4th Annual Wreath Decorating Contest!

The 4th annual family wreath decorating contest is here! (applause and cheering)

Below are the two entries for 2009.

The rules are simple, just vote for your favorite! Voting can happen two ways. You can record your vote in the poll to the right----->, or if you are in a household with more than one voter (roommates, spouse, kids, neighbors, chimpanzees) you can email the votes to artsyaut@gmail.com.

Presenting....

Ornamental Christmas

note from the creator: Each of the 200 hours of decorating work that I put into this masterpiece was a pure joy. I only wish that you could see it's magnificence with your own eyes.

Presenting....

Initial Christmas

note from the creator: This "H" is symbol of our family. Each person and memory in our life enriches the beauty just as each berry, that has been meticulously glued on, enriches the beauty of the "H" and the wreath.

Voting is open until midnight on new years eve. I will post the winner as well as a recap of years past on New Years Day.

May the best wreath win!

Christmas Runners and a visit with The Big Guy

The finished Christmas runners are finished and in the mail! They took me forever, so Im glad I only made a few. This was my first attempt with binding, so dont look to close.

We went to visit Santa at his "workshop" by the White House Christmas Tree. Its a really good little set up they have there. A nice Santa and really nice elves. They even take your picture and print out a 5x7 free right there on the spot!

Avery asked for a dragon castle.

Baker just asks that someone, anyone tuck his ear in before next years picture with Santa.

A Christmas Purse

Its finally that time of year when its OK to carry a Christmas purse. I just finished this baby and I am pretty happy with how it turned out. I followed the Moda Bake Shop tutorial {found here} with a few changes. Some intentional, some happy surprises. Lets just say I learned a lot.

I used a combo of Michael Miller Funky Christmas and random Christmas fabrics from Joann that I had in my stash.

One side is red...

The other is green...

I am absolutely in love with the polka dot lining...

And plenty of pockets on the sides, the perfect place to stash binkis, cars, pretzels, sharks, mints, and Star Wars guys.

Now I need to Christmas-ify the rest of my house! Cant wait.

Give Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving!

The bird is in the brine, the frog eye is first on the morning agenda, and I cant wait for my friends to get here tomorrow and let the feasting begin!

I have so much to be thankful for, my babies, my husband, my family, my friends, my job, my Boden cheetah print peep toes. The list is a mile long. I am so very very blessed.

My Boys

A Banner Birthday

We have had a bunch of house guests recently. Living so far from family means whenever someone comes to visit us, we absolutely love it. Among our recent guests was Brads Bro and his wife (check out her blog here, she has great recipes!) We had such a fun time eating out, sight seeing, chatting, and of course shopping at Sephora. Seriously we were in there forever, and could have stayed longer. Love that place.

Anywho, my wonderful sister-in-law made me a super cute "autumn" banner for my birthday. I love it! It appropriately hangs above my desk and sewing machine.

It has leopard print AND glitter AND sequins. She knows me well.

Thanks Ade! I totally love it!

My sweet Baker boy

Almost four months old and he is just as sweet as he looks!

The Birthday Boy

He is three!

We took a birthday trip out to Frying Pan Park. Luckily we saw our friends in the elevator and they spontaneously decided to join us! More on the park later...

So excited for presents! (Yes, its Christmas wrapping paper. Trust me, he didnt care!)

The best present of all, "Star Wars Toys!!" He LOVES all things Star Wars these days (even though he has never actually seen the movies. Just bits here and there on You Tube). I swear he lives and breathes Star Wars 24-7. I have a feeling this is not just a phase...
Some facts about the birthday boy:

• He is way tech savy. Can work my iPhone, the laptop, and You Tube with ease
• He can identify most military aircraft (B-2 bomber, A-10, F-15,18,16,22,117, and so many more!)
• His vocabulary is out of this world, seriously. I mean what 3 year old knows what a vegetarian is?
• He loves his little brother "Bakey"
• Starts many conversations like "Mom, lets talk about _____". Usually the topics are Phantom of the Opera, Star Wars, or Dinosaurs.
• Knows 4 knock-knock jokes, and cracks himself up!

It was a good birthday for a very smart and super sweet not-so-little boy.

A Perfect Run

I had a great run today after work, I went about 4 miles. The weather was perfect and you can't beat the view. I snapped a few photos on my way while listening to Pandora, gotta love Pandora. Check out the highlights:

The Capitol

The Washington Monument (or the Washington Mommy-it, as Avery says)

WWII Memorial (or the Morial according to Avery)

Mr. Lincoln Memorial

I finished up at Arlington Cemetery, but forgot to snap a photo.

I love where I live!

Oh and congrats to me! This is my 100th post!

The perfect fall cookie

Super soft and totally delicious:

Ginger Molasses Cookies

This is one of my all time favorite cookies. I remember one year in the late 80's when these babies won the blue ribbon at the Yavapai County Fair. My mom entered these, some other food thing I cant remember, and a dress she had made for me. I loved that dress! I can still see it hanging there on the wall of the fair display. Well my mom won blue ribbon in all categories she entered and so she got the super big rosette ribbon! I think I entered my barbie collection that year. Do kids still enter collections in the fair? I hope so.

