on a rainy day in may

As much as I love cool, rainy days, they aren't really a friend to mothers of young children. By nine o'clock you start counting down the minutes to quiet time and another countdown begins for when daddy gets home. 

I might as well confess, for those of you who don't already know, I'm a bit of a chocoholic. And basically, the only thing worse than a long, rainy day stuck inside... is a long, rainy day stuck inside with no chocolate in the house.   

My thought process went something like this:

WHY IS THERE NO CHOCOLATE IN THIS HOUSE!??!

Oh wait.... don't we have a few cubes of melting chocolate left over from Christmas on a top shelf somewhere in the kitchen? WE DO!!!!!! 

*dance party*

But what would I do with it? Eat it straight? I'm not quite that desperate... Do we have any pretzels?

No... dang it. 

Graham crackers? 

*sigh* 

Wheat thins don't seem like they'd do the trick... 

Animal crackers? 

WE HAVE ANIMAL CRACKERS!!!

Believe it or not, Madeline was totally game with dipping her favorite snack in chocolate.  

We sorted the broken crackers from the whole ones, talked about the different animals and had a really great hour just being together.

Most importantly, we both made it to quiet time and neither of us threw a tantrum :)

Sunday was a really great day

Maybe it was just the fact that we (other than Jeremy) got out of the house for the first time in almost a week, but Sunday was a really great day. We weren't as late to church as we have been the past two weeks (getting anywhere on time with two kids is next to impossible fyi), Sacrament meeting was great, Sunday school was phenomenal and YWs gave me a lot of personal insight I hadn't known I needed. It was just a great day. Then we came home and the kids both took great naps, I got to take a nap for like two hours (it was much needed), and Jeremy made a delicious turkey dinner almost all by himself. I really didn't help that much. It was pretty much thanksgiving in January. We had ended up with a frozen turkey we really didn't need so we finally decided to clear our the freezer! There's so much room in there now. We got to skype with my in-laws and I got to finish off the day curled up with my husband and baby. Madeline would have been even better of course, but she doesn't do much curling up and holding still, and she was in bed ;)

This is starting to feel really scatter brained and random, but I just want to remember what a great day Sunday was. I love Sundays, I love spending time with my family, and life is good - crazy and hectic - but good.

my favorite little things

It's often the little things in life that keep me going. A kiss on the cheek from my husband. Seeing the tulips bloom on my street. Hearing the early birds chirping. An afternoon with my camera or sewing machine. An email from a friend or a tasty treat like a frosting graham cracker. These are a few of my favorite little things.

I love to fly

I have always loved flying.  There's an almost magical energy that flows through even the smallest of airports. People are coming and going. All for different reasons. Business, funerals, weddings, vacations. Everyone is experiencing change. Everyone is different. It's exciting. Especially for a people watcher like me. I love wondering what I'll order for my precious complementary beverage even though I know - Sprite. Always. Bringing favorite snacks that keep one particular little mouth busy. Anxious adrenaline rushes fill a day of travel. Take off, landing. I'm childish with excitement. But yesterday I was especially grateful to be traveling with my two favorite people.  They seem to make any experience brighter. Even a day of flying.

Madeline's room: the tale of the floorcloth

I'm happy to report we've been making more great progress on Madeline's room! I've scoured the internet in search of the perfect rug to grace the floor in there and I had no luck.  I found a couple that I liked but even if we could afford them, they were so expensive I wouldn't dare let Madeline walk on them, much less make them the center of her play area.  Then I happened upon this tutorial.  She takes a tablecloth she found on sale and turns it into a floor cloth for her daughter's room. Awesome. And so I started looking everywhere for tablecloths I liked.  No luck again.  

Two things you have to know about me.  One: I often times get grand ideas of what I want (especially in relation to aesthetics and design) and I have a hard time settling for anything less.  Two: I have an oversized creative gap.  In other words I sometimes have a hard time transporting these grand ideas from my head to the medium in front of me. 

I woke up one night with a design for an amazing floorcloth. It was a vision, ha. I felt certain I could make it happen.  So we ordered two and a half yards of wide, heavy duty canvas.  And I began. And it sucked.  It was so ugly, extremely time consuming and an overall disaster.   

So we regrouped. I painted over the entire canvas with Behr Southern Beauty.  Much to my surprise, two coats covered my hideous mess.  Then I found a free template for a cardboard stencil here, at Jones Design Company.   And thus my beautiful floor cloth had an identity at last.  It's far from finished.  I'm only a couple rows in, and the whole design will need another coat (at least) but I'm really really happy!  It's been a great project. After I'm done painting I'll cover the whole thing in water-based polyurethane. That'll protect it from sticky fingers and juice spills.  

