She is amazing

So today while I was reading to Belle before her nap, I decided to have her count the kittens on the page with me. She has been into counting lately so I thought she would enjoy it. She counted up to 5! With no help! I couldn't believe it. She is a genius. That or she is a master memorizer. I like genius better.

"Up to?" What do you mean "Up to?"

Since I am way behind on updating on here, I am going to do a month at a time. Starting with May. May was similar to April, filled with silly moments. One day in church, during the sacrament, Beckett was asking to get his belly scratched (his favorite quiet church activity). He pulled up his shirt and looked at his belly button and then declared, not too quietly, "Eww, gross. That's gross!" for all the ward to hear. I had a hard time holding in the laugh that was dying to come out. Not one of my most spiritual sacrement experiences.

Another time, the kids wanted to watch a movie upstairs. I was all for it, since they play up there for about an hour or so and I can get a lot done. As I was starting to go down the stairs, I noticed a black permanent marker sitting out from a previous day of repacking boxes and labeling them. A little voice inside said, "You better take that with you. They will get into it." I mocked the voice and said back, "Naw, they don't even know what it is or how to use it," and went on my merry way, down the stairs. Later, Belle came down and it was time for her nap, so I put her down and felt kind of sleepy myself. Matt had called and told me that he was going to be home soon, so I decided to lay down and catch some Z's. Matt came home and went to check on Beckett watching his movie, then came down and asked me if I had been upstairs since I put on the movie for the kids. I said no and then he said, "Well, you better not go up until after your nap." I asked him if they had made a mess and he didn't really answer me. I decided to take his advice and take my nap first.

After I woke up, I went upstairs. As I am sure you have all guessed, someone (my bets are on Anabelle) had drawn all over the island thing in the middle of the room. It was quite the mural. I wanted to take a picture of it, to post on here, but I took too long to do it because I didn't want you all to see how messy that room is, and then Matt surprised me by painting over it one night while I was at Relief Society. I really appreciated him doing that (and thanks for Kevin for helping him), but a little part of me is sad I didn't get that picture before it was painted over. Oh well, I'm sure Belle will do something similar again. She has already drawn on the walls with crayon in a few places, so I am sure I will get a picture of her art skills another time.

Belle actually let me do her hair in two pigtails in May, and she kept it in for more than an hour, but not much longer. She looked pretty stinkin cute, too. Unfortunately that was it. She does let me put in barrets now, but she fights pony/pigtails when ever I try to put them in. At least she has cute curls in the back, so she doesn't look like a boy without cute things in her hair.

Another day, Beckett and I were playing with his ball and I felt silly and stuck the ball in his pants. He thought it was hilarious! He laughed and laughed. Of course I had to take pictures.

Something fun that we did was go to the "Day out with Thomas" event at the Heber Creeper. This was our second time and we had so much fun. My brother and his girlfriend took us. Beckett loved playing with the train sets they had setup to temp parents to buy them for their children.

We rode the train for about 25min. Beckett freaked out once we were on the train. He started crying and saying something about the stroller being left behind. After we started moving, he started to calm down. This picture was soon after we got on the train.

Here he is after we were going for a while. (This was one of the photos that didn't get restored completely, but at least their faces made it and they are cute)

We also saw Sir Topham Hat, but that picture didn't get restored, unfortunately. The kids got tattoos on their arms and Belle got one on her face. They loved them and were so proud of them. (bytheway, Mary Kay's eye makeup remover gets that off like a dream) They had miniture golf and the kids loved it. I think Matt and I will have to take them again sometime. Another first for the children was eating cotton candy. I had avoided that sweet as long as I could, but caved this time. They loved it except Beckett hated getting sticky. Then we played with the bubbles and each kid got a free toy. That is what Beckett is preoccupied with in the pictures. It was one of those cameras that have pictures inside when you look through the eye hole, and then they change when you click the button. He loved it. Belle didn't quite get how they worked but was happy as can be pretending to take pictures. I love my kids.

Come back later this week to hear about June and Beckett's birthday.

More cooking adventures

I have the misfortune of not having A/C in my house. We do have a window unit that keeps our house decently cool (we have not gotten over 80), for which I am enormously grateful, but it does defer me from wanting to cook much and risk heating my house any more than is necessary. I have recently decided that I want to avoid cooking at all costs. Matt's mother is a very good cook, and has been asked many times for different recipes by many of her daughters-in-law. The Christmas before she left on her mission, she gave each of her children all of her famous recipes. There are two in there that have come in very handy during the summer, when I have no desire to cook. I know of at least one other friend that is without A/C, so I decided to share my delicious finds.



First is Cold Roast Beef Sandwich Pizza.



