hellodarling

Family Photos.... our first ever

2011-10-25T16:45:00.000-07:00

Seriously, how cool are these photos? I have my good friend Sarah Webb to thank for these beautiful pictures of the family. We've actually never had the entire family sit in a professional photo session, ever. How sad is that? So glad I have Sarah as a friend and she was so willing to help us get this done. Thank you again!

The kids really started loosing it at the end if you can't tell. we had to shove food in veras mouth and Vincent just wanted to pull crazy faces, I had no idea he was doing that untill I saw the photos. oh well. just happy we did it.

neighborhood Easter party

2011-04-17T13:48:00.001-07:00

our neighborhood is so cool (thanks Molly!) they put on an Easter Egg hunt for the kids this past saturday. such a beatiful day too i have to say, worked out perfect. They had snacks, drawings, races, egg hunts, and most of all..... the Easter Bunny!!!! Thank you again mr. bunny for making one of my children cry yet again. How rockin is the rabbit??? i couldn't have planned it better myself
kids only got like 6 eggs a piece but could care less, they were loving life! Vincent even gave a few away to a little boy how came late and missed the whole thing. Yep, he's that freakin cute. I got lucky with these two sweeties, love em so much! Vin even got to do an easter egg race where they carried an egg on a spoon and was brave enough to tackle the gunny sack race all by himself without knowing what the crap he was doing. go team darling!

hello mr. bunny

2011-04-13T09:10:00.000-07:00

so i have my very first tutorial on my sister's blog, you should check it out. not the best mind you, don't know what i'm doing but had fun with it :)

Horseshoe market is almost here!!

2011-04-13T09:02:00.000-07:00

how freaking awesome are these posters!!!! so excited!!! if you want to check out what i'm working on for the show go to my other blog here

Happy Space Party

2011-03-01T22:37:00.000-08:00

Thought I'd throw in some pictures ....... this was vin's space party.... i think he had fun. Also kinda Vera's party too. Thanks too all that made it, you guys are awesome!

THANK YOU SARAH!!!!

2011-02-20T09:02:00.000-08:00

So i am so blessed. Just recently, a wonderful girl moved into my life:) She just happened to be a photographer and just happened to move into my ward. And just happened to like me, and just happened to like my kids (atleast she says:) so i wanted to share with you how talented she is, and when i say talented i mean talented in putting up with 20+mile an hour winds, crazy huge ballons, 2 whiny kids, mud, bright sun, squinting eyes, snotty noses, not knowing where I was taking her, and still resulting in these gorgeous pictures. I'm telling ya. she's good. again, thank you sarah. you can check out her blog here.

more darling children

2011-02-20T09:01:00.000-08:00

Vincent Turns 4

2011-02-19T11:52:00.001-08:00

v&v

2011-02-19T11:42:00.000-08:00

happy birthday you too!

happy valentines day my loves

2011-02-14T19:53:00.000-08:00

So i thought i'd try something new: potted plants.

well, it's not exactly new, i guess it's been done for years supposedly:)

Last year for Valentines i made steve (made as in me buying for myself) give me a potted fern instead of roses. i know you may think i'm crazy for wanting that over roses, but roses die so fast... am i wrong?? so, i thought why not have something that'll live on ? so this year i'm spreading the joy:) i. love . succulents. happy valentines day

new jeans

2010-12-12T08:42:00.001-08:00

it's offical. i'm excited. never had this happen before. two nights ago i went christmas/birthday shopping with my good friend Amy and we tried on pants. I was pretty excited because i was trying on a size 6, normally i'm an 8, and they fit! however, i came out of the dressing room and the lady working said i need a size smaller. I was like wha?? you smoking crack?? i'm in a SIZE 6! but, i was flattered and told her sure, why not appease the worker bee? all while thinking yeah right, they're not going to fit. BUT, to my ever most delight they did!!!! haven't ever been a size 4 that i can remember!! well atleast in my teenage/adult life. and they fit great!! not even that tight!!! oh man, it's FINALLY paying off. thank you Tony and Jillian.

santa baby...

2010-12-12T08:16:00.000-08:00

So this is our 10th "santa photo shoot" that the darling family has had. Every year for Christams, Steve's mom always wants a picture of us with Santa. Hence this being our 10th. Steve and I are finally getting used to santa, however we both used to look like vera as well, back in the day. well, mostly steve. This was Veras first picture with a real santa, last year we slacked and found a fake statue and croweded around him. This is Vincents first time not crying on a real santa so props to him. He was deathly affraid though, but knew he had to be brave. Earlier, right before we left our house, Vincent was so excited that he shouted how happy he was to see Santa because he was his "best friend". I said, "oh really? you guys hang out a lot then?" and says "yeah, of course. we're best friends" Little does he know how true that really is:)

thought this was funny. Lets just shove a candy cane in it and see if that shuts her up. as she got off santas lap, while still crying gigantic tears, she still managed to turn around and wave bye to santa. too funny

so with my new feathers.....

2010-12-12T08:12:00.000-08:00

I saw these cool feather earings (once again, at holiday homemade) so i bought a few. but looking at them i thought, dang, why did i spend $18 on each pair, (there were some that were $40 ea)when i think i could make these. mind you, they are not NEARLY as cool looking or fancy looking as the others. and im NOT a jeweler so this was new to me with all the wire and rings a crap, but overall i think they turned out cool.

my new love

2010-12-12T08:03:00.000-08:00

feather hair extentions! brilliant! I saw these last weekend at the fancy tiger show and found a lady there that did them and told me she'd show me how. She was amazing! she totally showed me how to do it, all the tricks so now i'm a little addicted. i just bought more feathers yesturday. now i just need a few more supplies and i'm ready. By the way, incase your wondering, you can wash, dry, curl, straighten, brush, etc with these in. You just treat it like your normal hair. new. love.
they last about 3 months, but the feathers should last a long time, all reusable

the birds

2010-12-12T07:57:00.000-08:00

so recently my neighborhoods gone to the birds. literally. everytime i look out the window there is atleast one house, if not more, completely covered in pigeons. it's like a house cookie with pigeon frosting. too wierd. but this movie forever comes to mind when i look out that window. i'm just waiting, as i believe they are too.
i took this a few days ago. But this morning however, this house along with the house next door were both COMPLETELY covered. i'm scared.

2010-12-05T18:32:00.001-08:00

In Stores Now. Visit hm.com to see more.

love this girl

2010-03-07T19:48:00.000-08:00

it's getting closer

2010-03-07T18:46:00.001-08:00

it's looking more like a livable house finally...we got the news we close on the 22 and move in a week later on the 29th of April.
This is the handrail we picked, guess what it's called? Darling Hickory. yep we're that corny
They just painted to the darling hickory is all covered up
The kitchen, just waiting for the cabinets

Yeah for Grandma!

2010-03-07T18:27:00.000-08:00

So my mom is here and the kids love it! We done something just about everyday and i think i've driven my mom to the brink of sanity.... She said if i wasn't here she "would just stay home everyday and not leave the house unless it was an emergency". wow, sorry mom:)I thought i'd throw some cute photos of my little one year old
she loves the swings...

The shortest its been......

2010-03-07T18:10:00.000-08:00

So my mom was coming into town and i thought vincent could stand a trim.......and we got....VINCENT WITH SHORT HAIR FOR THE FIRST TIME ! well. that's not including when he was a runt.

FOr a hair cut that he wouldn't hold still for i thought it still turned out pretty cute. Note: i didn't mean for it to be so short but now i like it. He looks like a boy.
now lets hope those lips don't get him called a girl like his hair did

Update on the house

2010-01-30T17:42:00.000-08:00

So they have done a ton in just 2 short weeks from my last post...got siding on, garage and front door, tubs, windows and a roof. My dad says it's because we have the only house being built in denver and they had to pick the builders out of the soup line. i'll have to thank the economy.

bad backs and cute kids

2010-01-30T17:36:00.000-08:00

So usually every six months or so Steve's back goes out on him. IT's almost clockwork unfortunately. So when steve is not working he's laying on the floor stretching or crying. Poor guy. However, be as it may, the kids love it! they hoover around him like flies on poo. So this is what i came in the living room to find...i thought it was pretty funny. Believe it of not this photo was not staged at all..... and the other one just show's how cute Vera is to her dad, she's totally going to be a daddy's girl.
i asked steve about the placement of the hands, apparently he's pushing on the heating pad. Thought you might be wondering...

The Beginnings of a home....

2010-01-21T09:36:00.000-08:00

So this is what it looked like before we left... freshly poured cement walls

Here it is.... 2 weeks later!

This is where the kitchen will be

this is the front living room
this is the cabinet, tile wall, flooring and countertop for the master bath.....we got the basic flooring that it comes with (laminate and linoleum) because to upgrade through them is crazy expensive. We upgrades the cabinets and the tile so Steve didnt have to but the rest such as the flooring and countertops, we will do after we move in. I'm pretty giddy about all this, never done it before.
This is for the kitchen (below). The cabinets are a lot darker than the pictures show, they will look good with some stainless steel pulls ;) the countertop is a cheap form of slate, wanted to see how it looked. I figured since we're ripping it all out eventually i could pick really whatever. Made the process a little easier.

Hair Days

2010-01-21T09:30:00.001-08:00

So Vera's hair is now offically long enough for pigtails. Actually it may have been long enough for awhile, it's just been only recently that I thought to put her hair into them. Once I did though, I was hooked! She looks so stickin cute with them in! So needless to say, all the attention and pictures made Vincent a tiny bit jealous so he wanted some too. Sorry Vin, it was your choice, don't hate me later for this.

This picture is dedicated to Anna. Thought we'd put all the bows she made us to use....

Sin City

2010-01-21T09:10:00.001-08:00

Hello Vegas! so as you might guess, living in Alaska makes you realize just how far away you are to everything...and i mean everything except Russia. And Canada. So you might say we were pretty excited when we realized we could just hop in our car and drive to Vegas, drive to it! it's crazy! Mind you it was a rather long drive, and with kids, but still, we stopped in good ol' Monroe and visited family. Steve's coworker from AK had planned a Vegas Wedding back in Sept so we said we go to it if we were living in CO. So lucky for us we were.
So to be honest, i've never been to the Vegas strip before, except for a drive through. So needless to say i was a little camera happy with the sights

The roof of the Belagio, all glass
The happy couple: Zach and Tracy
The other happy couple: Zach and Steve

It's never too late for Christmas

2010-01-18T21:37:00.001-08:00

So i am sorry for the slight delay in blog posts, for as many of you might now i never blog, opps i mean am bad at this....anyways, the move to denver didn't help much either, talk about not feeling the swing of things. But it's getting better. I have lots more pictures i'm getting ready to upload here shortly (not tonight though cause i am spent) so check back soon. PLus we are building a house and it is getting done pretty fast, pretty excited so i will post pictures of that too. Anyways, on to Christmas..... this was Vera's first and Vincent's 3rd, as you can tell, neither of them knew what the crap to do.....
Oh and the horse? sheer terror.... no just teasing, i think it was their favorite, atleast for the first 4 minutes, Vera did practicaly stare at it for the whole morning. We put her on a few times and she loved it.

Above is a continuation of the staring contest she has with the horse and below is her older brother so graciously helping her open her presents.
As many of you might now we live in Brandis basement and so we had to make due with what we had, meaning no ledge or fireplace for the stockings, since it's all 2x4's and covered insulation. I thought this turned out pretty cute nonetheless. THis was my first attempt and actually sewing stockings and it took quite a few days of just the process of thinking of how it works since i didn't have a pattern.
By the way, Merry Christmas a month ago from the darlings! sorry, we didn't get christmas cards out at all, I promise I will be better next year!

Pa Dough

2009-09-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

So i bought Vincent Play dough a little before his second birthday and frankly he didnt' want anything to do with it, that was said in so many words. However, now that's he's turned the ripe ol age of 2 1/2, he's now figured he's old enough. It's been awesome. So yesturday after getting turned down to swim at H2Oasis, either because they said they were doing their yearly maitainence or because they figured I would've frightened all this kids in my swim suit, either way they told us we couldn't swim so vincent was heartbroken! I took him to the library for story time only to get there to hear the last 2 pages! what a day. Then i found out the library video (the office, brittish version) was missing a disc. The worst part is: i never opened it! i never got a chance to watch it (like most other things)! so that put mom in a bad mood. However, when we got home, out of the blue he went to the cabinet and asked for the play dough and has been playing ever since!
I showed him how to use the cookie cutters and decorate his "little mans". He liked giving them eyes, diapers, and poop. I guess that's all he's known?

Heres the finished four, all complete with eyes and dirty diapers
the proud creater and his work, these were the naked versions. Last night he went to bed screaming for his little men, i told them they had to go to bed to and all he would cry, "men bed nope! in my hands!"
And this morning, he rolled out of bed and the first thing he asked for was to play with pa dough. I let him go at it for a minute and had to go get steve's lunch ready (argh, sticken flu season, he's putting in a lot of over time and working his day's off) and this is what i came down to. As you can see, every color is now intertwined with the adjacent color, play dough never stands a chance with two year olds does it.

Vin and mom's jog

2009-08-29T19:48:00.000-07:00

Mile 1: so now i know not to point out the color green, unless i want to see green grass pointed out every 5 feet, along with every green spruce tree and leaf a long the way

good, that's over with (i'm thinking)

Mile 2: so now i know around not to show vincent worms, or he'll ask where?where?where? where? where? like a broken record

okay, that's hopefully done (again, thats running through the brain)

Mile 2.7: crap, i showed him sluggs........ where? where? where?

Mile 3: so now i know that i can't run and keep up with a two 1/2 year olds conversation with out completly just dying. It's not the running its the talking. who knew?

The Lesson: sorry vin, looks like vera's going to be taking your place

vin's new friend

2009-07-29T17:44:00.001-07:00

so vins been playing a lot at our neighbors house, the Jacksons. His friends name is Jarrett and he is a few months older than vin so it works well. This was what happened when the women folk left the boys and the dads home alone on a saturday. They got pretty creative with the slide. thought it was funny.....

vin on his ride (the trike) and Jarrett on his (the jeep). so some are born a little higher class i guess:) and if your wondering i have no idea who the other kid is, perhaps steve had to watch one of his illegitimate kids that saturday

duplicate

2009-07-29T17:39:00.001-07:00

sorry on the last post for adding the same picture twice, i'm not on here long enough to know what i['m doing!

more photos for grandma

2009-07-29T17:35:00.000-07:00

Just thought i'd throw in more photos while i had some "free time", actually i just hear my moms voice in my head telling me MORE PHOTOS! so here they are mom, love ya

the candy man can

2009-07-17T21:10:00.000-07:00

This happened a couple weeks ago: I walked into my room where vincent had been sitting watching tv when i found this.......apparently somewhere, who knows where ( i know , pretty sick) vincent had discovered some M&Ms and doesn't quite get the concept of how to eat them. and screw the "melt in your mouth, not in your hand", try melt all over your face if your 2. I asked if he found some candy and acted like i didn't know what i was talking about. Hmm.... let me take your picture them and this is the sneaky look i got. Pretty funny

then it was AHHHH!! don't touch sister!

we're back in action

2009-07-17T15:52:00.000-07:00

okay, so i can't believe i'm finally getting time to blog but the good lord has blessed me with a quite house despite the fact i have double the kids: 2 two year olds and 2 babies. If you saw me yesturday i was about to pull my hair out. today is pretty good. anyways, i just wanted to update with some pictures:

I'm so excited that she can actually sit in her exersaucer these days, she's so much happier, and so is mom....
Here is vin's sock puppet he named "hello". I think it's because when i showed them how it worked i would make it say hello. So thats about all he says it can say and so there it's name is "hello". The picture doesn't show it though but this puppets got a rat tail. pretty awesome.

2009-06-28T16:54:00.000-07:00

so i have to apologize to those that are faithful readers to my blog, (the 3 of you) for i have been truly busy for this next weekend. The annual Girdwood forest fair is alive and well this year and this is my first time having a booth there. Unless you count last year where i got a booth, but then it got canceled. so really this is my second booth, first time selling. anyways, needless to say i won't be blogging much till after it's all said and done. However I will update on what we've been up too: I (mel) took the kids out to Sterling AK this weekend where the Darlings had rented 2 very nice cabins. We enjoyed a night of food and relaxing by the fire (well, however much you can relax with 9 extremly overly tired and sugered up kids at 11pm) and swimming at a lake the next day. I have to saw i was very impressed by the lake! While some of you know the lakes up are are glacier feed and EXTREMELY cold, this one was not and it was so warm! the shallow area was great for little kids and they all had a blast. we had 2 rafts and 1 canoe. VIncent refused to get in any till mom did and then he loved it. we floated in a raft or played in the water the entire 3 hours we were there. it was up at the Captian Cook State park if you know the area. (alittle before Homer). anyways, i also had a sale at bella boutique a week ago on the 20 for summer soltace. it was okay till we almost blew away, which kind of blew, hee hee get it? sorry. oh and one more thing i wanted to mention which i thought was funny. About a week ago i received my 10 highschool reunion flyer. And when i say flyer i mean flyer. 81/2 x 11 sheet folded into 3rds, taped and a stamp slapped on the back. When you open it up there was a obviously dowloaded, pixelated logo of the "south sevier high rams" and the rest said, and I quote" you are invited to the class of 1999 10 year reunion....date.....place....cost and rsvp. It was all in the same font and the entire text covered about 1/4 of the page. I don't know about you but i thought these things were supposed to be alittle fancier than that? Like say a whole weekend at a nice place rented out and catered. No, it's a a park for a few hours and catered by probably some local family. I mean, yeah, i have to give credit to those putting it together, i don't mean to be mean or bash their efforts, i just had to laugh when i saw the invites, brought me back to small town utah. gotta love it.

ber bear

2009-05-24T23:01:00.001-07:00

World Beard Competition

2009-05-24T22:20:00.000-07:00

Ever since we have known our dear friend, Jeremy Beard Miner, he has been "obsessed" with beards. Well, it is his middle name. So, this past weekend was one of the big highlights of his beard career (i say that in wonderment if he will ever retire, according to his wifes wishes). It was the WORLD BEARD AND MUSTACHE competition. And when i say world, i mean the WORLD! There were hundreds upon hundreds of crazy staches and beards from all over. And the crazy part is that it was here, in little ol' anchorage! I met up with Jeremy's wife Laurelyn and we actually ended up in the parade downtown, sporting our unfortunealty freshly shaven children, no beards there.
This here is Drew Danbury. He is a musician, mainly in Utah i think. I saw him at a cafe in Pocatello once and loved his music. So i knew he was coming this weekend to play at the beard show, but didn't know he was IN the beard show. I was standing on the lawn with my friend Laurelyn surrounded by hair everywhere, when i look over and this is the exact view that i see. It was recognition at first sight. So needless to say i had to say hi. Laurelyn took a picture of me and him together, haven't gotten it yet. Today at church though, Jeremy told me he saw Drew again yesturday and talked to him. He told Drew i was his stalker. Thanks Jeremy, i can always count on you!
Here are some of the more wild beards

May 18 2009

2009-05-18T23:33:00.000-07:00

3 months ago you came into this world, my beautiful baby. I never knew i had more love to give but you showed me I did. you are my little angel.........i love you

Baby Blessing

2009-05-18T23:23:00.000-07:00

Well we finally blessed Vera yesterday with Steves's family there. He did a great job. She was so cute too. I guess when she went up with Steve she was asleep and during the blessing she woke up and started stretching. I guess she was alittle hard to hold on to because she dress was so slippery. Sorry Vera. That could've been bad. I love you little one......

she's my little doll
out of all the family ones i thought this was the best, Vin's face says it all
Finally, my first picture with my baby girl. 3 months later, come on mel......

cute shoes

2009-05-10T15:59:00.001-07:00

My friend Anna made these for her little girl but they ended up being too small so guess who ended up with them? that 's right! how lucky are we? aren't they so cute! yeah, vera's worn them everyday since. Thanks Anna!

and the blog you've all been waiting for...

2009-05-10T15:50:00.000-07:00

Vincents Hair Cut!

i honestly can't believe i've waited this long before i wrote anything about this somewhat lifechanging event! yes, after two years and 2 months we finally had his hair cut! Twice actually. The first looked alittle girlish according to some (he wore a hat a lot) and this is the second attempt. I still trying to decide if we should just go all the way with the boy hair cut. Also i had to throw some more pics of vera since she is getting chubby

I mean check out that double chin!!!

uke too?

2009-04-30T15:33:00.000-07:00

so the other day i got out steves ukulele and vincent about had a heartattack. once he realized you could pull the stings and it made sound he would not put it down! even though he pulled the strings out about 10 times further than they regularly stretch as if they were rubber bands istill couldn't take it away from that smile. rock on vinny, rock on! and yes, he rocks the dragon rain boots too.

vera's easter dress

2009-04-30T15:25:00.000-07:00

So i finally got pictures of Vera in her dress. Easter was alittle crazy, read below. and so, i finally got her back in the dress and man did she rock it!

Here's to Mt. Redoubt

2009-04-21T17:17:00.000-07:00

I know, this picture doesn't do justice, it's just one i found online but I was so excited that i actaully saw the volcano yesturday erupting! I didn't think that you could see it from Anchorage, but apparently you can. I was driving dimond blvd yesturday and you could see the Ak range really well. I looked at the end of it and there was a mountain that seemed to be by itself and it had a big white cloud that mushroomed around the top of it. I thought to myself, could it be? na....... then that was that. That night i was watching the news and sure enough, apparently it ws really big today that everyone could see the volcano erupting from anchorage. and the image they showed was exactly what i saw, which is kind of like the photo above, that one is just alittle closer. I think they said it's just steam coming out now, no more ash. Let's hope.

Yoga anyone?

