overheard

Cali just left with Grandma C. to go out for her birthday lunch.

I overheard Kimi and Ian having this conversation. She was trying to make him feel better about not going. It went something like this:

Kimi: Ian, when you have birthdays you can go. When you turn five, and six, and seven, but not eight because then you'll be too old for stuff like that. When you're five you'll be big like me!

Ian: I have a big head! I have a HUGE head!

Kimi: Yeah, and then you'll be old and get married.

Ian: Then I will kiss you!

Kimi: No! You marry your friend not your sister!

to each her own

I was making toast for breakfast and gave the kids options of jelly, cinnamon sugar, or honey.

Kimi picked garlic salt.

It seemed a little odd early in the morning, but was just as easy so I shrugged my shoulders and gave it to her. Froot Loops and garlic toast. Yummy.

She was excited and ate it all.

Here's something else that might turn your stomach. (I am usually the last to see popular you-tube clips so if you have all seen this, I'm sorry.)

It's not the solid potato salad song that is weird, though that is a little weird on it's own. Wait until you see what they do next. Kimi and I couldn't take our eyes off it.

Family Home Evening talent shows at their house would have been awesome.

one year older and wiser too

I just got an email that told me, "Congratulations, you have made it to the lovable-sevens, one of the most rewarding times in parenthood." Cali is already filling her role as a loveable-seven.

I gave her the option of a birthday party at home she could invite everybody at school to, or she could invite the two girls her age from our neighborhood and go to Chuck-E-Cheese's.

To her, the choice was very simple and we ended up at that child wonderland, Chuck-E-Cheese's. Only one of her primary friends could make it, and Ian was dying to come along so those were the four lucky partiers.

Cali wanted to show you a smile with extra cheese.

Ian was jumping up and down everywhere we went.

I'm glad Cali isn't entering driver's ed any time soon.

The highlight of our trip. Meeting Chuck E. Cheese himself.

I should have asked for an autograph. (or tylenol)

After our party there, we dropped off Cali's friend and got ready for the next birthday party of the day. Great-Grandma Alice turned 90 on Sunday! I seriously hope to be as active and with-it as she is when I turn 90. She is amazing.

A picture of the two birthday girls together.

Grandma Alice performed a piano piece for everyone.

If I start working now I might get one ready for my 90th birthday party.

Then Natalie decided to steal the show and walk across the gym. There she goes.

When we told people these were her first real steps, lots of other people whipped out their cameras. It was good to know that if my pictures didn't turn out I could find someone with a good picture.
Then it was back home to a birthday dinner of the requested macaroni and cheese, sausages, and jello. Followed by her chocolate cake with cherry pie filling and whipped cream on top.

Make a wish!

It was definitely a fun day for everyone!

flashback friday: our first first

It's been a while since I did a flashback friday post, but I had this day on my mind because of Natalie's birthday last week and Cali's birthday tomorrow. Natalie reminds me so much of Cali. It's like having her over again, except, look at that hair!

She already had her pigtails by then?

Cali celebrated with a few of her friends before the other guests arrived.

Do you ever wish you could go back and visit certain days in your life? This is one of those days for me.

Maybe because I look at the next picture and wish I was back sitting in that room with all those same people again;

even for just a few more minutes.

drinking problem

Since Natalie has become weaned we have a teensy-problem.

She no longer gets anything to drink.

Not that she doesn't try, or that I don't try.

We just haven't been able to convince her to get anything liquid into her mouth and swallow it.

And she does have fun trying.
And since I grew up being able to relate just about everything back to Star Trek, this is the "Data to Guinan"-ish conversation that Natalie and I would have if we were able to actually carry on conversation.

(For those of you who were underprivileged children and have no idea what I'm talking about, watch Star Trek: Generations)

Me: Natalie, would you like to try something new called "milk?"

Natalie lets some dribble into her mouth, shudders, winces, spits it out.

Natalie: Ohhh yess! I hate this! It is revolting!

