Kim, Brad, and baby Katie

Katie

2012-01-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I just watch Katie playing and I can't believe how we were so blessed with such an amazing little girl. So many times, I feel like I don't deserve her. I know I haven't made the greatest decisions in my life. Sometimes I'm not the best wife and marriage can be rocky. I more often than not forget to say my prayers, read my scriptures, or thank God for all the wonderful things in my life. And yet, for some reason, Brad and I were given this little girl with this perfect little spirit and it just brings tears to my eyes. I'm sure a lot of this is just pregnancy hormones, but I really am SO THANKFUL for having Katie in my life.

She is SO sweet. She loves so unconditionally and is super cuddly. She will give you the best hugs that just make you want to cry. She wraps her arms around your neck so tight, or lays her head on your chest or shoulder like you are her favorite person in the world.

She is very funny. Whenever I take her somewhere and let her play, myself, and other people, will just watch her play and laugh at her silly antics. I am often asked "Is she always like this?" to which I reply "Yes. Yes she is." She truly enjoys life. Nothing frightens her or worries her. She makes her own fun and laughs at the little things.

She has a great imagination. Give Katie a couple of toys and she creates an entire world. Her toys will laugh with each other, play with each other, kiss each other, and talk to each other. She pushes them around in her toy stroller and tucks them into bed. If there is no blanket nearby, she will use her skirt or dress as a faux blanket to make sure her toys are comfy cozy. She shares her snacks and drinks with them. I love watching her little brain imagine such a fun world.

She has amazing sympathy/empathy. If there is another little boy or girl crying or upset, Katie is the first one to try and comfort them. She will ask me (in her baby babble) about why they are sad. She wants to hug them and help them. As i've been struggling with morning sickness during this pregnancy, Katie is the first to come to my aid. As i'm kneeling in front of the toilet, tears streaming down my face, Katie will look straight into my eyes, give me the most caring little face, and pat me on the shoulder or head. She will sit in my lap and give me a hug. It's truly amazing how much she can understand not just other children's emotions, but her own mother's.

Of course, Katie isn't all unicorns and rainbows. She doesn't sleep through the night, she loves to draw on the walls (and blinds, and cupboards, and the dishwasher, and the floors. . . ), she throws temper tantrums, and has a pretty strong sense of entitlement. Motherhood can still be extremely exhausting and trying on my patience, but Katie is worth it. I will vacuum up the entire box of crushed crackers that have been smooshed into the carpet. I will shower her off after she's been splashing around in the toilet. I have to listen to her crying as she sits in time-out for smearing yogurt all over the entire kitchen. But I find it so easy to look at her, and do it all with a smile. (Well, I almost never smile when it's 4 in the morning and Katie is screaming, but that's different. Lol.)
I am honestly SO impatient to meet our new little Odasso. I'm ready for every challenge and trial, just to meet our new little one. I can't wait to watch their personality unfold. I can't wait to help them grow and learn, and see them develop into their own little person. It's so exciting that i'm only 9 weeks in and I already want to bring out the bassinet and sort through the newborn size clothes.Only 7 more months right? :)

Lately

2012-01-24T11:06:00.000-07:00

Well, we've been pretty busy lately. Apart from Christmas and New Years, our little family has been making more of an effort to get out and about. I figure, as long as i'm going to be stuck in this dang state for at least a few years, I might as well try and enjoy some of it. At the end of November, we all ventured up to the Hogle Zoo. It was free admission day, so Brad took the day off work and we had a ton of fun looking at all the animals. Of course, it's got nothing on San Diego (sigh), but it'll do. It was a lot bigger than Tautphus Zoo in Idaho Falls though, so that was a plus.
We also went to Chuck E. Cheese a few weeks ago, although I doubt we'll be back anytime soon. It was definitely a lot of fun, but lack of hand washing between playing games and eating pizza, Brad and Katie ended up with the flu. Momma, as usual, stayed perfectly healthy, to take care of my poor sick honeys.
We also went down to Thanksgiving Point to look at the lights, but in all honesty, the 40 minute wait to get in was not really worth it.
Sorry there are no pictures from those things. I've been SO lame at remembering the camera lately.

We also went over to Planet Play recently. We've been there before but Katie was too little to really do anything last time, so it was definitely more fun this time around. Planet Play is basically a huge pizza, pasta, and salad buffet (a la PizzaPieCafe) that has a separate area with games and attractions, like go-carts, laser tag and mini golf. No matter where we go, Katie LOVES Merry-Go-Rounds.

She also loved these little car rides they had.

A few weeks ago, I purchased a membership for the Children's Discovery Museum up in Salt Lake. They were having a deal for $12 off a membership, so I jumped on it! We went for the first time on MLK day and although it was fairly busy, and smaller than we thought, it was still a LOT of fun. They have a whole section with plastic balls that you put in these tubes that fly all over the room. Another section is an entire mini grocery store, and house, and farm. So cute. The water play area was definitely a favorite of Katie's as well. I DID bring my camera, but locked it up in our locker without thinking and never got it out. Poop.

Apart from that, we've been mostly bundled up inside from the cold. We did take a walk to McDonald's a couple weeks ago for dinner. The extra exercise counteracts the fast food, right? ;)
I also take any opportunity of rain to get outside! Oh, how I LOVE rain. Desert rain is for sure the best, but i'll take this freezing cold stuff with no wonderful creosote smell anyway. Katie just LOVES to play in the rain. Of course puddles are her favorite.

Literally right after I snapped this picture, she tilted her head back and opened her mouth to drink some rain. It was so cute! Of course, right when I was going to get a picture of it, she stopped. Figures.

In other news, our little family of 3 is now a family of 3 1/4. Lol. After 8 long months of negative tests and miscarriages, we finally managed to snag a keeper! Hopefully, anyway. I have high hopes though. This little guy (or girl) has been hitting me HARD with the pregnancy symptoms and I just feel so at peace about everything. The due date is about August 29th, and i'm shooting for a waterbirth at home! Woo! I've still got to set up an initial appointment with a midwife (i'm hoping for BetterBirth midwives) but i'm really excited about this. I have nothing against hospital births for those who want them, but I read something a while ago that just made so much sense. We don't LIVE in a hospital JUST IN CASE anything happens, so why should we BIRTH in a hospital JUST IN CASE? Of course, it's amazing to have that available to us, but i'll save myself the unnecessary procedures and meds and thousands of dollars, and have my baby the way it was meant to happen. :)

Hives!

2011-12-17T14:08:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago, we discovered small red spots on Katie's skin on a Sunday night. We weren't sure what they were, but they got worse after she had a bath and then continually spread. Monday morning, it was INSANE! Almost her entire abdomen and back were one big red splotch, and under her arms, her neck, and behind her knees all had red spots. We decided to call the doctor to find out what it was. We had a few theories: allergic reaction, although we couldn't think of anything new that she'd been exposed to that day, heat rash, possibly from being all wrapped up in layers lately due to the cold, or something like eczema or psoriasis. Brad made an appt with the doc the next day but Tuesday morning, almost everything had faded. By the time we got in for our appt, it was completely gone. The doctor showed me some pictures to try and figure out what it looked like, but none of the pictures looked like what Katie had and she also didn't have any other symptoms! She was not itchy at all, not fussy, eating normal, happy as ever, no fever or cough or anything. He gave me a prescription for some hydro-cortisone, which I never filled because she wasn't itchy.
Flash forward 2 weeks. It's Monday afternoon/early evening, and I notice the spots have returned. Little at first, and then escalating after her bath. Tuesday, it had of course gotten worse and I was able to get into the doctor again that afternoon. He took one look at her and said, that's hives. I also took some pictures just in case they vanished before we got to the office. Her back looks much worse (and it looked WAY worse the first time this happened), but here's one of the pictures.

     Anyway, he was pretty surprised that they didn't itch or bother her at all. He gave me some samples of Children's Dimetapp to give to her once every 6 hours until they were gone. He also gave me a scrip for a liquid Zyrtec or something in case it became chronic. Then he gave me a referral card to an allergist (that Brad and I actually already know personally) in case we want to have her tested.
I spent the rest of the day trying to make connections between Monday and that first Sunday. I couldn't remember what we'd eaten for dinner, but I knew that she had had Goldfish crackers in Nursery at church, and I had given her Goldfish crackers when we were shopping at Target and Costco on Monday morning. Katie used to eat Goldfish ALL THE TIME, but I hadn't purchased any in months, when I thought about it. It was the only connection I could see between the two days. Fast forward to a couple of days ago. Sadly, before I linked the Goldfish, I bought one of those huge boxes of them from Costco. I hadn't given Katie any since then, but I kept them on my nightstand to snack on. (They are one of my favorties snacks, if you didn't know.) Well, one morning I decided to let Katie have a few to see what would happen. She had a good handful and then sure enough, hives appeared a while later.
     Do you see what i'm getting at here? My baby is allergic to Goldfish!!!! If you know me very well, you will know what a tragedy this is! Obviously it's not the goldfish themselves, but something in them, but still. Sad day.

     I've narrowed it down to three ingredients:

Annatto: A spice used for coloring the cheese. We are white cheese eaters around here (provolone, mozzarella, parmesan, monteray/pepper jack, etc. . . ) and so she doesn't have orange cheese very often. Although, she's had Mac n' Cheese many times in the past without any problems.
Autolyzed Yeast: Used for flavoring I think. I don't think it's in many foods that Katie eats, and it seems weird that she might be allergic to this, an extract of yeast, when she isn't allergic to normal yeast.
"Spices": The Goldfish ingredients list just had the word "spices" with no other clue as to what they are.

After this last time her hives appeared, we actually had 4-cheese Rice-a-Roni with dinner without really thinking that it might have the same ingredients as the goldfish. (This hives thing is brand new to us, Ok?!) After she'd already scarfed down a few handfuls, I checked the box and sure enough, it contained both Annatto and Autolyzed Yeast. It also had a few different spices in it. And her hives stuck around for a few extra days.
We're still debating on whether to get her an allergy test or not. I don't like unnecessary medical stuff, and the hives don't bother her at all. I decided to buy some regular cheddar cheese at the store and will give her a a little bit once her hives are completely gone. If they come back, i'll know it's the annatto. If not, well, maybe we will call up that allergist.

Whoa! WAIT A MINUTE! I was just about to post this when I decided to do some more digging on Autolyzed Yeast. Did you know that it is essentially MSG?! What the heck?! I actually just read this article where it states that autolyzed yeast and MSG can trigger allergic reactions in some people. I think now I may be leaning more towards the yeast factor. I don't give Katie many processed foods, or Asian foods for that matter (since a LOT of Asian foods add these ingredients) so maybe that's why she's now getting hives. I'll keep you updated.

Our First Snow in Utah

2011-11-19T15:33:00.001-07:00

Well, there was a light spattering of snow about a week and a half ago, but that didn't really count. Last night, we got some real snow. Now, I absolutely hate snow, but you all knew that right? It's fine and dandy when you drive up to the mountains, go sledding, make snow angels and snowmen, and all that, but living in it is awful. The cold, the wet, the ice, shoveling snow and scraping windshields and not being able to go out whenever I want to. . . it's awful!
Ok, enough of my rant. Despite my dislike for the weather, I don't want to keep Katie away from all the fun experiences with snow. We've stocked up on some winter clothes for her (everything from last Winter in Rexburg is too small) and headed out to play today! She had a good time, although she mostly enjoyed eating the snow. Haha!

There's the playground momma!

Can you see the excitement?

See her little boogers? She's had a runny nose for a while now, but it was really acting up outside. I think she gets that from me. If I spend more than 3 or 4 minutes out in the cold, my nose runs like crazy!

Brad kept throwing snowballs at her. Poor girl. Lol. And then he plopped a huge thing of snow on her head! She didn't really notice it was there though. :)

See? She loved just eating the snow. No worries. We made sure she only ate the clean top layer.

I tried to make a snowman, but it broke. So I made a mini one. :)

Hope everyone else is out enjoying their weather today!

Experimentation in Home Decoration

2011-11-04T10:11:00.001-06:00

Over the past few years, I have become less and less crafty. Sad, but true. I can never think of cute ideas, or when I do, they never seem to be. . . complete. Take the wall in my dining room for example. I thought I was being super creative when I put 6 pictures up there in a somewhat asymmetrical way. Then, I put a vinyl of the word family next to one of the pictures. It looked good to me and I didn't really think anything of it, until my mom came up a couple months ago. She brought some home decor items from her house, put a few more things up on that wall and a bookshelf underneath and made everything look a million times better. I just don't have that kind of eye anymore. Oh well. I do try sometimes though, when I see good inspiration from somewhere else. Like this "pin" on pinterest that I saw.
http://www2.fiskars.com/Activities/Crafting/Project-Gallery/Guest-Designers/Mark-Montano/Paper-Flower-Key-Holder
How cute is that?
Well, I decided to attempt my own. We needed a designated place for keys anyway, since they always seem to end up all over the place. I didn't follow the directions to a "T" because I didn't have a stapler, or clear coat spray paint or whatever, but I think they look pretty cute. What do you think?

My cooking blog has inspired me to be more creative and crafty, so you may see more posts like this in the future. I've also decided that I sit at the computer WAY too much during the day, so being up and moving or even just sitting at the kitchen table to work on something instead will be way more beneficial.

In Katie news:
Still not much talking. I'm not really worried, but it would make it easier for her to express herself. She does say a few words- Yeah, hot, ouch, hat, bubble, dad, up, no, juice, shoe, cheese, water, go, and she actually said the word book yesterday rather than just signing it. Speaking of which, she seems to enjoy sign language way more than English. Lol.
She loves Yo Gabba Gabba, which we are seeing live next week, and Kipper.
She LOVES books!
She loves to drag her blankets and pillows all over the apartment and cuddle up on the floor, or tuck her toys into bed. When she is ready for a nap, she puts her pillow and blankets in my lap, climbs up, cuddles, and then falls asleep.
She likes to feed her snacks to her baby and her barbies.
Her hair is growing! And she has the cutest little curls in the back.
She is so great at playing independently and using her imagination.
She is also a huge troublemaker! The terrible twos have hit early here and she has become a pro at throwing tantrums. Covering her face with her hands, falling to the floor with fake tears, the whole bit. It's hard for Brad and I not to crack up laughing when she does this.
Teething is a killer.
She loves to dance to any music, any where, and time.
Bedtime is still a challenge (she has never really been a good sleeper), but I SO appreciate my wonderful hubby who gets up with her in the middle of the night.
He favorite beverage is water. Like mother, like daughter!
Oh, and our ward is letting her into nursery early! Her first full Sunday in nursery was last week and of course she did great. No fear or worries at all about leaving momma and daddy behind to play with other little kids and toys! Although apparently, she did pass out at some point while eating a crayon. Haha!
I put most recent pictures on Facebook, but i'll try and get some on here later today or tomorrow. :)

Neglect

2011-10-16T15:11:00.001-06:00

I have been SERIOUSLY neglecting this blog! SO SORRY!
I've been spending most of my blogging time on my little side project:
Cooking With Kimi

It has been SO much fun working on this! I don't plan on doing it professionally or trying to make money from it or anything. It's really just a way to get me to home cook more and to help me remember yummy things and get inspiration.

In our family news, we went to Vegas last weekend! There was an Odasso get together! It was Brad's dad's side of the family, so his dad's parents came out from Pennsylvania. I also go to meet his older sister Adrienne and her husband James for the first time. It was a lot of fun! We played 7-UP, of course, took pictures, and just had a good time hanging out and catching up.

My parent's also visited last weekend! And guess what they brought me as an early Christmas gift? A HUGE Water Bath Canner! Woo! Finally I can have home canned peaches and pears and tomatoes and applesauce and juice and everything! They have also been bringing up food storage/emergency preparedness items for me, which is greatly appreciated! It's so great to feel safe and secure in case anything bad were to happen.

Katie still isn't saying much. She DOES know some words, but she doesn't seem to care about talking. She knows a few signs in sign language though, and it's so cute to watch her use her itty-bitty hands to sign! She's dancing more than ever, and she runs so fast! She likes to walk backwards, and on her tip toes. She carries her blankets and pillows around the whole apartment and tucks her toys into bed. She hasn't bene doing so hot with her big girl bed. She did SO good for about a week, and then she was teething and that ruined her sleeping and it hasn't gone back to normal since. Brad has to sit with her, next to her bed, for a good 15-20 minutes until she passes out. Then, she'll wake up anywhere between 3 and 6 in the morning screaming at her door, which is followed by Brad bringing her into our bed and after she climbs all over me for 30 minutes, she'll fall asleep. It's been a little crazy and sleep deprived around here. Oh well.

Brad and I were called as Sunbeam teachers, so that should be fun. There are like, 30? sunbeams, so they are all split into 2 or 3 different classes. It's a little insane. Luckily, Katie will be old enough for nursery in just 8 weeks! Counting down the days.

Oh! And I apologize for my blog. The layout is being all kooky for some reason. I'll get to fixing it soon!

Tar-get's all my money!

2011-09-30T14:13:00.003-06:00

Ok, the title isn't completely true because I found some NICE deals at Target today!
I'll start out by saying that, before sales/clearance/coupons, the total would have been$162.66.
Actually, I don't know the regular price on some of the items I got on sale, so it would have been more than that total.
Now, how much did I pay out of pocket for all of this? $56.61 and that's including $5 tax.
That's a lot for one of my normal shopping trips, but let me point out, as you'll see in the picture below, that I got an umbrella stroller, a lamp shade and lamp base, a 4x5 area rug (which normally goes for $50 alone) and a 20 lb tub of kitty litter all inside that $56.61.
Here's the rundown of what I bought:
1 Umbrella Stroller = $10.00 (On sale from $15)
1 4x5 Area Rug = $12.48 (Clearance from $49.99!)
1 Lamp Shade = $3.74 (Clearance from $14.99!)
1 Lamp Base = $7.48 (Clearance from $29.99!)
1 Tidy Cats kitty litter 20 lb = $4.99
4 Clorox 2 Stain Removers = $1.00 for all 4
1 Green Works Toilet Bowl cleaner = $1.24
1 Nivea for Men Body Wash = $1.00
2 Clorox 2 Stain Fighter pens = $0.50 for both
1 Friskies Party Mix cat treats = Free
2 Visine for Contacts = $1.28 for both
2 Rimmel London Glam Eyes Eyeshadows = $2.98 for both
2 Gerber Graduates meals = $0.88 for both
1 Colgate Optic White toothpaste = Free
2 Aquafresh Extreme Clean toothpastes = $0.94 for both
1 Caress Beauty Bar = $0.67
2 Aquafresh Training toothbrushes = $0.98 for both
2 Chapsticks (Just because my lips have been super dry) = $1.36 for both
Overall I save $106.05, making that a savings of about 65%. I call that a good day. :)

You can just barely see the stroller wheels. Sorry! If you click on the picture it will let you see the whole thing.

Quick Dinner Rolls

2011-09-21T13:21:00.000-06:00

I'm not going to lie, these are not the yummiest rolls ever. They are not the best or fluffiest or the top in any category really. What they are, is really easy rolls that you can make in 45 minutes. I often turn to these rolls on a weeknight when it's already 5:30 and I'm still trying to figure out what to make for dinner. These are great because I can start them at 5:30, make something else for dinner that takes less than an hour, and have dinner and homemade rolls on the table by 6:30. Perfect!
(Will update this post with pictures next time I make a batch of these puppies)

Quick Dinner Rolls
Original Recipe 30 Minute Dinner Rolls
Adapted Recipe by Me!

Ingredients:
1 cup and 2 Tbsp warm water (between 105 and 115 degrees)
1/3 cup Oil
1/4 cup Sugar
2 Tbsp Yeast
1 tsp Salt (I use sea salt)
1 egg, beaten
3-4 cups flour
1 cold stick of Butter

Directions:

Mix warm water, oil, sugar and yeast together in a warmed mixer bowl.
Let sit for 10 minutes.
Start to preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Add salt and egg. Blend well.
Add flour, one cup at a time until soft dough is formed. (I end up adding 3 cups)
Knead on a floured surface for 5-10 minutes. (Add last cup of flour during kneading if necessary)
Shape into golf-ball sized balls and place into greased 13x9 pans.
Cover with a dish cloth and let rise in a warm place from 5-30 minutes, depending on how much time you have. You can even let it rise for an hour if you aren't in a rush.
Bake for 15-20 minutes. (Check them after 8-10 minutes. If they are getting too brown, tent them with foil)
Take them out, grab that cold stick of butter, and rub butter over the tops of each and every roll.
Serve warm and enjoy :)

Alaskan Cruisin'

2011-09-13T16:06:00.000-06:00

The first week in September, Brad and I were able to go on a cruise to Alaska! My wonderful mom came up to our apartment to watch Katie for us so we could get away on our own vacation. Can I just say that until we left for the cruise, I had never been away from Katie for more than 8 hours?! And the one time I was away from her for 8 hours was when I was working on the Extreme Makeover house and she was asleep at home the whole time. Anyway, it was pretty difficult to be away from her for so long, but I knew she was in good hands. We left on Friday evening and stopped in Rigby to see Brad's good friend Bary and his new-ish baby. We spent the night with my best friend Daryn and her hubby Mat in Rexburg (where we enjoyed some Happy Birthday cupcakes for me), and then went back down to Rigby in the morning. Bary and his sweet wife Vicky took us out to breakfast and then Brad and I set out on a 12 hour drive to Portland. We stayed with my sister Karli and her boyfriend Jonathan on Saturday night, asfter playing a good round of Apples to Apples, and then they drove us up to Seattle in the morning, where we got onto our cruise ship!
Here I am in our cabin. :)

We left Seattle around 4, had dinner and then went and played a round of free Bingo. Of course, being the youngest couple on board (Holland America is famous for being 90% old people. Lol! I made up that statistic) we got picked to go onstage during the show after Bingo. We played a little game and won a free bottle of champagne which remained in our mini-bar for the reminder of the cruise and we left it there after the cruise. We don't drink and no one we asked wanted it! Haha!
Anyway, the next day was spent at sea, heading up to Alaska.

Monday night, we found this little guy o our bed,

Tuesday, we were in Glacier Bay National Park. I can't remember the name of this glacier.

Alaska sure is beautiful though, right? It was a little cold in Glacier Bay, probably in the 40's, but most of the trip was in the 60 degree range.

A little family of seals!

Lots of Harbor Seals.

On Wednesday, we were in Alaska's capital city, Juneau. Quite the tourist attraction, with about 30 jewelry stores in our face the second we got off the ship. Haha. We were lucky though because about a dozen locals told us that it was the first sunny day in weeks! (Some people said 2 weeks, some people said 5 weeks.)

The tramway that was too expensive for us to take. The illusionist on the ship actually made a joke calling it the Mt. Roberts Scamway, because it's $27 to go up, and there's nothing really to see at the top!

We decided to shell out $32 to take a shuttle out to Mendenhall Glacier. It was 5 times the price of the city bus, bus twice as fast. It was worth it anyway. As soon as we got off the bus, we walked over to a little pathway over a river full of salmon, and look what was right below our feet!!!!

This is Mendenhall Glacier. We decided to be awesome and go on a 3.5 mile hike up in the woods. It was a beautiful day and there was a nice look-out point at the top.

Just off the hiking trail was this waterfall. I went right up to it. :)

Beautiful!

On Thursday, we were in Sitka. Here, we had to take tenders to get from the boat to the dock. It was a really rainy day unfortunately, so most of the things I wanted to do were taken off our list. I had planned on quite a bit of walking up to the forest, but there was just too much rain. Here's our ship once we got to the dock! We didn't do much in Sitka other than walk around town a little bit.

Friday, we were in Ketchican for only a few hours. It really wasn't enough time to do anything (not that there was much to do unless you septn hundreds of dollars on shore excursions) but it was another beautiful day and we explored the town a bit, bought some souveniers, and just enjoyed the town.

Friday night was a Dessert Extravaganza on board. Lots of cool creations made from breads and chocolate and fruits and things.

Saturday night we arrived in Victoria, British Columbia. Beautiful town! There were two other cruise ships there at the same time.

We took a 30 minute walk to downtown and passed by the legislative building, which was all lit-up and lovely! We walked along the waterfront and then watched some street performers and decided to take a taxi back to the pier when we were done.

Also during the cruise, we dressed up for a couple of formal dinners, got our pictures taken, did some souveneir shopping, saw an illusionist which was amazing and funny, also a ventriliquist who was funny, singers and dancers, got lots of free jewelry in the different ports of call, ate WAY too much, met some nice and funny people at dinner each night, spent a little extra to eat at the steakhouse on board one night, saw some newer movies we'd been wanting to see, and just had an overall amazing time
Sunday morning, we were back in Seattle, got off the ship, Karli picked up us at later that day, we drove the 12 hours back home to Utah and got in at 4:30 in the morning. Katie was so happy to see us and it's nice to be home. While it was sad to be away from Katie, it was so great to spend time together, just Brad and me, as a married couple. Brad loved it and was pretty bummed when the cruise was over. I'm sure there will be more in our future.

Hogle Zoo

2011-09-13T14:41:00.000-06:00

On the last day of August, I was able to see my good friend Tara and her adorable little girl Emma! They'd been in Utah for a few weeks and we were finally able to get together and head to the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City.

The baby elephant was SO cute!

Snow Leopard

Not a great picture, but it's funny because it looks like the giraffe is eating Katie's head!

The bird show was pretty sweet.

Thanks for a fun day, Tara! Miss you!

Pantry Challenge: Week 4

2011-09-13T14:18:00.000-06:00

It's my last week! So exciting!

Day 1. Wednesday:
I originally said steak and shrimp for dinner, until it was 6 o'clock and I realized the steak I bought was not a "slap some seasoning on it and toss it in a pan on the stove" kind of steak. Oops. Because I was frustrated, Bad warmed up a couple cans of Chef Boyardee for dinner instead. Not exactly steak and shrimp, but good nonetheless. Who doesn't like Chef Boyardee ravioli every once in a while?

Day 2. Thursday:
Eggs and bacon for breakfast? Yeah right! I don't know why I make plans for a more-ambitious-than-cereal breakfast. I did put the steaks (boneless chuck steak if you're wondering) in the crockpot with a TON of seasonings and let it go all day. I also made two loaves of whole wheat bread. Mmm! When the meat was done, Brad helped me make some tortillas and then we served the meat with homemade tortillas, beans, mexican rice, cheese and some lettuce. (If you're wondering about how to make your own tortillas, recipe here.)

Day 3. Friday:
Today wasn't half bad for dinner! I wanted to make homemade buns, but after yesterday's day-long trial with my bread dough (it didn't rise and I had to add more yeast again to make it rise) I really wasn't in the mood to deal with more yeast just yet. Instead we had sloppy joes on toasted wheat bread. I browned up some ground turkey and added a can of Manwich to it. I also had a bag of mixed veggies in the freezer that I steamed up and then sliced up 5 red plums to serve with everything. Yum!

Day 4. Saturday:
Hold the phone! You will NEVER guess what I did today! I made breakfast! Because i'd been up since 6:30 to pick up my bountiful basket (which I forgot to take a picture of. Sorry!) I decided to just make some food for the fam! Bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, sliced cantaloupe, green grapes, and milk to drink. For lunch, we actually went to Mimi's Cafe! My birthday is in a week and i've started getting all kinds of coupons in my email for free meals at restaurants, so we used a buy one, get one free entree at Mimi's. SO delicious. I swear, they have the best muffins in the world. For dinner, we went to our ward picnic (which I thought was lunch, but it wasn't. Lol.) Hot dogs and hamburgers and fruit and chips and salads and cookies, etc. . . It was a good eating day.

Hey everyone! I completely forgot to finish this post before we left on our cruise! I can't really remember what we had for the rest of the month, but the pantry challenge was SO fun for me! It was great to make new things from basic staples in my kitchen and to also know exactly what I was going to make for dinner each day. Brad even started asking "what's for dinner" because he knew that I already had it all planned out! Lol.
A few tips if you want to try something similar, or if you just need some help figuring out what to make for dinner:

Understand that it's OKAY to not follow through with the plan. Sometimes things come up, you are extra tired, sick, have company over, etc. . . When my mom and my brother and his gf came for dinner two weeks ago, I had planned on grilling outside, but I ran out of time to prepare anything and we ended up having a station to make our own grilled cheese sandwiches and I heated up some tomato soup.
Make a list. Grab a pen and some paper and go through your pantry, food storage, freezer, fridge, and cupboards. Write down what you can make a meal out of. List entrees and sides. Mac n cheese, pasta, hamburgers, soup, frozen veggies, fresh corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, etc. . . Now when it's time to make a meal plan for the next week, you already have a list of things you can have for dinner. Just pick and choose which entree you want with which sides and choose a day. Easy peasy.
When you go to the store, HAVE A LIST! Try to only buy staple items (flour, sugar, spices, produce, eggs, milk, etc. . . ) but if you have coupons and sales that make other items SUPER cheap, go for it. Just try to stick to free or less than $1 items. This will make your budget stretch much farther.
I didn't do this, but I wish I had- Use cash. At the beginning of the month get your grocery budget, whatever it may be, in cash. That way, there is no way to go over budget! Darn debit cards make it WAY to easy to spend an extra $10 or so.
Don't be afraid to try new recipes. If you have a ton of top ramen in your cupboard like I do and want to use them up, toss in some peas, peppers, broccoli, whatever veggies you have on hand. Don't use the seasoning packet and make your own peanut sauce or something. If you have 30 boxes of dry pasta in stock, also like I do, you don't have to make pasta and meat sauce every night! Try different pasta salads, bake it with sauce and cheese and pepperonis like a casserole, use it as a side rather than the main course. Hamburger patties but no hamburger buns? Just use them as ground beef to make tacos or something. Think outside the box!

Anyway, I had a lot of fun and hope to continue to be better at using what I have and stretching our dollars. Happy homemaking everyone!

Target Trip

2011-08-30T15:42:00.003-06:00

So I just got back from Target and wanted to post about some great deals I found!

1 Package Huggies Slip-On Diapers $9.49
     $3 off manufacturer coupon
     $2 off Target coupon
     Total= $4.79 for 23 diapers
Cute 18m size shirt and skirt outfit $9.99
     30% off clearance
     Total= $6.98
3m size jean shorts (for whenever we have our next baby) $4.50
     Clearance for $3.15
     $2 off Target coupon
     Total= $1.15
1 Cascade Action Pacs, 4 count $0.97
     $1 off coupon
     Total= $0.03 money maker!
3 Tide Single packs $2.91
     $1.50 off 2 coupon
     $0.50 off coupon
     Total= $0.91 for 3
2 Gallons of Milk $4.98
Nivea Body Wash $3.99
     $1 off Target coupon
     $2 off Manufacturer coupon
     Total= $0.99
2 travel size Secret Deodorant $1.94
     2 $1 off coupons
     Total= $0.06 money maker!
Oral B Floss $0.97
     $0.75 off coupon
     Total= $0.22
Oral B Pro-Health For Me Floss Picks $2.49
     Clearnace for $1.74
     $1 off coupon
     Total= $0.74
Rimmel London Glam Eye Eyeshdow $2.99
     $2 off manufacturer coupon
     $1 off target coupon
     Total= $0.01 money maker!
Clairol Natural Instinct Hair Dye $6.94
     Clearance for $4.85
     $2 off coupon
     Total= $2.85
2 Johnson and Johnson To-Go First Aid Kits $1.94
     $1.50 off 2 coupon
     Total= $0.44
2 travel size Visine $3.94
     2 $2 off 1 coupons
     Total= $0.06 money maker!

Total before clearance prices and coupons = $58.04
Total AFTER clearance and coupons = $23.89
Savings = $34.15 or 59%
Woo!

Definitely not my greatest shopping trip or "extreme" by any means, but for anyone who is curious about NORMAL couponing, here's what it looks like. :)

A Katie Post!!!

2011-08-24T17:34:00.001-06:00

Get ready for a slew of pictures in this post!
I just wanted to post some updates about our sweet little one.
Katie turned 14 months on the 11th of this month.
She loves to cuddle with her daddy when she is feeling sleepy.

She also loves to point at things!

Sometimes, when she is getting ready for a nap, she will lay on the floor, just like this, and watch TV. This is when I know she's getting tired.

Sometimes, she likes to hide from me. She was being quiet, which is generally synonymous with mischievous, and I couldn't find her! I looked all over the house! Finally, I find her sitting in our little storage ottoman in the corner of the living room, just chillin'.

She loves to smile. Always.

She also thoroughly enjoys climbing on the couch.

She doesn't like having to sit in the car so much, but she's usually a pretty good girl about it.

She loves these puzzle toy things! This is at the Salt Lake City Public Library.

Katie enjoys being silly. And her pacifier.

Sometimes, she just loves to be glamorous.

See? Smiles!

She loves to show me her beautiful eyes, and then proceed to beg me for something, such as a drink from my water bottle, a snack, or some book reading time.

Speaking of books. . . Guess what? She loves them! Like mother, like daughter (I currently have NINE unread books in my nightstand drawer that I am slowly working my way through, but everytime I finish a book, i've already bought 2 new ones! Haha!)

Undocumented things-

Katie likes bananas! Did I mention that already? She did not like them for the longest time! But now she is in love.
Katie is a great dancer.
And a great swimmer.
She loves all things water. Swimming, baths, and drinking water. Oh boy, how she loves to drink water out of a water bottle.
She will laugh hysterically for minutes on end while watching the kitties play.
She does NOT like broccoli. Shame.
She likes to help with laundry, help feed the kitties, throw away her own disposable diapers, sweep the floor, wipe her own face and the table, put her toys away, and then immediately mess up all of the things I just listed.
She's great at giving kisses, but only when she wants to. She will NOT kiss on demand.
Katie can say the following words, but not consistently:
Kitties
Momma
Dada
Water
Juice
Shoes
Where'd it go?
Hi
No
Yea
Whoa

When did my baby get so big?!

Meal Plan For My Last Week!

2011-08-24T13:55:00.000-06:00

Woo! It's the last week of the pantry challenge!
While I didn't quite make it under $100, I know that I spent SUBSTANTIALLY less on groceries this month and that makes me feel great!
Also as a result, Brad and Katie and I all have dinner, at the dinner table, together, every night, and it has been wonderful! No more slurping down our food in front of the TV! With more meals that I actually put effort into, it's so much easier to appreciate the food.
It's also been nice to open the pantry or fridge and see it emptier than normal! I know that sounds like I would be sad to see an empty fridge, but I'm not. I love knowing that we are actually using what we have and not being quite so wasteful anymore. I no longer look in the cupboard, packed full with food, and think "there's nothing to eat!" Now, I have an imagination. :)
Without further ado, the last meal plan for this month (I threw next Wednesday in there as well because it's the last day of August)-

Wednesday: Leftover pizza for lunch. Steak and Shrimp with green beans and a salad for dinner.
Thursday: Eggs and bacon for breakfast. Burritos with homemade tortillas, leftover steak, rice and beans for dinner.
Friday: Cereal for breakfast. Leftovers for lunch. Turkey sloppy joes with homemade buns and a side of chips for dinner.
Saturday: Church picnic for lunch! I'm bringing a side dish, which will probably be based on what I get in the Bountiful Basket. We might be too full for a real dinner later, so maybe just some leftovers or sandwiches.
Sunday: Homemade corn chowder in homemade bread bowls for dinner with salad. Brownies for dessert.
Monday: Mac n' cheese for Katie and I for lunch. Chili and cornbread for dinner with a fruit or veggie from the Bountiful Basket.
Tuesday: The other Digiorno for dinner with a side of BBQ chips. Cake for dessert!
Wednesday: Grillin' outside! Hot dogs with homemade buns for dinner with a side of fruit (whatever comes in the Bountiful Basket) and some strawberry jello. (Also, my mom will be in town Wed night!)

Pantry Challenge: Week 3

2011-08-23T23:12:00.001-06:00

Day 1. Wednesday:
We actually spent the evening in Salt Lake at an author signing at the library, so we grabbed some fast food on the way home. We've had a $10 Dairy Queen gift card for months now and finally decided to use it on a cheeseburger, a chicken sandwich, a rootbeer, fries, and a milkshake. We also had a free piece of pie at the library. :)

Day 2. Thursday:
Here is where I FINALLY made that box of chicken lo mein! I also steamed some peas and boiled some corn on the cob. I also stirred up some lemonade from 3 little individual "water bottles packets" of powdered lemonade and made a pitcher full. Lol! Afterwards, Katie and I headed off to a RS activity where we enjoyed some pasta salads and cookies and cupcakes.

Day 3. Friday:
Since Brad and I were in a rush to clean the house and get ready to go to our ward temple night, dinner got put on the back burner. I hadn't gotten to making french bread like I was planning, so we actually ended up eating BLT sandwiches with a side of BBQ chips, while Katie had PB & J with some chips. Of course, on the way home I wanted ice cream (as always happens when we go out anywhere) so we stopped at In-N-Out for shakes, and I ended up getting a burger too. I guess I was just really hungry! Thanks again to Maria and her bf Mike for watching Katie for us!

Day 4: Saturday
I slept in, so i'm not sure what Katie and Brad had for breakfast, but I had cereal around 11:30. Around 3ish, we went down to Highland for our free buffets at Pizza Pie Cafe. It was so filling, we really haven't eaten anything else since we got home. I did give Katie some strawberry yogurt around 7, though. I'm feeling pretty awake right now, so maybe i'll go make a cake? I think, yes!

Day 5. Sunday:
Toast with freezer jam for breakfast. Katie and I had a little bit of pasta and garlic bread for lunch, and then dinner at Jenna's. Easy day. :)

Day 6. Monday:
I was going to do burritos again with homemade tortillas and a can of Chile Colorado, but I forgot that I donated that can to the food bank last week. Haha! So instead, I did fettuccine alfredo with just some oven-roasted broccoli. I also got another bountiful basket to pick up this Saturday. Thus, blowing my $100 budget for the month. Oh well. It was a steep goal! I've now changed the goal to $150, so after Bountiful Basket (I also got an add-on Mexican pack) i'll have about $20 for the next week.

Day 7. Tuesday:
I went to the store today! Poo! We really needed some milk, and of course I picked up a few clearance finds. I got 4 steaks for $3.99 on Manager's Special and two Digiorno Pizzas for $5.64 each, and then I am mailing off an $8 rebate when you buy 2 pizzas, thus making the pizzas only $1.64 each!!! What I'm getting at here, is that we had pizza for dinner. Haha! Unfortunately, after today's shopping trip, I have met my $150 limit and am comitted to not spending any more money on groceries for the month. And that is FINAL!

Meal plan and shopping trip

2011-08-17T12:18:00.000-06:00

I am DETERMINED to not do any shopping for these next 7 days! D E T E R M I N E D!!!!!
Apart from some more cat food. Lol.
Unless something is completely free, and even then, I will NOT buy anything else on impulse! I only have $2 left in my budget! Where did I go wrong?! Lol.

Anyway, here's the plan for this next week.
Wednesday: Brad had a leftover waffle for breakfast. Chicken Lo Mein with a side of peas and maybe corn on the cob for dinner. Hopefully i'll make that chocolate cake tonight. :D
Thursday: Cantaloupe for breakfast. I have a RS activity this night, so dinner will be a free-for-all easy food and leftovers kind of thing. I plan on making some fresh bread during the day though.
Friday: Cereal for breakfast. Grilled cheese for Katie and me for lunch. Rotini w/ meat sauce, garlic bread, and a side of green beans for dinner.
Saturday: Toaster Strudel for breakfast. . Mac 'n cheese for lunch. Then Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner. (We have a receipt for a free buffet, as well as a full punch card for a free buffet, so dinner is free!)
Sunday: Spam 'n eggs for breakfast. Then we are heading down to Jenna's after church with Brad's mom. We might grab something to eat before we head out (sandwiches) and then dinner is at Jenna's.
Monday: Chile Colorado with homemade tortillas and mango salsa for dinner.
Tuesday: Fettucini Alfredo with a side of steamed veggies for dinner and maybe some canned peaches?

Pantry Challenge: Week 2

2011-08-16T20:51:00.000-06:00

Day 1-2. Wednesday and Thursday:
Because I didn't meal plan until Friday, these days are lumped together. We had BBQ chicken sandwiches for dinner on Wednesday. Then Thursday, we had soup, pasta and broccoli. I had previously opened a can of Chicken and Wild Rice soup a few days earlier (the day we ended up ordering pizza instead) and when I had it on the stove, I had a pot right next to it getting ready to make a side of fettuccine alfredo, and when I went to pour milk in the pot for the pasta, I poured it into the soup! Argh! So I had to dump that and made a can of steak and potato soup instead. Dinner ended up being pretty yummy, despite the soup from a can and pasta form a bag and not-quite-steamed-all-the-way-through broccoli. I made sugar cookies later and they were super yummy. (I don't normally like sugar cookies either!)

Day 3. Friday:
Mmm. I am typing this on Saturday and last nights dinner is still running through my mind. I don't know what Brad thought, but I thought it was SO YUMMY! I heated up a big can of "Chile Verde" which turned out better than I thought it would, then heated up some leftover Mexican rice from last week, heated up some refried beans, and made homemade tortillas! I served it all with cheese and sour cream and scarfed down two giant fatty yummy burritos. I then proceeded to eat 3 giant sugar cookies from the night before. Am I a fatty or what?! Mmmm!

Day 4. Saturday:
Today was a yummy day! I picked up my BB this morning (see earlier post) and used the bread to have FOUR slices of toast with butter and homemade freezer jam for breakfast. Brad and Katie had toast as well. Lunch was at Seven Peaks Waterpark in Provo, hamburgers and chips. Dinner wasn't anything too special though. Fried shrimp with a side salad and some of the seedless black grapes from the BB this morning. I ate SO many grapes. Yum-O! Katie and Brad weren't big fans of the grapes (Brad thought they didn't have enough flavor, but he likes green grapes, which I don't really, and Katie has a slight aversion to fruit) but I thought they were great and will probably sneak some to church tomorrow to snack on during the meetings.

Day 5. Sunday:
No breakfast this morning. We were running late to church, again, so I had to feed Katie her oatmeal in the car. Brad ad a choclate pudding while I starved. Lol! Lunch was a burrito with leftover Chile Verde for me while Brad had a PB&J. I had to open my last jar of Strawberry freezer jam for it, so I definitely need to make my way down to Walmart tomorrow to get those free packs of pectin. Then I can make some more with the strawberries from BB. Now dinner. . . here's where we really stuffed ourselves. Mushroom chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberry stuffing and corn on the cob. Mmm mmm mmm. I was hoping to make rolls as well, but my 3 hour nap after church kind of prevented that from happening. :)

Day 6. Monday:
Today was my errand-running day. After Kohls, Walmart, JC Penney, Seagull Book, Target, and Smith's, I was exhausted! Luckily, I didn't spend very much when it came to food. I spent about $1 at Walmart for 2 Dreyer's Shakes, 4 Activia Selects, and 1 packet of instant fruit pectin (which I used to make 2 jars of strawberry freezer jam when I got home). I also got two huge bags of flour, one all-purpose and one whole wheat, but I won't count those because I decided to get the big bags that cost more so that it will last me a while. At target, I spent about $8 on 2 gallons of milk and two bags of Mexican-style rice that were on clearance and a box of snacks for Katie. Smith's, my last stop of the day, ran me about $8. Oops! But I did get quite a bit: 6 limes, cilantro, 1 red onion, 1 green bell pepper, 1 jalepeno, 1 butternut squash, 3 heads of broccoli, a bag of BBQ Lays (for free with Q), a bag of Oreo's (for free with Q), and an impulse bag of Red Vines. So, only about $2 left for the month. I think I set the bar too high for my first try at this. Haha! Definitely won't be under budget, but I have done SO much better this month than any other month, ever, so I am proud of myself for that.
Now, onto yesterday's dinner! I was going to make Chicken Lo Mein (Which was actually a box of Asian Helper, an off shoot of Hamburger Helper) but decided to do a stir-fry instead. I used the green bell pepper, the broccoli, and red bell pepper (from my BB), and sliced up 2 chicken breasts. I had a packet of General Tso stir fry sauce stuff that I had gotten for free with a Q months and months ago and it was pretty yummy with this! I didn't have any whote rice, though, so we had Uncle Ben's Creamy Chicken rice. Haha! Still a good dinner though. And I love using my Wok!
Rather than making dessert as I had planned, we went and saw the community play, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat (which was SO good by the way. Good job Herriman!), and while there we had sour patch, popcorn, and sprite. Good enugh for dessert for me. :)

Day 7. Tuesday:
Today was pretty dern easy. Cereal for breakfast. Leftovers for lunch. Breakfast for dinner. Lol. I made waffles and french toast and sliced up a cantaloupe, with milk to drink. Mmm! A nice easy end to this last week.

Bountiful Basket

2011-08-13T09:18:00.000-06:00

I am loving this weeks basket!!! The bananas actually look good for once! Here is the haul:
1 bunch of Bananas
1 Cantaloupe that smells amazing
1 Buttercup Squash (Never used one of these before. Ideas anyone?)
5 Roma Tomatoes, but one was moldy. Yuck! So technically, 4 tomatoes
5 Red Plums that feel super juicy
4 ears of Corn
I head of Romaine Lettuce
2 Mangoes
2 Red Bell Peppers
1 box of Strawberries
and 1 bag of seedless Black Grapes

I may just pick up a red onion and some cilantro at the store to make some mango salsa with those mangoes and the tomatoes. Excited to have banana slices in my cereal, grapes to snack on, and corn for a side dish, maybe with some kind of herb butter. Little bags of fruit pectin are free at Walmart, so I might stop by there to get some and then make some more strawberry freezer jam. I also smell plum cobbler i the near future. Mmm! The squash may just turn into baby food. Cantaloupe for a side dish, lettuce for side salads. . . the only thing I'm not sure about are the bell peppers. I love them, but Brad doesn't. I may just end up slicing them up to add to my salads or something. We'll see.

I also bought 5 loaves of the yummiest bread ever from Bountiful Baskets for $10. That's $2/loaf and it's SO GOOD! Brad and I can eat an entire loaf in one day, just eating it plain. I already busted into one, having toast and jam for breakfast, but the other 4 are safely tucked away in the freezer for later consumption. :D

I always highly recommend Bountiful Baskets. It was $15 for all that produce I just posted about, and $10 for all that bread! (The bread is optional with the basket)
It's such a good deal and because you don't know what will be in the basket each week, it forces you to try new fruits and vegetables that you might have never picked up at the store on your own.
Here is their website to find a site near you.
http://bountifulbaskets.org/
I will briefly explain how it works, since a lot of people get confused:
BB (Bountiful baskets) is volunteer-run. You, as the consumer, place and order for a basket between the hours of Noon on Monday (10 a.m. for Utah) and 10 pm on Tuesday. Try to get on as early as you possibly can because when you order a basket, you choose a pick-up location and time, always on the coming Saturday. Locations only get a limited amount of baskets and in some areas, the locations fill up FAST! Like for mine here in Riverton, UT, the spots fill up in a matter of minutes after the site opens up at 10 on Monday.
After you order your basket, and any extras you might want like the 9-grain bread I usually get, you will get an email with your confirmation number. On Saturday, print out the email with your confirmation number (or pull up the email on your smartphone of iPod touch like I do) and take it with you to the pick-up location at the correct time. You can arrive no more than 20 minutes late. If you show up later than 20 minutes, your basket gets donated. Sorry. This is because the people there are only volunteers and to be fair, they can't wait around forever. You CAN ask someone else to pick up your BB for you if you can't make it. They just need your confirmation number. Take either reusable bags or a laundry basket with you to put all your produce in. They will have 2 little baskets for you, one with fruit and one with veggies. Transfer them from the little baskets into your own. You sign in when you get there, and sign out after you get your stuff. And voila! You're done! You can choose to do BB whenever you want, it is NOT a weekly commitment. You can do it every 2 weeks, every month, every 2 months, whenever you want, or never again if you weren't satisfied.
They currently have locations in:
Arizona
Colorado
Georgia
Idaho
Kansas
Montana
New Mexico
Oklahoma
Nevada
Oregon
South Carolina
South Dakota
Texas
Washington
Wyoming
and of course Utah

If your state is not offered, you can find info on the website and on their facebook page for starting up your own location! Also, you should try to volunteer at your local site every once in a while. To volunteer, you simply show up one hour earlier than the pick-up time and sometimes, you get any produce that is left over! Woo!

Pantry Challenge: Week 2

2011-08-12T12:39:00.000-06:00

I don't plan on doing a grocery shopping trip for this next week. I'm picking up a bountiful basket tomorrow, and we still have milk in the fridge, so we should be good. However, I may go to the store just to pick up a few free things. I don't plan on spending anything, apart from tax. Smith's sent out some coupons in the mail and one is for a free bag of Oreo's and another for a free bag of Lay's or Ruffle's, so i'll be picking those up. I also got another one of those $2 off Poise products catalinas, so I will see if they still have at least one package left on clearance for $1.79. Activia also has a promotion going on to print out a coupon for a free cup of their new yogurt, and I have 4 of those coupons, so I will see if Smiths has them, or Walmart. Then, I have two coupons for $1 off Dreyer's shakes, those little ice cream cup things, and they are $0.97 at Walmart, so I will try and pick a couple of those up as well.

Here's the Meal plan from this last Wednesday until next Tuesday:
(These will probably change depending on what is in my Bountiful Basket tomorrow)
Wednesday: Leftover pizza for lunch. BBQ chicken sandwiches and a side salad for dinner.
Thursday: Toaster Strudel for Breakfast. Soup and pasta for dinner with a side of broccoli. Sugar cookies for dessert.
Friday: Leftover pasta and broccoli for lunch. Chili Verde with rice and beans for dinner. Leftover sugar cookies for dessert.
Saturday: Toast and jam for breakfast. Lunch for free at Seven Peaks Waterpark. Fried shrimp with a side salad for dinner.
Sunday: Cereal for breakfast. Grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup for lunch. Mushroom Chicken with mashed potatoes and stuffing for dinner.
Monday: Chicken Lo Mein with a side of peas for dinner. Chocolate cake for dessert.
Tuesday: Breakfast for dinner, waffles, eggs, hash browns, fresh fruit and whipped cream.

Pantry Challenge: Week 1

2011-08-12T12:10:00.000-06:00

Day 1. Wednesday:
Today was my shopping trip. I went about $15 over what I expected, but I had to unexpectedly buy cat food and a new hairbrush (cat food and hairbrushes are expensive, man!), and then I picked up some rice-a-roni, sour cream, cinnamon rolls that were on special, and some eggs along with everything else I had planned on buying.
Total Spent = $41.98
Almost half my budget gone and it's only August 3rd! Ahh! But, i'm not too worried. It's only because I was out of town for almost the entire last two weeks, so our food supply was pretty lacking.
At the check-out, I also received two Catalinas for Poise products. (You know, the pads for pee leakage. Lol.) One is for an entirely FREE Poise product (up to $6.00) and the other is for $2 off a Poise Petite pack (which are on clearance at Smith's for $1.79, making these also FREE!)
I skimped on breakfast this morning because I just could not get out of bed, but I think Brad made himself some toast.
Lunch was egg salad sandwiches.
Dinner we had quesadillas, Mexican style rice-a-roni, with a side salad and lemonade to drink. Then, after putting Katie to bed, Brad and I whipped up some M&M cookies with the M&M's I bought today for $0.13 a bag. They are cooling on wire racks as I type this. Mmm!
So far, so good!

Day 2. Thursday:
Today was a bit of a bust menu planning wise. Because of dentist appointments for both Brad and myself, our meals were a little sporadic. Cereal for breakfast, snacking on M&M cookies throughout the day, egg salad sandwiches for a late lunch early dinner, and then I just ate a cinnamon roll. Haha! I'll have to make chicken pot pies either tomorrow or Saturday. My whole chicken wasn't thawed enough, so it wasn't done in the crock pot until after 8, and by that time I really didn't want to have to make a pie crust and bake that sucker. Oh well. I still did get the chicken cooked up though. From one whole chicken, which was $3.47 on manager's special, I cooked it up, shredded it, put half in the freezer for a future casserole (probably the one for Sunday), 1/4 of the chicken in a ziplock in the fridge for pot pies tomorrow/saturday, and the other 1/4 I put in a ziplock with some barbeque sauce and popped in the freezer. That way, when I take it out to thaw, it willl get nice and marinated, and I can just heat it up and have BBQ chicken sandwiches. Mmm! Were you keeping count? 3 separate meals for only $3.47! (Plus the cost of general things I have on hand to make the meals.) Awesome!
Just a little note: If I break down the cost, the BBQ chicken cost less than a dollar, with my cheap chicken and a bottle of BBQ sauce I got for free with coupon. We will put it on hambuger buns, which I have in the freezer and purchased for $1. Since there are 8 buns in a package,and we would only use 2 of them, it's about $0.25. So we can have BBQ chicken sandwiches for $1.25!!! Yeah! Pair them with Salt and Vinegar chips I got for free with a coupon and some Organic lemonade that was $1.12 with coupon, we've got a full meal for two for less than $3. I love math. Hehe. :)

Day 3. Friday:
I ended up making the Chicken Pot Pies today instead, pushing the pasta and french bread to Sunday, replacing the soup from a can I was going to heat up. Lol! We did still have cereal for breakfast and ice cream for dessert as planned, though. The pot pies actually turned out a little bit dry, sadly, so I am going to tell everyone looking for a pot pie recipe, don't use Rachel Ray's! Oh well. I still thought it was good, although Brad didn't enjoy the over-abundance of peas (my fave). Katie enjoyed them too though, so it's all good. Oh! Brad also took himself an egg salad sandwich to work and the rest of the M&M cookies. Yay for bringing lunch to work to save a few bucks!

Day 4. Saturday:
Both Brad and I had Toaster Strudel for breakfast and I made Katie some oatmeal. I don't think we even ate any lunch. Haha! We actually went over to Brad's sisters house for dinner, where we had homemade versions of Cafe Rio/Costa Vida sweet pork salads. Then, Brad and I actually ended up going to Pizza Pie Cafe at 9 at night. They had a special where you can bring in your receipt from today next time you go in and get a free meal. Going out to eat wasn't really in our budget, but oh well. You know I can't pass up a good deal. Which brings me to my shopping trip for today. . .
I ended up going to Smith's this morning. Yikes! It was Customer Appreciation day, so I went to try and win some free stuff! I also wanted to use those coupons I got for free Poise products. Of course, while I was there I noticed some awesome new stuff on the clearance shelf, (fruit snacks, cat food, organic apple juice, spaghettios), so I had to pick some stuff up. I consider these things food storage/stockpile items however, so I am not including them in my $100 to spend this month. Back to the free stuff they were giving away- They were handing out raffle tickets and doing giveaways every 15 minutes. When I first got into the store I got a raffle ticket, and didn't win. Then after about 12 minutes, I realized that I probably needed to go grab a new raffle ticket since they probably don't keep all of them in the pot for the entire day (no one is going to be in the store for that long.) So I went over to the raffle desk and asked for a new ticket, then the guy told me that since my baby was so cute, he would just let me win. Lol. He took a ticket off for me, then called the other winners over the intercom, along with "my" ticket number. I spun the wheel they had set up and won an apple pie worth $3.99. Woop! Too bad we don't really like pie. I ended up taking it to Jenna's house later so hopefully her family can enjoy it more than we would have.

Day 5. Sunday:
Who was I kidding when I decided to make french toast for breakfast? Haha! I almost never get up early enough to make breakfast on a Sunday. We were 10 minutes late to church as it was, and we didn't even have time to eat any kind of breakfast! Oh well. After church, we snacked on some things, but mostly cleaned the house because my visiting teachers (women from church who visit each other once a month to make sure everyone is doing ok and to help with anything. I still need to do my own visiting teaching this month. One of my women I visit has a baby due in a couple weeks!) were coming over at 3:15. Because I was planning on making a loaf of french bread, which takes about 3 hours to make, I figured it would be alright to start making it after my VT's had left, probably around 4. But nope. We ended up taking until after 5! I guess that's what happens when women get together, right? Scrounging for ideas for dinner, I decided to still make pasta and did an internet search for 30-minute rolls. I cooked up some whole wheat spaghetti, browned some ground beef and mixed it with some homemade sauce i've had in the fridge for a while. Then I chopped and steamed some broccoli, all while working on these "30 minute" rolls. They ended up taking longer than that because I tried to use my kitchenaid for them and it just wasn't working, so after 10 minutes in the machine, I pulled the dough out and mixed and kneaded by hand instead. After only 10 minutes of rising, it went into the oven for 10 minutes, and came out fairly yummy! I rubbed some cold butter over the tops and then ate 4 with dinner. Haha! I'm actally typing this Monday morning and just devoured off the last 3 rolls from last night.
No dessert for us last night, though. I had cleaned the whole kitchen earlier and dinner made enough of a mess. I really didn't want even one more dish to clean. We did eat a handful of sour skittles though. :)

Day 6. Monday:
Brad had cereal for breakfast, Katie had cheerios, and I had 3 leftover rolls form last night's dinner. Haha!. The surprising thing was that Brad made dinner! I was originally just going to heat up a can of soup, but was feeling kind of lazy and Brad offered, so I accepted! He made up some hamburgers and tater tots while Katie had leftover spaghetti from the night before. Pretty yum! Thanks hon! I also purchased a Bountiful Basket yesterday along with the 5 pack of bread they offer, which brings my "grocery" total to $68.48. Yikes! This $100 limit is hard! Maybe I should have Brad take away my debit card for the rest of the month? But, we have a good amount of everything we need to make meals for the next couple of weeks, so I think I can make it. With the fruits and veggies and 5 loaves of bread this weekend with the Bountiful Basket, I will make this pantry challenge work! We will probably be having a lot of pasta and cereal in the next couple of weeks, since those are my two biggest stockpiles, but i've also started exercising again, to balance out those extra carbs. We'll see! Tomorrow is the last day of week one. And then it's on to meal planning for week two, as well as checking out the upcoming week's sales ads for Smith's.

Day 7. Tuesday:
So, we bummed out today and ordered pizza. We got a Pizza Hut ad in the mail and that P'Zone on the front just looked so gosh darn good! Oh well. There's an extra $12 to my stipend for the month, bringing my total to about $80. Agh! Only $20 left and still 2 1/2 weeks to go! Fortunately, this challenge has really helped me see just how much stuff we have and how much I have to work with! There will probably be a lot of pasta and soup and cereal in the coming weeks, but oh well. That's the price you pay to go on a cruise, right? Lol! We'll get plenty of yummy food on the ship. I'm thinking the only things I will really need to buy in the coming weeks are milk, flour and maybe some eggs. I will just have to really work at couponing to buy any more than that. :D

I was supposed to post this on Tuesday. Oops! I will post about this weeks meals later today hopefully, starting with a couple days ago on Wednesday. Lol.

Idaho and Califonia

2011-08-03T14:14:00.000-06:00

So on July 22nd, my brother graduated from BYU Idaho! It was pretty awesome because most of my family was able to attend. (I have no pictures of this trip because I forgot to put our SD card back in the camera before we left. Sad.) My parents drove up from So-Cal, as did my sister Katrina and her boyfriend Myke. They were able to stay with us before they drove up there as well, which was nice. I rarely ever get to see Katrina anymore, so I loved spending some more time with my sister and getting to know Myke as well.
Laura and her husband Ben and their three little girls also drove up from Nor-Cal. Marci was already up there since she goes to school at BYUI as well, and then Brad and I drove up with Katie. We were all able to attend the graduation ceremony and convocation and then Texts Roadhouse for dinner. Yum!
That night, Brad stayed with Paul and Katie and I stayed with Marci. We had planned on camping Friday night and Saturday night, but after the graduation and dinner, it was way too late and dark to set up our campsite. Saturday, Brad, Katie, and I went to the new aquatic center in Rexburg, Rexburg Rapids! It was pretty fun, though it got SUPER crowded. I'm glad to know it's doing so well though! One of my best friends, Daryn, is the manager of it all, so it's great for her.
After the waterpark, we set up our campsite and stayed for the rest of the day and night. My friend Lauren was able to come out and give us a TON of dead tree branches to burn which was awesome! Thanks Lauren! We had hotdogs over the fire for dinner, with chips and water and random snacks. Daryn came out later that night and chatted with us for a bit. Then we slept. It was a little chilly, and difficult to sleep wit the most squirmy baby in the world wedged between the hubs and myself, but not too bad. Sunday, Daryn let us shower and get cleaned up at her apartment and then we headed back down to Utah.
My sister Laura and her girls stopped in Utah for a few days as well, so we spent Sunday night having dinner with them at my aunt Kathryn's house. Monday was a little uneventful, but then Tuesday morning, Laura picked up Katie and myself to road trip it down to my parent's house in Cali. Katie and I didn't do much while we were down there, but we did go with Laura, the girls, my mom, and Katrina to Oak Glen to do some berry picking. We got a pretty good haul and snacked on strawberries throughout, and then got home and make raspberry tarts and raspberry sauce to top a cheesecake my parents had in the fridge.
Katie and I flew home yesterday and it's been so nice to sleep in my own bed again! Without Katie! Lol. (Katie slept with me on a twin bed at my parent's house for the whole week.)
I don't really have any cool pictures, and Katie didn't go berry-picking with us (my dad wanted us to leave her behind so he could watch her, and we also would have needed to take two separate cars if Katie had gone) so i'll just share a couple cute pics I snapped over the week. Here they are in no particular order:

I was able to spend a ton of time with one of my besties, Nicole. One night we were at WalMart looking for Nail polish and this is what the floor looked like in front of the nail polish! Crazy!

Jordyn and Katie on the car ride down.

Katie found some sunglasses at my paren'ts house (probably her cousin Zara's) and they were SO CUTE on her!

Haha!!! That's my little diva.

Of course Peyton and Avery wanted pictures with the glasses on.

These girls are too cute! love my nieces!

Katie discovered that she could climb into the toilet. So gross, but so funny.

She was immediately put into the tub after this.

Driving down to cali. This is pretty representative of how Katie and Peyton interacted the whole week. Haha!

Well, there you have it!

The next month has quite a bit in store for Brad and I, so be on the lookout for blog posts. We've got Paragliding, Seven Peaks Provo, and an Alaskan Cruise coming up!

Pantry Challenge

2011-08-03T02:12:00.000-06:00

I have got a LOT to blog about, but since it all requires me to upload pictures, and I am super tired and just got back in town, I will get to those blogs later.
For now, I need to blog this so that I will somehow be held accountable. :)
I have started my own "pantry challenge" just for the remainder of this month. If you haven't heard of this, generally it's when you spend a VERY limited amount of money on food for the month and you are forced to use up what you already have on hand. Every little random can or box of whatever that's been lost in your pantry for months can now be found and used!
I've decided to embark on this adventure for the month of August mostly because, well, we need to. Brad and I just booked a 7-day Alaska cruise leaving the first week in September and cruises aren't so cheap. Plus, we have SO much food in this house, yet we constantly find ourselves saying "there's nothing to eat!"
Well, I am going to change that.
I will BE creative.
I will SCOUR my cupboards and freezer.
I will USE all those random cans of cream of whatever, half empty boxes of pasta, and 9 million bags of frozen veggies in the freezer.
I will SPEND no more than $100 on food this month.
CRAZY, right?!
I know it will be tough.
Yes, I am an "accomplished couponer," but sales have not been so great lately. And my new store in Utah doesn't ever double. And someone has been stealing my Sunday newspaper for the last 7 weeks, so I'm a little lacking on coupons.
I also got into a nice little spending groove for a while, since we were no longer poor college students.
But I can do this!

Ok, enough of the rant.
Here's my plan for this week and next.
(You really don't need to read this if you don't want. Seriously. I won't be offended. I won't even know!)
Tomorrow is my shopping trip. I plan on getting:
2 gallons of milk = $3.36 after coupons
4 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts at $1.69/lb (An AWESOME stock-up price!!!!!!) = $6.76
1 Kashi TLC granola bars = $0.99 after coupon
1 Knudsen Organic Juice = $2.49 after coupon
2 Santa Cruz Lemonade at B1G1 Free = $2.24 for both after coupon
2 Organic Mangoes (for baby food) = $1.98
2 Bags of M&Ms = $0.25 for both after coupon
2 Boxes of Toaster Strudel = $3.08 after coupon
1 Yoplait Yogurt cup = Free after coupon
1 Box Poise Pads = Free after coupon

I will probably also get a head of lettuce, some broccoli, and strawberries or something, but I don't know the prices yet. Figuring the average prices for these three things, my total rounds out around $25.
Pretty good, I think!
I might end up picking up a few more items, depending on what I find on the clearance rack or on Manager's Special, but we'll see.

As far as the menu goes for this coming week, here it is:
(Brad takes care of his own lunch on most weekdays, and I pretty much just scrounge and feed Katie something, so I won't be including lunches in my meal plan)
Wednesday- Eggs and toast for breakfast with water. Quesadillas with Mexican rice and a side salad for dinner, using up some homemade salsa, and lemonade to drink. M&M cookies for dessert.
Thursday- Toaster Strudel for breakfast with juice. Chicken Pot Pie and water for dinner. Crepes with strawberries and cream for dessert.
Friday- Cereal and milk for breakfast. Pasta with homemade sauce and homemade french bread and green beans for dinner with juice. Ice cream sundaes for dessert.
Saturday- Free for all for breakfast. Mac n Cheese for Lunch. Hamburgers for dinner with chips and soda. (We may be with family instead. Not sure yet.)
Sunday- French toast for breakfast with milk to drink. PB&J's for lunch. Chicken and Corn casserole for dinner with a side salad and lemonade. Homemade cake for dessert.
Monday- Cereal and milk for breakfast. Canned soup for dinner with homemade rolls and broccoli. Brownies and ice cream for dessert.
Tuesday- "Easy Food" day! Ramen, Mac N Cheese, Chef Boyardee, etc. . .

Well, that's all i've got for now. I didn't include things like snacks because those are always pretty spontaneous.
I hope this all works out! I'm thinking that it will force me to do more homemade things and explore more in the kitchen.
If anyone out there has any amazing recipes from things that almost everyone has sitting in their pantry, share them please!

Independence Day Weekend!

2011-07-05T10:28:00.000-06:00

We had a pretty fun weekend! Hard to believe that last year, Katie wasn't even a month old.
We started out by going to the Riverton Town Days carnival on Friday. as i'm sure everyone knows, carnivals are super overpriced, so we didn't do much, but we did take Katie on the carousel a couple of times.

She didn't really know what to think of it. Haha.

Brad did the smart thing and stood next to the horse. I, on the other hand, climbed on up with Katie in my lap and wish I hadn't. That thing was so rickety. Definitely now meant for grown ups. Haha!

On Saturday, we went swimming for a while (while getting sunburned! Argh!) and then went to the Riverton fireworks show at night.
The park was PACKED, but we managed to find a pretty good spot to watch. It was after 10 at night, so Katie was too tire to really care about the fireworks, but I think she enjoyed them a little bit.

Yesterday, we drove around trying to find a decent splash park, but failed in our quest. Come on, Utah. With 8 billion kids running around, you'd think one of these towns would have a decent splash park. (I miss you, Rexburg.)
We ended up just going back home and waiting until later in the day when we went to the park and set off our own fireworks.
There were quite a few people at the park, but I think we had the best ones. Haha. Katie was kind of over Fireworks by then, so she didn't really care, but Brad sure had fun.

I couldn't even get her to look at the sparkler! She was just so bored with the novelty of fireworks. Lol.

Overall, pretty good weekend. (Plus, we've been re-watching all the Harry Potter movies, so that's always good thing!)
I'll leave you all with a video of the biggest firework we got. :)

Oh! And I tried to get a video of the million different fireworks everyone was setting off last night. (Sorry the camera is moving so fast. It was raining and I was trying to not get it too wet.)

Cleaning tips. What?!

2011-06-28T14:15:00.000-06:00

Ok, this is a totally different post from what I normally do, but I just wanted to share what I do to try and keep this place in order. Many of you out there, including my husband, probably don't think I clean enough, but until you've spent day after day watching the most busy little girl on the planet, you can't understand what I go through here! Haha.
Plus, with these tips, i'm able to still find time for myself (Facebooking, reading books, exercising, or just cooking up something scrumptious)

Don't think that your house needs to be perfectly clean all the time. This is my NUMBER ONE tip. Seriously. If you stop stressing about how messy everything is, you'll be much happier and more likely to get things done, from what i've noticed. If someone visits your home and complains (secretly or out loud) about it's lack of cleanliness, then they can feel free to never come back. Lol.
Space everything out. I just recently started writing out to-do lists for both Brad and I, but i've always had my own personal to-do list. Choose ONLY 4 or 5 things that you really think need to be done that day, and do them. If you do more, sweet! If you do less, don't stress. Enlist your hubby when he gets home and reward him with a little somethin' somethin' later. Haha!
Generally, the living room is the messiest room in the entire place. It's where Katie and I spend most of our time during the day, and where all three of us spend our time lounging in the evening. One of my favorite ways to clean it up, especially when we've got guests coming over and things need to get done fast, is to grab two or three of my reusable grocery totes (sometimes random boxes laying around from Amazon.com purchases) and have one for each of the main rooms in the house. One for our bedroom, one for Katie's room, and then one for the kitchen/bathroom/guest room. Then I just sort out what goes where into the bags, and stash the bags in the appropriate room until I can get to them later.
I have TONS of cleaning products, but there are only two things that I use for just about everything. Simple Green All-Purpose cleaner and paper towels. I almost never use any of the other dozens of cleaning products I have. The Simple Green is great because I feel safe knowing that if I use it on the coffee table, I can put Katie's snacks on there without worrying about harsh chemicals. It also has a nice, light citrus-y scent and I use the kind where you buy the solution separate and then dilute it with water. I can use more water and less solution when I just want to disinfect something, or more solution and less water when I really need to scrub something. I also use paper towels because, hey, they are more convenient, and it's just more work for me to have to wash washcloths, dishtowels, sponges, etc. . .
For the bathroom. . . I use face cloth things to clean my face each day. When i'm finished washing my face, I rinse out the cloth and then use it to just wipe everything down. This works especially well when you do it right after you get out of the shower so everything is all steamy and easy to come off.
I only vacuum one room at a time. I know this seems like more work, having to get the vacuum out and put it away all the time, not to mention wrapping that never-ending cord up, but for me, it's less work. I hate having to go through every room and make sure that every single thing is picked up off the floors first. SO much easier to pick everything up off the floor one room at a time and then vacuum.
Katie's room is almost constantly a complete disaster. She IS a toddler after all. I generally don't worry about cleaning her room too much because she's just going to make it messy two minutes later, but when I do clean (generally because I need to vacuum or it has just gotten REALLY bad) I toss just about everything into one bin. Katie could care less how her toys are organized, and it just makes everything easier. (I do keep her books separate, as well as stuffed animals and barbies.)
For the master bedroom, well, I don't worry too much about it. No one sees it besides Brad and I. It's where I hide things when company is coming. It's where we strip off our clothes and leave them on the floor because we're just exhausted and want to sleep. It's where all the little random things pile up on our dresser because we don't care enough to find a place for them. However, this is the room I clean when I can't get to sleep. Before bed, I try to just tidy everything up and get out all those last bits of energy. It helps me clear my head and when i'm done cleaning, I can plop down in bed and sleep! Score!
One final thought on those mundane things that need to be done every. single. day. First, laundry. Just do one load a day. Don't overwhelm yourself with one specific "laundry day." Who wants to spend hours upon hours folding clothes. Do one load, then fold it while you're watching Jeopardy with the fam at 7:30. Easy peasy. Second, dishes. There is really no avoiding these. I try to rinse and put them in the dishwasher after I use them, but that really almost never happens. My only advice is to listen to some music, gets the hubs to watch the kids, and get er done.

I know this was probably a really long and boring post for just about everyone out there, but it's hot in this apartment and I just felt like writing something for a bit.
Let me know what YOUR cleaning tips are!

Splish Splash

2011-06-28T11:29:00.000-06:00

We had a picnic dinner at the local splash park the other day.
How I love summer!
It wasn't nearly as cool as the Rexburg splash park, but Katie enjoyed it.
I'm going to try and find a bigger, better splash pad around here because even though Katie had fun, it was kind of lame.
Very little "play structure" type things and the water shuts off every few minutes to prevent standing water or something. Oh well.
Here's some pics!

1 Year Down. . .

2011-06-13T10:47:00.001-06:00

So my baby turned 1 this past Saturday. Can you believe it? Of course, she's always been a little older than her age, but it feels so strange to tell people that she is 1 year old! It's been an amazing year and both Brad and I agree that it was by far the best year of our lives. Katie has been the best baby we could have ever hoped for and we feel so blessed to have her in our lives. She is so smart, happy, fun, sweet, loving, and entertaining! We had a party for her on Saturday with Brad's siblings and his dad. There was a lot of food and we just hung out and let the cousins play on the playground. Katie ate way too many sweets, but I think she had a great time. She slept really well that night too. :)

Who Katie is now:

She LOVES shoes. This is a somewhat recent development. She is constantly bringing me different pairs of her shoes because she just wants to wear them all the time. She got a new pair from Aunt Jenna and her family, and also a new pair from me and Brad, and she has been wearing them almost non-stop since Saturday.
Candy. Yikes. Katie loves sweet things. She doesn't get them often, but she sure can cry if she sees a starburst on the desk or sees me eating a cookie and we don't give her any.
She is SO friendly! She will walk up to random little boys at church or a the park and give them hugs. She flirts with everyone at the grocery store, especially men. She gives lots of kisses and has even kissed her brand new baby cousin Lucy on the head a couple of times. So freaking cute.
Pasta. Any and all, she loves. Cheesy, meaty, tomato-y, she loves it.
She's a climber. She climbs on anything and everything. Her favorite thing to do lately is stand on top of her little keyboard and look out her window. Sometimes she'll stand there for 5-10 minutes at a time, just looking outside. She also climbs on chairs, her activity table, boxes, and she spent Sunday trying to climb over the pews.

We love our little girl and can't imagine how dull our lives would have been this past year without her! She can make even the crabbiest person smile and make anyone's heart melt with her smile. While she does try my patience sometimes (and I think one of my biggest talents is my patience!) she really is a wonderful little girl with such a great, loving, and fun personality. She's such a little person and I can't wait to keep watching her grow up. :)

We love you Katie! Thank you for being the best thing to ever happen to us.

Experimentation in Home Decoration

2011-05-24T22:01:00.000-06:00

Every once in a while on my blog I am going to post different "home" projects i've been working on and it's going to be called "Experimentation in Home Decoration." Ok? So here's my first one. Don't make fun! I'm new at this stuff and on a tight budget! (I also have little creative ability, despite what I lead people to believe. Lol.)

Rickety old shelf that I think I got from a yard sale= $5
Pretty contact paper from Target= $6

BEFORE:

AFTER:

What do you think?
Should I cover the sides on the insides as well?
Have any advice for the little bubbles on the side where the screws are underneath?

BESTfeeding

2011-05-20T16:35:00.000-06:00

My friend Sandra just blogged today about why she loves breastfeeding, and I thought it would be a REALLY good idea for me to post about it, as a reminder to myself for the next time I have a baby.
So, if you don't feel like reading about breastfeeding, go ahead and stop reading right here. :)

I LOVE breastfeeding.
LOVE LOVE LOVE it.
I remember before I had Katie, and even those first few VERY painful weeks, that so many women were telling me about how much they love(d) breastfeeding. About how they wish they were nursing right at that very moment. How they would have DREAMS about nursing a baby! I seriously thought these women were crazy.
They would look at me so longingly while I would be feeding Katie and I just couldn't understand it!
Sure, I knew that I was giving her the best nutrition possible. I liked the cuddle time. I loved saving tons of money by not buying formula. But longing to breastfeed? I didn't understand it. Especially not when I was in just-about-excruciating pain for what seemed like forever.
But somewhere around the 7 or 8 month mark I began to really enjoy nursing. Around the 8-9 month area, I began to love it, and from 9 months on, I now never ever want to stop breastfeeding!
I love how my baby cuddles up to me. How she knows exactly what "milk" means. I love seeing her sweet face and just how much she loves it. Breastmilk is definitely her favorite food. I love how she can be totally crazy and toddler-like, and then she'll settle down and be completely sweet and nurse.
Katie is 11 months old and honestly, breastfeeding is still her main source of food. I'd say that I breastfeed her about 5 times a day, and once or twice during the night. I give her some snacks throughout the day, and usually a little bit of cereal or oatmeal for breakfast and some fruit for lunch, and then she get's a real dinner at night. But for the most part, most of her food is still breastmilk. And since she is growing just right and is super smart for her age, I think there is no problem with letting breastmilk still be her main source of nutrition.
I'm sure many people think i'm crazy. Most moms at this point only nurse 2 or 3 times a day. Many moms switch to a lot more real food, or even formula at night to get their babies to sleep through the night. (Katie has still never slept through the night. Meaning that since before I even gave birth, I haven't slept for more than 4 or 5 hours at a time. and I am TOTALLY OK with that, since everyone asks.) But me, I'm doing what I feel is right for Katie. I'm feeding her her favorite thing, which also happens to be the healthiest and best thing for her. How awesome is that?! So many parents struggle getting their toddlers to eat their veggies or whatever, but the healthiest thing I can give my baby (for free!) is also her favorite thing! Yay!
I know this seems like a lot to say just about breastfeeding, but future Kim is going to need to read this and remind herself that she DOES like to breastfeed! That the pain goes away! That it is SERIOUSLY WORTH IT!
So future Kim- I know you are probably sad because Katie got too old to breastfeed, or stopped being interested. I know that you are excited to nurse your next baby because you have such fond memories of it. But beware! It is SO painful for a little while, and you might feel like giving up, but DON'T! You can have those wonderful memories again! You will absolutely love it again! Just be patient. Just keep truckin'. Breastfeeding is amazing.

Ever heard of cruise control? or your blinker?

2011-05-02T14:07:00.000-06:00

(That title is referring to Utah drivers. Haha!)
Alright, sorry I haven't posted yet about our move, but i'm posting now!
The first couple days here were kind of a blur or unpacking and organizing as much as possible before I headed back to Rexburg! I got to Utah on Sunday night and then left for Rexburg again on Tuesday night.
After cleaning my apartment, with the help of my wonderful mother, on Wednesday, Katie and I stayed with my parents at a hotel in the burg Wednesday night and then headed back down here on Thursday afternoon and my parents left to head home on Thursday night.
Since then, we've just continued to unpack and get our home set up and just get settled in overall.
We've been to church 3 times now (only 2 for me because I woke up puking at 4 in the morning) and the ward seems good. There are so many young children, it's a little overwhelming, and there are SO MANY little boys! I'm talking boys under 2 years of age. They probably outnumber the little girls 5 or 6 to 1. Luckily Katie likes little boys more than girls. Haha!
Brad has been enjoying work and i've been enjoying living so close to some of my favorite stores. However, I deeply miss my Albertson's. Is it wrong to want to cry over a grocery store?
The weather has been better than Idaho, but the driving has been awful. (Utah drivers. I think most of you know what i'm talking about.)
I LOVE finally being able to have kittens but I miss my Rexburg friends, and ward, dearly.
It's been great to be able to finally buy real and comfortable furniture, but I really really miss free utilities.
There are a lot of positives and negatives but I won't get into them all.
For now, I am just going day to day and waiting for warmer weather so we can start swimming!

As far as Katie news, she is super crazy. She is not yet 11 months and practically running around the apartment 24 hours a day! She walks SO GOOD and has such great balance for such a little girl. Really, it makes me sad to not have my baby girl anymore but she is so fun to watch and play with that it's ok.
We'll just have to work on making a little little teeny baby for me to cuddle with because Katie is too busy to cuddle anymore.
She doesn't talk yet, but the sounds she makes have improved. Still no "mama" sound yet though. :(
She eats everything and only has a few foods that she doesn't really like including: bananas, strawberries that are too tart, broccoli (although she hasn't tried it pureed yet), and plain cheerios. Well, I guess she's alright with plain cheerios, but she would prefer something with more flavor.
She likes to dance and clap and she LOVES the kitties! I keep trying to get a picture of video of her with them, but the second she sees the camera, she forgets everything else and just wants to smile and grab it.
She likes to pick them up a lot, and while they don't particularly like it, I think they are getting used to it.
All the recent pictures are on my Facebook, so you can see them there.
I think that's about all the updates. I hope everyone has a great week!

A Very Sad Post

2011-04-10T10:54:00.000-06:00

Today is my last day living in my home.
It's like leaving my hometown all over again.
When I left for college over 3 1/2 years ago, it was REALLY hard on me. Harder than I think anyone knew. I had lived in the same place, in the same house, knowing all the same people, for 18 years! I left everything I loved and knew to go to BYU-Idaho.
Only it was different from what's happening now.
It was also exciting. Starting college, living on my own for the first time, meeting cute (Mormon!) boys.
Now it's not so exciting. Moving to Utah.
We're starting a "real life" now so I should be excited, right?
Brad is starting his career, no more school, we'll be buying real furniture and paying real bills and living day to day as grown ups.
Ahhhh!!!
I cried when I woke up this morning because this is my home!
This is where I met my husband, where we had our first home together, where we made our first "couple" friends, where we got pregnant, where we had our baby, where we raised her for almost the entire first year of her life.
This is where "we" happened. Brad and I. And then Katie. It's hard to leave where your family started. Where your entire life changed so drastically, for the better.
Where you met amazing friends and some of the most wonderful people you'll ever meet in this life.
I can't believe i'm leaving. I can't believe this is happening.
Can I be more dramatic? Haha.
I'm sure my last day in the best ward in the whole wide world today will be so hard.
Such a sad day.
Having to say good-bye to so many of my wonderfully amazing neighbors and friends.
While I don't like Rexburg at all, I LOVE the experiences i've had, the people i've met, the fact that the cashiers at the grocery store know who I am!
Rexburg is where I became who I am, and I actually really like who I am!
I'm so much more of a better person now than I was before I came here.
And now i'm leaving here.
Listen up Utah! You have some big shoes to fill!

And off I go. . .

101 in 1001

2011-03-16T14:16:00.004-06:00

My friend Trish posted a list on her blog of 101 things she wanted to do in the next 1001 days (well, she made the list a couple years ago and posted it recently) and then invited everyone else to do the same. So here goes!

Take Brad on a cruise
See my sister's book published
Have another baby
Buy a 4-door car
Sew Katie a dress
See The Hunger Games movie at midnight
Go on a date with the hubs every week
Go to the temple every month
See another Broadway show in NYC
Have enough money saved up to last for 1 year
Quit playing Facebook games!! (At least the Zynga ones!)
Skype my family more often
Go camping in Yellowstone
Go camping a LOT!
Drink more water
Smell desert rain at least one more time
See Jeni get married
See Nicole get married ;) (This one is in the works!)
Grow out my natural hair color
Use less electricity
Live someplace where I can paint the walls!
Get a kitten
Convince Brad to walk with me in the rain
(This list is hard! I can't think of anything!) Family vacay to the California coast!
Go to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando
Ride a train
Limit fast food to twice a month
Work out at LEAST two times a week
Get my California tan back!
Keep a plant alive for more than a month
Have my very own little black dress. :)
Read the scriptures every night for at least a month
Go to bed before midnight for at least a week
Watch every Harry Potter movie in one day!
Re-Upholster something!
Make cookies for a neighbor
Make cookies for a stranger
Make something really cool (what qualifies as really cool to be determined at a later date)
Make 72 hour kits to keep in the car
Visit Alaska again
Write to my missionaries (Jeni and Ana) at least once a month!
Successfully make a loaf of delicious bread
Hold a TacOdasso party :D
Blog at least once every two weeks
Finish our wedding scrapbook
Take a picture everyday for one month
Start a ~~Coupon~~ Cooking! Blog
(I'm not even halfway through?!?!) Either replace the missing keys on my lappy or get a new one
Go to General Conference
Write a letter to the editor of something!
Vote!
See Mitt Romney succeed in next year's Republican primaries! (Ok. This one isn't really up to me. Haha)
Re-read the Twilight Saga (for the 4th time. hehe.)
Go ONE WEEK without Facebook. Ahh!
Be 100% on my visiting teaching for a full year
Attend Brad's 10 year HS reunion (if they have one. Crazy!)
Make my mom and dad's egg rolls
Find some family history names to take to the temple
Attend a live session at the SLC Temple
Find a new couponing buddy in Utah (I'll miss you Daryn!)
Take Katie on a walk at least once a week when weather permits
Lose 15 pounds :)
Have the ability to swim a 500 again
Keep our car crumb-free
Listen to the entire Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites series again (amazing!)
Fill my coin jar to the brim!
Turn in my coin jar and buy a special treat for myself and for Brad
Send out Christmas cards finally! And on time!
Go on vacation with friends
Hike a mountain. It's been far too long since I have.
Go ice fishing
Go regular fishing
Go hunting (although I don't want to actually kill anything)
Discover an amazing local restaurant
Buy snow boots
Bear my testimony in sacrament meeting
Donate at least 4 pairs of shoes. :/
Actually cross something off this list
Throw an amazing party with a sit-down dinner and place cards and everything
Get involved in a community event
Donate to a food bank
Make an apron for myself
Make super yummy salt water taffy
Swim in the Atlantic ocean
See Niagra Falls
Figure out how to hem Brad's pants
Hike in Zion National Park
Take a spontaneous trip. VERY spontaneous!
Road trip out to the East Coast and make Brad enjoy it!
Teach someone in my (future) new ward to coupon
Drive to the airport and just fly somewhere! Anywhere!
(101 is a LOT of things!!!!!!!!) Learn to play golf
Get a part time job
Remember to ALWAYS take my reusable bags to the grocery store
Have a game night with friends every month for 6 months
Visit my sister in Portland
Cross 50 things off this list!
Read the entire Book of Mormon in less than 6 months
Invent another amazing family favorite recipe :)
Sew a couch slipcover
Never make a list this long again!!!

The end
:D

WHERE DID FEBRUARY GO?!?!

2011-03-10T18:04:00.001-07:00

Yes, I put the title in caps for a reason. Where the heck did February go?! I feel like that was the fastest Feb i've ever experienced.
Updates since my last post:

Katie is SO close to walking. She can now take four steps or stand on her own for a while. We don't even have to stand her up. She does it on her own and will let go of the couch, table, etc, on her own.
She now has 7 teeth. It's so cute! But not so cute when she bites me.
Brad is SO close to be done with school! Only one month left and then he is done forever! You know he started college back in 2002? Crazy, right?! It's even crazier that I wasn't even in high school yet. Hehe. ;)
I bought a case of 9 pineapples as extra with my Bountiful Basket and we are overflowing with pineapples now! Good thing though, because we love em!
Oh! My coupon class! So many people ask me ALL THE TIME about how I use coupons and how to get started and so I decided to just put together a little class, invite everyone, and teach em all at once! I think it went well. I'm not a great public speaker, or teacher for that matter, but I think everyone got some good information and I know at least a few people have started couponing from it! It was fun and I think I may do another one in the next month or so.
In sad news, Brad was laid off a few weeks ago. It was VERY sudden (his last day of work was the same day he found out) and it happened to about 80% of the other employees as well. I don't know about Brad, but I always try to stay optimistic and I constantly repeat my mantra "We pay our tithing. Everything will be ok." And it has been.

There really isn't too much else going on. Katie gets older every day and it's a little sad, but exciting at the same time. Brad is just truckin' through his last semester and I know he is so ready to be done. I just keep doing the homemaker thing, cooking, cleaning, trying to sew, babysitting, couponing, loving, and trying to maintain a social life. We have a very comfortable, very happy, and very blessed life and I am so grateful for everything. The smile on my daughters face everyday is just a constant reminder of the pure and simple joys in life that Heavenly Father has blessed us with. (Random, but I use a lot of dangling participles)

BIG changes are coming in the NEAR future, so be on the lookout!

Sorry. No pictures this time! Chack my Facebook if you are really curious.

I'm Blogging!!!!!!!!

2011-02-16T21:54:00.000-07:00

Miss me?
Sorry I haven't been keeping up with this thing.
Our little Katie is just keeping me so busy, because she is so busy!
Things Katie currently loves:

Getting into EVERYTHING
Anything that she isn't supposed to get into (i.e. the internet router, video game boxes, Xbox controllers)
The dishwasher. She squeals in delight when she sees or hears me open it.
Refried beans (picture to follow)
The keyboard and her little play keyboard
Pulling our big lamp down
Putting bath toys in the toilet
Bath toys in general
Lemons
Climbing in the refrigerator the second I open it
The bathroom. She would play in there all day if I let her
Very short naps
Climbing! She climbs on top of whatever is short enough for her to get on top of.

So, what's happened since I last blogged? Hmm?
We went to Pennsylvania for Christmas and it was SO GREAT for Katie to spend some time with her Grandma Odasso!
She also LOVED the kitties!
I took Katie and flew out to Cali in January to babysit my sister's 3 girls for a week.
It was pretty crazy but so great to spend time with my little nieces!
My sister also has two cats, so of course Katie loved being out there.
Umm...... Oh! Katie has 5 teeth!
She's had two on the bottom for a while but about 3 weeks ago, she got 3 more on the top. I'm not sure where the fourth one on the top is, but I guess it'll come out eventually.
Ok, the real reason I decided to finally blog:
Katie took two steps today!
We've been making her stand on her own and practice balance for a while now, but today when I set her on her feet, she stood there for a full minute on her own, then took two steps towards me and then fell into my lap!
It was awesome!
I tried to get her to do it again, but she just sits back down and crawls instead.
Oh well. I'm sure she'll be full on walking soon enough.
And truth be told, she can take as long as she likes to walk. She gets into everything enough as it is. Haha.

Picture time!
Most of these are on Facebook, but oh well.

For Christmas, I got Katie this set of kitchen utensils. Isn't it so cute? I laid it out next to mine to show how great they match! She also has a pink spatula, ladle, and mixing spoon, but I don't have those (yet, wink wink to the hubby) so I didn't show em.
See what I said about refried beans? Haha!

The happiest baby around!
See how she climbs? She does this on everything!
Oh yeah, she also loves chocolate. I tell you, she finds every little thing on the floor that I miss, like this Dove chocolate that she devoured while I was in the bathroom.
Katie and her cousin Peyton when I was in Cali.
Isn't she sweet?
Best $5 I ever spent at the DI!
Like mommy, like baby. Anyone out there remember all my old mirror Myspace pics?
I threw a baby shower for my awesome friend Tara a few Saturdays ago. It was pretty stressful, but I think it came out cute in the end! Thank you to Daryn for all your help and to Brad for being patient with me while I obsessed over this for days!
Snowman cake pops
I displayed some of the cake pops in these glass bottles
Just little Hershey bars
Peppermint Fudge cupcakes with royal icing snowflakes that were SUCH a pain to make!
Chocolate/sprinkle dipped marshmallows
Oreo truffles that came out a little messy looking

More big news: I chopped off a BUNCH of my hair last week, but I have yet to get a really good picture, so that will have to wait. There are a couple blurry pics on Facebook if you want to see.
The end!

Recently. . .

2010-12-18T20:26:00.000-07:00

I'm just going to give some short little updates on life and then post some pictures, which is what you're all here for anyway! Lol.

Katie started crawling! Well, she started army crawling about a month and a half ago (at only 4 1/2 months old!) but now she's really doing it up on her hands and knees.
Katie is also pulling herself up to stand. It's been pretty crazy around our place because now she can really get into everything. She pulls up in her crib, on the couch, the entertainment center, in the bathtub, wherever she can! She absolutely loves to stand and I have no doubt she'll be walking within the next 2-3 months.
Brad finished this semester! Grades aren't out yet, but i'm sure he did great. These next two weeks will probably be like heaven for him, especially after having pneumonia the week before finals!!
I quit my job! Yay! I know quitting a job doesn't seem like something I should be celebrating in this economy, in this stage of our lives, but it really is a good thing. Trust me. When you're stuck at a place where they take complete advantage of you and pay you almost nothing and try and make you feel bad about it, it's not somewhere you should stay, let alone take your baby there!

Ok, on with the pictures!

Katie just loves to play Xbox. :D
My little "green" baby is really her mama's daughter. She rolled this empty soda bottle allt he way from the living room to over by the recycling bins in the kitchen. Teach em young!
She then proceeded to crawl into the kitchen and not let me wash dishes.
She loves to play with all the cords. We really need some kind of door to hide them or something.
Just Facebookin'
When I took Brad to the doctor's for his pneumonia, I snagged a Dum-Dum for Katie. She seemesd to really enjoy it. Her first lollipop!
Trying to bite it. Haha!
Katie LOVES bathtime! She especially likes to feel the water coming out from the spout and getting on her tummy and "swimming."
HAHAHA! Aunt Marci snapped this picture.
Katie and Santa Claus, a.k.a. Brother Blakely, at the ward Christmas party.
She is such a little troublemaker!
Katie just loves her daddy!!!
What am I going to do with this girl? 6 months old and she pulls herself to stand on everything! We should probably start some babyproofing.
Here is Katie's Christmas present from mommy and daddy! (mostly mommy). It's this awesome chair that she can sit in, it has straps, or she can stand in, there are leg holes! There's a tray there that velcros on to put toys or snacks in, a cupholder, and even a little sunshade thing (not pictured). The best part is, she can use it until she's 75 pounds! Hello camping and trips to the beach! Or eating cheerios in front of the tv for now.
She's standing here if you can see. Oh, and a big thanks to my friend Daryn who picked the chair up for me from the BabySteals warehouse in Utah! 11 dollars in shipping was a little too pricey for me.
Thanks mom and dad for Brad's Christmas present! We all love it already!
Our Christmas tree! Whoever said that a Christmas Tree had to be a pine tree? Hmm? :)
Presents from Grandma and Grandpa Evenson who were up here a few days ago to pick up Marci from school.
Brad and I made a gingerbread house a few days ago with a kit from Bountiful Baskets. See my little snowman? I was pretty proud of it. Lol!
A few days later, we let Katie help us demolish, and eat, it.
This is what I call "Sugar Drunk."
Can I really play with this momma?
No! Don't take it away! Can I keep this part? Please?
We let Katie open her presents a little early because we'll be in Pennsylvania for Christmas (yay!)
There were a lot of pictures with her opening/staring at/trying to eat the presents, but I just chose the couple where you can actually kind of see her face.
Look at those pudgy cheeks!
Katie and Daddy passed out on the floor the other day. To the other mommies out there: Don't you just love your husband even more when you see things like this?!

That's it for now! We'll be in Brad's hometown in PA from the 21st-28th, so hopefully i'll update when we get back. It should be a great trip and I know a certain grandma who is so excited to see the little one. She's excited too, Grandma Odasso!

TacOdasso

2010-11-13T22:29:00.000-07:00

I have SO much to blog about (Halloween decorating contest, Family photos, Katie getting two teeth, Katie crawling, Katie saying mama kinda, our next two vacations, how work is going, etc. . . ) and yet I am here to blog a recipe. Lol!

Last Wednesday (not Nov 10th, but Nov 3rd) I decided to make tacos.
I had made some skimpy ones for the kids I nanny earlier in the day (the family never has food I know how to use so I have to be creative!) that were just black beans, cheddar cheese, chopped spinach and some lime juice.
Although the kids were pretty skeptical because they wanted meat in their tacos, I thought they were pretty darn tasty and wanted more when I got home!
A while ago I scored a bunch of free little corn tortillas with couponing, so I needed to use them up anyway.
Well, after I made them, I had to make them two more times in one week because Brad seemed to just love them and kept requesting them.
That never happens to me with Brad! (I think he's a little picky. Hehe.)
Since I feel so good about myself, I decided to post my recipe.

Oh, and i'm calling them TacOdasso's until I think of a better name.
Also, not the best picture, but I didn't take one and I found this one on Brad's phone. Haha!

TacOdasso's

Shredded Chicken (enough for however many tacos you want. I make shredded chicken using this method)
Little Corn Tortillas
Vegetable Oil
Cumin
Mexican Chili Powder
Salt
Pepper
Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
Iceberg Lettuce
Cheese, Cheddar or Jack or a Mexican mix or whatever you like
Fresh Cilantro, roughly chopped
Half a Lime

Brush tortillas with vegetable oil on both sides.
Heat a skillet on medium-high and then plop a tortilla right down in there.
Wait about 30 seconds or until it looks good and then flip and repeat.
Once it looks yummy (they can be soft or crispy, depending on how you like your tacos) transfer to a paper towel, get off any excess oil (I use tongs and just kinda press it on the paper towel), and then fold in half and sandwich with another paper towel. (We don't want oily tacos, nuh-uh.)
Repeat this with however many tortillas you want.
Next, heat some veggie oil in another skillet (about 4 Tbsp for enough chicken for 4 tacos I think) on medium-high heat.
Once the oil's all good and hot, dump that chicken right in there and toss in the seasonings, as much as you like.
If I had to guess, i'd say I use about 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper, 1 1/2 tsp chili powder, 1/2 Tbsp cumin (maybe more. I love cumin!), and just a pinch of red pepper flakes.
Get it all good and sizzly but be careful not to let the chicken dry out. I tend to do that. (Also, if you're amazing like me, you'll be doing all this while the tortillas are cooking up to save time)
Once the chicken is a nice golden-y color, just turn the heat to low while you get everything else ready.
Now, slice up the iceberg lettuce so it's in nice bite-size strips (make sure you wash and dry it too.)
Shred the cheese, unless already shredded.
Now set up your station! I like to have a little assembly line ready.
Grab a tortilla, fill it with chicken then cheese followed by some lettuce, some cilantro, and then squeeze just a few drops of lime juice across the top.
Scarf it down and make another one. And another one. And then remember you're hubby and make him some too.

Just a note: These would probably be good with some chopped red onion and chopped tomatoes, but we had neither so I don't know!

I think I use way too many parentheses. Lol.

Lo Siento

2010-10-30T21:16:00.000-06:00

I need to stop procrastinating blogging because then I end up writing one HUGE post!
Beware, there are quite a few pictures in this post.
First, I just wanted to show everyone the little M&M mini cupcakes I made.
They were for a Relief Society get to know you activity at the beginning of the month. They are a little sloppy, but that's because I was in a serious rush. Brad helped me too. He's so awesome, even if he doesn't have the best frosting skills. ;)
A couple Friday's ago, we went with our friends the Roundy's to the straw maze! I had never been and it was pretty cool. They had some family with us as well and we all went to her sister's house afterwards for hot chocolate. Katie stayed awake through the entire maze, which was pretty crazy!
I didn't take many pictures, mostly because I forgot, but here's us waiting to go in!
My friend Daryn stops by every once in a while to visit and chat and one time when she was over here, Katie squiggled her way almost out of the chair and had pulled her headband over her eyes.
She was squirming around and making all these frustrated noises.
It was kinda sad, but also pretty funny so I took a picture (and then promptly helped her out.)
Two Friday's ago, we went to the Corn Maze out in Shelley with a bunch of our friends.
It was cool. Not really worth the hour long drive, but still fun to get out with friends and do something new!
After, we all stopped and ate at Denny's!

There are two pictures of our group because Daryn wanted to take a picture so that I could be in it.
Work has been going well. I've basically been a zombie the last week or so, but I get to nap after I take the girl to school, because then the boy and Katie both nap, which means I do too!
My job makes me way tired as it is, but with Katie teething REALLY badly and not sleeping well because of it, I haven't had very much sleep at all.
Sam loves Katie so much, it's so cute. Whenever we get there in the morning he comes running over to see her saying "A-E, A-E!" (Sam has some speech issues because he had some hearing issues for a while, so he has trouble with his consonants. I've been able to learn some sign language to better communicate with him and it's been so fun!)
Here he is trying to play ball with her!
Katie grabbed the ball and wouldn't let go. Haha!
Sam is always wanting me to take pictures, and since we're always laying on our tummies on the floor together I thought it would make a cute picture.
Not so much. Lol.
I look through the BYU Idaho school bulletin board just about everyday and last week I saw a girl offering to do Halloween photo shoots for babies for free and you get to choose five to keep, so I thought why not!
Katie has a few costumes to choose from but I ultimately chose this bear outfit (even though it isn't really a costume per se) because it was warm and fit her really well.
Here are the five I chose:
Brad actually chose this picture of me and Katie because he thinks it's cute.
Suuuuuuure babe. Haha.
She was pretty fussy and a little uncooperative for most of the shoot because it was right in the middle of her afternoon nap, so we didn't get many smiles and she had her pacifier in a lot.
I feel like I should do something really cool and artsy with this picture, but I don't know what!
Definitely the best one. See, this is how Katie is almost all of the time when she's not teething. Big smiles and uber cute.
We also took some family photos on Friday with another girl from the bulletin board who was offering to do them for only $5! And we get a CD with all the pictures! Woo!
I should be getting them in the next day or two, so hopefully i'll get around to blogging about it.

Last night, Friday night, I threw a Halloween party in our lounge!
It was so fun to plan and make all the goodies, but also really stressful.
My little sister Marci was SO great to help me put it all together and I am so grateful!
(Did I mention Marci's bf of 3 years Mario was staying with us for the last two weeks? He flew up from Cali to visit her here and stayed in our spare room. He left on Friday afternoon.)
I took a few pictures of the party, but mostly of the food I made, but you can see all those on Facebook if you like.

Here's the food table. I made everything there except for the little green alien cupcakes in the front. Daryn brought those. :)
We also had more food brought later by the Roundy's, the Jordan's, The Dickey's, and the Petrich's. Thanks guys!
Unfortunately, I focused so much on the food that we had a serious lack of extra drinks, spoons, forks, etc... but oh well!
(You really should check out the pics on Facebook because I made some cute cute goodies if I do say so myself)
The party was also lacking in activities, but mostly people played ping-pong, talked, ate, and then we all played Mafia a couple times!
It was a really good turn-out with around 20 people so it was awesome.
Anyway, this month has been pretty eventful and the weather has been SO NICE, for the most part.
I am so glad that summer/fall lasted so long.
Unfortunately, winter is pretty much upon us now.
Bleh.

That's all for now!
I'll blog next time about our family photo shoot and our awesome Halloween decorations!
Oh, and maybe about our not-so-new-anymore apartment since I forgot to do that last month!

Crazy crazy coupon lady

2010-10-11T19:57:00.000-06:00

I just have to post about what I just did at Albertsons because I think it was pretty awesome.

I did 3 separate transactions because it was cheaper out of pocket right then and there for me since all I had on hand was a $5 bill and some change.

Transaction 1:
Tylenol Cold Multi-Symptom (the liquid kind)- Regular price $7.49
On sale for $4.99
Used $2.00/1 coupon from Tylenol.com
Used a $0.50 off my next purchase coupon from my last shopping trip
Total= $2.49 ($0.30 tax= $2.79)
Recieved a catalina coupon for $2.00 off my next purchase

Transaction 2:
Tylenol Cold Multi-Symptom (the liquid kind)- Regular price- $7.49
On sale for $4.99
Used $2.00/1 coupon from Tylenol.com
Used $2.00 off my next purchase from transaction 1
Total= $0.99 ($0.30 tax=$1.29)

Transaction 3:
2 bags of Halls cough drops- Regular price for 2- $3.98
On sale for $0.99 a bag [Side note, I accidentally grabbed one of the more expensive bags of Halls which ended up costing me an extra $1.49]
Used $1/2 coupon
Dial bar soap 3pack- Regular price- $2.79
On sale for $1.50
Used $0.35/1 coupon that rounded up to $1/1 with Albertson's Great Coupon Round Up Promo
Used $2.00 off my next purchase from transaction 2
Total= $0.98 ($0.26 tax= $1.24)

In the end I got $23.11 worth of items for only $5.32
Which was just about all I had in my wallet and now we're ready for cold and flu season. :)

Fooooooooooooooood!

2010-10-02T17:21:00.001-06:00

Last night, I decided to let Katie have her first "real" food.
She has been SO interested in grown up food lately and wants so bad to eat whatever I am eating.
I know she is just shy of 4 months, so it's really early to start her on food, but I figured there's no harm in giving it a shot just once.
Plus, my milk supply has been REALLY low lately from not eating enough (I'm supposed to have about 2300 calories a day, but because of work i've been getting less than 1500 i'm sure) so she's been eating every hour and it's driving me crazy!
Especially since she was sleeping so good for a while, about 6-7 hours from 10-5 or 6, but now she gets me up every hour to eat!
Argh!
Anyway, it was just some rice cereal but she seemed to really enjoy it!
It was super messy, which was expected, but it didn't help her sleep any better or fill her up, so i'll continue to just exclusively breastfeed for the next month or so I think.
Just gotta get more calories in during the day to up my milk!

Videos of her eating will be on Facebook soon!

My Little Zoo Animal

2010-10-02T16:50:00.000-06:00

Last Saturday was a free admission day to the Tautphaus Park Zoo in Idaho Falls.
Since we'd never been, we decided to go!
Katie enjoyed being outside, as she always does, and was even a little interested in some of the animals.
It was SUPER busy and it's a pretty small zoo, so getting around with our stroller, and parking, were kind of awful, but we still had a good time.

This monkey was SO funny! He was just chillin' by the glass, arm up and relaxing. Sorry about the reflection of some little girl's flip flops.
We got her this cute little shirt from the gift shop. 35% off!

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It's Off To Work I Go!

2010-09-12T14:29:00.000-06:00

I started nannying again at the end of August.
It's for the same family as before and although I complained a lot about it and ultimately quit, I'm sure it'll be better and easier this time around.
The job didn't pay much to start with, and this time it's $100 less, but there are some upsides and reasons I'm sure I can do it this time.
1. I'm not pregnant this time. Pregnancy took away my patience, my energy, my optimism, and my sleep. All things I desperately needed to nanny which I have now.
2. Little Kyah is now in Kindergarten! One of my biggest complaints was that the little girl didn't seem to know how to entertain herself or do anything herself. While I love Barbies, i'm not ok with playing it on the floor for hours while she tells me exactly what to say and do. Now, she's gone at 12:15 everyday and comes home with her mom after school.
3. The kids love Katie! It's awesome that I can take Katie to work with me and even more awesome that the kids sit around and smile and talk to her all day.
4. With hospital bills, a higher rent, and a need for furniture, the extra money is definitely welcome.
5. This reason is a little ridiculous, but I love having little taste-testers! I've been trying to cook more homemade and fresh things and I can't really trust Brad to tell me what he thinks about my experiments. Either he doesn't want to try whatever it is or he just says "It's good." Thanks for the help, babe. Little kids that sit there and scarf whatever it is down and say "This is SO good!" and ask for seconds or push the food away and ask for something else are much more helpful.

Anyway, the job is going well so far and even though I don't like having to get up everyday at 6, it's setting a better routine than the sleep from 1-noon everyday I had going on. Haha!

Time Sure Flies!

