The Turner Tribe

Christmas

2012-01-12T18:29:00.002-07:00

Last year we made the connection that Brenin gets sick every December for pretty much the whole month, and by Christmas he's just miserable- hmmm turns out he's allergic to the christmas tree. I of course totally forgot and didn't set aside the $$ for a nice fake tree for this year. And the tree I wanted was pretty spendy (so I'll be picking it up next year with the employee sale Dave's work has in the beginning of december). This is what I found on Pinterest (of course) Christmas bulb tree. I should have made my strings longer or added more to compensate for the fact that I had it on an 11 foot ceiling instead of whatever the original was made for. Live and learn. It's still up because I burnt my fingers too many times with the hot glue (instead of crimps) to take it down right away. I had everything on hand except the wire rack so it cost me $15 and the rack is still usable as a cooling/steaming rack, score!

Crayon art

2012-01-12T18:20:00.002-07:00

Oh crayon art, what fun. And thanks to Fred Meyers for clearance-ing out all of their 24 packs after school started! So first up, Melty crayon art. If you've been on pinterest at all you've seen a ton of these. It was really easy, glued all the crayons on in ROY G BIV then blasted my hot air dryer on them. Although if I were to do it again I would hold the dryer on the back so none of the air was actually on the wax creating splotches.
But I like it and it's a good addition to the play room. Oh and since this pic was taken I went back and melted it a bunch more so there wasn't as much white space.

More from pinterest! Crayon initials, for the boy's teachers for Christmas. Easy peasy. Printed out a letter, traced it on the paper then laid out crayons and cut them to size and glued them on. And put them in a shadow box frame. Didn't take too long and turned out decent.

Thanksgiving

2012-01-12T18:13:00.002-07:00

For Thanksgiving we went over to Dave's Aunt's house since they live just a mile away. We've vowed to never drive more than an hour for turkey day. We went to Utah once after he got home late from a trip to Mexico, driving late at night in the icy wind is NOT FUN, will never do it again!
Two of the specialty things that I made this year Strawberry cheesecake bites Oh my goodness, these things are SO addictive! We could eat them all day! and they are super easy! I will be making them again soon!

And Apple pie in apples. These were alright. I ended up using store crust because I ran out of time. I may make them again, dunno. I'm not a really big pie person anyways. But they're cute!

Happy Halloween 2011

2012-01-12T18:07:00.002-07:00

We did another family costume this year. TMNT! SO much fun! Brenin was Raphael and Logan was Donatello, picked only for their eye mask colors (we face painted since masks aren't allowed at church parties, although with painting the whole face I don't see MUCH of a difference). I made Dave's Shredder cape and tunic. Ken was kind enough to make the chest plate arm bracers and awesome helmet (from a darth vadar he got at good will) I dyed my shirt bright yellow, spray painted my boots white and HAD to do a bright red on my hair to really bring home April O'neal. The boys had a blast!! And I totally can't wait for next year I need to start making them now!!!

Sunshine

2012-01-12T17:59:00.003-07:00

After getting a new phone I was having a hard time getting my pictures saved to the computer. My last phone had a usb cable, this one doesn't. So I've had to up load everything to facebook and then save it to the computer. We'll try and upload some to here and see if the picture quality works otherwise I'll go look for a usb cable again, because no matter how many times or ways I try and email myself a picture file to myself from my phone it won't go through.

So I saw a lot of 'You are my sunshine' stuff on pinterest and I thought 'Hey that would be cool in french.'. I painted my sun on the canvas and then traced all the letters and painted them in gray. I could have just printed it out with my silhouette but I wanted paint, I didn't even think to make a stencil (doh). But I like how it turned out and I eventually want to do my bedroom in gray and yellow for a nice cool relaxing look.

PIPA & SOPA

2011-11-24T21:36:00.000-07:00

This is important -- Congress is considering two bills ("Protect IP" and "SOPA") that would let the government or any corporation censor the internet, using the same DNS-blocking techniques as Iran or China.

More here: http://americancensorship.org/

The bills are ostensibly to stop copyright and trademark infringement, but they won't. Instead-- they'll let the government shut down almost any social media website, since any site can be shut down just for audio, video, text, or even *links* posted by its users. Any corporations will have the power to bankrupt any website or organization by cutting it off from payments, advertising and donations-- without so much as a court order.

The law is being pushed by some of the strongest lobbies in Washington, it has broad bipartisan support, and it's likely to pass in some form. I've been active against it: next week I'll be participating in a nationwide call-in day. Can you join me, and help me spread the word by forwarding this email?

Join me here: http://americancensorship.org/

Thanks!

Here are two great op-eds about the bills, followed by links to the bill text:

1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/post/sopas-ugly-message-to-the-world-about-america-and-internet-innovation/2010/12/20/gIQATlhEYN_blog.html

2. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/16/opinion/firewall-law-could-infringe-on-free-speech.html?_r=2

3. http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-s968/text

4. http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3261/text

To get involved, the link is: http://americancensorship.org/

House Party!

2011-11-01T18:19:00.002-06:00

I am so excited!! I can't believe I forgot to post about this. If you haven't heard of House Party, essentially it's product testing. I get to do Zumba 2 for the Wii. So for free they send me the new game to keep (woot woot) and usually some sort of things to give away to your guests. I will be getting some wii belts to give away that hold your remote while you are working out. My guest will also be getting coupons off the purchase of the game if they want. They also provide you with free printables for decorations and menu's/ food ideas to serve during your party.

I've done Zumba with my Sister-in-law at the Y once, while it was fun, I can't keep that pace with my Asthma and bad knee. So I've been wanting to get something I could do at home with lower impact, but those cd's are spendy! So this is just plain awesome!
So if you're interested feel free to drop by my house on Nov 12th at 3 pm. Bring a friend and/or your kids. We'll be sure to have some yummy snacks for everyone! If you can't make the party and want to try it out you can always drop by when you're free. I'll post once I have the whole kit, then I'll be available if anyone wants to drop by from the 10th to the 15th.

Yummy new food

2011-10-02T09:21:00.002-06:00

Thanks to Bountiful baskets (and trying to lose weight) I've been trying a bunch of new recipes. Yesterday I made the most delicious turkey meatballs! Here's my slightly altered recipe.

Turkey meatballs

1lb ground turkey
3 green onions minced (I was lazy and just chopped them)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp italian seasonings
2 tbsp ketchup
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup grated parmesan (I used the kraft stuff you pour on spaghetti)

mix all that yummy goodness together and make into balls about 1" place in greased 13X9 dish and bake at 375* for 15-20 minutes. I had to cook a bit longer since I made them a bit bigger so I could use just one dish.

These were AWESOME. Both Dave and my first response to eating them was 'mmmmmmmmmmm' even the boys loved them! Paired them with spaghetti with a mushroom marinara. Delish!

Another dish that is cooking while I'm writing this is Turkey egg bake. It's from the Fat Flush diet (which has some pretty darn good recipes) Turkey was buy one get one free at albertsons so it's a turkey kinda week. I didn't have everything so here's my altered recipe.

Turkey Egg Bake

3/4 lb ground turkey
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped red pepper
1/4 tsp dill
1/2 tsp dried parsley
1 garlic clove minced
3 eggs beaten
2 medium sliced tomatoes

In large skillet cook turkey, onion, pepper, dill, garlic. Strain and place in pie pan. In separate bowl beat eggs add parsley and spread over turkey mix.
Bake at 350* for 25-30 minutes. Garnish with sliced tomatoes.

I do a little extra turkey and add an extra egg from what they call for (1/2 lb and 2 eggs) since it's supposed to be 2 servings but half a pie plate of this stuff is way too much for me to eat. So I add the extra then I've got a nice breakfast for 2 days. They also call for mushrooms, but Dave hates them so I leave them out if I don't have fresh.

More Kindergarten!

2011-09-17T20:59:00.002-06:00

Brenin had his first day of school last month. To say the kid was excited is an understatement. We went to the 'meet your teacher' on the friday before school started, Brenin was the kid crying because he couldn't stay all day. He is learning a lot and making friends. He currently has 2 best friends that he is always telling me about. Brenin will wake me up at 6:30 in the morning asking if he can get ready for kindergarten yet, poor kid has the afternoon class. All day it's am I late? can we go? is class starting yet?. Last monday he woke up with a fever and so he had to end up staying home. Kid bawled all afternoon, every half hour it was 'but I WANNA go, I need to go' then big buckets of tears. He even woke up this morning with a nightmare that he overslept and missed going to class. Also Thursday I believe it was he received a 'paws' itive (puma is the mascot) for self-control. My child is a big ball of emotions and would get all teary eyed and cry when it was time to clean up and go home. But that day he didn't!! yay, I hope he keeps it up. It's fun to see him be so excited for school and what he's learned. I just hope it lasts a really long time, like through college.

Happy Birthday Lo!

2011-08-29T12:37:00.004-06:00

Somebody just turned 4 today! We had a little family dinner (steaks!!) and some cake and ice cream afterwards, yesterday since Daddy is gone today. Lo's been asking for a bowser cake for about 6 months now, every year it's some form of dinosaur cake, wonder what next year will be =-) Any who here's some pics of the cake.

Lo with his cake, he was pretty excited.

Step 1ish, used 2 9x13's cut in half and stacked, carved the chest and legs then used a dome pan for the head and cut the snout out for that. Then a couple cupcakes for the fronts of his feet. All smothered in buttercream to glue it together.

Marshmallow fondant (the stuff actually tastes decent)

The finished product, I'm obviously far from professional, but for being the second time I've worked with fondant and the first carving my own cake I think it turned out pretty good. I ended up using candy corn for the spikes on the tail and back. Good n' plenty's for the nails and white chocolate chips for his collars. And wilton GEL food coloring cause that liquid stuff is pretty much just evil.

Kanzashi flower

2011-08-26T21:29:00.004-06:00

I was looking for new ways to make flowers and I noticed a lot of people doing Kanzashi, which is essentially origami for fabric. I thought it was really cool! So I got myself a book and started making some. I have a couple that I'm trying to figure out what I want to put in the middle to finish it, it needs something sparkly! Here is the one I finished. I watched Memoirs of a Geisha and I really liked what they had so I made my version.
I used a sateen/ polyester sort of fabric, that doesn't really burn well. Then I got my nice silver string and doubled it up and knotted it where I wanted the fresh water pearls to hang. I stayed with a plain center since the fabric has sparkles and pearls, don't want to go way overboard with it all! (heh since went DON'T I go overboard with these things.)
Went fairly quickly, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out!

Kindergarten!

2011-08-23T13:23:00.003-06:00

Brenin had his first day of Kindergarten yesterday. Where has the time gone? Seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home.

And now he's five and going to Kindergarten.

He has been so excited to go, for at least the last 6 months. He was especially happy to be able to wear his awesome Green Lantern shirt that Uncle Ken made for him. We met his teacher last Friday and he started bawling when it was time to go home because he just wanted to stay forever. He's got it pretty good in there too, I believe there are 21 kids and only 6 are boys. He also has 3 little girls he knows from church in his class too. He's a pretty happy camper, he is such a flirt. Logan will be starting preschool in two weeks and then the year is just going to fly by! CRAZY!

Captain America

2011-07-25T16:55:00.002-06:00

So I went and saw Captain America today and it was awesome! It was so good I'm going to buy it as soon as it's out on dvd. I also can't wait for it to make it to the dollar theater to take the boys. Very little blood and no to little swearing, I didn't hear any, they might have said hell once. Captain A is one of Brenin's favorite characters still (had a Captain A themed b-day). They also had a preview on the end of the movie, I can't wait for the Avengers movie! Squee!

June

2011-07-09T23:34:00.003-06:00

June was a pretty fun month. We went on a vacation down to Utah to catch up with family and friends and see all the new babies. We stayed at my Uncle's house and had a blast. The boys just loved it there, as did we =-). The boys got to go on their first real train ride, we went to SLC and the kids discovery center, which was pretty cool. Then played in the stinky smelly splash fountain they have, Chlorine is a wonderful thing and should be used more often in some cases. Super fun day that tuckered the kids out. We were also able to see Cars 2, LOVED IT! We also hit up Hogle Zoo with Dave's two youngest sisters. That was a blast, got to see all the animals up and about since we went early in the day. Sadly we have very little pictures, since we lost the camera before we even got to utah. We can't remember if it even made it into the car since it was a last minute grab and got put on the counter at some point. Not that we've been able to find it at home yet either. But we had fun and we are happy we got to see so many friends and family!

May

2011-07-09T23:13:00.002-06:00

Time for catch up! Not a whole lot went on in May other than finishing up with getting Brenin registered for Kindergarten. I was also lucky enough to break my 5th metatarsal on my left foot. That was a fun experience. We have a little song in our family since my siblings (mainly Emily and I) were so prone to stubbing/hurting our toes. It goes a little like this 'I'm gonna die with a deformed toe, gonna die with a deformed toe oh oh' and repeat until your foot stops hurting.

I was cleaning and bent one way to pick up toys and my foot went the other way to balance. I stubbed it on the foot of my loveseat, and heard a LOUD snap. Did I cry? no I fell over on the floor and started laughing so hard my kids were all 'uh what's so funny mom'. I just knew that I finally broke my toe. I was just going to sit it out but I got talked in to going to the dr since it hurt a lot more than what we thought it should. As it turns out that was probably a good idea. Got myself an x-ray and the first thing the Dr said was 'Wow you broke that good' He looked over at me and then said 'And you're not in pain?'. Apparently I bent my little toe out so far it snapped the metatarsal instead. Which means I can officially say I broke my foot? Got a lovely blue stiff soled shoe to wear that caused more pain than just being barefoot. So I didn't wear it that much.

It seems that my foot is fine now. I was even able to start wearing heels again last week!So I went for 4inch sandals for church =-). My foot wear was limited to sneakers, flip flops and a pair of wedge sandals. What was really weird was when our weather changed and we got some rain storms going I could totally feel it in my foot. It was all achy, I just hope that isn't something that sticks around forever.

For memorial day weekend we hit up the sales at Lowe's and finally got a chest freezer! yay! I'm excited to start making freezer meals and being able to stock up and not have to go to the grocery store every week for stuff that wouldn't all fit before. I can't remember if it was end of April or May but we did end up needing to get all new tires on the Saturn, I guess nearly 6 years and over 50,000 miles on factory tires is pretty good?

Book Page Art

2011-04-28T18:16:00.004-06:00

I had 3 copies of Pride and Prejudice one of which I've had for near on 20 years and was a bit battered, missing the cover etc. So I decided that I would sacrifice it to some book page art. I've been seeing a lot of book page art but it almost hurt to think of doing that to a book! I lucked out though! Saved me a trip to goodwill or a used bookstore!

This is the blog I got my idea from. Although I thought the beans were not the best idea out there. I was just going to do a stencil and paint it, but even using matt Modge podge it was too shiny to leave it flat. It really did need some texture to it. So I went and found some flat black acrylic crystals at Micheal's. I was quite happy with the result. Nice sparkles against the aged book pages!

Hair clip-
I can never get enough of these! My sister-in-law let me know that Joann's has a bunch of feather (sprigs?) in their floral department. I've been looking for an inexpensive place to get peacock feathers so I was pretty excited!
And Voila!

I'll have to get a picture of it in my hair, because this picture makes the flower look super big but it's actually pretty small.

Birthday

2011-03-02T10:14:00.006-07:00

Brenin had a pretty good Birthday I think! He got to invite a bunch of friends over and we played some Captain America games. Pin the shield on Cap, Toss across (since Cap' throws his shield) And hopscotch because Cap can run fast and dodge things. I didn't realize how quickly the kids would run through the games though. After games we had Pizza ice cream and cake! Then we got out all the super hero squad toys and the kids got to play with those while they watched an episode or two of the show. We also had a super hero coloring station for those that wanted to color some pictures.

I wouldn't have been able to pull it off without the awesome help of Heather and Jason! They pretty much saved my procrastinating butt! I baked the scratch cake (and I'm totally taking credit for that because it's about all I can take credit for ;) ) Jason made the awesome marshmallow fondant and decorated the cake for me! As seen below!

Heather did most of the work on the shields! And they turned out great! Used a couple of plates to trace the circles out and I printed out a star from the digital scrapbook maker to trace. We used A LOT of super glue! boy does that stuff stink!
(I guess if I'd taken pictures during the process that could be my first tutorial of something I made all on my own)

The cuffs took a while to make, mostly just because there were so many! I used felt and found a font I liked for the A printed it out and traced it on some double sided iron on transfer paper. then ironed it onto the cuff. the shield I glued together before ironing the whole thing on the cuff. This is the tutorial I used for the cuffs.

Over all I think it was a great success! Brenin is still talking about it a month later, wondering when his next one will be. I hate to break it to him but I'm not going all out like that for him until he's 10. Logan wants a big party too now, but he has to wait a year and a half until he's 5.

Once again Thanks Heather and Jason! Thanks for coming and hanging out with us we had a blast! and Thanks for all your hard work helping us get the party ready and Thanks for wrangling kiddos during the party!

And a shout out to Uncle Ken for scaling and coloring the picture of Captain america for pin the shield on Cap! I'll have to get a pic of that posted soon too!

Homemade Twix

2011-01-31T19:45:00.000-07:00

I've had this recipe for ages. I lose it, find it and lose it again so I have no idea where I got it from, if you do drop me a line so I can credit the wonderful person who came up with it! Tonight was the first time I actually ended up making them! And boy are they tasty!

1 box shortbread cookies (I used Lorna Doone)
about 35 soft caramels (I ended up with 50 to get a thicker consistency)
1/4 cup water (next time less water so I don't have to use as much caramels!)
milk chocolate chips.

*Lay cookies on a cookie sheet or a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper for easy clean up
*Mix your caramel and water in about 45 second intervals and stir in between.
*let caramel cool for just a bit then spoon caramel on to the cookies.
Once the caramel is set then melt your chocolate.
*Melt chocolate ( I used about a cup of chips) in 20 second intervals stirring each time to avoid burning the chocolate.

You can dip the whole cookie if you want, but I just held the cookie over the bowl and did a big drizzle/sheet across the top, let some of the chocolate drip back down and then set on parchment sheet to set.

YUM!

I was featured!

A good read

2011-01-27T22:19:00.000-07:00

I love books! Lots and Lots of books! As a kid the reason I loved the summer so much was that I could just stay up all night reading a good book and not have to worry about sleeping in or being tired at school the next day. My dream house has a huge library in it!

There is a down side to enjoy reading soooo much, I will tend to get lost in my books and let things fall to the side, like cleaning my bathroom, doing the dishes, eating, stuff like that. So a good medium for me to keep things running in an orderly fashion tends to be online serial fiction. (As long as I stick to just one or two stories at a time). There is one that I am currently reading that I really enjoy! Five Dollar Mail At first I wasn't sure I'd really get into it as I've never been one to watch westerns or be that into cowboys. BUT I LOVE pretty much anything that happens in the 1800's. It's funny, irreverent, has a touch of romance (but not that swooning all over each other fluff) and some action and adventure. So if you have some free time and want a good story head on over! She's currently on chapter 98, and she updates once a week on Thursdays.

Tonights creation

2011-01-22T23:05:00.000-07:00

I'll just give a quick run through on how to make this because I was really into creating and didn't even think to take any pictures of the process. But it is super easy.

I took a lid that was about 5 inch in diameter. Then cut out 5 circles. Took each circle and did long stitches about 1/4 of an inch down all around the circle and gathered it and sewed it together and then tied it off, kind of like making a fabric yo-yo but I left it poofy. Did that 5 times then sewed them all into a circle with a bunch of stabilizing stitches back and forth.

Then cut out a circle with about a 4 inch diameter and just a short running stitch on one little end to half gather the circle.

I cut out 3 small circles about 1-2 inches in diameter and folded them in quarters and sewed them together and added my silver metal bead to it. Then sewed that on top of my purple flower.

Found 3 long feathers I liked and hot glued them to a felt square. I then laid down the netting on top of that so I had a straight line of feathers down to netting.

Glued my purple flower on top of all that.
Figured out how I wanted it to sit in my hair and then made a little felt loop on the back so I can interchange my clips and not have to spend a ton to have a clip on every flower!

And Voila! It's sassy and over the top and I LOVE IT!

Homemade baby gifts.

2011-01-11T07:57:00.000-07:00

First up we have the ever popular Crayon Roll. I went with black and white and geometric shapes because it was for a little boy and I don't have a very good stash of boy fabrics, I've got lots of pinks and purples and girly prints. Hmm a trip to the fabric store to remedy that sounds good. The only thing I would change is I would make it a bit longer so the pockets could be bigger. I had a hard time getting the crayons in, it might be pretty difficult for little fingers too!

So this started out as me trying to make a Taggie football But I couldn't get the team fabric locally and couldn't get it shipped to me in time for the baby shower. So I went with browns and greens with a monkey pattern, which matched some stuff on the registry. I had decided to still make it a football shape but I didn't read the directions closely (story of my life). To make your own football shape it says to draw a straight line like 7 inches long then in the middle draw a line 3 inches tall, yeah I drew a line in the middle 6 inches tall, 3 on each side.
I do have to say though I am glad I 'messed' up because I really like this shape!

Lastly GO COUGS!! So Both Baby S and Little Boy C come from some very school spirited families so I knew I had to make them something in their Cougar colors. I think I lucked out! My Joanns is a midsized one so it's got a fairly decent selection of fabric but it's nothing compared to their super centers. I used this free pattern I made their 5T and 2T, and maybe it's that my kids are really tall with long torso's but I put the 2T up to Lo and dang was it SMALL, so I figured it could go to Baby S, since he wasn't even here yet. So I then made a 5T for C, better safe than sorry I think and at least he can grow into it!
I really enjoyed making them too! I think it was my first 'real' article of clothing for a kid and it was great to make something and have it turn out well! I may need to make more in different fabrics! I also was a little weary since it was corduroy but didn't have any problems sewing it up! (fleece on the other hand is my down fall, but that's another story!)

I made it: Christmas decor.

2011-01-10T09:18:00.000-07:00

I've been adding new things to my Christmas Decor each year, it's been pretty fun!

First up is my table runner. I got 5 cute fabrics, all out of the remnants bin, and cut them into 5X5 squares (roughly) I stacked them so some were a little bigger. The runner ended up 3X15 I think. I did just do a straight stitch and then ironed the seams flat, but I think next time I'm going to do a straight and a zig zag to hold up better. I've had to wash it twice and one of the fabrics is a loose weave and so some of the seams are coming out. Luckily I didn't back it so I can fix that pretty quickly.
I also made my own double folded bias tape. Had somewhere around 5 yards length of the maroon cotton left over from an earlier project (which if I haven't posted I will soon) It's hard to tell with the picture but there is maroon in the snowman scarf and some maroon dots in the blue fabric with all the close star/snowflakes.

It was super easy and I cranked it and a runner for my piano that was 2X12 squares in about 2 hours (and that's with all the cutting).

Christmas trees, I've been seeing a lot of the cone trees as decorations and I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it, but I decided to make some myself and liked how they turned out so I made more! Last year I made two out of foam core with sequins pinned in it. That took FOREVER I think my large one had somewhere around 1600 pins and sequins. So this year I went the easy route with HOT GLUE!

