head-band model.

I make headbands.
Nothing fancy or anything.
But if you ask me...it looks super cute on a super cute baby.
I meant to just take ONE picture. (ya, like that was going to happen.)
This is her "stink" face in which she does ALL the time.

She would only smile if she had the flashlight in her hand.

the family doctor...dentist.

Dear (all-most) Dr. Rustin.
 
Remember that one time you rescued me from drowning?  Remember when we climbed the tallest peak?  Remember when we rode the elevator all the way to the top floor and pushed all the buttons before we got out? Remember when we rode our bikes to the store on a daily basis so you could get a Reese's and I a Twix?  Remember when you jumped me so high that I flew off the trampoline?  Remember when we wrecked the 4-wheeler?  Remember that one time when we built the biggest snowman ever to exist? Remember when we used to have rollerblading wars?  Remember when we'd play monopoly hours upon hours and I'd always win?  Remember when you rescued a cat from a burning building?  Remember when I jumped over a fence with my clarinet and I fell on my face and all you did was laugh at me?  Remember you took an underwater basket weaving class and you made me a bowl? Rememeber when we used to go running at the park and then play racquetball and hit Danica in the face/arm/body?  Remember that one time when you used to take me to lunch with you in High School?  Remember when we were clogging partners and I was WAY better than you?  Remember when we solicitated ourselves for money...clogging?  Remember that one time we worked together and did our best to make fun of each one of our co-workers?  Remember how you went to school in NEW YORK CITY for 4 years and I never came to visit?  Ya- I hope to make up for that one. 
I am so proud of you and all your work and accomplishments.  You are pretty much amazing.  CONGRATULATIONS Brother!  I love you.
 
Love,
Taralee


PS.  If you only remember about half of those things your memory is still working pretty good.

house trailer kitchen

What's more lovely than waking up to a fabulous "stretch-mark" kitchen paint job?
And I know what you're thinking..."STRETCH-MARK paint job? What the face? Never heard of it. There is no such thing."
Well, intro-seducing the stretch-mark paint job in all it's glory...

BLEH.
No thank you. I choose life....and color. And just to let you know, I am pretty much amazing at using painter's tape. I even bought the blue scotch good kind...cause professionals use it. (If you take a look at the light fixture above the stove you can see proof that I am a professional...and therefore classified in the painter's category that uses the good blue scotch painters professional tape.)Wah-lah. Purdy fancy, right? This is after about 1,000,001 coats of paint and a good scrub with using the old scotch bright pad and my bulging, relief-society arms and biceps. Whoot woo. Fancy. (Editor's Note: If it's super fancy then your allowed to say fancy more than one time per post.) I would also like to point out:
1. the super cute owl cookie jar.
2. the blendtec (registered) blender.
3. the granite counter tops (a nice surprise for a house trailer...upgrade.)
4. Dotti's high chair that folds up.
5. the sink has a sprayer (upgrade).
6. the recipe holder/cork board.
7. AND the new "Paradise Lime" paint job....which is at least 5% better than the stretch mark custom paint job. I also finished the table and chairs, which if you look to the right adds a nice, classy touch to the delightfully decorated kitchen. And what better things to have at the table...
1. cute vintage jar.
2. [Gratitude].
3. and [Celebrate family, friends, and traditions].
4. AND a bar stool for Brody so his grubby little 3 year old, peanut butter covered hands don't get my newly upolstered chairs "kid stained".

5. AND Brody's artwork on the fridgidare.The kitchen is still small and cramped but at least it is aesthetically pleasing...for the most part (minus the weird stove florescent light, the fact that the ceiling is pulling away from the walls, and the "buttons" on the ceiling, the overhead light fixture, AND the $5.99 blinds in the windows...I'll stop now while I'm thinking my kitchen is looking pretty FANCY.)

* Special thanks to Trace for helping me fix my wobbley chairs, falling apart table, AND doing the dishes!

ready. aim. fire

I'm all about cheap entertainment. It's easy. Less hectic. and MORE fun. All it takes is...

