I Have Officially Arrived as a Mother

I must be crazy. I took the kids (still in their pajamas) to Wal-Mart first thing this morning so we could get this movie before it sold out and my coupon expired.


(I'm pretty sure going to the store at the crack of dawn to use a coupon on a Disney movie is a rite of passage all new moms must pass through on their journey to greatness.)

THE HIGHLIGHT: I mentioned in my previous post that Garrett is really into the Living Scriptures movie "He is Risen." We were walking through the store and Garrett was following behind me reciting a few lines from the movie. We passed by another mom and her children. We both stopped to look at different things on the shelves, which left Garrett facing a little boy that seemed to be about his same age. Garrett looked at the little boy and said (quite emphatically), "You killed an innocent man."

Oh Wal-Mart floors...please open up and swallow me whole. It's bad enough when your three-year-old accuses another kid of killing an innocent man. It's even worse when he does it wearing bright green dragon mud boots and candy-cane striped pajamas from last Christmas that are way too small.

The Only Thing Better Than One Piggie...

....is TWO little piggie-tails! Abby has now officially joined the Martian Look-Alike Club and could most likely pick up some pretty strong signals from outer space with these two antennae coming out of her head.

Garrett is totally into the Living Scriptures "He is Risen" movie. (A nice choice for the Easter season, eh?) It works out nicely because it's the only Living Scripture movie we have. In order to get it, I had to listen to an excruciatingly painful presentation after being cornered one day at the mall. I don't think I was even married at the time, but for some reason I always look like an easy target and I guess the poor college-kid salesman thought there might be a chance a single girl would want to spend $30 a month on Church movies. Sorry, pal! But thank you for the free movie. After sitting lonely in our movie drawer for several years, it has been discovered by a sweet 3-year-old boy. He repeats lines from the movie all the time and tells us multiple times a day that, "Jesus lives! Don't you understand me? He lives!"

Brian and Sher gave Abby this adorable dress for her birthday--complete with matching headband--and she looked like a little angel at Church today. (Now if only we could get her to act like an angel...)

Besides talking about the Resurrection, Garrett's other favorite pastime is "art." He loves to paint, color, draw, you name it--and then the fun part: cutting his pictures into tiny pieces. (A big THANK YOU to our old pals Melissa and Doug for sponsoring this activity with their kid-proof scissors.)

Notice the concentration. The G-Man takes his cutting seriously.

While Garrett is playing Picasso, Abbs likes to sit on the floor underneath him and empty out the cabinets and wait for his scraps to fall so she can play with them. What a cute little puppy, huh?

As an added bonus, here are a few favorite Garrett lines from the week:

• He continues to be really protective of Abby and is a little stinker about it. A little girl was playing with Abby in the hall at Church and Garrett yelled, "Hey! You stay away from my sister!" (Let's hope he'll remember this line when Abby is a little older and his friends come over to visit.)


• We were outside playing with his beloved "baby chicks" (who aren't really babies anymore, but please don't tell Garrett). He was holding a chick and looked down at it with the proudest look on his face and said, "Wonderful, wonderful chick."


• He's been tearing it up with the adjectives lately. He looked down at the leftover piece of pizza he was eating for dinner and said, "This pizza is so beautiful."


• Abby was crying about something (she's been doing a lot of that lately--her molars are coming in and she has been WHINY). Garrett looked at her and said, "Poor little guy, Abbs."


• He had just got out of the shower and I wrapped him up in his towel and was carrying him like a baby down the hall. I asked him if he was a baby or a big boy. His response: "I'm just Garrett."

Thanks for the Ride...

Well, you know what they say....

• "You win some, you lose some."
• "You can't win 'em all."
• "All good things must come to an end."

I really thought BYU was going to win the game going into overtime, but it just didn't happen. And while it hurts tonight, it's been "one heck of a season" (to use an Honor Code appropriate phrase).

I'll be honest...I've always been more of a BYU football fan than a basketball fan. I went to almost every home football game during my college years, but the basketball team just wasn't anything to get super excited about, so I only attended a handful of basketball games. Boy-oh-boy, has that changed over the past couple of years. If I was a lovely BYU co-ed this year, I'm sure I would've been cheering my heart out in the Marriott Center every game. So thanks to Coach Rose, Jimmer, Jackson and the boys for making this season great and making me a new fan.

A Note to Coach Rose: I know it's going to be tough replacing Jimmer, but I have a very promising little recruit for you. She is feisty as all get-out and yells at anybody who tries to take her ball from her, so I think she's loaded with potential.

