chicken broccoli braid and baby's preferences

i cooked again!  and it was something i've only ever made once before... like back in 2008.  i remember because we were in pennsylvania that summer and lydia helped me make it!  it's the pampered chef chicken broccoli braid which is this exact recipe minus the onions.  it was always one of my favorites that my mom made.  when i was browsing through recipe books to make this weeks menu, i came across the recipe in the cookbook nurse amanda made for me when she was living at our house in 2006 while my parents were on their mission.  anyways... i have no idea why it took me so long to get the courage to make this without lydia holding my hand because it really wasn't hard at all.  my favorite part was that nothing was time sensitive, nothing required me to multitask, everything went in one bowl (no accidentally mixing the wrong things together!), and it barely made any dirty dishes.  excellent!

that's my phone.  yes, it slides open.

before i took this picture i'd never fully realized the intense blue-ness of this bowl.

look amanda!  your cookbook page made it in to a picture!  ps- i noticed tonight that part of the recipe was supposed to have a graphic to illustrate the dough fringing.  it wasn't there but i laughed at how thoughtful that was of you.  "cut dough on sides as pictured above" or something like that...

delish

it calls for slivered almonds but i only had sliced.  not as pretty but the taste and the crunch were still there!

 we'll have to come back to the story that goes with these two pictures taken while the braid was baking.

the PINK bow

putting shoes on.  that's a remnant of toilet paper.  baby girl loves to blow her nose.  she also now refers to the toilet paper on my nightstand as "mommy's [blows out of her nose]" which when she says it is the funniest thing ever.

look how pretty!

that's honey's fork.  he has low patience for pictures after the food comes out of the oven.

mmm, so creamy and flaky and crispy and crunchy.

and plenty of leftovers!  just the way i like it!  i'm going to be sad when our family is big enough that we won't have half of our meal for leftovers every time i cook.

notes to self for the chicken broccoli braid:

i didn't measure the broccoli or the red bell pepper but i'm sure i added more of both than what the recipe calls for.  especially pepper because i love that stuff.

i added less chicken than called for because i haven't been that into chicken lately.  again, didn't measure it but i just used one of those cans of costco chicken.  it made it so quick and easy and that chicken works really well in this recipe.

each of the packs of dough, i laid them so the longer length went left to right.  otherwise it wouldn't have fit on the pan... which was sad for me to figure out half way through when i was struggling to rearrange my dough on the cookie sheet.

fringing the dough i did lots of thin slices to ensure that all of the dough cooked through and evenly without any parts getting too done.  i cut each "section" into four fringes and made sure to stretch them out thin when i was pulling them up and wrapping them.  it worked because it turned out better than i was hoping/anticipating.

when i sprinkled the almonds on top, i made sure to press them in with my hands so they would stay nice and firm.  

also... because it cut down on dishes, time, and wasting an egg... i didn't bother brushing it with egg white.  i know it makes it look prettier but i also knew i wasn't serving this to anyone other than my little family of three.

aaaannd here's the baby story to match the pictures above...

we've been working on colors more lately so this afternoon as i got baby girl up from her nap and got her dressed, i explained to her that her dress is purple and the sandals she picked out (they're her current favorites) are also purple.  so i asked her if she wanted a bow and of course she said yes.  i picked a purple one and after about fifty failed attempts for me to get it correctly positioned in her hair (she kept yanking it out saying "nooo!!!" and then placing it on a different part of her head) i was so confused what she could possibly want about the bow.  then she ran to her closet repeating over and over "i want bink!  i want bink!" and all i could think is that she was wanting a binky (i keep them hidden high up in her closet) but i thought it was weird she wasn't calling it a binky because she can say that perfectly well.  so then after more of the guessing game as i pointed to random stuff up high in her closet, she requested "up" and tried to point to what she wanted but it was still too high.  so i started pointing again... do you want this? "no" is it this?  "no" how bout this? "no" to all the things i pointed at.  then i got to a pink hair flower "yeah" and a pink and brown pom pom sort of bow "yeah" so i grabbed the pom pom and put it in her hair.  she was pleased.  walking down the stairs i wondered what compelled her to call the pom pom thing a "bink" when she pointed to it again and excitedly and very clearly declared, "it's pink!"  HA.  ohhhhh!  you didn't want your purple bow... you wanted to wear something pink!  i should have caught on to that sooner since she's started pointing out pink things in books and such that we've read.  "that's pink" "that's pink" pointing to a flower or a car or whatever in the book is pink.  i think the problem is that it is literally almost impossible for me to understand her if her voice gets whiny which has been soooooo very much of today... but oh my goodness how that girl is a talker and it is so. much. fun.

also, while we were waiting for dinner to bake, i found baby girl in my bathroom and she was spitting on her finger and then wiping it on the back of her hand.  then she spit on her finger again and held it out to me.  it took me a minute before i finally understood her to be saying "lotion" as she most generously offered me some.  ummm, no thanks baby girl.  i'm gonna pass this time.  but that was so very thoughtful of you.

i can't get enough of her.  oh, except tonight when that whining was out of control.  then i realized i'd met my quota for today.

ps- happy friday the 13th!

16 weeks

How far along:  16 weeks  (7.12.12)

Total weight gain/loss: + 3 lbs  

Maternity clothes:  not yet but there are definitely lots of my regular clothes that i don't wear anymore because they're either too unflattering or too short.  i borrowed all of my maternity clothes last time and gave them all back so i'm thinking i should go shopping soon...

Stretch marks:  this is the last time you'll see this question.  i have plenty of stretch marks from last pregnancy... so any news about stretch marks i'll just be including in the "extra" section.

Sleep:  not fabulous since i woke up on sunday with a bad cold.  i've been having to read at night until i get suuuuper tired and then i can just shut my book and fall asleep.  my other alternatives are a) lay down and constantly feel like i'm suffocating because i'm too congested to breathe through my nose and b) "lay down" with my head so elevated i wonder if my neck is going to snap in half during the night.  as of this morning i've been feeling better though so hopefully  i'm on the mend!

Best moment this week:  loving food.  even though i was no where near as sick this time around, i really haven't been crazy about food.  but this past week there's been several times i've eaten something and almost melted because it hit the spot so perfectly.  

Movement:  sometimes i think i can feel something if it's night time and i'm laying down and concentrating really hard.  but i'm pretty sure i'm just delusional.  

Food cravings:  hmm, scrambled cheese eggs for breakfast on sliced toasted, buttered, french bread.  every single day... so delicious.  also, as a general rule, beef is awesome.  like in those stuffed peppers.  comfort foods.  i'm still in that "full fat food is good for you!" mentality so i'm trying to teach myself moderation.  chicken is not great, neither is fish right now and don't you dare try to feed me bbq.  sweets are delicious but the texture of fruits is grossing me out.  so hit and miss with stuff.  looove raw veggies with dip.  looots of dip.  and of course tons and tons of milk.  can't get enough.

Gender:  so frustrating that i'm far enough along that you could easily tell but i don't get an ultrasound until next month!  i have planning and preparing to do and i can't get on it until i know what this baby is!

What I miss:  drugs.  like two nights ago when i was suffocating with congestion as i attempted to fall asleep and i thought to myself, "my life wouldn't suck so bad right now if i had a bottle of dimetapp.  also would be handy for those frequent headaches like the one i have right now.  

Milestones:  hitting the 16 week mark.  that's a big one.  15 weeks is child's play but 16 weeks is the real deal.  now i'm looking forward to 20.  that's legit.
Theme: the week of being sick and hitting 16 weeks!
Extra:  i had my 16 week appointment on thursday where i met my doctor.  my only previous appointment was at 8 weeks when i met with the nurse practitioner.  anyways, this appointment was the most pointless waste of time ever.  basically, they just weighed me, checked blood pressure and stuff, listened to a heartbeat ( i guess that's kinda important), and answered my questions.  i'm guessing my doctor was either a preschool teacher or sesame street actor in her previous life.  i wish someone else had been there with me to witness it.  also, i know it's common for doctors to do this but for some reason it was bothering me yesterday when she kept making comments as if she knew me.  lady, i know you just read through my chart right before you walked in the door, don't act like you know me and my history.  like when i told her "yes, this is my second pregnancy, my daughter will be turning two on sunday" then she just kept making comments and attempting conversation with stuff like "she keeps you really busy!" and whatever.  ummm no, you have no idea what my kid is like.  she keeps me occupied but i would in no way say that she keeps me "busy" so you must be thinking of everyone else's two year olds because my angel baby is the exception to that rule.  she also commented that i'd gained SIX pounds so far this pregnancy and i was like "WHAT?!  where'd that number come from?!"  and she was like "well, your prepregnancy weight was 118 and today you weighed in at 224."  and so i explained "yes, but i weighed 118 at HOME so you have to had a few pounds for clothes."  but she took a look at her computer screen and corrected me.  apparently at my 8 week appointment i only weighed in at 118... fully dressed.  so i apologized for being wrong and explained that i actually did get super sick during week six and pretty sick during week seven so i must have lost weight before that appointment.  anyways... by my calculations, weighing at home without clothes, i started at 117-118 and am now at about 121.  so we'll say i started at 118 and have gained three pounds.  that's my story and i'm sticking to it.  although my meals these days are so huge and i'm drinking so much milk that any weight that's not taken immediately after waking up is going to kinda all over the place.  the other thing that bothered me about my doctor was that she seemed unsure and almost apologetic of herself.  like when she commented that i was starting small but that she hoped we could shoot for me to gain 30 pounds if that's something i could try to do.  like a question she was shy to ask because she didn't want to impose.  once again, lady, you have no way of knowing this but i'm a little obsessive about being pregnant and have already spent more hours than you should care to know researching about my pregnancy this time around. i already know i need to gain at least 30 pounds, i'm with you, don't apologize, just tell me that's our goal and remember to congratulate my progress at future appointments.  she also followed this up with telling me that i could eat as much ice cream as i wanted this pregnancy which was kind of humorous coming from a medical professional.  so that redeemed her some points.  but let me get this straight for the record... i have no ill feelings towards my doctor... i just thought the experience was a little strange.  my big ultrasound appointment is scheduled for monday august 6th and i'm excited that honey will be able to come with me this time.  last time he had a midterm and couldn't come and i felt bad that he missed out because it was such an insanely incredible and spiritual experience for me.  i'm excited this time around that we'll get to experience it together.  also, i'm at the awkward stomach stage where i can either look fat, suck in my stomach and look normal (to strangers... close friends would notice), totally relax my stomach or push it out and look hugely pregnant or anything in between.  and of course it depends on meals and what i'm wearing too.  i was at walmart earlier this week and ran into a woman whose little girl kept giving abigail her doll to play with.  so we made small talk.  she was hugely pregnant so i asked her when she was due, fully expecting her to say some date within the next month.  and then i could excitedly tell her i was due in december (because i'm that annoying pregnant person that thinks we're BFF if we're both pregnant).  well, her due date is sometime in october and thank goodness my filter was working because my head screamed "ARE YOU HAVING TWINS?!?!" but my mouth said "oh my goodness how exciting!"  goodness that lady is twice the size of my other october due date friends.  so you better believed i sucked in my belly and didn't mention that i was due two months later.  i hope people are that nice to me when i'm enormous in a few months.  because i know my stomach is going to be epic.

and last time i never posted pictures with the weekly posts... because i really didn't want a whole lot of pregnant pictures of me on the internet... but this time around i've already enjoyed looking back at those posts and have been hating that i don't have pictures pared with them.  sooo, for my own sake, i'm going to try to suck it up and do it a little differently this time around.  here are a variety of poor quality pictures to show you how i may look throughout the day depending on how lazy my stomach is and how recently i've eaten.

 

 

 

 

and because we all hate posts without pictures of baby girl, here's two that got left out of yesterday's post.  "glasses on!"

 

i think it's a good look for her.  she's going to be an awesome big sister.

jazzercise

this is what baby wore today (and maybe yesterday but that's beside the point).  i picked out her shirt and leggings.  she picked out her shoes and glasses and then i topped it off with a bow and we declared it purple day.

today i had my 16 week appointment so i dropped baby girl off with kirstyn and michaela and when i came back we all hung out until it was time for us to go home for nap.  and at least three times kirstyn commented on baby looking like she'd just been to jazzercise.  she said she asked baby girl at one point "did you just get done with jazzercise?!" but apparently baby girl just smiled and laughed.  i'm kinda surprised she didn't say yes.  she says yes to almost everything.  

