Finally- an update!

My window box of petunias.
This is on the window on my garage.

It has been three weeks since I've posted (holy cow...) and SO much has happened since that last ode to Mother's Day.  Let's see if I can get it all in here.

12th- we got a call from Aunt Joyce (our fabulous real estate agent) informing us that we were going to be able to close the following week. -For real this time.

My favorite room in the house.
I have so much space to cook!

13th- We got the keys to our new house and I was able to start cleaning and prepping for our moving day. Craig's mom came to help and brought a picnic lunch. It was easier getting things done with some help! After a looong day of cleaning, we went out to eat with grandpa and then went back to his house to continue with the packing and moving day prep. Oh, we also received a message that night that the truck we had reserved online was not going to be available. We were not happy. Craig fixed it.

Kitty obviously didn't want to move

14th- Sophie went to play with Aunt Erin and her cousins at about 8:15, Craig picked up the truck (from a different company) and the fun began. Some of our amazing friends showed up to help us load and go. Craig's brother Kirk, his dad, Alex, Neil and Katharine (thank you for keeping me sane!) came to help us load in Provo. In Mapleton, a few of my students and their siblings joined in the unloading as well as the band director I work with (Chris.) Lunch at Brick Oven and then Britney's baby shower. Crazy busy day.

15th- Went to our last Sunday in the Edgemont 9th ward and taught primary the last time there. Loaded up more things at grandpa's (including the cat) and headed back to Mapleton to try to get a little more settled.

16th-20th Unpacking, cleaning, guard. One big blur, really.

Caprese salad and
monogrammed sugar cookies

Chicken Salad
Croissants & Raspberry Lemonade

21st- Catered a bridal shower thrown by Cecilia for one of her high school friends. It turned out lovely! Oh, we also got a car, went to the monthly Peterson gathering, got a couch from one of my sisters friends, a dining set from my sister and made sushi cookies. We looove sushi.

Not a flattering picture,
but you get the idea.

22nd-29th- Guard practices, leadership meeting with my new captain/asst., more moving in, painting, spent some time with Katharine, planted a garden & window box, learned that not all clients are kind, read all of the bold print or understand the concept of having to pay for things if they want them. I also cut my hair off. It was driving me nuts and I couldn't get it to do anything outside of a pony tail. I'll post a better picture sometime soon. Oh, and redid the catering blog. Hopefully it's a little more user-friendly now.  Feedback would be appreciated.

Up this week:
Summer band camp, lots of ward activities and catering a wedding reception in Tremonton. Keep sending your friends my way!

Post Mother's Day Post

Now that Mother's Day has come and gone, I can post pictures of the little crafty project we did for my mom! We did silhouettes of all of the Nasson-side grandchildren. It was lots of fun to do and even more fun for mom to open them... even the one wrapped in a walmart bag and twist-ties. (Hey, we like being practical in our family!) 

We were also really excited about the Mother's Day gift we got for Craig's mom. I did a fair bit of research and we ended up getting a quality, no-salt-required ice cream/frozen yogurt maker. Red. Fabulous. We might have to borrow it sometime. ;)

Lovely Saturday!

It's just a generally happy day!  The morning started off with baking and decorating (just with some lilac colored roses) a sheet cake and heading over to Grandma and Grandpa Peterson's. (Craig's grandparents.) We spent several hours weeding, bug killing and generally tidying the yard. They are both in their 80's and have a hard time getting the heavier yard work done. It was really lovely getting to spend some time with Craig's Aunt Joyce, Uncle Randy, his cousins and their wives. Sophie enjoyed spending time with her uncle Kirk and they partied until she couldn't take it anymore.

The morning was topped off with a lovely bbq put on by Grandma & Grandpa Peterson. I hope we can get over there a few more times this summer to help/socialize. Don't tell my mom or anything, but I actually REALLY enjoy yard work. Didn't when I was younger and I'm sure I didn't appreciate what we were learning at the time but I certainly do now! Thanks, mom!

In other news, we hopped down to what we hope will be our home soon (long story- not going there. Nutshell: Short Sale.) We were supposed to go through with Joyce but she had some things come up. We're so excited to be getting a home of our very own soon! Here is a link to a LOT of pictures for those who have been asking...

In other other news, I'm going to be spending the rest of my afternoon writing an article on everyday nutrition! I am now a freelance writer for KSL! How fun is that? I'll post a link to my article once it's published.

Hope all is well with everyone and the weather is happy and inviting where ever you may be!

Lots of love from all of us :)

100th Post!

Happy 100th Post, blog! This is probably more for me than anyone else but I feel like we've hit a milestone of sorts. 100 posts since I started this blog on April 18th, 2009. Since then, we've had a LOT of things happen! (This is just a recap of my posts from the beginning. Nothing new:) )

Craig and I started dating about two weeks after my first post. Actually, our first almost date was around the 18th. Andrew Charles was staying with me for a few days and one night while he was with me was our ward's closing social. Craig offered to drive us and naturally, I accepted. (Craig looked really cute that night, by the way.) Sadly, that's the only post I had for months.

