The DeFranks

Frolicking monkey-cousins

2012-02-13T13:50:00.000-08:00

David McLawyerPants had a work trip to the ultra-exotic Sacramento last week. In true clingy-wife fashion, I suggested that the children and I accompany him. "It'll be awesome, David. You, Selah and I can sing rounds of 'Row, row row your boat,' the ENTIRE 3 hour drive up to Sacramento!" I mean, how could he resist that? Turns out he couldn't.

While David litigated, Ash and I piled all four kids in her car and the six of us drove around like a non-stop field trip, powered by juice boxes and goldfish.

Selah, Ava, Johnny, Jack's left foot

That's right. Endless fun and chaos ensued from the moment we stepped Jack's left foot in the 916.

In fact, I hate to be that person with zero modesty and total lack of self-awareness, but I have to say that Ash and I crammed so much fun into three days that if they had awards for funnest moms ever, I would nominate us. Shoot, I think I might just make my own contest and award it to Ashley and myself. Congrats, Ash! Congrats, Myself!

The children peer at flamingos.

Johnny is such a little ray of sunshine. He is so bright that he needs sunglasses.

Lunch at the zoo. (You can see why I did not award myself the "Excellence in training your child to eat perfectly in public" award.)

Oh, no! The monkeys escaped and are driving the dump truck!

Can you believe these littles are TWO? They will turn THREE this year. Ahhhhhh!

Cousins frolicking.

Dinner at Burgers and Brew. (Kids stayed home with sitters. Longest span of time sitting still in days. Loved it.)

Auntie Ash made pancakes for breakfast! Coolest Aunt evs.

Selah had to ~~play lots of Angry Birds~~ get some work done on our trip.

At the mall.

We were also able to briefly see our friend Sarah and sweet Vivi and Harvs. Do you guys remember Harvey? You know, the best-haired baby you ever did see? Look how big he is!!!!!

Hi Sarah!!! Move to Fresno now, kthx.

Sarah and Viv

Can you believe we managed to get all the kiddos looking in the same direction? Totally miraculous.

"Hey, Jack. Let's play a trick on mom where one of us is always looking the other direction when she tries to take a picture!"

"Ok. You smile this time, and I'll just do a super creepy face."

"Repeat."

Did you know that Johnny plays SOCCER???? Is that not the cutest thing ever? 2-year olds playing SOCCER?! Well. His coach (coach!) let Selah play at this week's practice. She's still talking about it.

Hilarious.

What a fun visit with my sissy and her sweet kidlings. We missed you guys so much. I have also concluded that one of two things must happen: 1.) teleportation invented, 2.) Giovannettones move to the 'No. Glad we cleared that up.

Miss you guys already!!!

Guest post by Selah Kate

2012-02-04T17:22:00.000-08:00

'Sup guys? Mom said I could do a guest post about Jack's birthday. I'm pretty stoked because I love typing. Her only rule was that I had to keep the post primarily about the ~~pipsqueak~~ birthday boy.

I'll do my best.

Here's the outfit I wore the day before Jack's birthday. Skirt from Old Navy. Shirt from gap. Rain boots from Target.

Here I am trying to pose like one of my style icons, Kendi. Maybe when I'm old enough to wear heels, I can start my own style blog called "Selah Everyday." That will be awesome.

Hey, Kendi. I think you should try out this cool pose I just made up. I think it really works.

Oh, yeah. Back to the birthday boy...

Here we are at the grocery store a few days ago. Not sure why mom makes us drive the cart. It's tough work being a kid.

Speaking of the birthday boy, here's another great picture of Jack and me:

This is right before Jack put his little mouth on the play equipment inside the mall. Boys are disgusting.

Ok, fine, Mom. I'll get back to the birthday boy. We had a small family celebration on Jack's birthday. I sang an incredible rendition of the birthday song, if I do say so myself. Jack smiled and proceeded to cover his entire face in cupcake:

Gross.

Here he is opening his gift from Great Grandma Merlee. My hand is also on the gift, in the lower left side of the photo. I made sure to test the toy out for him before he could play with it. I continue to do this with every toy he receives. (You're welcome, Jack.) By the way, great toy, Great Grandma! We both love it.

Mommy and Me on Friday. See that total baller in the pink jacket? The one listening quietly to Teacher Annette? That'd be me. I sat still for a record-breaking 15 minutes. nbd.

Post-Mommy-and-Me swing-age.

This morning I was trying to get some work done. Mom kept shoving her iphone in my face. Luckily my powers of concentration are unparalleled.

Just looking over some TCP reports...Maybe I took a facebook break. Whatever, we all do it.

"Sally just changed her diaper status to 'potty-trained.' Whaaaaaat? Dang. I need to step it up."

Back to work.

Snack break.

Aiight, haters. I'm out.

Oh, and happy birthday, little brother. You are the coolest one-year old I know. I can't believe it was only a year ago that I was calling you, "Doggy," and you looked like this:

EvyCrystalViolet

2012-01-27T14:35:00.000-08:00

Today we visited the farmers market and the park with my friend Crystal (Crystal and I worked our very first jobs together while we were in high school. A decade later, we both wound up in Fresno, married, with two kids about the same ages!) and her two darling little girls, Evy and Violet. Selah talks about them frequently. But she always says their names together in this order, "EvyCrystalViolet," as if they were all one person.

Speaking of Selah-isms, the other day I brought Jack downstairs from his nap. Selah was sitting on the couch. She looked up at Jack and said, "Good morning, son."

Her other new favorite phrase is "Why not?"

Like, I'll say, "Hey Selah, can I have a big hug?"

She'll pause for a second before replying, "Why not?" As if she's saying, "I suppose...After all, I have nothing better to do at this particular moment. You're just lucky Bubble Guppies doesn't start for another 10 minutes."

Anywayz. I'm kind of going through Bachelor withdrawals right now because my dvr had been backed up for weeks and I finally caught up last night. Now I NEED another episode. Are you guys watching this season? (I'm totes rooting for Emily, even though I think she made a major misstep this week. And holy cow, could Courtney be any meaner/more entertaining?!)

Ok, here are the pictures from yesterday's play date (as if you hadn't skipped my babbling and looked at them already, right?)

Swinging quartet

Sweet Evy and Precious Violet

Jack could not come close to containing his excitement

"Woohoo! This swing is the absolute BEST! Thanks, Mom. I love you so much that I will never leave you for another woman."

Jack and Violet enjoying the day

Aren't his teensy little legs so cute?!

Girlfriends swinging up a storm

I took this one our walk the other day. Selah insists on pulling Jack in the wagon whenever we take walks.

Just one-a them dayyyyyyyz

2012-01-25T19:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was one of those days. You know the ones, where the chorus of this song plays in your head on repeat?

It was the kind of day when it's 2pm and you haven't eaten and are totally starving but you're almost done with your errands, so you peel the nap-deprived kids out of the car at Target, when all of a sudden your one-year old pukes on your two-year old's hair, jacket and shirt. And then you just stand there staring at your toddler saying, "Nope. Nope. Nope. That didn't just happen." So you quickly wipe down your wiggly 2-year old, which only imbeds the vomit chunks more deeply into her mane. And your one-year old screams because, duh, things aren't going bonkers enough at the present moment, right?

Sigh.

And then you call your husband at work and he answers the phone so sweetly, "Hi, beautiful," he says. But instead of being a loving wife, you decide that the vomiting incident was probably his fault somehow. (I still don't know how I managed to convince myself of this, but I guess that's where the old saying, "Hell hath no fury like a woman covered in baby vomit at Target" comes from.)

It's days like yesterday that make me grateful for days like today. When I let myself forget about the laundry for a minute so I can sit down and play catch with my littles. And instead of scrubbing the sink during nap time, I'm sitting down, blogging, reflecting on how grateful I am for all the sweet, non-vomitty moments:

I was blow drying my hair and turned around to see Selah trying to style Jack's with her own toy hair dryer. (Good luck, sister. Jack's hair is at an awkward length, there's almost nothing that can be done to un-mullet it.)

Mom D.'s wild and crazy birthday bash

Crazy Eyes DeFrank

Play group.

Hope you are having a great week, 4LR!

Happy birthday, Mom D.!

2012-01-21T08:28:00.000-08:00

This post is dedicated to the coolest mother-in-law in mother-in-law history, Linda DeFrank. Happy 39th birthday, Mom.

Hope you feel like this all day:

And I hope you get to do your favorite things ever. Like watch Caillou right in front of the TV:

Love,

Your favorite oldest child, favorite daughter-in-law and favorite grandchildren

Jungle Boogie

2012-01-12T19:00:00.000-08:00

Selah has taken to calling boogers "jungles."

I have absolutely no idea where this came from. One day I wiped her nose with a kleenex, she pointed to the kleenex and said, "Whoa. Big jungle!"

Weird.

Anyway...

We celebrated Jackattack's birfday on Sunday. She turned 24. At first I thought that was impossible since I am 24...until I remembered that I am not 24, and that I haven't been 24 since 2009. What is it about the early 20s that makes everyone feel like they should stay there forever?

Happy birthday, Jackaroni and cheese!

Aaand, what's a blog update without gratuitous (and not particularly great) photos of my kids?!

Selah asked to hold Jack while she went down the slide. She was very excited.

Jack dug it, too.

That is, until...

"Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum!" exclaimed Selah, as she prepared to squish her little brother like a bug.

Love the juxtaposing expressions here.

The kids play the classic children's game, Upside-down Turtle vs. Turtle-poacher. (What? Did you not play that game as a kid?)

Jack: "Selah. You realize one day I'll be much, much bigger than you, right?"

Clearly Selah does not realize this. The other day the kids were playing together when they both began giggling like crazy. By the time I pulled out my iPhone to record it, they had stopped. So I asked Selah to go make Jack laugh again. I appreciate her swift willingness to obey, but question her comedic skills. See for yourself:

I'm blue (♫ bop-a-dee-bop-a-die, bop-a-dee-bop-a-die ♫)

2012-01-10T22:53:00.000-08:00

Did you hear that Jay-Z and Beyonce's baby was born a few days ago? It's a girl. They named her Blue. Like the color. They were going to name her Apple until they remembered their friend already used that one. So they picked the next obvious choice. (Am I allowed to joke about other parents' baby name selections when I named my daughter something obscure like Selah?)

I promise this entire post will not be about celebrity baby names. Even though I am obsessed with baby names. For real, if you ever want to talk about baby names, please call me. I could discuss them for days. Part of me wants to have 10 kids just so I can name them all. Don't tell David I said that. In case you are equally obsessed, go here. It's the best.

Ok. Picture time. Woot!

We went to the zoo last week with Steph, Joey and Gracynn.

Um. Glad I noticed when I looked at this picture that I parked Jack with a great view - of the wood posts. Sorry, Jack.

Selah (or "Seyah," according to her highness,) has taken to chauffeuring her wee bro around in their wagon.

Sharing some goldfishies.

At the Dino Dig, aka Parent Rest Zone.

My boy.

The girls may have had some fun rolling down the grassy/leafy hill.

Gracynn assists me in my mom-business while Jack takes an important phone call.

Sweet Gracynn

2012, yo.

2012-01-03T11:05:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012, y'all! Cliche as it may be to say, I can't believe it's already a new year. This year Selah will turn THREE! (What?!) And in less than one month, Jack turns ONE. For the first time in like 3.5 years I will be without a baby - either in my womb or on my hip. Not sure how I feel about that...Also not sure how I feel about having two toddlers. Double the tantrums, double the fun. I guess it doesn't much matter how I feel about it since it's happening either way, right? :)

On that front, I guess I can share some exciting* milestones for our tiny DeFrankies. As of yesterday, Jack can pull himself to standing, using whatever he finds around him. He also does some slight cruising. Hard as I tried to keep him from growing up, he's doing it anyway. I told Mom D. that I planned to take him to his first day of school strapped to my chest in a baby Bjorn. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

I can't tell you how much fun we had with friends over the holidays. David and I both met our closest friends in high school. One awesome thing about living in the 'no is that we get to hang out with David's best buddies around holidays since they all come back to town.

At Max's for dinner. Ehsaan, Kyle, Chuka. (Kyle. I want your hair.)

Dessert from Max's. Yes, please.

Post-Max's at Elbow Room. Ehsaan, Nikki, Chuka, Reid, David. (Duh.) Does this picture not look like it's straight out of the opening credits of How I Met Your Mother??

Omg. On Friday Jack got to meet sweet little Lively. He was besotted:

"No, but seriously, Lively. I just got a new wagon for Christmas. I call it my Swagger Wagon. Aaaand, I can sit unassisted. I'm totally a good catch...Lively are you still listening?"

At one point Jack actually kissed her little foot. I think he has a slight crush.

Playing Catch Phrase on New Years Eve.

Jessica and Lee. Love this picture.

Chuka, Nikki, Reid.

I promise they had fun, despite their expressions.

Happy New Year!!!!

Christmas wrap-up

2011-12-27T21:56:00.000-08:00

Oh, friends. I only hope that your Christmas holiday was as magical as ours was. In terms of gifts, company and fun, we received everything we could have asked for and more. Jack said all he really wanted was to have a genuine-looking mustache so that he would be admitted to PG-13 movies all by himself. And you wouldn't believe what Santa brought:

I guess I should rewind. The week leading up to Christmas, Selah and I baked Christmas cupcakes for friends and neighbors. The first 10 minutes of our baking experience was like something out of a movie. She was thrilled to be my special helper, following directions and 100 percent tantrum-free.

Things started to go downhill when I did not allow her to pour additional oil into the sufficiently-oiled batter. (How outrageous of me, right?) At least we ended up with gorgeous-looking cupcakes that anyone would love to dig into...

Selah was so very proud of her creation, that she refused to leave it alone, even for a second. She wanted desperately to watch Caillou (worst show ever, btw), but didn't want to leave the kitchen. It's hard being two years old.

Christmas day was sort of like a triathlon. We paced ourselves carefully during our morning stretch at home, just the four of us. Then we headed to Mom and Dad D's house for the second leg, where we were showered with so, so many gifts. I'm still not sure if it was Christmas or if I was selected to be on an episode of Queen for a Day, because that's how many presents I got.

Next we carbo-loaded and set out for our final leg: Bakersfield for Aunt Elaine's Annual Christmas Carnival. (Ok, fine. She doesn't actually call it that. But she is a fantastic host and does this for like 20 people every single year.)

In a Christmas ritual practiced 'round the world, Uncle Steve (Linda's brother) created a dog-head-video by strapping his new video camera to Taz's head. ~~If I had the youtube link, I would put it right here: .~~ (Update! Thanks for sharing the vid, Steve!)

Jack and David enjoy Christmas together.

Selah could not get enough of the fiber optic tree.

"She's sad in this picture because she can't find her left arm," says Allison, the photographer.

Jackie & Ben.

David's Aunt Allison (Uncle Steve's wife), photgrapher of every non-iphone photo (aka every good photo) in this post, and podcaster extraordinaire. (Thanks for the photos, Allison!)

Selah and I may have received matching Anthropologie aprons. (!!!!!!)

Jack wonders where his mustache went...

I kind of love him.

A lot.

For realz.

Grandpa Ken (Linda's dad) gave Grandma Merlee an ipad for Christmas. She was pretty excited.

Grandpa Ken.

Jack hangs out with Kyle. At one point Jack tried to bite Kyle's feet. Don't worry, Kyle, that's how Jack shows that he thinks you're cool. You should feel honored.

Jack with his Grandma and Great-Grandma

Selah amazed at this ball thing.

We checked into our hotel in Bako. I had to take a picture or two while the babies brushed their teefs.

"Jack. You have to brush your teeth twice a day, every day. Trust me, I'm older and wiser."

(Shortly before this, Selah updated my facebook status with random letters. I see now that she also put a sticker on my phone. She's always leaving me sweet little surprises.)

Here you can see a mother beaming over her two children. I'm so happy, in fact, that my eye is exploding with happiness and light.

What an exceptional Christmas. And not just because David got an ipad (!!!), or because I got a generous chunk of change to put towards a new camera/lens or because Selah and Jack now have enough toys to open their own store. It was exceptional because of the folks we shared the holiday with. I really did marry into a pretty great family. You guys rock. What a fun few days. (Although we missed Lindsay so much! Lindsay, this is how Jack felt about you not being there this weekend:)

But seriously, did you know that this kind of mess does not come off with your standard wet paper towel? It requires putting the actual face underneath the sink faucet. Seriously. Boys are so messy.

"You got a problem with this?"

Happy almost 2012! (Can you even believe that?!)

Waiting for elves

2011-12-23T16:30:00.000-08:00

Is anyone else so busy this holiday season that your dishes and laundry have taken over your home? I wonder if I leave them alone for long enough, maybe little Christmas elves will suddenly appear and finish them all for me? Yes, that is definitely what will happen.

While I wait for the elves, I guess I'll just post some of the pictures I've taken the past few weeks:

We decorated cookies at Steph's house a few weeks back. Selah had a blast. Here she and Jonah are playing with Joey and Gracynn's nativity set.

My little Giacomo snuggling with his Nana. He sat here with her for like an hour, completely content.

Selah and Pop-pop looked for airplanes...

(Really could have used the D200 here, huh? Siiiiiiiiiigh.)

We've been doing lots of Christmas shopping. These carts at Target are the best.

We went to David's work Christmas party last week on Christmas Tree Lane. In case you aren't in the (Fres)know, this street of gorgeous homes gets uber festive every Christmas, and families walk and drive down, marveling at the bajillions of lights. Selah was totally amazed.

Walking Christmas Tree Lane

Some people might say that black patent leather heels would be a bad shoe choice for walking many, many blocks on uneven pavement...I say, why didn't those people call me and tell me that before I left the house?

Barely visible DeFranks

Play date at Jonah's and Addy's house.

"Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?"

David and I took a much-needed date night last week:

You might think this picture is weird. But David had just asked me if his cheek smelled funny. I was merely being a helpful wife.

Normal.

Again, totally normal.

No date is complete without sweet, romantic nothings inscribed on the table.

Oh, and in case you were wondering how one goes grocery shopping with two small kids and then loads them back into the car without letting the toddler roam into the parking lot, or without damaging the pricey 7-series BMW adjacent to your car...

My toes are preventing the cart from rolling into that car while I ~~buckle Selah in~~ take a picture with one hand and give a thumbs-up with my other hand. Selah calculates how much money we would have leftover if we had to repair that car because we accidentally dented it. Yeesh. Good thing we didn't.

Ok, friendlies. time to go wrap some gifts. I wrap them during nap time, and then when Selah wakes up and while I'm not looking, she unwraps them. So I wrap them again after bedtime. I've gotten awesome at wrapping presents. Isn't it so sweet of Selah to help me improve my wrapping skills? I thought so, too. What a perfect angel.

Christmas in the S.V.

2011-12-12T08:55:00.001-08:00

You know those road trips when everything just works out? Like, the kids nap when they are supposed to, and they arrive at Nana and Pop-Pop's house, dole out oodles of hugs and kisses, are on their best behavior and then go to sleep without a peep?

Me neither. No, just kidding. We actually had a near-perfect visit down south this past weekend. The kiddos traveled really well. As we approached my parents' house, Selah exclaimed, "Nana Pop-Pop time! Yaaaaaaay!!" It was sweet. And as soon as my dad walked in the house from work, Selah looked at him and said, "Kiss, pwease!"

I like it when my kids are sweet and charming. I also enjoy pretending that they are that way all the time.

Picture time! Yaaaay!

Selah and Johnny had a kick ball tourney in the backyard.

My two favorite men with the luckiest girl in the world.

Nana and Pop-Pop took us to dinner at Musashi on Saturday. Remember when I was talking about well-behaved kid days? This dinner was kind of the opposite of that idea.

