The Wet Donkey

Complete and utter randomness

2012-01-29T20:10:00.001-06:00

I don’t really have much to say, and not really a lot of pictures either. We’ve been pretty busy lately, but I’m not sure with what! Life is crazy like that sometimes, right?

It snowed last weekend and Summer was dying to go out and play in it. Good thing that’s what dads are for! She had a blast, and then promptly got a sinus infection and an ear infection. They tried building a snowman but it was horrible snow for that, but apparently good enough snow for our snowball makers which were thrown at me. (My cousin Amanda sent me the snowball makers…and they are super awesome!)

Summer and Hannah fight like cats and dogs. Seriously, I feel like I am pulling one off of the other all day long. So when I catch glimpses of them acting like they love each other, I have to take advantage of it.

Hannah thinks she’s hot stuff now that she can walk. It was like she just decided overnight that she would start walking and now she never stops. I love the beginning walking stage, with hands up high and the unsteady waddle. It’s already fading, how sad.

She thinks she’s pretty funny, too. I found her like this the other day and then she stayed like that and said “Cheese!” while I took her picture. I’ve decided to try my hand (foot?) at running again. At the recommendation of my friend Tamara I went to Performance Running Outfitters and had my food mapped and videotaped and fitted for a proper running shoe. OH.MY.GOODNESS. I know this probably is no news to you, but what a difference!! All I had ever known was running up and down the aisles at Kohl’s or wherever and deciding that it “felt good”. Turns out I over pronate like crazy—practically running on my ankles! I tried on like 8 or 9 different pair of shoes before finding a super supportive one, and then needing orthotic inserts on top of that! But let me tell you…running is now amazing for me. I feel so great. No more sore knees, ankles, nothing. I literally feel like I could run forever. I’ve always wanted to run a half marathon but thought I just had too bad of knees to do it. Turns out I just had bad shoes! I’m planning on running Crazylegs again in April and then we’ll see how the half marathon plan is looking. Who knows, maybe I’ll be knocked up by then? Anyway, I highly recommend this place. If you’re local and need a new pair of running shoes, definitely go there.

Latest obsession: Downton Abbey. A few weeks ago it was all over Facebook…practically all my friends were talking about it and I had no idea what it was. Thank you Netflix and now I’m completely caught up and totally hooked. It’s on PBS and I didn’t think I’d really like it but after the first episode I was in looove! Check it out if you like mystery, suspense and intrigue! Ok, not really, but it does have some pretty good drama. And really because I need more people to talk about it with me.

And with that, it’s on now and I need to go watch it!

Bit the bullet

2012-01-18T14:29:00.001-06:00

As you know, one of the main reasons I love the state fair so much is because I love to walk through the Expo Center and check out all the new gadgets. And every year I stand in front of the VitaMix demonstrator in longing, nudging Derrick to just let me buy it already. And every year we walk away, Dixie cup of tortilla soup and smoothie in hand, to see the dryer balls and steam mops (which I also long for!) and drink my misery away.

When our Costco opened last year VitaMix was there, doing a road show. Two of my friends have bought VitaMixes in the past couple of months and have been praising its glory, as if all the Amazon reviews weren’t enough for me. And yet my kitchen remained VitaMix-less.

I wanted to whip up delicious soups, smoothies, green drinks, ice cream, sauces and more. I wanted the high power of commercial blenders. I wanted high quality appliances. And so I put it on every wish list I had. Christmas, birthday, whatever. I was going to get my VitaMix one way or another.

And then I went to Costco last Monday.

Blendtec was doing a weeklong demonstration this time. I’d heard of the Blendtec before and my favorite food blogs use it but I’d never seen it in action and besides, what could possibly be better than my beloved coveted VitaMix? One 10 minute demo from Jim and I was totally sold. VitaWho?

I went home to do a little research. Seems like everything Jim told me was pretty much true. VitaMix and Blendtec are probably the top 2 high end blenders out there, and I don’t really think you can go wrong with either, (shoot, if someone gave me a VitaMix, I’d sure as heck take it!) but for me, the Blendtec just seemed like a better fit, and I’ll tell you why.

It’s shorter. Sitting at 15.5’, it sits well underneath upper cabinets, which are usually 17” from the counter. The VitaMix is 20.5”. This was probably my #1 convincing factor. If it’s not going to fit on my counter, I will never use it.
It will grind grains such as wheat, oats, rice in the same pitcher. VitaMix requires a separate dry blade container to grind grains, which means an extra $100+. Since I do not already own a wheat grinder yet have pounds of wheat stored in my basement, this was a definite bonus. As a side note, my SIL who is a wheat grinding extraordinaire, said the Blendtec grinds wheat faster than her electric wheat grinder.
The blade is two-pronged as opposed to 4-pronged. This means that if you are blending sticky or pasty foods you can get it out easier. No more wasted product stuck to the bottom of the blender that you can’t get out.
The pitcher has square sides with no indentations for food to get stuck on, again reducing waste.
Preset functions. There are 6 preset buttons with 14 different types of foods that have been preprogrammed to cycle at different speeds and for different amounts of time. No need to turn a dial or increase speed manually. I literally put everything in and walk away and it does it all for me.
Those buttons sit flush to the base and are sealed with a membrane. No food to get stuck in between buttons or dials. And since I’m a little anal about cleaning in between cracks and crevices this is perfect for me.
No plunger/damper to mess with and push my food down. The Blendtec does it all by itself!
The nifty counter. It tells you how many times you’ve used it! Not super useful, but I love knowing stuff like that. We bought it on Saturday and used it 10 times!
Cheaper! At only $349 at Costco it was a great deal less than the VitaMix I wanted with the three presets from Williams-Sonoma.

So there you have it. Of course they both do an amazing job at blending, especially frozen foods and whole fruits. I haven’t regretted my decision once, and can’t wait to use it even more!! If you want to try it, just come on over and we’ll have a smoothie party!

Summer has definitely been enjoying her “drinks” in the morning…can you tell??

Summer turns 3!

2012-01-15T22:03:00.001-06:00

I know this is cliche’, but I can’t believe I have a three year old! What happened to my tiny little baby?

We had a Hello Kitty birthday party with her little nursery class friends a few days before her actual birthday. There were a total of 6 little girls running around, which was pretty manageable with the help of my parents, Ann and Katie, and my friend Lindsey who stayed. All the other parents dropped off, which let me tell you, sure does take a lot of pressure off party entertaining! 3 year olds don’t really care about much other than candy and having fun!

Each girl got their kitty whiskers and spent approximately .8 seconds of the allotted 15 minutes coloring.

We then moved onto “pin the bow on Hello Kitty”, which thankfully used up 2 minutes of the allotted 10.

I’m starting to freak out that we’ll be done with the whole shebang in 20 minutes flat and how am I going to entertain 6 3 year olds for an another hour??

We move onto the pinata, which was a big hit, no pun intended. Seriously, it was a pull string pinata. :)

We had cupcakes and ice cream and opened presents and played and poof! It was over. I was worried for nothing. Summer had a great time and was in heaven playing with all of her new Barbies and babies and Hello Kitty stickers and things.

I must say I think my cupcakes turned out so darling. After a miserably failed attempt at making my own marshmallow fondant I just bit the bullet and bought some at Michael’s. What a dream to work with! I used a Hello Kitty cookie cutter and topped frosted cupcakes with them. I used my new Cricut Cake to cut out the pink flowers (love it!) and then used mini M&M’s cut in half for the eyes and nose and a whole one on the flowers. Oh, and black gel icing from a tube for the whiskers. I don’t care if fondant is utterly inedible I think it looks amazing and don’t care one bit when it’s all tossed in the trash!

My sister in law travels abroad frequently and picked up a ton of Hello Kitty swag in the Philippines on the cheap to use as party bags for her friends.

On her actual birthday, Derrick and my dad took her to open bounce at La Fluer’s (where she takes gymnastics now and loooves it!) and then we had lunch at McDonald’s at her request. She played in the snow for a bit and then she requested broccoli cheese soup for dinner. After dinner we opened family gifts. She loved the umbrella we gave her, the Hello Kitty dinner set from G&G Romesburg, the HK game and plush from Grandma Callister, and the Polly Pockets from Ann and Katie. I think she had a fun day—we tried to make it a good one for her!

Summer, while full of sass and fire, is also very sweet and loving. She loves to give hugs and kisses and wants to snuggle more than she did when she was a baby. She picks up on everything we say and never forgets anything. She’s a pretty smart kid who loves to sing and often likes to make up words to songs. One of her favorite things is to ask us to sing “____ song”. Horse song, chair song, cat song, whatever. We always say, “I don’t know the horse song” and she sings, “horse song, horse song, try it!” She thinks she’s pretty clever. At the doc the other day she weighed in at 30 lbs (43%) and 36” (19%) and healthy as can be. Despite all the headaches she sometimes puts us through we absolutely love this little girl and her spunky personality. Our family would not be complete without her!

I interviewed Summer and here are her answers. I plan on doing this every year and compiling them into some sort of book.

1. What is your favorite color? green

2. What is your favorite toy? Pixie

3. What is your favorite fruit? orange

4. What is your favorite tv show? sesame street

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? mac n cheese

6. What is your favorite outfit? dress

7. What is your favorite game? puzzle

8. What is your favorite snack? fruit snacks

9. What is your favorite animal? seal

10. What is your favorite song? twinkle, twinkle little star

11. What is your favorite book? russell the sheep

12. Who is your best friend? peyton and jocelyn and kylie

13. What is your favorite cereal? cheerios

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? play in the snow

15. What is your favorite drink? chocolate milk

16. What is your favorite holiday? (didn't have one)

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Pixie

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? cheerios

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? had broccoli cheese soup

20. What do you want to be when you grow up? flowers (i have no idea what that means?)

G&G come to visit!

2012-01-12T22:28:00.001-06:00

My parents drove up after Christmas to come celebrate Summer’s birthday and have Christmas Part 2 with us. We had a great time with them, and the girls of course, loved all the attention. They brought the girls a giant cardboard house that is outlined in black so they can color it how they want. They love sitting in it and playing with their dolls. And while my dad might not have built the house, he did build this: A new table!! He brought it up in the truck and totally surprised us. It’s so gorgeous! And huge. So much working, eating, and playing space. We played games on it every night, all 6 of us were able to eat comfortably WITH the food on the table, and it’s just fabulous. The bench is pretty slick and Summer has fallen off more than once, so if you see crazy bruises on her, no, I’m not beating her. Too much.

We did a lot of fun things while they were here. One night we went on the Jingle Bus, which is a Coach bus that takes you on a 40 minute narrated tour of the downtown Milwaukee holiday lights. It was actually pretty fun and informative. The girls absolutely loved it, and Summer especially loved the face (or arm) painting and hot chocolate and cookies before the ride. And the best part? IT’S ONLY A DOLLAR PER PERSON!! Holla. I think this definitely made it into our yearly tradition!

One night we went to Organ Piper Pizza, which is a pizza joint with a huge Wurlitzer pipe organ. You can put in requests and they usually play Happy Birthday a couple times throughout the night so we got to sing to Summer, which she loved. Hannah was in heaven, and couldn’t stop looking at all the mini organs everywhere. Our favorite was the duck organ that quacked the notes. So fun. Pizza isn’t the greatest, but the entertainment and environment more than make up for it. A really fun place to go.

Apparently we were too busy having so much fun that I don’t have any more pictures! But just know we had a blast. And I feel like I practically have a new house with all the stuff my dad did for us: new ceiling fans in the girls’ room, he fixed 2 busted drawers, hung the magazine rack in the bathroom that had been leaning against the wall for 2 years, installed a new kitchen faucet (love) and hung my knife strip. Oh, and put in a new overhead light in our hallway. On top of playing with the the kids nonstop!

We were all sad to say goodbye to such fun visitors. Thanks Meemaw and Papa for everything! We love you!

Christmas Day

2012-01-09T22:42:00.001-06:00

Christmas Day was a little different since it fell on a Sunday and we had church at 9. We didn’t even touch presents until after we got home, at like 10:30. I snapped a quick picture of the girls and (and Derrick) in their Christmas dresses then we all changed back into our jammies and tackled the tree. The girls had a blast opening their presents, especially Summer. She did a great job retrieving and delivering gifts to their rightful owners, and then tried to open it for them!

All Summer asked Santa was for baby bottles for her bear, Pixie, and “Hello Kitty stuff”. Santa delivered, and she was thrilled. She also got a digital camera, which she carries everywhere, lots of games, a Hello Kitty puzzle and DVD, markers, gum (which was gone within 24 hours), chapstick, and books. Hannah got a little pillow pet, which she adores and hugs all the time, bubble bath, a puzzle, a See n Say, and her own little camera. They both had a lot of fun playing with their new toys, and it took quite awhile for us to open everything, which made Christmas seem a little longer, which is always nice. As usual, Derrick did great with the list I gave him. :) I got a super sharp, awesome chef’s knife, and now I look for any opportunity to chop stuff up. It’s amazing how a good knife can make all the different in your prep work! I also got a watch, a laminator/book binder (which I bought for myself, ha), a P Touch labeler (I’ve labeled everything!!), socks (which I seem to always need), and my friend Sara got me a Cricut Cake! It’s amazing! I used it to make Summer’s birthday cupcakes…post coming soon! I got Derrick a new pilot’s case, dress shoes, sweaters—you know, all boring Dad stuff.

The sister missionaries came over to Skype with their parents and then later we went over to the Spencer’s for a delicious dinner with our good friends the Chaplin’s and O’Brien’s and 2/3 of the Woolf’s. It was really a great day overall. Not as loud and crazy as what we’re usually used to with the Callister side, but I think it was just perfect. Having amazing friends that are practically family make living away from blood relatives so much easier. I’m so glad I could spend this Christmas with my Wisconsin family!

Christmas Eve

2012-01-08T23:02:00.001-06:00

We usually travel to one of our families for Christmas but decided to stay in WI this year. The only other time we’ve stayed here for Christmas was in 2008 when I was pregnant with Summer and couldn’t travel. And then I worked PM’s Christmas Eve and Christmas so it didn’t even really feel like Christmas anyway. I thought I would be bummed that we weren’t going anywhere, but I wasn’t. I LOVED IT. I loved not traveling with 2 kids during the holiday rush. I loved not having to plan gifts that would fit in a suitcase and plan on brining more home. I loved sleeping in my own bed, and more importantly, having my kids sleep in their own beds. I loved creating our families traditions and memories in our own home.

Christmas Eve we had our friends the Spencer’s and Johnson’s over for dinner. We had a delicious prime rib with sides which we enjoyed while a fire crackled nicely in the fireplace. (Our first fire since we’ve lived here! Totally addicted now.) We did a nativity with the kids, which pretty much meant they roamed around wearing towels while Derrick read out of Luke 2.

After everyone left we let the girls open their Christmas Eve present--pajamas, of course! Summer absolutely loved hers…I’ve never seen her get so excited about anything—she jumped up and down hugging them and exclaiming “thank you SO MUCH!!” Then we put out cookies and carrots of Santa and Rudolph. Derrick totally one-upped me and got pj’s for me too. They are the softest, warmest, pajama pants ever. It’s like my whole lower body is getting a hug. I wish I could wear them all day, everyday.

It was really a magical night, and as we filled stocking and put out gifts I could not have been any happier or more content or more filled with the Christmas spirit than I was that night. Summer’s excitement over Santa coming, her acknowledgment Jesus’ birthday and the celebration of Him, and being in my home with my family and friends was the perfect combination.

Pre-Christmas Festivities

2012-01-04T22:19:00.001-06:00

I really feel like we got our share of Christmas activities in this year. We tried to do something Christmas-y every day, whether it was a craft, of some baking, or just driving around looking at lights. Most of the time these activities left me with warm fuzzies and an overflowing of Christmas spirit. Other times, like when I tried to make cookies with Summer, I just wanted to drop-kick her and wondered why the heck I even attempt to do things like that with her. But overall when I look back at December I think only happy thoughts.

Last year Summer was terrified of Santa. This year was the complete opposite, all thanks to one Santa at Bayshore who gave her a candy cane. Ever since then, Santa was “so nice!” We saw him twice at Mayfair, once at Kohl’s corporate, and once at Enchantment at the Park. Hannah, on the other hand, hated him. Every time. She even hated sweet Mrs. Claus!

We went up to the Washington County Fairgrounds where you can drive through and check out their light display. It’s not the most amazing display ever but it was worth the drive and the bag of canned goods we took as payment. After you drive through you can park and visit Santa in his little village where you can play in the hay and on slides and stuff. It was pretty cold but Summer had a blast and instead of paying $2 for a cup of watered down hot chocolate we made our own when we got home and munched on treats our friends brought us. I love outings like that with my family—so fun. Spending time with them and having fun makes all the crapstatic moments worth it.

Cutting table camaraderie

2011-12-21T14:09:00.001-06:00

I’ve been hitting up Jo-Ann’s Fabrics quite frequently lately. Along with Michael’s, it’s one of my favorite places to go. To shop, to browse, to get ideas. All much more enjoyable without children of course, but still a good place to go when I’m bored. And at Jo-Ann’s especially, I’ve noticed a trend: everyone is friendly. It’s like some unwritten sewing/crafters code. Inevitably the person cutting your fabric will ask you what you are making with it, and since there’s always a line, everyone can hear. Then everyone starts piping up and commenting on your project, giving tips, personal anecdotes about when they tried that project, etc. Last night was no different. The man (yes, man) cutting my fabric asked me what I was making (scarves) and the lady cutting for the woman next to me asked her. She had Packers and Badgers fabric. She said she was going to cut each logo out and glue them to ornaments for her Packers/Badgers Christmas tree this year. (Only in Wisconsin!) She then asked the lady what kind of glue she should use. Well, if that isn’t an invitation for everyone in the store to offer advice then I don’t know what is! Of course I immediately suggested Mod Podge (I use it for everything!) and everyone agreed. The lady then promptly led her to the right place to get it and she came back asking for tips, which we happily offered. It’s a weird little subgroup and I love it. I know if I ever had a question about what I was making there are plenty of grandma’s around who are just waiting to impart their decades of sewing expertise on me, a young novice seamstress. (Not that I’m a seamstress, per se, but I typed out sewer, and well, who wants to be referred to something stinky?)

Anyway, totally random, I know. Am I alone on this? Surely some of you have experienced the same thing??

