Iverson Post

Let's get old together!

2012-01-25T09:02:00.004-07:00

January is a great postlude to Christmas, with two birthdays, Sara's and mine. We filled the downstairs with balloons and unwrapped presents first thing in the morning. So fun!
I made her a little bunny cake, since she loves bunnies so much.
She's lucky to have TWO sets of gparents and two aunties that like to spoil her. It was a great day!My birthday is almost a week after Sara's. Aaron and I made an awesome furry coconut cake (thanks, Jessie for the recipe!)--by the way, have you ever heard of sweetened cream of coconut? I could eat that stuff with a spoon!
We had some friends over to share it with and Aaron took me on a hot date the next day!
The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra! Oh, it was such a wonderful concert, too! A soprano named Christine Brewer sang some Wagner, and she was amazing.
We also got some Izzy's ice cream, which is, at the risk of sounding melodramatic, the BEST ice cream I've ever had. I got a "dizzy izzy", a cup with five small izzy scoops of all different flavors. Cantaloupe ice cream? Weird, right? Nope, totally awesome.
Thanks to everyone, and especially to the Hotness for an awesome day!

Christmas Day

2012-01-23T11:10:00.002-07:00

So, Merry Christmas!!! Just thinking about it makes me excited! We still have some of our decorations up. I suppose they'll come down eventually. I won't bore you with details, but there were a few big moments:
First, the bike! Little did I know that the present under the tree from Aaron to me was a DECOY. What he really got me was a BIKE. And he woke up in the middle of the night to bring it in from the garage. THAT was a surprise! SO AWESOME!!!
Next up: the BALL...
Michael and Julia had our names this year. They sent us two boxes. One had these adorable hats that Julia made (and some other awesome things):

And then there was this square box that we weren't supposed to open, 'cause we would know just what it was if we did (even though it was wrapped). So, Christmas morning we open it up, unwrap it, and it's a basketball. I thought, 'cool.' It was a really nice ball, but I was a little confused; Aaron doesn't play basketball that often.
Haha! Then he turned it around! Jimmer Ball!!!! Yes, it's the real deal! Thanks you guys! I wish we could have gotten the reaction on video, 'cause it was priceless. It's going to go up in the office to inspire more diligent studying (;
There were lots of other great moments. And we got royally spoiled, so thanks everybody. Christmas is sooo fun with kids. Seriously, just the best!
342 Days until Christmas next year! (;

Christmas Eve

2012-01-18T10:13:00.000-07:00

I want to make record of this year's Christmas Eve. This is the first time we've ever spent it with friends instead of family. I thought I'd feel kind of weird about it, but it was so great! I absolutely loved it, and so did the kids.
Our good friend, Amy R. and her family, played host to us, two other families and the missionaries. Lots of food, soup, sandwiches, bread, and this awesome slush/punch that Amy made:

This is Amy P., a dear friend and also Nora's primary teacher, making guac. She is an angel, and so fun/funny.
Our first dress-up nativity reenactment . Nora was Mary. And she was gorgeous (;
Earlier in the day we opened these presents from Erika (they were in our advent calendar):

And after the party at Amy's we came home and talked to Grandma and Grandpa.

Then for the not-so all-nighter. We actually wrapped the presents the night before and had most everything done. Nora wrote this on one of her Dad's presents:
Seriously so impressed!
Little did I know that when we went to bed, Aaron had his alarm set for 3 am or something to get up and stealthily put out more presents that I was not aware of. Made for an AWESOME and exciting Christmas! More posts to come!

The Great Tree Hunt

2012-01-08T17:57:00.001-07:00

We got a real live tree for Christmas this year, and it took up the entire living room, almost. We LOVED it. SO sad taking it down. We went to a place about 45 min. away, a tree farm with horse rides and lots of animals and a hay ride with a freaky guy dressed up as the grinch. The variety of tree species was great. They even had artificially colored trees (aka spray painted--not kidding!). We went with the good old balsam fir--nice soft needles. And no spray paint--Aaron was morally opposed.
Sara, again with the bunnies, 'cept this time she got to HOLD THEM!!! Wow, this girl loves bunnies! So stinking adorable.
Nora marched right up to Santa without any help and promptly told him that she wanted a pink robot for Christmas (first I'd ever heard of it). I hope he didn't assure her that she'd get one, because she didn't. :( She got plenty of other things, though.
We met our good friends Thane and Melissa and co. there. They are so great. That's Lydia, there, losing it over the freaky Grinch man! Haha!
Can't beat a pony ride! The other day I asked Nora what she wanted for next Christmas and she said: A birthday and TEN HORSES! I guess we'll have to go back next year!

Best Moments of 2011

2012-01-02T13:21:00.000-07:00

It's hard to remember *moments* from a year back. Especially when you're struggling to remember what you did yesterday. But I'm sure that if I could make a summation of the good things, the best things from last year, I would have a better perspective of how good my life is. So here goes: the BEST moments from 2011 (so far as I can remember) are:

(in no particular order)...
1.Giving birth to baby Aaron. Awful labor, but best delivery. I got to hold him right out of the womb, before any washing or anything. And then he promptly peed on me. The hospital and staff were on a different level than the experiences I had in Utah. Really, really great.
2. Doll in a bag, and all the funny things we witnessed while the kids were asleep. When Aaron and I walked into the girls' room and Nora had STUFFED her whole Jessie doll into a little ziplock bag and tucked her under her arm. She laid there, sweetly asleep, with this wacko, contorted, shrink-wrapped doll. We had tears, we were laughing so hard. It's one of the best times of the day, to walk in and kiss their little faces and laugh at what strange things they've been doing since we closed the door.
3. The Christmas sheets. I have, for two years, been coveting the Christmas flannel sheets that come out at Target during the holidays. In November this year, Aaron surprised me with them, and I was absolutely giddy. Best present ever.
4. Sara's first sentence. Sara was a little delayed in her speech this year, and so we enrolled her in a program through the school system out here. It didn't take much help before she was speaking quite a lot, and it has completely changed her. She's confident and happy, and she participates with us and with other children so much better now. I almost cried when, after so many months of almost no talking at all, she said: "Chloe. didn't. eatit. all." So great!
5. Anniversary date. Honestly, a major highlight of the year. Aaron and I don't get a whole lot of time together. And this seems like the only occasion I can remember from this year when I wasn't being pulled in five different directions and feeling really stressed out with three little ones vying for my attention. We just took a nice, slow walk all evening. No big plans, no schedule. Just wandering and being together. Best night ever.
6. Holding Ollie. My sister, Tris, had a little boy not long after I had Ari. We spent some time with them this summer and I got to hold him and talk to him and look in his eyes, and it was precious time. It kills me that we live so far away!
7. This one was pretty AWESOME:
8. Fourth of July at Gma and Gpa Fugate's, and all of vacation out there. There's something about the 4th there in Poky. The big green lawn, all the cars and people all around, the smell of firework smoke and of the BBQ chicken on the grill. Popsicles, two beautiful little girls and a brand-new, snuggly little boy. And there's something about just taking that hour while you sit and watch, to think about our country and to remember your own inner patriot. The fireworks are a really great show, much bigger and better than you'd expect of a small Idaho town like that. And, for my parents, you don't even have to leave home to see it all. It was a good time. My vote: The 4th in Poky every year!
9. When I asked Nora who her best friend was, and she said, "Sara." She doesn't say that anymore, but it sure lit up my heart when she did.
10. Sara's first steps.
11. Being in the temple at Heather and Trevor's wedding, surrounded by family, and being with Grampa Monk.
12. All those times when Aaron and I just stayed up and talked. That's the best.
13. Singing with our Christmas quartet at that moment when the sound finally came together. I could do that ten times more often than I do, if only I wasn't in charge. Singing is the best kind of sociability. It would be good for my soul to have more of these kind of experiences.
14. Conquering that horribly freaky ride at the MN State Fair, being there to watch Sam complete the Spudman triathalon, all those fleeting moments when the kitchen floor is spotless, putting up the Christmas tree and our Christmas elf calendar, watching Nora as she learns to share and be a good friend, listening to her constant stream of consciousness and discovering who she is, discovering Sara's personality little by little too, being with Tris at their beautiful house, New Years Eve at the Thomases', reading through the Iverson Christmas memories that Erika compiled, finding out that cousin Erica and Andrew were pregnant!!! (and Natalie too!), every little random text or phone call or message from a far away friend, finding Aaron's big surprise gift to me at the top of the stairs on Christmas morning--a bike!, and getting out to ride it (and finding a new thing that our family can do all together), staying up with Aaron, putting on a show and working on that silly craft project together...

I could go on. Isn't that great? On, and on, and on. If we try really hard, I think we can have more moments like these this year. I think it does take work though, and sometimes planning. Time to make a list, right? And you have to document it in order for it to exist for very long. Especially for your kids. Thank goodness for blogging, or I wouldn't remember half of it!

And I'm noticing that so many of the best moments are all about the people in my/our life. So thanks for making it such a rich life for us. You really have!

Happy New Year!

Giant Silver Bean and the Eye of Sauron: the best of Chicago

2011-12-28T11:54:00.000-07:00

My brother in law, Sam, met us in Chicago on a work trip last week. We LOVE him, and we hadn't seen him in a while, nor had we seen Chicago, so it was a win-win! We mostly just walked around and drove around. It was seriously cold!
That giant silver bean you've heard about? It's actually really cool. It cost the city millions of dollars, but maybe it was actually worth it, huh? At least, that's what the artist in me thinks.

Grungy, dirty, and really interesting. Chicago definitely has a character that is all its own.
Had to stop by the Frank Lloyd Wright district...
This is his home and studio...
And did you know that Chicago was built over the ancient city of Mordor? And the that the black tower still stands? Now they use it as the John Hancock Observatory.
You can still see where the Eye of Sauron used to be:
It all makes sense, doesn't it? With the whole mafia thing and all?

Sam is such a wonderful, wonderful guy. It was so good to see him. Thanks for sharing some time with us, Sam!

Sara.

2011-12-10T12:40:00.000-07:00

I've had this post in the cache for months now, waiting for some newer pics to add before posting. But our camera is in Rochester and so are the pictures. So I'm posting anyway.
Sara is our middle child. Someone once said to me, "Poor Sara. Being a middle child isn't easy." But I've always thought that Nora had the difficult job. Sara escapes all our big mistakes. No hovering helicopter parents. But it's true that she doesn't get the one-on-one that Nora does.

Sara is a quiet, careful learner. She doesn't speak up until she's sure she's got the word. But now that she's talking I'm constantly surprised by what she's been learning in the meantime. She knows and understands the quantity of 2. She knows some of her colors. She remembers things from quite a while ago and will recall them to me.

She's a little shy, but she knows how to put her dukes up. I asked her today: "What do we do when someone takes our toy away?" She said: "Hit." I laughed so hard I could hardly stop! Her former nursery leader, a hockey player named Mitch, told us a story once, how a boy in nursery (I think it was all boys and Sara at that point) took her toy away. She gave her shrill, shrieking "MINE!!!" and the boy just stood there for a second, then handed the toy over without a word.
This used to be her signature caveman stance, with her legs all pushed up flat against her.
She loves to cuddle and hug and wrestle. She LOVES her baby brother and is such a little momma. She's always got her doll close by, wrapped in a blanket. But her favorite thing in the whole world is her dad.
Sweet, tiny, Sara. Such a lovely and intriguing little girl. And so easy, comparatively speaking. She sleeps when it's time to sleep. She's an excellent eater. And she knows how to stay busy on her own. And her lion growl is the best I've heard anywhere. Everybody needs a little Sara, I think. (:

Thoroughly Modern Nora

2011-11-26T15:51:00.000-07:00

I know that Nora has gotten way more blogtime than the other children. But she probably is the most interesting of all of them. Part of that is because she is older. But part of it is because she's Nora, and if you didn't know, that says a lot.
She loves finding and using new words. Today, in the back of the car, she practiced various ways to use the word "refuse": 'she refused to go to bed!'. You get the idea.

Some of her top lines as of late:

Nora: Mom, you're a woman.
Me: Yes, I'm a woman and you're a girl.
Nora: And Dad is Harry Potter!

Nora: Watch out for the frogs! They speak Spanish!

Me: Why is that chair knocked over?
Nora: Oh, that's because I did that! (I was a monster when I did that.)

Nora, quoting herself: 'I need my sticker and my treat!' she scolded.

She's creative with dolls and containers, as has been demonstrated in other posts...
Tonight she had a minor potty training incident in bed and I found her cleaning up after herself with a pile of wipes. Love that girl.
She's emotionally complicated, but very, very sweet....
DANGEROUS with scissors...(or glue, or markers, or crayons, or chapstick, or lotion, or desitin, or sweetened condensed milk...)

And always good for a story. I forget what this one was about, but as you can tell, it was very dramatic and sometimes funny...

That's our Nora. Very pink. Very imaginitive. And let it be known, we totally love her. Today and always.

The Boy

2011-11-04T19:43:00.000-06:00

Oh, man....I love this kiddo so much I can hardly stand it. I just want to SQUEEZE him and and eat his cheeks! He is SO GREAT!!! He's getting chubby now, eating a lot, doing little finger foods sometimes. AND he just started crawling the other day. I thought I was excited for that to happen, but...well, it just makes things a little complicated. It is fun though. He's so FAST!

This is the look that says: look at me. You know you want to squish me. Just do it.

Yep. Love him.

Halloween

2011-10-31T07:56:00.001-06:00

Happy Halloween! We already did our Halloween at the ward trunk or treat a couple of weekends ago (or last weekend? I don't remember...), so here are our pics from our spooky holiday:
Nora wanted to be a butterfly, so both she and Sara got to be butterflies. Look at how old she looks in this picture! I got a little teary looking at it! Holy mackerel!

I had a couple of dresses that were falling apart, so I cut them up, made them kid-sized, and glued the scraps onto some cardboard wings. Aaron rigged them up so that they would stay horizontal rather than twist around. And Nora let me put antennae in her pigtails.

Pretty cute kiddos, huh? (;
The Aarons went as Dallas Stars Hockey players (unfortunately we didn't even get a picture of Aaron!) and I went as their biggest fan. (It was last minute).
Hope you all have a great Halloween!

Sisters

2011-10-27T17:35:00.007-06:00

Here's just a sweet little story about two little sisters after a fight:

Pretty great, huh? They're going to be best friends for ever.
Here are some more pics, with their "baby popples" snuggled up into their pjs. What a crackup!

Country Mice, City Mice

2011-10-17T16:25:00.008-06:00

Saturday was such a nice day! We went from some serious countryside living to some serious downtown big city stuff. Quite the contrast!
We've kept up with this new tradition of ours--at least while we're in the midwest--to go to an apple orchard every autumn. Last year the orchard was almost like a theme park: lots of people, gigantic playground, baby animal farm, demonstrations...the place was just huge and tons of fun.
This year we found a nice little place about an hour away that was just little and quaint and calm. Ahhhhh....it was PERFECT. The kids didn't get riled up. I didn't have to stress about losing them in a crowd. It was literally just show up and let them go. So great. And they really liked it. There was a tiny little barn with goats and chickens and a couple of rabbits. The roosters really gave us a show. Sara was so attached to the rabbit that later on she picked up a corn kernel and held on to it just to give to the bunny before we left. If we could handle pets at our place I would have gotten a rabbit for her. Really.We bought some turnovers and took a wagon ride from the orchard to the pumpkin patch to pick out the best punkin we could find. On the way out we took home some apple cider and local maple syrup. This really is the best tradition!
Here are some photos:

That evening we had a night out, just Aaron and I. He planned it all out and it was AWESOME. A nice long riverwalk in and around downtown Minneapolis. We just wandered. It kind of felt like a blast from the past, since that's what we did in SanFran right after we were married, except this city is totally different. And except that now we are really old and have three children. And believe me, we feel it.

We wandered around the Guthrie (Aaron likes to call it the Goothree) Theatre. It's pretty huge! And even when there's a show going on, anybody can just go in and wander around. It's like giant installation art.Check out how freaky-high that escalator goes!
And this is out on the Endless Bridge:
Quite the view! This is what it looks like from below:So you're just walking out to nothing. It's a little freaky. The view is great. Here is Aaron searching for our dinner (haha)...

Inside, there's a place they call the Amber Room. It's kind of dark, being lit only by these glowing amber windows. The floor doesn't meet the windows--there's a little drop-off--so it really feels like...well, I don't know, but it's freaky. Again, the views were awesome.And this is difficult to see, but there's a hole in the floor. You can stand on it, obviously, because of the glass, but it's not the most comforting feeling. I was afraid to stand on it at the same time as Aaron. Surely, it wasn't meant to hold TWO people AT THE SAME TIME.It was such a nice time. And absolutely free! It's true, folks. The best things in life don't cost a dime.

Unless we're talking children, and you want to have them in a hospital. (;

The Painting

2011-10-17T16:13:00.002-06:00

So one of the main reasons for going out west this summer was to work on THE painting. The big 8 foot by 4 foot thing that I started before Nora was born. It was supposed to be a school project, and then it was a school project on steroids. And I'm still working on it, three kids later. I've been reluctant to post about it, because it's kind of embarrassing. I actually submitted this thing to the Church a couple of summers ago, keeping with their deadline, thinking that it was "done enough." What a mistake. After seeing it again, I'm mortified that I actually let anyone see it in that state. It had SO far to go. It still has so far to go. I hate that so many people saw it then, as if it was a finished piece. I hate to let anyone see a painting before it's finished. So if you look at it and think "ewwww, I don't like it!", don't judge me. It isn't finished, ok? And I might not finish it before I'm 80. So here's the post. OK?!?!?!
I knew before we got out there that we'd have to take some more reference photos, a big group shot to track the shadows. I can't remember whose idea it was to use the laundry rack and blanket as the camel, but it worked! Kurt and offspring looked very epic and were just what I needed. (Thanks!)
I had a good reference photo for a camel, with the right lighting and everything, but wasn't sure how a camel's shadow might look on a short figure to its right. So I made a really realistic looking camel out of kids' clay. Pretty believable, yeah? I do what I can.So, then to the paint. I mainly just worked on the ground/background:
Before:
After:

Before:After:

But I did a little work on some of the figures too. Notice the robes on Sariah:
Before:After:
And then the real beast was to redo the camel. Again, he isn't finished. But he's better than the wookie I had before. (By wookie, I mean furry bactrian camel. But that species isn't very recognizable.) Here he is as a non-furry dromedary:

Before:

After:Still a long way to go. I'll get to it sometime.

BPOP Part 6: Preston

2011-10-17T15:00:00.001-06:00

We visited Preston as well, just over the hill from Oxford or down the road from Poky. But we don't have many pictures to prove it. We went to the parade, one of five (I think?), all of which were organized by none other than Uncle Kurt. It's a party over there, no doubt about it. Preston knows how to party. We spent some time at Uncle Kurt's and Grandma and Grandpa's places, saw the hiking party off on their annual trek in the Windrivers.
The Grandparents Iverson have a place that is well-equipped for the grandkids, including this trampoline in the backyard....
I have to share this video, because I am still impressed every time I think about it. I used to be all over the trampoline, having done gymnastics/tramp and tumbling in my younger years. Now, when I jump I just feel dizzy and OLD. Apparently my father in law has the better of me. Watch and be impressed:

BPOP Part 5: Oxford

2011-10-17T13:12:00.001-06:00

I mentioned the reunion in Oxford several posts ago, but here is a more thorough treatment, as it deserves. Oxford goes back to Aaron's roots. The reunion for his mom's side is held there every other year, at the old homestead. Oxford is such an interesting place. A great place for a reunion.
They had this contraption for the kids. Our kids lasted about two seconds before they both started bawling! Haha! It was pretty funny.A couple of swing sets...
A bounce-house...
There were lots of other things too, crafts, games, projects, auctions, a little talent show, candy rockets, you name it. Oxford itself is interesting. It's been around a while. There's not much there, but it's so different from being here in St. Paul.
Here's a walk down Mainstreet:
(sorry about the weird yellow...I was experimenting...)

MOOOOOOO!
Yep, that's mainstreet. I have to say, it's a neat little place. A nice change of pace.

BPOP Part 4: Poky

2011-10-17T12:38:00.000-06:00

And here are the documented events from Poky, the place where I grew up and the place my parents still live. They designed that house together. We moved in when I was 8. I think it was just before Christmas. I remembered how it smelled all new, and my parents sort of brought us in and set us down in the family room.
Ah, waxing nostalgic. They say you can never go home again. And that's probably true. But it's nice to have a place like that that's so familiar and so full of memories.

So here are some of the things we did, in no particular order:

Fourth of July: popsicles, wagon ride...later there were fireworks, blankets, the works. It was a great show. Swimming in the swim spa:
Cupcakes on the counter with Grandma:
Finger painting!
The swings at Ross Park:
The park? The graveyard? The zoo? I don't know. But there's GRANDPA!
The zoo...yeah, she climbed up there all by herself.
Costco, of course!
LOTS and lots of raspberry picking!
Flying kites!
Playing with mama's old toys while she paints and paints and paints...
Swings!
Sidewalk chalk!
And so many more activities. The kids had such a blast. Thanks for everything, Mom and Dad. I wish we could do this every summer!

BPOP Part 3: Bountiful

2011-10-17T12:09:00.000-06:00

Let's get this summer recap show ON THE ROAD, huh?
Although we stayed primary up in Poky with my parents, Tris and Sam's abode proved to be, as always, a place of refuge and PARTYING. Aaron got some Sam time (I think everyone who knows Sam is vying for Sam time, but Aaron's probably one of the top three)... Aaronie and Ollie got some baby boy time (being surrounded by girls, of course, as they ALWAYS will be):
WATER FIGHT! The rest of us watched from the deck while the boys and men got soaked.
Tris nursed and nursed an nursed that skinny boy to full chubbification and health. Way to go, momma!
Absolutely loved it. Wish they lived next door.

Family Pics

2011-10-08T18:22:00.004-06:00

We had some family pics done by a good friend of ours recently. I'm having trouble getting them on here though. Maybe the files are just huge....
Anywho, she did such a great job! It was really fun to do this the real way instead of just setting the timer and doing it on our own. Plus, she really knows her stuff a lot better than I do. She shoots in RAW in manual and everything. Pretty. Cool.
It's so crazy looking at these pictures. I'm always looking at pictures of the kids or pictures of Aaron and the kids. But when I look at myself in these, it's this weird sort of identity shift. Do you ever feel like you're just the maid? Well, in these photos, I'm just as much a part of the family as everybody else. I'm he wife! And the MOTHER. And we are a family of FIVE. That's what happens when you have kids so quickly...it takes a while for the comprehension to click in. Ha! Not sure I believe it yet, but I'll just keep looking at these pictures for a while and put some on the wall and maybe it'll settle in.
Enjoy!

Bountiful, Pocatello, Oxford, Preston, and THE DRIVE (or BPOP part 1)

2011-09-26T12:45:00.000-06:00

The fact that people can fly up in the sky and go just about anywhere is pretty cool. But there is something to be said for the long drive. Yes, our kids screamed the entire way (not exaggerating) but it really is interesting to see the change of the landscape in real time, car time. From cornfield country to hill country to mountain country. So many different ways to live. Watching the sky change from here to there is also pretty cool. Here are some photos from the car.

Classic kid memory: watching cartoons in the hotel room. You remember that, right?
Really enjoying the new van...

And it was one thing to read about the flooding on the internet, but driving right through it was something else. So many crops destroyed! Lots of sandbagging and closed freeways.

Makes me want to take another road trip. Traveling is good for the soul.

BPOP Part 2: Car Sales

2011-09-26T12:18:00.000-06:00

Did I say "new van"? Yes. Our main objectives for our month-long stay in Poky were: 1.) Spend time with family, 2.) Work on the painting, and 3.) Sell the CRV and get a van. A minivan. A swagger wagon. Little did we know it would take THE WHOLE MONTH to accomplish this. Multiple trips to Utah in a borrowed car. Every morning, it was: get up. Surf the net. Research. Look at cars. Call dealerships. Repeat.

