The best kitchen help ever.....

On Friday I made cookies for the week-end and all the family activities related to Matt's mission farewell. Mark willingly agreed to help me, imagine that???? He wanted to be in charge of putting everything in the mixer and turning the mixer on. The problem was Mark only knows one speed, full force, and thought the mixer should be whipping the cookie dough as opposed to mixing the cookie dough.

He was a little miffed the firmly packed brown sugar did not easily come out of the measuring cup.
Here he is "stealing" a lick. I honestly have no idea where he gets that from???
This would be an "authorized" lick.
He demanded to roll the cookie dough balls in the sugar, and actually did a really good job.
The finished cookie. For those of you interested in the recipe here it is:

Giant Gingersnaps (Courtesy of Linda)

2 cups flour

2 tsp. cinnamon

2 tsp. ginger

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup butter softened

1/4 cup shortening

3/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/3 cup light molasses

l large egg.

Combine flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, nutmeg, cloves and salt into a bowl. Beat butter, shortening, sugar and brown sugar in large mixer bowl at a med-high speed until fluffy. Bean in molasses and egg. On a low speed gradually beat in dry ingredients just until blended. Refrigerate 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease cookie sheets. Spread 1/3 cup white sugar on a plate. Measure 1/4 cup of dough, roll into a ball, coat with sugar. Repeat with remaining dough placing 6 ball 4 inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake 16-17 minutes until golden brown.

Scooters can go fast!

On Friday after school it was such a nice warm fall day that Lauren was outside playing with her friends. They were riding bikes and scooters around the neighborhood. Well Lauren was on her scooter and took a hill a little too fast, with the result being a big bad fall off of her scooter. She came hobbling in the house with her two friends to show off her war wounds and get some TLC from mommy. She was quite brave as long as her two friends were here. Once they left the tears and drama began to flow....and flow.... and flow...I wanted to run and grab Britney and Chole and ask them to return!

Here is her scraped up elbow.

Never fear there were scrapes and road rash on the other arm too.

The worst part, a big hole in her favorite Roxy jeans. I believe she was more upset about that than her injuries. Just goes to show this girl has her priorities in order. After the wounds will heal, but the jeans are a lost cause, even if I sew them up! I am trying to convince her to leave the hole and start a new fashion trend.

Girls are funny.

With Matt's mission farewell this weekend there is a whole lot of craziness going on, and lots of family and cousins. On Saturday Linda, Lindsey, Leah, Krista, Allie, Lauren, Morgan, Addy, and Savannah came to my house to practice a song to sing in Church on Sunday. Mark was already at our house, having taken a break from the craziness at Grandma's. When all the girls loaded up to leave, he decided he wanted to be the lone male in the Suburban, and return with them.

The driveway at Linda's new house is rather steep, no lets make that really steep, as in winter scares me. Anyway the girl cousins started this tradition of raising their arms up as Grandma drives down the driveway, just like they were on a roller coaster. Mark, unfamiliar with this tradition said to the girls in a sarcastic deep voice:

"Very funny girls. Very funny."

Yes Mark girls are funny, get used to it.

Those Polly Pockets...

Lauren decided to play Polly Pockets and set them up on the coffee table in the family room, so she could multi-task and watch TV while engrossed in the world of Polly. It did not take long for Katie to find the Polly Pockets. She of course immediately determined this was a FUN girl toy that involved dolls, clothing and furniture.

Katie's idea of playing Polly Pockets is to pull objects out of containers and throw found objects on the floor creating the biggest mess possible. I have to admit she is really good at her job. Apparently she read the handbook on how to be a good baby/toddler.

It did not end until she removed every item from the Polly Pocket container. Unfortunately Lauren was not too amused at having to clean up the mess....

Suppressed desire.

We have a secret suppressed desire in our house, we all want to be the next singing sensation. Quit laughing, I realize that some of us, me in particular, have no musical ability what so ever, but that does not stop me from dreaming of being on stage with lights, full musical accompaniment, and adoring fans. Ok, I guess I will settle for my well lit family room, music coming from the television speakers, and children who at the moment think mommy is the "bomb."

Well to fulfil our fantasy, Rick purchased this American Idol playstation game. It has been a huge hit. It came into our house on Saturday, and despite our best efforts Lauren basically determined possession is nine tenths of the law and refused to hand over the microphone all week-end long. Her favorite song: "My Cherie amour" which is now my least favorite song. The game grades you on pitch, tune, singing the words, etc and you get a critique from Randy, Paula and Simon. You can compete against other people. I have to admit for not being a video game fan this game is REALLY fun.

We invited Courtney, Brian and Linda over to join in our fun, and trust me it was FUN.

You don't even have to know the words to the song, they flash across the television screen, and you read them. You can also see your pitch meter so you know how well, or um, bad you are doing.

On Monday Rick went to work, Lauren and Mark were at school, which meant for the first time I had the game AND the house all to myself. YES!!!! I spent about two hours lost in the fantasy that I was an actual singer, and the only person to truly know that I am not was Katie, and she is not talking.

However while lost in my fantasy, Katie left to her own devices, decided to empty the box of wipes all over the kitchen floor.

Ok, back to reality and chasing my 16 month old baby around the house cleaning up the wake of her damage......

On a positive note.

I will say one positive thing about the cold I have experienced, the congestion can be a blessing. Late Saturday night/early Sunday morning, I was checking my email before I went to bed. All of the sudden I heard Mark crying. I found him at the top of the stairs. I was trying to determine if he had a bad dream or what exactly was going on. In a state of half consciousness Mark told me that he threw up in his bed. I went to investigate and sure enough he was correct, a lovely site awaited me. As we entered his room another wave of nausea hit him, and I was able to grab his bath towel he had left on the floor from early in the day, thus preventing me from having to get out the carpet shampooer. A bath was in order along with a full stripping of his bed. Good news, he has two beds in his room, so at least I did not have to make up a bed for him. After getting him cleaned up, teeth brushed, and back in bed he kept saying “Thank you mommy,” and I could feel that he was truly grateful that I was there to help and comfort him. As I was tucking him back in he started to get tears in his eyes when he realized I was leaving. So I lied down on the bed next to him for about 10 minutes and rubbed his back and head until I was convinced that he had calmed down enough to go to sleep.

So why is congestion good? Well I did smell a thing, which is always good when dealing with any substance deposited by Mark.

Just to prove I really am spoiled!

In addition to making me the Beef & Stout Pie, Rick also made apple pie for desert. Now as much as I would like to claim the pie was for me, it was actually for Mark. Mark had been bugging him for pie for about two weeks now. Apparently Mark looked at the calendar and determined it was September which means fall and apple pie.

Again you can see it looked great and tasted even better!

Calorie wise, not a good weekend, but well worth the great food.

A $216.26 Beef & Stout Pie.

WARNING: If you husband likes to cook, intercept all catalogues that come in the mail entitled “Williams Sonoma.” Failure to do so can be costly.

About 10 days ago on a Friday to be precise the new fall Williams Sonoma catalogue arrived in the mail. I should have known better than to leave it sitting on the kitchen counter, where it was quickly devoured up by Rick. After he looked at it I skimmed through it. For those of you not familiar with the Williams Sonoma catalogue it not only contains good food photography, which makes their cookware look incredible they also include recipes. Well I happened to notice a recipe for a beef pot pie that looked particularly enticing, because the crust had blue cheese rolled into it, and I am a huge fan of blue cheese. I commented to Rick on the recipe and how good I thought it looked. That was all the permission he needed to decide we needed to make the pot pie.

Now in order to properly make the pot pie, one must have the proper equipment, otherwise it just isn’t going to turn out right. What were we lacking? A small cast iron pot. One $179 cast iron pot later, we now had the proper equipment. Ingredients, stew meat, $4.17, blue cheese, $8.26 (granted it was two pounds and I only needed a small amount, but the best quality is at Costco, which is not known to sell in small quantities.) gold potatoes, $1.96, mushrooms $2.49, pearl onions $2.79, organic carrots, (Rick insisted I buy carrots with the tops on, and the only ones to be found were organic) $1.59 and Irish stout???? Now technically Irish stout is a dark beer, and in cruising the beer isle at my local supermarket, no dark beer was to be found. Apparently the alcohol content of dark beer is too high to be sold in the supermarket in Utah and it can only be purchased at the liquor store. Having Katie with me I elected not to go to the liquor store and instead opted to return to Williams Sonoma for a substitute suggestion. Well Williams Sonoma makes just the product for those who want to avoid the liquor store it is called Yankee Roast Base and set me back $16. (Liquor store probably would have been cheaper, but that is questionable, I do live in Utah and they tax the hell out of alcohol here.)

