I still got it!

Wow, it was so nicely pointed out to me today that I am a huge blogger slacker! It really is true, but I'm hoping it's like riding a bike. After all, I went a few years without doing that and the last time I tried I totally didn't fall off! That's good.....right? Anyway, this is just a test run to see if I still know how to blog, how hard can it be????

This is one of our fabulous new family pictures that my fabulous friend Nancy took for us!!!!!

Let's see if this inspires me to do more blogs soon................don't hold your breath!!!!!!!

Family Photos!

I'm ashamed to say it has been over two years since we have had out pictures taken as a family. I know, I know I'm a slacker! Well, I guess the time was finally right because we finally rectified the problem. I won't go into long boring details about the pictures being taken, just a few. I was actually kinda dreading it because I have two little girls that have VERY strong opinions about their clothes and hair. Infact, a few weeks ago I was with two friends and I was expressing my concerns to them about this very issue. It was very clear to me that they could not relate with me, even though they both have several daughters of their own. They both looked at me weird and said "you just tell what to wear and they have no choice". HA!!!! It's obvious they have children that are happy to comply with mommy's wishes. Well, picture day comes and it's time to get the girls dressed (in clothes I have picked out for them) and the drama begins. Now mind you, I have been preparing (warning) them for several weeks that on picture day mommy gets to pick clothes and hair dos for them. Nanny must have prepared herself because she was ok with the decisions I made. Dan, on the other hand was not gong to bend easily. She literally cried for 45 minutes because she thought her shirt was soooo ugly. I kept telling her to stop crying because A. it wasn't going to help, I was not going to change her clothes and B. her eyes were going to be red for pictures. I was right, Dan had red puffy eyes in all her pictures, not to mention little red bumps all over her chin from slobber I guess. Anyway, I downloaded all the pictures to my photo workshop and edited them the best that I could trying to rid her of her flaws. I may have even erased a few of mine and Kerry's wrinkles! The photographer we went to was great! I found her through a friend, she only charges $50.oo. She spends an hour taking pictures and then she burns them onto a disc so you have the copyright. Now I just need to choose which ones I want and go get them printed at Inkleys. Anyway, enough with the details. Here are a few pics. Please vote for your favorite family pose. Help me!!

Love is in the air....or is that snow?

Well, it has been a while since I've posted a blog. Life is mostly boring with a few fun bumps along the way. That's how life is...right? When you're in the stage of life that I am everything revolves around your kids. They're what make you want to write a blog, so you can share your triumphs and defeats. Kids whine, they make you laugh, they make you cry, they make you want to pull your hair out, but at the end of the day you're glad you have them! Sometimes I wish I had fascinating adventures to write about. Like trips to faraway lands and huge goals accomplished, but alas the adventures always have to do with potty trained kids, little smashed fingers and heaven bound balloons.

I'll start with the potty trained kid........I have been telling Kerry for months that little Dan will potty train herself when she's ready. And I was right. A couple days after she turned three she announced to me that she was going to be doing #1 in the toilet from now on. Just like that. Like most typical kids she had issues with going #2 in the toilet, but that was ok because I knew when she was ready she would cross that bridge too. For some reason I am more laid back with kid #2 than I was with kid #1. Maybe it's because I've learned, or maybe it's because kid #2 is naturally more laid back than kid #1 and I react to that. I don't know why, I just know it's true. Anyway, a week or so into the process I started the bribing(nothing wrong with a little bribing right?) It's not so much that I minded putting a diaper on her once in a while for #2 duties, I just thought it would build her confidence to have the whole thing conquered. Promises of carebear cakes and a brandnew carebear were seriously thrown around and seriously paid off. One day that cute little 3 year old came into the living room where I was sitting and very casually told me her mission was accomplished. What a little studette! I seriously have a case of the proud mommies going on for that little girl! The next day we went to buy her a new care bear and Wal-mart did not have ONE SINGLE CARE BEAR in the whole store. Seriously, what's up with that? Don't they know promises were made! All was good when she found a Tinkerbell doll she couldn't live without!

