Concert

Hey everyone (this is from Chris), just wanted to let you know about a concert i'm putting on. It's on November 7th in Phoenix. We're bringing out this amazing singer/songwriter from Boston. His name is Chris Trapper (http://www.christrapper.com/). He used to play with a band called The Push Stars (http://www.pushstars.com/). Over the years i've seen him play on the West coast and decided to start doing shows in Phoenix. Check out his website you may recognize some of his music. I will be opening for him with my friend Joe for about 45 minutes. You can get a flier for the event on his tour page. Tickets are $20.00 presale and $25.00 day of the show. This will be an acoustic show where you get to meet him and hang out afterwards. If you want tickets paypal the money and the names of each ticket holder to chris@fightinggoliath.com and i'll send you your tickets. Hope to see you there!

2nd Annual Holiday Boutique!

Click here to view in a browser.

I know I'm slacking in getting this posted- so sorry for the late notice! Here's a list of what's going to be available this year:
Door signs
cards
teacup candles
notebooks
All Seasons decor- super cute!
hair clips
aprons
Scentsy
Jewelry
Super-hero capes
Purses
Custom Vinyl Lettering
Baby necessities
tin tiles
frames
chalkboards
Photo session booking
Home Decor- tons of it!

Titus Update- nearly 5 months old

Here's a quick photo of Titus aka Tight-a-ronus at Cosmo dog park. Also in the photo are his friends, Conrad (almost 2) and an adorable Golden Retriever that's also almost five month old.

Our dog is the one with his rear-end toward the camera. He's looking at another friend who's about 1 1/2 and there's a fourth black Dane just past them. Conrad is the one on the right, and the Golden is the one in the middle (in case you didn't catch that). The woman holding the Golden's face is standing right in the middle of the three, just so you know that your point of view is accurate for size reference. What's even cooler, is that Conrad is on the petite side for a two-year old. Titus is going to be HUGE!!! Kleven and Ezra have a blast running around the park with these guys. It's good to know they aren't afraid of these giant beasts, and the giant beasts are extremely gentle around the kids. The only incident we've had is when Kleven went running in one direction looking back, and a Dane came from the other way doing the same thing and they somewhat-collided (Klev got tossed) but there were no injuries.

If you're looking for a fun night out with the kids, you should come down and watch the horses gallop in the dog-park. There's an informal "Dane- Night" every Tuesday and Thursday evening and you can watch from outside the fence if you're scared. It's a ton of Fun!

A Whole Lot of Randomness

In a lazy attempt to get caught up I am just going to upload a ton of photos and then tell you what you're looking at... ready? Here we go:

These handsome fellas are getting ready to go to church. They were posing for me before I grabbed the camera. As macho as he thinks he is, Austin isn't too cool to wax his eyebrows. Eighty percent of the time, this is what Kleven looks like when we go to Sweet Tomatoes. I'm not kidding! Most of the employees remember us because of this! Oh- and Ezra digs the mac & cheese and chocolate milk.This is my "you'd better kiss me for the next one" look, as well as the " I didn't care too much about my appearance, I was hungry" look. I got all domesticated last week and canned Utah peaches and pears! That's HARD WORK!!! I even attempted to make my mom's famous dinner rolls... they weren't as pretty as she makes them.

The boys wanted to have a picnic... so I gave them granola bars and set up a picnic on the kitchen floor. Those granola bars must have been REALLY good.The boys also assisted Dad in "rocking out" on his new keyboard.Ezra learned how to drink the leftover milk in his cereal bowl! I LOVE how his whole face disappears behind it!I took both boys in for their regular checkups this week. Ezra got a toe-prick for his Iron test and Kleven got a finger prick for his, as well as a TB test on his forearm. Here's how he tells the story:

"The nurse just cleaned it real quick wifa cold thing (rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball) and then dried it off. Then she has a tool fingy that's pokey and just GETS ya wif it. And then there's a tiny gray square that SLURPS up the yittle blood drops and she put it in the big box and dat's all."

