Now Hear This : Fallon & Timberlake rap

Since Conan got hosed earlier this year and I refuse to watch Leno, my late night show of choice is Jimmy Fallon.  I've loved him even before his days of not being able to keep a straight face sitting next to Tina Fey on Weekend Update.

He rocked it recently at the Emmys .... that opening musical number was one of the best things on TV this year (helped by lots of awesome cameos and some of the stars of Glee). But this video that was on Late Night last night combines three of my very favorite things (Fallon, JT, and white guys awkwardly dancing to rap music) to make an excellent way to spend 5 minutes of your time. Jimmy dancing to Soulja Boy has me cracking up every time!

More Mug Rugs and a collection

I am the type of sewist that always has tons of projects going at once.  Usually this works well for me but this weekend I really was in need of a "finish".  Just to be able to actually cross something off the never ending list of things to do and feel a little sense of accomplishment.  What is the easiest little thing to sew up super quick and get it done fast?  Definitely a Mug Rug!

(If you're going Mug-what?! I previously posted about Mug Rugs here and here)

I love these two made from some green and white Amy Butler scraps with some grey Kona.  I freehand quilted them in a grid -- um, do we call it "organically" to make it sound hipper? -- and I do like the way they turned out.  Hope the recipients like them as well!  Just need to bind them.

Two more -- a scrappy red, aqua and linen one with some diagonal quilting and also a pretty pastel-y one where I used some of my coveted Dream On charms!  I had already broken into one of my charm packs for a different project so I thought why stop now!  Someone I know surely needs a Dream On Mug Rug!  It looks so pretty with the linen, too.

I've got the binding all ready to go for these 4 and a few other Mug Rugs in the works as well.  I am in the Scrappy Mug Rug swap group on Flickr and it's getting close to the date to send a little handmade Mug Rug
off into the world to my secret swap partner.  I can't wait to see what Mug Rug I get in return.  It's so hard in these swaps because they always ask you to state your preferences and what you'd like to receive .... I seriously am loving SO many of the Mug Rugs that have been posted in the group already .... I have such varying tastes that I know I'll love whatever it is I receive.

The swap can't come at a better time, too, since I'm desperately in need of a Mug Rug for every surface in my house -- it's been so hot here lately with our Indian Summer that I'm drinking water like crazy and my favorite tumblers from Target sweat little beady drops of condensation all over my pretty roll top desk and sewing machine table!

A trip to the Great Salt Lake

Saturday after Mason's soccer game we wanted to go on a little drive to let Grahm sleep in the car for a few minutes and somehow we ended up at the Great Salt Lake.  Seeing as we live pretty close to it you'd think that we'd drive past it or near it more often ... but we really don't.  It's kind of in an out of the way area that you only drive by if you're heading that way ... and I really never have had the need to drive to Tooele or take the loooonng way to California.




Mason didn't know what to think - if we were at the beach or some weird lake that had a huuugeee shoreline ... but he loved it. The ground is really cool there - since the lake has a much higher salt concentration than the ocean the sand is really sparkly and crusty with salt. It's like a giant salt lick!





We parked and decided to walk out to the water with no plans in mind .... we didn't have towels, different clothes, anything. At least I was smart enough to make Mason take his soccer shoes and socks off before we got too far out ... because before we knew it the rock hard concrete like salty sand turned into squishy soft quicksand. It was soooo cool because you'd sink up to your knees in about 10 seconds if you didn't keep moving.




The water was really shallow so you could keep walking and walking out without it getting more than ankle or knee deep. Mason declared this his own personal little island!




Grahm had been in the stroller up until it got too muddy for that, and then Marc had been carrying him. Finally I just decided "whatever!" and we let him down into the sand. There wasn't one part of sand that was dry so it was a conscious decision to let him get really sandy and muddy and that we'd just have to deal with it -- actually Marc would have to deal with it since he would be carrying G back to the car.




Of course he LOVED it.  He did take one bite of it and decided that wasn't a great idea so at least we got the sand eating out of the way quickly and it was short lived.

This is one of my favorite pictures ... and reminds me of why I love so much to have all boys in my little family.  Dirty, smelly, mud-slinging boys!  All three of them happily digging away in the mud without caring about getting dirty or sandy or smelly or salty.  And they were all definitely getting dirty!





Mason and Grahm loved it.  Mason kept asking why we had never been here before and if it was a new lake.  We tried to explain to him how it used to be a part of Lake Bonneville and actually was one of the oldest lakes in the world.  We told him that it was so salty that you could float in it really easily and of course he wanted to try that ... but didn't want to get his soccer shirt too wet, so he decided against it.





Once it was time to go back to the car we were all soaking wet and sandy and salty and crusty and a little sunburnt ... but none of us really cared.  We squirted off as best as we could with the rest of the soccer water bottle and stripped the kids down to their underwear until we could get home.  Luckily it only took about 20 minutes to get home - taking the back way where there was no traffic!  It was so fun.





