Christensen Family

Family Pictures

2010-09-28T11:39:00.000-07:00

Before Curtis left, we made sure to get some family pictures taken.

We found a photographer on the web and she ended up taking some nice photos.

(Deanna Johnson at "A Day to Adore")

Xander climbed this tall fence all by himself without being bribed or anything! He was rather proud of himself.

Tayla was not cooperating at all that day! She was really grumpy and refused to smile. But Deanna still got some beautiful pictures of her.

You can look at all of our pictures at http://www.adaytoadore.com/photo/christensenfamily.

From one apple to another.

2010-09-17T11:26:00.000-07:00

I wanted to spotlight Tayla today. I feel like she gets left out too often. Maybe it's because she's two and a half and hasn't had a lot to say yet.

Here's how it went down. We were eating apple slices at lunchtime and she got a build up of two of them and seemed to be just playing with them instead of eating them.

Me: Tayla, eat your apples.

Tayla: No, I don't want to. They're talking.

We repeated that conversation and then Xander decided to chime in.

Xander: Tayla, eat your apples.

Tayla: No, I don't want to. They're talking.

Xander: If you don't eat them I will.

He gets up to supposedly go take her apple away and Tayla quickly takes a bite of one of her apples.

Tayla: (chomp, chomp) Ah, you're eating me!

I love that she is becoming so vocal! Her imagination is certainly blossoming well. She gains confidence as she learns how to express herself.

Fun in a box.

2010-09-10T16:27:00.000-07:00

In case you didn't know, we moved to a bigger better apartment this summer. We've been gradually moving stuff out of Curtis's parents' basement and into our new space. This is what my kids thought about it...

I'm actually AMAZED that, not only did they both fit, but they managed it happily and comfortably.

It's just more evidence of how well they play together. They really are the best little buddies. I hope they never grow out of it!

Just when I thought this was going 'over easy'...

2010-09-09T18:12:00.000-07:00

...and I'd adjusted to the single-mom business: the other day, I had a lot of stuff on my to-do list and it all had to be done before I left for symphony at 6:00pm. Needless to say I had a lapse in child-supervision for a moment.


These pictures are curtesy of my daughter.

If you look closely you can see little footprints fleeing the scene. (What you do not see is the bottle of water dumped out on the couch.)

The good news is that I was planning on going to the grocery store that day, but had procrastinated until just after this mess was cleaned up. I'm still wishing someone would install a lock on my refrigerator before I 'crack'. Another to-do list another day.

Tough questions

2010-09-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

Setting: dinner table

Xander had a particularly interesting line of questioning for the dinner table conversation tonight. Curtis was gone, so I was stuck answering all the questions by myself. It went something like this...

X: Mom, where do carrots come from?
M: From the ground...they are plants.
X: Oh! They are?!?! (he was thoroughly amazed by this fact)

X: Cool! Where do beans come from?
M: They are plants too.
X: Oh! Cool!

X: But where does steak come from?
M: Cows.
X: But what part of the cow makes steak?
M: Cows ARE the steak.
X: Oh. But why?
M: sigh...When cows get old, we kill them and cut them into little pieces like THIS! stabbing my steak with my fork

~long silence~

X: Oh. Okay.
M: Do you like steak?
X: Yeah. (as takes the last bite of his third helping)

X: We're big kids. We need to have another little baby.
M: No, we're not going to have another baby.
X: But, why not?
M: Because there is no baby in my tummy.
X: Oh. But mom, where do babies come from?
M: deep breath Babies grow in mommies' tummies.
X: Mom, grow a baby!
M: No I'm not going to grow a baby.
X: Why not?
M: Well for starters I need daddy here.
X: Why?
M: Daddy has to plant the seed. Mommies can't make babies without daddies.
X: Oh. Okay. But I think I will help daddy plant the seed when he gets home.
M: NOOOO WAY! You are too little. You can't!
X: Why not?
M: You have to be married before you do any of that!!!

Moral of the story: 4-year olds ask a lot of tough questions. And mommies get tired of answering tough questions all day. So mommy has gotten direct with her answers in hopes of ending the line of questioning. Too much information for a 4-year old? Maybe...but don't judge me until you've spent an hour with this kid. He never shuts up!

Overheard at the Christensen house...

2010-08-31T10:52:00.000-07:00

(8am; I was still in bed; kids were awake downstairs.)

Xander: Let's play a game.
Tayla: this one (I think it was "Trouble")
Xander: No, Tayla, that one is too noisy. It will wake up Mom. How bout Jelly.

I came downstairs to see them playing the "Peanut Butter and Jelly" card game.

Aren't they the BESTEST!

Cleaning out my photos and I found these random stragglers...

2010-07-31T13:33:00.000-07:00

Future blackmail. Yes, my son likes to play dress-up as much as the next kid. For him, it just involves sequins and hula skirts.


Since we've moved to our new apartment, Tayla hasn't been sleeping well. On this occasion she fought to stay awake until 9:50pm, then I found her on the couch in her room with the light on at 10:00pm. She's been known to sleep on the floor in various places around the house too: the living room, her bedroom, my bedroom, etc.


This is what happens when grandma gives the kids a sticker book. I had sticker all over everything for a week straight before I finally made the sticker book a "supervision only toy." I know I'm a mean mom. (Pretend you didn't see my bed unmade.)

You know it's good birthday when...

2010-07-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

First of all, Daddy is home to celebrate.

You turn 4-years old!

Mom let's you help "frost the cake."

Your cake is a giant basket of M&M's -- cake, cookies, and candy all in one!

You're big enough to have a party with all of your friends.

All 8 kids you invited show up for the party + 2 babies + my sister and Me = 12!
(Thankfully some of the parents stayed to supervise.)

We have a water table/water-balloon/pool party!

Dad doesn't get mad at you for shoveling the dirt from the lawn into the pool.

You use the splash arch on the pool as a water gun.

(Grilled pizza, CHEETOS, watermelon, juice, etc.)
There's enough food to spare some for decoration purposes.

And POPSICLES!

And the favorite gift is....
Transformers!

Best birthday ever!

Kids' Portraits

2010-07-18T15:14:00.000-07:00

I got these done way back in May (sometime before summer made me completely complacent when it comes to blogging). I LOVE so many of them, but I'm biased. Give me a shout if you like them too!

Xander's Preschool Graduation

2010-05-20T18:59:00.000-07:00

Today we went to preschool graduation. I can't believe Xander needed a graduation ceremony to go from 3-year old preschool to 4-year old preschool! Ah well, it was kind of cute.

Below is a video including a magic trick. I guess when you are in preschool you get a magician to perform at graduation.

New Blog

2010-04-24T15:39:00.000-07:00

I've been on a weight roller coaster. In high school I weighed about 150lbs. When I was pregnant with my first baby I gained 80lbs. After the baby, I worked hard to get back down to about 165 before I got pregnant with my second child. Let's just say I stopped looking at the scale after it tipped 225+. Ugg. With a lot of discipline, I got back down to 150. Then I jumped up to 165 while I was training for my marathon. And now I am 144 and still losing...

I am continually being asked, "What's your secret? How do you do it? Give me some healthy recipes." After years of being completely stumped by these questions (because the answer is not a one word, one sentence, or even one paragraph answer) I finally decided I'd answer the questions with a blog.

http://melissa-livinghealthy.blogspot.com/

When you've learned something really awesome, it has to be shared. I have learned much after years of riding the weight roller coaster. If I can help just one more person learn to LOVE their body and live life to the fullest, I have accomplished my quest. Check it out.

Grand Canyon

2010-04-15T15:38:00.000-07:00

This was our anniversary-honeymoon-backpacking-trip-to-the-Grand Canyon! Our plan was to drive up to the north rim (monument point rather), hike down the canyon, stay 4 nights, go on all sorts of day excursions, and hike back out. The problem: too much snow on the north rim. Curtis called ahead and all the park rangers were told a different story about the exact amount of snow. We were skeptical, but we brought some cross country skis just in case.

Even as we were driving there, we could see where we were going and we were scoffing at the lack of snow. As soon as the paved road ended and the park road started, there was snow on the road. Not too much because there had obviously been a snow plow through here. It was easy going until we passed the ranger station and BAM the plowed part ended with a small mountain of snow. But it was no match for our SUV. We drove right over the snow speed bump. It was about a mile from that point where the car got stuck in the 2.5 feet of snow on the road. Curtis spent the next 2.5 hours digging us out by chopping down trees with a shovel in order to get us some traction under the wheels. When we were free, we decided we could probably snow ski the estimated 13 miles to the trail head so off we went.

I had never skied before (down-hill or cross country) or even watched someone cross country ski. I thought Curtis would be able to teach me and I'd pick it up pretty quickly. Before we took off I asked if he had any advice. He said, "just walk." I can assure you skiing is not as simple as walking. Needless to say it was slow going. I fell more than a dozen times in the first mile (backpack and all).

Each successive mile was better, but we were exhausted and fatigued. At 5pm we had only gone about halfway (6 miles), so we decided to head back. It was a race against sunset to get back to the car. We made it to the car, but Curtis got us stuck in the snow again (by that time the warm sun had softened the snow and there was no way we were getting out). So we spent the night in the car.

The next morning we got out with out too much trouble. (Curtis just had to drive in reverse for 1 mile.) We drove 4 hours to get to the south rim, hoping for a backpacking permit. There weren't any permits for that night so we decided to camp out in the campground and go on a practice hike that afternoon...

That was our "practice hike" at hermits' rest. We were encouraged by how easy it was to hike upwards.

That night was below freezing. (23-27 degrees) But we didn't freeze too much. The following
day we had a permit to hike down the canyon. Here we are at the top of the Bright Angel trail...

Taking a snack break on the trail...

Looking up at how far we've come.

Here was our campsite at Indian Garden. We got there by lunch (it was only 5 miles from the top). We decided to spend the day resting at the campsite. We read books about survival, search and rescue, and national parks. (No, we didn't carry all those books down, there was a library at the campsite.)

The next day there was another 4 miles to our campsite. Here's a picture of a small portion of the trail. It was more downhill. See all the switchbacks?

Finally we reached the bottom! Behold! The Colorado River!

The next task was to cross the river to get to our campsite: by way of clanky swaying bridge...

...scariest thing ever! By this point the sun was warm and the cacti were plentiful. Let our vacation begin.

We reached our campsite by 10am so we ate an early lunch and set out for a day hike (no backpacks) to a waterfall. It was about 12 miles round trip. Definitely doable when you don't have 35-45 lb packs on your backs.

The waterfall was such a disappointment that I won't bother putting up a picture. The walk was energizing and disabling at the same time. Let's just say that afterward I wanted to do this...

...and not walk anymore. Ouch. I felt much better the next day and after some Ibuprofen, we were ready to start the hike up. We took the Kaibob trail out. It is 2 miles shorter than the Bright Angel trail, but much steeper. Here was the bridge on the Kaibob side. It was much wider and more sturdy.

We were passed by some of the most famous mules in the world. Apparently they take these mules down and up the canyon every day with supplies for the CABINS at the bottom. So for future reference; you can get reservations at the cabins with the bunk beds and the clean sheets and just worry about bringing a small backpack with water and snacks. Oh well, we enjoy the challenge of carrying our own tent and sleeping bags on our backs...

...although it kinda makes you feel like a mule. But all in all we really enjoyed our trip. Can you get a better view?

I attacked that hill, setting the pace and getting us out of the canyon (7 miles up extremely steep hill) in 3 hours 40 minutes. I'm awfully proud of my athleticism lately. I'm at my lowest weight ever and it makes things like this easier than I ever thought possible.

Easter 2010

2010-04-14T14:59:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here with the windows open for the first time this year. It puts me in the mood to add some "spring" pictures. This year Curtis and I went on an anniversary honeymoon of sorts over Easter so we celebrated early. (Stay tuned for details of our trip.)

Anyways...

Xander picked the egg dying kit from the store. It was called "mini-monsters," complete with eyes and mouth stickers, pipe-cleaners, two colors of 'hair,' and glue for gluing all this stuff on. He was super excited. Surprise, surprise, the glue didn't work at all! Regardless, this is what he came up with...

With the help of this...

(There is something sexy about a man wielding a glue gun, don't you think?)

Tayla was unimpressed with the mini-monsters kit. After she decorated her eggs with all the stickers her attention-span could handle, she resorted to making them ugly with her bare hands...

That was so much more fun! And she learned first-hand about what actually makes up an egg. This is lots of hard work and about 6 eggs later...

(Also a good shot of the flower bows I've been making lately. Yes, I finally broke down and started making my own. It's about time the girl have some clippies to go with that long beautiful hair. Despite what you may think, she actually loves wearing gigantic flowers and butterflies and things.)

Then of course we had to do an egg hunt! But unfortunately we weren't blessed with the beautiful spring weather we're having today so we hunted inside.

She completely fell for the "monkey-trap" routine...

She was really upset about the egg being stuck in there. It was so funny that I had to snap a picture before helping her out.

Xander is admiring his finds. If you look closely you can see a yellow one stuck between the couch cushions. Egg hunts at our house last much longer than 30 seconds. Our kids certainly take their time.

All done! Happy Easter to all!

Snow fun!

2010-03-08T15:40:00.000-08:00

I was devastated when I found out that our new place (just 50-minutes away) doesn't get much snow. I'm not exaggerating either! We had one snowfall back in December that stuck for about 1 week. Since that nothing has stayed even 24 hours -- including this day. This was a Sunday back in late January where it snowed all day so after church and after naps, we immediately went outside to make one snowman this winter.

The kids didn't really care about the snowman. Curtis and I worked on a snowman. And Xander (and Tayla too) threw snowball...

After snowball...

After snowball!!! I remember about how we had to help Xander make snowballs last year (unless he got lucky and found a chunk of snow on the ground.) But this year, he could make them all on his own. Here's our snowman. And I kid you not -- this monstrous beast was completely gone within 24 hours! There was not even a puddle left the next day.

And one more snowball!

Oh well. Now I can say that the kids used their snow pants once this year and their boots twice. And they will outgrow them by next year...bummer. See if I buy them again!

Crayon Rolls

2010-03-07T17:55:00.000-08:00

I made these...

In one naptime!
I used fabric scraps that I already had. The only cost was a box of crayons to split between the two rolls.

I used them to entertain the kids (along with coloring pages of Jesus I just printed off the internet) during church today. And guess what!?! It worked! It kept my kids (age 2 and 3) entertained for the entire meeting (30 minutes -- I think).

For the instructions I used to make the crayon rolls check out "chocolate on my cranium."
Know that I didn't follow the instructions exactly. I didn't have interfacing so instead I used a piece of all-natural cotton batting to go inside. And if I had not had the batting on hand, I would have used felt.

We've had a battle with keeping the kids quiet in church. Until now, we've always loaded the diaper bag up with books, toys, snacks, you name it -- sometimes we even packed two bags. (I hang my head in shame.) I didn't understand why when we had so many things the kids still fought over toys. By the end of church there were toys spewed all over the bench and crumbs on the floor. The culminating event was a tantrum by my two-year old daughter over us bringing enough snacks. (She had just eaten an entire sandwich bag stuffed full of grapes!) Enough was enough! There had to be a change because these kids were out of control and I was getting nothing but stress out of church.

I scoured the internet for ideas about teaching your young ones reverence at church. Just about every mommy blogger out there said to take away all the toys and snacks. Once the children are over 18 months it just isn't necessary. My husband and I were apprehensive, but decided to give it a try the following Sunday. We went cold turkey with the toys and the reverence level increased dramatically. We weren't the best examples that week so we decided to try it a few more weeks. The reverence improved, but I still wanted my children to be able to learn about Jesus and feel of the sweet Holy Spirit during the meeting so that they too would get something out of it.

My plan: reintroduce appropriate things for the kids to do during church.

Rules: 1. It has to be church related -- to encourage reflection.
2. There has to be two identical copies -- to discourage fighting between by two kids.
3. We would wait until after the sacrament to get the activity out.
4. One activity a week (in hopes of finding 4 different activities to rotate through each month).

Today was coloring the internet pictures with their oh so cute crayon rolls.
Next week, two copies of picture scriptures?
Hopefully I'll get two more brilliant ideas for the rest of the month...
Stay tuned.

The 12 days of Valentine's Day

2010-03-02T08:05:00.000-08:00

I know it's way past Valentine's day, but I did something rather creative and I wanted to share.

You know how guys are last minute planners and usually forget dates like these. Well, I wanted to give him plenty of notice -- 12 days to be exact. Using the 12 days of Christmas and one of my favorite blogs (http://www.loveactually-blog.blogspot.com) as inspiration, this is what I came up with. Each day my husband found a little gift or note like this one.

Instead of a partridge in a 'pear' tree...

These were my "Dove" chocolate turtles...

In addition to finding this silly card on the mirror in the morning,

I found three times during the day to do what the back of the card said.

Four calling birds were portrayed by the 4 flirty text messages I sent.

You get the idea. Not all of them were easy to come up with. I had to know who I was working with. For example, 6 geese-a-laying could be anything with eggs -- perhaps breakfast in bed. However my man doesn't like breakfast much less egg. So I had to stretch it to be a little goofy.

I "goosed" him 6 times that day and each time he endured my playful cheesiness, he got an egg filled with Hershey's kisses.

The second week involved dates together. It was just a great way to spend Valentine's week.

We went "hot-pooling" at Lava Hot Springs (7 swans-a-swimming). And yes, apparently you can do that 365 days a year.

And again I stretched it for day 10. This is the note he got:

"Lords-a-leaping are hard to find

So that left me in quite a bind

Ladies and “Lords of Film” you know

Are in this “Valentine’s Day” show"

As you can guess, we went and saw "Valentine's Day" on opening night. Which was an added bonus for me because they gave out carnations to all the women.

Day 11 was eleven "Pepper's" pepping. My husband happens to LOVE his soda. However he was disappointed to find only 11 Dr. Pepper's in the 12 pack. But hey, I had to stay true to the game!

And for the grand finale....

For the 12th 'lay' of V-day my true love gave to me...

LIVE drummers drumming.

(Tickets to a Daughtry concert in April!)

This turned out to be the best V-day ever...aside from 2004's when Curtis proposed. And it will live on until April because we have a concert to look forward to.

************

One day I awoke to find little love notes like these hidden all over the house! I found 17 and I'm still stumped as to why 17? I loved it!

Sunday, February 14th I got an omelet in the shape of a heart. It was much better than I make omelets too. Oh wait I don't make omelets I just scramble everything together.

I went to church early to practice with the choir. When Curtis and my kids arrived for church each of them had one of these to give me...

With their cute little hand prints for the hearts! So sweet!

Curtis claims the kids made him make one too...It's okay if you wanted to make me a card with your hand print on it honey! hahaha You can admit it.

Best Valentine's Day ever!!!!

Minnie Mouse cake

2010-01-17T13:40:00.000-08:00

I made this for my daughter's second birthday. (She really loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse).

It is a 8 inch chocolate cake with white decorator's icing. I didn't have 4in cake pans so I baked a 9x13 and cut out 4 inch circles for the ears. I stuck crushed oreos on the side to make the ears black. The bow is a chocolate chip cookie with icing and pink sugar sprinkled. (Although I don't recommend using a cookie -- it is difficult to get such a big cookie firm enough without it breaking into bits.) The face is just frosting.