Christmas Cards

2011-12-16T13:12:00.001-06:00

Christmas cards are a funny thing. Everyone has their preferences: flat, folded, photo or no? Everyone has their lists. Our list had gotten quite extensive, to well over 100, and when I looked at it I just had to cut it back. Who got cut first? The people who never, ever, not even once sent us a Christmas card. Not that it’s a one-for-one type deal, but I mean c’mon, these things aren’t cheap, and if you’re not scratching my back then I’m gonna stop scratching yours.

I looove getting Christmas cards in the mail. I know once I get the Denham’s (which is always the first one to get here…way to go Melissa!) I know more aren’t far behind. I love to read (in one page or less, please) what people have been up to in the past year, and more importantly, and I know I’m not alone, I hope there’s a picture. And no, not just a picture of your kids. Sure, your kids are pretty cute, but I don’t really know them. I know you. I want to see you, especially if you live far away, never post pictures on Facebook and have no blog. It’s the nosey nature in me that loves to know all the details of your life. How else will I know that you lost 30 pounds or dyed your hair green? Until I’m ridiculously obese and balding and have no teeth we will probably do a family picture every year for our card. Plus, it gives us a reason to update the one on our mantle. Which up until 2 weeks ago was still just a picture of Derrick and I. Poor Summer didn’t even get her own time up there with us.

I’m happy to say that for the most part all of our cards are sent! This family picture was our second attempt…the first one was horrible, due to my 3 misbehaving children. My 2 little girls and my one adult boy. Nightmare. We snapped this one in Phoenix 2 weeks ago, and with the help of Photoshop and some inspiration (read=copying) from tinyprints I whipped this puppy up in an evening. I must say, I’m pretty impressed with myself!

Oh, one more thing—even if you don’t have kids I think you should still send a card. Use a snapshot of a place you visited, it doesn’t have to be all formal. Let us know all the fun things you’re doing, so we can reminisce about how we use to do fun things before we had kids!

Merry Christmas!

Recent Faves

2011-12-10T23:21:00.001-06:00

A Costco just opened near us a couple months ago (and by near us I mean still 20 minutes away) so of course we bought a membership. We have a Sam’s Club membership too but it’s kind of in the hood and go there only like once a month if I have to. Let’s just say I’ve been to Costco twice just this week. Besides the cheap milk, cheese, fruit, chicken, and free samples, one of my most favorite Costco things is their Kirkland wrapping paper. SO AMAZING. I think they only make it in Christmas patterns which I’m so sad about because if I had my way it’d be the only wrapping paper I ever use for the rest of my wrapping life. I might even resort to wrapping gifts all year long in Christmas wrapping paper just because it’s so awesome. What makes it so awesome, you ask? Well, first off it’s reversible. Which is perfect for me because I have two kids, and Santa wraps their presents in their own wrapping paper, so I only needed one roll for that. It’s also super thick. Definitely no thin paper you can see through—no present peeking!! You get a ton. Like 800 yards or something ridiculous like that. Seriously, it’s huge. I’m thinking of keeping a roll next to my bed in case I need it for self defense, it’s that big and heavy. Pretty sure Santa will be using the same wrapping paper for the girls until they leave for college. And the best part? All of this for only TEN BUCKS! Super cute patterns, too. If you haven’t started wrapping your Christmas presents yet, I’d run and grab some. Use your other stuff to fuel a fire on Christmas Eve.

Next: The Laughing Cow cheese wedges. I had these at my friend Laura’s house a couple weeks ago and I’m totally hooked. They are a soft spreadable cheese, and the perfect midday snack with some crackers. Yum. Laura says she spreads it on her sandwiches sometimes instead of mayo. Gonna have to try that. And in case you’re not a swiss fan, I don’t think it tastes very Swissy…much more mild.

For those with kids, my last fave is the Portable North Pole. It’s a video message from Santa to your child! You fill out a questionnaire and you get a personalized message! He says the name, you can upload pictures of important events from the past year, he talks about gifts if you want and in Summer’s, he says, “you’ve been asked to be extra nice to your sister”. So, so cute. And FREE! Summer loves “talking to Santa” and I’m pretty sure she thinks she’s actually Skyping with Santa. She’ll nod and talk back to him like he’s really talking to her. It’s pretty awesome.

That’s it for now! Anybody have any new favorites?

Elmo!

2011-12-07T23:59:00.001-06:00

The weekend after Thanksgiving we decided last minute to take the girls to see Sesame Street Live. We didn’t tell Summer until the morning of the show and she was pretty excited. I was worried that she would be scared, since she’s afraid of mascots (whose child is this again??) but since none ever got close to us we were in the clear. She loved it and sat mesmerized the entire time. Hannah, on the other hand, was just a wiggly little worm. She did ok for the first half but the second half I spent with her climbing up the Bradley Center stairs then taking her to the bottom to climb up again. And again. And again.

Yes, I got suckered into buying a $10 Elmo balloon. We’re gettin’ on towards lunch and naptime, hence the no smile.

It was a really cute show and I’m glad we went. It was during this show that I realized my favorite characters are The Count and Grover. The Count because I love the play on words with his name and Grover (mostly Super Grover I guess) because he’s just so clueless and makes funny jokes that kids don’t really get. I know a lot of people bag on Sesame Street because of the cheesy characters these days but it’s a pretty good show I think, and pretty educational. It’s really the only TV show we watch. And I’m OK with that.

I love little outings like this with my family.

Loved

2011-11-21T14:17:00.001-06:00

I can’t even tell you how loved I feel. Thank you all for your sweet words and prayers on our behalf. I’ve received more calls, emails, texts and chats and each one is like a little answer to a prayer. So thank you, thank you, to each and every one of my amazing friends, real life and internet! :) I know I’m not the first one to go through this, and while I would never wish it on anyone, having friends who know how it feels helps tremendously. Like I’m not alone. And never have I felt alone, not one minute. Everyday gets a little bit easier, and I think I’m past the worst, at least I hope! I did decide to wait and things started happening on their own Friday. But still today, nothing significant has passed, so I decided to use medication to aid things. Mostly because I don’t want to be enjoying my turkey and cranberry sauce while nature decides it wants to start kicking in! So I’m hoping between now and Wednesday we’ll be mostly over and done with it.

I was thinking how much has changed in just 10 years—the things we count on our friends for. It used to be dating and breakups. Then engagements and weddings. Now, it’s evolved into marriages, childbirth, child rearing, and the occasional loss and heartbreak. Especially since we’ve moved here, I’ve had stellar friends on which to lean on through each of these stages. I can only hope that I’ve helped them as much as they’ve helped me!

I’m so pumped for Thanksgiving! I love everything about it—the food, the friends/family, browsing through Black Friday ads, and just the overall feeling of gratefulness and thanksgiving. A perfect day. I hope everyone has a great day, and eats plenty enough for the both of us!

Heartbroken and terrified

2011-11-18T09:22:00.001-06:00

I was looking forward to this week. Derrick’s birthday on Monday, and then one of Imy BFF’s Sara flying in from Omaha on Tuesday (round trip ticket=$31!! AFTER TAXES!!) to spend the week with us. Sara and I had a great time, as we always do, but this week did not pan out like I had envisioned.

Tuesday I found out that that our sweet, new, happily anticipated baby #3 had no heartbeat. I was supposed to be 11 weeks but the baby was only measuring 9. After this appointment I was going to go public with our news. After this appointment I had different news to share.

This pregnancy had been so different than my last two. I had been feeling great. Too great. I knew something had to be wrong. With the girls I was sick most of the first trimester. I really had only felt sick one day this time. So as I headed into the doctor’s on Tuesday I was already telling myself, and the nurse, that I thought something was wrong. A failed doppler and ultrasound confirmed it. Even though I had a feeling it would turn out that way, it didn’t lessen the pain as I laid there on the table, silently sobbing, listening to my doctor go through my options.

I had so many thoughts running through my mind. We weren’t expressing enough gratitude for this baby. I was too impatient as a mother and it changed it’s mind. It’s nature’s way of solving problems. 20% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage. There’s nothing I could have done. I could have done more. My thoughts didn’t know where to land.

Luckily I was distracted enough with Sara to not really think about it, although we did some. But she left this morning and now I’m faced with what I’m going to do now. Wait it out and let nature take its course or induce or have surgery. I have always been one to let things happen naturally, but part of me wants it to be over and done with, and the thought of it still in my body kind of bothers me. But then I think I don’t want to let it go. And I’m terrified of the emotions that will resurface when whatever happens does happen.

One of the many things I have learned this week, besides how delicate life is, how families are indeed eternal, and how prayer does wonders for calming the spirit, is what an amazing network of love and support I have. I can’t even type this without crying, knowing I have some of the more sincere, genuine, and compassionate friends and family I could ever ask for. Immediately after sending word to my closest friends I was bombarded with calls and messages of love and concern. I know I couldn’t do this without them. And especially my sweet husband who lets me cry on his shoulder and doesn’t get mad even at 1:00 am when I break down in bed.

I know I have much to be grateful for still—my two beautiful daughters who are healthy and thriving. I know this is just a small hurdle in the grand scheme of things. And I know we still have much in store for us. I just need to have faith that this is all part of God’s plan for me and our family.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you to all who have called, texted, hugged, and loved me this week. It means more to me than you will ever know.

15 months!

2011-11-10T21:49:00.001-06:00

Our little Hannah turned 15 months today! She decided she wanted to get the party started early by waking up at 4:45. Let’s just say after our day yesterday, this wake up time did not go over well with mama. Thankfully Dad stepped up and whisked her away and let me sleep. Bless that man.

She had her check up today, too, and came out with a clean bill of health. She weighs in at 18 lb 6 oz (2nd percentile) and is 29.25” long (17th percentile). She’s a petite little thing, but don’t let those numbers fool you—she’s got plenty of rolls on her tiny body.

She learned how to crawl in the past month or so and now can pull herself up and cruise along the furniture. She can walk with assistance and I’m pretty sure she’ll be walking alone pretty soon. Summer started walking around this age, too.

She can say “hi”, “mama”, and tries to say “cheese” and “ball”. She knows signs for “milk”, “more”, and “please”. Those are really the only signs I teach because I’d rather have my kids talk than sign. She knows where her nose is. She loves bath time. Their favorite is when I close the shower curtains and let them just splash and splash and splash. They crack themselves up and I love hearing them giggle hysterically.

Hannah is my sweet, snuggly girl, but living with an older sister has forced her to toughen up her image. She will very loudly know that she is unhappy that you stole her toy and she’s been known to take a swipe or two at her sister. But overall she is a very happy kid and a fabulous addition to our family. We love you, Hannah!!

A long day

2011-11-09T20:31:00.001-06:00

Beware: random rambling and disconnected thoughts and rants ahead.

I don’t think (at least I hope) that I’ve ever tried to portray my life through this blog as perfect. One thing I can’t stand is reading blogs about their perfect family with their perfectly behaved kids and their perfectly romantic and helpful husbands living in their perfectly kept homes. You’re not fooling anyone!! Stop pretending! Sure maybe people only like to read about the happy-go-lucky things that happen but when I read about people’s trials and their true thoughts I feel like I get to know them a little better…and appreciate them more as a person. Today was not a perfect day, and while nothing horribly tragic happened, I still feel like utter crap.

I have never been a morning person. Like, never. When I started going to seminary in high school it was so hard for me to wake up in time and get ready to go. My dad told me when I was a Freshman that by the time I was a Senior my body would be so accustomed to waking up at 5:30 that I wouldn’t even need an alarm clock anymore. Joke’s on you, Dad! That never happened. Nor did I think it would.

I hate waking up in the morning. I’m a lot better than I used to be (working day shift as an RN with a 7am start at a hospital 30 minutes away will help) but it used to take me a good 30 minutes before I would even talk in the morning. I am definitely a night owl.

I am no good without sleep. I lack patience to begin with, and couple that with exhaustion and forget it. Even worse: my children are no good without sleep, though they may try to prove otherwise.

Setting our clocks back this week has killed me. My kids (and I) live and breath by nap and bedtimes. If you screw anything up, we are all screwed up. They have been waking up well before 6 since the change and I am losing it. Today Summer was up at 5am and would not go back to sleep. Hence, I’ve been up since 5am. I am a wreck. Add to that it was raining and snowing all day today and this was pretty much the crappiest day ever.

I tried to salvage it by making play dough with Summer. It was a disaster. Too sticky.

I yelled too many times to count.

I hate the days I spend longing for the kids’ bedtimes. I want to enjoy my days with them. But sometimes I just want the backtalk to end, the kitchen to stay clean, the kids to play nicely together. I’m so sick of cleaning up the same messes over and over again.

I know my story is no different than any other mother out there. But maybe if I voice my gripes and someone else can related and know they’re not alone, well then maybe I helped? I’m far from a perfect mother, and on days like today wonder if I’m even meant to be one. I keep reminding myself that there are other children waiting to come to our family and watching us now, and I don’t want them to be scared to join us! I want them to be so excited they can hardly stand it.

I really think I just need some sleep. Is that so much to ask???

Potty Party!

2011-11-08T22:10:00.001-06:00

I feel like we’ve finally jumped the last hurdle in potty training Summer: pooping in the toilet. She consistently will go when she needs to in the toilet, and half the time I have no idea she went until she’s yelling for me to come wipe her. Hallelujah. I was sick of changing poopy pull-ups. She’s known her prize for going poop in the potty was a trip to Build-a-Bear and she was so excited to finally go. I’ll admit…I was too!

It really was fun. They make your kid feel so special and excited and include them in every step. The whole time I was practically dying of cuteness.

She picked out a white bear with multi-colored hearts all over it. She named her Pixie, although I’m preeeety sure she was trying to say “sexy” (have no idea where she would have learned that word…seriously). We helped her change it to Pixie though. This may cause confusion however, since our Elf on the Shelf is also named Pixie. Hmmm….

Anyway, I’m sure you all know the process: stuff the bear, kiss the heart and give it a wish and put it in the bear, sew it up, give it a bath, buy expensive clothes for it. She loved every minute of it.

We are so proud of her!! She was a complete stinker about it for so long. So stubborn. But we always knew she could do it and she finally did! Goodbye diapers, hello cute undies!

And just for fun, Hannah thoroughly enjoying her ravioli. Maybe ravioli sauce is really a great conditioner, and only she knows the secret?

Halloween

2011-11-02T08:49:00.001-05:00

We had a lot of fun this Halloween. The Friday before we went to Derrick’s work party. There were a lot of awesome costumes there…a giant cupcake, Bert and Ernie, Jelly Bellies, and we went as boobs!! It was really funny. And to prove that they’re indeed not gay, Bert motorboated us.

Saturday we went trick-or-treating at the zoo. We’d never done that before, and you definitely don’t go for the candy because you only get like 5 little pieces, but it was still fun and I always like to see kids in their costumes. My favorite had to be a little 3 or 4 year old black kid dressed up as DJ Lance from Yo Gabba Gabba. Awesome. Hannah was dressed as a chicken since her banana costume wasn’t really stroller friendly, being legless and all.

Monday night we took the girls trick-or-treating up and down our street. Summer loved it…free candy?? And all I have to do is say “trick-or-treat?” She was in heaven. I love my little fruits! Hannah Banana and Summer Strawberry!

We had our traditional stew in a pumpkin for dinner and I passed out caramel apples we made to our neighbors. I wish I had taken a picture of them…they were really cool. And I even ordered custom Halloween ribbon with our name on them. Take my word for it, they were sweet.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween. And so begins the faster than a speeding bullet holidays!

Fun and fulfilling fall festivities!

2011-10-27T13:43:00.001-05:00

Wow, could I be a crappier blogger right now?? Surely my absence is due the fact that we’re just out having so much fun leaving no time to blog about it!!

October has been quite the busy month for us, actually. There’s been something around every corner and I feel like I just can’t keep up! But behold, it’s nap time and for once I’m not joining in! I shall blog instead!

We started out the festivities with a trip to The Elegant Farmer, everyone’s favorite overpriced, yet adorably festive, apple orchard. We picked ourselves a half bushel of apples (which still remain uneaten), took a hayride, and spent the other 50% of our time in giant lines. The caramel apple pie baked in a paper bag keeps me coming back though!

The next weekend or so we hit up Jim’s Pumpkin Patch, which is just a few minutes from our house and we never even knew it existed!! It’s pretty small but quaint and you can get a hayride AND pick your own pumpkin on the cheap! So ride and pick we did.

We spent Family Night this week carving our newly acquired pumpkins. And my we, I mean me. Derrick does an excellent job of gutting them, but is not the steadiest hand at carving. Good thing he abandoned Medical School after the pass/fail preview seminar at BYU. (Side note….when I started dating him I thought I was getting into a doctor’s salary. I wound up with a Spanish major. But all’s well that end’s well…we are happily debt free!) Back to the pumpkins…The girls loved them and loved “helping”.

What better way to spend a Saturday afternoon than raking up not only your fallen leaves, but the leaves from your neighbor’s tree? At least someone got to have a little fun out of it. Totally unrelated, but I can’t resist a half naked baby eating spaghetti. Not pictured:

the delicious and adorable treats we left on our friends’ doorstep (You’ve been Boo’d!) that I don’t think progressed past their own families. Oh well, we tried.
The calorie and fun laden annual pumpkin party, sparsely attended due to sickness but still a winner with those that showed up!
The insane amount of candy pumpkins I have been eating. They’re practically a vegetable, right?? (Fact: pumpkins are technically a FRUIT!)

Happy Fall!!

The Wedding!

2011-10-15T22:13:00.001-05:00

DC was awesome. But then, it always is. We did a TON of walking, and saw all the major sites. I’ll do a separate post on my own pics from touring, but here are just some of the pictures from the temple after the wedding. It was overcast and freezing that day, and rained the whole time except for the 45 minutes we were outside taking pictures. Miracle!!

I really could have used a ladder in some of these shots, but oh well. It is what it is at this point. I have a huge newfound appreciation for wedding photographers. Jennifer, I’m looking at you!!

Congrats to Hayley and Taylor!!

Hayley

2011-10-04T17:16:00.001-05:00

As you may or may not know, I have been “hired” as the wedding photographer for the lovely Hayley and her soon-to-be hubby Taylor. I do not claim to be a professional photographer, nor do I think I ever will. However, I guess I am cheaper than a real one and can provide adequate enough pictures to document arguably the MOST IMPORTANT DAY OF THEIR LIVES SO FAR!!!! *insert panicked scream here*

Yes, I’m totally freaking out. Losing my camera didn’t help things. I’ve been practicing and reading up on techniques and mostly just praying everything works out and I get some decent images for them.

