jerseyversary!

in an (almost) unprecented move, i will blog twice in one day. (scroll down, you'll see it) may 16th was officially my jerseyversary! i was planning on blogging then, but you know how life gets busy. :) so, for you in no particular order i present "things that are different since moving to jersey"

1. my idea of what constitutes a "garden": (i literally find myself saying "let's go sit out in the garden" -- sad, but true. oh, and lindsey -- i HAVE a fuschia plant! )

aforementioned fuschia
bird bath i got at bird-in-hand

herb garden
2. "oh, that's what rain boots are for!" (seriously, you NEED rain boots here. okay, not HERE as in the photo, but here as in new jersey.) a few weeks ago it rained for about 3 days straight. the roads flooded. the schools closed. we had to find a really creative route to drive alan to the bus (bus wasn't running). in utah you see them and think "cute rain boots! why in the world would anyone buy them?" (rain boots, coincidentally, are also very, very handy to wear, for example, when you are still in your jammies but want to go outside to see why mom is taking pictures of the "garden")
(you can also wear them with a ballerina outfit or princess dress to go outside in a pinch)

3. i know the real meaning of “humidity”. when you walk out of your house after a rainstorm in the summer thinking it might have cooled things off a bit, only to realize that you have essentially walked out into what seems to be the climate of the deepest Amazonian jungle, but is, in fact, your front yard – THAT, my friends, is humidity.

4. i find myself referring to the beach as “the shore”. that’s just weird. but that’s new jersey. why not experience it for yourself? 60 seconds of tranquility. it's like a little zen escape in the middle of your hectic day. use it often and use it well. (oh, and you're welcome! :) )

that’s all i can think of today, folks. but check back -- i may come up with more! but for now, why not enjoy some recent photos? (and commentary, of course. i can't just NOT comment)

me being amish with janae in lancaster

amish scooters
(for kelli, jess, and possibly ryan -- wheel in the wheel in the wheel in the wheel in the way in the middle of the sky...) for the rest of you: ooh, pretty windmill.

cydney tries her hand at milking (and gets extremely grossed out in the process). jenn's back there too, but she's not showing her face!

and now, in the cutest picture category:

the look on his face is priceless!

hadley has now officially become a "fishergirl" and caught her first fish!

and finally:
look at my little mud puppies who fell in the mud! hadley's face is the best (click to enlarge).

I've Been TAGGED!

i've been tagged by bluegirl to come up with 7 random things about myself (perhaps just what i need to light the ol' blogging fire). so, without further ado:

1. i LOVE dr. pepper and recently (sadly) switched over to diet...the weird thing about my dr. pepper love is that i HAVE to drink it out of a glass, with ICE. no drinking from the can or bottle and no drinking it if there is no ice around. the friday & saturday before mother's day, a bunch of women from our ward (i think around 30?) went on a mini-vacation to lancaster county, PA. i heart the sweet amish women running a sandwich shop at Bird In Hand for having ice cold cans of dr. pepper and ice for me! they also make a fantastic ham sandwich.

(okay, i need to interject here...i obviously can't just flat-out list 7 things, i go rambling off in several directions, so bear with me!)

2. i love cute little notebooks. i'm pretty sure i always have. i never know exactly what i am going to write in them, and they are seldom dedicated to one sole purpose, but i can never resist buying them. i confess that in the past 2 months i have bought at least 4! maybe someday i can come up with a relly good use for them...something purposeful and meaningful and lovely. i welcome all ideas and suggestions.

3. i have been craving those salted nut roll candybars...you know the ones -- bright red wrapper, salty peanutty goodness wrapped around a layer of caramel and yummy white something or other. they are nowhere to be found here in the garden state, so i would love someone to send me one! (nudge-nudge) yum.

4. i hate planning menus and grocery shopping (but love to cook, oddly)recently, however, 2 things have revolutionized the way i look at grocery shopping. seriously. my ipod (there is nothing better than grocery shopping at night with your own personal soundtrack) and reuseable grocery bags (it's so nice to load/carry in/unload just 4-5 bags rather than 20).

5. i have a thing for lowercase letters and parenthesis. (no, really!?) i just like the look of the lowercase letters...everything is so even and nice. and parenthesis? (come on, do i really need to answer this?) they provide such a nice aside for things that pop into my head but don't fit into the sentence per se.)

6. i will be participating in "mind over madness" -- a summer solstice celebration featuring mass yoga sessions in the middle of times square. i'm so excited! (still looking for a committed yoga buddy to go with me!)

7. the thing that drives me mad more than anything else, the thing i find the most insufferable, the thing that i can't STAND is -- having a stuffed-up nose. (kinda anti-climactic, huh?) seriously. i hate it. which leads me to number 7 1/2 on my list: i'm a hardcore nasal spray addict. shocking, isn't it. i'm a junkie. especially with these blasted new jersey allergens getting to me. the worst part? i don't even WANT to quit. so there.

so, continuting this hallowed blogiverse tradition, i hereby tag: sisters honna and linny, anonymous ruby, and menacing tourist. :) love you guys -- blog away.

Birthday Take Two! (make that six!)

Happy Birthday Alexander!!

xan shows us just how big he is! six years old...i can hardly believe it! being the wanna-be intrepid deep sea explorer that he is, xander decided to see if he could throw me off my game by requesting an "anglerfish cake". um....okay....

here is the proud birthday boy with the aforementioned cake...i think i did pretty good, don't you? the teeth are white chocolate and the eye is a reese's peanut butter egg. :)

close up...before i realized my terrible mistake. i only put on 5 candles! we had to sing twice.

blow baby, blow! keeping with the deep sea theme, alexander chose to go to the aquarium for his birthday rather than have a "friend party". how cute is that? he wanted to have a "family fun day". oh, and just a funny little thing...we went during passover week, so there were hundreds of hasidic jews there with their big hats, long coats and beards. we were a small island of mormons in a sea of jews...LOL!

even though it was xander's day, hadley stole the show, as usual....here she is dancing at the aquarium.

alexander in the shark tunnel. it's really, really hard to take a good picture in the shark tunnel, by the way.

finally, a photo of me...and yes, that shark DID go on to eat the entire city of philadelphia that you see in the background...CHOMP CHOMP!!!

it's practially impossible to get a decent picture of me with the kids....which gets your vote? why not submit a caption?

photo #1

photo #2

as always i LOVE comments! it's the only way i can tell that anyone is reading this at all. so, come on all you shy readers...come out of your shell and say something already!

under THREAT of hate mail...

i'm finally updating my blog! things have been crazy and fun and busy around here. we have celebrated 2 birthdays, had a week-long spring break, several illnesses, easter, first time fishing (and catching a fish!), and started soccer! we have a lot to catch up on, so i will do it in small batches...keep checking back, i hope to do at least 3-4 of these mini-posts today. so, without further ado....

Happy Birthday Hadley!!

here is the cute little birthday girl with her "ballerina cake". she looks so big in this picture, much bigger than 3! we kept the birthday low-key and had dinner in Princeton with the neighbors, Mitch (MITCHELL!) and Marisa and their cute little Lucy, who hadley told me is her "sister friend". so cute.

A close-up of the cake...yeah, it was a bit squished to begin with...this was the reject cake for the bake-off held in Relief Society. I had to bake the cake twice, since the first one fell in the middle, but i saved it in the freezer and used it for hadley's birthday cake. i was so glad to not have to bake it that day! oh, i won the bake-off, by the way...first prize in the "non-chocolate" category. the second time i have entered this recipe and won. yummy, yummy coconut cake!

hadley got kitchen play things for her birthday from us, because she likes to "help" me when i am cooking and be "chef hadley". here are alexander and lucy playing along with her. lucy and hadley both wore party dresses to dinner and were doted on, as usual.

when i saved this photo, i titled it "girlie giggles". look at that face!

helping me place the candles...see how she is pretending to do it along with me? is that princess aurora on the table? seriously sisters, thank-you for the princesses. they have all kinds of adventures. the other day they were all lined up with one in front and they were having sacrament meeting. she was talking about Jesus and trying to make lucy fold her arms and say amen. (lucy is jewish) it was kinda funny.

i LOVE this picture because it captures the true essence of hadley...the cuteness, the silliness, the exuberance! as i recall, she was shouting "cheese!" and flourishing something (her twisty straw?) for the picture. many thanks again to all of you who sent birthday surprises...it made not being in utah a little easier. between all of hadley's mail, easter packages, and alexander's mail, we got used to fun mail surprises and hadley started to cry the other day when there was nothing fun in the mail. we love you all! stay tuned....

