Theme for 2010: Simplify

I've been thinking about my New Year's Resolutions this week and my main theme for the new decade is Simplifying!! With another kid on the way, and living in a small 2 bedroom apartment, I thank the heavens for our Garage!! It makes our apartment seem not so small having that storage available! Maybe I'm also feeling the effects of wanting to clear EVERYTHING out after having a huge Christmas Tree and decorations all over the house, and just make everything clean again.
So we started with our computer desk. We have had this huge, bulky company office desk that just drove me nuts sticking way out from the wall. So after hanging out at my friend Sofie's house, I saw their computer space-saving desk from Ikea and thought it was perfect, so we went and bought one for our apartment for Christmas. I love it, and it really does make life easier, who would have thought...a computer desk.
The other big thing that stresses me out is cooking! I guess it overwhelms me having so many recipes and cook books that I feel like I can't get into it enough and go through all that stuff to find things we like to eat. So I stumbled onto this website that promotes this 30 meal plan. I am so excited about this, and will definitely help me at the beginning of the year to start cooking more and having things I need ready at hand! The basic idea is picking 30 meals that your family loves, write them down, make a master list of ingredients (like through excel) and tada! Okay so there's a bit more to it, and if you're interested check out the website. It's called The Nanny Goat. I also consolidated all my recipe books into one notebook, that has my fovorites in it and it felt so good throwing everything else out! Well not everything. I'm keeping my Martha Stewart cookbooks and my new Better Homes and Gardens book. I never knew organizing all this stuff would excite me this much. It took quite a bit of work, but I think it will pay off. I even made a cute box that sticks to the fridge to put my recipes for that week in. I'm hoping to keep motivated and keep up on the cookin.

They ARE friends!

So I previously posted a picture of Ethan deathly afraid of Sam, but when I found this pic on my phone I had to post it to prove there were times that he did enjoy her!

I'm proud as a Peacock Baby!

It felt like I was keeping with family traditions!
Every year, my family would drive along Christmas street up in Sugarhouse and I was so excited to find out that they do it here in Portland too. And I must say, on a bit grander scale.
It's called Peacock Lane, and it's located in the Hawthorne District and it's this long street where every single house on both sides lavishly decorates their houses with beautiful Christmas lights, displays, ornaments, music, etc....
It was awesome! What a great Family night activity for us to go and do! And it was a nice night too. It rained all day, but cleared up for the evening and was great. I was so glad to see that Portland has fun things like that for families to participate in. Sam loooooved it. She kept saying "Santa Claus!" or "that's cool Dad, look!" Afterward we warmed up with a yummy Caramel Apple Spice Cider drink from Starbucks!
So great! Now I just need to find a Bible Street!

Christmas Time Festivities!

Last night we had fun decorating our Gingerbread house! I love those kits they have at the store now that come with everything and all you have to do is put it together. Although I think we must have done something wrong because our frosting wasn't thick enough which made the process of putting it togehter more difficult. Dave had to sit there and hold all the pieces together so it wouldn't come crashing down. But, it was all about the experience!
Sam loved putting the candy on, and by the looks from the pictures, you can definitely tell it was decorated by a toddler...and Dave :)
We decided giving her free reign and not freaking out about how perfect it turned out would make things more fun, and easier.
It was a really fun Family Christmas activity on a Saturday night.











This was mine and Al's gingerbread house that we made last year together. You can tell the difference between the two houses, which one had more work put into it. But both were equally fun!



This picture was from our Ward Christmas Party on Friday night. Even though you can't tell by the picture, Sam was very excited to see Santa Claus!

Oh That Conan!

I thought this was pretty funny. Now not living in Utah, maybe most people have seen this already but those who haven't might crack up a bit.

First of all, what is Orrin Hatch doing writing and singing Hannukah songs?! weird.
On the Conan show, they dedicated a song to Mormons, and it's funny. check it out.

I'm Finished!

After 2 1/2 months of trying to work on and finish this project I am finally done! Well I have a few small things I have to finish on it, but for now I am not going to worry about those things and I'm so happy to have Sam's Quiet Book done! I was worried I wouldn't get it done for Christmas but I made it, and now she will have it to open on Christmas Day. My pages are very basic mostly and I some didn't take nearly as long as others did. Hand sewing on 12 snaps to a page wasn't my favorite. But I had a lot of fun working on it with my friend and my sister in law. I got most of my ideas from Homemade By Jill (I love her website, she always puts tutorials on all her projects she does so you can do them too). And there are a few other websites out there where you can find help on making a quiet book. It was a good project for me to do, and I developed a new love for a magical thing called Wonder Under. It's awesome! Now I feel like I am a teensy bit more crafty but not by much. Next project? THE FELT PLAYHOUSE!! But not until after Christmas. How fun would that be?