And oh, did I mention the wedding is in DC?!?!

I’m totally stoked to go. I looove DC. Like, I want to marry it. We get to spend 2 days sightseeing and then the wedding is Wednesday morning and we fly back that evening to be back for the reception the next day. Next week will be an absolute whirlwind! Thankfully my mom is flying out to help watch the girls since Derrick has school and work and all the jazz. So you better believe I’ll be enjoying my solo flight and 3 days without kids! (Don’t worry, in their place I’ll be developing stress ulcers thinking about the wedding pictures.)

So anyway, I took Hayley’s bridals a couple weeks ago and she gave me permission to post them here. She’s gorgeous, so that makes them automatically amazing. I did a little post processing work-not much, since I don’t know much really-and I think we got some decent shots. I won’t bother you with my excuse that I had bought the camera that day and wasn’t 100% familiar with it.

So, all of you pros out there, I know a lot of the mistakes I made, but if you have any constructive criticism or tips for the upcoming wedding, I’d really appreciate it!

Be gentle on me, please!

Probably the closest I'll ever get to kissing him....

2011-09-30T22:30:00.000-05:00

Check out what my friend Debbie dropped off for me today!! The Justin Bieber Singing Toothbrush!! As Seen on TV!!!!
It plays not just one, but TWO hit songs for you to rock out to while you brush your teeth for the appropriate length of time. How I never knew of this product is beyond me but now I'm wondering how I ever managed to maintain proper oral hygeine without it!

I’m back!

2011-09-23T21:48:00.001-05:00

Enough of seeing that lame post. I’m still pretty bitter about how dishonest and crappy our society is these days, but I had a few things happen in our families that helped to really put things in perspective. Cameras can be replaced, and while the images can’t, there will be plenty more.

Besides, I kind of needed a new camera. :)

So after waiting over a week and calling and checking and still nothing showing up I went ahead and bought a new one. After much research and shopping around I decided on the Nikon D3100, which is essentially the same as my old D40 but with a few extra perks, like HD video. I got a combo kit with an extra 55-200mm lens. Sa-weet. Although now I’m totally wanting at 10-24mm wide angle lens. Maybe for Christmas????? So yes, expect more pictures soon. My life is once again complete.

Heartbroken

2011-09-13T09:46:00.001-05:00

Firstly, thanks so much for your kind comments on my last post. I thought for sure I’d get at least one comment on my previous post, but nothing! Usually my anonymous posters come out of hiding with a post dealing with wieners. :) Either way, it was nice to hear some reassuring and reaffirming words from some dear friends.

We got back last night from a trip to Texas to see my family and go to the BYU/UT game. I took amazing pictures of Derrick and I on the field at UT, pictures of us with Bevo their longhorn mascot, a picture with me and the Chick-fil-A cow mascot, pictures with friends from BYU, pictures with cousins, and pictures with Hannah meeting my grandmother for the first, and hopefully not last, time.

And all of those pictures are with my camera, which I left on the airplane in Atlanta before our connecting flight. i didn’t realize until that plane had already left. I ran back, sick to my stomach, crying the whole way. The Airtran worker said he would call the next city and check the plane when it came back to Atlanta for me, and I gave him my contact information. I called Atlanta this morning and nobody has turned anything in. I’m so, so, so, so sad. Not so much for the camera itself, but for the pictures. Like, I’m literally devastated and so depressed about it.

The girls were angels on the flights down but devils on the flights home. It was a horrible ending to an otherwise good trip.

The worst part is Derrick asking me repeatedly if we had everything and me saying yes. And me being so worked up about our crazy kids that I missed the multiple times I almost realized something was missing. So many times I could tell the spirit was trying to tell me something but I was filled with too much negativity to let it penetrate. I’m probably most disappointed in myself about that. That, and I just hate doing stupid things.

In the end, I have to keep telling myself it’s just a camera and that it could be worse. But it’s so hard…I just love pictures so much.

Crisp and snippy

2011-08-29T22:29:00.001-05:00

When I was in Utah one of my sisters in law mentioned that she had heard from 2 or 3 others in our family recently that I was “the perfect homemaker”. I know a backhanded compliment when I hear one, and that was definitely one of them. But then I got to thinking about it, and decided I don’t care if they were being snippy about it, it’s something I truly do enjoy. I think having my mom stay at home and be an example of a homemaker has a lot to do with it. While I didn’t do a ton of cooking or decorating while I lived at home, it instilled deep down a desire and love for it that emerged once I got married and kept a home (or apartment!) of my own.

There’s a crispness in the air lately, and temps are way down at night. It’s definitely starting to feel like fall and football weather. One of our sweet friends who is moving away very generously gifted us with a 5.5 qt Le Creuset French (not Dutch!) Oven. It’s absolutely gorgeous and I cannot wait to make some delicious soups, roasts, and sauces in it. Perfect for fall. I get excited just looking at it. I even checked out a few cookbooks and flagged a ton of recipes to try in the next couple months.

I feel like this pot is the start of a change. A change to eat better food, to be a nicer person, to be a better mom and wife. I still kind of feel like I’m riding my high from Education Week. I just love BYU. The feeling there is so amazing. Everything is so clean, and everyone is so nice, and you really just feel a different spirit walking on campus. No lie, I teared up a little walking off campus the last day. You just can’t not feel good there.

So if people want to hate on me because I like to cook for my family, and have a clean home, and enjoy my “job” as a homemaker as much as I can, they can. Besides, I’d rather be called a perfect homemaker snarkily than a crappy homemaker truthfully!

Phallics and fish

2011-08-26T22:13:00.001-05:00

I was going through the pictures on my phone and came across a few gems I had forgotten about.

Exhibit A: An innocent-enough girl simply pouring water from her watering can into her garden, or a gender confused girl pretending to be a boy? Who designs these statues? Actually, what buyer let this pass through??? And that skirt sure it short enough, eh? Sleazy.

Exhibit B: Poor Belle. No wonder she was shunned in her village. It wasn’t because she was a bookworm or her dad was a crazy inventor, it was because she had a giant wiener. Peasant folk aren’t down with that.

Exhibit C: Every trip we take to Wal-Mart must begin with a trip to look at the fish. Part of my own little ritual is to see how many dead fish the employees let float around belly up. Usually the poor 9 cent goldfish don’t stand a chance once you get them home, but this guy was murdered before he even got a shot to swim around in a tiny bowl filled with his own poop. I hope he was delicious.

Utah!

2011-08-24T14:17:00.001-05:00

Well, everyone survived and had a great time! The kids had a great time with their grandparents and my grandparents. They were sufficiently spoiled and loved on and came back with no injuries. I’d call that a success!

We had an absolute blast in Utah. We flew into SLC and stayed the night in Park City at the Chateau, which was gorgeous. We had breakfast at the Stein Eriksen, which was also amazing. Seriously, probably the best breakfast I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. I am STILL thinking about it. It was a potato bacon pancake with poached eggs and jarlsburg cheese and cranberries. I almost cried when I ate the last bite. I am now officially addicted to poached eggs. Yum. Combined with the amazing view, the clean crisp air that smelled so so good, and spending time with Derrick, I loved every minute of our time there.

We walked around downtown Park City for awhile and then got a Snowie and watched the Alpine Sliders for awhile. Then my sweet husband let me drag him around the outlets for a couple hours. It was really one of the most fun days I’ve ever had with him, and it felt like we were on a mini honeymoon. I missed the kids for a brief moment, but really I was surprised how quickly I adjusted into doing whatever, whenever, and not worrying about naptimes or mealtimes or discipline or ANYTHING. It was heaven.

Later that afternoon we went to Derrick’s aunt’s house in Sugarhouse for dinner, which incidentally would be the last time we would eat real vegetables for the rest of the week.

Education Week was amazing. I loved all the classes I took. I took a lot of parenting classes, but also some marriage and scripture classes. I really feel like I came back feeling renewed and refreshed, with more patience and understanding. Hopefully a better parent and wife. We saw a couple shows on campus, included Aida, which was not my favorite, but I got to see my friend Adam, and then a concert of 8 different LDS musicians. I thought it was going to be super lame but I actually like it a lot.

We ate at all of our favorites: Cafe Rio, Burgers Supreme, Teriyaki Stix, Jamba Juice, Tucano’s, In-n-Out, the Brick Oven, and J Dawgs. It was our first time at J Dawgs actually, but loved it so much we went twice. Their special sauce is indeed special. I wanted to take a bath in it then lick the tub clean. Needless to say we bought a huge 32 oz. bottle to bring home.

Speaking of shopping, good thing I brought an empty duffle bag packed in our suitcase because we crammed that sucker full. The BYU Bookstore is probably the only place on earth where Derrick likes to shop, and whenever we shop there, I feel like I have a blank check. There is no limit on the amount of BYU paraphernalia we can buy. What? You want a BYU hoodie? Go for it! Jerseys for the kids? Grab 2! We definitely will be well outfitted in BYU gear for the upcoming football season!

We saw lots of family throughout the week which was always fun. We hit up Nickel City and the new Provo Beach at the Riverwoods. A cool place, but ridiculously overpriced.

Other highlights: Seeing sweet little Holland, Casey and Lindsey’s new baby, as well as the rest of their fam.

Going to Wal-Mart and seeing these registers: (they say Price Matching and Coupon Lane. There were 4 of them!)

You know you’re in Utah when you see this line up: 2 Subaru stawags, a VW stawag, and a Honda Element!

And last but certainly not least—getting to spend the week with the fabulous Linda, one of my most bestest friends. I’m so glad that we could make this trip happen. The only thing that could have made it better is if we could have had some of our other great girlfriends with us! Next year, ladies??

Hannah, the Very Hungry Caterpillar!

2011-08-13T16:34:00.001-05:00

We celebrated Hannah's 1st birthday today with a Very Hungry Caterpillar party! It wasn’t a very big party, just some of our closest friends, but it was fun and there was lots of food! At least, what was left after a very hungry caterpillar got to it! :) Hannah ate and ate, just as she always does, but wasn’t such a fan of her cake! Maybe she was too full from lunch, but she didn’t even take a bite!

I had a lot of fun making the decorations and getting everything ready. I was so excited to have a baby in the summer so one of us could actually have a party outside, but wouldn’t you know it, it rained. So inside it was.

She got some fun gifts, and had many little friends help her open them. It was a great day to celebrate Hannah and her cute little personality!

And now Derrick and I are off to Utah for A WEEK. BY OURSELVES! My parents will have the kids while we enjoy a week away, eating at all of our favorite places, I’ll be at Education Week at BYU and he’ll be doing whatever. I’m super excited to fly sans kids, and not worry about naptimes or diapers. Of course I’ll be worried about them the whole time, and I already miss them. Pray for me, my parents, and especially my kids!! Thanks mom and dad!!

One year!!

2011-08-10T23:12:00.001-05:00

Happy birthday to our sweet, sweet Hannah! It seems like just the other day Derrick and I were eating at PF Changs for our anniversary and I was contracting in between lettuce wraps. I know I say this every month, but I literally do not know where this past year has gone.

She is truly a joy to have around. Very easy going, and definitely a lover not a fighter.

She, like her sister, has learned to love the moo juice. And she has finally learned how to hold her own bottle and drink it on her own. (Thanks to our road trip when I would just hand it back to her…she had to learn out of necessity!) She loves cheese, fruit, and most veggies. She’ll eat anything, really. We went to Culver’s for dinner tonight and she chowed down her grilled cheese and french fries. And what better way to introduce peanuts than with Reese’s Pieces custard?? She loved that, too.

Still not too mobile, although she rolls both ways at night and can get onto her belly from a sitting position. She’s still in physical therapy about twice a month, although I’m not convinced it’s really doing anything she wouldn’t be learning on her own.

The girl gets some wicked bed head. It’s pretty awesome.

Summer still continues to be the doting sister, overloading her with toys every chance she gets. I should also note that when she is not doting she is shoving her backwards then running away. One day Hannah will get her revenge. One day.

But overall they love each other, and are always making each other giggle in the back seat or at the dinner table. It’s been an amazing year, with plenty of ups and downs, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. We love you so, so much Hannah and we’re so glad you’re ours!

Fairest of the fair!

2011-08-09T10:52:00.001-05:00

Probably one of my top 5 most favorite days of the year, we hit up the State Fair on Saturday! If you’ve been a long time reader of the Wet Donkey then it’s no surprise to you that I am in deep smit with the State Fair! As we walk to the car afterwards I’m already looking forward to going next year. This year was no different!

We tried most of the new foods this year including…..

The Elvis: Deep fried peanut butter cups in banana batter. Pretty good, but you couldn’t really taste any banana flavor. Still, it has peanut butter and chocolate so it gets a B-.

Deep fried bacon wrapped hot dog. Derrick’s most anticipated food. Not only does this just look a little dirty and disturbing, it was a total disappointment. A normal wiener with one piece of bacon. I could have made this at home, and for far less than $5. D-. Should have bought a corn dog instead.

And the highly anticipated, most talked about new food: Deep fried butter. Yes, butter. Pats of butter deep fried in what was probably some kind of wonton wrapper. Initially not so bad, until you realize you are essentially drinking melted butter and chewing on some gross dough. If you look closely you can see the butter dripping out. Ugh. C-.

Of course we got our regular fair staples as well: grilled cheese, roasted corn, flavored milk (the root beer is SO good. I was also loving the strawberry this year too), and my favorite, the cream puff!

Both girls are chugging chocolate milk!

Hannah couldn’t get enough of the cream puff. Congratulations, you’re officially a Wisconsinite!

Summer loved seeing the animals and got surprisingly close to them, despite her hesitant nature. Some cows walked in front of us and she informed us that those cows “aren’t wearing any shoes!!”

We rode the giant slide as a family, my first time riding since probably high school. I don’t remember it being that high…or that scary!! I may have let out a few screams…Hannah seemed to enjoy herself!

The fair is always a great place for mascot spottings! I added 3 more to the collection!

This Beef guy:

This pickle guy:

And the Potowatomi Bingo guy! How cute is he?? Summer was terrified of him, of course. The girls did pretty well while we played Bingo, and true to form, one of us won! Derrick won a cooler/grill thing during the raffle. Sweet!

The Spencer’s were great company and followed us wherever we went. Wes is a trooper and hopefully a fair fan for life!

Until next year!

Winners!!!

2011-08-05T20:18:00.001-05:00

Were you thinking I’d never post the winners? Have you been waiting on pins and needles to see if you won?? Sorry for the delay…I took a road trip with the girls to Omaha while Derrick was in NYC on business. 10 hour drive there and back and everyone is still alive. A miracle in itself. Still, we had fun, got plenty of Sonic fixes, and of course always good to see the fabulous Foches.

So who won?!?!?!

Congrats to Lindsey who said “My favorite is you next to Cosmo of course! But I agree with you that the cutest mascot is the Culvers Ice Cream Man.” Lindsey is about to pop out her 2nd baby girl and I will probably get to snuggle her (the baby, not Lindsey) next week when I’m in Utah! Your prize will be hand delivered!!

And also to Becky who said “Super impressed Karen! I'd have to say the Culver's ice-cream is the best, but I like the girl next to the pig too :) You don't need to include me in the giveaway either. Just knowing you is prize enough.” Becky is one of the sweetest girls I know. Most of my friends would say that last line jokingly but she probably means it. (She probably just don’t know me well enough yet.) ;) Becky, your prize will be hand delivered as well! Lucky you!

And last but not least is Heidi who said, “To pick a favorite out of your collection is a hard task. I love the pose with the Oreo so I vote Oreo cookie. Congrats on the 1000th post...very impressive and inspirational to us all.” Yes, yes, that’s me alright! Inspirational! Ha! Heidi lives near me and is a fabulous mother. Sometimes I wish I were one of her kids so I could do all the fun things they get to do! Your prize will also be hand delivered!

Thanks to random.org for choosing local winners for me and saving on postage! This can only mean the value of your prizes will increase by a buck or two since I’m saving on shipping! Congrats to you ladies, and thanks for reading!

1000th post!!!!

2011-07-26T21:25:00.001-05:00

When I started this blog back in April of 2005 I had no idea what I was doing. I still don’t really know what I’m doing, but hopefully it’s a little more interesting now than when I was posting my latest knitting project. I for sure never thought I would have written 1000 posts about trips, kids, favorites, rants, raves, and everything in between.

I knew this monumental post was coming up and I wanted to do something special. So I’m combining two of my favorite things: mascots and a giveaway!! I know I posted some of these in a mascot recap a couple years ago but there have been so many more and they all need to be at home together in one compact (not really) post. As for the giveaway, leave a comment and tell me which is your favorite and I’ll pick 3 winners at random and send them MY favorite something. I haven’t decided yet. But just know it will be awesome.

And now, since there are so many, I have divided them into categories for you. :)

First: FOOD!

I’ve been trying to nail this guy down for years. Who knew it would happen at our local Culver’s on a Friday night family dinner date? Probably my most cherished mascot picture. He’s just so cute and delicious.

Moving onto: ANIMALS!!

I loved Hello Kitty as a kid, and now Summer loves her. Well, the idea of her anyway. She wasn’t going anywhere near her when we spotted her at the Cedarburg Strawberry Festival. Love this picture.

And lastly: PEOPLE/MISC!!

I am so sad that this picture is so crappy. Lesson learned: take camera everywhere in case of mascot sightings!!

I’m not quite sure what it is about a poorly paid intern in a goofy costume, but I just love them. Maybe one day when I’m old and bored I can get a job as a mascot. How sweet would that be?

So don’t forget to leave a comment and tell me which is your favorite! I’ll give you until Friday July 29 at 10:00 CDT to enter and then I’ll randomly choose the winners. And no anonymous entries! How will I know who you are if you win??? If you want an extra entry you can like me on Facebook or Tweet about this entry or blog about this giveaway or send me flowers or come pull the weeds from my front flower beds. Just kidding. Just leave a comment.

One entry per person. Odds of winning depend on number of entries. Prize value undetermined, but probably not more than 5 bones. C’mon, it’s coming out of my own pocket!

Here’s to another 1000 posts!

Dream come true!

2011-07-18T23:15:00.001-05:00

I don’t think it’s any secret that I love Britney Spears. I remember the first time I had heard of her: I was walking around Downtown Disney in Orlando and saw her Baby, One More Time album cover on the side of Tower Records. Then at Grad Night at The Magic Kingdom she was performing on a little stage by the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. She was wearing yellow bike shorts and a hot pink sports bra. This was right after her alleged boob job and when she stop singing all you could hear were the chants from the crowds going “t*ts! t*ts! t*ts!” We watched for a few minutes then made our way over to watch Less Than Jake. Good times.

Anyway, despite being America’s Sweetheart turned America’s Train wreck, she’s made a pretty amazing comeback, like 3 times over. And I never stopped loving her. Sure, I prefer Oops and Toxic Britney over If You Seek Amy Britney, but she really can’t do too wrong in my book. So when I learned she was playing at Summerfest I knew we had to go.

Jessie and the Toy Boys and Nicki Minaj openend, who were pretty good. I was so excited and giddy waiting for Britney to come out, and when she came out I almost cried. Almost.

Was it the best concert I’ve ever been to? Nope. She lip synced almost all of it I’m pretty sure, but she was smokin’ hot and her dancing was fab and the sets and effects were super cool. She sang some older stuff but a lot of stuff from her new album, too.

I really regret not being able to see Michael Jackson before he died, and I feel like poor Britney is one of those people to die an untimely death as well, so I really wanted to see her in concert before that ever happens. (Which I hope doesn’t, but don’t all those child stars seem to just self destruct???)

It was an interesting crowd…I’d say the majority of the people there were my age. I don’t know what I expected…maybe a younger crowd? And a lot of dudes, too. In fact, there were 3 guys sitting right behind us in muscle tanks, who looked like they just finished their GTL for the day who knew every. single. word. And they sang every. single. word. And they would say things like, “Oh, she always does things like that!” or “Britney loves her ______”. They totally knew and loved their Brit Brit!

I used my ancient point and shoot camera, which is held together with medical tape, so I apologize for the less than superb picture quality.

As we left Summerfest we caught a little bit of America (classy guys), Dashboard Confessional (just as whiny live), and Alkaline Trio (pretty good). I saw one guy hurl in a trashcan and plenty of thongs and mullets. That’s how you know it was a successful Summerfest!

Here’s hoping Justin Bieber makes it to Summerfest next year! He’s got a new album coming out in the fall, and that means a tour, and you better believe I’ll be there!!!

2 1/2 years old?!

2011-07-13T23:14:00.001-05:00

2 1/2 going on 20, I swear! She is miss independent for sure. She loves to do things all by herself and gets pretty testy if she doesn’t get her way “RIGHT NOW!” She talks nonstop about everything and anything, and if she’s not chattering away she singing. Always singing or humming—no doubt gets that from her dad. Her favorite songs to sing are “Twinkle, Twinkle”, “Bingo”, “The Wise Man and the Foolish Man”, and “Happy Birthday”, just to name a few.

She, for the most part, gives hugs and kisses willingly and is very loveable. She insists on giving Hannah hugs and kisses before her naps and bedtime, and she is forever covering Hannah in piles of toys and books.

She could eat fruit (watermelon, strawberries, blueberries) all day long and has probably eaten her weight in Goldfish crackers 10 times over. She still loves milk and drinks it all day long. Most days she double fists it with a cup of water, too.

She knows almost all of her letters now and is starting to learn the sounds they make. Her favorite sound to make is the “f” sound.

She is very set in her routines and has an amazing memory. We were at the zoo a couple weeks ago and I gave her some fishy crackers while we were looking at the penguins. The next time we were at the zoo looking at the penguins she asked for fishy crackers. It’s also crazy the routines she has with different people. When we have our babysitter Ashley watch her she always wants to watch Finding Nemo with her and then asks to watch Justin Bieber on her phone. She never asks us to do those things.

While she is currently in a “testing her limits” stage, she really is a sweet and fun girl to have around. She’s very helpful and loves to help me cook in the kitchen.

Half the time I look at her and wonder how in the world this little talking person wound up in my living room. But even when she tests my patience until I’m sure I’ll never have any again I can’t imagine life without her. She makes us laugh more times than she makes us frown and I’m so glad she’s ours. We love you Summer!

11 months!

2011-07-11T22:44:00.001-05:00

Another month has gone by! Hannah has quite the eventful month. She now rolls from her back to her belly! I’ve never actually witnessed it, but I find her on her belly in her crib quite often. She can’t roll from her belly to her back so she usually whines for me to come rescue her after she wakes up from her naps. She also now is swaddle-free! Perhaps these two events are related….who knows. Either way, it’s been a long time coming, but I was just too lazy/scared to try going without it. I should have known she wouldn’t have cared. She played with her blanket a bit in the beginning but now she just snuggles right up to it and falls asleep.

She loves to wave, clap, and blow kisses.

Still no teeth, which means I get to enjoy the gummy smile a little longer. She found her tongue the other day. She sticks it out halfway and then moves it back and forth and back and back and forth. It’s pretty funny.

She loves to sit in our little pool in the backyard and splash around and try to eat the pool toys. She’s really a good sport about sharing it with her big sister, who splashes her and pours water on her head.

And she really does just adore her big sister. I think the feeling is mutual. Looking at the pictures from this past month I feel like she doesn’t look like my sweet baby anymore, but more like a little girl. This makes me so, so sad. I wish they could stay so small and sweet longer. We just love you so much, Hannah!

Independence Day Festivities

2011-07-07T20:41:00.001-05:00

This Fourth of July weekend consisted of 2 parades, 1 evening of fireworks, 1 barbecue, some water fun for the kids, and a whole lotta fun. The kids loved the parades, as usual, and we had perfect seats and weather for both of them. Grandma Evelyn flew in late Sunday night, and even though I don’t have photographic evidence, I promise you she was present and had lots of fun!

Hope you had as good as holiday as we did here! Hooray for America!

Milwaukeean

2011-07-03T22:34:00.001-05:00

I have been the lamest blogger lately, and I hate it. I blame it on Harry Potter, really. See, I’m rereading all the books in the series in hopes that I’ll finish in time for the release of DH2 on July 15th. I’m only on the beginning of book 5 so I really gotta get crackin’! Anyway, I spend my evenings reading instead of on the interwebs when I would normally be blogging. So, blame it on the Harr-harry harr-harr-harcahol.

I’ve been in a rather reflective mood as of late. We are coming up on our 7 year anniversary of living in Milwaukee. I’ve never lived 7 years in one place in my entire life. I maxed out at 4 years in Florida where I went to all 4 years of high school. Having lived in more than a dozen states in my life I’m always a little stumped when people ask me where I’m from. Having lived almost a quarter of my life now in Wisconsin, if and when we ever move away I think the answer will have to be “Milwaukee” when I’m asked that question in the future. That’s crazy.

We viewed moving to Milwaukee as a new and exciting adventure and were optimistic in what our new future would hold. We have not been disappointed. We have made so many amazing friendships, many of which I know will last a lifetime. We have seen many of our friends come and go, leaving us to pursue degrees and other job offers. It gets harder and harder the longer we stay here. Having always been the one to come in go growing up, it’s interesting to be on the opposite side. Two of my very best friends are leaving Milwaukee for greener pastures and I’m honestly devastated and heartbroken. They have both seen me at my worst and still love me. I love their families and love their children as my own. These two women will never have any idea the impact they have had on me and my growth not only as a person, but as a mother as well. I love them dearly, and even though they may be far in distance, they will never be far in my thoughts. I’m sad I won’t see their faces regularly, and I’m sad Summer is losing two of her best friends.

Even though I’m losing two friends, I am so grateful to know that I still have SO many more that are here! I seriously feel bad for all of you who aren’t friends with my friends, they are the best. And if you are friends with them, then you know how awesome they are. I really have incredible girlfriends.

I think what I love so much about living here is the diversity of friends that I have. I love all of the people in our ward congregation and have made friends with so many amazing women that I never would have thought I would befriend. Professionally, I have worked with great women and even though I may not see them all the time whenever I do it’s always so good to catch up. And of course there are my Kohl’s girls, there from the beginning and will be there till the end.

I know this is some serious cheese happening, but I just had to express how blessed we’ve been. We moved far from family into the unknown, and were welcomed by the Midwest and its hospitality. And on beautiful summer nights like tonight, after watching a parade with dear friends and my precious family, I can’t help but reflect on how much our Heavenly Father has blessed us. We have a home, health, friends, family, and freedom. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Milwaukee is my home.

Smokers

2011-06-21T12:04:00.001-05:00

If there’s one thing I don’t think I’ll ever understand, it’s why people smoke. I mean, I get that once they start they’re addicted and they sort of lose control of what they actually want, but still, it’s just so baffling to me.

I know it makes no logical sense, but when I see someone smoking I instantly perceive them as less intelligent. They could have dozens of degrees and be the top minds in their field, but if I see them smoke they get just a little bit more stupid to me. When doctors smoke, that’s just even worse. I will never, ever see a doctor who I know smokes. That’s like going to an obese personal trainer. Or a dentist with rotting teeth. Or a bald hairdresser.

I’ve tried to think of any positives to smoking, but can’t think of any. Just glaring negatives:

Your clothes stink.
Your breath stinks.
It’s expensive.
With the new indoor smoking ban (FINALLY!) you have to smoke outside in the freezing cold.
You stink.
CANCER
Yellow teeth
Wrinkles and looking older in general
YOU STINK!

HOW ARE THESE APPEALING TO ANYONE?!?!?!

We were at a party downtown last weekend where a friend of ours went out to smoke and this topic came up. He’s suuuuper smart, but that all gets negated because he smokes. Hi, Chong!!

I just don’t get it. It’s gross and you look like an idiot.

Happy Father’s Day!

2011-06-19T21:52:00.001-05:00

Happy Father’s Day to all of the fabulous dads out there, both old and new! We’re pretty fond of the dad in our home—these girls think he’s top notch, as you can see!

We had a busy, busy weekend filled with lots of friends. I can barely keep my eyes open right now I’m so tired from all the running around we did! But we had a blast nonetheless.

Derrick got a shirt and a Jimmer jersey from the girls, and I changed about a dozen poopy diapers. I swear the girls know when he has a day off from diaper duty because they seem to poop like three times more than they normally do.

The girls’ most favorite time of their day is when dad comes home. He is always greeted with huge smiles and squeals. They really just love love love their dad. I have to say I feel the same. He is a huge help with both of them and is always there to step in right when I need him. He really is the World’s Best Dad for our girls. :)

Big props to my own pops who is also a great dad and now grandpa. The girls love skypeing with him and Summer knows she always has someone to play with when he’s around. My dad is always there to listen or give advice or just to chat. He’s an all around good guy, and I love him.

Hope all the great dads were spoiled today! They deserve it!

10 months!

2011-06-10T20:53:00.001-05:00

I’m in a mild state of denial that Miss Hannah is already 10 months old. Sometimes I sit and wonder where the past 10 months have gone!

I just love this girl so so so so much. Maybe it’s because she can’t talk back to me yet, but she really is what keeps me sane some days when Summer makes me want to run away and not come back.

Her new favorite game to play is peek-a-boo. Usually while she’s eating, and she’ll pull her bib up over her eyes then drop them and giggle. It’s super cute and often makes me forget about the fact that Summer just dumped her plate of food on the floor. (Can you tell Summer has been testing my patience lately????) She also learned how to arch her back while sitting and flop backwards. She finds it especially funny if she falls back onto the soft bed. (Otherwise I just catch her in my arms.)

This is the excited face I usually get to see when she wakes up in the morning and from her naps. She’s a great eater, but especially loves cheese, watermelon, blueberries, and tortillas. She also has become a fan of chicken nuggets recently. What kid isn’t?

Still no news on the movement front. No rolling, crawling, or anything, but we work our legs out everyday and spend more time on our tummies. The state evaluators are coming in 2 weeks to determine if she qualifies for the Birth to 3 program. We’ll see….

She sleeps from 6pm-8am, with a snack around 5:30. No complaints there. Usually takes 2 naps. If we’re out and about she does good missing either her morning or afternoon nap.

She’s found her voice lately and uses it frequently. High pitched shrieks of happiness, usually when she sees her dad or sister. I just get a smile. A nice gummy smile. Still no teeth!

I really just cannot say enough good things about her. She's just the sweetest thing and she makes our family better!

Let the indoctrination begin!

2011-06-09T14:22:00.001-05:00

I signed up Summer for the free Summer bowling program awhile back. Yesterday we didn’t have much to do so after dinner we took her bowling to see if she’d like it and whether or not to get the summer family pass.

Summer is a giant scaredy-cat so I was a little worried that she would be scared of this too. And just like I suspected, she started to cry and said she didn’t want to go bowling, even though that’s all she could talk about that afternoon. But we quickly reassured her and when she realized she could carry the ball herself and drop it onto the lane she was in heaven.

I can’t believe she picked up that 6 lb ball and threw it down the lane 40 times all by herself. She was one hot sweaty mess by the time she was done. But we didn’t hear a peep from her later when she went to bed!

First we get the ball…

Then we take it to the line…

And we watch it roll slooooooowly down the lane. Sometimes dad helps it along with his foot if he can catch it.

I “hit the pins!!!” Success!!!!

Here she is posing with her ball. We figured out that the ball weighs approximately 1/4 of her body weight, which would be like me picking up and throwing a 30 lb ball. Please don’t do the math. I found that really funny though last night. I wonder if her arms are sore today? And this one was just happy as a clam to sit and watch all the excitement. It was really fun, and I can see many days of bowling ahead of us this summer. Sign up friends, and we can all go together!

Memorial Day

2011-05-31T17:53:00.001-05:00

Ahhh, Memorial Day. The official start date of Summer here in Wisconsin. Yesterday was no different, with our hottest day of the year so far, in the upper 80’s. Our poor children weren’t sure what to make of all the heat, and instantly turned into little red sweaty messes.

We went to the Menomonee Falls parade with our friends Ann & Kurt and had a great time. Summer loved sitting in her brand new pink camping chair, collecting candy, and waving to everybody.

She didn’t love the Racing Sausages that stopped by to say hello, however. She started to cry and yelled “NO!” to the poor Frankie Furter, the Hot Dog, as he tried to give her 5. I think the Bratwurst, or Brett Wurst, was a little offended that she didn’t like him.

Hannah was happy as a clam to sit and watch everything go by.

She was feeling very patriotic and loved waving her little flag!

Meanwhile, I tried not to cry watching the Pearl Harbor vets. We also had our fill of vacation bible school plugs and of course the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies.

Afterwards we went to a fabulous BBQ with lots of our friends. I made these deliciously festive chocolate covered strawberries.

And then it was home for naps! Finally! A lovely day indeed filled with fun, food, friends, and the reminder of why we really have a day off: all of those men and women who selflessly serve for our country. For me, and for you. Let’s always remember why we enjoy the freedoms that we do!

Gross

2011-05-27T11:55:00.001-05:00

I’ve always had a pretty strong stomach. In high school I loved when we dissected frogs and cats and worms in Biology class. At BYU I loved my human anatomy class so much I worked as a TA for it for a semester. (And smelled like formaldehyde for a semester as well.) I handled buckets of hearts, brains, kidneys, and wieners and never flinched.

But there are a few things that I just can’t stomach.

One is watching people spit. That is just straight up nasty. Especially huge loogies. Makes my stomach turn just thinking about it!

Next is watching people kiss and seeing tongue. So disgusting. Nobody wants to see that! Robbie Hart and Julia Sullivan may agree that you may use “church tongue” at the altar (movie, anyone?) but in my opinion the only appropriate place to use and see any tongue is well behind closed doors. Case closed.

Another thing that grosses me out and that I know I would hate to do is wait/bus tables. I can give injections, treat bloody botched circumcisions, and spread the butt cheeks of a 350 pound woman to check for hemorrhoids but the thought of touching a stranger’s used fork, napkin, and plate makes me gag. It just seems so dirty. People have filthy mouths…who knows what’s on those things?

Am I the only one grossed out by random things?

Pullover? No, it’s a cardigan!

2011-05-21T23:22:00.001-05:00

Is there anything worse than seeing a cop in your rearview mirror? Yes, yes there is. Seeing a cop in your rearview mirror with his lights on.

I got a speeding ticket on Monday. I hate getting caught. Thing is, I wasn’t even conscientiously speeding! I was just cruising along, going with the flow, jamming out to the JB, debating whether or not to stop at the grocery store and pick up something for dinner or go with what I originally had planned but was not sounding good to me anymore.

Apparently I was going 54 in a 35, but I could see the 45 sign just ahead where it would change. Grr. Since I was caught by a town cop or something like that it was a cheaper ticket. Either way, I have a court date and 4 points on my license. Which brings my total up to 8 or something like that. Ridiculous!!!

I’ve had terrible driving luck since moving to WI. Popped tire, ticket for a U-turn, accident on the freeway, accident in my driveway. I swear I’m not a bad driver, but my record would say otherwise.

Well, mark my words, folks, from this day forward I will never get another ticket for the rest of my life!!! I’m sick of going to traffic court and wondering if I should plead not guilty or no contest, I’m sick of paying for tickets, and I’m sick of that feeling you get when you get pulled over.

This is going to be hard, no doubt. I really like to drive fast. :/

Say aaahhh!

2011-05-18T21:20:00.001-05:00

We put Summer on our dental plan this year and today was the day we finally went! We’ve been talking up the dentist this week and how he was going to count her teeth and brush them and get a prize at the end. She was super excited and woke up this morning bright and early and asked if it was time to see the dentist yet. I was hoping we wouldn’t be repeating our at-home excitement for Santa and the Easter Bunny for in-the-moment absolute fright. She was excited as we drove to the dentist (although mostly concerned about why Hannah wasn’t in the car with us…she was at Linda’s. Guess we need to have more dates with just the two of us!) She was excited as we waited in the lobby. And then she got in the chair and she wasn’t quite sure about the whole thing. She didn’t want to open her mouth one bit. But she eventually warmed up.

And after watching mom get her teeth counted and cleaned, and armed with a SpongeBob toothbrush, she was ready to hop back in the chair again. Cartoons on the TV above didn’t hurt either. Look at these eyes…they never looked away!

I was so proud of her for sitting so still and being such a big girl. She picked out her prize at the end---bubbles, of course!

Oh, and no cavities for either of us!

