FARM

I want to be a farmer. It might not ever happen. In the meantime I can pretend.

We planted grass seed in a glass pan about a week ago. In the snow, on the deck. It was a fun way to play in dirt and trick us into believing that spring was here. Then both boys were great about watering and making sure it had a lot of sunshine to grow. After a few days we were thrilled to see sprouts! Then we added our PLAN toys farm set that we have had for ages, but this made it much cooler.

Crafting and Me

Im not a crafter, But I have all these things in my head that make me wish I was. Then steps in Allie www.reallyquitelucky.blogspot.com/ She is pretty much amazing, I will be telling her these fun ideas like oh I wish I could make blah blah, and then shes like OH YOU CAN! and she really means it, then she shows me how, or just does it for me :) So far I have learned to make ties, paint furniture, and this above is the latest, she has this silhouette machine and its amazing. Stay tuned, I will become a crafter!

I hear voices

Yesterday.6:22AM. Brody- 'Im up! Im awake! What are we doing today? Can i play the Wii? Im hungry.Im bored. Get up please." I offer to let him crawl in bed and watch a cartoon. Denied. He also now managed to wake up Zane who mysteriously is also in bed with me and both dogs. Dev is off to work already. Get up, offer cereal for breakfast, how about toast? yogurt? no you cannot have fruit snacks  already. no you cannot have chocolate chips and marshmellows this early. Please put the marshmellows away. Change Zanes diaper. Change my t shirt because the diaper beat me and now we are both wet. No Brody you cannot play the Wii already, think to myself that he plays way too much Wii, have a moment of mother guilt because I probably let him play way to much. Tell Brody to get dressed. 5 minutes later tell him again. Then tell him sorry, you cant wear shorts to school today, its too cold. Comes back out with pants over the shorts upset because things down below are way too bulky. To both boys- um maybe lets save super loud whistles for an outside game. Put in laundry load uno, tell the boys to come inside, zane still in unsnapped pj's, neither wearing shoes, explain the neighbors definatly do not appreciate the super loud whistle blowing pre 7am, Brody points out that I said it needed to be played outside,so they went outside. I have a tally sheet in my head and feel like Brody just beat me at whatever that was.Internal  debate, shower now or exercise?? Try breakfast suggestions again, success! Set the timer for cartoons. Shower. That was a silly notion to think I was actually going to exercise. Mother guilt again. I should have exercised. Everyone is dressed! Do the dishes, which didnt get done last night because I decided to read and watch my shows after bedtime. Have an intense conversation with Brody about school, he has decided he hates pre school, back of my mind over think this and I stress about years to come of hating school.Switch laundry. Drop Zane off at friends house, take school protester to school, still protesting, take myself to the dentist to have a cavity filled. More guilt. Check phone messages after the dentist with my mouth all numb and not being able to talk right. Crap, fridge man can to fix the fridge, I wasnt home. I swear its on my calender for the 24th. Call him back, try to explain the confusion, add to the confusion because my mouth doesnt work and he cant understand me. Pick up Brody, protesting has ceased. He had fun and discovered he runs faster then Carson, pick up Zane. Hang out at friends so I can ignore my to do list at home. Mouth feels better, call fridge man. Go home. Lunch. Negotiate Wii time. Nap time. Not for me, just Zane. I wish I was 2. Laundry tres. Load of dishes dos. I hate hand washing dishes. I will fill the dishwasher with 4 pots and run it. Sorry environment. Make brownies for girls supper night, burn the brownies. Curses! Make the brownies again. Munch on the burnt pan from the middle where its not so crusty. Wish I would have exercised. Deliver the news that Wii time over. Pat myself on the back for sticking to the time allowed. Story time, play time, 100 rounds of chikaboom, Zane is up and happy. Send Brody to friends house to play. Teach Zane letters and colors and play. Give kisses and snuggles. Daddy's home. Frozen pizza in the oven, brownies frosted. Change clothes, end up wearing capris because jeans are still in the wash and evindently Im out of clean pants. Laugh with the girls, eat good food, come home to sleeping husband and boys. Life is good.

Just lately..

Brody has always been pretty indpendent and I appreciate that, there are some small downfalls like wearing shorts pretty much year round and often having some HUGE messes. But thats ok, its all about learning. Well the other night he needed an after supper snack of course, so cereal was his choice. Here is what he came up with.

This is a mixing bowl!! Full of corn pops. Like half a box, complete with half a liter of milk. Lovely.

Im a big fan of oldies. Call me a nerd I dont even care. I think its happy wholesome music and puts me in a great mood. I was lucky enough to get my parents old records and I think its heaven to lay here and just listen and enjoy. Often well reading :) 

YELLOW!

For a long time I loved green. So I painted a lot of walls green in our house, then my favorite was organge for a bit, but I traded that in for YELLOW! Oh how I adore yellow. Here are some ways I've celebrated my new fave.

This shelf was a nice finished wood. Why not paint finished wood?? Its totally allowed. So I did. Then I claimed the first 2 shelves but said the kids could have the bottom two. We are still in the process of seeing how much we can put on there.



Remember when my Dad was here? I wish I had a before and after picture of the downstairs bathroom. But I didnt. Here is the after though. Such a great job!

Yes, I will take the shower curtain down and iron it now that I realize how wrinkled it is.

Bountiful AND Beautiful

This is mostly for my Canadians. I am still in awe at how cheap things are here in the States compared to wonderful Canada. Especially food. There is a fun thing here called Bountiful Baskets, its a co-op, you order online and then can pick up every Saturday morning this wonderful array of fresh fruits and veggies. For an amazing price of  $16.50! AMAZING! Anyways, it always varies, you dont get to pick what you get so its a nice suprise every time. Here is what was on Saturday.

Recipes

Sweet Pork

4 lbs pork loin

1 C salsa or picante sauce

1 C brown sugar

½ C sprite or other soda

Cook in crock pot for 8 hours on low. Until pork is tender and falls apart when twisted with fork. Then shred.

Cilantro Lime Dressing

 2 cloves minced garlic

1 bunch cilantro leaves

¾ C mayo

¾ C buttermilk

1 lime zest and juice

Tabasco to preference

1 pack hidden valley powder ranch mix

Green salsa or green chillis.

Add all ingredients to food processor or chopper and mix until creates green paste and all cilantro is fine.

Sour Cream Lemon Pie

3 ½ TBS cornstarch

1 C sugar

2 TBS lemon zest

½ C lemon juice (concentrate or fresh, fresh will give a pulp texture)

3 egg yolks- beaten well

1 C milk

¼ C butter

1 C sour cream

Combine milk, sugar, corn starch,eggs,lemon zest,  and lemon juice in pan. Cook on medium heat until thickens, this takes a while. It will be THICK- like pudding. Don’t overcook, stir constantly. Once thick remove from heat and add butter, stir until butter is totally melted. Set aside to cool to room temperature. Then stir in sour cream.  Pour into graham cracker crust or tart shells. Refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving.  

Do I always have to have a title?? What If its just a nothing post???

