As if I needed one more reason to feel inept in the kitchen....

Apparently I have been creaming butter and sugar wrong all my life.  I recently googled a cooking question and ran across this website.  Now I can have my food turn out like crap but at least I know I creamed my butter and sugar correctly. 

Q: What would I do without google?

A: Probably feel more competent.  I'm a huge fan of denial and ignorance.

Happy cooking!

A Boy's Life: Building Towers

I've been making fun of Hunter a ton on facebook lately for all of his girly tendencies.  Maybe I shouldn't, but it's fun and I probably won't be stopping anytime soon.  I figure if I laugh about all the kids put me through I won't feel compelled to bang my head against the wall quite so frequently.

More often than not during the day he exhibits boy traits.  I promise, he is all boy.  He simply is surrounded by girls and doesn't realize that playing barbies just as one example is more of a girl thing.  This is what he was doing the other day while I played on the computer. 

***Don't tell Ryan I let him, he gets mad at me when I don't stop him.  He is still under the impression that I actually have control over the kids.

He loves to build a tower out of our Cd's and then kick them over.  Every time they would fall over he would go "Whoa, cool!"  He did this for about an hour.  I figure it wasn't harming anything and I got computer time...I'm sure if I was a better mom I would care and would have stopped it, but then he would have gotten into trouble and I wasn't really in the mood to yell at him and send him to timeout.

Um, yeah, and the underwear thing is normal at our house.  The second he comes in the door he strips his clothes off and runs around like that.  As long as he will let me put clothes on him when we leave the house without a battle I don't care.  Plus, I think he is so stinkin' cute in just his underoos.

Mom, I want skinny jeans.....

Recently Madison and I had this conversation:

Madison:  Mom, I want skinny jeans

Me:  You have skinny jeans

Madison:  No, I want skinny jeans

Me:  Madison, you have skinny jeans, all of your jeans are skinny jeans

Madison:  No, I want skinny jeans like my friend Jane* name changed to protect innocent friends  She has skinny jeans and they are tight on her

Me:  Well, honey, they don't make skinny slim so that's as good as it gets for you.  As it is they are 2 sizes smaller that you should be wearing and they still fall off.  You're too skinny for the skinny jeans.

Life is rough sometimes.  If only I had the same issues.  My skinny jeans are plenty tight.

Do you love the boots?  I'm jealous target didn't have them in my size.

Have you seen my new banner?

I'm really proud of it, I FINALLY figured out how to do it after about a year of trying.  That's right, I am that inept on a computer.  I finally found a website that is teaching me how to digital scrapbook correctly, apparently I have been doing many things incorrectly.  And it has taught me a ton of tricks.  The only problem now is that I have to go back and redo all the pages I already completed.  Seriously, I am so glad I finally a way to learn the basics before I waste any more time messing up my pages.  I'm officially converted to digital format.

I {heart} October 2010

As I've mentioned in blog posts of past, I love the month of October.  I have to say that this year was a tad disappointing compared to some of the October's that we have enjoyed.  Now that Madison is in school full time and Hunter is just starting to get into the celebrations (not to mention the fact that he is in 2 preschools, that in itself seems to leave us with very little free time) I no longer participate in the many fun activities Vegas has to offer.  It's funny, growing up I never in a million years would have ever picked Las Vegas as a place I would consider moving to, but I love it.  This city is surprisingly family friendly.  Much more than Memphis.....

Anyway, there were quite a few activities that we passed on this year, but the one activity that my kids and I look forward to all year long is the Pumpkin Patch.  A friend set up a group time for us on a non-school day and we had so much fun!  AND this year it moved to a new location.  It is no longer in the parking lot of a casino....I actually miss it there, I thought it quite apropos that Las Vegas' "Pumpkin Patch" was in a casino parking lot, but it was a lot nicer. 

While we were in Minnesota for my Aunt Lori's wedding (I'm kicking myself, I didn't get any pictures with the bride and groom.  I was too busy getting family pictures....I actually have a recent one of me and my sisters, YAY!  I have the cutest sisters.) I was able to take my kids to a REAL orchard/pumpkin patch.  It was wonderful.....we had apple cider doughnuts YUM homemade apple cider YUM and apple cider and onion bratwursts YUM.  I enjoyed it! We also got to take a hay ride, the kids loved that.

I got some of my favorite pictures from the past year there too (the autumn page at the top is comprised of pictures all taken at the orchard).  We were able to go with 4 of my sisters, 2 brothers-in-law, 2 cousins + 1 girlfriend, 1 set of aunt/uncle and my parents.  It was quite a group, but we had a wonderful time with everyone.  I'm hoping there is another family wedding soon, it seems to be the only time we all get together!  Our entire family had a wonderful time.  Congrats Lori and Jason!

Next up Madison had her Halloween Parade at school.  I tried to get Hunter to wear his Superman costume to it, but he was being a stinker that day. 

We ended up going to Utah for a really, really quick trip the weekend of Halloween....the kids had Friday off of school and so we headed up to see Aunna and Phil.  We fit in a BYU basketball game (the final score: 101-52, BYU.  At least one of our sports teams is good this year.), a family movie to see "Despicable Me," trick - or - treating at the Provo Town Center mall where the kids were able to see their cousins for a quick hello, and, of course, family time (aka football).  It was a packed 48 hours, but we had a great time.

Our kids were able to get a quick round of trick - or - treating in once we got back from Utah.  Ryan took them around our neighborhood and they got a few goodies for the next week.  My rule for candy is: for 1 week the kids can have 1 piece of candy a day, then Ryan gets to take it to his co-workers.  I don't like candy and I REALLY don't like my kids eating it.  It makes them monsters, more so than usual, so that is my compromise.

I'm alway sad as October comes to an end.  It will be an entire year before the festivities start up again, the holidays begin to come upon us with all their stress, and the realization that another year has passed so quickly startles me.  I hope all of your Octobers were as enjoyable as ours.

Presley Anne turns 7 months

She is growing up so fast, as I was searching my pictures for this posting I got a little alot teary eyed looking at how fast time has gone.  It was only a few months ago that she was a tiny newborn and we brought her home from the hospital.  Every day she is developing further and getting more of a personality.  I figure we've got 4 really strong personalities in this house already, what's one more.....

Over the last few months she has.....

... learned how to roll over both ways.....

...learned to take a bottle (but flat out refuses real food).....

...become a full fledged drool monster (but no teeth yet).....

...found that a finger makes a great chew toy....

...discovered the thrill of driving a Corvette.... 

...turned into part goat....

...become more curious about her surroundings....

...discovered she is a really cute baby....

...become more of a Momma's girl (I'm sure that will change with time)....



We love our little girl.  I'm so glad we have her.  She is finally sleeping through the night consistently, she rarely cries and she always has a ready smile for me. 

Being Superman is hard work (part 2)

Sometimes even super heros need a hug from mom.

Being Superman is hard work

Sometimes even super heros need a snack break