I have fallen in love...

With this hat...


We went shopping for winter clothes for Lizzie the other day and I found this hat. I put it on her and knew I had to get it for her. I mean seriously...
Does she not look adorable in it?! The boy liked it too though. He might not ever let her wear it. Every time I get it out he has to put it on and the mittens that came with it.

The problem we ran into was finding a coat it didn't clash with. Seriously, WHAT is UP with ALL the PINK?!? Don't get me wrong, I like pink, but I don't want ALL of her clothes that color. Evidently they only make baby girl coats in pink and sometimes purple, unless you want to pay a lot more. Mike wanted me to get a different hat that would go with the coats they had there (we were at walmart) but the only one that didn't have Dora on it or some other obnoxious character was a horrid pepto pink color. It was actually a really cute hat, I just couldn't get passed the color. And I just loved the red one soooooooo much. Mike was like, "I can tell right now that we're not getting out of the store without that hat." No way Jose!! I had to HAVE IT! I did finally find a coat that went okay with it that I could afford, after searching the internet for a few hours...and it STILL had some pink on it. Oh well. If I'd been willing to spend $10 more I could have gotten the perfect coat, but I just couldn't do it since I was already spending more than planned.

Speaking of being able to afford things, we were listening to talk radio last night on our way home from dinner and they were talking about Christmas shopping on a tight budget. I got a kick out of the supposed poor unemployed nursing student who was living off of loans who was on a "tight budget" and could only allot $45 per person. I was like, holy moly. 45 bucks?? That's tight?? They are talking to the WRONG person. They need to come talk to someone like me who can't even allot that much to each of my own children. In fact, that's just under what I spent on both of them put together! A tight budget to me would be like $15-$20 per family member (maybe splurging a little more on your kids) and cookies for all others and not eating out or going to movies, etc to save up. HAHA. We got a good laugh out of that one.

Thanksgiving Tag

This is a Thanksgiving tag. I am to write about 5 things I am grateful for, then tag two other people to do the same. Relatively easy task since there is so much for which to be thankful. (Actually, that's what makes it so difficult. :))

1. My family. Both my little family(hubby and 2 kids) and my BIG family(my parents and 14 siblings, their spouses and adorable kids). Hopefully I too will be able to have many children of my own so they will have the blessing of growing up with lots of brothers and sisters. I know some of my siblings resented being in such a large family growing up (I am sure they are over it now, haha) but I have always LOVED it. I am even more grateful for them now that we (most of us) are adults. No matter what is going on in my life I have someone to call and there is always someone who can empathize with me. I love them all! Every single one of them has blessed my life in one way or another.

I have the best, most thoughtful husband in the world. I realize every day how lucky I am to have found him. No one else would be as patient with me as he is. He puts up with a lot and continues to stick around. He must really love me. haha. I also happen to think I have the cutest, funnest kids in the world as well. They make me happy every day. Some days more than others, but there hasn't been a day since I had them that they haven't brought me joy and I have never regretted having them in my life. I don't know what I'd do without my husband or my children and I can't wait to have lots more kids.

2. The Internet, especially blogs. :) Without the Internet I wouldn't feel nearly as in touch with my family and friends and would probably still be single. lol. And it has made it possible for me to find old friends that I had long since lost touch with and make new friends that I hope to one day meet in real life. It also contains a wealth of information that would take me years to look up at a library. haha. It has saved me many pointless trips to the Dr. office (of course there have been times when it has made me WANT to go to the Dr, and caused paranoia...but we won't get into that. haaaaahaha)and just made my life easier in many ways. I could go on and on.

3. Digital photography. I have about 10 undeveloped rolls of film from who knows where or when. And half of those pictures are probably blurry or otherwise just look bad. Now I can click a picture, look at it and if it's no good take it again until I get exactly what I want. No surprises. I am able to get priceless pictures of my loved ones and remember special events with no regrets of pictures not turning out right. I'm also grateful for my external hard drive that I can save them on so that if my computer dies or something else bad happens I will still have all my precious memories stored safely away. :)

4. The gospel. I hate to think what my life would be like without the knowledge of eternal families or the atonement. It's comforting to know that we have a loving father in heaven who cares for us and is watching out for us and loves us enough to send his own son to suffer and die for us all. I don't know if I will ever fully understand it, but being a parent puts it a little more into perspective how much he must really love us.

5. My health. I rarely get sick (knock on wood) even when everyone else in my family gets sick. I am grateful I am (almost) always able to care for my family and carry out my daily responsibilities. I am grateful that I am able to see, hear, speak, walk, etc. and rarely in need of medical intervention. Hopefully that will never change until I get old and no one needs me any more. :)

Well, since it is after 10pm on the Eve of Thanksgiving I highly doubt many people will be reading this until after their turkey comas have worn off. So, I tag anyone who reads this and has time to do it between baking, visiting with family, eating, napping or watching football.

If you could burn water...

I'd probably be the one to do it. I have become an okay cook since getting married, but there are still some things that I have yet to master. Bread making is one of them. I'm not talking get out a big bowl, mix it all together, kneed it, let it rise, kneed it again, put it into pans and bake it, I'm talking throw all the stuff into a bread maker and push the button. Yes, I struggle even with that. It's like a 50/50 chance that it's gonna turn out edible every time I attempt. Seriously, I think at least half of my attempts have failed miserably. Here is last nights failed attempt. I made some really good cheesy cream of broccoli soup to go with it and was all excited for warm homemade bread and soup...and this is what I got.

I dug into the middle to see if it was even remotely edible...bleck!! Not even close. Such a disappointment. Oh well, better luck next time. I have the same problem with grilled cheese sandwiches. I have a 50% success rating. But it's taken me a while to improve even that much. Struggles!!

On a happier note, this is my month for sharing time. Yesterday I tried to tie something Thanksgivingish into the topic. So I found this fun little activity where each kid gets a feather and they write something on it that makes them who they are. This was the end result

The younger kids pretty much just colored their feather, but the older kids actually wrote something. There were some cute ones. "I RED The sKiSPRs", "I have bug hows name is Kona", "I am 7 years old. I have brown here". But my favorite one was, "I love Tom's diner" with little musical notes around it. hahaha. Maybe I should go check out Tom's Diner.

Read it and weep.

This...is what we paid for gas today. I keep thinking it can't possibly get any lower and then it does. I never thought I'd see gas prices this low ever again. One silver lining of the struggling economy I guess. :)

We went to the mall today to let Jacob play on the play ground there, which was swarming with overly hyperactive children, many of which were too big to be playing on a playground which was built for smaller children. Not 10 year olds. I couldn't put Lizzie down or she'd get trampled, and all the play equipment looked like flies on poop there were so many kids climbing all over them. So Jacob just ran around in circles. At one point he happily ran up and down the ramp that leads down to the play ground. He was having a great time.

Eventually kids started leaving and he was able to play on the bridge a little before it was time for us to leave.
While we were there I ran into a friend of mine who had just had a baby. While we were standing there talking a man pushing a baby in a stroller walked over and asked me if Lizzie was 4 or 5 months old. I kinda chuckled and told him that she was actually 10 months old. I think he felt kind of dumb. He told me that his baby was just a few months old and they were about the same size. Maybe I should have lied and told him that she was 5 months old. I did however assure him that she is small for her age...at least that's what I'm told. lol. It kind of reminded me of when I was pregnant with Jacob and some guy asked me when "she" was due. I looked at him confused and said, "she?" He says, "yes, you look like your carrying a girl." I laughed and said, "oh believe me...there was no mistaking the little boy equipment we saw on the u/s." Haaahaha. Anyhoo.....

Here's a very fuzzy picture of me holding Lizzie so she doesn't get clobbered by all the spastic children.

25% off Denim Skirts

I occasionally post a discount code for Style J. They are the only place I've been able to find long denim skirts. Here is the most recent code for 25% off, but it's only good until Monday (the 24th). The code is MB25F. Happy shopping. :)

New Hair cut

Here I am sporting my new hair style. New cut and new color. I love it. The top one is the best representation of the true color. The other two pictures look a lot darker than it really is. I love my hair stylist. She's seriously AWESOME!

Just as a random side note. I was wondering today...Do grapenuts ever go bad. I have a box of them in my cupboard that I have been using to put in my yogurt. Today when I got it out I thought to myself, "gosh, I've had this box a while. I wonder if it's expired." Um...ya, like 2 years ago. But I tasted some and they still taste the same. Granted, grapenuts never taste good on their own even when they are fresh, but they had the same taste, texture everything. So it got me thinking...do these things ever go stale??? Or does it just deplete in nutritional value? Weird.

