More of the cute one

just wanna smoosh those cheeks all day. even with the drool that's always present. love. love. love.

It was lovely

Christmas that is. So lovely I decided to not worry about too many pictures. so we don't really even have some of Christmas morning. meh. still think it was an alright idea.

We did manage to gift our eldest son with a sa-weeeet play kitchen. A year in the making. And it came together swimmingly (thanks to kolt, builder extraordinaire.)




Hope yours was nice as well. 2012 will be an interesting year I can feel it. Its always sort of weird getting past Christmas and feeling that space that exists between the holidays and the next year. But hopefully it will give us all some time to reflect and plan ahead (although perhaps not at the same time, might blow yo' mind.)




Then there's this cutie face McGee. Loves to eat the fists these days. Sometimes an occasional thumb until he digs the roof of his mouth. ouchie. But he forgives his rogue hands pretty easily and they always come back for more. Good times in 3-month-old town. Good times.

it was my birthday and such

first things first, finished the last christmas sewing project:





yeah. i'd say they were pretty pimp. (*snicker, snicker, snicker*) They're for Kolt's younger brother and he doesn't read my blog so don't tell, k? He actually knows (sorta) that I was making these for him. You see, our convo went like this:

me: "Clay, what do you want for christmas?"
Clay: "Uhhh, I dunno."
me: "Well, if you don't say what you want you're going to get scrabble pillows that spell out PIMP."
Clay: "Ok."

There you have it.
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It was my birthday the other day. It was Kolt's birthday that same day too but since it's my blog I'm going to talk about my birthday.

It was fun. We got massages in the morning (we totally regretted this the next day when all our muscles were in total spaz-tastic shape. ouchie) and then went to our favorite BBQ place Pat's. So. Good.  And then we finished up Christmas shopping for the kids. I made two cakes, one for me and one for kolt the next day. Both were delish. Both may have something to do with the early onset of Diabetes for us. Sugar is sort of in high gear around here. Besides two cakes, we have homemade toffee (my parents give this out every year), homemade twix bars, homemade caramel clusters,  and sugar cookies. We'be been trying to pawn them off on unsuspecting neighbors and such so hopefully we might have room for some christmas cookies in the future. and then we're all going on a sugar detox come jan 1st. (not really but we probably should.)
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And now my thoughts turn to painting. I almost got out my watercolors today but then I had to finish the PIMP pillows. so perhaps tomorrow. we'll see. I feel the need to paint my grandmother a painting for her birthday since she feels like everyone forgets her birthday. (hi grandma! no promises but I really do want to paint ya something.)  Everyone should call her and say happy birthday to her on the 29th. she'd love that.

gray meets santa

and snoozes through the whole thing. I don't blame him though. do you see this santa's "beard"? uhhhhh, lets try for an upgrade next year.

supporting the peeps

my friend jenna likes to take photos of stuff. lately, it's temples. she's selling prints of her work so you should check them out! They're different than the usual temple pictures which is nice. Gotta shake things up a bit, eh?  Plus she has plans for more temples. yay for creative people!

a morning craft

this is how our day started. and we haven't achieved anything since. But what a lovely morning craft. Got the idea from here via pintrest.  you can follow me if you wanna.

a two-and-a-half year old's prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,

  Thank you for this day. Thank you I could play soccer. And go to the bank to get a sucker. And go trick-or-treating. Bless me I can play toys on my bed. And Goodbye.

editor's note: we haven't been to the bank in probably a month. Not sure where that one came from (but I guess the theme was consistent with the whole trick-or-treating thing.)

just gray

So its been a few days. I thought I'd post a bit about our newest guy.

this kid loves his brother its amazing. the best time is in the tub.

Gray is doing great. He's almost doubled his birth weight and I'm pretty stoked to get him on some solids this next month. He eats pretty much constantly in the evenings now. Des never "cluster fed" but Gray sure does.

Its been fun to see his personality more and more and one things for sure: he loves his big brother. He watches him and smiles at him and they get along pretty swell. (for now. the day Gray tries to take Des' toy will be a day we'll all remember.) He's also pretty emotional which is funny to see. Des was way different. Gray will get upset and then get REALLY upset in like 20 seconds. I hate to say it but he's totally like me. And he's a super wimp when it comes to discomfort too. again, just like me. He got his shots this past dr's appointment and WAILED for 20 minutes after, no joke. Des cried at his first shots for about 30 seconds and then was fine.

