Katie's First Talk

Katie gave her very first talk today and did such a great job! For F.H.E. Monday we wrote her talk ( actually just copied from the friend magazine) and then put pictures to the words to help her remember. I read the talk to her just a couple of times as I pointed to the pictures. Then asked her if she could do it. She impressed us when the first time she read through the pictures she could retell the whole short talk!

All week long a t bed time we would practice. She carry the talk around with her all week and read it to herself. Sunday came and she was all dressed so pretty in her flower girl dress for Clara's wedding, that she wore at Christmas with the addition of a red sweater, now transformed into a Valentine's day dress with and add of a red ribbon with white hearts in her side pony tail. (very cute!) We recorded her practicing for the big talk

When it was time for the talk she went right up to the primary pulpit and retold her talk like she had praticed. She was not shy and spoke clearly and loud enough into the microphone. She didn't need any prompting it was perfect! she is so cute! We are so lucky to have Katie in our family!

"Re-purpose" to make lovely "dish-plays”

I loved theses plates that I read about in betz and and in Bella Dia. I have been looking for a cake plate or some kind of stand perfect for fruit, sandwiches or little goodies to serve at luncheons, showers and parties. I always say my mom is an amazing hosts. She hosts lot of bridal and baby showers, wedding receptions, and holiday parties for friends and family. It is always so fun to see how she decorates with different themes and always great food. I want to be a great hostess also but I am cheep, so I loved the thrift store fancy plates here is how mine turned out:

The stands were easy to make, fun and cheep. ( my photos are pretty poor compared to how great they look..dang cheep camera!)Check out the tutorial's above for details on how to make them.
Look forward the these "dishplays" at the next baby shower!

barf

Our little girl is a little sickie She didn't mind me taking photos, she loved the extra attention but she would not smile. She has a fever, and feels achy she wasn't eating all day then finally she had dinner (we had breakfast for dinner). I thought she was feeling better so we let the kids set up the tent (to keep they busy while we watch Lost on line) like was had promised all week. They were doing well until she puked in the tent Smelly! actually though it wasn't too bad to clean she only got the tent floor. I hope she is better soon. They were all exited for Julian's (from preschool) pirate birthday party tomorrow. She acts so sweet when she is sick, I feel bad for her but not too much for me.

shout out: Thanks Amberlynn for showing me how to do fun things with my photos!

Jail Bird Mama

Every few days I feel like this:




All day long the kids ask me, " Mom come watch what I can do!" or "are we going anywhere fun today?" or "Can I go to Kace's house?" or "read me a story" and "I'm hungry mommy" ect...

I feel like I am a prisoner to the constant cleaning monster slave master! I don't mind a little cleaning I actually love making everything look nice, freshly vacuumed rooms, neatly folded piles of laundry, and the smell of bleach. What I hate is that I have to be cleaning or a mess is being made! Its like they follow me around messing up behind me, little tornadoes at my feet. I have found it helps to clean just every other day. So hit or miss you may come over on a clean day or a real messy day.

There is some good though, the kids love to help clean, and are happier when the house is clean. Brian jr, asks me to help him clean his room when it get messy, Katie loves to help with the dishes, they both love to spray cleaner then use a rag and clean with Mama. When Brian was born the Relief Society ladies fave me this poem and I try to remember it when i get too caught up in all that cleaning, prison monster slave driver:

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,

Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,

Hang out the washing, make up the bed,

Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,

Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due

Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekabo

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew

And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo

But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo!

Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?

Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow

But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

- Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

Last night after the house was all clean, while Katie was asleep in bed I was nursing Susan. Brian came out and wanted another story. So Susan squirmed away and I held Brian. The big kid almost 5, was curled up laying on my chest while I sang to him I played with his hair. As we were having a nice moment together I could hear Susan dump out a whole cup of milk just as I was going to get up I remembered the last few lines in the poem. I then decided to ignore the cleaning monster inside me, as I continued to cuddle Brian Susan splashed and giggled in the milk.

garden journal entry#1

I finally have little sprouts! I was beginning to wonder if I had messed up because there is a little white fuzzy mold on the soil but they sprouted last night! I still don't know what to do about the mold though. We planted in the indoor-mini-green-house last Saturday and a week later they have sprouted.

Brian and I always said we wanted a garden but used the excuse that we are in an apartment and have no place. We have lived in a house now for 2 years and this is the beginning of the 2nd garden. I have found gardening is not as easy as it looks. Last year our we bought some plants, 2 tomatoes, a bell pepper, a jalapeno, 2 squash, basil, and a watermelon. We had lots of fun setting up the garden and watering almost everyday. It really looked good with dark fresh soil all around neat circles of green plants. Then the squash got way too much water and molded, it produced about 4 vegetables then died. The tomato plant had about 6 green tomatoes and Brian was trimming a big tree above it to provide more sunlight and a branch dropped and bent the cage and knocked off lots of the tomatoes. the cage was never the same and the plant later sot a spider I could not get rid of. The pepper didn't produce anything good but is still alive and looks alright. The jalapeno produced the most, a couple bowls full. It was fun to learn to cook with a jalapeno. We still have some that turned into a pepper that are drying out. Lastly the monster watermelon, it grew fast and spread its self all over the whole garden and down the wall produced about 6 good watermelon then a peace would died after each new watermelon, covering the whole garden in a mess of dead vines neatly curled around anything it could. The kids loved the watermelon they checked its progress every day, and wanted to pick it as quick as they could. We had watermelon up to the end of October just in time for Halloween so we carved watermelon instead of a pumpkin!(Sorry no Picture our camera was broken for a few months: (


