Thursday, April 30, 2009

Whose child is this?

Jack woke up this morning with the idea that we are going to make gingerbread houses today. I have tried excuses-we don't have any gingerbread. Jack's response-we will use graham crackers! I have tried distraction-want to watch a movie Jack? I have tried ignoring him. None of this is working.

He just raided the pantry in search of graham crackers and didn't find them. Now he is upstairs in our food storage getting them because as far as he is concerned, we are making gingerbread houses today.

So ok, I will get out some peanut butter and build him a house and let him decorate it. Jack is like this-he gets an idea in his head and will not let it go. Where did he get that trait? I have no idea! (My mom could tell you though.)

ps-He brought chocolate frosting too. He has all the details worked out.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

When the school nurse calls...

When the phone rings and I answer it to hear "this is Mary from Sundance..." my heart drops. Oh no! What is wrong with Nathan?

But then she says "just wanted to let you know that Nathan fell down at school today and got pretty scraped up. He is fine, back in class, but I just wanted to let you know."

And then, when I hung up I started to giggle. What kind of mom giggles when the nurse calls to say that her sweet little son fell down and got hurt? It's just that this is the 4th time this year that Nathan has been in the nurse's office because he fell down and got cut! I don't think that in all my years of schooling I ever had that experience and Nathan has done it 4 times now. Can you say graceful?

Monday, April 27, 2009

12 pounds of FAT...

GONE! As I mentioned before, Josh and I have been doing Tae Bo for about a month now. And eating a little healthier-ok, a little. (Did I mention free Ben and Jerry's Night last week, 31 cent Baskin Robbins night this week and FREE Carvel ice cream this week? How can you pass up deals like that? Oh, and my incessant need to bake? But anyway...)

Mostly for me that has involved NOT eating 2 waffles with PB and syrup every morning (sigh-how I miss my sweet waffles) because I realized that I was eating about 600 calories at breakfast alone. Now I eat Cheerios-150 or so calories. Not counting the heaping spoonful of sugar I put on them. And a pretty healthy lunch and then allowing myself a big and wonderful (but not too big and wonderful) treat each night.

Anyway, every Monday night we weigh in on our Wii Fit. Tonight when we weighed in the grand total weight loss between the 2 of us was 12 pounds. I won't say who has lost what, but Josh has lost double what I have! I know, easy math. He looks great! And I am perfectly happy with my contribution to the total. If nothing else, working out helps my body image-a lot. My original goal was only to lose 6 pounds-not too much farther. Yay for us!

2 more things-did I mention that Baskin Robbins has 31 cent scoop night on Wednesday (5-10 pm all over the country) and Carvel (if you have that near you-I have never even been to one) has free Icebergs on Thursday from 3-7. Wouldn't want to deprive all of you of these fantastic treats.

Second, I just found out my cousin is moving to San Diego next Jan.!!! (Laura for those of you who know my cousins and are wondering-don't want to confuse anyone). I am going to live near family-for at least 6 months (if we end up moving away next summer). I haven't lived near family in a long, long time! Well, unless you count being 2 hours away from the in laws in WI which of course does count for something, but it wasn't the same city or anything. YAY!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Happy Funday Monday

Ladies and gentlemen, please remain calm. This blog has officially been hijacked. Loose lips sink ships as they say, and using my persuasive powers and hypnotic masculine charms, I, one of the aforementioned "Boys," have extracted high level security information from Amber, enabling me to post on this blog with impunity. Mwah hah hah hah hah!

Ok, ok, I'll reveal my secret sinister identity---this is Josh, and I'm posting to remind Amber, and the whole internet (or at least those of you bored enough to be reading this) that today is the 11th annual Funday Monday (not to be confused with National Pot Day, which also happens to be today according to Google).

Eleven years ago today, Amber and I were finishing up our freshman year at BYU. We had just begun to fall in love against our better judgment---I was leaving on a mission in a few months, and Amber was moving on to greener pastures of manly returned missionary-ness---but prudent or not, we had been spending a lot of time together and loving every minute.

On this particular Monday, neither of us had any final exams. Amber's family was in town to take her back to CO after school was done. With nothing else to do (who could study with someone as distracting as Amber around?), we spent the day with her family, along with Colleen Coffey-Smith (now Stutz) who had been a great facilitator and encourager of our budding romance. We hiked the Y with Amber's Dad (Paul) and brothers Tim and Scott. Scott was four at the time and rode up the trail most of the way on Paul's shoulders.

