I before E, except in Ribeira

Tablet Love

2012-01-18T11:58:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to gush enough about how much I like this little contraption. I was hesitant at first to even pull the trigger and get one, because I was afraid I was setting myself up for disappointment, and perhaps I wouldn't even be able to use it properly, or worse, it would make me regress artwise. But no, just a little getting used to it (still am) and what a difference it has made in my efficiency and range! I probably need to hold back a little because at times I get so consumed with drawing and painting I feel like I may be neglecting my husband, but he is very supportive and kind and patient.

It has also been great for business, as I can pump out sketches and drawing much more quickly than before. I can make more accurate sketches, not even have to do any scanning, cropping or rotating! That alone shaves off about 10 minutes per sketch.

Here are some sketches I did just last night:

And the design business is keeping me busy as well. Here are some logos I did today:

Download PDF here

2012-01-16T08:26:00.000-08:00

There is a whole lot more about our trip that I'm hoping to document, but we'll get to that later. Recently our big change around here was Jeff's haircut! After 1 year, Jeff finally let go of the massive monster that had consumed his head. Oh, sure, I'll miss running my fingers through it and practicing my french braids, but I guess he looks a bit more professional now, and perhaps our vacuum will catch a break as well with only one person with long hair.

The visit to the salon was pretty funny. We walked in and the stylist just stopped and stared at us, then ordered Jeff into the chair. She started hacking away with the trimmer, and after about 2 minutes stopped, looked at me and said, "I already need a break!" and pulled out the scissors. I bid her good luck, and Penny and I ran away as I was WAY too nervous to sit and watch. She was making witty and snarky remarks the entire time, and when we she was ringing us up, she calmly said, "That will be $400 please..." We left her a nice tip (not $400...) and thanked her, and she told Jeff he looked SO much better. Although I am a little more partial to a longer haircut, I do think that Jeff looks great with short hair as well. It reminds me a lot of when we met, and also of all the Pops Concert videos from high school that we watched while we were in California.

Goodbye, Jeff's glorious long locks. Who knows if we'll ever see you again (though, that is what I said the last time he cut his hair...)

Helloooo handsome!

Now the question remains, what do I do with all THIS hair?

2012-01-12T13:39:00.000-08:00

Pen has been having lots of fun helping me bake lately, though she refers to it as "making." Which I guess makes sense as well. Anyway, it really helps pass the time, and gives us something to do as well. Plus we get lots of baked goods out of it. Here she is helping me with our bread today.

Tablet fun!

2012-01-11T08:58:00.000-08:00

I love my new tablet!!! Oh, tablet, where have you been all my life? I'm Still getting the hang of it, but here are some sketches.

In addition!

2012-01-03T11:54:00.000-08:00

I forgot to say what we got for Jeff's parents for Christmas! All of the kids worked on compiling their favorite recipes, and we also were sure to include classic Ribeira recipes. Jeff had the idea for the cover to be a tribute to a similar sign they made for their mom as children, with a few additions, of course :) We printed it off at blurb.com, and it arrived just in time, and turned out awesome! I think Jeff was hoping to add a few flourishes and fancy things inside, but perhaps we will do that on the next installment. Thanks, everyone for your help!

The actual Christmas Post.

2012-01-02T22:54:00.000-08:00

Christmas has already come and gone so quickly, and in just two days we will be flying home, which seems insane! Three weeks just absolutely flew by. But I wanted to update with a little Christmas post, just to remember the good times.

Seen above is us pushing our way down the stairs. We had just previously had our little bowls of cereal up in the girls' room, so Penny was anxious to see what Santa brought. And boy, oh boy did he deliver, much to my surprise. Really, most of the presents I was unaware of.

This was a little sleeping bag that fits inside of the pillow dog. Obviously it was one of her favorite presents. But her MOST favorite present of the day was this:

She spent a better part of Christmas morning in this backpack, insisting to go for rides, which was such a relief to me. I was afraid she wouldn't quite take to it.

Ryan and Gaylynn gave us lots of fun things like chocolate covered cheerios for Pen and these delicious chocolate covered pomagranate seeds. These are the real deal, seeds and all. So delicious.

Becky surprised Penny with this awesome doll! And a game of Cranium for us. Penny loves her Punzel doll. We sang her songs as we brushed her hair, but my wrinkles and stretch marks live on... blast.

The wrapping paper Becky used was a present itself. It was from threadless, which explains a lot. I loved it so much I gently folded it up and intend to journal it away.

The BIG surprise of Christmas was my NEW WACOM INTUOS 4 TABLET!!!!!!! OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOGMOMGOMG!!!! I have been wanting one of these puppies for QUITE some time now, and I have already gotten our money's worth out of it. I have been drawing with it whenever I had the chance. I can't wait to get home and test 'er out on our big computer.

Oooooooo, look how pretty it is...

I surprised Jeff with a lil' bit of Saffron, which I've been putting off for several Christmases due to the high cost of this little spice. But I found a deal I couldn't refuse, and now Jeff can finally make that paella he's been dreaming about for years.

Oh! Also, we made pull-aparts. This is the last of it.

Here was another big surprise was this little costume! Needless to say, Penny loves dressing like her favorite princess. Thanks, guys!

Penny has been getting along quite well with all her Uncles and Aunts, and they are so sweet to indulge her. Here is Pen and Jason opening presents together.

To give you a clue as to how many presents we all went through, here is our pile.

A fun wrapping pile quickly turned tragic. Pen didn't like getting sucked into the endless pile of trash.

In the end, this was our haul. Score!

Jeff's big present this year was a really fancy electric razor. And since we all are aware of Jeff's facial hair situation, this has been due for a while.

Now, the question is how in this world do we get everything home...

Rosie was given this awesome cookbook, which we have already made several recipes from. We had a Harry Potter feast on New Years Eve, including Pumpkin Pasties, Treacle Tart, Molly's Meatballs and Onion Sauce and of course some Butterbeer! I will have pictures of that in a later post.

Our DVD collection wasn't as big as previous years (I don't think we will ever get 17 DVDs in one go again, now that netflix is in our lives.) but we got some good ones. I have been spending some good, quality time with that 14th season of Simpsons.

Jeff gave me some very cool books that I have been wanting. An Illustrated Life, which is a compilation of so many different Artists' sketchbooks, and the Creative Workshop, which gives you lots of different challenges and assignments to sharpen design skills and get those creative juices flowing. I can't wait to start!

Of course, we got our new additions of our photo books that Jeff works so hard on. It is fun to look back on our year in book form, especially since they all start with the previous year's Christmas.

Jeff and Penny also got some books:

Pen had an eventful morning playing with her toys. Jeff's parents also bought him a new ping pong paddle, which he will surely make good use of at his workplace.

Somehow we managed to get ready for church mostly on time. Excuse the terrible picture... Unfortunately it was the only picture we got of Penny's cute dress.

We had a wonderful musical Sunday as I'm sure most of you did, which of course gave us even more opportunity to turn our focus to Christ. Janna and Rosie sang Oh Holy Night in the meeting, which brought me to tears, it was so lovely, and that song is just so truthful. It was just what the day needed. The rest of the day was spent as most Christmases are, lazing about and playing with our toys.

A delicious dinner was prepared, and Christmas was saved. I guess it wasn't in any danger of being ruined, but we had a long standing joke that if anyone did anything wrong, Christmas was ruined. I guess you had to be there. But, seriously, it was an awesome Christmas. Thank you everyone for your generosity, we truly appreciated it!

The Eve.

2011-12-24T23:47:00.000-08:00

Oh, man, have we been having the Big Fun. There is constantly something to keep us busy around here, which is awesome! Christmas was just simply amazing, but I will get to that in my next post, as I have other fun things to blog about. Penny's aunts made some gingerbread houses for the kids to decorate, and Penny actually got a lot more into it than I thought she would! She made a very quaint, dot-covered cottage.

Jonah did an awesome job as well.

Here's Penny obsessing over Riley, as usual.

There has been SO many treats, as usual. But this time I was prepared, and really limited myself. I've managed to keep the weight off this holiday... so far.

Fondue! Thanks for letting me share my tradition. Perhaps it wasn't quite Simply Fondue standards (this was an incredible Fondue place we all ate at last week.) but it was still fun to have a little Graham tradition.

My friends!

Jeff is REALLY excited about this dinner. And about how puffy his hair looks.

Grandma showed us where all the dance costumes were, which Penny immediately took to. She loves a good dress up, and this was a huge bucket spilling forth with tutus and dance costumes.

Jeff and his brothers worked really hard practicing a rockin' version of O Holy Night, in the arrangement of the Trans Siberian Orchestra. Jeff was just to the left on the Piano. It sounded great! They whipped it together in less than two days!

We had a Nativity, of course. I'm not sure making two toddlers the leads was entirely wise, but it made for good entertainment. Such as when they knocked on the door of the Inn (the bathroom door) just to hear there was no room, Jonah matter of factually declared that there WAS TOO enough room in there! And both made their way in. It was a little creative interpretation of the story :)

Penny's Mary costume may have needed a little tweeking...

OMG SANTA CAME!!1!!!!!111!! Along with Sparky and Spunky is jolly elves. As Santa has been on a diet, his elves have helped him not cheat by eating all the milk and cookies, which explains the dramatic weight increase since last time we saw them.

Penny was not happy about these visitors.

But upon further inspection, took quite a liking to this elf.

And even braved to sit on this fella's lap. And good thing too, or else she wouldn't have received these cute jammies!

Gotta go to bed cause Santa's gonna come! (know what I'm referencing, sibs?)

Jeff and I bought ugly sweater shirts from woot, which unfortunately didn't come in time for our Christmas party a few weeks ago (you can bet that our overnight shipping was refunded...)but we enjoyed wearing them on Christmas Eve! Anyway, the next morning exceeded our expectations, filled with surprises and presents ALL over the place, which mostly leaves me wondering just how we're going to get it back across the country... Anyway, I'm off to sketch and paint with my brand new Wacom Intuos Tablet!!! WHOOOO HOOOOOO!

Christmas Update.

2011-12-19T11:18:00.000-08:00

Our cross country flight was a wild success. Penny was very obedient and well-mannered, and thankfully was occupied most of the time with the toys and movies we provided. Fortunately both legs of our flight were not even close to full, so pretty much all the seats around us were empty, leaving us plenty of room to wander about.

Right off the airplane, we stopped at the Ghirardelli chocolate factory close to Jeff's house and loaded up on probably too much chocolate. I have been trying hard to stay away from those delicious temptations.

Penny was excited right away to see all these people to play with her. And I was happy to learn they were just as eager.

But I think Penny's new favorite activity around here involves this little friend:

Poor Riley is not doing well healthwise, so she mostly lazes about, which gives Penny easy access to play with her. There are also two cats out in the garage, which are unfortunately not to sociable, so Penny chases them for a while until they burrow deep into the bowels of the storage.

There isn't any question as to what MY favorite thing around here is...

I have been in here nearly every night since we got here. It feels especially good since I caught a terrible cold/flu since I've been here, and it eases my aches and pains.

We've also visited our good friends, Joel and Elise Crane. We enjoyed some very authentic tacos from a food truck, and went to Berkley to visit one of my favorite stores, Buffalo Exchange. It is a buy-sell-trade shop that always has very eclectic and different clothes, mainly due to the nature of the people in the city itself. I think a lot of the inventory is handmade, or from grandma's closet.

Pen really enjoys her very attentive audience as well, and never passes up an opportunity to show off. There is so much Christmas decor around here, Penny has really gone into overdrive with the Holiday spirit. She will say "Merry MISmas!" over and over again. One of her favorite games is putting the presents under the tree. Here's a video of Pen showing off in front of the family at dinner.

So, we're looking forward to the rest of our vacation! The weather has be lovely! I was soaking in the warm sun on the slightly brisk morning while walking with Pen. Jeff is busy working still, but we are not complaining, as we think it is awesome that he has a job which allows him to work remotely, meaning a longer trip for us! Ironically, his boss flew into town the day we did, and Jeff was able to meet up with him in San Fran for a few appointments. Killing lots of birds with one stone! And I love the extra sleep and naps I have been enjoying! Let me tell you, one of the biggest perks of having a sleep trained baby is it makes traveling so, so much easier. We have hardly had to make any adjustments to bedtimes. Penny is usually down between 6 and 7, and has slept in as late as 9! It makes traveling a lot less stressful.

Also, since Penny sleeps in our room with us, I have since discovered her sleep talking habits. Normally she'll just laugh and say, "Funny! Funny..." or other silly things. She is such a heavy sleeper! I think it is mostly due to sleeping in a hallway for most of her life. She can sleep through anything! I also discovered if she wakes up too early, we simply say, "go back to sleep, Penny." and she does it. I'm learning lots of new things about my child in this trip...

Here's a scary picture of Jeff.

Christmas Party!

2011-12-11T13:49:00.001-08:00

Emily and I felt like hosting a little Christmas party with a few friends from the ward. What started out in our minds as a fancier cocktail party quickly turned into an Ugly Sweater Mocktail Party. We felt we would all be much more at ease while donning hideous winter wear. And we were:

Included in our drink selection were the basics; Sparkling Cider, Sherbet Punch, Festive Nog, and we even found a giant keg of rootbeer! But the true star of the party was our "mocktails," which we made little instructions so people could mix their own drinks.

Appletini recipe.

Pina Colada recipe.

Pomegranate recipe.

All drinks were very fancy and delicious, and I think everyone enjoyed them. Here was our little station:

Not to mention ALL the appetizers and treats everyone contributed. This here was our contribution. The food supply steadily grew with amazingly delicious treats. I think Emily outdid herself with the delicious mini goat cheese balls.

You always know there is going to be amazing snacks and cheeses when Emily is involved.

So, we had a fun time with the gift exchange. Jeff and I gave a book with 400 facts about Chuck Norris with a Sponge Bob DVD, as well as Season 2 of Lost (I've become so desperate to get rid of those that I'm GIVING them away... Don't need 2 sets of Lost taking up space in my house.)

Jeff and I ended up with a portable charcoal grill and a very cute clutch purse (which I actually have been in the market for!) so we can't complain. I think we made out better this year than last year's VHS of Sweatin' to the Oldies with Richard Simmons.

Here's Emily, enjoying a pina colada garnished with a slice of starfruit.

Hilary and Chris showing off their drinks.

So sophisticated!

Ryan was the winner of our Ugly Sweater contest. Where EVER did he find such a gem? The best part is that we found out they got pulled over just outside of Cheverly, and after the cop saw their festive sweaters and ate some of their left over cookies, he let them off! Ugly sweaters FTW!

Here's our group!

And a funny one!

So, the evening ended after 12, so of course we were wiped out.

And so, another successful Christmas party come and gone. I hope everyone had the big fun!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-10T06:02:00.001-08:00

I have loads to catch up on, but I suppose I will wait until we are in California to catch up since I have been SO busy lately. I am looking forward to Christmas at the Ribeiras, especially since there will be lots of people to play with Penny and give me a little break. Though, I'm sure I will just join right is, as playing with Penny is one of my favorite things to do.

Anyway, luckily we have house sitters right upstairs to take care of all our fine china and numerous safes. HA, the joke's on you robbers, we have none of those things. But what we do have is this Christmas card and letter to share with you (if you haven't already received it... sorry if I am spoiling your Christmas Card surprise.)

Well, Merry Christmas everyone! Feel free to come say hi to us in California!

(Click to enlarge and see all the little details.)

2011-11-30T13:03:00.001-08:00

I don't think it is often that someone can french braid both their daughter's and husband's hair in the same day... I think Jeff may be more nervous about cutting his hair than I am mine!

Also, some new logos I'm working on. I love awesome clients!

Jeff and I went downtown last night, and I drew this on the metro! We look so East Coast, right?

And here's Penny.

2011-11-21T09:49:00.001-08:00

Which one? I can't decide. The black or white background.

An artful week

2011-11-19T09:18:00.001-08:00

So, as Jeff drifted off to sleep last night, I seized the opportunity to sketch the night away. Sometimes I get into these drawing moods where I feel like I can produce art much more easily than normally. Yesterday was one of those days. I did these two things. The first (above) is a quick sketch that I got carried away with painting in photoshop (I meant only to have it be a pencil drawn comic) of my little snake encounter. Even looking at my drawing gives me the jibblies.

And secondly, is from Tangled. The original sketch wasn't so awesome, so I decided to fix my mistakes with vectors, the ever forgiving medium!

And finally, I have been seeing a lot of this "Steam Punk" thing drifting around. It is cool, I'm not quite sure if I get it completely, but I thought it would be fun to draw.

I have also started to dabble in photoshop painting. It is in anticipation of our purchase of photoshop CS5 and hopefully a new tablet for Christmas! I want to be ready to take off when I get these two extremely valuable assets. I feel like I have only scratched the surface of my potential, and all I need is the proper tools! I can't wait. Anyway, here is Tarzan and Jane.

2011-11-12T09:57:00.001-08:00

ATTENTION EVERYONE!!!

Tomorrow I will be changing my blog address from lililou11.blogspot.com to ribcity.blogspot.com (cheesy, I know, but super easy to remember. Do you want to try and figure out how to spell ribeira every time you type in my blog address?). You may need to adjust your links and feeds accordingly. Thank you for your time.

-Lili

EDIT: I meant to say next Sunday, not tomorrow. So, this change will not happen until this upcoming Sunday.

What I DO love...

2011-11-09T12:07:00.000-08:00

...is when I get awesome clients who are serious about wanting good graphic designs! And because of their awesomeness, it makes me want to work hard and produce the best work that I can. I also find that with every project I do, I learn and grow a little more as a designer, which benefits everyone! Anyway, among the things I am working for is Govloop (currently working on a few things for them, they are certainly my favorite clients, I feel like it is such an opportunity to stretch my bounds and abilities :) ) and I am proud to say in less than 2 hours, I pumped out these options for another client. What do you think?

I thought I would throw this up here as well, just so you can see the creative process. I take about 10 minutes to sketch, scan, and then frantically design while Penny sleeps away.

Oh! There she is now. Lunch time!

Halloween

2011-10-31T20:48:00.000-07:00

We have had such a great Halloween week. It has been crazy busy as well. Em and I were put in charge of the Ward Halloween Chili Cook-Off, which went great! Unfortunately, our husbands and children had to leave early as the party exceeded their bedtime, but they still had a great time trick-or-treating to all the different doors in the church building. Emily went as her own version of Super (Wo)Man and I revisited my former junior high alter ego creation, Super Lili.

Here's the original Super Lili from 9th grade. Ah, the good old days.

In other good news, I have shed nearly 9 pounds since last Halloween (that is when I really started to kick my post-baby weight loss into gear.) I am very relieved and amazed to be back down to nearly pre-marriage weight. I owe most of the weight loss to breast feeding and obsessively watching Heavy, Extreme Make-Over: Weight Loss Edition, and Biggest Loser. Anyway, I am planning on gaining it all back come Christmas. Mixed feelings about that...

Penny had an awesome Halloween. I love that at this age, the accumulation of candy is more interesting than actually eating it, leaving the spoils for the parents (though, I am going to resist as much as possible, and freeze it all. See above paragraph). We decided to walk around our block and knock on the more decked out houses. I had no idea how friendly and excited everyone in our neighborhood was. I know Cheverly certainly prides itself on being a family-friendly community, but people were extremely friendly, I expressed my appreciation on a few occasions for the welcoming attitude. That is saying quite a lot considering the condition of the neighborhoods not a mile or two from here (remember the Target stabbing?) Needless to say, Penny enjoyed the new experience, and I think the new, friendly faces were good for her. She needs a little exposure to new people. Plus, several houses were handing out the BIG candybars. We'll save THOSE for later.

Here are some adorable pictures of our little kitty:

We ended our fine evening with some amazingly divine home-made pizzas courtesy of Emily, and watched an old edited version of Butterfly Effect (too bad they can't edit the cheesiness or bad acting out of it. But still a fun little thriller.) and indulged in some serious home made caramel with apple slices. Really, I would have just liked to eat it with a spoon, and forget the apples altogether, but that would contradict my previous statement (see weight loss paragraph.)

Happy Halloween all! I hope everyone enjoyed themselves, and had a safe holiday! Here are some zombie sketches to send you off!

My daily struggle.

2011-10-22T20:39:00.000-07:00

I have always though of myself as a generally healthy person. I enjoy a good work out, I'm probably too obsessive about what I eat, and I have always been grateful about my high functioning self.

Until this year when I have been cursed with horrible, dreaded asthma.

I remember growing up, there would be times when I couldn't really get enough air in my lungs (have you ever had that feeling where you try to yawn, and it doesn't seem to catch? It feels very similar to that) but never enough to bug me. But throw a little bit of allergies in the mix, and it was like a bomb went off.

I have been to the doctor over 5 times now in the last few weeks, every time trying a new medication or inhaler, to find something that will help ease my attacks. Generally they work for the first week, then the effects wear off, and I am left with asthma attacks and other infections CAUSED by the medications (this has made me even more angry than the breathing problems...) I knew it was getting really bad when I couldn't even last through the first hour of church with out an attack, and Jeff and I had to run to the Urgent Care. It is constantly on my mind, which is a burden because normally you don't really have to THINK about trying to get enough air with every breath, it just happens. We are going to try an allergy specialist, because obviously the doctor we have been going to has been a big waste of time (and money).

Mostly, I just want to remember how good it feels to breathe again. *suppressed sigh*

But so far, the best cure has been the fun distractions I have in my life every day.

It is supposed to say Canned Delectables.

Emily has been gracious enough to invite me to her canning fun! We had boxes or nectarines and apples on the verge of going bad, so we quickly canned some nectarine quarters and jams, and some really delicious apple butter. Emily was not entirely impressed by their turn out, but I was just beaming with pride to see my little jars lined up! It is a pretty big deal for me to even made something that turns out ok, and these looked so pretty and legit! Plus the smell of those apples slow cooking all day was mouthwatering and a treat all by itself!

While we were making this delicious jam, Emily suggested we make some yummy bread as well. I was very excited to do make bread with someone, because for some reason, mine just doesn't turn out how I plan. But of course, with Em's magic touch, I made my best loaves yet, all by hand!

I will admit, I am not the best baker or can...ner, but I DO enjoy myself a good design project. So I made labels.

Playing with these kids is definitely a highlight to my day. Penny is constantly asking for "MiMI!!!" and "Ooby!" and I sometimes find her halfway up the stairs with out me in her haste to play. We need to close our doors more tightly! These kids are so funny, it is just a treat watching them all grow up. And they are all extremely clever. It is very entertaining to listen to them play off each other (often in the car) where one will start counting, and the other continues for them. Or someone will start singing a song just to have someone join in for the chorus. One of my favorite instances was Friday, Penny was engaging in her favorite, prolonged maniacal laugh she so often does, which inspired the rest to follow. We were cruising a car full of giggly babies, Emily and I very much enjoyed the in-car entertainment.

Well, I published this post, and somehow more than half of it got deleted. So, I will continue it later, when I am over this internal struggle not to explode... Ok, it's passing... nope. Still there. Ok, now it's gone. For now, enjoy this flier I made for the ward Halloween party that Em and I got put in charge of. Jeff requested the Frankenstein's Monster, and the rest of the trick-or-treaters followed after :) I think they turned out just adorable, and I'm sure all the kids who come will be too.

Lately

2011-10-14T14:15:00.000-07:00

I'm sure every young mother goes through that moment where they have to figure out where their life is going to go. I am happier than I have ever been playing with little Pen all day (though, an extra bedroom would be nice. When we finally have one, we will appreciate it that much more, right?) but I always knew no matter when we started having kids, I always wanted to continue my graphic design efforts. I have always felt that it was a good choice of career, because it was more of a supplement to my motherhood, and could easily be done from home in my spare time.

I felt like I finally reached the point where I could continue my graphic designing without taking any time away from Pen, and so I have really started working on it full force. I have been doing lots of work to pad my portfolio so I can start sending it to magazines and publishing companies. See for yourself:

and my handouts have been doing well. I accumulate about 5,000+ views weekly!

I have also been getting lots of commission jobs lately from Jeff's work, as well as a few commission jobs on the side. I am so glad I have finally been able to revisit and develop my passion.

Now, the down side of being a designer. For some reason, most of my potential customers think that I should work for free. Perhaps people are just misinformed, but designing things is hard work. I have to come up with a concepts, sketch, scan, then illustrate and assemble the design. It isn't like I wave a magical wand and the designs appear. Not to mention the years I have invested in learning these complicated programs, and developing my mouse control. I do every illustration with the mouse since I don't have a tablet yet. I have had a few potential jobs in the last few weeks where people ask for my help with some illustrations, and as soon as I mention my price (which, by the way, is EXTREMELY good) I never hear from them again. Or even worse, I actually end up doing the designs, just to have people change their mind and don't want the designs anymore, or even refuse to pay. When you go to a restaurant, you can't just keep ordering food until you get something you actually want.

Also, NEVER justify your free designs by offering for the designer to use it in their "portfolio." Not every single thing we do goes in our portfolio. Does every single thing you do at work end up on your resume?

This graphic that I happened upon on the internet pretty sums it up:

The point is, if you want a good design, be prepared to pay. If you want a terrible design made with little effort, then so be it.

Ok, end of my rant.

Now for fun things! My favorite thing about Penny lately is her ability to truly feed herself. She can eat cereal and milk all by herself, I can just give her and apple or sandwich or most other foods. It saves so much time.

She is also a blossoming artist! She loves to color or "dwah" with crayons, markers, paints, and pens. Yesterday, as she was coloring, I told her to draw a circle, and sure enough, she drew a very rough oval shape! Perhaps I am rubbing off on her after all! Pen and the triplets enjoy sitting on my lap while I sketch lately, and name the face and body parts as I sketch them. Such clever children.

We have also had lots of fun with mom and dad who were in town. It was great to have more friends to play with through out the day. We had fun at the Amish Market, saw a brilliant production of one of my favorite musicals Parade at Ford's Theater, ate some good stuff at Good Stuff, among several other fun activities.

A few more cute pictures:

Also, Emily posted the other day about the Target stabbing that we came upon minutes after it happened. We pulled up just as the ambulances were leaving, but there was still pools and splatters of blood all over the pavement. It was very traumatic, and more disturbing than I thought it would be. I kind of never want to leave the house again, you never know what crazy lady is wandering free with knives stowed on her person. What kind of sick world do we live in?!? I try not to think about this, but it keeps creeping back.

To end on a happier note, Penny is cutely asking for snacks or "sphnaks!" so I best be feeding her that delicious lasagna I prepared last night.

The Race for the Family

2011-10-02T08:10:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I did what I thought to be impossible and actually ran (and finished!) a 5k! I can finally join my family in saying that I have at least made it through a race!!

The reason why I am mostly excited is because a few weeks ago I was diagnosed with asthma, and my breathing has been a big problem lately, especially with allergy season in full force. (They say this is the absolute WORST place in the country for allergies. Which aggravates the asthma even more.) It has been a big struggle in my life, because the medicines they gave me to help me breath only caused more problems, and now we are back to the beginning with trying to treat it. So, the thought of running even 1 mile seemed a bit daunting.

It was hard, there were moments when I wanted to stop, and it was hard to breath sometimes, but I just continued to run, and I finished in 30:10! My goal was no more than a half hour, and I reach exactly that. And I felt great afterward!


Here comes Emily, about a minute or so before me!

And here I come sprinting to the end!

I should also mention that we chose to run this particular race because it was sponsored by Shady Grove Fertility Clinic, and we felt that The Race for the Family was a very worthy cause.

Jeff and Penny had a fun time playing on the play ground, and exploring the park. Jeff said she tried to run right into this lake, shouting, "SWIM? SWIM? SWIMMING SWIMMING SWIMMING!? SWIM!?!"

Anyway, we had a great time! Thanks for the motivation, Emily! I think I could have done a little better without my breathing problems, perhaps on a course with less hills, and maybe I could have done with out the two large mosquito bites on my toes :)

2011-09-25T12:42:00.000-07:00

Since it has been a while since my last picture update, I thought I would add a few. There are just some shots I took of the big kids the other day.

Thanks Heavens for popcorn. The kids love it!

Also, unable to get my own dollhouse over here quite yet, while shopping at Once Upon a Child, I saw this little mini doll house! They actually had my exact same doll house as well, but it was not in very good shape, and cost $25. This one was only $5, and is much smaller, and comes apart. Just big enough for the few pieces we have.

Jeff's sister Becky was working at an orphanage in Romania for the past few months. She brought back this adorable outfit for Penny. She look so cute at church today, I just had to take a million pictures.

Cuuuuuuuuuute, as Penny would say.

And here's a video of Penny and I having a conversation. She actually was doing most of her tricks on camera! It was quite a surprise.

More tangled!

2011-09-23T14:34:00.000-07:00

Here's one more to add to that last post! I just liked so many of other people's drawings they did in their own style, that I applied a little of my own!

Tangled!

2011-09-20T20:48:00.000-07:00

Penny LOVES this movie. She is always asking to watch Punzel (though, lately she has also taken a liking to Beast) and so we let her watch it through out the day. Mostly, I love that she will sit quietly on my lap while I design for a good hour watching this show while I get work done. Her favorite line is when Mother Gothel says, "I'm making hazelnut SOOOoouuup!" which Penny enjoys quoting through out the day. Except it is more like, "thyeewwoup!"

Anyway, since I end up watching this movie (and never seem to get sick of it. I love is as much as Pen!) I always am inspired to draw.

I start out with a sketch:

Add a little Adobe Illustrator:

I'm not saying it isn't a complicated process, but it is fun to finally be able to color things the way I like in such a versatile, me-friendly way. I am sloppy with watercolors, and don't have a tablet, so Photoshop coloring is out (for now... :). It has been fun to discover new things about illustrator.

Just for fun, here is the outline version of the picture above. That shows you all the vectors and layers involved in making such a project.

So, I was in the mood to make another one, and I had already sketched this out at the same time as the previous drawing.

And here it is today! Sure there is lots and lots of room for improvement, but I am learning so much with these little studies. Plus I really like how her dress turned out.

In other news, my Holy Handouts blog has been doing quite well! In the past three days, I have had over 4,000 views! And I imagine those numbers will grow as the weekend nears. I am benefiting in lots of ways, mostly because I have already scoured the lessons, so when I'm up to teach, I am already familiar with the lesson! You can check out Holy Handouts through the link in my sidebar.

Birthday friends!

2011-09-12T13:02:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Babies! I guess they aren't really babies, as they turned 2 today. My word, this year has flown by, as I moved out here right after their first birthday! These babies are so big and cute and bursting with personality, I am so happy Penny has these fun friends to play with every day. Anyway, this was my birthday present for the kids. I hope they liked it!

2011-09-10T09:13:00.000-07:00

We are glad the Robinsons are back! We were so bored without them. Also, thanks Em for taking Penny off our hands for a few weeks. She loved Utah and being with her cousins...

Chill out, y'all, tis photoshopped!

Now back to blogging!

First off, a quick, horrifying story. Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a horrible, irrational fear of wild mushrooms. Something about them makes me want to die a little. Especially all those little disgusting lines on the bottom, which goes along with my fear of things in the masses. So, you can imagine my disgust when I saw these spawn of the devil pop up over night in our front yard:

SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKK!!!! They are over a foot wide! Like, Mario size! But, the story gets worse... Yesterday, as I was walking by these horrible things, I noticed they were gone! Where did they go?? I inched closer for further inspection, and to my absolute HORROR, both mushrooms were overflowing with a maggot infestation, and had completely imploded. I nearly passed out right there, but didn't in fear of landing on the same grass as the maggot infestation. Now I can't stop thinking about all those little squirmy nasties. I constantly feel sick to my stomach.

These summer months flew by pretty quickly, which is crazy because most days it seemed like they would never end with this horrible humidity. Especially with the rain lately, even inside our house I feel sticky and wet all the time. Not to mention hot, on top of that. BLECH! But other than that and maggoty mushrooms, there isn't much to complain about! We have had an awesome summer for the most part.

One summer highlight was our friends Lacie and Leland Liu came to visit us! (I feel the need to call her Lacie Liu every time I say her name. I am just still so tickled by that.) This is one of the great reasons we love living in DC, because it is a vacation destination, so we get to see a lot of people more often that if we lived elsewhere. Just the other day, Jeff's friend Dave popped in for a visit while attending work training. See what I mean? Awesome!

Lacie and Lee had just arrived on the train from NYC where they had already spent a week touring around! So hitting up DC too was pretty ambitious, but I think they did pretty much everything they wanted to do in the 6 days here. And of course we joined them for what we could. We visited the Natural History Museum, the National Zoo, we visited several monuments, went to the Amish market, outlet shopping, and ate at so, so many good restaurants. It was restaurant week, so we took advantage of the menu tastings.

We ate at Dino's, Oyamel, Founding Farmers, and of course the Amish market. I feel like I'm missing some... Oh well. Anyway, ALL were amazing, I would recommend any of them.

We also had fun playing games, the wii, watching shows, going to church, playing with the Robinsons, making food and reminiscing about good times and laughing so hard.

Also, one of my favorite parts was two other people to help with Penny through the day, and boy did they help! They were chasing little Penny through all sorts of museum exhibits and primate houses. Thanks guys!

A great time was had by all indeed. I think the highlight for me was when just the four of us drove downtown after Pen went to sleep (thanks for the babysit, Em, as always) and went to see the monuments. It was so fun just to hang out with our friends and leisurely enjoy the sites. We had such good conversation and I always love taking advantage of our close proximity to DC. I think if we had lived this close to an awesome city growing up, we would have had a lot more interesting things to do on the weekends :) Seriously, what DID we do for fun in Utah Valley!?! I guess company of friends was always good enough. And still is.

Now, photos:


At Dino's for Restaurant week. The guy who took the picture was wearing a gryffindor scarf, so I knew it was safe to ask him.

Utah peeps.

You can't stand in front of a Utah monument and not take a jumping picture!

A cool picture Lacie took of the metro station. It looks so pretty, yet smells so heavily of urine.

At the zoo, looking at the birds.

We had lots of fun on our empty metro car. Penny was in heaven, as I normally don't even let her out of her stroller on here.

Jeff also celebrated his 27th birthday recently. It was a very modest affair, since the Robinsons were out of town, and his birthday fell on a Monday. But we definitely made it fun. I made him a delicious cake, and cleverly made my way downtown with out Jeff knowing, and surprised him at work! Penny was shy around his coworkers at first, but quickly warmed up to the new faces and soon was flitting around the office like she owned the place. We all enjoyed some cake, and Jeff left with us to finish working at home.

For Jeff's big birthday present, we ended up buying a giant sectional couch from Costco! I went to see if they still had any, and they were taking down the display as I asked if they still had any in stock. Luckily they had ONE left, and it was marked down $200! We spend the evening transporting it back from Costco in Em's van (it took two trips...)and piece by piece put it in our tiny apartment. Our plan was to store half of it in our conveniently large laundry room, and squeeze a few pieces in for more sitting options in our small living room. We figure when we move in the near future, we will be glad to have a nice, big, modular sectional to fill a giant living room with (any living room will seem giant at this point). We were SO exhausted by the end of the night, we postponed our plans to cook up strip steak and chicken mango jalapeno sausages, and instead threw together a extremely humble meal of Pasta-roni and canned green beans (that is how tired we were..)

We also luckily got reservations to Graffiato the Thursday after Jeff's birthday. This place just opened so it was hard to get in, but someone at Jeff's work couldn't make their reservation so we gladly took it. It was small plate style (could be called Tapas) so we ordered about 5 or 6 things. Here are few, and we unfortunately didn't get a picture of the farm fresh pizza or pepperoni chicken thigh. Next time, I guess.

The potted can plant wasn't for eating...

This was some carrot date salad with some delicious grain that I forget what it was.

Sugar Snap Peas with goat cheese.

Little corn pastas. A review on yelp claimed these taste more like corn than corn does. They were right! They were just bursting with buttery corn flavor!

I love living so close to downtown! SO many good restaurants. But we'll probably go broke from living here. I can't believe I used to think Brick Oven and Macaroni Grill were pricier restaurants! (Don't get me wrong, I miss Brick Oven ever so. I miss the prices too...)

In other news, we survived both an earthquake and hurricane all in one week! Fortunately, Em and I were traveling on a very bumpy road when the earthquake happened, so we weren't much affected. I can imagine if we had been in the house at the time, I would have had a heart attack over the safety of the babies. But it was a very mild one, we're glad no one was hurt. The hurricane was hyped up to the max, the News stations around here were being RIDICULOUS. Everything was, "Ok, so the hurricane isn't AS big as we had originally thought, but there is STILL A CHANCE IT COULD BE ABSOLUTELY DEVISTATING!!11!!!!11111!!!!!1 Look, here is a clip we have played 50 times now of the same car dealership that had a piece of its tin roof bent back! THIS IS THE END OF THE WORLD!!!"

Now, some people did lose power and have pretty bad flooding, which is terrible. Also, along the coasts and upper Vermont got hit pretty bad. But the local news people were just milking this storm as much as they could, it was just sad. What was just as sad was the mad dash every human in the area did to every grocery store to get supplies. These people need to get with the food storage program to avoid the hour wait in line at Costco.

We love visiting the Amish Market. It is only open Thursday, Friday & Saturday with limited hours, so we try to squeeze a trip in every other weekend or so. They just have such great produce and meat selections, delicious cheeses and pastries and the most amazing soft pretzels you will ever eat in your life. We accidentally ended up buying a dozen donuts, because we ran out of cash, and they only take debit if you spend over $7...

Among the selection were maple cream, chocolate turtle, coconut creme, apple fritter, triple chocolate soopreese, as well as all the classics. I am please to say we made them stretch through the week, but at the same time, I am horrified that we ate all these donuts between 3 people. But boy, they were goooooood.

Jeff bought some rootbeer as well. We mostly bought it because of the label:

And lastly, Penny is now in Nursery. It is weird to think Penny is a mere 6 months away from being 2 years old. My stars, that girl is big. And has a personality to match. I wonder where she learns half the things she does. She did great for both hours she was in there! She hardly even noticed when I left, and apparently played nicely the whole time.

She loves taking pictures.

She took this one, I think this one turned out pretty good! Ignore that half of Jeff's legs. Penny still has a little bit to learn about composition.


Triple binky or "beebee." When will the binky fairy come and take these away?

The other day I bought these foreign treats from a sale at Aldi. We laughed so hard at the captions on the cookie sticks. I think my favorite is the whale: biggesy mammal! The chicken reminds me of Gob from Arrested Development, and the cow seems more appropriate that how we spell it. MUUUUUUUU!

As a side note, I have taken up running. It is SO hard to do around here, because our little town is all hills, not to mention the humidity makes it hard to breathe. It is good motivation when Jeff comes with me. We are training for a race that Jeff's work is sponsoring in a few months, and I am going to finish even if I end up walking (though, we are required to keep 15 minute miles. That shouldn't be hard at all.) There are lots of good side effects to running! I am now a mere 3 pounds away from my pre marriage weight! I finally fit in all my clothes again! After Penny was born, I accepted the fact that I may never have my slimness back, but I am catching glimpses of what I used to look like! Though, a lot of dieting and eating healthy also helped quite a bit. Eating lots of vegetables has really helped me expand my cooking skills as well, and I have really watched my portion sizes. My stomach was so stretched out from having seconds and thirds at every meal! So that has helped quite a bit. It is a winning situation all around.

2011-09-08T19:56:00.000-07:00

I know, I haven't posted about my sweet, sweet Pen in so long, and there is a lot to post about (like how she was SO excited to see her Mimi and baby friends again, and how she has funny ways of pronouncing things these days, like "two-uz" for tortillas and calling herself "Pepee!") but we will get to that when I have more time. We also have been doing lots of fun things, like eating at the delicious and exclusive Graffiato, as well as Jeff's birthday fun times. But for now, I will leave you with this latest design of mine. I started and worked on it during Pen's nap, and then was able to finish tonight after dinner! I have been trying really hard to do more detailed work, so I really pushed myself to try harder to achieve that. I could have done SO much more, but
my head hurts from staring at this screen. So I decided to finish up. Here it is:

Remember to zoom in to appreciate the detail! Here, I made a close up for you:

Holy Handouts!

2011-09-03T05:13:00.000-07:00

Hey all! Just so you know, I started a new blog to throw on all my handouts I make for my YW lessons and Mutuals. I realized I was growing quite the collection, and felt sad that I only was able to use them once. So, I am now offering them to the world for free, to use to spread the Gospel to their Young Women as well.
Here is a sampling. I am trying to stay about 3 or 4 lessons ahead of where everyone is, which will be great for me, because then when it comes time to teach, I won't even have to think about it. Which, I suppose is the point in the first place.

Anyway, most of them tie directly into the lessons, so they are very easy to implement.

See them all at holyhandouts.blogspot.com.

Happy Birthday Jeff!!!!!

2011-08-29T09:01:00.000-07:00

It's Jeff's birthday, so I felt it only appropriate to make him yet another birthday surprise like the last few years.

Happy birthday Jefffff!

2011-08-25T07:05:00.000-07:00

And another! This was an old sketch of mine that I thought would be fun to color. I think it turned out nicely!

The finished product.

2011-08-24T08:22:00.000-07:00

I mentioned I was working on this drawing. Again, zoom in for the hi-res version, it looks much better.

Keeping the creative juices a-flowin'.

2011-08-20T10:48:00.000-07:00

Another art update. My little watercolor journal is quickly filling up! Here are some other things I have produced:
Every once in a while I rediscover a new medium that I have forgotten about. Yesterday I discovered the fun of drawing with simply a black prismacolor pencil. It is fun, aside from sharpening it every couple of strokes.

Can you guess who these girls are?
And here is me calling in love with Jeff('s long hair...) It am currently making a digital art of this one. And a few more sketches of Penny. She has such funny features, they translate well into my drawing style.
So much so, that I whipped this up during naptime today.

Lius News!

2011-08-15T13:54:00.000-07:00

Our bffs Lacie and Leland Liu are in town! It has been so much fun to have someone come to our side of the country. Penny warmed up to them right away, and apparently even started calling for Lacie in the night. It is so great to have other people for Penny to interact with, especially when they are so willing to play with her. (I'm looking forward to Christmas, when there will surely be lots of people in California happy to keep her occupied...)
Here's Pen snuggling with Lacie and Leland.

We've been doing so much with the Lius, I will have to save that for a different post, especially after they give me their pictures. But for now, here are a few from when we went to the park.

Penny went off the tallest slides. Take that, Drew.
Ah, zee parallel bars...
We had a great time on the swings.
As did Penny.
I did a grand total of one pull-up.

As we were leaving for the park, all the babies pilled into the window. They were making such funny faces, but Bennett won the prize.
I love Emily's big front window, it makes for such great lighting. Here are a few cute pics I snapped.

So, for those of you who own photoshop, you may know about actions. I usually try to avoid using them for some reason, as I feel like I know enough about photoshop to do make the effects on my own, but I downloaded some just to play around. They may look a little cliche, but it still makes a fun effect. You should download some for yourself and experiment with your own pictures!

In the end, I still think it is the subject that makes the picture cute, rather than the effects, of course :)

Midyear Update

2011-08-07T18:04:00.000-07:00

We had the Robinsons down for dinner this evening for Tyler Florence's delicious chicken enchiladas with tomatilla salsa, and Em said she would bring dessert. Image our soopreese when she showed up with THIS! Don't be TOO jealous of this deluxe fruit pizza.
It was... so good.

Anyway, to the picture post! The other day, I got lost going home from a meeting while winding through some neighborhoods. Now, we don't live in the nicest area, so i was surprised to stumble upon this well-kept, fenced in park! Since we are always looking for something that meets those requirements, Em and I braved the stupid heat for a few minutes of fun.
Pen and Ben(nett) loved the swings, as always.

Ruby was brave and went down the slide all by herself.
And up it too, apparently.
We had a good time, but had to leave due to humid conditions, and some unfortunate sanitary concerns that we discovered...

A while ago, Jeff discovered that there was going to be a exhibition game between Manchester United and Barcelona at the FedEx field, which is about 10 minutes from our house. Since we knew our good friends, the Milnes, were big on soccer, we asked them to join us! Boy, was it hot, but luckily we were on the west side, so we were able to enjoy the game in the shade. We were rooting for Barcelona, who unfortunately lost. But it was a good game with lots of action even still.
Plus, the view was really cool from how high up we were. If you zoom in, you can see the Washington Monument and capitol building.I learned a few things at this soccer game. Everyone wastes their money on beer. Seriously, starting at $9 a bottle! And these people buy several! Also, there were younger kids all around us, and I was so surprised at the very unsportsmanlike behavior they were displaying, which was even encouraged by their parents. Fortunately it didn't spoil the game.

Also fortunate is Jeff's magical hair. He is hesitant to cut it for some reason. It's funny, as we thought that before his last hair cut, that was the last time he would ever have long hair again. But we didn't know that his work was lax with their dresscode, you know, being an internet company and all.
Penny's hair is getting longer now, which means it's much easier to do french braids!
Mom sent over some pieces of my doll house recently. Sorry to all those kiddies back home who no longer have people to play with! But I always took such good care of that dollhouse in hopes of someday giving it to a child of my own. I am surprised even after all the use it has had over the years that most of the pieces still remain in tact! Thanks, kids!
We went to our friend Hilary's house to play with her baby Jack and swim in her fun pool! She had a perfect little fenced in front porch, covered with trees so it was great to have a break from the heat.
Emily brought rainbow sugar cookies, which mostly ended up as a mush in the bottom of the pool. The babies didn't mind the sogginess as the scooped up the cookies and ate them. We tried our best not to gag. But other than mushy cookies, we had a great time! And Penny played happily for over and hour and a half, and it was fun to have some good conversation with Hilary as well.

The other day I felt the need to splurge on some little boots for Penny. I just can't wait until the weather turns colder and I can put Pen in some skinny jeans and these little "boops" as she calls them.
I challenged Jeff to sketch a picture the other day, and this is the picture of Penny he came up with. What do you think? Penny liked to point and laugh at it, and was sad when it SOMEHOW got erased from the whiteboard.
She should have been making this face at that picture instead.
Here are a few shots form the other day. I didn't have time to edit them at all, so sorry about that.

Cuteness! And finally, a little video of Penny singing a song from her recent favorite movie. She also loves Princess and the Frog and Tangled. Please ignore my raspy, tired vocals. Blech.

Jeff has a Dream, Jeff has a dream.

2011-08-01T15:03:00.000-07:00

Can't get those Tangled songs out of my head... Pen loves the show, she is practically singing along as well. Moving on.

Back when Jeff and I were still fresh, young newly weds and Penny was the size of a lentil, we went on a little retreat to Yosemite with the Ribeiras. Jeff mused how he dreamed of someday being a ranger in Yosemite. Perhaps that will still be in our plans someday, but until then, I drew him this picture to satisfy his yearnings:

Well, I have been less than inspired lately when it comes to using my Adobe programs. But then I remembered this little poster I had though up after sketching the previous drawing.

Zoom in for the full effect, it looks much better.
Ignore the mistakes that I have made (if you don't see them, whoo hoo!). I have been trying to really expand my digital horizons, especially since the majority of illustrations are done digitally, and there are ways to still make them look charming and interesting rather than cookie cutter and run of the mill. This time I was trying to apply patterns and textures.

Anyone hankering for an outdoor adventure!?

More arts

2011-07-26T10:30:00.000-07:00

Lately I have kind of rediscovered my ability to draw. Because of this I have been trying to devote at least an hour through out my day to sketching/drawing to improve my skills that I have somewhat abandoned as of late. I have devised little ways to get my groove back.

I first bought a little 3x5 watercolor sketchbook, which makes for fun, fast project that only take a day vs. several. Plus they look so cute and colorful in the little sketch book one right after another. Here's my first one:
I also cracked open my regular sketchbook. I was a bit sad that I started this one in 2008, and here it is over 3 years and I'm only just nearing the end of it. But it is never too late to pick back up, right? So here are just some sketches. I am working on doing more detailed drawings vs. vague sketches.
Coming soon, a digital illustration I have been working on that I am pretty proud of. I have been doing lots of online tutorials to work on my technique, as I kind of feel I have hit a standstill with my illustrations as well. The thing about graphic design is the styles are always changing, and part of being a good designer is keeping up with it. We'll see how well I do...

Until I post that, you can see the cover of a booklet I created for a little commission job for Jeff's work. They are hosting a big conference this week, and one of the speakers needed to amp up his booklet.What do you think? Will it grab attendees' attention?

Actual Painting

2011-07-19T17:47:00.000-07:00

While finger-pudding-painting is both fun and delicious, it doesn't quite satisfy my artistic itch. So, I pulled out my paintbox and palette and did my usual doodles, waiting to find some inspiration.

I then remember this picture Emily had hanging in her hallway.
I think it's such a beautiful picture, with the rich blues of the ocean and the crashing waves. But what I mostly love about it, is the reminder of the fun times I had with Emily and Melody. There were times when I was always a little jealous that they were twins and had each other, but that was so far from the truth as I always felt included in everything. Perhaps they will never know the impact of insisting that your silly 14 year old sister come along to Macey's with your friends to get ice cream, or taking time out of your day to help her get a few hours of driving with her permit, or even borrowing a cute shirt or some make up. Indeed, it did leave a lasting impact. I was so lucky to have older sisters who were so loving, and always were looking out for me. I don't think they will ever know how much I looked up to them, and wanted to be just like them and still do (Not to mention all the perks I got at school being the "Graham twins' little sister"). Even today, I am ever learning from all of my sisters, and am so glad that I can consider each of them a best friend. (Can't leave my bros out either! They're amazing!)

Well, that all just kind of came out. Back to the painting... (click to zoooooom)
Now, I haven't painted in a while, so it always takes a little bit to get back into the swing of things, but I think it turned out pretty nicely. I know it is a simple painting, but I am very proud of a few things; The preserved whites, the deep colors, and the finer details.

You see, watercoloring has always been a challenge for me, as it requires extreme patience and detail. Lots of waiting to dry and building up transparent layers. I am a VERY impatient person, especially when it comes to art (which is why I like digital art, as I can whip those babies out all fast like.) I get bored taking time to plan everything then sketch it out, then continuously paint over a series of days or even weeks. I just like to dive in, and see results!

Which is why I think watercoloring is a good exercise for me. It really pushes me beyond my comfort zone, and a lot of the time it is worth the struggle. I would love to take lessons, as I have a very limited training right now, and I have been researching my options in DC, which there are plenty! We'll see if I ever find the time (or want to fork up the dough).

Another special moment that came from my recent painting spree is when Pen-pants abandoned her toys and shows and tippy-toed up to the table to see what her mommy was up to. She tugged on me to pull her up on my lap to see what I was so focused on and sat for a few minutes, just observing my technique (at the time, I was painting a self portrait, and even in its very beginning stages, at her first glance she said, "Mama!" I was very flattered.) and it wasn't long before she started grabbing for the brush.

So I sat her in her high chair, put a fresh paper on her tray and handed her a brush full of paint. She got right to work, trying to copy what she had observed, loudly shouting repeatedly the colors that would flow from the brushstroke. When her brush ran dry, I would fill it up with a new color. Her favorite was "YELLOW!!!!"

So, we sat there painting together for a good half hour. I couldn't help but smile while hearing her giggle and converse with me as we worked, and feel a little burning of happiness in my heart as I shared one of my passions in life with my baby girl.

Perhaps it is just a few lines and blots of paint in the end, but I think just like my painting above, it is what the picture represents that makes it so special. I couldn't be more proud of my Penny.
With that said, we'll start the bidding off at $100,000!

Passing the day.

2011-07-14T09:16:00.000-07:00

The other day Em and I found leotards at Old Navy in the clearance section. The girls look adorable in their little ballerina costumes.
Of course, they look adorable no matter what, I suppose.
These little girls will be best friends forever!
These two are also best friends. Penny misses him so much while he's at work, she gets SO excited when he comes home.
The other night we were watching a very boring movie (Unstoppable I believe... ) and I noticed how long Jeff's hair has grown, and I decided to try french braiding it. I got a little carried away...So of course, we all know where Penny gets her crazy hair from.
Emily is always on the hunt for things to do to pass the time during these long, one nap days. This time we had the babies do pudding finger painting. Emily just informed me that she found this idea on Sharla's blog.
With their little high chair canvases, they were off.

Penny for some reason has a hard time getting her hands messy. It could be because I am constantly washing them the second they get anything on them.
With a little help from Ruby, she eventually got the hang of it.

Everyone had a fun time, as well as a delicious snack.

Florida Adventures!

2011-07-09T03:11:00.000-07:00

Warning: Very long post! For those interested in reading, I tried to make it as interesting as possible for you. For everyone else, there are fun pictures and videos! Enjoy!

It has been a few weeks since we came home from our glorious trip to Florida. We felt it was time we take a vacation, and since KC's parents were offering us a screaming deal on the remaining days on their timeshare (thanks again a million times! We will repay the favor any way we can!) we just couldn't resist! We booked some plane tickets and a rental car, and off we went.

The plane ride was uneventful, and it was nice to have a husband by my side to help manage a fidgety toddler. I think the Orlando airport is funny, as you have to start out by riding the tram to the baggage claim. It's like true theme park form to make everyone ride a monorail first thing. Ha. Anyway, Penny was being an extremely good baby for not having any dinner, and it being 2 hours past her normal bed time. We picked up our car, and took a short ride to the resort.

We stayed at the Marriott Grande Vista Resort, which was simply amazing. From the moment we arrived, I seriously didn't want to leave. The 2 bedroom suite we had was well over 3 times bigger than our apartment, and the resort was full of activities and pools and hot tubs. We enjoyed our suite to the fullest. It was so, so great to be able to put Penny in her own room, and still be able to use the living room and kitchen. There was a great big flat screen TV, a giant dining table, and a full sized kitchen. But perhaps my favorite part was the master suite, complete with a king size bed spilling over with puffy pillows and a oversized whirlpool tub.

I think staying here was enough of a vacation for me.

There were several pools to enjoy, all complete with splash pads and baby pools. Since Penny was up early in the morning, we would take advantage of the nearly deserted pool decks.

This day was not so deserted, as we went mid day.

It was lovely. Jeff only took two days off of work, technically, and worked remotely on Tuesday and Thursday. This was just fine with me, as I would take Penny around the resort while he worked, or lounge in bed, or lay out by the pool during Pen's naps. I would give anything for my whole summer to be spend like that.

On the days that Jeff didn't work, we made our way over (and coughed up a million dollars) to Disneyworld! We thought we would visit the most kid friendly parks, and take it easy, and perhaps a few years from now, revisit with a different mindset. But for now, it was just us and a baby.