Christmas celebration at Mark and Caitlin's house. Spencer totally digs Jack. He calls him Jackie. It's cute.

Ava and Selah dancing to "Back that thang up." (I know. I thought it was kind of weird, too.)

How Martha Stewart-y is Caitlin?!

Sissies.

Sneechicks.

"Selah, can you make a happy face?"

"Hey, Selah, can you do a silly face?"

"How about an angry face?"

Hm. We might need to practice this...

My best girlfriend. :)

Jack-Jack and Pop-Pop. You may notice Jack's ~~awesome~~ special haircut. Courtesy of yours truly. I clearly missed my calling as a hairstylist. I think I would make a lot of money if I opened a salon. Although the only hairstyle I would be able to offer is the Donald Trump cut (see above)...So as soon as that comes back in style, I'm totally opening a salon.

The 4-09-ers. (Four Snee kids all born in 2009.)

All 8 grandbabies! 5 years old and under.

I couldn't NOT use this picture because how cute is Hayden's expression and wave here?!

Love the little ladies and their boots. Great shot, Caiters.

15 years worth of sass for each of the girls in this picture, and only 6 years in combined ages. Uh-oh.

This KID. He just has my whole heart around his perfect little pinky finger. (Gag, right?)

(Photos courtesy of Smashley and Caiters. Thanks for helping a camera-less sister out, ladies!)

What a fantastic Christmas celebration. Caitlin blew us away yet again with her mad hostessing skills. Waffle bar, yogurt and fruit spread, bagels. All surrounded by the most festive Christmas decor in the land - most of which was homemade.

I'm loving the Christmas season this year. Although I am beginning to feel the additional pressure that comes with making the holidays magical for your brood. This is the first year that Selah can grasp the excitement of the season. We've been trying to explain that Christmas is Jesus' birthday. Whenever we do, she says, "Jesus birthday party! Balloons!" And she is most interested in the horses and donkeys in the nativity scene. I think we have a ways to go before she will get it. But it's a start. And speaking of nativity animals, holy cow, I can't wait to watch her face on Christmas morning!

D-town. The Galt area and back down.

2011-12-05T16:26:00.001-08:00

Hi BFFs. (Blog Friends Forever.)

Hope you found a way to entertain yourselves during my abnormally long blog hiatus, or bliatus, if you will...(You won't? It's ok, I wouldn't either. We'll just stick with "blog hiatus.)

We've been a busy bunch lately, what with all the hustle-bustle December brings. And I have discovered a newfound love for the Toys R Us catalog, madly circling every toy Selah or Jack might find even slightly amusing. Moms are crazy, I know.

Last weekend we packed up our ~~little~~ DeFrank clan and headed to Davis to celebrate Ava and Johnny's birthdays. (Don't you worry your pretty little heads, I took pictures.) The ride there was fun. Selah demanded we listen to her favorite song, "By bee bee." I know that sounds like a sweet kids song, but it's actually just the way she pronounces the title of the E40 song, "My Beat Bang." Weird.

At Woodstock's the night before the party. Our old hangout. Good old D-town. Wonderful memories there.

Johnny "The Situation" Giovannettone shows some love to his Grandma. Even tough guys love their Grandmas.

Grandpa G. explains proper pizza assembly to Selah, using the kitchen below as a visual.

I kept it classy, as usual.

:)

DeFrankful

2011-11-25T20:49:00.001-08:00

You know what I'm pretty sure I'll never tire of? Calling Thanksgiving "DeFranksgiving." I love it. Like a fine wine, each year it just seems more excellent. (Does comparing recycled wordplay to wine make me a huge loser? Perhaps. Might that be why I am forced to ask and answer my own questions to myself? Indeed. Shall I move on to the pictures of our DeFranksgiving? Definitely.)

We celebrated Tofurkey Day at Grandma T's house in Madera again this year. Grandma T is like a professional Thanksgiving hostess. We walked in her door an hour before mealtime and it smelled heavenly. The table was set, and her kitchen was CLEAN. Is that not miraculous? She didn't even look stressed. Every dish was warm in the oven, ready to go. I might need to take some lessons from her. She's pretty impressive.

Ok, picture time:

Mama and Jack-Jack McJackersons

We took a really great family portrait, so I'm pretty stoked. Wanna see?

Christmas card-worthy, right?

We did get a few decent family shots, too:

Tried to snap photos of the littles together. Here's what I got:

So instead I chased Jack around the backyard, forcing the camera in front of his face:

Me and my little dude.

Los DeFranks (Can you believe how tall Vince has gotten?!)

Grandpa hanging with Selah.

football time.

Yep, that's about right.

Love that we are in the Christmas season. And although this will be our third Christmas with kids, this is the first Christmas that Selah can kind of grasp the excitement of the season. Everytime she sees a bicycle outside or on tv, she looks at me and says, "Selah bicycle too, pweease."Think I know what's on her wishlist. :)

Thankful

2011-11-21T10:40:00.001-08:00

This past weekend the Snees descended upon Fresno to celebrate Thanksgiving. And let me tell you, we sure showed this holiday who's boss. We packed 16 Snees into our home. That includes 8 kids, ages 5 and under. Fun and chaos continuously oozed out of our home all weekend.

Check it:

Ash (aka Sissypants McMarthaStewart - that's what my mom almost named her,) made these darling little candy turkeys. How cute are they?! The kids and John gobbled them right up.

Sneesters. (I love how my two handsome men are also in this picture.)

Spencer is incredibly gentle and sweet with his little cuz.

Is your heart in a puddle yet? Mine is.

The bounce house. Where the Snee kids jump around. Jump around. Jump up, jump up and get down. Jump. Jump. Jump. Jump.

Spencer scales the climbing wall.

I'm sorry, but I giggle every time I look at this picture because Johnny is so cute clinging on for dear life.

The kids all basically just sat on the couch like this all weekend and chilled.

Bahahahahaha. Jk.

Megan and mini Megan, aka Gwendalajara.

Ash took this excellent photo of me, mid-bite.

The littles decorated cookies after dinner. Not to be mean, but the cookies looked absolutely disgusting by the time they were done. Like, there'd be a sugar cookie (yum), with some frosting on top (yum), with three varieties of sprinkles, skittles, candy corn and a box of sugar on top.

(Vom.) Why not deep-fry them?

And then my brother kept asking everyone if we could snap some glamour shots of him so he could frame them and give them to Caitlin for Christmas. I mean, that's a nice sentiment and all, but really, Mark, maybe try a nice sweater or a piece of jewelry instead?

Sorry, Caitlin. Merry Christmas.

What the HECK could have possibly kept the kids entertained and evoked that kind of expression from John? I'm so curious.

Whipping up a Thanksgiving feast.

The cooks

Johnny: "Ugh. Why did I get stuck at the girls' table?"

"Does Aunt Molly HAVE to sing while she cooks?"

Spencer and Ava

The men watch fball and count poker chips while the women cook. How stereotypical.

Selah Belah. Pretty certain the only thing she ate was the ketchup I put on her plate to accompany her mashed potatoes.

Dessert time!

We so loved having everyone at our home this weekend. I love that Selah and Jack get to grow up with their cousins like this. It's a luxury that I didn't have as a kid because all my cousins live on the east coast. She talks about them all the time and it warms my heart.

You'd think it would be stressful to have this many kids at your home...it really isn't, though. I think that's because the women in my fam are so on top of it. Like, every time they come over, they are doing dishes (Megan) or cleaning out my microwave or folding my laundry (Caitlin) or reorganizing my closets for me (Ashley). I kid you not, these chicks sure do know how to help a sister out. I can think of three girls I'm particularly thankful for this year. You guys can come stay at our house anytime you want. :)

Jack's first word, play group, and San Francisco

2011-11-13T21:31:00.001-08:00

Can you believe that we're a month and a half away from 2012? Does that not blow your mind? It certainly does mine. Jack will be a year old in two and a half short months. My baby boy is transforming into a toddler before my very eyes.

Did you know that he said his first word last week? Yep, he said, "Dada." It was early one morning when he beckoned me into his room to feed him and change him. Then I sleepily stumbled back to our bedroom with Mr. Jackattack. Plopped us into bed, him in between me and David. David said "Good morning, champ." Jack beamed and said, "Dada." It was really sweet. (And I was only mildly bummed that "Dada" came before "Mama." I mean, what does it matter that I sacrificed my body, sleep and sanity to birth the kid, right? :)

Anyway, I am sitting on our couch in my fleece pj pants right now, basking in the lingering glow of a perfect weekend. Mom D. watched Jack and Selah for us this weekend while David and I enjoyed a little getaway to San Fran. It was simply perfection. (I know, I have the coolest mother-in-law ever, right?)

Here are some pictures of our life lately, and of our SF trip:

Jack socializes with his play group friends, Ella and Camden. We have the coolest play group ever. I love watching Selah make friends.

Sweet Ella and Jack

Selah and Camden (how cute is he?!)

Adorable Sienna, Camden and Selah at play group

Selah has begun perfecting the art of fake tears. Luckily I have mastered the art of deciphering fake tears. :)

"Mom. For reals, not in the mood for a picture, k?"

"All right Mrs. De~~Mille~~Frank, I'm ready for my close- up."

Absolutely fascinated by the fake reindeer at the mall.

Grandma, Selah, and Blitzen.

Jack chillin' at the mall. This kid already out-eats his sister. He LOVES food. And I LOVE that he's content anywhere as long as he has a snack.

Driving into SF:

Dinner at Fino. Great Italian place I yelped. Love Yelp.

Buying tix for the muni. We're, like, totally not tourists and blend in with all the SF peeps...Except for our husband/wife matching Ronald Reagan tshirts.

Went to Ike's for sandwiches today before heading out. I insisted that I drive to Ike's since parking is crazy and I'm a much ~~less considerate~~ more nimble driver. Sure enough, I landed us a spot right out front! (Maybe it was kind of in a red zone. Maybe it wasn't. Some things will always remain a mystery.)

