her first

My baby girl is one. Oh how I love this sweet little thing. What would we do without her? She is my child who plays by herself. Already. For those of you who know the struggle I've had with McKay in this area, you know how pleased I am about this. She is so low maintenance and easy going. . .except at church.

I love having a daughter. I think about all the things I want to do with her and the kind of relationship I want to have with her and I get so excited. I am so excited to know her and love her and to see who she becomes. Thinking about my future with this girl I just get excited. She is my little love and I'm lucky to have her.

Her little polka dot party turned out to be fun. She cracked me up when she picked off each m&m on the top of her cake. I had to take the rest of them off so she would actually start digging in. Her very favorite present is the toothbrush she's holding in the bottom corner. Easy to please, this one.

And this child. This child was all business when it came to opening his sister's presents. He would tear off the paper and if the gift inside wasn't exciting enough (ie: clothes) he would chuck them to the side and move on to the next one. Good thing Ellery is young enough not to care. She was fine letting McKay do all the work while she chewed on her toothbrush.

By the way, did you know that Albertson's gives free birthday cakes for one year olds? They sure do. I asked them to keep mine plain white and not to put the obnoxious balloons and words on it (they did anyway- I scraped them off) and it was nice not to have to worry about making it. I was able to focus on making these instead:

My sister-in-law Missy, a cake decorating expert, showed me how to frost cupcakes this way. I am hooked. I will never smear cupcakes with a knife again. Okay, well, maybe not never. But if I'm doing a party you will definitely see these instead of a smear. And that makes me think of one more thing to share, while we're on the subject of cupcakes. For McKay's birthday I mistakenly mis-read the cake mix package and thought they suggested adding a cup of pudding to my cake batter. Well, upon further inspection, and after the pudding had been added I realized they were just bragging to me that their cake mix has a cup of pudding already in it. Oops. But, happy mistake! I did it on purpose this time for Ellery's party. The cake was really moist and extra yummy, I thought.
So, throw in a couple of snack packs in your batter next time- it's good.

McKay's prayer tonight:

"Dear Heavenly Father.

Thanks for Christmas.

Thanks that we can go to the beach soon.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."


Then he looked up and said, "Mom, was that a beautiful prayer?"

Yes.

But who is he going to the beach with?

In Love with Aida

Two years ago Jana traveled all the way up to Idaho to see the play Aida. Upon returning, she immediately bought the soundtrack and fell in love with the music. She tried to get us all on board with the new tunes, but we just didn't get it. I gave it a little listen, and although some were catchy, I had no idea what the story was about and I just couldn't do it. This made Jana very sad. She wanted her sisters to love this new find as much as she did. After all, we all fell in love with the Wicked soundtrack before seeing the play. What was wrong with us?

Well, after a few months of nagging and no results, Jana gave up. Our cds collected dust and we forgot about them. And then she saw that the Hale Center Theater was doing Aida. She knew we all had to go. So she made it happen.


And it worked. We all loved it! The play was SO good. I feel happy, giddy feelings inside knowing that I have a whole new soundtrack to learn and love. Hurry up and go see it if you can- it runs until November 22nd. I am planning on going again. If I can't get Brian to agree, I know my sisters will be up for another round. . .partly because it was so good. . .but also because of this:

Yep- that's a new boyfriend. We call him our theatre boyfriend. For those of you who don't know about the whole boyfriend thing, I'll have to explain.


But first I must tell you that we waited until all the other people left the theatre so that we could get a pic with our theater boyfriend. I think he felt pretty cool. . .having a group of ladies waiting forhim. And we felt kind of dumb. . .but not dumb enough, I guess.

You see, we have a lot of boyfriends, my sisters and I. But not to worry, our husbands know about every single one. And they don't mind. Some of them have girlfriends too. I'll tell you about those in a minute. Our boyfriends are mostly famous, or have some sort of special talent that draws us to them.

My very first boyfriend, besides Joey of course, was Gavin Rossdale. I hear he's making a comeback, but back when he and I were together, he was in the band Bush. And he sang to me. Mmmmm. Glycerin- what does it even mean, but, he sang it to me. I made scrapbooks from magazine clippings all about him. I was smitten with Gavin and he was my boyfriend for a good couple years.

Jana fell hard for Carson Daly back in the TRL days. When he got chubby they broke up.

The next significant boyfriend came while Lisa, Jana and I saw the movie Pearl Harbor. Lisa, the mother of probably four at the time, got her first boyfriend. Josh Hartnett. He was younger, yes, but she didn't even care. She had jumped on the boyfriend train, and there was no looking back. She's since moved on to Orlando Bloom.

The longest relationship of us all is Jana and Jeff Probst, the host of Survivor. Oh they have been together for almost a decade. Cute couple, they are.

Krista has pretty good taste in boyfriends. Christian Bale, her and I share, but she's also got Matt Damon and Sawyer from Lost. I get it.

I have one boyfriend that I kind of keep on the down low, because he's Lisa's neighbor, and, well. . .he doesn't really know about me. But I totally say "hi boyfriend!" when I see Bronco Mendenhall in the neighborhood. . . although my windows are rolled up. And Brian appreciates when I talk all lovey to him when a game is on. . .to Bronco that is, not Brian.

