A rose by any other name . . .

So I've been toying with the idea of changing my blog title and having pseudonyms for my kids because of internet safety blah, blah, blah. I was completely stumped on what to change their names to so Lance had the wonderful idea of asking them what they would have liked to have been called if we hadn't chosen their names for them.

Are you ready for this??

Indiana and Pablo (from Backyardigans).

I am 100% serious. You should have seen their faces. They thought these would have been the best names for them. Spencer did give a little and said I could call him Indy. Ella wouldn't budge. I then tried to explain the reason for new names. Spencer said "Indy or nothing."

I'm choosing option #2, can you blame me?

Great sites for kids

I love Shannon at Rocks in my Dryer. She has put together a list of great FREE websites for kids. There are all sorts of categories: general learning and games, math, animals, young toddlers, geography, art, stories, etc. I put a button on my sidebar that will take you to the list of links. Ella has been happily playing at Starfall (ABC's and reading) and My Little Pony today. Definitely go check it out.

Moms for Modesty

Ella had a HUGE growth spurt a couple of weeks ago so Ella and I had a girls shopping day. We hit the malls, went out to lunch, and spoiled ourselves. We had a blast except for one small annoyance - we didn't find hardly any clothes! I could not believe the styles that are selling right now for 3-year-old girls. I never thought it would be hard to find modest clothes for my preschooler. Who knew??

On a more comical note, Ella found a pink swimsuit that she fell in love with. I have never seen her want an item of clothing so badly. I was set to buy it until I noticed that there was a big hole cut out of the back of it. I told Ella we couldn't get it and showed her the hole. She looked at me and said "I know, we can fix it with tape and glue." She was as perplexed as I was about the hole in the back of the swimming suit.

Anyway, I found this wonderful site that is trying to promote modest clothing so more retailers will notice that there is a demand for more modest clothing. I printed their mission statement below but go check them out - what a great idea.

Moms for Modesty Mission Statement

As a Mom for Modesty I believe in common-sense modesty for girls and young women.
I believe in refraining from sexualizing our girls and young women.
I believe that it is unwise and unfair to taunt boys and young men by permitting my daughter(s) to dress in an immodest manner.
I believe that true beauty comes from within and I strive to teach my daughter(s) this truth.
I will loyally shop at retailers that provide girls' and young womens clothing that is modest, affordable and stylish.

SO EXCITED!

Season 2 of Flipping Out starts June 17th on Bravo! I love, love, love Jeff Lewis (I think we are long lost brother and sister). If you haven't seen it, it's a reality show about a guy with OCD/narcissistic personality disorder who flips houses. It is hysterically funny. Check it out.

Teddy Bear Picnic

A couple of weeks ago, Ella had a teddy bear picnic at preschool. All the kids were supposed to bring their favorite teddy bear, Ella chose to bring her bunny and told him to "pretend to be a teddy bear." She is such a crack up. I love this age. I'm so grateful that we are in a position that I can come and participate in these activities with her. We had a picnic with their 3 teddy bears, one bunny, and Elmo. Afterwards the kids performed "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear Turn Around . . ." and went on a BEAR HUNT!

I have some video clips from the day that I will try and add later.

WFMW - Spinach Sweet Bread

For those of you who don't know yet, Works For Me Wednesday is a blog carnival that Shannon started over at Rocks In My Dryer. I have been getting so many amazing tips from there, I had to join in the fun!

Last week while picking up some flowers at our local nursery, they were giving out samples of food made using their herbs and vegetables from the garden. This spinach sweet bread was to die for - I had to get the recipe. I made it this week with fresh spinach from our farmer's market and herbs from my garden - it made me feel oh so Martha Stewartishy (is that a word???). My family devoured it. Hiding vegetables in yummy cake is what works for me this week. For more tips from some amazing moms visit Rocks in my dryer - WFMW

Spinach Sweet Bread
(Recipe from Heather Hill Gardens)

1 cup sugar
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons finely crumbled mixed dried herbs (such as parsley, thyme, rosemary, mint, lemon verbena)
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
2 cups chopped fresh spinach (if frozen, drain well)
Butter for greasing pans

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Using a wooden spoon or hand-held mixer, mix all dry ingredients, then add oil, eggs, and spinach. Beat until well blended. Lightly grease one loaf pan or two half-size loaf pans with butter and pour in batter. Bake at 400 degrees F. for 30 minutes or until edges are just starting to brown and a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from pan and let cool. Freezes well.

Old School Mario Kart

Last Friday my mom bought the kids Mario Kart for the Wii (Thanks Mom!!). They were in absolute heaven. I haven't played it yet but I highly recommend it if anyone is thinking about getting it. It is a game that both kids are able to play together, which is wonderful. We got an extra wheel so both "drivers" have a wheel when they race each other. I can't even imagine the chaos that would occur if we only had one wheel.

Anyway, the love of Mario Kart has prompted Spencer to make his own race track and cars. Spencer and Ella worked on it yesterday and when I woke up this morning they had it all set up and were racing their own cars. Spencer was really sweet with Ella as he showed her how to make one.

I snapped a few pictures. Spencer wanted me to interview him and post it here but it was way too early and we had to get dressed and off to school!

Book Review #6

I am so behind on reviews. I know I have forgotten half of what I've read in the last month.

#22- A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini - I really tried to have an open mind when I read this book. I read his first book, The Kite Runner, and had to put it down half way through the book. I just didn't get all the hype surrounding the book. I kept hearing everyone rave about his second book so I finally picked up a copy at the library. It was a really fast read. It wasn't a bad book but I'm completely at a loss as to why his books are so popular. It left me very underwhelmed. I feel like the plot and the characters were very contrived. He purposely tried to play on emotions without giving the characters enough depth to warrant the emotion. I wonder if I would have liked it more if I hadn't previously read extensively on the Middle East. Interesting story but definitely not great.

#23 - Run by Ann Patchett - Ann Patchett wrote one of my favorite books, Bel Canto, so I was really excited to see another book by her. Unfortunately, the book did not live up to my expectations. It was one of those books where you read the whole thing just waiting for it to get better, but then it never does.

#24 - A Lifetime of Secrets by Frank Warren - I am a huge fan of Post Secret, although I have not read any other of his compilations. I really liked this book. It is easy to pick up and read a few and put back down. Don't do what I did and read the whole thing in one sitting. You will never want to see another secret again. (As an aside, when I was younger I used to tell my mom that when I grew up I wanted to be a therapist because then everyone would tell me their secrets - so Post Secret is perfect for me)

#25 - Escape by Carolyn Jessop. Another book on polygamy. I don't remember a ton about this book but I know I really liked it. It was interesting to me that she is actually related to Lance. The story is about her "escape" from the FLDS religion. Wow, I'm really descriptive today. Get the book from the library, it's good.

I think I'm going to stop here. I have approx. 10 more books I need to add but I'll save those for another time.

Third times a charm

One of the great things about living in VA is the number of local farms that surround us. A couple of weeks ago, we were able to join Irene's playgroup and visit the farm of a wonderful woman from her ward. We had a picnic, a tour of the farm, and the kids got to take turns milking cows and goats. Afterwards, we got to sample fresh milk and goat cheese. I think my favorite comment of the day was when one very nice girl (I won't name names) said "Wow - this tastes just like milk!" I'm not sure what she thought she was buying all these years at the grocery store.


Ella had a blast. She immediately made friends and ran around and played forever. She was a little apprehensive at first about the animals but warmed up to the goats pretty quickly. It was fun to finally see her not afraid of them. Here are some pics from past goat petting attempts.

From 2005:



She was doing okay until this rather large goat got a little too close to her. Doesn't she look so scared? Don't worry, right after this shot was taken I ran and scooped her up and gave her a million hugs and kisses.

From 2006:



She demanded to be held the second she saw the goats. She warmed up a little more.

From 2008 - Here come the goats:



No crying or asking to be held:



We didn't do so well with the peacocks and the turkey. You'll notice that Ella is not in these pictures. That's because she's up on my hip. :)





Ella driving the tractor:



We have been invited back to the farm because there are now babies! So expect some more pictures soon as we head back to the farm!

Farmer's Market Finds

Holy cow!! Check out the size of these green onions. It is amazing what vegetables look like when they aren't taken out of the ground too early. Ella, my mom, and I went to a local farmer's market this morning. We are really lucky to have a great one very close to our house. It is too early in the season for many of the vegetables but we were able to get green onions, spinach, two tomato plants, two green pea plants, the most amazing cookies ever, and buffalo patties to barbeque tonight! Ella has already been eating peas straight off the vine. The man who usually sells eggs didn't have his truck there today but promised to be back next week. I plan on buying all my eggs and most of my veggies and fruit there this summer. The grass fed beef was a little too pricey for me but I am still trying to figure out a way to buy a quarter of a cow. I know which farm I want to buy it from but can't figure out where I would put an additional freezer to keep the meat in (and I'm still trying to get Lance on board with the whole thing). Here are some pics of my new plants!

E-mail enabled

So . . . I'm a big dork and never realized that I didn't enable e-mail in my profile. So if you ever want to just contact me without having to comment on my blog, my e-mail address is now in my profile.

Take me out to the ball game

Since a lot of you don't live close enough to come to a game, I thought I'd bring the game to you! These are from last Friday's game.

Before game -

The kids have an hour warm-up before the game. Spencer saw the camera come out and graciously paused for a sec so I could take a picture of him. He knows the drill by now.



Ella distracting Spencer during pre-game practice:






We spent a lot of time at this game telling her not to climb. It probably didn't help that I was taking pictures of her.

When the game started I was over at the sandbox with Ella. We hurried over and saw that Spencer was one of the boys leading the ball players in the West Springfield Little League's motto. So I hurried and snapped some pics. I'm not really sure what it is and, to be honest, I don't remember ever seeing them do it before, but they must have because Spencer knew the words.



Spencer being excited to start the game (he was first pitcher):





So while the game was going on, Ella was playing in the dirt. She cracks me up because while she is so into princesses and dress up, she also loves to get dirty and climb on everything! She is a real trooper, between fall and spring baseball Ella has been to a lot of games.







She brought her "find" back home with us, any ideas what it is??

Back to the game . . . Spencer was the starting pitcher. Watching baseball at this level has become a very unnerving thing for me. I am more scared for him then he is. I know how important the game is to him and I just so want him to do well.





Check out him catching the ball. GO SPENCER! I swear if you watch the moms at little league games (myself included), there is a strange mixture of stress and worriedness that you see in their face (even when smiling) that doesn't go away until their kid does one good play.



At bat:





Let's check in with Ella - she has found something else to climb on:



Pep talk from coach:



Good game:



So now you've been to a baseball game with us. We ended the night by taking the kids out to dinner at a little Italian restaurant called Bella Villa. They make brick oven pizza and toss the dough right in front of you which the kids LOVED. The best part of the night though was when our orders came. Spencer ordered from the adult menu. I think he thought he was ordering just a slice of pizza (Lance and I knew otherwise) so his eyes got huge when they placed a whole pizza in front of him. He also surprised us by dipping bread in olive oil and parmesan cheese. Who is this kid? Ella ordered from the kids menu and was so excited when they brought her a little pizza in the shape of a heart. She says next time she wants them to make her pizza in the shape of Pablo from the Backyardigans, I wished her good luck with that.

I'm hoping this post will entice you to visit us. We will treat you to dinner and everything the metro DC area has to offer. Who knows, we might even drag you along to a game or two :)

Fun Smores

I mentioned in my last post a twist on the traditional smore. Instead of graham crackers and a chocolate bar, you use Lorna Doone shortbread cookies and a Reese's peanut butter cup. So simple, why didn't I think of it? They are absolutely divine but so rich that you can only eat one. Spencer has already requested them at all further BBQ's and campouts.

On my radar

1. Miley Cyrus. Why, why, why did her parents allow these photos?? Disney has done such a great job marketing that even Ella knows who Hannah Montana is. Thank goodness Spencer is a boy and is so naive. I read a great post about this here Why are we trying so hard to look like 15 year old girls?

2. Pioneer Woman hits her 2 year mark! This is the only blog that I read daily. Ree is hilarious. I find myself laughing out loud while reading her blog. She revisits some of her funnier moments in a timeline of the past two years here. I so wish I could be her when I grow up. She is doing amazing give-aways all week on her site. So get on over there and enter. Yesterday she gave away a $500 gift card to Best Buy. I am so stalking her this week.

3. Target Reusable Bags I'm gonna go check these out. I have heard great things about how small they fold down. I currently use Trader Joe's but am really curious about the difference - they kinda look the same to me. Can't beat the price!

4. Tap water versus bottled water - which is better for you? This caught my eye. We drink mostly tap water but from about April to August we always have bottled water to grab on the go. Very interesting, but will not change my drinking habits.

5. Interesting article about vaccines and autism.

6. Personal responsiblity and children. Wonderfully thoughtful post.

Check out Fussy's blog for more fun links.

Good thing Lance is back in town today - now I can discuss all of this with him!

Sunday Summary

Lots of big stuff happened this week -

1. BIG DECISION #1 - Lance and I finally agree on where we want to buy our house. When we moved to Burke we knew that this is the area we want to raise our kids in, but we had yet to decide which neighborhood etc., that we wanted to live in. We have been discussing this on and off because the plan was to buy next year. We went to a BBQ with some friends of ours this week out in Fairfax Station. For you non-Virginians, this is about 5 miles from where we live right now. To get there you have to drive on a road that is tree lined on both sides with a canopy of trees above. It is heaven. You end up with houses that have land (and sometimes horses!). Lance has always wanted horses. I have been wanting to move out to the country but know in my heart that I would go stir-crazy, plus Lance doesn't want the commute. Fairfax Station is pure heaven. Our friends house has acres and acres of land, a barn, and many horses. There was a point when we were roasting smores - non traditional ones, I'll have to post the recipe - and watching the kids ride on mini John Deere's that we looked at each other and said "this is where we want to live." Same ward, same fabulous schools, just a heck of a lot more land and peace. Unfortunately, because it is heaven on earth, the cheap bank owned houses in Fairfax Station go for close to $600K, and the houses that I want are in the $800-900K range, so we will be saving for a few more years but it definitely will be worth it.

2. I found my new all time favorite movie. If you haven't seen Juno, do yourself a favor and go get it. I have watched it 3 times in the past 12 hours (can you tell I'm stuck in bed ). I have bawled like a baby all three times and like it more and more. I usually don't watch a movie more than once but various family members kept coming over who hadn't seen it so I kept rewatching it with them. I have never seen a movie that captures the adoption experience so well. The cast is amazing, the script wonderful, and the whole movie just feels real. It actually is really funny, don't let my crying throw you off - nobody cried but me. I am buying it tomorrow, I have to own this movie. Just a warning, the first 5 minutes seem like it might be a questionable movie - it isn't. Just watch it. Let me know what you think.

3. We are still in the midst of baseball madness. The majority of our time is spent sitting at baseball games and washing Spencer's baseball uniform. Good thing we like baseball and own bleach (why, why, why are little league baseball pants white?????). I have some great pics that I hope to post soon.

4. BIG DECISION #2 - I told Lance we are having another baby. He agrees. Weird because we both thought we were done. I'm blaming Gina and Corey for this one (and Irene - she knows why). Don't get excited though - we are planning this for 3-4 years from now. Not sure why I'm putting this on my blog. Can you tell I like to overshare?

5. Hey - speaking of babies, I have a new nephew this week. In the words of Spencer, "YES!" He is so excited that it wasn't a niece. Berkeley Michael-Cline Aldridge was born on April 29, 2008. I'm calling him Berk because I like to think that he was named after where I live :) Visit Gina and Corey's blog (on my blogroll) to see pics of the cutie.

6. Great parenting moment of the week - So we've been having bedtime problems with Ella. I think most of you know this since we've been dealing with them FOREVER. But now she has stepped it up a level and kicks Lance out of our bed nightly so she can sleep with me. Before you judge us, just know that at 3 AM it is so much easier to give in than stay up for 2 hours fighting her. Plus, I secretly love it when her little body snuggles up against me. Anyway, my friend had a great idea to try and solve this (hi Irene!). Friday I completely cleared her room of any books, dolls, stuffed animals, etc. She hardly has any toys in there because we keep most of them in the playroom but the few that she did have, are gone. She helped me move them all to my room. We told her that every night she stays in her bed all night she will earn one of her items back. That night she went to bed wonderfully. Her bedtime is 7:30. She fell right asleep - score 1 for the parents. Around 9 she woke up, we heard her go use the bathroom, afterwards she came to the top of the stairs and yelled down "I got out of bed to go potty, are you gonna take away my pillow now?" I'm glad she couldn't see my face because I busted up laughing. Guess she thought we were going to keep taking away her stuff - gosh she has mean parents :)

7. Finally, my mom happened to be watching Mystery Diagnosis this morning and they were describing my symptoms exactly. This poor woman had the same symptoms as me for 22 YEARS!!! She had every test known to man and was shuffled back and forth from doctor to doctor. Nobody could explain the nausea and chronic pain. Finally, they were able to diagnose her. Yep, she had stage IV endometriosis. I was so happy to see this because almost everybody I know has mild endometriosis and can't understand why mine is so bad. I have read how debilitating endometriosis can be (and have lived it), but it was nice to see an actual case of someone with my symptoms. They said when it is stage IV it is very hard to diagnose because it mimicks so many other diseases, so doctors end up just passing you back and forth and never really put the picture together. I am glad that I only went about a year w/o a diagnosis, I can't imagine 22 years. It really put it in perspective.

That's all for now.