My first try

This was my first attempt at digital scrapbooking AND Adobe Photoshop. It took me three days to figure out. I know it's lame that it took me so long, but I had no idea where to start on Photoshop and my creative juices have been sucked dry over the last ten months. So. This was my first attempt. What do you think? I didn't think it was that bad. Thanks Kristen!

The Cake-makers Dilemma

I truly hate cake. I hate the texture, taste, and smell of cake. It's too fluffy. It's too sweet. The sugar literally burns the delicate skin of my nostrils when I breathe it in. But---I love to make cakes. I love to make and decorate cakes. So what am I supposed to do when I make a cake if I hate everything else about it? Tonight, I made the "I'm-sorry-I'm-a-brat" cake for Jesse. Ideally, I would have LOVED to have made my first fondant cake, but I didn't have the time or resources (my amazing cousin Kristen got me researching and excited about it). I'm going to experiment with that this weekend. (Hmm, I apologize: I do love carrot cake, but that's it). "Funfetti" cake is Jesse's favorite so I made it as a peace offering. I was a total brat today. I over-scheduled myself with last-minute church calling things and errands so I couldn't keep my head on straight. I got mad at him when he didn't IMMEDIATELY end his video game. Heaven forbid I should wait two seconds. So to relax and to get my brain back in order, I made a cake. But now I have to eat it. And I hate to eat it. I truly hate cake. I hate the texture, taste, and smell of cake.

How does she do it?

I'm not quite sure how she does it. What I'm showing you in this picture are Abby's quirky sleeping habits. She sits in "Indian-style" and then folds over on her legs. You can see her right leg in front, and her left is tucked similarly on the other side. She does this EVERY TIME. It's not bad, just... funny. I just don't get how it could possibly be comfortable. Yay for baby flexibility.

Just Say NO

I learned an amazing lesson this week: saying "no" to your babies. Actually, the problem was that I gave in and said "yes" but that will never happen again.

While at the BYU Bookstore, Jesse gave Abby some small egg-shaped rattle toy. It's not for babies, but it made noise so Jesse gave it to her to keep her content. When we were ready to leave the store, Jesse took it back from her to put away. Abby went more than ballistic--she was screaming and trying to find it in our hands. It was an incredibly overwhelming protest. Completely flustered, Jesse walked to the counter and paid the overpriced $2.12 for it. Abby loved it all the way home and last night.

When we woke up this morning, I found the new toy and put on my wide-smile, mom face and said, "Abby, look what I have!" She excitedly crawled to me and took the toy. She shook it twice. I counted. Then she dropped it apathetically and crawled away. I sat there in indian-style staring stupidly at the toy. Stupid toy.

So I learned to say "no" because tomorrow she won't even care.

The Prodigal Shoe

Here I was prepared to write a eulogy for the lost shoe, but to my great astonishment it returned! I bought these shoes at H&M in Costa Mesa, CA, while we were on vacation to Newport. I loved the shoes so much when I found them. They were super cute, sturdy--and quite frankly I just hadn't seen anything like them. While on the shoes' maiden voyage to campus, Abby accidentally--or not--pulled off her shoe. I didn't notice until we were already close to Jesse's office. I was in an absolute panic! I just bought the shoes and I had no idea where she could have pulled it off. I didn't go all the way to Jesse's office. I immediately turned around and walked the long, hot mile back to the house to see if I could find it along the way. I was devastated when I got home to find that it wasn't anywhere along the route. I shed dry tears and pouted at the loss of the shoe. I checked campus Lost and Found a couple days later, but it hadn't been turned in. Well, as you can see, I decided to go check it today while visiting Jesse, and lo and behold the shoe was there! You can't imagine how excited I was! So my favorite shoes are now together forever and never to be parted again.

Happy pappy day

I think we had a fabulous Father's Day. It was a little crazy--I had to accompany the ward choir (so I had to go early to practice) and I taught the Relief Society lesson (so I had to go over it in the morning)--but it was still fun.
I meant to get up an hour early so I could make an amazing breakfast while Jesse slept and I was going to do the whole breakfast-in-bed thing... but Jesse accidentally left his phone off silent so when his alarm went off at 7:30 a.m. Abby woke right up. She doesn't usually get up until 8 or 8:30 a.m. I was bummed because the "in-bed" part was ruined and Jesse didn't get to sleep in. He got up to take care of Abbs while I made breakfast. But it was good! We had German pancakes, REAL bacon (from Grandpa! yum!), and I made Jesse a chocolate banana smoothie. After church, we made a fabulous dinner of sweet pork, rice, black beans, cheese--all in tortillas. So I guess you could just say we had burritos. But that sounds lame. Anyway, it was really tasty! We made the pork in the crockpot so it was way tender and delicious. After dinner, we hopped in the car and met my family in Lehi so say happy father's day to my wonderful dad and grandpa. We had blonde brownies and brownie cheesecake and watched Abby attempt to walk (She took her first steps this weekend!) We gave Jesse Finding Nemo as his present. True to form, as soon as we got home, Jesse had us watch the documentary of The Making of Finding Nemo... what an animation geek. ;)
So here's my shout out for Jesse: Jesse, I love you more than all of the hermit crabs in all the tidepools in California. You make me more happy than anything on this earth. I love spending every moment with you because you're sweet, funny, and you're always so positive and happy about life. Thank you for being an amazing dad for Abby. She loves you so so much--you see how she reacts when we visit you on campus. She kicks her legs and waves her arms and has the biggest smile on her face. You're the best, Jesse, and we absolutely love you. Happy Father's Day!

Perfectly Palatable Poultry Produced Protein

Yeah, egg salad sandwiches sounded great for tonight and we thought of this amazing title for eggs. I think everything deserves such a title. Just a random thought from the mind of Jesse.

Speaking of random sayings, here is a haiku for you:

Sometimes, I think
Haikus don't make sense
like a pink nose hair

---Jesse

Sleep = Relax

Today is one of the best days of my.. well, of the last ten months of my life. I am one of those unfortunate mothers who didn't understand the importance of letting her baby learn to put herself to sleep. I craved holding my baby and watching her beautiful eyes close as she fell asleep. It was so tender, and I loved to hold her little form to me. That was eight months ago. Now I dread every nap and every night because I don't want to deal with the energy and patience it takes to put her to sleep. But today is a grand day. Today, at one week shy of ten months, Abigail has finally decided that she can put herself to sleep. I've tried repeatedly to let her cry it out in the past, but she would cry and cry for what seemed like hours (but was really only an hour). Gracious, I say "only" as if it was easy. They were always the worst hours of my life. I would end up on the phone crying to my own mother about how I was a horrible mother and I shouldn't let her cry. I soon gave up on that and continued bouncing/rocking/singing Abigail to sleep. Abigail is now twenty-one pounds. That is not a small weight to bounce for twenty minutes to have her only sleep for thirty minutes. So after we got home from California, I decided to try something different. I decided to try to let her cry it out again. Going to California completely messed up her nighttime schedule, so we had to let her cry it out at night to get back on schedule. It worked so I decided to let her try putting herself to sleep that next night. That was last night and it worked. So today, I decided to try it for naps. She cried mercilessly for ten minutes and then was suddenly asleep. I was absolutely floored. She was actually asleep! I don't even know what to do with the excess energy or relaxation I feel. It's amazing! And she used to sleep on my bed so I had to be there when she woke up so she didn't crawl off. Now she's in her crib so I can walk freely about my house or even outside with no fears! I know this sounds so retarded to other mothers. I obviously went about things the wrong way and Abby's curiosity and passion for life hasn't helped--she just always wants to be up. I'm sure none of you have had to deal with this, and if you have, then I love you even more for understanding how hard this is.
I feel so liberated. I might actually cry.

Hashbrowns

Dinner!!!

Yeah, this was part of dinner tonight...AWESOME!! Laur pulled it off though :) We had brinner tonight...you know, dinner + breakfast = brinner. You can thank the cast of Scrubs for the amazing word.

Rant or playful banter?

Jesse and I like to play off the X96 morning show that does "Things that must go". So tonight we decided to do it as part of our blog. Mind you, these are but a handful of the items we've come up with over the past few months.

