The Oregon Post

A Merry Joyschool Christmas

2011-12-17T22:58:00.000-08:00

Sammy has had a wonderful last few months with her Joyschool group! We have done a lot of fun things, including last week when we had the opportunity for the kids to serve the elderly their lunch at the Art's center up the street! It was so cute, and they did such a great job! They all got to wear their cute caps, gloves, and aprons and after they served the old people their salads, they went up on stage and sang a bunch of their Joyschool Christmas songs, which of course the old folks thoroughly enjoyed. One lady even came up and gave me $20 to give to the kids!! I really tried not to take it but she was insistent. But we put the $20 to good use where we bought gifts for the kids to exchange at our Christmas party, as well as use it for a gift we bought for a less fortunate kid that we were getting a Christmas present for, so we felt good about that!

Our Christmas party was really fun too! The kids got to dress up and put on the Nativity, which they loved doing, and then of course they had to sing all the songs we've learned from Joyschool. It was a really fun party spending time with friends, and seeing how much fun all those kids have together! Looking forward to good times next year.

Is anybody there??

2011-11-04T18:27:00.001-07:00

Hello fellow bloggers! So I took a little break over the summer and it extended a bit into the Fall. What a fun summer it was! So much to post but I think I'll just start with Halloween.
I was a little too ambitious for my sewing skill level in my attempt to make homemade Halloween costumes. Sammy wanted to be Ariel and we already had a costume, so that became the theme for our family. So I had her costume taken care of, I bought a lobster costume online for Taylor so she could be Sebastian, and then I thought I could make mine and Dave's costumes. I was going to be Ursula the seawitch and Dave was King Triton!

It ended up turning out okay! I was happy and I think if there was an award for best dressed family, I think we would have won! It was fun dressing up together. I don't know if I'll do it again next year, or ever again. It was hard because again, my craftiness only extends so far until it's very hard and stressful to try and make something from reading instructions from another blog. At least it turned out okay, because if it hadn't, and I'd spent all that time in making them, I would have been mad!! I have had plenty of unsuccessful attempts of making other projects, and I didn't want this one to go the same way.
The same week of Halloween I was in charge of Joyschool and had to put on a Halloween party with all the kids. It was really fun and we had a costume parade with all the kids. Sammy loves being in Joyschool with all her friends!
Hope you all had a great Halloween this year!

4th of July!

2011-07-05T12:06:00.000-07:00

It's always nice to have a beautiful sunny day for the 4th of July in Oregon! It doesn't always happen but yesterday it did! The whole weekend was quite nice weather wise. We spent a lot of time downtown hanging out at different water fountains and Saturday's Market. Yesterday for the 4th we went hiking in the morning at Silver Creek Falls. What a beautiful place to be. It was only the second time I had ever been there. Because we had two kids hiking we didn't go too far but enjoyed the waterfalls and playing in the water for a couple of hours.
Afterwards we went to the Bell's house and celebrated the rest of the day with birthday cake, delicious food, water fights, motorcycle rides, fireworks, and good friends and family. Happy 4th to Everyone! God Bless America!

Preschool Performace

2011-06-26T11:25:00.000-07:00

This last year Sammy got to attend the Westside Academy Dance Preschool which she loved. She was so happy to go to Preschool where she did Gymnastics and Tap Dance two days a week. It was so fun for me to have her there just as much as she loved it. At the end of the year they do a dance performance, and yesterday it was at the Newmark Theater downtown. Sam was all dressed up in her dance outfit and her Preschool group did a dance during the performance. It was such a proud moment for Dave and me, and we loved watching her up there dancing and singing! So proud of our Sammy!

catching up

2011-05-24T13:46:00.000-07:00

Well usually I'm good at posting a bunch of pictures when a lot is happening, and lazy when I don't have much to post, but lately I have been lazy in both respects. So instead of recapping all the pictures from Easter, and Mother's Day, I think I will just start from this last weekend, which was so much fun for us!
Dave participated in his first ever 100 mile bike ride from Beaverton to Pacific City on Saturday. Luckily for us, our friends have an aunt who let us stay at their beach house which was literally down the street from the finish line! So Sam, Taylor and I drove to the beach on Friday with our friends the Montgomery's and the Cinquinni's came later that night. We were there waiting for Dave when he crossed the finish line! We spent two nights hanging out playing on the beach a lot where it DID NOT rain on us at all (pretty unbelievable for Oregon weather) and we had sooooo much fun. Dave finished his race in about 6 1/2 hours and was pretty tired afterward. He even shaved his legs, arms, head, and face for the event. I have never seen him so hairless!
It was a very enjoyable weekend with good food and great friends! So much fun for us.

Great Minds Think Alike!

2011-04-14T14:39:00.001-07:00

So I was talking to my sister the other day complaining about how I wish I had more Gospel resources to use to teach my kids with, especially for Family Home Evening. Buying church materials is expensive!! I remember growing up my mom had a felt board with felt stories she would use, and I really liked that. So I looked online to see about buying some felt stories, and if you buy them as a set they are $150!! So I had to scrap that idea, way too expensive, and started looking for tutorials and such, and I found this ladies website where she downloaded all this LDS clipart, colored the pictures using her computer program, put them together in a printable format, and put them on her blog to share with everyone! I got so excited and was telling my sister all about it, thinking I'm amazing for finding her website, and she was like "that's funny, I found the same site and am working on doing the same thing for our ward!" It was funny that we would both be working on the same project from something we found online without talking about it first....except she is doing it for her ward, and I am just doing it for myself!
I thought it was a great idea for Family Home Evenings to get Sammy interested in Scripture stories, and making it easy to understand. A short story with pictures..perfect! She put up stories from the Book of Mormon, Old and New Testament, and Church history stuff! I am almost done with my stories, I just have to find a cute way to make my felt board! The other great thing....Joann's has all their felt on sale this week too! It's my first project of the year! Finally!
You can find this ladies blog here
Here are just a couple of my stories that I've already finished! The Stripling Warriors, and Daniel and King Nebuchadnezzar

Extreme Couponing!

2011-04-07T10:58:00.000-07:00

So I promise that I'm not sitting around watching tv all the time, but when I saw the previews for this show I knew I HAD to watch it! In the last couple of years I have been trying to get into clipping coupons and saving money. I think I was motivated by two things: One, well of course it was out of necessity. Food is expensive (even more so today) and not having a lot of money forced me to try and save money on food. And lets be honest, I don't think a rich person would automatically say "hmmm I think I'll start couponing today" because it is a lot of work. My second motivation was my sister in law Hilary. I almost think that she should be on this show because she is amazing at finding a great deal. She could probably come out of Target with two carts full of toys and clothes and spend $20! which is exactly what these women on TLC's Extreme Couponing do!! Man they have it down to a science! One lady's grocery total was over $1000 and she ended up paying like $2!! Okay I could NOT spend 4-5 hours a day on the computer looking for coupons, going dumpster diving for coupons with my young child, or spend 5-6 hours in the supermarket gathering all my deals and stacking my coupons! What?? It was fascinating to watch, and I felt like I related to some of these women (and 1 man) because it does give you a high to go grocery shopping and saving 87% on your bill! Yes that is my highest amount ever!
In recent months I haven't been as diligent with couponing, but after watching this show I feel a bit re-motivated about it all, not to go to the extent that they do, but to get what a need, and maybe a LITTLE extra. Because the biggest thing that I HATE HATE HATE about couponing is when you go to allll the work of putting all your coupons together and matching up sales with coupons, which takes a lot of time, and you finally get to the store at the time of day when your kids are the most happy, and you're ready to get all your stuff, and it's alllll gone because the other crazy coupon lady decided she need the entire shelf of bathroom tissue, soap, crackers, etc. leaving nothing for the rest of us! I guess I'm just not the early bird, because there are too many times where I have not gotten the worm and I just get frustrated That's my biggest hang up, but maybe if I get a little crazy about it too, I might get more lucky!

Confession

2011-04-05T12:52:00.000-07:00

People who know me, know that I love the Musicals. I have also occasionally watched and episode of Grey's Anatomy here and there (mostly the older episodes). But I heard they were doing a musical episode and figured I would watch, not expecting much because seriously, a drama medical tv show singing over dead bodies? The only medical show to ever pull off a great musical episode was let me hear it...The "Scrubs" musical episode. Funny...."Everything comes down to poo! From the top of your head, to the sole of your shoe...our number one test is your number 2!"....even my Dad enjoyed that one.
The Grey's Anatomy musical extravaganza was a bit weird to watch as I expected. The main reason I wanted to see it was that Sara Ramirez who plays one of the doctors on the show played the lady of the Lake in the original broadway play "Spamalot" and she has an amazing voice, so I wanted to hear her. The very last song of the show she sang was amazing. It was worth sitting through the whole show to listen to her sing that song. So good! Listen...

Taylor's 1st Birthday!

2011-04-03T14:08:00.001-07:00

Has it been a year already? (at least it feels that long since the last time I did any blogging). Getting through January (and February for that matter) was a big struggle, and I know that it's due mostly to the weather. But it is finally April and things are looking up!
Taylor's 1st birthday was this week on March 29th!! The year has definitely gone by pretty fast. She has grown rapidly, although she was pretty huge to begin with. At a year old she is a spunky, fun kid, but a little timid. She still refuses to fully walk but she has been perfectly capable since at least 10 months old. She doesn't even like to ride in the swing at the park, and yet Sammy is on the big slide going down backwards head first! But she is very sweet and loves attention! She loves to put things on her head, yet she won't wear a headband and her hair is still so short people think she looks like a boy. oh well, I think this year will be a big one for her hair.
Last weekend we went down to Salem and had a birthday party for her with the Demcaks. She got her very own mini cake from Nana that was delicious. She took the huge frosting flower and stuffed it right in her face.

On Tuesday for her birthday, we ended up going to the new Pizza place in town that has an all you can eat buffet of pizza, salads, pasta, soup, desserts, and you can choose from a bunch of different themed rooms to eat in. Then there is another area for playing games, riding rides, and winning tickets for prizes. It was nice to go there and not have to worry about making food and a cake at home. Low stress for me! It's a really fun place to go, and it's now the second time we've gone! Mark and Tracee and Doreen came to our party too which was nice to celebrate with friends and family. Taylor made a big mess of herself by taking the plate of food, most of which was covered in chocolate cake and put it on her head smearing the chocolate and mandarin oranges all through her hair. Whaddya do, it was her birthday and she loved it! The only hard part was that she was sick and so she was a bit cranky. I found out the next day that she had a viral infection and got red spots all over her body. Poor kid to be sick on her birthday.
Happy birthday to our funny Tebow!

Funny Article

2011-01-20T17:02:00.000-08:00

There is a funny article online at salon.com about Mormon Mommy Blogs.
http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/01/15/feminist_obsessed_with_mormon_blogs

I have to say I am one of those that can sit around for hours reading these perfect blogs and thinking "I need to be like that!" I need to be able make a cute girls dress out of a mans shirt, and fashion new clothes out of cute fabrics, make anthropologie necklaces, and quilt blankets...all the time...believe I have tried, and keep trying to do and make all these things, but it does feel overwhelming. I wish it came naturally to me as it does these ladies. The reason why I read these blogs is to copy THEIR ideas! I don't think I've ever crafted one thing that isn't a knock off of someone else's! Which I am totally fine with, at least I made something, and that feels rewarding to me.
I can relate to what the lady says in the article about feeling 'pressure' to be perfect. I love Utah and it's where I grew up, but I have to say I felt A LOT more pressure to be perfect when I was living there, especially after getting married. That is one of the big things I love about living in Oregon. I don't feel the pressure like I did before, that I had to be perfect and take perfect care of my kids and husband. But I do still try hard here to do better each day, and will continue to try and be crafty and try to love cooking more, and I would LOVE to go back to Utah, but for now I can dream of one day where I might have a perfect day where I cook all three meals, take perfect pictures of my kids, keep my house in pristine condition, take meals to 3 families, and design and make children's clothes....just for one day I will be perfect!...no probably not, but I'm okay with that! :)

January...bleh

2011-01-18T15:48:00.001-08:00

Well I have been slow at blogging lately. Something about the busy time of Christmas and the long drag of January makes it so I don't want to do anything beyond what I have to. This is why resolutions are hard for me. I keep making them every year which I think is good, because if I stopped doing that, then I would be in a lot more trouble. Isn't January the worst? And it's not the funnest when every single day it just keeps raining. I am excited about the prospect of a new year and new challenges, opportunities, adventures.
Things I'm excited to see and look forward to in 2011: Allison coming home from her mission to Panama, a family vacation that isn't Utah, Idaho, or the coast....hmmmm where to go, Disneyland would be fun!, hopefully a new (and higher paying) job for Dave??? please please please, Taylor turning 1!, what?! Samantha turning 4!! Me turning twenty something, paying off more debt! getting in touch with my craftier side (or trying) with my new crafty tool I got for Christmas....The Silhouette!, Dave's 100 mile bike ride, and so many more things. I'm sure it will be another exciting year!
Here are some Christmas pics from our trip to Utah (with Dave!) this year. Good Times!

I Am The Biggest Loser!

2011-01-04T12:40:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year!
New Year. New Resolutions. New TV shows!!
Isn't everyone's resolution EVERY YEAR to lose a few lbs.??
Well now you can watch my friend Sarah do that on National Television!!

One of my best friends growing up is on Season 11 Biggest Loser!! Woo hoo go Sarah!
It's not surprising to see her on TV, she just has one of those great personalities perfect for tv! And now she is really going out of her comfort zone by sharing her emotional struggles with weight, getting pregnant and having miscarriages, and wearing a sports bra with tight shorts on a national television show! Wow. I couldn't do that. Some of the news tv shows like Access Hollywood are calling her "The Woman to Watch"!
Watch Sarah and her mom compete on the Biggest Loser that starts tonight on NBC!

GOOOOO SARAHHHHH!!

Thanksgiving weekend!

2010-12-07T11:32:00.000-08:00

The weekend of Thanksgiving was fun this year! My sister Angie was taking a road trip with her son Caden down to California and made a stop up here for Thanksgiving and fun on the coast! It was so nice for me to have some of my family for Thanksgiving! After dinner we drove to Lincoln City and stayed at this lodge right on the coast for 3 nights. Angie and I of course had to go to the outlet mall there and do some midnight-3:30 a.m. shopping, and it was great because it was not nearly as busy as it was last year when we all went up to Park City. And this year we actually found things we wanted to buy!
We hung out relaxing...well most of us did. Dave was in a lot of pain because he played in the turkey bowl and he fell into the end zone with the ball going into his chest. A week later we found out he had broken two ribs! I think he has met his quota of injuries for the rest of the year! No more biking until January. He is pretty grumpy about that. Riding the bus isn't nearly as fun!
Other than that we had great fun eating at Mo's, going to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, swimming, hanging out at the beach, and waking up to Angie pacing the floor repeating the words "block the kick, block the kick, block the kick!" (referring to the BYU Utah game). It wasn't televised in Oregon and the only way we were following it was through Angie's phone. Then Caden yells "They blocked it they blocked it!" And we all jumped around the room, well mostly Angie and Caden did! Ah, sweet victory! I think this was the real reason they won.

We found these Utah shirts RANDOMLY at the Old Navy outlet on the Oregon Coast with only their sizes left. It must have been destiny!
Angie took some great family pictures for us, which we desperately needed. She is a fabulous photographer and these are some of my favorites!

And a couple funny things from our fun weekend!

Happy Birthday!

2010-11-13T10:58:00.000-08:00

What an exciting weekend! It is always busy because we celebrated Dave's 31st Birthday yesterday and today is our 6 year anniversary! How the time has flown by!
I was trying to find something I could make that would be a little more sentimental for his birthday/our anniversary and I found a cute paper chandelier tutorial online and thought "that's what I will do!" It took FOREVER to make, but I love how it turned out. I hung pictures of us from the last 6+ years together. Good memories. And Dave liked it so it made me happy! He had both Thursday and Friday off work so we have been able to hang out a lot, which has been nice. Yesterday for breakfast we went and got Sesame Donuts and chocolate milk! Dave love loves Round Table (for whatever reason) so since it was his birthday, we went there for lunch and had all you can eat pizza! After we went and saw the movie "Megamind" which we thought was pretty good, but we realized why we don't really go out to movies these days. One, waaaaayyyy tooo expensive! And we didn't even see it in 3D. Two, it's hard to keep a toddler in her chair during an hour and a half movie. It was still fun though. That night we had cake and ice cream and opened some much needed birthday presents. Ya know...body wash, chocolate, shaving cream, aftershave...good stuff like that.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE, WE LOVE YOU!!

And HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TODAY! I can't believe it's been 6 years, but they have been great! I am grateful everyday to have found the perfect guy who treats me so well and takes care of our whole family. Love you!

HALLOWEEN!

2010-10-31T19:11:00.000-07:00

First of all, this little movie is something my family always watched every Halloween, because my dad grew up watching it too! It's the Donald Duck Trick or Treat video with the witch, and I love it! Sammy and I were watching it over and over the other day while making sugar cookies. That and the Bing Crosby narrated "Ichabod Crane"...another goodie.

Happy Halloween! Not much to say, just a lot of fun. This year Sam was a ladybug and Taylor was a Flower. Both very cute. Sam had a fun party at her Preschool where they danced around the gym in their costumes, went trick-or-treating to all the teachers, sang songs for all the parents, and ate candy! She loved it, and it was so much fun watching her.

Friday night we had our Ward Halloween Party which is always fun, and they did the trunk or treat, which I love, and Sam went trick-or-treating again with her friend Cara, who was dressed up as Simba!

Then on Saturday, we went down to Salem to celebrate an early birthday for Dave with his family, and we took Sam to their ward Halloween party, where they had another trunk-or-treat, and it was huge! I think it was a stake trunk-or-treat or something. So Sam has plenty of candy, and I don't feel bad about not taking her out tonight.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!!

Another pumpkin patch..this time without too much incident

2010-10-25T15:26:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weeks have been fun for Sam at Preschool. A couple of weeks ago they went to a fire station, which I could not accompany her on that trip, but she came home raving about the 'big fireman' wearing her red hat.

Then last Thursday we went to the Baggensto's Pumpkin Patch in Sherwood. We road on a big wagon pulled by one of those big Jon Deere trucks. it took us to a big pumpkin patch with TONS of pumpkins. It proved a little tricky for Sam to walk around and not trip on a pumpkin every few steps. They also showed us they grow potatoes and even gave us some to take home! Sam, Taylor and I had tons of fun, and were happy not to be rained on!

I am especially happy today, because our Primary Program is over!! I was in charge of writing and organizing it this year, and I let it stress me out just a little bit. Luckily I had a Chorister who kept me sane and is so good about not stressing about things! (wish I was like that!) Our program went over really well yesterday and I am so proud of all those little kids who worked so hard. They got to see me stand in the overflow in the gym with these big elephant ears to get them to sing louder for our very last song. I know I looked a bit silly, but they sang really well. Needless to say, I took a nice nap yesterday after church. And today is the first day I haven't had a headache in a while. So nice. I think it will be a lazy week.

The hits keep on coming

2010-10-11T22:14:00.000-07:00

The day started and ended well. What a beautiful day it was today, and being a holiday and the fact that he works for a bank, Dave got the day off so we decided to take advantage of that and go to the Lakeview Farms in North Plains. What a fun place! We have never been there before. We got tickets to take the train to the pumpkin patch and Sam made a new friend. There was another little girl her same age named Sophia, so from the first 5 minutes we were there we made new friends that we got to hang out with the whole time. Fun for us, and for Sam. We all went and picked our pumpkins, took pictures, and then we rode the ferry back. It was when we got back that the trouble started.

Sam was playing on the gravel with her friend and like she is good at, she tripped and fell splitting her head open. I'm actually a little surprised this is the first time since she has started walking that we have had to take her to the insta care. She falls, A LOT. So we said our short goodbyes to our new friends and went to two different places in North Plains to try and get help but ended up driving back home to an emergent care place in Portland.

Luckily she didn't need stitches but will definitely have a little scar. Just a little antiseptic, and some medical glue and we were all set. Our first family trip to the insta care!
Like I said the night ended well. For family night we carved our pumpkins we picked today! Sammy and I worked on her pumpkin. She said she wanted a princess so we did Snow White! We could find Princess Belle, but Snow White was good. Dave even cooked the pumpkin seeds and they are delicious. I guess the only thing we didn't do was save the mush for pumpkin pie!

what...is...happening??

2010-09-30T19:09:00.000-07:00

I leave the red eyes because this picture is like a representation of what has been going on around here lately. It's a crazy eyes look with "I'm about to get upset and start crying!" look

It's been a weird few weeks. Maybe I deserve this for complaining about a resident I don't know but it's almost like bad karma. The last few weeks have been more difficult. It first started with a nasty toilet Dave had to deal with in one of our apartments....fun for him! Then like the very next day he got in a bike accident when his bike got all jammed up and he went flying 10 feet from his bike, but thankfully not into traffic. He has a lot of scabs, and got a very bruised shoulder, elbow, and wrist having to wear a sling for a few days. Then me, Sam, and Taylor all got really bad colds and were sick for a week. Then Dave got it and got a really bad cough, and then gave it to me. Then I hurt my back AGAIN and can't play soccer. I've had some back pain on and off for the last few years but in the last month and a half, it has been pretty horrible where I can't even stand up straight. It took a lot of nudging from Dave for me to go and see a chiropractor, and having my legs keep giving out on me from just taking a walk. A couple of appointments later, and an xray, at least it's not surgical! I have to wear a heel lift in my right shoe because it's a little shorter for now, and am not supposed to pick up my fat baby...yeah right. I've been lying on the couch alot.
Then with my bad back, tonight I drove with the girls to pick Dave up from work and on the way home...BAM!...got rear-ended!! I have never been in a car accident before! It's true what they say about accidents, it's like they happen in slow motion! I saw her coming in my rearview mirror and she was not paying attention! And then whack. I was shaking for about an hour afterward, and was worried about the girls in the back seat. Sam was fine, but Taylor started crying. I think it startled her a bit, as it did all of us. So now we have to deal with that.

So I can't complain too much, because nobody died or got a serious illness or anything. It's just been a difficult few weeks. I hate feeling gimpy and lazy, and not being able to play soccer.
There have been highlights too though. We took the two girls to an OSU football game a couple weeks ago along with a couple of friends, and it was a lot of fun, despite the buckets of rain that fell on us. Sam made Dave the proudest dad in the world when she was cheering throughout the whole game saying "Go Beavers!"

she was very proud of her tatoo as well, and wasn't too happy when I removed it for church the next day.
I also went to a fun baby shower for my friend Sofie who just had her 2nd baby a few days ago! I felt so Portlandy....party at a Teahouse, eating delicious vegan desserts, and wearing skinny jeans. ha! It was great

Congrats Sofie on your beautiful baby boy!

And in an effort to relieve some of my back pain, and give me some sanity, I bought this little gem off Craigslist for CHEAP for Taylor to bounce and play in. So far she hasn't completely warmed up to it yet, but she is getting there! She is 6 months old now as of yesterday! The time is flying by.
Hopefully the next few days start looking up! I know. Our insurance will cover a brand new car for us after our accident tonight!! :).....wishful thinking.

Sometimes......

2010-09-06T16:50:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I just hate being an apartment manager! So much so that I will even post something on Facebook about it...and I never post anything on facebook!
Ugh, today was the Second time one of my residents yelled at me. So this person paid his rent late today, and as per the Rental Agreement, you pay late, you get a $50 late fee...BLACK AND WHITE! I checked my box this morning around 9ish and his check wasn't there. We left and did some shopping, come home, check the box, and it's there but without the late fee. So I called him telling him that today was the 6th and he would have to pay a late fee. "What!! That is ridiculous, it's a holiday weekend, the check won't even show up today, I didn't want to wake you up by bringing it by at midnight last night (yeah that was a good one), you're just being arbitrary, I'm on a fixed income (always love that one)!" etc etc etc....I was trying to be as professional as possible stating "I understand but your rental agreement says....you are responsible"...but he kept yelling at me like I'm singling him out to pay a late fee. So I start to get upset and am like "please don't yell at me, I will talk to my manager and see if he wants to overturn your appeal, but I will not hear from him until tomorrow so I will let you know TOMORROW!" pause: ya know how you start to get upset when someone is yelling at you and you are trying not to yell back at them but your voice starts to quiver and get shaky?...yeah that was me.
So he keeps yelling at me and then says "what are you trying to put on a performance right now for your husband?" and by that time, I was DONE talking to him. "LOOK, SIR, you are NOT listening to me and I CANNOT talk to you anymore so when I hear back from my managaer I WILL LET YOU KNOW!!....and then I hung up on him...........*sigh*
what a jerk. People just pay your rent on time

Ahhhhh I feel better.

Oh yeah this is what we did this weekend. Baseball. Free. Fireworks. Friends. Transvestite. Fight. Fun!

Where's the Cheese?

2010-08-30T16:58:00.001-07:00

Ya know how you reach the end of summer and then ask yourself "what have I done this summer?" and then get this desire to go on a trip? That was us this weekend. We haven't seen Dave's sister Kristin and her family pretty much the whole summer so we went with them and Tracee to Tillamook on Saturday. It was fun although I had problems with the drive because my back still hurts. We went first to the Tillamook Cheese Factory. Did you know it takes 10 pounds of milk to make a block of cheese? It is kind of fascinating watching all the factory workers processing these HUGE blocks of cheese and breaking them down into small blocks. And of course you can't go to the cheese factory without getting some ice cream. Cookies and cream, and strawberry cheesecake...yum!
After we went to the coast and it was sunny for about half the time we were there. Then it got a bit windy and cloudy, but at least we did have some sun and it was still enjoyable! There was this big cliff and at the bottom there was this long dark tunnel you could walk through to get to the other side. It was weird how the weather was very different and a lot more windy on one side than on the other.
It was nice to get one last beach trip in before the end of summer and go with fun people.

Last week we also started some solid foods for Taylor. I think she is going through some growth spurt or something (I mean is that even possible?) because she is wanting to eat at all hours of the night. It is still so funny to see babies eat foods for the first time and how fascinated they are by the spoon! funny kid

On Friday Sammy's cousin Eric came up to play for the day while everyone helped Tracee move to her new abode. It was a fun day going to lunch with Lacey and making sugar cookies! I found some really cute alphabet cookie cutters at a garage sale that are from Williams Sonoma. I told Dave we have finally made it because we now own something from Williams Sonoma, we have moved to middle class! :)

All in all it was a fun weekend! And, my soccer team won the championship this season! woo hoo!

Oi! My back

2010-08-26T22:56:00.000-07:00

This week has been fun...but very painful. I have realized that I am an old lady because last week I threw my back out! And a few hours later played a double header with my co-ed soccer team! Looking back I probably shouldn't have done that. I took the two girls to a parade last Saturday and went to pick up Taylor...and zing! Wow I have a really bad back, although have you seen the size of that baby lately?! It's no wonder I threw my back out. So this week I have been so sore and in a lot of pain, but have still been trying to keep moving. I think I need a couple of really good days to rest my back.
I still tried to do some fun things with the girls this week. I took the girls to the zoo the other day because it was the baby elephants birthday! We were sitting down for the bird show they were putting on, and they have the birds fly across the audience to a podium. Well this one big hawk missed his mark and went into a tree, where a lady was sitting under and was about to eat her lunch. Right as she is about to take a bite, plop! The hawk aimed a deuce all over this lady and her food! It was so sad, but I could not stop laughing!! poor lady.

The next day we went to a fun lunch with some ladies in the ward. We hung out eating, while all the kiddos ran around playing. It was so much fun and even the babies had a party hanging out together lying on a blanket. There's something so rejuvenating about hanging out with women and jabbering! Fun!

And last week Sammy got a haircut that she was in desperate need of. Now she has a cute little bob!

Goings on!

2010-08-12T11:35:00.000-07:00

I feel like we have been really busy doing stuff the last few weeks, or maybe I have just not been able to organize my time enough to blog about it. But have been doing fun things.
A couple of weeks ago we went to downtown Portland on a Friday night and they had the "flicks on the bricks" where they showed "The Three Amigos" on a huge screen right in the middle of the square! It was so much fun and there were tons of people. Of course! It's a classic! We also went to the Washington County Fair, and Sammy was all dressed up in her pink cowboy hat and pink cowboy boots!

We also had these ginormous corn dogs that were delicious! And yes we did eat the whole thing!

Taylor has hit the 4 1/2 months old mark. Wow time is flying by! And she is still as huge as ever, and just as sweet and cuddly. Her favorite place to be is in the baby bjorn sling and she is as happy as can be! And that is probably the easiest place for her to fall asleep too. Last weekend we went to the Bite of Oregon downtown and Dave had her strapped on to his chest. He noticed there was a lady across the way that was secretly taking pictures of her, because she had fallen asleep and looked so cute. Dave caught her eye and she finally came over almost crying saying what a beautiful baby she was! It was a little crazy, and she may have been a little drunk too.

Lately with Sam I have been trying to find a Preschool which has been crazy! One, because she's old enough to be in Preschool, and two, it's hard to find a Preschool that isn't $800 a month! Ridiculous. Unfortunately we are in the bracket of making too much money to get any scholarships or financial assistance, but we don't make enough to afford these outrageous tuition costs! And I'm really not interested in a co-op right now because I have another kid and half the reason I want her in a preschool is to have a little time to get other things done and errands run while she gets to have fun.....sigh....I think I've found a good place though, but it is a little expensive. We'll see.

Nostalgia

2010-08-09T19:45:00.000-07:00

The other day I went to a community garage sale with a couple of my friends. I have mentioned this before but I LOVE garage sales! Oregon has great community garage sales every summer and I love going to them and finding great stuff for really cheap. This summer, a bunch of brand new outfits for $1 a piece, many including Janie and Jack brands, a $150 brand new kitchen aid blender for $20, tons of kid books, a big bin of the entire alphabet cookie cutters from Williams Sonoma, and the other day I found a movie that I have always wanted but could never remember the name of it. Growing up as a kid we had many movies recorded onto our VHS blank tapes, and on one such tape we had the Mickey mouse cartoon of Jack and the Beanstalk! I looooovvvveed it! And the other day I found it for $1 brand new in it's package! Apparently the name of the movie is "Fun and Fancy Free!" I was so excited! Okay it was a VHS, but that's all we have is a VHS player because our DVD player is broken. I know, we are so behind the times....we don't even have a flat screen tv! Anyway, when I brought it home I sat down and watched the entire movie sitting in front of the tv with Sam just like a little kid! It made me so happy, and I love the song from the beginning of movie that the lady harp sings "what a beautiful day!" I could wake up everyday to that song! It makes me smile and I hope it makes you smile too!
Now I just need to find "Lambert the Sheepish Lion!"

The Birthday Girl!

2010-07-21T21:33:00.000-07:00

Wow has it really been 3 years?! This kid has grown up very quickly! Here she was with her cute self at the beginning of the day, before the messy chocolate cupcakes and ice cream!

This year I tried to be a crafty mom so for her birthday I made her the skirt she is wearing from a cute online tutorial found Here. Then I just appliqued the 3 onto a plain white t-shirt, and lastly I made a hair clippy with tulle and a polka dot button. I thought she looked pretty adorable.
We had a fun birthday. For lunch Dave and I took her to the Burger King by our house where they have a HUGE playplace that she enjoyed for a long time. She received many phone calls from friends and family wishing her Happy Birthday which was very nice. In the evening, we had a party at the park and many of our good friends and family showed up! It was so nice to have so many people come out and support Sammy on her birthday. She loved opening presents, playing with her little friends, and trying to crack open the princess tiara pinata. It was pretty durable! Thanks to everyone for the fabulous presents!

Sam is a wonderful child and I am so grateful to be her mom. Ever since she was born she has been our little miracle, blessing baby. She is fun to be around, and a great big sister. She always gives Taylor kisses, tells her stories, and sings to her when she is upset. I look forward to another fabulous year with her!

The embroidered apron I made for her!

Family Pictures

2010-07-12T15:45:00.001-07:00

Well there was one day where we were all, for the most part, pretty cleaned up looking nice, so we thought we'd better take full advantage of it by taking some family pictures, mostly with Grandparents. I mean c'mon, when you're at the cabin you're roughing it. There's one bathroom to share between EVERYONE! Natalie and I were talking and figured both of us took 3 showers each in the week and one day that we were at the cabin! ahhh....Greasy!
Since having Taylor, we haven't had a family picture yet, and I figured I would take one even if it was just me and the girls. Eventually I will get one taken with Dave too, since he is a pretty important part of the fam, but for now at least I was able to get one okay pic with the girls and Sam not doing her fake smile.

Princess Belle Tea Party

2010-07-12T15:06:00.000-07:00

Every year since I can remember that we have been going to the cabin, we also make the trip into West Yellowstone to see a play at the PlayMill, which is a very popular place. Some of the plays I have enjoyed there over the years have included "Oklahoma" "7 Brides for 7 Brothers" "Joseph" "Into the Woods" and a personal favorite "The Robber Bridegroom":) and many others. This year they did "Beauty and The Beast" which they have never done before. Wow! It was great! My Dad especially loved it because he said "In the 39 years I've been coming to the Playmill, this is their best performance!" That is saying a lot for my dad! It really was a great show.
Since we all have smaller children, it makes it hard to take everyone to a play together without a few people spending most of the time in the hallway, so this year we split it up a bit. Natalie and I took Annie and Sam to the early show while Mom and Dad watched the other kids. I knew Sammy liked it because she actually stayed in her seat the entire show, which has never happened before, however since we were in the front row, she did get very nervous and a little scared each time the Beast came to our side of the stage, or the wolves that would attack Belle. They were a little scary! The costumes were awesome, the performances were fabulous, and what a fun girls night out with the girls!
What made it even more fun was before the play started, they had a Princess Belle Tea Party you could go to, and of course Natalie and I had to take Sam and Annie. The had Belle dressed in her beautiful yellow dress welcoming all the girls. She wanted to get to know everyone so they stood in a circle and passed a flower around. When the music stopped, whoever had the flower was supposed to say their name, where their kingdom was, and their favorite color. Well the first person it stopped on was of course Sam (she was by far the youngest girl there). And Belle asks her name and she says "Red!" Well everyone starts giggling because it was so cute, but she got so embarrassed and started crying. I pretty much had to stay by her for the rest of the party. But she still enjoyed it. The girls got to sit at a little table, and were served cupcakes and lemonade by Belle's assistants, and Belle serendaded the girls with a song. At the end, she gave each "princess" a crown and took pictures.
It was so fun and girly, and I think Annie and Sam both enjoyed it a lot! The few weeks leading up to it Sam would ask everyday "When are we going to have the Princess Belle tea Party with Annie?" It was some fun.

Dancing!

2010-07-11T22:12:00.001-07:00

During the week at the cabin, I realized we have a family full of dancing fools! The nice thing is that we aren't afraid to shake a little tail, when the occasion calls for it!
As I said earlier, I don't think I ever need to watch "Hairspray" again after the many times that kids kept playing it! But it does have a lot of catchy tunes, some better than others :) and the kiddos loved dancing to the up-beat rhythm of many of the songs. Combine that with a little ice cream, some root beer, m&m's, and licorish, then there's a full blown dance party going on. The kids went crazy and it was pretty funny watching each kid's own interpretation of what dance is!

Okay okay I lied....I will watch "Hairspray" again somedayand just not in the near future. For anyone that knows me, it's true I love my showtunes!

Then there was the Ho-down at the rodeo we went to! I forgot how much rodeo's can be, it has been a long time for me. After the rodeo where they did some amazing tricks on horses, roped cows, and did some bull riding, they served us some delicious food, steak and chicken, taters, beans, and cobbler! After all that food, it wasn't just the dj that was making music! :)
All the kids had fun dancing again with Grandma and Grandpa learning to line dance, and enjoying a good time. I think for me, it was the highlight of the week. It's nice when you can get together with your family and act crazy and dance all together! I am a little sad I lost a burp rag that went to soaking up Caden's blood-stained face. Thanks a lot Caden! :) side note: he is fine, just reckless!

The Cabin

2010-07-07T23:44:00.001-07:00

How nice it was to spend just over a week up at the cabin this year! In all honesty I am a bit surprised I was able to even go, we weren't sure if we would make it. Unfortunately not all of us did. Dave could only stay for the wedding and had to boogey back to Oregon for work (including doing all the managing apartments stuff as well, which beginning of the month meant RENT!) fun for him. Natalie's hubby was not able to go either, because being a Secret Service agent he was probably guarding someone VERY important. And then of course we were missing our missionary sister Allison who is in Panama! She now has less than a year left! We didn't expect Ben and Hilary to be able to make it, but since his company didn't go on strike, they were able to be there too.

Since I have about a million of pictures from last week, I think I have to split up my blog posts so I can fit more pictures in.

Some things I learned from last weeks adventures...I love to get crafty with my sisters, I never knew beading was so much fun, and how relaxing embroidery can be oddly enough. A buzz lightyear can be a VERY hot commodity around kids, I HATE the windy stairs now that I have children, Sam is much more clumsy than I thought (hmmmm), Logan is the definition of a Boy, and he can't take a bad picture!(wait and see :) Natalie needs to stretch her legs more (pulled a hamstring while running after a steer!) Ethan was so close to walking, but I'm sure by now he is, I HATE whining even more than I did before, you think your sister Angie loves you and then flubs your attempt at "shooting the moon", Caden is out to get me :), The Playmill keeps getting better and better, there is absolutely no doubt who the FAVORITE aunt is now, ANGIE! Thanks a lot now I have to work even harder. There really is no competition to her. They all wanted to drive in her car through Yellowstone and on the way she taught them all the song "Home on the Range" or as Sam likes to call it, "the deer song!"....ya know... "where the DEER and the antelope play!" She now walks around the apartment all day singing it.....
A few other things...I still hate mosquitos, and sunburns, love 4th of July homemade chocolate ice cream and fireworks (courtesy of Ben and Hilary and ice cream by Nat), don't like 5 hour car rides with a 3 month old, wish Mack's Inn still had penny candy, annual cabin movies include "Last of the Mohicans" "Galaxy Quest" and "1776"....but where was "The Three Amigos" and "The Court Jester???!" Movies to take off the cabin list and don't think I ever need to watch again include "Monsters vs. Aliens" "Hairspray" and "Finding Nemo"...too many times little children. Love the excitement of a nighttime float in the dark from Big Springs to the cabin, without a flashlight you never know what is stomping in the trees on the banks of the river! Noticing the look of nastalgia cross my Dad's face over and over again, both my parents enjoying ALL their grandchildren together, and Mom's little tea parties every morning for breakfasts, savoring the tasty breakfasts at the cabin made by my Dad...bacon, and eggs, and pancakes, all being made with bacon grease....mmmmm.... Trying to always appreciate the beauty of being up there, being grateful to my Grandparents for providing it, and enjoying the wildlife and my family...both pretty much the same thing! :)

Just a few pictures...more to come!

Lara's Wedding!

2010-07-06T23:01:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago was my beautiful cousin Lara's wedding! Dave and I were lucky to be able to go to the Temple to be at their sealing, and it was wonderful. The whole wedding was beautiful and I was so happy to be there with her. Growing up we always hung out during the summer vacations. We have always been close to the Taylor side of my family and have always enjoyed hanging out with all of them. I love Lara. Growing up I wanted to copy her in everything, clothing styles and hairstyles (I particulary loved the mushroom haircut!) :) We would pretend like we were twins all the time and even had a few matching outfits. I am so glad that she is married to a wonderful guy. They are a beautiful couple and I look forward to future double dates with them(if I ever get back to Utah). People know I am a homebody and I love when there are family get togethers. It's fun to catch up with family and see how they are doing. It helps that they are fun to be around as well. I love the Taylors (obviously enough that I named my second child after the family name!)

Dave and Scotty's missionary cutout. Dave has a love affair with him. He wants to be like Scotty when he grows up!

Strolling the Temple Grounds

I forget how beautiful the Salt Lake Temple is! Gorgeous

The Reception

My cousin Eric and his cute wife Jessica, whom Samantha attached herself to!

My friend Andy from High School and his (now) fiance Blair.

Our little surprised chubbo!

Angie and Me

Good Times

2010-06-17T21:06:00.001-07:00

We have had waaaayyyy too much rain lately, it is depressing! The other day I went to a meeting and on the way there was this huge downpour and just running from the car to the house made me look like I had just gotten out of the shower! We have had 4 inches of rain in June, and the previous record was 1 inch! At least we have had a couple of good days, and on those days we have taken advantage by spending time outside. Like another parade! Two weeks in a row.
Dave went on a father's and sons campout last Friday night so Saturday morning I decided to venture to downtown Portland and take the 2 girls by myself to the Rose festival parade, and I'm so glad I did. They were both great, and when we got there, Sam instantly made friends by walking up to a group of kids and saying "can I play with you?" When the parade started she was asking for her "super hooray bag" but they didn't throw candy at this parade, which is just as well. The parade started with a couple of cross-dressers, Cher and Reba Mcintyre...I don't remember seeing any cross-dressers open for the Pioneer Days parade in Utah...I guess it's just a Portland thing :) We had a good time and it was so nice to be outside again.

Monday night we decided to go pick Strawberries at Sauvie Island. We love strawberry picking time, and so does Sam, because Strawberries are probably her favorite thing in the world. As we were picking them, I kept telling Sam to pick them and put them in the box. She would pick them, but they never made it to the box. I'm not quite sure exactly how many she ate total. Let's just say when we got home to eat dinner, she wasn't hungry.
That night of course we made our strawberry jam, ate more fresh strawberries, and then made yummy crepes the next night for dinner. That is definitely one thing I really enjoy about Oregon, going to pick your own fresh delicious fruit for really cheap!

Here are just some other random pics from the last month I have been meaning to post.

her 2 month old pic. Super Baby!

Happy Faces! She has a very big happy smile!

Finally a Break in the Rain

2010-06-06T21:22:00.000-07:00

And what a perfect day to finally get some sunshine! The weather here has been absolutely dismal, but lucky for us, we had a very sunny day yesterday...and then of course today going to church, it was back to buckets of rain.
Friday night we drove down to Lebanon, Oregon with our good friends the Palomins to stay the night at Doreen's dad's house for the night. He is renting it out and it was empty so we slept on blow up mattresses for the night and there was no furniture, but we didn't need it. It is located in a very pretty part of Oregon up on the hill in Lebanon, and Sodaville, OR population: 303 In the mornings and evenings they have turkeys...that's right wild turkeys that walk through their yard up to the trees, and then back in the evening. A few came through in the early morning when we were there but I missed them because we were still sleeping.

We went to the Strawberry Festival down there, which included a huge parade in the morning of about 140 floats. Sam's favorite thing was collecting the fliers people would hand out and putting them in her "super hooray bag!" (she thought "parade" was "hooray") They also had the worlds largest strawberry shortcake there too, it was huge! And what's a festival without a carnival full of deep fried Snickers, popcorn, and a bunch of rides that Sam had so much fun riding.

We had a wonderful time with Robert, Doreen, and Jessica and hope that they still like us after spending and overnighter together! Good times!

Better than the Snuggie....if you catch my "Drift"!

2010-05-18T09:18:00.000-07:00

I saw something on tv the other day, and I couldn't stop giggling about it, but then I thought, "ya know maybe this is a real problem in marriages!"

It's the problem that no one seems to talk about and yet it is the cause of many "ripples" in marriages. Do YOU have a problem of "beeping your horn" too much at night? , "floating an air biscuit too much", or "letting out the mating call of the barking spider" too often? Well this is the product for you! Apparently marriages are being torn apart by this very problem. Husbands subjecting their wives to a "covered wagon", or "bum jiggler" while sleeping! How has it taken so long to find the solution! I don't think the Snuggie contains any activated carbon fabric to supress the aroma of a "bum trumpet"!
If this is a problem in your household, never fear, just look HERE and your problems will be solved!
You'd think that instead of offering only white or beige colors, they could even further their selling power with a nice "chocolate brown"!

This is serious stuff people it actually "Contains the same type of fabric used by the military to protect against chemical weapons"!!......CHEMICAL WEAPONS!

So if you don't want to "puff your magic dragon", "step on a duck", or "let out a beefer" while in the blissfull stream of your REM cycle that MAY drive your spouse away, this product is the SOLUTION for YOU!

I don't want to "toot my own horn" here but I can honestly say I don't think we have this problem. Dave is so much the gentlemen that he can even "hold it in" at night while sleeping. He has NEVER, I repeat, NEVER let out a fluff in front of me. Such a nice guy.

THIS IS THE ONLY LITTLE STINKER IN OUR BED RIGHT NOW!

A Big Day!

2010-05-02T23:28:00.000-07:00

Today was an exciting day because it was Taylor's blessing day and my birthday! I am starting to feel a bit old now with two kids, and closer to being 30 now than 20 years old. boo hoo.
Because we had Stake Conference today, obviously there was no church so we blessed her at the church at 5 p.m. and had a bunch of our friends and family come! It was awesome to see how many people support you when you have an important event or celebration in your family. And we had almost a full chapel with all the people that came! It started out going to be in the Bishop's office, then we moved to the Relief Society room, and then we went to the chapel since there were so many people. Dave of course did a great job with the blessing and we were happy to see family and friends help him out in the circle. After he was done, we went straight back to the gym and ate a bunch of food! It ended up working out perfectly. Originally the plan was to do it during church, but we didn't find out until after my parents booked their flights and my brother and his wife made their plans to drive up that we found out about Stake Conference. It worked out better ths way because we had so many people come there was no way we could have accommodated them in our tiny apartment, so it was convenient to have the church completely to ourselves where we could set up food and tables beforehand and then go straight to eating after the blessing, rather than wait for church to be over and for people to leave church to celebrate, or try cramming into our tiny apartment, it just wouldn't have worked. So...this time around I enjoyed the way it did work out and it worked very well. Thanks to everyone who came and supported our family.

It was very nice having my family in town, since I don't get to see them very often. Ben and his wife along with two kids drove all the way from Green River in the middle of the night to be here! And my parents flew in on Thursday to stay. How nice it has been to hang out with them for a few days and enjoy the sightseeing that Oregon has to offer including Cannon Beach, Lincoln City, Saturday's Market, the Children's Museum, and tomorrow 23rd Ave, Powell's Books, and of course Voodoo Doughnuts! It's been great having them here, and as always the time flies by too quickly. At least it will only be a couple of months until I get to go out to Utah....hopefully.

