Dressing Up with Tara

Tara's friend, Megan, came over again and they played dress-up in some of Sammy's and Tara's dresses.  Sammy (or Jenna, I'm not sure who) took pictures with my camera so I decided to post them.

This is Sammy's dress on Tara, not sure how it fits!

Tara and Megan

I'm not sure why they took the pictures in front of the bright window, but since I was out of the room, I can't be too picky

Baking Banana Bread

Jenna made banana bread today and decided to chronicle the process....(I think she has been reading too much of Pioneer Woman's blog)

The ingredients or cast of characters

Mashing the bananas

The dry ingredients

The wet ingredients

Mixing everything together

Ta da.....The finished product! 

Of course, I am not sure where Jenna got the recipe so I can't post it and she had the NERVE to take it to work tonight so I don't even know I will get any.  I hope it's good, Jenna! 

If you have never read Pioneer Woman's blog, it is really fun.  Sometimes she is  bit crass, but really funny!  Click on the link above and it should take you there.  She has several blogs:  cooking, photography, homeschooling, etc., but the link above will take you to her main page where you can get to all of them.  

Old Pictures

I got my first digital camera when Tara was about six months old so I have a TON of digital pictures of her.  I was not nearly as good at taking pictures with my film camera....you know, taking it in to be developed, picking the pictures up, not even getting many good pictures.  I do much better with digital.

The few pictures I do have of the girls are mostly taken by my Mother in Law as she takes pictures of absolutely EVERYTHING!!!  I did take some, though.  The girls found these the other day and uploaded them to their Facebook.  I thought they were so cute.  Of course, Tara was not born yet as she is the "bonus baby" and is eight years younger than Sammy.

Camping at Mt. Rose

Another year of camping

A Christmas picture one year...I am not sure why it is so yellowed, but I must have a better one somewhere around

Tara's Outfit of the Day

Tara decided to take pictures of her outfit.  She couldn't get it all in one picture so she just took pictures of each piece.

A is for Awesome shirt

Jean Skirt

Stripedy Tights....Tara's wording

Black shoes

The End of an Era

About 5 1/2 years ago a little tea room called Belle's Tea Cottage opened here.  Ever since it opened, I have gone there every few months with friends or my girls.  I found out last week that the owner and her husband have decided to retire and, of course, I had to go there one last time with the girls and my mom...who is home from Hawaii now (actually two since I am going again next week with some friends).

Tara and Jenna getting ready to eat tea sandwiches....that whole plate is for Tara!  Jenna had her own.

Sammy and my mom

Tara and I

Every time we had gone to Belle's, Tara had gotten the same cup.  They are selling off all their inventory of dishes, so we bought the cup.

Tara's teacup...memories from Belle's

Sammy had to take a picture of her raspberry chai latte....it's Sammy, need I say more?

The girls got a little silly at the end

A picture of all of us...man, my hair is flat here!

We had an awesome time at lunch, but all felt a little sad (Tara even cried).  We will truly miss this tradition.

Reviewing the Week....

Tuesday is errand day at my house.  Grocery store, Trader Joe's, Costco, etc. and wherever else I have on my list.  First, I have to make a shopping list.  Just like I am basically not able to function without my "to do" list, shopping without my list is even worse!  I would just wander around the store aimlessly without it.

For those who saw my other picture of the chalkboard pantry door, this is the inside.  When we are running out or have run out of something, people are supposed to write it on the list so it makes it easier for me later.  This doesn't always happen, but it helps some.  Of course, I can see that I was the one who wrote everything on this list so if anyone ran out of other stuff, they may be out of luck.  It's not that we don't need other stuff and basics, this is just stuff we have run out of that I may not buy every week.

I also had some chicken carcasses I had from a couple days before that I used to make chicken stock for meals we planned later in the week.

Tara got a coconut in the mail that my mom sent her from Hawaii.  She took it to school later in the week for Show and Tell.

We also made heart sugar cookies for Tara's class and for us to eat.  We will probably send some to Alyssa too, but she won't get them until after Valentine's Day.  I don't think she'll care, though...cookies are great any time and I did send her a box of stuff last week for Valentine's Day.

Tim, Tara and I had dinner at home for Valentine's Day.  We found steak at Costco for a great price and had asparagus, artichokes and twice baked potatoes with it.  We were going to have chocolate fondue for dessert, but we were so full, we decided to save that for Sunday night.

A Second Piercing

Jenna has been asking to get a second piercing in her ears for a while and so Tim and I finally said it would be okay, but she had to pay for it.  It looks nice and she wears simple earrings anyway.

Here it is with her whole face!

Still working on cleaning up and getting ready for the week before we can make cookies. 

Trying on Dresses

My niece has had a really hard year this year.  Her parents went through a separation and divorce that began on the night of her 16th birthday (in April) and the divorce was final at the beginning of November.  We have really tried to be there for her and my nephew as her parents were going through this because we know how hard this has to be on teenagers.  And when their parents were and still are trying to figure out what is going on in their own lives, I knew they needed some extra support and time from parts of their lives that were stable and staying the same during all the changes. 

Now the cousins have always been close and done sleepovers and time together, but it does get harder as they get older so it has been fun that now that she can drive they can come over and visit and hang out.  We live almost 30 minutes away and the kids all go to different schools as well.  Last night she came over to try on dresses for a homecoming dance she was going to that night and a Junior Achievement dance she is going to later in the month (Sammy is also going to that).

Her choice for the Junior Achievement Dance

One option for homecoming....she fell rock climbing and hurt her knee and has to wear a knee brace

This is the option she chose...you can't see the knee brace as much and the dress fit better

Sammy did her hair and makeup...beautiful!

Alyx and Jenna (Jenna had to go to work before the process was done)

Tara took this picture of her sisters

We didn't end up baking cookies.  I was trying to catch up on other things....maybe tomorrow!