Fudge

Anybody know any good recipes for fudge.

We have tried one with powdered sugar/butter/choc chips, and one with sweetened condensed milk/choc chips/butter.  Neither were just right.

Does anyone have a tried and true recipe.

have a laugh on us

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Merry Christmas

So I thought it would be really fun to post something everyday of December.

Favorite traditions.

Fun finds.

Cute pics (you should see the # of ways a nativity can be set up...maybe you are seeing it in your own home)

But alas it is the 3rd and this is my first post.

So Merry Christmas if I don't make it back.

But I do have great intentions.

Printer Suggestions

Our printer has officially bit the dust.

Do you own you like?

Any suggestions?

I like to print some pictures, I do scan and copy some, but mostly print black and white words and letters.

I would prefer one that doesn't guzzle ink.

Free Photobooks

I have links to 2 free photobook!

One was through Oprah and has to be clicked on and claimed by tonight (Friday) and finished and purchased by Sunday night.

http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/20081029_tows_messyhouse/7

The other offer is located at:
simplemom.net/photobooks



You just have to pay shipping on both (around $7)

I love these albums for myself and for gifts!

October Catch Up

Reed the "mummy" waking up from shoulder surgery.  I was hoping to catch him being loopy but he came out of it joking.  He is recouping well.  It was an old injury and good timing to fix it.
Halloween Houses.  A traditions we started a few years ago.  I love the jack o' lanterns on the front porch.
I had heard there were a lot of bees/wasps in the canyons, more the usual, on the news a while back.  Well we experienced them on our first trip up there.  Emily with her bright pink dress on was the victim of one's stinger. 
Jadey turned 12.  Having her turn 12 was huge for me.  It was sort of like the first child in elementary school milestone.  I have a young woman, it's crazy.  
The harvested pumpkins.
The rooster strikes again.
Emily is a fan of perfect looking pumpkins...thus her choice.
While Jadey was looking for the biggest...120lbs of pumpking there!
After several frosts the garden was dead and the pumpkins were ready to harvest.  From one plant we got 13 pumpkins.  A couple of them were 70 and 80 lbs and the largest was 120 lbs!

And we had a fun visit from our cousins and one of my angel sister in laws (I have many) saved my day with dinner when the day was appearing to be more then I could handle.  You gotta love angels.

Herds

I was quizzing Max about school the other day.  It's hard to get much of an answer from most boys, so I was trying to ask probing questions that would elicit more then a 2 word response.  Knowing that I wouldn't get anywhere asking him which girls were cute I opted for which girls were nice.  He listed a few.  I asked who they hung out with at recess and his answer was so enlightening..."They hang out in herds."

Can you just imagine it?

Not gangs.

Not cliques.

Herds.

I suppose some would refer to them as gaggles

or flocks

or pogs (i had to research this one)

or raftors.

All right I'm getting carried away.

Herds it is.

A little on the deceptive side

I am rather confused this election season.  I have made myself watch the debates and I find myself saying, "Yah, that sounds right, that sounds good."  Then the other person says their schpil and I think, "Well yah, I see your point."  And then I hear others on the news telling about how they were lying and I wonder, "how do you know what the truth is?"

They say in the birth order that the second child tends to be more like the mom, the first like the dad and I think it's the third that is most affected by the parents relationship with each other and then there is something about the fourth.  Anyway, while I am watching the debate the other night my second was in the room working on something else and says "Yah, that sounds right" to one candidate and "that was good" to the other and I realize, not only that the birth order thing might be right, or that I am as easily swayed as a fourth grader, but that this really is confusing.  I'm glad the gospel is a whole lot easier for me to know truth in, and that we don't have to vote for prophets.

And speaking of a deceptive season...these photos may look like Emily is one enthusiastic soccer player who was able to convince her dad to coach her this year....

but she really only signed up for the treats, and ran really hard the one game I brought my camera.

Inspired

I really loved the post over at cjanerun today.

Making life a little easier...

So I'm looking to make up my own version of the emealz, meaning mainly that that I have at least 10 weeks of different meals that we like, listed with instructions and grocery lists.

