Assorted, Miscellaneous, and Random Pictures

I have a bunch of pictures and I don't feel like making a thousand separate posts, so you get them all at one. You lucky dogs.

Jason was snoozing on the couch one afternoon, and I found him, sucking away on his finger. Cute. :-)

Jilly was freaking out and throwing a tantrum, and being all together obnoxious. So I took a picture of it! Sure enough, it distracted her enough to make it stop.

I had put Jason down in the bouncer and left him like this, since he was sleeping.

I came back a little bit later and he looked like this! Hahaha, silly boy had squirmed around a bit, to cover himself up!

For Steve’s birthday, I made him chocolate mousse. We gave Jilly a little bit and she devoured it! Loved it. Can’t say I blame her though. ;-)

We went to a BBQ at McCollum Park for church. While we were there, I got stung by a bee while holding Jason! My arm hurt so bad, I couldn’t hold him very well, plus I was putting ice on it. So my lovely friend Amanda held Jason for like an hour, I think. I like her. :-)

We knew Jilly wouldn’t eat much that was being offered at the BBQ, so I packed her a sandwich. She loves carrying around her food in a bag. ;-)

She really loved playing on the toys there. Especially the slide. It’s so nice that she’s old enough and big enough to play by herself at a playground! I don’t have to keep taking her up and down the slide myself. I just sit and watch while she does it alone!

Our little friend, Dallin, was hanging out with me and wanted a sip of Jilly’s juice. He’s a cutie.

I’ve found a new hairstyle for Jilly. Rather than just leaving her pigtails free and curly, I’ve started braiding them sometimes. It looks pretty cute, if you ask me! Especially with some of her outfits.

Jilly helped me go to the store and then come home and make cupcakes one day. It took several minutes, and lots of coaching from me, to get to lick the spoon though. Most of the batter on her face is from me trying to shove the spoon in her mouth. Hahaha.

We had an Enrichment potluck dinner, and got a picture of four of us that have had babies in the past couple months. Me & Jason, Erin & Mason, Michelle & Reagan, and Tawnya & Lucy. These are only HALF of the babies born since April. Seriously, we’ve had 8 in 4 months! Just in our ward. We all know plenty of others who have had babies too.

I took another picture of my kiddos in the crib together, so you can see how big Jason is getting in comparison to Jilly.

Jilly was freaking out one day, so we put her in the crib. Sure enough she fell asleep, and when I went in to get something, she was sleeping so peacefully, right on her hand and bunny. I had to take a picture, it was so cute.

Just this past Saturday, we had a Primary activity, playing all sorts of water games. We got a picture of all the kids who had come. There were only 8 kids, plus 3 younger kids (Jilly, Jason and one other little girl whose mom is in Primary with me), so there ended up being more adults than kids! But it went pretty well, even if it was short. It didn’t help that it was cloudy and looked cold outside.

Then that night, we went to a dessert party at the park, to say goodbye to some friends, Jeanne & Kevin, who are moving in a couple weeks. Kate (she’s 4) wanted to hold the baby, Kaitlyn (who’s only 2 days older than Jason). The flash didn’t work right, so it’s not the best quality, but it’s cute nonetheless.

And a picture of almost everyone there! It was a blast and the desserts were delicious!!!


There you go. A bunch of random pictures. Jason’s blessing was today, so I will be posting some pictures of that soon. But I don’t like how ours turned out, so I need to get the ones from my mom first. Soon, soon!

Will I Never Learn?!

A couple weeks ago, I was holding Jason and reading blogs on the computer. Jilly was just doing her thing out in the family room, and all was quiet on the Hall front. Then suddenly, I heard this scratching sound. My mama-ears have become well tuned to that particular sound. It's the sound of coloring being done on surfaces not intended for that purpose! AAAAAAHH!!! I come running out the living room, but can't spot Jilly (and the offending coloring) right away. It took me turning around, to look in our dining area to finally lay eyeballs on the culprit and her handiwork. She had climbed up onto the kitchen table, gotten a hold of my Primary bag, pulled out the markers and had herself a grand old time!

I quickly determined my course of action to repair the situation.
Step #1: Pick up child and markers and put them in separate places.
Step #2: Take Pictures.

