This and That

A friend once asked me if everything was okay because I hadn't posted to my blog in a week and she was concerned. I know that's not a long time to go without posting, but it just shows how well she knows me. I do tend to stay away from the blog when I'm having a hard time, and this past week (really the whole month) hasn't been great. Lots of tears, issues, and pains coming up. Hopefully (fingers crossed) things are going to go better now that the week/month is almost over. (Today has been better already!)

So here are some random things I just haven't felt like posting because of my mood. I figured I'd just squish them all in one post rather than give them each their own as I had planned.

The Table
Back last summer I got it in my head that I was going to refinish all my bedroom furniture to be black. Since I had never done anything like that, I thought I'd go to DI and buy a little piece of wood furniture to practice on that was similar to the wood in my bedroom. I came home with this side table for $8.

That was taken after I had already started sanding it down, which again was something I had never done. Then I spray-painted it black. I was going to give it another coat of paint and distress it but never got around to it. So after months of it taking up space in the garage, I finally just brought it inside and put it to good use.

And in case you're wondering, no, I never did paint my bedroom furniture. I got pregnant and lost all motivation for stuff like that. But hey, my good intentions ended up giving me a nice table!


The Tutu
When I first started making these a year or two ago, Jossy was completely against wearing one even for a second. She HATED them. Well recently she's changed her mind. She saw one hanging in my closet and decided she wanted it on. She wore it for quite a while that day and even more the next day. She loves to dance and spin in it. When she walks while wearing it, she makes her tush swagger back and forth to make it move more. It's hilarious! I'm just glad it's getting some use finally.


And of course any attention Jossy gets Matty wants, too. So he wanted his picture taken like her in the mirror. I don't know what that face is for.


Random Jossy
Sometimes when I come in to get her from her nap or up in the morning, this is how I find she's arranged her dolls. (I apologize for the Cabbage Patch nudity. They just can't seem to stay dressed in this house.)


When I went to check on her one day at naptime, I found that she had fallen asleep holding her doll's hand and thought it was cute.


She is such a little GIRL. I've never considered myself girly whatsoever, but somehow she's got the gene for it. Today she wanted her nails done (2 different colors) and hair curled. Such a beautiful little princess I have! At the same time, she can be a super rough little Tomboy. So I guess either way the boys better watch out!

Living in the Past

It's hard to remember what month it is when I have a daughter who's demanding to wear this shirt . . .

and this costume . . .

in January.

Oh, and check out that hair. Lovely, eh? Sadly, this is actually very tame for Miss Static-electricity-no-you-can't-do-my-hair. Too bad she didn't hold still long enough for me to get a better picture.

Procrastination + Overambition

= a project that took 3 years to complete.

3 years ago this month I learned that we were expecting our first baby girl. I was so excited that I went right out and bought yarn to crochet her a blanket as well as fabric to make a patchwork quilt for her. I (mistakenly) started both at the same time. I got all the fabric squares cut out for the quilt and a few pieced together when I realized that I just couldn't handle doing both blankets at the same time. I decided to focus on the afghan first and was able to finish it within a month. (Click here to see my old post about it.)

After working sooooo many hours on that, I decided I need a break before getting back to the quilt.

Fast forward 3 years . . .

The pieces to that quilt have been tormenting me in my sewing box and fabric stash for years. I've really wanted to make a blanket for this new baby girl coming, but I just didn't feel like I could start on one until I had finished Jossy's quilt. So I finally pulled the pieces out again and got to work. It took me about 3 whole days of working on it to completely finish it. Makes me kind of sad that I didn't do that sooner.

But the fun part about not finishing it til now is that I got to see Jossy's reaction to it. She LOVES it. I decided to make it large enough to fit on a twin bed since that's what she'll use it for. She's still in her crib right now, but we're slowly getting things ready for her to move into Matty's room. She's very excited about her purple and white blanket to go with her new big bed.



I'm hoping it will be a nice heirloom for her. It was my first time using a sewing machine to quilt the batting in place instead of just tying it. What a pain that was on my little machine! Still, I'm really happy with how it turned out (though it's nowhere near a perfect job.) This is only the second pieced quilt I've ever done. And I'm so happy to say it's DONE!!

Now I just need a break before starting on the baby's blanket. Hopefully that won't be another 3 year break. Maybe just 2 this time . . .