Gray is a smiling fool. and he has the best conversations with us. He rolls over and bats at toys. I think he discovered his feet today (not so much that they're attached to him but mostly that they're STILL there from the last time he stared them down. woh.)

And he's not sleeping through the night yet. but that's ok, we're sort of used to the every other hour wake up between Des and Gray. so we're dealing. They both have colds this past week so they're not too comfortable sleeping.

So that's Gray. I'll try to think of something exciting to post about later.

2012

So you know that whole thing about the Mayan calendar predicting the end of the world in Dec 2012? Well, my little brother Mike is down in Paraguay serving a LDS mission and he ran into a true-blue Mayan last week. They asked about the whole Mayan calendar and end of times thing and you know what that Mayan told him? That the people died who were making the calendar and no one else knew how to make any more so they just stopped. hahaha I want to email the discovery channel and tell them the gig is up. and next time they should check with the Mayans. too funny.

merry christmas to gray

and a preview of a new business adventure for next year...

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm pretty stoked for tomorrow! Got the pies made (a last minute decision. I will now make pumpkin cheesecake next week so as to not feel obligated to eat the whole thing with the hubs. because the parents will be here. and they like cheesecake too.)

and the picture is sorta dark but whatever. didn't have much light left.  pecan and sweet potato pie. I've been on a southern kick lately. I do declare.

Also made the cranberry sauce. Destry actually climbed up on the counter (with his bare bottom, no less--visual anyone?) to help himself to more tastes with his spoon. Sometimes this kid rocks my world. today was that day as I watched him shove spoonfuls of cranberry sauce in his fat little mouth. Makes momma proud.  :D

One last thing, if you know me on facebook you'll be happy to hear Des and I are on better terms even before he loved my cranberry sauce. I put all the movies away and he's played outside for two days straight. magical. I haven't had to threaten his life in at least 48 hours. I call that success.

yeah yeah

i've been slacking. well, with this blog anyway. but i've been busy working on christmas gifts and a possible new business venture (think babywindsor plus more!) so my free time is pretty much booked solid for the next 14 years or so. just kidding. but it has made blogging kinda less important *gasp!*

I've really wanted to start painting again too. which is pretty much the icing on the "i barely have time to shower somedays but instead i try to do 100 other things" dilemma. But i've been watching our skies for inspiration and they've been pretty good to me. So someday I might produce something fantastic...

photo by me

today

Today I'm grateful for my family. for my sweet boys. for my awesome husband. we had such a nice day, full of family and fun. we even managed to read a few books to Des with his full attention, then finished the night with a rousing game of "dr". Kolt was the patient. he received many shots and kisses to bring him back to life.

Gray did great during the blessing (we were all afraid he would squiggle too much) but he was pretty chill. And Des managed to go potty "all by himself" as he reported walking back into the chapel without his pants or undies on. Luckily, that was before church started--when the hustle and bustle was in full effect and he managed to slip away for five minutes before i realized he was gone. he was a pretty hilarious door greeter that way. many people in the ward had a good laugh on the way in. But we were all pretty dang impressed that he made it all the way to the men's room without an accident (yes he used the men's room.) and that he found a short potty to climb up on. and that he brought all his clothing back with him. good times. 

we even managed a few pictures. only barely though...we were pretty pooped by the time we remembered we needed to.

Thank you Rachel for snapping a few for us. and for getting des to smile because he's pretty stinking cute when he turns it on.

Thanks to all the family that were able to come. Its always nice to be surrounded by loved ones. Makes me look forward to Thanksgiving (wherever it may be.) because this year I'm trying to ponder on things I'm grateful for and its pretty overwhelming with all the blessings I have. and numero-uno is my family.

tub time

we *heart* tub time

our halloween

le babe was a "nemo fish" as des put it. His costume was pretty easy to make

so naturally Des was Bruce the Shark, from Nemo, a bit harder to make

the night started out with tears and refusing to wear his costume, but ended up like this

happy halloween!

