The Worth Family

Thanksgiving

2011-12-02T00:27:00.002-05:00

Thanksgiving break was so great. We were so lucky to have Roger's mom, Margaret come visit for a few days prior to Thanksgiving. Then we had our good friends the Ellsworth's come visit for a Sunday dinner (which was too short, can't you spend the night next time? (I know you can't because Chris' family is here, blah, blah, blah)) Then we made the drive to Boise to spend the night with more friends before continuing on to Portland. We knew our Boise friends before we were married and I love seeing the life people have made for themselves over the past 12 years. There are so many things that we don't expect, but it always works out. We love you Cole's, it was so good to see you!

Why is Portland so far away? I wish we could see the Stewart's and the Worth's all the time. It was the most relaxing vacation. I slept in almost everyday (shocking, huh?) because the kids were happily playing with their cousins. I felt like I hardly saw our girls, they were so busy. The Stewart's always spoil us, it's like they don't want us to leave (we don't...) Thanks again, we had a great time and can't wait to do it again soon.

The Thanksgiving dinner and guests. Look at the pomegranate jello, the Vielstich's are so proud that it's a must for many a Thanksgiving dinner!

Our kids with the Stewart girls. Brooke was the best baby sitter, Liam loves you!

Then and now

2011-11-02T23:33:00.003-04:00

I can't believe it has been a whopping six months since my last post. Don't worry dear blog, I have not forgotten you. So much has changed in six months, here's just a part.

First the biggest change

Then:

Now:

We moved back home in July. I didn't take one picture of the drive out. I can't believe it either. It was a great drive out. We did it in four days. We were off the road every night by about 7 so that we could eat dinner and swim at the hotel pools. That made all the difference in the world. The kids did great and I would drive across country again in a heartbeat (not to move though, just vacation!) Roger transferred with Pricewaterhouse coopers and he is now working most weeks in Los Angeles. It is working out better than we could have hoped. I am so thankful to be home. The move was one of those things that when I look back I can't believe it worked out. We honestly hardly fussed about details, we were more action oriented. That could go horribly wrong but it didn't. I can't help but marvel at how tremendously blessed we were through the whole experience.

Then:

Now:

(Horrible sunny cell phone picture)

We closed on this house in Sandy at the end of September. The best news about it was we knew we were buying it before school started so the girls started at the new school. I was so worried about changing schools, it has turned out beautifully. We love our new house. There's plenty of room if you need a place to stay... (we still own the other house, if you need a house in Pittsburgh, let me know)

Then:

Ashby age 8, Avery age 6 and Luke age 2.

Now:

Ashby age 9, Avery age 7 and Luke age 3. The three oldest celebrated birthdays within the last month. Phew we made it through another birthday season!

Then:

Liam 3 months old. Can't do much of anything yet...

Now:

Liam age 7 months. He can crawl on all fours and he has an alarming 6 teeth! A few months sure does make a difference.

There's no way I can catch up on all we've missed. We have been enjoying life and have adjusted well to the move. Thank you to everyone who helped us get out here and helped us once we were here. We are so truly blessed and are watched over in every aspect of our lives. Yay for more blogging!

The Horror

2011-05-15T00:10:00.003-04:00

The word on the street is that we are moving back to Utah this summer. There are still several (ok all) important details to work out before we do. We are trying to get our house ready to sell and Chelsea decided it would be a fantastic time to make Roger redo the bathroom. It had some serious nasty pinkness going on and I'm really hoping that the house will appeal to someone with it gone.

Here's a kind of before shot. See the nasty walls. Anyway they are gone now, yay!

Let me just say there's nothing and I mean nothing, like finding this in the ceiling... (I feel sick just looking at the picture) It was long dead, but still.

We're not finished so more pics to come.

Easter and oh no

2011-05-15T00:04:00.002-04:00

Easter came and went. I really love to dress the kids in matching clothes for Easter, it's the only time of year I support such cheesiness. It's quite a dilemma though because I have both girls and boys, some are little some are big, one absolutely WON'T wear dresses (I won't name names, but it starts with an A and ends with a shby) so this year I settled for a common color. Orange it was. They don't really match, but they look cute all the same. And yes I am an IMMACULATE housekeeper.
We also dyed eggs before Easter. The kids loved it (ahh who am I kidding? I loved it too). Luke is going through his not smile smile for pictures phase. Love that kid.

Things to blog about 101

2011-05-03T16:45:00.006-04:00

There are so many good blogs out there and I read a lot of them. I wish I was a good writer/blogger. I'm really not, but I do like to blog. So what do you write about when there's nothing creative or profound to say? Spring break will do...

The kids actually had a reasonable spring break this year. Last year they were making up snow days so they only had one day off. This year they had almost a whole week! Yay! I ended up taking the kids to Niagara Falls. Roger had to go to Salt Lake, but I didn't want to stay home the entire break so off we went. We stayed in Buffalo, NY they went on to the Falls the following day. This was our score of a hotel. There was an indoor pool in a courtyard of sorts that two floors of hotel rooms looked out upon. It was perfect because we didn't have time to swim again in the morning but Luke was satisfied watching other people swim while I packed up.

I wanted to go to Niagara Falls to ride the Maid of the Mist, but alas it was not to be. I had no idea until we arrived that the boat doesn't start sailing until Memorial Day. I'm not an idiot, I checked the website and everything and it didn't say anywhere that it was still closed. It was probably better anyway because it was freezing. That wind was a blowin' and we were cold!

Not the best of pictures, but I had to prove Liam (under the blanket) and I were there too!

See all that white stuff in the bottom right corner? Ice. Awesome huh? Nothing like upstate New York for spring break!

Liam Paul

2011-03-22T16:07:00.003-04:00

Liam finally arrived on March 14. He was only 2 days past his due date, so I guess that's forgivable! He's so very sweet and we all love him a lot.

We don't have very many good pictures of him, it's like we've been busy or something.

Liam Paul Worth

March 14, 2011

7 lbs 14 oz

20 inches long

Brown, Black, Yellow and Pink

2011-02-13T22:28:00.004-05:00

Avery participated in a mini cheer camp last month. It was so great. She seemed to enjoy it even if the picture looks sad. Their school district's colors are brown, yellow and white. We did our best to color coordinate. She performed at half time at a varsity basketball game and she was so busy people watching she kept missing the dance moves, it was awesome!

This here it what I love about Pittsburgh. The girls were supposed to wear all their black and yellow in support of the Steelers on the Friday before the Superbowl. They had a pep rally at school and everything. We were sad they didn't win, but we still had a good time celebrating the return to the Superbowl!

I also have to brag about how well the girls did on their Valentines this year. They both chose to make something rather than buy some to share with their friends. Avery made flowers and butterflies that you attach to a lollipop (from here). She cut out every one. I was so proud of her. She didn't complain once and finished it all in one evening.

This is her box that she made to take to school. Simple, but cute and of course, pink!

Ashby made little hearts out of card stock that you fill with M&M's to share with her friends (from here). She also cut them out and filled them herself (I did help a little because there are 27 kids in her class..... 27!)

This is Ashby's box that she made for school. It's a Valentine's ghost, see? I was pleased to at least see that she wanted to put valentiney stickers on it.

And this kid, what can I say? This is what he looked like all week because we were potty training. He's a total champ. I was expecting the worst and was very surprised at how easy it went. I know there's a long way to go, we hardly went anywhere last week, but I think he's made an impressive start. We've only have one wet bed since we started a week ago. Go Lukey!

When mom's busy

2011-01-26T15:57:00.001-05:00

three lollipops are always better than one.

It feels ridiculous...

2011-01-26T15:28:00.005-05:00

to post pictures of Christmas, but there were a few I wanted to remember, so here they are anyway.

This is what I love about Christmas day, still in your jammies playing with the new stuff. Ashby and her Lego's and Avery with her DS.

Luke got some new trucks and a new puzzle. The puzzle he doesn't really care about anymore, but the trucks and the trains are still full steam ahead, yea!

Avery got a scooter. And see Luke with the dart gun, was it his favorite? Yes. Did it cost the least? Yes.

Ashby got a new bike. It's a bummer to get bikes and scooters during the winter, but come spring it will be lots of fun!

Quilters: Look away now. I wanted to post a picture of this apron because I was so darn proud of myself. I stole the idea from a friends to give aprons to the girls' teachers for Christmas. I had a lot of irregularly cut squares that I didn't use for another project. I loved the fabric and still wanted to use it. So I sewed them all together knowing they were different sizes then sewed strips together hoping it would look purposefully skiwampus. I put a black background on, black bias tape around the edges and a black satin blanket binding for the tie. I was so happy how it turned out because it all came from my little brain. It turned out better than I imagined, yippee! I know the quilters are shuddering in horror at the imperfection, that's why I told you to look away and it's not my fault if you kept reading and then looked at the picture...

The regular freak out

2010-12-08T12:11:00.002-05:00

There's always a freak out, right? I mean sometime during the year it's bound to happen, right? This is my week. Why do you ask? Well I got called to be the Primary Chorister....yes you read that right. Chelsea, who has zero musical talent to speak of was called to teach songs to and sing with kids every week at church. Yikes. The good news is that I love the kids and it will be fun to sing with them. I can't help freaking out about the new songs I have to learn and then teach them at the beginning of the year. I know if I prepare enough and pray enough I can do it, but I still want to freak out and pray for so much snow it cancels church until June...

I'm feeling a little....

2010-11-16T12:50:00.003-05:00

ripe and drained. I haven't had a proper shower since Saturday, gross huh? Although, I shouldn't underestimate the goodness of a sponge bath, it works well in a pinch. Why do you ask? Because Roger found about an inch of water in parts of our basement on Saturday, our hot water heater was leaking. What was so very annoying about it other than the lack of hot water, was that the heater wasn't even four years old. The good news is it was still under warranty. We got a new one for only the price of installation. I'll be thrilled to take a shower later when the water is warm!

For those of you keeping track at home, well really for myself, 2010 hasn't been a great year for household items...

We replaced our fridge in June because it wasn't working. This is the new one.

We replaced our car in August. The old one was working, but needed a lot of repairs.

We replaced our furnace in September. It had been non-functional since March.

And I really hope lastly we just replaced our hot water heater.

Do you see why me and my bank account are feeling so drained? I would be remiss though if I didn't say how truly blessed we are. This has been an overall great year for us. We have learned and done a lot. We are so looking forward to the holidays and the birth of our baby boy (did I mention we found out we're having another boy?) in March.

Halloween

2010-11-10T23:42:00.003-05:00

Every year after we do three birthdays in a month's time, it shocks me that we still have Halloween to get through. If it wasn't for Grandma Worth's Costume Store, my kids would go as themselves. The kids love Halloween and chose easy costumes.

Ashby was what she called a black ghost. I'm not sure what that means and honestly it was kind of lame, but she loved it.

Avery was a pirate girl. I thought her costume came together pretty well, considering all the time I put into it (about 30 seconds)

Luke was a cowboy. He was really cute with his hat and stick horse, unfortunately he wouldn't hold either one while we trick or treated. It was really cold too, so he had to wear his coat. He looked like the kid without a costume. At least he wasn't 15 and still trying to pull it off.

We carved pumpkins the night before Halloween. The kids did most of the gutting themselves. I loved this pictured because it shows them all getting in on the messy action!

I really would like to make some cute creative costumes for my kids. Maybe if I get it done in July...

Wolf and Delo

2010-11-10T23:26:00.002-05:00

My parents were here for Ashby's baptism and stayed for about a week after that. The visit was as usual, too short. We had all kinds of plans, but weren't able to do as much as we wanted. My dad was sick for the majority of the visit, Ashby was sick too as were Roger and I. We still had fun and managed to cram some fun in with all the germs. We took the girls out of school one day so we could go to the zoo. It was the perfect day, not too busy and not too cold.

The polar bear exhibit is seriously so cool. You can see the polar bears from ground level, but they have this cool tunnel that you can go in as well. The bears were extremely playful and put on a good show. I could have stayed and watched them all day, but the kids wanted to see something else....

There was also a tunnel for shark viewing. Luke was digging it, can you tell?

This is the only picture I have as proof that indeed my mom was here. We had so much fun and were so sad to see them go.

When we were all feeling better, my parents, Luke and I drove out to the Flight 93 memorial. It's about 2 hours from here. A permanent memorial is being constructed, but what is there is truly powerful. Here's the plaque that hangs in the overlook area. The overlook area is where the media and most of the investigative crews set up in the days following 9/11. When Flight 93 struck the ground the plane was upside down and going over 500 mph. It immediately burst into flames and created a huge crater. A few days after, a crew back filled the crater and it became the permanent resting place for everyone on the flight. Only family members are allowed on the ground where the plane actually went down. The first phase of the memorial will be dedicated on September 11, 2011.