Next in our little story are the little smashed fingers......This is a very sad story with an ok ending. Remember how I mentioned that kid #1 was not so laid back? Yeah, well this particular day she was particularly not laid back. Somehow kid 2 made kid 1 mad and kid 1 proceeded to slam kid 2's fingers in the bedroom door. She then proceeded to lock the door so mommy couldn't open the door. What a NIGHTMARE! Poor little Dan standing there with her four fingers imitating pancakes in Nanny's door. It was really bad and gross looking, not to mention heart breaking, but surprisingly no fingers were broken. In Nanny's defense, she honestly didn't know sissy's fingers were in the door when she slammed and locked it and as soon as mommy pounded on the door she opened it. She felt really bad for little sissy's road kill fingers and even gave Dan one of her prized possessions. Having a sister is hard work I tell ya! Thankfully those two little girls really do love each other and are really starting to play cute with each other. I love that! A little freedom for mommy!! Priceless :)

We had a fun Valentines Day, did you? I hope so! I bought the girls cute little princess suitcases at Wal-mart for their little trips to aunt Joeys. I left them on the porch and rang the doorbell and ran back in through the garage. They were so excited and cute to watch. Dan wanted to use her suitcase rightaway and go sleep at Joeys. Kerry and I dropped the girls off that night at grandpas (with suitcases packed with toys) and went to dinner and bowling. It was fun, ever seen a dizzy blonde bowling? I didn't do very well, but Kerry had a lot of fun!

Nanny has really been missing her grandma Jeri again lately (heartbreaking I know) and she has been drawing her a lot of pictures and cards. On Valentines Day she made her a Valentine and really wanted to give it to her, so we got a helium balloon and tied it to it and sent it flying! It was the sweetest thing to watch, Nanny and Dan yelling at the sky "here grandma, here's a balloon and a Valentine for you".

Dan's care bear cake

my cute little Valentines with their cards and suitcases

Nanny holding grandma's valentine and balloon

releasing the balloon

balloon on its way to heaven

Happy Birthday sweet Dan Dan, happy birthday to you!

Look at that beautiful face!!

My sweet little baby turned three last week. I seriously can not believe it's been three years since I had her! She has been such a delight to raise... so far! We basically had a birthweek for her instead of a birthday, she deserved it! On her birthday we told her we would go anywhere she wanted for dinner, I know what you're thinking.....Chuck E. Cheese. Nope, she wanted to go to "Golden Cow", that translates to Golden Corral. She loves going there for their all you can eat macaroni and cheese, that's what you get there too right!Danny is going through the dress up stage which means pretty dresses over all of her clothes!

Friday I had my cousins and their kids over, along with my friend Tamron and her girls. We had almost twenty little girls running around the house, it was great!

It was another carebear birthday! What else could they give our little carebear fan!!

Mykol,Alexa,Dan,Tamron, heads(?)

Sherri, Lisa and Amy holding each other's babies. Can you guess which baby goes with which mommy?

I just love how everyone knows my daughter so well. She was showered with carebear gifts, which is only fitting for the biggest carebear lover that ever was! She got 2 carebear movies, a 25th anniversary love-a-lot bear, braveheart lion and a cute puppy.

On sunday we had Kerry's family, my aunt Melody and two close family friends(Pam and Joan), and Pam's grand daughter Sydney over for dinner. It was a lot of fun having people over that love our little girl, she's just one of those people that you can't help but love! We had three different kinds of soup, homemade rolls, cinnamon rolls and birthday cake. I'm proud to announce that I am a good roll maker now! Anyway, it was just a really fun evening full of good food and lots of laughter. I'm grateful to have so many wonderful people in my life!

Danny and cousin London

Go ahead just lick your cake, we all want that piece!

Kaden,Ken,Lori,Danny,Grandma Kate, and Kerry

Beautiful carebear cake!

apprehensive to open her present?

Kaden, grandpa and Nanny

Melody, Pam and Joan

Danny playing with her new Rosella doll w/ Sydney

Wow, I know that's a lot of pictures, but I totally could have added 30 more!

Tradition!

When Joey and I were children we had a fun tradition of going to the Nutcracker ballet with our mom. We didn't go every year, but we did go many times. I had forgotten until Joey reminded me that a lot of times we would get the tickets in our stocking because it came to Ogden after Christmas. Joey was able to take mom and Jordyn on a very special night to the Nutcracker and dinner the Christmas before mom died. Ok, I have to pause now to cry for a minute..............

I still miss my mom soooo much, it's amazing how easily the tears come when you think of a loved one that's gone. When Joey's kids were old enough to go to the ballet our mom bought their first tickets, it was a fun tradition to carry on! Joey called me a few weeks ago and offered to buy Nanny her first ticket to the Nutcracker because grandma's not here to do it. Another pause. We went to the saturday matinee at the beautiful Capitol theatre and it was magical. It has been about 10 years since I've been and it was like seeing it through my childhood eyes again. Joey and I both had our moments during the production where it was hard to get through because mom wasn't there to share it with us........ or was she? Mom's favorite song was the Grand Pas de Deux, it is truly beautiful! After the show we walked across the street and ate dinner at the Olive Garden, yum yum! It was a really fun girl day, I'm lucky to have such a generous big sister who's willing to play grandma once in a while, aside from her role as really fun aunt Joey!!

Jordy and grandma at their last Nutcracker together

cute little Nanny standing by the big Nutcracker

Cute cousins

Joey, me,Nanny and Jordyn

The little girl with the curl

Do any of you remember the story of the Little girl with the curl....when she was good, she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was rotten! That seems to be the story of my cute little Nanny. Today she came up to me and said "I hate to tell you this, but you're not a very good mom." This was after we had had our fifth fight of the day, ya know because I asked her to carry her pillow into her room. That warrants a fight don't ya think? Oh, to be back in the good old days before she could speak, life was much easier then! I love my little Nanny and am very grateful to be her mother, but boy does she know how to push my buttons!!

This is the face I get very,very often.

This is Nanny's kindergarten picture, isn't she cute? Don't you just want to eat her up?

Hey Joey, this is for you

I am so behind that I don't even know how to catch up at this point. We went to Joey's house for Thanksgiving yesterday(those were really good rolls Joey) and Joey was whining because she hadn't seen halloween pictures of my girls yet. Just kidding, she wasn't whining, more like complaining! Just kidding again, but I did have to remind her that halloween night was the night my appendicitis came on, fun for me! Anyway, this is short and sweet.

cute little poodles!

ready to go trick or treating

"I'm ready too"

Me and Danny trick or treating. Don't ask me what I am......Some warped version of the Wendy's girl I think. Isn't that a cute little poodle girl though? Little did I know, two hours later I would be in agony. Boy am I glad that's over!!

bye bye appendix

Hi y'all. Just thought I'd let everyone know I had an emergency appendectomy on saturday night. I'm doing ok, but might not feel like blogging for a while. Catch up with ya when I can. Heather

More blogs to follow...but for now...pancakes for everyone!

I am either a really big slacker, or I've been really busy. Maybe a little of both!

Here is the recipe that you've all given up on. What's funny is that it's really not that exciting, but here goes.

1 cup flour

1 cup milk

4 eggs

2 T. butter

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Put 1 Tablespoon of butter in 2 pie plates, as the oven is preheating stick your plates in the oven so the butter can melt. Don't leave it in too long or it will turn brown. Beat 4 eggs in a bowl then add the milk and the flour. That's pretty much it but I like to make mine a little sweet so I add some vanilla and some cinnamon sugar. For my apple pancake I sprinkle some brown sugar on the pie plate after the butter is melted. I put the apples on next then poor half of the batter over it. I follow it by sprinkling cinnamon sugar on top. For the choc chip one I don't put brown sugar because the choc is sweet enough. Poor the remaining batter in the pie plate then sprinkle how many choc chips you like on it. Nanny thinks the more the better! I am toying with the idea of making an oat crust to put on the bottom of the apple one, I think that would be yummy. Anyway, stick them both in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Sometimes I think they're a little too eggy so I've added a little more flour and milk. Whatever you like!! Like I said they're really not that exciting, but Nanny loves them and if she stays in her bed all night I make them for her the next morning, just a little incentive she likes!

Say it aint so......SNOW!

Oh my heck, can you believe this snow? Kerry came in this morning when I was still in bed and said "we've got six inches of snow out there", very funny. I surely thought he was pulling a Kerry. Nope, it looks like full blown Christmas outside! Here's proof, just in case you don't believe me or have this at your house too.

Look at the size of these snowflakes! I was trying to save our willow tree with a broom, all the branches were drooping....bad.

Just a few days ago, friday night to be exact, we went punkin picking. Do any of your kids watch Caillou? Just wondering because we are forced to watch it over and over at our house. On one of the episodes Caillou's grandpa takes him to pick a pumpkin, but they call it punkin picking. Yeah, that had nothing to do with anything. Anyway, friday night we went to Day Farms in Layton. It was fun, for five dollars each you get a hayride out to the pumpkin patch and the pumpkin of your choice. It was freezing, well not freezing like today, but still really cold. Nevertheless, we huddled together and had some good old-fashioned family fun! After we each picked a pumpkin we loaded up our popsicle children and headed for Krispy Kremes. It was great, the hot light was on and the girls were fascinated with the doughnut making process. Free fun, can't beat that! To wrap up our fun night we visited a house in Ogden that has thriller playing on their garage. You can turn your radio to 99.9 (I think) and listen while you watch. They also have some creepy decorations in their yard. It wasn't the most exciting thing ever, but the girls were impressed with a movie playing on the garage.

What a contrast. Pumpkins, snow and mums. Poor, poor mums, I tried to get the snow off my poor darlings, but I fear they are crushed for the year:(

Well, what's more fun to do on a snowy day..... Stay inside and make yummy Halloween treats! Oh yeah and for y'all that were wanting the puffy oven pancake recipe, it's coming! This blog is too long.