Peri's Very First Easter

This year we spent Easter at Grandpa's house. We had a pretty good time. We got there a few hours earlier than Grandpa and Caroline were expecting us, so we decided to take advantage of the nice sunny day and go on a sort-of hike. We brought the baby backpack for just such an adventure. It was the first time we used it, and let me tell you, it's pretty awesome.

At the start of our walk.

 We suspected that we needed to adjust the seat so that her head poked out more, but we didn't want to bother with it right at that moment.

She seemed happy enough anyway.

 Mom is here too! Popping a silly pose.

Peri even christened her backpack by spitting up her lunch in it. Sweet potatoes, for those interested.

Gary likes this picture of the two of them. He looks mighty dashing I think. Peri seems, indifferent.

Fun story. Gary was waving at the camera.

And that's when he saw them. The eagles! I totally forgot about them! A mating pair of Bald Eagles made a nest last year in the state park Gary's dad works at. Gary remembered, but didn't think we'd see them. If he had mentioned them before we left, I would have brought the zoom lens! We'll just have to make do with the pictures we were able to get of them.

On the first fly by.

We took a break to switch baby carriers. She was pretty confused as to why we just set her down on the ground like that.

 But was happy to be picked up by mom a little later!

Gary found the aerie and there were a couple eagles sitting in it. They decided to fly off as Gary got closer though.There was a gray one flying around, which we have been told is the adolescent one. It's just about grown up though.

After our hike, we went to Ellensburg where David (that's Grandpa's name) treated us to a nice dinner at a steakhouse there. It was very, very good.


We were all prepared to sleep in the living room at Grandpa's house, but they checked us into the Vantage Motel for the night. Peri had trouble sleeping in her travel crib, so she got to sleep with mommy and daddy and everything was okay after that.


 

 On Sunday, we went back to Grandpa's house to hang out. Peri was busy crawling around and exploring, so Grandpa started crawling around with her too! Then she got a little shy and cried a bit and crawled away pretty quick-like. She's not quite sure about Grandpa yet, but I think she was warming up to him more as the day went on. The pretty dress that Peri has on is from Grandma. Peri looks so pretty in it! Thanks Grandma!

Caroline has a dog named Diva, and Peri was very happy to follow her around the house trying to get a good feel of her soft fur. Diva wasn't too sure about Peri on day one (Peri was able to get a fistful of fur), but they seemed to make friends on the second day with some coaching from Caroline and Mom on how to pet nicely.

All in all, we had a good time and a good Easter! Thanks Grandpa and Caroline for having us this weekend!

A Couple More Picture Frames

So, I liked the sonogram frame that I made for my friend Emily so much, that I made one for me too! It looks much different, and I wrote something different on it as well. I think I actually misquoted the saying (I don't know who to attribute it to...) but it's just for me so it doesn't really matter. This is what mine looks like:

The lettering could definitely use some work.  This one looks more like me. I probably actually was that huge!

I also wanted to make a frame like this for my sister's wedding gift, so I made a prototype with one of our wedding pictures. It's good I made one for us first, because there are a couple things I'll probably change for my sister's. The quote is by Robert Fulghum, and is apparently often mis-attributed to Dr. Seuss. Who knew? I think it applies to many couples though. I just printed the quote on regular printer paper, because this is only a prototype after all. I might reprint it on good cardstock sometime later, but for now I think it looks good enough for us. Gary says he likes it very very much.

We aren't as cute as Peri-fetus.

I want to use paper that has my sister's wedding colors, and I want it to have more embellishments. Ribbons and buttons and such. I'm not really good at that kind of thing though, so I think I'll enlist the help of a gal I know in my ward who is really good at scrap booking. I'm also not sure I dig the layout of the rings. It works good with this picture because the picture I used is oriented that way, but I might make it so that Sarah can use two pictures that don't necessarily have anything to do with each other. They also have children already, so I was thinking of perhaps doing a "Family is Forever" sort of theme with another picture frame.

So many ideas popping up all of a sudden. I was thinking of doing more of these sort of frames with special moments for Peri and the like, but I'm not sure exactly what to do. I guess as occasions pop up, I'll have brainstorming to do!

Swim Lessons and Oral Surgery

I had my wisdom tooth out this morning. I have only ever had just the one, and it was perfectly comfortable in its place for all these years. We went to the dentist last week, and he suggested I make an appointment to have it taken out. I scheduled the time off work and worried. I went to work this morning for an hour to wrap up a project and we went. What would be in store for me? Could I handle this?

The extraction from start to finish lasted fifteen minutes. They numbed me. They pushed on it. I heard a cracking sound, and we were done. I've been chewing on gauze for the last four hours.

We ran to Walmart afterwards to get recovery supplies: ice cream for milkshakes, fruit and vegetables for smoothies (pineapple/cucumber/spinach is actually really good), chicken broth, and penicillin. We were there before the pharmacy even opened. This would prove to be problematic considering Peri had her first swim lesson at 10:00.

We decided that it is important to be able to swim, and Pullman Aquatic Center has an excellent infant swim program. Classes run for a half hour every Friday morning for a 12-week course. Peri did really well. She's a great little infant swimmer.

Peri is excited to get into the pool.

"This is the way we wash our hair. In the swimming pool."

Peri can float pretty well.

Also very excited to have Mom with her.

I'm coming for you, Dad.

I'm going to get you, Dad.

Bye Dad! I'm swimming this way now.

Waiting for Naomi and Peri to get ready, I checked my email to find an invitation for a phone interview at a place in Wisconsin, a place which is aware that I'm not from Wisconsin and would therefore offer a relocation benefit. This excites me.

I've had a pretty eventful day, and all before 12:00.

Baby Shower!

So today is my friend Emily's baby shower! She liked how we did our baby shower so much, she decided to also do a Baby-Q. It's family friendly that way. Husbands get to come if they want!

Anyway I was trying to think all week what we should get them for a gift, and I just couldn't for the life of me think of anything.... Until I saw this:

Bonnie Marcus Collection

And I thought, "That would be perfect!" But I wasn't going to buy one, especially not for $20 (not because Emily isn't worth $20, but because we're poor, and I can't justify that kind of money for a 5x7 frame, even if some of the proceeds go to breast cancer research). And even if I wanted to buy it, it wouldn't arrive in time for the shower (I found this yesterday). So what's a girl to do but make her own? And I did, after a trip to Michael's for a paper pack that Gary's mom let us know was half off this weekend! Score!

And this is what she looks like:

What do you think? Is it as good as the original?

I really like how she turned out. I drew the silhouette and cut her out with an X-acto knife all by myself! I thought that was going to be hard, but it turned out to be pretty easy since Gary was also nice enough to get new sharp blades for my knife. I wanted to make her look more like Emily, but I totally failed in that regard. And Emily definitely isn't that huge! Can you imagine?

And because a photo frame wasn't enough for me, we got them some things to do while they wait to have their baby when the time comes. I found early labor to be pretty boring, so having some of these things would have been awesome!

Finally, thanks Elaine for telling us about the paper sale! I'm pretty jazzed about using my new paper in other projects!

(Update 1/18/2014: I've made some new ones and posted them to my Etsy store!)