Here is the finished product.

Total investment in Beef and Stout Pie $216.26.

Cost of not having to cook Sunday dinner, and knowing my husband is making this just for me because he knew I would enjoy it=PRICELESS.

FYI: It was delicious, the crust with the blue cheese in it was to DIE for!!!!!

Feeling better...kind of, sort of....

I would like to personally thank the anonymous individual who gave this nasty little cold virus to my daughter Katie. It was just plain not nice, and because I believe in teaching my children to share, Katie kindly shared her nasty little cold virus with whomever she came in contact with.

It all began last Sunday when I noticed that Katie had a very runny nose. Now since she is in the middle of teething, I never know if it is a cold or new teeth. It was apparent on Monday when Mark’s nose started to run that this was clearly a cold. By Tuesday night I was feeling its wrath. Linda, who watched my children on Tuesday, was attacked on Wednesday, and by Thursday Rick succumbed.

For those of you, who have not experienced this particular nasty little cold virus, let me describe in detail its wake of destruction. It begins with a sore throat. You feel the lymph nodes in your neck start to swell with pressure and they become sensitive to touch. Then you begin to ache all over, and start feeling week. Your nose starts to run. And by run, I mean run like a faucet. You have an incredible thirst for liquid to feed the running faucet of a nose, and the green snot that is produced is prodigious. (Note: A proper stock of tissue is necessary for this cold, and by proper stock I mean a minimum of two boxes). You are tired and the only thing you want to do is sleep, however you can’t sleep because as you lie down the faucet of a nose that has been draining forward begins to drain backward, sending acidic snot down your throat, further aggravating the soreness of your throat. You also can not sleep because you are simply too congested to breath. So you mope around in your misery wondering if death would be a welcome relief, with your mental condition deteriorating as quickly as your physical condition. This continues on for FIVE days. Meanwhile your children do not get the memo that Mommy is calling in sick. They believe they need to be dressed, fed and cared for.

Finally the army of anti-bodies created by your body to fight just such a nasty little cold virus is beginning to win a few battles, and you can sense that perhaps this hostile takeover will not last indefinitely. However the congestion and snot are a lingering reminder of your cold, as they continue to enjoy the hospitable host environment know as your sinuses. This is why I am feeling better….kind of sort of….

A bit under the weather....

The last six weeks at work have been pretty brutal. Although the economy in Utah is still fairly strong we have had a back log of cases that needed to be transcribed. Well they all got transcribed and during the last six weeks we have been working through the pile. I have had a very heavy case load with this last week being the largest, ickiest, yuckiest Board I think I have ever had. I could hardly wait for Tuesday to come and get the dang thing over with, because I couldn't stand to look at it any more. Well Tuesday has come and gone, and I am now paying the price for my late nights and early mornings. I am coming down with a nasty cold. So I might be a little light on posting for the next few days because I need some R&R.

I have the meanest mommy ever!

I want to go on record as saying that I have the meanest mommy ever, she made me go to the doctor. Now my last visit to the doctor was in November 2007 and my brain was much smaller and less developed then, and I really did not recall what going to the doctor was about, I assumed it was like any other fun outing my mommy takes me on, like the grocery store, Target, grandma's house, but nooo, fun was not to be had at the doctor's office.

First I was required to get on the scale, every girl's worst nightmare, and a humiliation if you have a few extra rolls like me. I weighed in at 28 pounds, but bear in mind that was fully clothed with a diaper on, so give a pound or two for clothes, shoes and my diaper. Next I had to take my clothes off, although they did permit me some dignity in allowing me to keep my diaper on. Then this guy with dark hair and a blue shirt came in and started poking and prodding me. Mommy kept calling him Dr. Harkness. To me he was a strange guy with cold hands and instruments.

He is listening to my heart and I am trying to decide if I am going to scream at him.
Next he wanted to look in my ears, what was that about????
After Dr. Harkness finished poking and prodding, these two nurses came in and each one grabbed a leg.
Without any warning they stuck something sharp into each leg. They repeated this two more times. Mommy said they were shots and I got a total of 6, three in each leg.
As you can see I was MAD. What did my mommy do, did she provide comfort, no, she stood their taking pictures so she could blog about my humiliation and pain. She really is the meanest mommy ever!