The last step for me anyway, will be wrapping it around a cheap rug from Ikea.  A friend of mine suggested that for a little cushion and I love the idea.  I'd originally intended to put some no-slip mats under it, but the rug will be the same price and overall better.  Plus I can reuse the rug if I ever want/need to.

I think that about sums it up! Wordy. Sorry.  It's not a tutorial, but I did want to give credit where credit is due and explain why it's taken me so stinkin' long to make some progress.  

What do you think?! :)

a lipstick confession

I only recently bought myself my first tube of lipstick.  And BAM I feel like a woman! I will admit it takes some courage to tell your plump neutral lips that you'd like them to own up to the wonderful hot-pink-ness they were intended to be. {I still haven't worn it out of the house without frantically trying to take most of it off}  I think part of the problem might be I'm still not sure how to put it on..? Needless to say I never knew how fun lipstick can be.  Most of all I love seeing where I kissed miss Madeline last :)

we're doing the bang thing again

and so far I love 'em

everybody poops

Pooping.  It's a part of life.  I hope you don't mind if we talk about poop today.  The story goes that when my niece Meaghan was in potty training, her mother, Maria, bought the book Everybody Poops.  After reading through the book, little Meaghan was amazed to learn that she wasn't the only one.  She looked up at her mom and asked, "Even grandma poops?"  Hard to believe that even wonderful grandma has to make a trip to the bathroom every once in a while. 

But it's true.  Everybody poops.  Even cute little babies.  We started feeding Madeline rice cereal and some simple solids over a month ago, but other than thickening up a bit, her poops remained pretty consistent.  Much to my surprise Sunday morning there was a nice big lump in her diaper and man did it stink.  pee-eew.  She's probably had four or five poops since then and bless her little heart, they hurt.  She looks at me with those beautiful blue-green eyes just wanting to know what the heck is going on and why she feels the need to grunt and groan and be so uncomfortable.  I suppose it's better than being constipated... 

To be honest I don't know why in the world I'm sharing this.  But there you go. Pooping. It's a part of life.

hunger games: better late than never...?

oh hunger games.  I finally got to see you.  husband and I have had our eyes on you for a long time. We just don't love you enough to spend $20 big ones to go see you.  So we waited until we found a Regal Cinemas because it just so happens that we have a gift card.  Last little gift card from our wedding {almost a year and a half ago!} But dear hunger games, you were worth the wait.  You were wonderful and exciting with just enough gore to make it like the book and not make me loose my cookies.  Also you made me cry.  Being a mom makes me cry a lot more than I used to.  And I have to admit I don't think it's hormones anymore.  I think I just officially now have a stronger connection to my more emotional self. I realize the hype is kind of over and done, but there ya go.  We probably won't see the Avengers for like three months. Actually we'll probably red-box-it {have we made that a verb yet? well I just beat you all to it}.  

oh and hey readers.  All beautiful 27 of you.  I realize I've been kind of MIA the past few weeks... almost month.  Turns out packing and finals and moving and life and keeping up with sibling soccer/football games and music events etc. etc. etc. can keep you busy and make you want to turn out the light at 9 o'clock and hope your baby sleeps forever.  How does my mom do it? 

{a little sneak peak at our trip to arches}

BUT I'm back.  Or I hope to be ha.  And I have so many fun things to share with you.  Like graduation and vacation and birthdays and mother's day and oh you guys we're gonna have fun.  Thanks for sticking around.  And hey I've been keeping up with all of your wonderful blogs so no worries there.

happy weekend friends

Meet our new little buddy Max.

The husband had to make betta fish fight 

as part of a lab last week {don't worry they were

humane and didn't let any of them in the

same water or take things too far}

But turns out they didn't have any use

for thirty betta fish after the lab so we how have two fish! 

I've yet to get some good shots of our other fish

Leonardo DaVinci, but he's a really beautiful blue fish.

We're going to the temple together this weekend for the first time in

more than four months and we are so excited! 

Hope your weekend is great too!

kluvyoubye

Dear...

Dear Disneyland,

It seems like everybody is

going to see you lately.

I miss you. It's been way

too long since I've been to 

you. You are amazing.

Maybe in a few years I'll

bring Madeline when she 

can appreciate you.

Also, I will NOT be 

pregnant when we come

because I want to ride

the roller coasters!

Dear Dishes,

your getting cleaned

today so get ready.

No more sink parties

for you.

Dear bed,

you are so warm

and wonderful

but you are putting a strain

on my relationship with

my running shoes.