Here's the field as you can see it from the overlook. That's memorial construction going on in the right of the picture. If I read the plaque right the plane crashed in the field in the middle of this picture, where the little mound of dirt is. What really struck me about this site is that it is truly in the middle of nowhere. It doesn't have a street address. The passengers on Flight 93 were definitely heroes.

What have we done?

2010-11-10T23:20:00.002-05:00

While Kevin and Kelly were here, we gave Ethan a hair cut. While the clippers were out I thought we'd give Luke a trim too. Did you know that even though you use the longest clipper attachment it's still really short? I didn't and was very sad to see all the curls go. The cut is growing on me though and I can be almost sure that the curls aren't gone for good.

The before/during. He didn't mind the buzz of the clippers. I was glad it wasn't as traumatizing for him as it was for me. Yes, yes I know it was my idea, but still...

I didn't take an after picture, but this is about a week later. Sorry about the dirty shirt, he just finished carving his pumpkin, doesn't he have skills?

Ashby's festivities

2010-11-10T23:06:00.004-05:00

Ashby's birthday was also in October. She's our big eight year old now. She was baptized at church by Roger on her birthday. We were so lucky to have both grandmas and grandpas here as well as several aunts, uncles and cousins. Do you think I took a picture of any of these guests? If you thought I did because that would be smart, you are sorely mistaken. I was just looking through my October photos and it's horrible. I didn't take a picture of anything. I do know that Roger's brothers Bryan, Richard, Kevin and his sister Karen were here with their families. We had lunch after the baptism at church and I can't even tell you how wonderful it was. We had several friends stay with us for both things and their help and support was truly invaluable. I really feel awful I didn't take any pictures, but it was a wonderful day and I hope Ashby will remember it anyway. One thing I would recommend, don't let your daughter ask you to speak at her baptism because you will be crying so hard it will be nearly impossible.

That Sunday was also our primary program. The girls were so excited that so many family members were here to see it. The program was exceptional and added to the great day.

Here she is before church opening her new scriptures. I like Roger in the apron, don't you? We were shredding pork for BBQ sandwiches. He was smart and wore an apron, I was again unsmart and was already in church clothes while shredding and ended up with grease stains all over my skirt. Do you think I changed before church? Sure didn't. I went with the story that it was water and would be drying any minute.

Before the baptism. I can't believe she's eight. Ashby is such a good girl, she is the best example to her siblings and to her friends at school. I am often struck by her compassion and can-do spirit. Ashby we are so proud of you for making the choice to be baptized. I can tell your testimony is growing each day. We love you!!!

Ashby with her new Penguins shirt. After all the fun of the day, we still got to come home have under the plates, cake and ice cream and open presents. Look, look I did get a picture of a visitor... that's Baby J, Karen's daughter. We were lucky enough to have them stay with us for a night.

Luke's birthday

2010-11-10T22:58:00.003-05:00

Lukey Lu turned 2 in October. His birthday was on a Sunday and he decided to come into his Terrible Two's in style. He was really unhappy the whole day. I kept demanding that he cheer up, it was his birthday for heaven's sake, but he didn't listen. We sure do love this little boy though even when he's angry. He's a pretty thoughtful little boy and takes time to figure stuff out. He's our snuggliest baby by far. He really, really loves his daddy (I feel for you sometimes Rog.) He also loves trains and cars.

Was it wise to get him a hammer and something to hit with it? I'm not sure, but so far so good.

He could actually blow out the candles and I actually missed it with the camera, but here's the before.

A happy looking birthday boy. Happy birthday Luke, I love you too!

Avery's birthday

2010-11-10T22:50:00.003-05:00

I'm so behind and I really want to remember this stuff, so buckle up, here we go!

Avery turned six back in September. I can't believe it. She is a wonderful girl. She loves school, her friends and anything girly. Again this year, we were driving to Virginia on her birthday so we celebrated a day early. She is rather easy going about things like this and she loves to go to Virginia too.

Avery was the recipient of our first pet. She had no idea and was surprised and excited. It's a beta that I named Casper because no one could come up with anything else...

Getting ready to blow out the candles.

Avery on her birthday in new clothes from Grandma. I love you Avery, happy birthday!

Ch-ch-ch-changes

2010-08-26T20:37:00.004-04:00

Well it's the end of August and here in PA that means the start of school. Can I just say, for the record, I don't like it, not one bit. Avery started kindergarten yesterday. This means that after the easing in period she will be going to school all day as well. That means both my girls, my helpers, my friends are going to be gone ALL day. Nope don't like it, not one bit. On the brighter side Avery was extremely excited to start school. She has Ashby's kindergarten teacher which is wonderful. Ashby says she isn't excited, but she comes home happy so it can't be all bad. What are Luke and I supposed to do all day without them?

Here's Avery on her first day. She is all skirts and sparkles.

Here's Ashby on her first day, she's all tennis shoes and boy backpacks!

In other changes Avery finally lost her first tooth. She kept waiting and waiting and finally got it out. Her permanent tooth is all the way in behind it. Yikes.

In other sad yet happy yet necessary yet watch Chelsea eat her words news, we traded in our Jeep. I loved the Jeep, but not lately. It had issues that were too expensive to fix and had 168,000 miles on it, so I guess it was time.

We got this instead. It's painful to share with the world because I've always said I would never drive a minivan. Turns out we aren't in a position to afford the Suburban I would like, so this is what we came home with instead. To my credit it's a Honda which we love and it will last forever, which is good or bad if you're me and want something else sometime before 2035.

The timing of the new car couldn't have been better because another big change (pictured below) will be coming on or around March 12th.

A little ho hum

2010-07-25T22:46:00.004-04:00

I really do like the summer, I really do. But at the same time I would like it a lot more if I spent three months in Lake Tahoe or at the ocean. About this time every summer I'm starting to feel ready for the structure and busyness of fall. That's my excuse for not blogging this time... anyway here are some pictures, mostly for my mom!

We had a pretty low key Fourth of July, but there were sparklers, always sparklers.

Roger had a business trip in Cincinnati and invited us to come along. We went to the Children's Museum while he was working. Luke is obsessed with lawn mowers. He was so pleased to see they had these in a toddler area of the museum. He tried to push it up the slide. I was a little sad to put a stop to it because I would have liked to see how far he could have gone.

We actually stayed in Covington, KY which is right across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. This huge bell was in the nearby town of Newport. I couldn't really figure it out, but it was huge so I took a picture. It was called the Peace Bell, so there you go...

In June we had to make this rather unfortunate upgrade. Our fridge just stopped working, so we had to replace it. We knew we wanted a new fridge, but I didn't want one right now. There's still the business of the furnace that we need to replace, but I guess your food has to stay cold too.

Before

After. We got this bad boy at the Sears Outlet. It's all dented, but who cares? The price was right and we have kids that dent stuff, it fits right in.

The gargantuan post of things I consider to be both fun and exciting

2010-06-16T14:48:00.004-04:00

Here's my unintentional once a month posting and it's chock full of goodness.

May was one of the busiest months we've had. Ashby was playing soccer and softball, Avery was playing t-ball and having dance class once a week. Roger was working a lot and I went to Utah for a week. There are only a few pictures, but trust me we had a good month.

June brought the end of school (YIPEE!!!). Summer has already been eventful and fun. We look forward to more sleeping in, playing outside and doing other summery things.

Look at my all way cooler than me siblings. Aren't they all so beautiful and handsome. I went to Utah for a week because my sister Katie (far right) had some surgery and needed help with her rugrats. I'm not going to lie to you, it was so fun to be away for a little while. Roger took the week off stay home with our kids. Katie and I had so much fun and I got a good dose of my other sisters and brother too.

Avery participated in her year end dance recital. And look Kevin, Kelly and Ethan were there too. We were very glad to be done with dance class and the recital was a great note to end on.

Try not to shudder in horror, but this, people, is my bathroom. Yes it's carpeted, why? Who knows. Note the red towel near the toilet. We had a leaking toilet a few months back and that section of the carpet had to go. I mean really you can only go up from here right? Did you note that I said Kevin and Kelly were here? They never get to come with out being put to work.

This is what they accomplished. Isn't is so great you could cry? Maybe that's just me. There is more to do in this bathroom, but if nothing else got remodeled, I would still be happy. I feel so much joy every time I go in there, I can hardly stand it. Did you know tile could make a person so happy?

We went camping last weekend at Rocky Gap State Park in Maryland. The weather cooperated and we had so much fun. There was a lake so we spent most of the day Saturday swimming. The kids had fun, well I know the girls did and Luke well he's a different story. There was always something going on that made him unhappy, at least he's cute.

This was our little cabin and we also had a tent pad. The bathrooms were just off and to the right, overall it couldn't have worked out better.

Luke ate sand and drank the lake water.

See that canoe? It's holding Kevin, Ashby, Avery and Roger. I think they had fun and no one fell in.

I hope there's much more of this this summer. Being outside and sharing a snack, is there anything better?

Girl, you really got me now

2010-05-17T10:01:00.002-04:00

Avery: Life is really hard sometimes.
Me: That's true, but it's also really good sometimes too right?
Avery: Yeah, like especially on pay day.
Me: Yeah that is pretty great.
Avery: Because then you get money.
Me: I like it when we get money.
Avery: But life is really bad when you get in a tornado.
Me: ?????
Avery: That happened to me once.
Me: ???? (comprehension slowly coming)
Roger: She's talking about the game of Life.
She had me going for a while there. Turns out my five year old is not turning into a tiny philosopher, thank heavens!

This happened

2010-04-22T12:58:00.003-04:00

on Monday. I was downstairs, the kids were upstairs, I heard Luke screaming and went up and saw this.

It reminded me of this. Avery at exactly the same age fell and hit her face on the corner of the coffee table. Good heavens she's cute.

It also reminded me a little of this. Ok I wasn't exactly the same age, I was fourteen. Brienne Burkinshaw hit me with her shoulder and almost broke my nose, this was the souvenir. We were practicing a lift at a dance competition when it happened. There was blood everywhere and I had to sit out the competition. It made me look tough for 4.3 seconds in my life. On a side note, Roger likes to say I looked sickly skinny in this picture. For the record, I've never been sickly skinny, I was 5'8" already and weighed about 145 lbs. I've always been an ogre, but thanks for the thought Rog.

I'm off next year

2010-04-09T22:45:00.004-04:00

This year on and around Easter we:

Wore new garb to church,

dyed and glittered eggs,

hunted for eggs at Avery's school and

at Brackenridge Park.

Did you notice the girls' haircuts? Have I ever mentioned how much their hair vexes me? I've finally come to the conclusion that since it's a little curly it will never look polished, it refuses to be tamed. They both wanted their hair short and I've never been so grateful. It's easy to comb and looks OK too.

Not pictured was Ashby's First Grade Easter Party. Turned out the room mother was out of town and the ONE other mother that will volunteer had to work. I was all alone on this one and it caused me a large amount of mental distress. It was this party that I'm blaming not one, but two forgotten Visiting Teaching appointments. Straight to Hades for me, but at least the first graders had fun. (I think, I didn't do an egg hunt for them and many of them voiced their displeasure, but they got to squirt water out of big syringes, that's got to count for something right?) This level of activity for a holiday that isn't Christmas is very much an over achievement for me and is unlikely to happen again. Good thing I have the pictures to prove it to the Future Therapists of America!

On another fun note we celebrated Roger's birthday

and went to Buck night at the Bucs game. Even though your $1 tickets are at the very top, we still enjoyed ourselves and the Pirates won!

Look, I was there too!

P.S. Would anyone be interested in me sharing the games and crafts I've done for school parties? I always have a hard time coming up with stuff, even on the internet. Let me know.

Freezer Paper Stencil Tutorial

2010-03-03T15:20:00.011-05:00

Degree of difficulty: Easy
Time from start to completion: about 1 hour, that includes drying time (and cleaning faces and getting snacks and laying babies down for a nap)

First, you will need: Freezer paper that is located by the foil in most grocery stores, paint I'm using acrylic paint because I haven't been to the store to get fabric paint, iron, ironing board, x-acto knife, paint brush, the image to stencil and something to stencil on, I'm using a onesie.
Trace the image onto the freezer paper. Freezer paper has two sides, one shiny, one not. The shiny side is what fuses to the fabric, so trace your image with the shiny side down, matte side up.

Cut the image out to create the stencil. I'm using three colors for this image, but I only needed two different stencils.

One for the body and the letters. The body will be yellow and the letters black, you just have to be careful. Another stencil for the legs and beak which will both be orange. For the letter P's, I cut out a tiny square of paper that will fit in the circle of the P so it won't be painted on and it will look like a letter p, not a stick figure with a big nose.

Next, turn your shirt inside out and iron a piece of freezer paper on that is big enough to easily cover the part of the shirt you will be painting on from the front. This prevents any bleeding through the front onto the back.

Turn the shirt back to the right side and iron on the first image. I am doing the body and letters first.

Immediately call your five year old in to do the painting. Paint the body yellow

and the letters black. Just be careful not to get black on the yellow.

Let dry. While waiting read and marvel at The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

Peel the stencil off and yipee, it's starting to look like a chick.

Iron on the second stencil. I traced the body of the chick so that I could line it up with what is painted underneath.

Paint orange.

Let dry and peel off.

Almost done, it's not perfect, but I like it that way.

I used the head of a pin to paint an eye.

Now the chick can see properly. Peel off the paper from the inside (I save this paper to iron on the inside of another shirt.)

All finished and waiting for a new baby!

Have fun and beware, once you start it's very difficult to not imagine things to stencil!

Here are the directions again for easier printing.

You will need: Freezer paper that is located by the foil in most grocery stores, paint, iron, ironing board, x-acto knife, paint brush, the image to stencil and something to stencil on.

Trace the image onto the freezer paper. Freezer paper has two sides, one shiny, one not. The shiny side is what fuses to the fabric, so trace your image with the shiny side down, matte side up.

Cut the image out to create the stencil.

Next, turn your shirt inside out and iron a piece of freezer paper on that is big enough to easily cover the part of the shirt you will be painting on from the front.

Turn the shirt back to the right side and iron on the first image.

Immediately call your five year old in to do the painting.

Let dry. Peel the freezer paper off and throw away.

Iron on the second stencil.

Let dry and peel off.

Peel off the paper from the inside of the shirt. Set the paint with an iron or by putting in the dryer.

yipee

2010-03-02T15:50:00.002-05:00

I'm so pleased that so many of you haven't done freezer paper stenciling... because I get to share it with you! I've never done a tutorial, but I want to for this. I'll try to get it up in the next day or two. Yipee!

Snow and try it, you'll like it.

2010-03-01T20:40:00.002-05:00

I'm so happy to report that for once, we had the mother of all storms where I actually lived. It was great. We measured snow in our backyard after the storm, 22 inches. The kids were home from school for a whole week. I loved it. Here's Ashby getting ready to make the plunge. Can you see the car? Yeah me either.
Our poor BBQ. It doesn't think summer will ever come, can you blame it?

Have you tried freezer paper stenciling? It's awesome and I'm obsessed. Every time I find cheap solid colored shirts, I snatch up couple so we can make them our own. Avery wanted a flower on hers.

I wanted these guys on Luke's. Can you name them? Without cheating...

And last, I sent these to Baby J. I hadn't ever made bibs before and it was fun. There's also some freezer paper business here too. Try it, you'll like it.

Dear Blog,

2010-02-04T21:24:00.005-05:00

I have not forgotten about you. Please forgive my lack of attention. See the thing is, it's cold and dark and boring and January runs right into February and I swear spring will never come. I know it's not your fault. Please accept this post as a token of my gratitude for your willingness to stick around. Thanks, Chelsea

This is Luke. This is the day he dressed himself. He insisted on swim trunks and jacket, I insisted on the shirt. This is Luke being mad because I was taking the pictures, he was not. More about his anger issues later. I took him to the doctor this week and he's tall and skinny 31 3/4 inches high and 22.5 pounds heavy. He was mad there too.

This is some stuff I sent to new baby E. We are happy to have him in the family. Unhappy he is so far away. I liked how these things turned out, burp clothes, pants and onesies. Pants are folded because they were weird, but I sent them anyway.

This is the bench that Roger built. We knew we wanted a bench when we removed the closet. Yes, it doesn't have a top yet, but baby steps people, baby steps. I had to talk Roger into believing he could construct this. I swear that man can build anything, it's awesome. Total cost up to now: $4.28. Still needs a top, hopefully it will have one soon.

Close up. I'll post before, during and after pictures after it's not topless anymore.

Luke has serious anger issues. I guess it's difficult to be 16 months old. He hates to be told no, he gets mad when he can't figure something out. We laugh. We are excellent parents. Here he is in action trying to conquer a gallon of distilled water. Note his dismay at not being able to open it or lift it. Note his glee when he notices I've got the camera. Is it too early for some anger management? Maybe I could go with him, I blow my top sometimes too.

The Holiday Fun

2010-01-02T20:47:00.004-05:00

I can't believe our glorious Christmas break is almost over. I get depressed just thinking about it. We have had so much fun. The girls were so excited for Christmas. I think Roger may have been even more excited.

The kids got new pajamas on Christmas Eve. This is pretty typical of our attempts to get Luke to do anything other than what he wants to do.

Luke got a new bike for Christmas. He's holding some bouncy balls in his left hand. The balls and a snack container were the big hits with Luke (note to self, don't spend more than $2 on the kid)

The girls both got Wii controllers and nun chucks. However there was no Wii. We opened all the presents under the tree and no Wii system. Ashby being the very kind heart she is commented a few times that maybe we should ask Santa to bring it next Christmas. After all presents were opened we found a suspicious note in the tree. In it Santa explained that he had dropped something in the toy room on his way over the house. Lo and behold it was the Wii. Ashby's never been so excited. She's done nothing but play the Wii since.

If you're in the neighborhood come on over and the girls would love to challenge you to a game of bowling, both girls consistently do better than Roger and I. I can't believe it's back to the grind in two days. I already can't wait for next year. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year. We love you all and thanks for all your love and friendship over the years. Happy 2010.

The First Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T16:38:00.004-05:00

No, no, I'm not talking about the first Thanksgiving ever recorded in history, which there's much debate about anyway, I'm talking about the first Thanksgiving that I've ever hosted. I was so nervous. I've never cooked a turkey before and I've never been in charge of cooking for lots of people before either. Richard and Nancy and kids and Nancy's sister Ruth came from Virginia and Bryan and Anna and kids came from Ohio for the big day. We had 16 people here for dinner. Luckily the turkey turned out great for my first attempt and everything else was pretty good too. I didn't take as many pictures as I should have, but here are a few.

There was much pie making going on. Here's Nancy and Ruth making their family favorite, pumpkin chiffon.

Here's Richard and Roger making berry and cherry pies. Richard was helping, he was looking at recipes, promise. (Sorry to catch you at the computer Rich.) I am happy to loan out their services for a small fee...

This was a pretty standard match up over the weekend. Ashby and Asher catching a few shows during previously mentioned pie making.

And this pair, oh dear this pair, they were inseparable. I think I heard Naomi say she was ready to move in and Avery was accepting with open arms!

Of course I can't forget Luke. He participated by getting under our feet all day and pulling out all the clean dishes from the cabinets. But oh my look at that hair!

On a completely unrelated note, here are the girls today with their Christmas Countdown chains. I can hardly believe it's November 30th and they are ready to go already. Usually I forget about it and remember it sometime around December 5th. And here's another reason to pat myself on the back, see Avery's skirt? I made that out of one of Roger's old shirts. I'm as pleased as punch about it. Unfortunately Avery wants nothing to do with it and only wore it today because nothing else was clean! I really am sounding like a self centered bore aren't I?

I do just want to include how grateful I am for all my many many blessings. I'm so grateful for family and friends who are near and far. I'm grateful for my sweet kids, I'm not sure what I would be without them. I'm so incredibly grateful for Roger. He is my everything and I know without him I'd be nothing. I'm grateful for the lessons we are learning as we live so far from where I grew up. It really sucks sometimes, but most the time it's really great. We have accomplished a lot but I know we had nothing to do with it. Heavenly Father truly knows us and knows our needs. I'm so grateful.

Just a few

2009-11-24T13:00:00.002-05:00

seconds of just a few steps. I'm so surprised at Luke's sticktoitiveness. He tries and tries and tries walking. He's getting very good. Although at times he does look a little like Frankenbaby because he won't bend his knees. He's our earliest walker by about three months. Go Lukie, go!

Hurry quick...

2009-11-17T18:30:00.004-05:00

before the next holiday. Just when you thought you were done looking at kids in Halloween costumes, I'm fashionably late posting these. I was terrible at taking pictures, I was too busy having fun. I'm also a terrible mother because I didn't dress Luke up, he wore a costume for all of about 5 minutes. I'll pay for his therapy later.

Avery choose this beautiful fairy costume from Grandma Worth's costume store. The wings kept falling off and people would say what a beautiful princess she was, which infuriated her. Couldn't they see she was a fairy? Here she is marching in her parade at school.

Ashby chose a knight costume and I told her she had to be Joan of Arc if she was using that costume. We learned a little about Joan of Arc and she was very good at telling people that's who she was dressed as. Here she is at her parade. I was able to help in her classroom this year (thanks Maria) and I marched in the parade with her class.

This little horror will have to suffice for Luke. I've never been more grateful to be done nursing. Yes he did that with his teeth.

Seven, really?

2009-10-27T20:16:00.005-04:00

Ashby celebrated her 7th birthday on Saturday. For those of you keeping track at home, yes all of our kids had their birthdays within one months time. I'm exhausted! I can't believe that Ashby is seven. I've said it before and I'll say it again, where does the time go? She went from this:

to this, in what seems like no time at all.

Ashby is a very good sport about her birthday being so close to Halloween. She likes Halloween themed things for her birthday. These were the cupcakes she shared with her first grade class.

This is Ashby with her cake, can you see the theme? We love you Ashby, happy birthday.

The wrath of the Jack-o-Lantern

2009-10-27T20:12:00.002-04:00

Yikes.

Luke is 1!

2009-10-10T21:33:00.003-04:00

Luke turned one today. I can't believe it. Time sure does fly. We love our little guy. He did a rather fine job eating his cake today. He was definitely not shy and he most definitely enjoyed it. I can hardly believe how much joy he has brought to our lives. Everyone is happier because he's here. We love you baby boy, happy birthday.

He was not shy and he's a shover. I think he thought it was a contest, who could shove the most in their mouth at once. You won Luke, you won.

And of course it's so darn good that you must lick the plate and then rub it on your head.

What do you suppose

2009-10-07T23:21:00.003-04:00

we could do with this? It's for sale and maybe if we all pool our resources it could be OURS!

My vote would be a giant and fantastic game of Red Rover, Red Rover. What's your vote?

Did you know?

2009-10-05T22:17:00.003-04:00

Roger and I watched a few minutes of National Parks on PBS the other night. I know the show is getting good reviews and I'm ashamed to say we haven't really watched it. Although in the few minutes we were watching they mentioned how a Joshua tree got it's name. Did any of you know how? Obviously I knew about the U2 album and have seen a Joshua tree, but I didn't know how it got it's name. Apparently Mormon pioneers saw the tree in their travels out west and likened the tree to the prophet Joshua; his arms lifted up in prayer. The name stuck. Now you know...

Why do I do this to myself?

2009-10-02T10:47:00.004-04:00

I've had all kinds of things to blog about, yet I haven't, so now I have to play catch-up. For my own sake I wanted to record all this, so you are all free to tune out.....................................NOW!

Kevin and Kelly were here over Labor Day. Kevin motivated Roger to get a project done. I'm happy to say that our kitchen is finally done. Before: no quarter round.

After: lovely quarter round. (It only took 2 years)

I hate and I mean really hate acting, any kind of it, like role playing, acting out stories, you name it, I loathe it. I forget that the girls don't feel the same way. They love it. They acted out the story of Abinadi and King Noah for Family Home Evening, it was great. I definitely have them do that more often, as long as I can stay out of it! Avery is Abinadi in chains and Ashby is evil King Noah.

Avery celebrated her 5th birthday. Where does the time go? I love you my sweet Avs.

The day of Avery's birthday we drove to Virginia to see our friends the Ellsworth's, to visit with family and to go to the National Book Festival. We had a great time. The girls saw Arthur

and Ruff Ruffman. (by the way, may I just say what a lovely accomplishment this is on Ashby's part, she used to be horrified of people in costumes.)

Luke and Blythe became fast friends.

I had to include this picture because it's what I like to call, "Washington Monument you are much to tall to get good pictures of, but we tried and look at the awesome results"

We had so much fun in VA. Thank you to everyone. And Chris and Kim, thank you a million times over for making the trip and for finding those awesome parking spots, let's do it again soon.

