The rest (I think- I'm not making any promises) of Florida.

I thought if I squeezed four in a collage and took away your option to pop-out maybe it wouldn't be so bad. (We forgot to try for one more the last morning Lace--- oh well!)

Below we tried out there new tart yogurt joint. There's is serve your own--- and those places are making a killing in this market because of people like me. Me--- the girl with the 13 oz yogurt (a serving is 4.) I have a problem with portion control. How dare they take advantage of my weaknesses for profit.

Oh but I must say, I love u-serve because you can get the kids like an ounce if you want. Everyone gets there own. Everyone's happy. My handsome nephew- a pro on this bike.
Ok and it just so happens that my friend Michelle from Freshman year at BYU Hawaii lives in Gainsville... so we got to play! I'm hoping it was fun for you Michelle, even though we teased you with fresh cookies but forgot to give you any, and my little bully, Mila attacked Annie, unprovoked... more than once. Hopefully the Popsicle (above) will sugar coat the memory for her. Miss you. Sorry I didn't have a better photo of us since you think you're posing funny and I have uhh... who knows what- all over my shirt. We're even.

Oh and um-- are you kidding with that girl's lips? I never realized how luscious they were 'till I saw her this time in person. Wow.

This was our trip to Lacy's natural history museum--- Sophia was too scared to go through most of it (I don't know what the deal is, but she's terrified of fake outside inside things (like fake thunder and skies and loud noises INdoors. I don't know. Fearless of REAL things mostly, but Snow White's Scary Adventures and the American Indian Exhibit... no way.

But the butterfly exhibit-- AMAZING. They land on your shoulder and flutter by your face with their BEAUTIFUL turquoise wings and you try to remember how beautiful they are when they get too close and you still instinctively swat and squeal like they're big ugly grasshoppers. Really though- lovely.

Miss miss miss missing my sweet sister, her funny husband, and smart-darling kids.

As if traveling cross-country with my girls in tight quarters isn't reason enough to cry all the way home...

I have to leave my sister too. :( Tomorrow.

Here's just a few photos of our days... hmm... I'll have to get one of the two of us tomorrow morning before I leave- we haven't been very good at that.

It's a good thing we've got Ross waiting on the other end or tomorrow would be a dark, sad tunnel. We're gonna miss them- tons.

Blogging from Florida

I Survived the flights! Yes I may have spent 130 bucks at Target the night before (to Ross' dismay... and disgust) on junk food and new trinkets to pull out of my bag of tricks. I didn't even waste room on healthy foods or expired toys... only the best for this adventure. I wasn't going to risk any MAJOR melt downs in Continental's tight quarters if I might possibly be able to bribe them away with a little high fructose corn syrup.

And guess what? It worked. For the most part, worth every penny. (Well Ross might disagree on the inside but since his outsides didn't have to endure 6 hours of airplane travel with two small children, he keeps that nice and quiet.)

And I didn't even dive into a few things... so MAYBE (we'll see after the flights home) I'll get to save a few things for the two birthdays in our house coming up. So what if a little milk spilled and then ripened in Barbie's hair before I noticed?

Now? Enjoying the balmy Florida weather and my poor nauseous sister and her LOVELY kids. We're swimming and eating and being awfully lazy. And I already got to see my friend Michelle that just so HAPPENED to move to the same town as my sis. It's wonderful.

On a different note, check out my new post on the photo-blog here. And then come to Palm Springs and stay in this hotel because it's .... SO. cool.

Have you discoved these yet?

Mini Slow Melt Popsicles? They can eat them in the shopping cart, in their car seat, on the way to church-- anywhere, honestly, and there's no mess. They have a touch of gelatin I guess, to make them melt slower... and it helps that they're like 2 inches tall... so when the girls are begging for a treat, I can pull one out and figure they're getting as much sugar as like a swig of juice, and not worry about dripping... they're amazing. A life-saver in this 115 degree paradise I live in right now.

Just a little proof.... don't they look happy? And un-messy. I know. Revolutionary right?

Can you tell that Sophia is very much about smiling for the camera right now. She NEVER has been. And all of a sudden when she puts on a hat or finds something to wear as a scarf... "get your camera mom, don't you wanna take a pitcher of me? Don't you?"

Here she's saying to Mila, "no Mila, you have to smile like this (and then she squishes her chin into her shoulder as follows with that darling dimply grin.) Already teaching her little sister how to look pretty--- so role appropriate.

Leaving for San Diego tonight--- flying out to Florida to see my LOVELY pregnant sister, Lacy on Wednesday with the girls. Thanks for all your chair opinions! I wish I could have gotten it done before the travel-whirl wind begins. I have no idea which fabric I'll do. Couldn't everyone have picked the same one to make it easier. just kidding.

Wish me luck on the flights! yikes.

HELP!

I need opinions. Have your voice heard. Get out and vote.... or just do it right here in the comment section. pretty please?


Which combination do you like?



1.





2.
3. 4.

5.6.

7. oops... forgot this one in my original post. I know you've had enough of the fabric... but simple solid.. with dark wood... ? I thought making them all visual like this would help me... I think I'm more lost than ever!

Phew. That's all for now. Any sure winners??

A Girl'sTrip... but mostly rambling

I've figured out that I sort of allot myself a certain amount of computer time a day. Too much I'm sure. But sometimes it's spent blogging. Sometimes editing photos. Sometimes looking at photo blogs and photo streams, lately? Design blogs. I think I have a disease. I get on a new one, and the time passes... and passes.... If Ross is out of town, I'm up 'till 1 looking and looking and looking....

I guess it's really because of my chairs right now. I'm really going to do it. It looks like it'll be pretty easy... but now, finding the fabric is eating me alive!!! (consuming me--- if that was too weird and literal). It just seems like one of those things where the right fabric could make a killer chair, and the wrong fabric .... well could just make an ugly thrift-store chair a little less ugly. I don't really want to waste my time for the latter.

Of course I've searched through Amy Butler and every other good fabric line I've been told about--- my problem is finding one that I love in an upholstery weight. Well that's one of my problems. My other problem is that I've looked at so MANY design blogs now and seen SO many upholstered chairs, I can't, for the life of me, pick a direction. Do I want a natural wood frame with a bold patterned fabric, or a bold colored frame with a more muted fabric? Do I want hot pink as my accent in there? Or yellow? or orange? And once I commit.... does that have to be my living room accent color? How long before I can change my mind and reupholster it again without everyone I know rolling their eyes at me? And how is poor Ross, who takes a while to adjust to change, supposed to feel settled with his crazy wife searching for change.

I just need to get pregnant. Then I'll be so exhausted being a mommy, growing a baby all day every day, and cleaning my house.... I certainly won't have time to search for new projects to decorate my house. Hmm. Something to think about.

Speaking of getting pregnant (which by the way, don't go suspecting if I look chubbier in a photo or something... I'm definitely NOT there yet) has anyone heard of this maternity insurance where you can make like 8 grand after you have your baby if you sign up for it at least a month or so before you conceive? A friend of mine is doing it. I think her brother in law sells it. And I'm pretty sure it's the real deal. Just figured I should share the info. Pretty sure we can all use 8 grand. (maybe when I tell you I bought some new insurance... THEN you can get suspicious of any new chub.)

So my life's updates? What the heck--


- went on girl's trip last weekend for Rachelle's birthday. With Lizzie and Rachelle. Both of them are pregnant, so it was the first time I've hung out with them and felt like they wanted to eat as often as I did. Decided I was meant to ALWAYS be friends with pregnant girls.

- Oh and on girl's trip? We ate, and shopped, and pedicured, and slept in, and layed out. All at the Hyatt downtown in San Diego where Lizzie got an $89 rate on priceline! SO fun.

- Thank you sweet husband for not only watching the girls so I could go, but taking them to Seaport Village, and the Wild Animal Park, and then dealing with them all day on Sunday like it wasn't no thang while you had meetings before and after church, and gave a TALK in Sacrament meeting. And then when I get home surprisingly early, I don't find you watching a movie with them like I would have been, but doing puzzles at the kitchen table while you made them waffles from scratch. true story folks.

-I'm obsessed with fabric for my first real fabricy project ever. Did I mention?

- Also obsessed with big random frame walls. Working on one over my couch where my mirror used to go. Thinking that might take a while. But maybe it's about time I get a photo I'm proud of up on my walls.

- Bought tickets for Florida. Going with my girls to see Lacy next week! No Ross. Let's hope I survive the 12+ hours of traveling. Yikes.

- Wondering every time I wash my hair and dry it, and end up with a huge blonde afro, if shortish hair was a mistake on me. THICK hair+ lots of bleach+ SHORT+ not enough layers - (that's a minus) a flat-iron on girls trip = dis-ISISIS- aster. Maybe that's why we only took three photos.

- Taking photos tonight and it's 100-and-some-teen degrees outside and HUMID. Yuck. I hope they don't sweat as much as I do.

- I make myself sound so lovely with all the afro and the appetite and the sweat don't I? That Ross, he's a lucky guy.

Here's the three photos from the girl's trip.

uh huh--- Lizzie packs her tanning goggles as to avoid the sun-glass-tan. I died. Hilarious.

San Diego

This summer has been ON the move. I love it because it makes it feel like the end to this broiling heat might sneak up sooner than later. I can't remember if I've blogged about this. But Ross and his partners at Morgan Stanley have gotten the green-light to market in San Diego this summer. It almost makes it feel like my dream to move there is within reeeeaaaaach.... almost.

It's been so fun, since it doesn't take much to convince us to leave the triple digits and go hang at my mom's house. So here are the photos of last weekend at her house.... I figured I'd better squeeze in the post before we leave to head back later today!

So this post was written last Thursday morning, before we left for SD and BEFORE blogger locked me out of my blog under suspicion of SPAM! whuuuuuut???? I know. So I couldn't actually post. And now since then I got to spend a girl's weekend in downtown San Diego where I'm pretty sure I took all of.... one picture--- and I'm pretty sure that ONE picture was after we'd been laying by the pool which would mean we're all red and sweaty. Why is it so hard sometimes to take pictures on your OWN vacations?

The one-photo-vacation-post to come later.

I've got the bug

I go through waves of being content with my home and wanting to rip it all out and start fresh. Lately the latter. Not ALL of it. Just a few rooms, particularly the living room. It's always felt a little bit thrown together since we've never really BOUGHT living room furniture but have so fortunately inherited most of it. Um all of it huh Mel? And I still love everything, but just don't think I've succeeded in pulling it all together. But then I move a few pillows and get over it... then I let myself do searches that lead me to homes like this and it all comes back. The need for new colors, new patterns, something NEW. Why did I think that wall looked good? why did I think I needed three identical pillows? Why did I think I could do silk flowers that many times in one room?

So no. I certainly won't be buying any major pieces any time soon. HOWEVER. I bought these two hideous chairs from Angel View thrift store the other day, (I checked on them for a month until they marked them half off), and I seem to think I'm going to refinish and reupholster them into something amazing. Me. Reupholster. I've never sewed, or knitted, or crocheted, or.... taken apart a big chair.... nothing of the sort. I'm not really sure how I think I'll figure it out. Maybe I'll end up waiting until I can afford to pay someone to do it and it will be one of those things where you look back and realize you could have just bought the anthro chairs.. But who doesn't need a challenge?.... or just an I'm-an-idiot learning experience.

Meet Baby Ivan

Ian and Tere's THIRD little boy. He's three weeks old. Their oldest is not even three. Is he Ian? And they tote these three little boys around like it aint no thang. Seriously. I'm always inspired to sit back and enjoy the whole parenting thing a little more whenever I'm around them. Two of the most easy-going people that I know.

I don't know when it happened.

Her turning like 16 and all. Doesn't she look old? I've had my breath stolen right out of my chest on many occasion lately when I look at her and see so little of my face, so little of Ross' face, and so MUCH beauty. This perfectly formed face of her own. I know she has resemblances to us because people tell me so. But all I see is Sophia. With one set of dimples in her cheeks and one under her eyes (my FAVorite- inherited from Ross) and spaces between her perfect teeth, and cheeks you want to bury your whole face into, and eyes as big and blue as the pacific.

She can clean up the entire toy-room (a room I used to leave tornadoed (sure it's a verb) for weeks on end), color and read and paint and build and do all sorts of wonderful quiet-time activities during Mila's nap. She can get her own food and water and she cleans every spec of her face that could have been touched by food so I don't have to. She tells me that I'm pretty and tells me when she loves my dress and loves my hair and loves my necklace. She loves to give me kisses and rub my arms and she tells me that she loves ME and that I'm her best friend, like 20 times a day.

Did anyone warn me that nearly 4 is like the greatest age in the whole wide world? I wish we could all be nearly 4. The whole world would be a better place-- Obama wouldn't have felt like he had to go in and fix everything in like a month and in so doing, ruin everything.

But we might find soggy pull-ups in hidden trash cans, in countries far and wide.

(Our sippy-of-ice-water habit at night has not helped us in the night-time potty-train game. So no... she's not perfect. Under-eye-dimples and all.)

P.S. A couple new posts on my photo-blog HERE.

On "The Bachelorette"

-Did they seriously show a volcano erupt after her successful time with Ed? wow.

-Do they have to do the plank and proposal thing in the middle of the day when the hot sun is making her all sweaty and shiny? I totally feel for her.

-So I LOVED Ed in the beginning. When he seemed like this really normal guy. Kind of mellow, more grown up than some others. Normal. But something happened. Not so normal. Once he started making all of his speeches (like to go home to work) where he got a little nerdier and over dramatic. Red flag.

-Then he wore the green shorts that while cute, and probably very fashionable, were just a little too much of a statement for me. Like an "I love my long legs in a weird womanly way" statement. And then he wore them again last night? When on TV, you're supposed to have AT LEAST two swimsuits. I'm sure that was in the Bachelorette handbook somewhere. Which means he's not a rule-follower. Red flag.

-Bedroom scene: Creepy. Confusing. Red flag.

-And then it seems he's an only child,(I'm not judging, just sayin')--- an only child of a dad with a really creepy mustache. Serious red flag. Were they actors? So weird. I just don't really buy him. Like some thing's not right.

-His big aloha shirt two weeks ago in Hawaii? Red flag.

-Didn't really think Kiptyn was that into her, but seriously, San Diego or Chicago? Who cares about "connection". ;)

-Reid. Oh Reid. I fell in love with him and his cute crooked mouth a few weeks ago and he became my front-runner. Too bad he was never hers'.

-And too bad Jill forgot that the fact that he did NOT recite all the right lines from Bachelorette precedent was maybe... a good thing? Like he was for real?

-Although, he WAS surprisingly over-confident on his big return. He hadn't really thought that one through huh? But he clearly thought they had it. (you know.... the connection.)

-The producers really worked hard to mix this one up. Clearly it's less reality than ever--- but they still had me at Kiptyn's first hello and scary-David's weird Lenny-like lull.

Who'd have thought?

I don't usually take well to sexy teen dramas. Something (clearly!) is very wrong with the concept. So maybe I shouldn't confess this--- but honestly, is it possible that one little show on DVD can make a girl so happy?

It's sad I know, but I've discovered that my happiness is directly related to the shows we're watching. I know this because when summer-tv hits, I get a bit of the summer-crap-tv blues. If my day's dragging, AND we're trying to eat healthy, AND there's nothing good on at night, WHAT am I supposed to look forward to? So the little things just bum me out a little more and days seem endless. Especially when we can't step foot outside without shriveling like the wicked witch.

I know there's an anonymous out there somewhere that wants to remind me that moose-tracks and hollywood-derived teen-romances are NOT the true sources of happiness. And I'm well aware of that (in fact, does anyone know how I get one of those cool buttons that says "I believe" and links to the church's website?), but I'm not kidding when I tell you that I've been so HAPPY lately... with this show to look forward to! I'd seen previews before and it did NOT appeal. But since it came from a good source, and we were desperate, we decided to give it a shot. It took me a few episodes to really get in, but now it just might be one of my favorite shows. Maybe even EVER. The acting, the characters, the southern-drawls.... I hear the music when Ross puts the DVD in and I'm a clam. A happy happy clam curled up in the couch with my computer on my lap. Kind of makes me want to move to a small town and grow my hair super long.

A long time coming...

Where does the time go?

-photo-editing
-cleaning up food because my kids eat ALL DAY LONG.

I guess if I were actually answering that question, those might be my top two right now. Sad I know. My life sounds pretty boring. I just haven't been able to catch up on photos since Gina's wedding. There were a ton from that of course. Then I came back and shot a family reunion the next day here in the desert. 35 people total (yikes-- I know)... so that was a ton of photos, and then of course I took probably like.... a ton at the beach house with Brooke and Tyson that I haven't had a chance to blog yet. SO, since my afternoon was kept free for me to write a talk for church tomorrow, and Ross took Sophia to a movie for a little daddy/daughter date during Mila's nap, and then on his way got the most fabulous text from the bishop of our ward (from church) saying that we don't need to speak anymore.... turns out, I'm FREE! So here goes.

Day One at the beach--- arrived late afternoon- soaked up the sun while the kids dug in the sand right outside the house. Ate too much Stuft Pizza for dinner, then topped it off with the best s'mores of my life (I think it was the first time I used a fancy marshmallow roaster-skewer-thing instead of a wire hanger... and Brooke introduced me to the the double-marshmallow s'more. Oh where have I been?) ...and wallowed in my miserably-bloated happiness. Day 2- ummm.... a lot more beach. More relaxing. More yummy food. Definitely more s'mores. I think we were running low on s'more supplies that night, so Brooke rationed the goods, which made me eat more since I knew I had "3 more" with my name on them... yikes. And yum.

See the shot of the house, it's the cutest little thing, right on the sand. TONS of parking. Sigh... some day.... our own... in my dreams...

She thought it was fun to lay face down in the dirt and rub her head in it. hmm.To the Irvine Spectrum for shopping, Wahoos, and a little train-ride for the kids. Have I told you lately, that I love a fish taco? Day Three- decided to take a break from the rocks on our beach and packed up and went to a new beach, Three Arch, in Laguna? Newport? Not sure... but wow--- it was beautiful, and so worth the pack-up and the butt-kicking workout to hike the stairs out of there upon departure.

I know, that's only two of the arches. I didn't have my wide angle.... or maybe I just forgot...

Ross and Tyson played super-dads and took the kids in the water, exploring around the rocks and arches, and built a sand-mountain (sorry Ross, I just don't think we can call it a castle)... while Brooke and I lounged and took pictures. Thanks Ross.

Yeah- she got pooped and melted down like a Popsicle in Indio. Luckily all it took was a walk to the arches on Ross' shoulder and she crashed for a little sun-bathing nap. (Don't worry, she was lathered in sunscreen. I'm married to the sun-screen patrol. He remembers for the both of us.)

Brooke's friend, Katie, met us there for a little while with her two kids. Her little girl, Reese is a darling little HAM, so I couldn't keep my camera off of her.After food, rest, and clean up.... we took the kids to the park to avoid the sand before bed-time.
This was like the prettiest park I've ever been to. It was up on a cliff overlooking the ocean, but totally fenced in and bowl-like so it felt super safe. Tons of trees for shade... sigh....

again... some day. Some day I'll live in a neighborhood with trees that give shade. Even if it just means I'm in this house for 40 years (which is how long it'll take for these desert trees in my neighborhood to actually give shade.)

I love my house. I love the desert (sort of). But it's summer. And miserable. And I love the beach. So let me complain without thinking me a complainer please.

hhhhhaaaaaa (that's my written sigh.. the word just isn't doing it for me), I think that about covers it. Though I can't promise more photos won't trickle in. We did sort of squeeze in a fifteen minute family-shoot between our two families... I wasn't planning on having Brooke turn the camera on us so my hair was in a pony, but oh well. I'll save that for another day... or... maybe just a couple more...