A Touch Of Tyrell

A few months ago a friend of mine was talking about a cookbook called Deceptively Delicious. I didn't study it too closely, but from what I understand it is filled with recipes that you can hide a pureed vegetable (or two) in and you won't even notice. She mentioned that you can use the purees as baby food too. I never even thought about making my own baby food.... so I went home and googled it. (I google just about everything). I found this great website . Its super simple. You cook/steam/boil whatever you are making, puree it, and freeze it. For example: Yams. I peeled and cut them into big chunks and boiled them until they were soft. Then I put them in the magic bullet with some of the leftover water (I'm sure you can use a blender, food processor, or a fine strainer) and blended them until they were baby food consistency. I used a really fine handheld strainer and mashed them through with the back of a spoon at first. It took 1,238,462 years to do half a yam. So I inv...

Can you believe Everett turned 6 months old on Saturday? I can. Its been fast.... but I totally see how 6 months have passed. A lot has happened and I've loved every minute of it. And I'm not just saying that, I really have loved it all. I just love his guts! He's been sitting up for about a week now. It's pretty awesome. It seems like he can't grow up fast enough. I am pretty sure he was meant to be born a grown up, a last child, or a twin. He needs your 100% undivided attention every waking second, he LOVES to go visit friends, and shopping is his favorite sport. He's usually so good when we go out into public. I think he likes all of the movement. But today at the Dr's he just cried and cried. It's because his crazy mom scheduled his appointment right at nap time. She learned her lesson. Well, he's 17lbs 10 oz (50%) and 27 1/2 inches long (85%). Dr said the teeth are coming and things are looking good. He told me that I was doing a good job. ...

So... you like my hat, do you? Would you like to have a sweet hat like my hat? You can have one. My little sister will make you one. She has made me 3 hats. I just have to say "brown with a burgundy flower"... and I have a new hat!  Or burgundy with a brown flower... Or multi-colored... Or stripes for Jake... She even made this cute hat for Everett. She can make it stripes, solid, multi, flower, no flower, two flowers, leaf, no leaf, ball on top, no ball on top, and she can even do ear flaps... and in any size. Design it your own and let me know. They are $12 + $3 shipping (if you order more than one you only have to pay shipping for one). Leave a comment or e-mail me at tyrell.berner@hotmail.com (and she's fast.... you'll probably have it in a week.)

We found out that Everett was going to be a boy in early January and by February we had already found the ultimate deal on Craigslist. We got over 100 pieces of newborn-12 month boy clothes, a baby bouncer, our Moses basket , a bundle me , all of the Baby Einsteins music CD's, an empty baby photo album, a baby DVD, and some baby books all from one lady... for $100. It was awesome. A month or two later we got his crib for $50 and when he was 3 months old we bought his jumperoo for $35 (both on Craigslist). And this summer I got all of our rock band stuff at a garage sale for $15. I'm a sucker for a good deal. Anyways... I had forgotten about our bundle me because it really hadn't been that cold until recently. It is awesome. It's basically a baby sleeping bag that's fits right into your car seat or stroller. Its perfect for our cold walks. I love the bundle me . And it's a whole lot better than this on these cold days!

 The table The decorations  We got our fancy on this year Truth is, we are thankful for clearance napkins, napkin rings, and plates. Thankful for a borrowed a table, borrowed chairs, and our front porch bench. And so thankful for the family we enjoyed it with. We played a little rock band, ate a little turkey, and ate a little pie. Well, that's a lie. We are a lot of turkey and pie and played a lot of rock band and balderdash. Gotta love the holidays! (And Jake tired on his little sister's boots. She wears size 12.)

To think of the things that I am thankful for: E verett, Jake, family V ehicles, bikes, shoes E xperience, trials R elatives, friends, strangers Y ellowstone, nature, mountains T echnology, phones, computers H ealth, happiness, home I ntelligence, knowledge, school N ice things, decorations, pictures G ospel, God, Jesus Christ These are just a few thinks that I am grateful for. It’s amazing to think about all of the things I have been blessed with. Happy Thanksgiving 2010. Thanks for blessings. All of them.

Everything on yesterday's list is checked off... and a few more things. I added some things like *Don't get dressed or shower *Keep Everett in his long johns all day *Paint the dresser When Jake came home he found us just as he had left us, in our jammies... with food on our sleeve and up our nose: We love when Dad comes home. Well, the table is set and we are ready for the family to come. We had only planned on 10 people coming but found out that Brianna's boyfriend came home from college for the holiday. He'll celebrate Thanksgiving with his family on Saturday.... so we set an 11th place for him. We were going to set him a paper plate, plastic silverware, a plastic cup, and a folding chair just as a joke. He is totally welcomed and we're excited that he's coming.... but we still might do it for a good laugh. Who doesn't love a good joke once in a while?! Thanks for laughs and jokes.

Gotta love that snow outside... actually, its the ice under the snow. Yep. That's what kept Dad home today. Well he did go into the office until noon, but out of the 6 people that work in the office... only he showed up so he came home to spend the day with us. We had so much to do. He chauffeured us around town buying last minute Thanksgiving items. We stopped to visit some friends and even took a trip to the library. I think the library is a pretty cool place and I've just convinced Jake of it too. We walked out of there with 9 CD's, 2 cook books, 2 holiday decorating magazines, and a new book for me to read during these chilly days. We felt like we either robbed the place or just dropped $100.... but we did neither. It was fantastic! Well one day of messing around is enough and Jake will be back to work in the morning. I have plenty to do tomorrow as we are hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year. I am quite excited. My list of things to do goes something...

It snowed for most of the day. There's something peaceful about the snow. I don't know what it is, but I love it. There's also something peaceful about this little guy, but I do know what it is. He was sitting in his high chair eating homemade baby food when it happened. I often repeat the words "ma ma" and "da da" so that maybe one day he will repeat them back to me. He took a bite of sweet potatoes and looked right past me to the large snow flakes falling outside. I repeated "ma ma ma ma ma" and that's when he looked me right in the eyes. Our eyes locked for a moment and then he smiled. He smiled as if he were saying Mom I know its you and I love you. My eyes welled with tears as I fed him another spoonful. I knew that he knew I was his mom and that I loved him too. I felt so much peace in that moment. ...to receive the gift of peace, is far from a temporary, worldly satisfaction. It is indeed a heavenly gift : "Peace I leave with yo...

So last night I was in one of those moods. It was a strange mix, something called sensitive angry madness .... so I got ready for bed early but decided to loose myself in TV first. I turned it on not expecting to find anything good... then 2 seconds later I found the movie Family Stone. I usually don't like to watch a movie more than once but I remembered that this one was good. Only after watching it for a minute I heard something, so I rewound it... I rewound it again... and again... and again. One of the main characters' name is Everett. One of the biggest reasons we named our son Everett was the fact that we didn't know anyone with the name and we had actually never even heard it. I was pretty shocked when I heard his name so I had to watch the whole movie. The movie put me in such a better mood and I couldn't wait for Christmas. We turned on the fire place and snuggled up for the rest of the movie. This morning I walked upstairs to get Everett baby. We looked out ...

My parents have been divorced my whole life. At least as long as I can remember. My Dad lives in AZ and my mom and step-dad live in CO. My Dad came to visit us kids a lot…. and because hotels/motels can get expensive, we stayed in some real winners from time to time. You know the ones where the pool water was yellow with lots of leaves, the bathroom had one towel, and the hand soap/face soap/shampoo/conditioner was all in the same bottle? Yep, we stayed in those sometimes. We didn’t go on many vacations with my mom (most likely because we spent the summers and holidays with my Dad and when else do you vacation?) except for once a year we went to the stock show and rodeo in Denver. Yee Haw. That was our vacation. One year we stayed in a much nicer hotel than normal. I’m talking about the one that has an elevator, an indoor pool, and the shampoo, conditioner, and moisturizer have their own bottle. As a kid, I HATED to shower. My mom would say, “Rell, its bath night.” So I would go stand...

I'm not #1 when it comes to technology. I'm that person that figures out just enough to use the device. To break myself of the bad habit, I've been playing around with the camera to try and figure it out a little more. I took a few picture of how good (and cute) Ev was being when he woke up from his morning nap. This next picture is a little blurry, but I loved the crib bars reflecting in his eyes. Some days he just loves his bouncer and some days he just hates everything. Today he loved it. Then a minute later I see this: (gotta love the baby mullet) And this next video is for your viewing pleasure only. Ev was being outrageously fussy the other night so Jake went to great lengths to get this video. Everett laughs and screams and Jake teaches you how to clean a floor. P.s. Everett laughed in the very end... I just stopped recording too early. (And don't worry, he didn't get hurt). Thanks for a good day and a great husband who makes babies laugh.

Last night I was in my room (craft room) and across the hall Jake was in his room (the office). We were just doing our thing and we kept hearing these loud thuds. After a few of them Jake offered up the possibility "I think those are pine cones hitting our roof." "Yeah, we're playing a game of dodge ball and the house is loosing big time." Before we climbed in bed we took a peek outside. We saw lots of stuff in our yard but couldn't really see much, so I was excited to look outside this morning. I walked outside and I could smell Christmas. Pine trees. But we saw this: Jake was thinking in the right direction... but instead of pine cones it was Christmas trees. Look at the size of these boogers. You can't really tell but this thing was over 10 feet tall. It really could be a Christmas tree. Our front yard looked much the same. Another huge brach landed just 3 feet in front of my car. Luckily it was yard waste day, so I loaded up the blue bin and set in o...

At 5:29 (you know, when it gets dark) the power went out. The lights got really bright, and then NOTHING. They flashed back on for a second and then went out again. We were in the living room. Everett has been Mr . Mom I hate you guts (a.k.a. super fussy) all day… so he was in the swing. When the lights didn’t come back on for several seconds I knew I had to get some sort of light because the power was definitely out and nothing was coming in from outside. Not even street lights. I carpet-skated over to the steps that lead me to the hard wood. Up two steps… then I rounded the corner to the kitchen. I’m not much of a scent or candle person… so I have a bunch of un-burned candles in our kitchen cabinets. I purposely put them there with a lighter…. just in case. I felt around for the cabinets, bumped into the counter, and finally got a big smelly candle down from the top shelf. I lit it. It was glorious. I took down a few more. Within seconds I could smell a popery headache coming on, bu...