the three little girls

That's what we were called in our family of older cousins. We got together last night to celebrate Kathy's birthday. She's 28 today! When I was setting the table I was thinking, "well, she must be 24 or 25 this year. But if I'm going to be 30 and she's two years younger than me and Sarah then she must be 28. That can't be right." And I had this weird I'm-getting-older moment that made me think about how it doesn't feel that long ago that the three of us were posing like this:
And now those sweet little girls have babies in their arms and Kathy is a doctor. Crazy. Sometimes life just catches me off guard. Ida was so excited that it was finally time for the cupcakes. She had to look at them for three hours before she got to eat a pink one. She was also very helpful in assisting her Aunt Kathy in unwrapping her presents and blowing out her candles.

The night concluded, as every good party should, by making snow angels in the living room. That was a good idea Ida.

mr. fix it

Today was at rough day. Ivar woke up cranky and it turns out it was contagious. We both needed a nap this afternoon and one of us was fighting this fact as hard as he could. We were walking in circles. Ivar didn’t know what he wanted. I didn’t know what he wanted. So we cried together.

Then the doorbell rang and my Uncle Carl showed up to fix our garage door. Uncle Carl was kind not to mention my blotchy face, and of course upon seeing another human to charm, Ivar turned to smiles. We followed Uncle Carl out to the garage. I don’t know if Uncle Carl had anticipated an audience to watch him install the garage door opener, but he had one. Ivar was entertained and I was relieved. I had him in the baby bjorn and after 20 minutes of watching parts sorted on the floor we had both calmed down.

Uncle Carl came to fix our garage door and for no extra charge, he fixed our whole day.

so sleepy

I am so excited about this warmer weather that has come our way. We've taken walks the past three days and I can't seem to get enough vitamin D. All this fresh air seems to be tuckering out our little man.

Happy Valentines Day!

Last week my sister posted pictures of her girls pouring over their valentines, and I was reminded of how much I love this holiday. I haven't ever really felt the need to get into the whole jewelry-fancy-dinner part of this day (though I wouldn't turn it down!), but mostly I just love the memories I have of a childhood filled with valentines days that were crafty and thoughtful.

A few favorite memories: Growing up, my mom would make an entire red supper with spaghetti, red jello, and food coloring in our milk to turn it pink. She decorated the table with a red table cloth, lit all sorts of candles and had small gifts for each of us. During my elementary years I would work so hard decorating the shoe box that would become my valentine mailbox at school. I loved either making or picking out my valentines and writing each kids name. One year I got DuckTales valentines that included stickers for me to decorate each DuckTales scene with before I gave them away. I loved those valentines! I also have good memories of the school valentines party and decorating my heart sugar cookie with pink frosting and sprinkles.

So after I saw Annika's post I decided it is time for me to take over these traditions for my own family. Naturally I enlisted my son and we got to work making his first valentines. I had wanted to make 20 valentines, but at 13 my little helper had enough and we had to cut 7 recipients from the list! So, if you think you should have gotten a valentine from Ivar, please count this post as good enough. I'm not into forced crafting with kids...

I hope you're Valentine's day is filled with love and a frosted sugar cookie.

learning how to share

Ivar gets his turn during the day. Toonces gets to enjoy the play gym at night.

smash journal

My friend Rene told me about this video on stacyjulian's blog. It's a new product, and I would imagine the person who thought of this smash journal and pen/glue stick is going to make a lot of money. It's not really that complicated or revolutionary of a product, but it seems so novel in this video! And so fun.

Enjoy. It got my creative juices flowing today.

squeeky clean

Ivar loves to take baths as much as I do. Though he is more fond of sucking wet towels while taking his baths than I am. I like bath time at our house because it is such a family affair. Bath time means all three of us are huddled closely together at the end of the day. And I think it will stay that way for a while because I am afraid to give Ivar a bath without Rory nearby to help with the wet-baby-into-dry-towel transfer. That's a tricky, wiggly, slippery maneuver. So until I find my third and forth arms, each night around 7 you can find the three of us splashing together in our kitchen sink.

part of this complete breakfast

I've got a recipe to share with you this morning. It's my grandma's oatmeal. She has completely changed the way I look at oatmeal and now I eat it every single morning. For real. I haven't missed a morning since the bowl she made for me in Mesa.

It's because this isn't really oatmeal. It's like hot granola cereal when she's done with it, and it is so divine. And it keeps me full easily until lunchtime.

Grandma's Oatmeal: (single serving)
Place 3/4 cup water, a few dried cherries, a small handful of raisins,
and a dash of salt in a sauce pan and bring to boil.

