A Near Miss with Tag

Evan's teddy bear, Tag, has been a staple in our lives since Evan was just a few months old. Nothing can give me such a sense of relief or panic as that bear. It is ratty, it is old, but holding him will calm Evan in a matter of seconds. Life without Tag, is, well, horrific. There was the time we lost tag for a matter of days. Luckily we found him again...in a stranger's yard...under a picnic table. I've thought about stitching our name and phone number onto Tag in the event we ever lose him again, but I'm sure Evan would just walk around picking at the tag saying, "Uh-oh, Mommy. Uh-oh," until I took it off.

We rarely let Evan take Tag out of the house, but there was no way I was enduring our recent 12-hour travel days (layovers...yuck) to and from Utah without Tag. Then...my worst fear almost came true...almost...

We've been working on potty training with Evan. There are certain times he will insist on using the actual potty. They are a) if we are running late, b) if it is time for bed, and c) if we are in the Chicago O'Hare airport. During our trip we were about to board in Chicago when Evan started chanting, "Potty, now. Potty now." I reluctantly took him to the bathroom, which was the equivalent of Disney World for Evan. I'll spare you the details, but they involved some splashing in the toilet bowl and lots of toilet paper.

While trying to contain Evan and get him focused on the business at hand, I must have sat Tag up on a purse holder in the stall. I was eager to get out of the stall and to our flight as quick as possible, so I rushed out and started putting a diaper on Evan. We were getting ready to wash our hands when a woman, who I would guess was in her 60s, came running out of the stall.

"Is this your bear?" I looked up at her. She was holding Tag. I hadn't even realized he wasn't with us.

"Oh my gosh, yes. I can't believe I left him in there...oh my gosh..." I stammered on and on about how much Evan loves the bear and how horrible it would have been. She held her hand up to stop my rambling.

"I left one in a rest area in Pennsylvania once. The whole state heard about it."

Oh--the bonds of motherhood. She knew exactly what I was going through and knew how horrible the rest of my day (week, month, year...) would be without that ratty old bear. Thank you, thank you, thank you whoever you are for caring enough to bring Tag back to us. 

I'm Cracking Up

Easter preparations are underway at my house and I’m trying something new this year—real live grass growing in eggshells to decorate our Easter table. 

I’ve been saving eggshells all week and it is full steam ahead! I bought grass seed and potting soil and got to work yesterday afternoon. There really isn’t much to it, but here is what I have learned so far (keep in mind I’m only a few hours into this little experiment of mine):

To break the egg, tap it on the top with a knife until there is a small crack, then remove the eggshell with your fingers a few pieces at a time so you get the shape you want. I showed Bryan my technique over the weekend and asked him to crack all eggs like that until I get enough for my Easter table. After he realized I was totally serious he assured me he would not be participating in this little project of mine.

When filling with soil, try to keep the outside of the eggshell as clean as possible. I kept one hand as my “clean” hand and the other one was the “dirty” hand. You can wipe the dirt off, but these are eggshells, people. They’re fragile!

I don’t have any good advice about sprinkling the grass seed. Just sprinkle it. I’m not sure how long the grass will take to grow, and I’m worried I’m a little too late, so I went pretty heavy on the seed. Besides, the bag I bought is enough to re-seed 1,200 square feet of lawn (the equivalent of half a tennis court, according to the bag), so I had plenty.

I did decide the best way to water these little things will be with a spray bottle. The goal is to keep the soil moist, but there is no drainage and I'm not about to try poking a hole in the bottoms of the shells.  

Unfortunately, we have less than two weeks until Easter, so let’s hope my little grass seeds start sprouting soon! I’ll let you know how it goes!

Did Someone Say Cake Ball?

While I was in Utah, I fixed a little birthday lunch for my mom and two of her friends. I think my mom had a hard time sitting in the living room watching me cook before the meal and then clean up afterwards, but she struggled through. The lunch was so much fun. My mom has the nicest friends.

For the lunch my friend Sandy helped me make our own little version of "cake balls." Yummy. Cake balls. I swear the other day, Evan and I were just sitting in the kitchen when he looked up at me and said, "cake ball." They were a hit!

Bakerella gives the full cake ball instructions and tons of variations on her blog. We altered our versions a bit.

Like Bakerella's version, we started with a cake mix (red velvet), baked according to the package directions. Then you break it up into tiny pieces and stir in one container of cream cheese icing. Once you get the gooey goodness mixed up, you shape it into balls. We used an ice cream scoop. We also sampled it at this point. Evan did too...

It was good, so we kept going. While those were chilling in the freezer for 15 minutes or so, we put small cupcake liners into a mini muffin pan. We melted chocolate (not chocolate chips though--the disks you can buy to make candy--when we ran out of those we tried chocolate chips and they didn't set up quite right). Here is what we used--all purchased at our local Wal-Mart. 

We pulled the cake balls out of the freezer, put some chocolate in a muffin cup and stuck our cake ball in so the chocolate came up about half way the sides (in the picture above you can see that it will end up looking like the cupcake liner. We put it back in the freezer to let the chocolate set up. Once it was set, we removed the cupcake liner. Next we melted white chocolate and tinted it pink. We dipped the tops of the cake balls in the pink, sprinkled it with sprinkles...what else...and topped it with a red M&M! Ta-da! Cake ball cupcakes. I don't have any pictures of these steps for several reasons: a) you have to work quickly with chocolate b) Evan was hopped up on sugar at this point and needed some extra chasing and c) I was busy eating cake balls. I did get a picture of Evan with a finished product though. I finally figured out he really only wanted to eat the M&M and sprinkles off the top, but he looked so cute holding it. 

So, there is my quick version...but check out Bakerella's great site at www.bakerella.com. She has some super cute Easter ideas up there.

We made far more cake balls than we dipped for the cupcakes (for some reason I thought I should double the recipe--that really wasn't necessary). With the leftovers, I pushed them down into a cupcake liner and just topped them with either chocolate or white chocolate. We sprinkled some with toffee chips. They were just as yummy even if they weren't quite as cute. As you'll see on Bakerella's site, the possibilities with cake balls are endless.

A Tribute to Miss Ash

Miss Ashley. Evan's first nanny, one of the love's of his life and a forever friend. Miss Ashley nannied for Evan for a year, and even though it has been ten months since she officially worked for us, some things never change. Miss Ashley visited us in Price during our trip, and the two always pick up right where they left off.







There aren't very many people in this world who I would trust with my most prized possession, but Miss Ashley is one of them. She and Evan have a bond that I hope will never be broken. Thank you, Miss Ashley, for loving Evan, and for spending six hours in the car to get to spend an hour with Evan during our trip. It means the world to us!!! We were so lucky to find you. Some things are just meant to be.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Are you sick of hearing about our trip to Utah yet? If so, you might as well close your Internet browser right now and check back in with us on Monday, because I still have lots of stories to tell! The reason we went to Utah in the first place was to celebrate my mom's birthday with her. On her actual birthday (March 21), we had a party at the park with her side of the family.

Here is the birthday girl, along with my dad. He tolerates pictures...for a little while...


My mom with my cousin Jason and his little sweetie, Hailee...

My mom and my Aunt Kim...

All the cousins...we were just missing three...Kendra, Megan and Luke...
My Aunt Nette, my mom and my Uncle Roy...

Becca and one of her twins...I'm sorry Becca...I can't tell which is which! Becca has another little boy, Caleb, but I never saw him the entire time. The park kept the kids busy! By the way--this is one of my favorite pictures from the party...I love the pretty yellows.

Hailee and Evan back at my mom's house after the party. They were so darn cute together!

We had such a fun party! Thank you to everyone for coming. But, I realized that I didn't get one picture of me with my mom. I don't remember posing for any, but if someone has one, will you send it to me? Also, a little note to my family: Since most of you have blogs, I'm assuming you don't mind me posting photos of you. If you do, let me know and I'll take them down!

Future Fire Chief

Our Utah trip was full of adventures and surprises. One of which was a special treat from Evan's Aunt Sandy--my best friend--and her grandma, Penny. Penny is an amazing seamstress and her hubby, Ken, was the fire chief in Price for as long as I can remember (until he retired, of course). Sandy and Penny arranged a special ride in the fire truck for Evan and sewed him his very own turnout suit complete with his name and Price City patches. It made me cry.

I took about 100 pictures of our morning at the fire station. When I was telling the whole story to Bryan and e-mailing him pictures all he could say was, "Yes, but did you get a picture of you crying?"

So, it might be a little silly that I cried, but here is why. I've discovered that as a mom, I have no greater joy than that of seeing my little guy happy. I knew how much he would love his suit and his ride in the fire truck. I was so touched that Sandy and Penny took the time to make Evan his very own suit complete with every last detail, including reflective thread--who knew they even made reflective thread??? Oh--yeah--that's right, Aunt Sandy. Sandy also made a trip to a police supply store to buy some of the reflective gear and Penny sewed cargo pockets for the first time. There was so much planning, effort and love involved that it really did move me to tears! I can't help it. I'm a sap. We're so lucky to have people who care so much about us.

Sandy--thank you for being such a wonderful friend and "Aunt Sandy" to my Evan. Penny--if you read my blog--thank you so much for the suit. You're such an amazing and sweet person and we're so lucky to know you. We love you both!

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch

Evan and I spent last week in my hometown (Price, Utah--for anyone who doesn't know). The day we landed in Utah, my mom treated Evan to his first pair of cowboy boots and a cowboy hat that rarely left his head during our entire stay. As soon as my mom handed Evan his new hat, he started saying, "McDonald's Farm. McDonald's Farm." Here are a few pics from the trip...warning...more to come...in future posts!

Helping feed the horses at Uncle Todd's and Aunt Brenda's:

Playing at the park at the fairgrounds:

Playing with cousin Charlie at Mimi's house.


And, yes, the hat was worn inside as well. Here Mimi and Grandpa Jerry are teaching Evan how to put olives on his fingers.

I have lots of stories to post about the trip, but I also have four deadlines pending this week! I hope to write more soon!