Out with the old. In with the new.

I think I only accomplished one of my goals in 2010.  My goal was to try sushi again.  I really wanted to like it because it's so cool to eat sushi.  Right?  Well, I did try it, but it wasn't pretty.  My sister's friend Drew was sitting next to me in the restaurant, and had to listen to me gag and almost lose it.  It's not that it tasted bad, it's the texture and my mental issues.  Maybe better luck in 2011.

I have been thinking of some goals/resolutions for next year.

I'm a little stumped on some of them.  I can't decided if I should 1-Learn to love the body I have, or 2-Start a regular exercise regiment.  The first sounds emotional and the second sounds sweaty.  Ugh.

As I was thinking through my goals, I realized they are all interconnected.  

This is the year of "Mommy Shape Up."

1.  I'm going to drop some pounds.  You don't need to know the amount, do you?

Let's just say I want to lose the amount of a Thanksgiving turkey.  Big or small-that's for me to know and you to not worry about.

2.  No more push over Mommy!  I am putting my foot down and not giving in to any more unnecessary treats and toys.  Not even from the dollar store!

3.  Teach my kids the value of money and saving.  The big kids are now going to have the opportunity to earn money each week.  They can save or spend.  If they want candy and treats from the store, they can use their money.  

4.  I will make at least 3 new recipes each week.  Sounds a little silly, but if I plan out what I am going to cook, I will save money at the grocery store.

5.  Save some money.  Between planning a menu, and not spoiling the kids, I'm bound to save some cash.  I think.  Honey, I'm really going to make a serious effort at analyzing my needs vs. wants. ;)

Yeah, I think that about covers the basics.
I should probably throw in a blog goal too.  Let's keep that separate.

Blog Goals 2011:
1.  Post something cool every week.
2.  Make my blog look real cool.
3.  Get a few more cool readers.

Have you made some resolutions for the new year?

Hooray for a new year.  Happy New Years Eve!

Pineapple Express

I was talking to my mom the other day and she mentioned it was raining at home in Hawaii.  Well, the rain made it's way to Utah, but it was in a pretty powdery frozen form.

This is the year Davis is going to learn how to ski.

Some friends of ours told us about the Jr ski program at Ski & Golf.  You pay a fee to get your kid set up with boots and skis.  We can trade up every year to a bigger size until Davis gets to a certain size.  I can't remember what the weight limit is, but the kids are usually about 10 to 12 years old.

His little skis are the cutest thing ever.  There were even smaller skis for tots.  

Davis was eager to try out the skis.  Since we have had a plethora of snow drop in the last two days, our back yard was ready for him.

  

Mike was out back with the kids for a good two hours.  Once D was done, he was done!

He wasn't too happy about me taking a picture.

Before Davis came in, he asked Mike to put on his skis.

Collin and I didn't mind watching all of the this from inside the house.

Tess wanted in on the action and asked Mike to take her down the slope.

You can see by her smile she was loving it out there.

And, yes Tess has snow clothes.  This was just her third time out and fifth outfit change for the afternoon.

App-sent

I don't know if anyone noticed, but I've been a little absent from this blog.  Mike surprised me with an ipad for Christmas.  Most of my days are being spent playing games, dinking around and protecting it from little hands.

First let me say it is totally awesome, and I feel really spoiled.   

Davis is now asking when he can get an ipad. 

We have been playing Cut the Rope and Angry birds.  Oh, Davis and I are running a pretty successful bakery and restaurant together.  I'm not a gamer, but I am really digging on these games.  Davis and I are bonding.  We both run to check on the Bakery as soon as we wake up.

There are so many apps it's hard to tell what we are going to like.  I need your help.

Can anyone recommend some great apps for us to download?

I need some fun easy kid apps too!

Hope you are doing well...

talk to you later.

We are ready

This is it people.  Christmas Eve 2010!

We've got our cookies ready for Santa.

And some treats for the reindeer.

Merry Christmas!

Sugar Rush

I'm starting to feel sick today.  It may or may not have something to do with the amount of sweets I have been consuming.  Our neighbors and friends have dropped off several plates of goodies and I can't resist.

These mint Oreos were especially delicious.  I don't know if I should be proud, or embarrassed, to say that I consumed all of these within a few seconds minutes.  The down side to eating them all is that they are gone and I am sad.

I decided to combat the sugar nausea with something a little more healthy.  I ate ramen.  And can I just say all ramen noodles are not created equal.  Thanks for the Sapporo Ichiban Cherie.  I am already thinking of sharing a post comparing all the different brands of ramen noodles.

Happy Wednesday everyone.  Thanks for reading my little ramblings.  It's nice to know I have someone to share my nonsense with.

Christmas Break

We officially started Christmas break today.  Davis and Tess are finished with performances and class parties.  Teacher gifts have been given and sleeping in is on my agenda for tomorrow.

I finished up the last of my shopping today.  What a relief!  Speaking of shopping...

Last night Mike got a text from our credit card company.  They were checking to see if we really had made a $800 purchase at Toys R Us in New Jersey.  

Uh, Hello!  We live in Salt Lake.  No we didn't!!!

Someone made a copy of my husband's credit card and bought $1,500 worth of purchases last night.  We were notified with in minutes of the transactions and cut them off!

We have an awesome credit card company and won't be liable for any of the purchases.  I hope you all take a minute to change your passwords (to something not so obvious),  and see if your card company can alert you of any suspicious activity. 

 I'm all about giving and sharing with those less fortunate, but not like this.   

It's the final countdown....

The final countdown

Ohh ho ohh

lights on our palm tree - ice on our window - Nativity block

It's hard to keep up with the everyday things when my head is thinking of all the Christmas and Santa things.  It rained here all weekend, and now it's finally snowing.  If I am going to live where its cold, there better be a white Christmas.  My to do list is slowly moving along.  It seems as though I think of a couple new things every time I check something off.  Two steps forward and two steps back.  Aside from all the craziness, I am really enjoying my little family.  Last night we talked with Davis about the birth of Jesus Christ.  Christmas is truly a magical time for so many reasons.  I am grateful to have my husband and kids to share this season with.

Polly Pocket sunscreen 

On a side note ~ I found this in Collin's nose the other day.  I don't know how long it had been there.  I remember thinking one of his nostril's was really pink.  After changing his diaper, I decided to check it out a little closer.  I was afraid to stick tweezers in his nose, so lucky for me he knows how to blow is nose.  It took several minutes and it slowly descended.  I didn't realize it was so big.  I could only see the little round top.  You can imagine my surprise when the whole bottle popped out.  I guess I should check his nose for toys more often.

Ready to give

Today I'm having a hard time staying focused on one task.  I had to force myself to sit for a few minutes to finish my neighbor gifts.  I'm glad I did. Now I can deliver them and cross something off my long list of to dos.

  

This year we are giving out carmel pretzels drizzled with chocolate.

I really am a genius!  I used my caramel popcorn recipe and changed out the popcorn for pretzels.

If you have done this before, don't burst my bubble.  Just know that you are a genius too!

I started off with the biggest bag of pretzels available to man kind (from Costco).  

I made a regular recipe of my caramel popcorn syrup.

While the caramel was cooking on the stove, I dumped half of the pretzel bag into my big roasting pan.

When the syrup is done doing it's thing on the stove, pour it all over your pretzels in the pan.  

Toss the pretzels around to try and get them all coated.

Bake the pretzels like you bake the popcorn in the recipe.  I got a little sick of baking for an hour on my second batch and the pretzels were fine.  So, I guess what I am saying is that you don't have to cook them forever.  Half an hour should be good.  Be sure to stir the pretzels every fifteen minutes.

When the pretzels are done baking, or you are sick of baking them...

Empty the pan of pretzels out onto waxed paper to cool.  I melted white and dark chocolate to drizzle on top.  Be careful when you are melting your chocolate.  If it gets too hot (out of temper) it will take forever to dry, or might not ever harden.  

