David Bowie supports ch ch changes.

Things I won't do in 2011:

-give myself a schedule (i hate looming obligations)

-remember birthdays (creates unintentional favoritism)

-stop eating dessert (cause that is a sick joke)

-stress about having a clean house (but when i do, i always wear this exact outfit...)

[via italian vanity fair]

my theme for 2011?...my year of "absorbtion and practice" Translation: give patience to the skills i want to learn. No starting a business talk or getting ahead of myself. No quitting cause i'm unoriginal on the spot. No feeling overwhelmed cause I didn't start it all ten years ago. Not letting my embarrassment (of my output) deter my future efforts. I am dedicating myself to learning to learn and letting myself be inspired. blahbitty blah...more cheesy stuff...amen.

here are a few less vague goals:

-give my hair a pulse again (it's time.)

-get some certifiable skills (as in college classes)

-get a big girl camera and not be afraid to learn how to use it (i've done everything short of selling my plasma to save up)

-run 1000 miles (this number keeps going down)

-read 5 books (this makes me sound like a retard, i know.)

-make a quilt for each of my kids (cause it's a sentiment i know they will love)

-only buy things that i L.O.V.E. (food, clothes, shoes, toys, etc)

practice. practice. practice. practice. practice. practice. practice. practice. practice. practice. practice. practice. practice. practice. practice. practice. practice......

Happy New Year Friends!!

team Boo ♥'s you

auf wiedersehen.

This is me getting some final Christmas images out of my system. (tear)

Sonny's first Sandy Clause picture. 

(before he's old enough to be terrified of him)

boarding the polar express

When i grow up, I want to live in an Anthropologie store. These are from their winter display....aren't they the bomb? Maybe i'll make one next year (unlikely)
On to the new year!
team Boo ♥'s you

team boo gets cold

{music by Zee Avi}

not the most interesting footage of our lives, but we don't see snow very often...so we got excited and made a snowman on the side of a sidewalk with like 1 inch of snow/gravel.
(see two years ago)
team Boo ♥'s you

squeak.

the only thing cuter than a picture of my boys on christmas morning?...a picture of my boys on christmas morning where sonny is a Christmas mouse (with nap face). Hope yours was just as sweet!

how about some christmas 2010 high/lows:

-sheamus reacting to his toy batman car "oh my gosh! are you kidding me!? this is so expensive!!" (it wasn't)

-the kids sleeping until 7:30 (pshew)

-elyott rollerblading the whole day around the house...in rapunzel hair

-silly uncle chris t.n.s.d.c.m (texting nonstop during christmas morning)

-Elyott's bedtime tummy ache from a day of straight up donuts and candy :(

-finally some guilt free time to relax with my computer and a little Paper Heart.

team Boo ♥'s you


p.s. J&W has new stuff :)

thhhhere it is!

So we managed to pull it together and remember what Christmas is all about after all (but not without clenched teeth threats of a present-less christmas :)

The Mario mustache that keeps on giving.

backstage.

 offspring awesomeness.

team Boo ♥'s you

Christmas of love.

Doesn't Sonny look like a giant godzilla baby? How did he come out of me 10 months ago?! Anyway I wanted to make you a short christmas video, but unless tomorrow has 48 hours, you might have to settle for this. So just incase we don't meet again before Christmas, hope your holiday includes lots of crazy family togetherness. This picture pretty much sums it up for us ;) Merry Christmas friends. all you need is love...

team Boo ♥'s you

Candyland finale

Behold the cardboard candy wonderland! Complete with "peppermint forest", "gumdrop mountains", "gingerbread village" and "chocolate swamp". My favorite part was the game pieces on the ground. Thanks to everyone who helped make it happen! Did i mention I never want to touch a piece of cardboard again in my life? well i don't.

team Boo ♥'s you

Christmas with a crank (this is where I blow off steam)

(my gingerbread birdhouse...proof that I did something christmas-y in 2010)

December should be two months long! One month to prepare (that doesn't overshadow poor old thanksgiving) and then one month to enjoy. I keep hearing "remember the real meaning of christmas" and then i want to blow myself to the moon cause i just put on a party to help 300 other people to remember what it's real meaning is (ie. Jesus, hope, love, charity...) and was left with like two seconds to tie up every loose AND feel the spirit of christmas. With the details of recreating nostalgia and all our loved ones to consider, I can't help but scoff when i hear "tis the season to be jolly". Is it really? or is it the season to punch you in the neck when you tell me "tis the season"? 


Flashback to when i'm pregnant and people like to say something like "oh honey, you shouldn't be loading that pack of water bottles into your shopping cart!" Only i should, because otherwise it will stay on the shelf. at the store. and my family will be very dehydrated. And dehydration leads to constipation. and chronic constipation leads to sad colons. and sad colons could = colon cancer. and colon cancer kills people!! Okay, so maybe colon cancer has nothing to do with Christmas (or pregnancy for that matter) but it does raise a good point about drinking enough water, no?


It's no wonder mothers (who are usually behind the details of the holidays) are such an entertaining mess. Jesus, if you're listening....I demand an extension.


p.s. Sorry for being such a bummer...I really do love Christmas time. Hooray Jesus! 


Proof that my heart isn't as cold as ice?...When we sang silent night last sunday at church, i couldn't help but well up at the sweetness of millions of people for generations and generations singing such a tender song about the birth of a child (mind you he would go on to be the savior of the world, but still). I thought of what an honor that would be to know that the world loved your sweet baby as much as you did. Would it be sacrilegious to write a sweet song about my Sonny and make everyone i know and everyone they know sing it with me the whole month of February? yes, it would? ok, fine i won't.


p.p.s. Do you ever feel like your blog is your phantom limb? Like when ignored,  it will haunt you?? me too.

team Boo ♥'s you

sober photobooth

{photos by Lang photographers}

You know all those wedding photo booths that circulate the blogosphere where everyone gets crazy and looks like they are having the time of their lives!? Well I hate to break it to you, but without alcohol, that's about as likely as cowboys synchronized dancing to Kenny Loggins in an abandoned wheat mill while it rains glitter and people cheer in a giant circle where everyone is awesome, for your prom. So since Kevin Bacon never showed up to our ward Christmas party...things stayed pretty mellow behind the photo booth lens. But we still had fun...in all our straight laced glory ;) 

team Boo ♥'s you

candy land (part 1)

this is what my backyard has looked like for two "shlong" months now (meaning the short/long time where crappy parts feel like forever, but you feel like you have to hurry to get it done and all the good stuff is passing you by. get your mind out of the gutter pervs). Giant props. tarps. paint cans and enough cardboard to make me want to set it all on fire and boycott paper products forever!! BUT, we pushed through, and with zero box cutter injuries! (but a couple close calls. sorry fingers.) and now most of it's in the dumpster where it belongs. Stay tuned for candy land part 2...the part where i pump fake and disappoint all the young children when there is no actual edible candy at the party (classic "bait and switch")...

p.s. just a heads up to those attempting to make a sparkly giant gumdrop mountain out of cardboard...abort...it will be the "red headed step child" of your party.

p.p.s. yes that is a working pepsi machine in my back yard. Adam accidentally mixed mothers day up with fathers day and bought it for ME three years ago (gritted teeth smile).

team Boo ♥'s you

I don't believe in one ways streets. Not between friends and not while i'm driving.

Can i make a confession?...call me a birthday scrooge, but phone calls on birthdays can be such a piece of crap*. All it means is that you have to do a run down of what you've done (or plan to do) like 17 times, all the while wasting any activity time you could be having with your wife who keeps trying to do stuff for your birthday but instead has to watch you talk on the phone...all day. It is a sweet thought (or possibly just obligatory?), but really...call the next day, send a card, or my personal fave...a text (both economical and time savvy!) Ba hum bug.

*Insert foot for when my kids are grown and away...in which case birthday phone calls are my favorite thing in the world.)

happy 29th birthday lover!

(and yes his glasses are pink)

team Boo ♥'s you

(...and handsome bob)

santa baby

When my kids are babies, even though i want them to stay babies forever (minus the pooping in the pants part) I am always so anxious for the day they will learn to talk. 

This is exactly why...

it's part adorable and part sad when they ask for impossible things. Luckily all sheamus wants is a ten dollar toy and for his teeth to either rot or be sharpened...

team Boo ♥'s you

come on sucker lick my battery.

I keep promising myself SLEEP after Friday's Christmas party wrap, but it keeps eluding me. Contrary to my week of spray-painting-induced-carpal-tunnel and cardboard-cutting-till-the-sun-went-down-sore-back, it was Elyott who had the best week ever. 

Thursday, before the decorating chaos ensued, we played hookie from school and she got to plan a morning of straight up mom and elyott-ness. She chose: Park, McDonalds, Dunkin Donuts...and told me like 27 times it was the "best day ever!" It was.

Friday night she sang the polar express duet on stage for the ward party (that she was not an ounce nervous for) and she nailed it. It was the cutest thing ever!

Saturday she had a dance recital (that clearly Sheamus and Sonny were thrilled to attend) and she nailed it...again. She got flowers from us and a box of cookies from Grandma D that, according to Elyott, was the "best present ever!") 

