Can't go wrong with chocolate

Whoever knows me best knows that I love to bake. I've been in a baking rut as of this last year or so and have not done near as many experimenting as I used to. My friends and neighbors in Boise got majority of my creations and I didn't hear much complaining. But my poor friends and neighbors in Utah haven't had the same benefits. I mustered up my creativeness and was able to make a few things in the past month. It felt really good to be in the kitchen. I usually end up giving everything away. Matt has a tax though on all baked goods that come from my kitchen but it's hard to cut into a piece of pie that you're gonna give to someone. So I have to bake it and give it away before he knows it even existed. Hopefully I can get my act together soon and get my baking desires back because it makes me happy.

My tummy hurts Mommy!

My tummy hurts Mommy is a phrase used often by Maryn if she doesn't want to eat the rest of her food. So after hearing it about 50 times today you'd think I would've caught on to the fact that maybe this was legit. We went to grocery shopping this afternoon and Maryn kept telling me that her tummy hurt and that she needed to go in the cart. So, I relented and moved Macey and threw her in the cart. I asked her if that helped and she said no. We were just about to head towards the check out when I looked at Maryn and she looked like she was going to hurl. I asked her if she was going to throw up and she nodded her head and I started walk/running to the bathrooms when she couldn't hold it any longer. I put my hand out (yah, like I was gonna catch everything) and she proceeded to cover me and the floor with lunch from a couple hours before. I had a moment of de ja vu. This happened to me about 3 years ago in Boise. I would go out of my way to go to a different WinCo across town because I was so embarrassed to step back into the store. Luckily this time instead of waiting forever for someone to help me a Walmart worker walked by me. All I said is I need help I'm so sorry about the groceries but I HAVE TO LEAVE! Felt really bad about that but if I would've stayed any longer I would've risked having another spewing fest. I dragged Maryn out of the store with her screaming, "I feel better Mommy I don't want to leave, I want to pay for the groceries."

JOY IS EVERYWHERE!!!

I always say things come in three's...I'm hoping I can count this as my third thing.

Manti Pageant

This weekend was the Manti Pageant for our youth. I was really excited to be going to this. We met at 2:45 and were on the road about 3:00. Everything was going great until we hit the freeway. About 10 miles into our drive I heard this constant loud noise. First thought it was the semi in front of us. No, that doesn't make sense it sounds like it's inside the car. I turned down the music turned to one of my Laurel's and asked her do you hear that? She was looking around and then I told her I couldn't accelerate. I started to attempt to get to the side of the road but people were not letting me get over. Right when that happened Jordan looked at the same exact moment our tire blew up. No, this is not just a flat, it obliterated! I now have a new tender spot in my heart for all those scrap tires on the road I see when traveling. My heart started to race. I gripped the wheel harder and thank goodness we were on our way to the side of the road. We made it safely and I went to assess the damage. The only thing I could think of is we said a prayer before we left this shouldn't have happened and Matt's gonna kill me! Then again things could have been worse. Thank goodness there wasn't a car to the right of me when the tire blew. I called Bishop who was thankfully not too far behind and in the meanwhile the youth and I were trying to figure out how in the world to use the jack. It was a little tricky. As soon as we got that figured out Bishop showed up. He must have had super human powers because somehow he twisted the metal on the jack. Then after that we realized Matt didn't have the tool in his truck that we needed to get the lug nuts off. Oh boy! So in the 21st century what would any stranded motorist do? Bishop called Triple A. We were there for about an hour with still no help when this guy that had a shop off the freeway was trying to communicate with us. I couldn't understand anything he was saying and feeling very helpless at this point in time. I couldn't even get a hold of my husband. Two of our youth jumped the barrier and jumped the fence and went down to to talk to the guy. Ends up we stalled on the part of the freeway just adjacent to a mechanic shop. He came up with the right tools got the jack working again and switched out the tire within 20 minutes. All through this time I was thinking to myself I wish I would've paid better attention when Matt would work on the car. After hearing the youth sing Kumbayah off of I-15 and any other song they could think of we were on the road again. Another leader was going down at 5:00 which was in about 10 minutes so I met her and dropped off my youth with her so they could still make it to the pageant. They were really good sports about it. At first I was supposed to be staying the night then an emergency at work came up and Matt had to work this whole weekend so I would've had to come back that night. After the tire blew out there was no way I was going anywhere and our trip to Clifton through all this was cancelled. I just don't think I was supposed to go anywhere this weekend. I kept telling myself everything happens for a reason. When Matt and I finally got home from his hectic work day and my crazy experience he told me he felt awful. I was puzzled because why would he feel bad about the tiring blowing out? I guess last weekend he took the girls off roading and was going over some pretty sharp terrain and had a thought to himself if he wasn't careful he was going to blow out both of his tires. I'm just glad my babies weren't with me during this or else I would've been frantic. Thank you to Dwayne the mechanic who helped us out. I asked him if I could pay him for his services and he said no just count it for my good deed for the day. And, thanks Erika and Craig for helping us unwind after our crazy day. And yes, I was able to get some pictures while we were waiting for help. Needed something for our slide show in September.

For Cryin' Out Loud

Can anybody do anything nowadays without being scrutinized by some activist group??? I read this article about Obama killing a fly during the interview...personally I thought it was quite humorous during the actual interview but now he's been frowned upon by the PETA. Here is the title of the article.

