Like Mother, Like Daughter . . .

Happy Birthday Ansen!

Okay, I'm way behind . . .

Ansen's 32nd birthday was last Monday (St. Patrick's Day)! We celebrated with my family Sunday since it was Ryan's birthday too and he was here (birthdays come to 2's all year in my family). Then Monday the girls and I took balloons and lunch to Ansen's office. Addie and Liv loved it, but the frosty in the carpet, french fry grease all over his chairs, fighting over the balloons and sprite spilled on the desk was not Ansen's idea of fun. It sounded like a good idea . . . We had Ansen's favorite dinner and then more great cake. Ansen didn't really want anything particular for his birthday this year, so I figured this would be the perfect year to get Ansen a bike. He said he'd never ride a bike again after his mission, but he was actually excited about it. We'll see how it goes this summer! HAPPY BIRTHDAY (again) ANSEN!

2000

2001 (On the Cruise)

2003

2004 (at the Birthday breakfast -so, yes in his Gs)

2005

2006 (Ansen & Ryan -one of the more disastorous cake experiences)

In honor of Ansen's birthday, here's one of my favorite stories for the pages of

IDIOT ACTS

by Ansen & Ashleigh Hatch

I think we'd been married 2 1/2 years, when we came up with a brillant plan. A couple of Ansen's friends found out that you could sell cinder blocks back to Home Depot and Lowe's for $2. Since it was the end of school and everyone was moving home for the summer there were cinder blocks everywhere. We came up with this idea to make money by finding cinder blocks and then selling them all back. We set the plan in action at 2:00 in the morning when Ansen got home from work (this is where our horrible night owl habits began-college). We wore all black, just for effect, and drove around "stealing" all the cinder blocks lying around apartment complexes all over Logan. We'd fill the trunk and back seat of our Taurus (our first of four Tauruses) until the car rims were riding on the tires. We'd head home, dump off our load, and then hunt for more. We spent most of the night doing this. Since we were also still newlyweds we had fun all night playing "funny games" with eachother like driving off while the other one is running down the road carrying 2 cinderblocks and so on. We also spent the whole night discussing how we would spend our whole $200 (remember the poor college student life?). We didn't get home until about 2 or 3 hours before I was suppose to be to work for the whole day, but it was going to be all worth it.

Anyway, Saturday morning Ansen and his friend load them into his Explorer and head down to bring home the dough. Pretty soon Ansen calls to see how I want to spend my $10. Turns out too many people had returned them and they were now only buying them for 15 cents per cinder block. I think we ended up with barely enough to go out to dinner. We were both so sore for a week afterward from carrying the cinder blocks . I couldn't lift my arms high enough to do my hair.

This was probably pretty typical of mine and Ansen's first 5 years of marriage. We still laugh everytime we think about it. Ahh, the memories!

9 Tries Later . . .

I look at Natalie's cooking blog and I'm in wonder that people enjoy cooking THAT much. I cook for survival really. Now granted "survival" comes quite often throughout the day around here. I'm here to announce that after 9 years, I have finally MASTERED a German Chocolate Cake (from scratch)! Ansen loves German Chocolate cake and I have tried every year since we started dating. I've gone from disaster to disaster. Two years ago Ansen even scraped all my frosting off, bought store frosting and re-frosted his own cake. But this year it was perfect! I'm even going to admit that there was left over frosting which I ate with a spoon the next day because it was just that good!

The second try . . .

And though this year a picture of the just the cake was fully deserved, I didn't get one.

Who would have thought . . .

So I want to share this revolutionary idea, that I alone have come up with.

Eating good foods is good for you and exercise never hurts.

Last fall I started getting more interested in improving our eating habits. Ansen got me Jessica Seinfield's Deceptively Delicious cook book, which I'm still trying stuff, but I love it. It's a book of recipes that you sneek pureed vegetables into all your meals. So far I know I will never make cookies again without a can of chick peas and I will never make spaghetti sauce without pureed carrots mixed in. The brownies with spinach and carrots weren't horrible either.

In January, my friend Tori and I decided to start a "healthy lifestyle" contest where good food and exercise gets positive points and bad eating get negative points. Anyway, it's +5 points for the first 3 servings of fruit and veggies and then +5 more points for the next 2 servings of fruit and veggies. I didn't jump on the exercises thing for the first month, but I ate 5-7 servings of fruit and vegetables everyday. And here's what happened . . . .

I have so much more energy now!

I need lots less sleep, I feel great all day and even have energy to go to the gym at nights now. I'm a night owl (meaning 1 or 2 a.m.), but my kids still get up by 7:30 and a 15 minute power nap is working perfect for me now. I completely attribute this to fruits and vegetables! The more f & v I eat, the more energy PLUS I'm full and I eat less crap. Anyway, if you're lacking energy, give it a try.

