downtown adventure

in all the years i've spent living in utah i think i've been downtime no more than 5 times. i was searching for a yarn shop and found one downtown so payton and i decided to make an adventure out of it. we walked through temple square, rode trax, ate lunch.

i might go back there one day.

they were power rangers

worth it

the fourth time he got out of bed to come say good night to me i was a little annoyed. but i didn't show it.

he gave me a big squeeze then put his nose right up to mine and sweetly whispered, "you're my best friend."

then he ran off into his room and promptly fell asleep.

granny has skills

nate and my sister often tell me that although i'm a young lively 29-year-old, i'm much like an 80-year-old granny when it comes to my hobbies. apparently baking, sewing and quilting are qualities attributed to grandma's.

i guess they have their point. 

one of my goals in life is to be as talented as my grandma. 

and after we spent some time at her house in august i came home with a whole list of things she can do that i want to do. and she specifically told me that if i want to be a real quilter i need to learn to hand quilt. so i accepted that challenge and took on two projects that are blowing my mind in a totally amazing way. the obvious first choice for me was called "grandmother's flower garden". it's done completely by hand. each little piece is barely bigger than a quarter. it's semi-slow work, but the effect is soooooo beautiful.

the other quilt i started is done part by hand, and part by machine. i remember seeing one at my grandma's house when i was little and always thought that it was far to complicated for me to try. it involves a lot of folding, pinning & patience. the work is tedious but the end result is so incredible. 

he struck again...

the iphone photo phantom took some more secret photos. it looks like he's figuring the phone out. instead of using the regular camera he got into some of my photo apps and started using filters. way to go little man! 

grilled cheese

winter is going to sneak up on us any time here in utah. i don't like winter. especially in utah. i'll be publicly cursing the cold weather until may. then about the end of june i'll start complaining about the ridiculous heat.

it's a vicious cycle.

anyway.

the one thing i do absolutely look forward to is all the soups that i get to make. and along with that goes the obvious comfort food....grilled cheese sandwiches :) i wandered over to "a beautiful mess" and my mouth started watering when i saw this picture.

click on the picture to go to a beautiful mess

this bothers me

have you taken a good look at the picture? did you instantly notice what i noticed?

"price reducded" 

"reducded" 

"reducDED" 

COME ON!!!

self-portraits

i have 1,030 pictures on my iphone.

572 of those photos are some variation of this......

they are like little phantoms. i never know when they have the phone, i just find millions of self-portraits.

whatever makes 'em happy :)

I love chickens

in n out

they just built another in n out burger in utah. it boggles my mind when i see cars filling up the parking lot waiting for an unreasonable amount of time in the drive thru for some in n out food. since the food is only mediocre the only reason that comes to mind is that utahns so badly want to feel like they're in california so they flock to this place. 

i was driving by one day and saw how unbusy this location was at the time so i decided i was going to go in to give in n out one more chance to impress me. i think you can tell by the look on mr. p's face how unimpressed we were.

vogue

my husband knows how to get a laugh out of me.

i don't know if i'm just easily entertained or he's incredibly funny. maybe it's both.

either way, this dude strikes the funniest poses for my benefit. he'll want to die if he ever finds out that i posted one of his pictures, but i'm pretty sure he isn't one the two regulars who read my blog so i'm gonna cross my fingers and hope he never sees it.

this photo is one of many photos that i took up in idaho. he was rolling around in the grass and posing against the tree and the garage. each one funnier than the next. i'll keep the funniest ones for myself, but i'm gonna share this little gem with ya'll.

hope you think it's as funny as i did

:)

another year

this guy is back in school. am i the worst mother in the world if i feel relieved that he's back in school? it's not like i don't like having him around. he's my baby and i love having him around. but, i feel a little less insane when there's only one shortee who's always hungry trailing behind me all day long than when i have two shortee's who are always hungry trailing behind me all day long.

was that a run-on sentence or what?

life lately: iphone edition

we had a spectacular weekend.

one of my oldest and dearest friends was sealed in the temple and i had the privilege of being there.

we spent the weekend in idaho at my grandma's and i got to see two siblings and their families. i rarely see them so it was a treat.

we also got lots of quality time in with my grandma. she stayed up with us until about 11:30 one night while we asked her all kinds of questions about her life. we looked at the most amazing collection of photos and learned so much about her that we didn't know.

it was definitely my favorite weekend of the entire summer :)

the pictures aren't great.....

