A+B=C

Bedtime.

2012-01-25T09:11:00.001-08:00

Moms are mean.

2012-01-24T13:59:00.000-08:00

They make you wear clothes.

Sweaters, in particular are the absolute worst.

Better:

Best:

An under shirt and dress shoes is the preferred outfit these days.

Winning.

2012-01-23T20:36:00.000-08:00

Did Courtney have a stroke because I think the bottom half of her face is paralyzed.

If I was on Ben's season and I was given a choice between...

a) date Ben (ew)
or
b) slap Courtney in her fugly, dead-lipped, super shiny face (mop up your T-zone Court) and then not get a rose

I would undoubtedly go with b. and b. and b. and b again. Courtney needs a beat down.

However, I sort of hate pointing this out because I know that is exactly what she is going for. Attention. Obviously.

I'm finding this season to not be any fun at all. It's not even funny bad. Ben is epically unappealing. The girls are all sort of meh. Courtney makes me hate humans. And the one girl who should win (Kasey B) will not. Which, if you ask me, is actually a win on her part because she deserves someone so much hotter, smarter, more funny, cooler and less greasy than Ben. Someone who is basically not the least appealing man I have ever seen. Someones whose hair doesn't smell like a dingy, unwashed, teenage boys pillowcase.

Seriously! THIS is the guy who is starring on his own reality tv show where women fight over him? THIS guy?!

So Ben has already made his decision. And it's Courtney. I'm not sure what a guy would find attractive about a grown women saying "I caught a fish" and "I can hold my glass highest!" and "Winning" and "Puerto Rico? I was there two months ago" in a full-on baby voice. But like we have discussed before... SHE'S A MODEL! I very greasy-faced model whose forehead shines like the top of the Chrysler Building. A model with a saggy, dead, lower lip. But a model none the less. Case closed.

I'm sad for Kasey B. though. Because he won't pick her. She's not a model. And she would be awesome as the next Bachette. But Emily MaynardED has basically forced herself upon the show for next season. So yay us, we are going to be subjected to more of her.

Ok. Fine. FINE! I admit it. She's gorgeous. Obviously the most gorgeous person, like, ever. She might be a good Bachette. Ok, maybe the best Bachette, like, ever. Her clothes are always super cute. The cutest clothes ever really. Frick. I'm totally watching.

doTerra

2012-01-18T21:20:00.000-08:00

Hello blog friends.

I love you all very much. Even those of you who secretly read and never comment. Those of you I know. Those of you I don't know. My friends. My family. My sister. Whoever you are. I love you. (Unless you are a scary stalker. I don't love you.)

Have you heard of doTerra Essential Oils? Lots of people have. Lots of people haven't. I attended a class a month or so ago and my life has never been the same. I was blown away by what I learned. And we started using the oils in our own home to amazing results. I can't wait to share what I learned with everyone I know (and don't know). I am a little bit obsessed with essential oils.

Here are a couple things we use the oils for in our home:

-Headaches/stress aches/pain of any kind - the oils completely rid my body of pain in less than 5 minutes

-My husband has had severe asthma his entire life and has been able to replace his inhaler with essential oils...it stops his asthma attacks in under a minute (crazy)

-We have used them multiple times for C (our 1-year-old) to knock out colds and the stomach flu in a day - this is especially awesome because I really hate giving my baby medicine if I can avoid it. It's completely safe to use on newborns, babies and kids of all ages. Essential oils are slowly but surely replacing our medicine cabinet.

-I constantly use them for relaxation and to help me fall asleep at night. I feel that working in front of a computer at night really makes it difficult for me to fall asleep at bedtime. Essential oils have changed that.

-For cooking and cleaning!

-For weight loss as an appetite suppressant

-To relieve the pain of sore muscles after working out (ME! Working out! I know.)

And lastly...
-I'm NOT pregnant but oils are used to get rid of morning sickness, fatigue, stretch marks, tired muscles, etc. AND...I know many people that have used them to soothe crying newborns, help newborns sleep, relieve pain from teething, help with gas, etc.

Seriously, the list goes on and on and on...
This stuff is legit.

If you are interested in learning more from essential oil experts, trying these out (for free my friends), eating yummy food, etc then I would love to have you to my house tomorrow night. Let me know and I'll send you the address.

And since I know that tomorrow night is...well...tomorrow night and you may not be able to make it on such short notice but would still like to learn more...hit me up and I'll fill you in and give you info on other classes in the near future. You won't regret it. In fact, you might want to kiss me. Which I will allow.

xo
A

Your Grandmas favorite brassiere

2012-01-17T18:46:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to the gym instead of watch The Bach.

I. Know.

So today I watched it on Hulu and for some reason it's almost impossible for me to make it through this show when I'm watching it online. Especially when I know I could just turn it off and go watch something way better...like The Colbert Report or The Daily Show or Hoarders. But I pushed through. I persevered. All for you guys.

Firstly, these women are ridiculous. They have more issues than hoarders have old, fast food bags. (I know, I watch a lot of Hoarders.) I hate these women. I don't think there is a worse portrayal of the female species in all the world.

But I hate the model the most. She is disgusting. Remember when she said, "A lot of these girls are intelligent. But I always say...book smart can be boring." Yeah, you would say that Courtney. It must be hard to compete with these girls when you are obviously a complete moron. But apparently, if you tell a dude that you are a model, this will trump EVERYTHING else...such has being completely stupid, mentally disturbed, barely attractive, hated by everyone and a total, raging biznatch. BUT SHE'S A MODEL! So it's cool. Of course he's going to pick her. SHE'S. A. MODEL.

But a model for what? Obviously not high fashion. So maybe she should get off her high horse for a minute. Because it looks to me like...

Kohls?

K Mart?

Forever 21?

Maybe the Walmart teen department?

Your grandmothers favorite brassiere brand?

{While living with my 83-year-old Grandma I happened to see her brassiere plenty of times. And I know for a fact that she owns this one that Courtney is "modeling" below.}

80s lingerie?

So the model is nuts. And she clearly has 0% interest in Ben and 100% interest in forwarding her incredible modeling career. Those two are going to be very happy together. And they will make beautiful babies! Ew.

I give them 3 weeks.

But, strangely enough, the model has some fierce competition in the cray cray department. These girls are all nuts (minus Kacie B). And never did it shine through more then when Shawntel showed up. SHAWNTEL is the one making a psycho move and somehow she ends up looking like the sane one of the bunch? Yikes.

Seriously! This girl FAKE FAINTED for attention:

And this one ran sobbing from the room when she didn't get a rose on the SECOND ROSE CEREMONY:

{above photos from the best tumblr in the world.}

So yes, the girls are all psycho and needy and pathetic and gross. I mean, seriously?...

And Ben is Blah McBlahBlahson. It's like watching a coma patient who can walk. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

But if there is one thing The Bach loves, it's finding the girl who is THE MOST afraid of heights...and then forcing her to climb the freaking San Francisco bridge.

But it was all for the best! Because "relationships are all about bridging trust!" And "bridging love". And "crossing the bridge of adventure". And "bridges". And "bridging one side with another". And "bridging together two different people". And some other bridge metaphors. Which apparently means forcing your partner to do stuff they hate. Like climbing tall bridges? Umm? Yeah.

Ugly Criers Unite!

2012-01-02T20:55:00.000-08:00

Typically, Bachelor contestants can be divided into two main groups...1-Those who are blatantly looking to forward their acting/modeling/music career and 2-Those who are "here for love".

I think this season we can break down those two groups even farther with...1-Those who wear sparkly eyeshadow and 2-Those who also wear sparkly eye shadow.

Seriously! What was up with the sparkly eye shadow? However, I guess I am a little out of the know since I let my subscription to Seventeen magazine lapse TEN YEARS AGO.

First up, the "one's Ben kept TOTALLY by his own choosing and NO the show had nothing to do with it! Why?" group...

Weird pretend lesbian #1

And weird pretend lesbian #2.

Of course this one is from the SLC. I think this show has something against Utah which is why it continues to cast every crazy person that ever came out of our state.

Watching this girl attention-whore herself out like that? Well of course I loved it. And of course Ben kept her around because he loves unattractive, weird, pretend lesbian attention whores. Who doesn't?!

The bizzo model.

Listening to her speak makes me want to vom. Yeah, we got it. You're a model. Thanks for pointing that out for us 15 times. Gross.

The blogger?

Uh, I've never heard of her blog. And I take blog reading pretty seriously.

This one is CAAArazay.

The manly personal trainer.

Every season needs one.

The single mom.

I take no issue with her. Except for the skunk hair.

Not ok.

And the one who brought her grandma.

Smart stunt. I doubt she will be around long.

And my top 3...

Kacie B. is my most favorite. She basically seems like maybe the most adorable person that has ever been on this show. My vote is for her based off of nothing.

Now let's talk about how boring Ben is. Is he attractive? Interesting? Engaging? Funny? Friendly? Anything? Ben? Hello? Are you awake? For reals, am I totally off base? Are people out there just big Ben fans? Are people standing outside The Bachelor offices holding huge signs that read, "WE WANT BEN!"? If you say you are a Ben fan I probably won't believe you but I am open to hearing your argument.

Here is my argument.

Picture this...

You walk into a room. In that room stands...

A young, unattractive version of Neil Diamond wearing a shimmery, purple shirt and...

Brad Womack

Uhhhh.

So you are in a room.

Umm. In a room?

Huh?

With Brad.....

I'm sorry. What?

Was I talking?

Brad.

Huh?

Where am I?

Braaaaaaadddddddddd

Uhhh.......

Brad.

Ahem.

Do you get what I'm saying? No?

Anyways, this season looks dramatical. It better be. I get real bored real fast if it's not. I want ugly crying, Mike Fleiss. Make it happen.

Ew.

Here we go again

2012-01-02T13:00:00.000-08:00

The holidays are about family and love and giving and joy and togetherness and contemplation and serving others and rainbows and kittens.

But also, the holidays are about eating crap, gaining 15 pounds, feeling bloated, fatigued and depressed at your lack of self control and dreading January 1 when you know you have to drag your lazy, fat butt out of bed to try to get back on track.

Yay holidays.

Remember when we used to be Vegan? Yeah, me too. Do you capitalize Vegan in a sentence? I'm not entirely sure. I'm leaning towards no. But I already started capitalizing it so I'm just going to keep at it.

Anyways, we used to be Vegan. Then Thanksgiving happened. And 45 parties in December happened. And neighbor gifts made of sugar and chocolate appearing on our door step happened. And New Years Eve happened.

So now it's time to get back on track.
I'm not starting Monday. I still consider Monday a holiday. When I have work off, it's a holiday dang it. So we will be starting on Tuesday, January 3. On Monday, January 2 we will be stuffing our faces at Red Iguana and then using up our gift card to Cold Stone. We will then return home and throw out all of our delicious, sugary Christmas treats. And as of Tuesday...it's cleanse time my friends. We are going to cleanse the shee out of this piece! ?? !!

For the next 2 weeks we will only be eating raw. NO EXCEPTIONS. I was wanting to do some sort of cleanse. But I wasn't sure how/what/where/when. Then lo and behold, one of my fav vegan foodie blogs said they would be doing a raw cleanse and I decided to hop on board. That blog can be found here. It's awesome. You should check it out.

The plan:

Eat raw for 2 weeks
Exercise very lightly
Then back to vegan/vegetarian
Exercise 3-4 days a week and build up to 6 days a week
Get skinny
Throw out all my clothes
Buy an entire brand new wardrobe from J.Crew because none of my old clothes fit
Get pregnant
Realize that all of this was for nothing

The meal plan for the first 3 days (I am only shopping for 3-5 days at a time so as not to waste produce):

Tuesday
B: Green shake
L: Green salad with Omar's Raw Dressing
D: Raw Tacos
S: Raw crackers and veggies with cilantro parsley dipping sauce and blackberry orange smoothie

Wednesday
B: Green shake
L: Lemon, pom and pine nut salad
D: Salad with Tahini-Lemon Dressing
S: Raw Almond Butter on banana slices

Thursday
B: Green shake
L: Asparagus Cream Soup
D: Zucchini Pasta with Sweet Pepper Marinara
S: Pine Nut Cheese on tomatos

So there you have it blog world. We are cleansing. And I just told you all so I can't go back now. But if any of you want to take pity on my soul I will gladly go to lunch or dinner with you to Omars Rawtopia at any time. Call me!

Anyone want to cleanse along? Let's do this!

Christmas Explosion

2012-01-01T21:38:00.000-08:00

So Christmas happened. You know what else happend? Food. A lot of food. Like...a lot.

It was my families "on" year so we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with them. Christmas Eve consisted of...

Cheesy spinach and artichoke dip

Garlic shrimp

Mozzarella shrimp dip

Cheesy, spinachy, deliciousy stuffed mushrooms

Bacon wrapped sausage with brown sugar sauce

Grapefruit, pear, avacado and pom Christmas salad

Ham and swiss slidders with a garlic, butter and poppy seed drizzle

And three kinds of soup in fresh sourdough breadbowls. I didnt get a picture. I was too busy eating.

Basically, we appetized around the kitchen counter for a good while.

And then we moved to the table and...umm...ate more.

So eating happened.

And then we read a Christmas story and opened Christmas jammies and it was all very lovely to just be with family.

Eventually we headed home and put C to bed. And then B and I tore through all of our presents becaues we just couldn't wait. I got new running shoes and a gorge new bag amoung other things. I gave B Sorrells and lots of clothes. C got her very own little chair.

The next morning we headed back to my parents house. This might surprise you to hear but we ate more. Try to conceal your shock.

Bacon covered in pepper and brown sugar. This was DELICIOUS. Who knew that bacon could taste even better than it already does?

Some sort of of sugary bread explosion. I don't even know. Divine.

Plus quiche and egg, sausage and pepper caserole. Yummy.

We also opened presents. Here is a sneak peak...

According to my dad, "boys need toys". So that is what they got...

Also, someone was looking a bit preggy. Well, yes me. From all the fricking food. But also this one, who actually happens to be preggy for reals...

Then church happened. I know it's totally not cool to say...but getting out of your pajamas and ready for church in the middle of Christmas is sort of not cool.

After church we headed over to B's fams to spend the rest of the day with them.

C received this Rock N Roll Elmo from her Uncle Daniel. I think this toy wins favorite of the day for C.

We were all completely spoiled by our families and are so incredibly grateful for them. We just adore our families and love living so close. There is nothing better than family. It's easy to tell how C feels about these people by the huge smile on her face.

And now our house is an explosion of endless new toys to play with.

But of course, the boxes are always just as fun as whatever came in them.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Some other stuff we did in December according to my iPhone.

2011-12-27T23:17:00.000-08:00

I went to the choir concert at the Cathedral of the Madeleine with my very amazing and beautiful friend Katrina. Have you been? It. Is. Incredible. I was reduced to tears in the first 3 minutes. No joke. I would love to make this a yearly tradition from now on. It was by far the most beautiful, spiritual, and lovely moment of my entire Christmas season. Who wants to go with me next year?

For our family night out with B's fam we went to Cinegrill and saw Voice Male(?) Mail(?) downtown at Abravenel Hall. Cinegrill is one of my top 5 favorite places to eat. And Voice Male(?) Mail(?) was lots of fun. C stayed home with my parents which made the whole night feel a little bit like a mini-vacation. I do love that C girl but sometimes you just need a little 1-year-old break.

After the concert we got to walk through Temple Square again, this time sans baby.

Also noteworthy, B's parents have this dancing, singing Santa. C would play it almost the ENTIRE time we were at their house for the entire month of December. I will very much enjoy the next 11 months of not having to listen to that Santa. I know B's family agrees.

Santa did stop by our house on Christmas Eve after C went to bed.

(Yes, half of the lights on our tree are out. No, we don't have any plans to fix them. It just seems like a lot of work, which is not really my thing.)

If you take a picture of only the bottom half of the tree it looks perfect!

B and I just couldn't wait to open our presents. So we didn't. We opened them all on Christmas Eve.

B gave me these awesome florescent running shoes. I love them. One of my New Year's resolutions is to wear running shoes more often. Not to run in them. Just to wear them.

Speaking of shoes, B's mom gave me these. L.O.V.E.

Speaking of L.O.V.E. C got this Rock N Roll Elmo from her Uncle Daniel.

C also got this little chair from Santa. This picture sort of kills me with it's cuteness.

Here is a shot of us trying to wake C up on Christmas morning. She wasn't into it. On the one morning when we would love for her to get up early, she won't. Babies!

This big mess of opened Christmas gifts signifies that Christmas is over. Frowny face.

But don't despair! 'Official' photos of our Christmas celebration are coming up. We can all relive the magic together. Yay! Yay?

Some stuff we did in December

2011-12-27T22:43:00.001-08:00

December is a magical time. A magical time when you run around like a crazy person trying to get all the shee on your list, fighting people for parking spots at Harmons and racing to family functions every night of the week all while freezing your A off and hauling a 1-year-old in and out of their car seat 25 times a day. It's the most wonderful time of the year after all.

But now it's already over and I feel seriously sad.

Our December was JAM packed.

Let's take a look.

Pretend like I'm wearing makeup in this picture. Also pretend like my hair is done. And pretend like I'm not wearing my pajamas. Pretend like I have it together and it's not actually noon when this photo was taken.

We took the obligatory trip downtown to see the lights at Temple Square. We went with both of our families and we had a lot of fun. For 5 minutes. While C was warm and snugly in her stroller.

Look at all this warm, snugly fun we were having...

However, like I said, after 5 minutes C decided that warm and snugly really wasn't her cup of tea. I mean, really, who in their right mind would want to be pushed around in a comfy seat, wrapped in blankets, while enjoying the gorgeous lights at Temple Square? Definitely not me. Eww.

She HAD to get out and explore. 1 year olds!

Exploring led to her trying to dive head first into the freezing water fountains. So of course we restrained her. MAJOR drama-queen melt-downs ensued. And I do mean major. So we packed it up and headed for some hot cocoa at home.

However, before we left I managed to snap a few really bad night photos of Temple Square. We have all seen everyone's crappy attempts at trying to do those lights justice in photograph form. Here is my sad attempt. It's hard taking pictures at night you guys!

We also attended B's fam's Christmas party on his mom's side. We made gingerbread houses and had homemade pizza for dinner. This was a legit party.

I think our gingerbread house turned out pretty rad if you ask me.

Babies make every party 10x more awesome. Unless you don't actually enjoy chasing them around a church for two hours while they climb stairs and try to jump off the stage. Also, they try to eat the candy off your gingerbread house. And spit food all over the place. And they roll around on the gymnasium floor in their brand new Christmas outfit. If you don't enjoy those things then babies make every party 10x less awesome. You decide.

Despite C's non-stop shenanigans and drama her G&G Mouritsen sure do love her. She is pretty cute. I'll give her that.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T09:30:00.000-08:00

I had the amazing Rebekka Seale paint a little portrait of our home for our Christmas cards this year. I love the way they turned out and I'm so excited to hang it on our wall. If you would like one too you can find her Etsy shop right here.

I hope you all have a really wonderful holiday.

xoxo.

-A

I have an obsessive personality.

2011-12-20T16:15:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, this does not lead me to do worthwhile things with my time or excel in worthwhile areas such as piano or violin due to obsessive practicing . If I were to obsess in those areas like I obsesses over TV shows or food or baby girl clothes then I would be a freaking virtuoso by now.

Anyway, right now I'm obsessed with The Vampire Diaries. On the CW. I KNOW!

And more specifically, this one:

Damon.

Oh heavens.

I literally can't stop watching these moody, sad, angsty, teenage vampires!

And if I'm not watching them. I'm thinking about them. Or dreaming about them at night. Or planning how I'm

going to be a moody, sad, angsty, teenage vampire, too.

I'm running out of episodes and I'm starting to feel panicky. No more sad/panda Alaina. Or angry/sexy Damon. Or brooding/silent Stefan.

I guess I'll just have to start over from season 1.

I love this shee. It's like crack to me. It is what Twilight would be if it had

a) a story line,

b) good acting,

c) actors who don't look/act inbred,

d) action, danger, violence, blood, excitement, sex and lots of dying

e) a brain

f) no Kristen McMoron Stewart.

This streams on Netflix you guys. Watch it now.

The REAL Santa.

2011-12-17T11:45:00.000-08:00

I'm almost entirely convinced that the REAL Santa resides at the Dickens Festival at the Utah State Fair Grounds in Salt Lake City, Utah. I mean SERIOUSLY...just LOOK at this guy. He's adorable. Real Santa or not, C was not having it.

The holidays are officially under way for us. Starting last night and continuing for the next week and a half straight we have parties and events every, single night. I love this time of year.

I knew that if I didn't keep up with the blogging I would fall behind and end up posting 2,000 photos of Christmas sometime around March. So, I'm going to try to not let that happen.

Here is the first Christmas photo installment for your viewing (or not) pleasure.

Book Club!

2011-12-16T13:54:00.001-08:00

My book club girls are so awesome. I'm so thankful to have such an amazing group of friends that I get to see on a monthly (often more) basis. We have been meeting since 2007! The group has changed over the years and so have we. We started out as a bunch of college girls and here we are now, all married and with babies. Seventeen babies and two on the way to be exact! If I counted the girls who have moved away or had to leave book club behind for other reasons that number would be even higher.

Talking, debating, laughing and growing with these women is one of the serious highlights of my life. I am just amazed at what kind, strong, funny, smart and open-minded women these are. I have learned so much from them and love each and every one of them to pieces.

This post has been a long time coming. I have been MEANING to snap a photo of everyone for about 5 years now. So thanks everyone for humoring me last night by letting me finally take one. {Jess, I think your house might be haunted. Every picture has a weird, white-ish fog across it. Yikes. :)}

Thank you for your friendship. I'm excited to see what the future holds for all of us!

Last night at our annual book club Christmas party we were talking all of the books we have read in the past. It was sort of blowing my mind to think of all the book that have been read. I've included the list below and highlighted my favorites from over the years.

Anyone out there have any favorite books they have read in the past? I'd love to hear!

2007 Book Club Selections:
January. Andrea's pick: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
February. Claire's pick: Bell Canto by Ann Patchett
March. Lisa's pick: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate Dicamillo
April. Liz's pick: The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
May. A joint pick: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon
June. Emily's pick: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
July. Sarah's pick: The World's Shortest Stories edited by Steve Moss
August. Betsy's pick: A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana by Haven Kimmel
September. Megan's pick: The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer
October. Marta's pick: Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
November. Marie's pick: The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs by Betty Birney
December. Book Exchange.

2008 Book Club Selections:
January. Whitney's pick: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
February. Marci's pick: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
March. E's pick: The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
April. Karen's pick: Wake Up and Smell the Planet – The Non-Pompous, Non-Preachy Grist Guide to Greening Your Day by Grist Magazine, Brangien Davis, and Katharine Wroth
May. Andrea's pick: The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands and/or Ten Stupid Things Women Do To Mess Up Their Lives by Dr. Laura Schlessinger
June. Claire's pick: Queen of the Big Time by Adriana Trigiana
July. Lisa's pick: The Little Lady Agency by Hester Browne
August. Liz's pick: Life of pi by Yann Martel
September. Emily's pick: Emma by Jane Austen
October. Sarah's pick: World War Z by Max Brooks
November. Jessica's pick: Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl
December: Book Exchange.

2009 Book Club Selections:
January. Karen's pick: Outlier's by Malcolm Gladwell
February. E's pick: The Guernesy Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
March. Marci's pick: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
April. Liz's pick: Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rawandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza
May. Lisa's pick: The Princess Bride by William Goldman
June. Claire's pick: This I Believe edited by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman
July. Jessica's pick: My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
August. Sarah's pick: {read-a-thon} Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
September. Whitney's pick: Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
October. Andrea's pick: In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan
November. Emily's pick: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Colllins
December. Book Exchange.

2010 Book Club Selections:
January. E's pick: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
February. Claire's pick: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
March. Katrina's pick: Enchantment by Orson Scott Card
April. Emily's pick: Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran
May. Starr's pick: The Help by Kathryn Stockett
June. Cancelled
July. Marci's pick: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
August. Liz's pick: The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
September. Whitney's pick: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen & Grahme Smith
October. Jessica's pick: Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamists Wife by Irene Spencer
November. Anne's pick: Mr Darcy Broke My Heart by Beth Pattillo
December. Book Exchange.

2011 Book Club Selections:
January. Starr's pick: Hector and The Search for Happiness by Francois LeLord
February. Summer's pick: The Glass Castle by by Jeannette Walls
March. Katrina's pick: The Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd
April. Anne's pick: Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin
May. Claire's pick: The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
June. Liz's pick: Matched by Ally Condie
July. Jessica's pick: Room by Emma Donoghue
August. Whit's pick: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathon Safran Foer
September. Katie's pick: The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberation by Elizabeth Berg
October. Andrea's pick: Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
November. Liz F's pick: How to Love an American Man: A True Story by Kristine Gasbarre
December. Book Exchange.

Apparently 2011 was an awesome year for books because I really loved (or really loved discussing) them all!

Babies are weird.

2011-12-12T15:17:00.000-08:00

C does this funny little trick with my brother. In actuality, it's probably not funny at all. But you know how everyone thinks their child is the most gorgeous/brilliant/hilarious child in all of middle earth? That makes us think this is incredibly funny. We can't help it. Just humor me.

So without further ado, I give you...

The Part of Your World Trick

We will obviously be including these photos in her Harvard applications.

Also, here are some more pictures.

Can you tell I've been purging my cameras lately?

Holiday Recipes

2011-12-12T13:20:00.000-08:00

A couple peeps left messages or emailed me about wanting these recipes. I do NOT consider myself a good cook by any means. These are all easy peezy, tried and true and DELICIOUS. Trust.

Caramel Apple Cider

From our best bites but originally devoured in the kitchen of Melissa, who is one of the best cooks I know.

½ gallon apple cider (8 cups)

½ cups orange juice, freshly squeezed (from about 3 large oranges)

1 orange

8 whole cloves

2 cinnamon sticks

¼ teaspoons ground allspice

1/3 to ½ cup jarred caramel sauce, plus more for topping

Whipped cream

Pour cider into a large pot on the stove. Set heat to medium-high. Add orange juice, cinnamon sticks, and allspice.

Thoroughly wash your orange and gently stab the whole cloves into it (you can use a toothpick to poke a little hole first and then insert the cloves to make it easier).

Add orange to the pot. Bring cider mixture to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Simmer on low for at least 60 minutes. After 60 minutes, remove orange so it doesn’t split open. Before serving, mix in 1/3 cup caramel sauce and stir to combine. Add more to taste if desired.

Ladle cider into mugs, top with whipped cream, and drizzle with caramel.

Carmelized Onion, Garlic and Goat Cheese Dip

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, diced (about 2 cups)

1 medium garlic clove, finely chopped

1 cup sour cream

4 oz. fresh chevre (goat cheese)

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh chives

Heat oil in a medium frying pan over med-low heat. Add onion and garlic. Season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions and garlic are caramelized and brown - about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Combine sour cream, chevre and chives in the bowl of a food processor with blade, add onion/garlic mixture and pulse until combined, about 10 pulses. Taste and add salt and pepper as desired then pulse a few more times to mix in seasoning.

Transfer to a serving bowl, cover and refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour. Serve with potato chips, veggies, etc.

*This can be made up to 2 days in advance and refrigerated in a covered container.

Parmesan-Stuffed Bacon-Wrapped Dates

From Melissa

Makes 18 dates (about 5 or 6 appetizer servings).

½ lb Parmesan, cut into 18 little sticks small enough to fit into dates

18 pitted dates

6 bacon slices, cut into thirds lengthwise

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Stuff 1 piece of cheese into each date, then wrap 1 piece of bacon around each date, securing it with a toothpick. Arrange dates 1 inch apart in shallow baking pan.

Bake about 5 minutes, turn dates. Bake until bacon is crisp, about 5-10 minutes more. Remove from oven and drain. Serve warm.

Shrimp Dip

A LONG TIME family favorite

8 oz. cream cheese

1/4 cup mayo

1/2 cup sour cream

2 cans 4.5 oz. broken shrimp, rinsed and drained

8 oz. seafood cocktail sauce

2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 green pepper, chopped

3 green onions, chopped

1 large tomato, diced

Blend cream cheese, mayo and sour cream. Layer on bottom of serving platter. Next layer shrimp, then cocktail sauce, then shredded cheese, Finally, top with chopped pepper, onions and tomato. Serve with crackers or chips. EASY and SO DELICIOUS.

Frozen Hot Chocolate

6 oz. chopped semisweet chocolate (or chocolate chips)

3 cups whole milk, divided

1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. your favorite powdered hot chocolate mix

3 Tbsp. sugar

6 cups ice cubes

Whipped cream for garnish

Place chopped chocolate and 1/4 cup of the milk in a microwave-safe container. Heat on 50% power for 1 minute. Stir.

Heat on 50% power for 30 seconds. Stir. If necessary, continue heating in 30-second increments until chocolate is melted.

Add hot chocolate mix and sugar. Stir.

Slowly pour in 1/2 cup of the milk. Stir, and let cool to room temperature.

Pour cooled chocolate mixture into blender. Add remaining milk and ice cubes. Puree until smooth.

Top with whipped, more chocolate chips and cream and serve immediately.

Makes 2 giant frozen hot chocolates or 4 smaller ones.

Bacon, Ham and Spinach Quiche

via Our Best Bites (of course)

½ lb. bacon

10 oz. package spinach

1 c. sour cream (I use light)

salt and pepper to taste

2 unbaked pie crusts

1 onion, minced

½ lb. diced mushrooms

2 c. diced ham

16 oz. Colby Jack or sharp cheddar cheese (*I used Swiss for one and I preferred it over Cheddar)

4 oz. Parmesan cheese

8 eggs

1 c. half and half (I use fat-free)

1 Tbsp. parsley

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brown bacon, drain, crumble, and set aside. Saute spinach in bacon drippings (I told you we were going to be naughty). Drain. Saute onions. Add mushrooms. Stir in ham and bacon. Combine spinach, sour cream, salt, and pepper. Add meat mixture. Mix in cheese. Divide into each pie crust.

Mix eggs, half and half, and parsley. Pour over pies. Place pies in oven and bake 45-50 minutes or until tops are puffed and golden brown. Let stand 5-10 minutes. Each pie serves 8.

**If reheating, cover pie with foil and bake at 325 for about 20-30 minutes, checking frequently to make sure it’s not getting too brown. You could also pop it in the microwave (without foil! The Daily Bite is NOT responsible for your exploding microwave!), but you run the risk of gummy crust and rubbery, exploding eggs.**

NOTE: This recipe makes two pies, so you can either feed a crowd, make one for your family and take the other pie to someone else (it makes a great post-baby dinner with a salad and some orange rolls), or you can freeze it and heat it up when it’s convenient for you. Another great thing is that it definitely tastes better the next day, so if you’re having a breakfast or brunch, you can make it the night before and then easily heat it up the next day and no one will ever know that you weren’t up slaving away at 5:00 in the morning.

Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos

from The Pioneer Woman

We make these for every gathering. They never get old and everyone always loves them.

20 whole Fresh Jalapenos, 2-3 Inches In Size

2 cubes Cream Cheese, softened

1 pound Thin(regular) Bacon, Sliced Into Thirds

If you have them, slip on some latex gloves for the pepper prep... Cut jalapenos in half, length-wise. With a spoon, remove the seeds and white membrane (the source of the heat; leave a little if you like things HOT). Smear softened cream cheese into each jalapeno half. Wrap jalapeno with bacon pieces (1/3 slice). Secure by sticking toothpick through the middle.

Bake on a pan with a rack in a 375-degree oven for 20-25 minutes. You don’t want the bacon to shrink so much it starts to the squeeze the jalapeno. If, after 20 minutes, the bacon doesn’t look brown enough, just turn on the broiler for a couple of minutes to finish it off. These are best when the jalapeno still has a bit of bite to it.

Serve immediately, or they’re also great at room temperature.

iPhone Photo Dump Time

2011-12-11T13:42:00.001-08:00

We had a great November that included...

Breaking out our owl hat that finally fits this year!

Lot's of Shiver's trips

I have a baby old enough to sit in the Shiver's train?

Crazy

Going out to breakfast on Saturday mornings

Getting Iceburg shakes even though it's freeeezing outside

Playdates with our baby girl friends

H, M, C and F

Wearing our new boots

Realizing that our child will never again take a nap without the pre-nap car ride

But knowing that the pre-nap car ride is what saves us from no-nap meltdowns

Cheering on BYU

Her father's influence, apparently, is much greater than mine in this area.

Getting bangs, again

Breaking news, I know.

Cooking lots and lots of food for Thanksgiving

Caramel Apple Cider Vinegar

Carmelized onion, garlic and goat cheese dip

Parmesan-stuffed bacon-wrapped dates

Killer.

And my fav, shrimp dip

Lots of late night movies in front of our fire

Spending time enoying my parent's INSANE amount of Christmas decorations

Getting the stomach flu

Then passing it to my dad and youngest brother and Chelsie

Then passing to my mom and other brother

Then being healed by Barb's essential oils. Amazing.

Learning to brush our teeth

Breaking out the sweat pants

Debating wether red lips are super cute in real life

Or only in perfect blog lala land

Fun date nights with the hubs

Lots of baths to warm up our frozen toesies

Being a bit wary of the blow dryer

Feeling very excited that our hair is long enough to do this

Eating out lots and lots

This girl loves to dip chips in salsa

Getting holiday pedis with my mom

Still struggling with church time and nap time colliding

Giving lots of kisses

Wishing it wasn't so cold outside

Even when the sun is out

And just in general loving this girl to bits and bits

Oh Grandma.

2011-12-11T12:58:00.001-08:00

A few weeks back my family on my dad's side got together to decorate my Grandma's Christmas tree. This will be her first Christmas without my Grandpa so my cousin thought it would be nice if everyone brought an ornament that reminded them of a memory that they had of my Grandparents.

The whole family showed up which was awesome. We almost never are all together.

One by one we went up, told our memory to my Grandmother and then lovingly hung our ornament on the tree.

Touching, right?

I know.

As soon as the last ornament was hung my Grandma said, "So when are we decorating the tree???"

Awesome.

Since then, my Grandma has, MULTIPLE TIMES, all by herself, removed every ornament from the tree and piled them in a corner, disassembled the ENTIRE tree and placed it in pieces in the dining room and moved all of her furniture back to the appropriate places. Because, "Christmas is over!"

Oi.

The poor people in the basement get to redecorate the same tree four times a week.

Merry Christmas to all! Even the cwaazy ones.

A few shots from the original tree decorating night:

All of the great grandkids.

All of the grandkids and spouses minus my brother and my sister.

All of the kids and spouses minus my Uncle Jim who passed away a few years ago.

The whole gang.

I suck at blogging.

2011-12-11T12:55:00.001-08:00

But here are a couple shots of the Cster anyway.

I know a few too many people who need this shirt and would wear it without the slightest hint of irony.

2011-12-11T12:51:00.001-08:00

awesome.

October in one post.

2011-11-07T22:08:00.000-08:00

Is October over? I swear I'm going to wake up tomorrow and I'll be 30...which is basically like my worst nightmare. Seriously though, when did my life start passing by this rapidly?

So Halloween came and went. I love Halloween. However, I think next year C will be a little more into it. This year we basically put her in a costume and took pictures of her in front of some pumpkins. Then she face planted it on the sidewalk and that was pretty much Halloween this year. Yay!

This photo, as you can see, was pre-sidewalk-face-plant:

Pre-face-plant:

Practically mid-face-plant:

And here we are post-face-plant, thus ending our Halloween on a very low note:

And here is the day after the face-plant:

Fall was gorgeous this year.

But now it's all gone. Boo.

Also noteworthy, C hates my camera. I can usually snap one photo before she realizes what I'm up to.

And then this happens:

And this:

Clearly this child doesn't know that these clothes don't buy themselves. If I can't get even one good photo of said child in her new clothes while they actually fit and aren't covered in baby secretions then what is the point of even buying them?

Are all little girls drama queens?

Not even B can make her smile when the camera comes out. In her defense, it was a Sunday and everyone knows that kids refuse to be cooperative/happy/even minutely manageable on a Sunday.

However, I can catch C smiling for a photo if I pull out my iPhone and tell her we are going to watch Wheels On The Bus. Wheels On The Bus = deliriously happy C.

We are going through a cell phone phase right now. She walks around the house literally screaming into our cell phones for hours on end. I have no idea where she learned that from.

We are also going through a mess-making-phase. Fun for us.

But we LOVE this baby girl so.

Also, this happened.

I know.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T08:08:00.000-07:00

photos by katie dudley photography.

We gots grass.

2011-10-06T07:00:00.000-07:00

Yay! Grass!

Just a little C.

2011-10-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

You're winning Utah. Winning.

2011-10-03T21:29:00.000-07:00

No seriously, Utah. Stop it.

Conference weekend is the bomb. No church! Just kidding. {Sort of.} We love to drive up the canyon and check out the leaves. Also, turns out, it keeps our kid quiet. Win win.

Conference weekend also equals food. We headed over to my parents house and had a little feast that consisted of garlic shrimp, homemade salsa and guacamole and mozzarella filled mushrooms as appetizers, broiled roast beef sandwiches with swiss cheese and au jus, steak fries with fry sauce, a delicious fall salad, homemade bread and pesto spread, grilled onions and fresh fruit for dinner with vanilla pudding chocolate chip cookies for dessert. If you were thinking about how that meal does not sound vegan or gluten free you would be right. If you are wondering if I ate it the answer is yes. All of it. Amen.

Two Great Vegan & Gluten Free Recipes - Grilled Kale Salad and Quinoa Confetti Salad

2011-09-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

Oh heaven. This recipe is extremely delicious. We made this for dinner on Monday night and it is definitely one of my favorites since we started this whole Gluten-Free-Vegan adventure. I highly recommend this one.

Grilled kale salad with yogurt dressing and hazelnuts

Adapted from the LA Times & Gjelina via Unruly Things via Lovely Morning {Did you follow that?}

1 cup Greek yogurt {we substitute coconut milk here to keep this salad Vegan friendly}
1 shallot, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
10 mint leaves, chopped
1/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
3 to 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar, or to taste
Zest of 1/2 a lemon
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup raw hazelnuts (skin on) {We exclude these from the recipes due to B's nut allergy}
2 bunches Russian or curly kale, stems removed
1 handful of halved cherry tomatoes

Preheat oven to 500°.

To prep the kale. First soak both bunches in a sink-ful of water for 10-15 minutes so the bugs and dirt fall to the bottom. Then take each stalk out one at a time, and holding the bottom of the inner rib, pull your other hand up the stalk to quickly strip the leaves from the rib. So much easier than slicing the leaves away from the rib one at a time! I will never go back.

For the dressing. Add the yogurt, shallot, garlic, mint, 1/4 cup of olive oil, and red wine vinegar to a bowl and whisk together. Then add a pinch of sea salt and pepper and taste. Add more as you like. This makes almost double the amount of dressing you need for one recipe. But you won’t be sorry because it’s delicious on anything.

For the hazelnuts. Toast the whole nuts in the oven or toaster oven until they are nice and golden and the skins are cracking. Dump them onto one half of a damp kitchen towel and fold the other half over the top so the nuts are covered. Roll the nuts between the towel with your hands until the skins come off. Yay! ANOTHER great kitchen tip. I love this one almost as much as the kale. Chop hazelnuts loosely.

For the kale. Lay the kale onto a large cookie sheet. Drizzle with remaining olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and toss as best you can with your hands. Put the kale into your super hot oven, preferably under the broiler (once it’s had a chance to wilt a bit). The kale will cook super fast and it’s totally fine if a few leaves get burned. Turn the leaves as they cook so that all pieces are nicely wilted.

Arrange the kale on a platter. Sprinkle nuts and tomatoes over the top. Drizzle dressing generously. Top with lemon zest, lemon juice, sea salt and a few grinds of pepper.

Quinoa Confetti Salad

Adapted from 21-Day Vegan Kickstart

2 cups dry quinoa

3-4 green onions, finely chopped, including tops

1 red bell pepper, seeded and finely diced

1 carrot, grated

1-2 cups finely shredded red cabbage

1/2 cup finely chopped fresh parsley

1/2 cup golden raisins or chopped dried apricots

juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon curry powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Prepare quinoa according to package instructions. When quinoa is is finished, drain excess water, fluff with a fork and then add green onions, bell pepper, carrot, cabbage, parsley and raisins or apricots.

In a small bowl mix lemon juice, vinegar, oil, curry powder and salt.

Add to salad and toss to mix. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Pretend Vegans.

2011-09-27T12:04:00.000-07:00

Well, we have been pretend vegans for 2 weeks now. I say pretend because we are not vegans for the sake of the animals. I mean, I DO love animals... in my stomach. I strongly believe that animals should be eaten. Often.

I actually have owned this shirt since High School.

So really, we have no moral issue with the consumption of animal products. Rather, we want to be less fat. More healthy. Less fat. More conscious about what we are eating and where it came from. Plus, I really like buying local, organic produce. And less fat.

We are also, for the most part, eating gluten free due to B's allergies. GluFreeVe. That's us. So that pretty much removes anything delicious from my life and leaves me with carrots.
Even though I joke a bit about this whole thing, the truth is, after much thought and discussion we decided to give it a serious go.

And I'm not kidding you when I say that in 2 weeks time I feel different in a good way. It's sort of amazing actually what a strict diet of fruits and veggies can do for a person. I have noticed that I feel fuller faster but am eating much smaller portion sizes. I have also noticed that I immediately feel sick from eating a few french fries. The other night we went out for Mexican food before we saw the play, Mary Poppins, and I can't tell you how ill I felt from the heaviness.

I thought I might hold myself even more accountable if I record our vegan adventure on the blarg. So, that's the plan. If anyone has any vegan thoughts, comments or recipes they'd like to share...I would LOVE it. If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask. If anyone wants any recipes from below I'd love to share. If I stumble upon anything DELICIOUS I will make sure to post the recipes here.

So to start, here is our menu from last week:

Monday:

Lunch-Hummus and Veggie Pitas

Dinner-Quinoa Confetti Salad

Tuesday:

Lunch-Lunch Club with my friends! We had salads, fresh pesto and homemade peasant bread, homemade salsa and vegan cupcakes for dessert.. Recipes can be found here.

Dinner-Ate out at Red Iguana

Wednesday:

Lunch-Hummus with fresh veggies and Quinoa Confetti Salad

Dinner- Carrot and Red Pepper Soup and Quinoa Confetti Salad

Thursday:

Lunch-Hummus with fresh veggies
Dinner-Fresh Tomatoes and Basil from the Millcreek farmers market and Southern Beans with Kale

Friday:

Lunch-Homemade tortilla chips with fresh salsa

Dinner-Ate out at CousCous Mediterranean Grill

Saturday:

Lunch-Curried Lentil Soup and Southern Beans with Kale

Dinner-Veggie Stir-Fry with Brown Rice

Sunday:

Lunch-Veggie Burgers {no bun}
Dinner-Stuffed Red Peppers

As for snacks from last week:

We ate a lot of dry popcorn. And once we tried sprinkling Nutritional Yeast on top but it sort of just weirded us out. We also made Tofu Chocolate Raspberry Mousse (gross), Tofu Berry Mousse (grosser) and melted Vegan Cheese on Homemade Tortilla Chips (grossest).

Our favorite recipe from last week:

{This excludes the DELICIOUS food that my friends made at our lunch club. I suggest you make ALL of those.}

Southern Beans and Kale

Ingredients:

-1 cup vegetable broth or water

-3 cups drained, cooked or canned beans {your choice of any kind} *We used white beans and pinto beans

-1/2 teaspoon crushed garlic

-4 cups chopped, fresh kale, stems and center ribs removed, lightly packed

-1 teaspoon olive oil

-salt, to taste

-black pepper, to taste

-Tabasco sauce, to taste *We like a lot

Directions:

Combine beans, broth or water, and garlic in a large saucepan. Place chopped kale on top of beans and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer until kale is tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in oil, salt, black pepper, Tabasco sauce to taste.

Nutrition Facts:

Per 1-cup serving

Calories: 219 Calories from Fat 7.8%

I know you watch this much TV too. Don't lie.

2011-09-26T22:02:00.000-07:00

So it's Fall. Oh I love Fall weather. The leaves. The food. The sweaters. Halloween. Yadda Yadda Yadda. Yay Fall! All of that is very great. But I REALLY love Fall because the start of Fall means that TV gets good again. No, I'm not ashamed to admit that I watch 3 hours of TV a night. Why? I'm such a TV freak that I make a 'New Fall TV Schedule' every year to put on my fridge. I'm just awesome like that. Seriously, TV watching on Fall evenings with the fire going and dinner on your lap is so cozy. Also, it's free. Free you guys. And what else is going to hold me over until Chris Harrison returns to remind me why I currently exist.

A little disclaimer before you start to judge me...we don't ACTUALLY watch 3 hours of TV a night. Yeah right. I wish I had time for that. And we don't sit down and watch all of these shows on TV every night. Not even close. We really aren't people who need to see every episode of every show. In fact, we are lucky to catch even half of an entire season. And a lot of these shows we save for the weekend and then watch online after C is in bed. So you can take your judgement hats off. Just take them off. Go on. OK, that's better. So here is what we will be watching this season, because I KNOW you are super, SUPER interested...

How I Met Your Mother: Funny, but only funny enough to be watched online if we have run out of other, funnier things to watch.

Two and A Half Men: I saw the first episode of the new season with Ashton Kutcher. I like. But this is also an online watch. We will never waste a Monday night on this.

The Sing Off: I LOVE The Sing Off. Until it starts to bore me. It usually starts to bore me around the second hour of the first episode. And then it makes good background noise while I work.

The Biggest Loser: We have always been The Biggest Loser fans. I thought the first episode seemed very promising. Minus that monotone Russian tennis player with the dead eyes.

Parenthood: We are also big Parenthood fans. I started off thinking it was boring but somehow I've changed my tune and now we never miss it. However, that Gilmore Girls chick BUGS.

Glee: I freaking hate Glee. HATE. I still watch every episode. What? I need to be able to talk about how much I hate Glee with some degree of intelligence.

The New Girl: Adorable and funny. Please Fox, don't pull a Fox and ruin a perfectly good show with your Foxness.

Top Model All Stars: I will never not love anything that Tyra Banks does. She crazy.

Up All Night: Some people thought the pilot was weak. But I loved it. It made me laugh and I love Will Arnett. Plus, that part where they are arguing about who got less sleep last night...B and I totally do that all the time. It's funny because it's true. And sad.

Free Agents: New show. Entertaining enough to watch online.

Modern Family: Of course.

The X Factor: Just because I need a little Paula Abdul in my life. Another show that is great back ground noise.

Law & Order: You know, whatever, good enough.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: By FAR the most hilarious and well written show on TV. We are addicts.

Project Runway: My favorite reality show.

Big Bang Theory: I've always liked this show. Sheldon is so funny.

Parks & Recreation: This show used to be so meh. Now it's hilarious.

The Office: This show IS meh. But for some reason we keep watching it.

Whitney: I liked the pilot. I will give it 3 weeks.

