Say hello to my little friend...

So, I was vacuuming the other day and my vacuum just stopped mid section. I thought it was maybe the breaker, so I tried another outlet, but to make me sad... it died. Luckily we bought it at Wal Mart and they will return almost anything( we exchanged 2 lawnmowers last summer with gas in them)... anyway... we have only had it a few months so I still have the box in the garage. So, I went out to get the said box and noticed that there were other boxes in that box. So, I removed the boxes and heard something scurry around, I peered down into the deep box and saw a little beety eyed MOUSE looking up at me!!! I screamed and ran in the house trying not to puke!!! Now, Jonathan has been telling me that there has been a mouse in our garage and I always told him that I would just be happy as a peach to never see that ugly thing!!! So, I called up Jonathan and told him about my little experience and asked him, "How am I going to take back the vacuum in the box with this little creature inside it?" I was not about to do anything with it myself. Luckily he was on his way home from work and told me to put a big box on top and put something heavy on top of it so that it couldn't push the box off. *** What I don't understand is, how did he get in and not be able to get out... for instance, in our basement window well one day while I was cleaning down there, I noticed a little fuzzy verman scaling my window(from the outside), and so I figured they had little sticky cups on their feet or something.*** Anyway... after talking myself out of going and getting a big rock and smashing the poor thing, I waited for Jonathan to go and get one of those sticky mouse traps fromt the store. We...or I guess I should say HE put a few in there in hopes of the little guy running for cover and get caught on one. Well, he did and it was sad, he was squirrming around trying to get off of it. Jonathan then got a glove on, and a shovel and stuck the sticky thing to the shovel and I held a grocery sack open for him to put it in. As he was putting it in, the mouse did a little last jig for his life and scared the crap out of me, I threw the bag into the garbage... not thinking, just glad to not be holding it. Jonathan grabbed the bag, tied it shut, and as the bag was moving put it into another full garbage bag and tied that one shut. EWWW!!! I felt like I had things crawling on me all night long. I guess that is what we get for living in a house that stands on what used to be his little home. But... EWWW gross!!! We had to dump out the box, for he had been in there a long time I think, because there was lots of "droppings". When we looked in the box to make sure we had gotten everything out, we noticed that he had been trying to eat his way out of the box. Now looking back at it, I feel bad for the little guy, but I tell ya... I was freaked out beyond belief!! We now have a few more traps out in case there is a little mouse family living in our garage.

Another yummy recipe to try...

I am glad that Tiffany made that cake and loved it, now here is another recipe for you all to try. Super easy, super yummy. I am a huge cookie nut! I love peanut butter cookies almost the best. I also like homemade oreo's, and this recipe is kind-of a mix between the two. I made these for my Girls Night Out that I am having tomorrow.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Criss-cross Cookies

1 pkg. (2-layer size) devil's food cake mix ( i think it would work with any chocolate cake mix)
4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg

PREHEAT oven to 375ºF. Place all ingredients in large bowl. Be sure to put the cake mix in first, otherwise the cream cheese and peanut butter don't incorporate as well. Beat with electric mixer on low speed 2 min. Beat on medium speed an additional 2 min. or until well blended.
SHAPE into 1-inch balls. I like using my little cookie scoop. Place, 2 inches apart, on baking sheets. Flatten each ball, in criss-cross pattern, with tines of fork dipped in sugar.
BAKE 7 to 8 min. or until edges of cookies are set. Cool 2 min. on baking sheets. Remove to a container with a lid. This way they stay nice and soft and moist.

If you try it, let me know... I would love to hear your comments. Both my kids liked these, Beene doesn't usually like chocolate things, or peanut butter things, but she LOVED these!!!

ENJOY!!!

A not so "Hoppy" Easter...