2009-04-21T16:38:00.000-07:00

welcome to the downward dog. I was doing my excerise video this morning and the last part of it has us doing some yoga to stretch. I was doing the downward dog and looked over and saw vincent trying to do it too. it was too cute too ignore so i stopped what i was doing and grabbed my camera. I thought anyone who does yoga would appreciate this. He actually has decent form for having really fat stubby arms and legs. Go Vinny.

here's to baby skin

2009-04-18T21:46:00.000-07:00

So i thought that the best picture of the two of them would be with out any shirts, their skin is just so smooth. vin decided to add the blanket look, as i tried to get him to posse with her, just not happening. so this was the best i could get.

Cat in the Hat Easter

2009-04-18T21:22:00.000-07:00

who wants a cat in the hat anyway?
Actually, contrary to what this picture may tell you, he was pretty excited about getting Cat in the Hat. Although, i bought it a few days before at the new Kohls, and when i got home that was the first thing he saw. So really he wasn't too suprised. But he did enjoy this Easter, it was the first for him to look for and find his Easter basket. My Easter on the other hand was not so joyous. Vera was up for a lot of the night so Steve let me sleep in. He woke me up at 9:30, thinking church was at 1pm. but oh how he was wrong. it starts at 11 am. so upon my wake up i realize what time it is, knowing i still need to have vincent find his basket, take pictures, make a big easter breakfast, get showered and my self ready, along with getting vincent dressed and Vera up, feed and dressed. And to top it off, Vincent had already found Vera's basket while I was asleep and opened up the eggs and ate most of the candy while misplacing the toys. wow was I alittle stressed. Why does everyone else's Easter seem so peaceful and happy? And the picture above pretty much shows how the mood was. I think we were all ready to go at about 20 after 11, meanwhile i'm trying to get vincent's church bag packed and there's a basket caught under my skirt between my feet and won't come out until i kicked it across the room, much to Vincent's dismay. Then to top that off, i trip over my skirt going down the stairs and kick off one of my shoes. Needless to say i was a stressed sweat ball by the time I got to church. So yes, Laurelyn and Marissa, in case you noticed, that was why. But it all turned out good in the end. Oh, except for the fact i never got a picture of Vera with her cute easter dress or with her Easter basket. She was sleeping almost all day and I didn't have the heart to wake her up. Or the okay with Steve. he likes it when their quiet. But really the day ended well, and vincent got to spend it with his cousins. we all went to Ronda's for an Easter program Steve's parents put on (good job by the way) and we had a great ham dinner. can't beat that (or someone cooking for you).

these are a few of my favorite things

2009-04-07T17:26:00.001-07:00

most of the toys vincent owns he can live without, but these are the exceptions. These are the ones he plays with on and off day in and day out. What's great about these are they each have their own names and most are named by the sounds they make, except for one, that would be figure 2. And just to note, this is is second pair of pig and cow i had to buy since he left the first at church. good thing they were a buck each at target. thank you target.
Figure 1 This is his "choo choo". This however was not a dollar but more like 15. it's a long story of why i bought it but i was going to return it. I had it on my counter for like a month and vincent got his hands on it a number of times to take it out of package. fortunate for him he destroyed the packaging enough that i couldn't rightfully take it back anymore. so vincent please enjoy your $15 piece of plastic.
Figure 2 This is his "orrilla". When pronouncing this, stick your tongue out pretty far when you say the "illa" part, then you've said it right. He became obsessed with "orillas" when he saw the movie "Mighty Joe Young" on TV. Don't ask me why.
Figure 3 This is his family of "sniff sniff", or pigs. Yep, one small, one medium, and one large. He mostly loves the medium and large ones. I feel bad for the runt. However, when he talks about a pig, he doesn't say the word, just make a sniffing noise to represent the pig. When you hear him sniff twice, he's talking about a pig.
Figure 4 This would be his "boo". Once again it's another animal he won't say the name to but will just make the sound to represent it. However, like most sounds he has this one is alittle off too. We tell him to say "moooooo" and he say's "booooooo". So he just calls them boos. why argue?

This ones for the moms

2009-03-30T17:13:00.001-07:00

Steve had vincent on his lap and i had vera on mine, so vincent asked if he could hold the baby and this is what i got. Isn't it precious? This was the morning we were supposed to bless vera but church was cancelled due to ash.
Vincent kept saying "cheese" and relized the baby wasn't saying cheese. So this picture is him telling her she needs to say cheese too.

Ash saturday

2009-03-30T17:00:00.001-07:00

you can kind of see the light grey covering the snow, and you can really see it on the blue tarp.

so i looked out the window saturday afternoon and noticed the sky looked smoky and i couldn't see the mountains. I asked steve if that could be ash from the volcano that just blew. (it's Mt Redoubt incase someone hasn't heard and it's been blowing like almost twice a day). steve looked at me funny and said pretty much along the lines of no. so i brushed it off and went downstairs with vincent to watch a movie. Of course as soon as i sat down and got comfortable with Vera on my lap, Vincent say's he wants string cheese. So i got back upstairs, grab it, then remember Guapo was outside still so i go to let him out and this is what i saw. well actually this picture is after it got wet so it looked more like an even coat of grey. As soon as i opened the door i could smell the sulfer. We finally got ash! alittle crazy. Poor guapo was in it for i don't know how long! So i yelled at steve and told him i was right and he ran out and covered his car. Apparently this stuff can wreck havic on your engine and if it's under the windsheild wipers it will scratch your glass if you use them. As you can see it wasn't a thick layer thank goodness but it also may not be the last. they said this could go on for a few more months even! remind me why i live here?

who's the baby?

2009-03-30T16:57:00.000-07:00

so vincent can't get enough of Vera's car seat. If he's not sitting, rolling, or jumping in it, he's throwing balls in it. But this time was pretty funny. I've never seen him get in and zip it back up with him inside! good thing my camera was close.

just like daddy

2009-03-30T16:54:00.000-07:00

Steve has been shoveling the driveway a lot lately and vincent mainly watches from the window. So this day vin and i decided we would send in out for a reinforcement. He seemed to enjoy himself. what a good little helper.

a day at the zoo with grandma

2009-03-30T16:33:00.000-07:00

So here's a happy vnicent with Grandma looking at the polar bears or "por bars". The day started off great but around the time we got to the brown bears vincent just lost it. I was carrying Vera in my sling (who did great by the way! and i sale slings incase anyone is interested, cheap plug, i know) and vincent, who had a stroller to ride in, freaked out and only wanted mom to carry him. Grandma tried her hardest but he would just scream! poor grandma! so i ended up carrying him on my hip while vera slept in the sling. i really should've gotten a picture. but talk about arm/back work out.
here's one of the playful bears that tried walking on this pipe. the other bear waved too. makes me wonder where they came from? can anyone say circus?
Here's vincent happy, but getting his feet wet and cold. We pretty much ran to see the wolves so we could get the H out of there and to our suprise, the wolves started howling ( i took some pictures, but the fence came in better focus than the wolves so i'm leaving it out). I got video clip of it but you mostly hear poor vin crying his head off. Sounds like he's trying to communicate. When we got to the car I saw that his shoes were wet so his poor little feet must have been freezing. Not to mention it was in the mid 20's that day.

Thanks Grandma for coming up! we love you and miss you terribly, especially mom! hopefully we will see you this summer!

strike a pose...

