The Nursery

It's so fun to have a nursery for Miles. When I had my other two babies, we lived in smaller, temporary apartments and we weren't able to really dedicate a room for the baby. But Miles is lucky; he has his own quiet space, all blue and boyish, with boats and planes, and I love it!

Here's the before. It was Parker's room pre-August 13th. Blah, blah, boring white-ish walls!

Yes, that's Peter Pan hanging from the ceiling. His green and the crib's blue: just didn't go.

And the lovely afters . . .

The sailboat quilt on the wall was given to me by my mom when we thought Audrey was a boy for three weeks. (Thanks Dr. P!)
Turned out she was a girl.

The quilt inspired the sailboat theme.

Of course, you know what the best part of this picture is: brothers hugging.
Hmm, maybe I need something on the wall behind the glider . . .

Unfortunately, Miles' room is the only place where all the toys fit, so there's a toy stash in his quiet blue room. Just ignore it and check out the cool vintage poster I got on eBay for $9.
At least the toys are semi-contained.

One day I'll put up some white sailcloth curtains. They'll look great against the blue walls.
Yay for room makeovers! Soon I'll post my bathroom . . .

Wordless Wednesday: Mr. Smee

The things we do . . .

This is just a little montage of pictures of the silly things people in my house do.

Parker likes to throw sticky frogs all around the house. Somehow he threw this one up about 12 feet. That was last Tuesday. It's still there.

For some reason, I thought it was a good idea to do 6 loads of laundry in one afternoon. Then I put them all in one basket.

And Neal, bless his heart, thought it was a good idea to write a phone number on this teeny, tiny piece of paper, that I can't throw away, of course. :)

That's the top to a water bottle, just for some perspective. :)

Hallelujah!

Sing, choirs of angels, the Primary program is done! I was in charge of teaching 60-some odd kids 8 quite lengthy songs this year, and guess what? We pulled it off! They did a great job, I was so proud.

Audrey was great, too. She said her line without being prompted or having to read it on the script.

"From reading the scriptures, I have learned to always tell the truth and to bear my testimony to my friends."

I'm so glad November 12th is over. :)

Now, what to sing for Christmas . . .

And a picture of my sillies for good measure

Babies Don't Keep

I was thinking today, while rocking my baby, of how many hours I have spent sitting in my glider. I'll look over at it one day, in a corner, in a guest room somewhere, and remember all the days and nights I spent slowly rocking and humming. And how many hours my mom spent in her wooden rocking chair, and Neal's mom in her old upholstered one with the creak in it. Neal and I both came from families who rocked us as babies, and I am so grateful for that. We both learned the importance of the peaceful routine of a rocking chair and the soothing movement that can calm a fussy baby.
I have spent many quiet, contemplative moments with a baby on my shoulder, their cheek squished up against their lips, their pure, sugar-sweet breath on my neck. My glider is a happy place, where I rocked Audrey through her colicky hours, sang Wiggles songs to Parker while he drank his bottle, and now where I've nursed Miles by the window, while he stares, mesmerized by the light coming through the blinds. In the middle of these moments, sometimes, I pray that I'll always remember the feeling of having a young baby. I know I'm going to miss it, and if Miles is my last one, I'm going to miss it soon. Can you tell I've already started a sort of grieving process?
I've never been a fan of the old "teach your infant to cry himself to sleep" idea. (I know, I'm now incurring the wrath of schedule-minded mommies everywhere; comment away!) A little fussing now and then won't hurt, but making a 6-week-old baby cry for an hour? No, sir, not my babies. I worry that if I followed that method, I'd one day regret all those moments when my baby was crying and I was doing something unimportant, just trying to "train" them. And why would I want to train my baby to not need me? If my baby can't come to me for comfort when he's six weeks old, who will he go to when he's six years old? Or sixteen? His pacifier?
All that's not worth it to me. A few months of me sleeping 8 hours for all that screaming and torture? My babies need me. I'm their mom. I can lose some sleep for their comfort. I don't think I'll ever look back and think that I held them too much. My mom always says, "You have the rest of your life to do all of that (sleep, go to the temple, clean your house). Don't feel guilty, just hold your baby."
When I was younger, the nursery in my house was upstairs and decorated in yellow and white gingham. My mom had stitched a verse of the poem by Ruth Hulbert Hamilton, Song for a Fifth Child and it hung above the rocker. While I was on bedrest for ten weeks with Audrey, Neal's mom picked up a cross-stitch project for me to keep my hands (and mind) busy. It was the same verse, and I finished it just in time for Audrey to come. Neal's mom framed it for me and it hung in Audrey's room.

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
hang out the washing and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peek-a-boo).
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo,
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Why am I such a sucker?

Why is it that every Christmas shopping season, when The Container Store sends me their cute little catalog of stocking stuffers, I am immediately convinced that I absolutely must-have, completely need each and every single item? Last year, this little catalog actually convinced me to drive like 25 miles to go to the Container Store. I got a shower cap and an "owie" gel pack for the kids. And a microfiber screen cleaner. They get me every time.

"The Doorganizer!" for Neal

The "Audrey" tea strainer flower. Do I drink tea? Um, not really.

The LifeHammer. Just in case.

Business card holders that look pretty. For all of my, um, business cards?

Teddy Bear cinnamon-sugar shaker. For my toast.

The Magic Stapler

See? You need it all, too? And this is just a few! There are 110 of these little goodies on the website . . . not to mention their incredible gift wrap selection . . .

Crib Time

Parker and Audrey are super crazy about little Miles. They love to make him happy or just run by on their way to somewhere else and plant a kiss on his little bald head. Audrey can always calm Miles down with just her voice and her face close to his. One of Parker's favorite ways to spend time with his brother is to get in his crib, lay beside him and just watch the mobile. Parker kind of hums along and talks to Miles (and to himself) while I get a few things done. He'll restart the music when it stops and give Miles things to hug, like burp rags. Parker is the kind of kid I can trust completely not to hurt or try anything crazy with Miles (one of the benefits of a 3 1/2-year age gap). He's very gentle, always has been, and he's going to be the best big brother.

See how happy it makes him? He's three months old, I can't believe it!

Here You Go, Mom!

I know, I know, I posted a bunch of pumpkin recipes the other day. But seriously, I love all desserts pumpkin. :)

My dear Mom LOVES pumpkin pie more than I can say. While she was here last weekend, I thought I would try a recipe and see how it turned out. Of course, it isn't quite as good as the best (Marie Callender's), but we all agreed that it was pretty darn good. Here it is!

Best Pumpkin Pie

Use the lower amount of spice for a golden, mildly spicy pie. The larger amount yields a more robust flavor.

1 single-crust pie shell (I used a frozen one)
1 15-oz can pumpkin
3/4 c. sugar
1 to 1 1/4 t. cinnamon
1/2 to 1 t. ground ginger
1/2 t. salt
1/4 to 1/2 t. ground nutmeg
1/4 to 1/2 t. ground cloves
3 slightly beaten eggs
1 1/4 c. milk

Sweetened whipped cream

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. For filling, in a large bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, salt, nutmeg and cloves. Add eggs; beat lightly with a fork until combined. Gradually add milk; stir until combined.
3. Carefully pour filling in pastry shell. To prevent over-browning, cover edge of pie crust with foil. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil. Bake about 25-30 more minutes or until a knife inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. Cover and refrigerate within 2 hours.

Serve with whipped cream. YUM!

Better Homes and Gardens, November 2006

Also, please note my new sidebar: recipes!

While I was in the Shower . . .

Yesterday, Stephanie posted a cute picture of her charming kids and what they do while she showers each morning. Back in March, I posted a picture of what I found one day: freezing cold Audrey and Parker snuggled up in a blanket. They drank their orange juice too fast and needed to cuddle.

Recently, my showers have been quite late in the morning (because of a certain fluff). When I get out, I sometimes sneak out to the living room to see what the kids have been up to. Since Audrey's long gone at school by then, poor Parker has to be alone for a few minutes and yesterday, I came out and found him doing this:

He had found the peanuts, parked his little self at the kitchen table, and helped himself. The Batman beanie was a recent gift from my parents. For when we go to the snow in Sundance. At Christmas. But Parker slept in it last night, and the night before. You might ask, why is this so very endearing to me, my little boy finding peanuts with a silly hat on?

Because I love him, that's why.

Blessing Day

Brothers

Today Neal blessed our little Miles Jefferson at church. It was beautiful; he did a great job! Neal's dad and Gail flew in from Tulsa and my parents came in from California for the occasion. We all had a great time and Miles is very blessed, indeed. Here are some of the shots we took this morning:

Us with Neal's dad, Jeff, and his wife, Gail (or Issy, as we prefer to call her!)

Three generations of H* men :)

Us with my parents, David and Lauren

The girls. Oh, how we wish we had Audrey's hair!

Thanks to Miss Natalie for taking pictures (we forgot to take some of us together!) and to Jay for helping with the blessing!

Happy Birthday Joojie!

Julianne and me back when I was much taller than her (in heels), in 1997.

Happy Birthday to my lovely baby sister, Julianne. She's the big twenty-two today! Livin' the single life in Provo, studying up a storm, and trying to change the world, one ignorant raised-in-a-bubble co-ed at a time.

