Just Moments

It's official, I've put too many pictures on my blog! It literally wouldn't let me put more pictures on this post (probably cause of whatever settings are on my new camera that i still don't know how to use. yikes). Anyway....

Here we have Evan at a local park, he had a ton of fun... as usual. :)

Yes, that is snot. he he

Some cute spectators.

Here's my little Angel experiencing Mom's favorite... Air popped Pop Corn! He has NEVER witnessed mom's problem before cause I wait till he's asleep to eat it so he doesn't inturrupt my Popcorn and Ovaltine 'ceremony'. ha ha ha. So... here he is tentatively watching the corn pop then becoming THRILLED and Amazed! Not only that but he was very careful not to touch the "Hot" Popcorn but once I gave the OK, he was also good about only eating one at a time. I was careful to even let him eat it cause you can easily choke on it, especially for my little baby. He LOVED it!!!! He is the best son ever! We sat down on the couch together, eating handfuls of popcorn, drinking ovaltine and watching Yo Gabba Gabba. Does life get better than this?! giggle giggle giggle. Quite possibly the best part was the next day he ran towards the kitchen yelling... "COOOORRRNN!!", like a little corn superhero. Ahhh... I'm so lucky. :)

C.G. hangin' out in Evan's bed while he and I got him dressed for the day.




Cute smiles and faces.

Some of Evan's sad but true Evanisms: saying "WHYYYY!?" with is hands up after dropping something he shouldn't or knocking over toys (like towering blocks). Also saying "Nooo, ba baby, doan do dat!" (no, bad baby. don't do that). I promise, he's really doing something bad if I say that to him, poor little guy but I do resolve to not tell my son he is a bad baby (i didn't know i was saying that but obviously i was). :( I will however tell him something he did wrong isn't good and give a consequence. You'd have to hear him say it though, it's really funny and cute (sadly). He as also learned the dreaded word... "F A R T". yikes! I do not like saying it but I'm pretty sure I described it as something he did once and he just caught on immediately. And today... he had a lot of gas, so we had a lot of giggles. :) So, need a laugh? Come on down.

[next blog post I'm working on: Camp Nakanawa overnight]

It's about love... For corn.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Scotchmallow Rolls

Someone knows me and loves me! Thank you Steve & Kelsi (you too Kassidy!!) for hooking me up with some See's! Special delivery too. Cora says a special thank you for her outfit and the cuddles. Xoxo we've had lots of wonderful visitors this week and we want to make sure you also all know how much we love you and especially thank you for the love you're giving Evan. He's worn out every night! :)

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Milk chocolate & Butterscotch chip Cookies

Coming right up! Mmmmm.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Celebatory breakfast/lunch @ denny's

He's easily pleased my friends. :) We just signed all our paperwork.

-- Sent from my Palm Pixi

Mini Marshmallow Catching

This video is from almost 2 months ago but I don't think I posted it. I don't know why we did it but I started throwing mini marshmallows in Evans mouth. As you can see, we both loved it and so did the garbage disposal, aka Smokey. lol.

FRIDAY FIVE

Today's Friday 5 subject: Favorite Snacks....

1. POPCORN: air popped only with real (salted) butter, sprinkled with 'Vegit' seasoning.

I do not like microwave popcorn, though I will eat it, if I must. It is entirely too salty, it literally stings my tongue so that tells my brain, it isn't good for me. My parents used to have this snack almost every night and my mom would practically if not literally melt a whole stick of butter on one bowl of popcorn! They cut down on the butter eventually and are now total sell outs, eating microwave popcorn. :p yuck! (he he he)

2. OVALTINE: Don't care the flavor, original or rich chocolate. I drink it with popcorn, almost exclusively but will also drink it with the next answer (salty/sweet?).

