My Sister LOVES Me

Today I went to my mailbox and pulled out a package from Vancouver. I wasn't expecting anything from Vancouver, but it was addressed to me, so I ripped it open.

THESE are what was inside! *silly happy noises*



So I spent part of the day wondering WHO my secret admirer was???

Not the Duke, not Sarah. . . .

it's Princess P. who loves me so!

For you knitters out there there is a pattern you can purchase for $5 HERE. Although, I think you would better off just knitting a mitten (with or without the 2010 on it) and then cut a maple leaf from white fleece or felt and embroider it on (you may also want to embroider the Vancouver 2010- if you have an embroidery sewing machine, or know someone who does, this would be easy as pie.)

THANK PRINCESS!
I HEART YOU SO!

Relaxin' in Utah

Have you been wondering what Little Sir and I have been up to during our impromptu trip to Utah (other than making amazing adoption announcements?)

Well, let me share. . .

There has been quite a bit of spinning (and a little bit of knitting)





This beautiful yarn is a testament to the magical nature of spinning. My mom and I died the roving a few months ago. It was ugly, but we decided that one of us should still try spinning it to see what happened. She took it home, but I ended up spinning it in the last few days, we both agree that it is beautiful!

I have been commiserating with my newest little nephew. He and I are both second-borns- I get it ET, I really do, buddy. I've got your back.



We've been loving on the other adorable baby who lives here. Little Sir has taken on the role of baby entertainer, especially with this little girl- and really who can blame him?



The cousins have been spending a good deal of time sans clothing. . . (Hellooooooo summer time.)



And having a lot of fun with clothing too. (SLC has an incredible Children's Museum.)



Last but not least. . . We've been ooohing and aaaahing over fuzzy pictures of an 8 week old peanut called Baby-J. (Squeeeeeee)

The Living Cabbage Patch Baby

I know, I know, no knitting, I swear, there will be knitting a plenty after this week!

But my poor little sister, who may actually die of the anticipation of meeting this adorable little Cabbage Patch Baby, needs photos of her and her giddy daddy. (seriously, he hasn't stopped grinning for two days- it is seriously silly.)

So enjoy! (Oh, and that is a hand knit sweater in the first photo, you can't see it very well, but it is there. . . see knitting!)

Daddy's Little Girl

We are so happy to welcome our newest little girl to the family. See how much she loves her Daddy! (My little brother- you're gonna be a great daddy.)

Beautiful Women

The women in my family are so beautiful and I am so grateful that my little sister arranged for us to have a wonderful day and to capture how much we mean to one another.

Thanks Justin!

New Addition

This is my beautiful little sister. With her adorable teeny tiny bundle of adorable. (4lbs 13 oz)
He arrived on Monday, and despite being miniature is perfectly healthy. His mom is doing great too!



Here are all her boys.



It is KILLING me that I have to wait for a month to see him!

February Sister Revisited

My mom finally took some much better photos of my Sister in her Feb. Lady sweater.


When I gave it to her she didn't look pregnant at all, now we get to see how adorable it is over her cute pregnant belly!


And, a little detail.

I'll be back on Wed or Thurs. I've got a corporate finance final on Tues and after that I'm free for a week and a half!! I can hardly wait!

Happy Birthday to My Favorite Sister

Royal Dying Day

Last Thursday was dedicated to mass amounts of fiber and dye, two babies, my mom, Sarah and I. It was F-A-N-T-A-S-T-C (and physically taxing- there was a lot of moving heavy water filled pots and running up and down stairs.)


Here is an overview of what we did.

A little something for the Duke.

Superwash Merino for socks.

BFL is our BFF



The Queen picked up some Socks that Rock mill ends a Madrona and dyed them, they turned out amazing!

This was the very ugly Hand Maiden sock yarn that I won in a blog contest. Much better now.

The Queen's other STR. Mmmmmmm.

Enough Patons Merino (originally natural) for a February Lady. (Ravelry link)

And the Queen wanted something bright and fun to knit a Wonderful Wallaby for Little Sir, so we whipped a little something up.

A sweater I bought at a second hand store and frogged. I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet, but I like it.

I also over-dyed the awful pink sock yarn and the panel of sock yarn. I didn't get good photos of them, but you can see them in the top photo.


Here are the boys. Have you ever seen anything so sweet?

February Lady and December Family

So my stealth knitting is revealed with possibly the worst FO pictures of all time.



The kiddos were just too darn cute and I forgot to get a photo of the Princess in her new sweater.



See, who can think about photographing sweaters when these two have the charm turned up?



Maybe she will get PBTB to take a picture of her in it and post it to her blog (hint hint!) It looks beautiful on her, and as she is hardly showing yet (at 24 weeks- sickening!) it is clear that it will look great on her after little ET is born.

Our trip to Utah for Christmas and New Years was on the higher end of the stress meter than we would have liked. It involved 8 hours in a plane (for a flight that should only take 2 hours,) two trips to the emergency room (none for our little family, W and Grandma are just accident prone,) as well as the usual stress of trying to make sure everyone feels like we are spending enough time with them (which we are never successful at, but not for lack of trying.)

We did enjoy seeing the Duke's oldest brother, his wife and their kids very much. It is the first time their two younger kids have ever been to Utah and it was a lot of fun to get to spend time with them.

And of course, getting to see my cousins and their kids and letting W and Little Sir "bond" was a highlight.

