Category: Kids


Honor’s poem

February 22nd, 2012 — 10:06am

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Legos
I build, I build, I build.
When I’m done…
I battle!!!
BOOM! CRASH!
Yes! I win!

Comments Off | Honor

the girl turns ten

February 17th, 2012 — 11:25am

It seems really normal to me that Eden is now ten years old. The weird part is that I’ve been a parent for ten years. Um, what?

Eden celebrated her tenth birthday with a dance party in the living room with 8 of her friends. We had science spaghetti – she specifically requested that Jim make it – and neapolitan ice cream cake. For her present I replaced her broken iPod and she spent the day purchasing all kinds of pop songs with her iTunes gift cards. (I tell you, kids these days… every single girl knew the words to “sexy and I know it” which made me feel better about being such a terrible parent.)

Ten year old

Ten year old

Ten yr old

Edens birthday ice cream cake

The girl turns ten

Science spaghetti

At ten years old, Eden reads any and everything she can get her hands on. She picked up a copy of Coraline at the library the other day and finished it before she went to bed that night. She gets along really well with all the girls at school (something that I was never very good at) and is a peacemaker whenever conflict arises. She is also very good a writing. We are always cracking up at the stories she writes… so creative. She will participate in her second year of Girls on the Run and she is ridiculously excited about starting practice next week. Overall she is very responsible and fun to be around. She has her dad’s sense of humor and is always so good to give his sarcasm right back to him.

Happy tenth birthday Eden!

1 comment » | Eden

Dinisour

January 21st, 2012 — 3:06pm

By Honor
Dinisour

Dinisour

1 comment » | Honor

the Koloptopus

January 7th, 2012 — 2:33pm

the koloptopus

In August, Eden and Carrie started writing a novel together, they would take turns writing a page each, building on the story as they went. They finished it up early December and had Honor illustrate it. We self-published the book through lulu.com and ordered copies of it as Christmas presents for our family and the kids’ teachers.

Eden wrote at least half of the nearly 10,000 words of the book and it is such a riot! I’m one proud mama.

You can order the book here.

Comments Off | crafting, Kids

Eden’s debut as a recording artist

January 6th, 2012 — 12:03pm

Eden always sings this sandwich song (over and over and over), so last night when she was at Jim’s, he recorded this:

1 comment » | Eden

the boy turns 8

September 29th, 2011 — 12:14pm

Birthday Boy

Honor turned 8 yesterday. We celebrated with Jim at Sonic and Red Mango which Honor was VERY excited about. I decided at the last minute to re-do his room for his birthday. I did Eden’s for her 8th birthday and his room was really disgusting so it needed it. Plus it was time to go with something more boyish. The last time the room had been decorated was 10 years ago when I was pregnant with Eden.

I spent the entire day painting yesterday and loaded everything back into the room today. Honor hasn’t seen it yet, but I think he will really like it. The walls still need some art – Honor plans to draw me some monsters that I can paint on the wall (or maybe a canvas). I want to add more orange in too.

Honor's new room

Honor's new room

Honor's new room

Honor's new room

Honor's new room

Honor's new room

Honor's new room

Painting by my uncle from 1977
My Uncle painted this in 1977.

Honor's new room

Honor's new room

The duvet is from Ikea as well as the dog tail hook and alarm clock. The skull rug & pillow, black sheets, black blanket, rugs and wall hook unit with the pencil cups are from Target (most everything was on clearance). The little table and chairs set was mine when I was a kid and the dresser we had custom made for Eden – it’s in need of some repair.

Total cost including paint for the walls and floor: $175.00

1 comment » | Honor, house

Eden’s hair

August 19th, 2011 — 12:27pm

I’ve been having this ongoing battle with Eden over keeping her hair clean. She is not a big fan of showers and getting her to take one was always a big fight. That was until I came up with the brilliant idea to bribe her. At the beginning of the summer I told her that she could get a feather in her hair if she could take responsibility for caring for her hair. She has done a great job showering nearly every day and brushing her hair. I’m a genius!

Today she got to get her feathers and was SO excited. Isn’t she cute?

Eden getting her feather

Eden's hair feather

1 comment » | Eden, parenting struggles

Honor’s Beetle

July 11th, 2011 — 7:02pm

Last night we were at a BBQ with some friends and this fantastic beetle found it’s way into someone’s car. Honor was so impressed with it that I let him take it home. I’m pretty sure that it’s a California Prionus.

Luckily for me, Honor had the brilliant idea to see if the Math and Science Center would want the beetle. (I think this beast freaked him out a little bit.) So today we dropped off Cockroach, the beetle, to his new home. Honor was thrilled that they were going to keep the name he chose. And that he will be able to visit his buddy frequently as soon as school starts again. The biologist at the Math and Science Center said that beetles like this live most of their life as grubs and that this guy will probably only live life as a beetle for about 4 months. Fascinating. I’m so glad that it’s not living with me anymore.

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1 comment » | Honor

family photos

May 5th, 2011 — 1:30pm

crab apple trees

I had an amazing moment a few weeks ago when I received a darling email from Cat Mayer, who is, in my opinion, the best photographer in Grand Junction. She was touched by what I’ve written on this blog recently and decided that this new version of our family needed to be photographed. So last week the kids and I picked out our own clothes and headed out to the country to have a photo session with Cat. Honor couldn’t understand why “everything needed to be perfect” when I asked him to brush his teeth and smooth out his hair. (Little boys can be so slimy!)

honor with the stick

We had so much fun tromping around in fields, chasing cows (Eden was determined to pet one), throwing sticks in the pond. The kids were beyond squirly, but that’s just how they are all the time, so it seemed appropriate for the photos.

hi-ya

Through this whole process I have been so touched and surprised by the people around me who have reached out. I am so surrounded and loved. Cat walked into Tangle a couple years ago and since then I have marveled at her talent and beauty, all of which is a reflection of her heart. I feel lucky to know these people who are surrounding me, they have made me a better person. I am just so grateful.

Eden

kissing

me

2 comments » | Kids, me, photos

[surrounded]

March 15th, 2011 — 10:27pm

The kids are still struggling, each in their own ways. Though, I will say they are doing better than I had anticipated. Eden is very sad, yet coming to acceptance. She thinks Jim’s choice to leave is really dumb and has theories that someone is forcing him to stay away. (Oh, dear one, you are too smart.) Honor has been showing his grief through his actions and has been getting into a lot of trouble both at school and at home. I’m working to find ways to help him express his feelings other than just being naughty. He is such a 7 year old boy.

They both really cling to me and I am so thankful that I am healthy and able to be here for them. These past 2.5 years have afforded me the opportunity to get most of my grieving out of the way and work on myself (I still am with a wonderful therapist) and I am just so thankful for that. That time in limbo was so valuable for my healing – time I would never take back as horrible as being in limbo is. This is such a difficult time of life, but I continue to see signs that even this has been orchestrated, like a brilliant story. And I can feel the good, peaceful times not far around the bend.

2 comments » | Kids, me

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