What are the Best Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Flavors? - A (somewhat) comprehensive rating system

A few years ago, one of my co-workers told me how he and a group of friends got together every year and went on a Pizza Tasting Tour of a fun city.  A lot of times it was in New York, sometimes in Chicago or Philly.  But they would go to 5 or 6 pizza places over the course of a long weekend and try a pie and a pitcher of beer at each to find their favorite slices.  I LOVE this idea!  And I love pizza too, so maybe someday I will steal it verbatim.

But in the meantime, I mentioned to Matt that I would love to do this for something that we both love a lot, like an Ice Cream Tour!  He pressed me for the logistics of it, and I said maybe we could fly out to Vermont to Ben & Jerry's headquarters where they do tasting tours.  He pointed out that the flight to Vermont alone would probably cost us more than if we were to just buy every flavor of B&J's they offered at the grocery store.  So that's just what we did.  Over the course of a few months, we bought every flavor of Ben & Jerry's at the Fry's by our house and kept a rating scorecard up on our freezer to keep track of our favorites.  The results were delicious and sometimes shocking - flavors that sounded insanely good ended up being so-so, flavors that sounded strange ended up with high marks across the board.

Here's where we landed:

Top Flavors (Loved By All):

• Half Baked: Chocolate & Vanilla ice cream with Fudge Brownies and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.  First place goes to this amazing flavor.  This was no surprise to anyone with a pulse and some taste buds.  This is commonly known as the most delicious flavor of ice cream in the universe.  During the rotation, we tried it 2 or 3 times just to be sure.  Yup.
• Everything But The...: Chocolate & Vanilla Ice Creams mixed with Peanut Butter Cups, Fudge-Covered Toffee Pieces, White Chocolatey Chunks & Fudge-Covered Almonds. I'm not sure why this one surprised me so much. Looking at the ingredient list, everything sounds great. Somehow when they're mixed all together, they're even better. The whole being better than the sum of it's parts and all that. Great flavor, we will add this one to our normal rotation.
• The Tonight Dough: Caramel & Chocolate Ice Creams with Chocolate Cookie Swirls & Gobs of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough & Peanut Butter Cookie Dough. The flavor profile on this one is so similar to Half Baked, that it's no wonder we ranked it 3rd place among all the contenders. Delicious and balanced flavors. And seeing Jimmy Fallon's face made us want to watch Hashtags on YouTube all night - can't beat ice cream and a laugh!
• Brownie Batter Core: Chocolate & Vanilla Ice Creams with Fudge Brownies & a Brownie Batter Core. If there's one thing I love more than brownies, it's brownie batter. Lots of chocolaty deliciousness here, but not overwhelmingly chocolate.
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough: Vanilla Ice Cream with Gobs of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. Matt's favorite ice cream flavor overall is chocolate chip. So it's no surprise that when you give him super gourmet cookie dough ice cream, he loves it. I didn't think it was too bad either!
• Mint Chocolate Cookie: Peppermint Ice Cream with Chocolate Sandwich Cookies. Mmm - the cookies in this flavor were even better than Oreo's if you can believe that. If you were to add brownies to this pint, it may very well move up to first place for me. Can someone make that happen? So good.
• Karamel Sutra Core: Chocolate & Caramel Ice Creams with Fudge Chips & a Soft Caramel Core. The caramel core really worked with this flavor. I liked the simplicity, but Matt (the king of caramel) really loved all of the caramel. Surprise, surprise.

Great Flavors (Liked By All):

• Cake My Day: Vanilla cake batter ice cream, vanilla cake pieces, buttercream frosting and raspberry swirls. This is part of a limited batch release that we were happy to find. Cake is my favorite dessert, so I thought this one would shoot to the top of the list for me. Although the flavor was solid, it just doesn't compare to real cake, so I couldn't put it in my top.
• New York Super Fudge Chunk: Chocolate Ice Cream with White & Dark Fudge Chunks, Pecans, Walnuts & Fudge Covered Almonds. Nice and nutty, but had to mix this one with vanilla ice cream so it wasn't so overwhelmingly chocolate.
• Peanut Butter Fudge Core: Chocolate & Peanut Butter Ice Creams with Mini Peanut Butter Cups & a Peanut Butter Fudge Core. Yum to the mini PB cups, and the core on this one was pretty good too. If I were in a really peanut-buttery mood, I would go for this one again.
• Brewed to Matter: Coffee Ice Cream with Fudge Chunks & a Brownie Batter Swirl. This one was a Target exclusive flavor that Matt was happy to find. Coffee and fudge made for a good overall flavor, but we happen to like the coffee flavor of Breyer's a bit better.
• Empower Mint: Peppermint Ice Cream with Fudge Brownies & Fudge Swirls. This one had the brownies I was looking for, but not the cookies! Why can't Empower Mint and Mint Chocolate Cookie team up and make a sweet, sweet, baby for me to eat? Empower Mint is supposed to remind everyone to get out and vote this election season - DO it!!
• Americone Dream: Vanilla Ice Cream with Fudge Covered Waffle Cone Pieces & a Caramel Swirl. This is another one where the flavor is good and we have no REAL complaints. Except that the Frys/Kroger brand waffle cone ice cream is just as good to Matt. And I would prefer if they added nuts to this flavor to remind me of Drumstick ice cream - yum!
• Phish Food: Chocolate Ice Cream with Gooey Marshmallow Swirls, Caramel Swirls & Fudge Fish. I remember eating this one a lot in college, but my tolerance for chocolate must have been higher then. Love the yummy marshmallows and the large chocolate chunks, but had to cut this one with vanilla ice cream to avoid being overwhelmed by chocolate.
• Coffee Toffee Bar Crunch: Coffee Ice Cream with Fudge-covered Toffee Bar Pieces. I thought I had struck Matt gold on this one, since he loves coffee and toffee. But he said that their toffee is just not his favorite (he likes the Caramel Butter Toffee Kroger brand the best and eats it almost every night, so that was the measuring stick it was up against)

Mixed Reviews (Some Likes, Some Dislikes):

• Boom Chocolatta Cookie Core: Mocha & Caramel Ice Creams with Chocolate Cookies, Fudge Flakes & a Chocolate Cookie Core. Matt and I liked this one well enough, but Tori gave it a sad face. Seems like the cores can be a bit polarizing, which makes sense given there is a dominant flavor center that you have to enjoy in order to love the whole pint.
• Cookies & Cream Cheesecake Core: Chocolate & Cheesecake Ice Creams with Chocolate Cookies & a Cheesecake Core. Case in point on the polarity: Matt and Tori really liked this flavor, but I was lukewarm on it! I think the word cheesecake threw me off because it was just the essence or flavor of cheesecake without any of the awesome texture.
• A Swirled of Difference: Peanut butter ice cream with a crunchy peanut butter swirl & a raspberry swirl. Another Target exclusive. I actually thought I liked this one the first time we ate it - it is VERY reminiscent of a peanut butter & jelly sandwich. But we didn't finish the carton night one, and I never found myself wanting to go back to it. So just meh.
• Cherry Garcia: Cherry Ice Cream with Cherries & Fudge Flakes. This is one of the only flavors I ever tried as a kid, so I have a soft spot for Cherry Garcia. But Matt doesn't like cherries, so he knew he wouldn't love it going in. I happily finished this one on my own after his research taste test.

Total Duds:

