Plus Quilt Equals Love

At the beginning of the month, my dear friend Charne got married.
I knew this was coming.
In fact, when she called me last June to tell me that she was dating this particular young man, I determined that it was time to start her wedding quilt. This quilt was originally for Grey, but when I made my measurements, something was off. So instead of a twin-sized quilt, I ended up with an (almost) queen! I decided to quilt it with the lines from the Hymn "For the Beauty of the Earth."
I figured, if she didn't get married, it's not really a poem about weddings- although thanks to Little Women I always think of it as one.
I was able to quilt this on a long-arm machine myself, and I love the quilting on it so much. I'm sorry I don't have a better picture of it. It's essentially quilted with my hand-writing!
Even though this quilt has been done for OVER A YEAR, I never did a "quilt photoshoot," since I didn't want to post it to the blog and have Charne see it. And once I was ready to actually go to the wedding, I got caught up and forgot until we were there! I managed to get these mediocre pictures, and they'll suffice, since this isn't for a quilting magazine - just to preserve memories! (That's what I have to tell myself when I don't get the pictures I want.)
I love this beautiful girl, and I am excited for her to start her family- although it's hard to give her up. She is valuable part of our family. We love you, Aunt Charne!

This is the version of the poem that I quilted it with:

For the Beauty of the Earth

For the beauty of the earth,

   For the beauty of the skies,

For the Love which from our birth

   Over and around us lies:

Lord, our God, to Thee we raise

This our hymn of grateful praise.

For the beauty of each hour

   Of the day and of the night,

Hill and vale, and tree and flower,

   Sun and moon and stars of light:

Lord, our God, to Thee we raise

This our hymn of grateful praise.

For the joy of human love,

   Brother, sister, parent, child,

Friends on earth, and friends above;

   For all gentle thoughts and mild:

Lord, our God, to Thee we raise

This our hymn of grateful praise.

Happy Birthday, Harry!

I've loved Harry Potter and his friends ever since I was given the first three books in 5th grade.
As each new book came out, I anxiously awaited its arrival, read it through the night, and then again (and again).
As each new movie came out, I went to the theater at midnight in costume - came away disgusted and upset, vowed never to watch it again (because movies about books ruin books), inevitably watched it again and again anyway, and came to love it (except the fourth and second movies, which I can barely stomach.)
At night, I often dream that I am Harry, and I have very stressful dreams (always narrated by Jim Dale) during which I fight Voldemort in Antique Stores or am chased by Death Eaters through the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, or perhaps where I am taking a class by Olivander on how to blow glass into wands. All very strange, but probably to be expected.

But my love for the wizarding world could not be satiated by yearly re-readings of the books or movie marathons. And my freshman year of college, I realized that I was not the only 19 year-old that mourned being a muggle. In fact, apparently most of my generation had read Harry's story - always the same age as Harry was in newest book - and obviously we all loved Harry and knew the incantations for any spell we might need in a pinch.

My bestie Lauren - who threw the first Harry Potter Birthday Party with me- and our husbands. We're the four founders.
 Look us! Best Friends! We made a school!

And looking for an excuse to throw a party, make desserts, wear costumes, and bond nerdily during the summer term- we celebrated Harry Potter's Birthday.
And 6 years later, not a July has passed without our salute to The Boy Who Lived.

You guys, I love it. I love Harry Potter. I love creating ridiculously difficult and lengthy trivia quizzes, I love inventing my own recipes for beloved Wizarding treats, I love forcing my husband into cloaks against his will (evil laugh!) and I love trying to teach my kids the rules of Quidditch and then coming into the living room to see them chasing a bouncy ball and yelling "I caught the snitch ball!" when they get it.

Elizabeth and I holding the trivia contest. As always, Ravenclaw won with Gryfindor somehow coming in second (due to sheer willpower, I think) and Hufflepuff putting in a solid effort and yet falling short. Obviously, there was not a Slytherin team. 

This year (and last), I've co-thrown the party with our neighbor Elizabeth. (I also stole all these pictures from her.) and we have a lot of fun getting ready and making costumes and food.  She even made Harry a giant snitch cake!

She should be dressed as Mrs. Weasley- not Fleur, because that is a culinary masterpiece. 

I love the Harry Potter books, and what they teach about family, friendship, loyalty, integrity, and differences. And I love how many friends I've bonded with over our love for that boy wizard.
Thanks, Harry. And happy 34th birthday.

Photo a Day: June 15 - 21

I know no one even checks my blog anymore, which is crazy- because on most weeks I still post three times a week! But as I once posted 5 times a week, I guess that makes sense. I'm just a wee bit sad about it. 

Last week I only posted twice, but to be fair - I had a busy week! One of my dearest friends from college has been in town visiting us and any down time that I have has been filled by sitting on the couch together discussing books, church, old friends, babies, and everything else we can think of. It;s been wonderful! If it weren't for the four tiny people always underfoot , I could almost believe that we're back in our old dorm together. 

Except that's not true. I love being in my own home, ("It's such a pleasure to run my own home.") and being able to invite her here - even if all we have to spare is a couch and a playpen. Anyway, here are some pictures from our pretty-dreamy week, and I'll try to post at least twice more this week. Maybe thrice. 

Sunday: Sunday was a busy day! August was blessed in church, and it was Father's Day. I'm so glad that we have this beautiful boy as part of our happy little family!

 Monday: Sometimes I try to wake him up for like forty minutes, and he just snoozes while I kiss and smell him.

Tuesday: Our apricot tree is so close to being ripe! I have plans in the works for 1 million jars of apricot jam.

 Wednesday: Reunited with my besties! // Thursday: Lana brought her mini-me to Utah, and we're all in love with her.

Friday: What's a Friday night without pizza? (A regular, boring night.) // Saturday: My happy bear. (Someday I'll take pictures of my other kids again.) Also, these days are apparently mislabeled.

Best friends

Grey has always been a little more of a loner than Micah. We spend time almost every day with our little neighbor Elanor, and while both boys love to play with her and each other, Grey often wanders off on his own or comes to sit and talk with the grown-ups.
Even in these pictures, Grey wanted a picture by himself, but Micah and Elanor posed together.

It's really sweet how much Micah loves Elanor. Every time we see her, he shouts "It's my best friend Elanor."

 Oh, these little people.
I love them, and they love each other.

Photo a Day - Sept 8 - 14

Isn't it funny how being on a trip makes last week seem mundane and boring?

Actually, last week was pretty mundane and boring. it was rainy most days and even though my sister Mary was in town, we were so sick that we just lay on the couches all day begging my kids to stop needing our attention. Well, here are last week's pictures. They were not taken daily, like I'm pretending. Mon-Thursday I was really too pathetic to do anything like take pictures. 

Sun Sept 8: Micah and Aunt Mary, and Grey and Charne.

Mon Sept 9: Exploring.

Tues Sept 10: Rainy morning.

Wed Sept 11: Drinking some hot cocoa to warm up after a morning rain-walk. // Thurs Sept 12: Micah, trimming up the bushes with the new wooden ax grandpa made for him!

Fri Sept 13: Oh, my Micah.

Sat Sept 14: Grey giving Elanor kisses to wake her up from an enchanted sleep. (When this didn't work, he jumped on her yelling "WAKE UP!" and then rolled her off the bed.)

BFFs

Do you have a bestie? If not, may I recommend getting one? 

These three are so funny together. They love each other, fight each other, harass and annoy each other, and cry themselves to sleep asking for each other. 

It's such a testament to me of the importance of friendship that my two year olds have and need their friends. They ask for Elanor when they are hurt or sad. They run to the window when they see her outside. They remember to pray for her at night more often than they remember the rest of their actual family.
Ah, young love.
Or rather, young friendship.
It makes my heart happy.

Photo A Day: August 4 - 10

I am pretty good at capturing the ordinary in our life. Trips to the park, dinner, hugs, toys, the occasional shot of my craft table.
If you want to know what our life usually looks like, you're in luck, because I have several years worth of pictures of regular boring days.
But man, I am really bad at photographing when fun things happen.
This week we had some friends from my home town stay with us from Tuesday to Sunday, so you'd think they'd be in a bunch of pictures.
But you'd be wrong.

Ah, well.
I do what I do.
Although in reality, I didn't even take all these pictures.

Sun August 4: Blowing Bubbles on the front step, as captured by our downstairs neighbor Elizabeth.

Mon August 5: Micah takes his lady love on a ride. // Tues August 6: Looking at Diggers with Daddy.

Wed August 7: Obligatory group picture of our otherwise unpictured friends. Despite the photographing evidence to the contrary, we had an awesome time together!

Thurs Aug 8: Are you noticing that my children spent all their time shirtless or naked in the summer? Not a single picture of them with clothes on!

Fri August 9: Two of my best friends from High School. I hadn't seen them in YEARS. Four years!

Sat August 10: We went swimming in the Great Salt Lake, which isn't as Utah-y an activity as you might think. In fact, it's the first time I've been in the 6 years I've lived here. It was a long drive, and kind of disgustingly dirty and scorching hot! But it was fun to float and be so buoyant! I might recommend it to family's with slightly older kids. (Not too young, or they can't have fun and it's too much work, not too old, or they'll know enough to be grossed out by the flies and water.)

Friends for Boys (and Friends for Moms.)

I am very partial to my camera and my very specific favorite lens (a Sigma 30mm), yes. True. 

But there is something so nice about friends with cameras! Two of our neighbors (who we see almost daily) both sent me some pictures this week, so I decided to share some of my favorites. It's nice to be in some pictures every once and a while...

This is Micah. In case you can't remember: Grey has short hair and a short name. Micah has longer hair and a longer name.

I promise, I wipe my kids' faces off all the time. It's not my fault they're constantly crusty.

Micah with his two besties (besides Grey.) Elanor and Eli.

On the hammock.