So what about these girlfriends I mentioned earlier? Well, Brian has only had one girlfriend, ever. And I was SO happy when he found her. Stephanie, from some season of Survivor. She was a really smart, tough, yet cute contestant. It was exciting for him. They've since broken up because, well, Stephanie's old news now. But it was fun while it lasted. And Lisa's husband, Trevor, fancies Tea Leoni. Sorry Trevor, I don't know how to spell your girlfriend's name.


My newest boyfriend is Dr. House. I know, I don't really get it either. But then I so do. It probably won't last.

So tell me, who's your boyfriend?

this week last year

Holy cow was I busy. With about two weeks left until my Halloween due date, I crammed a lot into this week. I am one of those crazy pregnant ladies. I have a list about a mile long all throughout my pregnancies and am constantly crossing things off and adding new items to get done. It really is kind of out of control. So on my list this week was:

Getting maternity pictures taken. (I would not recommend doing this the week you have your baby. I was. . . puffy.)

Check

Going to the Scarecrow Festival as a single mom (Brian was working). Check

Attending my baby shower on Tuesday.

Check

Going visiting teaching and running several last minute errands on Wednesday.

Check

Having my water break on Thursday morning, about twenty minutes after Brian had asked me to have the baby that day so he didn't have to go to work. I like to please people. )

Check

And at 3:31pm having my precious baby girl.

Check

The last couple days I've been thinking a lot about that week. There is nothing more exciting than bringing a new little person into the world. I love the anticipation. Nine long months finally coming to an end. I love being pregnant, even the last few days. I love having a newborn. I love how they smell. I love how they sound. I love how they feel when I cuddle them to sleep. I love the excitement and newness of it all.

But. . .

There's also something to be said about a one year old. I am not the biggest baby person; never have been. I mean, I love them. But I'm not baby crazy. I kind of love when they grow up, just a little bit.

Okay, that's good. Now stop.

Happy Birthday to my girl tomorrow.

mmm, mmm good

The other night I walked into the kitchen and Brian said to me, "We're improvising tonight."

We only had one little sprinkle of mozzerellla cheese for a whole pizza he was making.

But that didn't stop him.


And you know what? It turned our pretty darn tasty.



I'll take a string cheese pizza anytime.

while the men were out. . .

I am a pretty lucky girl. I have amazing women all around me. Helping me. Teaching me. Motivating me. Sisters, mothers, friends, neighbors. I get inspired by them often.

In Ellery's baby blessing last January, Brian said that she should learn from the women in her life and follow their examples. I've decided that this is good counsel for me too. I need to take advantage of the amazing talents and traits that these women have to offer and learn from them.

I am not the most domestic person. I've told you all that Brian makes dinner half (okay, most) of the time. I keep telling him that he's making me feel like a bad "homemaker" and to just let me do it, but he'll just say, "But I have this new pizza I want to try." or, "No, I've already planned something." I just had a sudden realization that maybe I'm a bad cook and that's why he wants to make it so often! Ha! What if that's why? Anyway, thanks to my sister-in-law Jenn and my mother-in-law Adele, I got seriously domestic on Saturday night. Apron and all.
We made and canned applesauce.

I'm not sure I could do this again on my own but I felt happy knowing that I tried something I'd never tried before, and we have some lovely jars of applesauce to show for it.

(me, adele, missy, jenn)

Next, maybe I'll get my friend Becky to coach me in the art of brownie making and baking. Check out her food blog- she's doing a giveaway for "brownie week" here. Mmm, they look so delicious!

what he's into. . .

This is what we've been doing everyday lately.

He's taken a sudden interest in home building.

Yesterday we housed Winnie the Pooh and his gang.
Today it was Shrek guys.



And lucky for us, this neighborhood kept McKay seriously busy during Conference.

Pumpkin Walk

This week it feels like Fall has finally started. We went to the annual Pumpkin Walk at "the cousins'" elementary school to kick off the season.

Each class has a value and theme to decorate their pumpkins in. It was fun to see some of the creative things the kids came up with. Some of the pumpkins were pretty impressive.

These cute cousins had fun at the Pumpkin Walk, but had as much fun on the walk there and back. But we were a little confused. We were celebrating the Fall season and looking at pumpkins, scarecrows and bales of hay, but it felt like a sweltering summer day. We were all so hot and dying for a cold drink of water by the time we got back.

I am SO excited for Fall! There's just a feeling in the air. It's not as busy and cold as the Christmas season, and still has some of my favorite activities. I can't wait to decorate sugar cookies, carve pumpkins and bake pumpkin seeds, and watch the beautiful leaves change, not to mention the Halloween costumes that are already being put together and my decorations that are already up!

Now I just need to be able to wear my dark jeans without overheating and I'm good.

Happy Fall!

Us Veggies

Before Brian and I got married there was a big discussion involving both families,

"Are you sure you want to marry her?. . .she's a vegetarian."


I'm not even kidding. This conversation happened. Those words were uttered not by just one family member, but discussed as a group. They were really concerned.


