Grandma's house....

Growing up my Grandma had a house full of treasures. I remember the bathroom in "Phoebe's room" when it had its original green shag carpet and cabinets frozen in time full of toiletries! It was the best. Old perfume bottles, hair product, bobby pins, soaps...it was as if our mothers were in the other room teasing their hair and talking about boyfriends. My favorite! And it never got old. Each time was just as exciting. Maybe that's why I had to hold the tears back when they ripped the carpet out and cleaned out the cabinets...even at 24 years old!



Last Sunday was our first "Sunday Dinner" at Grandma's house. And Kate found herself a treasure of her own...

Grandma's Peniore set.

I used to sit and stare at this as a little girl. I loved it!

I love that Kate has a treasure at Grandma's house....

Then Joe was taking pictures because there was such great light and I realized these are the only pictures outside of the hospital of me and my baby...in fact I don't have any pictures of me and my newborns besides those beautiful just-given-birth hammered faced pictures.

Don't mind the dirty feet... these are all straight out of the camera.

Do mind Kate's "stink-eye" face. It's a regular around these parts!

missing the action....

I got to take pictures for such a fun family last Saturday....



And I'm almost done processing them!!! I've been too lazy to take my laptop back into my room and connect it with the Internet that I've been off-line for a whole week!!!! Kind of an out-of-body experience!:) But I'm back now!

F-O-R-E-V-E-R...

can I just tell you how long it took me to figure this out on photoshop??? thank you google and the unlimited access to information that you provide! Layers, converting from psd to jpeg...it's amazing! This isn't even the photo that I wanted to use...but I was too lazy and just used a photo already in photoshop to practice on....that makes no sense....BUT--I have to document this because I figured it out ALL BY MYSELF!!!! YAH!

tagged....

Okay Emery...here goes:



8 things I am passionate about:

1. The Gospel of Jesus Christ
2. My husband
3. My kids
4. Family and friends
5. Actually owning a home
6. Photography
7. Good books
8. Good food

8 books I have read recently (since Grey was born):

1. all four of Anita Stansfield's Barrington saga
2. All four of her other Australia based saga
3. Night by Elie Wiesel
4. Princess by Jean Sasson
5. The Twilight series again (now that I can picture the characters as actors)
6. Persuasions by Jane Austen
7. The Host by Stephenie Meyer
8. I'm reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls


8 things I often say:

1. shhh...baby Grey's sleeping
2. you've got a choice________or_______
3. Got it?
4. ____ as all get out!
5. who do I love?
6. ghetto!
7. are you serious?
8. say you're sorry and give your brother/sister a hug!


8 things I've learned this year:

1. That NOT being pregnant is better than being pregnant!
2. Three's a charm!
3. I love my husband even more than when I married him
4. That I love living where I am
5. Good health is a blessing!
6. Ask for help when you need it.
7. My hair can actually grow
8. To really enjoy my little ones because I feel time slipping by

8 random things about me:

1. I love all things Mocha flavored! Especially ice cream!
2. I can kick the trash out of anyone when it comes to Saved By the Bell trivia...(a special thanks to the back to back episodes after school in junior high)
3. I read to my kids in either British or Irish accents to work on my skillz...and Truman is doing quite nicely himself. (This is what happens when your husband served in Ireland and you want to sound just as legit as him! :)
4. I shampoo my hair AT LEAST three times...probably because I'm not big on frequent washings.
5. I didn't learn to whistle until I was 25 and home pregnant with my buddy. I mean tunes and songs...I could only whistle with my fingers or one solid note.
6. I NEVER wear socks!
7. I can seriously watch a good movie over and over (same with books)...drives Joe crazy...he's a one-time-only kind of guy.
8. I'm a bather. I only shower when I have to wash my hair (major bummer).

Blessing day....

We blessed baby Grey yesterday. Joe gave a beautiful blessing. It was such a wonderful Testimony meeting and I came away with even more gratitude for the blessing of having a family and the knowledge that we will be together forever! Thank you everyone who came! We love you all!

why?

Sometimes I feel like such a weird-o. And it happened tonight. But let me start at the very beginning....

After I came home with baby Grey and a few weeks had passed I wondered why my "uterus" wasn't shrinking... hum. (Okay, this is going to get tad graphic and pretty gross--you were warned!) Everything else was shrinking down in its usual fashion but my "uterus." In fact it was beginning to look more and more like a softball just sitting right there on my incision line. As I was showing my Dr. at my 5 week visit the look on his face told me I was way off on my diagnosis...yeah, that would be an incisional (I think that's what it's called) hernia. Meaning when I lay down my intestines go back where they are supposed to go and when I stand up they try to sneak out. And they succeed. This isn't some "weakening of the abdominal lining" or any of that regular pregnancy stuff...this is full on insides coming out because what is supposed to be holding them in has been cut too many times that it wouldn't stay together. (And fixing it is a whole other issue because I'm not quite sure I'm finished with my family and blah blah blah....)

So now the story. I have to wear this abdominal binder to hold it in. Fine. Great. I'm glad they make them. But, when it's on it only raises my body temperature about 20 degrees and adds about 1/2 inch thickness where it is. Which is basically my whole torso and not what you want when you're only 8 weeks postpartum....more inches around the waist, no thank you!

So I go to this craft party/show tonight and I can't keep my mouth shut about it. Any time anyone commented on how I looked I didn't just say "thanks" (and they only commented because it is seriously a drastic difference from my humongous pregnant belly--anything would be...I was that big!) I start going on about how I'm wearing this binder and why and how it's SO thick and blah blah blah!!!I've got to get a grip! So that was good to go out and realize I can't be doing that for the next year. Do you ever do stuff like that? When you almost just have to laugh because look back and try to figure out who that girl was who kept talking about her hernia??? And why was she talking about it? Did she all of the sudden look thinner because they knew she was wearing a thick brace? Ha! Welcome to my world. Oh well...no worries...no more gross hernia talk I promise!

my how you've grown...

Remember how just two weeks ago you were like this?

and now you're full of this....

that's how we grow them,...fat and happy!