what did your husband do today?

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.

somtimes I like having a live doll to dress

I am absolutely in love with this green and blue plaid dress and argyle tights outfit.

And the fall leaves look pretty too.

*******************************

P.S.- Jonas loves yogurt, eats it every day, but unfortunately insists on feeding himself. I tried to get a candid shot of him with the spoon in his mouth like this today, but he saw me coming at him with the camera and said "cheese".

And one more thing- Jon left his Ipod in his pants pocket after camping with the scouts this weekend. I washed all his camping clothes...twice (they smelled really bad). And guess what- the Ipod still works!

Halloween 2008

Happy Halloween to all!

For costumes this year, Seth chose to be Indiana Jones (thanks to Aunt Carlie for the hat and "man-purse") Maryn chose to be a kitty, and Jonas was a cowboy (with a too big hat and no boots- don't worry, he still looked cute). Jon was also Indiana Jones for some of the festivities (picture below).

We participated in a variety of Halloween activities this year: our ward trunk-or-treat, trick-or-treating at Daddy's office building, and trick-or-treating with our friends on Halloween night. (See those pumpkin buckets in the picture above? By the time we were done with all of these festivities, we had accumulated 6 bucket-fulls of candy. Sick. We let the kids pick out 10 pieces each and are going to give the rest to our Bishop- he keeps a stash in his office.)

Seth had been practicing the Indiana Jones half-smile, it shows up in a lot of the pictures.

Jonas's bandana functioned well as a bib to keep candy goo off of his coat.

By the time we remembered to take a picture of Indy father and son- Seth had had enough of the festivities.

The next few pics are of our kids and their BFFs. We all went trick-or-treating together in their neighborhood. (Which is a few residential streets away from a fancy country club, we even went to his house- but he wasn't handing out subs.)

Henry Jones, Jr. and Henry Jones, III.Little witch and kitty girl.

I'm sure the kids had a lot of fun over the past few days. They enjoyed trick-or-treating (for while, until they realized how much walking it took) and enjoying playing with their friends late into the evening (past their bedtimes). Jonas showed no hesitation and walked right up to people on their porches with his hands outstretched. We also had freakishly-good, AZ-type fall weather, not too cold at all.

As usual, for the grandparents, more pics of the events can be seen here.

overheard at breakfast this morning

(Jon and I were in the living room, the kids were eating breakfast in the kitchen.)

Seth- "Mom's really the boss.  I know Dad's bigger than her, but she really is still the boss."

Maryn- "No, Dad's the boss!"

Seth- "No, Mom!"

Maryn- "No, both of them!"

Jon- "Maryn's right, now quit arguing!"

Seth and I know the truth.

my husband is famous and my kids are cute

Check out Jon in the pop culture blog-o-sphere.

And thanks to Mat for taking awesome pics of my kids.

We had a fun time with all our visitors this past week, thanks for coming to see us in the Midwest!

the finished product

My goal over the next few weeks is to finish a bunch of projects that have been sitting around my house unfinished (some for over eight months). I have this problem where I get all excited to start a new project and then get burnt out when I realize I can't do it perfectly the first time. I need to get over that. Thus the push to finish everything, perfect or not. I can do it...right? (I'm going to chronicle my progress here so as to add some accountability, if only to myself.)
Project #1 finished: A crochet bag for Jon's new Macbook. (I'm obviously not doing these in chronological order because I started this one most recently and finished it first- mostly because Jon needed it quickly.) I started with the idea that I would use up some cool brown and black wool yarn leftover from making hats and few months ago, instead of buying anything new. I'm really bad at trying to gauge how much yarn will make how much product. So after I did that one big brown section and saw that I was almost out, I panicked and decided to add the green wool (of which I had recently bought a bunch on clearance) in small increments with the remaining brown and black. As you can see, the green sections started to get bigger and bigger until I finally ran out of both brown and black and had to finish everything up in green. I think it turned out kind of ugly, but Jon thinks it looks cool (and has even gotten some compliments on it since) so that's all that really matters. The inside lining is just three of those craft foam sheets hot glued together to form-fit the computer. Stitched together the yarn and lining in a few place, sewed on a button and presto- a laptop bag!

rear view (this probably should have been the front, more interesting stripes)

interior view

goodbye forever

Jon has officially bid his twenties farewell. I feel lucky that I still have a couple more good years before that happens to me.

I'm sure most people can relate- I remember vividly thinking that 30 was so old. But now that Jon is there and I am so close, I don't necessarily feel that way anymore. Is 30 the new 20? I sure hope so.

Unlike my counterpart, I don't have a natural abilty to make up some sort of funny, catchy rhyme to honor and celebrate this exciting event. So some reminiscing of our relationship will have to do.

I remember the first time I saw him. We were at a party at Alicia's house. It had to have been the fall of 1993 or so. He was playing in his rock band on the patio (this was before Joe was the drummer). I loved his long hair and cool clothes and thought he was way cute. If you ask him- he doesn't even remember me at this party, which is precisely how things went for the next few years- we went to a lot of the same parties. I even went to his 16th birthday party at his house and he didn't realize it until years later when he saw me in a picture taken at that party.

Moving on- I finally caught his eye and he asked me out. We went on our first date in March of 1996. We saw a movie, ate Nerds and he tried to hold my hand, it was really sweet.

Those early times of young love are really fun to think back on. We had some great times, with great friends. Jon is still the sweet, considerate, talented, creative, hard-working person I fell in love with all those years ago.

We liked being cheesy back then, Jon, so here's a fresh dose. Loves.

a little late...

This meme has been going around for a while. Many people have "tagged" me but I'm just now getting around to participating. Sorry, I should be better about keeping up with the blog-o-shere.

What is his name? Jon (formally Jonathan Walter)
How long have we been married? 7 1/2 years. Seriously, where did the time go?
How old is he? In his twenties for 14 more days.
Who eats more? Um.....I'm embarrased to report that we both eat about the same amount. I remember there was a time when I couldn't finish a Chipotle burrito by myself, but those days are long gone.
Who said I love you first? It went like this- we were standing on the driveway to my house and Jon said "I'm going to say something, but you don't have to respond if you don't want to." Just in case you're wondering, I did respond in agreement.
Who is taller? He's about six feet tall, I measure up at about five feet, eight inches.
Who sings better? Those of you who know us, know this answer. Jon is way more muscially talented than I am. I enjoying singing (lately it's pretty much been hymns on Sunday or songs to my kids), but Jon has an awesome singing voice- regular or rockstar.
Whose temper is worse? We both have a temper. The difference between us is Jon tends to get mad and then get over it fairly quickly, whereas I have trouble letting things go and therefore stay mad longer.
Who is smarter? This question is like the previous one- relative to the situation. Jon has a very creative mind which is useful in his chosen field of study and contributes to his musical talent. I have a very un-creative, linear mind which was helpful in my chosen field of study but quite annoying in the real world.
Who mows the lawn? We have never had a lawn. By the time we do, I think we'll have Seth mow it.
Who pays the bills? I organize the finances in our house but currently, Jon is the only one bringing home the money to pay the bills.
Who does the dishes? Both of us. Pretty much every night, we work together until the kitchen is clean.
Who cooks dinner? I really hate cooking- every aspect from the menu planning to the grocery shopping to the actual execution with children crying under my feet. I dread dinner time. Because he knows this- Jon will usually cook 2-3 times per week. And he is a fabulous cook. He comes up with dishes by just throwing together ingredients (which is something I cannot do).
Who drives when you are together? I also hate driving. (Since we moved here, I have backed up into a parked car on 2 different occasions. Plus with the snow and ice....I really, really hate it.) So Jon always drives. (Although, when we moved out here, I did drive our van 75% of the way. So I can drive, I just don't like to.)
Who is more stubborn? We both are at times, but I think my times are more often.
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Jon, no question. (See above answer about not staying mad very long.)
Who has more friends? We have a lot of the same friends. In general, Jon is better at maintaining relationships with friends. So since moving here, I have had to try and be more like him in this way.
Who wears the pants in the family? This is a really dumb question. We both wear pants.

proud spouse

Jon has been making some short videos for a new class this semester. It has been fun to have a (very, very) small part in the process. Check them out here. So creative!

getting back on track

I have not posted anything for a while for a few reasons. The main reason being that as more and more days came and went, I realized that it would take more and more effort to catch up on my blog and that made me avoid it altogether. But now, Jon started his new semester today and so our daily routines have begun to normalize. I realize that I need to get back to my real life. So I will attempt to give a short summary of our last 2 weeks.

First of all, some people commented and wanted more details about our crazy Christmas Eve. Well here they are in all their glory: We drove up to Chicago on Sunday (Dec 23) night and picked up Wendy from the Chicago Midway Airport. (Which was so busy, they wouldn't let anyone stop and wait for the people they were picking up, so we had to drive in a stop-and-go circle with hundreds of other cars 5 or 6 times.) We stayed at a hotel that I had booked online that was in downtown Chicago. It was an older but pretty nice hotel. The kids had trouble going to sleep because they were so excited about everything- Chicago, Wendy, Christmas. We should have planned better and brought the pack and play for Jonas and a sleeping bag for the kids- but we didn't- so Jon shared a bed with Seth and Maryn and I shared a bed with Wendy and Jonas. It was pretty much uncomfortable for everyone. Then as we were leaving the next day, a piece of paper was slipped under our door- it was a bill for parking at the hotel- $30. I have never heard of anything so crazy- a hotel charging you extra to park at their hotel! Next, we headed off to the museum to see the exhibit. We decided to be smart and save the $12 it cost to park there and park on the street a few blocks away. It was free admission day- so it was crazy busy. It was a challenge trying to keep our small group together. We went to the exhibit first and stayed in there for about an hour. It was really really awesome! There were costumes from the movies, a hovercraft you could ride on, an R2D2 you could build then plug in and drive, and a viritual game you played with small tiles on a large circle while watching yourself on a screen (hard to explain, but really cool). The rest of the museum was really really awesome too, three floors full of really cool interactive rooms about a variety of topics. By the time we got out of the exhibit, we only had the energy and time to go to a few rooms- farming, circus, and space exploration. Jon walked the few blocks, got the van and brought it back to the museum so we could load up the crew. He returned with a Christmas present from the City of Chicago- $50 ticket for not having our IL liscense plate on the front of our van. This is the law in IL, but there are so many cars in our town that don't have it, we have just been dragging our feet about getting it done. So we saved $12 in order to pay $50. Merry Christmas.

We had a nice Christmas, low-key, here at home with Wendy as a guest. We spent the next week getting our needlework on- me: crochet and Wendy: knitting. We both attempted to teach the other our skill, but both ended up sticking to what we know. We collaborated on a really cute sweater poncho for Maryn (that she won't wear- the stinker) and completed a bunch of other projects. I will post pics later this week.

We spent new year's eve at a friends house playing board games and singing along to the guitar (2 of my favorite things). Wendy went back up to Chicago to do the NYE thing and came home 24 hours later with Hans. We spent the next week watching movies, eating good food, crocheting/knitting, playing nintendo, and avoiding the outdoors (wind chill was below 0).

Last week...mmm...what did we do? My brother came home from a mission on Jan 10. Our town's library opened up their new building and we went three times (it's really cool). The rest of the week blends together.

And now here I sit. Dirty dishes, dirty laundry, dirty house, dirty kids- and I'm blogging. I guess my life really is back to normal.

a quick update

• One of the afore mentioned hats was recieved today, so check out the pics here or here.
• I injured myself yesterday. Missed the last step walking down off of the stand after saying the closing prayer. (Last time I volunteer to do that!) Rolled my ankle something fierce. I was holding Jonas at the time, but didn't drop him. I now have one ankle and one cankle.
• We got about 8 inches of snow last Saturday. Funny that my injury was not snow related, although Jon took a dive in the parking lot after church yesterday. Those dang slippery church shoes.
• Also of note, Jon had to dig us out with a snow shovel so we could actually get to church yesterday. First time for us Arizonans. He wasn't a fan- his feet and hands got cold- probably because he was wearing flip-flops and no gloves.
  
• Posted some pics of the snow and the kids here.

playing in the snow and treat count

We got the kids all bundled up and Jon took them outside to play in the snow today. Check out the pics here.

number of treats I've made this week:
lemon meringue pie: 1
pecan pie: 2
cheese ball: 1
chocolate chip cookies: 9 dozen

Planning on fudge tomorrow. Anyone? Anyone?

attention blog world

Jon is writing a final paper for one of his classes about blogging. He's conducting a semi-survery about how and why people blog. So, if you read my blog, but don't read his, please go to his site and participate! Thanks!

tree decorating and today's surprise

Not really the best pics since you can't really see any of their faces or the ornaments they were putting on the tree. Plus my camera is unable to capture the pretty glow of the tree lights. But it's an important part of the Christmas season, right?

This is what we woke up to this morning. And it was snowing when we came home from playgroup this afternoon. Pretty exciting for the kids, and me too.

I got punk'd and freezing rain

Potty training is still going, but not that well. Maryn isn't at the point where she can actually tell me that she needs to go. She either tells me while she's going or immediately afterwards. So I'm not sure that she is developmentally ready. Plus, we have not gone "cold turkey", I still put a diaper on her when we left the house yesterday and while I was gone this morning and the kids were home with dad. I'm not sure where to go from here. So don't worry Michelle, it doesn't look like she's quite ready, Zane may still beat her. I recently acquired this book from a local used book sale for only $.50, so maybe I should crack it open.

The following is the story of one 30 minute increment of my day yesterday. I was at the kitchen counter attempting to mix together dough for a pie crust, I was using my hands, so they were covered in flour and butter. Seth was in our adjacent living room making a Christmas card for his friend, Elijah. I was spelling words for him letter by letter (as patiently as possible). He kept getting lost especially on the long words like "Christmas" and "Elijah". Maryn pushed one of our chairs up to the counter so she could watch me and "help" by sticking her fingers in my dough and handing me everything I didn't need. Where was Jonas you ask? Who knows? Hopefully not climbing up the stairs, his new favorite pastime. Maryn said "Mommy I wanna poop in the potty" (this is what she always says whether it's #2 or not) just as she "goes". Her undies and socks are soaked and it's dripping down onto the kitchen floor, Seth is still trying to spell "Christmas", Jonas has reappeared and is heading straight for the new puddle, and my hands are still caked with flour/butter paste. Seriously, It was a moment out of a sitcom, although I don't think any team of writers could have recreated this chaos. I was expecting Ashton Kutcher to appear at any moment. I know you are all on the edge of your computer chairs wondering "what did she do?". Well I'll tell you- I did the following things in a matter of seconds: wrapped up the pie dough in plastic and put it in the fridge, washed the goop off of my hands, stripped Maryn down and wiped up the huge puddle. I then ran upstairs with Maryn and threw her in the bath and asked Seth to watch Jonas and make sure he didn't climb up the stairs after me. Just as I was finishing up with Maryn, my sister called. Seth brought the phone up to me but I made him tell her I would call her back. He stayed on the phone with her for a few minutes and it took me that long to realize that the three of us were upstairs together. Where was Jonas, you ask? Who knows? I left Maryn partially dressed and raced to the staircase to find Jonas almost at the top. So I brought him upstairs with me and finished with Maryn. We now had about 20 minutes before we were leaving to meet Jon for dinner. I'll spare you the rest of the specifics, just know that we all made it to dinner- dry, dressed, unharmed and on time.

And now onto the freezing rain. Last week at playgroup, the other moms were talking about how horrible it is, you can't open you car doors, you can't get your keys into your locks. This morning I left my house at 8 am to go and buy some pecans for a pie I was making to take to a party at 11 am. It was cold and cloudy outside, but there wasn't even any ice on my windshield. Later when I left the house at 11 (I was running late already), I noticed it was raining as I opened my front door. After I took two steps, I almost slipped (in my new boots). I realized that my entire concrete walkway (of seven stairs) was coated in ice. I made it to my van a saw that it too was covered in ice. I got out the ice scraper and started trying to clear off my windshield, remember it's still raining and I'm wearing slippery boots. I finally was able to scrape off a little window, get inside and back out only to feel an unfamiliar sliding motion. I got really scared and almost stayed home, but decided to go ahead. The house I was going to was just down the street and around the corner, how bad could it be? I made it to the party house without causing an accident but almost slipped as I tried to walk on the sidewalk. Inside all the ladies were talking about how bad the roads were and someone mentioned that stake conference had been cancelled for the evening. I have never been so afraid to drive home in my life. After actually slipping and falling on my rear while leaving the house, I made it home without incident.

If any of you readers out there in blog land have made it this far, congratulations. I have one more little story to share. The party I went to was an ornament exchange, the first I've ever participated in. It was really fun and a good way to get craft ideas. I was working on my ornaments (I made cinnamon ornaments and then decorated them with ribbon and beads and stuff) last night while watching Oprah and Howie. Jon came upstairs from the basement and said "Wow, those actually look really good!"

What's that supposed to mean, Jon?