baby in a basket

evies-

almost 11 months old.
still not crawling.

you think about it.
you even get as far as rocking forward but at the last second you chicken out and plop yourself right back down on you well-cushioned tush.
your dad tends to worry just a tad about his kids hitting the proper milestones at the proper time-
so for his sake, give mobility a try.
[for the record, i am not concerned at all. a baby who doesn't crawl is a baby who doesn't make huge messes:) ]

can't believe in one month i'll be planning your first birthday.
gah.
how is that possible??
what will i do when i don't have your squishy baby body to love on all day?
[and don't anyone dare say 'have another baby!'   not yet people. not yet.]


love you ever-rue.

holiday goodies

i have an unhealthy obsession with treats, snacks and goodies.

i love to eat them but love to make them even more.

it's probably my second favorite thing to do.

[my numero uno fav thing is to take care of smelly, rude, intoxicated patients. obviously]

so when jank asked me what i wanted to do on christmas eve i quickly replied,

'work in the kitchen with christmas music playing'

and that's what i did christmas eve day.

jank entertained evelyn, kate helped me and it was a darn-near perfect.

here's the pics and recipes for what i made.

[just in case you're interested. if not, this post is now over for you.]

HAPPY HOLIDAYS from the jancers

these were soooo easy and sooo good. link to recipe here

super easy. you microwave these bad boys. link to recipe here

a tip for easy cutting- use a well-buttered pizza cutter. 

works like a charm.

bread is my nemesis.

i can never get it to turn out right.

so i went for store-bought this time around.

plus, kate inhales these rolls [she'll eat a package in two days]

all growing up my grannie and grandpa haskins had a container of shelled nuts 

sitting out just waiting for the grandkids.

 i don't have many memories of my childhood, but i remember clearly sitting on the floor of 

their little house cracking nuts. 

those were good times.

we celebrated christmas with our friends who have a family tradition of singing happy birthday to jesus.

they make a cake, light candles, sing happy-birthday... the whole she-bang.

at first i thought it was silly, but the kids absolutely loved it.

lighting the candles, turning down the lights, and seeing the kids faces full of wonder and happiness was such a wonderful moment for me this christmas.

it's a great way to remind us what christmas is all about.

these truffles are rich, so i made them itty-bitty because i know not 

everyone likes chocolate as much as i do [such a shame]

i halved the recipe [still made 4 dozen!] and made the truffle diameter about 3/4 inch. 

link to recipe here. 

a crowd pleaser for sure.

and kate loves to put sprinkles on things.

win-win.

i found these candy cane sticks at wal-mart.

a box for 98 cents. can't beat that.

wrapped up and placed on each plate....

easy, peasy and cute. 

ps. thanks to my parents [especially my dad], 

who taught me that presentation matters.

you guys are just so smart.

merry christmas

we had a wonderful christmas this year.
the girls were spoiled by family and friends, and of course santa.
we were able to spend the entire holiday together for the second year in a row
[yeah for coworkers who were willing to work so i didn't have to!]
it's so nice to have time together as a family-
to be reminded about the things that truly matter.
i love this little family of mine.

hope everyone's christmas was lovely.

all's well.

life has been crazy [but good!] the last few weeks.
i am soooo very far behind on my blogging, it's now to the point of ridiculousness and i have to ask myself, is it even worth trying to catch up??
of course the answer is yes. otherwise i won't have the memories, but it will take me a bit. i think that'll be my new year's goal- get caught up on the bloggity-blog. so forgive me if things are a bit out of order and chaotic.

here's a rapid-fire recap while i sit here at work enjoying the wee hours of the morning when our ER actually slows down a bit:

-christmas is coming and we are almost ready.... just a dollhouse to build and paint [jank thinks it'll only take one night- silly, silly man]. our elfie, simon, visits us everyday and he is the highlight of kate's life right now.

-we went to utah last week for ashley's wedding [jank's sister], kate was a flower girl and enjoyed every second of dressing up like a princess.

-while in utah we got to spend time with good friends and family and play in the snow. snow! how i've missed your beauty. the freeeeezing weather, i can do without. but beautiful, flakey snow-- yes please!

-we got to meet bb and tyler's new baby boy, camden. still can't believe my sister has 3 kids. THREE. oh how i miss living close to those kiddos.

-evie still isn't crawling. she sits and reaches but doesn't even attempt to get up on her knees. fat, lazy, adorable baby. she was sick for a while. stupid cold/flu season. but is all better now and she's back to being fantastic in every way.

-kate is getting ready for her christmas program this thursday night. she's been singing jingle bells and frosty the snowman NONSTOP. it's terribly cute and terribly annoying.

that's all i have for now. more to come later.

the color run san diego. [the happiest 5k on the planet]

katie:

you were missed last weekend.

wish you had been there to see me stumble through my first 5k.

it was epic.

colored powder, tutus, and neon knee socks were everywhere.

my kind of party.

totally sucks that you had to move back to freeeeezing cache valley before we could all run this race together.

next year i say you fly out for it and then we can all go shopping afterwards.

because going out in public looking like the hulk is so super fun.

[you should've seen the looks we got. people didn't even pretend not to stare]

this is us pre-race,

all clean and white and lungs not full of powder.

and post-race,

covered in powder but feeling oh so good.

i still can't believe i ran the entire way.

i'm sure it wasn't pretty to watch but i did it.

[this is the pic where i'm thinking, now where's a donut?? so hungry!]

dance party which katers rocked:

i tried a little experiment the night before the race.

i made my own colored powder because i knew kate would want to enjoy the festivities too.

i poured a ton of cornstarch into my food processor, added food coloring and mixed until combined.

worked like a charm and katers had a blast.

[thanks tyrel for allowing my kid to blast you in the face with powder. you rock]

and we couldn't resist,
we just had to rub it in a little bit more.
mwahahaha

and some more pics because i like to think i'm all sorts of awesome with the camera.
and because it really was just such a fantastically fun day.

ps. tyrel, thanks for sticking with me and my slow butt :)

pps. evie- you're a trooper. sorry about all the blue dust in your nose. at least your boogies are a cool color.

photobombed

miss kate:

i was attempting to take a picture of little evie rue the other day when BAM out of nowhere,
you appeared and photobombed every stinking picture.
it's a good thing i think you're so adorable because i could see how a mother who is tired and hungry would think to herself 'grrrrrrr. you're ridiculously annoying sometimes'.

thankfully your mother would never think these types of thoughts.
your mother is always well rested and never cranky so you just carry on with your photobombing.



ps. i always swore i wouldn't dress my kids in princess crap..... this is me eating my words. happens to the best of us.

o' hallows eve

[pumpkins were carved monday night and were collapsed and starting to 

mold by wednesday. gotta love yuma's heat]

halloween in yuma does not disappoint.

we had 600+ trick-or-treaters last night.

some spoke english, some just held open their bags with a heavily accented  'trick-or-treat'.

but almost everyone was in costumes- kids and adults.

i was impressed.

i thought we would have enough candy.

i thought wrong.

at one point jank's only option was to hand out lifesaver mints. 

i'm sure the kiddos really appreciated that.

despite the chaos,

we managed to have a really good night.

trying to get myself and the girls ready while handing out candy to the never-ending masses was quite comical.

we were even able to snap some pictures of the lowest quality [gotta love poor lighting]

in order to get these pics taken,

we had to turn off all the lights and shut the door and ignore the ringing doorbell.

those trick-or-treaters are persistent!

our friends' kids- spiderman [who ADORES evie], mr. bones, and medusa.

 happy halloween from the bug family.

lunch time

what?

you guys don't eat lunch on the kitchen floor while playing candyland?

you're seriously missing out. 

this is what waking up from a 3 hour nap looks like

well,
doesn't she look so very sad?

not to worry- 2 seconds later she was up and dancing around like the crazy kidlet that she is.
ahhh, preschoolers.
temperamental but oh so much fun.


kate,
your favorite thing to do right now is to tell us 'secrets'.
you twist our heads, lean in really close and loudly whisper whatever silliness you can think of, usually something like:
'ummmm..... evie is right over there.'
and then you giggle like you're the funniest person in the world.

it's rad.

easily amused

evie rue:

the other day i didn't budget my time very well.

[well, duh. i never budget my time well]

i was attempting to get ready for work at the same time that you girls was begging to be fed. 

[jank typically gets home about 10 minutes before i have to leave so he wasn't there to help]

let me tell you what i am not good at;

being patient with a whiny 3 year old and fussy baby.

nothing makes my blood pressure rise faster than a crying baby.

thankfully you don't cry often and on those occasions that you do,

you're easily distracted as long as i have a new item for you to discover.

the other day it was my camera lens cap.

bada bing.

occupied for a good 15 minutes.

which allowed me to get some makeup on, get dressed and i still had a spare moment to snap these pics.

goodness you're cute.

ps. ignore the weird picture in the background. i bought that gigantic frame at a garage sale for $7 [!!!] i am currently waiting for a new mat and art to be completed. unless i decide to keep the victorian little girl and the pink fabric mat..... sooooo tempting. decisions, decisions.