We went to the Magic Kingdom on Wednesday. The annoying thing about Disney parks is that no matter what, it always starts and ends with a line. Especially MK, because from the parking lot, you have to ride the tram, which takes you to the ticket office, and from there you either have to squish onto the monorail or wait in a herd of people for the ferry. The whole ordeal takes at least a half hour off your day. Normally it wouldn't be a problem, but we were on a schedule with a baby, but whatevs. We tried to take everything as it came. Luckily, we have the best behaved 1 year old in the world when it comes to stressful situations. (It reminds me of the Simpsons episode where they go to Itchy and Scratchy land, and they have to ride in a helicopter to get there. Ha.)
But it was fun to be there, especially after visiting Disneyland 8 or 9 times in recent years. It was interesting to compare all the differences. Penny was a perfect child the whole time. I really felt for all the parents dragging around their fussy, over-tired babies, and I wanted to direct them to the convenient baby care station with dark rooms and rocking chairs, but I know how on edge those mums can be...
We stayed true to our resolve to not wait in a line longer than 15 minutes (I don't think Penny could handle it, and I get really freaked out about germs. Normally I can handle dirt, but I just think of the thousands of people per hour they pump through these rides... ick. Plus, 70 minutes for Winnie the Pooh!?!?! That ride can't be longer than 2 minutes! Thank you, fastpasses!) and we didn't! We worked the fastpass system like a charm, and basically walked on most rides through out the day.

This was such a fun age to bring a child to DW. Predictably, Penny loved all the dark rides, ooing and ahing at the black light effects and animatronics. She said "hi!" to characters as we passed, and would dance along with the songs. She pointed at nearly everything in Small World, with a big grin across her face the whole time. The 3D Philharmagic show was fun, and Penny tried to reach out and touch everything along with all the kids in the audience. It was very surreal to see my own child enjoying Disneyworld just like I did as a child. It was a very strange moment in my life.
Penny enjoyed pirates as well. Though, I was slightly disappointed, as the length of the ride was significantly shorter than the Disneyland ride. This was the same for most rides, such as Splash Mountain and Buzz Lightyear. You would think they would want to improve upon the previous park, but I guess what ever gets people in and out the fastest, eh? At least the Jungle cruise lived up to expectation.
What we did like was single rider lines and stroller switch passes! We didn't even need fastpasses most of the time! Just show them the stroller, and one of us jumps on the ride, do the ol' switcheroo, and just like that we both had done Splash Mountain in less than 30 minutes. We would normally try to do the big rides during Penny's naps.Boy was it H.O.T. I can only remember a few times in my life where I have been so hot, and I have tried to block them from my memory. Between rides, we would try to find some kind of mister or fan or gift shop to duck into and enjoy the waves of cool washing over us. We went to nearly every show as well in both parks just to escape the heat. That was fine, Penny loved it. She clapped and sang along with the Country Bear Jamboree. I think this was her favorite thing in the parks. She laughed and giggled with excitement when seeing the giant mounted animals on the wall come to life and start talking to us. As I never experienced this attraction as a child, I really had no strong connection to it, so I didn't feel too guilty being reminded of Lester's Possum Park the entire time. But I suppose most older rides and shows there are for nostalgia's sake anyway.

Tiki Room was being renovated. Penny would have LOVED it... Maybe next time.
We tried to bring along most of our food so we wouldn't have to give another million dollars to Disney for every meal, but that doesn't mean we didn't enjoy the other snack-like fare available! We enjoyed cinnamon rolls, dole whips and a hot dog. Unfortunately, we couldn't locate a corn dog, our only real craving of the day. Several confused cast members tried in vain to direct us. No such luck.
We enjoyed feeding Penny in the cool, quiet, completely empty baby stations. Disneyworld's best kept secret! They have everything you need! Changing tables, diapers, wipes, baby food, utensils, microwaves, rocking chairs, cold & hot water, binkies, bottles, EVERYTHING! We didn't really need all that stuff, but we were grateful to know that for a small fee anything we needed was available.
The only truly terrible part of the day was trying to leave. We were being directed through the massive crowds watching the Electric Parade, and we decided to beat the rush, and leave. EASIER SAID THAN DONE. Of course, the parade was blocking the exits, and we were funneled and squished into a crowd of over tired kids, and extremely angry parents. At one point, we were stuck for about 10 minutes waiting to cross Main Street, and we were pressed up against everyone getting packed in, and I nearly had a panic attack. Finally, they paused the parade to let the very angry mob loose, and we jumped onto the lovely air conditioned monorail car, and took our lovely, well behaved child home. Except for the last 20 minutes, our day was very productive and enjoyable.

Thursday was spent enjoying the Marriott Resort again. It was so wonderful to have a day to recuperate. Seriously, every Disney vacation I take now will include a relaxation day in between each day.

On Friday we went to Animal Kingdom. We felt this a good choice since Penny is into the animal sounds and what not as most toddlers are. She LOVED this park, since it is basically a big zoo. Plus, there were lots of fans and misters lining the streets. Why don't they have this at every park?!

We bought her a little Dumbo. They have a line of baby disney characters, which is funny because in the movie, Dumbo IS a baby. Perhaps that is why I picked it. There is something weird about having a baby Ariel or Mickey lying around.

Again, we enjoyed the baby care station. This time we had a private room, with a little night light and changing table. We stayed in here to eat lunch. Boy was it nice to get out of the heat.
Penny continued her good baby behavior and took a nap while we rode Expedition Everest. They have a single rider line here, which was a grand total of 5 minutes in line. Take that, 70 minute wait time!
The shows helped us get out of the heat as well. Penny clapped and cheered with the Lion King show. They had a huge animatronic elephant right next to our seat which she was overjoyed over. She makes elephant noises by spitting with her tongue. It is pretty accurate.
The Finding Nemo show was fun, but not my favorite. Penny was a little bit scared during the Bug's Life show, and rightfully so, as I get scared in that one myself. Don't tell.

DINOSAUR!!! Don't worry, it is but a skeleton. This ride is scarier than I remembered! But it was still(They left off a "Fun!" Haven't they heard the song? R.B. will be so upset.)

We got fast passes for the Safari and only waited about 10 minutes. The fans in line were glorious. Here I am dying of hot.
This ride is seriously one of the coolest at DW. They animals are ever so close! Jeff loved it, as did our child. I am always amazed at how crazy and weird animals look.
Since we packed lunches and ate dinner at our hotel most days, we decided to (REALLY) splurge on a fun restaurant. The Tusker House seemed to be the best option, and it had great reviews on yelp. It was an African all you can eat buffet and BOY was it AMAZING!!!! So many curries and meats and couscous and veggies and breads. It was well worth the money.
My favorite of course were the desserts. They had the basics like lemon bars, cookies, brownies, macaroons, BUT then there was banana bread pudding with vanilla sauce! And cherry apple cobbler! And passion fruit tarts! And baklava! And it was all I could eat!! I stuffed my face with mostly these.
Penny liked the mashed potatoes, mac and cheese and delicious fruit salad and green beans.
We wanted to go on the river rapids ride, even though I didn't want to get too wet. Ironically, while I was on there, it started to DOWN POUR. I was sopping wet and then the rain made it even more so. Jeff decided since he was already wet, he would hop on. Unfortunately, he got stuck on the ride, and was left out in the pouring, pouring rain while Penny and I waited in a make shift shelter with a crowd of other patrons. Penny was very squirmy and wanted so badly to run freely through the sheets of water. I would let her run out occasionally, but didn't want her to get too wet.

Fortunately, this all happened about 15 minutes before the park closed. So as soon as they let jeff off the ride, we raced through the rain to the tram and into the car. The rain didn't let up for another few hours.

We sadly couldn't go back to the Marriott resort since our time was up there, but we had booked a room at a Hilton resort down the street. It was just a tiny room, but we made do. We built Penny a make shift room using the closet doors and towels. She fell right to sleep, and we spent the evening enjoying the soft bed and cool air conditioning.

Jeff also laid everything from his wallet out to dry.
The next morning, we checked out of our hotel, walked around the Hilton Resort (which was also very nice. HUGE pools with big water falls and play grounds that Penny had a great time playing on.) and then went to Down Town Disney. After browsing the shops there, we ate at the T-Rex restaurant. It reminded me so much of the Larry the Scary Rex ride on Clifford. It was fun, and the baby though the dinos were awesome. After we were done, we looked across the lake and saw about 100 feet away, water was just pouring, and so we ran as fast as we could to an awning just in time to miss another downpour. Jeff fetched the car, and Pen & I ran as fast as we could to meet him. We had some more time to kill before our flight, so we ended up at the Florida mall. It was PACKED with humans, and I was so done with crowds,

so we left shortly and ended our trip to Florida with yet another line at the airport security. The flight home was uneventful, Penny slept through the flight to North Carolina, through the hour lay over, and continued sleeping the whole way home, until we landed. We discovered that our stroller and car seat got lost somewhere, and I was very upset to hear this, but that is another long, boring story. We got it back the next day, phew! But it was a hassle carrying all our luggage and carry ons as well as Penny on the Metro, especially so late at night (it was about 1 am after we sorted every thing out with the stroller.) and the metro OF COURSE was going through "scheduled track maintenance" so that took about 50 minutes rather than the 15 I had expected. But like I said, we had the best behaved 1 year old in the world, who was quiet and snuggly the whole time. Dad kindly picked us up at the Metro station, and boy was it amazing to lie down in our bed and sleeeeeeeep.

So, it was a huge success, and we were SO happy to be there, and enjoyed the week long vacation. It is fun to have a great destination so close to us, especially after losing our proximity to Disneyland. Next time we go, we will surely hit up Harry Potterland... Sigh... so close, yet so far...

Put the lime in the Penny

2011-07-01T17:53:00.000-07:00

This is a hilarious video of Penny reacting to the lime that Jeff let her eat after dinner. (If you prefer to watch them in HD, you can change that where it has the little 360 p.)

She continued to react like so the whole time while consuming the lime. It's so funny, I can't stop rewinding and laughing...

Here is part two. It looks like she is going to barf! Ha ha. Sadly, we didn't get some of the best faces she made in the several minutes while eating. Perhaps tomorrow, when we do this to her again.

Penny Potty

2011-06-16T10:02:00.000-07:00

On my facebook album the other day, Jordan thought it would be funny to label every picture with Penny in it with some kind of P-word before her name. (The album and comments can be seen at this link.) Perhaps I will start each of my blogs like that. There are copious amounts of p-words out there...

So, I had this crazy idea to introduce Penny to the potty. She does really well with her daily routines, like bath time and bed time, and even reminds us to brush her teeth when we forget after the tub. So, with very low expectations, and for mostly experimental reasons, I bought a little potty from ikea.
At first it was just a funny new toy.
But she eventually got the hang of it.
I usually only spend about a half hour of each morning with potty time, just sitting her on it while she watches Sesame Street or Blue's Clues. Here she is VERY fixated on her show.
And I thought I may as well buy panties since I would have to eventually anyway. She was very excited to put them on, but it was weird to see my 15 month old running around in panties!
She was having a great time in her new unders while wearing her favorite shoes. Lucky girl!
This is her in the "oh" of "e-i-e-i-oh!"
Like I said, very low expectations. So far, it has been going much better than planned! The first time I put her on, less than a minute later she let loose! She has had more successes these past few days. It will be a while before I do some hard core training, but I am just familiarizing her with the toilet for now, and it seems she's starting to grasp the concept! We'll see!

Aside from potty training, I am enjoying my time with this silly, silly baby! She is teething like crazy with lots of molars coming in (keeping us all up at night...), loves to sing Old McDonald and the Alphabet song (my favorite part is when she gets to l-m-n-o-p, and says, "uh-uh-uh-o=peeeeee!") We also recently visited the Museum of Natural History, and she loved pointing at all the animals, and was very excited to see some she recognized (elephants, bears but oddly no tigers! Those are her favorite.)

It makes me really look forward to our upcoming trip to Florida. I think she is going to have an awesome time playing the the splash pad and pool at the resort, and exploring a few Disney parks. I am looking forward to have Jeff to myself all day for a week! Some relief, finally!

Pixar Faces

2011-06-14T18:54:00.000-07:00

Emily just posted a blog about Alex's obsession with his little glasses. I laugh every time because I think he looks like a young Carl Fredrickson from Up. We also like to laugh really hard at Penny's teeth and hair situation. Which we felt looked a lot like Ellie from Up as well. What do you think?

You will also recall I likened Alex unto another Pixar character earlier. Perhaps he will grow up to be Mike Wazowski?

Utah!

2011-06-09T03:33:00.000-07:00

When Jeff got a job, I thought perhaps now I could make that trip back to Utah that I have been thinking about a lot lately. I was starting to miss everyone, and I was especially sad my little girl was growing up, and lots of people were missing it! So, since we were a little more financially stable, I called up dad who helped me buy the ticket. It was then I decided to keep the whole thing a secret! Only dad and Lacie knew. Lacie generously agreed to pick me up from the airport, so that an unsuspecting mother would remain so.

The plane ride wasn't as bad as anticipated. Penny did really well. I was only slightly frustrated that my layover in Denver was an hour longer than planned, but Penny was a good girl, and it gave us time to stretch out and get our wiggles out. Thank goodness for all those dollar aisle toys. Her favorite were the strands of beads from Dollar Tree.

Lacie and Leland were so nice to come all the way to SLC and especially nice to get me some insanely delicious Crown Burger, which I have basically been craving since I left Utah. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

So, on the way home, Lacie called Drew, discussing their plans to watch Top Model that night, asking if he could come to Cedar Hills instead. After slightly protesting, she handed the phone to me, and I said, "I REALLY think you should come to Cedar Hills...." and you can imagine his surprise :) So, they immediately drove to Mom and Dad's house to witness the surprise of all surprises. I put sleeping Penny in her carseat on Mom's front porch, called her up and asked if she had received my package yet. She replied no, so I told her to go check the front porch. She asked dad to do it, but I said something like the wrapping was part of the present, so she could go get it. I had to think of something! So, as she opened the door, she just stood there, and said very confused, "It's a...baby..."

Well, I couldn't stand to prolong that state of confusion, so I ran out of the bushes and yelled surprise, and I think it still took a little bit to register that I was actually there. She was initially worried that something was wrong, and couldn't understand why I was there, but eventually she embraced the fun surprise. :)

Penny luckily was still tuckered out from the long day of travel, and transferred right into the crib. We stayed up late talking, and finally went to bed. The next day, Pen had an awesome time exploring my house.

SO many places to wander! She found this little bear (bobo) which I thought was precious, because I have a picture of me at her age holding the same one. I will probably scan it in soon.
Of course the next day, we ran around surprising all my sisters. Mostly it just consisted of someone carrying Penny up to the door. We had lunch together, and we missed having Emily with us to complete our little sister rendezvous.

We went up to Logan on Friday to visit Grandma on her 80th birthday! She was quite surprised to see us as well, and we were surely happy to see her happy face.
It was very nostalgic to see Penny crawling around Grandma's house. She loved looking through the stairs.
Due to a very long series of unfortunate events, we ended up with out a crib that night, so I ended up creating one between the dresser and the bed. She slept through pretty much the whole night!
Everyone came up for Grandma's surprise 5K.
Penny and Molly reunited for the first time since they were just wee babes.
Here are some runners gearing up for the surprise!
The surprise was awesome, Grandma was overwhelmed with all the love, and it was definitely a big climax to her 80th birthday! Here's to several more fun years, Grandma!

Mom and dad ran a race right before our 5k, and ended up winning 2 free dinners to Golden Corral! So we headed there for dinner. We were careful not to overdo it, and shared lots of the food instead of piling up our own plates.
They had cotton candy! This is AWESOME!

Penny was a good girl, and was happy to watch baby einstein while we ate.
Grandma and Penny had a fun photoshoot.
I was able to attend Britney's wedding while I was in town, which is great, because not only are we cousins, but also best friends. It was very hard to find a babysitter on a weekday morning, but luckily Uncle Jason was available for the job (though, I think he had just finished up with an all night shift at his job... THANK YOU JASON!) and Penny had an awesome time bonding with him.
We had lots of times where Penny would be naughty. Those are the times that I missed having a husband the most. It is HARD to take care of a baby all by yourself!! This picture just cracks me up. Her poor hair, she looks homeless.
Penny loooved playing with dad. Every time she saw him, she would say, "PAPA!" and tug on his pants until he would pick her up.
Thanks for your patience dad!
I was able to hang out with my best peeps as well! We saw Seussical at the Hale, which was adorable and fun, played Just Dance, went Laser Tagging (thanks for making the effort to come all the way to Provo, it was awesome!) and watched movies. Lacie and I ate dinner at La Jolla Groves in Provo. It was VERY delicious, I highly recommend it! Afterwards we visited the cute toy store next door which made Penny very happy. She developed a new obsession with bears, and this store had an abundance of giant bears. She hugged everyone she saw.
She was running through the store, saying "YAAAAAAAAY!" Over and over.
I ate at other delicious places. Of COURSE I had to hit up Wingers! They have changed the menu a little, but the sticky fingers are still there!
Penny also loved seeing Uncle Matt, who brought her a little bear toy, which she loves to this day, especially with the new bear obsession. Penny is a lot more social than I thought, she loves meeting new people. Perhaps it is all the attention she gets, when normally she shares it with 3 other babies?
I cut off 10 inches of my hair! I scheduled an appointment, and when I arrived, I just decided it was time to let it go! So, just like that, my hair was gone. I am surprised and pleased to find that I am not missing it so much, but I think I am going to work on growing it out again. We'll see.
We ate at Tucanos for 4 of our May birthdays! Nicole, Leland, Julie and I had birthdays to celebrate. We stuffed ourselves silly, and laughed our heads off, and ended the day by making a music video which was on my previous post.
On Sunday, Melody and her kids came and slept over, which was so much fun (even if Gabey was just a little bit naughty about going to sleep)! We had some great bonding time, and it was fun to have other kids for Penny to play with. It was so much fun seeing ALL of my nieces and nephews, who have all gotten so bit and adorable. Penny loved playing with Jane, especially in Cami's fantastic basement, and I think Ethan had a pretty good time playing with Penny. It was cute to see Brady and Penny reunited as well. I s'pose they didn't play much, but just seeing them together tickled me inside.

We were so, so sad to leave everyone since we had so much fun, and I love my family and friends so much, but we really missed our Jeff. The flight home was probably the hardest part of the whole trip, even with a whole row to myself. I had an over tired baby who didn't want to sleep, and lots of turbulence, so we couldn't walk around much. But we survived, and came out of the terminal to see a long haired Jeff holding a big bouquet of flowers. Definitely
Thanks, everyone for all that you did and do! We had an awesome time, hopefully we will see you soon!

Next up, Disneyworld in just a week and a half! Hopefully Penny will survive this trip. Fortunately I will have a husband this time.

After a several year break, I back to film making!

2011-06-05T04:53:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite activities growing up was making movies. Most of the time, my films consisted of horrible, plotless, unsteady footage of my friends and I doing silly things. But I think the most fun part about the process was actually filming, mostly because until the end of my senior year, I wasn't even capable of editing these films.

It has been fun to recently be able to get back into making some movies. With a baby, it is especially hard to make it happen, but I have been just dying to make something. (And with Jeff's new mac, imovie makes it especially easy to do so.)

The other day while Emily and I were just sitting around during our regular day, I wondered if anyone looking in would find humor in our daily routine. Especially because these babies make us laugh all day long. So, enjoy these funny babies!

Another film we were able to make recently was the music video set to Mika's song Grace Kelly. Since I was with all my bffs, I wanted to make sure I remembered such a happy time, and of course, my happiest times with them before was making movies! It was fun in incorporate some new friends as well, who definitely exceeded expectations.

Here's to 132 faithful subscribers left on my videos who stuck through my drought of movies!

3 Years!

2011-05-25T06:44:00.001-07:00

I will definitely get to my Utah post, but first, I want to talk about how we just celebrated our 3 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

I can't believe 3 years have gone by. I still feel like such a newly wed, even with a 1 year old baby. I won't gush too much on here, since I am pretty sure Jeff is aware of my ever growing love for him, but I will say that this year has been full of all sorts of trials and hard times, but I can happily report that these experiences have brought us even closer together, and made me ever more grateful to have my man in my life.

Other reasons I am grateful to have Jeff is my life is because he wakes me up with surprises like this:
Brand new cookware! What a welcome change from the 2 "as-is" pots we picked up from ikea. So, with all these awesome new pots and pans, instead of going out to eat, Jeff wanted to make something. And boy did he ever!

Here is our delicious spread.
Jeff was busy busy in the kitchen preparing deliciousness.
These were roasted carrots in a brown butter sauce. They were like eating dessert! So, so delightful.
Stuffed, roasted artichokes were also on the menu. Don't they look pretty?
The main course was an incredibly tasting dish of beef and bison bourguignon. It was simply cooked to perfection! I am constantly blown away by how well Jeff can just pull all these dishes together like it's the easiest thing!
Of course, he didn't forget dessert. He had is hiding upstairs in Emily's fridge. Turns out it was a lime cheesecake, with he topped off with a mango lime puree. Even those who don't particularly enjoy cheesecake would have been blown away by this amazingness. So, so goooooood!
Cheers! Here's to love!

2011-05-08T11:56:00.000-07:00

I think every mother out there deserves to wake up to this in bed on mothers day:
Fortunately, I was the recipient of this delicious eggs benedict with hollandaise sauce and fresh blueberry scone with lemon glaze, with a fresh bouquet of lilies to boot.
Needless to say, less than 3 minutes later, this was all I had to show for it. My man knows how to make a meal.
I consider this a serious bonus, since I don't really find being a mother a burdensome job at all, but quite the opposite, especially when I get to do it for this little one
I definitely had a good start to the day. Jeff even let me sleep in while he made all that food AND looked after Penny! I feel spoiled rotten!

I wanted to do a little update about Penny's progress, mostly because I refer back to my blog when recording her milestones in other places. So, recently:
-Penny knows the names of some animals, like cows, ducks and cats, and makes the sounds for many more. Often we find her mooing her way around the house.
-She is getting better at walking every day. Church is great because there are so many open spaces for her to practice.
-She loves to give big hugs and kisses. She gives her kisses by saying, "mmmmMMYYYYYYEEEEEE!"
-She likes to sing along with me in the car, mostly just picking a few notes and holding them out.
-She can count to 3, sometimes 4 with some help.
-Her favorite letter is P. Perhaps because her favorite food is peas. She likes to point out the big "P" in our Palestine poster.
-She says so many words now, and usually just copies what we say. She loves to say "Mimi!" when she wants to go upstairs.
-She loves to pretend she's sleeping on any soft surface. She makes snoring sounds as well.

Well, that sounds great for now. I am sure I will be glad I have that recorded somewhere. On with it, then.

We had a little ward soccer game/BBQ the other day. While the men had fun kicking the ball around, the ladies went to the Bishop's house and played in their very fun back yard. The kids loved the netted trampoline.
I liked the tramp because it made Penny's hair do this:

This one had a great time, as you can see.
The kids were having so much fun pla-what the...
Pffft, Emily... I was saying, the kids were having fun playing in this little house with KC.

Penny has a little friend in our ward named Jack. He is my friend Hilary's son, and is only about a month and some younger than Penny. It is so cute to watch them play in church. Today was especially cute while chasing them around in Sunday School, Jack was following Penny everywhere she walked for a while, and after she noticed she turned around and gave him a big hug to show how happy she was! Sadly, upon the release, she knocked Jack down, and he was pretty upset. He quickly got over his sadness, and was happily running about soon enough.

Here are some cute interaction shots of the two.

Of course, it was fun to have our triplet friends present as always!

Poor Penelope...

2011-05-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

Pen had a pretty consistent fever the other night, which I brushed off slightly thinking it was teething (she has a pretty big tooth trying to break through) but this morning Emily pointed out some speckles on her back, so we headed off to the doctor's. Turns out she had strep! My poor baby, I have just been giving her oragel and tylenol when she really needed antibiotics! That would explain the terrible nights and loss of appetite. She is still a lively girl, but lays down on a pillow or blanket for a while in between playing with her toys. It has been a little fun, I must admit, to have a snuggley friend for a change instead of me tirelessly chasing her around this small apartment. Especially since I have quarantined ourselves down here, hoping EVER so hard we didn't pass this along to anyone upstair... please, oh please. It is going to be a long 48 hours...(Penny just crawled over to me almost like a worm, both both arms dragging underneath her body, using only her feet to push her along... Poor, poor Penny.She has been quite happy otherwise. She has been having lots of fun getting around by foot! It seems so weird to see my little girl just running around.
Even more strange is seeing her face when I turn around in the car!
Pen is growing up much too fast.

We have had fun playing in Emily's sand and water stations.
Babies always think the sand is delicious... gross, babies. You should make this face after you eat sand:
We received this in the mail the other day:It was from Jeff's work! A little welcome basket, it was very thoughtful of them. It was full of snacks and cheese galore!

Anyway, I am going to try and feed this sick baby. Ta.

Good news!

2011-04-27T14:10:00.000-07:00

After several acts of faith (one of them being moving out here jobless) Jeff has received and accepted a job offer! It is with his company that he currently an intern for, but they had a position open up, and Jeff fit the bill! So he will start next week as a full time employee! He is super excited to work for such an awesome company, especially since he had such a great time during his internship. It is nice to know he will be doing things that he is passionate about, as well as being immersed in government affairs (while not actually working for the government. I say best of both worlds. It would be scary working for the government right now with all the budget cuts and what not.) Anyway, if any of you are unfamiliar with Govloop, go ahead and take a look. Perhaps read one of Jeff's blogs while you're there. Anyway what a relief! We can stop holding back on toilet paper and shampoo!

In other news, I have found a few moments here and there to design some things. It is fun when I have an excuse to design, because then I have no choice but to do it, and I have to make time, and I end up enjoying myself very much. Recently Ally wanted to give Todd a go-fish game with their family as the cards. I came up with this:
(Click for larger viewing)
I think it turned out pretty cute!

Next, I am ALWAYS bugging Emily for recipes, which I always forget to return. I decided it was high time I start my own recipe catalog, so I decided to make up my own 3x5s to record them on.
I guess "a yumma-yumma" came from a old family home video of Jeff's, where his brother was quoting some old cereal commercial or something to that effect. Anyway, we say it all the time, so there ya go.
I did this one because we are always joking that restaurants and people have these "top secret, no one can know!" recipes that they claim as their own. But really their Aunt Betsy probably got it from Joanne across the street, who probably got it from the back of the Hamburger Helper box. And in any case, you could probably spend about 30 seconds on goggle, and hunt down the recipe effortlessly. Hence, this card is kind of a joke...

Hopefully everyone knows where snacks and cheeses comes from... Originally it was from the musical episode of Dexter's Lab, but was made famous when Drew and I ventured to Disneyland and referred to every thing we brought to eat as snacks and cheeses. It just stuck!

And of course this quote is from when Lacie, Nicole and I played the game Curses, and we then documented that game in the animated short, "Ready, Set, Snow!"

Hopefully more designs of many sorts are on their way. I found these on another very inspiring graphic designer's blog, and I will probably make those my next project.