We got married.

Craig had major surgery.

We moved in with Grandpa Merrill.

We went to Seattle and visited my grandparents.

I started teaching winter guard.

I started my dental assisting program

We found out I was pregnant and didn't tell anyone

On our summer trip, Jeffrey graduated from high school and Kristin got married

We made it to 20 weeks, found out all was well with the pregnancy and that we were having a girl! 

In October, I finished another high school marching season, worked as an audio recorder for the BYU marching band, had a fabulous baby shower put on by my sister, had fun outings with grandpa Merrill and our first Halloween together.

November was full of goal reports and general "being pregnant stinks" posts. We did have a few funny Grandpa Merrill quotes to share! Best of all, it was our first anniversary or our "anniFirstary." I didn't post about that, but Craig and I had a great weekend together.

December nothing too exciting happened. Just kidding. We had a Sophie!  We went to Connecticut for some R&R.

January was the month of birthday cakes, wedding receptions and put in an offer on our first house.

Sophie is now just 2 days shy of being 5 months old and we're still waiting on our first house. Here's to another several hundred posts! :D

NEED HELP!

Calling all moms!

This is embarrassing and I've been trying to deal with it on my own but all of the tips and advice I've found online aren't really helping. My skin is suuuuper dry. Like, ridiculously dry. Particularly my face and my scalp. I have dandruff. Really bad, embarrassing dandruff and no amount of medicated shampoo or deep moisturizing conditioners are helping. And my hair is falling out far more than ever before. I know that your hair falls out post-pregnancy but I can't even take a shower without clogging the drain so much the water won't empty. A 5 minute shower turns into a full bath. This is even if I comb my hair a lot before getting in.

Please help!! I'm not an unhygenic person but this is just gross. I'm tired of being worried about my hair falling out everywhere and even worse, having those nasty little flakes all over everything. What worked for you??

Oooh no...

I think I'm turning into a hippy. I'm listening to "Boston" right now while thinking about how wonderful it would be to be able to grow all of our own food. I love gardening and I love making healthy food. I also don't understand why there is so much waste (does a razor REALLY need so much packaging? Come on, use the plastic for something useful. Like, medical stuff). Don't tell my dad, but I think I'm turning into one of "those."

I guess New England got to me after all. Even though I haven't lived there full time for almost 5 years. Jenny- we can be the crazy New Englanders together!

A Clean House is a Happy House

It's no secret that I don't like clutter or messes or things to be disorganized. Yes, for me this is somewhat of a new thing. (No comments about the condo following finals and the bowl game, Erin! My room was a mess but the rest of the place had help from the other girls who WERE there.) However, I know that when a place is "lived in" it can be more difficult to keep it as clean as you might like. Is it impossible? Nope. Does it take some work and help? Sure does. I like the way that my mom approached housework growing up. At the time I didn't really care for it and as an absent-minded child/teenager, I know I didn't get it most of the time. The rules were simple, though. Put things away when you get something else out (if I was told "when you're done with it" it would never get put away. I was never 'done' with anything!), jobs need to be done before play and if you're bored, don't tell mom. She'll find something like weeding or extra cleaning jobs for you to do.

Where Craig and I are living now, there is an almost constant flow of people in and out of the house. Grandpa has lots of company and that's a great thing for him. For me, I feel like I need to have the house perfectly clean all of the time. It's not, but I try. There are a few things that we do that work for us and some things that I'm going to put in place once we have our own home.

1. Never leave dishes in the sink. In our house, you have to walk by the dishwasher to get to the sink anyway.

2. Use an "up" & "down" basket on the stairs. This comes from mom's rule to never go up the stairs empty handed. A basket just allows you to carry more at a time (fewer trips, too!)

3. Keep one central calendar. No need to have a million papers on the fridge. We like to use our google calendar but I also like having a large month one with notes for quick reference. (Grandpa's for now, our own when we have our own house.)

4. Leave a room a little cleaner when you leave it than when you entered. This could mean making a bed, putting a few clothes away or just tossing the socks in the laundry basket.

5. Have labeled laundry baskets for different loads. We have a basket for Whites, Colors (mainly socks & jeans), Colds (Craig's work clothes) and Baby clothes (we use different detergent for her.)

6. Have kids do age-appropriate things to help. I remember having a child size mop & broom set when I was little. They were red & yellow. I don't think I was actually supposed to get the mop wet but I remember enjoying thinking I was helping. Mom, did I actually help or did you just let me think so?
Sophie isn't old enough to help yet, but we talk about folding clothes and putting things away during the day. She also takes rides in laundry baskets but that's because I haven't figured out how to carry two loads of laundry and a baby yet.

7. Let the kids/spouse/whomever know that what they're doing is actually helpful and useful. When mom let me know that what I had done was both worthwhile and helpful, I was much more inclined to continue doing it.

I know every family is different and different things work for different people, but these are things that I am doing or plan to do when we're in a position to do so. What things work for your family?