The Zoe and Silas Show

2/20/13: Mommy Shorts is a very funny blog that I follow. She does all kinds of photo contents and I recently entered a picture of Zoe & Silas kissing into a Valentine's Day contest. She ended up writing a different kind of post  and our photo was selected as 1 of 21 featured entries. I found out today that her riff on The Bachelor was picked up by Huff Post Parents ! S&Z's picture is the main photo in the article about the post !  If this hadn't happened today, below would have been the photo of the day. It seems like that also could have been great fodder for Mommy Shorts.

8/2/12: S&Z checking out a quilted blanket that my mom made for me when I was a baby.

After our vacation ended last year I put together a collage frame of  photos taken in Maine to bring to work. The collage sits in my window sill and is a great reminder of what is really important, especially when daily work life is often so stressful. This year I took over 350 pictures in 4 days, so I had lots to choose from when I decided to print a set of new photos for the frame. I also (literally) bottled up some memories of the beach via an idea I saw on Pinterest . I put some sand I scooped from Race Point Beach along with a few seashells and a piece of drift wood into an old blue bell jar. In the background I put a photo of the kids building sand castles. I will bring this memento into work for my office as well. What a great way to preserve awesome vacation memories!

6/6/12: Admiring a picture of Mommy and Auntie Stephanie, circa 2001.

Zoe and Silas had so much fun playing with Sydney & Ivy's toy cameras on Saturday. After the playdate, Wendy actually downloaded the pictures they took and e-mailed a few to me! I have to post them here for memorabilia's sake. Considering how hard it was for them to understand to point the camera up, check the viewfinder, etc. before pushing the button, they actually got a few good/funny face shots! I esp love the ones of Derek :)  Love it! Thank you, Wendy!!

2011 [insert birth of two small children who subsequently hijacked my life] 2008 The year we got married 2007 So cute and (relatively) young and not even engaged.  Funny we made a Christmas card. Merry merry merry Christmas!!!

We were decorating the tree today and Derek came across an ornament that had my 1st grade school picture in it. Derek showed it to Zoe and asked her who was in the picture. She promptly replied "Zoe!". D & I looked at each other in stunned silence. See for yourself... [End story with me in tears]

In my office there is a nice view, Some colorful art projects, A calendar made with love, And smiles that make my heart sing. In my office there are just a few things to make it a little easier for this working momma to be away from home...

My stepmom, Mary, collected Beanie Babies back in the '90s when they were in their heyday. Over the years I gathered quite a collection of my own, like 'Garcia', 'Ally', and 'Spike', and 'Stretch'. They all had a connection to nicknames and things I was into at different points in my life. I have moved the box of beanies from place to place, and ultimately from Minneapolis to Boston. I hung onto them because I thought one day I might have kids of my own who would like to play with them. I unpacked and washed the beanies last year and put them in one of the bins in the toy chest. It has just been more recently that the kids are interested in playing with them, naming them, etc. Today we had The Brennan's over for brunch. S&Z had a blast playing with Holly, almost 4 years, and Kylee, a newly minted 1-year-old. At one point I suggested we pull out the beanie babies. The kids were SO CUTE and absolutely enthralled. Then Derek got into...

My friend, Tom, told me about a website where you can order a bound copy of your blog. I've had it on my radar for awhile, but I finally just got around to making a book of the first year of entries. It starts with 'Icing on the Cake' , the last entry before they were born, and it ends with Halloween . It turned out better than I could have imagined! I cried when I opened it... One hundred ninety-four pages of love, photos, stories, and milestones!

I received 4 canvases and paint in a handprint kit from my friend Lisa as a baby shower gift. I had envisioned where the canvases would hang in the nursery when they were adorned with cute little hand and footprints. Life with two babies has been *a little* crazy, however, so I haven't been able to mobilize to get the art project done until recently. My friend and co-worker, Eliza, has been coming over every other Sunday for the last few months to play with S&Z while I make baby food. Eliza will be moving to Chicago for grad school soon, so we decided to have one of her last Sunday visits involve the handprint project. I knew we would need another person to make this a success, so we asked our friend Stacey if she'd be willing to help out as well. We started with footprints, because those seemed pretty easy. Because Zoe started crying when her second foot was dipped in the paint, we decided to take a break to play and eat lunch. The handprints were next and we decided to ap...

Since this was Derek's first trip to Grand Forks, one of things I wanted to do was show him around the University of North Dakota campus. Both of my parents are UND alum, and I graduated from there in 1997. One of the attractions on campus is the Ralph Engelstad Arena . Since UND will no longer have the Fighting Sioux as the mascot, I wanted to buy a few things at the Sioux Shop and look around the lobby of the hockey arena. It's pretty amazing! I made such great connections during my time in the Psychology Department at UND, and the first-rate research experience I gained helped me get to where I am today. It was awesome to be able to finally show this part of my history to Derek! And of course, the UND bling for S&Z was a bonus too!