3. SUNFLOWER Seeds: or even Pistachio nuts. I always ate S.S. as a kid with my family. Maybe cause my brothers played so much baseball and that was the baseball players snack? I don't know but, come to my parents house on an particular day and you'll see us all surrounding a bucket to put our shells in while we all have a hand full of seeds to crack open. David's are our seed of choice. My mom cracks it with her teeth but opens them with her fingers, leaving a huge mess of S.S. debre all over herself. The rest of us do all the work in our mouths. lol. ;) Another tid-bit: I can no longer drive long distances very well without feeling sleepy so IF I have to drive, I eat S.S. to keep me awake.

4. CEREAL: Lucky Charms, Trix (thank you for finally going back to circles!!!!), Pops, Honey Combs, Captain Crunch with Crunch Berry's (Kroger brand is WAY better than the original, p.s.)and maybe Fruity Pebbles sometimes. I love a bowl of junk cereal for a snack. I really can't enjoy it for breakfast anymore (but used to love any cereal for every meal if I could) so it's usually a dessert or snack. Mmmmm.

5. TWIX: or Reese's' Peanut Butter cups or Peppermint Patty. I like my Twix and P.P. refrigerated the best. :) I like to eat my Twix by cleanly biting the caramel off first then eat the cookie.

Can't wait to see Shannon's snack favorites. :)

Here are a few other notables: I LOVE sliced red apples with mild cheddar cheese slices, Nutty Buddy's?, Edy's Rocky Road Ice Cream, green grapes with whipped cream (like ready whip).

Chocolate Chess Pie Recipe

CHOCOLATE CHESS PIE
1 large OR 3 small eggs
1 stick butter
3 1/2 Tbsp cocoa
1 9in UNBAKED deep dish pie shell
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 small can evaporated milk

Preheat oven to 350. Prick the bottom and sides of the pie shell with a fork. Melt butter. Beat eggs. Add eggs and vanilla to butter. Stir in cocoa and sugar. Add evaporated milk and stir until well blended. Pour into pie shell and bake for 45 minutes.

Friday Five

Thank you Shannon for borrowing this from another. My turn :)...

This weeks "Friday Five" is 5 of your Favorite Restaurants and what do you get there.

1. OLIVE GARDEN: Calamari, Shrimp Alfredo (with Angel Hair pasta) with their salad (don't like their bread anymore). I love it! It is so delicate tasting and normally, I eat like a bird and can't finish but not only do I finish it (Evan loves to eat it all too!) but I even have room for the YUMMY YUMMY Lemon Creme Cake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am not so much a Chocolate lover but I do love sweets and the Lemon Creme Cake is light and not too tart but sweet too. YUM! Thank you O.G.!

2. QUIZNO'S: Chicken Carbanara on wheat, yes mushrooms, light bacon. I try not to drink very much soda but they are one of the few places that serve MUG root beer. MMMM..... So I ALWAYS get Mug and Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips, to go. :)

3. RUBY TUESDAY's: GARDEN BAR!!!!!! Enough said. Though... last time I went they didn't have my avocado ranch dressing that I like to drizzle over my regular ranch dressing and I admit to disappointment. But still delicious! I don't like croutons cause they always give me crunch mouth but theirs are crispy on the outside and really soft on the inside. After Evan was born, one glorious person brought us food (thanks Lauren!) and introduced us to R.T.'s Turkey burger. YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (also comes as a slider) It is so delicious! It is very juicy and full of flavor. You cannot finish it yourself and even the sliders come as four and you could share with a friend in my opinion. I have had many other of their entree's and always been happy too. Plus I really like the style changes they made a year ago or so, very... cosmo esq.

4. FAT MOE BURGER:'s Hot Wings. I know, that is weird to start naming a burger place then say it's for their Hot Wings but it's true! Mike and I ALWAYS are at odds when it comes to where we want to eat when we get a chance to eat out. On this particular occasion, he was desperately throwing out ideas of where to eat that I would like because as usual I wanted nothing to do with whatever he wanted (don't remember what it was).Also I was beyond starving, like when you haven't eaten all day and have been ravenous but now you've waited so long that you are almost numb to food now? lol. Then he dangled the thought that, you know, you love wings and Fat Moe's now has some...

