Nighttime Pranks

Hey friends! We're all alive here! I'd like to say I took a little break from the cyber world but that would be a big 'ol lie. Pinterest has stolen my heart and I'm also a little lazy. ;) You want to see something fun though? Sometimes we like to pretend Toy Story is real in our house. She woke up pretty surprised. First thing she said after she woke up was "Hi mammals!" Like it was no big deal.

Maybe for my next post, I'll show you all a picture of Darbi. She's getting kinda big and is growing a smallish amount of hair. :) Get excited friends!

Darbi and her uncle

Baby girl with our most favorite Marine. He came home for the 4th and Darbi couldn't get enough. She's kind of smitten. :)

Ugh. Blogging. :)

Clint just chastised me for not blogging in over a month. He actually said, "Are you ever going to blog again? Or have you just given up?" What a supportive husband, right? Apparently I don't follow through on stuff. Meh. He just knows me. But in my defense, I found this quote by Emily Bronte and it matches us...

"He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."

THE SAME. So he's a lazy s.o.b. too. :) And it's a cute quote..

I have taken TONS of cute pictures that have been intended for a spot on the ol' blog but I can't find my card reader (Mom bring yours up when you come!) so I can't get any pictures off my small camera. With a husband who has major technology genius, you'd think he'd help me out a little! I'll quickly update Darbi because I'm sure that's why you're reading. :)

She's growing like a weed. I measure her a few times a month because I get so excited when she sprouts a little! She's 34 1/2" tall and weighs about 25 pounds. She's fearless and climbs on everything. She loves to run and makes everyone she's around nervous because her running form is very spastic. She looks like she's about to face plant all the time.

She's starting to talk SO much more now! It amazes me everyday. She says things I never taught her! Quick list of her new sayings/things she knows...

One more time - she says this ALL THE TIME and knows exactly what it means
Want it - usually with this one, she shakes her head no while saying "want" meaning she doesn't want that and nods while saying "want" meaning she does.
I love you
I love you more
I love you much (I always say I love you very much)
I missed you
Pliget - meaning Piglet :) She's recently fallen in love with Winnie the Pooh
Hold you - If she wants me to hold her
See me - meaning she wants me to hold her. I didn't realize this until she started saying it but I always say "Do you want to come see me?"
Nuggle - snuggle :)
Uh-uh - as in NO. I ask her "Do you want a sandwich?" Darbi says "Uh-uh" I ask "Do you want to sing the ABC's?" She says "Uh-uh"
But she can sing the ABC's and I'm so proud of her!
She can count to 12
She knows a ton of shapes and all the basic colors
She can sing the entire "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" song without any help

She can point out animals if I ask her where they are and knows what sound they make - Her monkey sound is my favorite and if she's ever doubting the sound a certain animal makes - she usually nay's like a horse. :)

When we say our prayers together before going to bed, she says over and over "good dreams! good dreams!" so we make sure to ask that she will have no bad dreams. :) We also ask to bless Kade while he's in school for the Marine's and she shakes her head like crazy like she agrees.

The other day she was holding her plastic celery play food and I asked her what it was and she said "apple tree!" THEN a few days later, I was laying on the ground with my legs in the air against the wall and she was trying to climb up to my feet... while saying "climb apple tree!" Where the heck did she learn what an apple tree was?!

She says "Okay" after everything! She'll come up and say "Cookie!!" So I'll respond with "Oh- you want a cookie?" (obviously rhetorical) and she'll say "Ohhhhkay" all drawn out like it was my idea to ask her if she wanted a cookie. Like it's such a burden saying yes.

And lastly, going to bed has been kind of a chore. We moved her into a big girl bed a few months ago and she did awesome until about 3 weeks ago. She doesn't come down and bother us but just stays up and plays with toys. I figure, if she doesn't come down and bother me, I don't care what she does. :) She usually ends up in bed.... sometimes.

The allergy bug has hit our house

I have so many things I need to blog up in my head right now. I've been busy enjoying summer and sun and tomato plants! Pinterest has been taking up some of my computer time and I'm not gonna lie... I still nap when Darbi naps. :)

But I have to share this yucky tidbit. We just discovered Darbi has allergies. Like nasty snotty itchy REALLY BAD allergies. I don't have allergies and Clint wasn't affected by them until about 2 years ago.. weird, I know. And it's so much worse than her getting sick. I'd rather her be sick. That's a horrible thing to say I know. We have a nasty snotty nose ALL THE TIME, a little dry cough, itchy/watery eyes, and she wakes up 3-4 times a night because she can't breathe. We had to pull the stupid humidifier out again. (It's an adorable penguin and I really kind of love it..) Just 2 days ago we realized we could give her Children's Benadryl at 1/2 tsp and that has helped with the sleeping at night but it doesn't make her drowsy at all. She didn't nap today because she can't breathe and it is 10:45 at night and she's sitting on my lap wide awake. She laid in bed from 8-10 just playing and when I heard the sink in the bathroom on, I went and grabbed her. We're now watching old Mickey Mouse cartoons on You Tube. In Spanish. :)

Ugh. Snot bubbles, red raw little noses, and itchy watery eyes are my life right now. Now I'm the one assuring everyone else we're not full of germs. It really is just allergies. I hated when other Mom's gave me that excuse because I knew it wasn't the case with their kids. But I PROMISE. It's just allergies. Crappy crappy allergies.

Sticker Discovery

Someone just discovered how awesome stickers are...

She thinks that the side of her head is where they are supposed to go...

Sunroof Carwash DISASTER

See my wet shirt? Wanna hear a funny story? :) While we were in AZ, Mom's car got dirty. Did you know Costco has a seriously amazing carwash?! Well they do... so we took Mom's car through it. Darbi is terrified of any drive-through carwash so we pulled her into the front seat. Mom thought to take video.. unfortunately we stopped it too early. But BEFORE you watch it.. lemme tell you a story.
While Mom was videoing, I thought it would be kind of dark so I tried to turn the light on... but that happens to be right next to that stupid little button that opens/vents the sunroof. See where this is going?? So the sunroof's shade was closed and we couldn't see the window... So we continue on through the carwash and I keep looking up the make sure no water is coming in. I don't have a sunroof in my car and it was so dark so I didn't know if I really opened it or not. Then Mom stops recording... and simultaneously, I think how cool would it look out the window of the sunroof as we were going through the carwash?! Pretty cool right?! Then I could inconspicuously check to see if I had "vented" it earlier... pretty crappy logic, right? So I slide the shade open and start mildly panicking.. Mom catches on to my panicking... and tries to close the sunroof. Apparently she didn't know which button to push either because she OPENED THE SUNROOF IN THE CARWASH!!!! I totally blamed it on her but it was really my fault. :) It was like a waterfall!! Anyway.. here's the video. We didn't catch the waterfall action but around :51 you can see my face when I KNOW that the sunroof is open. :)

Spring Break Trip to AZ

At the end of March, Darbi and I took a little trip down to AZ and left Clint to "study" and get ready for finals. Mostly I picked that weekend because the Tempe Art Festival was that weekend and Mom ALWAYS goes without me. I made it a point to be there for it. But mostly we just hung out and played with Darbi.

Mom took Darbi for a walk to see the ducks. Ignore those ugly townhouses in the background. They are full of cranky old people. I hate those buildings. Huge eyesore. But Darbi is cute. :)

Darbi & I at the Art Festival.

I could not get her to sleep in the pack n play Mom & Dad have so she shared the queen bed with me. We took naps together everyday and it was honestly the best part of my day! :) When we came home though, it was a huge pain getting her to sleep in her crib again.

Mom has this monkey hand puppet and usually any kid that sees it freaks out. Darbi loves it and even asks for it when we skype! It's so cute.

Related much?? Sheesh! This was at the hockey game...

I don't know where we were but she's cute here, right? :) and has some crazy long legs!

HA! Jed is a nerd.

Another boring picture post with no clever words. Sorry! It's late and it just needs to be posted.

Broccoli Blanching?

Did you know you were supposed to BLANCH broccoli before you freeze it?! I had no idea! We used to always freeze our broccoli when we had extra. Every time we tried to cook it, it would taste disgusting. I was always so confused but Clint found this today: How to Freeze Broccoli

Did anyone else know this?!
We are SO eating more broccoli now...

