C.A.A.D.D.

This was on a friends blog, but I HAD to copy it and keep it for myself (hope you don't mind...). Did someone spy on me one day, and then write about it??? This almost isn't funny it's so true!

Recently, I was diagnosed with C. A. A. D. D. --"Child Activated Attention Deficit Disorder" This is how it manifests: I decide to do the laundry. As I start toward the laundry room, I notice that there are cheerios all over the floor and my car keys are in the cereal bowl. I decide to pick up the cheerios before I do the laundry. I lay my car keys down on the counter, put the cheerios in the trash can under the counter, and notice that the trash can is full. So, I decide to take out the trash. But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the trash I may as well pay the bills first. I take my checkbook off the table, and see that there is only one check left, my extra checks are in my desk in the office/playroom, so I go to my desk where I find a sippy cup full of juice. I'm going to look for my checks, but first I decide I should put sippy cup in the refrigerator to keep it cold. As I head toward the kitchen with the sippy cup, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye --they need to be watered. I set the sippy cup on the counter, and I discover baby wipes that I've been searching for all morning. I decide I better put them back in the bathroom, but first I'm going to water the flowers. I set the wipes back down, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote, one of the kids left it on the kitchen table. I realize that after school when they go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote as they fight over who lost it, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where belongs, but first I'll water the flowers. I splash some water on the flowers, but most of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back down, get some paper towels and wipe up the spill. Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do. At the end of the day: the laundry isn't washed, the bills aren't paid, there is a warm cup of juice sitting on the counter, the flowers aren't watered, there is still only one check in my checkbook, I can't find the remote, I can't find the wipes, and I don' t remember what I did with the car keys. Then when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day long, and I'm really tired. I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail. Do me a favor, will you? Forward this message, because I don't remember to whom it has been sent to. Don't laugh --if this isn't you yet, your day is coming.

President Gordon B. Hinckley

I was shocked last night when we heard that Presidnt Hinckley had passed away. It is strange living in Utah where this was all over the news for hours and hours last night, as well as today. But it is wonderful at the same time to know it is that important to everyone in the community. We heard calls from local state leaders, and other religous leaders, and college students. It went on and on. We heard details that we would not find anywhere else. He was 97 years old, and passed away in his home with his family around him at 7pm last night. He was an amazing prophet of God. I feel like he was MY prophet. He is the prophet I grew up with. I love his constant strength, wisdom, and sense of humor. I feel like I really knew him. I will always remember singing at the Nauvoo Temple dedication and sitting a short distance across the assembly hall from him. And I saw him speak in Vancouver, BC Canada, and also at Ricks College. It is sad to think he is actually gone away from this world. But it is wonderful to think he is with his sweetheart again. I love him, and will miss him greatly. I know that he will be remembered by so many for so many different things, including his building countless temples, and his 6 B's. If we live by his counsel, we will never fail.

BE GRATEFUL - Express appreciation to everyone who does us a favor or assists us in any way. Two little words - "thank you" - the mark of an educated man or woman.
BE SMART - The Lord wants us to train our minds and hands to become an influence for good "...that ye may be prepared in all things" (D&C 88:78-80).
BE CLEAN - We live in a world filled with filth and sleaze. We cannot afford to let it touch us. We should not be disrespectful of the body which the Lord has given us. Avoid evil talk, choose your friends carefully. You are a child of God.
BE TRUE - Let us be loyal to the Church under all circumstances. The authorities of this Church will lead us in paths of happiness.
BE HUMBLE - The meek and the humble are those who are teachable. Be willing to listen to the whisperings of the still, small voice.
BE PRAYERFUL - Look to the Lord for understanding and guidance, and walk according to His precepts and commandments. The miracle of it all is that He hears, He responds, He answers.

Happy First Birthday Max

He started his special day with a whole, un-cut banana. His favorite!!

Since Max has a love for banana's , and Curious George, this cake seemed perfect. Rich and I stayed up late Saturday night to get it ready. We used fondant icing. It's like play dough. So we were rolling out baby banana after baby banana. Which wasn't that bad compared to the painting the black on each of them! But it was so worth it to have this cute cake for Max.

I was so excited for him to finally get this bike/walker for his birthday. We bought it before Christmas! And he keeps walking by pushing the chairs all over the kitchen. He loves it. The kids were so frustrated that he had NO interest in any of the other gifts.
He just wanted to push his walker around!He did like the other gifts, once he knew what they were, like this little car toy from Grandma Canada. It has lots of lights and sounds! And he loved his little cars too, he loves to hold them and push them back and forth on the hard wood floor. Can you tell Peter was sick today? His face is so red, and he slept most of the day. We were all so sad. He threw up a little, and mostly just had a fever.
The kids would open a present, and Max would go after the ripped paper they threw!Max loved the cake, were we surprised? We think fondant icing tastes gross, but looks cool. But Max ate a couple of the bananas. I guess he doesn't know they are supposed to taste bad!Let the fun begin!! Using his own fork. It didn't help!

