DAV.I.SON.

Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom.

2012-01-31T20:42:00.002-07:00

Please note: I do not watch the tv show Family Guy, nor do I recommend watching it, judging by the "suggested" movies on the side bar of Youtube. Looks dirty.

(No offense if it is your favorite show.)

That being said--

At the end of today I felt a lot like this:

Ah. That's better.

Remember When It Was Christmas?

2012-01-26T18:16:00.000-07:00

Yeah. Me too.

We decided to try decorating our own stockings this year.

Loved it.

Isn't Kirby's awesome? It's a rollerblade. :)

We didn't have room for a tree in our little place, so I improvised.

Emily loved those lights.

Kirby took the entire week between Christmas and New Years off, plus a couple days before.

Bring on the media overload.

Fate. Mythbusters. Chips & Salsa.

Teaching Emily how to media overload in style.

Random shot from a Christmas shopping excursion.

This picture cracks me up.

How BORED does Sydney look here!?

"Yeah yeah. This happens ALL the time..."

I love this shot of Emily's toes. I have one just like it from when she was only 2 months old.

Blast. I was gonna do a side-by-side, but can't find it right now...

The Latelies.

2012-01-26T17:49:00.001-07:00

Ah yes. Remember us?

Don't worry.

We're still stinkin' cute!

Sydney's putting all sorts of stuff in her mouth these days. She REALLY doesn't like that tutu in her mouth, but somehow she can't seem to resist it.

Emily spends a lot of time on the floor.

Unfortunately, a good portion of the time she is throwing herself on the floor. Thank you, my child, for making me feel like the mother of the year. :)

But there's a whole lotta sweet mixed in the the tantrums, too, and my little miracle on Tuesday was that I actually caught some on camera.

She was rocking back and forth, so the focus is a bit off, but I love it all the same! This one's gotta go up on the wall!

MIRACLE, I tell you!

This is the first time in at least a year that she's consented to let me take a picture of her.

She usually sprints at me (and let me tell you--she's speedy!), wanting to see pictures of herself in the LCD.

Maybe, just maybe, my explanation that I can't show her pictures of herself if she won't let me take any has finally sunk in???

Maybe???

A Rude Awakening.

2012-01-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

This morning I was awakened by Emily smearing chapstick all over the lip region of my face.

Who knows how long she had been doing it. I am a VERY deep sleeper.

Just ask Kirby.

Or any of my girlfriends from high school.

She was talking softly and gently to me, but either I was too tired to discern what she was saying, or she was speaking her own little secret language.

I will be blaming her for any future breakouts in that region for the next three weeks.

Well, chapstick--we had a good run.

Looks like you won't be spending nights on my bedside table anymore.

I know. I know.

Bummer.

Chimin'Time

2011-11-19T15:19:00.001-07:00

Did I ever mention that I've been running a second Etsy shop?

I didn't think so.

We created Chimin'Time with our friends Mark & Amy over a year ago, intending to sell the chimes sets to elementary schools to use in their music programs.

Turns out by the time we got 75% through assembling 100 sets of chimes we were pretty burned out. :)

Once we finally recovered from that initial burn-out, Amy had the awesome idea to try to sell them on Etsy!

Today I discovered that we were featured on a site called outblush.com.

HERE's the link directly to our chimes.

Cool, huh!? :)

Dancing Queen.

2011-10-13T11:00:00.018-06:00

The kid's got moves.

And style.

And a belly.

This one makes me think of the Emperor from Star Wars...

She occasionally (okay, OFTEN) charges me when I'm filming. It's a dangerous business!

And just in case you're wanting to view the goodness for yourself...

Smellie...

2011-10-12T12:54:00.000-06:00

...has been busy.

VERY. BUSY.

Helping with laundry...

(it's exhausting work)

Refusing to eat her delicious dinner...

Attending Aunt Megan's wedding...

Crashing Syd's bathtime...

I'm sitting there bathing the Syd-meister, when out of the blue Emily comes flying over the edge of the tub--on her tummy--pajamas and all.

Comforting her sister...

Making sure Stinkie is well hidden...

Playing "naptime"...

Swimming at the apartment pool...

Making sure Syd's swing is well-stocked.

You never know when you'll have to go!

Playing with friends...

Testing mommy's high heels...

Finding new hiding places...

Watching Elmo...

(Or Zathura. Or Tangled. Or Cars. Or... well... you get the idea.)

Fashionably cruising...

Fashionably crashing...

Transitioning to her toddler bed...

(Eventually we had to get a baby proof doorknob cover. But it was getting fairly frustrating there for a while...)

Yup. Busy busy busy.

She LOVES jumping off two feet.

I hope the insulation between our unit and the one below is good!

She never stops talking. And I love it.

Most of the time. ;)

She is an amazing big sister. She loves Sydney SOOOO much.

Stinkie.

2011-10-12T12:30:00.000-06:00

...as we lovingly call her...

She's darling...

Supah Swank...

and dimpled...

She's doing amazing. So far we haven't had any issues with long-term complications. No retinopathy in her eyes. She eats like a champ. And she's chunking up nicely.

At her 4 month appointment (read: 1 month developmentally), she tipped the scale at 10 lbs 2 oz!

That's my girl!

One day (after two months of kicking myself for not doing a photoshoot of Sydney when she first came home from the hospital), I got off my fanny and decided to just wing it.

Why, yes. She IS adorable. Thank you. ;)

Did I mention I was winging it?

And because she's hilarious...

Meanwhile... back in the 'Couv...

2011-10-12T12:14:00.000-06:00

Hi. Welcome to my blog.
What? You've forgotten who I am?
Uh.....

I'm stuck in a mommy time warp.

You know the one.

What? It's the middle of OCTOBER!?

*cough, cough*

Yes. I know it's out of focus and grainy. But I love it anyways.

The Shop.

2011-08-16T15:46:00.000-06:00

I did it.

I opened an Etsy shop!

I'm still a little intimidated by the whole thing. So many little elements.

I figure I'll learn as I go along, right?

I just hope I don't make too many really stupid mistakes, but we'll see!

All Stuft Up

p.s. Sydney has been home for two weeks now. I've been a little preoccupied--hence no update on the homecoming. I'm think I've finally readjusted (again) to my current situation and role as a mother of two (with both at home), so hopefully I'll do better at blogging. :)

How Time Flies!

2011-07-27T17:26:00.001-06:00

First off, a huge apology to those who have been depending on my blog for updates about Sydney. I have shamefully neglected you all.

But I have good news!

No, she's not home yet. Boooo.

When I went in last night to breastfeed her she took 50ml!

NEW RECORD!

Here she is after a particularly good feed (48 ml, I think) and an impressively large poop.

She's doing really well.

She's at 38 weeks gestation, and babies usually go home between 36 and 37 weeks.

So she really likes the cushy NICU. Especially since she's in a cute 'lil' crib now!

But despite the longer stay, she's eating so well. And breastfeeding was on the top of my list of worries, so the fact that she's a rockstar eater puts me completely at ease.

As of yesterday she weighs 6 lbs 4.5 oz!

She's chunking right up, lemme tell ya!

It looks like we have another thumb sucker on our hands!

Her feeding tube is out, and she is now on an ad-lib feeding schedule (as opposed to being fed every three hours.) That means that she eats what she will, when she will. There are parameters to determine about how long she should sleep between feedings, depending on how much she takes. She breastfeeds a lot better now that she's on this new schedule! She wakes up herself, so she's a lot more alert which leads to higher volumes taken in less time.

All that really stands in her way at this point is her oxygen needs. She caught a very mild cold (turns out my allergies weren't just extra bad those days, I guess) and it's kept her from progressing the last week or so. They had moved her down to a low-flow cannula and she was doing well, but because of all the nose-suctioning they were having to do, her nose was bleeding. So they moved her back up to the high-flow so she would be getting humidified air to help her nose get better faster.

She has been on room air (no extra oxygen) since this morning at 1 liter of pressure. She'll probably be put back on the low-flow cannula tomorrow and they'll try and decrease the flow little by little until she's off. She's made huge progress since yesterday, so maybe she's decided the NICU isn't so cushy after all!

I've got my fingers crossed that she'll be home in 1-2 weeks! I can't believe how close she is! Thank you all for your prayers on her behalf!

Lately.

2011-06-21T22:26:00.000-06:00

Sydney's off the CPAP as of this morning.

She could potentially get put back on if she struggles on the nasal cannula, but hopefully she's off for good!

This was taken yesterday, during her last "hat check."

And here she is with me (and my cra-zay-zy hair) today, rocking the nasal cannula.

Can you believe I posted a picture the SAME DAY I took it!?

I can't wait to see her tomorrow and see how much the shape of her head has changed. :) The hats they use to keep the CPAP positioned are really tight (for obvious reasons), so Sydney's head is a little bit oblong. Her eyes should "un-puff" now, too, that they're not being squished shut by that blasted hat.

She gained two ounces last night, landing her at a whopping 3 lbs 8 ounces!

Most babies get to leave the NICU around 36-37 weeks gestation, which leaves us 3-4 weeks left.

WOW.

6 down. 3-4 to go.

But DANG! Ain't she CUUTE!?

Emily is starting to get into all sorts of mischief.

She's gonna be a climber, just like her mommy was.

(Sorry, mom!)

She's totally thinking, "Shoot. Do I run, or act cute and innocent!?"

She still LOVES Enchanted.

Please observe the elbow dimples.

Best seat in the house.

Until daddy brought in the camp chair, that is.

Yes, I'm working on trademarking her thighs. Don't be jealous.

Oh--what is Daddy up to, you ask?

Well... he keeps busy.

You know. With the important stuff.

Reach.

2011-06-21T21:10:00.000-06:00

Often times when I'm drying and/or straightening my hair I will put Sesame Street on for Emily.

This song was on today's episode, and it brought back so many memories. It was on the show when I was little, and I remember loving it.

It made me want to "reach" and "stretch" more in my own life.

Funny how much our "flexibility" diminishes as we get older.

Sometimes... I knit stuff.

2011-06-14T22:04:00.002-06:00

And it's awesome.

First project. A little rough around the edges, yes. If I could go back I wouldn't choose crazy-bulky yarn. Not the easiest to learn on.

Project #2. Everyone needs a big fluffy monkey, right?

Projects 3 & 4. For the nephews' birthdays. I have lovingly dubbed them "Fire and Ice".

For the other nephew.

And my latest project... Just for fun.

I'm halfway-seriously considering selling these on etsy. I'm allowed to, even though I didn't write the patterns, as long as I give credit to the lady who designed them.

So tell me this. Do you think people would actually buy them???

The Skinny.

2011-06-13T22:12:00.000-06:00

Or... maybe the not-so-skinny?

Sydney hit 3 pounds today.

HOLLA!

She's breathing well. A couple days ago they brought her down to 4 on the CPAP again (this is the third try), and so far so good. If she continues the way she is she could potentially be off the blasted thing in about a week.

(Love/Hate relationship with the CPAP.)

Also--the doctor didn't hear her usual murmur this morning. Could be a good thing, could just be a fluke. It's not uncommon for murmurs to "come and go". That being said, if the murmur "stays away" for a couple days they will be able to increase her feeds, which will consequently help her gain weight, and thus help in getting her off the CPAP sooner.

Oh, and did I mention she's as cute as ever?

Here's that movie I promised.

Wow. It's been a week and a half since I took this.

She's gained several ounces since then.

Emily is doing really well. She's a little fireball--soooo much energy in that tiny body! I have all sorts of movies of her dancing and laughing. More of those later. Right now I just feel relieved that I've blogged something at all. :)

Quick Update.

2011-06-02T23:23:00.000-06:00

Yeah.

I know.

Once upon a time it was May 6th and I was going into the hospital with contractions.

Now it's June 2nd and I'm a mother of two.

Where did May go!?!?

I have lots to share, but no time right now to post it all. So for now, here's a shot of Sydney I took today during her hat check.

