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.