The best is yet to be.

Wedding, December 2005

1st anniversary, December 2006

Mt. Timpanogos temple, August 2007

March 2009

August 2010

So glad I get to grow old with this guy. Happy 5th anniversary, Babe. I love you.

Now, let's go on a cruise!

9 months and a chair.

Baby Guy has passed his 9-month mark (December 24), which means he has been ex-utero longer than he was in utero. How fun.

Look at this cutie. It's really hard not to eat him. People who have seen him in real life can attest.

Cheeky little thing!

Monday is his 9-month well-baby visit. He will get measured, poked, prodded and injected. Oh, what fun that will be! Although, as much hassle as they are, I always leave the well-baby visits feeling like a really good mom. My babies are big, I guess, so the doctor usually says things like, "He's right on target!" and "Good job!" which gives me a huge boost of confidence. Even though I know I'm just blessed with easy babies and not necessarily a good mom. I mean, anyone could be a good mom to my kids. They are really even-tempered. And sturdy, I might add.

I guess what I mean to say is, I'm a good mom, but my kids make it a piece of cake.

Speaking of cake (and other goodies), how is everyone doing after all that lavish holiday feasting? I think I ate way too much last weekend. Plus, I have an unholy amount of candy in my pantry. I think we're covered until at least February.

From now on, our troubles will be miles away.

We had such a splendid little Christmas. This was the first one in our own home. Last year, we were in the process of buying said home. And 2010 was also Baby Guy's first Christmas -- I think he's a big fan of the holiday, judging by the amount of wrapping paper he ate.

Anyway, here are some pictures of Christmas 2010.

First up: What did Santa bring? Well, for the little one, a LeapFrog activity table.

Oh, how he loves it!

For Miss Bubby ...

A bike!

Another highlight: Monkey slippers (practically stolen from the Gap for $4.99 on Black Friday).

Highlights for Mommy and Daddy: A springform pan AND a bundt pan, movies, PJ's and lots of candy. Our parents also got us a wheat grinder and some loaf pans (his) and a $100 gift card to our favorite restaurant, THE MELTING POT (mine)! To be used in conjuncntion with our 5th wedding anniversary, coming up this Thursday.

After we opened all the gifts, we decided to take the Buttercup out for a spin.

Dill was very concerned, as you can see.

Smush and I enjoyed the amazing weather.

Aww! She's practically an adult. How'd that happen?

Love that girl.

This about sums it up for me.

Merry Christmas and Happy 2011.

Holly-jolly (part 2).

First ... did you know that if you accidentally press ENTER while editing your post title, Blogger will just go ahead and post it without the body?

Just learned that.

Second, here are some more pictures as promised.

We handed out several of these goody plates to our wonderful neighbors. Dill was insistent that we (meaning I) make four different varieties of sugary goodness. It took forever, but it was obviously worth it -- look how pretty the plates turned out!

Center: Grandma's Peanut Butter Fudge
Left: Devil's Food Cookies with Candy Cane Kiss
Right: Cathy's Famous Sugar Cookies and Cream Cheese Frosting
(family secret -- e-mail me if you want it!)
Back: Big Soft Ginger Cookies

Ah, it feels good to share the wealth. It's like I just gave you each a plate, too!

In other news, here's Bubby's precious Christmas dress:

Um ... you come up with a caption.

Black Friday, Gap, $12.50. That's just how I roll.

It looks like we'll be taking another one since 1) Bubby's face is ... I don't even know and 2) Smush is not in the picture. He doesn't really enjoy posing for pictures and it was just sad trying to get him to sit still for two seconds. He bawled hysterically.

I was going to post a picture of my tree all lit up at night, but I've yet to take a non-"burly" one (Bubby says "burly" instead of blurry). We'll see what I can come up with.

Four more days! What did you all get your family and friends for Christmas? What's Santa bringing?

Blast from the past.

Remember this, Dill?

Pre-Bubby and Smush, circa 2006, Provo, Utah

Speaking of P-town, the historic Provo Tabernacle caught fire early this morning and will likely be a total loss. Officials still don't know what caused the fire but they think it started upstairs.

Here's what it looked like before the blaze.

(taken by Tricia Simpson in 2009)

We lived very close to this building while we were at BYU. I even sang in it for a few choir concerts, like this one.

University Chorale spring concert, April 2008

So tragic. It was a really neat building and I'm sure it will be missed. Read more about the story here.

Are they clothes or are they sleepwear?

First, go here and watch the infomercial.

Then, discuss.

Totally chic? Total disaster? Mom's dream come true or Carson Cressley's worst nightmare? Clothing or sleepwear?

Holly-jolly (part 1).

While Dill and Bubby did some shopping on Saturday, Smushy and I had a holiday photo shoot.

Bubby's Christmas dress is just precious, and I got a smokin' deal on it. Plus, what does the (fake) tree look like at night? Stay tuned for more holly-jolly pictures ...

Mom of two.

Last weekend, I went to a bridal shower. The mother of the bride asked me if I was a mom. I said yes and informed her I had two children -- a 3-year-old daughter and an 8-month-old son.

You should have seen the look on her face.

It's a look I'm all-too-familiar with. It's not a bad look, like a stink-eye or a crusty (though I have received my fair share of those, too). Just a look of complete surprise and disbelief.

I know -- I look like I could still be in high school. I'm short, skinny and I have a round, pixie-like face with an upturned nose. Someday, I'm sure I'll be glad about my eternal youthfulness. But sometimes, I wish I looked the part of Mom of Two. At least it would make everyday conversations a little less awkward.

Anyway, I have since reflected on what it means to be a Mom of Two. In the past, I've been asked by friends who are embarking on Baby #2 what it's like and how it's different from being a Mom of One. Well, that's a tricky question with an ever-changing answer. Sometimes, having two kids is harder, like when I'm trying to fix Bubby a sandwich and Smush is in his high chair, wailing away and thinking I've abandoned him for good. Or when I'm at the library and Smush has had it with the stroller and Bubby is running rampant through the shelves, giggling up a storm. But sometimes, it's easier, like when I'm writing a blog post and they are happily (for the most part) playing together in Bubby's room. Or when Bubby informs me Smush has a wad of paper in his mouth.

Here's a list of things I've learned about being a Mom of Two:

1) You can never have enough baby wipes and Cheerios.

2) Going out in public takes a great deal of mental and physical preparation. Thank you, Costco, for having double carts. Smart move right there.

3) Planning is essential to survival and sanity.

4) Hulu and/or DV-R is the only way to watch television.

5) It takes a week to read a book I could have finished in two days before I had kids.

6) A shopping trip that involves trying on clothes? Forget it.

7) Don't bother putting on real clothes until you have somewhere to go. They'll just get covered in drool, vomit and peanut butter.

8) You can take a shower in less than 5 minutes if you have to.

9) The Wii and the Exersaucer are fantastic babysitters.

10) 7:00 a.m. is not that early, and 11:00 p.m. is super late.

Bountiful Baskets

I've always been a pretty healthy eater. My mom was good about putting carrot sticks and apples into our lunches and serving veggies for dinner. We also had a few gardens and citrus trees while I was growing up, so nature's bounty was never hard to come by.

However, I've been both blessed and cursed: I'm skinny. Yep, I come from a long line of thin people. Dill also inherited the skinny genes. This is both a blessing and a curse because when thinness is on your side, you can eat whatever you want. So, that's exactly what you tend to do.

I spent 18 years eating a pretty balanced diet. Then, I went to college. Then, I got married. Then, I had to figure out how to study, do homework, go to work, clean my house, fulfill my church responsibilities and spend time with my new husband on a very tight budget. That left little time for home-cooked meals.

(Let's just say, we lived about a block from Taco Bell and we really grew to love chalupas. Oh, yes.)

I knew we could eat Ramen noodles, mac-n-cheese, Taco Bell, McDonald's, Little Caesar's Hot-N-Ready and vending machine products (curse you, Grandma B's pink sugar cookies!) and we'd remain virtually unscathed. At least, from the outside. And you know, time is money, so that's how I ate -- WE ate -- while we tried to juggle way too many of life's balls.

(Oy, that sounds kind of kinky. Maybe I'll rework that.)

(Or maybe I'll leave it.)

Don't worry -- we ate SOME healthy foods. Just not as much as I was used to. Not even close.

Then, we had Bubby.

Your mindset about food really changes when you are suddenly in charge of what's going into another person's body. Especially your own offspring's body. Bubby ate only formula for the first 5 months of life, and then it was time to start real food. Suddenly, grocery shopping wasn't as easy as throwing random food-stuffs into the cart and going on my merry way. I had to think about what was going into that cart. Was it full of additives? Was it whole? Was it natural? Because yeah, as much as I loved chalupas, I didn't want my baby to eat them. I wanted her to thrive and grow.

