Two Front Teeth

I finally got some pictures of Sophie's new teeth. I caught her in the perfect mood: just after lunch and playing peek-a-boo with a piece of paper.

Cake #3

I really wasn't looking forward to going to class last night. No, wait, I wasn't looking forward to making another cake and making three batches of that nasty Crisco icing. (I think that was the consensus among all of us, too.) We all had fun, but are relieved that the class is over.

I'm pretty happy with my cake, though. I just used a yellow cake mix, added a little butter flavoring, then put leftover chocolate frosting from last week in the middle. Oh, and sliced fresh strawberries. I'll show you the inside when I cut it. Or when Steve cuts it. I can't handle that right now.

The smell of that icing makes my stomach do somersaults. I didn't even want to lift the cover off of this thing.


I hope I'm not ruined for the rest of my life because I did this while I was pregnant.

Cake #2 and a Lazy Saturday

Speaking of lazy, I didn't even post my cake from Monday's class. Actually I forgot. It's hard to remember things with prego brains.

Here it is:

I went with a nice, safe, chocolate cake. (The Phillips Chocolate Cake recipe -- it's the best.) No experiments this time.

The flowers look OK if you don't see the picture of what they're supposed to look like. :)

So, today we had good intentions of going to the beach, but we got a late start (I really needed a nap) and decided to go to the park with some friends instead. We thought there was going to be an area for kids to play in the water, but the water wasn't turned on. At least we got to be outside. And Sophie got to wear her suit again without getting it wet.

After we got home, washed all the sand off of Sophie and put her down for a nap, we hung out in our skibbies the rest of the day.

Baby #2 Details

Thanks for all the well wishes! And even for the morning sickness sympathy. I must confess, though, it's not that bad. I never threw up with Sophie, and I haven't thrown up yet with this one. I hate telling people that (especially people who have really bad morning sickness) because it makes me feel guilty for not being sick. I guess I just luck out in that department. So however that little ticker says that I'm feeling may or may not be accurate because I don't write those little comments. Just smile because they're funny. If you wish to redirect your pity to my prematurely protruding abdomen, you're more than welcome.

As far as the details:

Due date? Around the first week in December

How I'm feeling? Meh. I've lost my appetite and feel a little sick to my stomach, but like I said, I don't have it as bad as some. I'm also really, really tired.

Planned? Um, not really. It was sort of a surprise, but I think that when you're not preventing very seriously, you're pretty much planning. We're excited though and feel like it's time for round two.

Boy? Girl? I think it's another girl. I don't know, I have this gut feeling again like I did with Sophie. For financial and spacial reasons, I really want it to be a girl. I don't want to have to buy duplicates of everything I already have just so it can be blue. We decided not to find out what it is, though.

Age difference with Sophie? 19 months apart. (Same as Asher and Chilton Baby #2!) To be honest, I thought people who had their babies less than two years apart were nuts. Now that it's happening to me, I still think I'm a little nuts, but I'm also happy that Sophie will have someone close to her age to play with. We were spread out in four-year intervals in my family, which is OK, too, but I always wondered what it would have been like to have a sibling closer in age.

Anything else? Yes. I am most definitely not gaining 60 pounds again like last time.

Big Changes

I think I've already mentioned that I'm going to be an aunt this year. My brother Devin and his wife Andrea are expecting a baby boy in August.

This picture has some pretty typical aspects of our childhood: Dad doing balancing acts with the baby and me acting stupid, trying to draw attention to myself.

I found out this week that my little sister Hilary, although it's not "official" yet, will be getting married in September. She's the last one of our little sibling trio. She's also 19. The rest of the family still thinks she's about 6, so it has been strange getting used to the idea of her as a married woman.

Oh yes, the infamous orange curtains. Those were the ones that got a giant splash of chocolate milk courtesy of my brother.

I was digging around in some old pictures yesterday thinking about Hillie getting married and Devin expecting their first baby, and I got a little teary-eyed. That shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who knows me well, but given the fact that I'm pregnant (yes, you heard me right), it only makes things worse.

My favorite parts of this picture are my dad's full head of hair and acid-wash jeans, my mom's extra big hair, and the Easter dress my mom made for me. (I think she made that one) Isn't it hot? Especially with that scab on my knee.