Well, obviously Brian was willing to take his chances because here we are, five years later.


Lately I've been pondering where we are now and how a carnivore can cohabitate with a sweet little vegetarian, like me. How do we do it? How do our kids fare in this contrasting environment?

Number one, I am a totally laid back vegetarian. As in, as long as I don't have to eat it, it's not a big deal?

First, a little background on me. My earliest memory of not liking meat was when I was describing my distaste for ham (it has little white squiggles) to my oldest childhood friend Liz on the elementary school playground. Maybe third grade. I can't ever remember a time where I was okay with ground hamburger. I think that even before "my declaration" I was always pretty picky about meat. But the big commitment was put in high speed during the early nineties when my mom was on a Sante Fe chicken-burger kick, homemade of course. I guess I just found one too many veins in my chicken-burger and I'd had enough. At the tender age of ten I decided that I no longer ate meat. I was a vegetarian.


Oh, they all thought it was just a phase. They thought I was just being a kid and would forget or give up in a few days or weeks. Turns out it's been a seventeen year phase. And I don't know what they did with me. What did I eat back then? My mom didn't play into my "phase" very much because I never got special treatment. I never got special vegetarian meals and if I wanted to eat, I'd have to eat around the meat in whatever we were having. So, as this tangent is getting so very long, I'll just say that probably thanks to my mom, I'm a very laid back vegetarian. I don't mind if my food is cooked with or has touched meat, and although I make a mess on my plate sometimes, I am an expert meat picker. It works for me.


I also don't have any moral reasons for being a vegetarian. I love animals, sure, but that's not my platform. It's also not for health reasons, because I just had Lucky Charms for dinner. The bottom line is that I just think it's gross. It's yucky to eat an animal that was walking and breathing and thinking. I have even tried to stop. I had a few weeks in late 2004 where I decided I was going to eat chicken. I had a few nuggets at Wendy's and wee bits of chicken here and there. But I had to give myself pep talks with each chew and swallow. It was really hard for me. And also lets just say my bowels didn't know what was going on. So I stopped and told everyone to love me as I am.


That was actually a whole lot of background on me. Oops Back to my original point- me and Brian eating happily together.

Brian. He is the real reason that we've blended so well. I have never asked Brian to stop eating meat, or tried to keep him from it. I've even gotten more comfortable preparing it (which by the way just reaffirms my decision every time). Brian loves meat. But he loves me too. And over the years I think he's realized that it's just not that big of a deal. He never buys red meat. Never- unless I decide to make something in the crockpot, which has been twice. We have frozen chicken breasts, lunch meat, tuna and frozen salmon. That's it. We eat a lot of vegetarian meals, not because I force them, but because we both like them and that's just what we eat. And if he's feeling like he needs a little more substance he'll throw a chicken breast on the George and he's good to go. Or if our meal is centered around meat, then I am fine just eating the sides. It works.

He now admits that he could easily be a vegetarian because he basically eats like one. And Brian is a pretty healthy eater (those of you who know him from high school are laughing). He would be the type of vegetarian that would eat a lot of legumes and tofu- so not me. But I'm just grateful. I don't think many men could stand not having their meat. So I just like him. And I'd never have guessed it would be this easy. But I feel pretty lucky that it is.


As for our kids; I get excited when they eat meat. I'm happy for them. I'm happy when Elle gobbles down a slice of turkey, or when McKay wants to make tuna for lunch. I hope they'll have more "mental toughness," as Brian says, when it comes to animal consumption than I do. I hope it doesn't get to them. Because it can be really annoying to be a vegetarian. Like really.


But it's my destiny. My calling in life. And try as I might I can't get out of it.

this girl. . .

now has piggy tails

this girl. . .

flaps her arms and tries to fly when she stands

this girl. . .

has learned to be pretty tough

this girl. . .

is finally interested in walking

this girl. . .

has four new teeth

this girl. . .

is now climbing stairs

this girl. . .

knows what the doggy says

this girl. . .

can eat more than her brother

this girl. . .

is growing up too fast.

that's better

This guy is going to kill me. . .

I uploaded some new photos from my camera and this picture came up in it's own folder. Just this one picture all alone. Who is it?

It's a killer who somehow got my camera, took this threatening picture, and because he's a computer wizard, he somehow got it to appear on my computer just when he wanted me to discover it.

I began to panic. I called Brian and sent him the picture. He too was mystified. We don't know this man. No clue who he is. And he's looking at me like he's sending me an angry message, don't you think?

Well, I decided to do some research, with Brian on the phone in case the killer picked right then to strike. I looked at the file name which was 2008 06 04. A date. Curious. So I went back to my June folder and found pictures I had taken on June 4th.

Well what do ya know, this is Bryan Niven. . .a photographer. I was sitting in his class on June 4th. Why the pic just randomly created a new folder for itself now, I still don't know. But I'm happy that no one's out to get me.

Oh but I hope you know how scary it was before I figured it out. I actually can't look at it without getting the willies. I mean, he just kept staring at me. Those eyes. And I had no idea who he was. It really was a creepy feeling.

But now the question is what was he trying to teach us with this shot? Hmmm?