Happy Halloween

fall

photo by me.

new discovery

mom, I really don't enjoy this tummy time stuff.

woh, what just happened?

Heeeey, I can roll over?! Sweet! (While mom is saying, OH-NO-YOU-DIDN'T-JUST-ROLL-OVER?!!)

We'll just chalk this one up to gravity. Oh man. pleaaase be gravity. We're only a month and a half into this, kid.

found this gem

we'll call it "a boy and his horse...or pony"

Gray's blessing

next time I'll shoot more square to the frame

We'll be blessing Gray Sunday, November 6th at 11:00 am during church. Anyone who wants to attend is welcome.We'll do the whole sacrament then sandwiches thing at our house.  Let us know if you plan on coming so we can have enough deliciousness to go around.  And if you need directions, let me know and I'll email you or have kolt text you the address (its the red church on 100 east just up from our house)  :D

sometimes I cheat and schedule my posts

so now it looks like i'm all on top of things. I assure you, I am not. just ask my bathroom. Although hopefully by the time you read this I'll have bit the bullet and started chipping away at the dirt and grime accumulated on my tub. Two year olds can be really, really dirty sometimes. (we did try this fun tub time activity the other night and it really helped with the dirt issue)

and on that note, I went and took some pictures out in the yard the other day. here's one of my favorites:




I really like these orange berry covered bushes but they have some fantastic thorns so unless I need a security boarder in my future home, I'll probably never have them.

smiles all around

Gray started to smile at us for realz, yo! and yesterday morning he started sorta coo-ing at my mom which was fun. we both decided its all designed that way--to hit the month-and-a-half mark and then they start to be even more cute. because if they didn't we'd never make it through the sleep deprivation. so with blurry eyes we talked and coo-ed our way through the morning.

and in Gray's defense, he is started to sleep 3 hours at night. the problems start when he decides he wants to wake up at three, then four, then five, and possibly six but i can't even remember my own name at that point so its hard to say.  Its a good thing they stick the warning of " do not tie the pacifier around your baby's head" on the back of the box because I might be tempted.

finished with the wedding

My cousin got married almost two weeks ago. And I finished the wedding photo edits yesterday.

photo by kolt

Hay there.

sometimes I write hay instead of hey. i'm pretty sure it doesn't make a difference since hey is a mostly-made-up word. Anywhoo (again with the made-up-words), its been quite the week.

i may have thrown a wedding for my cousin. which turned out fabulous (read: faaaaaabulous!) by the way. Way nicer than i had anticipated. Someday i'll share photos when my computer is once again functioning. But it pretty much killed me. I've only just sort of recovered. That was saturday. But for two nights the baby's slept for a 4 hour period. and i've been going to bed around 8 (much to my hubby's dismay.)  we may live to see another weekend. perhaps.

But that's just what's been going on. seems like my days have turned into the most painful treasure hunt for sleep ever. Des was a superbaby. He slept all the time and most of the night too.  Gray is normal. its been rough for me. but we're figuring it out.  mostly he likes to sleep on his tummy. he's sleeping on me right now and suuuuuuuuuper happy. so that's nice. just don't tell the wic peeps. they're crazy. fo' shizzle.

where was I going with this? I dunno. mostly we're still here and thinking about having a normal sort of existence someday. and the rest is my computer is lame and the hubs likes to "fix" it himself so I have to wait for when the parts and the time to fix it appear. so we'll plan on getting back to this blog soon. I think I'll go get stuff to make halloween costumes this week in the mean-time. the plan: des a shark and gray a little guppy. we'll see.

this blog post is everywhere. i blame it on the sleep deprivation.

I was going to send out birth announcements

but then for some reason my program that i made the announcements on went crazy and made the photo not cute. And then I remembered I'm really tired. sooooo yeah. Prob not going to get around to it.  (besides the hubs "redid" the computer and didn't stick that program back on)

So here ya go:

Gray Eastin Davies

Born Sept. 8, 2011
6 Lbs. 15 oz. 

19" long

Man, that was way easier.

he smiles when he sleeps

never mind his terrible baby acne...

here's the little guy

we need more of this

a reminder

two year olds cannot be considered terrorists....

because my grandma gave me crap

so things are going swell with the new one. After we figured out that breastfeeding was making him gruuuuumpy and unhappy (think gassy, fussy, screamy, awful) we switched to formula. Now someone's hinting at sleeping for three hours (three! blessed day!) in a row. 

