thoughts on moving.

it STINKS. 

i HATE it.

in 2004 we moved from rexburg to boise.
in 2005 we moved across the country to charlotte
in 2006 we moved from southpark to the southend of charlotte
in 2007 we brought our stuff back across the country to denver
in 2008 we moved from denver to greenwood village (8 months pregnant).
in 2009 we came home to boise
next saturday we'll move to meridian.

yuck, right?

and with each move we've acquired more stuff, more kids, less time...and NO motivation. at least this time around half of our stuff is in storage and we're moving locally...buuuuut, it still stinks. so today, as i was packing up the first of many boxes to come, i pulled out the kids baby books. i shamefully realized i hadn't yet taken harrison's hand and footprints (come on, he's ONLY 7 months), and his feet barely fit on the stamp pad, but we worked it out. stamped, sprayed and taped to the book.

back to packing.

i then discovered that harrison is deathly afraid of the tape dispenser. every time he hears it he flys into a screaming state of panic. poor baby. i've tried shutting the door and taping in the next room...no go. he does it with the sound of popcorn kernels hitting the air-popper too. weird.

and then there is olive. sweet, SUPER helpful olive. if i leave a box unattended for two seconds i come back to all sorts of treasures inside. legos, washcloths, rice chex, a sippy cup full of milk wrapped in her pajamas pants.

i'd take the kids to the zoo and pay movers to do it for me, except that i'm too much of a perfectionist to have strangers pack my stuff...and i'm cheap.

...it's hopeless.

amos and aubry

aubry came to town for the amos lee concert last week. i can always count on aubry as a loyal concert sidekick. he put on a pretty great show, even gave my current celebrity crush a run for his money...until he didn't anymore.

dear amos, 

forever long guitar solos that only you are into are weird.

they make your audience uncomfortable, and you know you've missed the mark when even the drunk people sit down.

so, there was that. but over all a great show.

moving on.

aubry stayed through the weekend, so we did all the usual things: we shopped, and dined, and painted nails, and diy-ed. we cooked, and stayed up late, and slept in, and shopped some more.

she taught both olive and i the magic of bribery with money, way more effective then smarties and dum dums! genius.

and our shopping hit a high right before she left sending her on her way much later than originally planned. sorry aubry, i hope 9am church wasn't too painful.

come back!

slc rendevous

spencer's parents live in north carolina, which means we don't get to see them as much as we'd like to. but, we were able to intercept them in slc a couple weeks ago for a long weekend. they are such amazing grandparents, and i always get a little anxiety when we're going to see them because it's usually short and olive is a "warmer upper."

so, a testament to their greatness, the warming up took about 3 seconds. if you know olive, you know that's pretty spectacular.

we had a great time swimming and riding ponies at thanksgiving point, we took advantage of all the yummy food in slc, and olive still talks about the grasshopper papa found and carried on their walk.

tara and kennedy were in town for a few hours as well and it was so great to see them! thanks for helping olive with her candy necklace kennedy, she's now added you to the list of friends we say goodnight to at bedtime.

nigh night lucy

nigh night clara

nigh night kenny

nigh night ella

...

thanks to ty and kumari for hosting the crowd for the weekend.

it was so fun to see everyone!

new years prediction 2011: will we all be in one place at the same time? check.

even if it was only for 12 hours, 8 of which we slept through.

can you tell she's not a bit shy with her nana and papa,
but she's 2.5 and she still wont talk to her nursery teachers,
EVEN when they bribe her with extra snacks.

perspective.

there is a picture that has been hanging in my mom's entry since i can remember. i've probably read it a thousand times, maybe you have too.

"a hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house i lived in, or the kind of clothes i wore, but the world may be much different because i was important in the life of a child."

i had a birthday shout hooray!

monday marked the first day of the last year of my twenties...

i'm livin' it up folks, i'm not 30 yet.

the party started friday when cindy and lara kidnapped me for lunch, pedicures and pool time. heaven. thanks ladies!

"cajun shrimp" all around.

sunday morning, lara and i jumped in the car and headed to salt lake for an indigo girls concert with aubry; queen of party planning. not just any banana bread was waiting for us when we arrived, she painted my nails and i was introduced to hours of housewives episodes late into the night. such a train wreck i couldn't look away.

we made an itinerary for monday to ensure we fit in every last thing on our to do list.

we shopped, and dined, and nordstrom saled, and cupcaked, and laughed and talked...(we even fit in a quick date for lara and a first home purchase whoa).

the concert was incredible and i crossed another item off my bucket list. go ahead laugh... finished?

it was the soundtrack to my college life and i'm not ashamed, i love them. although, i did sit down when they played "chickenman"...(i might be a bit of a fair weather fan when it comes to that song.)

tuesday night spencer planned a favorite things dinner. i was going to list all of the yummy things he put on the table, but then i got a complex that you all might think i'm a disgusting human being, so just know that it was delicious...and not one bit healthy.

it really was the best birthday EVER! 

(and now the phrase must die with this post, i'm quite sure we've exhausted every last laugh from it.)

a formisano fandango summer

the new faces of peopleforbikes.org!
 oh olive, can we please get over this nose picking in pictures is sooo funny stage, and who did your hair, you look like george washington...

lara's here yo! 
she's partially the reason i haven't blogged in almost a month.
too much fun, and BONUS, i think i've seen cindy and trav more since she's been here than i have in the whole year that proceeded.
we've been swimming, and hiking, and bbqing, and late nighting, and eating out, and road trippin', and talking ooohhh, talking. lara dear, you make me laugh.
now if one of these blind dates would pan out we could make it permanent.
don't go auntie lara, olive will be devastated...not to mention the rest of us.

fishy fishy

 

my dad is a fisherman through and through. i have so many childhood memories of fishing with him, or him going fishing, or him tying fishing flys on the dining room table.

this past 4th of july, he took olive fishing for the first time, and it was undoubtedly one of the sweetest moments i've witnessed as a mother.

he was so patient with her and she loved it, plus she caught 6, count them 6 fish!

there is a little place in my heart that is just for my dad and it was so sweet to see him passing this frederiksen tradition down to my baby girl. i think there might be a little big place in her heart for papa as well.