It occurred to me

As I read over my blogs, I wonder if I sound a bit negative. I've always considered myself a positive person, so I wouldn't want to come across otherwise. I consider these daily ramblings just a part of average life and a chance to express both the joys and challenges of every-day living. I very much feel like I have a happy and very blessed life, so don't ever let me persuade you otherwise! I find much joy in being a mother of two beautiful girls and having a super awesome husband whom I am thrilled to see walk in the door every evening at dinner time!.... Which will be soon!!

What's on your grocery list?

This blog has quite a lot of topics of me rambling, so read the ones you want! There's also pics to see!

What are your cooking habits?

When you go to the store, what are your staples? My cooking habits are altering as life changes. I still want to and try to find the time for involved new recipes, but frankly, I can't do that on a regular basis. Maybe I'm just behind on my planning and can't muster up the energy to make some involving meals, but they're becoming fewer and farther between. I'm also learning I can use more pre-made or pre-prepared ingredients that cut on preparation time which help out (I'm not going to feel guilty for extra cost incurred, because the time saved is worth it). I do still have an appreciation for homemade meals (with less canned and boxed goods), but there can be a balance. It can be easy and gratifying to take a can of Ragu or Chili or Progresso Soup and expand it to family sized meals by adding more of your own fresh ingredients. In fact, I like the taste of this kind of mix.

Can you believe?

Today I discovered that it is actually cheaper to buy a large bottle of that pre-minced garlic than buy fresh cloves (which take up lots of preparation time and mess in the kitchen). I was dumbfounded! Why had I never done this before?? I always assumed it was more expensive. Granted, this is not always the case; store-bought stuffing or pita bread or salad dressing is probably going to be more expensive than doing them from scratch, but then there's the time factor. I don't want to spend all of my free time planning and preparing and shopping for these sorts of meals. Yet, It's probably healthier and tastier to do things from scratch- so I will not try to forsake this completely. What do you like to make from scratch?

Do you enjoy cooking?

I've been asked before what I like about cooking. I'm not really sure. I think it's the satisfaction and gratification that comes from making a good meal. As you can tell, I could care less for the process in and of itself, except that I know this is a necessary step for the desired outcome and so I try not to dislike it. The planning part is what nags me the most; I can work on that. I mostly enjoy making fresh breads and desserts because they're just mmm. Again, it's all about the outcome.

Sugar Cookies for FHE

Yesterday for FHE, we made sugar cookies. Honestly, if I'm going to use my sugar intake for the day, it better be on something worth it and this is why I don't normally do sugar cookies. I can think of many deserts more rewarding and deserving to eat. (This is also why I can't stand eating cheap ice cream; I don't like it very much, so why waste my desert fill on it.) Back to sugar cookies. I really wanted to do these just so Avery could have a fun time cutting out shapes- and she DID! It was a very rewarding activity for us all. She was so eager to cut out the shapes that she went too fast for us to control her and help her do it right (which is not normal for Avery, so we could tell she loved to do it!). The toddler had a great time and that's what it's all about! We smiled.

This is my fav. pic of Avery

Avery wanted to feed Aspen a bottle. Apparently Aspen liked the idea of sucking air!

Avery Bunk Bed

Okay, so I put Avery in her room for some down time and she climbed almost to the very top of the bunk bed with no ladder! She cried because she got stuck on her way up. When I came into the room, my heart skipped a beat. Tonight we are DEFINITELY doing something about this. Crazy toddler climber! Did I tell you she can climb out of her pack-n-play too? As a side note: Avery still takes naps but now later at 3pm. She also goes to time-out religiously (about 7-8 times a day, but it's good for her. She's really not a bad kid; just needs to be quicker to obey.)

Me Time

What do you do for "me" time each day? For me, it's a hot shower or blogging or checking email. I feel compelled to do other things like plan meals or sew Brian's pants during this time, but if they don't get done because I wanted to blog or take a relaxing hot shower, I know it was of necessity. I would go crazy spending 100% of my time on must-do's.

Recent Trip to Bandelier

After my brother's family left, we still had a pass to Bandelier, so Brian and I went back on Saturday to enjoy a hike to some falls. It was nice. We've sure been slowing down on house projects after going buck wild on it. We realize there's more things in life than working on the house....

We told Avery to stand by the rock for time-out. She did this position on her own. She cracks us up. :)

Aspen 3 Months

There's our sweet baby Aspen. Three months old!

Cute girls

Avery goofing around in the bathtub :)

Visitors!

No, not aliens. That's Roswell. My brother, Steve's, family came to visit us for this past week! They left this morning and I should probably be working on getting the house back in order or catching up on sleep... but first things first. ;) 76 emails and blog.

We've had a great time discovering NM together... great things worth doing again and other things we wish we'd done and some not worth doing again. All in all, we were SO happy they wanted to come visit us and hope to see them here again soon! The first thing Avery said this morning was "cousins?" I think she will be very deprived without them!

Now, prepare for picture overload!

Aspen with her cousin, Jared. He is 1.5 months older.

Hiking to Tent Rocks; those are the roots of a tree!

Still hiking to Tent rocks through a narrow, winding canyon. Cool stuff!

Tent Rocks.

We made quite the climb!

Playground in Albuquerque.

Swinging with Kara. Her cousins are all so great with her!

Jemez Falls hike.

Bandelier National Park. The indian caves. Pretty awesome.

Our bull-nose friend on the hike.

At the Aquatic Center. Avery had a great time with Uncle Steve!

Steve, Kara, Jared, Avery, Jacob

Me & Aspen. Her first swim went alright.

Santa Fe Children's Museum. Cool bubble, eh? I think Kara is holding her breath.

Kara dressing up Avery. Very funny!

This is where the guys stayed.. at the magnet table.

Hats at the Five and Dime in Santa Fe's Old town Plaza. Very cool place. We'll be back!

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis Assisi. I believe this is the one they said is the oldest church in U.S. being used still today.

Evan, Jenn, Emma, Steve, Jared, Jacob, Kara, Avery, Brian, Me, Aspen

Just walking around the town. Avery did an awesome job! She loved it!

A few things of late: Me: I'm ready for another hair cut; hopefully soon! I gave up on my strict diet and have found that things are going just fine with Aspen's gas. She's probably just growing out of it and it wasn't really about my diet. I'm super happy about that.

Aspen: Aspen loves her bouncer and loves to stretch her legs when the diaper comes off (I've given her a little too much freedom with that!). I love her tiny baby-ness and cute little bottom. I love her very satisfied drowsy roll-your-eyes looks she gives when nursing. I'm so glad she takes a binki and a bottle when necessary. She loves to watch me and others and responds with smiles when you talk to her. Watch out, though, she has a reputation for getting angry fast without warning!

Avery: Avery has learned how to climb out of her pack-n-play and how to climb half-way to the top bunk without a ladder (quite scary!). She loves to sing ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle, and Elmo's song. She can count from 4-11 in order, but when she throws a ball she says "2-4-3!" every time. I can tell how much Avery and Aspen are growing and it makes me happy to see my beautiful family growing. Avery has never been cuter; same for Aspen.

Cute Toddler-ness

My little baby girl (avery) is becoming a little person. She's very gradually starting to form sentences that are more than two words, and she says some cute grown up things, like "No, thank you." and this morning when I asked what she wanted to eat for breakfast, instead of the normal no-thought "Cereal!" response, she goes "Um... hm.... (then 10 seconds later) How about... hm..." She never actually answered the question, but this expression of thought was so grown up to me! At breakfast, she tried to bite a shape of a car into her banana bread and then she says "vroom, car!" (I taught her this). She's so awesome!

Oiseaux

Brian may make fun of me whenever I sit down to blog, but in reality, he's glad I do it. :-P Today we were at Metzgers and he said, "you haven't blogged much lately" insinuating that it's about time! I'm glad he reads the blogs. :)

Avery has been super cute lately and here's some of what she's said:

• At breakfast: "mommy, Jesuh luh lyou." :)
• At breakfast again: I say "Avery, are you super cute?" Avery: "Avie super cute. Mommy super cute."
• At breakfast once again: I say very wide-eyed and with a smile: "Avery, do you want PANCAKES?!" Avery: "mommy (ex)cited" haha.

I've been trying to speak french to Avery/Aspen. Avery's first words have been: Oiseaux "wah-zoh" (bird) & merci "meh-see" (thankyou). Random thought: I heard the other day on the radio that most childrens' first word after mommy and daddy is "T.V." ... how pathetic. Anyway, it's fun to speak French to my kids; I'm remembering more of it than I thought I would!

I'm trying to do better at meal planning. Any good sites or blogs you'd recommend me visit?

I'm experimenting with my diet to help Aspen's fussy gas issues. Right now I'm cutting out dairy, which hasn't been as bad as I expected, but I'm eating lots of meat, breads, beans, and nuts. I've been on it for 4 days and not much change so far. Soon I'll try cutting out more things.. does anyone know other things that cause baby's gas?

The other day I was looking concerningly at Aspen wondering if she might need to burp or fart or something when spontaneously she gave me a big grin and made me smile back! That reminded me I should smile more at my baby! She's so adorable!! Both of our children are adorable!!!

These past few sundays, I've just felt very uplifted and inspired to do better in certain areas of my life. I decided to write down 7 goals to work on and it's been helpful. Some days I totally crash and burn, but I usually pick things up better the next day. Thinking of my list helps me be motivated. Here's my list:

• I can read scriptures daily
• I can pray each morning
• I can drink water often
• I can plan meals
• I can enjoy taking time to play with my kids
• I can keep the kitchen clean (dishes done basically)
• I can obey the speed limit within 5 mph

Blessings!

We've been so blessed to have Brian's parents and grandparents here these last 5 days to help with our home projects and to attend Aspen's baby blessing. I can't believe how much I miss them already; I wish we had had more time to just visit, but we kept everyone busy busy! We got SO, SO much done on the house that would have taken us months alone! I am profoundly grateful for their travel down to help us and all their time and effort in our behalf. Pictures of all of us working on the house to come later.

avery & aspen

Grandma-Great & Aspen. Aspen has really started cooing and smiling a lot!

Aspen in her blessing dress

Just for kicks, this one is Avery!

Family picture.

What a special day!

I thought she was super cute just in tights and a bow.

Look at that smile!

I thought I'd pull out the bumbo for kicks (I thought it was a little premature) but it turned out right on time! Aspen already loves sitting in it! The back of the seat gently holds her head up, but she does a pretty good job on her own. This has already been a life saver because she farts/poops/burps the easiest in this little chair (much better than us patting her on the back and bouncing up and down, and who knows what)... I forgot that we had called this Avery's gasser chair! We LOVE our BUMBO!

Side note: I just want to say that it's amazing how much Avery is maturing so fast. It's CRAZY! She is such an awesome little girl.

I love hearing her laugh with Grandpa-Great :)