Fun Cards

My friends and I got together this week and made cards. Here are two cute creations we made. I have to admit lime green is a new favorite color of mine, sorry orange, you're so LAST year, I'm over you.

Lauren's surprise

One of the things Arianne and I did when she recently came for her visit was to go to Swiss Days in Midway. Swiss Days is well known for awesome craft booths, so we thought we would check it out and perhaps steal some ideas. One of the "hot" items at Swiss Days was magnetic boards.



Lauren was gone last weekend with her grandparents on a trip so I surprised her and made a magnetic board for her room. I purchased a basic frame and magnetic board from the craft store. I sanded the frame, painted it white and then glued scrapbook paper all around the edge. I "sealed the deal" with Mod Podge, and embellished with ribbon and flowers. I made coordinating magnets with clear glass stones, and scrapbook paper.

My "boy crush"

Its true, I have a "boy crush." He is four years old, and just my type, blond hair and blue eyes. We met on May 1, 2004, at LDS hospital. He had commitment issues at first, and hid out in the NICU, for a week. During that time he flirted with several nurses, but ultimately decided I was his one true love, and agreed to make a commitment to be my "boy crush." He can be a little demanding at times, and forgets to use his manners, but he is so sweet and going on dates with me is his favorite thing to do. He knows that when you go on dates with girls you hold hands, and if you really love the girl you kiss her. He must really love me because I get lots of kisses. I know my time is limited and one day some special girl will decided that Mark is her "boy crush" and I will no longer be his one and only true love. Until that time I am going to enjoy my dates, hand holding and kisses!

A Haunting we will go....

Despite what the weather man tells me, the calendar says it is September, and in my mind that equates to FALL. Gone on the summer decorations, gone are the swim suits and inflatable pool toys, squirt guns and other such summer paraphernalia. We are looking forward to cooler temperatures, with crisp fall nights and chilly mornings. In honor of FALL, we decorated our house. Every year for the past few years Rick and I have added a few more things to our collection of fall decorations. Although we decorate the inside of the house in September, we refrain from decorating the outside of the house until after October first. After all we wouldn't want the neighbors to think we are weird or anything.....Probably too late for that!







Halloween is one of Mark's favorite holidays, he was very excited to get out the Halloween/fall decorations. He kept asking if we were going to "haunt our house." From the looks of it, I believe we did.

Potty Voyeur

Mark believes going to the potty is a big production, and quite frankly with how long it has taken me to potty train him, it is a big production. He comes up to me and announces, in his loud, deep voice, "Mommy I have to go potty!" I tell him to head to the bathroom and start taking care of business.

As soon a Katie hears the announcement of Mark's bodily functions, she immediately follows him into the bathroom to voyeuristicly watch him "take care of business." If Mark tries to shut her out of the bathroom, she screams and pounds on the door. I can only hope that she is watching and learning so that potty training Katie will be a joy and delight, not a headache and nightmare.

A bountiful harvest.

In the back of our yard we have an arbor, in which the former occupants of our house planted grapes, both the red and green variety. It has taken a few years but the arbor is completely covered in grape vines, and with the end of summer and cooler temperatures, the grapes are ripening quickly.

Rick was outside and decided to show Katie the grapes. He held her as he picked one off the vine and put it in his mouth, (note in the picture the small purple object in his mouth). Katie immediately begged for a grape and tried to pick her own. One grape was all it took to turn her into an addict.

Once on the ground she would point up to the grapes and say "un, un, un" until someone picked a grape for her.
This continued on for about 15 minutes until she completely stuffed herself with grapes. On a personal note, I might add pieces parts of the grapes were re-visited the next day during SEVERAL diaper changes. I don't recommend excessive quantity of grapes for developing digestive systems, no matter how much "un, un, un" you hear.

We've adopted!!! Not really.....

Last week Rick noticed this very LARGE cat in our yard. We had no idea where he came from because to our knowledge none of our neighbors have cats. Lauren and Mark were immediately draw to the cat. They went outside to give it "love" and let it know it was welcome in our yard, at least by the children under seven who reside here.

The next thing I knew they were carrying the cat around and treating it like their very own pet. Meantime I am getting very nervous, afraid the cat will want to "adopt" us and then we will never be rid of the thing. Although the cat would probably cure our mice problem...... Well the cat could apparently sense my anti-cat vibes, because as soon as I got within 15 feet of the cat, over the fence it went into my neighbors yard. Problem solved.

TMI (Too Much Information)

Albertson's parking lot, 8-31-08.

No further explanation needed.

Dancing with the Stars, here we come!

Lauren started ballroom dance this week, after I had to take out a second mortgage on the house to pay for it. As a parent you think "Oh it would be a good activity, good exercise, and fun, lets sign up for a class!" Class is $40 per month, that's not too bad.... So after you have committed, and gotten your child excited about it, they hand you the piece of paper with the dress code for class. I am thinking "Dress code? What? This is supposed to be 'baby ballroom' and you expect a dress code. Can't they just take their shoes off and learn a few steps????" No apparently they can not. Dress code will be enforced.

The shoes were $60, to dye the shoes cost an additional $20, and she had to have a black skirt. Well they don't make black ballroom skirts in her size so I had to make one at a cost of $20. I am up to $100 invested in this gig and have not even paid for the class yet. Looking forward to finding out how much the performance fee and costume are going to set me back.

On a brighter note, Lauren took to it like a fish to water. She LOVED it. The first class she learned part of the "cha cha." She came home, put her shoes on and promptly went down to the dance studio we have in our basement and practiced. Four years of ballet and I have never seen that before. The next day without any prompting from me she again put her shoes on and practiced. Yeah this is going to cost me........

That crafty Arianne.

We Hales girls cannot help our craftiness. It is not only in our DNA, it was also taught to us by our mother who was always doing some fun craft project, usually related to decorating our house. We are genetically programed to craft. End of story.

Arianne made these cute letters for Lauren and Katie to put in their rooms.
She found letters at the craft store and painted them white. She then cut the shape of the letter out of scrapbook paper, glued it on to the letter, and used a little Mod Podge to "seal the deal." She finished by embellishing the letters with flowers and ribbon. Don't worry she did not forget about Kallie, she has a set in her room too!

Kallie's new playmates

Kallie LOVED aunt Tiffany's house! There were TONS of toys, and between Lauren, Mark and Katie LOTS of action. There was never a dull moment, and Kallie was always entertained. Kallie's mommy is scared that upon return to Portland Kallie will go through withdrawal, and be even more demanding. A trip to Toys-R-Us I believe is on the agenda in the next day or two to ease the pain of vacation withdrawal.

BLACKMAIL

It is the obligation of all mothers to get naked baby bath pictures. Well I have a tub the size of a small swimming pool, so Kallie and Katie got to take a bath together. Now Katie takes a bath every morning with either Mark or Lauren or sometimes both. So she is quite used to others in the bath with her. Kallie was not entirely sure about having company, but when Katie showed her how to splash big bath tub style she got over it.




After the girls had been in for a few minutes Mark announced that he wanted to take a bath with the girls. I told him "no" that Kallie and Katie were taking a bath together. This of course did not detour Mark. He believes "no" is the beginning of negotiations. Before I knew it, he had stripped his clothes off and was nearly in the tub. As he got into the tub, Kallie began starring at his "business." You could see the wheels turning in her head that he was clearly different from her present company in the tub. Arianne and I were collapsed over with laughter, and nearly in tears.



The fascination continued on and even after he sat down. She still was checking him out. Her first biology lesson...yes boys are "different" in more ways than one...... (Note Mark's business has been appropriately edited out!)

Matchy, Matchy

For their birthdays Grandma and Grandpa Hales gave Kallie and Katie matching dresses. Again to honor my mother and not incur a curse upon my head, Arianne and I dressed them up, did their hair, and took pictures, much to the torment and sorrow of our children. Actually they probably are not old enough to realize they are being tortured by their mothers, but have you ever tried to get two one and half year olds to look at the camera at the same time? The torment and sorrow is not upon the child but rather the parent.

It was raining on Monday, and they enjoyed watching the rain from the front door step.
Kallie really wanted to get wet, and kept venturing out where rain drops could hit her.

We were going for the 1900's serious look in this picture. After all being tormented by your mothers is serious business.