.....but the concert was!

any josh groban fans reading my blog?????

i've never been a groban fan per-se, but i've always recognized and respected his incredible talant. so on saturday when one of my besties told me she got free tickets and invited me to go i wasn't sure if i should say 'yes' or 'no'. i went back and forth with it for about 30 minutes. i'd already had a 'girls night' with my sister during the week to see a movie, so i kinda felt guilty leaving my family for another girls night. even though nate was telling me to go, i had myself convinced that he'd be mad at me if i did.

so i sad no.

then about two seconds later i called my friend right back and said yes!!

thank goodness i did.

it was me and my besties out on the town leaving our children behind and living it up! I only knew two of the songs (and one of them was a Neil Diamond cover), but the music was amazing and the company was great.

thank goodness for a friend who got free tickets at the last minute.........from her ex-husband!!!!

the guys

I tried so hard to get those boys to smile and look handsome for a picture, but this is the best that I could get. Crappy picture or not, they're a handsome bunch.

{baby on a quilt}

remember that quilt i made for my nephew max? well his mom sent me pictures of him playing gleefully on the quilt and i couldn't pass up the chance to show the world the pictures.

belated 4th

we had a belated 4th of july this year. we had our fireworks and everything, but my hunk of a husband went and hurt his back at the gym just hours before we were going to head out for the planned festivities. utah changed its fireworks laws so people have been setting off fireworks late into the night for the past month. we joined them a couple nights ago and finally set off ours.

can you believe that my boys have never seen sparklers before?? jackson was all over them, but i couldn't get payton to hold one. he was convinced it would light him on fire. hopefully i can convince him next year that he won't combust from holding a sparkler.

happy mr. p

i took these photos of mr. p months ago then promptly forgot about them. it was a nice little surprise coming across them again yesterday. to me, the general feeling in each one of these pictures is "happy".

this happy little moment caught on camera instantly makes me happy as well.

{a baby quilt}

In case you're wondering, Maximilien is my newest little nephew.

He's almost 6 months old but I just met him and his beautiful hair for the first time this month. Benoit, Maria & Max live in Paris so we'll probably only get to see him once a year.

Since Max won't get regular hugs from his Auntie I wanted to make sure I gave him something warm to cuddle up in that will stay with him for years to come.

I actually made two quilts for this little man. Although the first one was beautiful, it just didn't seem like the right quilt for him, so days before they got to the US I started on another quilt that I thought would be more fitting for Prince Maximilien.

devil woman

i haven't been around much lately. 

and that's a good thing.

because if you'd been around me lately you'd have seen my grumpy alter ego that doesn't like people and doesn't care about people.

i think it was just the culmination of a million things at once. i'm pretty sure it started when my air conditioner went out. am i the only one who turns into a beast when it's too hot??? my personality literally changes when it's too hot. 

i think the other thing is something only a military wife can understand. maybe not though. my husband was gone for almost two years. that's a long time. i didn't realize until he got home how comfortable i was with him being gone. not in a bad way. i'm not saying i'm not happy having him home. i'm incredibly happy to have him back. it's just become very apparent how independent i got and how important MY schedule became to my general attitude. i got used to sleeping alone. so did he. it's weird sharing a bed again.

it's been a time of a lot of adjustments for our little family. and i wasn't prepared for it so i found myself getting angry at everything. my kids were probably thinking "who's this devil woman who's taken over my mom's body". okay, i haven't been that bad. but still, i haven't been my happy cheery self either and kids are sensitive to that. 

but it's funny how the small things get you out of your funk. i always expect this grand amazing event or epiphany but it's always the little things. i was sitting by the pool for the boys morning swimming lessons and jackson was just sitting on the grass playing quietly with his toys. he was alternating between playing with his batman toys and looking up at the clouds daydreaming. he was just so sweet sitting there and having that opportunity to observe him brought that sense of pride and amazement. he's mine. i made him. what else in life could possibly bring me more happiness than those two little boys who drive me so crazy sometimes?