Sick Little Sleepy Heads

Eric's Chair Adventure

Like most couples starting out, The Man and I have slowly accumulated our furniture. We have gotten great deals on most items (thank you Savers and Ikea) and have had our whole bedroom set given to us (thank you Rachel).

When I got married I had little knowledge of his eye for design and desire to furnish our home so it would be pleasing to his eyes, luckily we have managed to agree on most items.

The past month he had his eyes on some Emeco Navy Chairs. If you are design savvy, or into Mid-Century Modern furniture, you might know what they are or have seen some at Williams Sonoma or Design Within Reach. Anyway, we really liked them and wanted to get some. We considered the knock-offs (obviously because $395 per chair was no where in the budget) but after weighing the pros and cons we found some used ones on Craigslist (yay Craigslist!) ... in Yorba Linda, CA.

He drove the Volvo out to the ladies house on a Friday night and there was no one home. She also would not pick up her phone. So, while he is feeling a little crappy about his decision (to drive 6 hours for some measly chairs) 20 minutes goes buy and a guy eventually pulls up to the house. E buys 12, yes 12, of these chairs. Little did I know that he had already posted 6 of them on Craigslist (for more than what we paid) in Phoenix and already had another buyer. He stayed the night in a hotel and drove home the next morning with a car stuffed full of chairs.

So, we got our chairs and broke even on the deal. Now, we are dining in fashion.

Zions

Hi!

If you are wondering where I have been, my title should tell you.
Be prepared, there are a lot of photos coming up of our little adventure.

We left last Wednesday and camped in a tent with our 2 children for 5 nights.

Zions is as beautiful as ever.
You can't help but have conformation while there, that there is a God of this world, and he rocks.

We decided to bring our bikes and trailor and ended up looking a little hokie on the interstate,

but it was well worth it.

Me and my girls

The weather was about 20 degrees cooler than normal with a lot of rain. I think it rained every day. Great for photo's, but not so much for keeping things clean and little ones warm.

We did a great hike on Sunday called Hidden Canyon. If you ever go to Zions I totally recommend it as long as you aren't too afraid of heights.
The views are breathtaking as well as teetering on the edge of a thousand foot cliff with only a chain to hold on to.

Docile squirrels. Don't pet.

In hidden canyon.

Temple of Sinawava.

The Man was so excited to have 3 of his favorite things at his fingertips: his girls, biking, hiking, and lots of good food

I don't think that I could have camped near that long with out the help of my in-laws. They were so great in helping out with the kids. My girls really love their Grandpa.

She was so excited to ride the "school bus" up the canyon.

As was everyone else.

When traveling through Navajo Nation in northern Arizona there are all of these sweet Native American women selling their beautiful handmade jewelry. I loved stopping here

the view was absolutly amazing.

So, that's where I have been. Hopefully we will be going back next year, but for now I have to tend to a sick little blonde girl that was throwing up last night. Poor thing.

Garage Sale-ing

Since we have moved into our new place one of my favorite pastimes has to be getting up at the crack of dawn, mixing up a Carnation Instant Breakfast, throwing my kids in the car with a bottle and granola bar, and hitting the garage sales.

And so, I now officially hate paying full price for any of the following:

Toys
Small Appliances
Books
Puzzles
Kids Clothing
DVD's
and

Really obnoxious princess dresses...
with matching feathery "glass shlipppers."

Yeah, I never thought that I would even spend $2 on a princess outfit, but the look on my daughter's face was priceless. I thought she might burst, right there in the car, sitting in the Britax car seat that I had spent $15 on 2 weeks before.

What is the best thing you've found at a garage sale?

Poppy Giveaway

Looky Here!

Bubbles and More Bubbles

One of the girls' favorite things to do is go out on the porch and blow bubbles.

Too bad my kids will never have to learn to blow their own bubbles with toys like this.
Seriously, why didn't I have one as a kid?

Of course, there has to be a little of abuse. Poor Sis often gets blasted in the face.

So, I have to protect her and blast Blondie back.

She seems satisfied with that

...and it's all around fun times.

My Mom

For the past month I have been working on digitizing my mother's photos from the past.

Although, it has been quite the undertaking I am so grateful for the opportunity and have totally enjoyed it.

Roxann, RL, and Nancy 1952

1953

Feeding the deer

14 years old

Sept 1, 1970

My dad, Mom (with some amazing hair), and Brodie

Matthew, Jeffrey, Brodie, and Jeremy with Mom holding
Me

2007 and still beautiful

Weak Stomach Warning!

When I was pregnant with my second baby and right after I had her, people would always say things like, "Wait til you have the second. You won't care then." Or, "You won't be near as nervous (picky) about the next baby. Just wait." Regardless if these things are true or not (which they are) I hated hearing them and I try my hardest not to torture pregnant ladies with the same comments.

With that said, yes, I have been way less protective, picky, and careful with Mae. Usually when I find her chewing on something I just casually take it out of her mouth and don't think anything about where it has been and if it is going to kill her.

Until 2 days ago.

We were just chillin in the den when I made a bathroom trip. I came back into the room and naturally her jaw was in motion, chewing on something she shouldn't be.
I bent down to pull it out and as my finger went in I saw
legs
and a body
and a head
of a
COCKROACH!
AGH!
What is a good mother to do? You know that I do not want to touch the nasty thing, but I also do not want my precious baby to go to town on it.
Even though she looked like the little creature wasn't even bothering her.

So, I swallow hard, sweep it out, and whip it into the trash hoping that I haven't missed any body parts. Then I do the I-can't-believe-that-just-happened dance. You know the one. Where you shake all over, make a nasty face, and jump up and down a little.

UGh!

I'm hoping that is the last of Mr Roach and his little friends. I haven't seen any since so maybe Mae scared them all away with her fierce bite.

Death to Dora?

Dora, Dora, Dora...

What am I to do?

A few weeks ago The Man came home from going to garage sales with a stack of Dora the Explorer dvd's that he paid a buck a piece for.

Before these lovely dvd's Blondie only knew of Dora as the girl on her sippy cup (the cheapest bpa-free cup I could find). Now, it's every day, "Mommy, please watch Dora movie? Please?"
When she really wants something she adds the baby sign along with her "please"
to make her seem even more desperate.

You see, before Dora invaded our house she didn't care to watch anything but the occasional Caillou (I know I shouldn't complain because he's so much worse than Dora) and her "Movies" the ones that Grandpa Kent and I make. So, this is totally new territory to me. I had no idea that kids could get this sucked in.
Now that I think about it, I remember my little brother watching Peter Pan over, and over, and over.

What I hate about Dora:
- the way she waits for the kids to respond to her. She waits so long and I know it's to give the kids a chance to respond, but it's like "can we please just move on?"
- her voice, and the map's voice, and Boot's voice, etc
- Blondie's huge crying fits when I turn her off. When she cries "Please more Dora, Mommy!"
-the way I feel guilty when she is on a little too long and my daughter just sits like a little zombie staring into the oblivion
- when the super babies sing "goo-goo ga-ga"
- Benny the cow

What I love about Dora:
- She gives me time to take a shower earlier than the usual 2pm
- the way Blondie gets totally giddy when I put the dvd in. It's really cute that she can't contain herself.
- after the show she recaps it all to me. telling me all about the volcano, the troll bridge, or the stars
- I can have a few extra minutes when Mae is sleeping and Dora is on that I can just sit and do nothing

Oh, how I wish that she loved Charlie and Lola as much as Dora.

I love C&L and could watch it all day with her if it wasn't for stinking Dora!

F i v e

Gardiner Love

Los Angeles 5 years ago.