Little Drummer Girl

After yesterday's concert, Kayla decided she wanted to expand her repertoire, so she's picked up percussion now, too. Here she is, practicing on the bongos she got for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Sevison. These are much more colourful than the piano - and they light up when she hits the right spot!

Concert Mistress

Today Kayla gave us a wonderful concert on the piano. I recorded some video but it tends to take forever to upload so perhaps I'll post it to my other blog some other time (when I'm not headed to bed). She was adorable and LOVED that what she was doing was making such sounds. She squealed and squawked and bounced on Daddy's lap in her excitement. What a passionate pianist she'll be someday!

Closet Ice Cream-holic

At the grocery store today I found these adorable baby-sized tubs of ice cream. I just had to take a picture of Kayla with one. Anyone want to try their hand at writing a caption for this shot?

Take-Your-Kid-to-Work Day

This afternoon Kayla ended up spending a couple of hours in the office with me. I had her on my lap for a while, during which time she attempted to help me get some things done. She even typed a letter to Daddy while I did other things at my desk. (It was complete with formatting, including underlining, indentation and bold. Don't ask me how...) Finally, I had to put her down in order to finish some things. She did very well entertaining herself with the random items I found for her to play with. Mostly she just rolled around on the floor, as you can see below.

Still Life

I snapped this with my phone as we were on our way home tonight. My little BlackBerry occasionally pleasantly surprises me. This is one of my new favourite shots, though it's nowhere near perfect.

Le Chateau

Tonight Jason had wind symphony rehearsal, so I went alone to pick up Kayla after work. When I got there she was very tired and it was about time for a nap, so I decided just to drive around for a while, in the hopes that she'd fall asleep and take a nap in the car while Jason was at rehearsal. We ended up, at one point, down by the airport, where I discovered this beautiful facade. It's a wine tasting room called Le Chateau (French for "the house" - much prettier in French, for sure!), and it is really quite eye-catching! Then I realized something didn't look quite right. As I slowed for a better look, I discovered that it's not really a fancy building; it's simply well-painted. All of that is painted on the side of a rather architecturally boring building. Quite ornate, wouldn't you say? Wineries always are...

Relaxed and Lounging

I tried to upload a video for you today, but Blogger had an issue with it, so after half an hour of waiting for it to upload it didn't actually work. Sigh. So you get this adorable photo instead. We got Kayla a trainer sippy cup and put some water in it tonight for the first time. She had fun playing with it and trying to figure out what it was and what she was supposed to do with it...and if the video would have worked you could've seen her trying to use it for the first time. Oh well! Here she is, cuddling with Lumpy and clasping her new "toy" tightly.

A Day in the Life

Today I will take you on a short journey. Just a little trip through our lives on a very A-typical Sunday. (Usually we laze around until about noon, when we finally get showers and dressed before doing something about food, maybe cleaning something and then hanging out with the Nickoloffs.)

This was breakfast. I made blueberry muffins (for the first time ever) from scratch, we opened a jar of pears we canned in 2008 and I decided to set the table nice and fancy. Not sure why, I just thought it would be fun. (It was!) The muffins were delicious. Jason has the best recipe ever.


While we ate, Kayla played on the floor. We spread a large blanket out, gave her a few toys, and let her have at. She enjoyed every minute of it, including using her moose, Lumpy, as a pillow as she lounged around playing with her pacifier. And yes, she's still in her PJs. No need to rush these things on a Sunday, you know.


When Kayla went down for her morning nap, we ventured outside. We have a real estate agent coming to take pictures of the house for the listing (yes, we're selling - interested?) in a couple of days and we need the house to look GREAT. So we were going to conquer the backyard. Fortunately, God blessed us with wonderful weather, so although it was cold, it wasn't windy and the sun was out, so it made being outside working enjoyable. This is what our back patio looked like before we got to work.


...and this is what it looked like when we were done! It was very wet under those leaves...it had started to decompose and there were worms enjoying every inch of it. Blech. We used the dirt and leaves and mud to fill in some holes Raina had dug in our yard. (Bad dog!)


Next step: The shop. Here's the storage half of the shop. We hadn't done much but dump boxes in here for a while.


Here it is after we cleaned and organized it! Yay!


The other side of the shop BEFORE...


...and AFTER, though you may not see a whole lot of difference, it really does look better and more organized and spacious!

Whoo for a productive day! I feel so great after getting all of this done today...now to finish the little things around the inside of the house so the agent can hopefully get our house on the market by next weekend.

Don't Ask Me Why...

...I didn't take any pictures of Alex and Brittany's baby chicks while we were there today. We went over to their house for lunch after church and we got to see their new little chickies - they had five of them, and they're mostly blackish-grey. We even got to see them chase each other around fighting over a box elder bug Alex put in their enclosure. But did I think to take a picture? Nooooo. So here instead you get a blurry rendition of Kayla trying to make friends with Basil, one of their two cats, and Basil attempting to get a good angle to swat at the pacifier Kayla keeps swinging around. Kayla LOVED the cats and got so excited she squealed every time she saw one. It was pretty adorable. It almost made me want to get a cat. Almost.

