cc...this ones for you!!!

With CC's obsession with butts, I HAD to show her how cute Toby's is. You wanna know the funniest part? I had to tuck the jewels under for the pic! HAHAHA. Anyway, Toby LOVES books. He doesn't even try and eat them. He likes the words and pictures alike. He will look at them for as long as I have the patience to help him hold it. He is starting to look like a boy! I love the second to bottom right pic. That is the way he pretends that he doesn't know you are looking at him or want his attention. Ham.

crockpot meatballs

2 eggs
1 T worcestershire
1 tsp salt
1 tsp italian herbs (I smash the spices even more finely in my palm first)
crushed red pepper to taste (I usually do a good amount)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder (this is a guess. I put in however much looks good)
1 c seasoned or not bread crumbs
1/4 c ish of grated parmesan (the kind in a can)
2 lbs of ground beef (sometimes I use ground chuck) not too lean not too fat 80/20 maybe.

Sauce:
2 28 oz cans tomatoes blended until kind of smooth. (you can use tomato sauce if you want)
1 tsp crushed garlic or so
some dried basil
salt, cracked pepper and crushed red pepper
(or however you like to make your own red sauce)

Leaving out meat and breadcrumbs mix all ingredients together. Add crumbs and meat. Combine. Roll into one inch ish balls and brown in a skillet. Place in crockpot. Pour sauce over top and heat on low for 4-6 hours. If I am in a hurry, I'll start it on high for an hour and then turn it down.

Every couple of hours I take off the lid and spoon out as much grease as I can.

We serve them on dutch crunch or sourdough rolls with extra sauce and mozzarella. Broil em for a min and you've got yourself a sandwich.

these are a few of my favorite things

a list of our favorite staples includes but is not limited to:

garlic
basil
chile flakes
fresh ground sea salt and peppercorns
onion powder
pesto

olive oil
butter
Newman's Marinara for pizza sauce (I am SO picky about my marinara)

parmesan (grated and fresh)
pepperjack
cheddar
mozzarella (for homemade pizza)
string cheese
milk
heavy cream

bell peppers (red and green)
green onions
summer squash
butternut squash
spinach
tomatoes (roma and canned)
olives
asparagus(seasonal)

strawberries(seasonal)
peaches(seasonal)

gnocchi
rigatoni
angel hair
cereal, lots of cereal

I almost always have these things on hand. I might die without them. You know the worst part? How am I going to afford to feed us while Darin is at dental school?

***What are some of your can't live without staples?

is this a joke?

My mom cleaned out her recipe box and sent the random recipe cards home with me. It took me a couple of days to sift through them and thank goodness I did! How could she get rid of this gem!? Deviled hot dogs!? A crowd pleaser for sure! The suggested menu they offer is a small sample of perfection- deviled hot dogs, baked potatoes, corn muffins, cabbage-carrot slaw and to wash it down cherry parfaits! I think that eating this dinner must feel a bit like walking into the heart of Willy Wonkas factory. Bliss! Did people seriously ever eat like this????

butter get some

Sunday night we decided to get together at my mom's house and start the holiday goody making. To kick it off we had an easy spaghetti dinner so we could move on to greener pastures. Darin made the request that my dad make some of his famous popcorn but we told him he wouldn't have space to do it because we were taking the kitchen over. Sneaky as he is, and much to Darin's delight, while all of us were digesting Pop snuck into the kitchen and started the popcorn before we could bat an eye or try to stop him. Hind sight is 20/20. I am glad he made the popcorn because after all of those sweets one NEEDS some salt. Side note about Pop: he mocked me for making spiced cider saying that we never drink it and it always goes to waste. See pic.

A double batch of homemade peanut butter cups (bars/squares), a double batch of fudge, one batch of toffee and a fatty batch of popcorn later ... 4 lbs of butter will be delightfully dancing in the bellies of unsuspecting friends. This is our way of spreading holiday cheer. We will now feel cheery because our friends will be getting fatter than we will be after these goodies are delivered! Hoohoohoohahahahahahaaaaaa.

hallelujah

I can't believe it! This is the best day of my bill paying life in 5 months! FINALLY after appx. 10 hours (at least) on the with AT&T over the last 5 months my bill/charges should be correct! This has been a plague on my life. I have had some serious stress and tears over this situation and it is DONE. Ridiculous that it took all of MY legwork to get it accomplished but such is life I guess. Long story short, any time in the future I can avoid business with AT&T, believe me, I will.