First I took the cover's from some old calendars and taped them into a cone shape. I used packing tape, but I think next year I'll use duct tape to hold the spray paint better. Then I sprayed them all silver for any parts that showed through. Marshmallows were the easiest, run a string of glue on the cone and push the marshmallow on, and voila.
M&m's were next easiest! Didn't really go by any pattern other than use the red sparingly and tried to make sure not too many reds touched.
Dots, on the other hand were both really easy to start then got horrible! I had half a billion boxes of stale dots left over from Halloween. So I started with those and they were perfect, went on super easy and stayed. I ran out halfway through though, sigh. So my wonderful Hubby went and got me some more dots from the store. Nice fresh squishy dots, that really liked to fall off every other second. I had to leave the tree out in the freezing garage for like 2 days to get them to stay on and even then I ended up sticking those pins you get in dress shirts through them to keep them on.

But I liked how it ended up! I didn't get a picture but our table ended up with a gingerbread house or two among the tree's. It made a nice yummy table scape. I'm going to do it again next year, So I'll scope out the halloween candy aisle and pick it then so it'll be nice and stale by the time I make it.

New year(life) resolutions.

2011-01-05T19:36:00.000-07:00

I figured I might as well write these down so I have some accountability.

1. Stop eating foods that cause anaphylaxis. Yeah it's fairly mild but when a sandwich or a cheese burger cause me to wheeze and have trouble breathing it kinda sucks. So Good-bye cheese burgers, grilled cheese sandwiches, regular sandwiches with cheese and possibly PB&J (have to double check that one). Food allergies suck, although I'm glad it's me and not my kids.

2. doing number 1 should help a lot with this goal, the obligatory lose weight. I've noticed especially with dairy, but when I am eating a lot of foods that I'm allergic to I tend to gain weight easily and have a harder time losing it. And after the whole freaking incident with the Mirena and all the side effects; that I'm still dealing with a few I need all the help I can get.

3. Create more; I've really enjoyed getting more into sewing this year and I'm quite impressed with some of the things I've made, one especially that I will be posting about soon and have a semi- tutorial for. I want to do more in the way of hair accessories and clothing that I can actually wear! Maybe even some stuff for my boys!

4. And number 3 leads to 4. I want to create my own tutorial on something new. I want to be able to create something from scratch and be able to teach others how to do it too!

5. Get a better sleep schedule. I'm kind of an insomniac now. One of my great side effects from mirena was massive anxiety. Stuff that mildly made me anxious before would send me into a full blown panic attack. And with Dave's job traveling more often than not, made for a bad combination. I would hear the house settling and my body would go into fight or flight mode, heart racing all that jazz. Mentally I KNEW nothing was wrong, trying to tell my body that and go back to sleep was futile though. I've spent many a night staying up all night reading, or doing cross words something to keep me occupied. Luckily I've noticed over the last 9 months after getting rid of the mirena the anxiety has gone down a lot. So now I think I might actually be able to work on my insomnia and have it work. My goal is to be able to go to sleep at a decent hour and wake up not tired by the time Brenin starts kindergarten in the fall.

6. Get organized. I want to make a meal plan that is healthy and easy to make. Sometime soon I also want to get a chest freezer to help with this so I can make some freezer meals ahead of time. I also want to make a cleaning schedule and stick to it so I'm not frantically cleaning my bathrooms and putting everything away when I have guests staying. Along with that a laundry schedule if possible. And a kid schedule with fun things to go do and things to make at home and fun teaching experiences for them. I've already started on this, I've finally got myself a little rolling 3 tiered drawer that is filled with craft supplies and preschool books to work with the boys on.

I think that's about it for now maybe I'll add more later as I think of them. I'll also revisit them every so often to see how I'm doing.
Thanks for reading my ramblings =-)

Æbleskivers

2011-01-03T13:03:00.000-07:00

Yum! Æbleskivers are seriously tasty! I'm always glad when something of my heritage turns out so well.

History time! I don't know how accurate this is, but this is the story that gets passed around, and I like it! Back in the days of the Vikings they would grease their shields and use them as pans. Well after being in battle and getting pretty dinged up when cooking pancakes on all the dents it made little balls. And thus the Æbleskiver was born.

Æble is Danish for apple and these pancake balls used to be served with apple slices in them, although not so much anymore. Really any fruit tossed in the middle while cooking should be fine. I've had them with Apples and banana's, mostly because I generally just make them around Christmas and there isn't the best selection of fresh fruit available.

Recipe; I'm not sure where I got this recipe from, I've been making these for about 12 years now.

3 eggs separated
2 cups buttermilk
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cardamom -----AWESOME Spice!

Beat the egg yolks with Butter milk. set aside

Mix all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl; sugar, salt, flour, baking powder and soda and cardamom.

Beat egg whites until stiff.

Mix yolk/milk with dry ingredients.

Add egg whites, carefully folding them in so they don't break down.

Heat the Pan on medium heat. Put 1 tsp oil in each hole. Fill with batter (probably an 1/8 of a cup? I never measure just fill it to the top.) Use a fork to rotate the pancake balls so the batter has a chance to slide around and create the ball shape, this will also make them light and puffy on the inside, kinda like a popover. Keep turning til a toothpick comes out clean.

You can serve these with LOTS of yummy sides. Pull them open and put some butter and honey in them, or jam. Roll them in cinnamon&sugar or powdered sugar. Dip them in Syrup!

Burning of the Gingerbread.

2011-01-01T01:23:00.000-07:00

So yeah, My family is a bunch of Pyro's. But we are fairly safe pyros? Lol anyways, we had our annual Burning of the Gingerbread houses. Dave picked up a galvanized tub at Lowe's so that we wouldn't torch the grass. Although the tub was so hot it torched and caramelized the grass below it anyways.

This is the fourth year that we've burned down our gingerbread houses. It all started with making one and not really knowing what to do with it, because we weren't going to eat that crap. And just throwing it away seemed kinda sad and wasteful. We also added in the candy Christmas tree's I made of marshmallows and dots. Let me tell you, Dots take FOREVER to burn, first they kinda sweat then eventually they start to boil and once some of the sugar has boiled out they finally burn, although they still left a mass of goo at the bottom that never got burned, when everything else was just ashes.

The video for your viewing enjoyment!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-06T15:51:00.001-07:00

Went and got the boys picture with Santa at the mall on saturday. Logan gets better each year, the first year he wanted nothing to do with Santa, last year he wasn't thrilled at all to sit on Santa's lap. This year he was happy too. Although they called us over to early the people in line in front of us, urgh, had to make a big production of the mom getting the picture done but then had to switch out with the grandma because the grandma was going to pay and needed to pick the photo but grandma couldn't understand simple instructions, 'come in here and pick the photo'. She went and just stood in line to pay and instead of the mom going to get her she just stood there staring at her. So by the time we actually got the picture taken the boys had been sitting on Santa's lap for a while and Logan was done. We got this pic and then they tried to do another one but all you saw was Logan's 'merry frickin christmas' face and his tummy as he squirmed his way down.

They are super excited for Santa to bring them their Pillow pets this year, Brenin asked for a dog and Logan asked for a dolphin. And thanks to Fred Meyers black friday sale Santa won't disappoint!

2010-11-22T14:23:00.001-07:00

Shoot, I missed a whole week! I guess I was being very thankful for my husband's job that allows him 'home store' time. He'll basically go in to the store for a couple hours each day and then get to spend the rest of the time with us. I was also very busy sewing up a storm! I'm thankful that my sewing machine worked and I found easy patterns to use! Don't have any pictures to post yet, Dave has the camera. But I made a couple of vest's, a baby taggy ball and a crayon roll, along with a cool feather hairclip for my Sister Inlaw's costume she's making for a contest.

We also got to go to eastern WA for a baby shower for my friend Roxie and Megan's little boy's 1st birthday! I had lots of fun and am glad I got to spend time with good friends (although it's never enough it seems like). The trip also made me very thankful for a husband who has experience driving in the snow. We got hit with a bit of snow between pendleton and lagrande. But we obviously made it home safe.

I did make the mistake of turning the heat off while we were gone, came home to a house that was barely 50 degree's and it took a good 24 hours to get to 60. So today I am thankful for a landlord that will get things fixed quickly when it's important. I guess mostly the heater just needed a new filter, but now we have actual heat blasting out of the registers instead of a tiny trickle.

November 15th

2010-11-15T22:26:00.000-07:00

Bunk beds! I was a little leery of getting a bunk bed for the boys at first, what with Logan and his crazy energy and love of jumping off of things he really shouldn't. That and once when I tried to rearrange the boys room Logan threw a huge fit because his bed wasn't in the right place. So far no real problems. The best thing that makes me thankful for bunk beds... Brenin ASKED to take a nap today just so he could use his new bed. And when I said it was bed time instead of 'can we watch a show for just 10 minutes mom' it was '8pm? oh yeah it's bed time lets go!'. They were a little freaked out though, both actually asked for some milk for bed which they haven't done for about 3-4 months.

As I posted on facebook; any bets on who breaks the first bone and how long it takes? I seriously hope never, but with their parents gene's/luck it's bound to happen sometime.

Weekend thankful

2010-11-15T22:14:00.000-07:00

So this weekend I was very thankful for a great husband. I got to sleep in a couple of hours while he got up and fed the hooligans. He agreed to take some time off work so we can go to eastern washington this weekend for a baby shower and a 1st birthday party! I also got a nice long 3 hour nap sunday afternoon. Then he also stayed in the boys room that night to make them sleep so I could get a little bit of pure silence with no one asking mommy for milk or water or potty breaks. It was a great weekend!

Nov 11

2010-11-11T19:33:00.000-07:00

It being Veterans day I am thankful for all those in the services that have put their lives in danger so that I can live free and vote for what I believe in. Today I am also thankful for playdates! Boys had some friends come over and they got out a lot of energy and had a blast. They used up so much energy that they were actually quiet for 30 mins of nap(I wish)/quiet time, I got to eat my lunch in peace BY MY SELF.

Thankful day 10

2010-11-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

A little late. Yesterday I was thankful for getting out of the house most of the day! Went and walked the mall (yay double strollers) and then let the boys play in the play area for a nice long while. Came home for snack and NAPS! Then we went grocery shopping and they actually behaved quite nicely. No screaming fits. So yay for getting out of the house to promote more sleep! Because they also went to bed fairly easily too.

9th

2010-11-09T21:06:00.000-07:00

Today I am thankful for the 'new'. New Dr's that make life super easy when I need to get asthma med's refilled. New information as to why I've been getting a lot of migraines this month (blood pressure went up a bit, time to cook with less salt I guess, which is sad cause I just started using it more, but then that explains it all). New play toy's at the mall so I have somewhere to take my kids and waste an hour or two when it's kind of chilly outside (I HATE being cold). New video games to play, I've been a fan of the Monkey Island series forever now (and my computer is always just a tad out of date or has something going wrong with it so I can't play the game when it first comes out) But I was able to download it on the Wii and play it!! Gotta love puns and insult sword fighting! New recipes; got a spiced cider mix and you just add caramel syrup to it... yummy! Also tried Elk for the first time this week, it was really tasty too!
Making new things! A new type of hair flower!

A new purse I made (my first attempt).

Nov. 8th

2010-11-08T15:47:00.000-07:00

Monday's tend to be the hardest day of the week for me. I've usually been up pretty late trying to finish up laundry so Dave has clothing to take with him for work. The boys can sometimes get a little extra grumpy missing Daddy if I don't get them busy with projects. So today I am thankful for Disney. Toddler shows on tv in the morning so I can either try and get organized for the day/week or sack out on the magical chair of sleep (seriously you sit in that thing and if you aren't actively doing something to stay awake you will pass out within a half hour) and odds are I'm more likely to pass out (I know, I'm a horrible mother.) I am also thankful for playhouse Disney online for all their great games, that my kids have fun with and even learn something occasionally.

Day 7

2010-11-07T15:21:00.000-07:00

Daylight savings time! I am very thankful for that extra hour of sleep! needed it last night after Logan decided he would spend it awake hollering how he wanted to drive to Haydn's house.

Day 6

2010-11-06T23:27:00.000-06:00

Today I am thankful for; Family time. We all went out hunting for a toddler bed for Logan, but it looks like we'll be getting bunk beds for the boys. Found a great deal and if it's still there next weekend then it was meant to be and we'll get it. We also got to go see Despicable Me together and it was a blast, hilarious! The boy's loved it even though they were kinda tired.

Day 5

2010-11-05T17:41:00.000-06:00

Today I am thankful for quick and early flights. Dave made it home by noon today, which then afforded me the opportunity to go do some grocery shopping ALONE! That pretty much never happens! To make the day even better I found some pretty awesome deals. I got 5 costumes for just $30, so the boys are stoked they get to be; iron man, batman, superman, captain america and a barbarian. If the costumes last through play time then they could feasibly wear them next year if we all don't do a themed family. I also got myself a new purse for just $7, I love clearance.

Day 4

2010-11-04T09:57:00.000-06:00

Today I am Thankful for two little boys that love to play together and generally play well with only a few needs for mommy to intervene and save the day. Lately they've taken up wrestling in the evenings which usually involves stripping to their underwear and diaper, running in circles and clothes-lining each other. I'm amazed at how fast those two can get undressed, there should be some sort of award or something.

Day 3

2010-11-03T11:41:00.000-06:00

Today I'm thankful for a couple of things. I'm thankful for silly kids shows, and kid friendly websites and two little boys who are generally cool with either watching a show or playing on the computer or playing together with their toys and letting mommy deal with a migraine. Also the two little boys who can be very sweet and come give mommy kisses on her head to make it all better (if only). And now off to a dark dark corner while I wait and see if my pain killers kick in (day 2 of nearly migraine turning into a migraine kinda sucks).

Thankful day 2

2010-11-02T14:37:00.000-06:00

Today I am thankful for discount movie theaters that have discount days! I was able to take my boys to see Toy Story 3 for just $3! I always like to go do stuff for free or cheap, gets us out of the house and even though it was just a movie it still got rid of some of their excess energy.

Month of Thanksgiving.

2010-11-01T12:36:00.000-06:00

I saw a lot of people do this last year so I think I will try it myself this year. So for Day one I am Thankful for good friends that take the time to add us into their travel plans so we can all spend some time having a blast with the kiddos. Then being able to have some fun 'grown up' time after the kiddo's go to sleep!

Logan, Brenin and Ethan in the cow train.

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-01T12:13:00.000-06:00

The boys had a blast trick or treating. This was the first year we actually went door to door. Living in washington you get a lot of rainy halloweens so we would just go to the mall. Brenin LOVED going door to door, when they asked what kind of candy he wanted he would tell them 'I don't want any' but then grab one out of the bucket. He was nice too and tried to grab the good chocolate for mommy and daddy. We ended up with 2 lbs of just the chocolate candy bars which are now hiding in the freezer. I think for next year though we need to work on door etiquette; They would both try to ring the door bell and then push it a couple of times each. Luckily they were super cute and everyone loved their costumes. Logan has absolutely no fear, he kept trying to go into peoples houses to see their 'punkin' decorations. We walked around our neighborhood for about an hour before Brenin declared 'we have enough candy now, mom'.
Sadly we only ended up with one set of trick or treaters after we got back, Guess everyone hit our street while we were out. Now I'm going to try and make some tootsie roll fudge to get rid of them when I make christmas cookie plates to give out.

We all had fun dressing up too! Brenin and Logan's costumes were bought, Dave's we 'made' just shredded up some clothes from good will. He was a castaway/pirate something or other. I was an Elizabethan lady, even made my own snood/caul (hair net). I'm already planning next years costumes! Just trying to decide if we want to do a family theme or just match Dave and I together and Brenin and Logan together.

Proud Momma

2010-09-20T23:03:00.000-06:00

Just a little bit of a gloating session, I'm pretty proud of this little guy right here. I've been so used to just doing most things for my kids, a lot of the times it's just easier so we can get out the door quickly. But he's mister independent now. Plus it's amazing what putting stickers on a calendar will do for him! We've been doing workbooks and letter and number activities, because I'm too cheap to pay for preschool when I can teach it to him for a fraction of the cost and just do play dates for the social interaction. He actually gets upset when he can't do his workbook right away (i'm sure it helps that he's not allowed to play any video games until he's done his workbook) But he surprised me the other day on one of the pages by writing a couple of numbers all by himself without needing something to trace.
He's kinda funny, while he does his work he'll look at me out of the corner of his eye to gauge my reaction and then his lines get all wonky and I'll tell him to not look at me and just the paper while he's writing, so finally he told me to 'just go away mom so I can't see you' He LOVES to learn, which I am so SO glad for, it's way easier to teach someone who is excited and wants to learn than a fussy kid who doesn't care. The other night he complained that it was too dark at bedtime, I told him it needed to be so he could sleep, but he came back with 'but I need it light so I can read!' He has a favorite book called 'I love you through and through' which he can read all by himself. Yeah most of it is memorization BUT I could tell that there were a bunch of words he was actually reading. And he always helps me sound out words during story time. I think once that kid can read everything by himself there will be no stopping him. It's a good thing I want to eventually have my own home library!! (we're on the way, our bookshelves are triple stacked so you can't see the back 2 rows and I still have piles around the house with no home yet).
He's a pretty smart kid! And I'm a pretty proud mom!

Logan 3

2010-09-01T21:16:00.000-06:00

Logan just turned 3 while we had some guests over (I feel really bad cause my kids were sick and we passed it on, no way to spend a vacation and birthday!) He got what is turning out to be his annual dinosaur cake. The kid loves dinosaurs, always has, probably always will. It was pretty simple to do, made a 9X13 french vanilla and a devils food in my rose bundt pan (Thanks Heather!!) Made some butter cream icing and got my wilton's gel food coloring so we wouldn't have a repeat of last years icing separating and the laxative effect it has on little tummies. Logan loved it and that's all that matters!

Summer Projects

2010-08-17T19:56:00.000-06:00

I've been in a fairly crafty mood lately, although I haven't gotten a whole lot done. I did find the foot pedal to my sewing machine (I keep forgetting that my dresser is off the floor....) Made a bunch of hair clips, a jewelry holder. I'm currently in the middle of sewing a purse up but I misread the directions and it ended up inside out. Which really isn't a problem since it's double sided fabric that I lined it with but I also forgot to do the purse handle before I sewed up the last side so I have to rip some seams and get that done.
There are other things I've made but I guess I haven't downloaded the pictures yet. Some baby headbands for one thing.

After doing this project I really really REALLY want my own electric staple gun, it was fun to use! you can't see but there is picture hanging wire across the middle for earrings.

Also for my birthday Dave got me a heat embossing tool, so now I can use that on my flowers instead of an open flame, haven't tried it yet but I'm excited to!!

Summer Time fun.

2010-08-17T19:40:00.000-06:00

We've had a fairly full summer so far. Went to Arizona in June for Father's day. The boys had a blast fishing and riding horses with Grandpa Mack. It was a fairly long drive down but we split it into 2 days so we could go to Arches, which is a pretty cool place.

Then Tom, Alise and kids along with Ken came over for 4th of July. Sadly I don't think I actually got any pictures that week. But we had a blast going to a bunch of parks and the zoo and doing fireworks and playing in the water in the back yard.

Got to go back to Auburn for a week with the kids while Dave went to his dad's because the store he is currently setting is really close by. Did my first real jewelry show (I've started selling park lane, love it!) Came home for a little bit while Dave's Grandpa came to visit and meet his great grandkids. Then trekked it back to auburn for my birthday!
I had a seriously awesome Birthday!!! Thanks everyone!!!! Went to the Melting pot for dinner, then spent the night in a hotel and went for pedi's the next day! (I'm contemplating becoming high maintenance, I could get used to it!)

And now we're home for the month just waiting on family and friends to visit which will be a blast! Although my luggage did seem to throw up it's contents in my house and triple the mess, not really looking forward to cleaning that all up (so I'm procrastinating with my blog).

Another Flower!

2010-06-03T15:11:00.000-06:00

So I made a new flower that I think I might even make a tutorial for. I haven't seen any like this in my perusals on the internet. I did get part of the idea from someone who was making an organza wedding bouquet. I used stiffer fabrics so the flower held it's shape better. It also turned out a little larger than I expected, but I like it. I think I'll have to do my hair all curly so I can nestle this in my hair for church on sunday.

It did take me quite a bit longer to make than the plain circles, as I cut each one out separately out of the satin to minimize mistakes and over cutting. Probably took me 3-4 hours with all the cutting and singeing (although I did make enough to do one or two more just like this.) But worth it in my opinion!

Seattle!

2010-05-30T13:43:00.000-06:00

Went and surprised my mom for Mother's day, just me and the boys. Had a blast hanging with friends and family. On the saturday before mother's day Alise, Maris, Mom and I went on a chocolate tour of Seattle! YUM! It was with Savor Seattle food tours, I highly recommend them and can't wait for an opportunity to try their gourmet food tour in the future.

Here are a few things we got to try!
Gourmet popcorn with white and milk chocolate drizzle.

Chocolate gelato with lemon sorbet (to cleanse the palate), pretty tastey but a little rich for me (but then I'm not the biggest ice cream fan anymore, darn milk)

And a Chocolate mini cupcake with a chocolate ganache center and chocolate butter cream icing..... mmmmmmm.

There were a lot of other things we tried, most of which we were standing around so it was a little awkward to try and take a picture. But I got some new favorites! Salted caramels from Franz (with the added bonus of being organic and fair trade, although not all the place's that Franz works with are 'certified organic' but that is just because it's really expensive, they still operate organically though.)

Emily and Ean came over and made Crêpe's with fresh homemade whipped cream. YUM!

Then we had a Family BBQ and it was a really nice day, it was supposed to be rainy but it turned out to be one of the nicer day's of the trip. The boys got some ice cream cones which they thoroughly enjoyed!

We also got to go to woodland park zoo, had a fun day there, most of the kids passed out on the drive back.

Packing the car to go back home I tripped and twisted my ankle, did alright driving home but after a few hours in the car my ankle was hurting pretty bad, which then made my knee and hip hurt for compensating. Luckily I have a wonderful husband who was so kind to call and get me a hotel room for the night (and for free, there is an upside to all his job traveling) Brenin usually likes to come and cuddle in the mornings, but not at the hotel, I got passed over for the couch in front of the TV. lol.

Overall a pretty fun trip!

WOOT!

2010-05-25T20:41:00.001-06:00

So My friend Natalie is a Stampin up Demonstrator and has her own blog show casing all of her cute projects. I generally go look at her stuff and drool. It's all super cute and I wish I had a collection going so I could scrapbook and paper craft more. Dave might frown at that... have my hand in too many pots. BUT She had a super giveaway for her birthday and I won! I'm super excited! Can't wait to make some cards etc!!!

homemade granola!

2010-05-25T10:33:00.000-06:00

I made some homemade granola on Sunday. Got the recipe from howdoesshe .com/homemade-granola
Ingredients:

-12 C Quick Cooking Oats
-1/2 C Flour
-1 T Cinnamon
-1/2 t Nutmeg
-4 C Random dry ingredients (I use raisins, coconut flakes, sunflower seeds, slivered almonds, small chocolate chips, peanut butter chips.)
-1 C Vegetable Oil
-1 C Honey

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all of the ingredients but oil and honey. Mix oil and honey and microwave until hot. Pour oil and honey mixture over dry ingredients and mix well. Spread mix over 3 baking sheets and bake until lightly golden brown on top (appx 20 min).

