Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Whoopsy, I fell off the blogging wagon. We really have been kind of busy, kind of not. Busy doing nothing?  I'll post picks and just update stuff.

So...on September 5th we flew down to Anchorage to visit the Pediatric Neurologist for Thatch in regards to his intention tremor diagnosis. It's a correct diagnosis, it's something he'll always have and something we're just going to have to adapt too. Good news is that it's not a smaller symptom of something bigger, like MS or a cerebral tumor or what have you. Really, we take this as a blessing. That's the meat and potatoes of the visit but here's the fun stuff :)

I don't always fly on an airplane, but when I do, I make it look good.

Reading a jet magazine while flying on an airplane. 

Harps and myself, rounding out the row.

After Thatch's doctor appointment we went to Target to celebrate! Thatch was allowed to pick out one toy, under $15 . 45 minutes later and two changes, we ended up with a Captian Hook ship. He has also decided to ask Santa for the Giant ship toy on the bottom. He has asked to see Santa, pretty much every day since then. Sigh.

Harper, thoroughly enjoying Target. That would be my genetics being passed on.

Since the Olive Garden opened in Anchorage we had to go. Grandma Jonesie and Thatch waiting patiently .

Watching that buzzer like a hawk!

Of all the things, Thatch chooses pizza. He didn't really eat that much though, because he ate, like 200 bread sticks!

We went for a walk and Thatch was pushing the stroller that I used to push him in. <pardon me while I wipe away a tear>

Shortly, like seconds, after this picture Thatch said "This is too hard, can you push now?"  I'm pretty sure we were on a downhill.

His shark face. Really, this is like a scene from Psycho or something. Egads.

Papa O'Fernie should have been into Anchorage on Friday night but he missed his connection so he didn't come in until Saturday evening. He said "My flight gets in around 8."  We should have known better than to accept this vague time because his flight arrived at 9:30 PM (it was actually a half an hour early) which we didn't discover until we were at the airport at 7:30 PM. With two kids. Two rambunctious kids. We rode escalators...

We looked at every wildlife display in every corner of the airport...(Good news, I can now distinguish a black bear from a brown bear. Yay.)

We had ice cream at yogurt land (No joke, Rootbeer Float froyo is amazing.) And then Papa showed up...

I really do hate living so far apart from everybody but the one thing I do love is how they always run to see everyone in the airport. It's the only positive spin I can really put on it.

Sunday morning the boys played with their new train set while..

We all watched football!!! Harpie's first Football Sunday : D  

Then my camera died. I forgot to charge the stinking camera!! Sigh. Oh well, at least I got most of the visit in.

So that was the big weekend, after that we've really not done too much. A few little events but nothing major! Here's a few more tidbits...

Our Target excursion left us with these, the glow stick thingies that you normally have around Halloween time.  We did our first fun bath!! I turned off all the lights and surprised them with these and they LOVED it!! 

You can be sure that there were Star Wars sound effects coming from both of their little mouths. 

And then Coop decided to eat them. 

And with the cooler weather, we have started using this. It is perhaps a bit premature, as I'm sweltering  as I type, but it's kind of nice to be so warm and to have naked babies that are comfy. We're just doing small fires in the morning and it keeps the whole house warm the rest of the day. Nothing too crazy though.

Grammy and Grandpa couldn't wait and we got our Christmas present early this year!! It's been a little too chilly to actually camp outside with the boys now so we had a camp out in the living room on a Friday movie night!! They were SOOOOO excited and we were so excited by our new tent!!

It was an all boys camp out. My little Chevy Doodle enjoyed some camping as well but then came in the room with me and slept on the real, comfy bed. Smart dog.

Pooope Coopie was so tired! Have I mentioned how adorable these little jammies are?

Random!! Here's my green onions I re-grew! I cut these ones up and they're already so huge again!

On Sunday we took Thatch on a Mommy-Daddy-Kiddo date to see Finding Nemo in 3D. He loved the attention and we loved being able to spend alone time with him. My Mom watched the kiddos while we were out and there happened to be quite a wind storm that afternoon which resulted in a 5 hour long power outage and a tree falling on our house. Our poor baby sitter!!

With no power, we decided to eat out...as did everybody else in North Pole.Wendy's it was!! Their toy in the kid's meal was Where's Waldo themed and I honestly LOVED it!! It occurred to me that we haven't read a Where's Waldo book yet!! It's on my to do list, for sure.

And here's the tree. Too bad it didn't' do more damage, maybe we could have added on a master suite there or something fabulous. I guess I'm thankful that it wasn't a big deal though. It did buy us an extra morning with Jonathan, who had to stay home from work and cut it up because it couldn't be done that night with the winds and darkness and what have you.

So I picked Thatch up from school the other day and this caught  my eye! Thatch's artwork was picked to represent the whole Kindergarten on a bulletin board in the school!

And here's the artwork! If you look closely, you'll see the shapes he glued on make it into a shark . Love that kid and his imagination!

Harpie and my arm at Library time. She's like "Seriously Mom, that stupid camera again?"

Coopie, being a good participant. You can rest assured that he wreaked havoc a little later by running up and down the aisles. Good thing they understand that he's 2!

So that's what we've been up to the past 3 weeks! Sorry this was so long, lots to cover I guess! I'll be more diligent. Maybe. Probably not.

I hope you enjoyed!!

Love,
S

Operation: Fancy Nancy-COMPLETE.

It is done.

Harps is sleeping in  her own room now.

And what a room it is :D I think that I say I spent more time working on her bedroom than my own. Honestly. It's not so Fancy Nancy, really. It's more like, Fancy Audrey Hepburn. We're classy around here (excluding the lamp dilema, which you'll learn about soon).

 Here is the evidence.

The main view. I hate to admit this but we have to keep her dresser in the closet because it's such a tiny room. I'm thinking it's 10 x 10. It doesn't work any other way, I've exhausted all of the arrangements.

I sewed those pillow cases. They totally look like squares, huh? First pillows since 8th grade. Ms. Easterly Keil would be proud. Maybe not so much now, since I'm pretty sure I just misspelled her name.

I totally sewed that changing pad cover myself. NO JOKE. I went all out on this! You might be asking what the circle and the cylinder are. The circle is for her hair clips, just clip the bows to the ribbon and it holds them. The cylinder is a hairband holder, there is one on it right now. Thatch picked out the baskets :) So the reason there are curtains rather than doors is because the closet is 55" wide and only works with sliding door. Not conducive for diaper changing or drawer opening. It's kind of pretty I guess.

Here is the wall mural that I hand painted. There are little mirror birds on it. I kind of love it and wish it was in my room.

I made this while I was drinking a beer. I totally could have done a better job at making it straight. Lesson Learned: Never drink and craft at the same time. I also woke up with A LOT of hot glue burns on my fingers. I feel like I'm making myself out to be a drunkard here but I only had one hard apple cider. I'm a cheap date.

I found something like this on pinterest but I feel like I improved it with the glitter. Probably only in a Jersey Shore meets Tinkerbell kind of way but I'm cool with that. Loves me some glitter. I wish it wasn't off center, that's going to bother me from here to eternity but other than that, I also love it. In case you are wondering what the back is, it's pages from The Secret Garden modge podged on a canvas. 

I want one of these! It's so much prettier in the sunlight. It's a mobile with crystals hanging from fishing line. Oh man, that's a really bad description. That's like calling Filet Mignon a serving of Dead Cow. I'll try to photograph it better on a sunny day, we should have one in a couple of months. 

And here is where my sweet girl is sleeping right now. This is the same crib that Thatch and Coop slept in. This silly piece of furniture means the world to me.

Anyhoo, enough about that. The whole room was inspired by the crib bumper, which I got a KILLER deal on from Potterybarn. The rest was not a killer deal, and let's not even go into a dialogue about potterybarn shipping (seriously, it's Alaska, not Russia) so I suppose it evens out in the wash. 

So there it is, my sweet girl's classy room. I might do some more artwork or finishing touches but right now, I'm spent. Literally, I would probably get in trouble if Jonathan knew how much this cost ;)

Now you can picture we girls' little corner of feminine serenity in a house full of boys :) Enjoy!!

Love,
S

p.s. I haven't put the trim up, so technically it's not "really" done. One day, probably when we sell the house and move, it will be done.

One flew out of the cuckoo's nest

It has finally arrived, the day where my funny little man started school. To say that I have been looking forward to this day is an understatement, I have been eagerly anticipating the miraculous 2.5 hours of quiet  for some time. Please do not construe this as a negative comment though. The thing is, Cooper is an ENTIRELY different child when Thatch isn't around to compete with. He's delightful, talkative and just plain cute. When Thatcher is around he is competitive, rambunctious and a pill. We should probably move to Philadelphia to get help in the brotherly love department. And that is not to say they don't love each other, they're quite affectionate but they're just boys who bicker, I guess. So I suppose what I'm trying to convey here, is that I was looking forward to alone time with the Coopster. Anyhoo, (that was a tangent...sorry) we were all excited about school today!

