Easter Outfits

Okay, so the kids didn't get a new outfit for Easter, but I did make sure they were dressed up nice and cute.

Here's my handsome little guy. What a charmer!

Zaylee refused to put down the little black stick, so I just took the pictures with it. She kept trying to run away. Camera shy?

Busy Baking!

This morning has been pretty fun. We started off by hunting down our Easter baskets. I had hidden Jeff's in our cooler, under some plastic bags. I thought it was a good place because his lunch box is actually pretty much a mini cooler - it's plastic inside and everything. He found it eventually. Jeff had my ramekins hidden high in a kitchen cupboard, camouflaged behind all the vitamins and supplements. Zaylee's chalk was in her booster seat under her bib. She was so excited when she saw it. We had taped a chocolate bunny and some plastic easter eggs filled with jelly beans on top of the little bucket, and that just thrilled her.

As for Thomas, we pretty much just gave him the new pacifiers. Bad news with that - he can't stand them. The ones he had (we just threw one away because the rubber nipple was so worn) were Parent's Choice, and we've had them for a while. When we bought the new ones, we realized that Parent's Choice apparently doesn't make the same style anymore, and so we bought some different PC binkies, figuring that since they're the same brand, they'll pretty much be similar enough that Thomas won't mind. Wrong. They are very different. The nipples are much smaller, and apparently quite a bit more slippery, as he can hardly keep them in his mouth. We're debating whether to keep trying to get him accustomed to these, or just go buy some new ones to try and find some he will like.

After our Easter hunt and breakfast, we got busy getting ready for our big family dinner tonight. Jeff and I have been assigned to bring the bread and a pie. Jeff was in charge of the pie crust, while I made the cherry filling (no "open the can, dump in the filling, and bake" for me! I did use canned cherries, but turned them into actual cherry pie filling all on my own). He rolled out the bottom crust and fitted it into the plate, and I did the lattice top. As we baked it, I was extremely grateful that Jeff suggested we bake it set in a large pan lined with foil. The filling was a bit too filling, and spilled profusely out the sides of the pie. That could have been a huge mess! As it is, we have to get the goopy foil unstuck from the bottom of the pan, but at least the oven isn't coated in burnt, gooped-up cherry pie filling.

Oh yeah, the oven. As Jeff opened the oven to take out the little pastry strips he made with the leftover pastry, the handle fell off halfway. It has two places where it's attached to the door, and one of them came unscrewed. The head end of the screw is inside the door, covered with metal, and we can't get to it. Great. But at least the other half was attached, so we could still open the door and get the pie out later. Until Zaylee decided to pull the handle the rest of the way off. Now our oven is inaccessible. That should make it fun to do the dinner rolls later.

We have the dough for the rolls going in the bread machine (yes, I'm a cheater, but at least I shape the dough myself). When the dough is ready, I'll shape it into butterfly shapes. There was a link on Rachel's recipe blog for an article on how to shape dinner rolls. I printed it out and plan to have fun using this guy's tips on making beautiful dinner rolls for tonight. If we can get the oven open.

Random Tag

I was tagged by Michelle for this random tag. The rules are to write 7 totally random facts about yourself, then tag two people. Here goes!

1. I bought short-hair accessories today - small clips, headbands - because all I had before was ponytail holders, which just don't work in my hair anymore.

2. We recently got permission from my brother Owen to use his really nice computer screen while he's on his mission (ours was burnt out and made everything look way dark). Come to find out, he wishes we had just kept his whole computer so he could have an excuse to buy a new one when he gets home - why did we spend all that money to get our own a couple months ago?

3. We just tried the limited edition (at least, I think they're limited edition) Vanilla Creme Hershey's Kisses, and Holy Cow! They are delicious!

4. I think I have a negative sense of fashion. I still have, and wear, a few articles of clothing that I wore in high school - about six years ago. They weren't exactly stylish then, but now they're dark ages.

5. I'm thirsty.

6. Most of my kitchen stuff (crock pots, food processor, silverware, serving spoons and spatulas, baking dishes, pots and pans, etc.) came from Deseret Industries. A few things (bamboo steamer, candy thermometer, pizza stone, cooling racks) I got for free with gift cards.

7. We have four phone books. I don't know why.

I tag Rachel and Calista (and I'm bending the rules here, but Jackie, you're tagged too!)

Pic of the Day #28

Haulin' in the Booty

Here's all the stuff we got for our Easter baskets - Jeff's lunch box, my ramekins, Zaylee's chalk, and Thomas' binkies. We'll put candy in/on each gift and hide them really well. Well, Thomas' will be "hidden" in plain sight on the floor or something, and Zaylee's will be in some obvious place in the toybox or something, but Jeff and I will hide each others' really good.

Our Big Shopping Trip

Jeff didn't have any classes today (he was supposed to have a lab, but it was canceled). We decided to get out of the house and have a big shopping trip. The first thing we did was go to the mall. We looked at the birds and the puppies at the pet store, then paid a visit to the Burlington Coat Factory. This was my favorite part of the day. *Any males in the room please exit or stop reading* I bought nursing bras - yay!! I've been losing weight and getting smaller, so my nursing bras have been getting looser and looser, and the support I need has just been nonexistent. So I've been wanting to get newer, smaller bras. At the Burlington Coat Factory, they had them on sale, and I got 2 for $7.99 and one for $9.99. Great price, especially for nursing bras! So I was excited about that.

After the Coat Factory, we took a break to have some granola bars, and I nursed Thomas. It was about 3:00, and due to a late breakfast, we hadn't had lunch yet. When we were done we headed over to Wal-Mart. I wanted to spend more time at the mall, but we needed to get our shopping done at Wal-Mart so we could get home and get dinner in a timely manner.

I really like the idea of Easter Baskets done in the same manner as the Hiatts - Annette, Rachel, etc. So we're doing those special Easter Baskets this year, and bought those today while we were shopping. We decided this kind of last minute, so there's not really any secrecy between Jeff and I about what we got each other. Jeff is getting a lunch box/cooler thing that he can take to class, so he can bring a big enough lunch that will fill him up. He's been needing something like that for a while. I'm getting four 4-oz. ramekins so I can make yummy fancy desserts in them. Ramekins have been on my "want-to-get-this-for-my-kitchen-sometime" list for a while now. Zaylee's getting a little bucket of sidewalk chalk, and Thomas is getting new pacifiers, because his are wearing out. Even though we all pretty much know what we're getting, we'll have fun hiding each others' baskets really well.

Another fun purchase we made today was cloth training pants for Zaylee. I'm going to start her wearing those instead of diapers, taking her training to the next step. Wish us luck on that!

One thing I didn't buy today was diapers for Thomas. It hit me today as I went to change his diaper that we are going through these diapers way too fast!! The cost is prohibitive, even though we buy the cheap-o diapers. So we've decided to have him in cloth diapers, at least for a while, to save some money. Michelle gave us lots of cloth diaper supplies that we never took advantage of, but I pulled them out today, and am pleased with these particular diapers and covers. We put Zaylee in cloth diapers for quite a while, and though it saved money, I really didn't care for it. We didn't get prefolded diapers (the ones Michelle gave us are prefolded - so much nicer!). Plus the plastic-y covers from Michelle are much nicer; they have Velcro and I can put them on in much the same way as a disposable diaper. Another difference between now and then is our method of storing the used diapers until we can wash them. We have a big lidded bucket specifically for this purpose. With Zaylee, we filled it with lightly bleached water, and plunged the wet and dirty diapers into that water. It started to smell bad after only a couple days, and when it was full, we'd have to dump out the water and wring out the diapers and then launder them - Gross! But since then I have learned a much better way of doing it. Now I just put the diapers into the pail, no water, and sprinkle baking soda over the diaper each time to control odor. So far, it's working (and smelling) much better. Anyway, I don't know how long we'll do the cloth diaper thing this time, but I'm glad we're doing it. I just shudder every time we have to buy a box of diapers, because they cost so much!

In the Leafy Treetops...

As I lay in bed this morning trying to decide whether to finish waking up or go back to sleep, my reverie was interrupted by Zaylee, emitting a series of happy, high-pitched squeaks, squawks, and squeals. I was going to go in and scold her for being so noisy so early in the morning (8:00, the nerve!), when I listened more closely. I realized she was merely mimicking the cheerful chirping of birds outside. Spring is here, and Zaylee was singing along with those who considered it their duty to inform us of its approach. Who could be mad at that?

Pic of the Day #27

Well Looky Here!!
Zaylee wanted to hold Thomas on her lap today, so I sat her down and let 'em have fun. I have pictures of her looking tenderly down at him, one or two of him pulling her hair, but I thought this one topped them all for sheer goofiness.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

The past two or three days the weather has been dreary. Lots of drizzly rain, clouds, very little sunshine. We've had the full range - from tiny sprinkles to light drizzle, to all-out rain, like what's going on right now. Why do I bother opening my nice, new curtains at all, if that's all I'm going to see? On the plus side, the grass and plants in our little yard are getting nice and green. We've got what looks like some flowers coming in. They haven't done anything remotely like blooming yet, but Mom says it looks like they could be tulips.

Last night went much better; I got more sleep than I have for a long time. Zaylee slept all night, no waking up. Thomas ate at 9:30, and I got to bed at 10:30, about an hour or so earlier than usual. He proceeded to sleep until 5 in the morning. After that feeding, I had a hard time getting back to sleep, I think simply because my body isn't used to getting long periods of sleep. Then we all slept until about 8:30, at which time I was able to get up fairly easily, without feeling like I still needed several hours more sleep. Nice! I hope nights like last night become much more frequent.

The Purse Tag

Rachel had a tag on her blog about what was in her purse, and I thought I'd do it too. I too don't carry a purse, so here are the current contents of my free, hospital-issue, uninterestingly black diaper bag.


Flap pocket - keys on key chain with my force multiplier (that mean-looking metal stick); a purple pen; stamps that we just bought that feature American Scientists.

Front pocket - small calculator, useful for comparing prices at the grocery store.

Main pocket - 3 Zaylee diapers; 3 Thomas diapers; changing pad; small container of wet wipes; small personals bag containing mirror, lotion, and two lip glosses.