Here is Jilly on the couch, none too pleased I interrupted her coloring time. I was quite horrified to find the marker all over her beautiful brush-back satin jammies than Granny got her for Christmas. I was even less excited about Granny's potential reaction if they were stained.

I think she colored herself first, and then went after other things. Her foot is quite amazing. I didn't realize how many colors she had used, until I saw the picture on the computer. Impressive, there is hardly any tiny spot on that foot uncovered.

Her hands were covered as well.



She kept sticking her fingers in her nose as she whimpered. I don't get it, but it was amusing enough to take a picture of.

Step #3: Put toddler in bath where the marker can soak off and she won't get into anymore trouble behind your back.

Step #4: Soak the jammies in loads of Spray N' Wash, then wash with lots of detergent and OxiClean. Miraculously- they washed out perfectly! No stains! No hints of stains. ((BIG SIGH OF RELIEF)) Most major and permanent crisis avoided.

Step #5: Clean walls & pick up papers.

The walls had me really worried too. I was stressed that it would take a mammoth effort with lots of noxious chemicals to remove the "designs". Luckily, and to my great surprise it came off with just a wet paper towel in about 1 minute!

Probably the most lasting damage was to my Primary papers. You can't wash paper. So now they'll just be extra colorful.


One of these days I will learn to put my stuff away immediately and not leave it on the table, planning to take care of it the next day. But until then, I'll at least have amusing pictures.

Good Idea, Bad Idea

This week in Good Idea, Bad Idea:

Good Idea: Getting Thin Mint Blizzards
Bad Idea: Also getting a Dilly Bar for the 2 1/2 year old and letting her eat it in the car.

Here's how that evening will end. Toddler covered in chocolate and ice cream. Car seat covered in chocolate and ice cream. Toddler in hysterics because she's beyond exhausted, especially since you woke her up before leaving the house at 9:45pm. Running a bath at 10:45pm. Aforementioned shrieking toddler at the bottom of the stairs, refusing to walk up and you couldn't carry her because you had to haul up the aforementioned ice cream soaked car seat. Washing a load of ice cream and chocolate covered laundry at 11:00pm, including car seat cushion, car seat cover, car seat straps, toddler's dress and your shirt, since you went back down the stairs to pick up screeching banshee toddler. Finally, putting poor-exhausted-out of control-hysterical toddler to bed with a sippy cup of juice and listening to her gasp and whimper for 15 minutes because she's too tired to calm herself down any other way.

But I think the Thin Mints were worth it. ;-)

Penguins and Jaguars and Monkeys, Oh My!

Last week we went to the Zoo! My best friend Regan was home for a visit, on a break from grad school in Hawaii. Last year, she gave me my Zoo membership for my birthday. I wanted to go with her while she was home this summer and it worked out great. We ended up getting down to the zoo in the afternoon, so soon after we arrived, we were joined by Steve after he got off work. So it was Regan, Steve, the kids and me. Good thing, because with a two year old and a newborn and the accompanying two strollers, we needed an extra pair of hands. :-) Regan is a good photographer and has a much higher quality camera than we do, so I told her I really wanted some cute pictures of Jason as well as our whole family. Well, the picture of all four of us didn't happen, but there are some other cute pictures! There are a few off our camera too, you'll probably be able to guess which ones.

Jason with his face all squished against Mommy's shoulder.

Regan helped Jilly so she could see the pudu.

The jaguar was right there and Steve got a good shot of it.

The colobus monkeys. I think we saw 4 or 5 of them in the whole enclosure. Here are two of them.

My new favorite picture of me and Jason. There are very few pictures of me with my kids, because I'm usually the one taking the pictures. And the last one of just Jason and me was also his very first picture and we were still kinda attached (the one from his birth). So I really love this one.

The gorillas.

We were looking for lemurs.

Jilly liked to walk around a lot more, and we let her this time, since there was one of us to chase after her and the other two could push the strollers.

Must. Buckle. EVERYTHING! She can't handle leaving anything unbuckled, I swear.

Such a good picture of the penguins and Jilly. She LOVED this exhibit. She just stood there and giggled her head off, because there were two specific penguins that were swimming and would come right up to her face. Then they'd leave and come back. It was awesome.

Daddy lifted her up so she could see above the glass to the penguins on land.

There were lots of them up there!

