Miss Madelyn

So I've been waiting on the day that I could put little pigtails in Madelyn's hair.  I was sooooooo EXCITED when I discovered her hair was long enough for pigtails.  How cute!!!!  I've done it like this almost everyday since I found out that I can do it.  For one it makes her hair look even, which it is VERY uneven all the way around.  Second, it stays pretty good all day, minus nap time.  And third its just plain cute.  I love her soo much and she has brought so much joy to our house.  She is walking everywhere and into everything, but she is so fun to just watch and see what she is doing.  I always wonder what their thinking up there at this age.  Seriously can you get any cuter?  I don't think soo. 

By the way, my new challenge to myself is to blog once a week.  I just feel like this time is getting away from me and this is our journal, so this is my only way to remember this time.  So wish me luck!

Sunday Best

So I was noticing that I didn't have that many pictures of the kids as I would like on our blog.  So my new goal is to update regularly on the kids and recent pictures of them.  Problem is 90% of the pictures we take are on our phone, so I just need to start uploading those to the computer.  Anyway, before we went to church the other week I told Geoffery I wanted to take pictures of the kids dressed up looking cute.  Because again, 90% of my pictures are of them at home in comfy clothes and they are never dressed cute or their hair fixed.  So we took the time to take pictures, but Madelyn is terrible.  She NEVER sits still for a second so all the pictures are blurry of her.  So I had to sit in and hold her while Geoffery took the picture.  At least we got ONE good one of both kids looking at the camera.  I guess that's all you can ask for:)

Yellowstone Trip

 Earlier this summer, we decided that we were going to try to go to cool places right around where we live. People drive thousands of miles to come here and experience the outdoors and we’ve lived here for eight years and haven’t done most of the touristy stuff. Sooo we decided one weekend to pack up the kids and head for Yellowstone. It’s only and hour and a half, so not too far and we wanted to drive around the park, see the hot springs, see Old Faithful, and have a picnic right in the park. I was REALLY excited about going because the last time I went I was about 12 and don’t remember much. (As side note, Geoffery has begged me to go since I can remember and have never been up to, just didn’t seem that cool, but I guess I’ve changed my mind since I had kids).

We got up early that morning and went to a local breakfast place in town and it was delicious!! It never fails and seriously has the best pancakes and homemade syrup I’ve ever eaten! I try to talk Geoffery into going every Saturday morning. THEN, we went to Wal-Mart and bought a cooler because we don’t have one and some drinks and stuff for our picnic. FINALLY at 11:30 we left Rexburg and were on our way. Madelyn took a nap the whole way up and Grant watched his (um no, OURS) ipod. Once we were there we drove into the park and immediately saw a huge elk. Yellowstone seems to never disappoint with the animals. We were all hungry again by this point and pulled off at the closest picnic table and ate lunch. There was a stream nearby that Grant actually got into trying to catch fish with his cup. He was pretty disappointed that he wasn’t successful and we tried to explain that only cavemen can catch fish this way. So after this point his flip-flops were SOAKING wet. After lunch we stopped at a hot spring and walked around. Hence, if you notice in the picture Grant barefoot, that’s because he flat out refused to wear his shoes, so he had to ride in the stroller. So don’t think I’m the kind of mom that lets her children walk around Yellowstone with no shoes because I’m not… promise!

After that we decided to head to Old Faithful having no idea when it would erupt again. Luckily we got there 3 minutes AFTER it erupted. Yeah, so we got to wait another hour and a half to see it go off. So we got ice cream and walked around the big hotel they have there. It’s super cool inside if you’ve never seen it. And don’t think you can get a room there because it’s a year and a half out for a reservation- and you have to share a bathroom- not my kind of place. I like my privacy please! But it would be an experience I’m sure. ANYWAY, we got some pretty good seats to see it explode. Grant decided that it would be loud and he doesn’t like loud noises so he decided he had to wrap my baby wrap around him to shield his ears from the exploding water. (He didn’t care for the hot springs too much- hot water and loud noises are his two biggest fears). Everyone was looking at him and laughing because he looked pretty ridiculous. Which this only added to his fuel of angriness. He kept yelling at people not to look at him and laugh. Yeah, that’s my boy…yelling at complete strangers. Gotta love 3 year olds! When it finally went off he realized that it wasn’t loud and he was pretty safe sitting that far away, and he was okay with it and thought it was pretty cool. Then after that we headed home. Unlucky for us we ONLY saw elk and not even ONE buffalo. I was pretty sad about that, but it was a lot of fun and we had ourselves some memories. AND that was our summer goal—TO BUILD MEMORIES. So all and all it was a success. Here are some pictures of our trip…

 Grant has an obession with school buses so we had to take our picture in front of one.