I had asked her to explain exactly what she was doing as she did it and it seemed to work. He didn't make a peep. I think he was holding his breath the whole time and I had to ask him to breathe when she finished. The TB test was a little scarier. It's the one where they inject a tiny bubble under the skin on your forearm and then you watch it for a few days. He yelped a little when she stuck him with the needle, but otherwise he needed very little consoling.

I could be off slightly with these, but to the best of my knowledge these are their numbers:

Ezra weighed 21 or 22 pounds (5th percentile) and is 31 inches tall(20th percentile). He's still our little Squish.

Kleven was 32 pounds (25th percentile?) and 38 inches tall (50th percentile). Good news- he graduated from Whole Milk! We'd kept him on it to try to fatten him up. Now that he's three, he eats enough crappy food to do that. :)

Happy October!

Can you believe we've made it this far into the year so fast!?! This is about the time where I start to sweat and hyperventilate... I am so far behind in my preparations for the Holiday Boutique Season! I don't know where the days go! I'm waiting on a shipment of dress forms... are you as excited as I am to see them?!!?
I had this great idea a few weeks ago: I decided to switch up the room-usage situation here and it has resulted in a bit of disarray. I thought the boys would like to have a larger bedroom, ( okay, I REALLY wanted my studio/craft room back) so I swapped the toy/playroom/craft closet for the boys bedroom/toy room. The first step in this process was to pick a new paint color of course! The room now boasts a blue called "Acapulco Sky", and its absolutely refreshing! Two coats and then a quick trim touch-up and it's beautiful! This endeavor also required emptying two closets (one walk-in), 12 bins of toys, two cabinets worth of books, an entire 5x5' cubby unit, and lugging around about ten FULL large Rubbermaid storage containers. Then it came to a screeching halt as I stood ready to dismantle the crib with a screwdriver... Why not get bunk beds?!?!? I am still coming up with reasons why not to... can't trust 'the three year old' to not jump off the top, can't trust 'the squish' not to try to climb it...etc. But the Pros outweighed the Con's: stacked twin beds take up less room than a crib and a full size bed, Kleven's favorite color is black (like the bunk we like), more room for playing, tons of closet space, and a chance to re-do a room (like I would pass that up) and Kleven is totally stoked to have a bed like his friend Gunner.
It's no surprise that I'm a Potterybarn junkie, and I fell hard for a sweet little number in the catalog, but I REFUSE!!!!! to pay retail after being spoiled with a 40% discount as an employee. The quality is hard to beat, so I held my standards high as I shopped around town. If you live around here, perhaps you've heard of Potato Barn? I LOVE their stuff, but was a little miffed when they wouldn't even ask their manufacturer about the possibility of getting a bunk bed in. Actually, the crazy lady just looked at me like I was asking her to give me her arm. There's also a place out here in No Man's Land called San Tan Furnishings. The owner seems to REALLY like southwestern and cowboy type decor, but they have TONS of catalogs to order from and I ended up finding the perfect bed there. It was less expensive than PB, not across the state on Craigslist, and better quality than the "assemble yourself" places, so I was satisfied. BUT THEN- I was talking to a friend and telling her about my experience and suddenly found myself in a very exciting situation!! Her dad offered to help us build our own bunk bed! He has built a few in his time and they are simple but extremely sturdy. So now I'm DOUBLY excited because we'll be able to make it for considerably less and I can DESIGN IT! We might even be able to afford the mattresses when its done! :)
On another note: did anyone else notice that there's an extra paycheck in October?!? Maybe it's because we're new to the whole 'regular pay-period' thing, but seriously!! What do YOU do with it? Put it away for Christmas? Catch up on bills? Treat yourself to some retail therapy? AND~
When do you start decorating for Fall? Do you decorate for Halloween? Real pumpkins or fake? It's confusing when you're trying to make it feel like Fall, but its 100 degrees out!
HAPPY OCTOBER!