sunday drive

This was actually a couple weeks ago, not yesterday (I'm kinda slow sometimes). A Sunday drive is always nice when you have cabin fever in the middle of the winter, isn't it? Except of course when everyone is fighting in the back seat...

We ended up on the west side of Utah Lake which was frozen solid, and so beautiful with clouds streaming down and touching its surface. I was so sad I didn't have my camera! We used Clay's iPhone camera, which I guess is better than nothing.

Some kids were there ice fishing with their grandpa, so we could see that the ice was about a foot thick when we looked in their fishing hole. The kids thought this was the coolest thing ever, walking on a lake. "This is the first time I've ever walked on a lake!" Ben said.

three rare occasions in one day

First she fell asleep on the floor, without crying one bit. Huh? How did that happen?

Later while I was on the phone and doing dishes, she built this soup can tower all by herself, five cans high! I had no idea! I thought she was just making her usual mess of the cupboard behind my back.

Luckily I had the camera in the kitchen and was able to get some shots before she cleaned it up all by herself, one can at a time. Huh? What is going on around here?

pom-pom love

I fell in love with the whole pom-pom idea a few months ago, and decided that when Olivia had her own room I'd make some to hang from her ceiling. So now that she's had her own room for three months, it's about time I get going on it!

You won't believe how easy and inexpensive these are to make. I'm not kidding. You only need 8 sheets of tissue paper, some floral wire, and some clear fishing line.

Lay the tissue paper in a clean stack and start folding it into an accordion, back and forth, width-wise (so that your accordion is shorter in width rather than longer). Trim each side so it's rounded (or you can make it pointy), then secure the middle with some floral wire. Fan it all out, then carefully start peeling the sheets apart from each other, and before you know it you'll have this amazing pom-pom! Tie a length of fishing line to the floral wire in the middle, reshape if you need to, and hang it up.

These are also fun for party decorations...my aunts made a bunch for my grandma's 80th birthday a couple weeks ago, and it made the whole house so festive. Pink is perfect for Valentine's, dontcha think?

craving of the week

I haven't been able to manage drinking anything but this lately. But I also haven't puked for a week, so hallelujah!! Still a little gaggy, and a lot tired, but doing much better. I have the best friends who have helped me out so much ( you know who you are!), thank you for everything!

Try this little refresher sometime, it's so good. Here is the official recipe, but lately I just make some lemonade from concentrate, whiz a little of it up with a handful of frozen strawberries and maybe a half cup of sugar in the blender, and then pour it into a pitcher with the rest of the lemonade and stir in a cup or so of club soda.

Hey, and it's even festive for Valentine's Day, pink!

Strawberry Lemonade

(substitute with raspberries if you’d like)

3 c. cold water

1 lb. Fresh strawberries, washed and hulled

3/4 c. sugar

3/4 c. fresh squeezed lemon juice

2 c. club soda

Strawberries for garnish

1. In a blender, combine cold water, strawberries, and sugar. Cover and blend until smooth.
2. Mix in lemon juice and club soda.
3. Serve immediately, garnishing each glass with a strawberry.

crayon hearts

When Ben and Hannah were teeny tiny, we made some of these. We hang them up in the kitchen window every February...but this year they were looking pretty shabby! So Nina and I made some new ones. I couldn't find a pencil sharpener in the house wide enough for a crayon, so we used the vegetable peeler.

I love the cute shadows these make in the afternoon!

Just make sure to put your craft paper (I used a lunch sack) on both the top and bottom of the wax paper before you iron!

Oh and hey, does anyone want to come clean my filthy windows? Please??

"so cute valentines"

Nina and I put these little blooms together for her preschool class.

"These are SO CUTE Valentines, Mom!" she kept saying.

robot parade

Meep-zorp!

The lazy side of me tried to take the easy way out with Valentines this year and brought home a bag of packaged candy hearts. However, the kids were practically depressed about that. "Can't we make some? Pleeease?"

Oh man, okay.

So we flipped through my trusty Family Fun magazine and found these cute little guys (only we ditched the arms). I traced the templates, and Ben and Hannah did the rest. Yay for big kids! I hardly had to do anything. It was super easy, and the kids are so excited to take them to school tomorrow.

look who is 5!

My little Nina is 5 and I can't believe it!

She wanted to have a "Pink Party" this year, which was really fun and really easy. We sent out pink invitations and asked all the party guests to wear pink. We made pink crowns and glued buttons, tissue paper, fabric scraps, and stickers all over them. We drank pink lemonade, ate pink cupcakes with pink frosting, along with pink marshmallows, pink candy, and pink ice cream, and piled it onto pink plates. We played "Pin the Kiss on the Frog Prince" (recycled from Hannah's 4-year princess party), which wasn't pink, but oh well! And Hannah read the kids the book Pinkalicious.

Later Nina said, "Mom, I had fun at my pink party," which made it all worth it.

one day i'll look back and laugh, right?

This is my life in a nutshell the last couple of weeks.

Nina, poor thing, was hit in the night with diarrhea (and actually managed to poop the bed, hence the poopy pink pajamas). The next day I had to take her to the doctor to figure out what the rash was on her face. We have no insurance, so that was a lovely bill to pay after the doctor was with us all of 10 seconds, said it was impetigo, and to "just put Neosporin on it three times a day." Later that same day, while I was taking care of Nina's rash, Olivia emptied the box of cornstarch all over herself and the kitchen floor!

The day before that, Olivia splashed in the toilet, so I put her in the tub. As soon as I got her out she peed all over the carpet. Back into the tub.

A couple days later she pooped in the tub.

All the while I'm sipping ginger ale and eating ginger snaps, trying to relieve the morning sickness that seems to last all afternoon and evening. I've only gone 2 or 3 days without throwing up in the last 2 weeks. Ugh!

And Olivia has a nasty cold and is crying all the time since she is teething.

Phew! I'm not complaining, I mean, this is what I signed up for, right? To be a mom? I just thought I'd share so that you other moms could get a good laugh since we are all in the same boat. And one day we will look back on all this and laugh, right?