"Way Back Wednesday"

I recently received baby pictures of Jared from my mother-in-law, so I thought it would be fun to post pictures of all three of us as babies. We are all right around 1 in these pictures.Jared's right about 13 months here. Isn't he the cutest baby boy you've ever seen? Okay, I know if you have boys of your own then they're the cutest baby boys you've ever seen. But I'm allowed to think that for a couple more months until we have our own. I hope our little guy looks just like him!

I'm not sure exactly how old I am, but I look to be pretty close to one. Hmmm, I wonder where Addi gets those chubby cheeks from??? =) Love the family pic, Mom, Dad & Heather are so cute. (Sorry Nick, didn't mean to leave you out, you just weren't around yet).

SUPERMODEL WORK!

And here's Addison at about 11 months old. I love this picture of her, it always makes me giggle.

Here's another one of her at 11 months where she isn't striking a pose. (Both pictures of Addison were taken by my sister Heather).

I'm beautiful

Addison's favorite word lately is beautiful. She started out saying "be-a-bowl" but now she's added another syllable and gotten the "t" in there "beau-a-ti-bowl". I love how she says it, it's so adorable. When she looks in the mirror she always says "baby beau-a-ti-bowl" or when she's wearing a cute outfit she points to her stomach and says "I beau-a-ti-bowl".
Usually I'm not ready for the day when I go to get her up in the mornings. Today I happened to be dressed and ready. When I opened her bedroom door she stood up in her crib, pointed her cute little finger at me and in her deep little voice that she gets sometimes when she's being serious she said "mama, you beau-a-ti-bowl". It just melted my heart! What a sweet thing to hear first thing in the morning.

One Crazy Cat!

Somehow we always end up with the silliest animals. Well I think our cat Ginger is the weirdest of them all. This post is probably going to wind up making it sound like I could use a trip to the loony bin, not the cat. But if you could only experience everything as I have, then you would understand. First you have to realize that this cat acts somewhat like a dog, but truly believes she is entitled to all the rights and privileges of a human being. During every meal she sits underneath Addison's seat and just waits for her to drop scraps so she can gobble them up. It doesn't matter what it is; meat, pasta, fruits, veggies, oatmeal...etc., she literally eats ANYTHING & EVERYTHING. Doesn't sound so bad right? I have an automatic vacuum/broom to clean up messes.
Now let me explain why she has been driving me nuts lately. As you all know I am pregnant, and you don't mess with a pregnant lady's food, at least not mine! Earlier in my pregnancy when I was super sick I was craving a gourmet sandwich for lunch. Despite barely being able to stand up I made one. I cut up lettuce, tomato, avocado, turkey, ham & cheese and made my sandwich. I got Addison situated with her lunch and set my sandwich on the table just in time to have to throw up. So I ran to the bathroom. While I was in there I heard Addison yelling "no no Kitty, uh-uh!". I knew exactly what was going on and I was furious. As soon as I was finished I ran into the kitchen only to find the cat hovering over my sandwich chowing down. I ran up to the table yelling and making all sorts of noise and of course she takes off with the top piece of bread in her mouth. I lost it! I started bawling and chasing the cat around the house to get that stupid piece of bread back. Of course I wasn't going to eat it, but I wasn't going to let her enjoy it either. I must've chased her like a maniac for 5 or 10 minutes before she finally just dropped the bread and hid somewhere I wasn't able to reach. Needless to say I threw my sandwich away and started from scratch, crying the entire time. The next incident happened a couple of months later when a friend of mine brought me some home grown squash from her farm. I love squash! One night we came home from being out and I saw something on the floor that I couldn't figure out what it was. As I took a closer look I realized it was a half eaten piece of squash. Then as I walked into my bedroom I saw another half eaten piece of squash. The dumb cat had dragged it off the counter and eaten raw squash. Again I was livid, as I mentioned before, you just don't mess with a pregnant woman's food. Not to mention the fact that it just grossed me out that she had been up on my counter tops. I gathered up the squash and once again I chased the cat around the house yelling like a wild woman.

(I know this picture is blurry, but that's about how I saw it when she ran across the room. A blurry furball with something in her mouth.)

Now just the other night Ginger bolted across the family room right in front of us with something dark in her mouth. I didn't see what it was and automatically assumed it was a mouse or something. I asked Jared to go check it out. He came back into the room cracking up and said "you're going to be so mad!". Well, it was an avocado that she had swiped once again from the counter. I just started laughing, I couldn't even be mad any more. I couldn't believe that she was eating an avocado. What kind of cat likes squash and avocado? I got up to see if she had eaten anything else only to find bite marks all over two bananas. I am now having to guard my food and counter much more carefully, as I cannot afford the grocery bill this cat is racking up. She's lucky Addison loves her SOOO much, otherwise she'd probably be out the door!