Happy Birthday Tayla!

Homemade Christmas

2010-01-17T13:21:00.000-08:00

This year I tried to make many of my Christmas gifts this year. Here's a few of my projects this year:

Homemade tutu...adorable...

Denim rag quilt for my sister. She didn't have a quilt big enough to fit her bed before. My husband said, "well we have to take care of that this year." It became my labor of love this December. It's denim on one side, flannel on the other.
Every year I also make a few scrapbook pages of us and the kids for my parents and my in-laws to add to the little brag book I got them years ago. I include a CD with all of our digital pictures on it, so that they can do whatever they want with our pictures.

Cuteness update...

2009-12-16T11:44:00.000-08:00

I should be finishing some Christmas projects, but I just wanted to take a minute to write a few things about the latest cuteness of my kids. First of all this is them modeling their new jammie pants I made for them:

Tayla: I'll tell you about our trip to the Dr. today because everyone there was ooo-ing and ahh-ing over how cute she was. I told her to go play with toys while I signed in. 1 minute later...I hear, "mom, it's okay." (That's what she says everytime she gets scared -- naturally b/c that's what we tell her at these moments.) I just love it. Again....at the scale..."honey just step on the stool so we can see how big you are"... "it's okay." (btw 28lbs...big girl)

Well she had a 102.6 temp, but for some reason she was happy as can be. Pointing at the picture of the moose on the wall (yeah, only in Idaho)..."moose, cute...moose, cool." The Practitioner was very good about "examining" our stuffed doggy we brought before "examining" Tayla. She check ears, heart, back, mouth...then Tayla says, "ouchy, nose." (pointing to the doggy) So she kisses the doggy's nose. Afterwards, we went out and Tayla burped...without prompting she says, "cuse me." Then the practitioner lets her pick out a sucker. Tayla immediately lets doggy lick it first. What good patients!

Last night we read "Goodnight Moon" before bed. Then it was, "Goodnight bed, goodnight Rainbow Rob, goodnight Xander, goodnight mom, goodnight light"...and on and on for about 5 minutes.

Xander: For some reason he is convinced that a head of hair is called a wig. So he says, "Mom I like your wig, it's very beautiful. You have a curly wig." I've tried numerous times to correct him on this one and assure him that IT'S NATURAL. But he still insists that it's a wig. hahaha

50 Thanks list

2009-11-28T07:32:00.000-08:00

A friend challenged me to make a list of 100 things that I'm thankful for. It's focused to me to think about it this entire month. (That's a big list to come up with.) I decided to only do 50 things. Although I'm feeling more thankful this year than ever before. I have so much more to be thankful for, but I won't bore you to death with a never-ending list.

I am Thankful For...
1. God, the Father
2. Jesus Christ
3. Holy Ghost

(This is what my kids are thankful for. We came up with "the thankful turkey" during a family night this week. From left to right...)

4. School
5. Friends
6. Christmas
7. Music
8. Grandma and Grandpa
9. Dinosaurs (toys)
10. Bed
11. House
12. Family
13. Colors
14. Blanket
15. Food
16. Closet
17. Fingers
18. Clothes

19. Warm NOVEMBER days. Yes it was so warm that we could play water table without freezing our tails off.

20. My body -- all ten fingers and toes, every part healthy and functioning properly.

21. My gym membership -- it makes staying in shape easy

22. 9/5/2009 -- the day I ran a marathon (a terrific experience)

23-33. My husband -- he's amazing in more ways than one

34. Symphony -- it's a great break from being "master of the household" all week, it keeps me in "musical shape," it makes me a better musician, and it's kinda fun too.

35. Patrica George -- my college flute teacher, also for her energetic personality (I wouldn't have such a great flute choir to play in without her leadership.)

36. Flute choir -- I just started it this fall, but it has greatly improved my playing and reminded me how to be a star musician. Oh and it challenges me and is therefore much FUN!

37. How quickly I made good friends when we moved here this summer.

38. Cooking shows

39. Cookbooks...without them I wouldn't have as much success in the kitchen.

40. Kitchen appliances (RIP waffle iron)

41. Our cozy little apartment

42. My crafting supplies

43. Books (not only for my pleasure, but for educating my kids)

44. the Internet (for the same reasons)

45. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse = a shower for mom

46. My bike/bike trailer

47. Life itself!

48. My kids (have I really forgot about them until #48? lol)

49. Holidays -- they give you something to plan for month to month

50. Our car -- (it beats going over the river and through the wood in a sleigh)

"Mom, it's broken" Translation: I'm too big!

2009-11-12T07:32:00.000-08:00

After frequent tantrums and much fighting, the bib is being retired!

For me this was more emotional than my son's first day of preschool. He's used this bib 3 meals a day for over 2 years and I just can't part with it or admit that my firstborn is growing up.

But my son (3 years, 3 months) makes a compelling argument. The bib has gotten a microscopic hole in it so now "it's broken". And since it's been a fight to get him to wear it since he started having preschool snack everyday without a bib, I relented.

For your information: I purchased this bib at Walmart and it's the best thing ever. It has a pocket that unsnaps and completely flattens out, making cleaning easier. Especially when they have vomit stuck in there (yes for those of you who don't have kids, it happens from time to time). I can just open the snaps and let water rinse the nastiness away before I have to touch it. It's not like other pocket bibs where food seems to get forever trapped in the deep corners of the pockets. And they last for as long as you need them -- in our case 2.5 years.

But alas, the bib will not live to see another day.

CHOCOLATE CAKE that you can feel good about.

2009-11-10T15:16:00.000-08:00

Doesn't that look delicious! Would you believe me if I told you it was a fraction of the calories of a regular chocolate cake mix? Would you be skeptical if I told you it was easier than a cake mix?So to prepare a cake mix (devil's food) you normally add eggs and 1/2 cup of vegetable oil. {Not vinegar! As a friend and I found out after mistaking vegetable oil for vinegar when we made our first batch of cupcakes in junior high.}
Anyways...
1/2 cup of oil = 1040 calories and 112 grams of fat!
3 eggs = 225 calories and 15 grams of fat.

So when you make a devil's food cake you are voluntarily adding 1265 calories and 127 grams of fat!!!!

For this cake I substituted all of that for a 15 oz can of pumpkin (140 calories and 1.75 grams of fat). Making each serving 182 calories 3 g fat instead of 290 calories 15 g fat (icing not included).

The chocolate glaze drizzle was made as follows:
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate
2 Tablespoons butter
1 Tablespoon light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
melt everything over the stove on low heat until smooth
Dump it on the cake and smooth the top until it drizzles over the edges.

It's so simple and so gorgeous! Now the real question: "How does it taste?" Well I have to say that it does change the texture of the cake. It makes it a little more dense and brownie-like. But you can't really taste the pumpkin unless you know to look for it. It has a pumpkin aroma while the cake is still warm. Serve it room temp and you've got a dessert that's great and won't make you feel guilty about having a second piece after your guests leave. I want feedback! You try it and decide for yourself. Would you replace your run of the mill cake mix recipe with the healthier pumpkin alternative?

P.S. Talk about food storage. It's easier to store cans of pumpkin than eggs. :-) You're welcome!

Halloween Day/Night

2009-11-06T12:09:00.000-08:00

We started out the day right with doughnuts and apple cider. This was lunch -- taco soup with jack-o-lantern cheese up on top. (Thanks to a cookie cutter, knife, and Rachel Ray for the idea.)

Then we did our church's "trunk-or-treat" that afternoon. (People line up their decked out cars in the church parking lot and hand out candy.)

Xander was dressed as a dinosaur, T-Rex to be specific! Lot's of people mistook him for a frog or an alligator -- I don't get it, he's got teeth and a short nose.

Tayla was Minnie Mouse (the pink one from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.) She was very cute and got a lot of attention.

We also went trick-or-treating! We did one street for about 4 blocks. As you can see it was still pretty light out. We're early trick-or-treaters. Those kids were so wound up and so excited. It was incredibly difficult to herd them in the right direction and keep them from running into strangers' houses. They were driving me crazy the first half of the night!

Then they calmed down and got the hang of it. I just LOVE this last picture!

It was a perfect night! Warm weather is VERY unusual in Idaho for Halloween. The kids had a great time and we made great memories this year. Life is good!

Carving Pumpkins

2009-11-05T12:39:00.000-08:00

We just carved two small pumpkins this year...

Xander's favorite feature is the "scary teeth." He likes all jack-o-lanterns with "scary teeth."

We didn't have any tea light candles (another thing I forgot about and packed in storage), so Curtis broke out some glow sticks to put in the pumpkins. They worked swell (just for one night), until I caught Xander playing with a broken one that had leaked fluids all over his pumpkin. I hope that stuff isn't radioactive!

I decided to be ambitious and cook up the seeds for eating. I did just regular ones with egg whites and salt. And I also tried Rachel Ray's sweet and spicy pumpkin seed recipe. It was yummy! Go easy on the cayenne if you don't like it too hot.

Another night, we had a good old-fashioned family movie night. Popped a big bowl of popcorn...and snuggled up to share it. The "movie" was Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space (it was a 30 minute Halloween special we recorded on our DVR). The kids loved it and we watched it twice in a row that night.

Corn maze!

2009-11-04T11:41:00.000-08:00

We took the kids to the local corn maze/pumpkin patch...

They did some face painting. Watch out for the scary Frankenstein monster!

And here's the elegant white tiger. (She loves tigers!)

And you can't forget about picking out our pumpkins.

