Getting the Housewife Thing Down!

So, ever since school got out (btw - I totally got a 4.0 in my chemistry class) - I made a goal to try to do more housewife things (since I don't have school taking up all of my time). So I've been cooking and cleaning as much as I can for the last week - and let me tell yuh, I'm AMAZING...ok not really. I clean the house and ten minutes later the toys are all over the place! The cool thing is that I have time to cook. Ryan has been doing pretty much ALL of the cooking up until now (...boy do I love that man)! The thing is - it was mostly hamburger helper or pizza....and I'm tired of dinner from a box. So, I've been making stuff from scratch and it has been a blast! I've now made shephards pie (yum!), honey fried chicken (not so yum), pot roast with a mushroom gravy (super yum!), and cheddar baked chicken. Coming up is beef stew one day and zesty pork chops the next. I don't know why I just started cooking - I'm having so much fun! Anyway - I just thought I'd share with you how much I'm enjoying my unexpected break from school. Oh....and Cael took his first steps a few weaks ago

Meant to Be...

So the last month has been pretty crazy for me. It's the last month of the quarter so I've been trying to stay on top of things - but my family decided we should all get sick, my kids decided to keep me up til 2 am, and my body decided that it doesn't like sleep anymore anyway! So I'm sick, tired, exhausted (so sick, tired, and exhausted that I had no energy to celebrate my birthday) and after a few days of, "Wow - you look really tired!" or "Are you feeling ok - cuz you don't look so good..." I found out that I can't go to school next quarter because with trying to transfer to a different school and trying to turn in paperwork on time - I apparently missed a deadline for something and didn't qualify for financial aid :-( This has an unfortunate effect on my plans for being finished with prerequisites, but I won't go into that now, because I've decided that not being able to go to school next quarter is a major blessing! I haven't been able to be a good mom or wife because I've been so out of it! So that little break, I think, will be very healthy for me and my family and I am looking forward to it.

Good Times

I was driving home from school today when I realized.... I was the only person in the car and I didn't have to worry about loud volumes for Jaeda and Cael. SO - I plugged my iPod into the car and turned up the volume!! Ooooh MAN did it feel good! I forgot how much I loved driving with my music blasting and singing as loud as I can. ........ Good times.

Company Party at a Lesbian Bar

So, Ryan's workplace had a holiday party tonight. We went - I thought it would be fun to get out and socialize. Don't get me wrong - it was way fun...mostly because it's fun watching people after they've had a few drinks.

The party took place at nyne bistro & bar. Apparently it's a "women's sports bar"... aka, a lesbian bar. Now, I don't know whose idea it was to have a company party at a women's sports bar, but....oh well.

We all got 2 free drinks. Ryan and I had 2 orange cream soda, root beer, and sierra mist altogether. A few of Ryan's coworkers were like "Ryan! You're drinking?!?! GOOD FOR YOU!" Then we pointed out that it was just root beer. Silly people - they have it so wrong.

Ryan and I were hanging out, leaning against a wall - when this group of lesbians passed us by and this girl was totally checking me out (I didn't think so at first, but Ryan noticed, too and thought it was hilarious)....awkward! At least for me anyway...

Also, while Ryan and I were chatting - people kept walking by, and as they walked by they kept accidentally touching my butt - so annoying. Unfortunately all the seats were talking, so we had to stand.

One of the funniest moments was when this guy was going around introducing himself as the CEO of the company. He came up to Ryan and Ryan was like, "what?" ... the guy introduced himself again and Ryan was like, "oooh....Ryan Birch...nice to meet you." Then the guy goes on about Ryan and football - and wishing Ryan luck is in football career...or something. ... Then the guy left and Ryan says, "That was my managers husband pretending to be the CEO" ....wow - what alcohol does to people - after the guy walked away he behind another guy and shoved his hand into a guys armpit from behind.....WEIRD!

It was also a lot of fun watching this girl from Ryan's work flirting with and following another coworker...even though she had her husband their with her. And the guy trying to run away from her the whole time... it's like... take a hint, he not interested...oh yah, and YOU'RE MARRIED!

I'm so glad I don't drink - get drunk - and make a fool of myself, haha.