Twenty years makes a big difference, huh?

Teething and Running

One of Sophie's front teeth came in a few days ago. Because she's wiggly and won't let me near her mouth unless I have food, it's really hard to get a picture of her teeth. So, we opted for a video. Steve's really good at making her laugh, so hopefully you can see the little munchers.

This one is of her walking around outside. Steve likes to get her going fast. She loves it.

Pics in a Minute

I just told my mom I was going to post more pics of Sophie, but I noticed a friend of mine had taken a typing test and posted it to her blog. I can't pass up a typing test.

95 words

I didn't miss any words, but I also backspaced a few times to correct myself. I think that would have lowered my score on any other typing test. I liked this one. :)

Pool Party

It was 80 degrees and sunny last Saturday. I'm still in awe at the weather here.

Our neighbors had a little pool set up for their 16-month-old son and invited Sophie to come out and play. The pool is adorable, but since the hose needed to run continually in order to keep the sides inflated, the water was ice cold. Sophie wasn't a fan of it at first, but she eventually dipped her toes in on her own.

"That boy is crazy. How can he sit in this freezing cold water?"


She's not a fan of the grass on her bare legs, either.

This video looks a little "dreamy". We cleaned the lens off afterwards.

Dolled Up in Dots

Recognize this dress, mom?

Cake #1

I wasn't sure where to post this entry, so I may just post it on both blogs.

Like I said before, I'm in a cake decorating class. Last night was the first class that we brought cakes to decorate. Everyone's turned out darling. Here's mine:

I added this shot so you can see how smooth my corners are. A-mazing.

I'll give you one guess at the flavor of the cake. Tangerine? Correct. What else would you put on a tangerine cake than a giant tangerine made of frosting? My creativity knows no bounds.

Overall I was content with the outside. The cake itself is a different story. I tried out Paula Deen's Fresh Tangerine Cake recipe. Normally you can't go wrong with Paula. I tried to do my thighs a favor and replace the oil with applesauce. Usually you can't even tell the difference. Well, my poor cake has the consistency of banana bread. That's usually OK, but I tasted it today and it's really weird. Not gross, just. . . weird. I'm not sure if it was the applesauce or something else I unknowingly did. Whatever it was, I don't think I've messed up a cake this badly before.

On the bright side, the cream cheese tangerine frosting that went with it is really good. I have a lot of faith in this recipe, so I'm going to post it to my recipe blog.

Lesson learned: When Paula puts fat in something, you best not be messin' with it.

Like Mother Like Daughter

One of Sophie's favorite things to do lately is to pull herself up to the piano and play. She loves to sit on the bench and bang around for a few minutes. Hopefully this is an inkling of a future interest. :) On a side note, her hair usually looks orphan-like now because she pulls out anything I put in there.

I love this picture. It makes me want to kiss her face off.

We're still growing into a few pants.

Getting the right fingers on the right notes is tricky sometimes.

She reads music too! Brilliant!


If you watch the whole clip (about 2 min 15 sec) here are a few cute things to watch for:

1. The way her fingers play the keys, especially her pointer finger.
2. Near the beginning she turns the metronome on and then looks around because she can't figure out where the sound is coming from.
3. Toward the end she rests her head on the keys. I thought that was really cute.

FYI

There is no Crisco at Costco. Ha . . . Crisco, Costco, Crisco, Costco.

There is powdered sugar, but you have to buy 50 lbs of it. That surprised me, but it shouldn't have.

The purchase that made the trip to Costco worthwhile was a package of 44 uncooked tortillas for under $7. I just made a quesadilla with a couple and, man . . . they're good. (And trans-fat free.)

Tagged

So, I typically ignore it when people tag me, but for some reason I decided to do this one. I won't tag anyone else, though. No pressure. :)

Ten Years Ago
I was 17 and almost graduated from high school. I even pulled out my journal to find out exactly what was going on because, honestly, I had no idea. I found an entry from April 4, 1998. Apparently I had just gone to a high school musical ("Once Upon a Mattress", which I don't have the faintest recollection of) with my friend Shea. I'd found out that I'd gotten a $1000 scholarship to Ricks College and a bunch of my friends and I had already set up housing in Rexburg. (Yes, that was when it was still called Ricks.) I'd been looking for a job and hadn't found one yet. And I was getting ready to go to Seattle for a journalism conference the following week.