Moments to remember:
Tayla's encounter with the animals. We fed the horse some corn. Then Tayla ran over to pet the turkey got bit! Feisty turkey! She was pretty sad.
On the way home I gave her a tissue for her sad tears and runny nose. She sat there wiping her face on the way home until all the makeup was pretty much gone.

Hardware Ranch, UT

2009-11-03T13:12:00.000-08:00

I'm making an effort to catch up my blog so check back the next few days for new pictures.

We finally got around to visiting Curtis's brother and his family in Logan the first weekend in October. While we were there we went to the Elk reservation at Hardware ranch. They had lots of fun activities for families that weekend. Including pumpkin painting...

Examining bugs in water. This was Xander's favorite activity! We learned that if these critters are in the water, then it is safe clean water.

Target practice with a bow and arrow. Curtis wasn't even paying attention to his aim...

Xander hit the target all by himself. No joke.

We learned about Native American hunters.

She's not totally freaked out, she did pet the thing. I was surprised at how fascinated she was with this man. He held her attention for quite a long time talking about all of his tools and furs.

And of course, we went on a horse-drawn wagon ride. Too bad the elk were all hiding out of view. (This is Tayla on her cousin's lap.)

Other memorable parts of the weekend:

Xander learned that he could do forbidden things if mom wasn't in the room. I'd come see what he was getting into and he'd repeatedly tell me, "Go away, Mom." He had a partner in crime (a big cousin with a drawer full of candy). She'd let him eat all the candy out of her drawer and give him more.

We got Curtis's parents to sing with the "Disney sing it wii." That game amused us for an entire evening.

Preschool -- Dd

2009-09-29T07:55:00.000-07:00

Xander is 3 and starting preschool this year. As part of his education and social development, I'm participating in a preschool swap with some of the other ladies in my ward. We take turns having all the kids over and teaching the lesson. There are 6 kids (5 boys and 1 girl) ranging from 2-4 years old. This week was my week and I was responsible for teaching the kids the letter Dd. The following are my lesson plans for the week.

Tuesday

The Letter D

Objectives: Be able to recognize the letter D (capital and lowercase). Be able to make the “D” sound and identify several words that start with D.

As the kids are arriving, I had the letter people DVD playing, "Meet Mr. D"

Opening activity: Children take turns picking objects from my bag and determining if it starts with a D or not. (Ex. Dog, Duck, Doughnuts, Dinosaur, Diamond, Dress, Doll, Dump truck)

Art Project: “D is for…” sponge painting

(This was my sample. After trying it out beforehand, my husband and I decided that my dog was unrecognizable so I made a better sponge for dog.)

Story Time: Arnie the Doughnut by Laurie Keller Detective Dog and the Disappearing Doughnuts by Valerie Garfield

Snack: Delicious Donuts!

Doughnut Dance: play Mr. D song

After Tuesday, I realized that the kids have very short attention spans. Although I thought I had too much planned, we finished before the hour was up and the kids ended up playing with toys until the mom's picked them up. Thursday's lesson plan was much more involved as a result.

Thursday

Circle time: Sing songs; Look Who Came to School Today
(tune: Mary Had A Little Lamb)

Look who came to school today
School today, school today
Look who came to school today,
_____ (child's name) did.

5 Green and speckled frogs, 5 little monkeys swinging in the trees

Opener: Children find the word strip with their name on it. Then they can take it to the table and glue beans on the letters.

(I copied this activity from Xander's other preschool. He does much better at staying on task and finishing projects when mom is not the teacher, so this was his project from the other class.)

Fish: Go fishing for letters (identify whether it’s a capital or lowercase Dd).

Science Experiment: Sink/Float Have the children take turns putting objects into a tub of water. Place the objects on a T-chart in either the “sink column” or the “float column.”

Story time: Read Dinosaurumpus! by Tony Mitton

Craft: lower case d with a dinosaur behind the door. Skills [coloring, cutting, gluing, sticker].

(This idea I stole from "No time for flashcards." The button is in the right column of my blog. She has a great website dedicated to activities for your little one! I highly recommend checking it out!)

Snack: Jell-o jigglers cut into dinosaur shapes.

I was much happier with the second day of preschool. The kids were attentive and excited. We also used up all 60 minutes. I can't wait for the next time I teach because now I know what to expect.

Milestones and things...

2009-09-18T11:18:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted about the kids for a while, so here's the low down.

Tayla: The vampire teeth have come through, finally! It's been a crabby couple of weeks as she's been getting these teeth. It seems like she hasn't gotten teeth for a long time, so these surprised her with pain she probably doesn't remember having experienced.

Tayla is starting to put words together. Last night it was an adjective with a noun: "big stick." Then she surprised us with her first sentence last night! "Iawnta book" (I want a book.) She's starting to learn colors and letters.

Preschool has been hardest on her (and she's not the one going, Xander is.) She used to cry everytime we dropped him off. Then she'd wander around the house looking for him..."nanner, nanner, are you?" But the separation has been a good thing. Now she immediately starts jabbering when we drop off Xander; as if she hasn't been able to get a word in with him around.

Xander: Started preschool. He loves it, and I've already noticed a big difference in what he's learned! One morning I was laying in bed, when I heard Xander yelling at Tayla so she'd wake up. The next thing I hear is him singing song after song to Tayla; 5 monkeys swinging in the trees, ABC's, itsy bitsy spider. I could never get him to sing to me before! And here he was singing to his sister. He just melts my heart.
Xander also has a newfound love of corn on the cob! He eats a lot of it too. Good job son!

We've been enjoying these warm September days! We only have been to every playground in town, except for one. We'll probably check it out next week. We picniced in our backyard on a day Curtis had off. It was very pleasant.

Marathon 9/5/2009

2009-09-07T08:05:00.000-07:00

Here's how my marathon went:

2 days beforehand I got a cold. I lost my voice and everything. I still had junk in my sinuses and lungs. Not ideal, but I still ran.

4:45am I wake up to get ready.
5:20am I catch the bus to take me to the starting line.

I'm figuring I have a lot of time because the race isn't until 6:15. So I get in line for the port-a-potty (The port-t-potties were literally lined up in someones pasture, only in Idaho right?) Just before I get in the port-a-potty I get a 5 minute warning until race time. When I get out I take off my long-sleeved shirt and put my bag in the truck to be taken to the finish line. By then I have like 2 minutes. So I try to find a spot where I won't get trampled at the start. I do a couple of stretches, but don't really have time to do much. Then BANG -- the race starts.

Mile 1: is a steep downhill. I didn't see the point in using energy to slow myself down, so I let the hill take me down. I probably went too fast, because I passed nearly everyone. But it felt sooooo good to be running free!
Mile 2: I settle into my pace. Everyone begins to pass me.
Mile 3: I'm thinking where is the first aid station. There's supposed to be like 15 of them, shouldn't I be passing one soon?
Mile 4: A group of girls catch up to me and I think, I can keep up with them. I pace with them for a mile, but soon they pass me for good. A guy in a red hat, realizes it's my first marathon and give me some advice. "When you can't run, just keep walking, or crawling to the finish line."
Mile 5: There was this horse in the pasture going crazy as all of us ran past. He was sprinting from one end of his enclosure to the other. He was fun to watch.
Mile 6: I notice, that my gluts have cramped up and it hurts. I want to stop a stretch, but no one even stops running at the aid stations. So I keep running.
Mile 7: I can't take it anymore I stop and hang stretch to try and fix my gluts and hamstrings. But to no avail...they are too tight.
Mile 8: The man in white, grabs me and keeps me from stopping at the aid station so he can give me advice. He'd noticed that I was cramped up and told me I was over-pronating, therefore wasting energy. So he helped me refine my stride.
Mile 9: I stop at the aid station and get 2 cups of Powerade.
Mile 10: I realize that by straightening out my stride, I am beginning to get blisters on my arches like I did when I first bought these cheap shoes. So I go back to running how I normally do.
Mile 11: Past by quickly.
Mile 12: I take some IB Profin. Stopped and stretched some more. Just trying to get comfortable before spectators can start watching.
Mile 13: Halfway!!!! My butt hurts so much, that I really have no idea how I'm going to finish.
Mile 14: I run with another girl. Curtis finds me and continues to follow me for the remainder of the race. The kids get out with signs they made for mommy. It was so adorable and quite distracting. I told a couple of runners that those are my kids; I was so proud.
Mile 15: The first aid station with bananas and oranges. I take an orange slice and keep running.
Mile 16: I hit the WALL!!! I realize that I needed some food -- bananas would have been great (potassium helps with cramps). Oops, it's gonna be a while before an aid station has bananas. (I the next one will be at mile 19!)
Mile 17: I get lightheaded, my fingers are numb, I feel like I'm going to pass out at any moment. I send Curtis out to get me some much needed food.
Mile 18: This other runner gives me a "salt pill" and some mustard. I said I'd save it for later, but I actually never took his no name pill. Weirdo!
Mile 19: I cried! I ate three piece of banana! I drank! Hope was restored. And I took off running strong and caught up to the pack in the next mile.
Mile 20: Curtis got me a power bar and I devoured it very quickly.
Mile 21: Not a bad mile for me.
Mile 22: I start counting down. 4 miles left!
Mile 23: I took some more IB Profin, just because I was offered it. That's what I like about the marathon. There is no shame in taking pills in order to finish. It makes me laugh.
Mile 24: I know I can make it. There were encouraging people cheering me on.
Mile 25: I pick up the pace, running as fast as I can, so I can finish strong.
Mile 26.2: FINISH!!! Again, I cried! It was an AWESOME feeling to finish! I got my medal. There was a lot of food at the finish line for me to partake. My time was 5 hours 13 minutes.I would compare the feeling to delivering a baby. As soon as you cross the finish line, you forget all the pain you had to go through to get there. Your body will feel it and remind you that you've been through an ordeal, but your mind will only tell you that it was worth it.

2 days later, I feel much better. I've stopped taking drugs and I can walk without drawing too much attention.

Book Club: Girl with a Pearl Earring

2009-09-03T10:31:00.000-07:00

Tracy Chevalier fictionalizes a story behind this painting. I loved this book! It takes us into the life of a 16-year old girl in the 1600's who must work as a maid to support her family. The story-line was very interesting.

Griet, the young maid, has interesting philosophies about virtuous women. They don't open their mouths in paintings, nor do they let their hair show. Griet changes while working for this Catholic family and finds herself compromising her character. Do you ever find yourself impressionable, doing things because someone else wants you to do them? Griet struggles to find the balance between keeping her values and politely following orders. She hangs on the fence between her work life and her personal life until finally she falls.

"I ran...Only thieves and children run. I reached the center of the square and stopped in the circle of tiles with the eight-pointed star in the middle. Each point indicated a direction I could take...I stood in the circle, turning round and round as I thought. When I made my choice, the choice I knew I had to make, I set my feet carefully along the edge of the point and went the way it told me, walking steadily."

This is a beautiful coming-of-age story as Griet figures out which direction she believes her life must go. There is love, deciet, passion, suspense, hatred and much more. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this elegant novel! I highly recommend Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Book Club: Amanda Bright @ Home

2009-08-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

Amanda Bright @ Home by Danielle Crittenden is a story about Amanda who struggles with the decision to be a stay-at-home mom. This book is filled with interesting characters. The stay-at-home moms with a hired nanny who allow them to sip wine by the pool all day, the beautiful selfish single friend, the stay-at-home dad. Amanda finds it impossible to keep up with the other moms, and goes on a self-reflecting journey to find out what is important in life.

While reading about how much of a mess Amanda is, I realized that I am at a great place in my life right now. I am content to be a stay-at-home mom, I am confident in my abilities as such, and I am comfortable with who I am when not at home.

After having two kids really close together, we have decided to take a break. The last 4 years of my life have been defined by either being pregnant, or nursing an infant. In just the last 6-months I have been able to revive the youthful Melissa. I have been able to get my body back to pre-baby weight. I have been able to enjoy hiking and camping and roller coaster parks this summer. I have been able to run -- breaking personal distance records I never thought possible. Overall, it has made be feel really good about myself.

I don't know if we'll have any more kids or not. But I do know that I am still alive and well. I do know that I am not just a stay-at-home mom; there is a personality in here. And I am happy with my life.

Amanda Bright @ Home is a good book for self reflection. I do have to say, that for the stay-at-home mom, it was not an escape from your life (as I think books should be). When I opened the book, there were still toys on the floor, still thoughts I was thinking during the day, only translated in Amanda's voice. Overall, a good read because it provoked reflection of my own life.

What's Melissa eating today?

2009-08-20T13:55:00.000-07:00

Are you tired of mac and cheese and PB&J for lunch? Have you ever tried these Zip'n Steam bags? You can put whatever you want in them, add spices, and pop them in the microwave. Today I wanted something different than the kids. I found some tilapia fillets in the freezer, chopped up some summer squash and broccoli, added a little olive oil, garlic powder, oregano, salt and pepper.
4 minutes later...

Delicious, healthy food!

Christensen family reunion

2009-08-18T09:46:00.000-07:00

We went on our annual family camping trip at grandma and grandpa's lot in Island Park this weekend. That means it was Curtis's parents, and siblings and their families. It was a great trip in spite of the weather. It was pretty chilly all the time, and I'm sure it was in the 40's at night. But on the plus side, we didn't see a single hornet or mosquito.

The theme of the weekend was HOW DIRTY CAN TAYLA GET?

How about a dusty four-wheeler ride?

Or a dirt shower (she picked up handfuls of dirt and dropped it on her head)...

Or swimming in the dirt...
(Yes, that's a rice crispie treat in her hand and I'm sure she ate it afterward.)

She was absolutely filthy and the bath water was brown when we got home.

Another hit was the bubbles. I was so happy about this straw contraption because Tayla could actually blow bubbles using it.

Tayla is a great little camper! She stays in her sleeping bag and sleeps throughout the night despite the cold temperatures. She is generally happy all of the time even when she trips and falls constantly. She LOVES taking four-wheeler rides! She just seems to love everything about it.

Xander was a bit of a stinker at bedtime. He unzipped and climbed through 4 doors of our tent to go play with his sister instead of sleeping in his tent. He also refused to put his arms and his head in his mummy bag, so he woke up cold at night. However, during the day, he was a good boy. He played with his cousins really well.

Curtis and I went on a long four-wheeler ride while the kids were supposed to be napping. It was really fun, although at times I feared for my life. It was a perfect weekend as we got to spend a little time with each family member.

A few gems.

2009-08-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

My internet hasn't been so friendly lately, so here are some "catch up" pictures of what we've been doing lately.

Reed's dairy days....
Yes she actually did fall asleep eating her ice cream cone. Look at that little frost-bitten nose!

What kid eats an ice cream cone with a spoon?

Hello sheep, how ya doing?

This is Curtis chasing Xander around the pool. I thought both of their faces were priceless.

round 2 for the birthday cake

2009-08-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

On the weekend, we went to grandma and grandpa house. Xander rode Kirby or "Curvy" as Xander calls him. I'm glad he still enjoys riding after he fell off last Thanksgiving.

Then we had Xander's special birthday cake. It was strawberry inside because Xander wanted a red cake. Mom made one "INCREDIBLE" cake. ;-)

Xander's 3!

2009-07-27T13:36:00.000-07:00

With Curtis at AT (annual training), we had to make sure Xander's birthday was extra fun. At first I didn't know what to do, but the day just sort of fell into place and ended up being amazing. You ever have one of those perfect days, where you just have fun and don't have to yell at your kids all day? That was today, and I'm so thankful!

Xander insisted on opening presents BEFORE breakfast. Of course, I let him. He was very excited!

He got some sand toys for his birthday, so after breakfast he went and got his swimming suit and said we were going to the beach to play with his sand toys. I relented and took an unplanned trip to the beach. What's better than going to the beach on your birthday?!

For the record, Tayla started the sand fight by dropping sand on Xander's head. It was the friendliest of fights until Xander finished it.The aftermath of the wet sand fight. This was the only time all day, I had to somewhat scold the birthday boy.

I was going to make a special cake for the birthday boy, but I wanted to do it on a day when other people would be with us to celebrate. So today we went to the store and let Xander pick out a pre-made cake. I was hoping for chocolate cupcakes, but he picked the white cake with funky strawberry goo in it because it was a FOOTBALL cake. No one really ate it but Tayla, but oh well.

Cake Wrecks

2009-07-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

Thanks Robyn for this hilarious blog! http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com
A place where they show the life-size cake of Lenin's corpse, the Food Network Challenge cake that caught on fire, monograms gone bad, and other local bakery misspellings.

There are some amazing cakes, and some not so much....

Let's take it step by step here:

1. Start with an airbrush. 'Cuz ya gos ta show off yo mad skillz.

2. Realize you don't know how to do anything but wonky lines with said airbrush.

3. Pull out trusty icing bag and try to fake us all out with hastily splooged border and stars.

4. Add red, white and blue sprinkles to distract viewers from step #2.

hahaha This website made my day. Thanks again Robyn!

Creepy Crawly

2009-07-25T09:01:00.000-07:00

WARNING: This post is not for the queasy or the arachnophobic.

Wednesday: I notice a large welt on Xander's arm that is bigger than a quarter. It is swollen and throbbing. I could literally see it blinking red then white. I asked him if he banged it on something, but he couldn't tell me anything. It had a perfectly round shape so I figured it was unlikely that he banged it on something perfectly round. So my next thought was that it was a spider bite.

Thursday: The spot on Xander's arm looked better. It wasn't swollen or throbbing anymore. Phew, I don't need to worry about it.

Friday: I got the stomach flu and wasn't all with it. But I noticed that Xander got another round spot on his leg, just like the first. And a smaller one on his upper thigh (or just under his butt). I thought, oh great, this is some kind of infection that is spreading. I considered taking him to the Doctor, but I was ill so I didn't leave the house.

Saturday: The spots on his legs didn't look better, actually they developed a white center. Yuck. So I'm thinking, perhaps this really is a spider bite, possibly a hobo. I start looking up hobo bites on the internet. They all look nasty and pussy -- google it, you'll be afraid. As I am doing this, Xander picks up a snoopy stuffed animal that we have and starts waving it around saying, "Mom look, a big ugly spider, a big ugly spider." He said this about 5 times before I finally looked. And just like he said, on the nose of snoopy was a BIG UGLY SPIDER! After screaming at him to put the snoopy down, I compared the spider with the hobo pictures I have pulled up on my computer. IDENTICAL MATCH!

(Depending on your computer screen size, this picture is a little smaller than the actual size. They look way more bad ass in person.)

If you are unfamiliar with this particular spider, here is some basic information:

The hobo spider is also known as the aggressive house spider. Hobo spiders are found generally in the northwest part of the United States, western Canada, and throughout Europe. The hobo spider usually prefers dry and warm climates and will sometimes live within houses. Hobo spiders are moderately large spiders. The male hobo spider is about twelve to eighteen millimeters.

About 50% of Hobo Spider bites are 'dry,' meaning that no venom is injected and nothing happens to the victim. In fact, often times the victim does not even realize that he has been bit. Typically, when venom is injected, the victim will experience an immediate redness which develops around the bite then begins to disappear within a few hours. Very often, for the first 24 hours, the bite appears to be no worse than that of a mosquito; then it begins to blister in the center. Within 24 to 36 hours the blister breaks open, leaving an open, oozing ulceration.

