April Pics

We're pretty well into May, but better late than never, right?

This is what happens when you wait too long to rotate the clothes in you emergency packs:



It takes talent to mow the lawn and stick out your tongue at the same time. There are about five pictures like this. I would stick out my tongue too if someone were taking pictures of my mowing the lawn:



"Bye-bye old lemon tree. We've loved you, but now we've got a younger one in a better place." The kids had fun taking this down:



Impromptu family picture on Easter:



The cousin line-up at Grandma's house on Easter. Kaylynn is the oldest, but not the tallest anymore:



Easter egg decorating the day AFTER Easter. We just can't get it together over here! But we try out best:



Amy's Family Home Evening--this is a repeat. We can count on her to do this one putting the healthy food in the happy face and the junk food in the sad face with yucky teeth. Too bad we usually don't put these principles into practice:



For Anna's birthday, she and her friend Eliza went to Build-a-Bear. They both got the same frog, and Anna named hers Eliza, and Eliza named hers Anna:



Here's an example of one of our fabulous wrapping jobs. Amy's gift to Anna is wrapped in a blanket and put in a laundry basket. She also had a gift in a Victoria's Secret bag. We really go all out:



Here's Anna's birthday dessert. Because the day was crazy, she had a hybrid birthday dinner of In-n-Out, corn, watermelon, and sparkling cider. Kaylynn helped out by making the pound cake and slicing the strawberries. THANK YOU, KAYLYNN!! I don't know what I would do without you!

Everyday Food Storage Book

I've been a fan of Everyday Food Storage for a while, and now Crystal is coming out with a cookbook with lots of tips and recipes. It can be ordered from Amazon or Deseret Book, and will be in church bookstores soon. There's even a chance to win a copy (which of course I'm trying to do!) The contest ends today or tomorrow morning.
We regularly enjoy the breadstick/pizza dough and Easy Whole Wheat Bread recipes that she has videos for, and I have cute magnets of hers that give you all the info you need for using powdered milk, dehydrated eggs, and Magic Mix. I haven't tried the Magic Mix yet, but the milk and eggs seem to work great in recipes. On a negative note, the ease of making super thick pizza dough and yummy bread have seriously undermined my weight loss plans!
Anyway, if you're interested, check it out!

March Maniacs

Here are some scenes from March:

The kids built a play area for Lana, our hamster. I love their creativity, but having it in the family room day after day is a test for me:



The kids helped me paint a bench for the front porch. Jeremy helped put it together:






Amy came to us one night and showed us her "toe family." There's a dad, mom, brother, sister, and dog. She said she was inspired by something on Zach and Cody:


I basically worship bread. Eating it, making it--it's all good. This loaf is the first 100% whole wheat bread I've made that the kids raved about. It's a permanent part of our lives now. And it's very easy. If you follow Everyday Food Storage (button on left sidebar), you may have seen the post on this. The secret is gluten, vinegar, and potato flakes. I was just about to buy some expensive dough conditioner when I found out you can add those things and it makes your whole wheat very happy!


Anna likes to sit in some weird ways when practicing piano. Here's one. Don't tell her piano teacher!!

Music meme answers

Thank you to those who participated in the thrilling music player meme! I hated to think that my time was wasted compiling that list. I was thinking ten might have been a more reasonable number. I should point out that as usual I'm behind most of the world in technology, and have only recently starting buying individual songs (I've bought about 15, which I did for my birthday). I mostly have entire albums on my player, so these songs aren't all my favorites.

***I accidentally erased half of this post when I tried to make it so the playlist wouldn't come on automatically because it was driving me insane. Oh well.***

Name That Tune Meme

This is one of those things that you just have to ask yourself, "Do I really want to waste my time doing this?" And I guess my answer is "Why not?". It's past ten, I drained all of my energy at dance class (ooh, that sounds so cool to say!), and we're watching (technically I'm partially listening to) recorded American Idol, but no one I've seen really excites me (and just for the sake of adding another paranthetical comment, I missed the beginning, so maybe one of those contestants did good--I came home during Jorge). Hey, there's someone that I like on now--Alexis. I hope she does good. . . (After performance)Hmmm, one of these days maybe she'll pick a song that I like.

Speaking of songs (what a great, unplanned segue) , I found this very fun meme where you (all five or so of you) get to figure out what some songs on my "music player" are. Here's the details:

Step 1: Put your music player on shuffle.
Step 2: Post the first line from the 1st 25 songs no matter how embarrassing
Step 3: Strike through once someone guesses both the artist and the track correctly.
Step 4: For those who are guessing, looking up the lyrics is CHEATING.
Step 5: If you like the game post your own. (Come on, don't let me be the only one using her time unwisely!)

