So Big

Last week I met two of my good friends' new babies.
They are both darling.
Here is Lulu with little Katie:

and I took a few pictures of little Lily. This one turned out pretty cute:

Katie is two months old, Lily was just 10 days old when I took her picture.
It made me realize how precious newborns are. They have such a sweet spirit about them. They are so snuggly and helpless and tiny and trusting. And so cute.
It also made me realize how BIG my baby is.
He's not crawling yet (thankfully), but he is eating big boy food, like fishies and pretzels! He has 4 sharp little teeth. He loves to laugh, and already tries to make us laugh! He babbles, sometimes on command. And like my other babies before him, he lifts his arms above his head when we say "so big!"
See! Check out these two videos:

Good thing I'm really enjoying this baby time, because it seems to be flying by.

For Sale -post script added

I have kind of been out of the blogging loop a little.  And this is why:

It's official. Our home is for sale.
We of course have mixed feelings about this, but mostly excited and hopeful.  You never know what will happen when you put your house up for sale.  Will someone want it for the price you're asking?  How long will it take for them to find you?  Will you be able to find the perfect house for you in the same time period?
It's like a game.
And we've been quite busy getting our house sell-ready.
Lots of scrubbing and de-junking and moving furniture around.
It looks really good, and the kids don't even seem to miss the mounds of toys that are now packed away.

We love our neighborhood.  We are just minutes away from any restaurant you can think of, and like 2 minutes from the freeway entrance.  And we have a field of cows out our window.  I love it.
We also have great neighbors and friends here, and lots of kids for our kids to play with.  Actually our neighborhood is a really great mix of ages.  I have made friends with ladies my grandma's age, my mom's age, my age, and younger than me too.  It's pretty sweet.
But alas, we have pretty much outgrown our house.  3 kids and all the stuff that come with 3 kids does not fit too well in here.
So we are just looking nearby for a bigger home.
And a shorter commute for Ollie to drive into work wouldn't hurt either.
Wish us luck!

Sugar Revolution

Homemade Valentine's Day Dessert

Sugar is everywhere in my house.
And I can't stop eating it!
I believe there are two main reasons contributing to my disturbing trend:
1. I'm hungry and it's so easily accessed, giving me instant energy.
2. I may be addicted to it. I crave it's yumminess.

And, that's bad.

So I'm on a sugar revolution.  It began this morning.

DAY 1
Today I decided that I don't want to cut sugar out completely or I will crave and crave and crave and then binge.  I just need to reign it in.  I need to make a more conscious effort of what I'm putting in my mouth.
So, I categorized the sugars in my house.

-Fruit sugars and Juice
-Acceptable sugars: Foods with sugar and with some nutritional value: Good sugars include cereal, chocolate milk, bread with a little jam, french toast, yogurt.
-Treats: Candy, ice cream, chocolate, nutella. 

Then I made a few simple rules for myself:
1. Fruit is good any time. 100% fruit juice is good in 4 oz servings a few times a day too.
2. Acceptable sugars are ok to have 1 small servings at a time for a snack, or even as part of a meal. 
3. Only one small treat a day, if I haven't over done it on number 2. A small bowl of ice cream.  A little home made milkshake. 2 delectable European truffles. 
4. When I crave sugar I will first see if I am really just hungry.  If I'm legitimately hungry then I need to look for a small healthy meal.   If' I'm not hungry, then maybe I'm thirsty.  A big glass of water does wonders!  If the small meal and the water doesn't cut it, then I have other options.  Fruit. An acceptible sugar snack.  A piece of gum.

So far this has been working!  Granted it's only 2 o clock on day 1, but I haven't had treats yet!  I'm thinking things through before I eat.  Common sense isn't it?
2 hours after lunch I walked into the kitchen to look for a treat and stopped myself.  I realized that I was actually just hungry because I had only had a small taco salad for lunch.  So I had left over chicken tortilla soup and some juice.
Plus I planed out what I really want for my treat today.  I don't want a crappy piece of cheap chocolate.  I'm holding out for a small milk shake with the kids later in the day.
So my next craving I'm going for grapes.

Wish me luck!

5

Look who had a birthday!
I'd say the party was a success, except for the cake that fell apart just before the guests arrived!  We patched up half of the cake as well as we could, and Lulu still loved it.  (I keep learning the hard way.  I now have some good ideas to make it a spectacular tower cake.  Next time. Anyone?)
Thanks to Ollie and Laura and Grammie for helping me give Lulu the perfect Tangled Birthday!

"The Smolder" with Aunt Laura

take 1

take 2

After the party Lulu opened and enjoyed playing with a few more favorite gifts from the Grandmas!

On Lulu's actual birthday:

And one more present from us to open on her actual birthday.  She was really excited about getting a pillow pet!

Happy Birthday my sweet Lulu!

Rad Outfit #2

Although this isn't the 2nd rad outfit she's ever worn, it's the second one I've documented. 
Oh yeah.  I'm amused.  You can expect to see more posts of her rad outfits in the coming weeks!

Rad Outfit

I love seeing what Lulu chooses to wear.  2 shirts and a skirt and purple pants and pink snow boots is pretty rad.

Life Lately, According to My Phone

January Edition

The pictures uploaded in backward chronology and I'm too lazy to move each picture around.  So at least they are in some sort of order.  It just goes from the end of the month to the beginning!

sunset at Ollie's mom as we are getting in the car to come home

Baby has a new car seat

Bountiful Basket Abundance

We drive by this house every time I take Lulu to preschool and I wish it was mine.  Isn't it cute?

Little Buddy having tummy time

Peekaboo

Lulu checks the mail

One of Lulu's favorite past times: painting

Hammer still loves to help me do the dishes

Little Mister loves his baby food, but keeps grabbing the spoon!

Lunch one day: PBJ, string cheese, cheetos, apples

Lulu made hers into a face

Baby on the kitchen floor looking at my phone

Chocolate Waffles for dessert

I took a painting to the Ward Talent Show

Ollie missed the ward talent show because he had to go camping. Here he is packing up his gear

Thanks Jessica for the American Idol Gummy Bears!  So excited to watch Idol again

Hammer had his ears cleaned out at the Dr (he hated it). Waiting with cotton in his ear while the wax softens

Playing blocks at the 3 yr Dr check up

The kids' cousins gave them their giant Tickle Me Elmo. Here his is coming home with us

Snowy MLK Day

Going to Grammie's on Ollie's day off

Mmmm, squash

For our eating out this month we chose The Burger Bar.  Huge burgers!

The kids each eat 1/4 of one

Just lookin' cute

and learning to eat puffs

My amaryllis in bloom

Free Baskin Robbins Birthday ice cream!

Toys R Us Birthday Club

Happy Birthday Hammer!

Baby sitting up all on his own like a pro

And a few pics Ollie sent me from his phone while we were at Hammer's 3 yr check up: