10 things I Love About My Home

I was tagged by Holli (a little while ago) to post 10 things I love about my house, so here it is--a photo tour of our home:
1. The shutters. I wanted shutters so I didn't have to worry about curtains/blinds, etc. on all the windows and I love them. I wasn't sure how well they would keep out light, but they are great when they're all closed up. Another plus side is that they are safer then blinds for kids (because they don't have a cord) but the down side is that kids love playing with them...This is Miranda about a year ago.

2. The ponds. We have two ponds--sort of. One in our yard by the front door that Jeremy built. We have a bunch of koi and gold fish and plants in it. It's especially fun to feed the fish each day and in the spring, there were a lot of tiny babies! I don't have a good picture of that pond because they never turn out. But here is one with the pond in the bottom right corner, although you mostly see just rocks and water hyacinths.

This is one of the pond behind our house. It's hard to see the pond in this picture, too, sorry! The farmer there has 5 acres and a nice pond centered perfectly behind our house. We love watching the ducks, geese, and horses that he has, too.

3. I love the large bathtub in our master bath. I soak there many a frequent night.

4. Along with the master bath, I love our bedroom. The main reason I love it, though is because of the furniture we bought after we moved in. We had had our eye on this set for a while and snagged it when it went on sale. The side tables, though were $250 each, and I couldn't see paying $500 for side tables. I told Jeremy we could get some much, much cheaper. And we did. Jeremy surprised me with these that he found at Pier One for $50 each. He has such good style, lucky for me. They go perfectly with the bed and dresser, but they aren't 'matchy, matchy', which I like.

5. Lights. We upgraded most of the lights in the house when we built it, and I don't regret it at all. This is one of my favorites--a Tiffany chandalier that hangs in the entry.

6. Storage space! We moved from a house that didn't have a basement and the only closets were in the bedrooms, so I was dying for more storage. This is a picture of the pantry in the kitchen, along with the reason it doesn't stay organized for long...

7. While I'm on the subject, the kitchen was one of the main reasons we wanted to build this floor plan. It is huge, and Jeremy and I both to love to cook/entertain, so it was a big clincher for us. I love the big island and the desk we put next to the pantry.


8. I love our brick and the wood Mission Style door on the exterior. A lot of our neighbors have rock instead of brick, but we felt like brick is more of a classic look.

9. The living room. I love the living room because it is so open and Miranda can play there while I am in the kitchen or working at the desk. Usually, though, she's about right under my feet. :)

Like how Skip was posing here perfectly? He likes to lay on the cold tile.

10. We are finishing the basement, and I'm really excited about it. Jeremy has done 95% of it all by himself so far, and it is a lot of work! He is working on sheet rocking a few rooms right now. We decided to focus on a couple of rooms to finish first. This is a picture of the area underneath the stairs, which will be a playroom for kids. We built a loft in it with this porthole. The other rooms Jeremy is working on is one of the bedrooms and my craft/office/art room. I'm SO excited about that room. I'll have to post pictures as it develops!

So, there it is. I admit, this is a fun tag but with the craziness of the holidays upon us, I feel bad asking others to do it.

Making Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Portraits of Skip

I have NO good pictures of Skip. I want to enlarge one and frame it for the baby's room, but I cannot find a good one. Anyway, just thought you might not believe me, so here is what I have to work with:


I call this piece 'Dead Dog Blending into Tile'


This one is 'Wax Model of Ewok Dog'


And here, finally, we have 'Sir Pant-a-alot'

I think I'll have to use one of the two puppy pictures I have of him, since that was that was the last time he looked cute. :) Unfortunately, I don't have those on digital format, so I will have to do some work to get a print/enlargement.

P.S. I do admit that most of you are better photographers than I--Seriously, I've seen the pictures on YOUR blogs--so it's really not all Skip's fault...

See You at the Movies

We took Miranda to her first movie--Madagascar 2. I know many of you are much braver parents than we are and have braved this frontier sooner, but I have not been ready to risk the possible disappointment until now. However, she did so well and Jeremy and I are so excited because we love going to movies, and now we can go without rearranging other people's lives to babysit! Of course the shows will have to have cartoon animals in them, but what the heck?! Oh, yeah and a huge tub of popcorn is a must, also.

More Baby Details

So, here's the scoop. I'm due the end of January (27th) and will be having another C-section, although my doctor keeps slyly making comments to get me to consider VBAC. Anyway, with the C-section, it could be the middle of January, but I'd like to wait out the full 40 weeks, if possible. BTW, when I'm 9 months pregnant, please remind me that I said that...
And the big news is, it's a boy this time! We would have been happy with another girl, but it is nice to have one of each already and just call that good if we want to (much to the chagrin of grandparents). We've got the names narrowed down to two, but I don't think I'm ready to publish them. I like them both for different reasons and I can't decide which one I want to go with. The middle name will most likely be Douglas, after Jeremy's paternal grandpa.
I'm sure Miranda has no idea what's about to happen to her world, though. Jeremy asks, "Where's baby brother?" and she points to my belly (and then hers, and then dads, etc.) Obviously she doesn't really connect the idea that my big round belly is growing her sibling. But who can blame her? I can barely wrap my head around the idea sometimes.
Thankfully, everything is going well so far. We're excited and I know the little guy will be here before we know it, especially with the holidays between now and then!

Third Trimester

Finally, the Third Tri! Actually, it doesn't start until Halloween (spooky enough), but it's close enough! I realize this may come as a shock to some since this is the first I have posted about it, but I can explain... I have been debating about making the blog private or not and delayed the news because of this, but what the heck, I decided I'll just leave things be for now. (I don't have enough energy right now, anyway.)
Here's the latest picture, and yes, 'tis on purpose that you can't really get a look view of the belly. Huge babies (Miranda weighed 9 1/2 pounds at birth) equal huge bellies, so don't expect too many pics of me for a while! This was a week and a half ago. Miranda wore the dress Grandma Peterson made for her and she looked like a princess, so we decided to do a photo shoot before church--so much for being there early! Anyway, I added a couple other pictures of the fun dress.
Jeremy said she looks like she's ready for Baby Prom in this one with her coat on.

Little pouty face

Utah Gems

Over Conference Weekend we went with Jeremy's parents to St. George for the Marathon. Both of them ran it this year--way to go Mark and Merilynn! Neither Jeremy or I are runners, and to confess, we don't completely understand the 'addiction', but it is really cool to watch the runners cross the finish line after 26.2 miles and admire the accomplishment. We had a really fun trip but we discovered that road trips are very different with toddlers (as we suspected). Miranda was actually really good, considering she only slept about 1 hour of the 8 hours round-trip. But we did make more stops that usual and although it made for a longer drive, some of the stops were some highlights of the weekend. So here are three "gems" in Utah that we'd like to share--just in case you feel like taking your time on your next trip to St. George or Vegas. Please share any you know about that we haven't discovered yet, too!




1. Garden of Eat'n (Paradise Inn -- Garden of Eat'n)
This is a Mom and Pop type restaurant at the Paradise Inn in Filmore, Ut. It's the Northern Filmore exit. It was possibly the best food we had the whole trip! Everything was home-cooked and delicious. Favorites were the battered fries, roast beef, and homemade peach pie. Don't just go for a sandwich though--Jeremy's turkey club was only so/so.




2. Cache Valley Cheese Factory
This is located in Beaver, Ut. (Don't worry, we spent 30 minutes driving around Filmore looking for it...) Anyway, this is a family tradition for us to stop there for the delicious ice-cream and the 'squeaky cheese'. If you don't know why we call it squeaky cheese, then you need to get some for yourself (and no, it does not have anything to do with bodily functions.)