1 snazzy pool
3 easily entertained boys (although, I'm not going to lie, Trace and I both proceeded with the events.)
3 water guns
1 [X] target on the tree (made out of scrap fabric)
PLUS...
ONE day in Heber without any wind...PRICELESS

Ready, AIM....FIRE...Also, we randomly drove to Utah last weekend...cause planning things is NOT us. I woke up on Sunday and said, "Hey Trace. Hi. Let's drive to Utah and buy a boy-friend dog for Fergie." He said "When?" I said, "Like 5 minutes ago." He said, "Ok." And that was that. We packed and left. Done and done.
MEET King TYTON...we call him Ty. We [Brody] love him.
I quote the Brody by saying, "I love the heck out of this dog, mom."
(camera shy dog) I kind of like him. I was trying to take a picture of him and me. However, I DO NOT like dog kisses...at all. {GAG} This little sucker tried to pull a fast one on me and that is why the look of discust (diss-cust, dis-ca-st, disgust?- none of those even look right.) Anyway, he is cute and will hopefully get busy making me some $$$...I mean puppies soon.

the house trailer and stuff and such

So I have a problem.
I see the beauty in ugly things.
My husband does not.
Let me explain. Trace builds things: custom closets, entertainment stands, shelving, tables, beds, dressers...custom stuff. He hates IKEA "junk". He HATES Wal-Mart "POS's" even worse. It's almost embarrassing to walk down the furniture isle anywhere because he grabs, let's say a chair, and wiggles it till the poor things nearly falls apart. Then he exclaims, "See, Tara, peice of crap." (Which in my mind I'm thinking, "well, dear, if we lived in Kansas where tornadoes occur, then it might be a problem...but we don't...and I don't really do any shaking while I'm sitting. Do you?)
Anyway....long story short- I inherited some fancy old stuff. An old round table from my parents and some 70's style chairs from my S.I.L., Lena.
Needless to say when I so PROUDLY brought them home, Trace gave me the "I married a crazy lady" look. He looked at the chairs and said, "You know...paint can't fix everything." Then he looks at our house-trailer and says, "Even if you painted that thing the prettiest color you can think of the siding would still be falling off, the metal and wood siding would clash, the roof would still be odd, the windows would still leak, and the floor would still shake when you walk. You can't always fix ugly." Well, now I am bound a determined to fix this set up to be cute. I'm painting the table WHITE and the chairs yellow. I got my inspiration from this (CLICK). Meanwhile my kids play on the porch while I work to create my masterpiece.Dot sits in the swing that we hung in the door frame...very classy.This is the table that took me like 35 days to sand down. Holy COW...sanding sucks. That is why I invested in some stripper (not the Las Vegas kind). It works wonders. I got rid of that yucky varnish stuff in 15 minutes...with the help of my large muscles.

Then I had to rip the chairs apart cause the fabric on the chairs is not my style. I'm thinking about doing white fabric with some different kinds of textures or patterns...to be honest I'm not even sure what I'm talking about. I have a lot of sanding and painting so I think I'll just cross that fabric bridge when I get there. It's a good thing Dotti loves this....Cause I have a feeling she is going to be spending some time in there in the next few days....just so I can prove Trace wrong. (Which NEVER happens. To be quite honest, I'm right like 5% of the time...which leaves him with the glory and bragging rights 95% of the time [for those of you who aren't good at math, mom, I helped you out] And I'm not guaranteeing that the chairs will be sturdy or last through a hurricane, all I'm saying they will be dang cute when I'm done.

If that doesn't work...at least I make cute kids, right?

profile pictures

so you know those cute profile picture shadow things that some people hang on their wall of their whole family?

well, i want them.

i want them on the walls of my cute house-trailer.

some like hers (Nie Nie)

i took some profile pictures with my camera. (dot was sleeping at the time so i need to do hers asap.)

now i'm at a stand still. what do i do next? should i just go to the library and rent out a projector? any tips? any ideas?
As for my house-trailer...we are re-doing things here and there. I need to post some pictures of that once we are all "done." (note: we will never be "done"...hopefully we will be moved out before it is "done" to my liking.)

On that note: i dream of house plans. french doors. white cabinets. wooden island with a restaurant metal top. a mud room painted yellow with a cute picnic bench with a million coat and hat racks. wooden floors. new washer and dryers (ones that don't shake the whole house). crown molding and white, thick baseboards. Dining area with my white table and a cute runner going across it. a fireplace. glass tile backsplash. grass. flowerbeds. garden...

seriously...it's quite sickening how long the list goes on and on.

