Doorknob Covers

Everyone needs them. Well, everyone who has small children. I had taken the knob cover off the bathroom door a few months ago so that Callie could go potty when she needed to instead of me having to let her in every time. I never got one put back on the bathroom door after Jack learned to open doorknobs. This isn't the first time this has happened:

I was folding a huge mountain of laundry on my bed the other day & Callie came & laid down on my bed on a clear spot & fell asleep. Jack was in their room playing & I was thinking how awesome it was that Callie was big enough that when she felt sleepy she'll get her pillow & blanket & lay down. After a few minutes I realized I wasn't hearing Jack anymore so I went to check on him. Maybe he's getting big too! Oh yeah, like the hand in the pants? It's an issue! I put onesies under his shirt a lot just so he can't. This will be better than naked bathtub pictures when he's bigger! :)

Callie is so 3 going on 13. She spends a bit of time in time out for talking snotty or back-talking me. When she's frustrated with me she'll say, "Mom! Why are you being so lazy to me?!" or "Stop being gorgeous at me!" Obviously she has no idea what either means. Neither of those expressions are punishable by themselves, but she says plenty of other stuff to get her in the naughty spot. Good times. I hope this is just part of her age & it doesn't turn out that I really have a rude, unruly child on my hands!

Today

Well Jeremiah was sustained today as the 2nd counselor in the stake young men's presidency at stake conference, which was by the way the worst 2 hours we've had with the kids in a while. Okay, just the last hour was really bad. Because Justin & Jason were headed out when we went to church, we were late (of course we probably would have been anyway, but I always love a good excuse!). So we weren't even there when Jer was sustained. I noticed afterward as Jeremiah was talking to the new YM pres. & the 1st counselor what a huge age span there is in the presidency. The pres. looks around my dad's age (51), maybe a few years younger, and the 1st counselor had to be at least 10 years older than the pres. Not that it matters, I just noticed it. Anyway, because we were late the chapel & cultural hall were totally filled so we were happy to take the kids & watch on the tv in the nursery. They didn't have toys out, but they had the low table & chairs out so we set the kids up w/crayons & paper & books. After an hour of coloring Jack was done. He was a total pain after that & even did his scream for everyone a couple of times, which I just want to beat him when he does. I couldn't have been more glad when it was over! I can't clearly remember what any of the talks were really about.

I'm so looking forward to this next weekend! I'm going to Utah to visit Wendy BY MYSELF! How amazing is that?! I justified it because Wendy & I didn't go to CKU this year so not only would I love a scrapbook weekend, but also this is WAY cheaper than CKU would have been. I am still bummed that we didn't go to CKU, but I'm looking forward to a great weekend! I'm flying Thursday night & get in at MIDNIGHT! (By the time we decided to do it the ding fares for normal times were sold out. We always stay up way too late anyway.) So on Friday night we're going with her Relief Society to Witch's Night Out at Gardner Village and Saturday will probably be an all day crop day. And I'm sure we'll get some shopping in too! And Wendy's going to be able to have her awesome SIL babysit her boys on Friday & Saturday so we're gonna have an amazing weekend! Not that I don't just adore my children, but are you kidding me? Shopping & cropping without kids?!! I'm coming home Monday morning & then Monday afternoon I have my big ultrasound. Still haven't talked Jeremiah into NOT finding out what we're having. I guess we'll see how the chips land! With Callie & Jack it took 3 tries each to discover the sex. Maybe Jeremiah will win but they won't be able to tell anyway. I'd have to gloat.

Oh yeah, for anybody who hasn't heard & is working on food storage, wheat is supposed to be sky-rocketing very soon. Just a little FYI. I find it amazing that even the government is recommending that everyone have some kind of food storage. Haven't they said like 3 mos?

Well I think I'm the only one awake right now & since I finally have a clean workspace I think I'm gonna mess it up again & scrapbook! Oh yeah, here's my workspace: (Jeremiah is the BEST!)

A clean home is a happy home!

