Luke Philip

I'm not officially posting...yet. I just had to get these pictures up because I can't get enough of them. And Luke. I promise a more wordy, interesting post will come soon. Until then, a HUGE thank you out to Rebecca Mudrick (www.rebeccamudrick.com) for taking these amazing pictures.

Oh little Luke, you're one in a million.

Family Photo Classics

Because, sometimes, life is like a grumpy three-year-old.

And that deserves to be remembered, too.

Happy New Year, everyone. :)

Highlight Reel

Since my blog-record keeping has been so...less than inspiring lately, I thought I'd throw in a long list of photos from the past six months to make myself feel better. And so, folks, here you have it: the highlights (at least some of them) in no particular order from our spring, summer and fall.

"Grace Conquers the Dentist"

Just a few weeks after her third birthday, we took Grace to the dentist for the first time. I have (undeservedly, since I eat candy like a fiend...) really good teeth that rarely have any problems. Spencer's teeth...don't have quite the same track record. I was interested to see where Grace's teeth would land. Luckily, she seems to be taking after me!

She was awesome. She loved the whole thing. The hygienist was thoroughly impressed and kept saying they'd never had a better patient---adult or child. Since Spencer and I had both had our teeth cleaned only minutes before, I suppose that does not say much about OUR patient skills. Alas.

"More Zoo trips than the average Family"

We go to the zoo a lot. And I really mean a lot. Never has a zoo membership been more thoroughly enjoyed. We just love it. We feel like we have a personal relationship with most of the animals. And the manatees! Oh, how I love manatees. It doesn't hurt that Columbus has one of the best zoos in the nation. And that it's only 20-25 minutes from our house.

"Our Brief Stint as Cyclists"

We bought semi-nice bikes at the police auction in April. They cost us hardly anything, but brought us a lot of joy. Until they were stolen. Less than a month after our car had been broken into. But let's focus on the good things about Columbus. Remember the zoo, everyone? Sigh...

"Whirlwind Chicago Trip"

Spencer's mom came to stay with us for two weeks during July, which we loved. Just before coming our way, she'd been visiting with Spencer's sister and family in Wisconsin. To make the trade-off more fun, we met in Chicago and spent the day. Yes, that does mean that we drove a round trip total of 12 hours in less than 24 hours, but it was still worth it.

This was, by far, my favorite part of the day. On a stroll through Grant Park, we turned the corner and immediately ran into this little scene: dozens of people (old, young, fancily dressed, clad in sweats...) dipping their bare feet into water. Apparently, hot, sweaty feet afflict us all. They are the great equalizer. People who generally wouldn't sit within feet of each other on a bus were waiting in lines to exchange foot sweat at very close proximity. It was awesome.

Hooray for Chicago!

"Spencer Conquers the Air"

I bought Spencer a flight lesson through Groupon for Christmas last year. He finally used it this summer and a new obsession has been born! He would probably do a better job at writing about this, but Grace and I sure enjoyed watching him fly around in the sky. I'm sure there will be much more of that in our future... :)

"Spencer and Anna Conquer Cedar Point"

Wow. That's all I can say about Cedar Point. I didn't know that roller coasters could be so enjoyable. At one point, we were in line next to a man who spends his days travelling from amusement park to amusement park. An...interesting life-style, to say the least, but long lines easily lend to attentive listening. He went on and on about all the amusement parks he'd been to and kept declaring Cedar Point one of the best. Apparently, among the coaster obsessed, Cedar Point is a big deal. :)

We had a great time, and the day was only made sweeter by the fact that Spencer's ticket was free and mine was more than half off. You gotta love student discounts. And really generous incentives for giving blood.

"Rose Festival"

We didn't make it to half as many summer festivals as we should have this year, but at least we got this one in with the Warnicks. Missing the Duct Tape Festival near Cleveland was an especially big disappointment, but hopefully we'll have our priorities straightened out for next year...

