The Nines

Ryan and I splurged a little on our awesome hotel. We stayed at The Nines. It has an art gallery and a roof top restaraunt. The decor is to die for (lots of my favorite color, light turquoise) and. fun fact: Clark Gable used to work there before he became an actor. 

  

*last 3 photos from google images

*chocolates made by the in house chocolatier just for us

Our view was rad, in the middle of downtown, Pioneer Square, and right across from the old courthouse.

As soon as we checked in and checked out our room, we hit the town.  Our friend Abi Bowden, who grew up near Portland, gave us a great list of things to do and see, so we scoped out the location of all the sites we wanted to see in reference to our hotel (ALL within walking distance). Since it was our ACTUAL anniversary, we decided to go to a nice restaurant that evening. 

We went to the Portland City Grill, on the 30th floor of the tallest building in Portland (as a mandatory recommendation from our friend Abi). The view was breathtaking and only got better as the sun went down. The city has a river running through the middle of it (just like Paris) with beautiful bridges crossing over the water. The food was... I can't even tell you. SO SO good. SO. GOOD.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder...

The other day, we had a minor crisis in our home. WendyLou locked her pesky little brother in my bedroom. She immediately started freaking out. I might be evil, but it warmed my heart a little to see how much she actually cared about him. I thought it was so sweet that I even milked it a little, "I guess we could just slide food under the door for him if he gets hungry tomorrow," but stopped the second I saw how traumatized she was about it all. I thought a simple bobby pin would pop the door open in no time. I soon realized it was going to take more than that. 

 

After half an hour of trying to open the door in my robe and underwear (it was morning time and all my clothes are in my room) I decided the only person I could call was Ryan. Wendy was alternating between covering her mouth with her hands and crying, "I'm so so sorry, Harvey. I love you. Please forgive me," and trying to comfort him by sliding his favorite books under the door and singing him lullabies. Harvey, oblivious, was just hanging out.

I finally removed the door handle and we got him out. Wendy gave him the most genuine, heart-felt  embrace and was so sweet to him the rest of the morning. They even cuddled in his crib while she interviewed him about his feelings during the experience. "Were you scared in there, Chubby?" "Yeah." He answered, not having a clue what she was asking. "Did you miss me?" "Yeah." "I missed you too." It was adorable. It only lasted the morning, but it was worth it.

Love notes from my Wendy

Found on a blue sticky note: "I heart u mom."  -Wendy

This totally made my day. It's the little things.

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

HAPPY day of LOVE! I got to spend mine with my children and some of my best girlfriends, Emily and Sharla. Emily decided to throw together a Valentine's tea. She went all out with hot herbal tea, homemade lemon-poppy seed scones, salad, pastries and heart-shaped finger sandwhiches. The table was decorated with cake pedestals, tea pots, and tea cups in the cutest colors. We all lounged around while the children ran around hyper from the candy they had all stuffed themselves with from their school valentine's parties. It was so nice to get out of my house.

*photos by amelia lyon

As for me and my man, our Valentine's tradition is to keep it special but low key. A card, a treat, some flowers, a yummy restaurant and a movie. Just the way I like it. This year he got to pick the restaurant (sushi) and I got to pick the movie (Life of Pi - I like to see all the Oscar nominated films that aren't rated-r before Oscar Sunday. PLUS I read the book and really liked it). Then we always spend our low key Valentines date dreaming up our anniversary getaway for one month later. For our anniversary every year, we pick a city (preferably one we've never been to before) and explore it. This year we decided on Portland, Oregon. Sounds random, but I'm really excited! Some years we go big, like Paris, France. Some years we go small, like Los Angeles. This year we wanted to go medium. We wanted to have to at least get on an airplane. Neither one of us have ever been there. We're going to stay in a RAD hotel called "The Nines," where Clark Gable worked before becoming an actor. We've mapped out some of the things we want to do, but I'd love any suggestions if you have any!

I can't tell you how much I love this man and exploring new places with him.

Valentine's Crafting

*melted crayon on canvas

*"You Melt My Heart," by Wendy & Mommy

The minute Christmas and New Years was over Wendy wanted to know what the next holiday was. She told me, "Mom, do you know what my most favoritest part about holidays are? Well FIRST it's the presents, but my second most favoritest is decorations!" When we were done taking down Christmas she immediately wanted to get out the "Valentine's Day box of decorations," but it didn't exist. I decided we had a month and a half to womp up some decorations. With the help of pinterest and my mom, we filled our daily "quiet times" (Harvey's nap time) with pink and red crafts. I'm a little sad it's over.

*Wendy learning how to use a crochet loom. I put that girl to WORK! Might just open a sweatshop.

I saw this cute wreath on the front door of my aunt Ruth's house last February and fell in love. This literally took us a month and a half to finish, but it was worth it to let Wendy "help". Our couch was half covered in yarn for the whole month of January. Wendy helped me every step of the way. I even taught her how to use a loom to crochet the bow. (For the bow we used the crochet loom to crochet a very short scarf which we folded over, hot glue gunned down the edges, and wrapped the center with yard to make a bow. Kind of like the tutorial HERE - just with a loom instead of a crochet hook for a more voluminous bow).

