Honey, apples, and my beanie baby

Autumn has been extremely busy for us. Between finishing home projects, committing to an exercise routine, adjusting to new callings, and adding another student to tutor, we've been doing some fall harvesting.
Some of you might not know that we are backyard beekeepers now - anyway, we got our second batch of honey and it is GOOD. It's a lot darker, sweeter, and milder than the first batch. In September we decided on a company name, bottled it up, labeled it, and sold it at our first Farmer's Market. The market was a really fun atmosphere, and the other venders were nice and down-to-earth. It was nice to make some $$ too! Our company name is "Gemstone Honey Co." since we live in an area where all the streets are named after gems. After harvesting the honey, it gets filtered through this mesh cloth. This is about 30 lbs. of honey I'm guessing. Bottling it up....an exercise in patience and cooperation to say the least. Kraig has since sold a case of it to his coworker, so we have about 15 jars left (and we have a good supply for food storage for ourselves).


We've also been harvesting our apples. I used to think it would be fun and kind of romantic/quaint to have fruit trees. I was livin in a dreamworld. It's cost-effective, but it's far from fun - it's a lot of work! Our tree has produced thousands of apples, and I've picked so many off the branches and off the ground but it seems like it will never end. Mikayla has been having fun though. She LOVES to gnaw on apples and help me pick them up. This girl loves to laugh, too. In this video she thinks it's funny to watch me jump up to pick a few hard to reach apples. But it seems like she was just trying to laugh because she enjoys it so much. Silly li'l boo.






I have just been savoring this time with my little girl, when she is so full of life and happiness. Her latest craze is her winter beanies. She used to hate hats, and would pull them off immediately. I wanted to change that for the winter to keep her warm, so one day I pulled out all of her hats and sat with her in front of the mirror. I started putting the hats on my head and acting goofy - she of course thought it was a game and wanted the hats on her head too. She would look at herself in the mirror with her hat on, walk around the room, and then check in the mirror again. It was too cute. Ever since then she's loved to wear her beanies. One night she brought it to me to put it on her head, so I did. It was bedtime, and I took it off for her to go to sleep but she started to throw a fit, so I let her sleep with it on.


Here's another one of her fave's.



Other quirky/cute things she is doing right now:

- plays hide and seek with us. She can't hide yet, only knows how to seek. LOVES to find us under a blanket, behind a door, etc.

-stashes her toys in random places. I went to yoga class the other night, unrolled my mat, and out flew a little toy man she plays with! When friends come over they often find little surprises in their purses or diaper bags.

-giggles when we get out yogurt or crackers. She loves the Brenton whole grain ones (yes!)

-somehow figures out how to push all the buttons she shouldn't on our electronics (like erase phone #'s in the memory of our phone, or cancel recordings on the computer)

-chases the vacuum

-wants to push the stroller and grocery cart (riding is so last year)

-is obsessed with pens, pencils, crayons, and paper. Already has 'decorated' our window sill

-likes to sit on the bottom of slides (this is a problem)

-feeds her bottle to her doll, and loves to feed us her soggy goldfish (yum)

-knows when it's time to get in her crib for the night, so she runs and hides behind it to play peek-a-boo...she already is mastering the art of stalling.

-This is our favorite. She loves to give head bumps to show affection. This is a picture of her asking for one. She lowers her forehead and looks into your eyes. Irresistable...



We love this girl and feel like very lucky parents, and in general very blessed in our lives....if only I was magic and could clean the house like Mary Poppins and then spend the rest of the day playing...

Was it worth it?

We've needed more dresser space and wanted some real nightstands for a while now...so a few months ago, we found a set of nightstands and a dresser at a yard sale. I asked how much for the set and the man told me it was $45...I only paused for a few seconds to decide whether or not it was worth it, plus the work I would have to put in to make them look decent, and the man quickly lowered the price to $25. I couldn't pass up the deal and so in a matter of minutes committed myself to yet another furniture refinishing project....for some reason I like to punish myself and take on these kind of things. I think it's the good deals I can't pass up, plus furniture in the store is marked up SO much, and I like the creative aspect of it where you decide what stain to do, knobs, etc. If I'm gonna do it I find solid, quality furniture that needs a facelift - no compressed sawdust junk. Anyway, this is what the pieces looked like when I was sanding them down.

Finished sanding and with a couple of coats of primer --debating whether to keep them light or do a dark stain.




Decided to go with a dark stain, but the stain didn't 'take' since it had been whitewashed previously. I could've spent HOURS and hours sanding them more, but I paid $25 for these things - I wasn't about to invest that much time in them. I figured that sometime we'll actually buy a nice bedroom set and just pass these down to our kids or something. SO.... I painted them a dark brown. I was kind of skeptical about whether it would look okay or not, but they were sitting around for so many weeks and I just wanted to get 'em finished. So this is how they turned out.

