the edge

do you ever get to a point in your day where this will just put you over the edge?

yeah.

me too.

is it summer yet???

we're officially couped up.

...

i wiped down all of my kitchen cabinets this morning.

they are sparkling white.

AND

i vacuumed my window treatments.

is this for real???

b/c

it makes me happy:)

letters to Beth {mcflurry's, library, & sushi}

Dear Beth,
        CONGRATS on winning 2nd place in the ldsliving recipe contest! i feel so proud to know someone famously talented as yourself. i really do think you are the most amazing person. i so wish i could have tried your recipe. my kitchen is dearly missing your cooking escapades. i think i will have to resign to ordering brennan's birthday cake from smith's this year b/c i just don't think i can make anything look like spiderman like you would be able to. i have my strengths, but that i just not one of them. did you just send the recipe in and then they make it and judge it? how does the contest work?

        OH THE CRAVINGS!!! i did not think they were real when i was pregnant with brennan. i lived off of taco bell the first 17 weeks, but only out of necessity. it was the only thing i wouldn't throw up. that and dr. pepper, although i did throw up dr. pepper once. thankfully, it wasn't ruined for me in real life after pregnancy, like orange juice was. phew! i still cannot even stand the sight of orange juice. pity. once i started feeling better with him i never really liked food the entire time, although i did like the taste of plain sour green apples {had one every morning}, which i have always hated unless they are covered in white chocolate and Carmel and oreo shavings. i guess that was a craving. there was also a bout with white peppermint hot chocolates from starbucks. i totally believed i was never going to like food again and came to terms with it. then i had him, started nursing, and got my appetite back. it was wonderful! b/c of all of that i thought women who talked about cravings were just making them up. then i got pregnant with max and HOLY MOLY i stood corrected. burgers, french fries, dr. pepper, apple juice, and blast-o-butter popcorn. everything tasted amazing the entire time with her, but i would just get these intense urges and HAVE TO HAVE THEM IMMEDIATELY. i felt really silly about it. there was one night i even sent sean to arby's for curly fries at 11pm b/c i had seen a commercial sitting in bed and just couldn't get them out of my mind. he was wonderful and brought them home. i ate the entire thing and felt satisfied. it was so weird!!! with this little man currently residing in me it's been dr. pepper, sushi, and most recently {as of last night} oreo mcflurry's. it was 11pm {what is it with my late night cravings???} and i just didn't want to go out, so i found makenzie's half eaten strawberry coldstone ice cream in the freezer from 2 months ago {yes i really ate it}, and the cravings was suppressed. two mintues after i finished it, brennan woke up screaming with a sore tummy. i sang to him until he fell back asleep and was glad i did not go out for my midnight craving. i did however have to stop by sonic and mcdonald's on the way home from the library b/c i remembered how much i wanted a mcflurry and finally figured out the drink i've been thirsting for the past week. so today, oreo mcflurry and a cherry limeade from sonic were the ticket. THE TICKET!

        sean's elder's quorum meeting was cancelled for last night and there is this sushi place down the street that does half price rolls on tuesday nights. he said sushi. i said YES! max went straight for the raw fish tuna one. it made me so proud:) brennan liked the avocado topped one. we let them play with our phones the entire time and actually got to eat AND talk. it was great.

        we have had runny noses and wet coughs around here on and off for the last week and a half. we haven't really been sick yet, and i too thought we were going to get a free pass this winter after last year's stife, but it was not so. it has finally caught up to us. fortunately it doesn't seem to be all that bad. it is a little annoying though b/c just when you think it's gone it will come back the next day with a runny nose or a cough. i almost stopped by whole foods to show them the picture of your echinacea on the way home from the library. we are now proud owners of a salt lake county library card. brennan checked out some robot book and held it the entire way home, while watching the little mermaid {my kids are currently obessessed with the sea princess}. do you think i can count that as reading time??? haha. we did spend and hour and a half reading at the library before, so i feel pretty good about our morning. they also get to make a craft and do dancing with music at this story time. it is so much fun. today the theme was owls. so on the way home i was going to stop at whole foods and show them the picture of your enchinacea stuff, but i just couldn't bring myself to unstrap them both from their carseats b/c they were so quiet and so entertained and so we went to sonic for cherry limeades and then mcdonald's for mcflurry's instead. heaven bless the drive thru and america for having them.  

        i read the carpe diem facebook thing for about two paragraphs, and it just wasn't "gel-ing" with me. so no, i wasn't a fan either. BUT i did read the letter to the mother with one child and really identified with it. i think it's one of those things that cannot be taught. you have to learn from experience. the weird thing i've noticed is that some moms don't get past it even after they've had one or two more. i think there are parts of me that still has part of it left b/c no one is in school or activities yet to keep us busy, but i've got to tell you, i could have little babies like this and be exhausted for the rest of my life. i love that we can wake up in the morning and decide what we want to do. aquarium, children's museum, story time, zoo, etc. i am going to miss the freedom and all of it when the school days begin. i just hope i enjoy every phase as much b/c i have never been so happy. the bad days stink, and my patience is sometimes pushed beyond what i think i can handle, but life is just so simple and i love that part of it. what other time in your life can you go to the zoo in the morning and watch a movie in the afternoon? it's grandiose!

