The Liesl Crawl

Liesl's mobility started to really take off when she was 5 1/2 months.  That was when she mastered the roll, look and reposition.  It looked just likes it sounds.  She would find something she wanted and start rolling across the floor.  Then she would look to see where the thing she wanted was after she had moved a little.  Sometimes she was closer and sometimes not.  If she noticed she was heading in a wrong direction she would spin on her tummy so she was facing in a better direction.  It was pretty funny to watch.

After a few weeks of that, she started into the army crawl.  Or at least her version of an army crawl.  It is similar to the roll, look and reposition other than she stays on her tummy which also eliminates some of the need to look and find the object of her desire.  So, I suppose it should be called the pull and reposition.  But we just call it the Liesl Crawl.  At nine months old, she is still sticking with it.

A Real-Life Blizzard

I've lived in Idaho nearly all my life and the word blizzard is often thrown around in conjunction with any large-ish storm around these parts.  Mostly, I think, because we live in a culture which lacks vocabulary and deems it necessary to overstate.  Regardless of reason though, I cannot actually remember another time in my life that the National Weather Service has called for an actual BLIZZARD!  So, I thought it was kind of "fun".  Fun because:

• it was something new, exciting and noteworthy
• it was only supposed to last one day
• we weren't planning on going anywhere that day anyhow
• we live in a part of the country that is well-prepared for crazy storms so the roads would be taken care of soon after the storm died down -- on the highway and main roads, at least
• I have a nice, warm house to stay in when icky stuff like that is happening outside

This is the as much as the grounds crew did.  And despite the 40-50 mile an hour winds leaving huge snow drifts, they only came once.  This is what they left us with.

Notice the stairs with oh, six or so inches of snow on them still.  We live up those stairs.  Owen worked really hard all day to keep our walk clean so should we actually need to go anywhere we wouldn't slip and break our head open on the way to the car...or get our feet stuck in the snow.

And although I think the only reason the storm really qualified for a blizzard was because of the insane wind!  We did get a fair amount of snow, but not really anything that spectacular for around here.  After things died down a little, Owen managed to catch a shot of the sidewalk in front of our home though.  Check out that wall of snow!

Is it crazy that I consider that normal?

First Annual Gratitude Tree

Miriam is finally getting old enough to understand and enjoy little family traditions, so I've been picking through my brain and some of my favorite saved pictures/blogs/ideas/etc. to start some out during these fun autumn and winter holidays.  One tradition that we started November 1st was our Gratitude Tree.  It's really pretty simple, but for my records, here's how we do it (or did it this year, at least) -- Each family member chooses a different color for his/her leaves and every evening before family scriptures we each write something we are grateful for on the leaf and add it to the tree branches.  

I wanted to keep things simple so I just took a long sheet of butcher paper, hung it on the wall and painted a bare tree.  I went to the craft store and picked out some fall colored cardstock and found a cute maple leaf die cut and went to town, or rather Owen did because I was busy keeping kids happy.  Easy peasy.  

Here she is in all her glory.  We didn't make it quite to Thanksgiving because we are slackers and we were traveling a day or two before also.  Lame excuses.  

Here, in no particular order, is what made the list this year:

Owen
flyash (something construction-y -- don't ask, cause I don't know)
Miriam
guns
home
Mom and Dad
TV
eggs
money
modern-day revelation
Liesl
books
Haylee
cell phones
router
wood
movies
snow
BYU-Idaho
In-laws
Humidifiers

Haylee
Miriam
being raised in the gospel
temple covenants
Jesus Christ - my Savior
a home to clean
dishes to wash
healthy children
Liesl
heat
a helpful husband
good in-laws
the internet and the millions of ideas I get from other blogs and websites
gospel of Jesus Christ
scriptures
dishwasher
Owen
having a worthy Priesthood holder in our home
a clean kitchen
my talents
good parents

Miriam
snow
cheez-its
Mike Burns
Heather Burns
doors
church
Grandma and Grandpa
nursery teachers
Baby -- we've tried to get Miri to name her, but she insists that her name is "just Baby"
Pooh Bear
dollhouse
cousins
Mommy
Liesl
Grammy and Grampy
Daddy
chocolate
Ted, the bear
Scary Bear
blankie

Liesl didn't get leaves this year because she doesn't communicate more than a few words in babble and milk through sign.  Next year though, she'll have leaves up there with the rest of us.