 

 

 

 

i feel like maybe she could also be a celebrity mom out running errands or heading home from a yogalates class or something.  you never really know with those celebrity moms.

ps- THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR EXCELLENT SUGGESTIONS!!!  they were wonderful and i feel much better with the options i'm going to present to my christopher tonight when he gets home from salt lake.  it was only a day trip (he left at 4 30 this morning) but this time it feels like he's been gone forever.

advice please! baby's birthday gifts

i am terrible at making decisions.  especially when i have to include my honey's opinion.  that makes it just that much more difficult.

for christmas we were wanting to get baby girl a play kitchen.  i wanted a pretty wood kidkraft kitchen and honey wanted a cheap plastic kitchen and baby girl didn't get an opinion.

she also didn't get a kitchen... because we never decided on one.  poor baby girl.

most all of her toys are hand me downs or craigslist finds or random crap around the house that she finds to play with like ice cube trays.  i know she would think a plastic toy is just as cool as a wooden toy but the thing is... i know i won't.  i want it to look pretty and feel sturdy.  and i want it to last more than six months.  so now i'm down to the wire trying to figure out birthday presents for baby girl and even though i'm over that whole kitchen thing, i'm having the same plastic vs. wood dilemma.

you see, baby girl has three main obsessions right now.  they are shoes, the beach/pool, and babies.  she is completely satisfied with her shoe situation and we've already purchased her a cool blow up baby pool slide thing for our backyard that i think she'll love so really, i want her other presents to be baby related.  especially because it's flattering to me as a mother and i hope it will get her psyched and prepped to be a big sister soon.

i haven't yet let honey check out the options because i want to figure out what's out there first but here's the deal...

i'm thinking he would like to spend $15 and get this little plastic set that is an all in one sink, crib, and highchair.  i'm sure baby would love it.

i would like to get something super high end but would never let myself spend that kind of money on something of this nature so really i would want to get something like this highchair, this cradle, and maybe this stroller or splurge for this one that has the bassinet.

so give me your opinion.  spew your advice.  i like nice things but i'm also really cheap.  like how baby girl's actual highchair that she uses was free and her stroller was only $15 (that's less than any of the doll strollers i've seen).  i need to make a decision fast so we can get presents here asap.

what should i buy?

stuffed peppers

SUCCESS!!!  SUCCESS!!!

i made this recipe for stuff peppers tonight and honey and i were both extremely impressed!  when i was browsing through my favorite cookbook i came across a recipe for stuffed peppers and thought, "oooohhhhh!  that actually sounds good!"  but instead of just making that recipe (it cooked in the microwave and ours would have been too small for that), i got online and looked up a million stuffed pepper recipes and this one sounded the best and got rave reviews.  and it didn't look too too difficult.  i really wanted something more than just "good" because honey and i love stuffed peppers but our only experience with them was either eating them in hungary - the real deal - or eating them in the states made my someone using a hungarian recipe.  i had big expectations. 

and honestly...it was, for me, kind of a lot of work (though it wasn't anything challenging) but so so soooo very worth it.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

i made it mostly according to the recipe but with a few changes out of necessity and because i'm lazy.

- i had only bought two giant peppers from the store because i was planning to half the recipe.  then i remembered that i hate fractions (and normally part way through cooking i stop remembering to half things and it's a big disaster) and that it's twice the work (math) for half the food.  so i just cut the peppers in half length wise so i could stuff them more.  and that way you get more meat mixture... which i loved.

- i didn't have any celery.  also, i didn't have any pepper to mix in with the onion and nonexistent celery because of the way i decided to cut them and there was no "waste" or leftovers.  

-i didn't remember to boil the peppers until i was ready to stuff them - whoops - and the oven was already preheated and i was on a time crunch because i actually knew when my christopher would be getting home so i just boiled a bit of water and then rotated the peppers through a few mins each.  they had plenty of time to cook in the oven anyways.

