6 months

This isn't exactly an ideal picture of our Charly girl, but what can you expect from a baby who rolls onto her tummy immediately when you put her down? This was the least blurry shot I could get.





It's amazing how time is flying with this little girl. 6 months already? Sheesh. Actually, make that 6 1/2 months, since this post is 2 weeks late. Yikes.

We love our Charlotte!

Things I Love - week 1

As promised, in celebration of the "month of chocolate love." Sorry if you follow me on Instagram and are, therefore, seeing these twice. No one's forcing you to be here. Was that rude?

1. My guy + my girls = my world

2. CHOCOLATE. This particular specimen is a York Peppermint Patty, Valentine's edition (i.e.  heart shaped with PINK peppermint filling. Extra points.)

3. Harry Potter books. See also: my adolescence; brilliance; things I need to read again (again). 

4. Making cookies. I really love making cookies, friends. It's fun and delicious. 

5. Kraft macaroni and cheese, of the three cheese shells variety. I've tried a lot of macaroni and cheese in my day, and all things considered (including price and convenience), this takes the cake. 

6. My current faves in the beauty dept: CoverGirl LashBlast Fusion mascara (I love mascara, people, and this stuff is just as good, if not better, than way more expensive alternatives); Maybelline BabyLips (moisture, a little color, and $2.99. Yes.); BareMinerals Foundation (I read once that foundation is like, the only makeup thing worth splurging on, and it made so much sense to me that I've adopted it as gospel. So yes, I splurge a bit for this stuff.)

7. PJs. I have way too many pairs of PJ pants...and I love them all. And would probably buy more if I found more that I loved. You can't stop love. 

35 Things 2012: January Update

All right, let's keep this simple and sweet. Here's what I did this month:

6. Read at least 3 articles in every Ensign. January's Ensign was amazing, people. If you have one, read it. If you don't have one, get one. Or check it out here.

14. Clean Tupperware cabinet. Yay!

17. Clean off the clutter desk at least twice a month. Also yay!

30. Read 32 books. I read the following 3 books in January:

-Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare: I liked this one better than the Mortal Instruments series. I think the writing was an improvement. Kind of interesting though that it is pretty much the exact.same.story as the other series, just told in a different setting. I'll probably read the second one, though. 3.5 stars.

-The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt: This was a nice, refreshing, easy read. The youthful voice made it pretty humorous, and there was just enough seriousness underlying the whole thing to make it meaningful. 4 stars.

-The Power of Six by Pittacus Lore: Sequel to I am Number Four, which I loved. I didn't love this one quite as much. It was definitely fast-paced, which was great, but it also seemed like a lot was happening but nothing actually happened. That doesn't make any sense. Anyway, not as good as the first, but okay verging on good. 3 stars.

32. Write at least 4 blog posts a month. Well, my 35 Things update plus Charly's monthly update already gives me two a month, so this one should be pretty easy. Maybe I should up it to 5?

Thanks, friends! Hope you're making progress on your lists! Happy Wednesday.

What's going to happen in February.

Hello, friends! I'm your Vitameatavegamin girl.

Are you tired, rundown, listless? Do you poop out at parties? Are you unpopular?

Well, the answer to all your problems is in this little bottle:

But you can't have any for the entire month of February.

That's right, my friends. Please welcome the return of Fizz-Free February!

(crickets)

Okay, I can't blame you for not cheering. I'm not cheering either. But by golly, I did it last year and I can do it again this year...

although February does have a extra day this year...

oh snap.

Okay but really - if I can do this, you.can.do.this.

So let's do this!

Also, with February being the month of love and all, I wanted to do some sort of "things I love" series for the month. Last February, my friend Lisa did a post every day about something different she loves, and I loved the idea. I'm not sure I should commit to a post a day, but I decided I could do a picture a day. So I'm going to take a picture of something different I love every day, and post it to Instagram (My username is whatthekatie if you're on Instagram; if you have an iPhone but don't use Instagram...start), but I'll also post the pictures on my blog - maybe not every day but maybe every couple days with a few pictures to catch up.

Very also, I'm reconsidering my choice to not post monthly updates on my 35 things. Those monthly posts really help me stay accountable for my list. So if you hate those posts...just don't read them. And if you made a list yourself, consider giving us a monthly update. It helps - I promise!

Anyway, I love February. The weather is still nice, and well, Valentine's! I really like Valentine's. Maybe I'll write another post about that later or something, since there are a lot of Valentine's haters and I'd love to give them a piece of my mind from a safe, remote location.

Hope you all are having great days/weeks/lives.

The 20-something-year-old Hubster

If I was able to tell you how good of a dad this guy is...



or how hard he works for our family...



or how devoted he is to his calling...

or how supportive he is of his wife...



or how proactive he is about keeping our marriage happy and full of love...



or how smart, creative, dedicated, fun, talented, generous, and righteous he is...

then I would. But it might not even be possible.

So, let's hope this will suffice for now: he's Superman. For reals.

I'm so glad I have him on my team.

Happy birthday, Dallin. You are everything to me and the girls; don't you forget it.

I have something to say.

I've just gotta do this. It's practically not even an option.

Now, before I do it, I've gotta tell you: we've all been there. I'm not trying to offend you. I'm not calling anyone out specifically. I've just noticed a little teeny tiny something that is begging to be blogged about.


I repeat: I've done this too.


Okay, disclaimer over. Here it goes:


NO APOSTROPHES IN NAME PLURALS.


NOT EVER.


What do I mean by that?


I mean that the plural of my last name, "Harris," is NOT "Harris's." Or "Harris'." It's Harrises.


As in "The Harrises are weird about their punctuation."

You are talking about more than one Harris. No apostrophe.

The Smiths.

The Joneses.

The Browns.

The Clarks.

The Johnsons.

If you include an apostrophe, you are making the word possessive, and you must include something that the people own, like:

"The Harrises' house has artwork depicting punctuation in it." (It doesn't...yet.)

"The Smiths' biggest fear is that the Harrises will come over for dinner and only talk about punctuation."

Does this make sense? Okay.

But really, it's okay if you've made this mistake. I make mistakes with my grammar/punctuation/life all the time...sometimes on purpose (except for the life one, I think). So please don't be offended. We can all just agree to keep it in mind, right? Right.

Sing it with me: "And the world will be a better place."

Look at me and my crafty self

I don't get many opportunities to show off crafty things, because I don't take many opportunities to do crafty things, because I have one crafty bone in my body, and I think it's in my legs somewhere, and I hate my legs.

And now that that's out of the way...

My sister Julie found us a little project to do that could be done even with one crafty bone, so it was just right for me. Observe:




Fancy schmancy embossed ornaments! Cute, right? But wait - there's more.




Awwww.

And yes - you read that correctly - we embossed. That's right - embossed. Like we had to use special embossing powder and a little embossing heating tool thingamajig to do this. Embossing is boss.



I kinda love them.

I made six total: two for my mom, two for my mom-in-law, and two for me. They made excellent grandma gifts, don't you think?

And I took exactly zero pictures of the process. I bet you can figure out what we did though, since chance are, you have more crafty bones than I do. (Answer: stamp letters with embossing ink on ornament. Cover with embossing powder. Heat until successfully embossed. Strap squirmy child down whilst stamping their embossing ink-covered hand on the opposite side of the ornament. Cover with embossing powder. Heat until successfully embossed. Tie pretty bows. Tie the best bow you can when it doesn't exactly come out "pretty." Say "Ta da!")

Okay, now - how much do you love them?

That's what I thought.