1 Boboli crust (a previously cooked pizza crust)
1/2 C. cream cheese with chives and onion (in a tub)
1/4 C. mayonnaise
2 Tbsp. creamy horseradish sauce
1 1/2 C. shredded romaine lettuce
1/4 C. Italian salad dressing
1/2 C. deli roast beef, cut into strips
1 chopped tomato

Combine cream cheese, mayonnaise, and horseradish. Spread over pizza crust.
Combine remaining ingredients with salad dressing, toss together and spread over top of crust.


I added cucumbers as well and they tasted wonderful with it. I highly recommend it. Obviously you can alter the "sauce" to your taste and add whatever you think will taste good. It is a fun recipe and very refreshing and different.



Second is Chicken Pita Sandwiches. I don't have a picture of it to show you what it looks like.

1/2 C. mayonnaise
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 C. cooked chicken, cubed (I like to use canned chicken)
1/2 C. cooked rice (if you do not wish to cook the rice, just go buy some cooked rice at your local chinese restaurant)
1/2 C. chopped cucumber
1/2 C. chopped carrot
1/4 C. chopped radishes
1 chopped green onion
3 pitas, halved

Make dressing by combining mayonnaise, lemon juice, and garlic powder. Combine all other ingredients and mix with dressing. Serve in pitas.


This one is very refreshing as well. It is very good in tortillas as well.


If anyone else has any "no cook" recipes, please pass them along. I need all that I can get my hands on.

Attention everyone

I have the next fad diet. It is the Prozac diet. I have lost a pound a week since the start of the summer and 3 inches total off my body with not having to do much exercise. Not bad. The only down side is you have to have depression before you can start the diet. So sorry all you perfectly happy people, you can't do this one. Guess you will just have to do one of those other diets.

Another motherhood initiation

WARNING - if you have a weak stomach or are easily nauseated, do not read!

Well, tonight was a first. This year, my parent's have decided to do something different for birthdays. Rather than do a big party each birthday month with the whole family, they are just taking out each individual out for dinner. Tonight was Beckett's turn. We went to Wendy's because Beckett loves "5 piece chicken nuggets". He ordered them all by himself. I was so proud. He also got root beer, which is a special treat because we hardly ever have pop. We sat down and started eating. It didn't take long before we had to get after him to start eating his dinner and stop drinking the pop. He said, "I can't eat anymore", which is his usually response when he doesn't want to eat anymore. Well, we did what any normal parent would do, we took away the pop until he ate a couple of chicken nuggets. He complained a little and then just laid down on the bench. I thought he was just moping, but after a little while he stood up. Matt commented that he looked pale, and then I noticed it too. It wasn't too long after that that I could tell he was going to throw up. Just as it started to come out, I stuck my hand under his chin to catch it. I don't know why. There was no way I was going to catch it all. It just felt like instinct. (I would like to note that I don't do throw up. I come close to dry heaves when I just hear someone else throw up) When he was done, I went to wash my hands off. Beckett saw me leaving and came after me (he is going through some major separation anxiety lately), leaving a trail of puke dripping off of him all along the way. I felt so bad for the employees that had to clean up after him. I wanted to offer to clean it up, but I had to clean me and him up already. It was not fun and on the embarrassing side, even though there was nothing that could be done to prevent it. My sister came in the bathroom and said that the group of teenage boys that were sitting near us, watched the whole thing and were just staring. I felt so terrible about ruining everyone else's meals. So much for a special meal. Oh, and both children threw up in the car just as we were getting off the freeway. What a night!!

A little help for my friends

So, I just had a big scare. I thought I had lost all of my pictures of "A Day out with Thomas" that the children and I went to last month. Luckily, I had heard Kim Komando (digital goddess) talk about this very situation on her talk show (it is on every Saturday night on 105.7FM). A gentleman had called in and said he could not find his pictures on his memory card from his trip to Europe. He was so sad. It was like 500 photos that were missing. She told him about FREE software available on her website that he could download that would help him retrieve those photos off of his card. So, when I discovered that 95 pictures had suddenly went missing on my SD card, I was devastated too, but I had a glimmer of hope. I went to komando.com and searched around until I found "photo recovery" (which wasn't easy for me, I am not search friendly). She had the links to the FREE software and I had Matt follow the steps, I was too nervous about my lost pictures to understand what on earth that computer mumbo, jumbo was saying. I am delighted to say that it worked! We did loose a few of the photos, but I can live with the other 90% that was saved. Thank you for people that know what they are talking about!!!

A giveaway for everyone!

Hey, everybody!! Anyone want to win $40 to get whatever you want? Go to Liv's Fav and find out to enter. She also talks about some pretty sweet stuff on there too.