T-Mac and the Booger

How time flies, huh?  Between the holidays, getting sick, new computers, vacation and everything else life with a 1 1/2 year old has to offer, it has been AGES since I have blogged, and so to the 2 or 3 loyal readers who this bothered, I apologize.  I am going to try to break up the last little while into a couple posts, so that I don’t overwhealm you with the adorable nature of my daughter and the fabulousness of my life… or something.

We travelled to Utah for Christmas and made my parents VERY happy… I believe that one of them can be quoted as saying “everytime Sophie leaves, you take a part of me away…” this statement and others similar from the in-laws explains the massive pile of presents that my child recieved for Christmas.  But more on that later.  This year, to avoid previous holiday travel faux pas’ we arrrived SUPER early at the airport to find that no one was there.  Maybe this economy is affecting folks after all!  So we wandered around with our daughter and then happily saw our plane land and deboard a measily 15 minutes late.  “Excellent!” we thought, until the overhead speaker came on saying that we were waiting for our flight crew… they would land in 30 minutes.  Seriously… I have never had my plane ready and waiting for me, but no flight crew… yuck.  Then the stewardess (is that the proper name, or is it flight attendant?) hurried us on the plane saying, “We’re running late folks, move along quickly.”  As if none of us had noticed.  The rest of the flight fit with the start, the stewardess who had hurried us up dropped her clipboard on me and then spilled a Diet Coke on me… and then my daughter’s diaper was too full and she peed on me.  Needless to say, I was hoping the rest of the trip would be more enjoyable.  (It was!)

The next day was Christmas Eve and we arrived at Jeff’s aunt Krissy’s house for breakfast and a white elephant gift exchange.  I believe Sean is now the proud owner of a framed picture of his uncle looking like a demented criminal., a present that was enjoyed by all, but left Sean wanting the I Tunes gift card.  Then Sophie got her first haircut from Chelsea, hairdresser extrodinaire.  She didn’t even seem to notice what was happening thanks to grapes and strawberries left over from breakfast:

Later that day we took Sophie sledding for the first time… it was a DisneyLand repeat.  Everytime we neared the bottom of the hill and the sled slowed, Sophie would start requesting that we start again.  It was fun, and it was great that there were enough adults to take turns carrying her up the hill to start it all over again.

It was a good time.  She even went down the hill with Manny Andy a couple of times (which was a trick at the beginning of the trip… she warmed up to him by the end of the trip…. I keep telling him to quit Med School and come be my full time Manny.  Somehow he is unconvinced that that is a good financial decision… whatever!). 

Later that night we participated in yet another white elephant gift exchange… where I exchanged my dancing hula twins for a universal remote and Jeff won a fabulous set of glitter glue pens.  We also had delicious chili and lots of dessert (a sign of things to come).  Then Sophie got to open her Christmas PJ’s… if it looks like she had been crying, it’s because she had been.  Even Christmas PJ’s mean bedtime, and fun things should never come to an end… so she fought to put them on, and then was super pleased after she saw them in the mirror.

More to come later, maybe even tonight if I find the energy.  I know you will all be waiting in great anticipation!

Filed under: Odds N' Ends, My crazy life, Sophie, Uncategorized on January 3rd, 2009 | 3 Comments »

I know I have been MIA for some time, I will be back soon, we are in the process of switching computers, which involves switching pictures over and finding the program I use to make my pictures appear normally when I post instead of GINORMOUS… so I will be back and boring you with more pictures soon!

Filed under: Odds N' Ends on December 15th, 2008 | No Comments »

So, a little while ago I posted about Mama to Mama, a blog dedicated to crafting to help others (in my own words).  My mother-in-law came up with a good idea to have a bunch of girls over to mass produce some hats, she called it “starting the holiday season off right!”  So we had a good night this last Thursday.  There were several ladies, good food and we were VERY productive.  It was fun.  The hats were easy enough to make and super cute when they were done, and really, when is it NOT fun to chat with friends?

Here are few pictures from that night.  I think we ended up with 70 hats.  Not bad for 2 hours of work (or 1.5 hours work, 30 minutes of eating) and chatting.

Filed under: Odds N' Ends on December 7th, 2008 | 3 Comments »

So, there are to be many pictures from our trip to LA for Thanksgiving… Justin is going to send me some more (hint, hint)… but here are a few of our fun time.  Sophie LOVED the whole deal and was so sad to leave the rides she cried everytime the rides slowed down.  It was funny and not so funny all at the same time.

We actually got our “Year of a Million Dreams” hats, which I felt were well deserved after climbing up thousands of stairs in the treehouse:

Sophie stayed busy on her Mickey cell phone, a life-saver:

She loved Small World and Dumbo… but she really loved the Teacups and Ladybugs… but I don’t have those pictures yet:

It was a fun trip, though I would never recommend that anyone spend 8 hours driving, 2 days in DisneyLand, 1 day in Universal Studios and THEN  another 7 hours driving home… TIRING and a half.  YUCK.

