O H A N A

Thomas took these over the last several months. You can tell which child is a more willing participant when the camera comes out! I love them all.

have you noticed he's taking pictures again?

And they are really amazing if you ask me. Go T-Rob. If it weren't for your photography... this blog would all iPhone or just probably imageless. Your pictures make me want to post something. Thankssssssssss.

nature: my fave

other current faves include:
thomas and his nature photography (see above)
ambrose
asher
birthday weekend extravaganza
ward camp week at the beach
oh yeah, beach
filling my house with tree images (yes, like the one above)
the new bike i'm getting belatedly from my parents and thomas. all i had to do was turn 26.
trying to get organized about teaching my sons (see side bar: mama school)
my friends
essential oils ("balance" and "wild orange" to be exact. makes me feel like a revitalized mother nature. i told you i'm psycho.)
planning our up-coming mainland take over! i mean trip.
a resurgence of mates of state love
a tall glass of cold water with 1/2 a fresh squeezed lemon in the morning
love wherever it is found
sneaking little moments on the computer to keep in touch
the book of mormon
seizing creative moments
lists. obviously.

found

We have been cleaning out a lot of old boxes and I found this poem that Thomas wrote when we all looked and acted like this:

I had no idea where it was for at least a year or two and when I spotted a corner of it in an old drawer I instantly knew what it was and snatched it up like a pirate stumbling upon treasure! He doesn't write much, which is annoying because he is a better writer than me and nice because ... well he is a better writer than me dang it! It's annoying when someone is good at EVERYTHING. ;)

Love you Thomas. Thanks for documenting the everyday and simple sweetness of the most life-changing time in our young lives.

The Time Between Sleep

He fell asleep with a whimper and a long yawn
So I drive us home the long way
Lets see our new home, the one we are wishing for
Which one do you like?
Them all

He woke up laughing at a joke he dreamt
It must have been a good one
He is letting us get to know him
He is invested in this relationship
So in the morning he talks to us with his eyes and eyebrows
And with his little voice

Tonight I'll take your picture
And I'll see you as a mother
I'll try to capture something I can't see
The braid of our breath
Yours, the little one, and mine
Will twist and turn
And with thoughts like these
As crisp as the salt on my lenses
A new rope is being spun

Fell asleep laughing at our old selves
We thought we knew everything back then
Because we could see the light around the bend
How funny we were

Woke up in a thick darkness
The moon sunk past the mountains long ago
Leaving us with our own imaginations
Heard the boy's breath in the stillness
As he stirs against the crib sheet
He, She, I all murmur in our sleep
A family trait we tell each other about in the mornings
I say you were talking in your sleep
She says, so were you

gettin' his hair did.

this little chipmunk needed a trim.

so we gave him a sucker

and he was cool until the clippers started "makin a noise!"


which was apparently downright distressing until his barber finished up and let him play with the hose

hats off to you thomas. this is a task i would never attempt and you did it fast and well!


what a handsome little haole boy.

my cup of tea sewing society

i think that's what i'll call our sewing society. i googled the name to make sure we would be one of a kind and found that there is a "just my cup of tea" social/sewing society in brooklyn (hunt 'em down lizzie and take 'em out!) but they don't look very active and we won't have the "just" as part of our name. you still in? not sure what it's all about yet, but it's gonna be about something. like sewing and tea cups and general awesomeness.

anyway, here's what we've been working on lately - and by we i mean thomas and me- which is a whole separate society- although he is my cup of tea.... oh gosh. someone help me please.

first: you must know that i am the photographer on these and so the pictures are not up to snuff and therefore don't fully showcase the projects well. it was kinda frustrating, but you can get the idea.
first thomas found this headboard on craigslist and decided it would look cool upholstered in the two panels. it was a very tricky project because we have never done anything like it before and it wasn't as if we could just staple everything to the back of the board.



he figured it out though and it looks great!

he did that while i worked on our bedspread:

and we both cut out the fabric together for both projects to make them perfect. it was fun working together. we came up with this very basic design and at first it was looking a little too south american for me. i like the south american look, but we were going more for basic, clean, beachy, and modern and that isnt necessarily south american is it. after i got it finished and laid out on the bed though i was pleased as punch.


here's the back:
with the mustard, cherry red, and sky blue repeated a little. this picture kinda makes it look like a mans sweater from the mid-nineties. whatcha gonna do. i promise it's real swell.

next?

i just have to quilt it and i'm gonna try to do it by hand since it measures 90x90 and was a beast to maneuver through my machine in separate pieces. wish me luck.

oh and here's the stockings:


oi! sorry for the bad lighting. again. i love how they turned out though. i was going for depression era homemade with the charm of the ball fringe. depression era charm? yes. stay with me.

i'm thinking about embroidering our names on them, but i'm gonna wait til my mama comes in a few months to embark on that new frontier.

and... oh yes, i made these christmas cards for the womens organization:

for their sub for santa program. my mother-in-law designed them and donated the supplies and i made them. neat!

ok.

thomas found a multi-colored antique pharmacists desk thingy on craigslist and sanded her down like crazy and painted her and now she looks like this:


thomas is just, well, cool like that to say the least. she'll look even better once the knobs from anthropologie arrive- picture two little black and white clock knobs on there.