Playing Poohsticks with the boys and Eli.

Checking out a worm they managed to dig up with a stick. (Or rather, they managed to dig half of a worm up.) Boys are gross.

We're so lucky to have a close-knit neighborhood full of lots of little kids!

New Friends

Moving is hard. It's not the shifting boxes, settling into a new space, or finding new grocery stores and playgrounds.
It's the business with friends. Having only moved forty minutes is especially difficult in my opinion. Because I'm so close to my old friends. I'm tempted to drive down to Provo a few times a week for playdates, parties, writing group, and maybe to check out books in my own library. (Okay, the library isn't my real friend.)

It doesn't matter how old you are, it seems like that first week at church is the first day at a new school. Who should I sit by? Where are the cool kids?
If I go to the park and meet another nice mom with kids my boys' age, I try to steel myself the whole time to ask for her number. She already has friends. She might think I'm creepy. What if she doesn't think I'm as interesting as I think she is. What if she comes over for a playdate and it's weird?

It's like I'm revving myself up for a first date!

Last week, I met an awesome mom at the park and after we chatted for an hour and our kids played together, I chickened out. She walked to her car, with a backwards wave, while I was changing a diaper. I hadn't had a chance to make her my new bestie! I seriously thought about chasing her down and knocking on her car window, and saying "Come play at our house next week, where it's warm." But it was too much.
Then I went home and tried to remember what she'd said, and tried to decide when she'd be at the park next, so that we could accidentally bump into her. Yikes.

Then one of my new friends invited me over for lunch with a few other girls from the neighborhood. It was like love at first sight. They all came in, dressed so chic and with their hair in knotty buns, babies on their hips, while we talked about natural birthing, and how all of us are professional artists and moms.

I called my mom to tell her the exciting news. More friends! New friends! There's something so nice about slowly accumulating a circle of girls. But at the same time, I feel guilty every time I'm invited to something with my friends in Provo, because I can almost never steel myself for the drive, since it's usually with the boys. They don't want to be in the car for an hour a half, and where will they nap once we're there? And then I feel left-out. Dumb. Will I always feel like a teenager?

Maybe my problem is that I want to be friends with everyone and involved in everything. I need friends with kids the same age as me, so we can have playdates and talk about potty-training.  I need friends who read the same books as me, so we can have Harry Potter movie nights. I need friends who are well-dressed and stylish, so I feel the need to step up my game and feel better about myself (I have this unsatisfied high-school desire to be friends with the coolest people, and for other people to think that I'm cool). I need friends with the same hobbies as me, so I can text them questions about quilting or knitting. I need friends that are better and kinder than me, so I can get off my high horse and humble myself. I need friends that are a few steps ahead of me, so I can watch how they manage their older kids and look up them. I need friends that are a few steps behind me, so I can talk with them about first pregnancies or new marriages. I need friends with twins, because no one else understands my kid-problems quite like they do.

And finding all those friends in a new town takes a while. But I feel like I finally am.
I feel like, all of a sudden, I've settled into a circle. I have friends. I have girls. I have people that I would feel alright texting in the middle of the night (if I needed to), and people I can text to come over and play in their pjs, if we don't feel like getting dressed. I have people here that I can call on a moment's notice to say, "We made twice as much food as expected, come over for dinner."

And I love it. It happened a lot faster than the last time that we moved, but I was really stepping up my game. I just couldn't sit at home by myself all day, and it sure helped that our downstairs neighbor was always outside at the same time as us, and she has already been here a year, and had lots of friends to help introduce me to.

Have you heard that expression, "Men need women, and women need men and women" ?
That's how I feel. I need my women. And I finally feel like Salt Lake has helped me find them.
So if you're my friend in Salt Lake, and you just read this... I love you. Thanks for being my friend. Come play with me.

Christmas Carnival

Okay. It wasn't a carnival. It was a "German Market" (?).
Last night the boys and I joined our favorite neighbors at the This is the Place monument for Christkindlemarkt. It was really sweet, simple, (and did I mention free?). There wasn't really that much going on, but there were a booths selling candy and toys, carolers dressed like a Charles Dickens' novel, warm fires burning, and of course Reindeer! 





The reindeer seemed kind of sad, but the boys loved to see them. And obviously, since we were going to see reindeer, I made the boys wear their reindeer Christmas sweaters.
We were followed by lots of whispers of, "Oh! Look at those twins!" People are much more delighted by my children when they're dressed alike.

A few people even asked if the kids were triplets, including a woman who said, "Ooooh, twosies or threesies?"
Um...? They're twins? Is that what you're asking?



We also bought candied popcorn for the kids, and these delightful pictures happened when Elizabeth said, "Everybody say cheese for a nice picture, and then you can have a piece!"  They couldn't quite figure out smiling, but they made lots of interesting faces.



If you live in the Sale Lake area (with or without kids), I would highly recommend going to visit the Christkindlemarkt. And if you go this afternoon or evening, I think there's some sort of parade (?) and the boys and I may be there again!