What I read

2009-09-10T20:35:00.002-04:00

My friend Kim asked me to put up a list of books that I've read on my blog. I debated about doing it for a couple of reasons. Mostly because I'm a little embarrassed about the books I read and they probably aren't blog worthy. With that in mind probably don't take my list too seriously. I haven't been able to think of a new top five for a long time, so it's time to retire it. Although I do like remembering that I shouldn't get any fatter this year when I see my blog (I know it doesn't seem like I should need my blog to remind me, but there's something about seeing that sentence on the internets that makes me not want to refute it). I'll start the list with books I've read recently or some that I really liked. I'm also kind of a neurotic or obsessive reader. Once I find an author that I like, I don't rest until I've read almost all their books. I'm weird like that, but I've found some gems that way too. I'd love to hear if you've read any of these books and what you thought... Happy reading!

Do you love it?

2009-09-01T21:51:00.001-04:00

I love and I mean love fall in Pennsylvania. The weather has been awesome and humidity almost non existent. Roger keeps saying that there's love in the air, what I think he's really trying to say is that it's football season. Is there anything better than fall and college football? Little, very little I would say. Go Cougars and all I'm asking out of this weekend's game is that you not totally humiliate yourselves OK? Good.

Also, I don't get it. What do you ask, well I'll tell you (it's my blog right?), women that walk around in workout gear. Am I to believe that these individuals just got done working out and needed to hurry and run some errands before they could change? If that's the case where can I sign up for the non-red and sweaty post workout face? Or is it because there's nothing else to wear? Or is it just because these people plan on eating lots of cookies so they need an elastic waistband? I can't figure it out. Anyone have any insight?

I'm not really sure

2009-08-30T22:22:00.004-04:00

when this happened. I mean, look how big these girls are. Good grief.

Ashby and Avery on their first day of school.

Sweet Ashby's face. Oh yes I forgot to mention that Ashby lost her seventh tooth last week. She was very excited about it, more than any of the other lost teeth I would say.

My sweet Avs. Did you know her favorite color is pink?

Avery getting off the bus after her first day. Avery is in the preschool program through our school district. They bus all the kids in the program to their building that is only about half a mile away. Ashby's school is just up the street so we walk, but the little one has to ride the bus!

What to do

2009-08-25T23:06:00.004-04:00

The girls start school tomorrow, seriously? I can't believe it. I have a knot in my stomach just thinking about it. I didn't think it would be so hard to send your second baby off to school. The thought of Avery getting on that school bus and driving away is almost more than I can take. She's been with me always and now she'll be gone every day. Yes it's only 3 hours and yes it's only preschool, but still. I'm going to miss those monkeys. Luke will too I'm sure.

I had a rather humorous experience last week and since I have no dignity, I thought I'd share. I have been trying to get into running. I've been running a couple of times a week since April. It hasn't delivered all the promises to me though. I'm not super fit and skinny yet (what, it's only because I average twice a week? well OK then.) I've been going to the track for the last couple of months. I do like it because it's easier on my knees, but holy cow it's boring. So last Thursday I went running out in the neighborhood. I got started a little later in the evening than I would have liked, so it was getting dark. It was quite dark under the big trees. That's my defense for what happened. I had been running for about a mile and I fell, that's right folks, I fell all the way down. I tripped on the uneven sidewalk then I had some serious windmill arms and then had to catch myself with my hands. There's nothing like doing that on a busy street, let me tell you, I felt like a million bucks....

I finished reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle yesterday and I really liked it. After I finished I thought to myself what I often think to myself when I finish reading a novel; why do the "good" books always have to be sad and am I the only one who doesn't get everything in the book. I find that if things aren't spelled out, I don't get it. That's one of the many reasons I'm not a literary genius. I will tell you that it's possible to still love a book even if you don't get everything.

When was the last time you ate with this much reckless abandon? Yet another reason why babies are great... (does he need a haircut?)

Luke is also not a big believer in child locks.

I forgot

2009-08-12T21:20:00.003-04:00

I met a friend at the park today. This friend has one child, a daughter that's about six weeks younger than Luke. I remembered some things while I was talking to her. Do you remember how lonely and how different than your current life it was when you were the stay at home mom of a very young child? I had forgotten what it was like until today. The days seemed so long and could be so monotonous. Remember? Your baby can't do all that much yet, so it was so hard to entertain myself and the baby all day. It's a time I remember with mixed emotions, fondness and a little sadness. I really enjoy our current stage of life. I like having kids in school. It seems like we'll be doing this phase for a while, but I can be sure I'll be looking back in no time at all wondering when everyone moved out.

I'm also contemplating embarking upon the humpback whale diet. What you haven't heard of it? We were watching Blue Planet yesterday and here's the scoop. When the ice breaks up in the arctic the humpback whales come and feed for four months. They fill up their fat stores to last them the rest of the year. So you in? Gorge for four months and then fast for eight months. I couldn't not lose weight right? What you don't think it would work, well OK then, back to the drawing board I guess.

And last, have you been watching Better Off Ted? We love it. I laughed myself silly last night. We had two episodes on the DVR and I laughed a lot. I'm pretty sure that means it's going to be cancelled any minute, especially because there was a stint with magicians. That seems to be a common element in our favorite no longer on the air shows. "It's an ILLUSION, Michael."

All that jazz

2009-08-11T20:13:00.005-04:00

For some reason this summer is weird. It's almost over which I have mixed feelings about, but I also kind of feel stuck in limbo. There's not much going on, not much I feel like reporting, but we aren't miserable either. It's just weird. This is kind of what we've been doing.

We've been trying to do a few projects. These took a couple of days, which was nice. The girls painted the faces and picked out the clothes. We're still working out what to do for arms. Right now they look like the less glamorous neighbors of Higglytown.

I found this plain white tray at Ikea. We decided to make a project out of it and send it to my mom for her birthday. The girls had a good time cutting up old magazines. I really liked how it turned out, I hope my mom did too.

The girls made a mailbox that unfortunately only kept them occupied for one afternoon. They love the mail, I thought for sure they would play with this for a couple of days. Oh well, we'll try something else.

We have been gardening again this year. It was amazing and slightly alarming how much our plants grew while we were gone for two weeks. This was our most ingenious idea this year, plant zucchini plants on our unused hill that used to house an apple tree. Last year this hill became a trash heap, we dumped all the yard debris and rocks from around the yard here. Roger and the girls worked hard getting it cleared out this spring and the zucchini have been incredibly happy here.

Roger spotted this in the yard a little while ago. Can you tell what it is? I really couldn't at first, but it's a baby rabbit. That's one of the funny things about this area, we have bunnies everywhere. They're just the wild ones, but i get a kick out of them nonetheless. We have never seen one this tiny though. I was really worried about it because they usually don't come out of their den until they are bigger. I think we've had at least 4 bunny holes in our yard this year. One day the girls and I watched the mama dig her hole for the babies, we saw this a few days later. I hope this little one was OK.

I had the very fortunate experience of getting a new calling at church on Sunday. I am now the Sunbeam teacher (teaching the 4 year olds). I'm so excited I can barely take it. We'll see how Sunday goes, hopefully I'll still feel as excited about it on Sunday evening.

What we found

2009-07-31T15:25:00.004-04:00

We found a fun place to swim last weekend. It's a local reservoir that has a little beach. When I say little I mean like you can only swim out about 100 yards before the buoys tell you that you cannot pass because there are boats. It was perfect for our little family. The price was right too, only $2 for the whole family.

This is what Luke did the entire time. He's absolutely fearless and really didn't care when the water got too deep. It is worrisome indeed.

Ashby enjoying the lake. I was standing on the sand and took her picture, you can see the you cannot pass buoys in the background. It was small indeed.

Avery preferred digging in the sand over swimming, I can't say I blame her. The water was a little too murky for me too. On a side note, what happened to me? I didn't use to care about murky water, now it kind of gives me the heebie jeebies.

The kids getting ready to pull out.

I also wanted to include these pictures from the fourth of July. We have a new point and shoot camera and I won't ever be able to use more than half the functions on it, however I did find this cool night scene setting and it was good for catching some sparkler action. The best thing to do with sparklers? Write your name of course, this is Ashby's y.

Avery was fixin' to lasso her something good, probably a candy bar or some lip gloss.

Mediocrity

2009-07-23T22:53:00.003-04:00

I had a discussion with my sister in law this week about being mediocre. I am the definition of mediocre and I'm totally OK with that. Every now and again, especially when I get sucked into the blogosphere, I wish I was or could do something really outstanding or tremendous, but then I remember I'm totally OK with mediocrity and I carry on. I've been feeling so guilty about not posting anything in a while, but the truth is, life has been mediocre. Which isn't a bad thing. I prefer stability to the wild swinging of ups and downs anyway. Things are going just fine. We are going to the library, a lot, which means we are reading a lot and that's great. It's been raining so we've been watching TV, a lot, which really doesn't bother me that much (I'm totally over feeling guilty about that). I haven't been taking a lot of pictures for a few reasons: I'm too lazy, I've got my hands full of Luke and nothing seems that picture worthy. I guess my one real complaint about the mediocre life I lead is that time seems to pass more quickly. The girls start school in about a month and when they do, I'm sure I'll look back on the summer and have nothing to remember about it so therefore will wonder what happened to it. Were you wondering how many more times I could say mediocre? Well I think that was the last time, for now.

A month really?

2009-07-07T21:03:00.004-04:00

As I'm looking through pictures I haven't posted yet, I can't figure out how to catch up, it exhausts me to think about it. I'm going for highlights here and hopefully for my own benefit, I'll fill in more details later. We had a wonderful time in Utah. It was too short. We spent so much time with my parents and my family, it was so great. I still can't get over the injustice of the swine flu though. Our very good friend Brittany contracted said illness while we were there which limited our time with her family, how dare she right? Here we go.

Ashby graduated from kindergarten on June 11th. Here she is with her teacher Miss Galie, we will miss her next year.

We had breakfast up in Big Cottonwood Canyon. I love that mountain air.

We went swimming and barbecuing with my Ricks College roommates. Look at all those kids, the five of us have been busy. I love this picture because it illustrates how difficult it is to get kids to do something all at the same time. Thanks again Jill for offering your house and pool. The party is something the girls still consistently say was one of their favorite things about the trip.

Luke and the other little ones were busy with this chair at Jill's house. Isn't is just the right size?

We were able to attend the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house. I remember going to the Bountiful temple open house; I hope this is something my kids will remember for a life time. The view from the temple grounds was truly amazing.

We were able to celebrate Kid's Day while in Utah. We took the kids to the Children's Museum. This was one of the few activities they did together.

Did you know a kiddie pool was so fun? Swimming on Kid's Day.

We try to ride a carousel on Kid's Day, here's Avs.

Here's Ashby. She chose the dragon, man I love the dragon!

They fought the good fight

2009-06-08T13:00:00.007-04:00

Ashby was Ms. T for their end of the year Letter People parade. Ms. T has tall teeth,

or is Ashby fighting the good fight for Christianity?

Because of Luke's war injury to his left leg, this was the only means of transportation left to him.

Avery kept out of the fighting this time...

We are heading out to Utah next week, does anyone have any good tips for flying with babies? It's been a really long time since I've flown with anyone as young as Luke and I've never flown this far with a baby before. I'm pulling my hair out to say the least.

I guess I'm a pessimist

2009-06-05T21:58:00.003-04:00

I usually consider myself an optimist, but after deciding to write this post, I may not be. I have a bone to pick with "well, you tried you're best, so it's fine." I hate that I find myself saying that to my kids. At some point I guess I might, if I had to and only to make people feel better and only in certain situations kind of believe it. Here's the reason why I don't buy it (humiliation on the line again...) When I was a junior in high school I tried out for the varsity song leader squad. I cheered on JV that year and I liked it a lot and really wanted to be a song leader. The song leaders at our school were good, like really good, like went to competitions and got first place good. It was serious business. I had friends that had been song leaders in previous years and they danced their tails off, it was a joy to watch. So I went to the audition and it was really hard. I thought I held my own though. By that time in my life I had been dancing for almost ten years. I could remember a routine pretty well on short notice. The dance was fast, really fast, but I felt good about it, in fact you could say that I did the best I possibly could. There were a few other things in the tryout, I don't remember specifically, but just more testing of abilities. At the end of the audition I got cut. I was absolutely devastated. I mean I hadn't felt that upset by anything for a really long time and quite honestly I don't know if I have since (that's actually kind of weird). Anyway I was a wreck. I went home and cried my eyes out to my mom. The very, very worst part was that I knew I did my best, there was nothing left to give, I gave it all, but was it enough? Not even close, I didn't make it through the first cut. It just sucks to know that no matter what you do, you come in about 20th place. Such is life I guess, but you won't catch me throwing around the" you did your best" without some serious peer pressure...

I meant for this post to be funny, turns out it just sounds grouchy huh?
This is not a woe is me post either, I was just thinking about it the other day. I often hear you did your best on TV and it makes me laugh.