• Spectacular Speculoos Core: Dark Caramel & Vanilla Ice Creams with Speculoos Cookies & a Speculoos Cookie Butter Core. Man, this one was super disappointing because we really like the Speculoos Cookie Butter from Trader Joe's. Ryan will eat that stuff by the spoonful directly from the jar. It's a cinnamon or gingerbread-like mashed cookie paste. Very holiday and very good. But the ice cream tasted dry and crumbly and not at ALL like the cookie butter. Bummer.
• Chunky Monkey: Banana Ice Cream with Fudge Chunks & Walnuts. I actually don't like anything banana flavored (except for actual bananas) since they remind me of the dentist. That was the flavor novicaine that my dentist always used, so banana flavors make me ill. Matt wasn't wild about it either and we only begrudgingly ate this one.
• Chocolate Therapy: Chocolate Ice Cream with Chocolate Cookies & Swirls of Chocolate Pudding Ice Cream. Ugh, WAY too much chocolate on this one. Not even cutting with vanilla ice cream could save this one. I couldn't even taste the particulates since the chocolate flavor was so overwhelming. Did not finish.
• Coconuts for Caramel Core: Caramel & Sweet Cream Coconut Ice Creams with Fudge Flakes & a Caramel Core. The caramel half of this ice cream was great. But the other half was TOTAL garbage. Initially, I thought that maybe it was in a weird part of the freezer that was causing the sweet cream side to be frozen solid. I couldn't even get a spoonful out without flinging it across the room. And it didn't even seem ice-creamy in flavor. Just like cold coconut shavings. Threw out that half.

So there you have it!  These are all of the flavors at our store (and then some extras, thanks Target!)  We have had such a fun time trying all of these new flavors and learning about what this brand has to offer.  I think Ben & Jerry's is such a fun company, and looking at their other flavors online makes me so hungry!  We are going to try to find the other flavors at different stores near us, so stay tuned for updates on this one :)  

And if anyone at Ben & Jerry's wants to make our Vermont tour dreams come true...let me know! ;)

First bite...not sure what to think...

Delicious! She was totally obsessed!

Our seasoned ice cream eater giving his input

Girls' Night - Tutti Santi and Splitting Checks

We're bringing back the blog!  Most of the posts will probably be quick, but just want to keep a record of fun places we go and things we do on the weekends.  This past weekend was #girlsnight, which my bestie Claudia set up.  The crew included the core (me, Claudia, Jody), as well as a few other friends that I've met a few times (Shannon, Scrapper, Sam) and one new friend (Liz).  Since half of us have kids, we planned for a late dinner so everyone could get their little ones settled before heading out for the night.  Shout out to Matt for putting Baby Girl to bed for me so I could get out of here on  time :)

The restaurant Claudia picked was Tutti Santi - an Italian chain I had never been to before.  The food was ok, but I struggle with Italian restaurants unless they are super high-end.  Simply because I feel like I could make most of the dishes at home pretty easily and just as well (not to mention frozen Stouffer's meals and Trader Joes gnocchi)  I typically love the bread served at the restaurants, but Tutti Santi was lacking here, with basically just room temperature sliced bread with a ton of garlic in it.  The food turned out pretty tasty - I had the Chicken Della Casa (chicken with prosciutto and asparagus in a Brandy sauce) and all of the other girls got either the Ravioli or Fettuccine Alfredo with Shrimp.  I'd say 7 out of 10 stars for food itself.

We had a great time catching up and chatting, rehashing old, hysterical stories, and offering advice on everything from breakups to babies.  It's always so nice to get out of the house, but especially so with a group of smart, fun women to laugh with.

The damper on the night was our weird waiter, who seemed suuuuuuuper annoyed that we wanted to split the check among the 7 of us.  I get that check splitting is a pain in the butt.  And if it is restaurant policy not to split checks, I can respect that (although I wouldn't eat there with a group since everyone carries cards instead of cash these days.)  Side rant: I also despise when restaurants charge a split plate fee (like this one did). So we ask the dude to split the check for us and he says it is a pain and it takes him a long time and he just did it for an 11-top table and it took him forever and wah, wah, wah.  So I tell him he can bring us one check, but I'll be splitting out how much everyone pays on their respective cards, so he's going to have to run them all anyways.  Then he failed to bring back cash change for one person (put in $40 for a $21 tab), and avoided us the rest of the night.  When we asked for change on the cash, he stomped over and dramatically gave Jody $15 change and then held up 4 singles and declared "that only leaves $4 for me!"  Then I reminded him that we all tipped him individually on our cards as well, bringing his tip well above the standard 20%...  I think he felt embarrassed by his toddler-style pouting, because when we left, he ran out to the door to yell a polite goodbye to us.  Weirdo.

All in all, a fantastic night with the ladies, even though we forgot to snap a pic until almost everyone had gone.  Love these girls forever!  Until next time -

#girlsnight #blogworthy #croptopsrompersandpoofysleeves

Washington Trip

Ryan: the best ring bearer ever

With the new addition to our family in August it has been more challenging to travel or take vacations.  It took a unique situation and several months of us getting a handle on caring for a new baby again for us to attempt this trip.  Luckily the timing worked out and we were able to pack up the family and go to Washington to see Pamela's brother, Tommy, get married.


Traveling with little kids is quite an experience.  They are so small but they require such a large amount of support equipment and supplies.  When Pamela and I traveled by ourselves we could go on a trip twice as long with 1 large suitcase each.  For this trip we had 4 full rolling suitcases, 2 shoulder bags, 2 car seats, a stroller, plus Ryan had his own small rolling suitcase.  Luckily my mom decided to join us on the trip to make things easier.  It was great having her along as an extra set of hands and eyes for dealing with the kids and all of our stuff.  She would also be very useful later when we were preparing for activities, traveling in the car for long distances, and watching Audrey for a portion of the wedding so we could enjoy the reception.

Plane Ride to Seattle

On Friday we left for the airport early in the morning.  We had to leave early so we could arrive in Washington, make it to our rental house, and be ready for the rehearsal dinner that evening.  Our many days and weeks of planning before the trip paid off because we forgot very few things we needed on the trip and each phase of the trip was fairly well planned.  Ryan and I dropped Pamela, Audrey, and my mom off at the terminals while we parked.  They checked the bags, got boarding passes, and checked into the flight while Ryan and I parked the car and took the Sky Train over to the gates.  I'm very thankful that the airports do a decent job of working with families.  It is difficult enough to travel with these tiny people without all the airport complications.  Most airports will allow you to go through a shorter line at the security checkpoint if you have small children.  They will also let you gate check your car seats and strollers so you can use them to get through the terminal and they are not subject to as much baggage handling abuse as regular checked baggage.

I wanted to jump straight to the vacation portion of the trip but in reality the journey was a large portion of the trip.  The kids did an amazing job, for the most part, at the airport and on the planes.  They were off of their normal routines and nap schedules but they were happy and well behaved a large majority of the time. 

In Washington we rented a van and rented a house to stay in for the weekend.  Now that we've tried it, renting a house on vacation seems to be the best way to go.  It was affordable, convenient, and much nicer than staying in a hotel.  Looking for a house or condo to rent on vacation is going to be our first option from here on out.  Our rental house was a beautiful 2 story house in Woodinville.  It was on almost an acre of forested property in the winery region of Washington.  The house itself was beautifully appointed, with stainless steel appliances, upscale furniture and decorations, and even had a toy box full of toys for Ryan. 

There was only a little time to get settled before we needed to start getting ready for the first activity of the weekend, the rehearsal dinner.  I don't believe rehearsal dinners are usually such a big deal, but Pamela's parents went all out for this one.  They rented a large venue, brought in catered food, and invited almost a hundred people.  It was nice to have an extra evening of visiting with the family.  There were so many relatives there that having an extra night before the wedding to catch up was very welcomed.  Plus the food was awesome.  They found a gourmet food truck that was willing to set up their equipment at the venue and cook for us all night.  Their specialty was waffles of all kinds.  The dinner portion was hearty chicken & waffles, pulled pork & waffles, and cheddar jalapeno & corn waffles.  Following dinner, they switched it up and started serving sweet waffles paired with different fruits and chocolate.  We stayed out pretty late because we were having a good time and the kids were doing well.  Audrey started to fade but Ryan was still in a good mood and playing with some new toys. 

