how did i live without you?!

i have a new found interest in cooking now because hey... he does my dishes!

the weekend

the husbando gets every other friday off. it rocks the casbah. another long weekend of getting things off the to-do list. those of you privy to the life & times of kathryn will know. i am a list person. i love nothing more than putting that check down after i've scrimped & worked to finish something. austin gets a kick out of it cause i oft times put things like 'start the dishwasher' on my list just to have the satisfaction of that wonderful little mark. but you know when those mundane, chore filled, quiet days are randomly hilarious & cheery? playing music louder than our neighbors want while waiting for comcast, window shopping in the poshest santana row, & competing for the faster jeopardy answers wee into the night just the two of us. love it!

ellery has this awesome mackenzie-childs black & white lamp in her room & i wanted to change out the standard drawer pulls on her dresser with mismatched, funky ones to match the lamp. problem being this: the matching knobs at m-c's go @ about 25 bucks a pop. okay. her dresser has 12 existing knobs. veto. so chief & i went to anthropologie (oooo, i likey!) & picked out these fun new knobs! i know he could not have cared less but he totally acted interested, which is always a bonus.

which brings me to sunday morning: i went to make aust a big, hardy breakfast (a perk of dreaded 1 o'clock church) & tried to grab an egg from the carton. tried being the operative. the shell came. the egg did not. it was the weirdest thing. so naturally i used the eggs in a subsequent line in order to tilt the whole case & dish the egg from slot to slot finally making it to the pan. ran-dom.

the week

fun week of having ppl over to the new homestead, deleting austin's march madness bracket from the family website, making my first cake with clementine frosting (i WILL get better), playing at the park, making faces with ellery, steph & lexy cutting my hair on the patio, mounting the tv over the fireplace, working out for maybe the first time in my life (couldn't be more sore) & rocking everyone's keester at chicken foot.

blarney spoken here

happy st pattie's! i am totally jazzed today because i have a new hobby in the works... i know, i know i'm such a dork. i can hardly make a cake from a box but i'm going to attempt cake decorating! i signed up today for a beginners class @ michaels! course one is the whole month of april & there are 3 courses. i could not be more excited & i'm crazy nervouso too! i can't do this, who am i kidding?! i think in the next day or two i'll try my first 'from scratch' cake & we'll see how that goes... maybe next st patrick's day i'll post a pic like this of my own little masterpiece:

i put ellery in her only irish-friendly attire, a winnie the pooh onesie from grandma renee. check out the funky frog blanket she's on; it's from a lady my mom bowls with. gotta love it! ellery had her 2 month appointment yesterday & is doing awesome. here's the specs: 11 lbs, 22 inches, & 15 inch head... that's 50th percentile, 50th, & 10th. i teased austin that we've got one average kid on our hands. his response? (& keep in mind, he was very defensive) only physically! but i have to ask, with a head that small how smart can she really be? :)

movin' on up!

okay so not really a deluxe apartment in the sky but we're still excited. we're almost all settled in to our new digs except we don't get our couches for a couple weeks. & no austin, three folding chairs in a row with a blanket draped over them does NOT count. my favorite part of this whole move is that i got my mom's hand-me-down piano. when she bought a gorgeous grand a few months ago we stuck it in our storage unit. it was a gift from my kelly grandparents to my parents 30 years ago when they got married. kinda cool.
ellery's room has been the most finished, polished, put together from the very beginning & she's not even out of her bassinet yet. i was SO thrilled to do a nursery! & it's not even really done done yet. i'll post pics of her yellow bubbly room soon. off to hang pictures! happy hammering neighbors. oh apartment life, how i've missed you.

baby blessing

austin blessed ellery renee today in los gatos for our last sunday in the ward. in our church we offer our baby's a blessing of health, strength, intellect, and spirit. it is individual for each and is delivered by someone who holds the priesthood. specifically, austin blessed her to have a curious mind and a thirst for learning. he did a beautiful job. 

brian and renee (my in-laws) came out from idaho, as well as stephanie from utah. my dad, brian, my brother david, and austin were in the blessing circle. 

ellery wore crocheted booties that her aunt kelli made her and was wrapped in a sweet little white shawl that both austin and grandma renee were blessed with. my mama made her dress and it was exquisite. it was made of the same silk charmeuse and french lace as my wedding gown. there was pin-tucking and gorgeous handwork and she even went to the trouble of tea-dyeing other lace to match the silk. she used tiny pearl buttons that her and i found in europe that were carved in the 1920's in japan. it was a 100 plus hour labor of love.

my daddy is quite the photographer and took some precious pictures of ellery for me: