Build a Bear

When Kelsey turned 4 years old we had a friend birthday party. It was mostly the girls in her primary class and a few other girls we knew. It was a pretty low key UNICORN party. They played pin the horn on the unicorn, a few other fun games, colored some unicorn pictures, ate some snacks and we were done. No gifts. Low key. But that low key party just about put me over the edge. It was soon afterward that a friend told me what she does for her kids' birthdays and I immediately adapted it.
So this is what we do - Friend parties at age 4, 8, 12, and 16. All the other years it is family birthday time. I loved it when I heard it and I love it even more now. That is what we have done and it is a super plan. Some people think I am WAY too over the edge by not letting my kids have friend parties every year, but it works for us. We don't even have a big family party since no cousins or grandparents live close by. We love our own little family birthday time. I want my kids to learn that family is number one. We are sealed together for all time and eternity as a family and we should enjoy each other and find joy in each other's triumphs, including aging another year!

In the past we have always done something BIG as a family for the girls' birthdays. Kelsey has chosen to go miniature golfing for the past 2 years but this year she picked BUILD A BEAR.



So we went to BUILD A BEAR a few days after her birthday which just happened to be a SATURDAY and also happened to be VALENTINES DAY! Holy smokes! It was crazy at the Build a Bear we went to! We went to the mall and as soon as we turned the corner to the Build a Bear store there was a line. I am not joking, there was a line of around 20 people or so to pick their animal and get it stuffed. Matt and I looked at the line, at eachother, and took a deep breath and stood in line with the rest of Utah County on Valentine's Day.

Kelsey picked a cute rabbit and Kendal picked a cute kitty. It was pretty fun to see them so excited! After we stood in line to get their animals stuffed, we got to pick out the clothes. Kelsey picked a glittery, sequiny, peace sign shirt and pants, and to top off the look, high heels. Kendal picked out a pink HELLO KITTY outfit for her kitty and we also opted for the HELLO KITTY panties, hoping it would sink in. (By the way, she changed her diaper by herself again today! What are we going to do?!)




They have LOVED their Build a Bear animals . It is pretty cute to see them both find their animals when it is bedtime, and when they wake up in the morning, they still have them in their arms.

I was trying to get a picture of them with their new treasures, but Kendal was so excited about the Dora library book it didn't work so great. Plus, she wanted to look at the camera and see herself and "sis" so she wasn't all too cooperative. Anyway, we had a great day as a family celebrating Kelsey's birthday at Build a Bear Workshop. If you think I am an onery mom for our birthday tradition, don't tell me. I don't want to hear it. My girls love it and so do Matt and I. But, Kelsey is very excited for her 8th birthday already. It will be a BIG one!

Lighter Later

A few days ago I was just browsing through my picture files and I came across SUMMER! Here are a few of the pictures I saw. Oh how it made my little heart ache for sunshine and sprinklers and flowers and warmth and late evenings outside and on and on and on.

It even made me think mowing the lawn was a good idea! Imagine that!

Then I noticed yesterday how light it is later. Does that make sense? I used to take Kelsey to ceramics at 5:15 in Nov and Dec and it was pretty much dark. Now I look outside and it is not dark until after 6:15. It is so glorious! And this morning, when Matt left for work at 6:30, I noticed it was NOT pitch black outside. There was already a touch of light out there and by 7:00, it was a perfectly pretty morning. I love it love it love it. The time change is coming soon too . . . hooray!

Here's to February and welcome June!

Kelsey is now 7 years old!

All we have been singing at our house lately is"I like em big, I like em chunky." Imagine that in a deep throaty voice, and that is our house. I sound REALLY good in the morning, just like Moto Moto with my sore scratchy voice right when I wake up! I should be a millionaire too!
Anyway, Matt gave Kelsey the Madagascar 2 DVD for her birthday this past week. And for those of you who have not yet seen it, "Baby you're huge" and it is a pretty funny movie. For me to say that is a big deal. The story line is horrible and the old lady ruins it for me, but Gloria and Moto Moto the hippos, they make up for it. We love them and we sing their fat songs all day long at our house. I told Matt he can only sing like that to me and tell me how "plump" I am for 5 1/2 more weeks, then he will get a black eye! It is hard to get that little 'chunky' song out of our heads!



Anyway, back to the sweet little birthday girl. Kelsey had a super birthday. The poor thing requested to be woken up (is that proper English?) at 6:00 am so she could open her presents before her dad left for work because she knew she would otherwise have to wait until 7:30 pm when he got home! She got some great presents and I love how happy and content she truly is. She is a sweet little girl.

Kelsey requested a Fantastic Four cake this year. It started out as a joke, but she was serious. We could not find Fantastic Four ANYTHING ANYWHERE! Matt searched 3 Wal-Marts and a Target in Weber and Davis counties and found nothing, and our sweet little local KINGS didn't have anything either! It is the wrong time for Fantastic Four since it has been awhile since a movie has been released I guess.
She then told me she wanted a square cake with layers and pink sprinkles. Easy enough. Matt was pretty upset about not finding any Fantastic Four figurines to put on her cake and this is what Kelsey told him. "Dad it is okay, I will just make a popsicle stick girl and put it on the top of the cake." Isn't that so cute? She didn't end up with a bunch of popsicle sticks, but she did paint a picture of herself and taped it to one popsicle stick and stuck it on top of the cake. She is so funny. Here she is making her wish. I love the look on her face. It makes you know it was a good wish!

Kelsey is such a great girl. She is a sweet, caring and considerate little person. She cares about other's feelings and doesn't want anyone to feel bad or left out. She is super dependable and I can trust her to do anything I ask her to do. She is a pleaser and tries to please both Matt and I by doing well in school and helping at home. She is the best sister Kendal could ever have. She is a sister though and they fight, that is for sure, but she cares and loves Kendal so much. She said to me just today "I have to admit it mom, Kendal is the cutest thing I have ever seen. What does 'admit it' mean anyway?"

I had a babysitter come last week while I went to quilt guild and Matt was in Logan. When I was taking the babysitter home she said "Kelsey is really a good big sister to Kendal. She knows what will make her happy and how to take care of her." I thought that was such a compliment from a 15 year old girl. Kelsey is truly a wonderful daughter and a great sister too. We love her very much and it is both breaking my heart to watch her grow up and it also makes me so happy to see her develop into a more amazing girl everyday.

Our Little Turkey

So yesterday I said to Kendal "Kendal, your diaper is getting pretty soggy. Go get a clean diaper and I will change you." She said to me "No, I fine." and kept playing. I have purposely been letting her diaper get drenched soggy so it will be uncomfortable so she MIGHT have a desire to get rid of those dang diapers and use the toilet. I only offer to change her when I realize the urine is going to start leaking out, or she is stinky. She could care less.

So after I said that I waited about 10 minutes and said it again. She replied, "No mom, I fine." I spied on her and within 3 minutes she was in the bathroom (where we keep the diaper paraphernalia) taking off her socks and her pants. She then took off her 8 pound soaked pull up diaper, got a clean pull up out of the drawer and put it on. She then put back on her socks and was attempting her pants when she got angry. She brought her pants to me and said "Hep mom, inside out." I fixed her pants, helped her get them on and then said "You need to take care of that soggy diaper you left on the floor in the bathroom." The little turkey said very sweetly, "No sanks mom, you do it" smiled and left. I thought to myself "OH DEAR!"

I was telling Matt this story last night when the girls were in bed and he just about died. He HATES it that she is still not potty trained, and so do I. But I am much more patient about it than he is. For goodness sakes, she is 3 1/2 years old! Matt just rolled his eyes at this story and said "Great, why go on the toilet when you can change your own diapers!?!" I love that little girl!

Sweeping

So one of the main reasons we had a wood stove installed this fall was so we wouldn't be paying Questar Gas $150 every month during the winter. I know, we could get on that plan that they have so you can pay the same amount every month, but I just love those $14 gas bills in the summer so much, and I can not give those up. Anyway, we got our January gas bill a few weeks ago and it was $28. It was beautiful. Matt and I were on cloud nine, not because we are total cheapskates, but because we were beating the system. Okay, we are cheapskates too.

I start a fire every evening between 5 and 6 pm, we keep it going most of the night since I am up using the bathroom 3 times a night, and when we all wake up in the morning it is usually a wonderful 72 degrees or so in our house. With me being The Furnace Nazi, the past 5 winters it was around 64 when we woke up. BBRRRRR! I keep the fire going in the mornings until about 9 am and then let it burn out. The stove is cast iron, so it retains quite a bit of heat, but by 3 o'clock in the afternoon, it is perfectly cool so I clean the ashes out, get more wood in, and start all over with the whole process again.

Well, as Matt and I were basking over the glory of our win, we were having a LITTLE bit of trouble with our stove over the past few weeks. Every time we would open it to put more wood in, it would send a plume of nasty smoke into the living room. That wasn't so bad, but when the fire alarms were going off for 7 minutes straight while the neighbor was here, that was not good. We were also having a little trouble, I mean I was having trouble getting the fires to start also because the stove wasn't drawing very well. I used to never have trouble getting the fire to go and now the house was smelling like a tepee instead of a home.

I found a chimney sweep that could come last week and it was a miracle! He was super nice, super clean, and it was super great that he could come because a few other chimney sweeps told me this was their off season and no they would not come. The chimney sweep looked in our stove and said "You guys burn alot don't you?" I replied, "Yes, every single day." "WOW" was his response.

To make a long story longer, he cleaned our stove, the chimney, and could not believe how much he had to clean out of our chimney and that we had only been burning since October. On the outside of our house, he said the outside vent on the top of our chimney was completely sealed off with crap (official term for Heber City Frozen Ash). We gladly paid him his $95 fee and told him thanks so much for not making us burn our house down.

Now that the gas bill just got another $95 chimney sweep fee tacked on to it, it doesn't seem too wonderful anymore! But we have ambience and mood and REAL HEAT dang it!

Matt has been in Logan for the past 2 days at a class called LIVESTOCK VITAMINS AND MINERALS PROGRAM. Sounds interesting doesn't it? Anyway, he just got home and now he and the girls are wrestling and screaming and I have retreated to the computer room. He is headed south tomorrow and Kendal thinks she is going with him to work cows. I think she will be in the way and have her little heart broken when she can't go.

I did dishes the old fashioned way tonight. Old fashioned meaning actually using the sink and such, not sand and a river bed. Last night when I got home from quilt guild the baby sitter had my sweet ones in bed and asleep. I started the dishwasher and then got on the computer and did a few other things before I went to bed. Luckily I checked on that dang dishwasher before I did go to bed and holy smokes. I had a puddle of water about 10 feet long, running under the fridge, and it made it all the way to the back door. Dang thing! We just got it new in July and it has had a teeny tiny leak since we got it and I always just wipe up the few little drips before Matt has a chance to see it.
Well, about a month ago, he happened to get a drop of water on his sock in the kitchen from the leaky dishwasher that I had not cleaned up yet and he was not happy. He wanted that honey fixed and I would rather not bother with the warranty and repairmen and just wipe it up. Well, the mess it made last night changed my mind. I called and someone will be here Wednesday between 8 and 5. Don't you just love that? 8 and 5!!!
Anyway, I don't want to chance a flood again so I guess I will do dishes like I used to do dishes until I was 27 years old. It is funny how pampered I have been with a dishwasher these past few years and not even realized it. Doing dishes the real way makes me feel a little humbled and that is a good thing every now and then. Actually, a few years ago our dishwasher completely died and I humbled myself for about 3 months before I decided that a new dishwasher was a good thing. What was I thinking??

Here is one of the latest projects completed. I started this table runner last summer for my mom and I finally delivered it to her last weekend. It is a fun little pattern and I am going to make one for me also. Oh, for those of you that left your opinion on the previous quilting project, I thank you very much. Your input was wonderful. I did go buy some sashing fabric earlier this week and I am so excited! It is not the color I was expecting to buy, but I think it will turnout pretty. I will post a picture soon. For me and quilting projects that means in the next 5 months. No, I have to get this one done before this baby arrives. Thanks again for your help with the project!

My dad made this table and the chairs for my mom a few years ago. Isn't he amazing?

I read my sister Tori's blog last night right before I went to bed and I laid there for a little while thinking about how REAL I am becoming. This will not make a lot of sense unless you have read her post about being REAL, so bear with me or go read it.

I love the reasoning that I am becoming real, heck, I probably already am real. The facts are that I am a little shabby and my eyes are loose - among other parts, I have come unsewn in a few spots, the snot and tears that have streaked my face from my crying girl's loves and kisses have left their marks, the marks around my growing belly button DO hurt, and since I don't have many shirts that are not stained with fingernail polish, chocolate milk, blood, or from some other motherly duty, I must be real. Real means that you are loved. I know I am loved and very much needed by my sweet little family.

Maybe this whole REAL thing is sounding so good to me right now because I don't feel nice and new, I feel old and shabby, and worn out. Whatever the hormonal reason, it sure made me feel tremendously grateful last night while I was thinking about what my sister wrote about becoming REAL.

A weekend in the Banana Belt

We went to my parents' house for the weekend and it was a super weekend. The weather was fabulous, it was light jacket weather, and the kids LOVED being outside without any snow. I loved being outside without any snow too! Matt helped my dad a little on the timeshare and also did a little bull work for some Wayne County cattlemen. It truly was a great weekend.

The girls were outside also helping their grandpa work on the house (okay, not really - they were chasing the cat, having a saw dust picnic, climbing the hill, playing kick ball, etc) and Kelsey found a couple of nice pieces of wood that would make great stilts. Her grandpa of course obliged and the next thing you knew, Kelsey had some stilts to play on.

I was surprised at how quickly she learned to walk on them. She did a good job. It was fun to watch her. Now this summer she can have her grandpa make her some taller ones!

The timeshare is coming along nicely. Since the weather was good, they, Matt, my dad, and Rick, worked on the front porch.

When a cold wind came up, we would head inside and sit by the fire. Kendal had my mom playing soccer and roll the ball most of the day on Saturday. Thank goodness for grandmas and grandpas!

Kendal and her grandma. She calls her "damma." Kelsey thinks she is saying a bad word.

One more trip on the stilts before we go back to the snow and ice in Heber City. We had a super weekend. It was nice to get away and the nice weather was a bonus!

I know you have an eye for color

I need a tad bit of advice. This is one of my Block of the Month quilts that we have been working on for Enrichment. It is time for me to go purchase the sashing fabric (the little strips that go in between the blocks) and I am not sure what color to buy. Let me know what you think.

This one below is the original pattern and it has you put a lighter blue in between the blocks as the sashing and also as a border. Since I traded yellow for brown in my quilt, I don't think light blue is going to work for me. Tell me what color would look good. I plan on following the pattern for the borders, but just in my colors instead of the bright ones shown here.

I really do need your help. I need to go fabric shopping next week!

My wax paper explanation

Okay, I have calmed down. It is a miracle what a bowl of soup and some sewing will do for you! To explain the previous post -

The St. Lawrence Thrift Store has a HUGE snow and ski sale every November or so and I decided I would go to it this year. Kendal needed a good coat for playing in the snow and I knew I wouldn't have to pay too much for a nice Park City cast off Columbia coat. So Kendal and I went to the store about 1/2 hour after the sale started. There was a line. A very large line. We waited in the line for 20 minutes and moved about 8 feet. Finally a lady came out and said that the Fire Dept would not allow any more people in the building until some had exited. The building was at capacity. So we left. I went back 2 hours later and there was still a huge line. No way. My two girls and I went the next day, knowing that it had been pretty picked over, but we still went to see what deals could be had. There was no line. I didn't find too much, but Kelsey happened to find 2 pairs of ice skates that just happened to be about their sizes and for $4 I had to buy them.
So when Matt got home he was informed that he had the job to take the girls a few times this winter over to the outdoor ice rink in Midway. I love to ice skate, I once thought I was bound for the Olympics as I could jump a few sticks in the settling pond above my house. No triples though, I couldn't quite get the spinning thing down! I figured since my balance is a little off with this 4 pound bundle of sweetness bulging out of my front end I had better not actually skate with them. (one quick question though, since the baby supposedly weighs 4 pounds now, why doesn't the other 30 pounds I have gained even out that little imbalance thing, its all on my rear end?) Anyway, Matt would have to skate and I would laugh and take pictures from the side.
That was the plan, but since he is NEVER home on Saturdays when they are open in the afternoons, the girls have not been skating with their new thrift store skates. So the other night Kelsey said that you can skate with wax paper on your feet. Miss Sally went to their first grade class and read stories that day, I think this is all blamed on Sally because she must have given her the idea! Anyway, I thought it would be fun to try it. So I made the girls wax paper booties and they truly skated around the living room. I could not believe how slick the wax paper really was on the carpet. They had a super time. They both fell down hard a few times. Matt and I were laughing so hard.
Anyway, that is the wax paper post that Blogger made disappear into blogger space and that I was so irritated about that I just could not retype it all right then. By the way, don't you think Kendal's feet look like some leper or homeless person with those poor little worn out booties on?

Cut Rite wax paper

I just typed a great post about our wax paper evening and Blogger just killed it. That also happened a few days ago and it makes me so mad!!! I write something great, well, not that great, but still, I write something and then it looses it. So until my temper cools off, you just get pictures and no story because I want to reach into the computer and break something right now. Have a good day.

NO IMAGE AVAILABLE

I grew up with a septic tank and that meant no garbage disposal. I never knew what I was missing until my Aunt Sissey came to visit once. She was peeling potatoes into the sink, something we did into the garbage, and when she was finished she turned the water onto the tator peelings and turned on the light switch for the light over the sink. She had confused look on her face and so did I. She thought the light switch was the garbage disposal switch and then had to clean all the peelings out of the sink. I thought she was crazy, well, not really but I had no idea what she was up to.

I have a garbage disposal now and I love it. Love it love it. All that extra stuff on the plate just gets washed down the drain with no worries. I don't even really think about it until I go home to my parent's house and then not use a disposal. It is truly a marvelous invention.

I had an all day sewing/quilting get together at my house on Thursday for Enrichment and for the occasion I made some very fattening popcorn. Friday morning when I was cleaning up the kitchen and doing a few dishes I heard the horrible sound the disposal makes when there is something in there that really shouldn't be in there. I knew it was either my little teaspoon measuring spoon or a few popcorn kernels that never popped. I also knew that I really HATE it when something is in there. So I immediately ditched the kitchen and called my sister. I asked her if she could come up and get something out of my garbage disposal. It was a mean thing to to, because you see, Tori FEARS the disposal. She has it in her sweet little head that if she sticks her hand down there to fish something out, the switch will spontaneously turn on and chew her hand right off.

Now me on the other hand, I don't want to stick my hand down there purely for sanitary reasons. Don't get me wrong, I clean that nasty little food trap out. I run water and let that baby run for awhile and I even get those little packets that you shove down there, turn on the water, watch the fizz come up and go back down and WA LA - clean disposal. I still don't believe it is truly clean though. How could it be with all the mulch that goes down there? I must admit though that there is a corner of my brain that is worried about a ghost in my house that MAY flip that switch while my hand is in there. Oh, just the thought of it all makes me stomach roll over and over.

So anyway, here is the conversation with my sister the other day, or at least something like it anyway.
me - so there is something caught in my disposal, could you please come up and get it out for me (HEE HEE HEE)
her - no way! do you want me to lose a limb? how do you know that there is something actually in there?
me - it is making that awful sound of something hard trying to be chewed up
her - just put on your big girl panties, get a flashlight, and your leathergirl (leatherman), and dig whatever is in there out, but don't loose any appendages when it turns on by itself
me - sick no, do you know what is probably growing in there? one celled organisms and all the food slime from last Thanksgiving
her - well then, just look and see what is in there and if you need to dig it out
me - gross, that means I still have to touch the rubber flaps that are probably harboring some microscopic parasite, but that does give me an idea - I should use my headlamp!
her - yeah, headlamp is good and those rubber flaps are no big deal, just push them out of the way with something
me - (as the visual of my mission comes into my head) Yeah, I can use the headlamp, get 2 wooden spoons to push open the flaps and then get one of Matt's breeding sleeves from the basement (he uses them for preg checking cows) that goes all the way up to the shoulder to keep my hand from decaying off after I have to stick it in the sludge invested hole
her - yeah, take a picture for me
me - thanks for the help and I will be sure to email that picture to you
her - bye
me - bye

So then I went to the coat closet for the headlamp (where else would someone keep one of those?), to the basement for a bright pink/red breeding sleeve (a normal latex glove would not due because it would allow my wrist to possibly become exposed to the flesh eating microscopic folks nesting in my disposal), and then to the kitchen for the wooden spoons and the area under question. It took a little rearranging of the headlamp, but it worked like a charm, of course after the 2 wooden spoons opened the rubber flaps for me to see into the abyss. You know what I found? A relatively clean (to the naked eye) holding spot with 2 little popcorn kernels that were scared to death of their surroundings, just wishing they could keep passing on through. So I gave them a little push with a spoon, turned on the water, and away they went. Problem solved. No appendages lost. No nasty disease transmitted (yet). No picture taken. Thank goodness.

Is she blind?

I was brave and I went to the Thrift Store here in town on Wednesday looking for a little dresser. Wednesdays are the crazy days there because they spend Monday and Tuesday closed and restock. Well, I did not find a dresser but I found an easel. Kendal was playing with one at a friend's house last week and so when I saw this one at the Thrift Store for $6.00, I bought it.



The girls have enjoyed it for the past few days. Kendal is so cute and funny about it. She will write something on the whiteboard side, usually a little tiny circle, point to it, stand back to face her audience, and say "Octoba. Octoba. Novemba. Novemba." She is the cutest little teacher ever!



My little artist Kelsey has enjoyed it very much although she informed me that I need to get some new dry erase markers.


