I like to pin

Some how I stumbled upon a web site called pinterest.  I love it.  It is a way for me to organize all of my web inspiration. So, in case any of you are interested, here is the link to view mine.

And here is a pic, just so you can't say I didn't post anything cute today.

new doggy/delilah door

I haven't blogged for a few months, so I'm just going to purge a few photos I've been keeping on my phone for a while.

This photo was taken just today.  DeDe was looking lost and was getting into things, so I filled up a purse with some random, harmless objects and put it over her shoulder.  She loved it. DeDe continued to go back to the purse all day, so it will probably become hers.  I love that she must have thought it appropriate to push a "cart" at the same time. Monkey see, monkey do?  I like having a mini-me.

This is a hat That Auntie Amy made when DeDe was first born.  A year later and it fits perfectly.  Auntie A did such a great job on it and the mittens too.  I wish I had a pic of her wearing the pair together.

I think it was Vaughn who had gotten a hold of the phone and was taking pictures around the house.  Mostly they were of the t.v., Deacon's back side, or the smears on the glass sliding doors. But I kept this picture.  It is one of the few candid pictures of me that is flattering.

We celebrated Delilah's first birthday at Nannie's house with a pan of brownies and a candle. Yum.  Isn't Aaron so cute (for all of those who aren't married to him, you can appreciate the cute thing in the father-adoring-his-daughter sort way.)

Oh, how she yearned to be outside with her brothers.  Soon enough it came to pass that she had the confidence to go out on her own.  And now she sneaks out there every chance she gets

Oh, happy bubbles!  Sorry the lighting is so bad.  But hey, at least the grout is clean.

Ethan got a hold of my phone while we were shopping at Lowe's.  He was trying out the feature where you can take a picture of yourself while looking at the screen.

I'm not sure what Vaughn was telling me about.  With his countenance and the apple, he makes me think of a boy-child Sleeping Beauty.

Last week I had to clean my windshield every morning to get all the pollen off and be able to see clearly.  My eyes have been itching like crazy and my nose running like a faucet.  I have never had hay-fever like this anywhere else.

x-rays are fun!

I've had pain in my heel for a while and finally went to the doctor for it today.  The doctor thinks it is plantar fasciitis, but wanted to make sure there are no bone spurs so he sent me in for an x-ray.

 

That circled spot is awfully close to where Vaughn stabbed me in the foot with a pencil.


Too bad radiation is potentially dangerous, because I would love to have a whole lot more body parts x-rayed.  It's just fascinating. 

On another note

My good friend Sarah D. gave us her girls' dresser and desk they had out grown.  Aaron and I are having a great time personalizing them for Delilah.  
 
We aren't done with the dresser yet, so I'll just show you pics of what we have gotten done for her room so far.

This is one of Delilah's toy baskets.  Notice the Ombre effect Aaron so skillfully helped me achieve.

This is a lamp I picked up from a second hand store that will go in her room.  The yellow background is the dresser, but it isn't finished yet.  

I adore the colors we have chosen for her room - yellow, gray, black, and white.  I know the gray, black, and white sound like they could be dreary, or too grown up for a baby, but let me assure you that it will be one of the sweetest rooms you will ever see.

 

This is the color inspiration for her room.

The grand finale will be the head board Aaron makes for the full size bed we keep in her room for guests.  I am so excited for that.  I'll give you a little hint to how it will look: tufted!  Oh, I can't stand it!  I'm just so excited for it.

Our new mobile device

On Thanksgiving day we caught Delilah walking about 3 feet from the couch (of "sofa" for those of you that prefer the "proper" term ;) to the beanbag.  It took us a few days longer, but we did eventually get footage of her new trick.

Aaron and I have an awful habit of turning the camera sideways when shooting video.  Please forgive us, and I promise this little clip will be short enough and cute enough to make up for any kink you may get in your neck.

Our new Pup

We have gotten a new dog for our family. We've given it a lot of thought, and finally came to the conclusion that it would be a good thing for our family. The little guy is about 4 months old and came from an employee of Aaron's. He's a mutt, and we were told that he his part Chihuahua, part wiener dog...Chiwiener?



He's pretty cute, and the boys love him. Delilah, however, does not like the dog much, mostly because he won't stop liking her face when they are in the same room.

Now, we know that Deacon's name is not a typical dog moniker, and I will tell you how it came to be. Four and a half years ago Aaron and I were trying to decide on a name for Vaughn. I loved the name Giovanni, and Aaron loved the name Deacon. Neither of us could concede to the other's preference, and the only way we could move past it and try to think of other names we could both love was to agree that we could name future dogs Giovanni and Deacon. So now, obviously we have a dog and it came time to pick out a name, and neither of the boys had a strong urge to name him Bolt or Pluto (The stuffed animals they have loved for the past year,) and Aaron instantly remembered the name he wanted so much for his own son, and gave it to the dog :)

He's fun and we look forward to wet-nosed, fury love for years to come.

