Fabulous Five Fun

OK! So here's how this works...the first 5 people to respond to this post will receive something made by me. My choice. Made especially for her. Of course there are some restrictions and limitations:


1 I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!

2 What I create will be just for you.

3 It will be done sometime this year (hopefully sooner than later).

4 You have no clue what it will be. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may draw or paint something. I may bake something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure. ;-)

5 I reserve the right to do something extremely strange (but I'm not that creative).

The catch? The catch is that you must repost this on your own blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on their blog.The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did, will win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift from me!! Hurry fast, this is a limited time offer.

Oh! And be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!!

PB & Ivy

I don't know why, but Ivy loves to rub peanut butter in her eyes! I'm unsure how she did it this time. But today I gave her a bite of my sandwich and although I never saw peanut butter on her hands, after rubbing her eyes the lids began to swell.
It happened once before and a little Benadryl cleared it right up, but not this time. After I gave her the medicine I laid her down for a nap and she woke up looking like this:
Poor baby. She's fine when she just eats the stuff, but once it's in/on her eyes . . . it's scary.
Millie also broke out in a rash the first time she ate peanut butter and then I wouldn't let her eat if for 6 months. I wonder if it's just a skin allergy.

Girls' Night Out

Some girls from my ward went out to dinner and a movie Friday night. Margie (far left) is expecting her third baby girl this week and organized the get-together. We ate at Café Sabor then went to "Confessions of a Shopoholic." It was loads of fun. Thanks Margie!

And I can't write a post without including a picture of one of my girls: So here's Millie trying on my heels before church yesterday.

Case in Point

Yesterday I got a letter from Mark's brother Trent who is serving a mission in Pennsylvania. I had just sent him Ivy's Kiddie Kandid pictures and he mentioned that he has yet to see a picture of her smiling! So I figured that's probably the case for most of you. So above is proof that she does, on occasion, smile. She's a happy kid, just not a super smiley one. She's much more serious than Millie ever was. Below is her usual serious (or seriously tired) face.
A couple of weeks ago she learned to use her pointer finger and has been pointing non-stop. Not only does she point at things but she also enjoys exploring things with the finger. Here she is exploring the texture of the chair. Funny girl.

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

Since you're all dying to know what we Westons did to celebrate Valentine's Day . . . I thought I'd share a few pictures. OK, so no one has even asked me about it, but it was a reason to post, so here 'tis:
Mark stayed home from work and was so sweet and went to the grocery store early in the morning to get chocolate milks for the girls and flowers and candy for me. Then he came home and made my favorite breakfast -- Nun's Puffs. And I know I'm horrible because I didn't appreciate it at the time! I had gone to bed late and Ivy woke up just as Mark was walking out the door to go shopping. And as I prefer sleep to a yummy breakfast any day, I was a little put out. Now if he had taken Ivy to the store with him and let me sleep, then I would have been on cloud nine! Picky, picky I know, but I am a monster without a good night's sleep! Sorry Mark!
Luckily my mood improved before our dinner date. We had reservations at The Iron Gate Grill and it was so good. Afterward we went to Hollywood Video and rented the romantic comedy "The Holiday" and came home and watched it on the projector screen. Yes I know it's not a new release, but it has taken me this long to rent it.
The above picture was taken right before our date. I made fun of Mark for the placement of his hand! But my hand looks pretty dumb too. I just wanted to show off my ring because Mark purposed to me with it 5 years ago on Valentine's Day :)
Mark's parent's had a little Valentine's party on Thursday. It was really fun. I love any reason to have a party! And Millie and Ivy thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

On the Wall

So after being in our house for 10 months, we finally got around to decorated the nursery (for our 14-month-old newborn!). Better late than never right? The shelf (above) has been sitting on Ivy's bedroom floor since we moved in, but it was quite heavy and didn't have a good set up on the back so it made it complicated to hang . . . so finally we just put two big screws through it into a stud. It probably ruined the shelf, but I guess it's better to ruin it and get some use out of it, than to never use it at all. And while we were busy putting holes in the wall, we pinned up a quilt. Not the cutest thing ever but, art is expensive!
Here's the rest of her tiny room in case you are interested. The dresser is a big eyesore. I wish she had a cute little white (or cream) one to match the crib and changing table. And that is a closet door in case you were thinking that made for an awkward entrance. The entry door is just left of the changing table.
The bumper set matches the quilt and the bear on the shelf. I got them when I was pregnant with Millie. It was my college graduation gift to myself. Glad we had another girl!
Oh, and just as a side note: I don't know how many of you remember Smoochie, Millie's pink teddy bear (that she still sleeps with), but above is Ivy's bear Snowflake and she is becoming equally attached. It's so cute to see her face light up when I give it to her and she snuggles it. Ivy also likes Smoochie and I am so impressed that Millie will share it with her. I love it when she shares anything with her sister, but especially her favorite comfort item.