I let Wendy decide if she wanted to go to the store and pick out some valentine's cards (most likely would have been Hello Kitty, Brave or Tinkerbell) or pick an idea of my Valentine's pinterest folder. These were the Valentines she chose for her class mates. I explained who cupid was and what the arrow meant (she liked the arrow because the princess on Brave is very into archery... oh how Disney princesses are the basis for so many decisions in our lives). She painstakingly signed all 23 cards herself and even added a heart at the end of her name. I love her 4 year old signature so much!

My mother-in-law saves EV.ER.Y.THING. We all tell her she has a hoarding problem. She's even got a room in her house that she has named "The Hoarder Room," which was Ryan's bedroom throughout his life. It's now full of stuff with a walkway cleared through the middle. She can't part emotionally with anything her children ever made or drew on, so she often sends Ryan's old stuff home with me. I'm talking math tests from 3rd grade that he failed. So I take these things home for her and they go straight into my trash or goodwill pile. Let me correct that, I'm not completely heartless, sometimes I take a picture of the item and then throw it in the trash. But when she sent this one home with me, I decided to keep it to add to our empty box of Valentine's crafts. I think she said Ryan made it when he was 10 years old. I hope I don't catch the hoarding virus because of it. I'm happy that we've started our V-day decoration collection and that we have some stuff we can pull out year after year.

The Final Countdown

These last 12 months have flown by. This little boy is nothing but a joy in our family. I can't express how lucky I feel to get to be Harvey's mom. 

8 years of true love

*on the balcony of our room at The Ambrose Hotel 

On March 19th 2012 Ryan and I celebrated 8 years of marriage. We dropped off our lovely, demanding children with their grandparents and headed out to Santa Monica. After checking in at The Ambrose Hotel (super cute and super hidden) we strolled around downtown Santa Monica and the 3rd Street Promenade. I don't know if Ryan was being honest or not but he said he had as much fun as I did browsing the shops. Browsing was ESPECIALLY fun because of the kitchen remodel we're in the middle of -  it was actually more than just browsing :). During our "browsing," we searched for (and found) a good Thai restaurant near the beach before heading off to the movies. On our way to the movies we actually drove right by the Los Angeles temple where we were married. We haven't been there in years so it was a nice little romantic coincidence.

*Thai Dishes Restaurant for dinner, so yummy!

*on our balcony again

After getting the best night's sleep in over a year (not exaggerating), we went to a nice breakfast then spent the day on the beach and the pier. We took photobooth photos, rode the ferris wheel over looking the ocean, appreciated some crazies, and had fun just taking our time. It was the perfect day. I didn't want it to end. I think next year we will take two days for just the two of us. After all this time, I have so much fun with this wonderful man, my best friend, who keeps me happy, laughing, and taken care of.

*on the pier

*on the ferris wheel

* in love on the ferris wheel

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

Usually, for Valentine's Day, Ryan and I keep it low key with a nice homemade card (thats the best kind), a nice dinner, and he usually brings me some flowers or treats of some kind. This year, for my homemade card I took it to the next level. I made him FIFTY-TWO homemade cards. I had seen this cute idea online and on my friend Jenn's blog. It really wasn't that hard, just time consuming. It was a little sentimental too because my man LOVES cards/card games. It's kind of an inside joke that he loves a fresh deck so much that my mom got him a big box of them from Costco for Christmas. Now, whenever we play cards with friends he gets to break open a fresh deck. He gets a little bummed if people bend them (I'm a total bender). It was a lot of fun and made me realize how many little things I love about him. I made a list of 73 things in like ten minutes and narrowed it down to the reasons that I could find pictures for. I highly recommend making a list of reasons you love someone in your life. It's so much fun to re-read them together.

Harvey's Blessing Day

June 12, 2011

Thanks to my little cousin Davy's benefit on June 10th, my little family was blessed to have A LOT of friends and family in town for Harvey Jay's blessing. In fact, we planned it that way. And even though I knew there would be a lot of people, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the love and support we felt from ALL the friends and family who came out to share this day with us. My kids are so lucky to have so many people out there who love them.

The day was perfect. The weather was perfect, the turn out was perfect and my baby was perfect (even after being passed around like a hot potato). It was the first and only time I've ever seen Ryan's father and brothers in suits & ties, which was so sweet. I also think it was really cool that Harvey, like Wendy, got to have SIX great-grandparents at his blessing. Ryan did a great job with the blessing and then I got to show off his skills to our friends and family when his a'cappella group sang the musical number, "Love At Home," in sacrament meeting. They are so talented. I didn't want it to end (the musical number OR the day).

Thanks again to my awesome aunt Ruth for taking these pictures! Homegirl's got talent.