Payback

Avery has recently discovered that we have a cat. Up until about two weeks ago the cats didn't seem to hold much interest for her but recently she gets super excited and starts to growl a little bit every time she sees Miles. I say Miles because Tisha is smart enough to stay the heck away from the crazy grabby small person. It's funny, Miles likes a lot of attention and he doesn't seem to mind if to get it he has to put up with getting fur grabbed, pulled and licked. For some reason Avery likes to try to lick him. She'll get a handful of tail and then lean forward for a taste. I try to intervene before she actually gets fur in her mouth but I don't always succeed. We're trying to teach her to "be nice" to the kitty and to pet not grab the poor cat. So far the lesson hasn't stuck but hopefully one of these days it will.
I don't feel too bad for Miles as he is our "cat from hell". Did I mention that he popped the water bed again (third time in three months.) Luckily this time the damage was minimal and we're patching the mattress with super glue. For those of you who haven't gotten the low down on the drama of Miles and the water bed here's a quick update. We have no entrance to our basement except a stairwell with a sharp corner in it. We can't get a big mattress downstairs thus the water bed. We put a drop ceiling up in the spare bedroom that Miles caved in twice (even though we thought we'd sealed up all entrances to the ceiling) and it was on these two events that he came through the ceiling and tried to eat the water bed. He succeeded in eating the bed both times. It's been a ball of laughs I tell you.
So I'm thinking that Avery's new found interest in Miles might be payback for all the stupid stuff he's done. I'll try to remember that next time it's midnight and I discover that the carpet in the spare bedroom is soaked with water.

Snowballing!

For those of you who don't know Jeff and I are doing a few house projects at the moment. What started out as a small remodel on our main floor 1/2 bath has turned into a bath/kitchen/hallway remodel. Yikes! Once we started demoing the bathroom we decided that we needed a new floor and me being the ever optimist thought that laying ceramic tile would be easy (mostly because Jeff would be laying it) and would look great. Once I decided that was what I wanted, my dear hubby informed me that we couldn't just lay tile in the bathroom since it butts up against ugly linoleum in our hallway that extends into the kitchen. He said the only way he'd lay a new floor is if we also did the hallway and the kitchen. Silly me I figured, "sweet what a great way to get the hubby to lay all of the ceramic tile at once." What I didn't figure is what a pain in the ass laying ceramic linoleum in that entire area was going to be. For starters we had this ugly ridiculous avocado green garbage disposal in a corner of our kitchen where a garbage disposal was never meant to be. To make matters worse the doorknobs that put the disposal in (which has never worked by the way) decided it didn't look right without a cabinet over it (even though there are no other cabinets on the entire wall). This was a great example of, just because you have a space doesn't mean you have to fill it with crap! So last week when Jeff decided to pull out the disposal and the cupboard we learned that the ugly paneling that was put all over the kitchen walls was not placed behind these areas, thus we had to pull all the paneling off the entire back wall and replace it with sheet rock. Okay, wanted to do that anyways so I wasn't too freaked out about that. It was also at this time, however, that we learned that some idiot (probably the same one that put the avocado green garbage disposal in) laid asbestos tile all over the floor that linoleum was placed on top of. So we've got like one inch of flooring laid down that will cost us roughly four grand to get properly removed - awesome. It was at this point we decided we would leave the entire floor down and lay the tile on top of everything. Which, on the bright side, is kind of nice because we don't have to rip the linoleum up but we are going to have to get creative in transitioning from the ceramic tile to the wood floors that are in the rest of the house. We also figured that since the floor was going to be new in the kitchen our yellow circa 1970s counter top just wouldn't fit in anymore. Did they ever?? That's when we got the bright idea that we could create concrete counter tops like our friends Robin and Trev did (their's look awesome). This is very exciting but adds to the workload. To top everything off, Jeff wants to lay the tile over New Years since we both have four days off. That means we have to get the underlayment down, the sheet rock up and perphataped and I'd love to get the walls painted all before the deadline of December 28th. It's at this time that I have to remind everyone that I don't have all of my Christmas crap done. So no stress what so ever in the Kline household. What cracks me up is how we bring this all on ourselves. I do have hope in the fact that all past projects have turned out great, minus a few fights between my darling hubby and I during the process. So wish us luck with not only getting everything done but with not having nervous break downs or divorce procedings along the way. Now do you see what I mean by snowballing:)

PS - no panic attacks yet from the excitement of Christmas so at least I've got that going for me!
PSS - pictures to follow!

