7/28/11
The Beauty of An Almost 3 year Old
I keep going back to this set of pictures, just when I think I have gawked at them enough, I find myself going back to them. When did our fist born go from a toddler to a little girl, a little lady? How did we create such a beautiful wispy blonde haired, brownish-greenish eyed beauty? I am going to move on from the amazement of these pictures, but right now I am really enjoying them, as much this 500th time as the first time, but now I am sharing them with all of you to enjoy as much as I have. And to think she is almost three...
7/20/11
Party Time
For some reason the birthday cake planning is a big deal around this house. I have ideas about what I think the cake should be and should look like and Jason has big ideas as well. Whoever it is that says that guys don't care about these things clearly hasn't met my husband he cares about it ALL. I know this will come as a shock to most of you, but both Jason and I are very stubborn, have a strong need to be right, and to have things go our way. Compromise and letting go are at the top of our 'need to improve list.' So each year when it comes down to the cake making we have a battle over what the cake will be, how it will be decorated, where the candles should go, what the cake should sit on, etc. Ridiculous, maybe? Or maybe we just both love our kids so much that we really want it to be just right. I like to model the cake from a favorite toy so I thought we should do the magnadoodle because Jericho LOVES the magnadoodle and I wanted to try my hand at Fondant icing and I thought a rectangle would be a good place to start. I am always less than pleased with our icing spreading abilities (yes, that sounds funny to me too, but not sure how else to say that) and I know I don't want to spend three hours making tiny flower spots all over the cake, thus my desire to try fondant. Jason wanted to do a monkey, but I was standing my ground this year because last year we made the train cake the way he wanted to make it. I lucked out and found two square cake pans at TJ Maxx, but they turned out to be a total bust when the 'removable bottom easy for removing cakes' turned out to be code for 'removable bottom doesn't attach securely to bottom sides of pan so cake batter oozes out all onto your counter, down your cabinets, and onto the floor.' Bye Bye magnadoodle idea and onto Jason's idea of a monkey. I have two circle cake pans so a monkey seemed feasible to make from two 9 inch rounds. Being the planner that I am I usually bake the cakes two or three days ahead of time and plan to decorate them two nights before the party, but so far the cutting of the cake and the decorating has taken place the night before the party and it didn't get started until 9 or 10pm, resulting in a late night cake battle. In the past I have given the honor of cutting the cake to Jason being that he is the engineer and has a better eye for shaping the cakes, but this year I decided it was time for me buck up and gain the confidence to do the cutting! As luck would have it, this year I planned so well (and Jason was late getting home from work) that I had the cake cut, crumb layered, and the fondant icing on the monkey before Jason got home. Jason was able to add a few key touches at the end (the fingers and the banana.) I'm going to toot my own horn here and say that I think I did a pretty kick ass job for my first fondant attempt. (I tried deleting that and replacing it with fantastic, but that just didn't have the punch I was going for so excuse me.)
When you think of a first birthday party it is all about the one year old attacking or not attacking the cake. As the parent you are hoping they oblige the crowd and put on a show, spreading cake all over their face, head, and anyone that comes within reaching distance. The birthday girl/boy usually has a WAY oversized cake and the practical side of me thinks that's just silliness and there is no need to waste that much cake, but clearly there is a reason for that. The cake eating was A. TOTAL. BUST. She wouldn't even touch it. We cut off a small piece of the monkey and peeled the fondant icing off, stepped back with the video camera rolling, the camera ready to be snapped and then...NOTHING. She wouldn't touch it, gagged when I tried to feed it to her..talk about building something up for nothing.
So I did what any other practical mom would do...I ate it for her
But more important that the first birthday cake is the celebration of life. The wonderful life of Jericho, the wonderful life she has brought to all who know her and the wonder of what the next year holds. The food was fantastic and the company couldn't be beat. Thanks to all who helped us celebrate life!
Of course we had to have a redo of the cake eating on her actual birthday. This time I threw my practical side outside and I made two 9 inch rounds just for Jericho. I let my practical side back in when it came time to icing the cake because I had icing left over from the crumb layer and although I knew I wouldn’t have enough to go in-between the layers I figured we aren’t really icing people anyways so on the top and mostly around the sides would do. After all this cake was not about the presentation, but demolition and consumption! I don’t know if it was the lack of crowd, the green icing, the giant cake, or the fact that it was chocolate, but baby girl tore this one up and even ate a little along the way!
