Cooking adventure, not so much

So I was complaining to my wonderful husband today that I am sick of EVERYTHING I usually cook and I really didn't want to plan the menu of meals for this week because nothing sounds good to me at all! (no I am not pregnant:) So he was so sweet and went online and came up with a great surprise dinner for us and we made a shopping list together and he went to the store while I entertained the kids. Well unfortunately, he got home at 5pm which is when we usually eat and as we all know cooking a new dish takes a little longer than usual. So I was helping in any way that I could and finally he just had to blow the surprise and tell me that we were having PF Chang's lettuce wraps, mongolian beef, and fried rice so that I could help speed up the process. I was so excited because I have totally been craving PF Chang's lately. (again, not pregnant) So we were both frantically reading recipes and making our dishes while the kids got hungrier by the minute. We gave them a couple hold me over snacks, but those only last for so long. They played together well for awhile, but then everything got a little crazy. Next thing you know Carter has the huge hot chocolate canister upside down and there is chocolate powder everywhere! Then to make things worse Rylynn thought it was hilarious and started running through it and then proceeded to lick the chocolate off her feet. So we both yelled at the kids to stop while still cooking. Finally the lettuce wraps were done so I sat down with the kids and started eating while Garrett finished up the rice and beef. They were really good, but the kids kind of just picked at the lettuce not really knowing how to eat them. Then the beef came out which they loved! They ate a ton of that, but then Carter decided he was done and started chucking food everywhere. I knew he would love the rice if he would just wait a minute so I tried to tell him that more food was coming and to STOP throwing food at me. Then he threw his fork across the table right at my head. Luckily the rice was done now and as I suspected he loved it. So finally Garrett got to sit down and eat with us. Carter and Rylynn ate the rice just fine for a couple of minutes until the rice started flying across the table again from Carter!!! At this point we got him out of his high chair stripped him down and put him in the bath and we really never had a minute to enjoy the meal together. Rylynn followed suit and hopped into the bath too. Garrett went in with them while I started cleaning up the disaster which was our kitchen. He told them that they really needed to be careful not to splash too much and that he needed to come help me for a minute. Luckily got a lot done pretty quickly working together, but apparently it was a little too long for the kids. They had of course made a huge mess in the bath and not obeyed Garrett so they were out of the tub and in jammies right away. The good news was that they totally wore themselves out and they were both asleep before 8pm. Garrett and I finished cleaning up the kitchen and both agreed that next time we will just fork out the 30 dollars and get take out. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but soooo not worth all the time and craziness. Oh well, on the bright side, it was fun to work with my cute husband in the kitchen; we don't get to do that a ton. Thanks for the thought honey!

Day Trip to Cincinnati

Very early on Monday morning the whole family drove to Cincinnati so Garrett could attend a conference for the Federalist Society and the kids and I could go to the amazing Cincinnati zoo. 

Garrett's conference centered on the Presidency and the Courts - how the Constitution should be interpreted and what criteria a President should use in selecting judges.  The speakers included Edwin Meese III (Former US Attorney General) and President George W. Bush. Here are some pictures:

Garrett with Edwin Meese III, who happens to be Molly's former boss.

President Bush speaking about the economy and the President's role in appointing judges.

President Bush mingling with powerful citizens of Ohio. Who's that handsome guy behind Kenneth Blackwell?

 If you want the play-by-play, it goes like this:

Bush: How are you doing today?

Garrett: I'm well, Mr. President. How are you?

Bush: I'm good. I just got off the ranch in Texas this morning, so I'm relaxed and I feel good.

Garrett: You look good.

Bush: Thank you.

It was an awesome experience for Garrett.  No matter how you feel about a particular President, it is a pretty amazing thing to meet one.  

So, while Garrett was hobnobbing with politicians, the kids and I were mingling with zoo animals. (Some might say we got the better end of that deal or that we essentially did the same thing:))  

The Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden was the second zoo opened in all of the United States.  It was rated number 10 best zoo for children in the country and I definitely recommend it!  The living areas for the animals were set up so well and they had so much more space than the Cleveland zoo.  I think that is why the animals were way more exciting to watch because they had plenty of room to roam around.  They were very lively and got really close to us!  

The giraffes were the first stop and it was hard to pry the kids away because they kept coming right up to us.  You can feed the giraffes at this zoo but we didn't want to fork out the extra money since we had already had to pay 7 bucks for parking!

The next stop was the reptile house.  It was so cool!  There were alligators right in the middle of the room just looking at us as we walked around.  The room was full of huge snakes, lizards, and even a Gila monster.  There were some really weird looking creatures, but it was so cool because the snakes were actually moving around and not just sleeping in the corners.

