Monthly Archives: December 2009

A few years ago I decided to start having Christmas Eve dinner as a big meal and big tradition in our family.

This year I was inspired by Jena, who hosted the Christensens for Thanksgiving. I borrowed her things and determined to make this years dinner the most fancy shmancy of ever.

I’m pretty sure Martha couldn’t have done better.

Thank you to the Smiths who came and brought ham, and Leslee, Jason and Jared who came and brought happiness.

It was a great evening.

Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas

let your heart be light

From now on our troubles will be out of sight

Through the years we all will be together if the fates allow

Hang a shining star upon the highest bough

and have yourself a Merry Little Christmas now.

I just woke up from a dream . . .

and since listening to other people’s dreams is a conversation of thrill and delight, I’ll humor you.

A new neighbor moved in next door . . . an older, professional lady.

The first thing she did when she moved in was cut down my tree.

And then there was a lot of yelling.

And screaming.

I woke up wondering if I don’t have some deep secret anger issues.

But I also thought (as I was listing them to my crazy neighbor at the top of my lungs, in hysteria)

that my tree is good for lots of things.

Let’s list a few.

My tree  is good for laying in her shade and reading books on a lazy afternoon.

And she is good for swinging when one has an inkling.

She’s a good sport when it comes to neighborhood pranks.

And she is wonderful at obliging when you need a place to hang art projects.

And if we ever wanted to, I think she’d be willing to hang our fish.

And her canopy provides an enchanting place for gathering with people you love.

And her bark is rough and good for bare toes to climb.

And in the spring she provides a place to look and see proof of coming summer.

And in autumn she provides leaves to jump and play in.

And in the winter she gathers snow on her limbs to give life an enchanted feel.

And in summer her leaves whisper and sing with the sound of the wind rushing through.

And she gives me a beautiful and obliging photo subject in the most trying conditions.

And she is our tree.

And if a crazy lady ever cut her down, I tell you what . . .

**Side note – We had our first visit to the ER this morning as Everett had what is called a “hair tournequett” – freaked Wyatt out. Freaked me out when the insta-care doctor we went to first said to take him to Primary Children’s ER.

But all is well. Another adventure down.

1 basement 90% finished . . . now it’s down to the details – cover plates on light switches and what not. For some reason those last details always take the longest.

1 flood in said basement. Luckily damage was minimal.

1 is the number of times Dr Larson said he’d seen a woman take pictures of her own labor while pushing.

We went to St. George 1 time. We had a lot of fun.

We attended 2 dance recitals. Olivia loves dance.

Calvin turned 2. He loves keys, four wheelers, keys, and trucks. And did I mention keys?

Calvin asks for keys every 2 minutes from the time he wakes up till the time he goes to bed. “Mor Wheeler Key? Dadda’s Keys? Makeup keys?”

2 children utterly and completely ecstatic at the arrival of the

3rd child, Everett.

With 3 small children we are loving the fun, but wonder at the amount of body fluids . . .

Olivia turned 4. She is: Smart, Percocious, Responsible, Wise, and full of Fun. She loves to dance, sing, play the piano, read to her brothers, and color beautiful pictures for her friends and family.

We started the year with 4 members of our family, but now we’re a family of 5.

We kept up a few of our family traditions including going to the 4th of July rodeo in Oakley. It was our 4th year!

We also went to Idaho over the 4th of July to spend time with family. We played 1 baseball game, had 3 barbeques, and watched a kajillion fire works over the river in Idaho falls.

5 is the number of times I threw up every day for 6 months. Or maybe it was 6, or 7 or 8 or 9. I try to block that part out.

5 is also the number of people we now have in our family.

6 is the month Wyatt officially started his own mortgage brokerage. Principal Realty Group is now up and running. We are so lucky to have Wyatt who works so hard for all of us.

We went to the zoo 7 times this year. We saw a baby elephant, got to have picnic lunches, and ride the train.

7 people laid the sod in our back yard. We are blessed to feel loved and supported by so many people.

Everett was 7 days late. He was due on October 1st but didn’t come until October

8th.

Wyatt and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. We feel like old pros now.

Everett was born weighing 8 lbs 14 oz.

8 is the letter H – and H stands for HAPPINESS. And 2009 has been full of it.

Everett was 9 weeks old when he learned to smile. Now we can’t get him to stop! We call him “Gigs” for “giggles.” Or sometimes I call him “smalls” cuz he’s the smallest in our family, but ironically also the BIGGEST baby.

9 is the year of the decade: 2009. It’s been a real ride.

Today I was walking up the stairs after changing the laundry (HATE LAUNDRY) and I looked across the room at the stockings. “We should take a picture of Everett in a stocking” I said aloud.

“Let’s do it!” Carrie said. I think she was bored. I was startled by her enthusiasm. And motivated.

So we did.

We took Everett’s stocking down and stuffed him in it. Then we photographed him against the last little section of blank wall left in my living room.

I also took a few pics of the fireplace mantle. Obviously he’s too heavy to just hang on the hooks. I knew I’d have to photoshop him back into place.

Then tonight I sat down and went to work.

First I cropped and straightened the mantle.

Then I masked it and created a new gradient layer using sampled colors from the wall behind to create a smooth new wall without funky shadows. I then slid the opacity of that layer down a little bit to allow some shadows to create a more realistic feel.

Then I cut out little dude from his picture, and pasted him in to the mantle picture already underway. I resized him to what I thought looked good, copied the hook from another stocking and added it to him, and then added a drop shadow to the whole layer.

Then he was too bright so I did a new layer based on his selection and filled it with a shade of middle grey. I set that layer to multiply and slid the opacity down till it looked right to tone down his overall color.

Next I added a fire in the fireplace following this tutorial.

And I added a picture above the mantle place, taken off the internet, adding a drop shadow to it as well.

Then things really started getting fun.

I did a gausian blur overlay to give it that glowy happy look. Then did a little highlight correction because you tend to over do highlights when you do that.

Next I selected my edges and blurred them out. I added a vignette effect, again, corrected my highlights, and burned my edges even more.

Next I decided it needed to be warmer – you know, have that sit by the fire, drink hot chocolate feeling.

Then I added an even stronger vignette by copying all layers and pasted them into one layer, setting that layer to multiply, and sliding the opacity down to where I wanted it, then creating a square selection and feathering it at 150, and deleting the center.

Almost done now. Next I burned Everett just a little more to make his tones more consistent with the rest of the image, but added a little highlighting to his face to make him pop out.

Last, but not least, I increased the canvas size setting the background to black to give him a framed look.

And that’s about as much photoshopping as I ever do.

But it was fun.

I wonder what quality the print would be.

I always worry about that when I mess around in Photoshop too much.

But I printed this picture last week, and it turned out great. So maybe I should print this up and use it as my Christmas card. What do you think?

The first time I lost my wallet was three days after we got engaged. We were at the temple for Brian and Brynn’s wedding. I was waiting outside for everyone to come out. When I saw Wyatt I stood and walked the twenty feet to him, gave him a hug and kiss. Then we had to go over to the steps for pictures. “Let me grab my wallet. I just left it over by the wall.”

But when I returned like seventeen seconds after I first left, it was gone.

So was the key to the car. So was my travel ring (came with my engagement ring, that’s another story).

Maybe they’ll turn it in to the lost and found, after all, we are at the temple.

No such luck. Then of course, the tears started. And continued for the rest of the day as the stress of a lost wallet, and more importantly, key and ring, took their toll. Eventually all was found . . . like six hours later. Someone did finally decide to get around to turning them in to the lost and found. Our engagement pictures were taken later that night on the lawn in front of the temple. My bright eyes are so bright because I had been crying all day (also the pic is in B&W because my face was red and blotchy).

The second time I lost my wallet we lived at the Gateway. The third, at the Meth lab. The fourth was sometime a couple years ago. I remember losing it, and then like six months later needing my drivers license to get on the plane to Texas (well, I probably could have used my passport, my default form of i.d. – never lost that). So I went to get a new DL right before I left, then at the ticket counter at the airport, the lady LOST my brand new license. She accused me of losing it. Of course, with my track record, Wyatt understandably believed her. But she gave me a pass to get through security. Later she found it, indeed, fallen behind her computer on her desk. She sent it to Wyatt who then overnighted it to me (at our expense) so I could get back on the plane to come home. Then when we got home they lost half our plane’s luggage, including mine. At the luggage reclamation counter, I again handed over my license. This time I never got it back.

And I didn’t get a new one until this past summer, when at seven months pregnant I waddled into the new DMV, two small children in tow. I don’t even know why I bothered to get a new one. I do remember though, standing at the counter, writing the check for the new copy, and thinking – “This is so lame, when ever I get a new DL, I just lose my wallet.”

Well, tonight was that night.

I was at Costco, and had my wallet in my cart, and stepped a few feet away to look at something. When I turned back the entire cart and wallet were gone. Nothing of great value inside, a debit card which I immediately canceled, while standing there in the aisle (GOOD THING I HAVE A CELL PHONE NOW!) and a gift card to Macy’s, also able to cancel, and . . . my drivers license.

