It's Jimmertime

Last night we went to a King's game with Bryan's coworkers.  We mostly went to see Jimmer (who only played for about 10 minutes, but we did see him sink a 3) but it turned out to be a perfect night to go because everyone was so pumped up about the Kings staying here and getting a new arena.  Jilly was mostly pumped about all the stairs to go up and down.

This picture was close to the end of the game and waaaaay past bedtime as you can see.

baby shower

My friend Miranda is having a baby girl so Emily and I threw her a shower this weekend.  A couple months ago I won my first and only giveaway from Karly's blog.  I got a gift certificate to Anders Ruff so we ordered these invitations- they turned out darling.

the food spread

Emily made the quiches and they were to.die.for. 

Emily found this super fun game on pinterest.  We made lots of copies of a picture of Tommy and a picture of Miranda and then had the guests cut out features to create the baby's face.  Hilarious.

This was Miranda's prediction for her little girl- let's hope she's wrong!

the gifts

Jilly was very helpful with the gift opening

We also made appliquéd onesies.  This one was my favorite- Tommy is a dentist!

Everyone went home with a cupcake in a cup (the tag is from Anders Ruff)

emily, miranda, me

We had so much fun planning this shower, can't wait for the next!

Help me, Rhonda

Yesterday I noticed Jilly had been unusually quiet for a few minutes.  I found my little troublemaker standing in front of the mirror applying eye shadow to her upper lip and cheek.  She had the biggest smile on her face and kept giggling.  She really wanted to beautify me, but I declined.

Seriously?!?!  A one year old in makeup?  We're in for lots of trouble with this girl.

Sweet Butter Syrup

When we got married I learned that one of the things Bryan insists on is homemade syrup.  It isn't difficult to make and is super cheap so I was always happy to oblige even though it didn't make a huge difference to me.

Then one year we went to a free Fourth of July breakfast at Macey's in Provo.  They served the most delicious syrup I had ever tasted in my life.  Luckily, they also provided the recipe.  This stuff is liquid gold; I'm obsessed with it.  This syrup plus this pancake recipe equals my very very favorite meal.

Sweet Butter Syrup

1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp light corn syrup
1/2 cup buttermilk*
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla

Cook first four ingredients til boiling then add 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1 tsp vanilla.

*I don't always have buttermilk on hand, but you can easily substitute it with a little less than 1/2 cup milk plus 1/2 tbl vinegar (let the vinegar and milk sit together for about 5 minutes before adding)

snow day

Last President's Day we drove to Tahoe to play in the snow, and this year we decided to make it an annual tradition.  Someone had given us a snowsuit circa 1992 for Jilly so we bundled her up and headed out.  At first she wasn't so sure about this cold white stuff.

 But then we found a Jilly-sized hill and started sledding.

 She loved it!

 I wish you could hear the giggles that went along with these smiles.

Jilly's first snowman

Another successful President's Day in the Martinez book.

Keep Calm

A local channel here plays Music and the Spoken Word on Sunday nights.  Every once in a while we catch it, and last Sunday the message was my favorite I've ever heard.  I may be the last person in the world to know this, but I didn't realize that the Keep Calm and Carry On posters were from WWII.  They were printed by the British government to encourage citizens as the Nazis threatened to invade.  A few years ago someone found an old poster in a bookstore and the classic message quickly caught on.  I always loved these posters, but now I really love them knowing their history.  You can read the full message here.  

Valentining

Because of our "14 Days of Valentines" we squeezed every single ounce out of Valentine's Day this year and had so much fun!  Here are some of our festivities -

cookies and milk with frozen pink milk hearts (idea from pinterest of course)

homemade heart pizza

Jilly made us a little Valentine at playgroup

Bryan's mom always made big heart sugar cookies so we made them for each other this year.  You can tell that Bryan is a much superior cookie designer.

Bryan came home from work with this beauty for me

and this for his little Valentine (I've never seen her so excited)

 heart pancakes with heart bacon for dinner (from pinterest again)

and mini Martinelli's for dessert 

On Valentine's I read this excellent article.  My favorite part - "We need to stop thinking of love as a mysterious power that has control over us.  We need to think of love as a way to treat other people, rather than as something that happens to us.; then we will begin to have power over our loving."

Feb. 14th

a Sacramento weekend

This weekend we heeded our weatherman's wise advice and headed out to enjoy the lovely weather.  I feel like Sacramento gets overlooked because it's not LA, San Diego, or San Francisco, and it doesn't even have Disneyland.  But it is the state capital, and a pretty great city if I may so say myself.

The flowers were beautiful- we are loving that it's already spring here

the capitol

this bear is right outside the governor's office, Jilly loved it!

I love exploring our city!

Five Friday Facts

1. I'm committed to cleaning my whole house today.  Shouldn't be too difficult, except for my little assistant.  This morning I gave her my jewelry box to play with thinking that would buy me lots of time.  Wrong.  In the time it took her to take every single bracelet, necklace, and earring out of every drawer and scatter them on the floor, I made my bed.  Any tips/tricks or must I just wait til naptime and get it all done then?

2. I slept with wet hair last night for the first time in forever.  Hello waves!  This may become a permanent thing.

3. I've seen 14 Days of Valentines a few places this year (like here and here) and decided to jump on the bandwagon.  Among other things I've surprised Bryan with a Wednesday night date, treats at work, and hearts all over our mirror.  But, I'm most pleased with Day 10 today.  It's not often that things I find online actually work out perfectly in real life, but this did- hooray! (found here)

4. We had a couple of boys over to play yesterday.  I was a little worried that they'd have fun in our girly house.  But, after a few minutes of playing with Jilly's magnetic letters they realized that L's could be turned on their side to become perfect guns.  And, thus the battle ensued.  Why was I ever worried?!

5. Direct quote from the news this morning, "Get out and enjoy this weekend because it's going to get chilly on Monday.  The temperature will head down to 54."  Sacramento is not a bad place to live.

Under the Sea

Our powder room/laundry room was next up for a makeover.  Our realtor gave us these hand towels as a housewarming gift (she also gave us $50 in restaurant giftcards, soap dishes, a candle, pajamas and a book for Jilly, and a huge teddy bear that Jillian LOVES- do all realtors do this or were we just spoiled?!)  Anyway, the towels were kind of the inspiration for this room.  Also, that ugly linoleum floor was inspirational in that it looks like sand (maybe? can you see it?)  So we went with a beach theme, which kind of seems more Under the Sea* to me because I feel like I'm under the water when I'm in there and surrounded by the teal walls.  What this all boils down to is I now really really love this room- ugly floor and all.  

The pictures in the brown frame are all from our beach trips this summer and above the toilet is a starfish print we got four years ago on clearance with our very last Bed Bath and Beyond giftcard from our wedding.  One of my very favorite parts of our house is our Harry Potter cupboard under the stairs- right now it houses old baby items but I wouldn't hesitate to make it a bedroom if need's be.  Our washer and dryer are behind the closet doors on the right.

*it's a little known fact that thanks to 6th grade chorus I know every lyric of the song "Under the Sea."  And though the chorus is very simplistic, the verses are extremely difficult.  Case in point- "The newt play the flute, the carp play the harp, the plaice play the bass and they soundin' sharp, the bass play the brass, the chub play the tub, the fluke is the duke of soul, (yeah)" 

Jilly Update

The other day I looked back at all of the monthly updates I had posted about Jilly.  While I do not at all miss the 'oh my gosh, it's the 13th, I must put my baby through the torture of sitting still for 15 minutes while I take pictures!!' I do miss the little updates.  So, here is what Miss Jilly is up to these days.

Remember how she was bald for so long?  Now she has a nice healthy mullet and I am in love with these little curls

She loves books, but usually only has the patience for about half the book

Her very favorite thing is to play with friends.  Kylie and Jilly had a blast cooking together in the kitchen.

She is big into utensils these days.  This is how I eat my cereal now- one spoon for my messy haired baby and one spoon for me.  Unfortunately she sometimes takes the wrong spoon!

She is also big into different textures.  I'll give her a measuring cup and a bowl of noodles, rice, beans, or quinoa and she'll play quietly for a half hour.  Unfortunately this also makes an enormous mess, but it's so worth it.

Last week 3 of her top teeth came in and she had a nasty cold that left her very congested.  She was in so much pain and would spend much of the night crying.  There was little I could do to comfort her, but the one thing that almost always calmed her down was Sesame Street, more specifically the intro song to Sesame Street.  So we listened to "Sunny day sweepin' the clouds away" over and over and over again.

The other thing she loves these days is hide and seek. Bryan will hide somewhere and whistle until she finds him.  Or, he'll put a blanket over himself and she'll excitedly uncover him.  She even has started playing with me.  Sometimes she'll go into a room without me and when I come in she will come out of her hiding place with a big smile on her face.

We have so much fun with our (mostly) happy little girl!

Home Tour: Valentine's Edition

In case you've been living under a rock you're aware of how much I love Valentine's Day.  And so I have decked the halls in honor of my favorite day.

powder room/laundry room, printable found here

What??  You've never seen a Valentine's Tree before?

I feel like I've cut out thousands of hearts in the past week- I made 5 of these garlands!  

Idea stolen from here

 family room shelves- printable found here

kitchen side counter

I found these and thought they looked easy enough to make, just lots of circle cutting and glue gunning.  I think I'll get some conversation hearts to fill up the bottom of the vase

entertainment center- I cut these letters out of a cardboard box, painted them with glitter paint then glued them to paper I already had and put them into frames without the glass

eating area

this is the inside of that vase, I made the kissing balls last year