my husband

danny is an amazing dad. i am really lucky to have found him. he has always accepted alanna as his own, and he treats her like she is his daughter (not step-daughter). sometimes i think she was really meant to be his, because they are so much alike, and they have always gotten along so well. she missed out on having a "dad" for the first 8 years of her life, but danny has more than made up for that over these past 4 years.

he is so great with malcolm too. he loves to play with him, and spend time with him. i always wanted a second child after i had alanna. it took a while, but i couldn't have found a better person to have such a great family with. he works really hard for us, and we really appreciate it. i am very grateful for the opportunity he has given me, to be able to stay at home with malcolm. i love him to pieces. we all do. happy fathers day husbandito!

first photo of danny with malcolm, february 2008

first photo of alanna and danny together, february 2005

i also want to wish danny's dad a happy fathers day too! dan is an awesome guy. i'm sure that danny wasn't the easiest child, but he survived, and he raised a great son. let's hope that malcolm doesn't do all the crazy stuff that danny did, haha.

grandpa dan and malcolm, february 2008

malcolm, dan, and alanna, july 2008

my father

this holiday always makes me pretty homesick. it is hard being over 2,000 miles away from my dad and the rest of my family. i miss them all very much. i wish we were closer, i feel bad that they aren't around to see alanna and malcolm growing up.

my dad will be turning 76 this year. i am thankful for his good health and energy, he always seems to be going, going, going. he always has something that he is working on... making the yard look great, fixing things around the house, helping others in the neighborhood and with the church. this is probably why he is doing so good for his age. (dad, please don't stop anytime soon!) he is a really generous and giving person, and most importantly he is a great father and grandfather. he worked really hard for our family when i was growing up, and he is still always willing to help me out whenever we have a problem (which seems to be pretty often, haha).

we only get to visit my family a few times a year, but it is so nice when we do. i am grateful that we are all able to travel back and forth. we went to salt lake city in march and april of this year, and mom and dad will be out here in just 3 more months. we are excited to see them soon. we love you guys! happy fathers day dad!

with alanna in slc, 2006

dad, alanna, and mom, at the planetarium (i love this photo!)

dad and alanna in nc, 2008

this is one of my favorite photos of my dad with his older brother, my uncle jake in idaho before jake died.

and with my sister natalie

unwinding

this weekend started off pretty rough (to say the least). friday was a really bad day. but saturday and sunday turned out to be pretty okay, thank goodness. saturday we didn't do much, just went to chipotle and trader joe's. but today we went to duke gardens. we stopped at target on the way and got a big ball, and some bubbles. malcolm has never had bubbles before. i think he liked them? he always loves playing with the ball display when we are in a store, but since we were outside, and there were so many sticks, leaves, and rocks to play with instead, he wasn't very interested in the stuff we brought along. pretty funny.

i took some photos, and then my camera took a spill... and died (big bouncy balls and cameras don't mix). bummer. i've only had this camera for a year and a half. it was a christmas gift from danny. last year when we went to disneyland, i dropped it while it was on, onto the concrete. dumb, i know. ever since then, the lens has been messed up, and will not close properly. i guess the fall today sealed the deal. r.i.p. my little elph. you were a good pocket sized camera. i will have to go back to using my older, larger, heavier, powershot now. hmmm. anyway, here are some photos:

after we left duke, we stopped at whole foods for cookies and sorbet. yum! danny made delicious "chikin" enchiladas for dinner. the kids and i went for an evening stroll around the neighborhood. i started getting malcolm ready for bed at 10, put him in his crib at 11, and he was sound asleep by 11:10! yesss! this is the earliest i have had him in bed asleep... ever! (he is sleeping sooo much better these days, and i am loving it!) i took a soothing bubble bath (kelly, i used the lavender bath foam you sent me after malcolm was born. thanks so much!) so yeah, today was a pretty good day.

R.I.P Pimbo

i've spent most of today crying. this morning, i found our friend garrett's sweet lil' doggie, pimbo, dead in the basement. it was awful. that poor little guy. i am so sad... i don't deal with loss very well. i can only hope that he is in "doggie heaven", wherever that may be, and that he is happy.

for those of you who don't know garrett, he is our friend that lives in the basement apartment in our house. he is very talented and does some really amazing paintings, using hand-cut stencils (i will try and do a post about them later). he also works for danny, doing screen printing. garrett has had pimbo (aka little lucky) since before malcolm was born. he fostered pimbo, and his brother bueller (who was adopted by our other friend compton) when they were just teeny tiny puppies, so we have watched him grow up. he was a wild, hyper, puppy, always getting into everything, and destroying anything in his path. but he was a sweet dog. and we are all very sad about what has happened.

last week pimbo ate a large chunk of carpet, while he was at the shop. then he got really sick. and all of his energy was gone. he looked so sad. garrett took him to the emergency vet on sunday, but they couldn't figure out what exactly was wrong (idiots). so on monday he took him to his normal vet, who said that the carpet he ate was blocking his intestines, and that they would have to do surgery. he spent a couple days there, and garrett brought him home a day and a half ago. he seemed sick, and sad, but that's pretty normal for a dog recovering from surgery. this morning, garrett had to go to the shop, so he left pimbo at home. he called me around noon, to ask me if alanna and i could go down and check on him. when we went down the stairs, i new something was wrong... it smelled awful. and there he was just laying there. not moving, or breathing. sooo sad. i was hysterical. danny came home, cleaned up the mess (what an amazing husband i have), and took garrett out to some property that his parent's own, to give pimbo a proper burial.

here he is as a baby

with his brother bueller, snuggling my pregnant belly

here he is a little older

oh, pimbo. we will miss you. rest in peace my friend.

a few photos

here are some random photos from this past week that i thought were cute.

malcolm loves shoulder rides from daddy

cutie at trader joe's

malcolm helping me vacuum. we make a good team!

peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

here is the quick and easy recipe for the cookies i made the other night. and yes, the whole batch is already gone!
haha.

ingredients:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup margarine, softened (i used earth balance)

1 cup sugar

1 cup light brown sugar, packed

2 tsp vanilla extract

egg replacer, equivalent of 2 eggs

1/4-1/2 cup peanut butter (depending on how much you want)

2 cups chocolate chips (i used ghirardelli semi-sweet)

preheat oven to 375 degrees F. stir flour with baking soda and salt; set aside. in large mixer bowl, beat margarine with sugar and brown sugar at medium speed until creamy. add vanilla, egg replacer, and peanut butter, one at a time, mix on low speed until incorporated. gradually blend dry mixture into creamed mixture. stir in chocolate chips. drop by tablespoon onto ungreased cookie sheet. bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown.

enjoy!!

you know you're a mom when...

...you've spent the entire day with a toy tucked down in your pant cuff, haha! i noticed it in there in the afternoon, but i was busy, and forgot to take it out. and then when i was changing into my pj's last night, there it was. we even went out to eat for dinner, and it came along with us. funny thing is, when i was cleaning up malcolm's toy mess, i remember thinking "where is the little cd?"... yep, it was in my pants the whole time. hahaha.

here is the stow-away!

my funny lil' man

and last night i made the most delicious vegan peanut butter chocolate chip cookies ever! i honestly think that they are the best cookies i've ever made (well, at least in the last few years). danny and malcolm agreed.

they passed the rigorous baby taste-test!

sunday with the fam

i love lazy sundays. we didn't do much today. just took a trip to target to get diapers. the weather was nice out, so we decided to stop at the park to play.

malcolm and danny going down the slide together

malcolm climbing up to the big slide all by himself...

...and coming out. he loved it!

danny and i tried something new for dinner. mexican pizza. i got the recipe from good housekeeping magazine. it was very easy to make. and delicious. the recipe called for cheese, and since we haven't been to whole foods in a while (for follow your heart "cheese"), we skipped it. but it still turned out great. yummm!


lucky dog's new favorite place to chill is under malcolm's crib. what a funny dog. i'm guessing it's because it is nice and cool and quiet under there. after dinner, we found him relaxing, so i snapped a few photos.


malcolm thinks it's so funny

(please disregard the dust bunnies)