 He was soooo afraid of the noise that it would be too loud.

 Here is Grant looking very religious so that he wouldn't hear the water "blow" up in the air.

I {heart} NY

We decided to take a little trip to NY to go visit my wee little brother because he and his wife are living there for the summer.  Its a free place to stay and that saved us about half the budget right there!  Anyway, we have been gearing up for this trip all summer.  It was our first away from the kids since WAY before I had Madelyn, so it was looong over due.  There are a couple of things that I think sum up (MY VIEW) of NY:

1.  Hot and humid

2.  EXTREMELY dirty!!

3.  Expensive strollers

4.  LOOOTTTTSSS of walking

5.  Everything is overpriced

6.  The city NEVER sleeps (I thought that was just a saying, now I know its true:)

7.  Subways suck! (I felt like a rat going into its hole)

8.  Big cities would only be fun to live in BEFORE having kids

9.  People are more materialistic (well I'm comparing it to Idaho;)

10.  Celebs are everywhere

11.  Good food

12.  If there's anything interesting in the city, its crowded with HUGE lines

13.  Street performers are pretty entertaining

14.  It's too high paced for my taste

15.  I wouldn't know where you would buy a suitcase- No wal-mart, TJ Maxx, I wouldn't survive

16.  Corner markets instead of grocery stores= EXPENSIVE FOOD!

17.  Broadway shows are really the best and worth the money

All and all, I'm super glad we went.  Thanks to my wonderful sister-in-law who took us everywhere we demanded her and let us boss her around.  She was a wonderful hostess and seriously we couldn't have figured out the subways without her.  We just followed her EVERYWHERE!  Anyway, we took LOTS of pictures so here are some of my favorites. 

G- Man in front of his building (he would work 90 plus hour some weeks!)

Central Park plus NY skyline on top of the MET museum building

   Our seats were soooo close to the field... you felt like you were playing with them!

Just Kidding!   We were 4 seats down from the TIP TOP!

PILLOWS!!

I don't know about you guys, but pillows are my very favorite thing to buy for a room.  It completely sets the tone- formal, fun, classic, bright, or neutral.  You can have a so, so couch and as soon as you put pillows on it, it can completely change the room.  Soooo I have been looking everywhere for new pillows for my living room.  I want something classic and somewhat formal (since we don't use it all that much).  I've searched all my favorite stores- Potterybarn, Crate&Barrel, etc. and I've found... nothing.  Nothing that says me.  So I decided to check out etsy.  And you know what, I have found so much out there and for pretty good prices.  I can't sew- AT ALL and why not take advantage of people who can!!  Yeah for etsy!!!  Anyway here are some of my favorite pillows/shops that I found at etsy.

I love the No.7 on this.  I've seen a lot of numbers lately in designing rooms and I LIKE IT! A LOT!  This seller has a WHOLE bunch of different prints that she can put on pillows just like the one shown.  So if your not feeling the whole number thing, you can choose anything you want. 

I also loved this pillow!!!  I've seen this print on a number of different design blogs and I LOVE IT!  Its a little more expensive because supposedly its the real deal designer fabric (have no idea what that means), but its still cheaper than a lot of pillows that I've been looking at lately.  I loved this pillow in brown, but it comes in a number of different colors.  Also this particular seller will work with you to coordinate more pillows with you.  And from the looks of her shop, I trust her style.  Her other, non-designer fabrics, are just as pretty and MUCH more reasonable (around the $20 range).  Anyway, go look at etsy and see what you like because sometimes I forget to look there for things to design my house.  There's a LOT of talent out there!

I have a confession...

So lately I have become a little obsessed with design blogs.  Like stalking them everyday and spending hours on the computer to find new ones to inspire me.  I don't really know how this obsession started, but I seriously can't stop thinking about.  It's overtaking my LIFE!!!  Not really, but I've seriously have had to start limiting my time on the computer because I love doing it so much.  It's like having free design magazines on your computer.  So I've decided to start sharing with you guys some of my favorite things that I find.  I'm always emailing my sisters pictures of stuff I find to help inspire them with decorating their house, and why not share these images with you guys?  I mean, their BEAUTIFUL. 

The number one thing I've found by spending countless hours on the computer looking at these blogs, is that there are way more retailers available to help inspire us other than Potterybarn.  This leads me to my first post... Wisteria.  I don't know if you guys have heard of them, but they really sell some amazing one of a kind furniture.  Stuff that looks like its been around for a while, not brand new out of the box.  Anyway, they have some really pretty pictures on their website and you can view room by room already decorated (which is my favorite).  These were my favorite and I really want this chalkboard to put in my mudroom (which is ALWAYS the biggest mess) and wouldn't this be perfect to get that organized?  Also I'm always on the lookout for great bedding.  I really don't find too many bedding sets that I like.  No WHERE!!  But I really like this one and I love the warm colors.  Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this stuff as much as I do!