They have this special thing out front to entertain you while you wait 30 minutes for your sandwich with no place to sit. Totally worth the wait, btw.

Wish I had more pictures of our trip. I would, if my phone didn't die...It's probably because I was too busy looking up fun restaurants in the area on my Yelp app. It's probably not because I was recording myself making music videos to Alanis Morrissette songs on the radio as we waited in traffic on the Bay Bridge. Psh, yeah right like I'd do something that geeky.

P.S. Does anyone know how to make extra-sure that your deleted videos on your iphone are definitely, for certain deleted?...Anyone? It's for a friend.

Good mooooooooorning!

2011-11-10T09:05:00.001-08:00

Good morning from the DeFranks!

Savory-sweet tomato chickpeas

2011-11-06T20:20:00.000-08:00

Ok, guys. It's time to share one of our recent favorite recipes. My former McDonald's-a-holic husband is now a full-time vegetarian, part-time vegan, and he requests this dish as often as I will make it. For real. It's pretty delish.

This recipe is loosely based on Chickpeas Romesco, a recipe out of one of my favorite cookbooks, Veganomicon. I've made roughly 20 recipes from this book since I bought it in the spring. All the recipes have been outstanding.

Ok, here it is!

28oz can crushed tomatoes
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced finely
1/2 onion, minced finely
1/4 cup white wine
2 tsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried rosemary, crumbled
2 15-oz cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
freshly ground pepper

Preheat medium-size saucepan over medium heat. Sautee garlic and onions in oil until onions turn golden, 5-7 minutes-ish. Pour in the white wine, and cook about 2 minutes or until wine is almost completely reduced. Add tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, thyme, rosemary and salt. Add chickpeas and simmer uncovered for 35 mins, until the sauce is slightly reduced and the chickpeas are very tender.** Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Serve atop white rice, alongside a green salad and warm baguette. You can thank me later. :)

11/8: **P.S. Mom D. just made this and said that it may need to be cooked at a higher temp during the last 25 mins, because it did not reduce for her. I made a few changes above in bold - increased the cooking time. The sauce should be bubbling the entire time it is cooking, and if the chickpeas are not tender after the time is up, cook a bit longer. You want the sauce to be thick and kind of sweet and tangy and the garbanzos tender.

Funny girl

2011-11-05T21:01:00.000-07:00

Selah's been cracking me up lately.

I was doing dishes tonight (what else is new?) and I looked over and saw her sitting on the ground, holding her stuffed dog, Violet, up to her chest. She was saying, "Milk, Violet." My daughter was pretending to nurse her stuffed dog. Funny. And also gross.

Apparently all the weather has mistaken Fresno for Antarctica, because it is totally cold frontin'. We've been seriously bundling up the past few days. Here's Jack preparing for bedtime tonight, in his 17 layers:

And please don't bring it to David's attention that I put pink socks on my son. I don't think he noticed all day. It's weird how each child multiplies your laundry pile by approximately 4 times. Sometimes I simply cannot locate a pair of masculine baby socks. Sorry, Jack.

Took this picture on the way home from trick-or-treating at our friends' house on Halloween night. I turned around to see Selah holding her glow bracelet in between her toes. She kept it there for the entire 15 minute drive home.

In other news, Jack accidentally experienced his first taste of meat the other day. He army crawled faster than a speeding bullet to the dogs kibble, reached in and stuffed an entire fistful into his mouth. I had to pull each kibble out individually. Gross.

OMG. Just realized I still haven't shared one of my fave vegan meals with you yet! It involves chickpeas like you've never tasted them before and a sweet and savory tomato sauce. I will post tomorrow or Monday, as I am about to watch a movie with the hubs, fireside. :) Buenos nachos!

Selah's Second

2011-10-31T21:55:00.000-07:00

Selah's 2nd birthday was yesterday. We celebrated two years of Selah with a costume party and some of our favorite people in the whole world. And yep, we took approximately 7 bazillion photos - one for each minute Selah has been alive. (The math's right. No need to check.)

We dressed up as the Flintstones. I made most of our costumes, as you can see. :) Just ironed on black spots to Selah's, Jack's and David's clothes. Sewed bones for Pebbles' hair and for Bam-Bam's sash out of felt. Glue-gunned the bone to a hair clip. Made the sash out of an old brown tshirt. Bought the bat for $1 at the flea market. Easy and so incredibly cheap. Bought blue scrap fabric for David's tie at Joann's. I originally planned to alter an XL maternity tank as my dress, but then I found this little number at Forever21 instead, and it cost the same as the tank top.

Anyway, on to the party pics!

David and I got her this bounce house for her big day.

She kind of liked her birthday gift, I think. :)

Me and my babies. :)

Mom D. came as a witch! Excellent hat. Gloves are a nice touch, too.

Love this DeFranks pic. Although I really think that one year we should all paint our faces green and wear bolts on our necks and go as DeFrankensteins.

I asked Ava and Selah this morning what their favorite part of the party was and they each said, "Jackie."

Lee and Dennis shake hands after brawling over who had the awesomer costume. They just agreed to disagree.

Ashley and Addybug

DeFrank men

Lora and Dennis

The ladies

Wilma and Fred

Jack and the least witchy witch I ever did know. :)

Oh dear, Lee. Looks like that gangster Dennis really did some damage, eh?

"I wish I got to wear a cool costume that I understood. If Pebbles Flintstone was a real person, she'd be older than my parents by now."

Totally not dangerous: One kid going up the slide the wrong way; three going down the slide while connected.

The Snees drove all the way up from Simi for Selah's special day! So sweet. Isn't Gwenny the most precious?!

Selah and Kendall coloring up a storm

Sissypants and her fam came down from D-town for Selah's 2nd. What a cool fam I have, huh?

Erika and Ella, the tiniest zebra

Jacks

Justin explains to John that they will simply not fit in those teeny tiny kids chairs. "They simply will not support men of our...stature, John."

Selah blows out her candle alongside her friend Jonah. Gracynn and Joey stare longingly at the cupcakes, hoping Selah's saliva confined itself to the one she blew on.

Ok. Note to self: Goofy glasses/nose/mustache combo makes me look crazy enough. No need for grotesque facial expression to boot. Lesson learned.

Chris, if you were wondering where your pirate mustache went...well, wonder no more.

Spencer and Ava

Jack applauds for his sister's special day

homeboys chillin'

Yeah, right, Jack. Like you were going to escape the man glasses party favors? Your mom is obsessed with finding excuses to take a picture of you. Just wait 'til you go to prom.

OMG. He's going to go with a DATE to the prom, isn't he???? UGH. I think my heart just stopped. Maybe I'll just have him bring me instead. That's not weird at all, right?

Oldie McOldersons

2011-10-24T21:50:00.000-07:00

My AARP-elligible hubster is officially 26. To make it officially official, we celebrated his birthday twice. First on his actual birthday, and again on Saturday night with his best buds from high school. Pics? Si!

Vincent and Jacks DeFrank

I actually got an awesome cardio workout in while we were at dinner. This is because Jack was uncharacteristically fussy. I had to bounce him, walk him around and throw him in the air a few times. (What? I caught him on his way down! Jeez, what kind of mother do you think I am????) He still complained. Not by crying though. He grunted. But loudly enough to be totally annoying to other diners. As much as I think Barney is annoying sometimes, he totes came to the rescue:

It's true, Barns. I DO love you.

Birfday boy with his mama and his little lady

No, this isn't an awkward 1st date photo from 2005 where we wore the exact same outfits as we did on Thursday. This is just an old married couple posing for a quick picture between toddler/baby screaming breaks.

My family gets serious about dessert. Look at those faces.

Selah is seriously serious about that ice cream.

Would have brought Jack into this picture but I didn't want to disturb the peace that Barney had just provided after a 15 minute grunt-session. We can always photoshop him in later, no?

Grandma and Selah-roo

Have you ever seen a bag of sour patch watermelons this big? Jackie is brilliant. (Do you like how Selah's arm is flailing about wildly in an attempt to snag the treats?)

Took these on Sat at Edo ya. (Have you tried their fried rice? Edo HECK ya!)

Told David to photobomb Ehsaan, Sami and Reid demonstrating descending levels of wakefulness. Nailed it.

Blurry Ben and Jackie

Isn't Nikki's card funny?!

Nikki and Kyle.

And because I know you were wondering what I had for lunch today, let me show you my latest concoction:

It's a vegan Mexican pizza that is cheaper and better than Taco Bell! I just toasted a flour tortilla in the oven for like 5 minutes, or until crispy. Topped with vegetarian refried beans, hot sauce, cilantro, red onion, tomatoes, olives, salt, lime juice. Avocado would have been awesome but the one I had was not yet ripe.

This week

2011-10-19T21:35:00.000-07:00

Cleaned the pics off miphone tonight. Wanna see?!

Went to Target last week with the kids. They LOVED it. Selah did not understand why we couldn't stay in the toy aisles or the baby cup aisle for the entire evening. She continues to talk about how much fun she had there. "More shopping? Cups?!" We lead an exciting life, my friends, let me tell you.

Checked out my first Fresno State football game this weekend with our friends Ashley and Adam. Dad D. gave us some pretty sweet tickets. It was a great game and the stadium was bonkers. My sweet husband even spent 20 minutes searching for fries that I had a serious hankering for. What a guy. (They were delicious, too.)

Da boys.

Ok. So I went to the flea market for the first time this past weekend. Bought Selah some play digs. She totally digs.

I also bought Selah a really cute pair of boots that she has been needing for fall. Got home, pulled them out of the box only to find two different shoes. Darnit!

Jack-Jack. Is that bib not the cutest? Aunt Ash sent Jack and Selah each one a few months back.

Today I took the children to the zoo with some friends and their littles.

Selah and Jayden check out the elephants.

