yelling in public

Fun Saturday

2012-01-12T14:30:00.017-07:00

A few weeks ago we took advantage of great weather and went down to the national mall so Harrison could ride the carousel. It seems we always go down there for a museum, see the carousel, promise he can ride it "later," and then run out of time. It was time to give the kid a break :) After, we had some extra time so we hit up the Hirshorn modern art museum and shake shack (my first time-YUM YUM).

Harrison saw the dragon and had to have it.

I was trying to get the flag in this picture--you can barely see it. Way cooler in person.

Horses!!!
Bunnies in the sculpture garden!

Perfect day!!! Harrison is checking out his cool shadow.

Two things

2011-12-28T16:51:00.002-07:00

#1 I'm sorry the font is weird...not sure why that happened but it was not on purpose and I'll fix it soon. ....ish....

#2 Who noticed that carter is flipping everyone off in that first picture? I just did. Gave me a laugh at the end of a rough day :) Apparently she's a little feisty despite her sweet disposition.

TWO MONTHS!!!

2011-12-27T17:10:00.013-07:00

Carter bug is two months old!!! (well...she was yesterday...). She is doing great and I can't get enough of her adorable baby face and she seriously has the sweetest little disposition. Sometimes when I think she's sleepy I'll put her in her swing in her room and turn off the light. She won't make a peep and I'll come back in like 20 minutes to find her just sitting there awake, alone, in the dark...totally fine....such a doll. Right now some of Carter's favorite things are:

Growing--11 pounds at her 1 month (but actually 7 week) visit and 22.5 inches long. This was 74% for weight, 75% for height, and 79% for head size. She's wearing mostly 3-6 months clothes now.

Eating!! (see #1) She now gets drinks 2-3 oz of formula after each feeding (or therabouts). I basically feel like this means I am feeding her ALL time time and she doesn't seem to get much from me nursing because if I try to put her down after she's immediately hungry again.. for what it's worth I am going to at least try to keep it up until my maternity leave is over...

Getting loved on by Harrison! The doting big bro loves to bring her toys, give her kisses and hugs, tell her he loves her, talk to her, and attempt to carry her around places (we usually stop this...)

kicking her legs and feet!! She's always kicking off blankets. It's cute and funny because I leave the room or walk away and come back and her blanket is on the floor and she's just sitting there looking at me all innocently.

Smiling at mommy and daddy--ADORABLE

She no longer will tolerate tummy time as well as in the beginning, but she's getting much better holding up her head and moving towards rolling over.

Sleeping!!! We were getting 7-8 hours a night (about 10-5) but now have reverted to about 3-4 hours at a time. I blame it on the cold she got from Harrison. Yep, the little bug has her first sickness :( :(. It makes me sad to hear her cough but thus far no lung issues or ear infection so hopefully she'll get over it soon (and she tolerates it like such a trooper, I couldn't get near Harrison with the snot sucker and Carter doesn't even cry). Harrison didn't hardly get sick until last winter which was great. Having a toddler who goes to nursery and preschool and loves to kiss, touch, sometimes lick (EW!!!) his baby sister brings sickness to another level I'm afraid.

Here are some pictures I took of our little princess today. Happy 2 months baby girl!!!'

check out the old man hair!

Lift that head!!

chillin

Cory's Birthday

2011-12-27T08:35:00.010-07:00

Cory celebrated his 32nd birthday on December 7th. It was such fun being home with Harrison so we could pick out presents together, wrap them (32 of course) and hide them all over the living room. Sure the "presents" included things like 4 holiday placemats, mini altoids, and a 14 piece spatula set I bought online awhile ago and forgot about.... we made up for it by getting him the ipad he's been dreaming about for awhile. Happy birthday Cory! We love you and are so lucky to have you around!!!!!

The Presents!! Harrison helped wrap of course :)

Harrison after we decorated Cory's birthday cookie. This was the first year we made our own instead of buying one and it turned out DEE LISH OUS

Christmas crafts for those who can tie a knot and man a glue gun

2011-12-26T00:05:00.013-07:00

For anyone whose had the pleasure of being sent or given something from me for christmas that I decided to make myself you likely understand that everything doesn't always turn out exactly like I plan. Typically it's always a little off, smushed, broken, and likely cost twice as much as if I just bought you something. Oh well. Someday I'll become more efficient and talented. Maybe. Until then, making stuff is still one of my favorite christmas traditions. This year was no different. Harrison and I whipped up a few batches of oreo truffles (he LOVED sprinkle duty...a little too much sometimes, but who doesn't want more sugar anyway???). We also made my favorite gingerbread cookies with Cory's help (See recipe HERE ) for some neighbors and I decided to make a bunch of wreaths for friends. I got a few pictures of those (mostly for Jen's benefit)

Felt Rosette Wreath... I did two of these but they look basically the same. Very easy but take seven billion years so make sure you have time.

Ribbon Wreath #1
Ribbon Wreath #2

And then red and green slightly christmas-y versions of this one which I forgot/am too lazy to take pictures of:

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/10/how-to-make-a-tulle-wreath-halloween-edition/

(with less flowers and no bird ....sorry)

A few days before christmas I also got together with two awesome ladies and we made some yummy truffles--raspberry, peppermint, and chocolate with sea salt...(ok Erin and Marci made them while I pretended to be calming my fussy child....)

FYI the salt ones look like they've been through the wringer because we oversalted a BIT the first time around and tried to correct the mistake

Erin hard at work

Marci hard at work too....(you notice who is NOT in these pictures...)

AMAZING talent with the raspberry drizzle

Pretty peppermint

Apparently we woke Alesa up so she could lick those ones on the bottom and make them look more "authentic".....

YUM!!! Whatever they may lack in appearance they more than make up for in taste...in fact I may have just eaten one (or FOUR) right now :) Love you girls! Thanks for being awesome!

National Christmas Tree

2011-12-24T12:10:00.002-07:00

We went to see the National Tree last week and it turned out to be a lot of fun (I wasn't sure and hadn't been for a long time). Not too cold or crowded and we saw all the pretty state trees and the HUGE yule log. As a BIG bonus santa and his workshop were there so we saved an expensive and obnoxious trip to the mall and a likely long wait in line. We also saw TWO couples get engaged in a matter of like 20 minutes, one right next to us.

(PS- just in case you're wondering I composed these captions at 2:02 a.m. in "not quite" my right mind...)

An attempt to get 3/4 of us in a picture. Apparently my face is melting...
Man this kid is CUTE
Yep, that's the white house back there. I wasn't only taking a picture of the fence....
post-tree wrap-up dinner--guzzling water from a big cup while daddy looks on
Was Harrison's favorite part the huge tree? or the big flaming yule log? Or seeing santa? Or getting "rice and beans and chips" after??? NO--it was the train display of course.
That's the AZ tree-shout out to our AZ friends and family
All bundled up----thanks Alissa for making this hat for alesa a couple of years ago so I could accidentally steal it....

Harrison survived a santa visit without crying: WIN!!! (we were also actually allowed to take pictures unlike with the psycho elves last year who wouldn't allow a camera phone within 50 feet...)

YULE to the LOG
Nativity---the jaded conservative I am was grateful to see this. Also grateful that the choir sang a real christmas song AFTER that song about recycling...
and the BIG TREE of course

Thanksgivmas #2

2011-12-21T12:15:00.019-07:00

Last year the old roomies and I started a new holiday in the first weekend of December (well April suggested and we jumped on board). This year we moved it from Pittsburgh to DC for take two and had just as much fun. Plus--we had the bonus of having Alissa fly all the way out from Utah!! Oh yes, all six of us were together again (plus four husbands and 6.5 kids)!!! Two nights, lots of yummy food ( I may or may not have made SIX pizzas for this event...proscuito and carmelized onion won out as the best in my opinion), gift giving, late night conversation, and not to mention an AMAZING white elephant gift exchange...(thanks again for that toilet seat Shalise :))). I LOVE LOVE LOVE these girls and I'm glad we can always pick up where we left off back on 818 crothers lane. Can't wait til next year in OHIO!

Alissa's gift courtesy of Taci--It's a reindeer/santa/olympic snowshoer...of course....Dru is jealous...
Of course he shouldn't have been since he got Alissa's home-made awesome toddler-sized cape)
Cute baby Lucio with Andrew, Taci, and Shalise...Lucio was born 2 weeks before Carter---I feel blessed to have taken part in the decision on his name pronunciation that weekend (Lou Chee O if you are wondering)..
Carter looking up at her daddy
the boys and alesa playing video games
April gave us cute little holiday cacti---mine may or may not have been dumped over twice in the car on the way home but fingers crossed it will survive (they're a hardy plant, right?)
Carter takes a nap with her grumpy face on
Alissa and Marci figured out how to make truffle boxes out of ordinary pieces of cardstock--GENIUS I tell you!
Shalise teaches Harrison and Vincenzo spanish in a toddler toy wonderland
finally alesa gets in on the video game action
Getting ready to make truffles--YUM!!!
Harrison got a spiderman coloring book in his stocking!!
obviously it's more of a surprise if you go through your stocking with your eyes closed....
Adorable bag also made by alissa...I may be comandeering this for my own benefit...

Blessing Day

2011-12-18T15:12:00.008-07:00

We were lucky to have cory's parents come visit a couple of weeks ago for Carter's blessing. Harrison loved spending time with O'ma and O'pa and Carter loved the constant attention and snuggling :) (plus--they brought presents...and candy..YUM). We took them to Eastern Market for pancakes and the natural history museum.....you'll have to take my word for it because I didn't get any pictures...whoops...

Carter's blessing dress was once used by my aunt Kim. It was awesome to use it again a few years later :) I got a few pictures of her in it a couple of days before (which was a smart move since we ended up only getting one picture on the blessing day).

Harrison is not looking and carter is crying....typical....

Harrison and O'pa finishing up the gingerbread house we started for FHE--they even used a cotton ball for smoke coming out of the chimney :)

mommy why do you insist on taking pictures of yourself? I'm obviously much cuter!

Carter loves to try to eat her hands...or just shove them up her nose...

Another fruitless attempt to get her to take a binkie....sigh...she'll hold it in her mouth for a minute but sadly it is not a calming mechanism in any way--boo---

LOVE THIS FACE!!!

2011-12-17T13:37:00.011-07:00

I tried to get a smile on camera today...maybe it sort of worked. Carter has been much more expressive lately. Sad to move on from the newborn phase but fun to see a little personality coming out!

More posts to come--I've got a lot to catch up on so I'm going to try to do one a day rather than sit here uploading pictures UNTIL THE END OF TIME (seriously it feels like it takes that long sometimes).

Carter Pants- One month old today!

2011-11-26T12:03:00.015-07:00

Wow--that month went by a little too quickly. Carter is doing well. She's decided that perfection wasn't really worth it and has been giving us some trouble at night. As soon as it's time for mommy and daddy to go to sleep she decides she's super gassy and uncomfortable. Last night she finally fell asleep at 2:15 only to wake up to be fed at 2:45 and then again at 6..sheesh...really not awful for this age but frustrating after we had a few really good, easy weeks in the beginning. Trying to figure that one out...any advice? I've tried gas drops and gripe water but haven't really noticed much difference. I've been supplementing formula because she was wanting to nurse constantly and was still not satisfied so that could be causing problems.... Tonight we will start her in her crib so hopefully she will respond well to a more regular night-time routine. During the day she is really good. She can entertain herself for awhile which is totally foreign to me :) She also doesn't really love taking a binky like Harrison, also weird, but probably a good thing in the long run (you know given that harrison is almost three and loves his binky more than he loves us---he will take naps just to have it).... She spits up but not nearly as much as he did..... (at least the beautiful burp cloths from Jen and Kari are getting lots of use-THANK YOU!)

Sometimes having two is almost easier than one since they both can amuse themselves at times....sometimes though it is NOT but I know things will get easier :) We love this sweet baby and are so happy to have her. It's surreal to be a family of four and I am so grateful to have two healthy beautiful kids (and for all of the family and friends who take care of us and have taken time out to visit, help, bring food, and come amuse my first born :))

tired and a little cranky, but just hanging out--awhile after this she needed her swing..she LOVES that thing (almost carted it upstairs last night in a moment of desperation)
mommy-please take this silly bow off my head
at the mall so harrison could ride the train and daddy could visit the apple store
daddy's girl. Cory is much better at picking her up and holding her and she LOVES it.
trying out some settings on my camera

big socks--little feet
tell tale spit up on the sleeve
why oh why are you trying to prop me up like this mommy?

Because you can never have too many pictures, my friend Elysa is a budding newborn photographer and came over last week to take pictures of carter while harrison and her son jonah run rampant all over the house and took advantage of the lack of supervision. The pictures turned out great! And the dining room floor has almost recovered!

captions are overrated

2011-11-22T11:54:00.029-07:00

And take too long when you have a newborn who will want to eat any minute now. I know you just want to see pictures anyway....not read witty banter from me. Here's the breakdown: Harrison got a new hat and learned to take pictures of himself, we played in the rain, my mom came to visit (that's her shoved in between two carseats...we need a bigger car!!!), thanks for the socks alissa, we painted with pudding, and here's the recipe (TRY it):

taking advantage of paternity leave

2011-11-16T12:05:00.022-07:00

We really enjoyed the 2 weeks cory was home with us for paternity leave. We tried to take advantage and go lots of fun places....my mom also came to visit last weekend which was awesome and Harrison LOVES his grandma. Now we're on day 5 of "by myself with 2 kids" and today was the first time I ventured beyond the playground or just dropping harrison off at preschool. Laurissa, our nanny, was going to come over and take Harrison to story time this morning but had to cancel at the last minute so I decided just to take him myself. We also went to Chick fil a afterwards (we passed it on the way there...I'm surprised we made it to story time first :)). I survived. Never thought I'd be able to nurse in a crowded restaurant with a toddler and no husband but we did it---Harrison is incredibly well behaved when he has to be and baby carter is learning to put up with a lot. Such is life with two kids I suppose. Enjoy the pictures!

First official family outing-Red Robin!!

I have a picture of Harrison making that same face...

At the Air and Space Museum in NoVa

Carter's 'angry old man face'

I insisted on making carmel apples...it's harder than it looks--Harrison lost interest quickly and went outside to "work" in the yard with daddy. Oh well.

I love her girly hands and fingernails :)

cute kiddos in their jammies

Yes-we'd take a toddler and baby into downtown DC on a weekday :)

beautiful fall leaves at the zoo

baby pictures

2011-11-09T14:32:00.004-07:00

My good friend Angela's sister in law does photography and last weekend took some pictures for us. She's got a few on her blog and I thought I'd share. Thanks Jackie!

http://skousenphotography.blogspot.com/

what we've been eating around here-homemade hot pockets

2011-11-04T07:58:00.004-07:00

These are really good and easy. I made ham and cheese with broccoli awhile ago and doubled it. We ate them all in the late stages of pregnancy/last week. We've now moved on to pizza ones and I'm thinking of doing some chicken and pepper jack cheese. Very easy to make a bunch and freeze them to heat up later for lunch/dinner or whatever. Plus unlike other similar recipes they tell you how to roll them up and it's fairly fool proof with minimal spillage even if you tend to go for extra cheese like I do :)

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/07/kids-week-homemade-hot-pockets/

Carter Loa

2011-10-31T11:47:00.023-07:00

Baby sister Carter arrived Wednesday afternoon at 3:17 p.m. I had an appt that day (the day after my due date) and was told that we'd schedule an induction for the following day since I had been dialated to a 5 the week before....I got Laurissa to watch Harrison and brought my bag just in case they wanted to induce right then and turns out the hospital was free so I called Cory and headed down to the hospital from my ob's office. Luckily Erin was ready and waiting to come pick up harrison for a slumber party at Alesa June's house (and also rescued us by taking Harrison out again on Saturday-LOVE YOU ERIN AND DRU!!!!) and everything worked out great. I started pitocin at about 11 (cory was there by then so he didn't miss anything), the midwife broke my water at 12:30. After that contractions started to get a bit stronger so I went for the epidural and had a minor scare as my bp started dropping as some kind of reaction (not a huge deal but a bit unexpected)....they got me stabilized pretty quickly and I started feeling contractions a lot...I asked if I could push the button for extra drugs (they wanted to make sure my bp was stable first) and the nurse suggesting checking me first just in case she was ready.....I was planning to push that button at 3:05 for some relief but instead I pushed for roughly 10 minutes and Carter came out at 3:17 p.m. 8 pounds 13 oz, 21.5 inches long (much longer than Harrison which means she seems much skinnier even though she was 2 oz heavier) and PERFECT. We have been home since Friday and she's doing great. Breast feeding has been way easier (and on track to continue as long as I can get her to gain 9 more oz by the 9th, fingers crossed!!), she hardly ever cries except when her diaper needs to be changed, and she sleeps A LOT (way way way more than harrison from what I remember...). ...She's been laying on a blanket awake for the last 20 minutes or so and I think that's basically the longest eye-open stretch yet. So far so good but I'm sure as she wakes up it will start to get a bit more stressful :) Harrison absolutely loves and dotes on "baby sister" and loves to hold her, give her hugs and kisses, bring her every toy he owns, and force binkies on her like nobody's business. Today we had our first non-doctor outing to Red Robin (at Harrison's request after I vetoed Chick fil a ) ...Carter slept through it all of course! Bring on life as a family of four!!!

Here are LOTS of pictures. Not to be forgotten, first will put in a couple of Harrison in his dragon costume at the trunk or treat on Tuesday.

At the hospital!!!

2011-10-26T09:04:00.002-07:00

In case you didn't see on Facebook- I'm officially getting induced NOW!! Stay tuned :)

And some more randoms

2011-10-23T14:49:00.000-07:00

Not in order but just so I don't forget....

Harrison and mommy took a trip to the farm

climbing a tractor

Hayride

My brother and his friend Travis came to visit--Harrison LOVED playing with uncle aaron and was super bummed he couldn't join them on their trip to NYC

At the American History Museum

Fun times with daddy in the science room. Harrison and Cory spent like an hour in there doing smart people/budding smart people stuff

Out of order-went with Aaron and Travis to see planes take off at Gravelly Point

Marbles!!!!

Eating at our favorite pizza place "flippin pizza" Falls Churchs' answer to Jimmy and Joes

Blanket rides through the kitchen

Clemyjontri park in McClean...like a small kids wonderland

Cooking with mommy

Trying out baby sister's carseat

We carved a pumpkin!!!! with a smiley face and googely eyes!

BYE!!!!!

Having Lots of Fun

2011-10-23T14:29:00.000-07:00

here's the proof:

A few saturdays back while cory replaced part of the fence in our backyard Harrison and I visited a local nursery where they had a fall festival/pumpkin patch of sorts...basically you pay money to pick a pumpkin and watch your toddler climb on/slide down things :) It was perfect for Harrison

And of course I had to have Harrison ride a pony--first timer and he did awesome.

It was a 3 day weekend so on Monday Cory joined in and we went to a real pumpkin patch/farm. We saw animals, picked apples, took a hayride out to pick some pumpkins, and had a blast.

The following weekend we checked out the national building museum. Basically lame if you ask me but Harrison liked playing with puppets in the kid room and cory was able to show his mad lego skills and made a snowman..Afterwards Harrison and I got in a leaf fight in Judiciary Square.

Yesterday it was cold so we went to the national botanical garden...This is on capitol hill and I think I had been once on a lunch break for a few minutes. It was such a WIN. Mostly inside, not too crowded, lots of amazing plants, cool spices to smell, a place for kids to play, Harrison got to get himself entirely soaked in the fountains....we even found parking close by just in case I went into labor (didn't happen despite lots of walking). And I got to have lunch at one of my favorite "I used to be a hill staffer" places where I could listen to people talk about the republican primary candidates and eat yummy chips and salsa. YAY for saturday adventures. I know it will be super harder to manage these kinds of outings with two kids but I hope we can make it happen.

This picture is embarrassing but you just gotta love the drool and "mommy don't give me a kiss face"

I LOVE FALL

2011-10-21T05:30:00.002-07:00

So many pictures to post of fun things we've been doing but somehow it never happens when I actually have access to my pictures. Since I'm unmotivated in my second to last day (OR LAST--hopefully) at work I thought I'd post a recipe I made on Wednesday. I absolutely LOVE Fall and pumpkins and pie and cold weather and living somewhere where I can enjoy the leaves changing color and the chill in the air. I also LOVE LOVE butternut squash soup. Cory hates all things involving "winter" squashes but I figured once a year he was going to have to deal with it and I made some. This is a combination of a recipe from Our Best Bites and All Recipes (because I'm creative like that? No because I planned/bought ingredients for one recipe and then started making another...oops..) but I liked the way it turned out. I've made lots of butternut squash soup recipes in the past and there are lots of yummy ones out there with curry, apples, BACON, etc. This one is basic but was delicious and I like that it has some carrots and celery in it. I'm also happy to report the leftovers have been added to our "freezer meals" stash for when this kid finally comes.

Butternut squash soup
1. Cook one butternut squash in the oven with a little bit butter/salt/pepper for about 30-40 min at 400 or so untill soft.
2. saute 1 diced onion, 3 carrots, and a few stalks of celery in some olive oil and a little butter (I'm sure you don't have to use the butter but I love the combination). Add spices as you see fit--I threw in salt, pepper, garlic salt, dill, sage, a little dry mustard and lots of hot sauce (could also put some cayene pepper..it didn't really turn out spicy at all--just had a good flavor).
3. When the veggies are getting soft scoop out the flesh from the squash and mix it in (The OBB recipe has you boil the squash in the soup but I think it's easier to cook it first).
4. Add in one peeled, cooked, diced potato (I cooked in the microwave but again you could just simmer it all together until everything is soft).
5. Add 6-8 cups of chicken broth (I did 8 cups of water and maybe 6 boullion cubes and I thought it would be to thin but it turned out great).
6. Let simmer/boil until all veggies are soft.
7. Puree with immersion blender (leaving behind yummy looking flecks of carrot).
8. And the kicker (from all recipes, although it called for 2 times as much which is not necessary)--stir in 8 oz of cream cheese until smooth. I thought this made it very creamy and good.
9. Salt/pepper/etc. to taste
ENJOY!!!

While we're at it...

2011-10-15T17:38:00.022-07:00

Here are some pics of the rest of our townhouse. Just so you can see how cute but lived in it is and maybe you'll want to come visit :) PLEASE COME SEE THE BROWNS IN OUR NATION'S CAPITOL!!!

That couch is very comfy for overnight guests. And I'm just waiting for someone to put the carseat in the car...

Notice the santa-sized bag of mega blocks? Awesome. Gotta love freecycle. And if anyone wants to donate their flat screen TV to a good cause...let me know...

This loveseat is basically the last thing that Cory brought into our marriage that is still around. And it needs to go. I let Harrison eat on this couch and hope one day he'll spill something really really gross on it.

Dining Room looking into the kitchen

This wall is likely more suited for some nice framed pictures or art or something but for now it showcases Harrison's nursery and preschool creations.

What's left of the apples we picked last weekend....

After Cory and Harrison made this pie this afternoon....YUM... not all that pretty but I hear it's delicious!

More of the kitchen. No that's not diet coke. I would never subject my unborn child to caffeinated products. Please.

Playroom in the basement. That couch is a bed. COME SLEEP ON IT!!!

Other side of the playroom. Big boxes from amazon are lots of fun for 2 year olds...and they come with paper/fort walls/train tracks.

This is the basement office/guest/craft room.. it needs A LOT of work. But that couch is also a bed. And I also got it for free. BOOYAH. COME VISIT.

Your own bathroom for when you come stay with us. OH MY GOODNESS. THERE IS A HUGE BEAST IN THAT MIRROR!!! Oh wait, that's me. Please just admire me for posting even a blurry picture of myself at nearly 39 weeks. Thank you.

Up to the top floor and Harrison's room.

Oh wait, I didn't tell you I've changed his name to "Harr" since I can't find the rest of those letters? Yeah...

Mommy and Daddy's room. Nothing special but the swing and pack and play are ready!! (and I feel really really lucky to have two real closets in here).

Those two dressers were inherited from the house I grew up in--they're basically awful. Actually the one on the left is beautifully refinished but makes me crazy on a daily basis because the drawers stick like nobody's business. Someday we'll have real furniture right??

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.....

2011-10-15T16:20:00.006-07:00

I finally feel ready for this baby to come! The nursery is basically done. Finally!!! (I will never again think it sounds like a "good idea" to just paint some crappy furniture and try to somehow make it not crappy..IT DOESN'T WORK... The house is in decent enough shape. My co-workers threw me a shower on Friday which was so sweet. I've ordered re-curring shipments of diapers, wipes, pullups (STILL!!! BOO!!) and diaper genie refills on amazon. I've busted out the snot sucker. It's like christmas eve..NOW WHERE IS SANTA???

Ten more days. Three would be nice. Seventeen may be more likely.

The glider looks wet because it is. I scrubbed it down with oxy clean today just to "freshen it up" or something...of course I couldn't wait til it dried to post pictures :) Wet or not it's comfy and I was psyched to find something non-wooden that matched for less than $100 :) :)

Don't worry Harrison jumped in the crib A LOT yesterday just to make sure it is sturdy enough for a new baby. He's also dis-assembled the mobile once or twice....

Not because I'll listen, but....

2011-09-23T04:34:00.002-07:00

Carter or Taylor for baby girl? GO-

If you're a hater of androgynous names or presidents too bad for you :)

Yum Yum Yum

2011-09-20T07:36:00.003-07:00

I've made some good recipes of late and just wanted to document so I can remember when I'm looking for something for dinner......(and if you happen to benefit as well, than happy day):

First experience cooking chicken thighs. Hurricane weekend--even though it's pretty rough getting hard liquor in NoVA and we had to do without the jack daniels, this was AWESOME..so much so we served the leftovers to friends the next day.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/08/peach-whiskey-barbecue-chicken/

and I finally figured out how to make some good mashed potatoes that weren't oddly textured.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/perfect-mashed-potatoes-recipe/index.html

Sometimes I struggle to follow directions but mashed potatoes is one place where it is NECESSARY

Fish tacos we whipped up after church one day and cory couldn't stopped raving. The mango was AWESOME.

http://www.thecookingguy.com/cookbook/recipe.php?id=299

I used tilapia instead of tuna and it was great. Cuz I'm cheap like that.

This was delicious and easy. We used goat cheese instead of gorganzola..cory doesn't like stinky cheeses :( I really could have just eaten the candied pecans all day.

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2011/09/pear-blue-cheese-salad-with-candied-pecans/

Quiche with every possible unhealthy thing ever in it. Very good. Although I think I should have halved it because it's still in our fridge and even good stuff gets old after awhile. I took out about half the cheese, used milk instead of half and half, and only used a little bit of bacon. I also added potatoes and slightly less spinach because I had some I needed to use up. Still good, although with the potatoes it probably is best for breakfast/brunch.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/clarks-quiche/detail.aspx

(Harrison refused to eat this until last night on our third round of leftovers...and of course he said it was yummy until I gave him a bite with spinach/mushrooms :))

First day of Preschool

2011-09-18T12:36:00.010-07:00

My little baby had his first day of preschool last week. He LOVED it. No problem getting dropped off, just didn't want to leave :)

We love the little preschool he will be going to 2 days a week in the morning. His teacher is awesome and he's already gotten to know the cute kids in his class. It's a co-op and next week I will be there helping out. I get to come up with a snack for 8 two year olds that involves a fruit or veggie and has no nuts, milk, eggs, or corn products......oh yeah and somehow ties in the unit on zoo animals??? FUN!!!!

here are some pics cory took the morning of the big day (I was at work already but he went in late so he could be there :)).

His hair was done at one point...somehow always sticking up within like 5 minutes...

ummmmm.......

Hang up your bag and get your picture to put in the class!

He's carrying his snack cup with a worm he collected the day before to feed to the class' prayng mantis...not that those eat worms but we couldn't find any crickets, so....

Fun Stuff

2011-09-11T16:52:00.011-07:00

I've been working a lot of overtime saturday afternoons lately. This gives us good motivation to get out of the house and do something fun together in the morning. YAY.

We took Harrison on a "pirate" boat tour of the potomac in alexandria. He was SO excited to see the pirates and go on the "pirate ship" but then when push came to shove I think they made him a little nervous....

Lunch afterwards at BGR. Harrison's grilled cheese was delicious...my fries were great as was Cory's burger...my southwest burger...strange....

What? Isn't this what YOU do while waiting for your food?

Birthday fun

2011-08-27T18:30:00.019-07:00

(The test of every camera is obviously taking pictures of yourself)

Last Saturday I turned 30. THIRTY!! So old. Seriously, I can't believe I was 18 TWELVE years ago. For my birthday, my mom got me an awesome new camera and I am happy to be posting non-camera phone photos. :) For the special day we went and got pancakes at the original pancake house down the street (It's kind of a silly thing for me). And then we went to the park. And then ikea (that's right my birthday gift from Cory/Harrison/myself was bedroom furniture for Harrison). And then I went to work for about 5 hours (sorry, overtime is overtime dude). And then we had a nice date while our friends watched Harrison for us. We saw Crazy Stupid Love because it's a chick movie and I thought I should chose one for 'my' day :) I like seeing movies when I haven't seen any previews because we don't have cable. You never know what you're getting so your expectations aren't too high. And I thought the movie was great. And then around 10:30 cory and I went to the grocery store so I could have a cake. YUM. one piece left and it's calling my name. Happy 30th to ME!!!!

Harrison's hair is absolutely ridiculous. I love it.

cinnamon almond french toast..YUMMY

The slide was wet :)

You know you want a recipe....

2011-08-19T04:37:00.003-07:00

You've been dying for a good recipe on here, right?

Well--I made this one two nights ago and then threw the leftover veggies in some pasta with mozzerella cheese last night. YUM.

(adapted slightly from all recipes)

Roasted Vegetable Sandwiches (supposed to be grilled but I cooked them in the oven)

1. Cut up one zucchini, one yellow squash, one red bell pepper, and one red onion (sliced)
2. put on cookie sheet and drizzle on some olive oil, salt and pepper, and I used steak seasoning
3. Cook at 425 ish for about 20 minutes...the squash goes fast so you could even take that off first so it's not too soft, the onion will be fine however long, the peppers take the longest.
4. mix one big clove of garlic, chopped, with 1/2 cup of mayo and salt, pepper, whatever else you think would be fun in there (I used hot sauce because I put hot sauce in everything :))
5. Put the mayo on each side of a ciabatta roll and sprinkle feta cheese generously on one side. Stuff the sandwiches with the roasted veggies.
6. Wrap said sandwiches individually in foil and put back in the oven for like 10 minutes or so until the bread is crispy and the feta is slightly melted.
7. Serve with sweet potato fries and canteloupe (if you want to be just like me). Did you know that you can get sweet potato fries in the frozen potato section of the grocery store? Cory commented that these were good and actually crispy unlike all of the other times I've attempted to make sweet potato fries. Yes he thought I crinkle cut those all by myself and had them all ready promptly when he got home. Hahahaha. Thanks honey :)

unloading the fun in my camera

2011-08-09T13:47:00.016-07:00

So, we're in our new house and I LOVE the extra space. The 3.5 bathrooms (yeah, that's too many) are finally clean to my liking. The kitchen, and most of the dining/living room are unpacked as well as Harrison and mine and Cory's room...baby sister's room is a disaster, the playroom downstairs REALLY needs a shelf. Hopefully by this weekend that will be rectified (last weekend was spent choosing some rugs for the living room. Traumatic but successful in the end...at least I think so...and Cory is "fine" with the selections...).

In the meantime, here is some of what we've been doing:

On the day of the big move I went over and hung out with harrison, alesa, and baby van so Andrew could help Cory move heavy things. THANK YOU DRU!!! The first thing Harrison and Alesa wanted to do was paint, of course :)

Something about showing mommy your mess fingers

MASTERPIECE!!!!

Apples for snack time (don't worry the fruit snacks came later)

And then they spent a REALLY long time running back and forth between the living room and kitchen, finding dragons and unicorns in the pantry and reporting back to me about it. Harrison is at a very imaginative stage right now and I LOVE it.

Flashlights to slay the dragons???

Every once in awhile Harrison would position himself on the couch and say very nicely "Please can I hold Baby Van mommy?" Let's hope he is as sweet and loving with his baby sister...

And of course Alesa loves her baby brother :)

What else? Cory and harrison played air guitar with raquet ball rackets...and yes that is my foot :0

We found lots of new playgrounds nearby

Heidi and I comisserated about the fact that they are moving to Arizona soon :( over yummy tacos at Cafe Rio. I MISS YOU ALREADY HEIDI!!!

For the last several weeks Harrison has been taking swimming lessons in Arlington. Cory and I switch off who gets to go in the water with him and who gets to watch. Last night I tried to get some pics but you can hardly tell it's them, oh well. Week 1 was HORRID and Harrison refused to participate in the class and just wanted to do his own thing. Since then though he's been great and LOVES it. He's doing really well.

And here's 28 weeks in case you haven't seen it on facebook..Getting bigger and more uncomfortable every day...I'm sure those last 11 weeks will go by really fast right???

In case you're wondering

2011-07-21T13:27:00.003-07:00

Last Saturday at not quite 26 weeks--yee haw

(don't you love how I took a picture of myself in the bathroom mirror at work on Saturday afternoon...this is what happens when I'm working overtime practically all alone :) )

Fireworks and Trains

2011-07-21T12:51:00.023-07:00

So....we have been doing stuff I promise. First it was fourth of July and we took Harrison to see some fireworks at a local high school. He was SO excited waiting for the fireworks to start (sorry it's blurry cuz I'm not sure how to work the flash on my camera phone).

Anyway. We found a spot REALLY close to where they were shooting the fireworks off..so cool, right? Wrong. Harrison didn't 'freak out' but definitely did not like the loud noise and how close we were (plus all that ash falling on us). We strapped him in the stroller and headed away quickly. We got to our car by the end of the show and that distance was just about perfect :) Luckily, if you ask Harrison he has a positive memory of our fourth of july fireworks and will insist that the fireworks are loud but that "Harrison not scared anymore.."

Then we went to the B&O Railroad museum in Baltimore with Heidi and fam and Harrison's bff alesa june. I was SO happy to seek this kid play area :)

We put Harrison and Alesa in matching monkey leashes...SO CUTE

Alesa and I took a little break to run around the train area--amazingly she STOPS when I tell her too (props to Erin :))

Alesa dressed up as the train chef

Harrison has high hopes for a future as crossing guard

Waiting to ride on the BIG train

Harrison showing off the wrong side of his train ticket :)

Afterwards we let the kids go on the little blue train outside

And then some time on the playground--seriously gotta love places that are SO toddler friendly

Another train ride--seriously these kids LUCKED OUT :)

Thanks heidi for letting us tag along and thanks erin and dru for letting us steal your child for the day :)

Mt Vernon take 2

2011-07-05T18:04:00.018-07:00

Saturday we met up with the Millers at Mt Vernon. It was a fun time. We watched Bekah and Alex so that Heidi and Joseph could tour George Washington's house without having to wrangle toddlers--for some reason 2 year olds don't understand that you can't go under the ropes and run up and down the stairs in a 300 year old house or whatever..so weird.

Funny--I have a similar picture to this from the last time we went in November...Harrison is smaller and his hat is fuzzier :)

Most of the walk in Harrison was actually pushing the stroller. A volunteer asked him where his baby was and he said in his tummy...that's where he thinks baby sister is most of the time.

Heidi's kids know how to say "cheese"...Harrison is trying to figure out what is inside his hat...

Seriously the view from the back of the house is one of my favorites

OOH ROCKS!! I'm sure we can get in trouble with these!!!

On Saturday evening we finally filled up the play pool we got from our neighbor..Harrison LOVED it... He practiced "swimming" (on his hands) around and around...I hope he's ready to start swimming lessons on Monday!!!

Monday morning there was a parade after our ward pancake breakfast. Harrison was sad to not have a scooter or bike to not ride in it but then pretty satisfied when I just let him run around in circles :)

Lauren is in our primary class and LOVES Harrison..they were running around saying "YAY AMERICA!!"

"Mommy--don't you even TRY to catch me!!"

On an unrelated note--I used the dill from our garden to make pickles last week. For anyone who knows me at all well this was a BIG sacrifice to buy and cut up cucumbers...hopefully in a few days I will be rewarded :)

Harrison helped by washing the cucumbers

YUM!!! (fingers crossed)

Goings on

2011-06-29T17:08:00.018-07:00

SO....First we went to Utah so Cory's sister Lindsay could marry Tanh Nguyen and go live a crazy life in vietnam soon. Harrison had some apple juice on the airplane.

New favorite family self-portrait

After being chased around temple square by Lindsay's kind friends, Harrison decided he needed to drive the rental car-- (a ford flex....aka pretty cool big silver box)

before the luncheon we drove around the capitol and I told Harrison all about how the utah legislature works and how his mommy worked there for a few blessed months in 2002

Apparently he found Utah politics boring ...

Harrison and his new uncle quickly became BFFs at over sandwiches and giant cookies at the Blue Lemon

Tahn's making a mental note to tell Lindsay they should definitely wait awhile before having kids....

After a few FANTASTIC hours in Mapleton with our favorite Utah Wheeler's (which unfortunately were way too much fun to document) we went to the reception in Alpine. Which was great!! Cory and I got to actually enjoy some cheesecake and talk to family members...Harrison stayed on this trampoline literally the WHOLE TIME (like 2 hours)...first he jumped with daddy

Then he made friends with some random young single adult types

and then of course kids got involved....

and the whole time I sat happily watching from my chair...we need to get one of these things STAT

The next morning we left Harrison with his loving O'Ma and O'Pa for a week of fishing, parks, water fun, airplane museum, charming family members, petting zoo, and generally getting doted on while exhibiting perfect behavior (right??) So we could board the Norweigan Sky out of Miami for 4 nights in the BAHAMAS . It was great!! We swam, beached, snorkeled, kayaked, conversed without distraction, ate lots of food. BLISS!!!

I tried to upload some pics but photobucket is giving me issues so for now, see facebook :)

Now that we're back I've been busy putting off moving...

Monday I made Rachael Ray's mozerella stuffed spaghetti and meatballs. Harrison approved.

And then yesterday Harrison and I made awesome cookies

Seriously YUMMY...I improvised the recipe from a few I've stumbled on lately.... here goes from memory:

1 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

salt

1 cup ish oatmeal

1/2 cup ish chopped pecans

1/2 cup ish toasted coconut (and watch it while toasting...TRICKY)

1 bag chocolate chips

bake at 350 for about 8 min

YUM YUM YUM

I made them to give to my visiting teachers (oops..yesterday is the last day of the month ALREADY) and mail as a b-day gift, but I'm thinking either someone will get slighted or I need to make some more :)

Food blog?

2011-06-15T03:43:00.002-07:00

Seriously, starting to feel like that...I promise I will get back to posting cute pictures of my cute kid, we've just been super busy getting ready to head out to Utah for Cory's sisters wedding and a (sans Harrison :)) cruise to the BAHAMAS!! Beyond excited!!! Also, as of tonight we will sign a lease on a new place-YAY!!! This may mean nothing to those of you out west, but it is 1900 square feet, three levels of townhouse awesomeness...we give up the big yard and all that mowing, not that I did it... (still have a patio and enough space for a little tiny garden:)) but beyond more than double the space, a rec room, and an extra bedroom, we also get a kitchen without paint peeling off the cabinets that can actually fit more than one person--plus a dining room that actually will fit our dining room table expanded at it's six person capacity..like permanently!!!OH YEAH...and THE WASHER AND DRYER IN THE SAME PLACE!!! ACTUALLY NEXT TO EACH OTHER!!! We loved the place and it seemed like bad timing was going to steal it away from us but it all came together over my VERY busy lunch hour yesterday..YIPPEE!!!! Move in August 1 (which also means I get the privelege of not moving while 9 months prgengant as I had originally planned :).

Anyway--enough about that, just rest assured more traditional blog posts with pictures are forthcoming. In the meantime though I devoured these tacos last night..I absolutely LOVE food with lots of different flavors and textures and they literally take like 10 minutes to throw together. For real. Definitely less than 30 minutes. From someone who takes at least an hour to do Rachael Ray's 30 minute meals that's quite a feat. And I'm sorry but I've posted this one before but I thought I'd paste the whole thing over here just in case you don't understand how much I LOVE them :)

(This is copied directly from smitten kitchen--great site for deserts and vegetarian ish dishes--PS--it might serve two adults and two toddlers, but we finished it between Cory, Amber, and Harrison...and that's with me eating most of Harrison's because, please he would rather have apples, crackers, and milk all afternoon and then tell us repeatedly that "mommy all done" "daddy all done" "Come on, I show you.." while we're trying to eat anyway...)

Crispy Black Bean Tacos with Feta and Cabbage Slaw
Adapted from Bon Appetit, February 2009

There are dozens of ways to tweak this. Next time, in keeping with the shortcut vibe, I might just use Goya’s canned black beans in sauce (which I’ve confessed to loving more than once) instead of mashing a can with what seemed like not enough seasoning next time. And, with the minutes that would save, I’d much rather use my favorite green onion and red cabbage slaw instead of the suggested one. If I felt like adding some extra protein, it would only take a couple additional minutes to saute some ground meat in a pan with onion and stir it into the beans — especially the saucier ones. But really, the possibilities are endless, so use the recipe as a loose guideline and have fun with it

Serves 4, or so I hear

1 15-ounce can black beans, drained
1 teaspoon ground cumin
5 teaspoons olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons (or more) fresh lime juice
2 cups coleslaw mix or shredded cabbage
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
4 white or yellow corn tortillas
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
Hot sauce

Place beans and cumin in small bowl; partially mash. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix 2 teaspoons olive oil and lime juice in medium bowl; add coleslaw, green onions, and cilantro and toss to coat. Season slaw to taste with salt and pepper.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in large nonstick or cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add tortillas in single layer. Spoon 1/4 of bean mixture onto half of each tortilla; cook 1 minute. Fold tacos in half. Cook until golden brown, about 1 minute per side. Fill tacos with feta and slaw. Pass hot sauce alongside, or if your name is Alex, drown your taco in a puddle of it.

a forgiving recipe

2011-06-09T03:22:00.002-07:00

I know a recipe is a good one when I can mess it up and it's still delicious. Last week I made these turkey burgers with black beans and mushrooms...I was halving to recipe and then didn't half the amount of black beans, I also turned half of the mushrooms and onions to soup in the magic bullet (FYI ONLY good for baby food) before chopping up the rest...and then I put them in before realizing I was supposed to cook them first, so I scooped them out and cooked... most of them...This led to a burger consistency that was really hard to actually cook on the grill. But we managed two to survive the grill and cooked three in the oven. And we put them on toasted ciabata rolls with green salsa, avocado, monterary jack cheese, and arugula...seriously delicious. Cory gave them an 8 or 9 despite the mishaps. If a recipe can survive me you know it's a keeper. I even took a picture of how cute they were but of course don't have it here at work at 6:26 a.m. Oh well, I'll get on that soon. Enjoy!!!

Ultimate Turkey & Black Bean Burgers (from the Family Kitchen)

16 ounces cremini mushrooms
1 clove garlic
1/4 yellow onion
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup refried black beans
2 pounds turkey
1 teaspoon sea salt
fresh ground pepper

Directions:
Place mushrooms, garlic, and onion in a food processor. Pulse until the mixture is finely ground. In a large skillet, melt the butter and cook the mushroom mixture until very soft, about 5-7 minutes over medium heat. Transfer the mixture into a large bowl, add the refried black beans, ground turkey, salt, and pepper, and mix all together until very well combined.

Split the mixture into 6 even portions. Roll into balls and flatten into thick burgers. Cook in a skillet or on a barbecue grill until cooked through. Serve on ciabatta buns with your favorite fixin’s. My favorites? Avocado, fresh pico de gallo, a touch of grated cheddar jack cheese, lots of mayo, a kiss of mustard.

ALERT!!!!

2011-06-02T07:26:00.002-07:00

This is silly, but it's been bothering me, so here you go: IN THE DR PEPPER PORK RECIPE FROM A FEW POSTS BACK....you cook the meat with an onion. Just chop up roughly and put in the pot before it goes in the oven. PHEW--that was close..I hope no one cooked this to disastorous results.

It's days like these.....

2011-06-01T18:06:00.002-07:00

Today (well mainly from about 330 on...) has been a bit of a rough one. Harrison is a whirlwind of potty accidents and terrible twos. I spent way too long doing something that turned out to be totally unnecessary. And then I locked my keys in the car. Of course- pregnancy brain has definitely tdken over (something to blame anyway :)) And now I am forced to slow down and wait. For AAA. For 90 minutes. It's days like today that it's important to take solace in the little victories- I made my favorite Rosemary/potato/fontina pizza. And I used my new spendy $13.99 cookie sheet. And it turned out perfect. The pizza literally slid off leaving no mess to clean up. yum. I actually took a picture to capture it. And also we broke through '97 feels like 105' with some rain and thunder that I got to watch Harrison get really excited about- gotta love a summer storm. Some quiet time alone is good anyway, right???

It looks like Harrison is getting his wish

2011-05-31T12:20:00.001-07:00

a baby SISTER!!! YAY!!!!!

My Garden

2011-05-30T12:47:00.012-07:00

We planted a garden this year and although not everything came up, we've had a few successes that make me happy when considering back in AZ I couldn't keep potted herbs alive for more than a month.

Dill and cilantro have been doing great!

Cilantro is definitely the herb I use the most so I've been so happy to use it a couple of times already--YUMMY!!!

I thought that basil wasn't going to happen but it finally did come up a little bit, minus that little bug taste, doing good!

The arugula struggled for awhile with all the rain we were getting but has been looking much better!!! Can't wait to use it on pizza this week :)

umm...we have chives growing wild ALL over our yard and cory decided it would be fun to "transplant" some...he's convinced they're not dead and won't let me take them out....

The carrots are probably doing the best of all--can't wait until these are ready!!!!

YUM!! CARROTS!!!!

Tomatoes!!! with one actually growing on it!!! harrison calls this one a "baby orange" for some reason...

Also you'll notice that all my handy dandy little signs are blank...yeah....non-permanent marker apparently....