This year I wanted to plant different types of tomatoes then next year we would know what we like best and use it. Also we are going to plant peas, squash, cucumber and pumpkin. ( learning form our watermelon mistake and plant it in a different area of the yard). Look forward to more garden updates!

January 12 planing seeds with the kids.

Food Critic

In between errands on a busy Saturday we drove down Imperial Avenue in San Diego for a more scenic drive. On this strip of the Avenue it is a sort of "little Mexico" there are Catholic Shrines in front yards, lots of garage sales, brightly painted murals on walls, and lots of street vendors selling tacos, tamales and my favorite the whole grilled onions grilling on a huge grill next to our restaurant. We had the windows down and the smell was too much to resist. Brian and I have been in that neighborhood before for dinner at El Salvodoreno. Brian loves to reminisce about his time in Ecuador and I love good Mexican food. This time we stopped at Casa De Pepe across the street from El Salvordoreno. Its hard to miss with the purple Pillars and bright rug painted on the stucco building. Brian said "You know the food must be good if there are bars on the windows"It was a brave move but we took all the kids with us into the little restaurant. We seated ourselves in the room decorated with Minni pinatas and were shortly greeted by a short happy woman who spoke little English. She gave us our menus Brian was exited to see most of the short menu was in Spanish. I ordered a Chicken Tamalie and I heard her tell an older man coming into the restaurant something about a "pollo tamalie" he turned around and left the then returned shortly with what looked like a tamalie wrapped in foil in a bag. I imagine he went to the street vendor or the other maybe kitchen? Where ever it came from it was good! Everything was good. I loved sitting next to the kitchen whenever our waitress came through the kitchen the door would swing open and I could see ladies cooking and talking together in the back. The atmosphere was friendly, the restaurant was clean, the food was great, and it was all priced very well!

I would give Casa De Pepe 5 tacos!

I have been taged

Hoary! I have been tagged thanks to my good friend form High School Annie. So now I have to tell you some things about me you might not know. I will get right into it, 1 My life is not an open book, I do have secrets. Nothing big like “Skeletons in the closet” I guess what I mean is I can keep a secret. On the same line I hate gossip! I confess sometime I indulge but on a whole I hate the sound of it and I hate to do it. Brian is very good at supporting me in this, we decided if you are sharing it with your spouse it is not gossip. Am I right?
Number 2 is, I wish I was better at keeping in touch! Lately I have been thinking about my High School friends, Megan, Annie, Carianne, Mandy, Amanda, Ginger, Bethany, Framchesca, Christine remember the boys lie shirts? What ever happened to those? Where is Tristen my best friend in Jr high? Bonnie who I served with in Del Rio? I live in San Diego now and don’t get to see my sisters or family much. I am not lonely or home sick I just wish I was better at keeping in touch; I need to be more like Anna, she is so good about calling me every year on my birthday.
On a less melancholy note; Number 3 is I love rick-rack, ruffles and bows! How girly, but I do! Whenever I sew it makes me so happy to add just a little bow here or a stripe of rick-rack there.
Number 4 is I love stupid comedy movies! Nacho Lebre, Napoleon Dinamite, Zoolander, the Elf, SNL skits, Sinefeld and Will Ferrell 5 is, well I am goanna copy Annie because I too L-O-V-E to play games! Nertz, Rook, Pit, Rummie, Quelf, Charades, Pictionary, 1000 dollar pyramid, Settlers of Catan, the new scrabble game Jenny taught us, Catch Phrase, Cranium and whatever else you wanna play. I am very completive but I also really enjoy seeing the underdog win. Not that Brian the underdog but if we are playing together and he is left of me when I discard I always try to give him a good card. Jenny and I used to stay up late playing the name game, or 20 questions. Such fun times!
6 I am a movie sonb. I am so picky with movies, if it doesn’t have a good message I don’t really like it, if its too slow I turn it off, I guess that might be hard to believe after reading that I love stupid comedies but its true I am a movie snob I love to watch a good movie but I hate to waste my time with a bad movie.
Now six facts you already know about me, 1. I love to a clean house, to decorate, learn new crafty things; I love Arizona, and my Children. They are my post precious jewels. I have an awesome husband and I have faith that my Heavenly father loves me and wants me to be happy.
Now I guess I have to tag some people, so, if you read this, Charmaine, Julie, Carianne, and Cyndi