Off to camp I go

Well I am off to Wooten! I was looking through things while packing & discovered that this will be my 9th year teaching with them. How have I served all these years working with Don?! We have had some good times (& some really challenging ones) teaching our class & running so many activities up there. It will be a bit different this year as I am only going up to teach my classes for a couple days instead of being there from Sunday - Friday but am sure that it will be a good time. Wish me luck & good weather.

Randy is on his own with the kids while I am gone...kept him & the kids in your thoughts. He should be fine but this his first time overnight with both kids. It will be quite the adventure for all of them.

Random pictures from the past few weeks

I have been playing with my camera a ton! Last time I had check I think I had taken over 1200 pictures...wow that sounds like so many! Here are some of my favorites:

A new look for a new season

I have change my blog background in hopes that it will inspire spring to actually come to the Palouse. As I type it is once again SNOWING! Wake up mother nature & give us a break. : )

I have quite the week with camp & all the prep that goes along with that. Guess I had better get some things done & get to bed! Hope you all have a great week!

Thank you Randy!

Thursday night I went to bed early with the beginnings of migraine, hoping that by taking some Excedrin & going to bed early it would go away & I would not have to deal with it. Boy was I WRONG!! When I woke up Friday morning it was in a full blown debilitating state. No matter how much medication I took, I could not get the edge off & found the best way to feel better was to curl up under a blanket to muffle the noise and block out all light.

Anyways, my husband was my knight and shining armor yesterday. For the first time in months, he got up with the kids, feed them, & entertained them. It was the first time in a very long time that I could not carry on with the normal daily activities & I am so grateful that he was able to be home all day with us. It is moments like this that I am reminded how great my husband can be & how wonderful my children are. THANK YOU RANDY!!

For anyone that cares, I am feeling much better this morning! Now I have the daunting task of doing all the things that I need to get done today as well as all those things that I was suppose to do yesterday. I had better get going, I have a lot to do!

Is it really spring? and a costco outing

I am not sure what is happening with our weather...I thought that it was spring now?! Obviously I was wrong because this is what we woke up to this morning...snow, slick roads, & schools delayed. From the looks of it, you would thing that it was the beginning of winter around here!
I guess this is what you get when you get your snow tires taken off?!

To make it even better, yesterday I ventured down to Clarkston to get new tires at Costco (they always have awesome deals) & to do my normal shopping. I LOVE COSTCO! When I went to pick up the car I realized that I did not have my checkbook nor did I have any idea where it was. I was concerned about were on earth the checkbook could be but thought... no big deal, I'll just us the debit card. I swipe the card & it comes back declined. I knew for a fact that I had the money to cover the after all I had just transferred the money from savings by phone that morning. I call the bank in a panic to which I discover that my debit card has a $250 spending limit per a day & that I would have to come in to the bank to fill out a form to authorize a spending limit increase(oh, and it would take 24 hours to take affect). GREAT, now what do I do? Luckily, they had just build a new bank a few blocks away, so we throw the kids in the stroller & start huffing it down the street to try to make it before the bank closes. Luckily, we made it just in time to withdraw the money & bale the car out and was able to make it back home just as it began to start snowing again. As crazy as the whole ordeal was, It could have been a lot worse and I definitely felt like I was being watched over. Not once did I feel stressed or scared and my kids were prefect through out the whole adventure. Thank you heavenly father for looking out for us & being with us.

P.S. Don't worry, I found my checkbook when we got home. I was paying bills the day before and some how had filed it instead of putting it back in my purse. I don't think I will do that again! :)

Happy Birthday Krystal!

My little sister is turning 19 years old today...CRAZY!!! I hope she has a great day & enjoys your her last few days of freedom (she is due in two weeks). I wish that I could have been come home to go out to lunch like we always do but I promise to make it up soon. : ) Love ya Krissy!!!!

In a bit of a funk

So I have been in quite the funk the last couple of weeks & I think that it is combination of so many things weighing me down. Between ear infections, a Lego being lodged up my duaghter's nose (I have no idea where it came from or how long it has been there), cranky kids, horribly cold weather, hardly seeing my husband, no idea what we are doing after graduation (which is only a month away!) & struggling to find baby sitters for the kids while I am gone next week, it is making me SO cranky. I appoligize to all those that I may have neglected or been short with & hope you will forgive me. : )

This week I am going to try a new approach; workout more, have a better attitude & make lists. Hopefully it works, wish me luck!

Happy Easter

We have had a great weekend & have tried very hard to make it special for our children.

Here are a few pictures from our day. Between church & our church Easter program (both of which our daughter sang in the children's choir at) we had our own egg hunt, had a yummy dinner complete with chocolate pie & green jello (both traditions) and studied more about Jesus Christ.

Trying to steal sister's eggs while she was not looking

Umm...I need changed!

I hope that you have all had a safe & enjoyable weekend. : )

Egg dye

As you can tell this is Randy's favorite Easter tradition. They had a great time mixing colors & are pretty proud of their results. I am not really a fan (they make the house stink & I hate eggs!) but am glad that they had a good time.

A kind deed...

Saturday afternoon, in an attempt to spend some quality time with my daughter (my son has been really sick & demanding a lot of my time), she came up with the idea to make cookies for her dad & friends at work. We had a lot of fun doing it from start to finish together (I totally cheated by buying cookie mix & canned frosting but we were more concerned about process not the product).

Notice the many looks she makes when concentrating...so cute!

The finished product

Our cookie tester

He was much happier after taking a nice long nap! Our happy little boy seems to be coming back!

After finishing decorating the cookies, we took them out to Randy's work to surprise them. She didn't even back it back the breakroom before the boys were snatching them up. She was pretty excited to hand them out & loved spending time with the boys (they always give her so much attention).

An Easter egg hunt

Saturday we braved the cold yet sunny morning to venture out to the City egg hunt. It didn't dawn on me that my daughter had never been to an "egg dash" before until they they said "on your mark, get set, go!!" and she just stood there watching all of the kids run around crazy. With some prompting she finally went out grabbed an egg & can right back. By the time she had finally figured out how the hole thing worked all the eggs were gone. Oh, well...now she understands what to do & was so proud of her six eggs.

Taking it all in.

What's the big hurry?!

A church Easter party

Our stake put on a children's Easter party Friday night & I am so glad we went. My daughter had a great time & it set the mood for our holiday weekend. They did a great presentation about Christ & the resurrection and taught the kids a cute song that is still being sung at our house.
After being spiritually up lifted; they had a little carnival...

and the Easter bunny (which I am still not sure what I think of)

A hair cut...

After weeks of putting it off, my son got his first hair cut. He is already suffering from the no hair on top of his head, so hopefully cutting it will inspire it to grow. I was a little nervous about how he would react to the clippers but as usual, he could careless & particularly enjoyed playing with the cord (not so great but hey, it kept him distracted!).

Hear is a before picture (notice that he has a good inch of hair in the back yet hardly any on top...poor guy).

The haircut

The after (or almost)

A disappointment...

disappointment

I was so excited for this movie to come out being the Beattle fan that I am. By no means do I claim to know endless trivia about them or could I even tell you who wrote which songs but I do love their music (making me a fan, right?).

I was SO disappointed by it,that we actually turned it off half way through & never came back to it. It seemed more like a bunch of very cool music videos they attempted to string together to make a movie. Plot sucked! On the other hand, the music was awesome. So awesome that I want to get the soundtrack. : )

Easy apple spice cake

1 spice cake mix

1 can apple pie filling

3 eggs

3 T. splenda

1 t. cinnamon

With an electric mixer, mix all ingredients together for 2 mins on low; pour into 9x13 pan sprayed with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 - 40 minutes. To keep the points low, I top it with fat-free cool whip. Very yummy!!!

Makes 12 servings (with only 3 points per a serving)

Engaged

So, I am a week behind the times but better late than ever! Congrats to Richie & Linda on being officially engaged! They are talking about a Socal wedding in October but no date has been decided as far as I know. I guess I had better start getting to know her... : )

P.S. I totally stole this picture from Mindy since I have no pictures of them. So thanks Min! : )

The expo

Randy spend the weekend working at the Home & Garden Expo (or exbo according to my daughter) running the Staples booth. Don't ask why Staples is at the Home & Garden show but they always get a ton of business from it so I guess it works?!
(My daughter was so proud of her Daddy being apart of the "exbo" that she had to take a picture of him from the top of the stairs at the Kibbie Dome. It was quite the challenge to find him from way up there but she did it!)

He was able to get us tickets, so the kids & I spent the evening wondering around with him. We had a great time getting out of the house despite the kids not totally being better & even stopped by Wingers for some dinner with Randy's good friend Jesse. We scored some family swim passes & cool CF light bulbs for free and spend a lot of time playing with the new Hondas. I seriously have to restrain myself from buying new cars...its one of the things that I am always working on. I actually have owned my current car for 3 1/2 yrs now! The longest I have ever kept a car...good job Heather!

A mommy's love

The quilt

I totally love the way this came out!! I made it for my sister's baby & it was my first none strip quilt. I love how different it is & all of the circles that build on each other. I will admit though, that at times I wished I had made another pin wheel quilt as it would have been a heck of a lot easier. I am glad I stuck with it because it is so cute!

The front

The back (I am not sure which side I like more)

Can you see all of the circles? I love them!!!!

A baby shower book

So I made this to minibook for my sister's baby shower. It was a lot of fun to make & I think she liked it. It included current news headlines, places to record her pregnancy, places for her guests to leave advice & wishes, a place to record all of the gifts she receive (& a place mark when she sends thank yous), as well as places to place pictures of the shower and pockets for cards & such. I really think this one came out cute & I totally loved it!

A baby shower

This past weekend, I throw my little sister a baby shower to celebrate the soon to be birth of her first baby in TC. We had a great time & I think that she is getting excited for the arrival of her little girl (she has to wait a few more weeks though!). Thank you to everyone that helped out & especially to my mom who lend her house & helped so much.

Some yummy (& healthy) snacks
The preggo...Isn't she just the cutest pregnant girl ever?!

Yummm...Costco cake!! The reason that we had healthy snacks. : )

Playing Baby themed pictionary...the best baby shower game ever!

My daughter having a blast playing the game...she had the word "mommy". She drew such a detailed picture & was so proud that she got to play. Thank you everyone for including her, she was so excited for the party & even helped me get everything ready.

My cute mom, not so thrilled that I am taking pictures of her.

Playing a sock matching game... always fun...

A super cute diaper cake

Opening the presents

Mom & her girls...we always have fun together.