it's that time of the year...

When I can sleep in an extra 5 minutes in the morning....

When packing the girls' clothes each day is easy-peasy because they can wear anything (sandals, spaghetti-strap shirts, dresses, shoes w/ no socks).....

When I don't get a call anymore every Mon - Fri at 2:14pm on the dot....

When the structure of our evenings is replaced with whim....

When Nana falls asleep by 7pm because she's so tired from watching 3 kids for 10 hours a day...

Summer is officially here!

Not the official season, not yet, but the school year ended yesterday so we're in a summer state-of-mind. Mallory still has preschool 2 days a week--- so my Grandma gets a tiny break, having only 2 rowdy kids on those days instead of 3. But summer, for us, means flexible bedtimes, sandals everyday, movies at night after bedtime, lots of playing outside, lots of bikeriding, and lots of adventures!

So on the last day of school, Mariah (who "graduated" from kindergarten) had a little performance and her teacher handed out certificates to all the kids in her class. I didn't have time to go thru each photo and cover the faces of the kids, and this is the only one I could get of Mariah where she wasn't surrounded by friends:

This is the gift I made for her teacher:
And tonight, Mallory graduates from Preschool. I want to cry just thinking about it. For lots of different reasons too. Obviously, because it means she's growing up and I don't have a "baby" anymore. But also because I love that preschool so much and it's been part of our lives for most of the last 9 years, and I will miss it.

Mallory did NOT want to participate in the graduation photo-shoot that is sort of a tradition....I did it for Arissa (when I sent out invitations for the ceremony), I did it for Mariah (when I got lazy and did it too late so they ended up being 'announcements' after the fact), and I wanted to do it for Mallory too (I have even less time now so it's just going to be announcements after the fact, more photoshop than paper-crafting). But she wasn't havin' it! After much persuading by Jesse, we got her in the outfit and out the door, and took these shots:

I made gifts yesterday for Mallory's teacher, the teacher's aid, and the principal/office staff. I tried to embroider/sew/quilt these gifts since that's the craft I'm into at the moment, and doing several projects in a hurry made me realize:

I am a horrible seamstress.

I really am. I don't have enough patience, so I always end up half-assing it and my projects never turn out right. Oh plus I'm really bad at math, which apparently is very helpful in quilting, especially when you're freehanding it without a pattern. You'll see what I mean when I post the pics of the gifts that I made for the preschool teachers. I really get frustrated with myself!


But here's what I made as a graduation gift for Mallory....I made it yellow to match her graduation gown:

I even crocheted the little diploma in his hand. :o)

"Golden Birthday---my a$$!"...

....is what I imagine Mariah might have thought to herself once or twice this weekend. If she were only focusing on the negative, she might have brooded over the fact that:

1. Only 2 out of 20 kids from her class came to her party

2. The special present that Mommy & Daddy got her is delayed in the mail so she won't get till Monday or Tuesday

3. She requested chocolate cake but I forgot to tell Jesse when he went to pick it up, so she got strawberry shortcake instead (the OPPOSITE of a chocolate cake)

4. Then this happened to the cake:

:o( Poor Mariah.


If she looked on the bright side (and I think she did), she would at least be happy that:


1) All her family came to her party, AND her fabulous teacher who she loves
2) She got a lot of awesome presents

3) Even though her birthday is over, she gets to look forward to that special gift coming in the mail this week
4) When we had our small celebration on her actual birthday, a very special guest made an appearance:

5) We were able to save the cake! Since I had put all 24 candles in it, they acted as a buffer between the cake and the toaster oven. So I simply did some creative maneuvering w/ the frosting, and all was right again.



In other news, I finished this over the weekend:



the colors in the pictures don't do it justice....it's the most beautiful blue/green/teal color ever. and I LOVE the brown with it.

And lastly, as if I haven't mentioned them enough recently, I had to share some photos I took over the weekend of my girls:

And I did some gardening too (just a bit, and then I got tired and quit).

I moved my 2 azeala bushes over, and planted one of my potted hydrangeas in their place. I would love to have this whole planter filled with hydrangeas, but whenever I've tried to grow them on this side of the house, they rebel, and they die. But there's a 3 foot space on the end there where the sun hits for a good part of the day, so I dug out all the old soil and put in new, and we'll see how it goes. (And that's my Jasmine on the left that I'm training to climb):


P.S.: I have absolutely no idea why the first part of this post is all underlined....I've spent 1/2 hr trying to fix it but I can't. ??

Random, once again

Here's our sweet new cat, Bellie. She looks so similar (in color) to our last cat "Bella", that the girls felt her name should be similar too.

She's the perfect cat. When she's outside, she's a hunter and is currently working on our gopher problem in our lawn. When she's inside, she's sweet and loving and falls at your feet and purrs. She's a great cuddler, she curls right up in my arms and purrs me to sleep. Her favorite bed though is Arissa's, where she spends the whole day sometimes.

And the best part of all about her is: she only poops & pees outside! So we get to enjoy all the benefits of having a cat, without the annoyance of having to maintain a litter box. I love this cat.

But as if one black-and-white animal weren't enough for our house, this guy came by to eat the catfood we left outside and Jesse wanted to domesticate him too!:

The picture's not very good at all, but YES that is a skunk...on our back porch....eating our catfood. I've never seen a skunk in real life....so close up....that wasn't dead on the side of the road. They are SO cute! Google "skunk" images, and you'll see what I mean...their bodies are the big hairy things I imagine when I picture a skunk, but then they have the littlest tiny black heads that make you just want to pick them up and cuddle them! But that won't be happening any time soon because, as I learned on google, it's illegal to have their scent glands removed. So no skunk for us. :o(

And a word of caution if you do google "skunk"....apparently there's a type of marijuana called "skunk" as well because every other picture was of that. Imagine my delight when I discovered that....googling it AT WORK at the DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE!

And look at this sweet girl....went to bed and fell asleep wearing the hat I made her:

And lastly, I thought I'd share the process I call "anatomy of a drill team pony tail":

We begin with two sweet girls who have a s***load of hair:

We spray, and brush, pull, and cry (the girls, not me) until the pony tail is at a sufficient height (you place your hand on the top of the head and make sure it's at least at that height):

Then you take 1 inch section by 1 inch section....brushing, dousing with MAXIMUM HOLD hairspray, brushing again, spraying again, then wrapping around perm rods until you get this:

And when their hair is so tight that they can't help but smile, you know you're done. Oh but then you have to spray the entire thing like 3 more times.

Then you have to clean up the area you were working in, which is now toxic from all the hairspray fumes. And you have to try to get 2 excited-but-sleepy girls to rest and fall asleep, even though they can't really lay their heads down without being in pain.

But in the morning, when you unwrap each 1 inch section (clockwise only, you don't even want to know what happens if you do it counterclockwise...) spray the whole thing 3 more times, you get this:

Then you stick a hairnet on it and get the heck out of the house, and into the car, and down to the dance studio, praying you won't be even 2 minutes late cause if you are you have to stand at attention while everyone else is talking and having fun until it's time to leave.

Needless to say....we were late. :o)

9 years

Today is our 9 year wedding anniversary!

When I really think about that, it kind of blows my mind that we're still married. Not because we don't love eachother of course, but just because the way that our relationship began is the stereotypical start of a relationship that should have ended a few months later. But ours hasn't, it's kept on going and pretty effortlessly if I do say so myself. :o) We barely knew eachother when we started dating....who would have guessed that we would end up being eachother's very best friends? When we were first together, I (being the love-obsessed, sentimental 19-year-old that I was) thought we were "meant to be". But then (when I reached the mature age of 20) I sometimes wondered, if we were meant to be, wouldn't have not done so many things wrong to be together? But then as time went by and we only got closer and things only got better and more fun, I realized that my 19-year-old self was right. IN SPITE of making "bad" choices, IN SPITE of trying to build a family when neither of us knew how or were really ready, IN SPITE of moving straight from our parent's homes to one of our own, without having any experiences of our own in between, IN SPITE of all that, we (9 years later) are happy and still in love and still laughing and enjoying time together.

How was that for telling my story without exposing any details? :o)

Here we are, all Sears-Portrait-Posed in...2004? 2005? I don't know:


Us at Disneyland in 2007......nevermind that guy in the background:
Jesse, holding a wee bitty Mallory in 2004:

My babies are growing up so fast!

I remember the first time I saw them...it was hard to imagine what they would become as they grew and got older.


But each year they surpass my expectations and grow and change in such different ways. Every day there's something new and different to love and appreciate about them.


I owe so much to my Grandma for teaching me how to care for them, and how to raise them.


I am a different person now, than I was several years ago when they came into my life. And now, I can't imagine my life without them!

Yep, my girls are blooming more and more each day! My new ones that I planted last year are coming into their own and marking their place in the garden....showing the big girls that they're here to stay and are equally beautiful, even if for now they're a bit smaller. :o)

And these guys are bringing me joy too. Just the fact that I, Kristen Howard, planted them, and they not only didn't die, but grew into something that could actually be eaten, is a miracle in itself as far as I'm concerned:

What to do with them now? If anybody has a good recipe that includes tomatoes, jalipenos, bellpeppers, artichokes, and strawberries, let me know! :)

Birthday Party Weekend!

My sweet little Mariah Grace doesn't turn six for another week but we had her party this Saturday. The funny thing is, I did it before her actual birthday (as opposed to on it or after it) because I was trying to avoid the heat that could arrive any time now.....but it turned out to be uncharacteristically cold and even a little rainy! My perfect kind of weather for sure, but it did put a little kink in our party-throwing plans. My grandma bought each girl a hawaiian dress....but it turned out way too cold to wear them. :O( But everything turned out fine, and I know that for sure because before Mariah went to bed that night she told me "this was my best birthday party ever!" . :o)

The theme was luau/beach....so instead of goody bags, we gave each guest a beach bucket & shovel. Here's the table where we served the food.....HAM sandwiches (Mariah's favorite food she's ever tasted in her long 6 years of life):

Here's the cupcakes I made at the last minute (no extra money to spend meant I had to get my butt in gear and not mess them up like I usually do):
We ate outside (to spare my grandma a heartattack every time a crumb dropped or a drink spilled), but then came inside for the games & presents. We were warm and we had fun, but I didn't get very many good pictures cause of the lighting.

Mariah's teacher came and brought her this gift:

This made Mariah's whole day. She could not have been more excited if Hannah Montana herself had stopped by! Mariah loves her teacher so much.

For games, we played:

* The limbo
* Hula hoop contest
* Hot potato (only we used a coconut....gotta keep with the theme!)

All with a soundtrack of hawaiin/island music:


And here's the birthday girl (sporting her new haircut just like her sister):

Happy birthday to my sweet, kind, loving little girl.