(I really thought the basketball gods were on our side today when Abby dug this ball out of the cabinet all by herself and played with it all afternoon.)

For those of you who still want to show Jimmer some love for being, well, THE Jimmer, check out this awesome shirt:

My brother-in-law owns a funny t-shirt company and this is one of their latest (and GREATEST) creations. They are only $10 and you can find them on Facebook under MannaTee Shirts or you can email them at sales@mannateeshirtcompany.com. Check out their website: mannateeshirtcompany.com.

*The Jimmer shirt isn't up on the website yet (you can get it through their Facebook page or by emailing them), but they have lots of other cool shirts worth checking out.*

And that's a wrap. RAH-RAH-RAH-RAH-RAH---Goooooooo COUGARS!!!

Just In Case You Didn't Know....

...There's this guy named Jimmer and his mighty Cougars are playing tomorrow in a Sweet 16 match-up against Florida.


I saw this posting for a March Madness Cougar Party today on Our Best Bites and immediately started planning the rockin' party I'm going to host while we watch my Alma Mater hopefully advance to the Elite 8.

Check out this spread...

Don't these blue and white cupcakes look awesome?

Oh, and check out the dipped marshmallows.

And these pretzel rods.

Yep, it would have been the world's coolest party. I said "would have been" because I realized there is only one problem: we don't exactly live in Cougar Country and I can't think of a single person within a reasonable radius who would come to my party and cheer for BYU. Bummer, huh?

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

It has come and gone and it was FABULOUS! I am a big fan of birthdays (especially my own-haha) and this year was one of the best ever. (I think I say that every year, but it's true. It just gets better every year!) My birthday was actually on Monday, but we made it a 3-day affair of pure PAR-TAY delight.

SATURDAY: Greg took me out for a muy especial birthday date. He asked me a few days before if I had anything in mind I wanted to do and I told him I wanted to go shopping for a new dress. Because he's a good sport (and a good man), he gave up his easy plans of dinner and a movie and followed me around the store and onto the bench outside the dressing room while I tried on one of everything in the store. We found a cute dress--and a jacket, and a cardigan, and 2 tanks to go under the dress and cardigan, and a pair of shoes, and tights, and another shirt I really liked (but Greg didn't). Yes, I was big-time spoiled and Greg only swore once during the whole clothes trying-on experience, so I counted the night as a smashing success.

P.S. I'm a bargain shopper and everything we bought was on sale PLUS I had a coupon for 30% off the whole purchase, so we actually only spent what the average person would pay for one dress. :)

P.S.S. Mucho thanks to my mom who offered to watch the kids for us when our babysitter got sick and cancelled. I did let her eat the leftovers of my killer salmon tacos from Cafe Sabor, so it was all good. :)

SUNDAY: We celebrated with a party at our house with both of our families.

Miss Abby was ready to party and oh-so-cute in her new outfit from Aunt Mal.

I had a few helpers blowing out the candles.

I look kinda scary in this picture, but look how cute all of the kids look gathered around the cake. I love the look on little Abby's face.

Garrett loved helping Grandma Jan and Daddy serve the cake and ice cream.

My sweet niece, Brooklyn, asked me during the party if I could get her a card and a pen. A little while later she handed me this:

Her dad told me she asked him for some money and he gave her a dollar. She looked at him like he was an idiot and said, "Can't I at least have a 20?" A 20 would have been nice, but I'll take the dollar. :)

Love this girl!

Garrett got into the cake and rearranged the candles and took a few chunks off the top. I can't say that I blame him...it was a really good cake!

Abbs was also a fan...

Poor Abby is either working on a cold or cutting in her molars and was a bit miserable Sunday night. She always loves snuggle time with Daddy.

MONDAY: The actual birthday was a bit lower-key, but still really fun. We just had dinner at home and Greg and the kids gave me a few more presents. I had assumed when I suggested going shopping that I was making it easy for him and he wouldn't have to get me anything else. Little did I know, he already had my presents at that point, but just humored me and went along. Yep, I felt like a selfish nerd. But then I remembered how I had spent a good chunk of my 28th year of life worrying about Greg and trying to keep him alive, so I decided I deserved it. :)

These beautiful flowers were one of my favorite surprises of the whole day. The flower delivery man was a sweet older gentleman and asked me how old I was turning. When I told him I was 29, he said, "I wouldn't put you a day over 21." Aaaahhh, thanks buddy. You just made this birthday girl's day!

I really milked it for all it was worth and once we got the kids to bed, Greg and I watched Eclipse (from the Twilight saga--we hadn't seen it yet) and enjoyed some leftover cake and ice cream.