"Way Back Wednesday"

I just had to get in on the fun of "Way Back Wednesday". I love what everyone else has done on their blogs. I kind of have two for today, a true "way back" and a semi "way back". At first I didn't think I could do a true "way back" because I don't have my childhood pictures, but then my mom sent me one I can use. So first I'll do the original and then I'll do the semi.

In Heather's blog she asked what our favorite outfits used to be back in the day. I had typed in response that I had this bright multi-colored shirt that in the print you could make out some sort of animal, like a lion or zebra or something. Well when my mom read my comment she knew exactly what shirt I was talking about so she found a picture to send me. Since she knew just what I was talking about from that description you know I must have worn it A LOT! She said I wore that thing all the time. She didn't know why because it was huge on me, but I absolutely loved that shirt. Here's a picture of me wearing it. You can't see it in the picture, but Heather and I are both standing on just one leg like the flamingos in the background. Do I not look HUGE standing next to Heather?
I am the younger sister, but she looks like a mini me. I don't think my giant shirt was helping matters any! Don't you just love our awesome hair, man we were so cool.

Now for the semi "way back" story. Apparently I become easily attached to clothing. When I was a junior in high school (16 years old) I had another shirt that I absolutely loved. In fact I think it used to be Heather's shirt. I ended up wearing this shirt for picture day my junior year and my mom had the picture hanging on her picture wall in our family room. Okay, now fast forward 5 years to when I was 21 and started dating Jared. One night Jared and I went out on a date and I happened to be wearing this shirt (surprise, surprise). Well, he being the only observant man in the whole wide world recognized it from the picture on my mom's wall. He asked me "isn't that the shirt you're wearing in that one picture?", to which I hesitantly responded "yes". So then he asked "wasn't that taken like 5 years ago?", again completely embarrassed I answered "yes". He just started cracking up, he couldn't believe I still had the shirt and that it still fit. Needless to say, I made sure I never wore this shirt on a date of ours again. I didn't get rid of it though, oh no I still have it. I don't really wear it any more, but every once in awhile when we were first married I would put it on and he would just laugh and laugh and laugh. I pulled it out of the closet today to take a picture of myself in it and as soon as Addison saw it she grabbed it and said "niiice" while trying to put it on herself. She loves it. I put it on her and she just kept touching it because it's kind of silky material (I don't know what it's made of as the words on the tag have worn completely off) and saying ''niiice" or "be-a-bowl" (beautiful). You see it's so in style still that even the next generation is going to want to wear it. I think I might just save it for Addison! Anyway, here are the pictures of me wearing it. The first one is my junior year in high school (1996) and the


other one was taken today, 11 years later. Keep in mind that I am 5 months pregnant, I don't normally look like fat girl in little shirt when I wear this (or perhaps I do and that's why Jared always laughs so hard). Regardless of what I look like though, doesn't the shirt still look absolutely fabulous after all this time? Why wouldn't I wear something that still looks this good? =) All right, all right, I'll hang it up for good, but first take a look at Addison pulling off this timeless look!

WHEREVER DADDY TAKES ME!

In honor of Father's Day I thought I'd dedicate this post to the two most important fathers in the world to me; mine and my children's. I love this picture! It just reminds me of how much faith and trust we have in our dads. They are so strong (physically, mentally & emotionally) and we know that they would never lead us astray. As children we sometimes just hang on and let dad take us to wherever we're supposed to be.

My dad is one of the most amazing men in the world to me. He's had quite a life and has so many fun stories to tell. I truly look up to him. He's such an example to his children of what a hard-worker, provider, husband, father and so much more should be. I have so many great memories of my dad growing up. We couldn't wait for him to get home from work. As soon as he walked in the door Heather & I would run to greet him then race to take off his smelly socks & shoes (yes, weird I know, but for some reason we loved it!). Then we'd rummage through his lunch box because he always had chips or twinkies or ding-dongs or something good leftover that we could eat. I remember the first time he got a brain freeze. Somehow he had managed to never get one in his entire life until he was grown with 3 kids, and we all got to witness it. What a sight! He was drinking a slurpee when all of a sudden he grabbed his forehead and grimaced in pain asking what was happening. We all started laughing because he didn't know what a brain freeze was, then he started laughing hysterically through the pain as well. I love how my dad uses words that nobody else really uses any more, yet somehow still sounds cool. "That's so boss", "that car is cherry'd out", "right on", "that's a gas" and so many more that I just can't think of right now but every once in awhile I will hear and think "hey, my dad's the only other person I've ever heard say that". I love how he taught us important songs like "Gene, Gene made a machine" and "Beans, beans the magical fruit". You just don't hear these classics for some reason any more. But most important I love how very proud he is of each one of his children and how he's always made sure that we all know how much we are loved. I hope you know how much I love you Dad!