FYI - the only reason we stayed as long as we did at the party - was cuz we were hoping to win the grand prize (they had a raffle every half hour) - we didn't win. Bummer.

Note to self : Never go to a lesbian bar ever again (seeing women makeout all over the place is just not my cup of tee).

Sorry this is can't randomly put together - I'm tired, and going to bed now :-)

My Kids are the Best!

Jaeda:


I wake up to her snuggling with me every morning (she usually wakes up before me, so she comes into my room, climbs onto my bed and holds me). She recently started jumping at me - throwing her arms around my neck with a big smile saying, "I wuv you!!" She busts out with the most awesome dance moves at the most random times. She has a scary voice that she uses to sing sometimes. She speaks a little spanish out of the blue (thanks Dora). She says please, thank you, excuse me, and bless you at appropriate times.... she is just AWESOME...and she makes me so happy.


Cael:

Everytime I say hi to him he replies with a big smile and sometimes a loud gasp (his laugh). It is so exciting to watch as he develops new skills. Last week he went from all fours to sitting position all by himself for the first time.....shortly after he started army crawling...and yesterday he crawled!! He goes down for naps easily, which I am so grateful for, and he cries when I leave the room (which could be a bad thing someday - but I take it as "I love and miss my mommy"). I can't wait to see what new stuff he picks up next!



While being a young mommy has been quite stressful at times, I wouldn't trade it for anything! Jaeda and Cael make me so happy - I don't know what I would do without them!

The Holidays in a Nutshell (a really big nutshell)

This year's Christmas celebrations were both exciting and exhausting for us. There was a lot of travelling back and forth, and there was a lot of fussiness going on between our two children who did not make their bedtimes AT ALL during the holidays. Anywho -

As it turns out, both Ryan's family and my family have their big Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve. So far, we have just tried doing both parties in one night, but I'm thinking that next year we are going to start alternating.

Ryan's family get's together at Grandma and Grandpa Birch's house where we all enjoy a tasty ham dinner with homemade honey mustard sauce (my favorite!!), caesar salad, rolls, and whatever other tasty treats others decide to bring (we made Magic Jell-O Parfait). My favorite part of the night was watching Jaeda tackle Jacob - and if Jacob stood up, Jaeda was yell, "No! Lie down!!" ....Then she would tackle him again.

Towards the end of the night, we opened presents and got some pretty sweet stuff. I have a terrible memory, so it's very possible that I left something out:

Laura made is a way sweet alphabet book - Jaeda loves it! Grandma and Grandpa got us a book by Neil A. Maxwell that I am looking forward to reading. They also got us a set of DVD resources referring to the Doctine and Covenants and church history - I'm very excited to look into it. Julie and Aaron made us a delicious plate of goodies - not pictured.....because we ate them (hmm....it's not letting me upload the picture....).

After presents, we left to make it to my family's house. We got there just in time for Christmas carols. Now, usually the tradition is to stay up til midnight, then open presents. Unfortunately, there are too many grandkids with bed times and too few rooms at Grandma and Grandpa's house. My parents were kind enough to push the time to ..... 8:30 or 9 so we could all get home sooner.

April and Andy got us a cute little fondue kit. I am so looking forward to using it! They also got Jaeda a princess puzzle and got us 2 tickets to a hockey game plus babysitting. I wanna say they got something for Cael too....but I just can't remember (I'm bad....I know). Diana got me a pair of socks and got Jaeda a Minnie Mouse doll, Minnie Mouse bini, and a matching Minnie and Mickey toy with their own cars. Cael got some toy blocks and balls from both great grandmas. Both the kids got some fun books....aaaaand.... someone (I think mom and dad) got Jaeda a Dora and Boots bath toy. Mom and Dad also got us a gift card for HuHot (for which I am super excited for). Many lollipops were given and I don't remember who they were from, haha.

After presents, we had the almond/rice pudding!!! We had rice pudding with strawberry (usually raspberry...but this year was different) topping. The tradition is to stick one peeled almond into the rice pudding, and whoever finds the almond in their pudding gets a prize and one year of good luck! I SOOOO wanted it this year, but Chase found it. He won a cool fondue kit (so it's good I didn't win....cuz I already got one of those for christmas!). After rice pudding, everyone busted out the desserts they brought - of course, we were all too full after eating rice pudding, so the desserts pretty much went untouched, haha. ....We went home.

We woke up the next day and were too excited to wait for Jaeda to wake up - so we woke her up. She was really tired - as soon as it lets me post pictures again, I'll get the pictures up. We opened presents and Jaeda had a blast! We got her a puzzle that she plays with daily, slippers that she hates, a few dresses, some pajama sets, some white board markers, and an easel!!! She opened it and thought it was a TV, haha. But we showed her how it worked and she loves it! I love watching her draw. We got Cael some toys to chew on - I don't even know what t hey're called, haha. Ryan got me a sexy pair of black boots, some bath towels, and Avater in blu ray with the extended version and lots of special features. I got Ryan pajama pants, a Zags sweatshirt and an old Navy sweater - I also got him The Dark Knight in blu ray and a PS3 game.... Dragonage Origins or something like that.

We then made breakfast - French toast, sausage, and eggs with orange juice.

We watched a movie, then headed over to my families to say marry christmas - then went to the Birch's and opened presents there. Jaeda got a cool microphone toy that broke before she finished opening it....then it broke again after she opened it by dropping it and stepping on it!! She still uses it daily, though - so it was an awesome gift! She also got a cool sleeping bag. She was zipped up in it and then exclaimed "I'm stuck!" She loved it. She also got a rubiks cube from uncle Nathan. Cael got a toy train (that Jaeda likes to take over ...because she loves trains).... and we got a lamp to take camping with us. Matt and Rachel got us another book by Neil A. Maxwell that I'm looking forward to reading...along with a gift card to ...... I forget what its called.... the shooting range by SCC... which is way cool because we found out that on Friday's rentals are free and if we share a lane we only have to pay for one of us. We're excited about it. We had treats and played Who What Where (a super fun game).

This is so long ..... I'm just trying to finish it up

On New Year's Eve we went to Birch's house where we played games (mostly just Redneck Game of Life....or whatever it's called). At midnight we drank (sparkling cider) and kissed (tee hee.... I should specify that we just kissed our significant others, haha) then packed up the kids and left!

OKAY!! Sorry this is to much to read - I hope everyone had happy holidays and I wish you all a happy new year!

Shopping - Oy!

So, I had my christmas shopping done about a month ago... but I went to the store with my sisters just to "hang out" and ended up spending way too much money :-( It went a lot like.. "Oh Ryan will love that..... oh that is a great stocking stuffer...OOOH - nailpolish, Jaeda is gonna go crazy!" Yah - so, I'm grounding myself from shopping until the holidays are over. I did find one cute dress for Jaeda - we didn't have anything white or black or cream colored or purple she could wear for Matt and Rachel's wedding, and after a few hours of looking I FINALLY found a dress that wasn't pink or christmas-y!! I'm so excited, I can't remember the last time I bought Jaeda a pretty dress... ... and after picking out the dress, I (of course) HAD to buy a matching bow. I almost bought shoes, but Ryan texted me telling me not to (smart man). I don't usually like shopping so much - I think my sisters just have a bad influence on me :-b

More random news - Ryan took the kids for 4-ish hours, and I got so much cleaning done! Our hallway was filled with hand-me-down boy clothes from my sister-in-law who dropped them off and I had no where to put them. Yesterday, I rearranged the kids room and made everything fit! Also, I put together all of the stuff my kids don't use anymore and it is all waiting to go to good will. I also scrubbed our dining table chairs (because Jaeda had coated each one with jelly, peanut butter, etc...)! My next task is to arrange to borrow a truck so we can haul our old couch (which has been sitting outside on our balcony for the last 2 months) to the dump, and return my grandma's recliner. I can't wait til the apartment is all back in order - even if it only lasts until Jaeda wakes up the next morning :-)

Oh, and good news - I found my camera!!!! So here are the most recent pictures of my kids :-) (I have to post these pictures, just in case our hard drive decides to lose all of our pictures again - now the only past pictures I have of Jaeda are ones I've posted on previous blogs or on facebook)

I just LOVE my little family :-)