Fathering

Feeling so loved. I have an amazing father who makes me feel all melty and loved and a husband who makes our daughter feel the same way. This life of ours is a good one.

When life gives you lemons, make pie

We were supposed to have our carpet installed two days ago but I am still staring at gross, green tile every time I look in my back room. To keep my rage and sadness at bay, I decided to embrace all things happy today. So I bought Ava a little backyard pool and some gummy worms. Best $10.99 I ever spent. Who needs a nap when you have a pool, or lunch when you have gummy worms, says she as she squeals with excitement. And she has only taken off her "soups" (swimming suit) once today. I think my neighbors are used to her indecent exposures by now though. So? Blow up pools and gummy worms. Keepin' me happy.

Also:

This movie coming out soon (because I am I huuuuuuuuge nerd)

This post about modesty. I agree with 99% of it:
THAT WORD

The fact that my eustachian tubes seem to fiiiiinally be draining - my hearing is at 75% (which is better than the 25% it was at a week ago):

Consequently, the meds that are helping my ears get better also cause drowsiness. If a drug says it may cause drowsiness, it will definitely make me drowsy but I haven't been able to give into the drug monster this week because of the furious back-room-tile-laying-in-time-for-the-carpet-installation extravaganza. But today? Today I will nap.

 Annnnd finally, Father's Day is on Sunday. So I get to hear my little Primary kids sing in Sacrament meeting and celebrate my sweet husband with a delicious dinner of Thai Chicken and yummy yummy yummy lemon pie for dessert.

picture and recipe found at www.meatwave.com

Summertime has been kicked off. Officially.

We went to Ohio for Memorial Day weekend. Danny and I got to go to a wedding for a good friend of mine from high school while Ava played with cousins and "gampa". It was good to see old friends and dance saucily with my husband. It was kind of weird though - dancing with good friends from high school with not a care in the world totally took me back and it was suddenly so strange that I was a mom. Total Twilight Zone moment. I mentioned it to one of my friends and she laughed and said, "it's still weird for me that you're a mom too!"

C'est la vie.

Ava played so hard while we were there and it took her a good 2 days to recover when we got home. Is it just me or is that how fun family time should be? She didn't want to miss a second.

The "baby wee" - dude. pushing a kid in a swing is like, SO HARD, when it's 90 degrees outside with 95% humidity.

Listen to me now and hear me later.

Ganging up on Aunt Shannon (she will kill me for posting these pictures on the internets. heh heh.)

Aunt Shannon is so mean. Poor E.

Snuggling by the homemade root beer. Nice work, Fasha.

Watching Little Mermaid

I love this picture. Wish it wasn't so blurry. Uncles are so fun.

I can't decide whether or not Ty is photobombing this one. Methinks kind of.

Saturday Snowday

So we were supposed to be in Chicago at the temple today. We were going to leave around 6 this morning but we woke up to reports of bad snow on the interstate in Indiana and we didn't want to risk it so we went back to sleep. At 8:37 (I would like to take a parenthesis to thank my daughter for sleeping in so late. Because she can read. And she regularly reads blogs. So thanks, Ava) we woke up to this:

So we plaaaaaaayed.

Good day.

Hey, 2012! Lookin' good!

We had our own little Christmas his year in our own little house and it was fabulous. Turns out Ava is a very neat present-opener and Santa only gives educational gifts. I tip my hat to you, Santa.

Our New Year's festivities took us to Dayton where we met up with my family and some very dear friends from Hong Kong and Utah. In fact, I got to see my best friend, who happens to be 7 months pregnant with her first baby, and her husband for the first time in toooooo long.

Side note: it's really kind of strange when your best friend marries some guy you've never met before who seems to be a good guy. But then it's kind of the best when you actually get to spend time with him a year and a half later and it turns out that he's really kind of awesome and hilarious. End of side note.

So here was our trip to Dayton, or some of it at least. There was a lot of laughing and game playing and general joviality.

We played outside...

Until we were exhausted.

We read books...

And Ava had her first tea party!!!

It was delicious....

We played Pretty, Pretty Princess,

nibbled on some delicious babies,

snuggled with loved ones.

New Year's Eve was a good time had by all as well.
Ava wrestled with the birthday boy

and snuggled some more. (This? Melted. My. Heart. And I just realized that he's wearing her sock on his hand. Mike, Mike, Mike.)

Then, I talked to my quasi-niece

and beat Brad at Hearts.

 We popped some bubbly (sparkling cider),

played Weird Face Game,

and then destroyed the place. (I was spraying the whole room but then I just decided to spray my husband.)

HAPPY NEW YEAR, CHUMPS.

The mess? WORTH IT.

I am so excited for 2012. I have some pretty exciting things up my sleeves...

STAY TUNED.