Easter weekend

2010-04-08T15:11:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would post a few more pictures from Easter this last Sunday. It was pretty low key of course and it was nice that it was also General Conference weekend. My mom was still in town and we had a little Easter Hunt in between Conference sessions. Sam had fun, and we figured we should dress her and Taylor up a bit since it was Easter. It was a good day, but also sad because my mom had to go home that day too. I am grateful she could stay as long as she could, and she was incredibly helpful to us. Thanks Mom!

Just a bunch of pics

2010-04-01T18:20:00.000-07:00

Since I don't have the patience or time to organize a bunch of pictures into a collage, (I tried to figure it out, and gave up after 5 mins) I figured I would just post a bunch of updated pictures from the last couple of days.
We got home from the hospital yesterday late afternoon and it was nice to be home. Luckily they didn't make me stay an extra day because of my complications. We were happy to be able to come home. Taylor is still an awesome baby and (no offense to Sam) is everything she wasn't. She loves to cuddle, sleeps alllll the time, and eats a ton! We still are trying to figure out who exactly she looks like. I see some Samantha in her, but I think she looks more Brewster-like. She is our little "chunky monkey" as we have been calling her and we love her tons!

Funny story: Yesterday I was feeding her on the couch and was in the middle of switching sides. Sam was paying attention to what I was doing and seemed a little curious about the whole thing. She came up to me as Taylor went to the other side, took her two little fingers and pinched me while saying "Beep Beep!!" It was a little painful but more hilarious than anything! ....funny kid!

My new Chunky Monkey

2010-03-30T15:43:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to quickly post some pics of our new baby girl! I have hardly had any time to do this, but figured I could get a few out there real quick.

Taylor Lynne Demcak was born March 29th 2010 at 1:15 p.m. weighing in at 9 lbs. 8 oz!!! (remember that she was almost a week late!) and 22 inches long. She is absolutely perfect and there were NO complications with her at all, and she's perfectly healthy. I had my own complications yesterday and had to go to the OR for a bit of surgery, but I will post more detailed information later about the whole event. I can't seem to have a baby without some drama.

I just wanted to post a few pictures real quick to just get her picture out there. Once I get a chance I will post some close up pics so you can see her better!

Way to Go Dave!

2010-03-22T14:26:00.000-07:00

The latest project we have been working on has been "The Play Kitchen". I have seen so many cute play kitchens online and wanted to make one for Sam because she loves to do the dishes and be in the kitchen whenever anyone is. So I had been looking online for a while on Craigslist trying to find an old side table/dresser but finally found a lady who was selling her old play kitchen that she never got around to re-doing herself. Dave was pretty excited about it too and when he realized how much sanding, painting and cutting would go into it, he pretty much took over the entire project because he didn't want me doing any of those things (only because of being pregnant).

So yesterday he finally finished it and it looks adorable and best of all Samantha loves it! She came out of her room this morning and goes "My kitchen my kitchen! Mommy I make breakfast!"

I think it makes Dave extra happy that she loves it so much. Here are some pictures from start to finish, the transition into the play kitchen!

Stupid People

2010-03-15T17:08:00.001-07:00

Ya know I think for at least most of this pregnancy, I have been able to avoid stupid people saying stupid things about me being pregnant. So far up until today I had gotten only a couple of comments. One, almost two months ago...."Katie, people will tell you that you're not big...but YOU ARE!" ahhhhh......thanks friend. Luckily I was able to laugh about it. (you have to know the person)
And then today..
I have one resident that really drives me crazy sometimes because he won't pay his rent on time and then he won't pay his late fees, and then he won't take his satellite dish down, etc. etc.
Well today he called because he needed a key to his deadbolt lock which I didn't have because he changed his locks a while ago and never gave a copy to the previous manager. "I need it within 48 hours..do you think you can do that?"
me: "well that should be fine. The only obstacle would be if I go into labor and am in the hospital."
stink face: "are you do soon?"
me: "yeah, like this next week."
SF: "and there's only ONE in there?" (emphasis on the one part)
me: "uh.....(pause to give him a dirty look)....yep just ONE!" (it's a good thing for him he wasn't within arms reach.)
what a doofus!
It's one thing when people I'm related to say things, but when it's someone I really don't care for?? grrrr.

I'm gonna go eat a brick of cheese....

The New Baby!

2010-03-14T13:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Dave had the face of a little boy on Christmas morning because of his newest addition!
It comes in the form of an aluminum frame, carbon fiber fork, and a whopping 15 pounds!...maybe It is a Cannondale Team Saeco Racebike and seriously, Dave was as gitty as a schoolboy! He wanted to ride his bike to church today. He has been watching Craigslist trying to find a roadbike because he has been riding his mountainbike to work everyday up until now. He got a STEAL on his new red baby from a guy that lives on the coast and was in town for the weekend. He was worried about it being too lonely in the garage last night and thought maybe we should put it in our room. One of the good things about his new bike is that it will probably cut about 8 minutes or so off his commute because those bikes are fast!

Here is his pride and joy!

I'm happy he's happy just as long as he doesn't get our baby and the bike mixed up....Speaking of.
She has decided to take her sweet time which is unfair because Sam was two weeks early! I thought it would be the same this time too, but not so much.
But as of today I feel offically ready to go because I have no obligations to anyone now. It was my last Sunday in Primary for singing. "Come on kids let's get up and march and dance" (thinking this would put me into labor). I tried this tactic last week too because we are singing "Follow the Prophet" and when I got home from church last week, she had dropped! Totally thought "this is the week!" and here I am a week later....still pregnant.
But, I feel like I've gotten most things taken care of so I won't have to go running out to appointments with a newborn. I got my eyes checked and new contacts, and I FINALLY FINALLY got my new beautiful tooth! (or crown I should say). After 8, that's right I said an EIGHT month process from last July my tooth cracking from biting into bacon, and almost falling out of my head in the middle of vacation in the remote mountains of Mack's Inn, and having to wait till I got home to have surgery to extract the root from my head and get an implant (about a 4 hour surgery) and then 10 days later having another 3 hour process of pulling, extracting, numbing, pain, pain, pain! Then waiting for it to heal for about 6 months and in the meantime it cracking again (from eating bacon...I guess I should learn) but it staying enough in place, but making it hard to eat food. Then going back, more drilling, x-rays, molds (that almost made me puke). And then waiting 2 weeks for them to make the crown, and in that time the bridge cracked AGAIN! (not by bacon this time) once again making it difficult to eat ( and this is the front right tooth people!) Finally on Tuesday I got the crown shoved into place in my head and I finally feel like I can eat with confidence! It feels great and solid!
During this whole process I was pregnant and did not receive any medication except Tylenol. Not after my two separate surgeries....nothing!! Seriously.....worst.....pain.....ever!!!

Needless to say.....I don't love the dentist. Not my particular dentist he was very nice, just dentist's in general. Not a fan. And to put a cherry on top, most insurances (including mine) will not pay for implants and in some cases crowns (also in my case).....so we are not getting any of that work paid for by our insurance!...awesome.

Phew, did you follow me on all that? Basically I am now ready to have a baby! Hopefully this week! In the meantime I will continue to reorganize the closet for the 3rd time (because the baby cares about thst stuff)

Yep I'm pretty big!

2010-03-01T14:43:00.000-08:00

Well not a whole lot has been happening lately around here and I have become increasingly lazy with my blog posts. Who really wants to hear about a sore back, ribs that feel like their cracking or already broken and always in pain, trying to keep up energy for Singing time every Sunday in Primary, and just a lot of general fatigue! That's pretty much been my life the last month I guess.
Basically playing the waiting game at this point. Feeling huge! I can't believe I'm posting a picture of me, which I swear I'd never do....oh well. I hope it makes all you skinnies feel good about yourselves!

This is me as of today! Still have 3 weeks to go but kind of hoping it doesn't take that long.

Projects

2010-02-11T19:54:00.000-08:00

Since the beginning of the year I have been trying to do/make fun projects from mostly tutorials I find online. I am definitely not creative enough to make up something on my own, so I just use other people's ideas!
This week has been a long one because Dave has been gone all week for a training class for work in Denver. On the one hand it stinks that he's gone period, but he was in Denver, where my sister Natalie is! I was soooo bummed I didn't get to go with him. I could have hung out with her the whole week and Sam could have played with her cousins, and I could have finally seen her new house (that she refuses to put pictures of up on her blog). Instead I had to drown my sorrows with trying to keep myself busy with projects.....and cookies :)
The first one was some curtains I made for Sam's closet. I have her dresser in there and before there were sliding doors and I could never quite access the whole dresser. So we took the doors off and made glittery curtains instead. (I actually made them a couple of weeks ago, but I had to adjust them a little bit, and looks like I still have some adjusting to do). I got this idea from a magazine. Awesome

This second one I found an online tutorial that I thought was awesome. It is a tutorial on how to make a cute cover for those ugly crates that you would put milk in or something. I had one that housed all of Dave's YM and work stuff and I thought I would make a cover for it to make it a little more appealing. (hence the manly fabric). I think I would like to make more to hold fabric or something because if you look at the gal's website, hers are adorable. Her name is Laura Gunn, and you can get the tutorial here.

The third is a fun bag that I've wanted to make for myself for a while. I have needed a bag big enough to hold stuff for Primary (as I have a ton of stuff every week that I take for Singing time) and thought this would be a good size. I got the pattern from my sister in law, and it was pretty easy to make, and the fabric was on clearance too, which is always nice!

To go along with church stuff, Sam always has to have crayons for church, so I thought I would make a crayon roll to use for church that will keep her crayons organized and I won't have a big pile at the bottom of the bag every week. I found this tutorial here.

The last thing was more of an organizational thing. I have A TON of scrapbook ribbon that sits in a bin in a huge mess! Like this

I found a great idea online, and I can't remember which website it was, but know it wasn't my original idea, but anyway a good way of organizing all that ribbon was to buy a bunch of doll pins from Michael's or Joann's (using your 40% coupon of course) and then wrapping your ribbon around those, and viola! So much more organized where I can see what colors I have!

I haven't gotten as far as color coding them yet, but getting there! Maybe I'll have to put them in a decorative jar or something. I am just happy they are organized!

Next up, if there is time, maybe make a baby quilt for #2. It would have to be REALLY simple. I haven't quite gotten the quilting thing down yet. And as you can tell from my projects, I am in no way a professional, but practice makes....better? maybe? Oh well...it's still fun to do!

The Polar Plunge #2

2010-01-31T19:22:00.000-08:00

Well for the second year in a row Dave participated in the Oregon Polar Plunge which is a huge fundraiser for the Special Olympics. This year they raised over $130,000!! That is pretty amazing. People can get crazy when given an opportunity to strip and jump in freezing cold water. And it was freezing! The weather outside of the water was 40 degrees and rainy, so I can only imagine how nice and chilly the water was. You kind of had an idea when you saw people's faces as they jumped in the water. Poor Dave (who never gets cold) was shivering for most of the day! He wasn't feeling brave enough this year to do the speedo thing (disappointing). But he did wear his beautiful mustache that he has been growing for a couple of weeks! So that at least kept his upper lip warm.
It was definitely another interesting year of crazy people dressing up. Although I will say I was a little disappointed when I didn't see any men running around in their thongs like I did last year. With everything else frozen I guess they didn't want to freeze the dimples on their bums too.
Dave did a great job of raising money this year. He ended up raising $310.00!! I was very proud of him. Thanks to all of those who donated money. It definitely went to a great cause!

It ended up being a very busy day yesterday going from one activity to the next. Right after the plunge we had to race home and get ready to go to the temple with Dave's family. (I think it will be the last time I get to the temple before I have this baby). Just a bit uncomfortable...Then after the temple we went to dinner with his siblings and had a great time, as we always do. Then from there we had to go and get cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory and buy Legos from the Lego Store. To top off the evening, I went to a girl's night out party at my friend Sofie's house, which was great. It is so nice to have some girl time! I think all mom's need it once in a while.
After our busy day yesterday, it didn't get any less busy today. I mean it's Sunday and Sunday's for both Dave and me are always very busy. Primary Singing time always takes soooooo much energy (especially in Jr. Primary) and already being in short supply of energy, today pretty much deflated me completely! I love being the Primary Music Chorister, but I won't lie, it is a very hard calling for me, and takes A LOT of preparation. Of course Dave is always busy over in YM's too so by the time we got back from church I was so drained, I came home and took a 3 hour nap!! Ahhhh but it was nice! I am still very tired though because I did sleep so long.
It's weird to think that as of tomorrow I can say that I will be having a baby next month....weird! I just hope she is half as good a baby and kid that Sam is. We really lucked out with her. I hear stories from friends of cholicy babies, crying for hours on end, and I think "I don't remember Sam ever being like that." So we will see how this next little girl turns out.

Our Sister Missionary!

2010-01-18T21:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was my little Sister Al's Farewell. There sure is a lot of work that goes into preparing for a farewell, and not just Al's talk, getting ready to go, but all the food, the cleaning, the organizing, picking up chairs for the millions of people that show up at your house, and did I help with any of that??....hardly. Sorry Mom. The night before I flew to Utah I started getting really sick with a bad cold, and by the next morning it had really attacked me. Perfect timing of course! And that is exactly how I wanted my family, cousins, friends, etc. to see me. With my big pregnant belly (feeling pretty big), red puffy eyes, nose, face, (and hair), bad cough, and hardly able to talk or breathe through my nose. I mean it's already hard enough to breathe when you're pregnant and not sick, but when you are, it's that much harder to keep a conversation up while laughing (because my family makes me laugh), and trying to breathe out of your mouth when you can't from your nose.
So basically I spent the weekend mostly lying on the couch trying to keep my eyes open because I wasn't getting any sleep! I was banned from touching any food in the kitchen, of course, but I got a little dusting and vaccumming in. Kudos to my Mom, Angie, Natalie, Hilary, Ben, Lisa, and my Dad for doing all the work. I'm hoping my Mom is getting some rest now.

And of course yesterday went very well and was super fun. Al of course did great on her talk. She had quite the crowd there. About 415 people!! (And I think most of them showed up at the house too!) Al is a great speaker, and so many people thought it was more of a homecoming talk than a farewell because she was so spiritual and awesome! That's my sis! She actually likes speaking in church! (what?) I wish I could feel that way.

Back at the house it was standing room only, until someone had the genius idea of taking the basement door off the hinges so it was easier to get downstairs. After that we were able to herd the Taylor clan down there which freed up a bit of space. (There are so many of us, and most are as tall as Amazons! My one cousin Patrick who is 18 is 6'7"!) So besides my Mom's side of the family, we had some of my Brewster fam there which was great because I haven't seen them forever either, and then of course Allison's huge group of friends were there too! So....full house to say the least.

Luckily we had enough food, and PLENTY of desserts! What a fun party to celebrate Al's decision to go on a mission! We are all so proud of her! What a great decision she has made to serve the Lord in Panama and teach those Panamanians the Gospel! They are in for a real treat to have Sister Brewster in their midst. (Just be careful Al not to get worms, and lay off the intestines!) :)
It was very hard to say goodbye early this morning but 18 months will fly by. Good luck Al, you will be awesome and I love you!

Theme for 2010: Simplify

2009-12-30T20:25:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-23T22:49:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-21T21:29:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-20T22:23:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-12-17T17:17:00.001-08:00

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!

2009-12-10T22:37:00.000-08:00

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?

Ha Ha!

2009-12-10T22:24:00.001-08:00

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!

2009-12-01T15:06:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-15T18:46:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-01T18:18:00.001-08:00

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!

2009-10-26T18:24:00.001-07:00

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

2009-10-18T21:22:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-14T20:05:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-08T19:55:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-05T23:40:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-17T11:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-11T18:56:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-23T21:58:00.001-07:00

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

There are 2 kinds of people in this world!

2009-08-14T20:43:00.000-07:00

Those who like Neil Diamond, and those who don't.

I...Love...Neil..Diamond! Here I sit on a Friday night jamming and singing (well trying, because I lost my voice this week due to being so sick) to the beautiful ballads that are his songs. What an awesome dude. He's like what 90? And he can still shake those artificial hips all over the stage. I have to giggle to myself a little because of how much fun I am having watching his TV special, my little sister Allison would consider it complete torture. Come on Al, how can you resist?....how can you not get up and dance to the tune of "Cherry, Cherry".."she's got the way to move me Cherry!"
such fun. I remember going to a Neil Diamond concert with my parents and my sister Natalie when I was in 10th grade, and even all these years later, it still remains one of the best concerts I have been to! Nothing says great like two old people singing to each other on the stage "you don't bring me flowers......anymore." And then all the old ladies jumping around with their relief society arms jiggling to the floor. Okay really, it wasn't just the old people, and that is one of the things that is so great about the man, he attracts fans of all ages! Heck he performed at the Grammy's this year, and they showed some of those rappers singing along with "Sweet Caroline!"
I can only imagine that is the song immigrants listen to crossing the ocean to our beautiful country....."We're coming to America!....today!"

I don't think you can say you love America unless you love Neil :)
If loving Neil Diamond is wrong, I don't want to be right!

My mouth hurts!

2009-08-08T18:17:00.000-07:00

The last couple of Saturday's have been quite nice. Since we finally got both of our bikes and Sam's bike trailer in working order (now that it's toward the end of summer) we have been taking bike rides around town. If we didn't have apartment stuff to do, we might have ventured to downtown Portland and enjoyed the "bite of Portland" that's going on down by the Waterfront, but I wasn't so sure I would make the journey back (mostly uphill about 7 miles). I felt a bit more wussy today. But maybe we will try next week.
Last week was a bit depressing because I was huffing and puffing up the smallest hill. Of course I was also dragging about 50 extra pounds behind me with Sammy in the trailer. I was a bit discouraged. But then today, Dave hooked her up behind his bike and the hills didn't seem nearly as bad today. I thought "okay maybe I don't totally stink at this!" It was fun being outside, enjoying the nice low 80's weather, and getting exercise too.

The other adventure of the week was my second trip to the dentist for round 2 of fixing one of my side front teeth. My first trip a week and a half ago took about 3 1/2 hours, and the one on Wednesday took 4!! I love my Dentist and think he did a great job, but the whole experience was horrible. I have never been in so much mouth pain as I was on Wednesday night. That's all I'll say and now I think I have developed a complex about the Dentist now. Not...fun

This week was an awesome grocery shopping week though, so that was a good distraction. Albertson's had awesome deals. One was where you spend $30 on certain items and get $15 back in Catalina coupons, and most of the items I already had a ton of coupons for! So I have been to Albertson's at least 3 times this week and might go one more time tonight. They also have a Kellogg promotion where you buy 10 items that are on sale and you get a $10 rebate.