Not a Piece of Cake!

"Seriously Mom. How hard can it be?"

I don't know what's wrong with me, but I cannot make cupcakes! Yesterday the Valentine Fairy (my sweet mother-in-law) left one of her many Valentine-y gifts on the doorstep -- Valentine cupcake papers. So Millie and I went to work making cupcakes. I make cakes from scratch all of the time (OK not all of the time but at least several times a year for birthdays) and they turn out just fine but unfortunately the few times I've tried to make cupcakes they turn out like this:

What a mess! Perhaps the next time I attempt to make cupcakes, I'll go buy a mix; something Mark and I never use since it's cheaper and somewhat healthier to make goods from scratch. However this experience wasn't a total waste. I learned that my little gravy ladle is excellent for pouring cake batter into cupcake papers.

High School Tag

This really tested me. It was really hard to remember some of this stuff. I must be getting old!

1. Did you date someone in high school? Yes, I always thought I needed a boyfriend . . . how dumb!
2. What kind of car did you drive? A Geo Metro and my parents' ancient min-van my sophomore year and a Hundai Elantra my junior and senior year.
3. Did you pass your driver's license test the first time? Yes! I took driver's ed during the summer so I had lots of time to study.
4. Were you a party animal? Not really. I always wanted to be doing something fun, but usually "parties" were pretty boring.
5. Were you considered a flirt? Probably.
6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Orchestra for a year or two and choir for three years.
7. Were you a nerd? I always did my homework, and got pretty good grades. (I think I graduated with a 3.8 or 3.9 GPA)
8. Were you on any varsity teams? Nope. I am so not an athlete.
9. Did you ever get suspended or expelled? Nope. I got caught the one and only time I sloughed a class (during which time I was in the library working on College Algebra homework!) and cried and cried when I had to tell my mom.
11. Who were your favorite teachers? Connie Good was awesome, Lauri Canales was the best math teacher in the world and Greg Dettinger was so nice to me.
12. Where did you sit at lunch? The cafeteria. I remember I was always starving by lunch time. I wish I would have eaten better at breakfast and brought something healthy to snack on mid-day.
13. School mascot: Templar
14. School colors: Red, Black and White
15. Did you go to homecoming and who with? I only went once -- my junior year. I went with this guy I was dating from Salt Lake, it was really dumb. Aside from this, my junior prom was the only other boys'-choice dance I got asked to. Man, I must have been such a looser!
16. If you could go back and do it again, would you? I really think I would. I would do everything so differently now. I would be so much happier. But hindsight is always 20/20 right?
17. What do you remember most about graduation? Shopping for an outfit that would never be seen under that white gown.
18. Where did you go on Senior Skip Day? Lagoon, but I seriously can't remember if I went! Did I?
19. Were you in any clubs? National Honor Society (but I only remember meeting 2 or 3 times)
20. Have you gained weight since then? Yes, I gained the "freshman 20" in college but I'm glad to report that I've lost it now -- plus some :)
21. Who was your prom date? Buck Barney, and being the self-absorbed snot that I was, I was very disappointed. Mostly I was just so mad at Chris Canales for telling people that he was going to ask me, because then none of my guy friends would even consider asking me. But I guess they had plenty of other opportunities to take me to dances and never did, so chances are they wouldn't have asked me anyway. Now I see I was so lucky Buck asked me or I probably wouldn't have went at all! The greatest thing was that my best friend Maria Bergane was in my group (she really didn't care for her date either and we both cried when we were asked). The Prom is just so over-rated; our expectations were way too high.
22. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? Yes. I'm looking forward to it.
23. Did you have a job while in high school? Several (not all at once). Malt Shop, Clean Flicks, Sanpete Messenger Newspaper . . . I think there was another, but I can't remember.
24. Worst class? Chemistry, I totally did not understand the teacher's "teaching methods." It was a horrible fit and I had to drop out. It's too bad too, because I usually did well in science classes.
25.Favorite class? Seminary, Physiology, Speech and Drama, Choir, English, Spanish!

Now I tag anyone who thought this was fun to read. (OK, I'll give you permission to do it even if you didn't enjoy reading mine. Yours will probably be more interesting :)