Life is good right now. 2 of Jeremiah's brothers are visiting today so they're out 4-wheeling or shooting guns or something - guy stuff. My kids are both asleep after a ridiculously long shopping afternoon, so I can put up my aching feet & actually update my blog! Except for my bedroom, my house is totally clean. And my bedroom will be clean in the next couple of days once I fold all the clean laundry that's ALL OVER my floor! This will be the first time in a LONG time that my entire house will be clean all at once! A lot of you find it hard to believe that I'm as much of a slob as I claim, but you'd be surprised. A friend of mine told me that my house is clean any time she's ever seen it. Well yeah! If I know somebody's coming over of course the public areas are clean! So I'm going to try so so so so SO hard to be better from this point on. I LOOOOOVE how spotless everything is! And it's not even really deep-cleaned. Imagine how much more joy I'd have if my house were dusted?! Anyway, so the only thing hovering over my head right now is the fact that somebody from the stake presidency wants to meet with Jeremiah (& me) in about an hour. I have a pretty good idea what this is all about, but I guess I'll know for sure soon enough!

So my kids are so stinkin' cute! I'm sure everyone else's are too, but seriously, my kids are great! Jack is talking like crazy now! He can mostly talk in sentences & I love it! It's so much easier to communicate! And he says funny things too. He's still totally obsessed with monsters. I'd love to have him watch Monsters, Inc., but I'm afraid it would do more damage than good. Most of the time he likes to be a monster, but he still wakes up occassionally because he's afraid of a monster. It's crazy. He's fascinated anyway.

If it weren't like a 5-minute ordeal, I'd put a video of Callie telling the story of the 3 Little Pigs on here. There's another obsession. She is constantly either telling the story or asking to be told. She's heard & watched a few different versions now, so the stories are all run together, but the basic theme is still the same. She has particularly picked up on the Disney version with the singing pigs. She loves to sing about tooting her flute & then she'll randomly make up words that rhyme with tooting her flute. She was telling Jeremiah & I the story the other day & at the end she surprised us by adding another part - from the Disney version (even though she's seen the D-version tons of times & told the story tons of times w/out this last part). Anyway, she told us about how at the end the older pig knocked on the table to play a joke on the other 2 pigs & about how the 2 pigs hid under the bed since they thought it was the wolf at the door. She said, "And those little pigs were so freakin' scared!" I laughed so hard I cried, & then she asked me what I was laughing at!

I stopped at a yard sale yesterday after I'd picked Callie up from dance because it looked like they had a lot of toys. Not that my kids need ANY toys. They were getting ready to pack up so the guy told me I could just have whatever I wanted. I got some sweet stuff! A Disney Princess magical wand & mirror, a Fisher-Price kid-proof cassette player (which I actually almost bought on eBay for like $15 plus shipping!), a Barbie electric guitar (Callie loves Uncle Stuart's guitar), and a few F-P Little People to give to the nursery. Callie LOVES the magical wand. We'd just bought a less annoying one for my niece Katelyn's birthday and the kids played with it the whole time we were at the store. This one does magical sounds if you even look at it. After we got home last night I discovered the babysitter had turned it off! haha! Anyway, a few princesses say things like make a wish & wave the wand. So all afternoon Callie would hear that then wave the wand & say things like, "I wish my mom won't be mean to me!" (and I wasn't even being mean then!), "I wish Jack will be nice to me," "I wish I could go to Disneyland." And the best was when our babysitter Amanda had just barely got to our house and Callie said, "I wish that Heidi could come over and babysit me." Thankfully Amanda didn't hear it, but Callie probably said it again later anyway!

Okay, if you haven't been to Costco & seen this you have to go! How adorable is this kitchen?! I wanted to get it for Christmas but since we'll be in WA it would be very difficult to have it there for Christmas morning & then get it home, so I just got it anyway. I don't know how long I'll keep it in the box in the garage - maybe till Callie's birthday - but you know how it is with stuff at Costco & Sam's. You'd better get it while they have it or you'll never get it! I just love it! I love Pottery Barn's too & the fact that you can get it in red (so it would be more unisex), but it's $750 plus shipping compared to this one at $140. An adorable steal! Jack will just have to deal with a pink kitchen!