I am going to take a celebratory shower and I might even do a happy dance!

toby's week of firsts

What is that and WHY are you putting in my mouth!? Maybe if I help...nope, nope, that doesn't make it any better.

Having fun in the swing. Toby's favorite pasttime: watching football with Dad!

haha! Tricked you, Mom! I am NOT going to roll over today!

It has been a busy week for Toby. He had his first solids, which he did not like. Weird how he will suck on an apple but won't take milk-flavored cereal. Maybe he is like his mother and would just assume not eat bland food! Atta boy!

He rolled over. Hilary was the witness to that one. I have tried every day since to get him to do it again but so far he just hangs out and looks at me. Whitney asked me if I was sad. I was not sad. I was happy and I thought it was totally exciting! I couldn't stop laughing. First steps I might be upset about if I missed everything else also, but I think I'll be just fine.

The same day at Hilary's Toby apparently was laughing quite a bit. It has taken me a few days to get that out of him also but finally today, 3 days later, I got it out of him. It was fun. I had heard him do one giggle weeks before now but not a laugh like this.

He also sat up on his own. Not for than about 10 seconds but it was stinkin' cute.

Addendum: Toby also gave me his first kiss ever! Darin witnessed it and he thought/thinks it is THE cutest thing he has ever seen!

Here are some pics of him almost rolling then not, first food and other misc.

the road to Cortina

Darin and I have been wanting to go to a new Italian restaurant in town for some time. We love Italian. Unfortunately after checking out what seemed to be a delicious menu with not so delicious prices, we decided that Cortina would have to wait for a special occasion. Six months later our time has come!

Last night, Darin, Toby and I got semi-dolled up after receiving a very special letter in the mail. Darin was accepted into the UNLV Dental School, class of 2012! Yes! We were so excited. Darin couldn't believe it and I can't imagine the relief he must have felt! Congratulations Darin!

Just by chance, they sat us next to the fire place. How did they know we were having a special night!? We splurged on dinner and dessert and Toby was an absolute angel ,even though we were there past his bedtime. On the way home we decided to stop by my mom's house and when we walked in she and Whitney had some celebratory sparkling cider and a chocolate satin pie waiting to honor him! It was so much fun. My mom really has a way of letting people know that she loves them. She knows how to make people feel special!

What a journey. Darin has worked SO hard and clearly UNLV has recognized what an asset he is and will be to their school and to the community. I am so lucky to have him and I couldn't be more proud. I LOVE YOU!

fun political quiz

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/candidate-match-game.htm

Pretty interesting. Limited options but amusingly insightful. Make sure that at the end of the quiz you adjust the sliders to reflect the right amount of weight you tag to each issue.

Bon chance!

PS- in the end of the quiz, the candidates they had listed for me were very accurate. Hilary Clinton, of course, being number 1.

my nemesis

Should banana bread ever be this hard!? I LOVE banana bread and I can honestly say that I don't think I have ever made a perfect loaf of the "easiest bread on earth to make." I followed this recipe to a t and just look at it! I let it cool for quite a while but the choc chips made it fall apart. How can several great reviews online lead me to this? The top is FLAT almost even sunken, yet the bread is cooked all the way through. On the plus side, it was soooo perfectly moist that I am going to have to try it again. This time with mini choc chips and I will do it as mini loaves. Here is the recipe if you want to try it. Tell me if you have any luck.

http://southernfood.about.com/od/bananabread/r/bl30322m.htm

toby and his brother

3 days, 6 weeks, 4 months

If I would have known from the first pic I took of Toby and his brother that it would be an ongoing thing, I would have started with a full body shot...oh well. I tried to take the 4 month pic while he was in his crib but he is too long now!

Tomorrow I'll feel terrible...

Right now I should be...

cleaning the bathroom and/or laundry and/or eating dinner and/or tidying up messes and/or vacuuming and/or making the banana bread I promised Darin and/or getting our temple recommends signed (CRAP I just remembered that) and/or filing papers and/or grocery shopping and/or updating my blog.

Obviously, my planning is overzealous but I have been doing almost nothing since I came home from work almost 4 hours ago, unless playing with Toby and visiting with Whitney count.