Selah stopped at this random line and said, "L." We've been practicing our letters lately. She actually spelled her name the other day, completely unprompted. Then I turned on the video camera on my phone and asked her to do it again. She said, "A...I...E...F!" Seriously, girlfriend?

Crystal, Evy, Violet, Anna and Jayden

Kids at the dino dig

"So....Do you come here often?"

David's birthday is tomorrow. He turns 26.

O-L-D.

Happy almost birfday, David DeFrankittyFrank. :)

You have to Thai this recipe

2011-10-18T20:26:00.000-07:00

I kind of have a thing for Pad Thai noodles. I think I might be in love with them. David and I spend many a date night at Thai Fusion in Clovis. They have the best Pad Thai I have ever eaten. For realz.

Anyway, my pocketbook and my palate disagree about how frequently we should eat out. I decided to make peace between the two by making my own Pad Thai at home. Pleased to say that it turned out awesomely. I also veganized the recipe I found, and I think it converted quite nicely.

Here's the link to the recipe I used, but I wrote it out below the way that I modified it.

Ingredients:

8 oz. Thai rice noodles (or enough for 2 people), linguini-width, available at Asian/Chinese stores

1 cup fresh broccoli

1/2 cup carrots, chopped into match sticks

1 fresh red chili, minced

3 green onions, sliced

1/2 cup fresh cilantro

1/3 cup crushed or roughly chopped peanuts

vegetable oil for stir-frying, and wedges of lime

PAD THAI SAUCE:

1/2 Tbsp. lime juice

2 soy sauce

3 tsp. chili sauce

3 1/2 Tbsp. brown sugar

Preparation:

1. Bring a large pot of pot to a boil and remove from heat. Dunk in your rice noodles. Allow noodles to soak while you prepare the other ingredients. Note: you will be frying the noodles later, so you don't want to over-soften them now. Noodles are ready to be drained when they are soft enough to be eaten, but are still firm and a little "crunchy". Drain and rinse with cold water. Set aside.

2. Make the Pad Thai Sauce by combining the sauce ingredients together in a cup. Stir well to dissolve the brown sugar. Set aside.

3. Warm up a wok or large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add 1-2 Tbsp. oil plus garlic and minced chili. Stir-fry until fragrant (30 seconds). Add broccoli and carrots. Stir-fry until the veggies are cooked to your taste.

4. Add the noodles, and pour the Pad Thai sauce over. Using two spatulas, immediately stir-fry the noodles. Use a gentle "lift and turn" method (like tossing a salad) to prevent noodles from breaking. Stir-fry in this way 1-2 minutes.

5. Taste-test for seasoning, adding more soy sauce, lime juice and chili sauce until desired flavor is reached. (When I make this again, I will double the sauce recipe and add more sauce incrementally, as soon as I add the noodles.) Toss well to incorporate.

6. Lift noodles onto a serving plate. Top with generous amounts of fresh cilantro, spring onion, and crushed/chopped nuts. Add fresh lime wedges (lime is great squeezed overtop), and serve with sriracha on the side.

Yum.

2011-10-17T22:51:00.000-07:00

I made veggie burgers tonight. They were simply delish. And I usually dislike veggie burgers. Can't find a frozen one that tastes decent to me. I wanted to share this recipe with you in case you have a hankering for a good veg burger. Found it on Pinterest. (Do you not just LOVE Pinterest?!) In case you plan to make these, you should know that they will take a little time. Also, you can't really omit the oil when you broil them at the end. The only variations I made were omitting mushrooms (because I didn't have any, so I used carrots instead), sage and flax seed. Didn't miss any of them. I also used store-bought buns. Because, well, who has time to make buns from scratch when you have two pipsqueaks at your feet?

I have another recipe to share with you tomorrow. Been making quite a few winners lately, so stick around. :)

Oh, dear.

2011-10-12T19:26:00.001-07:00

The other night we were eating dinner, when suddenly Selah said, "Poop."

Not a word you want to hear while your mouth is full of spaghetti. But then something really awful happened. David and I stared in horror as Selah reached her hand down to her side, shifted in her seat and pulled out something. She slowly raised her hand up towards the table as my stomach dropped and I froze.

Then she opened her hand. I started to sweat. We all stared silently at her open palm. There it was: a brown nugget...Was it...? I took a closer peek, only to see...a veggie patty remnant from lunch that had been sitting on her booster seat.

Crisis averted. At least it's never boring over here, right?

Anywaaaaaaay.

Here are some pics from our life this past week:

These are from Mommy and Me. Selah is painting a person with her friend Evy. Selah has recently learned how to draw circles. Well, "circles." :)

Approximately 15 minutes after this, we had a major meltdown and were forced to leave early. The twos are a fun age. :)

Taking a stroll with the entire DeFrank brood, doggies included. Selah insisted on walking Kiwi. She really enjoys completing tasks by herself. If I try to help her with something (like buckling her booster seat for her), she says, "DOITDOITDOIT!" and that means, "Sweet Mother, I would prefer to complete this particular task myself, but thank you so much." Or something along those lines.

Took the kiddos to the park last night while dinner cooked itself in the crock pot. Whoever invented crock pots deserves a gold star. I'd so much rather be looking at this than at my stove:

Can you blame me?

A clear wall. Mind-blowing.

My heart is so happy watching these two.

Oh, D200. I miss you every day. I really feel like I am missing out on my kids' big moments without that camera. Has anyone ever tried to print out a picture they took on their iphone? Did it look decent?

Dance party at the DeFranks. BYOJ(uice)

2011-10-09T18:00:00.000-07:00

Selah found a new show that she just loves. It's called Bubble Guppies. David and I like it to because the songs are catchy. (Or maybe we've lost all perspective because we listen to so many kids' songs...)

Here's Selah and Jack dancing to the show's tunes this weekend. Some weird chick came into our house and video-bombed in the middle...I don't know who she was but she looked a lot like me. But it totally wasn't me. I'm a way better dancer.

Octoburrrrrr

2011-10-06T23:27:00.000-07:00

We've been like little Energizer bunnies over here lately, trying to use up the last bit of summer as best as we can.

See?

"Mom. I'm an artist at work, here. Please!"

Yep. That was about as difficult to get out of her hair as you would imagine it to be. Maybe a little worse.

Pure joy.

If you're anything like me, the idea of sticky, colorful finger paint and a soaking wet toddler will make you uneasy and anxious. I really had to coach myself to take deep breaths and just let Selah (and her hair. And her legs. And her feet. And in between her toes. And her armpits.) enjoy this time. Boy, did she.

The weather has changed into fall quite abruptly over the past week. I'm not complaining. I love me some ~~leg-shaving grace period~~ skinny jeans and boots weather!

I made Selah do laps with these pumpkins so that she'd be conditioned for trick-or-treating.

Do ball pits give you the willies? (Do people still say "the willies?") Well they kind of make me want to vom. I mean, you know they've never been cleaned. And how many germy kids have been in that pit? I think even a normal person would be grossed out by a ball pit. And I am not normal. I am the kind of person who sometimes washes her produce with soap. I'm kind of embarrassed about that. But I caught an episode of Dr. Oz once where he had hidden cameras in grocery store produce aisles and they showed people touching all of the fruit and then they tested the fruit and omg you wouldn't BELIEVE the nastiness that was on that stuff! Soap it is.

I know. I'm a total freak.

And so, it is with great nausea that I show you these pictures:

I don't remember the last time I saw her this happy. Wait...Yes. It was the finger paint. So I guess her happiness is directly proportionate to her level of dirtiness.

For some reason, when she saw this giant box of pumpkins, she said, "Yummy!" and tried to eat one. Ew. I told her it wasn't food, but she wanted to be sure. So she tried to eat a second one. I told her again. So she tried a third. This is my life.

Rebel Housewife Breaks into Swiffer Wet Jet

2011-09-30T10:21:00.000-07:00

Today I jail-broke my Swiffer Wet Jet's cleaning fluid container. (In case you don't have one, they sell the refills for like $4 each, and they don't let you open the bottle, so you have to buy a new one every time you run out of cleaner. OR, you can consult Google and then do a fancy trick to get it undone.)

Wanna know what I did next?

Well I'm going to tell you anyway.

I refilled the bottle with cleaning solution...that I made myself. With vinegar, water and dish soap.

I did this while my homemade baby food was processing. Then I jarred it, finished making Basil Pesto Gemelli with Green Beans and Potatoes for dinner, swept and Swiffered the floors and even managed to plan Selah's first trip to the library after her nap.

At this point in the afternoon, I was feeling pretty awesome. I was thinking to myself, "Am I not the epitome of domestication?! Shouldn't I be wearing an apron and churning my own butter?! (If we ate butter...maybe I can hydrogenate my own margarine?)"

Then the kids woke up from their naps. And within two hours, my freshly-cleaned floors had turquoise crayon marks and Selah's entire dinner all over it. And Jack didn't particularly care for his homemade green beans either. So that decorated the floor, too.

And the library? Let's just say that we took a tantrum-filled tour of our lovely neighborhood library. We left with no books, and no dignity. But at least we got out of the house, right?

At the end the day today, I felt like a Snickers bar at a county fair - fried and icky; a perfectly happy thing, ruined.

How do two teeny, tiny people wear out a full-grown human so thoroughly? Their combined age is less than three. Yet somehow they conquer my 27 years with masterful timing and precision. Like, for real, they could teach a doctorate level course on 'Methods of Parental Dismantling.'

It's like 12 hours of non-stop madness...but then, as I carry Selah up to bed and her sleepy arms drape around my neck, she says, "Night-night, Daddy. Byeeee Jack. Night-night, Charlie, Kiwiiiiiii." She rests her little head on my shoulder, and I am reminded that I wouldn't trade any of this in for the world.

My friend Rachel from college always said, "Nothing worth having is easy." She's totally right.

I love my babies. And nothing about raising them is easy. :)

Here's a picture of Selah playing on our swingset today:

We had dinner with our friends from church on Monday night. After dinner, I found David playing ring around the rosy with the little girls. Had to take a pic.

