anatomy of a sunday

here's me peeking into say happy weekend right in the middle of it!

we've had a wonderful one so far and it continues to be so. 

things like:

double date with our friends and all our kids,

festivities have already begun for my dad's wedding this next weekend,

a trip on Thomas the Train,

and Russ is taking (most) of the day off for Memorial Day which is unheard of, fist pump!

and of course Sunday which usually goes something like this:

FaceTime! with Charity (in NYC) for her birthday!

a little rough housing after a delicious dinner of masa corn lasagna and blondie/brownie cupcakes made by mom and Scott.

Avery always teaches Hayes new things - today it was how to roll down a grassy hill.

the boys love being with their cousins (and Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles)

they just light up around them.

sometime after dinner, my brother Collin hits the piano and plays something beautiful.

all the kids get quiet and settle into their toys of choice and we all just sort of marinate in the evening.

tonight's soundtrack "To Build a Home" by Cinematic Orchestra

we're so blessed to have the amazing families that we do! 

to the few that we've lost, i'd like to think they're smiling down on all the memories made and bonds strengthened. have a wonderful memorial monday!

i won't let go at any price

didn't we just have a dinner to say good bye to these two?

pretty sure.

will we use any and all reasons to get together until they board their planes?

absolutely.

Shelly (left) and Lindsay (right) are both headed to the coast (west and east) while their husbands complete internships for their MBA programs. we will miss them all dearly.

they make our lives more enjoyable, always up for a party, always looking out for us and our kids.

taking care of me and never judging when i'm off the "hot mess" scale and dipping into "frantic."

they're just really really great friends to have, and i'll miss them for the next couple months!

OMD's "if you leave" has been stuck in my head since yesterday night, and after you read the following:

i touch you once / i touch you twice / i won't let go at any price

with any luck it will be stuck in your head, too.

some of the wives

some of the husbands doing what husbands do best.

grilling and standing around.

there'd be a children pic but there aren't enough pixels in the world to capture every last one of them in focus. 


*update: i am wearing a shift dress (scored at the Flea/Soel swap) tucked into a thrifted skirt!*

pin real life / 14

memorial day is upon us and so those archaic time constraints are lifted.

truth be told i'll wear white jeans in the middle of winter, but just go with it...

i love these effortlessly cool looks.

prepaganda / jcrew via inside the loop / whipped style / the sartorialist / glamour / pinned

two of my very dearest friends are moving far far away from me for the rest of the Summer

and so my girlfriends and i threw them a Bon Voyage party!

we admittedly got carried away* with the theme, but it was all in good fun and we had an awesome night out.

channeling Diddy:

whites only dress code*

and a delicious seafood dinner at Market Street Grill 

(Cottonwood if you really want to feel like you've gone coastal)

in real life:

metallic top [H&M] white jeans [F21] arm candy and fellow hostesses [Nicole & Jenna (designed the invite!)]

all in a week's work

SUNDAY TO SUNDAY//

wrapped up a little vacay, ate a few maple bar donuts, and witnessed Hayes lose his mind out of boredom in the car. (he is my son.)

headed up to Bridal Veil Falls with 5 girlfriends. successfully opened and closed our double stroller without Russ which was a huge victory. got an excellent work-out pushing two kids up and down a mountain, wore the boys out real good & reminded myself that Utah is absolutely gorgeous. 

Hayes and Hazel. both Hayesie/Hazey. makes it easy to get them to smile for a pic.

watched UVU baseball with my family. willy the wolverine avoiding the heat under our contraband umbrella. my boys just loving their soon to be aunt addy and uncle jake. 

cuddliest Cally

continued our unofficial summer of a thousand parks tour and found a great little gem of a set-up.

i swear we've tried them all. Gus keeping his cheetos out of harms way, Cal gnawing on woodchips (whatever helps those toothies!) Hayes doing his usual foot dragging for speed control.

fed the ducks with Gigi, how lucky were we that a mama duck and her 15 ducklings put on a show?

watched another round of softball games.

discovered Cal's love of playing catch. 

Hayes and Wy-o.

the night we swore no more restaurants for Hayes. he cried his eyes out and then i handed him a tic-tac and it was like nothing ever happened. these toddler emotions are large - they contain multitudes. if he contradicts himself, very well then. 

pretty sure Walt Whitman wrote that poem for 2 year olds.

also dying over Cal's jump from army crawl straight to the vinyasa. not a bad downward dog, honeyman!

broke our vow and took him to restaurant the next day! now, at least we are consistently inconsistent - groaaannn.

we ended up outside within 20 minutes.

good thing he had his favorite cousins to keep him company.

sold a boat load of stuff at the Bijou/Soel swap, and came home with some really great goods. most importantly got to hang out with friends and meet new ones too, hi Gretchen, you sweet thing you!

 hap-hap-happy mail from my sister Charity!

hung it up straightaway with our other portraits by Ashmae & Lady Hue.

had a great day at church, had dinner with Mitch and our crew - all on the grill!

steak, chicken, asparagus and strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Mitch was stretching out post-dinner and Cal copied his every move.

he even put his arm up like Mitch but the iPhun missed it.

 seriously this was the most exhausting post to assemble. 

i hope you are equally exhausted reading it.

let this be a lesson to you if you ever wonder what moms do all day!

i know that i bring all of it upon myself, but ensuring that the boys and i get out in nature and trying new things every day is my priority numero uno. 

my house definitely doesn't sparkle, well one room a day does thanks to zone cleaning, but we play hard!

what i got that i love - mama edition

here another installment of what i got that i love, where i can share a few of my latest and greatest purchases, but this time for my mama self and for the boys.