DELILAH: For the Hope of a Better Tomorrow!

On Friday Ethan found his super man cape and started staging these photos of Delilah. I'm so impressed with his vision. I took the photos, but Ethan put everything else together. I love them! I will cherish these photos forever.

"My bionic ears detect trouble!"

"Yawn, just a quiet, leisurely day as the world's most heroic infant."

Have you ever witnessed such incredible physique?

Muir Beach!

We went to the beach on Memorial Day. Man, was it fun!



Everyone got a git of sun, except Ethan (he was playing under a blanket when the sun finally broke through.)



We brought our friends Conor and his dad, Cordell.



Most of the time we don't have the stereotypical beach weather. 75% of the time it is overcast, and this time is was awfully windy too. But, we love going to the beach, we'd probably go every weekend if it were a bit closer.

Bleh....I'm overwhelmed again. It's almost to the point of being debilitating. For those of you who don't know, I have Bipolar Disorder II. So, I'm in an upswing and I'm feeling really creative and motivated, but there are so many things I want to do and my mind can't focus enough to complete any of them, so the result is nothing gets done and I'm overwhelmed and I feel guilty.

We are starting the ADD evaluation for Ethan. Things are getting a little out of hand at home and school. The pediatrician originally wanted me to wait until Ethan turned 6, but that's only two months away and by then he will be out of school for the summer. Part of the evaluation is done by the teacher, that's kind of hard to get done if you're out for summer break. I'm not sure what to think about it all. If he is diagnosed with it, that means there is something to blame for all the problems, a name for it. But it also means the possibility of medicating such a young, sweet little body. That scares me. I know how miserable it is to try different meds and deal with the side-affects and put so much hope in them, only to find out a few months later that they don't work, they aren't the "right fit," and you feel like you've wasted so much time. A child so young, that can not choose for himself, should not have to go through that. But, if/when we do find the right med it could mean a much happier, focused, well behaving boy. Life could be a lot better. What a risk to take.

Today the pediatrician told me that if Delilah gets one more bout of wheezing cough within the next couple of months it could indicate that she has asthma. Also, if she gets another round of ear infections she has to have tubs put in her ears. That means surgery! My little baby, just over 4 months. She can't have surgery, she's way too young for my liking to have it. But, I don't want to put her hearing at risk. You know, for a baby that has been sick so much, she is so happy and such a joy. I would've never known she was sick judging by her temperament.

Wow, what a downer. I guess that goes to show I shouldn't read sad blogs before I write my own. I'll try to make up for it by posting a super cute pic.


This is what the kids woke up to on April Fool's Day morning. Aaron had drawn the mustaches on with my eyeliner. Thankfully he didn't think I needed one too.

The kid is in kindergarten. Sheesh!

This is a conversation Ethan and I had while the family was outside weeding the garden.

Ethan - Mom, I'm going to marry Madison (a classmate.)

Me - Why are you going to marry Madison?

Ethan - Because she is my friend and I love her.

Me - Who taught you about getting married?

Ethan - Andre (another classmate.)

Me - Does Madison know you are going to marry her?

Ethan - No.

Me - Well, it helps if she knows about it.

Ethan - Yah.....

a few seconds go by.....

Me - You know when you get married you can't live with Mom and Dad any more.

Ethan - Never mind, I'm not going to marry Madison. I want to be like Uncle Russell and live with you guys when I grow up.

I love that kid so much. I take it that since he wants to be with us when he grows up, that he is enjoying himself now. I'm not sure when to break it to him that whether or not he is married he most likely will not be living with us when he is older. I guess I should just enjoy it before he turns into a teenager and starts yelling at me about "blowing this popsicle stand" as soon as he graduates.

Since visiting Oakland in November of 2008, I have noticed some things about this region that are very unfamiliar (like mowing your lawn in winter. ) I've lived the first 28 years of my life in Utah, so that is a big factor in why I have never seen them before (other than in books or t.v.) or why they just don't seem to be occurring in the right season.

Although I have lived here for nearly a year they still throw me for a loop.

I am going to start a little ongoing series called "I am a foreigner here." I hope to include pictures with each of these entries so that I can better illustrate why.

These weren't the only flowers I got on Valentine's Day, but they were the most unexpected. I wish you could smell them!

Both of these pictures are from our back yard.

Creeeepy!

So...I finally got a new camera and it has some pretty wild features, like "fish eye" and "radial blur" and "happy faces." This last one is just plain creepy, it modifies people's faces to appear as smiling. Just look what it did to my grumpy-but-still-cute son. The modified pic makes him look like he would be a registered offender of some sort.

