LOVE

Came across this list of the 10 Best Love Poems accompanied by famous artwork—perfect viewing for the holiday of love today. But it got me thinking too. If I were to create a list like that there were definitely be very different artwork included. Of course you can't go wrong with Klimt's The Kiss but where was Rodin's sculpture by the same name? Or the pop art LOVE sculpture? To each her own aesthetic I guess.

And if we're talking about poetry, why wasn't Robert Browning included? Or any of Shakespeare's sonnets? Those always remind me of this epic scene from my fave show as a teenager...Heidi Allen and Meagan Gilmore—this is for you:

Happy Heart Day! 

Glad I get to spend mine with my favorite valentine. We have big plans to meet for a lunch date at IKEA and shop for our home. Dreamy :)

August 2011--I need a newer photo of us!

iPhone Pics Today

(I was at worldwide leadership training when the babe got hungry--glad I have a mini-mom in training)

 creating Bentley's valentine's box

(my kids are so lucky! finished product below)

We ended the day at Settebello for pizza and gelato with Joe's sis and her family. It was a party! Somehow I always nab pics when we eat out there and nowhere else...I do love the green walls in the gelateria!

5 Thoughts and a Recipe

1. Thanks to new granite countertops all my kitchen drawers have been purged and organized. Love all the order it brings to my life. The tile backsplash is going up in the kitchen in about 10 days so I will post pics of everything when it's all the way finished (sneak peek in the bath pic below). The granite looks awesome and I LOVE my huge, new kitchen sink aka Luke's bathtub for the next 18 months!

 2. Speaking of granite, our bathrooms were also refinished and turned out quite lovely. Did I mention that Joseph bought credit at a granite shop during an online auction in December? We were able to do our kitchen, 2 bathrooms and get 4 new sinks for more than 50% off.

 

main bathroom before

during

 and after

 master bathroom before

 during

 and after

3. Half of my family will be in Hawaii this weekend (and one of my sisters was just there in November—lucky!) They're going to enjoy the warm sun and gorgeous water and time together so much. I'm sad to miss out. But we're heading to SG fairly soon in search of a little fun, and maybe some sun, ourselves. Any vacation is a good vacation (swimsuits and I are not yet friends again anyway so it's good I'm not tempted by the beach...)

4. Best baby advice that we're using daily around here—putting Luke to bed when he's drowsy but awake so he learns to fall asleep on his own. He's brilliant at this during the night, returning to sleep after eating very easily, but we are still perfecting naps. I think I'm pretty rigid when it come to baby sleep methods but making baby learn to self-soothe has been the magic sleep trick for all my kids (there has been, and may continue to be, a lot of talk about sleep on this blog during the next while—typical of life with a new babe and me desiring to have more of it...)

5. I have been so unlike myself in the past week and tried 3 new recipes—3! I am amazed. This is not a normal thing for me. Turns out that we really liked all 3 of them too. I made crockpot chicken tacos, tried a new chocolate chip cookie recipe, and a first, I made the yummiest breadsticks. All recipes were found on family members' Pinterest pages and are going to become regularly used around here. I'm posting the easy-peasy breadsticks recipe below (thanks to Joe's cousin Catherine (breadsticks) and my sister Cecily (tacos & cookies):

EASY BREADSTICKS found on this blog via Pinterest:

1 1/2 c. warm water
1 T. yeast
2 T. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3 1/2 c. flour

1/2 C butter (I think 6 T works just fine too and seems a little healthier :)

Mix all ingredients and knead for 3 minutes. I did this in my kitchen aid with the dough hook. Cover and let the dough stand for 10 minutes. While the oven is heating to 375 put 1/2 cup butter on jelly roll pan (deep cookie sheet) and let it melt completely. Roll out dough on floured surface and cut into strips. Take your pan of melted butter out of the oven. I like to take my strips and basically dip both sides in the melted butter, fold in half, then twist. If you would rather just place the strips on the pan and not twist at all, that would be just fine too! Then sprinkle with fresh Parmesan cheese and a sprinkle of garlic salt. Cover with a towel and let them rise 30 minutes. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Haircuts and Hearts

Joseph before his haircut on Saturday:

So handsome with so many curls! But they were a little out of control too (silly faces enhance them of course):

Joseph was curious to see what would happen if he grew his hair really long—if the curls might calm down and smooth out a little aka Bradley Cooper

Yeah that didn't happen. At all. They were a fun change but kept curling over his ears and growing rather tall and fluffy. It was definitely time for his usual cropped cut. But I do love (and have always loved) my hubby's curls.

On another note entirely, we had our traditional heart attack FHE last night. It's getting more and more fun each year to see what the kids want to share about loving each member of our family. Livs' responses were so sweet (she loves me because I always make her dinner—so honest :)

working on our door of love last night (we are keeping all the hearts in one place this year due to kitchen mayhem coming in a few days

 and the finished product this morning (gotta love Livs' outfits when she dresses herself! And notice how short the girlies' haircuts are...)

Finally, the kids' hair before they were coiffed on Saturday (should have included this pic with the previous post but was too lazy to load it up off the camera)

Our Saturday

I always look forward to Saturdays and long, lazy mornings, the kids enjoying playtime at home, cozy naps, and getting some things done around the house...but things hardly ever seem to work out that way. Yesterday was like a marathon around here!

We started the morning at the cabin where we'd slept over to celebrate my dad's 64th birthday

We packed up and headed back to the valley by 10:00 to get Bentley to a rock-climbing birthday party. Once we were home, Joseph took off again with the girls and hit Home Depot for kids' building day and to buy tile for our kitchen backsplash (we have granite countertops(!) going in on Wednesday and decided to vamp up the whole area while we were at it).

I fed Luke, got him down for a nap and worked on organizing the kids' toy room while everyone was away. Once everyone came home, we took off again to get haircuts for my crazy curly husband and all the kids.

the darling's very first haircut!

 everyone all trimmed up 

(I'll have to get a better "after" pic of the girls--they both got several inches chopped off)

While we were out we made a Target run and grabbed dinner, and then went to straight to the rec center for Bentley's final Jr. Jazz game of the season.

 with a bestie from school, Curtis, who played on last night's opposing team

And then bedtime afterward was a major process (as always) especially now that we have a baby who has a schedule all his own and doesn't go to sleep until about 9:00 pm. I was exhausted after we got Luke to bed last night and wondered where our lazy Saturday had gone. I think we are in need of a vacation where we can just hang out and play instead of go and go all day.

6 Weeks

 

Baby Luke at 6 weeks:

--loves to eat anything, anytime. I still nurse every 2 or 3 hours but during the night Joseph will feed him a bottle for one feeding. It has saved my sanity for sure
--is starting to spit up more frequently (probably because of statement above)
--has given us some 5 hour sleep stretches after his last feeding of the day (I nurse him around 8:00 pm and don't hear from him again until 1:00 am)
--loves bath time and sunlight and the ceiling fans
--has big blue eyes
--generally fusses from about 5 until 7 in the evenings unless he is being held. Makes dinner time totally crazy around here but Joseph and I are content to let him cry for 15 minutes or so we can eat as a family for even a few minutes (I never would have been able to do that with baby Bentley but now it doesn't stress me like it did as a new mom)
--loves to be held and coddled and kissed which we are all too happy to give in to

 spontaneous super hero pose

 love those folds in his squishy neck 

A little recap:

 4 weeks

 5 weeks

 

6 weeks

My Boys

 Oh my goodness I love these two. 

And I think they are so lucky to have each other (even if there are nearly 8 years between them.)

 I think we may have captured Luke's first semi-smile in this pic! And Bentley's freshly torn khakis...raising a little boy equals lots of patched up pants (or is it just my crazy guy?)