family picture outtakes

since I didn't do a family new years letter (whoops) I decided I'd at least better post some family pictures.

but that sounded too boring.

so, for your amusement, I give you the Wilkinson family picture outtakes.

way more fun than the ones we'd really hang on our wall. :)

to get the full effect you'll have to click on them to make them bigger.


Picture 1: what's in Van's mouth?


Picture 2: Britt mid-hair flip and Emery with the most fake smile she can muster

Picture 3: Aaron - "Ok, I think we're done with the kids on our shoulders now... the fake happy smile is gone..."
Picture 4: Aaron - "Like I said, can we please get the kids off our shoul....WHACK!"

Picture 5: Aaron and Emery having an ugly face contest


Picture 6: Van - "Ooh, dad, you have yummy bugs in your hair!"

Picture 7: Van - "What are we doing here again?"
Picture 8: Van - "Oh ya, posing! I'm good at that!"

Picture 9: Britt - "Van... it's hard to look happy when you're clawing at me..."
Picture 10: Britt - "VAN!!!" (notice Emery and Aaron completely oblivious to the battle occuring next to them)

Picture 11: things are getting a little crazy. Tickle attack gone bad and Van is no longer posing. DONE.
Picture 12: Ok mom, we're past crazy. We're done being happy....
Picture 13: okay, one last go. everybody HAPPY!!!!! (wait.... that's too happy...)
Picture 14: I leave you with a cute upside down boy and his dad...


Happy New Year (late) from our family to yours!

bathroom makeover

the bathrooms in our house needed a LOT of work. the 2 upstairs had the most awful white linoleum you can imagine and the faucets started deteriorating the first time i scrubbed them. we didn't do special to our bathroom but we did do some fun things in the kids' bath. i promised kimberly these TONIGHT! so here they are!

BEFORE:

awful, dirty, i could barely stand to have emery in there to go potty! disgusting floor - and no tub - just a gross shower.

so i enslaved my husband to tear out the nasty shower and hang out with van fixing the new tub (during pretty much the only free month of his life... he loves me!) if van looks little this is because Aaron did it in September.

i love this picture of my handsome boys

the kids were so happy to have their own tub that they couldn't even wait for dad to finish the dry wall

but he DID finish it!

so professional. i'd hire him out, but he gets home at about 11:30pm these days, so he may not be much use to anyone. :)

and then commenced the painting. moral of the story: don't paint your house boring colors if you really want color - because then you'll explode and paint something lime green!!!!

what we did:

• replace floors
• tear out old shower and put in new tub surround
• new faucet and towel ring
• paint it green!!
• and of course... new bathroom accessories.
  

AFTER:

and in case you're wondering where you can get one of those adorable over the toilet shelves for your kids' bathrooms - you can't. because i rennovated a Goodwill special! yahoo!! the first of [hopefully] many projects like this.

BEFORE: (I think this thing was born in the early 1900s. no joke.)


AFTER!!! (sand, primer, white spray paint, $2.50 - usually $5 - knob from Hobby Lobby and a little bit of scrapbook paper and Mod Podge.)


the kids and I LOVE the green bathroom! and Aaron thought I was crazy, but he actually likes it too! :)

for you pregnant girls out there

"he's an allergic little dude." that's what dr. mcknight, the pediatric allergist, told me about Van yesterday at his appointment. he is very allergic to eggs and milk. slightly less allergic to peanuts. again less to soy. and he's allergic to cats and dogs.

i asked him what makes some kids allergic and others not. is it something i ate when i was pregnant? did i pass the milk allergy to him genetically (i was deathly allergic to milk as a baby and i'm still mildly allergic, if you didn't know)?

here's what he said: there is some (non-definitive) research that shows that eating large amounts of high allergy foods when pregnant can lead to the baby being allergic to those foods after birth. i definitely could have passed milk to him genetically. maybe.

he also gave a disclaimer: you could go to the best doctors at each of the best 3 allergy research facilities in the country and get 3 different opinions on the subject.

here's the funny part - when i was pregnant with Van, i ate at least 1 egg a day and had a bowl (not a serving - a bowl) of ice cream every night of the last half.

not so funny to Van i guess. note to Britt - careful what you eat next time around. :) the doctor said not to blame myself. i think he's just being nice.

sorry, Vander. mommy loves you! but you have to admit. that is one seriously cute allergic little dude.

sisters

i wasn't blessed with any sisters. and i never thought i needed any... until i grew up and realized all girls need sisters. lucky for me i married into 5. we all got to be together over new years and it was so fun. i really love my sisters! and i have the world's best mother-in-law, but any of you who know her at all know that goes without saying. :)

and thanks for loving crazy britt as one of your own you guys!

2010 reading

I read 6006 pages (of fiction) in 2010. That is probably 5000 pages more than the year before. Maybe not a lot to some people, but it's TONS for me! I have zero time to read. What made the difference last year?

1. Van nursed less than every two hours until he was 6 months old. That's a lot of reading.
2. I was having so much fun reading that I abandoned the treadmill for the elliptical for about 6 months because I can read while I'm on it. :)

I'm back to running. And I have no baby to nurse. :( I'm sure 2011 will be more like 1000 pages. Here's to hoping for a 7000 page 2012!

My reading list - just for fun! I really loved all of these books.

The Zion Covenant series - Bodie Thoene (books 1-5)
The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series - Alexander McCall Smith (books 3-10?)
The Hunger Games series
Enna Burning - Shannon Hale
AJ Adams - The Year of Living Biblically

i'm a mormon mommy blogger

i'm a mormon mommy blogger. and proud to be one. i know i don't make an impact like some of the big time mormon mommy bloggers out there, but i hope that at some point i can show someone, somewhere that my life is just as magical as i write it to be. i'm so thankful to be a blogging, baking, diaper changing, almost always pregnant or nursing, tear-wiping, furniture renovating, budgeting master, booger wiping, clearance shopping, meal giving, make believing, laundry doing, foodie, husband pampering, lucky wife, LDS church going stay-at-home-mom.

this article made me so glad there are lots of us who do make an impact on the outside world - even if i don't.

http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/01/15/feminist_obsessed_with_mormon_blogs/index.html

hiking, climbing and more hiking

the weather has been amazing here so we've been trying to get out as much as we can with the few hours we get on Saturdays.

here we are at Calico Basin... we did some Chaco climbing too because Emery was so into it. she really is a good little climber. i'd think that even if i wasn't her mom!

standing on a rock she napped on when she was 6 months old

here we are hiking "pyramid rock". on any adventure Dora still shows up. the first one she's singing the Dora song about our adventure and the 2nd one she's singing AND dancing. and so's Aaron. ha.


and last but not least we went hiking with Grandpa on MLK day since dad had to work. boo.

anthem east trail: