. . . a mighty change . . .

. . . tagg at 4 days old . . . . . . tagg at 6 months old {almost} . . .
. . . such a transformation . . .
. . . there are no words . . .
{he is the happiest, nicest, drooliest baby imaginable
~ so darling ~
and blue eyes . . . score!}
don't forget to enter to win by the end of today

. . . we will remember you . . .

. . . a fitting memorial . . .. . . for a much loved brother . . .
. . . dad . . .
. . . uncle . . .
. . . american . . .
. . . son . . .

. . . good gravy . . .

. . . am i ever thankful for my
immersion blender . . .
{goodbye lumps}. . . and, boy, did
these rolls
turn out yummy . . .
. . . thank you, booth . . .
. . . reminder: enter by sunday night . . .

. . . i'm thankful . . .

. . . so i'm giving . . .

. . . "even though the nurse says
he absolutely HAS to eat" . . .
. . . amanda said
this little guy refused to wake up
this morning . . .

. . . i know how he feels . . .
. . . but
{reality check}
there are rolls to bake,
{the booth promises fabulousity}
gravy to make
{where is my mother when i need her?},
etc, etc, etc . . .
. . . so let's blog, shall we? . . .
. . . in honor of little elliott's debut,
and to see who pays attention
thanksgiving weekend . . .
. . . i'll be giving away
five oops! this time . . .
{same rules as before}
. . . i bet they'd make
great stocking stuffers . . .
. . . leave a comment
{by sunday night}
for your chance to win . . .
{topics of possibility:
1) do you carve the turkey at the table or in the kitchen?
2)how many words in this post end in -ity?}
. . . i'll try to remember to have drew
{impartiality}
choose the winning numbers
via weekly email . . .
. . . and here's another
shout out to lyndsay
for the festivity
{word/not a word?}
of stuph from steph . . .

update: comments closed as of sunday 30 november 9:30 p.m.

. . . a new favorite . . .

. . . move over, ET

and your little human sidekick . . .. . . and how amazed i was
when i originally saw
pete's dragon . . .{how DO they do it? cartoons and real actors?}. . . to be quite frank,
i don't even know who she is,
but google's image search does . . .. . . but, there's a new elliott in town . . .

. . . and he's a keeper . . .

. . . meet elliott andrew . . .
. . . son of brent and amanda . . .
. . . born 26 november 2008 @ 5:10 am . . .
. . . by c-section after a long night . . .
. . . weighing 8 pounds 2 ounces . . .

. . . 2+1=3 . . .

. . . today's the day . . .
. . . this family gets a little bigger . . . . . . good luck, manders . . .
{oh, you too, brent}
. . . stay tuned . . .

. . . re: copying . . .

.. . . they say that . . .
. . . "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" . . .
{~ charles caleb colton ~}
. . . but i think it feels more like being ripped off . . .. . . about six and a half years ago,

i started sewing for babies ~ again . . .
. . . when addison was born,
i began to create
what would eventually become
oops!
burp cloths . . .
. . . early editions looked
nothing like they do today
. . . but i . . .

• re: fined
• re: vamped
• re: designed
• re: incarnated
• re: searched
• re: ordered
• re: modeled

. . . until i was finally happy with the . . .

• re: sult

. . . i can honestly say that
oops! are my original creation . . .

. . . and i find copying . . .

• re: volting

. . . tsk, tsk . . .

. . . please . . .

• re: frain

. . . from so doing . . .

. . . keeping up . . .

. . . the bar was set awfully high . . .
. . . and, knowing that
things aren't looking up
for next weekend . . .
. . . it was easy to to
take tyler up on his offer . . .
. . . to hang the lights yesterday . . .
. . . i'm especially happy
it was him up on the roof . . .
. . . and not me . . .
. . . i highly recommend
getting yourself
some son-in-laws . . .
. . . they're super handy . . .
. . . thanks tons t-jo . . .

. . . people who need people . . .

