yay for dads!!

For Abe's Father's Day, Noah and I spent some time crafting a little love note to tell him how special we think he is.  I just got a blank note card and let Noah work his magic:

I found some old stickers that I've had for at least a decade and let him go crazy with those.

One of Noah's favorite things to do is tell you what to draw and you draw it.  So on a separate sheet of paper, I drew everything he asked and used that sheet to make the envelope for the card.

We added to this one of Abe's favorite treats (PopRocks) and presented it to him with a big hug and kiss!

My dear, sweet Abe

You are such an amazing dad to our little Noah and he loves and adores you so much!

As do I.

a memorial day adventure in photos {and some shop news}

For Memorial Day this year, we joined some family for a hike up Adam's Canyon.  It's a gorgeous place named for my mother-in-law's family (Adams) just about a 10 minute drive from our house.  I've never hiked it before, but we thought it would be fun to take Noah in the back pack.  Here's the view from just 20 minutes into the hike:

Poor Abe is already pooped!

This is me.  I'm taking a turn.  Oh wait, the pack is empty.  No wonder I'm smiling.  Noah is up ahead with Grandpa Dan.

Now we're into the fun stuff.  If it looks steep, that's because it is.

But it sure is beautiful!

Taking a much needed rest at the mid-way point with Noah's favorite cousin, Jonah (they are just 4 months apart).

Grandpa Dan decided to take a turn carrying Noah.

This is Abe's tired face.  He was in the process of regretting the decision to pack all 37 lbs of Noah up this canyon.

But I feel fine! ;)

Too soon, the trail started getting a lot harder.  For those of us without a giant toddler on our backs, it was somewhat challenging, beautiful and lot's of fun...

But for those of us carrying the giant toddlers... maybe not so much.

This part, among others, gave me a minor heart attack. 

I barely enjoyed the scenery of the beautiful canyon as Noah's safety was consuming my brain!

This is after Abe took Noah back from Grandpa Dan.

This hike is a tradition in Abe's family, but he hadn't done it in quite a few years.

So at this moment I asked him, "Now that you remember the difficulty of this hike, would you do it again with Noah in the pack?"

Abe paused for a moment and said, "Hold on... I think I'm going to vomit."

I guess I'll take that as a "no".

But the end result??  A beautiful 40 foot waterfall!  Here's Noah with Grandma Eve:

And a family photo at the falls:

The way back was much easier.  Here's Noah and cousin Jonah playing at the mid-way point.

Jonah gave Noah a good shove:

And of course Noah needed a quick hug:

It's ok Jonah, Noah needs that every once in a while.

Now it's my turn.  I decided I really wanted to give packing Noah a try.

Wow.  That kid is heavy. 

I only lasted about 10 minutes.  My sister would have laughed in my face.

To my credit, I may have been able to go longer had the pack been fitted for me.

Notice how low the hip harness is.  I had 40 lbs pulling the snot out of my shoulder blades.

I'm just sayin'.

Overall we had a good time with no injuries to any of the group.  A beautiful hike on a beautiful morning!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And in shop news, I've finished 6 new paintings!  They are a farm series I've been playing with for a while and I'm so happy they are finally done.  I'll be posting them to the shop throughout the week.

Also, Abe has been busy making some beautiful shelving available in the

Pickled Pantry shop!

I'll post pictures of the new paintings and shelves soon!  So exciting!

happy anniversary to my Abe

June 1, 2007

A mutual friend of ours set us up and I almost didn't go through with it because his name was Abe.... which is my brother's name... it sorta creeped me out. AND... he has a sister named Katie! What the?? Double creepy. So we do a lot of "honey", "dear", "sweetie", etc. to keep the creepy factor low.  But I'm glad I went through with it because I knew on our first official date that I would marry him. And he says he knew even before that at our first official meeting.

Here's the story...

We met one weekend, then talked on the phone all week long.  The conversations were light and fun, until I grilled him.  I had made the decision that I wouldn't even go out on a date with a guy unless he met my long list of qualifications.  (note:  I was being super picky because of some poor choices in my past)  So I started in on my questions.  I tried to ask some questions in a way that wouldn't show what I was hoping he'd say.  Other questions were pretty direct and straight forward.  He answered them easily, then I apologized for the grilling and he told me he was glad because he thinks the same things are important. 
Turned out we agreed on just about everything we wanted and needed in life.  Still do. 