So here goes:

1. It's never easy and you never know, what leaves you crying and what makes you whole.
2. Find a way to my heart, and I will always be with you. (Love, love, love this song!) (Lorena)
3. She's got you wrapped up in her satin and lace, tied around her little finger. (Oh, my!) (Sara)
4. Love is a stranger in an open car, to tempt you in and drive you far away. (Lorena)
5. We go waiting for the stars to come showering down, from Moscow to Mars, universe falling down. (I'm dancing in my computer chair now--this one gives me an adrenaline rush.)
6. Lay a whisper on my pillow, leave the winter on the ground. (Now I need Kleenex.)(Lara)
7. I should warn you things you're feeling aren't normal now.
8. We'll do it all, everything, on our own. We don't need anything, or anyone.(Scouts honor--I am doing this randomly out of over a thousand songs) (Lara)
9. I've been trying for so long, to let you know, let you know how I feel. (This one has the swaying effect, but maybe only because it's past my bedtime.)
10. I just died in your arms tonight. (A no-brainer, and oh, so romantic?)(Lara)
11. I've been driving for an hour, just talking to the rain. You say I've been driving you crazy, and it's keeping you away.
12. All is quiet on New Year's Day. A world in white gets underway. (Lara)
13. In the days when we were singing from the trees, I was a monkey stealing honey from a swarm of bees. (Don't you remember those days?)
14. I find a map and draw a straight line over rivers, farms and state lines.
15. Where is love? Does it fall from skies above? (Lara)
16. I hear you had a good offer down on Third Avenue. You tell me that was the reason for what you're gonna do. (Big song from my childhood. I still don't know what the "offer" was)
17. You don't like the sound of the truth coming from my mouth. You say that I lack the proof, well baby that might be so. (This is a knee-slapping sort of song, but I bet that doesn't help.)
18. Don't you want to go for a ride, just keep you hands inside, and make the most out of life--now don't you take it for granted.
19. Something in the moonlight catches my eye, the shadow of a lover goes dancing by. (This is one of my faves of all time, if you know this one you will be my BFF.)
20. That's great it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane... (Lara)
21. When it started we had high hopes. Now my back's on the line, my backs on the ropes.
22. I don't want you to hold me tight, until your mine to hold. And I don't even want you to stay all night, just until the moon turns cold. (One of my earlier memories of playing a song over and over and over again--if anyone knows this without looking it up, I will pay of your mortgage.)
23. I think I'm gonna be sad--I think it's today, yeah. The girl that's driving me mad is going away, yeah. (Lara)
24. Haven't seen you in quite a while, I was down the hole just passing time. Last time we met was a low-lit room, we were as close together as a bride and groom.
25. Just because I'm losing, doesn't mean I'm lost. Doesn't mean I'll stop. Doesn't mean I will cross.

Okay, so there it is. It took me much longer than I thought it would, partly because I have five or six audio books on my player that shuffle through too, and partly because some songs I wanted to listen to more of.

If you know any, leave a comment, and I'll start crossing off!!

February Photos (and a few of March)

For Valentine's Day, we had a breakfast of heart-shaped pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream. This is probably only the second or third time in my life as a mom that I did anything special on Valentine's Day:

After we ate breakfast, we had a conversation heart stacking game. The object was to see who could build the highest tower. It was harder than I thought it would be, and I don't think we came out with a clear winner, but everyone was pretty creative:

We have a new family show (sometimes part-family because some things aren't so great for Anna and Amy to watch)--Smallville. As usual we're way behind the times, but we've now watched all of Season 1 and part of Season 2. This is how we often find ourselves when we're watching something all together--crowded onto our one couch. There are usually some sort of fights about who sits where:

The kids helped to tie a quilt together for Amy's birthday. I was sick and could barely walk, let alone put a quilt together, but Amy's birthday was just around the corner so it couldn't wait. I'm so glad I had my helpers:

Amy celebrated her seventh birthday, and one of her gifts was wind chimes to paint. This was the first thing she did after school because she just couldn't wait any longer. She wanted to do it that morning, but there just wasn't time. Thank you, Aunt Lara!

For birthday dinners, the kids get to pick the main dish, vegetable, fruit, and drink. Amy picked hot dogs, tater tots, pears and grape soda for her dinner:

Cousin Alex falls asleep a few hours before Jeremy, and here he is in quite the uncomfortable position:

Jeremy and Alex decided they wanted to make a cake, from scratch, just before I was leaving for two hours to go help at the school. I had to show them how to separate eggs, grease the pan, etc. and then left in hopes that the house wouldn't burn down. They did good, though, and it tasted great. The decided to make the "White Fluffy Frosting" green, and do some excellent decorating: