Christmas Highlights

Happy day after Christmas!!!! Here are a few of my favorite pictures taken yesterday. I think the absolute best part of Christmas is little kids in their jammies with huge smiles on their face.

Bailey "helping" Claire open her presents. Claire is just trying to read her book, she did care about the rest of the presents.

Claire peeking through the window of her new doll house

What do you think, did we have enough pink at our house yesterday?

Claires favorite present. She has spent most of the last 24 hours sitting in it. Maybe someday she will learn to get in moving.

This is the one day of the year that I actually enjoy having a huge mess in my house.

Sights of Christmas

The sight of Christmas by Bailey Sherwood (Notice the baby Jesus is on top of the stable and the angel and cow are inside)

The Big Day

Today was a VERY big day at our house, or at least a very big day for our little 4 year old. Today was the Christmas program at Baileys preschool.

From the second she woke up, there was excitement in the air. We spent the morning choosing out the perfect outfit, practicing her line, putting curlers in her hair and we even had to put on a little of moms makeup to make sure she was extra beautiful.

The program was fabulous! It only took 45 minutes for 14 kids to say one line each and for the class to sing 6 songs. The program also only had to be stopped 3 times so the teacher could tell the kids to be quiet, stop cheering for one another and to keep their appendages to themselves. All in all, the perfect Christmas program.

Few of my favorite things

I have never understood why the song "My Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music is considered a Christmas song but it is played all the time on the Christmas radio station. At any rate, I was listening to the song the other day while driving and started to think of a few of my favorite things. Of course there are the obvious favorite things like my hubby and girls, but I was thinking more superficially of things that I like that I have around my house.

Then I started to think, I would love to know what are some of my friends favorite things. What if they know about something I have never heard of that would make my life complete.

Then I thought of this, what if I asked everyone to tell me 2-3 of their favorite things. Do you have a favorite scented candle that makes your house smell heavenly, or a recipe that your family would eat every night or the perfect type of blanket that keeps you so warm? Whatever it is, I want to hear about. Then if anyone actually responds, I will make a list and post it for everyone to see.

I will start off the list with 3 of my favorite things right now:

1. I LOVE microfiber cleaning clothes. I bought a package of 25 from Sams Club a while back for about $8 and I seriously use them everyday. They clean up spills so quickly, are perfect for using with Windex to wash windows and stainless steel appliances. They even makes fabulous dolly blankets.
2. A few days ago my good friend Alene introduced me to Frontier spices and their chicken flavored broth powder. LOVE IT!!!! It makes the best chicken broth and gravy. So much better than bullion or Swanson chicken broth. Here is their website http://www.frontiercoop.com/ or if you live in the Mesa/Gilbert area, you can buy it at Shars Kitchen Store.
3. At this time of year, I love to make a homemade simmering potpourri. Here is what you do.
Put 2 slices of orange, 2 slices of lemon, 2 bay leaves, about 6-7 whole cloves and a cinnamon stick in a pot. Cover with water and simmer on your stove top. Or if you have a mini crock pot use it. I usually buy the spices at Walmart in their Mexican food aisle, so much cheaper than the regualr spice aisle.

So there you go, a few of my favorite things, what are yours?

The Good, Complaining and the Cute

The Good:
I have finally reached adulthood and joined the 21st century. After years of holding out, last night I finally bought a cell phone. I think I was the only person over the age of 10 that didn't have one as evident by all the probably 9 year old at the AT&T store getting her second cell phone. At any rate, I am now the proud owner of a shiny red cell phone! Now I just have to figure out how in the world to use it.

The Complaining:
This week at my dr. appointment I found out that my 28 week gestational diabetes test came back postive by ONE FREAKIN POINT!!!!! Now I get the privilege of doing the three hour fasting glucose test to make sure I really have diabetes.

For those who have never had this test done, I will tell you what it involves. Pretty much you go in fasting, drink the awful orange crud, have your blood sugar spike and have your blood drawn 4 times in 3 hours and try to not cry while it is all happening.

When I was pregnant with Claire I also had to have this test done. Boy was it a joyous experience! For those of you who know me really well know that I don't do well with blood/needles. I passed out in high school just reading a story about donating blood. I can't even get a TB test without passing out. So having this test done is right up there with Christmas and being drawn and quatered.

So this is how the glucose test went when I was pregnant with Claire. I went into the germ infested medical lab fasting. Drank the orange crud. Began to shake and room started to spin. Tried to crochet to pass time while still sitting in the germ infested waiting room. Had my blood drawn 4 times. Passed out. Couldn't find vains by the 3rd draw. Nurse had to dig around for vains. Blood gushed down my arm. Almost passed out again. Was sick for the rest of the day and into the next. And to add a cherry on top, walked in on an asian guy leaving a urine sample because he didn't lock the door or respond when I knocked on the door to see if anyone was in there.

So if you try and call me on my NEW CELL PHONE this week and I don't answer, I probably died from anxiety of having to get my blood drawn again or I died of some incurable disease I caught while in the waiting room of the medical lab.
p.s. The test with Claire came back negative for diabetes.

The Cute:

Bailey and Claire eating dry cereal while watching Saturday cartoons. Claire has her jammies unzipped because she dumped all her cereal down her jammies and was using a spoon to scoop them out and eat them.

Turkey fun!

Last night Scott was asking me why I haven't made rolls in a long time. Then this morning Bailey really wanted to do a Thanksgiving project. So I decided to combine the two requests and this is what I came up with. Can you tell what it is?

Here is a hint:

My girls snitched a few of the "feathers."

Names

Scott and I have been having a hard time coming up with a name for our new little one until my Granny came to our rescue. While working on family search, she came across some fabulous names for us to consider. They are so good I thought I would share them with everyone since so many people are having little ones soon. Here they are in no particular order:

Giddy
Euphemia
Typhosa
Portia
Sultana

I have dibs on Typhosa!

A little bragging

The other day I was sorting through my girls clothes, trying to get ready for the winter. Which by the way is SO NOT MY FAVORITE THING TO DO!!!!!! While doing this,I realized the girls did't have very many fall/winter clothes to wear to church. Well that just wouldn't do so I decided to dig through my pile of fabric and see if I could remedy the situtation. This is what we ended up with.
Two pretty darn cute skirts if you ask me. And the best part about it, I didn't spend any money, used up fabric that has been sitting around too long, it took me less than 2 hours start to finish and now I have two very pleased and might I add lovely little girls!!! The only down side, now I have 2 more articles of clothing to sort through when I put away all the winter clothes. Oh well!

Donuts!

This summer we started a family tradition of every Sunday night we try to bake a treat with as a whole family. Tonight we choose donuts.
On Halloween night we went to my good friend Becky Tiffanys parents house and had fabulous homemade donuts. Since that night, Bailey asks me at least once a day if we can make donuts. I always told her no because I can do without the frying aspect of the process since it makes everything smell. Well today, while blog hopping, I found a recipe for baked donuts. JACKPOT!!!!
So here is is the end result...

They actually taste pretty good, which isn't too hard since they are pretty much cinnamon roll dough with tons of sugar and butter.

I would consider our adventures into donut making a success. It left us with several big smiles and thumbs up from Bailey, Claire licking sugar off the table and Scott trying to figure out a good frosting for them. And as for me, I am in the process of slowly eating my way to obesity, one donut hole at a time.

It's over!!!

I am so glad elections are over and I can rest and hopefully my dads bloodpressure can go back down. Yesterday was a exciting and disappointing day. Yesterday morning I went to the polls to stand with my Yes 102 sign and encourage the people to "vote for Marriage." I was so encouraged that so many people treated me with respect and thanked me for "helping bring morality back to this lost world." Two years ago I stood outside the same polls, with the same sign and cause, and I had people glaring at me and saying nasty things to me. Then that night I watched the prop we worked so hard on fail.

Last night was a much better night. As I sewed my girls fall skirts, ( I was too anxious to just sit) my heart was so happy as I watched the polls close, the numbers come in and saw that Prop 102 was going to pass this time. Even though I am not happy about all the outcomes of the election, at least I know there are good people out there, who still have traditional values and are concerned about the future of our children and country.

I wish the war for good values was over and we could all rest. Unfortuately, I think we still have a long hard fight ahead of us, but at least one battle is done. Let us all keep faith and get ready for the next battle.

Yummy smoothie

One of my favorite things about winter is oranges are in season, which means fresh squeezed orange juice. Last winter I came up with a smoothie using orange juice and mangos that my family fell in love with. Since then I have had a few people ask me for my recipe for the smoothie. Rather then send out a bunch of emails I thought I would post it on my blog for anyone who would like it.

I usually eyeball the quantities of ingredients but this is about how much of each I use.

1 cup fresh squeezed OJ (about 3-4 oranges)
8 oz. (fill the blender about 1/2 full)of frozen mangos. If you live by a Trader Joes, they usually have frozen mangos for a really good price but I heard that Costco also sells them.
1 individual size cup of strawberry yogurt
1/2-1 banana
1 tsp. vanilla
*Sometimes I add fresh strawberries if I have them.

Blend it all up. Sometimes I have to add more juice to help blend it better. If I am serving it to my girls usually I add a little milk rather than extra juice, extra calcium. Play around with the ingredients until you find the combo you like.

My little pumpkins

Here are a few pictures of my pumpkins at the pumpkin patch today.

Eating Krispy Kreams
Claire carefully choosing out the best pumpkin. She had to do the drop and bounce test on several of them before she found the perfect one.

Bailey hard at work decorating her pumpkin.

Claires farm themed pumpkin.

On the hayride that was somewhat lacking in hay.

Our big girls!

The crazy animals I live with everyday!

Why we need to protect marriage

I have been asked by several people why it is important to support propositions that protect marriage becuase they know how active my mom has been in this important issue. Today I found an article that is very easy to read and gives 8 clear reasons to protect marriage. Many of us of the LDS faith know several reasons why traditional marriage is so important but this article gives secular reasons that may help you when talking to some not of our faith.

http://www.familywatchinternational.org/fwi/policy_brief_manwomanmarriage.pdf

Vote YES on PROP 102 (AZ) or PROP 8 (CA)!!!!

The Tale of Two Shoes

Last Christmas my mom bought these for Bailey

a set of six Disney princess shoes. They were an instant hint. Actually that is an understatement, they became my daughters life. They LOVE the shoes. They wear them ALL day long. I have even found Bailey wearing them to bed. And Claire, who isn't going to miss out on an opportunity to be beautiful, learned to walk in them only weeks after learning to walk.

Then last month tragedy struck our house, one of the Snow White shoes broke in half due to a long hard life of tiny little feet stomping on wood floor. Bailey was traumatized, we weren't sure she would make it. Then to make life even more unbearable, the Bell pair followed suit a week or so later. Then a few others began to fall apart, but I will save you from the gruesome details.

Needless to say, I was becoming a little upset myself. How could I be happy when my miserable daughters happiness hinged on uncomfortable plastic princess shoes. So like any good mom I went to Costco, were they were bought last Christmas, to find a new box. No luck. I looked online but couldn't find them for a price I was willing to pay, I admit I am cheap. I even asked a few friends to keep an eye out for them for me. Still no luck.

Then yesterday, as we were walking down the aisles of Sams Club, the heavens suddenly parted and angels began to sing. There, right in front of Baileys free sample covered face, was another box of princess shoes. Without even looking at the price, I threw them in my cart and ran to the checkout line for fear someone was playing a cruel trick on me and the shoes would suddenly disappear. While in the checkout line I kept my eyes on a very suspicious looking 7 year old girl, eyeing my shoes from over in the cafe and held my breath until the cashier handed me the receipt. They were MINE!!!

Well, life at the Sherwood home is as it should be now. Both girls are properly shoed and I might add, looking fabulous. I am now on my way to Sams Club to buy one more box of princess shoes because we have another little princess on the way and I don't want her to go through the pain and suffering her older sister had to deal with.

HELP!

I have two things I need help with and was hoping someone had an answer.
1- Does anyone have a good way to clean bath tub toys? Ours are getting a little on the slimmy, yucky side (even though I drain them everytime they bathe.) I looked around on the internet and most people say to put a little bleach and water in with the toys but I am worried that will ruin or fade the toys. Has anyone ever done that?
2- Does anyone have a really yummy recipe for granola? I have had a the biggest craving for granola but it is so blasted expensive at the store, I would go broke supporting my habit. I have looked up a few on recipe websites but I am a little scared to put all the time and ingredients into making it and have it fail. Does someone have a recipe they have made and really like? Also a little side note. I am not a huge nut fan, they are ok but in moderation. So if you have one that doesn't have a ton of nuts would be even better.

The day!!!!!

Today was the day! One of my favorite days of the year. PLANTING DAY!!!! I love the day in late early October when the weather has cooled off and it is finally time to beautify my yard and plant flowers. While most of the country is tearing out their gardens and flowers beds, getting ready for winter and snow, here in AZ we are breathing a sigh of relief because we made it through the summer and now we can enjoy the beautiful weather, flowers and grass the rest of you had all summer.
One of my favorite places to go is A&P nursery. I could spend hours and lots of money there choosing out the perfect flower or plant that would be perfect in my yard. Today I decided to take my girls with me to the nursery to control myself a little. It is hard to enjoy a nursery when your kids are picking all the flowers and knocking over plants with wheelbarrows. This year I also let the girls pick out all the flowers, a little scary but we ended up with beautiful red geraniums, pink, purple and white petunias and fall colored mums. Nothing fancy but will be perfect non the less.
Then we headed home to plant our loot. It took about 2 x's longer than it should because I had so much help but we now have all the flowers in the ground, Claire and Bailey both got to run around naked in the back yard and take baths in buckets outside and all my sidewalks are covered in mud. What a glorious day!!!
Now tomorrow I get to hack all my bushes way down to get rid of all the burnt stuff from the summer, another activity I LOVE to do and scalp my grass to put in the winter lawn!

Our California Adventure

Thanks to the generousity of my parents, we just got back from a week long trip to S. California. Here is a quick run down of our trip.

-One week at a gorgeous Mariott resort, over looking the ocean, in Newport Beach. All this curtiousy of my parents. THANK YOU!!!!!!
-Sunday was spent going to church and visiting the Newport Beach Temple. The temple is brown rather than white, which I thought was pretty cool.

-First part of the week was spent with a sick Bailey who had a cold, pink eye and threw up several times. FUN, FUN, FUN!!!!!

-Monday we went to Sea World. The highlight of the entire trip for Bailey was "Breakfast with Shamu." If you have never done it before, I would recommend it. Bailey loved it becuase she got to eat a chocolate muffin and be only a few feet away from Shamu as he did tricks. Claire loved it because she got to eat eggs and watch pigeons fly around, she couldn't care less about Shamu.

-We spent Wednesday at the beach. Bailey loved the sand and hated the water. Claire loved the water and HATED the sand.

_Tuesday and Thursday we went to Disneyland. Boy, that is a big park when you are pregnant! Bailey loved meeting her favorite pricesses, Claire loved the Tiki room and the birds, Scott loved the scary rides and I loved sitting in shady areas.

_Friday we went to the San Diego Zoo. Scott was in charge of the camera that day and only took pictures of animals so I will refrain from showing those.

It was a fun and tiring week. Thanks mom and dad for helping us stay at the condo. We love you!

Are they serious!?!

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) have sent a letter to the head guys at Ben and Jerrys icecream asking them to replace cows milk with human milk in their icecream. What? Are they serious? I can understand their concern about baby cows but common on, human milk!

http://www.peta.org/mc/NewsItem.asp?id=11993

What happened?

This morning Bailey was running around the house singing "It's autumn time, it's autumn time, the leaves are falling down......" only to be sorely disappointed to go out side and see everything some what green but mostly burnt from from a long HOT summer. And not only that but all the leaves are firmly on the trees, where they will probably be until December.

Come on now, I know we live in AZ but it is September 25th and it is 105 degrees today. What is that all about? Bailey and I decided we were tired of the summer and we were going to pretend that it is fall this morning. So we turned the AC way down, got in our winter jammies, made apple muffins and ate freshly bottled peaches, all things that we like to do around here in the "autumn time." What are some of your favorite thing to do or recipes that you like to make in the autumn time?

Claire likes cereal!

Claire likes cereal.

Claire likes cereal so much, she usually asks for it within the first minute of waking up. She calls from her crib "DADDY! DADDY! CEREO!!!! CEREO!!!! DAAAAAADY! CEREO!!!!!"

Claire likes cereal so much, she knows how to say all the essential elements of making a bowl of cereal. "CEREO," "BOW," "MELK," "SPOO."

Claire likes cereal so much, she wants it every meal of the day.

Claire likes cereal so much, she chooses to adorn herself with it.

Claire likes cereal!

My thoughts exactly

Here is a link to an article about Sarah Palin. Now I don't think Sarah Palin is the perfect woman and with all politics put aside, I do think she is a woman who represents some of the good things that woman can do.
As my mom wrote in an email to me, "This article encapsulates what I've been trying to say about Sarah Palin and why she matters so much. Win the election or lose, Sarah Palin shows that true women can and do still exist--not the caricature of women that feminists have tried to create."

http://www.pop.org/main.cfm?id=203&r1=2.00&r2=1.00&r3=0&r4=0&level=2&eid=1176

Lovely

I hope you have something this lovely at your house too!

Bailey was right.....

we are having ANOTHER GIRL!!!!!

Spinach salad

So I have decided that the companies that make prenatal vitamins are out to get pregnant women. They think "hey they are already miserable, we don't need to put forth energy to make sure these vitamins, they are forced to take, don't add to the misery." It is with this thought in mind, I have taken it upon myself to find foods high in folic acid and all the good stuff so I don't have to take my vitamins as often, because they make me dreadfully sick. (Don't worry, I still take them most days because the dr., who I am sure is being paid off by the pharmaceutical companies, tells me my baby has to have these chemical filled vitamins in order to be healthy and I have to admit the dr. scares me.)

In my search for folic aacid foods I have learned that spinach is pretty much the healthiest thing for you to eat. So the other day I pulled out a recipe for spinach salad that I haven't had in years and I can't get enough of now that I made it again. So for all those pregnant women out there, which there seems to be a million, and all those who have taste buds, here is a fabulous spinach salad recipe. It is high in folic acid and other good stuff that may not be so good for you but taste really yummy.

1 big bag of spinach
1 small purple onion, sliced thinly
1/2 lb. bacon, fried and crumbled
8 oz. mushrooms washed and sliced
1 cup mozzarella cheese grated
1c. dry or drained cottage cheese
DRESSING:
3/4 c. oil
1/3 c. white vinegar
1/2 c. sugar
3/4 tsp. salt
1/3 tsp. mustard
Combine salad ingredients. Combine dressing ingredients and add to salad just before serving. Dressing will keep separately if refrigerated.

ENJOY!!!!

For your viewing pleasure

What a proud moment!

Yup it is five o'clock pm and my ladies are still in their jammies and same hairdos from yesterday! I wish everyone could spend the day in their jammies!

I can't wait to meet you!

(picture taken from Baileys portfolio)
Little one, I can't wait to meet you. Today I felt you move for the first time. I was laying on big sisters bed reading her a story and you moved everytime I rested my arms on my growing belly. Your movements felt like butterlies and I LOVED it!

I know I won't be able to meet you for a while but I can't wait much longer, I am too excited! See you in February.

First Day of Preschool!

Yesterday was Bailey first day of preschool. It was an amazing, funfilled day for her but a someone sobering day for me. I can't believe my little one is old enough to go to school and leave me even if it is only for 2:30 hours three days a week.
I have been talking up preschool for the last few days to get her ready for it but when we pulled up to the little yellow house the tears started. I unbuckled her for her seat and she collapsed into a pile on the car floor crying. I picked her up and carried her to the front door. When Ms. Ranelle her teacher opened the door and said "Hi Bailey!" the tears stoped, she marched in the house and never looked back. I even followed her in to say goodbye and she wouldn't even acknowledge me.
Such is the life of a mother. You spend so much time preparing them for something so that they will be ok and when they are ok you are sad that they don't need you. Oh well!
But just in case you were wondering "preschool is the best place in the world" because there are "Bailey sized tables and chairs," fishie crackers for snacks, a dinosaur puzzle and a teacher with sparkly eyeshadow that is so beautiful!
(I will post some pictures soon!)

The best mom!!!

Today I was told by Bailey that I am the "best mom in the family!" You may be wondering how I got such a prestigious title, well it was simple, I gave her a bowl of ICE.
A few weeks ago I thought of a fabulous way to keep the girls from fighting and drowning each other in the bath tub, give them each a plastic cereal bowl with ice in it. They love it, I don't have to play ref and all I have to do is get them a new bowl of ice every 10 minutes or so. PLUS I get called the "best mom in the family!"

What do you do in the summer time?

Every summer, for as long as I can remember, I have spent at a least a few weeks in Idaho. This summer was not exception. We spent two weeks with both sides of the family enjoying the cool weather. Here are a few things that we did with our summer time in Idaho:

Hiking in Yellowstone

Visting the "stinky" gysers

Picnics at Old Faithful in Yellowstone

Roasting marshmallows and making smores

Picking wildflowers for Aunt Chelsea.

The ultimate highlight of the trip for Bailey was our adventures to grandpa Barlows raspberry patch. It is a 1/4 acre garden of pure heaven for a little girl. Wild flowers, tall green grass, cherry trees and all the raspberries a little tummy can hold.
Baileys prefered method of picking was one for the bowl 3-4 for her mouth. As she told me many times she is "the queen of snitches."

Through out the week, we picked about 12 flats of raspberries and barely scratched the surface of the patch. Then we came home and made 10 batches of raspberry jam. So if youask very nicely, maybe I will share some with you!!!

She's off!

Last Thursday was a big day for our family, my mom and dad left to drive across the country so my mom could start a masters program at Harvard!!! Yup, she is really smart! They were excited because it was their 30th wedding anniversary and thought is was pretty funny that they have been married for 30 years and now they are off to start a new life and go to school again.
It has been a little hard not having them here. Bailey can't understand why grandma isn't at her house anymore and why we can't go see them. She has cried herself to sleep wondering why grandma is far away. How do you explain grandma moving across the country to a 4 year old who has always had grandma so close? She keeps telling me she is going to fly a helicopter really fast to grandmas new house, and that is no problem. It breaks my heart! At least grandpa will being coming home to visit soon.
Good luck grandma! We love and miss you!

Dancing Queen

The other night Scott was complaining about how his house is full of dolls, dress ups, pink and high pitched squeals. He kept saying that he needs a boy. While in the middle of is whinning, he was interupted by Bailey and Claire starting a spontanious dance recital. They cleared an area on the floor and spent about 20 minutes dancing, singing and spinning. Claire was singing so loud that she almost lost her voice. They had so much fun and we about wet our pants watching them.

Now I am sure little boys are wonderful and do all sorts of fun things but is there really anything better than little girls dancing and standing on their head?