Some of my favorite things

I like when people do these lists, so I am going to make one of my own.*Chicken green chile salad from Bajio-mmmm I have had it 3 times this past week, and I am trying to convince Cache of going there tonight. Substitute the chips and cheese for cilantro and Limes and it is quite a healthy meal.*My shot glass measuring cup. It measures in teaspoon and tablespoon increments. No more spilling the vanilla or vinegar all over the counter.*My camera, of course. You all think I have talent, but really the pictures come from the camera. I think anyone could take good pic's with this hottie.

Costco

*Okay this is a little cheat, because whose list is this not on. Isn't Costco everyone's favorite?

What is wrong with me?

I am suffering from a case of un-motivatedness. I can't seem to want to do anything productive. My house is suffering, my laundry is piling up. I don't know how to get out of it. I get up and start to clean the bathrooms and then I get distracted or I just decide I don't want to do it and the bathroom never gets cleaned. I hate feeling this way, but I can't shake it. Anybody have any suggestions?

I guess I will post some about Easter, while I am here. Saturday morning we had a neighborhood egg hunt at the park, which was fun and VERY cold. Don't wear flipflops when it is 45 degrees outside and you plan on frolicking in dewy grass looking for colorful plastic eggs, if you do your toes will end up turning blue and you will be unable to move them for about 47 minutes. Please learn from my mistakes.

Immediately after the park we went to my Mom and Dad's house for yet another egg hunt. The Easter bunny must love to hide candy in my parents yard, because she hid her entire supply there. My kids each walked away with a plastic grocery bag FULL of goodies. After the hunt we pretended it was summer and we all gathered around the fire pit and roasted hotdogs. Not very "Eastery" I know, but it was fun.Sunday morning we had our own hunt here at home, in which the Easter bunny did not leave any candy only umbrellas, bubbles, Enchanted, and moon sand. Darn Easter bunny must be watching her intake of candy. Sunday afternoon was spent at Cache's parents house enjoying ham, funeral potatoes, homemade rolls, and a delicious swiss desert involving an apple slice, batter, a frying pan, and homemade custard. It was oh so yummy. And of course another party requires another egg hunt. It was a beautiful day and the hunt was so nice, with color coordinated eggs for each child and only the best candy within those eggs (snickers, reese's, kitkat's).

Aside from the festivities of Easter, Cache and I tried to teach the kids about the true meaning of the holiday. Peanut grasped it very well, she even came up with her own reason why we die eggs. She said "I know why we color eggs, because the shell is like our body and the egg is like our spirit. When we die it is removing the shell from the egg" She also took the opportunity of Easter to be a missionary. We have some new neighbors a few houses down from us and on Sunday Peanut went down to play with their kids, Peanut asked if they had a good Easter and the mom replied by saying they were from Jerusalem and didn't celebrate Easter. Peanut got really excited and explained that she "flew" to Jerusalem in primary that day and saw the tomb of Jesus and went on to say how fun primary was. I hope that I can take my daughters example and be as open about our religion as she chose to be.Photo courtesy of Cache

I am grateful for the Easter season and the opportunity it gives us to remember the sacrifice our savior made for us. I really tried to understand the atonement more this week and I feel my testimony has grown and developed stronger roots.

Spring Break

Spring Break begins today and we have nothing planned. We wanted to go to Disneyland, but decided we better save the money for some big purchases that need to be made in the next few months. My kids are vegging out in front of the boob tube right as I type and I am thinking "it is bad to let them stay in their jammies and continue their TV marathon throughout the entire day?". YES! I am trying to promote good habits in my children and becoming a couch potato who is unable to use their imaginations is not one of those habits (I have to keep telling myself this). What is everyone else doing for their kids during spring break? PLEASE share! I found a fun blog yesterday while feeding my obsessions of blog stalking, she had some good ideas for entertainment during the break Tip Junkie. I love finding new blogs to frequent, my google reader list is getting very long.

I do have to say though, I don't sit at the computer all day everyday. Yesterday I took a break and we went to the zoo. It was a perfect day, the sun was shining and the temperature was perfect, even the animals were lively. The baby orangutan (It took me forever to figure out the spelling of that word) was so cute as she was trying to get her mom to wake up and play with her, we could have watched her forever. It reminded me a little of my children trying to get me to play with them. Even the camels, you know the camels that often get forgotten because all they do is stand there and do nothing except chew on their cud, were running around and fighting with each other, it was very exciting to watch the camels bite each other (we are easily entertained). A post would not be a post without any pictures so here they are:

That's all folks!