Easters

2011-04-25T07:17:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a great Easter sunday. We enjoyed Stake Conference (they had it broadcasting in the nursery! Brilliant! The kids just played with toys the whole time, and we could watch the meeting.) and we enjoyed good company and food. Here are some pictures to document the occasion:

Penny found her basket rather quickly. It contained mostly things that she has been needing. Perhaps the Tangled movie was a little bit for us as well, but it was on super sale plus a $5 off coupon! And what is Easter with out Peeps??
Here I am sporting a new dress I bought on Saturday for Easters. Em and I went in on a $50 off $100 deal at NY and Co. and got crazy good deals on a bunch of clothes.
Here's a family picture. Forgive the shadows, it was before church, so the sun was shining bright! But isn't Penny's little scarf just so cute?
Emily's chair next to her huge window is the perfect place for pictures. Here are a few shots I was able to snap of our little Easter bunny!
Then Emily's kids looked so cute, I threw them up there as well.
Those overalls are the BEST.
They are all so big, they can't even fit in this chair any more!
Here is our group from dinner. It was amazing food on everyone's part, and lots of fun. We made the potato nasty, and Jeff made spinach artichoke dip and bacon wrapped dates with almonds inside with a green olive dipping sauce. Yes, they were as good as they sound.
That's all for now. Hope everyone had a Happy Easter, and let us remember none of these pictures or anything in this world at all would be possible with out our Savior who died for us!

It is nearly the end of April.

2011-04-22T14:23:00.000-07:00

If you have ever wondered what it is like to spend every day watching 4 babies play, this should give you a small glimpse:

Emily always has big plans for fun things to do. Recently she set up little sand and water stations. Obviously the sand seemed more fun to eat than to play with, so we closed that up and let them go crazy in the water. And boy did they go crazy. All four babies were sopping wet in no time.

Our little patio is the perfect spot for the kids to play, because it still feels like outside, yet we are free from bugs and the hot sun! Plus, a ceiling fan keeps us cool during the hot days. But I think mostly the kids love the change of scene.

After all that playing, we thew them babies into the tub.
It reminds me of that Shel Silverstein poem:

"There's too many kids in this tub
There's too many elbows to scrub
I just washed a behind that I'm sure wasn't mine
There's too many kids in this tub."

Of course, now that Penny is getting older, she is learning to fully appreciate the less exciting things in life, such as snuggling with mommy. Normally this squirmy little girl can't wait to run in all directions, but I have been surprised lately to find she just as much enjoys taking a rest with me in bed, or sitting on the couch while I watch one of my shows. What a fun little buddy I have!

Don't be jealous of these little delights! Elise Crane posted them on facebook, and Emily and I decided right away that we needed to make these. Luckily we halved the recipe, or we would have been stuck with over a dozen of these, and my thighs would not be too happy about that...
Penny's favorite word (and activity) lately is show. She loves watching anything, whether it be on the TV or on the tiny one inch screen on the camera. So, every time she sees a remote or a tv, she begins to ask to watch a shoooooow. Depending on the time of day, I may indulge her, but she is easily distracted by a toy or snack, and quickly forgets about her beloved show. Lately, she has enjoyed watching Sesame Street, any Disney movie, Wonder Pets, or anything that is on the netflix live streaming queue. See her request a show below:

This is mostly a filler picture to take up space. Babies sleeping are so precious.

One of those nights

2011-04-15T14:02:00.000-07:00

This morning I had an odd experience. By this morning, what I really mean is between maybe 2 or 4 am. I had been restless due to another restless human (it was Pen) and so I had been tossing and turning, trying to get back to sleep. When I finally did get to sleep, it didn't last long.

I took one big roll, and off the bed I flew.

Remember that our bed is this high off the ground:
It was like one of those falling dreams, except I actually fell, and I actually hit the ground. I landed on my knee, and thought I had broken it, since my whole body weight fell directly onto it. Jeff woke up immediately when he heard the thud, asking what happened and where I went. I frantically yelled through my pain that I had somehow managed to fall off the bed, and my knee hurt really bad, and in my sleepy confusion I still had not idea what exactly was going on. I asked for some kind of electronic device to see the damage done, and I had a serious case of rug rash, and my knee was starting to get pretty swollen and the pain was continually growing. I sat there for a while, scared to move because of the pain, so I just waited for a little bit on the floor before groggily crawling into bed wondering why I couldn't just get a full night of sleep for once in my life (obviously I was being dramatic in my tired state, I do have good nights).

I woke up this morning wondering if it had all been some kind of weird dream, but then Jeff asked how I was doing, and I looked down at my knee to find an ever growing, swollen bruise. I think the saddest part about it is that I think the last time I fell off my bed was when I was 4. Perhaps it is time we trade in our box spring for one of those ikea slatted bases. Perhaps that 15 inches or so will save me from so much agony if I manage to roll off the bed again. Hopefully this was one of those freak things...

Fortunately, I had this to cheer me up in the morning.

Spring Blog Cleaning!

2011-04-09T11:43:00.000-07:00

Peek-a-boo, Spring! It is about time you show yourself... Usually you don't wait until early April to make yourself known, but whatever, you do what you want, I will enjoy the chilly mornings and try to forget that the sticky Summer is in quick pursuit. I guess that is what this picture is trying to portray.
Anyway, on with it! Well, I thought since the weather is going to be up in the high 70s tomorrow, my header seemed slightly unseasonal. And since I made that header, I thought why not just update the whole blog. It seems ironic that a graphic designer like me wouldn't be all on top of things like having a cutesy little background with a font to match, but I guess that isn't really my style exactly. After messing around with it, I think I have found a good match for us for now, and I am finally rid of that dreary, boring black background. Hopefully you enjoy it! I have had a serious drought when it comes to designing. Perhaps this summer I will find some more time... Sigh.

We were up several times last night. Not because of the precious tot in the hallway (who, ironically, was asleep through the whole night) but because of a stupid rodent stuck in the wall. I was awoken around 3:30 am by what I thought was my computer, but my sleepy confusion immediately turned to horror when I made the realization that those little scratchy noises were coming straight from my closet. I shook Jeff awake, and ordered him to hold perfectly still... and waited for it... and THERE it was! Little claws desperately trying to free themselves from somewhere in my room! So, Jeff set up a little barricade around our closet, and with a hanger began removing every shoe on the closet floor. Well, there was no rodent in the shoes, nor in the DVDs or games, so we came to the conclusion the pest must be stuck in the wall, and hopefully he is nearly dead and that will be the end of that. But, 20 minutes later, the scratching started and didn't let up for a good 5 or 6 minutes. WHY wouldn't it just DIE? Or just scamper off and let me sleep in peace!? So, about every 15 minutes, our little fiend continued their little scratching fit. After about an hour or so of this madness, I ended up sleeping on the chair. We haven't heard from the rodent since. Needless to say we are setting up sticky traps and mouse traps tonight. I hate when I don't get my precious sleep.

I am finally learning things about my camera, or rather learning from my mistakes. This time I was learning about ISO, because my biggest pet peeves about my photography is I have an eternal struggle with my pictures being blurry. So, I compensated with the ISO which I learned makes things really grainy and muddy. I can't win! I bet all you photographers out there are just having a good laugh at my struggles (rightly so) but this is just one of those things that I am going to struggle with for a while, and over time will prevail.

They composition and technique may not be the best, but the subject is ever cute!

Here is a cute one I caught of Alex the other day. He looks like such a big boy!
I so, so wish this had been in focus. She is crying because I wouldn't let her touch the camera.
Such a drama queen.
Penny likes to pretend to sleep on anything these days. She makes little snoring sounds as well. Her signing and speech has progressed very quickly these past few weeks as well! She copies most things I say when she's in the right mood.
Yesterday as I was feeding Penny, I leaned back on the counter and folded my arms. She copied me, along with bowing her head and closing her eyes! I am glad she picks up on those types of things too! We proceeded to bless her food. Good for Penny, already being a good example to her parents.
She liked the position so much, she kept her arms in this position, except to grab the occasional food.
I tried a curling iron on Penny's hair today. I was inspired after some post nap bed head made a similar effect. It looked really precious, I wish her hair would do it naturally.
Also, RUFFLE PANTIES!

2011-04-03T10:13:00.000-07:00

We have had lots of fun these past few weeks with Jeff's mom and sister visiting us in our humble little apartment. They were visiting for a relative's wedding, and then went sight-seeing all this past week. Penny has had a great time getting to know her kin better, and it is nice to have lots of hands that are willing and happy to play with my fidgety little toddler.
They definitely have kept Penny entertained with lots of fun things. Here Pen is sporting 3D glasses that she thought were hilarious.
Jeff's mom snapped a few pictures while I as braiding Penny's hair, which I thought would be interesting for posterity. It is quite the feat.
When her hair is a little bit longer, this will be MUCH easier to do.
We have made several shopping trips to multiple shopping centers and malls, which I am always up for! Penny had a grand time on this bench, laughing at everyone passing by.
While at the mall, we bought this adorable number from H&M. Looks slightly Vontrap, eh? I mostly love how retro it looks. What you can't see are the adorable ruffle panties underneath. Soon enough, I s'pose.
A fun part of Jeff working in the city is that he gets to try lots of restaurants and local hot spots. He met us Downtown at a restaurant called Founding Farmers, which was a reasonably priced, extremely delicious organic restaurant that gets most of their ingredients from small family farms. You can taste the difference.
Here is a family picture of us at the temple. Congrats to Michelle and Taylor!
Janna has become quite the gourmet lately, and specializes in low-calorie meals. She was kind enough to cook many delicious meals for us, which sadly I don't have pictures of, but they were fantastic. One thing I DO have a picture of is the mug cakes (I do not thing this was a lo-cal recipe, sorry guys) which you just mix some ingredients into a mug, microwave it for a minute or two, and you have a perfect-sized dessert! We topped these off with ice cream and whipped cream.
We were fortunate enough to get away for a night, with Jeff's mom watching Penny for us. We stayed at Aloft Arundel Mills, which was modern and hip. We swam in the pool and ate delicious snacks and cheeses, and enjoyed sleeping in for the first time in over a year. We ate at a local diner near our home called the Pancake House, which on the outside (and inside, too I guess) looked slightly worse for wear, but the food was just what I was craving on that Saturday morning.

So that is what has been happening for us lately. I am sure I forgot like a million things to write. Jeff's family was planning on going home tomorrow, but due to the recent Southwest incident, their flight was bumped back a day, so we have one more day of Penny helpers!

Photobooth Pictures

2011-03-26T19:30:00.000-07:00

I am so proud.

2011-03-18T18:40:00.000-07:00

Jeff is off at a scout camp out tonight, and this will be only the second time in our marriage we have been apart over night. It is weird, and I will miss him (especially if Penny wakes up in the night) but Jeff loves camping, and this will be fun for him (and I can't say that I don't enjoy being able to stretch out a little bit more while sleeping for just one night). Be safe Jeff!

Anyway, since I am alone and have nothing to do, I thought I would share some fun pictures!

I s'pose every mom likes to show off the cutest pictures of their kids, and rightly so. But, looking back on my childhood, I would pride myself on making the ugliest faces possible (Drew Face, anyone?), which would usually result in a cringe from mom followed by a dramatic cry of "OH, my child..." which I apologize for, mother.

With that said, now that I am a mom and have an adorable baby of my own, oddly, I can't help but feel a sense of pride that at the tender age of 1, my sweet baby is able to pull these looks off. Keep in mind, these were not just faces I happened to catch. These were 100% posed. As soon as she saw the little camera pointed in her direction, and the little light on, she went from happily playing and chatting to posing. So, I now give you Penny's "ugly faces."

That is a talent I will proudly say she inherited from me.

Look forward to walking videos and giggling videos.

Penny is a big girl now.

2011-03-08T06:15:00.000-08:00

Penny turned one on Thursday! It was a busy week, so we opted to have a quieter evening instead of the big party we had originally planned on. Perhaps her second birthday will be better suited for that anyway. We had a fun party with the Robinsons, and Emily made an extremely delicious carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Penny didn't know quite what to do with it, but eventually took some bites out of it.

Of course, we adults got some delicious cake as well. I die a little bit inside every time I realize that there isn't any more of this cake left.

Jeff's parents sent lots of fun presents, including Penny's favorite thing, books! Lately all she ever wants to do is read books. She will grab her favorites (usually the ones from the dollar isle from target that have little to no plot, and terrible illustrations) and throw them onto my lap, then crawl up there herself, ready to hear her favorite story yet again. So, you can see how all the new books were quite a much needed addition to our library. The triplets were jealous of the new books, as they are their favorite diet recently, ha.
Emily and mom got Penny these very cute items of clothing. Penny looks fashion forward, even at the tender age of one. Emily also gave Pen an old school toy phone. Penny immediately knew what to do with it, since she loves to pretend to call daddy on any phone she gets her hand on.
That's right, my girl knows high fashion when she sees it.
Another fun thing Penny got from Jeff's parents was this big girl ride-on tractor! It is pretty fancy, with places to stack blocks as well as store them, and it plays music and sounds. She loves to have Jeff push her around our little apartment, or enjoys watching a little tv on the cozy plastic seat. Thanks Grandma and Papa!

Since Penny is getting so big, I thought I would go through a few of her favorite things lately. Here goes!

Playing with Alex, Bennett and Ruby is always fun, especially when they are eating.
Like I said earlier, talking on phones diverts her attention for at least 10 minutes at a time. I don't talk on the phone all that much, which makes me wonder where she picked this up so strongly. She gabs to "dada!" and says lots of jibberish.

Babies definitely get easier as they get older. Penny is finally discovering how fun all the toys she has are, and is taking advantage of them, as she should.

Of course, TV is always exciting and gives me a little time to myself. I can't let this get too out of hand though, or she would be happy watching it all day.
I think babies either love or hate the vacuum. Penny is one of those babies to loves it, perhaps a little too much. I can hardly get the floors clean with her trying to tackle the noisy appliance.
A recent favorite is building forts, whether it be two pillows stacked together, or an elaborate multi-blanket fortress. She likes to snake in and out of little crevices between blankets.
Penny has turned into a super snuggler. I think every mommy looks forward to these kinds of snuggles all through out pregnancy, as well as those first few months.

Penny also enjoys a good laughing session. It is funny to see what thinks set her off. Recently, sneezes and soccer balls did he trick.

And finally, Penny has the most miraculous faces that some of us only dream of making. Or rather have nightmares of making.
What is that??

To Penny, the birthday girl.