Readjusting to our daily routine has been proving difficult. Little Sir quickly grew accustom to haveing someone entertain him, play with him, hold him, and otherwise dote on him all the time. Now he thinks that I should fulfill this role. We have been having a lot more tantrums than normal. A few more days and we should be good, though.

Back to school for me was depressing. I thoroughly enjoyed my weeks off, but knowing I only have three classes to go gives me hope and keeps me going.

Lastly, we are currently experiencing a brief repeat of the 2007 nightmare. After weaning Little Sir it was time for me to find out what effect birth control pills would have on my now overly sensitive body. I was good through phase one, but upon starting phase two the muscle aches returned and tonight (day 13 or 14) the Chorea has returned. It isn't anything near the horribleness of the end of my pregnancy, but it is enough to keep me from sleeping. Needless to say, I will be visiting my doctor to discuss other options. Ah life. . .

First Father's Day

Here is the Daddy Duke and the Baby Boy on their first Dad's Day.

It's unfortunate that an angry barber did a number on the Duke's hair yesterday, just in time to commemorate the day. I guess it just makes Little Sir's shirt that much funnier. (For those of you who haven't had a chance to meet our family- it's funny because Little Sir looks nothing like the Duke.)

Here is the Daddy King and the Baby Duchess. (Yes, the little "boy" dressed in pink is me. Sorry Mom, I know you thought all your babies were cute, but at least you got cute grand babies.) Judging by how old I look this was probably even right around Father's Day.

Oh yeah, Dad, you were so cool (and the 70's were just a little bit creepy.)

And just for a little added cute factor, here is Logan and Little Sir bonding. Look close, it's kind of hard to tell with the striped duvet cover, Logan is resting his head in Little Sir's hand.

That is some serious cute right there!

Happy Father's Day to all of you Dads. We love you!

Let's Party!

We were happy to be in Utah for my oldest nephew's 7th birthday.

Kids, presents, food, candy, and. . . a new trampoline. Oh yeah, he's the new favorite kid on the block.

Princess P. loves parties more than anyone I know.

And it appears her son inherited the party gene.

It's a good thing I got the whole family blogging. Now I'm not the only crazy one running around with camera in front of my face the whole time.


There were other reasons to celebrate as well (or at least we were going to have a party anyway, so any excuse would do.) Little Sir figured out that he has stomach muscles and that he can use them to keep from falling over backwards. YEAH!


Here is Aunt R. (have we given her a blogging name? She should be the Countess or something, shouldn't she?) giving Little Sir a break from his ab workout.


And what do you do when the party animal gets a little out of control? Throw him in a basket of course!

And that concludes the trip to Utah.

Fond Memories

Little Sir and I stayed with my grandparents while we were in Utah. They live, conveniently, next door to my parents. It was wonderful for all of us. Each morning Little Sir and I would rise at our usual un-earthly hour of around 7:30. My parents, from whom I got my night owl tendencies, were still fast asleep. My grandparents, however, consider this a perfectly acceptable time of day to be awake. This worked out great. For the hour between waking and our first nap of day Little Sir would charm the three of us over breakfast and lovely conversation.




One of my fondest memories of growing up was the "bear skin" rug at my grandma and grandpa's house. (I'm not sure what kind of animal it was, but we always called it a bear skin.) I loved to lay on that rug. It was so much fun to see my own son react to an experience that I remember vividly from my own childhood. I know he won't be able to remember this exact experience, but I certainly will. It was so sweet. As you can see he was very comfortable, as well as curious as to what animal he had been surrendered too. He loved pulling on the soft fur.

For those concerned among you. . .

I am in Utah

I flew here to surprise my Mom for Mother's Day.

It was a surprise despite my busy body Mother.

There will be further remote blogging to come.

In the mean time, here is a picture of the Princess and I on our first Mother's Day with babies "on the outside."



Hope all of you Mothers had a lovely day.

A Big Weekend

This weekend our family celebrated 7 years sense its inception. (That would be mine and the Duke's 7 year wedding anniversary.)

We got up early, had breakfast, and then the Duke and I joined Little Sir for his morning nap. It was wonderful.

Then we headed out for a day of fun filled family adventure.

First- mini-golf


Watch the ball Little Sir


Now, stay focused, this is a very difficult shot.


Mama, are you watchin' this?


The victorious "team"! (despite my amazing hole-in-one.)

Then we thought we'd go down to Pike Place Market for a bit, but when we got down there it was an absolute zoo. All the rest of Seattle and their out of town guests had the same idea, so I jumped out and got us some cookies from Three Girls, and we headed north.

After a bit of driving around (Link was kind enough to make a delivery on his day off,) we headed up to Edmonds. We had a late lunch/early dinner at Arnies. It was OK, probably a 7, but we didn't order anything that really let them shine. The seafood was good and fresh.

Then we went out on the pier for an early evening walk.


Papa loves his baby.


Watching the horizon.


HI MAMA!


MAMA! Get me out of this thing all ready.


And one obligatory picture of me. (I would like him to know I was actually there when he gets older.)


Sunday a quiet day, remarkable only because we celebrated Little Sir eating his first "solid" food.


I'm starvin' Mama, when we gona eat?


Mom and Dad's on the left (avocado, salt, garlic powder, lime juice, tomatoes.) Little Sir's on the right (avocado, breast milk, ground cumin.)


OK, I'm ready!


First Bite. He was very excited.


He preferred my finger to the spoon.


What is this stuff anyway?


Mama, have you tried this stuff? It's pretty good.


Mess? What mess?

He ate about a quarter of an avocado.

It was a good weekend.