larsen party

brian regan!

2012-01-26T09:20:00.000-08:00

last night we went and saw our favorite comedian, brian regan! my stomach hurt from laughing so hard. baby girl must've been a little disconcerted by all my chortling, she kept jumping around like a jumping bean the whole time. such a fun date night!

(if you're not familiar with brian regan, you MUST watch his youtube videos. so funny.)

penny: warrior princess

2012-01-19T09:22:00.001-08:00

i was in my room doing my makeup this morning and in strolls penny straight from her bed like this haha. i don't know how on earth she managed to twist her shirt up like this. she's talented my little pennygirl. and yes, that's mascara and a blush brush she's holding, my makeup is her new obsession these days.

other funny penny news:

yesterday i heard a splashing sound coming from the bathroom, and i was like "oh geez, she's playing in the toilet water." i run in there and she wasn't just playing in the toilet water, she was giving her minnie mouse doll a "bath" in said toilet. just dunking her over and over getting her nice and clean, haha GROSS. minnie got thrown in the washer and penny got a bath.

sorry the blog posts have been few and far between. that second trimester energy boost is long gone - i'll be 30 weeks tomorrow! - and i'm just trying to keep up with daily life 'round here. hope you're having a lovely january!

lately...

2012-01-08T13:46:00.000-08:00

we hung out at my sister's house last night, here's some pics:

lana kissin' squishy elsa + me with my 28-week bump.

cousin max showing penny how boys play - with video games and swords of course!

love watching these two play together, so cute. me and lana were so excited when we found out they were going to be only 3 months apart and totally envisioned times just like this when they would play together. love it.

nothing much going on lately. baby girl is kicking like CRAZY, all day all the time, which is awesome. only 12 weeks left and i am getting soooo excited. i can't wait to hold her and kiss her little cheeks.

penny is doing so well with preschool and physical therapy. she's pretty much caught up with other kids her age and obviously we're still working on some things, but i consider it such a blessing that she's come this far before baby sister arrives. which, by the way, is what penny calls my tummy. i'll point to my belly and say "who's in here, penny?" and she smiles and says "baby sis-tuh!" so cute.

i'm excited for 2012...happy new year!

(p.s. did i mention paul got me my very own iphone for christmas??? LOVE IT.)

merry christmas!

2011-12-28T16:53:00.000-08:00

this year we traveled to albuquerque, NM to spend christmas with paul's sister, kenna, and her family. here's some pics from our weekend...

our first night there we went and saw a christmas lights festival. all the kiddos were bundled up, it was chilly!

christmas morning! penny was so excited to see all the little presents inside her stocking.

kenna, gabe, and baby nate.

penny lovin' on her new strawberry shortcake doll...she got to work right away brushing her hair.

i got paul an old-fashioned shaving kit, the kind with soapdish and brush. now he can learn the art of the manly shave haha.

cousins playing after all the presents were opened.

i'd have to say the "best" part of our trip was the gift that kept on giving...the flu! it was like dominos, each day a new person would be sick and i totally thought i was in the clear...until the day after we got home and both penny and i decided to hop on the puking train. BOO! but we're all better now and baby girl didn't mind me being sick at all, she just kicked me the whole time to let me know that SHE felt fine even if i didn't.

penny had fun playing with her cousins, especially maddie. penny would wake up in the morning and be like "where's maddie? play toys with maddie?" so cute.

hope you all had a great christmas!

25 weeks!

2011-12-18T21:31:00.000-08:00

here it is...a bump pic. i'm just about 6 months and i can't believe this little girl is going to be here in a little over 3 months! things are going swimmingly and the time is flying by. nothing too exciting as far as the pregnancy's concerned...baby girl is kicking ALOT more than penny did, she's definitely an active little thing. which, of course, i love because it reminds that i am pregnant, except of course when i look in the mirror...

no real cravings, maybe i like spicy things more, like i'm totally loving salsa more...i'm a pretty boring pregnant person i guess. oh and WATER. thirsty thirsty thirsty, i can't ever get enough water. i guess that's not really a craving, pregos are supposed to drink more water anyways so...that's convenient. you see? so boring. but i'll take it. boring is good.

eek! i can't wait to meet this little girl! i love her so much already.

lately

2011-12-12T18:30:00.000-08:00

just some pics from the last couple weeks...
paul got an iphone and it's so convenient for lazy people like myself to use it for pictures.

messing around + penny playing in her closet (sans pants).

cousin buddies max, katelyn and penny coloring at the balmforth christmas party.

my brother's newest little girl, scarlett + penny in front of our tree.

hope you're having a fun holiday season!

festival of trees

2011-12-03T15:46:00.000-08:00

every december local volunteers decorate trees (and wreaths and gingerbread houses) for the festival of trees. it benefits primary children's hospital here in salt lake so i was more than happy to buy some tickets for our family to go. it was a little crowded to say the least, but penny loved it! she kept saying on the way out "i like those fun trees, mom."

thanksgiving weekend

2011-11-28T12:21:00.000-08:00

this weekend my folks and little brother brian drove up from california for thanksgiving and the blessing of my older brother's new baby girl. first up was thanksgiving on thursday at my aunt margo's home in highland...

my dad and his mom getting ready to carve the turkey.

mmm...homemade rolls. i think they're my favorite part of thanksgiving dinner.

miss penny watching all the food get ready for the table.

let's eat!

on sunday we drove a couple hours south to oak city where baby scarlett was blessed.
love this pic of my brother jordan and his daughter katelyn riding home from church on an ATV haha.
the whole balmforth fam at kjersti's parents house after the blessing (minus little bro derek on his mission).

(from left to right: brian, me with penny, paul, jordan with katelyn, kjersti with scarlett, kris with max, lana with elsa, and my dad and mom. whew! that's alot of us!)

such a fun weekend! hope you all had a great thanksgiving!

20 weeks!

2011-11-17T16:20:00.000-08:00

i had my 20 week ultrasound today and they confirmed that our baby is indeed a girl. (i never doubted you for a second, fetal foto!) but more importantly, all the anatomy shots looked great and she's developing just fine. yay!

man, i love the second trimester. i feel so awesome. still a little tired and having migraines now and then, but otherwise it's good to feel good. baby girl is kicking up a storm and her kicks are definitely getting stronger, which i love. is there anything better than feeling your baby kick?? every time she does i breathe a tiny inward sigh of relief, like "okay, she's doing good." i know i know, those kicks might not be so cute come 35 weeks but it still makes me happy just the same.

hooray for being halfway done!

headband model (again)

2011-11-08T10:21:00.000-08:00

it's pretty convenient to have a daughter when you have a hair accessory shop. just pop in a dvd and little girl sits still as can be. i'm in love with these new headbands. fabric bows and felt roses are pretty much my favorites. i love my little penny model!

you may remember this model's past work here and here. please stop growing up, miss penny.

p.s. (insert gratuitous self promotion here) i have FOUR local holiday shows coming up! check out the sidebar on the right for more details.

happy halloween!

2011-10-31T23:07:00.000-07:00

as you can see, miss penny was tinkerbell! she luuuves that little green fairy so much so the costume choice was easy.

i just adore her hair in that little bun!

i love these white pom-poms! i made them with yarn and they were perfect to stick on her silver toms...pom-pom toms!

this picture kills me! lana was all "max, kiss penny's hand!" and he did it. and it was cute.

cupcake elsa! (baby elsa kept munching on penny's tutu...penny was not amused.)

can we go yet? can we go yet??

"trick or treat!"

a jazz fan, tinkerbell and a cat...our costumes go together purrrfectly!
(penny was really into that sucker...)

hope you all had a happy halloween!

some fun news...

2011-10-24T15:04:00.000-07:00

baby #2 is on the way and we are so, so excited!
we're due at the end of march and i'm so impatient for that day to come!
here's some ultrasound pics we had taken at 16 weeks...

profile:

front view of face:

some cute little feet:

and saving the best for last...

WE'RE HAVING ANOTHER GIRL!

needless to say, i am SO excited for penny to have a little sister! i just think having two girls will be so much fun. and we don't have to buy anything! awesome.

we were so impatient to find out the gender that instead of waiting for the official 20 week gender ultrasound at the hospital, we "cheated" and went to fetal foto where they can determine the gender as early as 15 weeks for only $50. i highly recommend it! we got to find out the gender a whole month early and saw our baby kicking up a storm, waving her little fists, and opening and closing her little mouth. so fun!

i'm currently 17 weeks and feeling great. all the nausea has passed and i'm feeling more energized these days. i can definitely recognize her little kicks and movements earlier this time, which is so fun. i can't wait til march!

a wedding and a baby blessing

2011-10-11T14:28:00.000-07:00

this weekend was crazy busy! as it sometimes happens, two important events came up on the same weekend: my good friend's wedding and the blessing of paul's brother's baby. so we decided i should fly by myself to southern ca for the wedding on friday while penny and paul drove with paul's parents to northern ca. then after the wedding on saturday night i flew to sacramento for the blessing on sunday, and we drove home to utah on monday. whew!

i'm so glad i got to attend jessica's wedding. we've known each other since middle school and she looked so beautiful and happy on her big day. look at that dress, gorgeous!

hi jess!

after the ceremony, so happy!

troy high school reunion! love these girls! (L to R: allison, paige, me and rubi)

the next day was the blessing of trace larsen, our new nephew.

it was so fun to hold little trace, he was such a sweet baby, not fussy at all. and penny loved hanging out with her cousins. evan looks a little grumpy in this pic haha, but he was so cute and kept bringing penny toys to play with all weekend.

it was kind of a hectic weekend, but so fun!

welcome baby scarlett!

2011-10-03T11:20:00.001-07:00

my brother jordan and his wife kjersti had their second baby this weekend and she is such a doll!

scarlett elisabeth balmforth
born oct 1st, 2011
7 lbs 6 oz

hi elsa!

meeting their new cousin.

aren't newborns the best?

we're so glad that scarlett made it here safely and that mom and baby are doing well.
she is such a beautiful baby girl!

circus circus!

2011-09-28T10:27:00.000-07:00

i swear we didn't plan this, but a couple weeks after penny's circus party we indeed went to the actual circus last saturday. it was so fun! paul gets free tickets through his work to local events now and then and we always try to go to them. i loved it! and i think penny did, too.

the elephants were definitely her favorite part. she had this little grin on her face whenever they came out.
afterwards i asked her "did you like the circus?"
penny: "yeah!"
me: "what did you like about it?"
penny (pausing for a minute to think): "the el-weh-phants! they're biiig."

the human torch! that is one brave guy.

tigers! this guy was by himself in a cage with a dozen tigers and it was kinda scary to watch. but you could tell he was the boss. a tiger swatted at him once and he just cracked his whip and yelled "LIE DOWN!" and the tiger just meekly lay down. crazy!

but what scared me even more were these guys below. they called this act the turbines of terror and i seriously had an anxiety attack just watching them.

the turbines would go around and around and these guys performed tricks inside and on top of the circles, like jump roping. somtimes they couldn't keep a hand or foot on the turbine because they were keeping up with the turning motion, and they would end up free falling for a couple seconds. scary! they were so amazing to watch, by far my favorite part of the show.

finale!

i love going to stuff like this with my lil' family, and it didn't cost us a dime! awesome!

little miss preschool

2011-09-20T13:34:00.000-07:00

(silly face!)

penny started a little preschool class a couple weeks ago, and today i think she is finally starting to like it. she was a little tearful the first few times, but today when i picked her up she had cookie smeared all over her face (which i wiped off before the picture) and couldn't be happier. she was a little chatterbox on the way home talking about how she loved her birthday sticker and toys and books.

it's only a baby preschool class for kids who just barely turned three and i think it's perfect for her. it's twice a week, for an hour and a half each time and there's only a few kids in the class right now, but throughout the school year more kids will be added once they turn three.

at first i was worried about her getting around the classroom, as she is walking but we're still working on other things, like getting into a chair by herself, getting up off the floor by herself and learning to pick up her knees more so that she can step over objects on the floor. or in other words, we're still fine tuning the things that require shifting her weight, coordination and balance. walking across a smooth solid surface - check. walking across an uneven surface - not so bueno.

but i decided she needs all the advantages she can get so even though she needs a little assistance getting around the classroom, it's so worth it in exchange for the academic things she'll learn and the social interaction she'll get. and the two teachers in the classroom are so nice and supportive so i'd be crazy not to have her enrolled.

all that aside, it's so weird to have my baby in school! but i'm so excited for her.

penny's circus party!

2011-09-15T11:26:00.000-07:00

so my baby was turning three and therefore we had to have a...THREE-ring circus party! yep, i'm pretty clever. penny got very interested in princesses about a month before the party, but too late, mom already bought a bunch of circus junk. maybe next year!

*hot dogs, chips, watermelon and bottled sodas...my kind of party.

*grandma making balloon animals for the kiddos. she has many skillz.

*balmforth ladies.

*hi paul!

*my dad helping penny, she was being pretty shy.

*candy swarm! (i'm feeling a sense of deja vu from last year's party...)

*taking a big breath to blow out those candles! (no, i'm not jabbing my baby in the ear, just holding her hair back so her little curls don't catch on fire.)

"all right, well if you're not paying attention, grandpa, i'll go ahead and eat your cupcake."

*the frosting turned out sooo yummy...but i think my piping efforts need some work ha.

*new toys! every present was either princess or tinkerbell stuff and penny was sooo excited! she especially loves little doll houses so i got her that princess castle above that comes with some furniture and a cinderella doll. (of course, on the packaging it had like 5 princesses and 20 pieces of furniture...not the case once you opened the box...you win again, disney!)

(L to R: grace and emerie, me and some college buddies, julie and leigh).
*photo booth! haha not really, but i found this at hobby lobby and had to get it. i'm sure we can use it next year at her princess birthday party...

it was such a fun party!

happy birthday penny!

2011-09-11T12:24:00.000-07:00

today my baby turns three! i can't believe it.

*one week old.

*8 months.

*18 months.

*2 1/2 years.

here's what penny's up to:

- she LOVES princesses. bascially any girl in a dress is a princess. when i get ready for church on sundays, she sees me in a dress and goes "ooooh! princess mommy!" it totally kills me.
- also obsessed with tinkerbell. she's constantly requesting to "watch teen-kuh-bell" and she can't do it without making me set up her little collapsible disney fairy house so she can sit in it while she watches the movie. the girl knows what she likes.
- still really loving. she'll randomly come up and say "kisses mommy!" and pucker up her lips. i love it.
- sometimes she'll come up to me with this little smile on her face and go "tickle! tickle!" while she pokes her little fingers in my ribs and just thinks it's the funniest thing ever when i wriggle around when she does it.
- she also thinks anyone falling down, or getting hurt is suuuuper funny. (i swear she's just like her dad, aka #1 fan of american's funniest home videos.) when she sees it in a cartoon or if i drop something on accident, she just belly laughs and says "again!"
- starting to go some days without a nap (nooooo!) but i may or may not put her down for a late afternoon nap whether she wants one or not...because sometimes mom needs a nap.
- she's walking a lot better, but if it's not a flat surface (i.e. grass) it's definitely harder for her and she is more apprehensive to walk. but she's improving all the time and it's exciting to see her "catch up".
- she's talking sooo much more, i love it. she's constantly saying new words and sentences and singing new songs that i didn't know she knew, and it's fun to communicate more with her. she's still a shy little bug and might not talk a lot with less familiar people, but me and my little buddy chat all day long.
- getting slightly bossy. she loves ordering me around (see tinkerbell reference above) and it's always "sit down!" "stop it!" "don't do that!" but i never do anything she says unless i make her say please first because i'm tough like that.
- still so funny and cute and makes me laugh every day.

i love this little butternut and i'm so happy she's in our lives. love you pen!

*birthday party pics to come!

happy birthday paul!

2011-09-06T19:47:00.002-07:00

yep, this lumberjack turned 31 on sunday and i'm such a terrible wife that i didn't take one picture to commemorate this glorious event. but i did make a pot roast dinner with all the fixens and baked him a funfetti cake. he specifically requested funfetti cake. we blew off the roof with a crazy party that consisted of me, penny, paul, and his parents.

it was very low-key, and that seems to always be the case for paul's birthday. each year i ask him what he wants to do for his birthday, and he just shrugs and says "just dinner or something." so that's what we did. also not helping the low-key situation, penny's birthday is exactly one week after his and i always get way more caught up in planning her birthday party than paul's...thanks for being a good sport, husband!

paul would also like me to note that he has more gray hairs than last year. this is true.

adele!

2011-08-21T23:33:00.000-07:00

*all gussied up and ready to go.

for our 6-year anniversary we treated ourselves to some tickets to see adele! she was coming to vegas so we decided to make a weekend out of it. miss penny stayed with paul's parents (thanks debbie + glade!) and it was fun to go see a show just the two of us.

i didn't realize it until we claimed our tickets at will call, but they were general admission and that meant standing. UGH. but we got closer than we thought, about 10 feet away, and once she started singing i could've have been standing on hot coals and wouldn't have noticed. she was amazing. one of my favorite things about her is that she sounds soooo good live, like even better than the album. and she was funny! she seems shy on tv but was way outgoing and funny onstage.

all in all, it was awesome except for this older lady FAINTING next to me and paul. she was standing there sipping her beer and i guess she got overheated or something - there was a ton of people squished together - and all of a sudden she keeled forward. paul caught her under her arms and i was like "are you okay?!" and she had these blank eyes and nothing going on upstairs. (have you ever seen someone faint in front of you? it's slightly creepy.) she couldn't get it together so some guys swooped her up and carried her off to the medics. poor lady!

adele sang for almost two hours and i couldn't get over the richness of her voice, like i would die to have a voice like hers. if you're not familiar with her stuff, click here to watch my favorite song.

such a fun quick trip!

cousins!

2011-08-07T20:09:00.000-07:00

we baby-sat my sister's kids, max and elsa, on friday night and i loved it! those kids are so adorable.
i snapped a few pics of max and penny...

max is so embarrassed...about something.

high five!

love those kiddos!

happy anniversary!

2011-08-05T23:19:00.000-07:00

six years ago i married my hubba hubba! love you long time paul!

fullerton trip: sea world!

2011-07-28T10:18:00.001-07:00

this past weekend we did a quick trip to visit my folks in fullerton, CA. this was pretty much our "family vacation" for the summer and it was awesome! so awesome in fact that i couldn't be bothered to take any pictures except for the day we went to sea world.

we also: met up with some friends, went to the beach, ate at rutabegorz (my fav fullerton restaurant), and saw the last harry potter (so good!). thanks parents for living in such a prime vacation spot. :)

my favorite post ever.

2011-07-17T22:38:00.000-07:00

and this is why: MY BABY GIRL CAN WALK!!!

see for yourself!

i can't believe it finally happened! my baby girl can walk! and can i just tell you, i feel on top of the world right now. we've been working towards this for so long that it feels strange to write the words. penny has been in physical therapy since she was 10 months old and now, two months shy of turning three, she can finally walk on her own.

you might say, that's quite late for a toddler to walk...and there's a good reason for that.

last year after penny turned two, we met with a pediatric neurologist due to her gross motor delays (i.e. not walking yet). he suggested we get an MRI done for penny and they found, in his words, a “tiny brain injury that’s very old, most likely happened in utero, and in the section of her brain that controls gross motor and muscle tone.” in other words, it only affects her walking. they couldn't say why it happened, it's just one of those things.

although it wasn't the best news, we actually weren't too surprised. it pretty much confirmed what we already knew, that everything else has always been on par with penny except her gross motor. the neurologist assured us that the brain injury wouldn’t get any worse and that the “cure” was physical therapy, which is something we were doing already.

at 10 months old we noticed some motor skill delays, and enrolled penny at DDI Vantage, an early intervention program funded through the state of utah. a physical therapist came to our home twice a month and taught me exercises that i could do with penny. with their help, she finally crawled at 16 months, an age when alot of kids are already walking.

we're currently doing physical therapy once a week at Shriner's Hospital, an amazing speciality hospital for children. both programs have been so beneficial for penny, i honestly don't know what i would have done without their help.

penny still has a little ways to go, her balance and coordination are still not what they should be, but that's small fries compared to this major hurdle that she's overcome recently. i'm so proud of my little girl and so, so grateful for this huge blessing in our lives.

the zoo...again!

2011-07-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

paul's sister, kenna, and her family came to visit last weekend and one of things we did together was go to the zoo. i know we just went a little while ago but i'm always up for some more zoo animals, and it's always a good place to go with the kiddies.

i don't know WHAT was up with this alligator. he sat there like this with his mouth wide open for like forever....it kinda weirded me out.