Yes that is a real question, I need blog classes, I dont want to always have a title, I need a blog that lets me file things away like KIDS, or FUN STUFF, or RECIPES. Because all this is is pictures of my kids this morn because they were so cute you had to pinch their cheeks and then some promised recipes. But while im at it, I will also confess that I seem to be a tad grouchy this afternoon, I am exhausted, I subbed for primary and decided that this should be a paid job, (well paid at that!) Wow, It was Brodys class, so I had 7 boys 4-5 years old, they are good kids but man alive that was a long day, most of my grumpiness is from my own doing, church is at 12:30, I decided to spend my time this morn digging out all the 3t boxes of clothes looking for things that might fit Zane right now. Success! The little brown suit in the pics was found, but we came home from church to a 4 tote-torn apart MESS. Which started in the storage room where the totes are kept and seriously left a trail all the way up the stairs, thru all bedrooms and the living room. It really was all my fault. Not my fault though is the 78 decks of various playing cards that are also all over. Sunday is a day of rest, so I am resting. Here are some happier highlights, we went to Disney on Ice, it was wonderful, I learned that we might need more Disney in our life because even though Brody loved the show there was many a time he looked at me and asked, Who is that?? Pretty much all the princess's. We also are going to take a day and ride the SLC trax for hours because it is super great when you are five. Oh, AND here is something so good, Allie intorduced me to a precious toy store, not a lame run of the mill toys r us, but a magical place filled with magical things and makes you never want to leave. I am counting down the days until I go back. Here is something funny, we had a birthday diner in Logan last night for Dev's Grandma and his Grandma's sister (who turns 103!) anyways, they are both sweet old ladies and came walking in with their pretty white hair all nicely poofed out and wearing these red shirts, Dev says to us, " Its the Mrs. Clause Twins" I feel happy about marrying someone who will always have the ability to make me laugh until I think im going to pee my pants.

ok, that is all.

One day I will learn how to make these ties. Add it to the list.

One day Brody will master the art of smiling a bit more naturally.

And one day I will be able to actually take a good picture

March Madness

Oh hello merry month of March. As you can see days are filling up quickly, good news is it is mostly fabulous stuff (minus dentist visits!) On the to do list the next few days:

Bid farwell to my wonderful father for working so hard on our downstairs bathroom, it needed some serious help! And it got it. Pics to come. Hope you like yellow. I do, you'll see.

Clean up like crazy from all the dust and mess that renovations bring along.

Make an insane amount of cafe rio pork, then shred it. Enough to feed 50 fabulous ladies on Wednesday. Ill post the recipe, if you have not had this you are really missing out.

Make cheesecakes and sour cream lemon tarts, also to feed fabulous ladies.

Welcome Randy and Jude (Dev's fantastic parents) It has been WAY too long. We have started the countdown.

Disney on Ice! Fantastic seats to boot!

Boutiful basket pick up. Its like a fabulous cheap food grab bag with all sorts of fresh produce and deliciousness.

Trip to Logan for Grandma Dora's B-day and to see great family.

In between we will also see the dentist because thats what you do, like it or not. Swim lessons continue, I am also eagerly waiting for a trip from the whilpool man to fix the touch screen on the fridge so I can lock the water dispenser. Zane thinks a swimming pool in the kitchen is a great idea. I dont.

Mess

Dear Mess

I have decided to embrace and love you. You are living proof of  a good time, of imagination and childhood at work, of a meal prepared or cookies frosted. You mean that toys bought were money well spent. That memories are being created, smiles are shared and time is being spent together. Your not so bad. Sorry for being such a hater.

Im pretty sure that I told Zane we needed to put some toys away, He said YES MA'AM and then saluted me, right as I snapped this picture. Ok, not really,  but its fitting.

Camera.. ACTION!

Lets see if this works..

Birthday Finale

Yesterday was the official big five. Brody woke up and we took him downstairs to this:

Excited doesnt come close to doing the reaction justice. It was pretty fun. More then once I have said 'If it hits the ceiling we need to stop" He can get this going like you would not believe! It is big enough for 2, maybe even 3, Zane isnt such a fan if hes riding with Brody, he likes it when it goes nice and calm. We had a hard time finding a good place to put it, so now I need to do some furniture moving to accomodate the swing.

After taking some rides Dev and Brody went to Mcdonalds for breakfast and to play on the gym thing. Then we all headed to the Treehouse museum Awesome place!www.treehousemuseum.org/  Highlights were the milking cow and giant chess board. Brody picked Red Lobster for lunch (lucky us!) I forgot the camera so sorry, no pics of the fun!
 Then we headed home to have a family party.

For diner I told him id make him anything he wanted. His desired menu:

Grilled Cheese and ham- no crust

and

Mashed potatoes and gravy.

So random :) But that is what we had. with some fruit and veggies.

Then I made 35 of these:

Rice Krispie treats with licorice five's. Id pick doing these over cupcakes anyday.