2011-03-02T21:03:00.000-08:00

Well, my baby has lived a full year of her life. I didn't think I would feel anything different or special on this day, but I find myself more emotional than I thought I would be. Through out my pregnancy and even after she was born, I questioned my abilities as a mother to this completely helpless child, but then I realized it wasn't about me, but it was all about her. I am not trying to be a good mom for myself, but for my precious little Penny, and when you look at it like that, it makes it that much easier to love and adore this little cute face.

Not to say that it has been easy, but even so, I have enjoyed every moment so far with my Penny, and can't imagine life with out her. So, in honor of this glorious day, I have created a compilation of video clips from Penny's first year. I made it mostly for posterity's sake, and it is slightly lengthy, but if you want to watch, it will be well worth your 5 minutes or so. Also, keep in mind that I was working on a very crappy computer with ancient computer software with a fast approaching deadline, so please forgive the unprofessional nature of the film. And now, I give you Penny's First Year. Enjoy!

A nice day calls for pictures

2011-02-28T11:11:00.000-08:00

Based on how many pictures we took while visiting the Arboretum on Sunday, I am a little concerned about the space I will need on my computer to hold all the pictures the summer will produce... Who knows, perhaps I will get burned out, we'll see.

In any case, taking pictures outside is just so much more fun than inside, because the lighting is just so much better, and they are easier to photoshop as well. We had a fun time messing around with our camera (I will never, never learn how to use that massive thing. Photography was the only class in college I ever actually failed. I just don't get it. I don't. Good thing this camera does a lot of the work by itself.) and got some cute ones, I believe.

A Penny Post.

2011-02-25T10:38:00.000-08:00

The wind is just crazy here! It feels like the house is going to blow away. Surely this will result in felled trees and downed power lines, so I had better make this quick! First off, a few things I left out from the last post.

Here is the delicious breakfast that Jeff made for me on Valentine's Day.

I mentioned that Em and I had matching suits, but I didn't mention that Pen and I did as well! Sadly she is on her way out of this one, since it is for 6-9 months, but we fit one more swim in before it was too late.
I just love playing with my Penny these days. She is so entertaining and silly, I think she gets a lot of it from her cousins. I honestly think they are boosting her learning skills just by association. I see her copying a lot of the things they do, which is just precious.
Here is a silly picture from bath time.
Penny loves watching tv, a little too much I think, so I try to limit her intake. Here she is turning into a couch potato. This was one of the warning signs to seriously limit the tv. Though, it can't be all bad! She has learned a lot of vocabulary from watching shows.

Alex and Penny were fighting over the laundry basket, so this is how we resolved things.
I showed the babies how to actually USE the puppets instead of just treating them like another stuffed animal. They thought it was hilarious, resulting in constant fights over the puppets.

Penny's latest exciting development is her speech. It seems she is learning new words every day! Her favorite words lately are cracker, purple, thank you, uh oh, Penny, and bye bye. Here are some videos of her showing of her skills:

I guess this was more of a Penny update. We haven't been up to too much lately, just work and other things. Jeff is doing great at his job, and is enjoying all the great opportunities that come with it. Emily made home made bread today, and we made sandwiches with garlic cheese and ham, so that was pretty exciting. Also, a few days ago, it snowed maybe half and inch, and EVERYTHING shut down. I just don't get it. It was completely melted by 8 in the morning. This is just madness. Anyway, I am all scatterbrained today, I can't think of much else to blog about, so I guess this is it for now. Look forward to a special surprise for Penny's upcoming first birthday!

Daddy Daughter

2011-02-20T19:51:00.000-08:00

I was just browsing through some very cute family photos from Ribeira past, and just couldn't help but see an alarming resemblance between Pen and Jeff. Jeff's mom is always saying how Penny looks just like he did, which would be interesting to see your own child so clearly in your grandchildren. I just giggle while looking at my own baby pictures, and there is very little resemblance. But I s'pose it is for the better.
Observe:
Notice how Jeff's hair isn't very dark in that picture. And in earlier pictures, it is even lighter. So Penny still has a chance at having beautiful dark locks! Only time will tell. Moving on!

Fat!
Also fat!

So, in conclusion, I find myself astonished that this little girl looks just like a mini, blonde, female Jeff. At least no one will ever have to doubt if he is the father or not, though I really hope they wouldn't in the first place.

My man is the romantic type to the max.

2011-02-18T07:25:00.000-08:00

Jeff has outdone himself yet again this Valentine's Day. I like to think that I am a simple girl who would be ok with an I love you and perhaps a coupon book with promises to do the dishes or deal with Penny in the middle of the night, but as Jeff put it, every girl likes flowers!

Jeff DID give me flowers as I picked him up from the metro after work. And also made me breakfast in bed, complete with a "Greek Omelet" with olives and feta cheese, grits on the side with hot chocolate and toast sticks, and orange juice with frozen fruit mixed in. Such a romantic, that Jeff.

I had made him a custom Valentine on illustrator, picked up a bottle of Sparkling white grape juice and some snacks and cheeses, and was planning on having a rather quiet Valentine's day. Instead, we got a babysitter to come watch Penny and Jeff and I hopped on the metro to a secret destination. We arrived at at quaint little shop in the heart of DC called ACKC orIt reminded me of the little chocolaterie on the movie Chocolat. Their signature menu item was called the "Divas," which were different kinds of hot chocolates, all named after famous women. We got the Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis and the Charo. (Click on the names to see the menu description, if you want.) We also shared a very large sundae. We are starting a new V-tines day tradition where we have dessert first, and then eat dinner if we feel like it. I say one day of the year we are allowed, right? Anyway, it was SO yummy. We bought some of their chocolates on the way out (dark chocolate almond with french sea salt and 5 spice dark. Surprisingly delicious!) and stopped off at the famous Ben's Chili Bowl. We had seen this place on so many food network and travel channel shows, it was fun to experience the real thing.

So, if that wasn't enough, the NEXT day, Jeff told me he had ANOTHER surprise place he wanted to take me to yesterday, but couldn't because the gift certificate wasn't good on Valentine's day. So, off we went into the city again, and ended up at the very fancy restaurant Zengo.

Sorry about these next pictures, they aren't the best quality, but we didn't want to use a flash in this fancy restaurant.
The food was delicious tapas style, and it was so fancy that I felt self conscious eating it, because I was afraid I would eat it the wrong way or something. We had all sorts of pork steamed buns and fried tuna tacos, and glazed pork loin and pork-shrimp-duck fried rice. and tres leches cake with tahini ice cream. So, so delightful. And remember what I said about the bathrooms on the restaurant week post? Well these restaurants were even FANCIER than Zatinya! So, you can just imagine the fanciness of the restaurant.

On top of ALL that, he surprised me yet again with another prize, a gift certificate for spafinder! He said I deserved a day at the spa, which is exactly what I have been dying to have for the last 5 years or so. My man knows me!

Thanks Jeff, you are truly the best husband for me in this world.

We also joined Em and KC for a family swim that the hotel pool where they were staying the night. ALL the babies had a great time, and Emily and I had matching swimsuits!Here is Penny, making her classic 'Oh!" face.

We also had a good time at the stake V-tine's day dance with Em and KC.

We danced the night away and played games with friends and ate delicious strawberries dipped in chocolate.

I tried an experiment the other day, because I thought Penny's hair may be long enough for two little french braids. After a very long struggle with a squirmy Penny, I was able to produce a few sloppy braids! I think it turned out ok!
It went to well with her Summery outfit which she was wearing because it was nearly 70 degrees! We decided to venture to the park to celebrate the nice weather.
Here is Penny showing off her standing skills. She was up for about 4 minutes like this. She loves to stand, and has taken a few steps, but still hasn't quite figured out this new walking thing.

Kids love those swings, don't they?
Alex and Bennett walked with Emily all the way across the street...
But were more interested in eating everything from the ground when they got to the park. But it was nice to get everyone out of the house.

In better news, we finally were able to register our car, which I will tell you is NO EASY PROCESS. They make it nearly impossible to do so, and Jeff had to take a half day at work to get it done. It was great to finally drive a legally registered car, though, the small ticket I got while driving mom and dad to the airport for being unregistered helped motivate us a little more... though ironically, Jeff had asked for work off that VERY day to register the car, and I had spent that morning talking to people at the MVA, trying to figure out how to move the registration process along faster. So, so horribly ironic. But that is a depressing story to end with, so I will finish by telling you that after I got that ticket, I headed to H&M and found a really cute shirt on super sale. The end!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T12:23:00.000-08:00

These little cupids wanted to wish you a Happy Valentine's Day! (Click to see full resolution)

Is it summer yet?

2011-02-11T10:11:00.000-08:00

I will have more pictures to post later, but this will have to do for now. First things first, Penny took her first actual steps today! Emily and I were just letting her balance, trying to get her to walk, and just like that, she did it! She took a few steps to Emily, and then a few steps back to me! This is all just happening so fast...

Emily and I were running errands today, and while in the dollar store, we came upon baby swim suits! For a dollar, what did we have to lose?
I am thinking of adding a few embellishments like buttons or something. We'll see, it is rather cute on its own even still with the little tutu. Ruby put hers on as well, and was flitting around like a little fairy.

This is a video of Penny modeling her suit, as well as stealing the triplets lunch.

It feels like it has been 2011 for ages now.

2011-01-29T06:25:00.001-08:00

Last week Jeff and I decided to splurge a wee bit and try out Restaurant Week in DC to celebrate his recent employment. Basically you pay a flat rate per person and try out the best things on the menu of the restaurant of your choice (that is participating.) So, after doing some research, Jeff decided on
It is Greek/Middle Eastern cuisine. I am sure Jeff will write a very detailed review about our experience, but it was delicious and worth every penny! It was so fun to dress up and ride the metro into the heart of DC and go to a fancy restaurant. (I usually judge places by how fancy their bathrooms are, and these were fan-ceeeee.) Anyway, it was tapas style, and we each got 5 courses as well as endless fresh pita bread, so we were stuffed! We tried such a range of delicious things from humus, grilled lamb and chicken, fried eggplant, short ribs, chicken salad, pasta, skewers of chicken and onions with garlic yogurt sauce. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. And of course, our dessert was fantastic. Jeff had a walnut ice cream with fancy sauces, and I had a little yogurt and apricot with cream dish. I can't wait until the next restaurant week!

Jeff brought up the good point that if you aren't wearing a black trench coat on the metro or downtown, you look completely out of place. So hopefully we fit right in wearing this get-up. I wish I had been wearing 2 trench coats, it was FREEZING!
We are finally getting a taste of what real life is like. Jeff is mostly sad, because by the time he gets home, Penny's bedtime is only 1 hour away. I guess that is what makes the weekend so valuable. Here is Jeff snuggling with Penny in their precious time together. Looks like it is nearly Jeff's bedtime as well.
Now, about our child. She is rapidly developing her little personality. Recently, she has started snuggling dollies (much like unto Ruby's doll snuggling) and enjoys watching shows such as Wonder Pets and Blues Clues. In fact, she now says, "Yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaahh!" With the theme song of WP. "Goooo Wonderpets, Yeah!" She also has started saying, "Uh oh..." quite a lot. It started out mostly with her saying, "oh" over and over again, with her mouth as round as she could possibly get it. I surely have a picture of her making that face, it makes Em and I laugh every time. She is starting to be a little show off as well, rolling around and playing with toys to make us laugh. And of course we are happy to oblige.

I caught her playing with her car the other day. She like to make car noises when she plays with them, it is just precious:

It is rare when Penny will simply play while I film her. She always wants to grab the camera and eat it, so this is just a precious gem. My favorite part is just before 2 minutes, when she realizes I am filming, and starts cheesing it up. I am so proud.

So, with Jeff at work all day, we have to think of ways to occupy ourselves. On the only warm day of the winter so far, Pen and I went to the park:
Penny also loves trying out new things. Like getting tied up in this canvas bag.
I also like trying new things, like having 4 babies sit on me at once. How many of you out there can honestly say you have done that? If you haven't, I recommend it.
We are also constantly entertained by Pen's ridiculous faces. If we are fortunate, we are able to capture them:
Emily thinks that Penny's teeth are hilarious and unsightly (she doesn't think the latter, but sometimes I like to joke that they are. In reality, they are cute and quirky.) We laughed really hard when I accidentally took this beauty, while Penny was doing her infamous whining face.
So, in conclusion, obviously we find ways to entertain ourselves through the long days, but we are always anxiously watching the clock, waiting for Jeff to come home. Here is Penny with giant glasses on:

A few other things to note recently:
-People on the east coast FREAK OUT about snow. The weather people on the news really like to hype up these winter storms. So far, we have had about 5 different SEVERE, INSANE, END OF THE WORLD snow storm warnings, and we had perhaps one day where it was any kind of inconvenience. It if snows an inch here, EVERYTHING shuts down. It makes me wonder why our schools in Utah wouldn't shut down when we would get 2 feet of snow...

-Emily introduced me to the concept of renting DVDs from the library. This is my favorite thing yet! FREE DVD rentals! Including so many TV series and new releases. We can reserve everything online, then drive the very short distance to our local branch to pick them up. Awesome!

-I recently have watched two new shows. Raising Hope and Parks and Recreation. I have enjoyed both of them much, much more than I thought I would, and can't wait to see more! They are so hilarious, and something to look forward during my long, motherly days.

-They just opened a Little Caesars next to Aldi! It isn't the BEST pizza, but it helps me feel a little less homesick knowing I can zip over and get a hot and ready, just like old times.

-I am wondering when I will feel like an east coast resident. I still feel like I am on some kind of extended vacation, mainly because I am having so much fun with Emily and her babies (and recently mom as well). I am starting to know my way around all the insanely ridiculous maze of freeways and beltways and parkways and highways. I miss having ONE freeway to use. Good ol' I-15... But I can get to Costco, Target and most importantly, the mall, by myself, so I feel like I am doing ok.