Thank You Perspective!

Now if only they can make something for The Office and Facebook!

More than meets the eye.

Yesterday, we were getting ready for dinner when the power went out and we hear three loud booms. I stuck my head out and heard that the booms were coming from up the street. We all came out of the house and visited with the neighbors. I concluded that it was a transformer and 30-40 minutes later the power was back on. When I picked James up from work I told him about our exciting afternoon, then Thomas chimed in: "I am going to tell Jorge at school it was a transformer. He likes Transformers. He wears a Transformers t-shirt sometimes and he will think that is neat."

I LOVE having a little boy!!

Hair for Locks of Love

I just donated my hair to Locks of Love. I had been growing my hair out for several months and it was getting unmanageably long. It was fun getting it all chopped off today. It turns out that although there are rules to donating to Locks of Love, they are not as stringent as I once thought. I took pictures of the whole process (well, the cutting part of it).

Here is the before. My hair hit about the middle of my back.

And the chopping began. She was about to pull out a chainsaw to cut through it all.

The lovely ponytail. I hope it can help another little girl.

My final short cut. I was glad that it wasn't as short as I thought it would be.

I love having the freedom of short hair. It feels so great. So, if you have the patience, I recommend donating a pony tail. It was great fun. As a side note, you would think I would have donated my hair once we moved to Texas at the hottest part of the year. Oh and I did get a new hair dryer and I LOVE it!

Sad, So Sad!

I had to give a talk in church today. I was really nervous so naturally I woke up insanely early. I figured that since I couldn't sleep I would blow dry my hair straight. My hair is super long, long enough that...well, it's long. So I was half way through drying my hair when the unthinkable happened. My hair dryer was slipping into the sink, so I stopped it and in doing so, knocked it into the TOILET!!!! I hurried and unplugged it and tried to shake out the water. It was gone, my wonderful hair dryer was dying, and quick. I just stood there in horror as my favorite bathroom appliance coughed, sputtered and then died(and smelled like melting plastic). James didn't believe me when I told him how sad I was. How many things do you have from 10th grade and still use it? This was my last. Oh how I will miss this dear, dear friend!!!!! So I am now in the market for a new hair dryer. Any suggestions? I am getting a new hair cut at the end of this week and I have to have a new hair dryer before then. Sad, so sad.

On My Wishlist.

Here is a little gem of a website that I stumbled upon and there are so many cute things. The site is called 2 Little Mammas. I love the baby bundle, it sounds so perfect for my diaper bag. Also, I really like the CARe Seat. I wish we had that for our little Geo. Instead we were scrubbing the car about every six months. And everything is so cute. There are also tutus, lunch bags and another favorite-hair accessories. So if you have some time check it out.

Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Costume Set GIVEAWAY!!!!

These dresses are so adorable how could I not try and win them? This is a MUST SEE!!!! Believe me. Enjoy. Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Costume Set GIVEAWAY!!!!

It starts early...

So we have this tradition at family night. Right after we discuss all the things we are doing in the week we have Thomas stand and report about how school is going. Lucy also has to report about her day/week. We have started recording them because we hear the funniest things in their reports. Here is a little excerpt of Lucy's report.

Luckily the family night lesson was about babies and so we were able to answer her question and transition into the lesson pretty smoothly. Anyway, we love our kids so much and we just love doing family night. The kids look forward to it and they also like having responsibilities in F.H.E.

I think the only draw back (if you can call it a draw back) is that I try to make new and different desserts for the treat. The problem is that we have so many leftovers that it turns out to be my Tuesday morning breakfast. Like, last night I made these pumpkin bars, oh they are so good. I highly recommend them, just make sure you have lots of people to help you eat them.

Rainbow Cupcakes

Since Thomas' first birthday I have been excited about taking cupcakes into school. This year I was finally able to do it. I wanted to make it special, so I did a bit of research. I first got this idea from a theme on iGoogle. I thought, "what in the world are rainbow cupcakes?" So I then did a search for them, apparently they are pretty popular. The first site I stopped at was Our Best Bites and her pictures were beautiful! I then checked with James to make sure that rainbow cupcakes were boyish enough. Once I got the okay I went to baking. I tried to take as many pictures as I could-with my new camera it was really fun. I love how pretty these turned out, and they went over well with all of the 4/5 year olds in Thomas'' class. (and they tasted great too!)

Proof!

I don't know how she did it but my sister-in-law got Dylan to laugh. This video was taken about 2 weeks ago and ever since I have tried my darnedest to make him laugh. I have gotten some good smiles but yet to get a giggle. I am glad I have the video as proof otherwise I wouldn't believe he does laugh. Well, enjoy! (Dylan doesn't really start laughing until about 30 seconds into the clip.)

I am so Cool, not really.

I just had a great time yesterday at the Jason Mraz concert. It was an outdoor concert and lots of fun. We couldn't find a baby sitter so the kids ended up coming with us. And other than staying up late, they had a great time too. The kids danced on the lawn in front of us and they were more entertaining than the concert (although I am a bit partial to them). Dylan SLEPT through it! If you can believe it, I worried a bit about his hearing but it's fine.

Anyway, back to the concert, lots of fun. Jason Mraz is a great performer and really good music. The music is kinda jazzy/blues, reggae, rock, a little rap, and folk-if that makes any sense. He is most famously know for "I'm Yours," which is a really good song. I posted it below, Enjoy.

Oh, When we came home I called my sister in Las Vegas to tell her how cool I was that I went to a "hip" concert. She had to point out that if I have to say that then I am not cool. Ouch!

A Very Merry Birthday!

This posting is to help my friend, Sarah, celebrate a very special birthday. We have been friends since we were in diapers.

My parents moved to Kentucky when I was about a year old

and we met Sarah's family there.

We were great friends as little children, but her family moved to Connecticut and we moved to California.

We feebly tried to keep in touch through snail mail (back then that was all that existed) but being a kid I wasn't very good at it.

Then, when I was eleven years old my parents told me we were moving to Connecticut-3 miles from Sarah's house. I am so lucky that she was there for me in my teenage years.

We never had many classes together but we had a locker next to each other. Also, it was great having another LDS friend in high school. There weren't many of us Mormons in school. Other than my family, Sarah has known me longer than anyone else and we have been through it all together.

We got married within three months of each other and we each had baby boys four months apart from each other.

Sarah, have a very happy birthday and don't let numbers bother you, you are only as young as you feel! I am glad you are going through "this birthday" before me, let me know how it goes. Best Wishes!

Need an idea for Dinner tonight?

This recipe is my own invention and it went over very well with the little critics.

Thomas: "Mama, this is the best chicken I have ever had."

Lucy: "I love it, I mean, I like it." (which is good enough for me, she ate it.)

It's really simple to make and I made it with all things I had on hand. Here it is:

Kitchen Sink Chicken

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts

1 small bag of bacon bits (real bacon) or 6-8 slices of bacon, cooked and chopped
1 onion, sauteed
2 slices of ham, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 cup of cheddar cheese, shredded
1 tsp chopped garlic
2 Tbsp corn starch
pepper to taste

Directions:
Place the chicken in a baking dish and set aside. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and make sure the corn starch evenly coats everything. Place the mixture over the chicken. Place dish in the oven and bake at 350* for about an hour or until the chicken is no longer pink.

That is it. I like it served over mashed potatoes with a side of veggies. The next time I think I am going to add fresh mushrooms to the mix. We like it, and the next time we have guests I am making it for them. So if you try it, tell me what you think.

A shout out on Grandparents Day!

Today is Grandparents day and in celebration of said day Lucy dressed up as a "grand-mud-er."

We love our grandparents! Enjoy!

I love Technology!

We got our new camera in the mail and I LOVE IT! Our last camera was pushing 6 years old and these days that is geriatric. How amazing to have a camera that actually takes the picture when you push the button-instead of a 3 second delay. The camera is so fast and the pictures are so clear. When we got our first digital camera we would take a ton of pictures to make sure at least one turned out. Now we don't need to take so many picture because almost every shot turns out great. We just need to find a place to store all of them. So as I get to know the new features and the photo editing software, I will share the pictures with you. Here is a picture of my smiley boy. He is the most pleasant baby ever. What a joy, my cup runneth over.

How to be a Good Babysitter.

It has finally happened—we found a babysitter. Not just a teenager to come over and hang out with the kids but a good, engaging babysitter. We had a hard time finding the right sitter after we lost our favorite to a new job in Oshkosh. (We miss you Sharon!) Then the move to Texas really left us all alone in the babysitting hunt. We tried a few but no one really felt right, until we found the girl across the street. I have compiled a list of qualities that we like in a good sitter. The sitters that didn’t make the cut were lacking in one or more of these areas.

Like Children and babies—a surprising amount of people will babysit your children and not even show a remote amount of interest in children, especially your children. Parents spend there lives taking care of their children. They think their children are the cutest, funniest, smartest and all around best kids in the ENTIRE WORLD (no joke). When a person doesn’t show interest in the best this world has to offer, parents notice.

Be friendly and nice to children—Parents think their children are smart, but children are smarter than their parents think. A child can tell when you are nice and when you are not. Plus, golden rule here, this should be a no brainer.

Be enthusiastic and act like you want to be there—this kind of goes with the first two, don’t look at it as just a job. For the kids it is a fun time when Mom and Dad are away, so try to make it as such. Bring a game or activity that the kids have never played.

Arrive early—unless the parents are picking you up, then be ready to go when they come. If you have an anxious mom who wants to go over a few last minute details, you will need time. Plus, the parents want to enjoy their date/meeting/night out with out worrying about being late.

Clean up messes, games, dishes etc.—generally speaking parents try to clean up before a sitter comes over, sometimes working all day to make the house presentable. So when the parents come home from their night out, they would like to have the house in about the same condition. (to win really big points, do the dishes, they REALLY like it)

Play with the kids, don’t just watch a movie—it’s not everyday that the kids have someone come over to the house to play with them. And movies are something that parent use to try and get the kids out of the kitchen while dinner is being made. It can be a good distraction but the playroom is not going to play all by itself.

Stick to the parents schedule, somewhat—parents give you a schedule for a reason, if they say the kids can’t stay up, they really can’t. But that doesn’t mean put them to bed an hour early either. The parents have to deal with the children in the morning and bedtime is everything. Plus, children thrive on routine, and when there is a new person putting them to bed, the routine is the only thing that is the same, kids like that stability.

Last but certainly not least…Be honest—you may think that the parents only want to hear good things about the evening, but they don’t. They would rather hear the truth about if the baby cried inconsolably for an hour than “he was a little sad, but he calmed down.” Or they want to hear, “no, Lucy didn’t eat any dinner” (that must be why she is up at 2 a.m. crying that she wants something to eat) instead of “dinner was fine.” With all lies they are pretty obvious and parents know their kids, and kids will let their parents know how things went, one way or another. So it just looks bad on the sitter if they lie.

I know this looks like a long list but we have had so many not so great experiences with sitters that it’s so refreshing to FINALLY have one we like. Thank Heavens!

What do you think?

I have been playing around with many of the blogspot settings and got some help from CBOTB. Do you like it? I love some of your blogs that are so cute and scrapbook like-I figured I should jump aboard. I know it always takes me a while to accept the inevitable but I do eventually. And Lucy will be sad that she is no longer featured on the blog but I will make up for it by posting more pictures. So please give me your imput. Thanks!

Hooked on a Feeling

It doesn't matter what kind of mood I am in when I hear this song, because it always makes me smile. And who better to bring it to you than the Hoff. I love the part when he starts to fly (flap his arms.) Bluescreens (head shaking in shame). So I give you the Hoff to start your labor day celebrations!

Big News from Texas!!!!

When we moved to Texas two months ago we thought the water tasted a bit funny. It was drinkable but just a little after taste. We got use to it and thought nothing of it. Well a few days ago every time the water was turned on I could smell it, and it tasted GROSS. I complained about it to James and he said that it tasted and smelled fine. I thought I was going crazy. Even when we went out to eat I could smell and taste that swampy flavor. I was starting to feel sick to my stomach. Then I thought, "well if James can't taste it and the kids don't care, maybe I have changed." When I am pregnant I have a heightened sense of taste and smell maybe that was it. So guess what....

A water main broke in town and made the water have a strange odor and flavor. If you boil the water it goes away but the water is still safe to drink without boiling. I am not crazy and I am not pregnant. Big relief!!!!!

Oh and the big news is that James and I have the same callings here in Texas that we did in Chadron. I am doing the program and newsletter and James is first counselor in the Elders Quorum.

So long Dear Friend!

Friday night at 4 p.m. we said goodbye to a dear friend-our house.

Our home in Chadron treated us well and was perfect for us. It was the first home we ever bought and we will miss it terribly. We bought the house the same week that Lucy was born. In the time we spent in that home we went through the life challenges of health (an appendix, broken leg, and countless colds), family (visits with grandparents, a miscarriage, and a new baby), and weather (hailstorms, tornadoes and wildfires).

We started our chocolate parties in this home and cultivated our first garden. We dealt with burst pipes, and routine home repairs and even upgraded the dishwasher, remodeled a bathroom and did some demolition. We will truly miss our large kitchen, square footage, fully wired entertainment room, cool basement

and FABULOUS backyard.

We hope that the new owners can love the house as much a we did. We hope that they will be able to enjoy the grapes, elderberries and the apples, too. We will miss you home!

The Tag Blanket-reinvented

I don't know what compelled me to make a tag quilt but I wanted to make one. This one is a bit different. I wanted to make something that was interesting and had lots of texture. This is super soft and puppy themed. I had to pry it out of Dylan's hands just to take the picture, he loves it so much—just what I was hoping. I made it with clear thread (to hide mistakes) and it proved more difficult than I thought it would be. The supplies cost about $7.50, but in the process of making it I broke a sewing machine needle. So that is what? $2.50? Then, when I took pictures, I broke our 6 year-old camera (at least I got the pictures before the camera broke). So, I would say this little tag blanket cost us about 100+ dollars. With a price tag like that I am glad Dylan likes it so much.