I thought if I put it out there that some of you might be interested too.

And if we each came up with a weeks worth of menus with sides then we could combine them and easily come up with 10 weeks.

So if you're in let me know here or email me.

I will email you an excel file for you to fill in for your week.

Kite Festival

The Kite Festival was in Spanish Fork near the canyon and at the shooting range/reservoir.  Reed had to man a booth there so we went to check it out.  The banners and kites were beautiful.  The booths were geared toward natural resources and energy conservation.
I uploaded the photos in the wrong order...but you'll get the idea.

There are two guys on the wave runner.  One driving and one flying the kites.  They are professionals (I guess) because they do this all over, including sea world.

This is a favorite spot of ours to come and hang out and fish.  I was surprised that they had filled it up so high.  No one was able to go down to the water.
There was a station for making kites.  The kites were great and flew far better then any of the little ones that people had purchased and brought up to fly.
There were beautiful, brightly colored banners dancing in the wind.
To the right was where they were preparing to fly some HUGE kites, a chinese dragon, a cat that looked big enough to be in a parade and lots of other fancy colorful kites.  
There was a kite flying area for the kids too.  And plenty of chairs for people to sit down and watch.
The Reservoir and the scenery.  To the right of this would be Spanish Fork Canyon and the incredible wind mills.

Three free BYU football t-shirts? Yes, please.

Three free BYU football t-shirts? Yes, please.

You can enter to win these.

We of course love the Mad Max one.

The Moment

I love this photo.  I don't really know the other little girl, she's a sister of soccer player.  But there was something good going on here.  Most likely some pretending.  But it catches this age perfectly.  At least what most of this age is about.  The other part would be a picture with some tears or arms flailing.

September Recapped

The Kite Festival, deserving of a post of its own.

First dance class for Hadley

Lots of this.A new hair cut.

Another tooth loss.

A Cotton Candy Machine...Dreamt up by Reed and his Mom.

Family Olympics.  Staggered racing around the house, gymnastics routines on the trampoline.  Several Countries represented.

Reed made some Knedliky (strawberry dumplings).  YUMMY!

The Garden is full productions.  Lots of BIG pumpkins (post on that later).  Strawberries galore delicious for picking and eating right away.  ZUCCHINI! I only had one plant last year and it wasn't enough.  Two this year.  I would rather throw some away then wish I had more.  We did do a Zucchini porch drop this year.  That was fun.  Cucumbers a plenty.  Tomatoes. Watermelons and Cantaloupe didn't make it due to the fierce pumpkin plant (post on that later.) And peppers galore.  Good for eating right off the vine.  Just ask my cute little neighbors who came to my front door with sad faces and half eaten peppers, apologizing for picking my peppers.  I wanted to tell them "you pick all you want" but went with the more traditional "if you come and ask you can have all you want."Lots of kisses on nice mushy baby cheeks. IRRESISTIBLE.

Lots of tired kids.

She shoulda won the gold

We watched a lot of Olympics.

Swimming, Volleyball, Gymnastics, Diving, Track and Field.

And when they were over there was more.

Artistic Gymnastics.

I watched.

Is that really a sport?

But my little 6 year old was fascinated.

She watched a lot of it.

And then she put on her own Olympics.

She competed in the Artistic Gymnastics.

She was amazing.

We talked about it after (while she was still in character.)

Me: You were amazing.  You should have gotten the gold.

Emily: Yah.  I know.  It's too bad the other girls mom was one of the judges.  She wasn't even good at all but when your mom's the judge you always win.

Me:  Yah that's too bad. (Quickly exit room so I can let out my laugh in private.)

I was never very good at being in character...I'm working on it.

Mush Brain

So I don't know about you...but I have mush brain.

A self diagnoses that basically means that anything that requires decision making or remembering is extremely strenuous. 

I usually get it when pregnant and it continues through nursing.

While in the past I have been able to persevere and somehow get my way through it...this last year has required some coping skills.

One of them is the weekly calendar on the wall.  It is simply a chalkboard and it has everyone's schedules on it.  I do it in hopes of someone else noticing what they have going on and reminding me in case I forget, and so that if I see it enough I won't forget.