2009-03-23T20:36:00.000-07:00

she's my little girly girl. My mom really liked how she looked like a ballerena so we had to pose her in some pictures. mom, you should've stayed, she really misses her grandma!

deep sleep

2009-03-23T19:50:00.000-07:00

so the other night, my mom and I were watching a movie and she was out! I had to get up and do some stuff but I didn't know what to do with her so i just kept her in the same position and this is what she looked like. it was too cute. She gives you the illusion she sucking on fingers but don't let that fool you, she's not. so far, not a finger or a paci sucker. she sure is fun though!

couldn't help it

2009-02-22T19:57:00.001-08:00

So now that I have a baby girl I can't help but throw on the bows! They are just so cute in them. So i had to do a modeling shoot of course too, once the bows started flying on. Near the end Vincent came over and started saying "baby, baby" and started rubbing her back. It was one of the cutest things. i know, this is totally a brag about my kids and probably pretty boring for other the read but i'm a huge softy now when it comes to my kids. Hey, i know atleast my mom digs it.

Meet Baby Vera!

2009-02-19T22:40:00.000-08:00

Isn't She Beautiful? She's gorgeous! She's even got her moms big hawaiian nose! She was born Feb 18th at 7:14 am. 6 lbs 10 oz (the exact same as vin, and the same birthday as my mom) and was delivered by the same doctor as vincent. Only thing was, this same doctor moved to new mexico 2 years ago and just happened to be working in AK this week only for they clinic i go to. Crazy!!! anyways, we were very excited when my other doctor called and told me to go in early tuesday to get induced. Apparently they were concerned about her size and the lack of fluid. We got in the afternoon of the 17th, and began the "process" at 5 pm. Luckily no petocin this time! they gave me something to soften the cervix and 12 hours later i went into labor by myself (so proud). At 5 am it got really bad and I still hadn't dialated much yet and the pain was severe so i had already decided on a epideral because of the last time i got induced. (pain!!!) So i got the epideral and 2 hours later dialated all the way to a ten. Unfortunately everytime i had a contraction near the end her heart beat would go way down and it wasn't until the she came out they saw the cord was wraped around her neck tight! But she came out within two contractions and she was beautiful. I'm so glad she's out (for more reasons than one) and we finally get to kiss her sweet smelling little face.
She reminds me a lot of her brother Vinny except the nose, her nose is like her moms. She also has a ton of hair!
Brother Vinny meeting Vera for the first time. He's going to be a great big brother! He calls her "baby" in his sweet, high pitched voice.

Can you spot the moose?

2009-02-10T15:31:00.001-08:00

Can you spot 3 moose in this photo? One is pretty obvious but the other two not so much. We had these three hanging out across the street from us most of the morning yesturday. We had another one hanging out this morning. The one this morning had a collar on it though. Must of been someones lost moose.
The other thing we do when we are bored, vin and i, are watch the millions of birds that for some reason DON"T fly south for the winter. I don't know what bird in their right mind would want to stay here for all 6 months of winter but these little guys too. their really pretty cute.

We were so close...

2009-02-06T21:39:00.000-08:00

We almost met Vera today. My doc sent me in for a few tests but said that most likely she was going to induce me today. At first I was really worried. I wanted to go through labor naturally since i didn't with vin. I really didn't like getting induced. But then, we packed, cleaned, shopped and we pretty much prepared only to find out it's a no go. But, that's a good thing. Apparently she seems to be doing perfectly normal so i'm happy. But i was REALLY excited to finally met her today but that's alright. I just thought i'd let everyone know.

which is cuter?

2009-02-03T12:55:00.000-08:00

k. so i know this is a repeat to some of you from emails but i need to get as much votes as possible. it's such a close tie, everyone's vote still puts it half to half. Thanks for everyone that has helped. oh, and for those that don't know it's for the "Live with Regis" baby contest. thanks everyone!

Swimming Lessons

2009-01-28T12:55:00.000-08:00

So all week long vincent says' "poo?" We know he doesn't let us know when he has to go "poo" so what he's really asking if he can go to the pool. He LOOOOVVVEEESSS it! He has gotten remarkably better too since we first started. He jumps off the side, puts his head in the water, and will even go down the huge slide with dad without crying. To be honest, i really just wanted to get some use out of the pregnancy swimsuit I got from a friend. Plus, when else can you swim in Ak? Might as well do it when your indoors anyways. I was thinking to do it till Vera arrived but i now realizing that i'm going to have to keep this up to keep his sanity. I think he now lives for the "poo"

He also loves his Charlottes web temporary tatoos, as you can see one on his shoulder through his swim shirt. What have I created?

Hair days

2009-01-22T19:06:00.001-08:00

So, i just got myself a fun little toy, an I touch and i down loaded istylist. I got alittle to excited as you might tell from the pictures. So what do you think me as a blonde? with no bangs?

and steve as a blond with no bangs? pretty freaking hot!
and last of all, i figured since we STILL haven't cut vin's hair, might as well start styling it. any opinions on these two? iSn't he just a hot little boy?

Im so excited!

2009-01-22T18:57:00.000-08:00

So i just found out, as in 15 minutes ago that my sister and bro-in-law sterling are having a baby boy! Not only does that mean they get one of each (like i do :) but it also means we get to switch clothes and I get a lot of cute baby girl clothes!! is that selfish of me? No, but really I am very excited for you two. They are due i believe around June 20? I could be a coulple days off. Oh, and if any one is wondering about our little one, she's got about 5 more weeks left in the oven. As of this morning she's weighs about 4lbs 14 ozs. She has hair and cubby cheeks. yes, we could see that in the ultrasound. pretty cute stuff, and I will try and keep everyone posted when the magic happens. And no Jeremy i don't mean that.......

adult teeth

2008-12-18T23:17:00.000-08:00

So, now i'm mad. i just spent about 30 minutes blogging finally about life and crap, published it only to realize it's on my freaking sister hipster blog!!!! I can't figure out the copy and paste, doesn't work so well for me. so if you want to read it, go to my sister hipster blog site. and while your at it, buy something! just teasing. i do have to say i was pretty excited though. today my friend kristy came over and was wearing one of my shirts i made. she said she was at the gym this morning getting ready and a lady saw the shirt and asked if it was sister hipster! can you beileve that? i'm starting to get famous!! jk. but still, the fact that someone besides a family member or friend knows about us! anyways. brandi i thought you would like that.

well, i'll end with a birthday salute to myself, for tonight is the last night i will ever be 27.......... oh and happy birthday kaniela

ITs A GirL!!!

2008-11-02T22:41:00.001-08:00

So in case some of you didn't know, Steve and I are expecting baby #2 in Feb. Actually the 25th to be more exact. What's funny is Vincent's due date was the 27th. Vincent's two cousins, brother and sister named Gabe and Lily were two years almost exactly too. But what's weird is their birthdays actually are Feb. 25 and Feb. 27th. Weird huh? Well, a couple weeks ago we learned that we are having a little girl!!! We are very excited, and i bought the little blue dress and shoes the day i found out. Supprisingly enough i haven't done much shopping though. I guess it's mostly the craft show that's taken my time. But in case any are wondering, i'm doing farely good. I get really bad heartburn almost everyday, and then i get nausious if i don't take my zantac to calm the acid reflux. The first trimester was really rough but i feel a lot bettter now. I'm really starting to show and she is moving around a ton! It's one of the neatest things to feel, having a baby move inside. It was probably the only thing that i missed about being pregnant.

2008-11-02T22:29:00.000-08:00

Well we finally did it! It was a great experience, and we learned many things what not to do, like wear belts,(Holly) bring bigger tables, make a bigger background, and research the usual crowd. Over all i loved it. I even might do another one in a couple weeks, that is based soley on hear say, but still, exciting non the less. I really enjoyed the build up for this show but i have to say i'm glad i can sit back and take a break...... ah.....sit down and relax again. eat some chocolate moose tracks ice cream with a little milk added, ummmmm, yum.... And i have to say Holly i love you!!

Come to our show!

2008-10-30T21:32:00.000-07:00

So this is the main reason i've been horrible on the blogs. hopefully after this i will be up to par, although, i'm not really sure what the par is. i do have a million cute pictures to add and another big anouncement. But anyways, i hope all that can come, will! and check my website in a couple weeks, i have a huge load of new, cuter stuff!!! Thanks everyone

It's getting close to Halloween

2008-10-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

So Here is Vincent trying on a mask, he loves to wear it but if freaks him out if anyone else does.
The sucker was a little too big to fit entirely in the mouth.
Okay, so last night i was waiting to watch my favorite the, the office, which if you didn't see it, you have to see the beginning when Dwight gives birth to a buttery watermelon. too funny. anyways, the show before was Kath and Kim. I'm not sure if i get the humor so much there, but this was the hair do Selma Blair had at the end of the show. that was kind of funny. Marissa, this one's for you!

More Photos.....

2008-10-02T23:06:00.000-07:00

Thought i'd throw in some more photos of vin since i'm photo happy. Some are him "helping" me make brownies last sunday, and the others were him playing with a truck at the miners house last saturday.

Is that the manti temple?

2008-09-23T16:01:00.000-07:00

So sunday steve, vin and I went driving around town to look at the beautiful fall colors (since it really only last a few weeks before it's blanketed in snow) and we went driving up to a place right up the mountain above Anchorage called Bear Valley. On the way in (besides feeling like i was going to puke) i was starring out the window and i saw this view. I screamed StOP, Is that the Manti Temple? We couldn't believe our eyes. There hidden in the hills of Bear valley lays a smaller replica of the Temple, who knew? okay, so really we think the roof of someones house is just camoflauged into the background REALLY well. anyways, i had to snap a picture.
This was just another beautiful view of the small little community. Though i've never been there, it reminds me of a small european village. again, never been. This is how i imagine it looking.
SO on our way back we saw two moose, one male one female. You can probably guess what they were doing. anyways, i didn't get pictures of that, they were shy but i did get a lot of snap shots hanging out of our sun roof. Anyways, low and behold, i'm watching as a car is coming, speeding down the mountain and looks like they have no clue that there's a moose. Despite the fact there is a car stopped in the other lane of traffic with a person with a big camera standing through the sunroof!!! usually a dead give away SOMETHING is there. Anyways i was ready and waiting for a horrible scene (yes i know i'm demented for wanting to get a picture of it) but luckily the car slams on it's breaks the last second and the moose runs safely accross to his "girlfriend" unharmed. wow, the things we have to deal with up here. dumb moose? or dumb drivers?

Vin and the new camera

2008-09-23T15:42:00.000-07:00

so as many of you know from my "writings" that i'm not much of one to write per-say, more of "here's a photo, you figure out what's going on, and enjoy" That's most likely how this blog will lay out, just letting you know, but i though i would explain alittle. I just got a new camera, thanks to the ak dividend (oh happy day) and I love it!!! So i thought i'd try it out in the house but this was pretty much what i got. so, i thought i'd bring it to the park for better luck. sure enough, he was doing a lot of the "duh faces" UNTIL more kids came. That's the secret to great pictures!!! he just makes these cute faces watching the other kids, not caring at all anymore that his mom is snapping away like a photo fiend. So anyways, i thought these two we the best so i of course had to put them in.

wow was i on a long vacation from blogging

2008-09-15T23:41:00.000-07:00

SO, where do I start? well, since i got home from utah-colorado a lot has happened in my life up here in alaska that has taken my time from the blogging scene. Also the fact that our wireless isn't working has also played a major role since i do ALL my blogging from my laptop. So first of all i want to congratulate Sarah and Kaniela for their new baby Soni (sp?). He either is coming today or tomorrow, c-section. Also Amiee Babneu for her baby that supposedly came today! lots of babies. Speaking of babies, in case you didn't here, Steve and I are also expecting baby #2 around the 25 of Feb. we find out what it is in one week and 2 days. I'm very antsy about it. Also my niece Lily S. is walking which is great although the timing sucks because Vincent is now gone. But still, she is a cutie! Also, the main reason I haven't been on line is because a couple weeks ago my niece, Lucy (refer to blog below), passed away the day after she recieved the bone marrow transplant. The opperation went well but her lungs were just too weak to keep the oxygen flowing. We will miss her tremendously!!!!! She was just such a beautiful little angel. My in laws from their mission even came back for the funeral and stayed with us. It has been a challange for everyone to really understand and accept why this happened but the Lord knows all. We will be looking forward to the day when we can be with her and all our family again.

We love colorado!

2008-08-20T20:50:00.000-07:00

so this trip has been a blast!!!! also the reason why i haven't added to this post in a long time.

i've been without internet for quite a while, my dad still lives in the 1960's house. So yeah, now we've been in denver for a week, with a couple more days to go, bummer. Vincent and Lily has played suprisingly well together, which has been great. Except Lily does like to hit, slap, poke, ram, and kiss vincent, a lot. but luckily like men we like, he just takes it.

With Love For Lucy

2008-07-22T00:04:00.000-07:00

This is Lucy Bell Latta, our niece. She is pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen but unfortunately her health is not that good. She was diagnosed with SCID, or "the boy in the bubble" disease, which is a disease in which she has absolutely no immune system and she is in need of a bone marrow transplant. Fortunately her older sister, 4 year old Lilly is a 100% match, which is hear is rare. So they are keeping Lucy in isolation so she won't get sick so the transplant can do it's job.

You need to check out this website that was made for her (i believe it is still under construction) but it has pictures and more information about the disease. I do warn you though, these pictures are hard to look at. But please, do read it and pass it on to any one, or everyone you know.

http://www.withloveforlucy.com

Rain Man

2008-07-18T11:14:00.000-07:00

Since the summers up here in alaska have been pretty rainy, and Vincent is forever wanting to go outside and play, yesturday i said to heck with it. He's got a rain coat and rain boots. He loved it, where ever there was a puddle he was stepping in it. Unfortuenalty, at the end, we came inside and i found out the rain boots don't work so well. Poor vincent was walking around with soaking wet feet. Opps, but i guess that's what to expect when they are meant for baby's and have velcro running up the sides. Who would have guessed? (anyone with a brain?)

to be a garbage man

2008-07-18T11:01:00.000-07:00

So every thursday, vin wakes up in excitement to see the garbage men come to our house and pick up our trash. I know, exciting. so i thought it would be cute to take pictures of this weekly event and this picture was a classic moment. He just stands there and waits to see them. And now it's cute, there is a lady who drives the garbage truck and now she knows to look up at our window and wave to the little boy that is usually waving to her. It reminds me of my brother Shawn when he was little. Every time you asked him what he wanted to be, he would say "A garbage man!"

so i thought i'd end with a quote my dad gave to me the other day:

"So when I was young my mom would always tell me I could be anything I wanted to be. I would ask her, what do you mean ANYTHING I want to be? She said, you sure ask a lot of questions for a garbage man!"

(hopefully not to offend any garbage men or women out there)

I'm Too Sexy For my SHIrt

2008-07-04T23:33:00.000-07:00

So this is the new trend at the Darling residence, you only get to see it with a personal viewing at the home. He picked it up from Dad. Okay, i kid. I went in to get vincent from his nap and this is what i found. Don't ask me how it's possible, but kids surprise me everyday. He does that same with his seat-belts. Crazy kid.