Somehow I got lucky enough to marry the other most amazing man in the world. Jared is not only the best husband a gal can have, he's also a wonderful father. There is nothing I enjoy more than watching him and Addison play together, it is so sweet to me. He loves that little girl and takes such good care of her. I love how the manliest of men can just melt and become so cute in the midst of their children. Jared has every quality I could wish the father of my children would have. He's patient, kind, responsible, fun-loving, hard working and so much more. I'm so grateful to his parents for raising such an outstanding man. It's funny because they always say that you marry your father, and boy did I! That might sound kind of weird, but there are so many times that Jared will do something that reminds me so much of my dad. I guess it makes sense that I would want to marry somebody who possesses many of the same qualities as someone else I admire so much.

On this Father's Day I want to thank all of the fathers who have meant so much to me. I have had a lot of outstanding examples in my life. Thank you to my grandpas, in-laws, uncles, Dad & sweetie (Jared). I love you all very much!

I love these pictures of my Dad with Addison. They are so sweet, I tear up every time I look at them.

Daddy & Addi, such a sweet bond between father and daughter!

IT'S A...

DRUMROLL PLEASE...you probably already guessed it, that's right, it's a BOY!!! I had my ultrasound yesterday and we found out that we'll be having a little boy. We could not be more excited. Everything looked great in the ultrasound, he seems healthy as can be. We thought we wanted another little girl so Addison could have a sister close to her age, but we were wrong. As soon as we saw it was a boy we were ecstatic. Addison's super excited too. She knew all along she was going to be having a baby brother. Whenever we would ask her if she wanted a boy or a girl she would say "boyee", too cute! She's going to be such a good older sister. She is just so lovey. The whole time I was on the ultrasound table she kept asking "k mamma, mamma k?". So I would tell her I was okay, then a couple of minutes later she would ask me again.

I am so glad to know what we're having so I can finally start getting stuff together. Once we were done at the doctor's office we went to Babies 'R Us and got a couple of little boy outfits, they're adorable. We already have name and nursery ideas and I can't wait to start making everything (with the help of my mom & sis of course). I have until the end of October, so I have to get crackin'. Luckily there's not much we need because we still have everything from Addison. We just have to buy a crib and boy clothes of course (I don't think dad would appreciate him wearing pink all of the time)!

I posted some of the ultrasound pictures to show him off. I know, I know, they're pictures only a mother could love but I added them anyway. =) They downloaded really small for some reason so they're kind of tough to make out.

We caught him in the middle of a yawn here, so his mouth is wide open. Here's the evidence that he's a boy!Cute little foot!He's either sucking his thumb or picking his nose in this one (we'll go with the former explanation)! ;)

I LOVE TAI PAN!

There is this awesome store where Heather lives called Tai Pan that I absolutely love. They have the cutest decorations for your home and they have the best prices. I think we seriously went there like 3 times the week I went to visit her. Tai Pan is a huge motivating factor for me wanting to move to Utah (besides the kids of course). I thought I would show off the goodies I bought when I was there. It's mostly stuff for my kitchen. I made everything in the top picture, although I'm still not completely happy with the vegetable topiary. I didn't get the Family Mercantile decoration at Tai Pan. My mother in law actually bought that for me awhile ago and I love it. I was trying to describe it to Heather so thought I'd take a picture of it so you can see what I'm talking about. Once I'm finished decorating my kitchen I'll take pictures and post them for everyone to see. I can't wait!

YUMMY!!!

We had the best thing for dinner tonight. Jared has a friend at work who is always making really good food and bringing it in for everyone to try. The other day he brought something in that Jared knew I would love so he got the recipe for me. (Even Jared loves this and he doesn't like vegetables.) I don't know what it's called, but it is wonderful. It is SO simple, yet so delicious. I made some fresh bread to go along with it and we had a great meal. Here's the recipe if anyone is interested.

6-7 squash (green & yellow, sliced)

1 white onion

1 bunch green onions (diced)

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 can Green Giant white shoepeg corn

cheese (longhorn or monterey jack)

fresh garlic

(I also added some fresh lemon juice for zest)

After cutting everything up, just combine all of the ingredients into a large pan. Cover and cook on high for about 5 minutes. Mix in a handful of cheese, lower heat to medium and continue cooking for about 15-20 minutes. Reduce heat again to a simmer and finish cooking for an additional 15-20 minutes. Sprinkle cheese over top and serve.

Trust me, it tastes much better than it looks! Or maybe it's just a pregnancy thing...who knows???

REAL QUICK!

I figured out what was wrong with my camera and thought I'd share in case anyone else was as technologically uninformed as me and ran into the same problem. There's a little tiny switch on the side of memory cards that lock it if you flip it one way and unlock it if you flip it the other. Who knew??? I would have never realized it except I happened to notice that there was an arrow that said lock...duh!
Also, on a completely different note, my hubby cracks me up. Most people know that I am annoyingly into editing and correcting everything that I read. (Yes, I'm a huge nerd!) I always read over Jared's school work and help him fix any mistakes. Well, tonight he was reading my previous blog and smugly came into the other room and said "you know there's a typo on your blog". He was so proud of himself. I'm glad to see a little bit of me has rubbed off! =)

Trip to Utah

I know it's been forever since I posted something new, but I'm having problems with my camera. Somehow the memory card is locked and I can't figure out how to unlock it. Until I do I can't take pictures or downloand current pictures onto my computer. I wanted to show off some decorations I made for my kitchen, but I'll have to work that out later I guess.

I wasn't going to do a blog on my Utah trip since most people already know about it and it's been a couple of weeks now. Also, I don't have any cute pictures to go along with it. I'm so bummed because I didn't really take my camera out the whole time I was there because Heather is so good about taking pictures I just thought "oh, I'll get copies". So look at Heather's blog if you want to see some super cute pictures she got of all the kids together. I thought since I'm picture-less anyway I'll go ahead and write a little bit about my trip to see Heather & the gang.

First of all, I am SO grateful to have such an amazing husband who completely understands how important my family is to me and how close we are. When Heather called to tell me what had happened to the Caidster I was devastated. I felt so bad for them and felt even worse because I was so far away and couldn't do anything to help. When I called to let Jared know what was going on all he said was "well you have to get out there as soon as possible". These were my first thoughts as well, but anyone who knows me knows that I am not a spur of the moment type person. I over-analyze everything and everything I do takes too much preparation and planning. Since Jared knows this about me he just go online, found an airline ticket and said call and let your sister know that you and Addison will be there tomorrow afternoon, someone needs to pick you up from the airport. I am so glad he did this for me, it meant a ton for me to be able to go visit the kids.

It was really hard not to cry the first time I saw Caiden. He was all bumped and bruised and broken, it just broke my heart. He is awesome though. He was only down the first couple of days I was there. Then as kids some how do, he miraculously started figuring out how to not let this get him down. Despite having two broken arms he found a way to run around and play and have fun (as much as the over-protective grown-ups would allow). He's such an amazing little guy, I'm so glad he's doing so well.

It was so fun to spend time with all of the kiddos. I can't believe how big Blaise has gotten. He's like a little man now. He's an awesome artist and totally into soccer, skateboarding and biking. He's REALLY good too. Ava is just a crack up. That girl has such a funny personality. I don't know why, but I always expect Ava & Addi to look alike and act alike, but those two could not be more different if they tried. We were hoping they'd just be the best of friends, but at this point they are really quite sassy to one another. It was very amusing watching them interact with one another. The only conversation they had the entire time we were there went a little something like this:

Ava: "no, stop it baby k!"

Addi: "no, no baby, uh-uh!"

We're pretty sure they'll grow out of this little phase, but in the mean time they are too adorable!

The only picture I do have is one of Addison with wild & crazy hair. Heather loved playing with her hair since Ava doesn't have all that much. It's kind of ironic to me that Addison has all this nice hair that I never have any idea what to do with and Avery doesn't have much but Heather is so good at doing cute little hairstyles. Oh well, I'm trying to learn and Ava will have more hair eventually.

I guess that about wraps it up. Addison and I had a blast visiting everyone but were so glad to get home to see daddy. We just have to figure out a way to live by eachother so we can visit whenever we want and take daily trips to Tai Pan!