Is It Naptime Yet

I know a secret. Well it’s only a secret for a little while longer, or until this person decides that I can tell. Ooohhhh it’s soo good.

Also this is what I discovered about my couch this morning. (I’m using wordpress to post this picture, usually I do a different long process.) It’s not easily noticable when you just look at the couch, hence why I think it took me so long to notice.

We’ve had it since July 2005 so I’m not sure if the store will do anything about it. (Ashley furniture by the way.) I’m nervous to call. We bought microfiber so it would last longer. We got a five year scotch guard protector on the fabric and the couch frame itself has a lifetime guarantee. So why in less than two year does the couch start coming apart at the seams!!! I also have two daughters that are not that hard on furniture. I’m just worried that they won’t do anything because it’s been over a year but it’s definitely a manufacturing problem. It’s not like we cut a hole in the couch. At least we bought it at only 60 % of the original price, but it was still a lot!

This week has been long but it went rather quickly.
Lilah got sick last Saturday so we had her and Eden stay home with Jon on Sunday. Both stayed because I was teaching Sunday school and I didn’t want to worry about Eden and getting her to nursery right before my class started.
This past week Lilah has been congested and coughing  a lot and then Friday she came down with a fever. It was not fun. She said she had an earache, but really I think she just wanted medicine.  Today, Saturday, she seems to be doing well. No more  fever and plenty of attitude. I think I’m going to keep them both home from church just to make sure Lilah is over what she had and so they don’t catch anything. The girls and I are going up to Utah with my mom later this week so I don’t want them to get sick right before we leave.

Wednesday I got my hair done. Yippee!! I got some red highlights put in as my graduation gift to myself. Jon does not usually like highlight but he likes mine because they’re subtle.  (I’m sure being on me helps also 😉

This shows more of the cut. My standard cut, but I love it. (Pardon the no make up and red blotch left from the cold sore I had last week.)

Now you can see the highlights. They are very subtle but very noticeable in the sun or outside.
I normally have no red to my dark brown hair, so the red tint is the highlights.

Why I paid so much money to have subtle and not immediately noticeable highlights I don’t know but they make me happy.

Friday I was going to just lay around with the girls since Lilah had a fever, but while they were down for their nap I decided to hem my curtains. So I’m one step closer to having all my curtains done! I also sewed the tabs that I should have sewn about 3 weeks ago for my next set that I’ll be making. I guess I realized it was almost the middle of February, I’ve been out of school almost two month and have not done anything with my curtains. I guess I realized I was being a slacker. Now I feel happy that they’re done.  ( I made these curtains in July last year, but they didn’t get hemmed because I was hosting a pampered chef party and I just wanted them hung.  So now 7 months later they’re finally done. )

Well once Eden’s back hair became long enough to put in pig tales I was ecstatic. In the past few months the back hair has grown, but not much of anything else….which gave my precious baby a mullet. Now it was the cutest mullet you have ever seen, but a mullet none the less. Lately Eden’s hair has started to fill in . You can see that it’s getting a little thicker up top, which made the mullet look even thinner. Well last night we gave the girls a bath and then bit the bullet and cut Eden’s mullet. Now she looks a little like a boy, but at least her hair looks nice when I don’t have time to put it up in pig tales, but it’s all gone. I felt a little bad cutting it off. She loves to play with her hair when she’s bored or when she goes to sleep. Now it’s gone.
Here’s some before and after pictures.

She’s cute but so scraggly.

right before the cut.

Jon did the cutting.

Here she is today….so cute even without hair.