Jack with his friend Addy.

I took the kids to the zoo this week with my friend Crystal and her two littles. Here are our two monkeys eating lunch.

Happy weekend, four loyal readers.

End o'Summer

2011-09-26T21:24:00.000-07:00

Hey guyzzz! So I was about to throw one of my old Abercrombie shirts into the "giveaway" pile the other day. Then I looked over at Selah. And then again at the shirt. And then at Selah. And I realized, "Hey. Maybe I could distract Selah with a lollipop while I safety pin the heck outta this thing." So, I did! I made a little hood by gathering the extra fabric in the back. And it's a perfect coverup to convert her summer dresses into fall-ish outfits! Loves it.

In other news, my sister Ash picked up Ava from preschool the other day. Hanging on the wall were drawings that the kids did of their families.

Here's Ava's:

How sweet is that?! I made it into the family portrait. Totally melted my heart. (Also, don't you love that the boys have their tongues out and have bibs on?)

Check out Selah McBayla pants:

I love this expression. :)

Cousins chillin'...

Band practice.

Sweet Johnny G. lookin' after his little cuz. "We men gotta stick together around here."

"Or the women will keep dressing us up in girl clothes!" (Actually, Johnny did this all by himself.)

Mom and Dad also visited last weekend, along with their doggies. Check out this back seat/doggy retreat. I think those dogs are better taken care of than I was when I lived at home. :)

Selah and Nana take care of important business.

The men discuss the recent firings on the Real Housewives of New York.

Dinner at FIVE, sans babies. Great night, good food, excellent company.

Da boyz

Fancy dinner at the DeFranks

We went down to So Cal for a night this past week, just me and the kiddos. It's always an adventure. For some reason I dread the long drive before we take off, and then when we are on the road I LOVE it because I get to sit still for a few hours straight. It's glorious.

We spent a day with Emily and her sweet niece, Olivia (Michelle's daughter). Selah and Jack loved her.

Em and I took the munchkins to lunch in Calabasas. It was an eventful meal, during which my 23-month-old threw seven consecutive tantrums over not being allowed to drink 32 ounces of diet coke, while Jack threw a screaming protest against spending any time out of my arms. Our fellow La Salsa diners loved us, I'm pretty sure. They kept looking at us and then at each other. I bet they were thinking, "How sweet! Two loud children providing us our very own live 'Sounds of the Rainforest' performance!"

And here's David and I on our way to a fancy charity dinner last weekend. Getting dressed up made me feel quite classy. Eating all of the delicious crunchy cracker-things out of the bread basket before the rest of our table arrived made me feel less classy. (I ate like 3, and then you could tell that someone had eaten a lot of them, so I HAD to eat the rest so that I didn't look like a pig...Ok, I realize that's a little ironic. But whatever. Just don't tell them. Thanks.)

A thief in the night

2011-09-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

Want to hear a story?

About a month ago David and I were heading to church. It was 9am and we were running a few minutes behind (big surprise). David went outside to load the kids in the car. He came running back inside to tell me that we'd been robbed. Worst night to accidentally leave our cars unlocked. We never do that. But we did it. And we paid for it. Big time.

Some losers stole David's suit jackets, briefcase and my ipod. I realized later that day when I could not locate my diaper bag that it had been in the car too. And it had been stolen. (Who steals a diaper bag?) Also in the diaper bag? My debit card.

At this point, I was congratulating myself for remaining relatively calm. "It's just stuff." I repeated to myself. Stuff can be replaced. We'll just have to pay our insurance deductible, which I assumed was $500, then we'll replace everything we lost. No biggie.

And then, two days later, as I searched high and low for my beloved camera; the Nikon that stole my heart; the most generous gift from two of our dearest friends John and Sarah; the little black box that records my precious, rapidly-growing babies with miraculous simplicity and beauty; the staple of my blog; the salt to my french fries...two days after I was already over these nasty thefts, it hit me:

My camera was in my diaper bag.

I had taken it with us to Selah's gymnastics class on Saturday. I took pictures of David doing parent-and-me gymnastics with Selah. And I left the camera in the diaper bag. In the car. It just so happened that after gymnastics, I felt realllllly sick. We got home and David had to carry the kids and sick me into the house. In the frenzy, we didn't lock the car. And we left the garage open. We went to bed. And then someone came on to MY property, opened MY car door, took MY camera and left. Gone. Forever.

There were suddenly many words that flooded my mind to describe the individual(s) who did this. They are not nice words. They are words that I never use. They are awful, very bad words. I wanted to yell these words loudly.

This all happened about a month ago. And I am only now able to talk about it out loud. So if you're reading this and I haven't already told you about it, it's because I have trouble talking about it out loud without crying or wanting to say bad words.

Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.

It's just stuff, right?

I've been trying to work through all of this and come out with a good perspective. Trying to think of relevant bible verses. The first one was Romans 12: "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse." Oopsie.

The chapter continues: "...If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

As badly as my human-nature wants to just skip straight to the heaping of burning coals on this dude's head, that's not what God wants me to do. So, I pray. I pray that this person comes to know and love Jesus. I pray that my heart is continually changed, growing to love God and His people more. All of His people, especially the ones who steal from me. I also pray that my camera will just show up on my doorstep. But I have a feeling that's not in the cards. (Although I do periodically check Craigslist in case the ~~jerkface~~ child of God tries to sell my stuff so I can send a SWAT team to his house.)

So, there you have it. That's the reason my posts have been kind of photo-less as of late.

Oh, and our deductible? It's actually closer to $3000, not $500. So we just barely didn't meet it. Too bad they didn't just steal the whole car, right?

Anyway. I tell you this story for three reasons: 1.) I feel like I need to let you know why my pictures are now taken on my iphone. 2.) Maybe by sharing my convictions about my feelings towards these thieves, you can help keep me accountable. So when I talk about them with a hateful attitude, maybe you can remind me that I need to love them not because I want to, but because God tells me I need to. 3.) If you know of any blogs doing a camera giveaway and want to tell me about it, that would be cool. :) I saw that The Pioneer Woman gave away a Nikon literally 2 days before I checked her website. Dang. Next time.

Also, if you happen to see anyone around Fresno using a Nikon D200, would you mind chasing them down, tackling them and asking them to give me back my camera?

That'd be great, thanks. :)

Snee time

2011-09-15T21:57:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all. Last weekend my brother Mark and his awesome wifey Caitlin and their two precious kids Hayden and Hannah came to visit us. A blast was had.

The kids "played" guitar hero. Hannah absolutely adored her baby cousin. ("Bebe JACK!" she'd say, every time she saw him. So sweet.) Mark and David dueled in ping pong. Caitlin and I sewed together. She brought her machine and worked on a pillow while I made curtains for Jack's room. (I just reread that last part and giggled because omg, how ridiculously domesticated and 1950s do we sound? "And the men sipped scotch and smoked cigars in the parlor as they discussed politics...")

Ok, I'll just get right to the pictures:

Little man.

It's only a matter of time before he's able to escape my kisses. Better steal as many as I can now.

"Mommmm. Enough, already!"

Selah uses The Force to make a fountain.

Just so we're clear, I don't typically dress my little lady like this. We've been to this park about 100 times and she has never once wanted to go into the water. I finally gave up and stopped putting her swimsuit on. And then she decided she wanted to try it out. Isn't that the way it always works? I can always count on my kids to keep me on my toes.

Caiters took these pics with her cam. Thanks, Caiters-taters!

Come back soon, guys!

Happy Tuesday!

2011-09-13T15:21:00.000-07:00

Check out my special counter. She's ~~the sharpest~~ my favorite tool in the shed.

Labor Day Macaroni Salad

2011-09-07T22:09:00.000-07:00

Hi friendlies. Here are some pics from our totally awesome weekend.

My heart is so full when I look at this picture. Chillin' with my sweet babies. (Do you like Selah's blogger bun?)

Did you know Burberry makes toddler clothes?! Did you know that this dress probably costs more than any dress I own? It's ok, it was a hand-me-down. My poor daughter has to wear Burberry hand-me-downs. It's a hard-knock life.

Selah hangs out with her friend Austin.

I took these pics at our friends' Steph and Chris's BBQ this weekend, where we ate delish grub, hung out and did really sophisticated things like this:

Oh! And Steph asked for my Vegan Chili Mac Salad recipe, so here it is:

Ingredients:

1 box elbow macaroni (I used whole wheat)

1 can kidney beans

3 ears fresh corn, cut off cob (or about 1 cup frozen corn, thawed)

2 tomatoes, diced

1 red onion, diced

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

1/3 cup fresh lime juice

1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon chili powder

1. In a medium bowl, combine the lime juice and cilantro; whisk in 3 tablespoons olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

2. In a large pot of boiling water, cook macaroni until al dente (this is important, make sure you don't overcook it!); drain and transfer to a large bowl. Stir every few minutes to let heat escape and keep noodles from sticking.

3. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat. Add half the chopped onion and cook until the onion begins to soften, about 4 minutes. Add chili powder, salt and pepper. Adjust seasoning to taste. Add cooked onions to macaroni.

4. Add the kidney beans, tomatoes, remaining raw onion and vinaigrette and toss to dress.

One note about this recipe: It's hard to mess up. Take a bite at the end and adjust depending on your tastes. I always wind up salting it, adding more cilantro and lime juice. You may want more tomatoes, or more corn, or whatever. Make it your own.

Oh, also, I have made this one without oil. I didn't like it as much so I wound up adding the oil back in at the end.

Let me know if you make it and how it turns out!

Weekend woot

2011-09-02T10:57:00.000-07:00

I'm slightly giddy today. You see, it's only a matter of hours before the weekend is in full swing. And not just any weekend. A THREE DAY WEEKEND.

We have a busy few days ahead. They include our fantasy football draft. I convinced David that I should have my own team even though the only thing I know about football is that Tom Brady is married to Gisele and they have a kid the same age as Selah.