First time in Vegas

Do you believe it?! This is happening right. now. I'm blogging. Be forewarned. Picture overload.

So in the middle of March, we decided to take a little trip down to Vegas. It was Clint's spring break and this was a huge deal for us because we never just take a vacation. It's always to go see family and spend time with them. And that is not a bad thing! At all!! But this time we got to just relax and sight see. With family. :) Jed & Jen met up with us and shared a hotel (to help with the cost!) :) and to have a blast with us!!

We drove down on Thursday afternoon and came back the following Sunday. So here we go:

When we got to Vegas, after checking out our awesome hotel (Planet Hollywood on the 31st floor!!!) we went out to find dinner. After walking the strip ON St. Patrick's Day (it was so crazy..) and feeling like I swept up the evils of Las Vegas with the hems of my pants, we stopped at Serendipity for dinner! We ordered take out and ate it on the patio. It was actually a pretty horrible experience - customer service-wise but the food was pretty good. Clint accidentally ordered a "bunless" double hamburger and it was hilarious!! We ordered their famous frozen hot chocolate and loved it!

These hand painted umbrellas were decorating the Bellagio ceiling and I kind love them! I though about doing something similar for Darbi's room.. maybe soon... maybe someday. I'm kind of lacking the motivation now.

Ok. This picture may look like nothing (and it kind of is) but right below and to the left of those bluish lights, is ASHLEY filming a one-on-one date for THE BACHELORETTE!!! Now I'm not a frequent Bachelor/Bachelorette watcher. I've seen maybe 3 seasons ever. I guess that's kind of a lot.
But we watched last season of The Bachelor and we got to know the girls and now I saw one in Vegas! And it's funny because we kept joking about how of all the helicopters taking tours over Vegas, one of them had to have a Bachelor/Bachelorette couple in them on a date for the show. We were so right!!! We walked past them while they were walking/talking and we might be on tv.. I'll be watching this season for sure. :)

Our view from our hotel room - ON THE 31ST FLOOR! :) I've never stayed in a real Vegas hotel-on-the-strip before. Can you tell. :)

Darbi being cute on our bed and playing hide and seek with Jed.

Looking at the view through her snazzy new sunglasses from Jen. Thanks Jen!

On day 2 (Friday), Clint, D, & I took a little white trash trip to the famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop from the show Pawn Stars. Does it seem like we watch too much tv. Because I think we do. :) Meh. They have so pretty cool stuff but we were there at like 5 so the "Pawn Stars" weren't in. We bought Clint a keychain just because and I think this was the highlight of the trip for Clint. :)

The most awesome buffet deal ever = $54 a person (Darbi was free) and you get unlimited buffet admittance in 7 different buffets along the strip for 24 HOURS!!! It totally saved us so much money on food! We ate at the buffet 4 times & at 3 different hotels. Dinner @ Harrah's (kinda sucky), Breakfast @ Planet Hollywood (pretty good), Lunch @ Paris (AMAZING), and Dinner @ Paris again. It was THAT good! The plan was to hit the Rio for dinner but the Paris hotel was much closer.

Side note - all through my pregnancy (feels like a zillion years ago and like it lasted only a millisecond - because it kind of did) I craved crab, which is totally weird because I'm not a seafood person. Anyway. I ate a ton of crab.

Went to the Shark Reef @ Mandalay Bay. Darbi loved it! A bit pricey for tiny sharks. :(

Jed & Jen at the Paris for lunch (or dinner). Not sure.

Went to the M&M Factory. It was so pretty! We bought teal, pink, & purple M&M's.

Then we went to the Coke factory and tried the 16 Coke flavors of the world or something. It was fun and slightly disgusting! Worst flavor ever - The Beverly from Italy. I think there was dry heaving and tongue scraping involved. Yeah. Gross. We dared Clint to down the rest of the cup and he did. We didn't even give him anything for doing it. I felt kinda bad. OH it was so gross!

There were street performers dressed as both Elmo & Minnie Mouse. Two of Darbi's favorites. I didn't get a good picture of Darbi with Elmo but this is her looking at him. She makes his really high pitched sound when she screams "Elmo!!" It's so cute!

Almost all of the pictures of Darbi with her characters had Clint pointing at the camera like that. Silly boy..

Our last night there, we finally made a point to see the Bellagio Fountains. They were so beautiful! I would have loved to stay and watch more shows but it was already like 9:30 and Darbi was getting restless.

We had so much fun and we are already planning another trip there in August. Some geek hacker convention or something...

Touche for making it all the way down here. Unless you were on this trip or my parents, this was probably the most boring post ever. Sorry! :)

How to outsmart a kid the old fashioned way

The kid just walks away!! HA!!
Awesome.

My new cleaning system

First off... this looks much more complicated than it really is! My SIL learned this from a lady's mother in her ward and she finished hers and showed it to me. IT. IS. AWESOME. I feel so organized. I think my house is cleaner for just having finished this little project! :)

The whole idea is you assign each day specific areas of your home and on those days, you just do surface cleaning. For me.. that's basically putting stuff in their place OR those cleaning things you do FRANTICALLY before someone is making a surprise visit :)

Then, you pick 2 days of the week to do your deep cleaning. I chose days where my weekly duties were lighter than the rest. That is where this little sheet below comes in. I split my home areas up into 6 different areas equally. Then I proceeded to list every single thing that would need to be done if I were moving out. Pretty much things I never clean until I have to move. Embarrassing I know. :) This was the hardest part.


Then, I took each of those duties, from each of the 6 sections, and evenly divided those into 8 parts. (in the picture, you can see there are enough for each Wed/Sat a month) So this ensures that at least every 6 months you are cleaning those pesky baseboards (that in my house don't get cleaned until I move - except for the bathroom. Those get cleaned every time I clean the bathroom! Yuck..)


I put them in a fun cheap little Target photo book. January and July are paired together, same with February and August, etc. I just move these little cards below into their places when that month comes around.


Below is Tuesday. Kind of a normal day without any deep cleaning but I also added cleaning out the fridge as a weekly duty so nothing gets left/lost in there for too long. :)


I originally had Wed/ Sat as my deep cleaning days but since it actually worked out better for me, I moved it to Thurs/Sat. I make sure I put all the deep cleaning duties that Clint needs to help with on Saturdays. After I finish my deep cleaning duties for that week, I take that card and move it to the back (in the same slot - there are 3 cards behind it that you can't see)


I love love love this!! And I don't feel stressed out about it. Who cares if I don't get my deep cleaning done for this week. I'll do it again in 6 months and that's a ton better than not doing it at all!! :) It's personal for me and my house which I also love. Whenever we move someday, I'll probably do it again since the rooms/spaces will be different. Start to finish, it was quite a bit of work but now I feel like when my home gets too out of control to clean all at once, I feel like this offers a good start to getting me back on track. Especially if I lose my steam/go on vacation. :)

Progress

We're really bad at refinishing furniture. This project is taking F.O.R.E.V.E.R. Buy oh boy am I falling in love with it! We've learned so much too. We thought we would save money by buying flat paint in our color choices and then finishing with a top coat of satin polyurethane. Stupid stupid STUPID. If we had just paid a little bit more for satin finish paint, we'd be DONE right now! But it's going to look awesome!! All that is left is to polyurethane the shelves and drawers and then find hardware for the drawers and hinges for the door on the front. Our poor kitchen has been our makeshift garage for the last 3 weeks. I want my kitchen back! Sorry for the blurry cell phone picture!

Here's the before.

ALSO, I'm trying to get Clint to help me make these side dressers/nightstands for our bedroom next. He's kind of burnt out on painting too.
But I love them too much!!

CHUCK.

I have hopes that one day I'll turn this blog into the actually happenings of our family on a regular basis but until then, I'm gonna keep posting things I passionately feel need to be shared with my blog world. (And represent how little time I spend cleaning my house/being a good housewife) :)

CHUCK.

