Joci's Dance Recital

Jocelyn had her little dance recital today. The teacher is so adorable. She had the girls paint t-shirts that she provided last week and color pictures for their parents...so cute.

Dad took the video while Joe used my 'little' camera and I used my Nikon (can we say prepared?) for the recital.

The funniest part is actually during the little routine that they do, which they did twice, in that Joci is VERY concerned about keeping her red circle to herself and not letting anyone else on it or near it. She does this while still trying to do the dance routine.

My Sweet Baby Girl with Curls

When Joci and I had our girl week together last week (Jon was out of town on business and Joe was up North picking berries with his Grandpa) I put rag curlers in Joci's hair one night. The next day I took some pictures of her. She REALLY got into taking the pictures, as you can tell, she was a 'poser'.

French Braids

I'm getting better at braiding Joci's hair...

Future Project!

I'm really sorry I can't remember where I got this pic from. If you know, please let me know an I will post it.

Love this idea! I am totally going to do this someday!

Happy Birthday Jon!

Happy Birthday Jon!
I know you are missing the kids on your birthday.
I’m sorry you have to be gone on business during your special day.
We are thinking about you and love you so much.
We hope you have a great day! Happy 37!

Pictures of Jon on his first Birthday

Girly Cupcakes

It’s been a girl week this week. Jon is in Chicago on business until the end of the month. Joe went with his Grandpa up to go berry picking and jelly making, and so it’s been Joci and I. In trying to come up with fun little things for us to do, I decided that we should make cupcakes; we had some cake mixes and frosting (on sale) in the pantry, so it worked out perfectly. Of course, we made pink (strawberry) ones.

Tuesday we had to return the Power Rangers DVD that we owed to the library that I didn’t want to make any more late payments on. Then we had to stop and get some cupcake liners. Then it was home to make cupcakes with my baby girl.

Can you tell she had a lot of fun?

She only wanted hers to have hearts on them like we did for Valentines Day. Did I oblige? Of Course!

While the cupcakes were in the oven we ate dinner, hotdogs and apple slices with peanut butter. She got upset for a little bit thinking that I wasn't going to let her have a cupcake. Once we cleared up that she could have one after she ate her dinner, well, the hotdog disappeared!

No More Chocolate Dipped Potato Chips!

I'm so bummed. We have bought many things from Granny's Chocolate in the past. I'm sad to see them close.

Longtime Gilbert candy shop closes
by Katherine Greene - Jul. 23, 2009 09:19 AM
The Arizona Republic
The place where Gilbert bought its sweets has gone sour in the bad economy.
Granny's Chocolate Creations, which for 20 years sold confections from its store near McQueen and Guadalupe roads, shut down indefinitely last month under pressure from the economy and its owners' health problems, said Emily Payne, who for the last 17 years managed the commercial center where they kept shop.
Lynn Redding, who owned the shop with his wife Merry, had been a real estate developer in the 1980s and quit that career in the last major housing bust. He invested $125,000 in the business, where six grandmothers worked furiously to meet the demand for unique chocolate candies.
When it first opened in mid-1989, less than 2 percent of the Redding's business came from retail sales. They did wholesale orders for businesses across the Southwest and made special chocolates for companies and events, including Arizona State University and Dillard's. They also produced chocolate-covered pretzels for some Starbucks franchises.
The town of Gilbert was a customer, said Dan Henderson, the town's economic development manager. His department gave Granny's gift baskets to companies that chose to locate in town, he said. Henderson was a frequent customer in his personal life, too, he said. During his wife's recent pregnancy, he often stopped in to get chocolates to bring home to her.
"In all honesty, it wasn't a hard sell," he said. "I would usually get some for myself, too."
The economic development department is in charge of attracting and retaining businesses in Gilbert. Henderson said he worked intensively with the Reddings to try and keep their business open in town.
They were grooming their son, Colin, to take over the business, but he chose to take a technology-related career instead, Henderson said.
After their son made his decision, "they were basically going to bow out," he said.
The Reddings had been working to shrink the amount of space they used for the retail store, but decided to just throw in the towel when Lynn's health began to deteriorate, Payne said.
"They just finally got to the point where they just couldn't see their way to do that," she said. "With the health issues going on and everything, they just needed to step back and regroup, as it were, and get their bearings again."
They took an "extended vacation," Payne said, taking time to travel and celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary with their family.
Since they left, ex-Granny's customers have been stopping by Payne's office daily looking for their favorite candy, she said.
"They're practically demanding to know where they went," Payne said, laughing. "They say, 'We can't function without their chocolate.'"
The Reddings may reopen the business "on a smaller scale" when they return from vacation, she said.
"They had the best chocolate in the world, I swear to goodness. And hopefully they will again," she said.
Granny's Web site is still fully functional and customers can still place orders - although it's unclear who would fill those orders. The company's phone goes unanswered and the voice mailbox is full. An e-mail to Colin Redding returned no response, and the store is vacant.
A message left on the Redding's answering machine was not returned.

So You Think You Can Dance - A Beautiful Tribute To a Woman With Breast Cancer

Our family's favorite tv show to watch right now is 'So You Think You Can Dance'. Yeah, we're a little artsy, just a little.

Towards the end of tonight's episode there was a beautiful dance about a woman with Breast Cancer. This dance seriously made me weep. I thought a lot about my beautiful Mom and how lucky we all are that she is still with us.

I hope you enjoy this too...

Julia Child Is Still an Inspiration!

I am certainly not the world’s foremost expert on Julia Child, but that woman fascinates me. I remember my Dad watching her cooking show when I was a child. I even bought my Dad a book about her life recently; I can’t wait to read it after him. I thought her voice was awfully funny sounding.
As I have grown into the woman I am today, I am in awe of Julia Child. Imagine my excitement, then, when I saw a new movie coming out, “Julie and Julia” with my absolute favorite actress playing Julia Child, Meryl Streep.
The previews I’ve seen have made me idolize Julia Child even more. I didn’t realize the movie was based on a book that I intend to look for at the library the next time I go. I hope you all go see the movie and read the book, I’m going to.
I had the priviledge of viewing the kitchen that Julia donated to the Smithsonian Institute in 2001, in total, when Jon and I visited Washington DC for our Honeymoon. I was astonished at how cluttered, yet tidy, small, yet well organized her kitchen was. If you have a chance, you should definitely visit this exhibit. You can see more of her exhibit here.

Some of my favorite quotes from her are:

"If You Are Afraid of Butter, Use Cream"

"The Only Time to Eat Diet Food is While You're Waiting for the Steak to Cook"

"It's so Beautifully Arranged on the Plate - You Know Someone's Fingers Have Been All Over It"

"I Don't Think About Whether People Will Remember Me or Not. I've Been an Okay Person. I've Learned a lot. I've Taught People a Thing or Two. That's What's Important"

I really don't get this guy...

All Jon Gosselin does is talk about how he wants his privacy and then he goes and flaunts that he's with this little chippy. Why would you do this? It's just wrong and really thoughtless. I can't imagine what his kids will think when they're older and this all comes up for them. Just for the record, I have this picture labeled as douche bag...I think that says it all.

4th of July - Replay...

We had so much fun on the 4th of July this year.

First Jon and the kids were amazing really working hard to get the house cleaned up on Friday. He really had the kids working in the kitchen showing them how to scrub down the counters and doing dishes. Joe loves to do dishes, good for him. I tried to keep up with them, but still feeling under the weather kind of hampered my progress, except in the laundry department…how does that add up so quickly? This helped so much, though, for me to feel more relaxed about people coming over. It made Sunday much easier for me to have some people over and not become over-frantic with cleaning. Also, let’s face it. Nothing will ever be ‘perfect’ enough to have people over at our house, it just needs to be acceptable. I feel like we are no longer living in CHAOS, wink, wink, Flylady.

So Saturday comes and I finished up cleaning the kitchen and picking up the house, again with a lot of help from Jon and the kids. While I was taking a shower I decided right then that I would have fun no matter what. Even if it was 120 degrees outside, I felt horrible, or the kids were whiny, I was determined to have a great time. No stress allowed. So, what happened? I had a great time.

A friend of our family and his daughter came and my parents were there. Joe and Joci loved hanging out with Delaney. She did Joci’s hair, they played upstairs and outside, it was so nice to have them playing quietly, not arguing or fighting with anyone. The kids loved the hotdogs and the watermelon, I enjoyed the burger and the waldorf salad. I took a few pictures, but the kids were having too much fun to sit still for photos.

Later we left to go see some fireworks. Ok, so we didn’t really plan this very well. Earlier in the day we had decided to go to our local High School that was having a little festival, or so we thought. Apparently, it was a HUGE event. All of Gilbert seemed to have the same idea and was there. In fact, they had the street closed off that the HS sits on as there were too many people there already. Our last minute decision was to pull into the parking lot of a local strip mall to watch. It was lots of fun. Joci really enjoyed the show and I enjoyed watching her react to the fireworks and dance around to the music. Honestly, though, I was a little disappointed in the fireworks. They were close enough to see clearly, but too far away to truly enjoy the show. Oh well. Joe was a little let down, too, remembering our last fireworks display was at Schnepf farm pretty much sitting right under the show. It was still fun and we laughed at all the people that got there early before the show and left early before the show was over to get out of the parking lot before anyone else.

We headed back home after that. Jon and the kids got to set off some of the poppers that he had gotten for the kids, which of course they loved. Everyone, including Clay our boxer, liked throwing the snappers at the ground. I personally, like the poppers the best. I love the smell of the sulfur after you set one off.

It was an excellent day spent having fun with family and friends, an amazing way to celebrate our Nation’s Birthday!