-i thought i had tomato sauce but turns out it was tomato paste.  so i poured that in and added a can and a half of water.  also, all of the reviews said that the recipe was perfect as is but that the sauce was so good they would double it.  so my measurements aren't exact for the sauce (i still just did the one can of tomatoes) but with all of that tomato paste and water it was a great amount of sauce and although it looked like a TON while cooking, it was the perfect proportions for eating.

- i thought i had garlic but actually i'm out.  this made me super sad but in order to not completely miss out, i added garlic salt.  

- the recipe calls for oregano which i learned, i don't have.  but the recipe also called for basil and i happened to have italian seasoning which is oregano, basil and other awesome stuff.  sooo, i was really generous with that.  i tasted the sauce as i went to make sure it wasn't too bland.  i was worried after all the tomato paste and water!

-i was also more generous with the worcestershire sauce... 2 teaspoons instead of 1.5 just because i love that stuff.

- when i did the meat mixture i added the full 1.5 cups cooked rice and i added 1.5 cups of sauce instead of the 1 cup that it called for.  according to my bathroom scale, i used about 1.5lbs of ground beef that i pulled out of the freezer.  what a pleasant surprise when it happens to be the exact amount called for in the recipe!  i also mixed in juuuust a bit of grated parmasan cheese in the meat mixture... not enough that it would be cheesy inside (it was tempting though!) but just enough to keep adding flavors in there.

- i sprayed a 9x13 pan and somewhat covered the bottom with the tomato sauce mixture, then placed the stuffed peppers on top and poured the rest of the sauce over it all.  covered with foil and baked for an hour. sprinkled with mozzarella (all of the recipes suggested sharp cheddar cheese but that seemed off base to me since it had a very european italian feel to me) and let it get melty and browned which only took about 10 mins.  the peppers were excellent but the cheese really made it happen.  those bites were the best!

soooo, all of those extensive notes for myself are to say that this will become a regular for us.  honey said it was the best thing i've made in months.  which, even though this is the first time i've actually cooked in the last 30+ days, i'm pretty sure means this was incredible.  the peppers were enormous and we each ate a whole one because they were just that good.  baby girl liked it too although she wasn't CRAZY about it but probably because she's not a huge fan of meat (unless it's bacon, sausage, hotdog, or anything else loaded with flavor, fat and sodium).  next time i'll have to make even more because apparently they can be frozen after for up to a month.  i would totally do that this time but i'm pretty positive they'll get eaten out of the fridge just fine in the next few days.  two containers of this...

probably won't last long at all.

brownie cookies and my day

this afternoon i found this recipe to make so i'd have something delicious to bring to our young women pool party tonight.  it looked super easy and delicious.  well, the girls were all impressed but let me tell you... it was not easy.  the batter was so difficult to work with, even after i added more flour and tried putting it in the fridge to set a little.  who's made these before?!  cooking sarah, what did i do wrong?!

ps- i did a huge shopping trip today for the first time in over a month, so i have my recipes planned out and i'm so excited for a few new things i'm going to be trying.  cross your fingers it goes better than these cookies!

pps- today was an amazing day.  i don't know how, but the little every day things i experience bring me such joy and happiness.  today, baby girl slept in til after 10, we had a great breakfast, and were headed to the library by 10:30 to meet up with jodi and elle.  our massive grocery shopping trip at walmart afterwards only took an hour flat and it was simple and productive (just like i'd prayed it would be!) and my testimony was strengthened by that experience.  lunch time with baby girl was awesome while i put away groceries, and right when she was done, she requested a nap... 2:00... right on time!  i hung out, talked to my mom, made cookies, and got everything ready for the pool party.  baby girl was still sleeping (or at least hanging out quietly in her crib... who really knows?!) when i left at 6:00.  the pool party went great and when i got home i had the energy and motivation to put everything away and clean the kitchen while baby girl gobbled up cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks, broccoli, celery, and prunes.  yeay for the veggie platter leftovers providing a satisfying dinner for my baby!  although i should note that that prunes weren't part of the platter... they came from the fridge, because for some reason my kid thinks they are a special treat.  ha.  and tonight is the first night in over a month that i'm going to bed not sure what to do tomorrow.  between house guests, going out of town, girls camp, and more friends in town as well as random stuff like actually clean the house, do laundry, quilting, etc, i haven't felt on top of things in a long while.  sooo, while i still have plenty of stuff to do, nothing right now is marked "urgent" and i can breathe a little and maybe make a dent on my "would be nice to do" list.  life is good to me.

monday monday

today was a great day.  we slept in, quilted with my mother in law and sister in law, hung out, napped, and watched the bachelorette.  anyone else out there rooting for jef?

anyways, here are pictures.

i've been loving this quick and easy patriotic breakfast for the past week.  for the record, eggo waffles can taste delicious when accompanied by butter, syrup, whipped cream, and fresh berries.  adding the nutella to that is over the top and will make you want to barf.

as mentioned yesterday, shoes don't fit in the highchair so they get ditched on the floor for mealtime.

brown pair is mine, black pair is honey's.  and books aren't allowed in the highchair either.  ironically, this book on the floor is a library book (always are kept in a safe pile upstairs by the glider where we read) about treating books well.  read it, don't eat it!

this was baby girl's version of breakfast.  when possible, she gets the healthier version of whatever i'm eating.  unless it's eggs... then we get the same thing.  or unless i eat cake or candy for breakfast... then she gets oatmeal.  today it was plain waffles, blueberries, and two boiled eggs (she still won't eat the yokes... but then again i didn't either until i was in highschool or something).

she is obsessed with boiled egg whites.  anyone have any suggestions for uses for boiled egg yokes?  because i normally just throw them away...

i showered before baby girl got up this morning.  i always let my hair air dry almost all the way because i hate blow drying, it's colorado and it only takes about four seconds, and it's healthier for my hair.  actually only the first two are true.  the last is just an added bonus.  so after breakfast i asked baby girl if she wanted to come help me do my hair...

she eagerly ran to my bathroom and brought me my straightener.  this girl knows the drill.

then she ditched her shoes,

looked around for more,

and then headed off to find more...

running really, really fast.

 i actually kept track of the shoe thing this morning.  well, for the first little bit.  baby girl slept in today and i didn't get her out of her crib til after 10am.  probably 10:15ish.  when i looked at the clock at 11:50, i counted up the number of pairs of shoes i'd seen her wear already that day.  total count in the first hour and a half of her day?  SEVEN pairs of shoes.  and i actually didn't help her put on a single pair... all of those were shoes that she managed to find and wear on her own.  also, we never left the house and a good portion of that hour and a half was spent eating breakfast in her highchair.  and of course she wore most of the shoes more than once... seven is just the number of different pairs in the picture.  

and just in case you noticed, yes, her shirt does indeed have shoes on it.

month of pictures

except that it's really only like three days of pictures with the first group being a month ago today and the last group being today and the picture in the middle being sometime in between.  apparently i forgot about that camera in my nightstand.  whoops.

soooo flash back to june 8th, 2012 when we were gardening/raking dead leaves from the lawn.

 

we took out the rock pile around our trees and replaced it with grass.  raising little grass seedlings is almost as challenging as raising a child.  although it happens faster.

she stands at the curb and waits for us to come hold her hand so we can cross the street together.  it's precious.

we believe in child labor.

but don't call cps on us... she's okay with it.

ADORES her daddy.

this made me laugh out loud.  she's really got a sense of humor and knows how to be funny and appreciate funny things.

what a good helper.

oh hi there.

 

i'm in love.

i love her little maycock nose and her tiny mouth and her little baby neck and her tiny arms and her wispy baby hair and pretty much every single thing about her i just can't get enough of.

baby running.  she falls down a lot.  constant scrapes on her knees.  although even if it draws blood she probably cries less than half the time.  tougher than i'd be.

 

my handsome husband.

and remember when i wrote about having to cut baby's hair which was really just clipping out a bad knot?  well, this is the picture from it.

too bad it happened again a week later.  crossing my fingers this doesn't become a regular thing...

and then tonight i got out the camera because honey (ps- tonight my honey and i were talking and baby was trying to get our attention and she did.  because eventually we noticed her saying "HOOOONEY!!!  HOOONEY!!!" over and over again.  oh dear.) and baby girl were having such a great time jumping on the bed.  baby girl loves jumping and she's discovered that it's infinitely more fun to jump on beds.  honey piled up our pillows and just started tossing baby on top.  she couldn't get enough of it.

 

 

if you're ever next to baby girl when you hear her say "i jump" then turn around and catch her!  because "i jump" really just means "i trustfall" and it looks just like this.

 other randoms as of late...

baby girl's shoe fetish is still fierce and showing no signs of letting up.  she has taken to wearing shoes all around the house now.  she's not allowed to wear shoes on the bed or our sofas and if she's wearing my shoes or honey's she has to take them off before getting in her highchair because they won't fit through the holes.  sooo, she'll hop on the bed/sofa/whatever, slip off her shoes, drop them on the floor and hang out.  when she climbs off to get milk from the kitchen or something, she sits down, puts her shoes on, and runs off to do whatever before coming back and repeating the process.  today at church my friend danielle was picking up her little boy from nursery and couldn't find his shoes.  she and the nursery leaders were looking all over before they finally found them.  on baby girl's feet.  on any given day at home she'll wear at least seven different pairs of shoes.  and that's just at home.  it's tough to say if she likes babies or shoes more.

baby girl loves the pool.  also called the baby pool but mostly referred to as the baby beach.  she talks about it all day long and constantly requests to go there.  "baby beach?  i want baby beach."  so i say "sorry baby girl, we can't go right now because it's too hot/sunday/nighttime/etc."  and then she proceeds to ask for the pool instead.  good try baby girl but we can't do that either.

baby girl looooves nap time and bed time.  she's also started requesting naps all. the. time.  i normally feed her lunch right before nap so now she thinks that she can ask for a nap after every meal and snack.  so sometimes our days look like this.  wake up and get out of bed.  eat breakfast.  done with breakfast.  "nap?  i want nap."  hmmm.  what to do when your kid is throwing a massive tantrum because you won't let them take a nap at 9:30, 11:30, or any other time of the morning?!  nap time is at 2.  you can have a nap at 1:30 if you're particularly devilish but don't try it.

baby girl's vocabulary is still exploding.  communication with her these days is so easy that it's getting more difficult for me to notice when she says new words and phrases.  tonight she heard the garage door and exclaimed "daddy's home!" as she ran to the door.  it wasn't until my honey walked in that i realized that's the first time she's said that.  normally she'll just say "daddy!" or "there's daddy!" so this was definitely new.  other frequent and useful words include on and off... who would have guessed?!  if she wants to, she'll pick up on new words the first time she hears it like one time when my christopher referred to her little toys/figurines as "guys" when he said "go pick up your guys."  it stuck hardcore.  now it's always "i want guys."  "there's more guys."  and "it's guys' nap" as she lays them all on their backs on the sofa.  when we were eating popcorn several weeks ago she picked up that it was called popcorn and was constantly requesting more pop.  tonight she saw a picture of homemade bagels online (sawah, we were looking at all of your facebook mobile uploads because baby girl saw the picture on my newsfeed of joshua eating and requested to see more baby eat.  and then we scrolled through a million pictures of yours... literally a million) and commented "cake!  that's more cake!" which is pretty impressive because she is very rarely in contact with cake.  on the opposite note.  there are certain things she refuses to say.  she will not say "sorry" "night night" or "thank you."  she still blows a kiss for thank you (her version of the sign language) maybe out of pure laziness?  who knows because although she won't say "thank you" she will say "no thank you" because i've started requiring that.  when i offer her things i prompt her that the answer is either "yes please" or "no thank you" although tonight she started saying "no please" so i guess we still have a ways to go.  she's also randomly said stuff like "excuse me" as she pushed past chris to get through a small space and a million other random things that always surprise me when they happen.  it just blows my mind how many sentence combinations she uses and the number of new words she says every day.

and as somewhat mentioned above... she thinks the only purpose of a laptop is to look at pictures of babies. so we both enjoy spending our time online browsing blogs and facebook albums.  she also thinks the only purpose of a blackberry is to watch clifford.  "i want more woof."  ironically, she's pretty bored with the ipad but maybe that's because we only have random boring free kid apps on there.  any recommendations for FREE apps she might like?  leave a comment and i'll pass them along to my honey.  although it's not suuuper urgent because she only sees it during sacrament at church and she's also fine without it.  today she was an angel and i was smothering her with kisses for that whole first hour.  i love my kid all the time but i really do love her more when she's wonderfully behaved.  and she doesn't care about my cell phone.  rarely she'll request to see baby pictures on my phone but they're so small and i'm so lazy that i normally just say no and she moves on to the next thing.

pregnancy posts will start happening soon.  i need to get on that for my sake because i have so much going on in my head that i need to get out.  i visited my dear friend, used-to-be-pregnant chelsey in the hospital saturday night and it got me so insanely excited to have a baby.  with baby girl, my recovery experience in and out of the hospital with pure absolute misery... my own personal version of hell.  and when i went to visit chelsey she just looked so happy.  she was friends with the nurses, her room was really nice, she was moving around just great, she looked super cute (of course) and happy and it just gave me hope that maybe my experience this time around won't be like my first.  soooo, thank you all for the congratulations and well wishes... we are beyond excited and loving every minute of this thing we call the present.

holiday crasher

i know it's july and it's early to start thinking about the holidays but i can't help it.  first, i blame pinterest for my eagerness for hot chocolate and all things pumpkin and cozy.  second,  i'm working on bracing myself for our first christmas at home as a little family.  we won't be traveling for the holidays this year.  in our five years of marriage we've been lucky enough to spend christmas and new years with either my family or honey's family and it's been awesome.  this year, we're going to be celebrating alone as a little family.  so i've been mentally bracing myself for that.  i'm going to have to make a bigger effort to always have christmas music on, make holiday treats, and actually go all out decorating our house with holiday stuff.  you see, it's going to be an important time for us because we're expecting a special holiday crasher.  a new family member is going to visit us.  actually, it's going to be a little baby.  and if it doesn't cry too much... we'll keep it for good.

my belly is round and my heart is full.  little baby hillier, i'm giddy with excitement for you to join our family.

service yields love

yesterday was a fabulous fun filled day with the turnages since they were in town visiting.  they came over around noon and we partied clear until after 9 when all of our kids needed to go to sleep.  by the end of the day, i was exhausted and our house was a wreck.  so while i took baby girl up to bed, honey cleaned the kitchen, including taking care of a massive pile of dishes that had been accumulating all week.  when i walked downstairs to my spotless kitchen i was overwhelmed with love for my sweet husband.  i've been slacking on our love journal lately and it has really shown in my increased irritability and under appreciation for my honey.  but today?  not the case.  every time i looked at my kitchen i knew my honey loved me and i knew i loved him.  i'm a non abstract sort of person when it comes to showing love and affection.  i need phone calls, texts, letters, and blatant "i love you so very much" professions of love.  and let me tell you that when it comes to the in-your-face, i-love-you-this-much facts... a clean kitchen is the ultimate trump card.  because as long as my kitchen is clean, all is right in the world.

including my marriage.


and on a somewhat related but not really too much note, baby girl started saying "honey" because she has picked up on the fact that that's what her parents call each other.  hearing "hello honey" out of her little baby mouth tonight... oh my goodness i about died.

when 20 days of journaling died

wednesday- almost cried as i drove 2 hours to girls camp.  got there and was fine.


thursday- girls camp is great.


friday- morning time: i love camp!  evening: "honey, please text me closeup pictures of baby girl"


saturday- home from girls camp!  shower and no nap.  family date night at casa bonita.  food sucked.  tattoos galore.


sunday- taught lesson at church (be changed for good), nap, dinner with honey's fam.


monday- broke my strict "no being productive during nap time" and did five loads of laundry and housework for 8 hours straight.  watched bachelorette with honey.  cut another knot out of baby's hair.


tuesday- pool with baby, nap, and finished up all the potato goodness i cooked up on sunday.  need to record my recipes since i made them up on the spot and i'm sure i won't remember them longterm.


wednesday- 4th of july!  eliches and old spaghetti factory with honey's fam.  jumbo crab ravioli with pesto alfredo sauce was to die for.  pretty sure my jeans won't fit tomorrow but it will have been worth it.

sooo happy fourth and don't give up on my blogging!

good things come to those who wait... right?!