Dancing queen....

Here is a video of our princess dancing on the bed.... she has been out of town since Wednesday (In Chicago with her grandparents...) so I thought this would be a cute thing to post---T and I laugh every single time we watch it at the end because of her pigtails. Enjoy! Hugs and Love <3

Dinger is a nice dinosaur!!

If you only knew how often Terry and I have the following conversation with Taya:

Taya: "Mommy (or Daddy) I wanna tell you dome-ting..."
Us: "What, Taya?"
Taya: "Dinger id a nice dina-daur....He hug SO much!"

For those of you who don't know, Dinger is the Colorado Rockies mascot. Taya got to meet him about a month or so ago when we took the 3 girls to a game. She has been absolutely enthralled with him ever since! She literally talks about him at *least* once a day. She got to have her picture taken with him and I guess he hugged her, too, since she talks about that all the time as well. Tonight she said "Mommy I go bye-bye to dee (see) Dinger!" It makes me sad because she gets SO upset when we tell her that he's "ni-night."

(Here's a small pic off the Colorado Rockies website of her beloved Dinger....)

Yummy chicken pasta recipe...

Here is one of my favorite recipes.... enjoy!

1/2 lb. (8 oz.) linguine, uncooked
2 pkg. (6 oz. each) Grilled Chicken Breast Strips (Like Oscar Myer or Tyson)
1/4 cup Italian Dressing
1 cup Shredded Parmesan Cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 clove garlic, minced

COOK pasta in large saucepan as directed on package; drain. Return to pan.
ADD remaining ingredients; toss lightly.

I serve it with a mixed green salad and french bread. It's SO easy and makes awesome leftovers.

Taya's first tea

This afternoon Taya, my dad, and I went to a bed and breakfast to have a tea party. We had special tea with flowers in the cup, iced tea, (taya had milk) 4 different kinds of little sandwiches, truffles, chocolate dipped strawberries, homemade gingerbread, and scones. Taya actually did pretty well! Well, better than I expected anyway ;) Here are some pics!



Forget the cup.... haha



Being a big girl and pouring it by herself! (Although she did spill twice....)


Trying to decide what to eat first...



She kept wanting me to be in a pic with her...


Love her happy face!



Playing with the "lipstick" chess set. (It really was made out of lipstick with jeweled cases)

Taya day!

Yay! Today I get to spend ALL day with my sweet Taya and I can't wait. I have been SO busy with work lately and have been feeling guilty that I haven't been spending enough time with her. (I have been spending every extra minute with her, but it's just not the same as it used to be...)

We don't have much planned, but at 4 we are going to tea with my dad (papa chuck) and one of his customers. Should be interesting to see how Taya handles tea and scones! I hope I remember to take my camera.... The pic above is one I took right after she woke up from her nap and I just love it---she looks so cuddley!

Tired....

The Parade of Homes WEARS me out, so instead of a regular blog today, I am posting this:

YOUR AGE BY EATING OUT

Don't tell me your age; you probably would tell a falsehood anyway-but your waiter may know! YOUR AGE BY DINER & RESTAURANT MATHThis is pretty neat.DON'T CHEAT BY SCROLLING DOWN FIRST!It takes less than a minute .

Work this out as you read ...Be sure you don't read the bottom until you've worked it out!This is not one of those waste of time things, it's fun.

1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you would like to go out to eat. (more than once but less than 10)

2. Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold)

3. Add 5

4. Multiply it by 50

5. If you have already had your birthday this year add 1757 .....If you haven't, add 1756.

6. Now subtract the four digit year that you were born.


You should have a three digit number The first digit of this was your original number (I.e., how! Many times you want to go out to restaurants in a week.)The next two numbers are YOUR AGE! (Oh YES, it is!!!!!)

THIS IS THE ONLY YEAR (2007) IT WILL EVER WORK, SO SPREAD IT AROUND WHILE IT LASTS

ENJOY YOUR WEEK!!! Kisses and loves <3

Parade of Homes....

This is the house I will be at from 10-6 today and tomorrow if anyone wants to come and visit :) Or even better, buy it! (For the record, I cannot stand the exterior color...)

Break your jaw...

Tonight we went to Target and T's oldest girls, Jitana and Jordyn, each got a "Jawbreaker." One of those HUUUUGE jawbreakers that can takes years to devour. (I remember keeping one in my desk when I was little, and finally breaking it with a hammer... patience is not one of my qualities!) Anyhow, I didn't even think to get Taya one, and most likely wouldn't have anyway because they are PURE sugar.... But that definitely didn't stop her from saying "my candy? my candy? my apple?" After she said "apple," I got a grand idea---a plum!! (Jitana had a green one and Jord had a red one and they were just about the size of a plum.) So, since I had put each of the girls' in ziplock bags, I put a plum in Taya's ziplock and away she licked... I can't believe I completely fooled her! and with something healthy! I felt proud.

Tomorrow it's back to the Parade of Homes, so I probably won't be posting much. It makes for a looonnnngg weekend!

All by herself!

This is what happens when Taya is home with her daddy and sneaks into her mommy's bathroom.... Terry went into my bathroom and asked her what she was doing, to which she replied "getting into mommy's stuff...." He told her she shouldn't be doing that or else she would get in trouble, and she said "Oh, yes!" haha I have no clue where she learned that.... Anyway, during her little adventure, she managed to paint her own toenails. And, if I do say so myself, she did a pretty darn good job. She stayed in my bathroom to do it and didn't even get any on the floor.

Banner

Just a quick shout out to Tiburon for making my "quixotic life" banner.... Thank you so much!

Mirror mirror on the wall....

Lately Taya's favorite thing to do has been to stand on her step stool (which appropriately states "Princess in Training") and make faces at herself in the mirror. I think it's so cute! She'll sing and dance and experiment with sticking her tongue out, squinting her eyes, etc. It cracks me up! She's such a little character.

I have been SO busy with work this lately that it feels like I don't even have a life. There wasn't a night last week that I got home before 9, and most nights it was even later than that. The Parade of Homes for Northern Colorado started this past Saturday, so there was definitely a lot to do to prepare for that. (Especially since we have 3 entries this year!) I love my job though, and hopefully it'll all pay off in the end :) Speaking of that... I'm writing another contract this week hopefully---yay!!! These people are so sweet and it makes me feel so happy to help people make such a huge decision. I'll definitely be updating on that :)

Let's see... not much else is new. We went and got Taya's halloween costume yesterday at the Childrens Place. This year she's going to be a leopard. I think it'll be perfect because she always likes to pretend to be a cat... I think she'll have SOOO much fun with Halloween this year! I also bought a couple of little halloween treats to send to my favorite god-daughter in the WHOLE world, Alwa. I need to get those sent asap so they make it across the ocean in time :)

Hopefully I'll have more time this week than last to blog! Oh also, T and I got a new bed set yesterday, so I'll take pics of that later to post. I suck at posting pics lately! XoX

Taya & the Terrible Two's....

A phenomenon also known as "TTT." We, as parents, have survived the first 2 months of "TTT" and feel fairly confident that we can make it through the remaining 10 months. "TTT" has been gentle thus far with only a few minor mishaps. For example, last night when I came home from work... The picture above illustrates the greeting I had. I simply asked "TTT" what was on her face, to which she replied "Mommy's make-up.....from Mommy's bathroom." Oh joy!! She was SO proud of herself, as I secretly cringed internally. "TTT" also displayed a lovely outfit that she not only picked out by herself, but also put on by herself. She wouldn't let me get a good picture of it, and to be honest, I'm still baffled at how it worked exactly.... She had on a long sleeved Dora pj shirt, a pair of pink pj shorts with both legs through one hole, pull up around her waist, and a pair of denim shorts slightly crooked. Quite the site if I do say so myself! And the saga continues....

Love her face...

Here's a pic of Taya that I just took before our walk.... The print on it means "thank you" in Japanese. My sister-in-law, who is from Japan, brought back the kimono she is wearing during her last trip home. I think she looks so cute in it! :) We had so much fun on our little walk with her pushing her baby.... she walked through water and then took her shoes off, so we had to cut it kind of short. I'll post pics in a little while....

You are still in the running...

towards becoming America's Next Top Model. Um, it's absolutely insane how many times I have heard Tyra Banks say those words over the past two weekends. "Why?" might you ask... The answer is simple: MTV hates me and doesn't want me to do anything other than watch ANTM rerun marathons. It's sickening! I cannot wait for a new season to come out :)

I changed the color of my hair last night and I'm loving it. It's basically dark dark purple....professional purple, that is! I will be posting a pic later today. Right now, Taya and I are on our way to take her baby for a walk :)

Trot like a Turkey!

This picture of Taya inspired me! (haha) I have decided to start training to run the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. It's only a 5k, but I'm definitely not a runner. I asked T to do it with me, but so far he doesn't seem too excited. He said he's more of a "sprinter" than a distance runner. I just felt like I wanted to get more toned, and having the goal of the 5k, should make that easier. I'm actually really excited even though I don't like running! Right now we're on our way to walk to my dad's house which is a little over 2 miles. I have been walking briskly for 2 miles every day, but I want to start running for 1 and slowly work myself up to running the full 3. Wish me luck! :)

GREAT Movie!

So last night we went to my mom's house to have some hamburgers and watch a movie. I really wanted to watch "Premonition" with Sandra Bullock, but my mom thought it looked "disturbing." SO, we decided to watch "Fracture" with Ryan Gossling and Anthony Hopkins, instead. What a GREAT movie! I really like both of those actors, and thought it was put together extremely well.

Right now we're watching the CU and CSU game....a sign that it's almost fall. I LOVE the fall. I love the cooler days and watching the leaves change. Most of all, I love fall-scented candles like pumpkin and apple.

We got some bad news yesterday that Terry's uncle was found dead. It was his dad's younger brother and he lived in Casper, WY. We don't know very many details, but when they found him, he had been dead for approximately 5 days. They won't be doing an autopsy to determine the cause of death due to the decay of the body. Terry hasn't seen him for 7 or 8 years, so I think he was just more shocked than anything.