terror in a onesie

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The past two weekends we’ve been busy, busy, busy. And I’ve got the photos to prove it!

Space and Rocket Center

Some friends came to visit for the day and we played at Rocket City’s biggest attraction.

Halloween

This year Eli finally got “trick or treating” and Liza thought carrying her bag of candy was almost not worth the effort. Oh wait, what am I saying? There was candy in that bag! Liza could have hauled that thing to Timbuktu for the crumbs off of a Kit Kat.

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There are not enough words to describe the awesomeness of my trip to Atlanta to see U2 and visit with friends. The show was full of awesome. A friend of a friend said that Bono was the best worship leader that she’d ever had and I’ll have to second that. I think the show was specially tailored to show off their “We’re all about that love and peace business.” side. Here’s the set list:
Breathe
Put on Your Boots
Mysterious Ways
Beautiful Day
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
Stand By Me
Stuck in the Moment (acoustic)
No Line on the Horizon
Magnificent
Elevation
End of the World
The Unforgettable Fire
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I’ll Go Crazy if I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight (very wacky remix)
Sunday Bloody Sunday
MLK
Walk On
One
Amazing Grace
Where the Streets Have No Name
Ultaviolet
With or Without You
Moment of Surrender

I loved every minute of the show but I was/am a bit taken aback that my favorite song of the show was “Ultraviolet.” It’s never been a particular favorite of mine but the song combined with the light show and the smoke was really eerie, interesting and moving. My other highlights of the show was Danielle nearly pinching my arm off during the remix of “Crazy Tonight” and her leaning over to tell me that the name of the song “MLK” was “MLK” and then my reply that I knew that because I’ve been singing it to my children at bedtime for the past five years and then the lady behind me giving me a funny look because of it. And the dancing and the screaming of the “Woo!” There was much “Woo!” screaming. I had a blast.

Danielle and Kat and I also visit Ikea on Tuesday where I proceeded to buy the place out. I love me some Ikea. If my house ever burns down and I have to start over from scratch, I’m doing everything in Ikea because it’s so cool.

While Mom was here this past weekend, we redid Liza’s room with some of Ikea purchases. She’s now in the big girl bed and doing really well with it.

More pictures to come once we get the new light fixture hung.

I also got a ton of books as birthday gifts:

All of them are awesome! Thanks to everyone who bought me a new book! It’s gonna take me a while to get through them all but I’m so excited about each and every one. The bonus awesome goes to Fahmida for the book she made of our trip to Japan. It’s made me so homesick to go back.

And lastly, if you’ve made it this far you deserve a cute kid photo:

They thought they were hiding in the shower. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that if they are shrieking at the top of their lungs, they are pretty easy to find.

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

I started this Teresa Wentzler before Liza was born. I stopped to cross stitch something for Liza’s room and then just never picked this piece back up. After I finished the lighthouses, I asked the Craft Night Ladies what I should work on next and they all unanimously said, “THAT!” when I showed it to them. I’ve nearly got the main panel completed and will start on the border for it and then there’s another huge section of text and more border after that. I don’t see it being completed anytime soon and I’m likely to put it down and work on something else for a while to take a break. But for now it’s pretty satisfying.

This past summer I started an art journal and I’ve worked in it as I’ve had ideas and wanted to try different things. This is my latest page from this week. I always think the one I just finished is my favorite and this one is no exception. I’m sure I’ll love the next one just as much.

I bought new lampshades because the old ones were so bent and mangled that it was starting to be embarrassing. I was just going to throw the old shades away but decided to see what the kids would do if I let them play. They spent a solid 30 minutes walking around like this and all they did was cackle like fiends and run into things. And I wonder how the lampshades got bent in the first place?

I traded my friend Janelle a notebook for these awesome slippers. Liza walks around saying, “Oink!” endlessly.

Speaking of notebooks, I have 12 to the point where I can take photos and start posting them. I’m hoping to get that done this week after I return from Atlanta and seeing U2.

Yeah, I said it. U2 for my birthday.

It’s the second time I’ve gotten to see U2 and both times it’s been in October. So I’m a lucky girl. Doubly lucky because Stephen is taking off of work to stay home with the kids while I go hang out with friends and go to the concert. I’ll have much to post about when I get back.

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

Remember when Liza didn’t sleep?

This is where she fell asleep this afternoon. I was on the phone and when I went to her room to rock her and put her down for nap, this is how I found her.

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Had a marathon stitching session last night and then finished up this morning. I’ve ironed it and emailed my client to say that it’s ready. Can’t wait for her to see it. I’ve talked about it and tweeted about it and you guys have traveled the road with me. This is a pretty awesome end to a pretty awesome week.

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I started this small project before I began work on the lighthouses. Since then, I’ve only worked on this when we traveled. It’s been a great one to work on in the car. This past craft night, we had a full house so instead of cramping everyone else’s style with my large frame for the lighthouses I finished this for Stephen. Do you think he’ll be surprised?

Schrödinger’s pattern came from Greta at Larripin Labs.

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This is how Megan and I keep our kids out of trouble. See how it works?

From our weekend at the lake in Arkansas. You can imagine the kind of birthday May had with all her grandchildren in one spot.

The obligatory grandchildren on a brown couch photo. As Andrew said, “Everywhere we go, there are brown leather couches.”

