Random Cuteness

More Lucy pictures. No reason... just cute. Well actually that's not entirely true... I made that dress she's wearing. It's a "pillowcase dress". Usually they are made of pillow cases but I had some leftover swiss batiste from Natalie baptism slip, and I really wanted to try to make one. Turned out pretty cute. I took advantage of my moms fabulous embroidery machine and stitched a blue bird sitting on a branch on the front. So cute! I'm so grateful that my mom sews. I wouldn't have gotten far on my own. She tries to pretend she doesn't know what she's doing but it's so not true. She does beautiful work!


On a random note... I feel so tired! I know I stay up too late but I just have a hard time giving up those precious hours I have to myself after my kids go to bed. Kids are great, but sanity is great too. If only I was more self disciplined. I am so bad.


And on another random note... Chad had an interview for an engineering position today. (within Intel) Somehow I was thinking it was weeks away. That called for an emergency "fieldtrip" (as we referred to it for Kassidy's benefit, what with the homeschooling and all) to the mall. Chads wardrobe is... hmmmmm.
Anyway we had to go to the mall. Katie if you're reading this... I was on a roll today! Too much of a roll, I think I will keep the exact amount my little secret. We aren't getting our hopes up for this position though... it's fine, Chad's not sure he even wants it.


THE END...

Morning What-Nots

Talk about a fun filled Saturday morning! We started bright and early (which for me is never so bright considering I am not a morning person!)Kass and Nat's had their first ever clay class. So once again me and Lu found ourselves with some time to kill together. We were happy to find that there was a car show going on. Yay! Something to keep us entertained. We walked around... took some pictures...





Checked out the shiny stuff. Boy was it ever shiny there! Check out this tricked out piece of "Superman" machinery! Whoah...


This is a weird picture but there's something about it I like. Its soft?? Maybe it's the lashes?? Perhaps the "hair in the face" is just growing on me, who knows.


Took some more pictures...


This ones a beauty!


After a while we decided to go see what Kass and Nats were up to. They were loving every minute of it! This is exactly what they want to be doing on a Saturday morning!


Such little artists!


Lucy really wanted to stay and play with some clay. It just wasn't meant to be. So she sat down and cried...


Then cried some more...


Just when I thought she was going to call it quits...


She cried a little more...


Then she cried a little harder...



Yep. It was fun fun fun. Well till that last part. Who'm I kidding even that was a little amusing to watch. Only because I had time to kill and a camera in hand. Otherwise not so much.

Kassidy, meet Carl...

I signed Kassidy up for a class at the Mesa Art Center, and today was her first day. This is a 3 hour "art block", for homeschooled kids. She absolutely loved it! Trouble is only one other kid showed up... yep, you guessed it. It was Carl. See how she proudly displays the bird puppet she so lovingly named Serena? I am just hoping this class doesn't get canceled (due to the lack of kids). Kass will be so bummed.


I knew the moment I laid eyes on this lovely water artscape that kassidy would find a way to be in it. Moms know.


On our way home I was asking Kassidy how she liked it, what she did, the usual stuff. And then I said, "what about Carl? Is he like your best friend now?" To that she answered, "well... (pause)...YEAH!" That answer shocked me but it made me chuckle. She's such a delightful little girl. I was worried that we'd be having a bit too much togetherness but I haven't found that to be so. Thankfully!


Oh the hair! How I love the hair! But why is it always in her face? I think I have a million pictures of Lulu and her hair. We call it her rockstar hair. Me and Lu had some quality together-time as well. We walked around and enjoyed the artsyness of that place while we waited for Kassidy to finish up.


I know this picture is so bright. Too bright. I almost want to put my shades on just looking at it. Everything in it is yellow. You can't see it in this picture, but the planter she's standing on is filled with pieces of yellow glass. And the hair, don't forget the hair! How I love my rockstar baby. (: peek-a-boo belly :)

A Rose By Any Other Name...

It's amazing the treasures I find on my computer. I say "my computer" loosly... It used to be my moms computer. Mine died. I am so thankful my mom spent what looks like forever scanning old pictures in. Check out my dad in this picture. I love it! When I saw this I was thinking to myself "sweet ride dad!"

That is until I came across this picture of my grandma!

Sheesh! They don't make kid rides like this anymore. What a wagon! I just love this picture. It reminds me of my grandma so much. The look on her face...it's SO her! My grandma died about a year and a half ago. Lucy was less than a year old. But Lucy reminds me of her in many ways. Lucy's middle name is "Emma Jane" which is also her middle name. Seeing some similarities in Lucy's personality and my grandma's got me thinking... what's in a name? Seems impossible that there should be a connection but then I think of all (3) Lucy's I know... yep, strong will. There's something there. Isn't there? I will never know for sure but I have to say it's awfully suspicious...

Gone Phishin'

Eat more fish! I have this thing I do. I save it for when i don't want to think about dinner (which is alot of the time, hence we really do eat more fish) It's called, fish for dinner. Generic I know but it explains it well. I realized this might be something others would benefit from when one Friday night I had my good friend Tawna over and it was probably about 1 AM when I noticed I was starving. So i proceeded to make us some fish to eat. Did the usual thing, not thinking much of it. Then it happened... questions questions... What seasoning did you use? Is that the Tilapia from Costco? What was on the top of that... ok ok I get it. You want the recipe because it was so fast, so easy and so good.