Inner pocket - WIC folder; wallet; WIC appointment information sheet; 2 Wal-Mart receipts, from sometime recently (these usually end up in my wallet, but not always); granola bar; checkbook for my personal account that I never use; Thomas' shot records, because carrying them all the time is easier than remembering to put them in the bag every time we have a Dr. or WIC appointment; black pen.

Anyone else want to be tagged? Go for it!

What was in the Cupboard?

Shh, the baby doll's sleeping...

And you all thought it was a wet diaper! Zaylee's not that malicious!

Pic of the Day #26

Beginnings of a Garden

We went shopping this evening and bought gardening stuff and seeds. We have some ground at our apartment, and some that Mom and Dad will probably let us use at their house, so we will put it to good use. I'm especially excited about the herbs - I've never been able to cook with fresh herbs before, and I think I'll love it!

Terrible night

Last night was absolutely awful. In fact, it seems lately that every night is awful. I still haven't gotten adjusted to daylight savings, and go to bed around 11, sometimes later. Thomas wakes up to eat about that time, so I feed him, then go to bed. Here's how last night went (and most of my nights lately have been going something like this):

10:30 - Thomas wakes up to eat. I feed him, then go to bed. I don't fall asleep right away, as I never do.

Around 11:30-12 - I finally fall asleep.

1:30 - Zaylee wakes up sobbing. I go in to comfort her. As soon as I come in, Thomas wakes up, so I flip on the lamp to find his binky, comfort him and put him back down, and Zaylee crawls back in bed. Tentatively, I leave to go back to bed myself.

1:35 - I realize that my stomach hurts. Nausea is very hard to try to sleep through. But I shut my eyes and try anyway.

1:40 - Thomas is crying. I plug my ears and hope it stops. I still feel sick.

2:00 - After a while of not sleeping because I have my fingers in my ears, I unplug them and realize that both kids are wailing. I wake up Jeff.

2:05 - Jeff soothes Zaylee, I soothe Thomas. They finally seem ready to go down, so we leave and, again tentatively, go back to bed. As soon as I lay down, my stomach hurts again.

Between 2:10 and 3 - I can't sleep. I'm listening for the inevitable cries of wakeful children. I almost hope that I will throw up. If I'm throwing up, I can't be expected to soothe a crying child, can I? Right?

4:30 - Zaylee wakes up, whimpers loudly, then goes back to sleep. I'm stuck wide awake again. Stomach hurts.

6:35 - Jeff's alarm goes off. He turns it off, goes back to sleep, and leaves me awake. Again. My stomach is starting to feel better, but not much.

7:00 - Jeff finally gets up, which wakes me up after I've finally been able to doze off again. He goes about getting ready to go to class, keeping me awake.

7:30 - Jeff leaves for class. I get ready to be able to sleep. Thomas starts crying. Why can't I just get sick and take the day off?

7:35 - I feed Thomas, put him back to bed, and go back to sleep.

Between 8 and 10 - the kids wake, cry, go back to sleep, wake again, play, cry, etc. I drift in and out of consciousness. Finally at a little after 10, I force myself to drag out of bed. It takes two or three tries to do this. We start the day. Ironically, my stomach now feels better.

Another irony: Despite getting up 11 hours after going to bed, and Thomas going 8 hours between feedings, I still feel like I got almost no sleep at all.

This was one of those nights that elicits that dreaded outburst: "I hate being a mom! Can't I just stop?"

Paddy's Day Update

The corned beef and cabbage turned out so yummy. Jeff put in a whole head of cabbage, so there was a LOT of cabbage, but that's okay, we'll have the extra veggies and broth as soup tomorrow. We served it all on the beautiful platter Mom and Dad gave us for Christmas. We like fancy serving like that. Zaylee could not get enough of the corned beef or the potatoes. She probably had the equivalent of an entire potato, she just kept eating it and eating it. She did alright with the carrots, but wouldn't touch the cabbage. I got her to try a tiny bite by telling her it was bunny food and she was a bunny, but she didn't really fall for that after actually tasting the cabbage. Oh well, the fact that she ate everything else so well makes up for not wanting cabbage. When I was her age, I probably wouldn't eat cabbage either.

Here is Zaylee's picture that she colored for Uncle Owen, or Uncle Elder Danes as I wrote it for her to color. She had fun with it, as she always enjoys coloring.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy Wear-Green-Stuff Day, all! Zaylee must have some secret intuition or something. As I let her choose what to wear this morning, the first thing she pulled out was a bright green vest with a flower on it - how did she know? That of course reminded me that I needed to put on something green too. I think Thomas is the only one that didn't end up wearing green, but he doesn't seem to mind.

I wanted to make Irish Soda Bread for breakfast, but it was a bit late, Zaylee was hungry, and the bread would take about an hour. So instead we just had cereal, and I started the bread after breakfast. We ended up having it for lunch instead, with butter and freezer peach jam - yum!

Zaylee has learned that when watching a movie, it's more fun to dance during the songs than to just sit still. So, especially with VeggieTales, anytime a song starts, she jumps up and starts twirling and jumping and laughing. Sometimes I'll jump up and start dancing too, and she thinks it's so fun. I have fun too. This way I don't feel so guilty about letting her watch so many VeggieTales movies (she's already watched two today) - at least she's being active!