The morning started out a bit shaky, Thatch was agitated and visibly nervous. He kept asking when we would leave, mind you it was 8 AM and I was making breakfast, so I knew it was going to be a long morning. He constantly snapped at Cooper and I believe they came to fisticuffs two times.Tensions were running high. After a brief but effective timeout in his room I went in and we cuddled and had a discussion about his feelings. He was worried that he wouldn't make any friends and said he was going to miss me (which melted my callous, sarcastic heart) but I told him he would definitely make friends like he had in pre-school and that it was only a short time away from each other. That, and promising him a shower in our bathroom and using Daddy's soap and shampoo perked him up. After a lunch of Frosted Mini-Wheats (it's what he picked and I figured the little mini-wheat always helped the kids in the commercials so what the heck) Coop and Harps both went down for a simultaneous nap so I was able to leave them both home with a slumbering Jonathan and take Thatch alone. Talk about 1st day of school miracles!!

I took these photos of him in front of our house before we left for the first day. All I said was smile for me and this is what I got...

There is not a word to describe the level of happiness and excitement that beamed out of this little boy at this very moment.

I plan on taking these every 1st day for the next 12 years :)

When we got to the school he decided we needed to run in. We were 15 minutes early, but the last ones there. Crazy parents making me look late.

He wanted to climb up on the flower boxes to take this. 

And then my cautious little man jumped down. He never does this stuff normally, it must have been the adrenaline. P.S. Nice action shot by the photographer, huh?

After we hung up his backpack he surveyed his domain for the next year.

I wish I knew what he was saying here. 

Hard at work on his first assignment, draw a picture of himself on the first day and write his name on it.

I'm not sure if you know this, but at the beginning of last year Thatcher was unable to write his name. Not one bit. He had the hand strength of a 27 month old. This picture, right here, is the payoff for a very difficult year of Occupational Therapy 4 times a week, among other therapy sessions, and one on one work. My heart exploded with pride and relief when I saw this.

The final product. His first masterpiece. A few things to take notice of:
1. His shirt is orange in the picture and has blue writing. Matches the one he's wearing perfectly.
2. He decided he has black hair, not brown. We discussed this briefly before he won.
3. He's happy in the picture. :)

And then I started to miss him.

When I picked him up and we settled down a bit I asked him what his favorite part of the day was. He said "When we went outside and played and learned the safety rules." There he his, Mr. Cautious is back! He told me how we have to count to 10 when we are waiting for people to get off swings because getting kicked would hurt. He also said his teacher was nice and that he liked her. Definitely off to a good start!!

After school we stopped off at Wendy's and got an Oreo sundae (not good) and went to swim lesson sign up. The boys are not very good waiters but they played a bit and watched the NPHS swim team practice which Thatch stated "was like the Olympics." Not quite the same caliber, but sure. If he wants to be a swimmer that's cool with me. Low cost equipment-here's your speedo and some goggles. Sounds good to my wallet too! Here are a few pics of us killing time.

We were outside playing on what was most sincerely a fall day when they spotted a C-130 flying through the clouds. Cooper shouted "AIRPLANE!!! I WANNA GO ON THE AIRPLANE!!" and Thatcher yelled "IT'S THE AIR FORCE!!". We are on a plane kick now.

And here's my sweet girl being patient and content. She was a bit toasty in that warm pool which you can see from those rosy cheeks.

Now travel back in time with me...

On Sunday, Jonathan finished his wood shed. He started this project last year and finished the main structure just in time for the snow to fall so the dirt work was pushed off until this summer. It was kind of scary and dangerous getting wood last year, especially being super pregnant and not exactly the most graceful person to begin with (let's put it this way...when I was home alone and I had to go out and get firewood, I would call my friend Melissa and tell her that if I didn't call back in 10 minutes come get me because I'd fallen and needed rescuing. No joke.) So it's done, and turned out even better than either of us expected!

Here it is!! He built this all by his self. 

And here's our firewood for the remained of this decade. I think we could be on an episode of hoarders if there was a wood segment.

Jonathan, happy to be done.

And then annoyed that I was still taking pictures of him. Of course I was going to put this in the blog.

So while Jonathan was working hard on man stuff, us girls went out and did girl stufff. Mainly, shopping. I think it was mine and Harp's first shopping trip together and thus needed to be documented for prosperity. This is my good friend Ali (friend's since middle school : D)  and her daughter Gillian (aka Gilly Bean) shopping at a CAbi party. I tried on a pair of size 8 pants and instantly bought them. In reality, they couldn't possibly be a true 8 and I'm not fooling myself at all but it's just nice to see that number ; )

And back a little further, if you please...

Harpie turned 7 months old the other day! Can you believe in only 5 months my darling girl will be 1? SOOOOO FAST!!! Time to start planning stages for a FAB birthday party!

I mean seriously, HUGE. I'm going to be super sad when she grows out of this outfit, it's one of my favorites.

And for some perspective, here she is at 2 weeks. Look at the difference in her legs! She has gotten seriously cuter too. 

And on that note, I'm off to bed. I was going to shoot for before 10 but I guess I'm shooting for before August 29th now. If I can only avoid pinterest for the night it might happen, but this was worth staying up for. I hope you enjoyed!!

XOXO,
 S