Baby No is 2

This is why we call our Rose our little fairy. She actually looks like a fairy with her almond shaped eyes and pointy little ears. I think the curly mullet pulls the look together. These are a few of her favorite things in order: Her Uncle Jeff, chapstick, milk, princess shoes, Daddy, lasagna, necklaces, Lily, noodles, cheese in any form, and milk again. I become a favorite when no one else is around to serve her every need.

The birthday haul. Thank you to Grammy and Papa Rainock for the cute clothes and pony. Thank you to G and G Stutz for the wonderful fluffy backpack and caboodle full of jewelry. Thanks to Auntie Liz and Unc Justin for the most adorable purse. And of course, thank you Jeff 'n Steph for your "presence"... not to be confused with "presents".

This is real life, ok? This is how we roll around the house a good part of our day. Hair a mess, night clothes still on, toys everywhere. Good times.

Yes, she looks like a scrub, but we had lasagna for dinner! At least we took off her pretty dress, though we should've chosen a different color under shirt!

Baby No's jeweled purse cake.

The party don't start 'til E walks in...

No and her favorite person in the world.

My attempt at getting a little shot of her at the park. She was eating a fruit snack and smiling. This is her daily outfit. She wears these boots everywhere, but once she's in the house, she goes straight for the huge princess shoes.

Lovely shot. Ha ha.

An actual lovely shot. Isn't that gorgeous? I'm taking some shots of the area where we live to get a picture for my next painting. I may do this, though I really want a shot of the rolling yellow hills, green oak trees and blue sky.

Blow out your candles, girl! She is a crazy one. SOOOO independent and so opinionated. She is mean to Ebay probably 80 percent of the time (he deserves it) and she will scream bloody murder if he so much as touches the air two inches from her right eyebrow. She's learned that I come running and Easton gets in trouble. Well that's ended and she's been getting major time-outs lately. Oi! Two year olds! But she is super fun and happy too of course! :) When she feels like it. Sure do love that little scrunch.

Co-ed baby!!!

I've never played softball in my whole life, but I can run, throw decently, and catch a'ight. Dave and I got an email from a friend inviting the ward to join a rec team, so we signed up! I did it because Dave would play softball every day of his life and love life... so I thought if I played it with him he'd think I was cool! Bad reason. So after a lot of nerves and nausea, we had our first game today. Dave of course was great, and I played catcher... and held my own! It was a nice, relaxed, slow, fun game. It was cool to be part of a team! I had a lot of fun out there! This is picture Jeff took of Dave and I going for a lame hit. Good times.

The Best Cookie I Ever Ate

Ok, I've been told this picture looks nasty..... it may not be pretty, but it's what's in it that counts!

What do you do when you have two daughters and your husband and son go off on a Father's and sons campout? How do you relieve the jealousy and disappointment in those little girls faces? (Not that Rose really knew any different, but Lils and I did!) You bring the best part of camping home and make the most delicious concoction in the universe. No, that is not an egg in the middle, it is a large melted super marshmallow. If you do not try this soon, you will be missing out on the greatest scrumptiousness of your life. My weaknesses all wrapped together on a tasty graham cracker. Yes, please. My "healthy lifestyle changes" were suffering this weekend.
This is what you need:

S'mores cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons hot water
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups milk chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
• graham crackers
• Hershey's chocolate bars
• large marshmallows

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 335 degrees F
2. Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to batter along with salt. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and mini marshmallows.
3. To build your large cookie: There is only room on you cookie sheet for 4 cookies. So lay down 1/2 a graham cracker (square) for each cookie. Top with two squares of Hershey's chocolate bar and a large marshmallow. Then Cover with a large heaping spoonful of cookie dough. Make sure you cover the edges of the graham cracker. Remember, these spread super far!
4. Bake at 335 for 12-14 minutes. the middle with still be pretty soft and the marshmallow will be all gooey and melty and perfect. Wait until they're pretty cooled off before you remove them from the sheet or else they'll be a mess... which is ok too!
5. Enjoy the amazingness.