I am going to scramble to get what I can done as tomorrow is a VERY busy day and I am not sure how much catch up I can do before I go back to work on Thursday. I have been meaning to make my favorite homemade meatball sandwiches for about 5 days now and I think they are going to have to wait until who knows when because tomorrow, I am going to feel terrible about today. Vicious cycle. Why can't I stop this pattern!?

Can you pass the relish?

It wasn't long after Toby was born that Darin began calling him his little hot dog. We weren't going to dress him up for Halloween but when we saw this we had second thoughts. We were too cheap to buy it but fortunately for Toby, Grammie found a few days ago for 50% off. What could be more perfect? Don't you just want to eat him up!?

Pom

Apparently, at some point in my life(maybe from the start-who knows?), I transformed from Ross to Pom. At least that's what the siblings call me. It's a mix of Pop and Mom- Pom. Every now again new evidence pops up to defend their stance.

Tonight we were sitting around talking when mom and I looked at each other and realized we were exactly mirrored. I have a lot of her mannerisms.

Hilary's Birthday

I am close to a month late on posting the big bash but it is definitely post-worthy. Ty made two GREAT cakes. They were Hilary's favorite-lemon cake. EVERYONE was talking about how good they were. Good job Ty! The kids all picked out their very own birthday card for their mom and all of the cards seemed to fit each kids personality perfectly. It was a crack up. Although she wouldn't admit it, I am pretty sure Hilary was in hog heaven when we were singing to her. ALL of her kids and ALL the nieces and nephews gathered around her and her cake on her special day. Seeing her smiling face made me so happy!

Me nurture?

You Are An ISFJ

The Nurturer You have a strong need to belong, and you very loyal. A good listener, you excel at helping others in practical ways. In your spare time, you enjoy engaging your senses through art, cooking, and music. You find it easy to be devoted to one person, who you do special things for. In love, you express your emotions through actions. Taking care of someone is how you love them. And you do it well! At work, you do well in a structured environment. You complete tasks well and on time. You would make a good interior designer, chef, or child psychologist. How you see yourself: Competent, dependable, and detail oriented When other people don't get you, they see you as: Boring, dominant, and stuck in a rut

What's Your Personality Type?

Who do you look like?

http://

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Buddies

Tara and I think Toby and Ila should be best-bud-cousins. Ila is a few months older than Toby and they are about the same size. Hopefully that means he will be bigger than her. Great! Then Toby can always be her protector!

We had a fun visit with the Goodrich family. It was nice having them at our house for some one on one time. Sorry the picture of everyone at dinner is so blurry.

Let them flow...

Today was my first day back at work. I cried; numerous times in fact. Once I was actually working it kind of felt good. It felt good to be making money. It felt good to be moving around more than I have in the last three months and it felt good to be forced into getting myself organized. Last night I had dinner for today made, the laundry done and the diaper bag packed and then I was even ready this morning with about 30 mins to spare. That doesn't happen in my life! How is that having more free time seems to encourage more slothfulness and helps me get nothing done than when I have too much going on?

Anyway, Toby got to go to the Reilly's house for the day. Thank goodness he was a good boy otherwise she might never do it again! Hilary sure loves her Toby Tiner (the Reilly kids always call him "Toby Tiner" or at least they used to!) and I know that the kids were excited to see him, too. That helped me feel ok about leaving him. Hilary really knows how to love the little ones. She is such a good mommy/auntie.

working hard

More often than not, I put Toby on his tummy to exercise and he falls asleep!

He was fussy this time so I thought maybe his pacifier would make it easier to handle.

I guess it worked. Lesson learned!

Have you mastered the english language??

Quick! Without looking, I want to know, can you define else? What part of speech is it?

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/else

These are the things that I think about while I am in the shower. How many of you had the right answer?

this stuff is crazy

well, i have been sitting here for about an hour trying to figure out this junk. i think i am going to have to solicit the help of tara and/or eden. i swear i am not totally incompetent just computer illiterate i guess.

to add insult to injury, i have no idea where to start. my life is pretty boring aside from toby and i really don't think everyone can hack all toby all the time like i can.

any ideas on a starting point?

hiccups

I have a baby inside me. He has hiccups. I saw his face in a 3-D ultrasound yesterday. I can't wait until I can hear his hiccups instead of feel them. I want to kiss him. I am finally ready. I wonder if Darin is?