"I dunno about you..."

Yeah. She totally knew the RT was going to put the CPAP right back on...

I have some darling video of her. I just need to shorten it a bit and upload it to YouTube.

Tomorrow, right?

She's currently 2 lbs 8 oz.

Still on the CPAP.

PICC line was removed a week or two ago. Hooray!

Getting mommy's milk through a feeding tube continuously.

Poops like a champ.

Any questions? :)

Wrinkles.

2011-05-13T12:02:00.000-06:00

A Mighty Shift

2011-05-11T21:54:00.000-06:00

So one time I was pregnant.

I so cleverly snuck that information into a recent post.

You know.

'Cause I'm awesome like that.

I decided I was going to wait until I had a good ultrasound picture to announce that I was, in fact, pregnant with another beautiful baby girl.

Somehow I managed to walk away with only one picture from our 20 week ultrasound--an arm.

Yeah. I didn't really grasp the significance of the arm bone either. Thanks, doc.

But before I get ahead of myself... let's flash back to week 16 of the pregnancy.

I had some light spotting, but was told that it wasn't too unusual. We decided to just wait and see if it went away on its own. Which it did.

Mostly.

A couple weeks later, though, the bleeding really started to pick up, which prompted our doctor to move up our 20-week ultrasound a day.

It looked like I had a partial placenta previa--something that could potentially resolve on its own, or cause mild bleeding for the rest of the pregnancy. Great. Just when I thought I'd so cleverly managed to take a break from my monthly gift. :)

But the bleeding didn't stop. It got worse. In a pretty hardcore way.

I had another ultrasound because of it. I got great pictures of the baby at this one. :) The problem wasn't placenta previa. It was a subchorionic hemorrhage. The baby was great though. Good heartbeat. Good growth.

Long story short, I was told that as long as I could feel the baby move, things were fine for now. We would just need to keep monitoring the situation, since it could really turn ugly at any time.

Thursday May 5th was a pretty good day. I made Kirby chicken cordon bleu for dinner--DELISH. With cheesy potatoes. Heaven.

At about 1AM on the 6th I woke up with extreme pain in my lower abdomen that wouldn't release. I hobbled into the bathroom to run a hot bath. It sort of helped. Enough so that the contraction released a little. But it didn't take long for regular contractions to start coming every 2 minutes. I waited for about 45 minutes, timing the contractions in the front room, hoping they would go away.

They didn't.

So I woke Kirby up and he got Emily up and we headed to the hospital.

They tried giving me a couple shots of something to slow/stop the contractions, but that didn't work. So I was admitted to labor and delivery and put on magnesium.

Nasty stuff.

But it stopped the contractions. I was on the Mag for 48 hours--long enough for the two steroid shots to take effect in case the baby came early. The steroids help get the baby's lungs ready for breathing in case of a premature birth.

I also got 4 blood transfusions since my hematacrit was 22.

I had a hematacrit of 42 in February.

Turns out going into labor may have saved my life.

My Mother's Day present was getting weaned off the Magensium, and learning that my mom was going to fly out that night so that when (hopefully) I was sent home I could be on legitimate bed rest.

Just when I was feeling fabulous (getting weaned off magnesium will do that for you), I had a relapse. They put me back on the magnesium again, but the dosage I was at before wasn't helping. They bumped up the dosage, and the contractions came less often and were less intense.

After another ultrasound on Monday, the neonatal specialists felt like it would be the best course of action to move me to a hospital where they were better equipped for earlier babies, and then wean me off the magnesium again and let nature take its course.

I got to ride in an ambulance, guys. Not speeding with the sirens, but in an ambulance no less.

It's a good thing they had medicine to keep me from getting motion-sick!

Monday night was awful. I felt a little bit better on Tuesday as the magnesium was pulled back. I was finally allowed to eat fluids, so Kirby got me a Jamba juice. A little later I was allowed eat real food, so before the doctors changed their minds Kirby ran to Applebees and got me some chicken wings. Shortly after I downed the wings the contractions started to pick up, and we knew we were on our way.

I got all epidural-ized, and before long I was moved to the operating room. Unfortunately, the baby's heartbeat was dipping during the contractions, so it was deemed safer to do a C-section.

So Wednesday, May 11th at 2:48am our dear sweet Sydney Lee Davison was brought into this world weighting 2 lbs, 2 oz and measuring 14 inches long.

She's doing amazingly well. She's on the C-Pap machine, but hasn't needed supplemental oxygen.

Now it's just a waiting game.

What is estimated to be about a 10-week waiting game.

I will hopefully be able to hold her tomorrow, and I can't wait.

I'm doing well, too. By tomorrow morning I will be tube-free and hopefully semi-mobile.

It turns out that there are way too many every-day movements that require the use of abdominal muscles.

I. Am. A.

2011-04-14T21:28:00.001-06:00

Knitting fiend.

Ok, not really.

I haven't even learned how yet.

But I'm gonna.

And here's my inspiration:

I mean, seriously. How adorable are they?

The designer of these monsters just finished a six-part series on learning how to knit. You can access all six parts HERE.

And now I'm shamelessly going to put a plug in for a giveaway because I want an extra entry.

Rebecca Danger (the designer) is giving away a copy of this book

on the Make It & Love It blog.
(psst! There are links to Rebecca Danger's blog and Etsy shop from that link, too!)

And I totally want one. Even though I still need to learn how to knit. :)

On a side note, I'm also mourning the fact that I haven't yet learned to crochet. Look at these!

(found HERE)

(found HERE. There's a super cute picture of Rachel's baby on this blanket, too, which really shows off the fabulous ruffles. I just didn't want to shamelessly repost a picture of her child. That's all. But you should check it out!)

p.s. Rachel, I will probably have to employ you to make that baby hat for me. 'Cause let's get real. What are the odds I will become a true proficient in both knitting AND crochet before this baby gets here?

Mmmmm. I think I'll be betting AGAINST myself on that one.

How We Did It

2011-04-04T12:34:00.000-06:00

I couldn't have done it without Kirby.

He is my handyman.

I showed Kirby THIS project I found, to see if it was something he thought he could do with the tools we have. In their tutorial they are testing out the Dremel Trio--which would be an awesome tool to have, but unfortunately we don't.

So we improvised.

We bought 1x2s in 6-foot lengths at Lowes (we bought the step up from pine, since they were less warped overall). It may have been poplar? But I can't remember, sorry!

In order to create the shallow groove for our "stuff" to rest in, and keep it from sliding off our shelves, Kirby ran the boards through a table saw (his dads--I wish we had room for one!) a couple times, adjusting the guide a tiny bit each time until the groove was the width we wanted. He just made sure the blade was nice and low so it only cut in between 1/8th and 1/4th inch. Old-school, yes, but very effective.

Here you can see the groove before we cleaned it up a bit. This board was run through once more to get rid of that little nub. You can make the grooves as deep and as wide as you want, depending on what it is you are planning on sticking on the shelves!

Next Kirby sanded them. Then came the painting. I opted for white, since I thought it would look nice against the blue paint of the wall behind the couch. But this is an area where you can get creative! You could do a bright pop of color, or you could even stain them.

No pictures of me painting. Or Kirby (he put on the first coat). Although, I assure you I looked very stylish out on our balcony/porch in my plaid pajama pants, Ugh boots, and old sweatshirt.

It was cold, okay?

Once the paint was all dry, it was time to stick 'em to the wall.

We used 3" screws so that they could go all the way through the shelf and into the studs.

Because of the position of our couch, the screws on the left side aren't the same distance from the end as the screws on the right. But once I paint them, who's gonna know? And I'll be honest. They don't even bug me all that much unpainted!

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Are any of you perfectionists when it comes to hanging things level on the wall?

Try mounting a six-foot-long rail, which might even be a little bit warped.

Ha. I almost lost my mind. I started out with this plan:

Sort of a modified version of what was in the original tutorial.

Epic fail.

The most important part is to get the bottom shelf level.

Measure up from the back of the couch, and make a mark where you want the bottom/top of your shelf. I recommend making the mark on the wall above the studs you will be screwing into. Once you have the two screws in, you can adjust the middle part of the shelf for any bowing that occurs.

From that point on, just measure up from the top of your lowest shelf to get your other shelf where you want it. Make sure you remember that you are measuring from the top of one to the bottom of the other. Or you could measure top to top. Just be consistent. And double and triple check your measurements!

When we mounted the third shelf up, Kirby forgot that we were measuring to the BOTTOM of the next shelf, and put the top of his end on the mark, and I put the bottom of my end on my mark. Ha. Easy fix, but it was rather perplexing for about 30 seconds. I was like, "That is NOT. LEVEL."

We mounted ours about 9" apart. They're not all exactly that far apart, but you can't tell.

The most important thing is to make sure they are level.

Yes, my child was rather unhappy for some reason.

You can see how the screws on the right side are a couple inches farther in from the right end than the left screws are.

As I mentioned before, I still need to paint the screws. I'm planning on painting them very carefully with an art paintbrush. I want to make sure we can still get a screwdriver into them to get them out when we move!

Once the shelves are up on the wall, all that is left is to fill them!

Here was my inspiration photo:

They used primarily postcards, I think.

I opted to mount photographs on foam board.

Plus one fabulous postcard from Ireland! Thanks, Liz!

I printed various sizes (8x10, 6x8, 5x7, 4.5x7, 7x10) so that the height of the images would vary. I cut out the foam board with my rotary cutter. If I was going to do it again, I would get a fresh blade. I think mine was pretty dull from all the coupon cutting I used to do with it.

I mounted the photos with a spray adhesive I got at JoAnn's. Worked like a charm. I even got an adhesive which, depending on how you apply it, can be reused.

Lemme 'splain.

I can carefully pull the photos off, and simply stick a new image on! Pretty awesome. I'll find out how well that works once I actually swap some pictures out.

So there you have it.

Just think of the fun you can have with this! Holidays--stash all the usual stuff and fill it with themed stuff! If you tend to get lots of wedding announcements all at the same time, stick them up there instead of on the fridge! It's a great option for displaying kid's artwork, too! Or... license plate covers? The possibilities are endless! :)

The Growth.

2011-04-04T11:00:00.000-06:00

Lovingly (I think?) named by Kirby's mom.

And I love it.

The Wall.

2011-04-03T17:47:00.000-06:00

The shelves were up on the wall a while ago, but I finally got around to dressing them!

It's a work in progress.

Ideally that license plate cover will eventually make out out onto our CAR.

But you know. What's the hurry?

The thing I love about it is that if tomorrow the placement of one of the items is driving me nuts--I can change it! :) Plus it will be nice and cheap to swap a picture out here and there as a new favorite shot comes along.

Maybe I'll even put up some of Emily's board books on the bottom shelf.

Downside: I'd be picking them up off the couch all day and putting them back.

The only thing Emily has taken off the bottom row is the postcard in the middle. Since I mounted the photos on foam board from the craft store, they stick in the groove Kirby made really well.

Hopefully she doesn't figure out my secret!

Now I just need to paint the screws white...

Post #200!

2011-04-03T17:41:00.000-06:00

And do I have a surprise for you!

SURPRISE!

Were you surprised?

I wasn't.

I was actually in the room the entire time this adorable child wreaked her havoc.

Why didn't I stop her?

Because taking all the wrappers off the toilet paper tolls was on MY list of things to do.

And she was very helpful.

Oh yeah. And I'm pregnant.

SURPRISE!

I'll be 22 weeks along on Wednesday.

August 9, 2011

PB & J

2011-03-23T21:03:00.000-06:00

Oh, how I love thee.

You are the only thing my daughter is guaranteed to eat.

Proof that my child is not always photogenic. :)

Still Kickin'

2011-03-17T15:13:00.001-06:00

Yup.

Not dead.

Shocker, I know.

I'm biding my time until BYU's first NCAA tournament game begins (I LOVE that I actually get to watch them live--although, Greg Wrubell is incredible. I love listening to that guy!). And I remembered that I haven't blogged in ages. And I'm actually sorta in the mood to throw a lil' something out there!

I got my hair cut today!
Thanks to an AWESOME deal on Groupon for a local salon!
If you're interested in using Groupon, and haven't started yet, click HERE!

Oh, goodness, how I needed it.

It had been at least three months since my last cut and my head was in mourning.

I almost chopped it all off again, (I blame YOU for that Rachel!), but I resisted and decided to show my brand new stylist (ACK!) this picture and see what she could do for me.

It will take a bit to grow my bangs out, but mostly I just wanted something fun and light that could be styled with flat iron curls, or straight, or slightly flipped, like the picture.

But let's be honest--I mostly just wanted the near-mullet chopped off the back. :)

And I'm loving what she did. She styled it with flat iron curls, so the only pictures I have of it thus far are of it that way. I'm really excited to style it straight, and to try and replicate the look of the inspiration photo. :)

Turns out photobooth is a brilliant way to photograph the back of your head!

So there you have it.

The new do!

Maybe Matilda

2011-02-10T21:37:00.000-07:00

Maybe some of you have noticed the cute new button in my sidebar.

Or maybe you haven't.

If you're like me you do most of your blog reading on Google Reader.

Well. Whether you've seen it or not, I have a cute new button on my sidebar.

For Maybe Matilda.

What is Maybe Matilda?

Only a FABULOUS Etsy shop started by an unbelievably talented friend of mine.

Seriously.

Unbelievable.

I actually ordered two hats from her shop last night.

(One of them was a one-of-a-kind. Don't be jealous.)

I was gonna post about them when they arrived, but she's having a giveaway on her blog, and I get an extra entry if I blog about it.

So I'm telling you about her today.

Check out some of her stuff!

Whoever winds the giveaway gets to choose between the bow headwrap or the flower headwrap.

Super cute!

Check out her shop HERE.

Or click on the super cute button in my sidebar. :)

Something I'm Lovin' Right About Now

2011-02-04T11:50:00.000-07:00

Oh man. So delicious.

I've only been able to find them at WinCo here.

But I've only looked for them at Walmart in addition to WinCo.

If you can find them, GET THEM.

'Nuff said.

The Tropical Smoothie Cafe

2011-02-02T22:46:00.000-07:00

FIELD TRIP!!!!

Finally.

Emily and I ventured into downtown Portland today.

Portland is insanely cool.

Also--Portland is just plain insane.

I thought the pedestrian situation in Provo was bad...

The main purpose for our field trip to Portland was to make a return to Eddie Bauer, which is about a mile from Tropical Smoothie. So... naturally... we had to stop there first to make sure we went before Emily started to break down. The plan was that we'd take our smoothies to the Lloyd Center mall afterwards and walk around after making the return.

We didn't make it to Eddie Bauer.

I searched on our GPS for Eddie Bauer, because I wrote down instructions to the Lloyd Center from our place in Vancouver instead of the actual address. It said there was an Eddie Bauer even closer, so I tried to find it. Maybe I did. All I know was there was zero parking and had no desire to try and find any. Again. So I looked to find the one I originally wanted to go to, and saw that there was supposedly one right in Vancouver (which the Eddie Bauer site failed to show.)

Awesome, I thought. I'll go there where I know there will be a parking lot. And Emily could even take her nap first.

There's no Eddie Bauer in Portland.

(A similar situation happened with Tropical Smoothie--there USED to be one in Vancouver, and certain search systems still think there is...)

But ANYWAYS.

Tropical Smoothie was great. Such a cool location!

Love all the windows. Love the high ceilings. I'd totally hang out here all the time if I lived in Portland.

Check this out--they had a lil' kid sized booth! Emily was a big fan.

Um, yeah. She looks miserable. But she was so thrilled to have her own lil' smoothie!

Clearly, drinking smoothies is a very serious business. No time to smile.

Me and my Bahama Mama. Yum.

Oh so fabulous.

Sometimes...

2011-01-26T20:05:00.001-07:00

...life is just awesome.

There's nothing like winning a giveaway to give me a perma-high for a week.

Every time I think about it I get giddy!

Here's what I won!

I'm pretty sure I've told you about Mommy Necklaces before.

They're nursing necklaces that are super durable, made of non-toxic USA beads, with a "breakaway" clasp that will release when pulled on particularly hard, thus eliminating the risk of the necklace breaking. They also have a three year guarantee. You can even send your necklaces back after a year and they'll clean them and buff them up good as new if you want! Plus, the color schemes and beads are just plain gorgeous. And they are extremely customizable.
No, a shameless plug for MN is not required for me to receive this necklace. I just think they're fabulous.

Love them.

Lots.

And I "like" their page on Facebook. That's how I won this gorgeous necklace and accent strand.

The ladies at Mommy Necklaces love to do giveaways through Facebook, so any time they make an "oops" necklace (too long/short/wrong colored donut, etc.), they'll post about it on their wall, and usually all you have to do is "like" that post and you're entered to win.

In this case, the owner of Mommy Necklaces was just experimenting with the beads and came up with this beauty. She's dubbed it the "Just Because" necklace.

It is the only one of its kind! Usually the giveaways are of collections (color schemes) they offer on their website, but not this one!

I feel so special!

And lucky.

Bounce.

2011-01-25T15:37:00.000-07:00

So remember how I was needing a seating solution for my fabulous custom desk?

I bought a stability ball.

I figure, it's squishy (which equals comfy, naturally...), I can tuck it under the desk, it will help tone my "core", Emily can use it as a toy/drum/trampoline, and I can use it to challenge myself in my workouts.

What's not to love, right?

Turns out it is a lot of fun. Although, if I bounce too much while working on the computer I get a little motion sick...

What's up with that???

Dis-discouragement.

2011-01-24T11:26:00.000-07:00

For those who are new/er to my blog, I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Our ward here in Vancouver meets at 1:00.

Was that a collective groan I heard from all you other moms out there??

Guess what time our lil' bug usually takes her daily nap?

Yes, we've been down to one nap for several months now...

1:00.

So far we've managed to get her up early (or in yesterday's case, she got up nice and early--sorry Kirby), and then put her down for a nap around 10:30. Yesterday she actually went right to sleep, so she got NEARLY the two hours she usually does before we had to wake her up to get her ready to go.

Despite the nap, by the time sacrament meeting is over, she's done sitting still.

Like, hardcore done.

Only about three more months until nursery!

So each week Kirby and I take one shift, either Sunday School or Priesthood/Relief Society. Then the next week we switch what shift we take.

Yesterday I had the last block--Relief Society.

Emily is really quite pleasant. She hams it up for the crowd--grins, and dances. But she also prefers to travel around the entire relief society room. Which I don't really feel okay with. So after a little while of trying to keep her within a 3-4 foot radius (I was even sitting with another friend of mine and her 10-month-old--you'd think that playing with another baby would keep her in one place--yeah right...) I took her out to change her diaper. I wanted to go back in, but I knew it would be impossible to keep her in one place, and felt bad about bringing a huge distraction back. Even if most of the ladies are probably okay with it, I know deep down there must be at least a couple ladies who are genuinely irritated by it.

So we wandered the halls.

And Emily hammed it up for everyone we encountered out there, too.

And any time someone entered or exited a classroom, Emily would make a mad dash for the open (or should we say rapidly closing) door. Visions of tiny squished fingers are dancing in my head...

By the time 4:00 rolled around I was exhausted and discouraged.

I thought to myself, "Why do we even come!? One of us might as well stay home."

Right away I knew it wasn't true. We both got to partake of the sacrament. And we each got at least 1 hour of additional learning. I knew it was just because I ended on the rough shift, and I'm also not used to spending so much time in the hall. In Orem, I taught the CTR 4's in primary, so Kirby had Emily for the entire second two hours of the block. But I still felt pretty discouraged.

I was thinking about how I felt yesterday as I got ready to eat breakfast this morning. I've been trying to read one conference talk from the last General Conference each morning while I eat.

The talk I read (correction: I'm still reading it...) this morning is entitled Faith--The Choice Is Yours from Bishop Richard C. Edgley. A couple things have stood out to me.

"Choose faith over doubt, choose faith over fear, choose faith over the unknown and the unseen, and choose faith over pessimism."

"Yes, faith is a choice, and it must be sought after and developed. Thus, we are responsible for our own faith. We are also responsible for our lack of faith. The choice is yours."

What does this have to do with my experience at church yesterday? Lemme 'splain. It was fairly easy for me to feel like there wasn't any point in being at church when I was out of class. I figured I wasn't being spiritually uplifted, so why bother?

But after reading this, I realized that it just means I need to be more active in finding spiritual experiences throughout the week to keep me lifted up. Whether my faith is strengthened is not up to whether or not my child will sit quietly on my lap durin Relief Society--it's up to me. Hey, there are probably even things I can do while we're wandering the halls! And I know that church is where we are supposed to be, so I will be blessed regardless of whether I'm able to sit through an entire class with my 15-month-old.

Looks like it's time to really crack down on my daily scripture study.

But hey--I'm sure you moms have had similar experiences. What did you do to keep from getting discouraged? And was there anything you found that helped keep energetic pre-nursery children close during classes?

HELP!

2011-01-20T11:00:00.078-07:00

Here is our current bedding:

I love it. Truly I do. But some of the patches (the silkier fabric with the zebra stripes) are fraying at the seams. So lame.

BUT--also fun because it means I can change up our bedroom--which I've been wanting to do for a little while now. And realistically, changing up the bedding is a great way to do that.

I've been searching different sites (kohls, jcpenney, walmart, target, etc.) for sets I love, but that are also affordable. I need something that is delicious and fun, but not to crazy or girly (since Kirby has to like it, after all.)

Here's the thing, though--I surprised Kirby with this bedding. I saw it at Walmart one day, loved it immediately, but was worried Kirby would hate it. I decided to give it a shot anyways and put it on the bed while he was at school, keeping all the packaging in case it was a complete failure.

He loved it.

He did, however, openly admit that if he'd been there at the store with me to help select our new bedding, he never would have chosen this, and probably would have been against it.

My point? Sometimes taking chances can really pay off.

I have found a couple I like so far, and would LOVE some input from all y'all.

The first three are all from Kohls.

Found HERE.

I love how luxurious these two look. Same set, different color schemes.

Found HERE.

Update: Turns out this one (above) isn't available in a queen. LAME. But I'll leave it up anyways because it's gorgeous. :)

And this one? I am just drawn to it. I can't quite pin down the reason why. If it was just for me, I would buy this in a heartbeat. My only hesitation is Kirby--do you guys think it's too girly??

Found HERE.

The rest are from Walmart--some are available in stores, others are only available online. I couldn't save the pictures from their website (LAAAAME!), but I'll put the links.

I think this one is fun and whimsical, while being elegant at the same time.

This one has me head-over-heels. I love the color. Plus--it comes with the decorative pillows shown in the picture!

This set definitely has a masculine vibe, which I'm totally cool with. But it is all brown, and I'm kind of itching to shake things up with the color. I like all the asymmetry, though!

This one is another that I'm drawn too, but I'm afraid it might be too feminine. The color, the print. But isn't it FABULOUS?

So there you have it. My huge dilemma. I have $40 in Kohls Cash from our shopping trip to get Kirby clothes for work, and a $30 gift card from Christmas. So I'd love to be able to use those on the bedding, since it would kind of even out the price difference between Kohls and Walmart. Plus part of me is telling myself, "If it costs more it should supposedly be higher quality, right???" That being said, there is plenty on my list-of-things-to-do that could be purchased at Kohls with said gift card and Kohl's Cash, so it's not like this will be my only chance to use them.

On the other hand, the Walmart sets are definitely cheaper, and while that could mean lower quality, the set we have now came from Walmart and we have loved it--the warmth level is perfect, and the fabrics feel fabulous. Plus-- it could give me a great excuse to switch things up again in a couple years, right?? ;)

So PLEASE.

What do YOU think?

Which set is your favorite and why?

Do you think I'm too paranoid about the girly-ness, or would it be wise to steer clear of those two more feminine sets?

And what are your views on decorative pillows? I LOVE a made up bed, complete with decorative pillows, but the rational side of me (thanks, dad...) keeps telling myself they'll just be tossed out of the way.

They WOULD make making the bed every morning a lot more fun, though. Ooooh. That's a great justification! I would definitely be more likely to make the bed if we had fabulous pillows.

The Big Blue Wall.

2011-01-19T21:35:00.000-07:00

So here's the plan. And I'm super excited about it.

I am going to shamelessly copy THIS idea, found HERE.

Which was inspired from THIS.

I'm planning on mounting 5x7 prints of our family, friends, and other cool looking stuff on foam board or something similar, to give it added stiffness, and then just stick them on the shallow "shelves." Of course, we would LOVE some cool postcards, too--if any of y'all have some sitting around or want to send one our way, shoot me an email at davisonphotography {at} gmail {dot} com and I'll send our new address your way. :)

I'm crazy excited about this because it will provide us with an art piece that is fun and modern, but it also easily changeable. It will be easy (and inexpensive) to switch out a 5x7 here, and a postcard there. It will also be easy to keep the pictures current--and it's a place to put those fun photos that don't quite make it into a frame. ALSO--in a space that would hold maybe 6-10 frames, we'll be able to fit 20+ pictures.

I'm beyond excited.

Our Very Own Cookie Monster.

2011-01-19T21:24:00.000-07:00

It's amazing what she can do with a single Oreo.

The Tour

2011-01-19T21:22:00.000-07:00

I have had several requests for more photos of the place, so here's how it looked today.

As in... I didn't clean up. At all.

Okay, so I vacuumed up the toilet paper Emily ripped into tiny bits in the bathroom. But that's all.

So don't judge. :)

Welcome to our apartment. This is the view from our front door. To the right of the TV is the hallway back to the bathroom and bedrooms, and you can see the office/dining room back to the left.

Living room view from the hallway.

This is the office/dining room. We just got the pictures up yesterday. Yes, I know my "D" is not quite centered. Gotta fix that. And we're going to stain the desk that Kirby made. I'm trying to decide between a stability ball (cheap, and good for you), or a cute little bench/ottoman that I can tuck under the desk. OPINIONS?

The view from the dining room into the living room. That door on the right leads to our balcony and storage area. No pictures of that yet. Whoops.

The kitchen. It opens up to the dining room/office, which is nice.

A slightly different view that shows the microwave. And my charming child.

Yeah, okay, so I'm mostly including this shot because I think Emily looks hilarious.

And that mountain of newspaper beside the microwave? That's my old spice rack. I need to decide which of those spices I actually use and create magnetic baby food spice jars for them. Kirby left it ugly and in the way to "encourage" me to do it quickly. :)

Okee dokes. Let's head down the hallway. First door on the left is the bathroom.

This room is pretty much full of stuff that is not intended for a bathroom.

For example: That big fluffy rug? NOT A BATHMAT.

Funny story. We didn't have one when we moved in. But I had that rug as a photography prop for babies. But the back of it is rubberized, so Kirby decided to stick it in the bathroom.

I was planning on switching it out, but after having that fabulous thing underfoot for two weeks?

Ummm... It makes sitting on the pot almost luxurious. Maybe we should find a toilet seat cover made out of the stuff?

The brown shag rug is also not a bathmat, but is not rubberized. Not ideal for in front of the door. I'm hoping to get one of those west elm jersey knit rugs for right there.

This IKEA shelf is not made for the bathroom. We bought it for the living room before learning that the stud locations don't really allow for us to hang it on the wall without it looking dorky. And it's pretty hefty. So now it serves us remarkably well in the bathroom. It gave us a spot to store TP that is accessible from the toilet--seriously, how awful is it when you've already sat down and you realize there's no toilet paper!? It also gives us a place to store all the stuff we use regularly in the shower, but don't want it cluttering the sides of the tub. One basket holds Emily's bath toys, and the other holds feminine hygiene products--also conveniently accessible from the pot. I still need to decide what to do on the top.

Towel hooks? It was our coat rack in our old place, but since we have a coat closet by our door, we don't really need it for coats anymore. It was a perfect solution in the bathroom, which had a cheapo towel rod which only fit one towel on it. Yes, that's the mounting bracket from the towel rod still there. We didn't want to strip out the screws, thus creating a problem when we have to put it back up before we leave...

Directly opposite the bathroom door is our washer/dryer closet. Forgot to photograph it.

Next room on the left is Emily's room. It also serves as a storage room of sorts. It is in no way set up how I want it yet. I would like to put the crib up against the accent wall, and hang pictures above it. I just haven't gotten to this room at all yet. And yes. We have a toddler bed in there, too. We were gifted one from my aunt, and we don't have anywhere to store it--we figured it looked nicer set up than leaning up against the wall. Emily to climb into and out of it over and over again. Although, I don't think she understands what it is yet.

View from the window. Half of that closet is taken up by our water heater. Big bummer. What whatcha gonna do?

If you walk straight down the hallway you walk right into the master bedroom.

View from the window. That's our walk in closet, which provides us with half the closet space we used to have in our bedroom. :) We're managing. If anything, it just helps encourage us to take clothes we never wear to Goodwill.

Phew! Walk back down that hallway, and turn left and you're back at the front door!

Still lots to do. I need to:

*Bedroom:

Create a new headboard for the bed.

We had to take off the one that came with it because it requires the bed to be several inches off the wall,

and we couldn't comfortably fit the dresser at the foot of the bed with it on--and there was no other place to put the dresser.

Find homes for the junk on top of our dresser.

Reorganize the closet and try and find another home for Kirby's tools.

Window treatments.

New Bedding.

*Bathroom:

Get a new shower curtain and towels for the bathroom.

I love the curtain we have. The texture is gorgeous. But it is the same color as our walls. And the bathroom NEEDS COLOR. Desperately.

Who knows. Maybe once we have bath towels with color it will look super-fab.

Figure out what to do on top of the bookcase.

Get some legit bath accessories.

Do something beautiful above the toilet.

*Emily's Room:

Uhhhh... Set it up. :)

Figure out how to either get rid of enough stuff so we have room in actual storage spaces for the extra boxes, or find a clever way to conceal them in her room.

Window treatments.

*Living Room:

Do the picture rails above the couch.

Buy new lamps?

Find a teensy side table for Kirby's chair so we can get more light in that room!

There's no overhead lighting. BWUUUT!?

Learn how to make Roman shades for the window.

*Dining Room/Office/Kitchen:

Roman shade for the window in a fabulous color.

Print new photos for the frames.

The ones in there have never been switched and most are pre-marriage!

Stain the desktop.

Organize desk. a.k.a. find space for the extra junk.

Finish spice jars.

Ummm... so yeah. That's the tour!

Oh, Yum.

2011-01-17T22:43:00.000-07:00

How delicious are THESE!?

found here...

Um, yes. I would love to have one of those bathmats underfoot while I brush my teeth. Sign me up!

I wish they came in more colors, but I think white could totally work in our bathroom.

Ok, so I'll make it work!

Settling In.

2011-01-14T22:05:00.002-07:00

I finally broke out the 5d Mark II today.

It was about time I got some new pictures of Emily.

I just got Emily some real bath toys. Hooray! Naturally, it needed to be photographed.

"Geez. Haven't seen that big black thing in a while..."

Emily's characteristic squat. Sometimes she'll go a full 10 minutes like this.

We finally got Emily some rubber-soled shoes. Seeing as the ground is wet here about 85% of the time, I figured it was about time. Now we can actually play outside!

She clearly loves them.

When we tried them on at Kohls she went ballistic when we took them off.

Are they darling or what!?

The tights/diaper cover/tennis shoes combo is SO in right now.

Belly shot. Because it's fabulous.

The News from Washington

2011-01-14T21:38:00.001-07:00

So far, so good.

We have things moved in and organized to a point where we are as far as we can go before getting another bookcase.

We're gonna get one from IKEA.

I went there this past Saturday (Have any of you ever been on a Saturday?? INSANE.) and got two dressers to go under our TV and a small(ish) shelf which ended up in the bathroom. We were going to hang it on the wall, but it's a hefty lil' thing, and the studs just didn't line up in the living room. Bummer. Anyhoo, that final bookcase wouldn't have fit in my car along with the other items. It's 79 1/2 inches long, for goodness sakes! Plus, it was the first item I found in the self serve area, and I was alone, and chickened out. I was alone with the dressers and shelf, too, but by the time I found them I was in this-trip-will-be-a-total-waste-if-I-don't-suck-it-up-and-find-a-way-to-get-these-on-my-cart mode.

So... our place used to look like this:

Master Bedroom.

Emily's Room.

Bathroom. Obviously.

Living Room.

View from the front door of the living and dining room.

Now it doesn't. And I'll get pictures again soon. I am too tired and lazy right now to do it. Plus--they'll be better with natural light coming in the windows anyways.

Our trip here was a bit crazy. I've already mentioned the crazy weather, and the truck delay... But I've only barely gotten to upload any pictures.

Our couldn't-have-survived-withouts were the DVD player, goldfish crackers, and kix.

This is what the road looked like before we got to Pendleton for the night. I know what you're thinkin'. What road? So glad I wasn't driving.

This is how I felt by the end of it all, too.

And some non-roadtrip shots. Just 'cause.

Emily prefers to sit in the lid to her puzzle box when she watches TV.

I came in to check on Emily during her nap one day to find this. Whoops!

Yes, the right side of her diaper managed to come undone. Fabulous.

I decided to let Emily have a go at a bowl of yogurt all by herself yesterday.

She loved it.

By the end of it everything was coated in yogurt.

She doesn't quite have the spoon thing down yet. Sometimes it's just easier to eat with your fingers...

Pinterest.

2011-01-13T23:34:00.001-07:00

I know I'm long overdue for a personal post, and I promise I'll get to work on one once this is up. I've been wanting to tell y'all about Pinterest since I got invited to it though another blog I follow. It has simplified my life in a major way.

'Lemme 'splain.

I am constantly finding inspiration for interior design ideas, crafting, fun activities to do with my kids someday, homemade and non-toxic cleaners, fitness tips, etc. etc. etc. on blogs I read, and other websites I come across. Well, back in the day the best thing I could come up with was creating a folder on my bookmarks bar with subfolders inside of it. So I had a "Crafts inspiration" folder, with subfolders like "Home Decor," "Sewing Projects," "Baby Stuff," and so on and so forth. It was a semi-effective system, except that I had to go through link by link to find a specific project I remembered, and half the time I couldn't picture the project until I clicked on the link anyways. No pictures = confusion.

That's where Pinterest comes in. Pure genius.

You simply drag a little thing that says "Pin It" from their site into your bookmarks bar, and then whenever you find a page you want to bookmark and remember for later, you simply click on the "Pin It" button, and then you select a picture from the page that represents its content (yes--it's one weakness--if there isn't any picture on the page, you are out of luck!), select which "board" you are pinning it to, and voila!

You can see the "Pin It" button in my bookmark bar on the right side... Third from the right.

Another fabulous thing about Pinterest? Because it's all kept online, you can access it from any computer. This has saved me, because sometimes I use Kirby's laptop, and what use would that be if I had separate bookmarks on his computer?

Here are some screen shots of how fabulous the site is...

These first two are of the page that shows an overview of all my most recent pins to all my boards...

These last two are screen shots of what it looks when I'm looking at a specific board--in this case, my Interior and Exterior Spaces board.

When you click on one of the pictures it takes you to an individual page with all the information you've entered on it (you can even enter prices if you have a wishlist on there), and if you want to go to the actual page you pinned it from you simply click on the picture again and it takes you straight there!

Speaking of wishlists... this is also a great place to form one, because you can have pictures from a bunch of different sites all in one place. Tell your husbands how to get to your wishlist board, and they will love you for it. Not only does it have everything there, WITH PICTURES, but they can get straight to where they can purchase it.

You can also "follow" other people's boards, and re-pin items from others' boards to your own. Very cool.

So there you have it. I don't get any sort of bonus if you join or anything, I just think it's amazing. As far as I know, it's invite only, which is why I posted about it. I think I have at least 5 invites as of right now, and I want to give them away! So please let me know if this is something you think you would use and love and leave me your email, and I'll send invites on a first come first serve basis until I run out! Again, I'm not exactly sure how many I have, but even if I run out I can probably request more.

I love Pinterest, and I think you will too! :)

Word of the Year

2011-01-10T10:34:00.001-07:00

Remember that one time I mentioned Lisa Leonard Designs?

Love.

Well. They are having another giveaway. Let's be honest. They have them all the time. I just don't blog about them all.... But I think this necklace is so fun.

It's called Word of the Year.

They are giving away two of these, to two random winners. You can enter

HERE.

I think my word of the year is going to be

REACH.

There are lots of things I would love to try--macro nature photography, architecture photography, yoga, card making, refinishing furniture, etc. etc. etc. Too often, though, I hunker down into my comfort zone and stick to what I know I can do. I'm too afraid to fail.

Zumba used to be one of those things. And spinning. My sister, Adriane, and I united to face those things together.

Spinning? EPIC FAIL.

Zumba? HUGE SUCCESS.

Was it hard for me to fail at spinning? Sure. It was a huge hit to my "athletic, tough girl" persona.

Yes. That persona may, in fact, be a complete delusion. But it's still there.

But I never would have discovered my love for Zumba if we hadn't failed at spinning first.

Oh. And remember this post?

Amy from Mod Podge Rocks featured it on her blog here as the Project of the Week!

Bwuuuuuuut!?

My point? I want to discover more things I love to do--even if I'm not "the best" at them--because it will ultimately bring more fulfillment to my life.

So here's to REACHING!

What's your Word of the Year?

Home Sweet Home.

2011-01-05T14:51:00.000-07:00

We got our truck on Sunday morning.

I think ABF may have arranged it specially for us, for which I will be eternally grateful.

That extra day of unpacking has made a HUGE difference. We got our bedroom and most of the kitchen unpacked and put away on Sunday, which was an all-day task. I can't even imagine having to attempt to do that by myself while Kirby was at work on Monday!

I have this problem. When my house is in chaos, I feel this longing for cleanliness and order, but the disorder is so overwhelming that I don't get very much done. I don't know where to start, and I tend to flit around to different areas, and then take a "well needed" break to read a chapter or two of whatever Hunger Games book I'm on.

Which, by the way, I just started Mockingjay.

'Cause I know you all were dying to know.

The good news is that I got the entire bathroom put away yesterday, which was a daunting task! Remember that photo I showed you of all the awesome non-food stuff I got thanks to couponing? Well, most of that stuff is bathroom-related, and we have about 1/3 the storage in our bathroom here as we did in Orem. SO. It was a bit of a challenge (okay, a LOT of a challenge), but thanks to the plethora of baskets I've acquired over the last year or so it's even fairly organized!

Next step? Buy some sort of storage cabinet to stick above our toilet for the stuff we use every day. Then we don't have to bend down and rummage in the baskets below the sink.

It's cold. And raining. No big surprise there.

I think I want a nap. Yes, a nap sounds real good right now.

The Skinny.

2010-12-31T22:19:00.000-07:00

We're stranded.

Well, not really. We arrived safe and sound in Vancouver, got our keys to our apartment, and then discovered that our truck STILL hadn't left Salt Lake City.

EXCUSE ME!?

We had spent 2 days driving through snow storms and treacherous conditions in our small 2-wheel-drive vehicle, only to have some weak-sauce professional driver decide to stay in Salt Lake City!?

The irony is that because the truck waited, as opposed to leaving when we left, it probably had a harder time of it--the storm in the blue mountains only got worse. The morning after we passed through it was completely closed off. It made for very empty roads for us, since there was no one else getting through west-bound I-84.

Okay--to be fair, I don't know the whole story. But considering they were originally estimating our truck would get to Vancouver on Thursday, I feel like my frustration is justified. The lady on the phone told Kirby that they would do all in their power to get our trailer to us this weekend.

Our truck is in Portland now. It arrived late this afternoon. Great, we thought. We'll be able to unload tomorrow morning. Just a day later than we'd planned. Not too bad. The panic of not having anything to wear to church on Sunday subsided.

Kirby called the company to try and arrange a specific time for the truck to be dropped off tomorrow. And apparently it can't be dropped off until Monday? Oh wait, maybe they can get it to us on Sunday? Call on Sunday and they'll see what they can do.

!?!?!?!?

...resume panic about Sunday...

Admittedly, it's not as bad as it could be. We could be staying in a hotel, dishing out a good chunk of money for four nights hoping and wondering if we'd actually get the trailer on Monday. Instead, we are at the in-laws.

Have I mentioned that Kirby starts work on Monday? We're going to have to do all the unpacking AFTER his first day of work, most likely. Another hard thing is that Kirby's family were all prepared to help us unload the truck this weekend--but it's unclear who will be able to help once Monday comes.

One good thing has come from the delay. I have had nothing to do besides read the entire first book of the Hunger Games series. Loved it. Although there were times I wanted to slap Katniss upside the head. Clueless.

It Really IS Christmas!

2010-12-25T17:22:00.000-07:00

I love me a good smoothie. A lot.

While we were in Florida we discovered a smoothie shop called Tropical Smoothie Cafe.

DIVINE.

I mean Jamba Juice is good, but there isn't really a comparison to TSC.

Lemme 'splain.

My favorite flavor is called Bahama Mama.

First off--AWESOME NAME.

It has strawberries, pineapple, white chocolate, and coconut. Oh. My. Heavens. It is divine.

Oh. And then there's the Cranberry Truffle. It's not on their normal menu, but you can pretty much get it year round. I believe it has cranberries, strawberries, and white chocolate. Probably some other stuff, too. I like to throw in some coconut every now and again. It is also sent straight from heaven.

What does this have to do with Christmas, you may be asking yourself?

There is a Tropical Smoothie Cafe in Portland!

I googled "smoothie vancouver, wa" to see what kind of options I was going to have when we got there and the TSC website was the first on the list! There aren't any other locations nearby--just the one in Portland--only 10 miles away from our apartment!!! It is an east coast chain, so I was shocked and giddy to find out I no longer have to mourn the loss of TSC.

Merry Christmas to ME!

Vancouver--It's Coming.

2010-12-23T15:40:00.000-07:00

One week from right now we will be getting the keys to our new apartment in Vancouver, WA.

Happy and sad feelings.

What I will miss:

Family.

Friends.

Zumba with Adriane.

I don't know if Zumba will be the same without Tanya, either.

All the wonderful friends I've made through my photography.

Snow.

(But no snow can be nice, too, depending on the season.)

Free rent.

BYU.

(Hopefully we'll still be able to watch football games.)

The sun.

Zupas.

My primary kids.

The young women in my ward.

Mountains.

Our huge pantry. Where will be put our food storage!?

Did I mention my FAMILY!?

What I'm Looking Forward To:

The adventure.

A much younger ward.

No state income tax.

No sales tax across the border in Portland.

Starting fresh with my photography. New Pricing. New clients. New locations.

Milder summers and milder winters.

Fresh start with the design of our home.

I liked what I did to our place in Orem, but a lot of my tastes have changed. Plus it's always fun to try something different. :)

A salaried job.

Cheaper health insurance.

All the greenery.

Getting to know Kirby's family better.

No preconceived notions about who we are, or what we're like.

Half of the people in our ward right now knew me and my family when I was born and growing up.

So a lot of them think they know me really well, even though they haven't actually spoken to me in 10+ years...

Our apartment is at least half packed already. We successfully sold both of our office desks. The corner of the kitchen where Kirby's desk used to be is now piled high with boxes. Food storage is packed. Emily's room is packed. All our books are packed. Journals, photo albums, board games--all packed. I'm typing from a makeshift desk in the corner. All the photos and artwork is off the walls. Curtains are down. It looks so sterile in here.

But I am so thankful right now to have a husband who loves to pack. Seriously. I have zero motivation to do anything productive, and yet half our house is packed brilliantly. I'm sure I'll be much more helpful when it comes time to unpack. :)

Chicken Marsala

2010-12-20T23:00:00.000-07:00

I LOVE Chicken Marsala. If we go out to eat somewhere and it's on the menu, there is a very good chance I'll be ordering it for dinner. So when I found this recipe, I had to give it a shot.

Chicken Marsala

INGREDIENTS:

¼ c. all-purpose flour for coating

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp ground black pepper

½ tsp dried oregano

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves—pounded ¼ inch thick

4 Tbsp butter

4 Tbsp olive oil

2 cup sliced mushrooms

¾ cup Marsala wine

Heavy cream

1. In shallow dish or bowl, mix together the flour, salt, pepper, and oregano. Coat chicken pieces in flour mixture.

2. In large skillet, melt butter in oil over medium heat. Place chicken in the pan, and lightly brown. Make sure to cook it on both sides!

3. Remove chicken from pan.

4. Cook mushrooms and add heavy cream as desired to make the sauce.

5. Reduce the sauce (add the wine, and then let it simmer for a while so all the alcohol cooks off.)

6. Add the chicken to the sauce, and serve. (Can be served over pasta.)

When I made this, I thought the Marsala cream sauce would have enough flavor to serve as a pasta sauce as well, so I served the chicken with some penne. Turns out the sauce was delicious over the seasoned chicken, but was kind of bland over plain pasta. I would recommend maybe some garlic and basil pasta? Something with some good flavor already, that will be enhanced by the Marsala cream sauce. I'll post an update to this once I find a fabulous pasta option.

White Chicken Chili

2010-12-20T10:10:00.026-07:00

PERFECT for those cold, wet, and dreary winter days! Kirby loves this stuff. He ate it for three or four meals in a row--out of choice, not out of lack of options. :) And then once he ran out, he wanted me to make it again.

White Chicken Chili

INGREDIENTS:

3 cans (15½ oz) great northern beans, rinsed and drained

3 cups cooked chicken (shredded is best...

I'm thinking about using canned chicken next time I make it. It would save a lot of prep time!)

1 jar (15 oz) alfredo sauce

2 cups chicken broth

1-2 cans diced green chiles

1½ cups frozen corn

1 cup shredded Monterey jack

(At Walmart, the shredded Great Value cheese is actually cheaper than block. But they didn't have plain monterey jack in the shredded variety,

so I just used a blend. It was Monterey jack and cheddar, I think?)

1 cup shredded pepper jack

(I have to buy block and shred my own... Couldn't find it pre-shredded.)

1 cup sour cream

1 small sweet yellow pepper, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 Tbsp ground cumin

1 Tbsp oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a skillet, sauté chopped pepper, onions, and garlic in a tablespoon of oil until tender.

2. In a 5-6 quart slow cooker add all of your ingredients and stir until combined. Let cook on low for 3-4 hours or until heated through.

**Top with cheese, sour cream, and tortilla chips!

Pretty darn easy. It can take some time if you need to cook the chicken beforehand. The lady I got this recipe from cooks a bunch of chicken up at the same time, shreds it all, then freezes it. Once we have a bigger freezer I'm planning to do this, as well. Shredded chicken can be used in so many things!

Favorite.

2010-12-19T18:58:00.001-07:00

We would be doing this all day long if Emily had her way.

p.s. I'm thinking about going private. If I do, and you'd like an invite, leave me a comment with the email I should send one to! :)

Sometimes life is just more fun in the nude...

