Friday Family Fun!

My sister-in-law (Kristen) and my sister (Sarri) recently started texting each other making really ugly faces. I'm glad they are such good friends. Anyway, it caught on, and somehow now Kristen's fiance (Dan), Sarri's husband (David), Nick, and I are also on board. It's super crazy and awesome and funny and I laugh out loud daily. Our text chain has been going on for almost a month now. Man, can we make some ugly faces. Kristen even had the great idea to make a photo book. Perfect for the coffee table.

Here are my favorites. Enjoy!

You're welcome!

Yay for cousins!

We're at my mama's this weekend with all of my siblings. I'm the oldest of four and it's always a party when we get together. Seriously. There is always laughing and games and food and photos and playing and music and dancing and cookies and MORE!

I love that we all love each other! My mama loves it too. She's in heaven with a full house.

My sister Sarri's daughter, Grace, got a new tent for Christmas. See how much fun the littles are having?

Also, Jo got a schmancy new tutu from Grandma Annie. Her dress-up closet is going to be killer!

Our own language

After being home with my mama for a week I realized that there are phrases that we use that no one else does -- family phrases -- like our own language.

Here are a few:

hunka meat 
noun
1. a big piece of meat like a roast.
2. a hunk of meat.
3. always served with potatoes.

suss
verb 
1. to play around with water, usually in the sink.
2. generally annoying: Quit sussing!

goog 
noun 
1. sweet creamer we put in coffee, coffee goog, hazelnut is my fave: Do we have any coffee goog?
2. a mix of cream and sugar if we don't have pre-made sweet creamy stuff.
adjective
1. googy coffee: coffee that has had goog added: I would like some googy coffee, please.
verb
1. to goog the coffee: Do you want me to goog up the coffee?

Mama, Sarri, Liv, Geir, Hannah, what else am I missing?

CAKE BALLS!!!

Today we made cake balls. I've documented our process for your viewing pleasure. You're welcome.

1. Make a cake -- I had help. We made two: one red velvet and one almond. You can use a cake mix or not. We didn't.

2. Lick the beaters/spatula/scraper. Bake the cake(s)...

 ...or pose.

 3. Let the cake(s) cool. You'll notice that the red velvet cake isn't red. We didn't add red food coloring. I also forgot something else, because it didn't quite rise correctly. We don't know what's missing. It sure tasted fine.

 4. Make frosting. We made a cream cheese frosting for the red velvet and an almond butter cream for the almond cake. The reinforcements helped.

 5. Crumble the cake and mix in the frosting. I think we added too much frosting to the almond cake. I'm guessing that 1 1/2 cups is just the right amount. Stir it up!

6. Make little balls.

7. Chill the balls. While you're chilling, melt some chocolate. We did both white and dark. Dip the balls in the chocolate. You can use sticks or toothpicks or shish kebob spikes or nothing at all. 

8. It's a good thing Mama had sprinkles in her cupboards otherwise these would have been really ugly cake balls. We added sprinkles before the chocolate hardened. They were still a little funny looking.
Ta-da!!!

9. Enjoy. Delish!

Mama-Camp Day 1

I'm at my mama's house in Iowa this week! We had a great weekend in Chicago with visitors. It's amazing how quickly my family can make a mess. We just take over. Here's a lovely morning picture of my sister, Liv, and brother, Geir. I'm sure they'll love that I posted this.

Today has been great! I worked this morning and then Mama and I have been sewing this afternoon. Here's what our workspace currently looks like.

Jo is sleeping on the couch right now.

Finance for babies

I really want this Harry Allen bank in the form of a pig for Jo. It's shiny and purple. It can help teach fiscal responsibility. And my maternal grandparents had a pig farm, so it would also be a part of our family heritage. We can teach Jo about our roots. Oink.

This one is on Fab.com right now.

Nipple Freak

When my family was here for Christmas, my mama brought my first baby book (I have three since I'm the oldest and had the most pictures taken of me). We flipped through the book and oooh'd and aaaaah'd at how cute I was, but more importantly, picked out the pictures that look the most like Baby Jo. She certainly has my eyes. I'll scan a few in and post them in a different post.

This is the picture I was actually looking for. This is me with my Grandpa Don (my dad's dad). If you can't read it, my onesie says, "nipple freak." I certainly was. I so wish this onesie was in the bag of clothes I got from my mama from when I was a baby. Sadly, it was not.

The reason I wanted to find this picture is to celebrate the healing of my nipples! (Sorry to any of you that don't want to read about my nipples. Any sort of body modesty flew out the window when I was having Jo.) You heard it here first, folks, my nipples have healed! It's party-time. Jo's loving it too.

They'll be coming round the mountain...

My family is coming! My family is coming! We just can't wait.

We spent the Christmas weekend with Nick's family in the suburbs and it was lovely. Lots of fun, food, prezzies, and people to hold the babe. Baby Jo made out like a bandit in the present department. She did surprisingly well with being passed around, wearing somewhat uncomfortable dresses and tights, and dealing with the screams and yelling that come with watching the Bears. She smiled and cooed all the way. That baby is a social butterfly. 

And the fun just keeps coming! My mom and siblings will be here tonight through Friday. Baby Jo is excited too, especially because she gets to meet her Auntie Sarri, Uncle David, and cousins Grace & Gabe for the first time. There will be even more food and more games and more prezzies.

I might step away from the blog for a few days to fully immerse myself in the family-craziness, but will be back by the end of the week. In the meantime, here's one of my Christmas faves: