Oh So Allie!

Allie is always saying the silliest things! Here are a couple from this week...

Allie: Estefan are you using my imagination?

Estefan: Ah, yeah

Allie: Then will you please give it back!

Allie: MOM! Markie is trying to kill me!

Me: What?!

Allie: He keeps taking my toys. He's trying to kill me!

Me: You mean he's killing you?

Allie: No! He's trying to kill me! (Ugh!)

Me: Allie will you make sure Mark is good while I go stir dinner?

Allie: But its not Christmas?

Me: What?

Allie: It is not Christmas mom.

Me: Well you still have to be good even when its not Christmas.

Allie: Yeah but daddy bought me toys

Me: Because you were good at Christmas, so will you be good now?

Allie: Um.. I guess so (little eyeroll included!)

I'm SO Excited!!!!

Last night a member of our Bishopric came over to visit. Scary! House call! What could he want us to do??!! Well meet the new...

Lauren, Ashley and Heather ~ Girls Camp 2004

Assistant Girls Camp Director

That's right. I get to help plan and go to girls camp this year. I was so excited when I got the call. I went for 7 years as a Young Woman. My last year I got to be with my two little sisters and it was great! This year could be my baby sister Heater's last year and we get to be together again! YAY!

Another reason I'm excited today...

I'm finally figuring out Photoshop!

This is called color isolation. I love it. Its actually really easy and it looks so neat!

This one is called a Montage layout. Where you take a couple different pictures and blend them into one layout. It was really fun too. And if you notice at the top of the layout I got the text to arch. That is called text on a path! Yeah.. I'm awesome! Actually not me I love this site http://www.digiscrappingtutorials.com/

It helps a lot with tons of cool stuff! If you are a digital scrapbooker go check it out! I'm just getting started in my digi-career and I feel way better about it after playing in some of those tutorials!

And my last reason to be excited today...

ITS FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!! WAHOO!!!!

Afternoon Adventures

Yesterday our family went to the reservoir to go canoeing. I didn't feel safe taking Mark in the canoe and Estefan just wanted to explore so it ended up that just Allie and Dustin actually canoed - but we all had fun!!

Our Family

Estefan throwing rocks in the water. He loves exploring and had lots of fun finding "diamonds" on the beach!


Mark just learned how to clap his hands! He gets so excited and claps and claps (until I try to video it and then he stops!!)