2010-12-19T18:56:00.001-07:00

She likes to "drink" everything. Plastic... air... lotion.
Side note: No, I am not announcing a pregnancy with the test box on the floor. I stashed the extra test in our bottom drawer with hotel samples and other random junk. (Which is also where Emily got the hotel lotion bottles from.) This drawer is raided on a daily basis while I'm doing my hair, and it's contents are strewn about the entire room. Once Emily tried to put the extra prego test in the toilet. I think she's trying to tell me something...

Oh. And she really doesn't like my boots.

I wish I made these. Truly I do. Kirby some some girls making these on BYU campus on his way to the testing center. They were so impressive he had me go find them when I came to pick him up.

Just Call Me TRUBBLE.

2010-12-16T23:06:00.000-07:00

Love it.

2010-12-16T22:40:00.000-07:00

Saw these shirts while shopping at Harmons.

I'm totally going to make my own. How darling would "iPood" be on a newborn's onesie?

You know... When the pooping is all too often catastrophic?

AWESOME.

Vancouver, WA

2010-12-07T20:12:00.000-07:00

A week ago today, Kirby and I went to the temple with nLight in mind. That's the company located in Vancouver, WA. We were heavily leaning towards them, and felt really good about it overall. We did sealings and then asked to be taken to the Celestial room. We sat down, and before I'd even started my prayer an incredible feeling of peace and joy flooded through my body. It was SO powerful. I said a prayer anyways, even though I knew I'd already received an answer, and got hit with another wave of emotion. Kirby had a similar experience.

Vancouver, here we come.

I couldn't actually find any full-city pictures of Vancouver. Only pictures of people's homes that are (or were) on the market. Oh yeah. And a bunch of a skate park. Cool.

But here's Portland. We'll be just across the Willamette river from it, and will spend lots of time there, I'm sure. It will be really nice living close to Oregon, because we can make big purchases there and not have to pay sales tax. :)

We'll be packing the moving van on the 28th of this month, and we are planning to take off as soon as that's done. We'll be making the trip in 2 days.

And then our new life begins.

SO. CRAZY.

This is Why I Coupon

2010-12-07T15:21:00.000-07:00

It makes building food storage a possibility for those on a tight budget.

Yes, I know we are lucky to have space to put all this. I just hope we'll have room for it all when we move!

After I took the picture of our pantry, I realized there was a another cupboard in our home bursting at the seams thanks to coupons.

The bathroom cupboard!

Toothpaste :: free

Kleenex with lotion and aloe :: .69 each

Olay soap and body washes :: free

Floss :: free

Toothbrushes :: free

Chapstick :: .50 each

ThermaCare neck thingy :: 1.00

Stayfree pads :: 1.00

Renuzits :: .69 each

Tide :: free

Johnson's baby items :: can't remember, but somewhere around 1.00?

Deoderants :: 1.35 (?)

PHEW! I just hope I can do as well when I'm on my own once we move!

Luck.

2010-12-07T10:22:00.000-07:00

It's a good thing Adriane is on top of it. She already posted her savings, so I can end your suspense. :)

Geeking Out Over Coupons.

2010-12-06T21:05:00.000-07:00

So. Here's the deal, guys. I used to think clipping coupons was lame-sauce because really--how much of a difference can saving 25 cents on a normally $3 item make?

Ummmm... a lot.

Especially when Smith's is having their double coupon event. But it's even better than doubling. Every single coupon that is less than $1 is rounded up to $1.

Every. Single. One.

Oh baby, oh baby.

In my haste to put my groceries away, I neglected to preserve my haul for time and all.... time.

But my sister didn't. My load was similar in size to hers. Check it out HERE.

And holy goodness--watching a receipt that size print out of the machine is the best feeling. And saving an average of 77% on everything I bought comes in at a close second. :)

Plus--you can't really beat FREE Krusteaz cookie mix. Their snickerdoodle mix is DIVINE.

I'm not going to say how much I spent, or saved--just yet. I would hate to spoil Adriane's guessing game. So I will bide my time.

In the meantime, though (cause I know you'll all be checking google reader every 5 minutes to see if I've told you about my incredible savings), you can check out the website we use to find these screaming awesome deals.

TADA!

Feeling overwhelmed? Think it would be totally awesome but sounds too confusing? It's not. And here's an even awesome-er thing--Amy (THE savvy shopper) will be doing a FREEEE seminar in Provo to show just how easy it is to save money and stock up your pantries.

Sign up here:

Pure genius. She is lots of fun and is very easy to understand. And she gives out prizes. :)

If you are in the area and are even remotely interested in this--GO. I was reluctant because I didn't want to be an epic failure at something that seemed too awesome to be possible. But I got all fired up and love being organized with my coupon, not to mention saving hundreds of dollars!

Oh yeah. And it's all 100% FREE.

Besides the monthly subscription to the Daily Herald (or Deseret News, if you live in SLC).

Free Music!

2010-11-28T18:37:00.000-07:00

Amazon.com is sharing the Christmas spirit by putting out a promotional code for three FREE mp3 downloads!

And it's not just on Christmas music!

Technically it is $3 of free music, so if one or more of your three songs is $1.29, you will pay the extra, but still!

Here's the code:

GET3MP3S

So here's how it works, for those of you who who have never purchased music from Amazon.

This was my first experience with it...

You don't put a bunch into your cart and then purchase them all at the end. You purchase them all one at a time. When you click "buy MP3" by the song, you are directed to a page where you select which credit card you would like to use. Select one, and be sure to enter in the promo code underneath. Then you select to purchase your first song, and it will take you to a "Congrats, you just bought a song!" page, but not to your receipt. If you want to see the receipt there is a link from that congrats page, and then you can see how you paid $0.00 for it! :)

I may or may not have viewed my receipt for each song I got...

You do have to download their MP3 download program. The cool thing, though, is that the program sends the MP3s straight into iTunes when your downloads are complete!

SO COOL.

I have two Amazon accounts (one from before I was married, and one current one), and Kirby has an account as well, so I was able to use the code three times!

Enjoy!

Vancouver

2010-11-23T13:15:00.000-07:00

Kirby has a 6 hour interview today with a company in Vancouver, WA.

Technically Portland, but the offices are in Vancouver (just over the Oregon/Washington border)? Don't worry. I don't really get it, either.

A cold front has hit the area hard--our flight was delayed a couple hours last night because the pilots of our plane got caught in a storm in Denver on one of their earlier flights, which made them late late late.

I just got a severe weather warning text. Apparently Utah is going to be hit hard later today with extreme cold, snow, and wind. I wonder if it's the same storm that passed through here? It's funny to me how scared people are of snow here. It snowed last night, and one of the head guys at the company here in Vancouver called Kirby to let him know that there was a possibility that they would be closed if the weather continued to be "this bad." :) To be fair, the roads were CRAZY slick last night, but I still giggle inside.

We didn't get to our hotel until about 2:30am, after which Kirby ran (well, drove, technically--the company rented a brand new Corolla for us. Pretty awesome.) to the nearest 24 hour grocery store to get some baby oatmeal (the one thing we forgot to pack.)

What? Our child needs to EAT!?

Meanwhile, I was with Emily in our hotel room trying to soothe her and keep her from waking up the entire lodge while setting up a pack 'n' play with one hand.

All things considered, Emily did GREAT. She loved ripping up the in-flight magazine, and was surprisingly pleasant three hours past her bedtime. Thank heavens for goldfish. She actually slept through most of the second leg (we had a stop in Vegas... BOOOO...), which allowed Kirby and I to sleep for most of that flight, too!

Now I'm just chilling in our cozy lodge hotel room, taking a break from straightening my hair. Emily is sleeping right next to me. I've got some sweet tunes playing.

Life is good.

Our main purpose in the Great Northwest is to celebrate Thanksgiving with Kirby's family. All of Kirby's siblings will be there, so we are really excited.

There is about a 60% chance we'll be moving out of Utah in January. Kirby is in final round interviews with some companies, and waiting on offers from a couple others. Looks like our options will be:

(Drumroll please...)

Portland, OR

If all goes well today, of course...

Madison, WI

Have official offer...

Salt Lake City, UT

They've told us they want him. Should have official offer in about a week.

Orem, UT

Kirby needs to send in a sample of his technical writing before the interviewing process is considered complete.

Dallas, TX

Kirby's wanted. Offer is in the works.

I'm pretty sure I did a fabulicious jig when we got the official offer from the company in Wisconsin.

I mean, it's an OFFICIAL OFFER.

With details and salary and health benefits and everything.

I don't feel grown up enough for this!

But I am crazy excited.

We should have offers/rejections (let's me optimistic, though, shall we???) by the end of the month, and we've told the company in Wisconsin that we'd let them know by December 6th, so our decision will have to be made by then!

It seriously blows my mind every time I think about it.

Aaaand, that's all I have to say right now.

I need to finish my hair...

Gut Buster

2010-11-19T00:36:00.000-07:00

I came across this tonight as I was editing.

Pretty sure I laughed out loud for about five minutes.

For reals.

Out loud.

Five Minutes.

Check Out My Moves!

2010-11-16T09:54:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else feel like their spice cupboard and/or baking cupboard is full to the max? Or overflowing, even? I used to dream of a spice rack that would allow me to have all my spices organized and at my fingertips.

And then I got one. And it collects SO. MUCH. DUST.

SO.

I have been saving and washing Emily's baby food jars ever since we got back from Florida in order to do this:

(see that dusty spice rack????)

In order to eliminate all of these from my spice cupboard:

I still have some spices left in my cupboard, but I ran out of magnets, so I was only able to make 10 jars.

These took a bit of time, but very little skill.

Obviously.

I just collected baby food jars, rinsed them out, and pulled off as much of the label that I could. Then I popped them in the dishwasher (the lids, too). I didn't worry about the sticky spot left over since it would be covered by the paper/cardstock I wrapped around the jar.

I had some nice powerful magnets. I got mine from some store on ebay.

To eliminate any need to coordinate colors on my part, I used the DCWV Latte Mat Stack, with its coordinating solid mat stack to decorate the jars. I had bought them a long time ago when I was on my paper kick. It was fun to be able to use them for something besides eye candy!

I Mod Podged 1" strips of paper around the jar. The Mat Stacks I had were 8x8, and I found that a 1"x 8" strip is the perfect size to wrap around standard baby food jars. I Mod Podged them to the jars, and then covered the strip in Mod Podge, too, to give it a nice finished sheen and to make sure the end of the strip wouldn't ever start peeling up.

I made the labels out of two circular pieces of paper. I used a half dollar for my big circles, and a quarter for the cream colored circles. Hi-tech, I know. I wrote the names of the spices on the cream circles and let them dry for a bit, just to ensure they wouldn't bleed at all when I put Mod Podge over the top. I the glued the big circle to the bottom and let it dry a bit. Then I covered it in Mod Podge and put the cream circle on it, let it dry, and then covered the whole thing in Mod Podge again.

Now for the magnets. The ones I had were smaller, so I used two on each jar. Kirby is a genius and pointed out that if I just hot glued the magnets straight to the lid, they might not end up being level, which would make the magnetic bond with the fridge weaker, and could even cause the magnets to pull free from the lid. So we got out an old card table and I stuck the magnets to it, put hot glue blobs on those, and actually set the lid (with the jar attached) on top of the magnets. That way, when the glue hardened, the magnets would be perfectly even. Worked like a charm. That wouldn't be an issue if you had magnets with a nice big radius, though. I reinforced the magnet by putting a ring of hot glue around the edge of the magnet.

Whew! That's quite an explanation for a project that requires little skill!

So far I am loving it. It's SO easy to find the spices I need. No more rummaging around like a mad woman. Plus--my fridge is right next to our stove, so it is the most convenient spot to keep them!

I LOVE being able to see the colors and textures of the different spices through the glass.

Yes. I am a texture junkie.

This is the less-than-creative way I'll have to keep them most of the time, or the cupboard can't open all the way.

It feels so great to finally have finished a project that's been on my to-do list for a while now.

Okay, so I'm wanting to make more so I guess I'm not technically FINISHED, but you get the idea...

Today.

