This is my husband!

Yes,
This is the crazy adorable man I live with everyday. And this is an everyday occurance. Those of you who don't believe me don't know Paul.

Proud mama

Somedays I look at our kid and I just stare in disbelief. It's such a wonder that this little AMAZING person came from two dummies like Paul and myself. (sorry Paul, but you really earned that tonight!)
Tonight Eirik was being SO cute. He had a late nap and woke up so happy. I put him in his high chair and gave him a bowl of Southwest Chicken (one of my favorite recipes/ Thanks Katherine!) and a spoon and let him go to town. Without the chips and lettuce this dish is basically a salsa with chicken in it, but Eirik loves spicey food and he spent an hour working his way through two bowls of it. I was making cookies and talking to him while he ate. He asked me what I was doing in his little Eirik way; "Da? Da?" so I gave him a bit of cookie dough, and, WOW, he loved it. So he continued to ask me in the sweetest way for more cookie dough. After coming off of a week where I have been doing my best to break his demanding whining new habbits, this was a really refreshing change of pace. After he had eaten lots of cookie dough and a banana too, I asked him if he wanted to get down. He looked at me, shook his head no and asked me in sign language for more cookie please. He combined the words to make a sentence with the cutest little look on his face! They say that kids start using two words together around age 2. For a 13 month old, I'd say that's pretty good! After he was finally finished with his 1 1/2 hour dinner, I got him down, and held his hand as he walked me to the bathtub, looked up at me and smiled. I said, "would you like to take a bath?" and he started giggling and jumping up and down. I know, it's silly, I'm just thrilled because I'm starting to have so much fun with my son. He is interacting and communicating with me and playing jokes on me. He tickles me and gives me big kisses on my cheek with his mouth wide open. He asks me in sign language to read him books and he loves to sort shapes and he knows the color yellow and how to say it verbally. I didn't want to put him to bed tonight. We put on a movie and snuggled until he was dozing in my lap. Good times! I can't wait until there are more of them to have fun with.
I am a proud mama today.

Easter this year...

My dad came the long long way out to visit our little family for Easter this year! We loved having him here! He was a breath of fresh air. He knows how to slow down and enjoy the moments of life. He has a relaxing presence. He is at peace, it was refreshing and we were sad to see him go! Even Eirik cried. We spent a lot of time driving around the outskirts of our little town exploring and finding little secret places just being touched by spring.


I tried a couple of new Easter recipes that I loved. Above is a coconut cake: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Rave-Reviews-Coconut-Cake/Detail.aspx
(Tasheena, "you can't have that, it's a coconut cake!" )

and below is a really yummy Easter meat/ cheese pie:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Easter-Meat-Pie/Detail.aspx

We also had a lot of fun decorating eggs. I finally concented to the fact that I am not going to get my dear husband to enjoy decorating eggs, so this year I invited my girlfriend over to enjoy the fun. This is Erin and Tasheena, who both, I must say are masters at this craft. (pictures don't demonstrate the extent of their egg crafting abilities.. )

I took this photo on the way home from Spring Break. Every once in a while you get a glimpse of something so beautiful it takes your breath away. After such a dead ugly winter the world is finally coming alive again. It's been said that "Life rejoices in life." I find myself so enlivened by the tiniest things this spring, like the way the sunshine hits just one little section of the rolling hills and lights up the brand new grass with a burst of lime green. I rejoice and especially at this time of year find myself more grateful than ever for the beauty and new life God blesses us with. General Conference was great this year wasn't it?!

The debut of my new art blog- "A PEEK IN THE KETTLE"

Hey,
check out my new art blog-- (link to the right)!! I'm so excited about it. I've almost got all my paintings entered. I have about 30 more to put up, but it's on it's way... And I would love to hear any comments that you have about how to make it more user friendly, interesting, cool, etc...

Bringing Spring Home

I thought this was gorgeous this morning as the spring light came through our kitchen window. Does anyone have any post processing ideas for me on this photo?

SPRING IS FINALLY HERE!!!

I took these in Branson on our vacation. It's not this bloomy here yet, but is soon to be!

Our beautiful new niece Kaitlin

Eirik and I got to visit our family in Utah over spring break so that we could meet our new niece/ cousin. She is precious!

Here's what I am going for.. This photo is from www.yoga.about.com How do I get this??

Scorpion Pose

So I am a very 1/2 assed yogi. I love love love to do yoga, but I am far from committed to regular practice. I try to go at least once a week, and sometimes twice, but that doesn't always happen. Anyway, I just learned this new pose that I think rocks. I of course, have a long way to go to get it looking right, but when your "standing there" upside down with the confidence that this pose imbues, it's a pretty rad feeling.

Spring Collage

Every so often I find it very fulfilling and gratifying to throw together a collage of magazine clippings that jump out at me. I've been so surprised and fascinated to see how they each develop and are so different from each other depending on the time in my life and situations, seasons and feelings that are prevalent. Each one I have made has a distinct color scheme that pervades the collage. My mother in law says we are drawn to different colors according to what we need at that time. I made one that was all brilliant greens and bright reds one spring. I've also made one that was hot pinks, reds and turquoise. And one interesting one was pink and grey- (I was a bit depressed at the time). I find this kind of "art" to be so expressive and defining somehow. You should try it!

Could he be any sweeter? We planted the flowers in our pots outside and they are gorgeous! What a great gift!

Eirik 1 year

Thanks to Emily I have some great photos of Eirik. Thanks to Emily I have learned so much about photography!! Thank you so much Emily. You have opened a whole new world to me!!!
This photo was taken in front of Emily's house and seemed so effortless, just a click and there it is this amazing shot. Thanks!

Eirik is turning 1!!

So I have never made a cake before that was anything but a box cake with store bought frosting on it, so I decided to really go out of my way to learn how to make a really cool one. I asked my friend Karen Peterson to help me since she is a pro at cake decorating and she spent the whole day helping me step by step to learn to make a cake with fondant frosting. She was so patient and great at helping me realize my vision. She was awesome, and I think the cake is too. I love the little froggy. Have I just set a birthday president for the rest of my children??

Eirik the flirt!

Eirik was practicing climbing the stairs for the first time. He was so proud of himself when he got to the top he crawled over to the glass and found some pretty ladies selling flowers below. He had a great time entertaining them with smiles, waves and big slobber kisses on the glass for several minutes. The girls couldn't get enough of him. He was being such a flirt!!