I have a fun FHE planned for this evening. Jeff and I will put together a letter for Owen. I'll draw some pictures for Zaylee to color for him. Once will say "I love my Uncle Elder Danes!" or something like that. We'll send them to him once we get out and buy some stamps (we ran out with our last bunch of bills we had to send). And we can talk about the importance of missionary work and supporting the missionaries.

I'm so excited for dinner tonight. We're having the traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage, with more Irish Soda Bread. We have the corned beef on the stove right now, boiling and smelling so good! I love corned beef served with cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and onions.

I just looked at the time. I need to get Thomas up from his nap and feed him. Sometimes he sleeps too much during the day and is awake half the night. Don't want that!!

Pic of the Day #25

Here is the finished toilet lid cover. I didn't end up cross-stitching anything on it, I just wanted it to be done. It fits the lid nice and tight, and looks okay, plus I was able to make it with some stash yarn I already had, so it was cheap.

More Fun Faces

I captured some really funny pictures of the kids making faces. I was attempting to get this one face in particular that Thomas makes frequently. The one I wanted is the third picture down, but I really liked lots of the other faces I got too. I love the faces babies make!




Zaylee saw me taking pictures and wanted to get in on the action. She's got some fun faces too.

Yay for Poopies!

Yeah, that's a weird title for a post. But it's exciting for us, because Zaylee pooped in her potty for the first time today. Poop is a strange thing to be excited about, or to write a post about. But every little step she makes is a step in the right direction!

Pic of the Day #24

I haven't been crocheting much lately, but decided to pick up the yarn and hook again. Our toilet lid cover is old and falling apart. The rubber backing is flaking off and getting all over the toilet, which is just gross. So I threw away the old cover. I really like having a cover on the toilet lid, so I started crocheting a new one. This, to me, is better than spending $8 on a new one at Wal-Mart. I think I'll cross-stitch something colorful in the center when I'm done, to make it a little brighter and more interesting. Anyway, it's off to a good start and should be done soon. I'll post a picture of the finished product when it's, well, finished.

Stuff on the Kids

This is just a little post to let everyone know how the kids are doing, growing, fun stuff they've learned, milestones reached, etc.

-Thomas' rash has completely cleared and he is back to his usual cheerful self. Right now he's playing by himself on the floor, something he wouldn't do at all while he wasn't feeling well. Glad to have him back!

-Thomas has had his two bottom teeth for quite a while now. On Thursday the two top ones made their entrance. At the same time. Considering, I think that breaking these two teeth at once wasn't as much of a nightmare as it could have been. He didn't cry at night any more than usual.

-A couple weeks ago Thomas started crawling for real, up on his hands and knees. He will still do his pull-flop thing every once in a while, when he wants to get somewhere fast. But he is getting better and better at real crawling, so resorts to flopping less and less often. I'm glad he's learning, but I'll miss that little flop.

-We're still working on the potty stuff with Zaylee. I haven't been pushing her to perform on the potty. But she's learning that it's a good thing to actually get something in the little bowl. This morning I kept asking her if she was done with potty time, and she kept saying no. After sitting on the potty much longer than I usually have her sit, she finally got up and ran off to her room, her little bottom totally bare, so she could get dressed. When I checked, she had peed in the potty. She just sat there until she knew she was done, then got up on her own. Now that she's figured out how to actually produce something, though it may take a while, I'm going to try to encourage her to go more frequently throughout the day, and maybe get her to let me know when she needs to pee. Things are progressing well in this area.

-Thomas is getting some object permanence knowledge. Zaylee likes to hide in the kitchen cupboards, as was evidenced by the poll I did earlier. Thomas will follow her into the kitchen, then try to open the cupboard after she climbs in. He knows she's in there and he wants to play with her!

-Zaylee has taken a liking to hiding behind a corner and repeatedly poking her head out and saying "Boo!" She'll do this over and over again, even when there's no one there to peek out at.

-Zaylee has decided she likes to help set the table. When it's mealtime, she'll open the fridge and start grabbing foods to take to the table. This afternoon she set the table for lunch with ketchup and string cheese (we were having leftover enchiladas from last night). I've found she does better if I hand her things to take to the table, instead of letting her grab whatever. It's so great that she wants to help, and really cute to watch her try to carry stuff that may be a bit too heavy for her! I'm definitely trying to encourage her in this newfound helpfulness.

-She is also very sweet and empathetic. If she thinks you have an "owie" she'll kiss it better for you. One of her favorite new phrases is "Whatsa matter?" She gives hugs and kisses to Thomas when he cries. What a sweetheart!

Pic of the Day #23

This is a picture of the enchiladas I made tonight. They were so yummy I had to post the recipe on my Fun Foods blog, and the picture here.

Today has been pretty long. We went over to Mom's house to do laundry. Jeff only stayed for a little while. He had a test today at 3, and wanted to leave at 12 so he could get there and do some serious studying. His lab / test goes from 3 until 6. Then he had the evening shift on the job shadowing, from 7 to 8:30. So he's pretty much been gone all day, and won't get back until about 9:30 tonight. That's alright. The kids have been pretty good, and will go to bed shortly. I got the laundry done in less time than usual. Our darks load was very small, so only had to go through the dryer once instead of two times (the dryer is pretty pathetic. Most loads have to go through twice, and it takes forever). I made some great enchiladas for dinner with our leftover roast beef. The recipe's on my food blog in case anyone's interested. The kids will go down for bed soon, and then I can get to work cleaning up the living room (no use trying while they're awake; they get everything out again right away), and doing the dishes. I'd like to have the place looking nice for Jeff when he gets home. He's probably had a much harder day than I have, and it would be nice for him to be able to come home to a clean apartment - here's hoping!

