Can I just say how much these girls mean to me? I have never been closer to a group of women and it completes me. They're my family.

 It was Shauna's (girl on far right) birthday and I was determined to paint her something in less than 3 days.

 Believe it or not, this was the longest part... trying to figure out chevrons and also trying to draw straight lines on curved surfaces.

 Ahh, success.

 And then Ethan came along, with dry brush in hand and made me cry like a baby. Luckily I was able to turpentine the birds off and start them over without damaging the chevron background.

The finish product, done by 3pm and then given to her at 8pm... just in the nick of time. :)

P.S. The inspiration for the painting came from one of my favorite scriptures, Pslams 84:3.

Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.

Under Construction

I'm in the middle of changing up the blog background and headers...

Aren't my kids cute soaking up some Vitamin D?

I've finally finished our dining room table and chairs! Back around Christmas, I bought a table a chairs from two different garage sales. After many months of stripping, sanding and painting, they're finally done. Here's what I've learned from this experience, for those of you thinking about refinishing furniture: It's going to cost A LOT more then you think, it's going to be a lot more labor then you think and it's going to take a lot longer than a weekend. ;)

I've been crossing off projects left and right, I think I've found a great way to make my days more productive. I've been using the 3-tasks-a-day method. So besides my base line, normal daily chores* I give myself 3 things to accomplish. For instance, today's were 1. Send CDs (walk to the post office and send out photo cds from a photo shoot I took), 2. fold laundry (3 loads and put them away), and 3. Budge painting (I'm doing a Portland temple painting for a friend).

*my daily chores, you ask? One load of dishes, sanitize countertops, vacuum entire house, sweep (sometimes 2 or 3 times), make all 3 meals, shower myself and bathe kids, dress me and kids, spend time outside, read to kids, pick up endless messes, and nap (hopefully) with the kids.

 Jon grew a beard, per my request. He hated it, I loved it. It was a love hate relationship. I finally told him he could shave it off today and of course it had a little fun shaving it off in stages.

Potty Training is EASY!

Well, not THAT easy... but Ethan has been such a great sport! It only took me a week and he's already diaper free all day. I have to also say, he looks so cute in his undies.

He also went #2 today in his little toilet. He's always been very independent and so the technique that has worked best for him is to take him to the bathroom and then close the door and say "Okay, tell me when you're done." He pulls down his own pants and sits himself down. So, because it was a funny choice, he was given a chocolate pudding cup as a reward for going #2. :)

One of my close friends had her baby the other day, so while she was laboring away on child #2, we played with child #1! Eliza a sweetheart and a GREAT big sister. 

South of the border

Our favorite spot on the boat was the sun decks/pools in the back. The boat was completely booked, 2700 people... but honestly it didn't feel like that many people. We were constantly running into people we had met at dinner and faces started looking familiar after a day or two. There were maybe 50 kids total on the boat, I wouldn't be surprised if someone told me that 70% of the passengers were over 50 years old. That may not appeal to some people but it was perfect for us old fogies at heart.

 First port was Puerto Villarta, our view from the ship consisted of a Walmart and Sams Club... needless to say we weren't necessarily looking forward to going into town. Luckily our entire day was filled up with zip lining, hiking, repelling, mule riding, and tequila tasting (not). The excursion was AWESOME, but on the way back the driver decided to pull over to a tequila distillery and let us tourists take a tour. The strong smell of fermentation made me nauseous.

 Second port was Cabo San Lucas. We spent our time there snorkeling and whale watching.

 Most of the whale we saw were humpback but this is a picture of a gray whale, it was almost white colored and super huge. With one swoosh of it's tail it was gone, long gone, it was SO FAST!

Our time little bit of time at port we spent exploring the beach.

Overall here is my review of the cruise: AWESOME. Food: great. Bed: hard as a rock. Next time we'll bring friends/family and maybe the kids. Also, I highly recommend getting a balcony room, it was hard not having natural light in out little cave.

Seven days without the kids was bittersweet. I'm glad to be home though. :) :)

I just had to.

Here are some great little things from the past week.

 Ethan loves to help mom. Whether it's doing laundry or cooking, he's a great listener and very careful, such a big boy!

 Wearing Mom's new boots

 Aunt Ranee sent us balloons in a box. From Seattle to LA. The kids LOVED it.

 And the box they came in. :)

Our book club tonight was vintage themed so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to wear my late great grandmother's coat.

The post before the cruise

That's right, Jon and I are going on a cruise! 7 full nights of sleep and 7 days of fun, fun, FUN! We're excited. But first, here's what we've been up to since Christmas.

Doesn't she look like a big girl here? Where did my baby go?

Nay took us to a children's museum, this was the super cool entrance.

Using a flashlight to peek at the big spiders... eeww.

Ethan (a very shy boy) was apprehensive to participate in the drum class... but after a while he inched closer to the front, eventually took a drum and was banging away. I was so proud of him. He's been drumming on various objects throughout the house since "pepperoni pizza".

When we walk to the park the umbrella stroller is our top choice. Ethan can push her the entire way there, around corners and everything. He's always willing to help out.

We got Corryn a pair of flip flops, this is how they usually look on her feet after about 2 minutes... and she doesn't care one bit.

Look at those teeth!!!

Yup, Corryn got in the bath before we were able to get her clothes off.

Ethan has become quite the little artist, producing at least a couple drawings or paintings a day. Just the other day her figured out how to draw an oval and he was SO proud of himself, drawing them all over the paper.

I made this wall collage for a friend's baby shower I threw. Pictures don't do it justice, it was pretty darn cool.

Family Portraits

As much as I would love to have our family pictures taken outdoors by some hip, young photographer, we had our pictures taken in the dead of winter in Idaho.... so, we ended up going the Sears route for our first official family photo. (The frustrating thing is that I'M one of those hip, young photographers. But I can't take my own pictures, that's just too much of a hassle.)

Uber Cuteness