Well here ya go!

Yes it's tilapia from Costco. This stuff is great because you don't thaw it out first. I avoid thawing things out because I hate it. To be very specific it's High Liner brand.

The seasoning I use is Weber brand "zesty lemon seasoning"

and the crunchy stuff up top is "panko" bread crumbs. You can find these in the asian isle. They are japanese style bread crumbs. My guess is that other bread crumbs would be good too, this is just what I use.

This takes 30 minutes to cook and no real prep time.

here's what you do...

first heat oven to 400, then I line the pan with foil because for some reason those zesty little lemon flecks are hard to scrub off!! Place frozen fish in pan. Drizzle with olive oil,(or butter if you're feeling a little naughty!) sprinkle with lemon seasoning, top off with bread crumbs and voila!!!! 30 minutes later you're eating good!

Oh wait, one more thing. If you have a lemon or lime wedge handy, squeeze it over the top. You won't be sorry. (lime is really better but sometimes lemon is all ya got)

And I personally like to slice fresh avocado over the top but I'm just a little crazy like that!

So I guess that was 2 more things. Oh well. Yummy-Healthy-Easy -do it!

Heirloom Treasure!

Ahhh the sweet relief of almost done! I know, I know it looks done but sadly it's not. Just a few buttons and a little embroidery and then thankfully it will finally be done. And just in the nick of time too. This is the dress I decided to make for Natalie's baptism. I have a love triangle going on in my life. Sewing, cooking, and photography. I feel like I'm OK at all of them but I would like to be really really super exquisitely awesome at something someday, so sometimes I feel like I'm going to have to choose one and roll with it. Never look back...

For now I am enjoying the drama of the love triangle!


Natalie is such a funny girl. Ever since she was real little she loved to wear my little sister's baptism dress around. It was Little House on the Prairie meets the 80's. Still, it was cute that she loved it so much! I saw the pattern for this dress online at heirloomsewingforchildren.com and I said to myself "Wow, that looks like the dress Natty's dreams are made of "! And so it began!


Such a dainty treasure! You know what makes a ginormous project like this all worth it? Everything! It was fun for me to learn heirloom sewing and Natalie loves it as much as I knew she would. She's already talking about how her children will want to wear it for their baptism. Jokes on her when she has all boys! Ha! Swoop on seven... we can't keep up this girl streak forever you know! (it's a pretty well know fact that my family has mastered the art of making girls) It's like we have a sign up on our club house saying "NO BOYS ALLOWED!" (can't last right??)


And what would a dress so exquisite be without a frilly little slip to go with?

To my dear sweet Nats... you're worth it all!

Sweet Apologies

If you happen to be on myspace with me then you may have read this post before. I re-posted for my own journaling purposes.



Saturday, March 03, 2007

Letter from kass

I'm trying this new thing...when the kids get in trouble they have to write me a letter of apologie. Well today kassidy had to write me a letter. It had to be 60 words long. It was so cute I just had to post it. and it reads...

Der MoM,

mom I am so so so so so so so vary sorry I put vasulen on natalie's hed. I promes I wont disobay ever agen. Ille clen my room wen you tell me to and brush my teth. I can be a betr prson by beng kinde and I can donate close to por pepol they will be so happy

Love, Kassidy

I think these letters will be fun for them to try to read when they get older and something their children will enjoy as well

"qu'ils mangent de la brioche."

I am reading a book. It is a very long book. I'm not saying I don't like it but it is seriously taking forever to read. It's called "Atlas Shrugged", by Ayn Rand. It has 1168 pages and I am only on page 260.

I think when I finish I will celebrate with hot chocolate and cake.

Over the summer I read "Fablehaven" to my kids. It was the third one. When we finished we had a little celebration with hot chocolate and cake. All the sprinkles on the cake stood for something in the book (and there were alot of sprinkles), for example... the yellow sugar crystals were the fairy dust of the good fairies and the Purple was the fairy dust of the shadow fairies, you get the picture... This made the evening something to remember. If in the end they look back and say, "boy that was some good cake!" I will be happy, but better yet if they gain an adoration for books that keeps them reading thru and thru well then all the merrier!

Maybe Marie Antoinette was right..."qu'ils mangent de la brioche."
To say it plain "let them eat cake"

and so we will!

Coral Broccoli

I have been sick for a week now and boy am I tired of it. So this morning I decided I was going to go buy a bunch of fruits and veggies. Don't know if it will help but I'm pretty sure it couldn't hurt! So me and Kass tooled down to the Superstition Ranch Market to see what there was to see. And what a find we made! Yep it's green, it's knobby and it's whats for dinner! It's Coral Broccoli. I've never seen anything like it before so we decided we had to get it. I googled it to see what I could find out about it, turns out I couldn't find much other than it tastes just like broccoli. All I know is we're going to try it. So far the kids think it's pretty cool. Let's see if they still feel that way when I serve it up!

It reminds me of an email I got with pictures of square watermelons. Believe me, if I came across a square watermelon I would be snatching that up too!



I really like the Superstition Ranch Market. I go there when I really need to stock up. Its cheap cheap cheap and I find that alot of times it lasts longer than the stuff at the grocery store especially if it's in season. I have seen fruit there that looks like it's seen better days, but I skip right over that stuff.