You might like a book called Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father’s Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater, by Matthew Amster-Burton. It’s a sort of food memoir about a restaurant-critic dad’s adventures in giving his daughter a wide variety of foods from an early age, and includes some cool recipes, too. I recall that there’s a small amount of foul language here and there, but if you’re not too bothered by that, I think you’d like it! It’s quite a funny and enjoyable read. Check your local library.

House hunting is so exhausting! But I bet as a buyer you have some good options in that area. Where are you guys looking? Not that I know the area really well or anything, I was just wondering if you’re thinking Mesa, or one of the other areas. You guys need to go eat at Aunt Chiladas (hah!) in Mesa…that’s one of the places we always went when we were down there. The food is fine, but we mainly went because of the silly name. Ahhh, Phoenix…good times. We have got to get out there next year.

On the difficulty of change – Em, I totally feel you. But having just gone through a life-changing move, let me say that if you feel it’s right, then don’t worry about it at all! Heavenly Father knows what we need more than we do, and there may – nay, more like there will – be people with whom your life path needed to intersect on this fun journey of life. You and Adj are awesome, and there’s no doubt that amazing things are ahead for your little family. Can’t wait to hear what Arizona has in store!

Haha, you can hang out with Stephenie Meyer…

Hooray for Phoenix! Maybe next year we’ll make it out there to see the Cubs at spring training…I really miss that tradition. I told John it’s too bad we didn’t move to Phoenix. Not that we were ever really close or anything, but we’d talked about it a lot. That kind of move has got to be stressful, so good luck…I’ll keep you guys in my prayers. And yes, just pack up the kitchen and forget cooking. Get some Chipotle…that’s always my answer! Hehe.

Good luck with your move and hopefully you can stay settled for a while and not have to worry about packing up your kitchen for a long time!!

Good luck on packing and finding a new place to make memories!

Love how cute she is with Toby.

It’s great that you finished a project you started when you were 15, it shows dedication. Maybe it’s not too late for me to finish up some things…

Morgan’s about at that “I need Mommy” age. Do you remember Melissa around this age? Lisa Coates watched her one night (no one else would) and Melissa screamed until she passed out. Hmmm…some things never change.

But Morgan is adorable, and I am making her something really cute!

Morgan’s about at that “I need Mommy” age. Do you remember Melissa around this age? Lisa Coates watched her one night (no one else would) and Melissa screamed until she passed out. Hmmm…some things never change.

I’m guessing you’re pretty tired if Morgan hasn’t been feeling well and she’s mommy attached lately…hope you’re managing to get some sleep.

P.S. Love those big wooden blocks! I’ve been trying to find some, I guess it’s time to buy off the internet.

And I don’t know if I would have gotten through my back labor without being on my hands and knees. That was the worst pain of my life. yikes.

I love your random pregnancy thoughts keep ‘em coming!

I’m just really glad you shared your experience because now I feel that when the time comes, I have options. Before this, I wasn’t willing to explore any option that didn’t involve a hospital.

I look forward to growing a garden too, but seeing as how I’ve this far been incapable of keeping plants alive…who knows how it will go. The only success I’ve had is with herbs, but those are so easy that I don’t even feel like they count.

I learned about an interesting sell out recently–Trader Joe’s is owned by a German company of discount grocery stores called Aldi. We don’t have a TJ’s in town here, but we have two Aldis, and it is a completely different kind of store (they have the cheapest prices in town, but it feels like shopping in a dank warehouse).

Does it have to be a cave? I’ll join you if it’s a deserted tropical island.

Cute pictures!

And with the overexposed pic, it actually doesn’t bother me much (from a critical standpoint) because her eyes are the focus… if you shot in JPEG there’s nothing you can do, if you shot RAW you may be able to recover some of the blown bits, but probably not. So don’t stress. I love that last one too! Well done.

And that stock looks glorious. I keep meaning to try making my own stock- mostly because I want to make wagamama chicken ramen, and I’m sure I’d be able to tell the difference. mmmm. wagamamas.

Now please explain the silk, the bowl and spoon, and how they relate to your insanity.

Good luck with the clothes sewing (I’m sure you’ll do a great job, your sewing is always awesome), it seems like quite the undertaking. I have a friend who sews tons of outfits for her little girls and I just don’t know how she does it. But seeing as how most of my attempts at sewing end with me wanting to scream and throw my sewing machine, it’s probably not something I’ll ever attempt.

And hooray for blog updates…perhaps I should work on that too.