Things that must go:
-girls that look like porcelain dolls (it's just unnatural)
-guys that talk on their cellphones in the bathroom stall next to you
-parking vultures (people that follow you in their car while you're walking to your car to take your spot)
-popped collars
-shredded clothes sold as "new"
-dirty dishes (they never end!)
-contest winning scams (I really wanted that trip to Cancun...)
-EFY kids playing/singing at the piano in the Wilk --you can never sound like Coldplay! Shut it!
-hipsters
-fake meat (salami, bologne, the likes. Yuck.)
Jesse: Wait! I love salami!
Lauren: ick. Waves of nausea.
Jesse: Mmmm, waves of pastrami...
Lauren: Couch.
-Out-of-control, flashy baby toys. You're going to give our babies seizures from sensory overload! What happened to the good ol' fashioned fisher price/tupperware toys... Grumble, grumble.
-Jesse losing the mates to ALL of his socks. Where DO they go?
-Professional beggars. Particularly the one sitting by Babies-R-Us in Orem that has supposedly been "stranded" and would "appricate money" in the same clothes, with the same sign, with the same pathetic look on his face for over a year now.
-peeling skin from glorious sunburns
-Jesse's zebra-striped sunburn from Newport Beach. Oh, the spray sunblock is deceiving...
-the strange smell coming from the fridge... I know it's connected to food, but I'm too scared to find out which one!
-poop stains in onesies... and more onesies... oh, and the jeans... and the t-shirt... how did it get there?
-Overly talkative dentists. Like I can respond with your drill down my throat.

Things that must stay:
-ice cream
-brownies
-pie
-cake
-cookies
-see a pattern here?
-salami
-no salami
-air conditioning
-boogie boarding
-whale watching
-Abby's vocalizations
-Abby's smiles
-Abby in general.
-oatmeal at 11:46 p.m.
-Stephenie Meyer novels (Yes, Lauren is truly addicted to the Twilight series as well as The Host)
-crunchy peanut butter
-Jesse, I'm tired. Can I go to sleep now?
-Peanut butter nougat.
-That's my response? Peanut butter nougat? I'm going to bed.
-Peanut butter wafers, peanut butter M&Ms, peanut butter cookies, peanut but-
-Unfortunately Jesse died mid-sentence from a pillow launched at his throat. Frail, weak creature.

I think we're overly tired and getting kind of wacky. Good night. Enjoy.






......I LIVE!! I smell a sequel.

SoCal

This is more for me than it is for anyone else. I don't have my journal with me to record what we've done so I'm doing it here. Hope you don't mind!

Day Two: Played in the pools with dad and the babe and boogie boarded at Crystal Cove State Park. Hurrah for the waves!

Day Three: Played at the beach. More boogie boarding. Ate 1 lb. Alaskan King Crab legs at the famous Crab Cooker in Corona Del Mar. Mmm, I love crab. :)

Day Four: Play at the pool with the babe while her dad played basketball with Seth. Went shopping at a massive mall called Fashion Island. It really should be it's own city. Unfortunately we didn't find anything that we loved, but Abby loved the Koi Pond! The best highlight of my week: WE WENT TO WICKED THE MUSICAL! It was more than I could ever imagine. I don't think there was one particular moment of the musical that I absolutely loved. It was more just the culmination of the entire show--the pow of the music, the intricately detailed set, the hilarious and professional acting--it was just incredible! By far my favorite musical ever. Elphaba had the most amazing voice I've ever heard and the Galinda was absolutely hilarious. I almost cried hysterically I was so happy. So so happy.

Day Five: Went to the Pacific Aquarium in Long Beach. Touched a bat ray, stingray, mangrove ray, and a shark. And a shark egg. Super cool aquarium. Abby loved watching the fish--especially the jellyfish. Oh, Abby also began saying her first word: duck. She thinks all birds are ducks. If she sees a bird, she points and screams "duck!" It's great. Went to another mall to go to the infamous H&M store. It wasn't my favorite, but some of my siblings love it. Came home and relaxed in the hot tubs. Watched Never Been Kissed while eating super fudgy brownies. Yum.

Day Six: Went to the beach early in the morning. We tried to boogie boarding, but the waves were crazy big. Stephen saw a seal right next to our group. Next to Wicked, this totally made my week. We saw it several more times as we ran the length of the beach. We could see her whole body in the waves as they broke on the sand. Ate an In-N-Out burger. It was good. Didn't match the expectations that BYU Californians set for it, but that's okay.

And that brings me to now. I'm actually finishing my In-N-Out lemonade as we speak. We'll probably head out to the beach again in a few minutes. I am tan and I love it. It's been a long time since I've been tan. Good vacation. I could do it again.

California

Day One:
Went to church. Walked around the breath-taking grounds of the Newport Beach temple. Hiked over the slippery tidal pools of Crystal Cove State Park. Chilled in the hot tubs back at the hotel.

P.S. Fabulous babe bow from Meghan's new business called My Gracie Lou.