Away we go?

Today is Monday, and it's Kris's Friday, so, last night I was just thinking to myself that we should go camping or something like that. And this morning, before Kris left for work, he actually suggested that we go camping. It's so funny how much Kris and I are on the same wavelength. So, I think today I'll look up someplace to go and pack some stuff so we can get out of here by the time Kris gets home. Everytime Kris and I go camping, we always make tin foil dinners. I LOVE tin foil dinners! Ever since I made them at girls camp waaaay back when, I just love getting any opportunity to make them (which is camping). If you've never made them, you have to try them, and the only way to make them is in an open fire. Some people claim you can make them in the oven, but they just aren't the same. They don't have that smokey flavor. Anyway, here's what you do:

Tin Foil Dinners:
You need: Ground Beef
Carrots
Potato or 2
Onion slices
Package of Lipton Onion soup mix (dry stuff)
a little sliver of butter
a tablespoon of water

To Do: Make a patty out of the ground beef (or balls if you wish!)
Top with some onion slices (they need to be in the middle so they don't burn)
Put your potato and carrot chunks on top
Sprinkle on the soup mix, place butter on and pour in water
I should have mentioned that all of this is going onto at least a double layer of tin foil.
Wrap up your package securely and place meat side down in the hot coals, turn and flip until done, usually around 20 minutes or so.
ENJOY!


So, I should have some pics when we get back:)

Sunday, Conference Sunday!

I am so glad for conference! I remember I used to hate conference weekened when I was younger. The only thing that was good was getting to sit in a dark chapel and chatter with my friends, and the dish-to-pass in between sessions. Now it's much different, I love listenting to all of the great advice our general authorities have to offer. They really do care about the members of the church, and the people of the world. The words they speak are meant to uplift and bring peace to everyone's mind. They are not meant to belittle or persecute or judge. I think things change so much when you have a child. I look at my daughter and want her to make such good choices. I want to be with my family forever. I couldn't imagine being without her in the eternities. I can't be with her if any of us don't live up to our potential. That makes my responsiblity so much greater, to teach her the things she should know to make those choices. Before, it was just me, and then it was Kris and I. Now, it's our family too. I know how much it irritates me when other people try to give me advice on what's wrong with my baby if she's crying, or how I can fix it. I can only imagine how frustrated our father in heaven gets when we try to tell HIM what the best way is to teach His children. Our children are just in our care, they are really HIS children. This is why I have grown to love conference more and more. It helps put things into perspective, and make me a better person, a better wife for my husband, and a better mother for my little girl.



Since Thursday, the weekend has been pretty quiet. A little bit of grocery shopping on Friday. I am sick of going to Smith's and spending crazy amounts of money for food (no offense, they are a wonderful store). When we lived closer to the city, I would buy my bulk items at Sam's club, and everything else at Food-4-Less, a store in the same company as Smith'. but MUCH cheaper. Mostly I think because a lot of the store items are packaged in Spanish. I don't care about that. Kris speaks spanish, problem solved. So sonce we've been way up in the NorthWest side of town, we don't have a Food-4-Less right down the street. I went to one anyway on Friday, and was very happy to have purchased a bunch of produce and other items for about 30$. That's my kind of shopping:) I can spend money like everyone else, but at heart, I'm a penny pincher! Well, maybe it's the other way around.



Today I edited some pictures for a frame I bought for Kris, to put on his desk at work. They look really nice, and he needs some family pics at work to make hime smile. I think he likes us! ;).



Lots of photos for you today!:



Here is Marin taking a snooze in her bouncy seat today, in her little dress. So cute! The only problem is the top part, it flips up in her face.

Sitting on the futon watching conference. It's a no-makeup day, yikes!

Taking another snooze, this time with mama.

Marin's first nap in the swing. She usually hates the swing, but she slept for 3 hours in it! Sunday's are usually sleepy day's for her anyway. I think she just goes home to visit Heavenly Father when she sleeps.

Last night, Sadie was under the coffee table, playing. The pictures are a little blurry though, she's pretty quick.

She loves hiding and then pouncing (what cat doesn't like that?!). So I played with her last night.

Marin last night under her jungle gym. Kris was playing with her, and here he's maiking the little duck squeek.

She loves looking at the colors and hearing the noises.

I kept moving from one side of her to the other to get a pic of her face, and she kept turning the opposite way, little stinker!

Here's Marin still playing with daddy!

The weather has FINALLY cooled off enough to my satisfaction, I am SOOO happy. It's probably in the mid 80's right now. Very nice and cool for Las Vegas. this morning it was in te low 70's, brrrr! Isn't that sad, at least for a north-eastern girl!

