Child Labor

Justin's best idea ever!

Justin's Babies

Every day Justin comes home from work... we all get a kiss and the garden gets a water.

Knowing that we all get a kiss is the most public affection you'll ever get from me.

Owen looks so very attractive because he's in the process of spitting while pulling my pants down. And the littlest one is crying cause he just got sprayed with water.

But the garden is coming... finally! Justin had to replant the corn 3 times cause those pesky varmints (squirrels) kept eating the sprouts as soon as they'd pop up.

They ate my parsley too as seen below by it's grave marker. At least the tomatoes are doing good. Owen felt the need to pick one green one, so hopefully he can resist the rest.

Meet Drew's Blankie

Whatever it takes to get it out of his crib...

Every time he sees it he pulls it between the slats. If I'm holding him he'll flail himself out of my arms to get down and get it.

PS Thanks to Ana (Justin's sister) for making it, complete with that super soft orange bumpy fabric on the back and his name and birth date embroidered in the corner.

Tall People

Brent & Errin aren't coming to visit this summer anymore. They chose the reunion in Utah over us. I guess it's okay cause we'll be there, too. But I was looking forward to them coming! So for payback this is to make Brent really, really happy.

Once when he was walking in the mall he saw a whole family of super tall people and it drove him crazy. He couldn't even handle how tall they were.

So I found this special website just for you.... http://www.tallpeople.org

It has great tall people jokes like, "It is better to have loved a short man, than never to have loved a tall."

And the people have cool sign-in names like 7ftJohnny.

Enjoy!

PS Did you hear about that pirate movie? It's rated arrrrrgh!

Owen's Prayers

Yesterday Owen was assigned the opening prayer in Primary. He loves that microphone whenever I'm setting up the room. But when it was time to say the prayer he kept buckling his knees and making funny sounds. So I just went ahead without him. Then he said, "What about brushing my teeth?" so I put that in the prayer, "Please help us to remember to brush our teeth." Then a few seconds later..."What about cookies?" so I added, "Thank you for cookies." I was trying hard not to laugh cause that's how we do it at home, start the prayer then ask him, "what else?" The most common responses are about his kite, cookies, and fishing (which he hasn't done since father & sons but he LOVED it). He's dying for one of those rocket fishing poles they always have the commercials for on Nick Jr.
In Owen's Prayers:

• Thank you for my kite
• Thank you Daddy came home from work...with his funny lipsies (after he got hit with a frisbee and his lip was huge)
  
• Thank you for my new corn
• Thank you for my little TV
• Thank you we could go fishin
• Thank you we could get Cheetos and go fishin
• Thank you we could catch Nemo
• Bless the missionaries

This was on my side-bar but I'm moving it to a post so nobody gets sick of it. And also cause someday I want to get my blog published into a book for journal purposes. This site does just that!

Violet, You're Turning Violet, Violet!

Umm so today was pretty bad. Stressful car repairs stuff. So Justin came home (at 9pm) with some junk food to make him feel better... some Doritos X-13D Experiment chips, Sierra Mist, and Nestle cookie dough.

About those chips... If you don't want to know the secret flavor, read no more.

They taste like cheeseburger! So gross. So, so gross. Not like a good home-made cheeseburger either. One of those 99-cent fast-food cheeseburgers. Seriously they taste like the meat, cheese, mustard, ketchup, and pickle all rolled up together and made somehow into a chip.

Hence the Willy Wonka reference... that's how I imagined Violet's gum to be, all those different flavors at once.

Gross. Yet you keep eating them anyway.

The Ingredients

For A Good Memorial Day:

Eat and drinks tons of good stuff including Strawberry Agua Fresca (I added at least double the sugar, it reminded me of the yummy drinks they have at Mango's) and Errin's Guacamole.

Get yourself some good holiday friends like Sally, Aric and their family.

Alarming

K so last night in the middle of the night (12:04 AM to be exact) someone started pounding on the door. I wish I could explain how loud it was. Our doorbell would ring followed by pounding. Then pause pause. Doorbell again. More pounding. And then one more time.

Justin got up to see who it was and couldn't see through the peephole cause our porch light was burnt out. So he looked out Owen's window and saw a cop car.

I was scared to death and didn't want to leave our room w/Owen who had come in crying (Drew slept through it all). But Owen wanted to see what was going on so went out and this police woman proceeded to tell us that a pizza delivery boy had been mugged in our front yard!!!

Apparently this guy, we'll call him the bad guy, called and placed an order to be delivered to our address. He waited on our front porch for the delivery guy to come. When he got here the bad guy + 2 friends knocked him out and stole his wallet and cell phone. He woke up and went to our neighbors who called 9-1-1.

We totally slept through it all! But I can't even imagine some scary guy just sitting on our front porch waiting to rob someone. That is nuts! And disturbing that he got away.

