fun and games

I was giddy with excitement this morning since I helped to put on a double baby shower for some friends. I was in charge of the games, so we played some of my favorites.

Game: Pacifier Suck

Haha, I just made up that name. I don't have any pictures of this one, but I do have some lessons learned if you're going to do this yourself.

You take teeny little plastic pacifiers (we're talking half-inch little things), and freeze them in ice cubes. Everyone gets an ice cube and whoever sucks on their cube and gets their pacifier out first wins.

I liked this game and it worked in my head, but in real life I had many problems:

• The first time I made the pacifier ice cubes, I dropped the plastic trinkets into ice cube trays and they all sunk to the bottom. So the frozen pacifier was on the "outskirt" of the ice cube and not the center.
  
  
• I redid the cubes, filling them half-way with water and letting them freeze. Then I put the trinkets on top of the half-frozen cubes and added more water and froze some more, but I had the opposite problem. They were too close to the top. It was like I couldn't win. I suppose if I continued to experiment maybe I would have gotten them perfectly in the center?
  
  
• I noticed when I tried to flip the ice cubes out of the tray by flexing the tray the ice cubes broke, seeing as how they had a plastic trinket in them. SO I needed to let the tray sit for a little bit, have the ice melt a bit, then turn it over and get them out. That worked. BUT I put the cubes in a bowl and put them in the freezer (to maintain the integrity), but seeing as how they were a little melted from coming out of the tray, they refroze in the freezer. And when I went to pass them out to everyone, the icy blob was a problem. Ugh. I had to break them up again with some water, therefore rendering some of them smaller and more prone to winning the game.
  
  
• As I passed the cubes out, what was I to do with them? I wanted everyone to start at the same time, so each person had to hold the cube in her hand while I passed them out to everyone, then they all could put them in their mouths at once.

Cute game, but difficult in executions. Anyone else played this one successfully?

Game: Guess How Many

This one was fun: Guess how many M&Ms are in the jar? This seems easy in theory, BUT...

The shower was for two girls, one who had a boy and one who had a girl. At first, I didn't think I'd do M&Ms. I had many many ideas: Clothespins? (No one uses them.) Cotton balls or Qtips? (Ahh, a bit boring.) Prenatal pills? (That was my brilliant idea: a small item they would definitely use. However both of them had prescription prenatals. GAH!)

My other great ideas was blueberries, since one of my friends referred to her baby girl as "Blueberry" while she was in the womb. Cute, right? It would have been just marvelous if my other friend called her little boy "Sweet pea" or "Peanut" or something small and edible, but no. No such luck. And since I wanted to make two jars that were similar and cohesive in cuteness, blueberries were out.

SO when I finally realized M&Ms (or jelly beans?) were my only option, I had to figure out how. Well, I could make one jar with Valentine's Day M&Ms! Lucky me for the season. I decided to pick out all the red. Pink and white only. Maybe if I could find Easter M&Ms I'd have baby blue and white, too? No luck. A friend gave me a huge Costco-sized bag of M&Ms and I picked out every since blue and brown one. I mixed them with some white from the Valentine's day bag... and this is what we got:


I actually thought they turned out DARLING.

The fun part, ha, was counting.... yes, I counted each M&M. Yes, I washed my hands a lot. Yes, I had many many containers on my table for various colors and piles. Yes, each jar had the same exact number of M&Ms.

How many do you think?


Lots of people at the shower were way low. I was surprised. Everyone guessed between 100-275 or so, I only had one guess in the 300s, one in the 400s, and one in the 500s. The total? 434. There are 434 M&Ms in each of those mason jars, 868 total.

Game: Poopy Diapers

I. Love. This. Game. I played it once, then I made the host for my baby shower do it, and I had to do it today again. It's hysterical.

The premise? Guess the melted candy bar in the "poopy" diaper.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Some people hate this game. Not me.

As I prepared the melted candy last night, I was giggling in the kitchen. Shane thought I was nuts. I kept telling him to come over and see me so I could show him what I was doing. He knew better.

There were infant diapers numbered 1-10. Each one had melted chocolate of some sort in there. I did Milky Way, Rolo, Snickers, Almond Joy, Reeses, Heath, Hershey's, KitKat, York Peppermint Patty and my favorite of the bunch, Nestle Crunch.



The game was awesome! Everyone laughed and had a great time. Two people got 8 out of 10 right -- I was impressed!!

Some lessons learned:

• The York Peppermint Patty diaper actually infected the diaper closest to it (the Rolo diaper) with a minty smell. That threw a lot of people off. Oops.
  
  
• In fact, the Peppermint Patty was probably a weird one. It was white... and you don't see much white stuff in diapers. I got to thinking a 3 Musketeers would have been better.
  
  
• I had to remelt them when I got to the party this morning, because they had solidified overnight.
  
  
• The Snickers and Milky Way melt way fast. In fact, I made two of each of them because I burned the first set in the microwave. Oop. Some like the Rolo or KitKat took a lot longer to melt.
  
  
• FYI I didn't give the girls any hints re: candy bars, so some people guessed candy bars that weren't used at all. Oh well, just part of the fun of guessing!

Here's some pictures from how well the game was received:



And one from me in May 2008 (LOVE IT!):


My game prizes were Valentine hearts... more chocolate, of course:


Sasha our awesome friend made these adorable booties cakes:


Gosh it was fun. My friends are so fun. I feel so grateful today for them. One of them kinda teared up as she was reading the card for the group gift. They are just such a wonderful group of girls. Our kids are all the same age and we just get together and talk about sleep and poop and tantrums and teeth and everything under the sun. I love them; they are an incredible support group and we are all so good to each other. Wesley is lucky to have such a fun group of moms to grow up around, with lots of little friends.

I'm happy today. I guess melted chocolate in a diaper just makes a day bright. :-)

wesley videos and more

Finally, a Wesley update!! Some videos to tide over the Grandmas:

Here is our joyous Christmas morning. We did all we could to get him to um, talk to US, but apparently no, he was too intrigued with the trains. This was the first time he saw his very own train set. The kid loves trains.

On New Year's Day we took Wesley to a hockey game. He had been to a game before (when he was much smaller), but this one he definitely was more alert for. He LOVED it. He talks about it all the time. "Go to another hockey game?" And when Shane turns on the TV and asks Wesley if he wants to watch football, Wesley says, "watch a hockey game?" He had a great time. We had great seats and it was a blast... so we definitely will be going again before the season is over. Anyway, this video is of him mesmerized by a hockey game on TV :-) So cute!

The other night Wesley was wired. My new thing is to let him "dance." We put on music and prance around the house; it wears him out really well. He laughs and squeals and is all-around thrilled at dancing. We like to twirl and go in circles, which kind of evolved into Ring Around the Rosie... and now he does it all. the. time. We parents can't keep up. It's so cute. And seriously, when I do try to keep up, it is an intense cardio workout.

The star of this video is actually Amia, our little friend we were watching one day. I love how she's doing my dishes. But Wesley loves playing in the water... turning it off and on, filling up cups and pouring them out, etc. So this is standard Wesley fun.

Last one. (Did I mention we got a new Internet connection and it's lightning fast and these videos are uploading in record time? I suppose the Grandmas will have to bug me for more videos more often since it's a cinch!) This is our "borrowed" cat. He is younger than Gabby so more active, and Wesley can have a dang good time with him. We considered keeping him permanently although he is totally high maintenance so in reality I'm glad his owner really wants him back. At the moment I'm thinking I can't get him outta here fast enough, but we're being patient. More on that in another post. For now, here is Wesley laughing and saying his name, "Stidean" lots. Pets are fun. Too bad you have to pick up their poop.

I love this adorable little boy of ours!! He talks so much and just has fun doing everything. Of course we are struggling with the awful things, like him throwing his toys at our heads or running over his train tracks with his push toys, but we're trying. It's all standard little boy stuff.

