Austin's First Haircut... by Me!

After too many busy weeks of not making $7 haircuts on Wednesday, we decided I should have a go at cutting Austin's hair. He wasn't exactly thrilled I wanted to take a picture, but I think it turned out pretty good (especially considering I've only cut a 1 year old's hair in the past 4 years).

Erin Visits

My sister Erin decided she was going to come for a visit a couple of weeks ago. We had a great weekend! She brought lots of fun toys for the kids (making up for past birthdays and holidays) and they really enjoyed playing with her.
Cristina and Ian also brought their family from Idaho. With 5 (Eddie stopped by too but his son was sick so we didn't get their pictures) out of the 8 siblings here, it felt like a mini-reunion.

(Cade & Erin in the morning. Snuggling & watching Monsters, Inc. on her IPhone 4.)

(Coloring on a box with Aunt Maria - much better than paper and not my furniture)

(Bubbles are a hit!)

(Ian, Cristina, Holly, Atley, & Cadence)

(Atley's dinosaur - a favorite toy -becomes scary when turned on)

One of the best parts of the weekend (for me) was getting some quality time doing projects with my sisters. Cristina has been dying to reupholster something and has done a bunch of research, so we decided as part of my "new kitchen" we'd reupholster the kitchen chairs, with the leftover fabric from hemming the curtains.
(Can you see how dirty the chair fabric was? Gross.)

It's actually pretty simple. I'll post more about how to do it on my personal blog if you're curious.

This is the after and before (maybe I should have switched them...)

Satisfied Cristina's creative desire and made my kitchen look even better! We're starting to more regularly work on projects together when we get together and it makes me wish she lived a little closer.
As we worked on the chairs, my sister Maria and I made granola. She made me a big fan this year of Alton Brown's show on the Food Network, "Good Eats". It's about a 20 minute long show I watch when I get a minute or am folding laundry on Youtube. I love it because he teaches you about the science of food. It's clever, quick, and satisfies my craving to know more about food yet doesn't take too much time away from being a mom. I loved the recipe, but I think we'll be trying some others before we settle (and knowing me we'll end up combining them to make our own health concoction).

I loved having my sisters here! Family is such a great blessing in our lives.

Blessed with Bounty

This year, we’ve been working so hard on keeping up our garden (and getting our hands pretty dirty) that it’s been hard to remember to take pictures of our harvest. We have had an ABUNDANCE of food including, zucchini, cucumber, onions, lettuce, carrots, and cherry tomatoes. We also enjoyed a few tomatoes, green peppers (just ripening now), and peas.

Though we are now down one chicken (the other “ran away”), our single little hen seems to be trying to make up for what is lost. Look what we found one morning for breakfast inside a particularly large egg.

Also, we feel blessed to be expecting another baby in our home, counting each member of our little family as a sacred gift from God. Cadence has been gearing up by cuddling and “putting to bed” his stuffed animals, with no encouragement at all from his parents. So cute!

Last, we feel so blessed to have a been able to listen to a prophet of God speak, President Thomas S. Monson at the General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. What is a prophet of God, as God’s mouthpiece, saying today? Be grateful. Check out the entire talk by clicking on the hyperlink. It was a beautiful sermon and one I will be reading over and over again. We are grateful for his leadership and I know that by following the counsels of a prophet of God (ex: planting a garden, storing food, becoming self-reliant, & to multiply & replenish the earth), our family has been blessed with bounty!

Capturing Cadence

I was watching some old videos of Cadence the other day (at 3 weeks, 3 months, etc.) and I really started to wish I had taken more videos. Though we don't have the greatest camera, the videos really brought back some sweet memories.
With this inspiration, enjoy the next couple videos. Just Cadence, being Cadence, like every other day. I love it!

Catching Up! Part 2 – The Craziest Week

As I said before, after almost a month of being sick, we had one of the craziest weeks of our lives, which included:

1. Our chicken “ran away” – I took Cadence in to get the eggs and the chickens hurried out of the coop. I couldn’t get them back in, but had to get ready for the temple. I quickly took a shower and came back outside to find only one! After searching almost 24 hours for it (off and on) we found out a little boy decided he was going to pick one up and take it home. We’re still trying to track him down, so if you see a white leghorn chicken with a little boy (4-5 yrs. old) in the center of Provo, PLEASE let us know! I’m missing the 2 eggs a day & I think our other chicken is lonely!

2. Our washer overflowed – again! I know, I know..we’ve needed a new one since we’ve moved in really. This time it FLOODED the kitchen and spilled into the living room. After using all my towels, baking soda, a friend’s carpet cleaner, and a fan, it’s mostly fixed. The carpet is still smelling a little funny.

3. Cadence ran away! I was on the computer and he was happily playing beside me. In a matter of about 1-2 minutes he went out the backdoor (which I forgot was open) down and down about a block (across the street). I ran frantically to find him and found him safely with a policeman who just “happened” to come around the corner just as he ran across the street. After giving them some information to finish their report, Cade now has a juvenile record and has been termed a “wanderer”. Just in case he does it again, they will know where to go to find parents. I felt like a horrible mom and cried for about an hour. I hope I never have to experience that again!

Catching Up!

The last month has been CRAZY! We were sick a good majority of August (so July’s final posts fell by the wayside) and as soon as we were better, I had a baby shower to plan, followed by one of the craziest weeks in a long time. Needless to say – time for a “short” recap with some fun pictures to catch up.

JULY:

1. Priesthood Campout. Father & son’s first year together, though they didn’t end up staying the night because we headed to bear lake.

2. Bear Lake – our yearly trip with Illinois buddies (& wives). The guys swim suits were almost identical – too funny!

Cade had a blast playing in the sand and water but it didn’t last long because he was cold.

Cadence found a new love for “driving the car”. Ever since, it’s been a struggle to get him to sit in “his seat” in the car.

3. Cadence and Mommy took a half day at Hogle Zoo. We only had time to see a couple of animals and the bird show. We especially liked signing with the gorilla (no pics sorry)!