adding to the family

meet rocky.

rocky balboa the second that is. i was bent on a mayberry name. i was hoping the redhead would go for opie, sheriff andy taylor, goober or gomer pyle. but no. he was too embarrassed to have to tell his colleagues and others the name. that is fair. my only company kept in the day are people who wouldn't raise an eyebrow at such names. so for the masculinity at this house, we kept it manly.

he was the hit of the neighborhood.

we had some pretty stringent requirements as bud "e" is awful allergic to dogs. this particular brand has a beautiful coat. havanese are incredibly mild. in fact, when we first ventured to the breeders house, we saw how incredibly timid the mom and dad were. we told her that this dog had to withstand 3 children who would love and smother the thing. she told us he was the most sweet and curious out of the bunch. we were sold. he will be about 11-15 pounds full grown. they are used as circus dogs for their great ability to do "tricks". they are smart little things and we are super excited to venture into the world of animals. there will be a scooper for poop involved, lavender puppy shampoo and a tooth brush for pups. this dog will be the cleanest canine around.

and as you can see, there has been a lot of love given, hence the toothbrush.....

in the deepest recesses of their minds...

my kids brains are full of "bobby's world" interpretations {please tell me i am not the only one who thought howie mandel was genius in his 90's cartoon}. for those of you whose childhood was incomplete and did not have the opportunity for howie mandel to entertain you in cartoon form, i will fill you in. the cartoon was based on a 4 or 5 year olds interpretation of adult phrases and how adults explain things to kids.

i would like to write down the many bobby's world interpretations that have happened as of late around here.

helen's "pee pee" being asleep. (see previous post)

bud "e"s random announcement that someone has just died in africa. obviously he has caught a commercial about how for $29.99 a month you can sponsor a child and save them from death, because every 10 seconds someone dies in africa. his announcement often comes after he has asked randomly, how many seconds have passed?

"winds of love" panicking about anytime we use water to brush our teeth. she was on patrol for a good month when we were about the business of cleansing the pearly whites, watching us, turning off the water before we could fully clean the toothbrush. i finally gave in, asking in a nice way - honey is there a problem?

yes mom, mrs. so and so at school told us that if we waste water my children and grandchildren won't have any resources when they are grown. i just don't want my children to grow up thirsty.

and the other night as helen was singing herself to sleep, she sputtered out the ever popular mormon children's song about jesus wanting her to be a sunbeam. her interpretation involved being a sun "beep".

life is never boring here.

training in action

ella is entering the world of independence with the porcelain throne. i am a big believer that you need to make potty training irresistible. i set off to the local world of wally (walmart) and bought 24 sets of princess undies, 1 bag of kiddie mix, one princess stool, 3 $10 toys for the log drop, and i could not find the little glass bottle of sanity needed to potty train a hot headed 2 year old, darn.

things are going well, 3 day 3 accidents. the log has yet to plop, but. the piddling is going great. dry thru the night and all.

yesterday as she was waking up she informed me she wasn't in need of the potty yet. i was impressed with the way she told me.

mom: elles, do you need to peepee?

ella: no mom. not yet. my peepee is still asweeping. yeah, it not awake yet.

i told you once....

but i will do it again.

she is tops, and how lucky that i get to call her sister in law.

>we took these last night at the new house. we have some great evening light thru the bay window in front and the blue upstairs made for a great background with the light from the dormer window. even my purple weeds in the back made for some amazing pictures.

click here to see more, she books incredibly fast.......

(and those amazing bridals of hers that were published? fabulous.....)

falling in love

last night s.mac and i were contemplating the last nine years. he feels old with nine years of being married. myself on the other hand, i can't imagine a day without him. nine years seems a shallow number for all we have under our belt. we were talking about how jam packed our marriage has been and at the rate we are going what the future could hold.

i dated his best friend in high school. his friend was always kind and good to me. we dated a long time, a couple of years. thru dating this guy, i had the chance to be around s.mac on and off. we were often in the same groups. i think the guy i dated in high school was really a best friend to me. i was in love with his family. they took me in as their own and i have a tender place for all of them. when the boyfriend went on an LDS mission to the orient, i attempted dating. that is hard after you have been pegged as someone elses for so long. one of our other friends got home from his LDS mission and started to pursue me. i was really clueless about it for a while, also confused. there were some weird circumstances involved that really made me forget who i was and what i wanted out of life. i guess i chalk that up to life's learning curve. i went along with the whole crazy thing, still being in love with the missionary and being stupid really. it caused a lot of grief for people, but 10 days before the wedding i was put in a situation where the fiance was really mad at me. and by my admission, he had every right to be. i had the chance, as we were working thru this argument, to picture two little kids in the back seat of the car listening to this fight. i can't say i had ever been a fighter in past relationships and this was all new territory for me. i shut down when i thought of bringing kids into this tangled web. he was mad and drove me to his house and threw his keys at me and told me to drive myself home. it was like a light shone down from heaven and i could see that i had a choice. i could choose how i was going to be loved the rest of my life and this was for the birds. for whatever reason, we were toxic together. by the end of a grueling 24 hour period, the ring was returned. he came over one time during this period. i had the chance to express my feelings of not wanting to go thru with the wedding. i told him that we could continue to date and see if things improved. luckily the stupid words came out of his mouth - it is now or never. i then let him know that we had nothing to work with and i chose never. and that meant never.

he is a great guy and has married with kids of his own. it is unfortunate that we both had to go thru that experience because we were great friends and should have stayed that way. if i had not been treated so well by the missionary i probably would have gone thru with the doomed marriage. but i just couldn't let go of how good the missionary treated me and knew i was an idiot if i went thru with something i would be so miserable in. so, the wedding was called off and i started writing to the orient again. that seemed the natural thing to me. this must be meant to be. essentially his goodness saved me from this doomed choice. we wrote back and forth and pretty soon marriage was brought up. i thought for sure it was meant to be. what other sign did i need.

after a couple of months, things started to feel different to me. i can't tell you exactly what. i just really started to feel that as good as things were for us, we weren't going to end up together. i was so confused. i wasn't dating anyone else so there didn't seem a reason for me to feel this way. i tried telling my parents how i felt and they didn't understand either. i struggled with it for a month or so and then finally was so miserable knowing this wasn't going to work out, i had to write this poor guy's second dear john letter. i was so depressed hanging on to this and as soon as the letter was out the door, this weight had been lifted and i knew it was the right thing to do. i started to get over our past and prepare for the future. i really, really considered serving an LDS mission. i had an amazing experience where i knew for sure that i could go to any part of the world and bear testimony of what i believed. that gave me a huge boost from all of the misery the last 6 months had brought me. calling off an engagement, writing a dear john twice to a fantastic guy. all of this was going on in the february, march months. s.mac got home from his mission in february and we were really good friends. we often hung out with our other good friend ryan and soon the three of us became inseparable. we had all been buddies in high school and soon it seemed our days all intertwined. we took a trip to st. george, took about 3 institute classes a week together and made the rounds on the town on the weekends. these guys were super supportive of a mission in my future and i was a couple of months away from being able to start the process.

somewhere in the mix of all of this, s.mac decided he was ready to start dating. he went on a few dates and one weekend found himself without a date, but a date was planned with friends. i didn't have plans, so i was his back up. we had fun. our hanging out became just the two of us as our buddy ryan found a constant date that he was soon smooching. we were left alone by the process of elimination. s.mac talked about a girl he was interested in and i encouraged it. somewhere in the mix of talking and hanging out, i started to see him in a different light. soon there was a tulip left on my car and then a date was set for the weekend for the 2 of us. it started out as a hang out, but as the week progressed everything felt different. by the time the date arrived, there was something in the air. it was unfamiliar and exciting both at the same time. by the end of the date, i knew this was who i was going to marry. it was one of the most profound, indescribable experiences i had had that far in my life. it was happy, right, and i couldn't wipe the grin off my face. i remember waking up the next morning with the most happiness i had ever had. i was completely happy. in my sleepless night, my heart was warmed with how much a heavenly father must love his kids to let them know who they were going to spend the rest of their lives with such an amazing feeling. all of a sudden it was all worth it, all of the criticism over calling a wedding off, all of the criticism of writing a dear john twice to this poor guy. all worth even 1 minute of feeling they way i did that night. and you know, his parents reported being woken up that night to a love struck son. they were shocked but never criticized his choice, which i really, really appreciated. they had every reason to be alarmed that their son was in love with a girl who had such a sketchy track record. thank goodness for miracles.

the dating period was 2 short weeks before he proposed. it was perfect. i threw aside lofty dreams of a grand wedding and told him and my mother that i wanted a temple dress to get married in and a ceremony with a room that could hold our dearest friend and family. no more. after what i had been thru i ruled out the need for a diamond, coordinating colors, reception, cake, or an elaborate dress. i would have been satisfied to elope to the temple and call it good. my mom thought it appropriate to make it proper. s.mac wanted a reception so my mother planned it. i worried about the things i placed value on. we booked the ogden temple as they told us they would accommodate every person we invited. i found a lovely temple dress and i picked out a plain wedding band. anything else that was present nine years ago was due to the labor of my mother. it turned out brilliant and how she did it 2 summers in a row with two toddlers in tow is beyond me. somehow that day was perfect even thou i was subjected to a reception and a fluffy wedding dress.

it is funny, after nine years i can say we have been subjected to trial and heartache. we have also been able to partake in the sweetest experiences life has to offer. in my heart i know that with anybody else, it wouldn't have been as sweet. i am a lucky girl and everyday am so grateful for a turbulent period in my life that resulted in miracles and s.mac.

getting to that point...

where moving sounds fun!

we must be coming to the end of this dramatic process they call building. the building part has been wonderful. we have had all of our dreams come true, which mainly means there are white cupboards in the kitchen and subway tile abounding in the house. but then the freakish incident with the neon green paint and juan the painter, well, some stories are better left untold. but there is a slight chance you may need sunglasses to enter the kids playroom :) my bonus room glows, sigh.

here is what we have thus far folks:

the room where the girls will dwell. complete with willy wonka closets and doors to match. and don't worry, there is some vintage wall paper coming to help with the brightness of the robins egg blue.


this is a wood burning fire place, where you burn wood. and you have to chop your neighbors trees down for this wood because they haven't bought their lot yet and they don't know nothin' about it.
this is the bay window that is quite possibly on my top ten thousand favorite things about our house. "winds of love" has plans for each window section, a holiday tree for each panel.

this is the entry that makes my heart pitter pat. sometimes the redhead and i sit and stare at it for a long time. i love the wood staircase and can see dance dresses flowing down it with the redhead and his shot gun waiting at the bottom. aye. the poor girls will have lovely entrances for dance dates.......i can't verify that the exit will be so lovely ;) the bathrooms make me want to dance. i love the subway tile, the round tile on the floor, the claw foot tub and the vanities. i just want to live in the bathrooms......
you see, i was not joking about juan and my neon paint. but, i am learning to be laid back. paint can be changed and juan, well, i did choose the color. anyway, i hope the brightness of this room will get their creative engines running. and there is a lovely toy box there under the window that will make this mother very happy. there are 4 of those midget closets in this room, it took a lot of convincing to get those mind you.
to the left you see an 8 by 8 foot island. the cabinet people let me know it was the biggest island they had ever installed and i don't think they were giving a compliment. the entire thing is functional and there is a lovely overhang for eating. there is a 6 foot book case on one side that makes my antique cake stands happy to live with me. the black leather granite slab will be here soon. oh and the floors? oh mercy. sometimes i have to pick myself up from those floors because i love them so. only 3 bedrooms will have carpet because i smooth talked s.mac into a whole house with wood. i told him we would never ever ever have to replace it, ever. it is the real deal and that made him happy.
the chimney that goes all the way up, from bottom to top makes me smile. none of this square on the back of your house for your gas box of a fireplace. no siree, we will be burning dead apple trees. and thanks to all of you who do use gas, i don't feel so bad polluting the air now.
the end, at least until more progress is made.