We will definitely be back!  There were people out there with picnic blankets and food and Frisbees and bikes and dogs.  Even though we weren't very prepared we were able to have a fun spur-of-the-moment time and it helped me realize that we didn't need to have everything perfectly planned out all the time!

Day of Mornings - through the crib rails

Every once in awhile my best friend and I do a joint blog project where we both take, edit, and upload a picture within one hour of waking up. We have the rule that we don't use our iPhone cameras, and that neither of us look at the others pictures until our own is uploaded. Sometimes we do it for one day, sometimes every day for a week, and even once we did it every day for a month.

Today we did a Day of Mornings ... Grahm is such a sweet boy in the mornings - after we take Mason to preschool and it's just him and I he will happily play in his crib while I make the beds and clean up the upstairs without having to worry about him destroying it all again behind me. He just sits and talks to his blankets and toys and occasionally stands up to check out where I am. And then we can get dressed and go on with our day!

See Darci's Day of Mornings post here today - hands and feet!

And a cute mosaic of some of our previous morning pictures .... some of our best pictures have come from this fun exercise. We've been doing it for almost 2 years now! You can also see all of the pictures in one place in our Flickr group: Mornings Between Friends.

Just a few cute pictures

On Saturday I had the chance to go to a photography workshop by Emilie of Photos by Emilie.  I think I take OK pictures but I have to admit I get lost in all the math and numbers and mumbo-jumbo about light and focal points and aperture.  I don't want to have to THINK when I get great pictures of my kids.  And really - who has time to sit and adjust settings when you're just trying to snap away and know that the pictures you're getting are going to be great?

So the next morning I took my boys out and got some great pictures of them .... and some of the stuff that Emilie taught me actually did STICK in my brain!  She has great little tips and tricks to help you remember the stuff that you do want to adjust, and it works. Here are two of my favorites: (helps that the subjects are pretty cute themselves!)

I'll write more about Emilies photo workshops in a different blog post - but I was just so excited to share these two.  AND I'm proud to say both of these pictures were taken on fully manual settings that I set ... not auto on these guys!

Also - I took these pictures in Butterfield canyon Sunday morning -- just a few hours before the crazy fire set the whole Herriman area ablaze!  This was the view from our upstairs window Sunday afternoon, and then again Sunday evening.  We were far enough away to not be in the danger of the fire - but the smoke was so thick outside we couldn't see our neighbors house across the street!  All Sunday night we had to have the ceiling fans on high and the exhausts on the stove and in the bathrooms going.  We had many friends that had to evacuate and my mom is friends with one of the few people that lost their home to the fire.  So sad! I'm glad that they're getting it under control finally.

A decade of memories

Ten years ago we got married on the side of a mountain.

Together we've done great big things: (hike 17 miles to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite)

We've done really fun things: (have Angels season tickets and get to play baseball on the field at Angel stadium)

We've been on lots of good vacations: (Hawaii in 2003, 2007 & 2009, plus all up and down California lots of times - from Eureka to San Diego, Utah, Arizona, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado and Las Vegas)

We've celebrated graduations:  (Marc's BS, MS, and almost Phd)

And had fun pets:

  

We've added a couple of knuckle heads to the family:

Who now are pretty great friends:

We've moved 5 times and really like where we are for now:

We've had season passes to Disneyland and eaten at the exclusive Club 33:

But we've also had fun enjoying the little things:

We've celebrated 25 birthdays between the 4 of us:

and shared millions of hugs:

Done hundreds of miles in cars on road trips:  (this last picture of Marc is him waiting on the side of the road in the middle of the desert when we ran out of gas -- I told him that day I'd never let him live that down and this is me doing exactly that ;]  )






    
    

I've gotten flowers almost every single Friday all 10 years:

and awesome presents:

We've made it through crazy hair phases:

And crazy pregnancy cravings:

We've apparently slept A LOT.

And eaten some really good food:

Ten years ago I married my best friend on the side of a mountain and even after all that we're still the same crazy kids we always were.  Love you, Marc!






   
   

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If that post wasn't long enough for you -- two years ago on our 8th anniversary I wrote a bunch of fun memories about our wedding here. And if you want to be reminded of what an awesome husband I have you can read a birthday post about him here.








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p.s. I've had my Flickr account since 2005 and with over 4,200 pictures in it can I just say what a beast this post was to write?  I could have included a hundred more pictures!

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ETA: I debated on adding this from the get-go, but after already getting a snarky comment let me say:  Lest you think it's all been rainbows and butterflies: we've also lost jobs, gotten fired from jobs, broken bones, had our apartment catch fire needing the fire department called, had our car stolen -- twice, had fights, been to funerals, have had to have both of our beloved dogs put to sleep, been in a car accident that totaled our car and required Marc to be taken to the hospital in a neck brace in an ambulance, had our camera stolen with all our Hawaii pictures on it, been locked out of our car in Las Vegas, been dirt poor and have had 2 major surgeries.  But we survived. :]  And I just decided to focus on the happy things for this post!