This snake was totally charging Rylynn!  She was freaked out at first, but then she thought it was really cool.

The Botanical gardens are all throughout the park and they have butterflies all over the gardens.  Rylynn especially loved this since she is obsessed with butterflies.  It also helped that it was 81 degrees while we were there and a totally gorgeous day!

My favorite part was the gorillas.  There were five of them and they were all walking and climbing all over the place.  Their habitat had a huge waterfall in it and a river and caves.  They got so close to us.  One of them started walking along upright like a man and it looked really freaky.  They had lots of different kinds of monkeys which is one thing I really wish the Cleveland zoo had.  

All throughout the zoo there were these cool play areas for the kids with statues you could climb on and other fun things to get them out of the stroller and stretching their legs.

There were several different kinds of bears too, but my favorites were the polar bears.  There were four of them and they had a really cool habitat too.  This one is taking a nap right in front of a waterfall.

A really nice lady gave us free ride bracelets so we were able to ride the train through the park which was Carter's favorite part.  We also got to ride the carousel a few times.

We were planning on going to the zoo, and the children's museum to fill our time, but the zoo was so cool that we never made it to the children's museum.  We spent all day at the zoo and had a blast.  Luckily it wore the kids out a lot so the drive home went really fast.  It was such a fun day trip!

lesson learned

I just have to write a quick follow-up post to our miracle story. Tonight Rylynn and Carter and I went to the grocery store with my mom and as we were leaving I realized we had lost Carter's binky somewhere in the store. So I sent my mom to the car with the kids and I ran around looking quickly to see if I could find it since I had just bought it today! I couldn't find it and it was late and I wanted to get the kids in bed so I just headed for the car. So when I got in Rylynn asked if I found Carter's binky and I said no I couldn't find it and she said, "You know what you should do Mama, you should say a prayer and Heavenly Father will help you find it." I thought that was so sweet and I was so proud of her for applying the lessons we learned from our camera miracle. Then my Mom said that as they were walking out she was telling the kids that she didn't know where the car was and that Rylynn had told her that if she gets lost she can just pray and ask Heavenly Father to help her find the car. I was like wow, she really learned that lesson well! So I just wanted to record for posterity the faith of my little three year old. It is always a good reminder to me that I need to have more childlike faith.

Miracles do happen

The last picture before "the little disaster"

I have to record for our posterity an amazing event that happened to our family today. Yesterday was an especially long day for us because Garrett was gone at school from 6:20am until 7:45pm last night. I was expecting Garrett home at 7:00p, so I got a call from him on my cell phone at 6:58 telling me he had to stay longer than he had expected. Meanwhile the kids were in the bath, so I made the call really short so I could run back into the bathroom to check on them. So as I hung up and felt more stressed that he was going to be even later plus the missionaries were coming to our house at 8:30 and the house was a disaster, I walked back into the bathroom and to my horror saw little Carter in the bathtub holding my new (4 months old) digital camera under the water and he was turning it on. I screamed and grabbed it out of his hands and frantically tried to dry it off, but the lens was half way zoomed out and wouldn't close. So at that point I about started crying since we are poor students and cannot afford to buy a new camera right now, and taking pictures of my family and blogging is very important to me and the whole day just came crashing down on me. I desperately said a prayer and asked that Heavenly Father would save our camera and then I removed the battery and memory card and propped the camera up so it could dry out.

When Garrett got home I told him and we both just felt really impressed that we needed to say a family prayer and use it as an opportunity to teach Rylynn about receiving answers to prayers. So Rylynn and Garrett and I said a prayer and then Garrett took the camera apart and began blow drying the inside of the camera. Then we had to put Rylynn to bed but we said another prayer for the camera in her night time prayers. Then the missionaries came for our visit and we asked them to include our camera in the prayer before they left. So needless to say there were many prayers offered on behalf of our little camera yesterday!! So we kept checking on the camera throughout the night and blowing the lens and the LCD screen dry with the blow dryer to get rid of the fog. We went to bed and were hopeful that in the morning our camera would start working miraculously again.

So in the morning Garrett turned it on without putting the memory card in or putting the screws back in and it didn't work. He was a little discouraged, but I suggested we put all the screws back into place and and the memory card in and give it another try. So we did and it still didn't work. By then we were pretty sad, but we still had faith. Garrett then had the idea of charging the battery to see if that was the problem. So after charging the battery for a couple hours I popped it in and pressed the button for the 100th time and it miraculously chirped to life!! The pictures of the day before were all there and everything seemed to work as normal. It was a complete miracle so I ran in and showed Rylynn that it worked and she got so excited and jumped up and said, "Thank you Heavenly Father!" It was so sweet. So I told her that we needed to say a prayer and thank Him for this miracle in our lives, so we said a prayer and afterwards she said, "I am so happy!"

It was such an amazing teaching experience to show Rylynn that Heavenly Father really does hear and answer our prayers, even about unimportant things. If they are important to us, they are important to Him. I am grateful that our camera works, but I am even more grateful for the reminder in my life of how dependent I am upon the Lord for everything that I have and also for the chance to teach that to my children. So we feel very blessed today to be able to post these wonderful pictures! I will never take my little camera or blogging for granted again!

Our little Carter Manny

Carter has just been growing leaps and bounds lately. His vocabulary is exploding and his little personality is really shining through. Some of his new words are football, soccer ball, baseball, basketball, and hoop which comes out boop, or sometimes poop. He also loves Curious George all of a sudden and calls him Joe. He likes to pretend to talk on his phone and says, "hi dad." I think he picked that up this summer since Daddy was gone so much. Speaking of Daddy. He is a little clone of his daddy lately.

He just randomly one morning picked up his cereal bowl and drank the milk and I was thinking Daddy had to have taught him that one because I do not like the milk after the cereal has been in it.

Then yesterday he came into our room and pointed at the TV and said "football." So at first I was like yeah lets go get your football. He got really frustrated and pointed at the TV again and said FOOTBALL! So I turned on a football game that Garrett had Tivod early and he got so excited. He just sat on our bed and watched it with a big smile. Then he would stand up and clap and cheer when anything happened. He kept looking over at me with a huge smile and pointing at the TV and saying football!

I told this story to Garrett and he was so proud. Carter also loves to jump now like his sister. He does big bunny hops and loves to jump and throw his basketball in his hoop. He also has developed quite the little dance moves. He loves to kick his leg while he dances, which just so happens to be his daddy's patented dance move. Let me just say it is cuter when you are 1 and 1/2:) One more little manny update is that he absolutely loves taking baths and showers right now. Every time one of us is in the shower he runs to the bathroom and tries to jump in fully clothed. So the other day I had just gotten out of the shower and Rylynn had climbed in and Garrett and I were both preoccupied so we didn't notice that Carter had run in the bathroom and hopped in the bath before we could get his clothes off.

His sister thought that was very funny. They are such great buddies right now too. Every morning when Carter wakes up before Rylynn he gets so sad that she isn't awake to play with. When she finally does wake up he runs to her and they give each other a huge hug. It is so adorable! He has to do everything that Rylynn does. He refuses to sit in his highchair because he has to sit at the princess table with her. He is so much fun right now. We just love our little Carter man!

Molly and Reagan's shower

Last week my friend Summer and I threw Molly and baby Reagan a shower at Summer's house. It turned out to be a huge success! Summer's house is really nice and her living area is way bigger than mine so she was so nice to host it there for us. We had a chocolate fountain that I borrowed from my friend with yummy fruit kabobs for dipping made by Summer.


We also had cheese fondue with yummy breads and an amazing cake made by my friend Sara.

There was a great turn out and Molly got lots of great gifts. Everyone in our ward is so generous and they really gave great presents. Reagan's little nursery will be fully stocked when she arrives! Carissa was in charge of the games and we played this really fun game of baby family feud.

It was very intense, but in the end we were all winners:) Carissa doesn't ever like to hurt anyone's feelings so she brought prizes for everyone. She is a better woman than I. I inherited my family's competitive nature so I am all about winners and losers! Anyway it was lots of fun.

Thank you so much to all of you wonderful ladies that helped make it a success! And a special thank you to Sara for making such a large cake. I enjoyed the leftovers for the whole week!

Rylynn's first day of school

Our little Rylynn is all grown up and off to preschool this year. She is in a great program that is centered on learning through play at Caroll Nursery School. She goes three days a week for a couple of hours and loves it! Last week was the first week of school and they had a couple of days to ease the kids into the separation. So the first day was only an hour and the parents stay with the kids. Then the second day is one and a half hours and the parents have to stay in the building just in case the kids get sad. Then finally on the third day it was a full two and a half hours and it was just a normal drop off day. I mention this because even before the first day of school Rylynn was begging to go and had no problem with the fact that I was going to leave her. In fact the first day she kept saying, "mommy, you can go now!" I didn't take it personally though, because she is such a brave and social girl. I never realized before how great nursery is at preparing kids to leave their parents. She is loving her new teachers Suzanne and Cheryl and she just can't wait to go back next week. Garrett and I have had a real wake up call with this whole experience because we have realized that our little girl is growing up so fast and that for the first time, we are sending her out into the world and we don't have total control over what she learns and hears. It is a little frightening, but we are also very excited for her. She was definitely ready and we are so happy she gets to go to a school she loves! Carter sure misses his friend when she is gone and when it is time to pick her up he stands by the door and cries for her. So we usually go a little early just to comfort Carter.

Ode to the Binkie

As many of you know, Rylynn recently FedEx'd her binkies (or her "binks") to the Binkie fairy.  Though things are going relatively well, certain members of our family are experiencing binkie fairy remorse.  I know of no better way to express remorse and longing than to write an English sonnet. (I suppose another way would be to write country music, but since our remorse/longing deals with neither motherhood nor a truck, I thought the sonnet a better medium)  Enjoy!

Ode to the Binkie

I miss you - how you calmed this troubled heart.

These years you've lulled my grief to minor hums;

Assuaged my pain and bid it to depart.

You've served me better than ten thousand thumbs.

Green, pink, round, flat, with stripes or poka dots;

It matters not how colorful you are,

But how you help me to think happy thoughts.

You muted screams and made them seem afar.

For solace, comfort, oh where shall I go?

When owies hurt, whatever shall I do?

Your soothing calm again I'll never know;

I lost it when to you I bid adieu.

Oh binks, Rylynn may wish for your return;

But I - all heart and mind - for you doth yearn!

- Rylynn's Daddy

Happy 30th Garrett!!

Yesterday was Garrett's thirtieth birthday. So in honor of his thirty years on earth we spent three days celebrating. One day of celebration per decade of life. It all started out on Friday when I threw Garrett a surprise party with some friends at Bennihana's. I dropped off the kids at some friends and pretended that I was dropping them off at our date group. Then I gave him his present in the car to stall time. Then I drove around to confuse him a little, and finally we drove up to Bennihana's. It just happens to be on a busy main street so I asked our friends to hold giant posters I made and wear party hats and blow horns when we drove up.

They were good sports since it is such a busy street. They said there were a lot of people who honked at them before we arrived. Garrett didn't even notice them at first, but he finally did and he was really surprised. Since all the members of our date group were there, he yelled out the window, "where are my children?!" It was funny. Then we all headed into the restaurant and had an awesome dinner! It was so yummy.

At dinner we all shared a story or memory we had with Garrett. Then we all picked up our kids and came back to our house for some blueberry cheesecake. Garrett's favorite. It was my first attempt at a baked cheesecake so I was a little nervous, but it tasted really good.

It was a great recipe. The ultimate cheesecake by Tyler Florence. I recommend it! Our friends were so generous and bought Garrett great presents. If you know my husband, you know he is obsessed with bottled root beer. So he got several packs of fancy root beer which made his day. He also got an Ichiro shirt from the Days (his favorite baseball player), and the Poyfairs gave him lots and lots of treats and candy. He has quite the sweet tooth as his dentist knows well:) It was a great party and we all had a great time. On Saturday I had booked a tee time for the guys to go golfing at Manakiki golf course which is a course Garrett has always wanted to play. They had a lot of fun. Then on Sunday we had a family birthday dinner and Garrett got lots of phone calls from family wishing him happy birthday. All in all it was a great weekend full of celebration. I am so grateful my wonderful husband was born thirty years ago and that I have been blessed to know and love him for the last seven years. He is such a thoughtful and considerate husband and Dad. We love you so much honey!! Happy birthday!

Labor Day weekend

Over Labor Day weekend we went to the taste of Cleveland with The Poyfairs and Ben and Molly.

It was lots of fun once we got there. We all rode the train into the city to avoid parking, but when we got there every person we asked gave us different directions to the Taste so we ended up going on a thirty minute detour all around the city pushing kids in strollers on a hot day! Not too fun. The two pregnant woman weren't enjoying it too much either. Finally we ended up where we had started from and found our way down to the water where the Taste was being held. Now if any of you know my husband well, you know that he turns into a little kid when it comes to anything having to do with jets and airplanes. So we always have the dilemma of wanting to go to the air show but not wanting to pay twenty dollars a person to get in. Every year we have managed to find another event going on that is cheaper and where we can also watch the air show. A two for one deal. So the taste of Cleveland was right on the water and we were able to see all the jets and the blue angels as we enjoyed the yummy food.

It was lots of fun. The kids had a great time until the ride home on the train. It was like all of a sudden they realized they were exhausted and all had melt downs. They really loved riding the train though and seeing the airplanes. They also loved eating the strawberry daiquiris and chocolate eclairs, those were the favorites of the day. Garrett and I got some great ribs and crab cakes too. We ate so much food and blew way too much money on it.

Carter is taking after his daddy and got soooo excited every time a plane flew overhead. He would point up in the sky and squeal with delight. It was a great day!