08.28.12

Then ...

And now ...

They grow up too fast! 

The Basement, So Far

We have lived in our townhome for five years and talked about finishing the basement from pretty much day one. We love where we live — the people, the house itself, the location and proximity to everything — and don't plan on moving for a few more years, at least. With baby no.3 on the way, we decided that now is the time to finally finish the basement.

So far, so good. The builders we're using have been plugging away at a pretty good pace and we should have it wrapped up in the next three weeks. They started June 10 or so and have already got it to the dry wall and mud/tape point. All there is left is finish work on the walls and trim, painting, carpet and then the tile and other bathroom stuff. It's really quite fun to watch our house go from 1900 usable square feet to 2600 square feet over a few weeks. Here are some progress pictures. If you haven't been to our house then these won't make much sense. Also, some of the pictures are really fuzzy because they were taken on my phone and it was dark.

Lately ..

Soaking up sun at the Riverwoods Splash Pad

It is a miracle ... I'm actually posting on our blog! Don't hold your breath for more frequent updates, though. I'm a flash-in-the-pan blogger.

Today is the first of July and I cannot believe the year is half way gone. It has been an insanely busy first half of the year and I fear the second will follow suite. Here are some highlights so far:

Todd:
• Finished his thesis for his master's degree, all 77 pages! He graduates officially in August.
• Got called to the stake high council and is in charge of missionary work. He spends a lot of time getting to know people in the neighborhood.
• Moved into a new position at work and is enjoying it.
• Continues to be an amazing husband and father.

Natalie
• Expecting baby no.3 in September! It's a boy and we can't wait!
• Teaches spinning at the Orem Fitness Center.
• Co-wrote a book that is being released in August, "Happy Homemaking: An LDS Girls Guide." (www.twohappyhomemakers.com). Working on publicity and marketing for that.
• Still freelancing although I've tapered off for the summer (and perhaps the fall, too)
• Got released from calling as gospel doctrine teacher (sniff, sniff) and called into the primary presidency. It's busy but the kids are so cute!

The kids are obsessed with our neighbor's dog and have him "over" to play whenever possible

Luke
• Graduated from preschool, headed to kindergarten in the fall. I can't believe it! Todd and I keep asking he and Millie to stop growing up but they won't listen.
• Such a happy, cheerful little guy. Very friendly and will chat up anyone who will listen ... the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. He loves to play with friends and cousins.
• Loves to listen to music, play with Transformers and monster trucks, but really he will play with anything. 
• Excited to be an older brother! He said the baby could sleep in his room and he'd come get me when he woke up. Yeah, right. Luke is an amazingly sound sleeper and I doubt he'd wake up at all!
• He is an information sponge. I am constantly astounded by the facts that he remembers and recites. From names to dinosaurs to facts about the planets to words in a book ... Luke rarely forgets!
• Is learning how to read and stays up late reading his books and listening to music.
• Luke is very thoughtful and kind. Two quick examples: Yesterday we were at Seven Peaks and at closing the lifeguards were gathering up the tubes that were scattered everywhere. Luke marched up to one of the lifeguards and said something, then started hauling tubes to the rental shack. Turns out he had asked if he could help them. :) Millie of course had to help, too. The lifeguards gave them both stickers for helping out. Another example happened a few weeks ago, when we had a stake service day. They had breakfast items on a table in the parking lot in the stake center and the kids were eating muffins. There was a ton of food, and I joked to one of the organizers that we should start handing it out to people passing by. Well, that was all of the incentive Luke needed. I turned around and he was marching off to the garage truck waiting nearby and offered a muffin and juice to the man waiting in the truck. I may have teared up a bit, I am so happy he is a thoughtful little boy.

Luke and Camille love to play with trio blocks

Camille
• Going to preschool in the fall. Just two afternoons a week, at the same preschool Luke graduated from. She absolutely loves the teacher. I've also signed her up for a dance class — she has got some serious moves. I am not a dancer, but all of Todd's sisters are very talented dancers so she must get it from his side.
• Personality galore! Millie is a firecracker, quick to yell and quick to love. She has evened out quite a bit this year, though, and is generally quite tender and loving.
• Loves playing with her Lukey brother. In fact, she usually gets quite sad when he goes to someone else's house to play ... so we usually just have friends come to our house. Her favorite toy is her pink trios. She's not really into dolls, but loves to play with her stuffed animals. Kitty Jazz is her favorite. If you know Millie you know Kitty Jazz.
• Utterly obsessed with cats and dogs, as well as animals in general. She told me: Mommy, I want a kitty, a puppy, a hamster and a pig. She has to pet every dog we see (asking first, of course) and you can instantly cheer her up by pointing out any animal in the vicinity.
• Always wants to put on makeup and paint her nails, but I wouldn't call her a girly girl. In fact, she loves to do kung-fu and carry swords and shields. Her favorite movies are the non-princess ones, like Mulan and Pocahontas.
• Still has a pink blanket (technically blanket no.2, the first one "went to heaven") that she sleeps with a occasionally totes around. 

Goggles at the Scera Pool

Neptune Park in Saratoga Springs

Millie loves to wear high heels

Christmas and Such

The loot. This is the only Christmas picture I have on my phone.

I'm not even going to try to "catch up" on the blog. But I will start with a semi-recent event: Christmas! We stayed in Utah for Christmas this year. Most of my family went to Maui for the holiday, but we didn't go since we went in October with Todd's family. That and the fact that its like 10 times more expensive to go to Hawaii at Christmastime.

Lights On at the Riverwoods. Camille looks so calm ...

...but here is her real personality shining through.

Playing Guess Who? Thanks Auntie Coco

There wasn't any snow during the Christmas break, so we stayed occupied indoors. One day was an unofficial Family Board Game day, where we played games with the kids until everyone got tired of sitting still.

 

Millie got a few cavities filled. Her favorite part was watching Ku-Panda.

 They are growing up so fast. Hooray and sigh at the same time. :)

Most days

The kitchen in our townhouse isn't very big, but it is still the heart of the home. We spend countless hours around this kitchen table: eating, talking, coloring, creating.

Luke loves to color, and Millie likes to color in between taste-testing the crayons and markers. I try to have them log some sort of table time every day, and it usually happens while I'm doing the dishes or making dinner. I love when they actually sit still —- and I'm using the term "sit" very loosely, because they are both very energetic.




Not every moment at the kitchen table is peaceful. Sippy cups are spilled, food is flung and eat-your-dinner-now threats are uttered almost daily. The table has many scratches and dents, despite the neurotic table use rules I put in place when we bought the table two years ago.

Still, when Luke and Millie create, the table is their happy place. And mine, too.

Wall of Fame

One of my sisters, Melody, her husband, Cody and their little baby Rockwell, moved to Utah from Arizona in January. While I think they are missing the sun quite a bit — it has been unusually cold here -- it has been fabulous to have them live nearby.

Side note: I moved to Utah in the fall of 2001, and for almost 10 years, my closest sibling was 10 hours away.

They are renting an apartment about 40 minutes from my house, so we try to get together at least once a week. The day before Easter, I recruited her to help me on a BIG project, in exchange for some dog-sitting.

Here is an iPhone picture of what we were working on:



Yes, we HAND-PAINTED that onto the wall. And yes, I am insane. I saw this idea and tutorial on a blog and fell in love. I've been wanting to do it for a while and finally started tracing the pattern one afternoon, whilst procrastinating more important tasks. Haha, isn't that always how it goes?

It took me about five hours to trace, and Mel and I painted for about six hours together. That is a total of 17 man hours! I'll try to take some pictures of the finished wall this week. I love it!

Measter, er Easter

At 4 years old, Luke has a fairly wide vocabulary and is generally great at pronouncing words. He still has a few words, though, that don't come out quite right, and it's quite adorable.* One of those words happens to be Easter, or, Measter.

We had a great time celebrating Easter this year. Both the kids are old enough to really get into holidays, and Luke is starting to get that holidays have a greater meaning beyond gifts and festivities. Kids + Holidays = Magic.




Some of our neighbors were hosting an Easter egg hunt on the green strip right outside our fence. Luke and Millie saw the hunt and were invited to join in. Todd said Millie followed the Easter bunny around adoringly.




On Easter Sunday, we hosted a dinner with some family members and a few neighbors. I was swamped with work and life that week, so I didn't get to the store until Saturday night around 10 p.m. I've shopped many times at that time of night, but never had so much company. Harmons was hopping! (Get the pun, ha ha). By the time I made it back to the meat department, there were only two 12-pound hams left. Since I didn't want to go to another store, I bought one, only to go home and read in a cookbook that a 4-pound ham would feed 12 people. Yikes! Suffice to say we had a lot of leftovers this week.

*Other cute words and phrases: Stider = Spider, Sun-king = Something ("I sty with my little eye, sunking that is ..."), Wegos = Legos

Catching Up

This old blog and I have some major catching up to do! I am recommitting myself to a more regular blogging schedule. I'm shooting for once a week rather than once every, oh, six months or so. I write and make deadlines for a living, so I should be able to eek out at least that much.

Hold me to it, people.

For now, here is a picture of Camille dancing in the rain. I think it is pretty amazing that kids instinctively make the best of things. We see rain on Easter and think the day is ruined, while kids see rain and think of jumping in puddles!

Sad but still super cute

This little sweetie has a broken leg. Full story and more pictures to come...

Cuties

I love this picture of the kiddos. I feel like it really fits their little personalities. Some days they give me a run for my money, but they are oh-so-cute.