Colorado and New Mexico

The Manassa Group

Last Thursday night Jared, Eva, Megan, Shaun David and I all took off to go hang out out my grandparents (one lives in Manassa, Colorado, the other in Mora, New Mexico; about 3 hours apart from each other). We left at 8:30 pm and drove alllll night getting in to Colorado at about 8:30 the next morning. It went pretty well except for me being the silence freak for fear of waking the babies, which I think only made things worse. (No music and no talking makes for sleepy drivers) We spent Friday, Saturday, and a couple hours on Sunday in Manassa and then headed over to Mora after church. We slept through the parade on Friday (I know...how DARE we!!) then ate at the hamburger stand and chatted the rest of the day...come to think of it...that day is kinda foggy. Saturday we went to the parade, ate MORE hamburgers (they're REALLY good), went shooting, rode a ride at the carnival (during which i mooned all of manassa...not on purpose...different story) got rained on, got a pedicure from my lovely cousin Amelia, ate lots of fudge...basically it was a really good day. :)

On Sunday we headed over to Mora only to find out that we were in trouble with Popper for not showing up to his branch because he was going to make us talk.....sorry Popper....but I can't say I'm all that sad about missing that blessed opportunity. :) We spent the rest of the day talking, playing games, and staying up waaaay too late since everyone was leaving at some point the next day. Monday was pretty sad since Mom, Dad, Kelli and Emma left at the crack of dawn, followed by Tom, Amy, Joni and Jackson leaving later that morning. The main reason we went on the trip was to see Tom and his family before they leave for Israel for TWO years! That was a really hard parting....Tom said when we all moved away from Utah last year he felt like he'd just gone through a bad breakup. I felt the same this time only it was WORSE! I thought I was going to die! I lived with Tom and Amy and JoJo for a year and became really close to all of them. Amy is such a great sister-in-law. It's weird to me that she hasn't always been my sister. I've learned so much from her (like how to be an amazing mom for one) and she was always so nice to me when I lived with them, even though I'm positive I had to annoy the crap out of her sometimes. JoJo...shoot...I can't even think about that cute girl without crying! She's like my own kid. I just love her to pieces! I taught her every bad thing she knows like asking for butter on toast, yelling "SICK!" when someone sneezes, and how to take off fake eyelashes (she got a little confused on that one...) Jackson...he's just adorable. I'm heartbroken that I won't get to spend time with him like I did with Jojo. and Tom...he's just a great brother. He has a way of putting a hand on your shoulder and then you'll just start bawling and telling him all your issues even though you might not have thought you even had any problems to begin with. Poopy jokes are always funniest when Tom tells them. Even though we like to tease Tom about him being SOOOOO lucky to have Amy, he really is a great person. despite the fact that he has a secret desire to know what wine tastes like. :) I'm saving to come and see you guys! you can't get rid of me that easily. Try Timbuktu next time.Me and JoJo; I'm NOT posting the ones taken with Tom and Amy...I was crying too hard!

Later on Monday we played with Mommer and Poppers horses and basically just laid about. We took off for home at about 6 and stopped at Allsups on the way out to get some of their amazing chimichanga's. They're full of cheese and fried...what's not to love?? well...i guess being in an enclosed car for many hours after eating them wasn't so great...but they were worth it. I guess we must have driven pretty fast because we got home at 2:30 am. Got a few zzz's and sent Jared off to work while the rest of us sat in a daze. Then I guess Megan missed her hubby or something because she insisted on leaving that afternoon even though I had lots of fun things we could have done instead. sheesh...;) It was a fun couple of days, but I'm not doing it again unless it's longer!

MMmmm...chimi's.....

vacation and routines.....or the lack thereof

(The Gardner Family)

(our little family)

(eva. i just love her)

Over the 4th of July Jared, Eva and I were able to hang out in Seattle with the whole Gardner fam. It was tons of fun, despite the fact that I had to get used to being on vacation with a baby. It was weird to be "on vacation" but still have basically the same responsibilities and routines that I typically have. I kept thinking vacation-y thoughts such as "i think i'll take a nap" or "what are we all going to do for fun today?" and then i remember, oh...i have a baby now! i have to like...take care of this cute little person, even if i am on vacation. weird. you'd think i'd be used to it at this point. I really enjoyed getting to know everyone a little bit better, even though I still don't feel like I know everyone very well. I guess that's what future reunions are for!
Despite my best efforts to keep Eva sane and on some kind of a schedule, she ended up getting sick at the very end so I still had to put up with her waking up 50 bazillion times at night and refusing naps when we got home....UGG. thankfully, she's finally better and we're getting back to the normal schedule...at least until our 2nd vacation next weekend. :)

I'M FINISHED!!!

hallelujah! i'm FINALLY finished with eva's bumper. i only started it before she was born! but i'm so excited and relieved to finally have it done. I'm just hoping she's nice to it and doesn't destroy it like she tends to do with everything else.

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. :)