This morning the pizza guy's car was still in front of our house, halfway blocking our driveway cause you could tell he wasn't planning on staying long. When we got back from church he was there with his mom picking it up. Justin talked to him and he said when he got to our house last night the bad guy asked him how much the pizza was. So he looked down to check and next thing he knew he was knocked out. He had to go to the hospital but was fine.

I've always felt so safe in our neighborhood until the last couple weeks! So sad :(

What Rules?

We tried a new beach today, Bear Island, off of Hammocks Beach State Park - only accessible by ferry!

PS Justin swears he didn't see this sign :)

Don't Bother Me, I'm Reading

Guess what book?

Proof I'm Still Sick

Breakfast is outside.

And it's cereal.

Outside = messes cleaned by simply spraying off the deck (no highchairs to wipe down)

Cereal = minimal prep time (those Strawberry Mini Wheats are good by the way)

Flashback Friday

ALL 4 LOVE by Color Me Badd

I love this song! And their sweet moves.

Happy Friday!

Name Twins

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 0 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

That's how many with my first AND last name. Which doesn't seem right since I have my first and last name.


* There are 25,659 people in the U.S. with the first name Shauna.
* Statistically the 1143rd most popular first name.
* More than 99.9 percent of people with the first name Shauna are female.

This picture is titled "Shauna and her mustard." Love those Google images.

Beach Food

Beach food should be pre-packaged in individual sizes so you don't have to eat sand after someone else's hands have been in there.

Owen found this abandoned kite today and was totally flying it by himself! He & Becca had a lot of fun.

Then on the way home I got pulled over...

Police Offer: Do you realize you were going 35 in a 25 School Zone?
Me: Honestly... I was totally daydreaming. Then I realized that and was slowing down. Even before I saw you I was slowing down! I swear!...Now, what do you need?
Popo: Your driver's license
Me: Searching for license
Police: Well, since you were honest I'll let you go. But remember from 2:30-3:30 the speed limit is 25.

PHEW.
So glad he didn't notice that my car is a few months late on its annual state inspection.
That has moved to #1 on my list of things to do this week.

Another Sister Without A Blog

That would be Tami aka Supermom. She is my younger sister and pregnant with #7!!! And it's a boy so Bob gets a brother finally. I think she is more laid-back with 6 than I am with 2. She just emailed out these pictures and I thought this one of all her girlies was so cute:

Lilly, Abbey, Brook, Emma, Janna

And here's the whole family:

More Baby News

One of those packages got dropped off to Justin's sister Ashley and her husband Jared yesterday... Congratulations! Can't wait to see pictures of Racquel Ashley (hope I spelled her name right).

She is the 10th grandchild on Justin's side. And 1 more is on the way!

The Burbs

You know the movie...from 1989 w/Tom Hanks.

But all I think of when I hear "The Burbs" is that creepy guy on the right. And that feeling you get when you're looking at him... is how I feel RIGHT NOW. Because I just found out last night that my neighborhood IS the burbs. No neighbors burying bones in their backyard. But close enough. I won't disturb you with the details but I'm disturbed.

And to top it off the city guys came this morning to fix that hole Drew fell in (see previous post "Can you BARK?") and one of the crew was wearing a bright orange vest that says "INMATE." Ah!

I want my mommy.

So we escaped for a little bit and went to the park. Had a picnic. Owen rode his bike. Drew got a stroller ride. And I took some pictures (never enough park pictures).

Happy Mother's Day! - Updated

I was looking through my photo album for pictures of my Dad & I and found this one that I've never noticed before. And I don't know why! I love it.

It made me want to add more to my measly Mother's Day post. I know some people that get easily frustrated with their mothers and don't like to be around them for long periods of time. I can't relate! My mom is so easy to be around and is the most un-meddling person ever. Sometimes I have to ask her to meddle. Like when she came to help when Drew was born I asked her to be Super Nanny for Owen who was having some obedience issues. It worked. She is good! Of course, as soon as she left he was back to his old ways.

I seriously hope I can be as good a mom as her. I have a long way to go!

Another One Bites The Dust

Bye Jenny!
And Isaac.
And Baby Lincoln.

Lucky them get to go to the Phillippines!

(photo courtesy of Owen)

I think Owen has a picture on this chair with just about all of his friends. This is the movie-watching chair. They're holding their matching truck, plane, and train from the dollar spot.

Here are some other beauts Owen & Isaac took:

I was reading in my journal (from January 2004) when we were in Pensacola, FL- our first military place together. I wrote about how I was so happy cause we made friends at church that day (Liz & Justin). Liz spoke in Relief Society about how she didn't have a good attitude about making friends where they lived last cause they weren't going to live there long and she didn't want to get sad when they moved. But someone pointed out to her to think about all the friends she'd have in Heaven. I just thought it was cool to be reminded about that cause I've been a slacker friend lately. When Jenny came over this week, we realized how good Isaac & Owen are together. And I forgot how much I like her! And she could've introduced me to Smithfield's a loooong time ago. I think it's food week or something since I've mentioned it in like every post.

