I LOVE IT!

A Very Merry Christmas

We had a lovely Christmas this side. Taz is really getting into the holiday's this year and randomly yells, "Happy Halloween" and "Merry Christmas" to people when we go out. It cracks me up every time. She was very excited that Santa was going to visit and didn't want to go to bed, until we told her that Santa only comes when children are asleep. Christmas morning was a hoot and Taz keep saying things like, "Another one for me?" and "Oh thank you Santa." Even when we told her the gift was from us, or from someone else she would shake her little head and say, "Nope, its from Santa." She really enjoyed unwrapping her presents this year and was a little disappointed when the unwrapping part was over. Little Miss H on the other had, didn't have a clue of what was going on. She was just happy to be included in the action.

Christmas Pressies

Mack's family draws names and does a gift exchange each year. This year the kids were involved in the exchange too, so I had to come up with home-made gifts for the girls to give to their cousins.

I decided to make little backpacks. I sewed the bags first, then printed watercolor pictures (which a friend of mine painted and is available for download here) onto iron-on transfer paper, then trimmed and ironed the pics onto the little baggies and voila. Fabulous!

Definitely Sisters

Not Much Thanks

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and so I've had to think about what I'm most thankful for this year. But I have to tell you, I'm coming up short right now. Today has not been a good day. I hurt, physically, mentally and spiritually.

A little back story. We've been trying to get my younger brother over to the US to study. The US embassy in Cape Town keeps denying his visa. We have tried everything possible and even went to a senator and got a congressional letter for him. It was the last thing we could do, and this morning we found out they denied him again. This has so many repercussions for my family I can't even begin to list them. The completely frustrating thing is that they won't even give him a visa to come visit us. Point being - I have no idea when I'll ever get to see him again, and my girls will never know their Uncle Jeremy. My heart feels like 1000 rubber bands have been wrapped tightly around it. I can't stop crying.

Also, Mack's military orders changed and I've learned that any time something like that happens you literally have to hold the hands of the people who have to change things in the system to ensure that we still get paid etc. Long story short, hand holding wasn't enough this time and for the second month in a row we haven't gotten paid. We were told that it was all sorted and we would get paid on the 25th, but the ball got dropped somewhere and we won't be paid until the 5th of Dec now. That's a long time when you're already working with nothing.

And, along with our pay getting screwed up, our health insurance went right down with it, so we haven't been covered this month. Trust Taz to pick this month to get a mysterious rash all over her body. She developed a rash on her back about 2.5 weeks ago, but had no other signs of something wrong. Because our insurance had lapsed, I spoke to a doctor rather than took her in. The doc said it was probably an allergic reaction and we shouldn't worry. The rash got progressively worse, moving to her stomach and down her arms and legs, but then started to heal. I was just starting to not worry, when last night she got a different rash (almost like hives) all over her body and she developed a fever of 103F. This morning I finally caved and took her to the doctor (we'll see what it ends up costing us) only to have the doc want a second and then third opinion (from a contagious disease specialist no less), only to be told that she more than likely has the chickenpox. Phew! No contagious disease (or meningitis) but, that we are not to let her come into contact with any other children and to try and keep her away from Little Miss H. So, there go our Thanksgiving plans. No delicious turkey dinner for us tomorrow. Instead - boxed mac and cheese.

Oh and to add insult to injury, I was supposed to take all the pies to TG dinner and I had already baked half of them. So there goes my weight loss that I worked so hard on cause I'll probably console myself by eating a whole Dutch Apple Crumble tomorrow. Sigh!

But, I do have two beautiful little girls that I love with all my heart. I am thankful for that.

Fun and Games

Last weekend Mack and Allyson ran the Moab Trail 1/2 marathon and not to be left out of the fun and adventure, the whole family decided to go and have a little red rock fun. The weather wasn't the best, but we made the most of it anyway. The beauty of red rock country always takes my breath away, no matter how many times I've seen it. It is so austere and different from any other part of the world I've seen, yet incredibly captivating. It makes my little amateur photography self want to go a little shutter crazy.

Okay enough of that, here are some of the snapshots we took of the weekend.

Heidism

Little Miss H woke up early this morning. She seems to wake between 5:30am and 6am needing to poop almost every morning. (wish I could sleep train her out of that one.) Well this morning was no exception. She woke , I got up, we hung out together, she pooped. But, this morning when I went to look for a nappy in the diaper bag, there were none. I keep her diapers in Taz's room, but Taz was still fast asleep and Heidi was going, "DADADADADADADADADADA." I picked her up and whispered to her, "You need to be quiet now cause we don't want to awake Taz okay?" She looked at me and then whispered, "dadadadadadadadada", till we were out of Taz's room when she picked up the volume again.

It was a pretty classic moment for me. I had a good laugh. Maybe I'm just too tired.

Toofy

Little Miss H has officially cut her first tooth. No one has actually seen it yet, but I felt it this morning. Precious! She was so sick and snotty this last week - at least now she has something to show for it.