Saturday morning was our chance to take it easy and recover from the long travel day and late night at the rehearsal dinner.  We knew we needed to seize this opportunity since the wedding would be a very active time and we may be out late.  Pamela's sisters Kim and Liz came over to the house to visit and get ready before the wedding.  Now that both sisters live out of state it is nice to see them whenever the opportunity arises.  After getting ready we all headed to the wedding venue a little early to join in for the pre-wedding pictures.  Ryan was the ring bearer and Pamela would need to get in on the family shots with Tommy.  We were unsure of how Ryan would do as the ring bearer since he has never done it before and is still a little young for following directions.  I was also nervous since leading up to the ceremony he was starting to get annoyed with all the waiting and taking pictures.  When it was finally time for the ceremony Ryan did amazing.  When it was his turn to go down the aisle he proudly marched all the way down with a huge smile on his face right to his uncle Tommy.  All the guests gave him a big round of applause and he couldn't be more proud of himself.  He then sat politely with me during the whole ceremony, eating his snack for most of it, but it kept him occupied and happy. 

Having fun at the wedding!

The reception was great and again we took this opportunity to catch up with family members that we don't get to see very often.  Ryan took this time to play and burn off some energy that was built up from waiting around pre-ceremony.  Tommy and Jen did an excellent job with the wedding.  The venue, decorations, food & drinks, DJ, and everything were well chosen and we had a great time.  It wasn't long after dinner before Audrey started to fade again and we excused ourselves to go back to the house and put her to bed.  My mom was able to stay at the house and watch Audrey so Pamela, Ryan, and I could go back to the reception for a bit of cake and dancing.  I'm glad we were able to go back because the cake was great and the dancing was a blast.  If we didn't mention it before, Ryan LOVES to dance.  As soon as we walked in and he heard the music he started to do his little hop/skip/trot dance.  We weren't even to the dance floor, he just picked an open area and started going for it.  Ryan was a hit; all of Pamela's sisters took turns dancing with their favorite nephew.  Then Ryan took turns dancing with several other people, some of which he didn't even know.  After an hour of extra reception time Ryan finally ran out of energy, I think we were about 3 hours past his usual bedtime at this point... He had taken a nap earlier in the day and he was still having fun so it was worth it but the poor guy was exhausted.

Someone had a lot of fun at the wedding

The next day we drove down to Olympia to visit my sister.  She has been living in Washington for several years and had bought a house there 3 years ago but we hadn't seen it yet.  It was really nice seeing her, John, and my Dad in person.  Her house is really nice in a quiet neighborhood nestled in amongst some large pine trees.  Ryan probably liked seeing her animals the most though.  She has a rabbit that lives in the house like a dog or cat.  It just roams around the house and we were able to coax it over to us for some treats.  In the backyard she keeps two ducks.  They were not as friendly as the bunny and would not let us get close enough to interact with them but they were still fun to watch.  We spent a few hours there catching up and walking around her forested backyard before packing up to drive back to the rental house.

A rare unplanned activity came up for Sunday night, which was to hang out with the newlyweds and Pamela's sisters Kim and Liz.  We all met up at a restaurant near where the wedding was held the night before.  This was really nice to have everyone come together again the night after the wedding.  There was so much going on during the wedding and reception we didn't get much opportunity to just hang out and talk with everyone.  We also got a chance to try some delicious desserts as well.

Monday was our last full day in Washington and we planned to visit Tommy at his fire station in Seattle.  This may have been Ryan's highlight of the trip.  Tommy showed him all over the station and every inch of the two fire trucks that were in the garage.  He even got to ride in the driver's seat and turn on the lights.  All of the other firefighters were so nice to us and the kids and really went out of their way to accommodate us.

Ryan driving the fire truck with his uncle Tommy

The fire station was definitely the most fun for Ryan

After the fire station we decided to head to Pike's Market to poke around and get a few tasty treats to eat.  Pamela and I had been once before many years ago and did a food tour of the marketplace.  Luckily, we were able to remember most of the stops from the food tour and recreate a similar experience on our own.  There was cheese, fruit, donuts, chowder, candy, and gelato; it was awesome.  Pamela's sister Liz was able to join us at Pike's to help out with the kids and spend some more time together, which was great.

After one final night in the rental house we packed up and went to the airport late Tuesday morning.  Again, we were pleasantly surprised at how well the kids did at the airport and on the plane.  If it wasn't so much work for Pamela and me we would probably take them on more trips.  It isn't really much of a vacation for us with the kids along.  We both took Wednesday off of work so we could actually have some down time to recover from all the activities and travel.  But we did have a great time visiting and making memories for the kiddos.

