Too Fun!

When was the last time you got to hang out with ~600 crazy women, talk about sex, have a PJ party and laugh till your belly hurts? For me, it had been way too long!

I went with my friend Jenn (who is also a Slumber distributor)and we got some great tips to better our demos and our businesses.

Camping at Echo

Here are some pictures of our latest camping trip with Jenn and her family. We had a great time playing in the water and eating our fill of delicious camping food and treats. I couldn't tell you the last time I ate a chili dog (out of the back of my Dad's truck on some trip) and it tasted so good I had to have another when we got home. I don't know about anyone else, but I was ready to come home and lock myself in the bathroom for a long hot shower! I think Gunner was ready for some TLC also.....dumb dog swam for hours and ran so much his feet hurt!

"The Beep"

You know how kids say things funny when they are little and you hope that you never forget them? Well, Ally has a few things that she says incorrectly and I purposely refrain from correcting her because they are my favorites.

One of them is "The Beep". We have a powerwheels Jeep that the girls love to ride around in and I love to hear Ally say "Mom can we drive the Beep?", or "Hey Brittney, want to drive the Beep with me?" Just cracks me up.

My other favorite at the moment is when she sees something new around, she will say, "Hey, where did that crum from?". So stinking cute. One day I was taking pictures and she said "Where did that cramera crum from?" I laughed for hours! I hope I never forget that so I can tell her when she is older!

Britt's Birthday Pictures

Happy Birthday Brittney!

Brittney turned eight on September 10th, but we just celebrated with family and friends tonight because she has been away spending time with her mom. We had pizza and a Hannah Montana icecream cake (No 8 year old party is complete with some Hannah), and lots of rough housing courtesy of Uncle Kelly. Thanks to all who came; I think she got everything she had wanted and more!

The best part about turning eight is that we can finally lose the booster seat in the car!

Gonna Be a Bear

Gonna be a bear:

In this life I'm a woman. In my next life, I'd Like to come back as a bear. When you're a bear, you get to hibernate. You do nothing but sleep for six months. I could deal with that.

Before you hibernate, you're suppose to eat yourself stupid. I could deal with that too.

When you're a girl bear, you birth your children (who are the size of walnuts) while you're sleeping and wake up to partially grown, cute, cuddly cubs. I could definitely deal with that.

If you're a mama bear, everyone knows you mean business. you swat away anyone who bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too. I could deal with that.

If you're a bear, your mate EXPECTS you to wake up growling. He EXPECTS that you will have hairy legs and excess body fat.YUP, GONNA BE A BEAR!

(I saw this on a friend's blog and I couldn't have said it better myself...thanks Nancy)

Band Practice

For the past several months we have been getting together with some friends for "Rock Band Practice" and it is a lot of fun. We eat, let the kids play, relax in the hot tub and play Rock Band til we drop....if you have never tried it, it is about time! Here are a few pictures. Notice the seriousness of the Wii tennis match going on in this picture. LOL

Banana Nut Bread

Ok, fall is coming and with it comes great, home-cooked recipes!! Yay, I love fall/winter comfort food (but hate the weight it brings). Anyway, this week I made my mom's famous Banana Nut Bread (minus the nuts at my house), and have been getting requests for the recipe, so here ya go, and I don't want any snide comments about posting a recipe on my blog (Jenn)!

Ingredients:

1/3 C Butter or Shortening

1/2 C Sugar

2 Eggs

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1 3/4 C Flour

1 C Mashed Ripe Bananas

1/2 C walnuts (optional)

Directions:
1) Soften the butter and mix with sugar.

2) Then add eggs and beat well.

3) Sift together the dry ingredients (except nuts) and add to mixture, alternating with mashed bananas.

4) Stir in nuts if desired.

5) Bake at 350 for 40-50 mins or until rich brown and toothpick comes out clean. ENJOY!

6) Makes 1 large loaf

7) Freezes well, so I usually double the recipe.

First day of Preschool

This is Ally's second year in preschool and she was so excited to go! She is in a home-based program this year and there are only 4 kids in her class, so I think she will get lots of one-on-one time. She is getting so big and this year she ran right in without a care in the world for where I was or when I would be back. She is my social butterfly.

Summer Days

This has been a big year for us as far as finishing our backyard, and Matt finally finished putting the new playhouse together yesterday! My kids are loving it. We had a picnic in the shade and played for hours today....what a good time. Thanks Daddy! Ally has been begging for someone to come over and have a tea party, so if you're looking for something to do....come on over.

Silly Girl

Today Cedar was being so funny, that I had to snap a shot. She was trying to walk in my flip-flops and she thought she was so cool. Never a dull moment.

I realized after being home for a week and going through hundreds of lost pictures, that it appears my children do not have a mother! I always seem to be on the taking end of the pictures. Well, I took a couple shots today to celebrate the first day in nine, that I have a) done my hair and b) actually put make-up on! I still feel horrible, infact, the pain seems to be getting worse instead of better, and all I've had to eat today is one tapioca pudding cup, but I thought it might make me feel better to "look alive" at least. On the bright side, I have lost 6 pounds and wearing my favorite jeans without any discomfort! LOL

Favorite Recent Pictures

OK Mindi...I think you are the only one reading this thing, but there are some new pics for ya! For those of you who do not know, I just had my tonsils out and let me tell you...it is 10 times worse than giving birth! This is day #2 without total obliviation by narcotics (Thank God) and I have somewhat regained the ability to sit vertical. :o) So, sorry for the delay in blogs....on the brighter side, I actually had some solid food today; Mac&Cheese never tasted so good!

A Little Attitude!

My little Ally is my funny child. She keeps me young and laughing constantly. One of my favorite moments recently happened at Flaming Gorge: I was trying to put her shoes on and she was being a typical 3 year old with floppy legs (you know the kind that make getting their shoes on extra difficult) and wouldn't help so I pitched a fit, threw the shoes on the floor and said "fine, if you want to put your shoes on then do it yourself and come outside!". She just looked at me for a minute and said "Mom, you're being a boob, just whining and crying." I laughed for several minutes then decided she was right and finished helping her put her shoes on. HMM, wonder where she heard that before eh?

Flaming Gorge

WE just got back from my family reunion in Flaming Gorge. We had such a great time relaxing, fishing, cliff diving and catching lizards. What a beautiful place! This is the first year in many that I can actually say I had a vacation...my kids are getting old enough that I trust them around the fire a little and I don't have a child attatched to my boob every few hours!! LOL Here are a few of the pictures.

A year in review....

Since I am just getting this started, I thought I would give you a re-cap of the year so far, then I will try to keep things updated! I am having my tonsils out next week (yeah I know it's gonna suck) so I figure I will have lots of time while off work to fiddle around with this.

Sisters

The thing I love about having 3 girls is that they get along so well and really do love eachother. Brittney is an amazing big sister and is always looking out for the other two. She will gladly give them what she is playing with without complaint (most of the time) and really amazes me with her nurturing personality.

The week she almost died!

Ok, so we have all had those Mom moments when you wonder why you ever pro-created right? (please tell me I am not the only one) Well, this one was a doozie: So, earlier in this week, Matt had put Ally down for a nap and had gone outside to do some work and when he came back to check on her, she had colored all over herself (I mean, her nose, her hands, her legs, her forehead...everywhere), her sheets and her walls with permanent black marker.....she was almost killed! Then, later that week I had again, left her unattended for all of about 5 minutes, and when I saw her next she had that "I just did something bad look", and had soap all over her hands. I went to investigate and found that she had taken a bar of mushy soap and colored all over about 6 pairs of my shoes!!! Needless to say, I was not happy....after making her "taste" the soap to see if she ever wanted to play in it again, and after cleaning my shoes off, I calmed down and decided that she needed a creative outlet for her artwork. That was good parenting, right? So, I put her on my porch with sidewalk paints and when I came back with Cedar, she had colored her hands, feet, my brick, stucko and windows, and NO paint whatsoever on the cement! She nearly lost her life, and is apparently missing some crucial part of her brain! LOL. Cedar, however, was having a great time eating the chalk....good think Crayola makes them Non-toxic!

The additions

We have spent a great deal of time and money FINALLY finishing our back yard! Wahoo! We added a deck, patio and hot tub and we are enjoying them so much. We got an extra big hottub so come on over!