Big Smiles

Little Miss H reached another milestone just a few minutes ago. Yes people, Taz's life just got a whole lot more complicated. I think I'm going to hear the words, "No H. No thats mine." Alot more from now on.

Where'd It Go?

Yesterday during Arts and Crafts time, (I'm calling it that cause it makes me sound like a better mother.) I left my dearest Tazling playing with her playdough so I could clean the kitchen a bit. When I returned to play with her, about half the playdough was missing. I asked her what had happened to it and she said, "I don't know." We looked all over the house and I couldn't for the life of me find the missing dough. I even told Mack to keep a look out for it when he got home last night. A little before dinner, I hear Taz say, "Hey whats this in here?" And, lo and behold we find the missing playdough.

(Note: When you allow your toddler to pick out her own shoes, she chooses something like these. Joy.)

Halloween 2011

It was a beautiful day which was a really good thing, because I don't think I would have been inclined to take Taz trick or treating if it was raining again this year. My child made it easy on me this year - all she wanted was to wear her costume from last year. I was totally fine with that. So Taz was once again a - Ba-euuuuuuutiful butterfly (as she puts it). Heidi was also easy - she wore a hand-me-down from her cousin Maeve. Even though I didn't put in much effort, they were still totally adorable.

Taz was super excited to go trick or treating and was really annoyed that we tried to make her eat a little supper first. I know, how rude of us?

Eventually we hit the streets, but she was already miffed and so would walk up to people, give them her angry eyes and say trick or treat in a very gruff voice, and then say a very sulky thank you.

I sat her down on the pavement and we had a little chat about how people didn't want to give candy to grumpy little girls and that she needed to be happy. She perked right up and ran to the next door. Unfortunately she was wearing her sparkly pink shoes with lights in them and was looking at her feet when she ran, aaaaand didn't see the car right in front of her and ran smack into its boot. I laughed, giggled, chuckled and tried to stifle my amusement. I asked her if she wanted to go home, but she was adamant that her candy bucket wasn't full yet and we should press on. So, instead of having a grumpy trick or treater, I had a little girl that would burst into tears each time the door was opened. Then I'd have to explain that she ran into the back of a car. More giggles and Taz telling me how not funny it was.

Long story short. We had fun and Taz has a bucket full of candy.

Grammy Art

My Mother-in-law's birthday was last Sunday. I thought it was Monday (oops my bad). Anyway, Taz got creative with some glue and rice and we made cookies (Halloween ones) to wish Grammy a "Happy Birthday".

Grand Ol Time

We made cookies today. And the kids had a grand old time on the kitchen counter with the last cup of flour left in the container. It was so funny to watch the two of them together, especially Little Miss H who was actually squealing in delight.

Medusaliciousness

Mack's youngest sister had a Halloween party this weekend and needed to dress up as Medusa. She asked me if I would be willing to help her. It was SO much fun getting out my make-up kit again. I'm thinking I should take a few refresher courses and get into doing make-up on shoots again.

Check out the final product:

(To get the scales on her head I made her hold up a pair of fishnet stockings while I dusted on a whole bunch of bronzer and then some lip gloss to get the shiny effect.)

Beyond the Hair

Whenever I'm out and about with my two munchkins, wherever I go, people stop me and comment on how gorgeous they are. Our trip to Disneyland was a non-stop commentary on the two of them. Especially Heidi with her adorable little smile (Taz was throwing a few tantrums, so the comments directed at her weren't as profuse as I'm used to.) Even the flight attendant on our trip home kept coming by and giving us extra snacks because of the girls. Her exact comment about Heidi was, "Oh my word, she is just faaab-ulous."

According to my mother, the same thing happend to her when I was a baby.

Now I'm a proud mother and agree completely with every positive and adorable comment made about my kids, but I also know that every mother feels the exact same way about the adorableness of their own children, and rightly so.

I'm thinking that its the hair. People see Taz's bright Auburn curls and don't see anything else. Little Miss H's hair is also just a gorgeous shade of orange at the moment. When the three of us are out, I think people are just bombarded by a triple whammy of redness and it stuns them.

I'm wondering if the hair wasn't so standy outy if we would still get these comments.

Ride a Bear

I need to get one of these for our house. It kept her entertained for quite some time.

Embarassing Moment with Taz

We were standing in line behind a pretty darn large woman at Disneyland when Taz pointed to the lady and in a rather loud voice said, "Look mommy, that lady has boobies on her back." (It was true, her back fat was hanging in such a way that it looked like breasts.) I chose to just act like I hadn't heard Taz to save myself from the embarrassment, but my child had a different idea. She took my face in her hands and made sure I was looking at her, and then in an even louder voice said, "Hey mommy, LOOK, that lady has boobies on her back."

It was a good thing I was holding Taz, cause I just walked away (while trying not to laugh because kids do say the darndest things).

Tazism

This morning Taz did something that she was proud of ( I can't remember what). She stood on my bed and went, "TaDaa!" So I replied with a similar, "TaDaa!" Apparently that was the wrong response because she said, "No mom you don't go TaDaa, you go Ooh." So I said, "Ooh." This was also wrong cause she said, "No mom, only after I go TaDaa, now lets try it again." So, she stood on my bed again and proudly proclaimed, "TaDaa!" I gave the appropriate, "Ooh." And, she said "That's better."

The End.

Look At Me

In an attempt to get my body healthy and working the way I know it can, I've been on a mission to find out as much as I can about why I can't sleep anymore and why I feel like I'm walking in a fog, oh and most importantly, why the hell my body won't release any of my stored fat, no matter how hard I exercise or how little I eat. So, I started reading a book about how our metabolisms and endocrine systems work. Essentially, what I got out of the book, is that my body is completely confused and can't function the way it is designed to function because of all the crap I've been putting into it. To put it simply, my body is English speaking, but because of all the "fake foods" I've been eating, its only getting directions in Japanese.

I knew about the hormones and chemicals the food industry pumped into our food to increase yield and prolong shelf life, but what I didn't know is what those chemicals and hormones are doing to our bodies - and now that I know a little more - I'm COMPLETELY FREAKED OUT!!!!! Not so much for myself, but for my girls. I'm responsible for what goes into my children's mouths, so its my fault if they can't have kids one day or get childhood diabetes or heaven forbid, cancer.

So, in an effort to give my kids at least a little bit of a fighting chance in a consumer driven world that is trying to kill us, I've decided to try to be a little more of a pro-active mom and try to eliminate as much processed foods as I can from my kids diet. Now that's a little easier said than done when the Tazling pretty much lives on mac n' cheese, vienna sausages and chicken nuggets.

My solution: I made chicken nuggets from scratch this morning, using chicken, eggs and whole wheat bread crumbs. And they're delish if I do say so myself. I also boiled a pot of whole wheat macaroni and divided it into Taz sized portions, then froze it. Then, I made a pot of cheese sauce using almond milk, cheddar and parmesan cheeses, a little nutmeg and garlic for flavour and corn starch to thicken it. I then portioned that and froze it too. Voila - microwaveable mac n' cheese. I'm not even going to attempt vienna sausages so don't worry, but I have been buying the kosher kind that only have meat in them.

And there you have it - Yay for me for trying to only feed my kids food with ingredients I can pronounce.

Princesses, Hugs and Pictures

We just got back from spending 5 days in California. 3 of those days in Disneyland (Mack's favourite place on earth other than Disney World). It really was alot of fun, but so much more tiring with two kids. Everything took so much longer and we were completely knackered after each day, but, it was so totally worth it to see the looks of glee on the little munchkins face.

We flew late last Saturday night and so just went straight to the hotel. Both kids were so good on the plane which made it a stress free flight. Once we got to the hotel Taz was rearing to go and was not happy that she had to sleep one more night before she got to visit with Mickey. She woke up far too early the next morning, jumped out of bed and said, "Put my clothes on, I need to go to Disneyland." It was really cute to see her excitement. And even cuter to see her little face when we walked through the gates into the Park and Pluto was standing right there. Her eyes got huge, her face split into the biggest smile and she started flapping her little hands in excitement. Then she ran up to him, threw her little arms around him and said, "Hey Pluto, I'm Taz. I came to visit you." She then had a fat conversation with him about what, I don't know.
It was too adorable watching her interact with the Disney characters, believing that they were real people. She met all the princesses and Tinkerbell, Minnie and Mickey, Goofy and Donald and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger. Everytime she saw a new character she would say, "Hey mom can I hug them?" Then she would run to them, throw her arms around them then turn to me and say, "Now take my picture." Diva!




My absolute favourite was when she was talking to Snow White. She was telling her all about how she likes to go to the zoo and see the rattlesnakes. With a slightly sick look on her face Snow White smiled and said, "Oh, you like animals? I like birdies. Do you like birdies?" Taz replied, "Yeah, and rattlesnakes eat mouses." Hahahaha!
We took a break from Disneyland to go to San Diego and SeaWorld for a day. Miss Madam was in her element, especially when we bought her some sardines to feed to the seals.


She spent a ridiculous amount of time watching this walrus spit its food out against the glass and suck it back in again.

How did Heidi take all the excitement you might ask? Pretty casually most of the time.
And then a little more casually the rest of the time.
Our last day at Disneyland found Taz in her element. The lines were only about 5-10 min long and she had an absolute blast. She waved to all the characters on the rides. Wanted to do "Its a small world" way too many times, and actually did the "Mad Hatter Tea Cups" about 10 times in a row, with Mack. I did it once with them and then wanted to hurl.


She loved the parade and waved goodbye to all the characters. Then ate a huge ice-cream on the way out and crashed. A pretty good first Disneyland experience if you ask me.
Our flight out the next day was only at 7:30pm, so we had an easy morning at the hotel pool, then took a drive to San Clemente ( I fell in love and would move there in a heartbeat) and spent some time at the beach. Both girls loved playing in the sand. Taz ran around like a mad thing and had a blast chasing the sea gulls. She reminded me of one of those little birds that run towards the water and then run away as the waves come in.

Both girls were exhausted after our trip and spent pretty much the next two days sleeping. Good times. Good times.