Well Jeremiah just pulled up so I guess I'm done. But here are a couple pics of the kids yesterday afternoon. They LOOOOVE the hammock! They play on/in it a LOT!

Monday, Monday

So my finger's not broken. I still can't completely bend it but the swelling's gone down & the bruise isn't very noticeable.

Also, my ultrasound confirmed that my dates were correct. With Callie it turned out I was a whole month further along than we thought, so I couldn't help but hope. Really they were checking dates because one of my screening tests came back positive - for Downs. So an inaccurate date could have been the cause, but it wasn't. But we're not worried - the ultrasound didn't show any markers & I feel at peace, so I think everything will be fine, whether our baby has a problem or not. And I know there are lots of false positives. Also the tech didn't check for the sex, so still a surprise. I have another ultrasound in 3 weeks, but I still think I won't want to find out. I really don't care whether it's a boy or a girl - I have no preference. I mean, girls are SO fun to dress, but little drama queens too! Jack is a terror right now, but that's the age. He's still a sweet little guy. Anyway, here's #3! Not too exciting for most of you.
This is I think the first profile ultrasound picture I've had w/any of the kids so far! With Callie & Jack I had tons of Skeletor looking ones. Not so cute. Oh, one awesome thing about Friday was that I felt the baby move for the first time! Much sooner than with the other two! It's always cool to feel the baby for the first time.

Well my mom & sister are on their way over with leftover Moo Goo Gai Pan - my fav! If you're not hip to it, it's a Chinese stir fry. Better than any stir fry I've ever made! I highly recommend it!

Friday

I forgot to tell about how funny Callie was shopping with me a couple of weekends ago. We were in her clothing section at Target and she had her own little shopping basket (I think Aunt Tara gave it to her?). She first found one shirt & held it up and said, "Oh, how adorable!" and put it in her basket. She also held up two pairs of pink pants for Tara and asked her which one she liked better and Tara told her they were exactly the same so she looks at them again, put the one in her right hand in the basket and says, "I like this one." I looked down at her basket a couple of minutes later & it was full of clothes she'd found. She said that she needed some money to buy all her things, and then she told Tara that she needed a credit card so she could buy all her things! Tara gave her an empty WalMart gift card & Callie carried it around very carefully! Also, last weekend when we were traveling she had these awesome sunglasses on that I just love. My dad looked at her & told her she looked like a movie star. She said, "No, I look cute." He told her that movie stars were cute & she said, "I don't want to be a movie star, I only want to be cute!" She's a hoot!

So I'm an idiot & may have broken my finger tonight. I was exasperated & threw down an oven mitt, hitting my finger on the back of a chair. That was hours ago & it's pretty swollen & I can't bend it too far. It could simply be swollen & I'm hoping it will be doing better in the morning. Otherwise, what an idiot am I for breaking my finger in a fit of ... exasperation?!

Tomorrow's a busy/exciting day! For one, I'll probably find out whether my finger is actually broken! Callie also has dance which she's very excited about, and tomorrow morning will be the first time in a few days she'll get to put a sticker on her chart for going to bed nicely (tonight). But the big part is an ultrasound! I'm voting for not finding out the gender (if they can even tell, since I'm only 16 1/2 weeks & also it took 3 tries with each of the other 2 kids!), but Jeremiah says he'd like to know. I've got a few hours still to talk him out of it. I'm normally completely pro-finding out! But we have one of each & it might be fun to not know till the baby's here. So I don't know if this will be the big ultrasound though cause they scheduled it to check my dates. I'm anxious about the results. Oh, and then I get to do a couple hours of visiting teaching. If that's not exciting I don't know what is! So hopefully (for you!) I'll get a chance to update after the events of tomorrow!