and i guess that is all for now friends.

i'm tickled by the idea of our "my cup of tea sewing society" because i'm silly like that. it's going to be fun. get your tea cup ready and your sewing machines dusted off, oiled up and ready to go! anyone can be in it. i wouldn't say it's much of a social society because i'm not one for social commitments, but it's gonna be our cup of tea and that sounds good to me.

thankful i didn't marry a neanderthal

cuz i don't know what made me think of this today, but i thought of a girl i once knew who did. we were both newly weds and were supposed to have a meeting at her house one afternoon and her husband happened to be home in between classes around the same time as the meeting. some other group members and i waited in stunned silence as she hurriedly chopped some tomatoes to complete the tacos she had made for her husbands lunch. not even her lunch. just his lunch. her baffling devotion would have been somewhat touching if it weren't for the fact that her neanderthal of a husband was exasperated that it was taking so long (mere seconds) for her to chop his tomatoes. he was hungry dash it all. he kept shrugging his shoulders and huffing and puffing. i wanted to barf.

actually, i wanted to smack his plate out of his hand and scream, "are you KIDDING ME???? make your own damn lunch! a simple sandwich shouldn't threaten your manhood too terribly much."

hehe

but anyway, i think i've mentioned my husband is very extremely awesomely helpful on here before. he has never once treated me like that. not once.

if i can't muster up the energy to make dinner thomas always offers to or says, "let's just scavenge tonight!" and we still eat together, but just heat up saimen, leftovers, sandwiches or whatever sounds good and easy.

thanks thomas. i'm pretty sure you know i adore you.

i'm thankful for a helpful, hardworking, and understanding husband.

here he is looking cool at a show they played last week :)

just the facts max

every once in a while i find myself dwelling on some facts that i never want to forget about my little family. here are some of them:

ambrose: still talks to and about "doo-doo".... we still cant figure out who that is. he also calls asher's pacifier a "grass-a-phopher"- we love it. he listens to every word we say (even if he chooses not to obey-haha) and remembers and dazzles us with how smart he is.

thomas: makes me look bad (and i LOVE him for it all the more!). i was lounging around nursing asher today and i realized that in a 24 hour period thomas had: done a load of laundry, made homemeade (breadmaker) bread, combed and rinsed ALL the cradle cap off asher's sweet little head, made me orange julius, done about three loads of dishes (he is the dish doer in the relationship- i cook, he washes), gotten up early with ambrose (he also does this every morning), made the family crepes for breakfast, gave asher a bath, entertained ambrose during sacrament meeting, made me feel loved and pretty, reprimanded ambrose in a way that taught him but still made him feel happy and like his daddy loved him, and changed many a diaper, etc. etc. etc....... anyone feeling like a slouch yet? :) me too. but mostly i just feel really lucky and in love about the whole thing.

i was telling him all this earlier today and i ended with, "you're like.... the perfect man!" and without missing a beat he said, "and yet, i'm not a vampire." hahahahahaha!

asher: drifts off to sleep by himself during the day, but prefers to be cuddled up to mommy all night and i am totally ok with this scenario. maybe i'll want him OUT! one day, but for now, nothing he does bothers me. what's the deal?

also, when we were on the mainland this summer asher was so brand new and got sick because he was having a hard time breathing in the dry mainland air and so my mom started a hot shower in their little bathroom and me and asher went and sat in there to soak up the steam, hoping it would clear up his nose and chest. as i sat there holding my three week old baby, i looked into his eyes, let the steam envelope us, and sang "my darling" by wilco to him (the song that is playing now). it makes me cry every time i hear it now because i remember what a nervous night that was, but how sweet it was to sing to my baby that we made him with the love in each of our hearts and that we were a family right from the start.

these are things i dont want to forget. ever. :)

storytelling at sundown

we had to drop by and say goodnight.

we couldnt resist. aloha.

press play and then read on!

hey thomas!

well, it's been five years today. and we got married pretty young. i was shockingly young, whew, good thing it worked out ;)


you gave me these beautiful babies:


you make cool stuff like this:

this:

and stuff like these:



my clothes seem kinda cute when you display them in this manner. i should think about this as i'm throwing on the same old thing everyday. ;)

you're workin hard for your family and sometimes it's too stressful, annoying and maybe even dangerous, but you do it anyway and you make it seem easy.

you always support me in my wild schemes to plan this, and sew that, and you dont get too mad when i buy yard after yard of fabric (or at least you dont let on if you do, so thank you, cuz it's a disease i dont want to find a cure for).

you have great taste in music and movies and that counts for a lot!

you're obviously an impressive drummer. i'm impressed:





you are so smart and have so many facts stored away in that NPR listening brain of yours.

and you are a spiritual leader in our family. i respect your gospel knowledge and hope to be like you someday!

but most of all you're just you. my best friend and someone that i quickly fell in love with because it was just obvious. i am glad we didnt drag it out. i am glad we knew and were spared the high drama that comes with a lot of relationships. i am glad we started our life together with a lot of optimism. a lot has happened in five years and i am glad.

thanks for all you do for our family. i look forward to you coming home to us everyday like most people look forward to the weekend because once you're here everything is more fun and we all love you so so much!

glad i get to have you forever. i love you!