Guitar Hero

Nolan really loves Guitar Hero. (at least in theory. Obviously, he doesn't know how to play) He pulls the guitars out at least once a day. We don't indulge him and play the game unless he's REALLY insistent, but on Sunday, Nolan and Ben had a little father and son bonding time over the game:

Making Room

We have been on a pretty big clean/purge kick around here lately. We have way too much stuff for our 1300 sq. ft. of space. Storage is just frustrating, even though we have plenty of closets.

And thanks to my need for non-white walls, one of our storage issues has been many MANY cans of paint, only partly full, in one of our closets. I saw a brilliant idea on this blog the other day (and she got the idea HERE) to store left over paint, for touch ups, in mason jars. What a great space saver!

(thanks, Helen, for helping me find the original post)

So we put the plan into action Saturday night.

We went from this:
To this:

What a difference! They now fit into a corner of the
laundry room shelf,
AND Ben got to use the label maker again.

Score!

The Coke Battle

I'm Melanie, and I'm a Coke-aholic.

Not Diet Coke.
I understand that I'm 31 and female, but I HATE Diet Coke.
We're talking full octane Coca-Cola here.

It all started in high school. I blame Whitney, really. She got me hooked on Big Gulps and Biggie sodas at Wendys. . . and it's been down hill from there.

I went through times where I did better than others, but the caffeine addiction has been my constant companion for at least 15 years, give or take. The longest I went without was the first trimester I was pregnant with Nolan. 9 weeks (since I didn't know I was pregnant right away). And then the dr. said a little was OK, and I was back on the sauce.

I hate to admit how much I consume. . . I'm not even sure I know. I would say on a GOOD day, 32-48 oz. On a bad day, at least twice that. Which is a LOT of sugar, besides the caffeine. . .

And I wonder why I keep gaining weight? Maybe it's connected to the millions of migraines I keep getting? (obviously that's hyperbole, but I AM getting between 8 and 10 migraines a month, even with everything I've tried)

So I've made a plan.

Cold turkey has never worked well for me, so I have been weaning.

So far, I am down to 24 oz or less a day, NONE of which is allowed after 5 pm. I have cheated twice in 2 weeks, and once it was 6:30 when I had my glass of goodness.

The result?

I haven't lost a single pound. I still have headaches (though they have surprisingly not gotten worse). And I am EXHAUSTED!

But I WILL power through it. It has to be good for me in the end, right?

Wish me luck!

Photo Sneak Peek

One of the reasons behind our fabulous trip to Wisconsin was to have family pictures taken by the wonderful Emily Southerland. She sent me a sneak peek this morning from our session, and I HAD to share. Because they turned out GREAT. And I'm so excited to see the rest.

Check out the rest of her stuff. She's amazing.

Adventure!

This is what Nolan did today. . .


What did you do?

*photos courtesy of his nanny, Tamera, who is also a pretty sweet photographer, as you can see

** Yes, that IS a buffalo

Win Cupcakes!

Wanna win some key lime cupcakes, baked with love by yours truly?

If you are a Utahn, you can win some (I haven't figured out a good way to ship them yet)

Just go to Sell Party of Three and leave her a comment!
She'll bring them right to ya!

(or you can meet her somewhere to pick them up)

Go on, get on it!

Spring Video

A few new clips of Nolan at Easter time, and since. . .

My mom

They say that you can never truly appreciate your mother until you become one yourself.

My mom with me as a baby
I like to think that I appreciated my mom before then, but I certainly didn't get it. I had no clue how she did what she did. I still don't, having only 1. . .

4 of us under the age of six. . . Seriously? At the age of 25? By the time my mom was my age, I was 13. The very idea of it stresses me out. But despite the stress, she somehow found time to make a lot of our clothes, not to mention sweet Care Bears and Cabbage Patch dolls for Christmas. . . among many other things. She encouraged us to use our imaginations, and spent all of her time just being with us. I have no idea how she found that fulfilling, but I am truly grateful for the sacrifice.

My parents with Carter & Ethan, Halloween (obviously)

And best of all, she's the same kind of grandma. . . This is how I think of my mom now. . . She's the best kind of grandma. And I'm so grateful Nolan has her.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!!

Friday Randoms

Because it's been a while:

1- How is it possible for one small child to go through 10 sippy cups in one day? I have a ridiculous number, and yet it seems there is seldom a clean one to be found.

2- My flower garden looks SO pretty right now. I just want to go hang out back there with the tulips.

3- I misplace my remote control at least 6 times a day in my living room. It is not a large space. And I can't even blame Nolan. I just can't seem to remember where I'm putting it down.

4- For the first time in MONTHS, I don't have a pressing craft project with a real deadline. Does that mean it's time for me to catch up on the unfinished stuff in my closet? Probably so.

5- My job is one big circle of frustration right now. . . not being able to find things because they aren't properly organized, and not being able to organize them because I'm busy searching for things. . . This frustrates me. Hopefully I will catch up soon.

That's all for now.

That's all for now.

Wisconsin or BUST!

In an effort to take advantage of the fact that we don't have to buy a seat for Nolan for the next 6 months, we have turned into traveling fools!

We just got back from a really great long weekend in Wisconsin, to visit friends.

I met these girls on the internet (I'm not ashamed to admit it) by way of a message board for new moms, and they have become some of my best friends. I was lucky enough to meet Emily last summer, but up until now, had never met Stefanie. We had to remedy that situation. So, we all made our way to WI for a weekend of hanging out, and having Emily take our pictures.

