walk this way

After months of cruising the furniture, standing alone and walking with our assistance, this little guy, at 14.5 months, finally decided to give it a go by himself.

Of course I had to bribe him with a fruit snack to do it;)

Whoever said boys are slower than girls was not kidding. Marryn walked at 10 months, Reganne just before 11 months.... But this has been his style, taking his own sweet time at everything.

FYI, that's poor sick Marryn whining in the background. And yes, I'm saying that sarcastically.

five, finally

Ah, September 8th finally arrived. Although the *party* started days before;)

We drove up to Sheridan for Labor Day (another mandatory Friday off for Joe) and decided to give Marryn a little party there with Chris's grandkids. (That would be Joe's dad's girlfriend;) Grandpa got her a cake, Chris got her a butterfly balloon and we picked out some Hello Kitty birthday supplies and headed to the park. It was a beautiful evening and the kids had a blast.

"This is the BEST birthday ever!" is what we heard.

Especially after she opened her Hello Kitty umbrella.

Then on her actual birthday, she had school. So we made Rainbow Chip Cupcakes to share with her class and she got to hold the Birthday Bear all day long! And that evening, she got to come with me to Mutual (well, they all had to actually) where our activity was going mini golfing. She loved it. And thought it was all for her;)

***

Then that night, yes at like 9pm, she finally opened the majority of her presents.

Her fav? Her Zebra Snuggie she's been asking for for months.

a go at digital

I was in charge of the invitations and programs for our Young Women's In Excellence program. So I gave it a go at doing it digitally. I had some brushes and frames from a *free* creative photo editing class I took (sorry, the class isn't always free...I got lucky;), so I played around a bit and came up with this! I am just so excited at how great they look (well, according to myself) and how inexpensive (ah, FREE) and quick they were to put together.

pre-school

Yeah for Reganne! She gets to go to pre-school!

She was so excited to go and just loves it! Gets to take her own backpack originally bought for Marryn, but too small for her school folders. Has 3 other girls and one boy all from our ward and she is the youngest, technically won't get to start kindergarten for 3 more years. I was slightly worried about how well she'd go, seeing her history at nursery, but she ran right up to her *teacher* (another mom who is teaching the first session) and never looked back! My only wish is that her and Marryn went to school at the same time....

She had to turn around for me to take a pic of her backpack, just like I had done for Marryn;)

ketch-up

How's that joke go?

What did the daddy tomato say to the baby tomato as he was getting behind? Ketchup!

ha ha

This seems to be my life right now. Trying to catch up on everything.

So maybe someday, someday soon hopefully, I'll get some posts up. Until then, know that I'm sitting here, trying to decide what I should be doing;)

can't contain herself

Marryn started Kindergarten. Finally. In her mind, not mine;) She has been asking when she'll start school since like Christmas. EVERYDAY she'd ask. Need to work on that whole month/week/day concept with her. Crossing of days on the calender didn't seem to register much either;) But the day finally arrived, Thursday Aug 13th and she was just too excited for words. That prior Tuesday we went to the orientation, took in her loooong list of school supplies (Really? What happened to just crayons and glue??) and met her teacher, Mrs. Wright. We chose a charter school, The Imagine Classical Academy and it just happens to be 4 minutes from our house! The building is brand new this year, although the school opened up last year. She's in the PM class of which I am SO SO SO grateful. Getting her there at 12:15 is still a challenge. There is no busing, which sucks, but even if she went to the local public school, about the same distance maybe a little further, we are considered too close for busing. So either way, I'm officially a chauffeur now. Drop off 12:15. Pick up 3:15. Everyday. Yikes. What's happened to the simple days of staying home with my kids...

Anyhow. Marryn was so eager to get ready that after breakfast she disappeared for awhile before coming back down stairs, showered and dressed. At about 9am. And just so you know, we've never let her just go shower on her own. Yet. Turns out, this works out quite nicely for me;) So then she had to just wait. And wait. And wait some more. And then once again, it was finally time to go.

Mrs. Wright read a really cute story for the kids and their parents and then each kid got a heart sticker to kiss and then give to their parents. You know, to help ease the separation fear from both parties. I might have been more tearful if I wasn't so busy trying to keep Reganne from drenching herself from the water fountain and Christian from crying because he also wanted to do whatever Reganne was doing. Oh, the cycle starts again... And then before we knew it, it was time to pick her up. She gets out at 3:15. We arrived at 2:55 (I know, early? Me?) and had to wait in line, in the neighborhood streets. Marryn didn't get in the car until 3:38. Uh...what have I gotten myself into... Next day ran much smoother and quicker, the kinks of a new school and school year are still working themselves out. She was just so excited to tell me about everything, of course her favorites being snack time and recess;) Once again, she could hardly wait until the next day to go back.

Her first full week went well. She loves picking out her *school clothes* (there is a uniform-like dress code) and getting together her healthy snacks and water bottle. And of course doing her homework;) Drop off and pick up are getting smoother all around, although I'm struggling. Again, aren't stay-at-home moms suppose to well, stay at home! This is tough for me, I typically only leave the house a couple times a week. Not a couple times a day. I'm sure we'll all get use to it. Christian's naps are still working themselves out he usually goes down from 11ish to 3ish but sure makes for a quiet afternoon when he is sleeping and it's just me and Reganne. I thought Reganne might have a hard time with Marryn going to school and her not, but she's doing just fine. Although she talks about herself going to kindergarten all the time now. I was asked if I wanted to join in with a co-op sort of preschool with some other moms at church. Super excited about that. And so is Reganne. She even packed up some snacks leftover peas, ham, bread, carrots and frozen soybeans for her to take to her preschool won't start until September;)

back on again

Well. 3+ weeks after I took our computer in for a weird start-up thing it was doing, we have it back and fully working. NO THANKS TO BEST BUY. Here's the low down. I'm still fuming mad about the whole thing...

Monday, July 27th-Took in computer (1.5 years old) to Best Buy (BB). Geek guy plugged it in and immediately knew what was going on. 30 seconds later it was fixed. Then he convinced me to have a diagnostic test, just to *enhance* it's performance and check for any future problems. I hesitated (big red flag here) but did it anyways, for it was included in our service plan. It would take 5-7 business days. WHAT? Okay, whatever. I can survive without my computer for a week or so....

Wednesday, Aug 5th-8 business days later, I call BB that evening to see if it's ready yet. Yes. Yes it is. And they found nothing. Big surprise, computer was fine to begin with. But did streamlined our internet video(?). So I brave the rain better than the 3 kiddos and pick it up that night. Bring it home and can't get it to connect to the internet. Wait til morning to look into it more.

Thursday, Aug 6th-Call Comcast. Twice. Both took me through all sorts of computer files I didn't know a thing about. Both saw the bad IP address. Both came to the conclusion that it's the netcard in our computer. Haul it back into BB with 3 kids. They plug it right into the internet and say nothings wrong. It's your cable connection. Try different cable cords. Nothing. Try different cables cords from modem to computer. Nothing. Joey brings home work laptop. Hooks up instantly.

Friday, Aug 7th-Call BB. Refuse to tell me anything over the phone. Must bring it back in. So I do. Joey and the kids wait in the car for 45 minutes (this was our Zoo day). Nothing wrong. Try uninstalling your antivirus protection. They don't do it, just tell me to do it. After a fun day, go home and nope, didn't work.

Saturday, Aug 8th-Call Comcast. Go through same things. Cable is working fine. Call BB. Must bring it in. Finally get someone who listens and actually tries to do something. Works on it trying to fix our bad IP address (of which another Geek tried to say was the "Best Buy IP address") Finally gets it to change. Come home. Nope, didn't work. Well, this time it partially loaded a page in about 5 minutes. Do finally thing suggested. Completely reload the computer. Completely wipe it out and start over. Nope. Still didn't work. I completely flip out. Take it out on Joey. Poor guy. Call Comcast again. Same thing. But this time they'll send someone out tomorrow. No, lets do Monday instead. Joey takes it back to BB, tells them our netcard it bad. Please fix it. No it's not, but we'll replace it for $90. Even though you paid for the protection plan. Brings it home and we just wait until Monday.

Monday, Aug 10th-Comcast guy comes. Is here about an hour. Tries everything. His computer hooks right up to the internet. It's that bad IP address. We need a new netcard.

Tuesday, Aug 11th-Take it back into BB with 3 kids. Tell them again we need a new netcard. Guy looks at me like I don't know what I'm talking about. We hang out for an hour while he "tries" stuff. Then sends me back home with it. Of course it doesn't work.

Wednesday, Aug 12th-Take it back into BB with 3 kids. This time they'll run another diagnostic test.