Runts

2011-05-14T20:49:00.001-05:00

I’ve had a box of Runts in my car for a week or so (because I forgot to sneak them into the movie theater last weekend) and have been munching on them all week. I’ve forgotten how good they are! When it comes to eating candy in large quantities, I prefer the fruity varieties. Don’t get me wrong, I love chocolate just as much as the next sleep-deprived pre-menstrual mom, but I can only handle so much in one sitting. Skittles, Starburst, Smarties, Bottle Caps, I love all of those. I especially love that you can buy just the banana ones in those gumball machines in the middle of the mall. I love the taste and how their funky shape feels in my mouth. (And I thought of a bunch of ways to say that and they all sounded dirty so I just went with it. Go ahead with the TWSS’s.)

Anyway, I love that you can buy these at the dollar store, too! Bonus!

And speaking of runts…..this one had her appointment on Thursday and weighed in at 14 lb 10 oz, down a half pound from last week’s visit. She eats a ton, so I’m not sure where she’s hiding it. That puts her in the 2nd percentile. She’s 26 1/4”, which puts her in the 12th. She’s got plenty of chub on those thighs and arms so she’s not starving, she’s just petite!

BUT….she isn’t so hot at putting weight on her legs. And she doesn’t roll or creep or crawl or anything. She sits. Doc is a little concerned about it so she has to be analyzed by someone from the state with the Birth to 3 program just to make sure it’s not anything too serious. And maybe give her some physical therapy. I’m not worried. Summer was over a year before she even crawled. I guess I just have lazy kids. Blame it on their father’s genetics. :)

So we’ll see what they say. I’m sure they’ll just tell me to put her on her legs and tummy more often.

Maybe I should grind up some runts and add them to her food. Fatten her up a bit. It’s working for me!!

9 months!

2011-05-10T22:53:00.001-05:00

Hannah is 3/4 of a year today! I don’t have stats because her appointment isn’t until Thursday, but she’s been to the doctor plenty in the past 2 weeks and her last weigh in was 15 lb 2 oz, fully clothed. So still a lightweight. Still in size 1 diapers. Wearing 6-12 month clothes, and those are a little big on her.

I know it sounds soo cheesy and overused, but she really is just the sweetest thing and an absolute joy in our home. She started saying “mamamama” this past week which I’m totally loving. She’s also started clapping. Kind of. Her rash is pretty much gone, thank goodness. She just looked so sad with it and I felt so helpless.

No teeth yet, but that doesn’t stop her from trying to eat everything. She loves to munch on bread, cheese, bananas, black beans, tomatoes, avocadoes, and her fingers.

She still sleeps swaddled and with a pacifier. But I worked tonite (I know! shocker!) and the babysitter put her down without it and she still fell asleep. So now I’m thinking of trying to wean her off of it. Hmmm….Anyway, she sleeps from around 6pm to 7-8am, with a snack around 5:30, which also needs to be cut off.

She loves her sister. She loves necklaces, and tries to eat them while still around the wearers neck. She loves to swing. She does not love tummy time. Thus, she does not roll. She does not crawl. She sits. And I’m perfectly happy with that. I always know where she is. :)

And I just love this picture. We should have a caption contest to see what she’s saying! Go!

Fun with food

2011-05-09T20:24:00.001-05:00

I can’t believe I didn’t talk about this at Easter. Our first Easter in WI we learned about a tradition I’d never heard of before: butter lambs. It’s butter shaped like a lamb! I love butter, so of course I loved these. We bought one every year for our Easter dinner table. They never quite emerged from the plastic mold perfect, often losing a head or the base. But there it sat, never complaining when we mutilated it for our rolls. A couple of months ago a lady at church said she knew how to make butter lambs and did anyone want to learn how?? Um, yes please!! So we met at her house and she showed us how to make them. And they are sooo much cuter than the store bought variety! Look at my little lamb!!

All you need are 2 sticks of butter and a fine mesh strainer. You better believe I’ll be making these every year from now on!

I’ve been mildly obsessed with decorating sugar cookies ever since I made cookies for Eagle Scouts. We had a talent show/display at church Friday night so I decided to bring some cookies. I don’t know that anyone really saw them, since all the kids grabbed them and ate them within seconds of putting it on the table. They were fun to make, but I didn’t realize until too late that the detail icing was a little to runny. Oh well. I tried a new cookie recipe too, which seemed to hold up better to decorating. Still tasted good, which is a plus. The baseballs were my favorite! These would be perfect for a little boy’s birthday party, right? Or end of the season sports party?

Now I need another reason to make some more!

Mother’s Payday, I mean Day

2011-05-08T20:23:00.001-05:00

(We had to wake Summer up to get ready for church, which never suits her well. She was crying through all of the pictures. I Photoshopped the tears out and luckily some of her sobs look like smiles. What a nut. And my poor sweet Hannah has a crazy viral rash/Roseola and is splotchy from head to toe. Thankfully it doesn’t bother her.)

Too bad every day isn’t Mother’s Day! I could get used to having breakfast made for me, dishes washed, and showered with jewels!

Today was a perfect day. The weather was great and we went on two walks. We listened to great talks in church. I got to spend all day with my cute little family. I’ll admit, it’s nice to have a day dedicated to moms and have everyone appreciate everything you do!

Derrick made breakfast and dinner for me, all of which was delicious. He even washed every single dish, and just now showed me his poor dishpan hands. Ha.

And I was given a gorgeous sterling silver bracelet with Hannah’s birthstone, Peridot. For Summer’s first Mother’s Day I got Garnet earrings. I am totally digging this tradition!

Even though there are some days when I want to rip my hair out and throw my kids (usually my eldest!) out the window, there’s nothing else I’d rather do. I’m so blessed to have the example of so many amazing mothers all around me in my friends and family. And I’m even luckier to have someone like Derrick by my side to do it with.

Hope everyone had a great Mother’s Day!

Winning!!

2011-05-06T15:41:00.001-05:00

I love winning things. I enter lots of contests in hopes of winning. As the Beastie Boys said , “It’s like the lotto, you got to be in it to win it!”

I heard about a month-long giveaway that Radio Flyer was doing so I entered. You only had to enter once to be eligible for each daily drawing. I totally forgot that I had even entered when I got an email saying I had won something from Radio Flyer valued between $40 and $160 and that it would be shipping within the week. Jigga wha?!?! Sweet! Of course, I was hoping for the super sweet pimped out wagon with the canopy, but would be happy with pretty much anything. And look what showed up on my doorstep yesterday:

The Radio Flyer Classic Lights and Sounds Trike! How did they know we needed pink?? I haven’t opened the box yet because I’m really still deciding if I want to sell it and exchange it for the wagon. We don’t have a trike yet so this could be a good addition to our outdoor toys. Plus, the huge Jackson rummage is next weekend and we may find some good stuff there. We’ll see.

But the moral of the story is….enter contests! You may just win!

And let’s revisit 1998 a little shall we, speaking of the Boys of Beastie.

Things I’m loving

2011-05-04T17:39:00.001-05:00

Despite being sick all week (pink eye and viral infections), and having sick kids (pink eye and colds) for going on 2 weeks, there are a few things that still brighten my day.

My flowers are blooming out front, despite nature’s attempt at keeping them in hibernation. And I got to thinking, “why should my neighbors across the street get to see them all day?” So I snipped some Hyacinths and brought them in, so I get to enjoy them all day long. They make our house smell amazing, and they are just so darn pretty in a simple bud vase. My Narcissus are next to come in. But really I just can’t wait for my Peonies out back to start blooming. Drop dead gorgeous. Makes me want to plant tons of bulbs for next year. But I’m terrified I’ll kill them. We cut back the lavender in the fall and it still hasn’t come back to life yet. If they don’t grow our front beds will look awfully barren. At least the roses are starting to come up.

Next up: Lemon Buddies! Allow me to introduce you to the cool, laid back, beachy cousin of the rugged, chocolaty Muddy Buddy. It’s like popping a little bit of sunshine in your mouth. Over, and over, and over again. I found these little dudes while perusing Pinterest, which I know I’ve talked about before, but seriously, it’s so addicting. Not only can I catalog things that I find for future reference, but I have found so many new recipes, crafts, and decor ideas. Love, love, love it.

And last but certainly not least: Pigtails!! At last! Nothing makes this mama’s heart beat faster than a babe with gobs of hair. And while this child was born with plenty, some of it has decided to jump ship, and the rest just hasn’t grown that much. Summer was in piggies at 6 months, and I have been lamenting the fact that Hannah is practically bald in comparison. I gave Summer vitamins religiously when she was a baby and Hannah…not so much. I was sure that’s why her hair wasn’t growing. So I started again. Now she has mini-piggies. Coincidence? You be the judge.

And this little girl, despite having a double ear infection and double pink eyes, has still been as sweet as ever. I just want to eat her up. And luckily for me, she usually lets me. What a dear.

Patriotic Subway Art

2011-04-25T22:25:00.001-05:00

You all know I’m obsessed with subway art lately. Well, now that Easter is over, I need to replace my Easter art with something summery, which in my mind equals patriotic! There’s just one problem: I couldn’t find one online anywhere! I kept waiting for the girls at Eighteen25 and Tatertots and Jello to come to my rescue, but they never did. Well, I’m not one to wait around. Just ask Derrick…I hang pictures, move furniture, whatever, all by myself because I’m too impatient to wait for someone to be around to help me.

So when I realized there was no patriotic subway art to be found, I decided it was time to take matters into my own hands!! With the help of Photoshop Elements and leftover Easter desserts, I whipped one up in an hour or two. I have to say, I love it!! I’m having it printed tomorrow, and hopefully it comes out as good as I’m hoping it will! (FYI: my Sam’s Club prints it for $5 and some change.)

I even uploaded it so you can download it too if you want! Aren’t I just so awesome? I figure if I was looking for it, maybe someone else is too?

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD!!!

It’s sized to print as a 16x20. But I’m sure you could also print it as an 8x10. No guarantees though.

Easter

2011-04-25T20:03:00.000-05:00

I just love this picture of my girls! I love their dresses, their smiles, everything. I hope I can always find matching outfits for them!

Easter was really fun this year. It was the first holiday that Summer really “got”. We’d been talking about the Easter Bunny and how he was going to come and bring eggs and surprises, and had FHE’s about Jesus and the real reason we celebrate.

We dyed eggs on Saturday and Summer was so confused as to why there wasn’t candy in them. And then she tried to crack one open like we do when we make cookies. This whole egg business is pretty confusing for a 2 year old!

Sunday morning I hid eggs before we let Summer out of her room so we could straight out and look for them. I only hid a few since we were having a bigger hunt later with our friends. She loved finding the eggs and would exclaim “CANDY!!” every time she found one.

I found these giant eggs at Hobby Lobby that I looooove. We decided to put all of her little presents in these huge eggs. It came with 3 that nest inside of each other. So, so awesome. The biggest one can hold a gallon of milk with room to spare. Check it out:

Look what hatched! (She was not a fan of this, btw!)

After the hunt we came inside and opened all the eggs. She got some chalk, bubbles, a coloring book, stickers, a toothbrush, bubble bath, some Barbie dresses and other little treats and candy.

She couldn’t wait to go outside and play with some of her new toys.

Meanwhile, Hannah found her basket hiding under a chair and containing just a stuffed elephant. She didn’t care, she loved it just the same.

We had 4 families over for a fabulous dinner. My friends are amazing cooks, and my waistline is evidence of that after yesterday! I made these little napkin/utensil carroty bundles that I saw on Our Best Bites. So cute!

We had our annual egg toss and Derrick and I won. Woo! But the prized Easter shaped pasta went to the runners up, the Johnson’s.

At one point I couldn’t find Summer during all the commotion. I finally found her with a bowl of strawberries going to town. Fine with me, considering she’d probably only had sugar the rest of the day. She was literally bouncing off the walls all day long. She was so crazy silly.

We had a great Easter weekend and it was so nice to spend it with our “family” here. Of course, the signs of rebirth and spring only reinforce the true meaning of Easter and the sacrifice made for us! So, so grateful.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Craft room redo

2011-04-19T22:33:00.001-05:00

My craft room became the storage room for everything wet and random after our basement flooded last month. Ever since it happened, I’ve been in full on cleaning/purging mode. Closets, rooms, shelves, all of it. I want my entire house to be “binnified”, as my sister in law Kaylynn once called it when we all lived back in Provo. So far all the kids’ clothes are all neatly labeled in matching bins, and all the holiday bins are labeled and purged of old/dated decor. I’ve tossed old soaps and lotions and perfumes I’ll never use again. And finally, I was able to tackle the craft room!

I hung some pegboard that was lying around, bought some new storage containers, and pulled the futon up close. It’s more like a craft lounge! VIP only, baby! I’m sure you don’t really care about my craft room, but it makes me so, so, so happy to just be in there and have everything be so neat and organized and ready for some crafting.

The pegboard is my favorite. I picked up a few hooks at Wal-Mart but I think I need to go to Menards or Home Depot for a bigger selection. The scissors are actually in a thing that is supposed to be for screwdrivers. I put all my glitters in some glass jars I had.

I seriously loved it so much I sewed a quick project just because.

I then moved onto the office, which never was put back together either. Diplomas are now hung and books on shelves.

Now for the rest of the house! If and when we ever do move someday, it should be a piece of cake to get it ready to sell! (And since it snowed today, on APRIL 19th, it may be sooner rather than later! Ridiculous!)

Summer

2011-04-14T20:50:00.001-05:00

I haven’t done a post about Miss Summer in awhile. She is definitely becoming her own little person with her own ideas and opinions. It’s crazy that I can carry on a conversation with her. When did my little girl become such a big girl?

This child is obsessed with hair bands. I know she probably gets it from me since I have one permanently on my wrist. She is forever getting into the drawer in the bathroom that holds them all. The other day I found her with about a dozen on not her wrist, but on her ankle. It was turning a little purple by the time I found it!

She likes to channel her inner 80’s child as well. She waltzed into the kitchen and said “Mom! Look at me!!” She had put on my fuzzy socks and one of her headbands. Silly girl. I love this pose, too. Speaking of being silly, that’s one of her favorite phrases. If I ask her a trick question or she asks us one, she’ll say, “no, silly!” And the other day she asked me “What are you talking about?” Haha. Cracked me up.

She loves slides. She can now climb up the rockwall on our playset all by herself, and the other day at the bouncy house she climbed up to the highest slide all by herself. She was so proud of herself! So was I! Her favorite is to go down the slide on her belly. She loves going to the Children’s Museum, and spends most of her time on this little slide here. She still loves to drink, hitting the sippy as soon as she wakes up. I had to resort to insulated cups to keep her milk cold in between meals. You can see here a typical get-up: necklace, sippy, and balloon animal. (I wanted to learn how to make balloon animals so I did a few weeks ago. Who doesn’t love a balloon animal???)

She’s a big old cheese and wants to be in any picture I take of Hannah. She’s a great big sister and loves to entertain Hannah. She’s also very mothering. The other day we were all in the car and Hannah was fussing a little bit so Derrick said, “It’s ok Hannah. Close you eyes and take a nap.” So now any time we’re in the car and Hannah fusses, Summer says those exact words. It’s cute.

She loves to rock her babies in her arms. But her comforts aren’t limited to just dolls. Yesterday I caught her rocking and shushing a used dryer sheet, a lasagna noodle, and a bottle of shampoo. It’s pretty hilarious the things she wants to mother. I’m always surprised when she talks in complete sentences. She knows all her colors. She loves to sing and does a pretty good job of carrying a tune and knowing lyrics. She loves having family night. She can put on her own shoes.

She’s at a pretty fun age right now, even though she is pretty sassy and demanding at times. Still, she’s pretty polite and always says please and thank you. Or thanks.

We sure do love her!

8 months!

2011-04-10T22:15:00.001-05:00

Another month gone by! Hannah still continues to be our sweet, happy, chill little baby.

She has a new trick! Sitting up! Finally! (She also loves to bite her pacifier. Or anything that doesn't run away, actually.)

But we’re still working on endurance…..

She does this thing where she claws at her face, head, and ears constantly. She pretty much always has scrapes and scratches on her face and in her ears. (But thanks to Photoshop, you will never see them in pictures!) It drives me crazy! I don’t know why she does it…I just hope it’s not because she’s itchy or something.

She and Summer are the cutest little buddies, and can always make each other laugh. Any time I take a picture of Hannah Summer wants in on the action too.

Here they are modeling their new BYU hats that Dad brought home. Hannah could totally pass for a boy, right?? Gotta make sure I keep a bow in!

She’s still a good eater and in the past couple weeks has been sleeping great. Going to bed between 6-7 depending on naps, and sleeping until 5ish. Then I’ll feed her and she’ll sleep until 7 or 8, depending on how loud Summer is in the morning.

Today was an absolutely beautiful day so we took advantage of it and went on a walk before morning naps and church today. It was Hannah’s first time in the double stroller sitting forward. She loved it. Her little feet were just circling in excitement the whole time. I think she had too much fun, because she slept for over 2 hours and I had to wake her to get ready for church! We just love our little Hannah B. She really is such a fun little kid to have around!

Easter subway art

2011-04-06T13:22:00.001-05:00

It’s starting to warm up around here! Finally!. And lest you be led astray into thinking it’s actually warm, warming up around here just means temps in the 40’s.

But still. The sun has been shining, the snow has been melting, and I have been spray painting! I don’t know what it is about spray painting that is so gratifying. Maybe it’s because I love a good before and after. Makeover shows, home improvement shows, love them all. I don’t think you truly understand the joy of spray painting unless you’ve done it yourself.

Anyway, I’ve had this frame floating around for awhile, waiting for a new life and purpose. Not that I didn’t love the whole Victorian tea party thing. (It always amazes me when I see prints like this at Goodwill. Someone, at sometime, thought that this was appealing enough to purchase and put on their wall. Crazy.)

Subway art is running rampant throughout blogland and of course I’m hopping on for the ride. (Remember my print from St. Patty's Day?) I’ve been looking for something to put on the wall in my entryway for awhile. Enter Eighteen 25. They have an adorable Easter print for free download (amongst many other adorable things!). It’s sized to print out as a 16X20, which is perfect for my frame! They have a birthday one and a St. Patty's one (which I actually like better than the one I printed out) and my plan is to just switch them out for all the holidays. I’ve seen Christmas and Halloween ones floating around, and I just need to find a cute Patriotic one for the summer.

It was only $5 to print out at Sam’s, although I’m sure you could find it cheaper online somewhere. But I was too impatient. I thought it would be a little more pastel-y, but I still love it. Now to just see if it’s a little too in-your-face when you walk in my front door…

Cake stand. Not to be confused with a keg stand. They sound the same here in WI.

2011-04-01T09:40:00.001-05:00

I love cake stands. They’re not just good for cakes, you know. Cookies, cupcakes, appetizers, decorations, etc. They’re great for adding height and interest to a table. DIY cake stands are all the rage in the craft blogosphere and I’m sure I’m the last one to join the party. I’ve been scouring thrift shops in search of the perfect base and plate. The other day I hit the jackpot. I found a white milk glass candlestick and a great plate. Did I mention I also love milk glass and blue and white???

A little glass and bead glue and voila! A new cake stand for less than $10!! And bonus: check out that awesome matching server! I love, love, love it.

Now I’m on the hunt for lots of milk glass to fill my china cabinet. My friend Bryn introduced me to the blog Young House Love the other day and I haven’t stopped browsing since. I sooo wish I had the creativeness (and $$$) to make my house something like theirs. So many mismatched things that all work so perfectly together. Only in my dreams, I suppose.

Speaking of dreams, I had a dream I got engaged last night. And everyone I know was at a party to celebrate our engagement but I was so sad because I knew I was going to break it off. Weird! And I know it came from watching the TV show Mobbed last night, which is about flash mobs (which I think are totally nerdy). This guy proposed to his girlfriend using a flash mob. And even though I think they’re a weird, weird phenom, I was totally bawling through it!!

And before I get any accusations of being prego, my most annoying relative Aunt Flo is visiting, so can it!

Happy Friday!

I don’t pass on grass!

2011-03-28T16:46:00.001-05:00

I love Easter! I love the colors, I love that it (usually) means warmer weather is on the way, I love the decorations, I love hard boiled eggs, and I love the meaning behind it. I love pretty much everything about Easter!

Last year I saw online how you can grow your own Easter grass and I was determined to do it this year. I was a little skeptical that it would grow since my dining room table (where I put the containers) don’t really get much sunlight. I needn’t have worried! It’s growing like….a weed? Soooo ridiculously easy! I love having a little greenery around, too! It’s getting so tall I think I might have to mow it soon! Oh, and I totally found that ceramic bunny at Goodwill for a couple bucks.

Here’s how to do it:

Soak some wheat berries in water overnight. (Finally! A use for all that food storage!!!) Fill a container (with no holes in the bottom) with potting soil and water it very well. It should almost be like mud. Then put a layer of wheat on the soil and cover with more soil and water again. Place in a sunny (or not so sunny) spot and watch it grow! It sprouted in a matter of days for me. It actually pushed up the top layer of soil and I had to brush it off the grass tips. So, you still have time to do this before Easter. I think I’ll put mini eggs in the grass. Cute, cute. Bonus: you can go all Jamba Juice style and juice it all up and have a wheat grass drink. Or not.

Moving on.

I found these woodland creatures, as I like to call them, at Goodwill awhile back. (Geez, guess I must go there a lot!) I thought they would be perfect for some springy decor. But as cute as they are, there were a little granny-ish to me. So what did I do? You guessed it! Spray paint!

Now that’s more my style. I debated forever on what color I wanted to do. And I’m still not sold on the white. I might paint over them in lime green. Who knows. And hopefully I didn’t ruin some priceless antiques.

Of course, I have an Easter wreath in the works. This one is from She's Kinda Crafty, as shown to me by my friend Nicki. Now I just have to find cute ribbon.

Any other hoppin’ Easter crafts I should know about out there??

A series of unfortunate events

2011-03-23T23:25:00.001-05:00

I feel like I shouldn’t even be allowed to talk about my misfortunes considering all that’s going on in Japan. But throughout everything that’s happened to us in the past week, we’ve tried to see the positives. Our glass is half full! (Even if the other half did spill all over our basement…)

First event: Coming home from church the day after daylight savings time. We had to drive separately to church that day and pulled into the garage at the same time. Derrick needed help setting the clock in my car so I quick turned off the car hopped out and changed it before getting the kids out.

The next day we were about to go to the store and I couldn’t find my keys. Of course, they were in the ignition. Turned “ON”. Not running the engine, but just “on”, you know? Battery completely dead. DEAD. Derrick gets home and we jump it and it starts right up. I decided to go shopping after the kids are in bed, but once I tried to start the car it wouldn’t start again. It wouldn’t even jump. So we let the two cars sit connected for awhile and then it magically started. I was so relieved….I didn’t want to have to go buy a new battery! Positives: brushed up on our jumping skills, located the anti-theft radio code.

Second event: This past Saturday night our friends the Spencer’s and Ryan were over to watch the BYU/Gonzaga game. I decided we should get some Chili’s chips and salsa so I ordered some to go and then Jess and I went to pick them up. Her car was parked in our driveway, but on the opposite side of my car and, you guessed it, I backed up into her. I felt like a complete schmuck. Of course we’ll pay for it, and they were super nice about it, but I still felt like a big horse’s ass. I HATE doing stupid stuff. Positives: it’s just a car, nobody was hurt, we saw the Supermoon on the way to Chili’s, BYU won, despite all the swearing I was doing in my head.

Third event: We had some really warm temps last week in the 50’s, which had melted almost all of the snow. Sunday we had a huge rain/thunderstorm. Both of those combined make for a LOT of water hanging around. We had been checking the sump pump all day and it seemed to be doing fine. Monday morning as Derrick is getting ready to leave for work I take Summer downstairs to watch TV and as I stepped onto the floor….SQUISH. I ran upstairs and flagged Derrick down before he could leave and we got to work cleaning up the 1/4” or so of water throughout our basement. One call to our insurance and an adjuster was in our home within the hour, and an hour after that Servpro was there to take care of everything. They packed up our stuff and moved it upstairs to the living room, some to the craft room, and some behind the bar. A few hours later there were huge dehumidifiers and air movers everywhere and our carpet was floating. It was our first time dealing with our insurance company, Erie Insurance, for a claim and they so far have been fabulous. (Which is good considering I recommend them to people all the time! So cheap!) Anyway, I’m so grateful for insurance, and especially grateful for the backup sewer/pump clause we added!

See the wet footprints?

It has been a challenging week living in our home. The only places to sit are at our kitchen and dining room tables. Neither of which are very comfortable for long periods of time. There is nowhere for Summer to play, and she can only handle watching movies on the laptop at the kitchen table for so long. Plus the fact that the weather has been downright CRAPPY for the past 2 days makes everything worse. I want my house back! Luckily we have friends that let us crash at their place for a bit here and there to break up our stir-crazy days. And honestly, and somewhat embarrassingly, not having a TV is driving me crazy. Summer misses her Sesame Street. I am missing Idol, Survivor, and Martha. Luckily most of what we watch is online, but not right away. I hate waiting. It’s probably all for the best though, as I was supposed to make some cookies for an Eagle Scout Court of Honor that was this evening. I spent the evenings baking and decorating instead! Quite relaxing, and yet one more thing I’ve found myself becoming obsessed with. Positives: we didn’t lose anything valuable, I’ve been able to reorganize a lot of stuff I’ve been meaning to organize, I realized I will never have to purchase a gift bag for the rest of my life, I have that many.

My sweet cookies. One scout kid told me they were the best sugar cookie he’d ever eaten, because it was so soft. I give credit to the Lion House recipe, but I’m sure all the humidity in my house didn’t hurt either. ;)

And even though these two can drive me crazy sometimes, today at dinner they totally melted my partially cranky heart today. Hannah was eating and Summer was making her laugh by pretending to sneeze. Hannah was absolutely cracking up. She never laughs like that for me. I loved watching the two of them together and it made my heart happy to know they’ll always have each other.

So they say bad things happen in 3’s.Well, we’ve had our 3, thank you. We’ll take our share of 3 good things now!

Going green

2011-03-17T22:18:00.001-05:00

Everyone’s a little bit Irish on March 17th, right? Not one to pass up an excuse to throw a party, we had ourselves a bit of a get together.

I’ve been dying for an occasion to make this rainbow cake and what better time than St. Patty’s? I love, love, love how it turned out, both visually and….tastibly? What is the word I’m looking for? I can’t think. But it tasted amazing too. I might be addicted to Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting.

On the outside, just your normal, white-with-shamrock-sprinkles, unassuming layer cake.

But on the inside…..A PARTY FOR YOUR EYES!!! AND YOUR TASTEBUDS!!!

This was a really fun cake to make. A little labor intensive, but totally worth the reaction and results. Can’t wait to make it again. Just imagine all the color possibilities. And a side note….Ever since I was a little girl I have always loved rainbows. I was always drawing them, always arranging my crayons and markers in rainbow order. I loved Rainbow Brite and had sheets and pillows and dolls of her. Fast forward 15 or so years, and now my beloved color scheme has somehow been adopted by “alternative lifestyles”. Ugh. I hate that it’s been tainted, and honestly it’s the only reason I haven’t decorated my kids’ rooms in a totally rainbow theme. Coincidentally, my favorite color used to be purple. They stole that too! Sheesh!

Back to the party.

I got an idea for a rainbow fruit tray here and decided to make that, too. Love how it turned out. I made the classic cream cheese/marshmallow fluff fruit dip.

I made green glass block holiday jello from Our Best Bites. Summer loved this. I love the way it looked. Very festive.

I found a rainbow craft to do on this blog. My orange didn’t turn out as vibrant as I was hoping, but they still turned out cute, and I think the kids had fun making them. I’m already thinking of other uses for dyed pasta. (Very easy to do…soak pasta in rubbing alcohol and food coloring in plastic baggies for a couple hours, flip occasionally. Dry overnight. Mine were kind of splotchy…I think next time I won’t skimp on the alcohol and completely submerge the pasta in colored alcohol.) Once they dry, you hang them in your window…like little sun catchers! Cute, right?

Green utensils and plates, of course. And Brazilian lemonade in the pitcher off to the side. I tried to cheat and use Simply Limeade like a friend had done. Don’t do it. Not nearly as good. I also whipped up some Shamrock Shakes, a la McDonald’s.

My friend Brandy recently started a blog called Holiday Snobs and I saw a cute idea for little favors. Super cute, and under a buck (with a coupon!) All of the “Who’s your Paddy?” sanitizers were passed out, so I only have a shot of this generic green one. That subway art in the corner is from the same site, here. I just had it printed at Wal-Mart. It’s all sized and ready for an 8x10. It came out a little grainy, but from far away you can’t really tell.

And then just a shot of my mantle, which is always so festively decorated (I hope). I saw the idea for the garland on Etsy. Just felt circles sewn together. And yes, I know I need to buy 3 green candles. Just haven’t made it up to Hobby Lobby in awhile! Gasp!

It really was such a fun little party. As you can see, I am a master copycat. I’m not the one to come up with cute original ideas, but I can copy the good ones with the best of ‘em. And I’m so lucky to have such great friends who not only put up with my crazy theme parties but always bring such delicious and theme-y treats! We were definitely treated to lots of good eats today!

I feel like I have been so cranky lately and today was just what I needed to pick me back up. Why have I been cranky? Honestly, I think it was because potty training was stressing me out so much. So thank you, ALL of you, for all of your comments and advice about what to do. As of Monday we quit potty training. I asked her if she wanted to wear diapers or panties and she said, “Diapers. No panties. Mommy change me.” That was all I needed to hear. We’ve both been much happier since then. But I do have to clarify that I started so early with her because she would tell me every time she peed or pooped, and asked to sit on the potty. So, what else what I supposed to do? At least I know she can do it for a few days, so hopefully next time we try it should go relatively smoothly.

And now it’s time for…..EASTER!!!

A cry for help

2011-03-14T23:36:00.001-05:00

No, I’m not talking about Rick Astley.

I’m talking about Summer and potty training.

Now, I know there are some of you out there (and you know who you are) who did not share in my joy that Summer was potty training relatively easily. Well congratulations, naysayers, you win. She is practically UNtrained now. And it is infuriating.

She does not tell me that she needs to pee anymore. I put her on the potty every 30 minutes and she will go, but not on her own. When I ask her if she needs to go, the answer is always “no” and when I suggest she go sit on the potty, she tells me “all done potty!” and runs away. And even if I put her on the potty every half hour, there are times when she will have peed her pants in that half hour.

And just today, I was talking to her face to face, and I asked her if she needed to go, and she said no. So I checked to see if she was dry, and she was. And then she tooted. And then she looked at me. And then I checked her underpants and she peed!! Right in front of me! What gives???

Maybe the few days she got it was just a fluke. Maybe she’s bored with it? Maybe M&M’s aren’t a good enough reward?

I hate to give up and put her back in diapers. I would feel like a huge failure. I would feel like we would be making negative progress. But so help me, I’m sick of changing wet AND poopy undies all day long. I mean heck, we only have 6 pairs and I have to wash all 6 at the end of the day.

So, mothers (and fathers) please help me. What should I do. Seriously, what should I do? Someone please tell me.

Ok, so maybe I am talking about Rick now. Love me some Rick Astley.

Our little monsters

2011-03-13T21:43:00.001-05:00

I had the girls’ pictures taken last month since it had been awhile since I’d had professional ones done. I used their Christmas dresses and made it more of a Valentine-ish theme.

When I take pictures of Summer at home I can’t get her to turn off the cheese. But put her in the studio and all I get is the deer in headlights stare and weak smiles. What am I gonna do with this girl? Still, we got one decent shot of both of them.

And then I get the biggest smiles when they hold this heart. Crazy girls.

Silly, silly girls. I love ‘em.

7 months!

2011-03-10T21:49:00.001-06:00

Has another month really passed? Hannah continues to be a chill little lady and the apple of my eye. I love to just love on her and squeeze her and attack her with kisses. She usually gives me a little belly laugh so of course I keep doing it.

She really is just so sweet. She loves company, and if left alone will whine incessantly until someone comes near or picks her up.

She loves to eat. She loves sweet potatoes, squash, and carrots and gags instantly when green beans hit her lips. She also likes bananas, pears, and applesauce. She had yogurt for the first time tonight for dinner and inhaled it.

She goes to bed between 6 and 6:30 pm. She still goes down swaddled but breaks out of it more often than not. And while she’s still a lazy bum, not rolling or crawling or sitting up, she can rotate herself in her crib 180 degrees, fully swaddled. I don’t know how she does it. It’s magic. She wakes up between 3 and 4 to eat and sleeps until around 7. Although lately she’s been getting up around 6. This does not make mama happy. Hopefully Daylight Savings Time can give us a better schedule again. She takes 2 naps a day. If she’s up at the crack of dawn we can squeeze in 3.

She adores her sister and will smile and laugh at whatever she does. She loves it when Summer sings to her, and often tries to sing along. Summer is equally as obsessed with her little sister and always wants to know Hannah’s latest status. “Hannah awake! Mom! Go get her!” or “Hannah asleep! Shhhh!”

She still loves that blasted pacifier. But now she’s quite adept at grabbing it and putting it in her own mouth. Sometimes with force, if needed.

If you remember from her 6 month appointment, she hadn’t gained any weight. Well, we had a check up and she had gained a half a pound in 2 weeks, so we’re back on track. Guess I’ll never be taking any birth control pills while I’m breastfeeding ever again!

She’s just learned how to blow raspberries too. All day long all I hear is her buzz her lips and see spit flying everywhere. I even caught it on camera.

Hannah has a lot of faces. Here’s just a couple I snapped while trying to get her to smile.

What a silly girl. We all just love her to bits!

PB&J in a glass

2011-03-07T15:15:00.001-06:00

Thanks to my good friend Linda, I get the Food Network Magazine. I love, love, love this magazine. Fun articles, good recipes, and every month they have a pull-out brochure with 50 recipes all of a certain type. 50 burgers, 50 stir-fries, 50 pizzas, etc. This month was smoothies. Perfect, as I recently acquired a Montel Wiilliams HealthMaster blender. (aka a wannabe VitaMix)

I love having a high powered blender and not a dinky one that can’t even handle ice. I’ve used this to make Hannah’s baby food, milkshakes, sauces, you name it. I’m always on the lookout for a good healthy smoothie recipe so when I saw this months issue I was totally excited.

And when I saw #33, I made it right away. Banana PB&J. It was delicious. And I haven’t stopped thinking about it, so I made another one today. The best part? It’s pretty healthy! Try it for yourself and see!

Blend 1 frozen banana with 1 cup soy milk, 1/4 cup each creamy peanut butter and wheat germ, and 2 tablespoons seedless strawberry or raspberry jelly. I used regular milk and strawberry preserves I made last summer. It was a bit too germy for me so when I made it today I used about half the amount of wheat germ. And you probably already know this, but I found out the hard way, you should freeze your bananas already peeled.

If anyone has any favorite smoothie recipes, send em my way!

Panties!

2011-03-06T22:06:00.001-06:00

Can’t wait to see all the pervs that find their way to this post only to be disappointed. Ha!

This past Tuesday we embarked on what I was dreading the most: potty training. I was not looking forward to pee everywhere, cleaning poop out of pants. Ugh. But we did it anyway. Summer would tell me when she was poopy and started expressing a little more interest in using the “big girl potty” so we gave it a shot.

So Tuesday morning after breakfast, she put on her brand new panties and plastic cover pants and started chugging liquids. Her first tastes of chocolate milk and apple juice (diluted) were like parties in her mouth. And within 45 minutes, she had peed through 5 pairs of underpants. I wanted to cry.

Then I realized I wasn’t having her sit long enough on the pot, so we started singing songs and reading books and she finally went! And her reward? 2 M&M’s. Wow, this girl was in heaven. But after that….no more accidents!

I cannot believe how well she’s done with it. She tells us when she needs to go, sits on her Elmo potty ring, and goes. (We still have to help her undress/dress and sit up on the toilet.) She’s even pooped on the potty! First time she did, I cried. I really did. I cried over crap.

Accidents are scarce, and usually happen when friends are over or when she gets overly excited. Like when we were dancing to “baby song” by Justin Bieber. Oh yes, Summer is a Belieber. She loves to sing along to “Baby”, and I couldn’t be more proud.

Changing a diaper is definitely easier and faster, but it won’t be like this forever. And goodbye expensive diapers! Now if we can just get Hannah trained….

Here’s to many trips to every bathroom we ever encounter on every trip out of the house!

2011-03-03T21:57:00.001-06:00

Have you heard of it? I found out about it first through ~~my friend~~ a girl I blog-stalk, Annie. I’ve never met her, but from what I know of her and her blog, she is all the stylish and trendy things I wish I were. Plus, I think her husband comes from some Callister’s somewhere, so we’re somehow related!

Anyway, Pinterest is like your online bulletin board. You see something you like and you can instantly “pin” the image to your virtual board via a toolbar button. (Get it? Pin your interest! I’m sure you do get it, but I just realized that Groupon is a group coupon. I know, I know.) You can add little notes if you want and it automatically saves the link where you found it. It’s so much better than just bookmarking it and adding it to a huge list. I love to see all the images in one place. Plus, you can see what your friends are pinning and get even more ideas. You can pin crafts, books, places, spaces, anything. Love, love, love it. My boards don’t have too much yet but I find stuff to add all the time.

They’re still in the Beta stages right now so you need an invite to join. If you want an invite, say something nice about me and maybe I’ll send you one!

Oops, I did it again…

2011-02-24T12:26:00.001-06:00

Addiction hath reared its ugly head again. This time in wreath form. I’m pretty confident that if it weren’t for my beliefs, I’d be an alcoholic stripping gambler.

My friend Lindsey tipped me off to a cute wreath on Etsy and when I found an argyle one in the same shop I knew I had to make it in green. I love all things argyle: socks, sweaters, blankets, etc. In fact, just the other day I came across a seemingly easy argyle baby quilt. Now that’s added to the endless list of things I want to make.

I love how it turned out. And now after making two wreaths out of felt, I’m sort of falling in love with it. It doesn’t fray, it’s soft, it’s versatile, it comes in lots of colors. What’s not to love? This, I can say, can be made in one evening. The longest part was wrapping the wreath form in yarn. You wouldn’t think it’s very tedious, but you have to take the whole skein and wind it in and out, in and out. I’m not ashamed to say (or maybe I am?) that my shoulders were totally hurting by the end from the repetitive movements. No wonder that chick sells them for $40!

I think this will wrap up my wreath fetish for awhile. At least until I find an Easter one I want to make….

Wreath Love

2011-02-21T14:34:00.001-06:00

Apparently I’ve been on a wreath making kick lately. I like wreaths. We have a double front door so I feel like they need something all the time. The problem is that our screen is so close to the door that wreaths don’t usually fit without getting squished. So I put a wooden door hanger on it. Anyway.

I finally made the birthday wreath I blogged about a couple of weeks ago. I love how it turned out. Not sure if my wreath form is bigger than the tutorial’s, but I needed 3 bags of balloons. More like 2.75. Now we just have to wait until August for another birthday around this joint!

Then I made a felt rosette wreath that I saw on Our Best Bites. I wish I could tell you that you can whip one of these up in an afternoon. It took me a good 3 or 4 nights of cutting and rolling felt. And now I’m pretty sure I have carpal tunnel. BUT….love it. It probably took me about 7 sheets of each color, with 6 rosettes per sheet. Good thing felt is cheap. And I scored both of these wreath forms at Goodwill for a buck. I have another heart one too and was thinking I would make two. Um….no. I shall find another way to decorate it!! Now I just have to wait a mere 11 months before I can use this one!

One of my most favorite things to do is to go shopping for holiday decorations the day after the holiday. Usually it’s 50% off, but sometimes it drops right to 75%. But if you want to get the good stuff, you better be there early the next morning. (Which is why I HATE when holidays fall on Saturdays!! No shopping on Sunday!!) Anyway, I scored some awesome V-day stuff for next year. Bonus: I put it all away in the respective holiday bin and when I open it the next year, it’s like Christmas! I have totally forgotten what I bought the year before. Happiness in so many ways when shopping for clearance holiday decor!

I’ve been trying to find cute St. Patrick’s day decorations. That is practically impossible. I’m pretty good at copying what’s out there, but there’s not much. This holiday may make me stretch myself and come up with something original!!

And speaking of holiday decor, I can’t wait for Easter. I love my Easter decorations, and even more, I love what Hobby Lobby has right now for Easter!

Yay for decorating!

I’ve Got the Fever…

2011-02-16T08:55:00.001-06:00

…BIEBER FEVER!

Apparently openly admitting to this and NOT being a middle schooler brings shame upon you! Well, I don’t care.

It’s not like I wanna get with this kid, folks. I’m not a pedophile! Anyway, he’ll be 17 in 13 days. That’s practically legal.

I don’t see what’s wrong with liking a young person who is wholesome and (relatively) clean cut. Sure, his hair is usually more styled than mine is, but how many times has this kid gotten in trouble and been in the news? None that I know of! His music is bubbly and freaking catchy, and it makes me want to be a better person. I mean dance. If my teenage daughter was in love with him I would have no problem with it.

Now, my admiration for the Bieb has caused others to criticize my taste in music. Some are claiming I need professional help. I say they are crazy. I just have a more extensive and well rounded repertoire of music appreciation! Let’s just take a random sampling of other artists that start with “B” from my iTunes:

Bad English
Band of Horses
Bangles
Barry Manilow
Barry White
The Beach Boys
The ENTIRE Beatles library
Beck
Beethoven
Ben Folds
Beyonce’
Blink-182
Bob Marley
Bread
The Bravery
Britney Spears (of course)
Brooks and Dunn
Busta Rhymes
and let’s round out the list with a little Butthole Surfers

I’d say that’s a pretty diverse list, and that’s just a fraction of the “B’s”! So don’t tell ME I have poor taste in music! I’d be willing to bet most people who pooh-pooh JB haven’t even really listened to his music. Because if you listen to “Baby” and have zero desire to dance or tap your foot, you must not have a pulse.

Plus, he’s adorable!!!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

2011-02-14T23:53:00.001-06:00

I love Valentine’s Day. Probably because I love all things pink and red and girly. And chocolate. And flowers. And jewelry. This Valentine’s Day was filled with all of those things! I’m a lucky girl!

We actually celebrated last night since Derrick was leaving for Orlando this morning for a business conference. He spent the afternoon at Epcot Center. Um…can I go to a business conference, too??? We always make fondue for dinner (cheaper than going out…and no babysitter required!) and watch a movie while we eat. Last night we watched the Grammy’s instead. Can I just say Justin Bieber got robbed!!! Anyway…dinner was delicious, the chocolate fondue was delicious, and I finally got the necklace I’ve been wanting! You know, one of those stamped metal ones with my kids’ names and birthstones. Totally awesome. Love it. Derrick loved his neon BYU sign for the bar. The man is the easiest to buy for, love it.

Since all of our friends have either just had a baby, are going to have a baby, or have family in town, my cooking/crafting partner in crime Linda invited us (or did we invite ourselves???) over for a little cookie decoration action. She has all the pictures, but let me assure you they are stinking adorable. Summer had a great time “painting” her two little cookies with frosting, and then was even more excited to find out she could EAT them! She loved the frosting, and had it all over her face like a beard. It was awesome.

We stayed for dinner and then I put the girls to bed there. Then Linda and I had our own romantic little date and had chocolate fondue and watched a movie. I was thisclose to just spending the night when I decided to just go home instead. I’m so glad I did because my favorite green box from ProFlowers was waiting on my doorstep!! 2 dozen gorgeous roses from Derrick. What a stud.

This is why February is my most favorite month!!

I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day! I don’t care if it is a Hallmark holiday…there’s never anything wrong with dedicating an entire day to telling the people you love how much they mean to you! So to all of my friends and family…I LOVE YOU!

6 months!

2011-02-12T22:43:00.001-06:00

Thursday Hannah hit the half a year mark! Honestly, I have no idea where these last 6 months went. Time is just zipping on by with reckless abandon.

Here are her stats:

Weight: 12 lb. 8 oz; 3%

Length: 24.5”, 13%

It turns out Miss Hannah gained ZERO weight since her 4 month appointment. This is not good, folks. I had a feeling my milk supply was dropping as a result of my birth control so I quit taking it a few weeks ago. I think it’s coming back and I really just think she did drop a little from that and is now on her way back up. We started solids a few weeks ago since she was starting to act a little fussy and hungry and that seemed to do the trick. She loves cereal but hates veggies. The mere taste of them on her tongue instantly sends her into gagging fits, often resulting in a little throw up action. What a drama queen. Anyway…she has a follow-up appointment in 2 weeks for a weight check, and I’m sure she’ll have gained some by then. I’m not worrying about anything until there’s something to worry about. She’s still a roly poly kid and sleeping well at night, so I don’t think she’s starving.

She is a very happy, laid back kid. She loves to squeal and babble and especially loves it when serenaded by her sister. Summer is a great big sister, and always wants to make sure Hannah’s having a good time and has enough toys to play with. I often find her buried in toys, like this:

She doesn’t roll, and she can’t quite sit up on her own yet. But she does take 2 naps, sometimes 3, and still loves to be swaddled when she sleeps. She goes to bed around 6:15-6:30 pm and wakes up to eat between 3 and 4, although last night she lasted until 5! She is more of an early riser than I would like her to be. But then, I have a hard time with anything before 8 am.

She loves bath time, and still tries to drink the water.

Sometimes after I nurse her and burp her she will turn her head and start to suck on whatever’s closest. Usually it’s my cheek or my chin. It always makes me laugh.

She is such a sweet girl and we just love to snuggle her. She is the perfect shopping buddy and is always good for a smile for her mama.

Happy half birthday, Hannah Boo!

The Dirty Thirty

2011-02-08T16:54:00.001-06:00

Yes, it’s official, I’m now 30. Yesterday was the big day. No, I didn’t do any of my goals. Not a one. Oh well, it’s the thought that counts. Oh, it doesn’t? Hmmm…well perhaps I shall give myself an extension through the end of the month.

The festivities started Friday night with an 80’s prom. Snomageddon delayed shipment on my disco ball and slap bracelets. Luckily the disco ball made it in time for the party, but the slap bracelets just arrived yesterday. Send them back or keep them? Decisions, decisions. Either way, I’m stoked to have a disco ball now. I’ll be honest, it’s pretty sweet.

Everyone came decked out in their 80’s best. It was awesome. These pictures are truly horrible, but they have to be posted for memories’ sake. Please excuse my huge arms.

Please note the side pony and crimped hair.

Debbie and Richard were voted Prom king and queen. With big hair like that, how could she have lost?? Please notice the purple glitter curtain.

And what’s an 80’s party without Pacman? Derrick baked me a cake and I decorated it. I love Pacman!

And my girlfriends….well, they are just the best. 6 of my closest girlfriends all chipped in on a gift for me. I was totally surprised, and kind of still in shock! Of course, I love it! Next item of business: get Wii Fit and banish these flabby arms. THANK YOU Linda, Jess, Whitney, Tamara, Ashley and Martha! I love you girls!

I got lots of other awesome gifts too, like 80’s hair supplies, recipe software, jewelry and a Sonic gift card! Do my friends know me or what??

Saturday Derrick took me to dinner downtown which was delicious. Then we stopped by a fundraiser/benefit party for one of his coworkers for a bit. Always fun to see drunk people.

Sunday was of course the Super Bowl, where the Packers pulled out a win for me!! We went to the Chaplin’s and had lots of delicious food, as usual.

Yesterday we didn’t do much. The girls and I ran some errands and hit up Sonic. Nothing like a Cherry Limeade to help ease a girl into her thirties! Derrick surprised me with 30 gorgeous tulips delivered in the morning. They are just what I need to look at when it’s –11 and everything is covered in snow!

He also got me these adorable rain/snow boots. They are super comfy. I’ve been wanting something like these for awhile, so my regular shoes don’t get all wet and cold when I’m out running errands. They’re perfect!

I opened the rest of my gifts from family….cash, a scraper beater from my ‘rents that I’ve been wanting for my Kitchenaid, some kitchen stuff from my MIL, and Cricut markers from my bestie Sara in Omaha! Sweet!

Derrick was up at 4 am to go help sort boxes of championship t-shirts so he was pretty tired by the time he got home. We went and grabbed a quick bite to eat and then we both pretty much crashed on the couch and watched TV. It was a great weekend!

But wait, that’s not all! This morning I find out that I have a babysitter all lined up for the girls (since Derrick has class) and that Sarah is taking me out! Sweet! I still don’t know what we’re doing or where. I love surprises! How fun!

Thanks to everyone for the emails, texts, phone calls, and FB posts. I felt super loved yesterday, and totally spoiled overall. I have the best friends and family.

Snowmageddon

2011-02-02T21:51:00.001-06:00

All week we’ve been hearing about this monster storm that was headed out way. They’ve been calling it Snowmageddon, Snowpocolypse, and Snowlapalooza. It’s been super intense! Things were closing before the snow even hit!

Well, last night it finally came. ‘Twas a blizzard, indeed. The wind howled all night and the snow swirled around. And when we woke up this morning, well, there was a ton of snow!

There were super high drifts on the other side of the street. You can definitely tell which way the wind was blowing, and luckily for us it wasn’t to our side!

This is what we saw when we opened the garage:

And this is what we saw when we opened the front door:

It’s 15” from the top of the snow to the walkway below (with a step in between). That’s a lot of snow!!!

Thank goodness for our snow blower! Having a small Christmas was totally lame this year (because we bought a snow blower instead) but knowing I never have to shovel our driveway again makes it all worth it! Plus, I totally dig how it makes those super straight walls.

Here’s our walkway:

I hate snow, you all know that. But as I was clearing off our front stoop and piling the snow up on the lawn, for a second I kind of wanted to make a little snow fort/cave and play in it. And then I snapped out of it, punished myself for thinking such crazy thoughts, and then went inside to warm up.

A weekend of big FIRSTS!

2011-01-30T21:46:00.001-06:00

We’ve had quite the weekend over here at the Callister’s.

Summer got her hair did for the first time!

She got to sit in a pink car and watch Elmo’s World. Does it get any better for a 2 year old than this?? As you can see she was riveted and could not tear her eyes off the screen for a picture. Needless to say, she did great and now has a head full of glitter that will not wash out. Why did I say yes to that crap???? Lesson learned.

Summer also graduated from her crib to a big girl bed! This bed kind of fell into the “Santa Claus” category: fun to talk about and look at, but not fun to get too close to. She warmed up to it after a day or so and tonight went to sleep in it for the first time. She cried for about 15 minutes but then fell asleep. I peeked in on her a few minutes ago and she was passed out with her legs hanging over the railing a little bit. I will admit that I got a little teary eyed while I was moving her things into her new room. My little girl is growing up!! How did this happen???

And this little runt had her first too! She got her grub on with her first taste of rice cereal today. She gobbled it right up and did great. She still didn’t sleep any better for me though, the stinker. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow…

Speaking of tomorrow , we’re supposed to get like a foot of snow in the next couple of days. Yippee. We’ll be homebound so maybe we’ll come up with some more firsts!

Getting the crafting itch

2011-01-25T19:29:00.001-06:00

I bought fabric for the skirt I'm planning to make yesterday. So that’s a start.

Once I finish that, I have 3 crafts waiting in the wings. One easy, one medium, and one hard.

Easy: Birthday Wreath from How Does She?

I found this blog through a post from Little Birdie Secrets. It’s amazing! I could spend a whole lotta hours browsing it. How awesome is this wreath? It’s made of deflated balloons! And the best part? It will be SO CHEAP to make. And easy. I can’t wait to make this.

Medium: Growth Chart from How Does She?

I’ve been wanting one of these for awhile, and I went to a little boutique while we were in CA over Christmas with the intent to buy one. But when I saw it would be over $40 I just couldn’t bring myself to do it when I knew I could make it for a fraction of the price. With my Cricut it will be a snap. I’m thinking these would make good baby shower gifts, too. It does involve cutting wood, which puts it in the “medium difficulty” level, but it shouldn’t be too bad.

Hard: Houndstooth Quilt from V and Co.

I’m so in love with anything houndstooth (in fact, that’s what kind of fabric I bought for the skirt!). But seeing as how I’ve yet to complete a quilt on my own, I’m a little hesitant. But how gorgeous is this quilt??? I think I would do pink and grey. Cute, right?

So yeah. I love this kind of stuff. Or “crap” as Derrick would say. To each their own! Who wants to come over and craft with me???

30 in 30: An update

2011-01-19T20:23:00.001-06:00

Well, I’m a third of the way through my 30 in 30 goals. Let’s see how we’re doing so far, shall we?

1-Read a classic novel. I have finished 7 chapters of Pride and Prejudice. I probably would have finished it by now had it not been for Season One of Modern Family consuming most of my evenings.

2-Run 30 miles (not all at once!) Miles run thus far: 0. Miles walked: 1. Not sure if we’re gonna get through this one.

3-Learn how to play a new hymn on the piano. Realizing I’m failing miserably so far, I choose a simple, 2-lined hymn: #137, Testimony.

4-Start a journal for my girls. Nothing yet.

5-Read a church book (suggestions?) Nada.

6-Sew an article of clothing for me that I will actually wear. Have not started yet. Although I have picked out something to make: Circle Skirt from Made.

7-Send a handwritten letter to a friend. Not yet. Haven’t even decided who the lucky recipient is yet!

Yikes. Guess I better step it up!

Favorites

2011-01-18T17:29:00.001-06:00

Well, since Santa was so good to me this year, I have a few new favorite things to share!

First up:

A reusable plastic cup! If you haven’t seen these things in the stores then obviously you do not leave your house at all. Because they are EVERYWHERE. The coffee cup ones are cool too…when I first saw them I had to touch them to see if they were paper or not. Anyway, I never thought I needed one until my friend Jessica gave me one for Christmas! Sure, I still use my Camelbak (well, Derrick’s now, since Summer broke mine), but not nearly as much. Mostly just when I run errands or go out because it doesn’t spill. But it does grow nasty moldy moss inside the spout. Ew.

I realized I love this cup so much because it feels like I’m drinking something special. Not water (which is what I usually am drinking). It’s like I went to lunch (which I love doing) and brought home a Diet Coke. I think it has mostly to do with how it feels in my hand. I really don’t know if I’m explaining myself at all. Bottom line: I like to drink soda out of restaurant paper cups, but drinking soda from a restaurant all day everyday is impossible and expensive. And unhealthy. So I love this cup. Gah. I’m not doing this cup justice. Oh, and mine has a pink straw, which is even better.