*kenna's husband, gabe + paul's mom.

*paul's dad + kenna's daughter, maddie.

*penny enjoying a ride on grandpa's shoulders.

my family was also up for the weekend and, as i'm sure some of you know, when both sides of the family are visiting from out of town, the schedule can get a little packed. last weekend went a little something like this:

friday: splash pad in the evening
saturday: farmer's market in the morning / max's 3rd birthday party in the evening
sunday: baby blessing for elsa in the morning / dinner at debbie + glade's in the evening
monday: lunch, shopping, dinner, fireworks
tuesday: zoo in the morning / maddie's 2 year birthday party in the evening

*my family
*paul's family

like my color code? i practically had to color code my calendar just to keep everything straight! it was definitely busy but definitely fun, and maybe a little exhasuting. :)

and then i realized with all these fun events going on i didn't even get one picture of myself! isn't that always the way? ha.

happy 4th!

2011-07-07T12:44:00.000-07:00

*penny + my brother jordan.
*my nephew max.

*my niece elsa.

*my mom + grandma balmforth.

*second cousins: tyler + max.

we had a fun get together at my aunt margo's home complete with food, fireworks and family (nice alliteration, right?). they legalized aerial fireworks in utah this year so we had our own personal fireworks show in the backyard. coming from a girl who grew up in california where fireworks are banned, it was awesome!

penny had fun petting some horses and eating nothing but junk food. the girl wouldn't let me put anything remotely healthy in her mouth, not even a piece of watermelon! she clamped her mouth shut like i was trying to feed her poison. all she had was a cookie and rootbeer, and when i say she had some rootbeer, i mean she nursed that pink sippy cup like it was her job and when it was empty i had to pry it out of her sticky hands with more than a little of my strength. i was pretty much going for mom-of-the-year award that night.

hope you all had a fabulous fourth!

little tattoo artist.

2011-06-29T11:39:00.000-07:00

i'm just glad she didn't get her mitts on a sharpie.

*admiring her handy work.

cheeeese!

2011-06-27T13:56:00.000-07:00

me: hey penny, look at mama!

penny [sees my camera]: CHEEEEEEESE!

maybe let's not say "cheese!" for a picture ever again...because lately you end up looking a bit like a pirate.

yes, that is a mountain of toys. i like to keep it classy. and yes, that is a halloween bucket. also very classy.

pool baby

2011-06-22T15:35:00.000-07:00

we didn't really do the kiddie pool thing last summer and i'm totally reveling in it this summer. it's so easy and penny loves it, and i get to read a book and dip my toes in the water while she splashes around.

it's a little surreal, in a way. i totally have hazy memories of playing in a kiddie pool in my backyard growing up and my mom sitting by the side, watching me. and now i get to do the same with my baby and i love it. it's the perfect temperature outside, mid-seventies, not too humid and not too dry. i think it could only be more perfect if they weren't tearing down the old elementary school across the street...bulldozing kind of makes for a slightly noisy background.

p.s. is there a better scent of summer than a baby in sunscreen?? i submit that there is not.

farmer's market!

2011-06-11T12:29:00.000-07:00

i love the farmer's market. there's always interesting stuff to see and everyone seems to be in a good mood. the weather's warm, i can wear a skirt, penny loves getting pushed in her stroller, we can sit under a tree with our lunch and relax. it's pretty much my ideal summer activity.

it made me a little sad to not be selling at the salt lake market like i did last summer, but i'm actually really glad to not be doing it this year. it was a little hard giving up all those saturday mornings, and not sleeping in but setting up in a chilly park at 7am. i look forward to as little scheduling this summer as possible.

memorial day weekend

2011-06-01T19:17:00.000-07:00

we escaped the rain in salt lake this weekend and had a great time in sunny saint george. we went down with paul's folks + our friends, nate, claire + their little girl norah, it was so nice and relaxing!

we flew a kite...

(yes, paul is biting the kite.)

played in some (clean) gutter water...

aw...lil' buddies.

got pedicures...

and even squeezed in a visit to the grand canyon! i had never been so i can check that off the ol' to-do list.
(this was the least crazy-lookin' picture we got. it was SO WINDY up there!)
baby girl was tucked in tight, it was way chilly.
nice pose, glade.

we also went swimming and shopping and had some bbq...it was a great weekend all around!

zoo day!

2011-05-21T15:35:00.001-07:00

we woke up this morning to a totally gorgeous spring day. considering that it had been pouring buckets the last few days we knew we had to take advantage of the awesome weather and do something fun. apparently, every other family in the salt lake area had the same idea...the zoo was packed! but we only stayed for a few hours, had some lunch and saw everything we wanted to see. all the animals were out and about - every exhibit we went to they were right there in front of us. it was awesome and penny loved it.

it was such a nice day!

lazy sunday afternoon

2011-05-15T19:36:00.000-07:00

now that the snow is gone for good (hopefully) we are definitely enjoying our backyard more...

it was a very blustery day!

yes, i have a lot of freckles.

some geese went honking and flying by and she whipped her little head around SO FAST.
"duuuuuuuuck!" (close enough.)

paul made this john deer tractor quilt in 10th grade for a home-ec class.
he claims he thought it was an "outdoor clothing" class...uh-huh.

hope you had a great weekend!

happy mother's day!...(a couple days late)

2011-05-10T15:51:00.001-07:00

this mother's day was oh-so nice. paul got me some pretty roses and the pioneer woman cookbook. (i also read her other book recently - of how she and marlboro man got together - and it was such a fun read! go borrow it from someone.)

church was lovely - i'm usually in the nursury for 2 hours with the toddlers, but a couple husbands (mine included) watched the kids so me and the other nursury moms could go to relief society - where we got chocolate covered strawberries at the end of the lesson and i hoarded mine and didn't share it with anybody. because that's what being a mom is all about - hoarding treats and not sharing.

for mother's day dinner i tried my hand at making shredded hawaiian bbq chicken in the ol' crock pot and i think i loved it. nope, i don't think - i TOTALLY loved it. it's so stinkin' easy - there's only 4 ingredients in the whole recipe! nice.

as an ode to the little person that (officially) made me a mother, here are my favorite pics of me and pen-pen:

whoa - is that a new mom or what. greasy hair, no make-up and awkardly holding her month-old baby. but i think i look pretty happy so that's good haha.

(you may have noticed that i purposely skipped a hospital pic of me and newbornpenny...and that is because i don't think anyone should have to post a picture of themselves after giving birth. that's just my expert opinion.)

aw, penny at 7 months. i LOVED this age. so bubbly and cute.

at her 1-year birthday party. such a cute lil' nugget. (you too, paul).

i wanna say...18 months old? this is one of my all-time favorite pics of me and the penster.

...and this is a close second.

thanks for letting me be your mom, penny! it truly is awesome.

p.s. a shout-out to my own mom-lady for also being awesome. i never would've learned to toilet paper a house or say early morning family prayers without you.

welcome baby elsa!

2011-04-27T11:53:00.000-07:00

i am so in love with my beautiful new niece!

elsa marie wren
born april 25th, 7 lbs 3 oz

isn't little elsa the cutest?!! i can't believe she has all that hair! and those ruddy cheeks and cute little lips - she's the prettiest little newborn! i'm so happy for lana and kris, little elsa sure is a doll and healthy as can be. i'm positive she and penny will be good friends. :)

happy easter!

2011-04-25T22:49:00.000-07:00

this year we spent easter weekend in northern california with paul's brother's family - wes + tami and their kids, evan + makayla (and a little boy on the way). penny loved hangin' with her cousins and a good time was had by all...

on friday we went to the zoo:

makayla LOVED the deer, i think the feeling was mutual.
evan spider-monkeyed it up to the top of the cut-out board...there he is!
saturday morning we went on an easter egg hunt with some neighbor kids, it was so cute! afterwards, penny cared more about playing with the plastic eggs than the candy inside...we helped her out with the candy part.
then some easter egg dyeing saturday night...

evan showed me his egg...and then carted it around oh-so-nicely in his wagon.

i love this picture - while we were dyeing the eggs, we put some little heart stickers on penny's fingernails and she was OBSESSED with them. she kept saying "ooohh...pitty!"
penny enjoying her chocolate bunny on easter morning, haha.

the cute kiddos all dressed up on easter sunday.

it was a fun, full weekend and nice to visit with family! thanks for having us wes + tami!

see ya in two years, derek!

2011-04-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

we had a really nice open house last night for derek before he entered the mtc this morning. my aunt margo hosted and we just sat around, ate good food, and chatted all night.

pointing to his mission on the map: brisbane, australia.

i'm so proud of my little bro. he's going to live in australia for two years and have this incredible missionary experience and i'm so excited for him. i'm gonna miss the little bugger but i'm so glad that he has chosen to do this. love you derek!

what, don't you videotape your kids snoring?

2011-04-18T09:01:00.000-07:00

pennygirl had a bit of cold this week and it resulted in some awesome snoring.
that lip puffing in and out kills me! so cute.

better than nothing.

2011-04-11T08:34:00.000-07:00

sorry my posts lately have been few and far between...nuthin much is going on! but here's some pics of penny outside in the fresh air between sessions of general conference two sundays ago.

*such a paul face.

i just thought she looked so funny in her pj's and "combat boots". one day when she looks back at this blog (after i've made it into one of those blog-turned-into-a-book things) she'll be like "sooo...did you ever dress me in anything than pj's?" and i'll be like "nope."

i really enjoyed general conference this year. growing up it was THE MARATHON OF LONG-WINDED SPEAKERS THAT NEVER ENDED but now i look forward to it every 6 months. their words really are modern day revelation and i like how each talk makes me think a little harder or differently about some particular topic. i like just setting aside normal routine for 2 days and just listening and being restful and feeling the spirit. i kind of feel rejuvinated, ya know?

i feel like i've been busy lately and i looked at the calendar this morning and i am so exited to say that i have NOTHING scheduled on the calendar for this week! it's completely blank! it makes me giddy. maybe i'll take penny on a walk today since i understand that it's supposed to be snowsville starting tomorrow through the rest of the week.

st. george

2011-03-29T13:37:00.000-07:00

this weekend we went with paul's parents down to their condo in st. george for a little relaxin' time. it's kind of nice to get a change of scenery once in a while, ya know?

we went to a dinosaur footprint museum on saturday...

so they discovered these dinosaur foot prints about 10 years ago while the farmers who owned the land were working on leveling it. he flipped some stones over and found a bunch of imprints that are dinosaur tracks. pretty neat.

and then there was this area where they were hatching little velociraptors and i was all "wait a minute. what if they start reproducing on their own and take over the park?" and the scientist was like "no, it's okay all the dinosaurs are females."

and then we went on a really pretty hike sunday morning in snow canyon.

penny luuuved being up in her hiking throne. she jib-jabbered the whole time and was so excited to be out in NATURRRRE. me and paul have resolved to go on more hikes, it's really one of the most relaxing, peaceful, pretty outdoorsy things you can do. such a nice weekend!

another song...