This ulceration 'scabs' over within three weeks from the initial bite, leaving a permanent scar. If the bite is delivered in fatty tissue, the lesion may be very deep and extensive, not healing for over two or three years. Systematic reactions to Hobo Spider poisoning include severe headaches, nausea, vomiting, soreness and flu-like symptoms.

Ewww! So I think, I should catch the damn thing to take with me to the Doctor if I decide to take Xander in. I proceed to try coaxing it into various containers. My knees were literally shaking and I thought I was going to vomit right there. (Wouldn't be a stretch because I was sick the day before.) The spider ended up getting spooked and scurrying farther into the toy box, until he was completely hidden by toys. Just so you know, if you think spiders are silent, hobo spiders are so big that you can hear their legs scurry on the plastic toys. It made it even more dramatic for me. So I start pulling toys out of the box, one by one trying to find this stupid spider. I get about half of them out, when I decide I'm in way over my head, and maybe I should just call somebody. So I break down and call my in-laws, who are native to Idaho and have some experience with this sort of thing. They tell me they'll come right over, which is about 1.5 hours later. (Curtis was at annual training for the military and a can't even reach him on the phone -- a lot of good that does me.)

In the meantime, I cover the toy basket with aluminum foil and put a heavier box on top and take the whole thing outside. I take a shower and melt down -- this was way too much drama for one Saturday morning.

When the in-laws get here: They trapped the spider in a clear plastic "Tupperware" type box. And immediately started find spots to hide sticky traps. We stripped the sheets off of Xander's bed and washed them. After examining the bites, my in-laws thought we should take Xander to the doctor. We took him in to Urgent Care and brought that big ugly spider with us (alive). The Dr. said to watch for flu-like symptoms such as a fever. She said the bites will probably open up and scab. In which case I treat it like a cut -- Neosporin and a band aid. She continued to make me feel faint and nauseous, by telling me all the things I need to do to the house to prevent spiders and about how when a spider bites you it's venoum is used to break down and digest the food. So his bites are basically going to breakdown the flesh. I also let Xander hold the SEALED box -- it kept him busy and holding still. So he's shaking the spider. Then the doctor opens the box with the spider in it to try to count the bands on its legs. It was really nasty and I thought I was going to either have a panic attack or be sick. Oh and the Doctor said to keep Xander out of the basement for a while. I said, that's not going to happen, our whole apartment is in the basement. Yikes! I'm definitely going to walk around with my shoes on for a while and look before I stick my hand in dark corners. Uhh, I am totally freaked out!These are two of his bites. The 1st one is on his arm and it looks like a dry bite -- no venoum. The other one is on his leg and it looks more pussy, like it could turn black and open up like a blister. Time will tell.

Lunch at the Park

2009-07-23T15:32:00.000-07:00

In our new town, the school district prepares free lunches for kids every weekday in the summer. They serve them in 7 local parks at lunchtime daily. We frequently take advantage of the program. Today we biked to the park, played for a while, ate our lunch, and biked back home. It makes for a fun morning. And the best part: no dishes to wash after lunch!

Notice that there is a stick in the water. Xander puts it to rest there while he takes a drink. Are all little boys "stick magnets?"

This is Tayla saying, "han." (Meaning: take my hand, mommy, so I can step down) I love when she says that!

The Love Dare

2009-07-22T10:23:00.000-07:00

Give-a-way. The Love Dare. It's the book that the guy follows in the movie, "Fireproof." Wouldn't that be a fun book to get you hands on?

Curtis and I watched the movie and giggled about the cheesiness of it. However, I liked the message and I liked watching the "Dares" that the man does to try to save their marriage. It'd be a fun date-night movie. Although it's not a blockbuster hit of a movie. :-)

Swimming

2009-07-21T07:58:00.000-07:00

This week we went to the Aquatic Complex. Half price family night -- Awesome. ;-) It was just me and the kids because Curtis was at AT (annual training). We had tons of fun nonetheless!
Here's the kids' section. They it's a 0-1.5 foot depth pool with lots of spraying stuff and a water slide (my kids don't use the water slide).

Here's Xander chasing Tayla around -- a favorite past time.

Xander drinking the water. It's hard to close your mouth when you're having so much fun. Needless to say, he choked on a lot of water that night.

Taking a break while they do a safety check. They were freezing their tushies off, but still smiling!

Tayla spent a lot of time getting splashed up here; climbing up and down the stairs. Xander -- not so much; he wouldn't even get near the spashers.

The kids lasted for nearly 2 hours. The only downside was that Tayla kept running around and falling -- skinning up her knees and bloodying up her nose. She had worn herself out to the point of clumsiness.

Muffin Tin Monday

2009-07-20T14:08:00.000-07:00

This week's theme for Muffin Tin Monday is dips/sauces. If you don't know what a Muffin Tin Monday is, check out Michelle's blog: http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com

For my muffin tin, I made pizza rolls out of crescent rolls, pepperoni, and cheese. For dips/sauces, I have pizza sauce, vanilla/cinnamon yogurt, chocolate pudding. Items for dipping pleasure include pizza roll, strawberries, and vanilla wafers. The vanilla wafers were new to my kids and they were skeptical about eating them until I told them they were cookies. :-)

Aldous Lake

2009-07-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we took the kids camping/hiking/backpacking. The place was Aldous lake (I think it's about 30 north of Dubois, ID and close to the Montana border). There was a 1.3 mile trail (only accessible by foot) leading to the lake and our campsite. We loaded our packs with all of our camping gear (Curtis's was 75 lbs, mine was about 35 lbs, but I also carried an awkward 30+ lbs of cooler) and hiked the 1.3 miles with the kids. Xander hiked all of it by himself carrying his backpack black bear with shoes that were too small for him (sorry buddy). Tayla wanted to walk, but Curtis ended up carrying her on his shoulders for most of the distance.

When we reached the campsite at the lower lake, we set up camp and cooked dinner over the fire. The mosquitoes were terrible! By the end of the 24 hour trip, we were covered with bites (except for Tayla -- apparently mosquitoes don't like baby blood.) They loved our faces and hairlines, our elbows, and Xander's legs. The kids went right to bed without a peep -- they must have been really tired from the hike.

The next day, we decided to hike another 1 mile uphill, to the upper lake. We carried the kids on our shoulders for the entire distance. The lake was worth the hike. It was pretty how it was nestled next to the mountain peaks. The kids had fun throwing rocks into the lake and listening to the echo of their voices off the lake and the mountains. As we hiked back to camp, Tayla fell asleep on Curtis's shoulders completely folded in half. We aren't sure how she could sleep like that! She was so tired! We got back to camp and put her in her tent and she slept another hour.

We decided to only stay one night because we had to get back home in time to speak in church on Sunday. So we packed up and hiked the 1.3 miles out to the car. Xander's feet hurt by this time, so I ended up carrying him on my shoulders with my pack. Curtis carried Tayla and his pack (a total of 100 lbs for 1.3 miles). I think I have a super duper husband!

This is us at the trail head. Notice that Xander has a stick in his hand. He traded them for better and better sticks along the way. He is a dawdler on the trail unless Tayla is chasing him.
What a cutie with his black bear made into a backpack! He carried that bear the whole day! Such a big boy, hiking all by himself. We saw his confidence grow as he stepped over big rocks, logs, and bridges. I think this was a great character building trip for Xander. Not only did he become more confident with his agility, but he battled the mosquitoes, pee'd on sticks, and helped with the tents and campfire.

Tayla wanted to hike. We let her walk some of the way when we could stand going at Tayla's slow pace. She kept tripping and falling. By bedtime the first night, her legs we all scraped up so I decided to put her in Xander's jeans the next day to protect her legs. (She doesn't have any pants except for leggings which are not appropriate for camping.) I am definitely getting her a pair of jeans for this fall, if not sooner.

This is probably our favorite picture from the trip. Isn't she so cute! This is Tayla sleeping in her sleeping bag for the first time ever. I expected her to wiggle out of it, but she was cozy and went right to bed. In the morning we found her sleeping bag on the opposite corner of the tent as her air matress and we found Tayla in the bottom of her sleeping bag.
Here's all of us hanging out in mom and dad's tent at about 6:30am. Too early to get out of bed!

Yummy muffins for breakfast.

They could have done this all day! This is the upper lake that we had to hike an additional 1 mile past our campsite.

And this is how Tayla fell asleep folded in half!

Muffin Tin Monday

2009-06-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

Today's theme was Patriotic/4th of July. I don't normally buy muffin tins like this, but after two stores, this was the only 6-cup muffin tin I could find. Featured in this muffin tin is all things red, white and blue!

Pasta and spaghetti sauce, mozzarella cheese, blue Jell-o and whipped cream, strawberries and whipped cream, vanilla yogurt with patriotic sprinkles, and blue cotton candy.

I enjoyed doing it and the kids liked it too! Everything was completely devoured except, Xander didn't want pasta after all that sweet stuff and Tayla doesn't like Jell-o.

For more Muffin Tin Monday Fun visit Michelle's blog: Her Cup Overfloweth

Muffin Tin Monday

2009-06-18T17:08:00.000-07:00

It's Muffin Tin Monday!

I found this cute idea on my new favorite blog; Her Cup Overfloweth.
Every Monday is "Muffin Tin Monday." She has all sorts of creative themes for building a meal out of a muffin tin. This being my first muffin tin meal, I copied an idea from one of her followers.

This was our "Very Hungry Caterpillar" MTM. It goes as follows:

Hole 1: Sugar and Spice Yogurt dip

Hole 2: "He ate through one apple"

Hole 3: two pears

Hole 4: three plums

Hole 5: four strawberries

Hole 6: five mandarin oranges

Dessert: grape butterfly Jello jiggler

This made dinner a fun occasion. My little caterpillars were NOT still hungry after this meal. Xander LOVED eating "caterpillar food." And they both played with the butterflies...pretending they could fly over the dinner table. It was weird eating only fruit for dinner, but that was my fault and the kids didn't seem to mind. Overall, it was a success and we may be doing more MTM's in the future.

Funny Things

2009-06-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

Tayla (17 months today) made Xander and I laugh. We were eating soup for lunch and she kept saying we were eating "poop." Another one that gets Xander every time is when we ask Tayla if she wants to go to the zoo. She responds, "eww." She is a parrot; repeating the last word in every sentence we say -- but it's still humerous to listen to her mispronouciations.

Here's some of our favorite Tayla words:
Boop (Book and her first word)
Mee mow (Mickey Mouse)
Bubble (Incredibles)
Beep (Sheep)
Bee-ar (Bear)
Bink (Blanket)
Nana (Banana)
Meal Peas (Milk Please)
Ans (Dance)
Tee (Teeth)
Ning-ers (Fingers)
Wah wer (Water)
Wee Wee (toes, this little piggy went wee wee)
Mummy (Monkey or Tummy, depending on the context)
Asses (Sunglasses)
Nan-ner (Xander, one of her favorite things!)
Daddy, work (Daddy is usually followed by the word 'work' lately)
Habby (Crabby)
Appy (Happy)

I am loving this phase, because we never got this phase with Xander. I swear I couldn't have made a list like this. If he said a word, it was the right word -- no baby talk. I LOVE that Tayla 'baby talks.'

Another funny difference between the two kids is in their singing. When Xander sings, I recongize the song only because I recognize the sequence of words he's saying, not the tune. When Tayla sings, I recongize the song only because I recognize the tune not the words. It's funny how even at a young age, they have very different talents.

14 miler

2009-06-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

I ran 14 miles today! Crazy, I know. But it's just over half of a marathon...which I'm signed up to do just less than 3 months from now. Today I ran from our house in Idaho Falls to my in-laws' house in Shelley. I'm proud of myself.

I think a lot while I'm running (what else is there to do for 2+ hours by yourself). I may have had some profound thoughts, but I can't remember them right now.

The whole time I was waiting for Curtis and the kids to drive up and give me some water/Powerade. They finally showed up at about the 10 mile mark. Hooray! What was even more thrilling was when they came back on the 4-wheeler to say 'hi' at the 12 mile mark. I was thinking that they should do that the whole 14 miles, but I never got a chance to tell Curtis to do that. Somehow he read my mind and it really made my day. Thanks, honey.

When SAHM's day goes arwy.

2009-06-13T16:02:00.000-07:00

Anyone wonder how a SAHM (stay at home mom) could have a bad day? Well this is just represents part of one afternoon (maybe just 1 hour). I was doing some dishes and my 1 year old daughter was 'helping' me. She kept taking the glasses out, I kept putting them back into the dishwasher. As I was putting a glass in the dishwasher it completely shattered and the force of glass flying everywhere shredded my thumb in several spots.

I locked my daughter in her room so I could clean up the mess without her getting hurt. I start dropping chunks of glass into the garbage, when I notice my thumb is bleeding onto the floor. I decide to go patch myself up before finishing the glass mess. I go to the bathroom closet for our first aid kit, as I open the door Curtis's electric razor falls from a really high shelf and bursts open, leaving whiskers all over the bathroom floor and hallway. (I had previously put the razor on that high shelf because I caught my almost 3-year old son holding it over the toilet earlier with it still plugged in. I was worried about him getting electrocuted...I don't know if he would have, but better be safe than sorry.)

Anyways....I patch up my thumb, vacuum up the whiskers, clean up the blood off the floor, pick the glass out of the dishwasher, and empty the trash before I can let my screaming daughter out of her room. And then I go back to doing the dishes and making dinner with a bandaged thumb.

On a plus side, earlier today I scored some items at a garage sale. A headboard for our new bed, a plastic shelving unit for our new apartment, and a chutes and ladders game for $20 total! I haven't done a whole lot of "garage sale-ing", but this was fun!

Anyone else have a SAHM bad day?

We are moving...

2009-06-05T09:41:00.000-07:00

While we were on vacation in Ohio, we sold our house (just 1 week after putting it on the market). It was amazing that it sold so quickly and I only had to clean and stage the house once! Curtis said, "Aww, I didn't want to SELL our house." "Well why did we bother," I say. We sold our house because we have to move to a different region for Curtis's job.

We have been searching for houses and rental properties over the past week and a half. We found nothing we really liked and nothing that worked out for us until yesterday. Here's the plan: We are going to rent a basement apartment in Pocatello for about a year. With all the money we save, we should be able to make a significant impact on our current debt. Our goal is to be debt-free in 5 years and be ready to settle into our "dream house" for life.

Now about our new living situation: We found a two bedroom apartment in our landlord's basement. Sounds small, dark, and creepy right? Well when we saw it, this place just felt right. It was very clean inside, and not too small considering there are only two bedrooms. The landlord seems like a nice guy and he actually remodels for a living -- hence the nice apartment in his basement. The yard is beautiful too and the backyard is fenced in. We will basically be on vacation for a year -- reaping the benefits of someone else doing repairs and yardwork. We are sad to move away from our friends and life here in Idaho Falls, but excited to see what adventures this move will bring.

Ohio visit

2009-05-31T09:19:00.000-07:00

Here are some random pictures that we took while visiting my parents in Ohio.

Tayla being a big girl on the bouncy horsey at the park. She loves all things bouncy.

Curtis and Xander swimming in Grandpa's pool. Of course Xander has to accessorize his outfit.

Tayla isn't too happy about swimming and she got pretty cold. Better luck next time.

Backpacking: Pictured Rocks Lakeshore

2009-05-22T11:18:00.000-07:00

Curtis and I left the kids with my parents for 4 days so we could go on a trip just the two of us. (It was our first trip together -- we never got a honeymoon or anything.) We went backpacking in Pictured Rocks Lakeshore National Park. It was along Lake Superior on the upper penninsula of Michigan. The trail pretty well follows the coastline for 42 miles. We hiked all 42 miles in 4 days, carrying our 25-40 lb packs the whole way. It was quite the workout, but the scenery is beautiful. There was pretty much a great coastline picture at every turn. After a while, we just got tired of taking one picture of the coast after another. Here's just some of our pictures:

Walking the trail. And no we didn't hold hands the whole time, we were just having fun with the timer on our camera. It kinda looks like we love each other though.
ha ha ha

Here's the Au Sable Lighthouse. Surprisingly, there were a bunch of shipwreck remains right on the shore under the lighthouse. They must have forgot to turn on the light on those occasions or something. You can't tell, but we had to stand out in the rain to get this picture.

Here's the Hurricane River that runs right into Lake Superior.

The third night we were alone in the campground and the campground was full of mosquitos. So we went down to the beach and spent most of the evening there. It felt really good to walk around in the sand barefoot.

This is "Chapel Rock." Had to take a picture there because it is one of the landmarks people go to see.

It was so cold this morning. But we still managed to get a picture at the Miner's Castle. Although this is just shoreline.

Don't look down! There were many places where, had I passed out or slipped, I would have fallen right off the cliff. You can kind of see the colors on the rocks, that's why they call it "Pictured Rocks Lakeshore National Park."

Curtis is doing some filtering of the water. No we didn't pack enough water for 4 days, we drank water from nature. Ooh exotic! And thanks to the filter, we didn't get any diseases.

Curtis GPSing! Even though the trail was pretty much idiot-proof. You have no idea how much we used the GPS. Whether it just be for the time, or to give us an idea of how much farther we had to go. You have no idea how happy we were when it started measuring in feet rather than miles to the car.

Pretty beach shot. This was the first day about 3 miles into the hike. It was actually a perfect day for hiking. Not too hot, not too cold and absolutely beautiful.

Little waterfall. We had fun taking pictures with the timer on the camera. Using downed trees or even our packs to set the camera on.

Curtis looking rather 'studly' if I do say so.

The trail wasn't always flat and easy. There was mud to manuver around. Trees to walk across. Hills to climb. Sand to scramble through. Cliffs to avoid falling off.

talk about mental illness

2009-05-04T17:23:00.000-07:00

My cousin has a blog designed to talk about mental illness, especially bipolar disorder. She has recently been diagnosed with bipo and she shares her story here. It's really interesting! Her blog is designed to talk openly about mental illness and destroy any misconceptions that people have. You should check it out and read her story. http://halfbeautiful.blogspot.com
She would love some more followers in order to get the word out, so to speak. She has a natural gift for words which makes this a beautifully crafted read. You'll be missing out if you don't check it out!

Some of you may or may not know about my struggle with depression. When Curtis went to Iraq just two months after we got married, I got caught up in a whirlwind of emotions that nearly destroyed me. I learned to suppress them, therefore becoming almost robotic and ultimately depressed. Pretty much the day he got home I got pregnant with Xander. Without a chance to deal with my emotions before being pumped full of hormones, I was doomed for disaster. Instead of all the physical discomforts associated with pregnancy, I got stuck with the mental symptoms. I suffered pre-natal depression throughout my pregnancy. I was so depressed that I stayed in bed a lot. Curtis and I has some pretty messy arguments that resulted in lots of pain on his part. I was a horrible mess and even stopped eating for days at a time. By the end of my pregnancy I began to stabilize as my doctor and I found a correct dosage of antidepressants.

