SUCCESS!

At last! In the last few days maple has suddenly become pro at the
potty. I could not be happier! After months amonths of struggles,
something finally clicked. I have to admit a little bribery was
involved to get things going (not something I had planned on, but...)
and in just a couple days we have gone from zero interest to zero
accidents. High five maple!

Happy EARTH DAY!

Another test at blogging by email via my phone. I couldn't get my
words to show up last time. So here's another shot.

This is one of the many murals in our little mountain town. It's one
of my favorites so thought it would be nice to share.

Today is earth day and I'll be planning (not planting yet) our garden
and finding a spot to build our compost pit. This will be my very
first garden. I'm very excited.

Happy Earth Day!

LEMONS!!!

backyard love.

we were lucky to get a few 70ish degree days this week. we broke out the summer digs and made the best of it. tomorrow it will snow and be cruddy all weekend. so here's a little taste of sunshine for you.

sunshine and backyard rompin' make for a happy maple. LOVE IT!

house tour

ok. so real quick before i wait any longer. you can view our new home photo tour HERE. these are a bunch of pictures i took when we were just making an offer on the house. i was afraid to post anything about this house until we actually closed and had the keys in our hands. didn't want to jinx anything. now that its ours i will gladly share. so enjoy, there is a bunch. not too fancy, but does the trick. a little TLC should help turn this house into a nice little home for us.

mmmmmmm. nanners.

oh man.......

i started this post about 3 weeks ago and just got the photos uploaded and then became entirely distracted by our move. i will now attempt to finish (briefly and quickly) if i can remember what all i wanted to say here.

this was maples first "real stuff" (as opposed to scribbles) drawing. mommy helped her learn how to draw faces, stick figures, and flowers. the green thing is her flower and she did everything in blue. you can see a whole person there on the far right. very proud mommy here.

maple says here marker tastes like red.

already coming up with some good ideas for halloween too.

this picture is blowing my mind because i only took it a few weeks ago and already this boy has changed so much. alaska is obsessed with standing and is having fun trying to walk with help from mom or any random object he can grab onto and push around. this kid is growing up way too fast. he will be ONE in less than 3 weeks and has just got his 5th tooth and now working on number 6.

he is super happy (except when teething) and a little snotty in this shot.

maple loves to eat snow. she calls it ice cream. i forgot to put gloves on her and after a few minutes of snow gorging she realized her fingers were freezing and started freaking out. oops. bad mommy. this snow was, yes a few weeks ago, very pretty, but nothing compared to the 11 inches that dumped on us yesterday. at our new house we actually have a yard and a little hill and we got to ride the sled down it and build a snowman (ben and i did this while maple hung out eating snow).

this deck used to be our only outdoor play space and now we have a real backyard which i will share with you sometime in the near future.

pretty view from the old house. also soon to share pretty views from the new house.

ok. now thats done. i promise i will get you the scoop on the move and the new house soon.

paint some pottery

last weekend i went to one of those paint your own pottery places. something i have wanted to do for many many many years but never did. well HighCountryMommies was having a get together there and thanks to alaska's heavy appetite for solid foods i was able to leave BOTH the kids at home with ben and venture out ON MY OWN and have some fun with the ladies. what a great time. this was my very first time going anywhere without children since alaska was born. (ok, well i have been to the grocery store several times, but i don't think that really counts). it was such a great feeling to be my own person and think only about myself for those few hours. and it was really really really FUN - i LOVED the pottery painting experience.

we went here and they had so many different items to choose from. not knowing quite how it worked or how my project would turn out i decided on something purposeful and not too pricey - a cereal bowl. there were many other great and purposeful items i had my eye on like a spoon rest, salt and pepper shakers, and some really cool travel mugs. but the cereal bowl seemed like a good first time option. and it was. let me tell you, this was so so so enjoyable. to be able to leave my house, be away from my kids, do something creative and new, make a mess and have someone else clean up after me, and then end up with a new kick-ass bowl. totally satisfying. i can't wait to go back.

of course i had to show off my project, i am quite proud of how it turned out.

a new kind of year

so.........happy 2009!

i made a list of resolutions. something i always do. most years i do not follow through. i would like to believe that this year WILL BE a following through year though. here goes:

1. re-establish a healthy lifestyle (ditch sweets, eat better, drink more water, exercise regularly)
2. declutter, simplify, and curb my impulse buying and tendency to over consume
3. bring more structure to my homelife (conquer housework, form some routines both for myself and the kids, plan meals, bake more)
4. work on improving our finances, pay down debts and increase savings
5. (which goes along with #1) get back to my pre-pregnancy weight and shape by alaska's first birthday

we've got some big things in store for us this year. we are buying our first home. we will be moving sometime around february/march. we will have a yard for the kids, be in walking distance to the park, library, farmers market, downtown area. granted this is a SMALL town, i think the population is under 1200 people. a little redneck, a little artsy fartsy, a little quaint, i'm excited.

this year our little boy will turn 1 and our little girl will turn 3. the 2s started out ok and have gotten progressively worse. i hear the 3s are not much better. i'm hoping having a yard to exert some energy in will help us all out with that. ben and i just celebrated our 3rd anniversary which also marked 5 years together in life for us. this spring we will also celebrate our 3rd anniversary owning coyote. maybe, just maybe, i will get a mini-van this year. thats pretty wishful thinking, but i'm just putting it out there. i will also become an aunt this summer, ben an uncle, and the kids will become cousins. i will be wishing more than ever that i were not so far away from my family (and ever more thankful and appreciative of skype and the internet in general). all in all i think 2009 is going to ROCK!