Later I met up with Wyatt at Best Buy. He was very supportive and dear, and helped reassure me that it wasn’t the end of the world. We got a call from Costco. An employee had seen a couple of young adults throw a drivers license into the dog food. They retrieved the license and called me. They later found the wallet left at a check out. Everything else was inside (not that it mattered, I had already canceled everything).

Now, listening to this story you might think me flaky. Really, I’m not. I just have the worst luck when it comes to wallets. Oh, and keys (speaking of which, I lost those on Saturday. I still haven’t found them. I’m using the spare.)

But I’ve never lost my passport.

This morning Wyatt finally came up to our room after sleeping on the couch all night. “What is that?” he asked? I didn’t even open my eyes. “Spit up.” I told him. “Go get a towel.”

Wyatt put a towel over the puddle of spit up, laid down and went back to sleep. I was already sleeping on a towel of my own. Everett projectiled on both sides of the bed last night.

Two nights ago I was rocking baby Everett in my chair, Wyatt was wrapping up a diaper to take outside. “When did this become our life?” he wondered. “Diapers and spit up . . . I mean, look, you have spit up on the shoulder of your brand new sweatshirt.”

I decided that wasn’t the best moment to tell him how Everett had peed all over me earlier that day . . . when I was wearing his pajamas.

Last week Calvin came into the bed in the middle of the night. I didn’t think anything of it, and cuddled him close through the night. Then at some point he started to dry heave, a sound that sends alarms through my body. From the dead of sleep I jumped up, grabbed him, and ran in the blind dark to the toilet. There was vomit on his jammies, and my shirt, but I thought I had rescued my bed. When I returned to inspect the sheets, I found no vomit on them or the pillow Cal was sleeping on. But I did find two fist sized spots . . . on the pillow I had been sleeping on. They were already crusty, giving evidence to the fact that they were from earlier in the night. Who knows how long I had been sleeping on it.

So yes. This is our life. Spit up and vomit and diapers and body fluid. And cuddles and sleepy babies and lovies.

Today I am giving a warm congratulations to this girl.

Today she is a bona fide children’s illustrator.

Today I received her new book in the mail.

Hummingbird Heaven, by Mike Hebertson, illustrated by Anastasia Kierst.

Congratulations Andi! I’m so proud to be your friend!!

Yesterday was a very productive day . . . I cleaned the house, made peppermint bark and a dinner, complete with sides, I made giant leaps of progress on my home made Christmas gifts, I even paid some bills.

Then . . .

Today has been a sluggish and annoying day. All I’ve done is laundry – but then, about five loads. HATE laundry. Calvin has been getting into everything (GASP!) and asking every 2 minutes and 27 seconds for the four wheeler keys. I desperately need to go grocery shopping. As of today it has been one month since I went to the grocery store with only one quick trip last week for some milk and bread. That dinner I made last night – steak and green beans. Frozen green beans. Frozen steak. The second consecutive meal of such. Why? Because I literally have nothing in my pantry – not even a can of spaghetti sauce. Not even a can of cream of chicken. We’re down to bare bones.

But Wyatt took my car (Ugh) this morning for a quick errand. It’s now three o’clock. I won’t see the car until he returns from work tonight.

And to top it all off, I’m exhausted. Last night Everett was up (again) until 2:30 in the morning. (YAWN) Right now he’s asleep and Cal is playing in his room (I locked him in to contain him – seriously, bad mommy). And I’m blogging? Good night. I’m taking a nap!

This weekend was a busy, crazy, holiday weekend. Thomas and Beth came and stayed with us (my brother and sister) as well as Jared, Wade, Wynn and Wynn’s brother-in-law, Jacob (Wyatt’s family). Even though we had a lot of guests, we weren’t very good hosts, as we were super busy.

Rather than bore you with the details, here is the general gist:

Ward Party, Temple Wedding, Olivia’s Dance Recital, Wedding Reception, Family Party (missed the last one).

The weekend was really about this couple.

Courtney was beautiful, and their wedding was wonderful. I always enjoy weddings because I like to hear the advice given by the sealer and be reminded of the importance of keeping a marriage strong.

Seeing Jeff in a tuxedo was almost as exciting as everything else combined. Looking sharp!!

Olivia had her dance recital. She was beautiful and wonderful, and I loved it.

And Calvin looked like a stud the whole day, in his nonchalant-take-it-for-granted sort of way.

I don’t think we have any more parties or social obligations between now and Christmas. So hopefully we can relax and enjoy the holidays from here on out.

This is what I did today. Don’t you just want to eat her?

PS: Are my photos looking flat to you? I’m having a hard time calibrating my mac.