It will be a couple of weeks before I can show you her handiwork in an official way, but in the mean time I have swiped a few of her candid shots to add to mine, as a representation of our weekend. (the first 3 are hers)

Me & Stefanie

Stefanie & Emily

The 3 boys, Nolan, Max & Noah, in the monkey shirts Emily made them.
The only way we could get them to sit still was to give them lollipops.
They still weren't pleased.


I have been a sucker for the big round balloon shots I've been seeing all over the internet for some time now. When we were deciding on ideas for photos, I really really wanted to try it. So I got some big (36") balloons and Stef got helium, and we tried it out.

A little behind the scenes action of the red balloon shots

Me coaxing Nolan up the hill with the balloons tied to his belt loop.

The other boys didn't really dig the balloons being tied to them at first. It was pretty windy, and they were tugging on them pretty hard. But they warmed up to it. This was our attempt at a group shot of mom's and boys.

And, of course, we had to find a cupcake to try while we were there. We spent the morning in Milwaukee and visited C. Adams Bakery, and tried the red velvet. I have to say, it was quite tasty. It had been in a cooler, so the frosting was a little stiff, but the flavor was good. I liked it very much, as did everyone else.

They also had a yummy little mini-key lime pie.

I'm sure I will have more to share from this trip later, but I wanted to report right away.

Thanks, Stef & Max for being such wonderful hosts! We had a great time.

Sweets!

It's another weekend of Oh Sweet Sadie! This weekend the show is spread through 3 houses! And holy cow, Daybreak is a beautiful place.

I want to move in.

Right now.

Come out and check it out. It's so much fun. You'll get sucked in and want to spend lots and lots of money. I can promise you that.

Remember, Mother's Day is coming up. . . I'm just saying


This is the house my stuff is in. Isn't that gorgeous!


And a little sneak peak of my display.



It's right inside the front door, you can't miss it!

Buckled In

Yesterday while I was working from home, Nolan was playing in the living room, as usual. The car seat from Ben's car was in the house, having been removed for cupcake transport last weekend, and Nolan LOVES to sit in it to watch TV when it's there.

Yesterday, he took it to a new level. He INSISTED that I buckle him in. And then he spent 20 minutes trying to buckle and unbuckle himself. Maybe not a skill I want him to know just yet. . .

Video Moments

This is insanely long. It has been WAY too long since I've caught up on importing video.
And since I edited this, I'm behind again.

If you have almost 6 minutes (Yikes!), take a gander. Or break it up into smaller pieces. I won't be offended.

He really is very cute, though.

But I may just think that because I'm his mother.

Graduation Cupcakes

My cupcakes have been blogged again!

The graduation cupcakes I made for Nathan's graduation last year were posted again on Cupcakes Take the Cake just a week or so ago. . . and again on this sweet blog that I didn't know was out there, but I will now totally be following, Be Different. . . Act Normal. Thanks for the shout out, Lorie!
And now I will become addicted to your blog. . .

I may need to make a BYU version of these for Jer & Emily this weekend. . . just for fun.

Selling the Cupcakes

I participated in this awesome Art/Gift fair last weekend, selling cupcakes, of course, and I'll be doing it again this week. It was all I could do not to buy up everyone else's goodies. There are so many beautiful things to see and buy.

Come to the show! It will be held out in Daybreak on Friday and Saturday.
See details below.

Cell Phone Captured

I have many many things I could blog about. . . but I am ill prepared today, so I will, instead, offer you a random smattering of cell phone photos of Nolan. Because between our iphone and Tamera's, we have a lot of funny moments caught in all of their badly lit, out of focus glory. Welcome to Nolan's life:

PLAYING
This is what his normal days consist of:

Shape sorting in the boat from the Easter bunny. And for the first time ever, he's got 2 binkies, not just one. (I cannot get him to repeat this)

Ta-da! Very proud of himself for something

Farm magnets on the fridge

It's not a shoe! It's a phone!

Reading Tamera's book with her

A rather posed moment with his toys

OUTSIDE
He loves being outside. If only it would stay warm!

running around the cul-de-sac in Seattle while dad visited with an old friend. Nolan needed to get rid of his wiggles.

And then he was done

And playing on one of the neighborhood slides.


EATING
I find that more and more, my photos of Nolan are when he's eating. Why? Because it's the only time he's strapped down and can't run away:

Cheese! (one of the few recognizable words he says)

Bagel sandwich in the back seat.

Sharing mom's shake, in the same back seat (only in a rental)

Juice box and chicken nuggets at McDonalds

Feeding himself yogurt. always an adventure.

TV WATCHING
He has ANOTHER cough/cold at the moment. . . which makes him pretty miserable. You know he's wiped out when this is how he watches Curious George.

ESCAPE ATTEMPTS

The Love Sac makes it SO easy for him to climb up into, and hang out on, the window sills in the living room. Which is fine (there is a soft landing all around) until the windows are open. We still have to convince him that it's not OK to press on the screens.

And lastly, a small glimpse at the trick he pulled out yesterday while he and Ben were hanging in his bedroom. Yeah, we are now, officially, on the lowest notch the mattress will go. Then what?

Thank you for your indulgence.

Funny

OK. . . I stole this from Audra, who stole it from someone else.

You will most likely think it's stupid unless you're LDS, in which case you will find it highly amusing. Enjoy.