One of the things that has been keeping me sane through this long long winter is this gorgous coral reef inside our house! I had no idea when Paul decided to get into salt water tanks how much I would love it. On Paul's day off his favorite thing to do is to go to the fish store and pick out a new little animal to bring home.
We now have: 3 pulsing zinnias 2 leather 4 mushrooms 4 zoes 1 candy corn 1 texas trash 2 sps's 1 frog spawn 1 green grass thing 1 pink bush thing
2 clowns (Zeet and Zot) 1 tang (Doobee) 5 Cromos 1 pinky....... 1 blood shrimp 1 flame scallop tons of crabs and snails
We love our little guys! We love the smell of salt in the middle of winter in Michigan. We love looking forward to warmer days. Yeah- Salt water tank!
I think everyone needs a valentine's tree. This is my rendition. Don't you love the classy XOXO neon?? I do. :) This silver card holder was a great find at the Kirksville clean up. That means I found it in a pile of trash in front of someones house, and I love it. These photos are my way of saying Happy Valentine's day to all of you out there. I hope it's filled with lots of love for each of you. I told Paul that if he loved me he would plan something wonderful for V-day this year. Is it wicked to use that kind of shameful persuasion to get what you want? Is it even worse if you tell him that the day before Valentines day? Well, bring on the wrath. We deserve a date. I have gone overboard the past few years doing all kinds of valentine's surprises for Paul, and girls.. seriously, what a waste of time! We all know what men really want. They don't want heart shaped hamburgers or heart covered pillowcases or hearts all over the inside of their cars.. that just embarrasses them (or so Paul says). So this year, I'm making Valentine's easy. And you all know what I mean... and he can plan the date this year.
I'm loving up my sweet tadpoles this week. Eirik got the paint out and painted this entirely on his own. He wanted to paint a deep blue sea for Joren since Joren LOVES fish and water so much. Isn't that so sweet! He said he would give it to him as soon as he woke up from his nap.
It's 1:00AM and over the baby monitor I just heard the cutest giggle from one of my dreaming children. That's one of those moments that make life fun. Another one happened this week. Eirik was "helping" me make dinner.. (translation: not helping) and Joren was playing happily in his room. I could hear him growling with all his dinosaurs over the monitor. Suddenly we heard the cutest angel voice confidently say "Eyeick! Eyeick!" I guess Joren learned to say his brother's name and was calling him to come play! We all ran to the bottom of the stairs to see if what we heard was real, and Joren had come to the top of the stairs to call his brother again. Mind you, Joren has not yet said Mom or Dad, but he was calling for his brother! Eirik excitedly climbed the stairs to see what his brother wanted to show him. Paul and I cried and jumped up and down in happiness. Bless that little Joren. He is so sweet. That was a week ago and he has not said Eyeick since, but they have been playing together so much. We are so glad we listened when the spirit told us that Eirik needed a brother right away!
Another great thing that happened this week is that I finally finished all three of my pillows I have been working on and I think they turned out really great.
This leaf pillow was an idea I really lifted from World Market. (Thanks World Market.. I love you.) I was with Kristen (of course) when she said, "we could make that" and then she found a jacket at a thrift store later that day with this nice wool, and then she gave me scraps of her green fabric.. and voila. The sleeves of that wool coat turned into a cute little bag for Eirik too. That wool jacket was a great $4 investment.