2011-03-17T10:01:00.000-07:00

sometimes sesame street teaches your child songs and then you don't even realize it until they're singing themselves to sleep for a nap and you're like "what?! did i teach her that?" the answer is no, sesame street did. i know, i'm the world's best mom.

(please ignore penny's major bedhead on the back of her noggin, that's what it looks like even after a short nap. i don't try to brush it back to normal too often because she gets all mad and screechy at me. curse you curly hair!)

up-do

2011-03-10T14:12:00.000-08:00

i know i post alot of pics with penny in jellabee headbands, but how could i not post these pics?? i'm in love with them.

i was messing with the elastic headbands and it just didn't look right with her hair down...so i pinned it up underneath and ohmygosh i love it. i need to put this little girl's hair up more often. she looks like a little flapper to me. is it weird that i miss her shorter hair? it reminds me of when she was 9 or 10 months old with a rounder, chubbier face and a little shaggy bob...now she's 2 and 1/2 with tresses i could french braid - cripes!

p.s. speaking of jellabee...i just got accepted to participate in two spring craft shows in provo. so excited! they're really good ones. click on the images in the right column for more info if you're interested.

la la la la...elmo's world

2011-03-04T23:07:00.000-08:00

this video makes me laugh every time i watch it.

"that's...elmo's WORRRRLLLLD!"

miss penny is OBSESSED with elmo lately. she sings this song all day long and without fail yells the last part at the top of her lungs: at the grocery store, at church, in the car...

thank you, elmo, for bringing such joy into our lives.

lazy friday morning.

2011-02-25T12:31:00.000-08:00

sometimes it's nice to laze around in bed in the morning.

this little butternut is growing up so fast.

happy weekend!

happy vday!

2011-02-16T09:56:00.000-08:00

*what paul saw when he walked in the bathroom that morning to get ready for work.

paul's parents watched lil penny and we went out to eat at aristo's, this UH-mazing greek food restaurant in salt lake. like seriously, it's soo good. their hummus and pita are to die for.

*outside the restaurant.

after dinner we got a little ice cream ( & chocolates for paul's parents) at hatch family chocolates.

then we did the present thing. i got paul some lame clothes (including the jacket above) but he totally one-upped me and got me a KINDLE! i was soo excited when i opened it. i've read a book on it already. love it. thanks paul. :)

(yes, i posed with my new kindle because i'm a big cheeseball.)

hope you all had a fun valentine's!

work it.

2011-02-08T18:01:00.000-08:00

miss penny was my little model again today for some new bow clips in the shop.

we got some good shots (i kind of go for a relaxed look on her face. this is achieved through the very fancy technique of watching pbs.org on the laptop):

and some not-so-good shots (i.e. funny faces, arms too high, etc.) but i guess they're still pretty cute:

i LOVE that little tongue!

i don't know what it is about taking pictures of penny in diffused lighting, but whenever i brighten the pic in photoshop her hair looks ultra red. so people on etsy think i have a REALLY red-headed daughter instead of a slightly red-headed daughter. whatevs, it looks pretty, right?

body parts!

2011-01-30T18:49:00.000-08:00

she's known these for a while but i finally got it on video!
she was suuuper excited and wriggly, i don't know if you can tell...

*i love the vein in her forehead when she says "AHHHH!" at the end haha.
*saying "ouch!" is a very big thing for penny lately. EVERYthing is "ouch! my head!" "ouch! my foot!" she's quite the little exaggerator (yes, that's a word, i checked.)
*another big thing she loves to say is "i fine" whenever i ask "are you okay?"

funny little butternut.

oh man, i love this little stink bug.

2011-01-21T13:13:00.000-08:00

i sneak in at midnight to check on her before i go to bed, and i see one of my favorite things in the whole world: the sleeping stink bug baby. if this was a video, you would hear some HEAVY snoring. she takes after her father, i guess.

guess where we were this weekend?...

2011-01-18T09:32:00.001-08:00

"in the tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki room...."

of course, a picture of paul with a bear.

paul made me go on it's a small world...but i just can't see it...too many strollers...

waiting to see captain EO!

it was totally crazy, and last-minute, and a little irresponsible, but me and paul bought plane tickets (it was so nice to not have to drive!) and had a quick getaway together at disneyland. miss penny stayed with paul's parents in utah and had a grand ol' time but i missed her every minute. i've definitely made up for it by kissing and smothering her to death since we got back.

so anyways, it was short and sweet but definitely worth it. it was so nice to just walk around holding paul's hand or taking extra time after lunch to sit and people watch (i LOVE people watching...is that weird?). the weather was perfect, sunny but not too hot, and we rode all the rides we wanted to (tower of terror THREE times) and missed our penny when we saw other moms with their kids, but it totally made us look forward to taking her there when she's a little older and can remember and appreciate it.

now it's back to the routine, but what a fun little break!

p.s. i'm having a little valentine's day sale at my etsy shop...enter "valentine" upon checkout to recieve 15% off your entire order! (sale ends jan 21st!)

a couple little videos

2011-01-11T09:29:00.000-08:00

i took these in november (way back in the year 2010) and, i must say, they make me chuckle.

a) i think i’m a little hyper in this video.
b) penny’s laugh kind of reminds me of a snooty upper class baby, i love it.
c) that belly laugh right after she snorts kills me.
d) i sewed that lemon changing pad cover without a pattern and it may or may not be one of my proudest crafting moments.

a) yes, i know, the only thing i asked her to say that she didn’t say was “love you”. i’m not a weirdo who forces her baby to say “love you” all day long, i just say it to her a lot and she picked it up and says it a lot too. but i guess not for the camera this time.
b) the part where i start giggling like a little girl is when penny is stretching up to gimme a kiss and she has snot on her nose and it’s grossing me out.
c) apparently i can’t end a video of penny without making her say “BUH BYE”…i don’t know how else to end it.
d) i actually do brush penny’s hair and put her in clothes other than pajamas when we go out in public…

acacia park

2010-12-30T12:57:00.000-08:00

on christmas eve day we went on a family outing to a little park. it was so warm and sunny that day, i loved it!

i love these next few pics of penny with my dad. so cute.

i LOVE this picture of my parents. could it be any more perfect?

hi max!

leaves!

what a perfect way to spend the day before christmas. so many people were out walking and saying "merry christmas!" to each other, there was just a happy feeling in the air, i loved it.

merry christmas!

2010-12-28T10:16:00.000-08:00

our tinsel-drenched tree.

opening stockings...

paul with the ira glass tickets i got for him.

derek and brian with their toilet mugs, courtesy of older brother jordan.
penny LOVED this blanket my mom crocheted for her so much that i had to show a picture despite my no-makeup face. that's love.

how derek and brian tagged penny's present. (sorry it's kinda blurry...)

we had a great time in california this year with my side of the family. we only visit my hometown once or twice a year and it's always so nice. the weather was great (the rain stopped once we got there), i even got to wear flip-flops! penny loved playing with her cousin max and i loved just relaxing, hanging with the fam and watching movies. hope you all had a great holiday!

this would've been our christmas card photo if i wasn't so lazy and actually sent one out...

2010-12-21T17:19:00.000-08:00

and some outtakes:

hope you all have a happy holidays!

new york...continued!

2010-12-13T14:37:00.000-08:00

it's a christmas miracle!

remember this post when i uploaded new operating software and *accidentally* erased everything on our laptop? well, i was poking through some old files and voila! this darling little laptop decided to miraculously save all of our new york pictures from this summer and store them in a random, dark corner of our files. i was so excited i think i peed a little. just kidding...maybe.

without any further ado, here's the rest of our trip in new york this summer:

the new york city temple, where nate and claire attended church on sundays.

we had heard that gray's papaya was THE place to get a new york hot dog. (i don't know if paul enjoyed his very much...he took one bite and got pooped on by a pigeon haha.)

central park! i didn't realize how huge it was. there were entertainers and food carts everywhere, it was like a mini amusement park. everything was so green and pretty.

radio city music hall!

rockefeller center! we went on a tour through nbc studios and i loved it! we got to go inside the SNL studio and i'm a total SNL junkie so that was very cool. that place is tiny! there's only 3 little stages that they perform skits on, including the main one where the hosts come out to do their monologue. we saw some other studios, too and i was amazed at how small they were and how much larger they appear on camera.

in front of the prometheus statue at rockefeller center. it was summertime so the ice skating rink was covered up with tables and stuff.

the t-rex in the museum of natural history! (yes, i put my hands on my hips in every picture...i don't know what else to do for poses.)

at the shake shack! we heard this was another place in new york that we had to try and it was very tasty indeed. this was our last night before we flew home in the morning and it was a great way to end the trip.

that's all folks!

the wheels on the bus...

2010-12-03T11:23:00.000-08:00

"ALLL TRU...DA TOWN!"

is it weird that i think her tone deaf-ness is cute? she LOVES singing this song - in the car, when she's getting dressed, in her crib...all the time. there are times when we go through like twenty animals and she just copies every animal sound i make, it's so cute. in fact, she loves singing period - 5 little monkeys jumpin' on the bed, the yo gabba theme song, popcorn popping on the apricot tree, or just random tuneless songs. i love it.

(i think she's a little distracted by the tree at the end...haha.)

thanksgiving weekend

2010-11-30T14:28:00.000-08:00

i know you wanted to stare at paul's mustache blog post forever, but here's some pictures of thanksgiving weekend in albuquerque with paul's sister, kenna, and her family.

getting ready to dig in. it was so good!

our gracious hosts: gabe, kenna and maddie (plus baby brother on the way).

pretty princess penny in her pearls, waiting for the turkey to be done.

gramma debbie with maddie and penny. (this is the best picture we could get of those two...)

it was so nice to have a break from the routine and relax for a few days. we ate good food, hung out with family, and saw harry potter (which i LOVED). pretty nice.

just to prove he could.

