Sparkles in my Toothpaste

Do not laugh at me.

I got a new toothpaste and it literally has sparkles in it. It is really neat to see on my toothbrush and I tried to capture it on camera but this was the best I could get.

I seriously have 5 or 6 pictures of my toothbrush with toothpaste on it trying from different angles to show the sparkles.

Don't be jealous that yours doesn't have sparkles.

Don't be jealous that my day was THIS exciting today.

I know you are.

We got to have Celeste come back to our house today to play while Dalton was at school and both of her parents were at the hospital with her new brother!

The girls had so much fun playing outside. They soon discovered the "garden" area in our front yard and decided to dig. I figured it wasn't going to hurt anything so I encouraged it by giving them shovels and pails. :)

They did this for a couple of hours. No joke.

When Jayden got home, we decided to get swimming suits on and play with the water hose. It's a good thing John was able to get ahold of Thomas to pass on the memo to bring a change of clothes for Celeste before he came to get her - I'm not sure baby Parker (or Heidi) would have enjoyed the dirt/water clad Celeste. :)

Bomb

Okay - I am technically cheating with this picture as I just got it online but it is the best picture for today. John had a major "bomb" dropped on him today. His words.
Unfortunately, I can't go into ANY details yet. Just know it's kind of a big deal and we have some pretty major decisions to make in the next few weeks. Like - decisions that could affect the rest of our lives. No pressure at all. :|
Just to keep anyone from worrying, it has to do with his schooling. Everyone is healthy. No life threatening news or anything. :)
Stay tuned.

First Day of Second Grade!

I have to be sure to put Second Grade and not just the first day of school. He corrects me that this is NOT his first day of school. It's his first day of second grade! :)
Jayden started school today (again!) at a new school. We decided that the charter school he was going to last year wasn't a great fit for our family and then we moved to a new house that was a lot farther away from the old school. So - he is going to a public school this year.
We are hoping to get him into a GT class this year to really challenge him but he has to be tested for it. Hopefully soon!
Can you believe my little guy is so big?! Wasn't he just a baby?!

60,000 miles!

On our final day of our trip, we hit 60,000 on the van. This van has had a lot of miles put on it since we've had it! We got it in July of 2009 while I was pregnant with Emma and we couldn't imagine trying to squeeze three carseats into John's little Mazda. It had around 21,000 miles on it when we got it.
What's that math there? 60,000 - 21,000 = 39,000 miles in a little over 2 years. That is just under 20,000 miles a year! Yikes!
I guess that is this van's average. It was a year old when we got it with 21K on it.
Poor van. We'll try to go easy on you.... just keep working well. :)

We made it home around 11:30pm tonight and by the time the van was unpacked and kids were in bed, it was well after midnight.

It was a great vacation but it is also so nice to be home!

The Cabin

I am really wishing that I had taken more pictures during our trip but especially of this cabin we stayed in while at Bear Lake. There were seven of the ten Roylance kids with their families that stayed here - it was massive!
It is hard to tell from the outside but it was three-stories with a gorgeous view of the mountains and lake behind it. The garage held 6 cars (I think) and then a pretty big driveway to hold even more. The first floor had a great master bedroom with a private bath, a kitchen/eating area, a living area, a smaller bedroom and a laundry room. The second floor (down) had more bedrooms (not sure how many) and bathrooms, a living area and a nice view of the recreation room downstairs. Yes, I said recreation room. The third floor (very bottom) had a rec room with a small basketball court, a trampoline, a "putting green" and a playground! It also had more bedrooms and bathrooms, another living area and a movie theater room!! We were loving this place! We just let the kids play and hardly had to worry about them - with all the cousins that were there we very rarely saw them while we were at the cabin!
It was 9000 sq ft of fun!

Today, we spent time at the lake for the bulk of the day and then we had our fun girls' party that night. These parties are always so much fun and it always feels like Christmas because we leave with so much great stuff! I love it when I can be around for them!

Sleeping Beauty

This picture is dark but I couldn't turn a light on and disturb the sleeping beauty. John and I think it is so funny that Emma sleeps like this. She usually starts out on her back but once she's asleep, she almost always ends up on her tummy with her legs tucked under her and her bottom in the air while sucking on her fingers.
This picture is pretty funny because it looks like her baby is trying to sleep like her too. :)

(Excuse the lack of clothing - I promise I do dress my children.)

Wal-Mart to the Rescue

Riya brought out her piggy bank and emptied it out, put the money in a sock and asked if we could go to the mall. Huh? Then she elaborated that she wanted to go for the electronic rides. I didn't see this in our day today so I kept telling her that we might go after we go get groceries. I kept putting emphasis on the MIGHT.
Well - we never got around to getting groceries and she was heartbroken. I told her we'd go tomorrow. Nope - she wasn't having it. I even offered her all sorts of other awesome deals - she wouldn't have those either. So, I got the idea that we could run to Wal-Mart and I could grab milk (to last until tomorrow) and she and Ems could ride on the rides in their play zone (which she always begs to do but I always say no). She was so stinkin' excited, her tears instantly turned to giggles!
Here she is driving the fire engine with Emma in the back pushing buttons and checking out the dog that was stuck to the truck. I took lots of pics but this was the only decent one - they were moving so they turned out blurry. Boo to my camera for that.

