72 Hour Kit

After Hurricane Katrina hit NO a few years ago, and watching the horrors there unfold, Al and I decided to get serious about our 72 hour kit. This weekend we are rotating the contents out of it (we do this every 6 months at general conference time). So I thought I'd list what we have in our kit for anyone who is working to put theirs together.

Non Food items:
First Aid Kit - include children's/infant pain reliever and any prescription meds you take
Extra contacts/solution/case or eyeglasses
Hand sanitizer
tooth brushes and paste
Sunscreen
Bug Spray
Diapers - disposables and cloth with pins and plastic pants
Wipes - 2 packs - 1 for diaper changes one for everything else
Chapstick
Poncho for every member of family
Space blanket for every member of family
Hand warmers
Radio and extra batteries
Flashlight and extra batteries
Feminine hygiene supplies
Trash bags
Ziploc bags
foil
plates/cups/plastic ware
Clorox wipes
hand soap (do NOT include bar soap as it will stink up your kit and make all the food taste like soap - we speak from experience)
Calling card/change/cell phone charger
Cash in small bills (we think we need about $200 to cover most needs)
Can opener
Small pot
leatherman tool
Plastic tarp
zip drive with important documents scanned and saved onto it
Scriptures
Paper/pen/crayons
Card games

Food Items:
Baked beans
Tuna
Beef Jerky
Granola bars
Trail mix
Crackers
Ramen noodles
Hot chocolate/cider packets
Hard Candy
Gum
Juice Boxes
Water
Salt & Pepper

We have all of this is stored in a large plastic tote on wheels. Double check to make sure your container will fit in your car (also speaking from experience). This works better for us than backpacks since our kids are too little to carry their own stuff. We also have a large tote with our camping supplies including sleeping bags, our coleman stove, another flashlight, tent and fuel for the stove that we could grab and put in our car. Our kit doesn't include everything but would probably get us by in most emergencies.

It was an eye opening experience to be without power for 3 days last year while we lived in Seattle. We got a great idea about how well we were or weren't prepared and how much we depend on power. None of the gas stations could even operate without power. There were no working ATM machines. Grocery stores could not operate. It was a good trial run for us!

Hope this helps someone!

Whatcha Downloading?

I have some iTunes credit that I'm dying to use. So I'm wondering what everyone is listening to these days. Tonight I've downloaded music from the following artists:

OneRepublic
My Chemical Romance
Santana/Chad Kroeger
David Cook
Yael Naim (she sings the song on new macbook commercial - I *heart* it!)
Fall Out Boy
Matchbox 20

So if you have any amazing new music finds, send them my way. Pretty Please!!

Easter Weekend Activities

We had a fun Easter holiday weekend. Al had Friday off and took a vacation day today so we've had a super fun, relaxing weekend as a family. We've had:

Two Egg Hunts: One with our playgroup (my batteries were dead so Erin emailed me this pic of Makenna)

One with the community:

Decorated Eggs: (once again Makenna has an extremely interesting outfit choice - I just don't fight these things any more)

Made a cute Easter craft at the Primary activity: (this is a hostess snowball as the tomb and a Nilla wafer as the rock covering the doorway of the tomb)



Opened Easter Baskets:

Had a yummy Easter Dinner (I will share some recipes later this week): It wasn't as pretty as I imagined but it was SO good!

Had a nice spiritual Easter FHE: No pictures but find the lesson Here

(PS, I know all of these pics need to be edited but I just didn't have the energy tonight!!)

Happy Easter!

From our house to yours!

What's for dinner?

Just passing on another great idea (that isn't mine). A few months ago I was invited to join a dinner club. Since I HATE trying to figure out what's for dinner every night (doesn't every mom?), I jumped at the chance. Our group meets each month and we each bring 8 frozen homemade dinners, we exchange them and go home with 7 completely prepared dinners! Brilliant. We decided a couple months ago to each make an extra dinner and we take those to someone in our ward who might need some extra help (so far we've given them to new moms).

I have a tendency to get stuck in a rut with what I make for dinner so this has been a great way to shake things up. We have some "rules" in our group:

1. Each meal must contain at least 1 lb. of meat
2. The meat must be the leanest cut you can buy and trimmed of all fat
3. Onions and spiciness must be kept to a minimum

Each meal is frozen in a disposable 8x8 pan or a freezer bag. This portion feeds my family an entire meal and usually leaves 1-2 servings for Al's lunches.

Voila! Dinner made easy!! I absolutely love this idea and I hope our group never ends!

It doesn't always go as planned....Part 2

I recently got released from my calling as Achievement Days Leader. I am SO sad - I love that calling and the girls I got to work with. But, I did get called as one of my favorite callings ever - Relief Society Teacher. This is a great calling for a number of reasons: I love to teach, it is only ONCE a month, etc.

So Sunday was my first day to teach. I get to teach from the Joseph Smith manual and I was really excited.... until I saw my topic: The mission of John the Baptist. Wow. Talk about a HARD topic. I prepared well and went to church on Sunday feeling pretty good about things. Al was also teaching during the 3rd hour so I had friend lined up to take care of Addie. A few minutes before I went to teach, I ran to the restroom.

Imagine my horror.... when I realize I had a huge spot of dried breastmilk on my shirt. Huge. Right where it counts. Ugh. I seriously had no time to go home and change. So I taught my lesson with the glaring spot on my (brand new, super cute) blouse.

So between the embarrassing outfit situation, the hard lesson topic and very little class participation in the lesson... it can only get better, right?!

As usual, the glamour continues.

6 Weeks!!

It hardly seems possible that our sweet girl is 6 weeks old already!! In so many ways the last 6 weeks have been an absolute blur. We've had our ups and downs but we are so in love with our little Addie. A few things:

- She is doing a ton better at night. I finally figured out that our really hard nights were days when I'd had caffeine. I completely cut it out and she is doing great now! She gets up once a night around 4:00 a.m. and goes right back to sleep. This is a VERY welcome change. I'm starting to feel human again.

- Her skin has cleared up almost entirely. The doc told me to switch her skincare over to Cetaphil and after using it for a few days, her skin looks great.

- She has gained over 2 lbs. since our last appt. She is up to almost 11 lbs. and is totally getting rolly on her arms and legs

- Has really started to smile the last couple days and it is the CUTEST thing ever. She really responds to our talking to her.

- Still has almost all her hair. I expected it to fall out like Makenna's did but so far, so good.

- LOVES when it is quiet (which isn't that often around here). It seems like she has a hard time with lots of stimulus.

- Still hates the bink and the swing. Still sad about it :(

- Gets smothered in kisses all day long by everyone. We just love her so much!!

St. Patty's Festivities

Ok, I'm totally NOT into St. Patrick's day but Carter was really interested in it this year after doing a unit on it in school last week. He came home on Friday and decided we needed to make a Leprechaun trap:

He did the entire thing himself - that is a bed/pillow, a table with a snack, green carpet, a pot of gold and a tiny green flag on top. Pretty clever, I think.

So, of course, Lucky the Leprechaun HAD to come visit during the night. First, he made a trail of shamrocks for the kids' bedrooms all the way down to the kitchen.

Then he left a little note and some treats for the kids.

We had shamrock pancakes and green milk for breakfast.

We had friends over to play and for lunch today. We had an entirely green meal (that's green mac & cheese, jello, green peas and a shamrock rice krispie treat you see here).

Makenna refused to pose for the green picture and obviously Addie was super thrilled to be there:

The kids spent the afternoon coloring St. Patty's sheets and making crafts. They had a great day. Hope you had a Happy St. Patrick's Day too!!

It doesn't always go as planned....

In Carter's preschool class, each child is assigned a show and tell time once a month. Last month he begged me to let him bring Addison for his turn. I thought she was a little too young but I promised him he could bring her this month. So, I cleared it with his teacher and we planned to bring Addie to Show and Tell today.

I often pack our lunch and go to the park right across the street from Carter's school and let the kids eat and play before school. Today was one of those days. I had Addie all decked out in a cute new outfit. While we were at the park she started to get really fussy. I got her out of the carseat and as I picked her up, poop started dripping out the bottom of her pants. It only got worse from there. I took her to the car and had to strip her completely down - she had poop all the way up to her neck and dripping down both legs. She was completely covered!!! It took me 22 wipes to get her cleaned up (yes, I counted). Then I discovered the awful truth - I had no clothes to change her into. I took my spare outfit out a couple days ago intending to replace it with something more seasonally appropriate. It was way too late to go home and find her a new outfit and I knew it would devastate Carter to postpone his show and tell another month. So... we took her in her diaper and wrapped in a blanket. Seriously, could it be any more ghetto than that?!?

The silver lining is that Carter was thrilled to take her and his class absolutely loved it. I'm pretty sure no one noticed that she wasn't even dressed! So, life doesn't always go as planned but it worked out anyway! This isn't a great picture but here we are during the show and tell:

7 Random Facts

I've been tagged for the "random facts" game a few times. Most recently, Kara tagged me so I thought I would go for it.

1. I don't like cake. I don't like it so much that I didn't have a wedding cake. But I LOVE desserts and candy. So we had a dessert bar and then a candy bar (and lots of other food too) at our wedding and I thought it was perfect. Have I ever mentioned that I still believe that my wedding was absolutely perfect down to the minute detail? Yeah, it was. Thanks mom and dad!!!

2. I hate going to bed cold. I bundle up to get in bed and then slowly strip off the layers throughout the night. There's usually a pile of my clothes next to the bed every single morning. I've always been this way and Allen had to point out how extremely strange it is.

3. I am obsessed with eating enough fiber in my diet. I know the fiber content of a ton of foods and go to great lengths to get my allotted amount every day.

4. None of my babies has ever had a bottle and I breastfed both C and M for over a year each. A lot of people think this is extremely weird and inconvenient. I start them on a sippy at about 6 months so if I ever need to leave them (which I never do before about 6 months anyway), they can use the sippy.

5. My current obsession is food storage.

6. I very rarely buy books for myself - I love the library and have to love, love, love a book to actually purchase it. But, I could buy a gazillion kids books any day of the week (I'm up to 5 purchased this week alone).

7. I still refuse to color my hair. So I spend every night plucking my gray hair out of my head. One of these days I will cave but it just seems like too much work to maintain. I would however really love to start getting my nails done again but Al hates fake nails. Sigh. Funny, I had nails when we met and all the way up until I quit working to have Carter and he never mentioned it.

I tag Melissa, Marie and Elisa for this (and anyone else who wants to play along).

Addison Photoshoot

As I mentioned, my talented friend Erin took pictures of the kids for me last week. She also did the pictures that we used for our Christmas card. She gave me the disk with all the pictures on them last night and they are all AMAZING. Gorgeous shots! So here are a few of my favorites, I wish I could share them all.

Is this chair not to die for?Unfortunately Addie was super fussy so some of the shots we had imagined just didn't happen/work out. I am still so THRILLED with what she did get. Thanks a million Erin!

Making me Happy...

1. That GREEN that is everywhere this spring - new green flipflops - not to mention french pedicure (my favorite, I have this 90% of the time, the other 10% is bright red - the only two things I ever do on my toes). Yes, I have ugly dancer feet!

2. Easter/Spring decor:

3. "Just Because" flowers. I *heart* fresh flowers. I bought a couple of these to give to friends as thank you's and a little spring pick-me-up.

4. This season of American Idol. We are loving it this year. Our favorite guy is David Archuleta, although I LOVED David Cook's performance this week (a total ROCKIN version of Lionel Richie's "Hello" - amazing). I'm not loving any of the girls quite yet. I think this year is a pretty diverse group.

5. This season of LOST. Holy cow, is it ever great!!! I love the flash forwards.

One Month!

Addie is one month old! Part of me can't remember life without her and part of me cannot believe it's already been an entire month. A few things about her at one month:

- She is waking up more and more. She is my fussiest baby and so far hates the swing, bouncy seat and the binky. She pretty much has to be held during all waking hours or she is very unhappy. It isn't our lack of trying though. Here's my nightstand with our lovely binky collection:

- Has a very awake time from about 2:00-4:00 a.m. This is a challenge as we are both totally exhausted at this point of the night. We have resorted to a lot of middle of the night TV watching and baby holding until she falls asleep. Unfortunately, I am completely caught up on my Tivo'd episodes of Oprah (something I thought I would NEVER say).

- Is a great little nurser and nurses for about 10 minutes per side. She holds my finger or holds the hem of my shirt while she nurses, so cute!!

- Has recently broken out in bad baby acne. I still think she is beautiful!!

- Sleeps most soundly when she is on her tummy.

- She still loves to be swaddled tightly

- Has started giving us the cutest little smiles, especially while she is nursing.

- Loves to have her hair washed and her head rubbed.

We love our little Addie and have loved getting to know her this month.

Major Bribery Required

A few days ago I noticed Carter walking around singing this song. Then I noticed he was doing dance moves with the words. When I finally realized he was doing the "Macarena" I could not stop laughing. He TOTALLY did not want to do this for the camera today so I had to do some major bribing. Apparently his teacher taught them the song/dance to teach them the months of the year. Original for sure. And sorry the video is sideways, have no idea how to fix that.

A strange problem...

We have a strange problem indeed at our house. Because we have taught our children about the resurrection, they think they are indestructible. This is the type of conversation I have find myself having at least weekly with the kids:

Me: Makenna, you cannot run in the street. You might get hit by a car (pick any dangerous behavior and insert in conversation). Do you know what will happen if you get hit?

Makenna: No

Me: You will get very hurt because you are so little. You might even die!!

Carter: Yeah, but then she will be resurrected and come back to life!!

Me: Carter, that's not how it works. Makenna won't be resurrected for a long, long time.

You get the idea.... I'm not really sure how to drive home the point that once you're dead, you're dead. M had a little crossing the street by herself incident on the way to the park last week. She was in BIG trouble and we even found a youtube video of a child getting hit by a car that we showed her. I thought it would scare her but she LOVED it and wants to watch it over and over (don't worry, we don't let her).

Any advice?!?

(I have lots to say today. Stay tuned, hopefully Addie will cooperate)

Week in Review...

(Or how to practically kill yourself off 3 weeks after having a baby)

This week was utter insanity. We had so many commitments - albeit many of them were really fun ones - but it about killed me. So here's a quick recap for my posterity.

Monday - The calm before the storm: had a friend over for a playdate, preschool, quick run to grocery store, FHE and then I ran a couple errands while Al put the kids to bed.

Tuesday- My friend Erin came first thing in the morning and took pictures of the kids. Here's one of her GORGEOUS shots of Addie:


Took all 3 kids to the doctor for their well-child checkups. Makenna gets a shot. All kids pronounced healthy as horses. Here's their stats (for my record):

Carter: Height: 44" (75th Percentile), Weight 42 lb. (50%)

Makenna: Height 39" (90th), Weight 34 lb. (75th)
Addison: Height 21.25" (75th), Weight 8 lb. 8 oz. (50th), Head 14" (25th)

Run the kids to McDs for lunch
Carter to preschool
Home for M's nap
After school bday party
Prep for M's birthday

Wednesday: Miss Makenna's Birthday! Had a quick breakfast and present opening before Al went to work. She received tons of stuff for her Bitty Baby - several outfits and some furniture. It was all a hit!



Playdate with some friends at our house
Preschool/Nap/etc.
ANOTHER after school bday party

Met Al and his mom at "the peanut restaurant" (aka Texas Roadhouse) for Makenna's bday dinner. This is by far her favorite place to eat and she requests it a few times a week. She was thrilled when the waitstaff came to sing to her and sat her on the saddle with her own special dessert.



Thursday: Al's mom spent the night at our house and I got to sleep in!! Wahoo. I did some stuff around the house while she took the big kids to the park. Al's mom came with me to run a few errands.

Took Addie to get her PKU screening (blood all over my brand new carseat-ugh)

Trip to Costco to get food/supplies for High Priest party

Preschool/nap routine

Spend most of the afternoon/evening working on my Old Testament lesson packets

The weather here has been really warm (low to mid 80s) so the kids actually got out their swimsuits and played in the hose. Here they are in the sand/water table, pretending it was their pool: Friday: Visiting teachers in the morning. Addie starts crying at about 10 a.m. and does not stop ALL DAY LONG unless she is being held.

I opt to skip the THIRD birthday party of the week because of a fussy baby (my kids were really sad and I missed hanging out with my friends).

High Priest group party. We were not hosting at our house but did lots of the work for the party.

One of the rare minutes she was not crying was when Carter was singing primary songs to her. She was really content while he was singing to her. Too cute!
This weekend has been slightly less busy. Keep in mind that all of this was on VERY very little sleep. Addie has had really rough nights this week and I've been up the better part of most nights. I admittedly tried to do to much this week. There were even several commitments that I had to back out of. I hate that. This week is looking a little better but with preschool/dance/soccer starting up things will stay busy for now!!