sofa......so good!* or "the saga of the red couch"

The other issue that has been taking up so much of my time lately is--I'm in the process of trying to redecorate our living room.

Those of you who have been in our home at any point in the past 9 years will recognize "old blue". We bought this couch brand new when we were married and have loved it nearly to death. It has been a trooper through 3 children, 4 moves, countless spills and many jumps (trampoline-style). On the comfort scale-- it's a 10, but on the attractiveness scale-- it has been sliding down quickly each to year to rest at around a 2 or 3. If it would have fit in our basement, we would have kept it. But it is too huge, so we practically gave it away to a young (craigs-listing) couple moving into their first apartment together for $30. We were all sad to see it go...but it was time.

After many many many trips to the few furniture stores in our area, we have a new couch! (The following is a picture of Seth reading The Cat in the Hat to Maryn and Jonas.)

In searching for this couch, we realized that Jon and I have a fundamental difference in taste. He cares mostly about comfort and I care mostly about style. (Which is sort of how men and women view things in general, I think.) I was not happy when we bought this couch, I felt very forced into the purchase. We were at this store (45 minutes away from our home, it was pouring rain, all the kids were with us) and they were having a huge sale, so Jon said "We are buying a couch here today, so you'd better decide which one." I halfheartedly agreed to this red couch because the only other one I was even remotely interested in, Jon hated ("not comfortable"). I worried about it all week (it took 7 days to be delivered) and almost called to cancel the order at least once per day.

After almost three weeks, we have a happy ending--I am really loving the couch!

*post title credit goes to DB. (I know I said I'm the funniest person I know, but I lied--my Dad is.)

for some laughs....

check out my latest tweet (yes Brandon, I continue to be the funniest person I know)

and look at blog list on the left sidebar of Jon's blog (what is he trying to say about me?)

Happy Easter! (a week late)

p.s.- (for the grandparents, mostly) here are some pics of our latest adventures: spring break visit to Chicago and Easter festivities.

where have you been?

Of all the balls I've been juggling in the air lately, blogging was one of the ones that dropped. Here's some of the reasons why:

Sick kids: Thanks to kindergarten, we have had three bouts of strep throat with numerous runny noses and most recently-- yucky coughs. Jonas was hit the hardest and has spent the better part of the past 6 months sick with something. At his two year appointment, I found out he had fallen off the growth chart altogether. The doctor diagnosed him as "failure the thrive" and we had to get a ton of blood tests to check organ functions (which all came out normal). I freaked out. So I spent the better part of the next 5 weeks keeping a food diary which made me really pay attention to what he was eating/drinking. At his appointment (after the five weeks) he had gained over 2 pounds!

Organizing: The boundaries of the three wards in our area got redrawn and our ward got one half of a family student housing complex (nicknamed "Little Wymount"--you can probably guess why) causing our ward's Primary to triple in size with most of the new kids under 6 years old. Those of you who were in Gateway can imagine what this would be like. (Ex. SDV was taken out of Gateway and added to another preexisting ward.) So we have been working our you-knows off trying to get organized for our first official day as a new ward (yesterday). Luckily I had my prior experience of being secretary of Gateway ward's primary to draw from. These types of numbers may seem commonplace to some of you out west, but here--a ward/primary this size is not very common.

Selling my old stuff: I've been attempting to de-junk my house and recently put all the excess in a consignment sale that happens bi-annually in my town. The stuff I didn't sell, I put in a friend's yard sale. All-in-all, I think I made about $300. How's that for excess stuff?


Enjoying the weather: We've been having beautiful warm spring days intermingled with freezing rainy days. I look forward to and take advantage of the warm days as best I can with much hanging out outdoors. It's tulip/daffodil season here which makes driving around town so much more enjoyable. I'm really enjoying this land of perennial plants. Being from the southwest, it's an anomaly.

Carting the kids around: Ballet and playgroup once per week, swimming lessons twice per week, in addition to library visits and park trips every week....

Planning vacations: My parents are coming at the beginning of the summer and we're going to Utah at the end of the summer. Working on planning fun things to do while Grandma and Papa are here!

Phew....

Indiana-ana Jones

I find myself with some time this evening to share some birthday party pics. Jon is in SF for an academic conference (and having the time of his life--he is in love with that city), the kids are sleeping (I hope) so I have time to finally document these events.

Seth wanted to have an Indiana Jones-themed birthday party. (Jon and I tried to talk him into having a "monster" party where the kids could make monster masks and eat fun/grotesque treats--but he was having none of that.) Having a February birthday when it's actually winter outside is a challenge because you can't really plan a party outside (at a park-with built-in entertainment) which leaves you with only a few options: A-- shell out $150+ to have your party indoors at a restaurant/play gym, etc. B-- have your party at your own house. or C-- have your party outside anyway (even though it had snowed that morning) and make sure everyone brings a coat. We opted for a mix of B and C. Once that was decided--in a moment of mental weakness I told Seth he could invite 9 friends. Ten 6 year-old boys in my house, at the same time, what the heck was I thinking? (Luckily, 2 didn't come.)

The party guests (counter-clockwise, L to R) Finn, Seth, Ryan, David, Srijan, Christian, Brennan, and Elijah.

Special thanks to Grandma B and Aunt Carlie for many great ideas for Indiana Jones-themed party games. We played "put the gold coin in the chest", IJ Bingo, and Jon put together an awesome treasure hunt which included some outdoors fun. (There wasn't enough hats to go around, so you can see that one party guest settled for Maryn's pink cowgirl hat!)

As part of the treasure hunt, Jon had them watch a scene from the end of "last crusade" when Indy has to walk on stones labeled with letters, spelling "Jehovah". Then, he had the boys act it out by walking on our kitchen tiles labeled with letters to spell "birthday".

Dig for a buried clue in the sand pit (aka- sandbox turtle).

Balance on the beam and do jumping jacks.

Touch a friend on the nose.
The treasure hunt ended (after finding the treasure) with Jon pulling out his old Construx set.Seth got some cool presents that he really liked- 2 Lego sets and a Webkinz (among others).Seth was a little embarrassed by the Happy Birthday singing. And we had to do it twice because of an overzealous party guest who blew out the candles before Seth did.

Overall, I think the party went well. I felt badly that I didn't make a cool cake and I didn't really work that hard at planning a bunch of activities. But truthfully, I don't think Seth noticed and the boys seemed to have a lot of fun (especially during the treasure hunt). This February birthday party thing is always going to be hard as long as we live here!

Happy Birthday, Seth!

Maryn's first haircut

In between birthdays a few weeks ago, on Feb 26, Maryn got her first haircut....done by me! I was cutting all of the boys' hair (Jon, Seth and Jonas) and I thought it was time for Maryn to get her hair cut too. She was excited at first and then got upset and said she didn't want to have short hair. So I told her that I was going to "cut her hair long"-- she bought it and let me do it.

Don't you just love the little curly ponytail? After I cut off the ponytail and saw how short it was going to be, I was a little nervous. I evened the ends out as best I could and I'm really happy that the ends of her hair still naturally curl. She looks really cute, if I do say so myself, and so much more grown up!

birthday wishes

The three major boys in my life all celebrate their birthdays in a 7-8 day period (depending on leap year). I've mentioned my two sons, but have yet to post some pictures of their birthday parties (coming- I promise, grandmas!).

Today is Jon's birthday. We were talking last night and he mentioned something that was bothering him about his body (I won't mention what- partly because I wouldn't want to embarrass him and mostly because I don't really remember) and I responded with "well, it must be because you're in your early thirties now". This is the 13th year we have celebrated his birthday together. It will be fun in (...let me count here...) 2015 when we have celebrated more birthdays together than apart.

He's already bought himself some birthday presents-- a turntable, some new records and a "squatty" IPod (last gen. nano). He's not one for surprises (in fact, he detests surprises)- so this is pretty much how it usually goes with him. I am planning on making him a pecan pie tonight to celebrate.

I love him. He's my best friend. He continues to be the coolest person I know and attempts to keep me up-to-speed with what's cool in music, media, movies, etc. even though I kind of lag behind a lot. He is a hard-worker, super-smart, a talented writer, an awesome daddy, and a sincere, loyal friend (those of you who are lucky enough to be one of his close friends know this for sure).

Loves.