It's A Good Thing She's Cute!

Miss Kendra tries my patience everyday.  I am so thankful for moments of cuteness like these that help me stay sane!  For instance, when she's in a 'mood,' I sometimes try to distract her with singing a song.  Well, these days every song is 'her song.'  Meaning, I can't sing "Popcon Popping" or "Wheels On The Bus," because she says, "No Mommy, that's MY song."  I try to sing "I Love You So Much" or "It's Time To Go Night-Night," at bedtime and am sternly told, "You no sing it, that MY song!" 

She pretty much HAS to have her "elfant gigi" which translates to elephant blanket at nap and bedtimes.  For some reason, a blanket has been called a gigi since she started talking and she's not giving up that word anytime soon.

She is very much in the "that's mine" stage now and the other day I picked a little booger out of her tiny nostril. She got mad and furrowed her eyebrows at me and said, "No, that mine. You div it back righ now!" So, what was I to do.... (sigh)

Aside from being a stinker, she can count to 13 unassisted, make awesome animal noises, leads the music each week for Family Home Evening, which means we end up singing Popcorn Popping and Sunbeam EVERY week, pretends to be a dinosaur-monkey, loves watching Dora and yelling at Swiper, as if she's really going to alert Dora and Boots to his mischief!  I mean, hasn't Swiper been stealing stuff for years, Dora still doesn't get it, sorry Kendra, thanks for trying to help the girl out though.

 
She loves giving hugs and kisses, especially when I'm trying to get upset with her, because somehow she has learned that smothering mommy with kisses keeps you from getting any sort of punishment.

I just love my little girl!

Peanut Butter Cup Trifle

So, I etched this beautiful trifle bowl at a Relief Society activity and finally found a dessert to use it for!

My dad's birthday was last week and Trent and I went out to dinner with my parents to Applebee's and then came home to this beauty.  I will DEFINITELY make this again!  I melded a few recipes together and came up with my own.  I've had something similar with Heath bar toffee pieces, but know my dad's love for Peanut Butter, thus, this beauty was born.

Peanut Butter Cup Trifle

1 tub Cool Whip
1 small box vanilla pudding
1 9x13 size batch of brownies, baked, cooled, broken into 1" pieces
1/2-1 Cup peanut butter, crunchy or creamy (I used crunchy!)
20 Peanut Butter Cups, give or take!  Cut up in small pieces

Bake brownies, cut up into bite size pieces.  Mix pudding with milk and whisk together, add peanut butter(I added close to 1 full cup, I really wanted that peanut buttery taste!) and whisk it into the pudding and chill in the fridge. 

Layer the brownie pieces, chopped p.b. cups, p.b. pudding mixture, Cool Whip, then layer again and end with Cool Whip on top and garnish with more cut up p.b. cups.  So easy, sooo delicious!  Trust me on this one, try it!!

How could something not be good that looks like this on top?!  Warning: not diet friendly.  Don't blame me when the number on the scale bounces up in the morning.

Our St. Patrick's Day Fun!

Family all dressed in green!

Our little favors for our friends that came over to party.  Each kid got a bag of Lucky Charms that said, "We are so lucky to have you for a friend!" 

I made these shirts and was pretty darn proud of myself for coming up with this idea I must say.  I traced a shamrock onto muslin with a disappearing ink pen that all came out in the wash.  I pinned it on the shirt where I wanted and simply sewed along the line I had drawn.  I cut around the shamrock leaving about a 1/4"-1/2" of fabric on either side of the line I sewed and then threw the shirt in the wash.

When it came out, it had exactly the frayed look I was going for, I loved it!

The shirt was only $3 from Wal-Mart and all the fabric for the 3 shirts was like 50 cents, so these turned out cute and cheap!  And I was just happy to come up with an idea on my own.

My model just wanted to jump around, then she ran to the kitchen and did this...

She told me she was a dinosaur monkey as she was swinging from the counter.  If you were wondering, a dinosaur monkey makes a noise kind of like, "Rawwrrr--ooh--ooh-aah-ahh!"  Pretty darn funny.

We invited friends over for a totally green dinner.  We had pesto pasta, green salad, green fluff jell-o salad, kiwis, and I died the butter green before brushing it on the bread and baking it.  In the glasses, we had Sprite and a scoop of lime sherbet making the green concoction a very tasty treat.  The kids loved it! 