Lilah had her first dance class last week. (Tomorrow’s her second. I’m such a slacker on this blog thing nowadays.)
She was a little nervous at first. She timidly followed directions and did what Sam asked. Lilah stayed close to her square until Sam held her hands and galloped her around the room at one point. She had lots of fun though and on Wednesday morning she asked if it was Tuesday so she could go to dance again.
Here are some pictures. If I knew how to load videos I would, but I don’t without making them public on youtube.
Their were four students in Lilah’s class. Lilah, Britta (Sam’s daughter), Katia ( She also goes to church with Lilah but she turns three this Febuary, on my anniversary actually.), and one other girl who was not recruited from our ward. She was Hispanic and her mother at times would repeat Sam’s commands in Spanish for her daughter to understand. I think she was three almost four and just barley made the cut for the three year old class. She was a little taller than Lilah, in which Lilah is short for her age , and she seemed a little more mature. It’s amazing how six months makes such a difference at this age. Lilah was a little more attentive than Katia or Britta, and the other girl seemed to have more coordination that Lilah.
So now to the pictures.

Lilah’s suppose to be following Sam around and walking fast or slow according to the drum beat. This is while she was still being timid. (Britta had tons of fun chasing her mom. She’s in the yellow top and black pants.)

Lilah’s hands are “glued” to her side and Sam is trying to encourage Katia to stand on her square.

Lilah jumping. I know the picture is blurry, but I just love the blurry smile on Lilah’s face and Katia watching.

I think Lilah’s following the directions of Sam.

Dancing with scarfs. They pretended to be a caterpillar and then a butterfly.

Friday December 29th we had a small family gathering. Kumen, Jonathan’s brother, his wife Becky and four of their children came to town. (Their oldest son just got married this past October (David) and the next son is on a mission (Jared).) Well they visited Becky’s parents in Pahrump and stayed there, but they came to Vegas to try to see the different siblings. They live in AZ, so we see them about twice a year. It was an unplanned trip, or a trip were they didn’t know if they’d be able to come to Nevada until last minute, so Thursday is when we found out they were in state. The Blake clan needed a gathering spot, since the two sisters, where we normally have our gatherings were busy or sick, Jon volunteered our small abode. His parents house is pretty cramped plus there’s no where to send the younger kids to play except outside. We figured that we could clear out some of the clutter to have it more inviting and since we have the girls room the younger kids could have something to do away from the adults. It worked out perfectly. We had Kumen, Becky, Audriana (sorry I know I misspelled it, 17), Aaron (13), Ben (6) and Zach (5). Then Jon’s parents showed up with Dara and Jason and later in the evening Rawlin showed up. Everyone was at our house around 4:30 and we talked and had a little something to eat. I believe Jon’s parents left around 6 or 6:30, maybe even 7 pm. Rawlin showed up only a half hour before they left.
When it was time for the grandparents to leave Zach thought they were leaving also and told Becky he didn’t want to go he wanted to stay and play. So I guess we had a least a semi entertaining home because his grandpa in Pahrump has a small train that they ride around the estate there and he wanted to stay and play here, though I’m sure he was just distracted by all the different toys we had that he doesn’t.
It was a fun evening. Rawlin and Kuman kept each other occupied. Becky and I talked then Aaron told riddles and the younger boys came out and we pretended to talk on the phone to one another. Jon mostly sat and watched and Lilah was in the living room the whole time because she didn’t know who these boys were that took over her room. Eden was just curious and watched as they played with blocks and got her other toys out. Later Eden befriended Audriana at the end of the night. The two younger boys also seemed to like the chime set and the accordion we just got for Christmas.They left around 9 pm. The pictures were all taken at the end. More of a second thought so those who weren’t able to see them could. I was also busy talking most of the night so I should have delegated Jon to take some. Also our flash either wasn’t on or it didn’t work very well across the room and neither did the red eye apparently.

At one point in the night I tried to tell Lilah everyones names. Obviously it was too much for a little girl to remember. She was funny later that night or even another night we had her say the family prayer and she asked to have the cousins whose names we don’t know be safe. She’s done that twice so far sense we’ve seen them.

Zach, 4. He goes to preschool two days a week now.

Jon, Rawlin, Kumen.

Ben, Becky, Zach, Audriana, Aaron’s legs. (sorry I never got a better shot of Becky.)
Becky stays home and does paid sewing projects and what not.