So I got tagged....

2008-07-04T22:44:00.000-07:00

OUr LIviNg RoOM: okay, check out our sweet carpet! well, this just happend to be the day i decided to air this drop cloth out and fix some rips. alittle embarrassing, but you can look past that right? I love our front room though. The light comes in all day and it faces east so in the morning it just lights up. I also have a spiffy fireplace which just so happens to be my first fireplace to hand stockings on for 9 years! That is , christmas stockings of course.
SToraGE: This is our storage unit we finally organized a while back. Grand huh? well, we think so. But don't look to the right of it, we got some stuff there that wasn't meant to be in the picture (recycling and wood shelves) Anyone need some wood shelves?
NaP TIMe: Awww.. Precious. This is my favorite time of the day, too bad it's usually less than an hour.
SeLF poRtrait: I thought i throw in some of what i am usually doing which is... hanging out with the V man.

FriDGe: So here's my lovely fridge. I read somewhere not to put stuff on your fridge because it makes it look way cluttered (obviously) and small. So i had the bright idea, hey, why not just put them on the side, out of the way, so the front doesn't look cluttered and small?! However, what I soon came to realize, this is the ONLY view you pretty much see if you are walking in our house. opps. But i still like it. Fun pictures.
PlAy RoOM: call him spoiled. he loves balls, obsesses over them! i took him to the pet store the other day to look at animals and all he wanted to do was to find the dogs balls and throw them. go figure! so i made him a play-land down stairs with a plethora of balls. He loves it! and i love that he loves it!
gARage: steve's domain. what can i say about it? I like that i can fit my car into it!.....barely...
MEssy kItChen tABle: And yes, those are daisies Steve bought for me. Oh so sweet! and yes, that is my half eaten lunch. opps.
LAundRy roOm: oh so organized. Steve once again put his tools to the test and made this little contraption of wonder and joy. I love it! i can fold my clothes on it (when ever that happens :) and i can store all my soap and cleaners underneath. He's so handy. and yes, i know, my washer and dryer are extremly outdated. But you know what i say? Atleast it bets coin op.
CrAFt ROoM: So here is where my magic happens. it normally doesn't look like this AT ALL, it just so happens i caught it after i had cleaned up a few days before. I had my show and when i got home i about had a heart attack after i saw how messy it was. So it looks much better now, plus I normaly have a big table in the middle. Used that for the show too.
BAthrOOm: Here's are lovely bathroom. Since Steve spent so much time on it i try and keep it as clean as i can, make it look nice you know ? yeah, doesn't always happen.
BeDroOm: Ah! you actually get to see our bedroom. OKay okay, before you say anything, NO we did not put up the border, that was there when we moved in. It just so happens we are a little lazy and haven't painted yet, okay? Shesh
More KItchEn: Ah, the kitchen with dishes forever in the pan. I'm pretty good about washing dishes, especialy pots and pans when I'm done using them. But what i'm NOT good at is putting them away! They continually sit there in the draining pan until their next use. Is that wrong?

And don't forget to say hi to fishy, he likes people

So i'm sure i bored some of you and knocked off the socks of the rest (which i am known too) jk, im glad i just finally got this on here. Mostly so Brandi wouldn't give me crap. So i guess this is where i'm supposed to tag someone else, so i tag you Aubrie!

Welcome to Bella!

2008-06-28T22:02:00.000-07:00

This was my first show it it went well. In fact, it went so well that now the shirts, the black dresses and the totes are now being carried at Bella Boutique here in Anchorage. Exciting. I'm getting ready to gear up for the next show in October. But you can check out more stuff at sisterhipsterbaby.blogspot.com or click on my link on the right. I also am working on a new website : web.mac.com/melaniedarling

we're trying to make it easy to pay for everything in case you are interested so you can use paypal but also email us! That address is on the sisterhipster blog.

But yeah, Brandi and I really excited to get this business going.

I'm in the Mafia!!!

2008-06-20T12:32:00.000-07:00

So I joined the Anchorage Craft Mafia and tomorrow is the big sale. I think I'm pretty much ready but a little nervous. I'm putting this on the blog so if there is any one in town that checks it I would love for them to come out! It's downtown at the Snowgoose Resturant from noon to 7pm. It's all DIYer's so it's all handmade stuff. wish me luck!

also, i'm almost done with my web site if anyone is interested in buying online. you can also buy online through my other blog http://sisterhipsterbaby.blogspot.com

or you can click on the sister hipster link on my blog. Thanks everyone for your support! And thank you Brandi!!

This is pretty cute

2008-06-09T22:05:00.000-07:00

I came out from my room hearing the sound of baby laughter and saw guapo sitting outside the tent. Then i realized Vincent was in the tent, spooking guapo enough to jump and it was craking him up! I had to get this on film

2008-06-09T17:46:00.000-07:00

what you talkin' bout willis?

2008-06-08T14:41:00.000-07:00

So for some of you readers i know the title might be over your head. And that puts me in a sticky spot because now I realize that I am now part of that older gerneration. YOu know, the one from the 80's. Come on , the 80's weren't that long ago were they? Steve and i were talking about it and reminiscing all the good shows we used to watch. We got punky brewster, family ties, three's company, doogie howser md, the teenage doctor. Remember small wonder? The one with the girl robot named vicky? I loved that show!! Oh, and who could forget Perfect strangers? although i only remember Blaky. Then there was growing pains, who's the boss, charles in charge. My dad still does his hair like that guy. Silver spoon, MacGyver (my dad would always make fun of me saying i had a crush on MacGyver so i would purposely never watch it), alf, mr. belveder and even the golden girls, that one goes out to your ster!

any ways, the picture of vin reminded me of "what you talkin' bout willis?"

I can breathe again!

2008-06-01T22:28:00.000-07:00

well, youth conference is over. in case some of you don't know, i'm the 2nd counselor in young womens and so i was able to participate with this. I must say, wow, did we put on a show!

Friday night our ward was in charge of the dance so we rented out the anchorage museum of art and i must say, that was the most put together dance i've ever been to. The music (this one goes out to Jamison) was awesome and the desserts, wow. I had the privledge to paint the back drop for the photo shoot for the kids. I thought i would include some of vincent. I had painted the other side but decided to redo it because it looked something along the lines of what steve said was very violent, and very 80's. I only had 2 days to do it so for the time alotted and the fact it was 15' by 8.5' canvas, i think it turned out pretty good.

shiloh and vincent sitting in a tree....

2008-05-25T22:12:00.000-07:00

so for the longest time a lady in my ward has been telling me how much she thinks vincent looks like Shiloh Jolie-Pitt. I would just laugh and brush it off, thinking, yeah, he is a cute baby. But then one day i was buying groceries and just happened to look over at the magazines (okay i didn't just happen, i always look) but i spotted one that had a "photo album" of Shiloh. So being the curious person i am, i looked. I about crapped my pants, i thought i was looking at my baby in a dress! WOW, there really is a simalrity (atleast i think, and steve and marrisa). So i put this on here to hear some feed back, see what others think. Steve keeps saying that he wants to send it to Angelina, like he knows her personally or something. Dream on Steve!

welcome back welcome back!

2008-05-22T22:31:00.000-07:00

Leave it to the american summer tv shows and you get some pretty happy americans, such as I with my last comic standing. I sat here tonight with a smile etched on my face as i switched back and forth between that and So you think you can dance. By the way, if you didn't see him, youtube Robert on you think you can dance. WOW. SO just to let you know, don't call me, better yet, don't expect me to do anything on thursday night. Long live thursday night tv!!!