Later that afternoon, Colleen, Amber and I went up to Rock Canyon park and rolled down the hills until we were dizzy, grass-stained and sick to our stomachs.

Then, Paul and Jackie (Amber's Mom) went out to dinner for their anniversary, so Amber and I watched Tim and Scott. We ate dinner at the Morris Center during which Amber and I flirted by smearing ketchup on each other's faces. Tim and Scott were too young to think such flirting was gross, and thought we were hilarious. We walked down to the Wilkinson Center, with Scott on my shoulders (what a freeloader!) and used our excess Dining Plus money to buy peanut butter Moo'd Zuka Juices for everybody. Then we went back to Deseret Towers and played laser tag, using some guns and targets I got for Christmas. We had a blast, and I got huge "hotness" points for being fun with Amber's little bro's.

When Amber's folks came back, she convinced them that it would be a good idea for them to let her drive me to the Timp Temple in American Fork so we could walk around it. Colleen had prepped me for the experience earlier in the day saying "Amber is going to take you to the Timp Temple tonight, and this would be a great time for you to hold her hand or kiss her!" Kissing seemed out of the question, but I had been dying to hold Amber's hand for days, though I hadn't been able to build up enough courage to go for it. I decided that it was now or never. We got out of the car and started walking around the Temple. And I chicken'd out. Amber, bless her heart, knew what was up and kept making sure her hand was very available, and I still couldn't bring myself to do it. We must have been talking about something, but I have no idea what---I just wanted to hold that hand! Finally, when we were three-quarters of the way around, I, with all the suaveness I could muster, said "Oh, you're cold? Here, let me hold your hand." It came out as a high-pitched croak, but her fingers were soon happily intertwined with mine, and nothing else seemed to matter.

Having held hands for all of three minutes, we returned to the van, and drove back to the hotel where Amber's folks were staying. It was about 10 pm at this point, and Amber's Mom offered to drive us back to BYU (which was a nice, inviting 15-minute walk away). Here is a brief summary of the conversation that ensued:

Jackie: Do you want me to drive you guys back to campus?

Amber: No, that's OK. We can walk.

Me (to myself): Woo hoo! More hand-holding! Let's go, let's go, let's go!

Jackie: Are you sure? It's really no problem.

Amber: Mom! (wink, wink) I said WE'LL WALK.

Jackie (with dawning realization): Ohhhhhhhhh. OK, sounds good, have fun, bye! (closes door)

So, we had another glorious fifteen minutes of hand-holding to ourselves and then the first Funday Monday was over.

The next day Amber finished her exams, and her folks hauled her kicking and screaming back to Colorado, while I was left trying to study for chemistry tests through tear-filled eyes (no joke!). Neither of us knew what would happen next, or that in 11 years, we'd be married, have three of our own little boys, and still be trying to find 15 minutes to ourselves for hand-holding. But each year, we've celebrated our annual Funday Monday in commemoration of the Y-hiking, hill-rolling, ketchup-smearing, laser-tag playing, hand-holding date that started it all.

Happy Funday Monday!

And Am, you might want to think about changing your password!

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Just a Happy Day

The title is the title to a chapter in Anne of Avonlea-just a happy day. And that is what we had today-just a happy day.

I woke up this morning to Josh leaving the house with all three boys to go clean the church so I decided to stay in bed and read. (Josh and I take turns sleeping in on the weekends-tomorrow will be his day.) There is nothing better than laying in bed, snuggled under the covers for an hour in the morning with the window open and blowing in a soft, breeze promising a beautiful day to come while reading a really good book. I was reading Anne of the Island. I am in love with the Anne books.

When Josh and the boys got home we went out for Brunch. Doesn't that sound sophisticated? I have never gone out to brunch before. We used Restaurant.com (actually Granny and Gramps gave us this gift cert. from Restaurant.com-thanks guys!) to go to Le Cake Chateau-even the name sounds sophisticated! I had french toast (and eggs, bacon and the best hashbrowns I have ever eaten) and Josh had Strawberry and Cream crepes. The boys had oreo muffins and a cookie. It was a sweet and cute little restaurant right in the heart of downtown.

Then we drove to Coronado-just because I have been wanting to. Going over the bridge was freaky and wonderful!

This afternoon while the boys napped I got an hour to read again! Now this is a luxurious day!

At about 2:30 I took the boys (Josh was at work) to the YMCA to swim (did I mention the weather was perfect today? 78 I think and pure blue sky). Turns out it was free day at the YMCA which was just an added bonus! We spent about an hour and a half there with our neighbors. The boys had a blast playing in the "splash park" and I alternated between playing with them and sitting and talking with my friend.

Now we are going to eat pizza and go to Walmart-ok I admit I don't usually consider Walmart part of a happy day, but we have a $25 gift certificate to use up so we are going to get a few more things for our 72 hour kit.

Sorry, no pictures of the happy day, you will just have to use your imagination. :) Ah, I love days like this!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here is the recipe we used when making our really really really really yummy cookies yesterday. Did I mention how good they were:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/chocolate-chocolate-chip-cookies-recipe/index.html

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Baking Cookies

I love baking cookies with my boys. I am trying to do it less lately so that I eat less of them, but today we made really really good chocolate chocolate chip cookies. This was Dal's first ever time helping bake cookies. It was fun to have him as part of it.

He even got to lick a beater-he liked that! Kept him happy for at least 10 minutes.
I told Jack to take a picture of my cute Flirty Apron and this is what I got. I guess he really thought I meant just the apron, not my head. But isn't it cute? Makes baking even more fun.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Uncle Cocoa

Several people have asked why Jason is called Uncle Cocoa. We have no idea. When Nathan was little he started calling him that and we thought it was cute so it stuck. We suspect that maybe it was that he associated Jason with Cocoa Roos (generic cocoa puffs) that he ate at Grandma Allen's house? Who knows? But we like it! :)

Friday, April 10, 2009

Spring Break and Uncle Cocoa

Nathan is on spring break this week! We love it-so nice to have no schedule to have to follow, no rushing out the door with the stress of getting shoes, jackets, lunch, etc. Plus, Uncle Cocoa (Jason) came to visit. He left last night and Jack says next time we need to keep him for longer.

We did a lot of things while he was here, and I do mean a lot! The first thing was a trip to the beach, with LOTS of pictures:
Dal in his dump truck. He was mad that I put him in it:
I told Jack to make a funny face:
Jack bringing water up to make mud:
We of course had to bury people in the sand:
Just to prove I was there too:
Snood:
Nathan's castle he was SO proud of:
Where did Nathan's body go?
Jason and Jack made a really cool Sand Castle while Nathan made his own:
The beach was great! I think we ran Cocoa ragged. Here are the highlights of what we packed in from Sunday though Thursday:
Watched General Conference
Dyed Easter Eggs
Beach
Splash Park
Went out to dinner
FHE
Balboa Park for Natural History Museum
In and Out Burger/Happy Meals for the boys
Picnic at a park
Hilltop Park
Easter Cupcakes
Wild Animal Park
Tide Pools
Josh and I went to the temple and to a fondue restaurant
Jason and the boys had a Bolt party
Golden Spoon
Mario Kart (Nathan is obsessed)
and of course all the little details in between! Wow! Today we are recovering.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Food Storage Made Easy


A couple of months ago my friend Melissa told me about a great website:
Food Storage Made Easy

I signed up. This is how it works. Every 2 weeks they email you with a checklist of activities to do to get your food storage in order. Simple, baby steps. I am only on list 3 right now (and I admit-I haven't completely finished lists 1 and 2 but I will this week). It starts out with Emergency preparedness like a car kit and 72 hour kit. Then moves on to 3 month supply, water and food for a year. But makes it seem more doable because it is in small steps.

You can sign up for free or they are now offering all of their materials in a cute binder for $17. (And I can win a free binder by telling you about this site which is part of the reason why I am telling you about it although I had planned to blog about it at some point anyway.)

Anyway, if you are wanting to get your emergency preparedness in order, this is a great way to do it!

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Master Dallen

With two big brothers who are obsessed with superheros and Star Wars (although I have never let them watch any of these shows, they are just picking it up from Nathan's school), I guess some of it was sure to rub off on Dallen. Lately we have found him walking around wielding a light saber and making the light saber sounds. The stick he is holding in this video is what the boys use as their light sabers. You have to listen very carefully to hear his sound effects.