It warms my heart...

This little guy really got into the spirit of Night Tag! It warms my heart to see my husband and children having fun, and playing games together. Even if its past bedtime. Sometimes there are more important things in life...

Last night I came home from the gym, to four kids playing flash light tag in the house. (I'm including my sweetie in the total) This is something Matt started playing with the kids this fall, and with the cold weather, they sometimes move the game inside the house. With 3 levels to our home, it makes for a really fun hide and go seek game. They even got mom to play. FIrst round...Gabe is the seeker, and everyone else hides in the dark, while he counts to 20 in the bathroom, then comes out with his flashlight, and tries to find everyone. I don't know where everyone else hid, but the moment I found where I wanted to hide, the dog decided he needed to hide with me. You should have seen me, trying to shove the dog out from under the bar where I was hiding. I sat between the wall, and a bar stool, and heard Gabe coming around the corner. "thats it," I thought. "The stupid dog is going to give me away". Gabe came around the corner, and I saw the beam from his flash light. "Gotcha!" he shouted. Just then bear came running from my spot, and Gabe's disappointment was evident. "oh, its just you bear". Gabe swept through my area 2 more times, and it took Matt out right telling him (Thanks dear) where mommy was hiding, for him to finally find me. Ha! I am the queen of Flash light tag!

Peannut Butter Cookies!

I was in a total baking mood last night. I had a turkey in the oven, overriped bananas that I made into banana bread, and then I read the pickey palate and got inspired to make some peannut butter cookies for the kids. Morgan helped me and we had a blast. I LOVE this book that my friend Sharon gave me. (Thank you Sharon) 6 Ingredients or less is an awesome cook book for anyone like me, who lives by being a semi homemade kind of cook. (Sandra Lee is my hero!) These are especially fun for the kids to make.

1 cup peannut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda

Mix, roll into balls, and bake for 8-10 minutes at 350. I like to smash them with a fork. And I also added one of my new favs from the bakery isle. These toffee chips are to die for, and they were a great addition to the pb cookies.

Kids say the funniest...

Okay, so during Sacrament Meeting today, Morgan kept asking me for a snackament. I'd go through the bag, item after item, trying to find a snack that would suit her. Nope, she wanted none of it. She was quite insistant that she wanted a snackament. Then tonight, as I was putting her to bed, and she was talking about church, and getting a snackament, it donged on me. She was talking about the Sacrament, but to her, it was also a form of snack. guess we need to review the old Sacrament FHE again) I laughed so hard when I finally put 2 and 2 together, and realized what she was talking about. And all Morgan could say was, "oh my gosh mommy, you so silly!) Guess the ol' mom's getting a little slow in her old age.

Happy Anniversary Babe!

My sweetie and I went into Anchorage this weekend and stayed at the Captain Cook hotel. We had so much fun! We went to the movies, out for Chinese, (at my fav Panda resteraunt) did a little shopping, (I got a late anniversary present...my new beautiful necklace) and we walked through downtown Anchorage. Town Square is full of all kinds of ice sculptures, (yeah, Katie, Arizona's not the only frozen place). I guess the theme this year is Aliens, so that should help explain the picture of Matt and I sitting on one's lap. There was also a wookie, but it had melted a little, and it was hard to tell in the picture. We had so much fun. (Corny, I know) but we didn't care what we did as long as we were together. I even took Matt to Boarders...yeah, I know what turns him on. LOL

Yeah! Chandler's finally a Wolf!

Chandler is our first scout. He's the son of an Eagle Scout, the grandson of an Eagle Scout, and the great-grandson of an Eagle Scout. He has scouting in his blood. Now if we can just convince his leaders. (and mom) This was his first Blue and Gold, and Chandler received his Communications Belt loop, and is looking to get his Bobcat at the next meeting.

Heart Break

Well, it had to happen I guess. Our eldest experienced his first heart brake. On the way home from school, I was asking the boys how their Valentine's parties had gone. Later, he talked about his day with Matt, here's how the conversation went...
Chandler: "Some kids were talking today, and they said the Harlon asked Bailey to be his Valentine, and I got so mad I said I was going to hang him by his underwear in a tree! And a bunch of kids helped me write Bailey hundreds of letters. I don't like that Harlon...Bailey's been my bestest friend since we were in Kindergarden."
Chandler: "Dad, what does it mean to be someone's Valentine?"
Matt: "Well, at your age, it just means your friends."
Chandler: "Oh, that's not so bad, I thought it meant they would be friends forever!"

So, here we are...parents of a second grade boy who's not quite ready to say he likes girls, but doesn't want other boys to like them either. Here's a funny thing about both boys classes. They're incredibly lopsided. Chandler's class has 15 boys and only 5 girls. Gabe's class, on the other hand, has 15 girls and 5 boys. To say the least, Gabe's in Heaven!

Mom's vaca

May RS had a ladies retreat this weekend out at our Bishop's wife's house. It was great. No kids, no husbands, no dogs, or pets, or homework, or housework. Just some fun women, doing whatever crafts or projects we want. Some quilted, some did scrapbooking, sewing, painting, family history, whatever we wanted. We ate, and ate and ate. We stayed up till 2am, talking, giggling, it was great!
So, since I was leaving the kids with their grandpa and dad, I thought it only fitting to fill them up with some good old fashioned sugar. The kids helped me make and then decorate this cake. They had a ball, and it wasn't half bad.

H2O Family

We were invited to a birthday party at the school yesterday. The kids had a ball! notice my kids are still not little fishies when it comes to the water. I think they get it from Matt, cause I was doing the dead man's float, and diving from the high dive by the time I was Chandler's age.

Jenn's Triple Berry Cobbler

Here's my delisioso (you Dora fans know that word well) Triple Berry Cobbler. ITs a tried and true family favorite around my house. Simply take the frozen Costco triple berry blend, mix in some sugar and flower, and a drizzle or so of some lemon juice. then poor into your cooking dish. Then I take a cube and a half of butter, softened, then add one yellow cake mix, some oats, and nutmeg. then I just take a fork and combine it. Keep it nice and crumbly. You don't want everything mixed together like a cake mix. Then I take handfulls, and just crumble them on topof the berries. Bake at 350 till golden brown. (30-45 min.) We like to pull ours out of the oven, wait maybe ten minutes, then dish it up with whip cream. YUMMMMMMY! (I had to cut Chandler off after his third helping)

We love our dentist, Dr. Engibous. He's got to be the best Pediatric dentist ever! What's more, is the kids love him too. The boys love the video games they get to play, and mom loves that nobody goes in, or comes out with tears, or tantrums, like in past dentist visits. Here's the boys playing the video game while they wait.















Looks like some torture devise, hu?

Morgan and her artwork she has been doing this week in pre-school. I try and take pictures of their extra special, and usually, extra big treasure that the kids make at school. That way, if something should 'accidentally happen' to them, we've got a record of what they did.

Why is it, that the smaller the kid, the larger the art project???

Clean your room!

This is what I get when I ask the boys to take pictures of their clean room, instead of going down to see for myself. They thought they were very clever though. Only taking one picture of a small piece of cleared away floor in their room. Oh well, at least they had fun...

So I asked the boys to go clean their room last night. They kept telling me, "it is clean, it is clean". I was busy trying to get dinner ready, (this is where my lazy parenting comes into play)so I actually handed them the digital camera, and said, "here, each of you take a picture of your room to show me how clean it is, then bring the camera back and I'll see". These are the pictures that Chandler took. One of gabe, and one of a square yard of carpet.