Thanks Genevieve!

I owe it to my friend Genevieve (and her friend, Annika) for the awesome instructions on how to make sidebar pictures into links. (Took me long enough!) Anyway, I have found that I love editing html! I can't believe it, I'm slowly turning into a computer geek! It's like putting together a puzzle and I can't get enough. I was very, very intimidated by it at first, but with the proper instructions, it is not hard at all. Anyway, thanks again Genevieve!

I Couldn't Wait Any Longer

(I have had our March blog header done for a few days now and I can't wait another day to put it up, so please just assume that I forgot it was Leap Year.)

Too Good To Be True?

Apple Hill Apple Cake
serves 10-12

Combine:

2 cups sugar
1/2 cup oil
2 eggs
-----------------------

Add:

4 cups apples, peeled and diced
-----------------------

Combine in separate bowl:

2 cups flour
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
-----------------------

Fold everything in together. Bake in greased pan at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes (but periodically check because some apples will carry more moisture than others and will require longer cooking times.) Will appear very brown, but don't worry, it's not burnt (unless you really messed it up.) ;^) Oh, it's so good!!!!


(Nope, it's not my own! Recipe taken from the Sweet Endings Creative Cookbook. 2007)

The ABC's of Me

The ABC's of Me

Attached or Single: Attached!
Best Friend: Juan. (Ohhhhh, how sweet!)
Cake or Pie: Depends on the cake and the pie. I love them equally if it's between Kentucky Derby pie and Tres Leches cake.
Day of Choice: 4th of July.
Essential Item: Adobe CS3 in its entirety. I'm lost without it.
Favorite Color: Moss. Always has been, always will be.
Gummy Bears or Worms: Gummy Bears. I will eat an entire bag in one sitting, no matter the size.
Hometown: I've actually moved more than 15 times in my life (not counting to and from college every year,) but I consider Salina and Provo to be my hometowns as I spent an equal amount of time living in those places.
Indulgences: Turkey Hill Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream. It's made with really creamy milk and chocolate shavings that still melt in your cold mouth. There are so many cookie dough chunks mixed up with brown sugar and molasses-flavored ice cream that you are completely satisfied with your purchase. If that isn't enticing, I do not know what is.
January or July: How about May? Yep, May.
Kids: One down, 35 to go. Oh, you better believe it!
Life is incomplete without: Family.
Marriage Date: November 19th or 20th of 2005, I think. (Juan sometimes forgets, so I have to tease him.)
Number of Siblings: 4- Harper, Tristan, Sierra, and Spencer/Chad (I don't know what name he goes by these days.)
Oranges or Apples: I'm copying Genevieve's answer word for word--"I love them both but oranges take to long for me because I have to peel every last shred of skin so I definitely eat apples more- pink lady or honeycrisp to be exact."
Phobias: Snakes (and dreams about Germans trying to kill me.)
Quote: "It takes each of us to make a difference for all of us." -Jackie Mutcheson
Reasons to Smile: Spring is coming!
Season: Both of the Equinoxes.
Tag others: Consider this a special invitation for anyone who can't think of what to blog about today.
Unknown fact about me: My childhood dream was to become an orchestra conductor.
Vegitarian or Meat eater: I love vegetables but I eat meat, too.
Worst Habit: Tearing my fingernails.
X-rays: Hmmmm, only of my teeth.
Your Favorite Food: Probably the kind you eat. I love too many dishes to choose just one for a favorite.
Zodiac: Pisces.

The Flu Flew By Our House

Lights. Camera. Back in Action. The title explains why I haven't blogged for days. Here are a few pictures we took last weekend. Other than that, there's nothing new to blog about.

Juan is always thinking of me; he got me tulips when I was ill.

Siena got all "dolled-up" for the web cam on Sunday.

Is it just me, or does this photo make her look older?

We Are Officially Fat (and Nerds)

The fact that we actually took an online "Are You..." test proves those two things. We knew better, but it was fun making up names and addresses for the mailing lists and free offers. After spending about 15 minutes filling out info., we get to this page:

A Million Apologies

To all of you millions (okay, okay, maybe "hundreds of thousands") of people who read our blog, please accept my apologies for neglecting the blog this weekend. I have not thought of a good excuse yet, but give me time and I will come up with one that blows your socks out of the water (Yes, I said "socks out of the water!"... for double emphasis, of course.)