We LOVE Chuck in this house. LOVE LOVE LOVE. Maybe 2 days before Darbi came home from the hospital, Clint and I would spend any extra time (that was not spent at work, school, or the hospital) watching Season 1 & 2 of Chuck. I think I have myself a grown-up-lady-crush on Zachary Levi. He is the perfect mix of sexy nerd and when you get that man in a suit - he is perfectly Geek Chic. Which ironically is exactly what I consider Clint to be! Lucky me.. I married my very own "Chuck".
Look at that adorable Daddy my kid has. :)

Anyway. I found this on the internet a couple weeks ago. CHUCK can SING?!?! I love the tone of his voice.. So sweet.

And then I found this gem... and melted. Holy smokes. He's adorable!

Oh geez.. :)

Why my kid is so awesome!

Clint had to put Darbi to bed while I was at Zumba. She is honestly the best kid when it comes to bedtime. Not that I have any other kids to compare her to but she's an angel! Normally, our routine is pj's, milk, she says "nigh-nigh" to Clint, I carry her upstairs, hand her the 2 "blankies" she loves, she snuggles on my shoulder for a few minutes, gives me a kiss, and I lay her down. She says "nigh-nigh, buh-bye, uh-ya (i love you)" and I walk out. Easy-peasy. It's really quite adorable.

Her bedtime is 8 and we're pretty good about keeping to it. But tonight I was kind of rushing to get to Zumba so I left Clint to hurry and get her to bed around 8:15. Of course, when Mama is gone, she gets a later bedtime. :) Clint gave her some milk, she drank about half of it and started playing quietly with some of her toys. So Clint asked her "Darbi, are you ready for bed?" She ignored him. So, of course, he let her play. Then.. about 15 minutes later (around 8:45), she stops playing, runs upstairs to her room and stops in the middle. She says "bups (whoops) blankie!", turns around and runs into our room and grabs her 2 favorite blankets, and runs back into her room and tries to climb into her crib! Crazy right?! Meantime, Clint is just following her around not saying anything!

She is SO AWESOME! She wouldn't even give Clint a hug or kiss before he laid her down. All things considered, she is the smartest kid!! Just so I remember.. these are some of the things she is saying (and the special way she pronounces them..) She says so much more but I just love how she says these things..

Hi lo - Hello
Bups - Whoops
Paca - Grandpa
Gigi- Grandma
Moe - More
Ow seye - Outside
Bickey - Mickey Mouse
Wish - Fish
By - Bite
Sa wish - Sandwich
Ry - Fry
Gok - Gonk (ouch)
TB - TV (I'm kind of ashamed of this one :) If Mickey isn't on the tv, she says "uh-oh, TB, uh-oh!"
Uh ya - I love you
I cuh wah - I color!
I jumpi - I'm jumping!

ZUMBA!!!

Last year, I started doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred everyday and I lost 10 pounds in a month. A 28 minute workout that kicked my butt and I actually looked forward to it everyday because it was SO easy at the same time! Crazy right? Well.. then Darbi got RSV and we went into survival mode. I got off track. I gained it all back throughout the rest of the year plus a little even though I tried to get back in my old routine.

So this year, I said, I'm really gonna lose weight.. for reals! REALLY this time. Right?? I didn't have a plan. I lost nothing. Big surprise, I know. But then my sis-in-law told me about Zumba. I was super awkward the first time and I felt stupid but I learned that you don't look stupid even if you feel stupid! Does that make sense?? Who cares what I look like?! Everyone is doing the same thing and feeling great doing it! I'm SO in love with Zumba!! I go twice a week, and when I can squeeze it in (thanks to my Grandma's help!) I go 3 times a week. Maybe this sounds weird but I actually feel more confident because of it. And anytime I hear fun dance music on the radio I just want to move and dance! It's so good because now I dance all around the house while I'm cleaning and stuff. Kind of embarrassing but I don't care!! At least I'm burning calories. I've lost a little weight but I'm definitely on track to lose a ton more! And I don't care if it's just a fad and I'm jumping on the bandwagon. It's working and it's totally worth it.

And I want everyone to come with me! It's seriously SO FUN!!! It doesn't feel like a workout. I go every Tuesday and Thursday night from 8:30-9:30. Let me know if you want to go! The first time is free and YOU. WILL. LOVE. IT.

Have you ever wondered??

Clint found this today and showed it to just before we went to bed tonight... I was laughing SO. HARD. I had to share... since I'm wide awake now!