I also have a hair appointment. My roots are in desperate need of fixin', as you will plainly see. People have started calling me "Rooty." And by "people" I mean Selah. And by "Rooty," I mean "Mama." Whatever.

We also get to go to a BBQ with our friends! I think we may even have a date scheduled somewhere in that mix. :)

AND, Mom D. just offered to watch the kids for me today so I can get some stuff done. Weekend woot, indeed.

Here's a snap or two of Jack and Mama Rooty spending quality time together.

HAPPY 3-DAY WEEKEND, 4LR!!!! (Is it presumptuous of me to give you guys a nickname, Four Loyal Readers?

Yes?

Well, shoot. This is awkward.

The Luckiest.

2011-08-30T20:52:00.000-07:00

When I take the kids on errands during the week, sometimes people give us funny looks. I don't blame them. We look kinda ridiculous. Usually I wear Jack in the Bjorn and hold Selah's hand. That works just fine until Selah sees something shiny and darts towards it. Then Jack and I frustratedly chase her while she laughs loudly.

Most of the stare-ers smile. A few will say, "Wow, looks like you have your hands full!" I've heard some moms complain about this comment. I actually kind of like it. It lets me know they are empathizing and not going to judge me when my toddler screams as loud as possible just to see my reaction.

But the other day as we were walking into the market, an older gentleman passed by our little traveling circus. He was watching us for a moment. I saw him about to speak and got ready for the "hands full" remark. But he said something different.

He said, "Wow. You are really lucky."

And it caught me off-guard. But you know what? He's right. I spend so much time surviving the madness of two small kids under two, so much time rolling my eyes at disobedience and spilled bowls of cereal. So much time complaining about stuff like this:

But all the while, my heart is absolutely full of joy when I think about my babies. I love them more than anyone could have explained to me before they were born, and more than I can possibly put into words.

Do you sometimes wonder if God created certain aspects of life just so that they can help us understand more about Him? Like the way He designed families, and the way parents feel about their children. Since becoming a mom, I have an entirely new appreciation for God's love for us. When my daughter obeys me, I am delighted. When she chooses to rebel, to step into the street even though I have told her it is dangerous, I hate it because I want what is best for her, and so I correct her. When she runs to give me a hug or kiss or wants to spend time with me, I beam. I have a new understanding of how God thinks of us, how He loves us. And it blows my mind.

Anyway. Just some thoughts I've had lately.

Me and my sweet almost 7 month-old today. Isn't he the best?!

And here's my latest meal idea. This has been my go-to lunch for the past few days. I even took a picture this time! Woot.

I call this special dish Hummus Pita Deliciousness.

You'll need:

hummus (I make my own in the food processor. I'll do a batch on Sunday and we eat it during the week. For the most part I don't like the kind you buy at the grocery store. Except Whole Foods. Yum.)

whole wheat pitas, cut in half with a knife so you have two circles (I use Western Bagel brand pitas.)

chopped grape tomatoes

sun dried tomatoes

chopped lettuce

fresh basil

balsamic glaze (you can get it in a bottle at Fresh and Easy and other places. My friend Jessica brought me my first bottle a few weeks ago. I love it. Hi Jessica!)

Ok. Here's what you do:

Toast your pita halves. Keep an eye on them because they do not need a lot of time and can burn easily. You don't want them to be so crispy that they are like chips, just somewhere in the middle of crispy and not-crispy, if that makes any sense. I split them in half first because they are easier to eat, they crisp up better and you get TWO pitas instead of one!

Spread hummus atop. Add tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, lettuce, basil. Drizzle lightly with balsamic glaze. I cut it with a pizza cutter. Done.

Enjoy!

Lately

2011-08-27T17:31:00.000-07:00

'Sup, guys?

Do you like how my last few posts had zero pictures total? I know. What do I think I am, a lame excuse for a not-so-good recipe blogger?

Don't you worry, though. Here are enough pictures to get you through your weekend. They're from the last week or so. We've been trying to make the most of the last few weeks of summer. Been doing a pretty good job if I do say so myself.

Check out my sweet, weirdo daughter:

What? Don't you like to eat tortilla chips while you squeegee a shower that isn't wet?

Selah's friend Jonah had his birthday party at a golf course last weekend. So cute. Here's Steph and her darling daughter Gracynn, and Jessica - all friends from church.

Steph and Joey. Adorbs.

Birthday boy and his mama and daddy!

Putting contest

Selah and Joey consult on club selection for this particular hole. Guys, I think the putter is best for this shot. I "played golf" in high school, so I know these things. (I use quotes because me and my girlfriends played together, and well...our coach actually nicknamed us "the clubhouse queens" because we sat in the clubhouse and talked every practice. Nice.)

Lee and David discuss man-things.

the dudes.

Selah and I spend a lot of time taking pictures of ourselves during the day so we can text them to David. Here are some of our recent shots:

Check out my necklace. It was my grandma's watch that I had turned into a necklace. I love it. My mom remembers her wearing it when my mom was a little girl. It makes me think of my sweet grandma whenever I wear it.

Jack-Jack. Love this kid so much. He already has TWO bottom teeth! Crazy. Maybe it's nature's way of telling me it's time to stop nursing? :) But I really can't believe how different the kids are already. Selah didn't get her first tooth until after she turned one. Jack also likes to chew on anything near him. Selah never ever put anything in her mouth. Their demeanors are also completely different. Mom D. says that Selah's personality reminds her so much of David's when he was little. She thinks Jack has my personality. (meaning he's totally awesome. jk. half.)

Went to Clovis farmer's market last night. Loved it. Kind of felt like we were teleported to a little town in Texas. Quaint and fun and lotsa yummy produce. The central valley rocks.

Oh. Ok. So here's one of my go-to dinners: stir fry veggies and rice, in case you want another vegan recipe idea.

I use: zucchini, carrots, onion, fresh garlic, brown rice (NOT the quick cooking kind. Ew.), veg broth, soy sauce (NOT low sodium. boooooo for low sodium.), cashews, lime juice, finely chopped basil and cilantro. Sometimes I add some cornstarch dissolved in water towards the end if I want that thicker sauce like you get from takeout restaurants.

Cook the brown rice according to package. Chop veggies. Sautee onions and garlic in a few Tbs of veggie broth. You don't want them to boil, just sautee them. (You can use oil here, obv. Peanut is best, in my opinion because it does better with high temps, which I have read is preferable for stir fry, but what do I know?)

Anyway, I'm still getting the hang of sauteeing with veg broth, but so far one major difference is that it evaporates as you cook, so you have to keep adding more as you go. But you MUST do it incrementally or else you are more boiling the food than sauteeing and it just doesn't get the same flavor.

After the onions are soft, add some soy sauce and ginger, if you have it. Cook it up a bit. Remove onions and set aside. Add more broth (just enough to sautee). Add rest of veggies and sautee until tasty and crisp/tender. Add a little more soy sauce and ginger. Add onions back in. Stir to combine. Add cashews and some lime juice. Taste and adjust seasoning. You can always add more veg broth if you want more sauce. Add chopped herbs. I put a bunch of sriracha on mine, but David isn't a huge fan of spicy.

Let me know if you have any vegan recipe ideas! I'll try it out and post. :)

Chipotle but cheaper

2011-08-25T16:09:00.000-07:00

I love how I get excited about the kids' afternoon naptimes so that I can enjoy a few moments of "me time"...and then I use that time to study Gap's toddler line for fall. Totally ridiculous.

I wanted to share a recipe. Actually, it's more a meal idea as there isn't much science to this. It's for Chipotle-esque burrito/bowls at home. Cheaper, healthier, deliciouser. (Trust me. It's a word.)

Super easy:

Cilantro-lime rice: Cook white jasmine rice according to package directions. The bagged kind. Not that minute rice junk that they try to pretend tastes delicious when everybody KNOWS it tastes like dirty styrofoam. So what you are going to do is when you add the rice to the boiling water, also add some salt and juice from 1/2 lemon. Then, once it's all done cooking (DING!) stir in chopped cilantro. Bam. Delish, easy, better for you than Chipotle's rice because this one has no oil.

Beans: This step is really hard, so bear with me. Ok. You get a can of pinto beans out of the pantry. Open the can, drain, pour in bowl and salt. Microwave for 1 minute. Whew. You got that? Feel free to read those steps again if you missed some of the culinary complexities.

Corn salsa: I always keep a bag of corn in the freezer. Fresh is even better. But either way, mix defrosted corn, lime juice, chopped red onion, salt, chopped cilantro. Done.

Tomatoes: Chop a tomato.

Lettuce: Chop lettuce.

Salsa

Tortillas

Ok. Now assemble your burrito or bowl however you want! It's that easy. And scrumptious. And cheap. And healthy.

(Isn't eating vegan so fun?!?!)

Seriously?

2011-08-22T14:54:00.000-07:00

Today we were grocery shopping when a woman started smiling at Jack and talking to him while he was in his stroller.

"Aren't you so sweet!" she said.

Like any doting mother, I initially welcomed the compliment. But then the baby talk took a terrible turn.

"Oh no! Where are your socks?!" she exclaimed. Like, as if we were in the middle of a snow storm and it wasn't 95 DEGREES OUTSIDE. "You must be so cold!" Then she turned to her friend. "He's cold! He needs some socks."

So I looked at Jack, smiled, and in my sweet, baby-talk voice, said, "He says, "I'm not cold, silly! It's 95 degrees outside! Why would I wear socks in this terrible heat?!"

We must have sounded ridiculous to anyone in earshot, arguing with each other in weird baby voices. About socks. (IN 95 DEGREE WEATHER.) But really. I wouldn't be surprised if she called CPS on me.

"Excuse me, CPS? There's a woman in Whole Foods whose baby does not have any...ugh. I can't even bring myself to say this...but the child...doesn't have anysocksonatall. Ugh....Nope, not even ONE! Poor child. You'd better get down here quick before he turns into a babysicle in this 95 DEGREE AUGUST FRESNO HEAT!"

