Disneyland

The kids & I drove to CA & picked up Jeremiah from his hunting trip at the Ontario airport so we could go to Disneyland for a day. The kids had a great time - especially Callie! As we were driving into the parking lot she could see the California Screamin' roller coaster (at DCA) up ahead & said she wanted to go on it. We told her it would be really scary (not that we were even going to that park) but she told us that she's a big girl & she's brave. So we asked her if she was brave enough to go on the pirate ride (since she's been talking about how scary it was ever since our last trip to Disneyland a year before) & she said, "I'm brave but not THAT brave to go on the pirate ride!" Anyway, we had a really fun day with the kids & my parents. First of all, it's a good thing being pregnant at Disneyland because I ate lots of treats & didn't have to worry about holding in my belly! :) And since there's a lot we couldn't do with the kids anyway, I didn't miss out on too much. Jeremiah & my mom took Callie on The Matterhorn while my dad took Jack on the Autopia. Callie came back from the Matterhorn & told me that she'd loved it even though it was scary but not too scary! We saw Alice & the Mad Hatter without much of a line so we waited for a picture. Callie was a little nervous about it so I told her she should ask Alice if she wanted to ride the teacups with her! That made Callie excited to talk to her. When she asked, Alice of course told her she couldn't but told Callie that her favorite teacup was the light blue one & that Callie should try to ride in that one so of course when we went to the teacups next Callie was determined to find the light blue one & made sure we all knew that Alice had told her to ride in it because it was Alice's favorite! :)

This is Jack riding his horse side-saddle! My mom kept trying to put him on the saddle the right way but Jack thought it was great hanging off the side!

Outside The Princess Shoppe. Callie for some reason LOVES Princess Aurora, even though she rarely chooses to watch Sleeping Beauty.

Callie is a girly-girl for sure! She found these cute "glass slippers" in The Princess Shoppe & had to try them on!

One more funny thing was that after the fireworks when it started "snowing" Callie stuck out her tongue to catch the snowflakes & ended up getting a big one! It's actually soap though so she made the funniest faces as she tried to get the soap off her tongue! She still loved trying to catch the "snow" after that, but this time with her hands! :)

O Christmas Tree

I hadn't had a real tree in YEARS (since I was maybe in grade-school) so I decided this year to get one! I've hated my artificial one for the last couple of years but we keep thinking "we'll be in a new house next year" so I haven't wanted to buy a new one yet, not knowing for sure the space & ceiling height. I'd even thought I wouldn't do a tree at all this year since we'd be going to WA for Christmas, but that isn't very fun when you have little kids! So while Jeremiah was out of town (hunting, of course!) I took the kids to Home Depot & got a $20 little 4-ft tree. I'm SO glad I did! It was fun having a cute little good-smelling tree. I almost want to do it every year, even after we end up getting a new artificial one. And another thing, I love a nicely decorated formal Christmas tree & I've been thinking about the hand-made decorations that are soon to come & I know I'm anal but it would just be hard for me to do that to a formal tree! So I think that the decorations we used this year (got them mostly on clearance after Christmas last year) will go nicely on a family tree with all our sentimental & handmade stuff. I predict that next year we'll likely be too house-poor to buy a big new tree anyway! The kids had a great time helping decorate the tree. And then after we were done the kids rearranged ornaments every day until we left for WA! I also kept finding toys stuffed deep in the branches (Jack), and one day even his shoe! And another day Jack showed me that his toys were swimming - in the tree stand! And to know that it'll still be years of trying to keep little hands out of the tree branches! I know some people just don't decorate the bottom, but that wouldn't stop my children! Almost daily I found them with stools or anything else they could find to stand on to rearrange stuff higher up! And the tree wasn't very tall in the first place!

good times

I took Jeremiah to the airport this morning (yes, he's out of town AGAIN!- hunting!), so the kids & I spent the day in Vegas. I really didn't want to spend the day in Vegas w/the kids, but I had a lot of returns I wanted to take care of- the downside of living in Kingman & doing online shopping. Well it turned out to be a GREAT day! First of all, did you know that it doesn't matter how old your return is at Kohl's as long as you have the receipt?! I was stoked since the stuff I was returning was seriously like 6 months old but I couldn't ever find my receipt till like a month or two ago! So I was already in a great mood when I scored this amazing parking spot at the mall! (I'm the red one in the 2nd space!) Obviously I was excited about it - I took a picture from the curb of the mall entrance!


I quickly made my returns & then took the kids to see Santa! I was prepared for a little wait but there was nobody in line! I paid for a dumb picture cause they won't let you take pictures with your own camera unless you also pay for one of theirs. I'd scan the one they took but that would take more effort than I'm willing, so here's the one I took. Although it's really not any better or worse than theirs. In their picture Jack has a super cute huge grin on his face but Callie is close to having those stoned picture eyes. Callie was SO excited to see Santa & tell him what she wants for Christmas, but she wouldn't smile once she was actually on his lap. She was definitely talkative though.




Oh, & I don't know if it's just because he figured my kids are small enough to get away with this, but Santa says loudly over the kids' heads, "She wants a doll, mom." Is that weird? I thought it was.

We went to Costco because I needed to get a few things so I'd told the kids we'd eat lunch there. We were getting out of the car & Callie goes, "I'm so freakin' hungry mom!" Oh my gosh! Where does she hear that stuff? Certainly not from me! The kids had done really well so far with the running around, but Callie had a bit of a meltdown when Jack took a bite of her hotdog! She actually said she had to have a new one! Yeah well she didn't get a new one! She sat & whined about it for at least 5 minutes though. I got an ice cream bar for us to share & I told her she couldn't have any until she ate more food so she shoved TONS of hotdog in her mouth, pulled about half of it back out, & still ended up spitting the first half onto the table after trying to chew for a minute & not making any progress. Then while eating some of the ice cream bar she said, "This crap is good!" Okay, that one is all Jeremiah! He's always saying it's good crap! :) Things were going okay again till Jeremiah's dad called. I was pushing the kids around Costco & they were getting antsy so Jer's dad told me to tell Callie that if she was naughty Santa wouldn't bring her anything for Christmas. That didn't phase her - she said she'd seen Santa & already asked for a doll. So he said (since we'll be at his house for Christmas) that if she's not good he'll take her presents from Santa & throw them in the fire! Okay, you're probably thinking is this guy psycho? But I'm laughing as I'm typing this - you have to know Jeremiah's dad! Well that did it for her - she started BAWLING! It was comical. She calmed down & I think Papa reassured her that he was just kidding.

We shopped & did errands the rest of the afternoon & ended up at McDonald's for dinner since they had a play place. The kids deserved it! 2 huge complaints about my McDonald's experience tonight - one, I had to wait like 10 minutes for my order to be up, but everyone else around me got their food! The girl at the counter felt really bad & had to finish getting my food together because the incompetent kid that was supposed to do it couldn't handle it. Seriously! Have you ever had to wait 10 minutes for food at McDonald's? And when it was said & done the guy had made 6 different Happy Meals! I only ordered 2! And he didn't get MY food either! And my other even bigger complaint is that there was no changing table in the bathroom! Okay, this McDonald's is basically brand new! It's a very nice McDonald's - one of the nicest I've ever been to. You have to ask the people at the counter to press a special button that will buzz you into the bathrooms. How could they not have a changing table?! Jack had pooped while playing on the toys so I had to take him into the handicapped stall where it has its own sink & lay him on the teeny tiny slim part of the counter in front of the basin to try & change him. He cried the whole time & it just happened to be a sticky poop that needed extra care! I was pissed! But what good would it have done to complain to a bunch of teenagers making minimum wage? I'm seriously calling someone. If I think about it during business hours.

On the upside of McDonald's the kids had a great time playing! The play area is separated from the main dining area by a glass window and there was a table of teenagers sitting on the other side of the glass from us. One of the girls had ice cream & would take her spoon & act like she was going to give Jack a bite, putting her spoon up towards the glass. I think he quit opening his mouth after the first couple times, but I was totally laughing! So were they! I wish I'd gotten a picture - it was so funny! I'd also told the kids they had to eat so much before they could go play, so after taking it slow for a while they decided it was time to play & shoveled the last required bites into their mouths! I love my kids!

Awesome!

I saw this guy while I was in the Jack-in-the-Box drive-thru a few months ago. I thought he was great! I only wish the picture were clearer.

Thanksgiving!

I was a little hyper around dinnertime. Don't know why since we didn't eat till 7!!! Too late for Thanksgiving dinner! So here's my sister Chelsea's acct - it saves me typing:

"Thanksgiving is such a fun holiday. Hillary was drunk on something and didn't make it through the prayer before she started giggling. She was almost as loud as her kids. And then she didn't want the rest of her sweet potatoes, so she plopped them on my plate. I flung them back to hers and decided I'd up the ante by tossing a kernel of corn in her ice water. Apparently that crossed the line. I got mashed potatoes in my ice water in return. Thanksgiving around here isn't a sanctimonious affair. "

We had a good time. Here are our best shots!

I forgot to bring an extra Pull-Up & Jack pooped in his. I told Jeremiah to just let him go commando, but apparently he'd got a little poop on Jack's pants when he went to pull them down so they were stinky.

zazzle me

Just wanted to pass on this deal I stumbled upon in case any of you are considering doing custom postage stamps for your holiday cards! Or if you've wanted to but thought the prices were crazy! Starting tomorrow (Thanksgiving Day), Zazzle.com has their postage on sale & it's a great sale! $10.99 for a sheet of 20 custom .41 stamps! Sure you can get normal sheets from the post office for $8.20, but for only $2.79 more (per sheet) you can get CUSTOM stamps! It's an awesome deal, considering that the normal price per sheet is about $17! Oh, & I don't know if you can use promotional codes on top of it, but if so there's free shipping on custom postage with code FREESHIPSTMP.

food for thought

I've decided I'm down with melamine! As far as kids' dinnerware anyway! Mostly. If you haven't already wasted your money buying your kids those cute matching character sets, save your money & just go with the less fun but much more practical tupperware-type plastic. Maybe a fun cup would satisfy them. I've had several of our melamine dishes crack & break recently & it's very frustrating - obviously this stuff isn't really meant for use with children! I'll still buy the cheap seasonal melamine dishes at Target, because it's not as sad when one of them cracks & breaks since I'd probably want to replace it the next season anyway.

The deep-freezer that we bought to store all of our hot wings has issues! It keeps our meat completely frozen solid, but that's about it! I noticed the other day that the ice cream that was in there was all soft (why I squeezed the containers I don't know) so I put it all in a different freezer. A little bit later I decided to eat some ice cream & was severely disappointed. First I tried some Haagen-Dazs. It was a brand new carton so after I peeled off the top wrapper I immediately realized it had completely melted & hadn't even had time to re-freeze all the way in the second freezer. So the top of it was total ice crystals & the center was soupy! Then I moved on to some Ben & Jerry's (I have expensive cravings, I know!). It too was unopened but unlike the Haagen-Dazs with the top seal, it was only sealed around the very outside of the carton. I took a bite & was very surprised to be tasting hot wing-flavored Cherry Garcia! Yes, my ice cream tasted like hot wings! To B/J's credit I have to say that their ice cream reset much better than the H-D. It still had the re-frozen texture but was on the whole much closer to it's original state (minus the hot wing flavor, that is). My dad was here so he tasted it & then declared it was the best of both worlds - hot wings & good ice cream at the same time!!! He would! I also took a brand new Sam's Club-sized bag of frozen biscuits out of the deep-freezer & was pissed when I discovered that instead of individually frozen biscuits it was a big doughy clump! So I don't know what the deal is, but I hate that dang freezer! I think whoever made it needs to send me a check for $25 to cover the biscuits & ice cream & a couple other frozen desserts that were in there!

Last night Jack fell asleep during dinner so we went ahead & put him in bed for the night. I think he'd had enough to eat at least - afterall he'd taken a "bite" of me earlier & said that I was "the most delicious I ever had!" :) Anyway, Jeremiah & I had to go to tithing settlement so my brother Stuart & his friend came over to play XBox & we took Callie with us for that & to go grocery shopping. We didn't get home till 9 and Callie decided she was still hungry. We'd had Panda Express for dinner and it was so funny to see when I walked into the kitchen that Callie, being such a big girl, had got herself some leftover teriyaki chicken & a fork & dug in! She just stood there & ate it like an adult might! When she'd had enough she put the box (and fork) in the fridge & got out the rest of the strawberry milk Jeremiah had let her get at the store & chugged it! It was so funny!

Well happy eating this weekend! I know it will be for me- especially since at my Dr. appt. yesterday I realized that I hadn't gained too much weight at all this past month! :) That's the great thing about being pregnant over the holidays- I can put on my holiday 5 & disguise it very easily! Watch out pie, here I come!

November 19

Today I'll start you out with Callie's joke that she made up all by herself! (& no, it's not funny enough to go around the office. Speaking of The Office, last week's episode was SO DANG FUNNY! Don't you think?!)

Callie: What goes hee-haw & has 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 tails?
Me: What?
Callie: A horsie! (then she giggles uncontrollably)
Me: Wow! That's silly!
Callie: I have a lot of jokes!

After a few more "jokes" like that I tried to teach her the difference between jokes & riddles. Don't you think that's more of a riddle than a joke? Plus Jack goes around demanding "Solve my riddle!" just like the Grumpy Old Troll who lives under the bridge (Dora), so I thought it was appropriate to tell her that the stuff she was coming up with would be more in the riddle category.

Jack is SUCH a goofball! For one, he does this Stevie Wonder bit a lot while we're eating. He'll squeeze is eyes shut tight & start moving his head around. And he's not doing it for attention - he does it & doesn't even realize that we're looking at him thinking "what are you?"! He does hilarious facial expressions a lot. Last night he was watching something with my dad & I noticed him making these really dramatic expressions, especially scared & surprised faces (it was a show about avalanches & volcanic activity). Again what's so funny is that it's not like he's doing it because he's trying to make us laugh or has any idea that we're even watching him - he's just an expressive little guy! I went to get my camera to try to capture some of his faces, but was unsuccessful since I'd forgotten to charge my battery when the camera had died the day before!

Here's some pictures I did get though! These are at the park a couple of Saturdays ago. Doesn't Callie look so tall & skinny in this picture? She really is! She's looking so grown up!







So last week for mutual I was in charge of a big Thanksgiving Feast for the combined (boy/girl) activity. So my 2 counselors & my secretary & I made dinner for 40 people! It was crazy! Not only was I at the church twice during the day to set up & put turkeys in the ovens (don't tell anyone that we cooked at the church!), I was also there from 5-9, and when I got home I put everything away so it was about 9:30 before I finally sat down. I was beat! Here are the little turkey favors we made for the dinner:



I thought they turned out pretty cute! We ended up having too many desserts so I brought home a few pieces of a Sam's Club pumpkin pie. I've only decided that I like pumpkin pie in the last couple of years & I was a little leery about a store bought pie, but let me say this was good! For $5.86 I'd rather buy it than make one this year! Callie & Jack have been talking about how much they love pumpkin pie & about making a pumpkin pie since the beginning of October when we read a Dora book about finding a pumpkin for Abuela to make pumpkin pie with! I'd been wanting to bake one for them so they could try it & see if they really liked it but just hadn't been able to justify it because it seems like lately we've had nonstop desserts & treats around for one thing or another. So it was perfect that I was able to bring some home & we had it for breakfast & I even squirted Reddi-whip into their mouths! I know! What kind of mother am I?! Oh, & they still love pumpkin pie, even after actually eating some!

On Friday we had a ward party. I'd signed up for a dessert so I decided to make this awesome looking cake I saw in a Paula Dean holiday baking magazine. Not only did it look great, but it tasted great too. I think I was the belle of the ball! :) The cake got lots of compliments & I don't mind saying that because it's not like it was my recipe! So it was 3 layers of white chocolate cake with strawberry preserves between the layers, white chocolate buttercream frosting, & shaved white chocolate on top. I'm not a lover of white chocolate, but this wasn't very white-chocolatey at all. Let me type white chocolate a few more times!



Here's our Arizona fall! It's been nearly 80 degrees out for the past week & a half! The bad thing is that Callie's gotten too tall for most of her short sleeved shirts but I'm not gonna go buy her any more when the weather could change any day! So I'm having a hard time dressing her lately. Anyway, the kids LOVE jumping in the leaves & throwing huge armfuls around!

And now I must go to bed! Hopefully I've stayed up late enough & am tired enough that when I wake up to pee in the middle of the night it won't take me an HOUR to get back to sleep! I'm getting a little sick of this! It's only been the last week or so that it's been an issue & I don't think it'll be a problem for the rest of my pregnancy, but it's a problem right now & it's so dang frustrating!!!

I knew I wasn't crazy!

Ever since I started wearing maternity clothes with this pregnancy I've been thinking what the heck happened? I know I started out a little heavier than with my last one, but not THAT much more! But none of my old shirts seem to fit! They are all too short! After deciding that I'd need almost a whole new set of tops I concluded that it must just be that the style has changed. I realize that it was only 2 1/2 years ago that I was pregnant with Jackson, but there's no way that almost every single top is now WAY too short because of the fact that I started out this baby with a little more weight! I decided that it's just more in style to wear longer tops now (pregnant or not). And then I was flipping through an old magazine & saw this! PROOF that I'm not crazy!

See how short her sweater is?! That's how all my tops looked on me- stupid (now that it's not in style)! I'm glad I'm not crazy (an arguable point, I know), but it's too bad that now I have nothing to wear!

Nothing new

Since Halloween I've eaten way more candy (chocolate mostly) than anybody should eat (pregnant or not) & my kids have been sick. So nothing good to report! I do have a bet going with Jeremiah about whether or not I'll get our Christmas cards out early or not this year, & I'm determined to win! Last year I didn't even get them sent. I got as far as purchasing the cards, but that was it. The year before I think I mailed them a couple days after Christmas. If I can get them in the mail the first week of December not only will it be an amazing accomplishment for me, I'll win the bet! Nothing motivates me like winning! My prize is that he'll take me to dinner - not a big deal since we are regular daters. But the fact that he thinks I can't do it is the push I need. I WILL do it!

This is our last weekend with nothing planned until NEXT YEAR! Actually, Jeremiah does have something to go to tonight so it's not a totally unplanned weekend. I can't believe how quickly our calendar is filling up & we don't even have school-aged kids! I used to be able to get by without a calendar (I'm still not carrying around a planner), but now we're busier than ever & I'm more forgetful. I love it though. It gives me stuff to look forward to.

So here's the latest from the kids:

On occassion after yelling at Callie I'll realize I was wrong so I'll apologize & tell her I'm sorry I over-reacted! Callie was sent to her room the other night because she was throwing a fit about something stupid and a minute later she came back to me & said (still crying), "Mom, I think you over-acted."

Jack has been telling me "thank you for the food" at meals. He also tells me a lot, "I wuv you so much!" And the other night when Jeremiah said his name he said, "Don't call me that. I'm Jackson." Jeremiah said, "You're Jack." And he said, "No, I'm Jackson." He's never cared before! He does however sometimes correct us when we say something like, "You're a hunter." He'll tell us then that he's not a hunter, he's just Jackson.

Happy Halloween!

It's one of my most favorite days of the year! Hooray!

Yesterday afternoon the kids & I (mostly I) had a carving extravaganza! Here's the snack we had after our hard work (it's Jell-O inside):

And here's our hard work:

Really, this picture was about the only time Callie put her hand in the pumpkin or touched anything pumpkin-related. She hid under the table for a while because she thought the pumpkins didn't smell so bad if she was under there, and she thought the insides were gross!


Jack would do a scoop, get down off the chair, walk his 2 seeds to the trash, stand there for a few minutes trying to get the seeds off the scoop, then come up to do another scoop. This went on for a few minutes!


The results (aren't my children amazingly talented?!):

Okay, so aside from doing a few scoops, they did pick out the patterns! Great little helpers!

I prepped a 4th to carve & have the punches & mallett to let the kids do it, but we ran out of time yesterday so I'll let them do it today.

We went to a ward party last night - a chili cook-off & trunk-or-treat. Jack was NOT happy about having make-up done this time (he'd cried most of it off by the time I was done - I'm not bothering with it tonight) and we couldn't find Callie's stinkin' shoes for like 30 minutes so we were pretty late! I was afraid we'd missed the food since we were so late, so I had hot dogs in the microwave & I called my mom (who is in my ward & was already there [oh, & Jeremiah was on his way back to Kingman from some business meetings out of town so I was trying to get everything together myself]) & she said they had hot dogs there so I got the hot dogs out of the microwave & stuck them back in the fridge & got the kids in the car. Of course by the time we got there a few minutes later the hot dogs were gone! I tried to get the kids to eat some chili but all they could talk about was the trunk-or-treating that was about to start! They had a great time & are very excited about all the candy they got & Callie can't wait to go out tonight! For the record, I did feed them dinner when we got home - at like 8:15!!! Oh well. And they started on the candy early this morning! They both had a sucker in one hand and their fork in the other when we sat down to have omelettes for breakfast!

