What?!?!?!

Today. Is today tomorrow? That is what my sweet little H. says, often. She doesn't quite get the time thing yet. Sometimes I wish that today would skip into tomorrow or sometimes wish that tomorrow would never come, depending on how great today is. But yet, I am sure glad today is today. I love Fridays! kids have 1/2 days and I get my house clean, but today we worked in the yard, so tomorrow the house maybe will get clean! Who knows, it sounds a little Dr. Suessy to me today but maybe not tomorrow? Go figure!

Ohhhhhh, she sooooo gets me!

I love this card/magnet that my wonderful friend made me for my birthday! It hangs on my fridge with great pride! In fact it brings a smile every time I see it! The ketchup packet, beside my hallowed card, has a story. One day I was taking a nap, something I have gotten into a habit doing, and the door bell rang. I wasn't going to answer it, but I thought to myself, there could be a fire or some sort of emergency! (I really didn't think that, but it sure makes the story a little bit more exciting!) Anyway, I jump out of bed, with my wild hair going this way and that and try real hard to wake up before I answer the door because I didn't want the person on the other side of the door to know that I was sleeping. As I spring open the door as energetically as I could, I see my dear friend's daughter standing with a giant smile on her face holding the coolest packets of ketchup ever! Only this friend would know how much I would love these!! She told me that she saw these a week prior at a restaurant and was going to bring them to me then, but forgot. So when she went out with her daughter that afternoon she picked some up just for me!! You gotta to love her!! You can either dip or squeeze the ketchup out! Now that is innovative!! It was definitely the coolest thing that has happened to me that day! If you notice I said packets. Yes, she brought me two. In the pic there is only one for a reason. My darling daughter M. was fascinated with them when she arrived home from school and started to play with it. Unfortunately, she ended up squirting me all over with the other packet of ketchup. "Touche", I think is the correct term here!

How funny is this?

I couldn't believe the size of these cones! H. wanted an ice cream cone yesterday for a snack and I remembered that I had bought some cones a while ago and forgot about it! So I pulled them out of the back of the pantry and opened the box and saw the cutest cones I have ever seen! Look how little they are, compared to the reg. sized ones! They are literal bite size! Didn't read the box, the box says "Actual Size" and the amount of 60 should have set off bells too. Oh, well! We had soooo much fun taking pics! These work great for my "eating plan". :0)

Girls just wanna have fun!! (and we did!)

I have the bestest friend ever! It was my birthday and she came over with the greatest card. Well.....two good cards, one was about boobs which always makes me laugh and the second was my favorite! It was a picture of a ketchup bottle with a straw in it! How perfect is that?!! (If you are confused then you need to read my earlier blog about Sonic and the ketchup incident, that will get you up to speed on my ketchup fetish!) She then was gracious to let me pick out jewels so she could make me a beautiful bracelet! The party didn't stop there, she then took me to get a pedicure! I have never gotten one before, so this was a first for me! It was so nice and relaxing until the lady would talk to me. I had such a hard time understanding her, so I just would end up smiling and shaking my head yes, or if I had a panic moment I would look at M. to see if she could help me out!! I don't know what I agreed to half the time, but they were sure nice! :0) Finally, we did our traditional thing, eat. Yes we love to eat. Eating is my favorite, especially when there is ketchup involved! (or Panera's tomato soup!!) It truly was THE BEST DAY EVER!!!!! I am so grateful for my friend! She puts up with too much of my "country rap"(ie... crap) I will be forever indebted to her! Thanks M. for the fun and fantastical day!!! (even if it is a birthday that makes you closer to 40 than 30!!) YOU ROCK! (crazy nail-technician, who couldn't figure out your camera and made out pic blurry!! At least we had a good laugh! hahaha )

(Hey look! My card is the center of my universe!! How cool it that?!!)

Do you know how to catch a Leprechaun??

The other night T and I were sitting down watching t.v., after putting the kids to bed. (That's our time together) H. came down the stairs to tell us something. She always has a lot to say! She the kind of kid who will tell you how to build a clock, when you ask what time it is. Anyway, she tells us while she was brushing her teeth she heard a noise under the sink. Then proceeds to tell us how to catch a leprechaun! "They are really fast and so you have to be quick too. You take your hand and grab them like this" She takes her hand and grasps at the air in front of her. "You want to catch them because they will give you lots and lots of gold!" Cute little booger! When we finally convinced her that we got the task down and to go to bed, both T and I laughed our heads off! If any of you know my little H. she can be very dramatic, especially at telling stories!!

Surprise treat!

I was desperate for a treat that I signed up to bring for the kids school fundraiser and didn't feel like baking anything. We had bought these giant marshmallows earlier and never used them and soooooo I created this lovely beast! They must of been good because when I went to the school this morning, they were all gone! It was fast easy and darn cute if you ask me!:)

Organize this!!!

I was blog browsing and came across this fun-tastical idea of organizing toys and books! H. really needed something by her bead to organize both!! So looking at instructions on u-create blog (attached to my blog below) I decided to try this.
Sewing isn't one of my strong points, but I do know a little about it, so I took H. out and picked out material. I thought she would pick out princesses or something along that line, but she choose this darling owl material! I think they turned out pretty darn cute! They weren't as easy as I had hoped only because my sewing machine was giving me lots and lots of trouble! But with lots of stitching and un-stitching and stitching again, we finally finished and got them hung last night! Ye haw!! They worked out better than I had hoped and it really added a lot to the room as well. :)

Didn't think I had it in me, did ya?!!

And Good Morning to You!! I got a little ambitious this morning and thought it would be sooooo cool to try making English Muffins. I never have before because I thought it would be too hard. WRONG! It was so easy and fun! I tweaked it a little bit to try to make it healthier (more whole wheat less white.) Didn't know how that would turn out, but it worked beautifully!! And very YUMMY!! Watch out Martha, cause here I come!! English Muffins:

1 C. warm whole milk (I used 1%)
1/3 C. warm water
3 Tbs. melted butter
3 Tbs. honey
31/2-4 C. flour (I used 2 C. whole wheat & 1 1/2 white)
1 Tbs. yeast
2 tsp. salt.

1) Whisk the milk, water, butter, and honey together in a large liquid measuring cup. Combine 3 1/2 cups of flour, yeast and salt in a standing mixer fitted with the dough hook. With the mixer on low speed, add the milk mixture and mix until the dough comes together, about 2 min.
Increase speed to med-low and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 min. If after 4 min. more flour is needed add the remaining 1/2 C., 2 Tbs at a tie until the dough clears the sides of the bowl but sticks to the bottom.

2) Turn dough out onto a lightly floured counter and knead by hand to form a smooth round ball. Place the dough in a large, lightly oiled bowl and cover with greased plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until double in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

3) Sprinkle cornmeal over a large rimmed baking sheet. Turn dough out onto a clean counter and using your hands, stretch it into a even 12 inch log. Divide the log into 12 equal pieces and cover with greased plastic wrap. Working with one piece of dough at a time (keeping remaining dough covered), round the dough into smooth taut rolls and arrange on the prepared baking sheet, spaced about 1 1/2 inches apart.

4) Mist the rolls with spray oil, cover and let rise in warm place until doubled.
Adjust oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat oven to 350. Gently press the rolls into flat, 3/4 inch-thick with metal spatula. dust tops of muffins with cornmeal and re-cover.
Heat a 12-inch skillet over medium heat for 2 min. Carefully lay 4 muffins in pan and cook until bottoms are very darkly browned but not burned, 3 to 6 min. occasionally pressing on muffins with spatula.

5) Flip the muffins, reduce heat to med.-low and continue to cook until well browned (2-4 min). Trans the muffins to a baking sheet and bake 10 min. Repeat with remaining muffins.
Let the muffins cool on a wire rack for 20 min. Open with fork and toast!!

Puzzle Mania Girl!!

M. is my crazy girl! She is so sweet and funny and is a little crazy!! I came across the pic of her doing a puzzle and had to comment on it. She LOVES doing puzzles! She will sit for hours putting a puzzle together and taking it apart and putting it together again!! I am truly amazed how much she enjoys this activity!! Love ya M.!!

How did she get this smile?

Isn't she just darling! H.'s 1st tooth is lost!! H. was very excited to have the tooth fairy come and visit her, she even knew for a fact that she would bring a her a golden dollar! Thank Heavens the Tooth Fairy was on the same page as her! (Could have been heartbreak!)

After the lost tooth (above) and before (below) with the wiggly giggly tooth!H. is sooooo brave to let mom put dental floss around the tooth. She wouldn't let us pull it out, but it looks good for the record!:)

MARCH MADDNESS with crafts!!

This craft was above all the funnest one to do! Once again I got with my friend for our "crafty day" and we decided that we would try this sock wreath we found online. It took all of 10 min. to make! I think we plan on making one for every season! Then we took an old frame (this one we got at Good Will) and painted it black. Tied a big bow and "BOOM" there is the cutest door hanger ever!

Here is another fun craft I did with my good friend. She is definitely more crafty than I. It took me twice as long and a lot of indecisiveness to get this puppy done! Thanks to M. for being patient and letting me copy her designs!

