I owe all of you an explanation.

Because it's quite unforgivable, what I've been doing. But there have been several rather large events relating to our state of having internet. Here goes.

First, we discovered that we were being swindled by CableOne. Yeah, I'm posting that on my blog, you company. I'm telling my friends how awful you are. Want to know why they're awful? Because we had absolutely no knowledge of our being only allowed 1GB of data a month until we received a notification that we were being charged extra for going over our data. RUDE. We cancelled their service immediately.

But first, we used the last day of service to research new internet. We discovered a new one, (and read ALL the fine print) but then, when we looked at our bank account, found out that My IDENTITY WAS STOLEN! HIDE YOUR DEBIT AND CREDIT CARDS! LOCK UP YOUR CHILDREN! DON'T LET THEM FIND YOU!

Yeah, I may have freaked out just a little. Anyhow, we reported it, and while we've been waiting for the bank to help us clear things up, we've been without internet. So I haven't blogged. Right now I'm using my parents' internet because I came up to their house to use their car to go to the dentist. My cheek is practically sagging off of my face with numbness. But not as much as Mike's did last fall, though. They even remembered him for the magnitude of dental work he had done in October. Wow.

I hereby declare that my next blog post will have LOTS of cute pictures on it. So you should probably check this thing once or twice a day starting next week, and definitely comment a couple of times. Just in case, you know?

Merry Christmas, Happy Anniversity!

Well, I hope you all survived and didn't die of majorly gluttonous decisions like I almost did. It was quite the delicious holiday this year. Except that a couple of sad things happened. I'll get those out of the way first.

First, as I was attempting to fix the settings on my wee little camera, I accidentally wiped my memory card. Like, I lost all the pictures from the first day of our trip. Sad . . .

And I don't know if I saved all the pictures from the rest of December because of the second bit of sad news, which is that my computer is dying. I'm currently writing on Mike's computer. My computer is dying slow, sad, painful death, and I don't want to turn it on again until I have a hard drive or something to save all my music and pictures on just in case the thing dies suddenly in the night. *Sniff sniff*

So, electronically I've been having some grief. Literally, like mourning a death. But other that that I had a good time! We totally needed to get out of town, and it was amazing getting to spend time with Mike's whole family, even if there were 13 to the table.

We flew to Seattle Friday night before Christmas and Katie DEFINITELY loved it. She was busy the whole time trying to mess with the trays, looking out the window, and flirting with Uncle Brett behind us. It was ridiculous. Then she fell asleep as soon as we stuck her in her car seat to drive home from the airport, and didn't wake up until 7:30 the next morning.

We had a really good time not really doing anything all weekend and just playing games and relaxing and eating sugary things the neighbors dropped off. It was awesome. And it ended exactly how vacations are supposed to end: by not wanting to go home. But we did Monday night. And I can't really complain because the reason we didn't get a whole week of vacation is that Mike has a job and can support our family again. Sigh . . .

But we had a good time. We took family pictures, had a lovely relaxing Sunday morning Christmas, and played a lot of board games and word games. Also, Katie and her cousins are SO cute together. I can't even stand it.

Then, on Tuesday, we had our 3rd anniversary. Can you believe it? I can't. It's weird. We're practically OLDY WEDS. Ew. But we went to Olive Garden and actually ordered dessert and it was really fun. And Katie got to hang with her aunties and uncles. Not the Washington ones, though, because we were already home because Mike had to work. Sigh . . .

And that's about it. I'm not feeling particularly funny today. Oh! Yesterday afternoon after my eyeball appointment, my mom and I ran to the grocery store. When we went into the store, it was bright and sunshiny and I was having a hard time because my eyes were still really dilated. But when we came out, the sun was off in the distance and there was a storm front coming toward us of almost cartoon proportions! (I'm not kidding. The thing totally had a growly face on it.) It was coming faster than an airplane would and we had to run to our car so we wouldn't get hit by lightning. Other unsuspecting Albertson's customers were becoming casualties right and left! (yeah, I'm just kidding. I've probably been reading too much Calvin and Hobbes.)

Anyhow, we dashed home through pelting hail that was piling up in the gutters and almost looked like a foot of snow except it was snow that hurts. And you know what? By the time we got the groceries out of the car, it was just a light rain and the storm part had passed. Holy cow, can you say brush with death?

And now it's all sunshiny outside. Happy New Year!

Big news. BIG news.

No, I'm not pregnant. How dare you for thinking that anyhow? Geez . . .

Actually, we moved. (!!!!!) Yes, quite. To a cute little slice of house (i.e., townhouse) of which I have not taken any pictures yet except for those of Katie's eating utensil adventures. And those pretty much only show the high chair and some radiant light from my enormous sliding-glass door of a kitchen window. Muahaha. (I'll probably be convinced by my conscience that I need to post said utensil pictures, so they'll probably be at the end of this post. If I feel guilty enough.)

I do owe all of you an apology for neglecting my blog for the last several weeks, but I have not had internet in my new place until today. So, terribly sorry, dear friends. Because I know you've all been drooling over your computers for the last few weeks every day hoping to see a new post, and then been terribly disappointed.