Aaron felt like this:
Turns out vans are kind of hard to come by these days, even in Utah. Nobody wants to sell and manufacturers are a little stunted at the moment. Don't worry though; it happened. We bought one. We had to bite the bullet and do extra mileage, but we found a kickin' good van. We really do love it. Thanks for the help, Mom and Dad.As for 'how does it feel?', to be driving a minivan, I mean... Well, to be driving 'this' van, it feels awesome. Drives like a real machine, and not like a boat. Room for all the kids to be in one row and tons of room in the back for a gigantic stroller AND groceries at the same time. Yeah, it's pretty great. To all those out there who are hesitating, don't fear. Embrace.

Spudman

2011-09-25T15:50:00.000-06:00

Here begins the onslaught of posts about our weeks in the west this summer. First off: Sam's triathalon! The Spudman 2011!
Here he is after the swim, looking like a hero:
Meanwhile, we took a gander at the swimmers on our way to the run:
Beautiful day, huh?

Team Sam!
So fun to watch, and Sam made it to the finish line, even after his knee gave out. That's endurance for ya. And there's our friend Skeletor (sometimes known as Zeke), who also ran a great race. Way to go, fellas!

The Fair

2011-09-25T15:40:00.001-06:00

It's fair time in MN. Or it was. With the kids, we went early on in the week, early on the day, and it wasn't crowded at all.
Rode some rides....

Saw lots and lots of livestock...(including a GIGANTIC sow with about a million little babies at her belly) (We didn't get a picture of that unfortunately.)

And went back later on, later in the day (night), later in the week, and without the children. Aaron was excited to "act like teenagers and makeout a lot."
We rode some rides:
This was a lot freakier than it looks, btw...

Played some games, saw the sights...
And rode this awful, awful contraption. You hang upside down quite a lot. Ok, so it was pretty fun. I screamed the whole time and closed my eyes about half of the time. Are we too old for this? No, not really (:Oh, and we ate some food. We could have had ostrich or alligator or fried anything on a stick. But we had a two foot long corn dog and an apple dumpling and this thing:
It's called a fudge puppy: a long belgian waffle dipped in chocolate and topped with whipped cream. Meh. The apple dumpling was better. So was acting like a teenager and holding hands with a hot guy! Thanks for the date, hotness!

Doll in a Bag

2011-09-25T15:20:00.001-06:00

So the other night, Aaron went to check on the girls before we hit the sack and he saw this:
Looks normal, right? But what's that under her arm?
All I heard was this muffled snorting laughter going on downstairs. Then I went down and did some snorting myself.
Sort of reminds me of Ponyo:
Still can't explain exactly why this is so funny. Why not stuff your Jessie doll into a little sandwich bag? Looks really comfy in there! Such a good little mom, Nora (; It's good to remember that dolls don't need air holes to breathe.

Nora:3

2011-09-25T15:15:00.001-06:00

Yep. She's THREE! She's a big girl, and boy does she know it. She woke up to balloons all over her room...and presents upstairs. Thanks to Gmas and Gpas and aunties!!! (and mom and dad).
Lots of pink and princess stuff...

Even the cake was pink. All sorts of pink.

I think the best part was having our friends, Brian and Mindy and their cute kiddos over. In fact, when I asked Nora what her favorite thing about her birthday was, she said, "Chloe."
I think this probably looks harder than it was. It was WAY easy. I didn't even practice on a piece of parchment first. If you can draw swirlies, you can do this.
It was the inside that took forever. Like all day. The things we do for our children (:
Leftover batter and frosting went to cupcakes.

Happy birthday, my rambunctious, smart, sweet, dare-devil, snow-white, pink-lover, jabbermonster Nora! She's the life of the party!

How to Make a Pottery Barn Bench

2011-09-25T15:00:00.000-06:00

Step 1: Marry someone who can.
Step 2: Say "thank you" and LOVE IT when it's done.
That's how it works in our house anyway. If you want details, you'll have to pick Aaron's immaculate brain. All I know is that rubbing a birthday candle on the edges during the underpainting phase really WORKS.

Baby Photos

2011-09-22T13:49:00.005-06:00

Three kids. Brand new, almost brand new, and about 6 months. What do you think? Related?

Whats in a woman?

2011-09-21T16:59:00.004-06:00

No, this post isnt about these three beautiful kiddos. I looked for a while for a photo of Tandy, but couldn't find one that i thought she'd let me post. So I put one up of the kids instead. Shes actually sleeping right now before I head off to church for the night.

And no, this post isn't even intended to get me out of the doghouse . . . i hope. :) (sometimes we're a little clueless- but in this case- I think I'm okay). This post is just to say I love you babe- and I think you're awesome!

Really, what is in a woman? How can one person stay up most of the night for 7 months and get up to feed kids breakfast as her husband runs out the door for the day. And then keep the house in order and help start a little preschool for some kids in the ward and visit all the people that need visiting and email the people that need emailing and blog about the stuff that needs blogging and put dinner on the table every day right before I get home and smile and do her hair and makeup and go to the library and set up play dates and find sitters for mom/dad dates and get kids to all their checkups and dentist appointments and . . . . and . . . and . . . and get up every day to do it again. With three kids under three screaming and/or whining and/or destroying stuff. (sometimes they are happy though- to be fair). And still be awake enough to read a book at night or play an occasional game of scrabble or scattergories with me.

Sorry to embarrass you babe- I just think you're awesome. And I love you. :)

Lately

2011-09-14T20:00:00.004-06:00

Just to note, here are some things we've been doing:

Heather and Trevor's wedding. Gorgeous. And the Thomases REALLY know how to throw a party. But everybody already knows that (;

We wanted to match.

We painted the kitchen, and then painted it again. This photo really doesn't do this horrible color justice. We repainted it a nice avocado. I guess we'll have to post pictures of that later.

We played in the stream below Minnehaha Falls.

Lots of playing outside:

Lots more, of course, but there will be other posts for that (:

Laundry and Hungry Type Games

2011-09-14T19:07:00.005-06:00

So I realize that we're about a hundred blog posts behind. Between returning to the mid-west and the new semester we've done our share of projects and outings. Aaron built shelves. Aaron built a bench--it's very cool. Aaron painted the kitchen. We painted the girls' room. We're still painting the girls' room. New curtains, new shower curtain, new rug. None of this had anything to do with routine chores, like vacuuming or unpacking our vacation bags. Funny thing about chores...they don't just take care of themselves when you're doing other things. If you don't keep up with that stuff for several weeks, what you have is a...DISASTER on your hands. I literally feel like I'm being buried alive. By laundry!

Ah, well. At least we finished the Hunger Games series together, Aaron and I. That's important. I finally fell in to peer pressure after a couple of years of avoiding what seemed to be--and IS--a very disturbing and violent subject matter. I think Aaron loved it. I both loved and hated it. I hated that I loved it. And then I really actually did hate the last book. But I can't stop thinking about it, and that bothers me too. I need another good book to read to steal my attention. I don't really care which genre, so long as it's a good, compelling read, believable. Suggestions?

In other news, baby Aaron is sitting up all by himself. Sara and I are getting some free help from the school system out here to get her speech going. And Nora's THIRD birthday is this Saturday. If we end up staying here for an ortho residency she will be EIGHT by the time we're out of school. (And I'll be 35.) (I won't say how old Aaron will be. I can't count that high. Probably 40 or something.)

Here are some photos to prove that we're alive and kicking:

Conversations with Nora

2011-08-17T15:17:00.005-06:00

Nora: Dad, there aren't any cookies. We need to make some cookies. We need to get some eggs, some butter, some sprinkles...
Dad: You need Mom and Dad.
Nora: No. I'm making cookies by myself. I'm the cooking girl.
Dad: Nora, you need to wait for Mom and Dad.
Nora: NO! You need to paint the wall, and then you're going to paint my room. I'm going to cook cookies by myself!
Dad: Wait for Mom and Dad please.
Nora: THAT'S ENOUGH, DAD!
Nora: Mixing bowl...I need a mixing bowl...

BWCA DAY 1

2011-08-14T19:54:00.000-06:00

As Tandy mentioned in a previous post- its been a busy couple of weeks around here. We got home from vacation just in time to finish up preparations for an eagle court of honor for two of our young men and then launch on a week-long canoeing trip to the boundary waters. The BWCA is a huge park on the border of the US and Canada that is filled with lakes, streams, and islands. Hard to say whether there is more water or land. I will try and recount briefly the events of the trip, day by day.

After the court of honor on Sunday night, we all gathered at Pedro's place to do some final packing and coordinating. I use the word "final" lightly since nearly everyone had been out of town until Saturday or Sunday. It was more like "first and final." Around 10 pm, we decided to split up the boys between our two houses and hit the sack so we could be up and going by 5:30 the next morning. As the picture indicates, they all wanted to come to our house- unfortunately, there was not much sleeping. We were up packing and drying veggies for the food and playing games until around 3 am. I just couldnt bring myself to set the alarm for 5, so I set it for 5:15. This is what I found in the morning.
We finally got on our way and drove up through Duluth, picked up our permit in Tofte (after watching a pleasant Neature video), and were on our way at last to the famous boundary waters. Here we are at the launching point, looking so fresh and so clean.
Pedro was our accompanying survivalist. I have to draw a line between camping and surviving. Those who know McManus understand the difference . . . Pedro is definitely a freeze-dried survivor! He brought his homemade tent, rain gear, and backpack. He even has some camp sandals made from insoles with a small string that loops over the big toe and then over the rest of his toes. Very cool. I think all of his gear weighed less than my chacos. He was great to have along- he solo hiked the Lake Superior North Shore hiking trail last year and knows all sorts of good little tidbits about the outdoors. And he's an avid fisherman- very committed! :)
Here's the first portage- for some reason the boys absolutely despise portaging. Portaging was likened to many things on this trip, none of which are repeatable on this blog. (We do have a reputation to maintain.) They're really not too bad- you just unload everything from your canoe and chuck this 70 lb behemoth canoe on your back and hike down the trail a little ways. The canoes even have these little screw on cotton balls to protect and pad your shoulders so the weight of the canoe doesn't do permanent harm to your musculature.
Right about this time I was just so absolutely relieved that we had actually made it on the trip. Planning for it was so busy that I just kept telling myself, "just get through Monday morning and it will be alright." Then came the lightning, thunder, and rain. We were paddling through this little marsh land with tall grasses. It was actually pretty cool outside the fact that we kept getting stuck on sunken logs or mud bars. Picking our way through was slow, but at least it gave us time to contemplate the sensibility of being stuck in a marsh in a metal canoe in a thunderstorm. (Pedro and I were actually in a plastic canoe- so we thought more about how we'd explain things to parents).
We finally made it through Marsh #1 and pulled up over a beaver dam (one of many) and were in the clear for a little while. On the other side of this little pond, we pulled out and took shelter among the biting goats and poison ivy up the side of a hill. The boys were just so excited about the "stories they'd be able to tell." We just hoped it wouldn't be the paper telling the story for us!
The weather finally cleared and the day was getting less day-like so we were paddling hard to get to Cherokee lake. I just had visions of headlamp paddling and trying to find and set up camp in the dark. (What can I say, its the only way I know how to camp. Why bother stopping when you still have daylight right? Might as well go as far and for as long as you can right?) Pedro and I got tired and hitched a ride off of the younger and stouter paddlers. They eventually caught on after about 20 feet or so. Best 20 feet of paddling all week.
Cherokee at last! Pretty place, huh?
When we got to camp we whipped up some potato soup with bacon bits and dried chives and broccoli. We also had some stovetop stuffing and some bear poo-dding. We also learned that Arthur's functionality shuts down when he gets tired and/or his shoes get wet. hahaha. :)

BWCA DAY 2

2011-08-14T19:48:00.003-06:00

Day 2 continued the way day 1 ended- rainy! It wasnt too bad, but it was really rainy on and off so nothing ever really got dry. (for me- first major difference from backpacking- everything always wet when you spend all of your time in or around water.) In the BWCA, you cant camp anywhere you want. There are designated campsites marked on a map and each one has a fire ring area and a latrine. When you come into a lake, you just start checking camps until you find one thats open. We were always really lucky with camp sites though and had some really good ones.After some yummy oatmeal, Richie was feeling the urge to cut off his dreds. Is it fair to say that his left hand is pretty "dred-ful." Haha- ok- bad joke. I'm sure I'll pay for that one for a while. :)
Once things cleared up, the day was beautiful. Paddled across Cherokee and had a more or less uneventful afternoon. We just needed to get up Cherokee, through Gordon and into Frost.
Until we found some cliff jumping. This place was perfect- really easy access from the water, very deep landing, and not too big or too small. Just right for everyone to have a good time. More on this cliff later as we stopped again on our way back out.
We had a floating island lunch just before going through the portage to Frost.
Arthur and Elliot requested that I take a picture of the water lillies. They were beautiful and all over the place, but I think the request was for their little sister- so this one's for you Lilly!
Found a cool campsite on Frost and set up shop for a couple days. The firewood requirement is "nothing larger than your wrist." We must have been using the idea that your thigh is the "wrist" to your knee. Either that or we're all pretty poor anatomists. Either way- we made warm fires.
The hammocks were always highly sought after. So much so that we ought to have dubbed them "aisle 4." :) (I apologize to outside readers- some things just can't be explained- or shouldnt be.) Greg likened them to being swaddled in momma's arms- you climb in and the whole thing wraps around you and just gives you a big hug. They are pretty nice. Pedro set up his tent and mosquito netting over the top of the hammocks and they were rearranged in sort of a bunk fashion so that both were provided the protection from those tiny winged devils. A few of the boys took turns sleeping out with Pedro, but I'm not sure how many made it through an entire night. What is called when you are sleeping out while on a campout?
Frost lake at sunset.
Right after our devotional ended, Richie said, "not to change the subject, but did y'all see that frog hoppin right by the fire?" Sure enough- there was this little guy that had hopped his way into the middle of our devotional. Unfortunately, he took his animal instincts to "play dead" a little too seriously. Poor fella. I'm still not sure if he ever stopped playing, but he and Arthur bonded immediately. Arthur invited him to sit by him on his log for the remainder of the devotional. Ever the generous and welcoming soul.
Then all the boys and I crammed into one tent and played scum, uno and all sorts of other fun games until way too late. Fortunately, we were the only ones on the lake. Unfortunately, those stinky feet in the picture were the least of my worries. Nothing short of true brotherhood could compel anyone to stay in that tent for more than a "whoowee- i'm outta here!!"

BWCA DAY 3

2011-08-14T19:48:00.000-06:00

Day 3 was our rest day, and boy did we need it! All that paddling sure gave my upper body the workout it hasnt seen in too long. I was up early enough and since there was nobody on the lake and the boys were asleep- it was very quiet still. I took a nice little walk around one side of the lake trying to do some fishing. I came across some wild raspberries and gobbled them up in no time- yum! No more dehydrated fruit- this stuff had the water in it! (another McManus reference for those unfortunately unfamiliar with his classics). We didnt really catch a single fish all week, but it was not for lack of effort. Arthur brought in a bass minnow and a dwarf pike, but he let the minnow go and the pike stuck around long enough to look him in the eye before swiftly stealing his minnow lure and laughing his way back home. Other than that, we lost about 4 lures, broke one pole, and lost a whole lot of confidence in our abilities to fish.
After a slow morning, we ventured out to this boulder in the middle of the lake, evicted some birds, and climbed up to take a manly photo.
Then we took our manliness to the beach for a little sunbathing.
Pedro fished every chance he got.
So camp cooking really has come a long ways. Our stoves sound like jet engines, but they produce some magnificent food. Tonight, chili and scones were on the menu. mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I need to work some scones into the menu at home too. Everyone was so fat and satisfied afterwards, we let the cleanup wait until long after dark. Who wants to clean up after devouring hot, fresh fry bread?
Arthur tried to fish again, but I think it was mainly just for the pictures.

The night was exceptionally calm. We had the boys go to bed relatively early so we could launch early in the morning, but Greg and I stayed up and chatted by the fire. After a long while, we both noticed how quiet it was. It was quite creepy actually. The lake was smooth as a mirror, no wind, no bugs, no anything. Greg commented, "I can hear my own ears!" It was a clear night and the moon was nearly full. I told him there was no way you could get me out on that lake as I was certain some mythical lake monster was awaiting the next foolhardy paddler out for a midnight float. We decided that maybe nature was quiet for a reason and we hurried off to hide behind two thin sheets of protective mesh and nylon.

BWCA DAY 4

2011-08-14T19:47:00.001-06:00

Day 4 started early and ended early. We didnt want to go from Frost to the car in one day so we headed back to Cherokee for some more cliff jumping and hopefully some fishing. As I think about it- its not really the fishing that I enjoy, its the catching, the reeling and the eating. Nobody wants to go just "fishing," but thats all we did.

Gordon lake is a very cool lake- its long and skinny with little fingers sticking out all over the place. Lots of little pockets for fish to sit and laugh at the giant spindle shaped shadows passing overhead.
We had the maximum of 9 people on our permit, but only 4 canoes- which meant that someone had the honor of riding in the "princess" position. I never had such an honor. Had I done so- I would have packed the bags high, eliminating a helpfully low center of gravity, but providing instead for more desert prince sort of feel. Here's Brogan demonstrating the lowly princess position. Try as I might, I couldn't persuade him to ride higher in life.
We got into Cherokee, set up camp and almost immediately headed back to the cliffs for a little jumping. On round 1, Pedro was the only one to forego the festivities, so he was determined to jump this time. Encouragingly, everyone decided to hold off their first jump until Pedro had gone. After about 2 hours of trepidation (that might be an exaggeration?), the boys could no longer contain their enthusiasm and began chucking themselves into the air, only minorly unsettling the pristine and untouched calm of the far out boundary waters.

I am confident that other campers were delighted to view our departure the next day. Now that I think of it, there were many of them perched on rocks overlooking the lake. I thought they were just enjoying the view, but I suppose they could have been forming a paddle of shame for us, glaring and daring us to make another sound. We'll give them the benefit of doubt though and pretend they had peaceful intentions.
If you look closely enough (and abandon your muggle apprehension), you can see the shimmering outline of an old Ford Anglia that Elliot drove off the cliff.
Not sure what I was doing here. Mainly trying to jump, turn to face the camera, make a really big star shape, and recoil before suffering any unnecessary harm.
And here is the kicker. Richie was decidedly against jumping until Devon made a personal plea for him to take the plunge. All the while everyone had been jumping, Pedro, pictured on the left, struggled to make the full commitment. Devon continually repeated President Ucthdorf's question, "brother, are you committed?" haha. In the end, it was Richie who persuaded him to join him for a double jump. The only problem was that, as you can see, Pedro again bailed out at the last possible instant. This time though, his momentum carried him sliding three feet down the edge of the cliff before he pushed off and was swallowed up by the water.

He did jump a few more times, but continued to prove his manliness by not just jumping the easy way. Clearly, it is much more impressive to come to a screeching halt, slide down over the edge and almost whack your head before finally deciding to jump. haha. Way to go everyone!
Back at camp, there was a cool cliff just above our camp that overlooked the lake and provided a nice padded landing for games that afternoon.

BWCA DAY 5

2011-08-14T18:31:00.000-06:00

We packed everything up the night before so we could launch super early. I ate oatmeal made from cold strawberry kiwi crystal light. Everyone else opted for just a granola bar. :) The paddle out was a lot longer than we all anticipated and we were all very eager to get home. We had given the boundary waters our best, and on the final stretch, it returned the favor. For the final 20-30 minutes, we paddled against the wind in an absolute downpour with foaming waves crashing in on all sides of the canoes. (sounds pretty cool, yeah?) Of course, it stopped right as we docked at the entry point. We threw off our wet clothes in exchange for dry ones, jumped in the cars and headed home, stopping in Duluth to sink our teeth into some burgers.

And here we are at the end, back at the Nelson's, everything cleaned up (except us), and everyone ready to get home to families. What a great group of guys!

I had a great time making new friends and making better friends. I love the fellowship and brotherhood that these experiences provide. I love the way these young men treat each other, think of each other, and speak of each other. They are all fine young men who will continue to be good to each other and to all those around them and I learned a lot from them this last week. Young men- it is a joy to be with you! Thanks again for the fun!

The Short of the Long

2011-08-08T20:30:00.005-06:00

Half or more of the photos from the past month are from my Dad's camera, which are now on the external hard drive in some box somewhere, or are on our little camera, which is now up in the Boundary Waters (in a water-proof bag of course). So here's a very abbreviated, CliffsNotes version, just for tonight.
The drive was eventful, but this is all I've got:
A pic from a rest stop in Nebraska (I think it was Nebraska). I took a whole bunch here, just because of that beautiful landscape between the trees and the grass, with my little family in between. It was much more beautiful than the picture says.
More on the drive there and back when the little camera comes back into town.

Next stop: our nephew Ollie's (Oliver's) blessing day. Sorry for the pic, sis. Had to (:
We spent a fair amount of time with Sam and Tris and the fam. We lived with them for about six months before the move. They are absolutely the best. We just showed up at their door and it was like no time had passed. Except that the kids are getting so stinkin' big! They let us park it overnight more than once during the vacation so that we could find a van to buy (more on that later too).
p.s. Ollie is the cutest!
Stop number two: the Fisher Reunion!
Here's us with Gma/G-Gma at Oxford in the lovely house that Casey built. It's beautiful and cozy, and there was SO much to do outside! Everyone was so welcoming and friendly, even though I'm still trying to learn everyone's names, since we don't see each other very often. Oh, and it was HOT!
There was this sand pit for the kids, and two swing sets, a bounce house, candy rockets, several games and craft projects...it was sort of a big deal! Lots of people! And so much land! People just came and set up tents all over the place.
I especially loved talking with the aunts and with Ellen and Baird's kids that were there. I didn't get any pictures, unfortunately, but I love that I'm related to these people. Marrying Aaron was a good idea! (:
They even had this little kid train, made of those big white water buckets painted up in animal prints and driven around like this. It was actually pretty long! I thought the girls would love it, but they only made it a few yards before they were both bawling.
Last stop: the old homestead, where we spent most of our time.
Sleeping in...
Cooking with Grandma...
(and by cooking, I mean baking. Grandma doesn't care much for cooking anymore. She bakes. And it's almost always something a lot like a cookie or a cupcake or some sort of dessert. But don't tell anyone, 'cause I'm not sure that anyone else is supposed to know, wink-wink.)
Playing with mom's old toys! This was probably more fun for me even than it was for the girls. I loved this house and all of its millions of tiny pieces.
Breakfasting on the deck...
THE CHADWICK.....
Fireworks in the backyard...We also picked and ate a lot of raspberries, did swings and bikes in the front yard, went in the pool just about every-other day. But those pics are in other places at the moment. I'll get to them eventually. I don't even have any pics of Grampa on here!!! What a lame post. Oh, and I spent most of the time in the basement, painting. I suppose that must be covered as well.
More to come!

Here's the Deal Yo

2011-08-07T20:19:00.003-06:00

So Aaron is LEAVING me early tomorrow morning for a troupe of scouts and a place called the Boundary Waters. I expect that after a week he'll be crawling back, wondering how he could ever have thought that the boundary waters could bring him all the happiness that I have. And what will I do then? I will either collapse in sobs of relief or stand there like Captain America, having walked through the brimstone of Hades and come out ALIVE--nothing can stop me.
So far, it's looking like the sobbing is going to be a pretty good bet. I'm actually looking forward to it--the sobbing, I mean. We just came home from a month long stay at my parents' house, where we had FOUR adults watching the kiddos, and mostly, I was down in the basement painting. When we came home, we had worms on the kitchen floor and on the counter and some earwigs in the carpet upstairs and downstairs. And what's the deal with the fruit flies?!?! Mind you, it wasn't an infestation, but still...
This week, we've managed to fill the kitchen with garbage and dirty dishes--you know, without cleaning them up, and most of our clothes/towels/dishrags/sheets are in piles on the floor waiting to be sorted and folded and put away. Not to mention the boxes that still haven't been unloaded and sorted from our trip. I don't think the house has been in this big of a disaster since we first moved here.
So this is how it's going to go. I'm going to do WHATEVER I want to do this week. No big people rules. I'm going to eat at the little table with the kids. We're going to make popcorn and watch movies. When we go to the store, I'm going to buy potato chips (and maybe even some....DIP!). And I might even go REALLY crazy and buy some BATHROOM RUGS!!!! Woohoo! I will clean too, obviously. But I'm not going to think about it while I'm doing it.
Call me crazy, but that's what I'm going to do. And at night, I'm going to catch up on the blog. Probably every night. Maybe. But probably.
So meet you back here tomorrow night. Paaaartaaaay!