Ok. Glad I got that off my chest. But seriously, if that lady shows up at my house tomorrow with baby socks, I'm going to lose it.

Anyway. Hope your weekend didn't sock.

Oh, and just in case you are wondering what a relaxing evening at home watching tv looks like when you have two small kids, let me show you:

Orzo salad

2011-08-19T21:32:00.000-07:00

Hi friends.

It's Friday night. The kids are in bed. I'm shortly behind. But I wanted to share this recipe that is one of David's and my faves. It's a recipe that I've made too many times to count this summer. Megan made it for us a few months ago and I can't stop recreating the deliciousness. It's a Giada recipe. Hope you likey.

Here are the deets:

4 cups veg broth (original recipe calls for chicken broth. I veganized it. I also never measure my broth out when I'm just boiling pasta in it. Why? You just pour the extra down the drain anyway. Just make sure you stir it occasionally while it cooks because the orzo can seriously stick to the bottom of your pot.)
1 1/2 cups orzo (I just dump the whole box in. Sometimes more.)
1 (15-ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups grape tomatoes, halved (I just use a pint.)
3/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
About 3/4 cup Red Wine Vinaigrette, recipe follows
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Pour the broth into a heavy large saucepan. Cover the pan and bring the broth to a boil over high heat. Stir in the orzo. Cover partially and cook until the orzo is tender but still firm to the bite, stirring frequently, about 7 minutes. Drain the orzo through a strainer. Transfer the orzo to a large wide bowl and toss until the orzo cools slightly. Set aside to cool completely.

Toss the orzo with the beans, tomatoes, onion, basil, mint, and enough vinaigrette to coat. Season the salad, to taste, with salt and pepper, and serve at room temperature.

Red Wine Vinaigrette:

1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil (I have never used this much oil when making it. I usually use 1/2 cup instead. Will let you know how it turns out without oil - I'm going to try that next.)
Let me know if you make it and how you like it!

Tomato Potato Garbanzo Extravaganz...o

2011-08-17T22:44:00.000-07:00

'Sup, guys.

I mentioned earlier that I want to start posting more recipes. This is for you and for me. I LOVE to cook and try out new recipes, but sometimes I forget about ones that we really liked because I'm always testing out new ones. By posting them, I can share with my four loyal readers AND have a record of what I made! Awesome.

David and I went to Borders this weekend to check out the sale. (Am I the only one who wanted to cry real tears when I found out about the closure? Ugh! My heart!) Anyway, I found a great cookbook: 1000 Vegan Recipes by Robin Robertson.

Tonight I made a dish that turned out great. I made a few modifications based on our preferences.

Here's how I made it:

2 lb. Idaho potatoes peeled, cut into tiny little pieces
1/2 red onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, whole
1 cup vegetable broth
salt and pepper
5 Tbs white wine vinegar
1 15.5 oz. can garbanzo beans
1/3 cup drained sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup green olives, pitted and halved
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a bowl, combine potatoes, red onion, whole garlic cloves, salt, pepper and 1/4 cup veg broth.

2. Transfer potatoes to casserole dish or baking sheet sprayed with non-stick spray. Roast for 30 minutes or until tender and tasty. Toss a few times throughout cooking process. If the potatoes are drying out while cooking, you can add a little more veg broth. Transfer to a large bowl to cool. Reserve roasted garlic cloves.

3. In a small bowl, combine white wine vinegar, garlic cloves, salt, pepper. Mash garlic cloves. Add tomatoes, olives, parsley. Stir well. Add more veg broth if needed to tone down the vinegar or to make more dressing. Add dressing to potatoes. Add drained beans. Combine well. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary. Serve hot or cold. We liked it cold.

Serve alongside greens tossed with lemon juice, salt and pepper, and toasty rolls.

A few additional tips:

-The original recipe calls for 1/4 olive oil, not vegetable broth. But we are trying to mostly cut out oil after reading some interesting studies and a great book. (If you want to know more about that, feel free to ask.) We loved this without any oil, so you really don't need it. But if you want to make it with oil instead, I bet it would taste even better, as the potatoes would get golden and a little crispy. Mmm.

-Another hot tip: when you peel your potatoes, don't leave all the peels from 2.5 lbs of spuds in the sink, on top of your kid's leftover lunch pasta, and then try to shove it all down the garbage disposal. And then, if you do do that, don't go to a really crowded grocery store to buy drano and a plunger. And don't walk through the grocery store with your head down as people judge you. And then when the guy in line behind you says, "Wonder what you're up to..." And you tell him you garbage disposed too many potato peels, and he says, "Suuuuuuuuure," don't say, "I swear! That's what happened! Seriously!" Like a total psycho.

Not saying that's definitely what happened. But. Well, it might have happened.

Check it

2011-08-17T08:46:00.000-07:00

Today Girls on the Grid ran an article I recently penned about life as a stay-at-home mom. It's pretty riveting. Like, a total ~~page-turner~~ mouse-scroller. For realz.

Here's the linky-poo: http://www.girlsonthegrid.com/?p=7987

Happy Wednesday!

The Domesticatedest

2011-08-14T16:53:00.000-07:00

Cheeeeeeeese.

We've been gearing up for back-to-school season around here:

Selah-roo is doing SAT prep in anticipation of pre-pre-k.

Or maybe she's playing baby World of Warcraft. I blame David for her early onset video game addiction.

I took this picture the other day at the bank when I had to run some errands with the kiddos. Have you ever tried to sit down and discuss savings accounts while entertaining a 6 month-old and chasing a toddler? It's about as fun as it sounds. :)

Chillin' in her toy closet. This is the life. (By the way, do they ever make any kids toys that are only one piece? Why do they torture parents so?)

Selah transporting her toys to the couch from the closet. Not a bad idea, but she sure looked ridiculous walking around like that.

Caitlin (my awesome sis-in-law) kind of got me on a sewing kick. She sews all the time, creating dresses, curtains, aprons, you name it. She is super duper talented. Anyway, Mom D. got me a sewing machine for my birthday and I've started experimenting.

Here is my first at-home creation:

Might need to be ironed...

But it was super fun to make! Really gratifying to watch some scrap fabric turn into a dress. Also really proud of myself for learning to sew on a button with the machine. I can't wait to try something else! Am I just the most domesticated person ever or what?!

I should have been a zoologist

2011-08-06T23:10:00.000-07:00

Ash and the Gs graced us with their ridiculously fun presence on Thursday. We zoo'd it up. We ate some pizza. We watched Barney. We chased our children around, danced with them, put them to bed and then passed out on the couch promptly at 9:30pm after patting ourselves on the back for staying up so late.

We spend our time just like your average rock star, socialite or college student. You know how we do.

En route to el zoo. Johnny adorably insisted upon helping to carry Jack everywhere we went. Ava adorably insisted upon wearing this bright yellow headband because "it makes you run faster." She and Selah took turns wearing it, and each of them ran as fast as lightning while it was on. Pretty remarkable what a $.99 headband can do, really.

One of our first stops at the zoo was the crazy tiger. We were actually this close. This is not a zoom function:

I know. I was scared. The children and I didn't even notice Ash taking this picture of us as we watched this ferocious beast.

Just as we reached the peak of our fear, the tiger opened his mouth and prepared to let out an intimidating "ROOOOAAAAAR!!!!!" We waited in suspense. And then we heard it: "Heeeehaaawwwwwwww." Seriously. Weird. It wasn't even scary. Just puzzling. Like, why does that tiger sound like a donkey? I blame global warming. And inorganic produce.

Jack: "What gives, yo?"

Checking out the flamingos. Their long, freakishly skinny legs kind of weird me out. Are they going to snap in half? I don't know. But I wouldn't be surprised. I'm just saying that perhaps they should reinforce them with those stakes that you use for tomato plants in your garden, you know? Maybe I'll leave a note in the suggestion box next time we go to the zoo. I bet the zoologists would really appreciate that helpful tip. (Can you tell I majored in liberal arts?)

Baby mug shots.

We of course had to get fun zoo snacks: cotton candy, fries, pretzels.

My atypical daughter may be the only child who dislikes chocolate. She was also absolutely disgusted by cotton candy.

"Why are you giving me this weird puffy thing, Aunt Ash?"

"Ew."

"Johnny...Why?"

"Ava, would you do me a fave and take this off my hands for me?"

You have now witnessed an official Jack Attack.

Salt and pepper, Jack?

My goofy boy

Parental bias = thinking that his gums on my chin totally cute and not gross at all

Slightly ticklish.

Cousin love

Ava prepares to feed the Giraffe.

Love this one. Check out Johnny's disgusted face.

Miss you already, G's!!!

Mean parents

2011-08-01T20:42:00.000-07:00

We took Selah and Jack to the zoo yesterday. Actually, we bought an annual pass, so I'm pretty sure the zoo is going to get sick of us really quick.

Anyway. It took us awhile to get there yesterday. We went to church in the morning, then to lunch, and by the time we pulled into the parking lot at noon, girlfriend was spent and ready for her nap. Any parent knows that whenever you see your child so tired they are delirious and about to pass out, the only responsible thing to do is to take out the video camera and start peppering them with questions.

Enjoy.

Bass Lake post numero dos

2011-07-31T21:36:00.000-07:00

I found that two of my favorite photo backgrounds just happened to be outside the Bass Lake vacation home we stayed at this past week: an old, mossy fence and some wispy weed thingies (official name).

So I picked what I read was the best time of day for lighting (last hour of daylight), handed Mom D. the D200 and hoped Selah and Jack would smile. We got a few winners, I think:

Wish I had noticed my hair was eating my daughter. Oops.

David and I laughed so hard when we saw this picture because we think Selah looks like her mom was a clown and her dad was Carrot Top.

A picture that pretty accurately depicts my life right now. :)

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa chill with Selah and Jacko

So sweet.

Love.

And this concludes my photo-posting from our Bass Lake vacation.

I miss it there. Back to real life tomorrow!

Happy week ahead, friends.