Who's in Charge Here?/Push Over Mommy

The pictures could speak for themselves, but I love some commentary. Nothing goes better with a nice episode of Dora the Explorer than some Cheetos and a fine apple juice.


I think he's high on the all the Cheesy goodness. Check out that mouse. Yummy!



I think this guilty face says it all. Don't Snack and Surf!



Ryan took this picture this morning. Isn't the sunrise beautiful? I love this weather!!!

Allergy Test Round 2

Today we met with Morgan's new allergist and I liked her a lot. The Doctor at the same practice that we were referred to didn't have a single opening until January, so we went with the first available Doctor. She is very nice and I felt like she was really listening to me and answering my questions.

Little Miss got a skin test and she had a reaction to . . .
1. Milk
2. Eggs
3. Peanuts
4. Walnuts
Here's the proof!


Surprisingly she didn't have a reaction to soybean, which is what we had previously thought would be the most serious allergy.

Thankfully on a scale of 0 to 4 all of her reactions were a 1, except for eggs which was a 2. We have a prescription for an Epipen just in case and we have a fun video to watch about using the Epipen. They also gave us a practice pen so looks like we have a new toy for the Doctor kit.

We are going to test her again in 6 months and pray that the milk and peanut allergies have disappeared by then.

Morgan's birthday cake is going to be DELISH! Poor dear, I don't think she will notice though. I'll make a better one for the family to eat.

The skin test takes about 20 minutes and since we had already been in the appointment for 30 minutes, it was getting pretty boring. A bored blogger mommy means lots of pictures!! Here are two that I thought were the cutest.


One final story. The other day, I was changing Morgan's diaper and therefore she wasn't wearing any clothes. Joshua walks over and says, "Whoa, big belly!" Oh she is going to LOVE him when she gets older.

The flu, allergies, other fun stuff

The last week has been pretty lame and so no blogging. Last Friday we went and saw Joel McHale at Celebrity Theater and it was hilarious. The only lame thing was that I spent the whole time using my Jedi mind tricks to not vomit everywhere. I made it until we got home and then let the flu commence.
Morgan has been teething and so she has been cranky with her nose running like a faucet. I took her to the Doctor to make sure she didn't have an ear infection and to talk to the doctor about her milk allergy. The doctor ordered a blood test and the results came in today. [Ominous doom music] Morgan showed a reaction to milk, egg whites, and peanuts.
We set up an appointment with an allergist and hopefully we can sort this whole thing out a little better. To date her milk allergy seems limited to a skin reaction, so we are praying that the peanut thing is just a false positive or very mild.

Should Jessica read this post. My heart has always gone out to you for all the struggles with Nora's severe allergies. I may be needing some tips on how you manage to not tear your hair out dealing with this stuff.

Lastly on the news front. My car is chirping and the Check Engine light has come on. So.... it looks like my car will be in the shop. Thankfully my awesome and retired mother has volunteered to help us out should the need arise.

I should say that not everything is lame. Yesterday I was able to finally punch my Official LDS Woman card by making dinner rolls from scratch. They are/were yummy too!

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure

This weekend is the Race for the Cure to benefit Breast Cancer research. Some friends of ours, the Coltons, are very personally involved in a battle with breast cancer and they are asking that people can help out and donate whatever they can, to help his Mother's team make their goal. She has stage 4 breast cancer and is participating in the 3 day walk.
Here's a link to the whole story if you want to read it, CLICK HERE

Dan is asking that everyone that reads his post donate at least $5. I would really encourage anyone reading my post to do the same.

Ryan's mother had breast cancer when he was in High School and I bet that you wouldn't have to ask around too much before you found a women that you know who is either currently fighting or has had cancer in the past.

Any donation is tax deductible and they send you an email receipt that makes it very easy to keep track of. Everybody wins!

DONATE NOW

You eat what ?!?

I was thinking about dinner choices and came up with the hypothesis that every family has a dish that is a little odd or could be considered kinda yucky to others.

Example: I ate corned beef hash growing up. It consists of canned corned beef, potatoes, and onion cooked in a skillet. I think it is quite delicious, but I can see how others may find canned corned beef off-putting.

Example 2: One of my husband's favorites is Peas and Tuna. It's a white sauce made of milk and butter, with peas and tuna in it. It is served over butter milk biscuits. Say what? Truth be told, I will eat it now because if I go to the trouble to make a nice dinner for my DH, I am not going to make a separate meal for myself.

So I am curious what weird meals did you eat growing up? Leave me a comment and feel shame no more!

Halloween, Halloween, we love Halloween!

It is a little bit of old news now, but here is how our Halloween went.
We went out to Ryan's parents house and did some Trick or Treating with his Sister Tiffany and her son Capper. He was Buzz Lightyear. The boys were really cute together.
Joshua is a professional Trick or Treater now. He would ring the doorbell, thrust out his bag, get the candy, and then take off running for the next house. He kept saying, "Come on Capper!" because Capper was just not keeping the pace.



After the trick-or-treating we went back to Ryan's parents and ate some yummy Chalupa and just had a really nice time together as a family. Charlie and Misty and their kids were there as well as Nanna and Taisei. The kids played in one room and the adults were in the other. It was awesome!

Joshua and Capper decided to climb under Grandma Becky's old desk and play. Taisei was more into the awesome pink roller skates.


We didn't leave East Mesa until after 9pm! That is way too late for our kids, but everyone was having such a great time. All things considered, it was a pretty smooth car ride home and Morgan didn't scream the whole way.

Halloween 2008 is officially put to rest. I can't wait for next year when Morgan is walking around too. It will be great!

Nap Time To Do List

1. Finish the last of Morgan's b-day invitations
2. Blog about Halloween and post the cute pictures
3. Look up a few random things for my blogging play date tomorrow

INSTEAD I spent the WHOLE time looking at the KBtoys sale. KBToys is having an awesome pre-holiday sale, where you can get some screaming deals. Check it out HERE
Shipping is $.85 a pound so try to take advantage of the items with Free Shipping or buy small things. :)

If you have a laid back family like I do, you can inform Grandma/Grandpa that they just got some awesome deals on Christmas gifts for their grandkids. Everybody wins. Hurry, sales ends November 17 or until they run out of cool stuff.

Don't forget to comparison shop. You can do a google shopping search to make sure you are getting a good deal. (It seems like eToys and KBToys are the same website, go figure)

By Popular demand... Peanut Butter "Cheese" Ball

I took this to Holly's baby shower and it was a big winner. So here is the recipe for the Peanut Butter "Cheese" Ball

Estimated Times
Preparation Time: 15 minutes.
Freezing Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes

1 package (8 ounces)cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
¾ cup creamy or chunky peanut butter (not all-natural)
3 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar
1 ½ cups (9 ounces)NESTLÉ® TOLLHOUSE® SWIRLED™ Milk Chocolate & Peanut Butter Morsels
Graham cracker sticks and/or apple slices

Directions
BEAT cream cheese, powdered sugar, peanut butter and brown sugar in large mixer bowl until blended. Spoon onto a large piece of plastic wrap; bring up all four corners and twist tightly (should form a ball shape).

FREEZE for 1 hour 30 minutes or until firm enough to keep its shape. Place morsels in flat dish. Remove plastic wrap from ball and roll ball into morsels to completely cover (you may find it necessary to press morsels into ball).

PLACE ball on serving dish; cover and freeze for 2 hours or until almost firm. (Can be made ahead. If frozen overnight, thaw at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes before serving.) Serve with graham cracker sticks and apple slices for dipping or spreading.

NOTES:
I used creamy peanut butter
I also used the Dark Brown Sugar but I'm sure you could sub in for light brown sugar.
I did not freeze it as long as it suggested, as I was under a time crunch. So I would be curious to see what kind of difference that would make.
I doubled the recipe and it made enough for a small army.
Based on how much was eaten, I'd say that Apples were a bigger crowd pleaser than the graham sticks. Could be that people were trying to think they were eating healthy by slathering this yummy goodness on an apple.

Also I got the recipe from HERE