Unfortch, today she kept me on my toes with her continual vomiting (from all the cookies??). I was sad for her. But then also for my eyeballs (cause i'm tired from all that action).

team Boo ♥'s you

Happy Dikefest Holidays 2010!

(my scanner is lame...sorry TP)
 
They're here, They're here!!

(ok they came two weeks ago, but don't rush me)

My Tiny Prints holiday cards! I love them! and technology! and all of you!! They are truly (truly truly)...outrageous. I wish I had enough to send to every person I have ever known in my whole life. 

Wanna hear a funny story about their very helpful customer service?...

click here to read more...

team Boo ♥'s you

gift in a jiff.

you know how a quilt is time consuming and may sit in squares for like two years before you finish it? this is my perfect solution. It's all the scraps from the cutting (of said squares) made into a mini quilt (that baby won't drag all over the ground and refuse to let you wash) that I can make in a couple hours! And I'm not a "sewer"...remember the pillow? 

It makes a great baby gift when you have no money (which is still most of us, right? RIGHT!?) The "lucky" recipient of my mediocre skills was Lucy, my new adorable sweet little niece (that's a lot of adjectives...and i haven't even met her yet! so you know she's cute ;)

team Boo ♥'s you


*p.s. head over and officially "meet the team" by clicking our family picture on the top left

Mermaid Lullaby

{via Purl Bee}

somebody made this! with their brain and their hands. i'm jeal.

this week is making me sad. i won't get into why. but it's times like these when i'd love a momma come play with my hair and sing me to sleep. any momma will do (that's a lie, she has to smell good). this is what i sing to my kids when they need a little extra help settling into their beds (after which they are forbidden to come out of their rooms for ANY reason other than the house being on fire...but then they do anyway when they have a hangnail or something else equally important ;)

(i substitute "mermaid" with their name...or as sheamus requests "handsome boy")

Rest my little darling

You’ve had a busy day

The sun is a'falling

And it’s time for me to say

Hush, hush, hush little mermaid,

Good night.

Hush, hush little mermaid,

Sleep tight.

Close your eyes,

Close your eyes and lay down your head,

In your peaceful ocean bed.

Have a snooze, please, like I said and

Hush, hush, hush little mermaid,

Good night.

Hush little mermaid,

Sleep tight.

You’re feeling kind of sleepy,

You’re feeling kind of loopy,

Your fins are getting floppy,

And your eyelids getting droopy.

May your dreams be sweet,

As you fall into a snooze.

Perhaps again we’ll meet,

But now we have to cruise.

So hush, hush, hush little mermaid,

Good night.

Hush, hush little mermaid,

Sleep tight.

Hush, hush little mermaid,

Good night.

Hush little mermaid,

Hush little mermaid,

Good night.

The Backyardigans - Mermaid Lull...

mermaid lullaby backyardigans songs | music videos | lyrics

p.s. i'll be okay :)
team Boo ♥'s you

slow motion.

Sometimes the best medicine, for this busy season, is to dig in my heels and force myself to slow down for a minute. Last night I slowed down with Sonny. We played "bang the pan" "robot mom" and "rip out mom's hair."

It was perfect :)

team Boo ♥'s you

it's beginning to look a lot like.....Christmas-ish?

I am in in charge of decorating another church party this Christmas (see others here here and here). So instead of making my house all cute and Christmas-y, all of my brain juice is going into life sized gingerbread houses and giant glittered lollipops. The theme is Candy Land (the board game theme is "SO hot right now" ;). Therefore if you happened to show up at my front door, I'd wish I could bring you inside to sit by the cozy fire and drink some hot cocoa with homemade whipped cream...

Unforch....something would likely fall and crush you...like a giant box of sparkly pine cones (those things are the devil) or the fifteen bags of fake snow I have been storing since last year's party. Its not safe. So for now, enjoy the tranquil facade of my front door (i'm such a faker)....and then pray for me. Pray for me hardcore.

team Boo ♥'s you

p.s. also please don't show up on my front door cause i'd probably worry that you wanted to wear my skin. But then I'd be like "meh" and then I'd just make you paint cardboard gumdrop mountains until your fingers bled :)


p.p.s What about a christmas decorating post made my content inspired ads to advertise "stool eating preventative!?" I am so offended. Your face is a stool eater, Google.

always something there to entice me.

It's that time again.

No Dikefest christmas season is complete without more nesting dolls (see here, here and here) Every year for christmas i seek out a new set, but this year i hit the mother load of cuteness. I want them allllllllll!!

p.s. find them here. But hurry, I've heard nesting doll demand is cyclical...like technology (ie. beepers)

(ten points if you know what that's from)


team Boo ♥'s you