#RedWhiteAndBarbecue #FreeSamp #MyMagazineSharing

I threw my first  #RedWhiteAndBarbecue #FreeSamp #MyMagazineSharing with free swag I received to help my bash be a success! Swimming was probably to secret ingredient to making it the most fun though. 

This cake was pretty good, but a little dry. I loved incorporating fresh strawberries in it and on it for decoration, although my cake decorating skills are a very novice level!  :) 

Fun in the sun after the food and festivities!

Instant Pot Thai Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup recipe

So, anyone who knows me knows that I was given an Instant Pot for my birthday in October and I haven't stopped talking about it since. I love it like it's my own little baby... not as much as my own, very real little baby, but A LOT! So, my friend Pat brought this delicious soup to work the other day and I said, "I bet you could make that in the Instant Pot." Well, I am here to tell you that you can, it is soo easy and the results are purely delicious. I adapted this recipes from the ladies at simplesimonandco.com, thanks for the idea!

Thai Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
3 Boneless skinless chicken breasts (frozen)
2/3 of a 400 G package of rice noodles (put in as much as you want but not too much or they'll absorb all your broth)
6 C chicken broth
2 cans coconut milk (Chaokoh is my fav)
1 jalapeno (halved and seeded, unless you like it spicy)
4 Tbsp soy sauce
3 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp onion powder
3 tsp ground ginger
1 red bell pepper,diced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (more or less depending on spicy level you prefer, this is probably a 2, on a 0 - 10 scale)
Lime wedges, fresh cilantro, fresh basil for garnish

Put chicken breast, chicken stock, jalapeno, soy sauce, garlic, onion powder, ginger and pepper flakes in Instant Pot and press Soup button, decrease time to 20 minutes.

Allow to naturally release pressure for about 5 minutes, then vent any remaining pressure.

Take out the jalapeno pieces and chicken breasts. Pour in the coconut milk and add the noodles and diced red pepper. Turn Saute on to bring the broth back to a gentle boil. Close the pot lid but keep the vent open. The noodles and peppers will cook in the hot liquid while you cut the chicken breasts into bite size pieces. Allow noodles to cook for 4 minutes. Add the cubed chicken breast back into the pot and serve with lime, cilantro and basil.

This is something you can start after 5 and serve before 6 and all my kids ate it! Success!!

Lessons learned

I haven't blogged in a very long, long while and I thought my blogger self had died but turns out, the blogger bug bit me tonight (unless it was that Coke I drank a little too late) and here I am! So we've had some really good times this past year... or two! :) For starters, Grayson was born. He's now 14 months old. Highlights of Grayson's life so far: Having chubby cheeks, being adorable, learning how to sit up, crawl and then walk. Saying lots of new words everyday, learning early on that Frankie (our dog) will eat whatever he doesn't want by just throwing it on the floor and just being an all-around easy-going, happy little creature. We love him so very much!

 Another really good thing that has entered our lives is the show, "The Walking Dead". If you aren't watching it, you are misusing your television and should just go ahead and have it removed from your house. Also, if you watched the recent airing of the "Victoria's Secret Fashion Show", you should promptly place your television set in the garbage can and then set it on fire. I say this not only due to the graphic nature of the scantily clad women marching around on prime time network t.v., but also, I saw about 10 seconds of an interview portion and I am quite sure I lost a multitude of brain cells during that time. It never ceases to amaze me what passes for entertainment nowadays! But don't get me started on that (Honey Boo, Boo!, ahem!) Back to "Walking Dead", if you're going to watch a show filled with so much violence and darkness, you should probably balance it out with a show that follows a more realistic premise and will provide you with a wide range of emotions on weekly basis like "Parenthood". Oh how I love Parenthood... but T.V. shows aren't really the thing that will fill our lives with lasting joy right? I think learning new things is what I should really focus my attention on tonight.

What did I learn today? That reading reviews on a $10 pair of athletic shoes from Kmart is not a good source of information.  I am cheap, and yes, I'd rather say cheap than frugal because I really don't like the word "frugal". But in my cheapness, when I found myself in need of new athletic shoes, I saw a pair that appeared to be very attractive as I was browsing Kmart's website (a first for me). They were on sale for $9.99, so I went to the reviews. Every single review was five stars! People loved these shoes. "Better than my Nikes," wrote one reviewer. So I thought to myself, "Why not?!" I'll tell you why not, you know the mesh area in the toe that's supposed to allow your feet to breath? It's fake! It appears to have breath-ability but when you feel the inside, it's totally solid! That's right, no air flow. I give these shoes two weeks tops before they are so awful-smelling I won't be able to open my closet!  As if anything else needs to be said, these shoes are ridiculously wide and when I step, the middle of the shoe collapses, creating an even wider space around my foot. It's a good thing they are black, which is naturally slimming, to counteract the wide nature of the shoe. So the only conclusion I can come up with is that a person that will give a pair of athletic shoes from Kmart a "five-star" rating has probably never owned a really good pair of athletic shoes and therefore, cannot be trusted.

What did I learn yesterday? The biggest downfall of shopping online for Christmas presents: no control over when the FedEx guy delivers them. And that is a really bad thing when I have no control over my daughter, who is 3, and knows she is not supposed to answer the door but does it anyway! So, the FedEx guy, being a considerate and smart person, left a large box with a toy kitchen pictured on the box tucked into my garage just in case it needed to be hidden from little eyes, which it did. But because Gigi answered the door, she peeked outside and saw the box. I tried to force her inside but it was too late! She protested, "But mom there's a box out there!" "I know! It needs to be out there!" I said. "But mom, it's a kitchen! It's my brown kitchen!" she screamed, with tears starting to pool in her eyes. It didn't take long for the hysteria to take hold! I certainly didn't make matters any better when I said, "That's not for you, sweetie! We are giving that to another kid." "Noooo! Not another kid, mom!" (followed by lots of uncontrolled sobbing). So here's my daughter looking straight at her potential "big" Christmas gift from Santa and crying because I just told her we are giving it to another kid! What to do?! I'll tell you what I'm going to do; I'm going to hide that kitchen for four months in our crawl space and give it to her for her birthday! Conclusion: Always have a back-up plan in case the FedEx guy, and your disobedient child, ruin your Christmas surprise!
 At least we'll always have these good memories:

I took these in October while we were visiting Thanksgiving Point... just thought I should end on a high note. That's all for today, but hope to be back soon with more life lessons, or at least more cute pictures!

Merry & Bright

May you get what's coming to you this Christmas!

Holiday 4" x 8" Cards by Vistaprint

A dreadlock

Here's a funny conversation I just had with Gigi.
me (noticing Gigi's hair as we get out of the car): "Gig, you've made a dreadlock in your hair."
Gigi: A dreadlock?
me: A dreadlock.
Gigi: Yay! A dreadlock! I'm so proud of me!

Just one of those moments that I wish could last forever.  Love my little girl!

Gigi & Grayson, Halloween 2011

Should I be worried if my daughter is her own imaginary friend?

Today Gigi runs into the bathroom and slaps me on the back of the legs then says, "Don't hit my mommy!" Then she says to me, "Gigi hit you!" I said, "Oh, you hit me?" Gigi says "No she did!" (pointing to herself). So I say, "Gigi hit me, but it wasn't you?" "Yes" she says. Then she whispers to herself, "Tell mommy you're sorry, Gigi." And then she turns to me, pats me on the arm and says, "Sorry mommy." WTW?!

If you're wondering what happened to the spider...

I think we bothered it too much and one day, it was gone. But then, we found a much smaller one under Gigi's window! I decided to leave that one alone.

Don't worry, I know I am weird

So I am dedicating this post to one of my favorite things about summer '11. No, not snowcones. Although I do love them, I have disappointingly only made it out for three snowcone runs this year. So that is probably one of the worst things about summer '11. But if you know me, you'd never, ever in a million years guess that one of my favorite things about this summer has been an arachnid. I really do hate spiders and have an irrational fear of them but I've been able to make peace with many spiders I find in my yard by researching them and knowing that they pose no threat to me & my family. (I still won't go into the crawl space though. The day I do will be the day I officially declare my arachnophobia over.)

Anyway, one such spider that I feel like I've really bonded with and actually make frequent visits over to the side of the house just to see how she's doing is a very special kind of spider. At first, when Eric found it, I was on the phone with him and he startled and said, "Oh there's a spider right here! I think its a hobo spider!" Of course, I was like, "Oooh! Kill it!" But he didn't. So when I got home I had to check it out. I took several pictures and then came in the house to begin sleuthing everything I could find about this spider. I really did spend over an hour researching and I came to find out that this spider is called a horned orb-weaver. This particular one is a cat-faced spider, or jewel spider. You can see the reason why it got both of these names in the pictures. It spins the classic orb web. Here's a some interesting facts about this spider: It spins a new web everyday and eats the old silk as a way to conserve energy. It is prevalent mostly throughout the west and can be found as far north as Canada (Alberta) and as far south as Arizona. This spider will lay an egg sac (Its "magnum opus") and then die shortly thereafter. When the eggs hatch, the spiderlings will let a bit of silk out into the breeze and fly away, possibly hundreds of miles! We may never have another spider like this in our yard and I've never seen anything like this one before so I feel very special. Its like we have our own little Charlotte from "Charlotte's Web", which is coincidentally one of Gigi's favorite movies right now. In fact, its not just me who wants to go visit our spider friend everyday, Gigi has started to request going out to see the spider too! She is cautious about it but has a very healthy curiosity about it, and all the other bugs in our yard and its so fun to see her amazement with them all.

So these first two pictures were taken in August, back when I thought the spider was pretty good sized. Now compare these with the next two and you'll see that the spider has, at least, doubled in size over the last month. Also, the markings and coloring have changed too.

Now in these two pictures, you'll note in the top photo where it gets the name "Cat-faced" from. See the two horns the look like cat ears and the white line running towards the front? Plus, its somewhat fuzzy! In the bottom picture you can see why its sometimes called a Jewel spider though. Its like a reverse black widow- only not poisonous or aggressive.

Actually, because she is so curious about spiders and bugs, I thought it would be a good idea to let her watch a national geographic video of a jumping spider attacking a bee that I found on youtube. Well, it turns out this was NOT a good idea. It totally freaked her out and she's completely obsessed with it. She will bring it up all the time and tells everyone about it. (Of course, I usually have to explain what she's talking about as she's telling them, "The spider gets the bee! The spider jump! The spider eat the bee!) She also asks to watch the video almost daily but I'm trying to make her forget about it because I know it scares her. Anyway, the point being, MPAA doesn't rate National Geographic videos so use your judgement and keep two year olds away from videos of animals of any kind killing other animals. Save that kind of stuff for the four-year-olds.

BBJ

I am pretty much the worst blogger. I think about doing it. I read other people's blogs. I even come up with post ideas and then... nothing... for over 7 months!! Well, finally, I decided to put a baby name poll on my blog because Eric and I are having the most arduous time naming BBJ (Baby boy Jones). I am 34 weeks right now and the doctor has said that if I progress at my checkups like I did last time, he'd induce me at about 38.5 weeks! That is only approximately 4.3 weeks away! I don't know if I am going to do this yet. Its so tempting! How nice would it be to have everything planned out? But at the same time, I have this feeling inside that tells me to wait and go into labor naturally because 1) It would definitely be more exciting! 2) Its the way nature intended it. 3) Curiosity, I guess, is the best word to describe it - the chance to see if this baby will come early like Gwyneth or later on. The chance to see if he will want to rush out as fast possible like Gwyneth or come more slowly during labor and other stuff like that. Plus, there's always the chance the baby would be born in the car, which is something I'd like to avoid, but what a great birth story! Decisions, decisions.

Anyway, I don't have any week-by-week pregnancy pictures with BBJ like I did with Gwyneth. I've just had random pictures taken of me for the most part. I think the random, real-life photos are adequate. Especially if the alternative of me posing with my belly always ends up looking as cheesy as this.

Yes, that is me and when I first saw this picture I laughed hysterically and then I vowed that no one would ever see this photo. Well, this just goes to show you, never say never because here I am posting it on my blog for all to laugh at! This is when I was 28 weeks and I felt so huge. Now I (kind of) like this picture because I look so teeny!

Now I'm just realizing this is also my first post about BBJ so I should do a little recap while I'm at it:

* This pregnancy has been pretty great for the most part. I was barely nauseous from weeks 7ish to about 13ish. It was never as bad as it was with Gwyneth or my first pregnancy with Anna (which was by far the worst sickness-wise). In fact, I was shocked that I could get up out of bed with an empty stomach and not have the immediate urge to vomit. I can function just fine on an empty stomach now, which was really never a possibility with either of the girls.

*I've been doing yoga through most of this pregnancy except I have to admit, its starting to get uncomfortable to do much more that child's pose and downward dog now! I am really looking forward to getting back to it post pregnancy. P.S. If you are looking for a great yoga studio in the Salt Lake/Murray area check out localyogaslc.com.

*I've had the most wonderful summer weather in which to be pregnant. Up until the last couple of weeks, I've not felt "the heat" at all. It has been a very mild, cool summer and I am so thankful for that. I love sunny days but I've been thankful for each and every overcast one too!

*I've noticed that this baby must be being carried lower than my previous pregnancies because he's never been in my ribs. I remember Gwyneth constantly jabbing and kicking my ribs and being so uncomfortable all the time. I honestly think Gwyneth bruised my ribs when she was in utero. BBJ just likes to jab me in the bladder every now and then.

*I was going to do a seperate post about things that are not okay to say to a woman just because she is pregnant but I think I'll just include that here. (By the way, yes, multiple people say these exact statements or something like them to me all the time.)

1. You're really getting big.

2. You're really starting to show.

3. You look like you're ready to pop!

4. Your arms are getting bigger.

5. You look bigger than you did last time.

6. You're really sticking out there.

7. Asking "When are you due?" or "How far along are you?" And then just looking you over and not saying anything else because you know they're thinking "Wow! I thought you'd be further along than that!"

8. Are you having twins?

9. You look miserable/uncomfortable etc.

Anyway, just tell pregnant women positive comments or don't comment at all and just ask them questions and let them tell you how they feel huge and awkward and uncomfortable. Because they do, and they don't need anyone else reaffirming that for them!

*On a more positive note, Gwyneth loves rubbing her baby brother in my belly. She has said more than once that she wants to name him "baby sister" and she'll often lift up her shirt and rub her belly and say "baby sister". Its so cute when I ask her to say hi to her baby brother she'll give my belly loves and kiss it and pat it and say "Hi baby!" We called him baby Grayson for a little while to try it out and now that name seems to have stuck with her because when we put together a little bouncy seat for him last weekend, she told someone that baby Grayson was sitting in his seat! I can tell she sort of gets its but not really. I'm not sure I really get it... you know that idea of another baby around here! Scary! Exciting... but scary!