Birthday Cake

We had a delicious birthday cake for Paul on Sunday. I think he really liked having his birthday on Easter. We didn't have any candles, so I put toothpicks in the cake and lit them on fire.
Ellie did not like it when we sang "Happy Birthday".
Dallin likes to have 10 forks, knifes, and spoons with every meal.

Baby legs!

Love these legs!

Lame-OOO! My soap box!

On soap box: When you live in a small town and Wal-Mart is your only option as far as craft stores go...and they decided to get rid of embroidery floss, and eventually all "stitchery" items, including cheap fabric---I call that lame-OOO! Closest floss is a 15 minute drive. As for fabric, we do have a fabric shop down town. But, to be perfectly honest, the fabric is ugly. The shop owner, who has always been very nice to me, just doesn't understand that there is a market for fabrics that are cute and modern. Maybe I should introduce her to Michael Miller! Off soap box.

Yumm.....

We finally used a gift certificate (circa 2006) to Williams-Sonoma. This is the beauty that came home with us. My sister, Kodi, got one for her wedding and loves it. Paul and I love it too! It is a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker and it ROCKS!!! You can have ice cream made from start to finish in about 30 minutes!

Here's what we've made so far...

Our favorites:
Chocolate Cinnamon Pecan Gelato
White Chocolate Peach-Berry Pudding

So-so:
Fat-free Chocolate Frozen Yogurt

Tastes like Medicine:
A mix of Strawberry-Orange-Banana Crystal Light and Evap. Milk

We have yet to make real ice cream in it, but we are having fun experimenting!

I got this from Alice's blog. Anytime I see these quizzes on any one's blog, I usually take the quiz only to disagree with the outcome, therefore I don't usually display the results. However, this time, I totally agree. My personality matches Ariel's, if only my shape did...



You Are Ariel!

Headstrong and fiesty. You have a mind of your own that's full of romantic dreams about the world around you. Exploring exotic places is your ultimate dream, and although you can be a little naive you'll realize that there is something to be gained from your family's wisdom.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

My wish list - Babylegs

Babylegs

For cute, chubby baby legs. I want some! I got some...off ebay. We will see if they are as cute on as they are as cute off... if they ever come in the mail.

Bags {under my eyes}

I realize now how much time I really had to "create" before baby #2 was born. Now, I get some time here and there. I made these place mat bags during Christmas vacation, while I had my mom to hold Ellie so I could get a little "me time". This red one has turned into my crochet bag, but it has also been known to contain a few diapers and wipes. This brown and pink bag is now my scripture bag. I folded one place mat in half, whereas the red bag took two place mats. I like this brown one because it fits my scriptures, a small notepad, and my checkbook, but it's not a huge cumbersome bag.
Of course I didn't make this cute bag, but my cute husband gave it to me for Valentine's Day.
Now if I can only find some time to get out my sewing machine here at home. I have come into some pretty cute fabric as of late and my fingers are itching to make a cute little jumper for my girl. I searched the patterns at the store for the easiest, yet cutest girly threads. I am not a very good seamstress, I have a hard time following directions, and I am not very patient.

Thawing or freezing?

Hello, Paul again. I know, blogging is becoming an epidemic in our household. Now that you are all familiar with my mad photo editing skills, I wanted to post a non-edited photo I had taken.










This one is from first thing this morning. Right after Dallin woke up, I bundled him up in a blanket, picked him up and we went out in the front yard with the camera. We had a couple of ice storms in the past couple of weeks, but hadn't been able to get a good photo. This is of a droplet of water melting on our tree in the front yard. My favorite part is the ice crystals inside the droplet. We are hoping this is a sign of a thaw ahead of us, it has been freezing recently!



Here are a couple other photos that I was accused of editing. We need to go back and see if those camels are still there.

Snowfakes

I know that I have been complaining about winter a lot lately. I have been so cold and bummed! We had a light snowfall the other day that actually lifted my spirits a bit. It was so light, look at the picture! Individual snowflakes were falling. This is when I really want a super nice camera; to get a picture that will do justice!

So Romantic!

