We had a very emotional weekend. We got news of some health issues in Jeremy's family. It was frightening, worrisome, and in the end all we had were prayers and each other (family). I have a renewed testimony of prayer and miracles. We feel truly blessed that all is well.

Our weekend was not only emotional, but rainy and stormy to boot! So our original plan of spending an evening in Millcreek canyon cooking with the dutch oven (#5 on my summer list.) was replaced with baking a berry cobbler in the dutch oven on our front porch Sunday night. Taste was great. Just not as scenic. :) Freddie, Laura and Amy came up for the day which was really fun and especially helpful with Pearce during church.

Impromptu family photo after church.

Porch cookin'

  I love that little tongue wagger.

Did I mention Pearce wants to "help" with everything? It's cute, but also messy. At least we were outside.

We used this recipe and it was fantastic. 

Oh and just a few more instagrams from the past few days...

I thought the logical place to put Pearce's play kitchen was IN the kitchen. It sat there for the past couple months and got a little bit of use, but usually just in passing. I finally gave her bedroom a good clean, and much needed organization, and moved her kitchen into her room. And glad I did, she has spent hours playing with it over the past few days. Especially since I've gathered any food related item to place in the kitchen. She has been obsessed with tea parties and cupcakes lately. Pretty cute. Oh yeah, and the ballerina tutu is still in full use.

I feel bad about this next one... one day when I was making dinner (this justifies it, right?) she found Jeremy's razor in the bathroom and tried to shave like daddy. She really does copy EVERYTHING we do. Gotta be careful there... poor little thing also tried to put it in her mouth like a lollipop (another recent obsession). Now she says "Razor's sharp. Only daddy shave." like 10x a day.

And today I remembered we have a fenced backyard. Halleluja! This child is a runaway, we usually do the sidewalk chalk in the driveway. But that's when she starts running for the church or playground. So today we did it in our backyard. And there are even chairs out there. Excellent!!

Eating watermelon is a favorite summer activity. And Pearce jumping on ants and saying "eeeew, gross!"

Okay, just one more photo, k? I have to show off this cute little blouse I made with Liberty of London fabric that I've had for a while now (just a 1/2 yard) waiting for the perfect project. I love it! And wish I had one for myself! This is the Oliver+S Family Reunion pattern using "View B" which is the blouse length. And it's also now, near impossible to get still photos of her modeling clothes I make. The majority are blurry.

a weekend of birthday celebrations

We celebrated nonstop all weekend. Jeremy's birthday was Saturday but after dinner on Friday night I said 'do you want your presents now??' It is so hard for me to keep surprises. He of course said YES! I was excited that one of the presents was a total surprise, nothing he would have ever suspected, but something I knew he'd like. He first saw a KitchenAid box, and was like 'wha??' And then realized it was an ice cream maker attachment.

In our little family, we like to eat. And definitely like to eat-out. And birthdays are a great excuse to eat out. So, we started Jeremy's real birthday at Ruth's Diner in Emigration Canyon. wow wow wow! so yummy. Anyways, I already feel like I'm rambling... so I'll do what I always do and just post a bunch of pics. :-)

 Pearce is still in her ballerina phase, so I sewed up some more of the Oliver+S swingset skirt. This little number was my first time sewing with silk. It was kinda tricky, but oh so fancy fun. And it moves and twirls like a sweet little ballet skirt.

After breakfast, Jeremy went to the shooting range for a bit, and since Pearce cannot give up her extremely tight "ballet shoes" (the leopard mary janes), we headed over to Target to see if by chance they still sell them.  I originally bought them last fall. If only I would have known to buy an extra pair in the next size up. Because after she insists on wearing them, she walks super funny, and I just know they are not comfortable. But no luck, nothing similar. I maybe need to start searching online for look-a-likes.

Pearce made herself real comfy on a princess sofa, and wanted to read the "baby magazines" (the smaller cookbook ones) because she is my little parrot, and I was catching up on all the weekend's new tabloids. :-)

In the late afternoon, we headed over to Brooke's house for Braylon's first birthday party. It was oh so cute, and Braylon and Pearce together are so darn cute. Now that Braylon is walking, and Pearce is a little bit older, they actually get along really well, and play together, and it's kinda cute picturing Pearce as a big sister around him.

My Birthday boy, and Brooke's little birthday boy. And Pearce showing us how she jumped in the bounce house.