If you click on the comic strip, it animates in a new window. Which makes it SO much funnier!!

What's for dinner?

Lately I've been trying to recipes for dinner to get me excited about cooking. Against all that Clint and other family members will say, I can cook. I just don't like to. Also, my Grandma Hillman laughs at me because anytime she makes anything, I ask her which box it came out of. :) She hates that! Then she yells at me and gives me all her yummy made-from-scratch recipes. But
I hate doing all the prep and I especially hate cleaning up. Which is odd because once I'm in the mood to clean, you can't stop me. I'll clean and organize everything in sight. Also odd, once I get everything ready, and I'm in the middle of cooking, I don't mind it at all. I think because the end is in sight and that means a full tummy with super yummy food. I just have to keep that in mind when it comes around to dinnertime and I need to be a better meal planner. Anyway.. here are a few things we've tried lately..

Pasta with Bacon and Mushrooms
This one is a Pioneer Woman recipe. It was pretty good.. My mistake was to mix the sauce with the entire 1 lb. bag of angel hair pasta. Don't do that. It will just taste like pasta. Either I skipped that part of the recipe or maybe I really can't cook! It was ok. Clint and I really liked it but we might leave the bacon out next time.. If we make it again.

Chicken and White Bean Enchiladas
These were AWESOME. They came from a website my friend Amy found and she's tried a bunch of other recipes on this site and has had super luck with them. PLUS it's super low cal IF you follow the recipe. :) We just used green enchilada sauce from a can and I didn't add cilantro or scallions to the top. ALSO, I didn't have green chilies so I borrowed some jalapenos from my neighbor (thanks Stephanie!) and they were CAR-AZY good! And hot... from both ends. :( TMI. Remember, I'm watching out for you. :) I'm DEFINITELY making these again. Probably with chilies next time, as per Clint's request. ;)



Thai Chicken Pasta
This has become one of mine and Clint's ALL TIME FAVORITE meal. We try to make it at least once a week. It's SOOOO yummy. It calls for 1 tsp of Chili Garlic Sauce and we add quite a bit more. We like a little spice.. just not as much as the enchiladas with the jalapenos. :)
Also, ANYTHING from this website is good. Megan only posts 5 star recipes that she's tried and had success with and I LOVE IT. Thanks Megan!

Brushed and Baked BBQ Chicken Rolls
These sandwiches are to die for!! I took them to one of the girls I visit teach after she had her baby and she immediately texted me demanding the recipe. :)
Let me know if any of you try any of these and what you think! I hope you like them!!

Lucky Find!

Lookie what I found at the DI today!! I LOVE it!! It's a dresser but we are going to sand it down and paint it some kind of grey/white combination and use it as our entertainment center! I'm not sure how old it is but there is a Bassett Furniture brand burned onto the inside of one of the drawers. It's smells like old lady perfume and I won't be able to finish it until it warms up. It's going to be a little ugly/smelly in my living room for a while but I don't care! We might take out the two top drawers on each side and make them shelves so that our cable box/wii/dvd player can fit easily. If you open the white panel in the middle, there are 3 drawers behind it. Perfect for Clint's ugly wires that I find all over the house. Perfectly contained! Any advice on how to go about this? I've never done this before... any other thoughts on paint color/design?? I'm open to other ideas.

Darbi's Fan Club

While I was in AZ, I went to church with Paca & Gigi (darbi's words.. not mine :) in my old ward. I love that ward. I feel like I don't have to introduce myself when I go but there are always so many new people! Throughout our "family crisis" our blog was our means of communication with everyone who wanted to know the goings-on. I was too stressed out to talk to anyone on the phone, not to mention talking about the whole ordeal made my blood pressure sky rocket.. so this blog is my way of still keeping those interested in Darbi's progress updated! Anyway... On Sunday, I was attacked by Toni's little girl who reads this lil' blog more faithfully than probably anyone else!! Caitlin is Darbi's number one fan and I love it!! She is seriously the most adorable young woman! AND she offered to babysit next time I'm in town. CAITLIN - I'M SOLD. :) You got it sista! I think Darbi kinda likes you too. :)

Caitlin's older sister - Courtney

I love Darbi's smirk in the picture.