I used my Silhouette to make some gift tags.  I had several ideas for really beautiful, extravagant tags and packaging.  However, because I can't stay focused - this is what I ended up with.  I still like them.

All the pretzels were bagged in small cellophane bags.

The tags were tied on with skinny grosgrain ribbon.

Our neighbor gifts are ready to be dropped off and enjoyed.

Are you checking things off your TO DO list?

Less than 10 days till Christmas!

Something Sweet

I have been thinking about making my neighbor Christmas treat for a couple of weeks now.  I have an idea of putting a spin on one of recipes.  If it doesn't work out, here are a few others treats I have been wanting to make...

Santa Hat Shortbread Cookies - Created by Diane

Holiday Icebox Cookies - Martha Stewart

Red Velvet Sandwich Cookies - Paula Deen

Savory Cranberry, Pistachio & Goat Cheese Palmiers - Cookin' Canuck

Easy Rolo Turtles - Honeysuckle Life

Rudolf & Snowflakes - Diamonds For Dessert

Brownie Covered Oreos - Picky Palate

Holiday Nutella Cakes - Kirbie's Cravings

Pistachio Macarons - Diamonds For Dessert

I'll let you know how my cooking experiment goes.  It's really not that cool, so don't get too excited.

Chocolate Treats

We recently received our first Christmas treat from some neighbors. 

It looked so perfect I needed a picture of it.

Every one of these handmade chocolates were different.

We cut each chocolate into four pieces and shared.  It took less than ten minutes for our family to devour the chocolates.  Davis said, "I could live on fudge!"

Millie you out did yourself, and Mike wants to get every recipe from you!

Day Trip

The family and I spent Saturday bumming around Arches National Park and Moab, Utah.

The weather was in the fifties and perfect.  Maybe a little chilly when the clouds covered the sun, but other than that the best I have ever had at Arches.  In the summer its over 100 down there.

Not only was the weather perfect, but we were practically the only people hiking around.  Too often you have unwanted strangers in the background of your photos here.  Not the case this time around.

 Tess' stinky blankies made the trip too.  They go everywhere!  Tess didn't have socks on with her shoes.  She stopped to shake the sand out of her shoes, then decided her feet needed to be licked clean.  Yes, I said licked.

We are huge Indiana Jones fans in our house.  In the third movie, young Indiana is on a scout trip.  The scouts stop at this arch and hike around.  In the movie there is a cave to the right of the big arch.  Indiana climbs into the cave and his adventuring story really starts there. 

We had our very own Indiana Jones with us.  Indiana Davis was disappointed to discover there wasn't a real cave at the arch.

This was Collin's first time to Arches.  He was so excited about all the rocks.  

It's amazing how beautiful Utah landscape is.  Moab is a good three to four hours from our house and completely different from American Fork Canyon in our backyard.  

When I was growing up I thought the sound of a road trip was so exciting.  Road trips in Hawaii don't last very long, if you know what I mean.  While I love packing up and exploring with the kids, I think we are good on long drives for a few months.  

Does Size

really matter?  Does it make a difference if someone is taller, shorter, rounder, or thinner?  I don't like to write about negative things, but I want to share some thoughts I have been having. 

Recently D has been feeling sad about his size.  He told Mike and I he felt like he was dumb because he was small.  My heart broke when he told me this.  Between sobs and hugs I tried to reassure him this wasn't so.  I have dreaded this day.  All the emotions I had put away from my childhood were coming to the surface.  Since the time my kids were born, I worried about the day they would be teased.  Everyone gets teased about something.  I just so happen to be teased about a lot of things.  We have tried to teach our children that it doesn't matter what you look like, if you're the best, or the smartest.  What really matters is that you are a kind and considerate person.  What matters is that you include all the kids to play, that you don't ditch the less popular kid when a "better offer" comes along.  My kids are not perfect.  We have a lot of practicing to do.  But I do know my Davis would never ask someone why they are so tall, or bald, or smell funny.

I tell Davis not to worry about what kids say.  What matters in on the inside and we love him so much.

