Grateful Sunday

Grateful for talented and hard working kids--  Yesterday Jason competed in Science Olympiad and placed second and third in his competitions.  Emily competed at Piano Festival and received a Superior for the two songs she played.  This is her third year in a row competing and getting  a superior rating.  They both worked hard to develop their talents and we love seeing them succeed. 

Grateful for my Aunt Lynn and how supportive and great she is with my kids.  We love her!

Grateful for talented women that are great examples to me.

BYU children’s fair

Saturday we went to the BYU children’s fair hosted by the multicultural student association for Black History month.  They had all kinds of booths with different information and games about different countries, famous Black people from history, plus fun stuff like face painting, dancing, and balloon animals.  There was also lots of snacks too.  We ended up getting there kind of late—I think it was close to 1:00 so I think we missed a lot of our playgroup friends because we didn’t see too many of them. 

There was a little “underground railroad” activity that Liam did three or four times.  I didn’t get any pictures of him in it, but he kept going back for more. 

Another thing he really liked was the drums.  He had fallen asleep on our way to Provo so he was a little groggy (translation: he was ornery!) and this was the thing that helped him get out of his funk, finally.  I loved that they were doing tribal face painting this year instead of just the normal face painting.  Jason did it in the hopes that we could convince Liam to do it too, but he did not want to.  Pretty cool, but he said it was itchy.The last thing we did was wait in a long line for balloon animals.  Liam chose a snake, both Em and Jason chose Dragonflies.  Liam was play fighting with this girl.  He had his balloon snake and she had a rubber chicken.  Here they all are with their animals.  Liam’s didn’t eve make it home before he pulled it apart and then he proceeded to pop the others after we got home. 

It was a great event and I would encourage EVERYONE to attend next year!  The students do a great job of planning and making it fun and best of all its FREE! 

Grateful Sunday

Such a full week and so much to be grateful for. 

SO very grateful for my husband and the opportunity to celebrate 14 years of marriage this past week.  He is amazing in every way and I love him more than I ever thought possible. 

Grateful for the twins and the joy they have brought—and continue to bring to my life.  I can’t believe they are teenagers already!  I swear they were just born!

I'm grateful for getting a good laugh when I went in to watch Liam do his first scripture in Primary.  Jason had to  pick him up to get him to quit clinging to his leg and then Liam promptly began making snoring noises instead of repeating the scripture.  Everyone was laughing and eventually Jason said the scripture for him.  It was great!  After church I was telling Emily that Liam had a scripture in primary and he piped up with, "I fell asleep."  That kid keeps us laughing for sure.

Grateful for my parents and their awesome influence in my life.

I’m grateful for my amazing friends that got a surprise together for me for my birthday.  I have incredible friends. 

What are you grateful for this week?

Official Teenagers!

I can’t believe that I am the Mom of not one, but TWO teenagers!  It is a bit surreal.  When they tell you to cherish ever moment because the time will fly by they sure aren’t kidding.  I can’t believe it was 13 years ago that I was in the hospital laboring to bring the twins into the world.  It’s a bittersweet memory for sure.  Sweet because I remember clearly the feelings of love and devotion I had to them and the wonder of the miracle that is bringing life into the world.  Bitter because it was my one and only chance to experience that miracle myself.  Oh the things I would do differently if I had known it was my only chance…but that isn’t what this blog post is about.  I scanned a few pictures from when they were babies and toddlers before we had a digital camera.  The one to the left is my all time favorite picture of them. 

They are such amazing kids and such great people.  I’m really proud of both of them.

 

I love this picture even though it sorta looks like Em is ready to strangle Jason.  That’s how it works when you are twins.  It’s a best friends/worst enemies kind of relationship. 

 

 

This is back before it wasn’t cool to touch/hug each other. 

This one is from our very first trip to Disneyland.  They were 8 and we surprised them the morning we left.  It was magical.

Hiking together.

This is another one of my favorites I think because of their fabulous smiles.  Usually with kids you get that weird fake smile that looks unnatural, but those are the real thing.

Emily chose to babysit tonight even though it was her birthday, so we had her birthday dinner last night.  She chose Little cheddar meat loaves and mashed potatoes for her birthday dinner.  We don’t eat much red meat around here anymore so it was a real treat for the kids (at least they thought so).

Tonight we had orange chicken per Jason’s request and can I say that is one labor and dish intensive food!  It seemed to take forever to get all that chicken cut, seasoned, “breaded” and fried and then I still had to make the sauce to go with it.  But, it was really good so it was worth it.  They were both super thankful to me for their birthday dinners so I was glad to know they are learning manners. 

Sadly this is one of the best pictures I have of them together because they are getting harder to take!  This is their birthday cheesecake I made. 

They are both so amazing…I may just have to do a post on each of them separately so that you can all see how awesome they are.  

Happy Birthday! 

I Love You!

Final day of LOVE week!

Happy Valentines Day! 

My biggest loves are pictured below. 

My #1 hunk. 

My awesome kids. 

What more could I ask for?  Hope you had a great day and were able to celebrate something you LOVE. 

Love week day 5

Movies we love—not necessarily favorites, but ones we love to watch.

Daddy- Back to the future

Mommy-  Sweet Home Alabama, Just like Heaven

Emily- Harry Potter Movies

Jason- Lord of the Rings—he’s just barely been able to watch these with his Dad and I think it makes him feel grown up.

Liam-  Backyardigans

Notice mine are the only ones that are actually love related, but that’s the truth although I don’t think it will be long before Em will watch chick flicks with me. 

Love week day 4

Today I thought I would blog about ‘love’ly sweets for valentines.  I’m a simple girl, with simple tastes and I like things that are simple to make too. 

First on the list is cheesecake—it’s a favorite in our house. I found this cheesecake bars recipe that makes it super simple to make cheesecake.  I’m not patient enough to worry about water baths and keeping the top from cracking when making a ‘real’ cheesecake.  This tastes just great to us.  It’s actually what Em and Jason requested for their birthday so I’ll be making it next week for them. 

How about Sugar cookies?  They are a must for love week!  I looked for a long time for a recipe that wasn’t too sweet (sugar cookies are for frosting in my opinion) and was soft.  I found this recipe awhile ago and have used it a lot.  It doesn’t say to chill the dough, but I always do and they are REALLY soft so I end up using a lot of flour when rolling them out.  I should probably just add a bit more flour to the dough or something, but I like them this way because they stay soft and don’t taste too floury.  They do hold shapes, but are best with very simple shapes since they puff up a lot when baked. 

Last but not least are these Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies I may have blogged about them before—but if I have they deserve a second mention.  We LOVE the Peanut butter and chocolate combination in our house.  I could seriously just eat the dough of these cookies and be happy forever.  It is GOOD. 

What are your favorite treats to make/eat for Valentines? 

Love Week- Day 3

I totally missed yesterday for love week…sorry about that.  I know you were devastated.  I’ll try to make it up to you somehow…

So, today I wanted to share a song that I’m loving.  It isn’t anything super unique—it’s actually pretty mainstream.  I first heard it when one of my kids changed the radio station in the car because my music is SO uncool, but in honor of love week I wanna share it.  Whenever I hear this song I think about my husband and how he loves me just the way I am.  He thinks I’m perfect and so I always imagine him singing it to me when I hear this song.  If every girl could be lucky enough to have a husband that makes them feel like they are amazing the world would be a much happier place for everyone. 

As I’ve been writing this post I made Jason listen to this song and he has offered some alternative songs for how he feels about me (he’s unimpressed by this song apparently).  His suggestions included Sweet child of mine by Guns n Roses and Never gonna give you up by Rick Astley.

What song are you loving for Valentines day?

Love week- Day 1

In honor of Valentines coming up I decided to do a week of LOVE posts.  Each day I will post about something I love.  I hope you will share your loves in the comments too! 

So, for today I thought I’d post about books that I love.  For the record I read a lot of books and most of them are ok, a few of them are good, but the ones that I LOVE I can read over and over again which to me means a lot since there are always so many new books to read.  Here are a few on my love list

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

Beauty by Robin McKinley

Yearning for the Living God by F. Enzio Busche

The thirteenth tale by Diane Setterfield

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Seven Daughters and Seven Sons by Barbara Cohen

 

What books do you love enough to read more than once?  

Little Laundry helper

Liam has become my laundry helper.  He likes to help put clothes into the washer and dryer.  He likes to take things out of the dryer.  He likes to put the soap in and he likes to push the button to turn on the dryer.  The other day when he was helping me get clothes out of the dryer I was telling him to slow down because I’m trying a new system where I sort my big kids’ clothes into their baskets straight from the dryer so I don’t have to haul them up and down the stairs when their rooms are downstairs.  So, Liam decided to climb in to try to find his clothes and put them in the right basket.  I couldn’t resist taking a picture of him.  He didn’t really want his picture taken, but I persisted until I caught him and got a cute picture.  I love this expression.He’s a great helper—except when he’s making messes.   

Grateful Sunday

I’m grateful for good friends that will go shopping with me last minute and work out with me early in the morning too. 

I’m grateful for good books and that I have enough knowledge to know when something is NOT a good book. 

An imaginative 3 year old to keep me on my toes. 

A week of celebrations to look forward to soon!

What are your grateful for this week?

Body Image

I just read this article about children and body image.  It’s something I’ve thought about a lot with Em getting older.  I worry about her having a good body image.  Most of her friends have the skinny as a stick body type—she’s much more average sized.  She’s gorgeous—I hope she knows it.

I don’t know what my parents did while raising me, but for a long time I was comfortable in my skin.  Maybe it was that we didn’t own a scale so I never really knew how much I weighed.  Maybe it was that my Dad took every chance he could to tell me I was beautiful-- inside and out.  Maybe it was that we were always an active family with lots of things going on and I just didn’t have time to think about it.  I wouldn’t say that I obsess about my weight, but I do think about my diet and exercise more than I used to and I notice quickly when my jeans start getting tight.  The one time I can recall being REALLY unhappy with my body was after having the twins.  I think I expected my body to go back to the shape it was before—but it never did.  I remember finally after more than a year of continuing to wear maternity pants in the hopes that my old ones would fit I finally broke down and bought some new pants in a bigger size.  I really envied those mothers that showed up a couple weeks after having a baby—already able to wear a nice form fitting dress and look great it in to boot.  Years have gone by and I’ve gotten over the fact that still 13 years later I am not the size I used to be before I was pregnant.  I’m ok with that (although if the bra size of being pregnant could have stuck around and I would not have complained one bit).  I want my daughter to grow up happy with her body too.  I haven’t been a very good example though.  I say things like, “I’m to fat to wear skinny jeans” or “I can’t wear that dress because it makes me look fat”.  What I should say is something more like, “I don’t think that is the best style for my body type.” or “I don’t feel like wearing that dress today.”  I need to show her how to love herself no matter what she looks like—that will have to start with me loving myself more wrinkles, grey hair, cellulite and all!

Do you have body image issues? (who doesn't?) How have you overcome them?  How do you teach your children about body image and how to be happy with their body no matter what shape it is?  Is it realistic to be able to teach our kids how to be healthy without obsessing about weight and size?  Tell me what you think!

Grateful Sunday

I’m grateful for a great date with my husband on Friday.  We got Indian food at Bombay house and then went to because I got a good deal on tickets.  I didn’t know anything about the show, but it was cute and fun to watch. 

I’m grateful for my friend Bonnie that will go last minute to the mall with me to get out of the house and for all the fun we had trying on a ton of stuff even when we knew we probably wouldn’t buy it. 

I’m grateful for the temple and the peace it brings when I am able to go. 

I’m grateful we got to have the missionaries at our house for dinner.  One thing about being in Utah is that feeding the missionaries is a rare occurrence.  I grew up outside of Utah so we had missionaries at our house all. the. time.  I wish my kids got more of that. 

Grateful Sunday

Today I’m grateful for my kids.  Especially when they play well together and giggle and have so much fun.  I love watching them.

Kind compliments from others. 

Parents that taught me that being smart was a good thing and I should never sell myself short.

What are you grateful for this week?

The good, the bad, and the ugly

Last week, before everyone in our house was stricken with “the plague” as my  husband has been calling it—really its just a nasty virus that is kicking our butts and keeping us in bed trying to sleep it off.  Wow, that was a tangent.  Ok, back on track…back before we were sick I had tried several new recipes in the kitchen.  I’ll spare you my awful photography skills (mostly ‘cause I don’t have any pictures!  thank me later).  If you wanna see a photo click the links given and they all have great photos.

The good:  Blueberry Muffins –the lemon sugar on these is to die for.  I may or may not have eaten the leftovers straight from the bowl (don’t tell my kids!)  I’m making these again this week and skipping the syrup step to see how they turn out. 

Mulligatawny soup – I had originally planned a simple chicken noodle for our menu, but I had all the ingredients to change to this recipe and it didn’t disappoint.  I did halve the curry since my family aren’t huge fans and it was still a bit too strong for us so next time I’ll quarter it and see how that is.  It was great and pretty fast to put together. 

roasted broccoli – I saw a post somewhere about roasted broccoli not too long ago that made me want to try it, but couldn’t find it when I needed it so used this recipe instead.  I loved it.  Em thought it was too lemony and no one else would try it.  Warning though—if you eat too much you might just be “tasting” it all night if you know what I mean…

Oatmeal Chocolate Caramel bars – I made these to take for the Young women in our ward to eat for a treat.  They were good.  REALLY easy—the hardest thing was unwrapping all the caramels.  REALLY sweet—I think I would have liked a little more salt or something to counteract the sweetness of these.  They were still devoured quickly so they were still delicious.

