St. Patrick's Day!

We learned this year in carpool on St. Patrick's Day morning, that apparently everyone (but us) leaves a leprechaun trap out the night before.  The leprechaun comes and leaves gold coins and turns the toilet water, milk or something green.  

Also, we found out that my neighbor doesn't know how to spell leprechaun correctly (I didn't know either, but this is one of the reasons I love carpool . . . the tidbits of information that come out of a child's mouth).

I had to hurry home from school drop off and set a trap, hoping he would still drop by our house.

Luckily when Banna came over for Ansen's birthday she caught one in the driveway.  I never got the whole story . . . either she kicked him or he kicked her . . . but I did hear the screaming.

The kids were excited to get their gold coins.

Next year, we'll make sure we get our trap ready and set.

Winter Weekend

We went to Robbins' cabin at Bear Lake for another winter weekend and as usual, had a GREAT time even though we got started later than we wanted due to a huge storm (and just our van). 

But it did make for great sledding and a little snowmobiling the next day. 

It was BEAUTIFUL (and I rarely call snow beautiful)! 

I didn't get any pictures of Liv on the snowmobile and she was bummed because she was "so cute."

My favorite part . . . okay, it wasn't my favorite part, but I loved it . . . was playing Super Nintendo Mario Brothers (old school) with Brady. 

 (Robbins were on their way to their late afternoon church and we were leaving for our 3 hour drive home,
hence the drastically different clothing and hair choices here.)

Games, food, movies, good talking, laughing and good friends . . . never a disappointment!

Birthday Boy!

We grabbed Addison from school and stopped by our neighbor's house to blow up a bouquet of green birthday balloons for Ansen (P.S. I want my own helium tank for Mother's Day!) and headed up to meet Ansen for lunch.  

I love taking Ansen a big bunch of balloons to work - we've done for the last 6 years.  Of course the kids love it, but I love it too.  I love making a "scene" for Ansen and making him cart around a bundle of balloons (he has to bring them home to the kids).  

The little guy slept through the whole thing.  Dead asleep. Just as we were about to leave I snapped a few pictures and Drew went from DEAD asleep to cheeser smile when he heard the camera click (good boy).

Here he is lifting his head from a sound sleep . . .

and right into a smile . . . (which made them all laugh)

You gotta love the green and that "smile with his eyes" that Drew has tried to perfect.  

And that night we had dinner, cake and ice-cream, presents and the birthday game.

Drew couldn't wait for the ice-cream . . .

and his impatience made him too mad to pose for a picture . . . and Banna scrambled to get him a bite . . .
we'd hate to see him not get his way, you know.
(I still don't understand my camera in the least so we have some bad lighting here)

The girls came up with their own presents again this year.  Addison got a gift certificate to JCW's so she can go on a date with Dad.  And Olivia thought up a Yankees vinyl sticker (courtesy of Mom), but she wanted a BIG one!

and as a finale note . . . I am going to make this bold statement (again) . . .

 I have perfected the german chocolate cake!

After years of practice, I have to admit, I make a wicked good german chocolate cake (and frosting) from scratch!

Happy Birthday Ansen!

Domestic Godness

He doesn't just do hair.  He does the cleaning too. 
(Drew, not Ansen . . . Ansen doesn't really do hair, but he does do cleaning.)

This used-to-be flyswatter, washed well, and turned child's play toy has so many, many uses. 

Drew uses it for everything lately and I'm actually happy to see it used as "mop" as opposed to some of its other creative uses.

My favorite to date, was when he tried to help with the cooking.  With a stool, he tried to stir what was in a the pan on the stove with his flyswatter, turned wooden spoon for the moment.

Either way, it's a $1 purchase I've never regretted.

There was a time . . .

before these little sugarplums entered my life.



There was a time when  . . .

I was appalled that people called before 9 a.m.  Seriously!  People are trying to sleep.  I already had little Addison, but she was on our schedule . . . late nights, late mornings.  Olivia broke us into 7:30 -8:00 mornings and Drew kills us with occasional 5:15 mornings.

There was a time when . . .

my clothes were clean.  When I worked at ZCMI in college, there was this sweet Mom that worked there that always had food on her shoulders from hugs for her kids . . . I know, it's gross.  Sitting at church on Sunday, Ansen kindly pointed out the stuff stuck to the back of the arm of my sweater.  And sadly, it wasn't the first time.

There was a time . . .

when it took a solid week of ciaos and no cleaning to destroy our tiny apartment.  Now it just takes one Sunday or one Saturday to destroy our entire house.  Actually it really only takes 3 hours in the afternoon.  I will forever be perplexed as to why the weekends are so hard.  There are two adults home, we usually all do Saturday morning jobs and Sunday we're at church, we take naps and often go to my mom's. So why? Why is the house a absolute disaster every Sunday night?

5 - 6 - 7 - 8 . . .

And we're at it again. 
She loves it, but the hustle and bustle for the 3 1/2 minute
performance makes me question what we're doing some days. 

But then I realize that I probably won't feel any better about a
3 hour baseball game in July while I'm soaking up some skin cancer. 

They took 1st place at their first competition!

And then 2nd and 1st again (I think) . . . all I know is it means they want us to all go to Nationals in April.

We got to go to the Flash game for the 1/2 time show.

And at her last competition she finally got to be part of the floor flip flop part (I know it has a name, but I can't remember what it is) since she finally got her back hand springs.

The best part of all of it is probably the make-up. 

Glitter, bright red and mascara . . . Olivia is jealous every time. 

Outside again and plus 3 years

It was nice enough for a casual walk this week with the kids. 

I bought this stroller to push a my new, little baby girl and my sweet, 3 year little girl. 

(they're a little bigger in this picture)

And now, I'm pushing my cute, little boy and almost 5 year old dolly with my big, almost baptized, daughter. 

Since so far it's worked out that my kids are spaced with 3 years in between so it's always the same spots, just 3 years later.

On the bright side, I have plenty of people to talk to now,

but it only means I'm getting closer to not even needing to push a stroller!

I can't wait until we're out here a little more, doing a little more of this (well, not really me probably) . . .
just with green grass and green trees and a little more sunshine.

Oh, goodness.

This morning we were in a big hurry (such an unusual day for us . . . there's heavy sarcasm) to get out the door.  I ran downstairs to grab something and ran back up yelling to Drew to meet me in the family room where I had his clothes to throw on him and leave.

After he didn't come (which, of course, was a surprise that my 21 month old didn't come running when called), I went looking for him and found this little guy just putting on the finishing touches (face . . . and hair).

The picture doesn't do justice to the amount of the really thick goo that had already started to harden (it wasn't just gel but I can't remember the name of it right now).

I did my absolute best to make it look "clean" enough for our public outing and boy, he was he happy as a clam.

We ran our errands, came home, ate lunch and while Liv and I were doing whatever in the kitchen, Drew was busy again working on
Phase 2 . . .

with the most expensive toiletry item I own, my face lotion.

This may be a little known fact, but it appears that hair goo and face lotion are interchangeable. 

For Drew, it's a little in the hair and now a little on the face.

Again, he could not have been more proud of his new found ability to style his own hair without a blow dryer and round brush.

We just left it.  I'll deal with it tomorrow . . . 

Olivia swallowed a penny, which I slowly pieced together in between the sobbing. 

"I'm going to tell you the truth.  I swallowed a penny.  And I already went in my room and said a prayer that I wouldn't die and that I wouldn't get sick and die."

Preparedness Part 3 - How much do I get?

So the book Food Storage in a Nutshell will answer this for you.  There's this nifty little chart that takes each item and then tells you the amount you need for 1 person, for 2 people, for 3 people and so on. And there's lot more info than that.  I pretty much think it's the Bible of Food Storage.  Easy peesie, lemon squeezie (that's the family quote now from Addie's 1st grade teacher). 

But what you may not realize . . . did you know that the recommendations for amounts that the church used to give were the amounts that you could SURVIVE on.  Not live on, but survive on. 

Big difference! 

So, of course you need a place to start, but make sure it's where you start and not where you end. 

First things first . . . Inventory.  It's not just an accounting word or just an accounting theory.  You need to go look at what you have, look at the dates, and write it down.  This will do 2 things:  1) Give you a place to start, and 2) maybe it will make you realize (like it did me) that you're pathetically unprepared. 

I went to the cannery and dropped a whole $100 every other month  . . . or was it actually once or twice a year.  I thought I was staying focused on my food storage and moving along okay.  We would not have lasted 1 month and no joke we would have been chewing on wheat kernels and inhaling a few horribly uncared for and thus really bad tasting cans of dried milk.  

And next second suggestion . . . Involve your Husband and here's why. 

1)  Every time I sent Ansen to the store he came home with a huge bucket of banana chips, or 742 servings of blueberry pancake mix.  I was focused and this was not on my list.  BUT, he brought the variety that I wasn't thinking about.  You can get food exhaustion from eating the same thing over and over so variety is good.   He's also helped me fill up our 3-month with a good variety "stuff" (my nice word for mostly junk food - but we still seem to need it).  

2)  You need help because this is a lot of work and it requires a lot of focus.  I gathered mine pretty quick so it was literally a part time job for me and I thought about it all the time.  If I didn't have Ansen doing some shipping, helping me can and carrying my big boxes around I would have died (literally - I was pregnant).

3)  The finances of food storage is easier when you're on the same page, you both understand the importance, and you're both working towards a family long tern goal. 

It's good to be reminded . . .

of how awesome my husband is. 

I already knew Ansen is an amazing guy.  I already knew that he has a great way with people . . . that's how he first caught my eye 13 1/2 years ago.   I was impressed over and over with his talent to be around people in the first years of our marriage.  He has a lot of talents, but this is one in particular I always loved, I always appreciated and it made me most in awe of him. 

As life goes on and life gets busy I forget to be enamoured with this.  And though I know he's amazing, I definitely don't tell him enough. 

So, I like those moments when I just have to sit back and be re-endeared with him all over again.

Three weeks ago I had Ansen drop some stuff off to one of my clients late at night.  Even though I've worked for this guy for almost 5 years, Ansen had never actually met him.  Ansen went over, got stuck on ice in his driveway, dropped the stuff off and came home.  The next day, my client called and left a message about how much he had enjoyed meeting my husband, what a "stud" he was and how calm and collect he was about the frustrating situation.  

I was grateful for the reminder . . . my husband is a stud. 

And before that - Two months ago while Ansen was looking for a job, I was so grateful that the interview process was pretty much a breeze for Ansen.  People and talking do not make Ansen nervous.  Of course, there were 100's of people qualified for the jobs Ansen applied for since the market is flooded, but the two job offers he did get, he got because they loved Ansen. 

They loved his work, his education and his experience, but they really LOVED Ansen. 

I'm grateful to get to be married to Ansen
and that somehow I had something that he loved about me too 13 1/2 years ago.