 She would climb into the bounce house and say "it's too hot" and slide right back down. Then go back in, and say the same thing, and slide back down. And repeat.


Cutie pie Braylon!!! Happy Birthday!

 Mother of the birthday boy! and Me.

We didn't stay too long, because my lil bro Freddie was sweet to come up and babysit Pearce for the night so we could enjoy a nice dinner without a toddler. Uncle DoDo is a fun babysitter, and Pearce was so happy he showed her a bunch of ballerina clips from YouTube on the "Apple TV". and also showed her this weird music video, Rebecca Black - Friday. Thanks dodo!

We ate at Market Street Grill in near Cottonwood Canyon. And the setting was beautiful! We walked across a suspension bridge over Cottonwood Creek to get to the restaurant. It was awesome having a date and eating a meal just the two of us.

It was a wonderful day celebrating with my favorite person in the whole wide world!!

Summer List

1. Daily watering of planter box. We planted spring mix and peony bulbs in the spring, and we are getting some little sprouts popping up lately. Pearce LOVES filling up the can with water, and pouring dumping unto flowers.
2. Seven Peaks waterpark AT LEAST once a week. (aka, get a tan!)
3. Go to a few baseball games. (We have the Utah "pass of all passes" that includes a bunch of fun activities like baseball games, waterparks, bowling, mini-golf etc.)
4. Attend YW girls camp for a few days in July.
5. Dutch oven dinner and dessert in the canyon somewhere. Still need to figure out where a good place is.
6. New shorter haircut. My hair has been long enough for a couple years now, so it's time for a shorter-do.
7. Sew some summery throw pillows for the sofa (sooner than later) and finish hanging frames on walls.
8. A little roadtrip of some sorts, maybe something like Jackson Hole, WY.
9. Play in the backyard vs. in-house.
10. Garage Sales
11. And I saved the most shocking one for last!! Go on a hike! Brooke has told me about many beautiful hikes around here. So I'd like to give one a try.

WHAT'S ON YOUR SUMMER LIST???

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I made a bunch of dresses back in the dead of winter, when we still lived in the ranch, in order to make January quickly disappear (because I remember the previous January at the ranch, buried in snow).  I started sewing Oliver+S patterns as it was one of my new year goals. This one is still a little big, but maybe she can get 2 summer uses out of it. This - seriously - was the easiest pattern I've ever sewn. Simple bodice and skirt.

It's a good thing Pearce LOVES dresses!! Now that the warm weather is finally here, I'm actually scrambling to make a few more dresses. I was quite productive during nap time today and cut out pattern pieces for a dress and a skirt. And last night I cut out pieces for a simple white blouse after I realized she didn't have the most basic of basics! :-)

Jeremy, is this a bullet our child found in the front yard?!?

Amy's results

Feeling completely relieved!! I'm been a bag of nerves the past week or so. My sweet lil sis Amy had some seizures in the middle of the night. First time ever. It was pretty scary. We were super lucky to get her right in with a neurologist at the University of Utah. The wait is usually a couple months, but my BFF Brooke's husband is a Neuro Resident there and helped get us in a few short days. We went last night for an epilepsy MRI, and she had an EEG done last week in Provo. I was also worried about the financial ramifications (I can't help it) and found out that her BYU student health insurance was pretty darn good! And covered the docs at the University of Utah and the majority of MRI cost (which are super duper expensive!!).

For the appointment today, I had to bring Pearce, because I didn't even think about getting a babysitter until super last minute. (I'm so use to just bringing her everywhere with me.) She actually was really well behaved. (I say that because the doc at the end said "What a well behaved child." hahahhaha) Thanks to 2 lollipops, graham crackers, stickers, colors, etc (pretty much my church bag) I'm no dummy! :-) But by the end, the lollipop's excitement wore off, and I missed some of what the specialist doc said when I was chasing her down a very long hall. Whoops!

Based on the MRI scans, they could see she has a cyst in her right frontal lobe. The doctor said the cortex around it could have been "excited" (is that they word she used AMY?? hahaha) and caused the seizures. We just won't know for sure unless she has another seizure. And she wouldn't say she had epilepsy unless another one occurred. And hopefully she won't. The good news. It's not a brain tumor, mom!! (Okay, I was a little freaked out about it being a brain tumor too. I am my mother's daughter.)