Then the day came when I gave birth to Xander. Anyone who has given birth knows how exhausting a whole day of labor can be and how hormones and emotions run high afterwards. Well, combine that with suddenly going off your antidepressants! I was in the hospital for 2 days (we forgot my meds at home) and since my routine was out of whack because I was hospitalized, we completely forgot about them until the symptoms all came back. I had the worst episode right there in the hospital. The nurses we pretty freaked out. They called in the hospital psychologist. He pretty much admitted me to a mental hospital immediately.

It absolutely broke my heart not to be able to go home with my newborn baby. And the hospital was a horrible place. They take away all your personal belongings (even your shoe laces to keep all the patients from committing suicide.) You have to ask for everything. Even for soap to wash your hands; after which they come out from behind the glass to unlock a giant cabinet to give you the smallest little bottle of hand soap. There were so many other traumatic memories of that place, but I don't want to get into them right now. Basically I spent the weekend there until my medications could stabilize me and I could convince them I was safe to go home. They finally allowed me to go home after I set up an appointment with a counselor "on the other side" and promised to go to counseling.

The counseling worked really well and soon I was able to go completely off my medication. I live a normal life now, however I'll never forget what I learned from this experience. Every time I see myself slipping back into depression, I use the techniques and skills the counselor and my books taught me. I am determined not to go back to that low ever again. I was scared to death that I would when I found out I was pregnant with my second child. However, I lucked out and just got the morning sickness and other physical symptoms instead.

After my experience, I empathize with those suffering mental illness. When it's serious enough, it is possible for chemicals in the brain to imbalance and make it impossible to fix without medication. Mental illness is not just "all in your head" so to speak. It is not like you can just choose to be happy. It can be really messy and unpleasant. I believe everyone knows someone who has mental illness or someone who has dealt with depression at some point in their life. It's more common that people think. What is your story?

Trouble Makers

2009-04-30T06:40:00.000-07:00

So after dinner yesterday, I jump in the upstairs bathroom to take a shower and Curtis jumps in the downstairs bathroom to attend to some other business. When we get out, we find Tayla eating syrup out of the back of the tricycle. Xander, now that he has figured out the child safety lock on our cupboards, opens them quite frequently. He opened the cupboard, got out the pancake syrup, dumped a pile of it on the counter (I have no idea how he reached that), and poured what was left of the bottle in the back of the tricycle. Tayla noticed that syrup is super yummy so she started eating it out of the tricycle with her hands and spreading it on the couch. It was one big sticky situation. Luckily, I was in a hurry to leave for symphony rehearsal, so Curtis had to clean up the mess by himself. Sorry hunny.

Thank goodness! Earlier that day, for whatever reason, I decided to move the peanut butter from that cupboard to a very high place. We could have walked out of the bathroom with a baby in anaphylactic shock. Peanut butter is Xander's favorite thing and I can guarantee that if it had been there, he would have grabbed that instead of the syrup.

I dare you to try this!

2009-04-23T09:24:00.000-07:00

I had to wait for the washing machine to clean my workout clothes before I could go to the gym today. While I was waiting, I thought I'd try something at home. I got this idea from The Biggest Loser this week. (Yes I'm an regular watcher.)

Take a deck of cards, shuffle them, and draw one card at a time.

Red cards work your abs
hearts = sit ups
diamonds = reverse crunches (I lay on the floor and while keeping my legs straight lift them, then lower heels to the floor)
spades = push-ups
clubs = lunges

The number on the card = how many reps you do (face cards are 10)

If you are lucky enough to get an ace you get 1 minute of rest.

My kids thought it was really fun and Xander even did the exercises and counted reps for me. I only did half of the deck and man oh man was I sweating. It's really rough if you get like 3 spades in a row and end up doing like 30 push-ups in a row. I won't say I always did full sit-ups or 'boy push-ups' (after a while, my muscles just couldn't do the real thing), but I will say it was a great work out! Hopefully one day I'll be strong enough to do the whole deck. I dare you to try it and let me know how many cards you get through. Bonus points for doing all 52!

some random spring pictures

2009-04-22T08:17:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures Kerry took while she was visiting. Here is Xander going disc golfing. He did really well! He threw his disc hundreds of times all the way through 9 holes.

These pictures are at the park:

Tayla had fun throwing wood chips!

What's in a color?

2009-04-22T08:07:00.001-07:00

Xander has been referring to people by the color they are wearing. In church he said, "That's my teacher, the white." (She was wearing a white jacket.) I was talking to Kerry on the phone, Xander says, "What color is Kerry?...green?...pink?" You get the idea.

Well here's the embarrassing down side. There is one black guy in our ward and we happened to be walking into church at the same time as him. Xander says, "Mom, he's black...hey there's a black man." (As you can guess the man was wearing a black suit...and Xander was simply referring to what he was wearing. However this man probably thought we taught our son to refer to people based on the color of their skin. For the record, we didn't teach either, sometimes these things just come out of his mouth.) So I continue to ask Xander what color daddy is. "Daddy is green." Curtis was wearing a green shirt that day. Not sure our black-suited friend heard that part, but oh well -- what can you do?

The Hunt

2009-04-10T12:03:00.000-07:00

Our playgroup friends had an Easter egg hunt earlier this week. The weather was beautiful! It was so much fun for the kids, especially Xander. He found tons of eggs. After practicing the hunt at playgroup, the kids knew just what to do when we had our own. The weather turned cold and rainy so we had to hunt inside. They ripped through the house and found every egg in minutes.

Here they are just before they began to devour the candy they collected from their egg hunt.

Dying Eggs

2009-04-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

Curtis and I helping Tayla color eggs. She was pretty impressed for a while. I can't believe it wasn't a disaster!

This is Xander after he let his egg drop into the dye, splashing it into his face. I can't imagine vinegar water feeling good in your eye. It's a good thing we took off his favorite shirt!

Concentrating on putting stickers on the eggs. We tried the "camouflage" kit this year.

Say cheese! Xander had so much fun dying eggs. I think he could have done it all day if we had boiled more eggs.

Beauty Sleep

2009-04-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Tayla had two naps. (I threw in an extra one because she was so grumpy.) Then I put her to bed at 7:00pm as usual. To my surprise, she slept-in this morning past 8:00am! Xander and I just hung around in our pajamas waiting for Tayla to wake up for breakfast. At 9:30 I decided we should just eat breakfast and let her have it when she got up. I was also starting to get nervous so I opened up her door to check on her...still breathing...okay. Xander and I ate breakfast and finally got dressed. Before we knew it, it was 12:30 and not a peep came from Tayla's room yet. Again we ate without her and again I checked on her...still breathing...okay. Xander napped. Finally at 3:00pm Little Miss Sunshine woke up! That's 20 hours straight! Talk about beauty sleep! I examined her, trying to come up with some reason for such a deep slumber. She didn't seem sick, so the only explanation I can offer is the new tooth that wasn't there 20 hours ago. How's that for anesthesia!?!

In case you are wondering...after only being awake for 4 hours, I put Tayla to bed at her normal bedtime and she slept another 12+ hours the next night.

Tayla's blanket

2009-03-31T08:44:00.001-07:00

Tayla has become attached to her blanket. She will pull it through the bars of her crib and walk around with it. A few days ago she was so sleepy before lunch that she was laying on the floor with her face snuggled up to her blanket. Yesterday she got it on Xander's peed on sheets so I had to wash it. She was very upset when I took her blanket away. I just returned it to her this morning and as you can see, she was very happy to have it back.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

2009-03-29T18:20:00.000-07:00

He can "read" the whole book. Here's just some of the highlights.

Copy Cat

2009-03-29T11:04:00.000-07:00

Xander seems to copy Tayla. Yep, the older one emulates the younger one. Is this weird?

Tayla says, "boop" (book) Xander says buh (for book when we all know he's more than capable of communicating).
Tayla does the sign for "more" Xander does the sign when he wants more.
Tayla tears pages of her books, Xander tears pages of her books.
Tayla throws stuff down the stairs, Xander throws stuff down the stairs.
Tayla throws toys in the garbage, Xander throws more toys in the garbage.
Tayla grabs her blanket out of her crib to snuggle with, Xander takes one of her blankets to snuggle.

The list goes on and on! I rarely see Tayla copy anything Xander does. It seems to be the other way around. And not all of those copies are desirable. It feels like I have two babies now.

The problem: I can't 'baby proof' stuff because Xander can help out when it comes to that. As a team they can create all sorts of mischief. Xander can climb, open doors and all my child safety locks on the cupboards. Once he gives her access to these forbiddens, Tayla orchestrates all the plots to destroy and dispose of! Together they are TROUBLE!

5-4-3-2-1-GO!

2009-03-24T15:04:00.000-07:00

I was cleaning up after breakfast. Tayla was still in her high chair, but Xander had gotten down. He goes over to play with Tayla like he often does. He pushes down on her chair and counts backwards from 5. 5-4-3-2-1-go! I was shocked that he counted backwards. I didn't even know he could do that. Thank you Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Seasame Street or whereever he learned that! He did it a second time, so I know it wasn't an accident.

don't lead me

2009-03-21T08:34:00.000-07:00

I was holding Tayla's hand and walking around outside with her. (The weather was so nice.) After a while she tears her hand from mine and takes off running. She giggles as she realizes she's gotten free. Less than three steps later, she is lying on the ground. It's fun to see her personality emerge, but I hope this doesn't predict future behavior. It could be a bumpy road for both of us.

It's also nearly impossible to carry her. She throws her head down towards the ground because she wants down so she can walk. Thankfully, I haven't dropped her yet. Everywhere we go, she wants to walk.

Here goes!

2009-03-19T10:02:00.000-07:00

I'm would like to try to start blogging because I don't journal very well. There are so many milestone and cute stories about my kids that I don't write down. Hopefully I will catch more of them by blogging. And on the plus side, you can read all about us too. :-)