NOLA Fun

I.  Am.  Tired.  I had a meeting in New Orleans on Friday, so we decided to all go down as a family and spend the weekend there.  Shelby was so excited to go back and visit "the place where she was born".  We got there super late Thursday night.  While I was at work on Friday, Jeremy took the girls to lunch, then drove them around a little and showed them things like our old house, the hospital where Shelby was born, etc.  That night we took the girls to the Hornets game.  I was positive I was going to end up spending the entire game walking around with Joey outside, but she actually did great!  Both girls were really into it and would cheer and clap when everyone else did.  Shelby would even randomly yell out "Go BEE-fence!" (even when we had the ball).

Once I spotted Will Ferrell and Jason Sudeikis though, I pretty much quit paying attention to the game and spent the entire time taking pictures of them.

Saturday morning we got up early and met Jeremy's mom and headed over to the Children's Museum.  Shelby wanted to take her time at each thing, but Joey had other plans.  I swear you'd think she had ADD the way she was running from one thing to the next.  Luckily Jeremy's mom was there to help us out so one of us could always be with Joey. 

(Hey, here's Shelby 4 years ago in the same place...)

(Ok, back to present day...)

After the Children's Museum and some lunch, we took a ride on the Creole Queen.  It took us down the river to the Chalmette Battlefield and the Chalmette Monument.  (By the way Brianne, if you are reading this, you were right.  Once we got there I totally remembered going with Grandma and Grandpa.  I don't know why I didn't remember that before.) 

The ride back was so windy and cold, and Joey was so tired, so she kind of had a meltdown.  Thankfully she fell asleep and took a pretty nice nap so we could enjoy a delicious dinner at Superior Grill.  (Seriously, I think I gained five pounds from all the food we ate on this trip.)  It was great to spend a whole day doing tourist-y things with Jeremy's mom (I guess we are technically tourists now!).  It made me remember that we need to do these kinds of things in Dallas.  You always take the tourist attractions for granted, then wish you had done them once you move!

On the way home on Sunday we got to stop at Brianne's house for a couple hours.  She made us a yummy lunch and the girls got to play.  Seriously, Brianne.  Move to Texas already.

Shelby's hair is killing me.  I can't wait the "bangs" she cut grow out so we can cut her hair and even it out.

All-in-all a great trip!  Can't wait to go back again...hopefully soon!

I'm so Pinteresting

I might be slightly addicted to Pinterest.  Jeremy thinks so, anyway.  But hey, there could be worse things to be addicted to.  Besides, he gets to reap the benefits of this addiction since I mostly go on there to look for yummy recipes.  In the past few days I have made the following:

I added spinach and zucchini to this.  I also roasted the asparagus instead of blanching it.  It is almost like my favorite-but-discontinued dish from Macaroni Grill.

Avocado?  Bacon?  As Ina Garten would say, "How bad can that be?"



So much easier than regular sugar cookies.  I am going to make these again as a treat for Shelby's class.




This was soooooo good and super easy.  I am definitely making this next time we have overnight company.

I haven't pinned any of my own yummy creations yet, simply because I'm too lazy to take pictures of the process and then write out instructions.  Most of the time when I cook, I throw in a little of this, a little of that, and deliciousness is born. ;)  Maybe one day I will have the time to write it all down so I can share my recipes with the world.  But for now I am perfectly happy borrowing other people's ideas.  (My waist, on the other hand, is begging me to stop.)





Poor Shelby

She is going to kill me later in life when she finds out I posted this story for all friends and family to read.  It is just too funny NOT to.  And, just to warn you now, it's a poop story.  Sorry.  But what kind of mom would I be if I didn't have at  least ONE poop story on record?

So yesterday Shelby was having some...stomach issues.  (Which actually is odd because she has been eating more prunes lately.  Anyway...)  So after she had been in the bathroom a while, Jeremy went in to check on her.  After about five minutes he came busting out of the bathroom laughing his head off.  I asked him what happened.  He said Shelby had been trying and trying to go, to the point of getting red in the face.  Finally she said, "Ohhhh...I think Jesus should have made my booty bigger!".  Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!  The things that come out of kids' mouths. 

To Do List

I am a list maker.  If you have seen "I Don't Know How She Does It" (or read the book, or both), think about Kate Reddy.  I can identify with her.  Working mom, always feels like she is juggling a million things at once.  Kate is a list maker as well.  Like Kate, I lie awake at night and think about all the things I want and need to get done.  This can be anything from grocery lists, projects around the house, reminding myself to read something or plan a lesson, etc.  The lists can be for work or home, for immediate action, to do in the near future, or they can fall in the "wishful thinking" category.  Sometimes I have SO much on the to do list that I will randomly email Jeremy a list of things we need to do, just because I feel like if I share this list with him, he can then share the burden of trying to figure out when we are going to get it all done.

This year I didn't write down any New Year's resolutions like I did last year.  That is still on one of my to do lists.  For now I just have a bunch of things swirling around in my head of what I want to do this year.  One of the things I know I wanted and needed to do was to set a goal of cooking more.  A lot more.  With both of us working it is very easy to make an excuse for going out to eat.  We were spending an insane amount of money on food each week.  So for 2012 I made it a goal to try reeeeeaaaalllly hard to cook every night of the week, except for Saturdays- I am giving myself a break on those days.  So far I have done really well.  I have cooked every night since December 30, with the exception of last Saturday.  I am counting last Friday, since we went to dinner at some friends' house.  Hey, we didn't go out to eat at a restaurant, and I did make the salad, so that counts.  This goal has really helped me be more creative and accountable for leftovers.  I am finding creative ways to use all the leftover frozen turkey and ham from Christmas dinner and putting it to use, rather than throwing it out.  And we are finding out some yummy recipes- like copycat chicken wonton tacos from Applebees.  Mmmmm. 

Another item on my to do list is to potty train Joey.  I really was not planning on doing this so soon.  I figured I would wait at least until she 2 and then start, but I think she has other plans.  Shelby never went through a phase of taking off her diaper, but Joey loves her naked booty cheeks to flap in the wind.  She also doesn't love sitting in a wet diaper.  I found that whenever she would pull her diaper off, 99% of the time she would have just wet it.  So, every time she took her diaper off I started sitting her on the potty.  At first she would just push and toot, then laugh, grab some toilet paper and wipe, and then flush.  She was so proud of herself.  Then I started trying to get her to sit on the potty for longer.  I would sing a couple songs wither her.  Still nothing.  Then the other day, it worked.  On Thursday she peed on the potty!  Twice!  Shelby and I both made a huge deal out of it and you could tell Joey was so excited.  I thought Friday would be even better, but she didn't do it at all.  I haven't really tried since then.  So, potty training is on the to do list.  I just have to gear myself up for it a little bit.  It is a very time demanding task.  I think I'm also sticking it at the bottom of my list because I don't want Joey to grow up.  How is she almost 2?! 

Another item on our to do list is reading the scriptures more.  I think this one is permanently etched onto the list.  But we are doing really well with it right now.  We had the "My First" scripture board books to read to the girls, but since Shelby is a bit older now, we just bumped up to the readers.  I remember reading these as a kid and loving all the pictures.  Shelby loves these too and is really paying attention to the stories.  She is very smart and asks great questions, and it is really great to see her testimony building and growing!

Well, time to go tackle more on my lists...

Happy New Year!

In the 11 and 1/2 years we've been married, we have celebrated (like actually been with friends and celebrated) New Year's Eve maybe twice.  One year we were actually in Walmart when it turned midnight.  Yep, we were grocery shopping.  We are so boring.  We decided to remedy that this year and invite some friends over to play games and hang out.  We had such a fun night! 

We started off with some yuuuuuuuuuuuumy food. I had to emphasize that because it was truly delicious. Cheese fondue, fried everything fondue, chocolate fondue...my mouth is watering just thinking about it. On top of that there was spinach and artichoke dip, homemade salsa, and 7 layer dip. I think my #1 resolution is going to have to be losing all the weight I gained just in this one night!



Joey loves spinach and artichoke dip.  She could eat her weight in it.

 

After food we had a little dance party with the kids.  We let them stay up a little later than normal, but at about 8:30 we had a countdown for them, complete with a balloon drop.  They loved it!

I was the one who pulled the string for the balloons to drop, so I don't have pics of when it happened.  I'll have to get them from Julie.  It was so cute!

After the balloon drop the kids toasted with Shirley Temples and wished each other a happy new year.  After that it was off to bed! 

After the kids were in bed it was time for the adults to have their own little dance party.  We played Just Dance on the Wii for a bit.  Everyone busted out their best moves.  I pretty much suck because I never look at the right thing.  Haha!

After that we played Cuponk.  It is basically beer pong without the alcohol.  So fun.  There were some hard tricks in there.  I think one of the most impressive had to have been Katie bouncing the ball down three stairs and landing it in the cup.  Skills.

We had so much fun ringing in the New Year with friends.  I am excited for 2012.  I think good things are in store for us.  I was thinking about my resolutions for 2011.  While I might not have been able to accomplish everything I wanted to, I definitely learned a lot and have grown as a person.  Hoping for more of that in 2012!  Happy New Year!