Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Where is Melissa?


Ok, so I am alive. I am just buried under 800 boxes of knuckleheads spring inventory, and dealing with Lily having a bladder infection...which is not fun for her or me (poor kid) and in the mix of that, Ruby got a tooth (she is actually being pretty good about it) and I am designing the spring 09 Hula Mula line. So, I will give you a little sneak peek of Hula Mula 09. This is a new fabric that I designed with my amazing fabric designer! I wish I could show you more, I can't wait to show it off! More pics to come soon!!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Family pics


Isn't this the cutest picture? Our fabulous friend and amazing photographer Shannon from Madison Ave Photography took this perfect picture of our kids during our recent trip to LA. Her style is amazing and she captured our family to the T. The kids were looking up at Trent when the picture was snapped, I love their natural expressions in all of their eyes! This picture makes me so happy, I plan to enlarge this for our house.
I will post more pictures of the rest of the shoot soon, as soon as I get copies myself! ( I borrowed this one from Shannon's new blog) check it out at http://www.madisonavephotography.com/blog/

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

We're home!


Disney was a blast!!


I have never laughed so hard as I did when I saw this pic!!! The picture is on splash mtn w/ Rosenlof, Trent, Lily, Brooklyn & Ted in the front!

Lily the dare devil, and Trents face is melting off!


I will post more pics soon.....

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Posing with a lazy eye!

We are heading to LA tomorrow to go to Disney Land! It was one of the kids christmas presents, so off we go! We have never flown with all 4 kids before, so wish us luck, we will need it.


So, back to my posing title, while in LA we are going to get our family portraits professionally done, by my favorite photographer, Shannon. (oh and by the way, I didn't send out christmas cards this year, because I knew we were getting professional ones done...so check your mail boxes soon!) Anyhow, I hate my pictures. I never have good pictures of me because I am usually behind the camera, or I am fat and prego and hiding, or just had a baby and I am hiding, or I had a bad hair day, oh and don't forget my best excuse..my lazy eye! I swear it shows up in every picture and drives me insane!


So, this time I decided to practice my "look" and take pics on my computer. Now I don't know if it is just me, but I look different when my head is tilted towards the right, then totally different when it is tilted towards the left. I am not sure why I even tilt at all, I try to take a straight on picture and then right before the click, my head slightly tilts.
After about 50 late night snap shots w.out makeup, I found the perfect tilt.........

Sunday, January 6, 2008

New Years Resolutions

I've heard that if you say it something outloud or to a group of people, you are more likely to do what ever it is that you said. So, with that said, here goes, my new years resolutions...drum roll please:


1. I will lose my baby weight, no later than April. This puts me at the good old saying, "9months to gain the weight, 9months to take it off!" Plus we are going to NY in March, and I have to fit into my pre-preg size to SHOP! I have done my diet homework. I think Diets are a myth, waste of money, waste of time. To lose weight, you just need to be practical and honest with yourself, and think about what you eat. I have to go all out, 100%, so I will cut salt, sugar, processed foods, and eat more veggies throughout the day. I will also start working out....at least 3 times a week for 1hr...oh and drink more water, (that is the hard one for me)!



2. I will be a better mom in 2008. I will take more time to just sit and listen to my kids and kiss and hug them till they can't stand it. I will be firm, but caring with them and set an example with my "wonderful patience". My dad was always strict, but loving at the same time, I am not quite sure how he pulled that one off, but I will keep practicing!



3. I will try to volunteer at their school more, and stop in more for "surprise" lunches.



4. I will cook more....ahem, that is a BIG one for me. I can't lose weight eating out as much as we do!



5. I will back off my computer! I recently discovered on our trip to mtns in Idaho, that I am much more productive when my computer is off, or not near me. I am addicted to my computer and I totally admit it. Whether I am editing pictures, browsing ebay or ready my 50+emails a day, I can't stop. Once I start, I ignore everything around me and zone out. I WILL back off and set a time limit.



6. We will eat a nice family dinner on Sunday's at our formal dining room table. I have great memories of Sunday dinners growing up. We always had a nice formal dinner with meat, potatoes, veggies, and always dessert. Most likely brownies, because they were dad's fav! My mom would sometimes start the meat before church and if it was fast sunday, the smell would almost make me cry because I was so hungry. Mom always made us set out the nice dishes, dad would mash the potatoes, and someone would fill the glasses with water...only water was allowed. We ate, talked, laughed and then faught over who's turn it was to do the dishes. I miss those dinners, and I plan to start in 2008.



7. I will try to be friendlier...I know this sounds odd, but I don't really make an effort to befriend people, whether it be strangers, or even people at church. I prefer to sit in the back, and people watch and wait for people to talk to me. I usually don't initiate a conversation, unless totally necessary. But I will try this year!



8. And lastly, I will buy less shoes! I have a shoe addiction, and I think it is Julie's fault. Julie is my BFF from the good ol college days. One of my first memories of this tall, thin, beautiful girl was watching her carry in this HUGE suitcase into our dorm room and finding that it was mostly filled with shoes. I soon found out that she didn't actually wear these shoes, they were more of a collection. Infact the only shoes she actually wore were bright orange rubber flip flops. But she would layout her shoes, and arrange them just so. I admired her wonderful shoe collection, and wanted one of my own. So, here I am 32 yrs old and I too have a shoe collection and if you ask my darling hubby about it, he will say that I too never wear them and that I have a "problem". In 2008, I will get rid of those wonderful 5" plaid platform shoes that still have the tags on them, and those wonderful red leather wedges that I just had to have...even though I was 9 months prego and couldn't even walk in them.


9. By doing all of the above, I will automatically be a better wife, and I am sure that my darling hubby will appreciate that!


Ok, there I said it all! Now I gotta do it!...Here's to a new year!

Friday, January 4, 2008

Dashing through the snow....


in a one horse open ...snow mobile!


What a fabulous new years we had! We ventured out of Washington and headed to Idaho to meet up with my sisters, brother and parents and their families to a cabin hidden in the snow at the base of the Teton Mountains!

I couldn't have dreamed up a more beautiful and picturesc scene......the rugged cabin was filled with wood carvings, moose heads, elk heads and more antler chandeliers that I could count. We were surrounded by huge fur trees and about 5 feet of snow. It was perfect!


The wood cabin was tucked in about 1/2 mile from from state roads, we had to snow mobile in. What an adventure... It was a blast, we piled the kids in the sled and rode in. We stayed for 3 days, and packed in all of the food we needed via snow mobile.

We layed out all of the food and sacks on an island in the kitchen, and the two little ones (Mya and Owen) circled that island like sharks waiting for food to fall..those two little ones ate the entire week, I have never seen such little people each so much in my life.


The cousins had a great time just being together and they played so nice together....with a few small minor "incidents"

During the day, the kids enjoyed tubing down a HUGE hill that the dad's made for them, it was so fast! The kids laughed the whole way down, and didn't seem to mind when they face planted in the snow. I don't think that they even noticed or cared that it was -4 degrees!


I prefered to stay tucked inside by the fire with Ruby in one arm and a nice fat cup of hot chocoate in the other hand.


We ate a lot, played games, ate more, and some of us party'd a lil too hard (ahem....Lorna, see last picture!)
Please note: NO, lorna was not drunk, andy found this bottle at the cabin and placed it on a sleeping Lorna for a joke.


So, here are some pictures of our adventures:


Tyson hooked up this cool sled to the snowmobile to pull the kids on, they loved it!








Thursday, January 3, 2008

pics con't