and good for some reasons, but stresses me out a little.

-no working garage. the glorified shed was nice to have in the backyard for storage purposes, but the main big door didn't open. Also be parking on the side of the house in a dirt/rock driveway. Let's talk about how not fun it would be with kiddos in the rain and mud going to and from our destinations. And, where would we put things that we'd use on a regular basis---like our double stroller? Put it on the front porch? Probably it would get stolen. Hmmm...

-no storage in the house. While cute and darling, the closets were mini with doors that wouldn't open all the way EVEN if you put your back into it. And, you all know that I am my mother's daughter---I love good storage.

-Super busy street with no fence around the front---we're talking I could never let the kids play in the front yard/porch with out being stressed. out. of my. mind.

-yes, it's located in the "historic district" but that borders the "shady" district. meaning, not super duper safe.

-As I sat back down in the car after spending a few minutes inside taking a tour of the home, I couldn't help but notice a TON of sick dog hair ALL over my dark pants. gag me. Knowing that a very hairy dog lived in the place, kind of makes my stomach churn. Sorry all you pet owners. Shedding dogs aren't really my thAng.

-let's talk about the front door---umm, it hardly closed. And when it did, you could still see the outside. That would stink as far as safety is concerned. Me and my weak self could probably just shove the door and it would open. Also, another bedroom door opened onto the front porch---which was also a weak-sauce-non-tight-closing-door. Meaning someone could easily snatch a kid in the night. I'm dramatic, but hello, I'm a mom too.

-and last, but certainly not least, is that the girl who owned it wouldn't be able to move out for another few months---which means we'd have to find temporary housing for our temporary rental. Meaning I would go temporarily crazy. Basically, we would have to find an apartment somewhere for about 2 months. So, moving twice. With a big piano. And two toddlers? Not sounding super appealing.

So, let's play the game where you help me rationalize why we made the better decision for the newer CLEANER home in the super SAFE area. :) Thanks in advance.

P.S. I am SO over choosing homes and getting emotional about them. Three cheers for being somewhat settled in a few weeks.