What I really want to say is that I am sorry he is so short.  It's all my fault.  Tell those kids to shut up and that they are rude.  It probably won't get easier, you just have to get thicker skin.  Even as an adult people make stupid comments about my height or size.  

The moral of my story is: Parents teach your children not to point out the obvious.  Fat people, short people, tall people and really ugly people don't need to be reminded of the obvious.  If you don't have anything nice or positive to say, don't say anything at all!

I am now stepping off my soap box.  Yes, I am really that short.

Sights and Sounds

Christmas is in full swing here in our house.  We set up our tree in the family room this year.  I love looking at it as I am cooking and hanging with the kids.  We have our advent calendar, snowflakes, and a strand of lights decorating the living room.  It feels like Christmas is spread through out the house.

Christmas sights in our house:

The Christmas tree with lots of homemade ornaments.

A couple of Trader Joe's gingerbread houses.

Collin wearing my first Christmas stocking as a sock.

Christmas books spilled across the floor.

Boots, hats and mittens piled up by the front door.

Christmas sounds in our house:

The train going around and around the tree.

Pandora Christmas channel.  

The crackle of candy canes secretly being eaten.

The jingle of bells from ornaments on the tree.

A little bit of whining and lots of giggling.

NOTEBOOK WITH PIZAZZZZZ

A friend of mine just had a baby.  I bought a gift for the baby, but didn't want to leave out the big sisters.  My kids love notebooks and I thought they would make fun little presents for the girls too. I whipped up these little notebooks in a matter of minutes.  These make great stocking stuffers or friend gifts.

Supplies:

Little notebooks

A brown paper bag

Sewing machine

Scraps of ribbon, fabric and other little do-dads

1.  Trace and cut out a piece of your brown paper bag to fit the cover of your notebook.

2.  Cut your fabric pieces to fit on your brown paper bag piece.  

3.  With your sewing machine, stitch on your fabric.  This would be a good time to use the decorative stitches on your machine.

4.  Sew on your ribbon or add your other trims.

5.  Clip all your loose threads from the front and back of the cover.  Trim off anything hanging over.

6.  Stitch your fabric and paper piece to the cover of your notebook.

I didn't worry about making all my stitches and seams perfect.  I think this adds to the pizazz of the cover.

TA-DA!  You have a cute little notebook now.

I had so many different ideas running through my head when I was 

putting these together.  I need more notebooks!

Now that the wheels are turning in your head, go get your supplies.

I know you can think of a least five people that would like a snazzy notebook.

Have fun making them!

Whiskers the Cat

This weekend we celebrated a very important birthday.  Davis' webkin, Whiskers, turned the ripe old age of 1 on Saturday.  It was a chilly day, so Davis and I made him a little blue scarf for our day out.

When we got home from some adventuring it was time for the party.

All of the most popular stuffed animals were invited to attend.

Collin enjoyed terrorizing all the little animals.  Davis was a good host and tended to their every need.  The presents were a big hit.  What cat doesn't love a ball of yarn, a soft mouse, and pizza flavored gold fish crackers.

Davis was sure to put together some games for everyone too.  I think everyone had a good time.

The party was topped off with a special chocolate cupcake from Les Madeleines.

 Only humans shared the cupcake.  Davis learned what "rich food" meant as he enjoyed the cupcake.

I think Whiskers appreciated all the work Davis put into his party.  It's a little hard to tell because Whiskers doesn't say much.

Cooking with nothing

Today I spent most of my morning cleaning the kitchen.  I mean, really, really, cleaning.  I expect something to be spilled on a freshly mopped floor with in ten minutes of being finished.  I made out pretty well today.  Nothing has been spilled, but Tess asked if she could make something in the kitchen.  Tess loves to create in the kitchen.

She's not actually cooking anything.  Really she just dumps a bunch of things into bowls for everyone.  Tess could spend all afternoon filling bowls with whatever is in the pantry or cupboards.  

Sprinkles with cinnamon-sugar and little pieces of caramel are not on the top of my to eat list, but Collin and Tess seem to really enjoy it.