Although I would change a couple of things... first off that is one HUGE batch!!! It takes up three big cookie sheets. I would put your rack in the middle of the oven and just cook one at a time. Also if you like to have more chunks of granola then I would double the honey but leave the oil alone, so heat up one cup of honey in the microwave with about 1/2 cup of the oil. That way you can get more yummy chunks!
The first two I cooked together and I had to keep them in longer to get the honey to cook to chunk and so the first one got a bit burnt, the second did also but not as much. But the third one I did on its on and left it in just a little longer than the 20 mins and it came out perfect! My mix in's were slivered almonds, cranberries, white and milk chocolate morsels. Pretty tastey! Logan even likes it and anytime he sees me with some he comes up and eats it too.

May the Fourth be with you!

2010-05-04T10:14:00.000-06:00

Happy Star Wars day!!

Enjoy..

Homemade Orange Julius

2010-04-23T22:22:00.000-06:00

Just made some SUPER tasty orange julius' so here's my take on other peoples versions.

6-8 oz frozen oj.
1 cup water
1 cup milk
generous tsp of vanilla (I didn't actually measure I just poured for a second or too)
not quite 1/2 cup powdered sugar.
somewhere around 20-30 ice cubes. all the others call for like 6 or 9, but we like them a bit thicker here.

plus right before you add the ice cubes I did a nice thick layer of whipped cream to cover the whole top then I threw in the ice cubes to mix it all.

And we ended up with orange julius' that you can eat with a spoon!!!! And oh so creamy!

New phone!

2010-04-21T23:30:00.000-06:00

So we finally got new cell phones this last week and can now communicate with the world once again. I am super happy because mine has a pretty good camera AND it came with a USB so I can actually transfer pictures of stuff I make without having to wait for Dave to get home with our lone digital camera!

So here it is the first picture on my phone of something I've made.

I got the idea for this while we were at the Rutt's last week. Rachel had a bunch of different flower pins and hair clips. When I ran to the store today looking for a button maker I saw this fabric in the remnants section and HAD to have it! I can't wait to wear it. I'm excited to make more and see what other styles I can come up with!

ETA... Made a couple more!

Chocolate!

2010-03-30T19:32:00.000-06:00

There are some days when you just need some chocolate to make everything better! But what if you are trying to lose or watch your weight? it's probably not a good idea to have a whole pan of brownies sitting there and tempting you. I found this tasty single serve microwavable brownie!! YUM!

Brownie

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons water
about 1/8 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder (unsweetened)
2 tablespoons flour.

In a 12oz or larger mug mix water, oil, salt, vanilla and whisk well
Add the cocoa and whisk well again
Add sugar and whisk well again
Add flour and whisk well again.

I dropped a couple of clumps of chocolate fudge icing on top, next time I will mix that in a little too to give more of a gooey center.

Microwave 60-75 seconds depending on if you want a lava bottom or firm throughout. Although with the fudge icing you need to add a second or too on. I did mine for a total of 75 seconds. And it is a nice gooey chewy brownie!

Chocolate fudge icing.

1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 2/3 cup powdered sugar
4-5 tablespoons milk

melt butter over low heat. Stir in cocoa. Heat til bubbling. Stir til smooth.
Pour into bowl and cool completely. Add some powdered sugar add some milk and stir. Alternating pwd sugar and milk til smooth. Blend in Vanilla last.
Ice your cake or save it in the fridge for your single serve brownies.

It has just the right amount of chocolatey richness that will satisfy your craving without over indulging! And it's considerably cheaper than buying the betty crocker warm ones at the store.

Happy Anniversary!

2010-03-20T00:07:00.000-06:00

Time sure does fly! I can't believe that it's been six years already. I figured I would post our story since I haven't done it before.

I'm surprised Dave and I didn't meet before we did. We had a lot of the same friends but went to opposite highschools. According to Dave the first time we met I was 17 almost 18 at a singles ward break the fast dinner. I have no recollection of this, we apparently sat at the same table and conversed. I only believe him because he still remembers what I was wearing. My favorite red and white diamond patterned shirt with slit sleeves. Loved that shirt, no idea whatever happened to it though. He says he saw me at the mall all the time, which is understandable as I usually had 2-3 jobs at any given point in a 5 year time period.

After my stint in Americorps I was looking for a job and my neighbor Joe got me a job at Lowe's as a cashier. I was also currently the Singles ward Activities chairman, and I found out that there was a certain gentleman also working at Lowe's that happened to be on our inactive list. It took a few days before I found out who he was and when I did, what was the first thing I noticed? And he's going to hate me for this, the first thing I noticed was his cute butt =-). Luckily he had a cute face and personality to go with that butt =-). My mom will tell you I called her all giddy from work to let her know I met HIM.

It took awhile before we started dating but when we finally did go on our first date it lasted about 10 hours. Went to a couple parks then south hill for slushies at the rainforest cafe. Went to bullwinkles for some games and mini golf. Hit up some dinner (atm I can't remember the restaurant but my brain is a fog but that's another story) Went to the movies and saw Daddy Day care then went and played pool and hit another park for a moonlight stroll on the 'beach'.

Needless to say we hit it off well. The only down side was no goodnight kiss =-(. Although he made up for that later. We went out the next night too, just running some errands. And we ended up at the boardwalk on Redondo beach near Salty's, where we had our first kiss. I felt a little bad for Dave and really embarrassed for myself.... I started laughing.... you see it was MY first kiss. Although after I explained THAT to Dave he thought it was pretty awesome.

That year flew by pretty fast. We had to keep our relationship a secret for a while since he was getting a promotion at work. Eventually I transferred to the Federal Way store so he could get promoted. Dave was Mr. Romantic and we went to Salty's for New years eve and took a stroll on the boardwalk as the sun was setting and proposed at about the same spot as our first kiss.... how cute is that?! Obviously I said yes and we got hitched on a beautifully sunny March 20th 2004, the one nice day in a week of blustery wind and rain.

Here we are six years later with 2 wonderful little boys in an awesome house, even though it's just a rental and far away from many friends and family. But we're where we need to be for the moment. Love you babe!! (and your cute butt too!!)

2010-03-03T12:25:00.000-07:00

Logan tends to be a reticent kid, and very frugal with his hugs and kisses. Although lately he has been getting a bit more free with the kisses once he learned that kisses are great for boo boo's and owies. He also hasn't been much for speaking unless he can say it correctly in a sentence, for the most part. So last night I had to go in and change his sheet and pj's around 3 am but he made it all worth it. After I tucked him back in bed all clean and warm and said I love you I got my first 'Ove you' back!!! I was super excited but kinda sad that it's taken 2 1/2 years for my kid to tell me I love you. And to make matters worse Dave just told me that he says 'ove you' to him all the time!! *sigh* I'll just assume that he says 'ove you' where I can't hear him, which would make sense if he says it anything like 'thank you' which is more like 'unk you' except he doesn't open his mouth to say it so it's pretty guttural.

Delish food and Delish jewelry.

2010-02-25T16:46:00.000-07:00

So I've been branching out in my cooking lately and my collection of Jewelry! Dave's Aunt Alayne is awesome with direct sales and I've been able to acquire some pretty cool stuff because of her. Her latest adventure has been Park Lane Jewels and I got to host a jewelry party for her recently. Got some awesome pieces to add to my ever growing collection!

For the party I made these yummy pastries from Pampered Chef. I also added Kiwi's to them and thought it added a really nice flavor. I was looking for a similar recipe can't remember the name, but they had either a puff pastry base or sugar cookie and were topped with whip cream strawberries and kiwi's and powdered sugar. (So if anyone has it or a link send it my way)

On another side note for jewelry (my boys got me a jewelry cabinet for christmas I've always wanted one! and now I have to fill it up and get good use out of it eh!) My Sister-in-Law Ashley has been supplying me with some one of a kind pieces, That awesomely enough I've been able to find some complementary pieces at park lane. She makes all her own stuff and has her own fan page on face book if you're interested in her work.

Adventures of Logan

2010-02-11T17:45:00.000-07:00

I was thinking (a dangerous past time) and I realized I don't post much about Logan. I think mostly it's because he's pretty much refused to talk for the longest time. He'll do sign language a lot but only recently has he really been working on speaking. Although he will randomly spit out full sentences like 'here's your hat'. He's also kind of a perfectionist and doesn't like to use the word until he has it down pretty well.

Anyways, I have a funny story, I posted it on Facebook but I figured I'd toss it up here too.
Last night it took FOREVER for Logan to go to sleep, kept turning his light on so he could read. One of the times I went back to turn the lights off AGAIN I found Logan's pillow and his blankets strewn about the hallway. Went into the boys room and Logan was perched on the arm of Brenin's toddler bed. Logan was staring intently at Brenin (which makes me think he had been doing this for a bit) and stuck his finger in Brenin's ear and wiggled it til Brenin twitched. Then he looked up at me and grinned and did it again!

I have a sneaking suspicion that he's going to be my big troublemaker. Sticking Brenin's hands in warm and cool water trying to make him wet the bed. Or the whipped cream in the hand and tickle his nose sort of evil tricks. Looks like I need to find some outlets to exhaust him so he doesn't have time to plan anything he'll be too tired. Wish me luck!

And how can I get mad at a kid that will let me do this to him??

Happy Birthday Brenin!

2010-02-09T09:09:00.001-07:00

2 months, day of his blessing.

Almost 1 with his cuz.

At his 2nd b-day.

3rd bday

And this is from december of 2009, my newest pic of him, We're down to 1 camera and Dave needs it for work so I missed my chance to get a pic this weekend and get it downloaded to the computer.

Hard to believe he's already 4 years old! And basically potty trained! That took awhile, what do you do when you have a kid that won't eat any form of candy so the positive reinforcements with m&m's etc just don't work? We do stickers on the calendar and those work a little but not very well. I finally had to resort to negative reinforcement. He is scared spit-less of taking a shower. So every time he messed his pants he gets thrown in. Took about a week of doing this and threatening to do it, but now it seems to have paid off. He still has days were he doesn't want to wear underwear but he's pretty much good to go! I was also glad to get it down before he turned 4 so yay!!

For his birthday he requested a white circle cake and that's what he got. I didn't take a picture to post on here because I think you can imagine it all on your own. He got an awesome Car's mini adventure that shoots Lightening down a track and goes off a jump to either land in Mack's bed or hits the power line and lands in the impound lot. The only time he stops playing with that is when I put it away because they are crying and fighting over the cars.

For his birthday dinner yesterday he requested a Picnic (in the family room) while watching stewart little 2 with pizza and mac and cheese. That kid can pack it away, he ate one large slice of pizza and 2 1/2 bowls of mac and cheese plus a couple cups of juice!

While watching stewart little 2 there were a lot of commercials for Disney land and Brenin kept telling me he really wanted to go, but that he has to be 5 first. Lol. Logan got really excited too, every time Mickey came on he started hollering Maow Maow go go go.

I've got a Sale high!

2010-01-15T10:08:00.000-07:00

So I totally have a high from the awesome sale I went to today. The clearance toys finally went 75% at Target today. I've gone the past 2 days to be there at 8 when they open in hopes of being the first so I can get everything I want. Today I was tired and said BAH! I'm sleeping an extra 20 mins. So I didn't leave til about 8:30, luckily Target is only 1 mile down the road. Got there not everything was 75% off but pretty much everything I wanted was. I missed out on a few things I had hoped to get but it's not like I needed them so I'm cool. Here's my list of what I got.

