Dress up

So last night, I'd put the girl's pj's on and Samantha asked me if they could play a little bit before bed time. I said yes and didn't hear anything for a while. Later, she comes prancing down the stairs saying, "Mommy, don't I look beautiful?" This is normal, of course, because what little girl doesn't like to dress up? The next thing I know, little Amy comes down the stairs. Samantha says, "Look mommy, I dressed her up all by myself!" And sure enough, Amy is decked out in full princess gear--Cinderella dress, necklace, crown...even shoes!

Sometimes I think Samantha thinks of Amy as another doll to play with and dress as she pleases!
But, obviously Amy loves Samantha and they are just 2 peas in a pod....or maybe the princess and the pea!

Naive

Okay, so I know I've lived a pretty sheltered life. I grew up in California, which you might think would have opened my eyes a little, but I guess my parents raised me in a happy bubble. Brandon always catches me singing songs and asks, "You know what they're talking about, don't you?" And I lower my eyes and say, "No. I just like the music!"

Well, thanks to my friends, let's call them Amanda and Jeni, I had a wake up call to the easy access of obtaining your personal information off of the internet and how blogging easily allows this. So I have decided to follow in their footsteps and remove all last names as well as where I live. Apparently when I set this blog up, I was just willing to share everything with the entire world! I did a google search on my name, which, mind you, is fairly common, and I was amazed to see how my circle of friends popped up. I am truly sorry for having used your last name if you didn't want me to, and I'm going to try to remain as discreet as possible. If you want to be blown away, just try and google your own name. It's crazy!

If anyone has any more suggestions to keep yours and my information safe in the blogging world, let me know! Maybe I'm just having a paranoid moment.....

Sunny Days!

Yea! I've been waiting for the sun for so long. The girls and I went out in the backyard today to play because it was warmer than it has been in a while. They loved riding bikes, kicking the soccer ball, playing hide-n-seek, and just running. You'll have to bear with me because I took A LOT of pictures. I never realized it before, but watch how many times Amy sticks out her tongue!
Tongue #1

Samantha was being such a good big sister helping Amy ride her old bike.
Then Amy figured out how to make it go by herself!
A little Babe Ruth pose.



Tongue #2
Tongue #3
This is right before Amy fell...but she didn't stay down too long! Nice action shot though!


Samantha was peeking around the corner to see if I was coming to find her.
She just found me when we were playing hide-n-seek!

Tongue #4--I love this one!
We had so much fun! Hope the sun found you today!

My favorites....

Today was a big success at church. Samantha went to Sunbeams peacefully and without putting up a fight, and Amy stayed through all of nursery!
Brandon took Amy to nursery and stayed in there for a little less than half of the time. I could tell when he left because I heard her crying down the hall. But, after church, the nursery leader said she did really well and liked singing time, and of course, snack time.
I told her the way into Amy's heart is through her stomach, so she thinks that she might just give Amy a special snack at the beginning of nursery from now on. Now that's my girl!

Jump!

Samantha loves to jump, and Amy wants to be just like her big sister. She started trying to jump a few weeks ago and it always puts a smile on my face!

18 months!

So Amy turned 18 months on Sunday and it was her first day of nursery at church. I was very excited. We've taken her before, but have always stayed because she wasn't old enough. I don't know if you know my kids or not, but they are very attached at the hip. I took Amy in and she was playing great...when she could see me out of the corner of her eye. I sneaked out and it wasn't long before I could hear her cry emanating off the walls of the church. She only lasted for half of nursery before they brought her to me. How do I raise such mama's girls?

Face Lift

So I don't know about you, but I'm a little sick of all the snow and it seems to be surrounding me everywhere--even my blog! So I thought it was time for a little change. Here's to warmer weather!

Oh, and thanks to everyone who posted recipes. I'm sorry I was such a nag! You guys are all great!

Newest Addition to Our Family.....

I bet I scared some of you, huh? No, this is not my baby and I am not pregnant. My sister-in-law, Jana, had her baby on February 12 at 12:52 a.m. She didn't know what she was having, so it was a surprise to find out that it was a girl! They named her Taryn Brynn and she weighed in at 6 lbs 14 oz and 18 inches long.
Jana's water broke at home and by the time they made it to the hospital, it was too late for an epidural and the baby was born about 45 minutes later. Props to her for going all natural!

Here's Taryn's first bath. As you can tell, not so happy about that one! Welcome to the world Taryn. We love you!

Happy Valentine's Day!

The night before Valentine's Day, Samantha and I made cookies for the neighbors. She had so much fun with the sprinkles--maybe a little too much fun!




The next morning, I awoke to this.
My cute husband made me a CD of love songs and when I listened to them, it made me a little teary eyed. For those of you that know me, I'm sure you're not surprised--I cry at everything! I love Brandon...he is such a romantic.

We laid the girls Valentine's outside their doors so that they could have them when they first got up.
My cute little Valentines!Later, when I got home from work, Brandon had set up an hour massage at a spa for me....it was fabulous. And when I got home from that, he had lit the fire and some candles and had roses for me. We ate a red dinner--lasagna, red potatoes, red jello and strawberry lemonade. So they didn't all go together, but it was fun anyway! Hope you all had a happy Valentine's!

Snuggle Buddies

If you think your day's bad....

...try coming down the stairs to the smell of nail polish. Okay, that doesn't look so bad. Oh wait. Where's Amy?




Oh........there she is.

Ironic that she has that shirt on, huh?


And don't worry, none of it came off in the bath. You can't see it, but it's all over her legs too. She looks like a purple people eater! I'm still googling trying to figure out how to get it out of my carpet. Suggestions anyone?

