Boys Giggle Too

Adam & Josh

Hilton Look-alike Meter

Jen found this on someone else's blog so I started playing around with it. It sounded cool at first until I took a picture of Jen acting weird and a photo of Shaq to see who Emily most resembled. According to this, Emily looks like Shaq more than Jen. What do you think?

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Pedigree - Free genealogy search

Getting Personal

Well, so far I have just reported fun stuff going on in the family, but Amy John's has forced my hand. I guess I've been "TAGGED" and must now share 3 joys of mine, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 obsessions/collections, & 3 random or surprising facts. Then I tag 5 more people at the end. Here I go:

3 Joys

* Family-Maybe it is the fact that my kids are getting older and can do more things; or maybe it was Dan working longer hours at his new job. Whatever the reason, I've had a huge wake up call to the value family time. Where I used to be so excited to get out and do things and take a break from the norm, I find myself wanting to staying home and plan more memorable moments with the kids, make new traditions. I want my kids to experience things with us. And though I do still need a girls night out and definitely date nights with the hubby, I'm finding a sweeter joy and satisfaction being with my kids and Dan than .

* Food: I love to cook and bake. I love to make food look beautiful and taste yummy. I'm cooking more from scratch all the time and trying new recipes. Anybody know how to make their own cream of mushroom soup? I would love to know how.

* Sewing: I love to sew. I still have so much to learn, but it brings such great satisfaction to me to make something unexpected and beautiful. I'm can do a lot of things fairly well, but not too many exceptionally. Sewing is one thing that might one day break that tradition.

Fears

* Drowning- I've always been afraid of drowning. Don't get me wrong, I totally go swimming and love it. There is just something about drowning that wigs me out.

* Being a Widow- I too think this would be a pretty rotten deal. When Dan and I talk about getting old, I always remind Dan, that he has to ask my permission before he is allowed to die.

* Failure- Maybe this is a human trait. I don't usually stress about the little things, but the big things I think of trying get me so nervous sometimes that I tend to not want to try. (ie In high school, I sang my way into making the Regional Choir, but did not try out for State Choir because I was so worried I would bomb.) I'm trying to do better in this.

Goals

* Lose weight- blech, I hate this, but I'm afraid it is ultra necessary.

* Be more consistent-More consistent in my house cleaning, my patience, & my gospel study (I've got my scripture study down, but it's the Sunday lessons and church mags I want to keep up with).

* Temple- Some day I want to volunteer and work in the temple.

Obsessions/Collections

* Fabric- Hi, My name is Jen and I am obsessed with fabric. Outside the home, there are fewer places that make me happier than fabric and ribbon stores. They just seem to ooze creative vibes.

* Containers- Despite my disdain for everyday cleaning, I really and truly love organizing. When everything has a container and a label, my heart sings!

* Lists- I make lists for everything. Lists for projects, lists for house cleaning, lists for everyday of the week. I have so many lists I have to keep them in different note pads so I can find each list quickly and update it.

Random Details

* I hated the internet-I used to hate the internet. You know, back when you signed on and all the sounds from the modem sounded like this: Eeerrr, wrrrr, eeeeawwwwww, tchchchchch..... When Dan and I were first married I would hear that noise more times than I liked. Dan was definitely an internet boy before the internet even was the internet. Now mind you, he never stayed on very long. He was always very thoughtful of that. But still, I felt jealous of and competition from that little metal modem.

* No Fights- In all our almost 11 years of marriage, Dan & I have never fought or argued. We've definitely disagreed with each other & not been happy at times, but no yelling, no angry words ever. For that I am forever grateful. Thanks Dan

* I love butter rum Life Savers

I "TAG":

Tara L.
Marie Sk.
Rachel H.
Mama Cow
Kristen P

More Natural

No I am not going without make up- I am actually making my own baby food. Boy, the Magic Bullet is really coming in handy. It really did not take long. And yes, I still buy the jars from the store, but I am using what I have here at home. It is cheaper, fresher and I feel like it is super yummy for my babe. I can't believe I turned into one of those moms who makes their own baby food. I think I used to mock them. Sorry guys. As you can see, Adam's meals for the next week will consist of apples, peas, broccoli, banana mango, sweet potatoes, carrots, yellow squash, and peaches.

Starburst

My friend Rachel was blogging about her kids bringing home the "mother load" of snacks from a convenience store yesterday. That took me way back in my childhood. I must have been 10 or 11 years old and we still lived in our house on Fountain Circle, next to the Spilsbury's. Our back fences lined the east side of Gilbert Road and just west of Gilbert was a strip mall, where a brand new drug store just opened. There were not a lot of places to go besides wandering the neighborhood, so this store meant freedom. With money in our pockets and a new candy on store shelves, Holly Spilsbury and I convinced our moms to let us walk ALL BY OURSELVES to the new store.

When we got there we found that the store shelves were well stocked with the brand new flavor of Starburst candy. Does anyone remember when Pink Strawberry was NOT an original flavor? In fact, Strawberry was so such a new flavor that they made whole packs filled only with Strawberry. Yes! So what did we do....we spent all of our money buying 5 packs of Strawberry Starburts. We must have been rich. Wasn't candy like $0.25 back then? Anyway, we ate the majority of the candy we had bought that same afternoon. Needless to say, we were sick to our stomaches and had so many canker sores from all the sugar and acid. It was awful. But I suppose that is the price of freedom.

Movie Day

This is my favorite summer activity so far. Thanks to Sara's brilliant mind, we had our First Annual Movie Day. We chose our movie, "The Bee Movie," invited cousins and then for the next few days went to work. We bought and sorted fun size candies, popped and bagged popcorn and chilled juice boxes. The kids colored movie tickets and food coupons the kids could use to purchase food at our very own concession stand. Josh's great idea to dole out the goodies from the play house in the back worked perfectly. The sides of the play house have "fast food style" windows on the sides that worked perfectly for taking orders.

Inside we laid out our biggest blankets just in case anyone spilled. Then we organized adult and child size camping chairs to give the family room a bit of a stadium feel. At the last minute we covered the really big windows with blankets to shut out as much light as possible. Yea, we totally looked like white trash!

As the kids arrived they were given their concession tickets and a plastic shoe box to carry all their loot. Once their treats of choice were collected we returned to the family room to start the feature film. The two hours came and went. The movie was cute and kids wanted to know when we were doing this again. Maybe sooner than later. That was so fun!

New Blog

I have another blog dedicated just for all my dresses! It is located at www.emidresses.blogspot.com. You can visit my blog to see pictures my latest work as I start my new company Emi Dresses. You can contact me through this blog if you are interested in having a modest custom dress or skirt made for girls sizes new born to youth 10T. Enjoy!

Summer Fun

Pictures of Basketball Camp and Swimming lessons

Josh

Emily

NO MORE STITCHES!!!

Today the kids were totally going crazy. I warned them several times to settle down until..... Joshi came down crying with a face that told me was really hurt. One look at this head and I gave the baby to Em and grabbed a receiving blanket to apply to his head. Poor Josh was franticly crying and shaking. He could not be consoled until he asked, "Is my head cracked open?!" Then I understood his hysteria. I explained it was only a small cut, less than half an inch long. Heads just bleed a lot because they don't have a lot of muscle to protect them. With a sigh of relief we were off to the Urgent Care. Bless that beautiful UC on Williams Field and Lindsay and the people who built it so close to our house. We've used that UC more times than I care to admit. The staff there are always so sweet.

We were the only people in the waiting room. Em was very helpful tending Adam, who hardly made a peep. Josh was super brave. He only got 2 stitches, but can't swim for 2 or 3 days since they could not bandage the area. The doctor was very impressed with Josh's calm and cooperative behavior. As the doctor worked he heard all 4, yes 4, stories of how each of them acquired their other sets of stitches. Josh was excited that he got 2 stitches, because he now has had more stitches all together than his sister. Oh no! I declared this contest officially over. NO MORE STITCHES!

Sisters

I know today is all about the Dad's, but I did not have the time to write all that I wanted to about that topic. More about the boys later. Today I am grateful for sisters. I have 2 wonderful younger sisters who I completely love. Now that we are "grown up" the years between us melt away and I am getting to know them more than ever before. Sorry Derek and Matt, I know we are closest in age, but brothers, you're nothin' like sisters! However, those brothers did get lucky and found really amazing girls to marry. I learn so much from them all the time. It has been only a few weeks since I saw them last, but today as I saw them all at family dinner, I realized how much I missed all 4 of my sisters. I love you girls!

Summer Projects

My Favorite Project...

Being a mom!

Sunday night I couldn't sleep. So many things were running through my head. The following week was extra busy so I got out of bed to reorganize my to-do lists and add a few new items. I also was stressing about "my" summer projects. Ha, ha you may say. How is a mom, home with all her kiddos supposed to get anything extra done? I had such high hopes for sewing millions of dresses over the summer. "I am going to be soooo organized," I thought. I had small manageable sewing projects scheduled for each week. Nothing too big, but just enough to help me stay on top of my projects! Ha!