The Cherry Spoon and other adventures

2011-07-24T18:03:00.003-06:00

This next post is all about Christina. Or all about Christina's visit, rather. (Although a post about Christina would make an excellent read...we'll work on that later.)
Christina said that even if we didn't do any fun things while she was here that we should take a picture, 'cause then it would LOOK like we were having tons of fun. So we decided to test it out...
Here we are at the famous cherry spoon bridge having SO MUCH FUN!!!
Aaron tried to eat the spoon...oops. That's a miss.There we go.
PARTY!!!!! Right?
Here's proof that the boy and I were there too.
If you use your zoom eye powers you will see Aaron and Nora on this bridge, which is actually supposed to be one of the sculptures in the sculpture garden. Too bad everybody thinks it's a bridge.
We also ate good food and attempted to make our version of a very special brownie at Byerly's but it failed pretty epic-ly. But we played games and fought to-the-death over a mini marshmallow. We introduced Aaron to the world of Farscape. I tried to introduce Steener to Teen Wolf (with Michael J. Fox) but it didn't take for some reason.
Anyway it was SUPER TOTALLY FUNNNNNN, as the pictures clearly show. In all seriousness, we LOVED having Christina here before college life begins. We didn't do anything super exciting, but just having her here to play games with and watch movies with and cook with was absolutely the best. For a good time, call CHRISTINA (;

The Hair

2011-07-24T17:46:00.002-06:00

It's been a while since I last posted, which means that this post will be followed by a MILLION other catchup posts.
Here's the first that I've been meaning to share, since it made me laugh (and it still makes me laugh...I'm laughing right now). Sara woke up from her nap with this fantastic hairdo about a month ago I think. You can tell from the photo series how she knew that she looked SO SILLY and that she must be the funniest girl on the planet! What a crackup!
Enjoy.

Dad's Day 2011

2011-06-21T21:01:00.000-06:00

I'm glad the end of the world didn't happen (yet), 'cause now we get to celebrate another Fathers Day! I remember catching critters with my dad when I was a kiddo. He taught us how to find salamanders in the window boxes, or lizards and snakes up by the water tower. And he always knew how to fix an earache or any other sort of thing. Most of all, he worked hard everyday so that we 'wanted for nothing', as the saying goes. Thanks, Dad.
So Happy Dads Day to Dad Chad, Dad Steven, Grampas, bro-in-laws and brothers, and to the Dad of our house, my very own Hot Ness Monster. He's got a baby gift for making this guy go to sleep...
And he's a professional with diaper changing skills--just ask my sister: she's seen it! But he's also great at making us all laugh, and he's very gracious about it when we all maul him the second he walks in the door. Dad makes everything better, everything more fun. Our dad is absolutely the BEST! He makes sure we know that we're the most important thing in his life.

We celebrated with corn dogs and tater tots, his favorite things in the whole world besides his children. Bouquet style (he gave me flowers for Mothers Day, so it was the only logical choice).
Love you babe. Our kids are the luckiest. And so am I.
And love to Dad, F.I.L., and all the other dads we know!

Sites du webbe

2011-05-22T16:27:00.004-06:00

I've been wanting to do a post on websites commonly seen at our house. I have two hidden agendas: one, so that more people will join Pinterest (see below) (it's just one of those things: when you love something, you want EVERYBODY to know about it), and two, so that I can get some feedback on other great sites for kids besides the two that we like.
The first is called Starfall and it is SO great because it's actually teaching Nora to read. She is almost 3. But she is sounding out simple words. And it's not because I'm a great teacher (; She's pretty sharp, yeah, but it wouldn't be happening without this website. To be honest, I really hate that she loves the computer/tv so much, but if she's going to be on it sometimes, Starfall is OK with me. This is what it looks like, for readers/non-readers of all levels, down to basic ABC's.
The other kid site we like is called Poisson Rouge. We found out about this from my sister and her kiddos. This is mind-stretching of a whole different kind. All sorts of layers of puzzles within puzzles. There are never any instructions; you just have to figure it out on your own. There's critical thinking, problem solving, math, alphabet, and a really great interactive encyclopedia. It's all very visual, but there are also all different languages, which I really love. Nora gets to hear Greek, French, Spanish, etc.., which is supposedly important for later language development, right? Anyway, it's a totally different kind of site, totally different way of thinking, and we really like it!
Here's the main page: (All of those things are different toys that either act just like the real toy does, or they lead you to any number of other puzzles or games to figure out.)
This is one of the pages from their interactive encyclopedia. You can drag the planets around in their actual relative speed (relative to each other, that is). Super cool!
Locate which teeth go where, from different angles:
Practice telling the time:
It's pretty great, as you can see. But you'd see a lot better if you actually went to the site (:

And then there's MY favorite site. It's called Pinterest. It's basically a virtual pin board, a visual way to collect ideas from anywhere on the internet while maintaining the link back to the item's original source. You go to pinterest.com and request an invite. Once you're in, you can create different boards by installing a little "Pin it" dealio onto your browser bar. Any time you find something you want to keep (a recipe, a tutorial on making a homemade multi-level car garage out of cereal boxes) you click your "pin it" dealio and it does it for you! You can add a little tag underneath the pic. And then, you have all these organized boards where you can find all of those things you've been looking at.
It looks like this:
on the left there's a sidebar that lists "recent activity", meaning, if someone has commented on, liked, or repinned one of your pins. Yes, anyone can look at your boards. That's part of the charm. If you are looking for crafty ideas for kids' stuff for instance, you can search for that on Pinterest and see what other people are finding. Let's say you find someone that has collected a whole lot of cool stuff, just the type you are looking for...Well, you just click "follow" and now on your home board (or main page, or whatever you call it--shown above) you will see her new pins whenever she pins another one to that board. Pretty soon you've got a bunch of different people you're following, with cool ideas on any subject you like: clothes, food, crafts, art, architecture, home design/decorating. It's pretty great.
These are some of my boards:
(At one point I was collecting ideas for Aaron's Christmas presents)...
If you click on one of those boards, this is what it looks like:
(This is my "For the Kids" board with anything from crafts to rainy day activities to fun photo ideas.)
Other bonuses to Pinterest are that you can do it with friends and family. Both my mom and sis have an account, so I get to see what they're pinning, and we jabber back and forth about various things. It's really fun. You can also find friends through Facebook and other such social media. And I've found several new clothing sites that I didn't know about before I joined Pinterest. So it's a great way of finding out about new sites/stores/blogs/products that you wouldn't have known about otherwise.
Anyway, I think everyone I know should join. That's all I'm trying to say. It is addictive, though, I'll warn you.
Any ideas on other kids' sites?
Tandy out.

The Beautiful Dailies

2011-05-20T21:18:00.005-06:00

Here's what's been happening at our house lately. Really, just an excuse to put up some random photos...

Aaron doing school stuff/school stuffing/stuffing school:

Sara getting in touch with Mr. Potato Head:Mmmmmmm:
Best friends:
Workin' that tummy time (it's working!):
Aaron stuffing school: (haha...once he falls asleep, man, there is NO waking him up)...
Nora's soundcheck:
Mmmmm....
Hello, gorgeous boy!
On Daddy's arm:
Sara eating wood. with dirt on it.
Ah, yes. Time to go to sleep.

Bee-dee-ohs

2011-05-14T10:30:00.001-06:00

We never do videos. Except today, just because.

Enjoy!

Here's our sociable little Ari...

Nora plays bass. She's a songwriter too, you know...

Note the lyrics: "We're not afraid of alligators. Yikes!"

Sara trying on some boots...

Nora being Nora...

Hot

2011-05-14T10:00:00.000-06:00

Things are heating up in Gophertown. It's weird living in this wet sort of heat. The oreos are all melty inside (not that we have any), the taffy is soft (or it would be, if we had some). I'm going to have to really keep tabs on all of those crackers and potato chips (if we ever get any) so that they stay crispy! Weird. Definitely no need for a humidifier.
The storms are cool. The sky is weird. But even in Minnesota, my husband is still a genius. Look at what he made for us! It only took him a couple of days!

We'll throw some dirt in it, plant something cool, and stick our sun umbrella in it!

Now the kids and I can go out and play and have somewhere to hide from this sun! It's so great! Maybe he'll retire really, really early and start a new career as a woodworker, huh? Any of you want to commission something ahead of time, 'cause the waiting list is going to stack up fast (;

Beautiful boy in his blessing suit

2011-05-12T10:11:00.000-06:00

hahahaha. why attempt a perfect picture? this is real life, right? (;

It's Called "Doing Things"

2011-05-11T20:29:00.000-06:00

Thank goodness it's springtime! Minnesota winters are long. I've been meaning to do a post on what we do (what we did) in the winter:

1.) movie nights with popcorn, sometimes in a tent.
2.) Cookies. You could say we decorated them, but you would be mostly wrong. Mostly.

3.) Innovation. Try red plastic cups. Here it's a microphone or an ice cream cone.
Here it's a hat. They're also good for kicking, stacking, bowling and making big messes with water (;

4.) Drawing, coloring, drawing, coloring, and stickers. One day we'll move to paint. But not until we have proper control of ourselves...5.) Bubbles. Indoors or out. They're clean, man!

p.s. these Nickelodeon bubble things are awesome.
6.) Oh. I guess we already did the paint thing. But this is safe paint. It's made out of pudding! We used our fingers.

This is why we don't use real paint yet.
7.) Pink Pizza. Pink dough...
Pink sauce...
Pink mozz...
It really was a kind of neon pink. The picture is lying.
8.) Hopscotch with tape on a rug. Ok, so they don't really know how to hopscotch yet, but Nora loved it, so it deserves a mention. This is just a screen shot from a video--that's why it has that thing on the bottom.
Now, what do we do in the summertime?

We stay inside 'cause it's too hot! Just kidding. We'll do some cool things. And we'll post about it. That's what.

How neat is this?

2011-05-10T21:25:00.001-06:00

I can't help it. I have to post this video. We've watched it so many times that it has become a part of my identity.

Go ahead, let it become a part of yours.

Grandma Monk's Million Dollar Salad

2011-05-05T20:55:00.003-06:00

We had some friends over a couple of weeks ago, and while looking through recipes for the dinner, I came across this recipe of my grandmothers, a layered salad with peas and bacon and water chestnuts, etc.. It's SUCH a good salad, really crunchy and crisp and fresh, salty, sweet and filling. I thought maybe I'd try it as a filling for a pita or something, with shredded chicken. It was awesome! Definitely going to make it again. Besides, it makes me remember my grandma!

Here is her recipe modified:

1 head shredded romaine
1 can sliced water chestnuts (I sliced them some more)
1/2 package frozen peas
1 cup light mayo
1/2 Tblsp sugar
some crumbled bacon (as much as you like)
1/4 cup parmesan
2 or 3 shredded chicken breasts
flatbread or pita bread

I mixed the sugar into the mayo and added a bit of the bacon grease. That's what Grandma used to do. She also put celery in this and layered everything, with the mayo and some shredded cheese and crumbled bacon on top. It's ready to serve as soon as the peas are thawed. And with the romaine being pretty hardy, this will last through the next day as leftovers if you have extra. Seriously so good! We had it with homemade oven fries (we did both russets and sweet potatoes), and that was a good idea, in case you're lookin' for one.

Since we're doing recipes, I just HAVE to do this one. It's the new comfort food around here. When I'm not eating it, I'm dreaming about eating it. It might not be the best thing if you're on a diet, but that might just mean that you shouldn't be on a diet.

Here it is, Poppyseed Chicken, from Aaron's mission president's wife, Sister Ririe:
1 1/4 tubes of Ritz crackers
1/2 cup butter
3 shredded chicken breasts
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 Tbsp poppy seeds

blend the crackers and butter in a food processor or blender. add poppy seeds.
mix soup and sour cream together.
layer half the cracker mixture, all of the chicken, all of the soup stuff, and then the rest of the cracker stuff.
bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.

The picture shows it served over rice. I like it all by its creamy self. SO GOOD. Thanks, Sis. Ririe!

A Name and a Blessing...

2011-05-01T20:11:00.002-06:00

Well, this is the only photo we took today. The blessing was beautiful. My aunt Jodee and her family came into town, my parents, Aaron's parents, and some of our friends from Aaron's class all came. We felt such love and support! So Baby Aaron was blessed and so were we. Thanks, family, for coming so far to be with us today. We love you and we are so grateful!
I'll take some nice pics of little Ari in his blessing suit tomorrow and post them soon.

My own little monster

2011-04-28T21:02:00.012-06:00

We've been having trouble with Nora's sleeping habits, a.k.a. NON sleeping habits. Today I went to get her from her "nap" and I found her in the middle of...well, I should have taken a picture, but it looked something like this:She was standing on her bed, no clothes on, just a good shmear of desitin all over her face, around her mouth and on her lips, dripping down her naked little belly and rubbed onto her legs. Her messy diaper was on the other side of the room. The contents of the entire refill wipes package littered the rest of the litter. It appeared as though she had tried to clean herself up with them. Drawers emptied out, piles of clothes everywhere. At least there were no severed and mutilated books. There is always an upside. I didn't lose my temper. I was too shocked.
I don't have any idea what's going on in that little brain of hers. But Aaron and I have decided we need to regroup, analyze, pray, and....change. our. tactics. A.k.a. learn patience and get a sense of humor.

I wrote this story in my journal the other night....it's like every other mom story about how a child misbehaved and then it's all sweet and you remember why you became a mom in the first place, etc., etc.. But I'll copy it over here on the blog anyway. It may be like every other story, but it is mine, afterall. And this is my blog (:

"It was my turn to lose my temper tonight, Aaron’s last night. Nora hasn’t been sleeping. Yesterday was her first nap all week and last night Aaron was up until 11 o’clock with her before she finally conked out. She takes Sara with her too, singing, talking, yelling, all at the top of her lungs, during naptime and bedtime. So nobody gets any sleep and nobody’s happy. And it isn’t because she doesn’t need it. She falls asleep at lunchtime. She’s so tired she’s out of her mind ridiculous, throwing flailing-arm tantrums all over the place and shouting ‘NO!’ at me all the time. And sobbing. Yeah, she needs sleep.

Tonight, two hours after I had put them to bed they were still raucous and loud down there. I went in and found them both in Sara’s crib, the entire refill bag of wipes (that’s a lot of wipes) emptied and piled up all around them. A big fluffy pile of wet. It’s typical toddler behavior. Shouldn’t have been a big deal. But I lost my temper. Sara was still awake and I knew what that would mean tomorrow morning. I was mad. Aaron was already asleep by then and I would have been too. I made a scene, yelled, cleaned up the wipes, put Nora back in her bed, put her in her bed again. A few more times. Angrily. Stood there for a while while I cooled off and then left the room.

After I lost my temper I went upstairs and read some parenting books. And felt even worse. I went back downstairs (this was about an hour later) to check on her and found that Sara was finally asleep and Nora was awake, no clothes, no blankets or sheets on the bed. Just her polka dot blanket. I laid down next to her and said, “You’re still awake…thanks for being quiet even though you’re still awake. So Sara could go to sleep.” I asked her what her favorite part of today was. She told me and then she said, “Mom, it’s hard to dream about rainbows.” (We often tell her when we put her to bed to dream about stripes and rainbows—long story.) I thought, ‘no kidding.’ So we embellished the rainbows idea a bit. Added a bird and stuff. I told her I was sorry for getting mad. “You’re such a good little girl. Mom and Dad are just learning how to be a mom and a dad. You’re the first little girl we ever had! We’re not very good at it yet and sometimes we get mad. I guess you’ll have to be patient with us. You’re going to teach us how to be a good mom and a good dad. You are very special. That’s why you came first.”

I asked her what I could do to help her get sleepy. She had me do the roly-poly bug. So I did, and she fell asleep."

It's like that last line from the book Olivia: the mom says, 'Olivia, you really wear me out, but I love you anyway.' And Olivia says, 'I love you anyway too.'

She really is a little monster sometimes, but then again, so am I. Mostly she's a little angel who is teaching me some big lessons. Love her to pieces. Absolutely to pieces.

Get yer green paws offa my sausage!

2011-04-02T19:36:00.003-06:00

If it looks like this castle is floating, that's because

it IS.

The Iverson Annual Holiday, sometimes referred to as St. Patrick's Day, has come again. Actually, we're a little late on this post, but I've been busy scrubbing leprechaun footprints out of every corner and shelf in the house. (They're messy little buggers!)

We thought for sure our trap this year was a no-fail. But then we heard about Michael and Julia's . Still, how can you beat a FLOATING CASTLE at the end of a RAINBOW LADDER?

I guess it accomplished the basic goal--to trick the leps into leaving their pot of gold at the end of our fake rainbow--but we were hoping they'd at least stay a while! (so we could take some photos and sell them on ebay for real money--you know how fleeting leprechaun gold is).

Here's the night view, from the L.E.P. Recon cam:

They were gone when the mornin' came (that's Irish for 'morning'), but they left their grubby green voodoo magic everywhere.

Yeah, that's green sausage, green juice...even the milk was green.

Oh well, at least the kids liked it.

We are a rock

2011-03-30T20:48:00.005-06:00

Things around here have been....sort of like the "stone cut out of the mountain without hands" (see Daniel 2), except that the stone is our life and it's big and spikey and bent on destruction and no one can stop it. Luckily, we won't be filling the whole earth, although it may seem that way, at the rate we're going. But, big, scary rock rolling way too fast downhill. That's us.

I never knew life would be like this, so hectic, busy, stressful. So completely out of my realm. We're a walking circus. But at least it's comedic. If you don't have a sense of humor at this point in motherhood, you're a....alien. Really, in a backwards sort of way, it has really done something to our marriage. We have more fun, we laugh more than we ever did. Sometimes I wish I could write down these conversations. Tonight we went from gummy candy to "Intergalactic" by the Beastie Boys to intercochlear hair cells to how this drawing of the thalamus looks exactly like a pair of boys' briefs. It doesn't make any sense! It's like one of those weird dreams. Maybe that means we're not getting enough sleep?
One thing I'm learning as I go is that even though everybody is different, most people are made of the same stuff (no two people are not on fire, as Strongbad would say)--meaning, we're all neurotic. The situation--stay-at-home momhood, I mean--naturally lends itself to neurosis. But since it doesn't kill us all the way, it makes us stronger. Especially if our kids turn out ok. My neurosis lately is that I believe I am likeable to no one but my husband. With everyone else I am socially inept (awkward, harsh, or nonverbal). I feel really really lucky to have Aaron. I think he's the most enjoyable person on the planet. So if he likes me, I can't be all bad, right? How could I ever function without him?
I don't know where this post is going, except to say that life is crazy, my kids are awesome and taxing, my husband is absolutely the BEST thing in my life, and the rest is going to take practice.
AND here are some photos:

baby love

2011-03-21T17:11:00.007-06:00

Ok. It's photo time. This little man has just stolen my heart away. He's gone and made me all soft, like a brand new mama! Babies will do that, I guess.
I took these today...
Hey there, handsome!See that? Daddy's dimples. Oh, yeah.

These are from last week sometime...

He looks different everyday.

Blue steel.

As I was shooting up a storm, I thought of how strange it was, since I did this with Nora (I have taken SOOOO many photos of Nora) and...well, Sara's "portfolio" is severely lacking. And I felt bad! Obviously! So this is what happened:

oh, wow. I could just rip my skin off(!), as Kelly Ripa says. (I didn't hear her say it, but I trust the source, know what I mean?) So cute!

Such a beauty.
Okay. And I took some of Nora. Couldn't help it. Here's one.

MmmHmmm. Seriously, can you blame me? (:

Cracking Up

2011-03-05T15:16:00.005-07:00

Grandmas are for cookie time (somehow grandma wasn't in this picture)...

Here she is! Picture taken by Nora.
Grandpas are for gadget time...
Daddies are for goofy time...
Mamas are for...
(another photo by Nora) CRAZY TIME?!? I don't know! Will someone please tell me how I will ever be able to shower again once my mother is gone?

I had a wonderful nurse during my hospital stay. She was from the Philippines and had five children. I asked her what it was like when she had the first three. She said that it was hard, but that it is much easier to find help in her country. She said, "I wouldn't have had as many children if I had lived in the states during that time. Sometimes I had three people helping me with cleaning the house and everything else." Hmph.

So, maybe not in the Philippines, but the in the states, mama is for....

Deep breaths.....
Everything else.

Are we CRAZY?!?!

No, I have help too. Aaron counts for at least three people. And my friend, Ashlynn, with as many meals as she's arranging, counts for a couple as well. All that's missing is a therapist. A massage therapist. One for me and one for Aaron.
And maybe someone who can pull off a vicarious shower now and again. Any volunteers?

About a Boy

2011-02-26T15:13:00.004-07:00

Still experimenting with short forms of 'Aaron'...Ari, Ernie, Al, Wren, Rennie, Rone, the Lion...
or maybe when he signs his name he can just put 'little man' or 'baby boy'?

Whatever he's called, we think he's pretty great. And this is what he looks like:

Welcome to Iverson Planet, little one!

Aaron Samuel

2011-02-25T18:22:00.003-07:00

Looking at this picture, you would think he didn't want to be here:

That matches the impression I got from the way labor was with this little guy. He sure took his time! But he's here! Healthy as can be! And we're going to show him that life on the outside is a lot better than life on the inside.
Two big sisters...
...and a family of FIVE! How did this happen? (don't explain. we have some idea.)

Details and more pics to follow. Thanks for your prayers!

Forty and a half weeks.

2011-02-23T03:35:00.003-07:00

It's 4:30am. Nothing like trying to sleep when you're 40.5 weeks pregnant. I was just thinking how, even with the third child, breastfeeding really doesn't seem normal. Whose body is this, anyway? And what species am I?
I picture us all waiting in line at some counter in Heaven, kind of like where you wait for shoes at the bowling alley. And each of us is telling the guy what kind of body we want. Some people want to be able to do everything one-handed. Some people are strictly utilitarian and just want everything to work right. Some people want the challenge of extreme beauty and everything that comes with it (that's my husband). And then there are *those* people who want to be able to make their own milk. (The men who wanted this feature and found it wasn't available in their sex all became goat farmers.) I don't picture myself as being one of those people.
I mean, it's alright and everything. Maybe it's great, who knows? It's just weird, that's all.
It's also kind of weird that I'm putting this on the blog. But it is 4:30am, afterall, and I am 40.5 weeks pregnant. Anything goes.

Sara Walks! and Nora Shoplifts!

2011-02-22T09:36:00.004-07:00

So, just kidding about the next post being about the baby boy. I was convinced he was going to come last Wednesday or Thursday, but so far it looks like I'm a week off. I'm sure if he could communicate his schedule to me somehow, he would have.
In the mean time, I neglected to mention that Sara is now finally walking! This video was taken a few weeks ago, I think, so she's had some more practice since then.

And Nora shoplifts? Well, she has once now. Let's hope it's not her first step in a life of crime. We were playing around in a fancy grocery store with my mom, who has angelically come out here to help with the kids. Nora has had some kind of strange personality change and is running madly around the store, guffawing and acting like a wild animal (up until a week ago, she was always angelic and mild-mannered and didn't open anything or touch anything she wasn't supposed to). Then one moment, her dad caught her with this in her jaws:Chocolate. We were SHOCKED.
I also took this picture, but the one above seemed more 'film noir' (maybe I should have made it b&w)...Yes, too pretty for the subject matter, don't you think? Although, it IS really good chocolate. At least she's got good taste. No daughter of mine is going to be stealing any Hershey's if I have anything to say about it.

P.S. we did pay for it, in case you're wondering. (;

Pray for Baby Ari/Aaron/Ernie/Aaronie to come TODAY!

Adventure at the Rink and other....Adventures

2011-02-14T19:35:00.002-07:00

The weather is definitely warming up here in Antarctica! We went to church on Sunday WITHOUT coats on! I feel like I've died and been reborn! Everything is melting, but luckily we made it out to the ice rink just in time...
They've got plenty of rinks to choose from, with all the community centers around here. And it's all free and so are the skates, if you can find two that match in the right size.
Found some for Nora, but not for Dad.

Nora LOVED it and was quite upset to take her skates off and leave. But we were treated to some entertainment that I didn't document. It isn't really fair to call it entertainment, as the event involved a young man getting his face torn up in a hockey game. Aaron went to see if he had lost any teeth--he hadn't--and then the ambulance came. I guess it wasn't that exciting. A little gruesome perhaps. Poor kid. He'll be just fine though. And it cleared the ice pretty quickly!
In other news, look at this french toast! Seriously!
And this Duplo blocks creation! There is no end to Aaron's ability to impress in every way. Nor of Bullseye's ability to carry any size load. May all of us strive to do the same. Every day of our lives, and with every fiber of our individual and collective beings.
And some Valentine's goodies this morning for the kids. They ate junk ALL DAY (; Happy Valentine's Day, children, from your most responsible mother!
Later, we ate some cherry supreme pie from Baker's Square, and it was GOOD.
Next up, a graphic depiction of what it's like to give birth! (Not really. We'll probably just post some pictures of the most gorgeous little baby boy you've ever seen.) Seriously, though...send some prayers this way. It's always a stressful time, hoping that everything will be ok.
Fingers crossed.

Until next time....

Food

2011-01-27T20:50:00.008-07:00

Aaron and I love to cook (most of the time). But we usually kind of modify recipes or make them up and therefore we don't have much of a regular recipe go-to book-thingy. But there are a handful of recipes that have become classics that I probably won't ever stray from again. Here are a few that can think of right away:
Favorite Stuffed Shells from Pioneer Woman:'cept I use my own favorite rose sauce recipe instead of her meat sauce (use her whole bechamel recipe with her whole tomato sauce recipe and mix them together) from Giada DeLaurentis. I use this sauce for everything. IT IS SO GOOD. For the shells, you can use dried basil instead of fresh and it's still great.

Favorite Tortilla Soup, also from Pioneer Woman:

'cept I omitted the chili powder (or cayenne or whatever she uses) and added coriander, paprika, and turmeric. Oh, and I omitted the tomato paste. Seriously, the best recipe I've found.

BEST carrot cake recipe:Straight up. Pricey, but if you want the best carrot cake...well, this is it.

Best tomato soup recipe (and TRUST ME, we've tried everything), from Jamie Oliver:
'cept don't do that cream/egg/vinegar thing. P.S. grilled cheese is really awesome when you press that cheap powdered parmesan cheese into the buttered sides before grilling. It makes it super crispy and yummy and good.

There are others, but the ones I'm thinking of would require me to actually type up the recipe, which I'm not going to do. Not right now, anyway. I'll probably do it later, just for safe-keeping. And, of course, because they're worth sharing.

Ciao! Bon appetit!

Happy 30th!/Waxing nostalgic (and old)

2011-01-20T10:16:00.003-07:00

I woke up to at least three gifts this morning. One, my kids let me sleep in until 7:15; Two, a beautiful card and gift from my husband; and Three, my children (born and unborn) and my husband were happy and healthy (as far as I know).
And then the sun came out--that makes at least four gifts then.

I want to quote an excerpt from Aaron's card. I hope he doesn't mind:
"30 only comes once ya know--that's as often as any other year ever comes so I don't think this one is any different--it's just as special as the rest! But it is a great number:
*it's a round 2 1/2 dozen
*it's the # of days in a lot of months
*it's two less than the number of patches on a soccer ball
*it's how long the 30-years war lasted
*it's the atomic number of zinc
*it was Cesare Maniago's hockey # (MN North Stars)
See! That's a lot of great things! And now that you are 30--the list finally gains relevance. So here's to 30! It just got relevant! Congratulations!"

But the best part is at the end. The card itself says: "I was born to love you." Which he follows with: "(Which is pretty impressive since you were only 3! You must have had a lot of sway and/or faith)"

I was thinking about a time when, for a class or in Young Women or something, I was asked to visualize where I wanted to be in five years, and then in ten. I remember vividly the picture I had of myself at five years in the future, 23 years old, walking around on Utah State's campus with my oversized canvas portfolio under my arm, skinny, hip, gorgeous, with cool black-rimmed glasses. I don't remember any visual for what I saw at ten years. Maybe I didn't have one. No concept of age 28. All I was concerned about was that I was going to look good doing whatever I was going to do at age 23. The perspective of a teenager. Well, the perspective of *me* as a teenager. I had no idea how good it was going to get.

Now, I've got a really good-looking husband who also happens to be a better husband than I ever could have imagined for myself. He has really taken over lately with the kids and with cooking dinner and doing dishes, etc., etc.. And now I'm crying because an adorable friend from the ward just brought me some homemade tomato soup, avocado salad, and freshly baked red velvet cake. She marched in and warmed it up for me, and it is REALLY GOOD. Really, does anybody deserve this kind of treatment?

I don't feel like the whole world is saying happy birthday to me, but I feel like heaven is. And 30 really isn't that bad, in case you're wondering. It's actually really, really good.

Sara turns ONE!

2011-01-14T19:17:00.006-07:00

It was Sara's birthday yesterday! Things are going along at a very quick pace around here when your second turns one and your third is about to turn zero. I took some funny pics of the girls in the morning...
Here Nora noticed I had the camera, so she posed. Nice pose, huh? Haha! Where did she get that from anyway?Cute Sara and her turtle mouth...
The cake took long enough that when Aaron came home it was 'Dad to the rescue!' and he whipped out this deluxe dinner for us!
This is Sara's version of "CHEESE" for the camera, sticking her big tongue out (she can roll it too--so talented and amazing):
This is another version of "CHEESE":
Looking at the smoke. Smoke really is cool, isn't it?
There's that tongue again. Sorry, I can't help but put ALL of these photos up...
Rainbow cake! It seems like most one year olds like to smash their face into the cake (is that true?). Not our girls. They're all dainty with their fork and spoon.

Six layers. Yeah it took a little while, but to be honest, it really wasn't that bad. I cheated and cooked the layers all at the same time with a round of parchment in between.

Ah, we love this girl. Can't imagine her not being with us. It's been one AWESOME year with Sara.

She got a crawl tube from Ikea (best place ever for cheap kids' toys, trust me). It was one of the best gift ideas to date. The girls absolutely loved it. Lots of giggling and squealing going on.
Even dad can fit in it!
Happy birthday, little Pocahontas!

Just a fun video

2011-01-10T19:36:00.001-07:00

HO Ho ho! MEEEEEEERRRRRy Christmas!

2011-01-10T13:20:00.007-07:00

We got to have TWO visits from Santa this year. He knew we would be going to Texas on Christmas Eve, so he came to MN a couple nights early. And he brought a TRAIN SET! Was it for Aaron or the girls? I'm having a hard time figuring that out (;
Here is one of his creations:
And this one spells that little cutie's name:
We may have told some of you that we and ALL of the married Iverson kids and our families decided on a whim to show up at Gma and Gpa's doorstep on Christmas Eve unannounced. Some of you thought we were crazy. But we pulled it off flawlessly and it was a once in a lifetime experience. I don't think any of us will ever forget it. AWESOME.
Here is a video from when G-pa entered the house (we had already surprised Christina, and Jessie knew a little bit ahead of time):

And thanks to Jessie and Steven and Christina and Daniel (and Tang) for tolerating and even welcoming our surprise visit. Other than that one time when we all passed around the barfs (all week long) we had a great time! Really, one of the best Christmases EVER.
There was the homemade rootbeer, Papa Iverson style...
The gift-passing book-reading game, Mama-Iverson tradition...
And just look at all these stockings!
And the tree!

Lots of movies...
and drooling over Michael's iPad...
opening presents...
and KIDS!!!! Nora misses her cousins so much. Sometimes at breakfast she gets these big eyes and tells me how today we are going to Texas to see "Keira, and Hattie, and Max, and Keira..."
I wish I could tell her 'yes'.

Playing outside (no jackets needed, thankyouverymuch)...
Here's the whole famn-damily. We took a pause between barfs. Don't we look wonderful? (:

Thanks to all of the Iverson clan, Sam and Tris and Fugate Mom and Dad for all of the WONDERFUL gifts! We love and miss you all! You too, Chadwick!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2010-12-18T19:05:00.003-07:00

Let's be honest: I've been celebrating Christmas since the first of November. And even though it's still a week away and I've got pretty much everything done, I'm still not sleeping for all the excitement. Or maybe it's the pregnancy. Either way, congratulations, everyone, for being in the middle of the BEST time of year! Or, as the song says, the "hap-, happiest season of all".
We couldn't send out a card to everyone on our list, so here is the internet/interactive version (if you click on it, it gets BIGGER! That's a feature you just don't get with the actual card). We think of our family and friends this time of year and are thankful for all of the memories we have with you. It makes our life full and happy. Thank you! And Merry Christmas!

More Snow. And More Snow to Come

2010-12-15T20:24:00.003-07:00

So here are some pics from the final pile up after the snowstorm/blizzard passed. There were plenty of people who were snowed in for a couple of days, but Aaron was out right away, digging out the car and the garbage can and taking care of the neighbors too. (He even went out for a walk in the blizzard and unstuck some cars! What a guy!) So we were mobile again pretty quickly. Roads are still a little squeaky though.
The view of our little courtyard from the living room window:
Aaron dug a little tunnel to get to the garbage can and decided to keep on going for the sake of his and Nora's enjoyment. And this was all in below zero temperatures of course.
The pile in front of our house:
The thing with this snow is that it's here for good. At least, until spring thaw. Snow doesn't melt here. The temperatures stay so low that when it comes, it stays. So this pile will only be getting bigger from here until April/May! Pretty cool, huh?
King of the hill:
The view from our bedroom window:
Another from the living room. That's Nora down there too. She loved it.

A day or two later, on a nice run to the store, documentation of the temperature (from the car's reading):We hope you're all enjoying your weather wherever you are! We're sure enjoying ours! We think there should be a blizzard like this every year!

Look-alike (?)

2010-12-11T10:25:00.002-07:00

This is Elder Nelson. People in our ward tend to get Aaron and Elder Nelson confused for one-another. I think they could easily be brothers, but really? Do you think they look that much alike?

SNOW LOAD and Nora's first flea (so proud)

2010-12-11T10:02:00.003-07:00

Nora has been quite the artist lately. There is almost no wall, cabinet, or kitchen appliance which has not been graced by her pencil. Yesterday she drew all over the couch with a PEN! She really just needs her own studio, I think.
This flea-like drawing is the first one that actually starts to look like something: a closed shape, an eye (everything must have an eye or eyes with her), and she even drew little legs. I think she was going for a ladybug, but she got pretty close, I think!

The girls have been lucky enough to spend some time with these cutest kids before they move at the beginning of January. We've been trading babysitting a bit with them, and they're just the best family ever. SO SAD that they're leaving.
Homemade popcorn and the "meatball movie". So cute.
New things with the girls: Sara is standing on her own, without support, and is gearing up to walk. She's got a lot of personality and a great big temper! Her dad says she's a firecracker. Nora is as fearless a thrill-seeker as ever. She's VERY particular and picky, picking out every seed from her multigrain bread (with no crust of course) and noticing every little spot on her hands or her spoon or the floor. She is talking very well, and is working on her alphabet and sounds. Most of all, she just draws a lot. Her hair is getting long enough for me to do this: (even if it doesn't last very long)...
Aaron is almost done with his FIRST SEMESTER OF DENTAL SCHOOL! Woohoo! We find that he's really good at carving teeth (I married a SCULPTOR, everyone). Baby boy Aaron is kicking a lot more lately and wishes he could be here for Christmas, but, on mama's orders is deciding to wait for another year.
And it's beginning to look A LOT like Christmas. We got this snow last night:

...and it's supposed to keep on going the whole day. AWESOME!
Merry Christmas, everybody!

First Day in the Snow!

2010-12-04T20:35:00.003-07:00

Touring St. Paul with SAM AND TRIS!!!

2010-11-29T21:30:00.001-07:00

Two weekends ago, Sam and Tris showed up on our doorstep and said, "Surprise! I'm pregnant!" We knew they were coming, but the pregnancy was definitely a surprise! Now we'll have two little kiddies that are even closer in age than Nora and Neve--just three months. I stole these photos from Tris's blog. I wish we had had our camera!
It was SUCH a great visit! Something about being so far away and having your first visit from family is really magical. And it was really fun to have them over for once instead of the other way around. They have been taking care of us like fairy god big-brother and -sister for the longest time! We owe them so much!
We were just a quick stop in a line of many quick stops on their tour of midwest relatives, but we were able to do quite a bit in a short amount of time.
First stop, Como Zoo Conservatory...
Then, a drive down Summit to see all of the big, cool houses.
A visit to the St. Paul Cathedral (it was amazing! and so fun to see with my architect bro. in-law)...
Lastly, we grabbed some lunch at a little cafe on Grand called "Bread and Chocolate" before sending them off to the Thomases. I just hope they come again!

A Night with Schubert and Mother Goose

2010-11-29T21:17:00.002-07:00

A couple of weekends ago, just before our anniversary, Aaron scored some symphony tickets from a friend at school who was unable to use them. We were able to find a last-minute babysitter (THANK YOU) and it was this strange, beautiful, sophisticated experience! Strange, because we're used to changing diapers and putting kids in time-out, and no item of clothing, no matter how fancy, is off limits to baby "juices". Regrettably we did not take any photos, but here is what the venue looks like:
It was full of people milling around, wine glasses in hand, eager to make it a social event. So weird! We were just there for the music.
The primary violist is our R.S. President (so cool!!!). So we got to hear her play a little solo in Schubert's Fourth Symphony. Our favorite music of the night, besides her solo, were the pieces from Ravel's Mother Goose ballet.
Thanks, friends, for making it possible!

Back Atcha!

2010-11-18T19:33:00.002-07:00

I woke up this morning to this:
GORGEOUS new Christmas table runner and mmmmm cinnamon bread, granola, and Simply Limeaid. Man, is he the best ever, or WHAT?!And then, the funniest thing...I open up the card and find that it's the SAME card that I got for him. Notice where he crossed out 'husband' and put 'wife'. How crazy is that, huh?
Love you, babe. Happy Anniversary! Let's have some more!

Happy Anniversary!

2010-11-18T09:10:00.003-07:00

no idea where or when this picture was taken. love you dear! 4 years- woohoo!

p.s. beat you to it! hehe :)

Halloween 2010

2010-11-01T16:46:00.006-06:00

This was the first year that we actually all dressed up and went somewhere. So much prep for just a couple of hours, but it was worth it! Such a weird holiday, but it was a lot of fun.
Entered these beauties into the cupcake contest:

Won a target gift card. Booyah.
We dressed up as Harry Potter (of course), Hedwig the owl, a pesky pixie, and the Snitch.
Aaron really does make such a perfect Harry Potter, don't you think? Here's a better look at the snitch costume:
Believe it or not, there were actually a couple of people who recognized what we were. Needless to say, we became instant best friends.
I made Nora's owl costume out of Aaron's old t-shirts.

the back:Maybe before Sara wears it we'll have more old t's on hand to make more feathers and a hood with a beak and owl eyes and stuff. But it worked.
Trunk or treat...after Nora went to bed we raided her pumpkin (don't tell her) and picked out our favorites. That's one of the best things about being a parent, I think. People hate teenage trick or treaters, but parents using their children as slave-labor trick or treaters? They love us! It's a good system.
At bedtime Nora and Dad traded spells. Nora says: Expelliarmus! or Stupify! or AlohaNora! and Dad returns with: Crucio! How harsh is that? Her own father!
Oh, and this is Nora's new big-girl bed. She LOVES it (so far).
Yep. He's WAAAAAY better-looking than Daniel Radcliff. Ow! Ow!
Happy Halloween!

munny buddies and other matters

2010-11-01T16:41:00.003-06:00

A pictorial update of the goings-on as of late....
Nora and Dad made some "munny buddies", as Nora calls them. You could have sworn it was the highlight of her life thus far.

We're slowly making Christmas decorations at our house--one snowflake on the wall at a time. Aaron whipped this one out. Are you seeing what I'm seeing?
Oh, and Sara says HI. She decided the other day to climb all the way up the stairs. I turned around one moment and there she was, climbing the stairs. She's a girl who just decides to do something and then does it.
Merry Christmas/Happy Halloween/Holidays from the Iversons!

Autumn in MN/New Stroller!!!

2010-10-24T13:32:00.005-06:00

Mama is finally mobile with our new double stroller! Aaron made a spreadsheet with the stats of all the double strollers out there and we finally settled on the Baby Jogger City Mini and so far we LOVE it! The seats recline so the kiddos *might* sleep if we're out during naptime (which we always are--there's no way around that these days). It's so great being able to put them in something that isn't heavy, where I don't have to carry anything besides this big prego belly of mine. Merry Christmas to us!
Unfortunately, we bought it just as fall is turning into winter. But there are still some leaves hanging around. Minnesota is beautiful in the fall! So many trees, so many leaves, and so many rich fall colors. The drive from here to Rochester is a landscape artist's dream too, with really cool barns and fences and animals and everything. Hopefully I'll get to paint sometime during these next four years (;
(I didn't take these shots, but these are either places I've been or they're identical to places I've been around here. This is really what it looks like! Absolutely beautiful!)

Craziness

2010-10-21T21:03:00.002-06:00

The night of Aaron's white coat ceremony, we put the girls to bed and later came down to witness this scene:
Where is Nora? Where is all her stuff?

Oh.
There she is. And there is all her stuff. Three blankets, three pillows, some books, and a few dolls/stuffed animals.
Can Sara breath under there?They fight a little. But they also giggle and wrestle and play and sing together. It's great fun.
Videos to come later.

Apple Farm!

2010-10-21T20:13:00.002-06:00

Just a fun outing to a nearby apple/pumpkin/raspberry/etc. farm! Lots of photo-shoot things, hay ride, huge playground, animals, cider squishing demo....
We brought home a peck of Zesters and a jug of fresh apple cider. Ahhhhh! the BEST!

The White-Coats are Coming! The White-Coats are Coming!

2010-10-21T19:58:00.003-06:00

Did you know that dental students *also* have a white coat ceremony? Neither did I! Until it happened, of course. Here are some pics...Jessie, Steven, and Daniel all came out for it, which was super awesome. It seems like whenever they come we have really good rootbeer or really good chips or really good pizza, or all three! And I couldn't have attended the ceremony without Jessie and Steven's help. Jessie helped with the kiddos and Steven took all the photos. THANK YOU!!!
Who's that handsome guy?
Aaron was voted to be the one to read the class's ethics statement. That meant that he was the one student from his class to get to speak. He did an AWESOME job.
Congrats, babe!

Our litte Aaronie!

2010-10-05T14:45:00.002-06:00

The ultrasound has spoken: IT'S A BOY!!! How does one have a boy, anyway? I guess we'll find out! Good thing the crib bedding is blue already! And good thing he already has a Stars jersey!

Hey, there, little boy! He was just kicking around, avoiding the radiologist. Here he is with his mouth open. I'm sure he's saying something, but I'm not very good at reading lips. (;
There you have it; 4th boy on my side, 3rd on Aaron's. Let's all pray for him not to be born on Valentine's Day!

Nora turns TWO!

2010-09-22T11:32:00.003-06:00

Can I believe it? YES I CAN. Nora is definitely a two-year-old. And she had about the best presents ever from her grandmas and grandpas, auntie tris and uncle sam and fam, and cousin hattie and the gang. Sara really enjoyed the cake. Nora just wanted the presents (:

Nothing fancy, no big party or fancy cake (we didn't even have ice cream!--gasp), but she LOVED her presents!
Our camera was dying, so we had to be spare about the photos...
but i can tell you that she had a big reaction to the backpack (which she now takes to church with her--mom and dad, that was from you, just so you know), she won't sleep without her Jessie and Bullseye dolls, and she's still playing with the balloons that Paul and Melanie and Hattie and Anna sent her (that was a brilliant idea, btw).
Oh! and this is my favorite picture: (thanks Tris, Sam and kiddos)
Happy Birthday, Noramonster!

Living in the NOW!

2010-09-13T19:50:00.004-06:00

WHEW. This is the final of SEVEN posts just to catch up! and finally, some photos of the new place! Aaron is in his 5th week of school already. Time is flying by! We are loving MN and meeting new people all the time. Still unpacking, still settling in, still getting comfortable, but it's a good setup. I think we'll really enjoy our time here.
Aaron in his new school uniform: (wouldn't it be great to wear scrubs everyday?)

And here are some pics of the new place...
kitchen:
Living room:

Kitchen/dining, entry to study/studio/guest room:
and more living room:
We have the girls in the same, quite spacious room downstairs. We sleep downstairs as well. There's lots of room, lots of storage room. Great anemones. Or amenities.
We also really love the people and our ward. We've got really nice neighbors too. Playgroup is great. There are four missionaries assigned to our ward and we've already had them over a few times.
The girls are adjusting too. Sara is no problem. Nora has had a tougher time of it--she misses her cousins, and she's kind of afraid of her room. She hasn't taken a nap since we got here, but I think she's starting to get used to the place a little bit. I still just need to find her some friends to play with during the week.
It has been fun to see the girls start to play together as Sara gets a little bigger. They will often sit and stare at each other and have a laughing fit back and forth. Nora *really* loves to wrestle...

...which can be a little problematic (;
Sara will be crawling any day now. And Nora is saying just about every word in the books.

S'mores anyone?

The Big Move

2010-09-13T14:37:00.005-06:00

Well, we did it, and here's proof. We moved across the country. In our covered wagon.
Christina and Aaron and I took turns in the CRV while Aaron and his Dad took turns in the Uhaul. Steven and Christina were absolute lifesavers. And that was not a short drive!
We stopped at Mount Rushmore halfway. It was a lot farther away from the viewing point than I thought it would be! Still cool though.

We did the obligatory finger up the nose pic, as disrespectful as it may be. But Aaron had bigger things in mind...four fingers in four noses?
He had to stand there and adjust for SO LONG that it was a bit of a spectacle. Pretty hilarious.
And here's my F.I.L. and Christina morphing into the mountain. I bet those guys wish they had sunglasses like Steven.
The artist's studio, and what the sculpture was originally intended to look like...

The surrounding town looked something like Jackson Hole...
My Aunt Jodee and fam were good enough to have us stay with them for several days while we waited for our new place to become available. This was on the way to their home in Rochester...
I'm going to have to take some drives out there and get some landscape shots.

Aunt Jodee and Amber and Nora at a wildlife place just outside of town.
And Nora's Toy Story obsession was again reinforced. Look at this shot of her hugging Josh's toys while watching the movie! So funny!Thanks Jodee, Randy, Erika/Andrew, Heather, Josh, Nikki, Amber, and Dash! You guys are the BEST!

Baltimore/D.C./Beach...pre-move getaway

2010-09-12T19:04:00.016-06:00

Back in July, we took advantage of the family reunion trip to visit Aaron's sister in D.C.. We also went through Baltimore and visited the aquarium there. Here are some pics:
Cool bubble things...
stingrays and giant tortoises and other exotic creatures...
seen from many floors...
at the top there were rainforests, with birds and lizards and all sorts of things!

Dolphin show...

In D.C. we went to Mount Vernon, Pres. Washington's estate...(Nora looks at this and says 'temple!')
This one is for Tris...

Cute Max and Nora. Erika and Steve have such great kids!
Picnic on the lawn. Did you know that this was illegal? Well, now you know.
His one-car garage...
His conveniently located tomb...
and YES, yes it is, the real thing. Friberg's "Prayer at Valley Forge".
Later, with Steve, we took off in the swelteringly hot weather and visited the monuments. Nora and Max had it good,
Along the Potomac...

Apparently Erika and the kids were more interesting than the monument! Haha! Aaron and Steve and I were standing a ways a way just laughing at this. Look at that expression on Erika's face! Hahahaha.
Max, zonked.
It was SO GREAT to spend some time with Erika, Steve, Keira, Maximus and Sam. SO GREAT.
Then it was off to the beach, which I've already posted about, but I found these other photos, so might as well post 'em.
Night walk on the beach, hunting for crabs.
Beach house!

Hot hubby and gorgeous baby girl...
Family pic.