Holy Deliciousness Batman!

I made French BREAD! Whoa! We didn't make a lot of bread growing up, at least not the kind that you had to let rise and all that jazz. My Mom got this recipe for french bread and said it was pretty easy so I gave it a shot. It was easy and turned out great. {I had to taste it for Quality Control purposes.} I'm making Chicken Parmesan for our dinner and also taking dinner to my friend that just had a baby.
Ryan knew I was taking dinner to the Willyerd's so he asked, well how much bread does the recipe make? I told him 2 loaves. His next question was, do we get to keep one of them? He loves his bread. I can't wait for him to try it!
I just wish I had timed it better so the bread was ready closer to dinner time. I wanted to build in some buffer time in case it was disastrous and I needed to go to Fry's or something.
Here's a picture, straight out of the oven.
Should anyone express interest, I'd be happy to post the recipe.

Anniversary and sick again!

Hopefully we are getting all of the illness for the whole year out of the way now.
Joshua still has a bit of a cold.
Ryan got the flu. Poor guy!
I had some sort of ailment that could not be fully classified as a cold or the flu, just a mix of both maybe.
Morgan had me worried that she had the flu because she vomited, but I think that was just overeating. She and I are both getting used to her sleeping for an eight hour stretch at night.

All the above means that we were sick for our anniversary, again! I don't remember what our problem was last year, but I know my Mom brought us dinner because we couldn't really go out.

By last night we were both feeling good enough to eat, so Ryan went and picked up Rosati's. Yum!

Ryan and I don't often wax poetic on the qualities we love about each other, or the depth of our love for one another, but I love him very much and I hope he know that. I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful partner for now and forever. Being sick on our anniversary was lame, but we really took care of each other and it was nice to both give and receive service from my husband.
If you asked me five years ago what I would be doing five years in the future, I would have never imagined that all of these wonderful things could happen:
- Met and fall in love with a fantastic man
- Marry said fantastic man
- Get Married
- Buy a House
- Have two wonderful children

I can't wait to see what happens next!
Happy 4th anniversary sweetie!!

Oh and what anniversary post would be complete without a picture of us on that happy day.

Free at last!!

As of last Friday, Joshua is pacifier free! Woohoo! Starting a week ago Friday we started telling him that in 7 days he was going to be a big boy and throw his pacifiers in the garbage because he didn't need them anymore. We played it up and everyday we did the count down. Joshua started telling me, "Yeah, I know," every time I would tell him he was throwing away his pacifiers. We didn't think he really understood because he is quite attached to his pacifiers. He even threw us a curveball by getting a cold. We held strong though.
Come Friday night, we go upstairs and collect all the pacifiers and come back downstairs to the trash. He threw them away, without any fits or anything. He also went right to sleep without any fuss. We were patting ourselves on the back for how well everything went and thinking we were pretty awesome parents. That is until on Saturday morning, Ryan went to get Joshua out of his bed and there he is sucking away on a pacifier. Joshua is already pulling fast ones on us. We pulled everything out of the bed, looking for strays so I don't quite know where Joshua had that one hidden. He's a smart one.
Saturday's nap was pretty disastrous, although he did eventually take one. Saturday evening was probably only about 20 minutes of crying before he went to sleep. He's slowly getting better. He has made me pull out the crib so he can look for pacifiers behind it. He does also check the dresser from time to time where they used to be kept.
We've given him two stuffed animals to hug if he gets sad and my Mom sewed him a Thomas sheet to sleep with.

It hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be. We did wait this long to do it, because I knew I had to be completely ready to not give in. My resolve is as strong as ever. The only time I see myself wanting to give in is crying fits in public. I will just have to learn better tantrum handling techniques.

Why I don't open the door.

Around our house we have a policy of not opening the door unless we know who the person is and we are expecting them. If I'm home alone I won't even go check to see who it is. It's not a very friendly policy, however it is a pretty safe one.
In today's "paper" there was a prime example of why I will continue to do this. A man was shot after opening his front door for someone. This happened at 38th St and Baseline.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2008/05/16/20080516manshot-CP.html

Reading about things like this just seem to deflate me. Hopefully they find their suspect and convict him of his crime.

Devils Food Garden Party Cupcakes

The wait is over! Here are the cupcakes I made for the cake auction. These were done using a candy technique I found over on Bakerella. I would have done a step by step of how I did them, but Bakerella already did that. There are of course a few things I would change(the candy to cupcake ratio is a little on the high side I would say), but overall I'm happy with how they turned out.