As for next year, I plan to steal the way Owen's cousin, Danielle does a gratitude tree with her family.  Instead of doing only things they are grateful for, on one side of the leaf they write things they are thankful for and on the other an act of service they did that day, making it a Thanks and Giving tree.

Miriam loved to "write a leaf" every day so I'm excited to continue this tradition with the addition of service being incorporated.  I love traditions!!

Well...

...we're still here.  So, if you're wanting to know what we're up to these days, read on.

Owen's semester is coming to a close.  He's been studying like a mad man in preparation for his expensive hippie LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) exam next week.  He's nervous for it.  I know he will do great.  He isn't working this semester and we have loved having him around home more often.  Plus, he's doing really, really well in his classes since he can get everything done.

  

I've been busy with a million projects, as usual.  One of these days I'll learn that it's okay to not do everything or at least not possible, but as for now, I'm still trying.  Maybe that's why I caught my dad's cold during the Thanksgiving break.  I sound like a frog and a smoker.  Oh well.  :)  I also chopped my hair off recently.  And by recently, I mean in September.  

I love it and hate it all at the same time.  I've never had a haircut cause me an identity crisis until now.  I'm always back and forth between keeping it or growing it out again.  I'm getting it trimmed up again tomorrow, so for now it's staying.

We celebrated Halloween as clowns this year.  We went to a party at our friends house and then had Trunk or Treat with our apartment complex the next weekend.  It was fun and exhausting.  Such is the life of a mom when any holiday rolls around I suppose.

Our friends and hosts, Evan and McKenzie dressed up as Alice in Wonderland characters.  

Miriam was NOT a fan of the Mad Hatter and even pointed Evan out at church the next day scared that he would turn around and still have big, bushy, orange eyebrows.  So, that's the reason for the face she's pulling in all the pictures.

 And, as mentioned already, I've been doing lots of projects.  Owen's clown pants were one of them.

We celebrated Thankgiving at my parents and ate too much.  But it was all really, really good food!!  I'm regretting it this week though.  Hopefully I will be able to beat this cold and get back on track with my exercise...and blogging too, of course.  But I don't really need to be able to breathe to do that.

A Knock-Knock Joke

Miriam has finally caught onto the sequencing of knock-knock jokes, so we taught her one to tell people.  She thinks she's hilarious!  I just think she's stinkin' cute.  And as my sister, Alicia, put it, isn't it fun what we can get our little puppets to do?!  He he he.  Oh, and don't mind her cute purple panties.  She's not a big fan of clothes.  I convinced her to at least wear a shirt for a few minutes.

Bed Head

Testing....Testing....

Does anybody even read this thing still?

Probably not.

I don't blame all of you who aren't reading this for not reading my blog.

I'm a slacker.  I know it.

I'll do better.  You don't have to believe me.  After all, you aren't really reading this.

But for those of you who've wondered what I'm doing.  Why no blog posts?  Where'd Haylee go; off the face of the earth?  Here's the best true excuse I've got...

I've been grappling with why I blog.  Sometimes it feels like another super-mommy-wars guilt-trip obligation.  Other times it's just another thing on the never-ending to-do list.

I used to look forward to it.  And I do love to write.

And really, after some thinking and pondering and blah, blah, blah for the last few months I have come to grips with the real reason I want a consistent blog (not a blog-sprint every couple months).

I want it for my family.  No, not like my family who never get to see us because we live so far away.  Not even my family who lives not-so-far-away and does get to see us.  But for MY family.  My kids; my Owen.

So really, I'll do better.  For them.