30 Rock: THE BEST.

The Walking Dead: B and I have been completely hooked since the first episode. And in fact, I think I've seen every episode twice. It's so gory and awesome. I feel like I'm watching a high budget zombie film every week.

The Amazing Race: Basically the only thing to watch on Sunday nights and therefore it wins by default.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: Here is how this show should be watched...fast forward through the entire episode, watch the last 15 minutes, the end.

Sherlock Holmes on PBS: I keep hearing this is so awesome so we are going to watch this online as well. PBS makes up for all the crap I watch all week by making me feel smart for an hour.

Sister Wives: Impossible to find online. And we cancelled our cable. So I watch this at Liz's house on her DVR. Oh crazy plygs. I love you. Except for that douche Cody/Kody/Khodie and his mistress Robin.

Weeds: So good. You can stream the entire thing on Netflix. yay!

Umm....what am I forgetting?

P.S. No, we don't watch Mad Men. Because it's boring. No really, it is. Plus, January Jones is THE WORST EVER.

Happy fall everyone!

2011-09-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

This day couldn't have come soon enough for me. Summer is the worst. And Fall is the best. I absolutely can't wait to go buy a bunch of pumpkins for my porch. And Halloween! My favorite. If I have a Halloween party will you come?

{photo from better homes & gardens}

Cruises Are Fun. Mostly.

2011-09-21T23:35:00.000-07:00

Coming home from vacation is a major bummer. Of course, that first night back in your own bed is pretty much heaven. But after that...life goes back to normal and all you want to do is get back on the ship. {Or whatever.}

I didn't take as many pictures as I thought I would. This was mainly due to the fact that AT ALL TIMES we had in our purchase an umbrella stroller, a back pack full of baby food and water bottles, sunscreen and toys, C's singing Violet dog that she refuses to part with, and, of course, a 1-year-old who was constantly throwing her shoes all over the place. Scattered throughout the Western Caribbean are little baby shoes. Unfortunately for the locals these are not pairs of shoes. I'm not kidding. We came home with shoes, yes. One shoe of every pair we brought with us.

Will we be taking any more babies on cruises you wonder? No. No we will not. We had LOTS of fun. But babies are just way too much work for trips. Amen.

So, if anyone is interested in looking at some cruise photos...here they are. {C will not be smiling in ANY photos.} And I can't promise they are good, because they aren't. But I'm happy to have a little documentation of this fabulous trip. What I can promise you is some pithy commentary AND some deep thoughts about the slave labor that Carnival cruise line has going on aboard their ships.

Ready? Ok. Let's do this.

{This post contains a crap load of pictures...so click below if you want to see them...}

Best part of every cruise is the food right? Well, not on this cruise. The food was meh. BUT, my favorite part of the trip was getting to sit with my whole family for dinner every night. It was wonderful.

One night they do this semi-hilarious deal where they have a "Captains Gala" {pronounced GAY-la} and everyone dresses up. Apparently we didn't get the memo that this night is actually "slutty prom for practically obese adults". I wish I had been braver and snapped a few photos of what these people were wearing. Truly amazing. Here is what we wore:

Ty wore a black shirt and a bright blue Dolphins tie with running shoes. Yes he did.

Trent was sad because his girlfriend was back home doing school. Poor Trent.

Oh look, it's almost a smile. Almost.

Ok, I lied. There are a few photos of C smiling.

The ship was crawling, and I do mean crawling with "professional photographers" wanting to take your pictures in front of these really gorgeous vignettes they had set up. You know...like a fake column back drop with a black grand piano covered in rose petals. Just sexy stuff like that. We opted to take our own photos outside.

Fancy.

I don't get to spend nearly enough time with the siblings.

Yay siblings.

My parents had a suite. It was awesome. We spent a lot of time on their little, private balcony. But, at night we slept in our own personal, plywood boxes.

First stop, Cozumel. Can you spot the tourist?

No? I'll give you a hint. It's the one with the fanny pack.

The Caribbean is freaking humid. It's disgusting.

But beautiful.

Next stop, Honduras. This was the day we got family photos taken on the beach. This sexy bod ended up in about half of our photos:

No really, look:

I planned to take lots and lots of photos of the family at the same time as the "professional photographer". You know, so we would have lots of options...and some of those options {my photos} wouldn't cost a thousand dollars. But then C pooed in her diaper 5 times and I was dripping in moisture from the humidity and f bombs were flying. So, yeah, that didn't happen. But at least I got this photo:

My mom just ordered this in a huge canvas for her wall.

Here is a good shot of the boat, where 1500 slaves labor day in and day out to provide 24/7 food and entertainment for the morbidly obese masses. You guys, really, cruising is sort of ghetto in this way, yeah? I was sort of looking around at all the waste that goes on on a cruise, and at all these poor workers who have to bend over backwards and work their A's off to make a bunch of middle-class Americans feel classy and important. And you KNOW these workers are probably sleeping 3 to a room in bunk beds for 6 month stretches. And all the while the cruisers are just blowing their money on alcohol and junk jewelry and $30 photos of themselves posed in front of grand pianos sprinkled with rose petals while these poor workers make close to no money. And they don't get to see their families for months or years at a time. AND THEN, of course, you get to hear non stop complaining from all the cruisers about how they have to TIP these workers. Yet you KNOW they dropped like $2000 on cocktails and beer over the course of the week. I just felt bothered by the whole thing. Ugh. Too much?

Anyway, this is also a good shot of the fake beach that Carnival built so that cruisers don't have to actually enter into the port city. Heaven forbid.

After the photo shoot concluded we took a van to a private beach. We rode through the city of Roatan, Honduras for about half an hour. I'm not kidding you when I say this was the best part of our trip. Cruising offers such a silly, Americanized and unrealistic view of all the places where the ship ports. It's sad really, to see how cruise lines have turned these little islands into crap holes were tourists can come and buy shot glasses and tshirts and HUGE bottles of liquor.

So we went to this great little private beach that is owned by a local pastor. He gives the locals money to build homes for their families and then lets them work for him in repayment. They had a buffet and drinks, massage tables and snorkeling and a little shop with all local made items to purchase. We bought a painting that little, local man had painted. I loved it here and wish we could have spent another day or two there.

Like I said, we spent a lot of time in my parents room. I loved the view from their balcony.

And also, it sort of freaked me out. There are sharks out there. A lot of sharks.
Side note: while on this cruise I was reading Unbreakable by Laura Hillenbrand. That book is basically about people getting eaten by sharks. It was all I could think about the whole time. End side note.

C loved chillin on the balcony too.

Here is me trying to get a picture of all of us by using my camera timer. I think I look SO GOOD in this picture.

Next stop, Belize. No pictures though. Because we didn't get off the boat. My family went ziplining through the rain forest. We took a nap in our box. Thanks a lot 1-year-old. Just kidding. We love our 1-year-old.

Last stop, Costa Maya. We saw some ruins which were awesome. Here is our guide. He was very smart.

The cruise was awesome. Highlights included the late night comedy shows {hilarious}, the 24/7 pizza and ice cream bar, watching Mariah Carey, Cher and Justin Beiber in concert on the huge mega-tron screen over the pool {yes I'm serious}, and being with my family for 8 days straight. Also, there didn't appear to be anyone with any body issues on this cruise {aside from me}. We saw a LOT of bikni wearing women with stretch marks and cellulite and, well, fat. But actually, I thought it was sort of chill for people to be like, "yeah, whatever". Or maybe it was just because they were drunk?

Low points: trying to entertain a 1-year-old on a curise ship for 8 days straight, trying to get a 1-year-old into some sort of a naptime and night time sleep schedule while on a cruise ship for 8 days straight, chasing a 1-year-old around the dining room every, single night because she was ready to get down before we'd even finished our appetizers...you get the idea.

Friends, have I mentioned that you MAY have a more relaxing trip if you leave your baby home?

All in all though, we had SUCH a great time and I'd go again in a second, 1-year-old and all.

The Honduras Photo Shoot of Death

2011-09-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

More details and photos from the cruise to come. But for now...

My mom hired a photographer to meet us on the beach in Honduras so we could get a few family shots. All things considered, I think they turned out really well. All things considered meaning the second you step off the boat you are instantly {and I mean INSTANTLY} drenched from the humidity. I spent an hour washing, blow drying and flat ironing my hair for these pictures so that it could frizz out and then shellac to my face about 5 minutes later. I'm really amazed that you can't see the sweat pouring off all of our faces.

P.S. C decided to have about 5 poopy diapers in the 45 minute time span of this little photo shoot.

P.P.S. For a fun time, try peeling off your soaked-in-sweat clothes in a windowless, nearly pitch dark, storage shack on the beach. THEN, for more fun, try pulling your swimming suit on over your damp skin. This turns out awesome and may result in the dropping of many F bombs in front of your mother.

Really though, the pictures are fun and this was by far my most favorite day on the cruise.

Here a few of my favorites, although it's very hard to narrow it down. Just looking at these makes me want to be back there! {And don't mind that nasty scowl on C's face. This is her new thing. She literally scowls at everything and everyone and there is nothing you can do to stop her. I think she takes after her mother.}

James Keith Lisonbee 1923 ~ 2011

2011-09-14T23:11:00.000-07:00

James Lisonbee 1923 ~ 2011 James Keith Lisonbee, 88 passed away peacefully in his home on Friday, September 9th 2011. Keith was born on April 10, 1923 in Provo, Utah to James L and France. He married Velma Esklund on October 21, 1943. They were later sealed for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple. Keith served honorably in the US Navy during World War II and was a Pearl Harbor survivor stationed on the USS Tennessee. After the war he served in the National Guard. One of Keith's greatest joys was traveling with his wife in their motorhome where they proudly visited every US state, Canada and Mexico. Keith loved his grandchildren and happily brought them along on many summer road trips. As a member of the Winnebago Itasca Travelers Motorhome Club Keith and Velma developed many log lasting, close friendships with people from all over the country. In their later years Keith and Velma enjoyed relaxing at their second home in St. George, Utah where they hosted many memorable family gatherings, Keith was preceded in death by his father, mother, sister, bother and son James Keith Jr. Keith is survived by his wife Velma and children Janis (Bud) Reddick, Ken (Janis) Lisonbee, Sue (Bart) Baker, 9 Grandchildren, 8 Great Grandchildren and his loyal dog, Buddy.

The family would like to say a special thanks to all the wonderful care givers that help in their home.

My grandpa passed away while we were on our cruise. We didn't find out until our cell phones regained service when our ship docked in Florida on Saturday morning. He lived a long and happy life and he was very ready to move on. So, while we were sad to loose him, we were happy for him to be able to leave his suffering behind.

Like his obituary states, my grandpa was Pearl Harbor survivor. He was also an incredibly hard working man who had such a great, sarcastic sense of humor.

I was asked to speak at his funeral, which I was so happy to do. I recounted a few of the MANY dear memories that I have with him from my childhood. My sister, cousins and I spent one month each summer traveling with my grandparents across the country in their motorhome. I remember catching fireflies with him at night, frog hunting in every pond from here to Forrest City, Iowa, endless ice cream stops, horseback riding and probably 1,000 trips to the pool where he happily sat on a lawn chair for hours on end watching us swim.

As I've talked about on this blog before, B and I were given the incredible opportunity to live in my grandparents basement and help care for them for the last few years. I'm so grateful that we were able to do this. Living with my grandparents was occasionally frustrating. However, it didn't take long for that basement to feel like home and we still miss living there every day. They always kept us laughing, were two of the most content and easy going people I have ever known and showed us how two people can still love each other after 68 years of marriage. I will always remember that time of our lives with such tenderness. How sweet it was for me to see my grandpa light up when we brought our first baby home from the hospital. And, I have no doubt that living in the basement changed our lives, financially, forever. We were able to save a lot of money which enabled us to build our dream home in our dream neighborhood.

I love you grandpa so much and will miss you. But, I am so happy that your suffering is over and that you have been reunited with your son.

Here are a few photos from the funeral:

All the cousins, minus my sister:
And here is one of my cousins family, just because they all sort of look like movies stars:

You guys don't mind if I do a little photo dump do you?

2011-09-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

I'm so behind. I have months of photos on my camera. Luckily, the upcoming cruise is giving me a kick in the butt to clear out my memory cards so I can make room for what is bound to be hundreds of thousands of more photos of tropical beaches. {Also, probably hundreds of photos of my siblings jumping on tropical beaches at sunset...as you all know we are fond of doing this.}

So, without further ado...the photo dump:

Almost one.

Some straggler photos of our trip to Portland from a few months back.

It's so green and pleasantly temperatured in Portland. {Temperatured is definitly a word. Feel free to use it in a sentence today.}

The coast was gorgeous and the weather was PERFECT. Portland doesn't usually like to have nice weather on the coast when we visit.

C was not so sure of the water at first.

But got the hang of it very quickly.

We weren't the only ones taking advantage of the great weather.

We also got to play in some freezing tide pools.

A couple days after we got home from Portland we threw a little birthday bash for the big 1-year-old girl.

All the people who love miss C the most were there.

We just adore this baby girl and are so happy that she is ours.

Even if she is a little bit of a drama queen from time to time.

Welp...I'm doing it again.

2011-08-31T07:57:00.000-07:00

I'm flying with my child. I know, what am I thinking?

But it can't be avoided. We are going on a LONG awaited cruise to the Western Carribbean. Yay! And we are SO excited. We will be going here:

and here:

amoung other places.

{We won't, however, be getting in any of that gorgeous water because I don't want any of my family members to die by shark attack. Those are on the rise you know!}

Anyways, what we are not excited for?...flying with our 1-year-old. Honestly, I'm scared.

Remember last time? It was sort of a nightmare.

So ANYONE out there who has any tips for flying {or cruising} with a 1-year-old...please share! Really, please. I'm begging you.

Today I was thinking that we should probably talk about spiders. Beware: disturbing photos included.

2011-08-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

Am I the only one who has noticed MONSTROUSLY HUGE spiders lately?

When we were living in the basement apartment my thoughts were consumed with spiders. They were EVERYWHERE. They were in my kitchen sink, dead in the corners of every room, and I would literally feel them crawling on me in bed at night. I would wake up screaming and freaking out. B would tell me to calm down and that I was probably just having a bad dream. Until we turned on the lights and he looked on the covers and would find a spider booking it for the edge of the bed. Gag. We would put out spider traps and they would be full to the brim in just days.

However, they were just your average sized, no big deal, spiders. And I chalked it up to, 1-living in a basement and, 2-living in a very old home.

I was extremely excited to move into our new house for many reasons. One of the BIGGEST reasons {and I'm not even joking} was that there would be no more spiders. No spiders! Yay!

Except there are spiders. A lot of spiders. And they are HUGE.

I've found them in the garage and on our porch {semi-do-able}, in our basement {less do-able}, in our laundry room {seriously too close for comfort} and in C's closet on her toys {oh no you DIDN't spiders!}.

Don't worry about telling me to spray for them. I'll do you one better. We are going to burn our house to the ground and start over.

Or perhaps we will move? However, I have less than fond memories of running into spiders evrywhere I have ever been. In Switzerland I saw pretty Alps spiders, in England there were HUGE British spiders and in Germany, probably the most disturbing spiders I have ever seen in person. Also, my sister tells me that in Portland the spiders are so huge that their webs span the width of an entire sidewalk so while you are happily jogging along, BAM!, spider in the face.

So, I'm guessing there are spiders everywhere. Which brings me back to burning the house to the ground.

My neighbor tells me that this has been a bad year for spiders. There are a lot, and they are large. She blames all the rain.

Have you guys noticed this? Or are all the monster spiders just moving to Holladay? Anyone have any tips or techniques of ridding your living space of these devils spawns?

In response to your responses about roles.

2011-08-23T14:58:00.000-07:00

Hey guys. I can't believe I'm writing an entire post based off of your comments. But your comments were THAT good so I couldn't resist.

First of all, I wanted to say thanks for all your comments on my post about roles in our homes. I think this is a topic that could be discussed endlessly. If only we all had the time. Time, however, is something that I'm always coming up short on. You, too?

However, I wanted to touch on a few things that were posted that really hit home for me.

I love how Barb talked about finding ways to support and show love to your spouse, even if those ways aren't the traditional ways of cooking and cleaning. This is exactly what I am trying to figure out in my own life.

Erin wrote, "Our family is far from traditional and although I frequently wish I was a typical mom, it is kind of fun to watch my husband take on some of the more "motherly" roles. We wouldn't survive if we didn't split the housework." I LOVED this! I think this is definitely a way of seeing the positive side of having two working people in the home. I must say, I love having B home so often for this very reason, even if I have failed to realize it until Erin pointed it out. I love that C gets to spend most of her days with both of us and that her dad will just as often feed her lunch and kiss booboos better. {Not saying that dads who work outside of the home don't do the same thing.} I also love that I can ask B to change most of the poopy diapers...which, seriously, is my LEAST favorite mommy task.

Melissa W., I love that you wrote that having a perfectly traditional home would be nice, but, that you know that will never be you. Honestly, I think just realizing this, being ok with it, and moving forward, is half the battle! Something I often wonder, do we place a lot of stress and guilt on ourselves trying to model our lives after the ways of the past? Homes, families and roles are so different now then they used to be. I don't think that makes it better or worse. Just different. And different is great. In the end, our children are loved, our homes get cleaned {eventually} and somehow we get dinner on the table every night all while juggling work, hobbies, church callings, etc.

Melissa S., and anyone else out there who has a husband who is out of the home for 80+ hours a week...wow. This is just another example of how we are all in such different situations, and somehow, we all make it work. Honestly though, I'd love to know how you do it!

Liz, we are SO on the same page feeling insecure with dinner time. I feel like it should be my job to plan and carry out meals every night. Somehow, this happens so rarely that I usually end up feeling inadequate on a close to daily basis. I'm trying to cut myself some slack though and remember, I contribute lots to our family, even if dinner doesn't come together quite as nicely and as often a I wish it would.

Megan, you said it perfectly, "I don't know if there is such a thing anymore as traditional roles in the home. It is a different world than the one our parents and even we grew up in." I think that is exactly right. And like I wrote above, just because things are different now, does not mean they are not as good.

Anne, your comment made me realize that EVERYONE deals with feeling inadequate every once in a while. Whether you worry about not contributing as much as you should as a wife because you are working, or if you worry about not contributing financially because you stay in the home, we all deal with these feelings.

Amy, I like that you said that this post made you feel "normal". I think that is probably why I wrote the post. I like being reminded that even though our situations are all different, we all have the same worries and anxieties in our life. And really, everyone is doing their best to make their homes happy and secure places.

Kalie, never preachy! But always my role model for what I would like to work towards in my own home. I'm really looking forward to your housework post. Even though I know you'll disagree, I sort of feel like you have mastered the stay-at-home life. :)

Aimee, the guilt! Yes! Does it ever go away!? :) Something is always getting neglected, whether that be C, the laundry, my toilets, the dinner I'd love to cook or the jog I wanted to go on. Something tells me that the guilt will live on for eternity, no matter what my home situation is.

Lastly, Ashely, of course I remember you! {And blog stalk you too. :) } Everything you wrote makes perfect sense. When it's all said and done, and I ask myself, 'If you could quit your job with no worries would you?' Well, probably yes. BUT, I also can find the good in our situation. The double income, a job I enjoy and the blessing of having a stay-at-home job are a few reasons why I know that our situation is ok.

So, again, thanks to you all for your comments. I really enjoyed reading through them and loved learning about the roles in your home. You guys always make me feel like I'm doing ok. We all are, right. :)

I'm not sure what to say...

2011-08-22T22:11:00.000-07:00

...other than that my friend Mark was diagnosed with cancer. Stage 3 Hodgkins Lymphoma. Mounting medical bills add huge amounts of stress and strain on someone who is so sick and should only have to focus on one thing: getting better.

Do you know Mark? If you do, I'm sure that you would agree that he is brilliant and kind. I'm lucky to have him as a friend.

You can learn more HERE, at this website that was set up on Mark's behalf. A website that I discovered, not through him. I then had to inform him that I would spread the word, because I knew that he would never ask. Please, if you are able, donate, and share this website.

Thanks friends.

The baby version of Sarah, Dave, Mark and me.

Roles

2011-08-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about the roles that B an I play in our family and how I feel about those roles. One of my favorite blogs, A Cup O Joe, ran a series a few weeks ago that featured lots of different working moms. I found what these women had to say really interesting and it got me thinking about the topic a bit. You can find the series here.

Five years ago, if you would have asked me what marriage and mothering would look like I absolutely would have told you that it would be me, home with children, filling all the traditional mom/wife roles, and my husband working to support our family. As it turns out, that is not the reality of our situation.

B and I both work full time. I work full time from home and B works from home 2-3 days a week and is in the office the other days. While he is the breadwinner for our family, we rely heavily on my job to provide affordable health insurance for our small family of three. If we were to switch to private health insurance or go onto B's work insurance plan we would barely be able to survive paycheck to paycheck. The fact that health insurance is completely unaffordable for a small family with double incomes is just more proof that the insurance industry in our country is borderline criminal and in need of some major change. I get fairly worked up when I talk about it. So we will leave that topic for another day {or not}.

I often feel overwhelmed with the sometimes hectic schedules that we have. A typical day for us usually consists of B getting up to workout at 5:30 am while I try to grab a few more precious hours of sleep since I usually have very late nights. C wakes up around 7:30 or 8 am. We do breakfast, work out, get dressed, run errands and try to fit in a fun activity here and there. C naps from 1:30-4 and this is when I really try to get some work done. However, if I'm up for having a late night I sometimes use this time to clean or relax. From 4-7 we cook dinner {or grab something fast if I'm being honest}, try to have some family time and get C ready for bed. She goes down around 8:30 and then from about 8:30 to anywhere from 11:30pm until 2am I work.

Because B and I both work full time we really have to share the parenting and household duties. We both cook, clean, change diapers, parent, do laundry, grocery shop and watch Ann Curry try and fail at successfully interviewing people on the Today Show.

For us, marriage and parenting is a partnership that is split straight down the middle. In many ways this is a great thing. I LOVE Brandon being home the majority of the time. I never get sick of having him around. I feel like I have a constant partner and for me that is a a very fabulous thing. However, deep down I feel a longing to have our roles be more traditionally divided. I would love to be able to clean and grocery shop and cook while he is at work and then have a hot meal ready for him when he gets home. That might sound old fashioned, however, I really wish that I could provide that for him and I often feel that it is missing in our home.

So while I know our situation is ideal and wonderful in many ways, I also see the areas where it lacks. I'm trying to think of creative ways for me to be a wife to my husband, not just for him but for me also. I need that separation in our roles.

I'd love to hear about the roles in your home whether they are traditional or not. In the end, I know that not one way is better than the other, and everyone is just doing their best. How is it at your house? Are you satisfied with the roles that you and your husband fill?

What else we've been up to...

2011-08-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

Saw the Sound of Music at Sundance

Had a birthday party for the big 1-year-old {more photos to come}

Received lots and lots of new toys that were SO FUN for about a day

Decided to mix up nap time so we never have the slightest clue when she will be going to sleep

Occasionally make it to church when this new mystery nap time does not happen to coincide with our meetings

Were mesmerized by the tepanyaki cooking at Bonsai

And have decided that we can no longer play by ourselves which is very cute/very annoying for mom

I went to Portland with a baby! By myself!

2011-08-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

I will most definitely NEVER be doing that again.

We got to the airport early planning on having to stand in lots of long lines. But guess what? Salt Lake International Airport treats moms with strollers, babies, carry ons and pull suitcases like freaking royalty. I checked my bags at the curb, was ushered to the front of a very long security line, and made it to my gate with an hour to spare. Yay!

Shortly after I was notified by electronic phone message that my flight was delayed three hours. Shoot me.

No really, shoot me.

C and I walked the halls of the airport, crawled all over dirty floors and put our tongues on filthy metal posts for THREE. HOURS. And let me tell you. She was not a joy.

When we finally boarded the plane my nerves were shot and I was frazzled, to say the least. I was so desperate and crazy at this point that I was talking to Caroline like she had any freaking clue what I was saying.

"Now Caroline, please, for the love, PLEASE, no whining. No crying. I'm begging you. I'll do anything. You can smash my iPhone into a million pieces on the ground as long as you are quiet on this flight. Ok? Please. OMG."

And C was looking up at me doing this thing she does where she blinks a lot.

I knew it was over.

I tried everything. Snacks! iPad! Brand new toys she has never seen before! Diet Coke! Shoving her dirty, little fingers into my mouth.

We hadn't even taken off yet and she was already climbing all over my seat and banging her head against the window and screaming to get off my lap. It was horrendous. I was wondering why I'd even had a baby in the first place.

I will NEVER again judge people on planes with crying kids. NEVER. Because as annoying as that is for you...I promise that the parents of that kid are suffering FAR WORSE. You can just put in your headphones, read a book, sip your little drink and have a pleasant flight. But parents with kids on a plane have to suffer and scramble and literally work up a sweat trying to keep their kids quiet so they can avoid the nasty stares and glares from all the other pepole on the plane. It is pure misery.

Side note: My best friend Emily travels alone with her baby all the time. Amazing. Some people may be cut out for this kind of thing. But I was considering jumping.

I finally resorted to my very last ditch option. If this didn't work I knew I was doomed. I tried nursing her under a blanket. C was ferociously kicking the lady next to me, who, by the way, was so incredibly understanding.

And guess what people? She fell asleep! And slept the whole flight! But the prior 4 hours were traumatic enough that I was on the verge of tears and afraid to move even a muscle for fear of waking the sleeping monster. My arm was shaking from supporting her sweaty, 17 pound body. I knew there was no way I would be able to fly back home. I pretty much told B that he was going to have to drive to Oregon and pick us up.

But yes, we made it. WE MADE IT!

Did C sleep at night or take great naps? No. Did she whine for 4 days straight from being off her schedule and out of her environment? Yes. Was I ready to punch someone in the face? Possibly. Even still, we managed to have a great time. If not a very sleep deprived, at my wits end, about to take up drinking great time!

We went to the Portland Farmers Market to buy fresh produce for a few meals. It was awesome!

The produce was amazing. So amazing that these pictures magically turned out small.

We swam in my sisters pool.

We went to the coast. The weather was gorgeous and C LOVED her first ocean experience {even though she looks slightly distraught in the first picture}.

She ate a lot of sand. I was too tired to care.

Happy!

We had a girls lunch at The OG.

She loves her Uncle Tyler and Aunt Megan.

This is a delicious Cajun restaurant under the freeway. We may have been approached by a crackie. Worth it!

All in all, lots of fun. We love going to visit Portland. Next time, Grandma will be coming to help whether she likes it or not.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

2011-08-09T20:00:00.000-07:00

I got bored with Ashley. Actually, bored is an understatement. I literally couldn't bring myself to wrap up the end of the season. But then I felt bad for bailing. So here I am wrapping it up. Like a month later. Ready?

I watched the finale in a puddle of drool on my living room floor while C climed all over my lifeless body.

This pretty much sums it up...

-Constantine may be the ONLY normal person to ever have been on this show. He basically said he couldn't fall in love and propose to someone he didn't actually know at all. Uhh....that's just CRAZY TALK! The Bach/Ette has a long running history of people falling in love and marrying each other even though they know nothing about one another...err...wait? Is that right?

-Ben has emotional problems.

-Ashley's sister pretends to be a B so we all get confused about wether Ashely will pick JP or not.

-Ashley picks JP.

-Nobody cares.

-Nobody.

-The end.

In better news, Bachelor Pad started last night and it is AWESOME. I think at one point I was jumping up and down. It was like Christmas! Gia and Jake and Vienna and Michelle and Guard and Protect Your Heart and Rated R?! I think I'm in love.

Cait Connolly Art

2011-08-09T14:15:00.001-07:00

For Fathers Day this year I commissioned an artist to paint our family portrait. It turned out amazing and B absolutely loved it. Cait did an incredible job. I think she caputred us perfectly. And I told her to make me skinnier than I actually am so that right there made it worth the money. I highly recommend her if you want to hang some awesome, original art on your wall. And I know you do, because who wouldn't?

Then, Cait turned the painting into a custom blog header for me. So pretty much this was a win, win, win investment. Thanks Cait!

You can find her website here.

One year ago today...

2011-07-28T23:14:00.001-07:00

Caroline entered our lives.

She came 10 days past her expected due date and by way of c-section, which was the farthest thing from our desired "birth plan". I remember the fear and disappointment I felt on that day. However, what we got in return was the most precious gift, and I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

I never could have imagined the joy, laughter and indescribable love that this little, baby girl has brought into our home.

She is our happiness and our light; our perfect daughter.

We love you forever sweet Caroline.

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY!

all photos by the amazing katie dudley.

Oh Ames.

2011-07-19T11:46:00.000-07:00

Watching Ames get booted from the show last night was PAIN.FUL. He was a very sweet and genuine person. You could tell, for whatever reason, that he really like Ashley. And he seems to be one of those guys who doesn't think girls are into him. Therefore, he will treat whomever he ends up with like GOLD. And I'm sure he will be/is a richy. I would have picked Ames for sure even though he always looks slightly dazed and confused. He is too good for this show actually. Every once in a while someone comes along that is just too kind and too smart and too good for the show. Like Ames. And Stephanie. And Vienna.

So if I'm being honest, I was barely watching last night. It's like when you get home from a vacation and that first day back at work is just torture. Well, thanks to the July 4th weekend I feel like a have been on a vacation from The Bachette. So watching last night was harder than usual. I didn't really gather much except for:

Groban 1 is very Greek. His home is full of Grecian columns and statues and fake marbling on the walls and tile and topiaries and angles in the clouds painted over the fireplace. I felt like I was watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding. However, there will be no wedding for Ashley and Groban 1 because she is not Greek. Greek people marry Greek people. Except for in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Groban 2 has a classy family, a fabulous vineyard, a dead dad (sad) and a commitment problem. And she sat about 4 feet away form him for the entire date. The sparks where really trying very hard to fly. But Groban 2's tears kept putting them out.

Ashley seems to have about 1% interest in the Grobans.

She likes JP more. It's obvious. I mean, she went roller skating with him for crap sakes. But HOW MUCH MORE?

Actually I did a little math:

Groban 1 x Groban 2 = 1% + JP / 2 - Ames = Bentley

I know. I was shocked too. But the numbers don't lie.

Can this season be over already?

Ashley's voice haunts my dreams.

2011-07-11T21:07:00.000-07:00

ashley has an incredibly complete collection of slutacious, backless shirts no?

she wore a new one on every, single date on this episode. jealous!

i absolutely can tell no difference between josh groban 1 and josh groban 2. i can't keep track of which is which, nor do i know either of their real names. and really i can't find a point in figuring it out because they seem to be pretty much the exact same person. both are employed in the food/drink industry and both enjoy long, greasy locks. and i also know that ashley had sex with one of them. because she is a classy lady. which one, however, is a mystery to me.

i mean, really?

the wedding photo date was just bizarre. what was the point? those dudes HATED it. dudes hate getting their REAL wedding photos taken. why would they enjoy fake ones? what is with all the pretend wedding shee this season? it's just sad. i feel like i'm watching an embarrassing singles, ward activity. fake wedding! yay!

ashley's "breakup" with ryan was the most uncomfortable thing i've seen in a long time. i was literally squirming in my chair.

ames, bless his heart, must have some sort of sinus issue because he is constantly breathing through his mouth. he is also constantly looking confused. he is also constantly dressing like a j.crew model. red slacks ames? with a jaunty sweater slung around your shoulders in case the ocean breeze in northampton gets a bit chill. oh ames.

despite the fact that j.p. whined and pouted the entire way through this episode, which was gross, she is still going to pick him. clearly.

and lastly, not a single mention of bentley. boo.

but now let's talk about the most intriguing part of the entire 2 hours...

how emily and harrison can spend 30 minutes talking without actually saying ANYTHING AT ALL. it's like magic. black magic really. because even though the sound might as well have been muted on my tv with all the nothing that was going on there i still had to watch.

so let me get this straight emily. you and brad are in love, love each other very much, will always be a part of each others lives, still talk and text constantly, and are not together because together is not what you are. you are not together. you should be together. you want to be together. but you are not together. because somethings are and somethings are not because things that are not can't be. because then nothing wouldn't be because you can't have nothing isn't. everything is. because if nothing wasn't nothing is!

let me translate for you: my name is emily and i am fake crying right now so i can be a future sports anchor. *tear* *sniffle* *tear*

barf.

Snowbird. July 4th. And a blissful, work-free weekend of happiness.

2011-07-07T23:00:00.000-07:00

oh. my. gosh. i haaaven't blogged in, like, furever, you guiysss!

did your brain translate that into ashley's voice? mine too.

speaking of ashley, when i saw that the bachette was a rerun this week it felt like a gift. a gift just for me. i was thrilled. so thank you abc. from the bottom of my heart.

i have a lot of pictures to post. none of you will care unless you are my sister. however, if you do decide to stick around i promise to include some incredibly interesting commentary to go along with said pictures.

so lets get started.

here is one of c in my aviators. you know, just your standard baby-in-aviators picture.

so my aunt has a condo in snowbird. she invites us to come up every summer. it's tradition. TRADITION! we had muy fun. and snowbird is gorg.

c got to go swimming for the first time. she likey.

can you handle this cuteness? as beyonce would say, "i don't think you can handle it." i know i can't.

my mom told me that when i was c's age she took me to a swimming class. that sounds dumb to me. then she told me that they would have you dunk your baby under water because, you know, babies hold their breath under water. i was like, wtf mom? trying to drown me before i even reached 1 year? anyways, here is my mother and aunt trying to recall the infant swim class lessons that they learned from 28+ years ago.

c was loving it.

this is my sweet mother and sweet aunts playing with c in the pool. i love this picture.

i also got to hang out with my extremely tan cousins. forgot to take pictures of them because i'm a dumb dumb.
*
and here is one with b and c. this was right before we got kicked out of the completely empty "spa" for having a child under the age of 18 with us. i'm pretty sure the kid who kicked us out was under the age of 18. don't get me started.

so snowbird was fun.
*
on our way home we stopped at the hpc. that stands for holladay pizza and creamery. if you were curious - this consists of frozen pizza warmed up and some pretty standard frozen yogurt. and anything you purchase there will show up as plumbing specialists on your bank statement. which is not skethcy at all.

it's been getting hotter and hotter in the slc. i freaking loathe the heat. i don't loathe bob's brain freeze though. in fact, i love it. so we got one.

and ate it in the shade.
side note. c loves brandon. like seriously loves him. she gets so sick of me by the end of the day that she refuses to even glance in my direction when he is home. can you tell from this picture?

c loved her first snow cone.

speaking of snow cones, this made me laugh:

the snow cones is in his beard you guys! ha!
*
and then july 4th came. here we are at the neighborhood july 4th breakfast. it's tradition. TRADITION!

then we went to b's family cabin in kamas.

i hate nature. but i try to fake it for my child's sake. i want to her to choose for herself. however, i think her disgust for this flower gave me some hope that she may follow in my footsteps. fingers crossed.

we finished off the night with some fireworks. c was mesmerized. for 7 seconds. i think fireworks are boring and dumb. which is why i can't believe that i insisted that we stay up to watch them. we learned a valuable lesson that night. the lesson being, don't put 11 month-olds to bed at 11pm. just trust me. don't.
*
overall, a perfect weekend. so perfect, infact, that c wanted to wear her 'perfect' shirt to remember it by.

hope you all had a happy 4th.

So.....