Hopefully the kiddos will be feeling well enough that I can stay and see the auction instead of just dropping them off.



Oh and should you have any interest in doing some cool candies yourself, let me know. I'd love to help you create the "stencils" for them. I think that's as much fun as making the candies themselves.

Detritus

Lots of odds and ends today.
Both kids have runny noses. {Sad face}
After much assertiveness at the Circuit City in Goodyear, I got the copies of Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros Brawl for the Wii that they claimed they had on the phone. {I recommend making someone physically check that they have something and not just trust the computer system.}
I got a fancy new chocolate phone{When Mother's Day niceties go wrong.}


The only way to get in some computer time is to let Morgan eat my hair.{yuck!}

Tonight/tomorrow I am decorating some cupcakes for our Ward's cake auction. {pictures to follow}

Recipe Exchange Part Duex

Today was the second recipe exchange. It was lots of fun, although my kiddos were not so cooperative. I had to wake Joshua up at 10:15 this morning. He was even more clingy than usual, if that is possible. He didn't eat much all day today, he must not be feeling very well. He doesn't have any symptoms of illness though, so who knows.
I had to wake Morgan up from a nap to get there on time, so she wasn't in that great of a mood either. I didn't end up trying all the different foods because I was worried I was going to make a gigantic mess trying to wrangle the little ones and eat. I'm glad I have the recipes though.

I've put all the recipes up on the blog, so go check them out! The link is over on the right side of the page.
Perhaps some more from me in the next day. I have some awesome pictures of what happens when your Mother's Day chocolate bar gets left in your purse, in the car. My cell phone had to pay the price. Ick!

Sisters in Blogging

Yesterday I had several mental leaps and ended up thinking it would be cute to change the lyrics of "As Sisters in Zion" to "As Sisters in Blogging."

I've also included the actual music should you feel the desire to sing it. (click on the picture to see it full size.) You can listen to just the tune of the song at http://www.lds.org/churchmusic/ using the Interactive Music system.

If you think it is cute or funny, please feel free to pass it on. Do please include a link back to my blog or my name. Please enjoy!

As Sisters in Blogging

As sisters in blogging, we'll all link together;
The blogs for our fam'lies and kids we will share.
We'll build up our friends list with earnest endeavor.
We'll post lots of pictures and updates each week.

Fam'ly hist'ry our aim; and new friends a bonus.
We tell of our struggles and Faith we impart.
To post whatsoever is funny and charming,
To cheer and to uplift each sister in turn.

Elder Ballard said take part in new media,
And blogs are a great way to follow his charge.
So comment on blogs as you'd like to have comments
and share the joy of the gospel day by day.

Grocery Shopping Tips

This is a follow up to my tales of grocery shopping with two small children. I've noticed that certain things work better than others and so I will share. Most of it is common sense, but maybe you'll learn something new. Please feel free to add your tips in the comments. I could clearly use them.

1. Shop with a list, your visit will be shorter and therefore your children happier.
2. Make sure you bring a snack for your kids or make sure they are well fed before you go.
3. Stealthfully put favorite food items in the cart or at the end of your excursion. Example: bananas. Joshua will whine for bananas the whole rest of the trip if he sees them in the basket. With items that are sold by the pound, you can't exactly let them have some and pay for an empty package.
4. Utilize the area under the main basket. I usually stash the diaper bag there as well as bulkier items. This keeps toddler hands from tearing through the diaper bag, and keeps it from being buried under the groceries should I need it in a hurry.
5. Organize your basket by food type. E.G- Perishables, non-perishables, fragile items etc.
6. Use your cart organization to help you organize your shopping bags.
7. When using a cashier put your heavy items on the belt first. (These items will go back into your cart first, and avoid crushing the eggs, bread, etc.)
7A. Also put your refrigerated items on the belt together, increasing the likelihood they will be bagged together.
7B. If necessary, shuffle items around in your bags later on yourself. This is important to me because I want the cold items to help keep each other cold. I also then know which bags have a priority to make it into the house. (Yes, I routinely leave non-perishables in the car until the kids are napping, Daddy comes home, or whenever.)
8. Use a self checkout so you can bag and load your groceries however you want.
9. Avoid the express lane. I find that with two small children, nothing is ever express. I would just as not feel the death stares from five people behind me because I am buying three items, but have six coupons, a screaming kid, a dropped sippy cup, etc.
10. If you can, go when someone else can watch the kids. :)


What works for you??