OWEN & FRED wood backing: if you're an iPhone user, nothing will pull an impressive string of expeltives out of you like this sight:

  this particular incident happened when Cal grabbed my phone and threw it to the ground as hard as his weirdly strong arms would let him. it was literally unusable because of the shards of glass falling out of it around the clock. my sister Bethany showed me her walnut version and i was sold. i picked up the maple from Owen & Fred and love love love it!

the trick to this is that it isn't a cover, or skin, or a case, you physically remove the glass backing and replace it with a sturdier slab of wood. it's the same thickness, just a heckofalot more durable. they are certainly more expensive than a case, but i think it's worth every penny to not have to worry about paying $150+ to replace the glass. 

next, as a mother, if this sight is familar to you, then welcome to the elite club of mothers who's kids cart their stuffed animals EVER-Y-WHERE. i've already thrown out 2 Pooh Bears and then Hayes found the back up stash and started carrying two at a time. needless to say Pooh Bear is always filthy. we've scaled things back quite a bit, but they still need to be washed weekly.

 if you're a member of this club you also know that washing them in a standard load leaves them feeling a little stiff and they're never as soft as they once were. i reviewed Teddy Needs a Bath stuffed animal laundry bags a few months ago and i am the most sincere believer. i can put the whole crew in the bag, send them through the washer & dryer and they come out soft as they day they were brought home. i don't know how or why, they just do.

next, our favorite favorite Summer shoe: Native! they're a the same material as *cough* Crocs but in my opinion much cuter. i got mine at Sassy Mia (under construction, i'll let you know when it's up!) but you can get them right now at Zappos.

they're perfect for Summer because they are light weight and float, so you can wear them to  the pool, the lake, a rocky stream, a mud puddle and just rinse them right off. they are breathable and don't smell like dirty little boy shoes, bonus!

this is our second Summer loving Natives - see last years here & here.

 and finally:

tomorrow is the SWAP! it really is the perfect place to get some new-to-you clothes, decor and duds for your kids. usually prices are between $3-$10 and at $10 you're getting like a JCrew Pea Coat - awesome. for those who have asked, if you want to sell, bring any unwanted clothes that are in good condition. basically something Plato's Closet would buy, or something you could sell on eBay or the like. we don't want crap, basically. 

but, if you don't want to sell, just come shop! you've seen some of my awesome swapped finds, so i know you know you don't want to miss it. be sure to say hello!

happy weekend!

isleta quilt DIY

here are the details of the bedding i showed you last week for our master bedroom re-do.

i created this quilt out of a love for Anthropologie's Isleta bedding which is beyond amazing,

but at $468 for the quilt and $148 per pillow sham, i figured i may as well give it a try myself.

we had a hand-me-down quilt and sham set that is just fine, but TAN! holy moses, so much tan in this world. so i just flipped it over to reveal a nice clean off-white quilt.

then i put it on our bed to start taping it off. since i was sort of flying by the seat, i wanted to be able to see how the pattern would actually look on the bed. it's not easy this way, in fact i was working up a sweat taping those middle parts, but sweat is good.

also helpful was drawing out my pattern on a piece of paper beforehand. i used different color markers to show the different colors i would use and it also helped keep my head in the game when i was painting too.

supplies : painter's tape, foam paint brush, scissors, acrylic paint & a ruler.

i was vaguely precise with taping. the triangles were mostly equilateral so i just ripped off three of the same size pieces to make those. 

the center middle triangles were, i suppose, isosceles but i failed geometry, so i eyeballed it.

the trickiest part of the taping were these stacked triangles. they needed to be connected so the tape coudn't be in the way. so i taped it as needed and cut out the parts i didn't need. it seemed to be easiest!

 after it was all taped off i dragged it into our entry room to paint it. i had serious anxiety during this whole process. taping off is such a crap shoot and i worried that it would look just awful once i peeled it off. 

 gratefully, it looked crisp and clean. i may have done the running man with a couple of fist pumps at this point. 

 as for the pillow shams, i had a hell of a time with them. i called every big box store and every home store in utah county looking for off-white pillow shams. standard! european! i don't care!

 most didn't have them, but macy's did at $40 a piece. 
siri, hang up on these fools.

anyway, the next step was the TJ Maxx-type stores, but finding two shams that matched went over as well as a pregnant pole vaulter. finally, Tuesday Morning pulled through with this aqua set $5.99 each!

while they don't match ... just go with it. 

i taped off some triangles to add some continunity.

 and then added the gold striping later, when i decided i still hated them.

 a couple other tips for any crazies looking to paint their own quilt. the acrylic paint dries hard, so keep that in mind - i tried to keep the paint away from the areas i would be laying my face, or arms.

 also after pulling the tape off i realized how skinny the lines ended up being. while it was taped it looked bold and the lines looked larger, but of course after removal they're quite a bit smaller. duh, yes. but, maybe a good tip would be to tape a little bigger than your gut instinct.

there you have it. besides the sham sham (ba doom boom ching.) i did this in a nap's time.