Grand Opening!

Today is the big day! Announcing the Grand Opening of Chic Made! My new Etsy shop is open.



Eventually we'll be switching over to our own website, chicmade.com, but for now I've opened this Etsy shop to sell my, and my talented friends, handmade things. So cruise on over to chicmade.etsy.com and see the new arrivals. There's not a lot of inventory yet, due to camera problems, but check back soon and you'll see even more beautiful, handmade things. Bookmark us! Big things are to come from Chic Made.

And if you are a talented Chic who's interested in selling something on Chic Made, just let me know! We're always looking for a new talented chic to join the ranks.

Also, a big shout-out to the talented Mau Studio's who designed the great Chic Made banner you see above. A very talented (and patient) chic.

When Naomi gets bored OR cross-dressing

We spent the morning hiding, finding, and re-hiding the plastic Easter eggs. It kept the kids busy for a while, but then Naomi started to get bored... you can see the result for yourself.

Cute, yes. But I'm afraid both boys may need therapy later. Especially since their mother insists on posting these kinds of pictures on the world-wide-web.

Easter Weekend

We had friends over to decorate eggs with us on Saturday night, and friends and family over for a yummy dinner on Sunday. And, of course, the children looked great for church (especially thanks to the dress Grandma Ashurst made for Naomi).

Instructional Exercise Ball Video

Or rather - maybe it's a how-NOT-to-Exercise video. Either way, the kids decided to help me out with my push-ups on the ball.

It actually was a pretty good ab exercise since it was not easy keeping my balance with wiggly kids crawling all over me.

Winter vs Spring: NOW ON PAY-PER-VIEW!

The battle is on! Is it Spring or Winter? Do you need a coat, a jacket, or short sleeves? Is it rainy but warm or rainy and cold? Should we have soup for dinner or a cold pasta salad?

This time of year is so exciting. All the buds are popping out on the trees, flowers are blooming, grass is turning green again, Summer is just around the corner. But is it Spring today, or really pretty Wintry? It seems it changes from minute to minute. On the Spring days we go outside and play, and then I come back inside and am all motivated to clean out this room, or organize that closet. I am all excited to start gardening and see if I can improve our already beautiful landscaping. ... And then there's a cold, rainy, windy, wintry day. Like today. And I feel sad and mopey. I haven't done a dish all day - which means the sink is full. I haven't done a load of laundry all day - which means there's stuff in the washer starting to stink. I haven't planned dinner - which means we'll have a frozen pizza or plain pasta for dinner. Blah.

I know I shouldn't let little things like the weather affect me - and it doesn't really. It's just an excuse, I guess. Or lack of a motivator, maybe. What other things do we let derail our days? As a mother, particularly a stay-at-home mother, it's hard to maintain a strong level of self-discipline every day. Some days I do the laundry, the dishes, play with the kids, and organize a closet all in one day - which I conside a great success. Some days I consider it a success that I unloaded the dishwasher. I imagine it's the same for people at work out of the home, too - you aren't super-productive and efficient every day. So what do you do to get yourself out of a rut? What motivators work for you and what downers drag you into non-productivity? Share with me. Maybe it'll motivate me to make something real for dinner today. Or at least tomorrow.

*****UPDATE 3 hours later*****

I thought I'd post these pictures as proof that I did eventually get off my duff and make a nice dinner and do some laundry. Apparently, one of the things that motivates me is blogging about how unmotivated I am.

**notice the great little table in my laundry room - Richard just hung that for me.**

Diapers for lunch

Or at least Isaiah thinks so. See the attached video.

Click on the video to see it.

Wordless Weekend

All weekend long I snapped pictures as often as I remembered to prepare for a post called "Wordless Weekend" where I would post all pictures and not say a word. This morning as I go to create that post I think maybe I'll need a few words. So how about we call it a "Few Words Weekend". No long stories - just basic background info for most of the pictures. It was a fun weekend.

Isaiah at Grandma Worth's birthday party

Isaiah, fostering his love of trucks, much to Asher's chagrin.

Naomi, with the first of many owies now that we are playing outside in the Spring weather

Isaiah fell asleep on the middle of the floor. What kind of terrible mother lets her child do that? Put the poor kid to bed!

Isaiah helping Mom with the laundry

Grant and the birthday girl, Margaret, at her Sunday night dinner/birthday party.

Spring is arriving in our yard.

Naomi playing computer games. She can scroll up and down, point, click, drag, and type.

Asher fostering his love of fashion - just kidding. He's just obsessed with wearing Naomi's shoes.

