B's graduation

We took a quick trip to Decorah on Sunday to see my sister Bethany graduate from Luther College. It's always great to be back on campus, and it was wonderful to spend the day with family. I made this digital scrapbooking layout to document some of the fun photos. Papers & template by Robyn Meierotto.

Kenley at 11 months

Eleven months old! These past couple weeks have brought a change in your looks. You are even taller and looking more like a toddler than a little baby. I notice your maturity in your new crooked smiles, your furrowed brow when you are studying someone or something, and the new ways you are playing. Right now you love to empty containers of their contents, and you love shaking and tapping the rhythm eggs. You enjoy bath time – especially when you get to share it with your big brother. Your love for Sadie and any other dogs continues - you squeal whenever she is around and keep a close eye on her whereabouts. Now that it is warming up, we’re having fun hanging out on a blanket in the grass together.


You are so flexible and can lean all the way forward and suck on your toes. You’re not crawling, but you are getting better at standing and holding on to something. Some days we can’t quite figure out whether you want to be held or left alone, because you want to be moving independently, but you get frustrated when you can’t get where you want to go. You think it is hilarious when people put funny things on top of their heads. I know your most ticklish spot, too, it’s on your back, right between your shoulder blades.

All four front teeth are in now, and we’re thankful for a break in the teething pain. Everyone is sleeping better at night. Most nights you stay in your crib all night long – 7:45 pm – 6:45 am – usually wake once to nurse in the night and then go back to sleep. You just started clapping and continue to sign “more”. I love the wide variety of sounds you make – sometimes it sounds like you are singing. You also know the word “dance” and bounce and wiggle along to the music.

We celebrated your brother’s third birthday this month. I think your favorite part of his party was getting a taste of ice cream. Yum! You had your first Easter with us in Des Moines and we also took a trip up to Mount Vernon for the “Chalk the Walk” festival. I can’t believe your first birthday is only a month away!

Pinterest love

So are you on Pinterest yet? I know, it's sweeping the blog world. And do we need another place on the internet to suck our time? However - I think it is so inspiring and useful, especially for us creative types. Plus, the man who started graduated from my high school in Des Moines! Cool! They also have a new iPhone app that is excellent. If you're still on the fence - check out some of my favorite boards to follow:

memory keeping by Ali Edwards

I Once Imagined Myself... by Elizabeth

photography to inspire by Lisa Leonard

...keepin' it organized by Julie Beach

ABC Love by Erin Carney

Favorite Places and Spaces by 2 Wheatens

remember by Codi

rainy day to do's by Robyn Ricks Todorovic

color palettes by Robyn Meierotto

Hmm, well I could go on and on. and on! But that's enough to keep you busy for now.

Click here to follow me:

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful Mother's Day. We met my in-laws at church Sunday morning, then they came back to have breakfast at our house. I made Joy the Baker's cinnamon sugar pull-apart bread. It was delicious, and fun to make. I even made brown butter for the first time. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be and it smelled amazing! I also made this Brie and Bacon quiche. It was good, but I probably won't make that again. I like the idea of brie, but not so much the taste. ha!

Bill and Lachlan went out and picked out a balloon and a hanging plant for me. Meanwhile, Kenley napped and I got to make a scrapbook page. This is one of my favorite photos and layouts in a long time.


Later in the afternoon I went to Dick Blick (all by myself!) and spent a gift card. I picked out a new sketchbook and some supplies to start an art journal project.

We played outside on Lachlan's sidewalk chalk city, and went over to Bill's parents' for a pizza dinner.

I'm feeling too sleep-deprived (thanks, Kenley) to put together my thoughts about motherhood and what it all means. But I will say that I'm blessed to be a mother to two precious children and so lucky for the wonderful examples of mothers that I have learned from.

So many wonderful blog posts by and about mothers showed up in my reader this weekend. Here are a few of my favorites:

The Project Girl: My Very First Mother's Day

Memoirs of a Sick Addict: Happy Mother's Day

Soule Mama: On Mama's Day

Under the Sycamore: My Mother's Day gift

Dana Made It: Mother's Day

Red Bird Crafts: Mother (watch the video, it's so lovely)

Red Hot Monkeys: Sidney is one month old

Easter prep

Our Easter prep has been pretty low key around here, but we did dye a few hard-boiled eggs earlier this week. Lachlan enjoyed watching the eggs change color, and we even tested a little color theory by dipping one in yellow and blue to make green!
It was also a good excuse to use our little egg slicer before we ate them, which is one of L's favorite things.
Yesterday Lachlan insisted that we make more Easter eggs, this time with red dye (vinegar + warm water + food coloring). We used some of my extra sticker letters to decorate the eggs before we dipped them.
I stitched up a little label for Kenley's Easter basket, inspired by the one I made a couple years ago for Lachlan's basket.
Oh, and the Easter Candy Bark! We made it yesterday, then this morning I cut it up into smallish pieces. I have to admit that I hardly even want to eat it, because it looks like sugar overload. Hopefully I can unload it on my family tomorrow!

Wishing you all happy Easter celebrations!

a bunch of new layouts!

I was able to spend last Saturday scrapping away at the "Get Inspired" event in Des Moines (thanks to grandma and papa's excellent childcare). It was so fun to visit with the other ladies scrapping with me and I got more than a dozen pages done. Yay! These are some of my favorites:

Kenley at 10 months

Another fun month with you, Kenley! We took a trip to Decorah for Aunt Bethany’s photography exhibit and you were happy to be passed around and held by all the college girls. We also spent a weekend in Des Moines and you spent lots of time with grandma while I scrapbooked and Lachlan played with papa.

You are cracking us all up with the way you hold things between your feet and play with them. Carissa reports that you hold your bottle in your feet when you drink it. Grandma says you should be in the circus!

Still no progress in the crawling department, since you barely tolerate any time on your tummy. You’re always reaching and moving, so we know you think you have places to go – it won’t be long!

After weeks of bulging right under your gums, your first top tooth popped through today! Now you have 3 teeth and we expect the other top front tooth to make an appearance soon.

You still love all kinds of fruit and vegetable purees, but you have started to eat many other solid foods this month. You gobble up yogurt, pasta, Cheerios, peanut butter toast, and one day even a leftover piece of pizza! You are also starting to sign “more” whenever we’re not feeding you as quickly as you desire!

I’m enjoying watching you become more social. You inspect everyone seriously when you first encounter them, but then you are generous with smiles and snuggles. You’ve also been “singing” when we sing to you and during music class. It is so sweet.