Shout Out to Moms of Babies and Toddlers

I was lucky enough to watch my friend's baby today. He is such a doll and I love watching him. He is crawling really well now and I knew that, but I was unprepared for what that entailed. I have three children; I've been through crawling and walking three times, but I guess you forget. Babies are fast and they can grab more than you think they can;). I still loved watching him (he has the cutest grin!), but I gained a renewed appreciation for my family and friends who are in the 'baby or toddler stage' with their little ones. I won't take for granted that I can now go places without hauling a diaper bag with me, or that my kids can all walk themselves now. We rarely take a stroller anywhere, Luka walks with me at the store, they can all feed themselves. Little things but it's so nice. So I guess I'm enjoying that our little family is growing up. It's really fun. And besides, I still get to have time taking care of babies for friends and family; the best of both worlds,and now I appreciate it more. I think I am understanding a little bit why Grandparents always say Grandkids are the best; you get to enjoy the cutest little souls who come straight from heaven without the stress of being the parent. So thanks for sharing your little ones with me! And all mother's with little ones- Keep up the good work and know you are awesome!!

Fun With Ananda

Brett surprised me last night with a babysitter so we could go to dinner for our anniversary. Ananda was sweet and came to watch our kids. She is amazing. She could totally just put a movie on and watch it with the kids the whole time and I would be more than happy. But she always does little activities and plays games with them. They are so spoiled by their aunt! This time she made patriotic paper airplanes with them. Thanks Ananda for a great night out!

Cupcake #5- Oreo Cupcakes

These cupcakes were similar to the peanut butter ones. In the bottom of the cupcake is an Oreo. And the frosting is a vanilla butter cream with Oreo bits in it. The chocolate cake is a mix with sour cream added. Yum! Brett says it's his new favorite and I might have to agree (although the root beer float ones were so good I've made them twice now).

10 Years of Brett and Britt P.

Happy Anniversary Baby! I love you forever and back!

Missed Pictures

Things I wish I had taken a picture of yesterday:
* Lukie's bare feet-she took her shoes off everywhere...the dentist, Walmart,etc.
* The boys scrubbing to get sharpie off the front porch
* Saren's hair before and after (very dramatic, and I love her new look!)
* All the hair from Saren's cut, it was my biggest mess yet :) we had a lot of fun!
* What a bathtub looks like when a bag of corn pops cereal is dumped into it.
* A close up of Tuck at his Space Derby for scouts (I did get a few pictures but not close up)
* The pictures of my latest cupcakes (off course I didn't make any so that could be difficult)
* Luka 'swimming' in the bathroom sink. It started out as hand washing then foot washing, she used lots of soap and plenty of water :).

What I'm glad I didn't get a picture of:
* My face at the dentist as I waited to get my two cavities filled. I had to wait a
while, which gave me plenty of time to get nervous about it. I'm surprised they
could even put the filling in with my nervous shaking ;).

p.s.Saren-thanks for being so patient and having fun with me yesterday!

Cupcakes #3 & #4

So continuing in my cupcake-a-thon, my third try was a Pink Lemonade cupcake. Very yummy and a perfect BBQ cupcake I would say. It was very easy to make with a white cake and Pink lemonade concentrate (I forgot the red food coloring to make the cupcake pink, all well). Cupcake #4 was Chocolate Fudge Brownie. Not the best as far as presentation goes, but if your looking for a chocolate fix, this is the cupcake for you! Btw if you want to buy the book it may be interesting to note that so far these recipes have averaged a yield of 18 cupcakes (so they don't last very long :D). P.S these cupcakes are NOT helping me slim down for our trip like I wanted too ;) !

Cupcake #2- Rootbeer Float

My second recipe attempt from the cupcake book. Yuuuuuummmm!

Crazy Hair Day

Today was crazy hair day at school, and this morning Tucker informed me that I needed to "run to Great Clips and get some colored hair gel!" Fortunately he agreed to go with my use poster paint instead plan. Both of them chose purple. My cute little purple people eaters!

DI Love

I was asked to give a little lesson for and enrichment activity on Home Decorating, emphasizing with decorating on a budget and colors. Well this happened this morning and I am still in full anxiety trauma mode so I won't go into too much detail except that I said waaayyy tooo much and way tooo little at the same time. Sigh. But anyhow, for part of my presentation I went to the DI yesterday trying to find a home decor display on a budget to use as an example. This is what I found. The total? -$12.75 for the table, runner, fruit, plate, and yes even the rocks. Not bad?

Kid's Day Party!