When you think of a first birthday party it is all about the one year old attacking or not attacking the cake. As the parent you are hoping they oblige the crowd and put on a show, spreading cake all over their face, head, and anyone that comes within reaching distance. The birthday girl/boy usually has a WAY oversized cake and the practical side of me thinks that's just silliness and there is no need to waste that much cake, but clearly there is a reason for that. The cake eating was A. TOTAL. BUST. She wouldn't even touch it. We cut off a small piece of the monkey and peeled the fondant icing off, stepped back with the video camera rolling, the camera ready to be snapped and then...NOTHING. She wouldn't touch it, gagged when I tried to feed it to her..talk about building something up for nothing.
So I did what any other practical mom would do...I ate it for her
But more important that the first birthday cake is the celebration of life. The wonderful life of Jericho, the wonderful life she has brought to all who know her and the wonder of what the next year holds. The food was fantastic and the company couldn't be beat. Thanks to all who helped us celebrate life!
Of course we had to have a redo of the cake eating on her actual birthday. This time I threw my practical side outside and I made two 9 inch rounds just for Jericho. I let my practical side back in when it came time to icing the cake because I had icing left over from the crumb layer and although I knew I wouldn’t have enough to go in-between the layers I figured we aren’t really icing people anyways so on the top and mostly around the sides would do. After all this cake was not about the presentation, but demolition and consumption! I don’t know if it was the lack of crowd, the green icing, the giant cake, or the fact that it was chocolate, but baby girl tore this one up and even ate a little along the way!
7/13/11
Happy Birthday Jericho!
A year ago today I was not excited about having to evict you. I wanted the same birth for you that I gave Blythe. An un-medicated, undetermined, spontaneous birth. I had heard horror stores about what Pitocin can do to the intensity of contractions, but you had overstayed your welcome in my womb (according to the doctor) 42+ weeks and the 13th of July would have to do. Today Daddy and I will read through your birth story to remember that wonderful day, the awesomeness of a 1.5 hour labor, and the even greater joy of bringing another baby girl into our lives.
You have accomplished SO much during this first year and we have loved watching you, video taping you, and taking your picture every step of the way.
Happy Birthday my beautiful Jericho Skye!
You have accomplished SO much during this first year and we have loved watching you, video taping you, and taking your picture every step of the way.
Happy Birthday my beautiful Jericho Skye!
7/12/11
7/7/11
The Dell Guy
As of yesterday I was done being a nice person with the Dell tech support and had to get forceful (in a written way). I am sure that the tech support is given a 'playbook,' to follow, but you would also think they could use some common sense, but maybe not. I logged onto the dell tech support website yesterday and pretty much told them what their next step was going to be. Yes you sent me the BS parts that I was 99.9% sure would do no good and low and behold I put them in and NADA. So now we play by my rules, i.e what I think is wrong, not what your playbook says to send me. So to my delight, I am now sitting in the living room while the Dell guy replaces the motherboard and I really hope that is the issue and that I am up in running within the hour.
I bet the Dell guy spends most of his time repairing machines in office building, not homes. But I bet he most certainly rarely, if ever, has the pleasure (if you can call it that) of listening to a mom BS the words to Hush Little Baby.. I don't now the official words and I haven't taken the time to look them up, so the song is different every time Blythe requests it, which is daily, if not multiple times a day. I try to end the song with something that has to do with sleep. Sometimes I come up with a really good one and I tell myself that I will remember it, but most of the time it makes no sense and I am sure the Dell guys was trying to NOT laugh out loud, but hey I wasn't going to turn him away because its nap time and Blythe bed just happens to be in the closet next to the wall that is shared with the computer room.
The Dell guy heard something like this:
Hush little baby don’t you cry momma’s gonna sing you a lullaby
and if that lullaby don’t rime mamas gonna buy you a golden chime
and if that chime don’t cost a dime momma’s gonna buy you a box of slime
and if that slime comes in a stack of nine them mamma don’t wanna hear you wine
and if you wine just one more time momma’s gonna say it time
and if momma says it time then you are gonna lay down your spine.
Feel free to laugh, I know its comical, but hey she likes it!
I bet the Dell guy spends most of his time repairing machines in office building, not homes. But I bet he most certainly rarely, if ever, has the pleasure (if you can call it that) of listening to a mom BS the words to Hush Little Baby.. I don't now the official words and I haven't taken the time to look them up, so the song is different every time Blythe requests it, which is daily, if not multiple times a day. I try to end the song with something that has to do with sleep. Sometimes I come up with a really good one and I tell myself that I will remember it, but most of the time it makes no sense and I am sure the Dell guys was trying to NOT laugh out loud, but hey I wasn't going to turn him away because its nap time and Blythe bed just happens to be in the closet next to the wall that is shared with the computer room.