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Ha Ha!

ya know how sometimes you look at a picture and when you see it, you can't help but laugh? That is what happened when I saw this picture of Sam with her cousin Ethan! It made me crack up for a good 5 minutes. From the "get me out of here" look on Ethan's face, and Sam'squinty face with the huge bruise, it just made me giggle (okay more like laugh until I cried). I just can't look at it and not laugh.
It was one of those few pictures I took while we were in Utah with my Family for Thanksgiving. Of the few I did take, the ones I got were either weird with someone pulling a hilarious face (see Ethan) or capturing someone about to pick their nose (hahahahah Angie!) just kidding, she wasn't really about to pick her nose, it just looked like she did. Funny funny.







This was Thanksgiving Day when we had the kids make turkeys out of oreos!

Nothing could have made it worse!

I don't think I ever want to fly on a plane ever again!
Ya know those experiences you hear about that happen on airplanes that you might think "hey that won't ever happen to me?"....well I guess it can happen to me!

I was flying alone back here to Oregon with Sam last night. First I should mention she has been sick the last few days with a cough and a continuing runny nose, and also I did not bring extra clothes for her on the plane (that should also be noted).
It was in the last 30-40 minutes that all hell broke loose for me. Sam had been standing on the floor leaning against the chair and it was that time where we had to sit with our seatbelts on as we descended. Well, Sammy wasn't having any of that. She started freaking out! I have never heard her cry like that before and she would not sit still no matter what I tried. This was NOT my child! I had to put my leg in between her two legs and even then that wasn't working well. It was a completely full flight, so the guy next to me couldn't help but pity me, much like everyone else on the plane, and right before she started to really freak out I got a terrible bloody nose for a good 5 minutes or so.
After a few minutes of freaking out, she pooped her pants really badly (while still freaking out) and then because she couldn't calm down combined with the fact that her throat was a bit clogged from being sick.....she threw up..a few times..everwhere! And I couldn't take her to the bathroom because we were 5 minutes from landing. So after she threw up I pushed the call button, and the attendant came up all huffy saying "is there something you wanted we are trying to land?" and I was like, "well yes thank you, I have throw up in my hands, could I trouble you for a napkin?" I had used almost all the rest of the wipes for my bloody nose.
Luckily for me, I had my jacket for most of the throw up to go into, and some on her sweater which I was able to put into the black dirty clothes bag the lady gave me. Unfortunately she still had puke on her shirt and pants, and since I didn't have extra clothes for her I ended up having to take off my long sleeved maternity shirt and put it on her. And lucky for me, I had one of those unflattering undershirts that are only supposed to be worn under clothes, but really I had no other choice. I already looked terrible enough as it was and she needed it worse than I did.
Well we finally did land, and I had a backpack full of bloody tissues from my nose, and a sack of puky clothes. We were also in the almost very back of the plane so I had to wait to get off as well. I was so tired at this point I could barely pick her up to cuddle her and take her off the plane, and I couldn't get someone to help me pick up her stroller that they leave for you right off the plane so I was struggling to pick that up as well, and I was trying to keep it together emotionally. Sam had also kicked me a couple of times in my stomach while I was fighting with her and I felt very sore from that.
Dave was waiting for us right there at the gate and when he saw the state we were in, and I saw him, I completely lost it and burst into tears.....more people staring....yaddy yaddy yadda. I had him take her to the bathroom to change her poopiness that ended up going up her back while I went to the bathroom myself and cried in the stall for 10 minutes.
I guess the comforting thing is that I will never see these people again...I hope!

And of course our bags were the last to come through.....
Best I can figure is the pressure was making her head feel like it was going to explode because she was so stuffed up while we were descending.
This is not one of those experiences that I will look back on and laugh!!......not at all.

Celebrating good times!

Well it has been a busy week! But fun!