Happy Birthday, Miss Hadley!!

ever since hadley was a tiny baby she has been known as "miss hadley". the name developed spontaneously, and soon we were all calling her that. she is definitely a little lady and one with the personality that demands attention wherever we go. this week, we made the drive to rahway to alan's work and she was literally surrounded by a crowd of women! she's our little darling dolly! we love you, miss hadley!
hadley shows off some of her "ballet moves" which differ only slightly from her "princess moves", which she spent the better part of sacrament meeting demonstrating to baby tessa, who is about 7 months old. hadley wanted to make sure she learned princess moves from an early age. many thanks to grammie and grampy who sent the adorable ballerina ensemble! we had to promptly go outside to show lucy and marisa, and since it was a warm day, we also showed the neighbor from across the court, the next door neighbor, and a cute lady visiting from india with her new grandbaby. hadley knew she was adorable and everyone told her so! you can check out the video of her opening the gift and dancing here. if the image is sideways, click the ROTATE button on the right as the video plays. :)

thanks also go out to grandma connie who sent a fun box of goodies: books, a soft blanket, and girlie-colored play-doh! the pink and purple colors were a big hit! it is also going to go well with one of the gifts alan and i got for her...stay tuned for that!

here are the kids enjoying green eggs and ham (okay, bacon) in honor of dr. seuss's birthday earlier this month. alexander told me: "mom, i don't like the look of it", but they both loved the taste!

my two little snugglebugs cuddling on the couch and watching a video. they are usually really territorial about the couch, so this cuddling under the same blanket is rare!

we have been crazy busy lately, for some reason...easter almost snuck up on me and i am sad that we will be having easter dinner on our own this year. :( kinda bummed about missing the egg hunt too...looks like the easter bunny will be making his premiere appearance in our household this year. i've been shopping for candy and some small toys. i think the easter bunny might bring some rain boots. yes, you actually need rain boots here! i LOVE the rain here in the summer! there, i found something i like about new jersey! and you all said it couldn't be done....

will update again soon...promise! i got a new haircut and haddles will have more birthday loot to show off. sorry siddys, she's miss hadley to me. haddles just doesn't do it for me. xoxox

say what?

hadley never ceases to amaze/amuse us with her crazy comments and witty words. some recent examples:

h: why did the dr. pepper cross the road?
me: i don't know. why?
h: because a fairy changed him into a frog

me: would you like to watch handy manny?
h: no, too fixable!
me: how about sesame street?
h: too playable

xox

Winter Break

we have had a lot of time on our hands lately...some of you may have heard of the school closings and "terrible" storms in our area lately. my mom called me worried that I drive carefully, etc, etc. the truth of the matter is this...on valentine's day, our schools were closed! alan's work had a delayed opening at 10:30 am! we decided to drive him to the train station rather than making him ride the bus as usual. boy were we surprised at the 3" of snow! that's inches....not feet. luckily we had a valentine's surprise in store to bust the boredom (in the form of the cranium superfort -- photos pending.) the next day, alan's work had delayed opening again, as did alexander's school! the bus never showed to take him, so i drove him. school was scheduled to open at 10:30 and we arrived at about 10:25 only to wait in line for nearly 20 minutes with all the other parents dropping off. don't know what the deal with the busses was. the roads were clear and dry. i have no idea what the problem was, but due to road closures in our area, i arrived home at 11:15. alexander's bus brings him home at 11:50. what a wasted morning!
friday the 16th, schools had a scheduled day off for parent-teacher conferences, and remained closed monday for president's day and tuesday for a teacher prep day! we had a LOT of time on our hands. here's how we filled some of it....

hadley brought me the "doodle" a couple weeks ago and proudly said "i drew daddy!" sure enough, she did! looks just like him, don't you agree?

we have been spending a lot of time with lucy, the neighbor 2 doors down. she is sophie's age so they get along wonderfully. the other day, lucy and hadley were having a snack and hadley was telling lucy about her "brubber" asked me, "who's my sister?" when i told her she didn't have a sister, she was indignant, and said "sophie's my sister". "sophie is your cousin", i corrected her. she looked REALLY upset for a second and then said "lucy can be my sister. she is my sister friend." glad we got that settled. :)

alan had president's day off, so we braved the cold (but not too cold) and went into new york for the day. we visited the met and met our friend tom for dinner at chow fun. (walking to the restaurant, we passed another restaurant and alexander said "this place doesn't look very fun"). tom graciously put up with children climbing on him, chattering non-stop, and acting like robots. you're a great sport, tom!

we found a FREE family pass to the met online (you can't beat that!) so we splurged at the gift shop. hadley got a "degas ballerina doll" for a whopping $6 and alexander chose a harmonica for $5, which he informed me he will "practice every day until i'm as good as bob dylan." what an awesome kid!

we stopped for a snack at the met cafeteria and hadley's ballerina danced on daddy's head for about 10-15 minutes.

after that, the armor!

isnt' this just cool? there's a cooler photo of 3 of the 4 riding knights here.

i was fascinated by the jousting armor. it featured special plates that were screwed and/or bolted on to the regular armor, as you can see here. also notice the helmet. i have NO IDEA how they could see at all inside this thing. note the little lever that swings out on the right. it's for resting the lance on!
another view of the same knight. notice how the extra plate curves to better deflect the oncoming lance. and you can also see the little window that opens for them to talk. it has cute decorative punch-outs so they can breathe.

another set of jousting armor. i love the big bolts, especially the one on the face, which bolted the face guard onto the helmet. there are also screws around the neck, because the helmet was too heavy for them to hold their heads up...it had to be screwed to the breastplate. again, no idea how he sees, but this guy had a little string for someone to pull to open his talking hole. (probably not the technical term.) alexander went crazy for this stuff. hadley was bored and had to be taken elsewhere. i tried to get some pics of the little guy with the armor, but i ran into 2 problems. #1--low light and no flash allowed plus a moving 5 year old = blurry. #2--little guy was just a bit leary about standing too close to the knights, know what i mean? they are a bit too lifelike and slightly scary, even inside glass cases. :)

this is the actual field armor of henry VIII! henry the freaking 8th! how cool is that? huge guy, no? i'm a geek and just could NOT believe the met has a set of henry the VIII's armor. cool!

Love is in the air....

Happy Valentine's Day!

click to enlarge photos

i have been a busy little valentine's day bee this week! first we made valentine magnet sets to send to utah. by "we" i mean the kids helped for about 5 minutes each and i did the rest.

i think they turned out really cute and will carry a little valentine love to our cousins, grandmas, and grandpas. the thinking behind this was that the kids can use these to hang their works of art on the fridge with style! it was hard to get a clear photo in my light-less home!

two tins, packed and ready to go, with valentine message enclosed.

here is a tin with the foamies confettii we packed in each tin. sorry utahns, if this is a spoiler!

class valentines. we made 25 of these in just a few minutes. i'm really pleased with how they turned out! i think they are adorable and festive. i will print off labels saying "happy valentine's day! from, Alexander" and stick them on the back. contemplating whether it's worth a trip to staples to get printable labels or whether i should just stick them with glue or double-stick tape.

another shot of the class valentine packets. in case anyone is wondering, all i did was get some mini cellophane bags from michael's (candy-making section, near the sucker sticks), bought some valentine candy in bulk (valentine m&m's, conversation hearts, juju hearts), scooped in a scant 1/4 cup candy, cut paper tops from 12" scrapbook paper (size is 4.25" x 3") -- i used a paper cutter, so it only took a few minutes -- then just folded the bags down, folded each card in half, and stapled in the center. the kids had fun helping with the folding, stapling, and filling bags. they were really easy and look like we put some effort into them, when it was very minimal. i think i will use the candy bag idea again for small gifts and treats.

for valentine's day, i wanted to surprise alan (and treat myself) to a romantic new bedroom restyling. i couldn't wait, so i did it yesterday. here is the BEFORE photo. scroll for the after, my blog program messed up the photo order and i'm too lazy to go back and fix everything!

keep scrolling....

this is a (bad) photo of the throw i received from the mormonchic craft swap i organized. i love it! it's double layers of fleece, so it's extra soft and warm, and i love the embroidery detail on the front. it's chocolate brown with tan on the reverse that matches the embroidery. it arrived yesterday, just as i was putting finishing touches on my new room and it fit in perfectly! i was so excited! (photo of it IN the room and in context are below).

AFTER: (TA-DA!)

i think it turned out really nice! i was worried because i got a bit here and a bit there and i was hoping it would all pull together nicely -- i think it did! the walls in our room are sort of a soft, sage green, but with the new bedding, they look more like a pale aqua, which looks great!

view of the room from the doorway...notice my new and improved chair? yes, it actually WAS black before, but thanks to a few safety pins and a cream-colored twin sheet set, it looks great and coordinates much more with the room. you can also see the throw in action -- since the chair is a make-do fix, i think the throw makes it look much more finished and detracts from the fact that it's just covered in sheets! the funny thing about this is that i didn't even know i HAD cream-colored twin sheets until i happened upon them in a box last week. i have NO IDEA where they came from, but boy was i glad i discovered them!

a closer view of the chair with the throw.

finally, some pictures of me wearing my new favorite piece of jewelry, which is the necklace alan got me for christmas! due to an unfortunate shipping mix-up, it was not in utah for christmas, so i had to wait clear until the 6th of january to recieve it! there is a close up (but not a good one) below.

the necklace is tumbled garnets, which are my birthstone. i love the tumbled rather than the cut, faceted type because they remind me of pomegranate seeds. the center stone is blue topaz, which is sentimental to me, because i wore my mom's blue topaz ring at my wedding for my "something blue". i LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

have yourself a great valentine's day, and kiss someone you love!

xoxox