I'm Pregnant...AGAIN!

Yeah, surprise! Can you believe you actually just read that? Well neither can I. I don't know what it is with the month of April, but last April I found out I was pregnant with Breck! So I haven't been feeling that great for the past two weeks. I've been attributing it to me just not drinking enough water! I had an extra pregnancy test from last year so I decided what the heck, I might as well try it. And sure enough a BIG FAT POSITIVE shows up right away! I have no clue when I am due or anything like that, but I am totally in SHOCK!



By the way I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy April Fools Day! :-)

Forgot One Pic

I forgot that I wanted to add this picture as well. Fresh out of the tub they wanted to come sit on the back porch and watch daddy BBQ.

Just Pics

The picture on the right is of Gracie and her life size doll that she got back in December. He is the most expensive doll we have purchased to date! He is a real feel doll. He cries, burps, farts, spits up, yells, and even poops and pees in a real diaper. He doesn't look like he is very thrilled to have Gracie as his new mother!
*And no this picture was not staged; she was actually pushing him around in Ava's stroller*









Look at how big my Breckie Boo is getting! I cannot believe he can lift his head up and look so grown up! Notice the slobber!

Reality Check!

Ok, just an update on my "birthday shirt" from The Buckle. I got it today in the mail. By the way, they ship things WAY faster then Old Navy! Anyway, the shirt is totally silk, which I didn't realize! To top it off it has like pleats (sp?) all the way down it! AAHH! I look matronly! I mean it's not too bad. I'll still wear it, but I wasn't as pleasantly surprised as I thought I'd be. I should have got the purse that I wanted instead! I guess I can always blame it on Ryan since he's the one that "bought" it for me! lol!

I LOVE THE BUCKLE!

If you have not gone to The Buckle you need to go. I think there is one in Riverwoods, but I just went online. They have cute shirts, and way cute Silver jeans. Way expensive too! The shirts are a little more money then Old Navy, but in my opinion, cuter. I had a friend at Nestle that was a little chunky, and she said that Silver jeans make her look smaller. She told me that like 3 years ago, so the other day I finally went online to look up Silver jeans, and it led me to The Buckle. Anyway this is the shirt that Ryan bought me for my birthday! By the way Ryan if you are reading this from work just know that you don't have to buy me a birthday present cause you already have! LOL! I just think it is cute. Especially for church with my black skirt.

Banana Pudding Squares

Ingredients:
30 Nilla wafers, finely crushed
3 Tb melted butter
1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tub (8 oz) Cool Whip
3 medium, ripe bananas
milk for pudding (check package directions)
2 pkg(1 6 oz, 1 3 oz) Jell-O vanilla pudding mix

Directions:
Mix wafers and butter together, and press into the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Blend cream cheese and powdered sugar together until well blended. Gently stir in 1 1/2 cups Cool Whip. Spoon mixture evenly onto crust; spread carefully. Cut bananas into slices; arrange bananas on top of cream cheese mixture. Prepare pudding according to package directions. Spoon pudding over bananas. Refrigerate for one hour, and then spread remaining Cool Whip on top. Refrigerate an additional two hours.

** The original version is actually a low fat one. Low fat wafers, reduced fat cream cheese, fat free Cool Whip and low fat pudding. We tried this and it actually tasted really good. You can try it either way you want! This is one of the dessert recipes that we really love. It tastes even better than it sounds.**

Gracie's New Obsession

We had a girl from our ward, named Melody, come babysit yesterday. Her mom and I have become friends since I moved out here. Melody just turned twelve. She is such a cute girl. I had her in my primary class, and now she is in Young Women's with me. Anyway she brought her puppy, Cinder, over at the request of Gracie. He is a pure black pomeranian puppy. He is a little fur ball. Ryan and I decided we would take Breck with us, and go to Bajio. If you haven't been there you should try it. It is kind of like Cafe Rio. I got a Bajio Quesadilla. YUM! Within the two hours we were gone Melody had Gracie addicted to playing games on nickjr.com. She LOVES to type on the computer, so she has had a hay day using the mouse and playing a bunch of games. She loves all the dress up games. She dressed up the BackYardigans and printed it out.

Got Lights?

Last night I was doing so good. I had read my scriptures, worked on my blog, did my homework and even managed to squeeze in a big, fat, gooey brownie, not hard, anyway I was just about to shut down for the night and jump in the shower; well at the same time a car up on Coleman road hit a telephone pole (HELLO!?!) and knocked my power out. SHOOT! So the first thing I hear is Gracie scream. Not surprising. So I made my way into her room and grabbed her. I made my way into the kitchen and grabbed some matches. I lit about five matches trying to find a stinkin flashlight! Well the kids have run down the batteries in both of our flashlights. So we made our way downstairs where I proceeded to tear apart my basement. I knew the only two candles in my house were in one of my "Christmas" tubs. So here I am ripping open tubs, striking a match to see if I have the right tub, putting the matches in my pocket after they burn out. I thought there is no way I am leaving these matches on the floor to catch something on fire. Luckily they didn't catch my pants on fire. I guess that way I could have demonstrated the stop, drop and roll Gracie just learned at the fire station. Anyway so I finally found the two candles and we went upstairs. All the while I am cursing Ryan for buying me a candle warmer for Valentines Day. What good does a candle warmer do in a power outage? LOL! I knew Gracie wouldn't sleep in her bed without the night light on so I told her she could sleep with me. Luckily Ryan was working nights. The good part was it didn't seem to affect Breck or Ava. But it was COLD in the morning. The power didn't come back on until 10a.m or so. We had to eat breakfast by candlelight, romantic I know. Anyway once again, within the past three months, I am really thankful for electricity.

