new house, new song

This picture makes me so happy. Happy for many reasons too... some of those reason include all of these beautiful children being so happy, all of them being healthy, and all of them being together. On top of that, they are together not just in any old place, but in our very own (well, rented) new house here in the USA - a good reason to be tickled pink if you ask me! That right there, is our fireplace in our living room! It was the end of June when we got our keys and made our first trip as a family to our new home. The kids hadn't seen it yet at all, so it was extra exciting to them. Although that's debatable, because I was SO excited to see their reactions to their new rooms and all this spaaaaace we were going to have.

So we unloaded our first car load of out stuff, and got to making this place our own! Sander had to go to work, and Elaine was sweet enough to take care of the kids so that mom could help Kate with little newborn Alyx... and so I got to have some very, very precious alone time unpacking and putting our home together. I had a blast, especially when I found out the kitchen featured a built-in stereo (didn't notice that the first time!) with a complimentary Frank Sinatra Christmas CD. Sometimes it just all comes together, you know?

a separate laundry room! HEAVEN!

 Upsides to this house: a bathroom on every level, gorgeous hardwood flooring on all the landings and in the kitchen/dining room, windows everywhere providing us with heaps of natural light, great big open living space, the carpet shows absolutely no dirt... we've been here for 3 weeks now and I still haven't vacuumed. Wait did I say that out loud? Anyway, on with the list: plenty of storage (2 car garage!), cute little window nook in the boys' bedroom, it's right smack next to some wonderful amenities such as the gym we are members of and a beautiful nature park with splash pad+playground, no huge yard to maintain but still a good size outside area, and, of course, the working fireplace. Downsides? Seriously, I'm having to dig deep here. Probably the fact that it's a rental. But that also has upsides, like when something breaks we just call it in and it gets fixed. Our A/C broke down the day we moved (during a 100F+ heatwave, that was awesome) and there was a guy on our doorstep to fix it within a few hours of us placing the call to the property manager.

I haven't taken pictures of the master bedroom or any of the downstairs yet, so that will come... but I think this gives you a good idea of the lovely space we now have to get back to normal life in. As a nice bonus we were able to buy a second car a week after we moved in, so I am now mobile and able to take the kids and myself out when we go stir crazy or have an errand to run. So far the 3 month summer doesn't feel too long and I am actually (huge surprise) enjoying having the kids home and not having to adhere to any strict rules or schedules just yet. We still have plenty of fun! 

Personally I have been having fun again almost every night with my Washburn, and so to conclude this post, here is the little song I recorded last night. Hope you enjoy!

music tuesday

 Yay! Music!

1. Greg Brown - Hillbilly Girl

This came on the radio as I was driving home from the movies last night and, how do I put this.... Sometimes a song just strikes a chord? Pun intended.

 
2. David Byrne & St. Vincent - Who 

Oh yeah, this happened. These two are absolute icons and everyone in music land would be tickled all colors of the rainbow to work with either of them. So, instead, they decided to collaborate with eachother. All I could think when I first found out about this was 'I'm not worthyyyy!'.  

3. Allen Stone - Sleep 

Mmmm soulful. Mix a little Jamie Lidell with a dash of Joss Stone and maybe even a splash of Marc Broussard, and you get this lovely gentleman. Summer music!  

4. Martin Denny - Misirlou 

I was introduced to Exotica last week. I have no idea how I haven't delved into this genre yet because I am absolutely loving it! So different and nostalgic (I know plenty of this stuff came by in the old movies that would come on BBC in the mornings) and relaaaaxing. Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman and Les Baxter are quickly becoming my go-to guys when it's been a long day, and I need to chill out all by myself in a far, far away place. 5. Father John Misty - Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings 

Joshua Tillman, songwriter, guitarist, drummer and former Fleet Foxes member, has made a solo album under the moniker Father John Misty. It is worth listening to. It is worth listening to 7 times in a row (or more).

jools

This little girl can turn a regular pair of pajama bottoms into chic evening wear, calls granola bars 'gorilla bars', does the best British accent you have ever heard, sneezes at least 12 times every morning, and is turning turning 7 years old in just 2 weeks! She also has very pretty eyes. Fact.

regular party animals

That's what we are, and we know it. Last month the Koots celebrated 3 Birthdays, namely those of Elliot, Max, and yours truly. Since all of our Birthdays are just a week apart we decided to bunch them all together and have one big fiesta to invite everyone to. We ate hot dogs, opened presents, lounged around in the shade provided by the beautiful tree in my parents' yard, had a pinata (I tried to to the squigly line over the n, but cannot get my keyboard to speak Spanish), had fun on the Slip n Slide, and devoured ridiculous amounts of ice cream. 

The highlight of the day? I can't decide between the river of crusty watermelon juice that ran all the way down Elliot's tummy, and watching Max kick that pinata's butt. It was our first pinata EVER, and so of course everyone got to take a swing at it. Lara had a go at one before at a friend's Birthday party, and hit it so hard the string broke and it flopped to the ground with an underwhelming thud. It was a funny moment. Once it was back up Max was fired up to the limit and went at it like a pro. First its face came off, and then its bottom started to bulge. Finally Max finished him off and candy flew from the pinata's innards all over the concrete... and the look on Max' face was one of pure disbelief and joy. This kid lives for candy, so it was pretty much the whipped cream, sprinkles, fudge sauce AND cherry on top of his already pretty amazing Birthday.

So now we are another year older! For Elliot it was the celebration of his 2nd year on earth, for Max his 4th, and for me... the 31st. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but I have no problems with growing older at all. I much prefer my 30s to my 20s, which were a little too all over the place for my liking. Let's not even speak of my teenage years. No, my thirties is the time in my life where I've started to feel comfortable with who I am and where I'm at. I'm young enough to be silly and old enough to be intimidating to children I don't know. I've had enough experience to have become efficient enough at putting makeup on to be able to have it done in 10 minutes, and to know that a Crock-Pot is a pretty wonderful Birthday present. Actually the CrockPot is a funny story....

My lovely sister Marissa is so clever when it comes to Birthday presents. She is thoughtful, puts effort and love into it, and will go out of her way to procure the perfect gift. So when I mentioned in passing I was going to have to get a CrockPot for when we moved into a place of our own, she made a mental note. She looked for the best deal she could find, even returning one she had already bought because she found a better one... then wrapped it like a pro and looked pretty excited when I was about to open it. Well guess what Sander told me just days before the Birthday party? He had managed to pack our own CrockPot from Holland (which is originally from the USA. That thing is well traveled) and it was sitting in our storage unit, waiting to be unpacked an used. Whoops! Sorry Marissa! Luckily my sister is also very smart, and she had the gift receipt taped to the box, so I was able to go back to the store and get a wonderful 4-slice toaster instead. And thus we see that in the land of women and kitchen machinery, all will be well in the end when there is love involved. Thanks for an amazing Birthday everyone!

pretty lights

June and July certainly are two months full of celebrations around here, aren't they? Not just around here meaning 'in Utah', but also in my family. We have somewhere around 5 Birthdays in June alone, and then there's the South Ogden Days, Independence Day, Pioneer Day (celebrates the founding of Utah) and Father's Day too. We even managed to get our move and the birth of a brand new baby girl smooshed in there! I am taking pictures a whole lot faster than I can edit and upload them to the blog.... So in an attempt to catch up, here are some pictures from our visit to the South Ogden Fair in Friendship Park, right behind my parents' house.