You're such an inspiration to me, Jooj! I'm very proud to call you my sister. I have fond memories of taking you potty in the middle of the night when you were 3 and then sneaking you back to my bed so we could hug. I'll never forget driving the two of us to piano lessons all those times and waiting for each other to be finished.

I'm so inspired by the way you care so much about the world's down-trodden, but at the same time, you have immense love for my own little kids, too. I'm so glad you went to Mozambique and shared with me the intense feelings you had when you got home and saw our healthy babies. I'm so glad you were able to turn down a marriage proposal in Syria, so that we could see you again. ;) Your experiences all over the world have given me new perspective, and in that way, you've made me a better person. Oh, and I'm so glad you call me on your cell phone while you're walking around campus. I miss college and I love to hear the little details about your classes and the not-so-boring details of your social scene. I can't wait to see what you do with your life. You have so much potential and so much love to share with the world; take it and run with it! (hopefully all the way to Oxford, or London, or Edinburgh!) Or you could just stay here. Whatever you do, wherever you go, just know that you are immensely loved by me. :)

Happy Birthday!

Julianne and me overlooking a beach in Rhodes, December 1999.

Lincoln, Julianne and me in front of the Parthenon, Athens, Greece, January 2000.

Choices, Choices . . .

Okay, blog-surfing instead of laundry-folding. Again. Check out these super silly baby (and mommy) shirts. I love them all, how will I choose? Okay, I probably won't really buy one, but they are really funny:There's another one that says, "My mom is blogging this."

(my mom's blog is better than your mom's blog)

Just had a baby. What's your excuse?

I make milk. What's your superpower?

I found them here.

New Friends

While I was pregnant, I was really good friends with Mylanta, extra pillows and my daughter's grabber toy. I have two new inanimate best friends. Here they are:

My New Shark Super Steamer

I have two friends in the neighborhood who have these. They have immaculate houses, the kind of clean I aspire to have but can never quite accomplish. They clean with a steamer and swear by it, so I invested. So I used another one of those Bed, Bath and Beyond coupons and got myself a Shark. I love it! Never have I been so pleased with my bathroom-cleaning capabilities. It's pretty much like power-washing your bathroom (or kitchen, or baseboards, or kids' toys, etc.). It doesn't shoot out water, however, just an intense blast of (very, very burning hot) steam.

I cleaned the things in my bathroom that never get really clean (around the base of the faucet, our toothbrushes, and, my personal favorite, because of the very satisfying amount of gunk that came out of them, the toilet seat hinges!)

In the kitchen, I blasted the gunk out of the oven knobs, the dishwasher heat vent, and the vent at the bottom of the fridge. It works on tile grout and windows, too, with the addition of an attachment. My house feels much cleaner, even if I'm the only one who knows about it. You need one of these!

Okay, my other best friend, and I'm so glad I love this because it's good for me:

Oatmeal Crisp with Raisins

Neal has a nightly ritual of a bowl of cereal. He goes for Life or Honey Bunches of Oats. I've adopted the same ritual, and this is my favorite. In fact, today, it was on sale at Kroger. I bought three boxes. It's delicious, crunchy, but has those yummy chewy raisins mixed in, and it says on the box that it's good for my heart. Can't go wrong, give it a try!

Random Thoughts

Not much to blog about today, except, of course, my delightful sister-in-law Georgia's birthday! (see below)

Anyway, just had some random thoughts that I thought I would share.

• Today, on the way to Parker's preschool, I saw two things I have rarely seen.

1. A grown man fall off his bike. (Why is this so funny to me? I really had to stop myself from laughing because Parker and his friend were in the car. Yes, I'm mean.) And I said "rarely" because once, when I was driving by some missionaries on bikes, I honked to say hi, and scared one of them into falling off his bike. Oh man, that was funny, too. He was ok, of course.
   
2. A woman running, pushing a jogging stroller with her DOG inside. Ok. But don't dogs enjoy running, too? They're dogs, for heaven's sake.
   

• I learned a new term the other night. There are some things people say here in the South that you just don't hear other places. I have lived in Texas for going on seven years now and had never heard this one. I'll use it in context so you can understand:
• "I can get these Daisy scout patches for y'all, or y'all can go to the Scouting store and get them y'all's selves." Neal, born and bred in Louisiana, hadn't even heard "y'all's selves." I just love the South!


• Ross rules. You know, the "discount department store," Ross. I learned the value of stores like Ross and TJ Maxx when I was a freshman at BYU and my lovely and frugal roommate, Amy and I would go dig through the goods at these stores. I've since discovered they are incredible sources of inexpensive toys, not to mention shoes. So, I went looking for Christmas presents for my kiddos and stumbled upon a pair of super-sweet jeans pour moi. Original price: $98. My price: $13.99. Love it! And I got a few good toys, too.
  

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Georgia! We can't wait to see you in a couple weeks!