Especially at 6:00

in the morning.

But hey, don't stop

being warm and wonderful.

We'll work through this.

Dear period,

You haven't been

here in over a year.

And it has been SO NICE!

I feel like a ten year old

girl trying to figure you out again...

The past week hasn't been fun.

cramps suck.

But I guess I'll see you next month...

yippee!

Dear shower,

I used you today!

Not only used you but

used you before 9:00!

And put make up on before

9:00 too! We'll work on the

hair thing tomorrow...?

Oh also, your drain isn't

working too well.  Drain-o

didn't help and I don't know 

what to do because it's gross 

standing in a foot of water

 by the end of my shower.  

Hope we can resolve this soon.

Dear body,

I feel like I've treated

you poorly the past 

19 years, and I'm sorry.

I've called you mean

things and put too much

junk food into you.

I haven't put enough 

fruits and veggies 

in you and I'm sorry

you didn't know what

exercise was til recently.

Feels good doesn't it! 

I'll keep doing it. 

You are amazing and 

you deserve more.

Dear scriptures,

I love that we've been

getting together early in the 

morning and really studying.

Focusing on Christ really makes

for a great start to my day. 

Let's keep this up!

Dear Madeline,

Your smiles melt my heart,

they really so. But I feel like

its too early to have teeth 

in those smiles. Bed time has been

hard the past few nights.

But I still love you to the moon and 

back. And no matter what --

I always will.

Dear Husband,

Remember the other day

when we went to the store

and spent less than 45 bucks

on a weeks worth of groceries?!

And that included new shampoo

and conditioner for me, too!

And remember how we didn't 

fight about money on the way

home cause you were so proud 

of me for not spending $100.

I liked that. I'm going to be

more budget conscious from

now on because it made us

so much happier. And that's 

more important than ice cream.

Dear Sun,

Thanks for shining in Provo

lately.  I took Madeline outside 

just to enjoy you the other day.

Keep shining.  

Dear life,

I've been enjoying

you more the past few

weeks? Hope you've noticed.

Love,

Sarah

mornings

I was a morning person in high school. 

And when I got to college I forgot how to wake up.

It got worse when I started a job working 6:30 pm - 1:00 am.

Now even though I don't work that job anymore

my husband still does and guess what. I

like falling asleep with my husband. So I usually 

stay wait up for him. Which makes for a lazy next morning.

{via}

But recently I've been getting up early

to go for a run.  And it feels good.

I love watching the world wake from its slumber.

I love seeing the sunrise. 

I love the cool morning breeze.

I love listening to the birds chirping in the breeze.

I love knowing I started my day off right.

happy march

Just thought you guys might like to know that it's 

{MARCH}

I'm kind of getting antsy to move... 

No really.  I can't wait to get out of Provo

and on to Spokane and then MARYLAND! 

So happy March everybody. 

Let's hope it goes by quickly!

AMEN

I didn't want it to snow...

This week has been filled with sunny 50 degree days. 

And we have loved it.  I decided that just 

skipping over winter would be a-ok with me!

I like a little snow leading up to Christmas, but after that, I'm good. 

Maybe if I was really into skiing I would appreciate it more. 

But I'm not. 

This morning I got up to feed a hungry baby.

It was still dark outside, and the blinds were mostly shut.

As I peeked between the slats I was priviledged to 

behold the most magical snowfall you ever did see. 

The only thing that would have made it more beautiful

 was if the backdrop wasn't a BYU Married student

 housing parking lot {our cars aren't much to look at}

And even though I've since woken up for the day and 

there's still a light dusting that will probably get all

 melty and turn into slush, that moment of

 beauty has made me ok with the snow.

{No picture because I couldn't find one

 that accurately demonstrated how beautiful it was.  

Only your imaginations can help you now}

On my mind

A warm bubble bath in a claw-foot tub 

deep enough to cover my knees, belly, and boobs.  

That's all.  Happy Sunday.

Monopoly

Jeremy loves Monopoly.  I'm pretty sure in my 19 years of life I've played maybe 2 times? And they were Monopoly Jr.  But I finally decided it was ridiculous that my husband and I had never played his favorite game, so I got it to surprise him :) 

{Is there something about being a man that says you can't show 

excitement when your wife spontaneously decides to give you a gift?}

Anyway... Monopoly is a long game! I'd forgotten just how long, but was reminded of why I never play haha.  We've had fun thought :)

 Sometimes it makes me laugh what a nerd my husband is lol but I love it! 

And I love him!!! 

Oh by the way, we're still not done.... And we've only put like 4 hours into it so far? 

kluvyoubye