See? More brown couches. This time with the optional box attachment.

I don’t know why we’ve never gotten a photo with the kids and ¡Tim! so here’s one for the record books.

This photo cracks me up. Everyone is doing exactly what they do best in this photo.

Finally, Eli’s first day of school. I can’t wait for him to get home and tell me all about it.

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A week or so ago we went to a bluegrass music festival here in town. We ended up leaving early because the kids were crazed but the pictures I snatched before we left look like we are having an awesome time.

The best photo of Will and Luke I’ve taken by like 1000%.

Thursday I had Emily for a few hours because of swine flu school closings. The girls had a blast.

Friday we were making up anything we could to fill up a few hours.

Did I mention that by Saturday we’d run out of things to do inside the house?

Yes, Eli’s toes are painted blue. He wanted to and hey, at least I used a boy color.

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

See? I do still remember how to post! We’ve had the stomach bug and now we’ve progressed on to the head cold bug. But never fear there are still cute photos of the kids to fill in the gaps between my actual posts.

This is what Liza does in the morning.

This is how Liza watches TV.

Eli’s Easter Haul.

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

Liza has discovered dress up:

and dancing on Daddy’s feet:

and strawberry bread:

and the fact that big brother is the best thing since the strawberry bread.

Eli has discovered if he helps cook he gets first dibs on licking cake batter:

and sometimes close is too close to his little sister:

and that it’s true if you leave your food out, bugs will come and eat it:

and his favorite storybook characters live at the Children’s Garden at the Huntsville Botanical Garden.

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From a gas station restroom in Bald Knob, Arkansas:

I knew “politically (in)correct” had become meaningless terms, but this confirms it. What exactly is a politically incorrect novelty? “Look, honey, this condom makes fun of cripples!”

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Ever wonder what we do around here on Saturday morning? I know, how have you gotten on this long without having this knowledge?

Here’s the answer to your burning question: Donuts.

I’ve always meant to fry some biscuits to make donuts and haven’t ever done it. (Is there anything more Southern than this? Maybe frying pickles, that’s the best I can think of.) This morning I got brave and tried it. The results: powdered sugar everywhere. The kids like to dunk their own.

Liza especially loved licking the outer coating of sugar off of the donuts. She was unsure how to proceed after she got all of the sugar off though.

She finally figured it out and ate her fair share.

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

Yeah, he acts just as grown up as he looks.

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Today we did some painting since it was way too cold and snowy to go outside. Here are the kids in action:

Click the photo for more painting!

Also, here’s a photo I got of the kids watching tv. They aren’t often that still that close to one another so I had to memorialize it.

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My favorite of the Christmas photos this year. Stephen took it during an extended Lego building session.

Click on the photo for more Christmas pictures.

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We had an unexpected trip to Arkansas this past week due to a death in the family (that’s for a later post), and while we were there Eli and Liza discovered the joys of ponies and make up. Luckily for me it wasn’t all at the same time.

Click on the pony for more photos.

Click on the lipstick for more photos.

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Wednesday morning I discovered the ultimate Liza distraction tool. I stuck her in the bathtub in our bathroom while I was getting ready.

This tub is known around our house as “the big bathtub” because it’s nearly twice the size of the tub in the kid’s bathroom. Liza doesn’t get in the big tub much because it’s hard to chase a slippery 18-month old around a tub the size of a small pond without getting wet yourself or nearly drowning the kid. (See? I did learn something from Eli’s upbringing.)

I didn’t realize, however, it would be so much fun to play with the tub toys with NO water! Who knew?

This morning I took photos.

Those are tub crayons. Good thing they wash off easily.

A moment between the kids. Yes, I art directed Eli into place but once he got there he was way cute all on his own.

This outfit is the bringer of messes. Every time I dress her in it, within 45 minutes there’s a huge mess of some variety that requires a wardrobe change.

One of the many moods of Eli. He was telling me a story about a king, knight, dragon and a fiery game of checkers.

Yeah, I’m totally gah-gah over this kid when he has this expression on his face.

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

Our trip to the beach.

Stay tuned! I might accidentally post something else next week.

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

A while back I read a great tip on Parent Hacks. They suggested to let your kids fingerpaint in the bathtub and then just take a bath. You contain the mess and the kids. The kids get to have a great time, first painting and then a bonus bath. I decided that we’d try it today since they both have a cold and we haven’t left the house in a couple of days. Here’s the evidence:

Also, a few days back Stephen posted about Andrew’s concert and the prepared piano. Here’s the full set of photos I took of him working on the setup.

Originally published at Live Granades. Please leave any comments there.

We’d been talking for a while that we needed to do some cleaning before Christmas. Specifically in Eli’s room so there’s actually room to bring in some new stuff.

So to show him how Mom and Dad can clean up their stuff too, Stephen started pulling books off of bookshelves and chunking them in a pile to go to the used bookstore. Some 60 books later, we have a bit of space on a few shelves around the house. And a whopping pile to trade for other books!

The office was also a bit of a mess. Stephen still had portal gun bits and pieces strewn around for Liza to impale herself on and I had a corner that just seemed to continually expand when I wasn’t actively beating it back. So we spent about 30 minutes last night and here are the results:

Today, I’m going to try and convince Eli to part with a few things as well. If you hear the moaning, it’s Emo Eli trying to part with his toys.