Alison's

Missing This One

I love these photos because somehow, my little girl just looks a bit more like a little girl than she's been looking lately.  Some days, she just seems so grown up now.  When I see my sister's daughter who is now as tall as me, I realize that too will happen to my little one.  And I miss her.  She is off on quite the adventure right now, which really makes me think about how grown up she has become.  I'll write more about that later.  But for now, I am pretending she's not quite so grown up and savoring every moment of her childhood!

Par Avion

Yes, I  have a weakness for things Par Avion.  And globes.  And I could mention another thing or two in that vein.  I'm not alone in this.  I'm pretty sure my dear friend and cousin, C, has a similar passionate affinity.  So when on the very last page of my Land of Nod catalog, I saw a tiny picture of their Par Avion pillow sham, I kept thinking - how could I have missed that spread in the catalog??  Well, there was no spread in the catalog.  So I checked it out online.  And what a fun set!  Of course I think that particular sham is the best piece in the set.  And I also like the other sham, reminiscent of Pan Am, for which we also have a fondness in this family.  Definitely puts me in mind of decorating ideas for when our construction is done and the kids bedrooms change...

http://www.landofnod.com/kids-boy-bedding/kids-bedding/come-fly-with-me-bedding/f9788

Hawaii Calling

Well, we tried to go to London for spring break.  Unfortunately unaffordable.  Then we looked into our formerly annual trip to Hawaii.  Notice I said formerly.  Yep, no deals this year like we've found in the past.  Nonetheless, I decided I'd finally put together the book of photos from last year's trip using the very cool painted surf templates I bought on designer digitals.  We opted to try out The Big Island of Hawaii rather than our usual Kauai.  And the result...well, I had to rush to use the free book deal Shutterfly sent me, but not bad.  Loved the book so much when it arrived that I took it with me to my sister's to show it off!  Take a peak and dream of paradise with me!

 

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly photo books offer a variety of layouts and cover options to choose from.

Cousins & Popsicles

What could be better than eating popsicles with cousins on grandma & grandpa's swing?

A Trip to the Desert

Just back from a fun time with cousins, aunts & uncles, and Mickey Mouse!  More to come, but as I was downloading photos today, I thought I'd post this one.  J took it for us, and not being a man of many photos, we're lucky to get a decent picture in one attempt (yep, he only took one photo, rather than snapping a few!)  Not sure why V had her ears covered as there weren't many sounds out there in the Mojave, but there you go: me, my sister, our kids, and my oldest brother (her twin) who drove out to surprise us and join in the fun!  Lots of fun and lots of love to all!

Thankful

Just have to post this picture of my beautiful children!

I am grateful for them!

Snacks

We're visiting my sister soon and she asked today if I'd send a list of the kinds of snack foods my kids like.  With V's allergy, she wanted to make sure she had the right things on hand - and her place isn't located convenient to just anything, so she's kindly wanting to be prepared.  I just remembered I needed to send the list, so off the top of my head, I sent her the following list.  After looking at what I'd written, I thought it was kind of funny and realized maybe I should include it as part of their childhood I've recorded here...

Ok. Here's the list:

T likes
bananas
plain yogurt (I get the full fat greek kind or Brown Cow types) with brown sugar
crackers (he likes the big artisan rosemary kind like from Panzanella or also ritz)
havarti (that's the only cheese he's been willing to eat)
hummus (plain kind)
fruit snacks
berries
corn flakes

V likes
meat sticks (german type)
green apples or honeycrisp apples
good olives (like Greek or nicoise, black only, not green)
fruit leathers (like the kind they sell at Costco)
table water crackers or rosemary crackers
semi-hard cheeses (like gruyere or English cheddar)
blue cheese (stilton or roquefort type)
whole wheat toast with freezer jam
cinnamon raisin bagels
berries
corn flakes with dried cranberries

Now you know what we grab in a hurry and must usually have on hand.  I could add "cornichon" to V's list, the tiny French pickles, and deli turkey and plain mustard to make turkey sandwiches.  And I really should have said both kids love good tortilla chips since that's mostly what T ate today, all day long.  Well, I'm sure I could add to the list, but that gives you the flavor!

Monkeys Love Bananas

and so do my children!  Well, T does.  However, V will demonstrate the sign for banana for you:

As Rachel from Signing Time would tell you, (and V would too) "It's like you're peeling a banana."

I haven't really given much of a kiddo update lately, but T knows so many signs, I've lost count.  Some, he learns VERY quickly.  Take "Grandma" for instance.  I did the sign once as we were on the way to the airport to pickup the first Grandma to arrive last month and he knew it right away and put it to good use signing Grandma through the lovely visits of both his grandmas last month.  Still, he sometimes wants to go check to see if there might happen to be a Grandma in the basement guest room.  Another that came together oh so quickly was of course "banana splits!"  He knew the sign for banana and had picked up the sign for ice cream as soon as I showed it to him.  So when I put the two together for my children's first introduction to a banana split a few weeks ago, T started signing banana and ice cream every time he felt peckish or anytime we sat down to eat.  Needless to say, the enthusiasm for the signs and their great usage earned him a few more banana splits than I'd generally offer up.

And what about that monkey?  Well, today when I asked him to "show me the monkey!" - here's what I got!

p.s  Did you like the haircut?

p.p.s.  Those first photos were the first time I gave T a whole banana with the peel.  You can tell he felt like quite a little grownup being able to attempt a peel and eat of one of his favorite treats.

Boeing 787 Dreamliner kicks off global tour in Salt Lake

Boeing 787 Dreamliner kicks off global tour in Salt Lake.

Click the link above and you'll discover what I did!  That my Dad joined my cousin's family for the tour I've heard so much about!  My cousin J has been missing her husband as he's travelled around the world showing off the latest and greatest from Boeing.  I had no idea the tour included a stop in SLC.

I'm going to add a little more to this post when I've got a bit more time, but I used a cool tool direct from ksl.com to immediately blog the article.  I suppose it's actually a windows tool, but I'm sometimes slow to know the quickest easiest technology for accomplishing things, like posting!

added later:

There are a couple of shots of Dad and my cousin W chatting as they tour (like in the aisle photo above) and of course here we've got Uncle K and my cousin's daughter M with her new husband plus Aunt M and cousin M (hmmm...maybe too many M's in this sentence, perhaps I could substitue My, Ma, and Mi) behind them.  Too fun to see my extended family in the news!  Thanks to my cousins, husband B, for arranging the tour.  Now if I could just get one too!  The plane looks amazing.

This is a Test

 

Once again having troubles with posting photos on my blog. I recall this happening the first time I decided to upgrade to ie9. So, I reverted. But a short time ago, my internet explorer was automatically upgraded, so now I'm back to ie9 and again having the same trouble. I'm sure there's a way to combat this, but I haven't figured it out. So this post is a test. I'm going to try to post a photo of V's new book bag which John brought back for her from his last trip. No more grocery store tote (that's what they handed out this year for her school library books) for her!

Well, there we have it.  First attempts did not work.  I went to the help menu, then remembered I'd entered a help ticket when I encountered this before.  Thought maybe I'd check the response that came back and after a few links and clicks to figure out how to do what the person told me to do - here we are, picture inserted.  It all came down to compatibility view.  Not that you really care - now that I've figured it out!  You still get photos, mostly of my gorgeous kids, and we're full swing back in the business of blogging.

And what do you think of the new tote?  She's happy to have a bag with the London skyline.  It's soft and just the right size for her school library books.  I just have to add a few comments now that I see the whole picture...from top to bottom, quite an ensemble.  Besides the new book bag, head to toe, everything's a story.  The clip in her hair was mine when I was a girl.  I brought home a box (well, many many boxes) from my parents house last summer and one box contained some childhood things including a baggie full of enamel bobby pins and hair clips.  The super cute top was one I found in France when we were there during their annual sale.  It was so beautiful, I bought it though it was too big then and just pulled it out in time for it to fit perfectly.  The skirt was a steal of a deal from gap kids, a place I never shopped until I walked by last year and saw these skirts on a Christmas promotion sale.  I bought several.  One we used in V's flamingo costume this year.  A couple others were gifted to her cousin last year.  And I still have one more that will have a home this summer.  The striped tights were saved by my sister from her daughter's wardrobe.  We're finally fitting into a few tights she held onto for us and loving them!  Thanks!  V loves the fun addition they've been to her wardrobe.  Shoes were probably a Nordstrom Rack find.  All in all, this outfit spans some significant time and space!