How does this sweet little baby turn into .......

...this overnight?
Most days she is a drooling, slobbery mess with food in her hair, but i love her a lot. Boy does she have an attitude though and i have been setting myself up for this and she knows it. Usually as soon as she cries or whines i gave her whatever she wanted to get her to stop. It is coming back to haunt me now. She is not even 1 and she already has tantrums. As of the other day i am starting to work on this some and not give into her every whine, which makes her throw a tantrum and sit on the floor and cry if she doesn't get her way. Eventually she gets over it and will start playing. If i turn away from her and ignore her she crawls so she is sitting in front of me and i can see her crying. Usually this only happens when she is really tired. I want to end it right now before she gets into the habit of it. I see those wild kids on Supernanny and hope she never gets like that.

Pretty in Pink

I finally decided what Kendalls birthday is going to consist of. There really isn't going to be a theme other then EVERYTHING is going to be pink. I am going to get pirate booty from Costco and make up some white chocolate with pink food coloring and mix the 2 together and it will be a nice yummy treat. We will be having pink cupcakes with pink frosting and i am going to make a pink cake with pink frosting for Kendall. There will be pink lemonade and all the plates, napkins and cups are going to be pink I will also be getting pink balloons. I wonder how many more times i can say pink? I am also going to do some chips and dip and salsa and chips, which will not be pink only cause i think that would gross people out a little bit. It is going to be an afternoon party and will only be a couple hours long so Kendall or any of the other kids don't get overwhelmed. I made my own invitations and will be mailing them out today. I really wanted to put a picture of Kendall on them but i wasn't going to pay a photographer for 1 picture that would take weeks to get back. Since i am without a camera right now i just decided to do without it. They are still cute invitations and of course they are pink. It is going to be such a fun day for her and i cant believe in a couple weeks I am going to have a 1 year old, yikes the year went by fast.

*Within the next 24 hours Kendall is going to have a cousin :) we are really excited for that too. I was hoping they would have the same birthday but he decided he wanted to come 2 weeks early too.

Holy snowballs!!

Have I got a story for you!

Yesterday we had a gigantic snow storm, well it really started Tuesday night and it didn't stop snowing until late Wednesday evening. I leave work around 2:40 in order to pick Kendall up from daycare by 3. Because of the snow i left a little earlier around 2:30, the roads were such a mess, since snow was accumulating so fast, the plows were mostly concentrating on the highway and none of the side roads. The road to my house has a big hill on it and its used pretty frequently throughout the day so they are usually really good about plowing it. Well not yesterday. I decided to skip the gym and just go straight home before it got any worse out. I should have known not to try and go up it since the bottom flat was not even plowed, but i figured i could make it. About halfway up when it starts to get really steep i lost all momentum and couldn't get any traction to even move other then spin my tires. Rather then risk going off the road i just stopped, turned my flashers on and sat there cause there really wasn't anything i could do. I called my dad even though he couldn't help me but mostly just to see what i should do and go figure he didn't answer. I was literally just sitting there in the middle of the road, 1 car went past me and then a line started to form. A very nice kind gentleman came up and asked me to turn around or back down the hill and i was like umm no way but you can do it for me. So he got my car turned around and I was able to get myself and Kendall back to town where we proceeded to Jason's house and hung out there until my brother got off work and could give us a ride home. My car is still sitting in his driveway, where it will be until this storm clears, it is now raining and an icy, slushy mess outside. I drove my moms 4wheel drive jeep to work today.

I took this picture while i was at Jason's house, it is looking out the living room window onto how much snow is on the back porch. Looks fun huh??

A Christmas Story

Well its not really Christmas anymore, but i could help but think of the movie "A Christmas Story" this morning as I was bundling Kendall up to leave the house. She could still move around but she had on a little sweat suit that has a big sweater with it and also her coat, she was rather "puffy" but she was warm. At daycare they go outside every single day unless it is below 10 degrees and seeing as there is about 6 inches of snow on the ground today i wanted her to be really warm.

I made the decision to not invest in a snowsuit for her as she cant really do anything out in the snow, at daycare she gets pulled around in a sled since she cant walk yet, and when we are at home we don't really go outside. Sometimes we will go for a walk with her in the stroller and i bundle her up with a blanket and lots of clothes. Next year when she will be able to play in the snow i will get her one but for now i don't think it is necessary.

Once again, i have no camera to use. As you will remember I had been using my sisters, but since she left for school she took it with her. My mom has a camera but she downloads the pictures to her computer which i do not use. My phone obviously takes pictures, but i do not have a fancy expensive phone with an outrageous bill, i have a normal phone and the pictures always end up blurry cause Kendall cant sit still long enough for it to take a good one. So, I have decided I am going to buy myself a new camera. I will be getting a significantly larger tax return this year (thanks to Kendall and being a "single" parent). Big enough that i will be able to pay off 3 bills, buy myself a camera and still put some money into savings.

All I have to figure out now is what kind of camera to get. I need something that is very reliable and can take good quality pictures of a moving target. Anyone have any suggestions?

Where has the time gone?

