Warm Welcome

The coats arrived today and now we are offically ready for Utah. See you soon Grandma & Grandpa!

Dancing With Dad

This is from October but still worth sharing.

Me & Marly & Me

I have Netflix now. It is great. Even thinking about ditchin' cable. If you use the Instant Streaming feature you'll ask yourself why you didn't sign up sooner. Marley & Me came in the mail today and I thought, "Ha, did I really sign up for this one? Oh well, I liked Beethoven as a kid. Maybe Lucas will enjoy this." I think I wanted to see it because it came out at the same time as the LameO'Case of Benjamin Button and Jennifer said on Oprah that she wanted to beat Brad in the box office...and she did. Can I just tell you, this movie is really good. If you have a family and dreams still waiting in the wings, this movie is for you. These guys made a relavent and realistic movie out of what happens when you get married and start a family. I wonder how many other people like me skipped this movie because we thought it was 2 hours of a dog chewing up pillows. He does, but it's not. I have yet to watch the last 20 minutes because I decided I wanted to make Ben watch it with me. Single people can learn from it and married people might just get a little group style type therapy out of it. I like being pleasantly surprised.

Pants & Pumpkins

I used to keep the blinds open. I like natural light. Potty training has me in a world of darkness. I told you in my last post that Lucas has taken an interest in potty training. It seems that is all it was. He did really well for awhile, then he stopped, then I made charts, he did better, then he stopped again. It is very hard to stay patient when your cleaning up poop on a daily basis. It is even worse when that poop is on carpet. To top that, the carpet was just cleaned. If I put a trainer on the kid, he goes in it. If I leave him naked he'll (usually) go to the toilet. I often have a naked 2 year old running around my house. Thus, my blinds are closed. I thought I would be original and post the pictures of our trip to the pumpkin garden (we didn't go to a patch.) Alright, so everybody has a picture of their kid with a pumpkin right now but it is about the only place we've gone in a month. Too many sick people everywhere. However, you might find these pictures more interesting because it burned down a few days after we picked out our pumpkins. I am still loving my Web Design class. Here is the latest webpage I put together:
Check Out My Latest Site!
I will be posting the link for my portfolio soon. I wish I had $1000 to spend on Adobe CS4 Master collection.

A few of you have asked how the kitchen is going. Great. We are doing a little at a time. The latest improvements consist of removing the center cupboards and choosing a stain color. We love how open it is now. I have purchased my ticket to go home for Christmas. I will be there with the kids from December 15-January 13th. Ben's vacation will not be quite so long but he is coming too.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!
Oh Utah! How I miss the fun spirit you put into Halloween. I didn't realize how special it was until I was in a place that doesn't have it.

Ireland Updates

Individual Ireland updates today:

Ben

Ben is doing great. He is a super father, husband, and friend. Thanks to his most important employer; Officeconnect.net, he was hired on by a partner company and has recently been promoted. I sure am proud of him. I asked him to write a little update for himself and he sent me this: I don't care to have people know about me.

Trish

I'm great. Happier then I have been in awhile. I LOVE not working. I have the coolest kids. I am taking 2 classes this semester to get my Web Design certificate and I am LOVING it. I am really excited to start putting my skills to use. It feels like EVERY blog I read has someone saying, "I just ran a 5K," or "I'm training for my 5K." It feels like the whole world is running except for me! I have a goal to start running and biking again. If I say it out loud maybe it will happen. I'm finally starting to redecorate my house. (THANK YOU ANDREA!) I'll blog more about that when I'm further along. I do however need your help finding me any dishes that belong to this set:

I have 11 dishes so far and they look great but I don't have any in the red pattern and only a few of the green so if you are in a DI or Salvation Army or WHEREVER, please keep your eye out for this pattern. It is Sakura Tapas. Any of the color (green, red, orange, yellow) would be great. Thanks

Lucas

This kid is a delight. He is so funny and creative. He can entertain himself for hours which I didn't realize was such a blessing until Andrea came down and told me how a lot of kids are not like that. He is definitely a creative personality like his dad and ONLY does things when he is good and ready. Like potty training for instance. All attempts before he was ready were a waste of time. He is now taking and interest in it and goes to the potty by himself. He's not perfect yet but within a few days he has just decided he's going to start doing it. He loves juice, Ritz & Cheese (ha ha, Ben can't stand that we eat cheese in a can!) and Blue's Clues. He hasn't completely abandoned Spongebob but he is branching out.

Amy

The sponge. She is amazing. My two children have been very different as far as when they did things. I remember Lucas just hanging out on the floor with no desire to move forever. Amy on the other hand has been trying to figure everything out right away. She has been scoot crawling since before she was 6 months and now that she is 7 months today she is a speedy little crawler, climber, and is trying to conquer walking. She LOVES her brother and the sound her diaper makes when she scratches at it. Especially the Velcro things that hold it on. She gets so overjoyed to eat that we can barely get the food in her mouth. She also still loves sucking her toes and has a strange fascination with laptops.