I love this pic of Pres. Monson! I downloaded it from one of my favorite blogs (Made With Love and Glue) and found this handy dandy frame. I couldn't just leave it at that, so I decided to etch one of his quotes onto the glass with glass etcher. It reads "Gaze upward, look inward, reach outward and press forward". Something I need to be reminded of often!

Can we have a sleep over...again?

This isn't an uncommon scene! This is one of many "sleep-overs" these girls have had over the last few months! They like to party hard with the Wii rock band and staying up till all hours of the night! They all are cute and wonderful girls! Party On!!

Cheer them on Girl!

K. has turned into our "Pep Club Attendee!" And don't call her a cheerleader! She loves going to the games and participating in the "Pep" club at the school! She did go to Cheer leading try-outs for one day and hated it! She rather do the "Pep" club thing, cheering for the team, not the dancing part of things! Funny girl! Way to go K! We love you and support you 100% :)


K. and her Pep club trying to boost enthusiasm at the MS boys bball assembly!

Who's that Basketball Knight?

R. was able to play on the Middle School Basketball Team this year! Go R. go!! I really didn't think the season would ever end, it started in Oct and finally ended in Feb! He did a good job and I am so proud of him being dedicated to his team and homework! He did tell me that he wants a break from sports for a min. I think he just wants to get some rest! (Which didn't happen a whole lot because bball overlapped football by two weeks!)

Family Tradition, who doesn't like to ski?

Here we all are on Copper Mountain! It was Scout Day (our favorite time to go!! Cheap tickets!) We decided to go with T's brother and fam. I had such a wonderful time! And I think the kids did too! I didn't think we would ever make it! The roads were so awful because of the storm, and our truck is awful because of the tires! So it took us 3 hours to get up there with traffic and roads! Once there we all seemed to have fun, although skiing in a snow storm is quite the adventure! The kids and I never had skied in powder snow before and we were grateful for goggles!

H. just loves the snow!She stayed mostly on the bunny hill today. I think it was because her cousin N. was helping her out! He was such a good teacher and had so much patience with her! Thanks to N. and Uncle A. for making her day a little more fun!!:)

Here is K., our snow bunny!! She had quite the story of almost getting stuck in a creek! She started to ski off the trail and hit some major powder (all the way up to her waist!)She was feet from a creek! How miserable would that have been if she landed right in it! Some stranger had mercy for her (dad was with M., trying to help her and couldn't get to K.) and helped her out while landing right into the creek! Thanks nice stranger and sorry for making your day a little more wetter and colder!!

M. being such a goofball! This ski trip wasn't so fun for her! She got stuck in all the powder and it took her 2 hours to get down the green! Thanks to her dad for helping her all the way back down! I hope she doesn't write off skiing forever! She was a good sport all in all!



PK. and R. get down and snowy with their snowboards!! This was R.'s first time snowboarding. He had the time of his life!!! He fell quite a bit, but was able to do blues by the end of the day!! Way to go R.!


K. and T. just waiting for some slops!!

You know you want to laugh, don't you!

Poor, poor Sugar (the dog)! T. was headed out of the house to do his home teaching. I,being the wonderful wife that I am, was kissing him goodbye; when all of a sudden we heard dishes clanging. Thinking it was the kids dropping plates while doing dishes, didn't think much of it until the clanging noise didn't stop and I looked in the kitchen to see what was going on. To my surprise and Sugar's horror, she had the bottom dishwasher rack attached to her collar! She was scrambling, trying to get away from the chaos. Little did she know that it was her and no amount of running would get her away from it! Dishes were falling all over the floor, silverware were flying arrows of sorts ready to stick anywhere and everywhere, food was tiny bombs of lasagna hitting and splattering wherever they landed, and the kids were screaming for Sugar to stop! (I really wish I had taken pics or video because it was quite amazing!) Sugar ran right towards me and I was able to hold her and remove the attached "boobi-trap"! After cleaning up dishes, silverware and food off the floor, I realized Sugar, the all too helpful dog, was trying to do help the kids rinse the plates by using her tongue and somehow hooked the tiny little side bar onto tag holder of her collar! Sad to say, all I could do was laugh. Poor little girl, she was frightened out of her skin when it was all done and said. Don't worry pet lovers and animal rights peeps, we gave her lots of love and treats to calm her nerves. I just can't seem to erase the scene! Sugar's face, the kitchen floor being scattered with plates, utensils and food and the look on my poor dogs face as she runs trying to get away from it all! She has issues with loud noises as it is, and I don't think this helps! I tell her that she is a disgrace to the canine breed for being the biggest "scaredy cat" alive! But I love her and always will! Someday her love for food will not keep her away from licking the dishes again, probably more cautiously than before but there is hope!

