Quality Mommy Daughter Time

Bart was away this weekend at the Utah Art Education Association Conference, so Addison and I got lots of quality mommy daughter time. This created many memorable moments, but my personal favorite was when we were making cookies today. Addison turned to me and said, "Mom, did you know that Shaggy Dog is coming soon to a theater near you?"

Tires & Beef

So at a routine oil change earlier this week my mechanic informed me that my front alignment was off and had worn my tires nearly to the rims...or whatever the mechanical term is for, "you need to replace these tires ASAP before you have a blow out." So he rotated the worn tires to the back of the car (better to have a blow out on a non-steering tire) and sent me of to Les Schwab.

I wasn't very happy at the prospect of spending lots of money on tires, but the image of my car spinning around in circles from a blown out tire on the freeway with my two girls in the back seat kicked my hiney into gear. (I realize this is unlikely to actually happen. I just have an over active imagination that likes to turn worst case scenarios into most likely scenarios.)

The bright side is that Les Schwab is now having their free beef thing now where you get free beef with your tires. When I heard the commercials I pictured Les Schwab's normally empty and pristine tire show case filled with freezers full of beautiful pot roasts, prime rib, and steaks. (My over active imagination also likes to imagine unrealistically good scenarios from time to time as well). Unfortunately "free beef" refers to beef jerky and summer sausage. I was quite disappointed (I had tentatively planned on rib eye steaks on Sunday).

Bart is away for the weekend, so last night I was watching TV and got a case of the munchies. I saw the box of "free beef" and figured I'd try the jerky. It was tasty, but I also noticed mustard in the package. The mustard intrigued me. Why mustard? Do people eat mustard with jerky and summer sausage? I had never heard of such a thing. Curious, I opened the mustard and dipped a piece of jerky into the mustard. I have to say, this mustard is the BEST mustard I have ever had. It's INCREADIBLE.

Suddenly my trip to the tire store was totally worth it....now I just have to figure out where I can get the mustard by itself. I can't exactly afford tires every time I want more mustard. Does anyone know where I can get this stuff? I haven't been to the grocery store since I discovered it, so it may just be right there, front and center in the condiments isle, but if not and you know where I can get it, please, let me know.

P.S. Beef Jerky tastes pretty good with mustard.
P.P.S. Maybe I shouldn't have posted this...the mustard and jerky may be gone before Bart gets home. Without this post, he would never know they ever existed.
P.P.P.S. Do you have to refrigerate summer sausage after opening it, or is it like jerky?

Valentine's Weekend

Bart's family came up for a Valentine's weekend full of celebrations. We had baby showers for my two beautiful sister-in-laws (or is it sisters-in-law) who are both due in April.

And to celebrate this little guy's first birthday:

Doesn't he have the most beautiful eyes?!?

A good time was had by all :o) And in case you were wondering, my daughter's hair really is uncontrollable. If there is anyone who believes they have the secret knowledge to taming this mess, please, I am VERY open to ANY advice or suggestions!
For Valentine's day itself, I made these bookmarks for immediate family. (Sam, Holly, Charles, Heather, and Geneava....I forgot to bring them up to the party, so I'll either mail them, or bring them to Moab for the race...sorry!) If you are a sibling and didn't get one (other than the aforementioned siblings) let me know because I mailed them to you!

I made presents for the girls this year. For Hannah I made this cute little hat. She wore it to the grocery store the other day and three people stopped me to tell me how cute my baby was, and two commented on the hat! I must confess, I'm pretty proud of it. I didn't even use a pattern, but I got the idea here.

For Addison, I made these slippers. My mom gave her slippers for Christmas 2008 that she absolutely loves. They were hidden in her closet for a while, and when she pulled them out in January, and tried to put them on, she said, "Mom! Something's wrong." They were too small! My determined girl still managed to slip her feet inside them, but I figured I had better get her an alternative. This was the solution.

Bart had been giving me a hard time for a while because I couldn't remember what I did with his journal when I was unpacking from California, so I got him a new journal. Ironically I found the old journal before Valentine's day, but after I had purchased the new one. Oh well, he was happy I found it.

I also made him this delicious dinner...which we actually had on Monday instead of Sunday because I didn't have enough for everyone who was staying with us Sunday.

