This is halarious

Saturday Night Live Just Kidding Skit!

Fish anyone?

We had a little fishing party at our house this week.. Thanks Erin for the pictures. The boys loved casting their little poles and catching their little plastic fish over and over again. I love having this pond in our backyard.

Eirik's 2nd Birthday

Yeah yeah, so it was over 2 months ago. I really didn't post much about it though and it was so fun that I wanted to make sure to write about it.

I asked Eirik in Feb what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday. He said Dinosaur Cake with no hestiation and everytime we talked about it after that it was always a Dinosaur cake. If there is one thing Eirik is, it is decisive! So we had a dinosaur party.

We bought plastic eggs and filled them with baby dinosaurs and candy and hid them around the house.
Then we had a dinosaur skeliton that comes apart and we hid the bones in rice so the kids had to dig for the bones. They really liked this. In this photo you can see Eirik with a handful of rice in midair.. yeah, they enjoyed the rice. :)

Then we played pin the birthday hat on the dinosaur and then had cake. Mmmm! Blue Dinosaur cake. Eirik loved his cake and still asks for dinosaur cake to this day.

We had some great guests:
Benjamin, Garret, Brinley, Keaton, Abram and Hyrum
Thanks everyone who came! Happy Birthday Eirik!

Stick collecting ...

Every excursion we go on lately is a stick collecting excursion. This one landed us 4 great ones! Good finds Eirik!

More felt fun

Felt is so fun to work with because it is SO forgiving! I found these adorable hair clips on a great Etsy site So I copied them. I know it's just awful that I didn't just order them. (Sorry louandlee!) Maybe my post will send you some business!

Line upon Line!

Two awesome friends of mine just launched this amazing card business. I have to put a huge plug for this because I am totally impressed! And not only impressed, I peed my pants I laughed so hard. Things like this make me so thankful that I run in circles with such incredibly talented women that always keep me on my toes and fill my up. Thanks ladies. You ROCK!

You can also find these guys on my widget on the right of my blog!

Happy Birthday Paul!

We were lucky enough to have our friends Kit and Basilio come bring sweety Rhoda out for Paul's birthday this weekend. We had a great time having a yummy BBQ in the backyard, whole smoked chicken, cornbread and baked beans with Paul's favorite Key Lime Pie for desert.
Then Paul and Basil took off for the Tiger's vs Yankees game downtown. They had a great time and so did Kit and I. We locked ourselves in the studio and got creative. Kit made a darling little hawiian skirt and onesie for Rhoda and I watched her be amazing and sat in a big pile of about 200 ideas and didn't really start anything, but ideas always gel better with Kit around, so there are lots of things in the works now.

We spent Saturday morning at a Mom2Mom sale (one of my FAVORITE things about Detroit) where there were about 100 moms all having "garage" sales in a church. I loaded up as usual on some great finds. I found Eirik a little keychain that makes car and spaceship noises and has his own keys. I also got a dinosaur encyclopedia and a tool belt just for Eirik! Yeah! He's going to love these things. I also got tons of great clothes for next season. Rhoda got a new pair of orangish red leather coygirl boots and the coolest cowboy and indian village ever! Eirik would have been jealous so he didn't get to see the loot.
I also had a lovely mother's day. Paul bought me some gorgeous roses and made me this BAnana Cream Pie from Abby's blog
Yes it was delicious! Go to the link to see a better photo of it. Yes I took this picture of myself. Hey, I wanted to document the pie and no one around here takes pics of me so there you go!
Thank you and Happy Birthday Paul (aka: Dreamboat)! You are on my especially good list this month!

All Aboard!

We had a fun play group at the park yesterday. What cute blondies!

Eirik, Benjamen and Preston

Neckwarmer / Collar / Scarflettes

I just found these very cool Neckwarmer / Collar / Scarflettes
on etsy. They are by Malam's Shop.
I look good in turtle necks, and I'm always looking for something to cover my bony neck. Hmmm. I love this idea.

LADIE'S MAN

We had a play date with Eliza. Joren liked it. :)

Joren tried his first rice cereal on 4/ 14. He grabbed the spoon right away and was more than happy to have the experience although he didn't much care for rice cereal. I wouldn't like it either.
I wish I knew how much of Joren's great behavior is based on how we have parented him and how much is just his adorable, chill personality. I wish I could go back and be less uptight with how I babied Eirik. I wonder if it would have made him more chill. But I sort of doubt it. Little J is just super content. He will sit and suck his binky for hours and as long as he can watch us, he is happy.
He learned to roll over yesterday and practiced doing it over and over again all day long. He is almost sitting and loves to stand and hold on to things. He's very focused and easy to read. He's SO fun!

My Sunbeams are Great

I found the following on Sugar Doodle. For those of you who aren't LDS, Sunbeams are primary children age 3 and 4 and I have the happy pleasure of being a sunbeam teacher so I thought this passage was particularly funny. Sunbeams

by Robert Armstrong, M.D.

I work part-time as a teacher of family doctors. The program provides training on psychiatric disorders and emphasizes the importance of emotional support. The new doctors are given plenty of time in clinic to visit with their patients and learn about their challenges.