2010-11-18T10:31:00.000-08:00

(the answer to "so WHY did paul grow a creepy mustache??")

(yes, i know what you're thinking. the beauty of this warhol-esque montage is too much to handle.)

it gets better, friends. these two chuckleheads decided to DYE THEIR MUSTACHES to make them darker and "more awesome."

they have a special bromance.

just kidding, you're VERY masculine.

(don't worry, it's gone now...and so is paul's happiness.)

yo gabba live!

2010-11-12T08:35:00.000-08:00

it was so much fun! penny was in a happy trance the whole time. she couldn't take her eyes off the stage and was smiling like a fool. the show was great, they did all the best songs (i loved the people dressed up as food sliding down a plastic slide into brobee's "tummy").

we met our friend ruth there and she was so nice and gave us after party passes, and we got to take the picture above with all the characters! penny could not stop whipping her head around to stare at all of them, we almost couldn't get a picture of her looking at the camera. she even gave muno a high five when he put his hand up, it was so cute. thanks ruth!

it was definitely a good show. penny loved it. click here to get tickets!

the ol' two-six

2010-11-08T22:08:00.000-08:00

we had a fun little party on saturday. we went laser tagging with our friends nate and claire while paul's parents watched penny and norah. i hadn't been laser tagging since high school, it was so fun! i'm pretty sure we were the oldest "kids" there...those 12-year olds were quick!

then we had some ice cream cake and paul got me these shoes that i've been wanting for a while. and he made me lunch AND dinner on sunday, my actual birthday. pretty nice. yay for 26!

toga baby!

2010-11-04T14:00:00.000-07:00

(little cheeseball)

it took me forever to figure out what to make for penny's costume. first, she was gonna be a strawberry (too expensive for how i wanted to do it), then she was gonna be a superhero (too time consuming to make all the accessories), and so the day before halloween i threw this little number together and i actually really love it.

it was so easy since i already had like 80% of her costume: the shoulder broach is a vintage piece i got at a thrift store forever ago (isn't the cameo perfect??), the gold ribbon, leaves and gold glitter paint were in my craft supplies, and the gold sandels were from last summer. i did have to buy some white fabric and gold rope but since that was only $3 total, i think we'll be okay.

we went trick or treating with penny's cousin, max, and penny loved it. she was super shy about saying "trick or treat!" but definitely not shy about grabbing a fistful of candy out of the bowl. since it was raining we only made it to like 5 houses. that's fine by me, but we'll try to do better next year. hope you all had a fun halloween!

jellabee giveaway!

2010-10-28T19:34:00.001-07:00

hey folks!

just wanted to make you all aware that i'm doing a little giveaway on my other blog for a $15 certificate to my jellabee shop because...i reached 1,000 sales on etsy. gah! so exciting!

i don't know if you've noticed...i don't have two etsy shops anymore. i combined them into one shop just to make everything easier.

anyways, go here to enter the giveaway. just leave a comment sometime before thursday november 4th at midnight. i would love to send some free stuff to a friend!

zion's park

2010-10-25T10:00:00.000-07:00

this weekend we went with paul's parents to their condo in st. george. nate and claire and norah came, too and it was so fun! we got to visit zion's national park, i love that place. it's always so gorgeous no matter what time of year, but fall is my favorite time to go. here's some pics of a little hike we went on in the park.

penny was very happy once we set her up in her fancy carrier.

a pretty waterfall...i love the red rock throughout the park.

little girl getting kinda tired on the way back down.

it really was so beautiful in the park. it was a bit drizzly so the air smelled all clean and fresh, that's my favorite kind of weather. i was surprised at how much greenery there was for how late it is in october.

it was claire's birthday on saturday so debbie and glade watched the babies while us four went and saw thriller, a utah-based show of halloween dance numbers. it was at this really cool outdoor amphitheatre called tuacahn so we bundled up and brought some blankets and i really liked the show. the dancers were so talented! hooray for a fun weekend.

gardner's village

2010-10-17T18:14:00.000-07:00

last friday debbie (paul's mom) had the day off of work and we went to gardner's village. it's this little collection of shops and every year they decorate it pretty cute for halloween.

(notice one of debbie's earrings hooked over penny's left ear? one thing that penny might love more than gramma larsen is gramma larsen's jewelry.)

penny LOVED all the pumpkins there. she kept giving them hugs.

i can't wait for halloween!

(penny's gonna be a superhero. i still have to make her costume. which i will probably do the night before like i did last year.)

polaroid penny

2010-10-14T15:47:00.000-07:00

i found this free software for turning digital photos into "polaroids" and i kinda like it. maybe one day i'll buy an actual polaroid camera + a scanner so i can save the images digitally...but until then this works for me. it's funny how you don't know what shade you're going to get when you submit a picture, but i like them both anyway.

(sorry for another post with pictures of penny wearing a headband...these are the only new pictures i've taken lately. exciting, i know.)

this image kind of steals my heart.

2010-10-05T10:00:00.000-07:00

i was trying to take some side angle shots of her wearing some new headbands for the shop, and then at the last second she looked up at me with the cutest expression and i clicked. offically one of my favorite pictures of this little girl ever.

nienie

2010-10-01T09:19:00.000-07:00

i got to see this fine lady speak last night:

i heard about it on her blog a week ago and definitely looked forward to hearing her speak. she was emotional throughout her entire talk. i would've been, too, if i had gone what she has gone through and then had to speak about it in front of a couple thousand people.

if you're not familiar with stephanie nielson, watch this video:

it was such a treat to hear her speak, she was funny and sweet and very honest. one of my favorite jokes: she showed a picture of herself in a full body cast from head to toe, and said that she had woken up from her 3-month coma during halloween time and how thoughtful it was of the nurses to dress her up in a mummy costume.

i loved when she talked about her children, and how much she loved being a mother. one of the saddest parts of her talk was when she told us how, at first, her children didn't even want to see her, because they didn't recognize her or know who she was. and that slowly, they got over it and knew her as their mom. i don't think there was dry eye in the room.

she was there to speak as a part of a program at BYU called "recapturing beauty", focusing on rejecting the negative messages from the media and reshaping our ideas about beauty. she continued with her testimony that if you're having trouble finding beauty in yourself that you can do what she did, turn to the Lord through prayer and He will help you. hearing her faith in prayer and in the Lord certainly makes me feel like i can do the same.

i love how positive she is about her new life. her blog is one of the most inspiring things i've ever read and makes me appreciate the blessings i have in my own life. thank you stephanie!

cottonwood canyon

2010-09-26T18:24:00.000-07:00

we've been stuck inside the past couple of days with a cold and were feeling cabin feverish, so we went for a sunday drive in cottonwood canyon. one of the things i love about utah is how close the mountains are and you can be driving up a winding road less than 10 minutes from your home.

this little girl's hair is getting so red! love it.

it was such a pretty day!

utah state fair

2010-09-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

last friday the three of us went to the utah state fair for a couple hours. we got some hawaiian shredded pork for dinner and walked around. i love fairs and carnivals, i always think they're so entertaining!

penny petting a very appreciative goat. she also learned to say goat: "gohhh...T!"

with some cute baby cows.

and last but not least...a butter sculpture of farm animals. yep, butter.

penny turns two!

2010-09-13T09:05:00.000-07:00

it was a fun little party. after some hot dogs we did a little pinata action. it was pretty funny to watch all these toddlers take a whack at "the cube". (i didn't feel like buying a pinata...so i made one out of cardboard and tissue paper...it may or may not have been hard to open.)

candy swarm!

"okay penny, let's take that sucker you love so much out of your mouth for 2 seconds so you can blow out these candles..."

she blew them out so well! it was so cute!

and...sucker back in.

opening presents...

penny with one of her favorite people in the whole world, grandma larsen.

pretty pretty princess in some tasteful jewelry from mom. (now just add some blush and blue eye shadow...pageant-baby!)

happy 2nd birthday penny! we love you!

jenny + johnny!

2010-09-09T09:37:00.000-07:00

they were sooo good! i've loved jenny lewis since high school and i jump at the chance to buy tickets whenever she comes to salt lake. we were able to get pretty close, i loved it!

(notice the red booties?...love.)

she's always amazing live, i'm so glad i got to see them!

(sorry for the two "band posts" in a row...sometimes it's fun to do fun things...)

sometimes VIP doesn't really mean VIP...

2010-08-31T17:00:00.000-07:00

last thursday we went to see she + him perform at the free twilight concert series in salt lake. paul got some "VIP" passes through his work and we assumed "yes! we get to sit close to the stage!"

feeling special with our passes...

we walked up to a security guard near the stage and asked where the VIP area was...and he pointed to a fenced off area about 100 feet from the stage. haha. here's our view:

basically it was a free dinner instead of close-to-the-stage-ness. so just before she + him came out we headed to the stage and had to stand with all the lowly commoners. haha.

my camera is pretty crappy (new fancy camera for christmas! fingers crossed!) so these pics aren't that great.

getting her tambourine on...

some singing...

*tree-climbing bonus!

they were really great! she sounded super good live, just like the album. and hey, it was free so we can't really complain...

sometimes i force penny to take pictures with me right before bedtime

2010-08-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

paul was at a ballgame with his dad and we were bored waiting for him to come home. or, i guess, I was bored and penny was happily playing with her toys. love you, little bug! (even when you're squirming to get off my lap...)

nice and relaxed

2010-08-20T08:17:00.000-07:00

(now that's what bumper bads are really for.)

usually i find her in the morning curled up on her side with her blankie, but it's been kinda hot lately... this totally reminds me of how she slept as a newborn, with her hands up in the air.

bear lake family reunion

2010-08-16T08:29:00.000-07:00

my folks rented us a cabin in bear lake for the weekend so we could have a proper family reunion. it was so fun!

we rented a boat and penny luuuuved it. her face was pure joy the whole time.
she loved watching the waves behind the boat.

dad driving.

doing a little jet skiing.

there were these little warm reed ponds ten feet from the shore, penny loved it.

penny and uncle derek.

penny and cousin max.

warming up from the chilly lake.

yes, i'm pale.

the view from our cabin, so purty.

kris photo-bombing our picture at the fancy bear trapper restaurant, haha.

it was such a fun weekend! i think we've all agreed that balmforth family reunion at bear lake should be our new summer tradition. thanks mom and dad!

thanksgiving point gardens

2010-08-12T09:14:00.000-07:00

my folks and little brother brian came up from california for a family reunion, and monday evening we walked around the pretty gardens at thanksgiving point. they have a movie theatre and dinosaur museum there, but i'd never seen the gardens and they're HUGE!

me and mom and penny in the "secret garden" - it's so cute, you have to walk through a wooden door just like in the book.

the folks.

max feeding some coy fish.

penny getting a ride. (btw, i have seen that exact look on penny's face on paul's face a million times haha).

tonight we head down to bear lake to stay at a cabin for a couple nights all together. i've been going crazy packing and getting everything ready for craft lake city (which i am soooo excited about)...yay for reunions!

happy 5 years!

