Phone Thief

Purple Princess

"Look, it matches!"

Alaina's Blessing

We trekked down past Tucson last month for the blessing of this little angel.

 Here are some of the lovely people there, including her lovely mum.

J was happy to see her cousins.

M's 1st bday

We were doing an  M&M sort of theme and I was craving texas sheet cake. My friend Rachel has been testing recipes to use in a catering adventure and after trying 4 side by side, Pioneer Woman had the best one so that's what we had. It's fantastic and on her blog.

 I wanted more pageantry for his smash cake than just a square of divine texas sheet cake but  I didn't want to bother with baking a whole cake and texas sheet cake has to be done in a sheet pan. It's kind of part of the name.  My solution was to cut out large circles with a big cookie cutter and stack them. It ended up looking like a really fancy layer cake and was just perfect.

He didn't as over the top 1st bday as his sister, but we did add some fun.

The umbrella lights with the streamers turned out really cool.

 We invited our neighbor Harry and he brought his girlfriend Anita. She is so cute and delighted M by bringing him a pinwheel and a mylar balloon. A one year old's dream.

Here are the only other snapshots I took because there always seemed to be something else to be doing other than taking pictures. But here are a few for ya mum!

And here is the cake smash

M was spoiled by people bringing him presents. He didn't need anything, but he sure did enjoy all of his new toys.

Then he got tired of opening them and was happy to let his sister take over :)

Spoon feeding

He almost has it down.

8th Anniversary

Well we both remembered for the first time ever and actuall made plans to celebrate. Husband took the day off work and we had my aunt and uncle watch the kids all day while we played. We went to the temple together, then did what we call a double date, lunch and a movie, then dinner and a movie.

We picked up sammies from Lee's sandwiches. They are European and Asian sandwiches and have flavors and options for that demographic. I haven't seen honeydew or green tea ice cream very often outside of Japan, but you can get it here.

I also got a jackfruit smoothie with grass jelly because I had no idea what either was.

 I figured whipped cream, boba, and grass jelly were each 30 cents extra so they must be good. Jackfruit tastes like chirimoya to me and the grass jelly was sort of like jello bits on the bottom. Like boba, but jello squares. Delicious! The sandwiches were yummy too.

We watched Spiderman 1 and then went to see the sequel he theater. I was intrigued that every single handicapped parking space was full at 4:00pm. Then we were delighted to find it was still matinee pricing and saw that the clientele that appreciates a cheaper movie at 4 in the afternoon is not the same was those who enjoy an evening movie. The parking spaces made complete sense.

We hit up Blue Lemon for dinner and Husband had lovely steak tacos.



I had this lovely chicken dish. Well, it was lovely until I found a piece of metal wire in the middle of my bite. I am not normally phased by such things because it usually means I don't have to pay for my meal, but this scratched the roof of my mouth and the food didn't taste that great anyways.

Fortunately there was one of those fun Coke machines with 600 flavors to play with and The Sweet Tooth Fairy a couple doors down for yummy treats.

Even when there are hiccups in our plans, as long as I'm with this handsome guy, everything is grand. I'm so blessed to spend forever with him. And since the average marriage lasts 7 years, we already got them beat!

Rockin' the Newsies look

M put on my hat and I fell in love with him even more.

He decided it was best used for peek-a-boo

To the kind man sitting near us in church

I appreciate your desire to interact with my highly adventurous one year old. Little did you know that your gesture of an extended hand, palm up actually is actually sign language in our family. It means "spit out whatever contraband you have been squirreling in your cheeks before you choke or I will be shoving my finger in there to retrieve it." I'm sorry I couldn't tell you that before my son divulged the 6 half-eaten pretzels into your outstretched hand. You handled my awkward babywipe cleaning of your hand with aplomb. And if it any consolation, the other couple next to you found the whole episode quite diverting. Thankfully, we are not members of your congregation and you will most likely never have to interact with us again.

Sincerely,

The Mom That Would Be Mortified If That Was Anywhere Near The Most Embarrassing Thing My Kids Have Done

(it's not)




In other "funny, now but not exactly funny then" moments at church this week, my two year old had a full-on melt down requiring immediate extrication from the building. This level is even too much for the foyer so we go outside for our tight love hug. (I believe the catalyst was my insistence that she put her shoes back on. I won the street fight that morning over the necessity of wearing underwear and I think I got cocky). After a rather impressive cat-like yowl, she went back to words instead of screams and groans. She had exhausted the "You're holding me too tight!" and "It hurts! My arm!" and "Daddy!" (sometimes she gives a false start and names the parent holding her before realizing her mistake and it is a cry of Mo-Daddy!). So she started in on a new refrain and began yelling, "Nothing's working!" at the top of her lungs to give vent to her frustration that, indeed,  all of her attempts to wiggle away were for naught. After the 600th calm reiteration that we could go back in when she was ready to be a good listener and reverent, she emphatically told me, "I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!"

Even in the moment I had to laugh, even though I would have much rather been enjoying air conditioning. That little girl of mine is too funny!

Life through cell phone pics

 Every now and again I like to post the random photos from my phone that never get published on their own because it shows a glimpse of our unscripted moments.

Like our girls lunch out to Ethiopian

Of my niece chopping through a carton of frozen strawberries as a late night snack.

Or the beautiful discovery of Biscoff spread at my grocery store.

I wore my retainer and J noticed it. The next day, she brought me this piece of my "mouth thing" It is actually a piece to a clothespin

And to record one more funny thing J did, even though most of you read it on facebook, I was practicing some yoga at home and Jae was doing some of the moves with me. Then we get to the meditation. I'm laying down and doing a decent job of staying in the moment when I feel cold little fingers pry open my eyelid and hear, "Do you want to build a snowman?"

My college roommate is marrying Husband's college roommate and the engaged couple came to visit for a weekend because of an awards dinner thing. All the girls in that apartment got together and went out to dinner as a little bridal shower. We decided to commemorate it in the parking lot with an awkward selfie. Well, it was actually two selfies, both sort of terrible. They were the best group of girls to live with and are still so much fun!

My nephew decided he want more spaghetti and helped himself. I admire the independent, can-do spirit of the boy.