It was a perfect birthday and I really appreciated all the cards, calls, texts, emails, good wishes, and surprises. I felt really special and very loved, which is what birthdays should be all about!!!

Here Comes the Bride

My cousin, Janalee, is getting married in June. We visited her house today for a little wedding planning party and Abby ended up modeling the veil. Don't you think she makes a lovely little bride?

You may notice Abby was appropriately dressed for Game Day...GO COUGS!!! Knock 'em dead in the Sweet 16!!!

Because I'm blogging instead of sleeping and I'm really going to regret it when my alarm rings in the morning, here's a couple of good Garrett moments from the weekend:

**We had just pulled up to McDonald's to play/eat and we were sitting in the car while I was giving Garrett a lecture about using the potty and not having an accident at McDonald's. He cut me off mid-sentence and said, "That sounds awesome, Mom. Now let's go play."

**After Greg finished saying a prayer last night Garrett told him in a very serious voice, "That was really nice, Dad."

Note: After reading these back to myself, they don't really sound all that funny, but the tone of his voice and the look on his face when he says grown-up things just cracks me up. I guess you probably would have to be there to appreciate it. :)

Caught on Tape

One of Abby's favorite games is "Peek-a-Boo." She especially likes to sit on the bottom step and poke her head around the corner and wait for somebody to see her. She'll giggle like crazy and we repeat the game. I tried to capture her on video this afternoon. Everything was fine until Garrett decided to join the fun.

Ouch! It actually looks worse on the video than it really was and she didn't even cry. She just got up looking a bit dazed and went right back to the step for more fun. You will notice her forehead is looking a bit red, but it didn't seem to bother her. Abby is a tough little cookie!

Despite what it might look like, Garrett was just playing and didn't really mean to body-slam her into the wall. Sometimes he forgets she's not a linebacker (yet) and plays too rough.

Garrett loved watching Abby on the camera and wanted a video of himself. He was just standing there looking awkward, so I told him to sing a song. Anybody who knows Garrett will be shocked at his song choice.

P.S. Hope you enjoyed the nice view of Garrett's nostril.

The OBB Cookbook Launch Event

Friday was such a great day! My sister won tickets for the Our Best Bites Cookbook Launch Event and we were so excited to go! (Over 800 people entered the ticket drawing and only about 30 people won, so it was a big deal in our small sphere of the world.) :)

They hosted a fun cooking show at the Orson Gygi Company in SLC. They cooked a few recipes from their new cookbook and the food was so yummy! Kate and Sara are hilarious and it was fun to meet them because I am a huge fan of their blog.

I've always loved to cook and bake, but Greg tells me my obsession with food blogs has really taken my culinary skills to a whole new level these days. Anybody want to come over for dinner? Haha... : )

Yes, we are nerds and got our picture taken with them. They're just so darling!

My aunt and cousins were so sweet to watch all four of our kids so we could go and have a good time. They are the best!!!

Happy Birthday to Garrett!

Today was the big day! Garrett has been SO excited for his birthday this year and I think it's safe to say today definitely did not disappoint for the little man! He was so much fun and loved all of it. He's been talking for weeks about the cake, candles, balloons, presents--all the good birthday stuff.

Does anybody remember how 3 years ago today my mom was driving me to the hospital at 6 AM on a Sunday morning because my water broke a week before my due date and Greg was sick in bed with the influenza??? Good times, good times! It was a little wild and not exactly how I had envisioned our whole parenthood journey would begin, but we lived to tell and having this little fellar (and his sister) in our family has been the greatest joy of my life.

Garrett could hardly sleep last night because he was so excited to open his presents, so we figured we better let him open a few before Greg left for work. We woke him up early and you can see for yourself how thrilled he was. (My camera batteries died right as he was waking up, but listen closely and you can hear him yell, "Let me sleep!")




Now prepare yourself for about a billion birthday pictures--minus my commentary. (It's late and I'm tired. Garrett's big day wore me out! I can only imagine how he must feel.)

Here's Garrett blowing out his candles--and burning his finger. Awesome.

Much, much, much thanks to everybody who helped make Garrett's birthday great. We love you all!

P.S. And a big shout-out to the lovely ladies at The Sisters' Cafe for the Tonka truck birthday cake idea. A huge hit! (It worked out perfectly because I saw this cake on their blog a few months ago and knew Garrett would love it. I told my sister about it and she said, "That's great, because I got Garrett a Tonka truck for his birthday on some after-Christmas clearance." YAY! Thanks, sisto!)