What a fun mess! Happy First Birthday Max!! We love you!

My Birthday Isn't Over Yet...

Just when I thought my birthday was done, it keeps on going!! Friday afternoon Rich and were chatting about nothing and he all of a sudden blurts out "I can't keep it a secret any longer!!!!!!! We are going away over night up to Logan! And we are leaving the kids!!" I was in total shock, especially when I realized he had been keeping this a secret for 2 weeks, and now everyone but me knew about it! We were going to the Sherwood Hills Resort ( www.sherwoodhills.com ), Rich had a gift certificate that he got on trade. I was very impressed with his secret keeping skills which are usually non-existant. So when Aaron came home from work, we left. And we left Max too. Now that he is officially weened from all nursing, we could leave him, and that was SO nice. We started by going to Chili's for dinner. We used my birthday gift card from Rich's mom for that. When we showed up at the door there was a 40 minute wait! And we didn't want to wait that long. But luckily the host said there were 2 empty seats at the bar. So that's where we ate. And we were acutally in and out in less than the 40 minute wait. The roads and weather were good and luck seemed to be on our side, especially when we found the hotel (which is hidden in the mountians) with no trouble. What a nice and relaxing night! And we slept in the next morning, ahhhhh... With no kids, ahhhhh.... The weather and scenery were breath taking. We took a leisurely morning and then made our way into Logan where we had Jamba Juice and Einstein Bagels for breakfast. We had a Jamba Juice gift card from Julie, Rich's secratary. She gave it to us months ago, but this was the perfect time to use it. We were without kids and decided to go and do a session at the Logan temple. What a nice day, and then we drove home. It was all so wonderful! Thank you Rich. I have to say that being gone for less than 24 hours was perfect. I thought about the kids, a little. But didn't miss them too much. I just enjoyed being alone with Rich. What I did miss were 2 things I take for granted everyday. My pillow!! I use this great waterfilled pillow called a chiroflow pillow that always gives the perfect support for my head, and I love it!! So it was an adjustment to go from the best pillow to a flat nothing pillow at the hotle. And the other thing was my eye mask that I sleep with. It is so comfy, and contures to my face so well. You can even blink your eyes under the soft foamy eye mask. And it doesn't let in any light. I can take a nap in the middle of the day and it will feel like the middle of the night. ( I know that from experiece!)
But this was such an unexpected, and wonderful getaway!
Thanks again Rich, I love you so much!!!

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

I AM 28 NOW!!!

My morning started out great. I slept in, and didn't feel guilty about it! I thought I was really just laying there awake, but the next thing I know the kids come in with some birthday presents that Rich had woken them up early to wrap! I didn't hear a thing and they were right across the hall!!! Rich said that I needed to put this on before I came down. A super soft, warm, cute heart bath robe. I love it! I guess he was tired of me stealing his all the time. We went down stairs and Rich had made my favorite (one of my favorite) breakfasts. Pancakes with cool whip and strawberries. We were just missing the bacon and OJ. Need to go shopping. So we opened presents and ate our yummy food! Not many exciting thing happened after that. Sophie went to preschool, I got ready, and then decided that I didn't want to make a boring lunch at home, so all of us went to Pace's for burgers, fries and onion rings. It's one of our favorite burger joints. Just a tiny place that I never would have gone to without someone taking us first. Thanks Ford's! In the middle of the day Rich came home after running a quick errand. He had ordered this great fruit bouquet for me!! All edible! It is so good, and the strawberries are so big and juicy! I was very surprised. They have a website you should visit. http://www.fruitflowers.com/ Then I played with the kids all afternoon (instead of chores, who wants to do that on your birthday?!) till Karolee came over for a visit. She was going to stay for dinner, and then for cake after, but it was getting too late. So that just meant more cake for us!! Which by the way was to die for! This is my favorite cake, and Rich and I stayed up late last night making it together. The kids wanted to help me blow out the 6 candles on the cake (I don't know why 6 was chosen, but it was better than the 28 that could have been there. Who wants to eat waxy cake?) So they gathered around and I love it when the kids sing happy birthday, too cute! The night finished up with Rich and I watching a movie in bed. I love my birthday! And can't wait to eat leftover cake for breakfast!!!

Here is the recipe for my yummy cake!

Strawberry Cheesecake Torte
1 (16 ounce) package one-step angel food cake mix
1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar
1 (1/3 ounce) package sugar-free strawberry gelatin
1/2 cup boiling water
1/4 cup seedless strawberry jam
1 (8 ounce) package reduced-fat cream cheese, cubed
1/3 cup nonfat milk
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 cups reduced-fat whipped topping
1 (3 1/2 ounce) package cheesecake flavor instant pudding and pie filling mix

1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
1 kiwi fruit, peeled, halved and sliced
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

Line a 15-in. x 10-in. x 1-in. baking pan with ungreased parchment paper. Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake at 400° for 15-18 minutes or until top is lightly browned. Sprinkle sugar over a waxed paper-lined baking sheet. Immediately invert cake onto baking sheet. Gently peel off parchment paper; cool completely.
Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Stir in jam until melted. With a fork, poke cake at 1/2-in. intervals. Brush with gelatin mixture; chill for 10 minutes.
In a bowl, beat cream cheese, milk and lemon juice. Add whipped topping and pudding mix; whisk well. Reserve 1 cup. Place remaining pudding mixture in a pastry bag with a large star tip.
Trim edges of cake. Cut widthwise into three equal rectangles; place one on serving plate. Spread 1/2 cup reserved pudding mixture in center. Pipe pudding mixture around top edge of cake. Repeat with second cake layer. Top with remaining cake layer. Pipe pudding mixture along top edges. Fill center with fruit. Sprinkle with lemon peel. Store in refrigerator.

(This is a Pampered Chef Recipe, but they didn't have it on their web site. We have it in a book, but wanted to share it with everyone, and I didn't want to type it out. But www.recipezaar.com did. They are our source to go to for finding copy cat recipes. They always turn out great!)

PS- Thank you to all of you that sent birthday wishes. I got so many emails, posts on facebook, phone calls, cards in the mail, and stop ins today. Thank you all for thinking of me on my special day!!!! I love you all! You helped to make my day extra special!

Christmas Sewing Projects

I worked on this project for months. I have been to countless fabric stores, some of them several times, to find just the right fabric, and just the right combination of fabrics. I finally decided to make both of them out of licensed fabrics, and they turned out way cute, if I do say so myself. Trying to keep in mind some of their favorites, including Peter's favorite color green, and favorite movie Cars for the backing, and I was so lucky to find this. Sophie's favorite color is rainbow (you can't tell her that it isn't a real color), and she loves Care Bears, so her backing too was perfect. Then it came to sewing, and I couldn't find my fabric cutting board, so I had to borrow one, and then find time - without the kids - to actually cut, place pieces, sew, and tie the quilts. It was a long process, with a lot of breaks. I didn't have a real pattern, just tried to copy the one we already have, so they turned out a little smaller than expected - even with me trying to compensate for seam allowances. But I would definitely do it again. They loved them!!!!! They almost replace their mickey mouse blankies (their baby blankies)! I wanted to make Max one, but ran out of time, money and energy. I'll wait till he's bigger. But I wanted to finally show them off. I think they are perfect for the kids. And they are perfect for quiet time and watching movies, they can snuggle their little feet into the little pockets at the bottom. That's the best part of a quillow. (that and you can fold them up to turn into a pillow. I didn't get a picture of that.)

Two Boys in the Tub

I finally made the big decision. It was time to separate Sophie and Peter at bath time. I think I was putting it off for so long for a few different reasons. One was because they could sit together in the tub and play for an hour! It was so cute, and the other was because Max has been too little to actually sit and play in the tub, and I couldn't even think about three baths each bath night!!!! That was too much. Max is now big enough to sit, play and really enjoy bath time with Peter. They can have a lot of fun together. As long as there are no bubbles. Max does not like bubbles. He screams and cries. But other than that we have it down to a system. They go in together, get washed and play, then I take Max out to get dressed while Peter plays a little longer. Then I get him out, and all the guys, add more hot water, and then let Sophie get in, usually with all of her polly pockets, in their swim suits - NO BOYS ALLOWED!!! Peter gets dressed, and we wait for Sophie to finish playing. Peter usually busts his way into the bathroom and she always splashes him with water and gets his jammies all wet, and he cries. We tell him over and over, don't go in - she'll splash you. But he doesn't listen. I used to let him change into dry jammies, but now if he goes in and gets wet then his consequence is that he has to stay in his wet jammies. But we love bath time, and I'm happy about our new routine.

The Sacrament

During church today we were taking the sacrament. This is where they pass around trays of broken bread, and then trays of small cups of water. We took the bread as normal, and then the water came. I was watching Max on one side of me, and not watching Peter on the other side of me. I turned just in time to see him drinking his second cup of water. I immediately told him that he couldn't have two, just one, using my fingers to demonstrate one bread and one water. We passed the tray on down the row, and finished our discussion. I reminded him that the reason we only take one piece of bread and have one cup of water is because there is only one Jesus. He then looked at me with one finger in the air, and raising his second finger as he said "But Jesus had a friend..." saying it in his cute yet mischievous little way, with his big blue eyes doing most of the talking. He also admitted to me that he had also taken two pieces of bread. That was the end of the conversation. I turned away and I tried to contain my side slapping laughter as other people around us were being reverent and partaking of the sacrament. I shared the story with Rich and the two of us were crying, we were laughing so hard.

