Norma Jean Larson

My Grandma Larson passed away Sunday, April 19th. I will miss her immensely and am so sad that my children will never get to know her. She gave our family lots to remember her by though. All over the house are little reminds of her and her incredible talents - quilts, tatting, crocheted things, paintings... She was an amazing seamstress/crafter and instilled in a me a love and appreciation for handmade things. She taught me practically everything I know about sewing. She was always patient and encouraging and could even teach things backwards to her left-handed granddaughter! She made sewing fun and was very giving of her time and talents.

Reed and I went to back home for the funeral. Last time we were in California Reed was sick with a cold and not a very fun baby. This time he was a big flirt and it was great to have a smiley , happy baby around. He got to meet EVERYONE in the family and it was therapeutic to have Reed there...
Reed and his great grandpa. Everytime grandpa got near him, Reed would grab for his fingers!
All smiles.
Literally, the center of attention!
My cousin Scott can do this crazy thing with his bottom lip. It fascinated Reed.
Opa blowing on Reed's neck.
Oma and Reed

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter this past weekend with my family in Sparks, Nevada. Not only wa it was nice to spend time with family for the holiday, but as an added bonus we got to attend my cousins homecoming and my parents had a car load of things to pass on to us! So we made the drive across the Nevada desert - twice - and still managed to have a great weekend. I see my aunt and her family rarely and haven't gotten to know my six cousins very well. We really enjoyed spending time with them and seeing how much fun they have together. They are a sweet, happy family. It made me look forward to many sweet times I'll have with my own family in the years to come.

 

My Auny Amy and her family gave us this adorable Easter bucket full of goodies and a duckie for Reed. Plus, my parents brought a fun basket for us - so we were sufficiently sugared up for the car ride home!

Best Baby

 

Reed is such a good baby when it comes to having his nails cut. I had nail cutting anxieties when he was fisrt born - they are so TINY, but now he just sits there and watches me trim his nails. Very cute. His toenails are a different story, we have found a ticklish spot...

Busy boy

I made Reed a binky strap and he enjoys it more than his pacifier now. He plays with it, chews on it and just holds on to it most the time.

He's getting really good at sitting up for longer and longer periods of time.

So cute. He'll sit in the bouncy for about 5 seconds and then he starts squirming down trying to get out. He's so busy and he hasn't even started crawling yet!

The result of said squirming. He finds the button to make the seat vibrate with his foot and finds great pleasure in kicking it on and off. (insert squeals of joy).

Exciting news!

Brent posting: So, I baked a cake tonight. While I was baking I made lemon frosting. I was following directions (mostly) for the frosting, but it was too thick so I added a "little" milk. This made the frosting too thin. When the cake finished baking I tried to cool it on a cooling rack. It turns out I wanted to cool it in the pan to keep it in one attractive piece. I reassembled the pieces and drizzled the icing on top. The cake turned out ugly but delicious. I decided this is an analogy for my life. I do things my own way and they don't turn out pretty, but they turn out good. So the good news is we found out today that we could refinance our house. The only issue was we needed to have a job. Luckily, I accepted a job offer a little later with e*trade. Also, Caroline made her first sale at her Etsy shop. And the final really exciting news is we had our soil tested and we have great soil in our garden!!!

A Work in Progress

Finally, a posting that's not about Reed! I'm really excited and I don't even know where to begin...As you may or may not know, I used to be pretty crafty person back in the day. I found it relaxing to put aside work, school, day-to-day stress and just create something pretty. The past few years, I have done very little and I've really felt like there's been a void in my life. The main problem is I haven't had anywhere to put all my "stuff". For me to get creative usually requires some sort of mess, and I haven't wanted to make a mess and then have to clean it all up a few hours later so we can eat dinner at the table, or whatever. Well, these past few weeks we've been organizing the house and we made a crafty area down in the basement. I'm still working on making it a happy, inspiring little corner instead of feeling like I have to go down to the dungeon to sew, but it's progress and I'm anxious to see if I still have the creative bug in me years of putting it aside.



Anyway, that's not all! I don't know how many of you have heard of the website Etsy.com, but I LOVE it. It's basically an online store thtat just sells handmade and vintage items - my favorite things! There are tons of really cute things and it takes a lot of self-restraint to not go crazy and spend a fortune on amazing and unique items that people make. I've dabbled in many creative areas here and there, and people have encouraged me to sell what I've made, but I never knew how to go about it and was never motivated to find a way. Well, Brent losing his job (and the video I posted a few weeks ago) was just the motivation I needed to dust off the right side of my brain and start having fun making things again. So I've been working, and am continuing to work, on setting up my very own Etsy shop! I'm still in the process of photographing everything and writing up descriptions, store policies, etc. and getting it all set up. I'm sure it will take awhile to work out the kinks and get it just the way I want it with a logo and everything, but I got some beaded eggs up in time for Easter today and will start on jewelrey and baby things next. I'm really excited to take the things that I've made and hopefully make a little bit of money. Not that I'm expecting this to be a booming home buiness, but I can use the materials that I already have, and if nothing else, it's an excuse to get creative, relax and de-stress!

I've really appreciated Brent's encouragement and support these past few weeks. He's been moving furniture around and watching Reed and putting up with a mess (I've been sewing cloth diapers, but that's another story...) while I get things done. Don't worry, he gets plenty of interviews and job-hunting in there too. ;o)