After dinner came the entertainment!  I sooo wish we'd have gotten this on video!!  The kids practiced their Irish dancing moves and then performed for the parents.  I turned on some Riverdance type music and the big kids did their Irish jig first while the younger kids clapped for them in the back row.  It was soo cute!  Mikayla and Bryant stole the show with their partner dance, it looked quite rehearsed and they really hammed it up for us.

The younger girls went next and their wasn't much jigging, but a whole lot of booty shaking and jumping up and down.  Definitley a fun tradition to do each year!

After playing some Hot Potato and Top 'O The Mornin' To You, we calmed things down with coloring pages.  It was amazingly nice and quiet and calm and... why didn't I pull out the coloring pages sooner?!?!  haha  Bought us some time to clean up dinner and get dessert ready though!

We of course had rainbow cake for dessert-a family tradition for St. Patrick's Day.  The girls love watching me make it and mixing all the pretty colors to dye the batter.  It always looks so cool after it's cut too.  We had a very fun night with our friends, the Lesihmans and the Waltons and look forward to more fun next year!

Tay my pisher!

Before church the other day: "Mama, tay my pisher, I 'mile!"  Of course!!!

Valentine's Day

 The girls all decked out for the holiday.  Kendra actually had cute pink sparkly ballet flats on earlier that day and for some reason wanted clunky Pooh shoes on later, oh well.  She went with me to help with Mikayla's class party and the kids loved her and she LOVED the attention and hammed it for them, saying at one point, "I funny!  I coot!" and then shook her booty for them to make them laugh even harder. 

 Ummm, the start of some really weird faces...

 A little sister love!

 I made a sign and hung it in the shower attached to a bag of Hershey's hugs and kisses that said, "Now that I've 'showered' you with 'hugs and kisses' will you..."  and then I wrote "Be Mine!" on the wall with the girls' bath crayons.  Their may or may not have been other messages written that I choose not to repeat here.  So, when I got home from teaching my BodyPump class at the gym that night, I found this...

 a hot bath with rose petals everywhere, sparkling strawberry lemonade, a card, and roses!  What a surprise!  The girls actually saw Trent bringing up the flowers and drink before they went to bed, so he told them his Valentine's gift to me was a nice hot bath after teaching at the gym.  They said they really wanted a picture of how surprised I was to be able to take a bath all by myself, so here's me looking surprised to show them the next morning!

Sweaty and everything--Happy Valentine's Day!  Since I knew I'd be teaching that night, we actually celebrated with the girls the night before and I made Macaroni Grill's Penne Rustica with a marsala wine sauce and chicken and shrimp and Applebee's white blondie brownie with maple butter sauce for dessert--this is the reason I have to go to the gym so much people!!

Oh Megan...

After doing Megan's hair to her specifications, she looked in the bathroom mirror and smiled and said, "Wow, I look so cute.  It's like I don't even belong in this family!"

Eureka! I found it!

This recipe is every bit as good as its name and I couldn't be happier!!!  As another case in point of what a blog hopping stalker I am, I found THE best cookie recipe while reading the blog of the sister of a friend from college.  Almost said an "old college friend" but then that would imply that I too am old, and hey, let's not jump the gun, the big 3-0 is still a few months away--sigh...  So, while I have a raspy-voiced toddler running around and a 7 yr old with a 104 degree fever sacked out on the couch, I find myself cooped up inside and well, bored.

 Sooo, I decided to try this recipe and though I am always skeptical of recipes claiming to be "the best one ever" or "the last you'll try" or "good enough you'd trade your firstborn for" I thought, why not?  Heck, this week I may just trade my third-born for these cookies--yes, they are THAT good and she has been trying me THAT much.  :)

   Soooo, here you go!  When you try these tonight and your pants don't fit tomorrow, you can thank me.  Yes, you need to use real butter, suck it up and pay the extra buck for the butter, they're worth it.  Follow this recipe to a 'T' (whatever the heck that means) and take these suckers out of the oven when the edges are slightly brownish-tan, they'll continue baking as they cool to a gooey-chipped, slightly chewy, yumminess.    You're welcome.

The Last Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe You'll Ever TryFrom America's Test Kitchen

2 cups plus 2 T. flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
12 T. (1 1/2 sticks) butter, melted and cooled
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 egg yolk (when I double the recipe I do 3 eggs instead of 2 and 2 yolks... it's up to you)
2 t. vanilla
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large bowl, beat the melted butter and sugars together with an electric mixer (or stand mixer) on medium speed until smooth, 1-2 minutes. Beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined.

Reduce the speed to low and slowly add half the flour, the salt and baking soda.  Mix in the chips until incorporated. Working with 2 tablespoons of dough at a time, roll them into a ball and place them on a cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake the cookies until the edges are set and beginning to brown but the middles are still soft and puffy, around 15 minutes.(don't go by this, just watch them closely and as the edges start to turn tan, pull those puppies out!)

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet and then transfer to a wire rack to let cool completely.  I dare you not to eat one before they're cooled completely!  Impossible.

Oh my.

Overheard a conversation the big girls were having while brushing their hair in the bathroom.  It went like this...

Mikayla:  You know, Megan, I didn't start caring about how I dressed or how my hair looked until I was about 6 or 7.  So, you probably will too in a few years.

Megan: Yeah, I know.  It just hurts to brush my hair.

Mikayla:  I know, Megan, but sometimes it hurts to look beautiful.  You'll see, just wait till you grow up.

...insert raised eyebrows and stifled laughter from Mom here...

Mamacita?

I dropped Megan off at preschool in my sweats and then ran home and showered, straightened my hair, makeup, heels, the whole works.

 Came back to pick her up and she says, "Wowee!  lookin' good Mamacita!  Oh baby!  You should look like this everyday!" 

Haha, I was cracking up and so was her preschool teacher.

Pump It!

So, I've been teaching Body Pump for over a month now, 21 classes to be exact.  I LOVE it!  I love feeling strong, I love lifting weights and fatiguing my muscles and I love getting to know so many more names and faces and people at the gym.

I read recently that less than 13% of US women regularly lift weights.  What the what?!  Why the heck not?!  This has got to change!  Strength lifting is one of THE best things you can do for your body.  It's all about lean muscle mass gains which help you burn more calories at rest meaning you can EAT MORE food!  So why don't more women lift?  Many women feel they will bulk up and get big muscles.  Not so my friend.  We can easily burn fat and build lean muscle without actually bulking up and getting "bigger."

Strength training has given me definition in my shoulders and arms that I am in love with.  Shoulders, who woulda thought huh?  Weird thing to like on your body, but it's true.  I have increased how much weight I can lift in the past couple of months and shh, don't tell anyone, but I lift as much or more as all the guys in my classes.  Yeah baby.

Mostly, I strength train because it is fun.  We have fabulous upbeat music that I get to sing to, shake my hips to and lift to and it drives the workout.  Teaching Body Pump has challenged my body and mind like never before.  I get nearly breathless and sweat a ton as I push my body to eke out just a few more reps.  We're talking squatting for almost 6 minutes and lunging for 5 minutes so yeah, sometimes those last few reps are a  doozy!  I have to know my technique, form, number of reps, tempo of move, and range of motion of the barbell.  It's a LOT to learn and remember, but so fun!

If you have a chance to attend a Body Pump class at a gym near you, do it!  Then let me know how you liked it!  Don't be afraid to lift heavy!

Sassy Silly Sweetie

Kendra talks so much now, I am really loving spending time with her.  She cracks me up everyday!

For instance:
We pull into a parking lot and I helped Megan out of the van and immdiately Kendra throws her arms in the air and says, "Hey, what about me?!"

We were driving and I said, "I have to go potty really bad!"  Kendra says, "Jus hode it Mommy, you be ok, we ah-mos der!"  Wonder where she's heard that before?

She is my only 2 yr old that always wants her hair done.  She doesn't like it to be in her face and constantly asks for a "bow."  Sometimes she even wakes up out of her sleep at night asking for a bow, ridiculous!

At Christmastime I heard her singing, "Jingo Bells, Bamman mells, yobin yays a egg...Jingo Bells..."  Thank you to the older siblings for that one.  She would sing it and I would say, "Hey!" and she'd laugh and laugh and laugh!  She is one funny kid.

Okay, how cute are these shoes?  Adorable, right?  You can't tell but the gems on the toes really sparkle, so fun!

Disclaimer: she picked this outfit head to toe!

Rockin a Nike sweatsuit.

 She throws her head back to say "Nay!" while rides around the house.

Her newest thing is to mismatch her shoes.  She insists on them being different and it makes everyone laugh when we go out, but she loves it.

Ah Kendra, you're a keeper!

Girls' Fashion Show

 I love that Kendra is now starting to enjoy playing dress-up with her sisters, but her shoes never match!  haha