Cedar

Ally

Brittney

Not a baby anymore....

My baby Cedar turned two!! I know everyone thinks their kids are the cutest and most adorable, but this girl is so dang cute I can't stand it....

As you can see we had a Birthday party for her this past weekend and things didn't exactly go as planned....they turned out OK in the end but here was the drama: I spent two *$#!@+! hours making this turtle cake (which first of all did not turn out as cute as I had imagined in my head) and when I was done I needed a "safe" place to put it where little fingers would not poke at it or it would otherwise get ruined...so, after some dilemma I decided that the oven would be a great place to keep such a prized creation.

All was well, I went about my day of cleaning, preparing etc and realized that I was supposed to have picked out a gift to be from my dad....I rushed off to Target and found a suitable gift, to Costco to get take & bake pizzas, came home to find that the house was not yet decorated (party is starting in 1 hour), kids hair is not done, Cedar has woken up from her nap and removed her clothes (luckily nothing worse than that), my makeup is not done (becuase of course I should have plenty of time with an hour to spare) and I still need to change my clothes etc....needless to say, I am a little frantic.

I got the house decorated, kids cleaned up and had 15 minutes left for my hair and clothes, when people start to arrive...againl, panic sets it. Now, you might be wondering where my husband is....he is outside working on a HD dish for his blessed TV, while I am running around like a mad-woman....but don't worry, I have it under control. :o)

I force Ally out into the family room to distract and entertain the first few guests, turn the oven on to preheat for pizzas and I dash off to put my make-up on...the finishing touch. That is when I realized what I had done.....I TURNED THE OVEN ON AND MY $#@!*&% CAKE IS IN THERE!!!!

I ran out to the kitchen and tore open the oven door to find a melted, very sad looking turtle. I wanted to cry. I took it out of the oven, said a few explitives and slammed the door shut. A few minutes later, when I could manage to take another look at the drooping eyes and mouth, I stood there trying to decide what to do when Matt's brother (who doesn't have the best tact in the world) came over and aked "what the hell happened to that?" I burst into tears and told him I would kill him if he opened his mouth again (maybe not that nicely). Yep....right in front of the whole family!! Not my shining moment. :o)

I went to my room and settled down for a few minutes then came back out and tried to fix it up the best I could.....my sister said it looked like it just crawled out of the swamp. LOL Oh-well....I suppose the Birthday girl didn't know the difference and she is the only one I was trying to impress.

The rest of the party went well and I was sure not to cause any more drama.

Ally's new do!

So, this is Ally's new haircut that she gave herself yesterday. She took her bangs off right down to her scalp...cute huh? LOL. She also got in 3 swipes at Cedar's and trimmed the cats while they were sleeping! Notice all the clumps of hair down the hall. When I asked her what she was thinking, she said she wanted to look like the polar bear on her necklace....I guess she was on the right track. Cedar was an innocent victim I'm sure!

The crapper is that I had scheduled to have their pictures done for their birthday's next week. Guess she will have to learn to like beanies for the rest of the winter.

Valentine's Madness!!

So, many of you know that I am a Slumber Parties distributor right?? Well, can I tell you that sex DOES NOT go through a recession?!?

I have been so busy with parties and ordes and new distributors that I can hardly see straight, let alone have time to blog.....don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about $7000 in retail sales this month, but....whew, glad it's almost over!! I will resume blogging ASAP.

I did want to remind anyone who wants to order for Valentine's Day, that I will be placing my last V-day order on Saturday, and it will be delivered the day before THE BIG DAY! You can view the catalog via my website anytime at www.slumberpartiesbykolleen.com.

Also, I am having a Valentine's Open House at my house and those of you who know me well enough to know where I live or have my phone number are welcome to come (I am not crazy enough to put that info out on the WWW!). Here is the info if you can't find that special Valentine's gift or need some last minute lingerie:

WHERE: Kolleen's House

WHEN: Valentine's Day 10:00am-2:00pm

MEN ARE WELCOME , BUT PLEASE NO BABIES OR CHILDREN. There will be items/lingerie on display. 25% off your entire order if you are one of the first three guests! Lots of food and GREAT give-aways plus EXTRA inventory!! BRING A FRIEND AND CHOOSE AN EXTRA GIFT WORTH $20.00

Ally turned 4!

I can't believe Ally is already four! She can be such a handful sometimes, but overall she is a really good girl who just wants to entertain everyone and make them happy. There are so many things I love about Ally, but here are my top 10:

10) Her curiosity

9) Her genuine love of animals/creatures

8) Her desire to "protect" her family

7) Her desire/ability to make you laugh (even at the risk of getting into trouble)

6) Her smile

5) The sparkle in her beautiful blue eyes

4) The way she says "thingers" instead of fingers

3) The way she cries when someone else is hurt

2) Her sense of humor

1) Her love for her sisters

The moon is out tonight!

