Where the Wild Things Are

I claim pregnancy

To all the women in grocery stores who comment how I look like "I'm ready to pop:"
I'm not. That is, not quite ready. This is a SEVENTH month belly. Not a nine-month belly, contrary to popular opinion. Ok, go ahead, say it--I've got an impressive belly, right? Right?! Yeah, I know. Most of the time I don't mind. I mean, I'm the first one to taut my belly pride. I don't mind when a little boy in primary says to me (out of the blue) "you can't run. You're too fat." Or when people say "I just can't believe how huge you are." Or when a person who shall nameless says "Wow, you sure have gained some weight!" after not having seen me for a while. Yep, it's true. I have.. but sometimes I get a teensy bit worried that people aren't referring to just my belly, but me in general. All of me. You guys are all talking about my belly, right? Right?! That's what I thought.

And let's talk about pregnancy brain. Can I say a few words about pregnancy brain? Boy, I tell ya. Sometimes I'm frightened for my life when I drive, because I'm worried I'll do something absolutely stupid and get us killed. I wouldn't put it past me. Just filling up my car with gas can be intellectually strenuous. "Umm, what side is my tank? Let's see....where's that little lever? Oh yeah, I need my wallet. Oops, I forgot my wallet! Shoot. I forgot to shut that little door again." It takes me twice the time it would normally, and I'm pretty sure the guy behind me is getting a good laugh. Laugh it up, punk.

And the other day when I made pizza, I forgot that I had left some potatoes in the oven, and they consequently got RE-cooked for three hours. I even put the pizza in without noticing them. And you know what's even funnier? I ate one.
And for your general amusement, here's another video of Josie in the highchair. This time she was deliriously tired (right after church which STARTS at one), and was pretty much like a little drunk girl. Not that I've ever seen a little drunk girl before, but it's what I imagine it would be like. I love how she's cleaning her teeth in it--she just ate PB&J. Sorry for the jiggly camera, that was my bad. Well, I blame the belly.




P.S. Do you like the sun-dress I made? The fabric was $3 at Wal-mart, baby.

Her Morning Elegance

My brother emailed this to me today, and it DELIGHTED me. Made my morning for sure. Good song too! Oh, PS. this is "Her Morning Elegance" by Oren Lavie.

Projects and Patience

So it's been awhile. Christmas was great. But I forgot to document how great it was. January has been pretty good too. I usually give January a big thumbs down, but this year I've been keeping busy with different projects and major nesting (I've been organizing my life away), and the month has flown by. Some highlights:

Josie went through a the two-naked-Ken-doll phase. All day long she made a big bed with every blanket she could find and put the two dolls to bed together. Cute and creepy.


And then she got into the Vaseline. That's how she achieved that dewy glow.


And she had her first Christmas that she remotely knew what was going on...
She played in the snow. A Christmas Story anyone? Anyone?
I made this quilt for Josie, as she is getting the boot from the crib when baby brother makes his big debut.

I bought this desk off KSL and then painted it.
Josie helped.

Allan and I have been watching Gilmore Girls, and Josie is really into interpreting the theme song.



And then tonight, Josie decided that she loves squash. But not to eat. Mostly to smash all over her face. And her hair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lG4mN-XKhc

And I made these booties for a shower last night.
Well, that's it. Oh, and I'm PREGNANT. I'm not kidding, folks. I feel like I'm huge, and I AM huge. Three months seems like an E TER NI TY. I'm REALLY trying to psych myself out for the long stretch, but some days I'm feeling like I'm way more huge and uncomfortable than my six months should merit. Does anyone else feel like this? Have felt like this? I am probably alone in my principles.

Well, here I go off to my room to write that hit-song "Along in my Principles".

10 Awesome points to anyone who knows where that's from.
1.........
2............
3...........
*buzzer*

Adjusting my mindset a bit

My dad the-boy-at-heart, is a second child. My sister Em had a girl first, and then her second was a boy. Merritt had a boy first, and their second was also a boy. Eirene, as most of you know, just had her second child, baby boy Ike. Cory's wife Katie is pregnant with their second, a boy due in February. Allan's younger brother is the second in his family. His dad's family had a boy second as well. Due you see a pattern? As Allan pointed out to me before we found out, the second child in our families were 100% of the time boys.