Make these cookies soon, they are the perfect fall desert!

3/4 C oil

1 C sugar, plus more for rolling

1 egg

4 T molasses

Mix first four ingredients then add:

2 C flour

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t ginger

Stir together until combined. The dough may look too dry, but keep stirring and it will all turn out nicely.

Roll into tablespoon size balls, then roll the balls in sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 9 minutes. Dont over bake or they get hard!

This recipe doubles nicely!

The Spooks Swoop and Swirl with the Phantom

We love three things at this house...

1- Spinning,

2- Phantom of the Opera, and

3- Spinning while listening to Phantom of the Opera.

We hold any number of things while spinning, it can be toy jets, pens, dinosaurs, or pieces of paper.

Avery found these sheets of paper and started to spin, he realized they looked like ghosts so we drew ghosts on them. He loved it!

He started off slow,

But soon gained speed!

The Phantom was really belting it out!

He spun with equal enthusiasm!

A final pose for the grand finale!

A note on Phantom of the Opera: I dont know WHY he loves it so much, but he LOVES it! It is on repeat from 7 am till bed. I try to limit the number of times it gets played in a day (it is forever stuck in my head now) but he knows how to launch iTunes and tries to play it himself if I dont do it for him.

Today during the song "Prima Donna" he said, "Mom who is the Prim Obama?" It took me a few minutes to figure out what he was talking about.

I guess for now we will just listen on repeat and spin till his little heart's content.

Photographer Avery

Avery knows his way around my phone almost as good as I do. His latest skill is taking pictures with the camera on it. He takes candid shots of me all day without me knowing. Let me tell you there have been some pretty unflattering photos, but dont worry they wont be posted. But I love it when I turn on my phone and discover pictures he has taken that I had no idea about. Its so fun to see things from his perspective. Here are a few samples of his work from the other night. He was wedged in between the couch and the ottoman in "good place for boys to sit" (his words not mine). The white thing on the ground is his "togi" aka his favorite blanket.

An outing

The weather is finally bearable! So I packed up the boys, hoped on the metro and headed to some of my favorite DC spots.

The Navy Memorial

Avery had never been here and he loved the water falls. There are also some really awesome relief sculptures. We spent a good deal of time at each one, there are like 20! I had to bribe him with raisins to get him to follow me to our actual destination.

At the Navy Memorial fountains.

The Sculpture Garden of the National Gallery of Art

The perfect place to go to dip your toes! I love the sculpture garden. There is always a seat in the shade and the marble is always cool even when its hot out.

Enjoying some of the art.

A favorite sculpture. It is a miracle I got him away from here without climbing to the top! He really wanted to!

Me and Baker chillin in the shade while Avery splashed in the fountain.

Check out the Sculpture Garden next time you are looking for a fast low key outing where it wont really matter if one or more children have a total melt down. Those are pretty much my criteria for anywhere I go these days.

How I spent my Saturday night...

Section 304, row D, seat 32, at the Kenny Chesney concert!

It was a GREAT concert! Kenny totally rocked it, more on that later. First up, Lady Antebellum.

Im going to be honest with you here, I didnt love them. I was excited to see them. I really like all their songs I had heard on the radio but in person Im not really a fan! Im bummed! I think it has something to do with one of the main guys. The guy in the picture below with the black T shirt (BTW it looks like a babydoll T). There was just something about him that totally bugs me. The girl sounded really good, I would like to have more of her and less of him.

Up next, Miranda Lambert! I have always admired her open redneckness. She is loud and proud redneck girl. She was really good! Plus she has a hot pink guitar, doesnt get much better. She sounded great too.

I would like to point out a really random, out of place individual. Please look closely at the photo below. In the center there is a guitar player with a spiked up MOHAWK! I dont get it. Does he know he is in a COUNTRY band? Country bands dont have mohawks. Mullets? Yes. Rat tails? Quite possibly. Mohawks? No. But I guess more power to him. He was rocking out and having fun, mohawk and all.

And finally, my man Kenny. First off I want to say he is so predictable. Kristen and I totally called exactly what he would be wearing. Why do people cut sleeves off T-shirts? I will save that conversation for another day. We dont have time right now. Anyway, he was REALLY great! The man can sing! He played for over 2 hours and it was a party the whole time.

My favorite picture of the night! He had really cool screens set up and great lights. I love Kenny even more now then before! In fact, Im thinking of incorporating a "Kenny Quote of the Day" feature on my blog. Any thoughts on that?

Thanks to Krissy, my BFF and the best person to go to a country concert with!

And thanks to Brad for staying home with two little monsters!

No fair!

Check out the eyelashes on this one! Seriously his lower lashes are longer than my top ones even when Im wearing mascara! Why do the boys always get the great lashes?

Its just not fair!

Baker

This baby.

This baby finally smiled! He was holding out. I was starting to wonder about him.

This baby is sweet and cuddly. Just look at that face! He loves his Mama, which is good because Im kinda attached to him too.

And he has great hair!