The doc was very kind and friendly and said not to worry, that the cyst could not be anything but she was obviously just cautious when saying the cyst COULD be causing seizure. They said no need to do anything now. Just wait to see if she has another one. And if so, they have a 24 hour monitoring test they would do.

It was cool seeing all the scans of her brain. And it was kinda fun watching Amy do all the initial physical-type tests. 'Follow my finger.' 'Touch your nose.' 'Make bear claws with your hands and pull my fingers.' 'Walk like you're on a plank.' 'Tippy-toe.' 'Curtsey.' (just kidding about that last one.)

Wheeler Farm

Sometimes I wish we had lots of kids already, and at times pretty impatient waiting for more. But as I've reflected this past week/weekend for Mother's Day, I've just felt really grateful to be a mom, and to have Pearce. I feel really lucky to have her. 

It was a joy this weekend to be with her and Jeremy and to watch her run around, and be excited about every animal, water stream and waterfall she saw. I cherish the little family activities we can do on the weekends. 

This farm was beautiful! I can't believe such an open, country-like place existed in the city. We will definitely be back. (And it's free!!! SO I'll probably choose this over the zoo, which costs a lot more and has huge crowds. We only spent 5 cents on a dumdum lollipop for Pearce at the General Store.)  

Pearce lately has been holding her leg back like this. Sometimes it results in twister-like maneuvers.

 Jeremy was picking handfuls of clover and showing Pearce how to feed the horse/pony? with her hand flat.

 Long gone are the days where she'll sit/stand still and look at a camera for a photo. Instead mesmerized by the stream/waterfalls below the bridge.

 Aaaah! we finally got one of her looking at the camera! But can you see how peaceful and pretty this place is? It did definitely make me miss our country-living days.

 We then made our way to the barns where there were sheep, goats, turkeys, chickens and horses. The baby sheep were "baaaaaaa-ing" and then the Mama (or according to Pearce the "dad") had this deep voice of "baaaaaa-ing" right back. It was back and forth and Pearce (and I) loved hearing it. I was telling Pearce that the babies want their mama so bad, and the mama wants her babies so bad, so they are talking to each other. (They were in separated pens right next to each other). And whenever she sees or hears the word "baby" - she immediately starts saying in a high-pitch cute little voice "oooooh, cute little babies" and rubbed her nose into the gate.

Waving to the big rooster on top.

Then bookin' it to the pond as soon as she saw it. Wild geese were everywhere honking.

 Since it was Saturday and "Farm Fest" they had little dance performances on a stage, and Pearce loved watching the little girls dancing in costumes. She calls them ballerinas, even thought they weren't. She is big into ballerinas, and I recently figured out why when I asked her the who her favorite "Little Einstein" was, and she said "June". I didn't even know which one was June, so I finally paid attention to the show with her, and discovered June was a ballerina! 

 I love horses. I think they are BEAUTIFUL. And I love this deep caramel color the best. They came up really close to us, so Jeremy helped Pearce pet the horse. It actually kinda looks like she's pinching the horse in this photo though. hahahaha

 We'll see ya next time Mr. Ed.

I had a wonderful mother's day, and mostly thanks to my sweetheart. He started out the morning with pecan waffles. And ended the day with PW's enchiladas. Oh and picking up on a hint of what I would LOVE as a gift. I was pleasantly surprised by it!!! (Because we typically don't do gifts for holidays other than Christmas and birthdays.)

And also because Pearce gave me big hugs today and told me she loves me and that I'm her best friend.

 Well, these photos are about as good as it gets trying to get a quick photo before church. Mostly sad faces from Pearce wanting to run away and not be held. And also missing out on her nap due to 1pm church. :-/ But at least we got a happy one of her once we started walking. It's crazy that we can walk to church faster than we could buckle Pearce up in her carseat. The church is in our backyard. Literally.

This little munchkin made me an adorable flower artwork in nursery, and it is proudly being displayed on our magnet board. I would have liked to have gotten a better photo of her in this dress that I made her a while back, waiting for warm weather, but I'll have to try again on a day other than Sunday. I especially love the details in the back because I picked out groovy gold buttons. This is one of my favorite dress patterns from Oliver+S. It's the Family Reunion dress, and you can also make it blouse length, which I have made one other time as well. It's pretty simple/classic.

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day. Hugs to you all!!