Gray is growing like a weed so I guess its all working out. He grew 3/4 of an inch in height and almost a pound at his two week appointment. So that was fun.

Des is still being nice to his little brother, not so much to any adult in the same room. Hopefully we can work through this before the gypsy's come into town and we're tempted to sign him up for an internship. This evening he had his first real taste of consequences. Yup, he lost his toys on his bed before bedtime. All of them. He was quite unhappy about the prospect of going to sleep without the possibility of cars.

Somewhere we have some more photos of our children but Kolt re-did the computer yet again...so that will have to wait for another day.

stay tuned, friends. we'll be back to normal in at least a year or so. I think by then my vision will have returned to mostly normal and when someone asks me how old my baby is I can think clearly enough to give them a coherent answer.

until then,

your cross-eyed I'm so tired I can't see or think straight friend Laura

p.s. and yes, my grandma really gave me crap for not posting as often as I used to. :D I still love you, grandma!

and then there were four

Baby Gray joined our family last week! Just under 7 lbs and 19" long...a pound and a half smaller than his older brother was and an inch taller too. Everything about his delivery went smoothly. I even got to show up at the hospital without having regular contractions and they let me stay.  :D  It was pretty sweet.

and des is handling the new addition surprisingly well

six years is totally legit

It was our anniversary yesterday. We've had six years together now and its a little nuts to look back and see the progress. I'm sure at sixty years (can we make it that far?? I'd be 86...) the progress will be even more apparent. But I'm glad with what we have now. Both Kolt and I have grown up a few years. Learned a few tricks. Gained a few kids (although the one is still cooped up inside me and kicking my organs.) 

I think about my cousin who's about to tie the knot and what advice I'd give her. I came up with this:  marriage is work. Hard work. I didn't expect all the times I had to consciously decide to be nice or forgive or not walk out the door (only a few of those so far...) But through the work and tears emerged this beautiful thing. It even still has its ugly moments but now I know they are there to contrast all the good we share. They keep it real and don't last as long as they used to.

I smile as I think about our date yesterday. Kolt apologized about the fact that it didn't go as he planned but I loved it. He took me to a gallery in SLC and it was so much fun walking around and talking about the art and what we'd bring home if we had a spare 20K in our wallet. And then we had some time and a hungry prego lady so we found the Tulie Bakery and shared a tart and some of their morning buns. And then we walked around Trolly Square until I was about passing out from exhaustion (no nap that day for me) so we ended up at a movie and then headed home.  It was perfect and simple. and I loved it.

We're still here

I'm sort of walking the line between crazy pre-baby nesting and super tiredness these days. Which usually means i'm a maniac in the morning, doing/going/cleaning/playing and then crashing at about noon. We're down to the final countdown. Only two weeks left! And we have yet to decide on a name. Remember that super secret version we had? yeaaaaaaah. Someone needs to tell Kolt I get to decide so he can stop veto-ing everything awesome. *sigh*

On a brighter note, we've been helping my cousin Kellie plan her wedding. We took some engagements a few weeks back. I figured I could share a few since I haven't anything else to show you. :D

All were taken by Kolt.

I'm maaaarried! (again?!)

Des requested a ring this morning. You see, he was leaving to get married in the Cozie Coupe. So I told him I'd make him a wedding ring if he married me and only me.

Unfortunately he was unwilling to model his new wedding ring for a decent photo. But its pretty sweet. Chevron Style friendship ring. 

He has since requested a bracelet to match. That will have to wait until after church.

when des' dreams come true

scored this "envy of the neighborhood" at DI today. sa-weet.

Woh nelly

Less than one month to go, folks.

This was me last weekend. Photoshoot in SLC for my cousin's engagments. It was sunny. hens the squint...

what I see every day. belly and toes.

And now, number 3. The Larch. The Larch.

actually it's not a larch but if you don't know where that lines from you missed out on some seriously good British comedy. Photo by Kolt

 

a bit of zen for your morning

photo by kolt

not a bag

But a bug

photo by me

and a boy