Lucky Me!

My younger sister, Amy, is husband-less for a month. With an abscessed tooth, a two-year-old with croup, the world's cutest (but still needy) 6-month-old, and two other kids, I knew she had her hands full. So I decided to hop on a plane and spend a week with my cute nieces and nephew in Utah. I got home on Saturday morning, but can't stop thinking about my fun week with Amy and her crew.

Jeff drove me to the airport. This picture was from our beautiful foggy morning drive.

Flying over Provo. Look at those mountains!!

Taylor

Molly

Skylar

Lane. Cutest baby ever! We became fast friends. :)

The view from Amy's backyard

Don't kiss me!! 

Carrots for the first time? No, thank you.

...and I thought I could trust you!

One funny story about Molly - She had a sandwich bag full of Goldfish crackers sitting on the counter. Skylar found them and wanted to eat them. Amy was fine with that and assured Molly that there were more Goldfish in the cupboard and Amy would fill another bag. Molly freaked out! Why? Her bag of Goldfish was from the neighbors and it was in a fold-top sandwich bag. Amy only had ziploc bags. Molly hates ziploc. In fact, she was so proud of herself when she thought to cut off the top of a ziploc bag earlier that day so it was more like the other kind. Awesome Aunt that I am, I bought Molly her own box of fold-top sandwich bags. Ha ha!!

The question I heard most was, "What's your name again?" It's okay, the girls remembered who I was by the end of the week. :)

I'm so glad I got to go. It was a fun week and I can't wait to see them all again this summer!

Graphic Design: Memes

I had some time on my hands the other day so I decided to match up some favorite quotes with pictures I found on www.morguefile.com. (They have some amazing free photos!) I love stuff like this!!

This is my favorite scripture. Doctrine and Covenants 6:34.

First Person: Thoughts On Wearing A Kilt

Imagesource

Nine-year-old Sadie is a great (and funny) little writer. She had an assignment in school to write a first person response to a picture of four men in kilts. This is what she came up with...

I hate my legs showing! It's just I have really long leg hair! I mean I might impress girls with my muscles but still how did those boys talk me into this!!?? What if I see my girlfriend!!!?? This thing is too short!! I feel like a man living in my mother's closet!!!!

That last line cracks me up! Very clever, Sadie bug.

(I, however, happen to love a man wearing a kilt!)

Greetings From Mesa

Some friends of ours are visiting family in Arizona...Mesa to be exact. And it just so happens that their family lives in the ward where Sam is serving right now! I was so happy to receive this picture of Sam and his companion just moments after it was taken. Doesn't Sam look great? He's doing really well and loves his mission.

I sure miss this boy! Thanks, Josh, for the picture. I'm so glad you got to hug him for us!

Looking For A Mate

Finally, a solution to those single socks --

This is now hanging in my laundry room. :)

Trying to be funny, Spencer hung a picture of Savannah from one of the clips... (Okay, it was funny.)

Kitten

Kitten.

After our family prayer and scripture study one day last week, Soren climbed in my bed hoping for another hour of sleep before school.

He fidgeted for a while and finally got up to get "kitten," his stuffed animal.

Before he left my room, he paused and said,

Mom, do you know why I still sleep with a stuffed animal? It's because I don't know what to do with my arms. 


Aww. Lucky kitten. :)

Green Cookies

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Sadie and I whipped up a batch of these Pistachio Cake Mix cookies* to help us celebrate. If you're a fan of pistachio pudding, you're going to love these! Actually, you'll probably love them even if you're not a fan of pistachio pudding. Savannah has declared them her favorite cookie of all time and they don't even contain chocolate. Or Peanut Butter. They are super easy (we literally whipped them up and got the first pan in the oven during a commercial break) and super delish. Enjoy!

Pistachio Cake Mix Cookies

1 box white cake mix
1 small box instant pistachio pudding
2 eggs
1/2 c. vegetable oil
1 tsp. almond extract
4 drops green food coloring
~1c. white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350º. Combine cake mix and pudding mix. Add the eggs, oil, almond extract, and green food coloring. Mix by hand until well combined. Stir in white chips. Roll dough in 1" - 1 1/2" balls (or use a cookie scoop) and place on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

*The link is where I got the recipe. I've made a few minor changes which are included in the recipe as typed above.

Pour yourself a glass of green milk and enjoy! :)

Pi for Breakfast

Happy Pi Day!!
3.14

Today isn't just any Pi day. This is a once-in-a-century Pi day.

Today is...
3.1415 

And if you are a complete nerd (like me!), then you celebrated at exactly 9:26:53 which makes it...
3.141592653

If you haven't celebrated yet, there's still time. Nothing wrong with eating pie at 9:26 p.m. In fact, I think we will. :)

Our breakfast pie.
I was planning to make a pie from scratch until I saw this. Oh. Yum.

The Wait is Over

I love this picture of Sadie waiting for her friend to come over and play. She sat in this chair, patiently staring out the window, until their car turned into our driveway. So cute!

Savannah, on the other hand, has not been nearly as patient. She thought she'd find out by Thursday whether or not she'd been accepted to BYU. After all, Sam found out on February 26 last year so certainly she'd know by then, right?

Wrong.

But finally the wait is over. If you were up Friday night, right around 10:30 p.m., you probably heard her scream.

Watch out BYU. Savannah's on her way!

(And she couldn't be happier!)

Success

Soren and I got this Saturday evening with dinner:

And we got this for dessert:

From BYUCougars.com: BYU broke Gonzaga's nation's longest home win streak at 41 games, as well as their 36-game WCC home win streak and their 22-game overall win streak. BYU's 73 points are the most allowed by Gonzaga in a home game this season, the previous being 66 in an 81-66 win against Washington State.

That's our team. :) Go Cougars!!

Staying In

No church for us today!

Maybe if our meetings started later in the day or if we didn't have to drive ~12 miles to church it would have worked out. But six to eight inches of snow made it tricky to even get out of the driveway so church was canceled.

Instead, Jeff and Spencer spent the morning shoveling the driveways of their home teaching families and we all enjoyed a nice late-afternoon meal with the missionaries.

It was a good day!