Flashback Friday: My momma

I'm doing it! I'm taking big sis Jessica's lead and doing flashback fridays on the bloggie. I've thoroughly enjoyed all of hers, and plus with mother's day this weekend, thought it would be a great time to start! My mom gave us shoeboxes full of photos a couple Christmases ago, and I think I'm the main one who actually dug through them all and grabbed a bunch. I put them in photo albums, and put them on the shelf in our main living room, and Pearce grabs them quite often and we look through them. And perfect timing, because she grabbed them out this morning. Here are some of my faves with my MOMMA!!!

I loved all the cute little dresses my mom had us wear on Sunday. And I love the white knee high socks. Mom and her three little girls.

 Same house. Same little girls. Maybe a year later. 

My first day of KINDERGARDEN!! And this photo brings back lots of very old memories. I remember being very nervous and shy. But I also remember my mom being right there by my side. She stayed for a bit while I did a little craft project. I remember her being positive, encouraging and excited for me.

Mom always did cute little birthday parties for us. Even if the majority of the time was just family parties. This must have been my 6th or 7th bday, and I she was helping me pin the tail on the My Little Pony.

I loved our yearly summer roadtrips to Atlanta, for my parents to go to the temple. I don't really remember the long, hot, probably fighting carrides in the station wagon (well maybe just a glimpse). But I can only imagine how NOT FUN that is for a mom. BUT, she always planned really fun things for us to do in Atlanta after they were done at the temple. As a kid I remember thinking the temple was so special, and I loved walking around the outside. I also remember lots of mall trips, and hanging out in the hotel room.

Mardi Gras Mambo!! Mom is at the top of the latter with Freddie and Laura. And Sarah, Me and Jessica (in the A's hat!) below. Jess, remember that baseball hat phase? I think I had a white sox hat, white with skinny black stripes. I digress. My point here is, now being a mom, I know what a big ordeal it is to take children out to busy crowded public places. But mom always took us to the parades every year. She is a super cool/fun mom. And I loved the Mardi Gras Mambo music she would play in the stereo every MG season. And all the King Cakes she would bring to our classrooms.

Easter pictures :-) Mom was insistant on them. At the time - we did not like them - but so glad to look back and see them. Mom always had beautiful flowers planted in the front planter boxes each season. I loved that. And I miss that house. :-(

Oh the college years!! This picture truly melts my heart. My mom was the absolute SWEETEST setting up my first college dorm bedroom (in Heritage Halls) at BYU. I really look back and think how sweet and special I felt that she flew out with me and got me all set up. And it also breaks my heart that I was such a non-appreciative/ready-to-be-on-my-own 17 year old. But mom, I look back now and feel BEYOND grateful for you. :-)

Some how I got really lucky the summer after my Sophmore year at college. I don't konw id I was in the right place (conversation) at the right time.... but my mom took ME - just ME - to New York. She made hair appointments at a swanky hair salon, and I got the prettiest, shiniest, blonde highlights I've ever had, and then we went to the Madonna concert at Madison Square Gardens. I think still to this day all of my siblings just might be jealous. But our mom has a way of making each kid feel special. And I know she has done equally cool/special things with each SEVEN of us.

Mom visiting me in Huntington Beach right after Jeremy proposed. And she took me dress shopping at some boutiques around Orange County. Such a happy time in my life.

And one of my all time faves with my mom. Happy Mother's Day MOMMA!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!

homebound

We stayed home all day today (which is out of the norm). I'm usually a go-go-go girl--creating endless errands. It's my thang. But every now and then it's good to stay home. So I offered my car to Jeremy since he had training down in Herriman about 30 miles away. I'm a stickler for gas $.

It was a nice lazy day, hanging out in pj's, playing toys in Pearce's room, drawing with markers in a coloring book then face and arms, and watching Jungle Book for the first time. Then Jeremy sent me a photo of how beautiful it was down in Herriman, and I realized we needed to get outside today and enjoy the lovely day. So after Pearce's nap, we got dressed and brought out the sidewalk chalk.

It didn't take long for Pearce to take the chalk from the driveway to around the neighborhood. On poles, on rocks, and dipping in water.

She made her way to the curb, for more balance-beaming, of course!

And then played in the "stream" aka run-water along the curb.

I then was laying on the grass right next to her watching her, and it's funny whenver I lay on my stomach, she will always come jump on my back and try standing up (balancing). She does it all the time. And I actually like it. It's like a back massage--kind of. :-) So I tried snapping some pics.