A Busy Day

This morning I was finally able to get my package mailed out to Owen. He was recently transferred, so I had to wait until we found out his new address. Once I called Mom and got the address, Zaylee and I went off to the UPS store. Zaylee was very helpful, insisting on carrying the box into the store for me. She's such a big girl. I hope that it gets there quickly. There's brownies and a loaf of bread, and I would feel so terrible if they got there and were stale! Well, I've sent him stuff before and it's gotten there okay. It's just that this time, it was all packed and ready to go, but I had to wait a day or two to send it. Anyway, it was nice to get out and have a little outing with Zaylee. The weather was beautiful, all we needed was a light jacket.

This afternoon Michelle called. Somehow we seem to be able to get more done while talking with each other. She cleaned out the boys' room and fixed dinner, and I did some more unpacking. We've had several boxes stacked in our bedroom waiting for some attention, but I haven't done anything with them. But today while talking with Michelle, I went through four or five boxes, and whittled it down to two boxes, now settled nicely in the closet. The rest of the stuff is either out where we can use it, or thrown away. That felt good. It's always nice to lighten the load, throwing away things that you really don't need and were just keeping out of habit. There are still several boxes left to go through, but the pile is much less formidable, and easier to get around.

While Jeff gave Zaylee potty time this evening, I cleaned up in the kids' room. I need to go through the toy box in there, and the one in the living room. I know they don't play with all the toys, and I can totally donate or throw away at least half of the toys we have, so I'll go through and do that soon. Not tomorrow, because it's laundry day and we'll be at Mom's house all day. But I will do it soon. After putting the kids to bed, Jeff and I cleaned up the living room too, so that looks nice. So now our room, the kids' room, and the living room have been cleaned up and are looking pretty good. Unfortunately, the kitchen is in sore need of some attention. I did a few dishes before dinner, so we could have dinner, but there are still lots more that need done, and the counters and stove are in a sorry state. I'm hoping Jeff will valiantly volunteer to do all the work and let me relax.

Pic of the Day #22

This morning as I was getting Zaylee ready, I asked Jeff to "get Thomas a new diaper and put some clothes on him." And so he did.

A Day in Pictures

I decided to take pictures of my day, like Rachel and Melinda did a while back. My day starts a little after ten, because Jeff stayed home today and I got to sleep in.

At about 10:15/10:20, the camera found Zaylee playing in the living room, Thomas playing in the kids' bedroom, and Jeff working on an exam online. I was eating breakfast and did not find that to be picture-worthy.


At quarter after 11, the kids were watching a movie together. Well actually, Zaylee was watching the movie, and Thomas was romancing Mommy and the camera. I was conversing with Mom on the phone. I needed to find out Owen's mailing address so I could send him some brownies and bread. Come to find out, he was just transferred, and we won't find out his new address until tomorrow. So I'll send them then. Jeff was still working on that exam.


Between 11 and 12, Jeff and I put together a pot roast to cook in the crockpot. Actually, it's Michelle's garlic and herb-crusted roast from her recipe blog, but we decided to do it in the crockpot instead of the oven, because Jeff loves slow-cooked roast. So, at 12:15, the pot was simmering and there was a great fragrance throughout the apartment. There's a plate on the pot because we broke the lid. The plate works for now until we can figure something else out. Thomas was taking a nap, and Jeff was taking a break from his exam, reading a book and enjoying a cup of cocoa.


1:15 - Lunch time! We had sandwiches, with all the fixin's. Zaylee was especially excited to eat, as is evidenced by her facial expression.


After lunch, Jeff got back to working on his exam, and was still at it at 2:20. Thomas woke up from his nap around lunchtime, so wasn't ready to go back down for another one. He just hung out, crawled around, and had a good time. The door knob is attached to the door that I dared not open at 2:20, because behind it, Zaylee was sleeping. Her naps have been rather hit-and-miss lately. She was actually sleeping today, so I didn't want to risk waking her up. Hence, the door knob I didn't dare turn.


Jeff took these pictures. I took a nap.


At quarter after four, Zaylee was finally up from her nap, though still a bit groggy. I started doing my hair, having slept in it wet last night. I wouldn't have bothered, but our Relief Society was having its RS birthday celebration this evening, so I wanted to look nice. Jeff, finally done with his exam, decided to unwind by playing a computer game. Those UFO aliens don't stand a chance against the Mighty Jeff!


I had to get to the church building early to help decorate the cultural hall. The roast was just about finished, but I didn't get to eat any until we were done with the decorating (It's a bit green because of the herb rub we put on it - yum!). The bag is one that I don't normally get to use. I crocheted it, and it's not really sturdy enough to hold up as a diaper bag. But I was excited to get to use it tonight, since I was leaving the kids, and all their gear, at home. Thomas was excited that I was holding him. Little did he know I was about to leave for the bulk of the evening.


6:25 found me at the cultural hall, finishing up decorations for the party. We put up balloons all over. The flowers were in a vase up front. I was the one who put them in the vase and made sure they were arranged so as to look nice. The cakes just looked so good, I had to get a picture of them!


I didn't take any pictures at 7:15. We were in the middle of the program, and it wouldn't have been appropriate to suddenly start snapping pictures. But it was a really good program, and I enjoyed getting to know some of the other sisters in the ward.


At right around 8:15, the program finished, and we all got to start snacking! We had veggie trays, cheese and cracker trays, and of course the beautiful cakes. I had a nice big piece of the white cake (as for my diet, at times like these I just sigh, think 'well, that was yummy,' and resolve to do better tomorrow!).


Nine-fifteen - the apartment is a mess, the dishes aren't washed, and Jeff is (still?) playing on the computer. I had a great evening, and instead of buckling down and cleaning up, I kick Jeff off the computer and BLOG!! The cleaning can wait.

What Spice Are You?

Here's another one of those cute Internet quizzes. I like spices and herbs, so thought it would be fun. I think this one turned out pretty accurate for me.

You Are Basil

You are quite popular and loved by most people. You have a mild temperament, but your style is definitely distinctive. You are sweet, attractive, and you often smell good.

What Spice Are You?

Daylight Savings

Am I dumb or what?! Even if we had been able to figure out where to go for Stake Conference, we would have been an hour late, because it wasn't until JUST NOW that I realized that this weekend was daylight savings! Jeff didn't know either, which means he was an hour late to school today. Oops. All it means for me though is that we're having breakfast at 11:00. Late start. Oh well!

Tag - 7 Things about Me and Food

This is a new tag that I'm starting (I saw the idea on a recipe blog somewhere). The rules: Make a list of seven things about you and food. They can be unique, gross, little-known-facts, whatever. Then tag two people. Probably after a while it will just be consider-yourself-tagged-once-you-read-one-of-these, but lets at least try to play by the rules for a while. Here I go!

Seven things you may or may not have wanted to know about me and food:

1. When I was a child, I would eat butter. From a spoon. By itself.

2. I almost never follow a recipe exactly. I use recipes all the time though. I look it over, pick and choose what I'll keep and what I'll change, and go from there. Usually it depends on what ingredients I have at the moment, or what I think will work better than what the recipe originally says.

3. I collect cookbooks and recipes. It's almost a passion with me. I love those mail offers you get - preview our annual cookbook and get a free little cookbook just for trying - I always preview the book, copy out the recipes I can't live without, send back the preview book, and keep the free little cookbook.

4. I like Brussels sprouts. And what's more, Jeff and I have succeeded in getting my whole family to accept them. Now THERE'S an accomplishment!

5. My favorite pizza topping combination is and always will be Canadian bacon with olives.

6. Oxymoron - I LOVE food and eating, and I wish I could eat as much as I want all the time, but I'm on a restricted-calorie diet, and it's actually working. Explain that one...

7. I enjoy grocery shopping. Some people don't, but I think it's a lot of fun.

There, wasn't that fun? Now I tag Michelle and Rachel.

Doing Better

Well, we never did figure out where to go to Stake Conference, so we ended up staying home. We got onto lds.org and played hymns for a while. Zaylee especially liked it when I played some primary songs for her, and sang along. My voice isn't that great, but she enjoyed it. We'll just have to make sure we find out where things are ahead of time next time.

I've spent a lot of time today looking at lots of recipe blogs. There are so many recipe blogs out there! You just have to follow a trail and who knows where it will lead you. I click on, say, Rachel's recipe blog, where there's a link to other people's recipe blogs. I click on one, check it out, and that person also has a list of other blogs. So I click on another one, and on and on. I've found so many awesome recipe blogs! My favorite that I discovered was Bakerella. This lady is so creative with cupcakes and little cake balls and cookie truffles. Definitely check it out!

This evening I realized that Zaylee really wanted some special time with either me or Jeff; she was just wandering around aimlessly, trying to find something to do. So I took her into the kitchen and she helped me to bake some yummy brownies. You can find my writeup of the event on my recipe blog. We had a lot of fun together, especially the part where we got to eat the brownies!

Thomas continues to be fussy and sleepy etc. But I'm trying harder to be patient and understanding, so I had a better day of it today than yesterday. Soon he'll be back to normal. The rash is already disappearing; you can hardly tell it was there anymore. Soon I'll have my little sweetheart back!

Pic of the Day #21

These are just some pretty rocks. Actually, these were our gift to Zaylee on her second birthday. They were spread out on the floor, so I thought I'd capture the beauty of nature on my own dining room floor.

Rough Day

This has been a difficult day. Thomas, with his rash and low fever, has been feeling really yucky today, at least I'm assuming so because he absolutely would not let me put him down! And even while I was holding him he would still be fussy. He slept a lot today. Unfortunately, he only wanted to sleep while I was holding him. I've humored him in this for the past couple of days, but it's going to end. I don't want him to make a habit of only sleeping in my arms. So it's back to napping in the crib tomorrow, little buddy. Anyway, he's wearing himself a bit hoarse from crying so much lately, which is wearing my nerves rather thin. He's always been such a mild and cheerful little guy, so it's hard for me to deal with him when he's like this.