Me: More?

Natalie: Please!

a one-derful birthday

Natalie just turned one! And if her happiness was any indication, she had a great day.

Her siblings really wanted her to open up those presents, but she was more interested in something on the other side of the room.
Kimi tried to convince her to stop playing with the old toys and open the presents, but finally they just opened them for her.
We made little heart cakes for our little sweetheart.
This was the first time she was just handed a bowl full of food and and a spoon was let loose. I didn't realize until I looked at the pictures that I hadn't given her a baby spoon. The bigger spoon probably helped her shovel it in better though.
Once the spoon had gotten everything it could reach she went to this method. Yum.

This is what birthday cake usually leads to. Happy Birthday to my littlest sweetie!

are you trying to tell me something?

Kimi handed me a marker and a post-it today and asked me to write these words, "fish, a, want, I." She showed me how "fish" was supposed to be on the bottom and she had already started it with the letter "f."

I dutifully wrote out her message, wondering where it would go. She took it, stuck it on her shirt, and wore her, "I want a fish" note for the rest of the day.

oh, canada!

As someone who doesn't care much about the sporting world, it doesn't make much sense, but I love the olympics!

I can watch whatever event comes on all day.

We started the tradition of having a dinner from the host country on the night of opening ceremonies. Since I am one-quarter Canadian myself, ( sort of. Grandpa did become a U.S. citizen, but he was Canadian.) I was looking forward to this one.

Turns out Canadians eat what we eat. Go figure.

This is the most regional meal that I could come up with, and believe me the kids liked it a whole lot better than the Chinese food from the last olympics.

We decided to have Canadian bacon, and waffles with Maple syrup. I thought about getting real syrup that actually came from Canada, but I decided my kid's taste buds weren't really discerning enough to notice the ten-dollar difference.

(Sorry this picture is so dark, you know I've cursed the lighting in my kitchen before.

See how that waffle sort-of looks like a maple leaf? Now that's Canadian.)

happy valentine's day

Happy Valentine's Day to all those I love. I wish I could see each one of you today and give you a cookie. I did post the recipe though, so you can make your own cookies and pretend they are from me. Nothing says love like a load of sugar.

Speaking of:
Having Valentine's Day on Sunday has been great because it has stretched it out into the whole weekend. Cali came home from school with her bag full of loot. We inspected her haul right away to look for peanuts, (she had really bad peanut encounter earlier in the week) and to to glory in the spoils

The art of conversation hearts really seems to have died. I miss those little guys that you had to carefully pass out making sure not to give the stray "kiss me" to the boy you didn't like.

Cali is happy because her well of Halloween candy had just run dry, and this will see her through until Easter.

I've got to go now because I hear Ian calling me to come get him up. We took his crib down yesterday, and he slept for the first time in a bed last night. I'm am relieved that hasn't realized this means he can just get up. I hope this lasts for a least a week.

please pray for Michelle

For those of you not in my immediate family, this is my sister's daughter, Michelle.

She is a walking miracle and an angel who brings so much happiness to everyone around her. She was born with many physical defects, but has accomplished more in her three years than anyone, except maybe her amazing parents, ever dreamed. You can read more about her on their blog.

She has been battling pneumonia all winter and has been continually getting more ill, and now is in the hospital, a place she knows too well.

Please keep Michelle and her family, the Thorntons, in your prayers.

Cali's lost a tooth

I mean seriously lost.

As in-the dentist took an x-ray to find it and it's just not there- lost.

Cali's had one baby tooth that never grew in on the bottom. She just lost the baby-tooth's neighbor a few month's ago.

That is her showing how wiggly it was. I just forgot about it posting until our trip to the dentist. I probably forgot because it was so traumatic to me to have my first born start losing "baby" teeth.

On a side note, I think the tooth-fairy should post the going rate for teeth somewhere.

Anyways, we found out she is always going to have an odd number of teeth down on her bottom jaw and that will most likely require braces at some point.

