Adorable Sweater Company

How stinking cute are these sweaters?!?  The seasons are starting to change, here in Utah, and I would love to go on a major shopping spree and buy new cute clothes.  After having 3 babies and gaining countless pounds (OK, so they aren't countless, I just don't want to say how many!!!) and loosing pounds and gaining pounds and loosing and gaining and loosing and gaining and loosing and loosing more, I am in dire need!!!  :)  

This cute blog is having a give away for a sweater.  I've got my fingers crossed!  Go check out her great site and enter the contest too.  

Thorey's Baby Shower

Here are a few photos from Thorey's baby shower.  I was lucky enough to be able to go since it was on the Saturday that we were in SoCal.  It was so much fun.  So many wonderful women came to show Thorey their support.  We had delicious food and a great time.  

I even won a shower game - the only shower game that I have EVER been good at.  It was a word scramble of baby related things.  I got 19 out of 20 right.  Horray for word scrambles...  :)  I also had a blast sitting next to Trena's mother and sister in laws.  Those Schulze ladies are great!  Once again Trena, thanks for marrying Aaron! :)

Trena, Katie and Thorey - the three Stier sisters:

Thyssen & Noni.  This is Katie's son.  He's a miniture version of Skippy and is just so adorable you want to nibble his cheeks off.
This is Thorey's belly, her hand, Katie's and Trena's.  
This was the most delicious cake made by a bakery that I have EVER tasted.  I am a huge fan of scratch cakes and this one totally tasted it.  Not to mention that it was super cute with sock monkey drawn in icing.

This is Thorey with her husband's grandma, Grandma Bauer.
Katie & Thorey.  Katie made this tutu for the sock monkey.  It was super cute!

These two are of Val and Thorey.  My favorite is the one where they are standing and you can see Thorey's belly.  I think they both look so great.

This is not from the baby shower but I really like it.  Thorey was sitting near the sliding glass door and the light was coming in on her.  I couldn't resist going over and snapping a few photos.  It turned silly very fast and I have some great blackmail photos of Thorey making faces!  Or at least something to show her daughter one day.

This Was Not Me Today...

Today Uly keep asking if we could do preschool.  I said yes but first I had to clean the kitchen, wash the floor, clean the living room, do the dishes, laundry, work on getting Ben's business license and registering him with the State - all my chores.  I am remiss to say that we didn't have preschool today.  I worked and worked and sent Uly and Gar to play.  I guess in my defense, at least I didn't stick them in their room with a DVD.  They did actually play all day and I know that is good for both his body and his mind.  However I didn't do the one thing he was asking me for: Preschool.

Then tonight I read the following poem.  You can bet your bippy that I will not be worrying about my chores tomorrow.  We're doing preschool all day.  I am going to be Teacher Mommy tomorrow and there's nothing you (or my dirty house) can do about it!

I Took His Hand and Followed
Mrs. Roy L. Peifer

My dishes went unwashed today,

I didn't make the bed,

I took his hand and followed

Where his eager footsteps led.

Oh yes, we went adventuring,

My little son and I...

Exploring all the great outdoors

Beneath the summer sky

We waded in a crystal stream,

We wandered through a wood...

My kitchen wasn't swept today

But life was gay and good.

We found a cool, sun-dappled glade

And now my small son knows

How Mother Bunny hides her nest,

Where jack-in-the-pulpit grows.

We watched a robin feed her young,

We climbed a sunlit hill...

Saw cloud-sheep scamper through the sky,

We plucked a daffodil.

That my house was neglected,

That I didn't brush the stairs,

In twenty years, no one on earth

Will know, or even care.

But that I've helped my little boy

To noble manhood grow,

In twenty years, the whole wide world

May look and see and know.

Bellingham Farmers' Market

Another group of photos from our trip.  These are taken at the Bellingham, WA farmers' market.  This cute little blondie is my adorable niece, Cora.  I love taking photos of her.  I have a whole bunch more that I will post when I've gone through everything.

There was a music group there that was OK.  The best part of them was that they had a guy tap dancing as part of their percussion.  It was really fun to see.  This is Uly and Gar dancing to their music.  One of my great joys in life is to watch children dance.  

These other two photos are just some beautiful wares of the produce vendors.  They make my mouth water!

Curly Headed Little Boy

Just my sweet little Gar-Gar.  I sure love that curly headed little boy!!!

I just entered this photo in a weekly photo contest from the Digital Photography School.  The assignment is called Contre-Jour which basically means a photo that has light in the background/is backlit.  I don't think this really fits the assignment but it is the closest one I had in the alloted time frame.

Road Trip Photos II

This is a photo from our road trip.  I put it as a separate post because I did two versions of it.  I can't decide which I like better...

You can't really see it from these small images, but under the blue sign there is a sign that says Route 66.  I didn't realize that this was part of that.  I guess this is truly Radiator Springs.   

Road Trip Photos

Here are a few photos from our road trip.  We had a great time and saw a lot of beautiful scenery.  I love being stuck in the car with my favorite people.  I think that is one of my all time favorite things.  Even thought the drive was super long - close to 3000 miles and nearly two full days of driving - it was still a blast.  This is a photo of Mt. Shasta, in Northern California.  It is through our bug smeared windshield.  A true road trip photo!

This is Gar standing on a bulldozer - or Scoop as he is called (The bulldozer, not Gar) at our house.  This was near Palmdale, CA.  We stopped for an emergency pee break and found this guy to climb on and the following Joshua Trees.

This is a really cool tree out in the Middle of Nowhere, California.  It is heavily laden with people's shoes.  We didn't contribute any shoes - just watered the tree in one of our emergency pee stops.  This is really half of the tree.  There are many more shoes here than what you are seeing.  It is one of those landmarks that we always see but had never stopped at.

This is another spot that we have driven through but never stopped - the Train Museum in Kelso, California.  Kelso used to be a little depot town on Route 66.  It now has the museum and this shell of a building.  And trains.  This used to be the post office and general store until the 1940's.  

If anyone has some extra money and wants to invest in a good little restaurant/deli, this would be a great place.  The museum used to have a lunch counter but they closed that in the 1960's.  We were there for maybe half an hour and there were about 20 cars that stopped there.  If they had a store that sold food, they would be raking it in.  I'll add that to my list of fun little businesses to own after I make it big...

Can we really have a road trip without photos of trains?  Not in our family.  Trains are our friends.  We all love them.

I have many more photos - photos from Thorey's baby shower, kids, family and even a farmer's market.  I will post those up here as soon as I can.

RIP Arnolkardis and Mr. Krabs

So I need to change the header of this blog.  We no longer have pets.  We came home from our trip to find my favorite pet ever, Arnolkardis and his friend, Mr. Krabs dead.  An interesting fact about hermit crabs is that they leave their shell when they die.  We are speculating that is so other hermit crabs can inhabit their old shell.  

In retrospect, I probably should have asked the neighbor boy to watch and feed them instead of my uber busy sister.  Not to place blame or anything, but you did kill my all time favorite pet...  ;)