Visit from Utah!

One of my favorite people and my old Relief Society president from Utah was here in Denver last week for a work convention.  We were able to get together on Friday night to visit and spend some time together.  It was wonderful!  I've really missed Wendy!  We went to the 16th street outdoor mall (really fun!) and had dinner at an old-fashioned diner that had great ice cream and shakes!  Then we wandered into Barnes and Noble and around the other shopping area for awhile and visited.  It was fun to catch up on the old news from home (yes, I still think of Lehi as 'home') and it was also fun just to have a night out and see some Denver sites!  Life has been so crazy since Gerald started school that we haven't gone out on the town since we moved here!  ;) 

So, Utah friends, I told Wendy that she is now my official 'favorite' since she is the first one to come out to visit me!  But I can have more than one favorite - you now know what you have to do to qualify!  ;)  We do have an air mattress!

Painting and Modeling

Katelee was wearing an old T-shirt of mine the other day while she painted with watercolors, and she asked me to take pictures of her.  She then proceeded to pose.  She is so funny!  And maybe (MAYBE!) I take too many pictures.  Nah, there's no such thing, right?  I think she is so beautiful!

'Lil Cupcake Cake

I made this cake for a first birthday party last Saturday.  I love the little cupcakes on the second layer!

Wacky Weather

It snowed here yesterday.  

Crazy!

But since the weather reports say it will warm up again, I guess it was kinda interesting to have a day of snow.  We spent a lot of time in front of the fire reading books, which was nice and cozy.      

I'm Ready!

Lately whenever we are leaving the house, even if is just to run the simplest, quickest errand, Katelee can NOT leave until she has packed.  She runs into her room (which, by the way, is now clean again...we've kept it that way for two days and counting!) and throws random toys into her back pack and any other handy bag until it is stuffed full.  Then, she is ready to go!  I particularly love this picture below: her back pack is bursting with toys, her purse in hand is carrying all her favorite princesses, and she has no shoes on her feet.  But she's ready to go!

I've been thinking a lot about being ready, lately.  How do you get ready for the things life throws at you?  

I've always prided myself on being a planner and being ready for things I know are coming.  During our recent move, I thought I was being so organized and all-the-ball.  And then a few unexpected things happened on moving day that ruined the schedule.  When men from the ward showed up to load the van, and I was so embarrassed about how much was still left unpacked.  Other people had to help pack up boxes, and it really bothered me that I wasn't ready.

When we got out here to Colorado, I struggled more than I had expected for a couple of weeks. I had known I was moving here for months.  Shouldn't I have been ready for the change?

And what about the things you don't see coming?  I never expected to deal with infertility.  I expected to have a house full of little ones by now.  And what about my parents dealing with my dad's major illness?  He has been so sick, but he's still so young!  That was not in the plans.  

The conclusion I come to is that while lists and schedules and organization is good, these things can never really help you be completely ready.   Spiritual preparedness is really the answer.  Only a close and personal relationship with the Savior can help in the end.   Because if you have that, then you really can face anything with grace and confidence, even though life won't be perfect.  I'm not there yet, but I'm working on it.  I want to get to the point where I have such faith that I can say, Bring it on!  I can face any challenge this life can give me with the help of my Savior.  I'm ready.

O Baby!

I got GREAT news just now!  

I'm a match!

I'm a match!

I'm a match!

I'm crying, I'm so happy.  Matching blood types is only the preliminary requirement to see if you can give someone else an organ, but I am so thrilled to be on the potential donor list.  I would love to be chosen as the one to give my dad a kidney.

No matter who gets to be the lucky donor in the end, though, I am so excited for my dad to get the transplant and begin feeling better again.  My dad is my hero.  He never complains, but he is so sick.  I just want him to feel like himself again soon.  

Where's Katelee?

When we moved into our new place, we began keeping all of Katelee's toys in her bedroom.  Even though we had most of her toys in other rooms in our old house, we organized them well and everything fit just fine in her new room.  

But that only lasted for about two days.

This is pretty much what Katelee's room has looked like since we moved in.  It's like a girly version of Where's Waldo, right?

I'm totally ashamed when I think of the looks of horror that must be on the faces of all my organized and totally-together friends!  But, I'm just keepin' it real.  This is the sad, sad truth of my life.  