I digress: Normally my favorite place for wings is HOOTERS. I love their HOT wings and don't like any others in town. I am not ashamed of Hooters or saying I like it but do get really worked up when people and especially high and mighty's *gasp* and say... "Oh my gosh! you go to 'Hooters'???" Are you kidding? Are you really offended by their UGLY-arse outfits? Let's review: fake tans, over processed hair dye jobs, drag queen make up, tight tank with an owl on it, ORANGE 80's JOGGING SHORTS!, dancers TIGHTS!!!!, scrunched 80's socks with Tennis shoes? NOT sexy to me... gag.

... Anyway, a light bulb went off when he said Hot Wings so I agreed... As I mentioned I was beyond starving so when I even just looked at the wings I 'poo pooed' them, even getting angry from lack of sustenance and pushing them away saying they were burnt. Mike felt sooooOOO bad cause he really wanted to get me food but also something I would like. I probably hurt his feelings but by then, I was an animal. lol. Anyway, Mike tried one to see how burnt they were cause in all honesty they really look like they've sat under a heat lamp for an hour after charring them. He looked at me really weird and excitedly said, "they aren't burnt! it must just be the breading/spices they use, they're actually good". I could NOT believe it till I finally tried it. They are delicious! The 'breading' is like nothing I've ever had before. It has the texture of biting a charred Marshmallow from the campfire. All cooked and crispy on the outside and gooey and tender on the inside. Weird all right but so good! I've had Hooters wings since... don't like them. Plus... I can get Fat Moe's wings in the drive thru! LOL.

5. CHICK FIL A: I get the nuggets with "Chick fil A sauce" and always ask for 2 Mayo's and 4 catsup's to mix together and make 'fry sauce' for their yummy waffle fries. Their lemonade... it has crack in it and I'm addicted (not really but I can taste it in my mouth anytime I drive by). Let us not forget their Oreo shake topped with whipped cream and a cherry! Do they know me or do they know me. (though ask my husband, it's a shocker I love an "oreo" shake as i have an aversion to Oreo's by themselves... whole other post for that). The best thing about the shake is it now comes in a medium size so you don't have to get that big huge large one. Old ladies like me can't handle that much anymore. lol.

There you go! Can't wait to see what next weeks subject is! :)

First and Second of Three Birthday Parties!

Today we had Evan's kid party and Birthday "Social". It was very casual and fun to see everyone that came. There wasn't that many but still I felt like I didnt' get to visit with everyone as much as I would have liked. Sorry guys! So... For the first hour, we had a little bitty kids party with 4 of his friends from church, 2 boys, 2 girls. We sang to Evan and had cake, which he loved of course. We visited and played. Michael got back from taking our friends, Josh, Lacey and Lincoln to the airport just in time for round 2, the group social where we played bocce, few a kite, talked ate more cake and talked some more. Evan had a lot of fun with his friends and would have liked it a lot better if the weather wasn't so cold, wet or windy so they could have got out in the grass together and rolled around. Also, he decided it was nap time when it all began so finally at around 2 he took a 30 or so minute nap. We are now exhausted and hope we get a great Sunday afternoon nap tomorrow! Enjoy the few pictures I was able to take! Next party is Wednesday on his actual birthday. More partying to be had....


Said good bye to our friends the Smiths, visiting from Texas (more on another post) and....


Off to decorate for the party! When I got there it was soOO cold and windy that I couldn't keep anything tied down. Michael had to take our friends to the airport so I attempted setting up alone. I won't attempt that again. ;)

Here's a view of my handmade 'banner' (triangle thing) and paper chain that has fallen to the ground. wah wah wah...

Kids party Guest: Simon with his Daddy and Charity in front of her daddy who's head is missing.