3. The Outlets at St. George
Okay, so this is kind of a given if you're going to St. George. But the outlets are the best and a priority to visit. Even Jeremy likes going to the Old Navy outlet for himself and to the Gymboree outlet to buy something for his little Miranda. (This time it was a totally cute stuffed animal zebra purse.) One of my fav's is the new Shade outlet. I can't wait until they build the outlets in Lehi. Hopefully they're as good as the ones in St. George.

Confession

So, I have a confession to make. I have a weird hobby since being a stay-at-home mom. I guess it actually stems from that--wanting to keep in touch with the social world. But enough for excuses, here it is: I have become an avid obituary reader.
I don't think it would have turned into such a hobby if I hadn't found a few people that I've known, people I wouldn't have heard about otherwise, (ie colleagues from school, friends' parents, patients I worked with, etc.) Just this week, I saw the obituary of my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Schriener.
Please tell me I'm not the only one I know under the age of 40 with this weird past-time...

Just When You're Patting Yourself on the Back

My sister, Holli, and I took our girls (and Holli's Maltese, Nikko) to Gardner Village this week to get pictures of them in their Halloween costumes. I was feeling pretty good about it, considering it's still September and Miranda not only already has her costume (thanks to Mima Lloyd) but also that we could get out and take some pictures before it was too cold. Then, as we're doing the 'photo shoot' some older ladies stop and admire "How cute!" Then they ask, "Did you make the costumes?" Ummm, no. Just when you're starting to pat yourself on the back...
Anyway, the pictures turned out pretty good, but we did have to visit the candy store there and relieve some stress afterwards with some delicious salt water taffy (the fresh apricot and lemon meringue were to die for).

Miranda is a pink poodle. The original idea was a bear, but she would NOT stand for trying on the brown dress. So, we let her pick out her own costume...




Abby (little lady bug) and Miranda


Abby and Nikko

Birthday Thanks

I just recently celebrated a birthday and it was a really nice birthday. It's not easy to say that about all birthdays in this day and age. In my earlier 20's I used to get 'Birthday Feelings' which made me a little depressed--like where am I going in life, do I like who I am and what I'm doing, what DID I even do this year anyway? But the past couple of birthdays have not conjured up those thoughts, luckily. I have Jeremy to thank for a lot of that. He's an amazing person and I can't believe how fortunate I am that he's my husband and father to my children. He is super busy with work but he took a day off last Friday so Holli (my twin) and I could have a day to ourselves, without toting around babies and worrying about nap schedules. It was divine. We went to tons of stores (Rod Iron Works, IKEA, Gardner Village, Tai Pan, Tuesday Morning, South Towne Mall, and Seagull Book), had lunch at Archibald's, and got pedicures. So refreshing! So, thanks again, Jeremy and Brian for watching the girls!
On Saturday we got to go out with TC and Emily to the Real Game. It was fun to see Real play, since we have never been to one of their games, but it was even more fun to chat and hang out with our good friends (so we left at half-time.) We then went to Leatherby's and oh, man, my ice-cream on a warm cookie was sooo delicious. And we got to do all this without babies, too, thanks to grandparents!
Sunday was my actual birthday and Jeremy made a yummy breakfast and Miranda was so good at church that it made it great day, too. We had dinner with my family later, which is always fun.
Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks, again, to my great family and friends for all the fun birth-weekend celebrations!

Good-bye August, Onto September

We had a busy month! Too bad summer is almost over, we've had so much fun! We went to Thanksgiving Point a few times in August to take advantage of their Two Buck Tuesdays. We had a lot of fun get togethers with family and friends. Miranda took swimming lessons in Sugarhouse with her cousin Abby. Jeremy and I got a mini-vacation at Snowbird for his company party. And did I mention we've been chasing around a cute toddler lately? We also got a new camera, so we finally have some recent pictures...

Story Time

Miranda has started playing 'pretend'. I had no idea it started this early--she is only16 months old. She likes to 'feed' her stuffed animals from her Cabbage Patch Doll's bottle, or from her own sippy cup. She puts them in the bath tub (without water so far), she does their hair by bringing over any kind of bottle from mom's bathroom cupboard--tanning lotion, hairspray, etc-- and makes a spraying sound like "Stz, stz". Here she is reading to her bunny and giraffe. I hope these two animals don't stay her favorites--imagine car trips if they had to come too!