In other news - John's sister Sarah and her family are officially moved out here! Well, sort of. Her husband came down with his brother and all of their possessions and they got here last night. After unloading the truck, they realized the air conditioner in the house wasn't working so we got some over night visitors. We love to have company so it was great! Riya loved that her "uncle" (as she kept referring to him - not by his name) and "his brother" were coming and staying with us.

Garage Progress

I was super motivated today to get into the garage and just put things in the rooms where they belonged. We have just been getting things out as we need them but this wasn't working for me anymore. Too bad there isn't a before picture but let's just say that we couldn't see much of the garage floor before today. We can ALMOST fit John's car in there now. My goal before we leave for vacation is to have his car in there.

Sigh.

How long can I use the excuse that "we just moved"?

Popsicles

The girls and I went grocery shopping today and Riya asked, ever so cutely, if we could get popsicles. Of course we can! She patiently (as patient as a 3 year old can be) waited for John to get home and she ate ALL of her dinner so we went outside and licked and chomped away.
This was Emma's first real experience with a popsicle and it was stinkin' cute - especially when the cold would hit her teeth just right. :) She loved them!!
I love that we have a porch that we get to hang out on now to enjoy these simply pleasures!

All done!

The lease for our old house had a very detailed cleaning list for us to complete before a final walk-through with the landlord. We began this cleaning on Saturday - and worked for several hours on the details. Then most of the day yesterday was spent cleaning as well. It's not that our place was that dirty, the list was just that detailed! We wanted to make sure we didn't miss anything because they charge for everything left undone and it comes out of the deposit that we'd like to get back.
John took this picture as he left the house after finishing up on the cleaning. Goodbye duplex!
I went through the final walk through with the landlord today and she literally walked through the house. She opened the oven to see if it was cleaned and then proceeded to walk through the house. I'm stressing the "walk through" part because she didn't look at all the details we made sure to have complete. She just said everything looked great and we should be getting the full deposit back. Nice!

At least the future tenant will appreciate our detailed efforts.  :)

New Toy!

A couple of weeks ago, I saw an ad on Craigslist for a wooden kitchen set with all sorts of accessories at a great price. I debated for awhile about getting it because we already have a kitchen set with TONS of accessories. The girls don't really play with the one we have anymore but this one seemed like the kind they like. I finally got it today! I'd been in contact with the seller and luckily, it hadn't sold yet. The girls played with it for a really long time - especially Emma!
The dishes are like real dishes - John kept saying, "We could really use these!"
It is just really nicely made and I'm very happy that I caved in and got it. The other one is now up for sale... any one want it? :)

PJs to Rags

While cleaning out the master closet yesterday, I came across some pajama pants of John's and I asked him if I could get rid of them. He told me he'd had them since before his mission and he was keeping them because they were comfortable. I reminded him of the fact that he hadn't worn them all winter and he told me they had a huge hole in a certain area that would make them a little inappropriate to wear.
He then told me to make something out of them instead of throwing them away. I asked if they could become rags and he agreed. :)
Today, I set my serger up on the floor (on top of a box) and serged the ends of two squares all the way around and I was able to make 8 rags out of those cute, retired PJs.
Thanks, Honey!
Perfect for the massive amount of cleaning we will be doing soon!
Jayden saw them and decided to bury himself in them - including putting one across his face saying, "Mmmm - they smell so good!" Funny boy!

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

"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.

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?

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. :)

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?!

Dress for Me!

Tonight, as I was putting Riya to bed, I had a sudden thought of how to use some fabric I bought last fall. I decided to make a spring dress for me. The fabric is brown and beige but it has flowers so I have decided it is Spring-y. :)
It was pretty simple to make - I used a DownEast shirt to make a pattern for the top and just did a gathered skirt for the bottom. I had to add the middle section like I did because I almost ran out of fabric - I literally only had a scraps left over (and I used those for the ruffles in the front). The fabric is jersey knit and it is seriously the most comfortable dress I have ever worn. I worked on it all night and when I finally went to bed, I ended up falling asleep wearing it!
I tried putting a belt on around my upper "waist" but I can't decide if I love that look or not. I think it would be super cute with a short sleeved cardigan over it as well - maybe both. Oh, the possibilities! :)

Side note - today's picture was going to be the kids playing at the play area in the mall but my phone died while we were shopping. Bummer.
Side note II - today was my first time actually shopping and discovering our mall. We've lived here for almost a year and I've never been there to shop. How sad. :( It's actually a pretty great mall! I think we will become great friends...

An Apple a Day...

Riya will sometimes request an apple to eat whole. Usually, she doesn't finish it like this so I end up cutting one for her. Today, she decided she wanted to eat a whole apple. I was visiting before my grandparents and mom left so I reluctantly let her. She took about two bites before I realized it hadn't been cleaned yet so she put it on the table to eat it after I washed it.
Fast forward to this afternoon, a very hungry Emma spots that apple sitting on the table and she couldn't resist trying to out too. I saw her doing this and decided to let her continue after I washed it. She was not happy with me taking that apple out of her hands but I gave it a quick rinse and put it right back in her reaching hands.
This is what the apple looked like a little while later when I found it on the floor.
Good job, Emma!