I have an idea!!!

Okay....so everyday, around 2 or 3 I start stressing about what to make for dinner. On the days that I don't plan ahead it's a big headache. I like to have a lot of variety so that my family doesn't get tired of the same old same old. So....I was thinking.....starting tomorrow, because today is too hectic, that Iwould post what I was making for dinner along with the recipe. Then anyone that reads this and struggles with the same thing can put the recipe of what they are making for dinner on their blog. Just leave me a comment that you are going to participate so I know to look. That way you will also be able to see in my comments who else has done it, and then the same thing goes for the comments on your blog. Good idea right? Maybe I am the only one with this dilemma but I doubt it. It will be fun!

Snow day!!!

We woke up to a ton of snow today. Aidan was thrilled! I was not. The truth is, I really don't like the snow. I don't like scraping my windows, shoveling my walks, and having wet pants around my ankles. I know, I know, I am a party pooper. Anyway...yesterday I spent about an hour and a half looking through old pictures of the kids. I found myself feeling really sad that they have grown so fast. I really can't believe how fast time flies. I told myself yesterday that I was going to spend as much time as possible watching them grow and appreciating all the little things. So when Aidan started begging me early this morning to take him outside to play, I fought the urge to say no. I really just wanted to stay inside my warm house in my pajamas all day. I did end up taking him out when Baylee went down for a nap. It was still snowing and his buddy Riley came and played too so he had a blast. We were out there for well over an hour and that was just because we had to come in for lunch and to get ready for preschool. As much as I dislike the snow it was a lot of fun, and I got a lot of great pictures.

Snowbird and Halloween

Last week was very busy for us, but so much fun! Every year, the last week in October, Barry's family gathers and spends a full week together at Snowbird. His parents own five condos at a resort and his family has been going for thirty one years now. It is such a neat tradition and we look forward to it each year. It is so much fun to spend so much time with the family and to be able to do so many fun things for a whole week so close to home. There are a ton of planned activities by the recreation team, and any time that isn't planned out we fill with swimming hiking and playing at the playground. It was such beautiful weather this time which is a little unusual so we took full advantage of it and spent a lot of time outside. Baylee could have walked around and explored for hours each day, and Aidan loved the playground and swimming. Aidan also got to decorate a fun shirt, do some string art, and play bingo. We had a family halloween party and had a pinata, yummy food, and a donut on a string eating contest. Things are getting more and more crowded. On any given day there is about 30 people there at one time. We eat all the dinners together (in one room, lol) which can make things a little hectic, but fun. There are 18 grankids (all but 3 came), and 7 great grandkids (all but 2 came). There were six babies age 21 months and younger there all week. It was so fun to watch them all play together (and fight). We came home Friday so that we could trick or treat in our neighborhood. The kids had a blast. Our neighborhood was so busy with trick or treaters and I loved it. The weather was perfect, the kids were adorable, and it was an awesome Halloween. I took over three hundred pictures over the last week so I cut it way down but here is a brief overview of some of our happenings. Sorry this took so long dad!
Baylee had to stop and pick up every leaf along this path that we were walking on. She loved exploring and collecting leaves, and pinecones.

We rode the tram up to the top of the mountain the first day we got there. Baylee was content to play with the dirt which was good because I was nervous about the steep cliffs. She seriously loves being outside.

Barry was showing Aidan some of his favorites snowboarding trails. I love watching these two when they don't know I am around. They are such good buddies.

Baylee and Barry watching Aidan bounce on the tramp-bungy thing. She wanted to jump so bad.

Baylee going for a little drive. She had so much fun at the playground. We were there for hours this day.

The girl can climb. I am not kidding. It's a little scary. She will climb on anything and everything and loves to jump from the top. She shakes her fingers and says "Two, Two, do!" and jumps. If you hear those words you need to get ready cause she is going. lol

This is a little hut that the kids discovered. Aidan had a gret time playing "the drums" and Baylee has to do everything her big brother does.

So cute.....she wasn't cooperating too well, but I still thinks it's adorable.

This is the donut eating contest. Aidan thought this was awesome! Baylee took a while to figure out what was going on, but finished the donut in record time.

This is the shirt that Aidan decorated. He had all of the family sign there name on the back and I think it will be a fun reminder for him.

This is a few of the kids getting ready for the parade. Aidan, Cayden, Baylee, and Kyler. There were a few more of our family babies there but getting all 7 of them in the picture wasn't happening. lol

Little Red Riding Hood and Buzz Lightyear right before we left to go trick or treating. I thought they both looked really stinking cute!

Mess after mess after mess

So......keeping my house clean is a daily struggle. I spend a lot of time every single day cleaning. Usually I get my kitchen and front room (where we spend most of our time) done first and I am very lucky to get anything else done. It's not because my house is huge, it's not because I am a slow cleaner. It's because I usually have one kid going ahead of me and making a mess, and then another going right behind me making a mess. I really don't know if I will ever figure out how to keep my whole house clean. Especially because Baylee is my destructo! She loves to empty out the bottom of all of our dresser drawers and spread the clothes all over the place. She also likes to get all the tupperware out of the kitchen cabinet. So I decided to document a few examples of my problem the other day while I was cleaning. This day was especially bad because of the magnitude of the messes they made. I was working on some stuff downstairs and heard a bunch of noise in Aidan's room. I didn't go check because at my house noise isn't out of the ordinary. It's when the kids are quiet that I worry. Anyway, After a half an our or so I went upstairs to see what Aidan was up too. Apparently he got a wild hair and decided it was time to reorganize the furniture. I can't accurately describe the mess so see the pictures below. Then after cleaning his room and the rest of the upstairs I came walking downstairs and smelled season salt lie crazy. It was then that I learned that Baylee couln not only reach the spice drawer but also open bottles. Yeah! The pictures are just a small example of some of my surprises each day. Just in case any of you ever come over to my house and it's a mess, it's not because I don't care or try.....it's because I have two cute little monsters!