And here is the penny pillow I mentioned in a former post. This little project was such a lifesaver. I have sort of an anxious personality and need to stay busy. Stitching and stitching and stitching is really relaxing. I liked having this project to work on while my kids were in the bathtub or while I sat by their door at night while they went to sleep, and they liked it too because I can interact with them and still keep my hands busy. I had to force myself to stop working on it once they went to sleep though so that I would have something to do the next nights. I was so sad when I finished that I immediately started another one and it is almost done. I might be on to some little money maker here.. or maybe just a really fun time waster. Anyone want to buy one? You can choose the colors. :)
And this pillow is sort of my little baby. I fell in love with the pillows on Koko Company and they were so inspiring I thought I would see what I could come up with. Of course mine is way different than any of the AMAZING pillows on that site. I mean seriously, aren't they great? Anyway, I got the orange and grey chintz fabric as a birthday gift last year. (Paul took me to Joannes and waited in the car for like an hour while I picked out a gift for myself. Isn't that awesome?) And the felt that matches exactly is from a scrap pile in my mother -in-law's basement. Cool huh! The french knots were an idea from my friend Peggy. I think it tuned it really cool. I want to make more... lots more! This design turned out a little more predictable than I anticipated. My next one will be much more abstract I think. I let my kids drink their milks while laying on it a few minutes after this photo and Joren threw up about 2 inches from it. So, enjoy the pillow in pristine condition because it won't last long in my house.
So Happy Valentine's to everyone! We love you!
PS. What is up with everyone loving blue and white and dainty vintage prints? Doesn't anyone else love 1970's warm earthy colors anymore? What's the deal. Am I the only one? Cause I'm not changing. :) I don't care how cool you all are.
Poor Joren, He hasn't had a post about just him in 6 months. I guess it's because he's so dang awesome, I feel like I'm just bragging when I talk about him. But this is for his record. I feel like he's my little great secret and if I talk about him too much I might jinx it or something. He loves to play with his toys. He wakes up and plays in his bed for at least 1/2 hour. I stock his crib with all kinds of new toys all the time and just listen to him on the monitor having a great time. He has his little dinosaurs growl at each other. He jabbers to himself. He is a great eater. He loves food. He's not very picky. He loves his bottle and can hold it himself. He only really cries when he wants a bottle and I haven't been listening to his requests. He bites me when he is hungry, and the kid can BITE! He won't cut it out, but it is kind of cute. He loves to pull everything out of the cupboards and drawers and explore everything. He loves fish. He smacks his lips like a fish whenever he sees one. He loves to watch our fish tank. He learned to walk on Christmas eve and he is cruising now. He seems like such a big kid. He's a good climber. He's super easy to be with. He's chill, easy going, easy, easy, easy, cute as a bug and so lovey. He goes to bed easy, loves his Binky, usually wakes up once during the night for a milk, but sleeps great. He likes to nap for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. I know, don't hate me.. I told you it was good. I just know Heavenly Father knew what I could handle. He knew if he sent me 2 like Eirik I wouldn't make it. Eirik and Joren are perfect for each other. They don't fight about anything (cross my fingers.. yet). They don't really play together a lot, but they love to be with each other. I think when Joren starts to talk more, we will have a whole new world open up to us. He just doesn't really care about talking yet. He can make the sounds of a dinosaur, bear, tiger, owl, duck, elephant, and fish. He can say duck, disaur, and done... and onguard that's about it. Oh I almost forgot, he says "onguard" and he is great at sword fighting! He's just busy doing everything else, and believe me, we have enough talking happening in our house, so we love his quiet content sweetness.
My sweet husband was a little ashamed of my antagonism in my last post about Eirik. I do feel bad about baring my frustrations to the world. I told Paul that I was planning to post about all the great stuff about Eirik next and he said, "well, do it quick.. " so, here it is.
I love collecting these little bits of things Eirik says because he always sideswipes me with how clever and attentive he is.
(on a day when he had a runny nose.)
"I think there are ants eating my nose. They smell food so they are eating my nose."
Eirik's first poem:
"I know,
Roses are red
That is my bed
and this is my head!" Jan 28-09
"Dad, go away, if you don't I don't care, I'll stick you in my underwear."
"I was in the fridge and the food was talking to me and it told me to eat this (zis)." (cream cheese)
"You can call me Rockstar."
Mom: "Eirik, What are you doing?"
Eirik: "I'm on a magic carpet for a rock star. I'm never coming out."
"Play with me mom, it's your job!"
