FOUR

Today was Shelby's FOURTH birthday.  I can't believe she's four!  Jeremy and I both took the day off so we could spend time with Shelby on her big day.  We started out the morning with funnel cakes with strawberries and whipped cream.  Healthy, right?  Actually, it kind of set the tone for the whole day, but hey, you only turn four once! 

Later a friend from church watched Joey for a couple hours so that we could take Shelby to lunch and spend some one-on-one time with her.  I think she really enjoyed the attention.

After gymnastics and dinner Jeremy had to leave for Scout camp.  When we got home I made Shelby a special birthday sundae (mostly as a bribe so she would be quiet while I put Joey to bed).

So as you can see it was quite a caloric day.  I just hope that Shelby had a good time. 

Right now Shelby loves gymnastics, swimming, the color purple, and Justin Bieber.  Actually, she is already getting pretty boy crazy.  After gymnastics today she told us there was a new boy in class and then giggled.  What the heck?!  Then she asked us if the scouts could come for a sleepover.  Ummm, what?!  Seriously, this girl loves hanging around all the boys.  Shelby is very smart, energetic, and inquisitive.  THe other night before bed she asked a million questions about bones, skin, and organs, and insisted on seeing a picture of lungs before she went to sleep.  Shelby can also be very sensitive.  She cries at sad parts in movies, and if we show Joey any kind of affection we have to be sure to include Shelby or she starts to cry saying we don't love her.  But we do- hopefully she'll look back one day and realize just how much!

Here is the video from her birthday party:

Feelin' Hot Hot HOT

It was so hot outside today, but that didn't stop the girls from wanting to go outside and play after church.  Shelby concentrated hard on riding her new bike.

Joey had fun in the police car cozy coup.  They both thought it was neat that as they were playing our neighbor drove up in a real police car.  (We miss our old neighbors, but I love having a cop next door!)

We were having so much fun outside that I almost forgot about the Relief Society board meeting tonight.  Thank goodness I looked at the clock! 

Party Time

Today we had Shelby's 4th birthday party.  Since she is into gymnastics right now I thought it would be a great theme.  I found a company that will come to your house and set up a mini gym.  It was so great!  Kali, the instructor, was so energetic and fun with the girls.  She set everything up basically in a circle, so that the girls would go through it like an obstacle course, and then she would switch things up so that they were doing different things on the bar or beam and mats. 

After an hour of "gym time" we had snacks, opened presents, and then had cupcakes.  It all went really smoothly.  I told Jeremy this morning it's funny how with each birthday party I get less and less anxious and plan simpler things.  I did have fun with the theme and made some cute cupcake toppers and t-shirts for the girls with the same logo I had on the invitation.  At the end of the party each of the girls got to stand on the "podium" and receive their gold medal.  I think they might have loved this part the most!  Some of the girls (Shelby!) were really hamming it up and were doing their most fabulous Miss USA waves after receiving their medals.

So I literally took 500 pictures today.  I just went through all of them and maybe 10 were not blurry.  Now, I wasn't the one taking pictures 100% of the time, but a lot of the time.  I clearly need to get cracking on that New Year's resolution of taking a class.  Of course, it didn't help that I was playing around with different settings and lenses.  Note to self:  important occasions are not the time for experimentation.  Oh well.  Here are some pics.  I will try to get some video posted soon as well.

When Shelby was going to bed tonight she looked at me and said, "Today was a great day.  You're the best, mom."

Outback Ranch

Ok, for those of you who are ranch snobs like me, here is the recipe I came up with for Outback ranch dressing (the best!):

-1 tablespoon hidden valley ranch dressing mix
-1 cup mayonnaise (NOT Miracle Whip.  You can use Fat Free Mayo though.  I used 1/2 FF and 1/2 regular)
-1/2 cup milk (If you are making this to use as a dip and not as a salad dressing I recommend using a little less milk)
-1/4 teaspoon coarse black pepper
-1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
-1/8 teaspoon paprika
-1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
-1/4 teaspoon onion powder

I actually got the base of this recipe from another site, but when I followed it exactly, it didn't taste quite right.  So then I tweaked it- added more garlic powder, added onion powder, etc., and VOILA!  Also, since I played around with adding more cayenne, I'm not sure if that measurement is EXACTLY what I used.  I would start off with 1/8 teaspoon then keeping adding more til it tastes right.  Enjoy!

"Jermy"

A post for "Jermy".  Or as Shelby also likes to call him, "Jer-maaaaaaaay!".  I hope Jeremy had a great Father's Day on Sunday.  I tried to let him sleep in a little bit, but it was hard to make breakfast and keep my eye on Joey and Shelby, so Jeremy had to come out and help wrangle them.  I made him one of his fave breakfasts- tomato gravy and biscuits with bacon.  Seriously.  I know.  It sounds kinda gross.  When I first heard "tomato gravy" I was thinking, "Who wants to eat spaghetti sauce on biscuits?".  But it's not like that.  It's delish.

Yikes.  Blurry.

On our way to church we had to prep Shelby so we didn't have another incident like on Mother's Day.  We told her that she can't always be on the front, and if she isn't it's ok, that we can still hear her.  Anyway, I was out in the hall when the kids made their way up front to sing, so I didn't see how she got up front (did she push anyone out of the way?!), but she was there and she was cute.  I think she kinda got bored halfway through though and she started tapping her friend on the shoulder.  Haha!

For dinner I made one of Jeremy's old favorites- Alice Springs chicken.  I used to make it all the time, but for some reason I hadn't made it in a really long time.  It's so easy.  I need to remember to make it more.  I also made roasted ranch potatoes.  Oh!  And I FINALLY figured out a very close recipe for Outback's ranch dressing.  It is the best ranch dressing in the world and I finally cracked the recipe.  I was so excited.  I was dipping everything in site. 

For dessert I made chocolate cake with a chocolate mousse filling and chocolate ganache on top, covered in white chocolate covered strawberries.  Yum.  Actually though it was super rich and we each only ate a tiny sliver and I sent the rest of it with him to work on Monday morning.  There was no way we could have eaten it all.

Anyway, I hope Jeremy had a good Father's Day because he deserves it.  He is so loving, caring, and hard-working.  He always wakes up to get Joey if she wakes up in the middle of the night.  He wakes up super early so that he can get to work early and come home early so that he has more time to play with the girls and help with things like cleaning up and cooking dinner (or watch the girls while I cook dinner).  Thank you Jeremy, for being the best in the world!  I love you!

Finally, sort of

After about 5 hours at the pool today I finally got Shelby to "swim" by herself with her floaties. This girl has been deathly afraid of swimming. She loves the bathtub, loves wading pools, loves the beach, even loves playing on the steps of the pool. But she wouldn't even let me take her out to the middle of the pool. She would scream and start shaking. After lots of coaxing and watching other little girls swimming she finally trusted me enough to show her she can float. After that she didn't want to leave the pool. Maybe this means I might actually get a tan this summer!

Frenulum

Saturday night Jeremy took me to the Melting Pot for my birthday (even though it was supposed to be a low key, no big celebration year!).  Minutes before the babysitter arrived Joey walked into the bathroom, slipped on some water, and BUSTED her face on the side of the bathtub.  She got a pretty bad nosebleed from it.  I felt so bad for her!  Anyway, yesterday in church it dawned on me that I didn't even check to be sure she hadn't chipped a tooth or anything.  So when she fell asleep during sacrament meeting I snuck a peek inside her mouth.  No chipped teeth.  Whew!  BUT, I did notice this weird, large piece of skin.

Did you know the piece of skin that connects your lip to your gums is called the frenulum?  Neither did I til I looked it up.  I feel bad, stupid, and like an inattentive mom that I never noticed before that both Shelby and Joey have this and that is what is causing the large gap in their teeth.  I always just assumed that because Jeremy and I both had gaps in our front teeth that that is why they did.  Anyway, so I was reading that they will likely need to have a frenectomy, or have the skin clipped a little bit. 

One site I read said that the younger they have this done, the better.  However, another site I read said it is better to wait until they are older, and the permanent teeth have already been moved (braces, retainer, etc.) and then do the frenectomy. 

Anyway, I guess we will talk to the doctor at their appointments next month and see what he says.  Here is a picture of Joey so you can get up close and personal with her gap.  Haha!  It's not the most flattering picture of her, but hey, she did a good job opening wide so I could get a shot of her teeth!

P.S.  Joey needs a haircut.

Mischievous

I thought the girls were playing nicely in the playroom while I was working today.  I was deeply involved in the account I was working on and didn't notice things had gotten quiet.  Too quiet.  The kind of quiet that can only mean one thing:  A HUGE MESS.  My concentration was quickly broken when I started to smell baby powder coming from the air vent.  It was at this moment that I realized the quietness and quickly put two and two together.  I ran to Joey's room to find that Shelby had not only poured an entire jumbo size bottle of baby powder all over herself and Joey, but topped it off with baby lotion.  Joey was so covered that I could barely see her eyes peeking out.  I quickly grabbed her and told Shelby to follow me to the bath tub.  As I tried to rinse Joey off I did a quick search on my phone to try and find the harmful effects of baby powder inhalation.  (Thankfully baby powder (most) is no longer made with Talc.  It's just cornstarch, so it might cause some eye irritation and some breathing difficulty, so you just have to watch for that.)  Poor Joey.  She has gooey white globs coming from her tear ducts that I am constantly wiping away.  She has white, powdery snot coming out of her nose.  But the sweet girl seems to not even be fazed by it. 

I have been vacuuming Joey's room for 45 minutes now and it seems to not be any cleaner than when I started.  The vacuum seems to only be blowing the powder around more.  When I finally do get everything vacuumed, I am also going to have to strip the bed and wash everything, then get a wet washcloth and wipe down EVERYTHING in the room. 

Here's what Shelby looked like:

Joey was covered in at least three times as much powder.  When I asked Shelby where her conscience was when she was doing this she replied, "He went to Lewisville.  He doesn't like me."



Baby Steps

Here is some video of Joey walking.  She took 5 or 6 steps about two weeks ago (which was more than the 2-3 she'd take every once in a while before), and we've been trying to get her on video ever since, but she'd always get camera shy.  She gets so excited now, she just wants to get up and run!

Ignore the overflowing trash in the background.  We had been cleaning and hadn't taken the trash out yet.