Alright...I confess.

OK, I'm just going to come out and say it. I'm a closet nighttime nurser. That's right, my child is 12 and a half months old and she doesn't sleep through the night. Go on, say it, get it out of the way. "Holy Cow! Are you serious? You are so dumb. What a terrible mother". Harsh I know. I would like however to take a moment to explain/defend myself. It's not is if I enjoy waking up in the middle of the night, or that I like the fact that I haven't slept through the night in about 18 months (ya know-including those lovely pregnant months where you have to pee all the time including the middle of the night.) I actually have some really good reasons. Would you like to hear them? great.

1. I'm a terrible mother. OK maybe not "terrible" but there is a reason why the doctor asks you at their one year appointment how long they are sleeping through the night. Because obviously...they are suppose to be. I'm sure there is some study out there how children who sleep through the night when they are supposed to are much, much smarter and nicer and more beautiful, and more likely to be rich...other wise why would they ask? I may or may not have answered that question entirely truthfully last week. I did say the 10 hour thing, just not the "but she nurses 1-2 times during that also" thing. I know...repent.
2. I have the wonderful luck of having ridiculously terrible boobs. From the start it's drink or drown, then it goes to normal, then to none available, then crying (me and the baby-not my boobs), then very stressful feedings wondering if anything will be there for her to eat, then more frustrated crying, then back to good. So as you can see, with such a finicky milk supply how could I possibly risk not nursing during the middle of the night. Apparently it's a hereditary thing because my mom had trouble and my sister. sad, but this is where most of the craziness comes from. oh, and yes we have tried everything and no we are not normal, and yes we do really cry about it.
   
3. I'm a wimp. A mother's mind plays tricks on itself when it hears it's baby crying. Lately when I have been working on having her sleep through the night (cuz yes, I know she can) i keep laying there listening to her cry, thinking...maybe she's poopy, maybe she really is hungry, she didn't eat that much for dinner, what if her leg got caught in the crib, what if she's cold, what if ants got into her bed and are biting her...even though we don't really have ants in the house, but I know I have definitely seen them outside, I'm sure they could find a way in, and all of them would head straight for her crib..........

So there it is. I know some of you 'super moms' out there get your 2 week old to sleep through the night and change their own diapers, but unfortunately we can't all be like you. I am trying though. I let her cry the other night for a whole hour before she went back to sleep. Hopefully soon I will be able to post that I slept through the entire night, ahhh that sounds delightful. good night.

"The Twilight Before Christmas"

Ok, this was so funny to me and also a little bit creepy, but if you are a Twilight fan, you might get a laugh out of this!! thanks for the forward sarah.

click here
and enjoy...

evolution of a cake

take two square cakes, then fill with 2 layers chocolate mousse, one layer chocolate ganache (pictured unfilled, sorry)


get some almond bark and pipe some writing...(do a few extras in case of breaking)



spread chocolate almond bark on parchment paper


then add a little white and swirl...then give it a little shake

before it sets completely, score squares in your chocolate the size of the walls of your cake (measuring is a must!)
attach walls onto frosted cake with extra mousse and tie a ribbon around it


add some berries and your chocolate writing...
and viola! (and you have to say v-i-o-l-a, not wahlla...it's much more fun ya know)


the happy girl! clean...

midway...


and finished...not so clean!


it's so good even your socks will get dirty.


happy birthday lucy loo. i sure do love you!

You better watch out...

You know how it goes down...the Ward Christmas party. 75-100 people with all their crazy kids piled into the gym. Some round tables meagerly decorated as an end of the year effort to save on the ward budget, that may be in serious trouble. You always know how it went that year by the feast or famine of the Christmas party. A Christmas tree decorated in the corner with an empty chair waiting for "that surprise visit" from someone special. And when he finally does arrive, the huge rush of children to form a very long line to see the man. Then there's always the 2-3 year olds who cry their eyes out and try their hardest to wrestle out of Santa's arms while the mother tries to snap a good shot, that's never going to happen, and the father either tries to make them smile or is MIA over by the punch jug.

Sometimes it's a potluck dinner, sometimes just dessert. If you're really lucky it's an adult only party with dinner provided. Now that is a real treat.

And so it goes for millions of people in thousands of wards every year. They are always a good time- those ward Christmas parties, and you really can't have a Christmas without one...now can you. So here's to you- Activities Committee members. Bravo. Bravo to you!


