Christmas 2009

Maddie quite enjoyed Christmas this year, and we loved it because of her. She woke at 5:30 am, not out of excitement to open her presents, just to wake up. Nana (my mom) got her a cute table and chairs that we put together the night before, and she loved it. She wasn't as enthused about opening presents as we had hoped, but she did get excited after we opened them for her. Her favorite by far was her Super Why dvd. She carried it around all morning and would set it down to open a present, look at the new present, then pick up her Super Why again. She also loved her nesting dolls, her plastic frogs, her Mr. Potato head from Aunt Kristi and Uncle Rich, her rocking chair from Grandpa and her games (Legos and Hungry Hippos) from Grandma and Grandpa.
I think her favorite part of the day was getting to play at cousin Nikolas' house for a couple of hours. She LOVES him, and he tolerates her as she tries to play with all his new toys.
It was a fun Christmas, oh did I mention Casey got me pearls? He is such a cheater and went over our budget of $50 for eachother. I did too, but maybe $20 over. I forgive him though; I love my present and his thoughtfulness.
I am excited for my life to go on as normal now. I used the excuse of having a messy house because I had to use all my time finishing Christmas projects, so now on to keeping it real, one dish at a time.

Happy Christmas Eve

Casa de ginger-pan

El hombre de nieve tiene un sombrero y moustache es muy guapo. Los pez son muy colores. La puerta es abierto. Me gusta mi casa de ginger-pan.

Two years of high school Spanish, two semesters of college Spanish. My teachers would be so proud.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all. I'm grateful for this time of year to remember my Savior, to see people full of Christmas cheer, to spend time with my family making cookies, for Christmas lights, hot cocoa and toast, finding a gift you know will be loved, making Raheem wear a Christmas bell, singing Christmas songs in church and all the fabulous Christmas movies on TV. I wish you all happiness and peace. Love, the Lewis'.

Christmas Cookies

We had a baking-filled day of cookies in the Lewis home. Maddie loves to "help", mostly by just sitting on the stove and playing with all the spices. I loved wrapping on an apron, cranking up some 99.9 and spending the day in the kitchen with my two favorite people. We made three kinds of cookies, one kind was gingerbread people. I laid out the cookies, frosting and plastic bags for Casey and Maddie to decorate our cookie people while I started another batch. Maddie just licked the frosting while Casey was hunched over in steady concentration. Half an hour passed and I found a table filled with decorated cookies, one of which was an anatomically correct gingerbread man made especially for me. My husband giggled like a 12 year old boy. I gathered our cookies onto plates to make some walking deliveries. Later that evening Casey asked where my special cookie was. Neither of us had eaten it. I suddenly had a mini panic attack as I pictured one of our unsuspecting neighbors staring perplexed at the aroused gingerbread man. Then I thought it through and remembered that the man was left on the edge of the kitchen table, and Raheem was left unattended for quite some time, so my mind is comforted by the fact that he was probably eaten by our fat dog. (I apologize if this is not the case. I blame my husband).

Tempe Marketplace. My battery died before the snow came :( I was so hoping to get a cute picture for our Christmas cards, but I only got a few in before the battery was gone. I'm gonna have to cram a photo session in our busy day tomorrow. Happy Hannukah!

Friends

As most of you know, I'm not a "Hi, my name is Jessie," type of person. I'm horribly awkward and uncomfortable talking about myself, and am quite certain that most things I say bore strangers to delirium. It takes a long time before I can open up and be an enjoyable and fun person. Really, I can be fun. That being said, I am so grateful to have friends I feel comfortable around. It's hard not having a house full of girls you can grow close to and share every happening of your life with.


These girls are my friends. We sew together, play bunko together, go to church together and entertain our kids together. They are all so talented and fun and just wonderful people. I'm so grateful to have them as my friends. Thanks girls.

Jenna Jameson took cute pics of us for our sewing blog. I would have posted more, but blogger was being lame and kept saying bad report, or something negative.

November News

November's been a busy month, and we still have Thanksgiving left. Our little sewing group decided to have a booth at the Zootique (boutique at the zoo). I made about 20 baby booties, a few onesies and some wall art. I sold zero items. Lucky for me I always follow my life motto, "Keep your hopes low and you'll never be disappointed." It was a good experience though, and fun to spend the day at the zoo with friends. But if you're interested, we're selling the items on our etsy site.

I also attended the New Moon midnight showing, preceded by a themed party. It was such a fun, but long night. We started with delicious dinner set on a beautifully decorated table, New Moon trivia game, crafting our own hair flowers to debut at the debut then the wait in line for the movie. Unfortunately our early-bought tickets and hours of waiting didn't equal great seats. We were on the second row. I quite enjoyed the movie, and although Jacob looks quite nice with his shirt off, I'm still with Ed. I guess I'm more of a romantic rather than someone who roots for the more level headed choice.

In more exciting news, Maddie is now discovering all of her athletic capabilities, which include walking backwards, spinning and jumping (feet have yet to leave the floor). This video shows off her skillz.

Halloween

Where did October go? Geez. We took little Miss Maddie to the pumpkin patch, mostly to take cute pics of her. She absolutely loved the mini patch where kids got to choose a little pumpkin to decorate. She picked up most every pumpkin and then brought them to us. Aren't her boots the cutest?
Halloween wasn't quite as blissful, as seen in exhibit D. After four attempts, I gave up trying to get the kid to nap. To add to the fun, she's growing up some molars. We probably would've skipped Halloween if we didn't have to work booths at the block party. We begrudgingly got dressed, without smiles, and walked to the block party in silence where we both did our duties then left without even a stroll to check out the other booths. We then made the cordial visits to family to show off our little clown, came home and put Maddie to bed at 7:30, ordered pizza and enjoyed the rest of the night watching Drag Me Down To Hell. Next year will be the Halloween I love so much.

Done Babysitting, Now What?

Smelly house. Sewing machine and "crafty" crap all over the kitchen table. Casey's trunk emptied onto our floor (he sold his car!). Mail from all week all over the counter. Jessie posting a blog with intentions of sewing rather than cleaning when finished.

P.S. Maddie just starting having conversations on the phone. Apparently she overwhelmingly agrees with whoever she is talking with.

Lewis Family Update

Casey: Still working with Farmer's Insurance and loving every second of selling policies and dealing with his always polite customers. We've decided that his 95 Honda Civic is coming to a slow and painful death. I almost lost my life (not really) when the brakes went out as I was cruising down Alma School. I had to swerve into the Mcdonald's parking lot going about 30 to avoid the cars coming to a stop at the light. The cost was about $850 for the brakes, which we decided against. It also makes pleasant noises. So we're going to sell the car and Casey is getting a nice little scooter, most likely tomorrow.

Jessie: Still doing the babysitting. Mondays is baby Eva and the rest of the week is baby Chase, oh and of course Maddie insists on coming along each day. She has gotten loads better about accepting the fact that I do have to hold and feed these babies. It's far less stressful not having a screaming child at my feet. I've also started boot camp with some friends. It's been on a week, then I was gone a week, then on a week, then the instructor took off a week, so I'm excited to have consecutive weeks of me getting worked to complete soreness.


Maddie: Is such a goober, as we always say to her. She is constantly on the move, she hates eating healthy food and any food in her highchair, she dances almost always when music comes on (even to my harmonica playing), she's fully enjoying having a dog to chase around, I found my first object in the toilet and several in the trash can, she loves Nemo but our disk is scratched so she will never know the ending, she does so well at knowing her animals and what they say, she's fascinated by letters and numbers, she inherited her dad's love of candy corns, she loves being outside, she had her first bike ride in her new carseat and didn't even cry when we put the helmet on her. She's such a fun baby and we are always laughing at her silliness.

Raheem: is chubby and lazy, except when newcomers stop by for a visit then he is a maniac. His sole purpose in life is obtaining food. He tolerates Maddie's playfulness and is ecstatic when I take him for rides in the car.

i <3 mesa

i heart mesa is offering a photo session giveaway here. It's a great blog for all you Mesa dwellers that gives fun activities going on. Tonight Casey and I and our friends headed to Second Friday on Main Street. The weather is beautiful and strolling with friends made for a perfect evening out.

Bang Bang Raheem's Dead

You may want to tap that volume down just a tad; I get a little screechy near the end.

Vegas with the Rodriguez's

The past week was spent with my family in Vegas. Lucas had a convention for homicide stuff (much needed in SJ lately), so they brought Maddie and me along to watch Mercedes. We ate a lot, like gained 5 pounds a lot. We swam, walked the strip, visited some of the casino attractions, lost $5 to slots (not my life-changing winning I was expecting) and just hung out in the hotel. It was nice to not have any house or dinner obligations to tend to while Maddie napped, so I finished my first Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility. Love that Colonel Brandon.

I missed my husband tremendously and was very happy to get home to him after too much driving. I was also very pleased with the weather when I arrived home and continue to be pleased.

Playing in the hot tub.
Four queens standing infront of the 4Queens.
Fremont Street.

Maddie's first glimpse of Vegas lights.

September 11th, 2009

Tempe Town Lake does a memorial every year and they set up nearly 3,000 flags to represent those who died in the 9/11 attacks. On each flag was a paper with the person's name and age and a few sentences about him. It made me realize even more just how devastating that day really was. There was also a candle light vigil, but our little one didn't allow us to stay.

Peekaboo Maddie Moo

This is Maddie's favorite peek-a-boo place in the house. She pokes her little head inside then I poke my head in and say, "Peek-a-boo!" Guaranteed laugh fest every time. She has recently started climbing all the way in and comes out with all kinds of goodies (see below pic).




"Mother, I'm famished. Please get going on dinner ASAP."

Sunday Dinner

My husband has a serious problem, and so do I apparently. He somehow convinced me it was a good idea to have chocolate chip cookies and caramel popcorn for Sunday dinner. Okay, so by convince I mean suggest. But really, I've never met anyone with a bigger sweet tooth than this guy. He paces the floor if we don't have sweets in the house, and he can eat the biggest dinner and 10 minutes later go to the cupboards. "Are you still hungry Case?" "No, I'm just craving sweets now." More power to him if he can keep a slender figure and down a bag of candy in one sitting.

Go here to participate in a fun craft supply exchange. I'm excited.

Books.

Her love of books makes me very happy. I'm so excited for the day that she'll actually let me read books to her rather than her just turn the pages rapidly. Her library is growing, even though most of the books are easily torn paper pages, for which she isn't quite ready. My Harry Potter books are waiting on the shelf; ready for a mother daughter adventure.

Wednesday is a day of doom. I'm leaving to Girls Camp as a youth leader for my church. No, that's not the doom. Maddie isn't coming with me. My mom has offered her services as babysitter for four days. My anxiety is caused by two factors. 1: This will be my first time away from Maddie. 2: This will be the end of my nursing with Maddie. The past week has been really hard because every time I nurse her I get all weepy and motherly and hate the fact that she's growing up and growing more independent. Geez I'm crying as I type. Casey has been putting her to bed a few nights a week just to make sure she will do okay with my mom. I hate it. I know it's selfish, but I just want to cherish every last opportunity with her. I know, I know, I need to let go at some point, she is 14 months; a very normal age to be weaned. Months ago I was so excited to get the kid off the boob, especially those dang teeth. Seriously, who knew such pain? Maybe that's how guys feel when they get knocked down below.

So wish me luck, wish my mom luck and wish Maddie luck. I just know she will hate me when she returns, and I won't even be able to give her the comfort she wants. Gosh being a mom is hard sometimes.

In My Defense...

...it looks a lot better when it's dry. The bottom half of her hair curls really tight, so it loses the mullet affect. Poor girl. Her dad now refers to her as Dude, and I'm pretty sure she knows something's up because she keeps scratching the top of her head. In other words, no more home haircuts by Mom.

BEFORE

AFTER

We are back from our week long journey to Utah. Casey had is Mecham Family Reunion in Altamont, Utah. We stayed in a huge lodge, which still wasn't enough to hold the 170 members that attended. There was four-wheeling, rock climbing, volleyball, lawn games, mountain bikes, swimming, hiking and of course good food. Maddie was a trooper on the long drive, but once we arrived she decided she was done with the sleeping business. Poor girl only got about 45 minutes of napping in a day, and the nights were a beast. We shared a room with Casey's parents, and his dad is not the quietest sleeper by any means.

We spent a few days in Saratoga Springs with a good friend I went to school with. Jodi and Mike and Kayhlen. We went to Wheeler Farm, toured around Salt Lake, went to Gardener Village (sewing friends, there is the CUTEST fabric store there; Pine Needles; expensive but soooo cute), had a bbq with friends from SVU and just enjoyed being together as a family. We loved our time in Utah, but we are so grateful to be in our own bed and especially to have Maddie back in her own crib.

Glad Ware and Thomas the Train

The classic toddler destination: kitchen cabinets and drawers. Maddie has discovered my newest switch-a-roo. The cleaning products have magically disappeared, and in their place...non-toxic tupper ware. She loves hanging out in the kitchen with me while I cook. Tonight I was making ginger snaps for my sickly husband and was relishing the fact that she was cleaning out the cupboards. Yes I said relishing. I'm not always fond of the countless messes she makes each day, but for some reason, the kitchen mess is welcomed. I love to watch her crawl inside trying to reach that furthest Glad Ware Container, and when she finally reaches it, she instantly throws it over her shoulder as if in disgust. I love when she finds her Thomas the Train dinnerware and sits and stares down at it repeating, "Bah, bah." It's her universal word of recognition. I think the kitchen drawers being emptied and the tupper ware strewn across the floor somehow makes me feel more motherly, and that's a feeling I adore, being a mother.

Happy Independance Day From the Lewis's!

Blimey Limey

Like what you see below? Go here to find out how these can be yours!
My wonderful friends are offering these cute aprons as an "All Things Lime" giveaway. I'm excited to try out the lime cupcakes. I've had Christie's lemon cupcakes, and they were delish to say the least.