2011-06-29T20:19:00.000-07:00

j.p. for the win, yes?

obviously she is going to pick him. and she should. he's legit. the only improvement i can think to make for j.p. is that he should go by jordan paul all the time. he's a good guy. well, at least he's a good guy according to the editing that the abc producers have done.

before i delve in, here is my thought on dudes. if a dude is concerned about your feelings above all else...then he is truly a keeper. when ashely told j.p. about bentley square head he was totally cool and sweet to her. and later, when she told the other bach's and some of them pooped their tighty whities over it...he was defending her the whole time. darling. and even the dentist, who sadly, was sent home, did a total 180 when he saw how upset ashley was. that's how you know he's a nice guy. as opposed to that douche nozzle, lucas, from texas...who was such a jerk about the whole thing.

and even though we all know that the way ashley handled the bentley situation was less than stellar...it doesn't change the fact that a gentleman wouldn't treat her that way.

and that's my two cents.

moving on...

we open in tokyo. que dramatic gong music. chris harrison has a bomb to drop. and it's not a deuce. bentley is back! ashley feigns shock! chris hands her a folded up piece of paper...which has bentleys room number written on it. how... 3rd grade? her bowed little barbie, stick legs in 9 inch heels, hobble down the hall to bentley's room. *knock knock knock.*

and then my favorite part of the entire episode...

through the door we hear bentley ask, "who is it?". ha! so fun! yay bentley!

awkward kiss.

i'm really starting to get excited. what is he going to say?! eee! this is going to be good! tell her bentley! TELL HER YOU WOULD RATHER DRINK YOUR OWN PEE THAN PLAN A WEDDING WITH HER!

and 3.7 seconds later. over.

i seriously hate the mass editing that happens on this show. you know we only saw about 2 billionths of that conversation between ashley and bentley. are we supposed to believe that ashley came to the conclusion that bentley square head is a tool based off of that "conversation"? he barely said two words...that we were shown anyway. but whatever was said, ashley was able to get over bentley. hooray! she is over bentley! no more bentley! bentley is done! "i'm so over bentley!" "i haven't thought about bentley all day!" "on this whole date, bentley hasn't even crossed my mind once." "i'm so glad i can finally move on now and not think about bentley." "bentley who?" "i was thinking...but not about bentley..." "so bentley is totally gone from my mind now and i can really concentrate on the other bachelors." "bentley!" "what?" "bentley." "you guyssss....bentley bentley blah blah bentley blah bentley blah blah you guys, bentley and now it's all worked out, bentley, blah, and i'm over bentley!" "bentley!"

were any of you counting how many times bentley was mentioned in this episode? you weren't? well i was. the answer is infinity. she is so over bentley that his name was only mentioned infinity times.

he has really hijacked this show eh? i'm not even sure this season can exist without him. but based on the previews of what's to come...there is a lot of crying. i'm sure it has nothing to do with bentley though. because she is over bentley. bentley is gone. bentley is done. bentley! no more bentley!" bentley.

so yeah, there was bentley.

and then some other stuff happened.

and people got pissed about bentley. josh groban 1 and josh groban 2 were indignant. ames stood there looking confused, breathing through is mouth. texas guy let us all know that she is WASTING HIS PRECIOUS TIME! he could be home right now...working and stuff...instead of wasting his time ON THIS STUPID FREE TRIP ACROSS THE ENTIRE CONTINENT OF ASIA!

and then everyone talked about bentley.

and then mickey kicked himself off over bentley. {he was too hot for her anyway.}

and then ashley cried over what bentley made her do to the guys.

and then she handed out some roses.

and next week, more crying over bentley.

the end.

bentley.

This weekend.

2011-06-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

missy lou who is feeling much better.

she is back to her usual, happy, little self.

so we went to a baseball game.

and the utah arts festival.

i love going every year. there are always lots of cwaaazys there. hipsters and hippies and emotional teenagers and tattoos everywhere you look.

it reminded me of my college years when i almost got a tattoo, almost left religion behind, almost got dreads, almost wrote sad songs on my guitar, and wore lots of tanks tops. i was such a rebel in college.

Remember when I said the iPhone wasn't THAT great?

2011-06-26T09:06:00.000-07:00

i take it back.

b got me a kindle for christmas two years ago. i love my kindle. but life has been busy and i really haven't been able to use it very much. however, recently i put the kindle app on my iphone. and i pretty much have not stopped reading since. my phone is always with me, so i can pull it out and read wherever i am. i read in the dark while i'm rocking c to sleep. i read in bed long after b has fallen asleep. i read on my bathroom floor. i read at my moms. the kindle app on my phone has sort of reopened my life back up to reading again. it makes me so happy.

i have read 5 books this month. i'm going to start my 6th tonight. but i'm not sure what book to read.

anyone have any good book suggestions? i'd love to hear. so far....

matched by ally condie

loved.

catching fire by suzanne collins

liked a lot.

mocking jay by suzanne collins

kind of liked.

room by emma donoghue

a.maz.ing.

bossypants by tina fey

hilarious.

DELURK Olympus High 2001 Graduating Class Readers!

2011-06-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

photo credit.

*this post is being sponsored by the olympus high 2011 graduating class reunion committee.

mrs. alison van dorn thackeray contacted me about writing a blog post for our upcoming reunion. she clearly knows that i have dozens upon dozens of readers.

so i'm a funny person to ask to write a blog post about our high school reunion. mainly because here is how a conversation about the high school reunion goes between b and me...

i'm like "maybe we should go" and b's like "no" and i'm like "good idea".

that is because we are anti-social. we mostly hang out with each other. and trust me when i say that we are both extremely awesome so hanging out with each other turns out to be a pretty rad time. however, i suppose we should get out more?

also, did i mention that this is a TEN YEAR REUNION? no? well, let's talk about that for a minute. these last 10 years have flown by. it's scary how fast the time has gone by actually. all you high school kids out there...prepare to be far above your high school weight, married and parenting children in the BLINK OF AN EYE. you're welcome for that heads up.

anyways, after ali contacted me about the reunion it got me thinking. and my brain said, 'andrea, you should go. it could be fun. you like olympus people. or some of them at least. you married one. you built a house in holladay. holladay is your mother ship. embrace it. you might serve on a pta with some of these people someday. you are going to have kids that will go to school with other kids that belong to these people. you should try to be friendly. less anti-social. make some play group connections. play groups are fun. and you really need to start now if you want your baby to grow up with holladay pride, marry an olympus boy and live down the street from you for the rest of her life. you know you want that. don't you want that? of course you do. and how is that going to happen if you dont start cultivating some olympus roots? and you can't cultivate roots unless you go to the reunion."

i stopped my brain right there because none of that made any sense.

but i think what i'm trying to say is...let's all attend the olympus high TEN YEAR {wtf?} reunion. let's all be best friends you guys? and let's do what we holladay people do best which is look down on everyone who didn't grow up in holladay and attend olympus. we can do that right? i know we can! and if anyone is at the reunion who went to east, well, we need to show them that we are WAY better than them. WAY BETTER. however, i know the chances of this are fairly unlikely. because olympus people do not marry people who did not attend olympus. {except for ryan tollstrup. love you guys!} but just in case there is anyone else there from east. we need to band together! olympus pride! boo east!

ahem. it's funny because it's true.

joking aside, i'm excited to see everyone. from years of facebook and blog stalking i have learned all sorts of interesting things about everyones lives. there have been college graduations, people obtaining extremely advanced degrees, jobs, marriages, traveling, babies, ups and downs, highs and lows, and we have spread out all over the globe. there have even been marathon winners {amazing!}. lot's of changes. some things never change though, like steven mortensen's height. zing! {relax! he said it first!}

a lot has happened in ten years. it's crazy to think we all took our leap out into the world from the same place. good old oly.

so listen olympus graduating class of 2001. you should delurk for just one day and say hi! leave a comment! **if you do you are entered to win a brand new iPhone4 with five years of free service!

but really, you should say hi. do it. DO IT! i'll start first!

hi! it's me. andrea. remember me? no? well that's because i chose to spend my entire high school career in a "serious" relationship. ha. funny. so yeah, hi.

now it's your turn!

p.s. here is a little reunion info...

when: friday, august 19, 2011
where: @ olympust high school
time: 6:00-9:00pm
what: dinner, raffle, music
price:
tickets per person $18.00 until july 8th
$22 july 9th until august 12th
$30 cash at the door

you can get your tickets here: http://www.olympus2001.com/

questions?: email olyhigh2001@gmail.com

fun! (maybe)
all you can drink free alcohol!!!! (definitely not)

p.p.s. they are tearing the school down peeps. this will be the one and only reunion we will have at the actual school. that alone is reason enough to go.

*not true
**also not true

Poor little.

2011-06-21T21:07:00.000-07:00

we've had a sickie at our house this week. it makes me so dang sad to see her this way. however, i love that she will snuggle with us for the first time EVER.

I freaking hate you ABC.

2011-06-20T23:47:00.000-07:00

i'm mad.

i think last nights episode of the bachette finally pushed me over the edge. here's why...

1-SO boring. perhaps even more boring than last week?

2-ashley annoys the h out of me. seriously, could she be any more whiny, obnoxious and in need of constant approval and reassurance that she is "better than emily", "pretty", "whaaa". you can tell that even chris harrison thinks she is pathetic. especially since she won't shut her face about bentley. maybe it would be entertaining to watch if she wasn't so busy making women in general look like such weak, pathetic, losers who are completely smitten every time some a-hole snaps his fingers. she is THE WORST bachette ever. and that is really saying something because i loathe jenn scheft.

3-and most importantly...they lied to us about bentley coming back. i can NOT abide them telling me that "next week! tune in! bentley! drama! ahhh! not boring! watch!" when there is actually no bentley in the episode at all. i'm not kidding you when i say i almost chucked my remote control through our living room window.

i sat in front of my tv through the WHOLE episode, rocking a sick, crying baby, neglecting my real job, letting b unload the dishwasher, highly anticipating bentleys magical arrival to thailand.

i sat through boring date #1. i sat through idiotic group-fight-each-other-date. i sat through boring 2 on 1 date. {laughed a little when william got sent home. what a douche.} i then sat through boring rose ceremony eleventy million. i sat through, "ashley, gentlemen, this is the final rose." all the while, waiting patiently for bentley to show. and i'm watching the clock tick by. 20 minutes left. 15 minutes left. 10 minutes left. any minute now! bentley is going to show ANY MINUTE! 5 minutes left.

liars!

no bentley!

hate!

i am 100% sure that this season cannot redeem itself.

but in other fun news, have you heard about emily maynard? she is RALLYING to become the next bachette. so she can, you know, further her acting/modeling career. apparently that was her plan on brad's season. but darn it, he picked her! so she had to dump him real quick so she could hurry up and be on the show again. these people are all alike.

here is emily's first video blog. yeah, she is video blogging all of this seasons episodes. you can find the rest on the internets if you care. i don't. {i do.} it's not like i watched them all. {i did.}

Where can I turn for peace?

2011-06-20T14:32:00.000-07:00

i'm sure b is always wondering what takes me so long in the bathroom. gross.

little does he know it actually involves the kindle.

now i just need a secret diet coke stash and a pillow.

A day late.

2011-06-20T14:13:00.000-07:00

but i just have to say...

happy fathers day!

to my wonderful dad who has always been there for me and still is. i know i can always count on him.

to my awesome father-in-law. this guy knows a thing or two about how to treat a lady. chivalry is not dead in the mouritsen home. {b is truly the most chivalrous, respectful guy i have ever known and i know that is thanks to his dad.}

and really, between my dad and b's dad, there is no problem, big or small, that can't be solved. they are both amazing, smart, hard working, do-it-yourselfers. we are so lucky to have them.

and of course, i have to say happy fathers day to my baby daddy. day in and day out b is the best dada that any little girl could ask for. to say she adores him is an understatement. the child won't even let me hold her anymore.

he works so hard for our little family. and does way more than his fair share.

we are so lucky.

A few photos of the little...

2011-06-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

ready for church

cutest

her perfect shirt and tutu

how many toys does it take for me to have a pleasant car ride?

new jellies!