Last night we went to see our friends, they just had a baby (and can you believe, she was 7 pounds 4 ounces and 20" long too! Just like Marin!). Coming out of the hospital, it was CRAZY windy and much cooler than the day. That evening, we had a pleasant surprise. RAIN! We never get rain, so I was sitting by the window and heard water hitting the window. I thought it was the broken sprinkler (it's a total ferrell sprinkler, shoots like a garden hose!), so I told Kris to go look at it, and he opened the door, and it was really, honest to goodness raining. Not the sad little sprinkles we always get, but real, hard rain. And it rained for about half an hour! It was wonderful. Ahh well, enough of that, Enjoy Conference everyone!

Oh what a night:(

For anyone hoping for pictures, sorry! None today! I was hoping to get some from Tuesday afternoon. Kris and Marin and I went out to Red Rock Springs, a place I had not been before, to do some hiking and eat a picinic (kind of) lunch. I really wasn't up to making any food, so we just picked up food on the way. The place we went was really nice! We had been to Red Rock Canyon quite a few times before to go rock climbing, but this was a turn off about 2 miles ahead, still up next to the rocks, but it must get more rain, because it's greener. They had some shaded picinic tables where we ate, then a raised walking platform around a little field. It was cool, and I saw some water! And I didn't have to pay to see it! I always joke with Kris that if you want to see water in Las Vegas, you have to pay to see it. This time it was free, bonus! Even though it was just a little tickle, it's more water than I get to see the rest of the year. Anyway, I took the camera, but the battery was dead. Figures. So no pictures.

Yesterday was a littl rough. I had a great pilates class at the YMCA in the morning for an hour. It was called a "prop-o-lates" class because they use a small ball to help prop yourself up. Very good workout, I love pilates anyway, and I'm nice and sore today, I LOVE that feeling. But I digress. Marin started getting fussy around 2 or so, and we thought maybe it was her belly. She was really struggling! She would be nursing and just squirming around and whimpering while trying to eat, it was so hard to console her. We tried some gas drops and rubbing her belly, and then we took her in the shower, because she loves that. It calmed her for a few minutes, and then she really started howling, so we took her out. I had noticed earlier in the day that she kept having eye boogers from her left eye, and I didn't know if she got something in her eye. In the shower, we both noticed that her left eye was swollen a little and she had more gunk draining from it. I was a little bummed, I really didn't want to deal with pink eye, but her eye wasn't red, and I wouldn't know until the next morning (today) if it was pinkeye. So we put her in her jammies and gave her some infant tylenol and some dinner and put her to bed at 5. She was ready, poor girl was just tuckered out.

The night was rough though. She was up about every hour or hour and a half, and I, am, exhausted. Blah. I think I got maybe 3 hours of sleep. I had made an appointment with the doctors office for this morning at 0930, because I was almost certain I would wake up (or more, discover) to a crusty swollen sealed shut eye. I was very happy to find it was much better :) So, I called to cancel and Marin has been napping most of the morning (busy night for the poor little bugger!) and I have been, awake. I'm hoping to get a nap in a little bit though.

Not much in store today, just make sure little one's eyeball is getting better. Maybe pick up a few groceries. Have a good Thursday!

all day computer time

Despite the title, and how fun it sounds, don't be fooled . This was not pleasant computer time. Blech! I spent the day, all day, searching for a physician for Kris and myself. What a nightmare. I wanted to puke my brains out! After finally finding a FREE website to compare docs, (that took an hour or so, and discovery of many websites you had to pay for), the discovery of this one was wonderful! You do have to become a member, but there is absolutely no charge, it's more like creating an account to sign in to (if anyone wants to go, it's www.ratemds.com). I searched for hours finding the better docs, and then I called them all to find out is they accepted our insurance, when their first appointments were, if they were accepting patients, etc. Only to find out that they either were not accepting patients, did not take our insurance, or did not accept our HMO (that was AFTER I had given all of our information), or their first appointment wasn't until the end of November, which was too late for what we needed. I just about pulled my hair out. But, now that it's over, I'm a happy girl again.

Kris helped a friend move last night after work, so I was at home with Marin all day, alone until around 8:30. Today Kris has off from work, so this morning I took baby to a class at the YMCA. It's an outdoor stroller class, and I wasn't sure how much of a workout it would be, but good grief! I am sore! It was from 9 to 9:45, and The instructor was FAST! My poor pelvic bones are so used to taking a nice leisurely waddle, and the walk was kind of hard. I'm not used to being the slow one in the group, let alone the one at the end of the line! That's embarrasing for me! It was a great class though, I met some cool girls and got a good workout. Marin was great, she slept pretty much to whole time!