Home Sweet Home

After another hectic week we headed to Overgaard, AZ for the weekend to attend & help out with my uncle's wedding. Overgaard is a very small town running into Heber, AZ in the Showlow/Snowflake area. It's always nice to get out of the desert for a couple of days- well at least the deserty-desert. It's still high desert there, but there are lots of pines & that's good enough for me! We slept in the garage end of my parents' toy hauler & that will be the last time I do that for a while. It's never been a comfortable bed, but having to climb down the ladder from the loft bed at 4am to pee really sucks! The bed is hard as a rock & normally that wouldn't keep me from getting sleep, but these days even in my wonderful comfy bed at home I have difficult nights! So even though I got 9 hours of "sleep" one of the nights were were gone, I was still exhausted the next day due to lack of sleep! I can't even say how glad we all are to be home! In fact after we got home Sunday afternoon the kids were in the backyard playing & Callie puts her arms out & yells "I love to be home!" My sentiments exactly! We're spending Thanksgiving with my family this year so my mom calls me yesterday & asks what I think about going to Utah for the big day. (And when I say big day, I'm referring more to Black Friday than Thanksgiving!) Anyway, I think she'll need to ask me in a couple weeks when we haven't been in a flurry of travel & events because right now the answer is no!

This & That

We have had lots going on the last few weeks. Jeremiah went to Oregon to hunt with his dad for TEN days! It was a really nice break for him to be away from work for that long, but we both agreed that it was too long to do again for the family. Callie & Jack were so sad, asking for their daddy constantly. How in the world do you do it Liz?!

The first weekend Jer was gone, we were at my mom's house & Callie reached up & grabbed a hot pan on the stove. This picture seriously doesn't even show how bad it was! And once those blisters started to pop, she was miserable! Her hand is still not all the way better, but it's not hurting her anymore & hopefully she won't grab a hot pan or anything else on the stove again!



Story time at the library started up again for the fall/winter, and at the first session they had a real live kangaroo! It was so cool! It was a little joey and all the kids in story time got to pet her. Of course most moms don't have their cameras at story time so it was funny to see so many people at once whip out their camera phones. I didn't since I knew the quality wouldn't be that good anyway. So no picture for ya!

Callie started dance classes! She's SO cute! There's a girl in our stake who's like 16 or something, but she's home-schooled & has taken dance for years, so she does dance classes for several different age groups during the week. Callie's in the youngest class. The dance classes are just in their garage on a huge piece of vinyl she unrolls but it's only $5/class (an hour long & she wants the parents to drop the girls off!) Callie was so excited to get to wear her leotard & skirt for the first time. I wasn't able to get any good pictures of her smiling for me, but she sure looks cute in her dance outfit. So she's been to her dance class twice now & each time she's spent the rest of the day dancing around. Even today she was doing some spins & stuff & talking about her dance class. It's so cute!

Our county fair was this past weekend so we took the kids on Thursday night. Because Jeremiah & I had talked a little about it, Callie was super excited to eat fair food! :) We spent like $45 on the fair & I can't believe how little we did! They each got to jump in a jump house, they petted animals in a petting zoo (free!), and they went on the carousel. And some of the fair food wasn't that great. The lemonade from the fresh lemonade stand was great though, and our bbq wasn't bad.

We also went to Utah this past weekend to listen to my sister Kayleigh give a farewell talk in Sacrament Mtg. She's leaving in a few weeks to serve a mission to the Philippines! It was such a quick trip! Sorry to everyone for not visiting, but as Jeremiah put it, it was a wham-bam-thank-you-m'am trip!!! We got there Friday night and left on Sunday night & it really was a family weekend. The thing that totally sucks is that we have to get in the car again this Friday! This drive will at least be much closer (4 hours instead of 7)! Jackson is just not a good traveller right now so we dread long car rides! Funny thing is that even after being in his carseat for so long he cried when we got home because he wanted to stay in his seat & watch a movie, even though about a minute before we pulled up he was screaming to get out. Funny kid. And he really is funny. He's really started talking a lot lately. Well, he was already talking a lot, but now he's making sentences. But one of the funniest things he does is randomly yell, "I promise!" Occassionally when he says it it could make sense, but not usually. Like one of the times yesterday when he did it he was just putting a puzzle together. I've tried to tell him basically what it means & to quit saying it all the time, but he does it anyway. "I promise, mom!" It's pretty funny when you hear it - I promise!

Oh, on Saturday we had family pictures done so here's a couple of my favs from the shoot. You can check out some more of the samples here: Dilly Dally Art.

Callie-isms (from the recent 3 year old!)

I was trying to get Callie to talk her aunt Chelsea into coming down for the weekend with Kayleigh & Tara and when I could tell that Callie wasn't gonna convince her I picked up the phone and asked her why she was being such a pain in the butt. A few minutes later as Callie was talking to her again (this time without my coaching) Callie says, "Why are you being such a pain in the butt Chelsea?" She said it kind of softly so I wondered if Chelsea was meaning for Callie to say that to me. When I got the phone back Chelsea thought I'd told Callie to say it because Chelsea was just saying to Callie that she loved her & she'd talk to her later! Haha!

Also a little bit later Jack threw a bunch of play-doh on the floor so I told him to get down & pick it up before I spanked his bum. Callie repeated something about spanking & I realized I shouldn't even say that since I seriously rarely spank (it's time out for us)! So anyway, I said that to Callie and when she said something about being spanked I asked her when the last time I spanked her was. Her reply? "6:28."

This morning we were at my mom's house and Jackson was trying to get into a bag of chocolate. He'd been told not to a couple times already so Callie thought maybe if she told him no he'd listen a little better? She said, "Jackson, no! You're pissing Grandma off!"

Her own Vitruvian Man

To the untrained eye this picture may just look like a bunch of scribbles. But to this mother it is a work of art. I'm very excited about this drawing because normally Callie just scribbles or draws "circles," but yesterday she drew her first ever person (it's grandma for those of you who can't tell!)! I'm seriously proud! She drew a few more after that & they were nice too!

Today when she was drawing she got a little more detailed! She drew a butt & a penis on her person! I told her we shouldn't draw those parts & tried to help her understand why. It was pretty funny though! I didn't scan that one for you.

Catch of the Day

2 Mondays ago Jeremiah went to CA for 3 days to go deep sea fishing (in Mexico?). He went with his brother Jason & good buddy Mark. Unfortunately they all got really sea-sick on their 2 days out at sea. I'm not sure if all their big fish made up for it! They agreed 2 days is too long & they'll never go out that long again (they've always done 1 day in the past). They got yellowfin & albacore tuna, & yellowtail (some other type of fish).

Mark & Jeremiah


Mark & Jason


We had a little fish fry with some friends & my parents & the albacore was hands down the best in my opinion. The yellowfin tuna was the most fishy & the yellowtail was a little fishy. The albacore was seriously awesome! I wanted to can some albacore since we weren't going to eat it all but when I went to WalMart to get the littlest jars they were out. Why is it that WalMart is constantly letting me down? If we were in a relationship I'd break up! But they continue to have the best prices in town on most of the things I buy so alas, I keep going back for more. It's unhealthy, I know. So I don't know if I waited too long to freeze the fish or not. When WalMart ever gets my jars back in we'll find out.

Jack's Haircut

It's taken me so long to post these pics that it's about time for another haircut! I was particularly excited about this haircut though because I had just bought new Wahl clippers! Previously I cut Jack's hair with $16 clippers from WalMart & he cried every time because he said it hurt. A few people told me it was because I needed to buy some better clippers because cheap ones pull hair, so I did. So he still cried after a while, but I asked if it hurt & he said no - he just wanted to get down. I'm sure things would be better if it didn't take me like 45 minutes! Although he never did make it through his bag of hairy jelly bellies. Well, practice will make perfect, right? I do have to say, I could tell a difference in the clippers. This haircut was his best yet!

Before:

After:

2 days in a row!

So guess what I've done a couple times lately? That sounds funny, huh? Anyway, I've canned! For the first time! I'm stoked! We have a peach tree out front that produces TONS of peaches! Last year we hadn't watered it at all so the peaches were super bitter, so this year we put a timed hose out to it. I gave some peaches away because I was overwhelmed with the amount, considering I had no idea how to can. And then I waited too long to do it so probably almost half of what I had left ended up in the trash. Sad! But I got 7 pints & I have peaches in the fridge that I still need to can. Plus we have lots of green peaches on the tree still, so we'll either have a 2nd batch or maybe they just won't get ripe. But I'm thinking it'll be a 2nd batch. Oh, and I canned chicken the other day too. I'm a domestic goddess! (as long as you walk through my house with a blindfold on!)

Big Day

Yes, it's a big day. Because I'm finally posting again! What can I say, I have a life you know! Not that all you posters don't, but let me just say if I were still at Deloitte I could post several times a day (unless of course it were tax season!:)) I don't even consider posting unless I have a good 45 minutes or so to sit & do nothing. And I've had many 45 minutes to do that, but I needed to catch up on Supernanny & Design Star & House Hunters & stuff like that. You know how it is.

I don't have our camera right now so I can't add any pictures, but there aren't too many things to add anyway. The more exciting stuff we've done over the past month was never documented with pictures. I suck, I know! And since most of the time I can't remember stuff I did yesterday, I'll just tell you about today. The kids & I went to Laughlin to do a little shopping & Callie & Jack did pretty dang good. I only took the single stroller since Callie thinks she's such a big girl & doesn't want to ride in it most of the time anyway (if money grew on trees I'd have a Sit N Stand, but a traditional double was more practical when I bought it since the kids are close in age & Callie wasn't ready for a SNS then). Callie really enjoys shopping & sometimes I'll hold up the same shirt in 2 colors & ask which one she likes better. So she did that to me several times today :) "Mom, which one do you like better? This one or this one?" or "Mom, which one should we buy? This one or this one?" And most of the time when I tell her which one I like better she chooses the opposite. She didn't really want my opinion - she was just looking for validation. Omigosh! She's a complete mini-me! I totally spoiled them today. Callie really wanted this little pack of bracelets (they were super cute) so I got them for her. And she also loved this fluffly little stuffed pooch named Foofie (who has a hot pink bow in her hair) so we got her too. Along with a soft little puppy dog for Jack. They're sleeping with Foofie & Puppy tonight! And for the record, I don't always spoil my children & I don't always buy them toys or treats every time we go out.

I knew Jack was going to be hard to put to bed tonight since he's been on a roll for the past 5 days or so. The first night (5 or so nights ago!) he went to bed fine but woke up a few hours later freaking out! Just hysterical! I named every body part asking if each one hurt & got no's but finally got a yes when I asked if he was scared. So I got up with him & turned on Dora, which nearly always fixes every problem! About an hour later I was able to put him to bed & he was fine. Then the next night, same thing, but no Dora. Then the next night he woke up again, but I figured he was probably milking the system so I let him cry it out. Occassionally he's woken up in the middle of the night crying, but we don't get him right away & he usually goes back to sleep in a couple of minutes. That night it was like 20 but I was dog tired & fell asleep after like 5 minutes of it (Jeremiah told me it was 20). Last night was the worst! Putting him to bed was awful! He got out of bed several times & cried, no screamed, for 40 minutes! So tonight after 20 minutes of putting him back in his bed & hearing him scream, I put Callie in my bed & sat down to talk to him & play 20 questions again (do your ears hurt, does your mouth hurt...). Finally I asked if he was hurt or scared or sad. He said scared. I said what are you scared of. He quietly said monsters. MONSTERS?! If he's seriously scared of monsters & that's what's been eating him up for the past several nights then he must be terrified! No wonder he's started having a hard time going down for naps too! I had a talk with him & he agreed to lay down after I said I'd sit next to him & watch him to make sure he was safe. I think it really is monsters he's been afraid of & I feel bad. Poor guy! I mean, all these nights he's seriously been EXHAUSTED tired, yet he wouldn't go to sleep. Even tonight he kept trying to keep his eyes open for like 10 minutes after I sat down next to him! Hopefully he won't wake up tonight but at least if he does I'll have an idea of what to do! If you want excitement in your life, just add kids!