Item Was Saleprice
Toy story 3 scene set.(X2) 49.99 12.48
Candyland 21.89 5.47
Electronic toss across 29.99 7.48
saucer scramble (game) 23.89 5.97
monopoly sport theme pack 9.99 2.48
little tyke golf set 25.79 6.44
mini dino bucket 8.27 5.78 This was only50% but I have a
Dino lover in the house.
starwars science robot arm kit 29.99 7.48
easy bake icing pen set 12.99 3.24
lil mermaid dress up jewelry 9.99 2.48
mini plush smurfs (X4) 5.99 1.48
smurfette car (X2) 9.99 2.48
smurf figurines (X2) 9.99 2.48
mini smurf fig 5.99 1.48
Crash fx airplane 29.99 7.48
papa smurf 9.99 2.48
vanity smurf 9.99 2.48
papa smurf mushroom 14.99 3.74
smurf plush with dvd 15.99 3.98
disney princess head (X2) 29.99 7.48
plush pablo 5.99 1.48
my little pony house 44.99 11.24
my little pony other house 32.99 8.24
sesamestreet aqua doodle 9.99 2.48

My receipt is kinda hard to read so I may have added an extra or left out a smurf.
I paid $156.52 with tax
retail value of $612.22
I SAVED $455.70

WOOT! It's a good day and I have a shopping high already! Now I can be a lazy bum for a little bit and still feel productive =-).

Happy shopping to you!

(Edit to add) This is all nice and neat before I publish it but it didn't line up very well, sorry. I'm too lazy to fix it though!

Conversations with Brenin

2010-01-14T10:16:00.000-07:00

This kid just cracks me up. We went to Target the other day to check what toys they had on clearance. They had a cool CARS mini set that shoots the car on a ramp, Brenin got one for Christmas and loves it soo much we thought it would be good to get another for his b-day next month. Well Brenin was with me when I got it because it was 50% off and I didn't want to chance having it gone by the time everything went to 75%off. So for the last week or so he's been asking for his birthday. This has led to many conversations about waiting and how he has to have a party first. And how I need to know what kind of cake he wants. No matter how many times I ask him all he wants is a white circle cake, easy enough I guess. So at dinner he asked again and we told him he couldn't have it til he turned 4. Brenin got out of his chair and starts turning around really fast. When asked what he was doing his reply was 'I'm turning 4 so I can get my birthday!!!'

He has also been extra scared of monsters lately (I need to make some anti monster spray here soon) and a big fan of cuddling. He came into my room last night probably around 4ish. I was in a nyquil induced coma and apparently gave him enough of a yes that he climbed in bed and promptly fell asleep. I was slightly surprised when I woke up around 6 to a small hand in my face. After we were all up (had to see if Target went 75% off yet, sadly no) I told him he can't come and cuddle til it starts to get lighter outside. His response... 'I didn't come in mommy, a monster scared me and put me in your bed!'

Christmas

2010-01-13T13:25:00.000-07:00

Christmas was a pretty fun affair in the Turner house. My parents and little brother flew in the Tuesday before and left the Tuesday after. Got a lot of shopping in and eating of good food. Took my dad to the WarHawk air museum. A nifty little place, lot's of locals memorabilia from being in WW2. One gentleman raided a Japanese warehouse and they were told if they could get it home they could take whatever they wanted, lots of brand new issue stuff, one thing he sent home was a silk parachute. When he got home and wanted to get married they didn't have a lot of money so their seamstress neighbor as a wedding gift made a dress out of the silk parachute. Looked really well done too.

Dave Ken and I were able to go out and see Sherlock Holmes while Mom and Dad stayed home with napping boys. It was good to get out without them. I have to say I'm glad that Robert Downey Jr. got his act back together enough to keep acting cause I really like him!

The boys made out like bandits got some pretty cool stuff if I do say so myself. And this year they were more interested in their presents than their boxes! (Although they were REALLY interested in mommies box since they could both fit in it laying down - Got a Jewelry cabinet, now I just need to work on my jewelry collection!)

Had a WONDERFUL dinner! Thanks for all the help Mom! Cooked my first ham, well really that was mostly my mom. But I did do the homemade mashed potatoes, I don't think I can ever go back to boxed! They are SOOO easy and I've never had lighter fluffier tastier potatoes (except when Ean brought them for a past Christmas or Thanksgiving) YUM! Not much else out of the ordinary for cooking. Made the required Pecan pie, Probably put too many pecan's in it, didn't look like enough in the pan. But unless someone tells me I'll never really know- I refuse to eat it, so not a fan of pecans.

And of course we had to do the Traditional Burning of the gingerbread houses! Didn't go quite as well this year. We're going to have to vent the houses next year and perhaps fill them with dryer lint so they can start up a little better. But burn they did. Especially after Dave dumped GAS on them WHILE LIT. Quote of the day.. 'Let the professionals handle this one honey' As he pours gas on lit gingerbread houses and the gas ignites up to the nozzle, which he then flicks towards Ken and I to put it out. He's lucky that was a vapor lock because otherwise he'd be a charred hairless ape.

Santa

2009-12-11T21:10:00.000-07:00

We took the boys for their Santa photo tonight. Didn't go as well as I had hoped. Last year we visited Santa a few times and both were quite happy to sit nice for the picture. This year Logan didn't want much to do with Santa even though we visited him once a week. This was the best picture we got, no big tears or growly faces. I told Dave as we were standing in line that I bet we ended up with a 'Merry Freaking Christmas face' from Logan, it almost made it to that. And doesn't Brenin just look so grown up! He is quite photogenic, I was worried because he got emotional just before and his eyes were a little red from crying. But I think it turned out alright. We'll just have to go visit Santa every other day next year for a better photo op.

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-06T21:49:00.000-07:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

2009-11-09T18:42:00.000-07:00

Just have to brag about my super deal of the weekend. I went to Washington for Megans awesome baby shower! And had a blast. Went to breakfast with Roxie and Megan, afterwards I had some time to kill before going to the airport so I went to the mall in hopes to find a coat. I found this little beauty at Old Navy... it's a wool trench/pea coat. I LOVE it, it actually does go to my knees!! The best part is it was on sale for only $50 normally $100. Now I need some boots, it's definitely a boot coat. And a better purse. I guess I know what I'm asking for Christmas.

Halloween

2009-11-02T15:18:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would get a quick pic or two up of the boys. I'm going to get them dressed up again this week once they aren't all pale and red eyed from their colds so I can get some better pics of them together.
Brenin was Phineas and Logan was Ferb. I was Their mom Linda, and Dave had the easiest as their dad Lawrence. The hair photographed really neon. I have to say I'm impressed with Logan's pants, made them myself without a pattern, my first real article of clothing I've made! I also 'made' Brenin's shirt, just took a white undershirt and taped it off with packing tape and used fabric spray paint on it. (The only orange striped shirts around here are for BSU broncos)

Keep Calm and Carry on

2009-10-26T14:30:00.000-06:00

There is a pretty nifty give away Here. The artist is known as BluLima and she sells hand made screen prints on etsy. Some are pretty cute Check her out.

Conversations with Brenin

2009-10-16T14:58:00.000-06:00

Brenin has been saying some of the funniest things lately (at least to me). Most of the stuff he comes up with he picks up from random conversations that I don't think he's paying attention to or commercials or his shows and his computer games.

Every morning now he asks for a banana so he can become a monkey, then he eats it and hops around for a while pretending he's a monkey, he then asks for a cheese stick to become a mouse, and walks around with his hands by his nose/mouth. And finally asks for a cup of milk to be a baby, Then he just starts acting CRAZY!

We went to albertsons the other day and there was a cheesy commercial about a little girls dream wedding on the radio. After I turned the car off Brenin says to me 'Mommy I'm going to get married' I replied with an 'oh really' He then told me 'I have to go back home and eat my sandwich and get bigger bigger bigger, then get married'

So Last night 11/05 around 10 or 11 pm I go to check on the boys to make sure they are all tucked in and in their own beds. I left the hall light on and this is the conversation that ensued.
Brenin 'mommy, close the door please'
me 'I will in just a second, I'm just checking on you'
Brenin 'ok ok'

me 'You doing alright?'
Brenin 'I'm FIIIINE, turn thelight off'
Me 'alright I love you, see you in the morning bright and early'
Brenin 'I KNOW, daddy has pants for me, love you good night'

Had me chuckling, I tend to carry on conversations with them if they are talking just cause I find them talking in their sleep is hilarious.

Halloweeney

2009-10-01T18:15:00.001-06:00

This is what I've been spending my free time doing this week. Looks like I got the spooky in there twice... oops. Not sure yet where I'm going to hang the spider and web and the spooky. The 'sad' tree (according to Brenin) is sitting on my bar height counter between the living room and kitchen. The witch etc I think I might put a few of those on a wreath for outside. I want to do a take off of this wreath Joann's didn't have a wreath that I liked though. I found an easy pattern online to make kids pants, so I might just try and make the pants for Logan's halloween costume.

2009-09-29T21:42:00.000-06:00

Been having a chillaxin couple of of days. The weather has finally turned to fall, slightly overcast sky (but still really bright, so different than Washington) Lots of wind and a slight chill to the air. It's kinda nice, on the news the other day they said we had around 55 days this summer of temps over 90*. Got my fill of the heat, now on to a real autumn that's not soggy and hopefully we wont get sick all the time like the last few years!

On the screaming deal front The Childrens Place had a summer clearance sale plus a code for 10% off. I got 15 tanks/tee's and 4 shorts for $0.89 each. Pretty darn good! and they had a flat shipping rate of just $5. Summer shirts for next year are taken care of! I have to say though I am really sad, The Childrens place doesn't have an outlet here in Boise so no $1.99 racks! And the online store never gets as much clearance. C'est la vie. I'll have to check the outlet mall on the FAR east side of Boise and see if they have anything good.

Last week as we were out walking we came across two super cute puppies out in the grass all forlorn. It was hot and we didn't want to just leave them since they were looking like they needed some refreshment. So we picked them up and knocked on all the doors to see who's they were. We thought they belonged to our neighbors from church whose house they were in front of (and we were correct). We knocked there twice but she was in the shower and didn't hear us. So we took them home took a picture got them some water and let the boys play with them a little bit. Made a found sign and I went out to post it when our neighbor was driving up the street. The dogs got safely back home and all was well. And today at Fred Meyers we saw a dog in the bag of a truck, Brenin says to me 'Look a doggy, lets go get it and take him home please.'

This weekend we'll be going down to Utah for a little Family reunion type deal-yo. Should be fun, we're pretty excited and The Boys are starting to get excited too, asking if it's time to leave yet. The get to meet their first cousin on that side of the family too, it should be fun. Especially since their cousin is a girl, and they just LOVE girls right now. I'm sure I'll get lots of cute pics to post when we get back!

More tastey goodness.

2009-09-21T19:51:00.001-06:00

So we finally had a family party for Logan on the 13th. I made some cookie monster cupcakes that I got the idea from here. Mine didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. I went to a couple different stores and they were all out of the white melt aways so I was stuck with yellow, and then I forgot to get a little tube of black icing for the eyes. But other than that they looked pretty good. Although if I make the cupcake recipe again I'm going to have to figure out a better way to fill them. My bag exploded twice covering me with whipped cream filling, and the cupcakes didn't have much filling in them when we ate them.

As you can see Logan really enjoyed them, so much so, he snuck up while we were all playing a board game and stole one while no one was looking. Then stuffed the whole thing in his mouth so we couldn't take it away.

Teachers Pet Cardi, Simple Tee and Poppy Skirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-09-03T23:02:00.000-06:00

Teachers Pet Cardi, Simple Tee and Poppy Skirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Too cute! Makes me want to have a little girl of my own. Luckily I have some rather cute nieces!

Logan's Cake

2009-08-29T22:51:00.000-06:00

I started baking it yesterday and I only just finished it. We took an extended trip to the mall for ice cream and root beer floats. On the way to the mall both boys fell asleep so we decided to drive around Boise and do a bit of exploring. Well we saw a sign for 'Bogus Basin' so we decided to drive it, it's only 15 miles away so we figured it would be a quick trip.... not so, wicked S curves that you could only take at 20 miles an hour...... We got part way there then the boys woke up so we turned around and went to the mall. anywho, here's the progression of the dinosaur cake! Enjoy I hope Logan likes it =-)(his favorite thing right now are 'Die-ya's')

Happy Birthday Lologan!