Zaylee too has been hard to deal with the past few days. Having to give Thomas so much of my attention, I'm afraid I've been neglecting Zaylee. She reacts to that by acting up, refusing to eat at mealtime and demanding snacks, constantly wanting to watch movies (she can put in and start a DVD by herself), not obeying, and basically being more cantankerous than she normally would be.

We realized this evening that Stake Conference started today, and we missed the adult session. The general session is tomorrow morning, but we don't know where it's at! All we know is that it's at this particular Stake Center, but we don't know where it is, being new to the ward and the stake and the area and everything. We don't have a directory so there's really not anyone we can call to find out either. Boy, how will we manage this?

All this has made for a pretty rough day, both Jeff and I have been in a pretty sour mood, especially this evening, because we'd been going through Thomas's fussiness all day. Of course, for Jeff, being in a sour mood just means he hasn't smiled and joked quite as much as usual. For me, I've been snappy, and crabby, and grumpy, and I'm sure I've been as difficult to be around as Thomas was!

Pic(s) of the Day #20

My Kitchen Window ValenceI've been trying to figure out how to get a couple pillowcases to look good in my kitchen window. I finally did it, using some fancy folding. The top picture is the whole thing, the bottom is a close-up of the folded pillowcase. Yes, I did iron them, but those creases are in there good!

Pic of the Day #19

Jeepers, Creepers, Get a Load of Those Peepers!

I've been posting a lot of Thomas pics, so I figured I should post one of Zaylee as my pic of the day today. I love this picture, as it shows off her gorgeous eyelashes. Is is just me, or is she going to be just beautiful as an adult?

Here We Go Again

Another doctor visit for Thomas. This time for a mysterious rash that suddenly popped up. Yesterday it was a couple little pink dots on the back of his neck and head. This morning it was all over his body. It seems to be bothering him, he'll rub the back of his head on stuff and is kind of irritable and grumpy.

Here he is on the exam table. He was very good-natured through the whole thing, playing with his little monkey toy.

Here's Thomas's back. Looks pretty bad, huh?

This is the back of his neck, where the rash is the worst.

The nearest the doctor could figure is that this is a reaction to something, though we're not sure what. He just had some immunizations on Tuesday and may be reacting to something dealing with that. Or maybe it was something I ate that he got through the breast milk. Anyway, hopefully it's nothing a little Benadryl won't fix.

Now That's More Like It!

Last night was so much better! Thomas woke up once at around 1:30, but went back to sleep rather quickly after I gave him his pacifier. He ate at 4:00, then didn't wake up again until 8:30. Zaylee slept the whole night. Why can't every night be like that? It would be nice to have some consistency as far as sleep is concerned. Some nights, like last night, are great. The kids sleep well, and I do too. But other nights, far too many and far too often, one or both of the kids are waking up every hour or two, demanding attention, and none of us sleep well at all. I'm not really trying to complain or anything (well, maybe a little...), I'm just wistfully wishing that I could count on getting enough sleep every night.

I Love Your Funny Face

This is the title of a song from an Audrey Hepburn movie, Funny Face. But I thought it particularly fitting for this post, in which I feature some of Thomas's adorable facial expressions, captured on camera by Janelle.

And I saved the best for last:

Pic of the Day #18

I'm Lookin' Good!

Thomas, with only a little bit of help, discovered his reflection in the mirror. He's actually standing in this picture, supported only by his hands on the mirror. He's growing so fast!

My Day and Night

Yes, I was able to get out. The kids were down for a nap, Jeff was playing on the computer, so I took a shower, did my hair, and took off for town. There's a shopping strip with lots of great stores, so in two hours I window-shopped at Micheal's, Old Navy, World Market (an import store), and Bed Bath & Beyond. It was great. I felt refreshed and much better.

The evening wasn't quite as good though. Around the time I got home I felt a migraine coming on. I decided to wait it out and see if it would go away. Why do I do that? I ALWAYS try to wait it out, and it NEVER goes away on its own! So by the time I had finished eating my dinner, it was a full-blown monster of a migraine, so I took some Ibuprofen and had to lay down, totally incapacitated, for the rest of the evening, while Jeff took care of after-dinner cleanup and putting the kids to bed. I ended up falling asleep on the couch and didn't get up to go to bed until midnight. Thankfully the migraine was gone, because that's when the real fun started.

From midnight until 8:00 this morning, both kids played tag team keeping me awake all night long. I wasn't able to get more than an hour of sleep at a time. By the way, Zaylee has been doing this thing where she'll wake up once or twice every night, very upset and crying hard, and needs us to come in to comfort her. Any ideas on why she might be doing this or how to get it to stop? Her wake-up times don't usually coincide with Thomas's, so I don't think he's waking her up.

Cabin Fever!

