Lessons of motherhood

I've learned a few lessons recently on motherhood and thought i'd share:

Lesson #1: Encouraging your child to eat a wide variety of foods can backfire!(happily eating peaches)

(happily eating sticks and twigs)

Lesson #2: feeding your child a nutritious avocado: good. feeding your exhausted child a nutritious avocado: BAD.

Lesson #3: encouraging your child to pull up on things can ALSO backfire:

(whopping lump above her eye. the result of pulling the dining room chair on top of herself)

Lesson #4: quickly handing ANYTHING to you child so you can finish dinner can most DEFINITELY backfire.

Lesson #5: (something i'm sure all mothers have learned long ago) they just get cuter and cuter all the time!!!

Tag

i sure am hoping that amy doesn't know several tara's or i'm going to feel like a big 'ol dork for thinking this tag was directed toward me!! but thanks amy if you did mean me. :)

1. What was I doing 10 years ago? i was still in primary!! which means i probably followed my siblings around incessantly bugging them all to death and refused to cut my bangs and had a crush on kermit the frog.

2. What was I doing 5 years ago? i was a sophomore in high school. i had moved to colorado and was about to move to missouri. umm....??? i don't remember a whole lot from high school, i tried to block it out i think!!

3. What was I doing 5 months ago?

5 months ago tomorrow it was my birthday!! so i would have been partying (of course) trying to get jared recovered from his surgery and trying to figure out how to be a good mom.

4. 5 Things on my To-Do List:
1- read all the newberry and newberry honor books (currently on 21 of 366)
2- FINALLY finish eva's bumper!!
3- organize every bin/box/drawer in the house
4- wash the windows
5- paint my toes a new color

5. 5 Snacks I Enjoy..
1- pudding with cool whip. i eat the pudding so i have a reason to eat cool-whip.
2- cucumbers. with salt. occasionally dipped in ranch
3- chilled grapes
4- chocolate milk
5- peanut butter and jelly sandwich, heavy on the jelly!

6. 5 things I would do if I became a Billionaire...
1- tithing is a given
2- i'd buy a nice big plot of land and build my dream house with a huge kitchen, bathroom and garden
3- go sky diving
4- go to culinary school
5- travel

7. 5 Bad Habits...
1- i take 1 hour to get ready. every single day. even saturday.
2- i like to cook but i hate to clean up after myself. and i'm a very messy cook so that complicates the matter.
3- i forget what i'm doing and start doing something else so the bed is typically 1/2 made, dishes 1/2 washed, eva 1/2 dressed etc.
4- i sit on the bathroom counter to do my makeup which leaves no room for anyone else to get ready
5- i bite my nails/cuticles for no reason at all. nervous, bored, tired...

8. 5 Places I have lived...
1- madison, alabama
2- arvada, colorado
3- hazelwood, missouri
4- provo, utah
5- gilbert, arizona

9. 5 Jobs I've Had...
1- mcdonalds
2- varsity cleaning crew
3- always simply stitched (embroidery and screen printing)
4- byu telefund
5- nuskin

10. 5 People I Tag..
1- anyone
2- who
3-reads
4- this
5- blog

tofu shirataki noodles

a few weeks ago megan introduced me to the hungry girl (www.hungry-girl.com). i quickly became obsessed and bought the book at costco. jared and i tried a few recipe's and LOVED them. i was feeling pretty good about this book so i decided to venture out on a limb and try a recipe from her section using tofu shirataki noodles (made with tofu and yam flour). mainly because there was a recipe for fettucine alfredo for one, yes ONE point! so i make jared drive me to the health foods store to buy these noodles.

we get these home and i am purely ecstatic about trying them. the entire bag is like 80 calories! i'm imagining eating noodles 24/7 and not gaining an ounce! anyway, they come floating in water but i was warned, so i'm not too put off by this. i cut open the bag and it smells like fish. jared wanders over and says he's going to go grill up the leftover steak as an "accompaniment" to my fettucine (aka: he thinks its going to be a FLOP). i prepare the noodles as directed, rinsing and drying thoroughly. while jared isn't looking i taste one to make sure he'll still speak to me after dinner. there isn't any taste at all! but they're kinda chewy. hmm...maybe it'll go away after i microwave it. so i finish making the sauce throw it all together and we sit down to eat. after a few wary pokes we taste it together....Hmm...it's pretty good, but still REALLY chewy. all in all we decided they really weren't bad....but jared kindly suggested i find out how many points it would be with regular noodles. :) :)

(The finished alfredo)

(Jared's steak)

Fridge Tag and crazy eva

i'm finally posting pictures of my fridge for megan's fridge tag. (which i do NOT think is a dumb idea personally). i've been procrastinating posting them because i was figuring i'd clean it out and post clean pics, but...it still looks the same. how can 2 people + baby have a COMPLETELY full fridge!!!