2009-08-29T11:06:00.000-06:00

I can't believe it's already been two whole years since Logan was born! He came a week late and I had to be induced (I hope this doesn't transfer over to sleeping in late when he's a teenager.) He came late in the day about 5:15pm and was a whopping 10lbs 5 oz. He had dark strawberry blonde hair that has now turned more of a sandy color. And had the cutest chubby cheeks! All the nurses had to come in and look at that huge baby that was born 'natural' (with the help of a lot of drugs thank you very much!)

Happy birthday Logan! love you lots!!

August 29th 2007

August 2008 1st Birthday party

August 29th 2009

Idaho State Fair

2009-08-29T10:37:00.000-06:00

We decided to go to the Fair on Thursday, figured it shouldn't be too busy and the weather had been nice. Well as it turns out the fair was pretty busy and it happened to be the hottest day of the week I think. When we left at 8:30pm the car said it was 91* and thats with being parked away from the sun. Any who, the boys had a blast. They got to go on the merry-go-round with daddy!

We went to the petting zoo and fed a bunch of cute goats, Brenin even pet one! and let it lick his hand (that is saying something because he NEVER likes to touch stuff like that and get dirty!) Saw a really big horned bull, the boys thought was cool.

We got some really yummy shaved ice drinks from a place I can't really remember the name of but its a little brown shack and they are AWESOME, I've had them before in utah and its not like regular chunky shaved ice this stuff is smooth and dee-lish! Brenin thought I was silly for taking his picture, he just wanted to eat/drink. and Logan had a lot of fun playing peekaboo with the grass.

After that we found a ride that had no height requirement so the boys could ride together and they really enjoyed the little atv's. After that we found another one for Brenin to ride to finish off the last of our tickets. It was motorcycles and he LOVED! it, it lasted about 5 mins also which was pretty cool! He loved it so much that as soon as it stopped he started bawling and wanted to go again.

The boys had a blast and can't wait for next year when they can actually go on more of the rides!

2009-08-24T17:05:00.000-06:00

I've been introduced to a local savings blog. Discount Queens And I've been able to utilize them for the first time. They of course have all the deals at Albertsons/Target/Fred Meyers just like The Bargain Jargon. Well this weekend they posted about a cool deal at the local Old Navy. Starting today the Meridian Old Navy put all their clearance on an extra 50% off!! this is great. Old Navy makes cute stuff but I usually can't find a reason to pay $10-15 for a kids shirt that will be out grown in 6 months. So we made a little trip today since Dave is home this week trying to recoup from 2 weeks of overnights in Florida.
So here's my take from the day!

2 shirts for me @3.99 each normally 16.50
2 shorts for Brenin @1.99 normally 6.50
Tank for B 1.48 normally 6.50
T shirt for B 2.24 normally 7.50
skirt (gift) 2.49 normally 10.50
t shirt (gift) 2.99 normally 9.50
2 shirts for Dave one 2.24 and 2.74 both normally 15.00

I spent a whooping 26.14 for clothing that normally would be $77. I saved roughly 65% off original prices, A pretty good deal anywhere, especially good at old navy! SWEET!
It's kind of addicting saving money like this. I don't think I pay full price for at least 75% of our clothes anymore, Tall jeans are hard to find on sale!

Target Toy clearance

2009-07-30T10:52:00.000-06:00

So this was my first year to hit up Targets 75% off toy sale. I have to say I did pretty darn good! I got a cars toy set the spins Red around a track and shoots him off. a couple wow wow wubbzy toys, A handy manny phone set and a couple Little Einstines figurines and tub toy and a pack of abc and animal puzzles. Retail price for all this was $110.12, I got it all for a nice little sum of $27.43 and it looks like I'm done with birthdays for the year and a good portion of my kids Christmas presents. I've also been hitting up the holiday sales to get their clearance for gifts etc. My gift box in my closet is now full, I need more space =-)!

Swagbucks!

2009-07-24T12:58:00.000-06:00

Just thought I would share... I've recently discovered Swagbucks off another blog ( www.thebargainjargon.com) Basically you use it as your search engine and randomly are awarded 'swagbucks' as a prize. collect enough of these to use in their swag store. I just made my first purchase, and got a $25 gift certificate to use at the Melting Pot (for free!), I'm splurging for my birthday next month! I believe they use google as the base to their search engine, so it's super easy! So go join and win big yourself!!

Car rides.

2009-07-15T01:15:00.000-06:00

Brenin told me 'I'm Seeris mom' (serious)

Crazy things start happening after you spend too long in the car.

And now that it is almost 1:30 am I have nothing glib to say, so good night!

Cuteness

2009-07-15T01:09:00.001-06:00

Somebody really wanted a picture of their foot.

How cute is that?!

Chillaxin at G-ma's and getting into trouble.

2009-07-15T01:00:00.000-06:00

We had a pretty relaxing time at Grandma's here are a couple pics for your enjoyment.

We can't have all that relaxing without getting into some trouble too!! The boys now love dirt!! Guess we'll need a sandbox soon.

I guess that's what Logan would look like with dark hair.

Other activities while in washington

2009-07-15T00:48:00.000-06:00

So while in Washington we decided to hit a few places up. Went to Northwest trek with a bunch of friends and Fam. I didn't get a lot of pictures, Logan was rather busy using his nose as a brake and pulling the emergency cord on the tram ride and throwing his hat out the window for the animals.

We also went to Pacific Science Center. The Boys had a blast with everything. They especially loved the Dinosaurs and bugs.

We also spent some time in the butterfly house. I was pretty sure that with fuchsia colored hair I'd get at least one butterfly on my head thinking it was a flower or something. Well that was not the case, Although Dave got a couple of free loaders on his back. It was pretty funny, one I blew on and it left pretty quick, but the other one would hardly get off for the employee with the proper tools to get it off. All the little kids were running around yelling 'Look at his BUTT!! he has a butterfly on his BUTT, Oh wow Look at his BUTT!!' Dave didn't really enjoy that part. Although I always knew his butt was pretty sweet.

Our 4th

2009-07-15T00:33:00.000-06:00

So we just got back from our massively long vacation and now I have a computer that I can get to all my pictures to post! So we went to Washington on June 26th because Brenin was scheduled for eye surgery on the 29th which got moved to the 6th then back to the 29th then finally back to the 6th. It was just for a clogged tear duct, they stuck a probe in there to stretch it out and now his eye can drain like normal! Yay! We are really excited, 3 1/2 years of a gooey eye were more than enough. Now his eye is clean all the time and he doesn't look like he's crying all the time (except when he really is.)

We had a fun 4th, went to the City of Auburn's celebration where the kids got to ride horsey's. Brenin told me afterwards that he didn't want a dog anymore, just a horse.

Had some yummy snacks!

After nap time we all headed up to hang with the cousins and friends and had an awesome dinner and then set off a lot of fireworks that the kids really enjoyed.

Chocolate Death

2009-06-17T21:47:00.000-06:00

These are some delicious cookies we like to call Chocolate Death. It all started one night when Ken came over to play some video games with Dave. Ken being the nice brother stopped at Top Foods to get some snackage for the late night of gaming ahead. He showed up with what we then dubbed 'Chocolate Death' They where chocolate brownie cookies with chocolate and white chocolate chunks in them and they were delicious! Top had a brief stint of adding walnuts (which luckily was short lived, as I HATE walnuts) Once we decided to move to Idaho we were faced with a bleak future; there are no Top Foods in Boise, therefore no chocolate death!!!! Fred Meyer's were too grainy/sugary and had no white chocolate in them.

So one day I was looking for an easy sugar cookie recipe I came across some recipe's for Cake Box Cookies. I was delighted because now I could attempt my own Chocolate Death! The sugar cookies came out great (in my opinion). So I picked up some Devil's food cake mix and dark chocolate chunks and Ghiradelli white chips. They turned out pretty good, an acceptable substitute. Although I have to say, unless I'm desparate I will never buy or eat Ghiradelli that stuff is waxy and leaves a nasty aftertaste.

After being in Boise for a bit I decided to try them again. This time I used nestle milk chocolate and white chips and I threw in the last of the dark chocolate chunks too. They turned out SOOOOOOO much better, YUM!

Here's the recipe and you can try them yourself!

1 box of french vanilla (for sugar cookies) or Devil's food cake

1/2 cup of oil (this was a tad too much for the sugar, but not quite enough for the chocolate)

2 eggs

Chocolate chips or whatever you think would taste good.

bake at 350 for 10-11 minutes (I did 9, because I always underbake my cookies so they get the gooey center.)

Make sure you bake them on a silicon baking sheet.

Next I'm going to use french vanilla and toss in white chips and macadamia nuts and make Dave's all time favorite cookies.

Man, now I'm hungry!

Goodbye Auburn! Hello Boise! (image heavy)

2009-06-15T07:26:00.000-06:00

So we're finally mostly settled and partially unpacked. And we are connected to the 'real' world once again with tv phone and internet! The move went well, We were able to get to Boise and get the van unloaded all in one day! Thanks to all the friends and family that helped, we really appreciate it!! Here are a few pics from the move.

Moving is hard work, sometimes you just gotta crash wherever your head hits first!

This is what we woke up to the morning of our move! It did have some redeeming qualities, there was a breakfast of Juice and pastries underneath it all. That and it was just funny. Thanks Dave and Maris! (Dave is planning on getting you back somehow though, be ready =-) )

There's nothing like enjoying a nice cold popsicle in your new backyard!

The following are a couple pics of the inside of the house so far (mostly for the benefit of my mom) I'll have better ones later, we're still unpacking and I haven't decorated yet.

The living room, Thanks for all the furniture Mom! (Dave remodeled their master bath for them and we got the couch and loveseat for payment (I like the trade off!) I also got the piano cause mom wanted to get rid of it and so far the Boys love to pull out the bench and just tinker on it.

This is the hallway off the living room, starting with the door on the left we have Laundry room, master bed, boys bed, bathroom and guest/play/office/whatever then the far right is the coat closet.

So here is my kitchen, So much bigger than the apartment, there are a few things I would like to point out, Left hand side, yes that is a pink Barbie phone! I'm so glad I get to use it (although it is now in the Master as its a fake rotary and wouldn't let me set up voice mail on it so we had to get a new one.) Right of the window is a stack of Chocolate death cookies! Pure Awesome, just ask Dave, and Ken except Ken hasn't partaken of Chocolate death 2.0 which is 100 times better than version 1.0 (And they were wonderful too!) And the crowning glory of my kitchen, The Fridge! its a bottom mount freezer with french doors (I never thought I would be this happy for an appliance.) If you're tall this is definetely the fridge for you!

The dining area, soon to be inundated with most of my french decor.

And the family room!! I am super happy to have both a living and family room! Makes less mess for me to clean oddly enough, The Boys already know that toys stay in the family room (soon to stay in the spare/play room once it's organized.)

Well that's it for now. Loud sounds of destruction are coming from The Boys room. It looks like for now we will be keeping our old cell numbers since we got a local landline, but if you want our new address/phone just email me at barbie9898 (at) aol (dot) com

Funny face

2009-05-24T22:46:00.000-06:00

Logan's taking to making lots of funny faces lately. this is what we usually get when he doesn't want whatever we're giving him. Be it food, toys, you name it.

He then whips out this look to make everything better. And I just can't get mad at a face like that!

New hair!

2009-05-24T15:43:00.000-06:00

I figured since we were moving next week to Idaho I would do something different with my hair. What do you think?

sleep

2009-04-24T01:05:00.000-06:00

No day is so bad it can't be fixed with a nap. ~Carrie Snow

Life lately has been revolving around sleep. Well for me the lack of it. But the kiddo's seem to be getting a lot of it and here are some pictures to prove it.