Two weeks ago I got a letter sent home from Kendal's preschool saying that she was "unable to complete the vision screening" they did at school and that I need to take her to the county Health Department or an optometrist and have one done, fill out the form, return it, bla bla bla. So Wednesday we had our appointment at the Health Department. I was a little nervous for the whole ordeal because how in the world was Kendal going to look at a chart from 15 feet away (or whatever!) and tell the nurse that she could see it? I can barely get her to see her shoes that need to be put away!
I won't go into details for you but all I can say is that Kendal is SO VERY distractable, although how can you blame a 3 year old in a busy hallway! The nurse graciously 'passed' her after Kendal made the attempt of READING a line of pictures with apples, houses, and umbrellas in it. This was after Kendal told the lady ALL the wrong answers on the chart with E like symbols that face different ways. The nurse told Kendal to tell her what way the airplanes were flying. Kendal looked up at the ceiling and wondered where the airplanes were because those E shapes surely were NOT airplanes! She was hung up on the apples because the girl LOVES apples and she was calling almost everything apples, even though she knew better. The nurse didn't pass her for individual eyes though because the moment the nurse told her to be a pirate and hold a paper over her eye, she broke out in Dora the Explorer Pirate Adventure song. Oh well.

So anyway, that evening I was telling Matt and Kelsey about our our vision screening adventure and Kelsey had a super idea.




Kelsey made a vision test for Kendal with the new chalkboard easel! She even kept making her stand on a line to read it. Kendal LOVED it and would yell out all the symbols Kelsey had drawn when she pointed to them. If only sister could have come with us to the Health Department!

Chef Kelsey

Kelsey got a super fun kid cookbook for Christmas from her Grandma Ellen. She has been DYING to cook now and Debbie made her a super cute apron, so now she is a chef.
Larry and Ellen came up for part of the weekend so Kelsey and Grandma made some Peanut Butter Balls from her new cookbook. (by the way, peanut butter balls are a great way to use your dry milk - it is one of our favorite recipes for a snack)

The ingredients list has pictures along with the cute descriptions written underneath the picture. It really is a cute book. Kelsey loves it. Now if only I would let her make pancakes by herself like she thinks she can! She has loved to help me cook since she could stir a bowl of batter, but now she thinks she can do it all by herself. AAHHHHH!!

The peanut butter balls Kelsey made have honey in them. Matt LOVES honey and so he made the biggest fuss over her 'cooking'. It made Kelsey swell up with pride, it was super cute. I like the peanut butter balls that use good ol' bad-for-you karo syrup instead of honey. Gimme all the bad stuff and I love it! Actually, just yesterday I was having a chocolate craving and with there nothing but cocoa and hot chocolate mix in the house that even resembles chocolate, I whipped myself up a little batch of peanut butter balls to take care of my craving. It almost worked.

Kreativ Blogger Award

My harmless cousin tagged me and gave me a Kreativ Blogger award. I am not too creative, but it sure makes me feel good! I am supposed to list 6 things I am grateful for and then pass this award on to 6 other creative bloggers. So here it goes.


I am thankful for my good health, my sweet girls, my loving husband, my wonderful friends and family, my warm house, and Jones' guacamole.

I am passing this creative blogger award onto my cousin Gina who is such a crack up (mynameisbrayden...), Jen who makes me use cuss words when I comment on her blog (Rowsers), Jones who makes great snacks, hand delivers them, and shows me how great parents should act on her blog (misssouthernbelle), Tori who can always make me laugh out loud when reading her blog (jared,tori...), my missionary cousin Ben who has a great sense of humor although he can do nothing about this tagging award (Elder Ben), and Sarah who always has something interesting to say that makes me smile (Heber Dukes).

I started this quilt top this past summer and I finally got all the borders on it yesterday. It is a cute pattern, but I wish my fabrics had more FIRE ENGINE RED in them rather than PETUNIA PINK. Who has every heard of a pink school house? Oh well, live and learn. It is a super fun pattern that uses jelly rolls (pre-packaged 2 1/2" wide strips) that goes together pretty dang nicely. Now, I have to embroider some green stems to hook the flowers to the flower box and get this baby quilted!


Today I have been busy with non-fat dry milk. Our ward is presenting a preparedness day on Saturday (one day of three planned) and I get to do powdered milk, not because I know very much (because I don't) but just because I WANT to know more. So if anyone is looking for some good ways and recipes to use their powdered milk, holler at me and I will email you a few! I made some delicious muffins today with dry milk rather than real milk and they were so good! The girls and I made quick work of quite a few of them!

I AM HAPPY TO REPORT . . .

