thank you notes.

have you ever watched jimmy fallon on late night?
(well, i had a crush on him long before that.)

anyway, he does this thing on fridays where he writes "thank you notes" aloud on the show.
i started finding myself thinking in "thank you notes" while going about my business, so i thought i would share some with you.

(but first, here's your cute picture fix from our walk the other day.
so you can stop after that if you want.)

thank you, rachel mcadams,

for making my husband actually ask to watch girly movies with me.
i know i should be jealous, but i'm just... not. you really are adorable.

thank you, peanut butter and jelly,

for providing some sort of dinner for my child after the first one ends up on the floor.
i know i'll never have to hear "i dohn wike it" when you're around.

thank you, that song that goes "where is thumbkin?",

for making it really awkward to sing the "where is tall man?" part with my toddler,
especially at church. also, can you explain to me why she loves that song?

thank you, coke zero, 

for making husband and me feel less prissy about drinking a diet drink.

(and along that line,)

thank you, kroger, 

for making the cheaper diet soda products that we love. i do enjoy asking my husband if he would like a "cola oh!" or a "diet citrus drop."

thank you, microwave buttered popcorn,

for being so dang good! every single time. but not for making my kitchen smell disgusting.

thank you, every single airplane/train/school bus/police car/etc that goes by, 

for making my daughter go nuts with excitement about the noise she heard until i respond with some sort of, "yes, i did hear a _________! i heard it, too!"

thank you, netflix, 

for basically forcing me to watch every crappy show that was ever on television just because it is streaming and i already paid for it. you will eventually steal years of my life.


feel free to add your own thank you notes. i may just have more at some point.

oh, and while we're on the subject of random thoughts of mine that you really don't care about, i'm tweeting now. it's mostly because husband is on twitter and was complaining that he didn't have anybody to follow... so there you have it.

click here if you tweet or want to see a tweet or want to follow my tweets or whatever tweety tweetley tweet tweet.

hodgepodge.

just some random thoughts and photos from the past little while (with the usual sub-par photography).

an idea of the dress code we have around here. 

nothing is safe from ellie anymore. she uses that chair to reach the counter and do things like put her dinosaurs in the microwave or sort and count the fruits and vegetables. the other day she brought me a tupperware full of cookies to me that she had found on top of the microwave.

dinosaur stir fry. 

poppy last weighed in at 11 lbs 5 oz, putting her in the 95th percentile. that was at her one month appointment. according to our scale at home, she's now well over 12 lbs. she's wearing some 3 month size clothes already. she's a big, happy girl and she's always smiling.

the sweetest little outfit from miss kathleen!

oh, and did i mention that she's a thumbsucker? it's the cutest thing i've ever seen and it sure beats trying to put the pacifier back in her mouth every five minutes. 

my girls are pretty much the best thing in the whole world.

it's genetic.

 ("where's ellie?" is still a favorite game around here) 

ellie has been killing me with her sweet tooth (from me) and her sense of humor (from daddy). 

the other day, we went to the grocery store and i asked her what we needed. she said, "um, candy?" and i asked, "what else?" so she added "cookies" to the list. 

on daddy's birthday, she saw his cake and said:

"i want a bite! i want a taste! i want that cake!"

she cracked me up while we were singing, too. i had tried to get her to practice the song, but when we sang it went like this (i'll translate the ellie language for you): 

me: "happy birthday to you,"

ellie: "it's daddy's birthday!"

me: "happy birthday to you,"

ellie: "it's daddy's birthday!"

me: "happy birthday, dear daddy,"

ellie: "there are candles on the cake!"

me: "happy birthday to you!"

finally, one of her most commonly said phrases:

"i wanna cawcolate."

nature or nuture? 

who knows. 

four years.

it's husband's birthday and our anniversary.

thank you sir, for making an honest woman out of me four years ago.


us then:

us now:

who would have guessed?

not me, that's for sure.




pretty sure we have a lot of laughs to come.

i love you.

2011: a summary.

january: 

we headed to the temple, 

got snowed in, 

played with grammies and grampas. 

february:

our baby turned one! 

a quick visit to utah to celebrate a wonderful friend...

and unexpected time with family.

march: 

i got bangs

and a positive test. 

(november seemed so far away!)

april:

we had an easter

and mostly just ate cookies for dinner while i struggled with my stomach.

may: 

we saw our boo, 

and got boo-boos.

june:

we found out we were having another girl
and had so many pool parties.

july:

ellie started going to nursery
and we played our guts out.

august:

the world lost a beautiful person.
i turned 25, got big and round, and we visited the tallest peak in georgia.

september:

i got bigger
and made too many cookies.

october:

we trick-or-treated

and fell in love with fall all over again. 

november:

penelope! 

our sweet baby totally outshined thanksgiving 

and anything else that happened.

december: 

we loved on our girls 

and celebrated the season with family and friends. 

it seems that 2011, just like the three years before it, was a complete whirlwind. 

we've had babies and loss and weddings and cross-country moves and it never seems to get dull for long. when things get boring around here an appliance or vehicle inevitably breaks and we get busy improvising (right now we're using our broken dishwasher as a giant drying rack).

it's not perfect but we definitely love each other and we love our life. 

here's to another crazy fun year!