Logan's first night in his big boy bed.

Brenin and Logan passed out hard on the way home from Great Wolf Lodge and water park.

This was from today's nap time, I was peeking through the door because I had heard Logan get up, and apparently when he couldn't get Brenin to wake up he got bored and went back to sleep on the floor.

This last is from tonight. The boys tend to have a hard time going to sleep, it's much more fun to giggle and bounce on beds and play in the dark. I have to go in every so often and save the night light from utter destruction, and this is where I found Logan, curled up on Brenin's pillow. From the looks of things Brenin was quite alright with it too.

I may get frustrated some day's from needing to be the hall moniter, but I sure am glad the boys love each other as much as they do.

Superhero Logan

2009-03-21T13:19:00.000-06:00

I've decided that Logan is a super hero. He's Like Magneto except he can control anything electronic. Here are a few of his recent antics.
*Somehow changed all of Dave's ring tones to one really weird one.
*We were watching Cinderella at Grandma Nancy's and without changing the screen all of a sudden they were speaking in French, we look around and Logan is just standing there with a grin and the remote.
*He changed the menu language on our tv to spanish. It took 3 screens and at least 5 buttons to change it back to english.
*Grandma's new tv has a remote finder, which we didn't know about until Logan made the remote start barking.
*A few random button pushings and Logan disabled the speaker system that goes with the new tv and none of us know how to get it to work again.....
*I was taking pictures of the boys the other day and Logan wanted to see it, he bumped the camera with his head and all of the pictures showed up as thumbnails, which then took me 3 buttons and 2 screens to get back to.
*Logan can use our remote and go from watching tv to the input channel and turning on the xbox so he can watch a movie.

So you are all forwarned... Don't give Logan your electronics unless you want to spend some time trying to figure out how to get your original settings back.
Now he just needs a superhero name.... Electronico? hmmm.

Orange carrot cookie goodness.

2009-02-23T14:50:00.000-07:00

I know what you're thinking, ORANGE, CARROT COOKIES?!?!eleventy!!
Let me tell you they are some super yummy cookies, I know I've had lots of experience testing them and making sure!! They are nutritious and delicious!! It's a great sneaky way to make you're kids eat their veggies too. They won't eat them for dinner, well how abour for dessert? I know Logan can't get enough of them. Brenin would like them too, if he ate cookies, but he's weird and will only eat fig newtons and vanilla ice cream. I seriously can't get him to eat any other candy or cookie. (saves me trouble later on yay!)

anywho, here is the recipe from my mom! (thanks a bunch Mom!)

Orange-Carrot Cookies

cream together:

3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar

add:

1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup cooked/mashed carrots

sift together and add to the above mixture:

2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp. baking powder

Drop onto greased cookie sheet Bake at 375 degrees for about 12-15 minutes (depending on how hot your stove runs).

let cool on rack - then frost

Frosting:
grated orange peel
1 Tbsp juice from orange
1 cup powdered sugar

My mom tends to double the recipe and here is how.

doubling the recipe - except for the salt - only use 1/2 tsp
[ 1/4 tsp if only making the regular recipe]
Peel the carrots - at least 4 large ones if double use 6 carrots - cut them in chunks and bring to a boil in pan of water - enough to cover them. After they start to boil, turn heat down and let cook slowly until soft - then you can use a potato masher - they don't have to be a really fine mash. It takes at least 30 minutes for the carrots to soften. Drain the water and mash in the pan...you don't have to have totally dry carrots, there is usually some water in them as you mash.

Use a large soup spoon to get the dough the size I want and with another spoon slide it onto the cookie sheet - sprayed with cooking spray. When I remove to rack, I usually have paper towel on the rack since the frosting tends to slide off...saves a mess. (although I would probably use wax paper so I can reuse the icing on the other cookies)

For the frosting (doubled), just squeeze the largest orange and just add what I think is the amount of powdered sugar I will need - maybe 2 cups - and the orange peel - I use my grater with the large side but you could use your zester, it's just a finer peel and I like the larger peel.

And as Logan would say "DAH!!" (ta-da!)

yummy in your tummy, I think I need to go get some more!

Why me?

2009-02-14T12:01:00.000-07:00

So my life got about 10 times harder all within 2 minutes of waking up this morning.

We have a little routine every morning. I sleep as long as possible and the boys holler when they are sick of waiting for me to get up and get them. Brenin has always made me laugh, we put him in a toddler bed when he was about 16 months old in preparation for Logan. Ever since then he wont really get out of bed unless we open the door and tell him he can get up. I've really really really enjoyed this. (it really cuts down on what I have to clean when he has an exploding diaper).

He will occasionally hop out of bed grab a toy then run right back and get in and do it as fast as possible so that he wont get caught or something.

Just this week Dave and I were mentioning that we should probably switch Logan to a bed since he is 18 months old now. I've been dreading this, because Logan is not much like Brenin, he hates to be contained.

So on to this morning, Brenin starts hollering and sounds a bit more upset than usual. I bury my head deeper in the pillows and let Dave deal with whatever the fall out might be (I'm so glad I have a husband willing to do this for me!!)

He comes back after a few minutes and we have the following convo.
D: We have a problem.
L: Uh oh (great lots of poop to clean up)
D: I got Brenin up but not Logan.
L: huh? is he alright? (they had fevers the night before and I figured he wasn't feeling well)
D: he's fine, he wasn't in his crib.
L: WHAT? where was he?
D: on the floor playing with toys.
L: Where was Brenin?
D: In his bed, upset that Logan was playing with toys.

And so now Logan can climb out of his crib. I have to give him props though, he didn't get hurt and did it quietly enough not to wake up anyone until he got to the toys.

I'm just glad that Brenin doesn't try and open his door and that Logan can't reach the knob yet. So they are at least contained in the bedroom, for now.

Recommendations

2009-02-04T10:18:00.000-07:00

So for my 30th birthday (thats just crazy) which luckily isn't for a few more years, I will be getting a sewing machine. So I am now in the process of searching for the one I want so that sales and great deals can be partaken of. I was just wondering if anyone has a recommendation on a good one. I want to quilt (I've pieced a quilt before, but haven't finished one myself) I also want to make clothing for my kids etc. I've seen in the past some that could do embroidery on them and that looked cool, since I have no experience with that myself. So any tips or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks =-)

My week.

2009-01-30T22:33:00.000-07:00

So this week I have been making a few gifts for nieces and nephew. Just thought I would share.
The monster hat idea came from here and here

The hats took about 20 mins each. didn't need a pattern I just used a knit hat I made to estimate the size I would need. Whipped it along the sewing machine and sewed some felt with buttons for the eyes. And sparkly white stiff felt for the teeth.

What little girl doesn't love to dress up? I used my google-foo and found this.

The color on mine is slightly harder to see because I used two colors on each. The top is purple with shimmery white and the bottom is pink with shimmery gray. They took a total of an hour and half and cutting took up most of the time.

My house may not be as clean as it should this week but I think I've been pretty productive otherwise.

Handmade toys

2009-01-23T15:53:00.000-07:00

Public service announcement!

So come February 9th I believe, there is a new law going into effect for all products geared towards children under the age of 12. This is from all of the contaminated toys coming from overseas. Whats bad about this law is it will pretty much put out of business anyone who sells on etsy or makes their own products to sell for kids. Because it will require that all items be tested for lead. Which can apparently run $400-$1000 per test. Go to this website, they can explain it much better than I. http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/ They have a section where you can sign their petition and a form letter to send to your congressman and representatives(they also have a link that puts you directly on their websites so all you have to do is copy and paste), in order to get a clause in the law to exempt micro businesses from the expensive lead testing.

Thanks for listening, this ends your public service announcement.

Why teaching your kids can be a bad thing.

2009-01-11T16:12:00.000-07:00

So Friday we went and picked up Daddy at the airport after his two week stint in Boston. Then we went to dinner at Zoopa's. On the way there we were singing songs witht the boys. We decide to sing the alphabet song and Brenin was doing great Repeating everything back, a b c... s t u (ME!!! ME!!!!) So we tried singing it again and it went s t ME! v w ... Apparently Brenin is now a letter in the alphabet.

After dinner we decided it would be good to run the boys around before bed so we went to target. We were looking at paintings and picture frames when Dave came across a painting of the planetary system (you can guess where this is going.) Brenin was repeating all the names and doing a good job until, 'uranus' (in the loudest voice possible of course) ' MY ANUS!' 'no no no ur uranus' 'MY ANUS MY ANUS' Dave and I turn bright red and book it for the toy section as quickly as possible.

So we finally got home, it was dark the moon was out and full. Brenin loves the moon and is always asking 'where'd moon go?' Generally it hides behind the clouds. But that night it was very bright and Brenin was quite happy, He started doing his half jumpy reaching thing to try and grab the moon. Then he told Dave 'can't reach' Dave tried to get it for him but alas, he couldn't reach it either. So Brenin looks at Dave and says 'Need big ladder'. Sorry buddy but I don't think we'll be finding one tall enough any time soon.

And may all your Christmases be BRIGHT

2008-12-29T14:27:00.000-07:00

I will freely admit that I am probably insane and slightly a pyro. We have a slightly odd tradition for when we get enough snow to prevent the burning of the yard. I've never been one to eat my gingerbread house, I mean really it's been sitting on the table for at least a week... Thats just gross. So how do we dispose of it? soak it in rubbing alcohol and lighter fluid. Then torch the sucker down!
Although this year we may have gone slightly over board, because we did end up melting through the snow and burning a spot in the yard =-) But it sure was fun!

Those flames were at least 3 feet high!

Christmas at the Christensens

2008-12-29T14:20:00.000-07:00

Christmas at my folks place was nice and relaxing for the most part (other than the 6 baths and outfit changes of little boys) Got to spend time relaxing with Dad and chillin with cousins and Uncle Nate even tought Logan how to play guitar a little. (I think we may have a future musician on our hands).

Merry Christmas

2008-12-29T14:11:00.000-07:00

The boys weren't feeling so hot Christmas morning, I thought we had gotten food poisoning from Hot dog on a stick because Dave didn't eat there and he was the only one sick. But it turns out it was a bug cause we got pretty much all our family sick! Sorry guys!

Logan was more excited to finally be able to touch the Christmas tree and ornaments than he was about there being presents under it for him.

But he worked up some energy for the gifts after a little bit!

This is pretty much the most excitment Brenin could muster for much of anything. I don't blame him because about 20 seconds after this picture was taken he threw up again.

Woot!

2008-12-20T13:42:00.001-07:00

Our apartment complex had a Holiday decorating contest that ended yesterday. And We won! It started on the 12th and I thought it would be a shoe in to win because our neighbors were the only others ones to really decorate in the whole complex. There were a couple wrapped windows but that was it. Apparently everyone figured they would wait til yesterday afternoon so no one could out stump them. I had a look around and saw a couple light wrapped stairwells, someone wrapped their shed door to look like a present and hung snowflakes on their deck. Someone else did a bunch of lights with a blow up Sponge bob. Apparently it was between me and them. Mine were neater and matched better =-) And I have to pat myself on the back and say I wrapped my door pretty well (gloat gloat gloat) So we won! and it was actually a cool prize $50 g/c to Fred Meyers. so YAY! TAKE THAT SPONGE BOB!

2008-12-19T00:47:00.000-07:00

We went and played in the snow today, because Mommy was going to go insane cooped up much longer! Boys had a blast! Logan didn't want to come back in he kept grunting and squirming when I picked him up to go inside. Brenin on the other hand told my it was 'too cold mommy'.

Trail Blaizers

Not that tasty!

Snow Day!

2008-12-19T00:44:00.000-07:00

We got snow, not a lot but enough to blanket everything.