BUT, quite frankly...I would love to have a house. Question though: Do we build the house that's in my mind? Or do we get one that's "ok" and just make it work? Do we buy a fixer-up-er and try to sell it in a few years (like 5 or so)?

Ok, so insert thoughts about:

1. Profile picture shadow things.

and 2. House ideas.

wanna see something cool...

Trace was throwing Dot up in the air tonight. Brody decided that he wanted a turn. I think he flew a little higher than he had intended for.

brody, brody

Brody is my red-headed boy (incase you didn't know).

Everytime you mention his read hair he says "Grandma wants me to go with her to the hair place so the lady can get the color right."

Yesterday as we were taking a Sunday stroll over to fam's house to get some peanut butter brownies he said, "I'm so freaking cold." (Not that I'm happy he said "freaking"...it just makes me realize I probably should cut back on that word...and coke...not that they have any correlation.)

Every morning when he makes his bed he does it JUST like this:This morning while eating a breakfast burrito that I so carefully prepared he said that he wanted candy instead. I told him that if he didn't have room for the burrito, then he wouldn't have room for the candy. He looked down at his plate and moved the burrito off to the side and said, "now I have room, duh mom."

When he is around the is never a dull moment around, he was born a sarcastic, fun, and crazy entertainer....for example:

He thinks he's Iron Man. He even makes the awesome robotic movement noises.

He says beautiful, awesome, precious, and adorable to describe things...such as Dotti.

As I got out of the car from church yesterday he said, "Don't forget my drawing, old lady." (At first I thought he was saying that his drawing was of an old lady...but upon observation of the drawing it was a spider, butterfly, and bird...no sight of an old lady. Therefore, I am almost 100% he was talking to ME!) punk-face.

He got dressed up in his cowboy clothes before my mom got here. I asked him why and he said, "tause Nanna loves me as a towboy."

He is really good at the quiet game...which is one of my favorite things, cause he pretty much talks non-stop from the time he wakes up.

And I sure do love him long time. He is the raddest 3 year old boy I know.

my little miss Dot (among other things)

Let me tell you a little something, something... This little girl has slept through the night since 3 weeks old. She sucks her thumbs when (if ever) she gets really upset. She is ALMOST crawling. She is a super fast roller. Her cheeks are pretty much the biggest thing on her. She says "more" in sign language. She waves (if you are really patient and do it for like 10 minutes). And, she is very cute. In other news: We are going back to Utah for conference. (I'm excited). We are going to get our taxes done (finally). Brody says "shut down" instead of "shut up"...which I think sounds a lot nicer. I spanked Brody the other day and felt bad...until he said, "That didn't even hurt." I made Dot a headband and Brody now calls the the "Karate Kid"...and insists that she does karate chop action with her hands (even if she doesn't want to and gets really mad about it). Dotti is 9 months old...no more playing the "just had a baby" card. (darn) Our trailer is still standing. I plan on planting some flowers in the next few weeks (depending on snow predictions) And...it's been a week since I've posted. (I like to take the double dog dare down to the wire...it makes me feel more like a rebel.) word.

double dog dare me...

So once upon a time in my life a long long LONG time ago....I was a dare devil.

Dare me to jump off a 50' cliff....done.
Dare me to climb a really high cell phone tower...done.
Dare me to drive really fast....done. (mom & dad read this blog, therefore I can't state how fast REALLY fast is!)
Dare me to jump into a pool filled with icy water...done.
Dare me to a game of chess...done.
Dare me to rollerblade while holding on to a rope which is attached to the back of a truck...done.
Dare me to play baseball in WalMart...done.
Dare me to dress up like Richard Simmons...done.

Fast forward a few years, a husband, and two kids later and I've been a sad case of a sissy-nin-com-poop-pants.

I'm talkin...
Ten and two.
Speed limit.
Safety goggles.
Full piece swimming suit.
Afraid of heights.
Rollerblades donated to DI (along with Richard Simmons headband and shorty-shorts).

A real, genuine sissy pants.

Anywho, someone may or may not have DOUBLE dog dared me to blog once a week.
All I can say is YOU'RE ON, AMIGO!

(and yes, I feel like I'm a rebel without a cause.)