Icicles

We had something at the church tonight, and after while walking out to the car Sophie was noticing the beauty of the huge icicles dangling from the roof of the church. There were so many of them, and they were so long and strong. We got buckled in and then Rich surprised us by walking over to the church, through the snow. He snapped off two great big icicles! And then he ran back to the car because they were cold in his hands. We wrapped them in blankets and handed them to the kids. Sophie especially was ecstatic to have her very own icicle to lick!! Peter dropped his as soon as he got home, and it broke into 4 pieces. I measured Sophie's and it was 18 inches long!! They have the coolest dad ever.

Sledding

This morning when the kids asked to go outside and play in the snow I said you bet. So they got all bundled up, mostly by their selves, and out they went - sleds in hand. We have the best little snow hill in front of our house. I have been half looking for a place to go sledding all winter, and one was found for me. We have had so much snow lately and the snow plow always pushes it into a huge pile in front of our house, at the end of the culdisac. The neighbor boys were sliding down it the other day, so we got out our sleds and followed suit. It is the perfect size for Sophie and Peter. Not too big, and not too small. I love winter! Sometimes. The kids have been having so much fun. Now if we could only get out there to build a snowman. We always miss the good snow. But sledding is just as fun. Yee-Haw!

Paper Dolls

Tonight Sophie wanted to make some paper dolls. We started drawing and cutting until I remembered something. I had kept my old paper dolls. And they were in a box in the basement. I knew one day Sophie would want to play with them, I just figured she would have been a little older. But I got them out and Sophie, Peter and I had so much fun. We dressed and changed and discovered all the great things I had in that little box. I have 15 paper dolls with numerous outfits for them to wear. All in pretty good shape. No rips tears or bends. And I want to keep it that way, I am still protective of them - so that is why they are only allowed to play with them with adult supervision. Peter's favorite part was the two boys - one being Prince Charming, and the two little mice from Cinderella. Sophie's favorite part was the two wedding dresses, but really all of it. I love paper dolls!!!

The Twirly Dress

When I was a little girl I was a flower girl in my Uncle's wedding. This is the dress I wore. I remember thinking it was the fanciest dress in the world, and that I looked like a princess. And it was one of those things I always wanted to keep to give to my little girl one day for her to wear. Well, today is the day. My mom brought it down with her when she came for Christmas, and it fits Sophie! She loves it because it twirls!!!! That's one of the things I always loved about it too! Today, after she was dressed, she came to me begging to wear the twirly dress - so I said yes. She even put on bracelets and rings and necklaces to complete the outfit. Needless to say, she was twirling all day long!

Footprints

We were opening some Christmas decorations that we got on sale (75% off) on after holiday sales. One of them came with these 2 large styrofoam squares that we didn't need. Sophie asked if she could use them to make ice skates to skate on the icy roads. I said yes, and an hour later there was no trace of the styrofaom blocks, except for the static-y white mess that was EVERYWHERE! She had cut and carved until nothing was left except the mess. Her plan failed and she resorted to tracing her feet on paper and then cutting them out to tie strings to. Well, she was reluctant to cut them out because she said she only knew how to cut out circles. I told her to give it a try. She did and was so excited when she could actually do it. She said "this is easy, it is like petting bunnies!!!!!"

I was laughing so hard!

I'm Baaack

After being MIA from my blog and the computer in general for the last week and a half I thought I'd fill you in on our holiday's. I was far too busy having fun with my mom, and Rich (who had lots of days off work!), and the kids and everything else to even think about the computer until now. My mom left this morning and now we are trying to find normal life again. I'm excited to see how all of your holiday's were...

Happy New Year 2008!

We have a tradition of having a really nice and fancy dinner on New Year's Day. And this year there was an extra special reason for it. Rich taught this couple in Brazil while on his mission. Antonio and Heleni were here in the States travelling around visiting people they knew. It was wonderful to finally meet them. I have seen pictures and heard so much about them, but it was so great to meet them in person. Even though we did not speak the same language. They only speak Portuguese, with a little English. So I spent the evening listening to them chat and laugh. But it was a really enjoyable evening. Rich's companion on his mission at the time was Scott, and he happens to live close enough to come for dinner with his girlfriend too. So Melanie (his girl friend), my mom and I sat there enjoying the night - in English with a little translating. We were so grateful Antonio and Heleni had a chance to visit the states, and we hope to one day go to Brazil together to visit them in their home.