Her Mother's Daughter

So did I say how much I love cloudy days? We had another one yesterday... a few rain drops even! It felt like Hawaii to me; moist cool air, slightly warm breeze (a little contradicting I know) , palm trees, thick puffy clouds... I just can't believe what the weather can do to my mood! It felt so good to be outside, after running some errands and having to turn my windshield wipers on for a minute on the way home, we ran around the backyard until Ross got home from work... and then we ran around some more. It was so obvious that Sophia loved the change as well. After witnessing her flushed cheeks on the 100 degree day, I have to believe she feels like me and will always be more comfortable in cooler temperatures. She is so her mother's daughter.

Since clouds make for better pictures and we so rarely get them, of course I had to pull out the camera and snap a few. I mean could her eyes get any more blue!? Ok and maybe I'm also terrified that every cloudy day might be our last for several months. Gotta captures those happy memories, to remind us why we live here in the middle of the summer.

A Couple of Additions and One Sad Girl.

HERE is our new black table from my sister in law, Kim! I don't feel like I can get a picture that does it justice... but I LOVE it!... and her for giving it to us in exchange for babysitting! And of course I love that it matches our $75 Target (sale) hutch.


And this is our first, tiny step toward a more organized little play area in the family room. We have our couch at a diagonal which leaves a corner of the room to hide Sophia's mess... but it would be great if it didn't always have to BE a mess. This little Home Goods book shelf is step one.


So the 18 month shots were officially the worst! FOUR shots. Two in each leg. It was horrible. She was just so aware of what was happening, I couldn't keep her from watching him stick her the first time and then she just cried the saddest cry through the rest. It killed me. I always think the doctor must think I'm a nut, frantically singing the itsy bitsy spider intermixed with a shaky "I'm soooo sorry punkin" through watery eyes. Gives me the shivers just remembering. Luckily we don't have to go back until she's 2 and that's only for one shot. She can handle one. She's been super tough in the past. But four was just torture.


She woke up before 9 last night inconsolable, don't know if it was the shots or the cold. So we let her hang with us in the love sac for an hour or so while we watched American Idol. (That's what this picture of her and Ross is.) We've really only done that once since she was like 6 months old, and secretly (well not so secretly since I'm blogging it), we LOVED it. It's one of those tiny silver linings to sickness. She's way more cuddly. This morning she was the same way and we snuggled on the couch watching the Disney Channel for like an hour (she never sits with me longer than a few minutes.) When she finally got up she walked really funny, almost limping, so I'm thinking maybe her thighs actually hurt from the shots. :( So sad.

Hmmm.... anything else to blog about since there's obviously no recognizable theme to the post... I really hope Sanjaya goes home tonight. (American Idol.)

A weekend of fun and more.

I almost took a picture of the sunrise this morning... but didn't have the energy to stand up from the love sac, where I was lying with Sophia... as it was much earlier than I like to "stand up" at all. I could swear she JUST got over a cold, but now she's got a brand new barking cough. Why can't one cold just exempt them from the rest. Like, they've done their time, they should be able to be healthy for a while! So needless to say, she was up before the crack of dawn... now that dawn happens a little later I guess. 5:30 or so. Poopy diaper which is totally out of routine, and hacking cough. So we hung in the love sac and watched our friends, the Little Einsteins. I really did see a beautiful sunrise out the window a while later and think, "I should take a picture of that." Now I realize why it was extra pink, we have CLOUDS today! (Hence the seemingly unexciting picture.)

Blogging has connected me to lots of long distance friends I didn't keep in touch with before. This means we are all made aware of the different circumstances in which we live. Weather- being a big one. Some of us are cooped up in the winter hiding from snow and freezing temperatures and awaiting a blue skied, sunshiney day. Some of us, on the other hand, myself included, enjoy blue skied, shineshiney days all winter, and then SUFFER (no sarcasm involved here) through blue skies and sunshiney days in the summer. The sky never changes, but the temperatures do. This past weekend already broke 100. The sunshine is not so welcome when it zaps all energy and turns your and your daughter's face into a sweaty tomato. SO- my point with all of that? Today looks like it's going to be a cloudy day! At least part of it. And that is really, really good news. Good enough to make up for the 5:30 start to the day.

So the weekend was an especially fun one. We had our friends Lindsay and Wes from Vegas come down and stay with us for the Pacific Life Open Tennis Tournament. Lindsay and I were in the same major at BYU and worked in the same group in our big capstone class and so spent quite a bit of time together. Luckily she was one that made working into the wee hours of the night fun. Good company. So of course we love that they only live a few hours away (that's right, there's a short cut to Vegas from here that's just over 3 hours.) They're pregnant with their first right now, and just found out (with 90% assurity) that it's a BOY! It was fun to see her with her barely there bump. Congrats Linds and Wes!

I am ashamed of both of us since we each have blogs and neither of us managed to take a picture together. Lindsay put a super cute one of Sophia on her blog, and all I really got was one of Sophia playing football with Wes. It will have to do, just so I can prove they were really here.

18 month shots today. Yuck. We'll see if they still want to do them even though she's getting sick. I HATE shots and feel the WORST empathy watching my little girl get pricked. Yuck. Did I already say that? Yuck.

Goin' swimmin'

The best swim suit shot I got. I thought the scowl was cute--

not by the pool but you can imagine.

Revealing the New Year's Projects

New Years Projects we wrote down at the start of this year: (different then our resolutions.... these are the things we can actually be done with. If only losing weight and reading scriptures more often worked like that. Accomplished projects are bolded.)

-Paint cabinets white
-Finish painting bathroom (it's been sporting blue tape for months now, since one quart didn't cut it.)
- Paint bathroom cabinets white
-Organize hall closet
-Organize end-of-hall closet
-Organize guest closet
-Organize Sophia's closet
- " Master closet
- " Garage
- " Tupperware cupboard (got the cheap set from walmart where all the lids match and it comes with a little case. It's ABOUT time.)
- Organize Pantry
- dejunk bedroom drawers
- create play space for Sophia
- Finish painting baseboards (another unfinished project from.... 2 years ago now!)
- Collect at least 6 months worth of food storage
- Finish wood floor transition pieces (of course another very old unfinished project)
- Finish and order digital photo album for 2006

Boring post- but thought it might motivate me even more to finish the list.

My friend Lizzie's heating her new pool today (since it's 88 outside- hot sun, still a cold pool) ... so Sophia and I are going to put ourselves, winter chub and all, into a couple of swim suits! Woohoo! I hate heat with no water, but I do LOVE the smell of chlorine, the cool water in the hot sun, and that tight feel of sun-kissed skin on a warm day. I can feel it now.

A kid-filled weekend!

(Why is this picture arranging so hard... is there something I don't know?)

So it’s the first day back to normal life. As illustrated in the pictures, we’ve had my niece and nephew staying with us since Friday, (SUPER sweet kids) so our days were a little more fun-filled than normal. My brother, Ryon and his wife, Jeanette, the ones that live in Phoenix and have six kids, took a little trip to Mexico for a long weekend. Their oldest, 10 year old Savannah, and their youngest, 18 month old Ryon stayed with us. Unfortunately, the weather decided to jump up to the high 90’s on this particular weekend; one in which we were really counting on the outdoors to help us in the entertainment department. This would explain the incredibly rosy cheeked pictures (especially my daughter since she is… MY daughter- for any of you who have seen me in an embarrassing moment, on a hot day, a really cold day, surprised, angry…really anything but relaxed in the low 70’s… I turn bright red.)

Saturday we played and Ross set up Sophia’s new trike (see picture of little Ryon riding it) and tried to start the daunting task of organizing our garage. Sunday we struggled through church (ok well only through part of it, both babies had runny noses which means no nursery—screamed through Sacrament due to lack-o-nap, so Ross took them home and Savannah and I stayed so I could teach my lesson.) Monday our friends John and Marnie (she's 5 months along and expecting a BOY!!!) brought us dinner (SO sweet… I promise someday I’ll be able to handle three children AND cooking dinner, but I was happy to accept it). We all ate outside (see pictures with lots of bodies outside), played soccer and football and enjoyed the benefits of daylight savings- and the ONLY time of day when my backyard has shade. That was a fun night.
So they took off this morning and of course we have a normal day of errands planned as running around town with 3 very bored children did not sound like something I wanted to be responsible for. So we did our little morning run (it must have already been 90 out there at 9:30 am.) And on the agenda is shopping for some new, bigger tees for Sophia (see picture with chasing Daddy and protruding belly), some new wall shelves for Sophia’s books in her toy corner (eventually really want to copy my friend Missy who decorated a whole perfect play nook for her daughter- check it out), and the regular: some groceries.

Oh and one last thing... Ryon and Jeanette brought back from San Diego "the black table"! The one from my sister-in-law, Kim that I was so excited to refresh my dining room with. So we might be dropping by the model home to see how they did the dining room. Mine has never been right and with the new table... I'm hoping to get it there. Before and after's...I'm sure... to come. Sorry for the picture overload. Consider it a collage of the weekend.

Loungin'

Just more of the girl.

Yeah so I don't know what the deal is with the little yoga pose... but she would walk around the backyard talking, then stop and do the triangle pose... then walk around and talk some more, triangle pose... etc... where do they get these things? So cute. Never can quite capture the cuteness in a picture, but still thought I'd share.

And pretty unrelated... here are a couple of videos from Sunday play with Daddy.
(First: as always, my voice is SO loud... I hope for your sake that you can tune it out.)

What happens after you spin a little girl incessently in the air? (No don't worry, no sign of sickness... just dizziness.)



And maybe that makes her a little crazy?

My little girl's growing up so fast!

Seriously-- what happened to my baby? She's sittin' there on the kitchen counter with her legs all long and lean- lookin' so big, reading a magazine! (she really does flip the pages and babble like she's reading a story), eating her dark greens which plenty of grown-ups don't even like to do (she loves broccoli), and clipping her toe nails (I made them baby safe before she went at her tiny toe-tips.) She just seems like such a big girl these days and it really feels like it happened over night. She turned 18 months this week. Here are some Sophia-lights (highlights).

-Current favorite foods: cucumber, broccoli, kidney beans, tomatoes, grapes, avocado, chicken nuggets, pizza, eggs, oatmeal, berries (straw/black/ras/blue- she doesn't discriminate), yogurt w/ cottage cheese, toast, apples, clementines (only a good sweet batch- she's picky), pirates booty, ... and of course, she is her mother's daughter... icecream. We try to only pull it out after bed time. But sometimes, on a particularly long afternoon... who could blame me?

-Vices: 1. Binky, 2. fan, 3. TV (ahhh- Like all of us, I swore I'd never be a TV mom. Any suggestions?)

-Words: "Woah", "Wow", "mama", "daddy", "ball" (only a couple of times so far, sounds more like "bow"), "dog" (also sounds like "bow"-- don't know), "Jesus" (occasionally only after we've pointed at His picture and are walking away at her insistence, then she points back and says Cheesa), "uh-oh" (all day long), "no" (it comes out more like "mo"), "hi-ya!" (every time we go to the gym she takes out her vice #1 to say it to the front-desk girl), "amen" (only when we're really lucky and it's actually pretty spot on), "plane?" (Maybe. She points up every time one goes over and utters some syllable- probably sounds like "bow"... we'll call it plane).

-Super cute habits: 1. Every night after her bath she runs naked straight to the love sac, while patting her knees like the Little Einsteins (proof of vice #3), then rolls around in it like the happiest little naked baby in the world. 2. She stands (yes it's terrifying) on the arm of the couch and counts (in her own language, but in a melody that sounds like our counting) to three and then jumps into the love sac laughing whole heartedly time and time and time again. 3. She puts her finger to her lip a little like Austin Powers (no we did NOT teach her that) and says Hmmmmm babble babble babble, hmmmmm..... babble babble etc.... very cute. What is she saying?

-Loves: climbing, climbing, climbing, eating, jumping off of things, reading, singing, giving kisses, piggy back rides, playing in the dirt, being chased, baths, and high daddy-tosses in the air.

She is my toddler. A year and a half. Holy smokes...she's cool.

Pop out test.

How come they pop out sometimes... and not others? This one's a test... and yes, I played musical centerpiece for the sake of the picture.

A weekend's work

Yup, we really did it. We painted our cabinets. Our friend Denae (she's on my links) blogged back in November about redoing hers, black island and all, and we loved it. Granted she did it the right way-- with the sander, the sprayer, and the professionals. We just primed and painted. Scary, and totally faux pas (sp?) I'm sure. We were a little terrified as we watched the brush strokes form and realized there was no going back, but frankly, as you can see from the before picture, we had nothing to lose. The standard cabinets they put in these houses aren't only a bummer stain, they're not even real wood, so we couldn't even sand them if we wanted to. I figured even if up close you could totally tell they were painted, brush strokes and all, it would still improve my mood every morning to come out to such a fresh palette of colors in my kitchen. So we love it. There's just one problem.

When I went to get my white paint, I had it in my head that all I needed was a can of pure, sitting-on-the-shelf, ready-to-be-purchased, white paint. It didn't help that I had Sophia on her 3rd errand in the afternoon, with a newly diagnosed ear infection, squirming and fussing on my hip... so I figured I didn't exactly have the luxury of being picky. After finishing the paint job, we looked through a Pottery Barn catalog to see where to place the hardware. We were then confronted with many a beautiful kitchen or bathroom with a much creamier set of white cabinets. Hmmm. I didn't say anything at first for fear that Ross would laugh (or worse) at the idea of fixing our JUST labor-intensively fixed cabinets.... but last night it all came out.

He's on board. Who'd have thought my husband would want the creamy Pottery Barn cabinets at the expense of another night of slave labor in the kitchen too!? Yay! So until we have the "after" after pictures, here are the before and after pictures (backwards for the blog's aesthetics).... with one thrown in of Ross in action.

Love Lost

(A few old moments that have nothing to do with my post.)

I love Lost, I really do. But I don't know how long I can handle having tiny snippets of information when there is still SO much to be revealed. I can't help but constantly remember that it is a show and they want it to run forever, which it won't do once they really answer our questions. Kate and Sawyer had Carl long enough to drill him. They could have finally gotten a clear picture of what the $#@@ is going on in this Bermuda (Dharma) Triangle. In ALL reality they would have. And all they really got was a visual of a backyard?! That sparks about a hundred other questions in my mind. So I get it, the writers have no motivation to give us real understanding, just tiny revelations mixed with a lot more questions, or the show wouldn't continue to entertain us for as long. I respect that, as it does entertain me... but I'm always kind of mad at the end too. Just ready for some bigger "Ahaa" moments you know? I've decided this is why I love 24 (although I'm nervous this season isn't going to be as good as previous ones.) It's full of suspense and anticipation but you are constantly reaching little Ahaa moments... with the confidence that the whole picture will essentially be revealed within a few short months. And then an entirely new predicament will start the excitement again next year. Just less of the frustration for me I guess.

Ross, on the other hand has no qualms with Lost. We have discovered in our near four years of marriage that this illustrates one of our fundamental differences. I may have mentioned it before.

*Ross is ALL about the delayed gratification.

*I am not.

I'm embarrassed to admit that, as mine isn't exactly an admirable trait...pretty much screams little child and lack of self control. You know that study they do on children where they give them like five M&Ms and tell them that if they don't eat them, they'll be given a whole bag later? (For anyone who actually knows what I'm talking about, I'm filling in the many gaps in my memory with my own ideas.) Well what do most of the children do? They eat the M&Ms. The five. With almost no memory of the bag that was promised them. Instinctive right? A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush. I would most definitely be one of those children with a ring of chocolate around the mouth. Huh?

Ross on the other hand would be the little boy sitting quietly, arms folded, in front of five untouched M&Ms. He would also be the boy that after receiving his reward of a whole bag, would share it with the rest of the kids... but I guess that illustrates a whole other trait. Anyway, therein lies the difference that allowed him to disperse his Halloween candy throughout the YEAR while my chocolate was gone before I was done trick-or-treating... and the nasty sugary stuff a day later. It still allows him to wait for his dinner to settle before dessert, while I am unable to relax at night until I've snuggled with my ice-cream mug. It is the reason I am always thinking NOW is the time to buy another house while he can actually use logic, finances, and market research to make a grown up decision. And of course, it is what allows him to sit perfectly content in front of Lost, while I watch, brows furrowed, mouth open, ready to complain while we fast-forward the commercials. Oh thank goodness we are different.

Hooray Lacy!

She started a blog. She's finally part of the club. I wish I could take credit, but it was probably her husband, Joe who has kept his blog, Spanish Phrase of the Day, for at least a couple of years (right Joe?) who really convinced her to start one of her own (and maybe Becky starting one... Missy and Sarah we almost had her.) I mostly just want a way to see my PRECIOUS nephew more often since Lacy is, as her blog illustrates, "exiled in Florida." Her first post has three of the cutest videos of this little Joseph III. He is his father's son: A performer, so vocal, so funny. Check it out.

The Office- or some of it

So I never got the pictures I wanted. I realized on Valentines Day when I stopped in Ross's office that I happened to have my camera in my purse (does that make me a true blogger or what?) It was already set in sepia, I snapped a couple, and then the dreaded "out of power." It closed itself and that was all I got. No color, no diploma wall, no room span. But I decided to post them anyway. At least it gives you an idea, for all who were holding their breath for the highly anticipated office photos.

On another note- what is going on with my little animal? She has decided to go from a 7:30 wake up time to 6:30 on Monday, 6:00 Tuesday, and yes... 5:30 today. Lucky for me my sweet husband knows how much I value my bed in the morning and has been the first this week to jump up and get her. But I'm just not the same when the day starts out dark. It's not my thing. I know early mornings breed successful people, but I am a night owl... through and through.

We're having the missionaries for dinner tonight and one is brand new so the other one asked us to have a green meal for the greeny. On the menu-- tortilla soup (greenish from the green enchilada sauce), cornbread (I'm very apprehensively planning on adding green food coloring), green salad of course, and cup cakes with green frosting... because I wanted something I could frost green. Kind of a gross idea but at least it's green. It could be a lot worse, an all white meal? Yuck.

That's all I got.

A Trip to the Fair

So we really did it. This weekend, we went to the Indio Date Festival... also known as the Riverside County Fair. Growing up in San Diego, it was tradition to visit the Del Mar Fair during its festivities each year. We've lived here for almost four years now, right next door to our own local fair grounds and every year we say we'll go, and every year it passes, unseen by the Biesingers.

...I don't really think we'll be doing it again. We decided it WAS, just this once, worth the weaving in and out of the carni crowd, the many full figured,latin upper-bums hanging out of low rise jeans, the screaming children that made us fear a trip to the fair turned cute kids into fair freaks, the stench of greasy food mixed with stinky animal, and stinky animal waste...etc.... but just this once. It was worth it to see our fearless daughter try to climb over the little gate at the petting zoo to be one with the sheep, to reach for their faces (which I'm afraid to do) and giggle when they nibbled on the hem of her dress. It was worth it for that, the sunshine, and the funnel cake. That's all. Hence the pictures. (Missy, really glad we didn't put you guys through it, though I would have loved a picture of Sophia and little Aves petting the goat.)

Speaking of pictures. I've decided I might be a little picture happy. So this is my disclaimer. I used to enjoy scrapbooking until Missy got me into the world of blogging. I still like scrapbooking, but the mess is enough to turn me away for a few months. Now, the way I make this a nearly guilt-free hobby, is by classifying it as my digital journal/scrapbook/genealogy. I know the last one is a stretch. :) But I HAVE to include tons of pictures. Where else are they all going to go? So I hope I don't scare anyone away with too many big cheesy Biesinger smiles. But since I called this a disclaimer, pop them out at your own risk.

(Ross told me not to put any in with his Grocery Store sunglasses but I did anyway... he's too handsome.)

So excited

This is a pole on a big backyard-tent my parents purchased for Kirks '50th-Birthday-Party-1-year-late.' Sophia got a big kick out of snapping the string... I only caught one good snap, but she did it over and over again, each time with that wonderful squeal of delight, an attempt to explain her new game (she would rattle off some energetic fake words), and a full-body shake from all the excitement. The clip doesn't do it justice, but it's pretty cute... and yes, I think my mom says "shiver me timbers."

Blah

So I'm having one of those weeks. The kind that you can't really blog about (because too much complaining cannot be good for the readership ;)) but you're so consumed with said complaints that you end up with nothing left on your mind to blog about. Hmmm. So I think I'll post a few memories. Some happy, happy memories.

These are the lovely lilies Ross got me for Valentines Day. Since we were leaving the next day-- I worried they would die all alone, but came home Monday surprised to see them thriving. One dead and two freshly bloomed. Lovely lilies.

Yup this is Sophia at two months. Could she have been any chunkier? I miss all those rolls- what with her being so skinny now. (In case you can't tell in past pictures... that was written in sarcasm, as she is still deliciously squishy.)

Two pictures from last summer's Hawaii vacation which brings to mind two happy memories: our Hawaii vacation of course (I'm feeling in need of another this week), and BYU Hawaii... where I went for one semester, wish I stayed longer, and met my sweet friend Michelle. It's also where my Grandpa was principal (when it was CCH), and where my mom and dad met.

Here's a picture of Ross and his friends on their ski/snowmobiling mancation. A happy happy memory of mine? ... yeah not really, I'm not going to lie, I'll never love being separated for a long weekend. But it does make me happy that he's such a boy and LOVES any chance to try some new exhausting physical activity. And of course I'm happy that he had fun. (He's the big guy in the middle. I know, they all look the same in those silly hats.)

That's all I got. And he's home now, sick as a dog, planned on coming home early but got too busy and just rolled in at 6:40. Bummer.