My Handy Husband

My husband, bless his heart, is a "do-it-yourselfer."

As you know, he is landscaping our backyard. By himself (mostly).

He redid our kitchen. By himself.

He paints, he cleans, he comforts, he changes diapers.

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The other day I asked him to hang Shyla's shelf up in her room. Seems simple enough.

And this is what I encountered when I walked past the room. Literally, I had to do a double-take:

But, don't worry. As I have mentioned, my husband is an engineer and a perfectionist so he took out his trusty level and fixed the shelf:

And, oh, have I mentioned that he is also a comedian?

Swim Lesson #1

We finally got Shyla registered for swim lessons and our first of 9 classes was this evening.

I have to admit, I was a little nervous that she was going to scream and cry and not want to leave me. Recently she has been in a "phase" where only I can do things for her, not Daddy. But because of my current fat (pregnant) "phase" I was not going to put on a swimsuit and get in the water.

Anyway, we rushed home after school (and later than usual because I had tutoring), and tried to eat a quick dinner before getting her suit and towel and out the door. That's when things went bad - I think we were too rushed and she didn't understand why. She threw her yogurt across the room then got mad when I wouldn't give her mine (they were identical). Then she spent 30 minutes screaming and hitting and being down-right unpleasant.

Somehow, by the grace of God, we made it to the pool on-time and appropriately dressed.

And then I was pleasantly surprised.....by this little girl who had a great time in the pool with Daddy and only called for me a few times. Enjoy these pictures of my little mudskipper!

Don't worry, she didn't wear her socks in the pool! This picture was taken when we got home and her feet had been really cold!

I apologize for the poor quality of pictures, our "good" camera wasn't charged!

Just Loungin'

When Stevie and I sit in the living room, we usually sit with our feet up on the coffee table.

Sophisticated? No.

Comfortable? Yes.

So, then, we were not surprised to find our little mimic sitting like this:

Is She Crying Because of her Mullet?

A few weeks ago there were professional pictures taken at Shyla's school:

My Wedding Shoes

Three and a half years ago when I got married I bought some really pretty white heels by Nina to wear under my dress. They are beautiful!

Although I know I will never wear them again, I could never part with them, so they have been in my closet in the box since that night.

Until recently....

My little girl has discovered my wedding shoes and loves walking around in them.

God I love her!

Shyla's Easter Basket

Let's take a look at Shyla's Easter basket:

Here's what it contained:

• A card from Mommy and Daddy with Easter stickers (which she didn't care much about)
• A Furry lamb (which she threw to the side)
• A pack of Peeps (we called them "treats" and she ate 1, except the head)
• 3 Books (we read 1 tonight)
• An Easter plate (to which she said, "plate!" when she saw it)
• 5 large Easter eggs filled with Sesame Street figures (she probably would have played with these all day...they were quite the hit!)
• A pack of bath-time foam words
• Elmo Bubble Bath
• Elmo Bath Fizzers to change the color of the bath water

You may be wondering why the Easter Bunny put such emphasis on bath-time stuff. Well, Shyla has decided that she hates her bath. For the past few weeks bath-time has been a struggle, an aerobic workout, emotionally draining, and very, very, very wet.

But, tonight....Easter night....bath-time was a bubbly success! She loved the bubbles and she loved that she could throw her foam words into the tub (we didn't even open the fizzers yet!)

Score one for mommy and daddy (errr, I mean the Easter Bunny)!

Happy Easter 2011

Today is Easter Sunday. It is 2 PM. Shyla is asleep in her room, Stevie is asleep on the sofa, and I am blogging. When I am done, I am going to go put my feet up and rest for a few minutes!

We had a special Easter breakfast of Dutch Babies and fresh fruit. Shyla enjoyed it! She especially enjoyed the powdered sugar!

She then discovered that the Easter Bunny had come and left her a basket full of all her favorites!
Then we went outside and she hunted for eggs in the backyard! She found them all, then wanted Daddy to hide them again and again and again!

Then it was time to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Easter brunch:

We started by trying to get a good family photo. Thank you, Uncle Pete, for not copping anyone out of the photo. Other than the fact that me and my belly (with 3 months still to go) take up half the picture, this one isn't too shabby!

Later I took a family picture of Jeannette and Aaron and Ellie. Pretty good if I do say so myself!

Grandpa and Shyla.

The 3 cousins. All looking different directions.

Shyla and Zac.
Shyla laughing at Zac.

What a lovely Easter we had! It was just how Easter should be; surrounded by friends and family and laughter. Followed by a nap.

The Zoo 4-23-11

Since I am feeling much better today, I took Shyla to the zoo for an outing while Stevie continues to work in the backyard.

We started by getting our picture taken together in one of those photo-booths. She was a little scared at first but she sat on my lap and chose the monkey as our "background." Not the wisest $5 I've ever spent, but a cute keepsake nonetheless.

I wasn't able to take many pictures on this zoo trip because Shyla wanted to be carried the majority of the time. But we did see lots of animals and our friends Suzanne and Soren.

Later we also saw our friends Laura and Josh and Sarah, but couldn't talk for long because Shyla had her eyes on the elephants.

Oh, and continuing with our tradition of physically attacking defenseless characters, she decided it would be really fun to knock over this inflatable Easter Bunny when I asked her to pose for a picture with it.
Weebles Go Wobble, but this one actually fell down.

Our zoo is always a great outing that gets us out of the house, some vitamin D, and a chance to spend quality time together. I do wish they opened a little earlier, though, because spending an hour there leads right up to nap time and doesn't leave much time for lunch. Oh well, that's my gripe for the day.

FGF 4-22-11

Today was a good day.

As many of you know, I felt terrible yesterday and spent the afternoon at the doctor's office. All of my results came back normal, and I have felt pretty good today.

I couldn't walk the stations on the cross, which we do every Good Friday, so my mom and I went baby shopping instead!

We started at Sam Levitz where we returned the extra barstool and bought a glider for New-Baby's room. It is really comfortable, tan in color, and I can't wait to rock New-Baby to sleep in it, when the time comes.

Then we had a lovely vegetarian lunch (I was starving by that point) at On The Border, then headed to Babies R Us.

My mom bought us this:
New-Baby has a crib (well, she will in 7-14 days)! It is by Baby Cache, Essentials, and it looks like the one pictured above except it is white.

Then we looked at themes for the room and found this:

It is called Beautiful Butterfly and it will be perfect in her room which already has 1 purple wall. We bought a blanket and the wall decals to show Stevie, and he approved!

Those of you with a good memory will recall that we had originally wanted to do the room in a Pink UofA theme. But as I was looking for material and stuff, I discovered that finding the pink UofA stuff is really, really, really hard.

I feel really good about the progress we made today (not to mention I started the day by cleaning out a lot of New Baby's room) and I also feel good knowing that I can go put my feet up for a few minutes before picking Shyla up from school.

We brought donuts for her teachers today and plastic eggs filled with stickers for their Egg Hunt. I sure hope it went well!

30 Day Challenge - Day 30

30 Day Challenge - Day 30 - A Picture of Someone you Miss

If you could see me right now you would see me patting myself on the back, literally. I cannot believe that I have completed this 30 day challenge, without missing a single day! Go me!

So, for today's post, I am posting about my Grandma Sonntag, pictured above with me and Chelsea circa 2001.

There are other people whom I miss, but she comes to mind immediately.

I will always be thankful that just a few weeks before she passed away I randomly stopped by to see her. She lived on the east side of town and I had just completed a presentation at one of the Long Realty offices on that side. I hadn't seen her for awhile and I knew no one at my office would care if I were a few minutes later than expected so I called her and popped in. We had a lovely, relaxing visit and some much-need time to catch up. I also think she was happy that we had that time. Right Mom?

I will always regret that I missed her last Mother's Day, because I was sick (aka hung-over), but I don't think she minded too much. Right Mom?

She was an amazing grandma who loved us and spoiled us in every way. But she was never taken for granted. I have hundreds of memories of our times with Grandma, way too many to list in this post, but I will tell you that:

• she and my mom talked every night until the day she passed away, Chelsea and I also talk to our mom almost every night too no matter who makes fun of us!
• we used to love driving with her in her white honda accord (which later became Chelsea's, then became mine, and then I crashed it) because she would do the clutch and let us do the shifter
• when we would drive with her we would cheer when we went through a green light and boo when we got stopped at red
• she (quite literally) counted cheerios to make sure Chelsea and I always had equal amounts of everything
• the soft-drink TAB probably stayed in business because of her
• we spent countless hours at her house for our weekly Sunday dinner and play-time outside
• she let my friends and I borrow her gold honda accord to go to Vegas with her handicap plate so we could park close to the casinos
• she traveled often to really interesting places, and always sent us postcards
• she always had ice cream in the house and was only happy if you ate 1 or 2 (or 3) bowls (gosh I wish Stevie had gotten to know her better, she was his type of lady!)
• when she discovered that you liked something, she showed you with it

I could go on and on but I think that's enough for now and for this challenge!

Good night!

30 Day Challenge - Day 29

30 Day Challenge - Day 29 - A Picture that can Always make you Smile

I have too many to choose from! But this one is one of my favorites! It was the first time she had an ice cream cone and she was thoroughly enjoying it. I just love that smile!

30 Day Challenge - Day 28

30 Day Challenge - Day 28 - A Picture of Something that Scares You

30 Day Challenge - Day 27

30 Day Challenge - Day 27 - A Picture of You and a Family Member

December 2010

I'm sure I've posted this picture before but I am posting it again because:

• I like it
• It's my blog and I can do what I want
• She is a member of my family so it meets the challenge

Enjoy!

FGF 4-15-11

Today I am going to post about 2 "feel-goods" from this week:

#1) There is definite progress in the backyard! Yay Daddy! And Shyla seems to be enjoying it. She often pluralizes words unnecessarily, so after I took this picture she instructed me to "sits" next to her. I obliged, of course. But, seriously, look at how beautiful it's going to be!!

#2) We had a FANTASTIC time last night with our really good friends Andy and Alexia and their baby Alessebetta (Al). Look at what a beauty she is (they both are!). She cried whenever I tried to hold her (I think I am sensing a pattern here...) but she is healthy and happy and they are amazing parents! We are so blessed to have so many wonderful friends!

Shyla has always had a strong liking of Alexia (Andy is another story but she did give him a kiss good-night) and last night was no different. My little "Mama's Girl" insisted that Alexia do everything for her - from holding her at dinner to changing her diaper and getting her ready for bed. It is quite comical. And it gives me a bit of a break from the wrestling match that is pajama time.

I love Fridays and I love feeling good! Next Friday will be an even better Friday because it is Good Friday and I don't have to work! Yee-hah!

30 Day Challenge - Day 26

30 Day Challenge - Day 26 - A Picture of Something that means a lot to You

This is our dog, Pancake (or, Cupcake, if you ask our friend Andy). Sometimes I call her Pineapple Upside Down Cake, too.

Anyway, she is a great dog! We have had her for over 3 years now. We got here right before we got married.

We speculate that she was abused by her former owner. We got her after our friend found her in a rain storm and tried, unsuccessfully, to find her owner. She is loving and athletic and follows directions better than most of my 6th graders. When she first joined our family she was afraid of everything, but I can happily say that she has gotten much better about that.

We love our Pancake!

30 Day Challenge - Day 25

30 Day Challenge - Day 25 - A Picture of your Day

Not really sure why anyone would want to know this.....but okay.

30 Day Challenge - Day 24

30 Day Challenge - Day 24 - A Picture of Something you Wish you Could Change

These pictures are from December 2009! I have more recent pictures but I also like looking at the old ones!

I wish I could change how far away Dan and Erin live!

I know they are happy in San Diego but I wish we got to see them more often. They are some of our best friends and they are Shyla's god-parents.

We love them!

Playing in the Backyard

As many of you know, we are hardscaping our backyard.

And, as I'm sure you have guessed, when I say "we," I really mean, "Stevie."

He is driving me nuts because he refuses to pay someone to do the work. In reality though, that's what I love him for. The reason he's being so bone-headed about it is simply because he wants to save his family money. Knowing that I am only working part-time next year, we are watching every penny.

What this means is that he is working at his normal full-time job and then he's coming home to work for hours in the backyard. Oh, and the weekends are spent in the backyard (I'd like to give a shout-out here to our friend Rob who has been over A LOT to help...and we hope you enjoy the special treat Shyla got for you at the mall today).

I will be most glad to have this project done because I will have my husband back.

Oh, and did I mention that he's an engineer? This simple fact means that he is a total perfectionist. I have literally watched, in horror, as he has removed blocks that he put into cement because "they were off by an inch." Yep, that's a direct quote!

To paraphrase my friend Jeannette who is also married to an engineer, "it takes a very special woman to put up with their (you know)." Okay, she actually said it much more eloquently, but you get the idea.

Oh, and did I mention that he is laying block over approximately 800 square feet? Yep, that means he is hardscaping an area of land that is bigger than our first house!

Anyway, it is going to be beautiful when it is done. B-E-A-Utiful.

But for now........it is a sand trap surrounded by 8 pallets of block.

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Most of you also know that Shyla loves to play outside; loves it! So, despite the sand and blocks we played outside for a few minutes this evening.

Did I mention there is a lot of sand?

She is not one to worry about getting dirty. She was enjoying picking up the sand clumps and watching them break apart in her hands.

Showing off what she found.

And then she climbed up the mound of sand. And then she fell down the other end. Laughing.

And then she distracted Daddy from his work and got him to run around with her for a few minutes.

And then she face-planted. And ate it. And seemed to like it.

Yep! That's my girl!