Anyways, so we moved in on Saturday the 3rd, and my life ever since has been wholly consumed with diaper rash and what the heck is causing it. Our conclusion? Our water had all kinds of gunk in it and we needed to buy a new Brita filter, and also Katie is MAJORLY allergic to Boudreaux's Butt Paste (my mom won't say that word. I heard her not say it to my dad and he laughed.) Like, it made her poor little bummy blister. What the heck? How could you be so cruel to children?

Aside from the blisters, though, the change to our own apartment has been amazing. Let me explain. The #1 reason we were so anxious to get out of my parents' basement was so that Katie could have her own bedroom and leave us the heck alone. I was tired of waking up every morning with a fat lip and a black eye, and I know Mike was tired of getting kicked out of bed every night at 4 am. Quite literally.

So, almost as soon as we got here, we determined to teach Katie to sleep in her own bed. Which means that we decided on a bedtime routine and put it into effect, and Katie put herself to sleep while Mike let me sob on his shoulder. Oh no! I mean, um, while I stalwartly made her deal with things . . . um . . . yeah, okay. I bawled the first three nights.

But now! She does cry a little when I make her let me brush her two teeth, but after her story and all seven (four in English and three in Portuguese) verses of "I am a Child of God," she even lets me tuck her in, sighs a little bit and is asleep before I even get downstairs. And guess when her bedtime is? 8 or 8:30 pm. And guess when she wakes up? 8:30 or 9 am. HALLELUJAH!!!!

And now a few pictures of the last few weeks to make up for my not having internet.

Yes, that is bacon. Maple bacon cupcakes. I made them for my bro Parker because . . . (drum roll please) . . . he's an Eagle Scout! Congrats, man!

Preface to the next couple pictures: The other day, I was feeding Katie some yogurt, and she was starting to get really bored of it, so I assumed she was full. I left her in her chair to talk to me while I was putting up Christmas decorations, but I also unthinkingly left the half-full thing of yogurt on her tray. I turned around after a couple of nativities and saw this:

Yay! Learning to use a utensil! I thought it was very cute and got all excited because she was actually trying to spoon yogurt into her mouth like I had done. So I let her continue and got out the camera, naturally. After a few minutes, however, it went from cute little spoonfuls to outright frenzy.

Is yogurt a good exfoliant? Maybe so. But she had a good amount of fun. And then it got even better because I had to strip her naked and give her a bath to get the yogurt out of her eyelashes and out of her armpits. And I'm not exaggerating. At all. Then she got to wear a cute new pink outfit while she waited at the window for Daddy to get home from work.

And well, I had to put these pictures up. We went back to my parents' for dinner and discovered that they had Christmas-ified their house now that they didn't have a 1-year-old living with them to knock everything over. But it's okay, because Katie matched. (Please pay attention to the tights. I want somebody to find them in adult sizes so I can get some for me.)

I'm kinda loving life right now. The only big problem with living here? I don't have a single cup of powdered sugar with which to make delicious cupcakes and frosting because I haven't gone grocery shopping since our initial stock-up. Horrible thought.

Three steps, Two teeth, One supersonic-speed Autumn!

Do you guys realize that it's already Thanksgiving? And therefore almost wintertime? What the bananas?

Anyhow, happy November all you happy blog-followers! (I know that I posted in November already, but really, that was about Halloween. SO not the same thing.)

We have a few big items of business to share.

Number one: Katie has officially taken her first steps. It happened a couple weeks ago that she took two steps in the kitchen by herself (Abuelo-->Mommy) but besides that, she's been pretending like she's gonna walk and then proceeded to fall with style. It's really not the same thing.

But this last weekend, she started again, and took not one, not two, but THREE steps (Tio Parker-->Mommy) meaning that it's only a matter of seconds before she starts kindergarten, graduates high school, and then starts moving away and being a grown-up! (sniff, sniff)

Yeah, I'm freaking out a little bit right now.

Our next item of business is that this little booger baby of mine has also broken out TWO of her teeth in the last week. The two front bottom teeth, to be exact. It has been SO MUCH FUN. : \

Translation: the whole time she was teething she would NOT sleep in her bed, mommy. No way. So I spent the whole last week sitting in the rocking chair, waking up every time my head fell over uncomfortably because she would only sleep if I was holding her. So she was plenty rested. Me? Well, ask my brothers how many times I burst into hysterical tears because somebody was tapping their feet or something. Yeah.

And because I've been at the end of my rope, I've been letting her sleep in my bed. Translation: I'm never going to be able to sleep in my bed nice and comfortable EVER AGAIN. Yeah. I can't even teach her how to sleep properly because she's in our room. Slightly inconvenient at times.

On the good side, Mike has a job, we're not starving to death, and we sure as heck don't have any debt. We really have a lot to be thankful for. Want to hear a preliminary list?

The Savior, the temple, families, scriptures, prayer, family home evening, the earth, chocolate, diapers, toothpaste, dentists, the internet, spinach, cupcakes, boots, hats, scarves, sweaters, blogs, doctors, nurses, blankets, cribs, baby monitors, enchiladas, steak, pie, digital cameras, pianos, cellos, iPods, cellular telephones, cars, bikes, education, contact lenses, mascara, debit cards, deodorant, mattresses, Christmas, turkey, indoor plumbing, baby wipes, running water, gas stoves, sprinkles, oreos, m&ms, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, grapes, airplanes, hairspray, shampoo, missionaries, staplers, jeans, slippers, the Red Sox, Disney, lasagna, Alexandre Dumas, printers, publishers, General Conference, ballet . . .

Bo Peep has found her sheep! or, Boy is Katie a party animal!

Yes, this is the post you've all been waiting for. Unfortunately, Katie just woke up. Hold on a while.

Okay! It is now three days later and my mom has agreed to distract Katie long enough for me to actually finish this blog. (So don't feel bad if the date says last Friday and you think you just forgot to check my blog. Because you didn't.) (Except I just discovered that it does say it's Monday. The new blogger is smarter than the last one.)

Happy a week after Halloween!!! This has been probably the best week we've had in a lot of months. Here's why.

FIRST - While we were hangin' with Amy and Jared, Mike got an email from our secret inside source at St. Luke's saying that there was going to be a job opening and that she had given her supervisor Mike's resume. The Thursday before Halloween, he had an interview. They really liked him and he thought all of his answers were good. Then, last Friday (the day I began this post even though it's Monday now) Mike got a voicemail from St. Luke's HR. Today he called them back because they didn't answer on Friday, and he's been hired!!!!! He gets to go in on Wednesday to kill some trees and get a physical and a drug test, and he starts NEXT MONDAY!!! WE HAVE A JOB!!!! BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!

SECOND - As many of you know, one of the reasons we still live with my parents is that shortly after coming to Boise, and right after we got off BYU's fantastic insurance, my dear husband got appendicitis and incurred a LOT of hospital bills. We paid off all the little ones, but it kind of wiped us out, so we had nothing left for the big fat hospital bill that made up most of our expenses. In our desperation, we applied for financial aid from the hospital, not expecting anything because we clicked 'no' on the "did you apply for medicaid?" question.

Then, the Saturday before Halloween, we got a letter telling us that we qualified for financial aid and that the hospital was waiving ALL of our debt. (!!!!!!!!!!!) We are out of debt. It almost feels surreal. I would put more capital letters and exclamation points but I don't think there are enough in my computer to express this adequately.

THIRD - well, frankly, it was Halloween. What could be better?

Happy Halloween! Hope you had as much of a sugar buzz hangover as we had!

Shhh! Secret Post!

Don't tell anybody, but I'm writing on my blog. On Gram's laptop in her kitchen. We're out here because Mike's sister Amy and her family came out to play with us and we needed a break also. But I'm secretly posting on my blog real quick.

Today I'm going to make these cupcakes:

http://mimis-kitchen.blogspot.com/2011/10/mummy-cupakes.html

Holy Monsters, I'm so excited! I already made some chocolate cupcakes (Katie's cousin, Spencer, says those are his favorite) and next we're gonna make some mummies.

Aren't you excited too?


ALSO: I just have discovered that this is my 200th BLOG POST!!! WOOOHOOOOO! To celebrate, I will now post one of the scariest pictures you could ever see in your entire life!

Are you ready?

I bet you weren't ready. I sure wasn't. But there it is.

Happy 200th blog post everybody!

It's raining, it's pouring, the Katie is snoring!

Well, actually, we all are snoring. I've heard I've got a rather impressive rumble myself. The point is that all this unnecessary and rather inconsiderate moisture has caused our family to be all full of  yucky congestion. Including the Katie. I mean, seriously.

Speaking of my crazy baby, I have a funny story. So, last night I had one of the creepiest dreams ever. It had to do with a hangman and cannibals and . . . um, let's stop talking about that.

Anyhow, Katie woke me up from that dream really early this morning, and I was mega mega mega creeped out. So I brought her in bed with me to feed her back to sleep, and I shook Mike awake and was like, "Mike, I had a creepy dream!" And of course, my sweet husband said, "mmm, grumble grumble, don't be scared," and proceeded to sleep some more.

Needless to say, that wasn't particularly comforting. So, I huddled in a ball, trembling in terror at the thought of creepy cannibals coming to eat me. Also, I couldn't put Katie back in her bed for fear that said cannibals would come take my sweet baby.

But there's a problem with that. Remember how I said that Katie likes my bed much better than hers? Well, I've never told you how she sleeps. See, when I put Katie in her crib, she sleeps pretty soundly and only turns over a couple of times. Unfortunately, when she gets in my bed, her true self comes out . . . Kung Fu Katie! (bwa bwa bwaaaaaaa!)

You guys remember Kung Fu Katie, don't you? From way back before Katie was even born? (Whoa, that was a long time ago.) Well, she's still a rather intimidating force. Especially with her ability to get all snuggly long enough for you to fall asleep, then suddenly simultaneously kick you in the esophagus and squish your head with her 20-pound diaper bum, all while doing her best imitation of a banshee. Rinse and repeat.

So . . . I didn't get very much sleep last night. My own fault? Yes. A rather entertaining story (now that it's daylight)? Also yes.