Tis the Season...

This Christmas was an exciting time for our family. Since we planned on going to Virginia for the holidays, we decided to skip the real tree tradition this year. This was a bit of a stretch for Colin, worked at a tree farm in high-school and developed a bit of real-tree snobbery--especially in the area of smell. But it was practical, and if we're out of town over the holidays again, it will be nice to have the option.

It's no Rockefeller Center, but we quite liked it. This year I put all non-breakable ornaments on the tree so I didn't feel like I had to guard it from the baby. She took things on and off and had o grand ol' time of it and that's just what I like. I have many crafty schemes for increasing our ornament supply for next year.

This is a giant tree at the Draper City Park that all the locals appropriately refer to as "The Tree of Life." It seemed a bit odd running around it this year with no snow. We went with some friends this year and I have to say, all the kids got a kick out of it. 

This is one of my craft Christmas schemes. This poor baby is so beloved, but the PJs she came with were just torn to shreds.  She's just a little thing, so the whole kit and caboodle fits into the sleeping bag and snaps shut  (Velcro under the pillow). Figured it might work well as a church toy.

This is at a local sing along night. Don't let her expression fool you. The cookies were a hit!

This was a very special gift from Phoebe's Ricks Grandparents. Nana LaRee put a lot of love and time into this quiet book and it was an instant hit!

The next few pictures are from our visit to my side of the family. This year my mom had visions of decorating the tree in these lovely German stars. With a few youtube videos and some help from her affectionately named "Little Mormon Sweat-Shop" (her children). We were able to pull a bunch off. We made these ones out of wrapping paper, but I think if I had it to do over again I'd use some kind of paper-like ribbon. The wrapping paper likes to catch and tear if it's not perfectly smooth.

What paper tree is complete without a paper airplane?

The next few pictures are from Christmas day. Below is Phoebe with her newly discovered play silks.

Snuggling the aforementioned baby.

All the siblings did a t-shirt exchange this year. Mom happened to be in possession of a heavy duty t-shirt press and so many of us designed our own themes and pressed them on. Here's Colin in his gift from Kelly and Ty.

This was another home-y DIY project that I worked on with the family. It's hard to find a table cloth that will cover a table big enough for a family of eleven plus friends, spouses, kids, and, uncles and aunts, and grandma. So we sewed this one out of curtain panels from Hobby Lobby. Not too shabby if I do say so myself!

Just needed evidence. This is Colin, with a cat snuggled up to him. I dare say it was not as heinous an experience as he thought it might be. 

I've written in posts before about how our invented game of "fris-beret" seems to have caught on in the family. I made a few of these this year in our gift exchange. It's a challenge for adults to catch a frisbee with their heads an a soft way for little kids to learn. I think I'd like to try one of these sometime in the future with crochet thread to see if it flies differently, but for now, I know these work. 

Here's Dad playing a game with my little cousin, who was peeled over in laughter the whole time.

All in all. it was a great holiday season. I was so glad to be able to have time to ourselves and to be able to visit family. I'm definitely counting my blessings!

The Season of the Turkey

Remember earlier when I said to stay tuned to see that orange tutu again? Well, as promised, here it is. 

Phoebe at One Year

I feel a bit sad to be posting my last Phoebe month-to-month posts, but at the same time, she's getting a lot harder to keep in that basket!

Christmas in Seattle

This year was our turn to do a west coast Christmas with Colin’s side of the family. Soon after we arrived we went to go see the Seattle Christmas Ships with Colin’s Grandma Ruth. For anyone not familiar with the Christmas ships, it’s basically the wet version of caroling. Grandma Ruth is lucky enough to live in a part of Seattle where there is an amazing birds eye view of the festival. We all bundled up and went out on the balcony to watch the ships.

‘Tis the Season

This year we are excited to be set up for Christmas in our new home. Since we’ve never had this much space before, we thought this might be the year to graduate from the table top trees we’ve had in years past to something more substantial. We considered buying an artificial tree, but Colin, who worked at a Christmas tree farm as a kid, is always a bit nostalgic over the smell of pine. I figured if we got an artificial tree, we’d want to re-use it, and we may never be real-live-tree people. We found this stand by the park in Draper and brought our little piece of woodland home.  The people at the tree lot were so friendly. They freshly cut and drilled it for us. We tied it to the roof, picked up a stand at DI, and brought it home. Once it was all lit up, I was so glad we’d gotten a real tree. Phoebe thinks it’s a new toy just for her, and I love getting a whiff of that wintery pine smell every time I walk past.

Happy Turkey Day!

I have a long standing love of turkeys. It all started back in high school with a strange inside joke about a man who made uncontrollable turkey noises whenever he was cold (think shivering gobble). Ever since, it has become a bit of an unofficial family tradition, that on the grandest day of the turkey (Thanksgiving), one must dress like the main dish. You can see in these pictures from Thanksgiving ‘09 just how far discovering our inner turkey had gone.

You can only imagine my delight when I came across this flyer posted by some anonymous kindred spirit in our rec center:

How could I possibly pass up the opportunity to meet the people who would most certainly become my new best friends? Colin and I donned our finest brown sweats and prepared to trot. Luckily for me, I have a mother who is just as enthusiastic about seasonal baby decorating as I am. With a half zillion balls of yarn, a smattering of glitter, and sheer determination, grandma Tena became Phoebe’s official Fairy God Turkey. I wondered if perhaps we had over done it, but as I rounded the corner into the park and spied a plush version of a fully cooked turkey atop my neighbors head, I knew I was in the right place. Several of our fellow trotters were dressed for the occasion (not the least of which was the real live human turkey pictured above), and some were even sweet enough to invite us to diner. Apparently this has been a tradition here for over five years. We cant wait to come back on year six.

My Dad: The Ace of Cakes

My dad and I have a long standing tradition where he makes me a birthday cake every year. I think this started the year I turned 13, also known as the year of the decoy cake. That year Dad made a funfetti cake that was four layers tall. It was covered in candy with a fountain made out of twizzlers on top and a mini muffin in the middle. Somewhere in the process, one of the layers he made crumbled. Instead of throwing said layer away, he and Robert decided to make it the ugliest possible catastrophe and tell me that it was their best effort. When they brought the cake out, I (being a NICE kid, Robert)  tried to console my dad, telling him I LOVED the cake, and that it was so great just because he made it himself. He pretended to get all upset saying, “You hate the cake don’t you? I can just tell. Robert, bring out the other cake!”

The Decoy Cake (I was 13, Don’t Judge!)

Every year since the cakes have had a theme to go with whatever happened to me that year.When I turned 16 I had a double decker bunt cake with 16 long stem roses coming out of the middle. The year I got a cat, the cake was a cat. The year I got a car—car cake. You get the idea.

My First Year in Art School

The year I went to Italy (leaning tower)

This is when I turned 21 and my sisters thought it would be funny to send me a princess party, Piñata and all.

Even my roommates in college got in on the action

I’m sure somewhere there are pictures from every year. One day I’ll have to hunt down copies. Of course this year was no exception. Here it is, the year my first child was born:





Yep, that is a white chocolate baby on a red-velvet rose. We won’t mention what happened to the other babies or the many unrepeatable baby-eating jokes. This was another classic one for the books. Thanks Dad! My love for you, like my love of sugar, will never fail.