52 seconds of cuteness

Here's a video of Monkey that I took last week.

this week's menu plan

I'm not the greatest at planning my meals. That means that I get too hungry and eat whatever is fastest (which coincidentally is not usually healthy in the least). Since today is the start of Kelly's biggest loser competition, I made myself a menu. I (loosely) calculated weight watchers points, which I've never used but have several family members who swear by the program.

Anyhow, breakfast, lunch, & snacks are all "pick one" and dinner is determined for each night. Knowing what points I'll use for dinner, I just pick the other meals to add up to my daily total (or thereabouts). Here it is:

Breakfast

• Cereal with non-fat milk & a piece of fruit (5)
• Oatmeal with non-fat milk & a piece of fruit (5)
• 1 egg and 1 egg white, 2 pieces of toast, & a piece of fruit (5)
• Saturday: wheat and honey pancakes (lots)

Lunch

• Leftovers (varies)
• Tortilla & egg & pepper strips (6)
• Sandwich & raw veggies (5)
• Tomato & Pepper soup with cheese & veggies (5)

Snacks

• Popcorn & 11 almonds (3)
• 1 c milk with cocoa & 1 Tbsp sugar (3)
• Apple with 1 Tbsp peanut butter (3)
• Smoothie [2 fruits, veggies, tofu, yogurt] (5)
• Apple cheddar pitas (3)
• Cottage cheese dip with veggies (2)
• 2/3 c Cottage cheese with grapes (3)
• Pear bread (or other) muffin with 1 c milk (10, approx)

Dinners

• Sunday: Lentil & veggie stew (3)
• Monday: Hawaiian haystacks (10)
• Tuesday: Chicken & veggie stir fry over rice (8)
• Wednesday: Rice and beans (8-10)
• Thursday: Burritos (10)
• Friday: Chili Soup (7, approx)
• Saturday: Tuna sandwiches on wheat (10) or Sloppy lentils on rolls (6)

(Oh, and I also can have one Dove dark chocolate each day. I keep them in the freezer to keep them out of sight & help them melt slower.)

it was love at first sight.

I'm just crazy about this dress. I picture myself (skinny & with a new haircut) wearing it on the cruise. Unfortunately I don't see myself spending $164 on a dress that I'll not have many opportunities to wear. And even if I could find a pattern for a dress like this, I'm not sure that I could sew it.

Other dresses that I love: Ingrid Bergman's dress in Indiscreet. I couldn't find a close-up picture of it online, but click on the link to see a clip from the movie.

And Halle Berry's 2003 oscar dress. I think I have a thing for a crossing look on the bodice.

Chick stories

Yesterday's Chick story: All of us were gathered on my bed. Here's part of the conversation which ensued:

Chick: Daddy has been eating grapes.

Me: Why do you think that?

Chick: Because he has a grape in his throat (foat).

I looked and she was pointing to his adam's apple.

HH: Maybe I've been eating an apple.

Chick: No, it's a grape.

Me: Daddy has a lump in his throat.

Chick: Yeah. Daddy has a yump in his foat.

The weekend mornings when the girls join us in our bed is the setting for some of my favorite family memories so far.

Other news: Monkey has started dancing. Mostly it's bending her knees in time to music when she's standing. She also claps her hands, making her even more monkey-like.

The Everett Historic Theater had a "yard sale" (on the stage) this weekend. I spent $2.00 and got a navy blue v-neck sweater for me, and dress up stuff for the girls-- feather boa, string of pearls, turquoise colored bead necklace, and a head scarf.

Here are some dressup pics. The first are from Saturday, and then today I decided that I didn't really want to accomplish anything & should dress Chick up for better pictures (but my batteries are almost dead, so we didn't get to take many). We even did MAKEUP, which hopefully won't fuel any fires for Chick....

Last Friday I visited my parents' house. My brother & his family are living there for a couple of days (just moved up from New Mexico), so in an attempt to get him to actually read my blog, here's a picture of Chick helping Evan do a puzzle.

Muffin Tin Monday: Today's theme is People & Faces. We had bread, nuts, cheese, grapes, apple, carrots, & sweet peas...which Chick got to play with a lot.

MTM is hosted by Her Cup Overfloweth... check it out to see everyone else's muffin tins.

Lately...

...Monkey is taking a step here and there, and she's so great at standing unassisted, but she still likes a hand to hold.

...Chick is old enough for longer story/picture books. I'm thrilled. All along the path of parenthood there have been little, "THIS is what I love about being a parent" moments...storytime is one of those things. We've read some good books lately:

"In a Blue Room," which has beautiful illustrations & a nice soothing lyrical quality.

Though I didn't appreciate this one until we'd read it 2 1/2 times, I liked "Rain Makes Applesauce." While we were out for a walk Chick was repeating, "You're just talking silly talk" which is kind of a fun phrase in and of itself.

...I haven't done any sewing. I had layout, and then I opted for reading a book ("The Romanov Bride" - the second that I've read by Robert Alexander) which made me very grateful that we are not having a revolution in this country right now. Both of his books (the other was "The Kitchen Boy") do have some swearing & inappropriate parts, but were fascinating nonetheless. Another revolution/ communist "must read" is "Wild Swans." It's hard reading, especially because it's not fiction, and much of China's history would have been better left in the realm of fiction/horror.

