Who Needs Sleep??

I Do!!!!!!

My kids seem to think that they don't! They go to bed at a regular time everynight, between 8 & 8:30 and they are waking up anywhere from 6:45-7:30!! Mara doesn't nap anymore and I know she needs more sleep then that, because she has been sitting in my lap and falling asleep in the afternoons!! I guess I'm just not ready to get up that early. I love being able to stay in bed until 8, because I'm not going to bed until 11:30 or 12!!!! What can I do to get my kids to sleep in??? It's making them and me cranky!! And this has only been the past few weeks too. They used to get up between 7:30 and 8, which I can work with. It's amazing how that extra 30 to 45 minutes can make a world of difference.

Rock-Paper-Scissors...

This was on last night and reminded me that I wanted to share it!
I love 'The Big Bang Theory'!!!!!!

Xander

I don't like to double post but I need to write this now:
I am just amazed at how fast time flies by. It seems like just yesterday Xander was born, then he crawled, walked, and ran. To look at him right now, I can't believe that he's 5, in his 2nd year of preschool and is already reading, and doing really well at it too. And to mark off another thing that I am astonished at:
I just registered him for Kindergarten!!!!!!!!
Where has my baby gone?!?!?!?! And why don't they stay little for longer????

Birthday Celebration

It's been awhile since I really blogged. There are a few reasons for that, but I will get into that in a bit. I just need to recap the last week or so.

Pat & I don't really celebrate Valentine's day since our birthday's are before and after it. It's always nice to be together and luckily he had the evening off. We were able to get together with Morri & Liza and kids and went to dinner at Training Table (yummy). We then just hung out at their house for the evening and were able to come home at a reasonable time to get the kids to bed. While on the way home Mara fell asleep in the car, which happens a lot more now that she doesn't nap anymore. Amazingly this time, when Pat got her out of the car she stayed asleep!! He sat with her on the couch for a minute, put her down, and we were able to change 1/2 of her clothes too, all while she was sleeping!! I even got a diaper on her! She did wake up a bit when we put her in her bed. I was just so amazed that she slept through it all! Here is a pic after we changed her clothes, Xander even put her bear on her chest and told me that he was nice when he did it!!

On Sunday the 15th, we celebrated mine & Pat's birthday's with my family. He got this awesome Skeletor that is a remake of the original!

Karri got us Battlestar Galactica Dog Tag of our favorite characters!!

Pat got Lee 'Apollo' Adama I got Galen 'Cheif' Tyrol - He's my favorite Cylon!!

My mom got me a new Disney Precious Moments figure of Snow White and the Prince.

Karri works in the bakery at Target and decided to make a cake for me & Pat! She decorated the sides for each of us, and even made the cake half chocolate & half yellow cake!! It was so huge and yummy. We were still eating it 3 days later! A close up of Snow White & The Prince

I was so excited to find my favorite Easter candy at Target this week. But the packaging is different this year so I almost missed it!
With some of my birthday money I got this fun ribbon holder! Too bad I need to go back and get 2 more! LOL

On Friday (my birthday) we had tickets to go to the Draper Temple Open House with my mom, Karri, and Grandma Joan.

Mara fell asleep on the way up.It was nice to be there with the kids, but there were so many people that the tour was silent, so the kids were bored, and Xander was hungry and tired of walking. Next time we need to go in the middle of the week & earlier in the day, or just go without the kids!

After the temple we went to dinner at Chili's.Thanks honey for a great birthday! I love you!!

Okay, explanation: I have been trying to limit my time on the computer and have been doing really good at it. I finally pulled out my scrapbook stuff and have been working on that this week. But the major thing is that the laptop that I usually use is out of commission!! "What happened?" You ask? Well, here's the story. Background info: the laptop is not even 3 years old, but my mom got a new one so the old one became mine, and about 6 months ago the CD drive died, which is normally not a big deal for me because I didn't need it. Then the McAfee security came up for renewal but I didn't do it because of said CD drive. It's been doing just fine for the past 2 months, until Thursday! I was downloading some new scrapbook paper and there was a virus with it!!!! Luckily I was able to get all my files off of it without having the virus hitch a ride. So I have been limited to using a desktop computer that is out of the way and in my opinion, very inconvenient to use, and not to mention, slower then what I am used to. But my very nice and wonderful mom, is letting me use her new laptop so I don't feel so out of it. I just don't know what we are going to do with the old one. My brother is going to take a look at it and see what he can do, but we will probably have to take it somewhere to get the CD drive fixed first. I don't know if it's even worth it. So we'll see what happens.

Ah, I feel much better now that I'm caught up.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart

Well I am during my prep period at school right now and just had to use this opportunity to make my first post on our family blog be a happy birthday wish to Breanne.  I love you!  I wish I could come up with in my time here a list like you made for me but if nothing else I want you and everyone else to know how much I love you.  You are my world!  There is no one else that could be more perfect for me and I am so lucky and blessed to have you!  You have been so supportive of everything I have done that even on the days when I am stressed or feeling down I can just think about you and your beautiful smile and the sun seems to be brighter and I know that everything will be ok because even if I lost everything I would still have you and the kids.  I hope that you have the best day possible today and know that I love you ALWAYS and FOREVER!!!!!!

Paper Dolls

On the Cricut there is an awesome cartridge called Paper Dolls!!! It is so worth the money, you can do so many different things on it. (Thanks Karri for buying it!!!) Last weekend my mom spent a few hours playing with it and made this cute pair:

She has since made a Prince, Princess, & Ballerina for the granddaughters, and a Pirate and Cowboy for the boys! They are so cute!!

Finally this past week I got out my scrapbook stuff to work on the pictures that I have had sitting for over 6 months, probably longer. I found pictures from Halloween of 2007 when my kids were Minnie Mouse and Black Spiderman. So of course I went to the Paper Dolls and made these beauties!!

I still need to scrapbook my girls Disneyland trip from almost 2 years ago, so I decided to make a Minnie & Mickey for myself and a set for Karri! They turned out so cute! It just makes me giddy :)

So if you have a Cricut and don't have the Paper Dolls cartridge, I recommend going out and getting it!!! Along with the little people that you can make there are so many other accessories too!! It is by far the best one out there!! I just want to make more :)

What Will You Celebrate?

This morning, after I took Xander to my neighbors, (because he had school while I was going to be gone. Thanks again Stacy!!) Me, Mara, Karri, & JD drove to the South Towne Mall for the Disney Parks "What Will You Celebrate?" event!! (If you don't know what it's about go here, if you register, you can get into the park for free on your birthday!)

This is the car we found in the parking lot!

They were all camped out in the middle of the mall!With balloons ready for the taking!! Most of them were attached to Invitations, so they stayed on the floor.
Mara picked out a Pink balloon, of course!

Disney Parks new logo for 2009!
Mara loved that there was a castle!
I love this picture, but had to edit out my backend!
This one is sweet, but it was a little blurry.
But oh how I love Picasa!
A view from above.Mara & Karri
Me & My Mara
I love having more then one camera at events, because you get great pictures! Karri took this one, and I love it!

And this one too!

It was a fun few hours. Thanks Karri for driving and inviting us to go with you! This will be as close as I'm going to get to going to Disneyland for the next while. We probably won't go back for a few years, and I'm okay with it :)

What Will You Celebrate?

Nameless Cake recipe

Nameless Cake

3/4 cup Shortening (if you want it fluffy) or
3/4 cup Oil (if you want it heavy) I use the oil!
3 Eggs
1 1/2 cups Sugar
2 cups Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
3/4 tsp Nutmeg
1 tsp Cinnamon
2 Tbsp Cocoa
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Lemon
3/4 cup Milk
1 Tbsp Vinegar

Mix together until creamy. Pour into a greased cake pan. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Frosting

4-5 Tbsp Butter (softened)
1 Egg Yolk
1 1/2 Tbsp Cocoa
1 Tbsp Cinnamon
3 cups Powdered Sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp Hot Water

Cream together. (I added an extra Tbsp of water to help it mix)
Note - Pat prefers the frosting to have less Cocoa, so I make it with 1 1/2 Tbsp Cinnamon and 1 Tbsp Cocoa. But either way it still tastes great!

Birthday Festivities!!

We started out celebrating Pat's birthday on Wednesday night by going to Cold Stone and getting some ice cream with the kids. Here he is enjoying his Irish Cream w/ Cookie Dough & Caramel

Xander and his Cotton Candy Ice Cream
Mara and her Strawberry Ice Cream (she had to get it because it was pink!)
I got my normal Chocolate w/ brownies & caramel.
I love Cold Stone!!!


On Thursday, Pat's actual birthday, the kids and I got some balloons and headed over to AFJH to surprise Pat. It was an A-day and I knew he would have his prep hour, and that we wouldn't be interrupting much :)

Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Right after we got home I made Pat's favorite cake "Nameless Cake". It's one that his mom makes and most of the Tolman family Loves this cake. Sad to say I only make this cake for his birthday, he loves it so much I should make it more often. (Don't worry, I'll post the recipe)

Xander HAD to lick the beater when I was done making the frosting!!

Oh how he loves frosting!!

Mara sneaked a sucker while I was making the frosting. Once she got to the gum in the middle she was done and threw it away!! So silly!!

We then took the cake to RC Willey, since Pat had to work that night too. He was kind enough to share with his co-workers, but I took about 1/2 of the cake home for safe keeping.

This is the AWESOME shirt that I got him!!!

(It's from Battlestar Galactica)

Friday Pat took work off so he was home by 4:00, after school was over. The kids & I had gone to the Library earlier and they wanted Pat to read them one of the books they picked out, A Creepy Countdown. For some reason Xander loves to get books about Halloween. Probably because his birthday is in October.

We were able to go out to dinner at Yamato without the kids.

Thanks again Mom!! This is Pat's favorite restaurant. They have great food and great service. I love their Meso Soup(sp?), and the salad dressing is my favorite. This is definitely a place that we don't go to very often, but we've decided that we need to go more. Next time we'll call you Susan, so you can Kenny can come too. (They love this place too!)

After dinner we went to the new Cinemark Theater at University Mall and saw PUSH!! It was a great movie and very entertaining!! I liked it alot!!

It was nice to celebrate his birthday over the course of a few days. We will be having my family February birthday stuff in a few weeks, so he'll get more then too!! Happy Birthday honey, I hope you had a great day!

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!!

Today my wonderful Husband turns 28!!! I can't believe that we are this old! I decided to get right in line with things that I have seen other bloggers do and make a list of the things I love about him! So here we go!!

1. I love his passion for our family.


2. I love his sense of humor. He can always make me laugh!


3. He works hard at all he does.


4. He loves to watch movies! (as do I)


5. He loves toys of all sorts and has an awesome blog about them all!!


6. He is a kid at heart. And that is why he is so good with kids.


7. He's going to be a great teacher.


8. He is always so concerned about me and what's going on in my head!


9. He loves his family and is always willing to help them out.


10. He is a Sci-Fi geek like me! That's probably why we bonded so easily!


11. He always knows how to talk to our kids and explain things in terms that they understand.


12. He is a very organized person, and I'm still learning from his example.


13. He loves to sing in the car and make up words to the songs. It gets us all laughing.


14. He is the ultimate collector and has taught Xander to appreciate things in their package!


15. He has a love of reading, especially if it's a Star Wars book :)
    
16. He has a "remember brain" as Xander would say. He's able to remember details that I overlook.


17. He loves his children and they are always excited to see him!!


18. He doesn't like chocolate, so there is always some for me :)


19. He has a love of learning, I know he will pass that on to his students.


20. I love the way he makes me feel.


21. I know that he truly loves me.


22. I love his smile and the funny faces that he makes :)


23. He is always there to talk me out of things that I want to buy that are so not practical!


24. He is a great support to me and always reminds me of what I need to be doing.


25. I love how secure and safe I feel in his arms.


26. I love that we share the same ideas for our future.


27. I love that he is my husband for eternity :)


28. I just flat out love him!!

I love you honey!!

Happy Birthday!!!