If you've been naughty this year, don't worry. You'll still get a present.

But this might be it.

Tilly doesn't play well with other children.

 

Especially when she's hungry.

 

Just kidding. But I was a little creeped when I walked into her room to find her gnawing on these.

 

They were originally meant to be used in a little skit. Now they just kick around the house for Tilly to chew on, or Chace leaves them in strategic places to give me the heebie-jeebies, like poking out of drawers or holding back doors as doorstops. What can I say? It's like Halloween all year 'round at my house!

Who does that?!

After saying goodbye to Chace this morning, I walked by the dining room and did a double take. What's funny about this picture?

 

Alright, alright, besides the fact that strollers don't belong in dining rooms (and tables and chairs do!) and mustard yellow doesn't belong on walls and insulation doesn't belong on floors and gaudy chandeliers don't belong in ghetto foreclosed houses... Look beyond all that.

Do you see it? Let's zoom in, shall we?

 

How now?

 

Who puts shoe trees in their ugly old man slippers?
Answer: My husband. (Although he'll probably deny it and use my signature excuse: "The Brownies did it!")

Someday I'll tell you all the other weird things he does. And someday, if you're really lucky, I'll tell you about Brownies . But for now, while we're talking about small mythical creatures, I'll leave you with the best part of a favorite childhood movie (okay fine, it's still a favorite), The Gnome-Mobile! Enjoy!

Six Months Older and Cuter, Too!

April 2010
Height: 20.5 inches (90th percentile)
Weight: 7 pounds (35th percentile)

October 2010
Height: 26 inches (60th percentile)
Weight: 15 pounds (30th percentile)
Cuteness: off the charts


Saturday marked the half birthday of our little bambina, and what a happy six months they have been! Chace and I have spent them mostly staring at Matilda, then back at each other, then back at her, wondering if she's real. She is too good to be true. We are as smitten as ever.

Matilda Jane, on the other hand, has spent the past six months...

 

...growing teeth and chins...

...chillin' in her excersaucer...

 

...flying about the house (with a little help from her Pappy)...

 

...doing Pilates with her Mama...


...wrapping her Papa ever more tightly around her chubby little finger...

...getting her vitamin D on family jogs...

...staring down her Lamby...

 

...falling asleep in unlikely positions...


...practicing her scare tactics in preparation for trick-or-treaters...

 

...drinking as much bath water as she can get...


...and being generally adorable all of the time! Happy half-birthday Tilly!

You want more pictures?

Well, my time is limited, so I'll just choose one picture to sum up life these days. I call it Curds and... HEY!!!

At the request of the formidable Aunties...

... I am posting some pictures of the Gnome, but there are so many winners that I can't narrow them down. So here are a few of my favorites.

 

 

 

Yes, those are happy faces. She's a psycho.

and more

 

 

 

 

Chops!

 

 

She's getting dangerously close!

 

 

Home from church today with a wicked cold, I stumbled on some wonderful new listening material! These past few days I have spent many hours alone with my paint brush and computer listening to this. Now I have this too! Oh the blessings of technology! There are so many great programs, talks, documentaries (I can't wait to watch this one on Arthur Henry King), and even great stuff for kids (how cool is this? And this?!) Listening to a talk just now by the lovely Ann Madsen, this excerpt struck me.

“We have promised to take upon us the name of Jesus Christ. What a seal on our lives! Sometimes we speak His name hurriedly, absent-mindedly, or simply by wrote. Elder L. Edward Brown cautions us: 'When we use these sacred words, “In the name of Jesus Christ”, they are much more than a way to get out of a prayer, out of a testimony, or out of a talk. We are on holy ground. We are using a name most sublime, most wonderful, most holy, the very name of the Son of God. This conclusion to prayer may, in many ways, be the most important part of the prayer.’ May I suggest that we use those moments, when His name is on our lips, to pause, speak it slowly, and remember Him with great reverence and love.”

Ann Madsen, Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee, BYU Women's Conference, 1997

What we're working toward

I still remember the first time I saw this in 2006. I found it very insightful and profound then, one of my favorite BYU devotionals ever, and I've revisited it several times since. We watched it tonight for family night. I highly recommend it. Tell me what you think!

BYUtv - BYU Devotional: Douglas L. Callister (9/19/06)
More on this man.

quote of the day

Me: (Moan.) I don't feel so good.
Chace: (Sniff.) You don't smell so good.

And alas, he's right. Thanks for the honesty.

My Better Half

As usual, Wendell Berry says it best. Borrowed thoughts on our fourth anniversary:

"Walter Cotman always spoke of Mary as Elton's "better half." In spite of his sulks and silences, she would not go so far as "better." That she was his half, she had no doubt at all. He needed her. At times she knew with a joyous ache that she completed him, just as she knew with that same joy that she needed him and he completed her. How beautiful a thing it was, she thought, to be a half, to be completed by such another half! When had there ever been such a yearning of halves toward each other, such a longing, even in quarrels, to be whole? And sometimes they would be whole. Their wholeness came upon them as a rush of light, around them and within them, so that she felt they must be shining in the dark."

Wendell Berry, A Jonquil for Mary Penn



Four years down, forever to go! WAHOO!

If you like lovely, unique and interesting jewelry and other sweet doodads, go here and meet my lovely, unique and interesting friend Pamela. I could spend hours browsing her Etsy shop. She makes the most marvelous pretties. (Plus I'm trying to win her give-away!) Anyway, enjoi!

Our True Identity

Something to keep in mind today. And always!

Good morning, Spike.

 

 

I'm reading on the couch when Chace calls urgently from the next room, "Um, Rivka, can you please come and help me with something?" I, made suspicious by the strange tone in his voice, mosy into the kitchen to find him laying the table:

 

We have an impromptu mini-date with ice cream cones and a game of Briscola (a Sicilian card game.) House rules say the winner gets a foot rub, but somehow the loser always gets one too. Nice how that works out, especially tonight when I happen to be the loser.

Why is my husband the best?

Because when he comes home from a business trip in Minnesota, he brings me this:


Yes, Chace lovingly held this real pizza napolitana on his lap the whole flight. Betcha didn't know they let pizzas through airport security, did ya?

Moods

For Matilda's 3-month birthday, she wanted to play her favorite game, "Moods" where one player portrays a certain mood and the others have to guess it. Our best guesses:

Persnickety

 

Disdainful

 

Indignant

 

Dubious

 

Melodramatic

 

Mischievous

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