Day 1

Day one of my BIRTHDAY EXTRAVAGANZA, that is! Aka the best week of the year. That's right I said week. We celebrate my birthday all week because we can. I highly recommend it actually.

Rule #1 to having the perfect week-long-birthday-celebration-of-awesomeness: presents are ALWAYS required welcomed. Especially ones like this ultrafab diaper bag that I've had a serious eye on. I knew there was a reason Scott and I waited to make the plunge into the world of cute diaperbag-ness. This one was on sale! So we pretty much went from having the single most ghettofied diaper bag ever (seriously it was that bad) to having the very cutest one ever! Many thanks to my great family for this sweet gift!

And now the second rule to this very important week of fun: deliciousness is a MUST. These hi hat cupcakes happen to be in the running for my all time favorite dessert, and believe me (or my waistline), I know desserts. If you haven't tried them, get out of here and get to baking! I have six of these beauties in my freezer this very moment, just waiting for me to pop in and say hello. The best part? They're dairy free! My saintly mother went to great lengths (ok so maybe just Sprouts) for some much needed dairy free ingredients, and in the end we enjoyed a very tasty treat! This has been my first taste of chocolate in three weeks and no wonder I was so grumpy. At last, the mystery is solved!

Don't they look positively delish?!

So there you have it. Highlights of day one, and some extremely important guidelines to having your very own week long palooza of birthday funness. More to come for shizzle.



By the way, the end of this rockin GIVEAWAY is mere hours away, so get busy and enter!

Why not?!

Check here for details on a super rad

photoshoot giveaway!

And a new photo just for kicks:

Until the Cows Come Home?

First a few recent photos to remind everyone (me included) of just how precious miss Eva is. Cutest sleeper ever.

It's a good thing she's adorable, since it's because of her that I've had to say goodbye to all of this:

These past few months have been filled with blood, sweat, and tears--literally. Several blood tests and a sweat chloride test for Eva, and a fair amount of tears on both mine and her part. (What can I say, I'm a worrier.) Not to mention various doctor's appointments, stool samples, medicines, weight checks, etc. Somehow we're going to get this girl to gain weight! I wish I had her problem ;) Basically, she just isn't growing at (or even close to) the rate our doctors would like to see. We just had her six month appointment and she was in the tenth percentile for height (mind boggling to her short parents) at 24.5 inches, but still not even on the charts for weight at just 11 pounds.

A recent visit to the GI pede's office has led us to think Eva quite possibly has a milk allergy--hence my recent change in diet. Though breastmilk is fine, the protein in cow's milk is what (we think) Eva is having trouble digesting properly. Apparently this is pretty common in babies, but it was news to me! I'm just so glad to finally have an answer that makes sense and, most importantly, a way to fix the problem. The only downside? Milk is in EVERYTHING. Not only am I cutting out several of my daily staples (yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese), but I'm also constantly checking labels for ingredients. Anybody out there who knows of any good milk-free food choices, share the love! And until further notice there will be no cow's (milk) coming (to our) home ;)

Lover

So I'm really digging this picture. (He IS the sexiest man alive after all.) I just can't decide which edit I like better....any thoughts?

RIP crazy awesome Michael Westen aviator shades :(

Must Love Dogs

Another house sitting job done and done! Today was our last day, and though it was good to get away for a bit, I must say it feels SO nice to be home. We'll just miss our doggy friends, Smokey and Bootsy! See a few more cool pix HERE.

Deliciousness

Our FAVORITE Salsa Recipe

1 #10 can (or I like to use 3 28oz cans) diced tomatoes

1 lg white onion chopped

1 bunch green onions chopped

1 bunch cilantro (leaves only)

1 can El Pato sauce (found in the Mexican food aisle)

2 fresh green chiles chopped without seeds (or 1 sm can diced green chiles)

1-2 fresh jalapenos chopped without seeds (or 1 sm can diced jalapenos)

1 T. each of salt, onion powder, and garlic powder

1/2 T. cumin

Mix it all together and viola! Just remember, this will make a large batch, so be prepared to share! Oh and feel free to skip the jalapenos for a milder taste. I like it HOT so I've been known to throw an extra jalapeno or two in for kicks. Also, I like to lightly blend about half of the tomatoes (I get the petite diced) with all of the chopped onion in the blender. Scott and I like our salsa chunky, but not too chunky, so this helps us get the texture we love best.

Enjoy!

My Latest Guilty Pleasure

So Scott and I are housesitting right now for the third summer running. To preface, our first year, I'd just finished up at BYU where we didn't have a tv in our apartment, and Scott and I had been married for about five minutes, so we didn't own anything yet, much less a tv. Anyway, this couple that we're housesitting for has this big, fancy, flat screen, high def tv. I guess they're not as amazing now, but a few years ago and with our lack of tv experience, we were pretty impressed. The crazy part? No cable! We were totally stoked about this way nice tv and then so disappointed to find NOTHING to watch. So this year we were pleasantly surprised to find brand spankin new DIRECTV and DVR! Score! As you can imagine, we've just been living the life of luxury, and my latest tv guilty pleasure? Yep, the Real Housewives of New Jersey. I literally watched the whole season in like one weekend. Completely ridiculous, but soo addicting and entertaining at the same time. Even Scott was hooked. If you haven't seen it, you probably shouldn't. It WILL suck you in.