Today (and yesterday)

I went on a little excursion today to Laughlin, NV (about 40 mins away) to buy movie tickets for Harry Potter on Saturday night. The theater in Kingman sucks so we thought it would be fun & a change of pace to go to a nicer theater with stadium seating. The theater didn't have online ticketing, at least not that I found, and it's in an outlet mall anyway so I thought I'd do a little window shopping. Okay, yeah right - there's no such thing for me! Anyway, turns out the theater isn't even showing Harry Potter! WTC?! The older theater in Laughlin is showing it, but why would I pay big theater prices for an old crappy theater in Laughlin when I can see it for $4.50 at the crappy theater in Kingman?! So now I spent a lot of money today for nothing! :)

It was 115 degrees in Bullhead/Laughlin (they're across the river from each other). I went to Sam's Club but forgot to bring my freezer bag so my frozen Pillsbury Buttermilk Biscuits (delish!) were mostly thawed when I got home & I'm sure my lettuce is a little wilty. Even though I started the car a couple of mins. before I put the kids in & had the A/C on full blast, poor little Jack still had sweat beads on his face & was red for at least 30 minutes! And my DP was not doing the trick - I was so thirsty for water! It was a good little trip anyway, even if I am poorer now! :)

Yesterday Callie pushed something off the ottoman and when I told her to pick it back up she said she didn't want to. I told her it didn't matter if she didn't want to - she had to and it's not okay to just knock stuff over because she feels like it. She said, "But I don't want to pick it up and I'm a princess so I don't have to!" Oh really! Yeah, well guess who picked it up after the Queen ordered her to?! :)

Another dose of Callie

When I asked Callie to share her drink with Jack she quickly finished it & said, "Apparently I drink all my drink."

And yesterday evening she said, "It's freakin' hot outside."
"What did you say?" I said.
"It's freakin' hot outside."

Uh-oh!

Fortune Cookies

We had Chinese food Friday night and here was Jeremiah's fortune!

So I may be a little premature in posting this, but I'm just a little excited! :) So here's the rest of the story. I took a test Friday morning & wanted to tell Jer in a cute way (I know, I'm so lame!). When the thought of Chinese for dinner came to mind I knew I had to make him a fortune cookie! So the cookie I made looked a little sickly (not pictured), but was still def. a fortune cookie. Jeremiah hadn't eaten much dinner & I had a feeling he'd pass up a cookie so I'd made a little deal out of it & told Callie that if she'd eat her dinner we could all have a fortune cookie together. I'd unwrapped the others & put them in a bag then I passed them out to the kids & took mine out then handed Jer the little bag. He looked at his cookie & asked if mine was weird too! :) [The one I made was a) bigger than the others, b) a little soft - it never hardened up, & c) cracked]. I said no & didn't even make eye contact for fear of giving it away too early. As he's opening his he says he got the most messed up fortune cookie ever! lol! So he looks at his fortune but doesn't really read the whole thing & apparently there's a piece of cookie stuck over the date. So he tells Callie the first part of his fortune & then is asking her if he should read hers when he reads his again! Then he looked at me & was like, what? (Like, what kind of fortune did Lo's put in his most messed up cookie ever?!). Then it clicked & he was excited! I probably would have waited to say anything to Callie because when we had a pg friend over for dinner a few weeks ago she'd ask if the baby was coming yet & can she see the baby about every 45 seconds! Anyway, I feel particularly proud of my cleverness! :) I know you all want to be just as dorky as me! :)

Hooray America!

I love America & I also love that Jeremiah got to take off a day in the middle of the week! But really, I love America! I loved going to a few Angels games when we lived in SoCal. Even though baseball isn't the most exciting spectator sport, there's something that is just so completely All-American about sitting in the stands at a baseball game, rooting for your team, singing ball-game songs with your fellow Americans, and eating hot dogs & popcorn!

In the American spirit we barbequed on the Fourth. Our baby back ribs were delicious! Callie didn't take a nap that day, but it turns out she needed one, and since she & Jackson don't know exactly what fireworks are, we did sparklers in our backyard around 7 & then put them to bed.

It was nice to sit out on our lawn with Jeremiah and a half pint of Haagen-dazs to watch the celebratory fireworks. We were too lazy to get up & turn on our radio (since the local stations play patriotic music to go along with the show), but we could catch some strains of the songs from someone else's radio a few blocks away. I started kind of jokingly singing the Star-Spangled Banner when the finale started but when Jeremiah joined in we finished it together nicely. I felt extremely proud to be an American. I'm thankful for the happy little life I lead & that there are brave, giving men & women throughout our wonderful country who have given & continue to give service to protect the freedoms that I enjoy every minute! Thanks Reed Mikkelsen (& Liz for supporting him), Grandpas Divis & McCombs (and the Grandmas) & all the other people who have made and are making it possible to live my great life. Hooray America!

Callie-isms

She said this to me this morning: "My breath smells like candy. That means it's snack time!"
As a sidenote, I think it's funny that she would ever think her breath smells like candy since it usually smells like Fancy Feast!

I've thrown around the word permission - Did you have permission to get a fruit snack? That kind of thing. So now she's constantly saying, "With commission." "With commission can I please have a fruit snack?" "With commission, can I please make a fort?" "With commission, can I please climb on this?"

She's also constantly asking us what time it is. As if she knows what 12:07 even means!

Hello, Kitty

We had a Hello Kitty extravaganza yesterday for Callie's 3rd birthday! She got her Hello Kitty napkins alright! She had the best day, I think! For one, she loves going to nursery so that started the day out great. I sent rice krispy treats on a Hello Kitty paper plate to give her a taste of things to come! :) Soon after we got home from church her nursery leader rang our doorbell & had brought her a present & a big mylar balloon. Callie was so excited! Especially when she opened the present: Princess fruit snacks & a punching balloon! She & Jack had a tea party and served their guests fruit snacks while Jeremiah made dinner & I frosted her cake.

When my mom, dad & Stuart got to our house all the girls got HK necklaces

& we had dinner with HK paper goods. After dinner she saw the dollhouse that we got for her. She was REALLY excited! When she had inspected everything for a minute she noticed there wasn't a baby for her dollhouse. "Mom, where's the baby? I don't see a baby." What an observative little girl - I wondered if she would notice (I left it out because my mom was giving her the baby and a crib with a musical mobile!). She had the best time opening presents - she loved every single one of them! She's at such a fun age! After my mom, dad, & stuart left we played the 2 new games that she'd got, she played with her dollhouse for an hour & a half!, and then she couldn't wait to wear her new princess nightgown to bed! When I asked her if she'd had a good birthday as I was putting her to bed she told me she had & said "You're the best, mom!" Thanks, Callie. You're the best too.

weekend excursions

Jeremiah went squid fishing in CA on Thursday night w/his brothers Justin & Jason. He said it was an awesome sight - thousands upon thousands of squid all around the boat & ink everywhere. They caught so many that before the excursion was over they just quit trying!

Since he wasn't coming home till Saturday afternoon, I went with my mom & dad to Williams, AZ on Friday night. They needed to pick up my brother Stuart from EFY in Flagstaff Saturday morning & my dad had stayed in this quaint little place in Williams before so we thought it'd be fun to just stop there for the night (about 30 mins from Flag). It was a beautiful evening & we had a great time with the kids taking a walk around downtown Williams. We stopped in this junky little rock shop where Callie found a couple 50 cent dinosaurs. Grandpa said he'd get them so she walked right up to the counter & set them on it. It was pretty cute. Then again, should I be surprised? She's been trained by a pro shopper! :) When my dad finished paying he said something about rocks & dinosaurs. Apparently she'd found a couple little polished rocks that I didn't know about. Probably had we not bought the dinosaurs she would have walked right out the store with the rocks in her hand. Now I have to be responsible for these 2 little rocks that were 25 cents each! We walked by some restaurants & a couple of them had live music. We settled on a diner where we got the hugest slices of pie I've ever encountered! It was fun but it was seriously ridiculous how big these servings were. We all took half our pieces home. The next day we went into Flagstaff & did a little shopping. It was a fun little excursion.

Jeremiah & I saw Ratatouille on Saturday night & it was such a cute movie! I highly recommend seeing it! I think I'm going to get a babysitter this week & take Callie. I doubt she'd last through the whole thing since it's 2 hours long, but I think she'd enjoy it anyway.