Little Lady in Red

We have a lot of dresses. Tons of gorgeous, frilly, tiny dresses. Part of this comes from Evie being the first girl/first granddaughter in my family. Part of it comes from my obsession with tiny little girl clothes. And she's getting bigger. Which means I feel the need to not only put her in them but to capture them on film as well. Which leads to photo shoots approximately every Sunday. Which means you have to look at more pictures of my adorable baby in all of her frilly dresses.

ooooh, shoes, shiny . . . must grab

if they look this pretty, they must taste even better . . .

And for all of you who thought you were done with dress pictures for today, oh no -- these are from last Sunday. I just have to figure out what she's wearing today. I'm sure there will be more.

Why the World Needs 3-year-olds

Luke: (running frantically up the stairs) "Mommy, I NEED my boat"
searching through bathroom for said boat

Me: (I've slept like 12 hours in the past 3 days so it took me a few minutes before it hit me what he had just said) "Wait -- why do you need your boat?"

Luke: (said nonchalantly) "To float in the water"

Me: (Again, a few second delay) "Luke, what water?"

Luke: "The water on the floor" (expression saying "duh, mom, why else?")

Me: (now running down the stairs to find huge glass of water which he'd apparently gotten for himself spilled all over the table and making a nice puddle on the tile) "How'd that happen?"

Luke: "It spilled, I guess. I have to float my boat in it" Proceeds to drag his boat happily through the puddle.

My favorite is that his first thought wasn't "I should wipe that up" or even "oops!" but rather "where is my boat?"

Also included are pictures of Luke's recent artwork, done with Sharpie on plastic stools from Ikea. He was very proud of the fact that he'd written his name on ALL of them (I even found it on one of the legs) and that he colored the little feet. Enjoy.

If you use your imagination, you can make out "L-U-K-E" (the K kind of looks like an H). I'm not sure what to make of the anarchy sign in the middle -- wait, his favorite song for awhile was "Holiday" by Green Day (he liked the "hey" part) -- maybe we should be concerned

Notice the smiley face on the blue one . . .

Favorite Moments (and a few favorite pics)

It's been sort of crazy last week and a half. Ken made it home safely from Milan (with some very yummy chocolate in tow) and I've been working a ton, preparing a presentation for work and writing a talk for church (which I gave last Sunday so I think I'm safe for a few years).

Here are a few of my favorite moments of the last 2 weeks:

-- on the way to dinner the other evening, Luke was doing everything he could to entertain Evie (which mainly consisted of flopping around in his car seat, yelling goofy noises, and playing an obnoxious version of peek-a-boo). However, Evie found all of this extrordinarily hilarious and was rolling with laughter -- about the loudest and longest I've ever heard her laugh.

-- I went to do an 8 or 9 mile run around the chain of lakes in Minneapolis (really, really gorgeous loop -- lots of boats, trees and great people watching). It was a beautiful day and I ended up taking a wrong turn and ended up running almost 12 miles. But I did it at a just-under 9:00 pace. And I think this means I'll be ready for the 1/2 marathon I want to do in October :)

-- cuddling with Evie. She is just the happiest, smiliest, cuddliest baby. And I've been working mostly days, so I've been able to snuggle her at night before bed. I just love baby snuggles.

-- making cookies with Luke. I made these ginger/chocolate cookies suggested by my friend Caroline (super yummy) and Luke -- who loves to cook -- was so excited to help "stir it, scrape it, make it, bake it" (a quote from "In the Night Kitchen" one of his favorite books). I didn't think he'd really like them -- they had a lot of fresh ginger in them -- but he loved them and was just COVERED in cookie dough after he finished licking the beaters. A happy, sticky, chocolaty mess.

-- starting the job search. yay, a real job!

-- shopping for proper attire for the job search. I just got this suit from Ann Taylor Loft. A little pricey, but not bad for a suit I guess. And I love it! Now I just need the shoes . . .

A few pics from the ward labor day picnic a few weeks ago. Luke and his 2 little buddies spent a solid 30 minutes throwing ice on the ground, laughing hysterically.

Thanks to Stacey for taking these great pics and letting me steal them . . .

dirty boy + eating ice == muddy, muddy mess

Why Grandmas "Totally Rock" (as related by Luke)

1. She brings magical suitcases filled with presents
2. Grandmas never get tired of lots of talking, stories, singing, talking, yelling, talking, questions, and more talking
3. Grandmas have no problem with Luke sleeping cuddled up in the big bed, even if it means getting kicked all night
4. When Luke asks for the 4th cookie in a row, Grandmas don't have to say no -- they get to say "you'll have to discuss that with your mother"
5. She got to say "yes" to the first 3 cookies
6. A busy afternoon consists of Chicken McNuggets for lunch, a stop to the "Build a Car" store (think Build-a-Bear but with pimped out cars), ice cream and play date at the Lego store
7. On the way to Chuck-E-Cheese (while Mommy's working) we "just happen" to stop by Toys R Us and "just happen" to come home with some brand new Cars
8. She gives good hugs
9. She makes up great stories and songs
10. Mommy is much happier (and less stressed) after a long Grandma-filled weekend

Luke showing off his ultra-cool green Ford Mustang from the car store

Evie "I'm the spit bubble-blowing-champion-of-the-world" Barringer
The "I'm so adorable, love me!" smile

So I might have taken a little literary licence, though it is clear why both Grandmas are clear favorites as far as grown ups are concerned. My mom came out to help out for the weekend while Ken was away and Luke isn't the only one around here who looks forward to Grandma visits. Thank you for all the help (and fabulous lasagna :) )

Sunday Thoughts

I'm on day number 3 of no hubby (or me vs. the munchkins). At least this morning, the munchkins were way, way ahead. I think there was a grand total of about 45 minutes before church today when no one was crying or yelling (and church is at 1:00 and I did none of the crying and very little yelling). And I know I can't really complain -- I have some good friends whose husbands work a ton and they do it all on their own, not to mention those single moms out there (my sister-in-law included) and the fact that Ken does way more of the nights/weekends on his own than I do given that my schedule is so crazy. Anyway, church today is exactly what I needed -- to feel the Spirit and be uplifted. We had a great lesson on the Mary/Martha parable from the Bible and talked alot about priorities and balance.

A couple of things that struck me today (and a couple of talks that were quoted -- check them out on www.lds.org)

*Balance is about managing the different priorities in your life -- and part of the reason Martha was unable to listen to the Savior's words was because the was "cumbered about serving much." Our charitable outlook towards those around us (especially for me today towards the 3 year old!) can diminish the more we are "cumbered about" with all the things we have to do. It sometimes takes consciously stopping the "to do list" running in the back of your mind in order to focus. I have been thinking alot about what extra time-takers I can really do away with in order to focus more on those priorities that matter the most.

*Your priorities shift depending on the day and the phase of your life -- and this is okay. There are times where one will take more time and energy than another. I liked this quote:

"These {lists of priorities} are helpful, but only in a broad, general context. In real life, each day brings its own requirements. . . We may envision our daily tasks as a kind of seesaw, where one day something is “up” in importance and another day it is “down" . . . The point is that when we judge someone as we have perhaps judged Mary and Martha, we have forgotten that strengthening the individual and the family, serving in Church callings, and providing for temporal needs are all part of gospel living."

Anyway, some good thoughts from today. Thank goodness for some Sundays. Here are the talks: "Choosing Charity" by Bonnie D. Parkin and "Mary and Martha: Faithful Sisters, Devoted Disciples" by Evelyn T. Marshall

A Snowball Effect (a.k.a. our new couches are finally here)

This is specifically dedicated to Ken who is currently in Milan, Italy on a business trip. Without me. I'm a little bitter (and I better get some great chocolate or handbags out of the deal!). There was a really sad story I had at work about 3 months ago where a little boy was killed after he was crushed by a big TV (which, from talking to the medics, is not all that uncommon) . FYI all recent TVS have brackets so they can be bolted to the wall, so check yours at home. Just a tip from your friendly neighborhood ER doc. Anyway, after calling home to check on my kids, my next comment to Ken was that I wanted our big, heavy, tipsy TV gone and I didn't really care how. Well, this all snowballed into a big (though not-so-heavy and way-more-stable) plasma TV for the basement (for which Ken built a very sturdy case) and new speakers (which, according to my husband, are the coolest speakers out there). Of course, we had to decorate the basement better and move the couches downstairs so we would have something to sit on while we watched the new TV. Which led to me getting new couches for the upstairs. Yay!!! This is the first set of furniture we have purchased since we've been married. They just came today -- and Ken, who is in Milan, hasn't seen them. Here are the pictures, honey. They're beautiful.

Deep Fried Twinkies

This picture is just the essence of the Minnesota State Fair

I took the kids to the Minnesota State Fair yesterday, and yes, they really do sell deep fried twinkies. And deep fried EVERYTHING else. That's basically the theme of the fair -- what we can make deep fried and put on a stick (pickles, peppers, twinkies, snickers, spaghetti, etc). I just wonder who came up with that idea, "how can we make a twinkie worse for use? I've got it -- deep fry it and put it on a stick!" And the place is crowded -- we were there about 2:00 on a Friday and it was packed.
But we had a great time. Luke fell asleep on some random guy on the bus ride over there (and had the whole bus in stitches) but was really good at the fair. He spent most of the time tag-team stroller riding with Evie (who slept through the whole thing). The Home Depot booth had this great activity set up where kids could come build toys. This was pretty funny in itself as Luke picked the most complicated one and I certainly can't build anything -- the guy running it finally took pity on us and helped Luke finish it. We saw some animals and ate some fair food though I haven't yet gotten up the nerve to try fried pickles. Our favorite fair food was the huge bucket of cookies from one of the stands. Luke also got to see some animals -- cows and sheep and some baby animals too. He was a happy, hot, tired boy.

Luke hitching a ride on the stroller

Home Depot Booth

the finished product

Luke was especially happy when I had no other room for the cookies except right next to him in the stroller . . .