PETA wishes Obama hadn't swatted that fly

Rights group seeks compassion for curious and ‘least sympathetic animals’

"The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants the flyswatter in chief to try taking a more humane attitude the next time he's bedeviled by a fly in the White House."

There has to be more important news out there than this????

Random Pictures

I have all these pictures I've taken with no real story behind them. So I thought I would just post them. Maryn is always asking me to take a picture of her. No shyness in this girl. The other day in the store the checker was speaking Spanish to someone behind us and Maryn just randomly came up and said Hi really politely. The checker immediately changed to English and said Hi, how are you? She asked her all sorts of questions and Maryn was obliged to answer all of them. When we got out of the store she turned to me and said, Mom I didn't know she could speak English?!?! Anyway...here are the photos:

Doesn't Macey look like a Oompa Loompa?

Our little biker gals

You'd think after a huge crash a few weeks back Maryn would've given up on her bike for good...OH NO!! She wanted to ride the very next day but mommy was having reservations. If anything good came out of "the crash" she was a little bit more careful and not neurotic on our Family bike ride on Monday night. We went down to the school with the girls and played follow the leader on the bikes. Of course Maryn wanted to race Daddy. She is getting so good at riding her bike she didn't even fall this time. Macey really didn't care too much and ended up falling asleep on our way back.

Here's a few pics right before we left.

Ankle Biters and Yard Monkeys

My little baby is graduating way to fast from a bump on a log to Speedracer. Macey just wants to GO, GO, GO. In the last 3 weeks she started crawling and now is pulling herself up on things and attempting to stand on her feet if there is something she wants. Just this morning I put her down for 2 seconds turned around then heard a squeal that sounded muffled. I turned around just in enough time to see a foot sticking up from the stairway. Baby was upside down on the stairs luckily holding strong for enough time for me to grab her foot before she tumbled down the rest of the stairs. Crazy kid...she crawled down the first 2 and found out that part of the house wasn't so flat. I thought I had a few more months to go because Maryn didn't crawl until she was 10 months old and she started to try to walk a week before her 1st birthday. Not Mace! Matt and I have also noticed she has a lot stronger personality than Maryn if that is at all possible. I'm just crossing my fingers that if we ever have any boys they will be laid back. If we have a 3rd girl...heaven help us all!

2nd Pay it Forward

I did my 2nd pay it forward and hope the strawberries dipped in dark chocolate tasted okay because they needed to be refrigerated and to make a long story short before I was about to give them away I was at the church for a meeting thinking I could use the kitchen but ended up not having access to the fridge because of some random wedding reception was being held...on a Wednesday. Who has a reception on a Wednesday? Anyway, here is a picture of these beautiful babies...I just hope they didn't spoil or taste gross. I have anxiety about giving things away now since one year our family got food poisoning from a gift. But it's one of the few things I know how to do.

Maryn oddities of the week

I have 2 so far and it's only Tuesday. I try to write down everything that she says in her journal so she'll be able to look back and see what she was like. I'll give you a sneak peak as to what she said. She is just downright funny sometimes.

Sunday afternoon, we sat down to read scriptures together and she was "reading" with us then all of a sudden she said wait, wait, wait guys! You need to stop reading. Then she slumped back into the couch as if she was utterly exhausted. Finally she said I don't want to read anymore because I am fasting. Matt and I glanced at each other then I was curious what she thought fasting meant. I asked her what was fasting. She said it was when you don't want to do something...that's why I can't read anymore. Matt and I were trying to stifle our laughs. No worries, we explained what fasting meant but she didn't believe us.

Second funny, I sat down Sunday night to read her a story and we were about halfway through the story then she asked me Can you see? Because I can't! I don't know where my eyeballs are. She said it so fast and deliberate. I just told her that would be a horrible thing to lose your eyeballs and she sighed and said I know.

Sweet hairdo Maryn!! She did it all by herself.

I don't remember making an appointment with the Barber?

I'm not too happy with my husband right now. Saturday morning for some reason Matt came down with the hair cutting stuff in one hand and Macey in the other. WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? I'm giving Macey a haircut. OH NO YOUR NOT!!! I had visions of myself running grabbing her and running out the door but Matt is a lot bigger than me. You DON'T cut a little girls hair. Ya gotta let it grow out. Do guys not understand the sacredness of a girl's head of hair? She didn't have that much hair to begin with. So, she had a comb over...it looked cute because she had a little sweep in the front. NOT ANYMORE! Even in my rage I grabbed the camera and hurried and saved all the hair I could because a man would not think of doing that. He took about an inch off. Now she looks like a boy. Still cute but come on now. In one of the pictures I swear Macey was putting her hand on her head to stop Daddy from his madness.

I need your help!

About 6 months ago or so I was watching Good Things Utah and they were featuring this Utah based company that made these special photo blocks. They looked like they were laser engraved on 8x8x3 craft blocks and somehow they were able to laser sentiments on the front. They also had a bigger size available. I had their website saved until my computer crashed and I've tried aimlessly trying to locate this company. Does this ring a bell for anyone??? I tried writing Good Things Utah but after a week I have not received a response yet. If anyone knows of a company like this please oh please send me the website! THANK YOU!!!

Act of God not covered?

I found this really funny for some reason. A few weeks back I was having trouble with my vacuum and was reading through the warranty and one phrase stuck out.

Pretty much it's saying This limited warranty does not apply to...damage caused by act of God...


I don't know why but this is just hilarious to me. You know someone probably tried to claim something crazy and have it covered in the warranty. Boy I need to get a life!