So now that I've got all sappy!!! We're gonna have a good weekend! Hope you do too!

Mozzarella, Ham, and Basil Panini

I was looking online for recipes and this one stood out when I remembered Lindsey said she had yummy paninis at bunco last month (why has nobody blogged about bunco yet by the way?)

Anyway I made these for lunch today and they were pretty much delicious.

So here you go thanks to Cooking Light

Serve these simple pressed sandwiches with a pickle and some vegetable chips.

1 (16-ounce) loaf ciabatta, cut in half horizontally
4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
4 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 1/3 cups (8 ounces) thinly sliced fresh mozzarella cheese
12 basil leaves
8 ounces sliced 33%-less-sodium cooked deli ham (such as Healthy Choice)
2 sweetened hot cherry peppers, sliced (I couldn't find these at the store so didn't use them)
1 large plum tomato, thinly sliced
Cooking spray

Brush cut side of the bottom bread half with mustard; brush cut side of top half with vinegar. Top bottom half with mozzarella, basil, ham, peppers, and tomato. Top with remaining bread half.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add sandwich to pan; top with another heavy skillet. Cook 3 minutes on each side or until golden. Cut sandwich into 6 wedges.

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 1 wedge)

NUTRITION PER SERVING
CALORIES 371(30% from fat); FAT 12.5g (sat 6.1g,mono 5g,poly 0.6g); PROTEIN 20.2g; CHOLESTEROL 46mg; CALCIUM 220mg; SODIUM 976mg; FIBER 1.8g; IRON 3mg; CARBOHYDRATE 44.9g

What To Get... (Updated)

I'm just sitting here browsing online for a gift for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day. And at the same time trying really hard not to eat the cookie dough sitting in the fridge.

Mama H said she wants $10 from each of her kids so she'll have enough to buy a tree she wants. But I'm looking for a little something extra.

How about the above cake pan from Williams Sonoma? It looks so very Mormon.

I'm pretty sure she doesn't need this butterfly spatula. But it'd make flipping pancakes a lot more fun! Wait, maybe I'm shopping for myself.

K I took a little break and remembered a CD I found this morning in response to my sister Rachel's request for good Sunday CD recommendations for a Young Women's experience making a Sunday music playlist. I've never heard this CD but it looks good and got good reviews. We haven't been listening to anything other than the Children's Songbook in a long time. So I think she'll get this too. UPDATE 5/16/07: She LOVES this CD and wants to get one for Brett on his mission and she wants Christian to learn to play these on his guitar. YAY!!! I think I'm getting it for me now.

I'm not making Justin a wish list for Mother's Day because I took care of myself Saturday night.

After eating the biggest burritos ever...

Playing at the park

Redeeming our Cold Stone birthday coupons (Rocky Road Trip is my new favorite). Get yours HERE.

We went to Target. By then it was 9pm (late nap day). And any reservations I have (which aren't very many) about spending money leave after 9pm. So I went a little crazy. But I'm not taking anything back. So Happy Mother's Day to me!

Wait one little wish, just let me sit on my bootie all day. Then I probably will help cause I like to when I don't have to.

Justin Got Botox

He was playing ultimate frisbee this morning for PT (physical training) and got hit by a frisbee. Three stitches got him the day off work!

La Dentist

Owen's First Time

Walking back to the room he saw another patient being worked on with drill and all. So at first he was hesitant to go in his own room. But then he sat on my lap for his check-up and was SO good! And the dentist and his assistant were so good with him. He was smiling the rest of the day to show me his clean white teeth. And NO cavities! Unlike me who had 5 my first time.

He loved getting his bag of goodies (the usual toothbrush, floss, toothpaste) and choosing TWO toys out of the prize drawer. He's ready to go back for more!

The Fruits Of Our Labor

Literally

Don't let Owen fool you, he picked a couple strawberries then spent the rest of the time running up & down the rows.

I play with my jam while Owen plays with his Legos.

I Want Lasik

Proof I've had nothing to blog about lately... I'm posting my new eyeglass/contacts prescription.


I'm SO glad I paid $75 to get my glasses prescription converted into a contact prescription. Cause look how TOTALLY different they are! My insurance only covers the eyeglass portion of the exam and all doctors here insist on the extra payment for that little conversion and to check out the contacts on my eyes. Ummm I've been wearing contacts 16 years, I think I'd know if they didn't fit right. So I'm offering a special... you go get your glasses prescription and I'll do the contact conversion for $10. A total steal.

But I did like the doctor in spite of the rip off. Maybe because he told me I'm attractive because my eyes move the same direction at the same time (i.e., no lazy eye).

While in the waiting room the best mag they had to offer was Reader's Digest. I discovered they pay $100-300 for those cheesy (supposed to be funny) little stories they publish! I have tons of unfunny (but supposed to be funny) stories I could submit. I'm making that my new part-time job until one gets published. I'm sure Katie could get one published first try. The details are HERE!