haircut

i just got a haircut and decided to join the bang club. jared thinks its silly since i spent the last 2 years growing my bangs out, but what can i say? i missed them. :) anyway, now i have a measly little ponytail and i can't wait for it to grow out!

before

after

she walks!

she walks! as long as there's a pillow in front of her...and she doesn't have to take more than 1.5 steps to get there. :)

pretty pretty poo??

Eva has a plethora of these little felt flower bows I made a few months ago when people kept mistaking her for a boy. Due to this I try to have her wear a bow whenever we go out. After returning from some errands I sat down to go through the mail while Eva was happily dragging everything out of the diaper bag. I look over a few minutes later and the bow is missing. So I look for it, but can't find it and figure she's eaten in. When Jared comes home that night the following conversation ensued:

me : "Jared, Eva ate her bow"
jared: histerical laughter "are you serious?"
me: "umm yeah i'm pretty sure"
jared: "you know why i like you? because most moms would be freaking out right now.
me: "why?"
jared: "well it could get stuck in her intestines and she'd have to have surgery!"
me: after a major freak out "do we need to take her to the hospital?"
jared: "nah, lets just keep an eye on her"

so i spent the next week mashing her belly to make sure it wasn't too hard, keeping track of her diapers and digging through doo doo to see if this bow had emerged. Aaaannnnd Jared found the dang bow under the couch a week later.

I think i'm finally starting to understand why mothers like to say things like, "If you had ANY idea what I went through for you!"

lighter mac n' cheese

I recently came across this recipe from America's Test Kitchen ( i LOVE these peeps) in their Test Kitchen Favorites book and thought I'd share. I don't recommend using sharp cheese (it was still good, but a little too tangy), and we also used 1 % milk with no problem. Enjoy!

Note: they recommend grating your own cheese rather than using pre-shredded.

Ingredients:

Salt
1/2 pound elbow macaroni (about 2 cups)
1 (12 oz) can 2 percent reduced-fat evaporated milk
3/4 cup 2 % milk
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1/8 tsp garlic powder or celery salt (optional)
pinch cayenne
2 tsp cornstarch
8 ounces 50 percent light cheddar cheese, grated (about 2 cups)

Directions:

1. Bring 2 1/2 quarts water to a boil in a large saucepan. Stir in 2 teaspoons salt and the macaroni; cook until the pasta is completely cooked and tender, about 5 minutes. Drain the pasta and leave it in the colander; set aside.

2. Add the evaporated milk, 1/2 cup of the 2% milk, mustard, garlic powder (if using) cayenne, and 1/2 tsp salt to the now-empty saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Whisk the cornstarch and remaining 1/4 cup milk together, then whisk it into the simmering mixture. Continue to simmer, whisking constantly, until the sauce has thickened and is smooth, about 2 minutes.

3. Off the heat, gradually whisk in the cheddar until melted and smooth. Stir in the macaroni, and let the macaroni and cheese sit off the heat until the sauce has thickened slightly, 2 to 5 minutes, before serving.

Happy Anniversary #2!

Monday Jared and I celebrated our second anniversary. It's amazing how fast two years can go! We celebrated it fairly simply, by eating some yummy meals, watching a movie and hanging out together.
Jared handled breakfast, and it was DELICIOUS. He made pretty much every breakfast food out there and even brought a huge cinnamon roll from the best b.fast place ever The Farmhouse. Eva devoured a huge mound of hash browns and by the end of the meal we all had some pretty impressive looking bellies.
After breakfast Jared headed off to work, stopping by for some spaghetti at lunch (my so called specialty, even though its not very special) and the rest of the day was pretty much buisness as usual.
After Jared got off of work we dropped Eva off at some friends of ours who have a little girl about her age. I have to admit...I cried before we took her, but I figured I needed to grow up! I had to keep telling myself "she's 10 months old...she's 10 months old...it'll be ok". So Jared and I headed off to dinner at Joe's BBQ and downed pretty much all the rootbeer and BBQ we could hold. We ate so quickly that we had time to spare so we ran by the library to grab some movies. We picked Eva up who apparently didn't miss us at ALL. In fact, she threw the biggest tantrum I've ever seen when we were leaving. Poor kid, I guess that's a big clue to me that we need to get out a little more!
After we got Eva to bed we watched "Monster Garage" (Jared's pick obviously) which actually is pretty interesting since they get a bunch of wackos with no social skills together and some pretty funny fights ensue. All in all it was a pretty good anniversary! We're headed to Sedona tomorrow to do a little more celebrating and to hang out with Tim, Megan, Shaun David, Andrew and Morgan. It should be fun!

Our Wedding day, August 25, 2006

First Anniversary





Second Anniversary, and Yes I do know we look silly. We tried for 1/2 an hour and could NOT get a good picture! I look like a deer in the headlights!

BLAH!

after starting 4 different blogs with different subjects and then deciding i hate them all i'm giving up and just posting a couple of cute pictures of eva.

eva will put ANYTHING in her mouth. even if it doesn't really fit.

she very typically sleeps like this. bum straight up in the air!

and...this is apparently what she does when she wakes up. i think my baby needs a chew toy.

These are a few of my FAVORITE things!!!

Shop till ya drop...for me that used to be about 5 minutes. that is until now...maybe its because of the mass amounts of shopping you can do in this area or maybe it's just because now that i have a kid and am home all the time i miss the opportunities to shop whenever i want, but i've realized lately that i actually LIKE to shop! here's a condensed list of some of my favorites. (yes i DID cut some out!)

1. Trader Joes:....ahhh....i LOVE this store. It always has something interesting and new to try and for amazingly good prices. plus they have the best hummus known to mankind.
2. Cost Plus World Market: I honestly probably would never have gone in this store if i hadn't heard Sarah talk about it in her blogs. But now i'm hooked! I feel like i've just been plopped in another country.
3. AJ's Fine Foods: what can i say? i like to eat! AMAZING selection of foods that can be found nowhere else. not exactly cheap, but where else are you going to find red bananas, fresh gnocchi or tomato paste in a tube??
4. Ulta/Sephora : i have to list both because they're similar in nature (beauty supply stores) but different in stock (ulta carries cheaper to nice stuff, sephora carries nice to really nice stuff) this is one stop shopping for all of your beauty needs. i hate clutter and junk, but makeup is my weakness. sometimes i'll buy something i would never wear, purely because i think it's pretty.
5. TJ Max/Homegoods: i don't think i've ever spent as much time as i would like in this store. REALLY cool finds on a budget!
6. Bookmans: used books! for someone who likes to read, this place can be dangerous!
7. Joannes: you go in normal...you emerge as martha stewart. lovely place.