Fight The Frump

You know those women at church that ALWAYS come looking fabulous?! There are a few of them in my ward (congregation). They always look so stylish and perfect. Ya, and then there is me. I have no fashion sense and being poor doesn't help. I have 2 skirts that I alternate each week and about 3 shirts (2 of which now have stains on them...grrr). It's sad. But now that we have a little bit of expendable income I am slowly starting to build my wardrobe. That takes us back to the part where I said I have no fashion sense. So I have been doing some research. Looking through magazines etc. looking for helpful tips. I don't even have the basics and have no idea what the 'basics' are or where to even start. Well, I was getting my hair done the other day and Alisha, the girl who does my hair, let me look through this book she has called The Lucky Shopping Manual: Building and Improving Your Wardrobe Piece by Piece. It was awesome. So, when I got home I immediately got on the computer and ordered this book from Amazon. Here's hoping I am not beyond saving and this will help me look a bit more stylish and a lot less frumpy. Getting my hair done helped (thanks Alisha) now to work on my clothes. It will be a slooow process since we don't have a LOT of extra money, because, well, we are trying to pay off our credit card. But at least I will have an idea where to start.

C is for Cookie

Jacob loves Sesame Street. This is him talking like Cookie Monster or "botser" has he says it. :)

Table For Ten and a Jungle Gym Please

It was my friend Tricia's birthday yesterday and we had a surprise party for her at a fancy shmancy restaurant. We went back and forth on whether we should get a babysitter or not,then we found out another couple was bringing their child, so we decided to just bring ours as well. When Jon(Tricia's husband) made the reservations he told them there would be children. I was a little anxious about this get together for a couple reasons, the first being that I had nothing nice to wear, the second being that we were bringing our kids to this super nice restaurant. We were the first ones there and this is how the conversation with the hostess went.

Mike: We are here for...
Hostess: (cutting him off) Your party's table is ready.
Mike: Uuh...you know who we are?
Hostess: (Smiling and eyeing the children) Yes.
Me: Ya cause we are the only ones that would bring our kids.
Hostess: (no comment as she leads us to a large table in the VERY BACK.)

Haaahahaha. They were very nice though and as we were leaving they commented on how well behaved our children were. lol. They were very well behaved. Jacob was fascinated with the candles and just stared at them. He was very entertained by them. He only tried to touch the flame a few times. :) I was also very relieved to see that I wasn't the only person there wearing jeans. All in all it was a pretty good evening and I'm glad we went. Next time I'm getting a sitter though.

Who is ready for some lateral thinking???

The person to figure this out wins a Jacuzzi in their mansion in heaven. Good luck.

Birthday Blues
The day before yesterday Freda was 17. Next year she will be 20. How can this be so?

The Boy and Little Miss

We picked the name Jacob because...well, we really liked it, but I really wanted to call him Jake. So far we've used The Boy, Jacob, Jakers and occasionally Jacobus, but I've only used the nickname Jake maybe twice. Mostly we just call him The Boy and we mostly call Lizzie, Lizzie or Little Miss.

Yesterday as I was hanging our new family pictures on the wall I started pointing to people in the pictures and asking Jacob who they were. Here's how the conversations went.

Me: (pointing to Lizzie) Who is this?
Jacob: a Sissy.
Me: (pointing to Mike) Who is this?
Jacob: a Daddy.
Me: (pointing to Jacob) Who is this?
Jacob: Da Boy.

Okay, maybe I didn't hear him right. So I continue.

Me: (pointing to me) Who is this?
Jacob: a Mommy.
Me: (pointing to Jacob) Is this Jacob.
Jacob: a Da Boy.

hahahaha! Maybe I should start using his real name more. He's gonna go to school thinking his name is The Boy. LOL.

I got this picture in an email and after seeing the news reports realized...

it's not far off.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/politics/local_elections&id=6493052

Jacob's art work and Lizzie's newest trick

Jacob loves pens. This used to freak me out with visions of him running with one in his mouth and falling or something, but I discovered that he is actually really good with them. He never puts them in his mouth or runs with them or writes on walls or anything. If they have lids he just likes to take the lid off and on over and over again, if it's a click top, he likes to click it. So when he came and grabbed a pen off the desk and took it into the other room, I didn't think anything of it. Then I found him sitting in his little chair "coloring". He drew on his hand, his shirt, then is legs and feet. Niiiiiiice.