"Deek Creek Follies"

We always look forward to a few good trips here with the Warnicks. Especially for the brats. Bryan barbecues a mean brat. That sounds decidedly terrible. I hope you all know that by brat I mean a fancy hot dog.

"Strawberry Picking"

Guess who bought a bunch of canning jars at a yard sale, promising herself she'd at least make freezer jam, but has not? Me. Oh there is no end to my lack of motivation while pregnant...

"Anna and Ellie Conquer a 5k"

When it comes right down to it, 5ks are much better than half-marathons. Which, themselves, are much better than marathons. You can look this happy after it and you still get a cool t-shirt and free yogurt. :) Having done all three multiple times, I definitely vote for the preeminence of the 5k.

"Spencer Conquers the Physics Department"

Here is Spencer standing next to his award-winning ($250 to Barnes and Noble, thank you very much) research poster. Grace and I couldn't be prouder. And they always have such nice meals/snacks at these things... :)

"The Graces Conquer Finger Painting"

A couple of afternoons a week, Grace and I get to hang out with another little three-year-old Grace. It's been awesome. In this particular photo, they've just finished finger painting but I hadn't gotten to the re-clothing part. They started reading stories to each other (and singing songs about "two naked Graces...") and I just couldn't resist the photo.

"Trip to Ithaca"

Back in May, we took one last trip to Ithaca to visit Sam, Emily and Alex and meet little Edison for the first time. It was a lovely trip. If only they hadn't moved 16 hours away...

Such an incomplete conglomeration of our past six months, but...a finished post nonetheless. Until next time!

Pink Cupcakes

From the moment we told Grace we were going to have a baby, she was adamant that it was going to be a girl. The mere mention of the possibility of a boy baby brought immediate angry outbursts and expressions of disgust.

At first, we found this fairly amusing. And, no doubt, typical. Grace is a girl, mom is a girl, it only makes sense that any baby that comes out of mom should also be a girl. Heck, I felt a little that way myself. The thought of having a little boy inside of me seemed a bit weird. Like being invaded by a foreign power. :)

But...as the date to discover the gender neared, Spencer and I realized that something had to be done. Grace was coming to the ultrasound with us, and neither of us wanted to deal with the inevitable mess that would follow should that little baby have boy parts. After stewing over it for a little while, and consulting with some friends, we came up with the following solution...

See, as of late, Grace has been obsessed with two things: pink cupcakes and pink kitties. I have no idea where the pink kitties thing came from. I've never seen one. But they're a very real entity to Grace. In fact, on any given day, Grace will proclaim that the only things she likes in the whole world are pink cupcakes and pink kitties. Yeah, just try and feed THAT kid lunch...

Anyway, we decided to present the following options to Grace: if the baby is a girl, we'll go get ice cream as a family to celebrate. However, if the baby is boy (immediate grimace on her part), we'll go to a bakery and buy some...drum roll, please...PINK CUPCAKES!

It worked like a charm.

From that moment on, Grace was quick to mention that she was "okay" with the baby being a boy. When that magical ultrasound occurred, and the gender was announced, Grace was THRILLED. She's never turned back.

The power of those pink cupcakes astounds me. My child is waaaayyy too motivated by treats.

"If you move into a bigger place, they will come..."

This summer, Spencer, Grace and I took a crash course in hospitality and hotel management. I don't know for sure if we passed the course, but I think I can say that we didn't...fail?

Starting in mid-June and ending with the month of August, we hosted five different sets of family/friend variations. Some booked us for only a night, and some chose a more extended stay. We accept all kinds. Oh Ohio, the crossroads of the Midwest. :)

We only got our first visitors for a night and a few hours the next day, but we made the most of our time. Jennie and Grant Sleight and their 2 cute little boys stopped by on their way back to Colorado from a whirlwind trip to DC. We made homemade rolls together (since I'm supposed to be mastering them this year...ha) and talked and talked. I swear I took pictures of the finished product, but they seem to have disappeared. Sorry, Jennie. We ate them all and I promise they looked good. Since there is no evidence to prove otherwise, I think I can safely say that they were the best looking rolls EVER. :) At least...they beat my last lumpy, little, rock-like attempts.

Our next visitors stayed for a bit longer, but unfortunately, we slacked on taking pictures. Spencer's sister Esther and her family stayed with us for a few days over the fourth of July. It was fantastic and got us out doing fun things we'd usually put off or just not do. And THAT, folks, is the beauty of having lots of visitors. :) We were sooo happy to host Esther and her family. Grace got her fill of older boy cousins, which are most definitely her favorite kind of cousin. Spencer got his fill of lighting off illegal fireworks... Oh Spencer.

Next came a visit from Spencer's mom, my lovely mother-in-law. She visited for the longest time--a little over two weeks--and it really couldn't have gone better. I've never had to do the dishes so little in my life. :) It was wonderful. She can come back whenever and however often she wants.

And Grace. Oh Grace. Grace loved having Grandma here. Non-stop visits to the park, treats, and unlimited adult attention. Does it get any better for a three year old? Not to mention Grandma came to us fresh off a year spent in China. All I can say is that Grace had the coolest singing, Chinese birthday candle ever.

Amazingly, Gwen actually served her LDS mission some 40-plus years ago in our very own Columbus, OH. She spent time working in two areas within our stake boundaries, one of which we had recently lived in. It was pretty great. We went on several adventures together exploring places she remembered and were even able to reconnect with a really great bishop that she'd worked with. It was her first time back. :)

Slate Run Living Historical Farm. Loved it. But could've done without the near eye witnessing of a chicken beheading. That's just not something I want Grace to experience yet...

Ohio State Fair. Grace's first carousel, ferris wheel, and gigantic slide ride. All were very successful, but required a lot of pre-ride encouragement.

Our next visitors were really short-lived, but we enjoyed them all the same. Spencer's oldest brother Daniel and his family stayed with us for a night on their trek home from Quebec to Utah. We had just enough time to stay up late the night they got here, have breakfast together, and go check out a local Indian burial mound. Not too shabby for a visit of less than twelve hours. Oh, and again with the older boy cousins. Grace was in heaven.

Our last visitors had their stay extended a few days by Hurricane Irene. See? There are always good things that come from the bad. Camilla and her sweet, little boy returned to Columbus to stay with us and we couldn't have been happier. They moved from Columbus to the DC area (one of the reasons for our DC visit last fall...) last summer and we had missed them terribly. I can't remember the last time I stayed up so ridiculously late so many nights in a row. But it was so worth it.

See? We've been busy. I'm sure you all knew I had a completely reasonable excuse for falling off the face of the blogging world...

Minimalism

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that there is almost nothing I like as much as I like de-junking. There, I said it. I get more of a high out of getting rid of things than acquiring them. And, believe me, I do like acquiring things so that's saying a lot.

But there's just something about being able to look at an object and say, "I don't need you anymore." There's just something about the feeling of having control over your possessions, rather than them controlling you. It's empowering. And wonderful. And, let's be honest, something that frequent moves make utterly and completely imperative.

This post was born as I sorted through my and my family's material life just this past month. We completed our fifth move since Grace was born (she's three...) and our seventh since we've been married. While this number may seem trivial to many, it's a lot to a girl who spent the first eighteen years of her life in the same house. The biggest change I went through was the periodic rearrangement of furniture that came from pure and unadulterated summer boredom.

But, back to the task at hand. Each time we move, I try to get rid of clothes. And, each time we move, I plead with Spencer to do the same---fruitlessly. See, while I pride myself on being fairly non-sentimental, Spencer is as sentimental as they come. While my church/girl scout/choir/cross country/yearbook t-shirts from high school have been living it up in various thrift stores throughout the country for years, Spencer's football/wrestling/soccer/choir/scout day camp/mission/family reunion/you-get-the-picture shirts are still sitting pretty in our dresser drawers.