Beef Tenderloin

Cranberry, Poppy Seed Salad

(And mashed potatoes that I forgot to get a picture of)

And molten chocolate cake.
(Bart and I were most excited for this one...it was a recipe I had never tried before. Unfortunately, it was a disappointment. It was good, just not quite what we were expecting...oh well.)

And this is one of the 100 beautiful blooms in a bouquet Bart got me. I love them!

It was a lovely Valentine's Day.

Sneak peek

These brownies

Were put into these paper bags

and sent off with Addison to give to her friends in Pre-school.

(I got the idea here)

And these cookies were sent to my sister in the MTC.

I got the recipe from Better Homes and Gardens.

More about our Valentine's day weekend to come...

Eye Contact

Maybe if I stare at her real hard, she won't notice I'm eating a leaf.

Life Lessons

So today Bart thought it would be a good idea to teach Addison how to dial 911 in case of an emergency. The conversation went something like this:

Bart: Addison, if you ever need help, you dial 911.

Addison: Yeah, like if there's a dragon and he lights our house on fire!

Bart: Well, dragons aren't real, but like if mommy or daddy fall down and don't get up, that's when you call 911.

Addison: Yeah, and like I need a friend to play with.

Bart:::::reflective pause::::::

Maybe we introduced this topic too soon.

Prepare to be Amazed!

Seriously, this is amazing, you have to watch this video

And in the spirit of honesty, this probably reflects more on her memorization skills than her spatial skills because she always wants me to play this puzzle with her.

Mudslides Destroy Homes In La Canada Flintridge

So remember how there were fires burning the hills behind my parents' house last August. Well, those fires destroyed all the vegetation that was holding the hillside in place. They've been getting tons of rain, so now they're getting terrible mudslides.

One of the members of their stake presidency called them this morning to make sure everyone in their ward was okay. And then later my parents saw his house on the news! Mud had come in one side and out the other early this morning. He must have been calling from a remote location.

So far my parents' house is okay, but the streets are literally rivers. My mom was taking my sister to take the ACT and they had to cross Oceanview to get her friend that they were giving a ride to. Most of the pictures of cars crashed or on top of other cars are from Oceanview. As they got to the college where they were taking it, there was an 18 inch river in front of the school. My mom thought, "I can't let them walk through this, they'll be swept away." So she had to drive through it! Prayers for everyone back in my hometown would be appreciated. You can see some pictures here. Stupid arsonists.

She's Eating!

Bart and I love to cook. And we love to try new recipes. We have never really adapted our menus to specifically include kid friendly food. And we don't really want to.

So whenever we eat, we make Addison at least taste what we're having. We tell her that if she doesn't like it, we'll get her something else, but she has to at least taste it. This has really been a struggle at times. Sometimes she really doesn't want to taste it. Sometimes she'll take a bite and then refuse to swallow until we give in and let her spit it out. We have done our best to not make it a bad experience, but it really can be frustrating at times. And sometimes it is a pain to warm up a hot dog, or chicken nuggets, or macaroni and cheese.

However, I think all our patience has finally paid off. We have not had to get Addison anything else to eat in over a week. She has eaten everything we've eaten. These are some of the things we've had:

Pork Chops Primavera

Southwestern Pinto Bean and Pork Stew

Sweet Potato and black bean burritos

Roast

Sloppy Joes

Sweet Corn Tamales and pulled pork salad

LOL, now that I write that out,we've had a lot of pork. But seriously, she's eaten it all! I'll admit, we had to do a lot of encouraging on the sweet potato and black bean burritos, but she ate them. And we've had a couple nights of leftovers and she's eaten them again! It's been AWESOME! My little girl is eating like an adult. It's great.

Hannah's dietary preference is also expanding. She now likes peas, pumpkin, butternut squash, rice cereal, and bananas. Okay, so the peas are debatable. She liked them when I first gave them to her, but since then we have not had a lot of success. I think it's the texture. We haven't bought any baby food (except the rice cereal). I've made them all, and when I did the peas I didn't blend it as well as the others, so there are some chunks in it. And since we've given her other things, she no longer will eat rice cereal unless it's mixed with something else, but we get it down her.

I plan on adding sweet potatoes and carrots to that repertoire with in the next few weeks. After that, maybe chicken cordon bleu. ;o)