Dear Self,

Please stop comparing yourself to your older sister whose pre-pregnancy clothes are too big one month after birthing her children, while you are still fitting quite nicely into your maternity jeans whilst your 3 month old lay in your arms nursing. Also, stop stressing about your upcoming 30th birthday and the cruise to the Bahamas (both occurring the end of May). Instead, remind yourself on how much you love your three little ones (all of whom greatly contributed to your current "pleasantly plump" condition) and paste a picture of Marilyn Monroe to the bathroom mirror (this will especially help your post-shower ego). Keep exercising, eating tons of vegetables, and drinking silly amounts of water. Embrace your curves, dearie.

love, moi

p.s. also, please can you find a bathing suit like marilyn's for the cruise? hhhhhot!

If you happen to be in the area...

Come one, come all, and see The Quinn Brothers, LIVE!!! There has never been a show like it! They will wrestle bears, spin plates, juggle knives, jump through hoops, deliver babies, transplant hearts, eat fire, crap lava, exercise demons, milk cats, jump buses, comb hair, brush teeth, and much much more! Oh yes, much more!

WHERE: Wiseguys Comedy Club - 1270 West 1130 South, Orem
WHEN: This Friday and Saturday (Feb. 27th & 28th), 8 pm
COST: Not Much (But who cares? It's the freaking Quinn Brothers, man!)

Darling Cash,

Your birthday was a couple of months ago and here I am finally getting around to writing you your letter. As you may have noticed I've been pretty busy with your new baby brother, holiday hectics, a move to a new house, and such. A few weeks ago I was sitting at the table eating lunch with you and your sister, baby Oscar sitting in his bouncy seat on the floor. I watched you eating your peanut butter sandwich, a grape jelly beard appearing across your chin and cheeks, and suddenly I realized that I missed you. It occurred to me that the new baby and an attention-demanding older sister had forced you into a "middle-child" role, perhaps a little overlooked. New babies will mix up the family dynamics, you know, but I've been trying to be better at making time for you, my sweet boy. We've been reading books, painting, playing with trains, and baking. And I feel re-connected to you and it's good.

You have learned very quickly how to talk (chalk that up to your chatty older sister) and although you speak well for one so small, your diction is very slow and deliberate: "Can. I. Have. Cookie. Mom?" In the recent months you have also developed a voracious appetite, especially for "treats". I have to be careful because if you know there is a cookie or candy anywhere in the house, you will raid the cupboards, even if that means climbing atop precarious, make-shift towers which I'm always convinced will topple and send you crashing to your untimely demise.

When you're not trying to satisfy your sweet tooth by way of a death wish, you are happily following around your older sister, not unlike a puppy dog obediently trotting after his master, and you love to be her little human photocopy. Where Maggie used to simulate Daddy and I, you shadow Maggie and repeat her every move and even spoken word. She is your best friend and you hold her in high esteem. You gladly wear her dresses, leotards, slippers and gowns and even though you unwittingly play princess tea-party more than the average boy, you also have a healthy love for tools, trains, cars, trucks, and sports. You'll just get brownie points later in life for your inclusive upbringing which is surely giving you advantageous insights to the female psyche.

Favorite things in your life right now include: elephants, anything chocolate, music (especially the Red Hot Chili Peppers song "Hey-O"), dishes that include potatoes, hats, dinosaurs, the movie Horton Hears a Who, and baths. Also you share with your sister a love of shoes that borders on an obsession.

Cash, I love you so much my little son. Although when I first got pregnant with you I was hoping for a sister for Maggie (probably because my own childhood memories consist of happy moments playing with my sisters), I am so glad to have gotten a little boy. You and Maggie have a close bond no less special than that occurring between sisters, and now with a little brother that you will soon be able to pal around with, I know that you will cultivate a loving tie to him as well. Family is the most important thing, Cash, and I just want you to know that whatever else you may have in this life, you will always have a family that loves you more than anything.

Love,

Mom

Making...

{Making} mom do a double take:


Cash shed his pants and boots like a denim-wellie snakeskin before hopping into the bath... I walked into the bathroom and did a double take. Kinda freaky looking, no?

We LOVE baths at our house:



{Making} me want 15 kids:

He gets cuter every day... (so cliché, I know, but it's hard-wired into the mother's brain and I am no exception).

{Making} me cheat my "no sugar" diet:



Good thing I only made half a batch, cause we ate them ALL. (Well, all except the two that we saved for daddy- and that was really hard, daddy-- really hard...)

{Making} new bedding for Maggie:



I want to make a duvet cover like this for me... the back is a really soft, red dot minky fabric. So cozy.

{Making} art:




All of this {makes} life pretty sweet (and me pretty exhausted).

Picnic

Remember when I used to pretend to be an illustrator? Well, here is another little "work of art". Enjoy (or don't... whatever).




{click to enlarge for the full-fledged experience}

because it's a thursday...

I guess that's a good enough reason to have a cranky day.

Post-nap Pouts:


Little Miss Pouty Pants (practice makes perfect!):


Another reason: I was busy making this mess instead of paying attention to my little dollies...


And what do I have to show for that mess, you might be asking? Nada... I got too distracted by the awesome movie my kids were watching.

Remember this gem?


{I just realized just now that the actor there in that picture is the Oompa Loompa from Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory... fascinating!}

An Artist is Born...

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Child

Maggie Quinn was born in 2005 in American Fork, Utah at a time when digital photography was on the rise. Although they did not own one when she was born, Maggie's parents quickly upgraded to digital cameras after a roll of pictures documenting Maggie's first days of life came back blurry. From that time on Maggie became a frequent subject for her mother's obsession in digital photography, sometimes modeling for hours while she ate her dinner, played with her toys, or soaked in the bath. After a few years of being in front of the camera, Maggie's interest slowly veered toward taking pictures. For several months she merely requested to see the pictures on the screen of the camera after either parent had snapped a photo, but a few months prior to her 4th birthday, Maggie requested permission to actually use her mother's camera. This never before seen collection of pictures is a rare glimpse into Maggie's world, photos that capture her childhood the way Maggie saw it: her mother's large, loud mouth, her father's childless lap, her domineering uncle Tom looking down on her with disdain, and her aunt Tanya making faces at her. These are the shockingly honest pictures of her not so distant past that surely shaped her not yet actualized future.