Coming to you live from a new location!

We survived the move and we couldn't be happier to be settling in a new apartment.  We've been busy unpacking and trying to find places to store things.  Our new home was built over a hundred years ago, but has recently been completely remodeled so everything is new.  It's charming, but it definitely has it's quirks, like the one and only bathroom, which only has a tub with a handheld shower.  It's beautiful, but it will take some getting used to.  You can tell how deep it is from these photos, but it's sort of like swimming in a pool.

 The boys love it, but I have to say a handheld shower is not my style.

 And I have yet to pick up the three shower curtains it requires.  Good thing we can still run over to the old apartment to shower right now.

And here's the part where I have to admit something weird about myself, I have a weird phobia of showering in new places. I seriously dread it.  I HATE hotel bathrooms no matter how luxurious they are.  I HATE figuring out how the drains work and working to find just the right temperature with knobs I'm not used to.  And thinking about who might have showered there before? Yikes!  Do any of you feel the same way?  There must be a name for my condition . . .

Even though this tub has just been reglazed and this house has been under construction for years so I don't have to fear who used it before, I still dreaded using this tub, but now that I've tried it out a few times, I have to admit, if you like taking baths, it's pretty amazing.  Do you think it will make my family members want to come stay with me?  Who wouldn't want to soak in there while listening to their favorite Pandora station?

Spotted and Hearted

Nothing makes a girl feel better than having a lot of supportive friends.  Thanks so much for all of your kind comments.  We're trying to tackle one thing at a time around here.  It looks like we will have both apartments for a month so we can take our time (although I don't want to, I just want to get the move over with so we can have some fun and focus on Christmas around here.)

Speaking of Christmas, if you're looking for some holiday cheer, fun things are popping up all over town.  If you follow the tradition of setting out your shoes for Sinterklaas and you want to really be authentic, you can pick up chocolate letters at the old Dutch store (or you can order them online if you don't live locally).

Even if you don't need chocolates, I love just stopping by to look for fun Dutch candies and chocolates for stocking stuffers.

And have you been to Costco lately?  Who can pass up a huge, fresh wreath like this for $15.00?  They also have fresh 25' garlands for $15.00, and if I had already moved, I couldn't have resisted them!  Hurry, the garland tends to go fast.

Oliver at 9 Months

Oliver is going to be considered a toddler instead of a baby in no time.  Can you believe how big he's getting? This happy little guy keeps things cheerful around here.

He's learning so much.  He's started to say "Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma" when he wants me and "Da Da Da Da Da" when he wants Larry.

He stands on his own a lot more.  I think his record this week was about 15 seconds.

He still growls a lot and has startled quite a few people when we're out on the town.

Luckily, we took these pictures for he got really sick the next day.  He has croup and just lays and whimpers most of the day so I've been spending my time cuddling with him instead of packing because who can refuse this cute little face, especially when he makes the effort to crawl over to you and pull on your pant-leg so you'll pick him up?

Larry says he wants to remember how this month, when he comes home from work, Ollie grins and crawls to him as fast as he can.

He's also very busy exploring, and I love watching him get around which works out well since he often needs to be rescued.

He goes everywhere I go; voting, shopping, pre-school drop-offs . . . The life of a second child who goes along with our busy schedules.

Creed's been helping me introduce Ollie to life's simple pleasures, like swings.

Larry's also trying hard to introduce Ollie to the good things in life, like Ikea.

When Creed was this age, I was always so excited for him to move on to the next thing, but with Ollie I'm happy to let him take his time.  Too bad Ollie has different ideas and is growing up impossibly fast.

I have reached my breaking point

Many of you have been asking for an update on what we are doing with our lives, and I've been putting off answering because  . . . well . . . we don't really have any answers yet.  When we moved into this apartment Larry was just about to finish his fellowship and flying all over the place for job interviews, and we figured it wouldn't be long before we were settled somewhere so we found a small apartment with a nice landlord who agreed to let us lease month to month and we hunkered down for what I thought would be a couple months, tops.  We sent most of our belonging to storage, but it didn't matter, it wouldn't be long, right?  I remember saying that if we still lived here for Halloween I would be really sad because I wouldn't have the space to throw a party and all of my decorations would be in storage along with my sewing machine.  Larry said he was sure I didn't need to worry about that.  Christmas in this apartment didn't even occur to me.  Decorations, winter coats and boots, down comforters, bigger clothes for Ollie and Creed: all in storage.

Well, now it's been almost seven months and things are . . . the same.  Larry's had some offers, but he's still interviewing, and it doesn't look like he's going to make a decision anytime soon. Luckily, his research team at the U has let him stay on as a consultant, and he's picked up some moonlighting shifts so we are doing ok, but this is not how I imagined life after supporting him through nine years of medical training.

About a month ago, after an awful grown-up neighbor taunted Creed to tears, I reached my breaking point.  I cannot control Larry's job situation, but I cannot live in this tiny apartment any longer! Ollie still wakes up several times a night and we can't let him cry or the neighbors complain (the very same neighbors who made Creed cry, but let's not get into that one), and I hate for the landlord to have to deal with that when he did us a favor by letting us have a month-to-month lease.  We have no yard for the boys to play in.  Larry has to haul all of our laundry to the laundromat which takes ages.  Ollie makes a mad dash to the furnace and water heater, which are exposed in our hallway, every time I set him down because he is fascinated by the flames and the pipes, which is terrifying.  We don't have any extra storage space so it's impossible to put everything away; I'm constantly tripping over everything and hiding Christmas gifts is a joke. And did I mention that Ollie doesn't have a room?  He's nine months old and he sleeps in a pack-and-play that we shuffle from room to room and he doesn't even have a dresser, he just has a couple of messy plastic bins I threw into the back of Creed's closet.  I'm definitely feeling some mom guilt over that one.

We need to move.

So we started looking for a house to rent, but that's difficult when you can't commit to at lease a year-long lease.  In fact, if you want to live in a decent house in a safe neighborhood, it's nearly impossible.
After walking through several options that make me cringe, we have found a new apartment.  It's a shared house and the apartment isn't much bigger than where we live now, which I'm not excited about, but it has a long list of benefits: the boys will have a yard, we will have a garage, there's an unfinished basement to stow away the extra things we need on hand, there's a washer and dryer in the basement, I won't have to roll the dishwasher across the kitchen and hook it up to the sink, it's only one block away, there's not a furnace in the hallway, it's just been completely remodeled so everything is brand new, the landlords seem really nice, AND it was the one and only decent place we found that would let us have a shorter lease.

So now we are moving.  This week.  And I am in charge of a bunch of things for Enrichment Tuesday night.  And I am sick.  And my mom is out of town.  And Larry's step dad is having surgery so his mom will be busy.  And we have not packed a single box yet. And we have not called any of the utility companies. And we have not reserved a moving van.  And there is a foot of fresh snow outside. And I'm am feeling a little sick about the whole thing because moving to a new apartment is like admitting to myself that I don't see Larry accepting a job anywhere in the near future, and things are going to continue to be uncertain around here.

And that's my whiny, blogging-at-2-a.m.-update.

I better get to bed because things always look better in the morning, right?

Once Upon a Time, Long, Long Ago . . .

Amanda, Kristin, and I threw a baby shower for Eva.  If you read the Sycamore Street Press blog, you know that sweet baby Ingrid has arrived!  I have yet to meet Ingrid since Creed's been sick, and now I'm sick so I'll just have to make due with posting about her shower and looking forward to holding that little one when we're all better.

We knew Eva wanted something simple and relaxed so she could chat with all her friends so we put together a cookies and milk baby shower.  We held the shower at Kristin's house and Kirk insisted in pitching in by letterpressing the invites that Kristin designed.

We all made a few different kinds of cookies and some of the guests brought cookies too so it was a feast!

I was happy to finally have a reason to test my new message cookie cutters and I loved how well they worked.

 Two days before the shower, Kristin and I realized that we had no activity planned for the shower, and we thought it might be nice since a lot of the guests didn't know each other so she picked up some onesies and trim, and I picked up ribbon and brought sewing supplies, and we let Eva's crafty friends decorate onesies.

 I wish I would have taken pictures of all of the onesies because they turned out really cute, but I did get a picture of my favorite made by Susan.

It was so much fun to watch Eva open all of her gifts because there were a lot of lovely homemade things.  She really has some clever friends!

And thanks to the bounty of cookies, we were able to let each gift fill a box with cookies to take home.

I borrowed this last photo from Eva's sister-in-law, Kirsten's blog.

Kirk and Eva are such great friends so it was really nice to be able to help do something for them.

Turkey for me and Turkey for You

This was a low-key Thanksgiving with most of our siblings and family out of town or otherwise engaged (like being busy caring for our first niece ever, Lucy Ford!).  We stayed at my parents' and feasted at Larry's mom's, and even though I only took a few blurry photos, I caught a lot of what I want to remember, a glimpse of everyone in their element.

