Chalkboard

Its official.  Halloween is my favorite holiday.  After Christmas, of course, because honestly, Christmas is in a league all its own, and its practically everyone's favorite.  Look at our new chalkboard panel!

I love it all.  The costumes, the candy, the decorating, and most of all, getting to talk about it literally every few hours around here.  These kids are so excited!  Halloween halloween halloween!

And that deserves a photoshoot.

 

What a handsome little man!

My baby is THREE!

 Oh where has the time gone?  Lincoln has gone from my chunky little baby, to my cheeky little toddler, to my sweet spunky boy!

 We're all in agreement that Link is well over the terrible two's, and is becoming quite a charming little police helper around the house.  He makes sure that little brother stays in line and knows his place :)

 I was SOOOO excited to give this boy a fun birthday!  I almost couldn't sleep the night before with all the anticipation of making his day magical.  I gave him a whole day of one-on-one attention and after making cupcakes together, we went all over town to get balloons, library movies, and frozen pizzas.

 Then it was party time at (Early Intervention) Playgroup!

 I loved seeing how far he's come in the last year of IE.  When he started this a year ago, he knew 2-3 words and rarely said anything, and now he is King of the Classroom.  He tells everyone else just what is going on, what songs to sing, what books to read, when it is snack time...

(Now that he's three, IE ends and he'll still get a little classroom help in the public schools, but only for 30 min./week) 

The biggest hit was this old-school 3-D Viewmaster filled with family pictures!  We couldn't get his eyes out of it all evening!

And THANK YOU grandmas for the wonderful gifts!

Family Picture Practice

So I know that I am not really a photographer--I am really what Brett calls a mom with a DSLR who thinks she is a photographer!  Regardless, I was excited to get more experience taking some family pictures yesterday!

This is my dear friend Lindsey and her family.  We are the Relief President and 1st counselor in our ward, and watching the way she has calmed storms and loved without boundaries will always be an example to me!

 

We've kind of banded together as the only two wives with husbands working in finance and excluded from the Harvard or MIT crowd.  We've been able to empathize about our husbands' unpredictable hours and the state of limbo that we call pre-business school.

 Cuties.

If I Only Had a Brain

Turns out I do!

Occasionally, I've been volunteering to do these studies at MIT that have all been pretty fascinating.  Last night, I got paid $60 to get an MRI!  This is what Diana does every day--working with children and young adults getting MRIs in the Radiology Dept. at Boston Childrens, so I was so excited to get the inside experience and tell her all about it! 

 I had to sit completely still for 1 hour while I watched Pixar movies and answered questions about whether the character was happy or sad.  For anyone out there who knows what a healthy brain looks like, how does mine measure up?  Super cool, and knowing that a typical MRI costs thousands of dollars (and somewhere around 10k with sedation), what a cool thing to get paid to do!

A Harvard Project

Well, I'm afraid this project might look terribly ordinary and unimpressive, but this is actually one of the coolest things I've ever done!

This is a garment from the Harvard Archives, dated to around 1836 and worn by a student of Harvard.  This could be called a Mens 'robe' or a 'dressing gown', and naturally, was sewn entirely by hand.  Prof. Laurel Ulrich, who happens to be in our ward, teaches a general course this semester on Harvard Collections (and also won a Pulitzer for writing A Midwife's Tale), and commissioned me to replicate it in its exact measurements.  We ventured deep into the Harvard archives, past security checkpoints, where I got to handle the original and get measurements and pictures.  Here is the TA, dressed in the gown for the lecture where I got to attend and chime in!  I was even introduced as an "1800s Historical Clothing Construction Specialist", haha!

The lecture revolved around what we can learn from this garment as a picture, and what we can learn from it by handling an exact (and new) replica.  Though it looks like a women's nightdress above, these were the ritzy sweats of the young wealthy radicals of Harvard.  Its crazy how simple and underwhelming this looks, but it actually took forever!  Most of those hours consisted of drafting up a pattern in tissue, three attempts to get the sleeves in just right (it was a totally bazaar technique I've never seen before) and hand-tying each of these tiny tassles on the 7 yards of trim.

It was a huge honor and quite fun.  Prof. Ulrich says the dept. wants to do a workshop/forum more about the construction where I will get to talk more about how this came together.  What a funny thing to have brought me to a Harvard lecture!  I may not have the smarts, but my skills can still get me into the Ivy League, ha!

The Color Purple

Nothing like a rush order Homecoming dress!  This is for my cousin, Emma, in Wyoming.

 Oh how I love making pretty things!  This lace is $30/yard!!!  Totally gorgeous, though.

 Happy Homecoming!

At the Ballet

Have we been a little MIA lately?!  We've been having too much fun to blog!  Here is me and Diana at the Boston Ballet performing at Boston Commons last night!

Actually, we've all been pretty busy and exhausted.  Diana has 6am shifts, Jason's been putting in 60 hour work weeks, and I've been sewing like a crazy lady to finish up a 1800s gown/toga re-make for a Harvard professor (more on that to come) and a Homecoming dress that ships out to Wyoming tomorrow!

Happy Birthday Schmoopie!

Happy Birthday schmoopie duck!  I hope you're having a wonderful day!  I love you sooooo much!

Apple Picking with Grandma

It has become tradition that whenever a Grandma comes to visit in the fall, we take her apple picking!

Everyone has enjoyed chomping through our enormous bag of delicious apples!  Even I have been surprised on how perfect every apple looks and tastes.  Way to go, New England!

 

 

With Jason behind the camera, he has been disappearing from all our blog posts lately!  He is indeed present at all our family outings, whether you see him or not :) 

We sure LOVED having Grandma H here!  These boys love their grandma!  Thanks for coming!

Stop by tonight for some Apple Crisp :)  We're going out right now to build up our supply of brown sugar.  Can't get through the holiday baking season without it!

Ducks and Diana

 Our family has grown!  Jason's sister, Diana, got a job at Boston Children's, and we're happy to have her staying with us for several months! 

 I'm glad to have more female influence in the home (maybe the romance to action movie ratio will turn in my favor), and the boys just adore their "Aunt Nana".

 

Lincoln-Lark

Because Jason and I are singers, naturally, we want our kids to sing!  Lincoln was really anti-song for quite awhile, and it was breaking my heart, but he has finally found his singing voice :) and I don't think it is all that bad!  Sure, I can't exactly tell if he's tone-deaf or not, but I sure love hearing his cute little voice!

My latest favorite thing is Lincoln's booming command, "Mom, SING!!"