The Affleck Family

New Blog!

2008-09-01T10:29:00.000-07:00

Due to the "new 2008 update button glitch", (BOO!!!) we are moving our blog to a new location. Please update your links with our new address:

http://affleckfamilyfun.blogspot.com/

Also, we will be taking this opportunity to make our blog "private". If you don't receive an invite from me in the next few days, please leave me a comment so I can make sure & get one to you! We want to include you!!!

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Apparently I broke my blog!

2008-08-28T01:03:00.000-07:00

This sucks. Let me tell you what happened, as a warning to all. I wanted to make my blog look cute. It needed some aesthetic updating I felt. It was working fine. I had the new 2008 version that had "Layout" on the dashboard. As I was trying to update my template, I accidentally clicked the option "revert to classic". DO NOT DO THAT!!! Apparently there is a glitch in the "New 2008 Blogger" where there is known problem that there is not always a link to an "Update Button" which is what I need to undo my accidental "revert to classic". Arg. I'm not having success finding if there is a solution for this glitch.

Now I am wondering if I should:
A) begin a brand new blog?
B) delete this blog, then hopefully re-create a new blog & re-use the old address?
C) is option B even an option, or just something I thought up?

Any suggestions?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Broken Blog

2008-08-25T01:32:00.000-07:00

I was trying to change my template & now it's all screwed up. I no longer have the Layout link, instead I got an older version w/ only a Template link. It says I need to click the upgrade button, but I don't have an upgrade button! Any suggestions?!?!

Ratatouille

2008-08-17T23:29:00.000-07:00

We love the movie, but have you tried the dish? So good! Our good friend passed along the recipe and here's how it turned out... Yum-o!

BTW, thanks for the photog tips Tara!

We Grew'ed It!

2008-08-12T20:16:00.000-07:00

Yup! This is the latest on our garden. We are so glad that we have been able to grow some things, hooray! Here is a picture of our crook-neck squash, zucchini we did not intentionally grow this year, & a prematurely picked baby carrot. We've also harvested a full crop of radishes (yuck). Our beets, tomatoes & melons are about to explode. Unfortunately though our strawberries seem to be kaput. Maybe our thumbs are turning a little green after all!

Caved In

2008-08-10T23:57:00.000-07:00

So, I finally caved in & took the stinkin' quiz. I guess this is pretty accurate, although I'm far too much of a realist to have ever likened myself to anything Disney, the description does kinda fit. I am an endure-er, slow & steadfast. I believe that most things worth having usually have to be worked for, & easy come, easy go. I think that applies to all of life's true gems.

You Are Cinderella!

Dignified and hard working. With a gentle and soft-spoken manner you have something many people don't. Patience. Even through the moments of heartbreak you're still able to hold onto all of your hopes and dreams. Bide your time; your dream will come true.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

However, I must re-state, I will not be reading Twilight.

Fractured!

2008-08-04T21:16:00.000-07:00

That's right, Dallan fractured & sprained his ankle last week. It happened in such a lame way... too bad he wasn't doing something super cool. Pretty much, it was destiny. Life just got a little (a lot) busier. Arg. We were really enoying so much of the outdoors this summer too. I guess I can still swim & bike without him, but that's not as much fun. Of course, he's still grinning through it. Dallan is rarely without a smile. I love him, bum leg and all! Here's to a speedy recovery! He even has bruising between his toes! He gets 6 weeks of "the boot", then surgery may be considered, followed by some fun physical therapy, yipee!

Our Grand Finale!

2008-07-09T23:40:00.000-07:00

Wow... June was a blur & it ended with a bang! Literally! Here's the "Grand Finale" video of our Vegas 4th of July block party. Wicked awesome.

My tips: pause the background music at the bottom of the screen, turn your volume up, & unfortunatley you'll have to watch it sideways!

Rachel's footage:

Dallan's footage:

The guys kept the great fireworks going for the whole night without much lag time in between. Despite that, their Grand Finale was indeed GRAND. I dare say this was their best yet. Good show guys!!! I'm so proud of my pyro's!

Come Party!

2008-06-30T00:19:00.000-07:00

I have yet to attend a 4th of July bash that beats the party on our block! My husband, my dad, & their good buddies are some SERIOUS pyromaniacs! If you want to be up close & personal with some very good fireworks (too good, wink-wink) then this is the place to be! Our party has it all, complete with the neighborly man handing out free delicious watermelon (holla' Julie!). This is better than Christmas, well... a close second!

Due to the nature of this party I will not be posting logistical details. However, if you are going to be in Las Vegas the evening of July 4th... email me!

Not your typical GNO

2008-05-24T21:30:00.000-07:00

Recently I've been fortunate enough to get out once in a while for a girls night out. Well, in an effort to keep all things balanced, my friend was thoughtful enough to coordinate a 'Guys Night Out' for the men in our lives. What a fun idea! Obviously I didn't tag along with the guys to document their evening (ha, ha), but they went to dinner & saw Indiana Jones (I'm jealous) then came back to our house for a little Wii! Here is a picture of the guys "pad" before I was kicked out. What more do guys need than junk food, Wii, & an empty house?

While the guys were out us girls got together with the kiddos to do a little crafting for our babes. We had fun making lots of girly things. What a mess we made...

Oh, but it was all so worth it when we caught a glance of this little guy! How else was he supposed to entertain himself with soooo many girls around? This snapshot was my favorite part of the whole night... he is awesome & you can add me to his fan club for sure! Hilarious.
This was definitely not your typical GNO, but I think everyone had a great time. Thanks guys... & girls!

How does your garden grow?

2008-05-19T01:56:00.000-07:00

This weekend we finally made it to our community garden & got started on our plot.

This is our second year as "gardeners". This year we're going to attempt a version of square foot gardening. Dallan did a good job of mixing in the fresh new soil. We haven't planted anything yet, but we hope to grow lots of yummy things. Here is a picture of our plot.

Here is a picture of our neighbors plot. Neglected, aye?

Her garden grows coo coo shells & pretty blue speckeled eggs all in a row!

Here is the super tough stressed out momma bird that moved a boulder of rocks to make her nest! Amazing.Jennie, Jennie, quite contrary!!!! How does YOUR garden grow?

One year ago today

2008-05-17T00:38:00.001-07:00

One year ago today my family was all together in New York City & Boston celebrating my sister Evie's birthday as well as her college graduation. This year it is Christie's turn to graduate. We are SO proud of you! You are the cutest french speaking, harp playing, ice skating, sailing, MARINE BIOLOGIST that we know! Congratulations Christie! Happy Birthday Evie! We love you both & are sorry we aren't there to celebrate with you! Instead here is a tribute to all of the fun we got to have together one year ago today! (Just forgive my portrayal of 24/7 morning sickness at the time, ugh!)

Teef!

2008-05-15T00:24:00.000-07:00

Avery is a fine toothed woman these days. Her first tooth erupted on my birthday (4/26)! Isn't that a sweet girl to get me a gift? Her second tooth finally erupted on mothers day. We still have half the year left so I think I know what she's getting me for the the next several holidays, since she still has a whole mouth to fill! Obviously a pattern has been established. She now has her two front bottom teeth! She just turned 6 months old on May 8th, so she seems pretty early. I can also see her gums are quite swollen, so I think 3 more teeth are not far behind! Wasn't she just born yesterday? SLOW DOWN LITTLE GIRL!! I can't believe it. It was nearly impossible to keep her happy while I stuck my hand & camera in her mouth, but I think we got some pretty candid shots anyway! On a different note, this is what she looked like as we were headed out for chuch on Sunday. She is seriously KONKED out at the same time every Sunday... oh how I hate to wake a peaceful baby. Our ward was split this Sunday (bitter sweet) but why did we get stuck with the 1:00 p.m assignment? Ah, man! We'll still miss you anyway, 6th warders.

This post stinks

2008-04-29T20:15:00.000-07:00

Tonight something happened that cracked me up. Avery woke up real fussy only one hour after I put her to bed. How frustrating! Good thing Dallan was around to help! I gave her some gas drops & then asked Dallan if he would hold her while I finished with dinner. He dutifully carried her around the house to help soothe her. Occasionally he would give me a status report on how well she was tooting & how much she seemed to be feeling better. About an hour later I looked up from where I was sitting as he walked past me holding her & I noticed a strange color of shadow on her thigh & all too near his hand. I soon realized it wasn't really a shadow! Poor daddy!! He had no idea how well she really was "tooting"! After I snapped this picture he changed her & she went right back to sleep! What a relief for everyone in the Affleck household, literally!

Thank you!

2008-04-26T23:49:00.000-07:00

In my family I am the oldest of 3 girls, each 3 years apart. We are close enough in age to be good friends, but distant enough in age to be at different stages of life. Shortly after I was married to my sweet husband, both of my dear sisters made separate announcements that they were moving to Boston for college. I miss them tons! Well, today was my birthday, & I just had to share a portion of an email from my sister that made me lol! It's kind of random, but if you are a fan of the movie 'What About Bob', then you will understand...

"I wanted to let you know that in honor of your b-day and of something we both hold very dear, I had a party tonight.... a "What about Bob?" party complete with goldfish in a jar, "MmAMmmmmMMmMmMMMMMMmmmmMMmMmmMmm" corn on the cob, family puppets, and a friend named Faye!"

Bahahaha! Complete with a friend named Faye cracks me up! Thank you for the good laugh! If you haven't seen this movie then you should.

Also today I finally went on my first official temple date with my husband since our daughter was born 6 months ago... Why did I wait so long? I guess I have a bit of paranoia in me. Thank you Jennie for kicking me out of my house & "stealing" our baby for a while! It was SO refreshing! I want to "pay it forward", so if anyone needs to escape for a temple date, I'm your gal!

The tulips were in full bloom & the weather was perfect, so here is my lame attempt to capture us with the flowers behind us... too bad no one was around to take the pix for us!

Testing-Testing-1-2-3

2008-04-10T01:13:00.000-07:00

Our house has been pretty boring lately. Dallan has banished himself to our office during every spare moment after work & on weekends. He is studying for his PE (Professional Engineer) exam. After graduating as a civil/structural engineer he was required to spend 4 yrs as an intern before he could apply for the PE exam which is only offered every 6 mos., so no pressure, right?? Then he will FINALLY be a licensed engineer w/ a special stamp to prove it! He'll be testing all day this Friday & Saturday, grueling. We have to wait a few months for the results, & it's only a pass/fail. I've been trying not to distract his studies by keeping out of the office, except to work on our taxes *yuck*, like I'm supposed to be doing now. Cross your fingers for us!
Why am I doing my own taxes? I don't know. I guess it's a skill I've always admired in others who have this ability (holla, Jake Stephens!). Now I can say that I've done it. Next year I'll be having someone else do it for me, ha! Okay, back to the tax grind, *yuck*!

Go get 'em Dallan!

Holy Moo Cow!

2008-03-23T22:06:00.000-07:00

Whelp, I've been meaning to get this "cheesey" story posted! So... Our little girl was given this awesome toy that attaches to her crib & plays music w/ lights. I knew she was a little young to enjoy it much as a two month old, but I propped her up w/ a boppy pillow so she could look at it. She surprised us by quickly figuring out she could make it work by kicking it. This toy is a staple & she LOVES it. We've affectionately named it her "Moo Cow". I noticed it didn't seem to work correctly when we first opened it. It has 3 settings but only 1 setting worked. Being brand new & also stuck on the same 3 songs, I was annoyed & I meant to take it to the store for a working one. I never got around to it, plus she didn't seem to mind or know the difference. I figured if I could deal w/ the repetition, then all was well as long as she was happy. Well, recently on her 4 month birthday, I laid her down to play Moo Cow, & to my shock & awe, it played a new song! I asked my hubby if he had figured out how to change the settings. Nope, he didn't know anything about it. So, I resolved that logically, she had officially kicked the crud out of it until it decided to work right. A whole day later, I noticed a plastic paper in her crib. I was on my way to ask hubby to please not litter in the babies crib, hee, hee, when I had an ah-ha moment! The "litter" was the tab behind the batteries that keeps it on the demo setting. Somehow in all my moments of frustration, I never saw it! Apparently Avery got tired of the same songs too & decided it was time she schooled her momma! Dallan & I celebrated her genius by both hovering over her crib in astonishment of our dumbness when we noticed that since she had fixed her toy it didn't seem to play as loudly. I resolved that LOGICALLY the batteries were weaker now that it was playing longer settings. Having just been schooled once by my little girl, I decided to double check. After opening the velcro back & studying it for at least a whole minit, I found a teeny-tiny volume switch. Apparently Avery decided that it was also a bit loud for her taste. I knew someday I would look at my daughter & know that she's better than me in every way, I just didn't think she would send that humbling message as a four month old! Holy Moo Cow!! I birthed a genius!
In defense of my "udder" incompetence: 1) When I set the toy up, I was the sleep deprived mother of a two month old. 2) I didn't find the "litter" that night because it was mixed in her blanket. 3) The volume switch is that teeny-tiny little black dot underneath the big red dot! I seriously don't know HOW she did this. Opening the strong velcro would be a feat on it's own!

Sleep w/ the fishes?

2008-03-15T21:52:00.000-07:00

Okay, I feel that I owe an apology to all of my blogger friends. You may have been checking in to find no new posts. I have an excuse. The right side of my brain has recently taken hostage of the left side of my brain. Have you ever had that problem? My husband recently had a burst of creative energy that had a contagious effect on me. Here is a link to peak at what he's been up to: Dallan's I. More on me later. I've still been logging on & checking out your blogs to stay updated. I have written lots of posts in my head, but I've struggled to get them written down. I'm going to be better. In the meantime I'll start bringing you up to date.
With that off my chest, now I have to tell you something really crazy. My neighbor just told me someone left a dead fish on his porch! Bahahahahaa!!!! Eek!!! Creepy, huh?! He said he stepped outside & felt a squish under his foot. He looked down, & there was a filleted trout all ready to grill, laid on the lip of his door frame!!! Sick! I'm totally disturbed yet awkwardly amused. This brings out the Nacny Drew in me. Who would do such a thing? What message is someone trying to send? Is it a good thing to get a raw fish ready to fry on your doorstep? Should I want to be next, or is it okay that I'm a bit paranoid now? Perhaps this is a foreign tradition we're not aware of? Either way... I'm totally okay not to be included. (shivers)

End of the world, here we come!

2008-02-25T21:34:00.000-08:00

Well, Sunday morning Dallan said he wanted to make breakfast. I gave him a new pancake recipe to try that uses our wheat storage. He had to grind the wheat kernals in our vita-mix blender & everything, all on his own. They were delicious! Especially topped with my home-made maple syrup (I know! Wow, huh?). Anyway, I'm happy to report that if the end of the world comes tomorrow, we will be able to sustain ourselves on pancakes!

OAMC, huh?

2008-02-23T21:57:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited! This is my latest "thing" that is going to make my life simpler! Ha, Ha! In theory, at least! Once a month cooking (oamc). Well, I'm not quite capable of cooking 30 full meals in one day, but I like the concept & have put my own spin on it. One of my pet peeves is how my kitchen smells smoky when I fry ground beef. So why not just fry all of it at once & freeze the extra? I also started making a double batch when I cook something & then freeze the extra one. Dallan loves this because now he knows there's something for dinner! I still need to do more to get this all organized, but already I have reduced my quick trips to the grocery store for one thing (which usually ends up as 10 things). If anyone has any advice... weekly menus, recipes that freeze well, or just yummy recipes in general... I'd love to hear it!

Good times...

2008-02-18T00:50:00.000-08:00

Last weekend my little companion & I went on a girls only trip to Arizona for a childhood friend's wedding. Dallan had to stay behind for work stuff. This was her very first plane ride, at just 3 months old, & needless to say I was a little nervous about how she would perform. We couldn't have been assigned to sit by more difficult passengers. On the flight down we were seated between a slightly autistic man who said "it's okay to sit by him as long as she doesn't puke or something" & a very ritzy lady who "would like to sit w/ her husband in first class, but the seats there aren't designed for women & hurt her coxix". On the flight back we were between the window and a very, very drunk guy. Good thing she & I both were up to the challenges. Both flights were actually quite entertaining for all of us. Avery was smiley & charming & soon I knew all the details of these characters lives! It is funny how a baby causes people to treat you differently. I was surprised by the willingness of strangers to offer me assistance. Before Avery it never occurred to me that maybe the woman w/ kids at the airport might need a little assistance, I was completley oblivious, so the kindness of others on our trip was especially stunning to me. We had a fun adventure. I had a lot of fun visiting old friends & family, and enjoyed introducing them to our little girl! We miss you already! P.S. Yes... that is THREE, count 'em, THREE infant carseats that belong to three different moms taking up the middle row of a mini van on our way to the reception! Avery is on the left. =) Good times...

Here we go...

2008-02-17T23:34:00.000-08:00

So... I've decided to take a stab at this blogging thing. It seems like a good idea. Hopefully it will help me keep in touch w/ loved ones while we live in our little world away from you here in Utah. I figure this will also help me establish a better habit of "journaling" too. We shall see.
Avery changes so much every day, it is bitter-sweet to watch her grow. Sometimes I wish I could freeze time & keep her the cute little sweetie that she is forever. Then of course my curiosity to see who she will become over-rules my poor logic! She is becoming a lot of fun!!