Naomi modeling her Easter dress made by Grandma Ashurst.

The family bed

I've always assumed that the term "the family bed" came from way back when there was only one bed in a house and everybody slept in it. Or, that could be me totally making stuff up. But I do know that what it means now-a-days is when all the kids climb in with Mom and Dad. For that reason, I've always thought "the family bed" was a bad thing - for me anyway. I'm not a fan of sleeping with my babies usually. Their breathing keeps me up, their twitching keeps me up, not having enough room keeps me up. Occasionally Naomi comes and climbs into bed with me about 20 minutes before it's time to wake up. And occasionally Isaiah wakes up too early and I lay him on my chest in bed and try to sleep a little more.

Today - both of those "occasionally"'s happened at the same time. Naomi climbed into bed with me around 6am and shortly thereafter, Isaiah started fussing a little so he joined us. Pretty soon I was a Mommy Sandwich between Naomi and Isaiah (Richard had vacated the bed already). And I was surprised to find that I was enjoying myself! Nobody was too twitchy or snortey and since Richard wasn't there too, there was plenty of room. I'm not saying I'd like to exchange sleeping with Richard for sleeping with my kids - but "occasionally" it's nice to get such sweet cuddles from such sweet kids. Maybe we should make Saturday morning "the family bed" morning or something. Or maybe we'll just leave "occasionally" as it is.



I haven't posted a good picture of my sweet kids in a while, so here they are this morning piled around Isaiah as he has his morning bottle. Can you feel the love that I have for them? Because I feel like it's beaming all over the place this morning.

What are your feelings on "the family bed"? Do your kids sleep with you ever? Why or why not?

Flowers for all!

Don't forget to sign up for the Springy Swap today if you want some great flowers from a bloggy friend.

Tales from Sunday School

I was teaching the 10 year olds in Sunday School today. I was filling in at the last minute, so we were playing hangman with a twist. The twist was that to guess a letter they had to tell me a word from the scriptures that started with that letter and what that word meant. So, for example, to guess the letter "a" they had to supply me with a word like "atonement" and a semi-definition like "why Jesus died for us". By the end of the class they had gotten smart and had opened their scriptures and starting using the index to find words (I wouldn't accept any repeats).

So here's the scene:

boy: "U!"
me: Ok, but you have to give me a word that starts with "u".
boy: (looking in his scriptures) uncircumc1sed!
me: (hesitantly) OK, but what does it mean?
boy: (reading some passage from scriptures)
me: (accepting his lame answer because I don't want to go there) OK, so basically that means they considered those people unworthy. It was kind of a mean thing to say.
boy: (to kid next to him) Ha, ha! You're uncircumc1sed!
me : Ahhhhmmmm. I don't think that's a word you want to be using on a regular basis.
OK - who else wants to guess a letter?

Maybe I should call his Mom and let her know what went on incase he starts calling his siblings "uncircumc1sed dorks" or something and then says he learned about that in Sunday School from Sister Worth.

*in case you were wondering why I put the "1" into that word - it's so that I don't get hits from search engines when somebody types that word in.*

Commentary by Asher

I've think I've mentioned before that Asher loves the movie Toy Story (and Toy Story 2). This evening as he was watching it he was giving some great commentary. A blow by blow report, really, in his sweet little language. I tried to catch it on camera, and I didn't catch the best of it, but I did catch some good stuff. Maybe he has a future as a film critic. I think he really captures the emotion the characters are feeling.
(By way of explanation, he is sitting at the top of our slide which we brought inside today to get rid of some of the rainy-day blues.)

*anyone viewing this through blogs.theworths.org will need to come to my blog to see the video*

***Don't forget to sign up for our Springy Swap in the previous post if you want to receive a fun new Spring Flower of some sort.***

A Springy swap

I just heard about a fun new aspect of blogs: swaps. So naturally, I want to try one. Here's how it works, I declare what item(s) we're going to swap. If you're interested in swapping you leave a comment with your name and a way to contact you if I don't already have your snail mail address. You make/buy your items. I send you the name and address of the person you are assigned to in the swap. You send your thing to them. You randomly receive something from the person assigned to you. Doesn't that sound like fun? Some of the swaps are pretty pricey but I'll keep mine low and easy to start off with and see how much interest we get.

Let's swap flowers. Springy flowers. Of whatever variety you want. It could be a flower pin, or a silk flower arrangement, or fresh flowers, or a painted flower... you get the idea. Just some springy flowers. Handmade, store bought, or in between (although I think homemade would be most fun). Maximum value of $10 and keep in mind that you also have to pay to ship it.

We can only do this if enough people are interested so let me know if you're in. I'll leave the comments and joining in the swap open until the evening of Monday, March 10. At that point I'll assess if we have enough people and assign you someone to send yours to if we do. You'll have a week to get your swap item together and in the mail. That way you should receive your pretty springy flowers just before Easter. Doesn't it sound like fun to have a new Easter/Spring decoration or something? Come on, admit it, it sounds like fun. Join!

Definitions

We define people by a lot of different things: what they do, what their name is, where they come from, how much money they have, etc. For example, I was probably defined the following ways today by people I came into contact with: wife, mother, Visiting Teaching Supervisor, driver of blue Corolla, patient in Dr.'s office, friend, customer in restaurant, customer in store, daughter-in-law, driver of gold minivan, impatient person on phone. I'm probably missing a few.

I feel like I am most often defined as "mother". I am proud of that. I love to be defined as "mother" or even "good mother", "patient mother", "hip mother". But today I got to take a break from being defined as "mother" and play other roles. I had a Dr. appointment so the kids went to Grandma Worth's. After the Dr. appointment I went to lunch with my girlfriend. For all the people in that restaurant knew, I had no children. Maybe we were on our lunch break from work. Maybe I'm independently wealthy. I was just a little bit mysterious! I wasn't immediately definable by the pack of kids I was carrying around. It felt nice. I love being a "mother" - but sometimes it's good to be incognito.

The Movie Quotes Quiz Answers

I had no idea that would be such a difficult quiz for so many! All of those are movies that I've watched frequently enough to have known right off the top of my head. But clearly not everyone watches the same movies as me.

As for a winner (Worth, Ashurst or Other) I think the prize goes to ... Others. Graffiti and Katz take the glory. Worth's and Ashurst's pretty much tied since one person from each group got 7 or 8 right. Without further ado, here are the quotes again with their movie titles following:

1. "Oh, great! Now I have guilt!" - Toy Story

2. "I create feelings in others that they themselves don't understand." - Cars

3. "I'm pretty sure there's a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking. And I plan on finding out what that is. " - Zoolander

4. "And last week I saw Cameron Diaz at Fred Segal, and I talked her out of buying this truly heinous angora sweater. Whoever said orange was the new pink was seriously disturbed." - Legally Blonde

5. "I feel like such a heifer. I had two bowls of Special K, 3 pieces of turkey bacon, a handful of popcorn, 5 peanut butter M&M's and like 3 pieces of licorice. " - Clueless

6. "You know, it's dangerous for you to be here in the frozen food section. Because you could melt all this stuff." - My Blue Heaven

7. "Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should." - Jurassic Park

8. "Ya ship's all banged up! " - Independence Day

9. "You know what else everybody likes? Parfaits. Have you ever met a person, you say, "Let's get some parfait," they say, "No, I don't like no parfait"? " - Shrek

10. "Hang the code, and hang the rules. They're more like guidelines anyway." - Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

If this quiz has inspired you to watch any movies - I highly recommend My Blue Heaven and Zoolander as truly funny. Legally Blonde and Clueless are great chic flicks. Jurassic Park, Independence Day and Pirates of the Carribean have some great action. Shrek, Cars and Toys I wouldn't wish on anyone at this point since I've watched all of them WAY too frequently thanks to the kids.

Thanks for playing, guys. It was fun.

quoting movies

My family (as in my siblings, parents and I) watch movies when we get together as a form of bonding. It's either that, or sitting around chatting. We're not like the Worth's who love to play games or plan big events. Since we watch, and love, so many movies, most of us quote movies frequently. I'd say one of the most commonly quoted movies for our family is "My Blue Heaven". If you haven't seen it, you definitely should. It's hysterical. And very quotable.

What made me start thinking about quoting movies is that Asher just quoted a movie to me. He'll be 2 next month and he already quotes movies. He definitely is living up to his name (get it? The whole Asher - Ashurst connection?) We were watching Toy Story and right when Sid straps a rocket onto Buzz and then is about to go outside to blow him up it starts to thunder and rain. At this point, Asher said "Oh, man!" and then 1/2 a second later Sid says "Oh, man!" in the movie. I couldn't believe it! He's either a genius - or he watches too much TV. Is it possibly both?

Anyway - for your entertainment, here is a Movie Quotes Quiz. Let's see who does better - Ashurst's, Worth's, or the few other random visitors who read my blog (whom I love - thanks for reading guys!).

1. "Oh, great! Now I have guilt!"

2. "I create feelings in others that they themselves don't understand."

3. "I'm pretty sure there's a lot more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking. And I plan on finding out what that is. "

4. "And last week I saw Cameron Diaz at Fred Segal, and I talked her out of buying this truly heinous angora sweater. Whoever said orange was the new pink was seriously disturbed."

5. "I feel like such a heifer. I had two bowls of Special K, 3 pieces of turkey bacon, a handful of popcorn, 5 peanut butter M&M's and like 3 pieces of licorice. "

6. "You know, it's dangerous for you to be here in the frozen food section. Because you could melt all this stuff."

7. "Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

8. "Ya ship's all banged up! "

9. "You know what else everybody likes? Parfaits. Have you ever met a person, you say, "Let's get some parfait," they say, "No, I don't like no parfait"? "

10. "Hang the code, and hang the rules. They're more like guidelines anyway."

Good luck! Let me know how many you got in the comments - but don't give any answers away - we don't want cheating!

Modesty

*updated*
When I was in high school I felt like modesty was a daily battle. (Perhaps because shopping was a nearly daily experience.) Now I find it is a little easier. There are several reasons for that: One, I am confident in who I am and therefore feel way less pressure to be a certain type of person. Two, I think styles have changed a bit to be more flexible - long, knee length, or short skirts - layering longer tanks under shorter shirts, etc. And three, nobody wants to see that much of my body anymore anyway. But modesty is still something I have to deal with every time I shop - it just doesn't cause much mental anguish anymore.

I teach Naomi about modesty. She knows why she can't wear sleeveless shirts and why she needs to sit a certain way when she wears a skirt. The other day in a store we saw two women wearing those beautiful long dresses and headcoverings that I think are from India (if I'm wrong, please forgive my ignorance). She commented on how pretty their dresses were and then asked why they had those "hats" on. I explained to her that they were being modest and that was how they kept their bodies special like Heavenly Father wants them to. She suggested that maybe we should start wearing hats to be more modest. I thought her comment was sweet, and I do look up to those women from around the world who keep their bodies concealed in so beautiful, but not at all a popular way. They are truley being IN the world but not OF the world.

The internet, while having it's bad points, makes modest shopping easier. Below is a list of some of my favorite online shops that cater to the need for modesty. I haven't ordered from all of them, but I keep them bookmarked for the next time I struggle to find an appropriate dress or something.

Shade Clothing - great layering pieces, a few basic dresses

DownEast Basics - great layering pieces, cute dresses, great tops

Shabby Apple Clothes - fab dresses and cute baby-to-girl dresses too *updated*

MikaRose - beautiful dresses but a little more pricey

Molly's Clothes - just found this one, but it looks great

Vintage Hem - basically a skirt elongater (if that's a word)

Chadwick's - not all modest stuff, but it's where I most often find cute long plaid skirts, which I love

Did I miss any? I'm always up for a new shop to browse! What are your favorite modesty tricks?

Oh, if you are like me and always looking for a way to be more cute AND more covered up at the pool - now is a good time to buy a swimsuit. I just bought this swimsuit at Land's End in their "Overstocks" department. I've had my eye on it for two years now but just couldn't convince myself to spend $90 on a swimsuit. It's on sale for $40 right now. $40 I can do.

crazy stuff

The following YouTube video recently came to my attention - and consequently Richard and I wasted a good 45 minutes or so looking at similar videos. Go to YouTube and type in "flash mob" and you'll see all the amazing things that people waste their time doing. All in the name of entertainment I guess. You too can waste some time by watching them waste their time
Of all the ones we saw - this one was by far the coolest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMj3PJDxuo

(Sorry - I don't know how to save the video and then post it on the blog. Maybe when Richard comes home he can do it. In the meantime - just click on the link and enjoy.)

A conversation with Asher

Upon Asher's waking up from his afternoon nap:

Asher: nack peace
Me: OK, what would you like?
Asher: hmmm. Cake-e?
Me: You're in luck, we have one!
Asher: Yeah! No-me cake-e?
Me: Sit down at the table and I'll get it for you. Naomi, would you like a cookie?
Asher: Muck peace Mama muck
Me: OK
Asher: Dak ew

Translation:
nack peace = snack please
cake-e = cookie
No-me = Naomi
muck = milk
peace = please
dak ew = thank you

I love talking to my big boy. He's growing up so fast!