We planted rosemary and green beans with absolutely no luck--more research next year!!!

Happy Memorial Day!! Tomorrow we find out whether we are having a boy or girl--I want a girl but also would love harrison to have a little brother to play with. Cory has maintained he DOES NOT care either way...that is until yesterday in the midst of potty training HE** when he told me he wanted a girl....hahahhahaa Guesses????

This is what happens when you let your kid have binkies TOO LONG

2011-05-28T11:48:00.002-07:00

Right before I took this picture he literally had two in his mouth and three in each hand, I wish I could have captured it--HILARIOUS.....he normally only has one for naptime but then sometimes in putting them away in the "binkie can" he decides to hijak them all for a few precious moments so he can "play binkies" ...next kid....ONE YEAR AND THEY ARE GONE :) :) oh well.

Before I forget

2011-05-24T08:47:00.002-07:00

I made this to have friends over on Sunday for dinner and it was really easy and turned out delicious!! Seriously so easy I'm just going to jot it down from memory... hopefully this is right hahaha

(from the Pioneer Woman)

Spicy Dr Pepper Pork

Ingredients:
5-7 pound pork shoulder (mine was just under 5 pounds)
1 can chipotles in adobo sauce (YAY! I can use the whole can and not have the rest sitting in my fridge FOREVER)
2 cans dr pepper (actually I ended up using three, see below...)
salt and pepper
brown sugar

Put pork shoulder in a big pot and salt and pepper it generously. Dump peppers, 2 cans dp, and a few tbs brown sugar on top (fyi mine was dark...). Cook in 300 degree oven for 6 hours, rotating about every hour (the recipe says something about leaving the fat side up for the last hour but I don't think I ended up doing this)

The meat is done when it falls apart. I checked after 5.5 hours and it was falling apart so I took it out, but mine was on the small end. You are supposed to shred the meat and then put it back into the pan with the juices, minus any fat you can skim off and warm it on the stove until serving..however all my liquid pretty much burnt off (pan still in the sink soaking...) so I shredded it and put it in a new pan with another can of dr pepper, half a jar of green salsa, and a bit more brown sugar..I think the sugar at the end made it extra yummy.

You can use the meat for whatever (cafe rio inspired salad, sandwiches maybe), but I did tacos with cheese, avocado, more green salsa, shredded lettuce, tomatoes, pickled jalepenos that I had lying around, sour cream, and white rice for in/on the side. We also ate this yesterday and it was still delish (I'm sad that there is only a little bit of pork left..maybe I'll finish it off before cory gets home from work)--good for kids and easy to cook it all day, prepare toppings, let people make their own tacos, etc. YUM!

Easter Fun

2011-05-22T11:14:00.009-07:00

We had a great easter-Harrison and I decorated marbled eggs on Saturday and then on Easter morning he did a little hunt for them around the living room---he was able to find em all with just a little prompting :) and his easter basket too. After church we went with our friends erin and dru to dru's parents house for dinner. It was awesome being able to celebrate with 'family' even when our family is far away. We always love going to the wheelers--the weather was perfect and just the beautiful drive out there makes us want to live in the "country" too...And of course getting a delicious ham dinner when all I had to make was cookies wasn't too bad either! After dinner the boys hid easter eggs all over the lawn and Harrison cleaned up---he LOVES to play with Alesa ('Lesa June') and always talks about it for days.

The EGGS!!! Lots of mess for just 9 but worth it!

I love the cute easter basket I found at target--and Harrison still loves to ask us to take the basket down from the top of the fridge and "hold it" (which of course means quickly grab a huge handful of jellybeans and stuff them in his mouth...)

Harrison and Alesa get help finding an egg

Yeah, by the end of it his basket was full and toppling over. All the other kids followed him around to take advantage of the spills...

Harrison and daddy were pooped when we got home.

Potty Training Update

2011-05-08T15:45:00.000-07:00

So...yesterday we did the potty party which was fun (we taught buzz lightyear how to go which Harrison loved), albeit tiring...Harrison put his big kid underpants on after a bit of drama and he can be convinced to sit on the potty (even for long periods of time...relatively..) but we can't seem to get him to actually GO in there. He doesn't have many accidents because I guess he just doesn't go that often and tends to drink most of his liquids towards the end of the day. We put him in a pull up for church and naps and he obviously gets wet (or poopy) and just doesn't care. We have a "special present" for him when he actually goes and he wants it because he asks about it, but still he's not making it happen. Any advice beyond wrangling him into the bathroom every 20 minutes????

Big Boy Bed

2011-04-27T14:06:00.007-07:00

We finally broke down and got Harrison in a toddler bed last week. I saw one on freecycle and figured it was time. he LOVES his new bed (jumping on it, off it, throwing his animals and blankets, etc...sometimes sleeping...) and so far has NOT gotten up in the middle of hte night to come visit mommy and daddy KNOCK ON WOOD (not that he doesn't wake up plenty of times to ask for milk, complain that he lost his binky, or beg us to put him in "new jammies" but that's another story...)

Next up, potty training!! I've put next Saturday on my calendar to give this a try, so we'll see how that pans out... after all, don't want to have to deal with two little monkeys in cribs OR diapers come October :)

Harrison's First Parade!

2011-04-23T07:37:00.022-07:00

(waiting for the fun to start--no, we don't go anywhere without the monkey leash)

A few weekends ago we went downtown for the Cherry Blossom Festival parade and had a great time. The weather was cool but cooperated and Harrison loved watching the bands and ballons and other fun stuff in the parade--he was content to be held or on Daddy's shoulders for the whole first half (which is great for him) and afterwards we checked out the natural history museum for a bit. I love it when we get to do fun stuff like this!

Harrison and I passed the time before it started by making some silly faces for the camera. Luckily Cory's phone has a camera option where we can see ourselves which is about the only way I can get him to look and smile without saying..."I see it!!" and running around to the other side of the camera...

Dancers

A cool band from DC

Drummers--pretty awesome

My favorite was the revolutionary war era band

And of course no parade is complete without a huge balloon of yogi bear :)

because I agree... A LOT (and to get that gross picture of me away from the top..)

2011-04-06T12:40:00.004-07:00

My good friend Betsey wrote this on her blog today and linked to another great blog post. I am so impressed by Betsey and her willingness to share her experiences because this is something I know mothers (ME) deal with ALL THE TIME. Why do we criticize each other? Whether veiled or obvious there is nothing to be gained from pointing fingers at someone's ability to parent in an effort to feel better about your own. But it is so easy to fall into the trap because being a mother is so important and personal to all of us. And I think pretty much everyone loves their kids more than life itself, so when someone doubts the choices we make with respect to those kids it can be devastating and beyond easy to get defensive and feel the need to jump in the fray. Whether this is in big choices families make (whether mom is going to work, stay home, have a nanny, live-in, live-out, housekeeper, whatever) or little things (pacifiers, processed foods, formula, plastic bottles, discipline, diapers, organic freaking crib mattresses that cost like $400 for crying out loud...) how much do we make choices because of what is best for our kids and how often is it about comparing ourselves to someone else? Last night I just about broke down and got WAY too upset with harrison because he refused to brush or let me brush his teeth. Was it because I was really concerned about his dental hygiene or was it because I was thinking of all the "perfect parents" I know and the fact that I'm SO SURE their kids always brush their teeth and couldn't figure out why my kid wasn't doing and where I had gone so wrong? Sheesh. Let's get over it. Here's my reminder to try. I hope I can be a better mother and a better to support to my friends regardless of what parenting paths they go down.

Just to prove we were there :)

2011-04-03T16:14:00.006-07:00

We went down to visit the Cherry Blossoms on Friday night after work. It was actually a great time---the pictures don't really reflect that because it was super cold and windy and we were trying to keep ourselves warm...(and I'm not sure who those people are, but aren't the trees AMAZING!!!??) what's up with this winter weather in spring??? Harrison loved the beautiful trees, looking in the water, seeing the ducks "sleeping" in the grass, and going on the "metro train." Fun stuff. Plus we got to see where Cory works which was a treat--if you ask me anyone who gets to work where people go on vacation is super lucky. The National Geographic museum looks pretty freaking awesome--where are those free tickets, honey?

In other news, Harrison's new favorite expression is "just a minute..." he's getting us back for all those times we said it to him...this is his response any time we ask him to do something he doesn't want to do---Cute for awhile, getting old FAST :)

National Aquarium

2011-03-27T12:47:00.009-07:00

A few weeks back we spent a great Saturday at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Our pictures are a bit lacking but it was a great time--definitely the best aquarium I've ever been to and maybe even worth the steep prices. Harrison LOVED the fish, sharks, stingrays, etc. And the little kid area with the puppet theater too. I loved the beautiful view of the National Harbor and the fact that we wandered around forever to find a dive to get fish and chips and yummy bread at afterwards :)

There were a TON of sharks which you watch as you go up and down this huge ramp system...I LOVED the layout of the aquarium...

And he's LOOKING AT THE CAMERA!!! YAY!!! not smiling, but....

Wow-jellyfish, sharks, a huge sea turtle..awesome!

Let's GO mommy!!!!

Bad glare...cool creepy fish

I took this picture to remind myself that I let Harrison play with my makeup on the drive up and he "paint hair" with long-wearing lipstick...oops...

They had divers feeding the rays in the huge tank and we got to watch for awhile which was SO cool!

Harrison Running-just for fun

2011-03-12T16:30:00.000-07:00

you'll notice how neither of us follow through on our promise to run with him....apparently we encourage exercise but don't participate...(keep in mind I did go to the gym earlier and cory just finished mowing the lawn)

Things I don't want to forget....favorite Harrison quotes

2011-03-10T15:38:00.004-07:00

"Awesome... Harrison!!!!!" with his hands up in the air as he jumps from the ottoman to the couch and back

Singing ABCs when we tuck him into bed, followed by row row row your boat, then ABCs, row row, etc.

Amber: "Harrison, what do you want for dinner tonight?"

Harrison: "PIZZA!!!! FRENCHFRIES!!!!!!" (without fail)

"Round and Round!!!!" (explaining what he is doing when we get him from nursery every week and see him rolling around on the floor and trying to convince others to follow)

"FOR ME??" when he convinces me to give him one of our left over valentine candy hearts. Too cute.

"Make. Balentine. WaWa!!!" while playing with water and bubbles in the sink (a favorite thing)...I think this comes from talking about valentines and making valentines, or something..

"Nicker Noonles!!!!" (snickerdoodles)

"Harrison go? Harrison go??" When he is "hiding" and wants us to find him, particularly when daddy has him thrown over his shoulder.

"No, mine (fill in the blank here with anything and everything that someone else has) TOO!!!"

"Flubberby!!!" (butterfly)

"Come on mommy." (e.g. stop doing what you're doing and play with me NOW!!)

"MOOK! MOOK!!!" (milk--my favorite is when he does this in the middle of the night...must have milk NOW!!)

"Bubbles...COMING!!!!" (in the bathtub as it starts to fill up with bubbles)

"Bye bye mommy, wight back."

And of course, when mommy and daddy just aren't paying attention... "Aw-burn!!! Cowy!!! Aw-burn!!! Cowy!!!!" (Amber, Cory)

And I'm sure there are many many more--I just love watching his imagination and personality come out everyday :)

What did YOU do this weekend?