Run for your life Vin!

2008-05-16T15:47:00.000-07:00

So this is the new book i'm illustrating. what do you think? No, i'm not really but was thinking about it. I woke up one morning and the sun was shining in. Vincent had a butterfly balloon in front of the window that was making this shadow on the wall. I thought it was pretty neat looking. Bonus: i got Vincents shadow infront that makes it look like he's running from a rabid butterfly. simply put: awesome.

one more time

2008-05-15T22:41:00.000-07:00

life styles of the rich and the famous

2008-05-15T21:12:00.000-07:00

SO here is vin getting a phone call from his agent letting him know he is in the new movie "IPOO" starring himself as an undercover baby officer who has to act like a baby by flinging poo around, just so he doens't blow his cover. here is him practicing (luckily we use brownies).
Go get um vin! okay, so his mom has an active imagination. it was the only way to get these pictures to go with eachother.

2008-05-15T20:33:00.000-07:00

so i know, to all you vincent fans out there, you've been waiting patiently (mom) but here are some more (Finally! I hear you say) videos and pictures of the little one. It's been kindof chaotic here at the house, but it's finally clean. i was getting ready for the Forest Fair only to find out a it has been canceled. so sadly, i packed up and cleaned. but i tell you, man, my room needed that. i don't think i would have been able to tackle that if i had gone longer. there could've been a point where i probably would've lost vinny. well, it's getting close to 8 pm, and it's thrusday. you konw what that means, the office. season finale so i will have to get back to this soon. can't miss it.

well it's about time, Pointdexter

2008-05-09T23:58:00.001-07:00

i don't know what it is about his hair but he always seems to have it matted and sticking straight up. And yes Brandi, i do bath him regularly. His hair is literally like straw in the back after he's slept on it. too cute though, you have to admit. I have other pictures too proving it.

so I lied.....

2008-04-29T13:00:00.000-07:00

yes, i did lie. i spoke to soon rather, or i jinxed myself. any way you look at it, i got the shaft. although i should've known this was coming. I thought spring was hear but then mother nature pulls this out of her bag. This came in pretty much one day too. SO yes, if you live anywhere other than ak, please, for heavens sake, enjoy those warms day, sunshine, grass and the park for me. For i will probably never experience it again. okay that's a little depressing, so it'll be atleast a while longer. I'll be up here in my igloo counting the days.

parcheesi smackdown

2008-04-29T12:52:00.000-07:00

So this was steve. the face of defeat. That's right. i have to say now i am offically a true Peterson, the daughter of Bill. Steve and I play "lightning rounds" of parcheesi now and again. This was the best out of them all. If you can tell by the board, i have my two men at home, finished with the game, (in lightning rounds you only play with two) while steve still has yet to

get his two men out. It was awesome. You have to play parcheesi with my dad to appreciate this, or just even play parcheesi. So yeah, i've got bragging rights for years now with this game. thanks steve, let's play again sometime.

this is just too cute

2008-04-23T23:45:00.000-07:00

I kept saying the word opps and he just thought it was so funny. I only caught the end of the laughing spurt but this is still pretty cute.

DoG- GoNe-iT

2008-04-23T23:23:00.000-07:00

So last night I had young womens to get ready for so i left the freshly mudded dog (just got back from a long run, thanks to sring if you read the last post) outside. Needless to say i leave him out there for a while at times and admittadly forget about him. 6 O' clock rolls around and i go to bring him in. But there's no dog. Okay, this has happened before, he's usually at the front door. No dog. I call around but nothing. Okay, this is not like him. So i grab the baby and we go cruising around the neighborhoods and i still can't find him. Of course I get all worried and call steve to tell him his wish has came true (he's not to fond of Guaps) but you know what he does instead? His boss (thanks Shannon) let him off alittle early so he came home, jumped on the bike (or course after changing into some hot little shorts) and rode his bike for almost 3 hours looking for that dog! What a great guy. I told my story at Young womens and the teachers and their leader also went looking for him. Steve said while on his bike he heard a car drive past yelling "Guapo!". That caught him a little off guard needless to say. Steve said he ended up talking to about 50 people (dog owners themselves) and asked them to keep an eye out for him. They all now have our address too which kind of worries me, but that's beside the point. But, unfortuanely the searches ended and there was no dog in the end. So we called it a night (knowing the animal control was closed by then). All i could think about was Guapo curled up in a little furry ball laying in the woods wondering if this little stunt was worth it. I hope he knows it wasn't. Needless to say, we went around 2pm this afternoon and FOUND HIM at the animal control center. yeah! so we were happy, had to register him though. opps, they found me out. but the point of this whole story came later, when we realized, wait, if we had know he would have gotten free shelter over night, why didn't we drive down to Seward for the night for a mini vacation? Then we thought wait, if we tie him to a post, call animal control and take off for a couple days, then pick him up, do we get free dog sitting? KIDDING!!! But we did have a good laugh about that. just for the record, we never would really do that. ....... unless we had to.

kidding again. sorry.

anyways, i don't think he got a lick of sleep last night (we found out he wasn't even caught till this morning at an elementary school). So when we brought him home this is what he looked like the entire day. And he's NEVER this tired in the day.

Spring has sprung!(finally!)

2008-04-23T23:14:00.001-07:00

So, hopefully i can offically say spring is here in Alaska. But then again, you can ask anyone here and you never know. We thought it was spring a couple weeks ago, but then nature decided oh, no, you need more snow. And more snow. I kid you not, we got dumped on! All of the winter snow was gone (almost) when it started coming down and it didn't let up till the next night. Then when that snow melted, it came again. Can you tell I'm alittle bitter? Well, this is coming from a girl that grew up in California where our spring started, well, i don't really remember having a winter, so it went from fall, fog, spring, then hottttt! so, I'm still adjusting to alaska. If it's anything like these past couple days though, sign me up to live here forever!!!!! I actually went out and got a new jogging stroller and forced my child in it for hours so we could enjoy the great alaska sun. So nice. sorry vin. (he'll appreciate it soon)

Now it's my turn

2008-04-14T15:53:00.000-07:00

well, this time I had the little accident. Man do i do some pretty embarrassing things. This time I was holding Vincent and playing with Guapo (dog) and I took off running. However, Vincent was covering the view of the open door of the dishwasher. Needless to say, that's where my shin (that was traveling at lightning speeds) hit and I flew something comparative to super man (maybe girl since i was wearing a dress). As you can imagine, having Vin still in my arms all i could think to do was protect him from getting hurt while knowing i would come out of this screwed. Well, I'm happy to announce i was the one who's shoulder ended up into the open cupboard door and not vin's. Also, you can ask steve, i don't bruise easy so i was shocked to see this. I keep thinking it's a colorful tattoo of Texas.

rubba dub dub

2008-04-07T22:16:00.000-07:00

2008-04-07T22:10:00.000-07:00

did someone order a fresh baby?

2008-04-07T21:58:00.000-07:00

I thought was just too cute to pass up on. I had to take of course a million pictures. He decided to wash himself.

it's official!

2008-04-03T22:20:00.000-07:00

Yes, he is finally walking! Steve came home last night and he just walked to him. LIke no big deal. He never does that for me! Well, till now. It's like he just woke up this morning and decided to walk! It's amazing. It's so cute! Scary though. I keep waiting for him to fall into something. Now i just have to pad the whole house.