So yesterday I bought all this stuff from Albertsons. Out of pocket I spent $22.00, but got $15 in coupons back for my next purchase, and I qualify for the $10 rebate from Kelloggs! So it was like making $3!! My total savings on my receipt = $84.10!It was awesome. And that was only one shopping trip I made this week. Let's just say our pantry and fridge is completely stocked and we are having to put a bunch of stuff in the garage. Food Storage!! We finally have something! So if something horrible (heaven forbid) happens, it's nice to know we can survive on fruit snacks and dried cereal!

The month of July

2009-07-28T20:27:00.001-07:00

So it has been a while since I last blogged, and I can only attribute it to being lazy. I usually do my blogging from my laptop while reclining on my couch, but unfortunately for me, my computer crashed and is being rehabed right now. All of my files and pictures were lost on the computer, but subconsciously I must have known this would happen, because just two months ago I signed up for an online system that backs up your computer for you called Mozy.com (totally recommend it). I almost cancelled it one day, but was like "heck it's only $5 a month, I might as well keep it a bit longer"....and viola! look what happened. I think I would have died if I had lost all my pictures especially my mom's family pictures that I spent a month on converting them all from slides....just the thought.....(shudder)

I don't think I have ever been so freaking hot in my life as I have been today. Okay, Portland?? Not supposed to get to 106 degrees!!! And add the humidity into that, and add the fact that my house is on the second level directly facing the sun. It is now 8 p.m. and still 100 degrees! There was no chance of me cooking, so we went to a lovely air conditioned restaurant, and then walked around the mall for an hour to stay cool. For lunch we went downtown by Dave's building and swam in the fountain. That was nice and refreshing, especially being next to the sweaty hobos taking their monthly bath next to us. One thing about being in a public place like that is you feel so much better about your own body image. Instead of having only one layer of blubber around their midsection, some had five or six. It was like a bunch of sea lions sunbathing around the fountain while lighting up, and taking their meds while chasing it with some kind of cognac. ahhhhh.....Portland....what an interesting place. It has been a very busy month besides going on vacation without Dave, doing apartments stuff, and celebrating Sam's 2nd birthday! Oh my gosh I have a two year old! Although I think that whole terrible two's thing starts early. Okay she's really not that bad, but does have some temper tantrums. It's the whole, throw my head back, open my mouth wide, and fall to the ground dramatically!! Then, peek through my fake tears to make sure mom and dad are looking at me! I'll show them for trying to help me eat my food. I have to do it myself! She is little miss independent, and sometimes it drives me crazy. But she is also very sweet most of the time, and very helpful. Her new favorite thing is to help me with the laundry. Yesterday she went to the bathroom and grabbed her stool (the thing you stand on) and took it to the kitchen where all the dirty laundry was. She then proceeded to sort the laundry and put it in the washing machine. It was funny and sweet. Here is the video if you are so inclined.

For her birthday she was spoiled because she had 2 parties. One on the last night we were in Utah with my family. It was fun being able to celebrate with my family, since I rarely get to do so anymore. We had pizza and cake/cupcakes, and then her cousins very generously helped her open all her presents, and then helped her break them all in by playing with them :) She's good at sharing though.

On Monday on her actual birthday, we had a little party where Dave's siblings were nice to come over and party with us, and she was spoiled some more. It was a fun birthday celebration.
I am so happy and blessed to have a happy, healthy little girl who is lively, and brings so much happiness to Dave and me. The other day I was sitting on the floor and asked Sammy for a kiss but my head was down. She came up close to me, bent down, and grabbed my head in both her hands lifting it up, saying "mom" and gave me a big kiss on the lips...so sweet

Is that Hobo dead or just sleeping??

2009-07-06T21:25:00.000-07:00

Another great week spent with more family. This time with my sister Angie and her son Caden.
They drove up here from Utah last Sunday night and stayed the entire week. And the great thing for Angie was she didn't have to take vacation days since she could work at her Intel office up here. That was part of the reason she came up. Weighing decisions to either stay in Utah and get a different job, or stay with Intel and move to Portland. I think we all know what my vote is. Come to Portland!
I tried really hard to make Portland seem impressive to her, but instead freaked her out the first night she was here by getting lost in the middle of downtown Portland until 10:30 p.m.!!! Yeah I know. "Katie haven't you lived there for almost a year now? Don't you know your way around the place yet?" And I say, "no, I really don't!" I can't seem to have anyone up here and show them a good time without getting lost at least once! With my parents, when I picked them up from the airport, we pretty much drove to the Columbia Gorge before we could turn around and take I-84 West instead of East!! oops...
But this time was a bit scarier when we saw some of the people, and the hobos sleeping on the streets. And then we really figured we might be in a pickle when we went under an overpass, where it was dark (I know, stupid) and a cop drove by and when he saw us, his eyes went very wide like "what are these girls doind?" It was probably good he drove by, probably distracting some lurking predator waiting in the bushes.......kidding mom. The funny thing was we kinda freaked out and almost ran past the street really quickly, not noticing until almost an hour later when we passed that street again, that her car was right there at the top of the street!! Bless that angelic car alarm!
It was really a ploy to keep things exciting for Angie. She was at a particular disadvantage as well walking around with stitches halfway across her knee without really being able to bend it, so it made her an even easier target. All I had to do was run faster. Oh my gosh I'm a horrible sister! Okay okay enough morbidity. We were perfectly fine. Plenty of well....lit...streets.
But I digest......back to the rest of the week :)

It was a fun, hot hot week full of swimming, solving crime at the OMSI museum with Caden, Burgerville, riding the streetcar around almost the entire Portland metro area :), Powell's books, Voodoo Donuts, driving to Cannon Beach basking in the sun and flying kites, and spending the night in a hotel in Lincoln City watching fireworks on the beach in the mist of night (very cool), shopping at the Outlets, walking along the beach in the morning seeing cool starfish and mini crabs, going to a parade, and basking once again in the sun on the beach. I think half of Oregon was spending the 4th somewhere on the coast since we had such great weather! The night before Angie left, we were like "is it already Sunday?" The week flew by!
We had a great time and look forward to spending more time with them and the rest of the fam when I get to Utah in a couple of days!! woo hoo

The Gleneden Beach parade on the 4th

Caden eating his ginormous donut from Voodoo, and yes he finished it

Riding the streetcar

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!

2009-06-27T12:50:00.001-07:00

Why??? Two words: GARAGE SALES
Yes I love them! I'm just like my Grandpa Brewster in that way. And they have really good ones up here in Portland. Last week they had a huge multi-family neighborhood garage sale in NE Portland, and this week there was a HUGE one in SE Portland. Like 141 houses participating! Ginormous! Another way I don't have to pay full price for things, especially kid stuff!
It was a great morning for Sammy and me to spend some time together walking around the neighborhood, with especially nice weather looking for great finds, and I'm super excited about what we did find.
First of all, we have been in desperate need for more lighting in our living room, and I've been wanting to find a nice lamp, but didn't want to pay $60 plus bucks for it. I found a really nice wooden lamp at this huge house for 5 dolla! Now I just need a pretty shade. And growing up at Christmas time we always had these awesome bubble lights that were on my Grandparents Christmas tree, and they had those too for 5 dollars! Yay!
But I think the biggest thing I was excited about was something I found for Samantha. So for the last few months I have been trying to find those Leap Frog alphabet magnets for the fridge for her birthday in a few weeks, but they are so expensive! There they were sitting for me in a plastic bag on the table for $5!!! I snatched those things up so quickly, and then a couple of houses down, they had the Leap Frog magnet set for animals, for $5!!! I am so set for her birthday now! (Almost)
Ahhhhh I love garage sales! I guess the only thing I wish I could have found was a little tricycle for her too. oh well.

Just Catching Up on The Wall Street Journal

2009-06-17T18:45:00.000-07:00

She was so focused on reading what was in the magazine while we were driving the other day. She barely even noticed we were there.

Yesterday was fun. I went with my friend Sofia and her little girl who is the same age as Sam, and we drove to Sauvie Island to pick Strawberries! I have been itching to do it for a while now, and it was a perfect opportunity for us to go. MMMmmmmm....delicious strawberries! They were perfect. And a perfect outing for the girls too. How much better can it get? I'm outside, I get to play in a big field, and eat as many strawberries as I want! (which is exactly what those girlies did, and afterward they looked more like something out of a horror movie) The weather was nice too. It was mostly overcast with a little breeze, and just a bit humid, so no blistering heat. Picking your own fruit is so much fun.
Last night soon after getting home, I went to the store, bought my pectin, jars, and sugar, and Dave and I made strawberry jam last night. I can't wait to eat it. Homemade Marionberry will always be my favorite, but Strawberry is pretty delish too. Now I just have to make some homemade bread and my little homemaking circle will be complete!

Next couple of months goals: pick blueberries, marionberries, peaches, and apples, and whatever else I can to make more jam and do some canning!

New Address

2009-06-14T19:47:00.000-07:00

So I finally decided to cut the confusion of our last blog address and make it Demcak.blogspot.com instead of Demcaca.blogspot.com. So for the few of you that follow my blog, here is our new address. www.demcak.blogspot.com

Come on over!!