The Best Time of the Day

I love the mornings. I am not a morning person (just ask my best friend Tara), but these days, I absolutely love mornings. And this is why. After I get Kayla up at 6 a.m. to feed her, she always sits on my lap and snuggles for a couple of minutes before she wakes up completely. It's wonderful and I will be so sad when these snuggle days are over.

Back Where I Belong

Yesterday Brandon (director of the WW University wind symphony and orchestra) called me up and asked if I was available to play tympani this Sabbath. I said of course I was and when did he want me at rehearsal? So tonight I went to orchestra and not only got to play, but I also got to watch one of the student conductors rehearsing. He did AMAZING. I was very impressed and really feel he's a natural who will accomplish great things with whatever group he ends up working with after graduation. In this picture, Devon, the regular tympanist, is playing tympani with the student conductor directing. The music I did is a Shostakovitch piece that was really fun to play. I'm looking forward to Sabbath!

The Experiment

So I tried something new with my hair today. I got tired of blow-drying it with the diffuser to make it curly and thought maybe I'd have fun with straight hair instead. I used to straighten it nearly every day (which drove Jason crazy because he much prefers it curly, but I liked it better straight with the cut I had), but for the last few months I've been using a diffuser to dry it curly in the mornings. It turns out pretty nice most days, but this morning I just wanted something different. This is how it turned out. Of course, this is about 3 minutes after I finished it, and by this evening it just looked flat and BLAH, but oh well.

Spring?

I could not believe how beautiful it was here this morning. After what felt like (and probably was) weeks of gloomy grey and dreary fog (which I like occasionally, but THAT MUCH?!?), the sun chased all the clouds away, blue sky made its first (I think) debut of 2010 and everything sparkled from last night's rain. I stood out on my front porch to take this picture and heard birds chirping all over the place. Amazing! And look - the grass is even turning green! Guess the groundhog was wrong this year...

HAY!!!

I've seen this truck (or this one and another like it) a couple of times now, near this same place around the same time. I took this picture this morning on my way to drop Kayla off at the sitter's house. Those are large bales...and a lot of 'em! My guess is this truck is headed East and it's turning left here to take Myra Road down to Highway 12 to head toward Spokane. But who knows?

Hearts and Love and Stuff

Well, it's Valentine's Day. Ya know what we did? Nothing romantic, that's for sure! Kayla dressed for the occasion, though; this was one of the very first outfits I picked out for her after learning we were going to have a girl. We got it at Fred Meyer in Boise; Grandma Sevison bought it and it fit at the right time! The adorable onesie debuted today, the perfect day for it. The neck was made a little small (it was tight on Kayla and she's a small kiddo), so we left the top snap undone and folded the neck down a little. In this picture she's enjoying some quality time with Mommy and Daddy while they wait for lunch to be done. That yellowish blur is a piece of celery she'd been chewing on and had dropped right when I snapped the picture. She was very excited about Valentine's Day, as you can tell...

Real-Time Cuteness

While I was at church this morning, my sister texted me this picture of her son, Landon. "Your nephew right now," was the caption. I love how his hair is sticking up, he's spread out, relaxed, and his whole face is smiling. What a cutie! He's only a month and a half old, but he's changed so much already! Now if only I could figure out a way to HOLD him via texting...

Useful Gifts

So since we didn't make it to the grocery store last night, we went this afternoon instead. As a result, Little Miss was wide awake and raring to go, so we decided to take her out of the car seat and let her sit in the cart like a big girl. Now that she can sit on her own, this worked out just fine. She seemed to enjoy it much more than simply staring at the ceiling of the grocery store and getting bright lights in her eyes. And it gave us a chance to use the awesome shopping cart cover my mother-in-law made me for Christmas. I love it! So did Kayla, apparently!

Not Yet Car-Trained

Tonight Jason and I had planned to go grocery shopping. So instead of driving all the way home, eating, and coming back into town to get groceries, we opted for eating out, calling it our Valentine's Day dinner. It turned out to be quite the fiasco, and Jason was forced to drive home sitting on a pile of newspapers. (You'll want to click the link for the full story, trust me.) It made me laugh, so I took a picture. I've never had a date quite like this one.

A Change in Perspective

For the past month all I've seen out my office window has been fog, fog and more fog. There was one day I couldn't even see the church, which is half a block away. Today, though, the sun came out and it surprised us all...unfortunately it came out just before sundown and was therefore only around for a few minutes before sinking below the horizon. This was the view out my office window before that happened.