2011-02-25T17:07:00.011-07:00

Saturday we took Harrison to the park by our house so he could try the big swings for the first time. He loved it and did pretty well until he tried to get off and face planted...oops...
And someday maybe he will learn to look at the camera

Monday we took advantage of the federal holiday (cory was also off) and went down to the zoo. It was a little rainy but not too cold, plus we skipped out on the $15 parking and scored an awesome metered spot right in front of the zoo (and the meter was even broken-SWEET!)...later we went out to lunch and also got street parking in dupont--the zoo was fun, but the great parking in the city was AMAZING :)

PANDA!!! (Harrison's favorite animal was not the panda but was definitely the tiger....that definitely was not out..nonetheless he's been talking about tigers ever since...)
Cory's really mad about that tiger...just kidding...not sure what that face is all about...maybe it was when he made the mistake of mentioning that there was a popcorn stand and Harrison had to have some
checkin out the panda with his monkey coat and monkey leash
It's hard to see but there were like 6 baby lions that are playing on top of that "mountain" it was pretty fun to watch

Monday night around 5 p.m. I realized we had whipped cream and strawberries that needed to be used. So of course Harrison and I had to make this It was as amazing as you would expect any cake with three sticks of butter and a package of cream cheese to be :)

(I realize I look incredibly tired in this picture---having a two year old wears me out but it is SO worth it!! (you'll also notice that harrison insisted on getting one of his forks out to "stir" [or taste] the cake batter...))

COVERS!!!!

2011-02-12T13:33:00.008-07:00

Playing in the covers on mommy and daddy's bed is Harrison's absolute FAVORITE game lately. He wants to play ALL the time. We hide from bears and elephants (and daddy), he crawls to the edge and falls off, he attacks us hiding underneath, etc. ALL day! Quite the imagination on this one :) Today while Harrison was trying to delay his nap for an hour or so I got some pictures (I think the "in motion" ones really capture the craziness of the "covers" experience)

Trying Something New and a Shameless Plug for my Cute Husband

2011-01-28T12:35:00.005-07:00

Warning: Introspective post with no pictures!!!

When we packed it all up and moved East we knew that there would be challenges to adjusting to the change when life had become pretty easy and predictable in Arizona. We wanted an adventure and thought in the long run it would be good for our family (plus I still had that Potomac fever, what can I say). I knew it would be difficult to adjust from a mostly SAHM to working full time and Cory anticipated that it would take several months for him to find a job and with only one income money would be tight.

Looking back after four months, it has been difficult but not how I thought. Cory got a 3 1/2 month job in a week or so and I really do ok with working full time generally speaking. However, even with two incomes, money is still an issue (go figure, it is THAT expensive to live out here) and we had no clue how difficult the childcare situation would be. We've been so blessed to have good friends that have helped us with childcare and have no doubt that Harrison spends each day in a loving home where he is nurtured and safe and has been able to grow a lot in terms of social skills, his verbal development, and adaptability to different circumstances. However, we also spend a large part of our week in traffic going from job to babysitter and home again...NOT FUN (not to mention the 11 hours cory and harrison spent getting home from work during the snowstorm this week....not the best day ever). In order to try to limit the commuting hours as much as possible Harrison is in three different places during the course of each week, his schedule changes frequently, and he just doesn't have the consistency that I think is so important for someone at his age (and of course this racks me with guilt...grrr...). We also don't get to spend much time together as a family. Often I only see Harrison for an hour before bedtime, if that, and I think that gives me a skewed view of what it is to be a "working" mother. Yes it is difficult to give up the care of your child to someone else for awhile, but it shouldn't have to involve such a sacrifice.....I don't think? I wish I could get insight into how people make it work with two working parents...I know it happens (it happened to me and I turned out fine) but I just haven't been able to find many people in the same situation. A big part of me wishes I could be at home but for now it's the right thing for me to be working. If anyone else deals with this stuff--I'd love advice!

The kicker is that Cory and I run ourselves ragged to try to hold it all together. We have had many conversations about whether moving out here was the wrong decision....was it hasty? did we not fully consider what would happen? but we continually come back to the same answer that it wasn't, we just didn't anticipate this much difficulty. However, struggle incites growth. and I think we've grown in a lot of ways already. Apparently I need to be forced sometimes :)

So, anyway, we've decided that it's time for another change. Cory's job is up on Tuesday and after that he will be staying home with Harrison. The plan is for Cory to be the SAHD until H's nap and then I'll take over after naptime, giving Cory time to work on freelance web design that will hopefully provide enough extra income for it to work out financially. Of course I'm also actively looking for closer childcare options in case he finds a great full time job (in VIRGINIA, not MARYLAND)....but they seem few and far between unless you got on the wait list pre-infancy or have millions of dollars, but fingers crossed.

That's where the shameless plug comes in--if anyone needs or know of someone who needs a web design/development work--PLEASE CONTACT CORY--he loves what he does and is pretty good at it despite constant criticism from his lawyer wife :). His website/online portfolio is www.1stdraftdesign.com and you obviously do NOT need to be in the DC area.

THANKS BUNCHES IF YOU SURVIVED THIS LONG POST! I just wanted to share what was up with us.

TWO BIRTHDAY!!!!

2011-01-13T20:35:00.012-07:00

(the title was harrison's way of saying he was turning 2)

Last Saturday we were able to celebrate Harrison's birthday with a little shindig with some of our close friends. I made a very large "volcano" cake with frosting lava and dry ice that looked like smoke--it was pretty cool :) Harrison had a great time eating pizza and cake (and picking m and ms out of the trail mix), seeing how fast he could open his presents, and fraternizing with his current best buds alex, bekah, alesa, and sabrina. It snowed that morning but stopped just in time for everyone to get there and still be pretty outside :)

The birthday boy poses for mommy before people started showing up. I picked up some balloons that morning and harrison LOVED them (in fact, he gave two of them still hanging around our house a bath earlier tonight...)

Harrison checks out the volcano with alex in the background (he dressed like a cowboy in honor of woody since toy story is Harrison's favorite :))

whoa cool...what's all that green stuff at the bottom? (duh...grass...)

Bring on the sugar, I've got my fork!!!

Daddy helped Harrison blow out the 2 candle I stuck in the side of volcano mountain, not that he needed it!

Harrison, Alesa, and Bekah check out Harrison's awesome huge set of plastic food..he loves it! French fries and apples come in the bathtub regularly now

We also got Harrison an easel and of course it is more fun to climb in and color on the WRONG side :)

Harrison was wearing his hat sideway so of course I had to one up that and where TWO hats

I can't believe my baby is two but I just LOVE the stage he is at. Yes, he sometimes pushes and hits for no reasons or pulls toys away or gives me attitude and screams "No"...but he is also such a sweet wonderful spirited fun kid! I complain so much about having to drive across town in traffic but Harrison actually makes it fun, singing along to our pandora kids station (he picks out the song before I do! Cookie monster, big bird, little mermaid, lion king...genius, I tell you!) or laughing his head off as I tickle him or make silly noises! He is also talking up a STORM lately, and I LOVE IT!!! He sings to himself, loves to play with play dough and color with markers (who would give a two year old markers?? me..), tries to stand on his head, throws himself on the ground with some kind of empathy if someone else falls (or maybe he just hates the attention away from him??)...Here are some fun phrases we hear around our house:

"Mommy, Watch This!!" when he wants us to see him do something, like climb on the windowsil and jump on to the bed, for example...

"Bombs Away!" playing with the cannonball on his pirate ship

"Nice and Clean" in the tub, and of course "No nice and clean Harrison" just nice and clean dinasour, balloon, etc.

"Shannon, boo bus" Shannon is a girl harrison plays with on Mondays, she goes to preschool and they wait for the "school" bus together

"There it/he/she is!!!" I think this comes from "Are you my mother" a book we read ALL the time

"Cat in the Hat" Another favorite book

"Friend in Me!" yes, he can't just call it toy story but he has to associate it with the song from the movie

"Fly Buzz!!" again, from toy story

"No Heidi House!" (don't worry heidi he is always super excited as soon as he gets there :))

"Oh, ok"--this one comes out so funny and cute

"Mommy, Daddy", or the also popular "Daddy Mommy" or "Daddy Mommy Hold You!"

"No night night!!" followed by "Book!" "Water!" "Nanna" and lots of other things to avoid going to bed...manipulator already!

"One...Two...Three!" again, usually jumping off something, and sometimes it's "Two...Two...Two!!"

"Come on!"

"Hi Guys!!"

"Thank you, mommy" my favorite when it comes out of nowhere!

"Daddy, catch this!!"

"Birthday Party!!" "Birthday Cake!" (when we asked him what he wanted for lunch after church the next day...hahaha)

and lots lots more...just love this kid. HAPPY TWO BIRTHDAY HARRISON!!!

RECIPES!!!

2011-01-10T19:31:00.005-07:00

I know you are all dying to see pictures of Christmas....or perhaps Harrison's birthday party last weekend with the awesome volcano cak e, or maybe the audio file of Harrison and I singing jingle bells (too bad I don't know how to post an audio file..anyone?).

I'm sorry to disappoint, but I don't think that will be happening today. Since Cory's phone contains our best camera (sad, I know-mine was lost in the move somehow) I have to wait for him to download the pictures to snapfish so I can put them on the blog....and wait I do.......

Anyway, I've been meaning to post some recipes for awhile. I used to put recipes up all the time, and I hate for anyone to think that just because we both work full time jobs and typically are gone at least 12 hours a day that keeps me from cooking, OH NO! Actually we've been trying really really really REALLY hard to not eat out so much (I'm incredibly impressed with how well this has been going, we haven't spent more than $20 a week between both of us eating out since Christmas...for us this is a HUGE deal, knock on wood...) so lots of cooking happens in order that there are things around to bring for lunch that will keep me from going to chipotle or panera or one of the 8 million buffets or pho places in the close vicinity of my workplace everyday. (mmm...panera...how I miss you...how I resent you for wasting so much of my money needlessly with your onion soup and yummy panini sandwiches....).

Back to the recipes.

This Fall, I made this Apple Pie with this crust twice and it was heavenly.

I contributed these and these to the Thanksgiving celebration and was loved by all.

And of course the best stuffing ever for the AZ Christmas soiree (gotta love recipes with "awesome" in the title...).

This was a hit at my work Christmas party and was ridiculously easy, although I recommend freezing it and I used real whip cream because I'm anti cool-whip on principle.

And then there's the recent dinners, nothing amazing, but some recipes I can honestly be EATING in 30 minutes (because those Rachael Ray ones always take me at least an hour, I'm slow... and when you get home at 6:45 and your kid's bedtime is 7:45 you don't have an hour....).

Seriously Yum salmon with some carrots and rice.

Easy way to use a jar of tomato sauce.

This one is not exactly kid-friendly but it was good and a breeze to put together.

Fast and easy and you don't have to buy the pricey gruyere cheese. I was happy using parmasean and leftover frozen spinach.

This one felt like a quesadilla version of bbq chicken pizza, with pineapple...yummy.

I can't remember how long this took me, but it was really good.

And of course the party this weekend, I made this pizza and this pizza (and a lame boring one for the kids, what do you do?). They're both favorites and really don't take much if you make the dough beforehand or use a pre-made crust. PS do use the fontina in both of these, YUMMY.

Oh yeah, and who can forget the new years eve sugar cookie bars with buttercream frosting six adults devoured in one evening right before we all started our diets, right?

Happy eating!!!!

New Thanksgivmas Eve!!!

2010-12-20T15:06:00.009-07:00

Posted from sunny beautiful AZ where we are spending a FABULOUS week vacation (and loving it):

The weekend after Thanksgiving we went out to Pittsburgh for a Rockville girl roommate get together at April and Cord's awesome big old house. April initiated the gathering for New Thanksgivmas eve, a new holiday started by us :) Aside from Harrison being sick and Cory and Harrison having to take off before the main event (8 course dinner and gift exchange) it was so fun to have almost all of us (and Erin's sister Taci) together again with our families. Harrison loved playing with Vincenzo and Alesa and chasing the "baby kitties" around the house. Thank you April for making this happen, can't wait til next year where I will be more prepared to ensure my child is NOT sick

I snapped a few pictures....I really need to see the one with the boys in their cheap-o chrsitmas ties (holding up cory's since he was absent)! April??
Shalise and Frank getting ready for dinner. You'll notice beautiful table decorations and like THREE drinks at each place setting. It was pretty amazing.