I'm glad we got the news now so we can start saving up.

shady character

I don't know what it is about putting sunglasses on the baby, but it's always so cute.

Natalie knew it too. She was hamming it up for the camera.

(But not holding still, sorry about the blurriness.)

a cut above

Luckily for me, our ward is short on children, and I don't have to compete with how the other mother's have done their little girls hair.

I do want my children to look neat and well-groomed though so I thought I would try to figure out how to do some of those cute hair-do's I've seen when visiting other wards.

Go to these blogs if you want to see what the Jones' are doing:

The Princess and Her Hair and Babes in Hairland

I saw all those hairstyles and and knew that at our house it would mean two things:

1. a bucketload of tears

2. open rebellion

I managed to convince Kimi to let me put one elastic in her hair, rather than her usual barette on Sunday by telling her it could be her birthday gift to me. She slept with it in that night and on Monday morning these were her exact words, "I accidently left this in over night,and somehow I survived!" To her it is THAT bad.

Cali will let me do her hair as she tries to hold things back to a whimper.

Here is my interpretation of a fancy up-do:

Just kidding.

That was crazy-hair day a couple months ago and I just found the pictures.

On a related note, I also cut the kids' hair in order to save money. I decided that I should probably try to figure out what I was doing better since it never quite turns out how I hoped, and Kimi will actually start school this year.

I got this book lasts week from the library to learn some techniques :

I was planning on getting my haircut soon, and started thinking about trying some things from this book first. I figured if it turned out really bad, a professional could always give me a pixie cut which I've always wanted, but never had the guts for.

Last Friday morning I got out my hair cutting scissors and five minutes later (I had to take time out to answer the phone and the door) (yes, I answered the door, but my hair was just in a ponytail at that point) my hair was cut. It involved putting my hair in ponytails and cutting them off straight across, and it worked. No pixie cut for me.

This was Scott's reaction, "Wow! You did that yourself? I mean, I've seen your haircuts."

That makes Scott look bad, so I must include I answered, "I know! Me too!"

Here's a view from the back:

I also found out how hard it is to take a picture of myself that I like. Hence, you see no front view.

Chalk one more up for library books.

joy cometh in the morning

It's that time of parenting at our house that fills my heart with dread: cutting off the night feedings and getting baby to sleep through the night.

I am thankful that even after a rough night Natalie will still greet me with one of her big smiles that she gives me every morning.

(This picture is about a second late, so just imagine her face even more squished up in a smile.)

This should have been done about 8 months ago, I know.

I had a load of excuses, but they finally wore thin.

Monday night involved a lot of crying, and what sounded like cursing in baby language.

She had forgiven me by the morning.

Last night she SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT.

I'm telling myself it was a fluke, but hope springs eternal. We'll see what happens tonight.

a piece of cake

One of Cali's favorite books when she was about two years old, was A Piece of Cake by Jill Murphy.

I still hear her little voice saying "From now on it's healthy libbing (living)!" whenever I read it.

It's about the Large family who's mother decides they must all go on a diet and exercise excessively. Then their dear old granny sends them a cake which they put up on a high shelf "in case they have visitors," but they can't stop thinking about it.

Finally in the middle of the night Mrs. Large wakes up thinking "I must have a piece of that cake!" She sneaks down to the kitchen to find only one piece left and her family hiding under the kitchen table.

Just in case anyone was wondering what I cake I chose for my birthday, I thought I would let you know.

My dear mother-in-law made me my favorite chocolate cake, and it is "wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it" good.

I've seen this cake go by many names: Triple Chocolate Cake, Decadent Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Fudge Cake, and others. If you google "best cake recipes" this comes up.

But you don't need to google it because you can get the recipe here where I posted it on our food blog last year.

It was good for my birthday, but "from now on it's healthy libbing!"

Oh, and Elizabeth, I ate some extra cake for you and Tory as you requested.

Don't say I've never done anything for you.