Exciting Prospect

This week and next I'm spending all my work time focusing on the student missions project I ended up being project manager of. At first I panicked, thinking, "I have no idea what I'm doing." Then I realized that I can do this, and it will be a lot of fun. Then I got my deadline: Feb. 22. That's what my boss told me on Friday. So as of yesterday morning I'm excused from almost all other work in order to get this HUGE project done. What is it? Well...I'm putting together a book filled with stories, memories, thoughts and photos from student missionaries over the last 50 years. It's a commemorative book and will be more of an art piece than anything. I'm excited about it, and am so thankful to my bosses for giving me the opportunity to tackle something like this. They've been overwhelmingly supportive and I am so appreciative of that. The book will be 32 pages. I'm authorized to get overtime to get this done, as we need it printed by the end of April in time for our student missions reunion during alumni weekend. It's been fun reading through the stories, now to tighten up the text and select photos to get the first draft to the designer by the 22nd...

No Way

The box is empty. Finally. Jason and I purchased this box of foil sheets from Costco shortly after we were married. Or was it just before? We can't remember for sure, but if you base it off of our wedding date, we've had this box of foil for over five years now. Apparently we don't use foil as often as we thought we did. And...five hundred sheets is way more than we apparently realized. We finally used the last sheet tonight. Uh-may-zing.

Twins

Unintentionally, Kayla and Chloe ended up getting the same dresses at Christmas time. Merrie Beth purchased it for Chloe to wear to her church's Christmas Eve service, and Kayla got hers as a Christmas gift from Nana St. Clair. It's taken us two months, but today we finally managed to get them in the dresses together and get some pictures. We of course couldn't get them both looking at the camera at the same time, but they're still adorable. Look how buddy-buddy they are, with Kayla's hand on Chloe's knee and Chloe's hand on Kayla's shoulder. Adorable!

A Close Call

When I pulled into the church parking lot this morning to run through the music one last time before church, I parked behind a car that hadn't pulled all the way forward into the space in front of me. So I had to pull in extra close to make sure the back of my car was out of the aisle. I pulled in as far as I dared and then hurried inside to practice (I was late, as usual). When I came out after church to get back in the car, I discovered how close I'd actually "dared" to park. YIKES! They're actually touching! But I never felt a thing when parking the car. How's that for awesome?

Little Lady

Kayla has recently outgrown a lot of PJs so this afternoon I went through a box and found some bigger sizes. This new pair of PJs makes me smile every time. I love the antennae on the feet! (So does Kayla, actually...and it's fun to watch her try and grab them.)

A Big Girl

Okay, I know this is a week of Kayla Kayla Kayla, but I have been SO swamped at work and stressed about stuff going on at home that I haven't really put any thought into taking pictures of anything else. Starting next week I'll get some different subjects, I promise! Today I stayed home with Kayla and worked from home. I was surprisingly productive, and enjoyed some extra time with Little Miss. She's getting fairly good at entertaining herself, too. While Mommy worked, this is what she did (for part of the time). We took a break around 11 a.m. and ran down to the doctor's office for a fourth vaccination (she got three on Tuesday at her 6-month checkup) because they forgot to administer it the first time. Oops. That's okay, though; I think three pokes in one go is plenty, thank you!

Pea Face

In the past, I remember myself wondering how on earth babies get so messy while eating. I mean, there's a tiny amount of food on that tiny little spoon, and you just slip it in their mouths and voila! They're eating! Then I tried it. Babies have hands. And they like to use them. And this new big weird plastic thing hooked around their necks and draped across them is so incredibly fascinating....we must examine it to see what it tastes like! Plus, they don't tend to hold their heads still enough to necessarily get the spoon in their mouths the first time. So between drips on the bib, the bib coming up to the face for examination, and their squirmy nature as babies, I've finally figured out first-hand how babies get so messy while eating. My daughter is proof positive of that experience. This is how she looked after dinner tonight. And even after cleaning her up I found some on her ear.

2/2 2 2.2

Meet Levi. In this picture he is just minutes old, and is cradled in his daddy's hand. Levi was born 10 weeks premature via C-section in an effort to keep both him and his mommy as healthy as possible. Levi was born today, 2/2, at 2:50 p.m. in Seattle, Wash., and weighed in at 2 pounds, 2.2 ounces. Yes, really. And who are the lucky parents of this adorable little boy? Our friends, Andy and Kelie Bryson. Welcome to the world, Levi Thomas Bryson! We can't wait to meet you.

Magical Baby

This evening while browsing in the interwebs Jason had Kayla sitting on his lap. I was doing something in the kitchen when I hear Jason exclaim in surprise. I turned to see what had happened and he was asking Kayla, "How'd you do that?" Apparently she'd reached up her hand, touched a button, and turned the computer off. The power button is at the top of the machine where she can't reach. We still have no idea how she did it. But it was pretty funny. Here he is, trying to get her to explain how she'd turned off the computer. She never gave in.