Movie Stars

Remember that one time Jason and I were extras for a day? The new version of the Joseph Smith movie is out! And we're in it!To see us, go to www.radio.lds.org and go the last two minutes of the movie. At exactly 1:00:47, freeze the screen, and bam! I'm right there in the 2nd row! Ok, now look back at the temple door. Maybe six rows from the back, a few heads to your right, you can see Jason's head. At second 48, someone moves their head and you can see me again to the left of Jason for a split second! Cool huh!What's even cooler is knowing how they made this scene. What looks like hundreds of people in the Nauvoo temple was really maybe 75 people at the LDS Motion Picture Studio in front of a green screen. They filmed us in sections of rows, then we got up, shuffled around and sat in different seats, and they filmed the same few seconds again and again. When they put it all together, we look like a huge congregation, when really, each of us are in there in 6 or 7 different places!With Lucy Mack Smith!

Our big claim to fame as movie stars, and I wasn't allowed to wear ANY makeup!

Six-Months? Already?

How did that happen!? Well, we tried a photo shoot this afternoon, but Link was not in the mood to do anything. We looked ridiculous. This is all we got:

So you may see this same outfit when we try again with family Easter pictures in two weeks; that is, if his pants will fit him in two weeks.Then we went back inside, and tried these. A naked Lincoln is a happy Lincoln. Grandmas, let me know if you'd like a 5x7 of one of these and I'll put one in the mail for you. Or maybe wait for the Easter photo shoot. I have a good feeling about it.

Quality Tourism

My family came to visit us for their Spring Break (sans Travis, Braden, and Janae)! It was a little crazy, but we housed ten people for four days and nights in our little place and had a great time! Lincoln and his uncles The highlight of the week for the boys was probably all the public transportation--we bussed, subwayed, and ferried everywhere.

Old North Church along the Freedom Trail

We served up some Boston cream pies, Red Sox hotdogs, Boston baked beans, and New England clam chowder.

Boston Temple

We spent a day at the Museum of Science (thank you Pam for the passes!). At this demo, they asked for a volunteer with a lot of energy, and appropriately chose Spencer, crazy boy.

Lincoln's new thrift-store snowsuit and typical "I'm freezing and I can't move my arms" look.

Thanks for coming, Fam! Thanks for letting me show off our city!

Every Day is Laundry Day

"Mom, why do you keep putting me in things and taking pictures?! Pumpkins, footballs, snowsuits, laundry baskets..."

The Very Hungry Cater-Lincoln

Hurray! Done with sewing up the baby room! Cutest fabric ever, right? I just hope looking at all this food doesn't turn him into a junk food junkie.My machine does mini-embroidery! Neato, huh.

Thank you to Mom Millar for the stuffed caterpillar and the book! And thank you to Sew-Fisticated Fabrics in Cambridge--my new all time favorite fabric store.

Umbria

For today's outing, me and the babe journeyed downtown to meet up Jason for lunch (and to show off his child to his co-workers)! Its "Restaurant Week", and several ritsy restaurants are doing specials on select menus. We tried out Umbria Prime, and I give it 5 stars. Also nice to see Jason during the daylight hours once in a while :) Lincoln wins the hearts of every female on the buses and subways, but if had a quarter for every time I hear, "Oh, what a pretty baby girl!" PS--he loves his new umbrella stroller! He's probably not supposed to be toted around in one till he can atleast sit up, but he's all about being able to sit upright and see what's going on better.

Mirror, Mirror

Like any typical baby, Lincoln is in love with his reflection!

Happy 5 months old, little boy!

Teething Bites

Lincoln's first little bottom tooth popped out yesterday! We're big fans of Orajel lately. This is fun and all, but how many more teeth to go? Really?!

More Bridesmaid Fun

My amazing super-mom 2nd cousin, Natalie, was a bridesmaid in a wedding last weekend. A few months back they ordered dresses from a certain Chinese Tailor overseas, who specializes in making custom dresses out of a picture and measurements you send them. Problem: Three of the dresses arrived in the wrong color (pink instead of champagne), and all seven of the dresses had necklines too wide and low to cover garments. All seven of them live in different states, and one of them hadn't even gotten her dress from Hong Kong yet. With 3 weeks to go before the wedding, I got the call for help. Each of the bridesmaids sent me their dress, and I unpicked every piece of the pink dresses, cut out new pieces in champagne fabric matched to a sample the bride sent me, and sewed the new dresses together making alterations as needed. To the eggplant ones, I took off length from the hem to make the neckline trim. I added a little gathered tulle underneath each dress so they wouldn't be so flat and clingy, and re-made the fabric flowers at the waist.

It was a fun race, but I'm so glad its over! Happy wedding!

The Door to Paradise

We got to hear Jason's cousin Peter sing in his choir this weekend! Its fun having atleast one family member in town!

Peter sings in the Boston Choral Ensemble. They sounded lovely!

The concert was in the Old South Church downtown! Very cool.

The Sewing Machine Saga

Now I'm not one to post lengthy blogs, but this is some story. I've been trying to settle the matters of getting my new sewing machine for the last 2 1/2 months. I've never had a problem with eBay, and I always make sure the sellers are top-rated with excellent feedback and a long history. I purchased through eBay because this $900 machine was being sold for roughly $300, new in box. That being said:

• Dec 19 Bid on my dream machine
• Dec 21 Lost bid, but the buyer fell through, so I was given 2nd chance offer
• Dec 22 Purchased machine, asked seller if she could hold it for a week, then send it straight to Boston since we were moving over the break
• Jan 02 Dropped off my old machine to my mom in exchange for money off my phone bill
• Jan 07 Still no machine, asked seller to send it, she said she's snowed in
• Jan 19 She asked if I had recieved the machine yet
• Jan 26 She realized she never sent it, and would get it out "Friday"
• Feb 02 Still no machine, she said she had a family matter come up and she would refund my money
• Feb 03 Purchased machine from seller #2
• Feb 08 Receive totally wrong machine model (a much cheaper, less advanced machine), sent an angry email
• Feb 09 Seller #2 said it was an honest mistake and told to send back the wrong machine, I said 'ya right' and held it hostage
• Feb 10 Seller #2 said she would send out the correct machine "Friday"
• Feb 15 Still hadn't recieved refund from Seller #1, filed a complaint
• Feb 16 Money refunded, but still no machine from Seller #2
• Feb 21 Opened a case with eBay to solve the problem
• Feb 28 Still no response from Seller #2, so eBay sent me a free shipping label to return the wrong machine and refunded my money, again
• Mar 01 Purchased the machine for the 3rd time from a non-eBay sewing machine store for $370, fine

(But meanwhile I had seven bridesmaids dresses to do up, so I was borrowing machines from sisters in the ward. The wedding was today, and that is a whole 'nother blog yet to come)

Mar 04 FINALLY opened the box of my brand new Singer Curvy 8770. Totally worth the wait and the time it took to save up for it. Here is why this is one incredible machine that I've had my eye on for, dare I say, years. In the half hour I've sewn on it tonight, I've wanted to weep over how superior it is to anything I've ever worked on before. I would liken it unto someone's first ride in a new car after getting around on a bike for the past decade.

In and Out

(Thanks for the idea Chappy)

You can't tell, but my biceps are huge now from lugging him around. Huge.

And yes, Link is sporting the 9-month clothes now. Its so funny to me how we sit around at Mommy Club and compare our babies, and mine looks just the same size as all the 9-month little girls, who can sit up and feed themselves cheerios and are starting to crawl, and all my boy can do is lay on the floor. He can't even roll over! But he's only 4 months old!

Cupie

He did it! The baby slept through the night! An entire 12 hours where I didn't see his cute little face crying for food! For the first time in 20 weeks, I got a solid uninterrupted 8 hours of sleep! Another much anticipated and celebrated milestone, if it lasts.

Sorry, I don't have any pictures of him sleeping to go along with this blog. But here is a very rested, happy baby!

Our Cupie Doll

Payback

Back when I was the breadwinner, sometimes I would bring home a saran-wrapped caramel popcorn ball from cooking class that day, or a sugar cookie leftover from parent/teacher conferences to Jason. Now he brings me ice cream-filled cupcakes and entire pies of cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory leftover from work celebrations. Hello, these things are $46.95 a pie! I think he's found the perfect job :)

Really, Boston?

• Streets without street names—seriously, only half of them have a sign to them.
• No rules on the road. Not your right-of-way? Not a problem. If there’s space, pull on in, if there’s time, go on through. And if you don’t, you’re going to get honked at. I could make a list of all the illegal traffic maneuvers I’ve seen just this weekend.
• Our church building has gated underground parking.
• Every Sunday, atleast a dozen of the sisters are wearing slacks to church. Apparently, this is the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints of New England".
• Everyone wears these long super puffy coats in ugly colors. It’s a fashion trend I’m having a really hard time accepting.
• It’s getting better each day, but when we first moved in, it was starting to get dark at 4pm, and completely dark by 4:30pm.
• Having a compact car is definitely the way to go. Every time we have to parallel park, which is everywhere except church, I’m glad I was inspired to buy my stubby Hyundai years ago. (PS—our town of Somerville is the most densely populated city in New England, with more than 11,600 registered vehicles per square mile!)
• Dunkin Donuts are EVERYWHERE
• Whatever time Mapquest quotes, it will take you almost exactly 3x as long to get to your destination
• Babies are so novel around here! Everywhere we go, its like people have never seen an infant in this town.
• No one uses their blinkers. I feel like an out-of-towner every time I do.
• They're 'rotaries', not roundabouts, and 'carriages' not shopping carts
  

  (On our weekly shopping trip to the local "Market Basket", where shopping on an evening or Saturday will make you want to shoot yourself)

Solids

We had a trial run with some rice last night!

I never really had a doubt that our beefy boy wouldn't be all about cereal. He gobbled up the whole serving in 2 minutes or less!

Yummy.

Bumbo

We realized that we, the parents, haven't boughten a single thing for our boy! We've been so blessed with hand-me-downs from aunts, sisters, mothers, and friends that we've been so taken care of! Now with a few paychecks in the bank, we bought our first baby purchase: a little baby chair for Lincoln! Its a knock-off brand of Bumbo, but this Lionheart model has bigger leg holes, so this baby's thighs will fit in it a few more months. Best. Purchase. Ever. Its so fun to have him sit with us at the dinner table! And it'll be a great high chair while we're a little cramped for space in this apartment. Lately, it works great to have him sit in it on my sewing desk eye-level with me and we can chat away while I sew stuff. These 7 bridesmaids dresses are almost done, halleluah!

Daddy's Boy

That's for sure. The two of them get along so great :) They hang out a lot on Saturdays to make up for the rest of the week. And I guess Link is already a MarioKart fan. 4 month appt. results:

Height: 26.5", 87.5%ile

Weight: 17 lb 2 oz, 80.5%ile

but that was after he peed all over me, the room, and the nurse

Grown Ups

Its fun being a grown-up! For the first time, we got a babysitter last week so we could go to the temple. (It was so weird PAYING the babysitter and not BEING the babysitter.) For the first time, I took a meal to a family in the ward today. For the first time, we're having the missionaries over for dinner on Sunday.

I'm so thankful for great parents who taught me so much about what is expected as a member of our Church through their consistent example. Thank you, Mom and Dad! Its fun trying to be like you :)