taste testers

this is a terrible video...but just listen to her laugh! priceless! oh and yes, those ARE flammin' hot cheetos, and yes she did enjoy them. she is more and more like her aunt alli every day. we just hope she won't have as many boys chasing her around as alli does.

chris enjoys an occasional sardine. ok, so he has probably only bought them once or twice since i have known him. i think they are foul. he shared them with jack today for the first time and, unfortunately, jack will probably like an occasional sardine from now on too.

i bet you are all wondering what the heck we eat for dinner on a regular basis. not cheetos and not sardines. tonight we will be going to my parents and eating fillet mignon (that we purchased at costco) and sweet potatoes. we practically live at costco... and my parents :)

DINOSAURS....ARRGH!

rubble. flesh. total savagery. sounds like a scene from jerrasic park right? wrong. just everett's first birthday party!!!! the rubble was really just wrapping paper and tissue. the flesh, deli meat cut in the shape of dinos. total savagery...you guessed it, everett eating his cake! he has a dino appetite! we had so much fun celebrating with the handsome little man!

larissa did an awesome job with the cake cause it tasted even better than it looked

story time. larissa said that any one who had party hats and felt like wearing them should bring them to the party, just as a joke. well grandma and grandpa had party hats all right! unfortunately, this was the best picture that i had with the two of them in their hats.

everett had no questions on what to do with a piece of cake sitting in front of him. in fact, i dont think it even made it to his tray before he got a hold of it.

they decided to start a tradition. every year everett will take a picture wearing a shirt of bo's. we know this wont be a problem since bo has had the same clothes since 9th grade and has no plans to go shopping.



this picture was taken at our brownie sundae get-together. there were about 14 adults and 7 little ones. it ended up being a perfect night to open up all the doors and enjoy being outside. i wish we had a nicer backyard, as does chris. hmmmm maybe this summer we could have a big project ..... :)

copy cat

i know, i know. kersey just did this same thing. and yes, i want to show off my sisters talents just like she did. but why not? both of our sisters are incredibly talented and deserve a little bit of time in the spot light! rikki just put her photographs up for sale on etsy. if you want to check them out, her seller name is brownegirl. she is so amazing and i hope that everyone who views her work sees how incredible it is. in fact, how about i give you a little preview, then you won't be able to resist looking her up at http://www.brownegirl.etsy.com/

i love busy weekends!

i'm sure that if we were usually busy through out the weekend, we wouldn't be too excited about having things to do. but usually our weekends consist of the same things over and over again, week after week....which is just a continuation of the rest of the week when i think about it. but this weekend we have two really fun things that we are looking forward to. first and, yeah, the more exciting of the two, is EVERETT"S BIRTHDAY!!!! i can't believe he is 1. that means ellie is almost 1. YIKES!!!! even though it has been a very difficult and challenging year for me, i feel as though we have been so blessed to have little ellie with us. when she is happy, she is VERY happy. and all of her colic and screams the first 4 months have almost been cleared from my memory. ok, i take that last sentence back. but she is so sweet when she wants to be. i made a very cute toy for the little everett man for tomorrow's party. its a snake made out of some scrap materials i had from various projects. the majority of it is made of a turquoise satin that i used to make a skirt for ellie out of. it's soooo silky soft. the tail is filled with a few jingle bells and covered with stuffing so it's not too loud...i kept larissa in mind with that! he is having a dinosaur themed party, so i'll be sure to take a TON of pictures!

the tongue is made of felt. i should have doubled it and then stitched around the whole thing in order to make sure it would last. i'm sure it's going to be ripped off within seconds. oh well.

and our second fun thing planned this weekend is a brownie sundae party that we are having. we have invited a few families (11) over from our ward. most of them are new within the past few months so we thought instead of having them over individually for dinner, it would be easier to get it all out of the way with one get together. this obviously means i don't have to clean the house as many times AND dessert is a lot cheaper than dinner too! it should be a lot of fun, probably crazy with all of the little ones running around, but fun none the less. i made some pretty cute invitations for it, which is my favorite part of hosting a party as you all know. i'll make sure to let you know how it goes.

20 cent tacos!!!

yup, you heard right! tacos are only 20 cents at taco bell today! jack ate his first soft taco and enjoyed it immensely! after taking these pictures chris and i couldn't help but laugh. we'll just say we happened to catch jack at a bad moment...for every picture we took during his first taco experience :)

definitely not the most flattering picture!

freakin' frigid!

CAUTION: this post contains many pictures and stories!

so as most of you know i had the honor of traveling to utah for the weekend. it was soooo stinkin' cold!but it was well worth freezing my buns off to spend time with my girlfriends. i arrived on thursday night and stayed at rikki's house. her roomate michelle is so kind to let any of us stay there when we are visiting. carrie and rikki picked me up from the airport and it was so awesome catching up. needless to say, as with all 4 nights i was there, i didnt get much sleep! well friday was miss millers birthday!! wahoo 24! we met up with kersey for lunch. i havent seen kerz since the wedding and she is the most beautiful pregnant woman i have ever seen. she's truly got that glow! well she surprised carrie by taking us to tucano's brazilian grill. it was awesome!!!! i even loved the beef brisket. so after that we hung out with rik for a bit at work and then went to a big birthday bash at chilli's. we just ate dessert because of our lunch :) then we ditched everybody and went back to carries and watched "dirty rotten scoundrels". so fun. saturday morning we ran errands for the baby shower which started at 11. carrie miller was the winner of all the games, go figure! it was a beautiful shower with a great turn-out & tons of food. i loved seeing terry (kerseys mom) and brooke (kerseys sister). brookes little ones are so dang cute! especially ella. she is a month younger then ellie and made me quite homesick for my babies. afterwards we ate jdawgs and it was even better then i remember!!! so sweet. so juicy. so right. then we went shopping!!! i have missed shopping with my friends because its never a boring stop in a store. we always find things to make us laugh. anyways. so then we were all hungry again and decided to go to applebee's. this brings back many a memory! so then on sunday i went to church with carrie miller who attends a singles ward and was hit on by an interesting apex boy. it was so awkward!!! then carrie and i went and visited ali and desi in spanish fork. i can not believe how much their kids have grown up! so much can happen in a year! then rikki made us dinner, it was the best frozen pizza i have ever had. afterwards i had to say goodbye to kersey & preston and carrie miller, which was very difficult. monday morning at 5, rikki took me to the airport and i was on my way as fast as it all started! it was hard not having enough time to visit all of our friends from provo. my favorite part of the trip was being able to reminisce with my best of friends and laugh till my cheeks felt numb! what could be better then spending hours with your friends, laughing uncontrollably, and eating till you want to throw-up? i had the time of my life this weekend and it was all possible because of my christopher. i missed him so very much, but truly appreciated his willingness to let me have a break from my usual routine. he is the best husband and friend in the world!

chef jack

today's menu:

jack's blob cookie

this young chef has been enjoying time in the kitchen the past weekend. he really enjoys stirring together messy stuff. especially if there is food coloring involved. usually i just start adding a bunch of random things to his mixture. mostly aromatic things like cinnamon. but today i decided to add stuff that could actually make some thing and thats what he did, he made some thing. he actually took a few bites and enjoyed it! the part he absolutely can not stand is the clean up. having it taken away is so painful. he would play all day at the table with his gooey mess if i let him.

just a side note- edible glitter shouldnt be edible. it tastes horrible!

etsy envy

so i have recently had my eyes opened to the pure amazement of the world of http://www.etsy.com/ . it is truly incredible. at first, when i looked through the endless amounts of handmade handicrafts i was feeling a little bit depressed by all of the amazing talents that people have and are actually putting to use. i picked out a bunch of things that i thought " i wish i could make that...and that...ooh and that". well, last night while feeding the baby a bottle before bed i had an epiphany. i thought "why cant i make those things. i need to stop wishing and start making". the reason why all those awesome things are on the web is because those people practiced making something and developed their talent well enough so they can actually try selling it. so i have decided to begin practicing making half-length aprons. i am truly terrible at the sewing machine, but it's something that i enjoy. i dont intend on doing anything with them except maybe giving them as gifts, but it will be a good way for me to practice. while trying to fall asleep last night, my mind was zooming at a thousand miles per hour. so many ideas flashed across my brain. it will be interesting (and probably hilarious) to see if my hands will be able to accomplish what my mind is thinking. keep your fingers crossed.

this is just a sampling of the things i like on etsy. i realize the whole point to this website is to support artists and their creations, but i dont think there is anything wrong in being inspired by them to create my own "works of art".... at least i hope not :)