Ok, so I was going to write a post about my wonderful weekend with my kids. Matt had to work and we had no particular agenda and spent a lot of time playing on the floor, making a cake, etc etc and the two little ones were amazing angels. You know those moments when you stop to really look at all their features and you can't stop smiling about how cute, and perfect they are???

Well, that was my weekend, then Matt and Britt came home and we went to dinner at Outback, where Ally decided it was appropriate to MOON BRITTNEY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RESTAURANT!! I am talking, full moon, wiggling the thing around! LOL Then, she had a total look of surprise when we had to have a discussion about not showing your butt in public. Like she had no idea that such a thing was wrong.

Crazy kid...I must have lost my mind to think she was anything but TROUBLE!

Swimming

Swimming in the Winter is a great way to get out of the stuffy house and burn off some of the kids' energy. We had a great time and I had to wake them up for dinner! Sorry for the picture of me in my swimming suit...I am far from swim-suit worrthy, but what do you do??

New Traditions

This year we went sledding on Christmas Eve day, and I hope to make it a yearly tradition. We all had a great time (except for Cedar who did not care for it much), and the kids were nice and worn out. It made for an early bedtime so Mr. and Mrs. Clause could work their magic, and hopefully it is something the kids will remember and look forward to each year.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

So, I know I have posted pictures of the girls playing dress-up before, but these were so cute that I couldn't resist. And, we have a little problem at our house with clean-up and I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions.

Ally LOVES to play dress-up. It will entertain her for what seems like hours, but she REFUSES to clean it up. Matt go sick of cleaning it up and she wasn't able to play with them for a month! I felt bad for her and partly responsible for not having an organized place for her to store them in, so I fished them out of the basement after I thought Matt had cooled off. I bought a six drawer organizer and put them in all neat and tidy. I thought for sure she would be ecstatic to have them back and would NEVER leave them about again......WRONG!

It only took two days and although she was playing with them like crazy, she was refusing to pick them up and told Matt "just throw them away, I don't need them". So, Matt literally threw them out in the garbage and I once again had to fish them out (I want to at least save them for Cedar). UUUGH! What am I doing wrong?? How do you reason with or discipline a child who has an "I don't care" attitude?

5-minute salsa

This is my new favorite, EASY recipe. I could eat this stuff all day long and it literally only takes 5 minutes......so fresh and awesome. Let me know what you think.

Ingredients: (I don't follow it exactly...add more or less of what you like and I am lazy so I use the easier versions vs "fresh" but it is still amazing.)

1/2 small onion
1/4 C fresh cilantro
1T lime juice (Iuse the bottled stuff)
1 garlic clove peeled (I use minced garlic)
2T jalepenos (I use the canned diced stuff)
1/4t salt
1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes (drained)

Directions:

Put everything except the tomatoes in the food processor and pulse 1minute x5 or until well blended, then add tomatoes and pulse quickly to desired "chunkiness".

The Polar Express

So, we had heard that the Polar Express expedition in Heber City was AMAZING....so we nearly killed the entire family getting there and spent a good deal of money on tickets, only to be dissappointed in the end.

They tell you that you are going to the "North Pole" to see Santa, when in reality, you go BACKWARDS (which really bothered Ally) on a train going 10mph, in the dark with no lights or attractions along the way until you see a man in a Santa suit standing in a snowbank with a sign that says "North Pole" and red flood lights......then, you turn around and go 10mph back, but at least you go back FORWARDS I guess!! LOL

In all fairness, they gave us hot chocolate and cookies and sang a few Christmas songs while waiting for Santa to stroll through the train cars.....needless to say, we won't be rushing back next year.

Poop?

It is so amazing what kids remember......

As a family tradition, Matt takes the kids to The Festival of the Trees every year and they get to see Santa.....last year was the second year and when I asked Ally if she was excited to go and see Santa, she said "No, he stinks!". I started to laughed and asked her what he smelled like and she said "Poop, I think" with her nose all turned up like the memory was just as vivid as the day she first smelled it. I thought that was so funny that she could remember that from the year before, when she was only 2 years old.....

Today is the day that they are headed out for 2008 and SHE STILL remembers! I asked her about it this morning and she still claims that Santa smells like poop. She was scarred for life by some dirty Santa with gas at The Festival of the Trees!! Poor Kid....