I have put together a little quiz for your enjoyment. Or perhaps for your frustration! Do, please enjoy. http://www.testriffic.com/friendtest/2942313

Emma's birfyday cate!

As embarassed as I am to admit this, here goes: We celebrated Emma's birthday yesterday. And if you don't know why I'm embarassed to admit that, I sure ain't gonna tell ya! This post will have lots of pictures so indulge me. Perhaps some of you like the pictures better than the silly stories. If so - this one's for you!

This is the birthday cake I made for Emma. I made a two layer white cake with my Grandma's homemade current jelly sandwiched between the layers, covered in orange cream cheese frosting (tinted pink) and silk flowers. Sheesh, that sounds like a wedding cake description! I was rather pleased with the final result - and it didn't taste half bad either!

I think Emma liked it too.

It was much less messy than last year! For comparison:

Emma enjoyed helping Daddy blow the balloons up.

And Daniel enjoyed playing with them!

This wooden birthday cake was her gift from my dad. It came with a server, a knife, a platter, eight colored wooden candles and there are spots for a candle on each piece. Emma LOVES it. Hopefully within the year I will be able to save up enough to get Emma and Daniel a wooden play kitchen with all the necessary amenities.

If you look in the background of this picture you will see the wooden sewing machine she got. Now while I am sewing she can use her own instead of constantly changing the stitch length and tension on mine!

Unfortunately she will have to grow a bit more to be able to use the wooden trike she got. Right now she loves having her Daddy push her around on it.

From the fridge!

Statue of Mary feeding Jesus

Argentina, In front of a local Catholic curch
Picture taken by my brother who is currently traveling South and Central America

Yesterday I was leafing through a pamphlet I got about 2 year olds and their eating habits. It was mostly mindless drivle. One of the sections that I glanced at suggested that 2 year old are now ready to learn where food comes from. It used the examples of apples coming from trees and milk coming from a cow. Since Emma gets more milk from me than from a cow, I decided to ask her where milk came from. In a common sense, matter-of-fact tone that only a 2-year old can manage so well Emma informed me that milk came "from the fridge", silly! I nearly fell over laughing as this was definately not the reaponse I was expecting. Tuan then asked her where "mommy-milk" came from and she pointed and explained "from a nipple".

oh, tap!

Can you guess what I say perhaps too often?

Madonna and Child

Museo Diocesano

11th century

I was reading a friends blog (hallo, Carolyn!) and got tagged with this. Enjoy!

A to Z: All About Me

Available or not: Nope - 4 years in May
Best friend: Tuan
Cake or pie: cake - until I learn to make a good pie. Then it will be both!
Drink of choice: Water
Essential items used daily: pump, computer, toothbrush
Favorite color: pretty ones
Gummy bears or worms: sour gummy worms
Hometown: Ponca City, Oklahoma
Indulgence: homemade white flour pancakes with blueberries or chocolate chips if I'm extra naughty. :o}
January or February: February - My daughter's birth month
Kids and names: Emma (2) and Daniel (4 mos)
Life is incomplete without: My family
Marriage date: May 27, 2003
Number of siblings: 10 - Allen, Eric, Theresa, Brian, Cindy, Kevin, Dale, Sarah, Glen and Me!
Oranges or apples: Juicy oranges and slightly wrinkly apples
Phobias or fears: being left alone
Quote (favorite): Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. Voltaire Research your parenting choices!
Reason to smile: Seeing both of my children asleep next to each other. Or on different beds. Heck - just seeing them both asleep is a reason to smile!
Season: Fall - I love the colors
Tag 3 people: You, you and you!
Unknown fact about me: Baking helps me to feel better. At one point our freezer contained 4 doz cookies, 1 doz cinamon rolls, 2 loafs of bread and 2 doz muffins!
Vegetables you don't like: cauliflower
Worst habit: yelling
X-rays: airport security? ;o)
Your favorite food: anything my father-in-law makes
Zodiac sign: Virgo

diptures and pears

Study of Madonna Nursing and Profile Heads
LEONARDO da Vinci
c. 1480

Are you curious? You must read the entire post to find out what this title means. Or, I suppose you could just scroll down - shame on you! ;o)

Yesterday I made significant progress in losing weight. I hadn't planned on the extra exercise I got in, but hey, I'll take it where I can get it. I suppose I should include some background information.

"Hello, my name is Maria and I am a lock-my-keys-in-my-keys-in-the-car-aholic."

I do this quite often and always swear never to let it happen again. I am particularly bad when pregnant. Last year I locked the keys in the car 3 times in one week prompting me to pee on a stick. It was positive! (don't get your hopes up - I have already checked - negative!) So yesterday Emma and I head out to the craft store to pick up a few things for her b-day presents. I stick my keys in my bag and then get her out of her seat. As I turn around and close the door, I realize that I cannot hear my keys jangling. I walk around the car and see my keys winking up at me from their comfy spot on the driver's seat. "Hi! Have fun getting back in without us!" Well, nothing could keep me from the craft store so we went on in, shopped and when we were done we headed back home via foot. It's not super far - probably only about 2 miles. But I was kicking myself all the way home (I'm very talented!) for not having my mei-tei with me. But Emma was really great about it all and promptly nursed to sleep once we were home. The hard part was finding someone who could give me a ride back to the store! Perhaps this latest escapade will finally kick my rear into gear to get the spare key installed on the outside of our vehicle. Maybe. Possibly. Next time I think about it. When I'm waking home again?

Every night after Emma's bath we sit on our bed and read in the scriptures. Then we say a family prayer and Emma nurses to sleep. Every night Emma comes out of the bathroom and announces to me that it's time for "diptures and pears". It just doesn't get any cuter than that!