Here's my "power drink" that has almost replaced my "nap-time Diet Coke." Fill your blender full of spinach and orange juice. Blend it up, add berries, yogurt, 2-3 bannas, honey for sweeteneer, or whatever. If you use the darker berries (blueberries or blackberries) then you get a purple drink. If you just use strawberries, it's pink with a green tint, but either way YOU CANNOT TASTE THE SPINACH. I make full blender and then pour it into seperate cups to freeze for another day. Addison and Olivia love it too!

WARNING: It's been tested and this drink (and theory) is not invincable, but it helps.

P.S. I know many of you have already caught onto this new idea, so this for those who haven't.

My Incredible Patience!

So, our fun for this week . . . I checked on Ollie and she was playing with a basket of toys in my room so I decided to go un-rope her crib while I talked to my brother-in-law on the phone.

*Side story-A week or so ago, I put Olivia down for a nap and I started hearing all this banging on the walls and blinds. I decided I had to check and low and behold she had broken the crib again and she was swinging two of the side slants around hitting the the walls and blinds. Anyway, I glued it and had to rope it together while it dried.

So back to the story at hand . . . pretty soon (minutes) Olivia comes in with nail polish all over her chin and teeth saying "yucky." Great. Clothes are covered, socks are covered, hands are covered, where else? Nail polish all over the bathroom floor and Olivia with a big, big smile. Her big smile and big personality really goes a long way. I hope I never forget her funny face when she comes in to tell me the nail polish she is eating is "yucky!"

(I've debated on whether to mention that while I was cleaning up she found my tampons and that ladies, is a clean, unused tampon applicator in her mouth. But it almost needed to be said so that you really see the humor of the whole situation.)

(This picture is just for me, my final good-bye to one of my favorite outfits that Addie had.)

So, we finally decided that Ollie needs absolutely no access to the bathroom. The bathroom brings no good . . . toothpaste smashed in the carpet, TP unrolled all over the place or stuffed in the toilet, my contact case MIA, the bathtub water running for who knows how long, feminine supplies all over, toothbrushes regularly missing and then later found in a less than preferable places . . . you get the picture.

In her defense, I took Liv to work with me all morning, running my errands, meeting with clients, etc. and she was an absolute doll! She just has her "harder" moments!

Oh and P.S. To add to the "fun" of this week, my car lost it's transmission to the tune of $2,700. Love it, absolutely love it. Good-bye fenced yard, maybe next year!

Calling all NASCAR fans!

Ansen's brother, Chris, was here last weekend. Chris and Ansen go to the Las Vegas Nascar race every year (I know) and they love it. Chris is in law school in Connecticut and he doesn't have Spring break for another week, Ansen is in the middle of big-time busy season, but why would that hold anyone back from Nascar? We had a fun time with Chris here. We took him to the Dinosaur Museum Friday, they went to Vegas Saturday and Sunday, Monday we hung around and then went to dinner with David (their friend they grew up with in Maine that lives here now), Tuesday we went to Rubio's (Chris' Utah Favorite) for lunch and then to the airport. I guess we didn't do anything huge, but Addison had a lot of fun with Chris. She keeps telling everyone that Chris calls her Addie the Great! And now being sincere, I'm really glad that Ansen and Chris get to do things together (even Nascar) and I'm glad it's a priority for them to be together. Thanks for coming Chris!

Insert side comment here-Ansen claims that Nascar is the most watched sport in the US. And amazingly enough, women make up over 40% of the fan base. This I cannot believe. He also says that watching the race on TV is fine, but you won't become a true, converted Nascar fan until you go to a race. This I have heard a lot. He also says that there is nothing that compares to the people watching opportunities at a Nascar race. Now, this I believe.

The Winds of Change

I did it! I cut 10 1/2 inches off and am rocking a new shorter bob (which unfortunately has been compared to Posh Spice twice). I had haircut appointments for Addison and I 2 Saturdays ago. I was only geared up for a trim but due to a bad day and semi-melt down (see previous post) I was feeling desperate for ways to simplify my life. I had planned on doing locks of love, but needed a few more inches so my hair would be a little longer after the cut. I saw Melanie's haircut and was inspired to go short and to be honest, locks of love really motivated me too. Ansen has family friends in Maine with a little girl fighting cancer for the second time. I met her this summer and thought of her and other little girls fighting cancer. Anyway, it's just such a change . . . but I keep telling myself "it's for the children." Well, I went for it and after 2 weeks I can finally say I love it!