The kids cake was a mummy head in the middle part (the picture at Sam's was more defined, oh well, what can you do) surrounded by cupcakes, YUM! Thanks Sam's for $9.98! lol

I made his birthday hat from the sunday funny papers. ;)

Mom 'helped' Evan blow out the candle. He looks terrified! Hayden is on the left (tried to help but it was a little 'wet', lol) and Annabelle (Evan's Halloween Date) is on the right with her aunt Heather.

Big kids cake. Isn't it so cute!? I love the Fall!

Evan's fan club president, Lindsey. ;)

kids being cute.

tuckered out with daddy

The carnage.

sweet simon with his daddy.

Did I mention it was COLD out?

Look at this cute family.

Bocce fun 1

Beth the kite master.

Bocce fun 2

Aunt Tricia showing some love to Evan. He showed it back. ;)

Annabelle and Evan in his pack n' play while we cleaned up. (next time you see her on my blog it will be for Halloween, stay tuned....)

"What, young lady, do you think you are doing touching my turtle toy?! Back off girl, it's MINE!" lol

wow, this partying thing, really wears you out!

gift tornado ;) thank you's to come....

I ADMIT IT, MY FAVORITE MEAL! and other useless information for your pleasure. :)

I am not ashamed!

It is true! I love FRESHLY air popped, pop corn with about 4 tablespoons of melted real (salted) butter sprinkled with Spike "Vegit Seasoning" (at health food stores. for vegetables/'corn' or even chicken etc) then, washed down with a tall glass of Ovaltine (rich chocolate pictured or original). I could probably eat it every night for dinner and many times have (ask amber or my hubby, the have witnessed and/or participated in the insanity)

Now, for some more random facts about me: (thanks facebook for the first 25...)

1. in elementary school, i would try to put myself asleep at night, day dreaming about marrying trevor zierenberg (sorry z family but it's true. i had a crush forever), michael chattien (spell?) or tony wade, in the the Los Angeles Temple.

2. i always wanted a tattoo for some reason but my mom said if i got one she wanted to come with me. also, years later when i told my friend, 'elder stuteville', he said he wouldn't date anyone that got a tattoo. so, there you go, no tattoos.

3. more than once, i tried to sit on an unbroken Arabian horse when no one was around to save me.

4. i used to FIGHT my brother Bennett tooth and nail (literally) when we were kids. then we became best friends.

5. i always wanted to be happily married and have 6 children. still waiting for 5 more kids.

6. always wished i was a better dancer and soccer player than i was.

7. every year on my birthday that i can remember, i blew out my birthday candles wishing for a bike. obviously i never told my wish or it wouldn't come true. when i was 16 and driving, i finally spilled my secret..... i got a bike for my 17th birthday.

8. i saw a literal "glow" around my husband the first time i saw him.

9. do not like looking over the edge of something tall and with no railing.

10. i always wanted a broken bone, glasses or braces cause everyone else did and i wanted the experience and maybe attention.

11. i have never been pregnant. ;(

12. i always secretly planned to name my child after my best friend Shannon Michon (spell) Myers in some way.

13. i LOVE peeps.

14. ran away from home with a packed suitcase when i was about 7 or 8, to the bottom of the driveway(it was very long), for about 20min but came home when my mom rang the dinner bell.

15. had my first kiss on my 18th birthday, second kiss when i was 20 (all down hill from there).

16. my 2 oldest brothers used to tease me that i had really nice legs. i was flattered but it creeped me out.

17. thought i was ugly and disgusting till i was around 20, then realized i was normal.

18. i always thought I'd be an artist or an actress.

19. wish i liked school and was better at it.

20. would like to write one or more children's books one day, including at least one on adoption but would prefer a series of board books about it.

21. think i had a WONDERFUL childhood and thank every sibling, relative, friend and especially my parents for the memories.

22. my favorite chores growing up were dusting, mopping, washing windows and especially cleaning toilets.