What A Crack Up!

I always start "organizing" my pictures, articles, etc... just all the JUNK I collect over time. Anyway, I always end up sitting and reading and remembering instead of organizing. I just happened across this picture the other day among all of my stuff. I drew it in February of 88'. It says "mom" and "dad" under the people. I was only five, but even at that age I knew that my dad wore a ball cap a lot, and my mom was taller then my dad. That just totally cracked me up when I saw that!

A Few More 3-08' Pictures

They got us covered!

We finally called Anderson windows and had them come install covers on our window wells. We also purchased three ladders for the windows. I think it will be good to have them in case of an emergency. Anyway, the total bill was a whopping $931.00 for four windows! OUCH huh? But, I am SO glad that I don't have to yell at my kids anymore to stay away from the window wells. I could just see Ava tripping and landing head first into an early grave. Ryan has 12 days, or so, off at the end of March/first of April and we are going to really hit our backyard. We are hoping to get sod in soon too. So I am glad those windows are covered so we can have a good time swimming and playing out back without too many worries. Of course we have yet to get a fence in and there are a TON of stray dogs in our neighborhood, so I guess I will still be on guard no matter what!

Our Favorite Recipes

I decided that on our blog I am going to share a recipe once a week. Every one of the recipes I put up is actually something that we have made, and really like. I hate when you get a recipe book, and there are really only a few worth trying, or a few that you can actually understand the ingredients. So I hope you guys find some of these recipes yummy too. I am also compiling our recipes to give out as Christmas gifts, (supposed to be done in 2007, but I am shooting for 2008 now,) so don't be surprised if you see these recipes again in the future.

Turkey (or chicken) Tetrazzini:

Ingredients:
8 oz. spaghetti
5 Tb margarine
6 Tb flour
3 cups chicken or turkey broth
1 cup half and half cream
1 tsp salt
1 cup fresh or canned mushrooms
5 Tb minced, red bell pepper
3 cups cut turkey (or chicken)
1/2 cup Parmasen cheese
1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions:
Cook spaghetti Al Dente. Melt butter in separate pan; blend in flour; stir in broth and cream. Cook until thick and bubbly. Add salt, mushrooms, pepper, Parmasen, turkey (chicken,) and drained spaghetti. Transfer to casserole dish and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Top with shredded cheese, and bake an additional 10 minutes.

*Courtesy of Ryan's Mom*

Gracie's "Fire" Field Trip

Gracie's preschool class went on a field trip to the Tooele Army Depot's fire station. I was able to go and drive some of the kids out there. She has triplets in her class that she loves, and she was thrilled to have them ride in her van with her! When we got there I had to show a man with a machine gun (or some other scary gun) my ID before I could go through the gate. It was a lot of fun though. We watched a cute movie, and then this firefighter came in with all his gear on. His name was Ryan, and Gracie thought that was cool! They gave us all a hat to wear, but as you can see I gave mine to Ava. Gracie is wearing hers like a ball cap. lol! Anyway, we had a good time. I am really looking forward to going on different field trips, and stuff with my kids as they get older. Gracie has done so well this year in her preschool class. I am surprised since she is so shy! She is signed up for next year, and will go from 9-11 instead of 11:30-1:30. The Bishop's daughter, Kenzie, is one of her favorite friends, and she will be in the same class as her. She has an awesome teacher, so I am just excited to watch her keep learning, making friends, and having a good time!

My Twinkle Baby

This is my Ava singing "Twinkle, Twinkle."
She has always had such a FUN personality!
Don't mind the messy hair, and kitchen.

My Little Intro......

I finally decided, after all of Jackie's pestering :-), that I would create a blog! I didn't really feel like I could justify taking time away from my kids to brag about them to, in some cases, complete strangers on the internet; then Jackie emailed me a website where you could actually create a book out of your blog! That sealed the deal for me. I already keep a journal for each one of my kids; that I started when I was pregnant with them. So to me this is a great way to keep journaling for them, but in a more fun way! So if some of my posts seem uninteresting to you, or at times, just plain weird, it's because I am adding them for the sake of "journaling"; so when I go to create a book blog I can have the things that are important to me in there, and not just a bunch of "brag" posts. Not that those aren't fun, because they are too! I'm still not totally comfortable with just any old person viewing my family's life story, but I'm gonna give it a try! So thanks to Jackie, and here I go.............