We celebrated Dave's big 30th Birthday on Thursday! He is now an old man!
I figured 30 was a pretty monumental birthday so I decided to give him 30 presents for 30 years, so I wrote something on each present that had to do with him. Since I had no way of carrying them all, I walked into Fudruckers where we had dinner with Dave's family with a huge basket of presents. It had been hiding in the trunk and when I got inside, Dave got all bug-eyed and was like "what the heck?!" The day before on Wednesday we got to go shopping just the two of us to buy Dave some clothes for his birthday, which he desperately needed. Needless to say, I think he had a pretty good birthday and had a lot of fun. What could be better right? Shopping on Wednesday with the day off, new clothes, fun presents, 1/2 lb. hamburger, family, cheesecake......ahhhhh.
And the fun didn't stop there. Friday was our 5 year anniversary!!!
Wow time really does fly by too quickly. But it has been an awesome 5 years. I was talking to my Primary President in the ward and she was asking if I was still in the blissfully happy stage, and I thought "ya know, I am!" It hasn't gotten too hard yet!
So of course our traditional place we go to eat EVERY year for our anniversary is Benihana!! Oooooohh I love that place! If they didn't have one in Portlad I would have flown back to Utah to go. We always go there because we both love it so much!
I was great to celebrate 5 wonderfl years with Dave!

The last thing that made my week so busy was that I found out on Friday that I would be doing the 5th Sunday singing time this week instead of the last week in November since I will be gone! Yay for me! I had the full time of singing and sharing time for both Jr. and Sr. Primary, which meant 40 minutes each with like a 2 minute break in between!! I hope there's not too many 5th Sunday's! I am so tired. Yesterday I spent 8 hours drawing a turkey on a poster board, and then drawing cut out disguises on cardstock and laminating them all with contact paper. Not the easiest thing when I have but a drop of artistic ability. But I was glad at least that all that work was worth while because the kids eally enjoyed my game. I love being the Chorister (mostly) but it is definitely not the easiest job in the world.

So the last thing I have to do before I get to go on my Thanksgiving vacation to Utah for a week on Saturday is a TON of apartment managing stuff (which will probably take the whole week) and pack....and a few other things in between!
Yay for vacation!

Our Halloween Fun!

Halloween was a good time this year!
With our newly formed ward, we had a great Trunk or Treat on Friday night. I don't think I've been to a Trunk or Treat that big before, but it was two wards combined. They had hot dogs, cotton candy, popcorn, games, and of course the trunk or treat at the end, which Sam loved!
Saturday there was an OSU football game in the afternoon, so we went down to Salem and went trick or treating with all of Sam's Demcak cousins. They all had so much fun together and everyone had great costumes. My plan was to try and make a costume this year, but being so consumed with Sam's quiet book I'm making for her for Christmas I didn't find the time to do it, but I loved the costume we found her at the store! Luckily for us, we didn't get rained on during trick or treating and the weather was actually quite nice. There was a fun gay couple up the street that went all out on the decorations, and had their window open, and the one guy was dressed up as the phantom playing scary songs on the organ. It was probably the coolest thing I've seen in a while.
At the trunk or treat I dressed up as Dave, and he didn't end up dressing up because he had to be in this Halloween skit with the YM, so for trick or treating he dressed up as me and walked with Sam up and down the streets. Although I think he could have pulled it off better, had he shaved!
I can't believe Halloween is over, now on to Thanksgiving!




Sam and her friend Cara, who was the swine flu!

Sam and me trying to look like Dave.


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Help me Obi Won!

The Verdict Is In!

We finally found out today at our Ultrasound appointment that we are having our Second Baby GIRL!!
We are really excited and really I'm not surprised at all. I even had a dream last night that it would be a girl, and then I was completely sure! :)
I knew I would be happy either way, as of course everyone is, and I think it will be great for Sam to have a little sister to take care of.
And the other nice thing is already having some girl baby stuff so we won't have to buy nearly as much as we would have had to with a boy.
It's also funny to think about Dave, because now he will really have his hands full. I gues the only thing that makes me sad is that I will have another Daddy's girl on my hands. Another child that will prefer daddy over mom 100% of the time. I kid you not. It's the truth. Maybe this one will love me a little bit more. :)

Yay for Girls!!

Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we decided we should try and go to a Pumpkin Patch just in case the weather was too crazy next week to go. Although yesterday was crazy anyway. We would have pouring rain, dark clouds, wind, then the sun would come out, and it would start all over again with the rain. Dave was at some church meeting for a good part of the day and there was a break in the weather so we thought we'd go. We headed up to Sauvie Island where they had a pumpkin patch, some animals, and some really yummy sweet corn that we ate for dinner tonight. We also shared a delicious caramel apple! I love caramel apples. It has been way too long since I have had one. Sam had a lot of fun sifting through the pumpkins trying to pick them up, and talking to all the animals forever! It was a fun Fall/Halloween family activity together!

My new lot!