It's The Hard Knock Life!

Our orphan daughter

Peanut was able to perform in a children's choir in our Stake's "Salute to Broadway" . They performed "It's a hard knock life" from the musical Annie. Wow, she got into it, the whole choir did, you would think that they really thought that their life was hard, when in reality it is far from it. But it was cute, Peanut had a little solo (every kid did) she got to sing "no one cares if you grows, or if you shrink". She pretended to screw in a light bulb while one of the bigger boys held her up (that is why she is holding a bulb). It was fun, and I am glad she was able to participate.

pottery barn flowers

Pottery Barn Daisy

I Love these pictures from Pottery Barn, but I do not love the price tag of 350.00 a piece. I am attempting to do my own. What do you think? Will they pass for store bought?
now, that I have posted them they seem a little vibrant, I might have to see if I can figure out how to fix that.

without further ado........

I will give you our weekend (a little late, i know, but I have been suffering from blogitis). It all began on.....

Friday, which we must not have done anything too exciting, because I can't remember what we did. Oh ya, Cache had a meeting at the prestigious Chef's Table in Orem, and I stayed home with the munchkins and had PB&J sandwiches-mmm my favorite-I bet they don't offer the classy PB&J at the CHEF'S TABLE.

Saturday consisted of a little housework, a Peanut and Daddy date at Boondocks, A Mommy and Fin date at our house in our separate beds for nap time (we were going to go for a bike ride, but Fin wouldn't wake up and I wasn't going to wrestle him out of bed), a scheduled family photo shoot, but as we got out of the car at the location we realized it was way to cold to do any posing. Here is the two pictures we took:I realize that this picture stinks, it was a "hurry lift the kids up, it is to cold to mess around" type of picture. I am so far away with the camera you can't even see their faces. I'll say it again- it was COLD!
Here we are running back to the car

Saturday night we showed up to the Zinch party and ate some yummy chicken, fresh fruit, pasta salad, and Dorito's. My camera opted to stay in the car so there aren't any pictures to document the fun night. I did make the cake balls (see the post below) and they weren't so good, kinda mushy in the middle, but Rachel like them!

Sunday after church we took off for a night at Grandma and Grandpa's cabin. SO FUN! We haven't been able to visit all winter and it was great to be away and relax-that is if snowmobiling is relaxing-it is definitely a blast, but my shoulders, back, and arms are so sore I wouldn't call it relaxing. The snow was perfect hard enough that we could drive the machines anywhere and not get stuck (well, except for one time when I got a little chicken going up a hill and let go of the gas and started to tip, which ended up with me burying my machine), and it was soft enough that when we fell off it wouldn't hurt. The kids loved the snowmobiles and sledding. I loved that we would ride the snowmobile up the hill and ride the sleds down, where the snowmobile would be waiting for us to do it again. We had the "Best of both worlds" (right Hannah?).

obviously these pictures are un-edited, meaning they aren't the greatest, but my blogitis has now spread to cameraitis.

I hope everyone is still awake after this long post, if not- WAKE UP and go and get your laundry done.

Thanks Gwandmaaa and Gwandpaaa for the fun time!

Red Velvet cake balls.

Don't these look so good? I want to make them so bad, but I don't want to make them If I don't have anywhere to take them, because then I would eat all of them. You can make them though and share one with me :) The recipe is here,

I haven't had anything to post about lately, I keep waiting for something exciting or interesting to happen in my life and day after day it is the same. Wake up, feed kids, take peanut to school, Feed Fin, take shower, clean house (if I am feeling up to it), feed Fin, Peanut comes home from school, Feed Fin, eat lunch, quiet/nap time, feed Fin(are you noticing a pattern?), supervise kids while they do their chores, prepare dinner, feed Fin, eat dinner, clean kitchen (with Cache's help), bathe kids, feed Fin, scriptures and prayers, bedtime for kids, time for some brain candy (TV) OR go to Young Womens activities and YW basketball, scriptures, prayers, bedtime.

The next day it starts all over again. Sometimes I am lucky and I get a trip to TJMAXX or Target, and that is like going to Disneyland, it is even better if Peanut is at a friends house and I get to go single childly(does that even make sense?).