On Sunday Clay told Brett and I that there should be a Kid's Day since there is a Mother's Day and Father's Day. Well we decided to surprise all the kids and hold a real Kid's Day party on Tuesday. I bought streamers and balloons and after school I told them that we were going to have a Kid's day party and they got to decorate. They had a blast sticking streamers and balloons everywhere. Tuck said, "I'm going to write about this in my journal!" Which of course made it all worth it. After dinner, we let them each empty a can of silly string (getting Mom with silly string is the funniest!!!). Then we had a pinata (a gift bag that we hit with a wooden spoon). And poppers with streamers. Then it was time for their Kid's Day present. They each got an umbrella and it was perfect timing because it hasn't stopped raining since ;). The kids loved it and it was sooo fun to surprise them -Kid's Day was a success!

Cupcake #1- Peanut Butter Cupcakes

For Mother's Day Brett bought me 101 Gourmet Cupcakes in 10 minutes. Today I tried my first recipe from it. It is written by Wendy Paul from here in Utah. So many talented people. Anyway they were super yummy. It was simple with a chocolate cake mix and peanut butter cups in each cupcake. The frosting is definitely the best part!

Peanut Butter Frosting:
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup of butter, softened
2 cups of powdered sugar
3 TBSP. Milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Yum! I will make more cupcakes from this book, for sure, because it was very simple and I need simple :).

Inevitable

Lukie decided the other day that her dolls needed haircuts. I saw the pile of hair on the floor in her room before I saw her and I was REALLY worried that she had cut her own curls but fortunately she didn't. Poor Rapunzel, I guess Lukie wanted them all to have a more modern look. Except her two Fisher Price dolls who got nice mullets instead. And since we like Disney at our house and especially Toy Story and can't help but imagine one of her newly styled dolls telling the next new one, "You'll like Luka, she's an artist." :)

Silly Faces

Everyday when we pick up Tuck we wait for a few minutes in the car. Luka and Clay can get a little restless because 5 minutes of waiting is an eternity to a kid in a car. Yesterday I took a few pictures of my silly billys while we waited.

4 Wheeler Fun

We took the kids out four wheeling west of Utah Lake for a little bit yesterday. They had a blast! It was so fun to watch them get so excited. I think mommy might want one :).

Just Another Manic Mom Day! .... Happy Mother's Day!

I wish I had the talent to make a super silly music video to this and post it on youtube but here you go anyway. Not terribly original, I know, but I hope it at least makes you smile ;). Happy Mother's Day!

Manic Mom Day
Six o’clock already,
I was just in the middle of a dream.
I was alone on the beach,
Where I didn’t have to do a thing.
But I’ve got to going,
Else the kids are going to be late.
These are the days
When you wish someone would bake you a cake.

It’s just another manic Mom Day.
I will rest someday,
but there’s no done day.
My I just want to run day.
It’s just another Manic Mom Day.

Have to get the kids up
Got to catch the bus by nine.
And if I pull the covers back,
They might get up in time.
Homework, cereal,
Backpack shoes and ready to go.
Get back here! Hug your Mom
She loves ya don”t ya know!

It’s just another manic Mom Day.
I will rest someday,
but there’s no done day.
My I just want to run day.
It’s just another Manic Mom Day.

All of my life
I’ll be a mom all my life
and I guess that’s okay (okay okay).
I’ll keep calm, carry on -
Clean cook shop hug, kiss and play.
I ask them in my best Mom voice,
“All right guys, who made that noise?!”
Time goes so fast..
Come on let’s have fun!

It’s just another manic Mom Day.
I will rest someday,
but there’s no done day.
My I just want to run day.
It’s just another Manic Mom Day.

Easter in Vernal

We went to Vernal for Easter weekend. Brett's Mom did a fabulous egg hunt for the kids. They had sooo many eggs and were so excited. Afterwards when they were checking out their look Luka kept saying 'thank you' over and over. She had a lot of fun. She especially loved the bead necklaces from Grandma. We had yummy food, swam in the hotel pool, and got to visit with Great Grandma Giles too. It was a really good weekend.

Camera Trouble

Well I was doing really well at posting but my efforts have been hampered by a malfunctioning camera. My new Nikon charges the battery right in the camera, but my cable has a short or something and of course it is a hard one to find so I have to order it -long story short, my camera is dead until I can charge it with a new cable (hopefully).

More anxiety at church (I know -really?)

The worst thing for a person with social anxiety is when one of their made up things that could go wrong actually happens. I had to give the opening prayer in church today and stumbled over my words, tried too hard and ended up saying the wrong thing that may have some people questioning my arrogance? I am assured that I am overreacting but I almost couldn't finish because I knew immediately that I'd said the wrong thing. All well. And if you are reading this and are in my ward and don't know what I'm talking about, good!, maybe I got lucky and no one was paying attention. ;D If you can't laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at, eh?