Speaking of sleeping, we went to bed at midnight last night, and she woke up 0515 t be fed. NICE! I was so happy:)

So now, Kris an baby and I are going to get out of the house for the rest of the day. He played with Marin this morning, kicking her legs and stretching her arms above her head, making all sorts of fun noises. It was so cute! She was smiling and loving it! She was really talking to Kris, making all sorts of cooing noises and trying to talk. What a great thing to watch your husband be a great dad

Pictures:
A little look around on the chnging table

I love this one, this is during her nap, and she's all curled up, just adorable:)

I Like Sunday Afternoons!

The last few days Marin and I have just been "chillin'", so we've had a good time. Friday she helped me make banana bread. That was the third loaf! I had SOOO many frozen bananas in the freezer, and each loaf called for 3, so that's 9, and I think I have one more in there now if you can believe it. Who knew I had such a passion for collecting those little brown frozen things? Anyway, the first two loaves I had made for the sisters I visit teach (which made Kris very sad by the way), so I made one Friday just for us:) I had made some cinnamon rolls for my doctor as I mentioned in a previous post, and poor Kris was beside himself thinking I was going to give the doctor the whole delicious pan of them! I could see the sweet relief on his face when I only packed up 5 on a plate to take. I love my husband, he makes me laugh:)

Saturday was nice. I didn't have anything to do, and after such a busy week, it was nice to just stay at home with my little one. We did get up a little early, but we took a nice nap together and just hung out all day. In the evening, I made some dinner, Kris invited our friends from Mesquite (an hour north) who were subsequently in town, over for dinner and to Jazz on the Lake. I made a whole chicken and to flavor it, I made a seasoned butter with salt, pepper, garlic, lemon rind, rosemary and thyme and stuffed it under the skin so it would soak in as it baked. It was DELICIOUS! I also made some red potatoes, cut them into chunks and put them in a heavy pot over low heat, with 6 tablespoons of butter and salt and pepper until they were tender. Then put some cut up freash parsley and green onion in there. Again, SOOO yummy. And then just some steadmed broccoli. Then we headed to jazz on the lake, the band was ok, it was more like elevator music than real jazz, so we didn't stay too long.

After we got home it was shower and snacktime for baby, then into bed. She slept so well, from midnight until 5! How wonderful! Then she got up again at 0630:( Oh well, I'll take what I can get.

Church was great, the Primary kiddos did their program today. So stinkin cute! I remember being the primary chorister and as I watched all those kids singing, I missed my old calling! Relief Society had a lesson on motherhood, and that was really great. Now were home and baby is asleep for the moment, so I can post this:)

Time for pictures!

I finally caught a smile! I love these cute open mouth smiles, they are just the best. She gave me some sweet smiles in sacrament meeting today too.
A little post-diaper change picture.

She has started to enjoy laying underneath her baby play thing, rainbow mat, whatever it's called. She'll just lay there and look at the colors.

Here she is just looking around. I love seeing the back of her fuzzy little head.

striped pants

Last night finished out a little rough. After I posted the blog, we went to the grocery store to pick up some much needed vegetables and a few other things. Marin screamed the whole time. Now, this wouldn't normally be of much concern. If I were at home, I would have been fine, but when a baby cries in public, everyone wants to come over and look at the crying baby or try and calm the crying baby or tell you why your baby is crying, and even sometimes try and touch your crying baby (not so much anymore). This drives me nuts. The last thing a mother of a crying baby wants is attention, and, to say the least, having people come over and try and tell me she's hungry, or jostle her car seat around to try and calm the baby. Ughh! That drove me nuts. I had a store manager or something come and stare at my child and wiggle the car seat the whole time I stood in the checkout line, trying to calm her down. I think my nerves were at a breaking point and if I had intercepted, I may have left a bloody mess and a headless store manager:)

Things went better after dinner (A late dinner). We took her in the shower with us, which of course, knocked her right out and calmed her down. Then into her jammies, a snack, and into her basket. She slept a little over 4 hours:)

Today was fairly good. My doctors appt today went well. Marin was a little fussy through that. It wouldn't have been so bad, but all women who have had children know that on your 5 or 6 week checkup, the doc needs to check everything out. So trying to calm a fussy baby with no pants on and a oversize paper towel wrapped around your waist is a little tricky!

Then we dropped off some prescriptions, went home for a late lunch and went to see our friend Keli. Her baby is almost 4 months old, and she has a 2 year old, so we chatted for a bit.

Kris came home fairly early today, so I made dinner (which was not bad by the way). I tried a recipe for goat cheese stuffed chicken breasts, and they weren't bad. Not a favorite, but tasty for dinner nonetheless.

Nothing big in store for tonight, I think Kris and I will try to watch a movie and we'll take Marin into the shower again before bed. Tomorrow the TV guy has to come and fix our satellite service, and we have a baby shower for a friend to go to in the evening.

