Photography Session Giveaway

My friend Staci is doing a photography giveaway! She lives in St. George but is in the Salt Lake area fairly often. She's super talented so go enter and you might win!

On My Mind

Stupid, stupid, stupid Jake. Stupid me for watching this show, but Jake is even stupider. Is Ali going to be the next Batchelorette? If so, I don't wanna watch. I don't know why I watch this show in the first place, it is SO painfully retarded, yet I schedule it into my Monday night routine each week.

I've eaten at least one peanut butter and apricot jam sandwich a day for the past two weeks. It's like dessert for lunch. Or dinner. Or breakfast. Or second dinner.

Is it normal to lay awake at night thinking about how I want to decorate the next apartment we live in?

I've become obsessed with design/sewing/craft blogs and it's becoming a problem.

I bought decorations for Taft's birthday party and I am getting very excited. Seth thinks I'm crazy, but he's trying very hard to be supportive a birthday party for a one year old that won't realize/remember any of it.

Happy Sunday

Rank List

As of this afternoon we have a submitted, official rank list. This rank has list has taken over practically  every conversation Seth and I have had for the past few months. Now that it's submitted we have no idea what we're going to talk about with each other.

The List:

1. UCSD-San Diego, CA

2. Mayo Clinic-Scottsdale, AZ

3. Wake Forest-Winston Salem, NC

4. UAB-Birmingham, AL

5. Univ. of Michigan-Ann Arbor, MI
6. Mayo Clinic-Rochester, MN
7. Dartmouth-Hanover, NH

The list goes on, but hopefully we go somewhere in the top 4. We'll see. We only have to wait a painstakingly long 21 days to find out where we go.

I Love His Laugh

We had dinner at a friend's the other night and their daughter got Taft to laugh really hard. Enjoy.

Mullets and Museums

My headache is gone, Taft took a late afternoon nap, and now I'm in a much better mood and ready to blog about something happy.

Saturday Taft had his first big boy haircut. It was Taft's first time in a "salon" and it will be the last for quite some time. The moment I paid $15 for two little snip-snips, I realized that I need to learn how to cut boys hair. Taft did great and didn't cry until the end when the hairstylist bonked him on the face with a balloon.

Before: Mullet

During

After: Handsomest Little Dude Ever

Like I said in my previous post, we went to the Discovery Gateway children's museum today. Taft is too young for a lot of the stuff, but there was actually a lot that he could do and loved it. My SIL and her sister have passes and are gracious enough to let me bum off their passes for free.

Battle of the Naps

We're having a rough go at dropping a nap here at the Herway household. Taft seems to have decided that he sometimes doesn't want a morning nap and sometimes doesn't want an afternoon nap. I've decided to start skipping his morning nap and just put him down after lunch. We met up with Lara (SIL) and her kids, and Amy (Lara's sis) and her kids, at Discovery Gateway this morning. On our way there, which only takes less than 10 minutes, Taft feel asleep. Great. I woke him up so he could play at the museum and he was happy, happy for most of the time, we had lunch together, and then headed home. Before I could even pull out of the parking garage Taft had crashed. MAN! I knew this was going to mess him up for the rest of the day if I didn't put the pedal to the metal and haul a**. Of course, I hit every red light on the way home, which is nearly every other block along 2nd South. I finally made it home, gently took Taft out of his car seat, made it inside, and changed his diaper and pants, all while he was still asleep. I laid him down and HELLO, he's awake. DANG IT! I made him a bottle hoping he'd fall asleep again. Now, he's in his crib and has been for the last 15 minutes saying "da da da" "aaaah da" "aaah da". I knew I should have just laid him in his crib and not taken off his coat, but I couldn't, I thought he'd been uncomfortable. IDIOT!

AND I HAVE A REALLY BAD HEADACHE. (and sadly I think it's because I only had one can of Diet  Coke yesterday) WAAA. 

Anchors Aweigh Pete Sweet

(This picture isn't great of us. I look possessed, the picture is cut off so it looks like Pete is bald, and Taft looks high. Seth still looks good.)

Monday night we had a send off dinner for my brother who left for the Navy later that night. Last Sunday we had a big family party filled with great food, patriotic decor, and of course patriotic cupcakes and cookies. He's in Illinois for basic training for about two months and then he's off to Monterey, CA for Linguistic Training. I think basic training will be challenging for several reasons, but most of all is he CAN'T HAVE A CELL PHONE. Seriously, he's been glued to his iPhone since the day he got it. 

I'm really, really proud of Pete and deciding to serve our country. He's always had so much potential and I'm so glad he's putting his potential toward such a noble cause. I know it hasn't been the easiest decision for him to do this, but I strongly believe this is going to be the best thing for him in his life right now. He's been wanting to be a linguist for a while now and I think this is the most direct path to his goal. 

My mom heard from him Tuesday that he made it to Illinois safe and sound. 

God Bless Sailor Pete!

Eleven Months

This handsome little devil is already 11 months old. If you look to the left of his face you can catch a glimpse of the mullet that will most definitely be getting cut this week. It's starting to get embarrassing for both of us (Taft and myself).

At 11 months Taft:
-Loves seeing Dad, Nana Plum, and Francine, the lady at the gym day care.
-Likes eating grapes, chicken, peas, mandarin oranges, graham crackers, sweet potatoes, spaghetti, bananas
-Pulls himself up onto anything he can
-Is starting to scale along the couch
-Loves making a mess (pulling books of bookshelves, pulling out entire contents of drawers, pulling off all the toilet paper)
-Is gabbing a lot more and it's starting to sound like real words.
-Has ticklish armpits, feet, and sides
-Kind of waves goodbye
-Still LOVES Monkey Friend
-Starting to use sippy cup
-Seems to be wanting to drop a nap (Mom and Dad aren't ready for that yet)
-Still hates being laid on his back to have his diaper changed or to get dressed/undressed
-Has eczema on his back :(
-Now expresses his anger/frustration by opening his eyes really big, giving himself a double chin, squeezing his fists together, turning his face red, and grunting. Some people mistake it for him trying to poop, but trust me, he has a different face for that.
-Has five teeth. Four on bottom, one on top.

He's a funny little dude that keeps us entertained all the time. I'm sad babies have to change so fast, but it's also so fun watching Taft learn to do new things.

-

Practice Makes Perfect

That's what I've been telling myself while I've been self-teaching myself how to sew. I've really loved getting ideas from Made By Rae's "Celebrate the Boy" month. As it turns out, I'm not a natural born seamstress, but I've had a lot of fun trying. I was trying to make this. Instead, this happened:

(I don't think he liked it)

What would be a cleavage shot:

Then I tried it again. 

Much Better. 

Spread the Word

We are looking to sell or rent out our condo when we move. It will be available right around prime wedding season...May/June. If you know anyone looking to buy or rent a place please email me at heidiherway@gmail.com . We're walking distance of U of U campus and just 50 yards or so from a bus line that goes straight to campus and we're about a 10 minute walk to the University Trax Line.

It's technically a 1 bedroom, but the owner before us put up a wall to make a small (very small) second bedroom. It's worked great for Taft's room and would work great as an office or for a baby's room.

Within the last two years, we've replaced all kitchen appliances, installed laminate hardwood flooring in entry, hallway, living room, and kitchen, and have installed new carpet in the bedrooms.

Does anyone know

where I can get those free handwritten fonts onto my blog?

Thanks. Love ya.

Heaven in the Form of Frosting

I was asked to post this recipe, although you can pretty much memorize it in two seconds.

Strawberry Frosting from the Ivy Bake Shoppe

4 1/3 c. powdered sugar (about 1 lb.)

1 stick cold butter

1/2 c. sliced strawberries

Beat powdered sugar and butter on low for 30 seconds. WARNING: it will look like it snowed in your kitchen when you are done. It will also seem like it could never possibly turn into frosting, but amazingly it does. You'll see what I mean when you make it. Then add strawberries and beat until well blended. It is supposed to come out more like a ganache than a frosting, but it's turned out differently many times I've made it. I've noticed when I use defrosted frozen strawberries it turns out more frosting-y than ganache-y. This recipe for the frosting actually goes with the most wonderful strawberry cake you'll ever eat. However, I am usually too lazy to make the strawberry cake and I just make the strawberry frosting for white cake cupcakes.

The Ivy is a great bakery/restaurant in Fort Madison, Iowa  and is just across the Mississippi river from Nauvoo, Il. When my mom was working on the Nauvoo Temple, she and her co-workers ate there ALL the time. When I went there with my family before the dedication we ate there too. The ladies that own it came out with a cookbook and it seriously rocks. You can find it here.

Swingin

We took this little bear to the park yesterday since it was a balmy 43 degrees outside. Regardless of the cold, he absolutely loved his first time in a park swing. I can't wait until it's nice outside and we can go all the time. Please come quickly Spring. 

Received the following text from my sister-in-law today:

"So Scarlet has been pretending all afternoon that she is Heidi and her baby's name is Taft. And that her husband is in jail in Mexico"

Scarlet's very intuitive. We've been lying about residency interviews all this time and Seth was actually arrested for drug trafficking across the U.S. Mexican Border.