On a separate note… I am happy that it is Christmas season.  I love decorating for Christmas and everything else about it!  I started a advent calendar with Sophie this year, and she has liked it quite a bit.  The first day she got these snowman stickers and spent a long time putting them together nicely… every part in a normal place (ie carrot where the nose should be):

Then she continued to work even harder on taking everything apart and placing the parts on a piece of paper:

Her other favorite thing is the nativity on the fridge (I made it years ago because it was cute… little did I know that it would be such a good toy!):

MY favorite things are my brand new nativities… my collection is not nearly as large as my mother-in-laws or HER moms (I would love Sharyn’s Lladro nativity), but I get a few more every so often and I am liking the collection that I have. I have 2 nativities from Guatemala (where the Mayor served his mission).  Kelly gave me one and I found one in this cute store in Monterrey.

Then I have a little one from the Dominican Republic (the little one up front).  What’s nice is that Jeff and our families support my addiction freely (Jeff bought me the Willow Tree one in the back):

I am hoping that putting all these nativities on top of the piano will be enough of a deterrent for Sophie.  She plays with the wood one I have lower… and I am willing to sacrifice that for keeping the other ones in tact.  Good luck to me!  And Happy Holidays to you!

Filed under: Odds N' Ends, My crazy life, Sophie on December 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »

Before Thanksgiving, Chevron sponsored a corporate day at the Exploratorium.  It was great!  We showed up and, at first, Sophie was a little shell-shocked by all the stuff and the crowds of people.

Things started going better when she realized that she could make balls “fly” and that water and knocking blocks down was involved:

 Things only got better as she got to play with sand, create totally cool art projects involving food coloring and shaving cream and eat brownies (how awesome is it that they fed us… and it was GOOD food, nice surprise for us, we didn’t know we were being fed!):

By the end of our evening Sophie was running everywhere, touching everything, and trying everything out (it gives me good hope my baby girl will like science as much as her Mom!):

 It was a fabulous (free!!!) evening, and in case anyone from Chevron stumbles across this blog I want you to know we would love another fabulous evening next year too!

Filed under: My crazy life, Sophie on December 1st, 2008 | No Comments »

So, now that Jeff has let you know about the fabulous city he frequented in law school, I thought I would let you see one of my current (hopefully finished, but you never know) projects.  I decided to make Sophie some food to go with her Christmas kitchen, I have succeeded in only buying her the kitchen, everything else is homemade (yeah for me).  I wanted to try my hand at these little cutie patooties and see if I could make anything interesting.  I think I was pretty successful.  I started with some easy-looking pasta… it was almost as easy as I had hoped, and thank goodness I started with it, it made me hopeful for a good finish.

Here are the bow-tie pastas and raviolis that I made (including sauce), as well as a close up of the bow-ties:

Then I attempted to tackle a sandwich and Doritos (Jeff’s request).  The bread was the hardest… but I am really happy with the outcome.  I think Sophie will like playing with them, and hopefully they last for a little while.  One day I might try a couple more items…

Filed under: My crazy life on November 24th, 2008 | 3 Comments »

I would like to congratulate my Law School city of Camden, NJ for dropping back to #2 on the most dangerous city list.  link.  Although we can never seem to drop out of the top 3, it is nice to know that someone else is currently worse.  Keep up the good work!

Filed under: The Mayor on November 24th, 2008 | No Comments »

Tonight the girls and I are going to have a Girl’s Night Out… it includes:

and

It should prove to be a fabulous evening.  In exchange for my girl’s night I let Jeff have a Guy’s Night In last weekend… this is what it entailed:

3 flat screen TV’s in my living room and 3 VERY happy boys (men… I mean men, only men play COD on manly-sized TVs until all hours of the night?  Right?).

Filed under: Odds N' Ends, The Mayor, My crazy life on November 21st, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Or something… since I have last written I have worked on masses of projects (pictures to come, by the by did you know that making felt food can be totally addicting?), cleaned the house a bazillion times (still doesn’t look clean) and many other fun things… including (giant trumpeting fanfare):

MAKING PIES!!!

Now I didn’t say I learned how to make pretty pie… but it was delicious! My friend Tara is a pie extraordinaire and was nice enough to teach me how to make pie crust (her method is magic and I had a good time)… Thanks Tara!

Sophie has been up to her crazy shenanigans,

Wearing crazy clothes:

Teaching Pig to ride horses:

And basically keeping me on my toes:

Filed under: Odds N' Ends on November 21st, 2008 | No Comments »

I brag a lot about my kid (as you may have noticed by the last post), but I thought I would take a little break to brag about my husband.  Normally, I would say what a wonderful husband and Dad he is and go on about how much I love him, but I won’t do that this time (or something!).  Today Jeff received a Certificate of Recognition from Chevron for the work he spearheaded (AKA managed) on some massive project… with brand conversion and Texaco… so cool!  I am so proud of him (in a good, not being struck down sort of way) and am so happy that the hard work he does didn’t go unnoticed (and am happy there was a bonus included!).  Congratulations Jeffrey, we love you!

Filed under: The Mayor on November 13th, 2008 | 1 Comment »