Audriana and Aaron. Audraina is planing on becoming an American Sign Language interpreter. Aaron is 13 and plays the clarinet in band.

Ben is 6 and I believe in kindergarten, or possibly the first grade.

Brighter shot of Audraina hugging Zach and Aaron on the couch.

Our little tree on Christmas Eve.

The stockings. ( Filled with some homemade truffles and other goodies.)

Lilah finding what she wants in the stocking.
Chocolate covered pretzels before breakfast!

The first gift Lilah opened. (We don’t have Eden’s because our memory card got full.)
Lilah’s accordion that Eden liked.

One of Jon’s gifts. (A book on Escher.)

Mommy’s gift…..The pearls around her neck and on her ears.

Eden enjoying watching Tarzan on the couch. See collected all these bows and then sat in the middle of them.

Lilah with a bow on her head. She never noticed I put it there.

A little bit of our Christmas 2006.

So Vegas got snow last night. It’s funny because we’ve had an unusually warm winter thus far and then it got cold and it snowed!! Jon took pictures of our car at 7:30 am before he left for work and he got a picture of Frenchman’s mountain that is right behind the temple.

It’s funny because we were talking about snow on Sunday and saying how Frenchman’s never gets snow unless the valley also gets snow. My sister who lives in Henderson right off of Black mountain got 7 1/2 inches and it stayed until around noon. So her kids were able to build snowmen and what not.

We put our Christmas tree up the weekend before finals. Why the weekend before finals? I’m not sure, especially when I told Jon as he was in the shed doing things we should wait until after finals. He was taking the shades down for the garden and since the shed was open he decided to get the tree out and check it for spiders. At least when I saw him with the tree out in the backyard he raised it and said “Look no spiders!” I sighed and said “What on earth are you doing with that? We’re supposed to wait until finals are over.”
Lilah has been so excited for Christmas since our concert on the 25 of November. The couple who babysat them had their Christmas tree up and she couldn’t wait until Christmas. Her excitement along with Jon being in the shed fueled the setting up of the tree. ( I also think me stating that we should wait made him want to do it also. ) So while Jon finished checking for spiders I got things in a little more in order for the tree. Another reason I wanted to wait. Our house was a little more chaotic because of the neglect during the finals pre-week. He came in and helped me get the leaf out of the table so we could have more room by the front door…the only place to put a tree in our small living room. Well I swept and wiped the floor down and we set it up on Saturday. (The 8th I believe.) Since we had no plans on Sunday we decorated it. The girls had a blast. Lilah was so excited for Christmas to be coming.
So here is adventure of our tree decorating.

Eden loved the plastic hooks.
They were attached to a circle and looked like a flower. At one point Lilah put them on the tree.

Lilah loved the stockings
What else do you do with a stockings besides put them on your foot?…..

…apparently you also put them on your arms.

Here’s them decorating or looking at ornaments.

Eden putting our angle on.

(It’s an ornament from the year we become engaged. My mom gave it to me and we’ve use it as our tree topper since we’ve been married. I don’t know what we’ll do when we start using the bottom layer of the tree and make it seven feet tall instead of just five. )

The finished product.

The last thing I want to mention is why Jon was checking for spiders. We had a fake Christmas tree for many years growing up. The second or third Christmas while at the Edison house we got the tree out and began bringing it into the house. (It was stored in a wooden box on the back patio.) Well one of us noticed small black things on the branches and we realized it had been infested with a black widows nest and they were now running around on our couches! it was terrible. Scott, one of my older brothers, would have been the only boy because we were doing this without my father. I’m pretty sure we were all screeching a little bit as we tossed them onto the front patio…the closet door. So now since we store our tree in the outside shed…I’m a little worried of spiders getting in it. It seems pretty empty of crazy bugs and what not for now.

Yesterday I was a great wife and made chocolate treats for Jon to take to his coworkers. I was a bad mom because I was so immersed in the projects that PBS was on all day and Eden often came over wanting to be held but having to be turned down by her chocolate fingered momma. Even on days I had tons of studying to do I would have time for them. Yesterday I just had to get things done so the house could hopefully get back to order ASAP. Lilah was mostly okay. She just tried to “help” by licking any spoon with chocolate that she could get her hands on. Only when I told her no she could not have any more chocolate did she get upset. Lilah would just come and see what I was doing and them go on her merry way of watching whatever was on. By the time Jon got home Eden was a mess, even after a nap, because she needed some love and attention. Also I had put her in Lilah’s chair at one point and she wanted to stay in it, but if I was out of the room I took her down because she couldn’t be trusted to sit still and I was afraid she’d fall off of the chair, so whenever I took her out of the chair she got upset. It was a crazy.

These are the chocolates I made.

I made different truffles and then chocolate covered popcorn. The recipes came from my friend Amber. I cut off the extra chocolate that you see on so many of the truffles. I figured I did okay considering this was the first time I’d done anything besides the chocolate molds you can buy. Wilton has special dipping spoons that might help avoid the huge amount of chocolate around the base of the truffles, so I may try those next time. So here are things I learned about chocolate.
In the truffle recipe it says to refrigerate the center for the truffle until firm. (Please refer to the recipe so you know what I’m talking about.)
Well I thought to save time on Monday morning I’d make the center the night before. I didn’t save any time because the center had completely harden by being in the refrigerator overnight! (So tip: it only takes about an hour in the fridge for the center to be firm enough to shape it. Or you can do it the night before but plan on letting it thaw the next morning.)
The second thing I needed to improve on was the outer coating. On some of my truffles the outer layer of chocolate cracked. What I think happened is the center was too cold…it had been in the freezer more like an hour, plus it was still fairly cold and hard from being in the fridge the night before…and the chocolate that I melted to coat it was a little too warm. So when I let the truffle centers sit for just a little while after being in the freezer and the melted chocolate for the outer layer to sit, then they were less likely to crack if they cracked at all.
I made a lot of popcorn and I think I made around 130 truffles. I still have truffles to give away even after Jon took some for his coworkers today. I packaged everything in cute bags, but I was too lazy to take a picture last night when all was said and done.
I think I’m good on making chocolate for a little while. I made these with the Wilton wafers, so I didn’t have to worry about tempering the chocolate. I hope as I become more experienced that I can use the real thing.

I wanted to do a little post devoted to Eden. When Lilah was little I had a calender and I tried to write down what we did each day, and I always kept track of when and what teeth were coming in and what words she was saying and the things she did. Well I haven’t done that with Eden, and this is my journal, so I thought I’d catch up on her once more.
The week before Thanksgiving Eden started building with blocks. I mean before it was two maybe three blocks that she could get balanced now they get as tall as she is when she’s sitting. It’s fun to watch her and Lilah build. If someone is with them we’re able to keep Eden from taking her sisters or trying to “help” her sister. Lilah does not like the “help “Eden tries to offer. Here are some pictures of when they were getting along, and this is just the second or so day from when Eden really started building.

One of Eden’s towers of blocks.

I couldn’t leave Lilah out, even if this post is about Eden.

Eden is also saying more words. You can hear cracker and sometimes water. I would say dog is her first word/ sign, but since it’s panting I don’t count it and her first word she says is really cracker. Yesterday she started saying uh oh. I got a video of her saying different words. We’ll see if I can get it up here because it is soo dang cute.

Other than talking. climbing, which I’ve already reported on, and building she’s just keeps growing. I’m pretty sure she’s going through a growth spurt because she’s gotten a little chubby and I think she’s now getting taller. My baby is getting too big.

Last but not least, Eden gave herself a black eye the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Jon says she had pulled the blocks off the shelf and then landed her face on them. I think she pulled them off the shelf and they landed on her face. Either way she was the cutest little girl with a black eye.