Here are my two monsters in the morning watching cartoons together. They look so sweet. I am pretty sure they are secretly planning how to cause trouble though, as soon as I walk away.

So here was my first surprise. Does he look remorseful to you?

Believe it or not it actually looks a little better than when I first saw it. I couldn't actually open the door because the mattress was in front of it. I seriously just stood there and tried to take in what I was seeing.

The finished project. I don't know why he was so set on moving his furniture but it turned out okay. I won't be as accomodating next time though!

And here is what Baylee added to the mayhem. She decided to spread papers all over and sprinkle them all with a little seasoning.

I had made a few cards earlier and left my tote out. It was covered. The worst part is that I am out of vacuum bags so now every time I vacuum it reaks like season salt. Ugh!!

Husband Tag

1. Where did you meet your husband? At Murphy's, on St. Patricks Day.

2. How long did you date before you got married? A long time, about 3and 1/2 years.

3. How long have you been married? It was two years last August.

4. What does he do to surprise you? I know this is suppose to be about the cute little things he does when I am not epecting (which he does) but it is way more common for him to scare me, then surprise me. He probably does it daily, and I scream like a baby each and every time.

5. What is your favorite feature? His eyes.

6. What is your favorite quality? He is amazingly motivated and dedicated. He is studying for some new certifications and spends endless hours studying and working to better himself in his career.

7. Does he have a nickname for you? he calls me babes

8. What is his favorite food? Anykind of meat, Salmon, and cookies! He is extremely picky about veggies though and that drives me nuts!

9. What is his favorite sport? He's not really into sports. He loves to Mountain Bike and Snowboard though.

10. When & where was your first kiss? At my house.

11. What is your favorite thing to do as a couple? Anytime we get to just spend time as a couple we have fun. We usually just go to dinner or a movie though.

12. Do you have any children?Yep, Aidan is four and Baylee is 15 months.

13. Does he have any hidden talents? The first thing that comes to mind is that he can make this crazy bobcat sound. He loves to do it when we are camping or at Lake Powell and it always freaks people out.

14. How old is he? He is 38.

15. Who said I love you first? He did.

16. What is his favorite music? Country

17. What do you admire most about him? That he is such an amazing dad and such a hard worker. He is constantly trying to o better for is family.

18. What is his favorite color? Blue or green

9. Will he read this? Not unless I pull it up and show it to him

Who do you tag? Emily, Lori, Lindsay

Grapes, Grapes, and more Grapes!

So, last year I had my first canning experience. I spent a day canning peaches and decided that day that canning is not something I will ever be doing at my house, or by myself. This year my mother in law asked if anyone was interested in helping can grape juice. I have been stealing grape juice from them for years so thought I should do my part to replenish the stock. ( I had also been told that it was a lot easier than peaches!) So I went to my in-laws house last Thursday, along with my niece Alicia. We spent a while picking grapes from the rows and rows of vines in their garden. Meanwhile, Baylee and my nephew Caden were planted at the buckets eating them as fast as we could pick them. I am not exagerating when I say that Baylee probably ate well over a pound of them. I kept trying to get her out of them but then she would just hide in the vines and pick them herself. She is such a cute little pig! So then it came time to make juice. The process goes something like this....wash a sinkful of grapes three times, put them in the steamer contraption thingie, wait about thirty minutes, get a jar of juice, wait 15 minutes and get a jar of juice, wait 15 more minutes, get a jar of juice. Empty the steamer and start again. I quickly learned it is NOTHING like canning peaches. There is a whole lot of waiting and it is a long process. We spent 11 hours that day and got 34 jars. We also went back up on Tues. and spent another 7 hours or so and got about 20 more jars. It was fun to spend time with the family and learn how to make it. I also have a whole bunch of the best grape juice ever. I will definitly can again, but only with fun company and someone to entertain the kids. This is a look at a small portion of the vines we picked grapes from. And yes that is Baylee getting into the grapes.

Giving me her cutest smile because she knows she got caught!

"I can't say cheese right now. I have a mouth full of grapes!"

Still getting into the grapes...........

Finally deciding she might as well just sit down and get comfortable.

Alicia demonstrating the fine art of squeezing a really tough metal clip and trying to keep the hose directly in the bottle.

Grandma took Aidan for a walk down the street to feed the horses carrots! Thanks mom, for being such a fun and entertaining Grandma!

Aidan on his walk with Grandma! He decided canning isn't his thing.

This is probably about one fourth of the grapes we actually bottled. By the way, those containers are a lot deeper than they look from this view.

The fruit juice of our labor!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my dad's birthday! Aidan called him and sang him Happy Birthday this morning but then we decided to surprise him at work with some brownies. Aidan made him a couple cards, I made the brownies and we were off. I think he was happily surprised when we showed up. Unfortunately he won't get to enjoy the brownies. When I handed them to him, he put the plate on the hood of a truck and next thing I knew it slid onto the floor and broke into a million peices. I was out of paper plates so I used a glass one, and it went all over the place. I guess I will be making another batch of brownies. Hopefully it really is "The thought that counts!" Love you dad, hope you have a great birthday!!!

Holding the cards that Aidan made for him. And yes, Aidan insisted that he wear that hat. Trust me I tried to talk him out of it!

Sweet little Baylee kisses for Grandpa Steve!

And there is part of the aftermath. The white stuff on the left is some of the glass. Bummer!

There is the glass I couldn't pick up with my hand. SAD!!!