One of our interns who has never lived in Utah and knows nothing about Mormons is still struggling to understand the cultural climate here. Last week he was interviewing a new patient and stumbled on what he thought was a raging psychosis.

Doctor: "Well, Mrs. Olsen, we've talked about your high blood pressure and your medications. Are you experiencing any particular stress in your life?"

Patient: "Oh, yes! It's the Sunbeams. They're driving me crazy."

Doctor (very surprised): "The sun beams?"

Patient: "Yes. I've never had trouble with them before, but this group won't sit still. They bounce all over the room, and run out the door and down the hall."

Doctor (reaching for a pen): "Have you told anyone about this?"

Patient: "Of course. I told the president."

Doctor: "Really! What did the president tell you?"

Patient: "She said Sunbeams are like that. I'm just going to have to learn to deal with them."

Doctor (concerned that he may be missing something): "I know people who are sensitive to sun beams. Do they cause you a rash or anything?"

Patient (confused): "A rash? No."

Doctor: "What's the biggest problem they're creating?"

Patient: "It's the noise. They just won't quit talking."

Doctor (astonished): "The sun beams are talking to you?"

Patient: "Well, yes. But mostly they talk to each other."

Doctor (scribbling furiously in the chart): "I see. Can anyone else hear them talking?"

Patient (after a moment of stunned silence): "You're not LDS, are you?"

Yes, Spring is here!

Isn't this just fabulous? It looks like too much work for me, but I could cheat and make it look almost as pretty for 1/2 the work. Here's the link.

This is one of my spring projects.
I picked up this frame (thanks to my friend Charyce who prompted me to snag it) at the Kirksville cleanup. It looked really cool over the winter with white metal snowflake ornaments hanging in the squares and I think it looks pretty sweet with orchids in these little globes from Red Envelope. (They were a gift a few years back from my friend Carrieann). I love decorating for spring. Maybe I'll get a few more photo up soon.

26 Months and screaming

If any of you think all I blog about are my boys, you are about right...
There are certain stages of a kids life that are really fun for moms, and others that are less fun. The defiantly throwing food stage- LESS fun,
the squealing and just learning to roll over stage- WAY fun.
The gender differentiation- "I AM NOW BOY" stage- LESS fun.
That's where we are now. Does anyone else think it's weird that boys like blue and girls like pink. If there is a choice to be made, Eirik will always choose the medium blue option. He won't use anything except his blue fork and blue knife. When we paint, he only uses the blue paints.
I never wanted to have guns in the house. So how do boys figure out weapons when we are SO careful about what he watches, where his influences come from and what we talk about? I have never even said the word GUN in front of Eirik, so what does he do? He makes up his own word for gun. "Bout" And for the few weeks before he learned the word "shoot" he said "I bout you" about every 2 seconds on an average day. He learned about swords early on and that's when the dragon fighting stage began. Then he learned about Bows and Arrows (Robin Hood) and then he learned about hunting and protecting things; like princesses. And, these little lessons have led to a full on battle that ensues the moment he wakes up all the way through his dreams in the night. He is all about protecting us from every scary monster, animal, and dragon and using his pretend weapons for any other opportunity that he can imagine. His horses all line up and go to battle and stomp things like scary animals. (He broke the legs off 2 horses this morning by stomping "really really" hard.) I have been the target of many, many, many slayings. We had to take away his swords because it was getting too out of control, but anything at all can be a weapon, like a 3 hole punch for example. I don't think he has ever seen a slingshot, but he figured out how to make one out of this stick he found outside and a string.
It's really hard to play with my son when every activity I suggest always ends up in some sort of shooting match and Mommy doesn't really want to play guns or hunting or shooting, and actually won't play these games. So poor Eirik has felt a bit neglected this week and I'm hoping he'll find a new obsession soon, like paper cutting for example or maybe dress up. :)

Now don't get me wrong. I adore my boys, but can I just borrow someone's daughter for a while so we can do crafts and make fairy's and draw flowers together? I am ashamed to admit, I couldn't help myself this weekend. I bought baby girl clothes at a MOM 2 MOM sale! What for?? I don't know! Just for the day when maybe I get to dress up a little girl in something besides dinosaurs!!!!!!!!!

This picture shows Eirik with his favorite tools. I get really freaked out when he wants to use tools and usually take them away which always causes a tantrum. He usually says something like, "mom, those are very very sharp, I use them very very carefully. Sharp things are very special to me. Tools are my favorite." So I taught him to walk with them points down, made him some board that he can practice using tools on, and I just try not to be too freaked out.