As much as both Paul and I would have loved to go out, by ourselves, on a date for Valentines day, it wasn't possible. So we set up shop at home and made the best of it. Stop making fun of us (you, you, and you). You know we are idealists. Thursday night we had a bunch of appetizers: wings, dips, shrimp and then we ate chocolate fondue.....yummy! This is how romantic it got. Paul held Ellie all night and I wrestled Dallin until he went to bed at 8.
Then, on Friday night, I made fondue again. But this time we ate it for the main course. Again...yummy! The steak dipped in horseradish-mustard sauce was the favorite. Dallin's was the cut-up hotdogs!
MMMMMMM...mmmmmmmmmmm...good!
We were trying to recreate Valentines Day 2005. We went up to the Melting Pot with our friends Troy and Shari and spent the night up in Salt Lake. It was so fun and so yummy! Some day we'll do it again! That, and our spaghetti nights...

Rye Bread and Sour Cream

Paul and I are self-proclaimed foodies. We love to cook and we love to eat. We love to try new foods and find that with everything we eat, we review as though we were food critics getting paid. We're not too picky ;) We love walking down the international food aisle at the grocery store and look at everything there is to offer. We bought rye bread the other day, purely by accident. It was yummy and is very tasty toasty! I think I might try to make some now.

I think this is all rubbing off on Dallin, all but the eating part. He's in his picky stage, but that's another story. Lately, he insists on helping with the preparation of every meal. I usually don't mind, unless I am in a hurry. He will stand on our step stool and I will let him dump ingredients into a bowl or pan. Or I will give him a plastic knife and he will cut onions with watery eyes. He'll look at me and say, "eye, eye, eye!!" and go back to cutting. He even makes a mean chocolate chip cookie!

The other night, I made fajita soup for dinner. Dallin opted out, so I made him a turkey sandwich. As Paul and I were busy garnishing our soup, I gave Dallin a spoonful of sour cream. He loves to eat this stuff plain, like yogurt.

I thought the spoonfull of sour cream would go right into his mouth. Instead, he would dollop a bit onto his turkey sandwich, just like mom and dad.

Extremes

I feel as though the last nine months or so have been filled with weather extremes.

From hot, misty, humid HEAT

to dry, dry ,dry

to tornado weather (i hate this one)

and now freezing rain.

I am sure that you all know: I am READY for Spring!

Now that's a binky!

The best sugar cookies that I have made.

I am kind of OCD when I make cookies. I mix the dough just enough, not to much. And I always add more vanilla and almond extract than any recipe calls for. When I am baking the cookies, I set the timer for half the time and then add more minutes as I go just so I can check them a billion times to get the perfect “barely golden”. It’s a process, but I think they turn out great and the time I spend obsessing about them is worth it when I bite into these yummy cookies. These cookies tasted like Granny B’s cookies when I put the Cake Mate squeeze frosting on top.

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

1 ½ cups sugar
½ cup butter (room temperature)
1 cup sour cream
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1-2 teaspoons almond extract
3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat your oven at 375 degrees. In a bowl, cream the sugar and butter together. Mix in the sour cream, the egg, vanilla and almond extracts. Stir in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Wrap cookie dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for a couple hours or over night – This step is important, do not skip it!!

Place cold cookie dough on a well floured surface and roll out about ¼ inch (or a bit thicker). Do not roll out too thin, or you won’t get the perfect cookies that I made (haha). Get out your cookie cutters and cut away.

Place cookies about 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet and bake for about 10-12 minutes, barely, barely golden. I check my first batch about 10 times just to make sure I take them out at the right time.

Let your cookies cool before you frost and decorate them.

Sweet Deal

I found a pretty cool blog, Baby Cheapskate, recently. It has all sorts of deals posted on baby deals and steals. This one http://babycheapskate.blogspot.com/2007/10/reader-tips-85-off.html is worth looking into! Seriously, click on the link right now and found out what I am talking about! I found these super cute pink cowgirl boots! They are listed as $18.95. So with the deal of 85% off, they should come out to $2.85, right?! One of every size and color please!