And now that Callie's done with her breakfast she's hitting me up for more candy. I told her no & she said, "remember what we talked about saying no?" LOL!

Ridiculous!

I was browsing crib listings on Craigslist & I came across this gem! It's like animal cages for infants! Here's some of the good stuff from it's listing:

"Having twins? This space-saving crib is in excellent condition and CLEAN! The rails slide up for easy access and then down for complete enclosure. Perfect for daycare. (May not be approved for state licensed day-care facilities.)"

Holy crap!

Great Day!

It was a great day for 2 reasons - the first being that we had a little Halloween party at our house this morning that was pretty fun for the kids (plus it's over), and the second because I had delicious hot wings for dinner. What can I say, I'm easy to please!

So my Halloween "party" turned out to be more like playgroup with some Halloween activities, because I didn't decorate (I hardly have any Halloween stuff out at all), and we didn't play any games either. Plus I didn't have my kids dress up since they just dressed up yesterday & will be dressing up 2 more times! I got up at 6am to bake sugar cookies (I made the dough last night), and after about 25 minutes of searching for my large pumpkin cookie cutter I decided I'd have to go to WalMart. I'd kind of needed to go anyway. Jack was up by that time (about 6:45) so I took him with me. When I did finally bake the cookies I realized that for little kids the new cutter I'd just bought was way too big, so I ended up using the smaller pumpkin cutter that I'd already found in my cupboard. It figures!

Anyway, when the kids got here (10am) they did play-doh for a while, then we made foam Halloween masks (Target), had pumpkin-shaped grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch (along with grapes, baby carrots & juice), and decorated the cookies. Not that much, but it was still 12:30 when everyone was gone. I made little goodie bags with the halloween packaged Teddy Grahams, the Peanuts halloween fruit snacks, gummy spiders, candy bones, Nerds, pumpkin bubbles (pumpkin container), and ugly little finger puppets. Next year I'll have to actually put some effort ahead of time into the get together so they can play games. But really, with the oldest ones there being 3 1/2 I don't think it was such a big deal that there were no games. The kids had a great time ripping through the house & playing with toys. And Callie was a cute little hostess when she was saying goodbye to their friends - she'd give them a side hug and say thanks for coming. I'd just told her to tell them bye! She's funny. Oh yeah, yesterday she was waiting for me to finish something & she said, "Mom! The suspense is killing me!" LOL!

Callie's cookies:
So there was another truck wreck while I was in Utah for the weekend & it was hot wings - and not just your cheap any day wings, but restaurant wings. Consequently, we now have a deep freezer in our garage! Tonight was the first time I got to try the wings & they were SO DANG GOOD! I seriously ate like 15! Jeremiah thought they needed some kind of glaze so he bought this: (I highly recommend it!)

And then again, if the sauce was too vinegary I couldn't tell. I've been stuffed up for about 3 weeks now (thanks to pregnancy) so I can't taste or smell super great.

Here's pictures from yesterday - the kids got dressed up for a halloween-themed story time the library. I LOVE Jack as a skeleton - I think it's really funny! He doesn't even look like himself!

Baby (girl/boy) Divis

So we had our big ultrasound yesterday afternoon. I really didn't want to find out what we were having, but Jeremiah was gonna be really bummed if we didn't, and being the awesome, unselfish wife that I am I decided his happiness was more important. And I also didn't want to hear him whining about it for the next few months! So amazingly enough this baby wasn't as modest or shy or uncooperative as the first 2 & we were able to find out the first try. I was secretly (or not so secretly) hoping we wouldn't be able to tell. Anyway, it's a girl!!! Jeremiah's not thrilled. He doesn't like that Jack walks around the house sometimes with a purse & a baby doll. He was hoping that a brother would help. I don't think it's a big deal though that Jack does that - it's perfectly normal toddler behavior. And he does plenty of other boyish things! I really didn't have a preference about the sex, but I'm now looking forward to some matchy-matchy outfits! I saw this little family at church Sunday with 3 girls all in the same dress with similar hair accessories & they were just so darling! This will be fun!

Witches' Night Out

I had a great weekend in Utah with Wendy! On Friday we were able to drop off her kids & then meet my sister Chelsea for lunch & spend the rest of the afternoon shopping. After a healthy amt. of shopping we donned our dresses & witch hats & met up with some gals from Wendy's ward to go to Witches' Night Out. Basically it was shopping dressed up as a witch. There were additional outdoor vendors & there was live music & contests & stuff, and it was pretty fun to see so many grown women dressed up! Seriously, there were so many people there that night it was as bad as Disneyland on a busy day! When Wendy's husband mentioned to a co-worker what we were doing that night the co-worker misunderstood/mis-heard the witches part. We had a good laugh about what he thought he'd heard. Oh, & I think this picture makes me look more pregnant (and fatter & gross) than I actually look. Just an FYI!

On Saturday we went to a 12 hour crop at Archiver's! It was so awesome! I didn't get as much done as I would have liked for the amount of time we were there, but it was pretty fun! I would totally love to do it again! On Sunday we laid around the house fighting sleep since we always stay up way too late when we're together! My sister Tara came over & we made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies & I think I ate a dozen! If you like pumpkin cookies make this recipe - it's SO easy & great!

1 spice cake mix
1 small can pure pumpkin (not pie mix!)
chocolate chips

Bake at 350 for like 14 mins. It's hard to tell when they're actually done. The tops should be a little cracked.

The great thing about these is that even if you overbake them a couple minutes they're still really chewy & moist since they're made from a cake mix. Oh, & when you're mixing the pumpkin & the cake mix it will seem at first like it's impossible, but it's not. Most of the mix should get mixed in, but if there are a few little cake mix specs left in there it's okay. Can you believe how simple that is though? And they're great! I'm a big lover of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies & this recipe is new to me and I LOVE it! I doubt I'll ever make them the traditional way again. And if you make them and you don't like them than your opinion is wrong!!! :)

Birthday Boy

Yesterday was Jackson's 2nd Birthday! When he woke up in the morning I started singing him Happy Birthday & he said, "No mom, don't sing! Stop, don't sing!" Jeremiah thought he could do better but Jack did the same thing :) He even shut my mom down that afternoon!

I think he had a great day! We went to Story Time at the library, went to Del Taco for lunch (since they have one of the only 2 play places in town & it's cleaner than the other), and we had my parents & brother over for a little party.

The grown-ups had steak & the birthday boy & his sister had hot dogs for dinner. He finished his dinner & was getting impatient with us, waiting for us to tell him to open his presents, so I followed him as he picked up a present & took it to his bedroom to open!

We moved the party into the living room. So this was the funniest - my mom let Callie pick out the game Ants in the Pants for Jack so he opened it & Jeremiah was telling him what it was called. As soon as Jeremiah said the name Jack says "ants in my pants" & stands up to reach into his pants & get the ants out. He was very concerned the rest of the night about ants being in his pants.


So let me just tell you about this cake. I wanted to make him a Jack-o-lantern cake but didn't want to do the bundt cake method because that's a LOT of cake for not that many of us. So I baked my cake in 2 glass mixing bowls. I think I needed a denser batter to do this, and it didn't help that I added a can of pumpkin to the carrot cake mix. It was delicious, but extremely moist so when I turned the 1st bowl over to be the bottom of the pumpkin, it collapsed on itself! The cake was a total disaster. I did think I was ingenious to do the jack's face out of melted chocolate. As for the "eyebrows," when I was making the face on the wax paper it turned out too big so I made a second smaller one. Jeremiah broke the smile apart on the bigger one because he thought the jack needed eyebrows. I told him not to do it but he thought his idea was superior so he did it anyway. I of course got onto him & took them out, but then I decided, what the heck. It's not like this poor cake was some kind of masterpiece anyway & he just wanted to help. And I felt bad for being such a meanie. So I put the eyebrows back on. Or cat ears. Jack liked it either way. Jeremiah, I love you & I'm sorry I'm such a jerk. You have good ideas too. Well, ideas anyway. :) j/k - You have good ideas!


Callie wanted to use my cell phone to take a picture of the cake. She's pretty proud of the fact that she knows how to take pictures all by herself with the phone! :)

Callie was quite pouty about the toys that Jack got. Mostly she was upset that we kept telling her to stop opening his presents. Grandma tried to talk to her about it. Is it still going to be this bad next year?

This is the messiest Jack got. He did good. It's amazing how big he's getting. He's looking more & more like a little man. Oh yeah, I just want to let Chelsea know that the sword you gave him is just an annoying weekend visitor. Meaning, it's not sticking around! :p Not that Jack doesn't love it!