2 firsts

The other day Dane experienced a couple of "firsts".

1: Very traumatic, Dane shut his own finger in the van door outside of Papa Murphy's. I was on the other side buckling Peter in when he let out the scream and I could see that his finger was stuck in the door. It seemed like it took 10 minutes for me to get around to other side to open the door and save my poor child. It was so sad. He was very upset to say the least. I feared the worst, but realized very quickly that the damage was very mild, only a bit of a skin tear. It took him until we could get home and get some neosporin and a bandade on it and a few minutes rest on the couch to get over that. Later as he told Dad the story he said, "Yeah, I shut my finger in the van door and Mom rescued it". Yeah Mom!

2: Dane learned to ride his bike without training wheels!!! We have tried off and on all summer with absolutely no luck. This last most beautiful day of the year and he wanted to try again. A kind neighbor stopped and gave me a very helpful piece of advice and within a minute Dane was off on his own! I haven't seen him have this much fun in a long time. He became totally obsessed with it. Sadly, 48 hours later there was 6 inches of snow on the ground with no hope of bike riding until spring. He has finally stopped asking about it. I think the reality of the snow=no bike riding is kicking in.
Here is the helpful tip, in case any of you will be teaching your kid to ride a bike. Lower the seat until both feet can be flat on the ground. Then they can just catch themselves easily and get the confidence they need. I can't believe how quickly it worked!

Making a gingerbread house with Grandma and Grandpa. Peter spent most of his time eating, and all Dane wants is for Christmas to be over so that he can start eating the gingerbread house. We'll see how that goes!

I knew this would happen!

Well, I can't say that I am surprised, but I am quite disappointed in myself. It has been almost a month since my last post and I am trying very hard to muster up the motivation to get back on the wagon :)

First of all, I can't believe it is December and me and my kids are playing outside in the sunshine! It has been great, but I am getting a little anxious for snow. Favorite game of the boys, outside "aventures". This is one of my favorites.

Sam and I did get to run away to Oregon without kids! It was great. We visited Portland and went out the the Oregon Coast. It was cold, but oh so beautiful! Huge thanks to Mom for watching the kids! Gotta love the prego pics :)

Yes, you can laugh. I had to show off my birthday present and I am so mad at myself for letting my mom take this picture with me in it. I am normally not this self conscious, but at 7 months pregnant the odds are really against me. It turned out terrible of me so I put my amazing editing skills together and came up with this! I did want you to see the amazing sewing/craft closet my Mom built for me. I LOVE IT!!! I can now see all my fabrics at the same time, and everything I need is very organized and right at my finger tips! So happy!

It's Christmas!!! I live for the day after Thanksgiving. Too much, probably, that I don't enjoy Thanksgiving like I should. But, it is here and I am enjoying every moment of it. I did get a lot of help decorating. A little plug for our "tree guy". If you are in Heber and you want a great tree for a reasonable price, head out to 1200 S. 5000-ish E. Super nice people and way better than the other options in Heber, at least for my taste :)
Happy Holidays!!!

Halloween Fun!

This year I convinced Sam that it would be much more fun for the kids if we dressed up too. He reluctantly gave in, but I must say I look much better than he does :) The kids did have fun looking at my strange face. But they forgot about me very quickly once they started trick or treating. We went with the cousins this year and had a blast! Once Peter started seeing the candy, he forgot all about the costume he hated. He had to work pretty hard to keep up with the older kids. He would get to someone's door and receive his treat and then stand there for another minute or so looking at the person. Sometimes he would get extra treats, but I think he was just trying to socialize and be polite! It was so fun to watch.

Trick or treating at Sam's work

Lovin' Fall!

The weather here has been absolutely beautiful! I think I would like it to last another month, but then I would have to start watering my lawn again, which means mowing as well. Maybe not. But we sure have been enjoying it.
With my belly getting larger by the day, I decided after raking up this huge pile of leaves, that I didn't really want to bend over and shovel it into bags. So the boys decided to take care of it for me :)

Pumpkin carving

I must say we grew some pretty nice pumpkins in our garden this year. FHE last night was carving with our friends, the Lundbergs. The most impressive comment of the night was on the way I held the knife, like I was "straight out of some serial killer movie". I guess I was doing okay because everyone was wanting me to do the cutting for them. Anyway, here are the pics of our masterpieces. That was before Kai (our dog) took a chunk out of one the eyes, making it all the more scary! Impressive, I know :)

Field Trip!

Yesterday Dane's preschool did a field trip to Hee Haw Farms down in pleasant grove. Chaotic but fun. These are pictures of Dane and his friend Cole. Danes favorite part was driving the miniature pedal tractors. Tons of fun if you are interested in a good family outing. Here is the link to their site: Hee Haw Farms

Back to Etsy

Well, for those of you who don't know, I have been selling my licorice and caramels on Etsy for the last year. I did take a little morning sickness leave for the summer and enjoyed it greatly. But, I couldn't stay away from the Etsy world for long. I started my shop back up a week ago and I have been quite busy already. Yeah! I love doing this, for the most part. Anyway, you can check out my shop at the link Darcy's Home.

Trip to Maine

Well, I didn't give up on blogging that quickly. We have been back East for the last 10 days visiting Sam's Mom and Lauri (step-dad). It was a great trip. Maine is such a beautiful state, and they live outside of a town of 900 people in their own little wonderland forest. We spent a lot of time going on small hikes in the woods and playing card games at night while the kids slept. Gotta love bed time! Nancy was in a car accident and is temporarily bound to crutches and a wheelchair. So we enjoyed most of our time hanging out at home and relaxing. Hurray for vacations, but we are also happy to be home. Here are a few pics from the trip.

Helping me pack.

Beautiful woods of Maine. Everyone got a little tired of posing for me.

Catching crickets.

We went on a little train ride on the Sandy River train. We were the only ones on the train, so we got to do lots of fun pictures along with our tour.

Fun on Papa Lauri's tractor.

They caught this giant toad up by the house, and every day we went down to the bog to catch little frogs. What a life!

Poor Nana couldn't come with us on these bog adventures.

The start of fall colors in Maine. The picture definitely doesn't do it justice.

Just a plug

Just a plug for our photographer :) Here is her photography blog.
You can see some more of our family pics there.

meansalot.blogspot.com

Sam finally gave in!

Hello everyone! We have finally joined the world of blogging :) I couldn't help it once I started reading everyone else's blogs. I have managed to avoid it for awhile, but realize that it really is very cool. We'll see how it goes anyway.

Quick update on us. Sam is working in Park City for the U.S. Ski Team as their Web Manager. He loves it and it is so great to have him so close to home.

Dane is 4 years old and loving life. He is so imaginative, most the time driving Mom crazy. He always wants me to play imaginary games, mostly pretending that includes any kind of animal, dangerous one especially. Thank goodness for play dates and preschool to distract him from Mom for a while. Frustrating quirks are having to wear socks with crocs ("Do sock and crocs rhyme mom?") and not eating any of the colorful "things" in food. I guess most kids are like that.

Peter is 2 and finalizing the potty training process, or so I thought. I just noticed he is out in the sandbox with Dane with soaking wet pants, darn. Most the time he does really well, hurray! He is going to be our little "baller", and I am recently finding out that he is quite the dancer too. He frequently follows me around and says, "Mom, doin?" So fun!

Next down the line is baby sister baking in the oven! I am 21 weeks pregnant, and we are thrilled to have a little girl. Dane is so excited for a little sister, "I love girls mom" is what he says. He was convinced all along that the baby was a girl, and at the ultrasound when we found out he said, "Yeah, that's what I've been figurin'" just as matter-of-fact as he could be. It was hilarious. All Peter knows is that his room is the baby's room now and he gets to be a big boy and sleep in Dane's room.

As for me, I am staying busy trying to forget that I am pregnant and keep up with all the normal things I should be doing. I can't wait to feel human again, and yet I am trying to enjoy/cherish these last few months of just having it be me and my boys. Life will be very different with a baby girl around. I am not sure I know what to do with a girl :)

Wow, I guess that was enough to start. Here is my very favorite picture of our boys that a friend took just the other day. I just melt every time I look at it. Thanks Laura!

Here's to happy blogging, and hoping that it lasts longer than this day!