2010-09-11T19:37:00.000-06:00

I can't believe it's been over a month since i've blogged.
Shoot, I can't believe it's been 3 months since Katie was born!
She's getting so big, so fast.
I actually love it!
It's great when they're super small and sleep a lot, but she's so much more fun smiling and talking and playing.
A few updates on Katie:
She can roll over! She's been able to roll from her back to her tummy for a few weeks now and does it every chance she gets, though she gets really frustrated afterwards because she can't roll back yet.
She loves to talk, but gets pretty shy about it around other people.
She doesn't really have a routine yet; She just does her own thing, but I don't really mind.
She sleeps when she's tired and eats when she's hungry and I think that's just how she is.
Some babies just don't do well with schedules and whatnot.
Besides, I don't really have a routine for myself, so it kind of works for both of us.
And Yes, i'm getting enough sleep, since everyone asks me.
Katie LOVES to be outdoors and feel the wind and she likes to swim a lot too. :)

My mom has some pictures of Katie in my aunt Kathryn's pool, but she hasn't sent them to me yet.
Katie always does this thing where Brad or I will be holding her and she'll be sleeping, then we'll look down after a few minutes and she'll be wide awake just staring up at us!
It's SO funny!
Katie loves her daddy!
She always falls asleep when he holds her. Haha.
I got this sweet onesie for her to wear to the Kynetx lunches and whatnot. (Kynetx is where Brad works and they have lunches on Fridays where people can come for free lunch and learn about the company and what's new and everything.)
She totally loves her WubbaNub pacifier and I am so glad I bought it.
She's always holding onto the kitty and falling asleep with it.
I just wish the actual pacifier part wasn't one of those green ones because they don't seem to stay in her mouth very well. Maybe she just doesn't like them.

Our little gangster baby.
Back in April, my brother told us about a sale going on at Allegiant Airlines: $19 for a one-way direct flight between Idaho Falls and Los Angeles, so we decided to buy some tickets to fly down to Cali for my birthday, where we could visit with my family and use some free Disney vouchers to go to Disneyland.
We went down last Thursday and went to D-land on Friday, my birthday.
It was lots of fun and not as boring as Brad thought. Haha.
My mom, little sister Marci and her bf Mario when with us, so there was always someone to hold Katie and my mom held her while we went on the more adult-friendly rides.
Katie did love some of the family rides though., the kind where you sit in a boat and look at stuff like Pirates, It's a Small World, Enchanted Tiki Room, etc...
She would just look all around and was so curious!

My mom got her an adorable little Disneyland shirt to wear.

Family picture! (I always look gross as theme parks. Haha!)
Disneyland has been showing the old Michale Jackson 3-D movie, Captain EO, ever since he died, so we went and saw it.
I'd only ever seen the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids show that they've been showing for years, but Captain EO was the one my mom always saw back in the 80's.
Katie in the 3-D glasses. Lol!

All in all, it was a fun trip, but super short.
We didn't get to my parent's house from the airport until Thursday night, spent all day at Disneyland on Friday, did some shopping with my mom on Saturday, and then left super early Sunday morning!
Luckily, my mom flew back up with us because my dad had driven Marci up here for school!
I helped them move Marci into the dorms and my mom helped me organize stuff in our new apartment (blog about the new apt to come tomorrow) on Monday, and them my parents took off on their own adventure!
They went to Yellowstone and Wyoming and Mount Rushmore and all over the place.
I miss em already but hopefully we'll go down there for Thanksgiving.

It's been an amazing 12 weeks with Katie and I love watching her grow more and more each day.
Babies are awesome!

These Are a Few of Her Favorite Things

2010-07-26T21:59:00.000-06:00

Katie is over 6 weeks old!
Oh my goodness!
She's getting big so fast.
I thought I would take a few minutes to list some of her favorite things.

- Sneezing. She always make the cutest little noise after she sneezes, and will often smile as well.

-Eating, but what baby doesn't love eating?

-Sitting in this position. No matter how we position her in the bouncer, even if we strap her in, she always wiggles her way to sit like this.

- Naps with daddy.

-Cuddling with mommy.

-Sitting in her bumbo! But only for a short time because she does prefer to be held while sitting up.

- Standing! She loves when we hold her and she gets to stand up! She'll kick and kick until we let her stand, it's so funny.

- Bath time! Especially when I fill up the tub and sit in there with her, letting her swim around and kick her legs. I need to get some pictures of her after her bath because she is just SO happy and so cute in her towel.

-The Baby Bjorn carrier. She loves to be in there and just look around. I usually only wear it when I go to do laundry or get the mail, but sometimes I'll stick her in it and we dance in the living room.

- Smiling. We have yet to capture a really good picture, which is unfortunate because she has the BEST smile. Sometimes we'll spend 5-10 minutes just smiling back and forth at each other. Now i'm just waiting for her to laugh.

These are just a few of her more favorite things, but there are lots more. She's such a happy baby with so much personality. I hardly get anything done during the day because I just have so much fun hanging out with her!

Life is a Highway

2010-07-19T16:41:00.000-06:00

So we can't seem to stay off of the road!
Brad went to down to work in his work's main office in Lehi, so Katie and I came along for the ride.
We listened to "Catching Fire" in the car (awesome!) and got down to Utah on Wednesday morning. Brad worked Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday so I didn't have a lot to do while he was gone besides let Jenna and the girls bond with Katie. Haha.
As usual, we played some games and I just hung around the house.
Friday, I dropped Brad off at work so that I could have the car for the day to do some shopping!
I've been in desperate need of clothes so I went to a few stores and got some shirts, a dress, and a couple cute shrug things.
I also ended up getting the new Stephanie Meyer book, this cute drying rack for bottles that looks like grass, some dessert bowls, a pink ice cream scoop, pink tongs and some nursing pads.
Yeah, I went a little crazy, but at least most everything was on sale.
We joined Brad for lunch at the office and then went back to Jenna's, where I packed up the car, picked up Brad at 4:30, and we all headed home to Rexburg.
Pictures of Katie and the girls are on Jenna's blog.

Saturday, it was really nice in Rexburg so Brad and I took Katie for a walk at nature park.

She slept the entire time. Haha.
Cute little ducklings. We brought some bread to feed them.
This isn't a great picture, but I thought it was so funny how Katie is peeking!
Later, we were waiting for the ward activity to start (we had brownies and ice cream and watched Hercules in the church gym) and Brad laid Katie on my back. So funny!
She got this cute little romper from Grandpa Odasso. It's got a fishy on the bottom.
I think she looks SO much like Brad in this picture, which is the first time i've ever seen either of us in her.
Sunday, we went to church and Katie did awesome.
She's such a great baby.
After church, she was SO happy and smiley, so I took some pictures and video, which you can find on my Facebook.
She just has the best disposition and everyone always guesses that she's at least 3 or 4 months old because she's just so smiley and alert.
She'll actually sit there and interact with you, smiling back and almost laughing, but not quite.
This week should be a fun one.
I'm making Enchiladas tomorrow to have dinner with Jon and Cynthia.
Wednesday, there is a BBQ in the courtyard here and also temple sealings for our ward.
I also plan on working out everyday and so far it's going well!
It's only been one day, but I know I can keep it up!
I really am in the worst shape of my life thus far and I am determined to change that. Getting winded going up a flight of stairs is NOT ok. Sometimes I miss high school for this reason because I was constantly having to walk around, go up and down stairs, exercise for color guard, dance for musical rehearsals, walk home or to the bus stop or work or whatever.
Pregnancy made me so lazy and I really just want to feel better about myself, so wish me luck!

California, July 4th, and Katie's Blessing

2010-07-07T15:49:00.000-06:00

I am SO behind on blogging. Sorry!
Some quick updates:
Brad started working at a company called Kynetx about 2 weeks ago (wait, 3 weeks ago?) and he seems to really like it.
They basically develop web applications.
The main office is in Lehi, so Brad, along with me and Katie, went down there last Thursday so Brad could meet all the main people and whatnot.
We arrived in Utah on Wednesday night and stayed with Jenna and Travis.
On Thursday while Brad was at work, I hung out at my Aunt Kathryn's house.
She has an awesome pool so I went swimming for a bit while Kathryn watched Katie.
I ended up getting pretty sunburned. Oh well!
Around 4:30, I picked up Brad from the office, which is about 10 minutes from Kathryn's house, and we went back and swam some more and had dinner with Kathryn and her kids, as well as my cousin Teresa and her family.
On Friday, Katie and I joined Brad for lunch at the Kynetx office (Yum, Jimmy Johns!) and after lunch we started driving down to California!
We spent the weekend down there and it was really nice.
My sister Laura and her family was down, so we got to spend some time with our nieces that we haven't seen in a LONG time.
Saturday, my mom had a little baby shower for me.
It was mostly just snacking on crackers and cheese and meeting the new baby and just hanging out with a lot of the women from our church that I grew up with.
Nicole was also able to come and it was SO great to see her!
We all had banana splits and opened some presents and then people slowly trickled out.
Later that night was a ward 4th of July party at the church, which was lots of fun.
My mom did a great job putting it all together.
Sunday, Katie was blessed!
She looked like a little angel in her blessing dress.
So precious. :)
Sunday night we all sat outside and lit fireworks and just had a good time.
Oh, and also on Sunday my brother-in-law Ben had a little photo shoot for Katie.
There were a lot of pictures, so he only touched up a few of them.
I've posted those at the bottom of this post.
The first two pictures were photoshopped by me, so they don't look as great. Lol.
Monday, I went and saw Eclipse with my mom and then we went shopping with my little sister.
Brad and I left for home on Tuesday morning and got back into Rexburg around 12:30 a.m.
It's nice to be home, but I always miss California the second I leave.
Good thing we'll be back down there in September to go to Disneyland for my birthday. :D

Has it really been 9 days?

2010-06-20T20:58:00.001-06:00

Katie is an absolute doll.
I think she really is the cutest thing ever.
Seriously.
She smiles all the time and for no reason.
I know a lot of babies will smile after they fart or poop or something, but she just smiles for no reason and it's awesome.
She's even laughed a few times!
Earlier today, Brad was tickling her armpits and she laughed from that!
Unfortunately, I was in the other room so I missed it. :(
Sometimes she snores or just kind of breathes loudly while she's sleeping, which is also so cute.
Brad recorded her snoring earlier and i'll try and upload it at the bottom of this post. (If it doesn't work, check Facebook.)
She went to church for the first time today and everyone loved her and wanted to hold her.
She slept the whole time, which I was actually a little sad about because she's so fun when she's awake, but I guess it's better that she was asleep because it would have been that much harder to pay attention to the speakers.
Katie also had a little doctor's visit on Thursday.
They were basically just checking for jaundice and to make sure everything was alright, which it was.
The doctor said she'd gained about 4 oz since birth, which is really great since most babies end up losing weight in the beginning.
I knew she must be gaining weight because she is definitely eating enough!
I think I could probably have twins with how much milk i'm churning out. (Sorry if this is TMI, but i'm soaking through 4 or 5 nursing pads a day, each.)
Speaking of nursing, it's been getting better.
She still has some trouble latching on and ends up getting milk squirted into her eyes and all over both of us, but it really has been getting better.
The pain isn't so bad anymore and the engorgement swelling is pretty much gone, thank goodness.
Well, that's all the updates I can think of for now.
She's doing great, Brad and I are doing great, everything is great!
Here are a couple recent pictures. :)

Katie's first church outfit! :)

Katie and daddy on Father's Day. <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_I79OatOxbQQ/TB7eIyw__-I/AAAAAAAACA0/JgyOZc2TdQ0/s1600/IMG_0167.JPG">

Can't Get Enough of You Baby.

2010-06-14T22:56:00.000-06:00

Life has been pretty awesome since we came home on Saturday.
Katie is such a wonderful baby.
We can't get enough of her!
The first night was a little tough because she was really hungry, but couldn't seem to stay awake long enough to eat.
So basically, she'd whine, i'd feed her for a minute, she'd fall asleep, i'd nudge her awake, she'd eat for one more minute, then fall asleep, so i'd put her in her bassinet, and then 5 minutes later we'd do it all over again.
On top of that, the first few days of nursing seems to be really painful so i'm sure my squeals of pain and my whole body tensing up really wasn't helping the feeding situation.
Finally, the pain and everything just got to me and I broke down crying.
I felt so awful that I wasn't able to feed my own baby!
We'd been nursing just fine during the day but the pain was just finally getting to me.
I felt like such a failure because this wasn't the first time I couldn't handle the pain (my epidural.)
Brad decided to make up some formula for her and he fed her while I just cried.
After that, Brad ended up staying up for quite a while just holding her while I tried to sleep for a while.
In the end, neither of us got much sleep and ended up not being able to go to church, but things have been much smoother since.
Nursing is still a killer, but i've been pumping occasionally, which hurts a lot less, so that I can still feed her when i'm too sore to do it the regular way.
It's been especially helpful since my milk came in yesterday afternoon and I am SUPER swollen.
Enough about breastfeeding.
Katie makes the cutest faces and sounds, it's so fun to watch.
She sleeps really well, although she pretty much refuses to sleep alone.
We can lay her in the bassinet, but she'll only sleep there for a few minutes before she starts squirming a ton and making sad noises.
She much prefers to sleep being held or just being close to us, so we've been co-sleeping a bit.
I don't really mind because I love having her so close to me!
She's just so warm and cuddly. :)
Brad absolutely loves her which makes me love him even more.
How sweet is this?
That's her favorite way to sleep and if I lay her on my chest she immediately tucks up her legs and falls asleep.
It's so cute.
Just thinking about it makes me smile.
She is just the sweetest little girl.

Katie Corinne Odasso

2010-06-12T20:35:00.000-06:00

It all started on Tuesday night.
I had been having on and off, non painful contractions all Tuesday, but by Tuesday night they started to become fairly regular, at least one every 20 minutes or so.
(Bytheway, my mom arrived on Sunday and was staying with us.)
Around 10 pm, I decided to start keeping track of them.
Somewhere around 1 in the morning, they were 3 minutes away and pretty uncomfortable.
I went into the living room and woke up my mom, who told me that I still had a long ways to go, so I decided to try and get some sleep.
Around 4 in the morning I woke up because they had become painful.
Everyone got up and dressed and we stuck around the apartment until 5:30ish when we decided to head to the hospital.
After all, they were every 3 minutes, lasting about a minute each, and strong.
Sounds like we should have been heading to the hospital, right?
Well, we got there and I had one walking up the the front doors, I had one while we were checking in, I had one while I was changing into a robe, and then I got on the exam table and they completely stopped.
They had me walk around for a while to see if my contractions would start up again, but they didn't and finally Dr. Allred came and sent me home, basically saying that it was false labor.
I know this was my first baby, but that labor was not false!
Anyway, the rest of the day, Wednesday, was spent walking as much as possible with my mom to try and start things up again.
Unfortunately, I only had maybe 3 contractions the entire day.
Lame, right?
I went to sleep and woke up Thursday morning with wet thighs.
For the next hour or so, I could feel liquid kinda seeping if I moved to much or leaned forward or something, and I grew concerned that I might have been leaking amniotic fluid.
We went into the clinic and Dr. Allred tested me and didn't find any amniotic fluid present, but they did an ultrasound anyway.
What he found was that I was pretty low on fluid and that perhaps there was a tear high on the uterus or that the baby's head was sealing off the hole, so that's why they couldn't detect any of the fluid or whatever.
He told me that because the fluid was low, I could either go to the hospital right then and get things going with Pitocin, or try and walk around for a couple of hours and get labor going.
If the walking didn't work, I needed to go into the hospital anyway so they could give me Pitocin.
He was worried that if my water had indeed broken or I had a tear, that the baby was at risk for infection and since it had already been 6 hours or so since it might have happened, that I needed to have the baby as soon as possible.
We decided to try walking, so my mom, Brad and I walked downtown Rexburg for a few hours, then went home, had dinner, and went to the hospital around 6:30 because I'd had a few contractions, but not regular.

Now, I really wanted natural childbirth, but I had accepted that if something went wrong, or either myself or the baby were at risk, medical intervention would be completely understandable and accepted.
Because the fluid was low and because my labor was being so wacky, I said ok to the Pitocin.
Before the finally gave it to me, my contractions started to be fairly strong and regular, but they gave it to me anyway.
As soon as it kicked in, my contractions didn't hurt at all!
Haha!
Anyway, the Doc came in a while later and found the membranes to still be intact or whatever, so he broke em and took me off of the Pitocin.
Then things started to REALLY hurt.
The timeline of the next few hours is pretty unclear but at some point, my mom let them give me some IV drugs!
I was a little sad that Brad hadn't stuck up for me and said "she doesn't want any drugs!" because I was a little vulnerable and totally let it happen but oh well.
That's why I will definitely have a midwife next time.
The drugs, Fetanyl or something, didn't really seem to be doing anything and the pain started to become almost unbearable.
I knew it was going to hurt beyond anything I could have imagined, and sure enough it did.
I was clasping onto Brad as if I was about to die, biting his hoody and crying and yelling at my mom and saying crazy things.
I vaguely remember saying things like "I don't believe in natural childbirth!" and "Give me something!"
I told Brad so many times beforehand that he needed to be strong for me because I knew the pain would probably get to my head, but I know it was hard for him to see me in pain, so he signed the paper to let them give me an epidural.
I was 7 or 8 cm dilated and definitely in hard, HARD labor with contractions 1 minute apart, but they were going to give it to me anyway.
20 minutes later, this Nazi like Anesthesiologist came in to drug me up.
After having to hold completely still through 2 extremely painful contractions, he was done.
A while after that, I was able to sleep for the next hour or so, which was the one thing about the epidural that I am really grateful for.
I think I could have handled the rest of the pain and the delivery and everything natural, but being able to rest and sleep for a bit was the most wonderful thing.
I was SO exhausted.
I woke up because I started to be able to feel each contraction a little bit in my pelvis, so I started pushing against them.
Finally I got up all the way and told them I was ready to really push.
And so it began.
3 hours.
I must say, it didn't feel like 3 hours to me.
Maybe only half an hour.
It was really difficult for the first while because I couldn't really feel what I was pushing!
Stupid epidural.
I decided to lay on my side instead because that's how I was when I was sleeping and able to feel the contractions.
Sure enough, laying on my side helped me feel when the contraction was coming on and when I needed to push.
It was when the head was finally visible that I could really push better.
I got back on my back when the doctor came in, and he flipped her head into the right position (she had been facing my hips rather than my back), and helped get her outta there.
I guess her head had been really blue and when I got her head out, the cord was around her neck. :(
After getting the shoulders out (which hurt more than the head and was what actually made me rip a tiny bit) she slid out and they placed her on my stomach.
She was so beautiful.
Brad started crying and almost instantly every pain and discomfort I had been feeling was gone!
The wiped her off while she was on my tummy and the doctor gave me one or two stitches and then... life was wonderful.

After Brad cut the cord and after we enjoyed her for a bit, I let them take her to get her weighed and measured and all that good stuff.
7 lbs, 14 oz.
20 inches long.
5:32 a.m.

The next few hours are also kind of hazy.
Pictures being taken, starting to breastfeed, first bath...
I had to wait two hours in bed until the epidural wore off and then a nurse came in who helped me to the bathroom and take a shower and then they moved us into the Mother and Baby unit.
Once there, we pretty much just chilled for the next 24 hours.
I was so, so, so tired and tried to sleep as much as possible, but the darn hospital isn't very accommodating when it comes to rest.
Someone came into the room at least every 2 hours, checking one thing or another.
It was super annoying and I wish we had just been able to go home right away, but the hospitals want to check every little thing, multiple times for hours and hours (and make more money at the same time) so we had to stay.
At least the steak and shrimp dinner that Brad and I got that night were pretty good.

Isn't that just the best sight ever?

Shortly after the birth, my mom went back to our apartment to get some sleep (she had stayed up all night, unlike me with my epidural), but came back and was with us for most of the day.
Cynthia and Stephanie came and visited around 11 and then my brother came by around 3, followed by Daryn around 3:30.
Thanks for the visits everyone!
After Brad and I had dinner at 5, he headed home to shower and get his laptop and while he was gone, I decided to take a nice long shower at the hospital.
After he got back and I was done with my shower, my mom headed back to our apartment for the night.
We didn't get much sleep that night, especially when a nurse came in to take blood from my arm at 6 a.m!
After telling them at 8:30 that we'd like to leave as soon as possible, we didn't end up being able to leave until after 11.
I guess there was a lot of other babies they were getting checked out in the nursery or something.
Finally, we were able to go home.
My mom left to start heading back to Cali shortly after we got home and settled in.
She was such a great help for the week and i'm so glad she was able to be here.
She would have stayed longer, but she said we really didn't need any more help and that we seemed to have everything under control, unlike other of her children when they became first time moms :) Haha. So she left to make it to her meetings in church tomorrow.
It's been absolutely great since we've been home.
I've taken a few naps and Katie has been sleeping and eating quite a bit.
She is so cute and we love to just look at her.
And she loves to look at us!
She'll stay awake for long periods of time and just look around, it's so adorable.
She pretty much doesn't cry ever and loves to snuggle.
We're still working on the breastfeeding thing, but i'm sure we'll get it down in the next few days.
Brad has been changing most of the diapers, which I think is perfectly fair, since breastfeeding has been very, very painful.
It's supposed to get better in the next couple days, so i've just got to bear through it.
Man, mom's do so much.
Go tell yours that you love her!
We absolutely love our little girl and are so happy to finally have her home with us.
Thank you to everyone for your love and support and y'all are free to hold her anytime! (If we actually know you that is, considering this is out in the blogging world for anyone to read.)