- There is not one ounce of snow or ice on my driveway today.
- My range top is the cleanest it has been in a few years (when Matt cooked dinner the other night he used the burner that had some nasty stuff in it that smelled and smoked up the whole house that I had forgotten about - I figured it was time to clean it all)
- All the snow on the south side of our roof has melted, but there is still a good 8 inches on the north side!
- Matt has the day off! Although he had to be in SLC at 9:00 and Coalville at 3:30 - we can still see him sometime between there right?
- I broke off the 5 inch thick (in some places) slab of ice from my entire front porch yesterday when it warmed up. Now it is just 1 millimeter thick and nobody can see it so they will crack their heads open. (beware if you come to visit!)
- Kendal said to me two days ago when I left the room "Tome back here yittle Missie!" Is it a good thing that she can begin to communicate so much better? Yes, it truly is.
- When I finish typing here I am going to finish quilting a tablerunner for my mom I started in July or maybe even May.
- Kelsey is sort of getting over her sock issues, the girl has major problems that she is working through each and every day with socks, including this morning.
- I made an appointment to see Kendal's neurologist in March and I actually got in!
- I am not happy to report however that my armpits are getting fat and fleshy (among other parts). Why can't I be the pregnant lady with a basketball instead of the pregnant lady that looks like a dinosaur?

We had a nice weekend here in Heber City, Utah. Saturday Matt actually got to stay in the valley! He didn't work in Roy and he didn't head south to be a cattleman. He stayed here and was a vet for 6 hours, but at least he was here, not somewhere else. After he finished his health certificates, we took the girls sledding behind the truck in the North Fields. I drove, Matt sat on the tailgate, and the girls rode.

They had a super time. It was a cold afternoon, but they loved it. I got a little crazy with my driving though and made Kendal cry. I scared her and that made me feel bad. But they still had a super time.

Sunday was nice. We used to go to church from 1 till 4, but now for 2009 we go from 11 to 2. It is SO much better! We don't waste the mornings away and we still have some day left when we get home. Sunday after church the girls and I made sugar cookies. I have been reading blogs and feeling badly about never making sugar cookies with my girls because so many of you do. Well, they turned out super delicious. So good in fact that we ate them without frosting any of them. We made about 5 dozen and there are about 8 left this morning. Yes, fatties I know. But they were seriously SO GOOD! I used a friend's recipe that I have had for awhile and I love it. Although I must admit, Kendal with a cookie cutter turned loose on a beautifully rolled out slab of dough was interesting! She was out of control! I had to contain her cookie punching because all we would have had was 5 dozen broken hearts in hundreds of pieces! The girls loved it, I loved it, and of course Matt loved it. We need to do that more often.

To top off the day, Matt made dinner. Yes, I know it was amazing. He must have been tired of waiting on me to start cooking because at 5:00 he was in the kitchen asking me where this and that was. Thanks Matty it was great!

Smattering

One of the good things about winter weather and being cooped up inside is that I get some magazines read. In the summer the last thing I want to do when it is so nice outside until 10 pm is sit down and read a magazine. There are FAR better things to do with your time. However, in the winter when it is dark at 5:15 pm, it does not bother me to read a magazine or two.


Wednesday here was a beautiful day. The temps were up so Kendal and I spent most of the afternoon outside scooping away drippy melting snow from the driveway, sidewalks, and deck. It was so nice, we took our coats off and Kendal played on the swing set. She could only play on a couple of higher up toys because the lower swings are still snow bound, but she loved it. While she was climbing up the naked canopy that covers the sandbox, I was daydreaming about my yard and garden. I have been getting plant and seed catalogs in the mail and I was thinking hard about what I am going to do to my yard this summer. The weather was so nice and my day dreaming was so involved I didn't notice my little monkey had climbed all the way up the metal canopy and was starting up the domes, about 2 feet over my head. She said "Yook at me momma"and woke me up thankfully.

This is a picture taken in December of said swing set and said canopy covered up by the tree on the right with Kelsey playing in the snow.

Anyway, here is a smattering of my winter bliss . . . the magazines and catalogs that get me through the 8 degree high days. By the way mom, thanks for the Ladies Home Journal subscription!







Matt gets 4 or 5 magazines a week, mostly vet magazines. Here are few of the ones he actually keeps and reads over and over and I keep picking up off the floor where he crashes at night over and over. He has memorized the cow sale ones, honestly.





I am so happy to say that I finished a sewing project. Well, I have finished a few but Baby Brogan's is so hideous that I will not take a picture of it. This one here is Baby Cha Cha's (Charlee) quilt. She was born in July and I am finally finished with it. Kendal LOVES the soft pink on the back, but she knows whose blanket it is and that it will be going away soon!

By the way, Matt told me very nicely that he does not like that 'stuff.' He told my friend Jen the same thing but not very nicely and with a few cuss words. I am glad he can give it to me softly! I suppose I have a big ol' can of TVP to sneak into a few dinners over the next year somehow!

TVP

So tonight for dinner we had an experiment. My family is sort of used to this. We had tacos. That is one of our family's favorite meals, especially Matt's. But tonight, I cracked open the HUGE can of Taco Flavored TVP. Yes, that is textured soy protein, there is NO, I repeat NO meat in it. I first learned about TVP when we lived in Oregon. Alot of my vegetarian friends and other eco-friendly pals ate it alot. I saw it at the grocery store, but I just could not bring myself to buy or try any.

Well, with the my whole food storage kick I bought some Taco TVP. They say that is what Taco Time and Taco Bell use. I believe them now. I wasn't sure how much to prepare tonight, and since Matt LOVES tacos, I scooped up 2 cups of dry round crunchy brown stuff, apparently soy protein, and added it to 4 cups of warm water. I was a little suspicious by the looks of things, but let it set for about 10 minutes and it was looking much better. The instructions say you can brown it (it is already brown) in a skillet like you would ground beef so that is what I did. It didn't turn out too bad and it looked JUST LIKE Taco Time and Taco Bells ground beef that always made you wonder if it was real meat- it's not.

The girls liked it and even ate quite a bit of it. I liked it okay. There really wasn't alot of taste to it. Now I know why they give you hot sauce and taco bell sauce and salsa and taco time sauce and anything else to flavor up that beef taco you ordered. Matt still isn't home yet so we will see what he has to say about it. There are only about 6 cups of it left (no joke) in the fridge for him.
It was a good experience but I think next time I will add 1/2 REAL ground beef and 1/2 taco flavored tvp together. That way there will at least be left overs (something we NEVER have with tacos because of Matt's love of the meal) and it will have some good taste to it. I thought soy was supposed to be heathier for you, but the ingredients on the big ol' can of it say 'partially hydrogenated soybean oil' and we know we are supposed to stay away from 'partially hydrogenated anything let alone oil'. I wonder if the soybean part of it makes it all okay. Any input on the matter would be helpful!

Now my friends Kari, Beth, Jolene, and all the other wierd-food eating friends of mine in Oregon will be so proud of me. If they only knew!

Back to School

My two little birds, that is one name that I call them, are going back to school tomorrow from a nice long Christmas Break. I am really sad about that! It went by so quickly and we did have such a great time! I loved not prying them out of bed in the morning, although 80% of the break they were out of bed long before they would have gotten up for school! Why is it that you can't get kids to wake up for school but on Saturday and Sunday mornings they won't sleep? Anyway, we have had such a great time with them being out of school I am so sad to send them back. I truly never thought I would say that. We really didn't do anything absolutely amazing, it was just nice to relax here together and not be on such a tight schedule. Although I did take them swimming on Saturday, that was amazing. I got into a swimming suit because it is true love - I love those girls so much I wore Matt's swim trunks and my sister's cute maternity swim top. I was so hot, although there will be no pictures posted of the outfit because there were no pictures taken (that I know of!).
We forgot to set Kelsey's alarm clock, I hope we have a good morning getting back into our school routine!

My Little Artists

My girls painted yesterday. Kendal loves to paint and so does my Miss Creative Kelsey. I have some poster paints that have a felt-like knob on the end that Kendal can use and not make a huge mess. She loves it. I laid out some paper for the girls (the best bang for your buck - $1/yd butcher paper!) and got out the paints. Kelsey immediately went to her 'craft box' and got her very own oil pastels we got for her a while ago. We did a project in school with oil pastels and bright colored birds when they learned about the artist Frida Kahlo. She wanted to make another bird, but bigger this time around.



This is Kelsey's end result. She did a great job and the only place big enough for me to hang it in the kitchen was on the back door to the garage. So here she is with her Frida Kahlo bird. Frida Kahlo was a Mexican artist who had huge bushy eyebrows and in The Princess Diaries when the folks come in to help 'fix' the princess, the guy names her huge eyebrows -one Frida and the other one Kahlo. So funny now that I know what they are talking about!











Kendal's poster paint mess did not make it into the photo gallery because I had to keep putting more paper over the top of her gooey creation to soak up the paint. It was a nice mess, I should have taken a picture.
After I hung Kelsey's bird on the door she kept looking at it and saying "sissa's bird, so pitty." She loved it. Kendal had been working on a Diego poster and she wanted her artwork hung on the door too, next to sissa's bird. So I hung her Diego picture on the kitchen cupboard where I usually hang Kelsey's artwork. She just glowed! She thought that it was so great to have her picture hanging up.



She keeps saying "Telsey's bird, my Diego." It is so cute to see her so proud and excited about something. As soon as her dad got home, Kendal had to show him the bird and her Diego. She is so fun. I love my two little artists.