2010-08-07T21:08:00.000-07:00

(on our way to our hot date)

i can't believe it's been 5 years! that seems like a VERY long time.

since we'd just been on a big trip to new york we decided to keep it low-key and just spend a night at a local hotel. i LOVE staying at hotels, something about not having to make the bed or do the laundry...

but first, paul's parents picked up penny on friday and we were off to a super tastey dinner at em's in salt lake. there's something amazing about eating at a restaurant without a baby. it's so...quiet.

this year since it's the BIG FIVE we decided to make presents for each other.

paul made me this super cute little book with drawings he did by hand:

i love it! so cute.

i made him a little book, too:

i saw this idea on a couple of blogs and thought it would be perfect for this year's anniversary. i had fun sifting through our old pics and picking ones that span our 5 years of marriage.

the next morning we went to the salt lake farmer's market, because i'd never had a chance to walk around being stuck in a booth and all. i love farmer's markets and fair and carnivals and stuff. we got some yummy lunch there and then drove on over to ikea and browsed around.

nothing exciting, i know, but it was fun because it was just the two of us. not that we don't love penny to pieces but there's something to be said about having "couple time." also, penny is kind of throwing tantrums alot lately, especially in public, so...yeah. couple time is nice. thanks debbie and glade for watching her!

here's to another amazing 5 years!

p.s. sorry about the looong blogging break...i had false hope that by not taking pictures on my camera that i could somehow retrieve them from the memory card with some software...but alas, no success. there was nothing really to blog about anyway...just enjoying the summer.

sad but true.

2010-07-22T09:09:00.000-07:00

the rest of our new york pictures are gone...BOO! i had two more blog posts planned with our last 2 days in new york but sadly, they're gone.

why? because yesterday...

paul at best buy: (holds up windows 7 software) "so does this include the office suite, with word and excel?"

idiot employee: "yep, it sure does. gimme 200 bucks for it."

the next day...

me: (uploading windows 7 software...wondering why it's taking 45 minutes to upload the software...having a sinking feeling that something's not right...logging on and seeing that EVERYTHING on our computer has been deleted...totally empty...possibly saying some expletives. just kidding, mom...)

turns out we bought and i uploaded the windows 7 operating software which deleted and replaced the windows 7 software that was ALREADY on our new laptop. i did have everything saved on a backup drive so nothing was lost...except the brand new new york pictures that i already deleted from our camera. WAH!

to sum up, beware the idiots at best buy and double check everything you buy for your computer.

the last 2 new york days were pretty fun so i'll just giving a boring, picture-less summary:

second to last day (sunday):

we went to church with nate and claire in the morning...at the lds temple in manhatten! i thought it were very cool to go to church in the same building as the temple rather than a regular churchhouse.

[insert cute picture of me standing in front of the temple]

that evening we took a loooong stroll through central park and i loved it. there was so many people and i loved just sitting and people-watching. it was like a little amusement park, there were vendors everywhere, people and bands performing, and pretty fountains and bridges...

[insert pretty pictures of us and nate and claire in central park]

last day (monday):

we took a tour of nbc studios at rockefeller center, this was another thing that i really wanted to do in new york.

[insert pictures of me and paul standing in front of rockefeller center]

i loved the tour, we got to see inside dr. oz's studio (who cares) and inside the saturday night live studio! that was my favorite. that place is tiny! they make it look so huge on camera. it was crazy to see the place where steve martin and chris farley and will ferrell had done all their funny skits. and the pages who did the tours! ya know that guy on "30 rock", kenneth the page? that is EXACTLY what they're really like, all chipper and smiley and friendly. so funny.

that afternoon we headed out again to go to the natural history museum.

[insert cool pictures of me and paul in front of the huge t-rex skeleton.]

that place is BIG. we just wandered around for a couple hours and didn't even scratch the surface. then we grabbed some yummy shakes at the shake shack, which is right near central park. several people told us before we left for new york that we HAD to go to the shake shack. i agree, it was tastey.

[insert picture of paul in front of the shake shack holding up a shake.]

so that's it. we flew home the next morning and were reunited with penny-bug. oh, well. at least i have the first 2 days saved on the ol' blog here. i'll have to remember to be more cautious with vacation pictures next time...

new york {day 2}

2010-07-17T14:05:00.000-07:00

last saturday was a fun day. we rode the staten island ferry (it's free!) in the morning and got to see the statue of liberty. this was pretty much the one thing i wanted to do for sure in new york. it was totally thrilling to see it in person. we didn't go on the actual island because it was super crowded, and the wait was forever, and the tickets to go up into the statue of liberty were sold out...so the ferry was our best option. i loved it!

boarding one of the ginormous ferry boats.

pulling away from the harbor.

waiting for the statue of liberty to come into view...aw, buddies.

thar she blows! it was so amazing to see in person.

(i may or may not have welled up a teeny bit...)

riding back...
i think the staten island ferry + seeing the statue of liberty was my favorite thing.
it was like seeing the effiel tower for the first time. so cool.

but! the day's not over!

for dinner we ate at a mario batali restaurant called lupa and it was SO GOOD. the prices were good, the food was so yummy - if we ever go back to new york, i'm definitely going to that place again.

we rushed through our dinner because we had tickets to see "west side story" on broadway! i don't have any pictures, too dark, too crowded - but it was so fun! we had good seats, the singing was awesome, i loved the dancing...i pretty much love all musicals.

all in all, an awesome day.

new york {day 1}

2010-07-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

we took the red eye last thursday night and arrived in new york on friday at 6 am (4 am utah time). me and paul didn't really sleep on the 4 hour flight so we were kinda draggin when we got there. we took a taxi to nate and claire's apartment and i may or may not have been nauseous the entire cab ride. it's totally true! new york cab drivers drive like CRAZY people!

we said hi to nate and claire...and fell asleep for 5 hours.

when we got up we wanted to do something low-key but fun. on to the guggenheim museum!

walking through central park to get there.
outside...

inside...

i love the spiral format of the building. we just started at the bottom and wound our way up to the top.

after the art, the next best thing was the air conditioning! when you were outside, the humid air practically stuck to you. when we visited london and france a few summers ago, it was the same weather but none of the buildings had AC. it was so nice that all the buildings in new york had it. even the subways were air conditioned! fancy! actually, it's probably a neccessity. waiting on the subway platform was torture though. it was like literally standing in a steamy sauna + some stank. blech.

that night we hit times square. it was dang crowded!

and even though we went at night, it felt like daytime the lights were so bright.

we had so much fun and it was only the first day! i loved walking around and just people-watching. i think new york is a lot friendlier than the movies portray. i totally felt safe the whole time (even though i did keep a hand on my purse all the time just in case) and the people reminded me alot of southern california, particularly LA. i loved how there was always something to do and you just had to hop on a subway or walk and be there in 10 minutes. we really didn't even scratch the surface during our 4 days there.

we had a great time but i'm glad to be home with penny girl. i missed this little bug!

more pics to come!

pigtails!

2010-07-07T11:13:00.000-07:00

little lady finally has enough hair for some good-sized pigtails. i can't believe how grown up she looks! i also can't believe she'll be TWO in september. that's only 2 months away! crazy.

it's so funny, she's totally giving attitude lately. crocodile tears and tantrums all the time...her mood swings are rediculous! hitting and throwing food (and then quickly looking at us to see our reaction) are also becoming quite common...little stinker.

i didn't take any fourth of july pictures but we let penny stay up to watch fireworks for the first time and she was ASTOUNDED to say the least. she just kept her finger pointed in the air at the fireworks like E.T. and said "WHOA!" every time one went off. i loved it. i didn't even really watch the fireworks, i just kept looking at her and grinning the whole time.

right now she's sitting on my lap while i type and playing with a box of floss. she keeps licking the end of the floss string and going "mmm! yum-yum!" that's gotta been beneficial somehow, right?

we've been saying prayers with penny every night before bed since about 3 months ago and the cutest thing happened last week. i wrapped up the prayer and said "we say these things in the name of jesus christ..." and then her little voice goes "ah-men." i about died! so cute! she just totally picked it up on her own. i love hearing her say new words.

i'm gonna miss this little bug while we're in new york...we fly out tomorrow night! so excited!

eclipse!