My dad working on one of his gourmet concoctions to feed us on Wednesday night (chicken pesto pizza with grilled onions and red peppers, topped with potatoes and cheese, which was as amazing as it sounds. Why didn't I inherit his cooking skills?  I love just being in the kitchen with him watching him work)

 My mom starting on the holiday decorating while listening to Christmas music.

 Creed excited to help me in the kitchen.  We made 10 dozen rolls because Thanksgiving just isn't Thanksgiving without my mom's recipe for rolls.

 Catching a little of the Macy's Parade Thanksgiving morning.

 Ollie getting ready for his first feast

 Creed playing with the same toys Larry played with at that age.  I don't usually hesitate to toss things when they are no longer being used, but Larry's mom's collection of his old toys makes me want to hold onto the favorites at our house to share with the next generation.

 Larry's mom playing with the kids

 And Larry shopping his heart out.  I wanted to avoid Black Friday, but he couldn't wait to get out there, which entertained me enough that I was happy to go along with him.

Oh, we have so much to be grateful for!

Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Musical

I've been looking forward to Creed getting old enough to start going to live performances.  He rarely makes it through a movie so even though I've been dying to take him to the circus or a play or a concert, we've held off because we wanted to be sure his first experience would be a good one.  When my mom called me to tell me out a performance of Knuffle Bunny: a Cautionary Musical I knew it would be perfect for Creed since it's based on one of his favorite books by Mo Willems, it's only an hour long, and my mom, Marissa, and Logan would be joining us.

Well, the fateful night arrived, and lo and behold, there was a blizzard warning.  Yikes! Luckily, the weather in Provo wasn't too bad so we decided to brave the storm and keep our promises to these very excited little guys.

 It was worth it to see Creed dancing in his seat and cracking up.

 He has carried his Knuffle Bunny everywhere since then.

 I remember the first play that my mom took me to when when I was about five.  We lived in Tennessee and it was a children's play about Peter Pan, and I was pulled from the audience to be Pam Pan.  Since then I've fallen in love with literature and theater.  I even spent four months living in London seeing every play I could afford.  Maybe it's sounds silly, but I think that's part of the reason I've been hesitant to take Creed to any live performances; I love them so much that I knew I would be disappointed if Creed didn't, but I want him to be his own person.  Do you ever feel that way about sharing things with your kids?  It makes me wonder if there was anything that my parents were excited to share with me and my siblings.  I know I got my love of old musicals and holiday decorating from my mom and my love of quirky films from my dad, but if he ever hoped I'd be a soccer star, I sure did disappoint (he played on a semi-professional team and gave it up to go to school).

Parenting gives you a whole new perspective, doesn't it?  I might have disappointed my parents by not sharing some of their interests, but I'm pretty sure they felt the same way that I do about Creed, I just want him to find things he's passionate about so he can live a happy life.  For now I guess it's just about exposing him to what's out there and helping him explore.  Those big dimpled grins are worth it.

Around here the first big snowstorm of the year means . . .

The first big snowman!

 Creed was so excited to go out there to make a snowman, but he had to wait a few days because he's been sick.  He finally go the go ahead yesterday.

 I love that this has become our tradition and he looks forward to it as much as me.  I also love this snowman's super sparkly smile.

 The best part was that our neighbor Tyler came out to make a snowman too so there are two happy snowmen out on our lawn!

Hello, my name is Stephanie, and I am a collector of things

I've always been a collector of things.  I can't seem to help myself.  Lately, I seem to collect practical things, but they are certainly just as treasured.  Here are a few examples.

1.  Pretty stamps.  Every time I stop by the post office, it seems I walk away with some pretty stamps.  I'm not a real stamps collector because I don't keep them, I just like to have beautiful stamps on hand for mailing things.  This way I don't have to grit my teeth as I slap an ugly stamp on correspondence that I went to so much effort to make pretty.

2.  Fun birthday candles.  I rarely bake cakes, but it seems like whenever I have, I've rummaged through our kitchen looking for candles only to come up empty handed, and birthdays just aren't as magical without a birthday wish, are they? A few years ago, I decided to be better prepared, and now I get a little thrill every time I spot new birthday candles when I'm shopping (I never claimed I was cool).

These sparkler candles and rainbow candles are from Target.

 And I think I found these Prism color flame candles at my neighborhood grocery store.

Do you collect any practical things like this?  Do fun birthday candles and cute stamps make you happy?

When you walk into the kitchen and spot this face

you know something is up!