i am currently working on a new blog for my family and "a new kind of juggling" will start to be devoted solely to my creativity and crafts. hoping to unveil said new blog in the next couple of weeks. stay tuned.

life is good and getting gooder. cheers!

cool giveaway on high country mom squad

a great freebie friday today at the high country mom squad. you can win a kozy carrier, all you have to do is leave a comment. check it out : http://www.highcountrymomsquad.com/freebie-friday-kozy-baby-carrier/

tough cookies

its really hard to get a good brother/sister shot these day. and it doesn't help when you forget to wipe the mac n cheese goo of your kids face before you attempt this. but at least i got a smile out of maple. we will keep trying.

watch this video. i'm not kidding. do it.

Please go watch this captivating, entertaining, and educational video. Its only 20 minutes and trust me, well worth it. a great reminder for all of us. www.thestoryofstuff.com

what are you waiting for? do it!!

What is the Story of Stuff?

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

CRUNCH!!!!!

the advent calendar is getting full! less than 2 weeks until the big day. that means one week left until i HAVE to get packages mailed out. yikes! thank goodness i only have one more big(ish) project left to finish. this wouldn't be so bad if we were not also house hunting, taking a crash course in homebuying 101 (we are hopefully putting in an offer by weeks end), AND doing a major revamp to coyote's menu which we hope to roll out for the new year. whoa. can you say exhaustion? is that even a word, it sounds funny? please please please let the kids sleep past 5am tomorrow. PLEASE!!!! wish us luck on this house, we really love it!

deck the halls

finally got the decorations up. we have a tiny tree. i love that we can fit on top of the (fake) fireplace though. sometimes i really want a big one, but this saves a lot of stress with little ones running around. happy holidays!

giving thanks

so we had a last minute change of plans and went to visit ben's parents for thanksgiving. we found out sonny, ben's dad, won't be here for xmas this year so we wanted to get in some much needed family time with him before he left. and one more group hug! we had a very nice lunch with them and the kids had a blast. sonny built an amazing train table and maple was pretty much glued to it the entire time we were there. i don't know why i didn't get a picture. spent about 5 hours in the car, round trip, too. so needless to say we were pretty darn exhausted by the time we got home.

so, since i didn't get it done yesterday i am spending today cleaning and pulling out our tree and decorations. we don't have much so it isn't much of a chore. but i am looking forward to dolling up the house with some garland and ornaments.

and i am officially feeling the CRUNCH! i thought i had everything pretty much under control but now that T-day is past i am realizing how much i have left to do to get all of my projects completed. yikes. time to get organized.

hope everyone had a great day of feasting yesterday.

the meat is complete.

the meat of this banana, that is. yay. another xmas project going quite well. this one is for my banana obsessed little girl. tonite i will start on the peel. i think this will be my most exciting gift to give. i know she is going to LOVE it. big time.

in other ramblings, i just have to say that xmas is now LESS THAN ONE MONTH AWAY!!! seriously. i have got some work to do! tomorrow is thanksgiving and the focus of this year is NOT food, since i really can't eat much of it (yes i am still watching out for my little man and his digestive troubles.) so instead i get to focus on the other part of thanksgiving that i love - getting out the xmas decorations and putting up the tree! yeah! i am really looking forward to this. maple had a ball with the halloween decorations this year so i know she is going to really dig the xmas stuff we have. my mom made us an incredible advent calendar last year, but we didn't get it until xmas day. so this will be our first run with it. oh man. i suppose my chore today should be cleaning up the house and plowing through my to-do list so that tomorrow i can just enjoy the day and have fun with my dear hubby and kiddos.

recent knitting #4

this one is sort of a surprise. i'm working on some of these for some quick and easy little xmas gifts. can you guess what it is? all i can say is that it was fast and fun. and cute. and many more will be made!

recent knitting #3

this is my most favorit recent knit. a shawl for my mom. its a christmas gift. but since she requested it, picked out the pattern, and the yarn - well, i don't really consider this one a surprise. so i am showing it off!!! a very simple pattern, but it turned out beautiful!! i am kind of jealous and sort of would like to keep it for myself. maple would too.

this yarn, lionbrand homespun, is a little difficult to knit with. BUT it makes a very pretty and quite cuddly shawl. so its plenty worth it. i WILL make one of these for myself. after the holidays.

recent knitting #2

this is my norweigan star hat. my first project using 2 different colors of yarn (this is called 'fair isle' knitting, i learned). it was fun to do and i am pretty pleased with my first attempt at fair isle work. it did take me several weeks to complete this hat though. it takes some serious concentration to follow the chart of the snowflake pattern.

unfortunately this hat turned out hugemungous!!! even though i followed the child size pattern, it is actually too big even for myself. bummer. i guess this is why it is important to figure out your guage before you start a project. i am too lazy to do that.

oh well. its still pretty cute, in an oversized hat on a little kid kind of way. and it does keep her head warm. so i guess not all is lost.

recent knitting #1

ok. so this is not extremely recent. i finished this in mid-october. but its damn cute! another ltk pilot cap for alaska. it turned out great and i finished it just in time for the cold weather.

isn't he a cutie! i LOVE LOVE LOVE this hat!