...My only project has been to reorganize the girls' clothing. Out with the summer clothes, in with the warmer fall & winter wear. Darn kids, just seem to keep growing. Anyhow, it's fun because it's like getting to wear new clothes myself : )

...We got our plane tickets for the cruise, which makes it feel very close. Which is good, because it is giving me motivation to get moving. I went for a jog a couple of days ago, a walk yesterday, and am considering joining the local YMCA. (I'm also going to play biggest loser with some friends, starting Aug 30th...I'll keep you updated).

...I've had fun grocery shopping--this is my favorite time of year for groceries because of all the "back to school" promotions. We've gotten a ton of pantry items for very little money. Some of it, like Skippy PB, isn't as healthy as we usually eat, but it's good to have on hand for when we run out of Adams. Anyhow, I love free food. Last night I spent $8 out of pocket and got: 2 cans of olives, 2 6-packs of Dole fruit cups, 8 boxes of cereal, 1 pk of M&M's for HH, a pkg of bacon, and 3 bananas. I have our year supply of pop tarts, totally unhealthy, but I like to have them on Sunday mornings as a special Sunday treat...and at 30 cents a box, who could resist? We also used coupons in combination with the Kraft promotion at Albertsons--so I got over $30 worth of Kraft products for $0. Yay!

...I thrifted.

The first pic is the rest of my $50 trip (I returned some). I didn't read the coupon carefully, though, and so when I returned it I forfeited the discount on the additional stuff. Oh well. The arm and the turtle weren't included in the purchase...she just wanted to help with putting things in the picture. (the items pictured are what I got for free--it's not $50 worth, but free is free)

I used a second "spend $100, get $50 back" coupon and got this: (Not pictured are 2 chairs, a stool, and a Little Tikes bike for Chick). The Halloween dress is for Monkey's costume this year--she's going to be a Halloween fairy. Chick is going to be the cutest little bee you've ever seen, but I'm making that one, so don't hold your breath. In the back are 2 red blankets to use in the living room. Better than the purple that we had that didn't match at all : )

LOVED IT

Yay, it's Muffin Tin Monday!

For the past couple of days I've been saying that I need a break. So what do I do when both girls are actually napping at the same time? I wreak havoc in the kitchen making the muffin tin meal for the week, of course! These really are just as good for mamas as for little chicks, though.

The theme was Trains, Planes, & Automobiles...

sunny juice

Yogurt cloud

PB&J airplane with carrot wings, raisin windows & popcorn exhaust

A train on a carrot track, traversing:

applesauce desert

cheese-its & almonds mountain

and broccoli forest

When Chick woke up I showed her the muffin tin & she was as excited as I was : )
She started with the yogurt saying, "I eat the cloud!"

For more Muffin Tins check out Her Cup Overfloweth.

**Update: I was in at the computer (looking at all the other muffin tins) while Chick was eating her lunch, and I heard her say that she had gone potty. I went in there & sure enough, she'd had an accident. I asked her why she didn't tell me that she needed to go, or why she hadn't sat on the potty by herself, and she said, "Because I was eating my muffin tin!" ...not so excited that she had an accident, but I'm happy that she liked her muffin tin that much : )

How the Monkey got her name

Yes (Lia), she does have excellent Mama-clinging abilities. My little Monkey likes to be on Mama's hip. If she can't be with Mama, then anyone that will hold her is ok. just to be held. But she's no slacker--she pulls her own weight, almost literally. She's always been very strong & she really does cling (and thankfully she's a light-weight). And If I'm trying to do something like wash the dishes, then she's clinging to my legs.

She uses her legs to wrap around things in her super-clinging. She likes to be tossed through the air, and she is stealth at snatching things (usually to stick them in her mouth).

She has reddish hair, which makes me think of "Where's Wallace?"...just a little.

And she likes bananas. a lot.But mostly, she's called Monkey because she gets around. She's been crawling for months, but even before that she got around well.

I took this picture today. She and Chick were in the living room playing and suddenly Monkey began fussing frantically. I looked to see this:

I'm not entirely sure how she got like that, but she couldn't get back to standing up & she couldn't let go or she'd fall...so she just had to hang there until we saved her. (Lest you think we're bad parents: We did save her, though I was tempted to take a video of it.... This picture is a re-creation, just long enough to snap the photo).

Well Represented

It's been a long time since I had a picture of Christ hanging in our home. I was just too lazy to frame the one that I had, and lazy to hang stuff in general anyhow.

Finally, though, I got a frame & hung one up. Later that day someone came to our house & I found myself thinking, "I am so glad I got that picture up so that they can know who we really are."

Somehow, just having pictures of my kids, or having a stack of art books, or Italian music playing...all those things represent very important parts of us...but we needed that picture of Jesus to really show US.

what little girls are made of...

I had the most wonderful surprise on Friday.

This wonderful lady, Mary (who was in my ward at church until we moved last year & who is also the mother of my friend Heather) made Chick and Monkey PETTISKIRTS! FOR NO GOOD REASON! JUST BECAUSE SHE'S NICE! (It all started with this post, and really if I'd known that I'd get gifts because of my blog I'd have started long ago!)

We will be having another photoshoot, since I haven't found the perfect location & shirts, but in the meantime here are some pictures of us playing dress-up & HH humoring us (slightly begrudgingly...sometimes he just doesn't get the importance of things).