Quick funny story: I took her in for her 6month checkup and I was signing in and the lady looks up at me and says, "Uh uh, no way." I was a little confused and then she says, "She is too cute. (Pretty good for a pediatrician's office.) Oh my gosh, is she always this sweet?" So anyway, I have new insurance with Ben's job so I had to check back at the end of the appointment to see if I had a copay. I headed back over to the desk and there was a few ladies in line with their kids. I got in the back of the line and pretty soon she spots me and shouts over all the other ladies with their babies and says, "Uh uh, NO, no copay. I told them she was too cute." I instantly felt the eyes of everyone around me go to the little bundle of cuteness in my arms. I gave an embarrassed thank you smile and turned to go. Boy, I think kid compliments are more fulfilling then personal compliments.

One last shot of the two newest best friends. I think the moment you actually see your kids start playing together is a whole new level of parenting. It is so heartwarming. We are so blessed.

Whoosh

is the word to describe how fast Amy has turned 6 months.
Kids and family are the best thing about life. I was so satisfied with Lucas that I thought one kid might be enough. Then this little princess came a long and it just got even better. It makes me wonder if it feels like this every time you add a child to your family or if it just tapers off around 4 or 5.

We love our Amy Dawn! Happy 6 months!

What COLOR!?!?!?!

Ok Peeps, I am at the point where I have to decide on a stain color. Thank you to everyone that gave me their suggestion. I just keep going back and forth. This is a little diagram I whipped up in paint to help make my final decision. The paint is similar to this green/cream family but it will be textured with the help of my AMAZING cousin Andrea. I think she is thinking about doing it professionally so you should book her while you still can. The cream border represents the back splash. The floor tile is in the center of the 4 cupboard colors I am trying to choose from. (From top, then clockwise,) Cherry, Dark, Medium, Light. A LOT of you said dark. Do you think this will make my kitchen too dark? Something in the middle might just blend with the tile and make a big orangy kitchen. This has been so much fun but deciding is giving me anxiety.

Last chance to give me your opinion! Thanksssssssss!

P.S. I'm not going to pick a countertop until the end so I can make sure it fits everything else. Plus, its really the only think that will cost money so I need to save up.

Be My Designer!

Hey Ya'll. I say ya'll because I am finally trying to deal with the fact that I live here. Ever since I moved here 5 years ago I have been waiting to go back to Utah. With the economy the way it is and Ben just getting this really good job here I've realized that day is much further back then I would like. Thus, I've decided to put my energy into remodeling my kitchen. I have this really awesome Spanish tile but it does not go with anything else in the house so I am going to accommodate it by using a Tuscan theme. I have been searching and studying all kinds of designs and here is what I have already decided on: (these are pictures from the Internet, not my house)

This is the inspiration picture and color scheme.

This is what the tile in my house looks like already.My walls will be like the ones in this picture above.
The backsplash will be like the one in this picture.

Now the last choices are very important and I want your opinion. Which countertop do you like best?

Royal Casino
Something Lighter perhaps, Vecchio Oro

Tuscan Spice, this would obviously match all the traditional Tuscan colors.

I am currently stripping and sanding my cupboards. I plan on staining them. What color stain do you like best? Cherry, Dark, Medium, or light?

So if you don't mind I'd love your input and favorites on countertop and cabinet color. If you REALLY care and like this kind of stuff you can mix and match them next to each other at this website and let me know what combination you came up with.
http://www.stonemark.com/MixMatch.aspx Very fun and helpful.


Thanks again,
Trish

The Scrappy Lady

Yah, I know, it has been awhile. Whenever I blog I always feel like I should have used the time to scrapbook the event instead. I have figured out how to solve this issue by just posting my scrapbook pages. So click on the picture and it will (should) become bigger for you. Here are a few pages of what we were up to in May.

If I ever make a page you are in or you just like it and want a copy of it I can email you a pdf really easily. Just leave me a message.

Still Alive

Just wanted everyone to know I'm still alive and kicking. Lucas gives me a run for my money but we're doing pretty well. Just a quick update photo on my two kiddos.

Lucas won't pose for me anymore so I have to trick him into looking at the camera. I'll take what I can get. He's really just into Spongebob and water lately. Here he is helping dad get the pool ready for summer. The swimsuit was given to him by Gma & Gpa Ireland straight from Australia.

This is a picture of Amy yesterday. We went to a co worker's baby shower so I had to get her dressed to meet all the ladies at work. Thanks for the cute bow Hannah. Nobody questions me if she is a boy or a girl. However, Ben insists she looks like a girl and that bows are for the babies where you can't tell.