Plane ride home

TV Repair

Last week we got a bad surprise when we went to turn on our main living room TV and it didn't come up.  It was a bit confusing at first because it gave the Samsung audio jingle like usual but the screen didn't show anything.  We could still hear the sound coming from the TV so we knew it was on and still basically working.  Our first instinct was that Ryan had something to do with it.  Many times when our electronics aren't working right we can track it back to Ryan messing around with them and putting them into some weird mode.  However, after playing around a bit it became clear that it wasn't just stuck in some menu or setting, the screen was legitimately not working.

We were pretty disappointed since this TV is less than 3 years old.  So I took to the internet to see if there was anything that could be done.  Luckily, I found a few sites and videos describing our same situation.  The audio and back light were still working but there was no picture on the screen.  The diagnosis for this was either a circuit card called a T-con board was bad or the main screen went out.  If the main screen breaks that is basically it for your TV, but the T-con board can be replaced and is much much less than buying a new TV.

So I took the TV down and opened it up to see what model of T-con board to buy.  That was the advice on one site; make sure you get the exact same model board to ensure it will be compatible.  I ordered the card and hoped that it would arrive quickly and fix the screen.  Three days later it came in the mail and I quickly swapped them out.  Taking all the screws off to remove the back of the TV took the most time.  The board only had 4 screws and 3 cables to disconnect and reconnect.  If you ever have to do this I recommend taking notes and staying organized with all the screws that come out.  There were a few different sizes and I wanted to make sure it all went back together after the repair.

10 minutes later the TV was back on the wall and to our relief the picture came back!  I'm not sure what the odds are of the T-con board going out vs. the screen but I'm sure glad it was just the circuit card in our case.

It was a sad few days with the TV missing.

The patient on the operating table

All opened up.  You can see the T-con board in the middle with the cover removed.

T-con board close-up.  You can see the 3 cables that had to be disconnected and reconnected to the new board.

My method for staying organized with all the screws.

Success!  It's working again!

Our model TV is a Samsung UN60EH6000 60" LED TV.  The T con board I ordered was a BN95-00628C but if you do have to make this repair I would check the part number of your board first before ordering.  Also, even though we had success with this repair it is necessary to note that opening up your TV is risky.  Once you start taking things apart and replacing parts you run the risk of not being able to fix your TV or possibly damaging it worse.  This blog is not a guide and I am not responsible for anyone damaging their TV by trying to repair it themselves.  :)

The Resolution Months 8 & 9 - Bonus Room

Busy few months and a lot to catch up on!  But wanted to start by recapping our house project for August & September.  We combined 2 rooms - the old office and the old gym - into one big "Bonus" room upstairs.  Since it was two rooms, we gave ourselves two months, and boy did we need it!  There was a lot to do in these rooms and a few hiccups along the way.  Here's a rundown of the highlights:

• Curtains:  This was as easy as a trip to Kirkland's Home for a curtain rod and some fun printed curtains in teal.  We had actually started at Target and found some beige and coral curtains that we liked but didn't love.  Then we ducked into KH on the way back to our car and found these beauties instead.  This probably made the biggest "pop" of difference in the room.
• Wall Art: In order to pull the teal color over onto the adjacent wall, we decided to re-purpose some canvas art work from our last house by covering it in fabric.  We went to JoAnn's and found the peacock-inspired fabric below.  Matt had to paint the canvas white since the previous art was darker in color.  Then a few minutes with the staple gun and we had stretched the new fabric over and hung these bad boys up.
• New Furniture: Our old desks were very basic table-tops from IKEA and our bookshelf was a hangover from Matt's college years.  So ordering new furniture was a fun splurge and took up most of our budget for these rooms.  We found this Sauder set online and had good experience with the brand (Ryan's bedroom furniture) so we went for it.  But the shipping was a bit of a debacle.  It took a while for it to get here, and when it finally arrived, a few of the key pieces were visibly scratched and had to be replaced.  Getting the replacement pieces was a pain since some of them were on backorder, so it really stalled our progress.  Frustrating, but the end result was good since we really like our new desks and bookshelf!
• Photo Array: Always looking for places to put more adorable pictures of our son, we decided to create a photo array in the bonus room.  That way we could look at fun photos while we work (me) or play video games (Matt).  I selected a few of my recent favorites, bought a few cute wooden frames on sale and Matt was kind enough to hang and level all of them for me.
• Gym: We consolidated all of our gym equipment into one area to clean up the room some and make room for the desks.  I got rid of my treadmill since I haven't been using it much (at all) lately.  It's too noisy to use while Ryan is sleeping, but if he's awake, both he and the dog want to walk on the treadmill with me.  You can see how I might not get the best workout with their "help" :)  Matt offloaded him on craigslist and our new home gym is down to just essentials.  

Before

After

Before

Before

After

Before

After

 We were able to do a lot of cleaning, organizing and consolidating throughout these two rooms.  Now the Bonus room is an enjoyable, open space for both working and working out.  The old office is now an empty room - a landing space for extra storage for the time being while we try to decide what to make of the space.  Stay tuned for the rest of the housing excitement coming soon!

The Resolution: Month 7 - Master Bathroom

Month 7 is in the books!  And although I despise cleaning bathrooms, I do love me some sparkly clean ones!

We included our closet with the master bath since it is connected and we didn't have a ton to do in the bathroom itself besides extensive scrubbing.  Matt and I are both pretty good at maintaining a "Goodwill pile" - a pile of stuff we no longer need or use that is still in good enough condition to donate.  Any time the pile (hamper) gets full, I just make a stop at the Goodwill on my way to work and we are free of the clutter that could easily overrun our house.  But for some reason, we both have a hard time getting rid of clothes.  Maybe because it is so darn expensive to buy in the first place.  Or maybe because certain outfits remind me of life events and I enjoy the nostalgia.  Or maybe because the inner hoarder in all of us whispers, "Maaaaaybe you'll wear that top someday.  If you get invited to an 80's-themed Hawaiian luau..."  So our mission for the closet was to purge anything we didn't need, hadn't worn in recent history, or didn't have a good line of sight to wearing soon.  Between the two of us, we were able to weed out more than 3 boxes worth of clothing, accessories and shoes!  A little cleaning and organizing, and voila:

Before

After

Before

After

A minor upgrade, but a necessary one, was switching out the stool that we use outside of the shower for our towels.  The old one was an IKEA as-is find that we got for $10 years ago and used to sit on while we played the drums in Rock Band.  Not the classiest piece of furniture we own.  Lucky for us, the Fry's Marketplace right by our house was having a closeout clearance sale on their home goods, and we were able to find the wooden beauty below at a steal.

Next came the bathtub - which has been overrun by Ryan's numerous bath toys over the last few months.  He's got boats, dogs, ducks, frogs, books, animal clings and more - and they were all lined up along the side of the tub each night to dry out.  So Matt went onto Amazon.com and ordered a nice little Oxo bath toy storage bin that has holes on all sides to drain the toys (and prevent mildew from building up.)  Then a little scrub-a-dub-dub and we called that piece done.

So many toys...

Much better

The only remaining big piece was the vanity.  Drawers needed to be cleaned out and organized, and counters/sinks/mirrors needed some TLC.  It took a while to get through all of it, but it makes such a difference in how nice the bathroom looks when everything is clean and put away!  

The rest of the bathroom was just a ton of cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning, which is boring so I didn't take any pictures.  The only major cleaning tip that I learned was in regards to the toilet, but I decided to spare the pictures on that one :)  AZ is notorious for their hard water, which leaves nasty calcified rings around the toilet bowl (and anywhere else water sits.)  I had read that a baking soda/peroxide mix was key in removing the ring, but after about 3 rounds of that, I was getting frustrated.  Matt suggested I use a pumice stone that he had originally purchased to use for the calcium lines in the pool.  Sure enough, 10 seconds of light scrubbing and the toilet looked brand new!  

Ryan Update - 15 Months

We just had Ryan’s 15 month checkup at the doctor, so I thought it would be a good time to put up some pics and do a little Ryan recap.  SO much has happened over the last few months and he is growing and learning every day.  It is seriously incredible to watch him change from a baby into a little boy.  He is so fun, loving, smart, curious, and funny and we are enjoying every new milestone with him.  First, some stats:

• He has 8 full teeth (4 top, 4 bottom,) and just broke through with 2 new ones this last week.  
• His favorite color is Yellow.  Any time he colors or has to pick from the same toy in multiple colors (like balls, cars, etc.) he will pick the yellow one.
• He now weighs in at close to 25 pounds!  In the last 3 months, he has gained 5 pounds which was a happy surprise to us after a year of only gaining ounces in between appointments.
• He also grew 2 inches taller in the last 3 months and has grown out of two sizes of shoes.  No wonder kids are so expensive!
• His head is (and has always been) in the 98th percentile for size.  Smart like his parents :)

Some fun stories and development milestones:

• A few months ago, he started making the connection between books and real life things.  So every time we would see a puppy in a book, he would get really excited and run off to find Jordan so he could pet her.  He loves to read, so we make sure to get to at least a small stack of books each day.  His favorites are his Thomas the Train set, anything with animals, and anything with pop-up or moveable parts.  On each page, we will ask him where things are, and he is great at finding and pointing out all of the people and things he knows.  
• Speaking of Jordan, the love continues to grow between the two of them.  Ryan loves to hand her toys, play keep-away with her stuffed animals, pet her and give her sweet kisses on her head.  Jordan loves that Ryan is flush with treats that he is often willing to share.

• He likes to dance to music – sometimes “real” music that we play on Pandora for him, but mostly just to the songs that his kid toys play.  Dancing is a little bounce of the knees to the rhythm, but we will sometimes twirl around the kitchen together too.
• His vocabulary is continuously expanding.  He now says (in context!) Momma, Dada, Dordan (Jordan), Up, Hop (when he sees bunnies, kangaroos, wants to hop,) Baba (bottle,) Hi, Bye-Bye (complete with wave,) More (for more food,) Hide (when he wants to play hide and seek) and Oh No/Uh Oh (for when toys fall over.)
• He loves food and is willing to try pretty much anything.  And, man, can he eat.  While he used to have maybe 15-25% of whatever I was having, he will now match me bite for bite on some meals.  His favorites are Trader Joe’s macaroni & cheese, grapes, potatoes of any sort, yogurt and applesauce.  He will even bite through the foil lid of his yogurt and applesauce and slurp the whole thing down without even needing a spoon.
• He loves to play, and plays hard every day.  I try to get him outside, although the hot weather makes that difficult for most of the day.  He likes to dig in the soil, play in the pool, play with the hose, pick out rocks and pull leaves from the trees.  He also loves to play a modified Hide and go Seek where he and I will hide under a blanket while Matt runs and hides himself somewhere around the playroom.  Ryan will emerge from under the blanket and look for Matt, and when he finds him, he squeals with glee and races back to me as fast as he can saying “Hide! Hide!”  Then I quickly throw the blanket over our heads so Matt can’t get us, and we start all over again.  He would play this all day if we let him!

Fun at the Library

Very busy at the i.d.e.a. museum

• Although it is too hot to go to the actual zoo, he has been practicing his zoo animals so he can be a pro when the fall comes and we are able to go back.  He now has a Little People zoo set that will tell you the animal’s names and what sounds they make, which he loves.  He also has multiple zoo books that he likes to read, and a few YouTube videos of zoo animals that he likes to watch.  He knows quite a few animal noises too, including elephant, lion, monkey, and rhino.  

Learning his animals

Fun at the zoo with Dad & best bud Zev

We love our little bud and will update again after the 1.5 year checkup!

Pajama Party

Easter family shot

He loves his dad!

And his Mom :)

Doing some gardening

Coloring

I kidnapped a baby duck and it was totally worth it to get this picture

Reading with Grandma