23. i could sit outside all day in nice weather and stare up at the sky and daydream, watch birds & planes fly by, see shapes in the clouds and 'bubbles' floating in the atmosphere. i used to do that on our family's trampoline, by myself.

24. i see potential in every human being. i wish they did too.

25. i look forward to heaven, to meet my grandmother grace, be with my family, know all the secrets and especially, live with God and all he's promised me if i live worthily.

26. i'm a t.v junkie!

27. i'm a slob. michael isn't (man i love him)

28. my husband is everything i dreamed of and more, still.

29. it doesn't matter where i live if i have michael, evan and etc with me.

30. i cry EVERY time i watch the price is right. never fails.

31. showering is an inconvenience and i don't think you should be judged for being 'dirty'.

32. i HATE panty hose.

33. i would love to be a "lifestyle" photographer but first i think i need a camera for that.

34. even if i put a treat ON his lips, my dog Smokey will NOT take it till i say "o-k!".

35. i'm "passionate" and opinionated

36. i get very homesick for my family every year around february 7th.

38. i hope i live a long healthy life with lots of children.

39. i'd like a big enough house one day that i can entertain in and have a space my parents can live or visit often independently from us.

40. i'm proud of the woman i am today and who i hope to be tomorrow...

41. if asked to, i would proudly serve in the military.

42. I am the 5th of 11 (yes biological) children.

43. I was the first child to move out of my parents house for a reason besides, going on a mission or getting married. I moved to Utah to "find myself" and decided for sure to go on a mission.

44. I chose to do hair because I'm great at it and love how it makes others feel about themselves.

45. i'm a social butterfly when i'm out but if i'm home, i'd rather stay there than do anything.

46. i miss my family more than anything. people who know me the best.

47. i have built a skate board ramp before with my brother jesse.

48. i play solitare or bubble breaker on my phone every night before i go to sleep (even if i go to bed at 3 am and am dead tired).

49. i love seattle and western washington and think everyone should go there to find out for themselves why.

50. i've lived in 4 states, 2 of them twice.

51. i have picked my nose and ate it. sorry, it's true.

52. i love to watch my sons face when he's trying to poop. it's soooo cute!

53. i'd prefer to be a peace maker than a trouble maker.

54. i like to garden

55. i am very modest but have a secret desire to live on my own private nudist colony (mostly so i don't have to put clean clothes away or hang any up or have the pressure to pick an outfit for the next day)

56. i would prefer not to pump gas ever again though it is by far my favorite smell for memories sakes.

57. wish more folks would comment on my posts so i know you're out there.

58. really want to kayak this summer somehow!

59. wish i couldve met mike's dad but am glad he has a big silly family that can tell us more about him.

60. i like folk rock music the best.

and etc....

(feel free to tell us something random about yourself...)

Dinner

This was our dinner tonight. My mom made this for us growing up and as a family, we recently took it up as our own tradition.

STEAK AND SOUR CREAM

(pictured is 1/2 of the 2 servings described. Time 20min!)

2 servings Top Serloin (cube bite size/1 inch)

1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup*

8 oz Sour Cream*

Sides: Peas, Baked Potato

In large skillet on medium heat, cook serloin till it is browned on all sides and is cooking in the natural juices. cook till the meat reabsorbes the juices then add soup. When you are about to serve it, add sour cream till warm. Add extra sauce on baked potatoes or vegitables if you like.

This is sooooo delicious and I insist that you let me know if you make it and if you liked it. ;)

* yes, you can substitute these for lower calorie or no fat versions and I know it will be delicious. I'm actually planning to do that next time and possibly sub potatoes for wild rice...)

and the winner is...

vanilla ice cream, dizzle of caramel & chocolate sauce, 'twix' magic shell, light whipped cream, rainbow sprinkles, caramel & chocolate sauce drizzle again, topped with 4 cherries!! and the verdict is... PERFECTION!