I meant to post this yesterday then got super busy and forgot. My work hours have been cut not because we are slow and don't have the work, trust me its as busy as its ever been, but because my Lil Sis moved to go back to school and I now have to pick Kendall up from daycare by 3, which shaves an hour and a half of what i used to work. I still have to get the same amount of work done and it is proving to be a challenge, i cant keep up with the onslaught of orders we are receiving.

Anyways....

Kendall's 1st birthday is coming up and i have been struggling with trying to decide what to do. The more i think about it, the more people i come up with who need to be added to the list of people to invite and it looks to be turning into a major production, which i don't want. I will feel bad not inviting certain people but at the same time i don't want Kendall to be overwhelmed by all these people that could possibly be there. I think what my issue is, is i don't want to hurt any ones feelings by not inviting them. I think i have slightly gotten over it and it is just going to be a low key celebration with our closest friends and family people who she actually knows and recognizes. It will be best for her, and it is after all all about her :)

Chili

The other day we had a small low-key gathering of friends at Jason's house.

Tim, Jason's roommate, made diablos which are a jalapeno, cut in half and soaked in milk then stuffed with steak that has been marinated in bbq sauce and then to top it all off you wrap them in bacon and grill them. They are actually really good. I am not a jalapeno lover and not a fan of spicy foods, but these actually ended up being very sweet, the milk takes out almost all of the heat in the jalapenos. They have a sweet and smokey flavor.

Jason made chicken wings and they are awesome! It is currently one of his new favorite things to make so we have been eating them a lot. He fries them up in a deep fryer and then coats them in a sauce consisting of Louisiana hot sauce and butter. I like them when he mixes in a little bbq sauce in the the sauce mix, but mostly cause i am not a fan of really spicy things.

It took me a long time to figure out what to make, I wanted to do something tasty but easy. Chili had crossed my mind a couple times but i wasn't sure i wanted to make it. After a couple days of thinking about i just decided to make it since i couldn't come up with anything else. As soon as i mentioned it to Tim he was like you need to put bacon, steak and jalapenos in it. I told him he was crazy, there was no way i was putting bacon in chili, to me it just doesn't even sound good. When I find a recipe i always somehow manage to change and alter it into what i think it should be. A while back i found a chili recipe i thought was promising and tried it out, with my alterations it turned out pretty tasty. Here is my recipe as i made it:

1lb Ground beef

1/2 white onion, diced

3 stalks celery, diced

1 small green pepper, diced

1 Jalapeno, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 (10.7oz) cans crushed tomatoes

1 can diced tomatoes

2 (15oz) can kidney beans, with liquid

1 (15oz) can kidney beans, drained

Chili powder, as much as you feel necessary

Pepper, as much as you feel necessary

Couple dashes of hot sauce

In a skillet over medium high heat, cook ground beef until browned. Add in pepper, garlic, onion and let cook down for a couple minutes. Add everything into a pot and then season with however much seasoning you feel necessary, more of less whatever is your preference. Bring to a boil and then turn down and let simmer for at least 2 hours. Serve with sour cream and grated cheese on top.

* The first time i made this it called to cook it in the slow cooker for 8 hours. I did 6 and it started to burn to the sides of the cooker. It still tasted really good but i do not think it needs to cook for that long which is why i just cooked it in a pot on the stove this time. It was still just as good. Next time i think i might try to put steak in it instead of the ground beef.

She's a star

I know the quality of this picture is terrible, i took it with my phone this morning. Kendall is the "star" or the Good Morning too section of the newspaper today. I was dropping her off at daycare and her teacher told me and I was like ummmm i know nothing about it.

As soon as I saw it i knew the only person who would actually go to the newspaper and say you need to run this is Gabe her Great Grandpa.

He literally just called me saying her picture might be in the newspaper sometime soon and i got to be the lucky one to inform him that it indeed was in the paper today and then he had to rush of the phone real fast to go check it out at the library. I wonder how many copies he will buy.

So there we have it. My baby is sitting naked in a bowl of candy corn naked on the front page of our newspaper. Who doesn't love a naked baby?

****oh and for those of you who may be wondering her last name is not Strong-Murray it's just Strong, it is not hyphenated.

Gym Time!

Who can resist this face food and all???

I have started going back to the gym and I am really excited about it. Before I was pregnant with Kendall I went to the gym 5 days a week and got into great shape. Once I was pregnant I was seriously drained off all energy. I still went a few times, until i just couldnt do it anymore.

After taking the last year off due to being too "busy" with a baby I am focusing and getting back into the swing of things. I have been unhappy with how i looked lately because of how hard i worked. I did make excuses for a while because of Kendall and I know i didnt need to. Once I realized this i sprung into action.

This is not a New Years Resolution but I am utilizing the deal they have going on at the gym right now. I prepaid my membership for $175 for 5 months, there was no initiation fee and it comes out to around $28 a month, its regularly $31. They have got to be making a ton of money right now from people making resolutions.

Just from one day I am pretty sore, it hurts but it feels good and i know it will get better. Talk to me tomorrow after day 2 and i might tell you something else. I am really excited this worked out and I get to go. Starting next week after I pick Kendall up from daycare she will go to her dads or a sitter for an hour while i go to the gym. This week is a little trickier since I am still working until 4 but my sister is watching her after work for an extra hour.