2011 Auto Expo

Somehow attending the Utah Auto Expo has become a fun tradition for our family. We look forward to it for weeks every year. The kids love climbing around in the cars, and Dan and I enjoy looking at cars we could never dream of affording. Fun for all. :)

We met my dad and my sister Dawn there. We stayed for almost 3.5 hours when this pregnant momma could no longer take the waking or nausea and had to head home. Matty's favorite part was climbing in and out of trunks/backs. Jossy HAD to have her seat belt on in each car she sat in. (That got a little annoying, but I guess I should be happy she wanted to be safe.)

Jossy couldn't figure out where the door went.
It was really bugging her that we wouldn't shut it.

We thought it was funny that one car had it's tail lights sticking out so far you could use it as a cup holder. So that's what we did with it. :)

Jossy took a break and watched some grown-up movie on the DVD player.
She sat there quite a while.

This became my lovely view after I started feeling super sick and had to sit by a wall for some time. The floor definitely isn't as cool to look at as the cars.

And if you think this is a lot of pictures to be showing, you should see how many I took! I wish I could share all the silly and fun pictures from that day.

26 Weeks

I haven't been so good at taking belly pictures this time around, but I finally took another one last night.


When people ask me how I'm feeling, I answer honestly with "Pregnant." I feel pregnant. I feel big and uncomfortable, nauseous (again), in pain a lot, exhausted, short of breath, a little anti-social, and all the other lovely side effects of pregnancy that no one talks much about or that you choose not to believe. I'm measuring several weeks ahead which is probably why I'm feeling more pain. My midwife isn't concerned about the measuring ahead. She said it's common for subsequent pregnancies. Same thing happened with Jossy at this point but eventually my body got back on track.

It's funny how you can see another pregnant woman and think how beautiful her rounded belly is and how great she looks, but all you feel is fat and awkward. ( I must say though, looking through pregnancy pictures from Matty and Jossy last night helped me feel better about the way I look because I'm definitely thinner now than I was back then even though my stomach is about the same size.) Even my maternity clothes don't feel so comfortable any more, so if you come over and I'm in some baggy pajamas at 2 in the afternoon you'll know why. I'm trying to figure out where 3 more months of baby is going to go. My stomach feels so tight all the time, I really don't know how it stretches out to fit a full-sized baby in there! . I'm one of the lucky ones who gets Braxton-Hicks contractions from the beginning of the 2nd trimester til the end, and they are NOT painless (for me.) Several times a day (sometimes several times an hour) I have to stop what I'm doing and breath just to get through them. Not so fun. Jossy is very good at finding ways to trigger them.

I've also finally figured out that this baby will be named "Baby Girl" because Dan and I are never going to be able to agree on a name for her so we'll have to go with that. Really, picking boys names is so much easier for us. Maybe we should just name her a boy's name and be done with it. So if you get a birth announcement with a pink bow on a baby but the name says "Andrew," it's not a typo. It's just those crazy Taualii's. ;)

Maybe this is why I don't talk about the pregnancy more on here, I don't want to be a big complainer. Lest someone think that's all I do, let me share a few things I love about being pregnant right now. I love feeling her wiggle and move inside me (when she's not too rough.) I love that when I get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and can't fall back asleep, she's been woken up too and is right there with me. I love never feeling like I need to suck in my stomach. I love seeing pictures of my friends' new babies and knowing that in only a few more months I'll get to hold my own bundle of sweetness. I love that I have a husband who will run to the store late at night for more tums (or prune juice.) I love that no matter how much I may complain when having a bad day, any other mom who's been through this has complete empathy and doesn't make me feel bad for complaining.

Mostly, I love how my kids frequently talk to the baby, say goodnight to her, and give her hugs.


3 more months . . .

Dan's Birthday

We found out a few weeks before Dan's birthday that he had the lucky task of reporting for federal jury duty in Salt Lake ON his birthday. Since we didn't know if he'd get picked or how long things would take, we opted to celebrate early for the most part.

The Friday before, he and I went out to dinner to Texas Roadhouse, his choice. Oh how grateful I was for that choice when he was forced to sit high on a saddle so people could wish him happy birthday in order to get his free ice cream. It was one of a handful of times that I have seen that man get embarrassed in the 11 years I've known him. That was fun. :) I told him his gift from me was for us to go pick out a new suit for him since none of his fit right and pretty much all are hand-me-downs. After hours of shopping Saturday we found a great one at a great price. It's now known as his "birthday suit." :)

Monday was his actual birthday. He got up before dawn to get to Salt Lake on time. Matty was SOOO excited that it was his dad's birthday (he even told his teacher it was going to be "the best day ever" because it was his dad's birthday) so I knew we still needed to do something to celebrate even if it was small. Turns out Dan did get picked for the jury (odds of being picked were 1 in 4, so he's just lucky.) He was happy to learn the case he was on wasn't anything horrible but can't really tell me yet what it's about. He got home for the day by late afternoon and was greeted by a "star-studded" entrance and other decorations the kids and I put up.