It was our first Christmas in a long time where one of our kids was not screaming when they sat on Santa's lap. Lincoln was a little nervous but at least there were no tears like my friends kid, so cute, see here. I'm sure next years post with Lucy being a little older will be much more like that.





the kids also got to help with the 12 days of Christmas song. Apparently Hannah would be sent home from the church dance with that shirt on. woops. Who's that girls mother anyway? good grief.

The Winslow Christmas Parade a la 1931

A few weeks ago (ok it was the weekend before Thanksgiving, i'm running behind as usual...and yeah i don't know why the Christmas parade is BEFORE Thanksgiving, but it is and it always has been and will continue to be, so just get over it...) we got to go up and be in the Christmas parade! My dad is the proud owner of a 1931 ford pick-up truck and he piled all the grand kids and some of their parents into the back and we waved our hearts out! It was really fun and the kids thought it was great. Every kid needs to be in a parade at least once in their lives ya know. Me and my sisters cheered our way through that parade for a few years ourselves back in the day, and loved it.

Here are a few different shots. (click to enlarge) For all you who did not have the extreme pleasure of growing up in the lovely town of Winslow Arizona, take a close look at the beautiful background. That's old school Route 66 there. You are looking at history folks. (have you noticed how i say folks a lot? yeah i just noticed too. ) (and have you noticed how i have pretend conversations with all you folks, yeah i'm crazy.)

We did have one instance where there was a bit of a hold-up in the parade, luckily Grammy staved off boredom with the classic...Fire Drill maneuver. That was a good one.


We were towards the beginning of the parade so we got to get out and watch the rest of it. Good times had by all.

And lastly, 2 things you're not going to see at your average big city parade. First, a shopping cart car. This was huge and so fun to see. There is a guy at the very top steering, it was crazy.

And second. Roast mutton Fry bread. I personally take my fry bread Navajo Taco style...hold the roast mutton, but to each his own.

Thanks Grandpa and Grammy for the great weekend. We had so much fun!

mean people part II and nice hubby's

That's right folks, I found some more mean people out there. Did you know that someone can use your debit number all around town, spending almost $500 all while it is tucked away nicely in your wallet at home? Yup that's right. Some meanie out there chose me as the lucky one. How they do this- I have no idea. And apparently the bank doesn't either, cuz I asked them. Any idea how you would use someone's debit card number without the card at say... an Arby's or Filibertos or Home Depot or a whole bunch of other places where you have to swipe your card. Crazy huh? It's being investigated as we speak so I will let you know how it goes. But seriously, do I have a sign on my back welcoming mean people into my computer and checking account. Yeah, could you take that off if you see it? Thanks.
Luckily I have a nice hubby to counteract all the meanies in my life. He heard a song and knew I would love it so he found it on youtube and played it for me. It's a sweet little didy and says all the things in his heart about how much he loves me and can't live without me and thinks I am the mostest greatest thing that ever happend to him. (i added that last part, but i know it's true =) If you want to hear it, it's on my playlist at the very bottom. Maybe some of you have heard it...1234. Check it out! And keep your friends close and the meanies very far away!

For the love of Coca Cola

My deary friend Lisa had her birthday friday and requested a Coka Cola cake. So in honor of her birth, here it is...

Unfortunatly when I do things like this...

my house ends up like this...

it's was all worth it though when she got to do this...

We all sure love you Lisa!

Happy Birthday!

One word Tag. (parenthesis don't count...cuz i said so)

Where is your mobile phone? unknown
Where is your significant other? bathroom
Your hair color? unblackening (finally...did you know if you dye blondish hair dark brown by yourself it turns green? and then you have to dye it black to get rid of the green and then you have to get highlights to get rid of the tears? really you knew that and didn't tell me, thanks.)
Your mother? giving
Your father? stable
Your favorite thing? laughing
Your dream last night? burglars (that was for like 2 minutes in between the not joking 5 times i got up last night)
Your dream goal? size2 (it said dream goal!)
Room Your In? living
Your hobby? bakingsewingcraftingish
Your fear? dark
Where do you want to be in 6 years? unsickhusband-ed
Where were you last night? party
What you're not? pregnant (wheww!)
Where you grew up? winslow
The last thing you did? meeting
What are you wearing? sweats
Your TV? muted
Your pets? nope
Your computer? unvirused
Your mood? good
Missing someone? nope
Your car? minivan
Something you're not wearing? makeup
Favorite shop? joanns
Your summer? hot
Love someone? yupers!
Your favorite color? happyyellow
When is the last time you laughed? tonight
tag...Yur it!
as in- you read it, you've been tagged...it!

8

In honor of my 8 year wedding anniversary today, I though it proper to do an 8 post. Here goes...


8 things we have now that we didn't when we got married

1. a queen size bed. That's right folks, we slept on a FULL for a year and a half until I was 6 months pregnant and couldn't stand it any longer. And as a side note: it was a hand me down mattress with stains. lovely.
2. TV channels. We had a 13" t.v/vcr combo that we didn't even have bunny ears for. Now at least we have an antenna and get the local channels. I remember doing a lot of cross stitch back then...
3. a house. Luckily we have been able to move past the apartment stage.
4. a dishwasher. Yeah! I finally have a dishwasher!
5. children...obviously.
6. stretch marks. I guess I shouldn't say we on this one, but I had to add it none the less.
7. a computer. 4-5 months after we got married we were able to get one and hook up our Net Zero free dial-up take forever internet. awesome.
8. cell phones. 2 1/2 years ago peder got his cell phone back (he got rid of his right before we got married) and I got my first cell phone ever last year! woo hoo!

8 things we don't have now that we did when we got married...

1. either of the cars we were driving. We've had to up size since then.
2. sleep. please for the love... just let us sleep.
3. our set of lime green pots and pans that we got for our wedding. some lucky person out there bought that little treasure from D.I. long ago i'm sure.
4. peder's full head of hair
5. 6 weeks of hearing the temple easter pageant and 5 more of seeing the temple christmas lights (we used to live across the street from it)
6. peder's homework. yeah for finishing school!
7. 2 incomes
8. eating out all the time fundage

8 moments I'll never forget...

1. each time we found out we were pregnant + one lovely false positive =ing one lovely false miscarriage a week later.
2. each child's birth- i know you could count that as like 7 already, but i'm in charge so...onward...
3. when peder was called to the high counsel at 24-very unexpectedly.
4. at the doctor when we found out peder had a tumor in his inner ear (non-cancerous) and that it had eaten away 2 1/2 of his 3 hearing bones and part of his mastoid in his left ear.
5. peder being called to the bishopric at 26 and me 7 months pregnant with our second child.
6. finding our first home...at the height of the housing boom...in our price range...miraculously...seriously.
7. the first time i tooted in front of peder (it was on the last day of our honeymoon and i'll admit it was not pretty) (peder made me add that one)
8. peder quiting his job for another one then finding out they messed up and weren't allowed to hire him because of a "no hire" clause, =ing unemployment and food stamps for 2 1/2 months. it's all good!

8 places we've been together...

1. hawaii
2. disneyland
3. disneyworld
4. siesta key florida
5. san diego
6. general conference
7. colorado
8. catalina island
9. we've been very blessed...thanks mom and dad!

8 reasons I'm still in love...

1. we laugh about everything.
2. we talk on the phone all day long
3. he's a great dad
4. he's great at cuddling and rubbing my arm/hands
5. he likes my cooking and even brags about it
6. i like to be around him
7. he thinks i'm super woman
8. he likes to make me happy

so there's my gooey post for ya. We've been through a lot of ups and downs in the last 8 years, but i can honestly say i wouldn't want to go through ups and downs with anyone else. love you honey.

i'm trying to get a wedding picture on here but my scanner isn't working. hopefully coming soon!

Halloween Fun

Now that it is almost Thanksgiving...Here's our Halloween!


We had a great family party










with bobbing for apples...

go daddy!

cute little devils!







fun crafts and yummy food. Thanks Nana for a great party! It was so much fun.








then...
onto the trunk or treat...
here is Marni and I. I'm supposed to be a Geisha and she is a super cute Sonic lover girl with crazy hair and Sonic straws for decoration. She's great.







Lucy was the cutest Pumpkin Fairy EVER. Pumpkin Fairy you say? Why yes how else would I have an excuse to put her in a huge tutu and glue a pumpkin to her head. duh.











Lincoln was a great Pirate. Arrrgh! When getting in his costume he asked "do Pirates wear underwear?" Yes Lincoln, they do, thanks for double checking with me.

Hannah the scary Witch, which is obviously way different from the cute witch she was when she was 3. I think she was still pretty cute this year too.















Me and the girls!















Trick or Treat time!



We had so much fun running from house to house with our great friends the Johnson's. Luckily we had a UPS man to carry our heavy boxes and a Police man with us to keep everyone safe.






Happy Halloween!

I'm back!!

Hooray! Our computer is finally back, 7 viruses less- and unscathed thank goodness. I guess for every mean person in the world there is at least one un-mean person who fixes computers for half the price. Now time to play catch up...
did you miss me?? cause i missed you!!

WHY?

Why are people so mean? I mean why do people sit around thinking of ways to hurt people and cost them lots of money and time? Why I say, WHY?
We recently acquired a doozy of a VIRUS on our computer. Hence the no blogging or emailing, or getting directions or craigslising, or looking anything up or a variety of other lovely things that can be done on my home computer. It is currently getting worked on by some person who knows WAY much more than we do about computers and we get to pay them way much more money because of it.
I just don't know why some 19 year old computer geek who lives with his mother, has no job or non geek friends, has the desire to design a virus that will basically kill random peoples computers and cost them way much money's to fix. WHY? WHY I say? And it's not as if this is some kind of virus you get by doing naughty things on your computer, it's just an everyday yahoo, google, espn, msn kinda virus. Where is the justice in that? Where, where I say?

Alright, I'm done whining now. I am well aware that there are much worse things in this world than the possibility of loosing tons and tons of my children's pictures and all my primary secretary stuff and loads of other (in the end) meaningless things, but it just kinda made me say...Stink. Stink I say.

spray it with a smile!

My friend Marni, who is by the way super crafty cute, and if you ever want a quick craft to do with your crazy kids just go here, first introduced me to the world of spray paint. That girl will spray paint anything that doesn't move and a few things that do. Her kitchen table, kitchen cabinets, picture frames, chairs, toys, living room tables, and wall hangings, just to name a few, have all been lovelied with a fresh new coat of spray paintusually black, then shabby chiced really cute. Who knew it was so versatile? I hadn't used spray paint in I don't even know how long before I started hearing her say " oh I just spray painted it" all the time...and it always looked amazing. So in the last little bit I have been following in her footsteps and spray painting as much as I can. In fact just last week I went to town in my newly rearranged living room. I sprayed some picture frames and a few hand-me-down decorations and VIOLA, a completely updated awesome new living room. I have done plenty with a paintbrush, and I gotta say...spray paint is the way to go! Little to no clean up...the "no" part if you actually have a table on your back porch specifically for spray painting...like MARNI! It's fabulous. So go out today and buy yourself a $2.19 can of quick drying spray paint and wait for your eyes to pop out of your head because it is so easy and beautiful!. You can thank me, and marni, later!

Hail to the Princess!

No I'm not dead, just way behind...
So last week my first born turned 6 years old! Holy Crow! Time sure does fly when your raising kids. This year she was particularly excited and aware of her birthday. She counted down for almost 2 weeks. Then on her apparent "birthday eve" she got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and was so excited to find that I had decorated her door. Then she said "mom I won't look in the living room when I go back to bed", ya know...as if it were Christmas Eve and there were going to be be gads of presents waiting for her in the living room. I gently let her know that that, unfortunately, was not the case. She was just really excited this year, and I did my best to make her feel loved and special. I don't know about you all, but on my last "Birthday Eve", I was pretty much crying myself to sleep. lets not talk about the actual number behind the tears ok.

First off...pink pancake princess crowns. It was on the fly, so just tilt your head a little to the right and squint-then you'll see it.
After school we went to the park which you can see here, with some wonderful friends who brought cookies and candles and we sang Happy Birthday. It was so sweet of them...thanks Sarah. And her choice for her Birthday Dinner? Potato soup of course. I was surprised too.

A few days later came the birthday party. She was so excited and we had a great time. We took all the kids for pony rides and games, then back to the house for presents and Pink Pony Cupcakes (as shown in the slide show). **A special thank you to Lisa for cutting all the "horse hair" and moral support for my cupcake "vision". And to Kayla for finishing their faces since my dear friends talked me into rearranging my ENTIRE living room while trying to finish up the cupcakes. I love it, but I'm a succor.

Anyway, she had a great Birthday, and pretend Birthday that's when you have a party on a day other than your real b-day . I love you Hannah Banana. I'm so glad your mine. mom