2010-06-30T08:36:00.000-07:00

i went with my sister lana last night for the midnight showing and it was pretty fun. there was a cheesey eclipse party that was going on at the theatre so we strolled around for a few minutes.

posing with jacob, edward and victoria look alikes. lana has her eyes closed, haha. jacob had glitter on his chest, and i'm preeety sure those abs are painted on.

my favorite things about the movie:

- jasper! he was my favorite character to watch in this one! his southern accent was PERFECT, just a hint of it and not so obvious. i loved seeing him in his cowboy garb. and when he was instructing the training bit, he was way funny.
- riley! he was my second favorite character to watch. he was totally perfect, brain-washed but trying to be a leader. i thought he was really good for not having much acting experience. and his was the only vampire make-up that didn't look bad.
- all the newborn stuff was cool.
- jacob. i liked him tons more in this film, it seemed like he was really trying to get into the role and he had some good one-liners.
- the flashback scenes from the campfire scene where the tribe remembers the first "cold ones". that was really cool to watch.
- alice and jasper fighting for the wolves to watch.
- the tent scene!
- the look on victoria's face right before she and edward fight. bryce dallas howard was okay. she had a good intensity but she was in the film so little that it didn't really have a huge impact.
- but, seeing her decapitated body was cool-looking. very icy looking.
- the birds and the bees talk between bella and charlie! har har!

what was pretty bad:

- all of the romantic scenes between bella and edward were kinda flat. it was like, been there done that. i think edward and bella were having a contest to see who could speak in monotone the best.
- rosalie's back story was AWFUL. it really looked as if they filmed it in a couple hours, and was shot like a documentary. rosalie is such an awesome character and they already screwed it up by getting the wrong actress, and then when it was her moment to shine, david slade totally screwed up the dramatic telling of it. i mean, you saw her in her wedding dress dressed for revenge for like half a second! lame.
- carlisle's accent! whoa, he got all madonna with a bad english accent. "it means a bahtul, with loyves lohst" haha.
- everyone's clothing sucked. too boring and all greys and blues.
- speaking of color, the whole film looked so drab! and the focus was kinda filmy and almost blurry at times. and shaky during an action sequence. i'm not sure what the director was tring to do there...
- bree could've been more crazy.
- the volturi all have WAY too much make-up on, like more than the last one. jane even has this weird turquoise crap on her eyes at the end. it would look cooler and more scary if she looked more like a child and not all done up.
- the vampire trio that turn jasper could've looked better. the one time you saw them all, it was way too dark and they looked sweaty, just like ordinary people. i swear, david slade was filming with a dark lens on his camera the whole stinkin time.
- i didn't really like the music as much in this one.
- lady in the audience that came with a BABY. for pete's sake. we've all bought our tickets like a month ago, we're all excited, we came at midnight to stay up late to see this, but suuuure, go ahead and bring your baby and then when edward's proposing to bella and the theatre is silent, don't even try right away to quiet her. UGH.

overall, i don't think david slade had a very good grip on the romantic or dramatic elements. that stuff was kind of flat and stale. it was like he just filming it straight on, to get it documented, so he could get on to more exciting scenes. but the action was good, and i liked the humor in it. maybe i need to see it again. i'm just glad he's not directing the last two. bill condon is doing the last two breaking dawn movies, and the movies he's directed in the past have been both emotional and dramatic so i'm thinking he's gonna do a good job.

yes, i'm a big nerd and think way too much about this stuff.

nursery

2010-06-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

i got assigned as a nursery worker at church, i.e. baby-sitter of kids 18 month - 3 years. i'm not gonna lie, it's kinda hard.

i think they put me in there so i could protect penny. i pretty much stick her in the corner and stand guard from the 3-year old beasties. ya know, the one's who'll knock over a 20-month old little girl so hard that her head hits a metal chair while in their rabid pursuit to catch some bubbles. i nearly had a heart attack when that happened.

there's this one kid who's pretty funny, he likes to give hugs. and i mean, HUGS. he goes up to another kid and squeezes and holds on for dear life like a little barnacle while the kid he's "hugging" screams and tries to get free. let's just say he's really strong and takes more than a little of my 25-year old strength to pry him off.

biting. it happens. every sunday. apparently, toddlers are caniverous.

i don't even bother to try to look nice for church. why? because i'm sweaty and my hair's in a crazy ponytail at the end of each sunday. and i'm pretty sure my eyes look pretty crazy, too.

i try not to give penny special attention. i'll set her down with some toys and wander off to go play with another kid but she's not fooled. she whines and crys and WHINES until i pick her up but then have to set her down again to pry the hugger off another victim. i'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing to be in there with my own daughter.

if i had a nickle for every child that screeches "mom-eeeeeeee!" when their parent leaves them in nursery, i would have a lot of nickles.

there's a favorite toy in the nursery: a plastic upright kitchen stove. they will fight to the death over it. they will knock the kitchen stove down on top of another kid to injure them and keep them out of the competition. there are tears. there is biting. there is nothing else in this world that matters more than KITCHEN DOMINATION.

but there's sweet moments, too, i guess. like when a rowdy little boy will sit in my lap quietly for 10 whole minutes while we have song time. in fact, they all kind of quiet down for music time. like the 3-headed dog, fluffy, in harry potter who sleeps while a harp is being played. because he is a beast, and beasties and toddlers like music.

at least i can say i burn some serious calories during church.

booth, booth, booth it up

2010-06-19T14:19:00.000-07:00

i had so much fun today. it was the second saturday of the farmer's market and the weather was TONS better than last week. the very first saturday was cold, rainy and windy, but i still made a good amount of cash. today it was sunny and i made even more moola. NICE.

we bring penny straight from her crib to the car in the morning at 6:30am, she chills in the car behind the booth for an hour while we set up, and then paul takes her home. what a trooper.

the spread:

pillowcase dresses + hair clippies + burp cloths.

pocket mirrors + headbands.

i really love the display for the pocket mirrors. it took me a while to figure something out, because they couldn't just lay there on a table. paul helped me staplegun the jute strings to the backs of the frames and we bought some binder clips to keep them on. and none of them fell off. success!

it was a great day and i'm looking forward to all the saturdays this summer!

bee's game

2010-06-09T11:17:00.000-07:00

paul got a couple of tickets through his work, and last night we got to see the bee's play some baseball. the only reason i agreed to go (i kind of hate baseball...too slow!) is because his work has a *suite*! throw in a free bbq dinner and i'm sold.

a very glowy picture of us.

our view.

the swanky suite.

(can you tell ikea sponsored the suite?...)

the weather was so nice and it's always fun to have a date night...but i still hate baseball.

couches are our friends.

2010-06-04T10:53:00.000-07:00

i love this little video. we've been teaching penny how to get down from the couch, but my favorite part is after she gets down.

"Hi!"

what i woke up to this morning...

2010-06-01T10:31:00.000-07:00

it was sitting right next to the computer, the first place i go after i feed penny. he knows me so well.

i love you, too, paul.

we're going to new york!

2010-05-24T09:30:00.000-07:00

can i just tell you how excited we are???

and it gets even better, we get to hang out with our good friends, nate and claire! nate got an internship for 10 weeks in new york and we get to stay with them! because they're super nice and amazing.

we're going in mid-july for 5 days and we've never been so i wanna do all the tourist-y stuff: the statue of liberty and central park and times square...and eat a hot dog from a street vendor...or maybe i'll just let paul eat one and live vicariously through him.

but, sad to say, we're leaving lil' penny home with paul's parents. we were originally gonna take her and try to make it a "family vacation" but then we started thinking how hard it would be for her being dragged all over new york, with no car, just walking everywhere...and also how hard it would be for us. so now it's our 5-year anniversary trip. :) (we'll be married 5 years on august 6th...it's close enough, right?)

i'm gonna be sad to go without penny because i'd love to take pictures with her in them...but really, she won't remember anything and she'd be miserable because we'd want to go-go-go all day...she'll have a much better time being spoiled by grandma and grandpa. now we can just do the airplane thing without a baby, and we don't have to bring all her junk, and we can properly do the tourist-y thing and not feel bad about dragging penny everywhere...it's a win-win all around really.

so...yay for new york! so excited! gimme any tips or places to go if you've been!

some bad news...but then some super great news!

2010-05-17T09:07:00.000-07:00

bad news: paul got laid off 2 weeks ago.

super great news: he got offered a new job on friday!

it all happened so fast. his former employer (an online marketing firm) was struggling financially and had to lay off a 1/4 of their employees, including paul. you know how the saying goes...last hired, first fired. we were way bummed of course, but felt optimistic that something else would come along. and boy, did it ever.

paul was offered a job at crowell advertising, an ad agency in downtown salt lake and his first day is today! we couldn't believe it when he got the call on friday. it took almost 2 years to get a marketing position and move out of logan and it only took two weeks to get this new job! amazing.

there's so many great things about this new job:
- it's an ad agency that has more of a creative environment
- it's closer to home, only 15 minutes away. no more 40 minute commute to park city. YES!
- his pay is higher
- the benefits are better
- paul will be happier with this type of job (not to say he didn't like his previous job, i think he'll just enjoy this one more)

we are so over the moon, it's not even funny. paul has wanted to work at an ad agency for a looong time, and now that he is and that it happened so quickly, we feel rediculously blessed.

so...sometimes it rocks to get laid off and get a better job.

i'm pretty sure these are 4 of the 7 dwarves.

2010-05-13T10:32:00.000-07:00

and i'm pretty sure these lame no make-up pictures don't really constitute as a blog post...but i've been busy.

i got accepted into the salt lake farmer's market as a craft vendor (joy!) and i've been hunched over my craft table every night snipping and cutting and sewing. it starts on june 12th so that's only about a month away...and there's alot to do. but i am so rediculously excited that i got in because, well, i'm a big huge nerd.

in other news, we gave penny chicken nuggets for the first time last night...and she LOVED them. she loves them like she is a starving child and shoves them in her mouth as fast as she can. and then she stores the chewed up nuggets in her cheeks like a happy little squirrel until i realize that she STILL hasn't swallowed those chewed up nuggets and it's time for bed so i get a baby spoon and scoop out the chicken nugget mush so that she won't go to bed with food in her mouth and choke. and then paul absent-mindedly ate one of the chicken nugget mushy chunks that i had put on her high chair tray because he thought it was a non-chewed piece and it was pretty gross. it was like the exact opposite of what a mother bird does for her babies. sometimes it's nice as an adult to have your food chewed up for you.

puppy penny

2010-05-05T18:14:00.000-07:00

she just learned this one a few days ago...and i think it's pretty cute.

"woof woof woof!"

in the sun

2010-04-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

i wanted to take advantage of our rediculously overgrown backyard and take some pictures before paul mows it this week. it was so warm and sunny, i love utah in the spring.

i'll be kinda sad to see the flowers go. i really love the yellows and purples. but i won't miss the bees. that's for DANG sure.

penny larsen: headband model

2010-04-19T12:09:00.001-07:00

i'm adding some interchangeable headbands to my jellabee jr etsy shop (where the clips clip onto a piece of ribbon attached to a stretchy headband) and i had to get some shots showing how the headbands looked. i kind of realized that (duh) lots of babies don't have that much hair for a while and can't wear clips unless they're attached to a headband...paul says this will take my shop to "the next level" haha.

i haven't listed the headbands in the shop yet (still need to finish some more) but thought these pics were cute enough to share anyway.

i feel kinda silly putting headbands on her when the snap clips easily clip onto her hair, but who else would be my little model?

p.s. thanks to paul for hitting himself (lightly) on the head to make penny smile and laugh.
p.p.s. penny has learned how to say a new word...every time i would say "come on, gimme smile penny!" she'd say "NO." but it's cute hearing her little voice say it all high-pitched and gleeful so i'll let it slide...for now.

*edit: the interchangeable nylon headbands are listed! go here to check 'em out.

knott's!

2010-04-14T09:48:00.000-07:00

we also got to go to knott’s when we were visiting my folks in california.

sitting in the ghostrider rollercoaster. nice scrunchy face, kris.

and i think we’re getting old or something because after that rickety wooden roller coaster me and paul were all sore and kind of had a headache. after one ride. and each ride after that kinda made us sore and stiff. and we actually took resting breaks in between rides. we're pretty much old fogies now.

my favorite ride: montezooma’s revenge. i know it’s short but i just love that ZOOM at the beginning.

striking a pose in camp snoopy. woot woot.

me and paul had a pretty good time…but lana and kris had to leave early because:

a) lana cut her finger that morning
b) lana had THE SAME finger smashed in the car door by paul in the knott's parking lot (he was very sorry)

c) lana threw up after our second ride
d) all of the above

(the answer is “d”). poor lana!

penny ended up catching lana’s stomach bug and threw up that night which = nasty chunky throw-up hair the next day. gross. i didn’t even hear her the whole night! she didn’t cry or anything! she just threw up and went back to sleep…funny girl. and she was pretty lethargic for the 12-hour ride home last wednesday because she was still a bit sick, so that was kind of nice…in a backwards way. (she's totally fine now...just a little 24-hour bug.)

and now we’re back to snow and rain! yay for spring in utah…

happy easter!

2010-04-08T10:13:00.000-07:00

collecting some eggs...

penny surveying her loot (which we graciously ate for her later).

haha.

love these pics of penny with my dad.

uncle paul giving max a toss in the air.

it was so nice and warm outside that day. a perfect easter!

so long, utah!

2010-04-01T17:47:00.000-07:00

tomorrow we will be leaving THIS behind.

(today: our backyard + outside the front door)

we will be driving to this:

to enjoy this:

(penny at easter last year - 6 months)

to go to this:

(thanks for the discount tickets, dad + for baby-sitting, mom. that's right. we're not going to ruin a perfectly good day at knott's with kids. jk...sort of)

and listen to this:

and eat this:

(one of my FAVorite restaurants)

and to visit friends and enjoy time with family. which i am REALLY looking forward to.

hope you all have a great easter!!

only the highest quality toys for my baby

2010-03-25T10:25:00.000-07:00

(only the highest quality cereal for my family as well...)

feeling better is good

2010-03-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

back to crafting... (it's an organized mess.)

back to not doing the dishes...not that i did them when i was sick...

back to a happy lady in her high chair.

back to a happy lady in her bath. (yes, i STILL bathe her in the kitchen sink. if she's little enough, why not?)

and paul is back to work. i must say that even though we were all sick, we all really enjoyed the 4 day weekend together - just relaxing, sleeping, and watching those awesome timelife infomercials where they show footage of old music hits. oh man, those are the best.

monday thru wednesday sucked, but mostly wednesday

2010-03-18T08:57:00.000-07:00

MONDAY
2:00pm: penny starts getting a runny nose, fever, and red watery eyes. i start cursing nursery for what i'm sure is responsible for getting her sick.
8:00pm-tuesday morning: penny cries throughout the night = 3 hours of sleep. i'm thinking she's just irritable from the cold...

TUESDAY
7:00am: penny has a full-blown nasty cold, her fever hasn't gone away, she can't sleep and cries all the time. i'm starting to get the itchy throat that means a cold is coming and i curse nursery even more. (you're supposed to get blessings when you go to church, not viruses.)
7:00am-8:00pm: me and penny both feel like crap and just lay there and watch cartoons all day. i have a ton of etsy orders to work on that need to ship wednesday but i procrastinate and do nothing all day except take care of a miserably sick baby. i call the doctor to see if there's anything else i should be doing, and he says just to give her tylenol and wipe her eyes with a warm washcloth. i check my shops and see i have even more orders to work on that are due on wednesday (i ship mon/wed/fri and if they order something on tuesday, they're expecting it to go out on wednesday and if i ship later than when i say i'm going to ship, i could get negative feedback on my shop and the customer gets annoyed...have you noticed that people really like crap to ship on time?).
8:00pm: penny goes to bed (sort of) and i start working on like 20 clips that are supposed to ship the next morning and finish at 3:00am. i still have 5 burpcloths that are also supposed to ship the next morning but decide to sew them in the morning and go to the post office at noon. paul is now also sick and we all feel so crappy that he decides to stay home from work on wednesday. penny wakes up 4 times that night crying = 3 hours of sleep.

WEDNESDAY (the crappiest day)
7:00am: penny wakes up screaming and crying and her fever's even higher. the tylenol just doesn't seem to be working like it should. she's gotta have more than a cold. call the doctor, explain how she can't sleep and her fever won't go away and make an appt to see her for 5:30pm. dang, i wish it was sooner.
7:00am-10:00am: me and paul lay on couches taking turns holding penny, and all of us are sick sick sick, too tired to do anything but lay there. penny gets loose and i wasn't watching for 5 seconds, and she smashes two little fingers in the dvd drawer. she wails like a banshee while i try to console her. as if she wasn't feeling bad enough...
10:00am-noon: still lying on a couch and thinking i still have those dang burpcloths to sew that need to be at the post office by 4:30pm.
noon: paul watches robin hood with penny while i plan to sew. (there is NOTHING less i want to do at that moment than sew). i start to get out the fabrics i need when i realize i am out of not one but TWO fabrics that the guy ordered. crappity crap crap. so i email the guy hoping he's the understanding type and tell him that i'm so sorry but i just realized i'm out of two of the fabrics for the burpcloths he wants (SO embarrassing). and i offer to reimburse him for the two, and let him pick out two replacements for free, and let him know that i'm normally much more professional that this...luckily, the guy writes back soon and he's super nice about it and picks out the two replacements.
3:00pm: barely finish the burpcloths (it doesn't normally take me 3 hours to sew 5 burpcloths, but in the meantime i'm feeding penny and holding her when she doesn't want dad to anymore...etc). hop in the shower (because nothing makes you feel nastier when you're sick than not being clean) and plan to haul tail to the post office which closes in a half hour.
4:00pm: open the door to the honda, try to start the car...battery's dead. i look up and see the cabin light that i left on the whole night. UGH. run over to paul's truck, thanking my lucky stars that he stayed home from work today.
4:30pm: get home, yank penny out of her nap so we can feed her, bathe her (her curly hair was in all sorts of knots) and run over to the doctor's office.
5:15pm: waiting in the doctor's office while penny burrows into my shoulder (i know she's sick but she never does that any more and i feel all warm and fuzzy and mom-ish). the movie "up" is on the wating room tv and me and paul watch the montage in the beginning where they grow old together. it breaks my heart every time.
5:30pm: nurse takes penny's temp and it's 100.7 degrees. yikes. doctor lady is super nice but informs us penny has an ear infection in her left ear. CRAP. (but also YAY because now we know why she was so miserable and now we can make her better).
6:00pm: drive over to the grocery store to get her antibiotics + cold meds for me and paul + ibuprofen for penny's fever.
6:45pm: drug penny up real good with her bubblegum flavored antibiotics and citrus flavored ibuprofen.
7:30pm: stuff her with oatmeal and milk and put her down for bed.
7:50pm: watch lacey get kicked off american idol. thank goodness, she was an awful singer.
midnight-this morning: i guess the drugs are working because penny sleeps all night and so do we.

i know there are worse days to be had...but let's not repeat wednesday, okay?

18 months!

2010-03-12T12:25:00.000-08:00

i can't believe my baby is a year and a half! it went by super quick.

the jellies return! can you believe she still fits into them from last summer?? wow, she has tiny feet.

haha this picture makes me laugh.

she weighs 22 pounds (20th percentile, which is the highest she's ever been so good job eating penny!) and 32 1/2 inches tall (75th percentile, she's always been pretty high in this area).

she likes to...
- grab paul's hair (soo funny)
- pat your cheeks with her hands when you put your face up close to hers
- sort of give kisses, i'll say "gimme kiss!" and she'll sort of nuzzle her nose and lips on yours (i LOVE this)
- wave and say "hi" and "buh-bye"
- roll her fists over each other and say "roh-ohllllll"
- clap her hands and say "pat pat"
- throw her hands in the air when you say "toss it up!"
(i can't really take credit for the last three...grandma debbie likes to sing patty cake with her and do the motions...)

she still sleeps like a champ, 12 hours a night + a 3 hour nap every afternoon (it is HEAVEN). still a super happy baby, really content most of the time.

we're still working on the walking thing. since she just learned to crawl 2 months ago, i'm assuming it's gonna be a few more months before she walks. oh, well. she'll catch up in her own time i guess..and whenever i'm not worrying about her walking, i'll just enjoy not having her get into things or falling down and chipping a tooth (ahem, cousin max).

thank you for being a wonderful baby, penny-butt!

and if you were wondering about her little owl dress...i finally conquered my fear of sewing clothing and made a few simple pillowcase dresses for penny. and it wasn't as hard as i thought it was going to be! now if i could just conquer the mysterious world of sewing sleeves...

today

2010-03-05T14:00:00.000-08:00

dear winter,

you need to go away PRONTO. it's freaking march and i'm tired of you being all cold and icy and drying out my baby's skin no matter how many times i slather lotion on her cute little pudgy body. also, i would like to start wearing flip-flops please.

here is our "apple" tree in our backyard this morning. grrr....snow....and i say "apple" because they look like tiny apples and feel like tiny apples but i'm sure as heckfire not gonna eat one of those creepy tiny apples.

making these put me in a better mood.

(go here for the recipe. AMAZING.)

i made them because our church does this pioneer trek re-enactment every year (sounds hard to me) and they're having a baked good silent auction tonight to help raise money so the teenagers in our area can go. plus, we get a free dinner for bringing a baked good so why the heck not.

lastly, this man is the best. yesterday was kind of a hard day and what does the husband do? he brings me home my most favorite, irresistable, and the symbol of all that is good in this world - the original cadbury egg. (none of this caramel or butterfinger egg crap, thank you.)

*4 years ago, when i bleached my hair so much it started falling out.