A new discovery

Maddie made her own bed...

Maddie and I have been working on learning to make her bed. I usually do the part against the wall and she does the rest. Well today she decided to do it all by herself. Made me giggle.

 And just for fun. Maddie has been begging to be a "bad witch" for Halloween this year even though she is completely terrified of witches. We found this hat at Walmart the other day and I couldn't resist buying it. It was only $2. The girls think it's the greatest.



Eternal Families

This week I am so grateful for the knowledge we have as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to know that families are eternal.

This past weekend our family lost one truly amazing man. A man who loved his family, religion and country. He was a son, brother, husband, father, cousin and friend to many. He sacrificed his life to protect our country while serving in the army and was currently working towards becoming a lawyer so that he could continue to serve others.

Friday, while running in the big Ragnar Relay race in Washington DC, our Heavenly Father chose to have him return home to live with Him. Our hearts are broken for losing our cousin but find comfort in knowing that we will see him again someday. 

Having something like this happen to someone I love so dearly has definitely made me realize how fragile life really is. We never know when our day will come and we can not put off till tomorrow what we know we should be doing today.  

We love you Shane and the wonderful example you were to all of us. You truly are our hero. We can not wait to see your smiling face again when we too return home.

Our hearts go out to your family at this time and pray for your sweet Holly and little Preston.

Till we meet again.

A new location

I've been wanting to do a photo session with the girls for a while now but didn't know where to do it. So today we jumped in the car and find a place. We didn't have to go far, less than a mile actually. The girls had a lot of fun. I think their personalities came out in these pictures.

Today's Project

Today I turned my old jeans...

... Into these

I just used another pair of Brooklyn's jeans to get about the right size and then used the bottom hem and outside hem of my pants to make them. I also cut out the pocket, scaled it down and resewed it on her new jeans. They are a little low rider-ish but they stay on and they look cute so I don't mind.

This week Maddie and Brooklyn got not one, but two packages in the mail! One from Grandma Jo and one from cousin Ivy.

I was a loser daughter and forgot to take a picture of Maddie's excitedness about receiving a letter from Grandma Jo (and kind of forgot to even mention to you that we got it). She and Maddie have already used all of the stickers you sent her.

The girls love their new book and pile of suckers you sent us Ivy. Maddie likes to line them up in a row and then choose one to eat.

Thank you Grandma Jo and Ivy for sending us surprises in the mail. We love (and miss) you!

P.S. don't mind Maddie's hair in all of these pictures. I promise I really do her hair some days. Ü

Nudist Ranch... revealed.

Finally, here is the answer you are all waiting for. Why in the world were we at a nudist ranch? For a family reunion of course.

And no, it's not really a nudist ranch. It is just my dad's cousin's ranch and the sign was put up years ago by his friends for a joke and it soon became a well known landmark for the area.

(People really do think it's a nudist ranch though and often stop by to take pictures by the sign or sneak a peak) 

See, we are all fully clothed.

This Ranch has always been one of our family's favorite places to visit. We used to have a reunion there every year or so but haven't been back since 2002 so we all definitely enjoyed this reunion. The day was filled with good food, good family and lots of good entertainment.

Some of our favorite activities were...

*Riding the four wheelers and Rhino

*playing air hockey, ping pong, pool and Foosball

*Playing the pinball machines (one of mine and Karl's favorite parts)

*Riding the scooters

*Playing with play dough and bubbles

*Climbing on the jungle gym

*Playing Lasso golf and horse shoes

*Jumping on the trampoline

Besides all of the fun activities, Maddie got to play with one of her favorite little friends all day long. She is my cousin's daughter and these two get along so well. I don't think a minute went by that these two were not by each others side.

This is my sweet Grandma, (on the right) the biggest reason we decided to make our way down to Utah for the reunion. We don't get to see my grandparents enough.
She still looks pretty good for being almost 92.

And this...
That four wheeler driving down the mountain side is my 92 year old Grandpa.

I can only hope I am still doing these sort of things when I am 92! Actually, who am I kidding, I don't even do it now.

And I just had to share this photo as well. These are my cute parents.

We had a wonderful day. Thanks go to Jay and Marianne for letting us come play at your house.

What did you do this weekend?

Here's a sneak peak of what we did this weekend.

More details coming soon.

"It's time to pray"

Every night before bed (and anyother time we might usually pray) we say to Maddie, "It's time to pray." We haven't really been working on teaching Brooklyn how to pray but apparently she is learning because every time we say those words, her arms immediately go in to this postion. 

It doesn't usually last very long but it sure is cute while it does.

Speaking of Brooklyn, check out that fat lip she's got. I know it's kind of hard to tell by the picture but I promise it's fat. The poor girl had a date with the cement last night. It doesn't really seem to be bothering her but I sure do feel bad everytime I see it...



When Friends Come To Play

Madison was so excited that one of her best friends got to come play with her this weekend.

Madison and Maleah are only 8 days apart and have been friends almost since day one. They have been through a lot together. Although at times they like to push each others buttons (ok lets be honest, mostly Madison likes to push Maleah's buttons) they always seem to enjoy getting together and hate to say goodbye.

Their mommy's kind of like to play together too. We've missed being able to do projects together since I had to up and move away.  It was fun to see them too. (especially cute little baby Whitley who I've only been able to see a few times since she was born.)

Thanks for coming to visit.

New Shoes

As I got ready to write this post I realized a lot of my posts lately have been about clothing. Whether it be too small, too big, too many or too little. I guess you can tell where my worries have been lately... Anyway, now that Brooklyn is actually walking and the weather is already changing to WINTER (it was snowing here today. More of a sleety snow but snow none the less!) I decided it was really time to start shopping for shoes. The problem though (I know, very typical of my children to go and be not normal) is that Brooklyn's feet are so thick (not wide but tall) I have not been able to find any shoes that fit her feet except for the leather soft kind. I have searched everywhere. I finally did some research and came out with a few brand names that make shoes to fit thick feet but they all average about $30 or more. Yeah, totally not cool when their feet grow so fast. So last night while I was at Walmart I decided to try out their shoes again and somehow we got lucky. There were actually 2 pair that fit her feet! And the best part, they were only $9.

They are a little long for her feet but she walks great in them.

One of my favorite parts is the new plastic window they are putting on the bottom of their shoes so you can see where your child's toes are actually sitting in the shoe. So cool.

Brooklyn really is a lucky girl. She is also getting something else new right now... unfortunately this something isn't quite as much fun. Her top 2 vampire teeth are coming in. She doesn't have the middle 2 yet so she might look a little silly for a while. Notice the tongue sticking out in this picture... she loves to feel those new pearly whites.

These next two pictures just made me laugh.

The girls where sitting almost exactly the same without trying to in this picture

And I think this picture speaks for itself.

And now for any of you who were following me on my journey to find the perfect peach recipe to make for our wards Peach Fest, here is what I ended up doing: BUT I do still want copies of all the recipe ideas everyone gave me. Please.

I took a couple of the ideas people gave me and combined them into one dessert

(it doesn't look as good as it tasted)

Peaches and Cream Eclair Torte

Eclair

1 cup water

1/2 cup butter

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup flour

4 eggs

In a saucepan over medium heat, bring water, butter and salt to a boil. Add flour all at once, stir until a smooth ball forms. Remove from the heat, let stand for 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well with a wooden spoon after each addition. Beat until smooth. Spread in a greased 9x13 baking pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until puffed and golden brown.

Cream

8 oz cream cheese

7 oz sweetened condensed milk (that's half a 14 oz can)

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

In a bowl, beat cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk together until smooth. In another bowl, whip together whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla until stiff.

(the recipe I got this from had you layer the cream cheese mixture and whipping cream mixture on top of each other but I decided to mix them together. I didn't use all of my whipping cream mixture- just enough to get the flavor I wanted. I probably used about 2-3 cups.)

Put it together

Spread a heavy coat of your cream across your torte then cover with cut up peaches.

One thing is for sure...

Once they start walking, nothing is safe...