The Bad

Honestly I can’t remember what it was I wanted to put in this category…one thing that might fit was the gross cookie dough we were given that someone bought from a school fundraiser.  Seriously, is any of that stuff good??  I much prefer to make my own cookie dough it tastes so much better!

The Ugly

So, the ugly was our crock pot lasagna that I made for dinner last Sunday.  I’ve been hearing about this a lot lately for some reason so I thought I’d try it.  I have a lasagna recipe I like so I wanted to just cook it in the crock pot but got times from 4 hrs to 8 hrs.  I needed it to be done when we got home from church so I split the difference at 6 hrs and it was too long.  It still tasted ok, but the noodles were WAY too mushy for me.  I will try it again sometime especially with our late church time, but I will be sure to cut down the time to 3 hrs and then go from there. 

Also ugly, but by no fault of the recipe.  We made these pancakes from the mix I made and have in the freezer.  It was the day a few of us finally felt up to eating again, but I was still so tired I just couldn’t make them very pretty and kept breaking them when I flipped them.  Good thing my kids don’t care what their food looks like and they still tasted good. 

If you didn’t notice www.melskitchencafe.com is my go to site for recipes.  We have loved everything we’ve made from her site and I love that she just shares recipes she loves and doesn’t worry about all the advertising, reviewing, giveaways, etc. that tend to take over other blogs about food.  Check it out!

What is your favorite go-to place for recipes and menu ideas?

Must See Exhibit

I am getting all kinds of great sophisticated entertainment here lately.  Maybe I should have made that a resolution or something.  Last weekend for our date night Jason and I finally got over to the BYU Museum of Art for their Carl Bloch exhibit.  I have to say it was absolutely stunning and a beautiful experience.  If you live close enough to go you should make time and do it.  I was so happy that we did.  Beautiful art like that makes my heart all warm and happy.  You do have to have a “ticket” but it’s free just go here and click on admission.  It will show you the time slots available on the day you want to go and then you just reserve the tickets and then print them to take with you to the exhibit.  I would have taken pictures for this here blog, but there’s no photography allowed.  Sorry (you can pretend you are sorry too).  Go to the website and get a taste of what you are missing.  Then, reserve your tickets and go!  Afterwards I give you permission to head to the creamery for some delicious ice cream or maybe some spicy fries—oh, go ahead and get them both, you know you want to.  Oh, and don’t forget the fry sauce and/or ranch for dipping. 

Fun and service

I just found this site where you test your smarts while helping others at the same time.  I’ve been playing around on it for just a few minutes and have “donated” 2000 grains of rice.  You pick a subject and answer questions and for each one you get right they donate 10 grains of rice.  Check it out and let me know what you think its called freerice.  Have fun and help get food to people who need it too. 

Grateful Sunday

I’m grateful for crock-pots—how else would I get dinner ready for my hungry family on our late church schedule? 

I’m grateful for the joy of experiencing new things with my kids.

I’m grateful for the talents of others and their willingness to share so that my life can be enriched. 

Ice Skating

Last week for our weekly playgroup we decided to try out the Parent and tot skate at the Peaks Ice arena.  I was sure Liam would love it and most of the other kids that came liked it too.  I got a little nervous at first because for some reason after his first try going around the ice (and doing really well) Liam decided that he was done and wanted to go home.  Thankfully I held my ground that we were going to stay and try again because by the end he was a pro and he was loving every second of it!  If you live nearby and want to try it out with your child(ren) you can go on Thursday from 10-11:30 am and it’s only $2.50 and that includes skates.  If you’ve gone ice skating before you know that’s a steal.  The only restriction is that kids have to be 12 and under.  If you go let me know how your little one liked it!

This is right after I convinced him to try again when he was still really nervous.  This is after he figured out that he liked it and was zooming all over the ice.  this is right before we had to leave…I was trying to get a decent pic of us together, but it was really hard on the ice while we were moving and the lighting wasn’t the best.  I loved how few people were there because we didn’t have to worry about getting run over because it was crowded.  I think it would have made Liam even more nervous if there were tons of people there.

It was a blast and I can’t wait to go again! 

Delurking Day

So, I just got word that today is National delurking day.  So, lurkers—come  out, come out wherever you are!  Tell me who you are, how you found me and where you are from.  I know this is really more of a family blog than a high traffic one, but it’s nice to know who is reading every once in awhile. 

Wish I had some awesome giveaway to do to bribe coax you all into commenting, but alas I don’t.  You’ll have to comment out of the goodness of your heart.   

Have a great day!