2010-11-12T15:29:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here waiting for my unexpected load of laundry to be done. Emily decided to overturn an entire bowl of oatmeal in her lap this morning. Hardly any got on the tray of her high chair. Her pajamas were thoroughly gloopy. The pajamas would have to wait, though--we were running late for her 1 year checkup.

Did I mention my daughter is a YEAR OLD!?

While at the doctor's office, she slipped and bumped her face while cruising along. I snuggled with her until she stopped crying. When she pulled her face away, there was blood smeared all across her face. I felt so bad that she was bleeding.

Poor Emily.

Then the doctor pointed out that there was a decent amount of blood on the shoulder of my sweater.

Poor Me.

And thus the spontaneous load of laundry came to be.

In other less melancholy news, here are Emily's one year stats:

Weight :: 25th Percentile

Height :: 50th Percentile

Head Circumference :: Between 25th and 50th percentile.

Cuteness :: Unmeasurable. Off the charts.

The doctor said so.

Splish Splash She Was Takin' a Bath!

2010-10-30T10:00:00.000-06:00

The Tent Monster

2010-10-29T15:20:00.000-06:00

I left him alone for ten minutes, and this is what I found when I came downstairs.

It's no wonder I love this man.

Not So Itty Bitty Anymore...

2010-10-29T14:40:00.000-06:00

My little girl's growing up!

:: sniff ::

Emily's been cruising around furniture since she was about 6 months old, but she has finally started standing on her own! Kirby and I get so giddy when she does it with us. The other night she was on a roll--she even took one step unassisted! I whipped the camera out, hoping to catch her doing it again, but we couldn't get her to actually take steps again. But we got her to stand for the camera!

Several times, in fact.

Which is why the movie is a whopping 3 1/2 minutes long.

BUT--it's full of giggles, screeches, clapping, posing, and sky-reaching! :)

Giggles.

2010-10-29T10:15:00.000-06:00

I Love Me Some Picnic Fun!

2010-10-28T23:33:00.001-06:00

(I surely hope you read that title with a good thick southern drawl.)

Remember back before it got freezing cold here in Utah?

I do.

Once upon a time way back then Emily and I had a picnic.
With no food.
And in our back yard.

BUT--I got to use the rag quilt I made for Kirby! He kept stealing the one I made for Emily to use as a lap quilt, but it was a little too small. So I figured it was only fair to make him his own.

Aaaand I also figured it was only fair for it to be made of brown, pink paisley, and green polka dot flannel.

'Cause that's manly and stuff.

Have I mentioned how much I love being able to sit in my yard again? IN THE GRASS!? You can't really do that in Florida, unless you have a death sentence involving being eaten alive by bugs.

I am SOOO loving those teeth right now. Adorable. Don't try and deny it!

Cute, yes? Emily hates grass. Nuff said.

Ummmm, so yeah.

2010-10-28T23:18:00.001-06:00

Yup. A month.

Just call me LAME BRAIN.

The skinny of it all is that I got several photography jobs that kept me busy. Not to mention the adorable almost-one-year-old I have running (okay, not quite yet) around.

Some nights I sit in bed and try to analyze what I did that day. Sometimes it takes me a while to remember.

I'm guessing some of you can relate.

My house is a mess, but I feel like we just cleaned it. And... rather than getting up to do something about it I am sitting on my patoot to accomplish something that's been on my list even longer :: B.L.O.G.

Priorities, right?

Here's the deal though. I feel so monumentally behind, that if I don't just let some stuff go, I think my head might pop off out of the sheer pressure to get it all posted. Phew. So I'm gonna post a couple of my favorite pictures and move on. :)

Occasionally, when we are having a shortage of food, we feed Emily giant orange rubber balls.

Sometimes life is just hard, you know?
Especially when you are two feet tall and have someone waiting on you hand and foot...

She's trying SO hard to look innocent here. Yup. Not buying it.

Oh, and um... check out this chair!

I know what you're thinking. "Looks cool, but couldn't possibly be comfortable..."

Well, you would be wrong.

'Cause it was CRAZY COMFORTABLE! Sold, though. And a million billion dollars.

The company we interned with paid for us to get out to and home from Florida. We discovered we LOVE Hampton Inn & Suites hotels. Here's the coolest one we stayed in...

Yup. I'm totally one of those people who takes pictures of cool hotel rooms.

AND... We got alphabet magnets.

My life is now complete.

Eggs Davison

2010-09-30T21:30:00.000-06:00

A delicious and easy twist on the classic Eggs Benedict.

Seriously, though, guys--this is divine.

Once upon a time I tried to make Eggs Benedict, but failed at the sauce. So then we decided to make our own egg and sausage McMuffins, and they were pretty good. But then Kirby decided it was tasty (and cheaper) with just the egg and cheese, and would make it for himself periodically for an easy meal. Today was INSANE, and I couldn't make it to the grocery store before dinner, so we went with what we had--english muffins, eggs, cheese, and our newest addition to the dish--SALSA!

INGREDIENTS:

1 English muffin

2 slices cheddar cheese

2 eggs (fried)

You favorite salsa

DIRECTIONS:

1. Halve the English muffin and toast it.

2. Meanwhile, fry your eggs.

3. When the muffins are roasty toasty, place one slice of cheese on each half,

followed by a fried egg.

4. Top with salsa to taste, and enjoy!

YIELDS: 1 Serving.

Okay, so Kirby and I actually each eat 3 halves each. But it isn't practical to put "1 1/2 english muffins..." SO. There you go. :)

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy! And SOOO good.

We All Get Caught in a Hard Place Sometimes...

2010-09-25T13:59:00.001-06:00

Zuppa Toscana :: Olive Garden Style (only BETTER)

2010-09-20T10:00:00.025-06:00

Do I have any Olive Garden fans here?

Dumb question, right?

RIGHT.

If any of you haven't tried their Zuppa Toscana, your life is not complete.

Or, at least not as delicious or as complete as mine... :)

What makes it so delicious you ask? Well, it could be the juicy chunks of ground Italian sausage, or the melt-in-your-mouth potato slices. Or perhaps it's the creamy, I-could-drink-this-stuff-from-a-glass-because-it-warms-my-cold-exhausted-body-while-simultaneously-warming-my-soul broth?

Oh yeah. And it's a little bit spicy, too. Which, let's be honest, is probably one of the reasons Kirby likes it so much. And the good news? It's super easy to adjust the spicy level according to your own preferences.

And? If I can make it--YOU CAN. It's that easy. :)

Mmmmm... Kinda makes you long for a cold drizzly day, yeah?

One where you can snuggle up under a handmade quilt with a mug of soup and watch chick flicks all afternoon?

If there are any gentleman readers, please forgive my obvious catering to the ladyfolk...

INGREDIENTS:

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

1 lb. ground Italian sausage, mild

(Make sure you get mild! The first time I made this I wasn't paying attention at the grocery store and accidentally got a spicy version--it was hot, hot, HOT!

The kind I get is usually labeled as "sweet and mild" or something.)

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

(I actually put in about 4-5 cloves, but this is what the original recipe called for...)

½ tsp. crushed red pepper, or more to taste

(I usually put in 3/4 to 1 tsp. in ours. Want it more mild? Just add less red pepper!)

2 ½ cup water

2 (14 ½ oz) cans chicken broth

3 cans sliced potatoes

(the original recipe called for 3 large russet potatoes that you chop by hand, but I prefer to shave off 15 minutes of prep time by using canned potatoes.

If you want to go the un-canned route, increase the simmer time in step 5 to 10-15 minutes.)

1 tsp salt

½ tsp freshly ground pepper

½ bunch kale, stems removed, chopped

(I don't put kale in when I make it, but it's just my preference...)

1 cup heavy (whipping) cream

DIRECTIONS:

1. Saute sausage in oil. Remove sausage to plate and set aside.

2. Add onion to pan with sausage grease and oil (you may need to add a little extra oil than the original tablespoon), sauté until translucent. Add garlic and crushed red pepper, cook 1 minute.

3. In a large pot, combine water and broth; add onion mixture. Add potatoes, salt, and pepper. Heat to boiling.

4. Reduce heat, simmer about 10 minutes.

5. Add kale and sausage, simmer until potatoes are tender, about 7-10 minutes.

6. Stir in cream. Heat to simmer over medium heat, cook 2 minutes.

7. Serve.

YIELDS: 4-6 servings.

It usually feeds me and Kirby for three meals! And it is just as good reheated as it is fresh off the stove!

Not tough at all! I have it down to a system. Here's my actual workflow (as opposed to the recipe's listed order), if anyone even cares. :) Yes, I'm an efficiency freak.

1. Prepare water and chicken broth mixture in large pot and set on medium heat.

2. Saute sausage, remove to plate.

3. Cut up onion, peel garlic, get out my crushed red pepper.

4. Tip plate with sausage (I keep the sausage from sliding off with my spatula while I do this) over skillet to get all the grease back in the pan that settled from the sausage to use when I saute the onions.

5. Add a little extra oil (just a little) to my pan of grease (YUM).

6. Saute the onions until translucent.

7. Crush my garlic cloves in my handy dandy garlic press directly into skillet.

8. Add crushed red pepper, and cook 1 minute.

9. Dump onion mixture into pre-warmed pot of chicken broth and water, and then add potatoes, salt, and pepper.

10. Bring to a boil, then turn down to medium and simmer for about 10 minutes.

11. Add sausage (and kale, if you choose to do so), and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 7-10 minutes.

12. Stir in cream. Simmer over medium heat for an additional 2 minutes.

13. Serve!

This is obviously why I don't write cookbooks for a living. 13 STEPS!? That would scare anyone away! But seriously--I have found that doing things in that order saves me a lot of stress. Cause I do that when I cook. :)

Tuna Melts

2010-09-19T19:49:00.000-06:00

Okay, folks. I've got good news and bad news. The good news? These are so good, and so easy--especially if you already have the tuna sandwich filling made up. We usually make up a batch using 4 cans of tuna and keep it in the fridge so we can have a quick and healthy sandwich any time we want it. The bad news? I don't have exact measurements on the tuna mixture. We just kind of make it up at our house, which used to intimidate me. I'd always get Kirby to mix it up. But finally I decided to put my pride on the line (yes--I was worried it would make me a terrible wife if I failed at mixing tuna sandwich filling), and try it myself and whaddaya know! It was delish.

Here's how I go about mixing it:
Put tuna in a bowl--we usually mix up 4 cans at a time to simplify our lives later on. Throw in a spoonful of mayo, a spoonful or two of sweet relish, and a a spoonful or two of mustard until it's a nice consistency. The end. Tricky, huh? And hey--some people like celery in their tuna. I don't. I pretty much hate celery. So we have relish instead.

On a caloric note--mustard has a fraction of the calories of mayo. So you can always replace some of the mayo you would normally put in with mustard to get the right consistency with fewer calories. Yada yada. Still, though--as long as you aren't drowning your tuna in mayo you'll be throwing together a pretty healthy sandwich!

INGREDIENTS:

Mayo

Mustard

Sweet Pickle Relish

Canned Tuna

4 English Muffins, split and toasted

8 slices ripe tomato

Shredded cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS:

1. Take tuna salad mixture (mayo, mustard, relish, and tuna mixed to desired taste—will seem more moist once it’s out of the oven) and spread on the toasted muffin halves and place them on a baking sheet.
Please note that you won't use all four cans worth of tuna filling if that is how much you mix up!

2. Top each half with a slice of tomato and a small amount of shredded cheddar.

3. Broil until cheese is melted, about 3 to 5 minutes.
For some reason, our oven makes us set a temperature when we select broil, and we just go with the default 500 degrees...

YIELDS: 8 tuna melts (about 4 servings)

It was so tasty I couldn't help myself and I had to take yet another picture!

What did I learn from this recipe? It is HARD to make melted cheddar cheese look divine on camera. But oh well. You'll just have to take my word for it! :)

...Bath Time...