Knowing these mean a lot to him, I always try to gently broach the subject come move time. "Spencer, I don't think I've ever seen you wear this shirt. Do you think we might...?" or "Spencer, I think this shirt would benefit kids on the west side so much. Maybe we could...?" Each time, perhaps one or two shirts have been deported. But I get it. He doesn't have to be like me. My way is not necessarily the best, it's just my way. But hope springs eternal...

I've discussed this issue various times with friends and they always suggest I make a t-shirt quilt. Which...is a fabulous idea, of course. If I was the quilting type. Or the crafty type at all. But I'm not. And the idea of cutting up Spencer's t-shirts and patching them together piece by piece literally makes me want to throw-up. So...that's just not going to happen.

But then, miracle of miracles, this past move something entirely new occurred. I caught Spencer during a magical moment of pure and utter material apathy. It was glorious to behold.

"What about this shirt?" says Anna.

"Toss it," says Spencer.

"And this one?" Anna inserts timidly, not daring to test her luck too much.

"It can go," comes the reply.

"Surely you want to keep this one?" says Anna, beginning to feel a little worried but so happy she can hardly contain it.

"Nope."

This, folks, is how I know that Spencer loves me. While that apathetic moment was as rare as it was magical, Spencer has not gone searching for his shirts at Goodwill or griped about me taking advantage of him during a weak moment. He has taken my minimalist/let's-keep-our lives-completely-encapsulated-in-clear, plastic-containers-obsession and met me halfway. He has given me a good portion of his old t-shirts. What more could a crazy, control freak ask for?

"Livin' on a Prayer"

Now, those of you who really know us, know that we aren't big concert goers. I've only ever been to one (Jack Johnson) and Spencer's track record is about the same as mine.

But...if there's one thing we are into, it's radio contests. And free stuff. We lap that right up. And for some reason, Spencer and I seem to have the magical touch. One Christmas, we won tickets to two different performances, and Spencer won every single one of my Christmas presents. :) Amazing, I tell you. Last summer, we won tickets to the Ohio State Fair. Just a few nights ago, Spencer was this close to winning American Idol tickets. Honestly, it's radio contests that keep me from just listening to NPR all the time.

So, a few months ago, when I heard a radio announcer shout out a number to call for "tickets," I automatically hopped on board. I didn't really know what was up for grabs, but gosh darn it, I wanted it. :) Much to my surprise, I was whichever caller they were looking for and a highly enthusiastic radio announcer informed me I was on my way to see Bon Jovi at Nationwide Arena. With this said, he practically gushed about how fantastic Bon Jovi was in concert, and asked me if I was a fan.

Caught red-handed.

I quickly racked my brain for any Bon Jovi songs I knew. "It's My Life" and "Livin' On a Prayer" were all I could muster. Since I didn't dislike those songs per say, I said (in a high pitched squeak), "Yeah...?" It was rather unconvincing, but he gave me the tickets anyway.

Luckily, Spencer was much more excited than I was, so my guilt at stealing the tickets from some Bon Jovi aficionado who had probably stayed up half the night prepping his dialing finger was assuaged. But...that didn't keep me from looking up basic facts about him just before the concert so that I could toss them around if anyone wanted me to prove anything. :)

And...I was duly impressed. Bon Jovi is really good in concert, for anyone who's on the fence about going. And I knew quite a few more songs than I thought. Spencer could hardly contain himself upon seeing all the gadgets the band used for the show (fancy screens, etc.), and kept on exclaiming things like, "Whoever engineered those things is a genius!" and "Whoa, he's using them as steps now?!" or "Do you have any idea how much those probably cost?!" Fancy technology is always the way to Spencer's heart.

Dinner at the North Market before the show

We didn't get the memo that rock stars apparently start their concerts

whenever they're good and ready. We had a lot of time to chill in our seats.

Our View:

All in all, we had a great night. We danced (badly), we sang (off-key), and we fit in perfectly with everyone else who was doing the exact same thing. Could we now be called Bon Jovi fans? I don't know for sure, but I will say this: when "Wanted, Dead or Alive" came on the radio the other day, I didn't change it. :)