Things I've Learned from Being Pregnant

2010-06-01T10:18:00.000-06:00

First and foremost:
Husbands are the
Best
Thing
EVER.
He rubs my back, rubs my feet, paints my toenails, holds me up while I try to put my pants on, fills up the bathtub for me, makes me breakfast in bed, picks things up off the floor, helps me get off the couch, holds my hair back when I throw up, and kisses and touches my belly lovingly all the time. :)

Second:
As soon as people notice my belly, the conversation will only be about pregnancy/the baby. I'm so appreciative of the people who talk to me about normal, everyday things!

Third:
I will never ask another pregnant woman "How are you feeling?" I've heard this question more times than I even want to imagine. The thought is nice, but no matter how I answer, no one is satisfied! If I say "I'm feeling great today!" they'll be surprised and ask if it's true and why aren't the other days great, and etc... If I say i'm "ok" or "alright" or "just fine" then they'll try and delve deeper into why i'm not feeling on top of the world. Here's a hint, if i'm laughing and smiling and walking normal, I'm having a good day. If I look tired, am holding my belly and waddling, and am not wearing any makeup, i'm probably not feeling so great.

Fourth:
There are some foods I will never look at the same again. Once you've seen how it looks after being digested for a bit, you never forget.

Fifth:
Apparently, intense physical pain is just another part of life.

Sixth:
It is very important to keep a good supply of toilet paper in the house, along with snack foods and antacids.

Seventh:
My face is going to look fat in every picture taken during the last trimester, no matter the angle or lighting. It's unavoidable. And because everyone wants to take pictures of me and my belly, i've learned to just grin and bear it, despite the fact that I will not be pleased with how my face looks.

Eighth:
Taking time for myself is IMPORTANT. Sitting in a bubble bath with an ice cold Shirley Temple and listening to Maria Mena has been one pastime that has been an absolute lifesaver when this whole pregnancy thing leaves me feeling tired, achy, and overwhelmed. Taking 10 minutes to actually do my makeup and wearing heels to church boost my confidence like nothing else.

Ninth:
I love pillows.

Tenth:
Feeling my baby move inside me in response to Brad's voice is the most wonderful feeling in the world. She's not even here yet, but she still knows him and recognizes him. How amazing is that?! It just makes me feel like we're all so much more of a family.

I'm sure there are plenty more things I could list, but there's ten for ya.
I've only got about a week left of being pregnant, hopefully, and while I can't say that i'll miss it, I will say that there have been some good times, some wonderful feelings, and life lessons learned.
All in all, i'm excited for our next baby, but will definitely give myself a nice big break before I have to be pregnant again.

Can I vent for a bit?

2010-05-30T13:50:00.001-06:00

I am so frustrated with our upstairs neighbors.
First of all, let me say that the couple who lived above us last semester were pretty loud.
They exercised in their apartment everyday and tended to vacuum around 10:30 at night 2 or 3 times a week.
While I often complained to Brad about the noise, I never talked to the couple about it because it really wasn't annoying enough to start something over.
And then the current couple moved in.
I honestly think that they couldn't possibly be any louder.
I'm not sure whether they are just constantly wearing work boots and high heels as they walk around, or have hearing problems and need to have their TV turned way up, or if their front door gets stuck so they need to shut it really hard, or what...
But they are very loud.
I've been getting more and more annoyed as the weeks have gone on, and especially as they've done exercises that involve jumping while we're watching Lost or the Office at 8 o'clock at night.
And especially on the rare occasion I go to bed before midnight and I can't sleep because it sounds like they are stomping around or jumping on the bed.
Unfortunately, my prego hormones kind of increase my emotions ten-fold, so this weekend I finally boiled over.
I wrote them a note addressing the noise issue and left it at their door.
I will admit, it was pretty passive-aggressive and because they don't know me or my sense of humor, they apparently thought it was "extremely rude" and decided to write us a note back.
Now, I was expecting them to perhaps apologize for the noise, explain that they didn't know how loud their everyday activity was sounding to us, and maybe sympathize with the fact that I am 9 months pregnant and barely sleep as it is.
But no.
They write back with all this crud about how they are "never up past 10" and never exercise "later than 7pm" (which are both bull) and how they choose to live here, as do we, which is why they would never complain to their neighbors.
They suggested we take some of their "options into consideration" in the following list that they so nicely listed.
1. Find different apartments with better insulation
2. Move to an empty apartment on the third floor
3. Invest in ear plugs.
Maybe it's just me, or is that SO RUDE?!
Perhaps my initial note was a little too bold, but I tried to let them know in it that complaining is not something I would normally do and I was only doing so because it really had gotten to a point where I couldn't handle it anymore.
Brad practically told me that I shouldn't be angry they wrote such a mean note back because of what I had written in the first place.
But I would not have written the note if they hadn't been so rude for the past month and a half!
Anyway, I wrote another note today that I really wish I could give to them, but Brad won't let me.
In it, I apologized for the first note and the fact that they didn't understand the jokes I made about what sounds like sumo wrestling and roller blading.
I explained that even regular things like closing kitchen cupboards or a lively conversation can be heard by us downstairs, so if they could keep their activity to a minimum during the apartment quiet hours, it would be greatly appreciated.
I also pointed out that they ARE up past ten because I can clearly hear them walking around, watching TV, running the dishwasher, etc.. and they I know they did whatever jumping exercises they do past 7, because it was the most annoying while trying to watch Lost on Tuesday from 8-9.
Yes, this second note is definitely more upfront than the first one, but it's because their response just makes me so angry!
I tried to be as lighthearted as I could while still trying to make them understand that they are really, really loud, but I guess that's pretty hard to do without some types of people getting offended.
Anyway, I wrote a new note that is very short, basically saying that I'm sorry for the first note and that I just wanted to point out that what can sounds like normal noises to them can sound very loud to us and asked if they could keep their noise level to an minimum during quiet hours.
I figure i'll leave it outside their door with some brownies or something.
The real me would very much like to give them my original response note and maybe even complain to the managers, but because Brad thinks that this whole thing is stupid and pointless and doesn't want to have to apologize for my behavior, i'll try and just back down and let the rude people continue being rude.
BUT if they ever wake our baby up while she's sleeping, Brad is not gonna stop me from letting the anger fly.

Getting Closer

2010-05-27T11:56:00.000-06:00

2 weeks left!
2 weeks until the due date that is.
Who knows when she'll actually decide to come.

This week has been a busy one for Brad.
He's been meeting with a lot of different people about jobs and internships, which is exciting.
He also had a tooth pulled out on Tuesday that had been bugging him for days and at the same time, they fixed the crack in his tooth so he no longer looks like a hillbilly! Haha.

Tomorrow should be a fun day.
Other than it being the two year anniversary of our first date, there's quite a bit going on.
We'll be heading to St. Anthony in the morning for the Free Fisherman's Community Breakfast.
I guess there will be awards for local people and it's the start of fishing season or something, but we'll be going for the free pancakes and bacon. :)
After that, we'll get more free food for lunch!
The company Brad is interviewing at today holds a free lunch on Fridays, so we'll head over there and show everyone how pregnant I am so that maybe they'll be more likely to hire the guy with the pregnant wife.
Next up in the day will be, hopefully, my second to last doctor's appointment.
I'm going to ask them to check if i'm dilated and maybe I will be a little bit!
Friday night is the Farmer's Market of course, and I haven't missed a week yet, so we'll check that out.
Maybe they'll finally have some fresh produce?

Other than all of that, we're pretty much just hanging out at home, waiting for our little girl to arrive.
I've definitely reached a point where I am bored out of my mind most of the day, so having a new baby should be a welcome addition to our home to keep me busy.
We just can't wait. :D

16 Days?

2010-05-24T20:14:00.000-06:00

It's something like 16 days until my due date.
Craziness!
It's so exciting and I keep waiting for that scared/worried feeling everyone keeps talking about, but it hasn't come!
I'm not scared or worried at all.
Unexplainably (is that a word?) intense labor pains? Bring it on!
Squeezing a human head out of my body? Let's go!
Brad and I are both just so ready for her to be here.
We love her so much and we can't wait.

This blog won't be very long because I guess i'm just not in the mood to type, but I thought I should at least give a little update.

My friends in our ward threw me a baby shower on the 16th and it was lots of fun.
We played baby games and opened presents and ate sweets.
I think decorating and thinking up things to go along with the theme "She's Ready to POP!" with Cynthia and Stephanie was probably the most fun.
I love being able to use my creative side sometimes.

We also had a girl's night with many of the same girls who came to my shower.
We went this past Saturday and saw Letters to Juliet (which was really good) and then had ice cream at Dairy queen afterwards.
So fun.
I love my girl friends up here!

Last Friday was yet another check-up.
They did my group b strep test the week before, so I found out at this last appt that it was negative.
The doc also told me that my rib probably isn't cracked (Um, yes it is dude. This is NOT just "ligament pain" or "the baby kicking." Trust me, I have already experienced what those feel like.) and told me to just take Tylenol.
I think i've taken so much Tylenol this pregnancy that i'm becoming immune.
Can't you tell me some natural ways to help rather than just telling me to take drugs whenever I have a pain?!
Oh well.

I've had some "my body is preparing for labor" signs the last couple days, but because some people are apparently easily grossed out, I won't share them with you.
Funny thing, I posted on Facebook about losing a certain "plug" and someone in the ward interpreted that as "Kim's water broke" and because Brad and I didn't make it to church yesterday, the Relief Society presidency assumed I was in labor at the hospital and was going to pass around a sign up sheet to make meals for us!
Haha!
I guess some of my friends in the ward were like "No. Kim would have told us if she were in labor. She would have texted us" and stuff along those lines.
And it's so true!
So no worries to anyone.
Once i'm headed to the hospital, I'll probably mass text it and Facebook it on Brad's phone. Haha.

Brad's had an AWFUL toothache all weekend, and it just makes me want to cry.
I've never seen him so pitiful and their really isn't anything I can do.
He's been using orajel and taking pain meds but they really don't help too much.
Luckily, he was able to make a Dentist appt for tomorrow, so hopefully they can fix him up.
We can't really afford the dental bills right now, but that's what paying tithing and having faith are for, right?
Speaking of which, Brad has an interview at some place later this week, will probably meet with his advisor about an internship sometime this week, and got a call from Meleleuca today about an application he submitted.
Finding a job in this town is so hard, so please keep us in your prayers!

I guess that update was longer than I thought it would be.
Hopefully my next post will be more exciting or interesting though.
Adios!

Mother MAY I?

2010-05-10T17:40:00.000-06:00

May is here already?
Guess what?
That means I am having a baby NEXT MONTH.
Cynthia and Stephanie have been planning a baby shower for me, and i've been able to help out.
It's been fun and we made and delivered the invitations the last few days.
Mother's Day was yesterday and was my first Mother's day as a mother!
(I think of myself as a mother already because only a mother could handle this pregnancy.)
I was so proud of myself because I was actually able to make it through all of church!
Sure, I was gone in the bathroom for half of the 3 hour block, but still!
Sadly, I left during sacrament meeting to throw up and pick something up from home that I forgot and I ended up missing the boys singing a song for Mother's Day!
Sorry I missed your singing Brad!
He does have the best voice. :)
After church, Brad gave me an apron!
Yay!
Seriously, I have been wanting to get one for the longest time and just never did.
He also got me some skittles, which are already about gone.
Thanks hubby!
Sunday night I made some BBQ drumsticks and invited Paul over to eat with us.
We had to wait a while because the darn chicken took twice as long to cook as the recipe said, so we just hung out and then watched Minute to Win It!
That show is awesome; everyone should watch it!
Mother's Day also marked exactly one month until my due date.
Crazy that it's coming up so fast.
I would really like if our little one came a few days early, but a tiny part of me really doesn't.
You see... Apparently there is a ward camp-out June 4th-5th and I would REALLY like to go.
And since Brad says there is no way we're taking a newborn on a camp-out (what a party pooper), i'll just have to hope that she won't have come yet.
Brad's been job searching and has an interview Thursday.
Unfortunately it's for an unpaid internship, but if he could get his internship out of the way this summer then that means we could actually be out of Rexburg by next summer.
My belly is still getting bigger and bigger and I'm scared my belly button is going to pop out!
I've stayed an innie this whole time, so maybe I can make it another month. Haha.
My doctor told me to take Zantac everyday, because i've been so sick and heartburn-y, and it seems to be helping, but only sometimes.
Speaking of doctors, I'm down to seeing them every week now.
It's kind of annoying and tedious, but oh well.
My Group B Strep test is this Friday and maybe he'll check me out and say i'm dialated and ready to go!
Wouldn't that be awesome?
Alright, i'm starting to ramble.
I'll try and blog some recent pictures later this week as well as how my test went.

Family Shower

2010-04-25T19:16:00.000-06:00

Saturday was a fun day!
My Aunt Kathryn decided to throw me a baby shower at her house in Alpine and invite all the cousins and other family I have down there.
Brad and I showed up (Brad came because we were leaving straight for Rexburg after the shower) and suddenly my mom and little sister are there!
They drove up the day before to surprise me. :)
Funny enough, I had been texting Marci, my little sister, the day before and telling her that she should tell mom to drive up for the shower, and then I had called my mom and talked to her about it and she said no because they had to drive up there so many times in the next few months and whatnot.
What liars!
Apparently, they were both in the car driving up to Utah as I was talking to them!
My cousin's wife Julia came with her 3 daughters, as well as my aunt Margaret and cousin Lara.
The shower was kind of late notice, so not all of my extended family was able to come, but it was nice to see those that were able to make it!
We started off by eating all the yummy food Kathryn had set out and then moved to the living room for baby shower games.
First, we each had a list of animals and had to write down what the babies are called.
Do you know what a baby raccoon or reindeer is called?
Some of them were pretty hard!
We also played the game where you guess which candy is melted into diapers.
That one made me a little hungry. Hehe.
Then I left the room to "go to the bathroom" (even though I really did use the bathroom) and everyone had to remember things about me like what kind of shoes I was wearing and whether or not I had mascara on.
Next, everyone, besides me, had to cut a length of string that they thought was the measurement around my belly.
One of my young little second cousins was the winner and everyone said it was because she had a smaller arm span since all the adults cut their strings way too long!
Next we split into two teams and played Family Feud, where we had topics like "What do new parents wish for the most" or "Diaper brands" and things like that.
Somehow, my team ended up winning even though we only had one mommy on our team and the other team had 3!
The last game, we all got blank "Babyo" (Bingo) cards and wrote guesses for what were in all the presents, then crossed them off as I opened the presents to try and get bingo.
The winners of each game got prizes like chocolate and candles and other things my mom bought.
All the gifts I received were awesome and I've got to write some thank-you cards tomorrow.
Marci totally spoiled her new niece and gave her a TON of presents.
After all the gifts were opened, everyone mingled for a bit and slowly left.
My parents and sister had to leave right away because they had to be home on Sunday and Brad and I left right after them so that we could get back up to Idaho.
It was a ton of fun and i'm so grateful to everyone who helped out and who came.

The super cute diaper cake my mom made.

Some of the food, after we'd already eaten a lot of it. Lol.
Gifts!
Julia and her daughters, smelling the "dirty diapers."
Mmm. Twix! Lol.
A couple of em.
Playin games.
Kathryn and Rachel, collaberating over some game.
Margaret and Lara.
Playing Babyo.
Baby Shower!
Opening gifts. And oh yeah!! Turns out my dad came up too! He came up behind me and tapped on my head while I was opening presents. Lol.
He got this little toy firetruck with a little girl fire fighter (My dad was a fireman, now a fire marshall.)
Soft little slippers.
Once we got home to Rexburg, I laid out all the gifts to take pictures.

Thanks to everyone!

Our Little Spring Break

2010-04-23T19:26:00.000-06:00

In order to get the heck out of Idaho for a bit, I planned a little trip to Utah for Brad and myself.
We drove down to Jenna and Travis' place on Wednesday afternoon, listening to "The Hunger Games" on the way.
I am SO glad that Brad is finally reading... er, listening... to this book!
It's seriously an awesome series.
After getting to American Fork, I went with Jenna while she did a little bit of grocery shopping and while we were out, she told me that Train was playing in Salt Lake City on Thursday night!
EEP!
So when we got home, I looked up the time and ticket prices and whatnot and Travis picked up some tickets for Brad and I on his way home.
That night we played some games and then Brad and I stayed up and watched the Avatar blu-ray that Travis went and bought at midnight.
Thursday was an exciting day!
TRAIN!
AHHHHHHH!
They've been one of my favorite bands for a very long time now and I have all of their songs about 97% memorized. Lol.
We went out for lunch with Jenna and the girls to Costa Vida and then Jenna and I played a card game called Hand and Foot until Brad and I left for the concert.
We got in around 5:30 and apparently Train wasn't playing until 8:30 (there were a few bands and it was in a big outdoor amphitheater kind of thing with food booths and stuff) so there was a bit of waiting around.
We shared a funnel cake and bought a couple sodas and listened to a couple local bands and then found our way down into the standing crowd where we ended up for the following 3 1/2 hours.
Some guy named Karl Wolff was on first and I think I recognized one of his songs.
He's the dude in the purple shirt.
Next on was some band called Hey Monday, but I didn't get any pictures of them.
They were pretty good and i've heard one or two of their songs come up on last.fm while I'm doing housework. Lol.
Then we had to wait what seemed like forever for Train to come on.
Our legs were killing us from standing so long (and from having an extra 30 pounds hanging off the front of me) but that couldn't kill my anticipation!!!
Finally they came on and they sang a bunch of stuff.
I sang along with every sang and did a little bit of dancing and screaming.
It was so fun!
I took one video, which I tried to load but it didn't work.
But when I started to record another song, my camera batteries died!
Argh!
I can't believe I didn't think to bring extra batteries!
Oh well.
The memory will forever live on in my mind. :)
It was awesome and now i've only got three more musicians to see before I die, since i've already seen N*sync and Brightwood: Maria Mena, Michelle Branch, and Dishwalla, although they've broken up. :(

Today, I spent some me time at Ikea, eating meatballs and lingonberries and buying items at great prices. :)
Soon after I got back, Jenna and I left to go to a Women's Expo at UVU.
There were a lot of different booths and it was pretty neat.
Jenna and I both bought some cute flats for $10 and I wish I could have purchased some of the cute baby stuff they had, but it was all a little too exensive.
We left the expo after a little over an hour, then brought Travis lunch at work and headed home.
Tonight, we're all gonna play some 7-Up, Ticket to Ride, and maybe another game or two.
Tomorrow, my aunt if throwing me a little family baby shower, so that should be fun.
After it's over, Brad and I will head back up to Rexburg.
It's been a nice little get-away and probably our last one for a while, so i'm glad we tried to make the most of it.

Oh, on Tuesday (the day before we left) Brad and I went to nature park to feed our bread leftovers to the duckies!
We had two loaves of bread that only had the butt ends left, a couple pieces of stale sourdough, and we had some leftover french bread from the previous friday, so I figured we could feed them to the ducks rather than throw them away before we left town.
Nature love! Haha.
Eating a piece of sourdough.

Liege

2010-04-19T18:14:00.000-06:00

Last week, Brad somehow got a craving for Belgian Waffles.
The sugary kind, not the typical American kind.
Anyway, we drove to a few different stores in IF looking for either vanilla sugar or pearl sugar and found neither.
He ended up just making his own kind of vanilla sugar.
We also went to Target to make our baby registry and buy a waffle iron, but back to the Liege Waffles.
It was SO fun watching Brad in the kitchen.
He didn't know where anything was, so it was pretty funny.
I decided to document the process in pictures. :)

Mixing the chunks of sugar into the batter. Liege Belgian Waffles are known for being buttery and sugary, so they have big chunks of sugar in them that ooze and carmelize while cooking.

Here we go, first one! And our brand new waffle maker.

There's the first one, all crunchy and sugary on the outside.

Look how cute he is with our pink oven mitt!

Brad's creepy eyes. Haha.

He thought they turned out pretty well and considering I don't really like waffles, I thought they were pretty good too.
He made them last Thursday night and his last day of work on campus was the following morning, so he got up for work early and made a bunch to bring for his co-workers.

Speaking of his job, his last week he was able to work 8 hours a day, whereas he was working 2-3 hours a day previously.
He would come home SO tired and was constantly falling asleep everywhere- on my shoulder, on the couch, sitting in front of his computer, playing the xbox, etc...

In other news, we really enjoyed last week, despite the fact that it snowed on Monday and Tuesday.
A LOT of people were out of town, so the parking lot was always empty. :)
We also spent some time with our friends Cynthia and Jon.
On Tuesday, we went over to their place and shared leftover pulled pork.
Both Brad and I and Cynthia and Jon had made pulled pork for dinner on Sunday! We thought it was a funny coincidence and decided to share our leftovers with each other.
After we ate, Jon and Brad left to help another couple move while Cynthia and I played this fun strategy game called Acquire.
Then after that, me and Cyn took off to watch "The Last Song" at the theater and the boys played some video games.
Then Friday, they came over to our apartment for dinner and games.
I decided to try and make everything homemade and let them all be my guinea pigs.
I made my own alfredo sauce, tossed it with some penne and chicken that I cooked up, and served homemade french bread on the side.
They all said it tasted good, so I guess i'll believe them.
I'm just always so skeptical about my cooking.
We then played Acquire again, this time with the guys, and I won! Yay!
Then we played Flux (I love that game!) and Cyn and I had some good girl talk while the boys played more video games.
It was a fun week and i'm so excited for the weeks to come (Summertime!)

