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November 21, 2009
I pretty much skipped October and November this year. Yes, we are all still alive but just barely at times. I swear kid #2 has just about killed us all! So now that I can get out and function for a few hours without crying or puking, we decided to keep with our family tradition of taking the train to the Gateway and watching the tree light up. Pearl loves riding the train (oh and the new hair cut she got today... super cute and way easier to do with less fighting and crying for all involved) and Jeff and I love avoiding the holiday traffic downtown. We listened to another great Jon Schmidt concert, ate dinner at the Sports Bar, shopped, watched a massive tree get lite up in about a million LED lights (still think we should donate our ugly pine tree for next year's celebration - after all with a thousand glowing lights on it who'd notice how ugly it really is?) and had a great time dancing to the music. Pearl had a blast until Santa arrived which instantly brought screams, tears, and clinging to our legs. Not even the temptation of a candy cane could convince her to finish out the evening's events so we hurried home, exhausted but grateful for a fun family night out.
October 4, 2009
Today was my family's annual Fish Fry at my Aunt Julie and Uncle Bob's house. Basically an excuse to get together, pig out on perch and salmon (or in some folk's cases, chicken), laugh, try to decide if you want to sit in the warm house or cool October temperatures on the patio, and did I mention pig out? This year I got lucky and had the attention of my Uncle Bob, a master photographer (check him out at Robert Dyer Photography on Facebook or his website), for a pert near hour. He explained my camera to me, helped me take a couple pictures, and then realized his "quick" photography lesson was going to be in vain considering there were rambunctious toddlers streaming in and out of the room, I was losing interest (not because I was bored, I was just trying to not throw up everywhere and then have to tell my family I was pregnant), and the fact that I have about as much knowledge when it comes to taking pictures and using my camera properly as a rock. Hopefully my photography growth won't plummet too much over the next few months of being sick and I can get back into the swing of things before kid #2 arrives.
BTW, this is the last, consistent 365 post. I'll do my best to take something at least weekly but as you'll see it's going to be pretty pathetic! Maybe next go around I'll actually accomplish a 365 project.
October 3, 2009
The day finally came... our 70+ year old cherry tree saw it's last day and Jeff got to buy a chain saw (I still think he could have hacked it down with his reciprocating saw and bare hands like he's done with at least 10 other trees in our yard). Personally I think the man just needed an excuse to buy a new toy, destroy something, and get out of an estrogen filled house. But the tree was half-dead, huge, and getting to be a bit of a worry that it was going to fall down and knowing our luck on our house or one of us! So down it came. I was sad to see it go - the first year we had our house it had the most fragrant and beautiful blossoms not to mention the most delicious cherries you've ever tasted - and it provided shade for us in our ginormous yard. Then my attention quickly changed to making sure my husband came of of this honey-do project with all limbs intact and eyeballs still in his sockets. To which I'm happy to report the only thing in pieces that day was the tree itself.
October 2, 2009
Pearl loves to have tea parties. The only problem with them is the preparation that must be taken beforehand to avoid massive flooding. We strip down to our diapers, ok so just Pearl does that, pull out at least two bath towels (regular old kitchen towels don't cut it with this kid), mover her table to a spot clear of any valuables, find every single tea cup and tea pot we can, and then refill them about 10-zillion times. She loves it and I figure what's a few sopping wet bath towels to dry when you can spend an hour pretending to drink the water (which inevitably has floaties in it from little fingers dipping into the cups) she pours you over and over again? Not to mention her cute faces as she explains the intricacies of drinking tea properly.
October 1, 2009
All I can say is what in the world was Pearl thinking when she picked out THIS outfit to wear today?
September 30, 2009
We copy-catted our neighbors' idea for Halloween decorations... putting those cheap, plastic trick or treat buckets on our outside lamps. They look great at night all lite up in orange and make our house look so festive. Which is hard to do considering our neighbors to the South decorate for every single holiday - lights, inflatable things, spooky music, you name it they've got it. And I must admit... while I admit to stealing the idea, I have to say our decorations look much cuter than theirs!
