Real Quick

I have so much to post that it's overwhelming, but I've got 30 seconds so I can do this one really fast.

My coworker, John, took some quick pictures of Allegra (5 months) while we were down at work last week and they are so incredible, I just have to post them right away!

By special request

Banana tip: When your bananas are beyond the "happily edible" stage, pop them in the freezer. Defrost when needed for something baked (such as these muffins). WARNING: They will look black and slimy and disgusting, but they are fine once baked.

Banana Crumb Muffins

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
  
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans
  

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg, melted butter and vanilla. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
3. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Add pecans. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

This is dedicated to the one I love

Wow, Mark and I have been married for five years! Happy Anniversary Honey! I can't believe we made it!He told me had to work on our anniversary (which was no surprise, he usually does) and then super-surprised me with an overnight trip to Long Beach, just the two of us! We went to the Queen Mary at sunset. Neither of us had been and I'd always wanted to see it. We went on the Ghosts and Legends tour and it kind of freaked me out. Good thing Mark decided against spending the night ON the Queen Mary! Then we went to dinner at an amazingly romantic Italian restaurant, L'Opera. Annoyingly, there was a No on Prop 8 rally right outside our hotel that night so that put a damper on our plans.

The next morning we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific, another place I'd always wanted to visit. I got to feed the birds and it was a little freaky at first. The fish were just incredible! I had to keep reminding myself that they were real and that we weren't on the Nemo ride at Disneyland! I can't wait to bring the girls!
Project Runway anyone?
We had a fabulous time. Thank you Mark for making it a really special anniversary.

I Love You!

Halloween Festivities 2008

Halloween is so much more fun with kids! Boy, did we live it up. First we went to a Halloween Party sponsored by a local Mom's Club. Allegra was a sunny daffodil.
Aurora was a Japanese girl, compliments of Grandma and Grandpa's trip to Japan.The girls loved all the party food the best!
The Saturday before Halloween we had a girls pre-party party. JoElle taught me the art of carving pumpkins. I've always hated carving pumpkins--probably because I've used the wrong tools all these years and only ended up with the classic triangle eyes, nose and mouth. But now, thanks to JoElle's instruction and Jennifer doing most of the work . . .
I was finally proud of my cat pumpkin! JoElle made the amazing Trick-or-Treat pumpkin on the left. Maybe next year I won't be so intimidated! And maybe next year I'll get to light it because unfortunately, it was a moldy mess long before Halloween came.
Our ward Halloween party that night was tons of fun. Aurora wore costume number two, a fairy.
Her friends Ashlyn and Leah were fairies, too.
No, Dad's costume was not a Bruin fanatic--he actually wore that.
The girls are just starting to get into the Trick-or-Treat thing. Luckily, Aurora forgot all about the candy by the next morning. Next year, I won't be so lucky.
This is her friend Kaleb--don't get any ideas, he's just helping her "cross the street."
And then came the big night. We visited Grandma and Grandpa's house, and Aurora was pretty scared of Grandpa's new toy bat. We had to coax her in the house for a treat bag of grapes. This is the last year grapes will be the highlight of Halloween! We walked up and down our street looking at the decorations and other kids costumes and then called it a night. Happy Hauntings till next year!

Whew!

I can't believe I've been on maternity/disability leave for six months! The time has flown by. I'll only be doing overflow work and mostly from home, but I don't know exactly how much that will be. Hopefully not much because in preparation for my eminent return, I've been "practice working" and it is not so fun. That means, I'd edit during nap time and after Aurora's bedtime and a few hours when Aurora went to play at someone else's house in between Allegra's feedings and fussy times. That translates to about three hours a day, leaving zero time for anything I like to do, which includes blogging, reading, and sleeping. So if you've noticed a lack of postings lately and a really grumpy, stressed out Carrie, that's why.

Meanwhile, the girls and I have been having a lot of fun. Sept. 20 we went to the Day for Kids Festival at Newhall Park with my sister-in-law Kristin, mother-in-law, Dee and niece MacKenzie. MacKenzie was a real trooper because she's ten and not really interested in the activities but was happy to help Aurora. Aurora idolizes MacKenzie.

Allegra at two months: At her doctor's appointment she was ten pounds! That's huge considering she was only 5lb. 15oz. at birth. Aurora didn't get that big for about six months! Her outfit in the picture was bought by Grandma and Grandpa in Japan. It was supposed to be a Christmas present, but she won't fit in it by then! Notice that it is gender neutral--here's the story. My baby gender ultrasound was scheduled when my parents were visiting Japan. We couldn't contact them by phone, but they would be checking their email. Once I found out the baby was a girl, I decided to be tricky. I used an online translator to find out the word for baby girl in Japanese. Then I emailed them, "It's a joji!" They "cheated" and used an online translator and found out it was a girl but decided to check with the locals just to make sure. They had no idea what a joji was! So in order to be safe, they bought a gender neutral outfit for the baby and were happy to find out for sure that it was a girl when they got home.

Happy Fall! Well, almost! Too bad it got hot again!

I just love this outfit. I'm so glad it fits! In contrast to my little roley poly, Aurora is my slow grower. Here she is one year ago in the same outfit:
Granted, it was a little big back then, but I just had to have her wear it to the pumpkin patch and I was afraid she'd grow out of it by this year. Nope! Oh well, she get's to wear it for two autumns!

Here we are at Lombardi Ranch this year. It was about 100 degrees and it sure didn't feel like fall! In the last picture are Keira and Kaleb--some of our friends who went with us. It was impossible to get all the kids to stand still for one picture--we really tried!


Aurora helped me make pizza one night:

We a fun visit with Uncle Matty, Aunt Lisa and Baby Sarah for a weekend!


The girls and I went to the SCV Rose show with Grandma and I was inspired to work a little harder in the backyard! This variety is called "Moonstone."
Allegra made a friend!And we visited Bridgeport Lake with the twins.


So I may not have been posting for a while but boy, have we been busy!

The triplets are two!

Happy 2nd birthday Keira and Allyse!

My, how the girls have grown!

She's a creative one

Aurora was eating apples and peanut butter the other day when I heard "That's an elephant". I looked over to see what in the world she was talking about and saw this.
Get it? The apple is the body and the peanut butter drip is the trunk. She was pretty proud of herself and I have to admit I was too!

Big Girl Bed Part II

So night #2 was better. She actually did stop crying when the door was closed and I found her in bed asleep!

The next day we tried a nap in the bed. Luckily Grandma stopped by just in time to read her a story. Then a miracle--she went to bed without crying! Wow! I didn't hear a peep! When I went in to check on her at 4:30 this is what I found:That little stinker was able to silently cause mass destruction! And she was so worn out from it, I had to wake her up from the dead! Oh well.

Mark put her to bed last night since I was at an absolutely fabulous and much needed Girl's Night. I didn't hear how she did, but I did find her asleep in bed when I got home. Oh, and I think she just woke up--time to get moving!

Announcing . . .

Thank you Annie for helping me make this--you're so talented!

Big Girl Bed

The time has come for Aurora to graduate from the crib to the Big Girl Bed. Night #1 started out great. We read a book about it. I showed her the new princess sheets and blanket. We talked about how Baby Allegra was going to start sleeping with her. But she came out of her room two times and then asked to sleep in the crib. By then I was too tired to object.

Night #2 I laid in the bed with her for a while. Then I sat in the rocking chair for half an hour. She wouldn't lay down. I finally left and closed the door and she screamed bloody murder for fifteen minutes. I have no idea if she gave up and went to bed, or is laying on the floor. I don't dare open the door.

Does anyone have an suggestions?

The Blessing

Sunday, Sept. 14 was Allegra's Baby Blessing. There was only one minor mishap, but hey, at least she wasn't named Rufus Trebek. Thanks Mark!

She wore the blessing gown that my mom made for me, thirty-some-odd years ago. Aurora wore it too! Thank goodness it still fit!

Thanks to all the family that was able to make it. And to those of you who didn't, we missed you!Cousin Bella just loves her baby cousin!

My sister Annie made some adorable cupcakes for the luncheon.Aurora thought they were scrumptious! Licking off only the icing is a trick learned from her Lisonbee cousins.

And a special shout out to the BYU Cougars. Thanks for making me very proud while sitting amongst my UCLA in-laws!

Making do and a Surprise Visitor

Last weekend I started making a curtain for the bathroom. Allegra wanted to be in on it, so I improvised.
It lasted for about five minutes, but at least I got a little done.

Sunday, our friend Jennifer stopped by for a surprise visit. We've missed her since she moved.

Why is it that newborns go through diapers so quickly EXCEPT when you open a package of "bad" diapers? Curses neverending Huggies Supreme!

Happy Labor Day!

I'm not exactly sure why we celebrate Labor Day.But Papa Lisonbee was in for a workout when he came ever for dinner.
But Allegra decided to give me a present and sleep through the night. Oh happy day!

A Breakfast Blessing

Today was the first time Aurora said the blessing on the food by herself:
"Hi Father. Thank you for this day. (something something something) Love Princess Aurora song. (something something something). In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Love it!

Six Weeks

It's been six weeks since Allegra was born and I can hardly believe it! She's getting so big (no, I don't know how big) and her little cheeks are so chubby. She's a great baby--only waking up about once a night and then goes right back to sleep. I am so lucky!

Here she is doing push ups. She's working on her figure already!