The hubster turned 30 yesterday. I wish I was someone who thought of way awesome birthday parties and had the space to do it, but alas, we celebrated the best we could.

P-Pans with strawberries, bananas, and cool whip.

A wad of cash to buy a new mountain bike/ski pass (TBD)

All You Can Eat Sushi at Benihana (best sushi deal in town) with a few select folks

Donut Cake

I already shared my mushy love stuff with Seth but all you need to know is Seth

totally rocks.

Herways Go To Hollywood

Venice Beach: homeless folks, marijuana and mj paraphrenelia, and body builders. Taft's first beach experience.

Dodgers Game: went with one of Seth's BFFs, Rock. Rock stood in line for practically three innings just to get three hot dogs and two drinks (for us). Casey Blake (Seth's second cousin once removed....whatev. They're related) hit a triple in 2nd inning. Taft flipped out the last inning, but otherwise is a baseball fan.

Yogurtland: Basically heaven on earth. Try pistachio and coconut.

The Grove: Saw Michael Yo from E!News. Does he count as a celeb? Probably not since I had to look him up online when I got back home. Ate at a yummy yestaurant.

Century City: Saw lots of clothes I can't buy.

Pool: Fab.

USMLE CK: Third installment of a four part test that Seth has to take. He took it in LA, basically the main reason we went down.

Hayes: Another one of Seth's BFFs, Luke, lives in LA with his wife, Reagan, and they're handsome toddler, Henry. They were the gracious couple that let us take over their apartment for the weekend. Reagan has a furniture line that she is starting up. I know, seriously? I can barely make pillows, and she designs furniture, beautiful furniture I might add.

And last but not least: What trip isn't complete without a Panda picture and witnessing Taft's first embarrassed by his parents moment

And this is why motorcycles suck...

My brother got into a fight with the asphault yesterday and the asphault apparently won. For the record, I HATE MOTORCYCLES! Thankfully, Pete is mostly okay and isn't paralyzed or dead. I'm still kinda mad at him at the moment for A) buying a motorcycle and B) not calling anyone last night when he went to hospital except for his friend Dan, ESPECIALLY because we live right down the street from the hospital. Mostly, I'm glad he just has to be a little ugly for a while and is alive. BOO MOTORCYCLES!

Attn: Utah and Idaho Mormons...

check this out: www.myregisblog.com

pretty funny

Laffy Tafty is Four Months Old

Taft is four months old today and in honor of his birthday he rolled over and started laughing today.

We also learned he does not really care for raspberries.

(Seth says Taft has rolled over and laughed before, which is true, but today was the best laughing to date)

Happy Birthday America

cool man taft


patriotic matchy matchy with granddad

bumski on a bum

i'm cool even though my mom made me dress in patriotic colors
and kinda a dorky hat, my aunts put it sideways, they're lame.

We celebrated the Fourth with a morning triathalon with our ward. Seth took first place, he beat three primary kids, one young woman, and a lady from the assisted care facility that is a part of our ward. The "triathalon" was a bike ride around the block twice, a run around the block once, and a finish on a slip n slide. I am so proud.

In the evening we met up with my family for a picnic and fireworks at Sugarhouse park. I thought Taft would totally freak out when the fireworks started but he actually did okay for a while...then he did start to freak out but I think just cuz he was tired.

Happy Birthday America.

Things I love about America:

1. fountain sodas

2. ice

3. milk that needs to be refrigerated

4. deodorant

5. reality tv

First Swim

Took Taft for his first swim. Tates is a lifeguard at Crestwood pool so we went to visit her at work one day with Lanx. Tates has the sweetest job ever. Her shift goes like this:

Lay out in the sun for 30 minutes and maybe make sure some kids don't run.
Take an hour and a half break.
Repeat a few times.

She complained the other day that she had to work a 10-hour shift. Um, if "work" includes getting tan and then taking it easy for an hour and a half, then it's not work.

ps. I CAN NOT wait until I'm not working and my kids are a little older and we can go to the pool all day, every day in the summer.

It's sweet little Lanxie's birthday today and she is slowly but surely entering adulthood. She is officially no longer a teen. TWENTY YEARS OLD. Yes, that really is Taylor Swift next to her and I think Lanx looks so happy her face is about to explode! Lanxie is off with Tates and Mr. and Mrs. Bluth to galavant across Europe tomorrow. Lucky son of a gun. Oh and Lanx, Seth wanted to make sure you guys knew that European ketchup is gross. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LANXSTA GANGSTA!

Having major mommy guilt this morning and really wishing I was home with these two:

photo by Staci D. Photography
Seth takes Step 2 of the Medical Licensing Boards next Saturday. He's been studying like crazy all the while taking care of the Bumski. Wish him luck (for the test).

p.s. Seth can make Taft laugh but I can't. No fair.

TMI...