Pics that didn't make the cards.

So we got our Christmas cards out to most everyone with a few exceptions (tracking down addresses) but here are a couple of pictures that didn't make the cut, but are still pretty darn cute. Our camera is going on the fritz so the pics aren't the best quality - might be time for a new camera. But you get the jist. Oh and we did manage to get a ton of Christmas related stuff done last weekend. The lefse's made, a ton of presents wrapped and we baked a few batches of cookies. I'm giving up on getting lights up this year. I figure this late in the game, what's the point. Plus it's been really cold here! Although I feel like a little bit of a putz since a couple of our neighbors have kick ass light displays up. Oh well, that's something to strive for next year huh! We'll be back in Great Falls for the holiday. We're doing Christmas with Jeff's Dad Sunday, my family Monday and Jeff's Mom's family Tuesday. Busy but fun and I'm getting excited for it. I'm also hoping Jeff and I can squeeze a movie in. I really want to see, " No country for old men." I just love the Coen Brother's movies. With no family in Butte and my craziness with letting anyone else watch Avery, we don't get the chance to go out much without the kid. If we go I'll give a little review!! Oh and I just wanted to tell Chris to try and talk Tonya into going back so we can see you guys too :) If that doesn't work out, then we'll have to hook up again soon. Okay that's it for now. 12 days and counting!!

PS Avery's latest cute thing = roaring (I think she learned it at daycare) it's hilarious, she growls too :)

Great Risotto recipe

Last night we went to dinner at a friend's house and she made the best Risotto. She put rosemary, bacon and kidney beans in hers and it was awesome. Definitely worth making. Here's the recipe.

Basic Risotto—Microwavable

2 Tbsp unsalted butter

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 c. minced yellow onion (can substitute celery for some or all if you prefer)

1 c. Arborio rice

3 c. chicken broth

2 tsp. Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Freshly grated parmesan cheese

Heat butter and oil in a 10” quiche or deep pie dish, uncovered at 100% for two minutes.

Add onions and stir to coat.

Cook uncovered for 4 minutes.

Add rice and stir to coat.

Cook, uncovered, for 4 more minutes.

Stir in broth and cook uncovered for 9 minutes.

Stir well and cook another 9 minutes.

Remove from oven and let stand, uncovered for 5 minutes to let rice absorb remaining liquid.

Stir in salt, pepper and parmesan, as desired.

From Barbara Kafka’s Microwave Gourmet

To Tweak it:

add some fresh, chopped rosemary

a little chopped bacon

cooked beans—cranberry/kidney/snowcap

add the rosemary when you add the broth

add the cooked beans when you start the second round of 9 minutes for the broth

add the bacon when youre adding the salt pepper and parm.

Christmas Decorations

Here's some pics of what I've gotten done so far.

Our entryway with the Christmas town.
Our tree

We still need to get a stocking for Avery!

You're kidding right!

Okay so I just had a slight panic attack. I was checking out my day planner to see what needed to be done at work this week and it dawned on me that there are only three weeks until Christmas (literally) I'm not joking. Three flipping weeks. What happened to four weeks until Christmas? For some reason four weeks sounded doable but three well that's just not enough time to get everything done! So I've been sitting here contemplating everything that I still need to do. Luckily I've got a great start on my present buying, although I still have a couple of people that I have no idea what I'm getting them. I haven't baked a darn thing and for those of you who know me well, that is a rarity. So I've decided that this weekend is going to be my "finishing up the Christmas crap weekend!" I know there are probably some of you out there who think I'm crazy and think that there is all the time in the world left, but I like everything done at least a week ahead of time. So wish me luck in staving off a true panic attack! I'll update you next Monday on how the plan to get everything done this weekend went. Here's wishing all of you a panic attack free and hopefully productive three weeks before Christmas! There should be a law that mandates the week before Christmas as a Holiday so women with high expectations for the Holiday can get everything done.

The Craziness of Christmas!

It never fails that the day after Thanksgiving I start thinking about Christmas and how I can't believe it's only a few weeks away. Actually I think about Christmas starting in about July and holding true to my past I already have gifts bought and lists made out. I'm already thinking about what to bake and what's left to buy. It's such a crazy time of year but I love it. This year is going to be extra special since we'll be celebrating with Avery. I've already bought her two Christmas dresses and Grandma Kari bought her another outfit so she's all ready for the big day. Jeff and I went and chopped down a tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Avery slept in the car the whole time, which was actually really nice since it was freezing out. Butte's been getting below zero at night and it's not much warmer during the day. I started decorating the house so I thought I'd post a couple shots to show you what's been done (obviously I haven't gotten around to doing that yet but they're coming). The plan is to get the decorating finished and the lights up this weekend. For me these few weeks before Christmas are best part of winter (probably because I'm not sick of it yet.) Enjoy the next four weeks because they're going to fly by and before you know it we'll be into the bleak months of freezing cold that never seem to end. I want to wish all my blog readers a fantastic and hopefully low stress holiday season (yeah right huh). I'll get those pictures up soon. 26 DAYS AND COUNTING.

Thanksgiving in Butte

It was Avery's first Thanksgiving and we were lucky enough to have Grandma Lori, Grandpa Dave and her cousin's the Dalton's (Chris, Tonya, Ronnie and Rhiannon) eat with us. It was such a nice day. Avery with Grandma Lori before dinner. (note that she's still clean) She's also shoe and sockless. The kid has figured out how to take her shoes and socks off. Since we had a fire going and it was a holiday I decided it wasn't worth the fight to try and keep them on :)
Avery shoving her face with dinner. The broccoli was a big hit.

Me with Ronnie and Rhiannon. Rhiannon had the cutest sweater on.
On Friday Jeff and Chris took the kids sledding in our backyard. Our yard has a small hill in it that works great for sledding. Ronnie had a blast and Jeff even took Avery down a couple of times. She laughed when they got to the bottom of the hill. Here's a picture of us outside. It was pretty cold so we didn't stay out long but the guys sledded for a couple of hours. Thanks again everyone for making the drive to Butte to eat with us!

For Grandpa Lucero

When I had Avery last March, her Grandpa Lucero was in Las Vegas at the Nascar races. He bought her this outfit to give to her when he got back. She's just fitting into it so I thought I'd post a picture for him.

New Tooth

This was not an easy picture to get!

You can almost see it :)

The Meaning of Excitement

I’ve decided what the most exciting thing is in the world. There was a time in my life, roughly a year and a half ago, when asked this question I’d probably have said, “going on vacation, having reservations at a nice restaurant, riding a roller coaster,” but a lot has changed in the last year and my entire view of what constitutes excitement has changed as well.

Now I’m excited if my child takes more then a 30 minute nap or sleeps in until 7 a.m. I’m excited when my kid eats a new food that she’s never tried before or sits up by herself for an extended period of time. Heck I’m even excited when she wakes up in the morning and hasn’t peed through her diaper, sleeper and bedding. But this last weekend I discovered the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life! Avie started saying da da and ma ma!

Da da came first. The little runt woke Daddy up Sunday morning at 6:30 a.m. yelling it. Usually we can at least get her to play in bed until 7 but that morning (it was Jeff’s weekend morning to get up with her) Daddy jumped right out of bed. How can you not go play with a kid who has just made your day.

Then yesterday she started saying ma ma ma ma! She’s being saying Mom for awhile, but it usually only comes out when she’s fussy and pissed about something. She’d wine and then say Mum at the end. But now she truly says ma ma. It might be the cutest and it’s definitely the most exciting thing I’ve ever heard in my life. She’s a genius and I now truly and firmly believe that.

It’s crazy how much one little person can change your life. My life must have been so boring a year and a half ago. I just need to remember that the next time she’s teething or throwing up in the back of my car. Avie makes every day an exciting adventure and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!

How can that much puke come out of someone so small??

Yeah that's right, a child the size of my Avery should not physically be able to throw up enough to completely saturate: herself, her carseat, the blanket we had over her legs and the 18 toys we use to keep her happy in the car.

Okay backtrack, so here's the story. On Saturday Jeff and I got a wild hare and decided that it would be a great day to cruise over to Missoula and pick up the tile from Lowes that we've been talking about getting for the past couple of months. We also thought we'd get a hold of a few friends while we were there and eat a little sushi before we headed home. Sounded like a great plan and a pretty cool day.

We took off around 1:00 since Avery slept longer then usual for her morning nap (the first missed sign that all was not well). After two hours of sleep we finally went into her room and started putting clothes away, which woke her up instantly. We then crammed her lunch down her, which she only half heartedly ate (clue number two that we missed.) After thirty minutes of preparing Avery for the less then two hour drive we were ready to go.

Jeff and I are always in a great mood when we know we're going to Missoula. Even though we've been in Butte for almost three years (yikes) we still think of Missoula as home. So there we are cruising down the highway, listening to good music and in fantastic moods because Missoula looms in our near future when I hear a little noise coming from the backseat. A little noise that I've never really heard before, however, the mother in me knows that it's not a good noise. Not a noise you want your child making in the backseat of a car. I looked back just in time to see my daughter spew forth enough throw up to fill a small truck. Okay I'm exaggerating, but it was a lot. A lot more then any mother wants to see coming out of her child while driving on the interstate in Montana.

Of course we were no where near a rest stop since we had just passed that only rest stop from Butte to Missoula, so lucky me I had to turn in my seat and attempt to clean the child up while cruising down the highway. Not as easy as it sounds :)

Luckily we had plastic diaper bags to stuff all the gunked up stuff into. Also luckily, I managed to clean up the mess without gunking up the backseat myself (I'm known to have a somewhat weak stomach, especially when I'm turned backwards in a moving vehicle).

Thankfully, the last leg of the trip went by minus any more sickness related disasters. When we finally got into town our first stop was TJ Max were I bought the kid a new outfit (which I had to change her out of about an hour later due to mud butt) and a new blanket.

The rest of the trip was a little less eventful. We got our tile at Lowes ( Jeff's winter house project will be laying tile in the kitchen and main floor bathroom along with remodeling the main floor bathroom).

Then we met a couple of friends for dinner at Nara Sushi, which was great. We caught up with Robin and Trev and then cruised home.

I had hoped to go over and see Jill and Griffin but figured that they might not appreciate me bringing the stomach flu into their home.

Avery was a trooper and slept most of the car ride home. The poor kid wasn't herself yesterday either but seemed to be doing better this morning.

We managed to battle, and I think win, our first encounter with the stomach flu.

What have I learned from this experience:

1. To bring gallon sized plastic bags with me when I travel.

2. That when your child, who usually shoves food down like she hasn't eaten in a month, wants to stop eating after only 1/2 of the usual quantity of food is down, something might be wrong.

3. To always bring at least four (yeah you heard it right four) extra outfits with you on any day long road trip no matter how many hours you plan on being gone.

4. Finally, always expect the unexpected. (You'd think after 8 months I'd have figured this one out but things just keep popping up!)

Jeff's only helpful comment regarding the whole situation, " Maybe we should start listening to her when she acts like she doesn't want to eat." Mmmm you think?

Easy Crock Pot French Dip Recipe

I know how hard it is to work 40 hours a week, take care of a small child (and a husband) and try to make yummy dinners every night that consist of more then a grilled cheese. So I thought I'd share a great and super easy recipe. I can't take credit for this one, however, as my Mom told me about it.

Things you need:
1 crockpot
2 packets au ju sauce mix
1 roast (any kind works event the cheap ones)
1 medium onion
pack of hogie buns

Put the au ju into the crock pot and make as directed. I add an additional cup or two of water. Slice up the onion and put that into the au ju. Place the roast into the juice and cook on low all day or on high for like four hours. The meat literally flakes apart and is perfect for placing on the rolls. Use the au ju for dip and whalla - easy French dips. I usually make everything up the night before and stick the crock pot into the fridge so I can just pull it out and turn it on in the morning! Goes great with tater tots, fries or a vegie side.

Avery's photo shoot

Avery got her pictures taken last weekend by Cindy Cieluch. We ran over for the day Saturday just so she could get her pictures and then blasted back to Butte. I'm so glad we made the trip. Cindy posted a few of the photos on her blog, they all won't be ready for a few weeks. Check em out and I highly recommend her if you're looking for an awesome photographer. She did the whole shoot in my parents back yard and her goal was for everyone to just be themselves. She likes to tell stories with her pictures. Just check out her blog and you'll see what I mean.

http://cindycieluch.blogspot.com/

1st Halloween!!

My little elephant! As you can probably tell I'm still getting used to the blog so you have to start at the bottom and work your way up to see the progression of the night. I hope everyone had a wonderful HALLOWEEN!!!


Time for bed!
The elephants cute butt!
Back at home and after a fresh diaper in a little bit of a better mood.
On our way to Cameron and Sara's house. (friends that live down the street) Note all the puffs, used in an attempt to keep the baby happy!

Still not super happy about being an elephant.
The beginning of the night. Avery's not too sure about the costume.

We decided to dress the little munchin up like an elephant. She wasn't too happy with the costume in general but we were able to get a couple of cute pictures.

MY NEW TUB

Avery was getting too big for her infant tub so we decided to bring her up a size to a blow up tub. Just the past couple of weeks she's gotten pretty good at sitting up. We took a few cute pics. Note Miles in the background. He doesn't like to be far from the rest of the family and he has an infatuation with the tub.

TEETHING

Okay all you parents out there know that teething basically sucks. My poor baby has been fighting a tooth for a week now and the darn thing just won't pop through. It keeps coming up and down. Although this morning I thought I felt something sharp maybe popping through. It could just be my sleep deprivation from dealing with a fussy little girl (she's usually such a good sleeper). Poor thing has it all, the runny nose, diaper rash and an occasional slight fever. We've been feeding her the teething tabs but any other advice on how to make her comfortable would be appreciated. Also does it always take this long for a tooth to pop through? The scary thing is that this is just her first tooth. I can't even imagine how the molars are going to affect her! So everyone keep your fingers crossed that the little devil will pop through soon and give my child some peace - at least until the next one decides to make a move! As soon as we have success I'll post a picture of the new tooth!!

Grease is the word!

So my Mom burned me a copy of the Grease CD she bought when they saw Grease on Broadway in New York and I listened to it for the first time driving Avery to daycare this morning. It brought back a lot of high school memories so I thought I'd do a post to Jill and Rosie and just say first of all that the Pink Ladies Rule and second that I'll never forget the split pants! Aaaa nostalgia. I still can't believe that was like 14 years ago - yikes. Here's to awesome friends and silly memories. Love you girls.
P.S. In case you're wondering, Avery loves listening to musicals (probably due to all the music I played for her when I was pregnant) and I think she's going to be a Broadway star someday :) I can dream right.

Ryley Bear

Shawna emailed me this picture of Ryley and it was so cute I just had to put it on the blog. For those of you who don't know, Shawna is Jeff's cousin and we were pregnant at the same time. Ryley was born just a couple of weeks after Avery. It was so fun comparing things when we were pregnant and it's even more fun watching the kids grow! I'm guessing the cousins are going to be great friends as they grow up!

Weekend with the Daltons

Ronnie loves to ham it up for the camera!

Ronnie tickling Avery.

I think Rhiannon's more interested in Avery's toy!

We took off Friday afternoon and headed up to Kalispell to see the Daltons; Chris, Tonya, Ronnie, and Rhiannon. It was fun to get the cousin's together and Ronnie and Rhiannon really liked playing with Avery. Ronnie especially liked to tickle her. We had a great weekend and hope to see them again soon.

My new sweater

It was chilly out the other day so we decided to bundle Avery up and take her outside. Here are a few of my favorite pics.

Sweat Pea

Here's our little Avery Jazmin. She's such a good baby and we just love her to pieces. I love all the funny faces she makes and how often she makes her Dad and I laugh. I never imagined in a million years that being a parent would be so much fun. Not getting to sleep in for the last seven months has been totally worth it!

Last week she discovered that she can scream, really loud. She loves practicing with her loud voice anytime she's holding onto a toy. It's as if she's telling the toy what to do. Way too cute. We've also discovered about a week ago that she can eat finger foods and she loves puffs. However, not being too coordinated yet, she shoves her entire fist into her mouth in order to get one puff to sometimes make it in. I'll try to get a picture of this so you can see what I mean!

My First Entry!

I figured after friends started popping up with thier own blogs that it was time to get my butt in gear and make one up of my own. So here's my shot at the blog world. I figured since it takes to much time to download pictures to emails, this would be a much easier way to get way more pictures of Avery, Jeff and I out there! I'm pretty excited and look forward to each of you checking out klineworld!