Well I officially need help. I know you all already knew that, but I have a lovely new calling in our newly reorganized ward that has been stressing me out for about a week now, and it will push me hopefully to a level of creativity (since I'm not really on any level right now) and a lot of improvising.
What is this calling you ask? Primary Music Chorister!
ah man, I was just getting used to being the piano player for the last 8 months and now I'm realizing it was the easiest calling in the ward compared to what I have to do now, and I haven't even had my first week yet.
Let me just set the scene here. Last week was of course the last time my friend was teaching as the chorister (and she has been in it for 4 years). She taught them a lovely song, played some games, and played her guitar for them at the end, afterwhich half the kids were bawling! ummm....great. How in the heck am I supposed to follow that?
So now I am asking for help. No screaming for it sounds better. I have found blogs, websites, etc etc.... about being the Primary Music leader, but I'm at information overload and I still can't think of anything super exciting for my first day, and I want to do something that is like a "getting to know you day" because half the kids don't know the other half, and they don't know me, and I don't know them, and they don't know the teachers. So if anyone has some brilliant ideas for me, it would be greatly appreciated. My hair is already starting to fall out...or maybe that is from the pregnancy hormones. And..speaking of, what am I gonna do when I have a newborn trying to teach kids music when Dave has his responsibilities as YM president and the baby is hungry or something?? "It's okay kids, lets play a game to see if we can sing louder than the suckling!" haha. I'm sure I could make a game out of that! :)

Mental image aside...please help

My First Quiet Book Page!

I remember growing up, we had a quiet book that we had for church that I just loved. I'm pretty sure my Mom made it, but I loved the pages, especially the one where you could braid the girls hair.
So for the longest time I have been wanting to make one for Samantha, so I could play with it at church! I figured if I got started on it early I could get it done for her for Christmas. I was at my sister in laws the other day and we decided we could do it together. So the other day we got together, and put together our first page! I am so excited about it!




It's not completely finished yet, because I have to do some stitching for whatever I want to write for the page, but it's basically the cute velcro balloons that you can pull off and on. I have never used Wonder Under before, but it is awesome! It makes making a Quiet book easy...mostly.

Tomorrow I think I'll be working on something a little easier like the mitten page or the zipper ladybug. I'm finally feeling crafty again!

An update

I have been so bad at putting up blog posts lately, and I don't know why....laziness...yeah that's it.
My sister in law pointed out to me, and I totally forgot to write this but I finally do have a due date now. The big day?
MARCH 24TH 2010!!
Woo hoo! And we get to find out in a couple of weeks whether it's a boy or girl so we are pretty excited about that as well. There are a few birthdays in March in my family, so I'm hoping it doesn't fall on one of their days. My mother in law already shares her birthday on the 9th of March with one grandchild (which I know she is fine with) but I think two would be pushing it right? :) And then my Dad and my Mom's birthdays are both in March too. The odds are a little against me. But then again, if only I was living in Utah still, I can only imagine how many wonderful Backer's Cakes I would be able to enjoy!! (Note to family in Utah: feel free to send me a cake :) But then again....I kinda just had a little freak out! Only going on 16 weeks here, and I climb into bed, look down at my legs and feet.....swollen! What???!
So not cool.
Okay maybe it was due to the fact that I was sitting at a table for hours playing Nerts and Boggle with our friends, and then we ate Nachos and tasted our homemade apple juice. Those two things probably worked against me, but this isn't fair. I hope this doesn't happen from this moment on for the next 6 months. Aaaagggggh

Anyway besides pregnancy stuff, things are looking good. Getting busy again with apartment managing, getting excited for my sister Al to go on her mission in January to Panama! Being part of a new reorganized ward/stake where everyone in 4 wards were released from their callings and merged to form 3 new wards, happy to be done with the Primary program where I had to play the piano, Dave being called back to be the YM President, watching Sam play on her new bed all day that she loooooves! She's finally in a toddler bed and loves it! (I will post pics soon) and now trying to figure out what to get people for Christmas!

A First Look

Well here they are. Our first Ultrasound pics. I forgot how much you can see even when you are not that far along. Little fingers, and feet, it's pretty amazing. Sorry they aren't bigger, I'm not a very good scanner, cropper, etc.

We went last night at 6:30 to our appt. and decided to take Samantha with us because we figured it wouldn't take that long, and she enjoyed it quite a bit watching "the baby" on the tv. I ask her all the time "where's the baby?" and she points to her belly. We are working on that one. :) She thinks it is pretty fun though. She walks around a lot with her hands up in the air saying "baby?" like "I hear all this talk about a baby and yet I don't see one!"

Hopefully now after my ultrasound they will finally give me a due date. I better be at least about 13 weeks by now, because I really don't want to feel sick anymore. I was standing behind a guy in the checkout line at the store yesterday and he smelled really bad like old pickles, and I started dry heaving right there and almost threw up on him. It might have been an improvement for him actually, he smelled soooo bad. I know I sound mean and some people can't help themselves, but it's not fair to pregnant women who have a heightened sense of smell (almost like dogs I think) to have to put up with that! :)

I finally feel like this is real now. I've been to the doctor and finally got an ultrasound so I wasn't faking it. Now I'm looking forward to finally having some energy!

A Babe and a hair cut

Last week, after much frustration trying to keep Sam's hair out of her face, I decided it was definitely time to get a hair cut. It was badly needed. I took her to a kid's hair cut place which was great because she loved it, and sat perfectly still for the whole haircut. Now it is finally even, and she really does look a lot better. I just need to post a better picture of the finished product.

The last couple of weeks I have learned a lot about picking and canning fruit. A few weeks ago my sister in law and I went and got a bunch of peaches and canned them. It was actually a lot of fun and it made me feel like such a homemaker.
Then last week I went with my friend to this awesome orchard that had the most beautiful peaches. I felt like I was in "Anne of Green Gables" or something. They were perfect. So we did some more canning, and now I think I have enough peaches to last for a while.

Then this week Dave and I went to another orchard in Sherwood and picked pears. I have never done pears before and didn't realize that they aren't ripe when you pick them, and you are supposed to put them in a cool place for 5 days or so to let them ripen up and then you can them. So probably by tomorrow they should be ready.
I would still like to do some apples which will be ready to pick soon, and maybe some grapes or something. Hopefully I don't run out of steam.

Although I have been very tired lately, probably due to the fact that in March we will be adding a new member to the family! woo hoo
My plan was to wait and post my ultrasound picture, but because Dave is so impatient, he made me post about it today so he could finally put it on his Facebook page!....puuuuhleeeasse!
It has been a long couple of months though. With Samantha, I never threw up but definitely felt nauseated all the time. Not so much this time. I've thrown up a lot. Ugh, I'm sick of opening the fridge, and then immediately go running to the bathroom. The other fun story is right after I found out, my side front tooth cracked where I had a root canal 7 years ago while I was in the remote area of Island Park, Idaho at our cabin and had to wait to get home to Portland to get it taken care of. So I was walking around for a week and a half with a gray broken tooth hanging in the socket by the post, and being "very" careful about chewing any food.
When I did get it taken care of, I had to go the dentist twice in 10 days to have surgery on my mouth, and did I get any kind of real drug??? No!! I had to take a combination of Tylenol and Advil, and I will tell you, IT DID NOT DO THE JOB! Lots of pain.
The week after that fun adventure I got very sick with a bad headcold and wasn't able to take any real drugs for that either. The coughing made me gag and then throw up. fun times.

So now I feel....better with hopefully only one week left of crappy sickness to go!

Dave had a dream the other night that we had an elephant child. I wonder if he/she will look kinda like this?? :)

A Fun Weekend

Since poor Dave has not had a vacation all summer, we figured we would go camping on the coast overnight. It was one of those spur of the moment plans where you don't expect it to turn out perfectly but you want to go so bad you don't really care if it falls apart. Well we were really lucky because everything seemed to fall into place making it a great weekend!
I was frustrated earlier in the week because I called so many places to get a reservation and no one had anything! So we figured we would just go, and see if we got lucky. Well we did and not only did we find a place, but we got a cabin which made it even better. The funny thing was the cost of just a tent site was $30, but for a cabin, it was $50. Yeah that was a no brainer, "we'll take the cabin!"
After we got settled in we went to the coast and ate at Mo's for dinner because it just sounded too good. The weather was absolutely perfect, and after dinner we roasted hot dogs and made smores on the beach, which we've not done yet but was super fun! I think next time we go, we need to take crab nets and cook crab on the beach too.
We enjoyed the sunset, and the low 70's weather (even after the sun went down) it really felt like we were on the California coast and not the Oregon coast. We walked up and down the beach and enjoyed watching the seals struggling to get up on the sand. We stayed until about 9:30 which is the latest we have ever stayed on the beach before.

The next day we decided to hang out at the beach again for a while because the weather was once again wonderful. So we went to the D River beach in Lincoln City where they do all the kite festivals and just relaxed for a couple hours like everyone else was doing. Samantha enjoyed playing in the water and getting soaked, and then getting Dave wet.

Ahhhh....relaxation at the beach. So enjoyable