Phelps Phenomenon

"The Phelps Phenomenon, with his Condor-like stance and span, the greatest Olympic Athlete ever..." I get a little tired of the media's buzz on the Olympics and Phelps, and I just had to sarcastically vent a little bit. But, wow, the Olympics are fun to watch. I love the swimming and the gymnastics and running, especially. I even got Miranda to sit and watch the men's synchronized diving for about 10 minutes, and she never sits that long--even for Baby Einstein.

This brings back memories for me of the Salt Lake Olympics. I volunteered to help with those, and did the paperwork and the interview. But then they assigned me to be part of the Transportation Volunteers. And that's where the adventure ended. They wanted me to drive a shuttle up the canyon to the ski events. Seriously. Did they not know what a terrible driver I am, let alone in a huge shuttle bus full of people speaking a billion different languages??

Go Team USA!

I Wear My Sunglasses

Where, oh where, has my little baby gone? She is becoming more and more of a toddler every day. This is one example--loving to get 'dressed up'. I just remind myself that at least I am one of the lucky moms who doesn't have to battle with trying to get her to keep on her shoes (or hat or sunglasses or mittens?).

Girl's Night Out

I got a much needed GNO on Tuesday. I went to the Sawyer Brown Concert at Sandy Ampitheater with my sister, Holli and my cousin, Corie Lyn, and her friends. Sawyer Brown is such a good performer--if you are a country music fan and have never been to one of their concerts, you need to put this one on your list to see! They usually play small venues like in Sandy, and they are full of energy, and of course good songs like "The Race is On", "The Dirt Road", "This Night Won't Last Forever" and "Treat Her Right". Mark Miller, the lead singer, dances crazy the whole time--it's so fun to watch.
BTW, I took my camera, but it's broken all of the sudden, so the picture is courtesy of www.countrystarsonline.com

Fingernail Cutting

This is how we have to cut Miranda's fingernails. Specifically, Daddy has to do it. When Mom does it for some reason, it is pure torture and agony. But when Daddy does it, she's fine with it. Of course, there are fake phone conversations and taking turns cutting each other's nails. Mom tired that, too...Toddlers are so fun,

Independence Day(s)

Miranda is now officially 15 months old, as of July 7th. She is now part baby and part little girl. She has always had a great need to be self sufficient and independent, but even more so now that she is getting older and able to do some things alone. She is so much fun, but she is always busy and wears her parents out before the end of the day. Luckily, she is still taking two naps a day. We'll just enjoy it while it lasts...
So, for the 4th of July, we had a great week of activities. Jeremy took a few days off from work, so that made it that much better. We had a BBQ and watched the fireworks from Sugarhouse, at Holli and Brian's house. They have the perfect view from their backyard. We wanted to try and get some pictures of the grandkids with Heidi's parents, since we don't have any of just them and all the grandkids yet, and this is pretty much what we got:


I think we'll try for a photo shoot on another day. Miranda would not sit still long enough to get a good picture, so the best pictures from the week are when she is oblivious of having to get her picture taken. Here are some of the highlights of our independent baby on Independence Day:


Swimming in the 'pool' with Dad at the Yohos.


Smelling a rose--she loves smelling all flowers, bushes, trees, etc.


Looking at a potato bug.


And finally, a little more exciting picture. We went fishing up to Silver Lake in Big Cottonwood Canyon on July 3rd with Heidi's dad. We had only been there an hour or so, and this moose comes about 100 feet away from us, just playing in the water and walking around. He hung out around us for about 30 minutes. It was really cool, although Heidi was a little freaked out the whole time, worried about getting chased by the moose.

VISITING THE ZOO WITH BACKUS'

I know there is a temptation to make a comment about there being a monkey on Miranda's back...we'll set the record straight...the only thing she is addicted to is having fun!