The other big one has been meal planning.

Only I have mush brain to the extent of having to strain big time to do this.

Reed came home recently and told me about a site that he had heard about on a financial talk show he listens to on occasion.

It's a site that tells you what's for dinner and how to make it and also gives you the shopping list.

You have to sign up for a 3 month minimum and they charge $5 a month...so I figured for $15 it was worth a try.

It's called emealz.

You can choose one of several different plans including ones from different grocery stores, vegetarian, and the points system.

I chose one of the basics from a local grocery store (the choice required some thinking and so was a little hard.)

We have been doing it for a month now.

I love it.

My goal: to write up my own 3 months of meals and instructions and grocery lists.

Some of the meals have been real winners and put on the "keeper" list.

Others...well we tried them.

We haven't had more then 1 meal a week that we didn't like.

It runs just less then $80 for a weeks worth of dinners for 6.

I decided to do something similar for Breakfasts and Lunches.

That way I can wake up and not have to think.  I drowsily walk into the kitchen look at my list and make breakfast and lunch.  I have a master list for what I need to make the breakfasts and lunches and add it onto whatever is on the dinner list.

So mush brain isn't causing too many problems.  Just don't ask me to make any decisions..."go ask your dad."

Playing Church....again

They are doing it....right this minute.

Hadley and Emily are playing church.

It must be fast and testimony meeting because they are both crying.

Hadley in her crying voice "I was in the shower and a police man came and locked up my house.  In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."

Should I interfere?

I can't stop laughing.

A trip back in time

We had a ward Hoe Down recently.

Jadey did a dance with the activity day girls.

She stood a head taller then most of them.

The dance started out in the shade of the evening.

The music instrumental.

The girls started dancing and I was taken back in time...

She started dancing at the age of 3 with BYU creative dance.

This dance was so similar to what she had done then.

Tears filled my eyes.

So silly.

But the ambiance, the music and my little girl...

It was a trip back in time.

It was truly joy in the moment.

Captured.

Little girlhood.

She quit dancing 2 years ago when soccer took precedence.

But she still had the grace.

And the moment was perfect for this mom.

Looking back to check on baby boy I noticed the tears in my moms eyes too.

It was her last official little girl performance.

Next month she turns 12.

First Day of school

So it's a little bright on our porch at 7:30 in the morning.

The first day of 3 all day schoolers.

Our home schedule is simple (aka boring for Hadley).

She is not doing preschool this year.

We are hanging out doing laundry, cleaning, playing candyland and making cookies.

We are down to two schools.

Em and Max go together (more on that later).

And we share a carpool with one other person for Jadey.

Blogging and miracles

I have been reading blogs for years.

It started with scrap-booking "stars" blogs.  Then I read some of their commentors and found other blogs from there.

I have narrowed down my list I check regularly. I have little time so I want the other stuff to be worth it.

I have RSS feed for my all time favorites, which basically means I go to one site (I chose bloglines) and insert my favorite sites and when I check it it tells me which ones have new posts.

I have narrowed down my list of those not related and friends in real life, to those that are most inspiring to me.

Two of those are sisters cjane and nienie.  Both are also linked on the right side of my blog.

What I love about them is different:

cjane can write.  I haven't read many books lately, but I have read cjane and I am inspired by her.

nienie has an amazingly jane austen outlook on life.  She sees the mundane everyday through rose colored glasses.  She refers to her husband as Mr. Nielsen and isn't afraid to tell how much she loves and adores him.  She takes pictures of her everyday.  And she portrays the beauty of motherhood.

They both have huge followings of lds and nonlds people.  They share their testimonies and are missionaries in their own sense.

Recently the one sister, nienie (Stephanie) was in a plane crash with her husband and his instructor.  The instructor died and Stephanie and her husband are seriously injured with burns.

You can read all about it on her sisters cjane's site.

But I would also encourage you to read nienie's site too.

One of the greatest thing about journaling/blogging is that through it you can see the hand of the Lord in your life and the life of others.  It is amazing to read the entries in nienie's blog prior to her crash and see how the Lord prepared them for this.

On Wednesday they are having a fundraising for Stephanie and her husband on this site.  All the funds will go toward helping them with living expenses while he is not working and with medical bills.  If you want to contribute this is just one way. cjane's site has other links also.

(Image from Bluelilyphotography.com) 

Things I Want to Remember About Right Now #9

His excitement about everything.

Except maybe jobs...to which he replies, "I don't want to...but I will"  with a smile.

Check out more pictures of a great 1st season game over at Kelly's site.

Things I Want to Remember About Right Now #8 Discovery

Watching a baby discover his hands is truly enjoyable.

It would seem that they are so amazed that they are making this action happen.

I would imagine a brain thought like this, "Wow, I just told it to move and it did, these things are great."

It's just the beginning of a lot of discovery.

In August Sam discovered his hands, his giggle and his voice (during sacrament meeting of course).

Tagged by Amy

(Max playing soccer with cotton candy in his hand...taken by Kelly my personal photographer)

I have to list 6 habits or things about me.

Tag 6 others.

Leave comments on 6 other blogs letting them know they were tagged.

1.  I don't blog regularly (where these supposed to by things you didn't know about me?)

2. I love to sew.

3. I get most excited at my kids soccer games (is this a good thing?)

4. I bite my nails (ew gross!)

5. I really like Fiest song 1 2 3 4  but even better I like it when she sings on sesame street "1 2 3 4 monsters walking cross the floor"  go look for it on you tube.  And bring your kids they'll love it too.  And then you can sing it together.  Or you can sing it yourself and your kids will all say "Mom, stop singing."

6. I should never be PTA treasurer, it just wouldn't be a good idea....well, never again.

I tag: Kelly, Lori (because she needs something to blog about :)  ), Dawn, Corin, and Erin (because I just found out she is expecting her 5th and I 'm so excited for her)

Things I want to remember about right now #6 & #7

#6 My best friend was here to visit and our children became best buds.

My best friend moved in when I was in 6th grade.  

We had an incredible neighborhood of great kids and so much fun together, but she was my best friend.  

She was a grade ahead of me.  

We watched all the classics together.  

We made movies together.  

When I graduated from high school and finished a year of college we went to Jerusalem together (with my sister).  

On our way back we toured Europe together.  

Just the two of us wondering through countries on train.  

She was in love with Germany and when we returned she received a mission call there.  

When she returned from her mission she was hotly pursued by a German and fell in love with and married him.  

And eventually he took her away to Germany.  

And it was okay because he was that great of a guy.  

So once a year we see each other, when she comes out here.  

Only this time it had been two years because she had purchased and old home and fixed it up to pottery barn proportions.  

But our kids still felt comfortable with each other after two years.  

And I want to remember their trip here and how fun it was to see our posterity forming friendships.

#7 Sam slept through the night.  9pm-6am.  It just makes him that much cuter.

Things I want to remember about right now #5

Their imagination.

Emily and Hadley imparticular have the greatest imaginations.

Hadley has all sorts of conversations with her imaginary friends Madelyn and Sarah, and usually her husbands name is Christian.

I recently caught Hadley and Emily playing church, which they do frequently.  Usually they take turns giving talks at the music stand, then they sing songs...well this time I walked around the corner and Emily was holding Sam while Hadley had her hands on his head and was giving him a blessing.  I am laughing even as I type this.

Also due to this pretending Hadley is anxious to get up and "talk her testimony" in church.  She is the first to not be so shy.  I guess we'll need to have a testimony meeting in FHE one of these days, I can't wait to here what she says.

Things I want to remember about right now #4

They grow so fast.

Need I say more.

Things I want to remember about right now #3

Reading with her. We just finished Book of A Thousand Days by Shannon Hale.

And the way she loves to snuggle Sam.  

Things I want to remember about right now #2

Soft skin and new smiles.

Things I want to remember about right now #1

I'm hoping to do about 30 of these (we'll see how it goes).

Cartwheels instead of walking through the front room.

What about you?  What do you want to remember about right now?  Respond here or link to your blog.