Here are 10 of the latest and greatest:

1. Counts to 20... he skips 15 and goes from 14 to 16, not sure why.
2. Skips his nap a couple times a week, but sings in his crib instead
3. Is starting to drink from a cup (we're working on it, since they use cups in preschool and nursery)
4. Loves loves loves to push the stroller. Sometimes I just take him out in the parking lot and let him push it around. I may go to Church tonight to play basketball and if I have to take him with me I'll bring the stroller and let him push it all over the stage for an hour. I also let him push carts around stores, like Joanns, Walgreens, etc. He's good at letting me guide him. Bartells is the BEST because they have those cute little kid-sized carts. Maybe I have a picture of that somewhere.... ah yes:
   
   


5. Jumps on the bed. I've got to get a good video of him singing "Five Little Monkeys." He knows ALL the words! And says them! With no prompting from us.
6. Surprises us with what he eats and when. Last week we went out for Mexican and he only ate chips and wouldn't touch his chicken quesidilla. The next day for lunch he inhaled the leftovers. I'm glad we saved it! I sometimes get him to eat sugar snap peas (vegetable victory!) but usually he asks for crackers and cookies and is devastated if we refuse him. (I think he thinks communication has its perks, and if he can tell us he wants cookies we should oblige!). Today in the car I told him we were going home to have chicken nuggets for lunch, and he said "and maybe crackers too." It was SO FUNNY. Because we say that kinda stuff, "maybe crackers," you know, so he doesn't get his hopes up. HAHA!
7. Has graduated from the high chair to a booster. He loves to sit at the table. We tried phone books in a pillowcase but they were too slide-y. We broke down and bought a real booster seat.
8. Has discovered coloring. Which essentially means he likes to dump the 24-pack of crayons all over the floor and "help" mommy pick them up. But he has two coloring books to choose from (monkeys or Elmo's birthday) and we color together. Crayons and markers are fun utensils of creativity, but his favorite, to my chagrin, are ball-point pens. Why?
9. Is still sleeping in our room. Sigh. I will be thrilled when this "re-construction" is over. Some nights he's up way late singing and talking and goofing off. One night, man I was tired, but Wesley didn't want to sleep. He started saying "Little Buddy" (his lovey, an elephant-star) over and over and over and over again. I had to stifle laughs for a really long time. Finally I was so tired I thought I'd start counting (like his "Little Buddy"s were sheep, right?), and I got to 129 before he stopped. And he'd been saying them for awhile. Hysterical.
10. Is now in a "preschool." The big news is, yes, we put Wesley in a preschool/daycare for 8 hours two days a week while I go to work. (It's really a daycare but *I* call it a preschool so I feel better about working. Funny, huh.) Shane is back to five 8-hour days at Boeing. This place we found really rocks. He LOVES IT. The other night at bedtime I told him he could go to preschool "tomorrow" and he said, "preschool today?" and I kept having to say, no preschool tomorrow, preschool tomorrow, go to sleep and you can go to preschool tomorrow... and he cried when he had to lay down and go to bed. Yes, he loves preschool. We tested the waters a couple times before we actually dropped him off, and he never listened or followed directions, and the instructors there said it was OK and a lot of kids take some time to adjust. For a while I thought well, maybe this will be a good thing and these people will teach my son to listen since obviously I didn't do it. BUT on his first day things went so well. They said he listened and followed directions and sat in a circle, and you'd have no idea it was his first day. Huh. The only thing they struggle with is him not taking a nap and singing too loudly from his little mat and disturbing the other kids. Haha.... anyway. My favorite part is that they write up a little report every day telling me if he ate all his lunch and what they learned and how he did and what he enjoyed. It helps me feel more connected, you know? It's a cool place. I'm glad he's adjusting well.
    

OK, that is all for now. We love our Wesley!

truly wonderful day

The sun was shining. Not a cloud in the sky. And bright and early, at 7:45 AM, our roofers showed up.

Maybe I haven't updated you completely. See, the mold mediation guys came last week and cut out a huge chunk of our ceiling and our wall, and then put up plastic to protect us from our attic crawl space.

As soon as the plastic went up, while it was raining, we started to hear a drip drip drip. That's right. There was a hole in our roof somewhere that was not being protected by our roofer's alleged "tarp," so we were now elevated to an "active leak" status. Water pooled in the plastic.

