family matters

We dyed Easter eggs for the first time, ate donuts, tried my hand at sugar cookies with royal icing, got to see Sondra!, hung out at my parents house, ate lots of good food, shot off rockets, got a little dressed up, played, found Easter eggs, ate some more, spent time with my family. It was a good Easter.

On Sunday I made the Vanilla Chai cupcakes and they were yummy! The recipe only made a dozen but it was a good test run. I have a problem where I just always want to tweak recipes. I try to follow recipes exactly the first time through and then tweak the following time. So I restrained myself from adding more vanilla and cinnamon. The only thing I did different from the recipe is use my mom’s buttercream frosting recipe. (Sidenote: I really hate my countertops. I think they’re ugly especially in pictures.)

I almost never can eat my own baking. Something about spending the time making them makes it unappetizing to me. I tried a cupcake right when they were done and felt a little underwhelmed. I thought maybe the spice mixture could be a little stronger. My family really enjoyed them so I tried another bite. I enjoyed it more the second time around. They definitely taste like chai tea.

Josh built Jasper a huge fort downstairs. I got some clothesline rope and clips from the Dollar Tree so we tried them out. Jasper loved it. If I went back upstairs he’d come get me saying “Mommy, come here”. He’d hold his hand out and drag me back down to the tent.

We spent the afternoon at my parents house. My little guy sure loves Uncle Tony and Aunt Emily.

We all got a little bummed about the Bears loss. But my mom’s baking and cooking cheered us up. All in all it was a pretty good day.

Hosting my first Thanksgiving was a success! I’ll be honest, I was a little nervous. Cooking/baking has always come pretty naturally to me. (I thank my mom for that.) But planning and executing a big meal is a lot!

The timing of everything is the tricky part. I needed the turkey to be done early enough that I could use the oven again but not so early that it sits for a long time. Luckily everything came out right at the perfect time. For the turkey I used Real Simple’s plan to cook one. Thank you, Real Simple!

I also made a tofurkey for my brother who is a vegetarian. I really wanted him to have something special too. I found this recipe and decided it sounded doable. I’ve never cooked with tofu before so that was something new. The night before you crumble the tofu into a colander and form a bowl. Another bowl sits in it to keep the shape. The day of you make stuffing, fill the bowl and then flip the whole thing over onto a baking pan. I seriously was sweating when I had to flip it over! The tofu stayed together and there was much rejoicing. Tony gave it a stamp of approval.

I used Pioneer Woman’s mashed potato recipe from her Throwdown with Bobby Flay. Oh goodness, they were awesome. I made my mom’s stuffing which turned out great even though her recipe was kind of lacking. My mom is an amazing cook. She is one of those people who just throw things together, never measures or times anything. This is totally fine unless you are trying to replicate it! She had semi-typed out her stuffing recipe and we laughed about how she didn’t have the measurements for sage or how long to bake it. It must just be ingrained in me because the stuffing was delicious. There was sweet corn from this summer that I had frozen, dinner rolls, green bean casserole and of course pumpkin pie. We also had some yummy appetizers (salmon/dill crostini, veggies and pumpkin peanut butter dip).

I’m so glad that I offered to host and everything turned out. It was a lot of fun to have my family here and cook for them. I am looking forward to Christmas though when my parents take over the cooking again.

I often joke that I am the unluckiest person you will ever meet. I have never won a single contest, raffle, or anything of that nature. If something is going to go wrong, it will usually happen to me. I shouldn’t complain though because I am lucky in one aspect of my life…love. I sure am lucky to have my boys. Jasper and Josh both make me laugh every single day. I also have lucked out in the family and friend department. My parents are pretty much the greatest. They would do anything for us.

I recently got together with an old friend from college. It has been eight years since we’ve hung out and it was just like no time has passed. We stayed up late looking through my scrapbook from college laughing about our good times. It is kind of amazing to go that long without spending face-to-face time with someone and being able to pick back up.

Josh and I also joked that we won the neighbor lottery when we bought our house. Our next door neighbors have turned into fabulous friends that we really enjoy spending time with. Ranee and I got together last week with some coffee and commiserated our lack of money. Brandon is building Jasper an amazing swing set for free, we only have to pay for the materials.

Today I received the camera ring I had been lusting after. I don’t know who it was from as there was no note but I wore it all day smiling when I saw it. Last week the mail brought a Starbucks gift card from one of my blog readers. It said to drown my sorrows in coffee, signed a loyal reader. I was excited just with the fact that I had a “loyal” reader but now we can get coffee this week!

And a huge thing… Josh and I received a note from someone anonymously with some cash tucked inside. I cried when the money fell out. That someone felt they wanted to do that for us….well, I’m blown away. I was able to pay a couple more bills and have a little less stress this week.

So I may have the worst luck with everything else but at least I have love. And lots of it.

Oh what a week. I had a yearly doctor’s appointment in town on Wednesday. I worked it out with my mom to borrow her car. She got a ride into work and then I would pick her up before the appointment. To say I was excited to leave the house was an understatement. I don’t get to leave the house much these days. Josh needs the car to get to work and pick up parts for work during the day. So Jasper and I are kind of trapped most days. I’ve accepted it and I’m okay with it. (Even though some weeks I feel like I’m going a little stir-crazy.)

Wednesday I got us all ready to go and we headed out. I burnt a cd with Jasper’s favorite songs and we were jamming to the tunes. I got two blocks out of town and hit a huge pothole, hard. I worried that it popped the tire and drove a bit to the stop sign. By the time I was there I was sure the tire was flat. I got out of the car and checked. Yep, flat.

I quickly called Josh and drove the six blocks to his work to switch cars. I know you’re not supposed to drive on a flat but I didn’t really know what else to do. We swapped cars and I headed into town. I couldn’t believe it. Once I was almost into town I called Josh. I was worried driving on the flat did damage to the rim. Turns out hitting the pothole damaged the rim and not driving on it.

So I trashed my mom’s tire and rim within five minutes of driving it. I was feeling so awful about it. On Thursday my dad sent me a link to this commercial and said he wasn’t upset and that crap happens. To make matters worse the tire and rim probably wouldn’t be fixed until early next week. So my parents and us would be sharing our one good car throughout the weekend so we could leave town if needed.

My dad called Josh today to let him know he wouldn’t be using our car this afternoon to pick my mom up at work. The tire and rim were out for delivery on the UPS truck! In the words of my mom “it’s a Christmas miracle”! Thank goodness. I am so thankful that we can start the weekend off on the right foot. I still feel terrible about the tire but I’m glad it’s going to be fixed today.

I swear I have the worst luck ever. I guess it’s a good thing I don’t get to leave my house. And at least I have an adorable kid to hang out with.

Saturday was a big day for us! Jasper turned one and we had his first birthday party. I have been planning forever so here is a massive post with all of the details.

We bought 36 inch balloons and rented a helium tank. I really wanted to keep the decorations simple. I bought aqua colored card stock and printed out letters to make the banner. My mom was nice enough to cut out all of the letters. I glued them to the card stock and strung them through a ribbon for the front porch. It was pretty windy on Saturday so we ended up popping two of our four huge balloons. The other two were kept inside after that.

I started sewing the flag garland months and months ago. I bought fat quarters from the fabric store in different patterns. These flags are all over the Internet these days and there are a million different ways to make them. I of course, took the more complicated approach. I didn’t want to do the easy way and just cut the fabric using pinking shears. I sewed each triangle so they are front and back. Flipped them the right way out and then made my own bias tape for all of the flags. The flags are reversible and I will definitely be able to use them again. I think I ended up with about 90 flags so it worked out to be 9 separate sections.

I had originally planned to sew all nine sections together so I had one long garland. I’m glad that I didn’t do it that way. We put a section over the stairs leading downstairs, two downstairs, and the rest upstairs. It really made the whole house look very festive.

I got loads of prints for a Jasper timeline. I printed them through Mpix because you can get the white border automatically on them. I got 78 prints to begin with. Friday night I laid them all out on the floor to figure out placement. Turns out I got way to many…it was just so hard to narrow it down. I picked through them a couple times and ended up with five rows. I loved being able to see these all out in a row. They are still hanging in my kitchen because I can’t bear to take them down.

I bought a bag of 100 balloons and we filled up almost all. I tied them around upstairs and just let the rest float around downstairs. It looked so fun! The kids really enjoyed playing with them as well. I currently have about 90 dead balloons on my floor downstairs. One of these days I will pop them all and throw them away.

The food was simple. We did sugar cookies and cake. I bought a large number one cookie cutter and decorated the cookies with stripes and stars.

My mom made the cakes. A little one just for Jasper to dig into.

And an awesome book shaped cake for everyone else to enjoy.

Jasper did so awesome all day. He didn’t get an afternoon nap in so I was a little nervous that he would get frustrated with all of the people over. His reaction to everyone singing was hilarious. He looked confused and just looked from one person to the next.

He picked at the frosting for awhile and then Josh helped him really dig in. He definitely enjoyed the cake but I think he liked the frosting most. We did the cake first before anything else. I just rolled up Jasper’s sleeves and put a bib on him. I’ve seen a lot of people have to hose their kid off after the cake. Jasper pretty much gets most of the food in his mouth so I wasn’t too worried. He just needed a little wiping off after but we were good to go.

Before presents we showed a video slideshow I put together with videos and pictures. I used music by Renee and Jeremy and I loved how it turned out.

Jasper wasn’t super interested in opening gifts. He helped pull some of the paper but mostly Josh and I just unwrapped the presents. He got so many awesome books. We have already read through quite a few of them. Amazingly I think we only got like two duplicates. It was awesome to see a huge stack of books when we were done and not a ton of toys.

Jasper’s outfit was something that I spent some time on. It started with the brown denim jeans from babyGap. I picked out the shoes from See Kai Run. Then I got the long sleeve cream shirt from babyGap. And after three different fabrics I finally settled on one for the shirt. I cut out a one and used those iron-on fusible sheets. You just stick them to the back of fabric and then iron it on the shirt. I did run it through the sewing machine for a more finished look.

Since my good friend, Sondra, was there I enlisted her help to take pictures. We were able to take a few pictures of my little family which was awesome. I was so thankful knowing that she would be taking pictures so if I was too busy I didn’t need to worry about it.

Josh and I took Jasper outside for a few pictures with the large balloon. It was so fun to have those huge balloons. Jasper thought they were pretty cool. All in all it was a great day. Good to spend time with our friends and family. Jasper was such a trooper. He walked around, played and giggled all day. He’s such an amazing kid. It was a great day to end our first amazing year together.

This morning was a trying one here in my house. Jasper flipped some imaginary switch around 10:00am and became a different toddler. He was whiny, grouchy and tried to do everything he’s not supposed to do. It started with the plant he knows not to touch. He went over to it and ripped a leaf off while looking right at me. I took the leaf, sat him down and said no. He started crying and immediately went back to the plant to pull on it. He got in trouble again and things went downhill. I put him down for a nap and he wailed. Since this is very unusual for him I got him back up and tried to occupy him. He wanted to be held and then wanted down. Up and down, whining the whole time. I seriously said to him, “Who are you and what have you done with my baby?”. We tried nap time a few more times but he did not go down for a nap until ten til one. And then he proceeded to sleep for THIRTY MINUTES. He cried more this morning than the entire month of October. Getting two teeth and four molars is apparently hard work.

The morning sucked but my day improved. My awesome neighbor agreed to watch Jasper. (Of course he was an angel for her.) Josh took off work early to pick him up. Sondra and I went into town. I got a Starbucks and we looked at all of the Christmas decorations at Hobby Lobby. My parents stopped by around supper time to entertain the little guy for a bit. Then Sondra cooked us an awesome supper. I gave Jasper his bath tonight and he giggled every time he splashed me. We snuggled for a little bit and I’m pretty sure he still likes me.

I feel very thankful…thankful for my parents, good friends and my husband. And thankful for a healthy baby who only is cranky when he’s cutting teeth.

My poor little momma… First my brother got a tattoo, then got a second. Josh got his forearm tattooed. Now my dad joined the tattoo club. He decided on a running tattoo above his ankle. I think it turned out pretty cool. The tattoo artist combined the version I designed and another version. It’s also cool because it means something to my dad. It’s like he’s announcing that he has committed to running forever.

I have been tossing around the idea to getting my eyebrow re-pierced. (I had my eyebrow pierced between the age 22 and 23.) I really miss it but can’t help wonder if I’m too old for it. The other night at supper I said to my mom, “What would you think about me getting-”. My mom interrupted, “getting your eyebrow re-pierced?”. (That’s the problem with your parents having Facebook too…) I said, “Yeah, I’m considering”. Little Momma says, “What is my family coming to?? Tattoos, piercings?”

So it seems we’re all rebelling a bit. Who’s next? Little Momma? I doubt it. When hearing about my brother’s plan for more tattoos she responded, “Oh gosh. I’m going to have to start a prayer chain”. I love that little lady.

Before I even got pregnant my mom would often comment how my kids were going to have the best grandparents. There was no doubt in my mind that my parents would be awesome at the grandparent thing. Sure enough, they are pretty great.

Jasper has a very special relationship with them and I am so thankful for it. I was never really close with any of my grandparents growing up so I’m excited that Jasper will get to experience that.

- Tuesday morning we all woke up with a cold. Unfortunately Jasper got it the worse. Luckily he’s feeling better today. Hopefully he’ll be 100% this weekend.

- We have his 6-month checkup at the doctor today. I’m guessing he weighs 21 pounds.

- I’ve been trying to finish the wedding that we shot last month. It’s going so slowly! Working and watching a baby isn’t the easiest thing in the world.

- Josh and I have decided to tear down our summer house. It’s a cool building but needs a lot of work. Even if we put the work into it, I just don’t think we’d use it that much. Plus it is in the MIDDLE of my backyard. Jasper needs room for a swingset. Hoping to tear that down next month.

- Once the summer house is down, we’re going to plant some trees and figure out where our compost pile is going. I cannot wait to get the backyard in order. It may take a couple years but I’m determined to have the yard we want!

- I’m starting to book a lot of sessions for the Spring which is exciting.

- I’m craving a vanilla soy latte like mad.

- My parents have completely gutted their house, minus three bedrooms and the kitchen. It is going to be a different house! My folks have done a ton of the work themselves which involved taking everything down to the studs. (They went through many dumpsters and ended up taking out 8.5 tons of crap!!) The drywall company is going to finish early next week (woohoo, no more wood paneling). Next is painting, then carpeting, then new furniture.. I am so excited for them. This is so well deserved. I’m also pretty sure that they aren’t going to leave the house for a month when it’s all done. I will post pictures of before and after when it’s all done.

- I’m having a garage sale next month. The garage is seriously clean but nothing else is ready for it. Gotta get on that.

- My baby is trying to crawl. I think I’m really in for it when he does. Hmm…how much is a Pack & Play?

- There is a robin trying to build a nest on my front porch light. Every day I go out and knock down what was built the night before. I don’t want them to put eggs in there because then I’ll have to leave it! This has been going on for TWO weeks. You’d think they would get the idea. They don’t know what kind of stubborn person they are dealing with. I will be victorious!

- We had Jasper’s four month shots done at the doctor’s office. Since it was applied to our insurance deductible we owe $442 for them. WHA-HUH? I had NO idea that shots were so expensive. This month he’ll be going to the health dept.

- Jasper has starting sleeping on his belly. At first I fought it by rolling him back to his back all the time. But he sleeps better and likes it. As my dad said to me (while I was worrying about it), “Kimberly, if he can’t breath he’ll move”. So true.

- Every time all of the cousins are together, my mother-in-law HAS to get a picture of them. This is pretty much what every picture looks like. Jasper chilling like what the heck is going on. Kate all over and Tristan trying to get off the couch. Funny how the little ones are cool.

- Josh is off work today and that makes me VERY happy. Off to enjoy the weather with my boys.