Yumm...Ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potato souffle, and pumpkin cheesecake

My claim to fame for the night was definitely assistance with salad assembly.

Our cute hosts!

Taci was SO excited she drew my number in the white elephant exchange....I of course had forgotten and threw something together that I found in the car (who knew that a big gulp cup filled with candy could be so hilarious..)

Although the weekend was half-super stressful, it was still a great time--can't remember when I've laughed so hard. Love you guys!!!

Thanksgiving

2010-12-06T19:49:00.008-07:00

We just got off of two really fun (as far as road trips with a small child go) holiday weekend trips. First, we went to visit our friends Todd and Emily and Jonas and Carmen in the Detroit area for Thanksgiving. Todd and Cory are BFFs from their days at the BYU-I/Rick's College and we haven't seen them for far too long and it was great to catch up! It was COLD, but we had a great time eating an AMAZING dinner (with 4 pies plus awesome pecan bars and pumpkin woopie pies made by yours truly...yeah...for four adults and three kids under three.. :) YUM), watching the kiddos play awesome together, visiting the Ford Motor Company museum and "village" (not many people braved the cold to go into the old shops and buildings...good way to beat the crowd!!), and going out on a DATE to eat yummy italian food and see Harry Potter. Oh yeah, and we went to a diner and ate chili dogs. YAY FOOD!!! HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! (I could say a bunch about gratitude here and what not but it's almost 11 and I have to get up at 5...so please just keep and mind that the Brown family is very blessed and grateful this year!!!)

Slim pickings in the weekend pics, but I think I covered the most important stuff:

A huge train set made out of legos!!
Blurry photo of Harrison and Jonas in the tub--the BEST part of every day! Nothing better than two little boys in the tub dumping water on each other and cracking up!!

OH WAIT!! There is something better!!! jumping up in down in your sister's bed after mommy told you not to!!!

(as a postscript to this post, Emily, you can see why I need your pictures, right??)

(also...let's save the new holiday and last week's trip for another day...before I start writing incoherent sentences that I'll regret in the morning)

AIRPLANE!!!!

2010-11-21T19:35:00.002-07:00

This is Harrison's favorite new word. Especially after we went to the Air and Space Museum in VA on Saturday. It's an extension of the A and S at the Smithsonian and was SO COOL!! Seriously a huge hanger full of planes---and way less crowded and stressful than going downtown..even if Harrison basically wanted to climb over the railing and go try out every plane :)

More fun in the city!

2010-11-14T07:42:00.012-07:00

I was nervous about how Harrison would do in a museum but we had such a blast yesterday at the Museum of Natural History! He LOVED the fish/ocean life exhibits the best. The weather was absolutely perfect and we had a great time hanging out. We went to lunch at the same Potbelly's (a favorite for sure) that we went to a year ago when we were out here visiting...and can't believe we actually LIVE here now!!

This is how we let him see stuff up close at first, we let him run around in the less busy exhibits :) Dinasour bones!!!

HUGE WOOLY MAMMOTH!!!

They had a "Discovery Room" for kids to look and touch stuff--it was very cool. Harrison loved this crocodile's mouth (and collecting magnifying glasses) the best.
Can you believe this huge coral reef is all crocheted? It's almost as big as the blanket I made for my dad a few years back :)
Daddy and Harrison pose outside--the weather was PERFECT. Just cool enough to wear a sweater but sunny and awesome.
After lunch Harrison had a blast running around the fountains at the Navy Memorial. And of course we tried to get some pictures together
SIT STILL CHILD!!!!

Thank you i phone 4!!!

2010-11-07T10:14:00.014-07:00

We got cory a new phone and it takes way better pics than my phone, or even my camera-YAY!! Such a relief for those of us that love pictures but can't seem to get it together to bring a camera...ever..... Here are some of what we've been up to

For Halloween we decorated pumpkins with the Millers and also went to their trunk or treat because there was no way we could get to ours given the traffic situation around here (6 pm on friday...YEAH RIGHT). We also borrowed some costumes and were thing 1 and thing 2--Harrison was an adorable giraffe (although I'm a little annoyed his 2T-3T costume was almost too small when he JUST started wearing 2T clothes...WHAT UP TARGET???

In this picture Harrison is saying--"This sour patch thing tastes funny!!!"
I promise next year I'll be more creative with the costumes...but seriously running around in huge footie pajamas was KIND OF AWESOME

Yesterday we drove down to Mt Vernon for a couple of hours-I've been a few times but Cory had never been. It is only $10 more to get year passes so we totally took advantage. It is beautiful up there and there are lots of places for a toddler to run around after he barely makes it through the house tour :)

climbing a fence to look at the cows
Hello

Kind of I LOVE this picture--he's contemplating the meaning of life, and hay, of course...
of course you have to sit on the green chairs outside the house
With daddy
George's view--I'm a little (LOT) jealous
family shot. Sorry, I refuse to do my hair on saturdays :)

Harrison found a stick!! YAY STICKS!!!

You know you have a good babysitter when....

2010-11-01T19:16:00.009-07:00

Having WONDERFUL care for Harrison has made transitioning to full time work so much easier than it could have been. For the first day of Cory's job Harrison played with Alesa at Erin's house and every day since he's been with Rebekah, Kaitlyn, and Alex at Heidi's. Although the commuting situation is less than ideal (and definitely makes me appreciate the time we have together at night, on the weekends, even for like half an hour in the morning)--knowing that he is taken care of and having LOTS of fun doing some FANTASTIC stuff makes me happy. Plus--I get pics like this sent to me during the day--HOW COULD THAT NOT PUT A SMILE ON YOUR FACE???
Alesa and Harrison showing their babies how to take a nap
And jumping on the couch/looking out the window
Rebekah and Harrison making halloween cookies
Time to try out some dough!!!!
Since spending so much time with Rebekah, Harrison has gotten VERY good at giving hugs. Not sure if it is because they are forced to hug each other after they have a little fight or because they just love each other so much :) Yesterday we had our friends Noelle and Jon over and Harrison decided barely 1 year old Sabrina needed a hug too---OOPS---Sometimes his affection is a bit much, but I'll take it.

This Saturday we took a break from the Halloween festivities and went to Tyson's Corner, a swanky mall just down the road. I know. What a lame thing to do on a beautiful fall day in DC, right? (particularly when we could have gone to the "rally to restore sanity," right? don't get me started...) Harrison was in heaven though because he got to ride the train and play in the play area. When you're one it is SO the little things.

BOATS!!!

2010-10-22T19:36:00.011-07:00

A couple of weekends ago we had the pleasure of hosting grandma and grandpa Kline from AZ --we went to the Annapolis boat show and looked at lots of swanky expensive boats--Harrison LOVED climbing all around and enjoying the scenery. Plus the weather was AMAZING. It was so fun to see family even though we'd really only been separated for a week or two :) More people need to come visit!!! WE MISS YOU!!! VISIT US!!!
Try to get harrison to sit still on a boat...YEAH RIGHT :)
FAMILY SHOT!!!
Sitting in the cool little chair
Yeah, when we're rich, we're SO getting one of these babies

And some video just for fun. Just look at Harrison's face at the end. How could you not just LOVE THIS KID AND WANT TO EAT HIM UP???

How much time do I get before I have to update the blog??

2010-10-11T18:08:00.013-07:00

Just wondering how long the "I just moved" excuse will last. It's been long enough. We are happily all now in Viriginia (me, cory, harrison, the cat. OUR STUFF. YAY.). I've had a great two weeks at work (just training so far, and four more weeks of that comin, but I think I'm going to really like my job, the people are really nice, and those government benefits are AMAZING). Today we took advantage of a FEDERAL HOLIDAY :) and went to a pumpkin patch in Poolesville, Maryland. We met up with Heidi and Joseph and her kiddos and Alissa and her kiddos. The weather was in the 70s and the drive up was beautiful!! Here are a few pics off my phone (sorry, haven't sorted throught the rubble to find my real camera..yet..)
They have wheelbarrows in the parking lot for you to put all your stuff in. Luckily Harrison was only .25 a pound :) We also got about 13 pounds of apples that we (mostly cory, he's taller) picked, 2 pumpkins, a butternut squash, and 2 gallons of apple cider. YUMMY.
OOOH!! A WHEEL!!! By the way, you'll notice there aren't many pics of Harrisons face. Yeah...have you met my son???

PUMPKINS!! We actually took the hayride to the patch and picked ours, but these were cool too.
"baba" (chicken..in Harrison talk because of the sounds chickens make)
climbing up on the fence to get a closer look at a goat
I handed him an apple I picked and he didn't hesitate to jump right in and start eating it....oops....
Rebekah and Emmeline enjoying the front seat of Alissa's stroller
HAYRIDE!!! half of alissa, hazel, heidi, kaitlyn, joseph, half of emmeline...
Alex and Rebekah on the hayride--Heidi also got some pics of Harrison and Rebekah holding hands. SO CUTE. THEY are So getting married someday, right Heidi ;)

Well, thanks for indulging my distraction. Back to trying to figure out how to fit 3/4 of a walk in closet into half of a closet that is basically a wardrobe and not really a closet at all....

I HATE GOODBYES!!!

2010-09-21T20:05:00.010-07:00

Good Bye dinner with the family yesterday and goodbye lunch with my girls today. SAD. But I guess it's better to HAVE friends and family to leave behind, right? We're so blessed to have so many great people in our lives. WE'LL MISS YOU!!!!!!

(T-minus 3 days until I leave--AAAH...still no place to live, although we do have one pretty good option I'm wavering a bit on...)

Sorry--I don't have pics of the dinner last night (but they are up on facebook)--here are some from today--it's nuts that Lisa, Jen, and I all have BABIES now :)

Lisa and Liam
Owen--such a sweetie!!!
HARRISON BUG!!! Huge compared to the other two!!! But he was so excited to see the babies!!!

I got to hold Owen for a minute--
so sweet!!!
I got a flip video for my birthday and it is Harrison's favorite thing to play with when we're out places. (speaking of which, I have a lot of basically pointless video to post--better get on that...)

20 Things to Love about my TWENTY month old!!!!

2010-09-11T22:40:00.004-07:00

Can you believe Harrison is 20 months already? That's practically 2--WHAT??? I'm sorry but when did by newborn tiny (well...relatively speaking...) baby become a 30 pound almost 2 year old?? The months since Harrison turned one have FLOWN by. While I miss the baby stuff--with growth comes so much FUN, like:
1. He sings row row row your boat and abc's with me.
2. He's figured out that if he tickles his daddy's feet, daddy will laugh uncontrollably and to him, this is HILARIOUS.
3. He does BACKFLIPS onto the couch. Yeah...little scary for me, but whatev. It started with falling backwards on the couch (counting to three, "da....da....DA!!!") and now he just flips all the way over.
4. He gets jealous when Cory and I kiss and has to immediately give us BOTH kisses.
5. He also kisses his stuffed animals and pictures of family, and occasionally himself in the mirror--SUCH a love monkey!!!
6. He learns new words ALL the time and I LOVE it---I try to keep track and it's somewhere around 50 but probably more--words don't add up to "communication" just yet, but we're getting there...
7. He likes to get out the buckets from the laundry room and use them as drums. ADORABLE.
8. he LOVES LOVES LOVES cars, making car noises, and pretending to drive cars. We have quite the struggle getting him out of the driver seat of my car into his carseat when he's lucky enough to weasel his way up there.
9. Pig is "Ga Ga" and so is train (although sometimes train is "Ga Ga, CHOO CHOO")...why??? who knows, but it is very clear to Harrison that that is how you say those words--maybe that'll be a problem in a year, but now it's precious.
10. He's in a stage where he takes our hand (or leg, or whatever he can) and brings us to wherever he wants us to go, SO SO SO cute.
11. Sometimes I can actually get him to hold my hand and walk through a parking lot. YES!!!
12. In addition to his winnie the pooh CD, he responds with extra happines to hip-hop inspired music, and country--HA HA CORY!!! (just so you know, my husband doesn't really favor those musical genres).
13. Despite the fact that eating is his favorite hobby, he also loves to share his food with other kids and us, whether we want it or not :) Not so much with toys, but...
14. Despite the fact that his favorite TV show involves a precocious female pig (see #9) this kid is ALL BOY--monsters, dinasours, car noises, making swords out of stuff, climbing trees, collecting rocks,breaking stuff to try to put it back together, LOVE IT.
15. He loves broccoli and green beans--this is very helpful when I feel like all he will eat is goldfish :)
16. He knows he can only have his binkie while sleeping and will put it on the dresser when he gets up from his naps.
17. While he cried for like 10 seconds the first few times we left him in nursery, it is now NO PROBLEM, he practically runs away from us-THANK YOU HARRISON!!!
18. Everyone in sacrament meeting gets a great laugh when he (still) occasionally runs away from us and immediately out the door.
19. Lately he's been calling Cory, "my daddy" SO SWEET!!!
20. He just plain rocks. I'm a lucky mom. He's awesome. LOVE YOU HARRISON BUG!!!

And lest you think I'm just too positive for my own good, here are the top five reasons why moving across the country is not as easy as I thought it would be:
1. We have to leave my family and rip Harrison away from his grandparents and uncle and "aunt" that LOVE him to bits
2. In that same vein, I'm leaving a job that I'm getting good at and a boss I just LOVE
3. Everything seems better when you're leaving it right? Friends, our ward, just TODAY we met two neighbors ---more than we've met in THREE years of living here.
4. We still can't find a place to live--I spend my life in craigslist and am sending friends all over in hopes to find the perfect place. We're going to have to sell our souls to get a decent place without bad management or a roach problem or an hour commute--we've got some good options, but I'm dying to have it settled!!!
5. WE HAVE SO MUCH STUFF!!! Today we had a huge yard sale and sold a bunch of what everyone has been storing here for the last four years (my moms stuff, dad's stuff, brothers stuff, etc..) and I've been trying to sell a bunch on craiglist as well, still more to sell..and then we start to pack...
6. The house is in disaray and it won't really be "clean" until we leave...
7. In TWO weeks I will have to be without my husband and baby monkey boy for TEN LONG DAYS--I don't know how I'm gonna do it...
8. I took on a bunch of contract work right before we decided to move, plus I'm working extra days for my boss...this just adds up to LOTS to do, while I'm very very distracted with even more things to think about...
9. One of my best friends EVER is moving AWAY from the DC area like two weeks after I move to the DC area.....at least we're overlapping a bit I guess- ALISSA YOU BETTER HANG OUT WITH US BEFORE YOU GO!!!
10. Did I say five things??

Ok--that's enough whining----I know this is the right thing to do but I am really scared of the change from a fabulous thing we have going here--just gotta get through the transition-It's all gonna work out---YES IT IS YES IT IS YES IT IS (insert excessive exclamation points and smiley faces here) :):):):):):)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Change

2010-08-29T22:00:00.007-07:00

(me in glasses and cory's cabbie hat...and of course my glasses have rhinestones on them, please. Don't worry I have black ones for when I'm forced to be all attorney-like and what not.)

After a lifetime of good vision, I got tired of struggling to see 10 pt font and got me some glasses.

And that's not all.

After three years of applying for gov't jobs only to be rejected repeatedly, Tuesday, I was offered an attorney position with the Social Security Administration Office of Disability Adjudication and Review in Arlington, VA.

We weighed the pros and cons and said some prayers. A lot. Well, as much as you can when you have 48 hours to decide. And we decided...

WE'RE GOING!!! Packing up our life and kid and moving east. I will head out September 24th to start the new job on September 27th. Cory will head out (driving) Oct. 2. We're not sure what Harrison will do yet. We may or may not be selling all of our furniture because it is cheaper than carting it across the country. We're not quite sure if 1 car or 2 will be coming...We've already got an application in at what seems like an awesome apartment in Alexandria (well, part of a house, with a deck, and a YARD--with this green stuff called grass, I think-SWOON :)).

It's a bit nuts. We're a little scared. Too much to think about. And fast. I keep losing my keys because I'm a bit overwhelmed. That said, we're incredibly excited for a new adventure and hope to soak some fun and experience out of the east coast for the next 3-5 years. It just goes to show you that if you want something long enough, it will be provided to you right at the point when you thought everything was finally going perfectly, just to shake things up. YAY FOR SHAKING THINGS UP!!!!

SAN DIEGO!!!

2010-08-29T21:32:00.020-07:00

For my birthday and my little bros birthday (one day apart) we went to San Diego with my mom and Larry and Aaron and Steph. It was a blast! We went to Sea World all day and then the next day we went out on an awesome boat for most of the day (yeah I drove the boat for awhile...I was super good at it... once I got that whole steering lag thing sorted out...) We stayed right near the harbor in a suite offered to us because Harrison struggles to sleep in the same room. Spoiled. It's true. Harrison was lavished with gifts. We ate yummy food. We left 110 + and enjoyed BEAUTIFUL weather. Total fabulousness. My bro. got a new camera for his birthday so we've got over 2000 photos in a shutterfly account. I'll just share a few. YAY for bday trips!! I can't wait til next year :) :) :)
In the stroller with his girly flower right before it was Sea World time.
My mom and her hubby at the Sea Lion/otter exhibit.

Feed me.
No. FEED ME!!!
What a nice daddy---blocking the sun for his little boy.

Nikkon 3000 DSLR--yeah, I'm cool. Want me to take your picture??

Beluga whale feeding. So cool.

Harrison is teething some more so he often sticks his fingers in his mouth. But seriously though, what a cutie.
And my scruffy man-husband aint too bad either.

BEAUTIFUL SAN DIEGO VIEW!!!
My bro. and Stephanie are SO CUTE.
This trip was Harrison's first extended experience with flip flops. Sometimes you just want them on his feet and you stop caring if toes are in the right place.
Mommy and Harrison on a boat. BLISS. (we had some drama figuring out how to secure, tether, restrain, etc. the most adventorous boy ever and keep him from flinging himself overboard. Eventually we worked it out.
It didn't hurt that Harrison spent about two hours of the boating excursion zonked out.
boat hair. Hot.
Cory was driving here I think. He was much more adept then me, I fear.

Who Says Toddlers With Chunky Thighs Can't Use a Bumbo???

2010-08-19T15:30:00.002-07:00

Ward Campout -Payson

2010-08-15T14:24:00.013-07:00

Harrison was so excited to go camping for the first time! Although we were only up there less than 24 hours we had a blast--and really Harrison did pretty good (although we learned that next time we will be for sure bringing pillows, sleeping pads of some sort, and more than one flashlight :))
Hangin out by the campfire. Harrison is definitely a favorite among the kiddos in our ward.
This is Izzy--she likes to torment Harrison at playgroup....Harrison got some revenge later by throwing a bucket at her while she was sleeping...
Rex is in my primary class and LOVES Harrison...they had some good fun.
"Baby?" "Baby?"
Someone gave me a marshmallow--YUM!!!
We did a little hike down to Sharp Creek and Harrison enjoyed playing in water and throwing rocks.

He really didn't want to leave and go back to the campsite

Addition to our bedtime routine

2010-08-12T20:13:00.004-07:00

The first time he did this, his binkie was actually missing (I think...).

Enjoy!! (I think you will especially like his little gymnastics break...and our ghetto broken dresser...Craigslist is not always a good thing apparently...)

Time for a new post!!!

2010-08-09T20:59:00.014-07:00

We haven't been up to much lately....mostly trying to survive ridiculous heat. But here are some pics anyway for your viewing pleasure.

Hangin out on the couch.....leather keeps us cool....
Get that camera away from me!!!
Apparently the only way to get Harrison to look at the camera is to have him take the pictures of himself.
Harrison got a new toy!! I was coveting this tricycle for him for awhile, and finally found it on Craigslist. YES.
We've taken a few trips around the block already. And many many more trips around the living/dining/toy/TV room downstairs. Harrison LOVES it. He can't reach the pedals yet but loves to be pushed around.
Last Saturday Harrison and I had a date to the Children's Museum because Cory needed to get a bunch of stuff done --I love that place--everytime we go there is new stuff for Harrison to enjoy. Like playing on cars.
And a motorcycle.

Painting rocks with water. Or--splashing other kids and parents.
climbing on a bear--or "neigh" as Harrison would put it. Apparently all animals that are on four legs are horses (or sheep since he just learned "baaa")

Playing with other random toys in the "fort" room--yeah, they have a room for kids to make forts. Awesome. They also have a room for kids to paint all over everything...we'll try that one next time.
Last but not least--running away from mommy in the noodle forest. You can't see him? Yeah, that's because he was trying to escape and join a new family.

Mug Shot

2010-07-15T08:53:00.002-07:00

Another Recipe?

2010-07-11T20:05:00.003-07:00

Maybe I post too many recipes--but I can't help it, I love food and I love cooking. I'm a bit excited because this recipe was mostly was my own creation. I loosely based it on these which I've made many times and are also amazing. I wanted to use ground turkey and green sauce so I switched things up a bit. YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM aroo

ps--don't you hate it when you buy a package of corn tortillas and pretty much ALL of them are broken??? Yeah, that's lame.

Turkey Enchiladas with Green Sauce

Ingredients:
1 pound ground turkey
1 onion, diced
olive oil
1 can green chilies
10-14 ish corn tortillas
1 can green enchilada sauce (big 28 oz can)
green onions thinly sliced
sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (amount can vary by taste--I used about 3/4 a bag of pre-shredded)
2 cups chicken broth ( I actually used 2 cups of water and 1 bouillon cube)
1 tbs cornstarch
1 tbs veg oil
1/2 can corn
1/2 can black beans
garlic salt
salt and pepper

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350
saute onion in a little bit of olive oil for a few minutes. Season with pepper and garlic salt. Add turkey and cook til browned. Add corn and beans and stir. Reduce heat.

While this is going on, lightly cook the tortillas in a saucepan with a little veg oil. This requires adding a bit of oil every couple of enchiladas. You could also use cooking spray but it doesn't work as well. You want the tortillas to be a bit crispy. I burned a couple a bit and I think it made them taste even better. Let the tortillas cool on paper towels.

In a third pan, (A large ish saucepan-- I KNOW--make someone else do the dishes please :)) heat the tbs of veg oil. Add cornstarch and wisk. Let cook for about 2 minutes. Add enchilada sauce and chicken broth and let simmer. Season with salt and pepper.

To assemble, take tortilla and place in sauce for a couple of seconds (tongs works well for this). Lie tortilla flat. Add a spoonful of meat mixture and sprinkle with cheese and green onion. Roll up and place in greased 13 by 9 pan. Repeat until the pan is full. For me this takes around 12 enchiladas. Cover with remaining sauce and sprinkle with cheese. Cook in oven for 30 minutes.

Really good---and doesn't require sour cream and that much cheese to be delicious.

In other news Harrison went to nursery today. HOORAY!!! He did ok as far as I know, he certainly had no freaking out when we dropped him off which we expected. I'm thrilled to now be able to teach primary in peace every other week when Cory teaches Gospel Doctrine. I think my class is thrilled too although they will miss Harrison, who wouldn't?