I'm feeling a bit closed in. I know I had a great weekend, with the Temple and Michelle's visit, and Church, but I've been stuck inside ever since then, only coming out for air once to go grocery shopping yesterday. I'm trapped in this tiny apartment, and I'm dying to get out and do something different. It doesn't have to be exciting or extra special, just different! Maybe I'll convince Jeff (he's home from class now) to have us all go on an outing to the mall, or maybe he'll let me go by myself so I can stop at JoAnn's and/or Micheal's. Or maybe he and the kids can come too (I don't like to drive) and he can take Zaylee to a different store while Thomas and I head to look at crafts and fabrics. Hm, I guess my options are more varied than I thought they were. Whatever I choose, I need to do something and get out of this apartment!

Pic of the Day #17

Bath Time!Isn't he cute?

Exciting News

I have two bits of fun news to share. The first deals with my interior decorating, namely curtains. This is what I have to work with, as far as windows are concerned. These big, bulky, ugly blinds came with the apartment, and aren't removable.

But I finally found a way around it. I was thinking real hard about it last night, and suddenly realized that the big rod holding up the blinds is made of metal. So I bought a bunch of magnetic clips and some flat bedsheets (because I'm cheap), and here's the result (first without flash to show the back lighting, the second picture is with flash to show the fabric):


I have some ironing to do, but I like the way it looks. It really makes the room look prettier and more homey, and the green goes well with the green and beige of the couch.

To tie the curtains back, I bought a roll of this rope-like stuff. It's a cream color, so will go well with whatever colors I choose for the other rooms as well.

My other exciting news is that, though Thomas has been waking up wanting to eat at 2:30 every morning, my cry-it-out attempts have been paying off. Last night he slept until 5:00. He could have gone even longer, but I forgot to give him his evening snack before I went to bed last night. It felt good to be able to sleep that long.

Answer to the Poll

What was behind Door Number One?

Zaylee, come on out!

Our Weekend

Saturday evening was lots of fun. We had Michelle and her boys, and Janelle, over for dinner. We realized in the afternoon that we were completely out of diapers. Totally. We had, like, two Zaylee diapers in the diaper bag, but no Thomas diapers at all. So we had to do an emergency shopping trip to get a couple boxes of diapers. While we were there, since we were going to have Michelle and Janelle over for dinner, we decided to get some fun food. We got a whole chicken to roast, lettuce (the nice leafy kind, not iceberg) and tomatoes for a salad. Dinner was so yummy. I used the seasoning combination from the Roast Cornish Hen with Vegetables recipe, tripled it to cover the whole bird, and also roasted some vegetables - sweet potato, potato, red onion, and carrot. We did a lettuce/tomato/celery salad that Michelle seasoned with salt and pepper - I didn't even put dressing on mine. Who'd have thought that salt and pepper could make lettuce so flavorful! Anyway, it was a great dinner, and we had lots of fun keeping the kids from making too much of a mess, and visiting with each other.

Yesterday (Sunday) was nice and relaxed. I got a nap in the late afternoon, that felt so good! I'm not getting quite enough sleep at night lately. I am finally trying to break Thomas of his habit of wanting to eat in the middle of the night, but he is still protesting vehemently. When he wakes up at 2, I change his diaper (it's usually about to burst at that point, maybe I should figure out a way to change it sooner), give him his binky, and put him back to bed. I then spend the next half hour or more trying to sleep with my ears plugged, because he cries really loud. Luckily, this doesn't seem to be bothering Zaylee. I think she'd sleep through a tornado. So anyway, sleep being elusive at night, I was glad to get a nice nap yesterday.

I've been looking at some interior decorating stuff online, place like the Better Homes and Gardens website, etc. It's so neat, but actually kind of discouraging. I want to be able to do something to beautify our little apartment, but my options are limited to the point of being pretty much nothing that I can think of. We can't paint or paper the walls at all, so they have to stay plain white. My ability to decorate by hanging pictures is severely limited by the fact that most of the walls are stone, and I can't put nails or screws or tacks in. I can't put curtains in the windows because of the big bulky blinds in the way (which can't be removed), and the stone wall around the windows eliminates the possibility of a curtain rod. I'm not allowed to hang anything from the ceiling because that's where the heating is. Furniture has to be kept at least 2-3 inches from the walls to prevent mold - this keeps me from even being able to put up a headboard for our bed, even though I would love one. I'm not allowed to alter the apartment in any way. I'm not even sure I'm allowed to hang shelves on the wall. On top of everything, any decorating we do has to be dirt cheap or we can't afford it. Well, at least I am allowed to clean, and to rearrange furniture should I choose. That's just about all I can think of to do at this point. Humph!

Pic of the Day #16

The Mystery of the Ouchy Eye

When I set Thomas in his booster seat for breakfast this morning, I noticed that he had a pretty ouchy-looking cut by his eye. Where did that come from? Honestly, you turn your back and suddenly all sorts of stuff can happen.

Morning with Mom and Michelle

This morning, Mom and Michelle and I had a girls' day out at the Temple. We were a little late for the session we wanted so we did initiatory instead. That was so neat; neither Michelle nor I had done that since our weddings. This was actually the first time the three of us had been in the Temple together; Michelle was in England when I got married, and couldn't come. It was also my first time going without Jeff, which felt weird. So anyway, it was just a really nice morning, and I really needed that break, and that time in the Temple. It clears the mind and helps everything sort of fall in place, gives the strength to keep going, a sense of renewed energy and peace of mind. All that jazz. It was great.