we're electric...

I hope nobody refers to last year's Halloween post to find that we were pretty much the same thing, but why not recycle a cheap, easy costume?  We did make a few improvements this year, and added a new, modern light socket in the form of Ellie to our group theme.    

If you'll notice, Jake's lamp shade is new and improved with a cut-out vision enhancer.  

Gracie is a 70's light socket and Ellie is a bit newer.

Notice the electric shocked hair?  We go to a lot of effort in the hair and makeup department.  Actually, I think Ellie ended up looking like some character from "The Incredibles"

Two lamps in love.

And here they are in their rightful place: a wall.

poor little Ellie

Having been "the little sister" my whole life, I have great empathy for Ellie when things like this happen...

The proud stacker...

a little Penske ride

Wow.  Hi.  I'm back--literally I guess.  I'm back in Utah.  As is evidenced by the pictures below, we packed up our life in Tennessee and headed back West.  I am a little sorry that I didn't stay in TN long enough to really get my southern drawl down.  I thought I'd come home to Utah and pick up right where I had left off, but I found that my experience down south left me with new eyes and a new perspective.  Suddenly Utah looked much more drab than I had remembered it, and the perfectly straight roads didn't hold quite the appeal that I thought they would.  Of course, this was to be expected.  I never realize that I'll miss something until I suddenly don't have it anymore. 

gotta love the Penske truck, everything from the color to the fact that supposedly they give all of their old, worn out trucks to U-Haul and keep the best for us :) 

Goodbye to our first and probably last (for a while at least) home :((  So much for that nice little $7500 tax rebate that we now have to pay back.  

You just can't beat a 26 hour diesel truck ride with a 2 year old. 

But for a brief 3 days we got to join the ranks of diesel truck drivers.  We got to drive where they drive and fill up where they fill up.  It was an honor. 

So, you ask, what brought us back to Utah?  This amazing wedding cake.  No, not really, but the amazing wedding couple--Julie and Oliver did. 

Needless to say, Gracie and Hailey had a great reunion.

And let me just say that I have yet to see a wedding as original as Julie's--an ice cream bar.  It was divine.

No, we are not at a funeral.  Just kidding, Julie, I loved the black dresses.  

Hmmm, looks like something's going on here.  It could be that Gracie's just dancing, or maybe this was the time that they had a little fun in the fountain.   

And perhaps the most notable thing that happened after the big move was Ellie's first step.  She's now a veteran walker and waddles all over the place.  

So, besides Julie's wedding, Utah is the choice of residence for the next few years so that I can get my cosmetology license.  There's no place like Utah to learn the art of A-line hair cuts and partial head weaves :)  So if you're looking for a hair cut of a life time, just call the school 373-CUTS  (Renaissance Hair Academie in Provo) and make an appointment with me.    

Alright, so I guess the next step is coming up with a new title for this blog thing.  I bet you're all really excited to see what I come up with . . . 

a very long post

First of all, this weekend marks a year since I lost my status of a college student.  I do miss it sometimes--not to be able to use the excuse of "too much homework" as for why I don't do the laundry.  I've been considering all that has happened since this momentous day, and thought I'd share a few of the highlights...

1) Not too long after graduation, we moved to Tennessee.  Even though I have a degree in sociology, nothing could have quite prepared me for the culture that I have encountered here in the south.  It is intriguing and endearing to me, but I'm not sure I'll ever be able to fully embrace it.  Try as I might, I just don't think I'll ever master the local ho down shuffle :).   Let that all inspire you to come visit and see just what that is for yourself. 

2)  A few months after graduating, I had girl #2.  I can't believe Ellie is almost a year old.  Being one who thinks sisters are an absolute necessity in life, I couldn't be happier that Gracie has a sister.  I could sit for hours and observe their interactions and witness the beginnings of a great friendship developing.  But of course I can't do that because at this point I'm always pulling Gracie off of Ellie,  changing one or more diapers, or trying to interpret cries and toddler language.  

3) I have definitely lost more hair than I have weight postpartum ;)  But the hair is almost all back, and even getting past the fuzzy, stand-up-straight phase, which makes such a subtle but oh-so-significant difference in the appearance of my hair.  Seriously, if only my body could shed the weight like it did the hair :)

4) It's been rather strange to be completely school-free for the first time in my life.  I find that I don't quite know what I like to do in my free time.  I can't say that I've ever been too pro-active about learning because school has always given me a reason to read and has made it easy to expand my mind.  So I figure I've taken a good year-long break from all of that and in order to prevent my brain from going to mush, here's to a new year of learning and developing new talents!  Maybe I'll come up with some new gadget to post on this blog thing to keep you all updated on my endeavors! 

4)  We no longer live with cinder block walls.  We have upgraded to nicely painted, smooth walls.  But you know, sometimes I miss the cinder block walls because you didn't waste so much energy trying to make them pretty.  It was a lost cause to try to spruce up a 50 year old apartment too much, so you did what you could, then went on with your life.  But I feel like home ownership brings with it this obligation to decorate and clean, and decorate some more.  Ahhh, it really can become so stressful and time-consuming to the non-creative, undeceive type like me.  So here is to being happy with the current state of my home, and being content with a yellow wall instead of a cinder block wall, and then getting on with my life.       

I hope you thoroughly enjoyed all of that wisdom from a college graduate.  Allright, now for some more pictures to make up what I'm sure is one of my longest posts yet.  

I've got to prove to everyone that I'm a fun mother  by posting a picture of Gracie with Easter bunny :). 

We then spent the weekend enjoying a mock-camping trip where we built a fire in Jake's parents backyard, went fishing the next day, and even managed to dye some eggs while we were at it.  

These next few pictures demonstrate an ongoing activity around here--mowing the lawn.  I don't know if it's such a good idea to have almost an acre of land when you don't have a riding lawn mower.  It took hours, spanned over a few weeks to mow all of the lawn.  So by the time we finish, it rains for a couple of days and it looks like we haven't even mowed at all.  But my theory is the longer the grass gets, the more satisfying it is to cut it.  

Ellie is especially a good sport to sit in her stroller for hours and watch us mow the lawn.

Gracie's first picnic outside.  She loved it.  

And of course, Happy Earth Day to everyone.  Hah, last weekend we went to an Earth Day festival in Nashville.  It was quite entertaining to mingle with so many earthy, tree-hugging type people.  Practically everyone brought along their dogs, but we decided to bring our children instead :)  

I'm not quite sure how funnel cake made its way into an organic, all natural, earth friendly fair, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.  It was actually my first, and surely not my last experience with it.  mmmmmmm.

And if you'll look closely, you'll notice Ellie's black cheek.  That's right, not a black-eye, a black cheek.  It's pretty unique.  She fell off a chair (as a matter of fact, the very chair she's sitting on in the picture).