Easter!

On Easter morning, Gretel got to look and see what the Easter bunny left her in her room. She also got to do a little egg hunt in her room, with eggs hidden behind stuffed animals, etc.
Her basket was hidden behind the rocking chair ("rock rock chair" as she calls it) and she was just loving it!
In this picture she is looking at the movie Tangled, so excited to watch it! Lately she says, "I'm so excited!" about lots of things, and I just love it.



Thanks so much to Mimi, for being the Easter bunny's personal shopper-you really got Gretel SO many cool things! She was really spoiled; she got books, new dishes/bib, a backpack, clothes, a sprinkler toy for the backyard, and hair accessories. Also, we each got a big dark chocolate-covered caramel carrot. My fave!! Thank you for everything, Mom and Dad!


Her very favorite thing that she can't live without is the magnetic alphabet toy! She also loves her glittery fairy wand and new bath toys.

Johnny and I got her some books, a coloring book that uses a pen filled with water (great church toy) some crocs for the pool/beach and sand toys for the beach

I thought she'd want to shove all the jelly beans in her mouth as soon as I opened the egg for her, but she mostly just wanted to pour them from one half of the egg to the other.

The crusty look!

Thanks Mom, for her Easter frock-and also for mine!

I didn't have time to snap a picture of her hair before church, so by this point it's way messed up because she'd been hiding in all the couch pillows, her favorite hobby.

But thanks Hab for teaching me how to French braid her hair! Even though I've known how to French braid, it's seriously hard to do on a baby with their little fine hair. Hab has mad skillz when it comes to braiding-she is better and WAY faster than I am. She gave me some tips to improve my technique, which I really appreciate! When she came to visit recently, (my next blog post) she whipped out her hair talents and I couldn't believe how much I loved Gretel's hair like that! So anyway, I've been practicing.

That night we got together with a few other families for an egg hunt. It was Shauna's fam, Abby's fam, along with Abby's in-laws' families too. Lots of fun!!

Gretel's favorite friend, Avery

Her other favorite friend, Chloe

Shauna's cute boy, Jack

Shauna's awesome daughter Skyler, who I just adore!!

All 4 of Shauna's kids

After Shauna did this impromtu pose, we also decided to be silly with our baskets

Tribond: We gave ourselves that name while playing a board game called Tribond. We were beating our husbands (boys vs. girls) and the three of us put our fists in the air, touching them together in celebration, and the name stuck.

I love how silly we are when we're together.

The best part of Easter was that Johnny said he wanted to cook! So he did the honey pecan chicken, I did the scalloped potatoes, (my first time making them, which is funny because later I found out that my Dad also made scalloped potatoes that night-kindred spirits:)) and we both did the salad. It was lots of fun being in the kitchen together. It was nice and relaxing. So after dinner and the egg hunt, we came home and watched Tangled! That's all Johnny cared about doing all day long-he's been dying to watch it and wanted to give it to Gretel early, but I made him wait until Easter when she'd get it in her basket.

I definitely miss our families and wish we could do an egg hunt with cousins, and eat dinner with everyone. But I'm grateful that we have such nice friends that invite us to do fun things with them. We have spent so many holidays with our friends here, and they feel like family, so we're very lucky.

We will be seeing a lot of family in the next couple of weeks, so we're really excited. It was such a treat to have Hab and my mom come and stay. We leave in a couple of days for Johnny's sister's wedding (YAY!) and then right when we get home from that Johnny graduates (double YAY!!)

Both his parents and mine are coming for the graduation, so that will be really fun!

"Bow Chicka Wow Wow"

After the previous anniversary post you might think you know what this title means, but it's not what you think!! You must watch this performance of Mike Posner performing on Ellen last week. I thought I was going to lose my lunch. Speaking of lunch, this is the "lunchiest"song EVER! (my fam has always used the word lunchy instead of cheesy)
I was watching it with Johnny and laughing out loud for a few reasons; these are the highlights that you should watch for:

1. Everyone in the audience starts waving their hands in the air (Hab's and my pet peeve) and a couple of people refuse to join in. A bald man, then later they show a lady in a white jacket near the aisle. They both stay strong under peer pressure!

2. He sings "I got you flowers and a teddy" while handing Ellen a gi-normous teddy bear. We all know he's singing of lingerie, but of course he's trying to make it day time "approprit."

3. The look he gives the camera after singing the line "Girl you know you like it."

4. When he sings the line "you've been playin' hard to get..." Johnny said, " I don't think she's playing hard to get; I think she's sickened by you."

*My grandma "Nan" had a saying: First you abhor it, then you accept it, then you embrace it. I admit that has happened to me with other songs. If it happens to me with this one, I WILL JUST DIE!! (I will probably not admit it, either)

* One more thing- I really like his song "Please don't go" so I can't bash him completely.

Anyway I have gotten quite a few chuckles over this, so I hope you enjoy!!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/233832/the-ellen-show-mike-posner-performs-bow-chicka-wow-wowAfter

Happy Anniversary!!