Yum

A little mathematical truth for you: As the amount of winter outerwear Ava is wearing increases, the probability that you won't be able to stop nibbling her delicious cheeks also increases. Exponentially.

(Tree lighting ceremony in St. Joseph)

QED.

Homemade Happiness

Life is pretty good right now.

We're all homemade this time of year with the presents and the food and the decorations and the happiness (yes. I prefer my happiness homemade. Unless ice cream is involved) but I've become especially domestic lately. I blame pinterest. And having to sew my own curtains.

We threw away the remainder of our gross chemically cleaners and made some of our own (here).
We ran out of laundry detergent and I'm sick of paying so much for the HE stuff so we? maaaaaade our own (here). (And it works great with front load washers since it is low suds.)
We say "boo" to the gross premade spaghetti sauce and make our own. With three ingredients (and a little salt). And it is the best spaghetti sauce ever (here).
Ava and I are making some ornaments today. Maybe she won't destroy these (here)?

Yeah. I like stuff better when I make it.

squeak squeaker squeak squeaken

I wonder...

...when will Ava realize she can finish chewing and swallowing the food that's already in her mouth before she moves on to a more exciting food instead of just spitting it out?
...how annoying grocery shopping will be this winter. You know, with all the snow.
...if my loved ones have any idea how MUCH I love them and if there is any way to genuinely convey that to them.
...how many presents I can realistically get made for this Christmas. I may have to outsource to Etsy.
...if a Brown/Hillam reunion (family friends, best of) followed by a Tiffany/Lauren reunion (best friends, product of Brown/Hillam bond) will make Danny and Nelson's (husbands of Tiffany and Lauren) heads explode.
...if I'm not a true foodie because I do not enjoy any olive besides the black ones out of a can.
...how old Ava will be when we can have real conversations.
...how amazing it will feel when the laundromat = my basement and not the actual laundromat (the time is approaching ever so quickly!!).
...if I have destroyed my mantel to the point of needing to just rip it off and put something else there.
...if my husband has any idea how many times a day I feel about him. (See, I don't think about him so much as I feel about him. It's more a warm fuzzy that prompts a thought.)
...how I've lived in this house for as long as I have without anything covering a majority of the windows

Summer, let's shake hands and be friends

Farewell, summer! Twas a glorious one and I can't wait to see your face in Michigan next year! I think a repeat of this year wouldn't be too bad.

We ate a lot of of fruit

and flavor-ices.

We made lots of pesto                                                                    

and used A LOT of these.

I did a little singing,

she did a little tantruming

and a lot of shoveling. 

We got some quality cousin time

and some serious help with alllllll of our projects.

Until we meet again. Stay classy.

A new love and a shameless plug

Welp, I should be napping right now. Or cleaning. Instead I am blogging. See how I give up nappy time to update you on things in my life, about which you don't really care??? I AM SO GENEROUS, YOU'RE WELCOME.

Well, Dustin and Rebecca and the niecews came last weekend. It was kind of wonderful. I got to chill with people I love love love and snuggle a warm, delicious new baby. We stayed up too late, ate waaaaay too much Captain Crunch (and ice cream, and meat, etc...), and went through lot of towels but it was a special occasion, right? Do you know what else? Wanna know what else??? Wanna know what my sweet brother and awesome husband installed in the kitchen???

A DISHWASHER. (Said with reverence and humility. And an echo.)
(The Before:)

(The After:)

I understand that before dishwashers were invented, the real washer of dishes were also called children. However comma my child is not yet old enough for her to be an efficient means of getting the dishes warshed. Mostly she just makes a bubbly mess and sucks on the dishrag because she knows she's not supposed to. So I've been the dishwasher since moving to Michigan and my life has been so hard. Such a trial to have to wash all your dishes every day, twice a day. Cannot believe I got through that tribulation.

But seriously. I have gained back at least an hour of my life every day thanks to this magical contraption. And you know what's extra awesome about it? It was free. (www.freecycle.org) It's only 4 years old and it was at a rental property. The property manager said they always got complaints about it not working but apparently the people loading it didn't know you couldn't stick things down below the bottom rack (really??) and, upon instillation, Dustin figured out that the hose they had been using wasn't the right one. So anyhoodle, we're only out the cost of the hoses, electrical, and plumbing doodads and the labor was easily bought with hot fudge sundaes. It does a fabulous job and I have no complaints. All I have is praise, in fact.

So now I can devote all that time saved washing dishes to my latest venture - my new etsy shop. (Click on the picture.) 

 

I'm still working on upping the inventory and, as the name suggests, there will be a variety of things to buy - hair accessories, pillows, wall hangings, maybe a printable or two, jewelery, and  vintage finds. Why? Because I have craft ADD, THAT'S WHY.

That's the news for now. I'm going to go pet my dishwasher.