. . . i think we can all agree on this . . .
. . . friends rock . . .
. . . really ~ who needs a therapist? . . .
. . . let's just celebrate
the days these girlfriends were born . . .
{this treatment = just what the doctor ordered}. . . we laugh . . .
. . . we cry . . .
. . . we hear amazing stories . . .
. . . seriously ~ we pay attention . . .
{have you heard the one about the 2 1/2 year old twins and the clothes dryer?}
. . . even our server was shocked . . .
. . . and after a couple of hours . . .
. . . we feel so much better . . .
. . . let's do it again . . .
. . . say ~ mid-december . . .
{again . . . clicking on photos will vastly improve them!}

. . . dear elliott* . . .

. . . today was the day . . .. . . that you were supposed to
make your grand entrance . . .
. . . and just so you know . . .
. . . your stuff is ready &
we're all waiting for you . . .
*2 "l"s and 2 "t"s ~ that's their final answer

. . . in timely {?} fashion . . .

. . . hip hip hooray . . .
. . . we got mail today . . .
. . . a letter dated 17 august 2008 . . .
. . . drew told us
he had mailed it
1 september 2008 . . . . . . the salt lake city postmark
is dated 18 november 2008 . . .
. . . we received it on 20 november 2008 . . .
. . . proving, yet again,
that the postal system
north of the border
is clearly superior . . .
{irony from the first paragraph:
"i figure you'll get this sometime
in late september or october."}

. . . on a mission . . .

. . . amazing p-day wear is
soon-to-be on its way
to mexico . . .
{as soon as i wash it to make it look "used"
& hopefully less likely to be stolen}. . . for drew & his new companion . . .
. . . who i seriously hope
wears a medium . . .
. . . get yours here . . .
. . . thanks for the tip, sue . . .
. . . in other news ~
ivy is taking over my back yard . . .

. . . uncle scott . . .

. . . we will miss you . . .{amber and uncle scott (1953-2008) ~ christmas 1981}

. . . weeds . . .

. . . thoughts on a monday morning . . .
. . . does it surprise you to learn
that the phrase
"noxious weeds"
is nowhere to be found
in the scriptures? . . .. . . noxious weeds ARE, however, found . . .
. . . in rich abundance . . .
. . . in my flower beds . . .
. . . along with plentiful supplies of cat poop . . .
. . . and contrary to friends' opinions . . .
. . . tomatoes are NOT noxious weeds . . .
. . . what's on your mind? . . .

. . . i felt like fievel . . .

. . . you know . . .
. . . that whole
"somewhere out there"
concept . . .
. . . as i sat last night
watching the satellite broadcast
of a huge party
attended by over
100,000 faithful saints
in mexico . . .
. . . i kept looking for him,
but was never able to
spot my son . . .
. . . still ~ just knowing
we were watching the same show
felt good . . .
{i know ~ corny . . . deal with it!}

. . . thou shalt not covet . . .

. . . thy neighbor's house . . .
{exodus 20:17}
. . . remember my "nosy" door? . . .
. . . well, here's me today . . .
. . . stealthily taking pictures
through its shutters . . .
. . . my neighbors
soon will be celebrating
a family wedding . . .
. . . they've been
working super hard
on their yard/house . . .
. . . sprucing up/pruning . . .
. . . building planters/planting in them. . .
. . . installing lots of electrical stuff/painting . . .
. . . etc/etc/etc . . .
. . . and i've been really happy for them . . .
. . . BUT . . .
. . . they are so lucky you guys . . .
. . . they already have
their brand new christmas lights up . . .
. . . all the way around the house . . .
. . . front, back, sides, upstairs . . .
. . . every peak and gable . . .
. . . and, fine . . .
. . . i'll admit it . . .
. . . i'm way jealous . . .

. . . if i thought it would work . . .

. . . i kind of wish i could just
dump my desk upside down today
and everything on it would
disappear forever
instead of actually going through
the stack of old/junk/i don't want it
mail/debris that's sitting there . . . . . . it worked for tate . . .

. . . meow . . .

. . . these are currently on their way
to some sassy twin girlies in texas . . . . . . p.s. this is the only kind of cat i like . . .

. . . changed for good . . .

. . . i once gave an
entire relief society lesson on
change . . .
"change is like manure
~ it stinks ~
but it's good for growth"
. . . for sure, though,
the biggest/best change has been
the fact that this house . . . . . . and this family . . . . . . turned into this house . . .. . . & this family . . .

. . . not pictured ~ tagg and elliot{t} . . .