Two Reasons for Celebration!

So there were two really good reasons to celebrate the 4th of July- Independence Day and Madelyn's birthday!  Officially Madelyn turned one today, but since family was going to be in town already for the 4th, we decided to combine the two.  We really had a lot of fun. 

We started out the day with the annual Rexburg Parade downtown.  This is my most favorite thing all year that I really look forward to.  I know that sounds pretty dumb, but I grew up going to a similar parade in Georgia at a not so small town anymore.  But it is so similar to what I remember as a kid and I think looking through their eyes its so much more cool.  The big tractors, fire trucks, horses (even if they do poop), all the candy, old cars, and at the Rexburg one they always hand out chocolate milk (Grant's a big fan of this tradition).  It always makes me feel apart of the community and patriotic.  I seriously LOVE this time of year!

Anyway, so after the parade we came home and put Madelyn to sleep and got started on the food and decorations.  Everyone helped out so much so it wasn't all that hard to get everything together.  By the time we were done, Madelyn woke up and we all ate.  Then we sang happy birthday to her and blew out the candle.  She got her first, of many I'm sure, chocolate cupcake.  She was more interested in playing with the cake rather than eating it, but I think she enjoyed the experience.  After a quick bath (she was a MESS) we opened presents.  She got her first doll house from us, LOTS of books and a bookcase from Juju (my mom and dad), and a ride on ladybug from Nana (geoffery's parents). 

She really was in a good mood for most of the day.  I had just weaned her from nursing the day before, so she was  a little on edge.  I, on the other hand, had plenty of caffeine to make up for the last two years of doing without (some benefits to not nursing or being prego).  But we really had a lot of fun with everyone and it was really relaxing and laid back.  It's good to have family around who will help and you can just be yourself.  So all and all it was a successful celebration of the 4th and 1st birthday!  So glad I decided to combine them... maybe it will become a tradition:) 

Beach Trip 2010

We decided this year we really needed a beach vacation. Both Geoffery and I grew up vacationing in Florida every summer with our families. To us its not a vacation without the beach, specifically in Florida. Luckily, we got there before the oil spill did and we all enjoyed the beach for a week long. I think the oil finally reached the beach a week after we were there. Whew! We really had a good time. We went and stayed at a SUPER nice condo with my parents- THANK YOU!! Everyday we would wake up, throw on our bathing suits, go to the beach for 3-4 hours, come up take naps, get ready, and go out to eat. It was heaven.

As you all know, vacationing with children is really like a business trip for the parents (line from modern family). You never really know how they're going to react when you take them across the country and travel to places they've never been. Well I have to say this... they were angels the ENTIRE time we traveled- seriously perfect. Once we got there, they were still really good until Grant woke up with some crazy looking knee caps, ankles, and elbows. They were sooo swollen and he couldn't even bend them. Geoffery took him to urgent care and the doctor told us he was bitten by sand fleas (never heard of 'em). After that he had hives for 3 days if he even thought about itching them. They put him on a steroid to help with the bites and if you've ever had a kid on steroids you know they make them a little crazy. Grant had a ton of energy and he was scratching like crazy. We decided that we better not go back to the beach and decided to hang by the pool all day. So we did that for three days and it really helped. He wouldn't scratch if he was in the pool because it kept him cool and he also didn't scratch while he slept. So we just kept him doing those two things- THANK GOODNESS HE SLEPT!! I have to say, for as uncomfortable as he had to feel, he really did well not complaining about it and just having fun- it couldn't have been much worse. So all in all the vacation wasn't ruined thanks to sand fleas.

We had a lot of great memories one being that Grant got over his fear of pools! He finally let us put him in the water and move around without screaming at the top of his lungs. By the end, he was even jumping into the water and letting us catch him. I was sooo proud because I LOVE swimming and before this trip he wouldn't even get his big toe wet. Madelyn loves the water and had a ton of fun. It was great because she would take her morning nap outside and just fall asleep in my arms- again she was great!!

Geoffery and I were very happy with out vacation. I wouldn't say it was relaxing, but it was a ton of fun. Thanks mom and dad! My sister and her husband and two kids were also able to come and my little bro and his cute wife too. We had a blast. Here are the promised pictures for my family. WARNING- there are a TON of them. Sorry if I bore you guys!