Friday, Aug 14th-Joey calls to check on it. They're busy, will call back.

Saturday, Aug 15th -Joey calls again to check on it. It's done, but they want to run another test on it.

Sunday, Aug 16th-Get a recorded message that our computer is ready.

Monday, Aug 17th-Wait until Marryn gets out of school so she can push Christian in the stroller and go pick it up. They found nothing. What a surprise. Still doesn't work.

Wednesday, Aug 19th-Joey goes to BB, without computer, to buy a netcard. Girl helping him says they don't have any. He asks someone else who shows him about 5 different brands he could choose from. He pays $35 for one. Installs it himself thanks to coworker who showed him how easy it was to do it and what do you know, we connect to the internet no problem.

What was that again we kept telling BB we needed? A new netcard? Oh no, that's not the problem. It's your internet, the one that others can hook up to but you can't. And that bad IP address (code for BAD netcard), oh, that's just our IP address. All those Comcast people don't know what they're talking about. So what was that protection plan we purchased good for? A diagnostic test on a perfect computer that left us without a fulling functioning computer for 24 days! And in the end, we had to buy the part and install it ourselves! To be fair, nobody at Comcast could really explain why we could connect to the internet at BB with a bad IP address. Thoughts were, it might have connected wirelessly or just that BB had a larger network or something like that. We're not computer nerds, but we do know one thing. We will never purchase a computer with the lame-o protection plan from Best Buy again. No, we'll pay less at Costco or somewhere and when something goes wrong, we'll find someone who knows what they're doing to help us. Joey does work for a computer company, of sorts, full of tech nerds;)
And now, I've going through the process of reinstalling all our software and getting out computer back to normal. It's a pain, but I must admit that I like how I can decide what goes on it and not the BB guys who sold it to us...

fyi

Our computer was out of service for awhile and now our internet is not working. Well, not working on our "fixed" computer (works just fine on Joe's work laptop he brought home for me to use...and worked just fine when I hauled it, and those 3 little kiddos back into Best Buy...)

grrrrrr.

So who knows when I'll be back in full blogging service...

But today Joey is taking the day off and we're off to visit the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo here in Colo Springs, not Wyoming;).

28 at 28

So another birthday.

Instead of boring you all with how 28 doesn't seem old and how I don't really feel old, but the idea of being 28 is just so, well, old, I've decided to do a list. A list of 28 things. 28 random things I've learned, I love, I hate, I want, I wish, I know, whatever. Just a list of 28 things.

1. I hate mushrooms. As much as I wish I liked them and as much as I've tried to like them, I just don't.
2. I love cheese.
3. I'm a perfectionist.
4. I'm a procrastinator.
5. I'm indecisive. All 3 make for a very bad combo...
6. I daydream about how to make my house perfect, complete with pushing out walls, replacing baseboards and new furniture.
7. I also daydream about designing and building the perfect home.
8. I love to shop for my kiddos clothes. And as I've gotten smaller, I enjoy my own clothes shopping a little bit more.
9. I know that Heavenly Father loves me. And knows me, better than I know myself.
10. I know that life doesn't always go the way we want it to. Or think it should. Sometimes it's better.
11. I love babies.
12. I really love my own babies.
13. I've come to appreciate my curly hair.
14. I want to become a great sewer.
15. I will finish my nutrition degree. Someday.
16. I want to run again. And do yoga. And pilates.
17. I see alot of my mother in myself. And my dad.
18. I know that times gets faster with each passing year.
19. I am a night owl. Mornings are rough.
20. I am a homebody.
21. I wish I wasn't so shy and timid. Although I'm getting better.
22. I struggle with the idea of makeup. And I struggle with the idea that I really need it now.
23. I still love to watch Friends re-runs. And watch them often.
24. I know that my Savior lives.
25. I know that I am blessed. Blessed beyond reason.
26. I pray daily for happy thoughts. Verses fearful ones.
27. I love to swim.
28. I love my husband more, and differently, than I ever thought I would.

sweet birthday boy

One year old.

I can't believe how fast July 12th came along.

We had a little family party for him complete with a good ol' chocolate cake. That was a mess. He then opened a few presents. His favorite, probably his new basketball. Although the baseball came in a close second. Tied with the balloons;)

This little boy just lights up my world. He's a pro at crawling. Figured out the stairs the other night, just happened to be walking by and found him 4 stairs up, and LOVES to get into the plants. He's finally drinking somewhat from a sippy cup. His sisters still adore him as he does them. And his favorite toy? Balls! He's starting to cruise along the furniture, so it won't be long before he's really wrecking havoc on us all. I'm learning quite quickly that our home is not childproof. He has a few signs; more, eat, milk, ball and night-night. And he's got those most important sounds down too, ma, da, and ba (as in ball...;) He's become quite the chow hound interested to see if he's pulled himself out of the bottom of the percentiles. Loves his bananas, blueberries and cheese. Yes cheese-guess he really is my kid;)

And the girls finally got their tea set. The tea set I was saving as a surprise but had to tell Marryn about a few weeks ago to avoid an all out meltdown when I wouldn't buy her one at the store... We use it for pretend hot chocolate;)




On a last side note. I've pretty much lost all 50+ pounds this last year. I say almost because the scale says so, but not all my clothes do...

7.8.9.10.11.12

What were we doing on 7.8.09 at 10:11:12?

Getting out of the bath. Using his sister's towel. And eating lotion.

My poor little boy...

fourth and friends

We had a great Fourth of July. Brian and Brandony came down and celebrated with us. It rained almost all day which was alright with me, less chance of our neighbors setting our house on fire with all their fireworks. We decided not to try to find any firework shows and just hang out, setting off our own little ones. It was great. The kids loved it.

And no, that isn't poop we're burning, those are the snakes fireworks. Or *worms* as Marryn called them. They were her and Dad's favorites;)

seven years lucky

June 29th, 2009. Our 7th wedding anniversary.

Courtesy of Jean, for the tickets and watching the munchkins, we attended the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre.

Way cool.

And the best part, besides seeing my dear friend Mickie:), after some mediocre applause when announcing the governors for both Colorado and Wyoming, it was announced that The President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was within our mists. There seemed to be a quiet gasp/hush as whisperings spread through the crowd and then there he stood, our dear Prophet, giving out some cute air punches. Everyone was on their feet cheering. It was great.

The concert itself was wonderful. The place, incredible. It was a great night.

your dad

(Do these kiddos even understand how great they have it?)

Who would get up with you for the um-teenth time at night? And again in the morning?

Who would play endless games of Hello Kitty Bingo, Princess Memory and Dora Candyland?

Who would make fun of you when you got *hurt*, but would stick a band-aid on you anyways?

Who would make a special trip to the store, just to get you a baseball although I think that was more for him?

Who would sacrifice everything, just for you?

Your Daddy.

That's who.

29 and vegan

Yesterday Joey celebrated his 29th birthday. Happy Birthday Hun. Last year of his twenties. And what did he ask for? Besides a million dollars. Vegan cupcakes. Yes. He is currently on a vegan diet. Of his own will. So I found this recipe and let me tell you, it is fan-tas-tic!

Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes
*1 cup soy milk
*1 tsp apple cider vinegar
*3/4 cup granulated sugar
*1/3 cup canola oil
*1 tsp vanilla extract
*1/2 tsp almond extract
*1 cup all-purpose flour
*1/3 cup cocoa powder
*3/4 tsp baking soda
*1/2 tsp baking powder
*1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350F and line muffin pan. Whisk together the soy milk and vinegar in a large bowl, and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. Add the sugar, oil and extracts to the soy milk mixture and beat till foamy. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add in two batches to the wet ingredients. (I mixed the wet ingredients in my KA and added the dry directly there.) Beat till no large lumps remain. Fill liners 3/4 full. Bake 18-20 minutes till toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pan five minutes and transfer to rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
*1/4 cup margarine softened
*1/4 cup shortening
*1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
*2 1/2 powdered sugar, sifted
*3 tbsps soy milk
*1 1/2 tsps pure vanilla extract

Cream together the margarine and the shortening until well combined. Add the cocoa powder and incorporate well. (Again, I did this all in the KA. It looked rather dry at first, but came together beautifully.) Add the confectioners' sugar in about 1/2 cup batches and beat well adding a little splash of soy milk after each addition. When all ingredients have been well incorporated, add the vanilla and beat until light and fluffy.

Okay, so my frosting I used butter instead of margarine and regular milk instead of soy (used it all up in the cupcakes). Not exactly vegan...so Joey did not eat it [the frosting].

These were so easy and just absolutely dE-lish! I will be making them again.

Oh, and the recipe only makes about 12. Perfect amount.

Oh, and yes, I took that picture:)