WARNING: You may not want to read this post due to TMI content. I debated posting it, but apparently I like humiliating myself and sharing all my disgusting/dark secrets (aka Barf in the Car story) with the blogiverse. Read at your own risk.
__________________________________________________________


Seth got out the running stroller the other night and unfortunately Taft fits in it. Now I have no excuses not to exercise, crap. So...last night I decided to go for a jog with Taftman. I was about to leave, had Taft in my arms, shoes on, stroller in my other arm ready to carry when I felt the urge to go to the bathroom. You know how hard it is to get everything ready to leave and I just didn't want to put down Taft and the stroller and thought I'd be fine.

WRONG.

About three blocks away from my house I felt a little leakin. I felt like I was too far away to turn around and I'd be fine if I kept running.


WRONG. AGAIN.



I FREAKING peed my pants! Yep. You know that thing that you're trying to get your three year old to stop doing? Yeah, that. I did it. Outside. Downtown.With people around.

Sure didn't help that I live downtown, that it's summer, was a really nice night out, so everyone AND their dog was out (literally). Didn't help that I chose to run down a street with no public restrooms. Didn't help either that I had to run past a huge group of hipster young people having a dance/concert in their front yard. Didn't help that by the time it was really noticeable I had just made it to Liberty Park where it seemed like EVERYONE decided to have a BBQ/Picnic at the park.
My only saving grace was I was pushing a stroller so it sorta hid the physical evidence and that I was wearing that material that dries quickly. Sick.

Worst thing about pregnancy: puking en route to work via car.
Worst thing about post-pregnancy: lack of bladder control and being an idiot.

40 Days and 40 Nights

40 more working days until the start of a wonderful fall vacation to these places:

Brussels, Belgium

Malta (I think it's own country? If not, then maybe part of Italy?)

Marrakech, Morocco

Can't. Even. Wait.

Tres Meses and some other stuff

Taft turned 3 months on the 16th. It's so fun to see him change, but also sad because I loved it when he was just teeny tiny and would sleep all the time and I could just hold him. He's not much of a cuddler when he's awake now. I blame Seth because his mom said he didn't like cuddling either. Here's the little chunker at 3 months:

Taft and I left Seth again and went to St. George to help my grandma make apricot jam. A friend of hers heard about her apricots stolen so she brought her a whole bunch from her own tree. My grandma has made jam as long as I can remember and I have never learned how until now. It was a lot of fun to spend quality time with my grandma. Lanx came too and was great at keeping T-bone occupied while the jamming was in session.

Being entertained by Aunt Lanxie

Watching us make jam in the bumbo on the dryer

And last but not least, my cousin Natalie Wheatley got married last week. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of her or the wedding day but we (mainly my mom) did do a shower for her. My mom decorated these cupcakes and I thought they were so cute!

And one more cute picture

Really?

It's 4:00 p.m. and time for an intimate pumping session in my office. I close and lock the door and have the window to the hallway covered with paper. I turn on the pump (mmmrrrr, mrrrrm, mrrrrm) and a few seconds later...

Guy from my office: knocks on door "Hey!"
Me: I don't say anything, praying he goes away.
GFMO: knocks again "Hey!"
Me: "Busy!"
GFMO: starts talking, but I can't understand him because the pump is so damn loud.
Me: I stay silent and say to myself "Go away, go away"
GFMO: "Wait. Really? You're that busy"
Me: Can he really not hear that obnoxious motor? "Yeah! I'll come find you in a minute!"

Now what do I do? "Sorry, I was busy having milk electrically expressed from my boobies"? Can someone just come shoot me and put me out of my misery?

Oh. Em. Gee.

How tasty is this? So tasty I did a little dance when I took my first bite. One of my all time favorite restaurant creations is the Rosemary Flatbread from Trio. SO. GOOD. I tried to make a version similar. Now don't expect like the exact same version as Trio, or else you might be disappointed. It's sure is a close second though. Oh and this is a meal for dos.

"I'm Gonna Buy A Goat" Cheese Pizzas

2 pieces of pita bread (make your own flatbread if you are feeling domestic)

2 ounces of goat cheese (just whatever you feel like)

1 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary (or chop up some fresh, I didn't have any)

2 roma tomatoes, chopped and seeded

1/2 a red bell pepper, chopped

handful of fresh spinach leaves

fresh ground pepper

few dashes of balsamic vinegar

Preheat your oven to 400. Place pitas on a cookie sheet and bake for about 4 minutes. Mean while, combine tomatoes, red pepper, and rosemary in a bowl. Remove pitas from oven and spread goat cheese on top. Top the pitas with tomatoes mixture. Put back in the oven for about 4 more minutes, just so veggies and cheese can get hot and wonderful. Before serving dash some balsamic vinegar on the pizzas. Top with a handful of spinach, grind some fresh black pepper, and another dash of balsamic vinegar on top.

If I could only have one cheese for the rest of my life, it would without a doubt with goat cheese. No contest. I need to get myself a goat.

I really wish I had a picture, but unfortunately I inhaled this before I could think to take a picture.

Peace