Since the suit was so much money, we just got a few small things for the kids to wrap and give to their dad.

Notice all the different packaging? The same thing was in each and every present.

12 packs of his favorite gum he's always asking me to buy but the store is frequently out of

Dan's one requirement of any treat is that chocolate be involved, so we bought a cheesecake sampler for his birthday, perfectly sized for our little family.

I was glad we were able to celebrate together and have such a nice evening as a family. He's still on jury duty every day, but they should start deliberating Tuesday. I think we'll all be happy to get our schedules back to normal.

7 UP Pancakes

Due to popular demand (a whole 3 people) here's the recipe for 7UP pancakes. They're really more like crepes, not pancakes, but that's what my in-laws call them who I got the recipe from, so who am I to change things? I had never heard of these before getting married, but they're delicious!

Warning: This makes a TON!! (My in-laws are Samoan and need a lot to feed everyone.) We split the recipe in half on Christmas day and had more than enough for our family of 4 plus my parents and sister. So if I were to make it for just us, I'd probably cut it down to a 1/4th maybe? Or I'd do it at half and just have leftovers.

3 c flour
1 1/2 c sugar
1/4 c oil
1/2 cup butter (melted is easier, I learned that the hard way)
3 Tb vanilla
4 c 7UP (They tell me Sprite isn't as sweet, so 7UP is better.)
8 eggs

Mix. Batter will be thin. Pour onto hot griddle (or pan) set on Medium (I think.) Flip when ready and cook other side. Place hot pancake/crepe on plate, butter the top while hot, fold up like a crepe or burrito (left to the right side, right to the left) and butter the parts now on top. Serve with jam or syrup.

These really are so yummy! That's one reason we don't make them too often, I could eat a ton! :)

I hope someone enjoys these!

The Christmas Tree Dilemma

We had a real tree for Christmas this year for the second year in a row. We affectionately called it "the kidney stone tree." We were going to buy an artificial one from Costco this year, but we were too slow to buy it before they ran out. While I LOVED the smell of the real one and thoroughly enjoyed having it, I'm not doing one again for a while. Artificial is good enough for me.

My top 10 reasons why I won't get a real one next year:

1. The hassle of getting it isn't such a fun thing with whiney kids in freezing cold weather.
2. Tying it to the car top, also not so fun (especially when you're pregnant and experiencing a kidney stone.)
3. You can't put a real tree up too early in the season or it won't last. It's all about timing.
4. The joy of getting it to stand straight in the tree stand.
5. Stringing up lights. I'm over it. Pre-lit, here I come!
6. IT'S LIKE HAVING A PET!! We always had to be thinking about it. "Has the tree been watered? Is it drinking enough? We've been away from home too long and need to go back to water it." One day we were having a great time visiting at my parents' house and would have stayed longer, but because the tree would dry out if we stayed another day we ended up going home. So sad.
7. I can't count the scratches on my hands and arms from undecorating the thing. It was completely dead and dry as could be. OUCH!
8. NEEDLES NEEDLES NEEDLES! Since it was so dry as I took the ornaments down, a ton fell on the floor. I was able to pick them up by the fistful. I'll be finding them in my carpet for the next 5 years.
9. Those blessed needles also found new and glorious ways of clogging up my vacuum. I had the joy of taking a screwdriver to it to take it apart at one point just to unclog it.
10. Disposing of the dead corpse is also not so fun. Our city doesn't pick them up at the curb. Nope, we get to scratch the heck out of the top of our Jeep to drive it over to a probably already filled dumpster at a local park.


I really DID enjoy having a real tree this year despite all this complaining about it. I just think we'll be passing on it next time and trade the experience in for the sanity of artificial.

Outtakes

For our Christmas card this year, we ended up with this:

But of course we took many more than 3 pictures. Here are just a few of our outtakes.

Christmas Day 2010

When my youngest brother left on his mission, I told my parents we'd come spend Christmas with them that first year so the house wouldn't be so empty. That was last year, but my older brother and his family came out from Georgia so they didn't need us. Instead we helped fill their house with childhood laughter this year. Christmas with kids is always 10 times the fun. :)

Matty was just a little happy to get a pillow pet from Santa.

Jossy showing off her very fashionable backpack

Jossy was very excited to get a baby doll set and has played with it every day.

The rest of the morning was spent playing with Grandpa's train . .

. . . eating 7UP pancakes . . .

. . . and enjoying all the new toys.