Static Cling

Samantha's friends, Ashley & Brooke, got Samantha a princess tent for her birthday. Samantha, Amy and Tigger all love to play in it and they each gave me a little spark after they were done playing.


And you think you're having a bad hair day........

Out with it!!!

Okay, I'm going to start naming names soon if I don't get some new recipes! Hey Erin, do you want to post your chocolate pudding toffee cake dessert?

Anyone have any good dinner roll recipes? I think you all must have something to share! I promise that whenever I make it, I will use your name! :)

Recipe Tag

So it seems like there's been a lot of "tagging" lately, so I thought that I would come up with a tag of my own that would benefit me. Sound selfish? Well, hopefully it will benefit you too!

For those of you who don't know, I love to cook, mostly bake. I love seeing how all the separate ingredients come together to form something delicious. Can you tell I was just upstairs baking chocolate chip cookies? Anyway, I thought that it would be fun to post some recipes that I really like, or that are easy to make and then hopefully have anyone that reads this and wants to participate, post some yummy, delicious, or easy recipes on their blog. You can just leave a comment so that we know who is doing it and then you can link to them from my page. I love collecting recipes and I'm always searching for something new that someone has already told me is good. I know some of you already love to cook, so you should be loaded! What do you feed your family for dinner? What is your favorite treat? I'm looking for a good dinner roll and cinnamon roll recipe. Here are a couple of my recipes:

Chocolate Chip Cookies:

2 1/4 cups flour 3/4 cups brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda 2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt 1 egg
1 cup butter 1 pkg chocolate chips
1/2 cup sugar preheat oven to 375 degrees

1. Stir together flour, baking soda & salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light & fluffy.
3. Add vanilla & egg.
4. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture. Mix well.
5. Stir in chocolate chips.
6. Drop by rounded teasponfulls, 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
7. Bake for 8-10 minutes. (I usually do 9)
8. Place on cooling rack. Makes about 3 dozen, if you don't eat too much dough!

Katie's Artichoke Dip

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise
8 oz. pkg cream cheese
1 garlic clove, pressed
14 oz. can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1/3 cup finely chopped roasted red peppers.

Combine cheeses, mayo & garlic in food processor. Process until smooth. Place mixture in slow cooker. Add artichoke and peppers, stir well. Cover & cook on low for 1 hour. Stir again.

*I just put everything in the crock pot and make sure I stir it when it is melted. You might want to double this recipe!

Parmesan Dijon Chicken

3 chicken breasts (I like to half mine and pound them a little flat)
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1/2 stick butter, melted
2 Tbs dijon mustard

Preheat oven to 375°
1. Mix crumbs and cheese.
2. Combine butter & mustard.
3. Dip chicken in butter mixture, then into crumb mixture.
4. Bake uncovered for 20-30 min

Well, there's a few. I hope to be seeing a lot more! :)

Little Miracles

So at Samantha's Princess Party, her cousin, Maylie, gave her a Target gift card to go get a Princess Barbie. We went there yesterday, and I had given her the card to hold on to so that she could pay for her present. She had picked out the Little Mermaid Barbie and was holding it when she said, "Mommy, where's my card?!" We looked everywhere for it and even went back to the car and retraced our steps. No card anywhere. So I made her put the Barbie back, to which she had a little breakdown, and I did feel really bad. When we were in the car, I said a little prayer, but then the thought came to my mind that a child's prayer is probably more powerful. So Samantha said her own prayer that we would find her card, or that if someone else found it, that they would turn it in to the lost and found. Today, I was over at the post office, which is across the street from Target, when I had the feeling to just go over and check to see if it was there. Well, when I got to the customer service center, firstly, my home teacher was in line in front of me, and I talked to him and his wife for a minute, but when I got up to the service desk and asked them about the card, they looked and there it was!!!! I know I shouldn't be surprised, but I was so excited. Today is Samantha's birthday, so not only did I get to give her her present that she had to put back, but I got to teach her a lesson that Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers and that He heard her prayer. I seriously almost started crying when they handed me the gift card at the store. I'm glad to live in a place where there are still honest people! Happy Birthday Samantha!

Princess Party

Samantha is turning 4 on February 5th, so we celebrated her birthday on Saturday with a Princess Party and all her friends.

You might think these are just little kids that don't eat very much, but we ordered 4 pizzas and they were gone by the end of the night....okay, I'm sure it was the parents that helped them out. Maybe just Joe and Dianne. They were in the kitchen for a while! :)


Here's Maylie, Brooke, Ashley above Samantha, Samantha, Hailey, Chase, and Sariah.

This is a fun game that I found. It's an inflatable castle and you toss rings onto the spires. The kids loved it, although it was a little hard to learn to take turns! We also played Hide-N-Seek (Samantha's favorite game), except all the kids hid and there was no one to seek them! So I sent Brandon after them. After all, he's probably the biggest kid of all!


Then we played Snow White's Poisoned Apple. There were green apples hidden all around and one red apple (the poisoned one). Whoever found the red one got a prize! And lastly we played The Glass Slipper, which is just a princess version of hot potato with a Cinderella shoe.


This is the start of the opening of presents. Everyone was pretty calm at first, but then broke out into a mad rush of Princess chaos!

Everyone wanted to open the presents!


Cute little Princess Scout!








After cake, we painted fingernails and put on princess stickers.
Who couldn't love this cute little bottomless Cinderella?



Dancing is one of Samantha's favorite things to do, and she makes it very clear that she wants to listen to "girl songs", not "boy songs"! This video is just a glimpse at the girlie craziness that went on at the party...I missed videoing the opening of the presents though, that was OUT OF CONTROL!!! We sure do love our girls! Happy Birthday Samantha!