From that point, I started buying a lot more fresh produce and less canned/packaged/premade/fast food stuff for our family. Dill was a little (OK, a lot) disappointed by this. But during the past 3 years as our diet has morphed from white, sweet and refined to leafy and colorful, he's grown to appreciate and even like fruits and vegetables. And for those who know him, that's kind of a miracle.

Since fruits and veggies have become an even more regular part of our diet, I've decided to participate in Bountiful Baskets. This ingenious concept is a food co-op which makes it super-easy and cheap to buy fresh, local produce. At the beginning of the week, you log onto the BB site and see if there are any offerings in your area (offerings are basically the baskets). You find one close to you and contribute $15 ($25 if you want organic produce) via credit card.

That Saturday, you drive to your pick-up spot at the designated time (don't be late or your food will be donated!) and get your basket, which contains six in-season fruits and six in-season vegetables. Before I participated for the first time, I had no idea what that meant. Basically, it's 1--3 pounds of each food.

Here's a picture of what I got for my first basket, in case you're still confused:

Persimmons, Fuji apples, cherry tomatoes, Asian pears, Bosch pears, black grapes, bananas, green beans, cauliflower, 5 lb bag of potatoes, Brussels sprouts, collard greens.

Quite a bit, if I do say so myself! They also have other add-ons you can purchase for extra, like citrus packs, apple cases, breads and granola.

There are some drawbacks to this program. First, to quote Forrest Gump: "You never know what you're gonna get." If you're picky, you will hate this aspect of it. However, you can sometimes guess what might be in the basket based on what's in season and what's on sale at the grocery stores that week.

The other possible downside is the sheer amount of produce you get. Unless you have a big family or eat a lot of raw food, you're probably not going to finish all of it before it goes bad. The good news is, most people will be happy to take the excess off your hands. Take some to a neighbor or family member as an act of kindness. It never hurts to spread healthy food around! And if you find it's just too much, you don't have to contribute every week. Or ever again, even.

If you want to participate in Bountiful Baskets and would like more information, visit the site here. This is such a great cause, I can't help but support it. Even if you think it's not for you, it doesn't hurt to try it once.

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

First, I want to thank you all for your words of wisdom regarding infant sleep. I realized during the middle of the night, I was "jumping the gun" (in a drowsy haze, mind you) with Baby Guy and feeding him before I was even sure he was hungry. Since my last post, I've been waiting until I'm sure he needs food before I get up to feed him. Three times, he's been convinced he's more tired than hungry and has fallen back to sleep until a reasonable hour. Only once (last night, actually) was he truly hungry at 3 a.m (I know he was because he was standing in his crib, wailing for me).

Now, it's time for a book review.

I recently finished reading Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food. It was fantastic. I have to warn you, though -- don't read this one if you are content to continue eating processed, refined food-like substances. I can promise you it WILL change the way you think about food.

The premise of the book is simply the title of this post: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. It's a fairly basic concept, one we all know but don't know how to put into practice. Why? Because, as Pollan asserts, we (meaning Western civilization) are more concerned with nutrients than we are with whole foods. We're also more concerned with avoiding the bad instead of eating the good. Yet, we're too lazy and cheap to go about getting the "good" the right way. So, we eat our refined grains, processed sugars and meats and hydrogenated fats. As long as the right nutrients have been injected, it's all good ... right? Wrong. We let chemistry, not biology, determine what we eat. We forgo whole foods for fake foods.

Pollan encourages readers to go back to their roots and eat "only what your great-grandmother would recognize as food." Be an active participant in the acquisition and preparation of your food -- grow a garden, buy from local farmers and cook your meals. Sit down to eat and eat slowly. Eat real food, not food-like substances loaded with foreign chemicals. Spend more money on less food -- in other words, buy high-quality, healthy food and eat fewer calories in general.

The first two-thirds of the book presents very convincing evidence of how rotten the Western diet is, and the last section tells you how to avoid it.

Anyway, if you are tired of all the diets and health claims and want simple, innate guidance about how to eat, read this book.

On Saturday, I am picking up my second Bountiful Basket. I want to write about this awesome co-op for you all, but I am waiting until my second go-round so I can be as thorough as possible in my review. Just to give you a hint as to what I'm talking about, check out this picture of my last basket:

Isn't it beautiful?