        i finished the book with nicholas and paige. the ending was annoying. i never really felt satisfied with it. don't read it. blah. i did start reading little women, per your recommendation. i screamed out loud when meg's hair {i think that's who it was} got burned off by the curling iron. have mercy, it was horrifying! the book makes me wish i came from a family full of sisters. and it made me wish that i lived in a cabin where my kids would have to entertain themselves with only their creativity, but then we couldn't have afternoon movies, and i would probably be a grumpy mom b/c i do LOVE my modern appliances. i ran the washing machine while we were at the library and i thought how lucky i am to be raising a family where i didn't have to do it by hand. the washing machine, the dishwasher, the microwave, and the television are my appliances that i just cannot do without. i guess the computer too b/c i get extremely irritable when it is having trouble as well.  

        i am so glad to hear that you get a break when bryce is home. that is the true sign of a good man! please come home soon. have you tried the reese's minis yet??? i want you to come over and make a cookie with them for me. very much like the one with the chopped reese's on top that you made before. love you, bryce, and the kids. brennan is begging for the computer and there is nothing else that will entertain him other than trouble at this point.

love,
emily

letters to Emily {echinacea, facebook, & motherhood}

Dearest Miss Emiline Harris,

 

Okay, so this sick thing is fun.....TAG your it! That is the game we've been playing around here this winter. Bryce will have a cold then Smith then Bear then me...isn't it fun? I remember last year you guys were playing the same game, I hope it's different for you this winter. I thought we would fly passed the cold season with out being sick because when my herbalist sister came out to help deliver the baby, she brought this bottle of kids chewable echinacea tablets. We weren't getting sick when it seemed like the world around us was coughing and sniffling. We quickly ran out, and now we are getting sick.

I need to get a hold of those tablets again. If you see them, get them. They are great. They taste good too. Anyway, I read your blog about pizza fridays. My mom did that all growing up. We had homemade pizza fridays. I loved it. Sometimes an occasional round table pizza would grace our presence, but mostly it was homemade. I remember my mom would make a huge hunk of dough so we could help put toppings on at least 4 pizzas. I think it is so fun to make food your kids can help with.

I think that is great you are swimming! I didn't swim with Bear and he ended up being a big baby. So hopefully your baby will be tiny and then get all chubby and round, because you are looking tiny these days.

I got second place in the LDS Living's recipe contest! It was fun to enter. I entered a strata, quite similar to your breakfast casserole.

Have you been reading the mom articles floating around on face book?

I read "Don't Carpe Diem" and I have to admit it, I hated it. But it got a lot of positive reviews, which surprised me. She made motherhood seem like there was only little moments of the day that are good, but the over all is stressful, tiring, chaotic, annoying, depressing and a hard choice. Motherhood is those things, but I don't feel it is the overall. She just sounded like a martyr(a person who displays or exaggerates their discomfort or distress in order to obtain sympathy or admiration) , and getting up everyday would be a feat before the day is over. To Carpe Diem is a beautiful thing! Whether she believes it or not, she is doing that by just getting up and facing the day. I talked to my mom about the article and she said all the lady needed was a nap and some icecream. I laughed at that. I guess it was just a little negative. But I did love the article "to the mother with one child". I thought it gave good perspective and a beautiful outlook on young mothers and seasoned ones as well.

You are an amazing mother and I look up to how much you make your family comfortable and happy. And everything you surround yourself in, are the choices you have made. If you look around yourself, aren't they the best choices in the world? I love my choices, and with every choice there is a consequence, so let us cease the day to it all!

Anyway, if you haven't read either one read them, they are good discussion.

 

For me and my world. I love being the mother of a special needs boy. He is so heavenly. Bryce and him have grown very close since Bear has been born. He is in charge of Smith when he walks through the door from school, until he leave again the next morning. Weekends are great because he pretty much takes care of him all weekend long. Remember when Smith was new new new, and you would drive to my house to have lunch and talk about nursing and our babies. It was like the new mom club, we would switch every month, your house, my house. Fun times. Now you are having another boy!!! I can't even picture another boy! I wonder if he will have blonde hair or brown hair? How have you been feeling? Craving anything other than apple juice? Well my sweet Emily. LOve you

 

Beth

it's beginning to look a lot like...

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas!

only a month late.

...

AND

my neighbor taught sean and i how to make sushi.

ROLLIN'.

it's how you do it.

we're cool like that now.

can't wait to do it again and cover it in fresh fleshy pink tuna.

yes, i eat the raw fish sushi when i'm pregnant.

and my children only grow one extra finger.

on their stomach.

totally worth it.

yum:)

belly buttons and balls {29 weeks}

my belly button is on its way out.
my kids think it's hilarious.
i must say, i can't help poking it too.
rubbing it like a good luck Buddha.
if you ask makenzie where the baby is,
she will almost always point to one of my boobs.
too many round balls on the front of me to know which one it is for sure i guess.
HA!!!

nesting {the angels sang}

oh nesting,

i LOVE you!

sean said this picture looks like it's coming from heaven.

i could hear the angels singing as i was stacking my cans in organized rows.

4 more bags to the goodwill and 2 more bags of garbage.

behind me are 20 organized bins.

i only have one more corner to tackle.

i have never slept so well in my entire life.