zoo day!

today we went to the zoo!  pictures to be added later.

from 2:30 on was spent hanging out... at liza's, home, sarah's, home, dollar store/lowes, home.

it's been a good day but i really miss my honey.  can't wait to see him friday!

we made it to atlanta!

i told myself i'd go to sleep early tonight since we're planning a day trip to the zoo tomorrow morning.  well, it's 1:30 and i just finished the yw emails i had to get done.  finally.  now i can read scriptures and pray and get some sleep!  like 6 hours of it.  which is what i've been running on for the past several nights.  darn that travel anxiety!  but thank goodness it's gone and although i'm missing my honey like crazy, i was finally able to eat food tonight and enjoy a pleasant moment of peace.

i'm in atlanta... life is good.

now get me some onion rings!  and a chili slaw dog please!

bubbles and gardening

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

family night with the rockies!

pictures and commentary to be added later... in the meantime, just enjoy a few from honey's blackberry.

sitting in the handicap seating... just taking a break from walking around.

 

i'm sure every parent says it but i think my child's cuteness is above average.

they had a coloring station in the souvenir shop.  how convenient!

we wouldn't have gone to the game except that honey had one of his ice cats (byu hockey) friends in town visiting on business and the guy's wife and kid flew in to join him for the weekend.  so to be good friends, we took them out to a rockies game.  their little girl is 14 months old (not a good age for a baseball game) and wasn't having it.  sooo they lasted about 30 minutes/1 inning before heading out.  

honey is not a fan of baseball so when our friends left i was a little worried how he would make it through the game.  as soon as they left i was 95% expecting honey to turn to me and say "alright, ready to go?!"  but luckily he didn't.  we walked around for an inning or two (see above pictures!) and then headed back to our seats to watch the mets score FIVE runs.  it was looking bleak... until the rockies scored 11 runs in a single inning!  we were loving it.  although i happened to be on the phone with my sister liza at the time and it was a little difficult to hear through all that cheering.  but we were loving it... even honey!  it was seriously so much fun.

 

and then we decided we should be responsible parents and head home.  honey and i had a little fight battle disagreement over who would put baby girl to bed but in the end, i let honey win because baby girl and i are leaving on sunday and he won't get to put her to bed at all next week until saturday.  after my christopher came downstairs from putting baby girl to bed i asked how it was "was she so cute and cuddly?!" to which he responded "i'm so disappointed!  i thought she would be way more cuddly but she was so tired i kept telling her to put her head on my shoulder and she kept just grunting and pointing to her crib."  ha.

she was seriously on one million percent perfect behavior tonight.  like the cutest thing you've ever seen... not one single tantrum or squeak or rebel grunt out of her and she laid so nicely (pictures to come) and just watched the game and clapped at all the right times.  tomorrow when i put up more pictures i'll add the stories about people fawning over baby girl.  one girl even stopped us as we were leaving and begged me for my camera (it was in my hand) so that she could take a family picture for us.  seriously?!  i'm used to people's rubbernecking and adoring comments about baby girl but it's not too often that we have people go so out of their way to make sure they take a family picture for us.  i'm going to be laughing at that one for a while.

kids come with a lot of perks.

the marlboro man sandwich

this afternoon while i was at walmart and dreading already the idea of making dinner, i walked past the meat section and saw cube steak on sale.  i grabbed it knowing i had a delicious recipe for it.  but then when i got honey's "i'll be home in 45 mins" text i checked out the recipe and saw that it was supposed to simmer for two hours.  hmmm, i hadn't remembered that part.

enter pioneer woman's marlboro man sandwich!  i already had all of the ingredients and nothing was too difficult and it didn't require me to multitask and it only dirtied one pan and it had tons of butter so it would probably be delicious.

next time i make it i'll: 

     remember to buy sandwich rolls... we may have eaten this on tiny french bread slices which was delicious but messy.  

    be more generous with seasonings and sauce.

    maybe split it in half and make christopher's spicy.

    definitely add more onions.  onions are always the best part.

pioneer woman's marlboro man sandwich

mmm delish.

in other news: 

tonight we went to a small birthday get together for one of abigail's closest friends.  i need to have jodi email me the pictures because oh my goodness those girls were soooo cute.  we had tons of fun and baby girl had the time of her life.

my anxiety is kinda out of control.  i have way too much to do before we leave town.  as a side note... my suitcase is sitting in my closet and has been for months... it's still not fully unpacked from dubai.  if that gives you any idea of how much i dislike packing/unpacking.

BABY GIRL SAID "THANK YOU" before bed tonight!!!  i was waiting for the kissing noise and instead, she actually said the words!  it was exciting but very bittersweet.  although it does sometimes get tiring explaining that when baby girl blows them a kiss after stealing their cheese-itz, she's actually saying thank you in sign language. 

and because she's been unloading tons of new words on us lately i have to note just a couple more.  at elle's party, baby girl picked out bubbles as her party favor.  it was probably the lamest thing in the basket but i let her make the decision and when we got home i put them on the counter and forgot about them.  as we were heading up for bed she kept pointing at them saying "bubbles! bubbles!" clear as day.  bubbles is a very cute toddler word.  

and then of course we were reading one of those picture vocabulary board books before bed and when i'd say the word i'd ask her to say the word and she did a good job with the words for at least half of the pictures and so many of them are words she's never tried to say before.  it's seriously crazy how fast kids learn.

my daddy

here's a video from a few days ago.  my honey really loves this new and very frequently used phrase...

we've been experiencing a vocabulary explosion over here this past week.  much like when she was "learning to walk," baby girl has been holding out on me.  i've known it but now i'm seeing proof as she spouts out tons of new words each day.  and she almost always speaks in sentences even if the first few words sound more like a grunt.  to the trained ear (honey's or mine) it is easy to decipher the difference between "i want daddy" "where's daddy" "that's daddy's" "there's daddy" etc.  the number of words a stranger would be able to understand is probably still under 20 or so but the words, phrases, and sentences i can understand are growing exponentially.

just today new words included teeth, backpack, welcome, a number of different letters (Y and A were the clearest though)... actually never mind because there is no way i can remember all of them.  the thing that was cracking me up today was that all of the sudden baby girl has decided to vary her yes and no answers.  nevermind that just last week she was answering questions by just saying "no" or nodding her head...  this week negative answers include but are not limited to "no" (in all of its intonations), "nope" and the ever popular "naaawwwwwhhhhh."  positive answers range from "yes" (that's the cutest because of the slight speech impediment sound from the ssss), "yeah" and "yep."  

anyways, it's hard to get videos of these things because she doesn't perform well, but constantly she's saying things like "there he is!!!" that i was counting as mumble before i realized that actually it's pretty legit and getting more recognizable by the day.  

my goodness my baby is growing up!

ps- baby and i are leaving for atlanta on sunday!!!  and holy cow i've already been experiencing packing anxiety for days.  oh my heavens i have so much to get done before we leave and all i wish is that i could just lay down and then wake up in georgia.  who wants to come pack for me?!  and who wants to play next week?!?!

a dare: pregnant and dancing

i made some pretty awesome friends at stanford... my friend katt was definitely at the top of that list.  she took ellen's dare for all the pregnant women to dance behind unsuspecting strangers.  this made me (and my honey) laugh out loud more times than we should admit.  and i've probably watched this like five times already.

seriously, there is no better way to start your wednesday... i promise.

money back guarantee.

hilliers and heels

last night we went to the hilliers so honey could get a hair cut.  since my hair was absolutely trashed, my wonderful mother in law gave me a bit of a trim too to clean up the ends.  which ended up being about two inches.  as i said, completely trashed.

before

while we got our hair cut, baby girl played with her two youngest uncles.  in my opinion, john is the most hands on and affectionate uncle.  he is so sweet with her and i am going to be so sad when he graduates soon and leaves for college.  he was long boarding with baby girl and she was loving it.  every time he helped her off, she would get right back on again and he would take her for another ride.

 

 

 

these pictures crack me up.  when baby girl isn't really into the picture, the other person makes up for her lack of enthusiasm.

and many thanks to lynell and sarah for shoe recommendations!  apparently i'm not as fashion victim as i thought because i was thinking nude pumps too.  woohoo!  i was saddened this morning to see there were no shoe suggestions but went on with my day.  baby girl and i hit up story time at the library and headed to target.  while i was there, i saw these and called my sister emmy and texted her a picture to see what she thought.  i can rarely buy something without someone else giving me that confidence and assurance.  she confirmed that it would be the correct shoe choice.  purchase!

so here they are with the dress.

yikes those are some pasty legs

don't judge the unflattering angle.  this is self timer... from my stairs.

what do you think?  because i'm feeling very good about it.  they are seriously an exact combination of lynell's and sarah's suggestions.  so that means it's for sure a winner.

oh, and here's an after picture of my hair.  for a free trim i'm loving it.

 

and for whatever reason, i struggle to get out of target without buying at least one thing not on my list.  today it was these wedges that happened to be half off and in my size.  maybe my disdain for shoes is waning.  i can only hope!

lady and the tramp

this is how we do  lunch... lady and the tramp style.

 

 

it worked out quite well actually.

saturday pictures

honey's youngest brother, nate, plays in a roller hockey league.  his coach was out of town this past weekend so my christopher got the honors of coaching the team to a very rare victory!  

seriously... she's just dainty.

 

coaching

with grandma

so sad this is out of focus.  i have no idea why my little camera has been so terrible lately.

she likes doing balance beam type things

digging to find the sliced almonds.  this girl loves her almonds.

my favorite picture of the day.  one hand on her grandma's leg, one hand on mine.  precious.

 

baby girl has a lot of uncles.  but this little guy here?  he's the favorite.

 

 

and just for kicks... here's a picture baby took.  on sunday.  during sacrament meeting.  whoops.

 

the quilting continues

as previously stated here and here...  i quilt.  last friday i quilted my third quilt block!  i'm practically a pro!

 

 

 

slowly but surely... one quilt block at a time.

high heels video

to say that baby is obsessed with shoes would be the understatement of the century.  it's been going on for several months now.  this girl has never met a pair of shoes she didn't love.  and by love i mean love, try on, unlace, and repeat.  she literally RUNS to whatever pair she sees.  and at nursery every week the report is always the same "she did great!  she just tried on everyones shoes the whole time" as they hand us our child with one hand and shoes with the other.

so this was yesterday after church.  honey and i were talking when we heard the clackity clack of high heels.  i ran for our little camera and honey got the actual video camera.  both are actually rolling at the same time.  this child's life is extremely well documented.

i honestly tremble from the overwhelming love i feel for her.

ps- speaking of heels, fashion isn't my thing.  what sort of shoes/sandals/heels/flats should i get to wear with this dress?

i hate shoes and i hate shopping and i hate spending money so preferably whatever you suggest will be cheap and easy to find... maybe give me a link to something from target?  don't send me to a mall.  i will not go.

the amazing bundt cake

here you go liza.  a million pictures of the bundt cake experience!

well, with the bundt cake pan i had to borrow from my neighbor, i made that triple chocolate bundt cake from easy weeknight favorites.

i was so nervous i googled the crap out of how to successfully make a bundt cake.  and although google didn't mention this idea, i made the cake 24 hours in advance so in case it sucked, i would have time to make an alternative dessert for the pot luck.

honey mixed up the batter because he was so impatient to get the cake done and go to bed.  while he was doing that, i was googling and watching you tube videos of the proper way to grease and flour a bundt pan.  in my googling it was mentioned that the batter wasn't supposed to sit while you grease and flour the pan so you were supposed to prepare the pan before you started.  fail.  

ehow.com mentioned the tip that if you were making a chocolate cake, you should use cocoa powder instead of flour so that the outside of your cake doesn't look white.  i greased and floured [cocoa powdered] heavily because i was terrified my cake wouldn't come out in one piece... or at all.

this is what it looked like going in.

 

 

i'd been a little concerned it didn't fill up the pan but after watching it bake (i kept the light on the whole time so i could see it... much like you watch your newborn baby sleep... just in case they stop breathing or yawn or something.  well, at least i might have done that.  anyways... it puffed up huge and i was just happy it didn't overflow or climb to the ceiling or something.

it was gorgeous.  and after watching more you tube videos on the best way to eject a bundt cake from it's pan... i was able to get it out perfectly without a single hitch.

i was so proud of myself i almost cried.

 

and then i rested for a night.

i didn't want to ice it until right before because i wanted it to look and smell nice and fresh.  sooo after honey got home from work i made the chocolate sauce and waited the 10-15 minutes...not sure if the recipe book, google, or you tube told me to do that... during which time i watched a few more you tube videos specifically on the best way to frost a bundt cake.  i used the plastic baggie method and it went great.  i drizzled it around and around about eighty million times until...

POP!  and i screamed!  and then from the other room chris yelled "YOU RUINED YOUR CAKE?!?!"

the plastic baggie had burst... all over the cake, the cake stand, the counter.  i didn't take a picture of it at the time because it was a very frantic situation.  time was of the essence.  luckily i was able to not loose all of the chocolate sauce so i was able to drizzle it over the section of the cake that was coated in sauce.  it blended.  if you looked for it you could see it but let's just say if this was a poppy seed cake it would have been destroyed and unfit for the potluck.  the monochromatic color scheme saved the day!  

if this was a clock you'd see that 2-4:30 was quite a bit higher because the drizzles were on top of the thick layer of chocolate coating.

"it's good!"  (he didn't actually say that... it's just my touchdown reference.

chocolate spot... just keepin' it real.

and since this is how much was left (always too much food at a potluck) i took it upon myself to finish it off.  i haven't eaten all the leftovers but it is safe to say without exaggeration that i have eaten at least half of this cake.  HALF.

tell me how awesome i am.  i feel like i can conquer the world!