Happy trouble

I am happy to report that Asher is doing much better. He actually slept through the night last night for the first time in what seems like months but was actually just a week. His smile is back, his fever is down, his nose is a little better, he's actually eating food again, and he's back to making trouble on a regular basis.
Speaking of making trouble - Isaiah has been promoted to Junior Troublemaker of the household. He can pull himself up to standing on low things, he can pull baskets off shelves, he can steal other children's' toys, and other general mischief. Asher would be proud if he weren't so busy defending his territory! Below are some pictures to prove his trouble making abilities.

I guess we need to find a new place for the basket of diapers since that low shelf behind Isaiah is clearly no longer safe.

Standing up!

For some reason, under the table and in the chair legs is Isaiah's favorite place in the house. He goes there often.

As you can see, he likes it there.

I guess that's OK though, because it sure is cute.

sad boy

This is what Asher has done for the last 4 days now. He sits and watches TV with his mouth hanging open because he can't breath out of his nose at all. And when I say "all day" I mean from 3am to 7pm. He can't sleep at all, the poor sad boy. He doesn't eat, he doesn't play much. Sometimes he stands in front of the TV instead of sitting - but that's about all the variety we get. It's really very sad. But at least the fever is down now. Hopefully that means he'll start feeling all the way better soon.

Thin Mints to the rescue

In case you've been wondering where we've been for the last week...well, we've been at home. Asher got sick, then I got sick, then Asher got sick again (or more... I don't know). Asher now has pneumonia. He's been seriously feverish for 3 days now and consequently, nobody except Naomi has slept for 3 days. It was really scary for a while there. I think he's getting a little better day by day - but he's still pretty bad. Anyway - the point is, we're all sleep deprived and feeling pretty yucky around here. So no blogging has happened. Not much of anything else has happened either - except for TV. I think we've watched "Cars" at least 800 times. A boy with a fever of 102 for the third day in a row can watch whatever he wants. And what he wants is Cars.

I was feeling pretty sorry for myself today. I hate being stuck in the house for this long - and there's not a clear end in sight yet. I had just heaved a huge sigh of relief as I sank into my comfy chair at naptime when there was a knock at the door. I hate knocks on the door during naptime. But this one turned out pretty well. Standing at my door was a Girl Scout. With cookies. For ME! Bless those Girl Scouts and their Thin Mints. Turns out, Richard had ordered two boxes for me from a friends daughter and there she was to deliver. *choir singing in background* I love Thin Mints. Bless those Girl Scouts and bless Richard.

Valentine's Day

I hope you had a great Valentine's Day. We did. We put the kids to bed and (like 8000 bazillion other people) got take-out from a restaurant. We chose Outback Steakhouse (like 7 million of those 8000 bazillion) and got crab legs and cheese fries. It was devine. Richard and I love to sit on the floor in front of the TV and watch a movie and chow down. It started back when we were newly married. That was our favorite date night activity. WHAT WERE WE THINKING?!?!?! We should have been going OUT! Because it would have been a lot easier to go out then, with no kids, then it is now, with three kids. Ahhh, youth. Stupid youth.

Public Service Announcement for all people who are married, but as of yet have no children: Go out! Often!! Even if it's just to walk around some cool place, or buy ice cream, or whatever. Leave the house! Do it while you can!

Thank you. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.

Where was I? Oh yes, the food. It was great. (Below I am holding one of the crab legs - look at the size of that thing! I never want to meet a crab that size. But I do want to EAT one again.)Richard had sent me flowers earlier in the day and I surprised him with "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" blown up to poster size, framed, and hanging in our kitchen across from the table. I hope that seeing it every day will remind us of so many things. For example: how important raising our family is because it is central to God's plan for all of us. Also, that Richard and I have a duty to take care of each other and our children. And, my favorite line from the Proclamation is "Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ."

It was a great day filled with love.

Valentine's Love

Valentine's love - as in, I have love towards Valentine's Day. I think it is such a fun day. And really, I always have. It's not just now that I have a permanent Valentine who is such a good man that he always buys me flowers and usually chocolates and sometimes some other gift too. It's a fun holiday! Why shouldn't we celebrate our love? Not just romantic love, but love in general.

Love makes the world turn.

Love fuels service to our fellow man.

Love conquers all.

Love is a many splendored thing.

Love is blind.

Love is all you need.

Why not celebrate the love you have for your parents, children, friends, spouse, chocolate, comfy shoes, Oreo Cakesters, reading a book in a warm bed, kissing new babies, the smell of new babies. I love all those things and I plan on celebrating it. Actually, I already started celebrating. Below are some picture of my Valentine's decorations. And they've been up since January. Is that obsessive? I don't think so. I think it's just happy.

As an added bonus, Valentine's Day gets me through the cold winter until Spring comes. Soon my Daffodils will be popping up and my kids will be frolicking outside again. I can't wait.

Just for fun, tell me, did I leave any "love cliche's" out of my list above? Let's compile a complete list of love cliche's.

Isaiah's first meal

I fed Isaiah real food today for the first time (if you don't count the Cheerios, stickers, fuzz, etc he's helped himself to off the kitchen floor previously). It's always fun to see babies' reactions to food. I'll never forget sitting in a hamburger joint with a friend and her new baby when I was in college (you know who you are!). She kept feeding her baby little nibbles of mustard, ketchup, onion, etc just to see his reaction. I thought it was a little sadistic at the time - now I embrace this form of entertainment totally.
I tried to capture Isaiah's reaction in still photos, but it just wasn't catching the real essence - so I just HAD to do a video. First a picture of his nice clean face before hand, then the video of his first meal of sweet potatoes. I don't want to give away the ending of the video - but we'll try again tomorrow I guess because he finally started shivering and gagging on the food he was so disgusted/weirded out by it.

(I'm not having much luck with the video right now - so if it isn't working try again tomorrow. I'll try to upload it again tomorrow morning.)

SmorgasborD

I always thought it was a smorgasborG. I was wrong.

Here's some randomness for your viewing pleasure.

Naomi had her 4 year pictures taken the other day in this smashing outfit. She loves those shoes so much that I don't think she has taken them off since we got them. What a little diva. The lady taking her pictures even commented that Naomi should go into modeling because she seemed to take such good photos.

I have been working really hard on being healthy. And since what I eat, the whole family eats, the whole family has been eating healthier too. Yesterday I made Potato soup and I actually put multiple veggies in it! I would not have made something like this before - but it was surpringly easy ("easy" is defined, for my purposes, as "does not require more than 1 large dish or 30 minutes")

Here is a cute little video of the kids sitting by the front door waiting for me to round up the rest of the stuff and make it out the door. Naomi was singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" for Asher as they sit on the cooler.

Systems

My sister Angela is very into "systems". She has blogged about her systems several times and is great at implementing new systems to keep her family running smoothly. Since she is my main example-in-action for running a larger family smoothly, I try to exemplify her. So I try to implement systems. But they don't seem to be my strong suit. Or, maybe it's just that my kids are younger and therefore not quite as able to join in the systems (I do have to brag that I have a very good napping system for my kids).
Anyway - all this rambling is just me getting to the point where I say - I implemented a great system the other day for Naomi. I've been meaning to get her going on a better big-girl, do-it-yourself morning routine for a while now. So I looked at chore charts online. I didn't really find anything that I felt like would work for us, so I took it into my own hands. I found pictures to represent each of the things she needs to do in the morning and I taped them to the mirror in her bathroom. She LOVES it. She loves that she is in charge of it all by herself. She loves to run back into the bathroom and check what is next "on her list". It is working great! Someday maybe I'll make it a little fancier - but this way I figure I can fine tune it without investing that much time. Each morning that she does her "list" by herself, she gets to put a rock in a cup and when the cup is full Daddy gets to take her to Chuck-E-Cheese. (Mommy doesn't go to Chuck-E-Cheese. Ever.)
Here are some pictures of Naomi and her list in action.

Brush teeth, wash hands, get dressed, do hair, make bed. That is her list.

I feel that I need to add a disclaimer about the bathroom's decor. Here it is...ICK! It's gross 80's wallpaper. It was not my choice. Someday (when I have money and spare time) it will be ripped down. Enough said.

I won, I won, I won!!!!

I WON! I won my favorite thing of all the giveaways (maybe I shouldn't say that in case I win something else -but I swear it's the truth). You can see the necklace I chose here. I won it from Bee at Will Blog for Shoes (gotta give a shout out to her, right?).

I really only entered the contests that I actually wanted the thing they were giving away - so I'm sure I would have loved whatever I got. But my heart was really truly dreaming about this one. I feel like I totally just won the lotto, even though I don't play the lotto, and what I won is technically only worth $11. But I won! That's something! Yeah me! And yeah Bee for her generosity!

..no time...must enter contests

I have been so SO busy this week. What have I been busy with? Entering hundreds of contests, of course. There's a great blog, linked to at the bottom of my blog, called Bloggy Giveaways. Almost every day they give something away and all you have to do to enter is leave a comment. But this week she is hosting a "carnival" where hundreds of other bloggers are doing giveaways too and they are all linked to Bloggy Giveaways. I've been busily clicking away and dreaming about all my booty. I've also been totally inspired (and a little intimidated) by how talented some of these ladies are, since many of the giveaways are homemade things.
Anyway, most of the giveaways are open through at least tomorrow at midnight - so you still have time to waste some time. Go on over there and enter contests to your hearts content. Maybe you'll meet a blog that you'd like to keep an eye on in the future. I know I have.

Comic relief

And now, for a little comic relief...

Isaiah is getting several new teeth right now and his form of pain relief seems to be licking and sucking on his lips and tongue. It's hard to take him seriously when he's intermittently crying and then doing that.

My big girl

I recently said on this blog "I'm sure Naomi is a genius, too. She just hasn't hit any of the flashy milestones lately. " Well - now she has (hit a flashy milestone, that is)! Naomi has been toilet trained for, I don't know, a couple of years now I guess. But she was still wearing Pull-Ups at night. We tried when we first toilet-trained her to go totally off diapers and such - but she could only make it through the night with clean sheets if she woke up in the middle of the night and went to the bathroom. Which, most of the time she would do. But it just didn't seem like her body was quite ready - so we let her wear Pull-Ups. She didn't really want to - she wanted to be a big girl.

Anyway - TMI I guess... The other day she accidentally forgot her Pull-Up and noticed in the morning. She asked if that meant she never had to wear them again. I said "sure, as long as you don't wet the bed". And she has gone 5 nights now with no Pull-Ups! Hooray, Naomi!

...Now if only I hadn't JUST stocked up on Princess Pull-Ups...

Here's a picture of my big girl. I told her to show me her best, happy, big girl smile. This is what I got.

A restaurant at home

Well, I guess this proves that things are back to normal: I made actual food for dinner tonight. Last week our menu contained things like plain pasta and Jell-o. This week I worked hard on planning my menu with some new and healthy things. Tonight we had Turkey burgers. I got the recipe out of Real Simple (one of my favorite magazines). They were great! Even Naomi ate one (I made a small one and called it "kinda like a chicken nugget"). We made them on our new George Foreman grill - thanks Grandma Worth! They really tasted like they were from a restaurant. A little tip though: use 3/4 TEAspoon of Thyme - not 3/4 TABLEspoon (oops!). Oh, and also, I didn't use zucchini because our grocery store didn't have any. Apparently there was a freeze in Florida that killed most of the crop this year. I bet it would be even yummier with the zucchini. Enjoy your Turkey Burgers!

3/4 lb ground turkey
1 medium zucchini, grated
1 medium carrot, grated
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3/4 t dried thyme
3/4 t kosher salt
1/4 t black pepper
1 large egg
3 T olive oil
4 slices of crusty bread
4 small leaves Boston lettuce
4 T mayo
2 t lemon juice

Heat broiler. Combine, turkey, zucchini, carrot, garlic, thyme, salt, pepper, and egg. Form the mixture into 4 patties. Heat 1 T of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook the patties, turning once, until no trace of pink remains, 4 to 5 minutes per side (or about 4 minutes total in my G.F. grill). Meanwhile, place the bread on a baking sheet and brush with the remaining oil (or just throw that onto the G.F. grill too). Broil until golden brown and crisp, about 1 1/2 minutes. Combine the mayo and lemon juice in a small bowl and serve with the burgers.

Yum! Yum!

H - E - double hockey sticks on wheels

Well, we're back in Virginia finally. It feels good to be in our home again. But let me give you a quick run down of the last few days so you understand the title of my post.

warning: yucky details to follow.

Friday - Asher throws up breakfast all over Grandma's carpet.
Richard is supposed to arrive in Texas so he can drive back to Virginia with us, but takes a stand-by ticket instead (he got a free ticket out of the deal).

Saturday - Asher seems to be doing better - maybe his being sickly and mellow will work to our favor, right?.
Richard actually arrives in Texas and we all pile in the van to start our drive (5 hours of driving scheduled for this day). Ahhhhh, nice comfy hotel bed.

Sunday - We're on the road again by 9am. Our DVD player stops working. Asher throws up again in Arby's at lunch. We stop at a Target to buy a new DVD player and some Pedialyte. We don't arrive at the next hotel until 9pm (7 hours of driving scheduled for this day). 10pm Nancy takes 2 Tylenol PM to ensure a good night's rest.

Monday - 12:01am Naomi wakes up throwing up. Nancy and Naomi stay up all night while the boys sleep in the next room. Nancy starts being sick at about 6 am. We finally leave the hotel at noon. Many bathroom stops, a lot of crying, and nine hours later, we arrive at home (7 hours of driving scheduled for this day). Richard is our hero for taking us all the way home even though we all cried and I longingly looked at every hotel we passed, wanting to stop for the night.

Tuesday - 5 am Richard wakes up being sick. The kids are feeling better, but still tired and out of whack, Nancy is going to die of exhaustion. Home Teachers save the day by bringing food and liquids.

Wednesday - 4:30am Naomi finally goes to sleep for the night, 5am Richard wakes up with such intense pain in his stomach that we call 911 and an ambulance takes him to the hospital, 7am Naomi pops out of bed like nothing was wrong the night before, 11am Richard comes home in a taxi feeling a little better with some fluids and oxygen in him. The van finally gets unloaded.

That's all I'm gonna say about that. We're back. We need a couple more days to recoup.

Good night.

(Just so you know, none of this is even in the slightest bit exaggerated. Really. It's really understated, actually. Monday was one of the top 3 worst days of my life.)

bragging

I'm still in Texas, hence the no blogging. Mostly, what is holding me back is that I don't dare put my pictures on my parents computer for fear of loosing them. So, here is a "no pictures" post.

I was reading in "What to Expect the Toddler Years" about the 20th month (that's how old Asher is now). Here are some of the milestones he should have hit by the end of this month:

use a spoon/fork
run
combine words
identify 1 picture by naming
name 6 body parts
throw a ball overhand
speak and be understood half the time
use 50+ single words
build a tower of 6 cubes

So, with that in mind, I started writing down all the words he says to see if he really knows 50 or more. Here is his list of words he says (mind you, these are words that I can understand what he means - but that doesn't mean you would be able to understand them).

yes, doggie, milk, up, ruff, moo, roar, meow, sock, shoe, eat, go, vroom, hair, eye, ear, nose, toes, bath, mom, dad, guy, flower, Jesus, baby, out, cat, seat, more, baa, wow, no, bock bock, Elmo, fishy, yum, ball, shhhh, apple, cheese, on, mine, help, Cheerios, choo choo, book, uh oh, wait, no way, bed, night night, xuxa, three, please, thank you, morning, hi, bye

He is pretty much adding words every day at this point. And he can repeat almost anything we say. He combines words too. And he does all the other things that I listed above, and then some. Face it. My boy is a genius.

In other news, Isaiah is crawling and sitting up on his own. He's a genius too, obviously. When we get home it's gonna be time to put up the gates again. I think we went a whopping 4 months between needing them for Asher and putting them back up for Isaiah.

I'm sure Naomi is a genius, too. She just hasn't hit any of the flashy milestones lately.

(OK, in reading back over the list of words that Asher says, I have to share one funny story. You'll notice that "three" is on the list. Here's how he uses that word. He is getting into trouble. So I say something like "Asher, don't do that." But he continues to do it anyway, so I say "Asher, One, Two..." and he says "Three!" and does the naughty thing again. It's cute - but pretty rebellious. I'm not sure how to nip that in the bud. Actually - it may be past "bud" point. Oh well.)

a long absence

I apologize for my long absence. I up and drove to Texas last weekend. My Grandmother (who lives with my parents) is going through a rough time and I came to help her. Richard drove down with us, then he flew back home on the 1st. He'll fly back to Texas later and drive home with us. In the meantime, my blogging is probably going to be sporadic at best since I am pretty busy (and exhausted) here.
What brought me back to the blogging world was the cutest pictures of Isaiah ever. Let's back up a little, though. Last year, when Asher was pretty much the age that Isaiah is now, we got pictures taken of him. They are very cute. He is laying on his back, naked except for his diaper, and playing with his toes. Coincidentally, my sister who had a baby the same age as Asher, got pretty much the same pose taken of her son. So my mother loves to display the two babies' pictures side by side in nearly identical poses. When I had Isaiah she told me that I just had to get a picture of Isaiah in the same pose. Since the holidays, then a huge bruise on Asher's head, then taking off for Texas, have all caused me to reschedule a family photo shoot three times now, I asked my fab sister-in-law to take some pictures of Isaiah. Here are the adorable results.





Now go back and pay particular attention to his arms. They are unbelievable.