The following weekend, he picked me up for our first date.  He looked so handsome!  We clicked almost instantly and laughed ourselves silly.  It was so much fun and before the night was over I found myself thinking, "I'm going to marry this guy."  This wasn't a plan I was making for us, it was more like my inner voice trying to convince me because my other voices were all screaming, "No way!  You barely know him!  Are you CRAZY??"
But in my heart, I just knew. 
Over the next two months, we were inseparable.  I began to realize he met all the criteria I was looking for.  A year before I met Abe, I had written down about 20 or so qualities or attributes that I wanted my future husband to have.
Abe had every single one! 
So for his birthday in February, I got him a gift and a card and stuck that list of attributes in the card.  He loved it!  And to my astonishment, for HIS birthday, he cooked me dinner and then proposed with the most beautiful ring!  The whole thing was very sweet.

So we made our plans over the next few months and were married in the Bountiful, Utah LDS Temple.

We had both always secretly made fun of other couples who met, got engaged and then married super fast.  But... we can no longer poke fun, for we are now one of those couples.  We met the end of November 2006, were engaged by February 2007 and married by June of 2007.  CRAZY!!!!

We did a casual luau style reception with a fabulous band and yummy food.

We went on a very romantic honeymoon to Maui, HI.

And then to make it even crazier, we decided it was time to try for a baby only a month after we were married.  We both felt it was time and I was pregnant almost instantly. 
Noah was born April 1, 2008.

This was a little impromptu family photo during Noah's little photo shoot recently.  Doesn't Abe look handsome?? 

It's fun to be able to look at your husband and still feel all twitterpated and in love.  The other day I went to a court of honor (Abe's a scout leader for the 11 year olds) and I had one of those moments.  It hit me so unexpectedly (I mean he was wearing a scout uniform for pete's sake!), but I thought to myself..."What a handsome husband I have." 
My husband is such a good man.  He's super supportive, loving, caring, sweet, kind, funny, smart, talented, good provider, amazing daddy and on and on and on.  I mean that too!  His goal in life is to make our family happy and he's very good at it.  And I know for a fact he has a daily goal to make me laugh at least once, if not more.  He almost always succeeds!
He's truly sweet and wonderful and I love him so.
We have the best time together!
I love you, dear!  Happy anniversary!

new things

Last Christmas my mother-in-law, Eve, gave me this beautiful Bosch mixer:

She gave it with the intent that I could make bread since I've been saying I want to learn.  I was so excited about it, but.... terrified.  It sat there staring at me for MONTHS without so much as cookiedough ingredients breaking it in!  I just felt like it was too much machine for me.  So Eve was kind enough to take a Saturday afternoon to give me bread making lessons (on top of those my mom has already given me) and it finally stuck!  I went home and made some of my own while the instructions were still fresh in my brain.

Here's me with mine:

I know they are all random sizes.  Apparently I'm terrible at eyeballing the size of the loaves.  Eve uses a scale... she's smart.  But the convection oven helped them bake beautifully and evenly and the bread tastes delicious! 
I used freshly ground whole wheat, thanks to Eve's wheat grinder. (and her wheat)

new art

I finally finished this little trio:

They are tiny.  The canvas size for each is 2.5x2.5 inches and the tiny easels measure approximately  4.5 inches tall and 2.75 inches wide.  I've decided to sell them as a set.  You almost can't have one without the other two, so there you go!

You can purchase them in the shop now.

daddy and noah fun

Noah and daddy got to have lots of bonding time this past week.  Abe took Noah swimming for the first time this season!  Noah LOVED his new swim diapers and swimsuit. 

This is what happens when you put Noah in a swim diaper:

He didn't mind.

Then you apply the required "plastic pants".

Then the bright orange swimsuit with picture of "monkey pirate":

He loved every minute of it!  The swimming part was fun too.

father/son campout

Noah and Abe also got to travel with friends from church to the father/son's campout.

They went two hours north to freezing cold Idaho and still had lot's of fun.

Noah particularly loved the giant slide

(which in summer is a giant WATER slide).

Here he is going down it with his friend Davis.

There was a zipline and some other fun activities.

 Abe and Noah slept in the car to keep warm.

Breakfast the next morning:

Look at his cold little hands!

Needless to say, Noah had a blast with daddy and I really missed them both very much!

And just to end on a "cheery" note....

look what happened this morning!!