And we are no exception.

I've gotta say, I'm O-2 now. I was convinced Josie was a boy, and well, she wasn't. And then with this one, I THOUGHT it was a girl ( I NEVER claimed to have any sort of real feeling guiding me) and again, I was exactly wrong.

But of course I'm thrilled! I'll just have to adjust my mindset a bit. And Allan couldn't be prouder of course. When I told my dad the news he said, "tell Allan he's the Man." And I did, but I'm pretty sure I didn't have to. He's walking with a little bounce in his step today.

So that's it. IT'S A BOY!

And PS to all those who wondered whether or not I'm showing?.........Yeah. I am. This is my best attempt at a profile shot.

AHHHH!!! It is FINALLY Christmas!!!

I've had a skip in my step ever since we put up our tree. I don't know what it is. Actually, I know EXACTLY what it is. It's the smell of the pine, and my clean house, and the way my ornaments actually dangle from the bows, instead of just resting on the branch. It's my little birdy ornaments, and the bright colored wool balls, and my Christmas tree skirt, and the MAGIC of the lights...

Allan says he doesn't understand my fetish/obsession/utter delight with Christmas Trees, (especially our tree this year) but you know what? He digs it. It's mysterious to him, and I think he likes it when I bring a pillow and blanket out and just lie next to it like a seven-year-old. I think he thinks it's really weird and a little bit cute.

Here's the Christmas tree skirt I just made. I sort of made it up as I went, and used what fabric I already had. Aren't the pom poms cheery?




Ok, and here's my new ornaments. I saw some similar ones at Ikea, and I just recreated these from some craft wood at Jo-Anns. They were really a pain in the elbow to make, but I love how they turned out. I made some in green too, but I forgot to take a picture. You get the idea.



I tried to use a method of wet felting on these ornaments, but it really just didn't work like I thought. I ended up giving them all a glue bath. I think the effect is the same in the end--I love the vibrant colors! I made them in this turquoise, periwinkel, red, orange, purple and yellow. And also I made this wallet cause I wanted to. Isn't that selfish of me to make something for myself during Christmas season? Yeah, I thought so too. I had to though. This fabric forced my hand. I found it at an estate sale, and well, you know...I really had no choice. I found the tutorial here, but I added a coin purse instead of the middle section of card holders. A significant improvement, I think.

And, funny story, I went up to my mom and dad's for Thanksgiving, and forgot to bring Sundy clothes. What I did remember to bring was stuff to make a dress. I had seen this picture in a book at the library (I wish I could show you), of this SUPER cute maternity dress on some really cute short-haired woman from the 1960's. And then I found the perfect pale pink linen-y fabric at DI for $4 bucks, and decided to bring the stuff up there just in case there was a boring moment. There was NOT a boring moment, but nevertheless I say unto you that I was FORCED to make it before Sundy, which was incredibly challenging considering there were 7 kids ages 4 and under running around. I definitely had something in mind when I started, but it kind of evolved as I went along. That's a good thing, because at one point it really looked like a 5-year old's birthday party dress in 1984. I didn't get to the sleeves done yet because a) it was ridiculously late, and 2) I can't decide what kind of sleeves really fit this dress. Any ideas? Puff? Puffed capped? Just capped?
Ok, I all the sudden got really tired. Good night, ya'll. I think I'll curl up by my Christmas tree.

What we found under our bed

So to provide ourselves with a little bit more storage, Allan and I put our bed on risers. It was almost as fruitful as our Christmas will be.
We found:
-23 hair bands
-41 bobby pins
-3 hair clips
-4 safety pins
-a pair of snow gloves
-a beanie
-a pair of MUCH looked for snow pants
-a staple remover
-marshmallow roasting sticks
-9 pens
-a notebook
-my favorite roll recipe
-2 big FAT spiders
and drumroll please...........................................

-MY WEDDING RING!!!!!!! (It's been lost for over a year, and no, I did NOT even clean it for this photo)
So, clean out under your bed already. You might find something that you thought to be gone forever.