Here is Marin today. She's wearing a whte onsie with a fuzzy pink tree and a fuzzy brown bird, with matching brown striped pants:) Very cute outfit. I tried putting on the pink and brown shoes, but she kept kicking them off.
Here is the little fussy bugger yesterday, just a rare moment between crying.

Only one smile yesterday for mama though.

The kitty and her bugs. . .

Here is Marin in her bouncy seat. It's naptime, and she is soooo tired, but she fights it so hard. I can just hear her little brain telling her poor eyeballs: "Must. . .stay. . .awake!" She does this a lot. I wonder if I did that as a baby? We bounce her until she falls asleep, which I'm doing as we speak with my foot. I'm becoming better and better at multi tasking, and I thought I was good before! You can see in the picture the bags under her eyes, and you can also see her skin. Poor thing, her skin broke out with baby acnes about 6 days ago. I thought it was something I was using on her or me and it rubbed on face when she ate. The doctor told me yesterday it's just my hormones that are making her break out, and she gets them through my milk. He said it takes a few weeks to show up. I just wash her face and occ put some hydrocortisone cream on it (per the doc, thank you very much. I'm not doing it as an experiment.).
Now to explain the title of this blog. Our cat, Saide has always been fairly playful, and one of her favorite things in particular is to play with bugs. She likes it because unlike toys, the bugs "play back". Well, they are mostly trying to get away, but Sadie thinks it's great fun. Last night she had a couple of run in's with some bugs. She was sniffing a particularly small one ( I know because I was watching her), just a tiny little ant, and she must have taken a nice deep whiff, because it went right up her schnozz! At first she sneezed a few times, but I think it was crawling around IN her face, because she exploded into this gagging/sneezing/snorting wide-eyed frenzy. It worried me a little until she calmed down, but looking back it was pretty funny.

You would have thought she had learned her lesson, but Kris showed her a cricket that was in the house, and she was ALL OVER that one. Crickets are especially fun for her, because not only do they run, but they jump too! Bonus!

Here she is playing with her little bug friend the cricket.


I think she's deciding what to do next.

It had been hopping around quite a bit, and now she's decided that it's time for a little cricket snack. Oh yes, Sadie eats the bugs after she's played with them (except for the beetles (beatles?)). I chuckle every time I see her crunching away on something. We don't need to spray for bugs, we have the cat!

And she's just about done with her cricket. Not sure how it tasted, all that was left was the back leg.

That's all. Kris is off rock climbing and baby and I are going to make cinnamon rolls. She hasn't gone to sleep yet.

The doctor will see you now. . .

Today we had Marin's 4 week appt with the doctor, even though she'll be 5 weeks on Thursday (CRAZY!). She's making progress! A whole 9 pounds this morning, yay! I think she would have weighed more, but this morning was a big poop-a-rama fest! I changed 3 dirty diapers and Kris changed 2 more, all before we left the house at 1000, and after getting up at 0730. Good grief is all I have to say! She must have pooped out a few ounces at least! I still can't help but wonder how a sweet tiny little girl can produce so much mustardy-goodness in her little britches! She is making up for it though, she's been nursing all..morning...long. Hungrry girl I guess.

The nice thing about working on a pediatrics floor, is that when it comes to choosing one for my daughter, I know pretty much most of them, which did indeed come in handy when the time came. The pediatrician I picked is just a really great guy, very nice and I totally trust his judgement (as a mom, AND as a nurse, that makes a difference. I tell you this because when we got to the office today he asked me if they (the staff) had brought me right back and I said "No, we had wait for a little while" and he said, "Well, I'll have to talk to them, I put a little note in your chart to have them bring you right back when you get here. You help us out a lot at Summerlin (the hospital), so we should be able to bring you right in.". Talkabout a nice guy. never had noticed that on our previous visits, we barely sat down and they called us in. Nice!

This week is going to be busy. Our Dr's appt today, enrichment meeting tonight (Kris got suckered into participating in the child care for the sisters:) ), I'm visiting teaching tomorrow and making cinnamon rolls for my OBGYN (I promised him some), MY doctor's appt on thursday, and Friday the Direct TV repair guy comes and Kris and I have a baby shower to go to Friday night. Long and busy week. That is ok though, It's better than feeling like I'm trapped at home.

Here are some pics for you from the weekend:

A little nap for Marin, all curled up on her side in her pack and play. She's starting to get some chunk on her thighs, hooray!

In some pajamas my mom got for her. They don't have legs, just a little opening in the bottom, like a little sleeping bag, sooo cute though!

This crazy pic is from Saturday when we were taking baby pictures. We were next to the car, and this HUGE bug landed on the antennae of the car. I think it's a dragonfly, but I'm not sure. It's cool because it was bright orange and it's head was all crazy shaped and hard and . . . wierd.

Now it's naptime. Marin is sleeping on my chest, and I'm a little sleepy myself:)