The next morning at 5 AM Shane woke me up and said, "Angela, we have a problem," (as big as Houston's problem, apparently), and we had to work together to poke a hole in the plastic to get the darn water out before it spilled over inside the wall on the insulation and everything else. What a pain.

Several rain storms, prayers, and three buckets strategically placed to catch water later, was today: the first sunny day in a month. And the stars aligned and our roofers had plans to be here. They banged all over my roof until 3 this afternoon. Thank heavens.


Check out that shingle ripping. You go, dude!

Now, when the room finally gets put back together (i.e., there is no longer a hole in my ceiling), I may be happier than I was on my wedding day. Seriously.

my competition

Today, my sweet son and I had the same conversation not once, not twice, but at least three times... maybe even more than that.

I said, "Wesley, I love you." To which he replied...



"I love my school bus."

Three times. At least. So much for loving your mother!

(He loves it so much he broke the stop sign off. He was devastated.)

(P.S. Happy 1-11-11 everyone! Can't wait for Veteran's Day this year.)

big girl projects

I have been doing well on my resolutions! I am especially working on the nail biting. It's so not attractive. (I saw a girl in Church on Sunday just going at it and I thought, "gah! is that what I look like!?!" and the answer would be yes. But no more.) Plus, I'm exercising and not eating chocolate.

But, on to today's post. I put all my big-girl projects down in a list the other day, and it is completely overwhelming. I think what I should do is just try to tackle one or two at a time, and continue to work on them until they are done. Although maybe some of these will not be done my lifetime. Sigh.

Here's my list:

• Use the October 2010 Conference Ensign and set goals for the next 6 months (uh oh, it'll be April before we know it!)
• Sync my ancestry.com family tree with my RootsMagic family tree with my New Family Search family tree (gah! three trees to keep track of!) and continue to do family history
  
• Finish my medical journal (I'm caught up to the beginning of 2009, keeping track of my various doctor's visits, prescriptions, etc.)
• Revamp our 72-hour kits
• Organize my online photos; tag people in Picasa; create a folder of photos to be printed (and scrapbooked)
• Scrapbook... my high school trip to Europe, Shane's mission box, various Wesley photos, and more
• Organize my recipes (I have a 2-inch-thick folder of recipes to sort through and organize so I can use them)
• Go through the huge stack of Boeing insurance paperwork and shred what we don't need
• Go through the my huge "Church binder" (assorted handouts from years and years and years ago) and get rid of stuff
• Go through my online email accounts (hotmail and gmail), and delete stuff, put stuff in folders, etc. (goal: get my inbox down from 1,000 to like 100)
• Research investment options for our savings accounts and follow through with investing
• Prioritize home improvement projects, research, and follow through (paint Wesley's room, tile bathroom, etc.)
• Create a will, living will, and possibly a trust
• Read (finish) Jesus the Christ
• Run our current credit reports
• Research and get a new credit card with awesome benefits
  

Holy cow. What a list.

My question to you is: what would you do first? And heavens, what else am I missing?

resolutions

I sometimes go all out with resolutions. Seriously, I make categories of my life and create dozens of resolutions in each category. In years' past, I've checked the list monthly and kept score of how well I did the month before. I actually really loved it and felt like I was keeping myself accountable.

For now, though, here are just some general things I'd really like to do this year:

• Quit biting my nails.
• Be more healthy. I will eat less junk and more veggies, exercise more, and lose weight. I will limit portions and stop eating before I get too full. I just feel so much better when I'm doing well physically. OK this is sounding like a monologue and not a resolution. Next!
• Take at least one name to the temple.
• Read my scriptures daily. Pray daily.
• Reduce stress. If this means taking up yoga, so be it. Or I will read more fiction.
• Drive better. No speeding tickets, no accidents, no vehicular incidents at all. I will be more careful.
• Nourish Wesley spiritually. Hold consistent Family Home Evenings and devotionals with him about gospel topics.

I find it interesting that many of my goals are spiritual ones. I've just decided I'm tired of feeling uncertain about things. I want me and the Lord to be on good terms, "speaking terms." I need to be in the best place possible in order for that to happen. I'm going to get there.

There are plenty more. Maybe we'll discuss them later. What are you going to do this year? I wish you luck in your goals.