Is there a zoo in here?

H. did soooo cute in the schools "Zoo-ba-lee"! All the children dressed up as different kinds of animals that belonged to a zoo. They had such cute music and it was a cute little production! Way to go H.! Show your stuff girl!! :)

You can't deny it, can you?

Just admit it. I do have the cutest kids in the world! Very big blessings indeed!

All I wanted was to kiss my sweet little boy!! He has to keep reminding me that he isn't so little anymore! He is actually taller than me now! Stinker!

I don't know where my girls get this behavior from? Couldn't possibly be me! (Does it look like to you that even my Christmas tree is acting skeewampy?)

Sisters?

These two are quite a team! The entire time that cousin M was visiting during Thanksgiving, K was right by her side. They would either be dancing, singing, doing their hair or giggling!! Cute cute cute!! They can only see each other once or twice a year, but when they do they are inseparable!! We miss you M!!!! (These girls do get asked alot if they are twins or sisters. They may only be cousins, but soul sisters for sure!!)

Me and the C sisters!! We do get a little crazy when we are together!! Ok,ok...I think it's just me, but I just wanna have fun!!

Who needs a turkey or a roast w/ Uncle R. around?

This was one of the most funnest and yummiest things I have ever done!! Thanks to Uncle R. and his fishing connections, we had the most amazing meal ever!! Uncle R. treated us to a yummy "fish fry". Well, it wasn't exactly a "fish fry". More of a "fish boil"! He rented the biggest pot I have ever seen in my life, threw in all sorts of sea food (shrimp, muscles, halibut, crab legs etc..) with veggies and some amazing spices. Boiled it for a while outside on a outdoor propane stove. While that was boiling, he made yummy things like smoked salmon dip, shrimp and tarter sauce. (mmmmm,My mouth is drooling!) Then he placed four tables together, lined them with newspaper, and dumped the huge pot of seafood into the middle of the table. Oh the wonderful bliss of sea food! I was a very happy little girl (as you can see my huge mess I made!) We dove into that food like a bunch of barbarians! For those who weren't a "sea food' eaten people, Grandma provided hot dogs! (FOOLS!!)

Why I am grateful...

This last week my family and I heard relieving news. The Judicial System is keeping the community a safer place. They have decided to deny the appeal of a pedophile. This case has been very close to our hearts, too close. The survivors of this horrific incident are so very dear to me. Where I couldn't protect, the Judicial System did. I want to express my gratitude for the DA that did everything according to the "books" so that there would not be any grounds for the appeal. They, once again, have proven to be our Heroes. I will never forget what they had done, not only for my family, but for society as well. May they always know how grateful I am for their sacrifices, dedication, patience, understanding and willingness to stand up for the innocent. I am eternally grateful for my Heavenly Father who helped us all along the way. Those were the hardest years I have yet to endure. I pray that no one else will have to go through what we did. I know it is a battle that seems to be lost every day. So, for those survivors out there, life moves forward. You are not a victim, you are a survivor. A strong, powerful, beautiful person who survived a horrific ordeal. May you always realize that this doesn't define who you are. It is just another moment in life where you had to show strength, perseverance, bravery, patience and, yes, forgiveness. All acts of true,wonderful, heroic people. My love and respect goes out to all of you.

Did you say Black Fri?

Could shopping be more fun? I don't think so, T's sister and I had sooo much fun staying up late the night before and picking out our deals before we got up early the next morning to purchase Christmas presents for our fams!! I think we bought out all the stores! I really don't know how she got all those gifts home on the airplane!! We spent the entire day shopping while her hubby was a good sport and watched all our kiddos!! Thanks to R for being there so we could have lots and lots of fun!!

We had so much fun with our traditional Ginger Bread House Decorating!! It was specially fun because T's sister and family was able to join us for the first time. They had a good time just like the rest of us! Lots of fam, food and goodies!! What more could you ask for?!!

Are are you ready? Christmas!!

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year! We feel very blessed to have been able to be a family and enjoy each others presence! Family and fun, that is what it is all about! I love this time of year! This Christmas was different because we celebrated it all to ourselves. Usually we go to Grandparent's homes, but this year we were lucky to just be us! It was nice.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope, it's just R and his superman snuggie!!

Santa brought the girls toe socks!!

Christmas morning!! Every year we take a pic onthe steps! I can't beleive how big they are!! Sweet Kids!!

Isn't this sad? Christmas Eve, and Sugar is trying to peek into the presents! She knows that one of those is hers. She knows because she saw me wrapping it! Little peeker!! She begged there for hours! We finally had to hide the present when we went to bed. She was not happy that we didn't give it to her then, but her joy Christmas morning was great to see!!