We've been talking a lot about good choices this month. We made his first sticker chart and he got some special horses since he filled it in with my little pony stickers. (he he he). He has started saying, "Mom, make a good choice, make a horsey choice." all the time. I don't know what this means. This morning he said, "Mom, you make a good choice, Make a lion choice, close your eyes and better hide from the berry scary lion choice!" He also loves to say, "I'm too dizzy" to anything that he does not want to do. Naturally, I hear, "I'm too dizzy" all day long.
He finally learned how to open doors- to my dismay. Now he loves to go outside and down the sidewalk by himself. Today I found him 4 doors down the street and he said, "There you are mommy, you got lost!" when I finally caught up to him! What am I going to do with him?
He loves to use keys. I told him that he could use my keys to turn on Joren's swing, so he has been trying to figure that out for a few days. I think he's on to me. I also told him he could use keys to turn on the vacuum. That makes vacuuming take a LONG time with him "turning" it on and off with the keys all the time. ;) He also loves to "drive" the car. He always heads for the front seat first and says, "I'm like Daddy now, I learn to drive now?" "Turn the music up. I love Rock and Roll!"

Ode to my cowboy- 25 months

Last week Eirik and his friend Keaton got into a screaming war over a horse of Keaton's that Eirik wanted. The tantrum that ensued was the biggest one in Eirik's history. Today at the library there was a horse in the toybox after story hour. When Eirik had to leave the horse at the library another tantrum erupted. The amount of drama and hysterics this kid can put into a tantrum is really remarkable! And over a horse??? Yes, horse is the magic word around here. Today we decided it was time for a sticker chart to start rewarding good behavior so I took Eirik to the store to pick out the best stickers. We looked at superhero sticker, dinosaur stickers, dragon stickers, and Winnie the Pooh stickers, but did he want any of these? No, he wanted the My little Pony stickers. Paul told me not to tell anyone. (I guess I didn't listen.)

The other day I thought it would be funny to take a picture of ALL of his horses so we lined them all up. I could think of at least 5 that weren't at the horse party so I started watching for them throughout the day. Most of them turned up in the usual places, but a few had made their way into the cracks and crannies of our home. Some in other unusual places.


I don't know why he likes horses. I don't know how it started. I didn't encourage this. All I know is that we have to get in the car and go look for barns to please this child and he knows where every miniscule picture of a horse is in every book we own and he can spot a horse on any logo or belt buckle or sign wherever we are. I never knew there were so many horses in our everyday lives.

This is Eirik taking a few of his horses for a ride in the dishwasher cart. How do kids think of this stuff?I think he was really pleased that he could fit in this box. He had a hard time staying upright and falling, as he found out, was unfortunately not so fun.

Eirik started randomly saying "Guess What?" "What" "I come and say Hello!" They he laughs hysterically. We love his random sense of humor.

Out of Hibernation

I've been stuck in this kind of limbo stage for the past week and a half as the weather is warming up and I want to get really excited and get crazy high spring fever but my logical side is holding me back, too cautious to get too happy about it yet. Everyone around here says that winter really lasts until about mid May so I'm trying not to get my hopes up. Still, if it snows again, don't expect me not to cry. I want to see a whole lot more of this cuteness in the near future.
This is our backyard so Eirik is allowed to dress himself. This is what he wanted to wear. He can put his boots on by himself and he is so proud! Our new favorite springtime activity is throwing rocks into our pond and fishing with Eirik's mini fishing pole. Fun!These are the first flowers I have seen this year.
They were not in our town, but 2 hours away everything seems to be blooming.
It's been almost a whole month since I blogged last. Wow, that flew by! For a while there I was blogging every day, a couple of posts a day. I was on turbo speed and my brain was working a million miles a second. I couldn't turn off!! Well, I took some meds and now I'm normal again. :) (If I ever was normal.)

During the last month we went to visit our bro and sis in a nearby town. Good times, great weather.. not much conference with 5 kids running around, but as always, amazing food. Zach and Arinn insist that we take the master bedroom when we come. We are so lucky they are so awesome. What a fun trip. Thanks guys!
I love Eirik's smirk in this one.


In this picture Eirik is putting his hand out in front of him and telling us all to "Stay Put!" in no uncertain terms. He is getting pretty bossy! He wants his independence at any price.

We also spent a weekend in Cleveland with our true amigos Kit and Basil. Their new little birdy is seriously just the sweetest most precious thing I have ever seen.
Since these two gems waited so long to get pregnant this little blessing seemed so precious to me I was afraid to hold her. She was just so fragile and little. I had all these intentions of doing a big photo shoot with her. What happened to my good intentions??? ! Sorry Kit!
I did catch this splendid shot of the group in front of Kit and BAsil's neighbor's house. It is one of the treasures of Cleveland. No other small apartment has ever been so bedecked with fake flowers, boots for flower pots and small plastic animals. Marvelous! I love how it is changed for the seasons each time we visit. True art in kitch form.
This picture was taken as we set out on our walk to the Natural History Museum which happens to be in walking distance from their place. So cool! We LOVED the museum. I have been studying animals with Eirik and I have a new appreciation. I got way more excited about dinosaur bones than I ever thought I would. I was laughing at myself as I oohed and awhed over each new exhibit. Eirik loved it too and on the way home he said "I miss Stegosaurus." "We go museum now??"
Thanks Kit and Basil for letting us crash your new baby party. We don't bring as much calm with us as we used to now that we add a very talkative and demanding 2 year old to the mix. Hope it was as fun for you as it was for us.