2010-09-19T19:36:00.000-06:00

In the sink. :)

Blurry, yes. But let's be serious here--this girl NEVER STOPS MOVING!
Observe the water in the sink...
So it's perfect. :)

Lia Sophia

2010-09-14T16:00:00.000-06:00

Have I ever mentioned that I love sparkly things?

Um, cause I do.

So much so, that I am opening my home to all of you and hosting a Lia Sophia party.

PLEASE COME!

When: October 6, 2010

Time: 7:00pm--8:30pm

(Let's be honest, though, it probably won't actually end at 8:30!)

Where: My place in Orem.

If you don't know where it is, leave me a comment

with your email address and I'll let you know!

Why: Do I really need to tell you why?

Sparkly Things!

Also? There will be games, and prizes (as in FREE JEWELRY, people!), and best of all--I'm going to make a few of my divine homemade apple pies. For reals.

TO. DIE. FOR.

Kirby is actually hoping no one will show up so that he can eat them all himself.

No joke.

And hey--if you are planning on coming, would you comment on this post and let me know? It will help me know just HOW MANY pies I need to make. :)

Lisa Leonard Designs

2010-09-07T09:29:00.001-06:00

It's happening again! Another giveaway with Lisa Leonard Designs. And I am super excited about this one. Which, ultimately, is why I opted to blog about it to get myself an extra entry in the random drawing. :) Check out their new necklace!

I've been waiting for Lisa to create a camera themed necklace, and apparently I wasn't the only one! :)

You can see her blog entry about the giveaway HERE!

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

2010-09-05T13:30:00.000-06:00

Kirby and I kept a running list of stuff we wanted to do while we were in Florida. Some of it never happened (air boat ride, Key West, Miami, etc.), but something we did manage to do was eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

For those wondering why this is a significant location, here's the skinny. You know the movie Forrest Gump? I haven't actually seen it all the way through (but Kirby has). It was on TV at a hotel we stayed at over Thanksgiving in New Mexico a couple years back, but I fell asleep after only a couple minutes. But I digress. Apparently this restaurant was established after the movie came out. You can buy Bubba Gump brand shrimp in some grocery stores, and the restaurant was supposed to be delish.

Therefore, it made it onto the Florida Bucket List.

We went to a location out in Madeira Beach, and it was so cool! It was something like 10 stories up, with a boardwalk all the way around, and the views from the outdoor tables were pretty awesome! These two shots were the views from our table...

Confession: I didn't actually make the connection that the restaurant was connected to the movie until I saw these license plate signs at the table. They are how you let the waitress know if you need assistance. As long as everything is great you leave it on "Run Forrest, Run".

And if you need them to help you out, you switch it to "Stop Forrest, Stop!"

Don't mind my hair. It was pretty stormy! It actually rained on us later...

Kirby got the "Shrimper's Heaven" with four different kinds of shrimp. I contented myself with the "Dumb Luck Coconut Shrimp." It had a cajun marmalade to dip them in, which was a really fun combination!

Yum. Speckled strawberry lemonade.

TASTY.

Sucking it Up

2010-09-04T11:48:00.001-06:00

Whew! What a couple of weeks it has been. We're back in Utah, and I feel like I have SO much to catch up on via the blog. This, inevitably, has led to blogging procrastination. I knew I'd have some free time today and I resolved last night to get at least one post finished. :) So here I am, sucking it up and tip toeing out into the whirlpool of catch-up, hoping I don't drown!
How's that for a lame metaphor?

First things first.

Emily smeared poop in her hair this morning.

She has some mad ninja skills, I tell you. I didn't even see her reach down whole I was changing her diaper, but SOMEHOW...

Phew. Glad I got that out there. :) Here are some reasons I'm so glad to be back:

FAMILY!

Oh how I missed them. :)

And because I can't just leave you without some pictures--here are some random ones!

Lily pads at Lake Hollingsworth.

Iris.

I went to two different malls in Tampa and was completely blown away. Seriously. I could spend weeks walking around those malls and not get bored--just looking. Here's Emily crawling through a gigantic camera. Both malls had awesome play spots for kiddos!

Me. See those rippling arm muscles?? ;) Joking... joking...

Once upon a time, back in our apartment in Lakeland, I was blowdrying my hair and I suddenly heard Kirby ~~throwing~~ briskly moving our furniture around. I came out to see what was going on, and he was frantically looking for something with a boyish gleam in his eye. I thought he was hunting a cockroach, but no sir! It was this lil' guy. I can't believe Kirby caught him! He was soo tiny! We fed him to Emily. ;)

Slow Cooker Chicken & Dumplings

2010-09-02T20:44:00.000-06:00

This one time my fabulous sister Adriane shared a slow cooker Chicken & Dumplings recipe with me, and for some reason I failed astronomically while making it. The dumplings were undercooked and doughy. Not good at all. So I left it alone for a couple years.

Then the other day--I found another recipe on allrecipes.com. Okay, so it's probably the same recipe. But I lost the one from my sister when my hard drive crashed, so it can't be proven. ;)

ANYHOO...

Tonight I sucked back my fear of failing miserably (again), and decided to give Chicken & Dumplings another try. I tweaked the recipe a bit and whoodathunk!? It turned out splendidly!

The dumplings were divine, the chicken was fall-apart moist, and the whole package was lip smackingly delightful!

When Kirby saw this picture he said "You know what would look good in that picture? Some red hot sauce. Like Tabasco. Mmm. That would taste good, too!" So next time we'll try it with a bit of tabasco mixed in, and I'll let you know how it goes. Or you could just try it yourself! ;) Oh--and did you notice that flaky biscuit goodness? (That's the part of the dumpling that was above the sauce.) DELISH!

INGREDIENTS:

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts, halved lengthwise, and then cut in half again (not lengthwise)

2 T. butter

2 (10.75 oz) cans condensed cream of chicken soup

1 (14 oz) can chicken broth

1 onion, finely diced

1 (12 oz {ish}) package refrigerated biscuit dough, torn into pieces

DIRECTIONS:

1. Place the chicken (slightly frozen still, and raw), butter, soup, and onion in a slow cooker.
Cover with the chicken broth.

2. Cover, and cook for 5 hours on high.

3. Put the biscuit in roughly 90 minutes before serving time.
Push them down into the mixture slightly to allow the dumplings to get saturated with flavor.

4. Cook until the dough is no longer raw in the center.

YIELDS: 5-6 servings.

Sweet Pepper Cayenne Pasta

2010-09-02T11:49:00.001-06:00

If you're looking for a pasta dish with a bit of a kick, this recipe will give it to you! With a creamy, broth-based sauce, zesty cayenne pepper, and red peppers--no one's gonna get bored with this one!

I found this recipe on accident over a year ago, and it's been one of Kirby's favorites ever since. The recipe calls for the peppers to be julienned, but Kirby chops them large because they are easier for me to take out that way. Yes, I know, shameful. I love the flavor of the red peppers, but not the texture of them in my pasta! So I give all of mine to Kirby. :)

Hmmm... I wasn't all that happy with the pictures I got, so I'll probably be photographing this one again.

INGREDIENTS:

Pasta of your choice

1 red bell pepper, julienned or chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

¾ tsp cayenne pepper

1 c. reduced fat sour cream

¾ c. chicken broth

¾ c. grated parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook as directed on package; drain.

2. Meanwhile, spray cooking oil in a large skillet (I just drizzle some olive oil) and saute red bell peppers, garlic, and cayenne pepper over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes.

3. Stir in sour cream and chicken broth; simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in cheese.

4. Toss hot pasta with sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste. (We usually just scoop the sauce onto our pasta, but mixing it all in together would guarantee you don't run out of sauce!)
5. Serve

YIELDS: 4 Servings.

YUM.MY.

2010-08-31T19:54:00.000-06:00

Yes, we're home. And yes, I have loads of pictures to post about the remaining couple of weeks in Florida, as well as the trip back.

...HOWEVER...

I have a new goal to become a culinary whiz (okay, so really I just want to be able to cook for my family without killing them.)

Here's the skinny:

I am experimenting with new recipes, playing with some of my favorites from my childhood, and as I find my favorites I am going to photograph them.

Eventually I'm going to bind a book of my favorites, complete with delightful pictures.

The way I see it, I didn't come up with these recipes from my own noggin, so I'm going to share my new (and old) favorites here on the blog so that maybe--just maybe--some of y'all can benefit from them too!

Oh, and did I mention I'm going to be focusing on recipes that don't take forever and a day to prepare?

JACKPOT!

So here goes!

Fluffy French Toast

INGREDIENTS:

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup milk

1 pink salt

3 eggs

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 Tbsp white sugar

8 thick slices of bread (I used Wonderbread's Texas Toast)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Measure flour into a large mixing bowl. Slowly whisk in the milk. Whisk in the salt, eggs, cinnamon, vanilla extract, and sugar until smooth.

2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium heat (I put our griddle at 350)

3. Soak bread slices in mixture until saturated. (If you use the Texas Toast bread, the milk and egg mixture might not make it to 8 slices if you let them get really saturated due to the extra thickness. We made four tonight and had maybe 1/3 of the stuff left over. Just an FYI.)

4. Cook bread on each side until golden brown. Serve hot with syrup, banana slices, powdered sugar, etc.

YIELDS: 8 (ish) slices.

(Again, this will vary depending on the thickness of the bread. The original recipe claimed 12 slices.)

What to y'all think of the picture? I haven't had a lot (okay, any) experience shooting food, but I really want to get into it. I love the colors and textures. I was thinking maybe I should shoot the french toast again next time and put some syrup on, too? What do you think? I wish we had more natural light down here. Maybe I should run the plate outside each time I want to photograph the meal?

Bruise.

2010-08-16T14:16:00.001-06:00

I'm sitting in the bedroom while Emily naps, checking blogs, sifting through email, and trying not to jump out of my pants every time a massive thunder clap shakes our little house.

Good grief.

I was in the middle of replying to an email when I caught a glimpse of something scurrying at the speed of light--across my hand, on to my track pad, and off the other side of my laptop.

I resisted the instinct to throw the laptop across the room and run around in circles screaming. I lifted the laptop, set it aside (with the speed of a ninja, of course), and saw the little bugger. All that went through my head was:

KILL IT! KILL IT NOW!!!!

So without further adieu, I proceeded to smack my thigh with my open palm.

Over. And Over.

With all the frantic force I could muster.

Lauren : 1

Lighting-Fast Jerk of a Spider : 0

p.s.

my leg hurts...

The Insanity that Was :: Part VI--THE FINAL CHAPTER

2010-08-14T20:21:00.000-06:00

Welcome to St. Augustine, Florida.

A place where walls are made out of seashells.

And ginger ale is uber fancy.

And delicious.

A place that is extra fascinating when viewed sideways...

And addles your brains a bit.

(Pssst! It's the heat and humidity...)

Or perhaps the addling had more to do with this...

I'll let you decide...

My mom and dad had super-human head protection.

(Emily loves the wind. Laughs her head off.)

So super, in fact, that they inspired me to get my own. Courtesy of St. Augustine.

Emily was a trooper.

Aunt Julia helped keep her happy. :)

After a hot, sweaty day at the fort we went to the beach. The lighting was fabulous. And since Emily wouldn't have anything to do with the water that night, I had plenty of time to play.

This is my "Sand is not Edible" progressive series...

Moral of the story? Don't eat sand.

I love my family...

"You set me DOOOOWWN!?"

Documentation of Zach's "Relief Society Arms"

The insanity has now ended. If you survived the onslaught of photographs, I commend your stamina.

Squish.

2010-08-14T19:39:00.000-06:00

Bedtime.

Time to wash the day off.

My hair is in my face.

I step forward to better reach the hair clips in the bathroom cupboard.

Something is under my big toe.

Not unusual.

Our floors are old, and the sawdust junk in between the floorboards often comes up and gets tracked into the bathroom.

I look down at the floor to put it in the garbage.

Half of it is still moving.

But only half.

And it's not floor junk.