Oh goodness

2009-06-01T23:14:00.003-04:00

May was a busy month. We had a great time. There's a lot to catch up on.

Ashby received the pledge keeper award for her class for May. Every month the teachers nominate someone in their classroom that demonstrates a particular part of the Fairmount Pledge. Ashby was chosen for responsibility. The school sent a letter in the mail informing us of the award and asking us to attend the assembly but to keep it a secret. It was very fun to surprise her at school. She was walking up to the stage so fast I couldn't get a good picture, that's her leg by the podium.

Ashby played in her last soccer game of the season. We will miss it; well I won't really miss carting all the kids to practice every week, but we will miss the games and having a good excuse to be outside.

Avery danced in her first recital. She performed in two numbers. She did a great job. She smiled and kind of looked at the audience and not her teacher. Thanks again Pat and DeAnna for coming.

Pretty little Avs waiting for the show to start. I like this picture because all three kids are in it. Ashby didn't want to go to the recital, but she didn't want to leave at intermission so it wasn't a complete bust.

Avery graduated from nursery school. She was attending at the local high school. The child development lab holds a preschool for a few months every year. She loved it.

It's so fun to watch the girls grow into their own little people. We love them so much. Not to leave Luke out, I don't have any new pictures to share. He's becoming an accomplished scooter. He can get anywhere he wants to go and pretty quickly too. We can't wait for school to be out for the summer. Who doesn't love summer?

A word of advice

2009-05-11T19:38:00.003-04:00

to you Luke, I know you're excited about eating, I get excited too, but you need to learn to rein it in, otherwise dating will be really embarrassing for you. Love you son.

(The funniest part might actually be how bad I missed getting the puff in his mouth...it's hard to see what you are doing through a camera ok?)

Teacher Appreciation

2009-05-06T20:50:00.002-04:00

To recognize Ashby and Avery's teachers for teacher appreciation day, we did some serious cutting and painting. I swear I saw some notepads similar to these somewhere on the internets, but couldn't find it again, so I just did my own thing. We purchased some 3mm birch from the craft store. I then cut six pieces out of the sheet. The girls painted the wood pieces and drew a picture on a pre-cut piece of paper. We used mod podge on the dry pieces to attach their pictures. Then I drilled holes through the wood and paper (I may or may not have drilled a 3/16" hole in the kitchen table...) I then cut and punched holes in regular type paper. Put it all together and ta-da, a customized notepad. We also included a pen with each one. I was pretty happy with how they turned out. I was frustrated at my inability to find very good rings to attach everything together. The ones I used were a little flimsy, but did the job. I hope the teachers liked them; we sure do like the teachers!

Out with the sad and lame, in with the happy and homemade

2009-04-29T18:05:00.004-04:00

This is the sad bag that I've carried all my church stuff in. Church stuff comprises of a 3 inch binder, a magazine, a notebook, scriptures, a small hymn book and a lesson manual; obviously not capable of fitting in a cute purse. I was tired of this 13 year old bag. How do I know it's 13 years old? It's the bag they give to missionaries when they enter the MTC. That means Roger's old. Anyway I saw instructions for this new tote and immediately knew it's destiny.

Instructions for this tote can be found here. I had never made anything with piping or a liner so I was a little nervous. It went rather well though, there was never any cursing or wishing doom upon my sewing machine and really that's the measure of success with a sewing project. It brightens my day to take it to church.

I've also figured out the reason for Luke's week long crankiness, his first tooth. Pictures to come when you can do something other than feel it with a finger.

Reporting live

2009-04-19T21:39:00.002-04:00

Another thing that I find so humorous is the news. I'm not a religious news watcher, it's too depressing, but every once in a while we catch the first few minutes of a broadcast. The other night we were watching the Penguins game and then the news started. The first report was about the Penguins game which they had won here in Pittsburgh at Mellon Arena. There was some brouhaha about the fact that the next game wasn't going to be broadcast on a big screen outside Mellon Arena. The woman reporting the story signed off by saying "this is so and so outside Heinz Field, back to you in the studio." I said to myself, wait, what? Heinz Field? Heinz Field is where the Steelers and the Pitt Panthers play FOOTBALL. FOOTBALL, not hockey. But did they just figure that since some kind of sporting activity happens there it's good enough? It's not the first time I've noticed that. Does the story just look more official if you're standing outside... somewhere? Awesome. This is Chelsea Worth reporting live from somewhere near my couch, back to you.

I know what you're thinking....

2009-04-15T22:12:00.004-04:00

"....she's not really doing another post about pirates." Indeed I am, except these are the less violent, play baseball type Pirates. It was buck night at the game tonight, so we ventured out of our winter cave and went down to the ball park. It was raining and cold, but still fun. Luke was amazing well behaved for the late hour. Roger went o-2 for pictures tonight, it was humorous enough to still post. For whatever reason I can't move these pictures around how I want, here we go anyway.

Luke and I tapped out at about 9 pm. This is after we drove home. Mind you it was two hours past bedtime. He couldn't stop giggling, how was I supposed to put him to bed?

Roger and the girls, so close to eyes open Rog, keep trying.

Luke and I trying to stay warm.
Roger, completely unsuccessful at eyes open.

Ashby enjoying a pretzel.

Avery lovin' every minute of it.

A note to you Somali pirates: it has been brought to my attention that you are wearing fatigues and not puffy shirts. Maybe, just maybe if you wore puffy shirts you wouldn't feel so violent and angry and want to steal stuff...think about it.

The Easter trip

2009-04-13T21:08:00.004-04:00

We spent Easter weekend in Virginia with the Worth's. It was so great to see everyone, we have missed living there so much. We even went to our old ward. It was strange because the girls didn't remember ever going there and didn't really remember old friends. Two years is forever to kids isn't it? I of course was mom of the year and forgot my camera and was not into the usual Easter festivities. I sometimes feel so guilty that I'm not providing opportunities for my kids to have fun. I hope they will forgive me, or at least find a good therapist. They were very sweet in their new Easter gear. Again because I forgot the camera I didn't get a picture of Luke in his new clothes. He thought it appropriate to have a massive blowout during sacrament meeting (sorry again Kev). We managed a few pics with Kelly's camera, thanks Kelly.

Here's what baby-poops-a-lot spent Easter wearing. At least he smiled for me.

The girls on Easter. I was loving the yellow for spring, thanks mom!

Another reason I'm a terrible person.

2009-04-08T15:21:00.002-04:00

Because honestly, nothing makes my day like seeing a headline on CNN about pirates. I know it's completely insensitive and rude, but PIRATES! It does makes me wander around all day saying things like arrgh matey or yo ho and wondering whether or not I have scurvy.

I'm really terrible at clever titles

2009-03-25T12:19:00.005-04:00

I've had a few things on my mind to blog about, but nothing ever warranted a post all to itself. I saved it all up for one fantastic (semi-boring) post. Aren't you excited?

We celebrated Roger's 32nd birthday on Monday. Happy Birthday old man.

Ashby starts soccer this week again and we are all very excited, even Avery. Ain't she so pretty?

On Sunday during church, Avery told Roger that her foot was bored. It was awesome. Upon further questioning, we figured out she probably meant it was asleep. We told her you say asleep instead of bored and she thought that was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard. She also was cold the other night and a good way to fix it is footy pajamas and slippers right?

I was getting Ashby ready for school yesterday and could hear the baby kicking the coffee table. He was fussing a bit so I came in the living room to help him and couldn't find him. This is where he was, all the way under the coffee table. He does have other clothes, I promise.

When the new year came, I found myself really cheap and wouldn't spend the $5 for a new desk calendar, so I improvised. I bought this magnet board at Ikea for $2 a while ago. I already had the circle magnets and the tape. I only had to buy a package of strip magnets for $.70. I color coded magnets for the girls' activities and I can write on the board with a dry erase marker as well. I thought it turned out alright. It will do the job anyway. Don't I take such great pictures?

My most excellent recommendations

2009-03-19T15:16:00.004-04:00

Ok first, seriously Cougars what's wrong with you? Breaking my heart again, yowza... Have any of you been watching this? I found it on CNN the other day. It's a documentary of two freshman Congressman in the House of Representatives. It's so interesting to watch how life moves and shakes in the House. The two reps it follows couldn't be more opposite, I like watching how they both work. And lastly I'm always looking for a good book to read. My friend kim posted a bunch of books she's read on her blog and one of them was The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. If you haven't read it, run don't walk to your nearest library/bookstore and pick it up. I loved it. Unfortunately it's the first in a trilogy, the next one comes out this fall. I hate waiting, but boy did I love that book. Our society is just a small step from The Hunger Games, horrifying.

Oh my...

2009-03-12T23:10:00.005-04:00

am I lazy. I've hardly taken any pictures and clearly I haven't done any blogging lately. The only explanation is that I'm really, really lazy. At least my dishes are done today... oh wait I didn't even do those, Roger and the girls did. Darn. I'm posting what I've got because my mom is dying for pictures.

Luke has been getting good at rolling around. He doesn't really do it on purpose, but is pleased to find himself in a different place than where I set him. I was in the kitchen the other day and could hear something going on in the living room. I looked around the couch and saw this

and this. He was so happy with himself and I was loving his little arm all the way in the crayon bucket.

We also took advantage of our first Saturday with Roger back and went to the Museum of Natural History. It was the perfect quick Saturday trip.

And here's a video, just for good measure.

Is it really...

2009-02-17T16:45:00.004-05:00

February 17th? Happy anniversary Rog. I'll hardly talk to you today, but hopefully you'll read this. I'm thinking about you, I miss you and I love you. Thanks for nine great years.

Ugh

2009-02-12T21:28:00.004-05:00

So I'm tired of looking at my top five, but can't really think of a good theme for a new one. Here's what's up anyway:

1. My only goal for the year is to not get any fatter. I'm not going to set myself up for failure by saying I'm going to lose the 50 pounds I need to, I'm aiming low this time...
2. Is it March yet? Can't wait for Roger to be done with all these crazy hours so we can see what he looks like in daylight again.
3. Why oh why did they cancel Pushing Daisies? Yep I know I should have better things to do than watch TV, but it was my favorite show ok?
4. I wish I had an unlimited craft budget. I see so many things on the internets that I wanna make, but I don't always have the funds to do so.
5. I'm so happy and grateful to be able to spend my days with my three beautiful little ones. I've been asked a couple of times in the last week if I work and I'm so happy to say no. Yes sometimes I think it would be so nice to have a second income, but then I remember how I would completely fall apart at the seams if I had to drop the kids at daycare everyday, that's not for me.

Mr. 4 month old happy pants

2009-02-10T20:40:00.004-05:00

I took Luke in for his four month check up today. He's the size of a six month old. I don't need to worry that he's not eating enough I guess. We have been really worried about the shape of his head. It's really flat on the rear right side which was making it all misshapen every where else. We thought for sure he would need a correctional helmet. Well the good news ( I guess) is that the doctor was not all concerned and said it will round out when he's five months to two years old. I hope that's true and I always wonder if we should get a second opinion. I hate things like this when I never know what to do. We'll see how things go over the next few months. Hopefully when he starts to get more mobile, it will round out. Luke was 15 pounds and 26 inches long. He's a big kid and he's so darn cute.

Are we or are we not?

2009-01-31T20:09:00.004-05:00

You may wonder whether or not we are true Pittsburghers because of our lack of public support for the Steelers. Well I'm pretty sure it's written in Pittsburgh law that if you live within a 50 mile radius of Heinz Field that you have to love the Steelers. We definitely do so we are definitely Pittsburghers! This town has been crazy this week, I love it. Ashby said that only two kids in her class of 24 were not wearing Steelers garb on Friday. They had better win tomorrow because I can't bear a month long city wide depression. I'm actually optimistic saying it would only be a month long, really it would probably last until NFL season starts again next fall. We have many a good snack planned for our party tomorrow. Maybe I'll post a picture if there's anything worth taking a picture of. And, oh yes, GO STEELERS!

The baby

2009-01-25T23:05:00.002-05:00

I finally got some good pictures of the baby. He always looks like a deer in headlights when I try to take a picture, but these are pretty good. I really don't like my kids to suck their fingers, but at the same time I hate being a slave to the binky. I'm not sure what will happen with Luke yet, I still try the binky, but occasionally I catch him sucking the index and middle finger of his left hand. I know he thinks he's sneaky, but he's not fooling me.

Roger took this the other night and I love his sweet little face.

The Christmas Crafts

2009-01-20T21:20:00.002-05:00

I don't know that this interests anyone, but I thought I would share anyway. These are a few of the things I made this year. I didn't get as many things made as I would have liked, but it was fun all the same.

My sister Katie had a baby in June and my mom made my nephew a blanket with this fabric. I asked for the leftovers so I could make these soft blocks. That's a lion on the bottom left.

Trying to learn some embroidery + being really cheap when it comes to Christmas gifts= this gift for my mom.

Instructions for these have been floating around the internets and I thought Avery should have one for dance class. I think it turned out cute.

All the changes

2009-01-20T21:02:00.005-05:00

I can't help but feel inspired today. Yes I voted for Obama, but I sat on the fence about it up until the morning of the election. However, as I watched the inauguration today, there seemed to be a tangible excitement about it all. It's been fun to talk about the election and the new president with Ashby. They've been learning about it at school and then we talk about it at home. It makes me want to become more informed and up to speed with what's going on.

There were some changes here on Atlantic Avenue as well. I cut the girls' hair this week and it's a big change; I love it.

Ashby before.

Ashby after. She wanted it really short but wanted it "to hang down a little bit." I hope we achieved that. The saddest part is that I seemed to cut all the curls off. It breaks my heart. She also lost two more teeth. She really lost one though, I think she swallowed it in the middle of the night. Is the tooth fairy still responsible for really lost teeth?

Avery before.

Avery after. Not quite as dramatic as Ashby's but I like it a lot.

The weather also changed and finally gave us some good snow. Roger has been working Saturday's so I sent the girls out by themselves the other day and they made this little snowman all by themselves. I think it's so cute.

And yes Luke does still live here. He's changing everyday too. He can roll over now, about two weeks ago he did for the first time and I was completely shocked. He refuses to roll over anymore, but I know he can do it. He has found his toes and pulls his socks off every minute. He can laugh now too. It's almost a full blown belly laugh and I can't get enough of it. I haven't gotten any good pictures of him lately but that's my mission this week.

It was the most wonderful time of the year...

2009-01-08T21:18:00.003-05:00

There were baked goods to make (cookie cake, it's Santa can you tell?)

(cherry pie courtesy of Roger, nice work huh?)

Christmas Eve pajama pants to wear along with rain boots for spreading reindeer food outside before bed,
presents to open,

weddings to celebrate (Roger's little sister Karen and her husband Jared, yeah!),
dancing to do (cousin Kyle and Ashby),

more dancing to do,

and still more dancing to do (Aunt Stephanie and Avery),

and being really tired but making it to midnight on New Year's Eve!

We had such a great holiday filled with so many fun things. We slept in until 10 almost every morning. The girls had so much fun swimming at the hotel in Ohio with their cousins while we were there for the wedding. Roger and I stayed up way too late with my in laws, but didn't regret a minute of it. The only thing I could have wished for during this Christmas break was to see my family. I love you guys and I miss you a lot. I was so sad to go back to real life this week. Real life means walking Ashby to school in the bitter cold and losing Roger to busy season. But I can't help but think about how blessed we are and how fortunate we are to begin another year in good health. I am looking forward to this year as a chance to improve our lives a little each day.

Observations on a Wednesday

2008-12-17T13:58:00.002-05:00

First off, really it's only Wednesday, really? Second, we heard the saddest news on Sunday, Pushing Daisies has been cancelled. Shame on all you who haven't been watching, it's like Arrested Development all over again. And thirdly do boys just need less sleep than girls? I'm embarrassed to admit that Luke still isn't sleeping through the night, both girls were at his age. He is also a bad napper. Ashby napped in 30 minuted increments until she was probably 6-7 months old. Luke seems to be following in that pattern. What am I doing wrong and isn't he tired? Heaven knows I am.

On a more positive note, I am very excited that it's almost Christmas. It's so fun having kids who are so excited, it makes me all the more excited. I can't wait until Roger and Ashby are off work and school next week, I'm ready for some serious family togetherness!

Luke's blessing

2008-12-10T13:49:00.004-05:00

We blessed Luke at church on Sunday. Roger did a wonderful job on the blessing. We were so lucky to have Kevin and Kelly and Bryan and Anna here. We had lunch after the blessing and it was so good to see everyone. Luke did a good job, he didn't cry during the blessing, but Roger did say that they almost dropped him, he's a big boy!

Thank you Grandma for the cute outfit. Can you see his blurry arm and leg? That's cause he never holds still. He's cute though huh?

Man I love this kid, look at that face!

I was so happy to get a fairly good picture of all the kids. I love it when older siblings hold the baby, it's so cute. I love all those faces!

I also took Luke to the doctor today for his two month check up. I can't believe how fast time flies. He was over 25 inches and weighed 12 lbs 12 oz. Does it ever get any easier to see your children get their shots?

Here's a video of Luke that I took last week. Mostly for the benefit of my mom, but it's very cute all the same!

What I love about the holidays

2008-12-02T13:16:00.004-05:00

Not that I don't like reading what I'm looking forward to about having a new baby, but since he's here now I thought it would be time to update my top five. I've been terrible about getting into the holiday spirit this year. Thanksgiving just kind of snuck up on me and now it's over and I didn't really do or feel anything about it. Sad huh? I'm determined to not let that happen with Christmas. I love Christmas and there are so many wonderful things to enjoy about this time of year, here are my top five or six this time:

1. Having a chance to show appreciation to those around me that I love and that do so much for me throughout the year.
2. The way Christmas lights look inside your house when they are the only sources of light. I used to put lights in my window when I was a kid and I loved falling asleep to the soft light of Christmas lights.
3. Christmas makes me feel seriously crafty. I do so enjoy it. Why is it though that crafting can seem so expensive? Aren't homemade gifts supposed to be cheaper than store bought? I guess leave it to the wal-mart to make everything so cheap it's hard to outdo them (not that I have a problem with that, but still...)
4. Teaching my kids the value of doing something for others less fortunate than us. Christmas time is also a good time of year to tell my kids over and over again that no we don't NEED anymore toys and that we should be grateful for what we already have.
5. I really, really love Christmas movies. My favorite is definitely Elf. I laugh so hard every time I see it, it's so great!
6. Yep, I'm adding one more. It's my blog and I can do what I want... Having the chance for about a month to really think about the Savior and remember what he did for me, I don't remember often enough at other times of year.

I hope everyone will enjoy their holiday season. Happy Holidays!

Which one of these things....

2008-11-25T20:20:00.007-05:00

is not like the other?

Give up? That's because they are all alike. I never really thought that Ashby and Avery looked a lot alike as babies, but when you throw Luke in the mix, I sure can tell they all belong to us. Man I love these kids. And here's one more picture of Luke kind of smiling. He's a big kid huh?

Goodbye forever

2008-11-13T13:25:00.005-05:00

We've had some big changes around here in the last month or so. The girls have grown up a lot in the last month and it all started at the dentist. I took the girls on Oct. 27 and Avery received a stern talking to about her thumb-sucking. The dentist said he likes them to stop sucking their thumb at age 2, we were well past that. He talked to her about it and we reinforced it at home and I'm happy to report that she has tremendous will power and no longer sucks her thumb. Well we don't think so anyway. She only sucked her thumb with her blanket and blankets have been confined to the bedroom for the past year or so, so it's actually hard to know that she doesn't suck any more. She says she hasn't been and I'm inclined to believe her. Ashby also had some major changes. She gave up her blanket, yep we're terrible parents, she was 6 and still sleeping with a blanket. She has done great, despite what she thought. Prior to taking the blanket away, the thought of sleeping without it struck such fear into her heart it was sad and a little scary. Anyway I thought I would show a progression of blanket use in our house. Brynn please don't feel bad about the condition of Ashby's blanket (she made it), no other item in our house has been as loved!

Exhibit A: See it there by the couch?

Exhibit B: Summer 2004

Exhibit C: 2005

Exhibit D: 2005, this is the earliest recorded evidence of Avery's bad habit.

Exhibit E: it's starting to fray a little, can you see it?

Exhibit F: she sure is cute though.

Exhibit G: Look at those strings hanging down, but still mostly intact.

Exhibit H: both girls showing off the infatuation.

Exhibit I: this is the last picture I have of Ashby with her blanket and it was 2 years ago. It still looks pretty good huh?

Exhibit J: this is the blanket today. I guess it would be mocked by other blankets for it's obvious lack of blanketness, but Ashby didn't mind. I put it in a shoe box and contemplated burying it in the backyard, instead I just put it in Ashby's keepsakes box. Hopefully she'll laugh about it later.

Time to check in?

2008-11-04T21:22:00.003-05:00

I have been completely checked out of real life for about two months now. Unfortunately I feel like I am being dragged kicking and screaming back into life by various responsibilities. I really don't want to be. I have thoroughly enjoyed being blissfully ignorant of my former pre-Luke life. Blogging definitely went by the wayside, but it's time to update because I will hate myself if I missed out documenting the past month.

Here's October in quick review:

Luke was born on Oct. 10th. He weighed in at 8 lbs 9 ounces. I took him to the doctor yesterday and he is now up to 10 lbs 4 ounces and he has grown an inch in three weeks. He is in the 97th percentile for height!

Roger was off work the whole next week after Luke was born. We loved having him around (he will disagree, he hated playing Mr. Mom, but he did a great job!)

My parents came to town the next week to meet the baby and reconnect with the girls. We again had a great time. The girls ran my mom ragged...it really wasn't much of a vacation was it mom?

Ashby celebrated her 6th birthday while my parents were here. She also lost her fourth tooth, luckily right before school pictures. She wanted to go bowling for her birthday and I'm happy to report she came in second out of five in our first game. Ashby was so excited to celebrate her birthday while my mom and dad were here, it meant so much to her, thanks mom and dad.

We had some fantastic Halloween fun. Avery dressed up as Dorothy and Ashby as a clown. They both had the opportunity to wear their costumes to several functions. They raked in some serious loot while trick-or-treating. Unfortunately because I was checked out of life, I didn't do some of the traditional fall things that I love to do. We didn't even carve pumpkins (all you mandated court reporters, please spare us...)

Now for the heap of pictures.

Avery with Luke, maybe this is why she isn't head over heels for him like Ashby is... he cries a lot.

We like to start a million projects at once. Roger and my dad tiled our entry way while my parents were in town. I couldn't go through another winter with carpet, it was wet for five months straight. Doesn't it look awesome?

Ashby, Grandma, Avery and Grandpa

Ashby with her cake of choice. She always chooses Halloween stuff for her birthday, easy for me, but I wonder how much longer that will last.

Sweet six year old Ashby with her missing teeth.

Ashby and Avery bowling, yeah we don't know how to take pictures in a dark place, sorry.

We took a trip to the Carnegie Science Museum. Ashby bouncing her legs away.

Avery doing some serious construction work in the ball place.

Avery (not so sure about Luke), Luke and Ashby.

Luke not looking very lumpy. Why are newborn babies so hard to take pictures of, they always look so lumpy...

The Halloween costumes

Ashby looking like she got beat up after a long night of trick-or-treating

Ashby and Avery before church

Check out these cheeks

Some photos, finally!

2008-10-13T11:20:00.005-04:00

We are home from the hospital and doing well. We made it through the first night home without too much trouble, Rog and I are just tired! I feel fine and feel so blessed that everything went so smoothly. I cannot praise Kevin and Kelly enough for coming and taking care of Ashby and Avery. I didn't have to worry about a thing because they were here. Of course our camera malfunctioned and we lost all the pictures we took at the hospital, but here are a few that Roger has taken on his phone.

In other equally exciting news, Ashby lost another tooth. This time one of her two front ones. It actually is scaring me quite a bit because the one tooth that is left has kind of moved over to the middle and is also loose, so is just hanging there. It looks awful. Hopefully it comes out soon. We have school pictures on Thursday!

The girls seem to be adjusting well to the new baby. They love him and want to be where ever he is, I can't say I blame them. I am so happy and blessed. I love our sweet little family.

Luke at the hospital. I love me some chubby cheeks, I kind of want to eat them, does anyone else ever feel that way about their kids' faces?

Luke at the hospital.

Here's little Luke today. I am loving his dark hair, unfortunately I can't keep my hands off of it (it's so soft) so it's greasy all the time.

Ashby and Luke yesterday. She loves him.
One down and please, please one more to go soon!

He Has A Name

2008-10-12T01:35:00.003-04:00

Luke Heinz Worth

(Heinz is Chelsea's fathers middle name. So no, we did not name our son after a catchup company.)

Stay tuned for pictures!

He has arrived!