YES, that is snow!  On MAY 24th!!!  That's the kind of crap stuff that happens when you live in Utah.

Hopefully my cute little garden makes it through!

one more day

The BOGO Sale ends tomorrow night! 

So if you haven't taken advantage yet, go here! 

I'll accept any BOGO purchases that come in until 11:59pm MST tomorrow May 21st. 

Thank you SOOO much to all those who participated in our Spring Sale!  It's been loads of fun!

Photo by Sara Boulter 

Have a WONDERFUL weekend!

quiet time at home and shop news

Everyday after I put Noah down for his nap, my niece Della and I do school activities.  These include letters, numbers and little workbook activities.  After that we have "Katie's quiet time".  This is my time to have some peace and quiet, paint, draw, craft, blog, package orders, etc.  During my quiet time, Della often creates little masterpieces. 

Here's one from a few weeks ago:

She loves to paint.  I thought this one was extra special.  I love it!

I sent this one home with her.  Hopefully it got a frame! 
Or at least a spot on the fridge.

Other quiet times...

Sometime I get quiet time when Noah is awake! 

We often find Noah like this:

and like this:

He loves to sit in his room and "read".  I love seeing it.

He is at such a cute age right now, it's so fun.  Of course, I'm pretty sure I've said that at every stage of his life.  And I'm happy that I've savored every one of them.  It goes too fast!

And in shop news,

we are ending the BOGO Sale on Friday this week.  That's May 21st!  So if you haven't taken advantage yet, you have until Friday night.  I'll start taking the info off each listing after we put Noah to bed.  So hurry!

And happy Monday!

snail mail and home fun

We got sod last year since our lovely lawn was completely destroyed due to the everlasting renovation.  So mowing the lawn this year is quite a joy, no matter how cold it is outside!  Noah has fun!  So does Abe.

Snail mail fun!

I ordered some rubber stamps for my packaging from Olga of cupcaketree on Etsy.  Check out her shop!  She's amazing!  I drew up some sketches of what I wanted, she sized them and then carved them out of rubber! 

What the?? 

Such tiny detail in these things and I love them so!  Look how cute my packaging looks now...

I had Abe mount them onto some beefier grips for me, which took him all of 3 minutes.

And I stamped away while we watched Avatar.  (pretty entertaining, both the movie and stamping)

I couldn't love these rubber stamps more!  Thank you so much!

And then...

My sweet friend Gail of GDRDesigns on Etsy was SOOOOO kind  and thoughtful to send me this in the mail...

 

She said she noticed my "pitter patter of little feet" category on this here blog and thought I might like it!

And I DO!!!!  I LOVE it!  And I'm quite sure she had no idea my favorite color is green too! (note the nail polish)

Anyway, I'm not the best photographer, but the front says "sweet" in white on white (which I love).  The inside is two tiny footprints and says "the pitter patter of little feet" on lovely vellum.  Seriously, this was just an out of the blue gift from Gail and I thank her kindly.  I love it!  Go see her shop!  She told me she's stocked up on some super cute new paper with lots of ideas rolling around in her head!  Can't wait to see! 

Thanks again!

And speaking of little feet, the "thud, thud" of Noah's feet were trying to escape last night.  He dragged this big backpack around with him all over the house and kept trying to get out the front door.  I bet he'd be cold outside if he actually escaped.

Silly Noah.

the fabulous Sara has done it again

Sara Boulter

is probably the only person that can get Noah to pose and then hold it long enough for her to get the shot.  Really!  You should see the way she is with kids, they fall instantly IN LOVE with her.

Even adults!  I mean, I'm in love with her too! ;)  I do love Sara, she is so funny and full of energy.  She's magnetic and sucks you into her world, which happily, is a very fun place to be.

Here's a peek of Noah's recent photo shoot:

And click here to see her blog post for a few more shots.

Thank you, Sara!  We love you!

 

two NEW prints

Just a quick post to show you two new prints I have in the shop!

Here is Lloyd the Lion:

He doesn't like to be referred to as "king" of the jungle. But he does want to be your friend. He is soft and loveable, but he'll be ferocious if he sees his friends being picked on. He's a good friend to have on your side.

And Mildred Monkey:

She is sister to Milton. Her friends call her Millie. She is fun and playful and loves to wear flowers in her hair. She loves to laugh and be silly.

Both new prints are available in the shop.

And REMEMBER....

the BOGO SALE is still on!

Click HERE to visit the shop.