Mother's Day

I had a great Mother's Day in Oroville! We went to the greatly anticipated "Feather Fiesta Day Parade" on Saturday. Too bad the belly dancer float and guy getting tatooed in the back of his truck were left out this year! But we had other great surprises. Good times. Mother's day was wonderful with cards galore from Lily. She made me a new card each day all last week and made a bunch of new ones in Oroville. Baby No and E were also forced to make me cards :). I appreciated it all! Dave even actually made french toast. Very nice. Here's my stash! I sure do love my kids.

I was asked on two separate occasions to say something special about Lils and Ebay. So I thought I'd put them down on here because without my kids, I wouldn't be the awesome Mom that I am! :)
Lils is 7 years old, she loves to laugh, paint, and create projects as gifts and give them away. She loves to tell jokes, usually the same ones over and over, so we have to tell her "it's only funny the first time!". She loves pink and blue. Recess (the monkey bars) are her favorite school subject and she is an excellent big sister. She will swing her baby sister for hours! Her greatest ambition right now is to pass her reading level because her Daddy has promised her her very own Venus fly trap.
Ebay's good at:

Playing cars for over 2 hours a day
Jumping into the love sac from the stairs
making his sisters laugh
making Lunchable pizzas
putting the soap in the dishwasher
being silly
making everyone around him happy

Baby No is definitely a feisty little thing. Her favorite things to say are "No! No Weey!" and "No weey!" and "No!"... I think you get the picture. She doesn't say yes yet, she just goes "uh huuh". She loves, loves, loves shoes! Especially her yellow monkey rain boots and pink cowgirl boots. She also loves big 'ol princess shoes. She is sweet and sour and we love her.

Playhouse

Dave's been working on a playhouse for the kids for the past month or so. 6 weeks ago he and his Dad and bro poured the concrete and he's worked on it a few hours every few nights since. He loves being out there working with his hands, power tools, and using his brain for building instead of Excel speadsheets. He is crafty. Who knew that an Intel finance guy could also built a tree house, install a new garbage disposal, change the oil in our cars, wire for surround sound, and now build a tree house.... thank you google. I can say I'm sure glad I married such a handyman! Here are pictures of the playhouse so far. It has a little loft over the porch that the kids absolutely love! All that he has to do now is finish the roof, put on the white trim, and paint the inside.

Horrifying, but Brillaint!

It is done. I did it. A half marathon. 13.1 miles. And don't let the .1 fool you! That was the hardest part of the run for me!!! It was the most difficult physical endurance I've ever faced, and yes, I have had 3 kids. But pleeease- they were all c-section, ok?! We're talking over 2 hours of running. Running so far, I didn't think it was possible for me to do it. Sure, I trained. I ran the prescribed amounts of time during the 2 1/2 months I trained. But the most I had ever run was 10 miles. I did that twice. I don't think I was really ready, but I don't know if I ever could be more ready! :) It was an amazing experience and I don't think I really ever knew myself until I hit mile 11.5 and pushed myself and all of the runners around me- "we can do this!" The last 3 miles I had to run/walk. But I finished, and then yelled at Dave through exhaustion/sweat/tears "never again!". Now I feel differently. I want to do it again and be really ready. Be faster, be stronger. But as it is, I can't even walk up or down stairs without pain right now in my thighs... so it'll be a while yet!


There's me steps from the finish line... don't ask me what that dude is checking on his ipod... lame! The finish line is right in front of you! "c'mon!

Dave, the kids, and my brother-in-law Jeff and his wife Steph were there to cheer me on. They were the best! They ran into me on mile 5 with smiles, big posters and a squirt of water. Then they surprised me again on mile 9! Their posters said "Go Mommy Go!" and "Party in the USA!" (my favorite running song right now:) You know you like it! That just made my day. Seeing those kids and my awesome husband and Jeffanie cheering me on just made me feel so good and gave me a much needed push! Thanks guys!