*Small disclaimer... this is the ONLY Halloween picture I took this year. I didn't even get up off the couch (or bathroom floor for that matter) to take one of Pearl dressed up in her Cinderella costume. I'll be paying for that one someday. Luckily for anyone who wants to see her, you can see a couple pics on my sister's blog.
September 29, 2009
Again, apologies for the crappy picture but when I spied a gaggle of women at the park shaking their groove things I couldn't help but laugh and try to get a picture of their booty-shaking. I couldn't figure out what was going on since I've never seen this happen at the park before. Was it an aerobics class gone wild from the Rec Center? A community dance group gone wild? Who knows! It was quite entertaining to watch them dancing away, despite the wind and imminent storm coming, without a care in the world as to who was watching. Which was also weird because not only did a swarm of dancing women suddenly show up at the park but they seemed to bring an entourage of fans with them. I was super curious about the whole event which lasted well over an hour. The instructors were hilarious to watch and were getting a little too into some of the moves if you ask me. Then I realized they were burning WAY more calories than I was sitting on the porch, which is when I promptly went back inside.
September 28, 2009
Apparently sleeping with your scriptures is the way to gain spiritual knowledge... 'cause heaven forbid you cooperate with your parents and actually listen to scripture reading! Maybe I'll give it a try, after all her Book of Mormon is Pearl's favorite story book, even if she won't let us read it to her.
September 27, 2009
Today was the big day... Pearl's first Primary Program. I didn't have high expectations, after all I've taught nursery before and honestly, you're lucky if you can just herd all the kids to the stand and keep them from screaming, picking their noses, or jumping off the stand in a superhero type move let alone actually sing "I am a Child of God" loud enough for anyone to hear. I did think Pearl would find the change of pace in a boring Sacrament meeting a bit more exciting though but alas, the only thing she wanted to do is hide on my lap. Then when it was time to go sit with her dad again while I stayed with my own class, she screamed "MOM!" and proceeded to squirm out of Jeff's arms and run back to the stand. Oh well, it got a chuckle from everyone in the audience.
September 26, 2009
You may have remembered our first try at family pictures was rained out. Today was our second try and succeed we did! No rain, limited morning sickness (thank heavens I didn't puke in the pictures), one good looking family, and a relatively happy little girl. You can see them all here at Brooke Snow Photography's blog.
So I'm embarrassed that I chose to post this picture of all things today. After all I went to a class taught by Brooke meant to teach me how to actually take pictures. And I know this is a really bad one... bad lighting, bad angle, bad background noise, and on and on. But... I love this picture. Not only does it show our Aggie spirit by attending the Homecoming parade (OK no Aggie gear but we had just finished family pictures), but Jeff and Pearl were so dang cute at the parade. Jeff was so excited to take her. Pearl was so excited to get candy. I was so excited to not be throwing up, and if I do say so myself, I think Jeff's butt is pretty dang cute in this shot too!
September 25, 2009
Before my barfing stint of nearly five months, I did take a few more 365 pictures but just didn't get around to posting any of them until now. Something about running to the bathroom every five seconds doesn't exactly help in the blogging updates world. So enjoy a few more days of our lives before I was reminded why I hate pregnancy!
Today's picture was taken after an afternoon of hanging out with my friend Becky and her four boys! Yes, four boys! Pearl loves them, especially Daniel (the oldest) and Baby David (only a couple months old when we got together). We enjoyed a pizza lunch, played at the park, then headed back to our house for Popsicles and bubble blowing. I debated about posting a picture of Baby David, since he was the cutest thing at our play date, but when I actually captured bubbles in the air, well I was impressed with my photography skills so I had to share. That and I was really impressed that we can finally watch Pearl blow the bubbles herself instead of me getting all sticky and feeling like I'm having an asthma attack from lack of oxygen.
November 21, 2009