Darling Delightful Delilah

Thank you all for your subject suggestions. Apparently people want to know about our new baby. I don't know why, she is a bit of a bore really ;)

Delilah (no middle name) Olson was born on December 15th, so that is 4 days after her due date. I was very annoyed about this and at the doctor for not inducing me two weeks early like what happened with my older two. So that meant I had to go into labor on my own, and feel all of the woman-making pain that goes with it. I won't go into the details of the labor, I'll just get to the good part - She was born at 9 lbs. 21 in. and seven weeks later she is over 13 pounds. Delilah is no longer on the growth chart and the pediatrician actually called her a "giant."

Delilah's brothers love her, Ethan a little more so than Vaughn, but that is probably because Vaughn got bumped from baby status and lost the name that goes with the position. We are all enjoying having pink, and dresses, and sugar and spice and everything nice in our house. The teeter-toter of testosterone and estrogen in our house is evening out a bit. Hooray!

I'm being summoned by her little voice, so I must go. But I'll get more pics of her and the boys later.

aaaah, so good to be back

So we finally got the internet at our house yesterday. We have not had internet for four years! I told that to the guy who came to install it and he said "nah, you weren't missing much." But I beg to differ.

I don't know what to blog about, so if any of you have suggestions or are wondering about anything in particular that has gone on since the last time I blogged let me know in a comment.

Like I said, SO GOOD TO BE BACK.

Uh! Buying a house is so unpredictable. We thought that we were going to be closing on the 23rd, but now it's going to be more like the 27th.

That causes a problem for me. Aaron in coming to get the kids and me on the 20th. So, we are going to have an entire week of living in a hotel. Man, I sure hope there are plenty of kid friendly things to do in the bay area. As a lot of you know I have some social anxieties, so it is going to be super hard to get out and do stuff without anyone I know.

Anyway, on a lighter note, the kids, my mom and I went to the children's museum. That was fun.....for a while. I don't have the patience to stay at each exhibit for half an hour, especially when the children I'm with either are too young or just plain aren't interested in understanding why things are working the way they are.

Today we went to the dinosaur museum. I was worried about taking Ethan because he often talks about bad dreams with dinosaurs in them. But he and Vaughn really enjoyed it. However I think this museum was too much for older kids for them to appriciate fully. There was a lot of reading and other stuff that they just didn't have the interest in. They just like looking at the dinasaur bones a moving on. Too bad I had to pay $24 dollars for only an hour of running around.

blah, blah, blahg

I was tired of the blah color of my blog, so I changed it. I don't need anything more to be depressing. I would like to know how to change the skin and all the other cool things you can do with a blog, so if any of you know of a good tutorial let me know.

Well, the pharmacy changed one of my meds to a generic without me giving the okay. Now I feel fuzzy-faced, drowsy and headachie. Man, medicine for bi-polar is a love/hate thing, at least it is for me. My friend Jen was telling me about a guy she knows who his bi-polar and along with his meds he is doing some homeopathic stuff, like changing his diet. I would really like to try things like that to see if they help while I still try to figure out the right combo of meds.

Maybe on my next entry I'll feel better and have more upbeat things to say. Ciao

nothing to shout about

Our offer has been accepted on the house we want to buy in Vallejo, CA. So in about 2-3 weeks Aaron will come back to Utah for me and we'll live happily ever after again.

The kids and I really miss Aaron. This move is affecting Ethan more than Vaughn. Ethan is becoming more stubborn and disobedient. It is very hard to have such bad behavior in someone else's house.

I don't have a lot to say more than that, but I do want to get in the habit of blogging, even if it is about nothing. (Also, I'm being threatened by a certain Arkie to blog since I have a good connection.)

worst drive EVER

Aaron has been transfered to Oakland, so last Monday we left for Arkansas. Aaron was driving the moving van with our entire house in it, and I was in the car with the kids. You may already see the problem: I was alone in the car with the kids for 3 days. We did have car DVD players for the kids this time, but really it was just another thing to play with and try to break.
The first night we spent in Kansas City, about an hour out of town we started getting freezing rain and could barely see out our windows. The second night we spent in Cheyane and again about an hour out of town we were on icy roads with drifting snow. The last day we drove the drifting snow was so bad that there were a few times that we had zero visability. I have never sweat so hard with so little physical exersion as I had during this trip. Worst trip EVER!
Any way the kids and I are staying with my parents in Salt Lake until Aaron finds a house for us in California. I'll probably be here for the next three weeks so there are a lot of you that I plan on seeing while here.

a few more updates

Since last I bloged Aaron has been to Louisiana twice for huricane relief. He also has bought another bike, it's a Vulcan drifter. It's pretty, but he plans to work on it a bit. Aaron wants me to help him choose a color scheme for it. Cool.

I have started to feel better and started many projects, probably more than I can handle. Let's see, there's carding cotton, making a sun hat out of grocery bags, crocheting winter hats, knitting a sweater, trying to get Aaron to make a lap loop for me, making a pattern and sewing a skirt, and other assorted endevours.

That's all I can think of to write right now.