Thursday, November 29

thanksgiving week

so we spent several days in monroe with my entire family for thanksgiving. space was a little tight with 13 adults in the house and 8 kids, so weston and i got the hide-a-bed. oh joy :) it was fun to spend time with all of the siblings and nieces and nephews that all live in denver. it seems like these kinds of visits get further and further apart. here is weston with my sister's little boy, andrew - he turns 8 in a couple of weeks.here i am with my nephew, alex jr., who turns 3 at the end of december.
my sisters threw me a fantastic baby shower while we were all together. here is a little bit of the food that was served. my 4 sisters, my mom, and 2 aunts were there and it was really perfect. we ate and ate and opened some gifts and then we just talked and talked for the next couple of hours :) thankfully the husbands had taken all the kids out so the women could just relax and enjoy the afternoon. when my dad walked in with a couple grandkids he said, "I feel like I've just been at McDonald's for the weekend." :)

2 of my cute neices, kali & megan, put on a show for us, complete with a formal invitation and favors upon entry :) they even had 3 acts with an intermission including displays to view :) too cute!

the cowgirl and her horse
the dance/gymnastics routine
it wouldn't be thanksgiving without a family turkey bowl! all the guys were out in the cold being manly men. my dad caught me completely by surprise with his commitment to this game. the first thing i saw when i walked into the backyard was my dad ROLLING across the grass with the ball in hand. my dad is in his 60s and he made a diving catch! crazy :)
here are most of the guys in action. that's my brother-in-law tom in the center trying to block. my 2 oldest nephews are in the back left of the shot, and weston is blocking andrew in the back right. men are funny.
it was a crazy week filled with a LOT of food and some games and puzzles. we caught up on everyone's news and funny stories, worked on a project or two, and i managed to fit 3 haircuts in there somehow :) it was a good week to be home.

Monday, November 26

baby quilt for reynolds

this is the quilt i made for baby reynolds. he is due a couple of weeks after kate.

Tuesday, November 20

so i gave in

but at least i held out until the week of thanksgiving this year! 2 years ago i had all of our christmas decor up BEFORE halloween. sometimes i just think 3 weeks in december is not enough time to enjoy the season. tonight when i was unpacking all of the ornaments i got so excited because i had forgotten about so many of them. last year i made (i guess enhanced is a better word) a lot of these ornaments - glitter and paint and such. i had forgotten so much of it and was so excited to see it all again ... my old friends :) last year i also made the tree skirt, embroidery and all ... it totally has its flaws, but i love it all the same. i'm just so excited for the winter and holiday season this year. we are going to spend thanksgiving with my family and christmas with weston's family. i have a feeling we'll be pretty busy between work, school, parties, and preparing that the time will just speed on by and i'll be taking the tree down and packing away my dear ornaments before i know it. next on the holiday list? christmas cards! hopefully i can get them done before we're halfway through december! :) put weston in charge of picture taking and you get a bunch :)

Thursday, November 15

i need help

i've been coming to terms with realizing we need to eat at home way more often. my goal is to only eat out ONCE a week. that pretty much means we have to NOT eat out the other 5 nights we usually do. LITERALLY. it's that bad. i have made dinner 2 nights in a row now. it's a pretty big accomplishment although i'm not sure the food is all that great. because of thanksgiving and knowing we'll be out of town for most of next week, i don't want to go grocery shopping - so i'm trying to make meals out of the food in our pantry and freezer - YUMMY. so far, weston has liked what has been placed in front of him - hopefully he's not just being super nice ... hopefully he really does like it as he says :) if anyone has any, and i mean ANY suggestions or advice on how to cook for 2 or what kinds of staple foods to cook with or tasty and useful recipes, please pass any and all comments along. my mom was always at home - she only worked out of the home probably 6 months of my life. maybe that's why, but i've always really wanted to be a MOM and not have the career. i have this secret desire to be as good at everything as my mom is and i am constantly so surprised that it's so hard for me sometimes! :) but, i'm on this housewife kick as of late, apparently, because i spent over 10 hours cleaning on saturday (honestly - i was SOOO exhausted) and i'm trying really hard to make dinners again. maybe it's that nesting thing? :) kate should be here in under three months and i need to make sure i'm in all my mom-mode glory! :)

Monday, November 12

baby sophia's quilt

this is a quilt i made for weston's youngest sister - she's having a baby girl any day now. we are excited to meet sophia lou!