In the meantime crumble a few black walnuts in the bottom of the
bowl you'll eat your oatmeal in. Cut 6-7 grapes in half. Add those to the bowl.

Stir in 1/3 cup quick oats to the boiling water. Turn down heat
and stir occasionally until the water is absorbed.

Spoon oatmeal onto walnuts and grapes.
Dab on some butter and sprinkle on brown sugar.

THIS IS DELICIOUS. I use Steel Cut Oats because I once heard dr. oz say they're really good for you. And I don't really use that much butter or brown sugar. There is so much other stuff going on in this oatmeal that these two aren't quite as necessary as they are in a typical bowl of oatmeal.

The grapes are crazy good. You know how oatmeal usually sort of coats your mouth with mush? The grapes sort of cut through that because they're so juicy. I would have never thought of putting grapes in oatmeal, but Grandma did and now we know.

So enjoy. It's a fantastic, cozy way to enjoy a hot breakfast in the cold of winter.

handmade baby

My friend from high school, Crystal, made this hat for Ivar. I adore it. It's so sweet and I love that it has ear flaps. Ivar loves it too. He can grab things now and is a fan of putting whatever he was able to grasp into his mouth, so the strings on this hat keep him really busy.

My sister-in-law, Sara, made these little slippers for him. They are so stinking cute and STAY ON HIS FEET! A serious bonus in baby footwear.

I am inspired. I want to learn how to crochet. And if that doesn't happen for a while, I want to get crafty again. It's been a long, long time and I miss making stuff. Maybe this weekend...

wolf blitzer and troy groves

My brother-in-law was on CNN last night on a few different shows. He and Sara and the band were stranded in Chicago during the blizzard...

great, great grandsons

This is pretty cool. These two little boys have the same great, great grandparents. It makes them third cousins on Rory's side. I wish I had someway to show this in a family tree, because I finally just wrapped my visual head around it, but I think it is so amazing to think that four generations later, these little boys will grow up knowing each other as family. It reminds me of Sara's song, "to my great, great, great grandson, live in peace." It's amazing how the heritage of one couple four generations ago is still felt so strongly today.

I like this picture. I think it looks like Henry is saying, "tell me again how we're related?"

And the mama's. Marlene's cousin Debbie had us over for a new baby brunch. It was a fantastic morning with two new moms so happy to be out of the house for the morning! Thanks Debbie for having us over. I wish I had a picture of all of us!

how he loves us

On Friday night I started singing to Ivar as we lay on the bed together, “He loves us, oh how he loves us…” and as I sang this refrain over and over again Ivar began to join in. He was singing the sweetest coos, looking right at me and joining in my song. We sang for a long, long time, his sounds sweet and pure.

His song was indescribably beautiful to me. I could have lived in that moment forever. I sang my lyric about how much God loves us, and I had this powerful moment of understanding why we sing praises to our God. Because in that moment I was so pleased and delighted in the song of my son and I realized that God shares this delight when we offer our sweet songs of praise to him.

It made me want to worship.

good sports

Mara, age 5, was very crafty the whole time we were in Mesa. She made lots of Valentines and then decided to make Valentine headbands for everyone to wear in a valentines parade we were planning. Unfortunately the parade never happened, but two headbands were completed...Ivar's and Svea's. They were kind enough to pause from their busy schedules for a photo shoot.

my thrifty dad

When my parents purchased their place in Mesa it came fully furnished and move-in-ready. Including the patio furniture. Now the patio furniture works, but could use some love. The arm rests on these things are brittle from the Arizona sun, and most are cracked apart with lots of sharp edges. After my niece Sonna scraped her leg really badly on a cracked arm rest a case was made for new patio chairs. My mom was making the case and as she asked my dad to go and purchase new chairs, part of my arm rest crumbled under the weight of my elbow.

But by suppertime, Dad had found his thrifty fix. He bought matching towels at the dollar store and a ream of electrical tape and beamed as he told us he thought the chairs at least have another year in them. Maybe more.

And you know, they were comfy. Felt like a terrycloth towel wrapped in electrical tape, but they were comfy. And I have to believe there are no other patio chairs in the universe quite like the ones we enjoyed as we picnicked the rest of the week.

good morning great grandma

Rory, Ivar and I stayed at my Grandma's place while we were in Mesa. It's just two blocks from my parents so we weren't there a whole lot, but every morning after I fed Ivar, I'd take him up to his Great Grandma and lay him on the couch. And there they would smile and laugh at each other and start their day off in the happiest of moods.

Ivar is a smiley baby. He is so responsive lately and loves when others give him some good, solid eye contact with happy faces. He rewards others for taking notice of him and will smile and make sweet sounds to keep their attention. He's quite the sweetheart, if I do say so myself.