Tetris anyone?

Grocery shopping with two small children can be described as a challenge at best and a downright nightmare at its worst. In a standard shopping cart, I put Morgan's carrier in the seat and Joshua sits in the main basket. Well I have a hard time seeing around/over the carrier and then Joshua is getting all knocked around in the basket. Plus, there is virtually no room for groceries. It's a bit like playing Tetris, how to fit the most groceries neatly in the cart without actually burying Joshua in the process. That is why I am a big fan of Costco, their carts have two seats. However, not everything needs to be purchased in bulk and it is pretty far away.
Some stores have the shopping carts that look like race cars and those are good and bad. Good because Joshua LOVES them and bad because if he sees one, but we can't use it for whatever reason, he throws a fit. He also usually has a fit when he has to get out of the cart. The race cars at my local Fry's have two seats in them, which I think I need to take advantage of more regularly. Here is a picture of a Home Depot cart. Fry's are the same style and design, just different colors.




All of this set-up takes us to my shopping trip today. I decided to brave it and go during a peak SAHM(stay at home mom) shopping time, 10:30am. I drove up and down the aisles to see if I could find an unused race car. None in the parking lot, but one by the exit. I find the closest spot I can and book it to the cart. Diaper bag, purse, and 18 lb baby on one arm, and Joshua's wrist in my other hand. I decided the best course of action was to keep Morgan out of the carrier and she could sit next to Joshua in the seat. Well, as I load Morgan into the seat and buckle her in, Joshua totally loses it. Joshua did NOT want to share his sweet sweet ride. On top of that, the seat belt in those things are really low on the waist and not much use in helping keep Morgan propped up.
I am so bummed I did not have a camera, because it was so cute and hilarious all at once. Joshua is screaming his head off, and Morgan is just sitting happy as can be, propped up with her blanket and my purse.
Here is the good news, Joshua calmed down eventually. Once he figured out he could still have both steering wheels, he was okay with the arrangement. He also found it amusing that from time to time Morgan's foot would manage to turn the steering wheel and she was driving with her, "Foot! Foot!" The better news is that I had a full size shopping basket to fill to my hearts content.

Two last little tidbits about grocery shopping.
1. I use the self-check lines almost exclusively. So today I had to hand every grocery item to Joshua, so he could hand it back to me and I could then scan it. (He got used to handing me items when he sat in the basket.)
2. The other day I brought those plastic reusable shopping bags and actually used a real cashier. I think the cashier's need some training on bagging with those reusable bags. Just because a gallon of milk, a 1/2 gallon of milk, and an 8 lb pork roast will fit in one bag, doesn't mean you should do it.

I think tomorrow I will post a list of tips for grocery shopping with kids. It's pretty much an art.

Slippin' and a Slidin'

This last weekend was Capper's 2nd birthday party. There was a slip and slide there, which sadly neither of my children liked. Joshua was having a very timid day or something and wasn't at all interested. The best I could get from him was to stand in the spray of water if I was holding his hand. Oi!
I put Morgan down for a minute and she didn't like that at all. I did get two pictures though.

Hairbows

On Friday night my best friend Monica was in town for her sister's wedding, so we "crashed" the wedding reception. It was a lot of fun. I made a headband to match Morgan's dress and wanted to get some pictures before the wedding. Joshua was feeling like he wanted to pose for the camera too! So here are my two cuties. (FYI- That is NOT what Joshua wore to the reception)



It's a good thing we got some pictures because Morgan's headband has gone MIA. I had it in my hand on Saturday morning to take with us and it never made it to the diaper bag and I can't find the thing anywhere. Oi! She did get some comments about how cute her outfit was at the wedding.

Google images get to know you

I don't usually do things like this, but I thought this was cute.
Do a google image search, and pick a picture from the 1st page of results.

1. Age at next birthday: 27


2. A place I'd like to visit: Alaska


3. A favorite place


4. One of my favorite things to do: Scrapbooking/Crafts


5. One of my favorite foods: mexican food


6. My favorite flower: orchid (I don't really have a fave)


7. Favorite color: pink and brown




8. City I live in



9. Name of a past pet: Seacrest(when you have a lot of fish, you run out of names)



10. Nickname I've had: Ash (but please don't call me that)




12. First job:

13. Hope for 2008