One night I made barbecue chicken, honey baked beans and cornbread. Most of you know how hard it is to get Eirik to eat anything so when he said, "Mom, your a good cooker!" it totally made my night. To top it off, the next thing he said was, "Dad, will you teach me to low board tomorrow?" Dad: "you mean snowboard?" Eirik: "Yeah, skateboard on snow?"
For me and Paul, that was one of the best nights of our lives. :)
"Sometimes I'm the bad guy and I don't say my prayers."
The monsters are not in my head, they are just in my bedroom."
"Come in my jeep. When you push all these buttons (lots of sound effects) it turns into a DINOBOT!"
Eirik told me today that he needs a hovercraft and asked where he could get one.
"I can't go exploring without my headlamp."
"Did you know horses are better than cars? They don't need gas."
"mom, I totally don't want to take a nap!"
Eirik was convinced for all of December that Land Before Time was "Land Before Island". We tried to correct him a lot, and finally one day he said, "Everyone is saying it WRONG! It's Land before ISLAND! Say it with me .. LAND BEFORE ISLAND!"
When we came home from Utah, Eirik said, "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! Grandma and Grandpa have a basement. We need to buy a basement mom!"
Eirik keeps talking about his little sisters (plural! ahh) He named one of them Jolie Ann. I told her that we are planning to name our next daughter Juniper Gayle. He said, "ok, and the next girl will be Jolie Ann. We were at the dollar store later that day and he saw these hair bows that he liked. He said, "mom, when Juniper Gayle and Jolie Ann come, I will buy them these presents."
At a truck stop on the way to Michigan there were archade games. Eirik said, "dad, do you have some money?" I could see how that moment was just the beginning. It reminded me of how at 1 1/2 years old Eirik demanded that we got to the mall and asked if we had any gum. (how did he know what gum was?) And that story remind me about 2 months ago we were in Cleveland by the college campus. Eirik saw a group of girls jogging in sports bras and short shorts. He said, "why are those girlas (that's how he says girls) in their swimsuits?" I said, "they are exercising." he said, I think those princesses are beautiful." (Yikes, should we be a little bit worried?)
Tonight I taught Eirik how to put olives on his fingers. He thought it was so fun he said, "Mom, I love olive fingers. Thanks for teaching me this. " Then we gave them names and did a little puppet show with them. When we were down to the last 2 olives, I dramtically ate mine and Eirik's little bottom lip quivered, then stuck out in the saddest most heartbroken sob. He was so sad that I had eaten Olivia!
When I am cold he loves to blow his warm breath on me to warm me up. He also likes to use his hands as a hat on my head to keep me warm outside.
He is a great helper, so thoughtful, and kind. He loves to do things by himself.
The other day he said, "mom, I brought you these flowers so that I could make your day."
and the best is when he says, "do you know I love you?"
He is a delight, and I'm sorry for my tirade on him last week. I'm just learning to ride his roller coaster and enjoy the fun instead of getting sick. :)
I want to end this post with this great quote about motherhood.
Julie B. Beck, Relief Society general president: "I have a testimony gained from pondering and studying the scriptures of a plan of happiness given to us by our Father in Heaven. That plan has a part for His daughters. We have the female half to take care of, and if we don't do our part, no one else is going to do it for us. The half of our Father's plan that creates life, that nurtures souls, that promotes growth, that influences everything else was given to us. We can't delegate it. We can't pass it off to anyone. It's ours. We can refuse it, we can deny it, but it's still our part, and we're accountable for it. There will come a day when we will all remember what we knew before we were born. We will remember that we fought in a great conflict for this privilege. How do we meet this responsibility? We daily put our energies into the work that is uniquely ours to do."
This blog is about the life and times of Paul, Melody and our three little tadpoles Eirik, Joren and Teig. I seem to talk mostly about them, but I try to throw in some other things of interest like my creative home endeavors, religious and political views and updates about the progression of our never ending medical school adventure. I post my artwork on my art blog (link below). Thanks for visiting!