Thursday, November 8

how do i look?

okay, last night we were out for dinner (because i don't cook - i think we've sat down to a real dinner at our kitchen table about 3 times in 3.5 years - literally) and this lady comes up to me, puts her hand on my back (at least it wasn't on my belly) and asks, "when is your baby due?" first of all, she's the first person to do that - know that i'm pregnant and not just fat - and second of all, the first person to ask. i told her "the end of january, i've got about 12 weeks to go," and she looks surprised and says, "wow! you've still got a ways!" i wasn't quite sure how to take this! i did manage to shoot one back at the lady (after her surprised comment about how much time i had left) and asked her, "why, what are you trying to say?" and i laughed it off. now, i will be the first person to admit that since seeing this pregnant body come into shape, i have never been concerned about feeling fat or feeling like i should be doing any dieting (for like the FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE!) and i have really enjoyed knowing my body is doing just what it should be doing. however, last night after this woman said "wow! you've still got a ways!" made me all of a sudden revert back to the fat girl insecure about the extra weight she can't shed. immediately i asked weston (quietly) "do i look huge?" and he said, "no, you look as pregnant as you are" or something matter of factly like that. after about a minute i shook off the feeling of being fat again and dismissed the whole thing. i guess it's just a rite of pregnant passage - i'm still waiting for the perfect stranger to come up, touch my belly, and ask when i'm due or what i'm having ... stay tuned :)

Wednesday, November 7

i'm starting to get it ...

i'm starting to get how my mom must have felt trying over and over to teach me how to sew. last night i went to my first official YW activity as the new secretary. it was a perfect night because i got to help the girls sew! they were making aprons for their moms for christmas. they were these adorable vintage aprons with even cuter vintage material, ribbon, and rick-rack. i think i'll have to try making one for myself :) anyway, after coaching for about 10 minutes, i had imagined flashbacks of how my own mom must have tried to teach me and muster all the patience she could to see it through - i'm sorry mom! :) the girl i was working with did a fantastic job but i had to laugh inside as she kept the sewing speed firmly in the slowest position (marked by a tortoise) the entire time. she also insisted on doing the locking and backstitching by hand (using the flywheel instead of the foot pedal) and counting her 8 stitches back and forth :) she was cute. i had a lot of fun with these girls and i'm so thankful to have the mother i have!

Friday, November 2

Tagged by Danae

Here's the rules:
A. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.
B. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog, for these rules.

I am so bad at spontaneous thinking!

1. I have a yellow ring around both of my pupils - Weston calls them my sunflower eyes :) How sweet :)

2. I'm starting to get TERRIFIED of becoming a mother - I could probably count on one hand the number of times I've changed a diaper in my life. I have no clue what I'm doing!

3. I won my school's spelling bee in 5th grade and got to go to the district finals - pretty exciting :)

4. I constantly had the biggest crushes on my brother's friends - almost every single one of them! And just look - I even married one of them :)

5. I HATE HATE HATE when people shake their water - it just freaks me out. I'm not sure why, but when someone shakes their water bottle, it just gives me the major gross-out chills

6. The sound of an alarm clock buzzer (not the kind that just kindly BEEPS but the kind that buzzes that irritating sound over and over) makes me almost have to vomit - I'm not kidding. If I hear that kind of buzzer alarm clock in the middle of the afternoon, it starts to make me literally sick and I have to plug my ears and run away! :) How embarrassing!

There you have it - 6 not so interesting facts about me. I am going to tag:
1-Kristi, 2-Shireen, 3-Kassie, 4-Stacy, 5-Weston, and 6-Margaret

weston: take 2

This an out-take from a shoot I did yesterday. I shot this after I was done with the real shoot. Adam is a baller...and a skater.

weston's homework

I had to find an advertisement in a magazine and then duplicate the ad to the most minute detail, from the lighting to the placement and angle, to the reflections on the product. This was a challenging assignment, and I didn't get it perfect. The one on the left is the original (the scan has the image on the back of the page showing through making it look dark). The one on the right is mine.