This week I'm determined to be outside a lot.
The weather today was 70 and sunny, so Brad and I made several trips to the laundry room (I had a LOT to catch up on), we tried to get the scooter started after a long winter (which we couldn't get it to work. Guess we'll try again later.), we browsed the closing sale at Hollywood Video and then got smoothies at Jamba Juice.
Overall a good day for getting my hubby out of the apartment. Lol.
Tomorrow i've got my next prenatal check-up.
Just another routine thing where I wait for half an hour only for the doc to tell me everything is going perfect and to come back in a couple weeks.
Oh, we kind of got out health insurance thing figured out, but they'll only cover the costs if there are complications, so everything else will just be paid by us, but oh well.
At least we'll be covered if anything goes wrong.
On Wednesday we'll be heading down to Utah for a few days.
We haven't gotten out of Idaho in far too long and i've got a serious itch to travel.
We'll be staying with Jenna and her family until at least Saturday.
I plan on spending at least a few hours at Ikea on one of the days we're down there. :D
Friday and Saturday there is some kind of women's expo at UVU, so i'll be checking that out with Jenna while Brad will watch our little nieces.
Saturday, my aunt is throwing me a family baby shower, which i'm really excited for!
Then, we'll probably leave late Saturday afternoon, early enough so that we can stop at Costco in Pocatello on the way home.
The toilet paper and paper towels I bought there last August have finally just about run out.

The weather, the friends, the traveling.... nothing can keep me down!
Not even the return of everyday morning sickness and overwhelming fatigue.
:)

Spring is springing!

2010-04-12T19:57:00.000-06:00

The snow is all melted!
Yay!
This week should be pretty awesome. A LOT of people are out of town because the semester ended last Friday, so the parking lots and roads have been empty, which is just wonderful. Also, the temperature got above 65 today! I wanted to go on a picnic but when I asked Brad he immediately said no.
Lame.
So, I decided to just go by myself. I made a lunch and packed a beach towel and a book to read and as I was getting ready to head out the door, Brad asked me what i was doing.
He said "Going on a picnic?"
"Yeah"
"With me?"
"No."
"With who?"
"Myself."
And then he got all sad and said he couldn't let me go by myself because he's my husband and he didn't know I was serious about wanting to go and whatnot, so we packed him a lunch too and he came along.
I appreciated him joining me, but it meant I wouldn't really get to lay out in the grass and read like I wanted to, but oh well.
It ended up being pretty windy anyway. We just went to Smith Park, ate our lunches, and then came home. I would have liked to have done something else since we were already out of the apartment, but that was a no-go.

Here we are!
Can you tell i'm just a little bit tired? Haha.
Tomorrow i'm going too see Last Song with my friend Cynthia, which should be fun! It's been nice hanging out with more girls lately.
OH! I almost forgot, someone stole my identity!
Kind of. We noticed a couple charges in our bank account that were definitely NOT made by either one of us, so we talked to the bank and cancelled our cards and filed claims...
I'm pretty sure it was my debit card info that was used because the bank's fraud center called my cell phone number instead of Brad's to confirm the suspicious activity or whatever.
$499 to Newegg.com does not fly with us and whoever did this had better get in trouble!
Jerks.
Taking money from a poor little pregnant woman.
Anyway, it's all a pain in the butt because now both Brad and I have to change our info for a million things like car insurance, health insurance, netflix, amazon...
I just don't understand how anyone got the info in the first place! We only trust our number with seriously trusted sites. :(
Oh well. The bank said we should get the money put back in and we've got new cards on the way.
Kind of puts a damper on my happy week, but nothing can keep me down, especially when rain is in the weather forecast. :D

Her is how Brad spends most of his time. Lol. (Thats a little xbox 360 mic he has on)
Peace out!

It's a long one!

2010-04-06T20:54:00.001-06:00

I guess i've got some catching up to do!
The last week has been pretty busy, in both good and bad ways.
Brad has been crazy with school work and projects and finals coming up.
I feel like i've barely spent any time with him lately, which stinks, but it will be over soon.
That is, until Fall semester starts. Grr.
I've been able to spend some time with more of the girls from the ward though, which is wonderful.
After being in Rexburg, off and on, for 2 1/2 years, I finally feel like I have a group of friends!
Sure, when I was single I had my roommates, but still.
I think it was 2 Fridays ago that a bunch of us got together for a girl's night in the lounge.
It started at 9 and I didn't get home until after 1!
Brad stayed home and played Call of Duty with his friend Mark for a bit while I was gone.
Anyway, it was tons of fun!
We played some games and ate desserts and really got to talk and get to know each other.
Here's the group (I stole the pictures from Stephanie. Thanks!)

Yes, I know i'm ginormous!
Anyway, I love these girls and i'm so excited for all the future stuff we'll do together!
I think it was the following Sunday that Brad and I went over to Daryn and Mat's place and played games with them, as well as Stephanie and Hans.
Curses can get pretty crazy! Haha.
The next Tuesday was a RS activity on nutrition and fitness, which I gave a spiritual thought on.
I know, me giving a thought on nutrition and fitness is kind of an oxymoron, but I think I did alright. Lol.
It was fun; we learned about what kinds of foods are good for you and portion control and then we did some exercising for a bit.
I felt pretty lame since I couldn't do a lot of the things, like jumping jacks, but I tried my best with my lame modifications.
It was probably pretty funny to watch.
Saturday, I spent like 2 hours going to every store in town looking for a certain kind of Easter candy for Brad, but everyone was sold out!
It was kind of lame, but I made due with what candy and stuff I could find.
I really shouldn't put off Easter shopping.
Later in the day, I went with Daryn and Steph while they did their Easter shopping (and I bought some candy for myself. Darn impulse buys).
Brad and I tried to dye some eggs later, but the dye was cheap, and all the cute Martha Stewart ideas I was trying wasn't working, so we kind of gave up.
Sunday afternoon, in between conference sessions, I presented Brad with his Easter basket!
I made my own using leftover candy from his.
I think we've both been on sugar highs the last couple days. Haha.
Especially Brad. He's been extra kooky lately.
I spent a good chunk of Sunday trying to make some Easter cake pops from Bakerella's blog.
Basically, I was making balls of Red Velvet Cake on a stick.
Here are my hands as I was squishing the cake up with some frosting and trying to form the balls.
They were supposed to turn out like these, in the picture below...
... but everything went wrong!
I had forgotten to buy orange sprinkles for the feet and beak, so I decided to try and dye them somehow.
Unfortunately, I seemed to be out of red food coloring, so I couldn't really make the color orange.
Then the candy wouldn't melt right (the stuff that coats the cake balls) and it got all weird and crumbly.
So anyway, nothing was working out and now we have 30+ balls of cake on sticks sitting in our fridge.
I've been slowly eating them undecorated.
They taste really yummy, they just don't look so cute.
If anyone wants any, come on by! Lol.
Sunday evening was a pretty busy one.
I was making the cake pops for two different parties Brad and I were going to, both in the lounge, one right after the other.
First was with our friends the Ensigns and 2 other couples.
We all brought a dish, a drink, and a dessert and had a potluck type dinner.
We watched a movie on the TV in there and then played Apples to Apples for a bit.
While Brad and I were waiting for everyone to arrive (we were the only ones that live at University Courtyard, so everyone else had to drive over), we took some pictures.
I can't seem to get Brad to take a good picture of me, but these will suffice for now.
Here I am, just about 31 weeks along.

After the first party, we had a birthday party for Stephanie!
Daryn got together a bunch of us to bring spaghetti and garlic bread and salad and what not and we had dinner (the second dinner for Brad and me. Lol.)
Afterward we had cupcakes and played Pop 5.
Stephanie is so cute!
We're almost all caught up now! Yay!
Today I had my next check-up.
Everything is going along perfectly, thankfully.
I wish it was almost over, but i've still got 9 weeks to go.
I just want to lay on my back again and be able to breathe!
Not much is going on this week, apart from finals for Brad.
I've been trying to film my belly moving, because she goes CRAZY in there sometimes, but I never seem to have my camera accessible when it happens.
It is SO fun to watch!
I guess i'll just have to try harder to catch her in action.
Until then, I hope everyone is having a great April, even though it's snowed here almost everyday since the 1st of the month. Poo.

Third Trimester

2010-03-26T20:44:00.001-06:00

The days seem to be getting harder and harder.
I kept hoping that since my first trimester was relatively free of any pregnancy symptoms, and then my second trimester was kind of awful, that maybe the third trimester would be a nice an easy one.
But no.
I am so tired during the day!
And then, I'm an insomniac at night and it's driving me nuts.
Hopefully the baby will have her days and nights reversed as well so it'll all work out!
I'm eating more lately and noticing that not all of the calories are going straight to my belly anymore. :(
My legs are a little more jiggly and my face is a little more "full."
Lame.
Of course, the weight distribution could be a result of my self-diagnosed bed rest.
I say self-diagnosed because I haven't talked to my doctor about the pains in my legs, but the pain is definitely lessened when I spend most of the day laying down.
So that is exactly what I do all day- lie down.
She's been kicking me in ouchy places lately, like my ribs or especially hard in my bladder.
I also think i've been having braxton hicks contractions, and they've been a little painful.
But enough complaining.

Brad and I had our friends the Schneiders over for dinner last night and it was such a good time.
We watched G-Force and ate lasagna and played some card games.
They were the kind of games where you have to slap the pile to get the cards and we were all getting a little crazy!
It was a lot of fun and I hope we can have people over more often.
It really keeps me distracted from my self-pity. Haha.
Speaking of having people over, Brad has his friend Mark over right now and they're playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, so i'm hiding in the bedroom.
Then, in a few minutes actually, i'm off to a Girl's Night in the lounge with some girls from the ward.
Should be fun!

I'll try to get some more recent pictures of my huge, protruding stomach up soon.
Promise.
:)

Fun at Albertsons

2010-03-20T15:43:00.000-06:00

I get so excited when I save money.
This week, Albertsons had 3 "Twice the Value" coupons which always sparks TONS of people shopping at Albertsons.
Essentially, they double the value of a manufacturers coupon up to $1.00.
On top of the doubler coupons, Albertsons has a CHILL promotion running (and a Post cereal promo, but I didn't have any Post cereal coupons) where you buy 10 participating frozen food items and get a coupon for $10 off your next order.
Anyway, I'm just going to list what I bought, what coupons I used, and how much I spent and saved on each transaction (I had 3 separate transactions. Thanks for coming with me, Brad!)

Transaction 1
(This was supposed to be 10 of the participating frozen juice concentrates, but they were all gone but for 2! I was so disappointed, because the lack of this first transaction cost me an extra $10 in the end since I wasn't able to get the $10 off coupon from the juices)

The Real Transaction 1
10 Smart Ones Frozen Entrees at 1.88 each
Used 2 $1 off 5 coupons, and doubled each one
Total spent= $15.81 (This should have been only $5.81 if i'd gotten the $10 off coupon from the first one. Stupid juices being gone.)
Total saved= $17.10
Received 1 $10 off your next order coupon

Transaction 2
6 Dreyers Ice Cream at Buy 1 at 6.49, Get 2 free
Used $2 off 2 Dreyers Light Ice Cream Coupon
2 Frozen Juice Concentrates at 1.59 each
1 Ore-Ida Hashbrowns at 2.99
Used $1 off 1 coupon and doubled
1 Ore-Ida Steam and Mash at 4.99
Used $1 off 1 coupon and doubled
1 Bagel Bites at 1.99
Used $1 off 1 coupon and doubled (which made these free)
Used $10 off your next order coupon from previous transaction
Used a $3.50 off your next order coupon that I got a couple weeks ago
Total spent= $6.03
Total saved=$49.25
Received $10 off your next order coupon

Transaction 3
8 Yoplait Yogurts at 2 for $1
Used $1/8 coupon
1 gallon Skim Milk at $1.29
1 package Pepper Jack Cheese at 2.49
1 Culinary Circle Pepperoni Pizza at 4.99
Used $1.50 off 1 in-ad coupon
Used $1 off 1 coupon
2 Hillshire Farms Lunch Meat at 2 for $7
Used $1 off 2 coupon and doubled
2 5lb bags of potatoes, Klondike Rose at 2.99 and Russet at 1.69
Used Buy 1 5lb Klondike Rose, get 1 5lb Russet free coupon
Used $10 off your next order coupon from previous transaction
Total spent= $9.64
Total saved= $24.97

I know everyone isn't really interested in what everything cost and crap, but I just wanted to type it all up as a reminder to myself of my deal-finding abilities. Haha.
I'm still bummed about the juices, because they would have saved me an extra $10 in the end, but oh well.
What do we need 10 frozen juice concentrates for anyway?
Our freezer is jam-packed enough with the 6 things of ice cream we got!
Oh, and here's a picture of the haul.
:D

11 weeks to go!

2010-03-18T09:20:00.000-06:00

So, this past week has been pretty rough.
On top of my laptop charger dying out and having limited computer access, the day to day stuff hasn't been so great either.
Saturday night I was taking a shower and my legs almost gave out from under me.
I quickly finished up my shower and had to sit down because my legs were in SO much pain!
I started crying because my left leg just felt like... heavy, swollen, jello.
I don't know how else to explain it.
Anyway, chocking it up to either a sciatic nerve thing or vericose veins, I took some tylenol and went to bed.
My leg was still hurting quite a bit on Sunday morning, so Brad and I both missed church- Me because I couldn't really walk or stand, and Brad so that he could take care of me.
Luckily, my left leg started feeling better later in the afternoon, though still kinda week, so most of the day I was laying in bed.
Monday, I was perfect!
I went out, I did laundry, I ran errands.
I had so much energy and my legs felt 100 times better.
Then I was walking on campus to have lunch with Brad and slipped on a patch of ice, badly hurting my right foot.
For the rest of the day I was limping really badly and every single step was almost excruciating.
So after I got home, it was another day of just laying in bed, trying to de-swell my foot.
It still felt pretty bruised on Tuesday, but it had healed enough for me to get some housework done that had been building up over the previous couple days.
I also had my doctor appointment on Tuesday.
They took my blood t check for diabetes and anemia and other things, which I was negative for both, took a urine culture and checked my tummy size and listened to the heartbeat and all that.
Everything is going along perfectly. :)
Then, I couldn't fall asleep on Tuesday night, so I stayed up, watched some Netflix and our DVD of Hope Floats, and did some Facebook stuff on Brad's laptop.
In the process of staying up and finding things to do, I discovered something that Brad had been less than honest with me about and I spent the rest of the night crying.
Perhaps it's because i'm hormonal or because this happened a few months ago, but I was really upset.
I left a note for Brad about it and then went to sleep, since it was 3:30 in the morning.
He went to work and school and I just spent the day upset and tired and mad and sad and everything.
To cheer myself up, I went shopping and spent more than we can afford, and after I got home, I shut myself up in the bedroom for a few hours.
Brad came in later after I told him I was ready to talk and after an hour and a half of talking and crying and mostly just silence, things felt a lot better.
(In the middle of typing that last sentence, I got morning sickness! Which hadn't happened in almost two weeks. Lame.)
Anyway, we spent the night cuddling and kissing and saying sweet things and everything is ok now.
We both know that mistakes happen and sometimes it's hard to fess up to them when we only want to look perfect in each others eyes.
It's never fun to disappoint your spouse, but the best thing about being married is that we're going to love each other no matter what!
Hopefully today will end up being a good day, apart from being sick a few minutes ago.
It's Brad's birthday and we're going to a new frozen yogurt place in town at lunch.
Unfortunately, he has a lot of school work to do today and will probably spend a majority of today on campus.
Good thing we've already celebrated his birthday, kind of.
A couple weeks ago, Brad found out what his birthday present was, so I let him have it early.
I got him that new Call of Duty game and he has spent almost every free minute of his time playing it!
Sometimes he plays it so long, he falls asleep! Lol.

Last Saturday we decided to go out to dinner for his birthday, and it's a good thing we went then since today is going to be so busy for him!
He chose to go to Da Pineapple Grill, since he liked it so much when we went on Valentines Day.
My brother Paul came with us and we had good food and a good time.
He's 26 today and the only reason i'm sad is because the older he gets, the less time we have in this life to spend together.
Thank goodness for eternity!
Happy birthday, sexy man!

Ok, I just have to show the baby clothes I got at the mall yesterday.
First is this sweet little spring dress that was $30 but I couldn't resist!
I also bought a sweet little white sweater that she can wear with the dress.

I got this onesie because it was on sale and the design on it is so cute!
You can't really see it in this picture, but it's got flowers and a tiny little monkey. :D
These little bubble shorts are from Old Navy.
I saw them and immediately picture her cute little bum wearing them, and suddenly I was forking over my debit card. Haha.
Then, these little pink booties are so soft and delicate and adorable.
Goodness, I cannot wait until she gets here!
I wish I could tell you all her name (even though most of my relief society knows. hehe.) but Brad and I decided to keep it a secret from family and he'll scold me if I tell anymore people. Haha.

A Weekend of Friends

2010-03-08T09:25:00.000-07:00

One of the very few things I like about us living in Rexburg for so long is that it's given Brad and I an opportunity to actually make some friends!
Sometimes we can be pretty anti-social and keep to ourselves, but every once in a while we are just in the "hanging out with other people" mood. (Well, I get in those moods anyway.)
On Saturday, we headed over to Lauren and Mark Ensigns place to hang out for a while.
The plan was to tie-dye shirts, but since Brad and I didn't have any plain white ones and we were heading to a ward party at 1, we didn't dye any shirts, but Mark, Lauren, and some of their other friends came over and did shirts.
We brought some pizza and played some Wii and just had a good time, even though we were only there for a little over an hour.
Then we headed to a ward party.
It was like a cookie social where everyone brought cookies and then just sat at tables and socialized.
It was pretty funny because we sat at a round table with two other couples and as people came in, they pushed other round tables next to ours and we all sat in these tables pushed together.
Brad and I finally met our neighbors, the ones that live right next to us, after 2 months (see? we're anti-social. haha) and I was able to get to know another sister in Relief Society that I had only met briefly at the last RS activity.
It was a good time and we all ate way too many cookies.
Sunday, we had some people over at our apartment to play games!
Stephanie and Hans Petrich and Cynthia and Jon Schnieder came over around 7 and we played Phase 10 until after 10!
And we didn't even finish the game! Haha.
Stephanie made some cake-box cookies, which were devoured.
I think i'm pretty cookied out for a while.
It was a lot of fun and I meant to take pictures to post in here, but you all know how forgetful I am lately. :)

Stockpiling

2010-03-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

This is just a little blurb about the beginning of my own "stockpile."
Being frugal has been a common theme in everything lately, be it TV shows, magazine articles, and even lessons in church.
It's been an especially common theme in our home since we're poor married students expecting a baby.
As a result, i've been stocking up on things for sale and going crazy!
Ok, it hasn't been too crazy yet, but i've got to start somewhere.
First, I started out by making double batches when cooking, freezing extra pizza dough and things like that.
I've also been freezing stale bread and overripe bananas to use later (bread crumbs, banana bread...)
Last week I bought 5 pounds of ground beef.
Definitely not something we could use up quickly when it's just us two, but 3 pounds of it will be going to some homemade meatballs that i'll freeze as well.
Yesterday I bought quite a few things that were WAY cheap and i'll probably be heading back to Albertsons sometime this week to stock up some more.
General Mills Cereal for 1.77 a box, the cheapest i've seen in months.
Chicken thighs, drumsticks, and whole cut up chicken all for .99 a pound!
This price I couldn't believe.
The lowest price is usually around 1.88 a pound, so it was pretty exciting.
Fruit snacks/gushers were $1 a box, and you got a 3.50 off 5 more coupon at checkout.
Those were the biggest sale items that i'll probably go back for.
I also stocked up on some Lean Cuisines (which are SO yummy) for only 1.88 a box, which is the typical low sale price, so it wasn't a great deal, but still a good one.

Anyway, it's just all really exciting, finding bargains and having cupboards full of food, and even having extra things to keep in food storage.
I know I shouldn't be so excited about this, but I am!
Plus, I think Brad is finally staring to understand the "spend more now to save more in the long run" concept. :)

Long week.

2010-02-26T10:16:00.000-07:00

The last week has been pretty uneventful.
At least it feels that way.
I've been sick a few times this week, which is really discouraging when I thought I was finally over morning sickness.
I had a small cold a couple days ago which transferred over to Brad. :(
He's been really busy with school this week and being sick on top of it is just so miserable for him!
At least the semester is halfway over...
We actually had a lot of stuff going on this week, but since I feel like it's been 2 or 3 weeks, it seems like we haven't been busy.
We had our home teachers come over, my visiting teachers come over, Brad went home teaching, and I went to RS choir practice all on Sunday.
Tuesday we were planning on going to the cannery for a ward assignment but homework and exhaustion got in the way.
Brad had an interview at some company here in town on Tuesday, so my brother Paul came over and hung out with me for most of the day.
Wednesday there was a Relief Society fireside.
Then yesterday Brad was on campus from 8 in the morning until after 9 at night!
He had to meet with his group about a presentation at 4:30 and it lasted until 9:15ish.
Rather than not see my husband all day, I joined Brad on campus after his last class, we had lunch together in the MC, then I read books and magazines while he worked until around 7:30 when I left to go visiting teaching.

As you can see, nothing too exciting happened and I hate it because it makes time move slower.
Am I really only 25 weeks along?
Brad's interview was exciting of course, but that's about it.
Hopefully they will call him in for a second interview.
I'm not exactly clear what the company is or what Brad would be doing because it's computer stuff, but it would be a job that doesn't start at 4 in the morning like his current one, and he could possibly use it as an internship for his major.
We'll see!

Teensy Weensy

2010-02-17T18:45:00.001-07:00

The good thing about having a baby girl in my family?
Lots of hand-me-downs.
And I can't get enough of these little diapers!
They're smaller than my hand!
Imagine her cute teeny little booty!