Guess I should keep a closer eye in this kid. :)

Lizzie has figured out how to pull herself up on things. She watches Jacob and Amare' climb up on the slide all the time, I guess she wanted to give it a try. she was sure trying hard to get her foot up on that first step.

And I've never met a kid who didn't try and pull themselves up with the safety gate.

and chew on it. Yummy :)

Tagged

13 Random things I love...hmmm...where to start. There are so many!

1. I LOVE watching kid holiday movies, like The Bunny Picnic at Easter, The Great Pumpkin Charlie brown at Halloween, Charlie Brown Christmas, etc. The Holidays would not be the same without these movies. At least now I have kids to watch them with. hahaha.

2. I think I mentioned this in my 100 things about me post that I did forever ago, but I LOVE crazy shaggy pillows and rugs. I don't own any right now, but Mike has promised me that one day I can have one room in the house designated for all the shaggy pillows, rugs and any thing else crazy I want to put it in. I will hold him to that promise and when I get it, I will post pictures of it. :)

3. I love colorful dishes and square dishes. I don't know why, I just think they are cool. Again, I don't own any right now, but one day I will. I love the red, yellow, orange, blue combo's of dishes.

4. I like the smell of plain shampoo. I think because it reminds me of when I was little. You know, back before they made shampoo and soap in different scents.

5. I love looking at floor plans for houses. I think they are cool. I took an interior design class in high school and had to draw out a floor plan and put furniture in it and everything. It was seriously so stinking fun and I am obsessed with floor plans now.

6. I love interior design. If I hadn't done massage therapy, I would have done interior design and looking back, I wish I would have done both. I wasted a lot of time going to college doing nothing in particular. I love googling interior design and getting ideas for the house I will have one day...if I ever get a house.

7. I love Old Navy. I love their clothes (except for when they go through fazes of trying to bring back the 80's). I would buy all my clothes there if I could.

8. I love cheese. Especially Australian cheese. Their cheese just tastes different. I miss it.

9. I love milo. I would take a cup of milo over hot chocolate any day. I need to figure out where I can get it around here. If you've never had a tim tam slam, you have never truly lived. While I was in Australia I sent my family a big box of milo and tim tams so they could all experience it. :) YUMMY!!

10. I love cilantro. I can't get enough of it. I cook with it as often as I can.

11. While we are on food, I love pumpkin. It is the best cut into cubes and roasted. But I like pumpkin soup and pumpkin cookies too. However, I'm not a big fan of pumpkin pie. Weird, I know.

12. I love the movie The Boys Next Door. (The Hallmark one, not the psycho R rated one.) It totally cracks me up. My favorite part is when the social worker tell then that he is no longer going to be their case worker and they all start screaming at him and as he's leaving they are throwing stuff out the window at him. I laugh every time. It is such a fun movie.


13. I still love looking through the Wish Book at Christmas time. We got it every year when I was little and we would all looked through it wishing we could have every toy in there. Now I look through it remembering all the fun Christmas' we had as kids.

Okay, now I shall tag 3 people. And I choose...

Kacey, cause I'm pretty sure she hasn't been tagged in a while. Michelle B. and Doris. I am very interested in what you 3 have to say. :)

I have no words...

Wow!

We're so glad when Daddy comes home...

AS GLAD AS WE CAN BEEEEEE! Yes, Mike finally got home yesterday afternoon. Jacob was so excited to see his daddy. As soon as he walked in the door Jacob was all over him wanting him to play. Jacob was having so much fun being chased. He is just a blur in this one.

He sure missed his daddy. We all did. We are SOOO glad he's home.

To celebrate his return we decided to go out for dinner. We went to Jose Peppers. I'd never heard of it before, but it looked family friendly, so we went. It was VERY family friendly, and the food was awesome! Probably the best Mexican food I've had. Jacob made friends with the kids in the booth next to us. They were playing peek-a-boo over the wall thing that separated our tables and were giggling. At one point Jacob and one little girl did this over the wall hug thing. It was cute...until she started coughing in his face. hahaha. I was wishing I'd had my camera.