Pick Your Plum

Have you heard about this website? It's called Pick Your Plum and every morning they offer a new item for sale at a pretty nice discount - almost always at least 50% off, most of the time more. These items are mostly crafting supplies and home decor items (like knobs and hooks, etc). I buy from them frequently and today I got my cute little "mini decks" of scrapbook paper. I didn't realize when I ordered these that they were 6x6 sheets of paper and not 12x12 - but, oh well, it was still a great price.
Pictured with my scrap decks are some of my other finds - ribbon, modpodge squeegies, and magnetic sheets.
It's always fun to check out the website and try to hurry and get the products before they sell out. They don't restock so once they are gone - they are gone. Usually within a few hours of posting!
Go check them out - daily. :)
www.pickyourplum.com

Memorial Day

Today was such a fun family day! Jayden didn't have school today so we really just enjoyed being together and not having any definite plans to do anything or go anywhere.
We had the thought that we should go to the parade by a park not too far from our house but we didn't want to have it set in stone. We decided to go towards the end so we found a spot near where the parade would end and we got to see almost all of it! Pretty great for not planning to go! Then we decided to hop on over to the zoo that is right across the street from the park. It is a small zoo and it is free so the occasional visit is fun - and this was the first time we'd gone since they reopened for the summer. The kids had a great time! John and I did too - we felt a little bit like kids, I think. :) This picture is just outside of the butterfly tent/room.
Then, we decided to go try some custard at a local restaurant. Yum! We opted to eat it outside at an umbrella covered table but it was so hot, we soon had custard soup! It was still delicious!
It was such a calm yet fun day, it makes me look forward to summer even more!
Happy Memorial Day!

You're the Superstar!

We have recently rediscovered a Wii game that John and I used to play a lot - Mario Party 8. We decided to give Jayden a shot at playing it recently and he loved it... and so we play. :)

Tonight we played a pretty great game but in the end - John was the winner. A.K.A Yoshi. He always plays Yoshi and we really think John has some strange streak of luck with video games sometimes.

We will have our characters be "Superstars" someday! Yoshi can't always win - can he?!

Spaghetti Hot Dogs

Tonight, we had pasta (yes, again) with hotdogs and tomato sauce. Pretty much spaghetti with hot dogs instead of meatballs. Do you notice the awesome-ness in this picture though? Yep - the noodles are coming through the hot dogs!
Jayden doesn't love hot dogs but he still thought it was cool - just not cool enough to eat them. He just had plain spaghetti. Riya, on the other hand, thought they were AWESOME! :)
It's pretty simple and a fun way to add interest to an otherwise boring meal. Just poke 5-6 uncooked noodles through cut up hot dog pieces and then toss into boiling water - cooking noodles normally.
Love!

"Oh No! She Caught Me!"

This had to be the picture for today because she made this face almost intentionally, I think, because she knew I was trying to get a picture for John. Usually, she'll pose for approximately 1.232 seconds and then she'll take off. If I don't get it the first time - good luck.
So - this time I said her name, right after she grabbed my keys (she LOVES to push the panic button on so that the van starts making lots of noise right outside the house) and she looks up like this. Haha. This is also the expression she makes when she pushes the panic button on the keys.
She'll love me for this picture someday. I'm sure of it. :)

Jayden's IRP

Tonight, Jayden got to show off his IRP (Independent Research Project).

His school gives them a general theme to work with and they have to come up with the rest on their own. They did one in the fall semester and one this semester. Last semester's theme was "Community Helpers" and they had to choose a person that helped the community (I bet you couldn't guess that) somehow. Jayden chose to interview his Great-Grandpa Sutherland (my mom's dad) who is a retired Air Force pilot. He got to go see the base, take pictures with the airplanes, interview Grandpa and make a life-sized version of himself dressed as a pilot. It was really cute but poor Jayden was sick for the IRP night so he didn't get to talk about it.

This time, the theme was Science. Guess who was so excited? Yep. John. Together, he and Jayden came up with an experiment (on a first grade level) to see how salt affects the phase transitions of water. I think if you click on the picture, you can read his poster.

It was pretty fun to see all of the kids in the entire student body (K-8) with their projects!

Good job, Mr. Jayden!

A Cookie Kind of Day

Emma (lucky girl) woke up from her nap today to the smell of some yummy, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.
While she was sleeping - Riya and I had fun trying out a new recipe. It was great but it made a ton of dough! I had to switch to a bigger bowl before I even added the dry ingredients! I had enough dough to give Jay's teacher a dozen and take John (and his lab mates) two dozen - and we still had about 3 dozen left over already baked. We have enough cookie dough left over to eat bake at least 2 more dozen.

I wanted to capture the enjoyment in little Em's face but when she noticed I was trying to snap a picture, she did this.

I guess that about sums it up. :)

PS - I love thunderstorms... until the tornado sirens go off. YIKES! Scary! Growing up in Texas, there was often a threat of tornados - and it has been known to bring me to tears. I was brave today. :)

"Clean" and Delish

Back when I was on my Clean Eating kick, we discovered this recipe for Baked Ziti. It is so stinkin' yummy! John was actually the first one to make it - I gave him the recipe and had him cook it up while I went to a Mary Kay party last May. My sister and her family came to town during the party and this is what John had ready for them to eat for dinner. Her kids are picky - like mine - and they all loved it! She tried to make it at her house and her 10 year old walked into the kitchen and saw her shredding carrots and was so disgusted and said, "When John made it, it didn't have carrots in it!"

Oh, but it did! And onions.

We had this again tonight and it was every bit as delicious...
Want the recipe?

This is from the book The Eat-Clean Diet for Family & Kids by Tosca Reno:

Baked Ziti

1 lb lean ground turkey (I used beef this time - but turkey is yummy too!)

2 cups shredded sweet carrots

1 small onion, peeled and diced fine

2 cloves garlic, passed through a garlic press

1-2 Tbsp best quality olive-oil

26oz can crushed tomatoes

1 cup low-sodium chicken or vegetable stock

8 oz brown-rice penne (or other whole-grain pasta) (I used whole wheat penne)

2 Tbsp fresh basil leaves, chopped fine (I used 1 Tbsp dried basil)

1/2 cup shredded low-fat mozzarella cheese (optional)

In a large skillet, hear olive oil over medium heat and cook ground turkey, carrots, onion and garlic, until browned. Add chicken or vegetable stock, tomatoes, pasta and basil.

Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until past is al dente.

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare baking dish with a light coating of cooking spray. Turn pasta mixture into baking dish. Press down lightly with the back of a spoon.

Sprinkle with cheese, if using. Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes or until cheese is melted and golden.

*I was in a bit of a time crunch and couldn't understand why it needed 20 minutes to melt cheese so I just did it for 10 minutes and it was fine.

Shoes and Shakin' It

One of Jay's jobs in cleaning up the living room this evening was to gather all the shoes and put them in the entry way. This is what the pile ended up looking like. We gather shoes nearly everyday and this is how it looks. Hmmm... I'm noticing something here - 4 of those pairs are mine. Oops. Maybe I'm the shoe slob.


I have a treat for you today. I thought of using this as my picture but since it's technically not a picture - I just decided to add it as a bonus. Watch Emma dance...

 Seriously - that girl can shake it!

**Please excuse our popcorn covered carpet. We like popcorn and it's one of the few things I let the kids eat in the living room. It always ends up on the carpet afterwards. Oh well.

A Dress for Emma

She refused to put that milk down for the pictures. Oh well - she was kind enough to move (on her own!) so that I could see the dress! Smart girl!
I finally made a dress for little Emma. It seems like Riya gets most of the sewing projects - with the exception of skirts - and I'm not exactly sure why.
Anyway - this dress was one of the easiest things to make. Guess what? It was a skirt in a size too small for me. The neckline of her dress was the waist of the skirt. I just sewed a casing and put in elastic to scrunch it up to fit.
I put one of her current dresses on top of the skirt to measure where the armholes should go and just cut from the sides to that spot. Then I cut down where I thought the sides of the dress should go. Sewed the sides together, made a casing and put in elastic, hemmed the sleeves and I was done! How easy and cute! The ribbon tied around her waist came with the skirt - it was a "belt" for it.
I LOVE this dress!

Should I start a blog with tutorials so I can explain these things better? Vote in my poll on the right sidebar of my blog. If you are reading this in reader or email, you'll have to click the link to go directly to the actual blog page. Let me know what you think. Would you read it??

Bonus for today - our new building was dedicated today. It was such a special treat to be able to be there! The Spirit was very strong throughout the whole meeting. Jayden and Riya got to sing with the Primary and they were pretty excited. Those sweet little voices make it nearly impossible to not tear up. I'm grateful we could attend!

Finally - A Haircut!

I finally cut Jayden's hair tonight (and John's) - he was looking pretty shaggy. Here is my handsome boy after his shower with very undone hair - not his usual spikes. This picture was the most normal shot I was able to get of him - he kept being so silly! I got one with his tongue sticking out and he was excited when I told him I was going to use it for my blog.
Of course - I don't use it. :)

*Please excuse his very unmade bed. He's decided that he wants all of his blankets in a sort of ball that just gets put on top of him when he sleeps. Huh?!

Mmmm. Popcorn.

Yet another popcorn post.
I am so happy it is garage sale season again!! I love finding treasures. Today was particularly awesome - amongst my other great finds, I found a stove top popcorn popper - practically brand new! It has a handle and a crank with stirring thing (official name!) inside. I was so stinkin' excited because I love popping corn on the stove - it tastes a million times better to me - and now I could be pretty official about it.
The kids were so excited to help me and they both took turns turning the crank around and around.

Cool huh?!

I Was Trying to Be Sneaky...

My sister called today and, even though I'm not much of a phone person, we always end up chatting for a long time. We go in spurts of the frequency of phone calls - sometimes hours in between, sometimes days, and sometimes weeks. BUT - almost no fail - when she calls, the kids NEED my attention. I mean - "Mom! This is urgent and I demand your attention at this very moment or something horrible is going to happen!" - kind of NEED.
I promptly sent them on their way upstairs to play. After I hung up, I noticed it was very quiet upstairs (could be bad, could be good...) so I very quietly went upstairs and followed the sound of the few little whispers I could hear.
I peeked out over Jayden's dresser to snap a picture but - I kid you not - right at that moment, Riya says, "Jayden, I'm going to go downstairs to be with Mommy."
In my desperation to capture this cuteness in a picture, I quickly took one but not a very good shot  - then, right as I'm about to hit the shutter again, John calls me. This made Emma spot me and decide to hurry and get out of the closet as fast as she could. Hence the blurry figure escaping the "club house".
They had emptied Jayden's closet and "built" a club house. They were using that castle as a mail slot (the drawbridge opening) and drawing/writing mail back and forth to each other.
I love it when they play so well together - I wish I had gotten a better picture! :)

Our New Church Building

Today, I got to have a teeny sneak peek at the inside of our new church building. I met our Primary President there so I could check out the new nursery room but pretty much right when I walked in, we were told that we needed to leave. She had gotten permission before hand but I guess there was a little misunderstanding and they told us we couldn't. I still got to sneak to the nursery room though and it is a lot smaller than our current room at the stake center. We will manage, I'm sure. I'm just a little worried because by the end of the year, we will have 45 kiddos in nursery... not including new students moving in. YIKES! :)
It will be fun to be in this brand new building in just a few weeks!!

Oh - and, in case you were wondering, head to the right of this picture for about.... 1 minute and 37 seconds (according to Jay's calculations) and you'd be at our new house. We will now have NO excuse to be late to church. :)

Would You Lighten Up?

Okay.

I did.

Today I got my hair highlighted again - even though I pretty much swore I'd never do it again because it's so hard to get rid of once I'm tired of it. Oh well. I took the plunge and lightened up a little... okay, a lot. Remember THIS post from January when I colored it nearly black? I haven't colored it since then - until today - so it's a little bit of a shock to my eyes but I'm sure I'll love it soon. :)

Do you change your hair for the seasons?

Naptime

John will love me for this. :)
Actually - I think he doesn't care.
He came home early today because he didn't feel too great and while he was on his way home, Emma took a face dive right on the kitchen floor. She cried and cried and snuggled and cried. Just before he got home, she fell asleep on me. I needed to get dinner ready so John joyfully took our sleeping babe and joined her in sleepy land. I saw them and couldn't help but capture the moment.
Emma doesn't nap anywhere except her bed for the most part so we savor these moments when she is all snuggles.
Seriously - she's out! John woke to the sound of the shutter on the camera but just smiled and closed his eyes again.
We tried to wake her up for dinner but she wasn't having it. I finally offered her some milk and that worked. Poor girl.
Then she thought she got to stay up with us because she had such a late nap. That was fun. She is so entertaining/funny and she knows it. Silly little Emma. 

A Sundae on Sunday

I put Pride and Prejudice (the newer one) on our queue for Netflix and it came in the mail over a week ago. John and I finally got a chance to watch it tonight. We decided we wanted ice cream - root beer float for John and sundae for me. It was perfect. Great movie, great treat and most of all, great company.
I love that my husband isn't too "manly" to watch these chick flicks with me. :)

Meet Dorothy and Jack

Today, the kids went to a fun underwater birthday party and they got awesome party favors.... GOLDFISH!
They were so excited! Riya named her fish Dorothy and Jayden named his Jack.
Oh boy - good thing we didn't get that house that wanted to charge us extra for kids - we'd have to pay a pet deposit now too! :P
These fish are our first pets... leading to a dog in several years? Maybe.

Typical Emma

This is what our little Emma looks like most days lately. She walks around with her milk and sips on it. She will play for a bit but always has that trusty cup with her to take a drink as needed.
It's so funny to watch. It's only that cup that she does this with too. Her other cups just don't have the "it" factor, I suppose.
Funny girl.

Model

Seriously. Check out her pose. Remember the one for the green and white dress? She's becoming a pro at this modeling stuff! :)
Today I finished a shirt re-purpose for Riya. This was a shirt I had for me that I wore a few times and just never liked how it fit. It was in the garage sale pile of clothes when I realized that I LOVED the fabric so I just decided to make some adjustments to make it Riya-sized (that IS an official size). I started the project earlier this week but she could barely keep in her excitement every day so I finally finished it today.
She was SOOO excited to finally be able to wear it. I have another awesome picture to show this but John thought this was the cuter of the two.
It has a hood and pockets. That's all that matters to her. :)

What is this?

Any guesses????




Okay - I'll tell you.

It's the side yard of the house we are going to be renting starting next month! I tried to get a picture of the backyard but I couldn't from the road.... it's lovely. So so roomy with lots of beautiful grass (actual grass, mind you - not the itchy Texas "grass") to run in and trees to have adventures in/around. I am so excited about this place - I can't wait until it's ready for us!

The way this came about was very interesting and we know that Heavenly Father definitely had a hand in it. I love those testimony strengthening experiences!

I don't know that I feel like typing the entire story here so I'll just give in in a nutshell:

We've been looking, and looking, and looking, and... yep - looking for a place to move that will better suit our needs. We did several walk throughs and found one we loved but we were second in line and it got taken. We found another that we loved (not as much but still loved) but the landlord seemed off to us. Quick summary of the landlord - he raised the rent when he found out we had kids (by $25 a month!) then, when he found out our income, decided to let us know that he felt it was too low and we wouldn't have money to "do anything" (duh. we are grad students.). Then, he found out we had 3 kids (not just the 2 girls that came to the walk-through) and he decided to tell us that he didn't like renting to families. We quickly got out of that situation but were pretty bummed that we didn't get the place. That same day, I had craft night at my house and one of my friends asked if we were still looking. Her husband's grandpa's house was up for rent. She described the property and we were already smitten. :) We checked it out the next day and decided it was perfect for us. Cheaper than our current place (if we renew our lease) and it's bigger with a huge amount of land. It's also right next to our new church building that is set to open in June.

We are soooo excited!!

Plan on coming over to let your kids roam free while John grills up some yummy-ness.

Oh - and it has a fireplace. This was a very important thing to check off the list for Jayden when we were looking to buy. :) Now Santa can come in more easily.

What happens when...

... a certain cute little girl decides to lock her parents bedroom door and then close it? What happens if they don't have a key to the locked door?

Yep. Her daddy gets to break into the house.

Last night, during a farewell dinner/game night with our friends who are shipping off to Texas for the summer, we were alerted to the fact that their little girl locked the bedroom door. Luckily, their bedroom window was unlocked (it still had the screen on it -which posed a challenge to pop off from the outside)! Otherwise - it would have been a lot worse! Here is her dad breaking in to their bedroom window while John so carefully holds the ladder.

Ahhhh - life is never dull with preschoolers. :)

Shirt Contest

I'm entering a Spring Shirt Sew Along contest and this is my creation. One of the rules is that it has to be completely made by you (with a few exceptions). I took a size XL shirt and turned it into a S/M and only kept the neck and bottom hem. The rest was completely my constructing. I love my new shirt!
What do you think?

Happy Mother's Day!

Today was pretty great. See those 3 goofy kids there? I love them so much and I'm so grateful that I get to be their mommy! I hope to be good for/to them and I hope they look to my example when they have kids of their own.
John doesn't let me lift a finger on Mother's Day and he's really cute about it. He got the kids ready for church, made lunch and dinner, changed diapers and other bathroom duties, did dishes, brushed the kids teeth and put them to bed. He was awesome! He was pretty tired by the end of the day and I think he was reminded of why I am usually so tired by the end of the day. :)
During dinner, each of the kids (and John) took turns telling me things they loved about me.
Jayden: "I love that Mommy gets my clothes for me every morning and makes so much yummy food!"
Riya: "I love that Mommy makes clothes for me to wear..."
Emma: "Ummmm... Ah - so - ma - do - qua - pa"
They kept coming up with things - it was really cute.
They made cute little cards with flowers at church and Jayden surprised me with some flowers he'd planted at school. John got me a game I've been wanting for awhile - and I got myself a new bag. :)
I hope you all had a great Mother's Day as well!

Garage Sale!

Today was my much anticipated garage sale. Problem - it rained in the morning. Problem - it started at 9am. Problem - I had to actually set up in the garage (as opposed to the driveway) because of the rain, thus it looked like I just had my garage door opened to show my cluttered garage. Oh well - we got several customers, just not as many as I had hoped or expected. We are going to try it again next Saturday - assuming it doesn't rain again. :)

Craft Night

This month it was my turn to host craft night and we made cute little project boards from HERE. I don't think that anyone finished tonight for various reasons but we still had a lot of fun chatting and lightly crafting. :)

"Why is everything upside-down?"

This is how I caught Riya watching TV today. It must have made it more interesting. :)

PS - I promise that we do other things besides watch TV, although it might not seem like it.

We also had fun getting together with friends for Cinco de Mayo tonight! My phone battery was too low for me to be able to take any pictures but it was really cute!

Morning Ritual

This has become our almost daily ritual. Jayden and John go off to school and the girls plop down on the couch, request a blanket to snuggle together and they watch a show (usually The Backyardigans, Blue's Clues or Kai-lan) on Netflix in their PJs. I joined them today and looked over and had to capture the moment. Emma's pose is her signature pose. Left hand pinky and ring fingers in her mouth - right hand index finger playing with her ear. Riya has recently taken up the habit of biting her nails - she does it when her mind is elsewhere... like watching a show. She will even bite her toenails!
Just had to capture the girls in their own elements. :)

Silly Emma

I caught Emma trying to spray herself in the face with the water sprayer that John uses to fix his hair. She couldn't quite figure it out so I, being the nice mom that I am, decided to show her. She loved it! I just did little squirts but she kept wanting more! Here's her cute little wet face anticipating the next squirt.
How funny is that?!

Riya's Rash

This morning, as I was getting Riya dressed, I noticed a few little red patches on her skin but didn't think much of them because she has somewhat sensitive skin and usually it's nothing. By this evening, she was showing signs on her neck, legs and arms. I quickly lifted her shirt and saw this - and there was more on her other side. It looks to me like the reaction she sometimes has from bug bites but it didn't make sense because it wasn't there (like that!) this morning - when I first saw red.
She wasn't complaining of itching or anything but she did think the rash was fascinating! She stood on the chair by the sink, topless just staring at her rash... turning and twisting so she could see it all.
We decided to give her a bath and change her bedding and see how she did. The bath seemed to help - the rash was already fading by the time she got pajamas on.
Who knows - but if there is a rash to get, Riya will probably get it. She got them often when she was an infant and they are so hard to diagnose that I usually don't even take her in unless it becomes more than just a rash. She seems fine for now!

Emma Surprises

Emma is a very busy little girl. She can almost always find some way to entertain herself. Often times, we find little surprises in places we least expect it. This was my surprise tonight - as I was emptying my box of Robin Eggs (Easter whoppers - in case you weren't aware) in to my hand, I got a bobby pin as well! I didn't realize we got bonuses like that in those cute little cartons! ;) Thanks Emma!

By the way - what was the verdict on the crayons? They really do wipe off (and it comes with a wiper in the box of crayons) but the crayons themselves feel kind of waxy and they seem to get on anything they touch. We were getting a bit frustrated with this at church - especially because John was sitting right in between Jayden and Riya - his white shirt kept getting marks on it. I grabbed a wipe from my bag just to try and... it came out! All of us ended up wiping our clothes at some point during the meeting but we were thrilled with the fact that it came out! Emma's dress was white and, for some reason, had a hard time letting go of the marks but I'm hoping that regular stain remover will get it out. John's shirt ended up mark free though. We'll let them stay around - carefully. The kids loved them!!