So, our Easter weekend started out great. On Saturday we had our annual family easter egg coloring party at my mom's. Almost all of the grandkids were there, except our boys, but there were 11 kids there, ranging in age 2-18. We boiled 10 dozen eggs, and only lost like 8 all together with cracks. My kids had a blast. Each year one of the older cousins helps them with their egg's and this year, Beene picked her cousin Rachael to help her. She picked her days before hand. Julles picked Abby to help her, and they both did a fantastic job on their eggs. This year however, I brought the eggs home in a cooler, because last year the two hour drive home was quite stinky with the boiled eggs in the back of the car. This year was stink free. The kids had such a great time with the cousins that they fell asleep before we even got on the freeway. My mom lives right off the exit, so it didn't take long. They were so excited for the Easter Bunny to come, and Beene is very definant that the Easter Bunny is a girl. They went to bed, and wouldn't go to sleep and so I told them that the EB couldn't come unless they were asleep. That finally worked and they were asleep in minutes.

This is where our Easter starts to go downhill... Beenie woke up at 3:30 throwing up. Then again at 4:15, and again at 6:00. Julles woke up at 4:00 with a leaky diariah diaper, and again at 5:00, then again at 8:00. While I was changing Julles 8 o'clock diaper, Beene woke up and said, "I am sick of this sleeping, mom", and so it was time to get Daddy to go and do Easter Baskets. I went and woke Jonathan up and Julles started crying in the hall, and I looked and she was throwing up. We did the basket thing, and as soon as that was over, Beene threw up again!!! I changed probably 20 diapers yesterday and held heads at the toilet atleast 15 times. We all stayed in our jammies all day and didn't take a single picture. So, I am going to do a photo shoot today if they are feeling up to it. On top of all of this, I have a bladder infection that put a slight damper on my weekend as well. It was Stake Conference yesterday, so the girls got to wear their cute dresses last week, and so that wasn't a bad thing for them. I used to love to wear my Easter Dress to church on Easter Sunday. It was funny because when we got our decorations at the store this year, we bought the plastic eggs, and some plastic egg carrots, and Beene was shocked that there, in her basket were the carrot egg things that we had bought. She said, "MOM, the Easter Bunny found our carrots, and used them!!!" I am glad that she didn't try to figure that out anymore than she did. She also thought it was very cool that the EB had left candy bags for the boys to have, because they got baskets at their mom's house. She was sad however that when you are a Grandma and a Grandpa, the EB doesn't come to your house. My mom told her he didn't come to her house, and she said, "Oh, that is because you don't have children at your house Grandma!" Such a smart girl!!!

So, they couldn't eat any of their candy until later last night, and that was hard for them. However, they did get cute bunnies and "special" lipgloss and chapstick, and silly putty that they had a blast with!! The plastic eggs as always were a huge hit.

I hope you all had a fabulous day and weren't sick like us!

Super Yummy Cake Recipe

I made a yummy cake tonight for our Relief Society Birthday Party and thought I would share it with you all...

Chocolate-Covered Oreo Cookie Cake

1 pkg. chocolate cake mix
4 squares Semi-Sweet Baking chocolate
1/4 c. butter, cut up
1- 8oz. pkg cream cheese, softened
1/2 c. sugar
2 c. Cool Whip, thawed
12 Oreo Cookies, coarsely crushed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare and bake the cake as directed on box in two 9 inch round baking pans. Cool 5 minutes; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire racks

Microwave chocolate and butter in small microwaveable bowl on HIGH for 2 min. or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is melted completely. Cool 5 min.

Beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Gently stir in whipped topping and crushed cookes. Place 1 cake layer, top side down, on serving plate. Spread top of layer evenly with cream cheese mixture. (it will be thick) Cover with remaining cake layer, top side up. Spoon chocolate glaze over top of cake. Let stand until set. Store in refrigerator.

Makes 16 servings

I wish that I would have taken a picture of it before I took it tonight. I was hoping to bring some home, but the only thing that was left was the chocolate that drizzled off the top and a few crumbs. So, it goes fast! You should try it!!! Very tasty!! It even looks pretty!

cute girls night out box...

So, here is what we are going to be making for my monthly girls night out. I am so excited. It is going to be a blast. There are going to be 9 of us making this cute thing. These aren't the exact color's we will be doing, but you get the idea. My friend Amy is going to make it beautiful with all her fun little touches that she does. Stamping, ribbons and other fun accessories. I will take a pic of mine when it is finished and show you all how it turned out!!!

I love these nights and can't wait for this one coming up!

I hope you all are having a lovely day!

It's St. Patricks Day!!!

How funny was it this morning when Beene was laying on the couch still kind of asleep and I said, "Happy St. Patricks Day my sweet girl!" and she said, "mom, it's not green day yet" and I told her it was today! She woke right up and starting wahooing and jumping up and down. Then she gave me a leg hug and said, "thanks for letting it be green day today!" How cute!

Today, Beene was very adiment that she wear a certain outfit. She got this blue skirt from Wal-Mart that has butterflies and flowers on it that she wears a cute pink shirt with, and that is what she wanted to wear for "green day". I told her that it didn't have any green in it, and she frustratedly said, "yes mom, it does... right here!" and she pointed to the stems and leaves on the flowers! She has been talking about wearing this outfit for days! So, she obviously made sure it had green in it. She was very excited to go to school today because they were going to have Leprochon's visit and do some irish dancing! She got a sticker because she "tried" dancing with the teacher. They talked about trying today and that it brings you good luck to try things before you say you can't do them. She was so excited she was practically dragging me out the door to go this morning.

I love that she get's so excited for holidays, even the ones you don't get anything for. Now, she says we can have Easter! But, she was mad at me this morning because we have had Easter decorations up for a week now, and she wanted green day decorations for today! Sorry Kiddo!! We are going to do our tradition of making "holiday" cookies. We make sugar cookies for every holiday. So far, there have been cookies made every month. Lets see if I can get away with only eating one or two, usually that doesn't happen, but we'll see!!!

Julles was excited to wear her cute green and pink outfit today. It has capri pants and even though there is still snow on the ground here, she says she's not cold!! I am going to take a pic of them and our cookies later, but wanted to post about our "green day" so far!!!

Lets take it back... way back!!!

(This is my flashback picture... this was right after graduation, on our senior trip to Cali.)

I saw this post on Kris' blog and thought it was fun. So, here goes my info:

What television show or movie did you want to be in when you were little? I always wanted to be on Day's of our lives, or Saved by the bell, or Full House. Although... when I was little little, I thought I was in a tv show, that the camera's were in our light's and that the people in China watched us daily. I guess it was a version of Reality TV before it ever existed!

Most embarrassing moment your friends will never let die? Oh where do I begin... I have so many. But, I would probably say the most embarassing moment that sticks out the most would be at a stag dance in 10th grade. I was looking for this boy that I thought was HOT, and me and my friends were all looking for him. Annika was up on the bleachers seeing if the aerial view would help. She started yelling for me to come up to her. So, looking cute in my new outfit and new platform shoes (I know... I know) went running up the bleachers. Now, as I am running to her, my heal of my shoe gets stuck on the lip of the bleacher and I go crashing down on my face. Yes, sad I know! Then, I got up and looked to the side of me and noticed that the guy I had been looking for the entire time was right next to me. Oi!!!

Your proudest moment or accomplishment from high school? My junior year grades... I got my first 3. something. I also was the FBLA Club President.

What adult did you have a crush on? oh let see... Johnny Depp, Bruce Willis, and Harrison Ford. Which I still would not be sad to get noticed by them :)

What habit or personality trait do you have of your mother or father that you swore you would never do? Oh boy... I, like my sister didn't do any of those things until I had kids. One of the things I said just the other day... "When you are a parent you will understand!" and hmmm.... "in a little while" and "use your big girl eyes and see if you can find it yourself". The list is endless...

What did you want to change your name to when you were little? Megan. I always wanted that to be my name. That was always my name when I played house and always what I named my Barbies that I was playing with at the time. I liked Michelle too!

Who was your first kiss? Kenny Sperry, not a pleasant one either. He tried to french kiss me and I was so nervous that I almost threw up in his mouth! Yuck!!!

What are 3 adjectives that someone from high school or middle school would use to describe you? happy, friendly, and hyper

What hairstyle, clothes, or other accessories did you rock back in the day when it was cool? I did the skater look for a while, then I did the reall preppy look as well. I wore my hair to my shoulders in jr. high and in high school I cut it to my chin. I wore a lot of jeans and plaid shirts. I also loved rings. I had one on each finger.