The Dell guy heard something like this:
Hush little baby don’t you cry momma’s gonna sing you a lullaby
and if that lullaby don’t rime mamas gonna buy you a golden chime
and if that chime don’t cost a dime momma’s gonna buy you a box of slime
and if that slime comes in a stack of nine them mamma don’t wanna hear you wine
and if you wine just one more time momma’s gonna say it time
and if momma says it time then you are gonna lay down your spine.
Feel free to laugh, I know its comical, but hey she likes it!
7/5/11
Happy Fourth!
The fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays. Probably because it is one of the few holidays that come in the summer (which is my favorite season) and because it usually involves cooking out, face painting, fireworks, swimming, beer, and the best part: Hanging out with friends and family.
We had a low key fourth of July this year seeing as we just returned from South Carolina and are about to head to the beach in Galveston. We decided to stay put here in Bryan and enjoy the day with just the four of us. There is a local celebration down the street from us so Jason and Blythe headed over there and Jericho and I followed once her morning nap commenced.
Both of the girls participated in the sack race so they could score a flag pinwheel.
Neither one really cared for it; hopefully the pinwheel was worth it
We spent most of our time taking pictures at various spots
Blythe spotted the face painting station and her face lit up, with the way she took off running you would have thought she heard someone say "last call and we're closing down the booth." I caught up to her and she was carefully picking out what she wanted to have painted on her face. At first she talked about a butterfly around her eyes, then she decided on a flag, and then at the last minute when she got in the chair and the lady asked her "what do you want," she responded with "a sheep," the lady was like [hum, that’s odd, sigh, then smile] "I can do a sheep!"
She was very proud of her sheep. I'm not sure how sheep go with the fourth of July or even why she thought of a sheep, but that's what she wanted and the lady delivered.
Jericho even got to do one of her favorite things
I'm desperately hoping the Fedex or UPS guy is going to arrive any minute with the parts that are needed to fix the big computer. Last Thursday I was working on the computer and POOF it just powered off, never to turn back on again. Luckily the computer still had 93 days left of warranty so Dell is going to pay to get it back up and running, but after trying to diagnosis it and then all the holidays (i.e. lack of mail running) we are looking at almost a week. It wouldn't be such a big deal except that is the computer I use to make the memory books and I am stuck with the sad reality that there is NO WAY Jericho's memory book is going to be ready by her birthday party and probably not even by her birthday :(. I worked so hard to get it all up to date and essentially ready to print except the last page that I was going to throw together once we got home from our South Carolina trip, oh well. So if you don't hear anything from me for the next few days it is because I am furiously trying to get the computer back in running order and the last few pages thrown together to ship it to the printer!
Hope you had a great 4th of July celebration!
We had a low key fourth of July this year seeing as we just returned from South Carolina and are about to head to the beach in Galveston. We decided to stay put here in Bryan and enjoy the day with just the four of us. There is a local celebration down the street from us so Jason and Blythe headed over there and Jericho and I followed once her morning nap commenced.
Both of the girls participated in the sack race so they could score a flag pinwheel.
Neither one really cared for it; hopefully the pinwheel was worth it
We spent most of our time taking pictures at various spots
Blythe spotted the face painting station and her face lit up, with the way she took off running you would have thought she heard someone say "last call and we're closing down the booth." I caught up to her and she was carefully picking out what she wanted to have painted on her face. At first she talked about a butterfly around her eyes, then she decided on a flag, and then at the last minute when she got in the chair and the lady asked her "what do you want," she responded with "a sheep," the lady was like [hum, that’s odd, sigh, then smile] "I can do a sheep!"
She was very proud of her sheep. I'm not sure how sheep go with the fourth of July or even why she thought of a sheep, but that's what she wanted and the lady delivered.
Jericho even got to do one of her favorite things
I'm desperately hoping the Fedex or UPS guy is going to arrive any minute with the parts that are needed to fix the big computer. Last Thursday I was working on the computer and POOF it just powered off, never to turn back on again. Luckily the computer still had 93 days left of warranty so Dell is going to pay to get it back up and running, but after trying to diagnosis it and then all the holidays (i.e. lack of mail running) we are looking at almost a week. It wouldn't be such a big deal except that is the computer I use to make the memory books and I am stuck with the sad reality that there is NO WAY Jericho's memory book is going to be ready by her birthday party and probably not even by her birthday :(. I worked so hard to get it all up to date and essentially ready to print except the last page that I was going to throw together once we got home from our South Carolina trip, oh well. So if you don't hear anything from me for the next few days it is because I am furiously trying to get the computer back in running order and the last few pages thrown together to ship it to the printer!
Hope you had a great 4th of July celebration!
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