Project 365: 244-261

September 1- We went to church today to see some friends bless their baby girl.  Addie had a wardrobe fail.  Watermelon summer dress, Christmas dove shoes.

September 2- My attempt at duplicating Wendy's berry almond chicken salad.  Nailed it.

September 3- Either teething was easier for Garrett, or Addie was "blessed" with all the drama skills in the family.  She's been a hot mess today and I blame it on a couple new teeth coming in.  Garrett maybe had a rough night or two, but nothing like this cute little drama queen. Ice cream helped for a minute.  Not really, but I had one and it helped me.

September 4- Give this girl a truck and a pool and it's a little slice of heaven on earth.  It's so stupid hot in California right now.  The pool is a life saver.

September 5- I feel like I haven't cooked in so long, (for the record, it was still too hot).  It took looking at four different chicken pot pie recipes before I decided I might have enough ingredients to make something that resembled a pot pie.  Turned out ok.  And both kids ate it.

September 6- Farmers Market breakfast.

September 7- It's been a long week with these two and their love/hate relationship.  Seeing this this morning while I was making breakfast was good for my heart.  Especially because they didn't know I was watching, and Garrett scooted closer to Addie, just because.

September 8- It's football season.  Addie doesn't know yet how big of a deal that is around here.  She better be checking my fantasy team.

September 9- Oh sweet relief!  I almost kissed my chiropractor just now, but I didn't want to make things awkward for next time.

September 10- I don't know what they're doing, but they're close to each other and I don't hear screaming.  Good enough for me.

September 11- I don't think the kids have ever seen the grandparents' door locked.  They were a bit confused.  They knocked and knocked...  Thankfully they were home so Paul and I could go on a date!  (By date I mean dinner in the car and counseling.  One of my favorite dates, really.)

September 12- Done and done.  Don't you wish you were going to the meeting these platters are going to?  Paul hosted a Transitional Care Task Force meeting with several funeral homes and hospice homes.

September 13- It's been a long week and we haven't seen much of Paul.  It was nice to go out to dinner and a long walk together tonight.

September 14- Garrett got an early birthday present today.  He's upgrading from a crib sized toddler bed, or as he calls it, the big boy bed, to a twin size bed, or as he calls it, the big BIG boy bed.

September 15- Not to be all, "Hey Paul, here's some salt for you wound."  But his team is done and I still have one more game. (I'm White Noise.)

September 16- This week is shaping up to be full of chores and errands I don't want to do.  But look at the pretty tree I parked under at one of my stops today.

September 17- I'm fine.  Just wearing a heart monitor for the next 24 hours, but I'm fine.  Really.

September 18- I took the kids today to cash in all their pennies at a coinstar.  It was pretty exciting to walk in with pennies and walk out with "paper monies!"  They made $8.91!  I kept the 91 cents cuz I drove them and gas ain't free.

Garage sales, Utah friends, a pool party, and football.

I went to a couple yard sales early last Saturday morning before anyone woke up.  I got home in time for Paul to go to work and then when they kids were up I loaded them in the car and we went out for more.  I could see this easily becoming my new addiction.  I'm not afraid to talk the seller down.  And the key is to not get too excited about the item before you get it down to the price you want, and don't be afraid to walk away from a stubborn seller.  These tips could get you a pair of matching night stands, a restaurant style high chair, and a plastic play slide, for 5 dollars, TOTAL.  However, to keep you from thinking I'm really THAT GOOD, I found the night stands near the close of the yard sale, and as soon as I walked up to them, the seller said, "Do you want those?  If you take them now, you can have them for free."  Yes please!  Play kitchen for Addison, here I come!

After I came off of my yard sale high, the kids and I and my mother in law went to a birthday party for our massage therapist's son.  We don't even know her son, but we won't turn down a pool party and a barbecue on a hot afternoon.

The kids had a great time.  Addie is fearless in the water.  And just like Garrett she doesn't mind getting splashed in the face, over and over.  This was the first time in a pool since learning to crawl and she was loving it.  I'm glad my kids love the water and I'm wishing I would have found somewhere for swimming lessons this summer.

This was the entertainment for the big kids.  Garrett loved watching, but wasn't interested in trying it out himself.

Last Sunday morning we met some Utah friends, the Mchenry's, for breakfast before they headed out of town.  They are both from CA, and were here visiting family.  It was weird, (and kind of nice) to not be the ones with a 12 hour drive ahead of us.  We usually meet up with friends for breakfast on our trips back to California from Utah, and this time we were on the other end of that tradition.

I think Addie has a new crush...

But by the looks of things, I'll probably need to teach her how to play hard to get.

I love when Paul dresses the kids.  He always does a great job at finding a matching headband for Lulu, and he dresses Garrett and himself alike.  It's pretty cute.

Tuesday afternoon Paul came home for lunch and he was WAY excited.  He'd found some tickets to the pre-season Chargers game in San Diego for Thursday, and they just so happened to be playing the Packers!  For those of you who don't know, the White family is full of hard core Packers fans.  Yes, I still love the Seahawks, and I still also always root for whoever is playing against the Steelers, but I'm a Packers fan through marriage, and I don't think I stand a chance with the kids, so they are Packers fans, too.

So we went to the game with Phil and Annie.  The kids were free, so they came, too.  It was a lot of fun.  Garrett loved it.  I don't know that Addie ever looked at the football field, but she did great and got a ton of compliments, even from Charger fans, on being a cute tiny little Packer fan.

I can't get enough of this happy girl!  But she finally started to run out of steam (bottom right picture).

Garrett found a way to stay awake!

Don't they look like true Packer fans?

It was a long day, and a lot of traffic and time in the car, but worth it to me just to look at Aaron Rodgers see the Packer's play.  They lost, but that's ok, just saving it for regular season.

The next day, both kids slept in, but it was time for a White family vacation, so I finally had to wake Garrett up at 10:00am to leave with his Grandma and Dude-pa.  They went a few hours before the rest of us.  Who knows how long he woulda slept...  More on the vacation later.

Superbowl

The Superbowl is a big deal in the White family. Especially is the Packers are playing. So Sunday I was a Packers fan, the other 364? Seahawks . I'm accepting that Garrett doesn't stand a chance when it comes to choosing a team, I think the Packer fans outnumber me...I'm starting to accept it.

I love Superbowl Sunday. I love all the details of a good party, especially if a team I care about is playing, or a team I hate. And when it comes to hating an NFL team, the Steelers are at the top of my list. So Sunday was a win/win.

I was in charge of the healthy stuff (green salads, fruit bowls, vegi trays), appetizers (spinach artichoke dip and 7 layer bean dip), and dessert (cupcakes, sugar cookies, muddy buddies, caramel popcorn) and my mother-in-law made the sheet cookie with the G on it. My father-in-law did the sides and the meat. Cole slaw, baked beans, potatoes, garlic bread, corn on the cob, crackers and cheese, ribs, pulled pork sandwiches, smoked wild turkey, elk steaks, chicken wings,tri -tip steak, and salmon... I think I remembered everything. One person described it like a Brazilian restaurant. A buffet of endless sides, and meat that just kept coming, and coming, and coming... I think I overheard that there was over 50 lbs. of meat cooked for the occasion.We watched the game at the funeral home. It was perfect. A chapel with a 50 something inch flat screen and a reception room with a buffet table and round tables to eat at as well as a projector with the game on in there too. Speakers through out the building, tons to eat and drink and 40+ people coming in and out. Oh, and a win for the Packers. Success!!!On a separate but related note, Paul's grandma passed away a month ago. She was in Colorado and didn't want a funeral, she wanted a party. So yesterday was he perfect day because she was also a hug football/Packers fan. An hour before the game Phil did a toast to his mom. He explained everything in the picture below. The donuts because of her huge love of donuts. The toilet paper and butter because she only agreed to marry her husband if he promised that no matter how poor they were, they'd always have soft toilet paper and real butter, and the Packers gnome and her remains. It was short and sweet. We all raised a glass (mug), had a drink and went out back and shattered the mugs. Then we watched the best Superbowl ever, ate a lot and had a great time.GO PACKERS!!!