I'm not completely thrilled with them (stain wouldn've been so much better) but we're enjoying the extra storage space and I don't think they look awful. But after calculating the money I spent on primer, paint, sealant, and knobs, I didn't just spend $25 on these things, I spent about $100 and about 4 - 5 hours of my time. (Knobs can really add up quickly)
The question I have in my mind is was it worth it? I'm still wondering.....

This is definately my last furniture project.....maybe......let's hope so. Too much work.

Triathlon weekend

Last weekend we had 4 Cramers compete in the Daybreak Triathlon - Kraig, his two brothers Kent and Klaron, and Klaron's wife Amy. I am kind of chicken to do the half mile swim in the lake again (did it 4 years ago) but....I am planning to make myself just get over it and do it again next June. Kraig is trying to recruit even more of his bros to do a St. George one in about 9 months, and I can't just stand by and watch this time. This is gonna be too exciting to do as a family.

So anyway, they all came to stay for a few days and we had a really good time! We went on a walk up Little Cottonwood Canyon and visited the quarry where the rock used to make the Salt Lake temple was excavated.

This is her latest trick - climbing on anything she can.



The colors were beautiful up there - I love this time of year in Utah.


As we were driving back we hit a HUGE rainstorm. I took of this picture a few minutes before it started pouring.

This is when Mikayla and I were waiting at the finish line for everyone. She got a little ancy....ansy....(anyone know how to spell that word?)



Here's Kraig running in to the finishline.




Amy, Klaron, Kent, and Kraig at the finish line.


We all had a good time together! Especially Mikayla and Teagan (Klaron and Amy's boy)- they LOVED playing together and interacting. They just clicked. They would look at each other and smile, then one of them would crawl or walk away, and the other would follow. My favorite was when I got them to push each other on Mikayla's bike.



The last day Amy and Klaron were here, we went to 'This is the Place' Heritage Park and learned a few things about how this state began. There was lots more to do and see than we anticipated.




Thanks for coming you guys - looking forward to St. George!

Teddy Bear Picnic

I had to throw a little party for my Kayla bear turning 1...of course, as people say, the first birthday party is more for the parents than the kid who has no clue what's even going on. I had fun with the theme and decorations and the cakes. I was so busy playing hostess, though, that I didn't take many pictures of the decorations...so you'll have to use your imaginations. I hid large teddy bears around our yard - in the bushes, in the tree, on the ground, and had some picnic blankets and benches for our guests. I tied clusters of helium balloons to a couple of picnic baskets and to the benches, had a few miniature teddy bears sitting around miniature dishes near the entrance, and had a table set up with a huge Winnie-the-Pooh and little jars of honey around him (from our beehive) for the guests to take as a party favor. I don't think that many people actually paid much attention to the decorations, but oh well I had fun doing it. We played the Teddy Bear Picnic song and just had snacks, opened presents, and then of course had her attack a cake. Here are a few pictures of the cakes:

This is the one I made for everyone to eat.


This is the one I made for her to attack.


She took a little while getting into it, but she really had a good time.







Our little baby is growing up too fast.

Family Photo Shoot

As you can see, we finally got our family pictures done. I think this was the second time I rescheduled them and even then it was a stretch to get us all ready and keep Mikayla and myself happy despite the stressful day we had. I love this style of photography - not as posey, kinda artsy, candid moments caught in time...
Here are a few more of our favorites.

Mikayla's 1st b-day!

I know I just posted, but I have to post this video of Mikayla walking on her birthday.


We also let her attack a cupcake. She was tired and cranky and only smeared the frosting in her hair because she was fed up. She wouldn't even try eating it, and when I put some frosting in her mouth she gagged! I guess I won't have to worry about this one having a sweet tooth....for now, anyway.

A great week!

I've had a wonderful week for four main reasons! #1) last Sunday Mikayla took her first steps. We were so excited. She has continued to get better and more confident, and now will just start walking on her own. I'll post a video of her walking tomorrow, on her 1st birthday!

#2) on Wednesday I got to visit my wonderful friends the Thiriots. It's been way too long since I've seen many of 'em, and it was so fun to see them again.



#3) On Thursday it was mine and Kraig's 4th wedding anniversary, and he surprised me. We dropped off Mikayla at Chris and Lynsey's (thanks so much - you guys rock and you know who to call when you need to get away). Well I was a typical mom and nervous about leaving her overnight, but it all turned out great! So then we drove down to Manti (where we were married) and stayed at this beautiful, quaint little bed and breakfast called the "Yardley Inn and Spa" where we got pampered.



This was our room, called "Moonlight Roses" and this cool skylight was above the bed.



This is the dining room where we ate a fabulous breakfast.


This is the waiting room for the spa.



This is the outside of the inn with the owner saying goodbye to us.


It was just the perfect place to stay! I just love quaint little historical places like that - they're so unique and so friendly. After we checked out we went to the Manti temple and that was awesome.

#4) We finally started building our fence to make our yard more private and safer for Mikayla, especially now that she is walking. Here's the old fence:


And here's the new.

I feel very blessed and very happy. Life is good....and I am thankful for all of you to share it with, even if it's only over the internet.