A few months ago I was able to test out for FREE a set of Rubbermaid storage containers. I loved them so much I just went out and bought another set. And threw out all the random Ziploc, Glad, generic lunch meat containers, and dollar store containers that were floating around here. When Derrick packs his lunch for the next day he almost always gives up searching for the matching lid and makes me do it. NO MORE!!! There are only 2 sizes to these lids: big and small. And each fit different sized dishes, deep or shallow. They have a great seal and are BPA free, so microwave away! Plus they have a cute little swirly design on the side. Oh, and they’re stain resistant! And they really are. I’ve stored spaghetti sauce in them and they come out crystal clear. And shatterproof. Can’t say enough about them! (Except that they are a little on the pricey side. But well worth it.)

And lastly:

For Christmas my mother in law gave me 2 different blankets. One is a queen sized fleece blanket. But it’s not just regular fleece. I don’t know what it is. But it’s soooo soft. SO SOFT. Like an angel’s bum. The other blanket is more of a lap throw, but it’s soft too. Super soft on one side and polar fleece on the other—you know, the nubby cream colored stuff? It’s so comfy. And after doing a little research on it, turns out the company that makes them is a corporate products type deal…they’ll put your logo on them or whatever. And that’s actually what we have….an uncle’s business I think? All I know is that they’re referred to as “ABCO blankets”. Come over anytime and I’ll let you feel the magnificence of it. There’s just something about snuggling up in an ultra soft blanket and watching TV. So cozy. And since our low here on Thursday is a whopping –2, I’m sure I’ll be needing both.

Torn

2011-01-13T14:51:00.001-06:00

I find myself, along with the rest of the free world, making resolutions and an attempt to start a new year with a fresh start. I love changes, no matter what kind. New shampoo, new furniture arrangement, new pens. One thing that I always looked forward to was a clean, new, empty calendar. I would spend an entire afternoon entering in birthdays, anniversaries, appointments, milestones, etc. Well, my trusty iPod has taken care of that for me. I love it. I love Google Calendars and how it syncs with my Touchy Feely. However, I do miss actually writing something down. There’s something so satisfying about writing something on a list and then crossing it off.

One of my resolutions this year (along with getting in shape, reading more, playing with my kids more, being less judgmental, serving more, yadda yadda yadda) is to be more organized have a more structured day. Now, I feel like I am pretty well organized as far as life goes. I rarely miss appointments. I have a decently busy social life and never double-book myself. But I need more organization at home. I need to get rid of clutter. I need to have a housekeeping schedule to keep me on track. I need to be able to respond to Derrick’s question when he gets home of “What did you do today?” with “Well, I did laundry, dusted, organized the linen closet, and helped Summer create a masterpiece with Playdoh all while creating a fabulously delicious and healthy meal for us!” instead of “Um….we played? Oh, and I managed to take shower today before you got home. And oh yeah! I changed the toilet paper rolls.” I need to have done some things during the day and not the 5 minute shove and stuff as he’s on his way home from work. (Secret’s out!)

I want to feel more productive, not only as a homemaker, but as a mother and teacher to a 2 year old.

The problem is, Google Calendars isn’t so user-friendly when it comes to making a list of housekeeping duties and activities. I looked through lots of apps to see if there was one that combined all the elements I was looking for: calendar, to-do list, note taking. There wasn’t.

In the end, I purchased a spiral bound planner. I have weekly and monthly items scheduled. I have activities penciled in for Summer: arts and crafts, learning letters, singing, etc. I have a daily to-do list. But if I don’t finish everything on my daily list, I don’t freak out. I just try and do it the next day. So far it’s working out well. I get to cross things off. I know at the end of every month I need to submit my FSA claims and send pictures to family. I know every week I need to dust and vacuum. I know in May I need to replace my air conditioning filter. Stuff like that.

Until I get to be programming savvy and create my own all-in-one app, this is going to have to do. Unless anyone knows of a fabulous app that they’re willing to share??

Corporate Blunders

2011-01-12T14:20:00.001-06:00

By now you know I’m a fan of proper spelling and grammar. If I see misspelled words on a blog or email, I cringe, but I do give it a pass because it’s an informal written document. And let’s face it: people just are horrible spellers these days. However, I find it nearly impossible to forgive an error, whether spelling or grammar, when a large business or corporation commits one.

Still, in the past month I’ve encountered THREE gross errors while shopping.

Case #1: World Market.

I love this store. I love the glassware, the decorations, the food, the holiday stuff, all of it. So I was SO sad to see this sign!!

I’m assuming they meant “candelabra”. World Market is nationwide, and I’m sure they have a whole department dedicated to creating and printing these sale signs. How many people had to look at this and not realize they were missing an “n”??

Case #2: Woodman’s

I can kind of see how this happened, as many people pronounce avocado just as they have it on the sign, with an “a” sound instead of “o”. In fact, as I sit here saying it out loud to myself I too say it with the “a” sound. But that is no excuse for spelling it with one! Give this delicious fruit and it's heart healthy fats the respect it deserves!

Case #3: Wal-Mart

I know, I know, the fact alone that it’s from Wal-Mart should be reason enough to excuse this mistake. Since Summer is obsessed with seeing the fish every time we go to Wal-Mart, I have to see this sign every week. (Or three times a week, whatever.) Now, I’m no marine biologist (although I did want to be one when I was in 6th grade), but I have never heard of a “loster”. And I’m pretty sure those crustacean-looking creatures in the tank are teeny tiny lobsters. But look, it’s written not once, but twice!! In what looks to be the same handwriting. So one can only assume that the writer pronounces it “loster”, or just has an irrational fear of writing the letter “b”.Based on our demographics, I’m actually going to go with the former.

5 months!

2011-01-10T19:54:00.001-06:00

Hard to believe this kid is already 5 months. Seems like I was just writing her 4 month post!

Honestly, not a lot has changed since last month. She’s still a sweet, chill little lady. She’s still not sleeping through the night as long as I’d like her to be, but that’s my fault, really. I just haven’t let her cry it out yet. We’ve been traveling and then my parents were here and my mom left today so now we’re back to some kind of routine again. Derrick leaves for Vegas on Sunday so I think we may attempt it then. We’ll see.

Anyway. She is just so good. So content to hang out in her car seat if we’re running errands, going to church, out to dinner, whatever. She’s a good napper usually. Takes at least 2 naps every day, and either takes a little catnap in the evening or just whines until bedtime. But that doesn’t happen often.

She goes through drooling spurts. She was pretty dry in California, but now she’s at it again.

She loves to use her voice and squawk away.

She has recently discovered her tongue. I swear it’s always hanging out. And in the bath it’s CONSTANTLY out and she tries to lap up the bath water or lick the water (or suds) off her shoulder.

She does this thing now when she’s in her swing where she keeps her legs up. It’s so funny. It doesn’t look very comfortable, almost like a reverse crunch, but she keeps it up for a long time!

She is just the happiest, snuggliest, sweetest baby. We are smitten with her. We are in deep smit!

30 until 30

2011-01-09T22:10:00.001-06:00

Really this should have been posted yesterday, but I never got a chance to. So it’s more like 29 until 30, but who’s counting? Besides me? 30 used to sound so old to me when I was in my early 20’s. I remember my sister in law turning 30 and thinking that she was so old. Now I realize I thought that because she already had like 10 kids. Ok not really, just 4, but it sure did seem like a lot. Anyway. 30 does not seem old now to me, nor do I feel old. Unless you bring up Webkinz or those Zhu Zhu pet thingies, then I feel like an old geezer because I am clueless about those.

But yes, I am turning the big three-oh next month. Yikes. Originally I had wanted to make a list last year of things to do before I turned 30. Well, that obviously didn’t happen. So instead, how about a list of 30 things to do this MONTH before I turn 30? Note: not all will be spectacular or life changing. I mean, I only have a month here. Alright? Here we go!

1-Read a classic novel (suggestions?)

2-Run 30 miles (not all at once!)

3-Learn how to play a new hymn on the piano

4-Start a journal for my girls

5-Read a church book (suggestions?)

6-Sew an article of clothing for me that I will actually wear

7-Send a handwritten letter to a friend

You know, I’m having a hard time coming up with 30 things that I can realistically do in a month. I could add things like “finally iron the mountain of Derrick’s shirts that he’s been waiting for for over a year” or “throw out expired condiments” but that seems like cheating. I wanted to do things that would make me stretch a little. So maybe we should just stop at 7? 7’s a good number anyway…it’s my birthday! If I think of anymore I’ll add them.

Trees!

2011-01-05T23:02:00.001-06:00

I know Christmas is over, but I had to do a little post on my Christmas trees! Yes, plural. I put up 3 this year, but never got around to putting up the 4th. Sad, I know.

First up: The “family” tree. This was the tree I bought at Wal-Mart the first year we were married. We lived in a basement apartment with low ceilings so it had to be short enough to fit. It now goes up in the basement and holds colored lights and our family ornaments. Derrick’s and mine from when we were growing up, and now Summer’s and Hannah’s. We have been picking out an ornament for the kids for the past two years, but as they get older they will get to pick their own each year. I think it’s a fun tradition, plus they’ll get a little starter set of ornament when they leave the nest. This year Summer’s ornament was a bus! She loved it. Notice how the ornaments start at about 3 feet.

We inherited the next tree from my sister in law when she upgraded to a prelit tree. It’s a very nice tree and stands in our living room with silver ornaments and white lights. It used to have blue ornaments and accents too but I’m phasing it out for red. This tree is a beast to put together, but I love it. It’s not prelit, which I don’t love. The lights we put on it worked only half of the time…I’m thinking it’s time to get a prelit??? Again, we see that ornaments begin above reaching level for little arms.

And the last tree is totally my favorite right now. I bought this at a rummage sale this past spring for $5. It was prelit, but didn’t work, so I spent hours ripping the lights of each of the branches. My fingers ached. But look how darling it looks with pink and green ornaments. These are shatterproof, so I put them all over. She eventually learned to just look and not touch. I tried finding pink lights on a white string…do you know how hard that is to find??

I love all of my trees, but I was having a little guilt about having NO nativity scenes. Well, no longer! Derrick got me the Willow Tree set and my mom brought me the Little People set! Both of which I’ve been wanting! Can’t wait until next Christmas!

Chistmas!

2011-01-03T23:58:00.001-06:00

We spent Christmas this year with Derrick’s family in California. We were there about two weeks, and while that sounds like a long time, I feel like we hardly did anything! Here’s why:

Day 1: Arrive and get settled.

Days 2-6: CONSTANT RAIN. Seriously, no breaks, not one. The most annoying, persistent rain. LAME.

Days 7-8: Stomach flu for me. Who doesn’t love throwing up on vacation?

Day 9: Christmas Eve, family party, reenact the Nativity story

Day 10: Christmas

Day 11: Church

Days 12: More rain

Day 13: Finally sunny, went sightseeing

Day 14: Go home, raining AGAIN!

So even though we did go places when it was raining, I feel like we really only had one day of really doing anything.

Highlights:

Playing games until way late every night. Settlers, Monopoly Deal, Heck, Clue. I love playing games!

In-n-Out Burger

Griffith Park and Observatory….train and carousel rides. And I NEVER get sick of seeing the Hollywood sign!

Pinkberry x2

Watching Summer play with her cousins. And her cousins’ better toys.

Fresh citrus from the trees in the backyard

BYU/UCLA basketball game (even though we lost!) and seeing Eric and Dave.

BJ’s Pizza

Summer sleeping almost the entire flight home. Thank you, Benadryl.

Christmas Day. It’s an all day affair at the Callister’s, and I love it. First we open Santa gifts, which takes at least an hour or two. Then it’s upstairs to open family gifts. Then we’re hungry so we eat a big breakfast. Then it’s back upstairs to do a white elephant gift exchange. Then it’s playing with new toys/napping/watching movies until a nice big dinner. Then more game playing and candy eating and fun having.

Lowlights:

Throwing up. I won’t be eating tamales for quite some time.

RAIN, RAIN, RAIN

Only eating at In-n-Out Burger ONCE! How did that happen???

Somehow losing $40 cash while wrapping presents. Boo, Karen. Put it straight into your wallet next time!

Summer NOT sleeping the entire flight to California. But thank you Elmo and iPod Touch for a job well done.

It’s always a good time when the Callister brothers get together. All 4 of them were home for Christmas this year, which was a lot of fun. We were all spoiled by Santa. Summer’s doll collection increased by about 500%, and she doesn’t go anywhere without at least one under her arm.

Christmas Eve jammies (I love matching outfits!!)

Playing in the backyardChristmas dressesGriffith Observatory

We had a great Christmas and hope you did, too!

Summer is TWO!!!

2011-01-03T00:15:00.001-06:00

My poor, poor blog. I’ve missed it so! I have MUCH to catch up on, including Christmas, but I have to blog about Summer’s birthday!!

I can hardly believe she’s already two. Sometimes it feels like just yesterday she was born and other days it feels like an eternity. Either way, the past two years have definitely been an adventure!

She is still a huge fan of busses, so we had a bus birthday party, naturally! All of her best little friends came over and they colored and sang “The Wheels on the Bus” and played like 2 year olds like to do. She even had a bus cake, which I like to think she loved. And she blew out her candle like a champ. Despite only having a 45 minute nap today due to a new afternoon church schedule, she did fairly well throughout the evening and then fell right asleep at bedtime.

Some things about Summer:

Loves to give hugs and kisses, especially to her little sister

Loves to say “hi” to you, usually by name. Multiple times.

Can count to 10, omitting that pesky #9.

Loves to sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. Can sing it very fast and very loud as well.

Is starting to be very independent. “Summer do it!”

Tells me when she is stinky. Hopefully this meaning potty training is in our near future!

Still loves cheese and milk. Also loves pickles (peekles), noodles, French fries, and “treats”. Most anything can be a treat, thankfully…doesn’t have to be sweet.

Talks all the time. I have no idea how many words she can say. It’s a lot.

She is usually pretty good about sharing.

Loves, loves, loves her Dad.

Loves to play with puzzles.

Usually is carrying around a doll or some variety. Actually, usually is carrying one doll under each arm, other toys in her hand and carries her milk around in her mouth. Quite the multi-tasker!

She has recently learned how to push others. We’re working on eliminating this newly acquired skill.

She really is such a sweet girl. She definitely tries my patience sometimes but for the most part is a well-behaved kid.

Check out her bus cake!

Who’s mooning us??

Summer, seeing her bus cake:

Blowing out the candle:

Opening presents from her friends, with lots of help!

Little bus magnets party favors:

Happy birthday Summer! We love you and your happy, spunky personality! Here’s to being TWO!

4 months!

2010-12-12T17:03:00.001-06:00

Our sweet little Hannah was 4 months on Friday! I had planned on posting this then, but wound up taking Derrick to be admitted to the hospital. But that’s another post…

She’s growing steadily, but certainly not going to win any heavyweight championships anytime soon.

Weight: 12 lb 8.5 oz (27%)

Length: 23.5” (24%)

She is still as sweet as can be. She’s a very calm and relaxed kid as long as she’s fed and slept. My camera is on the fritz--it’s very temperamental and doesn’t take pictures when I want them to, like when she is smiling! So my choice of pictures this month is unfortunately limited. My occurrence of swearing, on the other hand, was rather abundant.

She is a great napper, and takes about 3 naps a day. I just swaddle her up and pop in her paci and she puts herself right to sleep. Same with bedtime. She usually goes to bed between 6:30 and 7:30 and will sleep until between 1 and 3, then may or may not wake up one more time to eat. She’s not very consistent, which drives me crazy. 4 months is when I usually let these kids cry it out and give up one nighttime feeding, but since we’re supposed to fly to LA on Thursday for 2 weeks, I decided to just wait until we’re back home before implementing any sort of changes.

I don’t start solids until 6 months, because let’s face it, she’s doing great with the boob and why introduce one more thing I have to do/make when I don’t have to? Besides, poop only gets stinkier the more stuff you add to it, and I’m already changing too many poopy diapers around this here joint. Summer still loves her little sister and always wants to know where/how she is. Once, we were Skyping with my parents and she wanted to see their cat, but it was asleep. Now, whenever I tell Summer that Hannah is asleep, she ALWAYS tells me, “cat sleeping too!” She loves to give kisses and bring me burp cloths and pacifiers. A very good helper, indeed.

If Hannah is on her play mat, Summer wants to be on it, too. Here they are doing a little tummy time together.

Hannah has some eczema on her arms, legs, and cheeks. Summer had some on her cheeks when she was a baby, but I attributed it to kissing her cheeks too much and never said anything to the doc about it. So I thought I was doing the same thing to Hannah! But nope, just eczema. So there really is no such thing as too many kisses!

She also is a big time drooler. If you hold her for any length of time chances are you will walk away with a big slobber spot somewhere on you. I hate it when kids wear bibs all day long, but now I know why. Otherwise her shirt is soaking wet all day long! So if you know of any cute bibs, tell me about em.

She is my little buddy. I just love her to bits. My relationship with her is so different than it is with Summer, but I can’t explain it. I am just totally loving having a sweet baby around to love on.

Happy 1/3 of a year, Hannah B!

Meet the newest member of the family!

2010-12-05T22:23:00.001-06:00

After breaking our backs last year shoveling our driveway, we knew a snow blower was definitely in our future for this winter. We ordered it online on Black Friday and thanks to our favorite delivery service, picked it up the next day. Derrick and I put it together and tested it out a few days later and it’s a good thing, since it snowed yesterday! He took it out for its maiden voyage and had the driveway cleared lickety split!

Obviously this picture was not taken yesterday when it snowed, but the day we put it together. Of course, since we bought one this year, we’re going to have record LOW snowfall levels. But better safe than frozen and sore!

What gives?

2010-12-02T20:55:00.001-06:00

I have been SO emotional lately! What is the deal? I think it’s the holiday season that’s doing me in. Last month I was in Bath & Body Works and there was Christmas music playing and I was smelling a candle called Winter and I just started tearing up! And then I was watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade yesterday (yes, a few days late) and the Rockette’s were performing and started doing the high-kicking thing they’re famous for and started tearing up again! What the heck!

I’ve been feeling really queasy the past week or so, too.

Begin the Freak Out.

Could I really be pregnant already? Again? I love my sweet Hannah and have thought more than once that I’m already ready for another one. Or am I???

It would really be meant to be, since I’m still breastfeeding AND on birth control.

So I took a pregnancy test, convinced I was pregnant.

And I wasn’t!

Whew.

WHEW.

Cougarettes

2010-11-28T22:19:00.001-06:00

We got all Cougarfied on Saturday for the big game. Too bad it didn’t work. :( Oh well, at least the girls looks cute!

Love that little face!