2008-10-10T21:31:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to give everybody the quick details. Our baby boy was born today (Friday 10/10/08) at 3:17pm . He weighed in at 8lbs 9oz and was 22inches long. Mother and baby are doing great. I am sure Chelsea will do a post soon with more details (and hopefully a name!). Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

Yea for good news

2008-10-09T19:02:00.002-04:00

I went to the doctor today and he told me that they would schedule my induction for Monday. By the time I got dressed and out to the desk to check out, they were scheduling the induction for tomorrow! So yea for that! We have to be there bright and early, but it's a huge blessing because we are able to arrange for someone to take care of the girls. I have been stressing big time about what we were going to do with Ashby and Avery and now it's all worked out. I hope everything will go well; this will be my first time being induced. I can't wait to see this little baby! We'll post as soon as we can for all you far away folks!

Just in case

2008-10-07T09:27:00.002-04:00

For those of you keeping track... which is every last one of you right? My due date came and went and still no baby. I guess he'll be like Avery and take his sweet time getting here. Avery was born three days after her due date. The overwhelming feeling that I have right now is impatience, I'm just sick of waiting for him to come! Other than that I really feel pretty good. I will be sure to update if anything starts to happen. My doctor told me last Thursday that he will induce me on the 13th if the baby hasn't been born yet. Please send all your patience my way.... I need it!

Happy Birthday!

2008-09-29T20:18:00.002-04:00

It was Avery's birthday last week, she is four! She's hardly my baby anymore, but we still call her our baby. She wanted to have a party for her birthday so we invited over her three friends from Sunbeams (her class at church). She was so excited and I think had a good time; she was awfully quiet. Roger was out of town on her birthday so we celebrated with the family the night after. It turned into a birth week... how great is that? We sure do love our little Avery, she brings such a great energy to our home. I enjoy the differences between her and Ashby so much. She is so girly, where Ashby is not, it's so fun. Although Avery is four now and hardly a baby, she did fall asleep in the car the other afternoon and it just reminded me that she's not completely grown up yet!

Here is Avery with the present Ashby picked out for her. We opened these presents as well as did under the plates on Thursday night. Under the plates is a Worth family tradition where every one gets a few surprises under their dinner plates that they get to enjoy prior to dinner. Every loves it! There are more pictures of Avery on her birthday, they just need to be rescued from a wonky memory card, they'll be up later (I hope)!

We love you Avery!

*As a side note, I am still very much pregnant and unfortunately probably will be for quite sometime still.....

Dresser

2008-09-17T14:49:00.002-04:00

We've had this dresser for as long as we have been married. I think my parents bought it sometime in the 80's. It was definitely time for a redo and I figured with the baby coming, it would be the perfect excuse to update it. I was really pleased with how it turned out. For under $25, you can't beat it for sure!

Here's the before. And yes indeed that was what it looks like most of the time except usually there are more things hanging out of the drawers, I'm not a very good drawer closer. I like to just shove the clothes in whether or not they fit.

Here's the after. I did a kind of antiquing technique that I learned from my sister. I know that this look definitely doesn't suit some people, so I'm not offended if you don't like it! The walls in the baby's room will be a blue gray and I think the dresser will look stellar in there. We have always used this dresser as a changing table, it works beautifully!

***If you were wondering, Roger did e-mail Dan Sheldon telling him he was a thief. He responded with as much sarcasm as Roger dished out. It was hilarious. Apparently the lack of full size Krackel bars is quite a concern.

Hmmm...

2008-09-16T10:13:00.002-04:00

Roger brought this to my attention today... http://www.kutv.com/content/blogs/sports/dansheldon/story.aspx?content_id=d8655c16-00ac-4a6b-9136-dbd4e2705b5b. Read the very last paragraph. Didn't we address this already? Thief!!!

A small update

2008-09-13T22:59:00.002-04:00

I was looking over at the timeline on my side bar and indeed I have only about 3 weeks until my due date. I can't believe it. I thought I would give a quick update about how things are progressing. My belly is huge, but it's supposed to be right? Luckily I'm not that swollen yet. Tomorrow's forecast of 88 degrees may do me in though, by tomorrow evening I predict I will greatly resemble the Stay Puff marshmallow man or woman rather. The baby is kicking well. I went to the doctor on Friday and he is pleased with the baby's growth. All my babies measure small, this doctor seemed more concerned than previous doctors. When I went in for my glucose test, my sugar is right on the borderline. The doctor told me to cut down on the sugar. It's been a lot harder for me than it should be, but I'm trying. The doctor mentioned that he may want to induce me to prevent the baby from getting to big (but didn't I just say he was small? I know I'm confused too). He didn't say anything about induction on Friday which I think I'm grateful for. I don't really know how I feel about that. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Roger is going out of town again from September 22-24. What are the odds I'll go into labor while he's gone? My guess is that I probably will, but if he were to stay here, I wouldn't. Isn't that always the way it works? The baby's room is coming together. We are hoping to paint this week. I refinished a dresser and it's just about ready to be filled with stuff (pictures coming). I have felt extremely blessed through this whole pregnancy. I really feel rather good and probably am sleeping better than any 37 week pregnant woman should. I apologize for the randomness of this post, but I have hardly documented what's going on and know I will really regret it if I don't! I will post before and after photos of the bedroom and dresser as soon as possible, it seems we are ahead of my October 5th prediction for finishing.... yea.

A week of firsts

2008-09-06T20:34:00.002-04:00

It's been an exciting and busy week around here. There were many firsts for us and it was so fun. It was the first week of kindergarten for Ashby. Seriously, there's a kindergartner that lives here? Crazy. Then it was the first day of soccer practice for Ashby. She has been more excited about soccer than anything else this week. In an effort to develop some of Avery's talents, she started dance class this week. She loved it and unfortunately is not so good with days so is asking me everyday if it's time for dance class again. It was also the first soccer game today. Both girls have been troopers with this busy week. Getting up early is going to take some getting used to, but we are excited. Ashby is in full day kindergarten and I can't believe what a long day it is. Avery and I miss her so much while she's gone. It's been very fun to move into this new phase of our family's life.

First day of school. Luckily the elementary school is eight houses away. I love that she doesn't have to ride the bus. Both girls complain the whole way that it's so far and they are so hot. It's rather humorous.

First soccer practice. Ashby had a great time participating in a circuit type practice. They practiced a lot of different skills, like passing, running, stopping the ball and of course scoring.

On our way to dance class. Avery did a wonderful job telling her teacher her name. She even remembered what her teacher's name was to tell Roger. I am particularly looking forward to watching dance class every week.

Before the first soccer game. Go Bears!! The format for the league Ashby is in is brilliant. They play 3 on 3, there's no goalie and there are only 5-6 kids on each team. The goal definitely is for everyone to play and for everyone to have fun. It was truly a joy to watch today. We loved it.

Awww shucks

2008-09-04T18:12:00.004-04:00

Oh y'all (I guess I should use the term youins, I live in western PA after all) are so nice. Not one person voted in favor of me admitting to a lack of street smarts, all thought it was indeed pregnancy brain that made me lock my keys in the car. Thanks everyone, you are all too nice. Hopefully the condition will reverse itself. When will it have been sufficient time for it to reverse? Right after I have the baby I will be so sleep deprived my decision making and memory will be poor. I guess I will quit using the pregnancy brain excuse about the same time I realize that the rest of this baby weight isn't magically going to disappear.

For Goodness Sakes

2008-08-28T15:20:00.002-04:00

I usually have a pretty good memory. Well for dates anyway. Roger makes fun of me because I can remember people's birthdays and all other kinds of useless information. When it comes to useful information though, that's a different story. I had the worst brain blunder on Tuesday. I was at the park with my friend Kathrin. It was a beautiful day and the kids were playing so well. It was time to leave and I realized that I locked my keys in the car. So normally that's not so bad, you can just call your significant other and have them come unlock the doors right? Well Roger's in New York for work, nice huh? He did leave his keys with me, but where were they? On their hook at home? Of course not. They were also in my purse, locked in the car. Such a predicament huh? Kathrin again came to the rescue (she babysits kids all the time for me, she's a lifesaver). She has AAA, so we just called and had them come get the keys out. I can't believe what a doofus I am. Good thing for good friends who are willing to sacrifice to help out (Kathrin's son missed a music lesson, I'm a dirt bag huh?) The question I pose to all of you is this; can I blame this serious brain blunder on being pregnant or like my brother always says, do I have to own up to having no street smarts?

The Worth's Rock

2008-08-25T11:01:00.002-04:00

We just returned from a vacation at the big house with Roger's family. I honestly felt like a kid again because of the amount of disappointment I felt when we had to go home. It was so much fun. The kids had such a great time with all their cousins and quite frankly I have the best in laws in the world, I couldn't get enough of them. Thanks everyone for such a good time, we can't wait until the next one.

I also wanted to thank everyone for the lovely comments on my last post. I do feel better about life and less anxious than I did. My sister-in-law Nancy helped me put everything in perspective. We love you Clarks and here's to happily ever after.

Holy Cow, look at all them kids. Picture was taken at a waterfall near the house we stayed at in West Virginia.

Holy Cow, look at all them kids again. This time at the talent show. They each have different animal puppets on their hands to demonstrate the story of Noah's Ark.

It's time

2008-08-06T13:23:00.003-04:00

It's high time for a good freak out. I realized today that indeed there are only two months until my due date. Ummm, yikes. I was explaining to Roger the stress I am feeling about this fall and he told me to stop talking because his head was going to explode. Nice. So what better way to let it all out then to blog. So Ashby's starting kindergarten and she has all of one pair of shoes that aren't sandals that will fit her and oh yeah, she won't wear them on the playground cause "stuff might get in them". She also has all of one pair of pants without holes that fit. Hopefully it will be shorts season for a while longer. This is just my first child to enter school and I'm already feeling the back to school pinch, yikes, it only gets worse huh? Avery's gonna need new clothes too because Ashby wore out everything in her size. She's really into skirts so maybe she can just wear the skirts she's been wearing all summer all winter and I'll just duct tape some down feathers to her legs or something. Oh yeah and did I mention that the baby doesn't have a place to sleep yet. Roger's been working late hours so I don't let him work on the room when he gets home because I want to talk to him (although maybe not after he told me to be quiet...). I don't own any diapers yet and who knows what the baby is going to wear. Some very kind people have given us some hand me downs and our friend Deanna gave us the first new clothes for the baby, but I haven't gone through and sorted anything yet because there's no where to put them... remember the room isn't done yet. Yikes, yikes, yikes. I guarantee I will be painting a bedroom on October 5th, wanna come help? So what's buggin' you?

I was wondering...

2008-07-31T16:13:00.003-04:00

As part of my consume as much sugar as possible diet (what you haven't heard of it?) I purchased a bag of Hershey's mini candy bars today. As I was partaking I thought to myself can you even buy a full sized Krackel bar anymore? What about a Mr. Goodbar or even a Special Dark bar? Were these poor candies replaced by their far superior mini versions? Anyone have any insight on this?

This and that

2008-07-29T15:32:00.002-04:00

Just a few updates, mostly for my mom. We took the girls to the Butler-Freeport trail yesterday to ride their bikes. It's paved and flat and they had a good time.Over the weekend we went to Ohio to see Kyle, Sidni and Roc in Kids on Broadway. We went last year and I could really tell how much the kids have grown and improved. It was so fun, they all did a tremendous job. Have I ever mentioned how much I love living close to Bryan and Anna? Maybe once or twice or a hundred times. I really love it though and they are so fun to spend time with. We couldn't find Roc to get him in the picture....One of our home teachers invited the girls and I to go swimming anytime we wanted at his house. The very best part is that he lives only a couple of blocks away. The girls had a great time, they loved all the fun floaties. I'm pretty sure they were trying to see how many they could put on or sit on at one time.

We love summer!

The garden and such

2008-07-25T09:58:00.003-04:00

I was finally able to take some pictures of our crazy garden. They are a bit blurry, but I think you'll get the idea. On the left against the fence are sunflowers, they get huge. In the front right of the box is the zucchini, it gets huge. Next to the zucchini is where the peas were, I took them out a couple weeks ago, it was too hot for them and they were huge.

Here's a different view. To the right are the crazy virus-like cantaloupe. It's growing up the fence, in between all the sunflowers, it's huge. In between the zucchini and the cantaloupe are tomatoes. We started them a little late so they are just flowering and not so huge yet. The garden doesn't look quite as hilarious as it did when we had the fence around it. We were trying to keep the rabbits out and it was so funny trying to keep all the plants in. Turns out the bunnies were getting in anyway, so we ditched the fence. I do have to say that we have been pleased with our first attempt at gardening. Our planning was poor, but things are growing and we are so grateful to have food to eat from our own yard.

I'm not much of a take a picture of your dinner for the blog type, mostly because I really don't cook that well, nothing is very noteworthy. However, I did make this loaf of bread yesterday and was very impressed with how it turned out and thought I would share. It's a recipe from this book. Yep it's the end of July and we had homemade bread with soup for dinner. It's OK to sweat while you eat right?

Catching up

2008-07-18T15:20:00.004-04:00

I am way behind in my posting; I'm going to blame it on some camera malfunctions.... In an effort to catch up and really just to have some record of our summer, here's a catch-up-lots-of-pictures post.

I call this ghetto summer fun. We got a swing set free from craigslist and when Roger went to take it apart the ladder for the slide broke off. So now we just have a couple of swings and a slide and what better to do with a ghetto lone slide then put it in the ghetto kiddie pool? Tons of fun.

The carnival was in town again and we had so much fun. We never stay long or spend too much, but the girls really have a good time. Even though we had just been to Kennywood, they still had fun.

We also turned this:

into this:

We made strawberry jam a few weeks ago, this week was red and black raspberry. It's so satisfying to have 8 pints of homemade jam on my shelf.

Other than that, we are just trying to stay cool and keep busy! We love summer!

Do you remember?

2008-07-10T15:16:00.003-04:00

I've kept our list of New Year's Resolutions in my line of sight since we made them seven months ago. Remember those? I actually didn't really make resolutions, but I did make a list of things I wanted to do better. I thought it would be time to evaluate and since I'm shameless, why not evaluate for the world to see? Here goes:

Getting out of debt. Unfortunately this isn't going as well as I would like. Don't get me wrong, it's not really any worse, just not as good. See the problem is that I like to go out to eat, way too much. It's gets me into trouble. Roger and I were talking the other day and we think we are doing better than we were a year ago and as it stands today, I haven't been out to eat this week (hey, come on, I'm into small milestones OK?)

getting healthy. I really wanted to lost 40 lbs this year and so far I'm up 10. That could be because I'm pregnant though and not really because I'm that unhealthy. Granted I could be doing better, I have such a sweet tooth, but I'm feeling recommitted to working hard at health, because not only do I benefit, but so does the new baby.

Gardening. If I had to sum our garden up in one word it would be hilarious. Wait you don't associate humor with your garden? Well then you must be doing something right. We were so excited that we planted way too much stuff in a really small space. Did you know that zucchini plants get HUGE? They have taken over everything. They are almost as bad as the cantaloupe. It's like a rapidly spreading virus or something, it's everywhere. I was going to take a picture, but it's really too embarrassing to share. I will however, share this photo of our first zucchini, I think I let them get too big, but they'll be alright. Yes, Avery, they make me a little nervous too.

Being prepared. This is actually going better than I thought. I managed to get our 72 hour kits together. I just need to rotate them now. I also got this cool plan for building up to a three month food storage. We also started a canning class at church. So far we have only made strawberry jam and man it's good. I haven't done that much canning so I'm really excited about learning as much as I can about it.
Building a strong family. It's always hard to tell how that's going, but we are healthy, happy and trying our best to spend good quality family time together.

How are your resolutions going?

We love the fourth

2008-07-05T12:34:00.003-04:00

The Fourth of July is not usually one of my favorite holidays. For one thing it's always way too hot and for another there's always way too many people. The lack of those things made this Fourth of July one of the best we've ever had. We always forget that they do fireworks in our city on July 3rd. We put the girls to bed at regular time on Thursday because we forgot. They came downstairs at 10 pm and said they could see fireworks from the pink room window. Roger said oh that's right, let's go check it out. (Isn't he such a great dad, he could have said who cares, get back in bed, but he didn't.) We could kind of see the fireworks from our backyard, but since the view wasn't great we decided to have our own firework show. We knew we would be home really late on Friday, so it was the perfect time. Yep it was like 10 pm, the girls changed out of their pajamas so we could sit in the drizzling weather and watch Roger light and runaway as fast as he could from the fireworks. It was awesome.

Oh, they're excited for the show to start.

Friday came and we wanted to try to go down to Pittsburgh to see the fireworks. What's great about Pittsburgh, is that there was all kinds of entertainment going on on the rivers before it got dark. We went down at about 5 and found a place on the grass to sit. It was a little bit rainy, but we were prepared. Because it was a little bit rainy the crowd was sparse. We didn't really know where to go, so we just picked a spot on the North Shore. As it turned out, we couldn't have picked a better spot. The finals of a formula one race was right in front of us. We sat right by turn one and two. It was such an exciting race to watch. Then we had some time to wait before the fireworks started. The girls were so good and for the most part were content to people watch. We brought glow sticks and that kept them occupied for probably an hour. When it was time for the fireworks, again, we couldn't have picked a better spot. The barge where the fireworks are detonated from was docked right across the river from us. It was so exciting. What's so great about the girls is they are at the best ages right now that it's actually fun to go do things like this. It doesn't feel like a marathon, or a rodeo (all the wrangling) or even a wrestling match. We had such a great time and hopefully I'll have the guts to do it again next year!

Here's one of the formula one boats. This was before the race started. During the race it was really hard to get a picture. The boats get up to 140 mph.

Ashby with her glow sticks.

Avery doing a fine job modeling her glow bracelets. It wouldn't be a holiday without Kool-aid mustaches would it? In this case it's Strawberry crystal light mustaches, but the result was just as good.

Roger and I waiting for the fireworks to start. I don't ever remember having to wear a jacket on the Fourth, I loved it!

The ultimate Kid's Day

2008-06-28T22:13:00.005-04:00

The Worth family celebrates Kid's Day every year on June 25th. This year we celebrated two days late, but had an excellent reason for the delay. Roger's company holds a summer family party every year and this year it was at Kennywood. What better way to celebrate Kid's day than at the amusement park? It was our first trip there and we had the best time. It was a little hot, but other than that, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The girls couldn't get enough of Kiddieland and I couldn't get enough of watching them have fun on the rides. I was so shocked with Ashby. Right when we got there she wanted to go on the roller coasters that she saw. Kennywood has a number of old wooden roller coasters and Ashby wanted to go on every one. I kind of thought she would be too scared to try, but she sure showed me. Roger and Ashby had a great time going on all the big rides. Roger said she would throw her arms in the air to go down the hills. She really wanted to go on the Phantom's Revenge (the biggest steel coaster they have) but she was an inch too short. She was so disappointed. I looked and her and wondered where in the world she came from, I couldn't believe it. By the way, have you ever gone to an amusement park and not been able to ride any of the rides? It wasn't so great...it was hard to see all the cool rides I'd never been on and not go. But I guess it's important to stay healthy, right?

I really was a poor photographer. It's also really hard to take pictures of kids on rides!

Here's Ashby and Avery waiting for the plane ride to begin.

Avery on the Whippersnapper. It was this ride that goes in an oval, but it would whip them around the corners. Roger and I have never laughed so hard as we did watching the girls. They loved it so much. I know the picture is blurry, but can you see the joy on Avery's face?

And of course, the traditional Kid's Day carousel ride. This was the carousel in Kiddieland, but they also rode the big carousel.

Avery living it up on the big carousel, she's looks like she's having so much fun.

Even though I couldn't go on that many rides, there were certainly some that were my speed in Kiddieland. Here's the three of us on the Turtle Chase. Yep, I know, I look like I barely fit, you can stop pointing and laughing now.

Kid's Day would not be complete without a treat of your choice. The girls both chose Rainbow Ice Dippin' Dots. Disgusting.... have you ever tried them? They freeze to your tongue, not something I enjoy.

Get it together

2008-06-17T11:16:00.002-04:00

Summer has been lazy and fun so far. We've been sleeping in and really not doing too much except for spending time together and spending time outside. The only thing that's really been on my mind lately is baby, baby, baby. Maybe it has something to do with my expanding waistline. Wait, did I say waistline? I no longer have one of those so I guess I can just refer to that area as my large, round midsection. That gets the point across, right? It is definitely time for a new top five. I actually break out in a cold sweat when I think about having a baby. Avery will be four when the new baby is born and I'm almost positive I will have forgotten everything and it will be just as frustrating as the first time. I am excited though and that's the new top five.

Top five reasons I can't wait to have our new baby here:

1. You gotta admit how much you love that new baby cry. Yes it can cause panic and fear, but really it's so much cuter than a toddler wail.

2. They have such little toes and fingers, I can't get enough of 'em.

3. I actually am really looking forward to the chance to teach the girls how to take care of a baby. I always wanted a baby brother, my girls will have that chance. They are both old enough now that hopefully they will appreciate the new experiences a baby brings.

4. Roger and I both absolutely love holding a sleeping newborn. It's so great how they curl right up on your chest and go to sleep, I can't wait.

5. The joy of having a sweet new spirit here to take care of makes all the thoughts of sleepless nights, breastfeeding, diaper changes and spit up worth it!

The greatest song ever sung

2008-06-10T18:01:00.002-04:00

Avery sings all the time. She makes up words to the tune in her head all day long. Her favorite places to sing are the shower and while she's going to the bathroom. Today I was fixing her hair while she was washing her hands and caught a few words of her song. She mumbles so I usually don't catch what she's singing about, however I'm quite certain that today she said "Jesus Christ is after you." I was trying so hard not to laugh because I didn't want to embarrass her, but does it get any better than that?

The winners are...

2008-06-05T12:57:00.003-04:00

...quite a few of you actually. It's a pin cushion. I wouldn't have guessed correctly, so I'm glad that plenty of you did. There were lots of other really good suggestions too. There were a few for ring pillow. I could definitely make it into one, I'd just have to figure out how to attach the rings. I also really liked the idea of a sachet. What could I put inside to make it smell nice? I do have to mention that Natalie's comment was by far the best. I laughed so hard when I read it. I hope she doesn't mind me posting it, it was great...

"Ha...my first thought was something to stick a tooth in for the tooth fairy - but you would keep that for the girls, wouldn't you? I also thought maybe it was a pillow to put in between your legs at night while you sleep (isn't that more comfy when you are pregnant?? I wouldn't know), but then realized 4 inches wouldn't be much help for that. A baby doll pillow? A really cushy coaster? Something for the coffee table? One of those things with rice in the middle that you put in the microwave and heat up when you have cramps? Maybe not - is that thing on the top metal? Probably wouldn't be compatible with the microwave.I'm not very good at this game... "

Oh man, a really cushy coaster... that's so great, thanks Natalie!!!

So Kari, Brynn, Kelly and Nancy all guessed correctly. If you want a pin cushion, one's on it's way, just accept or deny in the comments!

If anyone else would like a pin cushion, just let me know. They won't all look like that one, but close. I've got some purple or blue fabric as well (for the circle on top). Just let me know! Thanks everyone for playing.

Name it and win it and beginnings

2008-06-03T20:39:00.003-04:00

The girls insisted on having their hair straightened today. I was hoping to have a few more years before they hated the way their hair was, but it looks like it's beginning already. I know I always hated my curls. Still do, well I don't really have that many curls anymore, just waves which is really, really annoying.

A change is kind of nice sometimes, they look so cute huh?

I saw the idea for this project a little while ago and thought I would try it out. What good is something though if people don't know what it is? So here's the thing...if you can name my intended purpose for this item and you want it, I will send it to you. I would also like to hear any alternate uses that people can think of...

This item is about 4 inches by 4 inches.. happy guessing!

Summer for a weekend

2008-06-02T16:32:00.000-04:00

Really I'm glad it's not quite summer yet. Because summer in Pittsburgh means awful sticky heat. But we had a nice glimpse of an un-humid summer last weekend. After a long day of dirty, dusty demolition and sweaty yard work, what's the best way to cool down? A run through the sprinkler of course!

Ashby in action. She loved it. Last year she wouldn't go in the eye of the sprinkler, this year she couldn't get close enough!

Avery was a little nervous about it. She stayed mostly on the periphery.

Roger couldn't get enough either. How 'bout his swimsuit? I mostly like Avery running in the background, silly little monkey!

I have only one skill...

2008-05-30T12:44:00.001-04:00

and I have recently realized what a great skill it is. What is it do you ask? I can french braid hair. Yep that's right, that's my only skill. And unfortunately I'm not even that good at it. I did both girls hair today and I didn't take a picture of the back because it's really hard to finish off a french braid. I realized that this is the one skill I have because I certainly don't have any skills when it comes to house remodeling. There are three so called bedrooms upstairs in our house. I say so called because one of the bedrooms is more like an office. There's no door and no closet. It's going to be the baby's room, so it needs some work. I had no idea that putting on a door involved so much demo and such a big mess.... see not one of my skills!

Look at those pretty girls!

Did you know all this was needed to install a door? To be fair to Roger, he is also moving the light switch. It's around the corner there on the right and he thinks it needs to be where those exposed 2x4s are. Kevin and Kelly came up over Memorial Day weekend and were incredibly good sports about just being put to work! The picture looks awful because of all the dust, yikes.