Five Things on the To-Do List

1. Go go Costco and get a commercial-sized tub of Crisco (Gross, I know, but I'm in a cake decorating class and we'll need to bring a cake and a big bowl of frosting every week.)

2. Wash Sophie's bibs

3. Get my sewing machine fixed

4. Finish decorating Sophie's room
5. Vacuum

Three Bad Habits

1. Spending too much time online

2. Biting the inside of my cheek/lips

3. Not taking very good care of my fingernails or toenails

Places I've Lived

Idaho Falls and Rexburg, ID
Logan and Provo, UT
Moscow, Russia
Graz and Vienna, Austria
San Leandro, CA

What I would do if I Suddenly Became a Millionaire

1. Finish putting Steve through school and set up his practice when he gets done
2. Go to all the places I've always wanted to go with Steve (The list is pretty long.)

3. Invest whatever's left after I buy a house (with a custom kitchen), a car, a new wardrobe and buy Steve this hypoallergenic cat he's always wanted. It'll stay outside, though.

Five Things you Probably Don't Know About Me

This is going to be hard because I'm a pretty open person and tell everyone just about everything about me...
1. I'm a very self-conscious person. Especially about my weight. It drives me crazy that I'm not the size I was when Steve was deployed, which is about 25 lbs lighter.
2. Before Steve and I started dating, I made a big list of what I wanted in a husband. I even included superficial things like height, hair, and eye color. Steve matches about 95% of my list.
3. When I eat a bag of M&M's or Skittles, I separate them into colors first. Then I form columns, in rainbow order, and eat some until all the columns are even. Then I eat one of each color until they're gone.
4. It may not look like it, but my kitchen is very organized. I put the same things back in the same places every time. And I always keep my measuring cups nestled together.
5. I've kept a journal since I was 8, and I've never gone longer than 3-4 months without writing.

Back to the Office

Psh, no. I'm not getting a job.

Tomorrow is an important day. First it's my Grandma's birthday. Happy 68th Grandma! (She's young, huh?) Second, it's the day I've been waiting for since the writers strike began. Having to wait months and months for another episode of The Office has been torture. It's finally on tomorrow. It's on at nine if anyone wants to drop by and watch it with us.

In honor of its return, I took a quiz:

Of course I'm most like Pam. Every other female on that show is nuts. If you want to take the quiz, here's the link. The questions are pretty funny if you watch the show a lot.

I really like Dwight's blog. I keep the link to his over on the right. Creed's blog is funny, but mostly weird. He's a strange man.

Stowaway

This is a page in a quiet book that my grandma had from when we were little. I wanted to share it with you because you may not have heard this version of Noah's Ark.

Here we have Noah's Ark, complete with a zip-tight entrance.


A sheep. A tiger. (How did they keep them from hunting each other when they released all the animals?)


A pig, of course. And that hot pink blob on the left is a cat-shaped eraser. My weren't we creative?


Don't forget the yak!


Hmm. Probably my brother's idea.

Feeding Time at the Zoo

I have three reasons for posting this video.

1. To show you how excited Sophie gets over food. Particularly over a Chicken Tortilla Stew I made last night and just posted to my recipe blog. No matter what I give her to eat, she's always more interested in what we're eating. I've started giving her food right off my plate, which she loves. Even food that's slightly spicy. Her second tooth popped up yesterday. You'd think she has a mouth full of molars with the way she chews up food.

2. To let you hear her growl if you haven't already. Yes, Sophie growls. She started doing it around the time we moved here. She mostly does it when she's excited or anxious for something. Or while she's climbing stairs. It surprises most people who haven't heard it before. (Especially during church.) They expect dainty little sounds to come out of a dainty little girl, not ferocious animal ones.

3. To show you that Sophie finally learned to clap. She does it on command when we start saying "Pat-a-cake..." My grandma taught her that while we were at their house on Tuesday.