She really tried to climb over the glass, so she could go swimming. That girl loves water!

Penguins love water too.

A much needed juice break.

I just have to point out here, isn't her hair super cute? I thought she looked quite adorable in her red dress and pigtails and cherry clip. ;-)

Not to forget about this little guy, of course! He slept for a good chunk of the trip, but woke and needed to streeeeeetch!

We got to see not one but two tigers out AND moving this time. Crazy, I think we've only actually seen a tiger one other time.

The emus. We came here after Willawong Station, where you can feed birds. So these were e bit of a letdown.

At this point Jason needed to eat, so we went to the carousel while he nursed. Jilly loved it!!!

And Jason got milk-drunk. I love it when babies are like this. :-)

After this, we were running out of time, so we did a quick loop of the Northwest Trail, with all the bears, otters, elk and the like. Honestly, I don't care that much about them. They're boring to me. Jilly was melting down by this point, and Regan needed to go meet her parents, so we all left.

It was a lot of fun to go to the Zoo! We love it so much. It was the first big outing with two kids and went fairly well. Gives me hope that someday I'll be able to take both kids by myself. But I'm not holding my breath for anytime soon. ;-)

Quarter of a Century

That is how long I have been breathing air. Yup, it was my birthday and I am now 25. I'm not sure what to think about it. I've mostly been looking forward to being 25. I can rent a car now. Allegedly my insurance rates will drop. And it sounds much more respectable to be married and have 2 kids at 25 than it was to be having a baby at 22. ;-) But now that the day has arrived, 25 sounds much older than 24. I'm in my mid-twenties! When did that happen?!

We started the birthday celebrations Sunday night. My parents came over to return Jilly (she'd spent the afternoon and evening grocery shopping and napping in the fishy bed at Granny's house) and bring us our birthday cards. Since Steve's birthday is only 4 days after mine, we always celebrate together. Paul got to spend quite a bit of time cuddling with Jason.

I don't think he'd gotten to hold him much since the day he was born. So it was really nice to see them together.

And Paul is so gosh darn photogenic that it's hard to find a bad picture of him. Plus, having a cute baby snuggled with him can't hurt.

I wanted a picture of both grandparents with their grandkids. Jilly loves her grandparents so much and Jason is sure to build just as strong of a bond with him.

Jilly and Granny.

Then on Monday it was MY day! I got so many Happy Birthday wishes from friends and family via Facebook and text message. It was wonderful!! :-) The kids were pretty well behaved most of the day, so that was nice. Steve stopped by the store to pick up the remaining ingredients for my birthday dinner, then brought me home my beloved Taco Bell Gorditas. YUM! We lazed around for awhile, then picked up the house. My delightful dear friend Candace brought me this beautiful birthday cake. I was so excited for it! And it did not disappoint!!

Steve and Jilly got to work on making my birthday dinner- funeral potatoes. Steve would pour the ingredients in, then Jilly would stir.

She loves helping in the kitchen and this is one dish that we can have her help with. Frying bacon is not such a toddler friendly kitchen activity. ;-)

We had the cake later in the evening, after Jilly was in bed. It was so delicious!! My house smells like frosting and I love it. Jason got a bit fussy in the evening, but after a good swaddle and me standing up with him, he fell deeply asleep and stayed that way for a few hours. :-D

Earlier in the day, there has been a knock at the door. The UPS man came to wish me a Happy Birthday too! He came bearing this lovely gift from my SIL Becky and her brood. The picture isn't the clearest, but if you look close, you may be able to see it. This is a necklace of a family. The two parents are up top, then have their arms circling around two kids near the bottom/front. It's three dimensional, so a little hard to describe. But it's beautiful and very sweet. After Jilly was born Steve and my aunt Juliet got me a lovely heart necklace. Over a year ago, the chain to that necklace broke and I lost the heart at work. I searched and searched and never found it. It made me really sad, because I thought of that necklace as my "mother heart", since it symbolized my new role as a mother. Now, this new necklace will replace that one and represent both my kids. I love it.


I had a wonderful birthday. It was a very low-key day. I didn't even go outside (which is okay because it was cold and rainy). But I felt lots of love from everyone and enjoyed my day nonetheless. :-) Thank you to all of you who made it a happy day for me!!