What job did you want to do when you 'grew up'? I wanted to be a teacher, a hair stylist, and a massage therapist. I also tossed the idea of being the HR director for Marriot Hotels for a short while in my senior year. But, I would have had to work my way up the ladder and when you work in a hotel, you have to work holidays and such. Not my cup of tea!

What made you laugh harder than you have ever laughed before? One night my friend Kim and her mom and sister and I snuck to a friends house to deliver a big Thanksgiving dinner in the dark. The night started off pretty bad... we hit a cat on the way over there, and then when we got there, we were going to cross the lawn to the front door, and they had it roped off and it was dark and we couldn't see it, so we (I) fell and dropped what I was carrying. Then to top it off, we started laughing and my friends mom couldn't stop and we were laughing so hard and trying to be so quiet, we all almost peed our pants. Also, my brother in law has a laugh that is contagious and anytime he laughs, we all start laughing and then he starts "he he heing" but really loud and high pitched. So, it is always a belly acher when he is around us.

Favorite memories of hanging out with your best friends? cruising main, classic skating, going to Chump concerts and just talking.

What's the most trouble you have ever gotten in with your parents? I signed thier signature on a grade report (because it wasn't a good one) and forgot to turn it in and they found it. Oh I saw the wrath that day!

What was your 5 year plan when you had to write it out in high school? college, work, move to La Jolla Beach with Randy, Mike and Kevin and Kim and live in a beach house, and live the single fun life for a while and then get married. Of course... we'd marry different people than Randy, Kevin and Mike because they were more like brothas!!

And last but not least...What is your 5 year plan now? spend lots of time with my girls and the boys, get a new car, makes lots of friends and as always... get filthy rich (I can dream, can't I)

i just thought this was fun, it made me think and laugh. Thanks Kris for putting this on your blog!! Feel free to do this as well, it makes you go wayyyy back! High School was 10 years ago! WOW!! Wierd!

LEGO FUN!!!

Well, this weekend was absolutely grand. It felt like it went for ever, which is always good when you don't see your husband so much in the week. Saturday, Jason and Jeremy were over and Jason, as always, got bored. So, he and Jonathan went downstairs and whipped out ONE of our containers of Lego's. Oh My, I didn't remember how many lego's we actually have. At first they were just picking out of the big ol' box, then it was getting frusterating trying to find things in a limited space of looking. So, we decided to dump them out on the floor. The kids were in heaven. Beene was crawling over the giant pile and Julles was loving the mess as well. Then, they started walking on the pile. Watching that made my feet hurt horribly. I step on one and I am whimpering, let alone a big pile. We left them out on the floor overnight so that they could play with them on Sunday. It was really hard to go to bed with this giant mess all over my family room, but it was fun to look through the pile. These pictures don't give the pile justice, but it will give you an idea of what we played in.

Yesterday, we found some lego's that Jonathan used to play with when he was little. He used to tell me that he still had the lego people that he used to have to make, because "way back then" they didn't actually have lego people, and I used to just think it was a legend, but... we found all 5 of them last night. He had three american and 2 japanese ones. He would take a little block and make eyes, nose and a smile on it and then have a red shirt and blue pants and black shoes. It was fun to see all the history in the box. Also, Jonathan can remember what set's some things went to, and when he got them. Some of the lego's were so old, they were off colored and had teeth marks on them from him pulling them apart with his teeth. Some of the white ones had white out on them to cover up the dings and such. It was well worth the giant mess and the lack of sleep on Saturday night because I was fretting over this pile! We also found the first lego people heads and hair. They are funny looking, they are big and round. We weren't able to find the bodies in that box, so we went through another... yes dumped it out as well. We dumped out probably half of our lego's that we own, and kept thinking about how much money we could make on Ebay. We took out all the people and put them into a box, and figured we could make an easy grand on that box of people. WOW!!!

Well, I had a fun weekend, and it was wierd to have Jonathan go to work this morning and to start our week. But, with how lucky we were to have time together all weekend long. I hope you all had a fabulous weekend as well!!!

Was I that picky???

Can I just tell you how hard it is to dress my three year old on a daily basis? My mom gave Beene some polor fleece pants for Christmas, they are blue and she calls them her "warm pants". Well, she wants to wear them all the time. We have an agreement that if she wears them to bed, she can't wear them the next day. That took some major wheeling and dealing. Well, since they have grown like weeds, it was time to get them both new clothes. We hit the Wal Mart hoping that it wasn't over picked. We scored. We got a ton of new clothes for them. Beene was with Jonathan while I was finding stuff that I liked for Julles. Beene did most of all the picking for her clothes, which I was excited about, thinking that she would like to wear them considering she picked them out. We got home and did the fashion show of trying on all the new duds, they thought they were sooo cute, and were quite the little models.

So, the next day we were getting ready to go down to Orem to stay at my mom's for a few days, and I had a few outfits out for Beene to pick out and she refused to wear any of them. She wanted to wear her "warm pants", and that was the only thing she would wear. Well, after some major kicking and screaming, we got her into one of her cute outfits. She wore it down there, and as soon as we got inside my mom's house, what does she ask me... "mom, can I wear my warm pants now?" GRRRRR.... So, I gave in because I was just tired of arguing about it. She has told me that she hates jeans and says that she WON'T wear them.

She wants to wear them all the time and cries if I tell her that the shirt that she picked out doesn't match her warm pants. Finally, she put them on yesterday... THEY ARE FLOODS!!! Wahoo! We told her that she can only wear them as jammies now, and she is starting to deal with it a little better than yesterday afternoon, she cried and cried.

I just can't believe how picky she is about her clothes, and I am sure that I was as well, but WOW! It is very hard to talk to her about. It is a major hot spot topic for the two of us. How sad it is that I argue with my 3 year old about clothing!!! She is also starting to freak out about her hair, it has to be a certain way, and it is not the same way everyday! Oh... have we skipped to the teenage years and skipped the little kids years? But, I love her to pieces!!!

Another fun night in the planning...

Girls night is almost here again. I talked to Amy yesterday about what we were going to do this month. We are going to be making a "card keeper" to hold our handmade cards or pictures. I am so excited and it is going to be sooo cute and I can't wait. It is on March 26th, at 7 p.m... so if any of you that would like to come (that live in the state), let me know by March 15th. It is a great time of girly chats and yummy food and making beautiful things.

While I was on the phone with her, we also planned for April and May. In April we are going to make cd case scrapbooks, for mother's day gifts. Then in May, we are going to make the cards that match our cute boxes for this month!!!

Oh the fun we are going to have! I am going to take pictures and post them, and I was just reading back to my other post of girls night out and I realized I need to post my recipes! I will get on that today!

Making a house a home...

Today I hit a breakthrough with the kids at Joy School. The last few days of school, I have completely lost them half way through and all they want to do is play in the basement. Today, I tried something a little different. We were talking about families again, and we were "charting" our families, counting how many people were in our families. It took a lot longer than I thought it would. So, I got off my schedule and missed like three things i had planned on doing. So, I had them go downstairs and get thier wiggles out, while I got snacks together with the help of little Sara who was the snack helper for the day. Then, while they were eating their snacks, I read them a story, and had a little discussion with them. I should try that more often. I totally had their attention because they were eating and not talking.

We talked about Making a house a home today. I drew an outline of a house, and asked them what it was. They said, "a house". I asked them what made a house a home... of course they had no idea. I told them that a house became a home when a family was in it. I asked them what they felt in their homes, and one of the little boys said, "love, lots and lots of love!" How can a 3 year old know that? WOW!!! We read a story about a little Tiger who moved into a new home and missed his old house. He ran away and went back to the old house and realized that it didn't feel right, because he didn't have his mommy there or his toys or the smell of things baking. So, he went back home and told his mom that he realized that this new house was his home. The kids totally understood what I was telling them. We also did an art project and made a house and trees and flowers out of different shapes of paper. They love to glue and make things look pretty. Their homes looked fantastic!!!

One of the dad's came to pick their son up and I told him that he should tell his dad what we learned today. The little boy said, "Houses... making them into homes!" I was amazed, they never remember what they learned, just what we had to eat!

What a great day it was today. Only two more days of teaching, and then I am done until next year. Next week we are having a baby visit. How fun is that going to be!