I am now how many weeks into the summer and have not had time for a thing. I wondered if sewing all summer for a boutique in August was really the right thing for me to do. It was something I had been wanting to do for years. Something that I loved. So I took my worries to the Lord and gratefully realized that, yes, this was the right thing to do. So my next worry was how I could find the right balance for everything.

You see, I was determined to make this summer fun and not a total bore for the kids just because I wanted to sew all day long. I made a new summer job chart for them. We signed up for a couple of summer activities. I even calendared 2 "fun days" each week when we would do our extra fun things (thanks Sara Stoddard). I was not willing to sacrifice their summer, but with a 4 month old baby to top it off, how could I get it all done? How could I find the right balance? I racked my brain to no avail.

Then I got my answer- in an email. The sweet, sweet woman organizing the boutique informed me last night that the boutique would no longer be scheduled for August but for the beginning of November. November! Are you kidding?! This was perfect. It gave me extra time to sew during the school year when my two oldest would be gone. It worked especially well since the majority of dresses I wanted to sell were Christmas dresses. Can you believe it?! My prayers were answered. The overwhelming stress diminished and I took in a deep breath of relief. There had been no balance for my little situation, so the Lord sent me more time. I am immensely thankful that Heavenly Father is aware of my needs, my desires. I am so grateful that there can be balance.

Sunday Morning Criminal Damage

It's Sunday morning so we followed the same routine we always do: get up, get ready for church, leave for church around 7:30. But this time we had a little surprise!

Yep, that is what you think it is: red spray paint on the back of our car. I'm not sure what Redm means but I was a little ticked, obviously.

We were a little later for church than we like so we drove on to church and while I was waiting for Sacrament Meeting to start I looked up how to remove spray paint from a car. Luckily, there were a lot of answers!

The one I decided to use was WD-40 and a washcloth. After Sacrament Meeting, I went home to move the car inside the garage and get the paint off of it as soon as possible. It took about an hour but most of the paint is now off. The only paint left is anything that was in the scratches that were on the trunk of the car. I'll go back later tonight to use a toothbrush and try to get the paint out that way.

I did report it to the police and that's where I got the title of the blog post. When the police officer called he said, "You reported some criminal damage. I am calling to get your report." It made me realize how bad this really is. It's not just someone causing us a bit more work today. It actually is criminal! We made sure to talk to the kids about what happened, why it was so bad and why they should respect the property of other people.

Anyone else have something like this happen recently?

Double Duty

All I can say is...... 2 loads of laundry, washed and dried. One little brown crayon. Ugh. Any good advice?

okay, after the millions of little brown spots and streaks on every piece of cloths. Here is the solution I found online:

Pre-treat with Zout, double amount of Tide, 1/2 cup Borax, 1 scoop of oxi clean, all in the hottest water you can get in a double rinse cycle. IT WORKED!

Can you say...Child Prodigy

Adam's development has been so fun to watch. He can roll over each way and scoot himself in circles. His hand eye coordination is improving, though occasionally you might find him bonking himself repeatedly. He is even trying out his first foods. At 4 1/2 months old his language skills have gone from a gentle dove like coo to slobbery gurgles. Just about every day "we" (mom & son) practice words like: kisses, mom, dad, Emi, Josh & love you. During our routine I typically get a smile from ear to ear or even a little babble. Tonight though, tonight he became our very own child prodigy. Remember, only 4 1/2 months. He must get it from Daddy.

P.S.- Sorry about the end. He got so excited he puked.

I'm So Sneaky!

I am sooooo sneaky! Last night I decided to make that potato casserole that everyone makes. You know, grated potatoes, "cream of something" soup, grated cheese....Well since I don't know how to make my own "cream of anything" soup yet (which one day I hope to be able to do), I decided to add some fresh veggies to give it a little fresher flavor. I started to saute some onions, garlic and celery to soften them up a little. As I pulled my veggies from the fridge, I saw the sweet potatoes and zucchini in there too. That is when genius happened. I peeled and grated both, added them to the saute pan to cook them a little and then mixed all the veggies in the casserole. They were completely disguised! The zucchini almost matched the color of the potatoes and the sweet potato looked like cheese. Now my kids are pretty good about eating anything, even veggies, but I was so glad that I could make this generations-old recipe a little more healthy. The best part...NO one noticed the difference in the casserole! I am sooooo sneaky.