Allie and Dustin in the canoe

~~~~~~~~~

Later Dustin and Estefan went out by themselves so they could be "wild and crazy!"
Estefan

It was a beautiful day yesterday! Hope you all enjoed it as much as we did!!

Dustin's Reward

Dustin took these pictures the other day out on the Mesa. I think they are great!!

Dustin is really getting into photography. We have a small Kodak digital camera and it works great but Dustin would love to get a Canon Rebel. They are a little (A LOT) expensive so I made a deal with him... if he quit drinking Coke then I would get him one as a reward. Well I never thought he'd be able to do it. Man, was I wrong!! He hasn't had one Coke today! Not ONE! NOT ONE!! Dustin is a 6 pack or more a day Coke drinker and he hasn't had ONE Coke today.

I guess I'm gonna be doing some fund raising. Um.. car wash at my house... does anybody need any cleaning done??!!

Baby Steps

Mark had his 9 month well baby check up today. He's almost 10 months now.. better late than never, right?! He only had to get one shot, the second half of the flu vaccine. Other than that he is big and healthy. I was surprised because they had him stand on the adult scale and then stand against the wall to be measured!! I guess he's not a baby any more!

He weighed 22 lbs 8 oz and was 2 ft 5 1/2 in.

And Mark is starting to walk!

This isn't the best video. But like always when the camera comes out he just wants to eat it and stops performing. He took his first real steps when I was at Bunko the other night and I missed it! So I made him walk for me! He perfers crawling but I'm sure he'll be crusing all over soon!

Equation for FUN!

12 girls

+

9 dice

+

100 M&Ms

+

1 sheet of fruit pizza

+

1 false rumor

+

a couple true rumors

(what happens at Bunko, stays at Bunko!)

/

3 tables

*

2 hours

=

BUNKO!!!

Thanks for hosting a fun night Tessa!

Next month - Ugly Sweater Party hosted by Melissa!

Cottonwood Canyon

Dustin and Jack and Stan (our dads) went out on a ride yesterday to Cottonwood Canyon.

Here are some of my favorite pictures they took...

Butch and Sundance

Outlaws and Inlaws!

Flashback Friday

Dustin backed up all our pictures the other day and while he was copying them over we looked through a bunch. I was enjoying my trip down memory lane so much I thought I'd do a

FLASHBACK FRIDAY!!

This is winter 2006 in Reno

Gaye, Me, Dustin, Brian, Jill and Jack

I think we were at Mt. Rose but I don't remember. I do remember it was really cold!!

Jack and Baby Allie crying :(

Dustin and Bud
Estefan was so little! He is 3 1/2 in this picture.

Me and Baby Allie.
This was her first time out in the snow!

Crazy how the temperature is so different from one end of the state to the other. Today it was 65* here! I miss the Reno snow but I love the warmth of the valley!

A New Addition...

To my kitchen!!!

Yesterday I got a new toy!

A Kitchenaid Mixer!!!!

Oh the possibilities!

Bread Kneading

Noodles Making

Grain Grinding

Sausage Stuffing

Can Opening

Juice Juicing

Fruit/Vegi Straining

Ice Cream Making

Food Slicing

and I'm sure lots more! The list of attachments is five pages long! Now I've just got to come up with a small fortune to buy them ALL!

OH LET THE FUN BEGIN!!!

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

I've been meaning to blog about this book for a while. I got The Tales of Beedle the Bard for Christmas for myself. I was so excited when it finally came out!

It is a compilation of five short stories written by Beedle and translated from ancient runes by Hermione Granger. The stories are similar to Muggle (non-magical) fairy tales. My favorite part is the commentary at the end of each story by Dumbledore himself! If you loved the Harry Potter series you'll love this book. Plus from every book sold Scholastic gives all the net proceeds to the Children's High Level Group, a children's charity. So not only is it a fun book but by buying it you're helping many children!

And I finished The Half-Blood Prince last night. I loved it as much this time as I did the first. I can't wait for the movie to come out!!

Meat Loaf

I love blogging for many reasons and one of the best is everybody shares their yummy recipes!

I was just going to post my delicious Meat Loaf recipe when I came across my friend Lara's new blog- Managable Meals! Also Torrey's Kitchen is great for yummy and fun recipes. Check em out!

We had this last night! Dustin loves it and took the half we didn't eat with him to work today!

Meat Loaf Recipe from Catherine Brown :)

What you'll need for the loaf:

• 2 beaten eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2/3 cup dry bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 2 tbs snipped parsley
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp dried sage, basil or oregano (I put a little of all of em!)
• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef

What you'll need for the yummy sauce:

I usually double or even triple this cuz its so good!

• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 1 tsp dry mustard

1) in a bowl combine eggs and milk, stir in bread crumbs, onions, parsley, salt, sage & a dash of pepper.

2) add meat and mix well

3) lightly pat mixture into an 8x4x2 inch loaf pan

4) bake at 350* for an hour

5) combine ketchup, sugar and mustard

6) spoon fat of the top and spread sauce over the meat loaf. Bake for 10 more minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving

HAPPY EATING!!!

WHY?!

Our neighbors, the Bledsoe's, just moved to a new house. Today Allie and Estefan wanted to go play in "the other Allie's" playhouse. I told them they couldn't go over there, because nobody lives there any more. So ensued a flood of inquiries...


Where did they go?
Why did they move to a new house?
Who lives there now?
Why don't they like their house any more?
Why doesn't anybody want to live there?
Why don't we get a new house?
Are they coming back?
When can I play at her house again?
Who builds the houses?
Can I build a house?
Can we make our tree house bigger?
Can I paint my room gold?


Some days I'm really glad Mark can't talk.

My Baby Girl

My Baby Girl

isn't a baby anymore!

She is a

SUNBEAM!!!

Today was Allie's first day of Sunbeams. Dustin and I got called to teach the CTR 7 class so we get to see her in primary during singing time. She did so good. She sat there reverently and sang when she was supposed too. She even turned around every now and then and waved at me. I can't believe she's a SUNBEAM! Before I know it she'll be in Young Womens! Can I just freeze time?!

New Year's Trip

For New Years day Dustin and I decided to take a trip without the kids. It was really weird not to have to worry about diapers and bottles and toys! We had lots of fun and did some hiking (something we could not have done easily with the kids!)

We went to Gold Butte again. Close by where we went on Allie's birthday.

Dustin made me climb and jump and be crazy!

I'm taking my time trying not to fall off the cliff (just kidding, we were safe!)

Dustin took this picture. He's becoming quite the photographer. I thought this tree was pretty cool.

Our view as we hiked

We made it to the top!

Dustin on the edge of the world!

Me looking down over the valley

Dustin being artistic again. I don't know how this rock got to look this way but it was really neat and picture worthy!

We even found some snow. Most of it had melted away but this little patch made the hike down interesting. Two seconds after this picture was taken I slipped and fell on my bum and slid down the entire rest of the way! Dustin was sliding on purpose. I wish I had the camera so I could've videoed it! He's so fun and crazy!

The hike took us about an hour to complete. It was fun. But lead me to my New Year's goal: Get in shape!!! That is my goal every year. Maybe this year I actually will.. I can hope!



And of course when ever we go out we have to have some kind of drama to make the trip a little more interesting. This time was no different...

On the way home the check gauges light came on and the oil pressure dropped to ZERO! Dustin quickly pulled over and shut off the engine. Sure enough, when he checked the oil it was completely out! Upon further inspection Dustin discovered that an oil line from the cooler... (I have no idea what I'm talking about, ask Dustin for the real details!)... anyway a line had come loose and the truck's oil was everywhere! Apparently the bumpy wash boards called roads shook the line loose. Luckily it was only that and not the oil pump. Jill saved us and brought us out some oil. Thank goodness we were in cell range!!


Our trip was a great way to start the New Year.
Happy New Year everybody!!