Yesterday was our 6th wedding anniversary! I was very surprised when Johnny gave me lots of potions and lotions from Victoria's Secret. He went there to get me Vicky Mints (I had mentioned a long time ago that I'd like more) and when he found out that they don't have them anymore, he picked out his favorite scents and got me hooked up with plenty of lotion, bath gel, and body spray! Little "Yanni" does some surprising things sometimes....he also picked out a very cute card and wrote a sweet message. I need to be better at gift-giving. He is way nicer in this area than I am!
So we had a fun date last night. We went to the movie Source Code and then to dinner at a place called Tuli that I've wanted to try for quite some time. It was good, and had quite a romantic atmosphere. We sat on the patio which had heater, and this reminded me of our first date! Anyway, I can't believe we've been married for six years! I also can't believe we've lived in California for almost 4 of those years-time really flies!!

Valentine's Day

Gretel and I started off the holiday early by making my mom's recipe for Jell-o Valentine sugar cookies. Gretel had her own bit of dough that she got to play with and eat! They looked so cute when they were all frosted in pink!

I brought the cookies to my cute group of girls; my calling is the Activity Days leader. We made cupcake paper wreaths like the one Hailey made me a few years ago; it's one of my fave V-day decorations. I think the girls did an awesome job with theirs!!

I usually have 12-15 girls at each activity; this one was our smallest group ever.

Gifts from Mimi and Pop-C to Gretel

Gifts from us to Gretel; when she saw Tinkerbell she said, "oh my goodness!" a couple of times! So cute!!

I made the most awesome dinner ever!! Hailey recommended it because she'd just made it for her anniversary and said it was to die for. It was!
It was from the Pioneer Woman blog. It looks kinda gross in this picture, like a big plate of meat that Uncle Rico from Napolean Dynamite would eat. But it was seriously the best dinner ever!!

My mom mailed me two big boxes of my favorite candy-cinnamon lips and sugared cinnamon hearts! I just can't find them here; thanks mom! It doesn't feel like V-day without these treats.

The gifts from Mimi and Pop-C, opened.

Some festive areas of my house

Here's the wreath Hailey made me a long time ago. The computer wasn't cooperating in rotating my pictures.

I decided to hang this lamp shade that I made probably 8 years ago. It is usually in a closet on a shelf, but I busted it out, and I liked it there!

Girlfriend playing with her food (what she does best!)

The cover of the "Chester Molester" mix I made for my friends and fam! I'M SO BAD! I was thrilled with the end result, and chuckling the whole time that I was creating it. (two discs inside!) I probably get a little too much satisfaction out of making gifts like these.

Well, that's about it! We had a fun little holiday!

Recent Happenings

Gretel is so funny...she makes us laugh every day! She says hilarious things all the time, and I need to write them all down, before I forget. Last summer, I was drinking a can of Mug root beer, and she looked at it and said, "Dog-beast?" That was when she was just speaking in one or two word, question mark form. She also did that with Ollie's stuffed animal build-a-bear dog.
As soon as she saw it she said, "Teddy-dog?"






Now that she's talking in sentences, she is really making us howl with laughter....on our trip to Newport last week she got to hold Gwen on her lap for the last 30 min. of the drive. Poor Gwen was trapped! Gretel stroked her and said, "I'm sorry, puppy-pup...but I'm happy!" Today while on a walk together, we passed by a middle-eastern man wearing a turban, dark glasses and walking with a cane. Gretel said "there's a man" a couple of times before she just had to add "he looks like Rasputin" just at the exact time we were right next to him! Horrid. She's easy to understand, so when she says things like that it's so embarrassing. Anyway, here's what we've been up to. A couple of weeks ago she had the flu and was throwing up for a few days. So Johnny brought her some flowers. I liked this dramatic picture of her.




Johnny's mom says she is a real character, and she is!



She loves staying and playing in her bath towel for a really long time after "tubby tine" as she calls it.






She spends hours each day wrapping up penguin and other bath animals in white wash cloths, aka making them dresses. I wish I had her facing the window so it would be better lighting. I told her to pose with her hands by her face like this, and she did it for me!




She did this pose all on her own, and Johnny captured it at the right moment. What a poser!

She loves putting on her hat, "mitts" and snow boots around the house.






She pours me smoothies in her kitchen she got from Mimi and Pop-C


She loves her "glass slippers" so much that Grandma gave her. She lives in them, and she fell asleep one night wearing them! They have Cinderella on them, and she used to role play by saying, "Cinda-grella's running away!" Then either Johnny or I would pretend to be the prince and try and stop her and beg her not to go home yet. She lived for this and we'd do it all day.



She's been in nursery for a year now! I can't believe how much bigger she is now-anyway, I came across these pictures and had to throw them in too!




This was her very first day of nursery. I remember Johnny wanted to "hold her back" a few weeks because he felt that she was too little for nursery. (kind of like you'd hold back your child from kindergarten for a year) He's so funny.







I felt like the worst mom on earth when she hurt her nose really badly one night. It was all my fault because I was playing with her on my bed. We were playing her favorite "hungry for babies" game where she hides under the covers. I grabbed her buns, and she lunged forward (her face was covered in blankets, so she couldn't see) hitting the edge of our nightstand so hard. I was terrified, and seeing how bad her nose looked, I didn't know if it was broken or not. (it wasn't)






The next day she fell and hit her forehead really hard, so she looked totally beat up for a long time. Major bruising in both places!! I can't stand when kids get injured!









This was just a few weeks ago right before a day at the zoo! She loved it so much, and keeps
saying, "we better go to the zoo!"




I thought this was a hilarious, crazed smile.



Last week she heard Johnny's dad say how much he loves her smile. He said it's the best smile he's ever seen on a kid. So the next day she started saying to us, "look at my smile" and then would give us a total cheeser. What a clown!