I would like now, to take a moment and reflect on our day yesterday. Hmmm. Okay, done. Yep, mostly pretty boring. Oh! Except when I buzzed Juan's head o' hair. That was fun. Afterwards, we rearranged the living room (still in the process, actually,) because we inherited some furniture. We were FINALLY able to get rid of our plastic $20 TV stand! (Thanks Vests!) That inspired me to actually make an effort in coordinating our living room. I don't know if what results will be an improvement overall, but it's worth a try. We finished the evening with a few rounds of Rummikub with Jeremy and Genevieve. Dad, if you are reading this... let this be a lesson to you: I am scarred for the rest of my Rummikub days because of one of your made-up rules. The runs and sets with the Joker CAN be broken up before the Joker is replaced! Do you know how many times I could have won the game had I known this?! Hmph!

Moving on...........
Today has been pretty uneventful so far. The only exciting thing is that Siena tried carrots for the first time. I thought that carrots would be her favorite vegetable because as far as I know, they are the sweetest. She GaGGeD them down! (...and it stained the Onesie I love the most! Tears are flowing between the two of us.)

Next topic: I want to do one big shout-out now.

Congrats:
Chad, for completing his He-Man Firearm Safety Course.
Tristan, for doing homework on V-Day.
Shanelle, she just got a new job as a nanny out here (would this be more appropriate in the "Good Luck" section?)

Good Luck:
Dani, she is an accountant and we're heading into the thick of tax season.
Temple dental students, mid-terms.

Thank You:
Janine and Tyler, the baby food book, spoons, and hand mixer are lifesavers.
Familia Chavez & Camp Family, for getting on the web-cam with us every Sunday.
Genevieve, for explaining the real way of playing Rummikub.

Sorry:
Punjab (Harper, I think), for mistaking your identity on the telephone. I still want to hear from you. Oh, and please apologize to your camel for me.
Facebook people, I have neglected my page for about 4 weeks.
Sierra, (I mean Siena, oh, I mean Sierra,) for doing that.


For those who I have missed: don't worry, your day will come....

If We Were Super

(We both get what we have always wanted: for me, long locks blowing in the wind and for Juan, permanent facial hair and a mullet.)

We've had some great photo ops lately:

We are still waiting for her booster chair to come, so I tried feeding her in her swing today. Needless to say, her rice cereal went a-flyin'. I looked about the same as she did after we were done.

Snuggling with her bunny in the rocking chair

A Reason to Celebrate!

Siena is officially 6 months old today! She got her 6-month set of vaccines today as a present from the doctor. (I think she is a little "toughie"; her developing diaper rash bothers her more than her pokes.) She's 17 1/2 lbs and about 25" long and has pretty much stayed in that 75th percentile ever since her 2-month checkup, the little porker. We love her to pieces and can't get enough of her smile. It's been so fun to get to know her mannerisms and see her sense of humor come out. She's definitely developed Stranger and Separation Anxieties because she always wants Mommy to hold her and if anyone else so much as looks at her at the wrong time, she'll start to cry. Yet Siena is still so independent! She refuses to accept either a pacifier or a bottle from anyone... she has to be the one to put it in her mouth. It's so funny to watch because she doesn't have that "hand-eye coordination" thing down quite yet-- she can't ever actually get what she wants, where she wants it. (After about 2 minutes of trying, she starts to scream out of frustration, and THAT'S where it becomes "fun" for me.)



As much as I am realizing how difficult parenting is, and is going to be, I wouldn't DREAM of changing my life as it is right now. Siena has brought Juan and I so much happiness on a level that we couldn't even have imagined before she was born. They say that the "pre-children years" are the "Honeymoon Stage" and that "life will never be as blissful once your first child is born"; to that I say "What-Evah!" It's true that Juan and I were so incredibly happy-in-love those first two years before Siena was born, but we get so much more marital happiness in Siena's "Rice Monster" face than any ol' "high school reunion show-and-tell". WHAT I MEAN IS..... seeing the little family that we've become is not "replaced joy", it's a higher degree of well-being.

Help! I've Lost My Changita!

Has anyone else out there had a manipulative 6 month-old? Siena has started screaming and screaming when it is time for bed and refuses to stop until someone holds her. Who stole my child and replaced her with this one?

I know that she's not sick and not in pain because once she is held or brought into the room where everyone is, she starts giggling and flirting. My suspicion is that she knows it's bedtime and she also knows that she can prolong her waking hours if she gets Mommy to laugh and play with her... so she acts alive and funny so she doesn't have to go to bed. I can't help but laugh because she does this thing where she throws her arms above her head and moves her head from side to side in a really fast motion while she's giggling. It's hilarious!

This has happened for a few nights now and I know that I need to change my reaction to that in order for her to realize that she really does have to go to bed. There have got to be more solutions than that (I really like playing with her, and it's so rare that she is so animated.) Am I missing something? Anyone? Please, all mothers out there, I need some advice on dealing with this. Thanks!

Anyone Know Tofu?

We want to try cooking with tofu just for the experience, but we want it to be a good experience. So if anyone knows of any delicious tofu recipes, please let me know.

ps (Janine, if you are reading this... do you know of any "tofu cheese fondue" recipes?)

Capogiro Date

Oh how lucky we are! Shanelle volunteered to babysit Siena last night so we could go on a date. We decided to go to the Art District in Downtown Philly because there was this gelato place that looked oh-so-delicious. It's called Capogiro and here is there website. It won "Best Dessert" in CitySearch last year, so we knew it would be good. Besides the city atmosphere and the cool mood at the 13th street location, the main reason we went there was because they claim to have uncharted flavors of gelato. As Juan was researching this place before we left, he saw that they had a Cilantro-Lime flavored gelato. New=Good. Although we tried many interesting combos, we ended up ordering: Basil (our top pick,) Bacio (choco-hazelnut... "you say 'gelato', I say 'Bacio!',) Pineapple-Mint (innovative,) Blood Orange (pretty,) Papaya (so fresh and so clean, clean,) and Valencia Orange (really, really sour!)

Anyway, we enjoyed our solo evening thanks to Nelly. Today we went to the King of Prussia mall. Fun. Tiring. Glad to be home and off our feet.

Now I'm preparing my lesson for class tomorrow and finishing laundry; it's been a great weekend.

if ALL else fails

We have tried everything, but Siena has put her foot down on using a bottle. She will not do anything but gnaw on the side of it. After buying a couple more different bottles for her to use (translation: after wasting money and time,) I decided to just try a sippy cup. We had a little improvement; at least she likes to bring it to her mouth to munch on. She has yet to actually suck with real intent. So we busted out the boon spoon (courtesy of our always-thoughtful neighbors.) Siena couldn't get enough! We would like to share part of that experience with you:

We have more good news!!! Shanelle is living with us for a while, which is a great help; she helps me out by watching Siena and keeping me company. She's looking for a nanny position, so if you know of any opportunities like that on the East coast, more leads would be nice. Thanks to all of you who have already given her suggestions.

For Your Political Amusement

Can you guess who these people are?

answers in order:

1. John McCain
2. Ron Paul
3. Mitt Romney
4. Fred Thompson
5. Barak Obama
6. Bill and Hill Clinton
7. John Edwards
8. Rudy Giuliani
9. Mike Huckabee

For Those Who Apply:

Remember to vote today. That's all I have to say.

Pictoral Update

Lovin' the little drool queen

Electrical projects with friends

The semi-finished product

Out of focus, but still cute

The negotiation

I'm Purple At This Moment

After watching the Republican and Democratic debates over the last two days, I am getting more and more curious to see what will happen in November. I have no wish to discuss politics, but I want to highlight my favorite topics of debate: healthcare, illegal immigration, and tax reform. These are very hot on my brain right now because I have now either had personal experiences or close ties to these issues. Evidently there needs to be some change; however, I like multiple solutions that many of the candidates have brought to the table. By the same token, I don't agree with at least one thing with every candidate. This presents a problem: I cannot choose one single person to vote for. Luckily I have until April when the PA Primary is held. Good luck to all of you Utah voters this upcoming Tuesday.