On a different subject today eva was throwing a living fit about taking a nap. so after she screamed her head off for a while, jared goes in to check on her and here is what we find:apparently she just decided to start standing up! the funny thing is that she keeps pulling up on EVERYTHING like she's been doing it all along. funny girl. i love how proud she is of herself. :)

TAG.

so pretty much everyone except for me has filled this out so here goes!


Two Names You Go By: kermit and "BUH BUH BUH BUH BUH" (eva's name for me...i think)

Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now: black workout pants, beige-y spit-upy top

Two Of Your Favorite Things To Do: learn a new craft and do my makeup

Two Things You Want To Do Very Badly At This Moment: watch Lost and pee

Two Favorite Pets: gordita (my super chunky cat) and bonnie (my childhood dog)

Two People Who Will Fill This Out: uhh....i think everyone i know already has!

Two Things You Did Last Night: cleaned and attempted to work out

Two Things You Ate Today: spice-rubbed steak and apple beer

Two Last People You Talked To: jared and eva

Two Longest Car Rides: alabama to colorado/new mexico and....colorado to nauvoo

Two Favorite Holidays: christmas and...my birthday. i like my birthday :)

Two Favorite Vacations: nauvoo and anywhere where family is

Two Favorite Drinks: MILK and.... MILK. we go through 6-7 gallons a week sometimes.

How we met : )

Well, since megan challenged everyone to tell their story about how they met their spouse, and since i can't think of a single thing to write a blog about, i figured i'd take her up on that challenge.

AHEM. Well for those of you who don't know, megan and I married brothers. So obviously i met jared through tim and megan. they were dating and i guess tim and jared were going to iowa to paint their aunts house and so tim decided to come and see megan since they were in the general neighborhood. So he hauled jared along with him who was quite perturbed to have to go and see tim's girlfriends family. MEANWHILE....tim asked megan who then mentioned to me if i would go on a date with jared (tim and megan will deny this) since jared had a psycho girlfriend at the time. (i'm not just being mean, she was a basket case!) well i hate being told what to do so of course i said "heck no!" so by the time the boys got to our house jared and i both had our noses stuck up in the air. only then i was a little intrigued about why he wouldn't pay me any attention and so i maybe flirted with him. a little. ok...i flirted a whole lot. but in all fairness he flirted back!

to shorten this long story i'll cut to the chase. we dated long distance (i know i know) for about a year and then we both ended up at BYU where we dated for another year. in the middle of that we got engaged. He proposed in front of the nauvoo temple, at sunset. it was perfect! only according to jared i forgot to say "yes" when he asked me and just shoved the ring on my finger. jared was my first boyfriend and first kiss. :)

we were married august 25th 2006. which means our 2nd anniversary is just around the corner! it doesn't seem like it though, being married to your best friend is waaaay more fun than work. :) blah blah blah i know i'm getting all mushy, but it's true! anyway, thats our story in a really big nutshell. Our wedding: August 25th 2006

1st anniversary

picking a peck of pickled peppers

i have to admit to yet another obsession....GARDENING. jared thinks i have a ridiculous amount of plants and i feel like i hardly have any. he's been pretty nice about letting me fill up our limited space though. i'm currently growing herbs, some daisies, jalepeno, bell and gypsy peppers, and a brandywine tomato "tree" as jared so lovingly refers to it. :) we had to start the plants quite a bit earlier this year since last year they all fried once july rolled around. the space factor has me itching more than ever to get into a house with a yard. but the way things are in this area i would settle for a house with a patch of grass. Here's a few pictures of my unruly plants.

Two of the pepper plants (front) and the tomato plant (rear)

herbs and the sprouting daisies

a few of my peppers; we ate these on chicken alfredo pizza! sooo yummy

eva playing in her exersaucer while i tend my other babies. :)