On the other hand, the rest of my house has stayed really clean!  Oh, I know that my bathroom's definitely need a good scrubbing, but I wouldn't be embarrassed for anyone to see the other rooms of my house.  But I'm definitely embarrassed about this room!

I've taken an hour out of my day twice now to totally clean it and organize and put it back together.  It takes Katelee about 7 minutes to return it to it's messy state.

Help!

I need to establish some routines for keeping the mess at a minimum.  But they also have to be routines that I can actually live with despite our crazy, busy lives.  I was thinking cleaning every night before bedtime, but I'm always exhausted then...  Should I take half of her toys away and put them out of reach? Any other ideas?  How do you help keep your kids' play space from looking like a scene out a natural disaster movie?

Library Day

Thursdays are quickly becoming one of our favorite days, because they are the day we go to the library!  I've mentioned before that we love our new library.  It is a lot of fun to play the library computer games and check out new movies, CD's, and stacks and stacks of books.

When we moved here, Katelee got her very own first library card.  I was definitely more excited than she was =),  but she does enjoy checking out her own books at the automated check out stations.

When we get home from the library, we examine our new pile of books and dig right in!  I love getting new picture books, as I get tired of ones I've already read quickly.  :)

Story hour here is a lot of fun, and it is helping Katelee learn to sit quietly and how to behave in a group setting.  In Lehi, story hour was tons of fun, but it was also huge and chaotic and Katelee mostly ran around with the other little kids.  (If you know Katelee, you know that she is not a sit-still stay-quiet kind of kid by nature!)  At our library here, however, we attend the preschool story hour.  There are rarely more than 5 or 6 kids, and they are all at least 3-years-old, so Katelee is learning to sit down, listen to the stories, and not yell out whatever comes into her head.  I am so proud of how well she is doing!  Even if she spent most of the third story today poking Ms. Nancy's Paddington Bear in the middle of his fat nose.  She thought she was so sneaky that nobody saw her!  I'm just glad that the librarian, Ms. Nancy, chose not to say anything.  =)  Oh, Katelee, I love your funny personality so much!

Potty and Pumpkins

Katelee has been potty-trained during the daytime since last January, but I haven't really pushed the nighttime potty training.  She is such a long and deep sleeper, and frankly, I didn't want to mess with that.  But about a month ago I forgot to put a diaper on her at nighttime.  And she woke up dry!  So we have experimented a little lately with no diapers at nighttime, with mixed success.  For awhile, it was about a 50% chance that her bedding would be dry in the morning.  (Are you kidding?  I can't even keep up with the usual laundry!)  But, the last two nights she has woken in the middle of the night and gone into the bathroom on her own.  I am so thrilled!  Hooray!

Also, I finished making those little pumpkins I mentioned in a previous post, and they were so fun!  I love them; they make me smile.  Here's a picture of how they look:Fall is definitely in the air here in Denver today.  It's chilly and overcast and promising rain, and I love it! 

How to Have Fun Making Your Own Bird Feeder

Start with one very excited three-year-old girl, who wants to make a bird feeder for a 'mommy school' experiment.  Find the 'prettiest' pine cones around.  Make sure they are sufficiently pretty.  This is very important.

Spread peanut butter all over each pine cone.  Get it all over yourself in the process.  Get it all over the camera, too, as you try to take a picture of your three-year-old daughter laughing at you.

Roll the pine cone in birdseed.  Spill bird seed.

Take a second to admire your creation.  Oooo, pretty.
Choose a branch to hang your bird feeder on.  If you are short, it might have to be the lowest branch on the tree.After about 10 seconds, watch a wild bunny rabbit catch the scent of your bird feeder.  Stand back and giggle while that poor bunny sniffs around back and forth for several minutes, trying to find the goods.  Laugh when the bunny finally figures out it's above his head, and stands on his tip-toes to eat the treat.  Remember that when you signed your apartment lease, you promised never to feed the wild bunnies (really).  Shoo the bunny away and hang the bird feeder on a much higher branch.  Go inside to watch out the window for birds.  Half an hour later, watch a squirrel devour your bird feeder.  (We thought the branch was flimsy enough to deter squirrels.  We were wrong.)

Make plans to try again and hope for better luck next time!

A Milestone!

So, today I delivered my very first for-profit cake!  All of my past cakes have been for fun and practice; I have never made any profit from them.  Last month I posted my cake business on Craigslist, and now have three cake orders.  This Lightning McQueen cake was the first.  It was fun to make, but the real fun came when I delivered the cake.  I felt like the 'Cake Boss' (one of my new favorite shows) - you know the part of the show at the end where he delivers the cake and everyone goes nuts over how amazing it is?  Yeah, even though my cakes are nowhere near as ridiculously amazing as the Cake Boss', it was fun to deliver this cake today to the birthday boy and his family getting ready for the big party.  They all loved it so much, and the little boy just grinned and grinned and grinned as he stared at the cake.  It made my day.

And I never appreciate before how cute of a character Lightning McQueen is.  He was so fun to make!

My 2 Loves

We watched a movie the other night as a family.  We were sitting on the couch and I looked over at these two and thought about how they are so cute.  And how I love them so much.  And how I am seriously the luckiest person in the world.

Welcome, Autumn!

I am in love with Autumn.  It has always been my favorite season.  As soon as Labor Day has come and gone I start to get those excited little shivers and I know that Autumn is almost here!  There is so much to love about this season!  The colors, the decorations, the holidays (isn't Halloween the best?  I love it!), sweaters, the back-to-school supplies in stores, pumpkins, new routines, harvest produce, autumn-themed library books, corn mazes, crisp jacket weather.

Back-to-school time has been one of my favorite times of  year since I was five.  The first two years of Katelee's life were the only two years of mine that I haven't either been an enthusiastic student or an excited teacher when back-to-school time came.  I love school!  But this year, Katelee and I have started 'mommy' school.  (Don't ask me why we don't call it 'Katelee' school, Katelee just loves calling it mommy school!)  I am not sending her to preschool, so we have our little school ourselves.  I wish I could say I was perfectly consistent and that we had it everyday, but my life doesn't work that way!  Mostly we have it whenever Katelee thinks to ask about it, which is a few times a week.  And Katelee loves it!  We've done art projects, simple science experiments, writing, drawing, and more.  It's amazing the easy and fun things you can find to do online.  I try to shake it up and do something different each day.  Katelee has always been fascinated with letters, so she knows already how to recognize each capital and small letter and she knows what sounds each letter makes.  So we've begun working on writing the letters.  This is her first letter A.  We practiced on the chalkboard first for quite awhile, and then moved to this smaller worksheet.  I obviously helped her with her first letter on each line, but she did the others (mostly) on her own!
I also love the decorations and colors of this time of year!  Katelee and I decorated already, and we had a fun time doing it!  She loves putty our sticky fall leaves on the windows.  She also loves these pumpkins and the scarecrow, and wanted me to take a picture of them.  Also, I am SO making these darling fabric pumpkins when I get a few minutes; I've already bought the materials and think they will look amazing on my mantel!

When I had a garden, I loved this time of  year because it was the time you finally got to enjoy all the produce!  I don't have a garden this year, but I still love all the beautiful colors in the grocery store and I get so excited about canning.  I think preserving your own food is probably one of the most satisfying things to do!  If you haven't ever bottled your own fruit, you should try.  It's really not that hard; in fact, I find it rather fun, especially if you have someone else to work with.  This year was the first time I did it all on my own, though, and it still wasn't that hard.  The jars look so pretty, the fruit tastes so much better (not to mention it's healthier - I make mine with light syrup, so there's less sugar and no preservatives), and it's an incredibly inexpensive way to stock up your food storage.  So far, I have learned to bottle peaches, pears, strawberry jam, apple sauce, apple pie filling, and salsa (not all at once!) - and all of them have been easy enough for a beginner.  Pioneer Woman's website has very easy instructions here if you are interested in learning more.    
Now I'm just waiting for the weather to start cooling off.  It's still been quite hot here in Denver.  I hope we have a nice long Autumn this year, full of crisp bright days perfect for walks or going to the park.  And I can't wait to pull out my sweaters and jackets.  There's nothing cozier than a sunny day that calls for your favorite comfy jacket. 

Welcome, Autumn.  I'm glad you're here.   

6 Little Princesses

I think Princess Katelee is the most beautiful of the bunch!

Takin' Care of Business

So, this past week was extraordinarily busy for me, but that is a good thing, because it means I was getting some business!  I now have 13 piano students.  In all honesty, I know the Lord is looking out for us and blessing us, because 13 piano students in one month is extraordinary.  And more people ask me about my piano studio everyday, so it's only up from here.  I have also started getting people signed up for a preschool/toddler music and motion class that I will hold once a week out of my home that will start in October, and I am truly so excited about teaching that class!  And I have been contacted about making a couple of cakes!  So, all in all, I am staying busy, but I couldn't be more relieved and happy about it!  So, there is the update, for those who wanted to know.  Thanks! 

Do You Remember?

Last night I talked to my sister Melissa on the phone for a few minutes, giving her some happy birthday wishes.  Later that night as I lay in bed, I kept thinking about childhood memories we share.  Melissa and I are only 16 months apart in age, so (unlike my other siblings) I can't remember a time when she wasn't around.  Even though we were so close in age, or maybe because of that, we were especially good at pushing each other's buttons and being mean to one another as sisters tend to do.  But I have so many fun memories of growing up with Melissa, and I found myself last night wishing she were nearby so I could ask her: Do you remember...

• how we used to share that queen-sized bed?  When we were really little, we would burrow underneath the covers and create 'tunnels' and 'streets' in the bedding until mom or dad came in and threatened to spank us if we didn't go to sleep. 
  
• that when I slept at night I slept on my side and needed something to put my top arm over?  You would sleep on your side next to me and let me put my arm over your body.  I still sleep that way, only now I usually use a pillow.
• how I used to make up stories to tell you?  I still remember some of them, like the one about the lightning bug friends who helped the kids out of the dark woods... did I make that up or just hear it somewhere?  I can't remember.
• when we used to ride our bikes together all over the neighborhood, back when kids could do that kind of thing?  I remember those huge dirt hills behind our house in Cedar City that we would zoom down and up.  I also remember pretending that we were cars, complete with turning signals and loud horns.
• Safety Kids and Wee Sing?  I remember singing those songs as loud as we could and coloring in the books together.
• when the two of us biked down to the grocery store for treats and saw a lady giving away kittens, and we just HAD to have one?  I think that is the kitten we named 'Marbles.'
  
• our paper route that we shared?  I always walked down the right-hand side of the street and you walked down the left, and we would meet at the end corner.  If we had money, we would stop in the corner store to buy treats.
• how you used to be a pro at catching grasshoppers in the long grass behind our Sugar City house, and how I hated them so much?  If you wanted to torture me, you would chase me with them!  That becomes funnier and funnier as I get older!
• all the fun we had playing together?  I remember spending hours and hours playing Little People, Barbies, and other games that we invented.  Do you remember that game where we would set up our three Barbie tables of varying heights to represent a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place podium?  Then we would use our paper and crafts to create a bunch of awards, and we would vote on which awards were for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.  I don't remember who won the awards or what they did to win the award, all the fun was in creating the awards themselves!
• that you were my best friend?

(Please tell me, friends, that you remember dressing just like this once!  Rolled pant cuffs, glow-in-the-dark T-shirts, neon T-shirt clips, white tennis shoes, poofy bangs - we were sooo stylin'!)

Happy Birthday, sis!

Autumn Cake

I made this mini-cake for the birthday of one of the sisters I visit teach.

I love fall.

Park Days!

One of the things we are most enjoying about Highlands Ranch is the many, many, MANY parks!  Highlands  Ranch is a 'planned community' and as a result it has parks everywhere.  So far, we have noticed at least a dozen public parks within five minutes of our house.  

But, these parks aren't just any old parks.  They are awesome!  We have yet to find a park that is boring.  Each park has something that sets it apart:  we've been to a park where the jungle-gym equipment was designed to be a huge castle, complete with towers, draw bridge, and more.  Katelee loved it!  We've found other parks with duck ponds and streams filled with stepping stones, really fun spinning toys, sandboxes, and more.  

A few days ago we went to a park that, besides having a fun playground, was a splash park.  I FINALLY found my camera (it was hiding in the office closet underneath some craft stuff!), so I took pictures of Katelee enjoying the park with typical Katelee enthusiasm!  

Upon arrival:

I LOVE this park, Mom! 

2 minutes later

I have to go to the bathroom!

Sigh.

After using the bathroom:

Look at this pond, Mom!

After spending 3 minutes in the pond:

Let's fly back to the fountains!

For the next 20 minutes:

Run, run, run, run, run, run, run...

Take a few minutes to hop around like a frog.

She's finally done, and ready for a warm towel.